649. Wyclif says--'For it is written in Ecclesiasticus, the thre and twenti
chapitre, there he seith this: A man much sweringe schal be fulfilled with
wickidnesse, and veniaunce schal not go away fro his hous'; Works, iii. 84.
Chaucer here quotes the same text; see Ecclus. xxiii. 11. And he quotes it
once more, in I. 593.
651. So Wyclif, iii. 483--'hit is not leeful to swere by creaturis, ne by
Goddys bonys, sydus, naylus, ne armus, or by ony membre of Cristis body, as
þe moste dele of men usen.'
Tyrwhitt says--'_his nayles_, i. e. with which he was nailed to the cross.
Sir J. Maundeville, c. vii--"And thereby in the walle is the place where
the 4 Nayles of our Lord weren hidd; for he had 2 in his hondes, and 2 in
his feet: and one of theise the Emperoure of Constantynoble made a brydille
to his hors, to bere him in bataylle; and thorgh vertue thereof he overcame
his enemies," &c. He had said before, c. ii., that "on of the nayles that
Crist was naylled with on the cross" was "at Constantynoble; and on in
France, in the kinges chapelle."'
Mr. Wright adds, what is doubtless true, that these nails 'were objects of
superstition in the middle ages.' Nevertheless, I am by no means satisfied
that these comments are to the point. I strongly suspect that swearers did
not stop to think, nor were they at all particular as to the sense in which
the words might be used. Here, for example, _nails_ are mentioned between
_heart_ and _blood_; in the quotation from Wyclif which begins this note,
we find mention of 'bones, sides, nails, and arms,' followed by 'any member
of Christ's body.' Still more express is the phrase used by William
Staunton (see note to l. 474 above) that 'God's members' include 'his
nails.' On the other hand, in Lewis's Life of Pecock, p. 155 [or p. 107,
ed. 1820], is a citation from a MS. to the effect that, in the year 1420,
many men died in England 'emittendo sanguinem per iuncturas et per
secessum, scilicet in illis partibus corporis per quas horribiliter iurare
consueuerunt, scilicet, per oculos Christi, per faciem Christi, per latera
Christi, per sanguinem Christi, per cor Christi preciosum, per _clauos_
Christi in suis manibus et pedibus.' See _'Snails_ in Nares' Glossary. A
long essay might be written upon the oaths found in our old authors, but
the subject is, I think, a most repulsive one.
652. Here Tyrwhitt notes--'The Abbey of Hailes, in Glocestershire, was
founded by Richard, king of the Romans, brother to Henry III. This precious
relick, which was afterwards called "the blood of Hailes," was brought out
of Germany by the son of Richard, Edmund, who bestowed a third part of it
upon his father's Abbey of Hailes, and some time after gave the other two
parts to an Abbey of his own foundation at Ashrug near
Berkhamsted.--Hollinshed, vol. ii. p. 275.' The Legend says that the holy
blood was obtained by Titus from Joseph of Arimathea. Titus put it in the
temple of Peace, in Rome. [285] Thence Charlemagne took half of it to
Germany, where Edmund found it, as said above. The Legend is printed in
Horstmann's Altenglische Legenden, p. 275. 'A vial was shewn at Hales in
Glocestershire, as containing a portion of our blessed Saviour's blood,
which suffered itself to be seen by no person in a state of mortal sin, but
became visible when the penitent, by his offerings, had obtained
forgiveness. It was now discovered that this was performed by keeping
blood, which was renewed every week, in a vial, one side of which was thick
and opaque, the other transparent, and turning it by a secret hand as the
case required. A trick of the same kind, more skilfully executed, is still
annually performed at Naples.'--Southey, Book of the Church, ch. xii. He
refers to Fuller, b. vi. Hist. of Abbeys, p. 323; Burnet, i. 323, ed. 1681.
See also the word _Hales_ in the Index to the works published by the Parker
Society; Pilgrimages to Walsingham and Canterbury (by Erasmus), ed. J. G.
Nichols, 2nd ed. 1875, p. 88; Dodsley's Old Plays, ed. Hazlitt, i. 339,
where a long account is given, with a reference to Hearne's ed. of
Benedictus Abbas, ii. 751; and Skelton's Garland of Laurel, l. 1461, on
which see Dyce's note.
653. 'My chance is seven; yours is five and three.' This is an allusion to
the particular game called _hazard_, not to a mere comparison of throws to
see which is highest. A certain throw (here _seven_) is called the caster's
_chance_. This can only be understood by an acquaintance with the rules of
the game. See the article _Hazard_ in Supplement to Eng. Cyclopaedia, or in
Hoyle's Games. See the note to B. 124; and see the Monkes Tale, B. 3851.
