See also Tyrwhitt's Chaucer, Gl. s. v. meinie; he refers us to Ordericus Vitalis, who gives a strange story of the familia Herlechini, also to Gervase of Tilbury, who speaks of the familia Arturi, As to the etymology of the word Hurlewayne, see Skeat's Dict., s. v. Harlequin. p. 1, l. 16. Hope is a hoop: see Larwood's Signboards, p. 488.— W. W. S.

Such vitailles as he fonde in town.

p. 2, 1. 18. Here in town = at hand: cf. Sir Thopas (ed. Skeat), l. 1983 and Note: also Guy of Warwicke, 1. 5841:

"God let me neuyr dye in londe."

Other

On which Professor Zupitza says: "in londe, used here as often with no great force"; he then compares with it the expression in toune. instances are:

"Hyt befell in the month of June,
Whan the fenell hangeth yn toun,

Grene in semly sales."

Lybeaus Disconus (Ritson), 1. 1225.

"And ich him schal with myn hond teche

Hou Goddes grame com to toune
Ryght amidelward his croun.”

The Seuyn Sages (Weber).

"Had she brought some forty pounds to town,

I could be content to make her my wife."

R. Green's George-a-Greene (ed. Dyce), p. 260, col. 2,—

where Dyce's Note on the word "town" is: Qy. dower. The expression might still be heard in the present century in East Anglia: in my early youth an old servant by way of informing me that some friends of ours had an addition to their family, said: “A new Miss has just come to town." Cp. also the usage of "in place" and "in the stede."

p. 2, 1. 20. The Pardoner beheld and aside swervid. ? perhaps diskennyng agrees with statis, and we may translate: "The Pardoner saw how the people of good station were served, and how, ignoring him quietly, they slipped away from him."

p. 2, 1. 40. Benedicite, pronounce ben'cite, or ben'cit; see Skeat's Gl. to Prioresses Tale, &c.

p. 2, 1. 42. she gan to fnese. ? snese, as fnese elsewhere means to blow, as Prof. Skeat has pointed out. p. 2, 1. 43. Aha! all hole. In Germany when any one sneezes, the custom is for the bystanders to cry out pros't (prosit), in Austria Gesundheit. In France, Belgium, and Italy, they say in their respective languages, "God bless you": also in some parts of England, for instance in Suffolk.

It is said that this custom arose at the time of the plague, a sneeze being supposed to indicate a change for the better in the condition of the sufferer.

p. 3, 1. 56. þat ye [been] unaservid. The words, I suppose, as they stand with been inserted, will mean, "but you havn't been served with your morning-meal"; from 1. 60, however, it appears that the

Tapster was not aware that the Pardoner was fasting. ? Perhaps the words that ye unaservid may mean: "you didn't deserve that, viz. to suffer such extreme sorrow."

p. 3, 1. 66.

now broke wel thy name.

"panne hym spak the god king:
Wel bruk þu þi nevening;

Horn, þu go wel schulle (shrill)
By dales and bi hulle;

Horn, þu lude soo sune

Bi dales and bi dune."

King Horn, 1. 206. (Specimens by Morris.)

"Dan John, quod he, now well brouke ye your name."

Lidgate's Prologue to the Tale of Thebes.

seyn a

p. 3, 1. 70. trown & feyn this song. ? For trown read crown or croon murmur; the scribes frequently interchange t and c: see note on 1. 822. ? Also for feyn read seyn; in Chaucer we find " song": later in this tale, 1. 2462, we have: “I will not feyn one word, as makers doon to ryme"; but there the word feyn relates to composition of verse, not to singing.

p. 4, 1. 99.

"Non certen, quod the tapster, yee have a red ful even,

As wold to God yee couth as wel undo my sweven.”

ared ful even = interpreted rightly, in this passage the Tapster's behaviour, but arede is frequently used for to interpret a dream, and we find it with the word even attached in The Boke of the Dutchesse, 1. 284: "Ne nat scarcely Macrobeus

[Coude]

I trow, arede my dremes even."

Rede is so used in modern poetry; as in Campbell's

"Glenara, Glenara, now read me my dream."

Also "read me my riddle" we find several times in Bishop Percy's Folio.

