thyng in both these places, is by itself almost enough to indicate that they are not to be taken, as when we say "I would not do it for anything," or "Here's a thing will do." In these trivial instances the word is vague and symbolical, but it would hardly have beseemed such a poet as Chaucer to bring the stroke of his measure down upon such gossamer. The Merchant desired that the sea should be protected for the sake of commerce at any price, condition, or cost-on any terms; for such is the old sense of the word thing. The old verb to thing, Saxon thingian, meant to make terms, to compromise, pacisci. So also in German the word Ding had a like use, as may be seen through its compounds.' -Earle's Phil. of the English Tongue, p. 229.

Middulburgh, capital of Zealand, in the island of Walcheren, a port which Chaucer, as comptroller of the customs of wool, would know well. The staple of English wool was removed from it to Calais in 1386, but restored to it a few years later.

Orewelle, the navigable part of the Gipping below Ipswich, or in other words, the estuary between Ipswich and Harwich. For the guarding of the sea against pirates, the tax of tonnage and poundage was first laid in 1372. In 1379 was passed an ordinance of King and Parliament, by the advice of the merchants of London and of other merchants towards the north, laying a duty of 8d. per ton for the Guard of the Seas, to be paid by all Foreign vessels and Foreign fishing ships within the admiralty of the North.' In the same year ships were armed for this guard, the expense to be defrayed by ship-money levied on ships trading between England and Prussia, Norway or Schonen.

280. He could sell French crowns well in exchange. Scheeldes, French crowns (ecus, shields) were so called from their having the figure of a shield on one side. They varied in value and in size. After the time of Chaucer, from the reign of Louis XI. to that of Charles VIII., a gold coin, called 'l'ecu au soleil' was current. 'Je vous payeray en beaux escuz au soleil larges comme la main.' The crown referred to here, was of silver.

An Act relating to exchanges was passed in 1381, and it shews that at that time, exchange was little understood in England. It was enacted that all exchanges of Foreign coins, &c., should be made at the King's exchange.

281-4. He turned his wit to good account, and managed his bargainings and his borrowings so well, that no one knew he was in debt.

283. governaunce, Fr. gouvernance, meaning conduite, management.

‘Bon renon, bonne gouvernance.'

'He yaf me all the bridal in myn hond

To han the governance of house and lond.'

-Wife of Bath's Prologue.

284. chevysaunce, Fr. chevir, to come to an agreement with, to accomplish; achever, to bring to a head. From a comparison of several passages, this word seems to be equivalent to an agreement, a borrowing, or something gained in trade.

'He telleth hire that chaffare is so dere,
That nedes must he make a chevisance
For he was bonde in a recognisance,
To payen twenty thousand sheldes anon.'

-Shipman's Tale.

THE CLERK OF OXFORD.

287. A clerk (Old Fr. clerc from Lat. clericus). In legal documents, a clergyman is still designated a clerk, and this was the original application of the word. But it was early used to denote a person possessed of a certain amount of learning, whether he was in holy orders or not.

Oxenford, A.S., Oxnaford, the ford of the river or water. Ох is from the Celtic root, whence sprang Esk, Ouse, Usk, &c., common names for rivers. Whisky (usquebagh) is also from this root. 'Oxford was a school of great resort in the reign of Henry II., though its first charter was granted by Henry III. Its earlier history is but obscure, and depends chiefly on a suspicious passage in Ingulphus, against which we must set the absolute silence of other writers. It became in the 13th century, second only to Paris in the multitude of its students and the celebrity of its scholastic disputation.'-Hallam's Lit. Hist. I., p. 17.

According to Anthony Wood, it contained 3000 scholars in 1201, and as many as 30,000 in the time of Henry III. Many of the scholars, however, must have been mere boys learning to read, others were 'varlets, who pretended to be scholars'; and the number is probably an exaggeration.

288. Logik, Gk. logike, the art of reasoning in words.

290-1. Cf. Much study is a weariness to the flesh.'

292. his overest courtepy. What William de Lorris calls a cote in the Roman de la Rose, Chaucer in his translation calls a courtpie, so that it must apply to the super-tunic or surcoat. That courtepies were shorter than copes is proved by the following lines in Piers Ploughman's Vision :—

'An heep of heremytes

Henten hem spades

And kitten hir copes

And courtepies hem maked.'-4172-5.

It was therefore the short gown or surcoat worn uppermost. 293. Benefice. In Roman Law, beneficium was applied to an estate granted to a soldier for distinguished service. In Mid. Lat. it was applied to an estate granted by the king or by a feudal lord to any person for life, and also to an estate conferred upon a clerical person for life. It has thus acquired a very wide meaning, and is used to denote the temporalities of any ecclesiastic. There were several kinds of benefices, however, and these may be distinguished thus :-(1) those granted to monastic institutions were called beneficia sub regulâ, or regular benefices; (2) those granted to persons living in the world outside (in saecula) were called secular benefices; (3) those granted sine curâ animarum, called sinecure benefices; and (4) those attended with cure of souls called sacerdotal benefices.

