The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #159049 Message #3766929
Posted By: GUEST,leeneia
20-Jan-16 - 10:07 AM
Thread Name: Ancient wisdom
Subject: RE: Ancient wisdom
"the lady loves her will." But who doesn't?
=========
Re:"the carll lovyt hys byll"
I looked up 'byll' in my big dictionary but didn't find it.
Under 'bill' I found two possible meanings that would fit this poem.
bill - a pickax or mattock
bill - a billhook (for pruning or cutting branches)
(A bill could also be a broadsword, but a carll would not own a sword.)
The translator said 'carll' means 'churl', but that is not strictly accurate. Today a churl is a bad man, coarse and mean; in the 1300's, a carll was merely a commoner, probably a laborer.
The names Carl and Charles come from carll.