On Mon, 08 Feb 1999 10:56:15 -0500 Arlene Hilfer <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> I'm curious about a prohibition that occurs in the _Ancrene Wisse_. In
> Part VIII the writer tells the anchoress that she may not make lace on a
> frame. I am sure someone on the list must know why this prohibition
> exists. The anchoress is not prohibited from making lace--but lace
> requiring a frame.
>
Arlene's Modern English version is really a gloss on the Middle
English text rather than a translation; what the author says is that
the anchoresses should not _criblin_ (infinitive), a verb probably
derived from OF _cribler_ 'to sift, sieve'. Nobody is quite clear on
what it means here (although in context it must mean some kind of
fancy-work), and since the prohibition is found only in one MS, the
Corpus text, we can't use other versions to cast light on it. I
don't think anyone has updated Joseph Hall's note (_Early Middle
English_(Oxford: Clarendon,1922), vol. 2 p. 397) 'It must mean some
kind of open work; either embroidery on a net foundation,
"filatorium", or drawn-thread work, or, what seems most probable,
"tambour", wherein the strips of linen stretched in a ring frame,
with the pattern pierced by a bodkin and the edges of the hole thus
made framed in needlework, would above all things suggest a sieve . .
. It was elaborate work, such as recluses ought not to undertake'
(Mary Salu, "Some Obscure Words in _Ancrene Wisse_ (MS. C.C.C.C.
402)", _English and Germanic Studies 5 (1952-3), 100-2, also supports
the suggestion "tambour-work"). Drawn-thread work was the precursor
of our modern lace, as I understand. If anyone better-informed than I
am about medieval needlework techniques can add to or correct this
information, I too would be grateful,
Bella M.
----------------------
Bella Millett
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