294. Office, Fr. office, from Lat. officium. A benefice is a grant in kindness; an office is a duty to be performed, or an employment. The offices of the clergy in the Church of England, for example, are these that of archbishop, of bishop, dean, canon, archdeacon, rector, vicar, and curate.

295-6. at his beddes heed, twenty bookes. Books-MSS. of course. It is difficult to keep before the mind that neither Chaucer, nor any of his contemporaries, ever saw a printed book. The bed's head seems to have been the place where books were usually kept. In the King's Quhair, James I. of Scotland saysQuhen as I lay in bed allone waking,

I toke a boke to rede upon a quhile,'

and a little lower

'My boke I shet, and at my hede it laide.'

-Canto I.

297. Aristotil and his philosophie. The logic of Aristotle, whom Piers Ploughman calls 'the grete clerk,' seems to have been

known in this country as early as the 11th century; in the 12th, it began to have great influence, and in the 13th, his metaphysics were introduced through translations from the Arabic and the Greek. The mendicant Friars did much to promote the study of this philosopher; and Thomas Aquinas, the most distinguished metaphysician of the Middle Ages, silenced all scruples regarding his orthodoxy. From his time, Aristotle became the great authority in philosophy. But it may be questioned whether much good flowed from this study of Aristotle and his philosophy in the universities. It is probable, that if the same industry and desire for truth had been more profitably directed, it would have advanced learning more.

298. fithul or gay sawtrie. Clerks seem to have been fond of musical instruments. Nicholas, a clerk of Oxford, in the Miller's Tale, had a gay sawtrie' or psaltery which lay on the top of his press, and on which he made sweet melody at night. Absolon, the parish clerk, in the same tale, played songs on a small ribible or kind of guitar. The fithul was the fiddle, and is referred to by several old poets as by Lydgate.

Abbé le Beuf says that it was known in France as far back as the 8th century. But he may be mistaken. In 2 Sam. vi. 5, the word translated cornets in our version, was translated fiddles in the Bible of 1551.

299-300. Although he was a philosopher, he had not found the philosopher's stone. 'Poverty,' say the Germans, 'is the scholar's bride.'

Cofre, Old Fr. cofre, now coffre, a chest.

301-4. In the vision of Piers Ploughman, Truth is represented as sending the Merchants a letter, instructing them to save their winnings, and therewith, among other things—

'To sette scolers to scole

Or to some other crafts.'

And in a MS. poem of the Middle Ages, a husbandman is made to complain of his many burdens, such as taxes to court, church, and charities, and among the last, he mentions the contributions given to students to enable them to attend the university.

'Then cometh clerkys of Oxford and mak their mone
To hir scole-hire they most have money.'

These passages shew that the practice of begging by students, still

prevalent in some parts of Germany, was at that period quite common in England.

304. scolaye, Old Fr. escoler, to attend school, is used by Lydgate in the same sense.

305. cure and heed. These words seem to be synonymous. The one is Norman, and the other Saxon. Cf. laboure and swinke,' 'garner and binne,' 'carpenter and wright,' &c.

308. sentence, Fr. sentence, Lat. sententia, judgment, meaning, or wisdom. See line 792. In Chaucer, this word refers not to the form of words, but to their meaning. The sentence or meaning is frequently set in contrast to the mere form, as when in speaking of the four Evangelists, he says—

'Alle accorden as in here sentence,

Al be there in here telling difference?'

THE SERGEANT OF LAW.

311. Sergeant is from the Latin serviens through the French sergent, and therefore literally means one serving the State. From the Conquest to the 14th century, a sergeant signified a tenant who had not been knighted. In Norman times, grants of lands were made, with the obligation to perform certain judicial duties attached to them. Those who obtained these grants were called sergeants or sergeant justices. Sergeants of Law used to have exclusive audience in the Court of Common Pleas, and preaudience in all other courts. The judge still addresses a Sergeant as Brother.

war and wys, an alliterative phrase, frequently used by Spenser, as in Faery Queen I., 8, 7, 6.

'But wise and wary was that noble Pere.'

312. parvys. On this word, Warton has the following Note'It is not my design to enter into the disputes concerning the meaning or etymology of parvis, from which parvisia, the names for the public schools in Oxford, is derived. But I will observe that parvis is mentioned as a court or portico before the Church of Notre Dame at Paris, in John de Meun's part of the Roman de la Rose, v., 12529.

'A Paris n'eust hommes ne femme

Au parvis devant Notre Dame.'

The passage is thus translated by Chaucer-Rom. R. V., 7157—