Wo was his coke but if his fauce were
Poinant and sharpe, and redy all his gere..
His table dormant in his halle alway
Stode redy covered alle the longe day.

At feffions ther was he lord and fire;
Ful often time he was knight of the shire.
An anelace and a gipciere all of filk

Heng at his girdel white as morwe milk.

355

360

.357. Alfons] At the feffions of the peace. The justices, by the ftat. 34 Fd. III. c. 1, were to be in cach county," un Seigneur et ovefque lui trois ou quatre des meubz vauez du counter, enfemblement ove afcuns fages de la ley." A weal thy frankelein might perhaps be commitioned under this defcription; but I know not how he could be a knight of the thire, as they by 46 Edw. III. were to be Chivalers et Serjantz des meulx vauez du pais; unless we fuppofe either that the rank of Serjant (Efquire) was as undefined as it is now, or that his office of Justice made him an Efquire within the meaning of the act.

V. 359. An anelace] See the Clog to M.Paris iny.Anelacius, It was a kind of knife or dagger ufually worn at the girdle. In that paffage of M. Paris, p. 342, where Petrus de Rivallis is mentioned as "geftans anelacium ad lambare, quòd clericum * non decebat," it may be doubted whether the wearing of an anelace fimply, or the wearing of it at the girdle,was an indecent thing in a clerk. The five city-mechanicks, a few lines below, are defcribed as wearing knives, and probably at their girdles, (fee ver, 370,) though the latter circumftance is not clearly expreffed. In the picture of Chaucer which is inferted in tome copies of Occleve's book De Regimine Principis he is reprefented with a knife hanging from a button upon his breast. See mf. Harl. 4866, Cotton, Otho, A. xviii.

. 359. a gifciere] Fr. gibeciere, a purfe. The mechanicks, ver. 370, have alfo their pouches,

A fhereve hadde he ben and a countour;
Was no wher fwiche a worthy vavafour.
An Haberdafber, and a Carpenter,

A Webbe, a Deyer, and a Tapifer,
Were alle yclothed in o livere

Of a folempre and grete fraternite.

Ful freshe and newe hir gere ypiked was;

Hir knives were ychaped not with bras,

But all with filver wrought ful clene and wel,
Hir girdeles and hir pouches every del:
Wel femed eche of hem a fayre burgeis

To fitten in a gild halle on the deis:

365

370

V. 361. a countour] This word has been changed in ed. Urr. (upon what authority I know not) to coroner. The mff. all read countour or comptour. At the fame time it is not easy to fay what office is meant. I have a notion that the foreman of the inqueft in the Hundred-court was called a Countour; but the law-gloffaries do not take notice of any fuch fenfe of the word, and I cannot at prefent produce any thing fronger in fupport of it than the following paffage of R. G. p. 538; fpeaking of an Hundred court fummoned by the Conftable of Gloucester Cattle, he fays that

IIe hald this Hundred mid gret-folk and honour,
And Adam of Arderne was is [his] chef Contour.

Though this may possibly mean that Adam acted as accomptant or steward of the court.

. 362. vavajour] The precife import of this word is often as obfcure as its original. See Du Cange in v. In this place it fhould perhaps be understood to mean the whole clafs of middling landholders.

. 372. on the deis] This word occurs fo frequently in our old authors that it may be worth the while to endeavour to give a more fatisfactory explanation of it than is to be found in the gloffaries. I apprehend that it originally fignified the

Everich for the wifdom that he can'
Was fhapelich for to ben an alderman.

wooden floor ['ais, Fr. de affibus, Lat.] which was laid at the upper end of the hall, as weftill fee it in college-halls, &c. That part of the room therefore which was floored with planks was called the dais, (the rest being either the bare ground or at best paved with tone) and being raifed above the level of the other parts it was often called the high dais. In royal halls there were more daisthanone, each ofthem probably raffed above the other by one or more iteps, and that where the king fat was called the bigbeft dais. At a dinner which Charles V. of France gave to the Emperour Charles IV. in 1 377, Chriftine de Pifan fays, [Hift. de Ch. 1. P. iii. c. 33,] “cinq dôis [dais] avoit en la fale "plains de Princes et de Barons, et autres tables par-tout."et eftoient les deux grans dois et les drecouers fais de bar"rieres a l'environ"-- As the principal table was always placed upon a dais, it began very loon by a natural abute of words to be called it felt a dais, and people were faid to fit at the dais, instead of at the table upon the dis. It was fo in the time of M. Paris, Vit. Abb. p. 1070, "Triore prandente ad magnam "menfam, quam deis vocamus." Menage, whofe authority feems to have led later antiquaries to interpret dais a canopy, has evidently confounded deis with ders. Ders and derfelet (from dorfum, as heobferves) meant properly the hangings at the back of the company, [Du Cange, v. Dorfale,] but as the fime hangings were often drawn over fo as to form a kind of canopy over their heads the whole was called a ders. Chriftine, p. i. c. 41, "Sus chafcun des trois [the Emperour and the

