"Or that a monk beyond his bricks and _mortar_,
Is like a fish without a drop of _water_,
That is to say, a monk out of his cloister."
There can be no mortar without water, but the words do not rhyme except
to Cockney ears, though the blame lies at the door of the mouth. "Bricks
and mortar" is an odd and somewhat vulgar version of "rekkeless;" and to
say that a monk "beyond his bricks and mortar" is a monk "out of his
cloister," is not in the manner of Chaucer, or of any body else.