166 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. No 113., Fkb. 27. '58. 



of takinw, leaving his Lonlship alone. At this 

 period, the clock of the parish church, which was 

 not far off, and which of course could not have 

 been touched, began slowly to peal forth the true 

 midnight hour. The valet proceeded up stairs, 

 and shortly burst forth into loud exclamations ; 

 the party ran up, and found his Lordship had 

 fallen dead. My informant's impression was, that 

 the sudden revulsion of feeling from a state of 

 fancied security, to the finding himself at the mo- 

 ment in the very instant of the dreaded danger, 

 had caused such a reaction as to bring on the fits 

 which carried him off. He, no doubt, had heard 

 the first stroke of the clock as well as others down 

 stairs ; and, as each successive blow struck slowly 

 upon the bell, the sense of danger, and the re- 

 membrance of the dream, became greater and 

 greater — and to so weakened a frame, and so 

 diseased a mind, no doubt these caused the ca- 

 tastrophe. It is not improbable most ghost stories 

 might be found to have a similar natural solution. 



A. A. 

 Poet's Corner. 



DIFFICULTIES OF CHAUCER. — NO. VI. 



" Tidifesr — 



" In which were peinted all thise false foules, 

 As bin thise tidifes, tercelettes, and owles." 



Cant. Tales, 10961-2. 



In this couplet we have two difficulties to be 

 solved together : What is a tidif? and, Why are 

 "tidifes, tercelettes, and owles," associated as 

 instances of fickleness f The subject in hand 

 (10935-43.) is the fickleness of a tercelet (male 

 hawk or falcon), who had "falsed" his "trouthe" 

 (10941.). 



Tyrwhitt, by placing "tidifes" in his list of 

 words not understood, plainly intimates his non- 

 acceptance of the definition that a tidif is a tit- 

 mouse, for which, as he remarks, there is no 

 authority. 



I would submit that the tidif is no other than 

 the sea-mew or common gull ; and that by tidifes 

 we are to understand tide-wives. Gulls in the U. 

 States are called "old wives." 



Although tidif ^nAs no place in modern English, 

 we still retain in our spoken language the two 

 words — I write as they are pronounced — huzzif 

 and middif. Now as middif is midwife, and huzzif 

 is housewife, may we not be permitted to conjec- 

 ture that tidif is tide-wife ? We shall presently 

 see a reason for this name. 



But if by tidifes (or tide-wives) we are to un- 

 derstand gulls or sea-mews, the question will im- 

 mediately arise. What is there, in the nature of 

 the common gull, which accords with the character 

 of changeableness or inconstancy here imputed by 

 Chaucer to the tidif f 



This inconstant character, it may be answered, 



does certainly attach, in a remarkable degree, and 

 in more respects than one, to the gull or sea-mew, 

 as described by ornithologists. Let us, however, 

 begin by mentioning that feature in particular 

 which Chaucer himself appears to have specially 

 had in view. 



The gull kind, before they acquire their perfect 

 plumage, are remarkable for undergoing a variety 

 of changes, each of which presents them in a dif- 

 ferent aspect ; so that they are regular turncoats. 

 It is only after several " mues" or " moultings" 

 (and a " mue" means a change, in Italian muda,) 

 that most of the gulls acquire their adult plumage 

 (Orbigny). The result is well known to zoolo- 

 gists. Under different heads with difi"erent names, 

 writers, misled by this variety in the plumage, 

 have placed gulls and goelands, which were in 

 reality of the same species. This has gone so far 

 that we find one writer corrected by another ; 

 writers questioning their own arrangements, nay, 

 some writers of the first class, ever the most ready- 

 to acknowledge a mistake, confessing and rectify- 

 ing their own errors. But, though these progressive 

 variations in the plumage of the gull for a time 

 misled and baffled our naturalists, changes of this 

 kind do not appear to have escaped our observant 

 forefathers. Chaucer, at any rate, especially se- 

 lects the tidif as an instance of changeableness in 

 respect to fashion : — 



" And tho that had done unkindnesse, 

 As doth the tidife for new fanglenesse, 

 Besought mercy of hir trespassing, 

 And humbly song hir repenting." 



Legend of Good Women, 153-6. 



Now the term fanglenesse has a particular re- 

 ference to vain decoration in dress. Conf. Shak., 

 Cymh., Act V. Sc. 4. : — 



" . . . A book .' O, rare one I 

 Be not, as in our fangled world, a. garment 

 Nobler than that it covers." 



Hence "neio fanglenesse" has a similar reference 

 to novelty in dress. Thus Cunningham (cited by 

 Richardson) : " In holyday gown, and my new- 

 fangled hat." And therefore the expression, as 

 here used by Chaucer, — 



" As doth the tidife ybr new fanglenesse," — 



is peculiarly applicable to the gull or sea-mew, 

 which, as we have seen, so often changes its coat ; 

 and which the poet seems on that account to have 

 selected, in company with the tercelet and owl 

 (of whom more anon), as an emblem of fickleness. 

 But in its mode of life, also, the whole class of 

 gulls is singularly inconstant. Although we might 

 naturally regard them as seabirds, they occasion- 

 ally wander far away to inland districts. Pennant 

 particularly records their disposition to " ramble 

 far from the sea," and exemplifies his statement 

 by mentioning that " one was taken near Oxford." 

 During the winter, the common gull in particular, 

 though it is found in vast flocks on all our shores. 



