_undergrowe_, undergrown; i. e. of short, stinted growth.
157. _fetis_ literally signifies 'made artistically,' and hence well-made,
_feat_, neat, handsome; cf. n. to l. 152. M. E. _fetis_ answers to O. F.
_faitis_, _feitis_, _fetis_, neatly made, elegant; from Lat. _factitius_,
artificial.
_war_, aware; 'I was _war_' = I perceived.
159. _bedes._ The word _bede_ signifies, (1) a prayer; (2) a string of
grains upon which the prayers were counted, or the grains themselves. The
beads were made of coral, jet, cornelian, pearls, or gold. A _pair_ here
means 'a set.' 'A _peire of bedis_ eke she bere'; Rom. Rose, 7372.
'Sumtyme with a portas, sumtyme with a _payre of bedes_.'
Bale's King John, p. 27; Camden Soc.
_gauded al with grene_, 'having the _gawdies_ green. Some were of silver
gilt.'--T. The _gawdies_ or _gaudees_ were the larger beads in the set.
'One payre of beads of silver with riche _gaudeys_'; Monast. Anglicanum,
viii. 1206; qu. by Rock, Church of our Fathers, iii. i. 403. 'Unum par de
_Iett_ [jet] gaudyett with sylver'; Nottingham Records, iii. 188. 'A peyre
bedys of jeete [_get_], gaudied with corall'; Bury Wills, p. 82, l. 16: the
note says that every eleventh bead, or _gaudee_, stood for a Paternoster:
the smaller beads, each for an Ave Maria. The common number was 55, for 50
Aves and 5 Paternosters. The full number was 165, for 150 Aves and 15
Paternosters, also called a Rosary or Our Lady's Psalter; see the poem on
Our Lady's Psalter in Horstmann, Altenglische Legenden, Neue Folge, 1881,
pp. 220-4. '_Gaudye_ of beedes, _signeau de paternoster_.'--Palsgrave.
Cower (Conf. Amant., ed. Pauli, iii. 372) mentions 'A paire of bedes blacke
as sable,' with 'gaudees.' See _Gaudia_ and _Precula_ in Ducange. _Gaudee_
originally meant a prayer beginning with _Gaudete_, whence the name; see
_Gaudez_ in Cotgrave.
160. _broche_ = _brooch_, signified, (1) a pin; (2) a breast-pin; (3) a
buckle or clasp; (4) a jewel or ornament. It was an ornament common to both
sexes. The brooch seems to have been made in the shape of a capital A,
surmounted by a crown. See the figure of a silver-gilt brooch in the shape
of an A in the Glossary to Fairholt's Costume in England. The 'crowned A'
is supposed to represent _Amor_ or _Charity_, the greatest of all the
Christian graces. 'Omnia uincit amor'; Vergil, Eclog. x. 69. Cf. the use of
AMOR as a motto in the Squyer of Lowe Degree, l. 215.
_heng_, also spelt _heeng_, hung, is the pt. t. of M. E. _hangen_, to hang.
Cf. A. S. _h[=e]ng_, pt. t. of _h[=o]n_, to hang.
_shene_ (shee·n[*e]), showy, bright. Really allied, not to _shine_, but to
_shew_. Cf. mod. E. _sheen_, and G. _schön_.
161. _write_ is short for _writen_ (writ·en), pp. of _wryten_ (wrii·ten),
to write. [19]