'Thing which he said _his owne mouth_.'
3625. _ronges_, rungs, rounds, steps; _stalkes_, upright pieces. To [108]
climb by the rungs and the stalks means to employ the hands as well as the
feet. A rung was also called a _stayre_ (stair); and _stalke_ is the
diminutive of _stele_, a handle, which was another name for the upright
part of a ladder. In Allit. Poems, ed. Morris, C. 513, the author complains
that some people cannot tell the difference between a _stele_ and a
_stayre_; and, in fact, the Glossary does not point it out. In the Ancren
Riwle, p. 354, we find mention of the two ladder-_stales_ that are upright
to the heaven, between which _stales_ the _tinds_ (or rungs) are fastened.
This makes the sense perfectly clear.
3637. _a furlong-way_, a few minutes; exactly, two minutes and a half, at
the rate of three miles an hour.
3638. 'Now say a Paternoster, and keep silence.' Accordingly, the carpenter
'says his devotion.' '_Clom!_' is a word imposing silence, like 'mum!' So
in the Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 266, we find: 'Yef ye me wylleth y-here,
habbeth amang you _clom_ and reste'; i. e. if you wish to hear me, keep
among you silence and rest.
3645. _corfew-tyme_, probably 8 P.M. The original time for ringing the
curfew-bell, as a signal for putting out fires and lights, was eight
o'clock. The custom has been kept up in some places till the present day;
the hour for it is sometimes 8 P.M., and sometimes 9 P.M. In olden times,
mention is usually made of the former of these hours; see Brand, Pop.
Antiq. ii. 220; Prompt. Parv. p. 110. People invariably went to bed very
early; see l. 3633.
3655. The service of _lauds_ followed that of _nocturns_; the latter
originally began at midnight, but usually somewhat later. The time
indicated seems to have been just before daybreak. 'These nocturns should
begin at such a time as to be ended just as morning's twilight broke, so
that the next of her services, the _lauds_, or _matutinae laudes_, might
come on immediately after.'--Rock, Church of our Fathers, iii. 2. 6. From
l. 3731, we learn, however, that the night was still 'as dark as pitch.'
Perhaps the time was between two and three o'clock, as Wright suggests.
3668. _the grange_, lit. granary; but the term was applied to a farm-house
and granary on an estate belonging to a feudal manor or (as here) to a
religious house. As the estate often lay at some distance from the abbey,
it might be necessary for the carpenter, who went to cut down trees, to
stay at the grange for the night. Cf. note to P. Pl. C. xx. 71; and Prompt.
Parv. (s. v. _grawnge_).
3675. _at cockkes crowe_; cf. l. 3687. The expression in l. 3674 must refer
to Monday: the 'cock-crow' refers to Tuesday morning, when it was still
pitch-dark (l. 3731). The time denoted by the 'first cock-crow' is very
vague; see the Chapter on Cock-crowing in Brand's Pop. Antiquities. The
'second cock-crow' seems to be about 3 A.M., as in Romeo and Juliet, iv. 4.
4; and the 'first cock-crow,' shortly after midnight, as in K. Lear, iii.
4. 121, 1 Hen. IV. ii. 1. 20. An early mention of the first cock occurs in
Ypomedon, 783, in Weber's Met. Romances, ii. 309:--'And at the fryst cokke
roos he.' The clearest [109] statement is in Tusser's Husbandrie, sect. 74
(E. D. S. p. 165), where he says that cocks crow 'At midnight, at three,
and an hower ere day,' which he afterwards explains by 'past five.'
3682. On 'itching omens,' see Miss Burne's _Shropshire Folk-Lore_, p. 269.
'If your right hand itches, you will receive money; ... if your nose
itches, you will be kissed, cursed, or vexed.'
3684. Cf. 'If [in a dream] you see many loaves, it portends joy'; A. S.
Leechdoms, iii. 215.
3689. _at point-devys_, with all exactness, precisely, very neatly; cf. As
You Like It, iii. 2. 401. O. F. _devis_, 'ordre, beauté; _a devis_, _par
devis_, en bel ordre, d'une manière bien ordonnée, à gré, à souhait';
Godefroy. See F. 560; Rom. of the Rose, 1215.
3690. _greyn_, evidently some sweet or aromatic seed or spice; apparently
cardamoms, otherwise called _grains of Paradise_ (New E. Dict.) '_Greynys_,
spyce, _Granum Paradisi_'; Prompt. Parv.; see Way's note. Cf. Rom. of the
Rose, 1369, and the note (vol. i. p. 428).
