C. 406. In the long note at pp. 272-274, I have shewn that the sense is 'though their souls go a-gathering blackberries,' i. e. wander wherever they please. Mr. E.M. Spence suggests for comparison the well-known words of Falstaff (1 Hen. IV. ii. 4. 448):—'Shall the blessed sun of heaven prove a micher and eat blackberries?'
C. 570. In the Accounts of Henry, Earl of Derby, on his return from Prussia in 1391, the following item occurs for March:—'Et per manus eiusdem pro ij barrellis ferreres [vessels for carrying wine on horseback] vini de Lepe, viz. lj stope per ipsum emptis ibidem, ij nobles'; printed for the Camden Society, ed. L. Toulmin Smith, p. 95. Miss Toulmin Smith quotes from Henderson's History of Wines, 1824, the note that Lepe wine is 'a strong white wine of Spain,' and that Lepe is 'a small town on the sea-coast, between Ayamont and Palos, long celebrated for figs, raisins, and wine.' Its position was favourable, as it is in the part of Andalucia nearest to England. See Lepe in Pinero's Spanish Dictionary, ed. 1740.
D. 110. The word fore occurs also, but with the Southern spelling vore, in P. Plowman, C. vii. 118; on which see my note.
D. 325. At line 180 above (see the note), the Wife is plainly alluding to one of the passages in Le Roman de la Rose in which the Almageste is mentioned; and I have no doubt that she here refers to the other (l. 18772). For though the passage quoted by Jean de Meun, as from the Almagest, is really quite different, there is a general reference, in the context, to the idea of contentment:—
'Car soffisance fait richece,' &c.
And just below:—
'Cil qui nous escrit l'Almageste.'
F. 226. Many examples are given in Godefroy of the use of Fr. maistre with the adjectival sense of 'principal' or 'chief.' Thus we find la mestre yglise, la mestre tor, la maistre rue, la maistre cité, la maistre tente. See Maister in the Glossarial Index.
F. 233. Tyrwhitt remarks that a 'treatise on Perspective, under his name [i. e. of Aristotle], is mentioned by Vincent of Beauvais, in the thirteenth century (Speculum Historiale, lib. iii. c. 84):—"Extat etiam liber, qui dicitur Perspectiva Aristotelis."' See the word Aristotle in Tyrwhitt's Glossary to Chaucer.