I am perfuaded to tranfcribe the following paffage, because it delineates in lively colours the fashionable diverfions and ufages of antient times. The king of Hungary endeavours to comfort his daughter with these promises, after she had fallen into a deep and incurable melancholy from the suppofed lofs of her paramour.

To morow ye fhall yn huntyng fare;
And yede, my doughter, yn a chare,

Yt shal be coverd wyth velvette reede

And clothes of fyne golde al about your heede,
With damaske whyte and asure blewe
Well dyaperd' with lyllyes newe:

▾ Embroidered, Diverfified. Chaucer of a bow, Rom. R. v. 934.

And it was painted wel and thwitten And ore al diapred, and written, &c. Thwitten is, twifted, wreathed. The following inftance from Chaucer is more to our purpose. Knight's Tale, v. 2160. Upon a ftede bay, trappid in ftele, Coverid with cloth of gold diaprid wele. This term, which is partly heraldic, occurs in the Provifor's rolls of the Greatwardrobe, containing deliveries for furnishing rich habiliments, at tilts and tournaments, and other ceremonies. "Et ad "faciendum tria harnesia pro Rege, quo

Ex

rum duo de velvetto albo operato cum "garteriis de blu et diaprez per totam campedinem cum wodehoufes." Comp. J. Coke clerici, Provifor. Magn. Garderob. ab ann. xxi. Edw. iii. de 23 membranis. ad ann. xxiii. memb. x. I believe it properly fignifies embroidering on a rich ground, as tifflue, cloth of gold, &c. This is confirmed by Peacham. "DIA"PERING is a term in drawing.-It chief"ly ferveth to counterfeit cloth of gold, "filver, damafk, brancht velvet, camblet, "&c." Compl. Gent. p. 345. Anderfon, in his Hiflory of Commerce, conjectures, that Diaper, a fpecies of printed linen, took it's name from the city of Ypres in

Flanders, where it was firft made, being originally called dipre. But that city, and others in Flanders, were no less famous for rich manufactures of ftuff; and the word in question has better pretenfions to fuch a derivation. Thus rich cloth embroidered with raijed work we called d'ipre, and from thence diaper; and to do this, or any work like it, was called to diaper, from whence the participle. Sattin of Bruges, another city of Flanders, often occurs in inventories of monaftic vestments, in the reign of Henry the eighth: and the cities of Arras and Tours are celebrated for their tapestry in Spenfer. All these cities, and others in their neighbourhood, became famous for· this fort of workmanship before 1200. The Armator of Edward the third, who finishes all the coftly apparatus for the fhews above-mentioned, confifting, among other things, of variety of the most fumptuous and ornamented embroideries on vel vet, fattin, tifflue, &c. is John of Cologn. Unless it be Colonia in Italy. Rotul. prædict. memb. viii. memb. xiii, "Quæ omnia "ordinata fuerunt per garderobarium com

petentem, de precepto ipfius Regis: et "facta et parata par manus Johis de Co"lonia, Armatoris ipfius domini nostri Regis." Johannes de Strawesburgh [Strafburgh] is mentioned as broudator regis, i. e. of Richard the fecond, in Anftis, Órd. Gart. i. 55. See also, ii. 42. I will

add

Your pomelles fhalbe ended with golde,
Your chaynes enameled many a folde.
Your mantell of ryche degre

Purple palle and armyne fre.

Jennets of Spayne that ben fo wyght
Trapped to the ground with velvet bryght.
Ye shall have harpe, fautry, and fonge,
And other myrthes you amonge,
Ye fhal have rumney, and malespine,
Both ypocraffe and vernage wyne;
Mountrese and wyne of Greke,
Both algrade and defpice eke;
Antioche and bastarde,

add a passage from Chaucer's Wife of Bath,
v. 450.

Of cloth-making she had such a haunt,
She paffid them of Ipre and of Gaunt.
"Cloth of Gaunt," i. e. Ghent, is men-
tioned in the Romaunt of the Rofe, v. 574.
Bruges was the chief mart for Indian com-
modities, about the thirteenth century. In
the year 1318, five Venetian galeaffes,
laden with Indian goods, arrived at this
city, in order to difpofe of their cargoes at
the fair. L. Guic. Defcr. di Paefi bafs. p.
174. Silk manufactures were introduced
from the east into Italy, before 1130.
Gianon. Hift. Napl. xi. 7. The crufades
much improved the commerce of the Ita-
lian ftates with the eaft in this article, and
produced new artificers of their own. But
to recur to the fubject of this note. Diaper
Occurs among the rich filks and stuffs in
the French Roman de la Roje, where it
feems to fignify Damask. v. 21867.

Samites, dyaprés, camelots.

I find it likewife in the Roman d'Alexandre,
written about 1200. MSS. Bodl. fol. i. b.
col. 2.

Dyapres d'Antioch, famis de Romanie.
Vol. L

Here is also a proof that the Afiatic stuffs were at that time famous and probably Romanie is Romania. The word often occurs in old accounts of rich ecclefiaftical veftments. Du Cange derives this word from the Italian diafpro, a jafper, a precious ftone which fhifts its colours. V. DIASPRUS. In Dugdale's Monafticon we have diafperatus, diapered. "Sandalia cum caligis de rubeo fameto DIASPERATO breu"data cum imaginibus regum." Tom. iii. 314. And 321.

z Sometimes written pimeate. In the romance of Sr Bevys, a knight just going to repofe, takes the ufual draught of pimeate which mixed with spices is what the French romances call vin du coucher, and for which an officer, called ESPICIER, was appointed in the old royal houshold of France. Signat. m. iii.

