349. _Reliks._ In the Prologue, we read that he had the Virgin Mary's veil and a piece of the sail of St. Peter's ship. Below, we have mention of the shoulder-bone of a holy Jew's sheep, and of a miraculous mitten. See Heywood's impudent plagiarism from this passage in his description of a Pardoner, as printed in the note to l. 701 of Dr. Morris's edition of Chaucer's Prologue. See also a curious list of relics in Chambers' Book of Days, i. 587; and compare the humorous descriptions of the pardoner and his wares in Sir David Lyndesay's Satyre of the Three Estates, ll. 2037-2121. Chaucer probably here took several hints from Boccaccio's Decamerone, Day 6, Nov. 10, wherein Frate Cipolla produces many very remarkable relics to the public gaze. See also the list of relics in Political, Religious, and Love Poems, ed. Furnivall (E. E. T. S.), pp. xxxii, 126-9. 350. _latoun._ The word _latten_ is still in use in Devon and the North of England for plate tin, but as Halliwell remarks, that is not the sense of _latoun_ in our older writers. It was a kind of mixed metal, somewhat resembling brass both in its nature and colour, but still more like pinchbeck. It was used for helmets (Rime of Sir Thopas, B. 2067), lavers (P. Pl. 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. A. 699, and the note. I here copy the description of this metal given in Batman upon Bartholomè; lib. xvi. c. 5. '_Of Laton._ [271] Laton is called _Auricalcum_, and hath that name, for, though it be brasse or copper, yet it shineth as gold without, as _Isidore_ saith; for brasse is _calco_ in Greeke. Also _laton_ is hard as brasse or copper; for by medling of copper, of tinne, and of auripigment [orpiment] and with other mettal, it is brought in the fire to the colour of gold, as _Isidore_ saith. Also it hath colour and likenesse of gold, but not the value.' 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 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 l. 365. Cp. Gen. xxx.