4022. Ful sooty was hir bour, and eek hir halle. The widow's house consisted of only two apartments, designated by the terms bower and hall. Whilst the widow and her 'daughters two' slept in the bower, Chanticleer and his seven wives roosted on a perch in the hall, and the swine disposed themselves on the floor. The smoke of the fire had to find its way through the crevices of the roof. See Our English Home, pp. 139, 140. Cf. Virgil, Ecl. vii. 50—'assidua postes fuligine nigri.' Also—
'At his beds feete feeden his stalled teme,
His swine beneath, his pullen ore the beame.'
Hall's Satires, bk. v. sat. 1; v. 1. p. 56, ed. 1599.
4025. No deyntee (Elles. &c.); Noon deynteth (Harl.).
4029. hertes suffisaunce, a satisfied or contented mind, literally heart's satisfaction. Cf. our phrase 'to your heart's content.'
4032. wyn ... whyt nor reed. The white wine was sometimes called 'the wine of Osey' (Alsace); the red wine of Gascony, sometimes called 'Mountrose,' was deemed a liquor for a lord. See Our English Home, p. 83; Piers Pl. prol. l. 228.
4035. Seynd bacoun, singed or broiled bacon. an ey or tweye, an egg or two.
4036. deye. The daia (from the Icel. deigja) is mentioned in Domesday among assistants in husbandry; and the term is again found in 2nd Stat. 25 Edward III (A.D. 1351). In Stat. 37 Edward III (A.D. 1363), the deye is mentioned among others of a certain rank, not having goods or chattels of 40s. value. The deye was usually a female, whose duty was to make butter and cheese, attend to the calves and poultry, and other odds and ends of the farm. The dairy (in some parts of England, as in Shropshire, called a dey-house) was the department assigned to her. See Prompt. Parv., p. 116.
4039. In Caxton's translation of Reynard the Fox, the cock's name is Chantecleer. In the original, it is Canticleer; from his clear voice in singing. In the same, Reynard's second son is Rosseel; see l. 4524.