3692. _trewe-love_, (probably) a leaf of herb-paris; in the efficacy of
which he had some superstitious belief. _True-love_ is sometimes used as an
abbreviation of _true-love knot_, as in the last stanza of the Court of
Love; and such is the case here. True-love knots were of various shapes;
see pictures of four such in Ogilvie's Dictionary. Some had four loops,
which gave rise to the name _true-love_ as applied to herb-paris. Gerarde's
Herball, 1597, p. 328, thus describes herb-paris (_Paris quadrifolia_):--At
the top of the stalk 'come foorth fower leaves directly set one against
another, in manner of a Burgonnion crosse or a true love knot; for which
cause among the auncients it hath beene called herbe _Truelove_.' It is
still called _True Love's Knot_ in Cumberland.
3700. Note the rime of _tó me_ with _cinam-ó-me_.
3708. _Iakke_, Jack, here an epithet of a fool, like _Iankin_ (B. 1172);
and see note to B. 4000. Cf. E. _zany_.
3709. 'It wilt not be (a case of) come-kiss-me.' Chaucer has _ba_, to kiss,
D. 433; and _come-ba-me_, i. e. come kiss me, is here used as a phrase; so
that the line simply means 'you certainly will not get a kiss!' Observe the
rime with _bla-me_. _Bas_ also meant to kiss, and Skelton uses the words
together (ed. Dyce, i. 22):--
'With _ba, ba, ba_, and _bas, bas, bas_,
She cheryshed hym, both cheke and chyn';
i. e. with repeated kisses on cheek and chin. So again (i. 127) we find:
'_bas me_, buttyng, praty Cys!' And so again (ii. 6): '_bas me_, swete
Parrot, _bas me_, swete, swete!' Further illustration is afforded by
Burton's Anat. of Melancholy, pt. 3. sec. 2. mem. 4. subsec. 1: 'Yea, many
times, this love will make old men and women ... dance, _come-kiss-me-now_,
mask, and mum.' This complete explanation of an old _crux_ was first given
by Mr. Ellis, in 1870, in his Early Eng. [110] Pronunciation, p. 715, who
notes that the reading _com ba me_ is fairly well supported; see his
Critical Note. Several MSS. turn it into _compame_, which is clearly due to
the influence of the familiar word _companye_, which repeatedly ends a line
in Chaucer. Mr. Ellis well remarks--'_Com ba me!_ was probably the name of
a song, like ... the modern "Kiss me quick, and go, my love." It is also
probable that Absolon's speech contained allusions to it, and that it was
very well known at the time.'
The curious part of the story is that, in 1889, I adopted the same reading
independently, and for precisely similar reasons. But Mr. Ellis was before
me, by nineteen years. See l. 3716 below.
The following MSS. (says Mr. Ellis) read _combame_; viz. Harl. 7335--Camb.
Univ. Library, Ii. 3. 26--Trin. Coll. Camb. R. 3. 3--Rawl. MS. Poet. 141.
Bodl. 414 has _cum bame_; whilst Rawl. Misc. 1133 and Laud 739 have _come
ba me_.
3713. Lit. 'in the way to twenty devils'; hence, in the name of twenty
devils. 'In the twenty deuyll way, _Au nom du grant diable_'; Palsgrave
(1852), p. 838. See ll. 3134, 4257.
3721-2. These two lines are in E. only; Tyrwhitt omits them. But the old
black-letter editions retain them.
3723. He knelt down, because the window was so low (3696).
3725. Cf. 'For who-so kissing may attayne'; Rom. Rose, 3677; and Ovid, Ars
Amatoria, i. 669.
3726. _thyn ore_, thy favour, thy grace; the words 'grant me' being
understood. It is not uncommon.
'Syr Lybeaus durstede [thirsted] sore,
And seyde, Maugys, _thyn ore_,
To drynke lette me go.'
Ritson, Met. Romances, ii. 57.
'I haue siked moni syk, lemmon, _for thin ore_';
Böddeker's Altengl. Dichtungen, p. 174.
See Specimens of E. Eng., Part I; Glossary to Havelok; &c.
3728. _com of_, i. e. be quick; like _Have do_, have done! We now say 'come
on!' But strictly, _come on_ means 'begin,' and _come off_ means 'make an
end.'
3751. 'If it be not so that, rather than possess all this town, I would
like to be avenged.'
3770. _viritoot_ must be accepted as the reading; the reading _verytrot_ in
MS. Hl. gives a false rime, as the _oo_ in _woot_ is long. The meaning is
unknown; but the context requires the sense of 'upon the move,' or 'astir.'