Compare--'Not unlyke the use of foule gamesters, who having lost the maine
by [i. e. according to] true iudgement, thinke to face it out with a false
oath'; Lyly's Euphues and his England, ed. Arber, p. 289.
656. In the Towneley Mysteries, p. 241, when the soldiers dice for Christ's
garments, one says--
'I was falsly begyled withe thise _byched bones_,
Ther cursyd thay be.'
The readings are:--E. Cp. _bicched_; Ln. _becched_; Hl. _bicched_; Hn. Cm.
_bicche_; Pt. and old edd. _thilk_, _thilke_ (wrongly). Besides which,
Tyrwhitt cites _bichet_, MS. Harl. 7335; _becched_, Camb. Univ. Lib. Dd. 4.
24; and, from other MSS., _bicched_, _bicchid_, _bitched_, _bicche_. The
general consensus of the MSS. and the quotation from the Towneley Mysteries
establish the reading given in the text beyond all doubt. Yet Tyrwhitt
reads _bicchel_, for which he adduces no authority beyond the following.
'_Bickel_, as explained by Kilian, is _talus_, ovillus et lusorius; and
_bickelen_, talis ludere. See also Had. Junii Nomencl. n. 213. Our dice
indeed are the ancient _tesserae_ ([Greek: kuboi]) not _tali_ ([Greek:
astragaloi]); but, both being games of hazard, the implements of one might
be easily attributed to the other. It should seem from Junius, loc. cit.,
that the Germans had preserved the custom of playing with the natural
bones, [286] as they have different names for a game with _tali ovilli_,
and another with _tali bubuli_.'
I find in the Tauchnitz Dutch Dictionary--'_Bikkel_, cockal. _Bikkelen_, to
play at cockals.' Here _cockal_ is the old name for a game with four
hucklebones (Halliwell), and is further made to mean the hucklebone itself.
But there is nothing to connect _bicched_ with Du. _bickel_, and the sense
is very different. From the article on _Bicched_ in the New Eng. Dict., it
appears that the sense is 'cursed, execrable,' and is an epithet applied to
other things besides dice. It is evidently an opprobrious word, and seems
to be derived from the sb. _bitch_, opprobriously used. There is even a
quotation in which the verb _bitch_ means to bungle or spoil a business. We
may explain it by 'cursed bones.'
662. _pryme_, about nine o'clock; see notes to A. 3906, B. 2015. Here it
means the canonical hour for prayer so called, to announce which bells were
rung.
664. A hand-bell was carried before a corpse at a funeral by the sexton.
See Rock, Church of Our Fathers, ii. 471; Grindal's Works, p. 136; Myre's
Instructions for Parish Priests, l. 1964.
666. _That oon of them_, the one of them; the old phrase for 'one of them.'
_knave_, boy.
667. _Go bet_, lit. go better, i. e. go quicker; a term of encouragement to
dogs in the chase. So in the Legend of Good Women, 1213 (Dido, l. 290), we
have--
'The herd of hertes founden is anoon,
With "hey! _go bet_! prik thou! lat goon, lat goon!"'
In Skelton's Elynour Rummyng, l. 332, we have--'And bad Elynour _go bet_.'
Halliwell says--'_Go bet_, an old hunting cry, often introduced in a more
general sense. See Songs and Carols, xv; Shak. Soc. Pap. i. 58; Chaucer,
C. T. 12601 [the present passage]; Dido, 288 [290]; Tyrwhitt's notes, p.
278; Ritson's Anc. Pop. Poetry, p. 46. The phrase is mentioned by [Juliana]
Berners in the Boke of St. Alban's, and seems nearly equivalent to _go
along_.' It is strange that no editor has perceived the _exact_ sense of
this very simple phrase. Cf. 'Keep _bet_ our good,' i. e. take better care
of my property; Shipmannes Tale, B. 1622.
679. _this pestilence_, during this plague. Alluding to the Great Plagues
that took place in the reign of Edward III. There were four such, viz. in
1348-9, 1361-2, 1369, and 1375-6. As Chaucer probably had the story from an
Italian source, the allusion must be to the first and worst of these, the
effects of which spread nearly all over Europe, and which was severely felt
at Florence, as we learn from the description left by Boccaccio. See my
note to Piers Plowman, B. v. 13.