Note E204 — 39.
Reading edition
The numerous virtues of this herb are thus summed up in the King's Coll. MS. of the Promptorium:
"Bis duo dat maratrum, febres fugat atque venenum, Et purgat stomacum, sic reddit lumen acutum."
Macer gives a detailed account, in which the following remarkable passages occur: "þe edderes wole ete fenel, when her yen dasnyþ, and so she getiþ ayene her clere sighte; and þer þoroghe it is founde and preved þat fenel doþ profit to mannis yene: þe yen þat ben dusked, and dasniþ, shul be anoynted with þe ius of fenelle rotis medeled with hony; and þis oynement shalle put a-way alle þe dasewenesse of hem, and make hem bryȝt." The virtue of fennel in restoring youth, was a discovery attributed by Macer to serpents; "Þis prouiþ auctours and filisoferis, for serpentis whan men (sic) olde, and willeth to wexe stronge, myghty, and yongly a-yean, þei gon and eten ofte fenel, and þei become yongliche and myghty."—MS. in the possession of H. W. Diamond, Esq. This herb is called in German Fenchel, Dutch Venckel. In Piers Plowman mention occurs of: "A ferthyng worth of fynkel-sede for fastinge daies;" C. vii. 360; spelt fenel in the other texts. "Fenkylle or fenelle, feniculum."—Prompt. Parv. "Fenelle or fenkelle, feniculum, maratrum."—Catholicon Anglicum.