749. The line--'And couthe make in song swich refreininge' is obviously too
long. The word _couthe_ is needlessly repeated from l. 747, and must be
omitted. The Fr. text shews that _refreininge_ means the singing of a
refrain at the end of each verse.
768. _in this contree._ This is an adaptation; the original Fr. says 'in
_any_ country.' Warton calmly observes: 'there is not a syllable of these
songs and singers of Lorraine in the French.' But he consulted a defective
copy.
769. _timbestere_, a female player on a timbrel. Tyrwhitt confuses the
matter by quoting Lye, who mixed up this word with _tombestere_, a female
tumbler; for which see Cant. Ta. C 477. They are quite unconnected, but are
formed with the same fem. suffix, viz. that which appears also in the mod.
E. _spin-ster_, and in the old words _webb-estere_, _bak-estere_, whence
the surnames Webster, Baxter. In l. 772, _timbres_ simply mean timbrels,
and tambourine-players may still be performing the easy trick of throwing
up a tambourine and catching it, spinning, on a finger-point. There is
therefore no reason for explaining _timbre_ as a basin. Nevertheless, such
a mistake arose, and Junius quotes (s.v. _Timbestere_) some lines from an
edition of Le Roman de la Rose, printed in 1529, in which the following
lines here occur:--
'Apres y eut farces joyeuses,
Et batelleurs et batelleuses,
Qui de passe passe jouoyent,
Et en l'air _ung bassin_ ruoyent,
Puis le scavoyent bien recueillir
Sur ung doy, sans point y faillir.'
It is tolerably certain that this is a corrupt form of the passage, and
only makes the matter darker. All it proves is, that _timbre_ was, by some,
supposed to mean a basin! No doubt it had that sense (see Cotgrave), but
not here.
_Timbestere_ is a mere English form of the O.F. _tymberesse_, a player on a
_timbre_. Diez, in his Dictionary, cites a passage from a commentary on the
Psalms, given in Roquefort, Poés. franç, p. 127, to this effect:--'li
_tymbres_ est uns estrumenz de musique qui est couverz d'un cuir sec de
bestes'; i. e. it is the Lat. _tympanum_. So also, in Wright's Vocab. col.
616, l. 28, we have:--'_Timpanum_, a taber, or a tymbre.' In Allit. Poems,
ed. Morris, ii. 1414, we read of the sound of '_tymbres_ and _tabornes_,'
and of '_symbales_,' i. e. cymbals. In King Alisaunder, ed. Weber, 191, we
again have _tymbres_ meaning 'timbrels.' Wyclif, in his tr. of Isaiah, v.
12, has '_tymbre_ and trumpe,' to translate 'tympanum et tibia'; and the
word is well preserved in the mod. E. dimin. _timbr-el_.
770. _saylours_, dancers; from O. F. _saillir_, Lat. _salere_; cf.
'_Salyyn_, salio'; Prompt. Parv. The M. E. _sailen_, to dance, occurs in P.
Plowman, C xvi. 208 (see my note); and in Rob. of Glouc. l. 5633 (or p.
278, ed. Hearne).
791. _Ne bede I._ The Fr. text means--'I would never seek to go away.' As
_e_ and _o_ are constantly confused, I change _bode_ (which gives no sense)
into _bede_; i. e. 'I would never pray.' _Bede_ is the pt. t. subj. of
_bidden_, to pray. Gower uses _ne bede_ in the same sense; 'That I ne bede
never awake'; Conf. Am. ii. 99.