This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1879 Excerpt: ...helmets (Rime of Sir Thopas, B. 2067), lavers (P. PI. Crede, 196), spoons (Nares), sepulchral memorials (Way in Prompt. Parv.), and other articles. Todd, in his Illustrations of Chaucer, p. 350, remarks that the escutcheons on the tomb of the Black Prince are of laton over-gilt, in accordance with the Prince's instructions; see Nichols's Royal Wills, p. 67. He adds--'In our old Church Inventories a cross of laton frequently occurs.' See Prol. 699. 1. 351. The expression 'holy Jew' is remarkable, as the usual feeling in the middle ages was to regard all Jews with abhorrence. It is suggested, in a note to Bell's edition, that it 'must be understood of VOL. III. L some Jew before the Incarnation.' Perhaps the Pardoner wished it to be understood that the sheep was once the property of Jacob; this would help to give force to 1. 365. Cp. Gen. xxx. The best comment on the virtues of a sheep's shoulder-bone is afforded by a passage in the Persones Tale (De Ira), where w,e find--'Swering sodenly without avisement is also a gret sinne. But let us go now to that horrible swering of adiuration and coniuration, as don thise false enchaunlours and nigromancers in basins ful of water, or in a bright swerd, in a cercle, or in a fire, or in a sholder-bone of a shepe;' &C; Sir David Lyndesay inserts a cow's horn and a cow's tail in his list of pardoner's relies; cp. note to 1. 349 above. In Part I of the Records of the Folk-lore Society is an article by Mr. Thoms on the subject of divination by means of the shoulder-bone of a sheep. He shews that it was still practised in the Scottish Highlands down to the beginning of the present century, and that it is known in Greece. He further cites some passages concerning it from some scarce books; and ends by saying--'let me refe...