'Ainc tant come il mist a descendre,
Ne trouva point de pain a vendre,'
i. e. he found no bread to sell in his descent. His reference is to the
Fabliaux, t. ii. p. 282; Wright refers, for the same, to the fabliau of
Aloul, in Barbazan, l. 591. I suppose the sense is, 'he never stopped, as
if to transact business.'
3822. E. Hn. celle; _rest_ selle. The word _celle_ might mean 'chamber.'
There was an approach to the roof, which they had reached by help of a
ladder; and the three tubs were hung among the balks which formed the roof
of the principal sitting-room below. But it is difficult to see how the
word _celle_ could be applied to the chief room in the house. Tyrwhitt
explains _selle_ as 'door-sill or threshold'; but we must bear in mind that
the _usual_ M. E. form of _sill_ was either _sille_ or _sulle_, from A. S.
_syll_. The spelling with _s_ proves nothing, since Chaucer undoubtedly
means 'cell' in A. 1376, where Cm. Hl. have _selle_, and in B. 3162, where
three MSS. (Cp. Pt. Ln.) all read _selle_ again. Why the carpenter should
have arrived at the door-sill, I do not know.
Nevertheless, upon further thoughts, I accept Tyrwhitt's view, with some
modification. We find that Chaucer actually uses Kentish forms (with _e_
for A. S. _y_) elsewhere, for the sake of a rime. A clear case is that of
_fulfelle_, in Troil. iii. 510. This justifies the dat. form _selle_ (A. S.
_sylle_). But we must take _selle_ to mean 'flooring' or 'boarding,' and
_floor_ to mean the ground beneath it; just as we find, in Widegren's
Swedish Dictionary, that _syll_ means 'the timber next the ground.' I would
therefore read _selle_, with the sense of 'flooring'; and I explain _floor_
by 'flat earth.' In the allit. Morte Arthure, 3249, _flores_ signifies
'plains.' In Gawayn and the Grene Knyght, 55, _sille_ means 'floor.'
3841. Observe the form _cape_, as a variant of _gape_, both here and in l.
3444 (see footnotes); and in Troil. v. 1133.