A draught of win, ye of a ripe grape,

And right anon ye shul seen a good jape."

And in Palsgrave, where we find: "To bourde or jape with one in sport."" Truffler, border, jouncher;" see further Mr. Way's valuable illustrations of both these words, in his edition of the Promptorium Parvulorum, pp. 44 and 257.

P. 34. Bydryven.-From the Flemish Bedryven, malum committere, see Killian.

P. 35. Polayle, polaylle, polayll, poleyl-for the word occurs in all these forms, within the space of two pages-is here used in the sense of poultry, or domestic fowls; from the French Poulaille.

P. 39. Romed the court.—Departed from the court; from the anglo-Saxon Rumian, and Danish Roemme. In page 81, we have "ruymed his castle."

P. 40. Balked-Was angry, from the Flemish belgen, in past tense balch, to be angry.

P. 41. Ferners,-past events. This word occurs in Piers Ploughman, used adverbially, line 3354, and as a substantive in the following passage:

To thynke on thyn ende,

And how fele fernyeres are faren," &c.

1.7440. et seq. ed. Wright.

In Gualtier's edition, the word "tyme” is substituted. P. 44. Gheet.-Goats, from the Anglo-Saxon Gæt, a goat. Ibid. Grymmed.-Raged, from the Anglo-Saxon grimman, to rage.

Ibid. Scatte.-In this instance scatte, which is derived from the Anglo-Saxon sceat, is used in the sense of treasure. It sometimes means money only; and certain Anglo-Saxon coins were expressly denominated sceattas. It is also frequently used to signify a tax or tribute; and in this latter sense is a

N

household word at the present day, under the modernized form of "scot," as in scot and lot, scot-free, &c.

P. 46. Unberisped. This word, which Gualtier in his edition has changed into openly, is here used in the sense of harmless, undisturbed, and is the same as the old Flemish onberispt, harmless, see Killian; or rather, as the unbirepped, unberepped, untouched, undisturbed, of the old Friesic law, see Richthofer. See note on Beryspe, p. 136.

Ibid. Kyng Ermeryks tresour.-The reader who desires better acquaintance with this treasure, which is so frequently referred to in the German poems of the Middle Ages, as the Nibelungen, &c. and is intimately connected with the northern and Gothic traditional cycles, is referred to Mr. Kemble's edition of Beowulf, vol. i. p. 261, and to the note on line 2396 in vol. ii.; or for yet fuller particulars, to W. Grimm's Deutsche Heldensage, s. 17, 46, §c.

P. 47. Sworen upon Ysegrym's crowne.— -Willems, in his Reinaert, p. 92, explains this passage, by a reference to Isegrim's having entered the cloister of Elmare and become a monk, and to the practice which formerly obtained, when a priest never took an oath, but when he gave evidence laid his right hand upon his crown or tonsure, and in that way testified to the truth of his statement.

Ibid. The stole at Acon.-Acon is Aix la Chapelle, or, as it is called in German, Aachen. "The stole" is the celebrated throne or coronation chair of white marble, covered with plates of gold, on which no less than fifty-five crowned emperors had been seated previously to the year 1558, see Nolten's Archaologische Beschreibung des Munster oder Kronungskirche zu Aachen.

Ibid. Fordryve.-Chaucer uses this word in his Romaunt of the Rose:

"When they in ease wene best to live

They ben with tempest all fordrive."—l. 3781,2.

Gaultier in his edition has altered the sentence, and reads "shoulde chace him away."

Ibid. "The holy thre Kings of Collyn,"-The Three Kings of Cologne, the patrons of that city, are the Three Wise Men, whose bodies were brought to Constantinople by the Empress Helena, about the year 328, thence transferred to Milan, and afterwards, in 1164, when Milan was taken by the Emperor Frederick, presented by him to the Archbishop of Cologne. In Fosbroke's British Monachism is an account, drawn from Du Cange, of the Feast of the Star, or Office of the Three Kings; and in Hoffman's Hora Belgica, ii. 69, the song sung by the Star-Singers, the actors in a popular ceremony observed in Germany on the Feast of the Epiphany, until the close of the last century.

P. 48. Frosshis—Frogs. See Mr. Way's observations on this form of the word in his edition of the Promptorium, p. 180. n. 3.

