1293. _dare_, lie motionless. This is the original sense of the word, as in E. Friesic _bedaren_. So also Low G. _bedaren_, to be still and quiet; as in _dat weer bedaart_, the weather becomes settled; _een bedaart mann_, a man who has lost the fire of youth. Du. _bedaren_, to compose, to calm. The rather common M.E. phrase _to droupe and dare_ means 'to sink down and lie quiet,' like a hunted animal in hiding; hence came the secondary sense 'to lurk' or 'lie close,' as in the Prompt. Parv. Cotgrave has F. _blotir_, 'to squat, skowke, or lie close to the ground, like a _daring_ lark or affrighted foul.' Hence also a third sense, 'to peer round,' as a lurking creature that looks out for possible danger. The word is common in M.E., and in many passages the sense 'to lie still' suits better than 'lurk,' as it is usually explained. 1295. _Were_, 'which might be,' 'which should happen to be'; the relative is understood. _forstraught_, distracted. Such is evidently the sense; but the word occurs nowhere else, and is incorrect. As far as I can make it out, Chaucer has coined this word incorrectly. The right word is _destrat_ (vol. ii. p. 67, l. 1), from O.F. _destrait_, pp. of _destraire_, to tear asunder (as by horses), to torment, fatigue (Godefroy). Next, he turned it (1) into _forstrait_, pp. of _forstraire_ (_fortraire_ in Cotgrave), to purloin; and (2) into _forstraught_, as if it were the pp. of an A.S. *_for-streccan_, to stretch exceedingly. Thus, he has made one change by altering the prefix, and another by misdividing the word and substituting English for French. A similar mistake is seen in the absurd form _distraught_, used for 'distracted,' though it is, formally, equivalent to _dis-straught_, as if made up of the prefix _dis_- and the pp. of _strecchen_, to stretch. An early instance occurs in Lydgate's Minor Poems, ed. Halliwell, p. 206, where we find '_Distrauhte_ in thouhte,' i. e. distracted in thought, mad. There is much confusion between the E. prefixes _for-_, _fore-_, and the F. _fors-_, _for-_. Chaucer has _straughte_ (correctly), as the pt. t. of _strecchen_, in A. 2916. 1298. Accent _labóured_ on the second syllable. [170] 1303. 'God knows all'; implying, 'I can contradict you, if I choose to speak.' 1321. _port-hors_, for _porte-hors_, lit. 'carry-abroad,' the F. equivalent of Lat. _portiforium_, a breviary. Also spelt _portous_, _portess_, &c. 'The _Portous_, or Breviary, contained whatever was to be said by all beneficed clerks, and those in holy orders, either in choir, or privately by themselves, as they recited their daily canonical hours; no musical notation was put into these books.'--Rock, Church of our Fathers, v. iii. pt. 2, p. 212. Dan John had just been saying 'his things' out of it (l. 1281). The music was omitted to save space. See P. Plowman, B. xv. 122, and my note on the line. 1327. _for to goon_, i. e. even though going to hell were the penalty of my keeping secret what you tell me.