184. _What_ has here its earliest sense of _wherefore_, or _why_. _wood_, mad, foolish, is frequently employed by Spenser; A. S. _w[=o]d_. 186. _swinken_, to toil; whence '_swinked_ hedger,' used by Milton (Comus, l. 293). But _swinken_ is, properly, a strong verb; A. S. _swincan_, pt. t. _swanc_, pp. _swuncen_. Hence _swink_, s., toil; l. 188. 187. _bit_, the 3rd pers. sing. pres. of _bidden_, to command. So also _rit_, rideth, A. 974, 981; _fynt_, findeth, A. 4071; _rist_, riseth, A. 4193; _stant_, standeth, B. 618; _sit_, sitteth, D. 1657; _smit_, smiteth, E. 122; _hit_, hideth, F. 512. 187, 188. _Austin_, St. Augustine. The reference is to St. Augustine [23] of Hippo, after whom the Augustinian Canons were named. Their rule was compiled from his writings. Thus we read that 'bothe monks and chanouns forsaken the reules of Benet and Austyn'; Wyclif's Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 511. And again--'Seynt Austyn techith munkis _to labore with here hondis_, and so doth seint Benet and seynt Bernard'; Wyclif's Works, ed. Matthew, p. 51. See Cutts, Scenes and Characters, &c.; ch. ii. and ch. iii. 189. _a pricasour_, a hard rider. _priking_, hard riding (l. 191). 190. Cf. 'Also fast so the fowl in flyght'; Ywaine and Gawin, 630. 192. _for no cost_, for no expense. Dr. Morris explains _for no cost_ by 'for no reason,' and certainly M. E. _cost_ sometimes has such a force; but see ll. 213, 799, where it clearly means 'expense.' 193. _seigh_, saw; A. S. _s[=e]ah_, pt. t. of _s[=e]on_, to see. _purfiled_, edged with fur. The M. E. _purfil_ signifies the embroidered or furred hem of a garment, so that _purfile_ is to work upon the edge. _Purfiled_ has also a more extended meaning, and is applied to garments overlaid with gems or other ornaments. '_Pourfiler d'or_, to _purfle_, tinsell, or overcast with gold thread,' &c.: Cotgrave. Spenser uses _purfled_ in the Fairy Queene, i. 2. 13; ii. 3. 26. Cf. note to P. Plowman, C. iii. 10. 194. _grys_, a sort of costly grey fur, formerly very much esteemed; O. F. _gris_, Rom. de la Rose, 9121, 9307; Sir Tristrem, l. 1381. 'The _grey_ is the back-fur of the northern squirrel'; L. Gautier, Chivalry (Eng. tr.), p. 323. Such a dress as is here described must have been very expensive. In 1231 (Close Roll, 16 Hen. III.), king Henry III. had a skirt (_iupa_) of scarlet, furred with red _gris_. See Gloss. to Liber Custumarum, ed. Riley, s. v. _griseum_, p. 806. In Lydgate's Dance of Macabre, the Cardinal is made to regret-- 'That I shal never hereafter clothed be In _grise_ nor ermine, _like unto my degree_.' The Council of London (1342) reproaches the religious orders with wearing clothing 'fit rather for knights than for clerks, that is to say, short, very tight, with excessively wide sleeves, not reaching the elbows, but hanging down very low, lined with fur or with silk'; see J. Jusserand, English Wayfaring Life (1889). Cf. Wyclif, Works, ed. Matthew, p. 121.