Minor Notes.
Meaning of "Ruell."
—In the "Rhime of Sir Thopas" Chaucer says:
"His sadell was of ruell bone
His bridle as the sun yshone," &c.
Translated by Z. A. Z.:
"His saddle was of jit black bone."
Whitaker and Co. London, 1841.
Tyrwhitt says:
"His sadel was of rewel bone."
What kind of material this was, I profess myself quite ignorant.
"In the Turnament of Tottenham, ver. 75. (Anc. Poet., vol. ii. p. 18.), Tibbe is introduced with 'a garland on her head full of ruell bones.' The derivation in Gloss. Urr. of this word from the French riolé, diversely coloured, has not the least probability. The other, which deduces it from the French rouelle, rotula, the whirl-bone or knee-pan, is more plausible; though, as the glossarist observes, that sense will hardly suit here."—Chaucer, by Thomas Tyrwhitt, Esq. Pickering: London, 1830.
"His saddle was of ruel bone."
Chaucer, by Thomas Speght.
London, 1687.
And its Glossary says:
"RUELL BONE, f. of the French word riolé, that is, diversely colored: an Antistæcon in many words derived from another language; as, in Law from Loy, and Roy from Rex."
So far the printed attempts at explaining this term ruell. May I submit for the consideration of your readers, that it is related to the French adjective rouillé, rusty; used by Molière in the form enrouillé. Evidently this has affinity to ruber, rouge, and red. So that Tibbe's garland would be of tortoise-shell combs: and the saddle would be of a similar nature.
La Ryole is found as the name of the tenement occupied by Thomas le Bat (temp. Ed. III.?) Was this the sign of "The Comb," which is so often seen in the windows of our present shops?
J. W. P.
Curious Facts in Natural History (Vol. iii., pp. 166, 398.).
—In St. Lucia a coleopterous insect is found with a small plant growing directly from the back. I have myself seen it; but the plant consisted merely of the first two leaflets.
E. H. B.
Demerary.