Among the articles at Archbishop Nevil’s Feast, 6 Edw. IV., we find, _Porposes and Seales XII._ and at that of Archbishop Warham, held in 1504, is an item: _De Seales & Porposs. prec. in gross XXVI. s. VIII. d._ Champier asserts that the Seal was eaten at the Court of Francis I., so that the taste of the two nations seems at this period to have been nearly the same. For the courses of fish in England during the 14th and 15th centuries, see Pegge’s _Form of Cury_, and Warner’s _Antiquitates Culinariæ_, to which we may add MS. Sloane, 1986. [_Cf._ _Babees Book, &c._, ed. Furnivall, 1868, p. 153.] [784. For _setes_ we should probably read _seten_ or _sette_, which would be as good a rime as many others. The scribe has probably made the rime more perfect than the sense. It must mean, “In the sea were they oft set.” We cannot here suppose _setes_ = _set es_ = set them.] 839. _And seyde, Hauelok, dere sone._ In the French, Grim sends Havelok away for quite a different reason, viz. because he does not understand fishing. 903. _The kok stod_, &c. Comp. the Fr. l. 242. Et vn keu le roi le retint, Purceo qe fort le vist & grant, Et mult le vist de bon semblant. Merueillous fes poeit leuer, Busche tailler, ewe porter. The last line answers to l. 942 of the English version. 939. _He bar the turues, he bar the star._ The meaning of the latter term will be best illustrated by a passage in Moor’s _Suffolk Words_, where, under the word _Bent_, he writes, “_Bent_ or _Starr_, on the N.W. coast of England, and especially in Lancashire, is a coarse reedy shrub--like ours perhaps--of some importance formerly, if not now, on the sandy blowing lands of those counties. Its fibrous roots give some cohesion to the silicious soil. By the 15 and 16 G. II. c. 33, plucking up and carrying away _Starr_ or Bent, or having it in possession within five miles of the sand hills, was punishable by fine, imprisonment, and whipping.” The use stated in the Act to which the _Starr_ was applied, is, “making of Mats, Brushes, and Brooms or Besoms,” therefore it might very well be adapted to the purposes of a kitchen, and from its being coupled with turves in the poem, was perhaps sometimes burnt for fuel. The origin of the word is Danish, and still exists in the Dan. _Stær_, Swed. _Starr_, Isl. _staer_, a species of sedge, or broom, called by Lightfoot, p. 560, _carex cespitosa_. Perhaps it is this shrub alluded to in the Romance of _Kyng Alisaunder_, and this circumstance will induce us to assign its author to the district in which the Starr is found. The speris craketh swithe thikke, So doth on hegge _sterre-stike_. --l. 4438. 945. _of alle men_, &c. Comp. the Fr. l. 254. Tant estoit franc & deboneire, Que tuz voloit lur pleisir fere, Pur la franchise q’il out. 959. _Of him ful wide the word sprong._ A phrase which from the Saxon times occurs repeatedly in all our old writers. A few examples may suffice. Beowulf wæs breme, Blæd wíde sprang.