Chapter IV

, on 'The Writings of Chaucer.' His conclusion is, that his 'examination leaves as works about which there is no dispute twenty-six titles.' By these titles he means The Canterbury Tales, Boethius, Troilus, The House of Fame, The Legend of Good Women, The Astrolabe, and the nineteen Minor Poems which I denote by the numbers I-XI, XIII-XX (no. XX being counted as _two_). His examination did not at first include no. XII (To Rosemounde); but, in his Appendix (vol. iii. pp. 449, 450), he calls attention to it, and accepts it without hesitation. He also says of no. XXII, that 'it may be Chaucer's own work.'

§ 10. I may add a few words about the other Minor Poems which I now print, numbered XXI, XXIII, and XXIV-XXVI; the last three of which appear in vol. iv. pp. xxv-xxxi.

As regards no. XXI, or 'Against Women Unconstaunt,' [xvi] I observe that Mr. Pollard, in his 'Chaucer Primer,' has these words. The authenticity of this poem 'has lately been reasserted by Prof. Skeat, on the triple ground that it is (1) a good poem; (2) perfect in its rhymes[10]; (3) found in conjunction with poems undoubtedly by Chaucer in two MSS.' This account, however, leaves out my chief argument, viz. its obvious dependence upon a Ballade by Machault, whom Chaucer is known to have imitated, and who is not known to have been imitated by any other Englishman. I also lay stress on the very peculiar manner in which the poem occurs in MS. Ct. See above, vol. i. p. 88. It should also be compared with the Balade to Rosemounde, which it resembles in tone. It seems to me that the printing of this poem in an Appendix is quite justifiable. We may some day learn more about it.

§ 11. As regards no. XXIV (vol. iv. p. xxv), the external evidence is explicit. It occurs in the same MS. as that which authenticates no. VI (A Compleint to his Lady); and the MS. itself is one of Shirley's. Internally, we observe the great peculiarity of the rhythm. Not only is the poem arranged in nine-line stanzas, but the whole is a _tour de force_. In the course of 33 lines, there are but 3 rime-endings; and we may particularly notice the repetition of the first two lines at the end of the poem, just as in the Complaint of Anelida, which likewise begins and ends with a line in which _remembraunce_ is the last word. We have here a specimen of the kind of nine-line stanza (examples of which are very scarce) which Hoccleve endeavoured to imitate in his Balade to my Lord of York[11]; but Hoccleve had to employ three rimes in the stanza instead of two. The poem is chiefly of importance as an example of Chaucer's metrical experiments, and as being an excellent specimen of a Complaint. There is a particular reason for taking an interest in all poems of this character, because few Complaints are extant, although Chaucer assures us that he wrote many of them.

§ 12. As to the poems numbered XXIII (A Balade of Compleynt), XXV (Complaint to my Mortal Foe, vol. iv. p. xxvii), and XXVI (Complaint to my Lodesterre, vol. iv. p. xxix), there are two points of interest: (1) that they are Complaints, and [xvii] (2) that they have never been printed before. That they are genuine, I have no clear proof to offer; but they certainly illustrate this peculiar kind of poem, and are of some interest; and it is clearly a convenience to be able to compare them with such Complaints as we know to be genuine, particularly with no. VI (A Complaint to his Lady). They may be considered as relegated to an Appendix, for the purposes of comparison and illustration. I do not think I shall be much blamed for thus rendering them accessible. It may seem to some that it must be an easy task to discover unprinted poems that are reasonably like Chaucer's in vocabulary, tone, and rhythm. Those who think so had better take the task in hand; they will probably, in any case, learn a good deal that they did not know before. The student of original MSS. sees many points in a new light; and, if he is capable of it, will learn humility.

§ 13. THE TEXT OF THE CANTERBURY TALES.

On this subject I have already said something above (vol. iv. pp. xvii-xx); and have offered a few remarks on the texts in former editions (vol. iv. pp. xvi, xvii; cf. p. viii). But I now take the opportunity of discussing the matter somewhat further.

It is unfortunate that readers have hitherto been so accustomed to inaccurate texts, that they have necessarily imbibed several erroneous notions. I do not hereby intend any reflection upon the editors, as the best MSS. were inaccessible to them; and it is only during the last few years that many important points regarding the grammar, the pronunciation, and the scansion of Middle-English have been sufficiently determined[12]. Still, the fact remains, and is too important to be passed over.

In particular, I may call attention to the unfortunate prejudice against a certain habit of Chaucer's, which it taxed all the ingenuity of some of the editors to suppress. Chaucer frequently allows the first foot of his verse to consist of a single accented syllable, as has been abundantly illustrated above with respect to his Legend of Good Women (vol. iii. pp. xliv-xlvii). It was a natural mistake on Tyrwhitt's part to attribute the apparent fault to the scribes, and to amend the lines which seemed to [xviii] be so strangely defective. It will be sufficient to enumerate the lines of this character that occur in the Prologue, viz. ll. 76, 131, 170, 247, 294, 371, and 391.

Al | bismotered with his habergeoun. That | no drope ne fille upon hir breste Ging | len in a whistling wind as clere. For | to delen with no swich poraille. Twen | ty bokes, clad in blak or reed. Ev' | rich, for the wisdom that he can. In | a gowne of falding to the knee.

Tyrwhitt alters _Al_ to _Alle_, meaning no doubt _Al-le_ (dissyllabic), which would be ungrammatical. For _That_, he has _Thatte_, as if for _That-te_; whereas _That_ is invariably a monosyllable. For _Gingling_, he has _Gingeling_, evidently meant to be lengthened out to a trisyllable. For _For_, he prints _As for_. For _Twenty_, he has _A twenty_. The next line is untouched; he clearly took _Everich_ to be thoroughly trisyllabic; which may be doubted. For _In_, he has _All in_. And the same system is applied, throughout all the Tales. The point is, of course, that the MSS. do not countenance such corrections, but are almost unanimously obstinate in asserting the 'imperfection' of the lines[13].

The natural result of altering _twenty_ to _A twenty_ (not only here, but again in D. 1695), was to induce the belief in students that _A twenty bookes_ is a Chaucerian idiom. I can speak feelingly, for I believed it for some years; and I have met with many who have done the same[14]. And the unfortunate part of the business is, that the restoration of the true reading shocks the reader's sense of propriety. This is to be regretted, certainly; but the truth must be told; especially as the true readings of the MSS. are now, thanks to the Chaucer Society, accessible to many. The student, in fact, has something to unlearn; and he who is most familiar with the old texts has to unlearn the most. The restoration of the text to the form of it given in the seven best MSS. is, consequently, in a few instances, of an almost revolutionary character; and it is best that this should be said plainly[15]. [xix]

The editions by Wright and Morris do not repeat the above amendments by Tyrwhitt; but strictly conform to the Harleian MS. Even so, they are not wholly correct; for this MS. blunders over two lines out of the seven. It gives l. 247 in this extraordinary form:--'For to delen with such poraile'; where the omission of _no_ renders all scansion hopeless. And again, it gives l. 371 in the form:--'Euery man for the wisdom that he can'; which is hardly pleasing. And in a great many places, the faithful following of this treacherous MS. has led the editors into sad trouble.

§ 14. THE HARLEIAN MS. The printing of this MS. for the Chaucer Society enables us to see that Mr. Wright did not adhere so closely to the text of the MS. as he would have us believe. As many readers may not have the opportunity of testing this statement for themselves, I here subjoin a few specimens of lines from this MS., to shew the nature of its errors.

Bet than a lazer or a beggere; A. 242.

So in Wright; for _beggere_ read _beggestére_.

But al that he might gete and his frendes sende; A. 299.

Corrected by Wright.

For eche of hem made othur to Wynne; A. 427.

Wright has 'othur _for_ to wynne.' This is correct; but the word _for_ is silently supplied, without comment; and so in other cases.

Of his visage children weren aferd; A. 628.

For _weren_, read _were_; or pronounce it _wer'n_. I cite this line because it is, practically, correct, and agrees with other MSS., it being remembered that 'viság-e' is trisyllabic. But readers have not, as yet, been permitted to see this line in its correct form. The black-letter editions insert _sore_ before _aferd_. Tyrwhitt follows them; Wright follows Tyrwhitt; and Morris follows Wright, but prints _sore_ in italics, to shew that there is here a deviation from the MS. of some sort or other.

A few more quotations are here subjoined, without comment.

I not which was the fyner of hem two; A. 1039. To make a certeyn gerland for hire heede; A. 1054. And hereth him comyng in the greues; A. 1641. They foyneden ech at other longe; A. 1654. And as wilde boores gonne they smyte That frothen white as fome frothe wood; A. 1658-9. Be it of pees, other hate or loue; A. 1671. [xx] That sche for whom they haue this Ielousye; A. 1807[16]. As he that hath often ben caught in his lace; A. 1817. Charmes and sorcery, lesynges and flatery; A. 1927. And abouen hire heed dowues fleyng; A. 1962. A bowe he bar, and arwes fair and greene; A. 1966. I saugh woundes laughyng in here rage, The hunt strangled with wilde bores corage; A. 2011-8[17]. The riche aray of Thebes his paleys; A. 2199. Now ryngede the tromp and clarioun; A. 2600. In goth the speres into the rest; A. 2602. But as a Iustes or as a turmentyng; A. 2720. And rent forth by arme foot and too; A. 2726. Of olde folk that ben of tendre yeeres; A. 2828. And eek more ryalte and holynesse; A. 3180. He syngeth crowyng as a nightyngale; A. 3377. What wikked way is he gan, gan he crye; A. 4078. His wyf burdoun a ful strong; A. 4165.

These examples shew that the Harleian MS. requires very careful watching. There is no doubt as to its early age and its frequent helpfulness in difficult passages; but it is not the kind of MS. that should be greatly trusted.

§ 15. THE ELLESMERE MS. The excellence of this MS. renders the task of editing the Tales much easier than that of editing The House of Fame or the Minor Poems. The text here given only varies from it in places where variation seemed highly desirable, as explained in the footnotes. As to my general treatment of it, I have spoken above (vol. iv. pp. xviii-xx).

One great advantage of this MS., quite apart from the excellence of its readings, is the highly phonetic character of the spelling. The future editor will probably some day desire to normalise the spelling of Chaucer throughout his works. If so, he must very carefully study the spelling of the Ellesmere and Hengwrt MSS., which resemble each other very closely. By their help, it becomes possible to regulate the use of the final _e_ to a very great extent, which is extremely helpful for the scansion of the lines.

§ 16. This matter is best illustrated by referring, for a while, to the old black-letter editions; moreover, the whole matter will appear in a clearer light if we consider, at the same time, the remarkable argument put forward by Prof. Morley (Eng. Writers, v. 126) in favour of the genuineness of The Court of Love. [xxi]

'Chaucer (he says) could not have written verse that would scan without sounding in due place the final _-e_. But when the final _e_ came to be dropped, a skilful copyist of later time would have no difficulty whatever in making the lines run without it.... If Chaucer wrote--"But that I liké, may I not come by"[18]--it was an easy change to--"But that I like, _that_ may I not come by." With _so_ or _and_, or _well_, or _gat_, or _that_, and many a convenient monosyllable, lines that seemed short to the later ear were readily eked out.' He then proceeds to give a specimen from the beginning of the Canterbury Tales, suggesting, by way of example, that l. 9 can easily be made to scan in modern fashion by writing--'And when the small fowls maken melodye.'

Such a theory would be perfectly true, if it had any basis in facts. The plain answer is, that later scribes easily _might_ have eked out lines which seemed deficient; only, as a matter of fact, they _did not do so_. The notion that Chaucer's lines run smoothly, and can be scanned, is quite a modern notion, largely due to Tyrwhitt's common sense. The editors of the sixteenth century _did not know_ that Chaucer's lines ran smoothly, and did not often attempt to mend them, but generally gave them up as hopeless; and we ought to be much obliged to them for doing so. Whenever they actually make amendments here and there, the patching is usually plain enough. The fact is, however, that they commonly let the texts alone; so that if they followed a good MS., the lines will frequently scan, not by their help, but as it were in spite of them.

§ 17. Let us look for a moment, at the very edition by Stowe (in 1561), which contains the earliest copy of The Court of Love. The 9th line of the tales runs thus:--'And smale fowles maken melodie,' which is sufficiently correct. We can scan it now in the present century, but it is strongly to be suspected that Stowe could not, and did not care to try. For this is how he presents some of the lines.

Redie to go in my pilgrimage; A. 21.

For him, _wenden_ or _wende_ was a monosyllable; and _go_ would do just as well.

The chambres and stables weren wyde; A. 28.

He omits _the_ before _stables_; it did not matter to him. So that, [xxii] instead of _filling up_ an imperfect line, as Prof. Morley says he would be sure to do, he leaves a gap.

To tel you al the condicion; A. 38.

_Tel_ should be _tel-le_. As it is, the line halts. But where is the filling up by the help of some convenient monosyllable?

I add a few more examples, from Stowe, without comment.

For to tell you of his aray; A. 73. In hope to stande in his ladyes grace; A. 88. And Frenche she spake ful fetously; A. 124. Her mouth smale, and therto softe and reed; A. 153. It was almost a span brode, I trowe; A. 155. Another None with her had she; A. 163. And in harping, whan he had song; A. 266. Of hem that helpen him to scholay; A. 302. Not a worde spake more than nede; A. 304. Was very felicite perfite; A. 338. His barge was called the Maudelain; A. 410.

It is needless to proceed; it is obvious that Stowe was not the man who would care to eke out a line by filling it up with convenient monosyllables. And it is just because these old editors usually let the text alone, that the old black-letter editions still retain a certain value, and represent some lost manuscript.

§ 18. One editor, apparently Speght, actually had an inkling of the truth; but he was promptly put down by Dryden (Pref. to the Fables). 'The verse of Chaucer, I confess, is not harmonious to us; ... there is the rude sweetness of a Scotch tune in it, which is natural and pleasing, though not perfect. It is true, I cannot go so far as he who published the last edition of him; for he would make us believe the fault is in our ears, and that there were really ten syllables in a verse where we find but nine; but this error is not worth confuting; it is so gross and obvious an error[19], that common sense (which is a rule in everything but matters of faith and revelation) must convince the reader, that equality of numbers in every verse which we call Heroic, was either not known, or not always practised in Chaucer's age. It were an easy matter to produce some thousands of verses, which are lame for want of half a foot, and sometimes a whole one, and which no pronunciation can make otherwise.' We cannot doubt that such was the prevalent opinion at that time. [xxiii]

§ 19. For such readers as do not wish to study the language or the grammar of Chaucer, but merely wish to read the text with some degree of comfort, and to come by the stories and their general literary expression with the least possible trouble, the Ellesmere MS. furnishes quite an ideal text. Such a reader has only to observe the following empirical rules[20].

1. Pronounce every final _e_ like the final _a_ in _China_, except in a few very common words like _wolde_, _sholde_, _were_, and the like, which may be read as _wold'_, _shold'_, _wer'_, unless the metre seems to demand that they should be fully pronounced. The commonest clipped words of this character are _have_, _hadde_ (when a mere auxiliary), _were_, _nere_ (were not), _wolde_, _nolde_ (would not), _thise_ (like mod. E. _these_), _othere_, and a few others, that are easily picked up by observation.

2. Always pronounce final _-ed_, _-es_, _-en_, as distinct syllables, unless it is particularly convenient to clip them. Such extra syllables, like the final _-e_, are especially to be preserved at the end of the line; a large number of the rimes being double (or feminine).

3. But the final _-e_ is almost invariably elided, and other light syllables, especially _-en_, _-er_, _-el_, are frequently treated as being redundant, whenever the next word following begins with a vowel or is one of the words (beginning with _h_) in the following list, viz. _he_, _his_, _him_, _her_, _hir_ (their), _hem_ (them), _hath_, _hadde_, _have_, _how_, _heer_.

These three simple rules will go a long way. An attentive reader will thus catch the swing of the metre, and will be carried along almost mechanically. The chief obstacle to a succession of smooth lines is the jerk caused by the occasional occurrence of a line defective in the first foot, as explained above. Perhaps it may be further noted that an _e_ sometimes occurs, as a distinct syllable, in the middle of a word as well as at the end of it. Exx.: _Eng-e-lond_ (A. 16); _wod-e-craft_ (A. 110); _sem-e-ly_ (A. 136).

§ 20. We must also remember that the accentuation of many words, especially of such as are of French origin, was quite different then from what it is now. A word like 'reason' was then properly pronounced _resóun_ (rezuun), i. e. somewhat like a modern _ray-zóon_; but even in Chaucer's day the habit of throwing back the accent was beginning to prevail, and there was a tendency to [xxiv] say _réson_ (reezun), somewhat like a modern _ráy-zun_. Chaucer avails himself of this variable accent, and adopts the sound which comes in more conveniently at the moment[21]. Thus while we find _resóun_ (rezuun) in l. 37, in l. 274 we find résons (reezunz).

§ 21. I give a few examples of the three rules stated above.

The following words are properly dissyllabic, in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales:--(l. 1) _shou-res_, _so-te_; (2) _drogh-te_, _Mar-che_, _per-ced_, _ro-te_; (3) _ba-thed_, _vey-ne_; (5) _swe-te_; (7) _crop-pes_, _yon-ge_, _son-ne_; (8) _half-e_; (9) _sma-le_, _fow-les_, _ma-ken_; (10) _sle-pen_, _o-pen_, _y-ë_; (13) _straun-ge_, _strond-es_; (14) _fer-ne_, _hal-wes_, _lon-des_; (15) _shi-res_, _end-e_; and so on.

In the same way, there are three syllables in (1) _A-pril-le_; (4) _en-gend-red_; (5) _Zéph-i-rús_; (6) _In-spi-red_; (8) _y-ron-ne_; &c. And there are four syllables in (9) _mél-o-dý-ë_; (12) _pil-grim-á-ges_.

Elision takes place of the _e_ in _drogh-te_ and of the _e_ in _couth-e_ in l. 14; of the _e_ in _nyn-e_ in l. 24; &c. In such cases, the words may be read as if spelt _droght_, _couth_, _nyn_, for convenience. There are some cases in which the scribe actually fails to write a final _e_, owing to such elision; but they are not common. I have noted a few in the Glossarial Index.

The final _e_ is ignored, before a consonant, in _were_ (59, 68, 74, 81); and even, which is not common, in _hope_ (88) and _nose_ (152).

As examples of accents to which we are no longer accustomed, we may notice _A-príl-le_ (1); _ver-tú_ (4); _cor-á-ges_ (11); _á-ven-túre_ (25); _tó-ward_ (27); _re-sóun_ (37); _hon-óur_ (46); _hon-óur-ed_ (50); _a-ry´-ve_ (60); _sta-tú-re_ (83); _Cur-téys_ (99).

The lines were recited deliberately, with a distinct pause near the middle of each, at which no elision could take place. At this medial pause there is often a redundant syllable (as is more fully explained in vol. vi). Thus, in l. 3, the _-e_ in _veyn-e_ should be preserved, though modern readers are sure to ignore it. Cf. _carie_ in l. 130; _studie_ in l. 184; &c.

§ 22. By help of the above hints, some notion of the melody of Chaucer may be gained, even by such as adopt the modern English pronunciation. It is right, however, to bear in mind that most of the vowels had, at that time, much the same powers as in modern French and Italian; and it sometimes makes a [xxv] considerable difference. Thus the word _charitable_ in l. 143 was really pronounced more like the modern French _charitable_; only that the initial sound was that of the O. F. and E. _ch_, as in _church_, not that of the modern French _ch_ in _cher_. For further remarks on the pronunciation, see vol. vi.

§ 23. The feeble suggestion is sometimes made that Chaucer's spelling ought to be modernised, like that of Shakespeare. This betrays a total ignorance of the history of English spelling. It is not strictly the case, that Shakespeare's spelling has been modernised; for the fact is the other way, viz. that in all that is most essential, it is the spelling of Shakespeare's time that has been adopted in modern English. The so-called 'modern' spelling is really a survival, and is sadly unfit, as we all know to our cost, for representing modern English sounds. By 'modernising,' such critics usually mean the cutting off of final _e_ in places where it was just as little required in Elizabethan English as it is now; the freër use of 'v' and of 'j'; and so forth; nearly all of the alterations referring to unessential details. Such alterations would have been useful even in Shakespeare's time, and would not have touched the character of the spelling. But the spelling of Chaucer's time refers to quite a different age, when a large number of inflections were still in use that have since been discarded; so that it involves changes in essential and vital points. As it happens, the spelling of the Ellesmere MS. is phonetic in a very high degree. Pronounce the words _as they are spelt_, but with the Italian vowel-sounds and the German final _e_, and you come very near the truth. If this is too much trouble, pronounce the words _as they are spelt_, with modern English vowels (usually adding a final _e_, pronounced like _a_ in _China_, when it is visibly present); and, even so, it is easy to follow. The alteration of a word like _quene_ to _queene_ does not make it any easier; and the further alteration to _queen_ destroys its dissyllabic nature. Besides, those who want the spelling modernised can get it in Gilfillan's edition.

Surely, it is better to stick to the true old phonetic spelling. Boys at school, who have learnt Attic Greek, are supposed to be able to face the spelling of Homer without wincing, though it is not their native language; and the number of Englishwomen who are fairly familiar with Middle-English is becoming considerable.

§ 24. As regards the Notes in the present volume, it will be [xxvi] readily understood that I have copied them or collected them from many sources. Many of those on the Prologue and Knightes Tale were really written by Dr. Morris; but, owing to the great kindness he shewed me in allowing me to work in conjunction with him on terms of equality, I should often be hard put to it to say which they are. A large number are taken from the editions by Tyrwhitt, Wright, and Bell; but these are usually acknowledged. Others I have adopted from the various works published by the Chaucer Society; from the excellent notes by Dr. Köppell, Dr. Kölbing, and Dr. Koch that have appeared in Anglia, and in similar publications; and from Professor Lounsbury's excellent work entitled Studies in Chaucer. I have usually endeavoured to point out the sources of my information; and, if I have in several cases failed to do this, I hope it will be understood that, as Chaucer's fox said, 'I dide it in no wikke entente.' Perhaps this may seem an unlucky reference, for the fox was not speaking the strict truth, as we all know that he ought to have done. If I may take any credit for any part of the Notes, I think it may be for my endeavour to hunt up, as far as I could, a large number of the very frequent allusions to Le Roman de la Rose[22], and to such authors as Ovid and Statius; besides undertaking the more difficult task involved in tracing out some of the mysterious references which occur in the margins of the manuscripts. For the Tale of Melibeus, I naturally derived much help and comfort from the admirable edition of Albertano's Liber Consolationis by Thor Sundby, and the careful notes made by Mätzner. As for the references in the Persones Tale, I should never have found out so many of them, but for the kind assistance of the Rev. E. Marshall. To all my predecessors in the task of annotation, and to all helpers, I beg leave to express my hearty thanks. For further remarks on this and some other subjects, see vol. vi.

As it frequently happens that it is highly desirable to be able to recover speedily the whereabouts of a note on some particular word or subject, an Index to the Notes is appended to this volume. [xxvii]

ERRATA IN VOL IV.

At p. xxiv of vol. iv, a list of Errata is given, many of which are of slight importance. Much use of this volume, for the purpose of illustration, has brought to my notice a few more Errata, six of which, here marked with an asterisk, are worth special notice.

P. 19. A 636. _For_ Thanne _read_ Than P. 37. A 1248. The end-stop should be only a colon. P. 41. A 1419. The end-stop should be only a semicolon. P. 138. B 295. _For_ moevyng _read_ moeving Pp. 151, 155. B 724, 858. _For_ Constable _read_ constable * P. 165. B 1178. _For_ be _read_ he P. 187. B 1843. The end-stop should (perhaps) be a semicolon. P. 232. B 2865. _For_ haue _read_ have P. 259. B 3670. The end-stop should be a comma. * P. 275. B 4167. _For_ Than _read_ That * P. 348. D 955. _For_ which _read_ whiche P. 349. D 1009. _For_ Plighte _read_ Plight P. 384. D 2152. _Dele 'at beginning._ * P. 398. E 290. MS. E _has_ set (= setteth, _pr. s._); _which scans better than_ sette, _as in other_ MSS. P. 409. E 656. _For_ Left _read_ Lefte [though the _e_ is elided]. * P. 462. F 56. _For_ Him _read_ Hem P. 546. G 1224. _Dele_ the final comma. * P. 608; end of l. 14. _For_ power or (_as in_ E.) _read_ power of (_as in the rest_). P. 620: ll. 16, 17. _Dele the commas after_ receyven _and_ folk

[xxviii]

VOL. V. ADDENDA, ETC.

P. 73; l. 10 from bottom. _Dele_ comma after Thornton.

P. 119; l. 1. _For_ l. 393 _read_ l. 3931.

P. 262; note to C 60. Cf. Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 205:--'Ac the greate metes and thet stronge wyn alighteth and norisseth lecherie, ase oyle other grese alighteth and strengtheth thet uer' [i. e. the fire]. This passage occurs quite close to that quoted in the note to A 4406. Probably Chaucer took both of these from the French original of the Ayenbite. Cf. p. 447.

P. 450. The note to G 1171 has been accidentally omitted, but is important. The reading should here be _terved_, not _torned_; and again, in G 1274, read _terve_, not _torne_. The Ellesmere MS. is really right in both places, though _terued_ appears as _terned_ in the Six-text edition. These readings are duly noted in the Errata to vol. iv, at p. xxvi. The verb _terve_ means 'to strip,' or 'to roll back' the edge of a cuff or the like. The Bremen Wörterbuch has: '_um tarven, up tarven_, den Rand von einem Kleidungstücke umschlagen, das innerste auswärts kehren.' Hence read _tirueden_ in Havelok, 603; _teruen of_ in the Wars of Alexander, 4114; _tyrue_ in Allit. Poems, ed. Morris, B. 630; and _tyruen_ in Gawain and the Grene Knight, 1921.

* * * * *

[1]

NOTES

TO THE

CANTERBURY TALES.

N.B. The spellings between marks of parenthesis indicate the pronunciation, according to the scheme given in the Introduction.

References to other lines in the Canterbury Tales are denoted by the Group and line. Thus 'B. 134' means Group B, l. 134, i. e. the first line in the Man of Lawes Tale.

Notes taken from editions by Tyrwhitt, Wright, Bell, and Morris, are usually marked accordingly; sometimes T. denotes Tyrwhitt, and M., Morris.

1. In the Man of Law's Prologue, B. 1-6, there is definite mention of the 18th day of April. The reference is, in that passage, to the second day of the pilgrimage. Consequently, the allusion in ll. 19-23 below is to April 16, and in l. 822 to April 17. The year may be supposed to be 1387 (vol. iii. p. 373).

'When that April, with his sweet showers.' _Aprille_ is here masculine, like Lat. _Aprilis_; cf. l. 5.

_shoures_ (shuu·rez), showers; pl. of _shour_, A.S. _sc[=u]r_ (skuur). The etymology of all words of this character, which are still in use, can be found by looking out the modern form of the word in my Etymological Dictionary. I need not repeat such information here.

_sote_, sweet, is another form of _swete_, which occurs just below in l. 5. The _e_ is not, in this case, the mark of the plural, as the forms _sote_, _swete_ are dissyllabic, and take a final _e_ in the singular also. _Sote_ is a less correct form of _swote_; and the variation between the long _o_ in _swote_ and the long _e_ in _swete_ is due to confusion between the adverbial and adjectival uses. _Swote_ corresponds to A.S. _sw[=o]t_, adv., sweetly, and _swete_ to A.S. _sw[=e]te_, adj., sweet. The latter exhibits mutation of _[=o]_ to _[=e]_; cf. mod. E. _goose_, pl. _geese_ (A.S. _g[=o]s_, pl. _g[=e]s_).

In this Introduction, Chaucer seems to have had in his mind the [2] passage which begins Book IV. of Guido delle Colonne's Historia Troiae, which is as follows:--'Tempus erat quo sol maturans sub obliquo zodiaci circulo cursum suum sub signo iam intrauerat Arietis ... celebratur equinoxium primi veris, tunc cum incipit tempus blandiri mortalibus in aeris serenitate intentis, tunc cum dissolutis ymbribus Zephiri flantes molliciter (_sic_) crispant aquas ... tunc cum ad summitates arborum et ramorum humiditates ex terre gremio examplantes extollunt in eis; quare insultant semina, crescunt segetes, virent prata, variorum colorum floribus illustrata ... tunc cum ornatur terra graminibus, cantant volucres, et in dulcis armonie modulamine citharizant. Tunc quasi medium mensis Aprilis effluxerat'; &c.

We may also note the passage in Vincent of Beauvais, _Speculum Naturale_, lib. xv. c. 66, entitled _De Vere_:--'Sol vero ad radices herbarum et arborum penetrans, humorem quem ibi coadunatum hyeme reperit, attrahit; herba vero, vel arbor suam inanitionem sentiens a terra attrahit humorem, quem ibi sui similitudine adiuuante calore Solis transmutat, sicque reuiuiscit; inde est quod quidam mensis huius temporis _Aprilis_ dicitur, quia tunc terra praedicto modo aperitur.'

2. _droght-e_, dryness; A. S. _dr[=u]gathe_; essentially dissyllabic, but the final _e_ is elided. Pron. (druuht'). _perced_, pierced, _rot-e_, dat. of _root_, a root; Icel. _r[=o]t_; written for _roote_. The double _o_ is not required to shew vowel-length, when a single consonant and an _e_ follow.

4. _vertu_, efficacy, productive agency, vital energy. 'And bathed every vein (of the tree or herb) in such moisture, by means of which quickening power the flower is generated.' Pron. (vertü').

5. _Zephirus_, the zephyr, or west wind. Cf. Chaucer's Book of the Duchess, l. 402, and the note. There are two more references to Zephirus in the translation of Boethius, bk. i. met. 5; bk. ii. met. 3.

6. _holt_, wood, grove; A. S. _holt_; cf. G. _Holz_.

7. _croppes_, shoots, extremities of branches, especially towards the top of a tree; hence simply tree-tops, tops of plants, &c. Hence _to crop_ is 'to cut the tops off.' Cf. A. 1532; tr. of Boethius, bk. iii. met. 2. 24; Rom. Rose, 1396; and note to P. Plowman, B. xvi. 69.

_yonge sonne_ (yungg[*e] sunn[*e]); see the next note. The _-e_ in _yong-e_ denotes the definite form of the article. _Sonn-e_, A. S. _sunna_, is essentially dissyllabic.

8. _the Ram._ The difficulty here really resides in the expression 'his halfe cours,' which means what it says, viz. 'his half-course,' and not, as Tyrwhitt unfortunately supposed, 'half his course.' The results of the two explanations are quite different. Taking Chaucer's own expression as it stands, he tells us that, a little past the middle of April, 'the young sun has run his half-course in the Ram.' Turning to Fig. 1 in The Astrolabe (see vol. iii.), we see that, against the month 'Aprilis,' there appears in the circle of zodiacal signs, the _latter_ half (roughly speaking) of Aries, and the _former_ half of Taurus. Thus the sun in April runs a half-course in the Ram and a half-course in the Bull. 'The former of these was completed,' says the poet; which is as much [3] as to say, that _it was past the eleventh of April_; for, in Chaucer's time, the sun entered Aries on March 12, and left that sign on April 11. See note to l. 1.

---+-----------+-----------+-----------+--------- | March. | April. | May. | ---+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+--- | Aries. | Taurus. | Gemini. | ---------+-----------+-----------+-----------+---

The sun had, in fact, only just completed his course through the first of the twelve signs, as the said course was supposed to begin at the vernal equinox. This is why it is called 'the yonge sonne,' an expression which Chaucer repeats under similar circumstances in the Squyeres Tale, F. 385. _Y-ronne_, for A. S. _gerunnen_, pp. of _rinnan_, to run (M. E. _rinnen_, _rinne_). The M. E. _y-_, A. S. _ge-_, is a mere prefix, mostly used with past participles.

9. Pron. ([*e]nd smaa·l[*e] fuu·lez maa·ken melodii·[*e]); 'and little birds make melody.' Cf. _fowel_ (fuul), a bird, in l. 190.

10. _open ye_, open eye. Cf. the modern expression 'with one eye open.' This line is copied in the Sowdone of Babylon, ll. 41-46.

11. 'So nature excites them, in their feelings (instincts).' _hir_, their; A. S. _hira_, lit. 'of them,' gen. pl. of _h[=e]_, he. _corage_ (kuraa·j[*e]); mod. E. courage; see l. 22.

12, 13. According to ordinary English construction, the verb _longen_ must be supplied after _palmers_. In fact, l. 13 is parenthetical. Note that _Than_, in l. 12, answers to _Whan_ in l. 1.

13. _palmer_, originally, one who made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and brought home a _palm_-branch as a token. Chaucer, says Tyrwhitt, seems to consider all pilgrims to foreign parts as palmers. The essential difference between the two classes of persons here mentioned, the palmer and the pilgrim, was, that the latter had 'some dwelling-place, a palmer had none; the pilgrim travelled to some certain place, the palmer to all, and not to any one in particular; the pilgrim might go at his own charge, the palmer must profess wilful poverty; the pilgrim might give over his profession, the palmer must be constant'; Blount's Glossographia (taken from Speght). See note to P. Plowman, B. v. 523.

The fact is, that palmers did not always reach the Holy Land. They commonly went to Rome first, where not unfrequently the Pope 'allowed them to wear the palm as if they had visited Palestine'; Rock, Church of our Fathers, vol. iii. pt. 1. p. 439.

_to seken_, to seek; the A. S. gerund, _t[=o] s[=e]canne_; expressive of purpose. _strondes_, strands, shores.

14. _ferne halwes_, distant saints, i. e. shrines. Here _ferne_ = _ferrene_ = distant, foreign. 'To _ferne_ poeples'; Chaucer's Boethius, bk. ii. met. 7. See Mätzner's M. E. Dict. _Ferne_ also means 'ancient,' but not here.

_halwes_, saints; cf. Scotch _Hallow-e'en_, the eve of All Hallows, or All Saints; the word is here applied to their shrines.

Chaucer has, 'to go seken _halwes_,' to go (on a pilgrimage) to seek [4] saints' shrines; D. 657. _couthe_ (kuudh'), well known; A. S. _c[=u]ð_, known, pp. of _cunnan_, to know. _sondry_ (sun·dri), various.

16. _wende_, go; pret. _wente_, Eng. _went_. The use of the present tense in modern English is usually restricted to the phrase 'he _wends_ his way.'

17. _The holy blisful martir_, Thomas à Becket. On pilgrimages, see Saunders, Chaucer, p. 10; and Erasmus, _Peregrinatio religionis ergo_. There were numerous places in England sought by pilgrims, as Durham, St. Alban's, Bury, St. David's, Glastonbury, Lincoln, York, Peterborough, Winchester, Holywell, &c.; but the chief were Canterbury and Walsingham.

18. _holpen_, pp. of _helpen_. The older preterites of this verb are _heolp_, _help_, _halp_. _seke_, sick, rimes to _seke_, seek; this apparent repetition is only allowed when the repeated word is used in two different senses.

_seke_, pl. of _seek_, A. S. _s[=e]oc_, sick, ill. For _hem_, see n. to l. 175.

19. _Bifel_, it befell. _seson_ (saesun), time. _on a day_, one day.

20. _Tabard_. Of this word Speght gives the following account in his Glossary to Chaucer:--'Tabard--a jaquet or sleveless coate, worne in times past by noblemen in the warres, but now only by heraults (heralds), and is called theyre "coate of armes in servise." It is the signe of an inne in Southwarke by London, within the which was the lodging of the Abbot of Hyde by Winchester. This is the hostelry where _Chaucer_ and the other pilgrims mett together, and, with Henry Baily their hoste, accorded about the manner of their journey to Canterbury. And whereas through time it hath bin much decayed, it is now by Master _J. Preston_, with the Abbot's house thereto adgoyned, newly repaired, and with convenient rooms much encreased, for the receipt of many guests.' The inn is well described in Saunders (on Chaucer), p. 13. See also Stow, Survey of London (ed. Thoms, p. 154); Nares' Glossary, s. v. _Tabard_; Dyce's Skelton, ii. 283; Furnivall's Temporary Preface to Chaucer, p. 18.

The tabard, however, was _not_ sleeveless, though the sleeves, at first, were very short. See the plate in Boutell's Heraldry, ed. Aveling, p. 69; cf. note to P. Plowman, C. vii. 203.

_lay_; used like the modern 'lodged,' or 'was stopping.'

23. _come_ (kum'), short for _comen_, pp. of _comen_. _hostelrye_, a lodging, inn, house, residence. _Hostler_ properly signifies the keeper of an inn, and not, as now, the servant of an inn who looks after the horses.

24. _wel_ is here used like our word, _full_ or _quite_.

25. _by aventure y-falle_, by adventure (chance) fallen (into company). Pron. (av·entü·r').

26. _felawshipe_, company; from M. E. _felawe_, companion, fellow.

27. _wolden ryde_, wished to ride. The latter verb is in the infinitive mood, as usual after _will_, _would_, _shall_, _may_, &c.

29. _esed atte beste_, accommodated or entertained in the best manner. _Easement_ is still used as a law term, signifying accommodation. Cf. F. _bien aise_. Pron. (aezed). [5]

_atte_, i. e. at the, was shortened from _atten_, masc. and neut., from A. S. _æt th[=a]m_. We also find M. E. _atter_, fem., from A. S. _æt th[=æ]re_.

30. _to reste_, i. e. gone to rest, set.

31. _everichon_, for _ever-ich oon_, every one, lit. ever each one.

32. _of hir felawshipe_, (one) of their company.

33. _forward_, agreement. 'Fals was here _foreward_ so forst is in May,' i. e. their agreement was as false as a frost in May; Ritson's Ancient Songs, i. 30. A. S. _fore-weard_, lit. 'fore ward,' a precaution, agreement.

34. _ther as I yow devyse_, to that place that I tell you of (sc. Canterbury); _ther_ in M. E. frequently signifies 'where,' and _ther as_ signifies 'where that.' _devyse_, speak of, describe; lit. 'devise.'

35. _natheles_, nevertheless; lit. 'no the less'; cf. A. S. _n[=a]_, no. _whyl_, whilst. The form in _-es_ (_whiles_, the reading of some MSS.) is a comparatively modern adverbial form, and may be compared with M. E. _hennes_, _thennes_, hence, thence; _ones_, _twyes_, _thryes_, once, twice, thrice; of which older forms are found in _-enne_ and _-e_ respectively.

37. 'It seemeth to me it is reasonable.'

_Me thinketh_ = _me thinks_, where _me_ is the dative before the impersonal vb. _thinken_, to appear, seem; cp. _me liketh_, _me list_, it pleases me. So the phrase _if you please_ = if it _please you_, you being the _dative_ and not the nominative case. _semed me_ = it seemed to me, occurs in l. 39. The personal verb is properly _thenken_, as in the Clerkes Tale, E. 116, 641; or _thenchen_, as in A. 3253.

_accordaunt_, accordant, suitable, agreeable (to).

40. _whiche_, what sort of men; Lat. _qualis_.

41. _inne._ In M. E., _in_ is the preposition, and _inne_ the adverb.

THE KNIGHT.

43. _Knight._ It was a common thing in this age for knights to seek employment in foreign countries which were at war. Cf. Book of the Duchesse, 1024, and my note. Tyrwhitt cites from Leland's _Itinerary_, v. iii. p. cxi., the epitaph of a knight of this period, Matthew de Gourney, who had been at the battle of Benamaryn, at the siege of Algezir, and at the Battles of Crecy, Poitiers, &c. See note to l. 51.

_worthy_, worthy, is here used in its literal signification of distinguished, honourable. See ll. 47, 50. Pron. (wur·dhi).

For notes on the dresses, &c. of the pilgrims, see Todd's Illustrations of Chaucer, p. 227; Fairholt's Costume in England, 1885, i. 129; and Saunders, on the Canterbury Tales, where some of the MS. drawings are reproduced. Also Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, sect. 17.

45. _chivalrye_ (chiv·alrii·[*e]), knighthood; also the manners, exercises, and exploits of a knight.

47. _in his lordes werre_, i. e. in the king's service. 'The knight, by his tenure, was obliged to serve the king on horseback in his wars, and maintain a soldier at his own proper charge,' &c.; Strutt, Manners and Customs, iii. 15. _werre_, war. [6]

48. _therto_, moreover, besides that; see l. 153 below, _ferre_, the comp. of _fer_, far. Cf. M. E. _derre_, dearer (A. 1448); _sarre_, sorer, &c.

49. _hethenesse_, heathen lands, as distinguished from _Cristendom_, Christian countries. The same distinction occurs in English Gilds, ed. Toulmin Smith, p. 36, l. 1.

