161. _al Europe._ In the margin of MSS. E. Hn. Cp. Pt. Ln. is written the
note 'Europa est tercia pars mundi.'
166. _mirour_, mirror. Such French words are frequently accented on the
_last_ syllable. Cf. _minístr'_ in l. 168.
171. _han doon fraught_, have caused to be freighted. All the MSS. have
_fraught_, not _fraughte_. In the Glossary to Specimens of English, I
marked _fraught_ as being the infinitive mood, as Dr. Stratmann [146]
supposes, though he notes the lack of the final e. I have now no doubt that
_fraught_ is nothing but the past participle, as in William of Palerne, l.
2732--
'And feithliche _fraught_ ful of fine wines,'
which is said of a ship. The use of this past participle after a _perfect_
tense is a most remarkable idiom, but there is no doubt about its
occurrence in the Clerkes Tale, Group E. 1098, where we find 'Hath doon yow
_kept_,' where Tyrwhitt has altered _kept_ to _kepe_. On the other hand,
Tyrwhitt actually notes the occurrence of 'Hath don _wroght_' in Kn. Tale,
1055, (A. 1913), which he calls an irregularity. A better name for it is
idiom. I find similar instances of it in another author of the same period,
'Thai strak his hed of, and syne it
Thai _haf gert saltit_ in-til a kyt.'
Barbour's Bruce, ed. Skeat, xviii. 167.
I. e. they have caused it (to be) salted. And again in the same, bk. viii.
l. 13, we have the expression _He gert held_, as if 'he caused to be held';
but it may mean 'he caused to incline.' Compare also the following:--
'And thai sall _let thame trumpit_ ill'; id. xix. 712.