Glossary
“wyn of Ossye
Of Ruyn and of Rochel, the rost to defye.”
Latin, defio = deficio, to make one’s self to be removed from something, or something to be removed from one’s self. To defy in the sense of challenging is a word of different origin, diffidere, to separate from fides, faith, trust, allegiance to another.
When Wisdom “thas fitte asungen hæfde” had sung this song. King Alfred’s Boëthius.
“By the pose in thy nose,
And the gout in thy toes.”
—Beaumont and Fletcher.
Notes
114 And, in old English could be placed like “also” in different parts of a sentence. Thus, in Nymphidia,
“She hies her then to Lethe spring,
A bottle and thereof doth bring.”
129 Atalantis, “As long as Atalantis shall be read.” Atalantis was a book of Court scandal by Mrs. De la Rivière Manley, in four volumes, entitled “Secret Memoirs and Manners of several Persons of Quality of both Sexes from the New Atalantis, an Island in the Mediterranean.” Mrs. Manley died in 1724.
94h Bauzon, badger. French, bausin.
147a Billies, fellows, used rather contemptuously.
147f Blellum, idle talker.
150a Boddle, a Scottish copper coin worth the third part of an English halfpenny; said to be named after the Mint-master who first coined it, Bothwell.
150h Bore, hole in the wall.
91e But, “without,” “but merriness,” without mirth.
152d Byke, hive.
150f Cantrip, charm, spell. Icelandic, gandr, enchantment; gand-reithr was the witches’ ride.
83 Can’wick Street, Candlewick, where now there is Cannon Street.
86a Champarty, Champartage, was a feudal levy of a share of profit from the ground (campi pars), based originally upon aid given to enable profit to be earned. Thus it became a law term for right of a stranger to fixed share in any profits that on such condition he helped a litigant to win.
85b Chiche vache, lean cow. French chiche, Latin ciccus, wretched, worthless; from Greek kíkkos, the core of a pomegranate. Worth no more than a pomegranate seed.
94i Cockers, rustic half-boots.
151g Coft, bought. German, kaufte.
82b Copen, buy. Dutch, koopen.
94j Cordiwin, or cordewane, Cordovan leather.
89 Coueyn, coveyne convening or conspiring of two or more to defraud.
94f Crank, lively. A boat was “crank” when frail, lightly and easily tossed on the waves, and liable to upset. Prof. Skeat thinks that the image of the tossed boat suggested lively movement.
151c Creeshie flannen, greasy flannel.
151e Cummock, a short staff with a crooked head.
151f Cutty, short; so cutty pipe, short pipe.
85a Darrain, decide. To “arraign” was to summon ad rationes to the pleadings. To darraign was derationare, to bring them to a decision.
86b Defy, digest. As in the Vision of Piers Plowman
91d Degest, orderly. To “digest” is to separate and arrange in an orderly manner.
150e Dirl, vibrate, echo.
147b Drouthy, droughty, thirsty.
151a Duddies, clothes.
152e Eldritch, also elrische, alrische, alry, having relation to elves or evil spirits, supernatural, hideous, frightful.
152f Ettle, endeavour, aim. Icelandic, ætla, to mean anything, design, have aim, is the Scottish ettle.
108d Fire-drake, dragon breathing out fire.
91b Flicht and wary, fluctuate and change.
92b Frawfull fary, froward tumult.
152c Fyke, fuss.
30 Fytte, a song, canto. First English, fit, a song.
150g Gab, mouth.
148b Gars, makes; “gars me greet,” makes me weep.
147h Gate, road. Icelandic, gata.
35 Habergeon, small hauberk, armour for the neck. Old High German, hals, the neck; bergan, to protect.
94d Harlock, This plant-name occurs only here and in Shakespeare’s Lear, Act iv. sc. 4, where Lear is said to be crowned “with harlocks, hemlocks, nettles, cuckoo-flowers.” Probably it is charlock, Sinapis arvensis, the mustard-plant.
98 Hays, The hay was a French dance, with many turnings and windings.
100 Hient Hill, Ben Hiand, in Ardnamurchan, Argyleshire.
152a Hotched, hitched.
147g Ilka, each one, every.
85c Infere, together.
148c Ingle, fire. Gaelic, aingeal, allied to Latin ignis.
95b Keep, “take thou no keep”—heed, “never mind.”
148f Kirkton, familiar term for the village in which the country people had their church.
94k Ladysmock, Cardamine pratensis.
93b Leir, lore, doctrine.
94g Learned his sheep, taught his sheep.
94a Lemster, Leominster.
95a Lingell, a shoemaker’s thong. Latin lingula.
151h Linkit, tripped, moved briskly.
108c Lubrican, the Irish leprechaun, a fairy in shape of an old man, discovered by the moan he makes. He brings wealth, and is fixed only as long as the finder keeps his eye upon him.
108b Mandrake, the root of mandragora, rudely shaped like the forked animal man, and said to groan or shriek when pulled out of the earth.