50. Pron. ([*e]nd ae·vr onuu·red for iz wur·dhines·s[*e]).

51. _Alisaundre_, in Egypt, 'was won, and immediately after abandoned in 1365, by Pierre de Lusignan, King of Cyprus'; Tyrwhitt. Froissart (Chron. bk. iii. c. 22) gives the epitaph of Pierre de Lusignan, king of Cyprus, who 'conquered in battle ... the cities of Alexandria in Egypt, Tripoli in Syria, Layas in Armenia, Satalia in Turkey, with several other cities and towns, from the enemies of the faith of Jesus Christ'; tr. by Johnes, vol. ii. p. 138. 'To this I may add, from "Les Tombeaux des Chevaliers du noble Ordre de la Toison d'Or," the exploits recorded on a monument also of a French knight, who lived in Chaucer's age, and died in 1449, Jean, Seigneur de Roubais, &c. "qui en son temps visita les Saints lieux de Ierusalem, ... S. Iacques en Galice, ... et passa les perils mortels de plusieurs batailles arrestées contre les Infidels, c'est a sçavoir en Hongrie et Barbarie, ... en Prusse contre les Letaux, ... avec plusieurs autres faicts exercice d'armes tant par mer que par terre,"' &c.--Todd, Illust. of Ch., p. 227. _wonne_ (wunn[*e]), won.

52. _he hadde the bord bigonne._ Here _bord_ = board, table, so that the phrase signifies 'he had been placed at the head of the dais, or _table_ of state.' Warton, in his Hist. of Eng. Poetry, ed. 1840, ii. 209 (ed. 1871, ii. 373), aptly cites a passage from Gower which is quite explicit as to the sense of the phrase. See Gower, Conf. Amantis, bk. viii. ed. Pauli, iii. 299. We there read that a knight was honoured by a king, by being set at the head of the middle table in the hall.

'And he, _which had his prise deserved_, After the kinges owne word, Was maad _beginne a middel bord_.'

The context shews that this was at supper-time, and that the knight was placed in this honourable position by the marshal of the hall.

Further illustrations are also given by Warton, ed. 1840, i. 174, footnote, shewing that the phrases _began the dese_ (daïs) and _began the table_ were also in use, with the same sense. I can add another clear instance from Sir Beves of Hamptoun, ed. Kölbing, E. E. T. S., p. 104, where we find in one text (l. 2122)--

'Thow schelt this dai be priour, And beginne oure deis' [_daïs_];

where another text has (l. 1957) the reading--

Palmer, thou semest best to me, Therfore men shal worshyp the; _Begyn the borde_, I the pray.'

[7] See also the New Eng. Dictionary, s. v. _Board_; Hartshorne's Metrical Tales, pp. 72, 73, 215, 219; Early Popular Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, i. 104; Todd's Illustrations, p. 322. Even in Stow's Survey of London, ed. Thoms, p. 144, col. 2, we read how--'On the north side of the hall certain aldermen _began the board_, and then followed merchants of the city.'

Another explanation is sometimes given, but it is wholly wrong.

53, 54. _Pruce._ When our English knights wanted employment, 'it was usual for them to go and serve in Pruce, or Prussia, with the knights of the Teutonic order, who were in a state of constant warfare with their heathen neighbours in _Lettow_ (Lithuania), _Ruce_ (Russia), and elsewhere.'--Tyrwhitt. Cf. Gower, Conf. Amant. ii. 56.

The larger part of Lithuania now belongs to Russia, and the remainder to Prussia; but in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the natives long maintained their independence against the Russians and Poles (Haydn, Dict. of Dates).

_reysed_, made a military expedition. The O. F. _reise_, sb., a military expedition, was in common use on the continent at that time. Numerous examples of its use are given in Godefroy's O. F. Dict. It was borrowed from O. H. G. _reisa_ (G. _Reise_), an expedition. Pron. (reized).

Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, ed. 1840, ii. 210, remarks--'Thomas duke of Gloucester, youngest son of Edw. III, and Henry earl of Derby, afterwards Henry IV, travelled into Prussia; and, in conjunction with the grand Masters and Knights of Prussia and Livonia, fought the infidels of Lithuania. Lord Derby was greatly instrumental in taking Vilna, the capital of that country, in the year 1390. Here is a seeming compliment to some of these expeditions.' Cf. Walsingham, Hist., ed. Riley, ii. 197. Hackluyt, in his Voyages, ed. 1598, i. 122, cites and translates the passage from Walsingham referred to above. However, the present passage was written before 1390; see n. to l. 277.

In an explanation of the drawings in MS. Jul. E. 4, relating to the life of Rd. Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick (born 1381, died 1439), I find--'Here shewes how erle Richard from Venise took his wey to _Russy_, _Lettow_, and Velyn, and Cypruse, Westvale, and other coostes of Almayn toward Englond.'--Strutt, Manners and Customs.

56-8. _Gernade_, Granada. 'The city of Algezir was taken from the Moorish King of _Granada_ in 1344.'--T. The earls of Derby and Salisbury assisted at the siege; Weber, Met. Rom. iii. 306. It is the modern _Algeciras_ on the S. coast of Spain, near Cape Trafalgar.

_Belmarye_ and _Tramissene_ (Tremezen), l. 62, were Moorish kingdoms in Africa, as appears from a passage in Froissart (bk. iv. c. 24) cited by Tyrwhitt. Johnes' translation has--'Tunis, Bugia, Morocco, Benmarin, Tremeçen.' Cf. Kn. Tale, l. 1772 (A. 2630). Benmarin is called _Balmeryne_ in Barbour's Bruce, xx. 393, and _Belmore_ in the Sowdone of Babylon, 3122. The Gulf of Tremezen is on the coast of Algiers, to the west.

_Lyeys_, in Armenia, was taken from the Turks by Pierre de Lusignan [8] about 1367. It is the _Layas_ mentioned by Froissart (see note to l. 51) and the modern _Ayas_; see the description of it in Marco Polo, ed. Yule, i. 15. Cf. 'Laiazzo's gulf,' Hoole's tr. of Ariosto's Orlando; bk. xix. l. 389.

_Satalye_ (Attalia, now Adalia, on the S. coast of Asia Minor) was taken by the same prince soon after 1352.--T. See Acts xiv. 25.

_Palatye_ (Palathia, see l. 65), in Anatolia, was one of the lordships held by Christian knights after the Turkish conquest.--T. Cf. Froissart, bk. iii. c. 23.

59. _the Grete See._ The Great Sea denotes the Mediterranean, as distinguished from the two so-called inland seas, the Sea of Tiberias and the Dead Sea. So in Numb. xxxiv. 6, 7; Josh. i. 4; also in Mandevile's Travels, c. 7.

60. _aryve_, arrival or disembarkation of troops, as in the Harleian and Cambridge MSS. Many MSS. have _armee_, army, which gives no good sense, and probably arose from misreading the spelling _ariue_ as _arme_. Perhaps the following use of _rive_ for 'shore' may serve to illustrate this passage:--

'The wind was good, they saileth blive, Till he _took lond_ upon the _rive_ Of Tire,' &c. Gower, Conf. Amant. ed. Pauli, iii. 292.

_be_ = _ben_, been. Cf. _ydo_ = _ydon_, done, &c.

62. _foghten_ (f[o,]uhten), pp. fought; from the strong verb _fighten_.

63. 'He had fought thrice in the lists in defence of our faith'; i. e. when challenged by an infidel to do so. Such combats were not uncommon. _slayn_, slain, _hadde_ must be supplied from l. 61.

64. _ilke_, same; A. S. _ylca_.

65. _Somtyme_, once on a time; not our 'sometimes.' See l. 85.

66. _another hethen_, a heathen army different from that which he had encountered at Tremezen.

67. _sovereyn prys_ (suv·rein priis), exceeding great renown.

69. 'As courteys as any mayde'; Arthur, ed. Furnivall (E. E. T. S.), l. 41. Cf. B. 1636.

70. _vileinye_, any utterance unbecoming a gentleman. Cf. Trench, English Past and Present, ch. 7, on the word _villain_.

71. _no maner wight_, no kind of person whatever. In M. E. the word _maner_ is used without _of_, in phrases of this character.

72. _verray_, very, true. _parfit_, perfect; F. _parfait_. _gentil_, gentle; see D. 1109-1176.

74. 'His horses were good, but he himself was not gaudily dressed.' _Hors_ is plural as well as singular. In fact, the knight had _three_ horses; one for himself, one for his son, and one for the yeoman. Perhaps we should read--'but hé ne was not gay,' supplying _ne_ from Hl. and Hn. This makes _he_ emphatic; and we may then treat the _e_ in _god-e_ as a light extra syllable, at the caesural pause; for doing which there is ample authority. [9]

75. _fustian_; see Babees Book, ed. Furnivall, p. 224. _gipoun_ (jipuu·n), a diminutive of _gipe_, a tight-fitting vest, a doublet; also called a _gipell_, as in Libeaus Disconus, 224. See Fairholt, s. v. _fustian_, and s. v. _gipon_. The O. F. _gipe_ (whence F. _jupe_) meant a kind of frock or jacket. _wered_ is the A. S. _werede_, pt. t. of the weak verb _werian_, to wear. It is now strong; pt. t. _wore_. See l. 564.

76. This verse is defective in the first foot, which consists solely of the word _Al_. Such verses are by no means uncommon in the Cant. Tales and in the Leg. of Good Women. Pron. (al· bismut·erd widh·iz ha·berjuu·n). 'His doublet of fustian was all soiled with marks made by the habergeon which he had so lately worn over it.' _Bismotered_ has the same sense as mod. E. _besmutted_.

_habergeoun_, though etymologically a diminutive of _hauberk_, is often used as synonymous with it. 'It was a defence of an inferior description to the hauberk; but when the introduction of plate-armour, in the reign of Edward III, had supplied more convenient and effectual defences for the legs and thighs, the long skirt of the hauberk became superfluous; from that period the _habergeon_ alone appears to have been worn.'--Way, note to Promptorium Parvulorum, p. 220.

'And Tideus, above his _Habergeoun_, A _gipoun_ hadde, hidous, sharpe, and hoor, Wrought of the bristles of a wilde Boor.' Lydgate, Siege of Thebes, pt. ii.

See the Glossary to Fairholt's Costume in England, s. v. _Habergeon_; and, for the explanation of _gipoun_, see the same, under _gipon_ and _gambeson_. For a picture of a _gipoun_, see Boutell's Heraldry, ed. Aveling, p. 67.

77, 78. 'For he had just returned from his journey, and went to perform his pilgrimage' (which he had vowed for a safe return) in his knightly array, only without his habergeon.

THE SQUYER.

79. _squyer_ = esquire, one who attended on a knight, and bore his lance and shield. See Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, Introd. § 8. 'Esquires held land by the service of the shield, and were bound by their fee to attend the king, or their lords, in the war, or pay escuage.'--Strutt, Manners and Customs, iii. 15. And see Ritson, Met. Romances, iii. 345.

As to the education and accomplishments of a squire, see note to Sir Topas, B. 1927.

80. _lovyere_, lover. The _y_ in this word is not euphonic as in some modern words; _lovyere_ (luv·yer) is formed from the verb _lovi-en_, A.S. _lufian_, to love.

_bacheler_, a young aspirant to knighthood. There were bachelors in arms as well as in arts. Cf. The Sowdone of Babylone, 1211. [10]

81. _lokkes_, locks (of hair). _crulle_ (krull'), curly, curled; cf. Mid. Du. _krul_, a curl. In mod. E., the _r_ has shifted its place. In King Alisaunder, ed. Weber, 4164, we find--'And his lokkes buth noght so crolle.' _as they_, &c., as if they had been laid in an instrument for curling them by pressure. Curling-tongs seem to be meant; or, possibly, curling-papers. For _presse_, cf. l. 263.

82. _yeer_. In the older stages of the language, _year_, _goat_, _swine_, &c., being neuter nouns, underwent no change in the nom. case of the plural number. We have already had _hors_, pl., in l. 74.

_I gesse_, I should think. In M. E., _gesse_ signifies to judge, believe, suppose, imagine. See Kn. Tale, l. 192 (A. 1050).

83. _of evene lengthe_, of ordinary or moderate height.

84. _deliver_, active. Cotgrave gives: '_delivre de sa personne_, an

## active, nimble wight.'

85. _chivachye._ Fr. _chevauchée_. 'It most properly means an expedition with a small party of _cavalry_; but is often used generally for any military expedition.'--T. We should call it a 'raid.' Cf. H. 50.

87. _born him wel_, conducted himself well (behaved bravely), considering the short time he had served.

88. _lady grace_, lady's grace. Here _lady_ represents A. S. _hlæfdigan_, gen. case of _hlæfdige_, lady; there is therefore no final _s_. See l. 695, and G. 1348. Cf. the modern phrase 'Lady-day,' as compared with 'Lord's day.'

89. 'That was with floures swote enbrouded al'; Prol. to Legend of Good Women, l. 119; and cf. Rom. Rose, 896-8. _Embrouded_ (embruu·ded _or_ embr[o,]u·ded), embroidered; from O. F. _brouder_, variant of _broder_, to embroider; confused with A. S. _brogden_, pp. of _bregdan_, to braid. _mede_, mead, meadow.

91. _floytinge_, playing the flute. Cf. _floute_ (ed. 1532, _floyte_), a flute; Ho. of Fame, 1223. Hexham gives Du. '_Fluyte_, a Flute.'

96. 'Joust (in a tournament) and dance, and draw well and write.'

97. _hote_, adv. hotly; from _hoot_, adj. hot. _nightertale_, night-time, time (or reckoning) of night. So also _wit nighter-tale_, lit. with night-time, Cursor Mundi, l. 2783; _on nightertale_, id. 2991; _be_ [by] _nychtyrtale_, Barbour's Bruce, xix. 495. The word is used by Holinshed in his account of Joan of Arc (under the date 1429), but altered in the later edition to 'the dead of the night'; it also occurs in Palladius on Husbandry, ed. Lodge, bk. i. l. 910; and in The Court of Love, l. 1355. Cf. Icel. _náttar-tal_, a tale, or number, of nights; and the phrase _á náttar-þeli_, at dead of night.

98. _sleep_, also written _slep_, _slepte_. Cf. _weep_, _wepte_; _leep_, _lepte_, &c.; such verbs, once strong, became weak. See l. 148; and Kn. Ta. 1829 (A. 2687).

100. _carf_, the past tense of _kerven_, to carve (pp. _corven_). The allusion is to what was then a common custom; cf. E. 1773; Barbour's Bruce, i. 356. _biforn_, before; A. S. _biforan_. [11]

THE YEMAN.

101. _Yeman_, yeoman. 'As a title of service, it denoted a servant of the next degree above a _garson_ or groom.... The title of _yeoman_ was given in a secondary sense to people of middling rank not in service. The appropriation of the word to signify a small landholder is more modern.'--Tyrwhitt. In ed. 1532, this paragraph is headed--'The Squyers yoman,' so that _he_ (in this line) means the Squire, as we should naturally suppose from the context. Tyrwhitt, indeed, objects that 'Chaucer would never have given the son an attendant, when the father had none'; but he overlooks the fact that both the squire and the squire's man were necessarily servants to the knight, who, in this way, really had _two_ servants; just as, in the note to l. 74, I have shewn that he had _three_ horses. Warton, Strutt, and Todd all take this view of the matter, as might be expected. For further information as to the status of a _yeoman_, see Blackstone; Spelman's Glossary, s. v. _Socman_; Strutt, Manners and Customs, iii. 16; the Glossary to the Babees Book, ed. Furnivall; Waterhous, Comment. on Fortescue's De Laudibus Legum Angliæ, ed. 1663, p. 391; &c.

_na-mo_, no more (in number). In M. E., _mo_ relates to number, but _more_ to size; usually, but not always; see l. 808.

102. _him liste_, it pleased him. _liste_ is the past tense; _list_, it pleaseth, is the present. See note on l. 37.

103. Archers were usually clad in 'Lincoln green'; cf. D. 1382.

104. _a sheef of pecok-arwes_, a sheaf of arrows with peacocks' feathers. Ascham, in his Toxophilus, ed. Arber, p. 129, does not say much in favour of 'pecock fethers'; for 'there is no fether but onely of a goose that hath all commodities in it. And trewelye at a short but, which some man doth vse, the _pecock fether_ doth seldome kepe vp the shaft eyther ryght or level, it is so roughe and heuy, so that many men which haue taken them vp for gaynesse, hathe layde them downe agayne for profyte; thus for our purpose, the goose is best fether for the best shoter.' In the Geste of Robyn Hode, pr. by W. Copland, we read--

'And every arrowe an ell longe With _peacocke_ well ydight, And nocked they were with white silk, It was a semely syght.'

'In the Liber Compotis Garderobæ, sub an. 4 Edw. II., p. 53, is this entry--Pro duodecim flechiis cum pennis de pauone emptis pro rege de 12 den., that is, For twelve arrows plumed with peacock's feathers, bought for the king, 12 d.... MS. Cotton, Nero c. viii.'--Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, bk. ii. ch. i. § 12. In the Testamenta Eboracensia, i. 419, 420 (anno 1429), I find--'Item lego ... j. shaffe of pakok-fedird arrows: also I wyte them a dagger harnest with sylver.' The latter phrase illustrates l. 114 below. See further in Warton's note on this passage; Hist. E. Poet. 1840, ii. 211. [12]

106. _takel_, lit. 'implement' or 'implements'; here the set of arrows. For _takel_ in the sense of 'arrow,' see Rom. Rose, 1729, 1863. 'He knew well how to arrange his shooting-gear in a yeomanlike manner.' Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, bk. ii. c. 1. § 16, quotes a ballad in which Robin Hood proposes that each man who misses the mark shall lose 'his _takell_'; and one of the losers says--'Syr abbot, I deliver thee myne _arrowe_.' Fairholt (s. v. _Tackle_) quotes from A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hood--

'When they had theyr _bowes_ ibent, Their _tacles_ fedred fre.'

In the Cursor Mundi, l. 3600, Isaac sends Esau to hunt, saying:--'Ga lok thi _tacle_ be puruaid.' Cotgrave gives--'_Tacle_, m. any (headed) shaft, or boult whose feathers be not waxed, but glued on.' Roquefort says the same.

107. The sense is--'His arrows did not present a draggled appearance owing to the feathers being crushed'; i. e. the feathers stood out erect and regularly, as necessary to secure for them a good flight.

109. _not-heed_, a head closely cut or cropped. Cf. 'To _Notte_ his haire, _comas recidere_'; Baret's Alvearie, 1580. Shakespeare has _not-pated_, i. e. crop-headed, 1 Henry IV, ii. 4. 78. Cooper's Thesaurus, 1565, has:--'_Tondere_, to cause his heare to be _notted_ or polled of a barbour'; also, 'to _notte_ his heare shorte'; also, '_Tonsus homo_, a man rounded, polled, or _notted_.' Cotgrave explains the F. _tonsure_ as 'a sheering, clipping, powling, _notting_, cutting, or paring round.' Florio, ed. 1598, explains Ital. _zucconare_ as 'to poule, to _nott_, to shave, or cut off one's haire,' and _zuccone_ as 'a shauen pate, a _notted_ poule.' And more illustrations might be adduced, as e.g. the explanation of _Nott-pated_ in Nares' Glossary. In later days the name of Roundhead came into use for a like reason. Cf. 'your _nott-headed_ country gentleman'; Chapman, The Widow's Tears, Act i. sc. 4.

110. 'He understood well all the usage of woodcraft.'

111. _bracer_, a guard for the arm used by archers to prevent the friction of the bow-string on the coat. It was made like a glove with a long leathern top, covering the fore-arm (Fairholt). See it described in Ascham's Toxophilus, ed. Arber, pp. 107, 108. Cf. E. _brace_.

112. For a description of 'sword and buckler play,' see Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, bk. iii. c. 6. § 22; Brand, Pop. Antiquities, ed. Ellis, ii. 400.

114. _Harneised_, equipped. 'A certain girdle, _harnessed_ with silver' is spoken of in Riley's Memorials of London, p. 399, with reference to the year 1376; cf. Riley's tr. of Liber Albus, p. 521. 'De j daggar harnisiat' xd.'; (1439) York Wills, iii. 96. 'De vj paribus cultellorum harnesiat' cum auricalco. xvjd.'; ibid. 'A dagger harnest with sylver'; id. i. 419. And see note to l. 104.

115. _Christofre._ 'A figure of St. Christopher, used as a brooch.... The figure of St. Christopher was looked upon with particular reverence [13] among the middle and lower classes; and was supposed to possess the power of shielding the person who looked on it from hidden dangers'; note in Wright's Chaucer. This belief is clearly shewn by a passage in Wright's History of Caricature. It is of so early an origin that we already meet with it in Anglo-Saxon in Cockayne's Shrine, p. 77, where we are told that St. Christopher 'prayed God that every one who has any relic of him should never be condemned in his sins, and that God's anger should never come upon him'; and that his prayer was granted. There is a well-known early woodcut exhibiting one of the earliest specimens of block-printing, engraved at p. 123 of Chambers' Book of Days, vol. ii, and frequently elsewhere. The inscription beneath the figure of the saint runs as follows:--

'Christofori faciem die quacunque tueris Illa nempe die morte mala non morieris.'

Hence the Yeoman wore his brooch for good luck. St. Christopher's day is July 25. For his legend, see Mrs. Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art, ii. 48; &c. _shene_; see n. to l. 160.

116. Riley, in his Memorials of London, p. 115, explains _baldric_ as 'a belt passing mostly round one side of the neck, and under the opposite arm.' In 1314, a baldric cost 12d. (same reference). See Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 29.

117. _forster_, forester. Hence the names Forester, Forster, and Foster.

THE PRIORESSE.

118. 'A nunne, y wene a pryores'; Rob. of Brunne, Hand. Synne, 7809.

120. In this line, as in ll. 509 and 697, the word _se-ynt_ seems to be dissyllabic. Six MSS. agree here; and the seventh (Harleian) has _nas_ for _was_, which keeps the same rhythm. Edd. 1532, 1550, and 1561 have the same words, omitting _but_.

_seynt Loy. Loy_ is from _Eloy_, i. e. St. _Eligius_, whose day is Dec. 1; see the long account of him in Butler's Lives of the Saints. He was a goldsmith, and master of the mint to Clotaire II., Dagobert I., and Clovis II. of France; and was also bishop of Noyon. He became the patron saint of goldsmiths, farriers, smiths, and carters. The Lat. _Eligius_ necessarily became _Eloy_ in O. French, and is _Eloy_ or _Loy_ in English, the latter form being the commoner. The Catholicon Anglicum (A.D. 1483) gives: '_Loye_, elegius (_sic_), nomen proprium.' Sir T. More, Works, ed. 1577, p. 194, says: '_St. Loy_ we make an horse-leche.' Barnaby Googe, as cited in Brand, Pop. Antiq. i. 364 (ed. Ellis), says:--

'And _Loye_ the smith doth looke to horse, and smithes of all degree, If they with iron meddle here, or if they goldesmithes bee.'

There is a district called _St. Loye's_ in Bedford; a _Saint Loyes_ chapel [14] near Exeter; &c. Churchyard mentions 'sweete _Saynct Loy_'; Siege of Leith, st. 50. In Lyndesay's Monarchè, bk. ii. lines 2299 and 2367, he is called 'sanct _Eloy_.' In D. 1564, the carter prays to God and Saint Loy, joining the names according to a common formula; but the Prioress dropped the divine name. Perhaps she invoked _St. Loy_ as being the patron saint of goldsmiths; for she seems to have been a little given to a love of gold and corals; see ll. 158-162. Warton's notion, that _Loy_ was a form of _Louis_, only shews how utterly unknown, in his time, were the phonetic laws of Old French.

Many more illustrations might be added; such as--'_By St. Loy_, that draws deep'; Nash's Lenten Stuff, ed. Hindley, p. xiv. 'God save her and _Saint Loye_'; Jack Juggler, ed. Roxburgh Club, p. 9; and see _Eligius_ in the Index to the Parker Society's publications.

We already find, in Guillaume de Machault's Confort d'Ami, near the end, the expression:--'Car je te jur, par _saint Eloy_'; Works, ed. 1849, p. 120.

The life of St. Eligius, as given in Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints, contains a curious passage, which seems worth citing:--'St. Owen relates many miracles which followed his death, and informs us that _the holy abbess_, St. Aurea, who was swept off by a pestilence, ... was advertised of her last hour some time before it, by a comfortable vision of _St. Eligius_.' See also Mrs. Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art, 3rd ed., p. 728.

There is, perhaps, a special propriety in selecting _St. Loy_ for mention in the present instance. In an interesting letter in _The Athenæum_ for Jan. 10, 1891, p. 54, Prof. Hales drew attention to the story about St. Eligius cited in Maitland's Dark Ages, pp. 83-4, ed. 1853. When Dagobert asked Eligius to swear upon the relics of the saints, the bishop _refused_. On being further pressed to do so, he burst into tears; whereupon Dagobert exclaimed that he would believe him _without an oath_. Hence, to swear by St. Loy was to swear by one who refused to swear; and the oath became (at second-hand) no oath at all. See Hales, Folia Literaria, p. 102. At any rate, it was a very mild one for those times. Cf. Amis and Amiloun, 877:--'Than answered that maiden bright, And swore "by Jesu, ful of might."'

121. _cleped_, called, named; A. S. _cleopian_, _clypian_, to call. Cf. Sir David Lyndesay's Monarchè, bk. iii. l. 4663:--

'The seilye Nun wyll thynk gret schame Without scho callit be _Madame_.'

122. 'She sang the divine service.' Here _sér-vic-è_ is trisyllabic, with a secondary accent on the last syllable.

123. _Entuned_, intoned. _nose_ is the reading of the best MSS. The old black-letter editions read _voice_ (wrongly).

_semely_, in a seemly manner, is in some MSS. written _semily_. The _e_ is here to be distinctly sounded; _hertily_ is sometimes written for _hertely_. See ll. 136, 151. [15]

124. _faire_, adv. fairly, well. _fetisly_, excellently; see l. 157.

125. _scole_, school; here used for _style_ or pronunciation.

126. _Frensh._ Mr. Cutts (Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages, p. 58) says very justly:--'She spoke French correctly, though with an accent which savoured of the Benedictine convent at Stratford-le-Bow, where she had been educated, rather than of Paris.' There is nothing to shew that Chaucer here speaks slightingly of the French spoken by the Prioress, though this view is commonly adopted by newspaper-writers who know only this one line of Chaucer, and cannot forbear to use it in jest. Even Tyrwhitt and Wright have thoughtlessly given currency to this idea; and it is worth remarking that Tyrwhitt's conclusion as to Chaucer thinking but meanly of Anglo-French, was derived (as he tells us) from a remark in the Prologue to the Testament of Love, _which Chaucer did not write_! But Chaucer merely states a _fact_, viz. that the Prioress spoke the usual Anglo-French of the English court, of the English law-courts, and of the English ecclesiastics of the higher rank. The poet, however, had been himself in France, and knew precisely the difference between the two dialects; but he had no special reason for thinking _more highly_ of the Parisian than of the Anglo-French. He merely states that the French which she spoke so 'fetisly' was, _naturally_, such as was spoken in England. She had never travelled, and was therefore quite satisfied with the French which she had learnt at home. The language of the King of England was quite as good, in the esteem of Chaucer's hearers, as that of the King of France; in fact, king Edward called himself king of France as well as of England, and king John was, at one time, merely his prisoner. Warton's note on the line is quite sane. He shews that queen Philippa wrote business letters in French (doubtless Anglo-French) with 'great propriety.' What Mr. Wright means by saying that 'it was similar to that used _at a later period_ in the courts of law' is somewhat puzzling. It was, of course, not _similar to_, but the _very same_ language as was used _at the very same period_ in the courts of law. In fact, he and Tyrwhitt have unconsciously given us the view entertained, not by Chaucer, but by unthinking readers of the present age; a view which is _not_ expressed, and was probably not intended. At the modern Stratford we may find Parisian French inefficiently taught; but at the ancient Stratford, the very important Anglo-French was taught efficiently enough. There is no parallel between the cases, nor any such jest as the modern journalist is never weary of, being encouraged by critics who ought to be more careful. The 'French of Norfolk' as spoken of in P. Plowman (B. v. 239) was no French at all, but _English_; and the alleged parallel is misleading, as the reader who cares to refer to that passage will easily see.

'Stratford-at-Bow, a Benedictine nunnery, was famous even then for its antiquity.'--Todd, Illustrations of Chaucer, p. 233. It is said by Tanner to have been founded by William, bp. of London, before 1087; but Dugdale says it was founded by one Christiana de Sumery, and [16] that her foundation was confirmed by King Stephen. It was dedicated to St. Leonard.

_unknowe_, short for _unknowen_, unknown.

127. _At mete._ Tyrwhitt has acutely pointed out how Chaucer, throughout this passage, merely reproduces a passage in his favourite book, viz. Le Roman de la Rose, ed. Méon, l. 13612, &c., which may be thus translated:--'and takes good care not to wet her fingers up to the joints in broth, nor to have her lips anointed with soups, or garlic, or fat flesh, nor to heap up too many or too large morsels and put them in her mouth. She touches with the tips of her fingers the morsel which she has to moisten with the sauce (be it green, or brown, or yellow), and lifts her mouthful warily, so that no drop of the soup, or relish or pepper may fall on her breast. And so daintily she contrives to drink, as not to sprinkle a drop upon herself ... she ought to wipe her lip so well, as not to permit any grease to stay there, at least upon her upper lip.' Such were the manners of the age. Cf. also Ovid, Ars Amatoria, iii. 755, 756.

129. _wette_, wet; pt. t. of _wetten_. _depe_, deeply, adv.

131. Scan--'Thát | no dróp | e ne fill | e,' &c. The _e_ in _drópe_ is very slight; and the caesura follows. _Fille_ is the pt. t. subjunctive, as distinct from _fil_, the pt. t. indicative. It means 'should fall.'

132. _ful_, very. _lest = list_, pleasure, delight; A. S. _lyst_.

133. _over_, upper, adj. 'The over lippe and the nethere'; Wright's Vocab. 1857, p. 146. _clene_ (klae·n[*e]), cleanly, adv.

134. _ferthing_ signifies literally a fourth part, and hence a small portion, or a spot. In Caxton's Book of Curtesye, st. 27, such a spot of grease is called a 'fatte ferthyng.'

_sen-e_, visible, is an adjective, A. S. _ges[=e]ne_, and takes a final _-e_. This distinguishes it from the pp. _seen_, which is monosyllabic, and cannot rime with _clen-e_. The fuller form _y-sen-e_ occurs in l. 592, where it rimes with _len-e_.

136. 'Full seemlily she reached towards her meat (i. e. what she had to eat), and certainly she was of great merriment (or geniality).'

_Mete_ is often used of eatables in general, _raughte_ (rauht[*e]), pt. t. of _rechen_, to reach.

137. _sikerly_, certainly, _siker_ is an early adaptation of Lat. _securus_, secure, sure. _disport_; mod. E. _sport_.

139-41. 'And took pains (endeavoured) to imitate courtly behaviour, and to be stately in her deportment, and to be esteemed worthy of reverence.'

144. _sawe_, should see, happened to see (subjunctive).

146. _Of_, i. e. some. _houndes_ (huundez), dogs. 'Smale whelpes leeve to ladyse and clerkys'; Political, Relig. and Love Poems, ed. Furnivall, p. 32; Bernardus de Cura Rei Familiaris, ed. Lumby, p. 13.

147. _wastel-breed_. Horses and dogs were not usually fed on _wastel-breed_ or cake-bread (bread made of the best flour), but on coarse lentil bread baked for that purpose. See Our English Home, pp. 79, 80. [17] The O. F. _wastel_ subsequently became _gastel_, _gasteau_, mod. F. _gâteau_, cake. Cf. P. Plowman, B. vi. 217, and the note; Riley, Memorials of London, p. 108.

148. The syllable _she_ is here very light; _she if oon_ constitutes the third foot in the line. After _she_ comes the caesural pause. _weep_, wept; A. S. _w[=e]op_.

149. _men smoot_, one smote. If _men_ were the ordinary plural of _man_, _smoot_ ought to be _smiten_ (pl. past); but _men_ is here used like the Ger. _man_, French _on_, with the singular verb. It is, in fact, merely the _unaccented_ form of _man_. _yerde_, stick, rod; mod. E. _yard_. _smerte_, sharply; adv.

151. _wimpel._ The _wimple_ or _gorger_ is stated first to have appeared in Edward the First's reign. It was a covering for the neck, and was used by nuns and elderly ladies. See Fairholt's Costume, 1885, ii. 413; Ancren Riwle, ed. Morton, p. 420.

_pinched_, gathered in small pleats, closely pleated.

'But though I olde and hore be, sone myne, And poore by my clothing and aray, And not so wyde a gown have as is thyne, So small _ypynched_ and so gay, My rede in happe yit the profit may.' Hoccleve, De Regimine Principum, ed. Wright, p. 15.

152. _tretys_, long and well-shaped. From O. F. _traitis_, Low Lat. _tractitius_, i. e. drawn out; from L. _trahere_. Chaucer found the O. F. _traitis_ in the Romaunt of the Rose, and translated it by _tretys_; see l. 1216 of the E. version. Cf. _fetis_ from _factitius_; l. 157. _eyen greye._ This seems to have been the favourite colour of ladies' eyes in Chaucer's time, and even later. Cf. A. 3974; Rom. Rose, 546, 862; &c. 'Her eyen _gray_ and stepe'; Skelton's Philip Sparowe, 1014 (see Dyce's note).

'Her eyes are _grey as glass_.'--Two Gent. of Verona, iv. 4. 197.

'Hyr forheed lely-whyht, Hyr bent browys blake, and hyr _grey eyne_, Hyr chyry chekes, _hyr nose streyt_ and ryht, Hyr lyppys rody.'--Lives of Saints, Roxburgh Club, p. 14.

'Wyth _eyene graye_, and browes bent, And yealwe traces [_tresses_], and fayre y-trent, Ech her semede of gold; Hure vysage was fair and _tretys_, Hure body iantil and pure _fetys_, And semblych of stature.'--Sir Ferumbras, l. 5881.

'Dame Gaynour, with hur _gray een_.' Three Met. Romances, ed. Robson, p. 22.

'Hys _eyen grey_ as crystalle stone';--Sir Eglamour, l. 861.

'Put out my _eyen gray_';--Sir Launfal, l. 810.

[18]

156. _hardily_ is here used for _sikerly_, certainly; so also in E. 25.

_undergrowe_, undergrown; i. e. of short, stinted growth.

157. _fetis_ literally signifies 'made artistically,' and hence well-made, _feat_, neat, handsome; cf. n. to l. 152. M. E. _fetis_ answers to O. F. _faitis_, _feitis_, _fetis_, neatly made, elegant; from Lat. _factitius_, artificial.

_war_, aware; 'I was _war_' = I perceived.

159. _bedes._ The word _bede_ signifies, (1) a prayer; (2) a string of grains upon which the prayers were counted, or the grains themselves. The beads were made of coral, jet, cornelian, pearls, or gold. A _pair_ here means 'a set.' 'A _peire of bedis_ eke she bere'; Rom. Rose, 7372.

'Sumtyme with a portas, sumtyme with a _payre of bedes_.' Bale's King John, p. 27; Camden Soc.

_gauded al with grene_, 'having the _gawdies_ green. Some were of silver gilt.'--T. The _gawdies_ or _gaudees_ were the larger beads in the set. 'One payre of beads of silver with riche _gaudeys_'; Monast. Anglicanum, viii. 1206; qu. by Rock, Church of our Fathers, iii. i. 403. 'Unum par de _Iett_ [jet] gaudyett with sylver'; Nottingham Records, iii. 188. 'A peyre bedys of jeete [_get_], gaudied with corall'; Bury Wills, p. 82, l. 16: the note says that every eleventh bead, or _gaudee_, stood for a Paternoster: the smaller beads, each for an Ave Maria. The common number was 55, for 50 Aves and 5 Paternosters. The full number was 165, for 150 Aves and 15 Paternosters, also called a Rosary or Our Lady's Psalter; see the poem on Our Lady's Psalter in Horstmann, Altenglische Legenden, Neue Folge, 1881, pp. 220-4. '_Gaudye_ of beedes, _signeau de paternoster_.'--Palsgrave. Cower (Conf. Amant., ed. Pauli, iii. 372) mentions 'A paire of bedes blacke as sable,' with 'gaudees.' See _Gaudia_ and _Precula_ in Ducange. _Gaudee_ originally meant a prayer beginning with _Gaudete_, whence the name; see _Gaudez_ in Cotgrave.

160. _broche_ = _brooch_, signified, (1) a pin; (2) a breast-pin; (3) a buckle or clasp; (4) a jewel or ornament. It was an ornament common to both sexes. The brooch seems to have been made in the shape of a capital A, surmounted by a crown. See the figure of a silver-gilt brooch in the shape of an A in the Glossary to Fairholt's Costume in England. The 'crowned A' is supposed to represent _Amor_ or _Charity_, the greatest of all the Christian graces. 'Omnia uincit amor'; Vergil, Eclog. x. 69. Cf. the use of AMOR as a motto in the Squyer of Lowe Degree, l. 215.

_heng_, also spelt _heeng_, hung, is the pt. t. of M. E. _hangen_, to hang. Cf. A. S. _h[=e]ng_, pt. t. of _h[=o]n_, to hang.

_shene_ (shee·n[*e]), showy, bright. Really allied, not to _shine_, but to _shew_. Cf. mod. E. _sheen_, and G. _schön_.

161. _write_ is short for _writen_ (writ·en), pp. of _wryten_ (wrii·ten), to write. [19]

THE NONNE AND THREE PREESTES.

163. _Another Nonne._ It was not common for Prioresses to have female chaplains; but Littré gives _chapelaine_, fem., as an old title of dignity in a nunnery. Moreover, it is an office still held in most Benedictine convents, as is fully explained in a letter written by a modern Nun-Chaplain, and printed in Anglia, iv. 238. See also N. and Q. 7 S. vi. 485; The Academy, Aug. 23, 1890, p. 152.

164. The mention of _three priests_ presents some difficulty. To make up the twenty-nine mentioned in l. 24, we only want _one_ priest, and it is afterwards assumed that there was but _one_ priest, viz. the Nonnes Preest, who tells the tale of the Cock and Fox. Chaucer also, in all other cases, supposes that there was but _one_ representative of each class.

The most likely solution is that Chaucer wrote a character of the Second Nun, beginning--

'Another Nonne with hir hadde she That was hir chapeleyne'--

and that, for some reason, he afterwards suppressed the description. The line left imperfect, as above, may have been filled up, to stop a gap, either by himself (temporarily), or indeed by some one else.

If we are to keep the text (which stands alike in all MSS.), we must take '_wel_ nyne and twenty' to mean '_at least_ nine and twenty.'

The letter from the Nun-Chaplain mentioned in the last note shews that an Abbess might have as many as _five_ priests, as well as a chaplain. See Essays on Chaucer (Ch. Soc.), p. 183. The difficulty is, merely, how to reconcile this line with l. 24.

THE MONK.

165. _a fair_, i. e. a fair one. Cf. 'a merye' in l. 208; and l. 339.

_for the maistrye_ is equivalent to the French phrase _pour la maistrie_, which in old medical books is 'applied to such medicines as we usually call sovereign, excellent above all others'; Tyrwhitt. We may explain it by 'as regards superiority,' or, 'to shew his excellence.' Cf. 'An stede he gan aprikie · wel _vor the maistrie_'; Rob. of Glouc. l. 11554 (or ed. Hearne, p. 553).

In the Romance of Sir Launfal, ed. Ritson, l. 957, is a description of a saddle, adorned with 'twey stones of Ynde Gay _for the maystrye_'; i. e. preëminently gay.

Several characteristics of various orders of monks are satirically noted in Wright's Political Songs, pp. 137-148.

166. _out-rydere_, outrider; formerly the name of an officer of a monastery or abbey, whose duty was to look after the manors belonging to it; or, as Chaucer himself explains it, in B. 1255--

'an officere out for to ryde To seen hir graunges and hir bernes wyde.

[20]

In the Visitations of the Diocese of Norwich, 1492-1532, ed. Jessop (Camden Soc.), pp. 214, 279, the word occurs twice, as the name of an officer of the Abbey of St. Benet's, Hulme; e.g. 'Dompnus Willelmus Hornyng, _oute-rider_, dicit quod multa edificia et orrea maneriorum sunt prostrata et collapsa praesertim violentia venti hoc anno.'

The Lat. name for this officer was _exequitator_, as appears from Wyclif, Sermones, iii. 326 (Wyclif Soc.). I am indebted for these references and for the explanation of _out-rydere_ to Mr. Tancock; see his note in N. and Q. 7 S. vi. 425. The same vol. of Visitations also shews that, in the same abbey, another monk, 'Thomas Stonham tertius prior' was devoted to hunting; 'communis venator ... solet exire solus ad venatum mane in aurora.' There is also a complaint of the great number of dogs kept there--'superfluus numerus canum est in domo.' In the Rolls of Parliament (1406), vol. iii. p. 598, the sheriffs collect payments for the repair of roads and bridges 'par lour Ministres appellez Outryders'; N. and Q. 8 S. ii. 39. Note that this fully explains the use of _outryders_ in P. Plowman, C. v. 116.

