1810. dan, i. e. Dominus, a common title; see note to B. 3119.
Constantine. 'Dan Constantine, according to Fabricius, Bibl. Med. Æt. t. i. p. 423, ed. Pat. 4to., wrote about the year 1080. His works, including the treatise mentioned in the text, were printed at Basil, 1536, fol.'—T. He has been mentioned before; see A. 433; and cf. Warton, Hist. E. Poetry, ed. 1871, ii. 368.
1812. nas no-thing eschu, was not at all remiss, or shy. Cm. Ln. read was; the rest nas; but the sense is the same. Tyrwhitt reads—he wolde nothing eschue. Wright says: 'the Harl. MS. reads nas, which seems not to furnish so good a grammatical construction'; accordingly, he reads—he wold nothing eschieu. Morris likewise reads wolde; and Bell reads wold. But the editors are all wrong; for the verb eschew-e will not rime with coitu, and it is clear that they did not know that eschu is here an adjective! Yet it occurs again in the Pers. Tale, Group I, 971; and I subjoin three more examples.
'She is escheue [read eschu] of bothe two.'
Gower, Conf. Amant. ii. 286.
'Yit gooses dounge eschew is.'
Palladius on Husbandry, bk. i. l. 528.
In this passage it rimes with mew-es, pl. sb.
'Her taste is eke eschewe.'—id. bk. iv. l. 586.
Godefroy gives the O. F. adj. eschif, eskif, 'animé de sentiments hostiles, défavorables, mauvais, mécontent, de mauvaise volonté, rétif.' Amongst his examples, we find the spellings eskius, eschius, eskieus, esqueus, eskieu, esquieu, esehieu; where the -s is a case-ending. The O. F. adj. is derived from the adj. which appears as M. H. G. schiech, cognate with E. shy. Chaucer's eschu is, accordingly, just as good an adjective as the mod. E. shy.