1469. Cf. F. 202.
1474. disputisoun, disputation. Many MSS. have disputacioun, which is too long. The form, as Tyrwhitt remarks, is quite correct; see B. 4428, F. 890. Spelt desputeson in Gower, Conf. Amant. i. 90. See disputoison in Godefroy, with the variants in -aison, -eison, -eson, -ison. Compare orison with oration.
1476. Placebo. This name has reference to his complaisant disposition; see note to D. 2075. So, in the Ayenbite of Inwyt, ed.
Morris, p. 60, we have: 'The verthe zenne is, thet huanne hi alle zingeth Placebo, thet is to zigge: "mi lhord zayth zoth, my lhord doth wel"; and wendeth to guode al thet the guodeman deth other zayth, by hit guod, by hit kuead.'
1485. This quotation is not from Solomon, but from Jesus son of Sirach; see Ecclus. xxxii. 19:—'Do nothing without advice, and when thou hast once done, repent not.' Chaucer follows the Vulgate version; see note to B. 2193, where the quotation recurs.
1516. 'Your heart hangs on a jolly pin,' i. e. is in a merry state. A pin was a name for a wooden peg; and to hang on a pin was to be hung up conspicuously. Palsgrave, p. 844, has: 'Upon a mery pynne, de hayt; as, il a le cueur de hayt'; cf. 'Hait, liveliness, ... cheerfulness' in Cotgrave. Halliwell gives: 'on the pin, on the qui vive.' Later, the phrase became in a merry pin, i. e. in a good humour; but this is thought to refer to the pins or pegs in a 'peg-tankard'; see Pin in Nares. Cowper, in his John Gilpin, has 'in merry pin.'
1523. See Seneca, De Beneficiis, capp. 14-16; Lounsbury, Studies, ii. 270. However, it is really taken from Map's Epistola Valerii, c. 9: 'Philosophicum est: Videto cui des. Ethica est: Videto cui te des.'—Anglia, xiii. 183. Cf. P. Plowman, B. vii. 74, and the note.
1535. chydester, the feminine form of chyder, which is the form used in MSS. Pt. and Hl. I can find no other example; but, in the Romaunt of the Rose, ll. 150, 4266, we find chideresse.
1536. mannish wood, with masculine manners, and mad; virago-like. Certainly the right reading, and found in E. Hn. Cm. Unluckily, Tyrwhitt and others have adopted the nonsensical reading of Pt. and Hl., viz. a man is wood! Cp. Ln. have of maneres wood, which is better, but is clearly a mere substitution for the original mannish. For mannish, masculine, we have Chaucer's own authority; see B. 782, and the note.
1538. 'A metaphor from horses, meaning, No woman is without faults, just as there is no horse which will trot perfectly sound in all respects.'—Bell. From Albertano of Brescia, Liber de Amore Dei: 'Nulla tam bona uxor, in qua non inuenias quod queraris.'—Köppel.