▪ I. pleasance1
(ˈplɛzəns)
Forms: 4– pleasance, (-aunce); also 4–7 plesaunce, 4–7 (9) -ance, 5 -auns, -awns, pley-, playsaunce, -aunse, plezeauns, 5–6 pleasauns, (Sc.) plesans, -ence, 7 (9) plaisance.
[ME. a. OF. plaisance (a 1296 in Littré) pleasure, delight, in 16th c. place of delight, f. plaisant pleasing, plaisir to please; so med.L. placentia, It. piacenza: see -ance.]
1. The condition or feeling of being pleased; enjoyment, delight, pleasure, joy. arch. and poet.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus iv. 1071 (1099) In þe des right as þere fallen chaunces, Right so in loue þere com and gon plesaunces. c 1385 ― L.G.W. 1150 (Dido) Thus is this quyen in plesaunce & in Ioye. 1490 Caxton Eneydos xviii. 67 Yf thou euer toke playsance in ony thyng that by me cam. 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. cclix. 384 The Englysshemen toke great pleasaunce at theyr valiant dedes. 1710 Philips Pastorals ii. 97 Untoward Lads, who Pleasance take in Spite. 1812 Byron Ch. Har. ii. lxxviii, Some days of joyaunce are decreed to all, To take of pleasaunce each his secret share. 1830 Tennyson Lilian ii, When my passion seeks Pleasance in love-sighs. 1866 Longfellow Flower-de-luce iii, Beautiful lily,..born to joy and pleasance, Thou dost not toil nor spin. 1876 J. Ellis Caesar in Egypt 59 All sights and sounds of pastime and plaisance. |
† 2. The action of pleasing; the disposition to please; complaisance; agreeable or pleasing manners or behaviour, courtesy. Obs.
| c 1386 Chaucer Pard. T. 81 Som for plesance of folk and flaterye To ben auanced by ypocrisye. c 1412 Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 3083 Good plesaunce is of swich beneuolence, Þat what gode dede he may in man espie, He preysith it, and rebukith folye. c 1475 Rauf Coilȝear 907 To tell him as I haue tauld the, Withoutin plesance. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 398 Manye Noble men were compelled to pay vnto the king great sommes of money, which was called Pleasaunce, to please the king withall [cf. benevolence 3, 4]. 1599 B. Jonson Ev. Man out of Hum. iv. viii, Content: good Sir, vouchsake vs your pleasance. |
b. A sprightly or pleasing trick; a pleasantry. Obs. exc. poet.
| 1681 Glanvill Sadducismus ii. (1726) 452 Fancy may be permitted its plaisance and inoffensive Raileries. 1681–6 J. Scott Chr. Life (1700) I. 284 Those little plaisances and inoffensive railleries of fancy which are sometimes requisite to sauce our conversation. 1873 E. Brennan Witch of Nemi, etc. 178 Isis, she Who with her myriad plesances and wiles Chafes the unbloomed desire of Egypt's maids. |
† 3. That which pleases one; pleasure, desire wish, will. Obs.
| c 1340 Hampole Prose Tr. 21 In the turnynge of thi wille enterely to his seruyce and his plesaunce. c 1412 Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 1345 To the plesaunce of God thou the confourme. ? 1461 Paston Lett. II. 67, I shall doo your pleasauns as moche as in me is. 1530 Compend. Treat. in Rede me, etc. (Arb.) 180 To doo his office to the plesaunce of god. |
4. Pleasure-giving quality; pleasantness. Obs. exc. poet.
| c 1386 Chaucer Frankl. T. 189 The odour of floures and the fresshe sighte, Wolde han maked any herte lighte..So ful it was of beautee and plesance. c 1485 Digby Myst. (1882) iii. 1304, A, welcum masenger of grett plezeavns! 1503 Dunbar Thistle & Rose 39 For to discryve the Ross of most plesance. 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. iv. 38 With pleasaunce of the breathing fields yfed. 1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. viii. (1623) 554 Deseruedly for the pleasance of the place named Beaulieu. 1748 Thomson Cast. Indol. i. xxvii, It was a fountain of Nepenthe rare, Whence, as Dan Homer sings, huge pleasaunce grew. 1830 Tennyson Recoll. Arab. Nts. x, Thence thro' the garden I was drawn—A realm of pleasance. |
b. That which awakens or causes pleasure; that in which one delights; an (objective) pleasure or delight. Obs. exc. poet.
