129. _wayted_, watched; alluding to the care with which the maker watched
for the moment when the stars were in a propitious position, according to
the old belief in astrology.
131. _seel_, seal. Mr. Wright notes that 'the making and arrangement [375]
of seals was one of the important operations of medieval magic, and
treatises on this subject are found in MSS.' He refers to MS. Arundel, no.
295, fol. 265. _Solomon's seal_ is still commemorated in the name of a
flower.
132. _mirour._ For some account of this, see vol. iii. p. 476, and note to
l. 231.
137. _over al this_, besides all this. Elsewhere _over-al_ is a compound
word, meaning _everywhere_; as in Prol. 216.--M.
150. Compare Tale xv (The Ravens) in the Seven Sages, ed. Weber, about the
child who understood the language of all birds.
154. _and whom_, &c., and to whom it will do good, or operate as a remedy;
alluding to the virtues attributed to many herbs. So Spenser, F. Q. i. 2.
10--
'O who can tell
The hidden power of herbes, and might of magicke spell!'
162. _with the platte_, with the flat side of it; see l. 164. Cf. Troil.
iv. 927.
171. _Stant_, stands; contracted from _standeth_; so also in l. 182. Cf.
_sit_ for _sitteth_ in l. 179, _hit_ for _hideth_ in l. 512, and note to E.
1151.
184. 'By means of any machine furnished with a windlass or a pulley.' The
modern _windlass_ looks like a compound of _wind_ and _lace_, but really
stands for _windel-as_, variant of the form _windas_ here used. The
confusion would be facilitated by the fact that there was another form
_windlas_ (probably from _wind_ and _lace_) with a different meaning, viz.
that of a circuitous way or path; see note to Hamlet, ii. 1. 65 (Clar.
Press). In the Promptorium Parvulorum, our word is spelt both _wyndlas_ and
_wyndas_; p. 529. The Mid. E. _windas_ may have been derived from the
Low-German directly, or more probably from the Old French, which has both
_guindas_ and _windas_. The meaning and derivation are clearly shewn by the
Du. _windas_, which means a winding-axle or capstan, from the sb. _as_, an
axle; so, too, the Icel. _vindâss_. In Falconer's Shipwreck, canto 1, note
3, the word _windlass_ is used in the sense of capstan.
190. _gauren_, gaze, stare. Used again by Chaucer, A. 3827, B. 3559, and in
Troil. and Cres. ii. 1157 (vol. ii. p. 225). In the Clerkes Tale (E. 1003),
he has _gazed_. Mr. Wedgwood is perhaps right in considering _gaze_ and
_gaure_ (also spelt _gare_) as mere variations of the same word. Cf. the
adj. _garish_, i. e. staring, in Milton, Il Pens. 141. For the occasional
change of _s_ to _r_, see my Principles of Eng. Etymology, i. 379.
_gauring_, i. e. stupor, occurs in Batman upon Bartholomè, lib. vii. c. 7.
193. _Lumbardye_, Lombardy, formerly celebrated for horses. Tyrwhitt quotes
from a patent in Rymer, 2 Edw. II--'De dextrariis in _Lumbardiâ_ emendis,'
i. e. of horses to be bought in Lombardy.
195. _Poileys_, Apulian. Apulia was called _Poille_ or _Poile_ in Old
French, and even in Middle English; the phrase 'king of _Poile_' occurs in
the Seven Sages (ed. Weber), l. 2019. It was celebrated for [376] its
horses. Tyrwhitt quotes from MS. James vi. 142 (Bodleian Library), a
passage in which Richard, archbishop of Armagh, in the fourteenth century,
has the words--'nec mulus Hispaniae, nec _dextrarius Apuliae_, nec repedo
Æthiopiae, nec elephantus Asiae, nec camelus Syriae.' Chaucer ascribes
strength and size to the horses of Lombardy, and high breeding to those of
Apulia.