dine in the Refectory, '6 loaves of his own bread (wassel, the finest sort), were put before him.' Wastel bread seems to have been some kind of fancy bread or cake, possibly that taken with wine or the wassail cup. Indeed, as cake and wine were handed round then as now, it is possible that it may have got its name from this circumstance. We still say, wine biscuit. Reference is made to it in Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations,' as follows:-'The shilling too, seems originally to have been the denomination of a weight. When wheat is at twelve shillings the quarter, says an ancient statute of Henry III., then wastel bread of a farthing shall weigh eleven shillings and four pence.' Cf. Panis de Simenel ponderabit minus wastello de 2s quia bis coctus erit.' -Du. Fr.

6

151. Wymple, Fr. guimpe, O. Fr. guimple, a veil, or wrapper with which nuns and elderly females covered their chin and neck. It appeared about the 12th century.

'Femme mariée doit estre simple

Et porter la guimple.'

-Prov: Gallic. MS. 15th cent.

i-pinched (Fr. pincer, to take with the points of the fingers) plaited.

152. grey as glas. The glass of our day is not of a grey colour, but the simile was apt enough in the age of Chaucer, and 'grey' seems to have been the favourite colour of ladies' eyes. Shakespere also says of a lady-' Her eyes were grey as glass.'

155. trowe, A.S. treowian, to believe.

158. coral (Fr. corail, from Lat. and Gk.) was known to the ancients. It is of various colours from dark red to white, and varies greatly in price. Beads were also made of jet, and called 'black bedes.'

159. peire, Fr. pair, equal. Though now confined to two, it used to denote any number of equal things. Both Bacon and Ben Jonson say a pair of cards' for 'a pack of cards;' and 'a pair of stairs' is used by Shakespere, Sandys, and Swift to denote an equal number of steps. So here, a peire of bedes'

means 'a string of beads,' a rosary.

bedes (A.S. bead, gebed a prayer) were balls, grains, or berries, pierced and hung upon a string, and originally used for helping the memory in saying a certain number of prayers. These strings of bedes were often blessed by popes and bishops. beads' is 'to say one's prayers.'

To bid one's

gaudid al with grene.

It is somewhat difficult to see the meaning of this phrase. It will be better understood by comparing with it the following passages:

:

'In gaude greene hire statue clothed was.'-Chaucer.

'Colour hit gaude greene.'-Chaucer.

'A paire of bedes black as sable

She toke and hynge my neck aboute;

Upon the gaudees all without

Was wryt of gold, pur reposer.'

-Gower's Confessio Amantis.

'Among thir Freiris within a closter,

I enterit in ane oratory,

And knellit down with ane Paternoster,
Before the mychti King of glorye,

Having his Passioun in memorye;

Syne till his Mudir I did inclyne,
Halsing her with a gaude flore.'

-Dunbar's 'Passioun of Christ." A rosary was made up of small beads, with large ones at certain intervals. In passing each of the small ones, the devotee usually said an Ave Maria, and the large bead was usually the signal for saying a Pater noster. In the passage from Dunbar, which Mr Laing, his Editor, confessedly does not understand, it will be seen that the poet saluted the Virgin with a 'gaude flore,' and Christ with a 'Pater noster.' The large beads were called gaudees. So much is clear; but why were they so called? Wedgwood derives the modern English words gawd and gaudy from the old Fr. gaudir, to be jolly, or to flout; but the connection between the words is far from evident. A more natural explanation lies in the phrases-gaude greene and gaude flore. Chief among the vegetable substances esteemed from remote antiquity for their colouring properties, is the plant called weld, wold, Dyer's Rocket or Dyer's Weed. It is mentioned by Virgil and by Pliny, and grew wild in Italy, as it does now in various other European countries. It used to be cultivated to a considerable extent in England and in France. It produces a rich yellow, and stuffs previously dyed blue are changed by it to a very pleasing green. The French name of this long known and far-famed flower is gaude. Isn't the name of this plant a more likely derivation of a word meaning showy or bright-coloured? In Boyer's Dictionary, gaude is translated 'Dyer's or greening weed.'

160. broch, Fr. broche, (1) a spit, (2) a pin, (3) a buckle, (4) an ornament. 6 In It was worn by both sexes. Troylus and Cresseide,' Troilus presented Cresseide with his brooch, which she promised to keep for ever, but which she afterwards gave to Diomede. Cf. also

'And who so the brooch beareth on his breast,

It is eke of such virtue and such kind

That think upon what thing him liketh best
And he as blive shall it have and find.'-Browne.
'In the meantime, the miller had ypiked

His bosom full of signis of Cantirbury Brochis.'

-Pardoner and Tapster. 161. a Crowned A = a capital A. The common chaplet or rosary is called corona, a crown.

164. chapelleyn (Fr. chapelaine, from Lat. capellanus). The duties of a chaplain were (1) to take care of the capellae or relics, (2) to take charge of the chapel in which they were kept, and (3) to minister in the chapel. The number of chaplains which different officers of church or state may nominate is fixed by law. An archbishop may have eight; a duke or bishop, six; a widowed countess, two, &c. A female chaplain is rarely referred to.

prestes thre. One of these, 'the sweete priest, the goodly man Sir Johan,' tells a story.