_venerye_, hunting; cf. A. 2308. 'The monks of the middle ages were extremely attached to hunting and field-sports; and this was a frequent subject of complaint with the more austere ecclesiastics, and of satire with the laity.'--Wright. See Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, bk. i. c. 1. §§ 9, 10; Our Eng. Home, p. 23. From Lat. _uenari_, to hunt.

168. _deyntee_, dainty, i. e. precious, valuable, rare; orig. a sb., viz. O. F. _deintee_, dignity, from Lat. acc. _dignitatem_. Cf. l. 346.

170. _Ginglen_, jingle. (The line is deficient in the first foot.) Fashionable riders were in the habit of hanging small bells on the bridles and harness of their horses. Wyclif speaks of 'a worldly preest ... in pompe and pride, coveitise and envye ... with fatte hors, and jolye and gaye sadeles, and bridelis _ryngynge be the weye_, and himself in costy clothes and pelure' [fur]; Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 519, 520.

In Richard Cuer de Lion, l. 1517, we read of a mounted messenger, with silk trappings--

'With fyve hundred belles ryngande.'

And again, at l. 5712--

'His crouper heeng al full off belles.'

'Vincent of Beauvais, speaking of the Knights Templars, and their gorgeous horse-caparisons, says they have--in pectoralibus campanulas infixas magnum emittentes sonitum'; Hist. lib. xxx. c. 85 (cited by Warton, Hist. E. P. i. 167). See B. 3984; and Spenser, F. Q. i. 2. 13; also Englische Studien, iii. 105.

172. _Ther as_ = where that. _keper_, principal, head, i. e. prior. _celle_, cell; a 'cell' was a small monastery or nunnery, dependent on a larger one. '_Celle_, a religious house, subordinate to some great [21] abby. Of these _cells_ some were altogether subject to their respective abbies, who appointed their officers, and received their revenues; while others consisted of a stated number of monks, who had a prior sent them from the abby, and who paid an annual pension as an acknowledgment of their subjection; but, in other matters, acted as an independent body, and received the rest of their revenues for their own use. These _priories_ or _cells_ were of the same order with the abbies on whom they depended. See Tanner, Pref. Not. Monast. p. xxvii.'--Todd, Illustrations of Chaucer, p.326. Cf. note to l. 670, and especially the note to D. 2259.

173. _The reule_ (rule) _of seint Maure_ (St. Maur) and that of _seint Beneit_ (St. Benet or Benedict) were the oldest forms of monastic discipline in the Romish Church. St. Maur (Jan. 15) was a disciple of St. Benet (Dec. 4), who founded the Benedictine order, and died about A.D. 542.

174. Note that _streit_, mod. E. _strait_, A. F. _estreit_, from Lat. _strictus_, is quite distinct from mod. E. _straight_, of A. S. origin.

175. The Harl. MS. reads, 'This ilke monk leet forby hem pace' (_error for_ leet hem forby him pace?), 'This same monk let them pass by him unobserved.' _hem_ refers to the rules of St. Maur and St. Benet, which were too _streit_ (strict) for this 'lord' or superior of the house, who preferred a milder sort of discipline. _Forby_ is still used in Scotland for _by_ or _past_. _pace_, pass by, remain in abeyance; cf. _pace_, pass on, proceed, in l. 36. _hem_, them; originally dat. pl. of _he_.

176. _space_, course (Lat. _spatium_); 'and held his course in conformity with the new order of things.'

177. _yaf not of_, gave not for, valued not. _yaf_ is the pt. t. of _yeven_ or _yiven_, to give.

_a pulled hen_, lit. a plucked hen; hence, the value of a hen without its feathers; see l. 652. In D. 1112, the phrase is 'not worth a _hen_.' Tyrwhitt says, 'I do not see much force in the epithet _pulled_'; but adds, in his Glossary--'I have been told since, that a hen whose feathers are pulled, or plucked off, will not lay any eggs.' Becon speaks of a 'polled hen,' i. e. pulled hen, as one unable to fly; Works, p. 533; Parker Soc. It is only one of the numerous old phrases for expressing that a thing is of small value. See l. 182. I may add that _pulled_, in the sense of 'plucked off the feathers,' occurs in the Manciple's Tale; H. 304. And see Troil. v. 1546.

_text_, remark in writing; the word was used of any written statement that was frequently quoted. The allusion is to the legend of Nimrod, 'the mighty hunter' (Gen. x. 9), which described him as a very bad man. 'Mikel he cuth [much he knew] o sin and scham'; Cursor Mundi, l. 2202. It was he (it was said) who built the tower of Babel, and introduced idolatry and fire-worship. All this has ceased to be familiar, and the allusion has lost its point. 'We enjoin that a priest be not a hunter, nor a hawker, nor a dicer'; Canons of King Edgar, translated; no. 64. See my note to P. Plowman, C. vi. 157. [22]

179. _recchelees_ (in MS. E.) means careless, regardless of rule; but 'a careless monk' is not necessarily 'a monk out of his cloister.' But the reading _cloisterless_ (in MS. Harl.) solves the difficulty; being _a coined word_, Chaucer goes on to explain it in l. 181. See the quotation from Jehan de Meung in the next note.

179-81. This passage, says Tyrwhitt, 'is attributed by Gratian (_Decretal._ P. ii. Cau. xvi. q. l. c. viii.) to a pope Eugenius: _Sicut piscis sine aqua caret vita, ita sine monasterio monachus._' Joinville says, 'The Scriptures do say that a monk cannot live out of his cloister without falling into deadly sins, any more than a fish can live out of water without dying.' Cf. Piers Plowman, B. x. 292; and my note.

Wyclif (Works, ed. Matthew), p. 449, has a similar remark:--'For, as they seyn that groundiden [_founded_] these cloystris, thes men myghten no more dwelle out ther-of than fizs myghte dwelle out of water, for vertu that they han ther-ynne.' The simile is very old; in The Academy, Nov. 29, 1890, Prof. Albert Cook traced it back to Sozomen, Eccl. Hist. bk. i. c. 13 (Migne, Patr. Graec. 67. 898):--[Greek: tous men gar ichthuas elege tên hugran ousian trephein, monachois de kosmon pherein tên erêmon. episês te tous men xêras aptomenous to zên apolimpanein, tous de tên monastikên semnotêta apolluein tois astesi prosiontas.] And in The Academy, Dec. 6, 1890, Mr. H. Ellershaw, of Durham, shewed that it occurs still earlier, in the Life of St. Anthony (c. 85) attributed to St. Athanasius, not later than A.D. 373:--[Greek: hôsper hoi ichthues enchronizontes têi xêrai gêi teleutôsin; houtôs hoi monachoi bradunontes meth' humôn kai par' humin endiatribontes ekluontai.]

Moreover, the poet was thinking of a passage in Le Testament de Jehan de Meung, ed. Méon, l. 1166:--

'Qui les voldra trover, si les quiere en leur cloistre ... Car ne prisent le munde la montance d'une oistre.'

i. e. 'whoever would find them, let him seek them in their cloister; for they do not prize the world at the value of an oyster.' Chaucer turns this passage just the other way about.

182. _text_, remark, saying (as above, in l. 177). _held_, esteemed.

183. 'And _I_ said.' This is a very realistic touch; as if Chaucer had been talking to the monk, obtaining his opinions, and professing to agree with them.

184. _What_ has here its earliest sense of _wherefore_, or _why_.

_wood_, mad, foolish, is frequently employed by Spenser; A. S. _w[=o]d_.

186. _swinken_, to toil; whence '_swinked_ hedger,' used by Milton (Comus, l. 293). But _swinken_ is, properly, a strong verb; A. S. _swincan_, pt. t. _swanc_, pp. _swuncen_. Hence _swink_, s., toil; l. 188.

187. _bit_, the 3rd pers. sing. pres. of _bidden_, to command. So also _rit_, rideth, A. 974, 981; _fynt_, findeth, A. 4071; _rist_, riseth, A. 4193; _stant_, standeth, B. 618; _sit_, sitteth, D. 1657; _smit_, smiteth, E. 122; _hit_, hideth, F. 512.

187, 188. _Austin_, St. Augustine. The reference is to St. Augustine [23] of Hippo, after whom the Augustinian Canons were named. Their rule was compiled from his writings. Thus we read that 'bothe monks and chanouns forsaken the reules of Benet and Austyn'; Wyclif's Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 511. And again--'Seynt Austyn techith munkis _to labore with here hondis_, and so doth seint Benet and seynt Bernard'; Wyclif's Works, ed. Matthew, p. 51. See Cutts, Scenes and Characters, &c.; ch. ii. and ch. iii.

189. _a pricasour_, a hard rider. _priking_, hard riding (l. 191).

190. Cf. 'Also fast so the fowl in flyght'; Ywaine and Gawin, 630.

192. _for no cost_, for no expense. Dr. Morris explains _for no cost_ by 'for no reason,' and certainly M. E. _cost_ sometimes has such a force; but see ll. 213, 799, where it clearly means 'expense.'

193. _seigh_, saw; A. S. _s[=e]ah_, pt. t. of _s[=e]on_, to see.

_purfiled_, edged with fur. The M. E. _purfil_ signifies the embroidered or furred hem of a garment, so that _purfile_ is to work upon the edge. _Purfiled_ has also a more extended meaning, and is applied to garments overlaid with gems or other ornaments. '_Pourfiler d'or_, to _purfle_, tinsell, or overcast with gold thread,' &c.: Cotgrave. Spenser uses _purfled_ in the Fairy Queene, i. 2. 13; ii. 3. 26. Cf. note to P. Plowman, C. iii. 10.

194. _grys_, a sort of costly grey fur, formerly very much esteemed; O. F. _gris_, Rom. de la Rose, 9121, 9307; Sir Tristrem, l. 1381. 'The _grey_ is the back-fur of the northern squirrel'; L. Gautier, Chivalry (Eng. tr.), p. 323. Such a dress as is here described must have been very expensive. In 1231 (Close Roll, 16 Hen. III.), king Henry III. had a skirt (_iupa_) of scarlet, furred with red _gris_. See Gloss. to Liber Custumarum, ed. Riley, s. v. _griseum_, p. 806.

In Lydgate's Dance of Macabre, the Cardinal is made to regret--

'That I shal never hereafter clothed be In _grise_ nor ermine, _like unto my degree_.'

The Council of London (1342) reproaches the religious orders with wearing clothing 'fit rather for knights than for clerks, that is to say, short, very tight, with excessively wide sleeves, not reaching the elbows, but hanging down very low, lined with fur or with silk'; see J. Jusserand, English Wayfaring Life (1889). Cf. Wyclif, Works, ed. Matthew, p. 121.

'This worshipful man, this dene, came rydynge into a good paryssh with a x. or xii. horses _lyke a prelate_'; Caxton, Fables of Æsop, &c.; last fable; cf. l. 204 below.

196. 'He had an elaborate brooch, made of gold, with a love-knot in the larger end.' _love-knotte_, a complicated twist, with loops.

198. _balled_, bald. See Specimens of Early English, ii. 15. 408.

199. _anoint_, anointed; O. F. _enoint_, Lat. _inunctus_.

200. _in good point_, in good case, imitated from the O. F. _en bon point_. Cotgrave has: '_En bon poinct_, ou, _bien en poinct_, handsome: faire, fat, well liking, in good taking.' [24]

201. _stepe_, E. E. _steap_, does not here mean _sunken_, but _bright_, burning, fiery. Mr. Cockayne has illustrated the use of this word in his Seinte Marherete, pp. 9, 108: 'His twa ehnen [semden] _steappre_ þene steorren,' his two eyes seemed _brighter_ than stars. So also: 'schininde and schenre, of [gh]imstanes _steapre_ then is eni steorre,' shining and clearer, brighter with gems than is any star; St. Katherine, l. 1647. The expression 'eyen gray and _stepe_,' i. e. bright, has already been quoted in the note to l. 152. So also 'Eyyen _stepe_ and graye'; King of Tars, l. 15 (in Ritson, Met. Rom. ii. 157); and again, 'thair een _steep_'; Palladius on Husbandry, bk. iv. l. 800. Cf. _stemed_ in the next line; and see l. 753.

202. _stemed as a forneys of a leed_, shone like the fire under a cauldron. Here _stemed_ is related to the M. E. _st[=e]m_, a bright light, used in Havelok, 591. Cf. 'two _stemyng_ eyes,' two bright eyes; Sir T. Wiat, Sat. i. 53. _That_ refers to _eyen_, not to _heed_.

A kitchen-copper is still sometimes called a _lead_. As to the word _leed_, which is the same as the modern E. _lead_ (the metal), Mr. Stevenson, in his edition of the Nottingham Records, iii. 493, observes--'That these vessels were really made of _lead_ we have ample evidence'; and refers us to the Laws of Æthelstán, iv. 7 (Schmid, Anhang, xvi. § 1); &c. He adds--'The _lead_ was frequently fixed, like a modern domestic copper, over a grate. The grate and flue were known as a _furnace_. Hence the frequent expression--_a lead in furnace_.' See also _led_ in Havelok, l. 924; and _lead_ in Tusser's Husbandrie, E. D. S.

203. _botes souple_, boots pliable, soft, and close-fitting.

'This is part of the description of a smart abbot, by an anonymous writer of the thirteenth century: "Ocreas habebat in cruribus quasi innatae essent, sine plica porrectas."--MS. Bodley, James, no. 6. p. 121.'--T. See Rom. of the Rose, 2265-70 (vol. i. p. 173).

205. _for-pyned_, 'tormented,' and hence 'wasted away'; from _pine_. The _for-_ is intensive, as in Eng. _forswear_.

THE FRERE.

208. _Frere_, friar. The four orders of mendicant friars mentioned in l. 210 were:--(1) The Dominicans, or friars-preachers, who took up their abode in Oxford in 1221, known as the Black Friars. (2) The Franciscans, founded by St. Francis of Assisi in 1209, and known by the name of Grey Friars. They made their first appearance in England in 1224. (3) The Carmelites, or White Friars. (4) The Augustin (or Austin) Friars. The friar was popular with the mercantile classes on account of his varied attainments and experience. 'Who else so welcome at the houses of men to whom scientific skill and information, scanty as they might be, were yet of no inconsiderable service and attraction. He alone of learned and unlearned possessed some knowledge of foreign countries and their productions; he alone was acquainted with the composition and decomposition of bodies, with the art of distillation, [25] with the construction of machinery, and with the use of the laboratory.' See Professor Brewer's Preface to Monumenta Franciscana, p. xlv; and, in particular, the poem called 'Pierce the Ploughman's Crede,' and the satirical piece against the Friars entitled Jack Upland, formerly printed with Chaucer's Works. Several pieces against them will also be found in Political Poems, ed. Wright (Record Series); and there are numerous outspoken attacks upon them in Wyclif's various works, as, e.g. in the Select Eng. Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 366, and in his Works, ed. Matthew, p. 47. See also the chapter on Friars in the E. translation of Jusserand, Eng. Wayfaring Life; p. 293.

Many of the remarks concerning the Frere are ultimately due to Le Roman de la Rose. See The Romaunt of the Rose, ll. 6161-7698; in vol. i. pp. 234-259.

_wantown_, sometimes written _wantowen_, literally signifies untrained, and hence wild, brisk, lively. _wan-_ is a common M. E. prefix, equivalent to our _un-_ or _dis-_, as in _wanhope_, despair; _towen_ or _town_ occurs in M. E. writers for well-behaved, well-taught; from A. S. _togen_, pp. of _t[=e]on_, to educate.

_merye_, pleasant; cf. M. E. _mery wether_, pleasant weather.

209. _limitour_ was a begging friar to whom was assigned a certain district or _limit_, within which he was permitted to solicit alms; it was also his business to solicit persons to purchase a partnership, or _brotherhood_, in the merits of their conventual services. See Tyndale's Works, i. 212 (Parker Soc.); and note to P. Plowman, B. v. 138. Hence in later times the verb _limit_ signifies to beg.

'Ther walketh now the _limitour_ himself, In undermeles and in morweninges; And seyth his matins and his holy thinges As he goth in his _limitacioun_.' Wife of Bath's Tale; D. 874.

210. _ordres foure_, four orders (note to l. 208). _can_, i. e. 'knows.'

211. _daliaunce and fair langage_, gossip and flattery. _daliaunce_ in M. E. signifies 'tittle-tattle' or 'gossip.' The verb _dally_ signifies not only to loiter or idle, but to play, sport. Godefroy gives O. F. '_dallier_, v. a., railler.'

212. 'He had, at his own expense, well married many young women.' This is less generous than might appear; for it almost certainly refers to young women who had been his concubines. As Dr. Furnivall remarks in his Temporary Preface, p. 118--'the true explanation lies in the following extract from a letter of Dr. Layton to Cromwell, in 1535 A. D., in Mr. Thos. Wright's edition of Letters on the Suppression of the Monasteries (Camden Soc.), p. 58: [At Maiden Bradley, near Bristol] "is an holy father prior, and hath but vj. children, and but one dowghter mariede yet of the goodes of the monasterie, trystyng shortly to mary the reste. His sones be tall men, waittyng upon him; and he thankes Gode a never medelet with marytt women, [26] but all with madens, the faireste cowlde be gottyn, and _always marede them ryght well_."'

214. _post_, pillar or support, as in Troil. i. 1000. See Gal. ii. 9.

216. _frankeleyns_, wealthy farmers; see l. 331. _over-al_, everywhere.

217. _worthy_, probably 'wealthy'; or else, 'respectable.' Cf. l. 68.

219. The word _mór-e _occupies the fourth foot in the line; cf. n. to l. 320. It is an adj., with the sense of 'greater.'

220. _licentiat._ He had a licence from the Pope 'to hear confessions, &c., in all places, independently of the local ordinaries.'--T. The _curate_, or parish priest, could not grant absolution in all cases, some of which were reserved for the bishop's decision. See Wyclif's Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 394.

224. _wiste to han_, knew (he was sure) to have.

_pitaunce_ here signifies a mess of victuals. It originally signified an extraordinary allowance of victuals given to monastics, in addition to their usual commons, and was afterwards applied to the whole allowance of food for a single person, or to a small portion of anything.

225. 'For the giving (of gifts) to a poor order.' _povre_, O. F. _povre_, poor; cf. _pover-ty_. See _pov-re_ in l. 232.

226. _y-shrive_ = _y-shriven_, confessed, _shriven_. The final _n_ is dropped; cf. _unknowe_ for _unknowen_ in l. 126.

227. _he dorste_, he durst make (it his) boast, i. e. confidently assert.

_avaunt_, a boast, is from the O. F. vb. _avanter_, to boast, an intensive form of _vanter_, whence E. _vaunt_.

230. _he may not_, he is not able to. _him sore smerte_, it may pain him, or grieve him, sorely.

232. _Men moot_, one ought to. Here _moot_ is singular; cf. l. 149.

233. _tipet_, a loose hood, which seems to have been used as a pocket. 'When the Order [of Franciscans] degenerated, the friar combined with the spiritual functions the occupation of pedlar, huxter, mountebank, and quack doctor.' (Brewer.) 'Thei [the friars] becomen pedderis [pedlars], berynge knyues, pursis, pynnys, and girdlis, and spices, and sylk, and precious pellure and forrouris [_sorts of fur_] for wymmen, and therto smale gentil hondis [_dogs_], to gete love of hem, and to haue many grete yiftis for litil good or nought.'--Wyclif's Works, ed. Matthew, p. 12. As to the _tipet_, cf. notes to ll. 682, 3953.

In an old poem printed in Brewer's Monumenta Franciscana, we have the following allusion to the dealings of the friar:--

'For thai have noght to lyve by, they wandren here and there, And dele with dyvers marche, right as thai pedlers were; Thei dele with pynnes and knyves, With gyrdles, gloves for wenches and wyves, Ther thai are haunted till.'

In a poem in MS. Camb., Ff. 1. 6, fol. 156, it is explained that the limitour craftily gives 'pynnys, gerdyllis, and knyeffis' to wommen, in order to receive better things in return. He could get knives for [27] less than a penny a-piece. Cf. 'De j. doss. cultellorum dict. penyware. xd.'; York Wills, iii. 96.

Women used to wear knives sheathed and suspended from their girdles; such knives were often given to a bride. See the chapter on _Bride-knives_ in Brand's Popular Antiquities.

_farsed_, stuffed; from F. _farcir_. Cf. E. _farce_.

236. _rote_ is a kind of fiddle or 'crowd,' not a hurdy-gurdy, as it is explained by Ritson, and in the glossary to Sir Tristrem. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 3; iv. 9. 6; Sir Degrevant, l. 37 (see Halliwell's note, at p. 289 of the Thornton Romances). See my Etym. Dictionary.

237. _yeddinges_, songs embodying some popular tales or romances. In Sir Degrevant, l. 1421, we are told that a lady 'song yeddyngus,' i. e. sang songs. For singing such songs, he was in the highest estimation. From A. S. _geddian_, to sing. Cf. P. Plowman, A. i. 138:--'Ther thou art murie at thy mete, whon me biddeth the _yedde_.'

_prys_ answers both to E. _prize_ and _price_; cf. l. 67.

239. _champioun_, champion; i. e. a professional fighter in judicial lists. Cf. P. Plowman, C. xxi. 104; and see Britton, liv. i. ch. 23. § 15.

241. _tappestere_, a female tapster. In olden times the retailers of beer, and for the most part the brewers also, appear to have been females. The _-stere_ or _-ster_ as a feminine affix (though in the fourteenth century it is not always or regularly used as such) occurs in M. E. _brewstere_, _webbestere_, Eng. _spinster_. In _huckster_, _maltster_, _songster_, this affix has acquired the meaning of an agent; and in _youngster_, _gamester_, _punster_, &c., it implies contempt. See Skeat, Principles of Etymology, pt. i. § 238. Cf. _beggestere_, female beggar, 242.

242. _Bet_, better, adv.; as distinguished from _bettre_, adj. (l. 524).

_lazar_, a leper; from _Lazarus_, in the parable of Dives and Lazarus; hence _lazaretto_, a hospital for lepers, a lazar-house.

244. 'It was unsuitable, considering his ability.'

246. 'It is not becoming, it may not advance (profit) to deal with (associate with) any such poor people.' Cf. Rom. of the Rose, 6455, 6462; and note to P. Plowman, C. xiii. 21.

247. The line is imperfect in the first foot.

_poraille_, rabble of poor people; from O. F. _povre_, poor.

248. _riche_, i. e. rich people.

249, 250. 'And everywhere, wherever profit was likely to accrue, courteous he was, and humble in offering his services.'

251. _vertuous_, (probably) energetic, efficient; cf. _vertu_ in l. 4.

252, 253. Between these two lines the Hengwrt MS. inserts the two lines marked 252 _b_ and 252 _c_, which are omitted in the other MSS., though they certainly appear to be genuine, and are found in all the black-letter editions, which follow Thynne. In the Six-text edition, which is here followed, they are not counted in. Tyrwhitt both inserts and numbers them; hence a slight difference in the methods of numbering the lines after this line. Tyrwhitt's numbering is given, [28] at every tenth line, within marks of parenthesis, for convenience of reference. The sense is--'And gave a certain annual payment for the grant (to be licensed to beg; in consequence of which) none of his brethren came with his limit.'

_ferme_ is the mod. E. _farm_; cf. 'to _farm_ revenues.'

253. _sho_, shoe; not _sou_ (as has been suggested), which would (in fact) give _a false rime_. So also 'worth his olde _sho_'; D. 708.

The friars were not above receiving even the smallest articles; and _ferthing_, in l. 255, may be explained by 'small article,' of a farthing's value. See l. 134.

'For had a man slayn al his kynne, Go shryve him at a frere; And for lasse then _a payre of shone_ He wyl assoil him clene and sone!' Polit. Poems, ed. Wright; i. 266.

'Ever be giving of somewhat, though it be but a cheese, or a piece of bacon, to the holy order of sweet St. Francis, or to any other of my [i. e. Antichrist's] friars, monks, canons, &c. Holy Church refuseth nothing, but gladly taketh whatsoever cometh.'--Becon's Acts of Christ and of Antichrist, vol. iii. p. 531 (Parker Society). And see the Somp. Tale, D. 1746-1751.

254. _In principio._ The reference is to the text in John i. 1, as proved by a passage from Tyndale (Works, ed. 1572, p. 271, col. 2; or iii. 61, Parker Soc.):--'Such is the limiter's saying of _In principio erat verbum_, from house to house.' Sir Walter Scott copies this phrase in The Fair Maid of Perth, ch. iii. The friars constantly quoted this text.

256. _purchas_ = proceeds of his begging. What he acquired in this way was greater than his _rent_ or income. '_Purchase_, ... any method of acquiring an estate otherwise than by descent'; Blackstone, _Comment._ I. iii. For _rente_, see l. 373.

We find also:

'My purchas is theffect of al my rente'; D. 1451.

'To winne is alway myn entent, _My purchas is better than my rent_.' Romaunt of the Rose, l. 6837;

where the F. original has (l. 11760)--'Miex vaut mes porchas que ma rente.'

257. _as it were right_ (E. Hn. &c.); _and pleye as_ (Hl.). The sense is--'and he could romp about, exactly as if he were a puppy-dog.'

258. _love-dayes._ 'Love-days (_dies amoris_) were days fixed for settling differences by umpire, without having recourse to law or violence. The ecclesiastics seem generally to have had the principal share in the management of these transactions, which, throughout the Vision of Piers Ploughman, appear to be censured as the means of hindering justice and of enriching the clergy.'--Wright's Vision of Piers Ploughman, vol. ii. p. 535. [29]

'Ac now is Religion a rydere, and a rennere aboute, A ledere of _love-dayes_,' &c.

Piers Ploughman, A. xi. 208, ed. Skeat; see also note to P. Pl. ed. Skeat, B. iii. 157. The sense is--'he could give much help on love-days (by acting as umpire).' See ll. 259-261.

As to _loveday_, see Wyclif, Works, ed. Matthew, pp. 172, 234, 512; and the same, Works, ed. Arnold, ii. 77; iii. 322; Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner, i. 496; Titus Andronicus, i. 1. 491. In the Testament of Love, bk. i. (ed. 1561, fol. 287, col. 2) we find--'What (quod she) ... maked I not a _louedaie_ betwene God and mankind, and chese a maide to be nompere [_umpire_], to put the quarell at ende?'

260. _cope_, a priest's vestment; a cloak forming a semicircle when laid flat; the _semi-cope_ (l. 262) was a short cloak or cape. Cf. Pierce the Ploughman's Crede, ll. 227, 228:--

'His _cope_ that biclypped him, wel clene was it folden, Of _double-worstede_ y-dyght, doun to the hele.'

This line is a little awkward to scan. _With a thred-_ constitutes the first foot; and _povre_ is _povr'_ (cp. mod. F. _pauvre_).

261. 'The kyng or the emperour myghtte with worschipe were a garnement of a frere for goodnesse of the cloth'; Wyclif's Works, ed. Matthew, p. 50.

263. _rounded_, assumed a round form; used intransitively, _presse_, the mould in which a bell is cast; cf. l. 81.

264. _lipsed_, lisped; by metathesis of _s_ and _p_. See footnote to l. 273. _for his wantownesse_, by way of mannerism.

THE MARCHANT.

270. _a forked berd._ In the time of Edward III. _forked beards_ were the fashion among the franklins and bourgeoisie, according to the English custom before the Conquest. See Fairholt's Costume in England, fig. 30.

271. _In mottelee_, in a motley dress; cf. l. 328.

273. _clasped_; fastened with a clasp fairly and neatly. See l. 124.

274. _resons_, opinions. _ful solempnely_, with much importance.

275. 'Always conducing to the increase of his profit.' _souninge_, sounding like, conducing to; cf. l. 307. Compare--'thei chargen more [care more for] a litil thing that _sowneth_ to wynnyng of hem, than a myche more [greater] thing that _sowneth_ to worchip of God'; Wyclif, Works, ed. Arnold, ii. 383. 'These indulgencis ... done mykel harme to Cristen soulis, and _sownen_ erroure ageynes the gospel'; id., iii. 459. Cf. Chaucer's Doctour's Tale, C. 54; also P. Plowman, C. vii. 59, x. 216, xii. 79, xxii. 455. The M. E. sb. _soun_ is from F. _son_, Lat. acc. _sonum_.

276. _were kept_, should be guarded; so that he should not suffer from [30] pirates or privateers. 'The old subsidy of tonnage and poundage was given to the king for the safeguard and custody of the sea 12. Edw. IV. c. 3.'--T.

'The _see_ wel _kept_, it must be don for drede.' A Libell of English Policie, l. 1083.

In 1360, a commission was granted to John Gibone to proceed, with certain ships of the Cinque Ports, to free the sea from pirates and others, the enemies of the king; Appendix E. to Rymer's Foedera, p. 50.

_for any thing_, i. e. for any sake, at any cost. The A. S. _thing_ is often used in the sense of 'sake,' 'cause,' or 'reason.' _For_ in Chaucer also means 'against,' or 'to prevent,' but not (I think) here.

277. _Middelburgh and Orewelle._ '_Middelburgh_ is still a well-known port of the island of Walcheren, in the Netherlands, almost immediately opposite Harwich, beside which are the estuaries of the rivers Stoure and _Orwell_. This spot was formerly known as the port of _Orwell_ or _Orewelle_.'--Saunders, p. 229.

This mention of Middelburgh 'proves that the Prologue must have been written not before 1384, and not later than 1388. In the year 1384 the wool-staple was removed from Calais and established at Middelburgh; in 1388 it was fixed once more at Calais; see Craik's Hist. of Brit. Commerce, i. 123.'--Hales, Folia Literaria, p. 100. This note has a special importance.

278. 'He well knew how to make a profit by the exchange of his crowns' in the different money-markets of Europe. _Sheeldes_ are crowns (O. F. _escuz_, F. _écus_), named from their having on one side the figure of a shield. They were valued at half a noble, or 3s. 4d.; Appendix E. to Rymer's Foedera, p. 55. See B. 1521.

279. _his wit bisette_, employed his knowledge to the best advantage. _bisette_ = used, employed. Cf. Piers Plowman, ed. Skeat, B. v. 297:--

'And if thow wite (know) nevere to whiche, ne whom to restitue [the goods gotten wrongfully] Bere it to the bisschop, and bidde hym, of his grace, _Bisette_ it hymselue, as best is for thi soule.'

281, 282. 'So ceremoniously (_or_, with such lofty bearing) did he order his bargains and agreements for borrowing money.' A _chevisaunce_ was an agreement for borrowing money on credit; cf. B. 1519; also P. Plowman, B. v. 249, and the note. From F. _chevir_, to accomplish; cf. E. _achieve_.

284. _noot_ = _ne_ + _woot_, know not; so _niste_ = _ne_ + _wiste_, knew not.

THE CLERK.

285. _Clerk_, a university student, a scholar preparing for the priesthood. It also signifies a man of learning, a man in holy orders. See [31] Anstey's Munimenta Academica for much interesting information on early Oxford life and studies.

_Oxenford_, Oxford, as if 'the ford of the oxen' (A. S. _Oxnaford_); and it has not been proved that this etymology is wrong.

_y-go_, gone, betaken himself.

287. Hence 'Leane as a rake' in Skelton, Philip Sparowe, l. 913; 'A villaine, leane as any rake, appeares'; W. Browne, Brit. Past. bk. ii. song 1.

290. 'His uppermost short cloak (of coarse cloth).' The syllable _-py_ answers to Du. _pije_, a coarse cloth; cf. Goth. _paida_, a coat. Cf. E. _pea_-jacket. See D. 1382; P. Plowman, B. vi. 191; Rom. Rose, 220.

292. 'Nor was he so worldly as to take a (secular) office.' Many clerks undertook legal employments; P. Plowman, B. prol. 95.

293. 'For it was dearer to him to have,' i. e. he would rather have.

_lever_ is the comparative of M. E. _leef_, A. S. _l[=e]of_, lief, dear.

294. The first foot is defective: Twen | ty bo | kes, &c.

296. In the Milleres Tale, Chaucer describes a clerk of a very opposite character, who loved dissipation and played upon a 'sautrye' or psaltery. See A. 3200-20.

_fithel_ is the mod. E. _fiddle_. _sautrye_ is an O. F. spelling of our _psaltery_.

297. _philosophre_ is used in a double sense; it sometimes meant an alchemist, as in G. 1427. The clerk knew philosophy, but he was no alchemist, and so had but little gold.

298. _Hadde_, possessed; as _hadde_ is here emphatic, the final _e_ is not elided. So also in l. 386.

301. Chaucer often imitates his own lines. He here imitates Troil. iv. 1174--'And pitously gan for the soule preye.' _gan_, did.

302. _yaf him_, 'gave him (money) wherewith to attend school.' An allusion to the common practice, at this period, of poor scholars in the Universities, who wandered about the country begging, to raise money to support them in their studies. Luther underwent a similar experience. Cf. P. Plowman, B. vii. 31; also Ploughman's Crede, ed. Skeat, p. 71.

305. 'With propriety (due form) and modesty.'

307. _Souninge in_, conducing to; cf. note to l. 275 above.

THE MAN OF LAWE.

309. _war_, wary, cautious; A. S. _wær_, aware. Cf. l. 157.

310. _at the parvys_, at the _church-porch_, or portico of St. Paul's, where the lawyers were wont to meet for consultation. See Ducange, s. v. _paradisus_, which is the Latin form whence the O. F. _parvis_ is derived. Also the note in Warton, Hist. E. Poet., ed. 1840, ii. 212; cf. Anglia, viii. 453. And see Rom. of the Rose. 7108, and the note.

315. _pleyn_, full; F. _plein_, Lat. acc. _plenum_. Cf. _pleyn_, fully, in l. 327. [32]

320. _purchasing_, conveyancing; _infect_, invalid. 'The learned Sergeant was clever enough to untie any entail, and pass the property as estate in fee simple.'--W. H. H. Kelke, in N. and Q. 5 S. vi. 487.

The word _might-e_ occupies the fourth foot in the line.

323, 324. 'He was well acquainted with all the legal cases and decisions (or decrees) which had been ruled in the courts of law (lit. had befallen) since the time of William the Conqueror.' _In termes hadde he_, he had in terms, knew how to express in proper terms, was well acquainted with.

325. _Therto_, moreover. _make_, compose, draw up, draught.

326. _pinche at_, find fault with; lit. nip, twitch at.

327. _coude he_, he knew; _coude_ is the pt. t. of _konnen_, to know, A. S. _cunnan_.

328. _medlee cote_, a coat of mixed stuff or colour. In 1303, we find mention of 'one woman's surcoat of _medley_'; see Memorials of London, ed. Riley, p. 48.

329. _ceint of silk_, &c., a girdle of silk, with small ornaments. The _barres_ were called _cloux_ in French (Lat. _clavus_), and were the usual ornaments of a girdle. They were perforated to allow the tongue of the buckle to pass through them. 'Originally they were attached transversely to the wide tissue of which the girdle was formed, but subsequently were round or square, or fashioned like the heads of lions, and similar devices, the name of _barre_ being still retained, though improperly.'--Way, in Promptorium Parvulorum; s. v. _barre_. And see _Bar_ in the New English Dictionary. Gower also has: 'a ceinte of silk'; C. A. ed. Pauli, ii. 30. Cf. A. 3235, and Rom. of the Rose, 1085, 1103.

_ceint_, O. F. _ceint_, a girdle; from Lat. _cinctus_, pp. of _cingere_, to gird.

THE FRANKELEYN.

331. Fortescue (De Laudibus Legum Angliae, c. 29) describes a franklin to be a _pater familias--magnis ditatus possessionibus_; i. e. he was a substantial householder and a man of some importance. See Warton, Hist. E. Poet., ed. 1840, ii. 202; and Gloss. to P. Plowman.

332. _dayes-ye_, daisy; A. S. _dæges [=e]age_, lit. eye of day (the sun).

333. 'He was sanguine of complexion.' The old school of medicine, following Galen, supposed that there were four 'humours,' viz. hot, cold, moist, and dry (see l. 420), and four complexions or temperaments of men, viz. the sanguine, the choleric, the phlegmatic, and the melancholy. The man of sanguine complexion abounded in hot and moist humours, as shown in the following description, given in the Oriel MS. 79 (as quoted in my Preface to P. Plowman, B-text, p. xix):-- [33]

'_Sanguineus._ Largus, amans, hilaris, ridens, rubeique coloris, Cantans, carnosus, satis audax, atque benignus: multum appetit, quia calidus; multum potest, quia humidus.'

334. _by the morwe_, in the morning.

_a sop in wyn_, wine with pieces of cake or bread in it; see E. 1843. See Brand, Antiq. (ed. Ellis), ii. 137. Later, _sop-in-wine_ was a jocose name for a kind of pink or carnation; id. ii. 91.

In the Anturs of Arthur at the Tarnewathelan, st. 37, we read that

'Thre soppus of demayn [i. e. paindemayn] Wos broght to Sir Gaua[y]n For to comford his brayne.'

And in MS. Harl. 279, fol. 10, we have the necessary instruction for the making of these sops. 'Take mylke and boyle it, and thanne tak yolkys of eyroun [_eggs_], ytryid [_separated_] fro the whyte, and hete it, but let it nowt boyle, and stere it wyl tyl it be somwhat thikke; thenne cast therto salt and sugre, and kytte [_cut_] fayre paynemaynnys in round soppys, and caste the soppys theron, and serve it forth for a potage.'--Way, in Promptorium Parvulorum, p. 378. The F. name is _soupe au vin_. See also Ducange, s. v. _Merus_.

335. _wone_, wont, custom; A. S. _wuna_, _ge-wuna_.

_delyt_, delight; the mod. E. word is misspelt; _delite_ would be better.

336. 'A very son of Epicurus.' Alluding to the famous Greek philosopher [died B. C. 270], the author of the Epicurean philosophy, which assumed pleasure to be the highest good. Chaucer here follows Boethius, bk. iii. pr. 2. 54: 'The whiche delyt only considerede Epicurus, and iuged and establisshed that delyt is the sovereyn good.' Cf. Troil. iii. 1691, v. 763; also E. 2021.

340. '_St. Julian_ was eminent for providing his votaries with good lodgings and accommodation of all sorts. [See Chambers' Book of Days, ii. 388.] In the title of his legend, Bodl. MS. 1596, fol. 4, he is called "St. Julian the gode herberjour" (St. Julian the good harbourer).'--Tyrwhitt. His day is Jan. 9. See the Lives of Saints, ed. Horstmann (E. E. T. S.); also Gesta Romanorum, ed. Swan, tale 18; Mrs. Jameson, Sacred and Leg. Art, ii. 393.

341. _after oon_, according to one invariable standard; 'up to the mark'; cf. A. 1781, and the note. A description of a Franklin's feast is given in the Babees Book, ed. Furnivall, p. 170.

342. _envyned_, stored with wine. 'Cotgrave has preserved the French word _enviné_ in the same sense.'--Tyrwhitt.

343. _bake mete_ = _baked meat_; the old past participle of _bake_ was _baken_ or _bake_, as it was a strong verb. _Baked meats_ = meats baked in _coffins_ (pies). Cf. Hamlet, i. 2. 180.

344. _plentevous_, plenteous, plentiful; O. F. _plentivous_, formed by adding _-ous_ to O. F. _pleintif_, adj. abundant; see Godefroy's O. F. Dict. [34]

345. The verb _snewed_ may be explained as a metaphor from snowing; in fact, the M. E. _snewe_, like the Prov. Eng. _snie_ or _snive_, also signifies _to abound, swarm_. Camb. MS. reads 'It snowede in his mouth of mete and drynk.' Cf. 'He was with yiftes [presents] all _bisnewed_'; Gower, C. A. iii. 51. From A. S. _sn[=i]wan_.

347. _After_, according to; it depended on what was in season.

348. _soper_ (supee·r), supper; from O. F. infin. _soper_; cf. F. 1189.

349. _mewe._ The _mewe_ was the place where the hawks were kept while moulting; it was afterwards applied to the _coop_ wherein fowl were fattened, and lastly to a place of confinement or secrecy.

350. _stewe_, fish-pond. 'To insure a supply of fish, stew-ponds were attached to the manors, and few monasteries were without them; the moat around the castle was often converted into a fish-pond, and well stored with luce, carp, or tench.'--Our English Home, p. 65.

_breem_, bream; _luce_, pike, from O. F. _luce_, Low Lat. _lucius_.

351. _Wo was his cook_, woeful or sad was his cook. We now only use _wo_ or _woe_ as a substantive. Cf. B. 757, E. 753; and 'I am _woe_ for 't'; Tempest, v. 1. 139.

'Who was _woo_ but Olyvere then?'--Sowdone of Babyloyne, l. 1271. Rob. of Brunne, in his Handlyng Synne, l. 7250, says that a rich man's cook 'may no day Greythe hym hys mete to pay.'

_but-if_, unless.

351, 352. _sauce--Poynaunt_ is like the modern phrase _sauce piquante_. Cf. B. 4024. 'Our forefathers were great lovers of "piquant sauce." They made it of expensive condiments and rare spices.'--Our English Home, p. 62.

