His eyen steep, and rollyng in his heed, 201 His palfray was as broun as eny berye. A FRERE ther was, a wantoun and a merye, A lymytour, a ful solempne man. 209 In alle the ordres foure is noon that can So moche of daliaunce and fair langage. And eek with worthi wommen of the toun: 217 For he hadde power of confessioun, As seyde himself, more than a curat, For of his ordre he was licenciat. He was an esy man to geve penance, 225 203.-souple. "This is part of the description of a smart abbot, by an anonymous writer of the thirteenth century:- Ocreas habebat in cruribus, quasi innatæ essent, sine plica porrectas.'-MS. Bodl., James, 11. 6. p. 121."-Tyrwhitt. Is signe that a man is wel i-schreve. For if he gaf, he dorste make avaunt, Wel couthe he synge and pleye on a rote. He knew wel the tavernes in every toun, Bet than a lazer, or a beggere, For unto such a worthi man as he To have with sike lazars aqueyntaunce. But al with riche and sellers of vitaille. And over al, ther eny profyt schulde arise, 237.-yeddynges. MS. C. 2, reads weddinges. 226 234 242 252 [And gave a certaine ferme for the grant, To make his Englissch swete upon his tunge; This worthi lymytour was called Huberd. A MARCHAUNT was ther with a forked berd, 253 261 269 253,254.-These two lines are wanting in all the MSS. I have consulted, a circumstance of which Tyrwhitt takes no notice, though they are an evident interpolation. He seems to have taken them from the old printed editions. 258.-purchace. This sentiment, or proverb, is taken literally from a line in the Romance of the Rose, "Mieux vault mon pourchas que ma rente." 272.-forked berd. In Shottesbrooke church, Berks, there is a brass of a Franklin, of the time of Edward III, in which he is represented with a forked beard, as in the accompanying cut, which seems to have been the fashionable mode of dressing the beard among the bourgeoisie. The Anglo-Saxons wore forked beards. In motteleye, and high on horse he sat, A CLERK ther was of Oxenford also, That unto logik hadde longe i-go. And he was not right fat, I undertake; But lokede holwe, and therto soburly. For him was lever have at his beddes heed Yet hadde he but litul gold in cofre, But al that he might of his frendes hente, 273 281 289 297 On bookes and his lernyng he it spente, Of hem that gaf him wherwith to scolay. Of fees and robes had he many oon. So gret a purchasour was ther nowher noon. Al was fee symple to him in effecte, 302 310 318 301.-might of his frendes hente.—This is the reading of most of the MSS., and appears to be the right one. The MS. Harl. reads, might gete and his frendes sende. 304.-gaf him. An allusion to the common practice, at this period, of poor scholars in the universities, who wandered about the country, beg. ging, to raise money to support them in their studies. See Piers Ploughman, 1. 4525, and note. 312.-parvys. This is generally explained as a portico before a church. The parvis at London, supposed to be that of St. Paul's, was anciently frequented by sergeants at-law, as we learn from Fortescue, de Laud. leg. Angl. c. 51,-" Post meridiem curiæ non tenentur; sed placitantes tunc se divertunt ad pervisum et alibi, consulentes cum servientibus ad legem, et aliis consiliariis suis." See also Warton's Hist. of Eng. Poetry, edit, of 1840, vol. ii. p. 212. |