Kings of France and Bohemia] avoit un ciel, diftincte l'un de "l'autre, de drap d'or à fleurs de lis; et pardeffus ces trois en "avoit un grant, qui couvroit tout au long de la table, et tout "derriere eux pendoit et eftoit de drap d'or." This laft ciel or canopy "which covered the whole length of the table, and hung down behind the company," was a ders. That it was quite a different thing from a deis appears from what follows; A l'autre dois [dais] auplus près," the fays "feoit---le Daul"phin and others. "Et fus le chief du Dauphin avoit un ciel,

For catel hadden they ynough and rent,
And eke hir wives wolde it wel affent;
And elles certainly they were to blame :
It is ful fayre to ben yeleped Madame,
And for to gon to vigiles all before,
And have a mantel reallich.ybore.

A Coke they hadden with hem for the nones,
To boile the chikenes and the marie bones,

375

380

"et puis,un autre pardeffus qui toute la table couvroit." Dais. here plainly means a table. The Dauphin fat at the fecond. table, and had a canopy over his own head, and another which covered the whole table. In short, one of Menage's own citations, if properly corrected, will fully eftablith the diftinct fenfes of these two words. Ceremon. de Godefroy, p. 335, "Le "Roy fe vint mettre à table fur un baut ders [read deis] fait et "préparé en la grande falle du logis Archiepifcopal, fous un "grand ders, le fond du quel eftoit tout d'or." He has anothery citation from Martene, de Mon. Rit. 1.i. c. xi. p. 109, in which he himself allows that dafium (the fame as dais) must signify un ejirade, a raifed floor. It appears from the fame citation that the afcent to the daftum was by more fteps than one.---See below, ver. 2202, 9585, 10373, and Gower, Conf. Amat. fol. 155, a. Sittende upon the bic deis.

66

v. 381. for the nones] "That is, as I conceive, for the occa"fion. This phrafe, which was very frequently though not always very precifely ufed by our old writers, I fuppofe to have been originally a corruption of corrupt Latin. From "pro-nunc I fuppofe came for the nunc, and fo for the nonce, "jult as from ad-nunc came a-non. The Spanith entonces has "been formed in the fame manner from in-tunc."—I have repeated this note from the latt edit. of Shakespeare, vol. v. p. 23), as I have not found any reafon to alter my opinion with respect to the original of this phrafe. I will add here a lift of feveral paffages in thefe Tales in which it is ufed in the fame

And poudre marchant, tart and galingale.

Wel coude he knowe a draught of London ale.
He coude rofte, and fethe, and broile, and frie, 385
Maken mortrewes, and wel bake a pie;

But gret harm was it, as it thoughte me,

That on his fhinne a mormal hadde he.

fense. See ver. 525, 547, 3469, 13948, 15339. See also R. G. p. 285,

And he hadde vor the nones tweye fuerdes by hys fyde.

v. 383. And poudre marchant] What kind of ingredient this was I cannot tell. Cotgrave mentions a pouldre blanche and a pouldre de duc, which feem both to have been used in cookery. I must take notice that the epithet tart, in moft of the mff. is annexed to poudre marchant, and I rather with I had left it there, as for any thing that I know it may suit that as well as galingale.

. 384. London ale] Whether this was a different fort of ale from that of the provinces or only better made I know not, but it appears to have been in request above a century after Chaucer. In the account of the feast of Archbishop Warham in 1504 are the following articles. Lel. Collect. App. P. ii. p. 30. De cervifa Londini iiii dol. vi. li.

De cervifa Cant. vi. dol. prec. dol. xxv s.

De cervifa Ang. Bere xx. dol. prec. dol. xxiii s. iv d. So that London ale was higher priced than Kentish by 5 s. a barrel.

. 386. Maken mortrewes] Lord Bacon, in his Nat. Hift. i. 48, fpeaks of "a mortreis made with the brawn of capons ftamped and trained." He joins it with the cullice (coulis) of cocks. It feems to have been a rich broth or soup, in the preparation of which the fleth was flamped or beat in a mortar, from whence it probably derived its name, une mortreuse, tho I cannot fay that I have ever met with the French word.

.388. a mormal] A cancer or gangrene; fo the Gloff. and I believe Chaucer meant nomore, by his confining the difeafe to the thin. The original word, Maium mortuum, Lat. Maux