Sax., to bind, and rana, Icelandic, to plunder."
The question is, are we to accept this phrase in the sense it is commonly used, to seize and plunder; or have later and better philologists mended the version?
The context in Chaucer does not seem to warrant the interpretation given by Tyrwhit. The narrator is warning his hearers against the rogueries of alchemy:
"If that your eyen cannot seen aright,
Loketh that youre mind lacke not his sight.
For tho' ye loke never so brode and stare,
Ye shul not win a mite on that chaffare,
But wasten all that ye may rape and renne.
Withdraw the fire, lest it to faste brenne;
Medleth no more with that art, I mene;