1335. _a legende_, a story of martyrdom, like that of a saint's life.
1338. St. Martin of Tours, whose day is Nov. 11.
1341. St. Denis of France, St. Dionysius, bishop of Paris, martyred A.D.
272, whose day is Oct. 9. Near his place of martyrdom was built a chapel,
which was first succeeded by a church, and then by the famous abbey of St.
Denis, in which King Dagobert and his successors were interred. The French
adopted St. Denis as their patron saint; see Chambers, Book of Days, ii.
427; Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints, Oct. 9.
1353. _sit_, is becoming, befits; see E. 460, 1277.
1384. _Geniloun_, Genilon or Ganelon, the traitor who betrayed
Charlemagne's army at Roncesvalles. For this deed he was torn to death by
wild horses, according to the romance-writers. See La Chanson de Roland, l.
3735. Cf. note to B. 3579, and Book of the Duchesse, 1121, and my note upon
it.
1396. _chilindre_, a kind of portable sun-dial, lit. cylinder. A
thirteenth-century Latin treatise on the use of the _chilindre_ was edited
by Mr. E. Brock for the Chaucer Society, and I here copy his clear
description of the instrument. 'The Chilindre (_cylindrus_) or cylinder is
one of the manifold forms of the sun-dial, very simple in its construction,
but rude and inaccurate as a time-shower. According to the following
treatise, it consists of a wooden cylinder, with a central bore from top to
bottom, and with a hollow space in the top, into which a moveable rotary
lid with a little knob at the top is fitted. This lid is also bored in the
centre, and a string passed through the whole instrument. Upon this string
the chilindre hangs [perpendicularly] when in use. The style or gnomon
works on a pin fixed in the lid. When the instrument is in use, the style
projects at a right angle to the surface of the cylindrical body, through a
notch in the side of the lid, but can, at pleasure, be turned down and
slipt into the central bore, which is made a little wider at the top to
receive it. The body of the _chilindre_ is marked with a table of the
points of the shadow, a table of degrees for finding the sun's altitude,
and spaces corresponding to [171] the months of the year and the signs of
the zodiac. Across these spaces are drawn six oblique hour-lines.
'To ascertain the time of day by the _chilindre_, consider what month it
is, and turn the lid round till the style stands directly over the
corresponding part of the _chilindre_; then hold up the instrument by the
string so that the style points towards the sun, or in other words, so that
the shadow of the style falls perpendicularly, and the hour will be shewn
by the lowest line reached by the shadow.'
Another treatise of the same character was subsequently edited by Mr. Brock
for the same Society. It is entitled 'Practica Chilindri; or the Working of
the Cylinder; by John Hoveden.'
There is a curious reference to the same instrument in the following
passage from Horman's Vulgaria, leaf 338, back:--'There be iorneyringis
[day-circles, dials] and instrume_n_t_is_ lyke an ha_n_gynge pyler with a
tu_n_ge lyllyng [lolling] out, to knowe what tyme of the day.'
In Wright's Vocabularies, ed. Wülker, 572. 22, we find: '_Chilindrus,
anglice_ a leuel; _uel est instrumentum quo hore notantur, anglice_ a
chylaundre.' It thus appears that the reading _kalendar_, in the old
editions, is due to a mistake.
The most interesting comment on this passage is afforded by the opening
lines of the Prologue to Part II. of Lydgate's _Siege of Thebes_, where
Lydgate is clearly thinking of Chaucer's words. Here also the black-letter
edition of 1561 has _Kalendar_, but the reading of MS. Arundel 119 (leaf
18) is more correct, as follows:--
'Passed the throp of Bowton on the Ble,
By my _chilyndre_ I gan anon to se,
Thorgh the sonne, that ful cler gan shyne,
Of the clok[ke] that it drogh to nyne.'
_pryme of day_, 9 A.M., in the present passage; see above, and note the
preparations for dinner in ll. 1399-1401; the dinner-hour being 10 A.M. See
also note to A. 3906. 'Our forefathers dined at an hour at which we think
it fashionable to breakfast; _ten o 'clock_ was the time established by
ancient usage for the principal meal'; Our Eng. Home, p. 33. In earlier
times it was _nine_ o'clock; see Wright, Hist. of Domestic Manners, p. 155.