353. _table dormant_, irremoveable table. 'Previous to the fourteenth century a pair of common wooden trestles and a rough plank was deemed a table sufficient for the great hall.... Tables, with a board attached to a frame, were introduced about the time of Chaucer, and, from remaining in the hall, were regarded as indications of a ready hospitality.'--Our English Home, p. 29. Most tables were removeable; such a table was called a _bord_ (board).

355. _sessiouns._ At the Sessions of the Peace, at the meeting of the Justices of the Peace. Cf. '_At Sessions_ and at Sises we bare the stroke and swaye.'--Higgins' Mirrour for Magistrates, ed. 1571, p. 2.

356. _knight of the shire_, the designation given to the representative in parliament of an English county at large, as distinguished from the representatives of such counties and towns as are counties of themselves (Ogilvie). Chaucer was knight of the shire of Kent in 1386.

_tym-e_ here represents the A. S. _t[=i]man_, pl. of _t[=i]ma_, a time.

357. _anlas_ or _anelace_. Speght defines this word as a _falchion_, or wood-knife. It was, however, a short two-edged knife or dagger usually worn at the girdle, broad at the hilt and tapering to a point. See the New Eng. Dictionary; Liber Albus, p. 75; Knight, Pict. Hist. of England, i. 872; Gloss. to Matthew Paris, s. v. _anelacius_; Riley's [35] Memorials of London, p. 15. The etymology is unknown; I _guess_ it to be from M. E. _an_, on, and _las_, a lace, i. e. 'on a lace,' a dagger that hung from a lace attached to the girdle. Cf. A. S. _bigyrdel_ (just below); and 'hanging on a laas' in l. 392.

_gipser_ was properly a pouch or budget used in hawking, &c., but commonly worn by the merchant, or with any secular attire.--(Way.) It answers to F. _gibecière_, a pouch; from O. F. _gibe_, a bunch (Scheler). In Riley's Memorials of London, p. 398, under the date 1376, there is a mention of 'purses called _gibesers_.' In the Bury Wills, p. 37, l. 16, under the date 1463, we find--'My best _gypcer_ with iij. bagges.' The A. S. name was _bigyrdel_, from its hanging _by the girdle_, as said in l. 358; it occurs in the A. S. version of Matt. x. 9; and in P. Plowman, B. viii. 87.

358. _Heng_ (or _Heeng_), the past tense of _hongen_ or _hangen_, to hang.

_morne milk_ = morning-milk; as in A. 3236. 'As white as milke'; Ritson's Met. Romances, iii. 292.

359. _shirreve_, the _reve_ of a _shire_, governor of a county; our modern word _sheriff_.

_countour_, O. Fr. _comptour_, an accountant, a person who audited accounts or received money in charge, &c.; ranked with pleaders in Riley's Memorials of London, p. 58. It occurs in Rob. of Gloucester, l. 11153. In the Book of the Duch. 435, it simply means 'accountant.' Perhaps it here means 'auditor.' 'Or stewards, _countours_, or pleadours'; Plowman's Tale, pt. iii. st. 13.

360. _vavasour_, or _vavaser_, originally a sub-vassal or tenant of a vassal or tenant of the king's, one who held his lands in fealty. '_Vavasor_, one that in dignities is next to a Baron'; Cowel. Strutt (Manners and Customs, iii. 14) explains that a _vavasour_ was 'a tenant by knight's service, who did not hold immediately of the king _in capite_, but of some mesne lord, which excluded him from the dignity of baron by tenure.' Tyrwhitt says 'it should be understood to mean the whole class of middling landholders.' See Lacroix, Military Life of Middle Ages, p. 9. Spelt _favasour_ in King Alisaunder, ed. Weber, l. 3827. A. F. _uauassur_; Laws of Will. I. c. 20. Lit. 'vassal of vassals'; Low Lat. _vassus vassorum_.

THE HABERDASSHER AND OTHERS.

361. _Haberdassher._ Haberdashers were of two kinds: haberdashers of small wares--sellers of needles, tapes, buttons, &c.; and haberdashers of hats. The stuff called _hapertas_ is mentioned in the Liber Albus, p. 225.

362. _Webbe_, properly a male weaver; _webstere_ was the female weaver, but there appears to have been some confusion in the use of the suffixes _-e_ and _-stere_; see Piers Plowman, ed. Skeat, B. v. 215: 'mi _wyf_ was a _webbe_.' Hence the names _Webb_ and _Webster_. Cf. [36] A. S. _webba_, m., a weaver; _webbestere_, fem. _tapicer_, upholsterer; F. _tapis_, carpet.

363. _liveree_, livery. 'Under the term "livery" was included whatever was dispensed (_delivered_) by the lord to his officials or domestics annually or at certain seasons, whether money, victuals, or garments. The term chiefly denoted external marks of distinction, such as the _roba estivalis_ and _hiemalis_, given to the officers and retainers of the court.... The Stat. 7 Hen. IV expressly permits the adoption of such distinctive dress by fraternities and "_les gentz de mestere_," the trades of the cities of the realm, being ordained with good intent; and to this prevalent usage Chaucer alludes when he describes five artificers of various callings, who joined the pilgrimage, clothed all _in o lyveré of a solempne and greet fraternité_.'--Way, note to Prompt. Parv., p. 308. We still speak of the Livery Companies.

_And they were clothed alle_ (Elles., &c.); _Weren with vss eeke clothed_ (Harl.) The former reading leaves the former clause of the sentence without a verb.

364. _fraternitee_, guild: see English Gilds, ed. Toulmin Smith, pp. xxx, xxxix, cxxii. Each guild had its own livery; Rock, Church of our Fathers, ii. 412.

365. _gere_, gear, apparel. _apyked_, signifies cleaned, trimmed, like Shakespeare's _picked_. Cotgrave gives as senses of F. _piquer_, 'to quilt,' and 'to stiffen a coller.'

366. _y-chaped_, having _chapes_ (i. e. plates or _caps_ of metal at the point of the sheath or scabbard). Tradesmen and mechanics were prohibited from using knives adorned with silver, gold, or precious stones. So that Chaucer's pilgrims were of a superior estate, as is indicated in l. 369. Cf. _chapeless_, Taming of the Shrew, iii. 2. 48.

370. _deys_, _dese_, or _dais_ (Fr. _deis_, from Lat. _discum_, acc.), is used to denote the raised platform which was always found at the upper end of a hall, on which the high table was placed; originally, it meant the high table itself. In modern French and English, it is used of a canopy or 'tester' over a seat of state. Tyrwhitt's account of the word is confused, as he starts with a false etymology.

_yeld-halle_, guild-hall. See _Gildhall_ in the Index to E. Gilds, ed. Toulmin Smith.

371. _that he can_, that he knows; so also _as he couthe_, as he knew how, in l. 390. This line is deficient in the first foot.

372. _shaply_, adapted, fit; sometimes comely, of good _shape_. The mention of _alderman_ should be noted. It was the invariable title given to one who was chosen as the head or principal of a guild (see English Gilds, ed. Toulmin Smith, pp. ciii, 36, 148, 276, 446). All these men belonged to a fraternity or guild, and each of them was a fit man to be chosen as head of it.

373. 'For they had sufficient property and income' (to entitle them to undertake such an office).

376. _y-clept_, called; pp. of _clepen_; see l. 121. [37]

377. _And goon to vigilyes al bifore._ 'It was the manner in times past, upon festival evens, called _vigiliæ_, for parishioners to meet in their church-houses or church-yards, and there to have a drinking-fit for the time. Here they used to end many quarrels betwixt neighbour and neighbour. Hither came the wives in comely manner, and they which were of the better sort had their mantles carried with them, as well for show as to keep them from cold at table.'--Speght, Gl. to Chaucer.

THE COOK.

379. _for the nones_ = _for the nonce_; this expression, if grammatically written, would be _for then once_, M. E. _for þan anes_, for the once, i. e. for the occasion; where the adv. _anes_ (orig. a gen. form) is used as if it were a sb. in the dat. case. Cf. M. E. _atte_ = _atten_, A. S. _æt þ[=a]m_.

381. _poudre-marchaunt tart_ is a sharp (tart) kind of flavouring powder, twice mentioned in Household Ordinances and Receipts (Soc. Antiq. 1790) at pp. 425, 434: 'Do therto _pouder marchant_,' and 'do thi flessh therto, and gode herbes and _poudre marchaunt_, and let hit well stew.'--Notes and Queries, Fourth Series, iii. 180. See _Powder_ in the Glossary to the Babees Book.

'_Galingale_, which Chaucer, pre-eminentest, economioniseth above all junquetries or confectionaries whatsoever.'--Nash's Lenten Stuff, p. 36, ed. Hindley. _Galingale_ is the root of sweet cyperus. Harman (ed. Strother) notices three varieties: _Cyperus rotundus_, _Galanga major_, _Galanga minor_; Babees Book, ed. Furnivall, pp. 152, 216. See also Marco Polo, ed. Yule, ii. 181; Prompt. Parv., p. 185, note 4; Rogers, Hist. of Agriculture and Prices, i. 629; &c. And see Dr. H. Fletcher Hance's and Mr. Daniel Hanbury's Papers on this spice in the Linnæan Society's Journal, 1871.

382. _London ale._ London ale was famous as early as the time of Henry III., and much higher priced than any other ale; cf. A. 3140.

_Wel coude he knowe_, he well knew how to distinguish. In fact, we find, in the Manciple's Prologue (H. 57), that the Cook loved good ale only too well.

384. _mortreux_ or _mortrewes_. There were two kinds of 'mortrews,' 'mortrewes de chare' and 'mortrewes of fysshe.' The first was a kind of soup in which chickens, fresh pork, crumbs of bread, yolks of eggs, and saffron formed the chief ingredients; the second kind was a soup containing the roe (or milt) and liver of fish, bread, pepper, ale. The ingredients were first stamped or brayed in a _mortar_, whence it probably derived its name. Lord Bacon (Nat. Hist. i. 48) speaks of 'a _mortresse_ made with the brawne of capons stamped and strained.' See Babees Book, pp. 151, 170, 172; Liber Cure Cocorum, ed. Morris, pp. 9, 19; and the note to P. Plowman, C. xvi. 47. This line, like ll. 371 and 391, is deficient in the first foot.

386. _mormal_, a cancer or gangrene. Ben Jonson, in imitation of [38] this passage, has described a cook with an 'old _mortmal_ on his shin'; Sad Shepherd, act ii. sc. 2. Lydgate speaks of 'Goutes, _mormalles_, horrible to the sight'; Falls of Princes, bk. vii. c. 10. In Polit. Religious and Love Poems, ed. Furnivall, p. 218, we are told that the sin of Luxury 'ys a lyther _mormale_.' In Skelton's Magnificence, l. 1932, Adversity is made to say--'Some with the _marmoll_ to halte I them make'; and it is remarkable that Palsgrave gives both--'_Mormall_, a sore,' and '_Marmoll_, a sore'; the latter being plainly a corrupt form. See also Prompt. Parvulorum, p. 343, note 5. In MS. Oo. i. 20, last leaf, in the Camb. Univ. Library, are notices of remedies 'Por la maladie que est apele _malum mortuum_.' The MS. says that it comes from melancholy, and shows a broad hard scurf or crust.

387. _blank-manger_, a compound made of capon minced, with rice, milk, sugar, and almonds; see Liber Cure Cocorum, ed. Morris, p. 9. Named from its white colour.

THE SHIPMAN.

See the essay on Chaucer's Shipman in Essays on Chaucer, p. 455.

388. _woning_, dwelling; from A. S. _wunian_, to dwell.

_by weste_ = _westward_. A good old expression, which was once very common as late as the sixteenth century.

389. Dartmouth was once a very considerable port; see Essays on Chaucer, p. 456. Compare the account of the Shipman's Gild at Lynn; E. Gilds, p. 54.

390. _rouncy_, a common hackney horse, a nag. Cf. _Rozinante_. '_Rocinante_--significativo de lo que habia sido cuando fué _rocin, antes_ de lo que ahora era.' Don Quijote, cap. 1. 'From _Rozin_, a drudge-horse, and _ante_, before.' Jarvis's note. The O. F. form is _roncin_; Low Lat. _runcinus_. The _rouncy_ was chiefly used for agricultural work; see Essays on Chaucer, p. 494.

_as he couthe_, as he knew how; but, as a sailor, his knowledge this way was deficient.

391. _a goune of falding_, a gown (robe) of coarse cloth. The term _falding_ signifies 'a kind of frieze or rough-napped cloth,' which was probably 'supplied from the North of Europe, and identical with the woollen wrappers of which Hermoldus speaks, "_quos nos appellamus Faldones_."'--Way. '_Falding_ was a coarse serge cloth, very rough and durable,' &c.; Essays on Chaucer, p. 438. In MS. O. 5. 4, in Trinity College, Cambridge, occurs the entry--'Amphibulus, vestis equi villosa, anglice _a sclauayn or faldyng_'; cited in Furnivall's Temporary Preface, p. 99. In 1392, I find a mention of 'unam tunicam de nigro _faldyng_ lineatam'; Testamenta Eboracensia, i. 173. Hence its colour was sometimes black, and the Shipman's gown is so coloured in the drawing in the Ellesmere MS.; but see A. 3212. See the whole of Way's long note in the Prompt. Parvulorum. [39]

392. _laas_, lace, cord. Seamen still carry their knives slung.

394. _the hote somer._ 'Perhaps this is a reference to the summer of the year 1351, which was long remembered as the dry and hot summer.'--Wright. There was another such summer in 1370, much nearer the date of this Prologue. But it may be a mere general expression.

395. _a good felawe_, a merry companion; as in l. 648.

396-8. 'Very many a draught of wine had he drawn (stolen away or carried off) from Bordeaux, cask and all, while the chapman (merchant or supercargo to whom the wine belonged) was asleep; for he paid no regard to any conscientious scruples.'

_took keep_; cf. F. _prendre garde_.

399. _hyer hond_, upper hand.

400. 'He sent them home to wherever they came from _by water_,' i. e. he made them 'walk the plank,' as it used to be called; or, in plain English, threw them overboard, to sink or swim. However cruel this may seem now, it was probably a common practice. 'This battle (the sea-fight off Sluys) was very murderous and horrible. Combats at sea are more destructive and obstinate than upon land'; Froissart's Chron. bk. i. c. 50. See Minot's Poems, ed. Hall, p. 16. In Wright's History of Caricature, p. 204, is an anecdote of the way in which the defeat of the French at Sluys was at last revealed to the king of France, Philippe VI., by the court-jester, who alone dared to communicate the news. 'Entering the King's chamber, he continued muttering to himself, but loud enough to be heard--"Those cowardly English! the chicken-hearted English!" "How so, cousin?" the king inquired. "Why," replied the fool, "because they have not courage enough _to jump into the sea_, like your French soldiers, who went over headlong from their ships, leaving them to the enemy, who had _no inclination to follow them_." Philippe thus became aware of the full extent of his calamity.' And see Essays on Chaucer, p. 460.

402. _stremes_, currents. _him bisydes_, ever near at hand.

403. _herberwe_, harbour; see note to l. 765. _mone_, moon, time of the lunation.

_lodemenage_, pilotage. A pilot was called a _lodesman_; see Way's note in Prompt. Parv. p. 310; Riley's Memorials of London, p. 655; Chaucer's Legend of Good Women, 1488. Furnivall's Temporary Preface, p. 98, gives the Lat. form as _lodmannus_, whence _lodmannagium_, pilotage, examples of which are given. Sometimes, _lodesman_ meant any guide or conductor, as in Rob. of Brunne, Handlyng Synne, 9027; Monk of Evesham, ed. Arber, p. 106. M. E. _lode_ is the A. S. _l[=a]d_, a way, a course, the sb. whence the verb to _lead_ is derived. It is itself derived from A. S. _l[=i]ðan_, to travel.

404. Cf. Rom. de la Rose, 5394--'Qui cercheroit jusqu'en Cartage.'

408. _Gootland_, Gottland, an island in the Baltic Sea.

409. _cryke_, creek, harbour, port.

410. We find actual mention of a vessel called the _Maudelayne_ [40] belonging to the port of Dartmouth, in the years 1379 and 1386; see Essays on Chaucer, p. 484. See also N. & Q. 6 S. xii. 47.

THE DOCTOUR.

415. _astronomye_, (really) astrology. See Saunders on Chaucer, p. 111; Warton, Hist. E. Poet. (1840), ii. 202.

415, 416. _kepte_, watched. The _houres_ are the astrological hours. He carefully watched for a favourable star in the ascendant. 'A great portion of the medical science of the middle ages depended upon astrological and other superstitious observances.'--Wright. 'A Phisition must take heede and aduise him of a certaine thing, that _fayleth not, nor deceiueth_, the which thing Astronomers of Ægypt taught, that by coniunction of the bodye of the Moone with sterres fortunate, commeth dreadful sicknesse to good end: and with contrary Planets falleth the contrary, that is, to euill ende'; &c.--Batman upon Bartholomè, lib. viii. c. 29. Precisely the same sort of thing was in vogue much later, viz. in 1578; see Bullein's Dialogue against the Feuer Pestilence (E. E. T. S.), p. 32.

416. _magik naturel._ Chaucer alludes to the same practices in the House of Fame, 1259-70 (vol. iii. p. 38):--

'Ther saugh I pleyen Iogelours . . . . . . And clerkes eek, which conne wel Al this _magyke naturel_, That craftely don hir ententes To make, _in certeyn ascendentes_, Images, lo! through which magyk To make a man ben hool or syk.'

417. The _ascendent_ is the point of the zodiacal circle which happens to be ascending above the horizon at a given moment, such as the moment of birth. Upon it depended the drawing out of a man's horoscope, which represented the aspect of the heavens at some given critical moment. The moment, in the present case, is that for making images. It was believed that images of men and animals could be made of certain substances and _at certain times_, and could be so treated as to cause good or evil to a patient, by means of magical and planetary influences. See Cornelius Agrippa, De Occulta Philosophia, lib. ii. capp. 35-47. The sense is--'He knew well how to choose a fortunate ascendant for treating images, to be used as charms to help the patient.'

'With Astrologie joyne elements also, To _fortune_ their Workings as theie go.' Norton's Ordinall, in Ashmole's Theatrum Chemicum, p. 60.

420. These are the _four_ elementary qualities, hot, cold, dry, moist; [41] Milton, Par. Lost, ii. 898. Diseases were supposed to be caused by an undue excess of some one quality; and the mixture of prevalent qualities in a man's body determined his complexion or temperament. Thus the _sanguine_ man was thought to be hot and moist; the _phlegmatic_, cold and moist; the _choleric_, hot and dry; the _melancholy_, cold and dry. The whole system rested on the teaching of Galen, and was fundamentally wrong, as it assumed that the 'elements,' or 'simple bodies,' were four, viz. earth, air, fire, and water. Of these, earth was said to be cold and dry; water, cold and moist; air, hot and moist; and fire, hot and dry. They thus correspond to the four complexions, viz. melancholy, phlegmatic, sanguine, and choleric. Each principal part of the body, as the brain, heart, liver, stomach, &c., could be 'distempered,' and such distemperance could be either 'simple' or 'compound.' Thus a simple distemperature of the brain might be 'an excess of heat'; a compound one, 'an excess of heat and moisture.' See the whole system explained in Sir Thos. Elyot's Castel of Helthe; at the beginning.

422. _parfit practisour_, perfect practitioner.

424. _his bote_, his remedy; A. S. _b[=o]t_, a remedy; E. _boot_.

426. _drogges._ MS. Harl. _dragges_; the rest _drogges_, _drugges_, drugs. As to _dragges_ (which is quite a different word), the Promptorium Parvulorum has '_dragge_, dragetum'; and Cotgrave defines _dragée_ (the French form of the word _dragge_) as 'a kind of digestive powder prescribed unto weak stomachs after meat, and hence any jonkets, comfits, or sweetmeats served in the last course for stomach-closers.'

_letuaries_, electuaries. '_Letuaire, laituarie_, s. m., électuaire, sorte de médicament, sirop'; Godefroy.

429-34. Read _th'oldë_. 'The authors mentioned here wrote the chief medical text-books of the middle ages. Rufus was a Greek physician of Ephesus, of the age of Trajan; Haly, Serapion, and Avicen (Ebn Sina) were Arabian physicians and astronomers of the eleventh century; Rhasis was a Spanish Arab of the tenth century; and Averroes (Ebn Roschd) was a Moorish scholar who flourished in Morocco in the twelfth century. Johannes Damascenus was also an Arabian physician, but of a much earlier date (probably of the ninth century). Constanti[n]us Afer, a native of Carthage, and afterwards a monk of Monte Cassino, was one of the founders of the school of Salerno--he lived at the end of the eleventh century. Bernardus Gordonius, professor of medicine at Montpellier, appears to have been Chaucer's contemporary. John Gatisden was a distinguished physician of Oxford in the earlier half of the fourteenth century. Gilbertyn is supposed by Warton to be the celebrated Gilbertus Anglicus. The names of Hippocrates and Galen were, in the middle ages, always (or nearly always) spelt Ypocras and Galienus.'--Wright. Cf. C. 306. Æsculapius, god of medicine, was fabled to be the son of Apollo. Dioscorides was a Greek physician of the second century. See the long note in Warton, 1871, ii. 368; and the account in Saunders' [42] Chaucer (1889), p. 115. I may note here, that Haly wrote a commentary on Galen, and is mentioned in Skelton's Philip Sparowe, l. 505. There were three Serapions; the one here meant was probably John Serapion, in the eleventh century. Averroes wrote a commentary on the works of Aristotle, and died about 1198. Constantinus is the same as 'the cursed monk Dan Constantyn,' mentioned in the Marchaunt's Tale, E. 1810. John Gatisden was a fellow of Merton College, and 'was court-doctor under Edw. II. He wrote a treatise on medicine called _Rosa Anglica_'; J. Jusserand, Eng. Wayfaring Life, (1889), p. 180. Cf. Book of the Duchess, 572. Dante, Inf. iv. 143, mentions 'Ippocrate, Avicenna, e Gallieno, Averrois,' &c.

'Par Hipocras, ne Galien,... Rasis, Constantin, Avicenne'; Rom. de la Rose, 16161.

See Lounsbury, Studies in Chaucer, ii. 393.

439. 'In cloth of a blood-red colour and of a blueish-grey.' Cf. 'robes de _pers_,' Rom. de la Rose, 9116. In the Testament of Creseide, ed. 1550, st. 36, we find:--

'Docter in phisike cledde in a scarlet gown, And furred wel as suche one oughte to be.'

Cf. P. Plowman, B. vi. 271; Hoccleve, de Reg. Princ. p. 26.

440. _taffata_ (or _taffety_), a sort of thin silk; E. _taffeta_.

_sendal_ (or _cendal_), a kind of rich thin silk used for lining, very highly esteemed. Thynne says--'a thynne stuffe lyke sarcenett.' Palsgrave however has '_cendell_, thynne lynnen, _sendal_.' See Piers Plowman, B. vi. 11; Marco Polo, ed. Yule (see the index).

441. _esy of dispence_, moderate in his expenditure.

442. _wan in pestilence_, acquired during the pestilence. This is an allusion to the great pestilence of the years 1348, 1349; or to the later pestilences in 1362, 1369, and 1376.

443. _For_ = because, seeing that. It was supposed that _aurum potabile_ was a sovereign remedy in some cases. The actual reference is, probably, to Les Remonstrances de Nature, by Jean de Meun, ll. 979, 980, &c.; 'C'est le fin et bon or potable, L'humide radical notable; C'est souveraine medecine'; and the author goes on to refer us to Ecclus. xxxviii. 4--'The Lord hath created medicines out of the earth; and he that is wise will not abhor them.' Hence the Doctor would not abhor gold. And further--'C'est medecine _cordiale_'; ib. 1029. To return to _aurum potabile_: I may observe that it is mentioned in the play called Humour out of Breath, Act i. sc. 1; and there is a footnote to the effect that this was the 'Universal Medicine of the alchemists, prepared from gold, mercury, &c. The full receipt will be found in the Fifth and last Part of the Last Testament of Friar Basilius Valentinus, London, 1670, pp. 371-7.' See also Thomson's Hist. of Chemistry, vol. i. p. 164; Burton's Anat. of Melancholy, pt. 2. sec. 4. mem. 1. subsec. 4. [43]

THE WYF OF BATHE.

445. _of bisyde_, &c., from (a place) near Bath, i. e. from a place in its suburbs; for elsewhere she is simply called the Wyf of Bathe.

446. 'But she was somewhat deaf, and that was her misfortune.' We should now say--'and it was a pity.'

447. _clooth-making._ 'The West of England, and especially the neighbourhood of Bath, from which the "good wif" came, was celebrated, till a comparatively recent period, as the district of cloth-making. Ypres and Ghent were the great clothing-marts on the Continent.'--Wright. 'Edward the third brought clothing first into this Island, transporting some families of artificers from _Gaunt_ hither.'--Burton's Anat. of Mel. p. 51. 'Cloth of Gaunt' is mentioned in the Romaunt of the Rose, l. 574 (vol. i. p. 117).

_haunt_, use, practice; i. e. she was so well skilled (in it).

448. _passed_, i. e. surpassed.

450. _to the offring._ In the description of the missal-rites, Rock shews how the bishop (or officiating priest) 'took from the people's selves their offerings of bread and wine.... The men first and then the women, came with their cake and cruse of wine.' So that, instead of money being collected, as now, the people went up in order with their offerings; and questions of precedence of course arose. The Wife insisted on going up first among the women. See Rock, Church of our Fathers, iii. 2. 33, 149.

453. _coverchief_ (_keverchef_, or _kerchere_, _kerché_). The _kerchief_, or covering for the head, was, until the fourteenth century, almost an indispensable portion of female attire. See B. 837; Leg. of Good Women, l. 2202.

_ful fyne of ground_, of a very fine texture. See Pierce the Ploughman's Crede, l. 230, which means 'it was of fine enough texture to take dye in grain.'

454. _ten pound._ Of course this is a playful exaggeration; but Tyrwhitt was not justified in altering _ten pound_ into _a pound_; for a pound-weight, in a head-dress of that period, was a mere nothing, as will be readily understood by observing the huge structures represented in Fairholt's Costume, figs. 125, 129, 130, 151, which were often further weighted with ornaments of gold. Skelton goes so far as to describe Elinour Rummyng (l. 72)--

'With clothes upon her hed That wey a _sowe of led_.'

Cf. Pierce the Ploughman's Crede, l. 84, and the note; Stubbes, Anatomy of Abuses, 1585, pp. 63, 70, 72; or ed. Furnivall, pp. 69, 74, 76.

457. _streite y-teyd_, tightly fastened. See note to l. 174.

_moiste_, soft--not 'as hard as old boots.' So, in H. 60, _moysty ale_ is new ale. [44]

460. _chirche-dore._ The priest married the couple at the church-porch, and immediately afterwards proceeded to the altar to celebrate mass, at which the newly-married persons communicated. As Todd remarks--'The custom was, that the parties did not enter the church till that part of the office, where the minister now goes up to the altar [or rather, is directed to go up], and repeats the psalm.' See Warton, Hist. Eng. Poet. 1871, ii. 366, note 1; Anglia, vi. 106; Rock, Church of our Fathers, iii. pt. 2. 172; Brand's Antiquities, ed. Ellis, ii. 134. And see D. 6.

461. _Withouten_ = besides. _other companye_, other lovers. This expression (copied from Le Rom. de la Rose, l. 12985--'autre companie') makes it quite certain that the character of the Wife of Bath is copied, in some respects, from that of _La Vieille_ in the Roman de la Rose, as further appears in the Wife's Prologue.

462. _as nouthe_, as now, i. e. at present. The form _nouthe_ is not uncommon; it occurs in P. Plowman, Allit. Poems, Sir Gawain and the Grene Knight, &c. A. S. _n[=u] ð[=a]_, now then.

465. _Boloigne._ Cf. 'I will have you swear by our dear Lady of Boulogne'; Gammer Gurton's Needle, Act 2, sc. 2. An image of the virgin, at Boulogne, was sought by pilgrims. See Heylin's Survey of France, p. 163, ed. 1656 (quoted in the above, ed. Hazlitt).

466. _In Galice_ (Galicia), at the shrine of St. James of Compostella, a famous resort of pilgrims in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. As the legend goes, the body of St. James the Apostle was supposed to have been carried in a ship without a rudder to Galicia, and preserved at Compostella. See Piers Plowman, A. iv. 106, 110, and note to B. Prol. 47; also Eng. Gilds, ed. Toulmin Smith, pp. 172, 177.

_Coloigne._ At Cologne, where the bones of the Three Kings or Wise Men of the East, _Gaspar_, _Melchior_ and _Balthazar_, are said to be preserved. See Coryat's Crudities; Chambers, Book of Days, ii. 751.

467. 'She knew much about travelling.'

468. _Gat-tothed_ = _gat-toothed_, meaning gap-toothed, having teeth wide apart or separated from one another. A _gat_ is an opening, and is allied to E. _gate_. The Friesic _gat_, Dan., Du., and Icel. _gat_, and Norweg. _gat_, all mean a hole, or a gap. Very similar is the use of the Shropshire _glat_, a gap in a hedge, also a gap in the mouth caused by loss of teeth. Example: 'Dick, yo' bin a flirt; I thought yo' wun (_were_) gwein to marry the cook at the paas'n's. Aye, but 'er'd gotten too many _glats_ i' the mouth for me'; Miss Jackson's Shropshire Wordbook. 'Famine--the _gap-toothed_ elf'; Golding's Ovid, b. 8; leaf 105. It occurs again, D. 603. [_Gat-toothed_ has also been explained as _goat-toothed_, lascivious, but the word _goat_ appears as _goot_ in Chaucer.] Perhaps the following piece of 'folk-lore' will help us out. 'A young lady the other day, in reply to an observation of mine--"What a lucky girl you are!"--replied; "So they used to say I should be when at school." "Why?" "Because my teeth were set _so far apart; it was a sure sign I should be lucky and travel_."'--Notes & Queries 1 Ser. [45] vi. 601; cf. the same, 7 Ser. vii. 306. The last quotation shews that the stop after _weye_ at the end of l. 467 should be a mere semicolon; since ll. 467 and 468 are closely connected.

469. _amblere_, an ambling horse.

470. _Y-wimpled_, covered with a wimple; see l. 151.

471. _targe_, target, shield.

472. _foot-mantel._ Tyrwhitt supposes this to be a sort of _riding-petticoat_, such as is now used by market-women. It is clearly shewn, as a blue outer skirt, in the drawing in the Ellesmere MS. At a later time it was called a _safe-guard_ (see Nares), and its use was to keep the gown clean. It may be added that, in the Ellesmere MS., the Wife is represented as riding astride. Hence she wanted 'a pair of spurs.'

474. _carpe_, prate, discourse; Icel. _karpa_, to brag. The present sense of _carp_ seems to be due to Lat. _carpere_.

475. _remedyes._ An allusion to the title and subject of Ovid's book, Remedia Amoris.

476. _the olde daunce_, the old game, or custom. The phrase is borrowed from Le Roman de la Rose, l. 3946--'Qu'el scet toute la vielle dance'; E. version, l. 4300--'For she knew al the olde daunce.' It occurs again; Troil. iii. 695. And in Troil. ii. 1106, we have the phrase _loves daunce_. Cf. _the amorouse daunce_, Troil. iv. 1431.

THE PERSOUN.

478. _Persoun of a toun_, the parson or parish priest. Chaucer, in his description of the parson, contrasts the piety and industry of the secular clergy with the wickedness and laziness of the religious orders or monks. See Dryden's 'Character of a Good Parson,' and Goldsmith's 'Deserted Village'; also Wyclif, ed. Matthew, p. 179.

482. _parisshens_, parishioners; in which _-er_ is a later suffix.

485. _y-preved_, proved (to be). _ofte sythes_, often-times; from A. S. _s[=i]ð_, a time.

486. 'He was very loath to excommunicate those who failed to pay the tithes that were due to him.' 'Refusal to pay tithes was punishable with the lesser excommunication'; Bell. Wyclif complains of 'weiward curatis' that 'sclaundren here parischenys many weies by ensaumple of pride, enuye, coueitise and vnresonable vengaunce, so cruely cursynge for tithes'; Works, ed. Matthew, p. 144 (cf. p. 132).

487. _yeven_, give; A. S. _gifan_. _out of doute_, without doubt.

489. _offring_, the voluntary contributions of his parishioners.

_substaunce_, income derived from his benefice.

490. _suffisaunce_, a sufficiency; enough to live on.

492. _lafte not_, left not, ceased not; from M. E. _leven_.

493. _meschief_, mishap, misfortune.

494. _ferreste_, farthest; superl. of _fer_, far. _muche_, great. _lyte_, small; A. S. _lyt_, small, little. [46]

497. _wroghte_, wrought, worked; pt. t. of _werchen_, to work.

498. The allusion is to Matt. v. 19, as shewn by a parallel passage in P. Plowman, C. xvi. 127.

502. _lewed_, unlearned, ignorant. _Lewed_ or _lewd_ originally signified the people, laity, as opposed to the clergy; the modern sense of the word is not common in Middle English. Cf. mod. E. _lewd_, in Acts xvii. 5. See _Lewd_ in Trench, Select Glossary.

503-4. _if a preest tak-e keep_, if a priest may (i. e. will) but pay heed to it. St. John Chrysostom also saith, 'It is a great shame for priests, when laymen be found faithfuller and more righteous than they.'--Becon's Invective against Swearing, p. 336.

507. _to hyre._ The parson did not leave his parish duties to be performed by a stranger, that he might have leisure to seek a chantry in St. Paul's. See Piers Plowman, B-text, Prol. l. 83; Hoccleve, De Regimine Principum, ed. Wright, pp. 51, 52; Spenser, Shep. Kalendar (May).

508. _And leet_, and left (not). We should now say--'_Nor_ left.' So also, in l. 509, _And ran_ = Nor ran. _Leet_ is the pt. t. of _leten_, to let alone, let go.

509. Here again, _së-ynt_ is used as if it were dissyllabic; see ll. 120, 697.

510. _chaunterie_, chantry; an endowment for the payment of a priest to sing mass, agreeably to the appointment of the founder. 'There were thirty-five of these chantries established at St. Paul's, which were served by fifty-four priests; Dugd. Hist. pref. p. 41.'--Tyrwhitt's Glossary. On the difference between a _gild_ and a _chantry_, see the instructive remarks in Eng. Gilds, ed. Toulmin Smith, pp. 205-207, 259.

511. 'Or to be kept (i. e. remain) in retirement along with some fraternity.' I do not see how _with-holde_ can mean 'maintained,' as it is usually explained. Cf. _dwelte_ in l. 512, and _with-holde_ in G. 345.

514. _no mercenarie_, no hireling; see John x. 12, where the Vulgate version has _mercenarius_.

516. _despitous_, full of _despite_, or contempt; cf. E. _spite_.

517. _daungerous_, not affable, difficult to approach. Cf. Rom. of the Rose, l. 591:--'Ne of hir answer _daungerous_'; where the original has _desdaigneuse_. _digne_, full of dignity; hence, repellent. 'She was as _digne_ as water in a dich,' A. 3964; because stagnant water keeps people at a distance.

519. _fairnesse_, i. e. by leading a fair or good life. The Harleian MS. has _clennesse_, that is, a life of purity.

523. _snibben_, reprimand; cf. Dan. _snibbe_, to rebuke, scold; mod. E. _snub_. In Wyclif's translation of Matt, xviii. 15, the earlier version has _snybbe_ as a synonym for _reprove_.

_nones_; see l. 379, and the note.

525. _wayted after_, looked for. See line 571.

526. _spyced conscience_; so also in D. 435. _Spiced_ here seems to signify, says Tyrwhitt, nice, scrupulous; for a reason which is given [47] below. It occurs in the Mad Lover, act iii. sc. 1, by Beaumont and Fletcher. When Cleanthe offers a purse, the priestess says--

'Fy! no corruption....

_Cle._ Take it, it is yours; Be not so _spiced_; 'tis good gold; And goodness is no gall to th' conscience.'

'Under pretence of _spiced_ holinesse.'--Tract dated 1594, ap. Todd's Illustrations of Gower, p. 380.

'Fool that I was, to offer such a bargain To a _spiced-conscience_ chapman! but I care not, What he disdains to taste, others will swallow.' Massinger, Emperor of the East, i. 1.

'Will you please to put off Your holy habit, and _spiced conscience_? one, I think, infects the other.' Massinger, Bashful Lover, iv. 2.

The origin of the phrase is French. The name of _espices_ (spices) was given to the fees or dues which were payable (in advance) to judges. A 'spiced' judge, who would have a 'spiced' conscience, was scrupulous and exact, because he had been prepaid, and was inaccessible to any but large bribes. See Cotgrave, s. v. _espices_; Littré, s. v. _épice_; and, in

## particular, Les Oeuvres de Guillaume Coquillart, ed. P. Tarbé, t. i. p. 31,

and t. ii. p. 114. (First explained by me in a letter to The Athenaeum, Nov. 26, 1892, p. 741.)

527. 'But the teaching of Christ and his twelve apostles, that taught he.'

528. Cf. Acts, i. 1; Gower, Conf. Amant. ii. 188.

THE PLOWMAN.

529. _Plowman_; not a hind or farm-labourer, but a poor farmer, who himself held the plough; cf. note to P. Plowman, C. viii. 182. _was_, who was.

530. _y-lad_, carried, lit. led. Cf. prov. E. _lead_, to cart (corn).

531. _swinker_, toiler, workman; see l. 186. Cf. _swink_, toil, in l. 540.

534. _though him gamed or smerte_, though it was pleasant or unpleasant to him.

536. _dyke_, make ditches, _delve_, dig; A. S. _delfan_. Chaucer may be referring to P. Plowman, B. v. 552, 553.

541. _mere._ People of quality would not ride upon a mare.

THE MILLER.

545. _carl_, fellow; Icel. _karl_, cognate with A. S. _ceorl_, a churl. See A. 3469; also A. 1423-4. This description of the Miller should be compared with that in A. 3925-3940. [48]

547. 'That well proved (to be true); for everywhere, where he came.'

548. _the ram._ This was the usual prize at wrestling-matches. Tyrwhitt says--'Matthew Paris mentions a wrestling match at Westminster, A. D. 1222, at which a ram was the prize.' Cf. Sir Topas, B. 1931; Tale of Gamelyn, 172, 280.

549. _a thikke knarre_, a thickly knotted (fellow), i. e. a muscular fellow. Cf. M. E. _knor_, Mid. Du. _knorre_, a knot in wood; and E. _gnarled_. It is worth notice that, in ll. 549-557, there is no word of French origin, except _tuft_.

550. _of harre_, off its hinges, lit. hinge. 'I horle at the notes, and heve hem al of herre'; Poem on Singing, in Reliq. Antiquae, ii. 292. Gower has _out of herre_, off its hinges, out of use, out of joint; Conf. Amant. bk. ii. ed. Pauli, i. 259; bk. iii. i. 318. Skelton has:--'All is out of harre,' Magnificence, l. 921. From A.S. _heorr_, a hinge.

553. Todd cites from Lilly's _Midas_--'How, sir, will you be trimmed? Will you have a beard like a _spade_ or a bodkin?'--Illust. of Gower, p. 258.

554. _cop_, top; A. S. _copp_, a top; cf. G. _Kopf_.

557. _nose-thirles_, lit. nose-holes; mod. E. _nostrils_.

559. _forneys._ 'Why, asks Mr. Earle, should Chaucer so readily fall on the simile of a _furnace_? What, in the uses of the time, made it come so ready to hand? The weald of Kent was then, like our "black country" now, a great smelting district, its wood answering to our coal; and Chaucer was Knight of the Shire, or M.P. for Kent.'--Temporary Preface to the Six-text edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, p. 99.

560. _Ianglere_, loud talker.

_goliardeys_, a ribald jester, one who gained his living by following rich men's tables, and telling tales and making sport for the guests. Tyrwhitt says, 'This jovial sect seems to have been so called from _Golias_, the real or assumed name of a man of wit, towards the end of the twelfth century, who wrote the Apocalypsis Goliæ, and other pieces in burlesque Latin rhymes, some which have been falsely [?] attributed to Walter Map.' But it would appear that _Golias_ is the sole invention of Walter Map, the probable author of the 'Golias' poems. See Morley's Eng. Writers, 1888, iii. 167, where we read that the Apocalypse of Golias and the confession of Golias 'have by constant tradition been ascribed to him [Walter Map]; never to any other writer.' Golias is a medieval spelling of the Goliath of scripture, and occurs in Chaucer, Man of Lawes Tale, B. 934. In several authors of the thirteenth century, quoted by Du Cange, the _goliardi_ are classed with the _joculatores et buffones_, and it is very likely that the word _goliardus_ was, originally, quite independent of _Golias_, which was only connected with it by way of jest. The word _goliardus_ seems rather to have meant, originally, 'glutton,' and to be connected with _gula_, the throat; but it was quite a common term, in the thirteenth century, for certain men of some education but of bad repute, who composed or recited satirical [49] parodies and coarse verses and epigrams for the amusement of the rich. See T. Wright's Introduction to the poems of Walter Map (Camden Soc.); P. Plowman, ed. Skeat, note to B. prol. 139; Wright's History of Caricature, ch. X; and the account in Godefroy's O. French Dict., s. v. _Goliard_.

