His lordes shepe, his nete, and his deirie, His fwine, his hors, his store, and his pultrie, 600 605 Ther n'as baillif, ne herde, ne other hine, 610 615 .617. a right good flot] I take flot to be put here for fod, the Saxon word for a ftallion. A ftot fignified properly a bul lock, as it ftill does in the North. See the Percy Housh. Book, p. 2, and note. The paffage which Du Cange, in v. Stortus, has quoted from Maddox, Form. Angl. p. 427, to fhew that flottus fignifies equus admiffarius, proves rather that it fignifies a bullock. John de Nevill leaves to his eldest fon several specifick legacies; "et eciam cc vaccas pro flauro, cc flottos et flirkes, "mm bidentes," &c. Stirke is the Sax. name for a heifer, fo that there can be little doubt that cc flottos et flirkes thould be rendered cc bullocks and heifers. A long furcate of perfe upon he hade, And by his fide he bare a rufty blade. A Sompnour was ther with us in that place 620 625 630 .626. cherubinnes face] H. Stephens, Apol. Herod. 1. i. c. 30, quotes the fame thought from a French epigram; Nos grands docteurs au cherubin vifage, &c. .627. faufefleme] I find this word in an old Fr. book of phyfick, which I have quoted before in n. on ver. 165; "Oignement "magiftrel pur faufefleme et pur chefcune manere de roigne." Roigne fignifies any fcorbutick eruption. So in the Thousand Notable Things, b. i. 70," A fawsfleame or red pimpled face "is helped with this medicine following."-Two of the ingredients are quickfilver and brimftone. In another place, b. ii. 20, oyle of tartar is faid "to take away cleane all fpots, "freckles, and filthy wheales." Thefe laft I fuppofe are what Chaucer calls whelkes.-The original of the word feems to be pointed out in the following paffage, Fit. R. ii, a Mon. Evesh, p. 169; "facies alba---interdum fanguinis feumate viciata." Ne of the knobbes fitting on his chekes: 635 640 645 But who fo wolde in other thing him grope A good felaw to have his concubine A twelve month, and excufe him at the full : . 648. Queftio quid juris] This kind of question occurs frequently in Ralph de Hengham. After having flated a cafe he adds, Quid juris? and then proceeds to give the answer to it. See Heng. Mag. c. xi. ; "Efto autem quod reus nullo modo ve"nerit ad hunc diem. quid juris ?" &c. See alío c. 12. .649. a gentil harlot] The name of harlot was anciently given to men as well as women. See below, ver. 7336. Herlod, in Welsh, is faid to fignify fimply a young man, and herlodes a young woman. Richards, Welsh Dict. in v. ; with us it seems always to have been a difgraceful appellation. In R. R. ver. 6068, King of barlots is Chaucer's tranflat. of Roy des ribaulx, And if he found o where a good felawe 655 For in his purfe he fhulde ypunished be; Purfe is the archedekens helle faid he, 660 But wel I wote he lied right in dede; And knew hir confeil and was of hir rede. A gerlond hadde he fette upon his hede 670 As gret as it were for an aleftake; A bokeler hadde he made him of a cake. v. 664. à fignificavit] The writ de excommunicato capiends, commonly called a fignificavit, from the begining of the writ, which is as follows; “Rex Vicecomiti L. falutem, Sgnificavit "nobis venerabilis pater H. L. Epifcopus," &c. Cad. Jur. Ecc. p. 1054. v.665. In danger hadde he] i. e. within the reach or control of his office. See Hift. Abbat. Pipervell, ap. Monal. Angl. t. 1. p. 815; "Nec audebant Abbates eidem refiftere, quia aut pro de"nariis aut pro bladis femper fuerunt Abbates in dangerio dicti Officialis.- The yonge girls, in the next line, may fig nify either the young men or the young women, as girl was formerly an appellation common to both fexes. .672. Of Rounce vall I can hardly think that Chaucer 'That ftreit was comen from the court of Rome; But fmoth it heng as doth a strike of flax; By unces heng his lokkes that he hadde, And therwith he his fhulders overspradde: 675 680 meant to bring his Pardoner from Roncevaux in Navarre, and yet I cannot find any place of that name in England. An hofpital "Beatæ Mariæ de Rouncyvalle" in Charing, London, is mentioned in the Monaft. t. ii. p. 443; and there was a Runceval-Hall in Oxford, Stevens, v. ii. p. 262; fo that perhaps it was the name of fome fraternity. .674. Come hither love to me] This, I fuppofe, was the beginuing or the burthen of fome known fong.-Love is here a dilfyllable, as in ver. 260; In love days, ther cóud he mōchel helpe. and in ver. 1627; Tul foth is fayde, that love né lordship. The double rhyme of to me answering to Rome, proves evidently that Rome in this place is to be pronounced as a diffy)lable; we need therefore have no fcruple, I think, of pronoun cing it in the fame manner wherever the metre requires two fyllables. See ver. 4562, 4576, 5388, 5568.—A like ufe may be made of other fimilar rhymes in Chaucer for establishing the pronunciation ofthe e feminine. In ver. 16673 by me rhymes to time, and in Troil. ii. 991, to time and prime; and accordIngly both time and prime are used in other places as diffylJables. See ver. 7884, 10827--10674, 12596.---In these cafes the final monofyllable me transfers its accent to the preceding fyllable, after the manner of the Greek encliticks, and the final of courfe becomes a mere e feminine. 675. bare-a ftiff burdoun] Sang the bafs. See ver. 4163 and Du Cange in v. Burdo. |