Glossary

• acatery. A storehouse for the monarch's provisions.
• affray. A public fight.
• alb. A full-length vestment worn by clergy in religious ceremonies.
• almoner. A functionary whose work is dispensing alms.
• almonry. An office where alms were distributed.
• amice. Clothing of a religious order with trimming in fur. In the Chronicle, a “grey amice” is a canon of St. Paul's.
• arras. A tapestry.
• assize. A measurement fixed by law.
• bailie. A bailiff.
• baldric. A leather belt, often richly decorated, worn diagonally across the body and used to support a sword, trumpet, or other accessory.
• banderole. A banner about a yard square painted with a coat of arms. After a funeral, a banderole was often displayed over the tomb of the deceased.
• barley-break. A game of tag, also called “Last Couple in Hell,” in which couples dart from one of three pieces of ground to another without being caught and put in “hell.” The object is to be the last one caught. Originally the game was played among barley stacks in the harvest field.
• bark. A small ship.
• basin. A circular dish sometimes used as a cymbal.
• bawd. A manager of sexual-service workers.
• beadle. A crier or herald; an officer of a court, or constable.
• book. Often shorthand for the ability to read. Persons accused of crimes might “plead the book” and escape with branding when their crimes might otherwise be capital. On a second offense, the brand would not save the accused person. For March 8, 1560, Machyn reports that a priest was “burned in the hand” to prevent any such plea and so to justify his subsequently hanging.
• boss. In the Chronicle, a spray of feathers within a crown and used as symbolic of a knight.
• branch. One of the arms of a candelabrum.
• brigantine. In the Chronicle, a small vessel propelled by sail or oars and attendant on larger vessels for patrolling and landing.
• brown baker. A baker of brown bread. Cf. white baker.
• buckram. In Machyn's time, either a soft fabric of linen/wool or a coarse fabric stiffened by the addition of paste. Given the mentions in the Chronicle of the costly funeral trappings in which buckram is used, it is likely that Machyn had in mind the former.
• calaber. Fur of a squirrel used to trim garments.
• card. A tool with sharp nails hammered through a thin board, used to remove impurities from wool and to straighten the strands in preparation for spinning. It might also be used to inflict a punishment by scraping away skin from the victim. On April 16, 1552, Machyn reports the punishment of a woman who had carded her naked servant to the point of near death.
• carman. Operator of a delivery vehicle.
• cast. Found guilty.
• cense. To perfume a place or object with incense.
• chamber. A small piece of ordnance used for firing salutes.
• chamber of presence. A reception room where the monarch received visitors.
• chantry. A chapel or other part of a church where priests are maintained to pray for the dead.
• chimere. A loose, long garment worn by bishops. In Machyn's time, it was made from red silk.
• clerk. A person in holy orders, particularly a priest or deacon.
• coat armor. A vest decorated with heraldic imagery and worn by knights and other soldiers over their breastplates.
• cofferer. An officer in the royal household.
• coffin. To place a body in a coffin.
• coif. A white cap worn by lawyers and symbolizing their profession. Machyn writes of the “sergeants of the coif,” a member of the higher order of barristers.
• coining. Minting coins; in the Chronicle, the crime of counterfeiting them.
• collation. Either a short sermon or an informal meal. Machyn's use of this word is unclear in the context; it is likely that the second meaning is intended.
• collier. A maker or merchant of charcoal.
• comfit. A candy usually made from sugar and a fruit, nut, or root.
• conduit. An aqueduct; also wells and pumps. Machyn often sites events in relation to the Great Conduit, Cheapside.
• cope. A cape; an ecclesiastical vestment.
• corslet. A piece of body armor.
• costerel. An attendant serving a knight. Also spelled custrel.
• Counter. The prison under the authority of a mayor.
• crare. A small trading ship.
• cresset light. A basin of iron in which oil, pitch, wood, or coal is burned for illumination.
• crosier. A crook or staff emblematic of a bishop.
• cutler. A maker and merchant of knives and other sharpened tools.
• cutpurse. A thief specializing in purses hung by thongs from the owner's waist.
• dag. A heavy pistol.
• dart. A small hand-thrown spear; an arrow.
• denizen. Inhabitant (in contrast to foreigner).
• disseised. Ejected from one's property or title.
• distaff. A short stick used in spinning; a symbol of women's work. In the Chronicle, a woman was obliged to carry a distaff through London to symbolize her departure from ideal behavior by disturbing the peace as a “common scold” (January 30, 1563).
• divers. Different, unalike; various, several. Now spelled diverse.
