sendal (or cendal), a kind of rich thin silk used for lining, very highly esteemed. Thynne says—'a thynne stuffe lyke sarcenett.' Palsgrave however has 'cendell, thynne lynnen, sendal.' See Piers Plowman, B. vi. 11; Marco Polo, ed. Yule (see the index).
441. esy of dispence, moderate in his expenditure.
442. wan in pestilence, acquired during the pestilence. This is an allusion to the great pestilence of the years 1348, 1349; or to the later pestilences in 1362, 1369, and 1376.
443. For = because, seeing that. It was supposed that aurum potabile was a sovereign remedy in some cases. The actual reference is, probably, to Les Remonstrances de Nature, by Jean de Meun, ll. 979, 980, &c.; 'C'est le fin et bon or potable, L'humide radical notable; C'est souveraine medecine'; and the author goes on to refer us to Ecclus. xxxviii. 4—'The Lord hath created medicines out of the earth; and he that is wise will not abhor them.' Hence the Doctor would not abhor gold. And further—'C'est medecine cordiale'; ib. 1029. To return to aurum potabile: I may observe that it is mentioned in the play called Humour out of Breath, Act i. sc. 1; and there is a footnote to the effect that this was the 'Universal Medicine of the alchemists, prepared from gold, mercury, &c. The full receipt will be found in the Fifth and last Part of the Last Testament of Friar Basilius Valentinus, London, 1670, pp. 371-7.' See also Thomson's Hist. of Chemistry, vol. i. p. 164; Burton's Anat. of Melancholy, pt. 2. sec. 4. mem. 1. subsec. 4.
The Wyf of Bathe.
445. of bisyde, &c., from (a place) near Bath, i. e. from a place in its suburbs; for elsewhere she is simply called the Wyf of Bathe.
446. 'But she was somewhat deaf, and that was her misfortune.' We should now say—'and it was a pity.'
447. clooth-making. 'The West of England, and especially the neighbourhood of Bath, from which the "good wif" came, was celebrated, till a comparatively recent period, as the district of cloth-making. Ypres and Ghent were the great clothing-marts on the Continent.'—Wright. 'Edward the third brought clothing first into this Island, transporting some families of artificers from Gaunt hither.'—Burton's Anat. of Mel. p. 51. 'Cloth of Gaunt' is mentioned in the Romaunt of the Rose, l. 574 (vol. i. p. 117).
haunt, use, practice; i. e. she was so well skilled (in it).