Six Centuries of English Poetry Part 51

=swich=, such.

=swynke=, toil.

=thilke=, this.

=tretys=, slender.

=venerye=, hunting.

=viage=, journey.

=wastel breed=, cake bread.

=wenden=, go.

=werre=, war.

=wight=, person.

=wiste=, knew.

=wood=, mad, foolish.

=wympel=, wimple.

=yaf=, gave.

=yeddynges=, gleemen's songs.

=yemanly=, yeoman-like.

=yerde=, stick.

NOTES.

1. =in the Ram.= In the constellation Aries. "There is a difference, in astronomy, between the _sign_ Aries and the _constellation_ Aries. In April the sun is theoretically in the sign Taurus, but visibly in the constellation Aries."--_Morris._

2. =i-ronne.= Run. The prefix _i-_ or _y-_ is equivalent to the A.-S. or German _ge_, and usually denotes the past participle.

3. =seeken.= The infinitive in early English ended in _n_, usually in _en_.

4. =martir.= Thomas a Becket, who was slain at Canterbury in 1170. He was canonized by Pope Alexander III. as St. Thomas of Canterbury.

5. =seeke.= Sick, ill. At the present time the English restrict the use of the word "sick" to nausea, and regard it in its original and broader signification as an "Americanism."

6. =Tabard.= A tabard is "a jaquet or slevelesse coat worne in times past by n.o.blemen in the warres, but now only by heraults. It is the signe of an inne in Southwarke by London, within the which was the lodging of the Abbot of Hyde by Winchester. This is the hostelrie where Chaucer and the other pilgrims mett together and accorded about the manner of their journey to Canterbury."--_Speght._

7. =stables.= Standing-places (Lat. _sto_, to stand); meaning here the public rooms of the inn.

8. =Or.= Before, ere (A.-S. _aer_, ere). Compare Psalm xc. 2.

9. =condicioun.= A word of four syllables, accented on the last.

10. =chyvalrye.= The profession of a knight.

11. =hethenesse.= Heathen countries. From _heath_, the open country. "The word _heathen_ acquired its meaning from the fact that, at the introduction of Christianity into Germany, the wild dwellers on the heaths longest resisted the truth."--_Trench._

12. =Alisaundre.= Alexandria was taken in 1365 by Pierre de Lusignan, king of Cyprus, but was very soon abandoned.

13. =he hadde the bord bygonne.= "He had been placed at the head of the table, the usual compliment to extraordinary merit."--_Tyrwhitt._

14. =Pruce.= Prussia. "When our military men wanted employment it was usual for them to go and serve in _Pruce_, or Prussia, with the Knights of the Teutonic order, who were in a state of constant warfare with their heathen neighbours in Lettow (Lithuania) and Ruse (Russia)."--_Tyrwhitt._

15. =Gernade.= Grenada, probably at the siege of Algezir, in that country, in 1344. Belmarie was probably a Moorish town in Africa, as also was Trama.s.sene, mentioned below. Lieys was in Armenia. Both it and Satalie (Attalia) were conquered by Pierre de Lusignan in 1367.

16. =Greete see.= That part of the Mediterranean which washes the coast of Palestine.

17. =lord of Palatye.= A Christian knight who kept possession of his lands by paying tribute to the Turks.

18. =no maner wight.= No sort of person. In early English the preposition was often omitted after _manner_. Observe the double negatives in these two lines.

19. =bacheler.= "A soldier not old or rich enough to lead his relations into battle with a banner. The original sense of the word is _little_, _small_, _young_, from Welsh _bach_."--_Webster._

20. =floytynge.= Fluting. So, in Chaucer's "House of Fame," he says:

"And many a floyte and litlyng horne, And pipes made of grene corne."

21. =he.= That is, the knight. The word _yeman_, or _yeoman_, is an abbreviation of _yeongeman_. As used by Chaucer, it means a servant of a rank above that of groom, but below that of squire. The present use of the word to signify a small landholder is of more modern origin.

22. =poc.o.k arwes.= Arrows tipped with peac.o.c.k feathers.

23. =bracer.= A kind of close sleeve laced upon the arm. "A bracer serveth for two causes, one to save his arme from the strype of the stringe, and his doublet from wearing; and the other is, that the stringe glidinge sharplye and quicklye off the bracer, maye make the sharper shoote."--_Roger Ascham's Toxophilus_, page 129.

24. =Cristofre.= An image of St. Christopher, which was thought to protect its wearer from hidden danger.

25. =seynt Loy.= St. Eloy, or Eligius.

26. =of gret disport.= Fond of gayety.

27. =men.= This word as here used is an indefinite p.r.o.noun equivalent to _one_, or _any one_.

28. "Love conquers all things."

29. =chapeleyne.= Probably _a.s.sistant_.

30. =a fair for the maistrye.= A fair one for the chief place.

31. "He would not give a pulled hen for that text"; that is, "he cared not a straw for it." Pulled = pylled = pilled = plucked.

32. =waterles.= Out of water.

33. =what.= Why, wherefore.

34. =wood.= Mad. Scotch _wud_, wild.

"An' just as wud as wud can be."--_Burns._

35. =no cost wolde he spare.= For this pleasure he spared no expense.

36. "That shone like the fire under a cauldron."

37. =lymytour.= One who was licensed to beg within a limited territory.

38. =ordres foure.= The Dominicans, the Franciscans, the Carmelites, and the Augustine Friars.