248. The readings are _here onwarde_, Th. F.; _here onward_, Tn.; _here on
warde_, B. I do not think _here onward_ can be meant, nor yet
_hereon-ward_; I know of no examples of such meaningless expressions. I
read _here on warde_, and explain it: 'I will give him the very best gift
that he ever expected (to get) in his life; and (I will give it) here, in
his custody, even now, as soon as possible,' &c. _Ward_ = custody, occurs
in the dat. _warde_ in William of Palerne, 376--'How that child from here
_warde_ was went for evermore.'
250. Here Chaucer again takes a hint from Machault's Dit de la Fontaine,
where we find the poet promising the god a hat and a soft bed of
gerfalcon's feathers. See Ten Brink, Studien, p. 204.
'Et por ce au dieu qui moult sout (?) et moult vault
Por mielx dormir un chapeau de pavaut
Et un mol lit de plume de gerfaut
Promes et doing.'
See also Our English Home, p. 106.
255. _Reynes_, i. e. Rennes, in Brittany; spelt _Raynes_ in the Paston
Letters, ed. Gairdner, iii. 358. Linen is still made there; and by 'clothe
of Reynes' some kind of linen, rather than of woollen cloth, is meant. It
is here to be used for pillow-cases. It was also used for sheets. 'Your
shetes shall be of clothe of _Rayne_'; Squyr of Lowe Degre, l. 842 (in
Ritson, Met. Rom. iii. 180). 'A peyre schetes of _Reynes_, with the heued
shete [head-sheet] of the same'; Earliest Eng. Wills, ed. Furnivall, p. 4,
l. 16. 'A towaile of Raynes'; Babees Book, p. 130, l. 213; and see note on
p. 208 of the same. 'It [the head-sheet] was more frequently made of the
fine white linen of Reynes'; Our Eng. Home, p. 109. 'Hede-shetes of Rennes'
are noticed among the effects of Hen. V; see Rot. Parl. iv. p. 228;
footnote on the same page. Skelton mentions rochets 'of fyne Raynes'; Colin
Clout, 316. The mention of this feather-bed may have been suggested to
Machault by Ovid's line about the couch of Morpheus (Metam. xi.
611)--'Plumeus, unicolor, pullo velamine tectus.'