2051. habergeoun, coat of mail. See Prol. A. 76, and the note.
2052. For percinge, as a protection against the piercing. So in P. Plowman, B. vi. 62, Piers puts on his cuffs, 'for colde of his nailles,' i. e. as a protection against the cold. So too in the Rom. of the Rose, l. 4229.
2053. The hauberk is here put on as an upper coat of mail, of finer workmanship and doubtless more flexible.
'The hauberk was al reed of rust,
His platys thykke and swythe just';
Octouian, ed. Weber, iii. 200.
'He was armed wonder weel,
And al with plates off good steel,
And ther aboven, an hawberk';
Richard Coer de Lion, ed. Weber, ii. 222.