377. _And goon to vigilyes al bifore._ 'It was the manner in times past, upon festival evens, called _vigiliæ_, for parishioners to meet in their church-houses or church-yards, and there to have a drinking-fit for the time. Here they used to end many quarrels betwixt neighbour and neighbour. Hither came the wives in comely manner, and they which were of the better sort had their mantles carried with them, as well for show as to keep them from cold at table.'--Speght, Gl. to Chaucer. THE COOK. 379. _for the nones_ = _for the nonce_; this expression, if grammatically written, would be _for then once_, M. E. _for þan anes_, for the once, i. e. for the occasion; where the adv. _anes_ (orig. a gen. form) is used as if it were a sb. in the dat. case. Cf. M. E. _atte_ = _atten_, A. S. _æt þ[=a]m_. 381. _poudre-marchaunt tart_ is a sharp (tart) kind of flavouring powder, twice mentioned in Household Ordinances and Receipts (Soc. Antiq. 1790) at pp. 425, 434: 'Do therto _pouder marchant_,' and 'do thi flessh therto, and gode herbes and _poudre marchaunt_, and let hit well stew.'--Notes and Queries, Fourth Series, iii. 180. See _Powder_ in the Glossary to the Babees Book. '_Galingale_, which Chaucer, pre-eminentest, economioniseth above all junquetries or confectionaries whatsoever.'--Nash's Lenten Stuff, p. 36, ed. Hindley. _Galingale_ is the root of sweet cyperus. Harman (ed. Strother) notices three varieties: _Cyperus rotundus_, _Galanga major_, _Galanga minor_; Babees Book, ed. Furnivall, pp. 152, 216. See also Marco Polo, ed. Yule, ii. 181; Prompt. Parv., p. 185, note 4; Rogers, Hist. of Agriculture and Prices, i. 629; &c. And see Dr. H. Fletcher Hance's and Mr. Daniel Hanbury's Papers on this spice in the Linnæan Society's Journal, 1871. 382. _London ale._ London ale was famous as early as the time of Henry III., and much higher priced than any other ale; cf. A. 3140. _Wel coude he knowe_, he well knew how to distinguish. In fact, we find, in the Manciple's Prologue (H. 57), that the Cook loved good ale only too well. 384. _mortreux_ or _mortrewes_. There were two kinds of 'mortrews,' 'mortrewes de chare' and 'mortrewes of fysshe.' The first was a kind of soup in which chickens, fresh pork, crumbs of bread, yolks of eggs, and saffron formed the chief ingredients; the second kind was a soup containing the roe (or milt) and liver of fish, bread, pepper, ale. The ingredients were first stamped or brayed in a _mortar_, whence it probably derived its name. Lord Bacon (Nat. Hist. i. 48) speaks of 'a _mortresse_ made with the brawne of capons stamped and strained.' See Babees Book, pp. 151, 170, 172; Liber Cure Cocorum, ed. Morris, pp. 9, 19; and the note to P. Plowman, C. xvi. 47. This line, like ll. 371 and 391, is deficient in the first foot.