The phrase was already used proverbially before Chaucer's time. In the metrical Life of St. Brandan, ed. T. Wright, p. 23, we find, 'hi caste an _ambes as_,' they cast double aces, i. e. they wholly failed. See _Ambs-ace_ in the New E. Dict. Dr. Morris notes that the phrase 'aums ace' occurs in Hazlitt's O. E. Plays, ii. 35, with the editorial remark--'not mentioned elsewhere' (!). 126. _At Cristemasse_, even at Christmas, when the severest weather comes. In olden times, severe cold must have tried the poor even more than it does now. 'Muche myrthe is in may · amonge wilde bestes, And so forth whil somer lasteþ · heore solace dureþ; And muche myrthe amonge riche men is · þat han meoble [_property_] ynow and heele [_health_]. Ac beggers aboute myd-somere · bredlees þei soupe, And [gh]ut is wynter for hem wors · for wet-shood þei gangen, A-furst and a-fyngred [_Athirst and ahungered_] · and foule rebuked Of þese worlde-riche men · þat reuthe hit is to huyre [_hear of it_].' Piers Plowman, C. xvii. 10; B. xiv. 158. 127. _seken_, search through; much like the word _compass_ in the phrase 'ye compass sea and land' in Matth. xxiii. 15. 128. _thestaat_, for _the estaat_, i. e. the estate. This coalescence of the article and substantive is common in Chaucer, when the substantive begins with a vowel; cf. _thoccident_, B. 3864; _thorient_, B. 3871. 129. _fadres_, fathers, originators; by bringing tidings from afar. 130. _debat_, strife. Merchants, being great travellers, were expected to pick up good stories. 131. _were_, should be. _desolat_, destitute. 'The E. E. word is _westi_; 'westi of alle gode theawes,' destitute of all good virtues; O. Eng. Homilies, i. 285.'--M. 132. _Nere_, for _ne were_, were it not. _goon is, &c._, many a year ago, long since. [145] THE TALE OF THE MAN OF LAWE. A story, agreeing closely with The Man of Lawes Tale, is found in Book II. of Gower's Confessio Amantis, from which Tyrwhitt supposed that Chaucer borrowed it. But Gower's version seems to be later than Chaucer's, whilst Chaucer and Gower were both alike indebted to the version of the story in French prose (by Nicholas Trivet) in MS. Arundel 56, printed for the Chaucer Society in 1872. In some places Chaucer agrees with this French version rather closely, but he makes variations and additions at pleasure. Cf. vol. iii. p. 409. The first ninety-eight lines of the preceding Prologue are written in couplets, in order to link the Tale to the others of the series; but there is nothing to show which of the other tales it was intended to follow. Next follows a more special Prologue of thirty-five lines, in five stanzas of seven lines each; so that the first line in the Tale is l. 134 of Group B, the second of the fragments into which the Canterbury Tales are broken up, owing to the incomplete state in which Chaucer left them. 134. _Surrie_, Syria; called _Sarazine_ (Saracen-land) by N. Trivet.