'A Corbel, Corbet, or Corbill in masonrie, is a iutting out like a bragget [bracket] as carpenters call it, or shouldering-peece in timber-work'; Minsheu's Dict. ed. 1627. Tyrwhitt explains corbets by 'niches for statues'; but 'imageries' are not necessarily statues or images, but rather specimens of carved work.
[1309]. 'A bounty! a bounty! hold up (your hands) well (to catch it).' Sir W. Scott explains largesse as 'the cry with which heralds and pursuivants were wont to acknowledge the bounty received from the knights'; note to Marmion, canto i. St. 11. The word is still in use amongst gleaners in East Anglia; see my note to P. Plowman, C. viii. 109.
[1311]. In Anglia, xiv. 236, Dr. Köppell points out some resemblances between the present poem and Boccaccio's Amorosa Visione. He compares this line with the A. V. vi. 75:—'Io son la Gloria del popol mondano.'
[1316, 7]. Kinges, i.e. kings-at-arms; losenges, lozenges (with g as j).
[1326]. Cote-armure, surcoat; see Way's note in Prompt. Parv.
[1329-35]. Imitated from Rom. Rose, 6762-4.
[1330]. Been aboute, used like the old phrase go about.
[1342-6]. Cf. Boccaccio, Amorosa Visione, iv. 9:—'Ed in una gran sala ci trovammo; Chiara era e bella e risplendente d'oro.'
[1346]. Wikke, poor, much alloyed.
[1352]. Lapidaire, 'a treatise on precious stones, so entitled; probably a French translation of the Latin poem of Marbodus De Gemmis, which is frequently cited by the name of Lapidarius; Fabricius, Bibl. Med. Æt., in v. Marbodus'; Tyrwhitt's Glossary. The Lapidarium of Abbot Marbodus (Marbœuf), composed about 1070-80, is chiefly taken from Pliny and Solinus. A translation in English verse is given in King's Antique Gems. See note to l. 1363 below. There is some account of several precious stones in Philip de Thaun's Bestiary, printed in Wright's Popular Treatises on Science; at p. 127 he refers to the Lapidaire. Vincent of Beauvais refers to it repeatedly, in book viii. of his Speculum Naturale. There is a note about this in Warton, Hist. E. P. ed. 1871, ii. 324. And see note to l. 1363.