_text_, remark in writing; the word was used of any written statement that was frequently quoted. The allusion is to the legend of Nimrod, 'the mighty hunter' (Gen. x. 9), which described him as a very bad man. 'Mikel he cuth [much he knew] o sin and scham'; Cursor Mundi, l. 2202. It was he (it was said) who built the tower of Babel, and introduced idolatry and fire-worship. All this has ceased to be familiar, and the allusion has lost its point. 'We enjoin that a priest be not a hunter, nor a hawker, nor a dicer'; Canons of King Edgar, translated; no. 64. See my note to P. Plowman, C. vi. 157. [22] 179. _recchelees_ (in MS. E.) means careless, regardless of rule; but 'a careless monk' is not necessarily 'a monk out of his cloister.' But the reading _cloisterless_ (in MS. Harl.) solves the difficulty; being _a coined word_, Chaucer goes on to explain it in l. 181. See the quotation from Jehan de Meung in the next note. 179-81. This passage, says Tyrwhitt, 'is attributed by Gratian (_Decretal._ P. ii. Cau. xvi. q. l. c. viii.) to a pope Eugenius: _Sicut piscis sine aqua caret vita, ita sine monasterio monachus._' Joinville says, 'The Scriptures do say that a monk cannot live out of his cloister without falling into deadly sins, any more than a fish can live out of water without dying.' Cf. Piers Plowman, B. x. 292; and my note. Wyclif (Works, ed. Matthew), p. 449, has a similar remark:--'For, as they seyn that groundiden [_founded_] these cloystris, thes men myghten no more dwelle out ther-of than fizs myghte dwelle out of water, for vertu that they han ther-ynne.' The simile is very old; in The Academy, Nov. 29, 1890, Prof. Albert Cook traced it back to Sozomen, Eccl. Hist. bk. i. c. 13 (Migne, Patr. Graec. 67. 898):--[Greek: tous men gar ichthuas elege tên hugran ousian trephein, monachois de kosmon pherein tên erêmon. episês te tous men xêras aptomenous to zên apolimpanein, tous de tên monastikên semnotêta apolluein tois astesi prosiontas.] And in The Academy, Dec. 6, 1890, Mr. H. Ellershaw, of Durham, shewed that it occurs still earlier, in the Life of St. Anthony (c. 85) attributed to St. Athanasius, not later than A.D. 373:--[Greek: hôsper hoi ichthues enchronizontes têi xêrai gêi teleutôsin; houtôs hoi monachoi bradunontes meth' humôn kai par' humin endiatribontes ekluontai.] Moreover, the poet was thinking of a passage in Le Testament de Jehan de Meung, ed. Méon, l. 1166:-- 'Qui les voldra trover, si les quiere en leur cloistre ... Car ne prisent le munde la montance d'une oistre.' i. e. 'whoever would find them, let him seek them in their cloister; for they do not prize the world at the value of an oyster.' Chaucer turns this passage just the other way about. 182. _text_, remark, saying (as above, in l. 177). _held_, esteemed. 183. 'And _I_ said.' This is a very realistic touch; as if Chaucer had been talking to the monk, obtaining his opinions, and professing to agree with them.