Undo my sweven.

Cp. Romaunt of the Rose, 1. 7:

"An authour that hight Macrobees

That halteth not dremes false ne lees,
But undoth us the avision

That whilom mette king Cipioun."

p. 5, 1. 109. a lover glad. glad does not suit the context, unless we take it in the sense of "auxious." See Lancelot of the Laik, 1. 2798, "gladly desyrit," and 1. 2946.

They may garlic pyll,

Cary sackes to the myll,

Or pescoddes they may shyll

Or elles go rost a stone."

Skelton's Why come ye not to Courte, ? 103-109.

Todd in his Dict., s. v. pilled-garlick, says: 66 one whose hair is fallen off by a disease: 'A pleasant discourse between the authour & pildgarlick; wherein is declared the nature of the disease,'" 4to, 1619.

Sir John Denham, in his Directions to a Painter, p. 21, published in 1667, terms a certain officer "poor Peelgarlick," the reason for this appellation being that part of his posteriors had been shorn away by a cannon-ball. We find the term as late as 1770 in Foote's Lame Lover, ad fin. where Sir Luke says of himself:

"So then it seems poor Pilgarlik is discarded at once."

It is easy to understand why a man whose hair has fallen off, or part of whose body has been flayed, should be compared in derision to peeled garlick, but not so easy to see why "to peel garlic" should be regarded as a degrading occupation, as it apparently is in the passage before us. Mr. Wedgwood compares the Fr. saying: "Il en pelera la prune "—he will smart for it, he will have the worst of it. The question is also discussed in Notes and Queries, 1st S., i. and ii., and in Latham's Dict. It may be, however, that the expression was originally make a man peeled-garlik or pilgarlik," which is intelligible, and was then corrupted into "to make a man pill garlic."

"to

p. 5, 1. 125. pouze she aquyt his while. Cp. Man of Lawes Tale, 584, where Skeat's Note is: " quyte her while, repay her time; i. e. her pains, trouble; as when we say it is worth while'; wile is not intended."

p. 6, 11. 137-8.

"Put forth the Prelatis, pe Person & his fere.

A monk that toke the spryngill with a manly chere."

Substitute a comma for the full-stop after fere. Perhaps also for A monk we should read The monk; in any case this monk is the monk of the Canterbury Tales; the words "manly chere" agree with the description given of him by the Host in the Prologue to the Monk's Tale.

p. 6, 1. 141.

"The ffrere feynyd fetously the spryngill for to hold,
To spryng upon the remnant."

? For feynyd may we here read feyndyd, from the A.S. fandian, to attempt, try. In Chaucer the word appears as fonde, and in Gologros and Gawayn as faynd.

p. 6, l. 151. for the story mourned. The word " mourn seems sometimes to mean "to be deep in thought," unconnected with sorrow. Cp.

"And in gret thout he was

Wher it was his wyfe, er hyt nas.

p. 6, 1. 160.

p. 7, l. 172.

Alse he sat in mornynge,

Anon he thout upon the rynge."

Seven Sages, 1. 3013 (ed. T. Wright).

"he murned ful swiðe

to habben þat maiden to wiue."

Layamon's Brut. (Specimens by Morris and Skeat), 1. 585. kynd of brode = native breeding.

_out of contrey, out of his own country. Cp. 1. 2294 : "sith he of contre past." Halliwell, s. v. country, says: "county. Var. Dial."; this usage is frequent.

sey

"And commandede barouns thre

Her to lede out of cuntré

To the wyldest forest that myght be

Of Crystendome." Octovian Imperator (Weber iii. 285). "And outte of cuntré wille I wende." Sir Amadas (Weber iii. 35). Sir Cleges (Weber i.), 485.

"Seth he went out of cuntré."

p. 7, 1. 178.

= saw.

Save the Sompnour seid somewhat. ? For seid read

p. 7, l. 188. pouze wee shout set at sale Al the shrewdnes that I can. For wee read I, wee being caught from preceding wee. This error is frequent with our scribe.

p. 7, l. 192.

to the dynerward.

A late instance of this construction occurs in Sidney's Arcadia, lib. ii., p. 98, ed. 1638. "And so went she from them to the Lodge-ward."—S.

p. 7, 1. 195.

