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SCARIOT. Judas Iscariot was the disciple who betrayed Jesus (Mark 14:43-46; Luke 22:1-6). His name became synonymous with treachery.

The Nun's Priest calls Russell the fox a "newe Scariot" in an apostrophe on treachery, NPT 3226-3236. The first of several, this apostrophe is a parody of the apostrophes in Geoffrey de Vinsauf's Poetria nova 264-450. References to Judas's betrayal appear in Old French fables of the adventures of Renard. In Renart le Contrefait, Branch VII 35485-35486, Hubert the Kite gives Renard the example of Judas as a picture of repentance. The York cycle drama includes a play called "The Remorse of Judas." [Gaufred: Judas]

Scariot is formed by aphesis, through loss of the initial unstressed vowel. Its initial I has been elided with the final syllabic -e of the preceding newe, NPT 3226.

E. Faral, Les arts poétiques, 205-211; Geoffrey de Vinsauf, Poetria nova, trans. M.F. Nims, 25-32; R.A. Pratt, "Three Old French Sources of the Nonnes Preestes Tale." Speculum 47 (1972): 653; The York Plays, ed. R. Beadle.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.
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