Geoffrey Chaucer

“ G. name is Würgengel, as if from würgen and Engel. But this is a form due to popular etymology, as will presently appear. Cotgrave has 'Pie engrouée, a Wariangle, or a small Woodpecker'; but a wariangle is really a Shrike; indeed Cotgrave also has: 'Arneat, the ravenous birde called a Shrike, Nynmurder, Wariangle'; which is correct. ”

“ The Friar says, quite truly, that the Wife's Tale contains passages not unlike 'school-matter,' or disquisitions in the schools. Such a passage is that in ll. 1109-1212. Tyrwhitt shews that auctoritas was the usual word applied to a text of scripture; Bell adds, that it was applied, as now, to any authority for a statement. We might very well translate auctoritees by 'quotations.'
1284. mandements, 'citations, or summonses, addressed to those accused of breaches of the canons, to appear and answer in the archdeacon's court'; Bell. Hence the name somnour, i. e. a server of summonses. ”

“ Scot is a common name for farm-horses in East-Anglia; as in A. 616.' In the Towneley Mysteries, p. 9, names of oxen are Malle, Stott (doubtless miswritten for Scott) , Lemyng, Morelle, and White-horne. The Craven Glossary says hyte is used to turn horses to the left; whilst the Ger. hott! or hottot! is used to turn them to the right. In Shropshire, 'ait or 'eet, said to horses, means 'go from me'; see Waggoners' Words in Miss Jackson's Shropsh. Wordbook.
1548. MS. Hl. has—'her schal we se play.' Tyrwhitt has pray, which gives a false rime, for it should be prey-e ”

“ Tyrwhitt has wene (for seme) , which occurs in MS. Cp. only.
1467. iogelour, juggler; for their tricks, see F. 1143. Wright says:—'The jogelour (joculator) was originally the minstrel, and at an earlier period was an important member of society. He always combined mimicry and mountebank performances with poetry and music. In Chaucer's time he had so far degenerated as to have become a mere mountebank, and as it appears, to have merited the energetic epithet here applied to him.' Cf. ”

“ Tyrwhitt inserts many before mo, to fill up the line.
1369. dogge for the bowe, a dog used to accompany an archer, to follow up a stricken deer; see the next line. The docility of such a dog is alluded to in E. 2014.
1373. 'And, because such acquaintance brought him in the chief part of all his income.'
1377. ribybe. In l. 1573, she is called 'an old rebekke.' So in Skelton's Elinour Rummyng, l. 492:—'There came an old rybybe.' And Ben Jonson speaks of 'some good ribibe ... you would hang now for a witch' ”

“ I give the reading of MSS. Hn. Cp. Pt. Ln., and of the black-letter editions. MS. Hl. has 'I pray god saue thy body and seint loy'; for which Cm. has 'the body,' as if 'the' were the original reading, and 'body' a supplied word. I take se-ynt to be dissyllabic, as in A. 120, 509, 697, D. 604. As to seint Loy, the patron-saint of goldsmiths, farriers, smiths, and carters, see note to A. 120.
1568. Cf. Rom. de la Rose, 10335-6: 'car ge fesoie Une chose, et autre pensoie.'
1570. upon cariage, by way of quitting my claim to this cart and team ”

“ G. 556.
1394. for the name, because of the disgrace attaching to the very name. The Friar is severe.
1405. sworn-e, a plural form; the word sworn being here used adjectivally. See note to A. 1132, p. 66.
1408. venim, spite. wariangles, shrikes. According to C. Swainson (Provincial Names of British Birds) , this is the Red-backed Shrike (Lanius collurio) , called in Yorkshire the Weirangle or Wariangle. Some make it the Great Grey Shrike (Lanius excubitor) . Thus Ray, in his Provincial Words, ed. 1674, p. 83, gives warringle as a name for the Great Butcher-bird in the Peak of Derbyshire. ”