(ed. Skeat):

p. 9, 1. 247.

till girdill gon arise. Cp. Man of Lawes Tale, 1. 789

"He drank and wel his girdel underpyghte."

He was of al factur, aftir fourm of kynde. He was made for everything by natural formation or constitution.

p. 9, 1. 250-1. Probably some lines between these two are lost. As the prologue stands, the Sompnour had said nothing to the Frere since their arrival in Canterbury, though, l. 186, he says he will do so on their way home.

rowe = rest (cp. G. ruhen).—W. W. S. Cp.

"She wolde never rest nor rowe,

p. 10, 1. 284.

Also roo, s.

Till she came our king unto."-Percy's Folio MS. ii. 548/606. rest, in Guy & Colebrande.-Jamieson.

Insert there after grewe;

For

p. 10, 1. 293. And other beddis by & by, one beside the other. by & by, see note by Professor Skeat in N. & Q., 11th S., ix. 37. p. 11, 1. 306. he drank without the cupp. Cp. 460: "He shall drynk for kittis love without cup or pot," i. e. in abundance. p. 11, 1. 310. And fond hir ligging liry-long. Cp. with this: "Somme leyde her legges a liri (leri)." Piers Plowman, vi. 123.

I venture to suggest that liry-long means "at length like a dormouse (loir)," and a liri after the manner of a dormouse.

Littré (s. v. loir) tells us that the Berry pronunciation of loir is lire ;

also that there are two diminutives of loir, viz. liron and lérot, which signify une espéce de petit loir gris. Again (s. v. lérot) he tells us that the pronunciation of loir in Normandy is ler. From this and the Berry form we may have taken our leri and liri.

It appears that the dormouse, when eating, hangs suspended by its hind-feet from a bough, and is consequently stretched out at full length; again, when asleep in winter, it rolls itself up in a ball. The former attitude probably is that of the Tapster in Beryn, the latter that of the Losels in Piers Plowman.

p. 11, 1. 326. Wher coud I, [I]yewe prey, when ye com efftsone? wene, think; "Whether could I, I pray you,

For when read wen = think you would come again?" Perhaps when may stand; cp. yhit for yet, and yhere for yere in the Pricke of Conscience.

p. 12, 1. 361. And al ascaunce she loved him well. The word ascaunce has been discussed, N. & Q., 6th S. xi. and xii.; see also Skeat's Gl. to Man of Lawes Tale, &c., and Murray's Dict. s. v.

=

p. 12, 1. 362. As pouze she had learned cury favel of some old frere. See Hunter's Dict., s. v. curry, "To curry favour, a corruption of Mid. Eng. to curry favell; Fr. étringler le fauveau lit. to rub down the chesnut horse favell was a common name for a horse, and the same word, but from an entirely different source (Lat. fabula), was used for flattery."

or the

p. 12, 1. 362. As pouze she had lernyd cury fauel. "But if such moderation of words tend to flattery, or soothing or excusing, Paradiastole, it is by the figure Paradiastole, which therefore nothing Curry fauell. improperly we call the Curry-fauell, as when we make the best of a bad thing, or turne a signification to the more plausible sence: as, to call an vnthrift, a liberall Gentleman: the foolish-hardy, valiant or couragious: the niggard, thriftie: a great riot or outrage, an youthfull pranke, and such like termes: moderating and abating the force of the matter by craft, and for a pleasing purpose," &c.-Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie, ed. Arber, p. 195.-S.

p. 13, 1. 372. As he pat hopid sikerlich to have had al his will. Here the perfect "to have had" is used for the present. This is not unusual; cp. 1. 3150, "made him redy to have swore." Also cp. 2075, "To make his pleynt on Beryn & suyd upon his goode," where suyd is for "have suyd," as Prof. Skeat has pointed out.

p. 13, 1. 374. howe-so-euir it gone.

Cp. 1. 791, แ or I ferther goon."

"For sothe as I the sayne." Sir Isumbras, 1. 536 (Thornton Rom.).

Ever speketh French langage." Sir Beres of Hamtoun, 1. 2790

(Maitland Club).