• dole. A portion of food or money. Machyn often reports a dole of money given out at the end of a funeral.
• doublet. A close-fitting coat (with or without sleeves) worn by a man.
• draw. Persons convicted of high treason were “drawn” to the place of execution by being dragged by a horse or strapped with a rope to a hurdle hauled by men.
• drumslade. A kind of drum.
• ell. A measure of length variously defined, usually forty-five inches in Machyn's day.
• ensign. A banner or flag displaying a heraldic device. In the Chronicle, the ensign bears the arms of the barber surgeons (June 20, 1562).
• escutcheon. A shield or shield-shaped image showing a coat of arms.
• evensong. A church service celebrated at dusk; vespers.
• exchequer. A department of the court responsible for managing royal revenue.
• falchion. A broadsword.
• firkin. A small cask for fish, butter, and other edibles. In the Chronicle, it is half a kilderkin and a quarter of a barrel.
• fitche. A heraldic term for a cross sharpened at the base.
• fletcher. A maker or merchant dealing with arrows.
• foist. A small vessel propelled by sail and oars.
• frieze. A coarse woolen cloth.
• garter. The emblem of the highest rank of English knights.
• gear. Apparel associated with one's office, in particular that of a soldier or knight.
• gear. The female genitals. Machyn twice reports women punished for “occupying their own gear,” that is, acting as prostitutes.
• Geneva-wise. A way of singing psalms to a univocal tune characteristic of Protestant practice in Geneva.
• geton. A small flag or banner.
• gibbet. Originally a gallows; in the Chronicle, an upright post with crossbar from which the corpses of executed persons were suspended in chains or irons.
• girdle. A belt.
• Gog Magog. Gog (a king) and Magog (his kingdom) are mentioned in the Bible in Ezekiel. From this source, combined with pagan legends, emerged Gogamagog, a benevolent giant. He and his variously named giant sidekicks were (and are) part of the pageantry of the lord mayor's show in London.
• going week. As Machyn (uncharacteristically) explains, this phrase is a synonym for Rogation Days (the three days before the Feast of the Ascension), during which a litany of the saints was chanted on a procession around a parish.
• gospeller. One professing the faith of the Christian gospel. In Machyn's time, gospeller was used as a term of abuse by Catholics for Protestants who claimed to be special witnesses to the gospel's meaning. Thomas More (1477–1535) derided William Tyndale (ca. 1484–1536) as a “gospeller”; both became martyrs—the former executed by the Protestants and the latter by the Catholics.
• griffon. A griffin—a fabulous animal, used in heraldry, with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle. One appears in the pageant celebrating the installation of the lord mayor of London (October 29, 1554).
• groat. A coin equal in value to four pence. The term is often used metaphorically to mean something of small value (i.e., “not worth a groat”).
• guidon. A flag wide on the side at which it is attached to the flagstaff and pointed at the outer end.
• hackbut. A portable gun ranging in size from a musket to a small canon and steadied by a crooked support when fired. Also known as a harquebus.
• hair, in one's. Before the reign Elizabeth, married women covered their hair with a coif or small cap. Machyn's report of the wedding of three women “in their hair” portends a new fashion in which married women's hair became visible in public.
• halberd. A military weapon combining features of a spear and a battle-ax.
• halter. A rope with a noose used in executions; the gallows.
• harness. The body armor worn by a foot soldier in Machyn's time.
• hearse. An elaborate structure supporting candles, flags, and other decorations surmounting the bier or casket of a deceased person, usually in the choir of a church.
• hell. See barley-break.
• hippocras. Wine flavored with spices.
• hobbyhorse. The image of a horse in which a horse's head and drapery are worn by a performer in the morris dance, pantomime, or procession.
• hothouse. In early use, a bathhouse; later, as Machyn uses the word, a brothel.
• hoy. A small sailing ship.
• hurdle. A frame of wood on which traitors were drawn through the streets for execution.
• Jack-a-Lent. An effigy of a man set up in Lent for people to pelt with stones or garbage. In the Chronicle, we read of an elaborate drama in which Jack is taken by his wife to a doctor and anointed by a priest (March 17, 1553).
• javelin. A hand-thrown spear; a large spear or pike employed with a thrusting motion.
• jennet. A small horse.
• jerkin. A tunic or short coat worn by men. In the Chronicle, these may be tailored of leather or velvet.
• kersey. A coarse woolen cloth.
• kilderkin. A cask equal to half a barrel and used as a measure for fish, liquids, and other things. In Machyn's day, a kilderkin of beer held eighteen gallons.