561. _that_, i. e. his 'Iangling,' his noisy talk.

_harlotrye_ means scurrility; Wyclif (Eph. v. 4) so translates Lat. _scurrilitas_.

562. 'Besides the usual payment in money for grinding corn, millers are always allowed what is called "toll," amounting to 4 lbs. out of every sack of flour.'--Bell. But it can hardly be doubted that, in old times, the toll was wholly in corn, not in money at all. It amounted, in fact, to the twentieth or twenty-fourth part of the corn ground, according to the strength of the water-course; see Strutt, Manners and Customs, ii. 82, and Nares, s. v. _Toll-dish_. At Berwick, the miller's share was reckoned as 'the thirteenth part for grain, and the twenty-fourth part for malt.' Eng. Gilds, p. 342. When the miller 'tolled thrice,' he took thrice the legal allowance. Cf. A. 3939, 3940.

563. _a thombe of gold._ An explanation of this proverb is given on the authority of Mr. Constable, the Royal Academician, by Mr. Yarrell in his History of British Fishes, who, when speaking of the Bullhead or _Miller's Thumb_, explains that a miller's thumb acquires a peculiar shape by continually feeling samples of corn whilst it is being ground; and that such a thumb is called _golden_, with reference to the profit that is the reward of the experienced miller's skill.

'When millers toll not with a golden thumbe.' Gascoigne's Steel Glass, l. 1080.

Ray's Proverbs give us--'An honest miller has a golden thumb'; ed. 1768, p. 136; taken satirically, this means that there are _no_ honest millers. Brand, in his Pop. Antiquities, ed. Ellis, iii. 387, quotes from an old play--'Oh the mooter dish, _the miller's Thumbe_!'

The simplest explanation is to take the words just as they stand, i. e. 'he used to steal corn, and take his toll thrice; yet he had a golden thumb such as all honest millers are said to have.'

565. W. Thorpe, when examined by Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury, in 1407, complains of the pilgrims, saying--'they will ordain to have with them both men and women that can well sing wanton songs; and some other pilgrims will have with them _bagpipes_; so that every town that they come through, what with the noise of their singing, and with the sound of their piping, and with the jangling of their Canterbury bells, and with the barking out of dogs after them, they make more noise than if the king came there away, with all his clarions and many other minstrels.'--Arber's Eng. Garner, vi. 84; Wordsworth, Eccl. Biography, 4th ed. i. 312; Cutts, Scenes and Characters, p. 179.

566. 'And with its music he conducted us out of London.' [50]

THE MAUNCIPLE.

567. _Maunciple_ or _manciple_, an officer who had the care of purchasing provisions for a college, an inn of court, &c. (Still in use.) See A. 3993. A _temple_ is here 'an inn of court'; besides the Inner and Middle Temple (in London), there was also an Outer Temple; see Timbs, Curiosities of London, p. 461; and the account of the Temple in Stow's Survey of London.

568. _which_, whom.

_achatours_, purchasers; cf. F. _acheter_, to buy.

570. _took by taille_, took by tally, took on credit. Cf. Piers Plowman, ed. Wright, vol. i. p. 68, and ed. Skeat (Clarendon Press Series), B. iv. 58:--

'And (he) bereth awey my whete, And taketh me but a _taille_ for ten quarters of otes.'

The buyer who took by tally had the price scored on a pair of sticks; the seller gave him one of them, and retained the other himself. 'Lordis ... taken pore mennus goodis and paien not therfore but white stickis ... and sumtyme beten hem whanne thei axen here peye'; Wyclif's Works, ed. Matthew, p. 233 (see note at p. 519).

571. _Algate_, in every way, always; cf. prov. E. _gate_, a street.

_achat_, buying; see l. 568.

572. _ay biforn_, ever before (others).

574. _swich_, such; A. S. _swylce_. _lewed_, unlearned; as in l. 502. _pace_, pass, i. e. surpass.

575. _heep_, heap, i. e. crowd; like G. _Haufe_.

581. 'To make him live upon his own income.'

582. 'Unless he were mad.' See l. 184.

583. 'Or live as economically as it pleases him to wish to do.'

584. _al a_, a whole. Cf. '_all a_ summer's day'; Milton, P. L. i. 449.

586. _hir aller cappe_, the caps of them all. _Hir aller_ = eorum omnium. '_To sette_' a man's '_cappe_' is to overreach him, to cheat him, or to befool him. Cf. A. 3143.

THE REVE.

587. _Reve._ See Prof. Thorold Rogers' capital sketch of Robert Oldman, the Cuxham bailiff, a serf of the manor (as reeves always were), in his Agriculture and Prices in England, i. 506-510.

592. _Y-lyk_, like. _y-sen-e_, visible; see note to l. 134.

593. 'He knew well how to keep a garner and a bin.'

597. _neet_, neat, cattle. _dayerye_, dairy.

598. _hors_, horses; pl. See note to l. 74. _pultrye_, poultry.

599. _hoolly_, wholly; from A. S. _h[=a]l_, whole.

601. _Sin_, short for _sithen_; and _sithen_, with an added suffix, became _sithen-s_ or _sithen-ce_, mod. E. _since_. [51]

602. 'No one could prove him to be in arrears.'

603. _herde_, herd, i. e. cow-herd or shep-herd. _hyne_, hind, farm-labourer.

604. _That ... his_, whose; as in A. 2710.

_covyne_, deceit; lit. a deceitful agreement between two parties to prejudice a third. O. F. _covine_, a project; from O. F. _covenir_, Lat. _conuenire_, to come together, agree.

605. _adrad_, afraid; from the pp. of A. S. _ofdr[=æ]dan_, to terrify greatly.

_the deeth_, the pestilence; see note to l. 442.

606. _woning_, dwelling-place; see l. 388.

609. _astored_ (Elles. &c.); _istored_ (Harl.); furnished with stores.

611. _lene_, lend; whence E. _len-d_. _of_, some of.

613. _mister_, trade, craft; O. F. _mestier_ (F. _métier_), business; Lat. _ministerium_. 'Men of all _mysteris_'; Barbour's Bruce, xvii. 542.

614. _wel_, very. _wrighte_, wright, workman.

615. _stot_, probably what we should now call a cob. Prof. J. E. T. Rogers, in his Hist. of Agriculture, i. 36, supposes that a stot was a low-bred undersized stallion. It frequently occurs with the sense of 'bullock'; see note to P. Plowman, C. xxii. 267.

616. Sir Topas's horse was 'dappel-gray,' which has the same sense as _pomely gray_, viz. gray dappled with round apple-like spots. 'Apon a cowrsowre _poumle-gray_'; Wyntown, Chron. iv. 217; '_pomly-gray_'; Palladius on Husbandry, bk. iv. l. 809; 'Upon a _pomely_ palfray'; Lybeaus Disconus, 844 (in Ritson's Metrical Romances). Florio gives Ital. _pomellato_, 'pide, daple-graie.' The word occurs in the French Roman de Troie by Benoît de Sainte-Maure, ed. Joly, 10722:--'Quant Troylus orent monté Sor un cheval _sor pommelé_.' Cf. G. 559.

_Scot._ 'The name given to the horse of the reeve (who lived at Bawdeswell, in Norfolk) is a curious instance of Chaucer's accuracy; for to this day there is scarcely a farm in Norfolk or Suffolk, in which one of the horses is not called Scot'; Bell's Chaucer. Cf. G. 1543.

617. _pers._ Some MSS. read _blew_. See note on l. 439.

621. _Tukked aboute_, with his long coat tucked up round him by help of a girdle. In the pictures in the Ellesmere MS., both the reeve and the friar have girdles, and rather long coats; cf. D. 1737. 'He (i. e. a friar) wore a graie cote _well tucked under his corded girdle_, with a paire of trime white hose'; W. Bullein, A Dialogue against the Feuer (E. E. T. S.), p. 68. See _Tuck_ in Skeat, Etym. Dict.

622. _hind-r-este_, hindermost; a curious form, combining both the comparative and superlative suffixes. Cf. _ov-er-est_, l. 290.

THE SOMNOUR.

623. _Somnour_, summoner; an officer employed to summon delinquents to appear in ecclesiastical courts; now called an apparitor. 'The ecclesiastical courts ... determined all causes matrimonial and testamentary.... They had besides to enforce the payment of tithes [52] and church dues, and were charged with disciplinary power for punishment of adultery, fornication, perjury, and other vices which did not come under the common law. The reputation of the _summoner_ is enough to show how abuses pervaded the action of these courts. Prof. Stubbs has summed up the case concerning them in his Constitutional History, iii. 373.'--Wyclif's Works, ed. Matthew, note at p. 514. For further information as to the summoner's character, see the Frere's Tale, D. 1299-1374.

624. _cherubinnes face._ H. Stephens, Apologie for Herodotus, i. c. 30, quotes the same thought from a French epigram--'Nos grands docteurs _au cherubin visage_.'--T. Observe that _cherubin_ (put for _cherubim_) is a plural form. 'As the pl. was popularly much better known than the singular (e. g. in the Te Deum), the Romanic forms were all fashioned on _cherubin_, viz. Ital. _cherubino_, Span. _querubin_, Port. _querubin_, _cherubin_, F. _cherubin_'; New English Dictionary. Cherubs were generally painted red, a fact which became proverbial, as here. Cotgrave has: '_Rouge comme un cherubin_, red-faced, cherubin-faced, having a fierie facies like a Cherubin.' Mrs. Jameson, in her Sacred and Legendary Art, has unluckily made the cherubim _blue_, and the seraphim _red_; the contrary was the accepted rule.

625. _sawcefleem_ or _sawsfleem_, having a red pimpled face; lit. afflicted with pimples, &c., supposed to be caused by too much salt phlegm (_salsum phlegma_) in the constitution. The four humours of the blood, and the four consequent temperaments, are constantly referred to in various ways by early writers--by Chaucer as much as by any. Tyrwhitt quotes from an O. French book on physic (in MS. Bodley 761)--'Oignement magistrel pur _sausefleme_ et pur chescune manere de _roigne_,' where _roigne_ signifies any scorbutic eruption. 'So (he adds) in the Thousand Notable Things, B. i. 70--"A _sawsfleame_ or red pimpled face is helped with this medicine following:"--two of the ingredients are _quicksilver_ and _brimstone_. In another place, B. ii. 20, _oyle of tartar_ is said "to take away cleane all spots, freckles, and filthy _wheales_."' He also quotes, in his Glossary, from MS. Bodley 2463--'unguentum contra _salsum flegma_, scabiem, &c.' _Flewme_ in the Prompt. Parv. answers to Lat. _phlegma_. See the long note by J. Addis in N. and Q. 4 S. iv. 64; Babees Book, ed. Furnivall, p. 169, l. 777. 'The Greke word that he vsed was [Greek: exanthêmata], that is, little pimples or pushes, soche as, of cholere and salse flegme, budden out in the noses and faces of many persones, and are called the Saphires and Rubies of the Tauerne.'--Udall, tr. of Erasmus' Apophthegmes, _Diogenes_, § 6: [_printed_ false flegme _in_ ed. 1877.] See l. 420.

627. _scalled_, having the scall or scab, scabby, scurfy. _blake_, black.

_piled_, deprived of hair, thin, slight. Cf. E. _peel_, vb. Palsgrave has--'_Pylled_, as one that wanteth heare'; and '_Pylled_, scal[l]ed.'

629. _litarge_, litharge, a name given to white lead.

630. _Boras_, borax. [53]

_ceruce_, ceruse, a cosmetic made from white lead; see New E. Dict. _oille of tartre_, cream of tartar; potassium bitartrate.

632. Cf. 'Such _whelkes_ [on the head] haue small hoales, out of the which matter commeth.... And this euill commeth of vicious and gleymie [viscous] humour, which commeth to the skin of their head, and breedeth therein pimples and _whelks_.'--Batman on Bartholomè, lib. 7. c. 3. In the same, lib. 7. c. 67, we read that 'A _sauce flume_ face is a priuye signe of leprosie.' Cf. Shak. Hen. V. iii. 6. 108.

635. See Prov. xxiii. 31. The drinking of strong wine accounts for the Somnour's appearance. 'Wyne ... makith the uisage _salce fleumed_ [misprinted _falce flemed_], _rede_, and fulle of _white whelkes_'; Knight de la Tour, p. 116 (perhaps copied from Chaucer).

643. _Can clepen Watte_, i. e. can call Walter (Wat) by his name; just as parrots are taught to say 'Poll.' In Political Songs, ed. Wright, p. 328, an ignorant priest is likened to a jay in a cage, to which is added: 'Go[o]d Engelish he speketh, ac [_but_] he wot nevere what'; referring to the time when Anglo-French was the mother-tongue of many who became priests.

644. 'But if any one could test him in any other point.'

646. _Questio quid iuris._ 'This kind of question occurs frequently in Ralph de Hengham. After having stated a case, he adds, _quid juris_, and then proceeds to give an answer to it.'--T. It means--'the question is, what law (is there)?' i. e. what is the law on this point?

647. _harlot_, fellow, usually one of low conduct; but originally merely a young person, without implication of reproach. See D. 1754.

649. 'For a bribe of a quart of wine, he would allow a boon companion of his to lead a vicious life for a whole year, and entirely excuse him; moreover (on the other hand) he knew very well how to pluck a finch,' i. e. how to get all the feathers off any inexperienced person whom it was worth his while to cheat. Cf. 'a _pulled_ hen' in l. 177. With reference to the treatment of the poor by usurers, &c., we read in the Rom. of the Rose, l. 6820, that 'Withoute scalding they hem _pulle_,' i. e. pluck them. And see Troil. i. 210.

654-7. 'He would teach his friend in such a case (i. e. if his friend led an evil life) to stand in no awe of the archdeacon's curse (excommunication), unless he supposed that his soul resided in his purse; for in his purse [not in his soul] he should be punished' (i. e. by paying a good round sum he could release himself from the archdeacon's curse). 'Your purse (said he) is the hell to which the archdeacon really refers when he threatens you.' See, particularly, Wyclif's Works, ed. Matthew, pp. 35, 62, 496.

661. _assoilling_, absolution; from the vb. _assoil_.

662. _war him of_, i. e. let him beware of; _war_ is the pres. subj.

_significavit_, i. e. of a writ _de excommunicato capiendo_ [or excommunication] which usually began, 'Significavit nobis venerabilis frater,' &c.--T. See _Significavit_ in Cowel or Blount. [54]

663. _In daunger_, within his jurisdiction, within the reach or control of his office; the true sense of M. E. _daunger_ is 'control' or 'dominion.' Thus, in the Romaunt of the Rose, l. 1470, we find:--

'Narcisus was a bachelere, That Love had caught _in his daungere_.'

i. e. whom Love had got into his power. So also in l. 1049 of the same.

664. _yonge girles_, young people, of either sex. In the Coventry Mysteries, p. 181, there is mention of 'knave gerlys,' i. e. male children. And see _gerles_ in the Gloss, to P. Plowman, and the note to the same, C. ii. 29.

665. _and was al hir reed_, and was wholly their adviser.

666, 667. _gerland._ A _garland_ for an ale-stake was distinct from a _bush_. The latter was made of ivy-leaves; and every tavern had an ivy-bush hanging in front as its sign; hence the phrase, 'Good wine needs no bush,' &c. But the _garland_, often used in addition to the _bush_, was made of three equal hoops, at right angles to each other, and decorated with ribands. It was also called a _hoop_. The sompnour wore only a _single_ hoop or circlet, adorned with large flowers (apparently roses), according to his picture in the Ellesmere MS. Emelye, in the Knightes Tale, is described as gathering white and red flowers to make 'a sotil gerland' for her head; A. 1054. 'Garlands of flowers were often worn on festivals, especially in ecclesiastical processions'; Rock, Church of our Fathers, ii. 72. Some garlands, worn on the head, were made of metal; see Riley, Memorials of London, p. 133.

667. _ale-stake_, a support for a garland in front of an ale-house. For a picture of an ale-stake with a garland, see Hotten's Book of Signboards. The position of it was such that it did not stand upright, but projected _horizontally_ from the side of a tavern at some height from the ground, as shewn in Larwood and Hotten's Book of Signboards. Hence the enactments made, that it should never extend above the roadway for more than seven feet; see Liber Albus, ed. H. T. Riley, 1861, pp. 292, 389. Speght wrongly explained _ale-stake_ as 'a Maypole,' and has misled many others, including Chatterton, who thus was led to write the absurd line--'_Around_ the ale-stake minstrels sing the song'; Ælla, st. 30. '_At_ the ale-stake' is correct; see C. 321.

THE PARDONER.

669. As to the character of the Pardoner, see further in the Pardoner's Prologue, C. 329-462; P. Plowman, B. prol. 68-82; Heywood's Interlude of the _Four Ps_, which includes a shameless plagiarism from Chaucer's Pardoner's Prologue; and Sir David Lyndesay's Satire of the Three Estaits, l. 2037. Cf. note to C. 349. See also the Essay on Chaucer's Pardoner and the Pope's Pardoners, by Dr. J. Jusserand, in the Essays on Chaucer (Chaucer Society), p. 423; and the Chapter on [55] Pardoners in Jusserand's English Wayfaring Life. Jusserand shews that Chaucer has not in the least exaggerated; for exaggeration was not possible.

670. _Of Rouncival._ Of course the Pardoner was an Englishman, so that he could hardly belong to Roncevaux, in Navarre. The reference is clearly to the hospital of the Blessed Mary of Rouncyvalle, in the parish of St. Martin in the Fields, at Charing (London), mentioned in Dugdale's Monasticon, ii. 443. Stow gives its date of foundation as the 15th year of Edward IV., but this was only a revival of it, after it had been suppressed by Henry V. It was a 'cell' to the Priory of Roncevaux in Navarre. See Todd's Illustrations of Gower, p. 263: and _Rouncival_ in Nares. Cf. note to l. 172.

672. _Com hider, love, to me._ 'This, I suppose, was the beginning or the burthen of some known song.'--Tyrwhitt. It is quoted again in l. 763 of the poem called 'The Pearl,' in the form--'Come hyder to me, my lemman swete.' _hider_, hither.

The rime of _tó me_ with _Róme_ should be particularly noted, as it enables even the reader who is least skilled in English phonology to perceive that _Ro-me_ was really dissyllabic, and that the final _e_ in such words was really pronounced. Similarly, in Octouian Imperator, ed. Weber, l. 1887, we find _seint Ja-mè_, riming with _frá me_ (from me). Perhaps the most amusing example of editorial incompetence is seen in the frequent occurrence of the mysterious word _byme_ in Pauli's edition of Gower; as, e.g. in bk. iii. vol. i. p. 370:--

'So woll I nought, that any time Be lost, of that thou hast do _byme_.'

Of course, _by me_ should have been printed as two words, riming with _ti-mè_. This is what happens when grammatical facts are ignored. _Time_ is dissyllabic, because it represents the A. S. _t[=i]ma_, which is never reduced to a monosyllable in A. S.

673. _bar ... a stif burdoun_, sang the bass. See A. 4165, and N. and Q. 4 S. vi. 117, 255. Cf. Fr. _bourdon_, the name of a deep organ-stop.

675, 676. _wex_, wax. _heng_, hung. _stryke of flex_, hank of flax.

677. _By ounces_, in small portions or thin clusters.

679. _colpons_, portions; the same word as mod. E. _coupon_.

680. _for Iolitee_, for greater comfort. He thought it pleasanter to wear only a cap (l. 683). _wered_, wore; see l. 75. Cf. G. 571, and the note.

682. _the newe Iet_, the new fashion, which is described in ll. 680-683.

'Also, there is another newe _gette_, A foule waste of clothe and excessyfe, There goth no lesse in a mannes typette Than of brode cloth a yerde, by my lyfe.' Hoccleve, De Regim. Principum, p. 17.

'_Newe Iette_, guise nouelle'; Palsgrave. [56]

683. _Dischevele_, with his hair hanging loose.

685. _vernicle_, a small copy of the 'vernicle' at Rome. _Vernicle_ is 'a diminutive of _Veronike_ (Veronica), a copy in miniature of the picture of Christ, which is supposed to have been miraculously imprinted upon a handkerchief preserved in the church of St. Peter at Rome.... It was usual for persons returning from pilgrimages to bring with them certain tokens of the several places which they had visited; and therefore the Pardoner, who is just arrived from Rome, is represented with a _vernicle sowed on his cappe_.'--Tyrwhitt. See the description of a pilgrim in Piers Plowman, ed. Skeat, B. v. 530, and the note. The legend was invented to explain the name. First the name of Bernice, taken from the Acts, was assigned to the woman who was cured by Christ of an issue of blood. Next, Bernice, otherwise Veronica, was (wrongly) explained as meaning _vera icon_ (i. e. true likeness), which was assigned as the name of a handkerchief on which the features of Christ were miraculously impressed. Copies of this portrait were called _Veronicae_ or _Veroniculae_, in English _vernicles_, and were obtainable by pilgrims to Rome. There was also a later St. Veronica, who died in 1497, after Chaucer's time, and whose day is Jan. 13.

See Legends of the Holy Rood, ed. Morris, pp. 170, 171; Mrs. Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art, ii. 269; Lady Eastlake's History of our Lord, i. 41; Rock, Church of our Fathers, iii. pt. i. p. 438; and the picture of the vernicle in Chambers, Book of Days, i. 101.

687. _Bret-ful of pardon_, brim-full (top-full, full to the top) of indulgences. Cf. Swed. _bräddfull_, brimful; from _brädd_, a brim. See A. 2164; Ho. of Fame, 2123.

692. _fro Berwik_, from Berwick to Ware (in Hertfordshire), from North to South of England. See the similar phrase--'From Barwick to Dover, three hundred miles over'--in Pegge's Kenticisms (E. D. S.), p. 70.

694. _male_, bag; cf. E. _mail_-bag.

_pilwebeer_, pillow-case. Cf. Low. G. _büren_, a case (for a pillow), Icel. _ver_, Dan. _vaar_, a cover for a pillow. The form _pillow-bear_ occurs as a Cheshire word as late as 1782; N. and Q. 6 S. xii. 217.

696. _gobet_, a small portion; O. F. _gobet_, a morsel; _gober_, to devour.

698. _hente_, caught hold of; from A. S. _hentan_, to seize.

699. 'A cross made of _latoun_, set full of (probably counterfeit) precious stones.' _Latoun_ was a mixed metal, of the same colour as, and closely resembling, the modern metal called _pinchbeck_, from the name of the inventor. It was chiefly composed of copper and zinc. See further in the note to C. 350; and cf. F. 1245.

701. Cf. Wyclif's Works, ed. Matthew, p. 154; and the note to C. 349.

702. _up-on lond_, in the country. Country people used to be called _uplondish men_. _Jack Upland_ is the name of a satire against the friars.

705, 706. _Iapes_, deceits, tricks. _his apes_, his dupes; cf. A. 3389. [57]

710. _alder-best_, best of all; _alder_ is a later form of _aller_, from A. S. _ealra_, of all, gen. pl. of _eal_, all. See ll. 586, 823.

712. _affyle_, file down, make smooth. Cf. 'affile His tunge'; Gower, C. A. i. 296; 'gan newe his tunge affyle,' Troil. ii. 1681; 'his tongue [is] _filed_'; Love's Labour's Lost, v. i. 12. So also Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 35; iii. 2. 12; Skelton, Colin Clout, 852.

CHAUCER'S APOLOGY.

716. _Thestat_, _tharray_ = the estate, the array: the coalescence of the article with the noun is very common in Middle English.

719. _highte_, was named; cf. A. S. _h[=a]tan_, (1) to call, (2) to be called, to be named (with a passive sense).

721. 'How we conducted ourselves that same night.'

726. 'That ye ascribe it not to my ill-breeding.' _narette_, for _ne arette_. From O. F. _aretter_, to ascribe, impute; from Lat. _ad_ and _reputare_; see _Aret_ in the New E. Dict. Also spelt _arate_, with the sense 'to chide'; whence mod. E. _to rate_. So here the poet implies--'do not _rate_ me for my ill-breeding.' The argument here used is derived from Le Roman de la Rose, 15361-96.

727. _pleynly speke_ (Elles. &c.); _speke al pleyn_ (Harl.).

731. _shal telle_, has to tell. _after_, according to, just like.

734. _Al speke he_, although he speak. See _al have I_, l. 744.

738. 'He is bound to say one word as much as another.'

741, 742. This saying of Plato is taken from Boethius, De Consolatione, bk. iii. pr. 12, which Chaucer translates: 'Thou hast lerned by the sentence of Plato, that nedes the wordes moten be cosines to the thinges of which they speken'; see vol. ii. p. 90, l. 151. In Le Roman de la Rose, 7131, Jean de Meun says that Plato tells us, speech was given us to express our wishes and thoughts, and proceeds to argue that men ought to use coarse language. Chaucer was thinking of this singular argument. We also find in Le Roman (l. 15392) an exactly parallel passage, which means in English, 'the saying ought to resemble the deed; for the words, being neighbours to the things, ought to be cousins to their deeds.' In the original French, these passages stand thus:--

'Car Platon disoit en s'escole Que donnee nous fu parole Por faire nos voloirs entendre, Por enseignier et por aprendre'; &c.

'Li dis doit le fait resembler; Car les vois as choses voisines Doivent estre a lor faiz cousines.'

So also in the Manciple's Tale, H. 208.

744. 'Although I have not,' &c. Cf. l. 734. [58]

THE HOST.

747. _Our hoste._ It has been remarked that from this character Shakespeare's 'mine host of the Garter' in the Merry Wives of Windsor is obviously derived.

752. The duty of the 'marshal of the hall' was to place every one according to his rank at public festivals, and to preserve order. See Babees Book, p. 310. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. v. 9. 23; Gower, Conf. Amant. iii. 299. Even Milton speaks of a '_marshall'd_ feast'; P. L. ix. 37.

753. _stepe_, bright; see note to l. 201.

754. _Chepe_, i. e. Cheapside, in London.

760. _maad our rekeninges_, i. e. paid our scores.

764. _I saugh nat_ (Elles. &c.); _I ne saugh_ (Harl.). To scan the line, read _I n' saugh_, dropping the _e_ in _ne_. The insertion of _ne_ is essential to the sense, viz. 'I have not seen.'

765. _herberwe_, inn, lit. harbour. The F. _auberge_ is from the O.H.G. form of the same word.

770. 'May the blessed martyr duly reward you!'

772. _shapen yow_, intend; cf. l. 809. _talen_, to tell tales.

777. _yow lyketh alle_, it pleases you all; _yow_ is in the dat. case, as in the mod. E. 'if _you_ please.' See note to l. 37.

783. 'Hold up your hands'; to signify assent.

785. _to make it wys_, to make it a matter of wisdom or deliberation; so also _made it strange_, made it a matter of difficulty, A. 3980.

791. 'To shorten your way with.' In M. E., the prep. _with_ always comes next the verb in phrases of this character. Most MSS. read _our_ for _your_ here, but this is rather premature. The host introduces his proposal to accompany the pilgrims by the use of _our_ in l. 799, and _we_ in l. 801; the proposal itself comes in l. 803.

792. As to the number of the tales, see vol. iii. pp. 374, 384.

798. 'Tales best suited to instruct and amuse.'

799. _our aller cost_, the expense of us all; here _our_ = A. S. _[=u]re_, of us; see ll. 710, 823.

808. _mo_, more; A. S. _m[=a]_. In M. E., _mo_ generally means 'more in number,' whilst _more_ means 'larger,' from A. S. _m[=a]ra_. Cf. l. 849.

810. _and our othes swore_, and _we_ swore our oaths; see next line.

817. _In heigh and lowe._ 'Lat. _In_, or _de alto et basso_, Fr. _de haut en bas_, were expressions of entire submission on one side, and sovereignty on the other.'--Tyrwhitt. Cotgrave (s. v. _Bas_) has:--'_Taillables haut et bas_, taxable at the will and pleasure of their lord.' It here means--'under all circumstances.'

819. _fet_, fetched; from A. S. _fetian_, to fetch, pp. _fetod_.

822. _day._ It is the morning of the 17th of April. See note to l. 1.

823. _our aller cok_, cock of us all, i. e. cock to awake us all. _our aller_ = A. S. _[=u]re ealra_, both in gen. pl.

825. _riden_, rode; pt. t. pl., as in l. 856. The _i_ is short.

_pas_, a foot-pace. Cf. A. 2897; C. 866; G. 575; Troil. ii. 627. [59]

826. _St. Thomas a Waterings_ was a place for watering horses, at a brook beside the second mile-stone on the road to St. Thomas's shrine, i. e. to Canterbury. It was a place anciently used for executions in the county of Surrey, as Tyburn was in that of Middlesex. See Nares, s. v. _Waterings_.

828. _if yow leste_, if it may please you. The verb _listen_ made _liste_ in the past tense; but Chaucer changes the verb to the form _lesten_, pt. t. _leste_, probably for the sake of the rime. See ll. 750 and 102. In the Knightes Tale, A. 1052, _as hir liste_ rimes with _upriste_.

The true explanation is, that the A. S. _y_ had the sound of mod. G. _ü_. In Mid. Eng., this was variably treated, usually becoming either _i_ or _u_; so that, e. g., the A. S. _pyt_ (a pit) became M. E. _pit_ or _put_, the former of which has survived. But, in Kentish, the form was _pet_; and it is remarkable that Chaucer sometimes deliberately adopts Kentish forms, as here, for the sake of the rime. A striking example is seen in _fulfelle_ for _fulfille_, in Troil. iii. 510, to rime with _telle_. He usually has _fulfille_, as below, in A. 1318, 2478.

829. _Ye woot_, ye know. Really false grammar, as the pl. of _woot_ (originally a past tense) is properly _witen_, just as the pl. of _rood_ is _riden_ in l. 825. As _woot_ was used as a present tense, its original form was forgotten. 'Ye know your agreement, and I recall it to your memory.' See l. 33.

830. 'If even-song and matins agree'; i. e. if you still say now what you said last night.

832. 'As ever may I be able to drink'; i. e. As surely as I ever hope to be able, &c. Cf. B. 4490, &c.

833. _be_, may be (subjunctive mood).

835. _draweth cut_, draw lots; see C. 793-804. The Gloss. to Allan Ramsay's poems, ed. 1721, has--'_cutts_, lots. These cuts are usually made of straws unequally cut, which one hides between his finger and thumb, whilst another draws his fate'; but the verb _to cut_ is unallied. See Brand, Pop. Antiq., iii. 337. The one who drew the shortest (or else the longest) straw was the one who drew the lot. Cf. '_Sors_, a kut, or a lotte'; Reliquiae Antiquae, i. 7. 'After supper, we drew _cuttes_ for a score of apricoks, the longest _cut_ stil to draw an apricoke'; Marston, Induction to _The Malcontent_.

_ferrer twinne_, depart further. Here _ferrer_ is the comp. of _fer_, far. _Twinnen_ is to separate, part in twain; hence, to depart.

844. _sort_, lot, destiny; O. F. _sort_; cf. E. _sort_.

847. _as was resoun_, as was reasonable or right.

848. _forward_, agreement, as in l. 33. _compositioun_ has almost exactly the same sense, but is of French origin.

853. _shal biginne_, have to begin.

854. _What_; used interjectionally, like the modern E. 'why!'

_a_, in. Here _a_ is for _an_, a form of _on_; the A. S. _on_ is constantly used with the sense of 'in.'

856. _riden_, rode; pt. pl. See l. 825. [60]

THE KNIGHTES TALE.

For general remarks on this tale, see vol. iii. p. 389.

It is only possible to give here a mere general idea of the way in which the Knightes Tale is related to the Teseide of Boccaccio. The following table gives a sketch of it, but includes many lines wherein Chaucer is quite original. The references to the Knightes Tale are to the lines of group A (as in the text); those to the Teseide are to the books and stanzas.

_Kn. Tale._ | _Teseide._ | 865-883 | I. and II. 893-1027 | II. 2-5, 25-95. 1030-1274 | III. 1-11, 14-20, 47, 51-54, 75. 1361-1448 | IV. 26-29, 59. 1451-1479 | V. 1-3, 24-27, 33. 1545-1565 | IV. 13, 14, 31, 85, 84, 17, 82. 1638-1641 | VII. 106, 119. 1668-1739 | V. 77-91. 1812-1860 | V. 92-98. 1887-2022 | VII. 108-110, 50-64, 29-37. 2102-2206 | VI. 71, 14-22, 65-70, 8. 2222-2593 | VII. 43-49, 68-93, 23-41, 67, 95-99, | 7-13, 131, 132, 14, | 100-102, 113-118, 19. 2600-2683 | VIII. 2-131. 2684-2734 | IX. 4-61. 2735-2739 | XII. 80, 83. 2743-2808 | X. 12-112. 2809-2962 | XI. 1-67. 2967-3102 | XII. 3-19, 69-83.

The MSS. quote a line and a half from Statius, Thebaid, xii. 519, 520, because Chaucer is referring to that passage in his introductory lines to this tale; see particularly ll. 866, 869, 870.

There is yet another reason for quoting this scrap of Latin, viz. that it is also quoted in the Poem of Anelida and Arcite, at l. 22, where the 'Story' of that poem begins; and ll. 22-25 of Anelida give a fairly close translation of it. From this and other indications, it appears that Chaucer first of all imitated Boccaccio's Teseide (more or less closely) in the poem which he himself calls 'Palamon and Arcite,' of which but scanty traces exist in the original form; and this poem was in 7-line stanzas. He afterwards recast the whole, at the same time changing the metre; and the result was the Knightes Tale, as we here have it. Thus the Knightes Tale is not derived _immediately_ from Boccaccio or from Statius, but _through the medium_ of an older poem [61] of Chaucer's own composition. Fragments of the same poem were used by the author in other compositions; and the result is, that the Teseide of Boccaccio is the source of (1) sixteen stanzas in the Parliament of Foules; (2) of part of the first ten stanzas in Anelida; (3) of three stanzas near the end of Troilus (Tes. xi. 1-3); as well as of the original Palamon and Arcite and of the Knightes Tale.

Hence it is that ll. 859-874 and ll. 964-981 should be compared with Chaucer's Anelida, ll. 22-46, as printed in vol. i. p. 366. Lines 882 and 972 are borrowed from that poem with but slight alteration.

859. The lines from Statius, Theb. xii. 519-22, to which reference is made in the heading, relate to the return of Theseus to Athens after his conquest of Hippolyta, and are as follows:--

Iamque domos patrias, Scythicae post aspera gentis Proelia, laurigero subeuntem Thesea curru Laetifici plausus, missusque ad sidera uulgi Clamor, et emeritis hilaris tuba nuntiat armis.'

860. _Theseus_, the great legendary hero of Attica, is the subject of Boccaccio's poem named after him the Teseide. He is also the hero of the Legend of Ariadne, as told in Chaucer's Legend of Good Women. After deserting Ariadne, he succeeded his father Aegeus as king of Athens, and conducted an expedition against the Amazons, from which he returned in triumph, having carried off their queen Antiope, here named Hippolyta.

861. _governour._ It should be observed that Chaucer continually accents words of Anglo-French origin in the original manner, viz. on the _last_ or on the _penultimate_ syllable. Thus we have here _governóur_ and _conqueróur_; in l. 865, _chivalrý-e_; in l. 869, _contrée_; in l. 876, _manére_, &c. The most remarkable examples are when the words end in _-oun_ (ll. 893, 935).

864. _cóntree_ is here accented on the _first_ syllable; in l. 869, on the _last_. This is a good example of the unsettled state of the accents of such words in Chaucer's time, which afforded him an opportunity of licence, which he freely uses. In fact, _cóntree_ shows the _English_, and _contrée_, the _French_ accent.

865. _chivalrye_, knightly exploits. In l. 878, _chivalrye_ means 'knights'; mod. E. _chivalry_. So also in l. 982.

866. _regne of Femenye_, the kingdom (Lat. _regnum_) of the Amazons. _Femenye_ is from Lat. _femina_, a woman. Cf. Statius, Theb. xii. 578. 'Amazonia, womens land, is a Country, parte in Asia and parte in Europa, and is nigh Albania; and hath that name of Amazonia of women that were the wives of the men that were called Goths, the which men went out of the nether Scithia, as Isidore seith, li. 9.'--Batman upon Bartholomè, lib. xv. c. 12. Cf. Higden's Polychronicon, lib. i. cap. xviii; and Gower, Conf. Amant., ii. 73:--

'Pentasilee, Which was the quene of Feminee.'

[62]

867. _Scithea_, Scythia. Cf. _Scythicae_ in the quotation from Statius in note to l. 859.

868. _Ipolita_, Shakespeare's _Hippolyta_, in Mids. Night's Dream. The name is in Statius, Theb. xii. 534, spelt _Hippolyte_.

880. In this line, _Athenes_ seems to mean 'Athenians,' though elsewhere it means 'Athens.' _Athénès_ is trisyllabic.

884. _tempest._ As there is no mention of a tempest in Boccaccio, Tyrwhitt proposed to alter the reading to _temple_, as there is some mention of Theseus offering in the temple of Pallas. But it is very unlikely that this would be alluded to by the mere word _temple_; and we must accept the reading _tempest_, as in all the seven MSS. and in the old editions.

I think the solution is to be found by referring to Statius. Chaucer seems to have remembered that a tempest is there described (Theb. xii. 650-5), but to have forgotten that it is merely introduced by way of _simile_. In fact, when Theseus determines to attack Creon (see l. 960), the advance of his host is likened by Statius to the effect of a tempest. The lines are:--

'Qualis Hyperboreos ubi nubilus institit axes Iupiter, et prima tremefecit sidera bruma, Rumpitur Aeolia, et longam indignata quietem Tollit hiems animos, uentosaque sibilat Arctos; Tunc montes undaeque fremunt, tunc proelia caesis Nubibus, et tonitrus insanaque fulmina gaudent.'

885. _as now_, at present, at this time. Cf. the M. E. adverbs _as-swithe_, _as-sone_, immediately. From the Rom. de la Rose, 21479:--

'Ne vous voil or ci plus tenir, A mon propos m'estuet venir, Qu' autre champ me convient arer.'

889. _I wol nat letten eek noon of this route_, I desire not to hinder eke (also) none of all this company. _Wol_ = desire; cf. 'I _will_ have mercy,' &c.

890. _aboute_, i. e. in his turn, one after the other; corresponding to the sense 'in rotation, in succession,' given in the New English Dictionary. This sense of the word in this passage was pointed out by Dr. Kölbing in Engl. Studien, ii. 531. He instanced a similar use of the word in the Ormulum, l. 550, where the sense is--'and ay, whensoever that flock of priests, being twenty-four in number, had all served once _about_ in the temple.'

901. _crëature_ is here a word of three syllables. In l. 1106 it has _four_ syllables.

903. _nolde_, would not: the A. S. _nolde_ is the pt. t. of _nyllan_, equivalent to _ne willan_, not to wish; cf. Lat. _noluit_, from _nolle_.

_stenten_, stop. 'It _stinted_, and said aye.'--Romeo and Juliet, i. 3. 48.

908. _that thus_, i. e. _ye_ that thus.

911. _clothed thus_ (Elles.); _clad thus al_ (Harl.). [63]

912. _alle_ is to be pronounced _al-lè_. Tyrwhitt inserts _than_, then, after _alle_, against the authority of the best MSS. and of the old editions.

Statius (Theb. xii. 545) calls this lady _Capaneia coniux_; see l. 932, below. He says all the ladies were from Argos, and their husbands were kings.

913. _a deedly chere_, a deathly countenance or look.

918. _we biseken_, we beseech, ask for. For such double forms as _beseken_ and _besechen_, cf. mod. Eng. _dike_ and _ditch_, _kirk_ and _chirch_, _sack_ and _satchel_, _stick_ and _stitch_. In the Early Eng. period the harder forms with _k_ were very frequently employed by _Northern_ writers, who preferred them to the palatalised _Southern_ forms (perhaps influenced by Anglo-French) with _ch_. Cf. M. E. _brig_ and _rigg_ with _bridge_ and _ridge_.

926. This line means 'that ensureth no estate to be (always) good.' Suggested by Boethius; see bk. ii. pr. 2. ll. 37-41 (vol. ii. p. 27).

928. _Clemence_, Clemency, Pity. Suggested by 'il tempio ... di Clemenza,' Tes. ii. 17; which again is from 'mitis posuit Clementia sedem,' Theb. xii. 482.

932. _Capaneus_, one of the seven heroes who besieged Thebes: struck dead by lightning as he was scaling the walls of the city, because he had defied Zeus; Theb. x. 927. See note to l. 912, above.

937. The celebrated siege of 'The Seven against Thebes'; Capaneus being one of the seven kings.

941. _for despyt_, out of vexation; mod. E. 'for spite.'

