208. _Frere_, friar. The four orders of mendicant friars mentioned in l. 210 were:--(1) The Dominicans, or friars-preachers, who took up their abode in Oxford in 1221, known as the Black Friars. (2) The Franciscans, founded by St. Francis of Assisi in 1209, and known by the name of Grey Friars. They made their first appearance in England in 1224. (3) The Carmelites, or White Friars. (4) The Augustin (or Austin) Friars. The friar was popular with the mercantile classes on account of his varied attainments and experience. 'Who else so welcome at the houses of men to whom scientific skill and information, scanty as they might be, were yet of no inconsiderable service and attraction. He alone of learned and unlearned possessed some knowledge of foreign countries and their productions; he alone was acquainted with the composition and decomposition of bodies, with the art of distillation, [25] with the construction of machinery, and with the use of the laboratory.' See Professor Brewer's Preface to Monumenta Franciscana, p. xlv; and, in particular, the poem called 'Pierce the Ploughman's Crede,' and the satirical piece against the Friars entitled Jack Upland, formerly printed with Chaucer's Works. Several pieces against them will also be found in Political Poems, ed. Wright (Record Series); and there are numerous outspoken attacks upon them in Wyclif's various works, as, e.g. in the Select Eng. Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 366, and in his Works, ed. Matthew, p. 47. See also the chapter on Friars in the E. translation of Jusserand, Eng. Wayfaring Life; p. 293. Many of the remarks concerning the Frere are ultimately due to Le Roman de la Rose. See The Romaunt of the Rose, ll. 6161-7698; in vol. i. pp. 234-259. _wantown_, sometimes written _wantowen_, literally signifies untrained, and hence wild, brisk, lively. _wan-_ is a common M. E. prefix, equivalent to our _un-_ or _dis-_, as in _wanhope_, despair; _towen_ or _town_ occurs in M. E. writers for well-behaved, well-taught; from A. S. _togen_, pp. of _t[=e]on_, to educate. _merye_, pleasant; cf. M. E. _mery wether_, pleasant weather. 209. _limitour_ was a begging friar to whom was assigned a certain district or _limit_, within which he was permitted to solicit alms; it was also his business to solicit persons to purchase a partnership, or _brotherhood_, in the merits of their conventual services. See Tyndale's Works, i. 212 (Parker Soc.); and note to P. Plowman, B. v. 138. Hence in later times the verb _limit_ signifies to beg. 'Ther walketh now the _limitour_ himself, In undermeles and in morweninges; And seyth his matins and his holy thinges As he goth in his _limitacioun_.' Wife of Bath's Tale; D. 874. 210. _ordres foure_, four orders (note to l. 208). _can_, i. e. 'knows.'