Saffron Walden.
_Chatterbox_ (Vol. iv., p. 344.).--I doubt whether your correspondent J.
M. will succeed in limiting the term _chatter-box_ to the female sex.
His rendering _buxom_ by _womanly_ will hardly stand the test of
criticism. In the old matrimonial service, as elsewhere, it originally
signified _obedient_, _compliant_, and was equivalent to the German
_biegsam_. It was applied indifferently to men and women. Thus, in
Chaucer's _Shipmanne's Tale_--
"They wolden that hir _husbondes_ shulden be
Hardy and wise and riche, and thereto free,
And _buxom_ to his wife, and fresh a-bed."
And in the _Clerke's Tale_, speaking of the vassals,
"And they with humble heart ful _buxomly_,
Kneeling upon hir knees ful reverently,
Him thonken all."
The peasantry in Cheshire, instead of chatter-_box_, say
chatter-_basket_.