• kirtle. A coat or tunic reaching to the knees. Machyn uses the word to describe part of the regalia of the knights of the Garter.
• larderer. An officer in charge of the larder—a storage place for food, especially meat—in a large household.
• lask. Diarrhea.
• leads. Sheets of lead used in roofing. Machyn reports that musicians were playing “off St. Peter's leads.”
• lighterman. Worker in charge of a flat-bottomed barge or small vessel used in the Thames to transport people and goods.
• link. A torch.
• litter. An enclosed vehicle drawn by a horse and for the transport of the wounded, the sick, and the dead.
• lozenge. Something formed in the shape of a four-cornered diamond. Machyn mentions buckram pieced together “lozenge-fashion”.
• majesty. An image representing God the Father, the Blessed Virgin, or Jesus.
• malmsy. A strong, sweet wine originally imported from southern Italy.
• mantle. A loose sleeveless cloak.
• marbled coat. A coat of many colors.
• marchpane. A confection made mainly from almonds and sugar. In the early twentieth century, marchpane was ousted as a term in favor of marzipan, a borrowing from German.
• masque. A masked ball. Not until later in the sixteenth century did the form of drama called a masque emerge. In the Chronicle, a masque involves dancing.
• mastiff. A large and powerful breed of dog.
• mayoress. Until the late nineteenth century, a (lady) mayoress was solely the wife of a mayor, not a woman holding office in her own right.
• mealman. A dealer in edible grains.
• mercer. A merchant dealing in fabrics.
• miafa. Apparently a word shortened from malfeasor, “criminal.”
• mind. A commemoration of an event, particularly the celebration of a mass a month or a year after someone's death. Machyn often writes of “a month's mind.”
• miter. A head covering or hat sometimes worn by bishops. After the Reformation, it was seldom used until the nineteenth century. When Cardinal Pole wears one (December 1, 1555), it is emblematic of the restoration of the authority of Rome in the English church.
• moan. A lament.
• morris dance. A fantastic pageant with dancing—often, in Machyn's time, representing characters from the tale of Robin Hood.
• morris pike. A staff with a pointed spear at the end. The original design was thought to be Moorish.
• mummer. An actor in a dumb show, in which movement shows the narrative. The performance often told the story of the patron saint of England, St. George, and his combat with a dragon.
• murrey. A purple color. The word is cognate with mulberry.
• muscadine. A sweet, rich wine. The term became obsolete, and the wine became known as muscatel.
• Muscovy. English name for the province of Russia with Moscow as the principal city. The Muscovy Company, founded in 1555, began ventures of trade and exploration in Machyn's time.
• musterdevillers. A gray woolen cloth.
• nest. A resting place; a bedroom.
• obolus. A coin worth a halfpenny. Usually, as in Machyn's Chronicle, abbreviated as ob.
• occupy. See gear.
• office. One's duty arising from a social position. Machyn records the suicide of a man who “had his office taken away from him” (March 17, 1563)—that is, his duty as a husband had been usurped through adultery.
• pall. A cloth used to drape a coffin or tomb.
• partizan. A military spear with the blade having one or more sharpened projections.
• paunched. Stabbed in the belly.
• pellet. Possibly a variant of billet, a legal paper.
• pencel. A small pennant.
• penistone. A coarse woolen cloth.
• pennon. A long triangular banner often attached to a lance or helmet.
• pickpurse. A term (now obsolete) for a pickpocket.
• pillory. A framework of movable boards through which an offender's head and hands were thrust and then restrained so that bystanders might exact punishment through words or deeds.
• pinnace. A small sailing vessel, usually with two masts.
• pistole. A gold coin minted abroad and used, in Machyn's day, as a standard against which English coins were sometimes valued. Also called pistolet.
• portugal. A confection originally from Portugal.
• prebendary. An officer of a cathedral.
• prick-song. A descant accompanying the melody of a plainsong in counterpoint.
• Privy Chamber. An apartment in a royal palace; in the Chronicle, an official advising the Queen.
• pursuivant. A subordinate heraldic officer. There were four pursuivants in Machyn's time: Rouge Croix, Bluemantle, Rouge Dragon, and Portcullis.
• pyx. A box; a container for consecrated sacramental bread.
• quarrier. A large, square, wax candle. Machyn's spelling of this word is qwarell.
• queener. A counterfeiter. After Machyn's time, spelled coiner.
• quondam. Formerly.
• rag. See tag.
• ragstaff. A staff with projecting knobs that is part of the heraldic device of the Earls of Warwick. Also spelled ragged staff.
• rail. A woman's kerchief; a horizontal bar for supporting draperies and other hangings.
