_ceruce_, ceruse, a cosmetic made from white lead; see New E. Dict. _oille
of tartre_, cream of tartar; potassium bitartrate.
632. Cf. 'Such _whelkes_ [on the head] haue small hoales, out of the which
matter commeth.... And this euill commeth of vicious and gleymie [viscous]
humour, which commeth to the skin of their head, and breedeth therein
pimples and _whelks_.'--Batman on Bartholomè, lib. 7. c. 3. In the same,
lib. 7. c. 67, we read that 'A _sauce flume_ face is a priuye signe of
leprosie.' Cf. Shak. Hen. V. iii. 6. 108.
635. See Prov. xxiii. 31. The drinking of strong wine accounts for the
Somnour's appearance. 'Wyne ... makith the uisage _salce fleumed_
[misprinted _falce flemed_], _rede_, and fulle of _white whelkes_'; Knight
de la Tour, p. 116 (perhaps copied from Chaucer).
643. _Can clepen Watte_, i. e. can call Walter (Wat) by his name; just as
parrots are taught to say 'Poll.' In Political Songs, ed. Wright, p. 328,
an ignorant priest is likened to a jay in a cage, to which is added:
'Go[o]d Engelish he speketh, ac [_but_] he wot nevere what'; referring to
the time when Anglo-French was the mother-tongue of many who became
priests.