_undergrowe_, undergrown; i. e. of short, stinted growth. 157. _fetis_ literally signifies 'made artistically,' and hence well-made, _feat_, neat, handsome; cf. n. to l. 152. M. E. _fetis_ answers to O. F. _faitis_, _feitis_, _fetis_, neatly made, elegant; from Lat. _factitius_, artificial. _war_, aware; 'I was _war_' = I perceived. 159. _bedes._ The word _bede_ signifies, (1) a prayer; (2) a string of grains upon which the prayers were counted, or the grains themselves. The beads were made of coral, jet, cornelian, pearls, or gold. A _pair_ here means 'a set.' 'A _peire of bedis_ eke she bere'; Rom. Rose, 7372. 'Sumtyme with a portas, sumtyme with a _payre of bedes_.' Bale's King John, p. 27; Camden Soc. _gauded al with grene_, 'having the _gawdies_ green. Some were of silver gilt.'--T. The _gawdies_ or _gaudees_ were the larger beads in the set. 'One payre of beads of silver with riche _gaudeys_'; Monast. Anglicanum, viii. 1206; qu. by Rock, Church of our Fathers, iii. i. 403. 'Unum par de _Iett_ [jet] gaudyett with sylver'; Nottingham Records, iii. 188. 'A peyre bedys of jeete [_get_], gaudied with corall'; Bury Wills, p. 82, l. 16: the note says that every eleventh bead, or _gaudee_, stood for a Paternoster: the smaller beads, each for an Ave Maria. The common number was 55, for 50 Aves and 5 Paternosters. The full number was 165, for 150 Aves and 15 Paternosters, also called a Rosary or Our Lady's Psalter; see the poem on Our Lady's Psalter in Horstmann, Altenglische Legenden, Neue Folge, 1881, pp. 220-4. '_Gaudye_ of beedes, _signeau de paternoster_.'--Palsgrave. Cower (Conf. Amant., ed. Pauli, iii. 372) mentions 'A paire of bedes blacke as sable,' with 'gaudees.' See _Gaudia_ and _Precula_ in Ducange. _Gaudee_ originally meant a prayer beginning with _Gaudete_, whence the name; see _Gaudez_ in Cotgrave. 160. _broche_ = _brooch_, signified, (1) a pin; (2) a breast-pin; (3) a buckle or clasp; (4) a jewel or ornament. It was an ornament common to both sexes. The brooch seems to have been made in the shape of a capital A, surmounted by a crown. See the figure of a silver-gilt brooch in the shape of an A in the Glossary to Fairholt's Costume in England. The 'crowned A' is supposed to represent _Amor_ or _Charity_, the greatest of all the Christian graces. 'Omnia uincit amor'; Vergil, Eclog. x. 69. Cf. the use of AMOR as a motto in the Squyer of Lowe Degree, l. 215. _heng_, also spelt _heeng_, hung, is the pt. t. of M. E. _hangen_, to hang. Cf. A. S. _h[=e]ng_, pt. t. of _h[=o]n_, to hang. _shene_ (shee·n[*e]), showy, bright. Really allied, not to _shine_, but to _shew_. Cf. mod. E. _sheen_, and G. _schön_. 161. _write_ is short for _writen_ (writ·en), pp. of _wryten_ (wrii·ten), to write. [19] THE NONNE AND THREE PREESTES.