146. _Of_, i. e. some. _houndes_ (huundez), dogs. 'Smale whelpes leeve to
ladyse and clerkys'; Political, Relig. and Love Poems, ed. Furnivall, p.
32; Bernardus de Cura Rei Familiaris, ed. Lumby, p. 13.
147. _wastel-breed_. Horses and dogs were not usually fed on _wastel-breed_
or cake-bread (bread made of the best flour), but on coarse lentil bread
baked for that purpose. See Our English Home, pp. 79, 80. [17] The O. F.
_wastel_ subsequently became _gastel_, _gasteau_, mod. F. _gâteau_, cake.
Cf. P. Plowman, B. vi. 217, and the note; Riley, Memorials of London, p.
108.
148. The syllable _she_ is here very light; _she if oon_ constitutes the
third foot in the line. After _she_ comes the caesural pause. _weep_, wept;
A. S. _w[=e]op_.
149. _men smoot_, one smote. If _men_ were the ordinary plural of _man_,
_smoot_ ought to be _smiten_ (pl. past); but _men_ is here used like the
Ger. _man_, French _on_, with the singular verb. It is, in fact, merely the
_unaccented_ form of _man_. _yerde_, stick, rod; mod. E. _yard_. _smerte_,
sharply; adv.
151. _wimpel._ The _wimple_ or _gorger_ is stated first to have appeared in
Edward the First's reign. It was a covering for the neck, and was used by
nuns and elderly ladies. See Fairholt's Costume, 1885, ii. 413; Ancren
Riwle, ed. Morton, p. 420.
_pinched_, gathered in small pleats, closely pleated.
'But though I olde and hore be, sone myne,
And poore by my clothing and aray,
And not so wyde a gown have as is thyne,
So small _ypynched_ and so gay,
My rede in happe yit the profit may.'
Hoccleve, De Regimine Principum, ed. Wright, p. 15.
152. _tretys_, long and well-shaped. From O. F. _traitis_, Low Lat.
_tractitius_, i. e. drawn out; from L. _trahere_. Chaucer found the O. F.
_traitis_ in the Romaunt of the Rose, and translated it by _tretys_; see l.
1216 of the E. version. Cf. _fetis_ from _factitius_; l. 157. _eyen greye._
This seems to have been the favourite colour of ladies' eyes in Chaucer's
time, and even later. Cf. A. 3974; Rom. Rose, 546, 862; &c. 'Her eyen
_gray_ and stepe'; Skelton's Philip Sparowe, 1014 (see Dyce's note).
'Her eyes are _grey as glass_.'--Two Gent. of Verona, iv. 4. 197.
'Hyr forheed lely-whyht,
Hyr bent browys blake, and hyr _grey eyne_,
Hyr chyry chekes, _hyr nose streyt_ and ryht,
Hyr lyppys rody.'--Lives of Saints, Roxburgh Club, p. 14.
'Wyth _eyene graye_, and browes bent,
And yealwe traces [_tresses_], and fayre y-trent,
Ech her semede of gold;
Hure vysage was fair and _tretys_,
Hure body iantil and pure _fetys_,
And semblych of stature.'--Sir Ferumbras, l. 5881.
'Dame Gaynour, with hur _gray een_.'
Three Met. Romances, ed. Robson, p. 22.
'Hys _eyen grey_ as crystalle stone';--Sir Eglamour, l. 861.
'Put out my _eyen gray_';--Sir Launfal, l. 810.
[18]