'Ainc tant come il mist a descendre,
Ne trouva point de pain a vendre,'
i. e. he found no bread to sell in his descent. His reference is to the Fabliaux, t. ii. p. 282; Wright refers, for the same, to the fabliau of Aloul, in Barbazan, l. 591. I suppose the sense is, 'he never stopped, as if to transact business.'
3822. E. Hn. celle; rest selle. The word celle might mean 'chamber.' There was an approach to the roof, which they had reached by help of a ladder; and the three tubs were hung among the balks which formed the roof of the principal sitting-room below. But it is difficult to see how the word celle could be applied to the chief room in the house. Tyrwhitt explains selle as 'door-sill or threshold'; but we must bear in mind that the usual M. E. form of sill was either sille or sulle, from A. S. syll. The spelling with s proves nothing, since Chaucer undoubtedly means 'cell' in A. 1376, where Cm. Hl. have selle, and in B. 3162, where three MSS. (Cp. Pt. Ln.) all read selle again. Why the carpenter should have arrived at the door-sill, I do not know.
Nevertheless, upon further thoughts, I accept Tyrwhitt's view, with some modification. We find that Chaucer actually uses Kentish forms (with e for A. S. y) elsewhere, for the sake of a rime. A clear case is that of fulfelle, in Troil. iii. 510. This justifies the dat. form selle (A. S. sylle). But we must take selle to mean 'flooring' or 'boarding,' and floor to mean the ground beneath it; just as we find, in Widegren's Swedish Dictionary, that syll means 'the timber next the ground.' I would therefore read selle, with the sense of 'flooring'; and I explain floor by 'flat earth.' In the allit. Morte Arthure, 3249, flores signifies 'plains.' In Gawayn and the Grene Knyght, 55, sille means 'floor.'
3841. Observe the form cape, as a variant of gape, both here and in l. 3444 (see footnotes); and in Troil. v. 1133.
The Reve's Prologue.
3855. For laughen, Tyrwhitt has laughed, and in l. 3858 has the extraordinary form lought, but he corrects the former of these in his
Notes. The verb was originally strong; see examples in Stratmann, s. v. hlahhen.
3857. Repeated, nearly, in F. 202; see note.