157. fetis literally signifies 'made artistically,' and hence well-made, feat, neat, handsome; cf. n. to l. 152. M. E. fetis answers to O. F. faitis, feitis, fetis, neatly made, elegant; from Lat. factitius, artificial.
war, aware; 'I was war' = I perceived.
159. bedes. The word bede signifies, (1) a prayer; (2) a string of grains upon which the prayers were counted, or the grains themselves. The beads were made of coral, jet, cornelian, pearls, or gold. A pair here means 'a set.' 'A peire of bedis eke she bere'; Rom. Rose, 7372.
'Sumtyme with a portas, sumtyme with a payre of bedes.'
Bale's King John, p. 27; Camden Soc.
gauded al with grene, 'having the gawdies green. Some were of silver gilt.'—T. The gawdies or gaudees were the larger beads in the set. 'One payre of beads of silver with riche gaudeys'; Monast. Anglicanum, viii. 1206; qu. by Rock, Church of our Fathers, iii. i. 403. 'Unum par de Iett [jet] gaudyett with sylver'; Nottingham Records, iii. 188. 'A peyre bedys of jeete [get], gaudied with corall'; Bury Wills, p. 82, l. 16: the note says that every eleventh bead, or gaudee, stood for a Paternoster: the smaller beads, each for an Ave Maria. The common number was 55, for 50 Aves and 5 Paternosters. The full number was 165, for 150 Aves and 15 Paternosters, also called a Rosary or Our Lady's Psalter; see the poem on Our Lady's Psalter in Horstmann, Altenglische Legenden, Neue Folge, 1881, pp. 220-4. 'Gaudye of beedes, signeau de paternoster.'—Palsgrave. Cower (Conf. Amant., ed. Pauli, iii. 372) mentions 'A paire of bedes blacke as sable,' with 'gaudees.' See Gaudia and Precula in Ducange. Gaudee originally meant a prayer beginning with Gaudete, whence the name; see Gaudez in Cotgrave.
160. broche = brooch, signified, (1) a pin; (2) a breast-pin; (3) a buckle or clasp; (4) a jewel or ornament. It was an ornament common to both sexes. The brooch seems to have been made in the shape of a capital A, surmounted by a crown. See the figure of a silver-gilt brooch in the shape of an A in the Glossary to Fairholt's Costume in England. The 'crowned A' is supposed to represent Amor or Charity, the greatest of all the Christian graces. 'Omnia uincit amor'; Vergil, Eclog. x. 69. Cf. the use of AMOR as a motto in the Squyer of Lowe Degree, l. 215.
heng, also spelt heeng, hung, is the pt. t. of M. E. hangen, to hang. Cf. A. S. hēng, pt. t. of hōn, to hang.
shene (shee·nə), showy, bright. Really allied, not to shine, but to shew. Cf. mod. E. sheen, and G. schön.
161. write is short for writen (writ·en), pp. of wryten (wrii·ten), to write.