4415. _for_, because, since. _louke_, an accomplice who entices the dupe into the thief's company, a decoyer of victims. Not 'a receiver to a thief,' as Tyrwhitt guessed, but his assistant in thieving, one who helped him (as Chaucer says) to suck others by stealing or borrowing. It answers to an A. S. _*l[=u]ca_ (not found), formed with the agential suffix _-a_ from _l[=u]can_, lit. to pull, pluck, root up weeds, hence (probably) to draw, entice. The corresponding E. Friesic _l[=u]kan_ or _lukan_ means not only to pull, pluck, but also to milk or suck (see Koolman). The Low G. _luken_ means not only to pull up weeds, but [131] also to suck down, or to take a long pull in drinking; hence O. F. _louchier_, _loukier_, to swallow. From the A. S. _l[=u]can_, to pluck up, comes the common prov. E. _louk_, _lowk_, _look_, to pluck up weeds; see Ray, Whitby Glossary, &c. 4417. _brybe_, to purloin; not to bribe in the modern sense; see the New E. Dict. 4422. Here the Tale suddenly breaks off; so it was probably never finished. *** See Notes to Gamelin at the end of the Notes to the Tales. * * * * * [132] NOTES TO GROUP B. INTRODUCTION TO THE MAN OF LAWES TALE. 1. If, as Mr. Furnivall supposes, the time of the telling of the Canterbury Tales be taken to be longer than one day, we may suppose the Man of Lawes Tale to begin the stories told on the _second_ morning of the journey, April 18. Otherwise, we must suppose all the stories in Group A to precede it, which is not impossible, if we suppose the pilgrims to have started early in the morning. _Hoste._ This is one of the words which are sometimes dissyllabic, and sometimes monosyllabic; it is here a dissyllable, as in l. 39. See note to line 1883 below. _sey_, i. e. saw. The forms of 'saw' vary in the MSS. In this line we find _saugh_, _sauh_, _segh_, _sauhe_, _sawh_, none of which are Chaucer's own, but due to the scribes. The true form is determined by the rime, as in the Clerkes Tale, E. 667, where most of the MSS. have _say_. A still better spelling is _sey_, which may be found in the House of Fame, 1151, where it rimes with _lay_. The A. S. form is _s[=e]ah_. 2. _The ark_, &c. In Chaucer's Treatise on the Astrolabe, pt. ii. ch. 7 (vol. iii. 194), is the proposition headed--'to knowe the arch of the day, that some folk callen the day artificial, from the sonne arysing til hit go to reste.' Thus, while the 'day natural' is twenty-four hours, the 'day artificial' is the time during which the sun is above the horizon. The 'arc' of this day merely means the extent or duration of it, as reckoned along the circular rim of an astrolabe; or, when measured along the horizon (as here), it means the arc extending from the point of sunrise to that of sunset. _ronne_, run, performed, completed.