My guess is that _viri-_ is from F. _virer_, to turn (cf. E. _virelay_),
and that _toot_ represents O. F. _tot_ (L. _totum_, F. _tout_), all; so
that _viritoot_ may mean 'turn-all.' Cotgrave gives _virevoulte_, 'a veere,
whirle a round gamball, friske, or turne,' like the Portuguese _viravolta_.
The form _verytrot_ (very trot) is clearly due to an attempt to make sense.
MS. Cam. has _merytot_, possibly with reference to M. E. _merytoter_, a
swing [111] (Catholicon); which is derived from _mery_, merry, and
_toteren_, to totter, oscillate. In the North of England, a swing is still
called a _merry-trotter_ (corruption of _merry-totter_), as noted by
Halliwell, who remarks that 'the _meritot_ is mentioned by Chaucer,' which
is not the fact. Both these 'glosses' give the notion of movement, as this
is obviously the general sense implied. Whatever the reading may be, we can
see the sense, viz. 'some gay girl (euphemism for light woman) has brought
you thus so early astir'; and Gervase accordingly goes on to say, 'you know
what I mean.'
Ed. 1561 has _berytote_, a misprint for _verytote_.
3771. Here as elsewhere, _së-ynt_ is dissyllabic; several MSS. have
_seinte_, but this can hardly be right. For _Note_, MSS. Pt. Hl. have
_Noet_, meaning _St. Neot_, whose day is Oct. 28, and whose name remains in
St. Neot's, in Cornwall, and St. Neot's, in Huntingdonshire. He died about
877; see Wright's Biogr. Brit. Litt., A. S. Period, p. 381. The spelling
_Note_ is remarkable, as the mod. E. name (pronounced as _Neet_, riming
with _feet_) suggests the A. S. form _N[=e]ot_, and M. E. _Neet_.
3774. A proverbial phrase. Tyrwhitt quotes from Froissart, v. iv. p. 92,
ed. 1574; 'Il aura en bref temps autres estoupes en sa quenoille.' To 'have
tow on one's distaff' is to have a task in hand. 'Towe on my dystaf have I
for to spynne'; Hoccleve, De Regimine Principum, p. 45.
3777. _As lene_, pray lend; see note to E. 7.
3782. MS. Hl. has _fo_, which is silently altered to _fote_ by Bell and
Wright. Tyrwhitt also has _fote_, which he found in the black-letter
editions. The reading _foo_ is probably quite right, and is an intentional
substitution for _foot_. It is notorious that oaths were constantly made
unmeaning, to avoid a too open profanity. In Chaucer, we have _cokkes
bones_, H. 9, I. 29, and _Corpus bones_, C. 314. Another corruption of a
like oath is _'s foot_, Shak. Troil. ii. 3. 6, which is docked at the other
end. It is poor work altering MSS. so as to destroy evidence. _Cristes foo_
might mean 'the devil'; but this is unlikely.
3785. _stele_, handle; i. e. by the cold end, which served as a handle. See
note to D. 949. _st[=e]le_, i. e. steel, would give a false rime.
3811. Tyrwhitt inserted _al_ before _aboute_ in his text, but withdrew it
in his notes. The A. S. has _hand-br[=æ]d_, but the M. E. _hand-e-brede_
had at least three syllables, if not four. This is shewn by MS. spellings
and by the metre, and still more clearly by Wyclif's Bible, which has: 'a
spanne, that is, an _handibreede_,' Ezek. xl. 5 (later version). It may
have been formed by analogy with M. E. _handiwerk_ (A. S. _hand-geweorc_)
and _handewrit_ (A. S. _hand-gewrit_). But the form is _handbrede_ in
Palladius on Husbandry, p. 80, l. 536.
3818. _Nowelis flood_ is the mistake of the illiterate carpenter for _Noes
flood_; see it again in l. 3834, where he is laughed at for having used the
expression in his previous talks with the clerk and his wife. It is on a
par with his _astromye_ (note to l. 3451). He was less familiar with the
_Noe_ of the Bible than with the _Nowel_ of the [112] carol-singers at
Christmas; see F. 1255. The editors carefully 'correct' the poet. In l.
3834, _Nowélis_ helps the scansion, whilst _Noes_ spoils the line, which
has to be 'amended.' The readings are: E. Hn. _as in the text_; Cm. Pt. Ln.
the Nowels flood; Pt. the Noes flood; Hl. He was agast and feerd of Noes
flood. Tyrwhitt actually reads; He was agast-e so of Noes flood; regardless
of the fact that _agast_ has no final _-e_. The carpenter's mistake is the
more pardonable when we notice that _Noë_ was sometimes used, instead of
_Noël_, to mean 'Christmas.' For an example, see the Poètes de Champagne,
Reims, 1851, p. 146.