Note 65 — INTRODUCTION LIFE OF GOWER.
Reading edition
At the same time I am disposed to attach some weight to the expression in
Mir.
21774, where the author says that some may blame him for handling sacred subjects, because he is no ‘clerk,’
‘Ainz ai vestu la raye manche.’
This may possibly mean only to indicate the dress of a layman, but on the other hand it seems clear that some lawyers, perhaps especially the ‘apprenticii ad legem,’ were distinguished by stripes upon their sleeves; see for example the painting reproduced in Pulling’s Order of the Coif (ed. 1897); and serjeants-at-law are referred to in Piers Plowman, A text, Pass. iii. 277, as wearing a ‘ray robe with rich pelure.’ We must admit, therefore, the possibility that Gower was bred to the law, though he may not have practised it for a living.