THE MONK.

165. A Monk, Lat. monachus, from the Greek, a solitary. For the maistrie, a translation of the Old French phrase pour la maistrie. It was applied to the strongest medicines to denote their peculiar strength. Applied to the Monk, it would mean, fit for authority or rule over his fellows.

seem to have Aldhelm, in avoid convi

166. out-rydere. The people of the middle ages had very decided objections to churchmen riding. an epistle to his pupil Adelwold, desires him to viality, the culpable exercise of riding, or any accursed pleasure of bodily indulgence.

venerye, Fr. venerie, hunting. Chaucer uses both words in the line-‘I am a mayde, and love hunting and venerie.' The French word vénerie has two distinct meanings (1) hunting or the chase, (2) the equipage belonging to the chase. Venerie, as distinguished

from hunting, would therefore denote the equipage belonging to the chase. Hunting was common among the Saxons, but the Normans introduced most of the ceremonies connected with it.

167. to ben an abbot able. Why? There is a fine stroke of humour in this phrase. Drayton in the Legend of Thomas Cromwell, says, that in the reign of Henry VIII., the worst man was elected abbot.

168. deynté (W. dant, a tooth), literally toothsome, as in the expression, a dainty morsel. Its later meanings are precious and elegant. The Scotch word dainty is nearly equivalent to the French gentil, and the English neat or comely.

in stable. The stables belonging to the monasteries were sometimes very spacious. That for the guests at St. Albans was large enough to contain nearly 300 horses, and the Monks seem to have kept them in excellent condition. M. Paris 737, Fuller B. vi.

169-70. his bridel heere gyngle. It was a custom at that time in England, as it still is in Brittany and other parts of Europe, to hang small bells on the bridles and harness of the horses. Vincent of Beauvais, speaking of the Knights Templars, says, that they have 'in pectoralibus campanulas infixas magnum emittentes sonitum' and Wycliff einveighs against the clergy on account of their 'fair hors and joly and gay sadeles and bridles ringing by the way.' Other early writers also refer to them, as 'Hys crouper heeng all full of belles.'

-Romance of King Richard

'Her wanton palfrey all was overspread
With tinsel trappings woven like a wave,

Whose bridle rung with golden bells and bosses brave.'

-Spenser.

171. the chapel belle. Chapel, Fr. chapelle, Low Lat. capella, (1) a hood or canopy, (2) the covering of an altar, and then (3) the room or recess in which the altar was placed. Church bells are mentioned by Bede as early as the 7th century. There are several monkish rhymes enumerating the purposes to which bells were applied. Spelman quotes the following one :

'Laudo Deum verum, Plebem voco, congrego Clerum,
Defunctos ploro, Pestem fugo, Festa decoro.'

172. selle, Old Fr. celle, from the Latin cella, a cell-an abode destined for persons in a servile condition. Cellar is from the same root. Here, it means the small chamber of a Monk.

173. reule, Lat. regula, one of the words introduced by the

Christian missionaries between the time of Augustine and that of Alfred. The elision of the letter g from the middle of a word is common, as in tegula, a tile, magister, a master, &c.

St. Maur or Maurus promoted the interests of the order in France. At a later period, 1618, a celebrated society, professing to follow the rule of the order, was established in that country. St. Beneyt St. Benedict. His rule was written about A.D. 530. Besides submission, obedience, silence, spare diet and holy exercises, it required seven hours of manual labour every day. 176. after the newe world, according to the fashion of the present day.

the space, Fr. espace, Lat. spatium, from the Aeolic Greek spadion, the station for the spectators of the athletic sports. In early French and English, it is generally used in the sense of time; but sometimes it means a way, as in the following extract from Oresme (14th century)-'C'est une mesme voye ou espace, mais les deux manieres de aller au courir sont contraires.' 177. a pulled hen. Cf. Such arrogance n'is not worth a hen.' But why a pulled hen? Some say a pullet hen, or poulet. In 1363, an Act was passed limiting the price of a young capon to 3d, an old one to 4d, a pullet to ld, a hen to 2d, and a goose to 4d. Others read pilled for pulled, and believe that the expression denotes a plucked hen.

179. reccheles, probably for reghel-less, without his rule, and not being a common word, it is explained in line 181. 179-80. Cf. A monk whan he is reccheles

Is likned to a fissche that is watirles.

'Sicut piscis sine aqua caret vita, ita sine monasterio monachus.'

-Gratian.

182. Oystre, Old Fr. oistre, huistre, Fr. huître. The AngloSaxon word was ostre. Both are from the Lat. ostrea and ostreum. This comparison makes that of the pulled hen more worthy, as oysters, especially British oysters, were reckoned great delicacies. See Juv: Sat: I. 4. 140.

184. wood, A.S. wod, mad.

185. Cloystre, Old Fr. cloistre, Fr. cloitre, Lat. claustrum. Cloisters used to be called curiae claustrales. They were interior covered galleries, ranged round a square court, and in them the monks were wont to walk. The word monastery was not introduced into the language till after the revival of learning, but minster from the same root was introduced in Anglo-Saxon times.