450 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



(;2nd s. No 101., Dec. 5. '57. 



Clere yclansed that y be, 



Or y to nie giMve te ( ?), 



So that y may at domy's da^-e 



Come to dome withoute fraye, 



And wende to blisse w* companyc, 



Thereas men schullith never dye, 



But dwelle in joy w' our Lord bry3t, 



There ever j's daye and never nyjt. 



That lasteth ever with oute ende. 



Now Jhu Crist ous thedyr send. Amen. 



I thonke the, Lorde, that thow me wrou^t. 

 And with stronge paynis thow maboujt. 

 I thonke the, Lord, w' rewful entent 

 Of thy paynes and thy tutnemeut ; 

 Wj'th careful herte and drery mode 

 For schedyng of thy swete blode ; 

 Thy body was hongyd to a tre, 

 W may I say thow hast do for me. 

 With scourges. " 



The rest is gone. Above each is an outline of 

 the subject, viz. the nails, lance, &c. J. C. J. 



DIFFICUIiTIES OF CHAUCEH. — NO. II. 



" Broken Harm.^^ — The " Marchante," railing 

 against " olde widows," says : — 



" They connen so moch craft on Wades bote, 

 So mochel broken harm when that hem lest, 

 That with hem shuld I never live in rest." 



Carit. Tales, 9297—9. 



Critics and commentators can make, "nothing of 

 " broken harm." I would therefore read moch in 

 the second line as well as in the first, and the 

 passage will then run, 



" They connen so moch craft on Wades bote. 

 So moch el-broken harm, when that hem lest, 

 That with hem shuld I never live in rest." 



El-broken, ill-hrooked ; el-broken harm, ha7'm 

 not easily brooked. " They connen so moch craft ; 

 [and they connen] so much ill-broken harm." 



Broken, according to this view, does duty as an 

 old English participle (oftener brouken) of the 

 verb " to brook." — JEl is not, certainly, the form 

 in which our forefathers usually wrote " ill ; " but 

 we find it in elmother (maratre), and, as a speci- 

 men of faulty orthography, it occurs in Swift : — 



" Here you may read, ' Dear charming saint I ' 

 Beneath, ' A new receipt for paint : ' 

 Here, in beau-spelling, ' Tru tel deth ' 

 There, ih her own, ' For an el breth.' " 



Written in a Lady^s Ivory Table book, 1699. 



" To brook a thing ill " is a phrase not yet lost 

 to our language. With ill-brooked conf. in Hooker 

 "Even they which brook it worst;" in Milton " Ill- 

 able to sustain ; " and in Dryden " 111 bears the 

 sex," &c. — Richardson. 



P. S. Concerning " Wade's boat " hereafter. 



" A Cristofrer — 



" A Cristofre on his brest of silver shene." 



Cant. Tales, 115. 



The Christopher, or Cristofre, it has been sup- 

 posed, was some ornament bearing the image of St. 

 Cliristopher with our Saviour upon his shoulders. 

 The word Cristofre is left unexplained by Tyr- 

 whitt, who says in his note upon the passage, " I 

 do not see the meaning of this statement." 



Was it not something bearing a cross or cruci- 

 fix ? According to Ducange, a standard-bearer 

 was called Christiferus, " quod in regio vexillo 

 Christus, aut certe signum Christi, seu crux, effin- 

 gerentur" (sic). And in the Portuguese language 

 the adj. Christifero means that which bears or 

 sustains a crucifix : — " Que leva, ou supporta o 

 Crucifixo : v. g., 7ia Christifera Ara " (Moraes). 

 " Christifera Ara," then, is an altar surmounted 

 by a crucifix. 



It appears, then, that the Cristofre, which the 

 " Yemen" carried " on his brest," was some silver 

 appendage bearing a crucifix or at any rate a 

 cross. 



Tyrwhitt adds in his note, "By the stat. 

 37 E. III. yomen are forbidden to wear any orna- 

 ments of gold or silver ; " — and " silver shene " 

 (bright silver) was the material of this yeman's 

 Cristofre ! 



Our interpretation, however, removes this dif- 

 ficulty. 



The words of the statute are : — 



" Item, that people of handycrafte and yomen shall not 

 take nor weare . . . stone nor clothe of sylke nor of sylver, 

 nor gyrtle, knyfe, button, ryng, garter nor owche, rj'ban, 

 chains nor no suche other thynges of gold nor of sylver." 

 ■X-ol E. III. cap. ix. 



As the silver Cristofre was no mere utensil or 

 ornament, but a sacred emblem, badge, and safe- 

 guard, the yeman, probably, was free to hang it 

 " on his brest," though he might not don silver 

 buttons, nor a gold chain, " nor no suche other 

 thynges." Thomas Boys. 



The Fifth of November. — The following is the 

 rhyme with which my ears were beset by the little 

 boys on the last anniversai'y of this day : — 



" Remember, remember, 

 The Fifth of November, 

 Gunpowder treason and plot ; 

 For / see no reason 

 Wliy Gunpowder Treason 

 Should ever be forgot. 

 Guy Fawkes, Gu}', 'tis our intent 

 To blow up the king and his parliament. 

 Threescore barrels, laid below. 

 To prove old England's overthrow. 

 By God's providence he got catched. 

 With a dark lantern and burning match. 

 A stick and a stake 

 For King George's sake ! 

 And a rope and a cart 

 To hang Bonj'parte ! 

 Pope, Pope, Spanish Pope ! 



