Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/91

 9*s. vn. FEB. 2, mi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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which caused her to talk in triple measure The three leaves here indicate the trefoil.

The miller also asks Absolon why he has risen so early :

Why rise ye so rath ? ey benedicite.

What eileth you ? some gay girl, God it wote,

Hath brought you thus upon the viretote.

Tyrwhitt declares that the meaning of vire- tote is unknown. But virer (tot}, Old French, a sea- term, means to " heave " or " put about quickly"; in short, the miller means a sudden change in the steady habits of Absolon.

In 1 3331 of the same tale we are told that Absolon at times would

Playen songes on a small ribible, Thereto he sang sometimes a loud quinible.

Tyrwhitt informs us that what a ribible was is not known, and that a quinible is " a musi- cal instrument." The ribible was, however, a Je ws' harp in Italian ribeba and ribiba which was often accompanied by the voice, not with words, but in guttural humming, as I myself have often done when a boy. As a quinible was sung, it certainly could not have been a musical instrument. It was probably the quinario or verse of five syllables, or a quintet.

In * The Knighte's Tale ' we are told of the horrors of the temple of Mars :

All full of chirking was that sory place.

Tyrwhitt defines chirking as chirping. Here he is certainly wrong. Chirrina is an old English word for chirping, used by Herrick, but chirking, Anglo-Saxon (vide Halliwell), is the mixed sounds of animals, such as howling or roaring.

In the Prologue ' we are told that a cook could powder " marchant, tart, and galingale." Tyrwhitt declares that he cannot tell what galingale was. In the French dictionary of Boyer galingale is defined as "Calangue ou galangue." It refers to galanga, arrowroot.

Tyrwhitt declares that he cannot explain the expression gat-toothed in 'Prologue,' 1. 470. He had evidently never heard of a "goat- toothed Irishman " in reference to the noted prominent Celtic teeth. u Gat. a goat " (Nominale MS., Halliwell).

Tyrwhitt explains citole ('Knighte's Tale,' 1960) as " probably a kind of dulcimer." But it is defined by Halliwell as a kind of musical instrument with chords, and an Anglo-Norman word. It was, in fact, a variety of the guitar or cithern, and the same as the Italian cithara. A dulcimer is a tambourine or tympanum.

Tyrwhitt defines dreint in 'The Miller's Tale' as "drenched." But it is clearly, as the context proves, the Anglo-Saxon for drowned, as shown by Halliwell.

In ' The Reve's Tale,' 3929, we are told of the miller that

By his belt he bore a long pavade,

which Tyrwhitt defines as "some weapon of offence." But the pavade, Old French pavois, was a large shield, and not a weapon of offence at all.

Two lines further on we are told that

A joly popper bare he in his pouche. This popper, according to Tyrwhitt, was " probably a pistol " ! It was much more probably a wine-flask, like the Italian poppa, as it is called "joly" and was carried in a pocket. Popper is, however, defined by Halli- well as a dagger. In justice to Tyrwhitt, I may mention that I have very frequently seen in Italy pocket-flasks, made of glass or majolica, in the form of pistols. They are invariably antique, often of the sixteenth century. They must have been made in great numbers, since they are even now extremely common, and [ know where more than one can be bought.

In 'The Man of Lawe's Prologue,' 4515, there is the line

Though I come after him with hawebake, of which Tyrwhitt declares that "neither the reading nor the meaning of this word can be determined." Certainly this was the hauberk or haubergeon " fief de hauberk," or knight's feudal service. The hauberk was borne by a squire after his lord. Hence haubuck, a mere bearer of burdens, a lout.

In 'The Man of Lawe's Tale,' 1573 [5173?], we have :

In the castle non so hardy was That any while dorste therein endure.

While evidently means time, but Tyrwhitt suggests that it should be wight. In the same, 1. 5202, we have

Fy, mannish, fy ; o nay by God I lie !

Fy, fendliche spirit !

According to Tyrwhitt, mannish means 'thou human thing !" But the mannish was i goblin, like the German Mdnnchen, and not mman at all. In ' The Frere's Tale,' 6959, the sompnour

Rode forth to sompne a widowe, an olde ribibe, >f which Tyrwhitt says it was " probably ome shrill musical instrument." The word ribible was, as noticed above, at one time pplied to the Jews' harp, and ribibe to a dnd of fiddle. "Vitula, a rybybe (Nomi- lale MS.)." " Vitula was often inter- changed in jest with vetula, hence the
 * erm was applied to an old woman in

Chaucer, Skelton, and Ben Jonson" (Halli- well). I conjecture that the resemblance between ribeba, rybybe, ribible^ and ribecca or