Obs. Also 5 fostere. [contracted f. FORESTER; used in AF.] = FORESTER.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 117. A forster [v.r. foster] was he, soothly, as I gesse.
c. 1430. Syr Tryam., 1063.
| Then swere the fosters alle twelve, | |
| They wolde no wedd but hymselfe. |
1460. Capgrave, Chron., 111. In his tyme was not Flaundres so rich, ne so grete named as it is now, for it had no othir governouris but the Fosteres of the Kyng of Frauns.
15[?]. Adam Bel, 561, in Hazl., E. P. P., II. 162.
| The baylyes, and the bedyls both, | |
| And the sergeauntes of the law, | |
| Forty fosters of the fe, | |
| These outlawes had y-slaw. |
1590. Spenser, F. Q., III. i. 17.
| So as they gazed after her a while, | |
| Lo where a griesly Foster forth did rush, | |
| Breathing out beastly lust her to defile. |
1594. [see FORESTER 1].
1597. Dowland, 1st Bk. Songs (1844), 90.
| And love as well the foster can, | |
| As can the mighty nobleman. |
1607. [see FORESTER 1].
Hence Fostership, the office of forester.
1628. Coke, On Litt., 20 a. The Office of a Fostership [was] intailed.
