840. _to-slitered_, very much 'slashed' with small cuts. It is well known
that slashed or snipped sleeves, shewing the colour of the lining beneath
them, were common in the Tudor period; and it here appears that they were
in vogue much earlier. _Sliteren_ is the frequentative form of _sliten_, to
slit.
843. _decoped_, cut, slashed. The shoes were slashed like the dress; the
Fr. text has here _decopes_, which, only just above, is translated by
_to-slitered_. Cf. the expression 'galoches _y-couped_' in P. Plowman, C.
xxi. 12, and see my note on that passage. Halliwell is quite wrong in
confusing _decoped_ with _coppid_, i. e. peaked. See note to Mill. Ta. A
3318.
860. The readings _pleye_, _pley_ are evidently false; the scribe has
omitted the stroke for _n_ above the vowel. The right reading is obviously
_playn_, i. e. plain, smooth; it translates F. _poli_, just as _frounceles_
translates _sans fronce_, without a wrinkle.
865. If the reader prefers to keep _eleven_ (or _twelve_) syllables in this
line, I am sorry for him.
869. _orfrays_, gold embroidery; see note to l. 562. In this case, the gold
seems to have been embroidered on silk; see l. 872.
886. _quistroun_, a kitchen-boy, scullion. Godefroy gives the forms
_coistron_, _coitron_, _coisteron_, _quistron_, _coestron_, with the sense
'marmiton.' His examples include the expressions '_coitron_ de la cuisine,'
and 'un _quistroun_ de sa quisyne.' The addition of _de la (sa) cuisine_
shew that the word meant no more than 'boy' or 'lad'; such a lad as was
often employed in the kitchen.
'Ther nas knave, ne _quystron_,
That he ne hadde god waryson';
King Alisaunder, ed. Weber, 2511.
892. _amorettes_, (probably) love-knots. Such seems also to be the meaning
in the passage in the Kingis Quair, st. 47, which was probably imitated
from the present one. But both passages are sufficiently obscure. The word
occurs again, below, in l. 4755, where the meaning is different, viz. young
girls, sweethearts; but we must remember that it is there employed by a
different translator. In the present passage, the Fr. text is obscure, and
it is possible that _par fines amoretes_ means 'by beautiful girls.' The
note in Bell's Chaucer says accordingly:--'these flowers were painted by
amorous young ladies;' and adds that '_with_ here means _by_.' But this
will hardly serve. We have no proof that Chaucer so understood the French;
and if '_with_ means _by_' here, it must have the same sense in l. 894,
which would mean that birds, leopards, and lions all lent a hand in
painting. On the whole, the sense 'love-knots' seems the safest.
893. _losenges and scochouns_, lozenges (or diamond-shaped figures) and
escutcheons.