942. _To do the dede bodyes vileinye_, to treat the dead bodies shamefully.

948. _withouten more respyt_, without longer delay.

949. _They fillen gruf_, they fell flat with the face to the ground. In M. E. we find the phrase _to fall grovelinges_ or _to fall groveling_. See _Gruflynge_ and _Ogrufe_ in the Catholicon Anglicum, and the editor's notes, pp. 166, 259.

954. _Himthoughte_, it seemed to him; cf. _methinks_, it seems to me. In M. E. the verbs _like_, _list_, _seem_, _rue_ (pity), are used impersonally, and take the dative case of the pronoun. Cf. the modern expression 'if you please' = if it be pleasing to you.

955. _mat_, dejected. 'Ententyfly, not feynt, wery ne _mate_.'--Hardyng, p. 129.--M.

960. _ferforthly_, i. e. _far-forth-like_, to such an extent.

965. _abood_, delay, awaiting, abiding.

966. _His baner he desplayeth_, i. e. he summons his troops to assemble for military service.

968. _No neer_, no nearer. Accent _Athén-es_ on the second syllable; but in l. 973 it is accented on the _first_.

970. _lay_, lodged for the night.

975. _státue_, the image, as depicted on the banner.

977. _feeldes_, field, is an heraldic term for the ground upon which the various charges, as they are called, are emblazoned. Some of this [64] description was suggested by the Thebais, lib. xii. 665, &c.; but the resemblance is very slight.

978. _penoun_, pennon. _y-bete_, beaten; the gold being hammered out into a thin foil in the shape of the Minotaur; see Marco Polo, ed. Yule, i. 344. But, in the Thebais, the Minotaur is upon Theseus' _shield_.

988. _In pleyn bataille_, in open or fair fight.

993. _obséquies_ (Elles., &c.); _exéquies_ (Harl.); accented on the _second_ syllable.

1004. _as him leste_, as it pleased him.

1005. _tas_, heap, collection. Some MSS. read _cas_ (_caas_), which might = downfall, ruin, Lat. _casus_; but, as _c_ and _t_ are constantly confused, this reading is really due to a mere blunder. Gower speaks of gathering 'a _tasse_' of sticks; Conf. Amant. bk. v. ed. Pauli, ii. 293. Palsgrave has--'On a heape, _en vng tas_'; p. 840. Hexham's Dutch Dict. (1658) has--'_een Tas_, a Shock, a Pile, or a Heape.' Chaucer found the word in Le Roman de la Rose, 14870: 'ung _tas_ de paille,' a heap of straw.

1006. _harneys._ 'And _arma_ be not taken onely for the instruments of al maner of crafts, but also for _harneys_ and weapon; also standards and banners, and sometimes battels.'--Bossewell's Armorie, p. 1, ed. 1597. Cf. l. 1613.

1010. _Thurgh-girt_, pierced through. This line is taken from Troilus, iv. 627: 'Thourgh-girt with many a wyd and blody wounde.'

1011. _liggyng by and by_, lying near together, as in A. 4143; the usual old sense being 'in succession,' or 'in order'; see examples in the New Eng. Dict., p. 1233, col. 3. In later English, _by and by_ signifies presently, immediately, as 'the end is not _by and by_.'

1012. _in oon armes_, in one (kind of) arms or armour, shewing that they belonged to the same house. Chaucer adapts ancient history to medieval time throughout his works.

1015. _Nat fully quike_, not wholly alive.

1016. _by hir cote-armures_, by their coat-armour, by the devices on the vest worn above the armour covering the breast. The _cote-armure_, as explained in my note to Barbour's Bruce, xiii. 183, was 'of no use as a defence, being made of a flimsy material; but was worn over the true armour of defence, and charged with armorial bearings'; see Ho. Fame, 1326. Cf. l. 1012. _by hir gere_, by their _gear_, i. e. equipments.

1018. _they._ Tyrwhitt (who relied too much on the black-letter editions) reads _tho_, those; but the seven best MSS. have _they_.

1023. _Tathenes_, to Athens (Harl. MS., which reads _for to_ for _to_). Cf. _tallegge_, l. 3000 (foot-note).

1024. _he nolde no raunsoun_, he would accept of no ransom.

1029. _Terme of his lyf_, the remainder of his life. Cf. 'The end and _term_ of natural philosophy.'--Bacon's Advancement of Learning, Bk. ii. p. 129, ed. Aldis Wright.

1035. Cf. Leg. of Good Women, 2425, 2426.

1038. _stroof hir hewe_, strove her hue; i. e. her complexion contested the superiority with the rose's colour. [65]

1039. _I noot_, I know not; _noot_ = _ne woot_.

1047. _May._ 'Against Maie, every parishe, towne, and village, assembled themselves together, bothe men, women, and children, olde and yonge, even all indifferently, and either going all together or devidyng themselves into companies, they goe, some to the woodes and groves, some to the hills and mountaines, some to one place, some to another, where they spend all the night in pastimes; in the morninge they return, bringing with them birche, bowes and branches of trees, to deck their assemblies withalle.'--Stubbes, Anatomy of Abuses, ed. 1585, leaf 94 (ed. Furnivall, p. 149). See also Strutt, Manners and Customs, iii. 177. Cf. Midsummer Night's Dream, i. 1, 167:--

'To do observance to a morn of May.'

See also l. 1500, and the note.

1049. _Hir yelow heer was broyded_, her yellow hair was braided. Yellow hair was esteemed a beauty; see Seven Sages, 477, ed. Weber; King Alisaunder, 207; and the instances in Burton, Anat. of Melancholy, pt. 3. sec. 2. mem. 2. subsec. 2. Boccaccio has here--'Co' biondi crini avvolti alla sua testa'; Tes. iii. 10.

1051. _the sonne upriste_, the sun's uprising; the _-e_ in _sonne_ represents the old genitive inflexion. _Upriste_ is here the dat. of the sb. _uprist_. It occurs also in Gower, Conf. Amantis, bk. i. ed. Pauli, i. 116.

1052. _as hir liste_, as it pleased her.

1053. _party_, partly; Fr. _en partie_.

1054. _sotil gerland_, a subtle garland; _subtle_ has here the exact force of the Lat. _subtilis_, finely woven.

1055. Cf. 'Con angelica voce'; Tes. iii. 10: and Troil. ii. 826.

1060. _evene-Ioynant_, joining, or adjoining.

1061. _Ther as this Emelye hadde hir pleyinge_, i. e. where she was amusing herself.

1063. In the Teseide (iii. 11) it is Arcite who first sees Emily.

1074. _by aventure or cas_, by adventure or hap.

1076. _sparre_, a square wooden bolt; the bars, which were of iron, were as thick as they must have been if wooden. See l. 990.

1078. _bleynte_, the past tense of _blenche_ or _blenke_ (to blench), to start, draw back suddenly. Cf. _dreynte_, pt. t. of _drenchen_. 'Tutto stordito, Gridò, Omè!' Tes. iii. 17.

1087. _Som wikke aspect._ Cf. 'wykked planete, as Saturne or Mars,' Astrolabe, ii. 4. 22; notes in Wright's edition, ll. 2453, 2457; and Piers the Plowman, B. vi. 327; and see Leg. of Good Women, 2590-7. Add to these the description of Saturn: 'Significat in _quartanis_, _lepra_, _scabie_, in mania, _carcere_, _submersione_, &c. Est infortuna.'--Johannis Hispalensis, Isagoge in Astrologiam, cap. xv. See A. 1328, 2469.

1089. _al-though_, &c., although we had sworn to the contrary. Cf. 'And can nought flee, _if I had it sworn_'; Lydgate, Dance of Machabre (The Sergeaunt). Also--'he may himselfe not sustene Upon his feet, _though he had it sworne_'; Lydgate, Siege of Thebes (The Sphinx), pt. i. [66]

'_Thofe_ the rede knyghte _had sworne_, Out of his sadille is he borne.' Sir Percevalle, l. 61.

1091. _the short and pleyn_, the brief and manifest statement of the case. Pronounce _this is_ as _this_; as frequently elsewhere; see l. 1743, E. 56, F. 889.

1100. Cf. 'That cause is of my torment and my sorwe': Troil. v. 654.

1101. Cf. 'But whether goddesse or womman, y-wis, She be, I noot'; Troil. i. 425.

_wher_, a very common form for _whether_.

1105. _Yow_ (used reflexively), yourself.

1106. _wrecche_, wretched, is a word of two syllables, like _wikke_, wicked, where the _d_ is a later and unnecessary addition.

1108. _shapen_, shaped, determined. '_Shapes_ our ends.'--Shakespeare, Hamlet, v. 2. 10. Cf. l. 1225.

1120. 'And except I have her pity and her favour.'

1121. _atte leeste weye_, at the least. Cf. _leastwise_ = _at the leastwise_: '_at leastwise_'; Bacon's Advancement of Learning, ed. Wright, p. 146, l. 23. See English Bible (Preface of 'The Translators to the Reader').

1122. 'I am not but (no better than) dead, there is no more to say.' Chaucer uses _ne_--_but_ much in the same way as the Fr. _ne--que_. Cf. North English 'I'm _nobbut_ clemmed' = I am almost dead of hunger.

1126. _by my fey_, by my faith, in good faith.

1127. _me list ful yvele pleye_, it pleaseth me very badly to play.

1128. This debate is an imitation of the longer debate (in the Teseide), where Palamon and Arcite meet in the grove; cf. l. 1580 below.

1129. _It nere_ = _it were not_, it would not be.

1132. 'It was a common practice in the middle ages for persons to take formal oaths of fraternity and friendship; and a breach of the oath was considered something worse than perjury. This incident enters into the plots of some of the medieval romances. A curious example will be found in the Romance of Athelston; Reliquiæ Antiquæ, ii. 85.'--Wright. A note in Bell's Chaucer reminds us that instances occur also in the old heroic times; as in the cases of Theseus and Peirithous, Achilles and Patroclus, Pylades and Orestes, Nysus and Euryalus. See _Sworn Brothers_ in Nares' Glossary; Rom. of the Rose, 2884.

1133. 'That never, even though it cost us a miserable death, a death by torture.' So in Troilus, i. 674: 'That certayn, for to deyen in the peyne.' Also in the E. version of The Romaunt of the Rose, 3326.

1134. 'Till that death shall part us two.' Cf. the ingenious alteration in the Marriage Service, where the phrase 'till death us depart' was altered into 'do part' in 1661.

1136. _cas_, case. It properly means event, hap. See l. 1074.

_my leve brother_, my dear brother.

1141. _out of doute_, without doubt, doubtless.

1147. _to my counseil_, to my adviser. See l. 1161.

1151. _I dar wel seyn_, I dare maintain. [67]

1153. _Thou shalt be._ Chaucer occasionally uses _shall_ in the sense of _owe_, so that the true sense of _I shall_ is _I owe_ (Lat. _debeo_); it expresses a strong obligation. So here it is not so much the sign of a future tense as a separate verb, and the sense is 'Thou art sure to be false sooner than I am.'

1155. _par amour_, with love, in the way of love. To love _par amour_ is an old phrase for to love excessively. Cf. Bruce, xiii. 485; and see A. 2112, below; Troil. v. 158, 332.

1158. _affeccioun of holinesse_, a sacred affection, or aspiration after.

1162. _I pose_, I put the case, I will suppose.

1163. 'Knowest thou not well the old writer's saying?' The _olde clerk_ is Boethius, from whose book, De Consolatione Philosophiae, Chaucer has borrowed largely in many places. The passage alluded to is in lib. iii. met. 12:--

'Quis legem det amantibus? Maior lex amor est sibi.'

Chaucer's translation (vol. ii. p. 92, l. 37) has--'But what is he that may yive a lawe to loveres? Love is a gretter lawe ... than any lawe that men may yeven.' And see Troil. iv. 618.

1167. _and swich decree_, and (all) such ordinances.

1168. _in ech degree_, in every rank of life.

1172. _And eek it is_, &c., 'and moreover it is not likely that ever in all thy life thou wilt stand in her favour.'

1177. This fable, in this particular form, is not in any of the usual collections; but it is, practically, the same as that called 'The Lion, the Tiger, and the Fox' in Croxall's Æsop. Sometimes it is 'the Lion, the Bear, and the Fox'; the Fox subtracts the prey for which the others fight. It is no. 247 in Halm's edition of the 'Fabulae Æsopicae,' Lips., Teubner, 1852, with the moral:--[Greek: ho muthos dêloi, hoti allôn kopiôntôn alloi kerdainousin.] In La Fontaine's Fables, it appears as Les Voleurs et l'Âne. Thynne coolly altered _kyte_ to _cur_, and then had to insert _so_ after _were_ to fill up the line.

1186. _everich of us_, each of us, every one of us.

1189. _to theffect_, to the result, or end.

1196. From the Legend of Good Women, 2282.

1200. _in helle._ An allusion to Theseus accompanying Pirithous in his expedition to carry off Proserpina, daughter of Aidoneus, king of the Molossians, when both were taken prisoner, and Pirithous torn in pieces by the dog Cerberus. At least, such is the story in Plutarch; see Shakespeare's Plutarch, ed. Skeat, p. 289. Chaucer found the mention of Pirithous' visit to Athens in Boccaccio's Teseide, iii. 47-51. The rest he found in Le Roman de la Rose, 8186--

'Si cum vesquist, ce dist l'istoire, Pyrithous apres sa mort, Que Theseus tant ama mort. Tant le queroit, tant le sivoit ... Que vis en enfer l'ala querre.'

[68]

1201. Observe the expression _to wryte_, which shews that this story was not originally meant to be _told_. (Anglia, viii. 453.)

1212. Most MSS. read _or stounde_, i. e. or at any hour. MS. Dd. has _o stound_, one moment, any short interval of time.

'The storme sesed within a stounde.' Ywaine and Gawin, l. 384.

On this slight authority, Tyrwhitt altered the reading, and is followed by Wright and Bell, though MS. Hl. really has _or_ like the rest, and the black-letter editions have the same.

1218. _his nekke lyth to wedde_, his neck is in jeopardy; lit. lies in pledge or in pawn.

1222. _To sleen himself he wayteth prively_, he watches for an opportunity to slay himself unperceived.

1223. This line, slightly altered, occurs also in the Legend of Good Women, 658.

1225. _Now is me shape_, now I am destined; literally, now is it _shapen_ (or appointed) for me.

1247. It was supposed that all things were made of the four elements mentioned in l. 1246. 'Does not our life consist of the four elements?'--Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, ii. 3. 10.

1255. Cf. P. Plowman, C. xiii. 236.

1257. 'And another man would fain (get) out of his prison.'

1259. _matere_; in the _matter_ of thinking to excel God's providence.

1260. 'We never know what thing it is that we pray for here below.' See Romans viii. 26.

1261. _dronke is as a mous._ This phrase seems to have given way to 'drunk as a rat.' 'Thus satte they swilling and carousyng, one to another, till they were both _as dronke as rattes_.'--Stubbes, Anatomie of Abuses; ed. Furnivall, p. 113.

'I am a Flemying, what for all that, Although I wyll be _dronken_ otherwhyles _as a rat_.' Andrew Boorde, ed. Furnivall, p. 147.

Cf. 'When that he is _dronke as a dreynt mous_'; Ritson, Ancient Songs, i. 70 (Man in the Moon, l. 31). 'And I will pledge Tom Tosspot, till I be _drunk as a mouse-a_'; Old Plays, ed. Hazlitt, iii. 339. See also Skelton, Colin Clout, 803; and D. 246.

1262. This is from Boethius, De Consolatione, lib. iii. pr. 2: 'But I retorne ayein to the studies of men, of whiche men the corage alwey reherseth and seketh the sovereyn good, al be it so that it be with a derked memorie; but he not by whiche path, _right as a dronken man not nat by whiche path he may retorne him to his hous_.'--Chaucer's Translation of Boethius; vol. ii. p. 54, l. 57.

1264. _slider_, slippery; as in the Legend of Good Women, l. 648. Cf. the gloss--'_Lubricum_, slidere'; Reliquiae Antiquae, i. 7.

1279. _pure fettres_, the very fetters. 'So in the Duchesse, l. 583, _the pure deeth_. The Greeks used [Greek: katharos] in the same sense.'--Tyrwhitt. [69]

1283. _at thy large_, at large. Cf. l. 2288.

1302. 'White like box-wood, or ashen-gray'; cf. l. 1364. Cf. 'And pale as box she wex'; Legend of Good Women, l. 866. Also 'asshen pale and dede'; Troil. ii. 539.

1308. Copied in Lydgate's Horse, Sheep, and Goose, 124:--'But here this schepe, rukkyng in his folde.' '_Rukkun_, or cowre down'; Prompt. Parv. In B. 4416, MSS. Cp. Pt. Ln. have _rouking_ in place of _lurking_.

1317. _to letten of his wille_, to refrain from his will (or lusts).

1333. Cf. the phrase 'paurosa gelosia'; Tes. v. 2.

1344. _upon his heed_, on pain of losing his head. 'Froissart has _sur sa teste, sur la teste_, and _sur peine de la teste_.'--T.

1347. _this questioun._ 'An implied allusion to the medieval courts of love, in which questions of this kind were seriously discussed.'--Wright.

1366. _making his mone_, making his complaint or _moan_.

1372. 'In his changing mood, for all the world, he conducted himself not merely like one suffering from the lover's disease of Eros, but rather (his disease was) like _mania_ engendered of melancholy humour.' This is one of the numerous allusions to the four humours, viz. the choleric, phlegmatic, sanguine, and melancholic. An excess of the latter was supposed to produce 'melancholy madness.' _gere_, flighty manner, changeableness; 'Siche _wilde gerys_ hade he mo'; Thornton Romances, Sir Percival, l. 1353. See note to l. 1536.

1376. _in his celle fantastyk._ Tyrwhitt reads _Beforne his hed in his celle fantastike_. Elles. has _Biforn his owene celle fantastik_. 'The division of the brain into cells, according to the different sensitive faculties, is very ancient, and is found depicted in medieval manuscripts. The _fantastic cell_ (_fantasia_) was in front of the head.'--Wright. Hence _Biforen_ means 'in the front part of his head.'

'Madnesse is infection of the formost cel of the head, with priuation of imagination, lyke as melancholye is the infection of the middle cell of the head, with priuation of reason, as Constant. saith in _libro de Melancolia_. Melancolia (saith he) is an infection that hath mastry of the soule, the which commeth of dread and of sorrow. And these passions be diuerse after the diuersity of the hurt of their workings; for by madnesse that is called _Mania_, principally the imagination is hurt; and in the other reson is hurted.'--Batman upon Bartholomè, lib. vii. c. 6. Vincent of Beauvais, bk. xxviii. c. 41, cites a similar statement from the _Liber de Anatomia_, which begins:--'Cerebrum itaque tribus cellulis est distinctum. Duae namque meringes cerebri faciunt tres plicaturas inter se denexas, in quibus tres sunt cellulae: phantastica scilicet ab anteriori parte capitis, in qua sedem habet imaginatio.' So in Batman upon Bartholomè, lib. v. c. 3:--'The Braine ... is diuided in three celles or dens.... In the formost cell ... imagination is conformed and made; in the middle, reason; in the hindermost, recordation and minde' [memory]. Cf. also Burton, Anat. of Melancholy, pt. 2. sec. 3. mem. 1. subsec. 2. [70]

1385-8. Probably from Claudian, De Raptu Proserpinae, i. 77:--

'Cyllenius astitit ales, Somniferam quatiens uirgam, tectusque galero.'

See Lounsbury, Studies, ii. 382.

1390. _Argus_, Argus of the hundred eyes, whom Mercury charmed to sleep before slaying him. Ovid, Met. i. 714.

1401. Cf. 'Hir face ... Was al ychaunged in another kinde'; Troil. iv. 864.

1405. _bar him lowe_, conducted himself as one of low estate. Cf. E. 2013.

1409. Cf. 'in maniera di pover valletto'; Tes. iv. 22.

1428. In the Teseide, iv. 3, he takes the name of _Penteo_. _Philostrato_ is the name of another work by Boccaccio, answering to Chaucer's Troilus. The Greek [Greek: philostratos] means, literally, 'army-lover'; but it is to be noted that Boccaccio did not so understand it. He actually connected it with the Lat. _stratus_, and explained it to mean 'vanquished or prostrated with love'; and this is how the name is here used.

1444. _slyly_, prudently, wisely. The M. E. _sleigh_, _sly_ = wise, knowing: and _sleight_ = wisdom, knowledge. (For change of meaning compare _cunning_, originally knowledge; _craft_, originally power; _art_, &c.)

'Ne swa _sleygh_ payntur never nan was, Thogh his _sleght_ mught alle other pas, That couthe ymagyn of þair [devils'] gryslynes.' Hampole's Pricke of Consc., ll. 2308, 2309.--M.

1463. The third night is followed by the fourth day; so Palamon and Arcite meet on the 4th of May (l. 1574), which was a Friday (l. 1534); the first hour of which was dedicated to Venus (l. 1536) and to lovers' vows (l. 1501). The 4th of May was a Friday in 1386.

1471. _clarree._ 'The French term _claré_ seems simply to have denoted a clear transparent wine, but in its most usual sense a compounded drink of wine with honey and spices, so delicious as to be comparable to the nectar of the gods. In Sloane MS. 2584, f. 173, the following directions are found for making _clarré_:--"Take a galoun of honi, and skome (skim) it wel, and loke whanne it is isoden (boiled), that ther be a galoun; thanne take viii galouns of red wyn, than take a pound of pouder canel (cinnamon), and half a pounde of pouder gynger, and a quarter of a pounde of pouder peper, and medle (mix) alle these thynges togeder and (with) the wyn; and do hym in a clene barelle, and stoppe it fast, and rolle it wel ofte sithes, as men don verious, iii dayes."'--Way; note to Prompt. Parv., p. 79. 'The Craft to make Clarre' is also given in Arnold's Chronicle of London; and see the Gloss. to the Babees Book. See Rom. of the Rose, 5971.

1472. Burton mentions 'opium Thebaicum,' which produced stupefaction; Anat. Met. pt. 3. sec. 2. mem. 6. subsec. 2. The words 'Opium Thebaicum' are written in the margin in MSS. E. and Hn. [71]

1477. _nedes-cost_, for _needes coste_, by the force of necessity. It seems to be equivalent to M. E. _needes-wyse_, of necessity. _Alre-coste_ (Icelandic _alls-kostar_, in all respects) signifies 'in every wise.' It occurs in Old English Homilies (ed. Morris), part i. p. 21: 'We ne ma[gh]en _alre-coste_ halden Crist(es) bibode,' we are not able in every wise to keep Christ's behests. The right reading in Leg. Good Women, 2697, is:--

'And nedes cost this thing mot have an ende.'

1494. A beautiful line; but copied from Dante, Purg. i. 20--'Faceva tutto rider l'oriente.'

1500. See note to l. 1047, where the parallel line from Shakespeare is quoted. And cf. Troil. ii. 112--'And lat us don to May som observaunce.' See the interesting article on May-day Customs in Brand's Popular Antiquities (where the quotation from Stubbes will be found); also Chambers, Book of Days, i. 577, where numerous passages relating to May are cited from old poems. An early passage relative to the 1st of May occurs in the Orologium Sapientiae, printed in Anglia, x. 387:--'And thanne is the custome of dyuerse contrees that yonge folke gone on the nyghte or erely on the morow to Medowes and woddes, and there they kutten downe bowes that haue fayre grene leves, and arayen hem with flowres; and after they setten hem byfore the dores where they trowe to haue amykes [friends?] in her lovers, in token of frendschip and trewe loue.' And see _May-day_ in Nares.

1502. From the Legend of Good Women, 1204.

1508. _Were it_ = if it were only.

1509. So in Troilus, ii. 920:--

'Ful loude sang ayein the mone shene.'

1522. 'Veld haueð hege, and wude haueð heare,' i. e. 'Field hath eye, and wood hath ear.'

'Campus habet lumen, et habet nemus auris acumen.'

This old proverb, with Latin version, occurs in MS. Trin. Coll. Cam. O. 2. 45, and is quoted by Mr. T. Wright in his Essays on England in the Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 168. Cf. Cotgrave's F. Dict. s. v. _Oeillet_.

'Das Feld hat Augen, der Wald hat Ohren'; Ida von Düringsfeld, Sprichwörter, vol. i. no. 453.

1524. _at unset stevene_, at a meeting not previously fixed upon, an unexpected meeting or appointment. This was a proverbial saying, as is evident from the way in which it is quoted in Sir Eglamour, 1282 (Thornton Romances, p. 174):--

'_Hyt ys sothe seyde_, be God of heven, Mony metyn at on-sett stevyn.'

Cf. 'Wee may chance to meet with Robin Hood Here _att some unsett steven_.' Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne; in Percy's Reliques of Eng. Poetry.

[72]

'Thei _setten steuen_,' they made an appointment; Knight de la Tour-Landry, ch. iii. And see below, The Cokes Tale:

'And ther they _setten steven_ for to mete'; A. 4383.

1531. _hir queynte geres_, their strange behaviours.

1532. Now in the top (i. e. elevated, in high spirits), now down in the briars (i. e. depressed, in low spirits).

'Allas! where is this worldes stabilnesse? _Here up, here doune_; here honour, here repreef; Now hale, now sike; now bounté, now myscheef.' Occleve, De Reg. Princip. p. 2.

1533. _boket in a welle._ Cf. Shakespeare's Richard II., iv. 1. 184. 'Like so many buckets in a well; as one riseth another falleth, one's empty, another's full.'--Burton's Anat. of Mel. p. 33.

1536. _gery_, changeable; so also _gerful_ in l. 1538. Observe also the sb. _gere_, a changeable mood, in ll. 1372, 1531, and Book of the Duchesse, 1257. This very scarce word deserves illustration. Mätzner's Dictionary gives us some examples.

'By revolucion and turning of the yere A _gery_ March his stondis doth disclose, Nowe reyne, nowe storme, nowe Phebus bright and clere.' Lydgate, Minor Poems, p. 24.

'Her _gery_ Iaces,' their changeful ribands; Richard Redeless, iii. 130.

'Now _gerysshe_, glad and anoon aftir wrothe.' Lydgate, Minor Poems, p. 245.

'In _gerysshe_ Marche'; id. 243. '_Gerysshe_, wylde or lyght-headed'; Palsgrave's Dict., p. 313. In Skelton's poem of Ware the Hauke (ed. Dyce, i. 157) we find:--

'His seconde hawke wexid _gery_, And was with flying wery.'

Dyce, in his note upon the word, quotes two passages from Lydgate's Fall of Princes, B. iii. c. 10. leaf 77, and B. vi. c. 1. leaf 134.

'Howe _gery_ fortune, furyous and wode.'

'And, as a swalowe _geryshe_ of her flyghte, Twene slowe and swyfte, now croked, now upright.'

Two more occur in the same, B. iii. c. 8, and B. iv. c. 8.

'The _gery_ Romayns, stormy and unstable.'

'The _geryshe_ quene, of chere and face double.'

See also in his Siege of Troye, ed. 1555, fol. B 6, back, col. 2; &c.

1539. A writer in Notes and Queries quotes the following Devonshire proverb: 'Fridays in the week are never aleek,' i. e. Fridays are unlike other days.

'Vendredy de la semaine est Le plus beau ou le plus laid'; Recueil des Contes, par A. Jubinal, p. 375.

[73]

1566. Compare Legend of Good Women, 2629:--

'Sin first that day that _shapen was my sherte_, Or by the _fatal sustren_ had my dom.'

So also in Troil. iii. 733.

1593. _I drede noght_, I have no fear, I doubt not.

1594. _outher ... or_ = either ... or.

1609. _To darreyne hir_, to decide the right to her. Spenser is very fond of this word; see F. Q. i. 4. 40; i. 7. 11; ii. 2. 26; iii. i. 20; iv. 4. 26, 5. 24; v. 2. 15; vi. 7. 41. See _deraisnier_ in Godefroy's O. Fr. Dict.

1622. _to borwe._ This expression has the same force as _to wedde_, in pledge. See l. 1218.

1625. The expression 'sooth is seyd' shews that Chaucer is here introducing a quotation. The original passage is the following, from the Roman de la Rose, 8487:--

'Bien savoient cele parole, Qui n'est mençongiere ne fole: Qu'onques Amor et Seignorie Ne s'entrefirent companie, Ne ne demorerent ensemble.'

Again, the expression 'cele parole' shews that Jean de Meun is also here quoting from another, viz. from Ovid, Met. ii. 846:--

'Non bene conueniunt, nec in una sede morantur Maiestas et Amor.'

1626. _his thankes_, willingly, with good-will; cf. l. 2107. Cf. M. E. _myn unthonkes_ = ingratis. 'He faught with them in batayle _their unthankes_'; Hardyng's Chronicle, p. 112.--M.

1638. Cf. Teseide, vii. 106, 119; Statius, Theb. iv. 494-9.

1654. _Foynen_, thrust, push. It is a mistake to explain this, as usual, by 'fence,' as fence (= defence) suggests _parrying_; whereas _foinen_ means to thrust or push, as in attack, not as in defence. It occurs again in l. 2550. Hence it is commonly used of the pushing with spears.

'With speres ferisly [fiercely] they foynede.' Sir Degrevant, 274 (Thornton, Rom. p. 188).

Strutt (Sports and Pastimes, bk. iii. c. 1. § 32) explains that a thrust is more dangerous than a cut, and quotes the old advice, that 'to foyne is better than to smyte.' 'And there kyng Arthur smote syr Mordred vnder the shelde wyth a _foyne_ of his spere thorughoute the body more than a fadom'; Sir T. Malory, Morte Darthur, bk. xxi. c. 4. This was a foine indeed!

1656. Deficient in the first foot. Scan:--In | his fight | ing, &c. The usual insertion of _as_ before _a_ is wholly unauthorised.

1665. _hath seyn biforn_, hath foreseen. Cf. Teseide, vi. 1. [74]

1668. From the Teseide, v. 77. Compare the medieval proverb:--'Hoc facit una dies quod totus denegat annus.' Quoted in Die älteste deutsche Litteratur; by Paul Piper (1884); p. 283.

1676. _ther daweth him no day_, no day dawns upon him.

1678. _hunte_, hunter, huntsman; whence _Hunt_ as a surname. I find this form as late as in Gascoigne's Art of Venerie: 'I am the _Hunte_'; Works, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 306.

1698. Similarly, Adrastus stopped the fight between Tydeus and Polynices; Statius, Theb. i. Lydgate describes this in his Siege of Thebes, pt. ii, and takes occasion to borrow several expressions from this part of the Knightes Tale.

1706. _Ho_, an exclamation made by heralds, to stop the fight. It was also used to enjoin silence. See ll. 2533, 2656; Troil. iv. 1242.

1707. _Up peyne_ is the old phrase; as in '_up peyne_ of emprisonement of 40 days'; Riley's Memorials of London, p. 580.

1736. _it am I._ 'This is the regular construction in early English. In modern English the pronoun _it_ is regarded as the direct nominative, and _I_ as forming part of the predicate.'--M.

1739. 'Therefore I ask my death and my doom.'

1747. _Mars the rede._ Boccaccio uses the same epithet in the opening of his Teseide, i. 3: '_O Marte rubicondo._' _Rede_ refers to the colour of the planet; cf. Anelida, 1.

1761. This line occurs again three times; March. Tale E. 1986; Squieres Tale, F. 479; Legend of Good Women, 503.

1780. _can no divisoun_, knows no distinction.

1781. _after oon_ = after one mode, according to the same rule.

1783. _eyen lighte_, cheerful looks.

1785. See the Romaunt of the Rose, 878-884; vol. i. p. 130.

1799. 'Amare et Sapere vix Deo conceditur.'--Publius Syrus, Sent. 15. Cf. Adv. of Learning, ii. proem. § 15--'It is not granted to man to love and to be wise'; ed. Wright, p. 84. So also in Bacon's 10th Essay. The reading here given is correct. _Fool_ is used with great emphasis; the sense is:--'Who can be a (complete) fool, unless he is in love?' The old printed editions have the same reading. The Harl. MS. alone has _if that_ for _but-if_, giving the sense: 'Who can be fool, if he is in love?' As this is absurd, Mr. Wright _silently_ inserted _not_ after _may_, and is followed by Bell and Morris; but the latter prints _not_ in italics. Observe that the line is deficient in the first foot. Read:--Whó | may bé | a fóol, &c.

1807. _jolitee_, joyfulness--said of course ironically.

1808. _Can ... thank_, acknowledges an obligation, owes thanks.

1814. _a servant_, i. e. a lover. This sense of _servant_, as a term of gallantry, is common in our dramatists.

1815, 1818. Cf. the Teseide, v. 92.

1837. _looth or leef_, displeasing or pleasing.

1838. _pypen in an ivy leef_ is an expression like 'blow the buck's-horn' in A. 3387, meaning to console oneself with any frivolous [75] employment; it occurs again in Troilus, v. 1433. Cf. the expression 'to go and whistle.' Cf. 'farwel the gardiner; he may pipe with an yue-leafe; his fruite is failed'; Test. of Love, bk. iii; ed. 1561, fol. 316. Boys still blow against a leaf, and produce a squeak. Lydgate uses similar expressions:--

'But let his brother blowe in an horn, Where that him list, or pipe in a reede.' Destruction of Thebes, part ii.

Again, in Hazlitt's Proverbs, we find 'To go blow one's flute,' which is taken from an old proverb. In Vox Populi Vox Dei (circa 1547), pr. in Hazlitt's Popular Poetry, iii. 284, are the lines:--

'When thei have any sute, Thei maye goo blowe theire flute, _This goithe the comon brute_.'

The custom is old. Cf. Zenobius, i. 19 (Paroem. Graec. I. p. 6):--

[Greek: aidein pros murrinên; ethos ên ton mê dunamenon en tois sumposiois aisai, daphnês klôna ê murrinês labonta pros touton aidein.]

1850. _fer ne ner_, farther nor nearer, neither more nor less. 'After some little trouble, I have arrived at the conclusion that Chaucer has given us sufficient _data_ for ascertaining both the days of the month and of the week of many of the principal events of the "Knightes Tale." The following scheme will explain many things hitherto unnoticed.

'On Friday, May 4, before 1 A.M., Palamon breaks out of prison. For (l. 1463) it was during the "third night of May, but (l. 1467) a little _after_ midnight." That it was Friday is evident also, from observing that Palamon hides himself at day's approach, whilst Arcite rises "for to doon his observance to May, remembring on the _poynt of his desyr_." To do this best, he would go into the fields at _sunrise_ (l. 1491), during the hour dedicated to _Venus_, i. e. during the hour after sunrise _on a Friday_. If however this seem for a moment doubtful, all doubt is removed by the following lines:--

"Right as the _Friday_, soothly for to telle, Now it shyneth, now it reyneth faste, Right so gan gery _Venus_ overcaste The hertes of hir folk; right as _hir day_ Is gerful, right so chaungeth she array. Selde is the _Friday_ al the wyke ylyke."

'All this is very little to the point unless we suppose Friday to be the day. Or, if the reader have _still_ any doubt about this, let him observe the curious accumulation of evidence which is to follow.

'Palamon and Arcite meet, and a duel is arranged for an early hour on the _day following_. That is, they meet on Saturday, May 5. But, as Saturday is presided over by the inauspicious planet Saturn, it is no wonder that they are both unfortunate enough to have their duel [76] interrupted by Theseus, and to find themselves threatened with death. Still, at the intercession of the queen and Emily, a day of assembly for a tournament is fixed for "_this day fifty wykes_" (l. 1850). Now we must understand "fifty wykes" to be a poetical expression for _a year_. This is not mere supposition, however, but a _certainty_; because the appointed day was in the month of _May_, whereas fifty weeks and no more would land us in _April_. Then "this day fyfty wekes" means "this day year," viz. on May 5. [In fact, Boccaccio has 'un anno intero'; Tes. v. 98.]

'Now, in the year following (supposed not a leap-year), the 5th of May would be _Sunday_. But this we are expressly told in l. 2188. It must be noted, however, that this is not the day of the _tournament_[23], but of the _muster_ for it, as may be gleaned from ll. 1850-1854 and 2096. The eleventh hour "inequal" of Sunday night, or the second hour before sunrise of Monday, is dedicated to _Venus_, as explained by Tyrwhitt (l. 2217); and therefore Palamon then goes to the temple of Venus. The next hour is dedicated to Mercury. The third hour, the first after sunrise on Monday, is dedicated to Luna or Diana, and during this Emily goes to Diana's temple. The fourth after sunrise is dedicated to Mars, and therefore Arcite then goes to the temple of Mars. But the rest of the day is spent merely in jousting and preparations--

"Al that _Monday_ justen they and daunce." (l. 2486.)

The tournament therefore takes place on Tuesday, May 7, on the day of the week presided over by _Mars_, as was very fitting; and this perhaps helps to explain Saturn's exclamation in l. 2669, "Mars hath his wille."'--Walter W. Skeat, in Notes and Queries, Fourth Series, ii. 2, 3; Sept. 12, 1868 (since slightly corrected).

To this was added the observation, that May 5 was on a Saturday in 1386, and on a Sunday in 1387. Ten Brink (Studien, p. 189) thinks it is of no value; but the coincidence is curious.

1866. 'Except that one of you shall be either slain or taken prisoner'; i. e. one of you must be fairly conquered.

1884. _listes_, lists. 'The lists for the tilts and tournaments resembled those, I doubt not, appointed for the ordeal combats, which, according to the rules established by Thomas, duke of Gloucester, uncle to Richard II., were as follows. The king shall find the field to fight in, and the lists shall be made and devised by the constable; and it is to be observed, that the list must be 60 paces long and 40 paces broad, set up in good order, and the ground within hard, stable, and level, without any great stones or other impediments; also, that the lists must be made _with one door to the east, and another to the west_ [see [77] ll. 1893, 4]; and strongly barred about with good bars 7 feet high or more, so that a horse may not be able to leap over them.'--Strutt, Sports and Pastimes; bk. iii. c. 1. § 23.

1889. The various parts of this round theatre are subsequently described. On the North was the turret of Diana, with an oratory; on the East the gate of Venus, with altar and oratory above; on the West the gate of Mars, similarly provided.

1890. _Ful of degrees_, full of steps (placed one above another, as in an amphitheatre). 'But now they have gone a nearer way to the wood, for with wooden galleries in the church that they have, and _stairy degrees of seats_ in them, they make as much room to sit and hear, as a new west end would have done.'--Nash's Red Herring, p. 21. See Shakespeare, Julius Cæsar, ii. 126, and also 2 Kings xx. 9. Cf. 'While she stey up from _gre_ to _gre_.'--Lives of Saints, Roxb. Club, p. 59. Lines 1187-1894 are more or less imitated from the Teseide, vii. 108-110.

1910. Coral is a curious material to use for such a purpose; but we find posts of coral and a palace chiefly formed of coral and metal in Guy of Warwick, ed. Zupitza, 11399-11401.

1913. _don wroght_, caused (to be) made; observe this idiom. Cf. _don yow kept_, E. 1098; _han doon fraught_, B. 171; _haf gert saltit_, Bruce, xviii. 168.

1918-32. See the analysis of this passage in vol. iii. p. 390.

1919. _on the wal_, viz. on the walls _within_ the oratory. The description is loosely imitated from Boccaccio's Teseide, vii. 55-59. It is remarkable that there is a much closer imitation of the same passage in Chaucer's Parl. of Foules, ll. 183-294. Thus at l. 246 of that poem we find:--

'Within the temple, of syghes hote as fyr, I herde a swogh, that gan aboute renne; Which syghes were engendred with desyr, That maden every auter for to brenne Of newe flaume; and wel aspyed I thenne That al the cause of sorwes that they drye Com of the bitter goddesse Ialousye.'

There is yet another description of the temple of Venus in the House of Fame, 119-139, where we have the very line 'Naked fletinge in a see' (cf. l. 1956 below), and a mention of the 'rose garlond' (cf. l. 1961), and of 'Hir dowves and daun Cupido' (cf. ll. 1962-3).

1929. _golde_, a marigold; _Calendula_. '_Goolde_, herbe: Solsequium, quia sequitur solem, elitropium, calendula'; Prompt. Parv. The corn-marigold in the North is called _goulans_, _guilde_, or _goles_, and in the South, _golds_ (Way). Gower says that Leucothea was changed

'Into a floure was named _golde_, Which stant governed of the sonne.' Conf. Am., ed. Pauli, ii. 356.

[78] Yellow is the colour of jealousy; see _Yellowness_ in Nares. In the Rom. de la Rose, 22037, Jealousy is described as wearing a 'chapel de _soussie_,' i. e. a chaplet of marigolds.

1936. _Citheroun_ = Cithaeron, sacred to Venus; as said in the Rom. de la Rose, 15865, q.v.

1940. In the Romaunt of the Rose, _Idleness_ is the _porter_ of the garden in which the rose (Beauty) is kept. In the Parl. of Foules, 261, the porter's name is _Richesse_. Cf. ll. 2, 3 of the Second Nonnes Tale (G. 2, 3).

