Note 23 — FROM THE "PROLOGUE TO THE CANTERBURY TALES."

bracer. A kind of close sleeve laced upon the arm. "A bracer serveth for two causes, one to save his arme from the strype of the stringe, and his doublet from wearing; and the other is, that the stringe glidinge sharplye and quicklye off the bracer, maye make the sharper shoote."—Roger Ascham's Toxophilus, page 129.