• rat colored. A blackish brown.
• regal. A small, portable reed organ.
• riband. A ribbon.
• rochet. A vestment of linen worn by a bishop.
• rood. A cross or crucifix.
• rood cloth. A piece of fabric used to cover the cross on a rood screen during Lent.
• sackbut. A trumpet with a slide for regulating the pitch.
• salter. A manufacturer or dealer in salt.
• Saracen head. A representation of a Saracen used in heraldry to memorialize lines of descent from crusaders.
• sarcenet. A fine silk material.
• say. A fine-textured fabric made using silk or (later) wool.
• scalling. We have not been able to determine the meaning of this word (August 5, 1559).
• sennight. A week.
• septuagesima. The third Sunday before Lent.
• sergeant. See coif.
• setter-on. One who instigates an action.
• shawm. A musical instrument resembling an oboe.
• shepster. A dressmaker. The term is formed from shape + -ster (female agent noun suffix) and is akin to spinster.
• shriven. To have had one's sins absolved.
• shroud. A crypt; in the Chronicle, the Chapel of St. Faith in St. Paul's Cathedral.
• skinner. A worker engaged in making leather.
• slip. A coin. Machyn mentions “slips” and “half slips” as legitimate currency. A generation later, slip was used only of counterfeit coins.
• spile. A splinter.
• squib. A firework.
• stapler. A member of the merchant staplers, who directed the export of goods from England.
• staves. Plural of staff.
• strangury. A sometimes fatal disease resulting in the painful excretion of urine.
• stripling. A young boy.
• suffragan. An assistant bishop who, since the independence of the Church of England under Henry VIII, has no diocese of his or her own.
• sultan. In the Chronicle, a figure in masquerade representing a Moorish ruler.
• surplice. An ankle-length vestment of white linen with wide sleeves, worn by clergy.
• sweat. Short for sweating sickness, a life-threatening form of the plague.
• tabret. A small drum, usually played in conjunction with a trumpet (in Machyn's report of street music) or a pipe.
• tag. Rabble. Machyn refers to “tag and rag,” by which he means everyone regardless of rank. This expression is the forerunner of ragtag.
• talbot. A hunting dog; as used by Machyn, an image that appears in the heraldry of the Talbot family.
• tallman. A (professional) fighting man; a thug.
• target. A small shield.
• tawyer. A craftsman who prepares white leather. Also spelled tawer. Consider the parallel term, tanner.
• testern. A teston of Henry VIII; subsequently a counterfeit or debased coin.
• teston. A coin having the value of a shilling or twelve pence. Its value was manipulated by government fiat in Machyn's day and made to be the equivalent of fewer than twelve pence.
• tilt. In the Chronicle, these seem to be awnings or tents (February 22, 1554).
• tinsel. A fabric made to sparkle by the interweaving of silver or gold threads.
• tippet. A scarf of silk worn by clergy, draped from the neck and hanging symmetrically on the body.
• tipstaff. An official whose symbol of office is a staff with a metal end.
• top-castle. A platform near the top of a ship's mast from which missiles might be directed at an enemy.
• tourneying. The act of taking part in a tournament.
• trental. A set of thirty requiem masses.
• valance. A strip of fabric attached to a canopy, altar cloth, or other hanging cloth.
• vat. A cask or barrel used for transporting something, usually a liquid. Formerly spelled fat.
• venturer. An investor or merchant trading in places beyond Britain.
• verger. An officer of a church or university who proceeds a dignitary in a procession.
• vessel. A dish designed for use in serving food or drink.
• victualler. A person who supplies provisions, particularly food and drink.
• wafer. A light, crisp cake made between wafer irons and eaten while drinking wine.
• wait. A small band of musicians playing wind instruments who usually performed in a public place.
• warly. In Machyn's usage, warlike.
• weed. A costume. Machyn mentions a man buried in “monk's weed.”
• whiffler. Armed attendants assigned to make a way through a crowd for a procession.
• wonderness. An earthquake.
• woodman. A figure in a masquerade representing a savage or wild man of the forest. Another term for this person in Machyn's day was woodwose.
• worthy. The Nine Worthies were figures of legend appearing in masquerades and spectacles. “The number is composed of three Jews (Joshua, David, and Judas Maccabaeus), three Gentiles (Hector, Alexander, and Julius Caesar), and three Christians (Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godfrey of Bouillon)” (Oxford English Dictionary).
• wyvern. A heraldic animal—a winged dragon with the feet of an eagle and a barbed tail.
• yeomanry. The freeman (not the apprentices) of a livery company like the merchant tailors.