Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Book, 405, is the allusion:-- 'Thou woldest not weten thy fote, and woldest fich cacchen.' In a medieval Latin verse, it appears as: 'Catus amat piscem, sed non vult tingere plantam'; see Proverbialia Dicteria ... per A. Gartnerum, 1574, 8vo. Ray quotes the French: 'Le chat aime le poisson, mais il n'aime pas à mouiller la patte.' The German form is--'Die Katze hätt' der Fische gern; aber sie will die Füsse nit nass machen'; N. and Q. 4 S. ix. 266. 1794. _Noskinnes_; miswritten _no skynnes_ in MSS. F. and B.; Th. and Cx. _no kyns_. _Nos-kinnes_ is short for _noneskinnes_, of no kind; _noskinnes labour_ is 'work of no kind'; in mod. E. 'no kind of work.' It also occurs without the former _s_; as in _no kyne catel_, property of no kind, P. Plowm. C. xi. 250; _none kynnes riche_, rich men of no kind, id. B. xi. 185. Cf. also _of foure kunne thinges_, of things of four kinds, of four kinds of things, where one MS. has _of foure skynnes thinges_; P. Plowm. A. x. 2. And see note to l. 1530 above. 1796. _Bele Isaude_, Isaude (or Isoude, or Isolde) the fair; here a type of a high form of female beauty. See Parl. Foules, 290; and the note. 1798. 'She that grinds at a hand-mill'; a poor slave. 1810. _Hir_ (their) refers to the 'seventh company.' 'Such amusement they found in their hoods'; a phrase meaning 'so much did they laugh at them'; see Troil. ii. 1110. Cf. the phrase 'to put an ape in a man's hood,' i.e. to make him look like an ape, or look foolish; see note to C. T., Group B, 1630. 1823. 'Then a company came running in.' 1824. _Choppen_, strike downwards. They began hitting people on the head, regardless of consequences. The same expression occurs in Richard the Redeless, iii. 230--'And ich man i-charchid to schoppe at his croune'; where _i-charchid_ = _i-charged_, i.e. was charged, was commanded, and _schoppe_ = _choppe_. 1840. _Pale_, a perpendicular stripe; chiefly used as an heraldic term. The object of the conspicuous stripe upon the hose was to draw men's attention to him; for the same reason, he wore a bell on his tippet, and, in fact, his dress resembled that of the professional fool. _Paled_ or striped hose were sometimes worn for display. 'Buskins he wore of costliest cordwayne, Pinckt upon gold, and _paled_ part per part, As then the guize was for each gentle swayne.' Spenser, _F. Q._ vi. 2. 6. I.e. his buskins were adorned with golden dots or eyelets, and regularly intersected with stripes arranged perpendicularly. 1844. _Isidis_, Isis; _Isidis_ being a form of the genitive case. Chaucer doubtless refers to Herostratus, the wretch who set fire to the temple of Diana at Ephesus, in order to immortalise his name. Why Diana here appears as Isis, and Ephesus as Athens, I cannot explain. Perhaps it was due to a defect of memory; we are apt to forget how _very_ largely medieval authors had to trust to their memories for names and facts. It is almost impossible for us moderns, with our facilities for reference, to imagine what were the difficulties of learned men in the olden time. Perhaps Chaucer was thinking of Ovid's line (ex Ponto, i. 1. 51)--'Uidi ego linigerae numen uiolasse fatentem _Isidis_.' The story is in Solinus, Polyhistor, cap. xl. § 3. 'See, Erostratus the second Fires again Diana's fane.' Rejected Addresses; _Drury's Dirge_, st. 5. 1853. Thynne prints--'(Though it be naught) for shreudness'; but this is very forced. MS. B. and Caxton both omit _noght_, rightly. 1857. 'And, in order to get (some) of the meed of fame.' 1880. An allusion to the old proverb--'As I brew, so must I needs drink'; in Camden's Remains. Gower has it, Conf. Amant. bk. iii, ed. Pauli, ii. 334:-- 'And who so wicked ale breweth, Ful ofte he mot the werse drinke.' 1908. The form _bringes_, for _bringest_, though (strictly speaking) a Northern form, is not uncommon in East Midland. It occurs frequently, for example, in Havelok the Dane. But, as there is no other clear example in Chaucer, Koch thinks the passage is corrupt, and proposes to read:-- 'Which than be, lo! thise tydinges, That bringe thee hider, and thise thinges That thou wilt here'; &c. 1920. Here _that_ means 'that very.' The description of 'the house of Dædalus' is in Ovid, Met. viii. 159; and the word _labyrinthus_, used with reference to it, is in Vergil, Æn. v. 588. Chaucer again refers to it in the Leg. of Good Women (Ariadne), 2010; and it is mentioned in his translation of Boethius, bk. iii. pr. 12. 118 (vol. ii. p. 89). And see Gower, Conf. Amant. ed. Pauli, ii. 304. 1926. This somewhat resembles Dante, Inf. iii. 53, which Cary translates:-- 'Which whirling ran about so rapidly That it no pause obtain'd.' 1928. _Oise_, a river which flows into the Seine, from the north, not far below Paris. Chaucer says the sound might have been heard from there to Rome. From this vague statement, Warton would wish us to infer that the whole poem was founded on some foreign production now (and probably always) unknown. There is no need to draw any such conclusion. The English were fairly familiar with the north of France in days when a good deal of French soil belonged more or less to the king of England. The Oise, being a northern affluent of the Seine, must have been a well-known river. I think the allusion proves just nothing at all. 1933. This is an excellent and picturesque allusion, but in these days can no longer be appreciated. Compare Barbour's Bruce, xvii. 681:-- 'The engynour than deliuerly Gert bend the gyne in full gret hy, And the stane smertly swappit out. It flaw out, quhedirand, with a _rout_.' 1940. Though the authorities read _hattes_ (Th. _hutches_), I alter this word to _hottes_ without hesitation. We do not make _hats_ with twigs or osiers. Chaucer says that some of the twigs were white, such as men use to make cages with, or panniers (i.e. baskets), or _hottes_, or _dossers_. Now Cotgrave explains F. _Panier_ by 'a Pannier, or Dosser; also, a Pedlers Pack; also, a fashion of trunke made of wicker'; and he explains F. _Hotte_ by 'a Scuttle, Dosser, Basket to carry on the back; the right _hotte_ is wide at the top, and narrow at the bottom.' Dr. Murray kindly refers me to Cursor Mundi, l. 5524:-- 'Apon þer neckes sal þai bere _Hott_ wit stan and wit morter.' He also tells me that in Caxton's Golden Legend (1483), fol. cix. col. 2, is the sentence--'And bare on hys sholdres vij. _hottis_ or baskettis fulle of erthe.' In a Glossary of North of England Words, printed as Gloss. B. 1, by the Eng. Dial. Society, I find: '_Hots_, s. pl. a sort of panniers to carry turf or slate in'; and Halliwell gives it as a Cumberland word. Dickenson's Cumberland Glossary has: '_Muck-hots_, panniers for conveying manure on horseback.' Brockett's Gloss. of Northern Words has: '_Hot_, a sort of square basket, formerly used for taking manure into fields of steep ascent; the bottom opened by two wooden pins to let out the contents.' Thus the existence of the word in English is f |