Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/92

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th & VIL FEB. 2, 1901.

rebec, is all due to the fact of the small original violin, which was round, and shaped like a Jews' harp. Hipkins and all other leading writers on the subject have pointed out the great confusion or interchange ot names which has existed regarding musical instruments.

In 'The Clerke's Tale,' 8412, Tyrwhitt explains " gan a chere to make " as to aftect a manner." But exactly it signifies to assume a l<>ok or expression of the face, as in Italian cera, the countenance.

In 'The Marchante's Tale' there occurs the line

They connen so much craft on Wade's bote. Tyrwhitt confesses he cannot explain the allusion. Nor can I ; but Wade was a great Yorkshire giant, who built the Roman road, probably for a bote or messenger, or for messages.

In ' The Pardoner's Tale,' 1244 [?], we have I recke never whan that they be beried Though that their souls gon a blak-beried.

"I really cannot guess what it means," says Tyrwhitt, It is an old joke, still com- mon in America, from going to a funeral dressed in black. "Though their souls be damned." Condemned souls appear as angels of darkness, the saved as clad in light. It is such a common negro-minstrel joke to speak of attending negro funerals as "going a- black-burying," that I think it may be the variation on an old traditional joke.

In the same tale, 12,411, wafereres may mean " sellers of wafers or cakes," but from the context it appears to mean " wayfarers " or vagabonds.

In 'The Monke's Tale,' 14,375, we have And she that helmed was in starke stoures And wan by force tonnes stronge and toures Shal on hir hed now were a vifremite.

What vitremite means Tyrwhitt cannot tell. Is it not a mitre of paper, a fool's cap, Latin mitella ? Mitera in Italian is " a sheet of paper made in the form of a mitre, put on the head of a malefactor condemned to stand in the pillory." Vitremite probably means in full a peaked paper hat, from " vetta, a peak, top, or summit," diminutive vetereUa, though a word may be said for the derivation of vitre from vetriuola, a conical drinking glass, like a fool's cap reversed. Chaucer was familiar with Italian.

In 'The Nonne's Preeste's Tale' Tyrwhitt is much puzzled over the term a coZ-foxe, but cannot suggest its true derivation. Col is simply cunning, as in the Italian coglionare, to deceive, French co'ionner. Colle, a sham or lie. Skinner interprets this " a coal-black fox."

I offer these as conjectures, and shall be clad if any students of Chaucer will amend them. CHARLES GODFREY LELAND.

Florence.

fit is unfortunate that MR. LELAND follows Tvrwhitt's consecutive numbering of the different Tales, as this makes it difficult to find his quota- tions in PROF. SKEAT'S edition or the Aldme Chaucer, where the lines in each Tale are sepa- rately numbered. The Aldine glossary is by Dr.

R 0M?w*We (^Miller's Tale') is defined by Dr. Morris as a part sung or played a fifth above the air. In the ' Prologue' PROF. SKEAT says the cook was

Poudre-marchant tart and galingale. Dr Morris explains galingale as sweet cyperus, though the reference should be to vol. ii. p. 13, 1. 381 (not 38).

AH u,,^ quotati

PROF. SKEAT reads

By his belt he baar a long panade.

The Aldine glossary defines TiawebaJee (' Man of Lawe's Prologue') as " plain fare (literally baked or dried haws or hedge-berries)."

For Wade's boat ('Marchante's Tale') see 4 N. & Q.,' 9 th S. i. 468 ; ii. 97, 250.]

THE ABBOT OF WESTMINSTER'S PLOT, 1399. Only a few weeks after the usurping acces- sion of Henry IV. in 1399 a formidable insurrection ensued, supported by many influential noblemen, and originating in a conspiracy devised by the Abbot of West- minster. The prime conspirators were Sir John Holand, a valiant knight, uterine brother of Richard II. and brother-in-law of Henry IV., who had been degraded from the title of Duke of Exeter to that of Earl of Huntingdon ; Thomas Holand, his nephew, who had been degraded from the title of Duke of Surrey to that of Earl of Kent ; and Edward Plantagenet, who had been degraded from the title of Duke of Aumerle to that of Earl of Rutland

Aumerle that was, But that is lost for being Richard's friend.

Many other persons of distinction were, in addition, leagued together in order to restore the deposed King Richard II.

The plot, according to the historic imagi- nation of Shakspere, was concocted by the Abbot of Westminster and the Bishop of Carlisle (Thomas Morkes), to whom Aumerle is represented as saying :

You holy clergymen, is there no plot To rid the realm of this pernicious blot ?

' Richard II.,' IV. i.

A priest named Magdalen or Mawdelaine, "who in face, size and sight, and limb" strongly resembled Richard II., was instructed