(ENCYCLOPEDIA STYLE)
Atom of time: See Time measurements.
Broken meats: the medieval equivalent term for “leftovers.”
Moment: See Time measurements.
Pergatory, Seven Pains of: This passage is based on an actual, rhymed Medieval ms. Volume I perused once, decades ago, in the British Museum Reading Room. Unfortunately, already by the time I drafted my romance, the bibliographic details and any other hardcopy notes I may have taken had long gone missing, leaving only my own mental notes.
Rouncy: Since I have found the word “rouncy” in very few of the dictionaries I have spotchecked, let me cite OED’s definition: “A horse, esp. a riding-horse.”
Servers: Serving at a high table could be an honor both to server and servee: it was flattering to serve someone of high rank, and flattering to be served by someone of high rank.
Squires: An opinion seems to be cropping up that squires were “lowly.” After long and attentive study, I reject this notion. Squires were high in the social scale, and not merely as potential knights. As a class, they were well-born, entitled to coats of arms, and qualified to fight in tournament or battle. In 1224 the English authorities began forcing military tenants worth twenty pounds a year or more to receive knighthood or pay a composition. This was called “distraint of knighthood,” came to be regarded as a heavy oppression, and would hardly have existed at all if many military tenants had not felt they were getting along quite well without the undoubtedly high, noble, and even holy mystique of knighthood. If knights can be called the “black belts” of chivalry, then squires might be called the “brown belts.” Indeed, even pages must not always have been the children we usually think of. J. C. Holt cites an historical case (A.D. 1277) in which one Gilbert, page of a certain John de Lascelles, Steward of the Forest, was set—apparently alone— to keep guard over two arrested men, and was sorely beaten when twenty bowmen came to break them out. Surely Gilbert could have been no “little” page, to be charged with the custody of two potentially dangerous criminals.
Thee, Thou, Thy: I did used the second person singular, not for its archaic sound, but for its rich nuances—the simple word “thy” can constitute either an endearment or an insult. Whereas applying the second person plural—”you,” “ye,” “yours”—to a single individual carries a degree of deference or courtesy, addressing an individual in the second person singular—”thee,” “thou,” thy,” etc.—implies either affection and intimacy or condescension and even contempt. (To this day, the French, at least, have a verb for it: “tutoyer.”) Of course, it would be incorrect ever to address a group of two or more persons in the second person singular.
Time measurements: In that mine of information, the Oxford English Dictionary, under the entry for “atom,” can be found the following guide to medieval time measurements. (I give the modern equivalents in parentheses.)
47 atoms of time = 1 ounce (7.5 seconds)
8 ounces = 1 ostent (1 minute)
1 and a half ostents = 1 moment (1.5 minutes)
2 and two thirds moments = 1 part (4 minutes)
1 and one half part; or, 4 moments = 1 minute (6 minutes)
2 minutes = 1 point (12 minutes)
5 points = 1 hour (1 hour)