XV.
Rebeck.
Rebeck is a word well known from Milton's exquisite "L'Allegro." Sir John Hawkins (vol. ii. page 86) traces it to the Moorish Rebeb; and believes he finds this old three-stringed fiddle in the hands of Chaucer's Absolon, the parish-clerk, who could "plaie songs on a smale ribible."
[XV.]
St. Guthlacke.
The patron saint of the ancient Abbey of Croyland.
[XVI.]
The Swineherd of Stow.
St. Remigius, the Norman bishop, is placed on the pinnacle of one buttress that terminates the splendid façade, or west front of Lincoln Cathedral, and the Swineherd of Stow, with his horn in his hand, on the other. The tradition is in the mouth of every Lincolner, that this effigied honour was conferred on the generous rudester because he gave his horn filled with silver pennies towards the rebuilding or beautifying of the Minster.
[XVII.]
"Nor bate a jot of heart or hope."
Milton's Sonnet on his blindness.