93c Marchpine, sweet biscuit of sugar and almonds. Marchpane paste was used by comfit-makers for shaping into letters, true-love knots, birds, beasts, etc.
130 Megrim, pain on one side of the head, headache. French migraine, from Gr. eemikranía.
147i Melder, milling. The quantity of meal ground at once.
148a Mirk, dark.
108a Molewarp, mole. First English, moldwearp.
148e Nappy, nap, strong beer.
126 Pam, Knave of Clubs, the highest card in the game of Loo, derived from “palm,” as “trump” from “triumph.”
137 Partridge, a maker of prophetic almanacs, who was ridiculed by Swift as type of his bad craft.
94b Peakish hull, hill by the Peak of Derbyshire.
19 Pose, catarrh. First English, gepósu.
88b Prow, profit. Old French, prou, preu—“Oïl voir, sire, pour vostre preu i viens.”—Garin le Loharain.
91a Qu, Scottish = W. Quhair, where; quhois, whose; quheill, wheel; quha, quho, who; quhat, what.
82a Ray, striped cloth.
151d Rigwoodie, tough. Rigwiddie is the rope crossing the back of a horse yoked in a cart; rig, back, and withy, a twig. Applied to anything strong-backed.
82c Rise, “cherries in the rise,” cherries on the twig. First English, hris, a twig, or thin branch. The old practice of selling cherries upon shoots cut from the tree ended in their sale by pennyworths with their stalks tied to a little stick of wood. So they were sold in London when I was a boy.
151b Sark, shirt or shift. First English, syrc.
94c Setiwall, garden valerian.
147e Skellum, a worthless fellow. German, schelm.
149a Skelpit, beat the ground with strong pulsation; rode quickly; pounded along.
150d Skirl, sound shrill.
147d Slaps, breaks in walls or hedges; also narrow passes.
149b Smoored, smothered.
151j Spean, wean.
32 Spear-hawk, sparrow-hawk. From the root spar, to quiver or flutter, comes the name of “sparrow” and a part of the name “sparrow-hawk.”
94e Summerhall, Stubbs, in the “Anatomy of Abuses,” speaking of the maypole, tells how villagers, when they have reared it up, “with handkerchiefs and flags streaming on the top, they strew the ground about, bind green boughs about it, set up summerhalls, bowers, and arbours hard by it, and then fall they to banquet and feast, and leap and dance about it.”
148d Swats, new ale, wort. First English, swate.
88c Teen, vexation, grief.
152b Tint, lost.
150c Towsie tyke, a large rough cur.
92a Tynsall, loss.
147c Unco’, uncouth, more than was known usually.
151i Wally, walie thriving. First English, wælig.
91c Warsill, wrestle.
150b Winnock-bunker, the window seat.
93d Woned, dwelt.
17 Wottest, knowest.
88a Woxen, grown.
93a Yconned, taught.
81 Yode, went. First English, eóde, past of gán, to go.
Footnotes
21 This old French and Anglo-Norman word, answering to the Italian gentilezza, and signifying the possession of every species of refinement, has been retained as supplying a want which there is no modern word to fill up.—Leigh Hunt.
26 The sententious sermon which here follows might have had a purely serious intention in Chaucer’s time, when books were rare, and moralities not such commonplaces as they are now; yet it is difficult to believe that the poet did not intend something of a covert satire upon at least the sermoniser’s own pretensions, especially as the latter had declared himself against text-spinning. The Host, it is to be observed, had already charged him with forgetting his own faults, while preaching against those of others. The refashioner of the original lines has accordingly endeavoured to retain the kind of tabernacle, or old woman’s tone, into which he conceives the Manciple to have fallen, compared with that of his narrative style.—Leigh Hunt.
42 “We possess,” says Satan in Paradise Lost, “the quarters of the north.” The old legend that Milton followed placed Satan in the north parts of heaven, following the passage in Isaiah concerning Babylon on which that legend was constructed (Isa. xiv. 12–15), “Thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north.”
49 Alluding to the “Millers Tale,” which has rather offended the Reve, by reason that it ridiculed a worthy carpenter.—R. H. H.
50 Or thus:—
For when our climbing’s done our speech aspires;
E’en in our ashes live their wonted fires.
The original lines are:—
“For whanne we may not don than wol we speken,
Yet in our ashen olde is fyre yreken.”
The coincidence of the last line with the one quoted from Gray’s Elegy will be remarked. Mr. Tyrwhit says he should certainly have considered the latter as an “imitation” (of Chaucer), “if Mr. Gray himself had not referred us to the 169 Sonnet of Petrarch as his original:—
Ch’ i’ veggio nel pensier, dolce mio foco,
Fredda una lingua, e duo begli occhi chiusi
Rimaner dopo noi pien’ di faville.
The sentiment is different in all three; but the form of expression here adopted by Gray closely resembles that of the Father of English Poetry, although in Gray’s time it was no doubt far more elegant to quote Petrarch than Chaucer.—R. H. Horne.