| 1485 Caxton Paris & V. 53 Oute of al joyes and playsaunces worldly. 1619 W. Sclater Exp. 1 Thess. (1630) 301 As when..a father [shows] nuts and such like pleasances to his child. 1812 Byron Ch. Har. i. xxiii, How Vain are the pleasaunces on earth supplied. |
5. A pleasure-ground, usually attached to a mansion; sometimes a secluded part of a garden, but more often a separate enclosure laid out with shady walks, trees and shrubs, statuary, and ornamental water. (Now sometimes surviving as the name of a street or ‘place’, as the Pleasance in Edinburgh, Falkirk, etc. In Sc. (ˈplizəns).)
| 1585 T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. iv. xxiii. 139 Diuers gardens and pleasaunces, planted with Orange trees. a 1600 Hist. James the Sext (1825) 94 The gunnis war transportit to a fauxburg of the toun [Edinburgh] callit Pleasands. 1821 Scott Kenilw. xxvi, The window..commanded a delightful view of what was called the Pleasance; a space of ground inclosed and decorated with arches, trophies, statues, fountains, and other architectural monuments. 1847 E. Warwick (title) The Poets' Pleasaunce or Garden of all sorts of pleasant Flowers. 1888 Hare Story my Life (1900) VI. xxv. 161 A charming old pleasaunce with bowling-green and long grass walks. |
¶ From the final s sound this word was formerly, esp. by Scotch writers, often taken as a plural, and written plesandis, -antis, pleasands, -ants, with a pseudo-singular in -ant. (But -antis may sometimes be a misreading for -ancis.)
| c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints vii. (Jacobus) 497 Þare-fore suld god mare plesandis hafe In til his blud þan al þe lafe. c 1449 Pecock Repr. v. vii. 523 The othere plesauntis and eesis of the religiosis persoones. c 1485 Digby Myst. (1882) iii. 648 Seyth..al þe plesawnt of your mynd. a 1600 [see 5]. 1824 Galt Rothelan ii. xiv, She rose and went down into the pleasants of the castle. |
▪ II. † ˈpleasance2 Obs.
Forms: 5 ples-, 6 pleasa(u)nce, pleasauntes, -antes, -ants.
[app. a. F. Plaisance:—L. Placentia, whence It. Piacenza, a city of Emilia, now an important seat of textile industry (silk, cotton, etc.).]
A fine kind of lawn or gauze; in a 1548 identified with lumberdyne.
| c 1420 Lydg. Assembly of Gods 299 A kerchyef of plesaunce stood ouer hys helme ay. 1440 Paston Lett. I. 40 A Knyght out of Spayne, wyth a kercheff of plesaunce i-wrapped aboute hys arme; the qwych Knyght wyl renne a cours wyth a sharpe spere for his sovereyn lady sake. 1473 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. I. 72 Item vj elne of plesance, price elne iiij s. a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VIII 7 [1509] Two ladyes..in kyrtels of Crymosyne..and ouer their garmentes were rochettes of pleasantes,..their heades rouled in pleasauntes and typpets lyke the Egipcians, enbroudered with golde. Their faces, neckes, armes & handes, couered in fyne pleasaunce blacke: Some call it Lumberdynes, which is marueylous thine, so that the same ladies semed to be nygrost [sic] or blacke Mores. 1577–87 Holinshed Chron. III. 849/1. 1594 Marlowe & Nashe Dido i. i, Whenas I..held the cloth of pleasance whiles you drank. 1801 Strutt Sports & Past. iii. ii. 147 note, Pleasaunce was a fine thin species of gauze, which was striped with gold. |