Upon the cop right of his nose he hedde
A wert.—Chaucer, Cant. Tales, v. 556.
[375] Deut. Mythol. p. 492.
[376] See [France]. In is a mere termination, perhaps, like on, a diminutive, as in Catin Kate, Robin Bob. Lutin was also spelt Luyton: see p. [42].
[377] The two lines which follow
Fro the nightes mare the witè Paternoster!
Where wonest thou Seint Peter's suster?
are rather perplexing. We would explain them thus. Bergerac, as quoted by Brand (Pop. Antiq. i. 312. Bohn's edit.) makes a magician say "I teach the shepherds the wolf's paternoster," i. e. one that keeps off the wolf. Wite may then be i. q. wight, and wight paternoster be a safeguard against the wights, and we would read the verse thus: "Fro the nightes mare the wite paternoster" sc. blisse it or us. St. Peter's suster, i. e. wife (see I Cor. ix. 5) may have been canonised in the popular creed, and held to be potent against evil beings. The term suster was used probably to obviate the scandal of supposing the first Pope to have been a married man. This charm is given at greater length and with some variations by Cartwright in his Ordinary, Act iii. sc. 1.
[378] He derives it from the French oursin, but the Ang.-Sax. name of the hedgehog is e
cen.