1941. _of yore agon_, of years gone by. Cf. Ovid, Met. iii. 407.

1953-4. Imitated from Le Roman de la Rose, 16891-2.

1955. The description of Venus here given has some resemblance to that given in cap. v (De Venere) of Albrici Philosophi De Deorum Imaginibus Libellus, in an edition of the Mythographi Latini, Amsterdam, 1681, vol. ii. p. 304. I transcribe as much as is material. 'Pingebatur Venus pulcherrima puella, nuda, et in mari natans; et in manu sua dextra concham marinam tenens atque gestans; rosisque candidis et rubris sertum gerebat in capite ornatum, et columbis circa se volando, comitabatur.... Hinc et Cupido filius suus alatus et caecus assistebat, qui sagitta et arcu, quos tenebat, Apollinem sagittabat.' It is clear that Chaucer had consulted some such description as this; see further in the note to l. 2041.

1958. Cf. 'wawes ... clere as glas'; Boeth. bk. i. met. 7. 4.

1971. _estres_, the inner parts of a building; as also in A. 4295 and Leg. of Good Women, 1715. 'To spere the _estyrs_ of Rome'; Le Bone Florence, 293; in Ritson, Met. Rom. iii. 13. See also Cursor Mundi, 2252.

'For thow knowest better then I Al the _estris_ of this house.' Pardoner and Tapster, 556; pr. with Tale of Beryn (below).

'His sportis [portes?] and his _estris_'; Tale of Beryn, ed. Furnivall, 837. Cf. 'Qu'il set bien de l'ostel les _estres_'; Rom. de la Rose, 12720; and see Rom. of the Rose, 1448 (vol. i. p. 153).

By mistaking the long _s_ for _f_, this word has been misprinted as _eftures_ in the following: 'Pleaseth it yow to see the _eftures_ of this castel?'--Sir Thomas Malory, Mort Arthure, b. xix. c. 7.

1979. _a rumbel and a swough_, a rumbling and a sound of wind.

1982. _Mars armipotente._

'O thou rede Marz armypotente, That in the trende baye hase made thy throne; That God arte of bataile and regent, And rulist all that alone; To whom I profre precious present, To the makande my moone With herte, body and alle myn entente, . . . . . . In worshipe of thy reverence On thyn owen Tewesdaye.' Sowdone of Babyloyne, ll. 939-953.

[79]

The word _armipotent_ is borrowed from Boccaccio's _armipotente_, in the Teseide, vii. 32. Other similar borrowings occur hereabouts, too numerous for mention. Note that this description of the temple of Mars once belonged to the end of the poem of Anelida, which see.

Let the reader take particular notice that the temple here described (ll. 1982-1994) is merely a _painted_ temple, depicted on one of the walls _inside_ the oratory of Mars. The walls of the other temples had paintings similar to those inside the temple of which the outside is here depicted. Chaucer describes the painted temple as if it were real, which is somewhat confusing. Inconsistent additions were made in revision.

1984. _streit_, narrow; 'la stretta entrata'; Tes. vii. 32.

1985. _vese_ is glossed _impetus_ in the Ellesmere MS., and means 'rush' or 'hurrying blast.' It is allied to M.E. _fesen_, to drive, which is Shakespeare's _pheeze_. Copied from 'salit Impetus amens E foribus'; Theb. vii. 47, 48.

1986. _rese_ = to shake, quake. 'Þe eorðe gon _to-rusien_,' 'the earth gan to shake.'--La[gh]amon, l. 15946. _To resye_, to shake, occurs in Ayenbite of Inwyt, pp. 23, 116. Cf. also--'The tre _aresede_ as hit wold falle'; Seven Sages, ed. Weber, l. 915. A.S. _hrysian_.

1987. 'I suppose the _northern light_ is the aurora borealis, but this phenomenon is so rarely mentioned by mediaeval writers, that it may be questioned whether Chaucer meant anything more than the faint and cold illumination received by reflexion through the door of an apartment fronting the north.' (Marsh.) The fact is, however, that Chaucer here copies Statius, Theb. vii. 40-58; see the translation in the note to l. 2017 below. The 'northern light' seems to be an incorrect rendering of 'aduersum Phoebi iubar'; l. 45.

1990. 'E le porte eran d'eterno diamante'; Teseide, vii. 32. Such is the reading given by Warton. However, the ultimate source is the phrase in Statius--'adamante perenni ... fores'; Theb. vii. 68.

1991. _overthwart_, &c., across and along (i. e. from top to bottom). The same phrase occurs in Rich. Coer de Lion, 2649, in Weber, Met. Romances, ii. 104.

1997, 8. Cf. the Teseide, vii. 33:--

'Videvi l' Ire rosse, come fuoco, E le Paure pallide in quel loco.'

But Chaucer follows Statius still more closely. Ll. 1195-2012 answer to Theb. vii. 48-53:--

--'caecumque Nefas, Iraeque rubentes, Exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus astant Insidiae, geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum. Innumeris strepit aula minis; tristissima Virtus Stat medio, laetusque Furor, uultuque cruento Mars armata sedet.'

1999. Cf. Rom. of the Rose, 7419-20. [80]

2001. See Chaucer's Legend of Hypermnestra.

2003. 'Discordia, _contake_'; Glossary in Reliquiae Antiquae, i. 7.

2004. _chirking_ is used of grating and creaking sounds; and sometimes, of the cry of birds. The Lansd. MS. has _schrikeinge_ (shrieking). See House of Fame, iii. 853 (or 1943). In Batman upon Bartholomè, lib. viii. c. 29, the music of the spheres is attributed to the '_cherkyng_ of the mouing of the circles, and of the roundnes of heauen.' In Chaucer's tr. of Boethius, bk. i. met. 6, it is an adj., and translates _stridens_. Cf. D. 1804, I. 605.

2007. This line contains an allusion to the death of Sisera, Judges iv. But Dr. Koch has pointed out (Essays on Chaucer, Chaucer Soc. iv. 371) that we have here some proof that Chaucer may have altered his first draft of the poem without taking sufficient heed to what he was about. The original line may have stood--

'The sleer of _her husband_ saw I there'--

or something of that kind; for the reason that no suicide has ever yet been known to drive a nail into his own head. That a wife might do so to her husband is _Chaucer's own_ statement; for, in the Cant. Tales, D. 765-770, we find--

'Of latter date, of wives hath he red, That somme han slayn hir housbondes in hir bed ... And somme han drive nayles in hir brayn, Whyl that they slepte, and thus they han hem slayn.'

Of course it may be said that l. 2006 is entirely _independent_ of l. 2007, and I have punctuated the text so as to suit this arrangement; but the suggestion is worth notice.

2011. From Tes. vii. 35:--'Videvi ancora l'allegro Furore.'--Kölbing.

2017. _hoppesteres._ Speght explains this word by pilots (_gubernaculum tenentes_); Tyrwhitt, female dancers (Ital. _ballatrice_). Others explain it _hopposteres_ = _opposteres_ = opposing, hostile, so that _schippes hoppesteres_ = _bellatrices carinae_ (Statius). As, however, it is impossible to suppose that even _opposteres_ without the _h_ can ever have been formed from the verb to _oppose_, the most likely solution is that Chaucer mistook the word _bellatrices_ in Statius (vii. 57) or the corresponding Ital. word _bellatrici_ in the Teseide, vii. 37, for _ballatrices_ or _ballatrici_, which might be supposed to mean 'female dancers'; an expression which would exactly correspond to an M. E. form _hoppesteres_, from the A. S. _hoppestre_, a female dancer. Herodias' daughter is mentioned (in the dative case) as _þære lyðran hoppystran_ (better spelt _hoppestran_) in Ælfric's A. S. Homilies, ed. Thorpe, i. 484. Hence _shippes hoppesteres_ simply means 'dancing ships.' Shakespeare likens the English fleet to 'A city on the inconstant billows _dancing_'; Hen. V. iii. prol. 15. Cf. O. F. _baleresse_, a female dancer, in Godefroy's Dict., s. v. _baleor_. In § 55 of Cl. Ptolomaei Centum Dicta, printed at Ulm in 1641, we are told that Mars is hostile to ships when in the zenith or the [81] eleventh house. '_Incendetur_ autem nauis, si ascendens ab aliqua stella fixa quae ex Martis mixtura sit, affligetur.' So that, if a fixed star co-operated with Mars, the ships were burnt.

The following extract from Lewis' translation of Statius' Thebaid, bk. vii., is of some interest:--

'Beneath the fronting height of Æmus stood The fane of Mars, encompass'd by a wood. The mansion, rear'd by more than mortal hands, On columns fram'd of polish'd iron stands; The well-compacted walls are plated o'er With the same metal; just without the door A thousand Furies frown. The dreadful gleam, That issues from the sides, reflects the beam Of adverse Phoebus, and with cheerless light Saddens the day, and starry host of night. Well his attendants suit the dreary place; First frantic Passion, Wrath with redd'ning face, And Mischief blind from forth the threshold start; Within lurks pallid Fear with quiv'ring heart, Discord, a two-edged falchion in her hand, And Treach'ry, striving to conceal the brand.'

2020. _for al_, notwithstanding. Cf. Piers the Plowman, B. xix. 274.

2021. _infortune of Marte._ 'Tyrwhitt thinks that Chaucer might intend to be satirical in these lines; but the introduction of such apparently undignified incidents arose from the confusion already mentioned of the god of war with the planet to which his name was given, and the influence of which was supposed to produce all the disasters here mentioned. The following extract from the Compost of Ptolemeus gives some of the supposed effects of Mars:--"Under Mars is borne theves and robbers that kepe hye wayes, and do hurte to true men, and nyght-walkers, and quarell-pykers, bosters, mockers, and skoffers, and these men of Mars causeth warre and murther, and batayle; they wyll be gladly _smythes_ or workers of yron, lyght-fyngred, and lyers, gret swerers of othes in vengeable wyse, and a great surmyler and crafty. He is red and angry, with blacke heer, and lytell iyen; he shall be a great walker, and a maker of swordes and knyves, and a sheder of mannes blode, and a fornycatour, and a speker of rybawdry ... and good to be a _barboure_ and a blode-letter, and to drawe tethe, and is peryllous of his handes." The following extract is from an old astrological book of the sixteenth century:--"Mars denoteth men with red faces and the skinne redde, the face round, the eyes yellow, horrible to behold, furious men, cruell, desperate, proude, sedicious, souldiers, captaines, _smythes_, colliers, bakers, alcumistes, armourers, furnishers, _butchers_, chirurgions, _barbers_, sargiants, and hangmen, according as they shal be well or evill disposed."'--Wright. So also in Cornelius Agrippa, De Occulta Philosophia, lib. i. c. 22. [82] Chaucer has 'cruel Mars' in The Man of Lawes Tale, B. 301; and cf. note to A. 1087.

2022. From Statius, Theb. vii. 58:--

'Et uacui currus, protritaque curribus ora.'

2029. For the story of Damocles, see Cicero, Tuscul. 5. 61; cf. Horace, Od. iii. 1. 17. And see Chaucer's tr. of Boethius, bk. iii. pr. 5. 17. Most likely Chaucer got it from Boethius or from the Gesta Romanorum, cap. 143, since the _name_ of Damocles is _omitted_.

2037. _sterres_ (Harl.) Elles. &c. have _certres_ (_sertres_); but this strange reading can hardly be other than a mistake for _sterres_, which is proved to be the right word by the parallel passage in The Man of Lawes Tale, B. 194-6.

2041. In the note to l. 1955, I have quoted part of cap. v. of a work by Albricus. In cap. iii. (De Marte) of the same, we have a description of Mars, which should be compared. I quote all that is material. 'Erat enim eius figura tanquam unius hominis furibundi, in curru sedens, armatus lorica, et caeteris armis offensiuis et defensiuis.... Ante illum uero lupus ouem portans pingebatur, quia illud scilicet animal ab antiquis gentibus ipsi Marti specialiter consecratum est. Iste enim _Mauors_ est, id est _mares uorans_, eo quod bellorum deus a gentibus dictus est.' Chaucer seems to have taken the notion of the wolf devouring a man from this singular etymology of _Mauors_.

In cap. vii. (De Diana) of the same, there is a description of 'Diana, quae et Luna, Proserpina, Hecate nuncupatur.' Cf. l. 2313 below.

2045. 'The names of two figures in geomancy, representing two constellations in heaven. Puella signifieth Mars retrogade, and Rubeus Mars direct.'--Note in Speght's Chaucer. It is obvious that this explanation is wrong as regards 'Mars retrograde' and 'Mars direct,' because a constellation cannot represent a single planet. It happens to be also wrong as regards 'constellations in heaven.' But Speght is correct in the main point, viz., that Puella and Rubeus are 'the names of two figures in geomancy.' Geomancy was described, under the title of 'Divination by Spotting,' in The Saturday Review, Feb. 16, 1889. To form geomantic figures, proceed thus. Take a pencil, and hurriedly jot down on a paper a number of dots in a line, without counting them. Do the same three times more. Now count the dots, to see whether they are odd or even. If the dots in a line are _odd_, put down _one_ dot on another small paper, half-way across it. If they are _even_, put down _two_ dots, one towards each side; arranging the results in four rows, one beneath the other.

_Three_ of the figures thus formed require our attention; the whole number being sixteen. Fig. 1 results from the dots being odd, even, odd, odd. Fig. 2, from even, odd, even, even. Fig. 3, from odd, odd, even, odd. These (as well as the rest of the sixteen figures) are given in Cornelius Agrippa, De Occulta Philosophia, lib. ii. cap. 48: De Figuris Geomanticis. Each 'Figure' had a 'Name,' belonged to an [83] 'Element,' and possessed a 'Planet' and a Zodiacal 'Sign.' Cornelius Agrippa gives our three 'figures' as below.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Fig. 1 (Puella). Fig. 2 (Rubeus). Fig. 3 (Puer). That is, Fig. 1 is 'Puella,' or 'Mundus facie'; element, water; planet, Venus; sign, Libra.

Fig. 2 is 'Rubeus' or 'Rufus'; element, fire; planet, Mars; sign, Gemini.

Fig. 3 is 'Puer,' or 'Flavus,' or 'Imberbis'; element, fire; planet, Mars; sign, Aries.

Chaucer (or some one else) seems to have confused figures 1 and 3, or Puer with Puella; for Puella was dedicated to Venus. Rubeus is clearly right, as Mars was the red planet (l. 1747). I first explained this, somewhat more fully, in The Academy, March 2, 1889.

2049. From Tes. vii. 38:--'E tal ricetto edificato avea Mulcibero _sottil_ colla sua arte.'--Kölbing, in Engl. Studien, ii. 528.

2056. _Calistopee_ = _Callisto_, a daughter of Lycaon, King of Arcadia, and companion of Diana. See Ovid's Fasti, ii. 153; Gower, Conf. Amantis, ed. Pauli, ii. 336.

2059, 2061. 'Cf. Ovid's Fasti, ii. 153-192; especially 189, 190,

"Signa propinqua micant. Prior est, quam dicimus Arcton, Arctophylax formam terga sequentis habet."

The nymph Callisto was changed into _Arctos_ or the Great Bear; hence "Vrsa Maior" is written in the margin of E. Hn. Cp. Ln. This was sometimes confused with the other Arctos or Lesser Bear, in which was situate the _lodestar_ or Polestar. Chaucer has followed this error. Callisto's son, Arcas, was changed into Arctophylax or Boötes: here again Chaucer says a _sterre_, when he means a whole constellation; as, perhaps, he does in other passages.'--Chaucer's Astrolabe, ed. Skeat (E. E. T. S.), pp. xlviii, xlix.

2062, 2064. _Dane_ = _Daphne_, a girl beloved by Apollo, and changed into a laurel. See Ovid's Metamorph. i. 450; Gower, Conf. Amantis, ed. Pauli, i. 336; Troilus, iii. 726.

2065. _Attheon_ = _Actaeon_. See Ovid's Metamorph. iii. 138.

2070. _Atthalante_ = _Atalanta_. See Ovid's Metamorph. x. 560; and Troilus, v. 1471.

2074. _nat drawen to memorie_ = not draw to memory, not call to mind.

2079. Cf. 'gawdy greene. _subviridis_'; Prompt. Parv. This _gaudè_ has nothing whatever to do with the E. sb. _gaud_, but answers to F. _gaudé_, the pp. of the verb _gauder_, to dye with weld; from the F. sb. _gaude_, weld. As to _weld_, see my note to The Former Age, 17; in [84] vol. i. p. 540. Littré has an excellent example of the word: 'Les bleus teints en indigo doivent être _gaudés_, et ils deviennent _verts_.'

2086. _thou mayst best_, art best able to help, thou hast most power. Lucina was a title both of Juno and Diana; see Vergil, Ecl. iv. 10.

2112. Here _paramours_ is used adverbially, like _paramour_ in l. 1155. From Le Roman de la Rose, 20984:--'Jamès par amors n'ameroit.'

2115. _benedicite_ is here pronounced as a trisyllable, viz. _ben'cite_. It usually _is_ so, though five syllables in l. 1785. Cf. _benste_ in Towneley Myst. p. 85. Cf. 'What, liveth nat thy lady, _benedicite_!' Troil. i. 780. _Benedicite_ is equivalent to 'thank God,' and was used in saying graces. See Babees Book, pp. 382, 386; and Appendix, p. 9.

2125. This line seems to mean that there is nothing new under the sun.

2129. This is the 're Licurgo' of the Teseide, vi. 14; and the Lycurgus of the Thebaid, iv. 386, and of Homer, Il. vi. 130. But the description of him is partly taken from that of another warrior, Tes. vi. 21, 22. It is worth notice that, in Lydgate's Story of Thebes, pt. iii., king Ligurgus or Licurgus (the name is spelt both ways) is introduced, and Lydgate has the following remark concerning him:--

'And the kingdom, but-if bokes lye, Of Ligurgus, called was Trace; And, as I rede _in another place_, He was the same mighty champion To Athenes that cam with Palamon Ayenst his brother (!) that called was Arcite, Y-led in his chare with foure boles whyte, Upon his bed a wreth of gold ful fyn.'

The term _brother_ must refer to l. 1147 above. See further, as to Lycurgus, in the note to Leg. Good Women, 2423, in vol. iii. p. 344.

2134. '_kempe heres_, shaggy, rough hairs. Tyrwhitt and subsequent editors have taken for granted that _kempe_ = _kemped_, combed (an impossible equation); but _kempe_ is rather the reverse of this, and instead of smoothly combed, means bristly, rough, or shaggy. In an Early English poem it is said of Nebuchadnezzar that

"Hol_gh_e (hollow) were his y_gh_en anunder (under) _campe hores_." Early Eng. Alliterative Poems, p. 85, l. 1695.

_Campe hores_ = shaggy hairs (about the eyebrows), and corresponds exactly in form and meaning to _kempe heres_,'--M. See Glossary.

2141. I. e. the nails of the bear were yellow. In Cutts, Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages, p. 345, the bad guess is hazarded that these 'nails' were metal studs. But Chaucer was doubtless thinking of the tiger's skin described in the Thebaid, vi. 722:--

'Tunc genitus Talao uictori tigrin inanem Ire iubet, fuluo quae circumfusa nitebat Margine, et extremes auro mansueuerat _ungues_.'

[85] Lewis translates the last line by:--'The sharpness of the claws was dulled with gold.'

2142. _for-old_, very old. See next note.

2144. _for-blak_ is generally explained as _for blackness_; it means _very black_. Cf. _fordrye_, very dry, in F. 409.

2148. _alaunts_, mastiffs or wolf-hounds. Florio has: '_Alano_, a mastiue dog.' Cotgrave: '_Allan_, a kind of big, strong, thickheaded, and short-snowted dog; the brood where-of came first out of Albania (old Epirus).' Pineda's Span. Dict. gives: '_Alano_, a mastiff dog, particularly a bull dog; also, an _Alan_, one of that nation.' This refers to the tribe of _Alani_, a nation of warlike horsemen, first found in Albania. They afterwards became allies, first of the Huns, and afterwards of the Visi-Goths. It is thus highly probable that _Alaunt_ (in which the _t_ is obviously a later addition) signifies 'an Alanian dog,' which agrees with Cotgrave's explanation. Smith's Classical Dict. derives _Alanus_, said to mean 'mountaineer,' from a Sarmatian word _ala_.

The _alaunt_ is described in the Maister of the Game, c. 16. We there learn they were of all colours, and frequently white with a black spot about the ears.

2152. _Colers of_, having collars of. Some MSS. read _Colerd of_, which I now believe to be right. _Collared_ was an heraldic term, used of greyhounds, &c.; see the New Eng. Dict. This leaves an awkward construction, as _torets_ seems to be governed by _with_. See Launfal, 965, in Ritson, Met. Rom. i. 212. Cf. 'as they (the Jews) were tied up with girdles ... so were they _collared_ about the neck.'--Fuller's Pisgah Sight of Palestine, p. 524, ed. 1869.

_torets_, probably eyes in which rings will turn round, because each eye is a little larger than the thickness of the ring. This appears from Chaucer's Astrolabe, i. 2. 1--'This ring renneth in a maner turet,' i. e. in a kind of eye (vol. iii. p. 178). Warton, in his Hist. E. Poet. ed. 1871, ii. 314, gives several instances. It also meant a small loose ring. Cotgrave gives: '_Touret_, the annulet, or little ring whereby a hawk's lune is fastened unto the jesses.' 'My lityll bagge of blakke ledyr with a cheyne and _toret_ of siluyr'; Bury Wills, ed. Tymms, p. 16. Cf. E. _swivel_-ring.

2156. _Emetrius_ is not mentioned either by Statius or by Boccaccio; cf. Tes. vi. 29, 17, 16, 41.

2158. _diapred_, variegated with flowery or arabesque patterns. See _diaspre_ and _diaspré_ in Godefroy's O. F. Dict.; _diasprus_ and _diasperatus_ in Ducange. In Le Rom. de la Rose, 21205, we find mention of _samis diaprés_, diapered samites.

2160. _cloth of Tars_, 'a kind of silk, said to be the same as in other places is called _Tartarine_ (_tartarinum_), the exact derivation of which appears to be somewhat uncertain.'--Wright. Cf. Piers the Plowman, B. xv. 224, and my note to the same, C. xvii. 299; also _Tartarium_ in Fairholt.

2187. _alle and some_, 'all and singular,' 'one and all.' [86]

2205. See the Teseide, vi. 8; also Our Eng. Home, 22.

2217. _And in hir houre._ 'I cannot better illustrate Chaucer's astrology than by a quotation from the old Kalendrier de Bergiers, edit. 1500, Sign. K. ii. b:--"Qui veult savoir comme bergiers scevent quel planete regne chascune heure du jour et de la nuit, doit savoir la planete du jour qui veult s'enquerir; et la premiere heure temporelle du soleil levant ce jour est pour celluy planete, la seconde heure est pour la planete ensuivant, et la tierce pour l'autre," &c., in the following order: viz. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Venus, Mercury, Luna. To apply this doctrine to the present case, the first hour of the Sunday, reckoning from sunrise, belonged to the Sun, the planet of the day; the second to Venus, the third to Mercury, &c.; and continuing this method of allotment, we shall find that the twenty-second hour also belonged to the Sun, and the twenty-third to Venus; so that the hour of Venus really was, as Chaucer says, two hours before the sunrise of the following day. Accordingly, we are told in l. 2271, that the third hour after Palamon set out for the temple of Venus, the Sun rose, and Emily began to go to the temple of Diane. It is not said that this was the hour of Diane, or the Moon, but it really was; for, as we have just seen, the twenty-third hour of Sunday belonging to Venus, the twenty-fourth must be given to Mercury, and the first hour of Monday falls in course to the Moon, the presiding planet of that day. After this, Arcite is described as walking to the temple of Mars, l. 2367, in _the nexte houre of Mars_, that is, the _fourth_ hour of the day. It is necessary to take these words together, for _the nexte houre_, singly, would signify the _second_ hour of the day; but that, according to the rule of rotation mentioned above, belonged to Saturn, as the _third_ did to Jupiter. The _fourth_ was _the nexte houre of Mars_ that occurred after the hour last named.'--Tyrwhitt. Thus Emily is two hours later than Palamon, and Arcite is three hours later than Emily.

2221-64. To be compared with the Teseide, vii. 43-49, and vii. 68.

2224. _Adoun_, Adonis. See Ovid, Met. x. 503.

2233-6. Imitated from Le Rom. de la Rose, 21355-65, q. v.

2238. 'I care not to boast of arms (success in arms).'

2239. _Ne I ne axe_, &c., are to be pronounced as _ni naxe_, &c. So in l. 2630 of this tale, _Ne in_ must be pronounced as _nin_.

2252. _wher I ryde or go_, whether I ride or walk.

2253. _fyres bete_, kindle or light fires. _Bete_ also signifies to mend or make up the fire; see l. 2292.

2271. _The thridde hour inequal._ 'In the astrological system, the day, from sunrise to sunset, and the night, from sunset to sunrise, being each divided into twelve hours, it is plain that the hours of the day and night were never equal except just at the equinoxes. The hours attributed to the planets were of this _unequal_ sort. See Kalendrier de Berg. loc. cit., and our author's treatise on the Astrolabe.'--Tyrwhitt.

2275-360. Cf. the Teseide, vii. 71-92.

2286. _a game_, a pleasure. [87]

2288. _at his large_, at liberty (to speak or to be silent).

2290. 'E coronò di quercia cereale'; Tes. vii. 74. _Cerial_ should be _cerrial_, as spelt by Dryden, who speaks of 'chaplets green of _cerrial_ oak'; Flower and Leaf, 230. It is from _cerreus_, adj. of _cerrus_, also ill-spelt _cerris_, as in the botanical name _Quercus cerris_, the Turkey oak. The cup of the acorn is prickly; see Pliny, bk. xvi. c. 6.

2294. _In Stace of Thebes_, in the Thebaid of Statius, where the reader will _not_ find it. Cf. the Teseide, vii. 72.

2303. _aboughte_, atoned for. _Attheon_, Actaeon; Ovid, Met. iii. 230.

2313. _thre formes._ Diana is called _Diva Triformis_;--in heaven, Luna; on earth, Diana and Lucina, and in hell, Proserpina. See note to l. 2041.

2336. Cf. Statius, Theb. viii. 632:--'Omina cernebam, subitusque intercidit ignis.'

2365. _the nexte waye_, the nearest way. Cf. the Teseide, vii. 93.

2368. _walked is_, has walked. See note to l. 2217.

2371-434. Cf. the Teseide, vii. 23-28, 39-41.

2388. For the story, see Ovid, Met. iv. 171-189; and, in particular, cf. Rom. de la Rose, 14064, where Venus is said to be 'prise et _lacie_.'

2395. _lyves creature_, creature alive, living creature.

2397. See Compl. of Anelida, 182; cf. Compl. to his Lady, 52.

2405. _do_, bring it about, cause it to come to pass.

2422-34. From Tes. vii. 39, 40; there are several verbal resemblances here.--Kölbing.

2437. 'As joyful as the bird is of the bright sun.' So in Piers Pl., B. x. 153. It was a common proverb.

2438-41. Cf. the Teseide, vii. 67.

2443. Cf. 'the olde colde Saturnus'; tr. of Boethius, bk. iv. met. 1.

2447-8. From Le Rom. de la Rose, 13022, q. v.

2449. 'Men may outrun old age, but not outwit (surpass its counsel).' Cf. 'Men may the wyse at-renne, but not at-rede.'--Troilus, iv. 1456.

'For of him (the old man) þu migt leren Listes and fele þewes, Þe baldure þu migt ben: Ne for-lere þu his redes, For þe elder mon me mai of-riden Betere þenne of-reden.'

'For of him thou mayest learn Arts and many good habits, The bolder thou mayest be. Despise not thou his counsels, For one may out-ride the old man Better than out-wit.'

The Proverbs of Alfred, ed. Morris, in an Old Eng. Miscellany, p. 136. And see Solomon and Saturn, ed. Kemble, p. 253.

2451. _agayn his kynde._ According to the Compost of Ptolemeus, [88] Saturn was influential in producing strife: 'And the children of the sayd Saturne shall be great jangeleres and chyders ... and they will never forgyve tyll they be revenged of theyr quarell.'--Wright.

2454. _My cours._ The course of the planet _Saturn_. This refers to the orbit of Saturn, supposed to be the largest of all, until Uranus and Neptune were discovered.

2455. _more power._ The Compost of Ptolemeus says of Saturn, 'He is mighty of hymself.... It is more than xxx yere or he may ronne his course.... Whan he doth reygne, there is moche debate.'--Wright.

2460. _groyning_, murmuring, discontent; from F. _grogner_. See Rom. Rose, 7049; Troil. i. 349.

2462. 'Terribilia mala operatur Leo cum malis; auget enim eorum malitiam.'--Hermetis Aphorismorum Liber, § 66.

2469.

'Er fyue [gh]er ben folfult, such famyn schal aryse, þorw flodes and foul weder, fruites schul fayle, And so seiþ Saturne, and sent vs to warne.' P. Plowman, A. vii. 309 (B. vi. 325; C. ix. 347).

2491-525. Cf. the Teseide, vii. 95-99.

2504. _Gigginge_, fitting or providing (the shield) with straps. Godefroy gives O. F. _guige_, _guigue_, a strap for hanging a buckler over the shoulder, a handle of a shield. Cotgrave gives the fem. pl. _guiges_, 'the handles of a target or shield.' In Mrs. Palliser's Historic Devices, p. 277, she describes a monument in St. Edmund's chapel, in Westminster Abbey, on which are three shields, each with 'the _guige_ or belt of Bourchier knots formed of straps.' In the M. E. word _gigginge_, both the _g_'s are hard, as in _gig_ (in the sense of a two-wheeled vehicle).

_Layneres lacinge_, lacing of thongs; see Prompt. Parv., s. v. _Lanere_.

In Sir Bevis, ed. Kölbing, p. 134, we find--

'Sir Beues was ful glad, iwis, Hese _laynerys_ [printed _layuerys_] he took anon, And fastenyd hys hawberk hym upon.'

2507. Shakespeare seems to have observed this passage; cf. Hen. V. Act 4. prol. 12.

2511. Cf. House of Fame, 1239, 1240:--

'Of hem that maken blody soun In trumpe, beme, and clarioun.'

Also Tes. viii. 5:--'D'armi, di corni, nacchere e trombette.'

'The _Nakkárah_ or _Naqárah_ was a great kettle-drum, formed like a brazen cauldron, tapering to the bottom, and covered with buffalo-hide, often 3½ or 4 feet in diameter.... The crusades naturalised the word in some form or other in most European languages, but in our own apparently with a transfer of meaning. Wright defines _naker_ as "a cornet or horn of brass," and Chaucer's use seems to countenance this.'--Marco [89] Polo, ed. Yule, i. 303-4; where more is added. But Wright's explanation is a mere guess, and should be rejected. There is no reason for assigning to the word _naker_ any other sense than 'kettle-drum.' Minot (Songs, iv. 80) is explicit:--

'The princes, that war riche on raw, Gert _nakers_ strike, and trumpes blaw.'

Hence a _naker_ had to be struck, not blown. See also _Naker_ in Halliwell's Dictionary. Boccaccio has the pl. _nacchere_; see above.

2520. _Sparth_, battle-axe; Icel. _sparða_. See Rom. Rose, 5978; Wars of Alexander, ed. Skeat, 1403, 2458; Gawain and Grene Knight, 209; Prompt. Parv. In Trevisa's tr. of Higden, bk. i. ch. 33, we are told that the Norwegians first brought sparths into Ireland. Higden has 'usum securium, qui Anglicè _sparth_ dicitur.'

2537. As to the regulations for tournaments, see Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, bk. iii. c. 1. §§ 16-24; the passages are far too long for quotation. We may, however, compare the following extract, given by Strutt, from MS. Harl. 326. 'All these things donne, thei were embatailed eche ageynste the othir, and the corde drawen before eche partie; and whan the tyme was, the cordes were cutt, and the trumpettes blew up for every man to do his devoir [_duty_]. And for to assertayne the more of the tourney, there was on eche side a stake; and at eche stake two kyngs of armes, with penne, and inke, and paper, to write the names of all them that were yolden, for they shold no more tournay.' And, from MS. Harl. 69, he quotes that--'no one shall bear a sword, pointed knife, mace, or other weapon, except the sword for the tournament.'

2543-93. Cf. the Teseide, vii. 12, 131-2, 12, 14, 100-2, 113-4, 118, 19. In 2544, _shot_ means arrow or crossbow-bolt.

2546. 'Nor short sword having a _biting_ (sharp) point to stab with.'

2565. Cf. Legend of Good Women, 635:--'Up goth the trompe.'

2568. Cf. King Alisaunder, 189, where we are told that a town was similarly decked to receive queen Olimpias with honour. See Weber's note.

2600-24. Cf. the Teseide, viii. 5, 7, 14, 12, &c.

2602. 'In go the spears full firmly into the _rest_,'--i. e. the spears were couched ready for the attack.

'Thai layden here speres in _areeste_, Togeder thai ronnen as fire of thondere, That both here launces to-braste; That they seten, it was grete wonder, So harde it was that they gan threste; Tho drowen thai oute here swordes kene, And smyten togeder by one assente.' The Sowdone of Babyloyne, l. 1166.

'With spere in thyne _arest_'; Rom. of the Rose, 7561. [90]

2614. _he ... he_ = one ... another. See Historical Outlines of English Accidence, p. 282. Cf. the parallel passage in the Legend of Good Women, 642-8.

2615. _feet._ Some MSS. read _foot_. Tyrwhitt proposed to read _foo_, foe, enemy; but see l. 2550.

2624. _wroght ... wo_, done harm to his opponent.

2626. _Galgopheye._ 'This word is variously written _Colaphey_, _Galgaphey_, _Galapey_. There was a town called _Galapha_ in Mauritania Tingitana, upon the river Malva (Cellar. Geog. Ant. v. ii. p. 935), which perhaps may have given name to the vale here meant.'--Tyrwhitt. But doubtless Chaucer was thinking of the Vale of Gargaphie, where Actæon was turned into a stag:--

'Vallis erat, piceis et acutâ densa cupressu, Nomine _Gargaphie_, succinctae sacra Dianae.' Ovid, Met. iii. 155, 156.

2627. Cf. the Teseide, viii. 26.

2634. _Byte_, cleave, cut; cf. the cognate Lat. verb _findere_. See ll. 2546, 2640.

2646. _swerdes lengthe._ Cf.

'And then he bar me sone bi strenkith Out of my sadel my speres lenkith.' Ywaine and Gawin, ll. 421, 2.

2675. _Which a_, what a, how great a.

2676-80. Cf. the Teseide, viii. 131, 124-6.

2683. _al his chere_ may mean 'all his delight, as regarded his heart.' The Harl. MS. does _not_ insert _in_ before _his chere_, as Wright would have us believe.

2684. Elles. reads _furie_, as noted; so in the Teseide, ix. 4. This incident is borrowed from Statius, Theb. vi. 495, where Phoebus sends a hellish monster to frighten some horses in a chariot-race. And see Vergil, Æn. xii. 845.

2686-706. Cf. the _Teseide_, ix. 7, 8, 47, 13, 48, 38, 26.

2689. The following is a very remarkable account of a contemporary occurrence, which took place at the time when a parliament was held at Cambridge, A. D. 1388, as told by Walsingham, ed. Riley, ii. 177:--

'Tempore Parliamenti, cum Dominus Thomas Tryvet cum Rege sublimis equitaret ad Regis hospitium, quod fuit apud Bernewelle [Barnwell], dum nimis urget equum calcaribus, equus cadit, et omnia pene interiora sessoris dirumpit [cf. l. 2691]; protelavit tamen vitam in crastinum.' The _saddle-bow_ or _arsoun_ was the 'name given to two curved pieces of wood or metal, one of which was fixed to the front of the saddle, and another behind, to give the rider greater security in his seat'; New Eng. Dict. s. v. _Arson_. Violent collision against the front saddle-bow produced very serious results. Cf. the Teseide, ix. 8--'E 'l forte arcione gli premette il petto.' [91]

2696. 'Then was he cut out of his armour.' I. e. the laces were cut, to spare the patient trouble. Cf. Statius, Theb. viii. 637-641.

2698. _in memorie_, conscious.

2710. _That ... his_, i. e. whose. So _which ... his_, in Troil. ii. 318.

2711. 'As a remedy _for_ other wounds,' &c.

2712, 3. _charmes ... save._ 'It may be observed that the salves, charms, and pharmacies of herbs were the principal remedies of the physician in the age of Chaucer. _Save_ (_salvia_, the herb sage) was considered one of the most universally efficiently medieval remedies.'--Wright. Hence the proverb of the school of Salerno, 'Cur moriatur homo, dum salvia crescit in horto?'

2722. _nis nat but_ = is only. _aventure_, accident.

2725. _O persone_, one person.

2733. _Gree_, preëminence, superiority; lit. rank, or a step; answering to Lat. _gradus_ (not _gratus_). The phrases _to win the gree_, i. e. to get the first place, and _to bear the gree_, i. e. to keep the first place, are still in common use in Scotland. See note to the Allit. Destruction of Troy, ed. Panton and Donaldson, l. 1353, and Jamieson's Dictionary.

2736. _dayes three._ Wright says the period of three days was the usual duration of a feast among our early forefathers. As far back as the seventh century, when Wilfred consecrated his church at Ripon, he held 'magnum convivium trium dierum et noctium, reges cum omni populo laetificantes.'--Eddius, Vit. S. Wilf. c. 17.

2743. This fine passage is certainly imitated from the account of the death of Atys in Statius, Theb. viii. 637-651. I quote ll. 642-651, in which Atys fixes his last gaze upon his bride Ismene; as to ll. 637-641, see note to l. 2696 above.

'Prima uidet, caramque tremens Iocasta uocabat Ismenen: namque hoc solum moribunda precatur Uox generi, solum hoc gelidis iam nomen inerrat Faucibus: exclamant famulae: tollebat in ora Uirgo manus; tenuit saeuus pudor; attamen ire Cogitur (indulget summum hoc Iocasta iacenti), Ostenditque offertque: quater iam morte sub ipsa Ad nomen uisus, deiectaque fortiter ora Sustulit: illam unam neglecto lumine coeli Adspicit, et uultu non exsatiatur amato.'

2745. 'Also when bloude rotteth in anye member, but it be taken out by skill or kinde, it tourneth into venime'; Batman upon Bartholomè, lib. iv. c. 7. _bouk_, paunch; A. S. _b[=u]c_.

2749. 'The vertue Expulsiue is, which expelleth and putteth away that that is vnconuenient and hurtfull to kinde' [nature]; Batman upon Bartholomè, lib. iii. c. 8.

'This vertue [given by the soul to the body] hath three parts; one is called _naturall_, and is in the lyuer: the other is called _vitall_, or [92] _spiritall_, and hath place in the heart; the third is called _Animal_, and hath place in the brayn'; id. c. 14.

'The vertue that is called _Naturalis_ moueth the humours in the body of a beast by the vaines, and hath a principal place in the liuer'; id. c. 12.

2761. _This al and som_, i. e. _this_ (is) _the al and som_, this is the short and long of it. A common expression; cf. F. 1606; Troil. iv. 1193, 1274. With ll. 2761-2808 compare the Teseide, x. 12, 37, 51, 54, 55, 64, 102-3, 60-3, 111-2.

2800. _overcome._ Tyrwhitt reads _overnome_, overtaken, the pp. of _overnimen_; but none of the seven best MSS. have this reading.

2810. The _real_ reason why Chaucer could not here describe the passage of Arcite's soul to heaven is because he had already copied Boccaccio's description, and had used it with respect to the death of Troilus; see Troil. v. 1807-27 (stanzas 7, 8, 9 from the end).

2815. _ther Mars_, &c., where I hope that Mars will, &c.; may Mars, &c.

2822. _swich sorwe_, so great sorrow. The line is defective in the third foot, which consists of a single (accented) syllable.

2827-46. Cf. the Teseide, xi. 8, 7, 9-11, xii. 6.

2853-962. Cf. the Teseide, xi. 13-16, 30, 31, 35, 38, 40, 37, 18, 26-7, 22-5, 21, 27-9, 30, 40-67.

2863-962. The whole of this description should be compared with the funeral rites at the burial of Archemorus, as described in Statius, Thebaid, bk. vi; which Chaucer probably consulted, as well as the imitation of the same in Boccaccio's Teseide. For example, the 'tree-list' in ll. 2921-3 is not a little remarkable. The first list is in Ovid, Met. x. 90-105; with which cf. Vergil, Æn. vi. 180; Lucan, Pharsalia, iii. 440-445. Then we find it in Statius, vi. 98-106. After which, it reappears in Boccaccio, Teseide, xi. 22; in Chaucer, Parl. of Foules, 176; in the present passage; in Tasso, Gier. Lib. iii. 75; and in Spenser, F.Q. i. 1. 8. There is also a list in Le Roman de la Rose, 1338-1368. Again, we may just compare ll. 2951-2955 with the following lines in Lewis's translation of Statius:--

'Around the pile an hundred horsemen ride, With arms reversed, and compass every side; They faced the left (for so the rites require); Bent with the dust, the flames no more aspire. Thrice, thus disposed, they wheel in circles round The hallow'd corse: their clashing weapons sound. Four times their arms a crash tremendous yield, And female shrieks re-echo through the field.'

