Courting popularity among all people, they were different men and acted differently in the villages where they made their rounds; to their wallet they added store of thread, needles, ointments, with which they traded:
“Thei becomen pedleris, berynge knyves, pursis, pynnys and girdlis and spices and sylk and precious pellure and forrouris for wymmen, and therto smale gentil hondis (dogs), to gete love of hem.”[425]
They were more and more the subject of song and cause of mirth, but they did not mind, being the better advertised thereby:
“Thai wandren here and there,
And dele with dyvers marcerye,
Right as thai pedlers were.
Thai dele with purses, pynnes, and knyves,
With gyrdles, gloves, for whenches and wyves.”[426]
The anonymous author, a contemporary of Chaucer, adds:
“I was a frere ful many a day,