“I’ll startle you
Worse than the sacring bell.”
It is rung in the Romish Church to give notice that the “Host” is approaching, and is now called “Sanctus bell,” from the words “Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth,” pronounced by the priest.
On the graphic passage where Macbeth (ii. 1) says:
“The bell invites me.
Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven or to hell”—
Malone has this note: “Thus Raleigh, speaking of love, in England’s ‘Helicon’ (1600):
“‘It is perhaps that sauncing bell
That toules all into heaven or hell.’”
Sauncing being probably a mistake for sacring or saint’s bell, originally, perhaps, written “saintis bell.” In “Hudibras” we find:
“The old saintis bell that rings all in.”
Carpet-knights. These were knights dubbed at court by mere favor, and not on the field of battle, for their military exploits. In “Twelfth Night” (iii. 4), Sir Toby defines one of them thus: “He is knight, dubbed with unhatched rapier, and on carpet consideration.”
A “trencher knight” was probably synonymous, as in “Love’s Labour’s Lost” (v. 2):