115. _Christofre._ 'A figure of St. Christopher, used as a brooch.... The figure of St. Christopher was looked upon with particular reverence [13] among the middle and lower classes; and was supposed to possess the power of shielding the person who looked on it from hidden dangers'; note in Wright's Chaucer. This belief is clearly shewn by a passage in Wright's History of Caricature. It is of so early an origin that we already meet with it in Anglo-Saxon in Cockayne's Shrine, p. 77, where we are told that St. Christopher 'prayed God that every one who has any relic of him should never be condemned in his sins, and that God's anger should never come upon him'; and that his prayer was granted. There is a well-known early woodcut exhibiting one of the earliest specimens of block-printing, engraved at p. 123 of Chambers' Book of Days, vol. ii, and frequently elsewhere. The inscription beneath the figure of the saint runs as follows:-- 'Christofori faciem die quacunque tueris Illa nempe die morte mala non morieris.' Hence the Yeoman wore his brooch for good luck. St. Christopher's day is July 25. For his legend, see Mrs. Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art, ii. 48; &c. _shene_; see n. to l. 160. 116. Riley, in his Memorials of London, p. 115, explains _baldric_ as 'a belt passing mostly round one side of the neck, and under the opposite arm.' In 1314, a baldric cost 12d. (same reference). See Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 29. 117. _forster_, forester. Hence the names Forester, Forster, and Foster. THE PRIORESSE. 118. 'A nunne, y wene a pryores'; Rob. of Brunne, Hand. Synne, 7809. 120. In this line, as in ll. 509 and 697, the word _se-ynt_ seems to be dissyllabic. Six MSS. agree here; and the seventh (Harleian) has _nas_ for _was_, which keeps the same rhythm. Edd. 1532, 1550, and 1561 have the same words, omitting _but_. _seynt Loy. Loy_ is from _Eloy_, i. e. St. _Eligius_, whose day is Dec. 1; see the long account of him in Butler's Lives of the Saints. He was a goldsmith, and master of the mint to Clotaire II., Dagobert I., and Clovis II. of France; and was also bishop of Noyon. He became the patron saint of goldsmiths, farriers, smiths, and carters. The Lat. _Eligius_ necessarily became _Eloy_ in O. French, and is _Eloy_ or _Loy_ in English, the latter form being the commoner. The Catholicon Anglicum (A.D. 1483) gives: '_Loye_, elegius (_sic_), nomen proprium.' Sir T. More, Works, ed. 1577, p. 194, says: '_St. Loy_ we make an horse-leche.' Barnaby Googe, as cited in Brand, Pop. Antiq. i. 364 (ed. Ellis), says:-- 'And _Loye_ the smith doth looke to horse, and smithes of all degree, If they with iron meddle here, or if they goldesmithes bee.'