Note 618 — VI THE MASK (continued)

I find 'tronchwoman' (Feuillerat, Eliz. 217), 'troocheman' (Feuillerat, Eliz. 287), 'trounchman' (Gascoigne, i. 85), and as interpreters of mimetic tilts 'crocheman' (Halle, i. 13), 'trounchman' (Peele, Polyhymnia, 47); also 'an interpreter or a truchman' accompanying the 'orator speaking a straunge language' in the train of the Lord of Misrule in 1552-3 (Feuillerat, Edw. and M. 89, 123). W. D. Macray has the following note to 'truckman' which appears in the text of Clarendon, History, i. 75, 'i. e. truchman = dragoman. In the old editions the word "interpreter" was substituted as an explanation; in the last editions "trustman" was given as the reading of the MS.'. N. E. D. gives the earliest use of the word as 1485 and derives through Med. Lat. turchemannus from Arab. turjamān, interpreter, whence also dragoman.