What is "subtil"

Usage examples of "subtil".

Yclothed was she fressh, for to devyse, Hir yelow heer was broyded in a tresse, Bihynde hir bak, a yerde long, I gesse, And in the gardyn, at the sonne upriste, She walketh up and doun, and as hir liste She gadereth floures, party white and rede, To make a subtil gerland for hir hede, And as an aungel hevenysshly she soong.

This subtil clerk swich routhe had of this man, That nyght and day he spedde hym that he kan To wayten a tyme of his conclusioun, This is to seye, to maken illusioun By swich an apparence or jogelrye- I ne kan no termes of astrologye- That she and every wight sholde wene and seye That of Britaigne the rokkes were aweye, Or ellis they were sonken under grounde.

They argumenten, casten up and doun, Many a subtil resoun forth they leyden, They speken of magyk and abusioun.

For which, by greet deliberacioun, He sente after a cherl, was in the toun, Which that he knew for subtil and for boold.

When he had reached the group in which it was evident, by the haughtiness of their common mien, that the principal chiefs were collected, the stranger paused, and then the Delawares saw that the active and erect form that stood before them was that of the well-known Huron chief, Le Renard Subtil.