'Some are _Ape-dronke_, full of lawghter and of toyes.'
The following interesting explanation by Lacroix is much to the same
effect:--
'In Germany and in France it was the custom at the public entries [438] of
kings, princes, and persons of rank, to offer them the wines made in the
district, and commonly sold in the town. At Langres, for instance, these
wines were put into four pewter vessels called _cimaises_, which are still
to be seen. They were called the _lion_, _monkey_, _sheep_, and _pig_
wines--symbolic names, which expressed the different degrees or phases of
drunkenness which they were supposed to be capable of producing: the lion,
courage; the monkey, cunning; the sheep, good temper; the pig,
bestiality.'--P. Lacroix; Manners, Customs, and Dress during the Middle
Ages, 1874, p. 508.
Massinger has: 'Nay, if you are _lion-drunk_, I will make one'; The
Bondman, A. iii. sc. 3.
A note in Bell's edition quotes an illustrative passage from a song in
Lyly's play of Mother Bombie, printed in the Songs from the Dramatists, ed.
Bell, p. 56:--
'O the dear blood of grapes
Turns us to antic shapes,
Now to show tricks _like apes_,
Now _lion-like_ to soar'; &c.
The idea here intended is precisely that expressed by Barclay. The Cook,
being very dull and ill-humoured, is ironically termed ape-drunk, as if he
were 'full of lawghter and of toyes,' and ready to play even with a straw.
The satire was too much for the Cook, who became excited, and fell from his
horse in his attempts to oppose the Manciple.
50. _chiváchee_, feat of horsemanship, exploit. See Prol. 85 for the
serious use of the word, where _in chivachye_ means on an (equestrian)
expedition. Cf.
'Bot oute sal ride a chivauchè';
Ritson's Ancient Songs, vol. i. p. 46.
51. 'Alas! he did not stick to his ladle!' He should have been in a
kitchen, basting meat, not out of doors, on the back of a horse.
57. _dominacioun_, dominion. See note to F. 352. Cf. 'the righteous shall
have _domination_ over them in the morning'; Ps. xlix. 14, Prayer-book
Version. See Chaucer's Minor Poems, xv. 16 (vol. i. p. 394).
62. _fneseth_, blows, puffs; of which the reading _sneseth_ is a poor
corruption, though occurring in all the modern editions. To _fnese_ does
not mean to sneeze, but to breathe hard; though _sneeze_ is its modern
form.
I have no doubt that the word _neesings_ in Job xli. 18, meaning not
'sneezings' but 'hard breathings,' is due to the word _fnesynge_, by which
Wyclif translates the Latin _sternutatio_. In Jer. viii. 16, Wyclif
represents the snorting of horses by _fnesting_. Cf. A. S. _fnæst_, a puff,
blast, _fnæstiað_, the windpipe; _fn[=e]osung_, a hard breathing. Grimm's
law helps us to a further illustration; for, as the English _f_ is a Greek
_p_, a cognate word is at once seen in the common Greek verb [Greek: pneô],
I breathe or blow. For further examples, see _fnast_ in Stratmann.
_pose_, a cold in the head. Fully described in Batman upon Bartholomè, lib.
vii. c. 4--'Of the Pose.' See A. 4152. [439]
72. To _reclaim_ a hawk is to bring it back to the hawker's hand; this was
generally effected by holding out a _lure_, or something tempting to eat.
For young hawks, the _lure_ was an artificial bird made of feathers and
leather; see note in Dyce's Skelton, ii. 147. Here the Host means that some
day the Cook will hold out a bait to, or lay a snare for, the Manciple, and
get him into his power; for example, he might examine the details of the
Manciple's accounts with an inconvenient precision, and perhaps the amounts
charged, if tested, would not appear to be strictly honest. The Manciple
replies in all good humour, that such a proceeding might certainly bring
him into trouble. See Prol. 570-586. Cf. Strutt, Sports, bk. i. c. 2. § 9.