Ibid. bydwongen-" Kept under" is the expression substituted by Gualtier in his edition-which corresponds very closely with the original Flemish word, bedwongen, which Killian defines "Coactus, Adactus, Contraint." The word occurs again in a somewhat different form at p. 66, where we read 66 a bydwogen oth, or oth sworn by force."

P. 49. Foot spore-foot-mark, the voet-spoere, Vestigium pedis, of Killian. It occurs again at p. 86.

P. 50. Souldye or wages.-Pay, or wages, from the French Soulde, souldée, see Roquefort. We see very clearly from this, and the word "Souldyour," which occurs a few lines lower down, the strict meaning of the name souldiers, that is, hired troops.

P. 52. Stoundmele-a little while. Caxton appears to have misunderstood the original passage, which says,―The foxe saw that the king was deceived,-and translated the Dutch

obelopen stoundmele, which Gualtier not understanding,altered in his edition of 1555, into "sadly."

Ibid. The king toke up a straw fro the ground.―This, and the passage in the following page, where the fox takes up a straw, and proffers it to the king, contain allusions to one of the most ancient symbolical forms which exist in the early laws of the Roman and Germanic nations: and the lawyer who speaks of agreements and stipulations, little thinks how much of legal archæology is involved in the latter word. But the subject would require a book instead of a note, so I will refer the reader desirous of investigating this curious point, to Grimm's Deutsche Rechts-altherthümer, s. 121, et seq., or Michelet, Origines du Droit Français, p. 120.

P. 54. "Fro Rome to maye." A bantering expression equivalent to the English one,-From the first of April to the foot of Westminster Bridge. Similar forms of speech occur in the Reinardus, as—

"inter Pascha Remisque feror."-lib. ii. v. 690.

and again,

"inter

Cluniacum et Sancti festa Johannis obit."-lib. iv. v. 972.

66

The French have a similar saying, “ Cela s'est passé entre Maubeuge et la Pentecôte.

P. 56. Ye reysed-Journeyed, as it is modernized by Gualtier. It is the same as the modern German Reisen, to travel, and occurs in Chaucer, who says, speaking of the knight, "In Lettowe had he reysed, and in Ruce."

Ibid. assoyled-absolved. So in Piers Ploughman, "And so to ben assoiled,"-1. 13, 753.

P. 57. Anhygh stage of stone. That in old times" high stages of stone" were among the places most frequently chosen for the administration of justice, is shown very clearly by Grimm, Deutsche Rechts Altherthümer, s. 802, while the practice which

obtained among the Scandinavian nations of creating their kings by placing them on an elevated stone, (a practice still shadowed forth in our own coronation service), serves to illustrate very strikingly the present passage. The English reader will, probably, be reminded of the “marble table ” in Westminster Hall, and the Frith stool of Beverley.

P. 58. Broke. This word, which occurs again in p. 92, is by Gualtier changed in the one instance into "felony," in the second into "misdeed." It is from the Flemish breucke, a crime.

P. 60. Male and staff blessyd as belongeth to a pilgrim.-In Fosbroke's British Monachism, p. 326, ed. 1843, is a chapter on the consecration of pilgrims, from which we learn that after certain prayers and psalms had been said over the intended pilgrims as they lay prostrate before the altar, they arose, and the priest consecrated their scrips and staves. He next sprinkled holy water upon their scrips and staves, and placed the scrip around the neck of each pilgrim, with other religious services. Afterwards he delivered to each of them their staff, with similar prayers, &c.

P. 61. Master Gelys-In some copies of the Flemish metrical Reinaert, as well as in the old prose version, "Master Gelis" is here named, by whom it has been supposed the author intended Ægidius de Lessinia, a celebrated theologian, the friend of Albertus Magnus. In the other copy of the Flemish poem, Meester Jufroet is the authority referred to. By Jufroet, there is no doubt that Godfridus Andegavensis is meant, who lived in the earlier part of the twelfth century, and the passage in his works to which the lion refers, is thus quoted by Grimm, and Willems, from the Biblia Patrum, tom. xxi. p. 66; "Unde unicuique peccatori de magna Domini miseratione indulgentiam sperare licet, si se cognoverit