4329. _herbergage_, lodging; alluding to l. 4123.
4331. Not from Solomon, but from Ecclesiasticus, xi. 31: 'Non omnem hominem
inducas in domum tuum; multae enim sunt insidiae dolosi.' In the E.
version, it is verse 29.
4336. _Hogge_, Hodge, for _Roger_ (l. 4353). _Ware_, in Hertfordshire.
4346. _laten blood_, let blood, i. e. removed gravy from. It refers to a
meat-pie, baked with gravy in it; as it was not sold the day it was made,
the gravy was removed to make it keep longer; and so the pie was eaten at
last, when far from being new.
4347. The meaning of 'a Jack of Dover' has been much disputed, but it
probably meant a pie that had been cooked more than once. Some have thought
it meant a sole (probably a fried sole), as 'Dover soles' are still
celebrated; but this is only a guess, and seems to be wrong. Sir T. More,
Works, p. 675 E, speaks of a '_Jak of Paris_, an evil pye twyse baken';
which is probably the same thing. Roquefort's _French Dict._ has:--
'_Jaquet_, _Jaket_, impudent, menteur. C'est sans doute de ce mot que les
pâtissiers ont pris leur mot d'argot _jaques_, pour signifier qu'une pièce
de volaille, de viande ou de pâtisserie cuite au four, est vieille ou
dure.'
See Hazlitt's Proverbs, p. 20; and Hazlitt's Shakespeare Jest-books, ii.
366. Hence, in a secondary sense, _Jack of Dover_ meant an old story, or
hashed up anecdote. Ray says:--'This he [T. Fuller] makes parallel to
_Crambe bis cocta_, and applicable to such as grate the ears of their
auditors with ungrateful tautologies of what is worthless in itself;
tolerable as once uttered in the notion of novelty, but abominable if
repeated.' This may explain the fact that an old jest-book was printed with
the title _A Jack of Dover_ in 1604, and again in 1615. The E. word _jack_
has indeed numerous senses.
4350. The insinuation is that stray flies were mixed up with the parsley
served up with the Cook's geese. Tyrwhitt quotes from MS. Harl. 279--'Take
_percely_,' &c. in a receipt for stuffing a goose; so that parsley was
sometimes used for this purpose. It was also used for stuffing chickens;
see Liber Cure Cocorum, ed. Morris, p. 22.
4357. 'A true jest is an evil jest.' Hazlitt, in his Collection of
Proverbs, gives, 'True jest is no jest,' and quotes 'Sooth bourd is no
bourd' from Heywood, and from Harington's Brief Apologie of Poetrie, 1591.
Kelly's Scotch Proverbs includes: 'A sooth bourd is nae bourd.' Tyrwhitt
alters the second _play_ to _spel_, as being a Flemish word, but he only
found it in two MSS. (Askew 1 and 2), and nothing is gained [129] by it.
The fact is, that there is nothing Flemish about the proverb except the
word _quad_, though there may have been an equivalent proverb in that
language. We must take Chaucer's remark to mean that 'Sooth play is what a
Fleming would call _quaad_ play'; which is then quite correct. For just as
Flemish does not use the English words _sooth_ and _play_, so English
seldom uses the Flemish form _quaad_, equivalent to the Dutch _kwaad_,
evil, bad, spelt _quade_ in Hexham's Du. Dict. (1658). Cf. also O. Friesic
_kwad_, _quad_, East Friesic _kwâd_ (still in common use). The Mid. Eng.
form is not _quad_, but (properly) _qu[=e]d_ or _queed_; see examples in
Stratmann, s. v. _cwêd_. In P. Plowman, B. xiv. 189, _the qued_ means the
Evil One, the devil. _Queed_ occurs as a sb. as late as in Skelton, ed.
Dyce, i. 168. We find, however, the rare M. E. form _quad_ in Gower, ed.
Pauli, ii. 246, and in the Story of Genesis and Exodus, ed. Morris, 536;
and in another passage of the Cant. Tales, viz. B. 1628. The oldest English
examples seem to be those in the Blickling Glosses, viz. 'of cweade
arærende, _de stercore erigens_'; and 'cwed _uel_ meox, _stercus_.' There
is no difficulty about the etymology; the corresponding O. H. G. word is
_qu[=a]t_, whence G. _Koth_ or _Kot_, excrement; and the root appears in
the Skt. _gu_ or _g[=u]_, to void excrement; see _Kot_ in Kluge.
4358. This is interesting, as giving us the Host's name. _Herry_ is the
mod. E. _Harry_, with the usual change from _er_ to _ar_, as in M. E.
_derk_, dark, &c. It is the same as the F. _Herri_ (not uncommon in O. F.),
made from F. _Henri_ by assimilation of _nr_ to _rr_.
The name seems to have been taken from that of a real person. In the
Subsidy Rolls, 4 Rich. II. (1380-1), for Southwark, occurs the
entry--'Henri' Bayliff, Ostyler, Xpian [Christian] ux[or] eius ... ij s.'
In the parliament held at Westminster, in 50 Edw. III. (1376-7), Henry
Bailly was one of the representatives for that borough; and again, in the
parliament at Gloucester, 2 Rich. II., the name occurs. See Notes and
Queries, 2 S. iii. 228.