Minor Notes.
_Meaning of "Ruell."_--In the "Rhime of Sir Thopas" Chaucer says:
"His sadell was of _ruell_ bone
His bridle as the sun yshone," &c.
Translated by Z. A. Z.:
"His saddle was of jit black bone."
Whitaker and Co. London, 1841.
Tyrwhitt says:
"His sadel was of _rewel_ bone."
What kind of material this was, I profess myself quite ignorant.
"In the _Turnament of Tottenham_, ver. 75. (_Anc. Poet._, vol. ii.
p. 18.), Tibbe is introduced with 'a garland on her head full of
_ruell_ bones.' The derivation in Gloss. Urr. of this word from
the French _riolé_, diversely coloured, has not the least
probability. The other, which deduces it from the French
_rouelle_, _rotula_, the whirl-bone or knee-pan, is more
plausible; though, as the glossarist observes, that sense will
hardly suit here."--Chaucer, by Thomas Tyrwhitt, Esq. Pickering:
London, 1830.
"His saddle was of _ruel_ bone."
Chaucer, by Thomas Speght.
London, 1687.
And its Glossary says:
"RUELL BONE, _f._ of the French word _riolé_, that is, diversely
colored: an Antistæcon in many words derived from another
language; as, in _Law_ from _Loy_, and _Roy_ from _Rex_."
So far the printed attempts at explaining this term _ruell_. May I
submit for the consideration of your readers, that it is related to the
French adjective _rouillé_, rusty; used by Molière in the form
_enrouillé_. Evidently this has affinity to _ruber_, _rouge_, and _red_.
So that Tibbe's garland would be of tortoise-shell combs: and the saddle
would be of a similar nature.
_La Ryole_ is found as the name of the tenement occupied by Thomas le
Bat (temp. Ed. III.?) Was this the sign of "The Comb," which is so often
seen in the windows of our present shops?