Ver. 331. a seint of silk with barres smale] It appears from our author's translation of R. R. ver. 1103. that barres were called cloux in French, and were a usual ornament of a girdle. See Mr. Warton's Hist. vol. i. p. 377.426. Clavusin Latin, from whence the FR. Cloux is derived, seems to have signified not only an outward border, but also what we call a stripe. Montfaucon, t. iii. part. i. ch. vi. A Bar in Heraldry is a narrow stripe, or Fascia. Du Cange, in v. CLAVATUS, quotes the Statut. Andegav. an. 1423. in which the Clergy, and especially the Regulars, are forbid to wear zonas auro clavatas.

Ver. 333. A Frankelein] Fortescue, de L. L. Ang. c. 29, describes a Franklain to be a Pater familias— magnis ditatus possessionibus. He is classed with, but after, the Miles and Armiger; and is distinguished from the Libere tenentes and Valecti; though, as it should seem, the only real distinction between him and other Freeholders consisted in the largeness of his estate. Spelman, in v. Franklein, quotes the following passage from Trivet's French Chronicle: Ms. Bibl. R. S. n. 56. Thomas de Brotherton, filius Edwardi I. Mareschallus Angliæ, apres la mort de son pere esposa la fille de un Francheleyn apelee Alice. The Historian did not think it worth his while even to mention the name of the Frankelein.

Ver. 342. Seint Julian] was eminent for providing his votaries with good lodgings and accommodations of all sorts. In the title of his Legende,

Ms. Bod. 1596. fol. 4, he is called "St. Julian, the gode herberjour." It ends thus.

Therfore yet to this day thei that over lond wende, Thei biddeth Seint Julian anon that gode herborw he hem sende,

And Seint Julianes Pater noster ofte seggeth also, For his fader soule and his moderes, that he hem bring therto.

Of the virtue of St. Julian's Pater-noster see the Decameron. D. ii. N. 2.

Ver. 344. envyned] Stored with wine. Cotgrave has preserved the French word enviné, in the same sense. This is the reading of Mss. Ask. 1. 2. and others. The common editions read viendid.

Ver. 357. At Sessions] At the Sessions of the Peace. The Justices, by the Stat. 34 E. III. c. 1. were to be, in each county, un Seigneur et ovesque lui trois ou quatre des meultz vauez du countee, ensemblement ove ascuns sages de la ley. A wealthy Frankelein might perhaps be commissioned under this description; but I know not how he could be a Knight of the Shire; as they by 46 E. III. were to be CHIVALERS et SERJANTZ des meulz vauez du pais; unless we suppose, either that the rank of Serjant (Esquire) was as undefined as it is now, or that his office of Justice made him an Esquire, within the meaning of the act.

Ver. 359. An anelace] See the Gloss. to M. Paris in v. Anelacius. It was a kind of knife, or dagger,

usually worn at the girdle. In that passage of M. Paris, p. 342. where Petrus de Rivallis is mentioned as gestans anelacium ad lumbare, quod clericum non decebat, it may be doubted whether the wearing of an anelace simply, or the wearing of it at the girdle, was an indecent thing in the clerk. The five citymechanics, a few lines below, are described as wearing knives, and probably at their girdles (see ver. 370), though the latter circumstance is not clearly expressed. In the picture of Chaucer, which is inserted in some copies of Occleve's book De regimine principis, he is represented with a knife hanging from a button upon his breast. See Mss. Harl. 4866. Cotton. Otho. A. xviii.

Ver. 359. a gipciere] FR. Gibeciere, a purse. The mechanics, ver. 370. have also their pouches.

Ver. 361. a countour] This word has been changed in Ed. Urr. upon what authority I know not, to Coroner. The Mss. all read Countour, or comptour. At the same time it is not easy to say what office is meant. I have a notion, that the Foreman of the inquest in the Hundred court was called a Countour ; but the Law Glossaries do not take notice of any such sense of the word, and I cannot at present produce any thing stronger in support of it than the following passage of R. G. p. 538. Speaking of an Hundred-court summoned by the Constable of Gloucester Castle, he says, that

He hald this hundred mid gret folk and honour, And Adam of Arderne was is [his] chef countour. Though this may possibly mean that Adam acted as accomptant or steward of the court.

Ver. 262. vavasour] The precise import of this word is often as obscure as its original. See Du Cange in v. In this place it should perhaps be understood to mean the whole class of middling Landholders.

Ver. 372. on the deis] This word occurs so frequently in our old authors, that it may be worth the while to endeavour to give a more satisfactory explanation of it than is to be found in the Glossaries. I apprehend that it originally signified the wooden floor [D'ais, FR. De assibus, LAT.] which was laid at the upper end of the hall, as we still see it in College-halls, &c. That part of the room therefore, which was floored with planks, was called the Dais, the rest being either the bare ground or at best paved with stone; and being raised above the level of the other parts it was often the high Dais. In royal halls there were more Dais than one, each of them probably raised above the other by one or more steps; and that where the King sate was called the highest Dais. At a dinner, which Charles V. of France gave to the Emperor Charles IV. in 1377, Christine de Pisan says, Hist. de Ch. V. P. iii. c. 33, cinq dois [dais] avoit en la sale plains de Princes

et de Barons, et autres tables par-tout.-et estoient les deux grans dois et les dreçouers fais de barrieres a l'environ.

As the principal table was always placed upon a Dais, it began very soon, by a natural abuse of words, to be called itself a Dais, and people were said to sit at the Dais, instead of at the table upon the Dais. It was so in the time of M. Paris. Vit. Abb. p. 1070. Priore prandente ad magnam mensam, quam Deis vocamus.

Menage, whose authority seems to have led later antiquaries to interpret Dais, a Canopy, has evidently confounded Deis with Ders. Ders and Derselet, from Dorsum, as he observes, meant properly the hangings at the back of the company, Du Cange, v. DORSALE; but as the same hangings were often drawn over so as to form a kind of canopy over their heads, the whole was called a Ders. Christine, P. iii. c. 41. Sus chascun des trois (the Emperor and the Kings of France and Bohemia) avoit un ciel, distincte l'un de l'autre, de drap d'or à fleurs de lis ; et pardessus ces trois en avoit un grant, qui couvroit tout au long de la table, et tout derriere eux pendoit, et estoit de drap d'or. This last ciel, or canopy, "which covered the whole length of the table, and hung down behind the company," was a Ders. That it was quite a different thing from a Deis, appears from what follows: A l'autre dois [dais] auplus près