Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/67

 11 S. V. JAN. 20, 1912.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

51

sb. = ? skin - plate (?MS. bawde)" and pi. schinbandes, while Halliwell renders shin- bawde " Armour for the shins ? " with a quotation from 'Morte Arture.' Cf. A.-S. scin-bane= shinbone. The term skewbald, by the way (=piebald horse), bears a curious resemblance to the word in question.

7. "1 peire des bolges noires (also boulges and boulgys)." Bolges, boulges, or boulgys is very like bouges, boujets = (water- )budgets, but is more probably " Bouge, boulge = sa,c decuire" (see Godefroy), apparently much the same thing as the modern "grip" (" il porte unes vieilles bouges ou le bon horns porta son harnoys a la bataille ").

8. "1 banger de reie." This might be a misreading of banyer, banier = banner, but is probably another variant of banquer, banker, banky, or as ' Cath. Angl.' has it, " Banqwer bancarium, dossorum," a cover- ing of carpet, tapestry or other material, for a bench or seat (Fr. bane), see 'N.E.D.,' s.v. "banker." Halliwell states that "any kind of small coverlet was afterwards called a banker." Reie is no doubt " ray," a kind of cloth or material, as to the exact description of which authorities differ. ' Cath. Angl.' has " Hay = stragulum," and gives many examples, one from Minsheu, stating it to be " cloth never coloured or dyed." Kelham renders it "russet cloth," and Godefroy gives " Raie broderie, passe- menterie."

9. " 1 sele por somer (pro soutar')." This I should interpret selle pour sommer, or sommes, a saddle for burdens, pack- saddle ; but Kelham has cele, a coverlet, and it might perhaps mean some sort of covering for a load. Sbutar, no doubt, is sowter, which ' Cath. Angl.' renders "Alu- tarius, gallarius, sutor" (tanner, shoemaker, or cobbler).

10. " Un macewel penduz de une cheyne de feer." Macewel suggests a diminutive of mace, macelle ; or perhaps the spiked ball that was attached to the battle-mace by a chain ; as I find macelotte petite masse, petite boule.

11. " xxix de wastours e iij vires (for cross- bows apparently)." Wastours obviously derives from the verb waster or gaster, to waste, spoil, ravage; thus Halliwell has "wastour, N.F., a destroyer" but I cannot find a more explicit definition. Vire is stated by Godefroy to be synonymous with vireton = trait d'arbalete (" mil arbalestes,

treroit ne bouzon ne vire"), which confirms MR. SWYNNERTON'S suggestion.
 * tant soit fort, ne de trere preste, | N'i

The scribe was apparently not a French- man, for he gives a Teutonic turn to the spelling of many of the Old Norman-French words. ETHEL LEGA-WEEKES.

3. Hewitt, in 'Ancient Armour,' &c., gives two renderings of " covertures de feer," of which the following is a condensed version :

(1) A portion of the body defence of plate, or splint armour faced with a textile. Velvet, silk, and satin were employed for this purpose. The inventory of Humphrey de Bohun, 1322, mentions " et 1 peire des plates courvertes de vert velvet." Also in the inventories of the Exchequer in 1330, among the armour of the Earl of March : " Un peire de plates couvertz d'un drap d'or : une peire des plates covertz de rouge samyt."

(2) In 1303 Philip the Fair required a gentleman to be equipped for war and mounted on a horse " couvert de couvertures de fer, ou de couvertures pourpoint."

10. Macewell. " The small mace, called by the English mazuelle " (Fosbroke).

Satun cJievantel, (?) principal mace. Satun is the Norman form of Old Fr. saton, given by Roquefort and Du Cange (s.v. sapellata), and explained as a kind of weapon, an iron- shod staff; Chevantel may be a derivative of chef. Kelham gives cheventeine for cheve- tain (chieftain). Freyns doryes vends means " old gilded (dares) bits," vends being written for Anglo-Fr. veuz (vieux), unless it is a mis- take for verds, green. Covertures de feer, coverings of iron, some part of the knight's or horse's armour. Susoires, or susorres, Old Fr. susores, nominative past participle of Old Fr. susorer, to over-gild. Reyes and reie, striped material, a common word in Mid. Eng., from Fr. raye, striped (see Strat- mann and Bradley, rai 1 ). Skinebans, or skynebalds, probably greaves, " shin- bands." Stratmann has " schinbande, (?) shin-plate (?MS. -bawde)." Bolges, saddle-bags, Old Fr. bouge, Lat. bulga ; cf. the dim. budget. Somer, pack-horse, sumpter-horse, Lat. sag- marius. Macewel, Old Fr. macuele, dim. of massue, mace, club. Wastour, or waster, is common in Tudor Eng. for pudgel, quarter- staff (see Nares), but also meant a rough sword-blade, e.g., " smarra, a waster with a hilt at one end, a foil or flurrett, as they use in fench-schools [corr. fence-schools] for young learners " (Torriano, 1659). Vire, a cross-bow bolt, Old Fr., from virer, to turn. The derivative vireton is more common in this sense. ERNEST WEEKLEY.