The knight and she to chamber went :-
With pimeate and with fpifery,
When they had dronken the wyne.
See Carpentier, Suppl. Gloff. Lat. Du
Cange, tom. iii. p. 842. So Chaucer, Leg.
Dido, v. 185.

The fpicis parted, and the wine agon,
Unto his chamber he is lad anon.

Wine of Greke, and mufcadell,
Boto clare, pyment, and rochell,
The reed your ftomake to defye
And pottes of ofey fett you bye.
You shall have venyfon ybake*,

b

The best wylde fowle that may be take:
A lefe of harehound with you to streke,
An hart, and hynde, and other lyke,
Ye fhalbe fet at fuch a tryst

That hart and hynde fhall come to you fyst,
Your descafe to dryve ye fro,
To here the bugles there yblowė.

Chaucer has it again, Squ. T. v. 311. p.
62. Urr. And Mill. T. v. 270. p. 26.
He fent her pimet, methe, and fpicid ale.
Some orders of monks are enjoined to ab-
ftain from drinking pigmentum or piment.
Yet it was a common refection in the mo-
nafterics. It is a drink made of wine, ho-
ney, and fpices. "Thei ne could not
medell the gefte of Bacchus to the clere
honie; that is to fay, they could not
"make ne piment ne clarre." Chaucer's
Boeth. p. 371. a. Urr. Clarre is clarified
wine. In French Clarey. Perhaps the fame
as piment, or hypocrafs. See Mem. Lit

viii. p. 674. 4to. Compare Chauc. Sh. T v. 2579. Urr. Du Cange Gloff. Lat. V. PIGMENTUM. SPECIES. And Suppl. Carp And Mem. fur l'anc. Chevalier. i. p. 19. 48. I muft add, that πιγμένταριος, Οι πιμενω Tagos, fignified an Apothecary among the middle and lower Greeks. See Du Cange, Gl. Gr. in Voc. i. 1167. And ii. Append. Etymolog. Vocab. Ling. Gall. p. 301. col. 1. In the register of the bishop of Nivernois, under the year 1287, it is covenanted, that whenever the bishop fhall celebrate mafs in S. Mary's abbey, the abbefs fhall prefent him with a peacook, and a cup of piment. Carpentier, ubi fupr. vol. iii. p. 277:

a Chaucer fays of the Frankelein, Prol. p. 4. Urr. v. 345.

Withoutin bake mete never was his house.
And in this poem, Signat. B. iii.

With birds in bread ybake,
The tele the duck and drake.

In a manufcript of Froiffart full of paintings and illuminations, there is a reprefentation of the grand entrance of queen Ifabel of England into Paris, in the year 1324. She is attended by a greyhound who has a flag, powdered with fleurs de lys, bound to his neck. Montf. Monum. Fr. ii. p. 234.

Homward

Homward thus fhall ye ryde,

On haukyng by the ryvers fyde,

With gofhauke and with gentil fawcon
With buglehorn and merlyon.

When you come home your menie amonge,
Ye shall have revell, daunces, and fonge :
Lytle chyldren, great and smale,

Shall fyng as doth the nyghtyngale,
Than fhal ye go to your evensong,
With tenours and trebles among,
Threscore of copes of damask bryght
Full of perles they fhalbe pyghte.---
Your fenfours fhalbe of golde
Endent with afure manie a folde:
Your quere nor organ fonge fhall want
With countre note and dyfcaunt.
The other halfe on orgayns playing,
With yong chyldren ful fayn fyngyng.
Than fhal ye go to your suppere
And fytte in tentis in grene arbere,

With clothe of arras pyght to the grounde,
With faphyres set of dyamounde.---
A hundred knyghtes truly tolde
Shall plaie with bowles in alayes colde.
Your disease to dryve awaie,

To fe the fishes yn poles plaie.
To a drawe brydge then shal ye,
Thone halfe of ftone, thother of tre,
A barge fhal meet you full ryht,

With xxiiii ores ful bryght,

With trompettes and with claryowne,

The fresshe watir to rowe up and downe.

Than fhal you, doughter, afke the wyne
Wyth spises that be gode and fyne:

A a 2

Gentyll

Gentyll pottes with genger grene,
Wyth dates and deynties you betweene.
Fortie torches brenynge bright

At your brydges to bring you lyght.
Into youre chambre they shall you brynge
Wyth muche myrthe and more lykynge.
Your blankettes shal be of fuftyane,
Your fhetes fhal be of cloths of rayne:
Your head-fhete fhal be of pery pyght',
Wyth dyamondes fet and rubys bryght.
Whan you are layd in bed fo fofte,
A cage of golde fhal hange aloft,
Wythe longe peper fayre burning,
And cloves that be fwete fmellyng,
Frankinsense and olibanum,

That whan ye flepe the taste may come
And yf ye no reft can take

All nyght mynstrels for you shall wake.

SYR DEGORE is a romance perhaps belonging to the same period. After his education under a hermit, Sir Degore's first adventure is against a dragon. This horrible monster is marked with the hand of a master.

c Cloath, or linen, of Rennes, a city in Britany. Chaucer, Dr. v. 255.

And many a pilowe, and every bere
Of clothe of raynes to flepe on fofte,
Him thare not nede to turnin ofte.

Tela de Reynes is mentioned among habits
delivered to knights of the garter, 2 Rich.
ii. Anftis, Ord. Gart. i. 55.

d❝Inlaid with jewels." Chaucer, Kn. T. v. 2938. p. 22. Urr.

And then with cloth of gold and with perie.
And in numberless other places.