Moreover, Statius imitates the whole from Vergil, Æn. xi. 185-196. And Lydgate copies it all from Chaucer in his Sege of Thebes, part 3 (near the end).

2864. _Funeral he myghte al accomplice_ (Elles.); _Funeral he mighte hem all complise_ (Corp., Pet.). The line is defective in the first foot. [93] _Funeral_ is an adjective. Tyrwhitt and Wright insert _Of_ before it, without authority of any kind; see l. 2942.

2874. _White_ gloves were used as mourning at the funeral of an unmarried person; see Brand, Pop. Antiq. ed. Ellis, ii. 283.

2885. 'And surpassing others in weeping came Emily.'

2891. See the description of old English funerals in Rock, Church of our Fathers, ii. 488: 'If the deceased was a knight, his helmet, shield, sword, and coat-armour were each carried by some near kinsman, or by a herald clad in his blazoned tabard'; &c.

2895. Cf. 'deux ars Turquois,' i. e. two Turkish bows; Rom. de la Rose, 913; see vol. i. p. 132.

2903. Compare the mention of 'blake clothes' in l. 2884. When 'master Machyll, altherman, was bered, all the chyrche [was] hangyd with blake and armes [coats-of-arms], and the strett [street] with blake and armes, and the place'; &c.--Machyn's Diary (Camden Soc.) p. 171.

2923. _whippeltree_ (better _wippeltree_) is the cornel-tree or dogwood (_Cornus sanguinea_); the same as the Mid. Low G. _wipel-bom_, the cornel. Cf. '_wepe_, or _weype_, the dog-tree'; Hexham. See N. and Q. 7 S. vi. 434.

2928. _Amadrides_; i. e. _Hamadryades_; see Ovid, Met. i. 192, 193, 690. The idea is taken from Statius, Theb. vi. 110-113.

2943. _men made the fyr_ (Hn., Cm.); _maad was the fire_ (Corp., Pet.).

2953. _loud_ (Elles.); _heih_ (Harl.); _bowe_ (Corp.).

2958. 'Chaucer seems to have confounded the _wake-plays_ of his own time with the funeral games of the antients.'--Tyrwhitt. Cf. Troil. v. 304; and see 'Funeral Entertainments' in Brand's Popular Antiquities.

2962. _in no disioynt_, with no disadvantage. Cf. Verg. Æn. iii. 281.

2967-86. Cf. the _Teseide_, xii. 3-5.

2968. Lounsbury (Studies in Chaucer, i. 345) proposes to put a full stop at the end of this line, after _teres_; and to put _no_ stop at the end of l. 2969.

2991-3. _that faire cheyne of love._ This sentiment is taken from Boethius, lib. ii. met. 8: 'þat þe world with stable feith / varieth acordable chaungynges // þat the contraryos qualite of elementz holden amonge hem self aliaunce perdurable / þat phebus the sonne with his goldene chariet / bryngeth forth the rosene day / þat the mone hath commaundement ouer the nyhtes // whiche nyhtes hesperus the euesterre hat[h] browt // þat þe se gredy to flowen constreyneth with a certeyn ende hise floodes / so þat it is nat l[e]ueful to strechche hise brode termes or bowndes vpon the erthes // þat is to seyn to couere alle the erthe // Al this a-cordaunce of thinges is bownden with looue / þat gouerneth erthe and see and hath also commaundementz to the heuenes / and yif this looue slakede the brydelis / alle thinges þat now louen hem togederes / wolden maken a batayle contynuely and stryuen to fordoon the fasoun of this worlde / the which they now leden in acordable feith by fayre moeuynges // this looue halt to-gideres peoples ioygned with an hooly bond / and knytteth sacrement of [94] maryages of chaste looues // And love enditeth lawes to trewe felawes // O weleful weere mankynde / yif thilke loue þat gouerneth heuene gouerned[e] yowre corages.'--Chaucer's Boethius, ed. Morris, p. 62; cf. also pp. 87, 143. (See the same passage in vol. ii. p. 50; cf. pp. 73, 122.) And cf. the Teseide, ix. 51; Homer, II. viii. 19. Also Rom. de la Rose, 16988:--

'La bele chaéne dorée Qui les quatre elemens enlace.'

2994. What follows is taken from Boethius, lib. iv. pr. 6: 'þe engendrynge of alle þinges, quod she, and alle þe progressiouns of muuable nature, and alle þat moeueþ in any manere, takiþ hys causes, hys ordre, and hys formes, of þe stablenesse of þe deuyne þou[gh]t; [and thilke deuyne thowht] þat is yset and put in þe toure, þat is to seyne in þe hey[gh]t of þe simplicite of god, stablisiþ many manere gyses to þinges þat ben to don.'--Chaucer's Boethius, ed. Morris, p. 134. (See the same passage in vol. ii. p. 115).

3005. Chaucer again is indebted to Boethius, lib. iii. pr. 10, for what follows: 'For al þing þat is cleped inperfit, is proued inperfit by þe amenusynge of perfeccioun, or of þing þat is perfit; and her-of comeþ it, þat in euery þing general, yif þat þat men seen any þing þat is inperfit, certys in þilke general þer mot ben somme þing þat is perfit. For yif so be þat perfeccioun is don awey, men may nat þinke nor seye fro whennes þilke þing is þat is cleped inperfit. For þe nature of þinges ne token nat her bygynnyng of þinges amenused and inperfit; but it procediþ of þingus þat ben al hool and absolut, and descendeþ so doune into outerest þinges and into þingus empty and wiþoute fruyt; but, as I haue shewed a litel her-byforne, þat yif þer be a blisfulnesse þat be frele and vein and inperfit, þer may no man doute þat þer nys som blisfulnesse þat is sad, stedfast, and perfit.'--Chaucer (as above), p. 89. (See the same passage in vol. ii. pp. 74, 75.)

3013. 'And thilke same ordre neweth ayein alle thinges growyng and fallyng adoune by semblables progressiouns of seedes and of sexes.'--Chaucer's Boethius, ed. Morris, p. 137. (See the same passage in vol. ii. p. 117; i. e. in bk. iv. pr. 6. l. 103).

3016. _seen at ye_, see at a glance. Gower, ed. Pauli, i. 33, has:--'The thing so open is at theye,' i. e. is so open at the eye, is so obvious. 'Now is the tyme _sen at eye_,' i. e. clearly seen; Coventry Myst. p. 122.

3017-68. Cf. the Teseide, xii. 7-10, 6, 11, 13, 9, 12-17, 19.

3042. So in Troilus, iv. 1586: 'Thus maketh vertu of necessite'; and in Squire's Tale, pt. ii. l. 247 (Group F, l. 593): 'That I made vertu of necessite.' It is from Le Roman de la Rose, 14217:--

'S'il ne fait de necessité Vertu.'

So in Matt. Paris, ed. Luard, i. 20. Cf. Horace, Carm. i. 24:--

'Durum! sed leuius fit patientia Quidquid corrigere est nefas.'

[95]

3068. Cf.

'The time renneth toward right fast, Joy cometh after whan the sorrow is past.' Hawes' Pastime of Pleasure, ed. Wright, p. 148.

3089. _oghte to passen right_, should surpass mere equity or justice.

3094-102. Cf. the Teseide, xii. 69, 72, 83.

3105. Cf. Book of the Duchesse, 1287-97.

THE MILLER'S PROLOGUE.

The Miller's name is _Robin_ (l. 3129).

3110. The reading _companye_ (as in old editions and Tyrwhitt) in place of _route_ makes the line too long.

3115. I. e. the bag is unbuckled, the budget is opened; as when a packman displays his wares. See Group I, l. 26.

3119. _To quyte with_, to requite the Knight with, for his excellent Tale. This position of _with_, next its verb, is the almost invariable M. E. idiom. Cf. F. 471, 641, C. 345; Notes to P. Pl., C. i. 133, &c.

3120. 'Very drunk, and all pale'; cf. A. 4150, H. 30.

3124. I. e. in a loud, commanding voice, such as that of Pilate in the Mystery Plays. In the Chester Plays, Pilate is of rather a meek disposition; but in the York Plays, pp. 270, 307, 320, he is represented as boastful and tyrannical, as is evidently here intended. The expression seems to have been proverbial. Palsgrave has: 'In a pylates voyce, _a haulte voyx_'; p. 837. Udall, tr. of Erasmus' Apophthegms (repr. 1877), last page, has--'speaking out of measure loude and high, and altogether in _Pilates voice_.'

3125. _by armes_, i. e. by the arms of Christ; see note to C. 651.

3129. 'My dear brother'; a common form; cf. 3848, below, and 1136, above.

3131. _thriftily_, i. e. profitably, to a useful purpose; cf. B. 1165.

3134. _a devel wey_, in the devil's name; see Skelton, ed. Dyce, ii. 287; originally, in the way to the devil, with all ill luck. Compare--

'Hundred, chapitle, court, and shire, Al hit goth _a devel way_' [to the bad]. Polit. Songs, ed. Wright, Camd. Soc. p. 254.

See note to l. 3713 below.

3140. _Wyte it_, lay the blame for it upon. _of Southwerk_, i. e. of the Tabard inn.

3143. 'Made a fool of the wright,' i. e. of the carpenter; cf. A. 586, 614; also A. 3911, and the note.

3145. The Reeve interferes, because he was a carpenter himself (A. 614). 'Let alone your ignorant drunken ribaldry.'

3152. A reference to a proverbial expression which is given in Rob. of Brunne's Handlyng Synne, 1892:--

'Men sey, ther a man ys gelous, That "ther ys a kokewolde at hous."'

[96]

Compare also Le Roman de la Rose, 9167-9171, which expresses a similar opinion.

3155-6. Tyrwhitt omits these two lines in his text, but admits, in his Notes, that they should have been inserted. The former of the two lines is repeated from l. 277 of the original (but rejected) Prologue to the Legend of Good Women. _but-if thou madde_, unless thou art going mad.

3161. _oon_, one, i. e. a cuckold; or, possibly, an ox (l. 3159). As an ox was a 'horned' animal, it comes to the same thing, according to the miserable jest so common in our dramatists.

3165. _goddes foyson_, sufficient abundance, i. e. all he wants, all the affection he expects. _there_, in his wife.

3166. A defective line; read--Of | the rém' | nant, &c.

THE MILLERES TALE.

On the Miller's Tale, see _Anglia_, i. 38, ii. 135, vii (appendix), 81; and see the remarks in vol. iii. p. 395.

3188. _gnof_, churl, lit. a thief; a slang word, of Hebrew origin; Heb. _gan[=a]v_, a thief, Exod. xxii. 1. The same as the mod. E. _gonoph_, the epithet applied to Jo in Dickens, Bleak House, ch. xix. Halliwell's Dict. quotes from The Norfolke Furies, 1623--'The country _gnoffes_, Hob, Dick, and Hick, With clubbes and clouted shoon,' &c. Drant, in his tr. of Horace, _Satires_, fol. A i, back (1566), has:--'The chubbyshe _gnof_ that toyles and moyles.' Todd, in his Illustration of Chaucer, p. 260, says--'See A Comment upon the Miller's Tale and the Wife of Bath, 12mo. Lond. 1665, p. 8, [where we find] "A rich _gnofe_; a rich grub, or miserable caitiff, as I render it; which interpretation, to be proper and significant, I gather by the sence of that antient metre:

The caitiff _gnof_ sed to his crue, My meney is many, my incomes but few.

This, as I conceive, explains the author's meaning; which seems no less seconded by that antient English bard:

That _gnof_, that grub, of pesants blude, Had store of goud, yet did no gude."'

The note in Bell's Chaucer, connecting it with _oaf_, is wrong. The carpenter's name was John (l. 3501).

3190. This shews that students used often to live in lodgings, as is so common at Cambridge, where the number of students far exceeds the number of college-rooms.

3192, 3. Chaucer himself knew something of astrology, as shewn by his numerous references to it. The word _conclusions_ in l. 3193 is the technical name for 'propositions' or problems. In his Treatise on the Astrolabe, prologue (l. 9), he says to his son Lowis--'I purpose to teche thee a certein nombre of _conclusions_ apertening to the same [97] instrument.' We here learn that one object of astrology was to answer questions relating to coming weather, as well as with reference to almost every other future event.

3195. _in certein houres._ In astrology, much depended on times; certain times were supposed to be more favourable than others for obtaining solutions of problems. The great book for prognostications of weather was the _Calendrier des Bergiers_, an English version of which was frequently reprinted as The Shepheards Kalendar. The old almanacks also predicted the weather; see Ben Jonson's Every Man Out of his Humour, A. i. sc. 1--'Enter _Sordido_, with an almanack in his hand.'

3199. _hende_, gracious, mild; hence, gentle, courteous; orig. near at hand, hence, useful, serviceable; A. S. _gehende_. Ill spelt _hendy_ in Tyrwhitt. Several passages from this Tale are quoted and illustrated by Warton, Hist. E. Poetry, sect. xvi; which see.

3203. _hostelrye_, lodging. Nicholas had his room to himself; whereas it was usual for two or more students to have a room in common, even in college.

3207. _cetewale_, zedoary; but commonly, though improperly, applied to valerian (_Valeriana pyrenaica_); also spelt _setwall_. Gerarde, in his Herball (ed. 1597, p. 919), says that 'it hath beene had (and is to this day among the poore people of our northerne parts) in such veneration amongst them, that no brothes, pottages, or phisicall meates are woorthe anything, if _setwall_ were not at one end'; &c. See Britten's Plant-Names (E. D. S.). See note to B. 1950.

3208. _Almageste_; Arab. _almajist[=i]_; from _al_, the, and _majist[=i]_, for Gk. [Greek: megistê];, short for [Greek: megistê suntaxis], 'greatest composition,' a name given to the great astronomical treatise of Ptolemy; hence extended to signify, as here, a text-book on astrology. See Hallam, Middle Ages, c. i. 77. Ptolemy's work 'was in thirteen books. He also wrote four books of judicial astrology. He was an Egyptian astrologist, and flourished under Marcus Antoninus.'--Warton. See D. 182, 325, 2289. And see my note to Chaucer's Astrolabe, i. 17; vol. iii. p. 354.

3209. See Chaucer's own treatise on The Astrolabe, which he describes. It was an instrument consisting of several flat circular brass plates, with two revolving pointers, used for taking altitudes, and other astronomical purposes.

_longinge for_, suitable for, belonging to.

3210. _augrim-stones_, counters for calculation. _Augrim_ is _algorism_ (see New Eng. Dict.), or the Arabic system of arithmetic, performed with the Arabic numerals, which became known in Europe from translations of a work on algebra by the Arab mathematician Abu Ja'far Mohammed Ben Musa, surnamed _al-Khow[=a]razm[=i]_, or the native of Khw[=a]razm (Khiva). Chaucer speaks of 'nombres in _augrim_'; Astrolabe, i. 9. 3.

3212. _falding_, a kind of coarse cloth; see note on A. 391.

3216. _Angelus ad virginem._ This hymn occurs in MS. Arundel [98] 248, leaf 154, written about 1260, both in Latin and English, and with musical notes. It is printed, with a facsimile of part of the MS., at p. 695 of the print of MS. Harl. 7334, issued by the Chaucer Society. The first verse of the Latin version runs thus:--

'Angelus ad uirginem subintrans in conclaue, Virginis formidinem demulcens, inquit "Aue! Aue! regina uirginum celi terreque dominum concipies et paries intacta, salutem hominum tu, porta celi facta, medela criminum."'

Hence the subject of the anthem is the Annunciation.

3217. _the kinges note_, the name of some tune or song. There is nothing to identify it with a _chant royal_, described by Warton, Hist. E. Poet. ii. 221, note b. Warton says that 'Chaucer calls the _chant royal_ ... a _kingis note_.' But Chaucer says '_THE kinges note_,' which makes all the difference; it is merely a bad guess. A song entitled 'Kyng villyamis note,' or 'King William's note,' is mentioned in the Complaint of Scotland (1549), ed. Murray, p. 64.

3220. 'According to the money provided by his friends and his own income.'

3223. _eight-e-ten-e_ has four syllables; cf. B. 5. Tyrwhitt read it as of _two_ syllables, and inserted _I gesse_ after _she was_. He duly notes that the words _I gesse_ are 'not in the MSS.'

3226. 'And considered himself to be like.' Tyrwhitt has _belike_, which he probably took to be an adverb; but this is a gross anachronism. The adv. _belike_ is unknown earlier than the year 1533.

3227. _Catoun_, Dionysius Cato; see note to G. 688. But Tyrwhitt notes, that 'the maxim here alluded to is not properly one of Cato's; but I find it (he says) in a kind of Supplement to the Moral Distichs entitled _Facetus_, int. Auctores octo morales, Lugd. 1538, cap. iii.

"Duc tibi prole parem sponsam moresque venustam, Si cum pace velis vitam deducere justam."'

He refers to the catalogue of MSS. in Trin. Coll. Dublin, No. 275 (under _Urbanus_, another name for _Facetus_); and to Bale, Cent. iii. 17, and Fabricius, Bib. Med. Aetatis.

3230. Note _is_, in the singular. 'Crabbed age and youth cannot live together';--_Passionate Pilgrim_.

3235. _ceynt_, girdle; _barred_, adorned with cross stripes. Warton could not understand the word; but a _bar_ is a transverse stripe on a girdle or belt, as in A. 329, which see.

3236-7. _barm-clooth_, lap-cloth, i. e. an apron 'over her loins.' _gore_, a triangular slip, used as an insertion to widen a garment in any

## particular place. The apron spread out towards the bottom, owing rather, it

appears, to inserted 'gores' below than to pleats above. Or the pleats may be called gores here, from their triangular shape. [99] Cf. A. S. _g[=a]ra_, an angular projection of land, as in Kensington _Gore_. '_Gheroni_, the _gores_ or gussets of a smocke or shirt'; Florio's Ital. Dict. See note to B. 1979, and the note to l. 3321 below.

3238. _brouded_, embroidered; cf. B. 3659, Leg. Good Women, 227. _Of_ in l. 3240 means 'with.'

3241. _voluper_, lit. 'enveloper' or 'wrapper'; hence, kerchief, or cap. In l. 4303, it means a night-cap. In Wright's Vocabularies, it translates Lat. _calamandrum_ (568, 28), _inuolutarium_ (590, 28), and _mafora_ (594, 19). In the Prompt. Parv. we find: '_volypere_, kerche, _teristrum_'; and in the Catholicon, '_volyper_, caliend[r]um.' In Baret's Alvearie, h. 596, we find: 'A woman's cap, hood, or bonet, _Calyptra_, _Caliendrum_.' The tapes of this cap were 'of the same suit' as the embroidery of her collar, i. e. were of black silk.

3245. _smale y-pulled_, i. e. partly plucked out, to make them narrow, even, and well-marked.

3247. Tyrwhitt at first had '_for_ to see,' but corrected it to '_on_ to see,' i. e. to look upon. Cf. Leg. Good Women, 2425.

3248. _pere-ionette_, early-ripe pear. Tyrwhitt refers us to a F. _poire jeunette_, or an Ital. _pero giovanetto_, i. e. very young pear-tree; but I believe the explanation is as imaginary as are these terms, which I seek for in vain. I take it that he has been misled by a false etymology from F. _jeune_, Ital. _giovane_, young, whereas the reference is to the early-ripe pear called in O. F. _poire de hastivel_ (F. _hâtiveau_); see _hastivel_ in Godefroy. The corresponding E. term is _gennitings_, applied to apples, but applicable to pears also; and I take the etymology to be from F. _Jean_, John, because such apples and pears ripen about St. John's day (June 24), which is very early. Cotgrave has: '_Hastivel_, a soon-ripe apple, called the St. John's apple.' Littré, s. v. _poire_, has: 'La poire appellée à Paris _de messire Jean_ est celle qu'en Dauphiné et Languedoc l'on nomme _de coulis_.' Lacroix (Manners, &c. during the Middle Ages, p. 116) says that, in the thirteenth century, one of the best esteemed pears was the _hastiveau_, which was 'an early sort, and no doubt the golden pear now called St. Jean.' Finally, we learn from Piers Plowman, C. xiii. 221, that 'pere-Ionettes' were very sweet and very early ripe, and therefore very soon rotten; see my note to that line. The text, accordingly, compares this young and forward beauty to the _newe_ (i. e. fresh-leaved) early-ripe pear-tree; and there is much propriety in the simile. Of course, this explanation is somewhat of a guess; and perhaps I may add another possible etymology, viz. from _jaune_, yellow, with reference to the golden colour of the pear. Cf. _jaulnette_, in Cotgrave, as a name for St. John's wort, and the form _floure-jonettis_ in the King's Quair, st. 47.

3251. 'With silk tassels, and pearls (or pearl-shaped knobs or buttons) made of the metal called _latoun_.' Such is Tyrwhitt's simple explanation. In Riley's Memorials of London, p. 398, we find that a man was accused of having 'silvered 240 buttons of _latone_ ... for [100] purses.' The notes in Warton are doubly misleading, first confusing _latoun_ with _cheklatoun_ (which are unconnected words), and then quoting the expression 'perled cloth of gold,' which is another thing again. As to _latoun_, see note to C. 350, and cf. A. 699, B. 2067, &c.

3254. _popelote_, darling, poppet. Not connected with _papillon_, but with F. _poupée_ and E. _puppet_. Halliwell gives: '_Poplet_, a term of endearment, generally applied to a young girl: _poppet_ is still in common use.' Cotgrave has: '_Popelin_, masc. a little finicall darling.' Godefroy gives: '_poupelet_, m. petit poupon.'

3256. Wright says: 'The gold noble of this period was a very beautiful coin; specimens are engraved in Ruding's Annals of the Coinage. It was coined in the Tower of London [as here said], the place of the principal London mint.' It was worth 6s. 8d., and first coined about 1339. See C. 907, and note.

3258. 'Sitting on a barn.' Repeated in C. 397.

3261. _bragot_, a sweet drink, made of ale and honey fermented together; afterwards, the honey was replaced by sugar and spice. See _Bragget_ in New E. Dict. The full receipt for 'Braket' is given in Strutt, Manners and Customs, iii. 74; it contained 4 gallons of ale to a pint of honey. In 1783, it was made of ale, sugar, and spices, and drunk at Easter; Brand, Pop. Antiq. i. 112. Spelt _bragot_, Palladius on Husbandry, p. 90, l. 812; &c. Of British origin; Welsh _bragawd_; cf. O. Irish _brac_, later _braich_, malt. See also the note on _Bragott_ in the Catholicon, ed. Herrtage.

3262. Cf. 'An appyll-hurde, _pomarium_'; Catholicon Anglicum.

3263-4. These two lines are cited by Dryden with approval, in the Preface to his Fables, as being 'not much behind our present English.' We are amazed to find that Dryden condemns Chaucer's lines as unequal; and coolly remarks that 'equality of numbers ... was either not known, or not always practised in Chaucer's age.' The black-letter editions which Dryden read were, in fact, full of misspelt words; but even in them, he might have found plenty of good lines, if he had not been so prejudiced and (to say the truth) conceited.

3268. _prymerole_, primrose; as in Gower, C. A. iii. 130. _pigges-nye_, pig's eye, a term of endearment; pig's eyes being (as Tyrwhitt notes) remarkably small. Cf. 'Waked with a wench, pretty peat, pretty love, and my sweet pretty _pigsnie_'; Peele, Old Wives' Tale, ed. Dyce (1883), p. 455, col. 1. And see Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 28, ii. 97, 104. In fact, it is common. Brand, quoting Douce (Illust. of Shak. ii. 151), says that 'Shadwell not only uses the word _pigsney_ in this sense, but also _birdsney_ [bird's eye]; see his Plays, i. 357, iii. 385.' See also _pigsney_ in Todd's Johnson, where one quotation has the form _pigs eie_. _An ye_ became _a nye_; hence the pl. _nyes_, and even _nynon_ (= eyne), as in Halliwell. See note to P. Plowman, C. xx. 306, where _bler-eyed_, i. e. blear-eyed, appears as _bler-nyed_ in the B-text.

3269. _leggen_, to lay. Tyrwhitt has _liggen_, to lie, which is but poor grammar. [101]

3274. _Oseneye_, Oseney, in the suburbs of Oxford, where there was an Abbey of St. Austin's Canons; cf. l. 3666.

3286. _harrow_ (Pt. _harowe_), a cry for help, a cry of distress; O. F. _haro_, _harou_, the same; see Godefroy. Cf. ll. 3825, 4307.

'_Primus Demon._ Oute, haro, out, out! harkyn to this horne'--&c. Towneley Mysteries, Surtees Society, p. 307 (in the Mystery of "_Judicium_.") So in the Coventry Mysteries, we have:--

'_Omnes demones clamant._ Harrow and out! what xal we say?

harrow! we crye, owt! And Alas! Alas, harrow! is þis þ_a_t day?... Alas, harrow! and owt! we crye.' (Play of _Judgment_.)

'My mother was afrayde there had ben theves in her house, and she kryed out _haroll alarome_ (F. elle sescria _harol alarme_)'; Palsgrave, s. v. _crye_, p. 501. See _Haro_ in Littré, _hara_ in Schade. Cf. l. 3825; and the note in Dyce's Skelton, ii. 274.

3291. I. e. St. Thomas of Canterbury.

3299. 'A clerk would have employed his time ill.'

3308. Defective in the first foot; scan: Crist | es, &c. Tyrwhitt inserts _Of_ before _Cristes_, and coolly observes, in his Notes, that it is 'added from conjecture only.' He might have said, that it makes bad grammar. And it is from such manipulated lines as this that the public forms its judgement of Chaucer's verse! Is it _nothing_ that all the authorities begin the line alike?

3316. _shode_, not 'hair,' as in Tyrwhitt, but 'parting of the hair.'

3318. 'It was the fashion to wear shoes with the upper leather cut into a variety of beautiful designs, resembling the tracery of window-heads, through which the bright colour of the green, blue, or scarlet stocking beneath was shewn to great advantage';--Rock, Church of our Fathers, ii. 239, with illustrations at p. 240. _Poules windowes_, windows like those in St. Paul's Cathedral; hence, designs resembling them. Wright conjectures that there may even be a reference to the rose-window of old St. Paul's; and he says that examples of such shoes still exist, in the museum of Mr. C. Roach Smith. Good illustrations of these beautifully cut shoes are given in Fairholt's Costume, pp. 64, 65, who also notes that 'in Dugdale's view of old St. Paul's ... the rose-window in the transept is strictly analogous in design.' The Latin name for such shoes was _calcei fenestrati_, which see in Ducange. Rock also quotes the phrase _corium fenestratum_ from Pope Innocent III. Observe the mention of his scarlet hose in the next line. Cf. note to Rom. of the Rose, 843, in vol. i. p. 423.

3321. _wachet_, a shade of blue. Tyrwhitt wrongly connects it with the town of _Watchet_, in Somersetshire. But it is French. Littré, s. v. _vaciet_, gives: 'Couleur d'hyacinthe ou _vaciet_,' colour of the hyacinth, or _bilberry_ (Lat. _uaccinium_). Roquefort defines _vaciet_ as a shrub which bears a dark fruit fit for dyeing violet; it is applied, he [102] says, both to the fruit and the dye; and he calls it _Vaccinium hysginum_. Phillips says _watchet_ is 'a kind of blew colour.' Todd's Johnson cites from Milton's Hist. of Muscovia, c. 5, '_watchet_ or sky-coloured cloth'; and the line, 'Who stares, in Germany, at _watchet_ eyes,' tr. of Juvenal, Sat. xiii, wrongly attributed to Dryden. See examples in Nares from Browne, Lyly, Drayton, and Taylor: and, in Richardson, from Beaumont and Fletcher, Hackluyt, Spenser, and Ben Jonson. Cotgrave explains F. _pers_ as 'watchet, blunket, skie-coloured,' and _couleur perse_ as 'skie-colour, azure-colour, a blunket, or light blue.' See _Blunket_ in the New E. Dict., and my article in Philolog. Soc. Trans. Nov. 6, 1885, p. 329. Webster has '_watchet_ stockings,' The Malcontent, A. iii. sc. 1. Lydgate has '_watchet_ blewe'; see Warton, Hist. Eng. Poet. (1840), ii. 280.

3322. _poyntes_, tagged laces, as in Shakespeare. MS. Hl. has here a totally different line, involving the word _gores_ (cf. l. 3237 above), viz. 'Schapen with goores in the newe get,' i. e. in the new fashion.

3329. Tyrwhitt says:--'The school of Oxford seems to have been in much the same estimation for its dancing, as that of Stratford for its French'; see l. 125. He probably meant this satirically; but it may mean the very opposite, or something nearly so. The Stratford-at-Bow French was excellent of its kind, but unlike that of France (see note to l. 125); and probably the Oxford dancing was, likewise, of no mean quality after its kind, having twenty 'maneres.'

3331. _rubible_; also _ribible_ (4396). Cf. 'where was his fedylle [fiddle] or hys _ribible_'; Knight de la Tour, cap. 117. See _Ribibe_, _Ribible_ in Halliwell; The Squire of Low Degree (in Ritson), l. 1071; Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, ii. 194. Also called a _rebeck_, as in Milton. A two-stringed musical instrument, played with a bow, of Moorish origin; Arab. _rab[=a]b_. '_Hec vitula_, a rybybe'; Wright's Gloss. 738. 19.

3332. _quinible._ Not a musical instrument, as Tyrwhitt supposed, but a kind of voice. It is not singing consecutive fifths upon a plain song, as Mr. Chappell once thought (Pop. Music of the Olden Time, i. 34); but, as afterwards explained by him in Notes and Queries, 4 S. vi. 117, it refers to a very high voice. The _quinible_ was an octave higher than the _treble_; the _quatreble_ was an octave higher than the mean. The _mean_ was intermediate between the _plain-song_ or _tenor_ (so called from its _holding on_ the notes) and the _treble_. It means 'at the extreme pitch of the voice.' Skelton miswrites it _quibyble_.

3333. _giterne_, a kind of guitar. 'The gittern and the kit the wand'ring fiddlers like'; Drayton, Polyolbion, song 4. See note to P. Pl. C. xvi. 208; Prompt. Parv. p. 196.

3337. _squaymous_, squeamish, particular. Tyrwhitt says--'I know not how to make this sense agree with what follows' (l. 3807). But it is easy to understand that he was, ordinarily, squeamish, retentive; exceptionally, far otherwise. In the Knight de la Tour, cap. cxiv, p. 155, there is a story of a lady who waited on her old husband, and nursed him under most trying conditions; 'and unnethe there might [103] haue be founde a woman but atte sum tyme she wolde haue lothed her, or ellys to haue be right _scoymous_ ta haue do the seruice as thes good lady serued her husbonde contynuelly.' In a version of the Te Deum, composed about 1400, we read--'Thou were not _skoymus_ of the maidens wombe'; Maskell, Monumenta Ritualia, ii. 14[24]. Cf. '_squaymose_, verecundus,' Catholicon; '_skeymowse_, or _sweymows_ or _queymows_, abhominativus'; Prompt. Parv. Spelt _squmous_ (badly), Court of Love, l. 332; and _sqymouse_ in Morris's reprint of it. See _Desdaigneux_ in Cotgrave. 'To be _squamish_, or nice, _delicias facere_'; Baret's Alvearie. 'They that be subiect to Saturne ... be not _skoymous_ of foule and stinking clothing'; Batman on Bartholomè, lib. 8. c. 23. In Weber's Metrical Romances, i. 359, we find:

'Than was the leuedi of the hous A proude dame and an envieous, Hokerfulliche missegging, _Squeymous_ and eke scorning.' Lay le Freine, ll. 59-62.

These examples quite establish the sense. The derivation is from the rare A. F. _escoymous_, which occurs in P. Meyer's ed. of Nicole Bozon (Soc. des Anc. Textes Français), p. 158:--'si il poy mange e beyt poy, lors est gageous ou _escoymous_,' if he eats and drinks little, then is he delicate or nice. Robert of Brunne has the spelling _esquaymous_; Handlyng Synne, l. 7249.

3338. _dangerous_, sparing; see the Glossary.

3340. Cutts (Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages, p. 219) seems to think that the clerk went _about the parish_ with his censer, as he sometimes certainly went about with holy water. Warton, on the other hand, says that 'on holidays it was his business to carry the censer _about the church_, and he takes this opportunity of casting unlawful glances on the handsomest ladies of the parish.' Warton is clearly right here, for there is an allusion to the ladies coming forward with the usual offering (l. 3350); cf. note to A. 450. And see Persones Tale, l. 407.

3354. _for paramours_, for love's sake: a redundant expression, since _par_ means 'for.' Cf. n. to l. 1155, at p. 67.

3358. _shot-windowe._ Brockett's Northern Glossary gives: '_Shot-window_, a projecting window, common in old houses'; but this may have been copied from Horne Tooke, who seems to have guessed at, and misunderstood, the passage, below, in Gawain Douglas. In the new edition of Jamieson, Mr. Donaldson defines _Schot_ as 'a window set on hinges and opening like a shutter,' and explains that, 'in the West of Scotland, a projecting window is called an _out-shot window_, whereas a _shot-window_ or _shot_ is one that can be opened or shut like [104] a door or shutter by turning on its hinges.' It is material to the story that the window here mentioned should be readily opened and shut. The passage in G. Douglas's tr. of Virgil, prol. to bk. vii, evidently refers to a window of this character, as the poet first says:--

'Ane _schot-wyndo_ vnschet a lytill on char,'

i. e. I unshut the shot-window, and left it a little ajar; and he goes on to say that the weather was so cold that he soon shut it again--

'The _schot_ I clossit, and drew inwart in hy.'

See also ll. 3695, 6 below. In the next line, _upon_ merely means 'in' or 'formed in.'

It is curious that, in Bell's Chaucer, a quotation is given from the Ballad of _Clerk Saunders_ (Border Minstrelsy, vol. ii.) to shew that _shot-window_ cannot mean '_shut_ window.' But it does not prove that it cannot mean 'hinge-shutting window,' as I have shewn the right sense to be.

'Then she has ta'en a crystal wand, And she has stroken her troth thereon; She has given it him out at the _shot-window_, With mony a sad sigh and heavy groan.'

3361. Tyrwhitt absurdly says that ll. 3361, 3362 should be broken into four short verses, and that _ladý_ (sic) rimes with _be_! In Bell's edition, they are printed in small type! They are just ordinary lines; and _be_ (pronounced nearly as modern _bay_) certainly never rimed with _lády_--nor yet with _la-dý_--in Chaucer's time, when the final _y_ was sounded like the modern _ee_ in _meet_, and would rather have rimed with a word like _my_. It is a mere whim.

3375. _menes_, intermediate people, go-betweens; see _Mene_, sb., in Gloss. to P. Plowman, with numerous references. _Brocage_ is the employment of a 'broker' or agent, and so means much the same. See _Brokage_ in New E. Dict., and _Brocage_ in Gloss. to P. Plowman.

3377. _brokkinge_, with quick regular interruptions, quavering, in a 'broken' manner. See _Brock_ in New E. Dict.

3379. _wafres_, wafers. 'They (F. _gaufres_) are usually sold at fairs, and are made of a kind of batter poured into an iron instrument, which shuts up like a pair of snuffers. It is then thrust into the fire, and when it is with-drawn and opened, the _gaufre_, or wafer, is taken out and eaten "piping hote out of the glede," as here described.'--Note in Bell's Chaucer.

3380. _mede_, reward, money; distinct from _meeth_, mead, in l. 3378. The sense of _mede_ is very amply illustrated in P. Plowman. L. 3380 intimates that, as she lived in a town, she could spend money at any time.

3382. A side-note, in several MSS., says: 'Unde Ouidius: Ictibus agrestis.' But the quotation is not from Ovid.

3384. The parish-clerks often took part in the Mystery Plays. The part of Herod was an important one; cf. Hamlet, iii. 2. 15. [105]

3387. 'I presume this was a service that generally went unrewarded.'--Wright. It was like 'piping in an ivy-leaf'; see A. 1838.

3389. _ape_, dupe; as in A. 706.

3392. Gower has the like, ed. Pauli, i. 343:--

'An olde sawe is: who that is sligh, In place w[h]ere he may be nigh, He maketh the ferre leve loth Of love; and thus ful ofte it goth.'

Hending, among his Proverbs, has--'Fer from eye, fer from herte,' answering to the mod. E. 'out of sight, out of mind.' Kemble cites: 'Quod raro cernit oculi lux, cor cito spernit,' from MS. Trin. Coll., fol. 365. Also 'Qui procul est oculis, procul est a lumine cordis,' from Gartner, Dict. 8 b.

3427. _deyde_, should die; subjunctive mood.

3430. _that ... him_ is equivalent to _whom_. Cf. A. 2710.

3445. _kyked_, stared, gazed; see l. 3841. Cf. Scotch _keek_, to peep, pry; Burns has it in his Twa Dogs, l. 58.

3449. The carpenter naturally invokes St. Frideswide, as there was a priory of St. Frideswide at Oxford, the church of which has become the present cathedral. The shrine of St. Frideswide is still to be seen, though in a fragmentary state, at the east end of the cathedral, on its former site near the original chancel-arches and wall of her early stone church. In this line, _seint-e_ has the fem. suffix.

3451. _astromye_ is obviously intentional, as it fills up the line, and is repeated six lines below. The carpenter was not strong in technical terms. In like manner, he talks of 'Nowelis flood'; see note to l. 3818. The reading _astronomy_ just spoils both lines, and loses the jest.

3456. 'That knows nothing at all except his Creed.'

3457. This story is told of Thales by Plato, in his Theaetetus; it also occurs, says Tyrwhitt, in the Cento Novelle Antiche, no. 36. It has often been repeated, and may now be found in James's edition of Æsop, 1852, Fable 170.

3469. Nearly repeated from A. 545.

3479. 'I defend thee with the sign of the cross from elves and living creatures.' At the same time, the carpenter would make the sign over him. _Wightes_ does not mean 'witches,' as Tyrwhitt thought, but 'creatures.' Cf. l. 3484.

3480. _night-spel_, night-spell, a charm said at night to keep off evil spirits. The carpenter says it five times, viz. towards the four corners of the house and on the threshold. The charm is contained in lines 3483-6, and is partly intentional nonsense, as such charms often were. See several unintelligible examples in Cockayne's Leechdoms, iii. 286. The object of saying it four times towards the four corners of the house was to invoke the four evangelists, just as in the child's hymn still current, which is, in fact, a charm:-- [106]

'Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Bless the bed that I lie on; Four angels round my bed,' &c.

Lines 3483-4 are clear, viz. 'May Jesus Christ and St. Benedict bless this house from every wicked creature.' As this is a reproduction of a popular saying, it is not necessary that the lines should scan; still, they run correctly, if we pronounce _seynt_ as _se-ynt_, as elsewhere (note to A. 509), and if we take both to be defective at the beginning. The last two lines are mere scraps of older charms. It is just possible that _for nightes verye_[25] represents an A. S. _for nihte werigum_, 'against the evil spirits of night'; against whom 'the white Paternoster' is to be said. The reading _white_ is perfectly correct. There really was a prayer so called. See Notes and Queries, 1 Ser. xi. 206, 313; whence we learn that the charm above quoted, beginning 'Matthew, Mark,' &c., resembles one in the _Patenôtre Blanche_, to be found in the (apocryphal) Enchiridion Leonis Papae (Romae, MDCLX), where occurs:--'Petite Patenôtre Blanche, que Dieu fit, que Dieu dit, que Dieu mit en Paradis. Au soir m'allant coucher, je trouvis trois anges à mon lit, couchès, un aux pieds, deux au chevet'; &c. Here is a charm that mentions it, quoted in Notes and Queries, 1 Ser. viii. 613:--

'White Paternoster, Saint Peter's brother, What hast thou i' th' t'one hand? White Booke leaves. What hast i' th' t'other hand? Heven-Yate Keyes. Open Heaven-Yates, and steike [shut] Hell-Yates. And let every crysome-child creepe to its owne mother. White Paternoster! Amen.'

The mention of St. Peter's brother is remarkable. It is a substitution for the older 'Saint Peter's sister' here mentioned. Again, St. Peter's sister is a substitution for St. Peter's daughter, who is a well-known saint, usually called St. Petronilla, or, in English, Saint Parnell, once a very common female name, and subsequently a surname. Her day is May 31, and she was said to cure the quartan ague; see Brand, Pop. Antiq., ed. Ellis, i. 363. A curious passage in the Ancren Riwle, p. 47, gives directions for crossing oneself at night, and particularly mentions the use of four crosses on 'four halves,' or in the original, 'vour creoices a uour halue'; with the remark 'Crux fugat omne malum,' &c. For 'Rural Charms,' see the

## chapter in Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. iii.; and see the charm

against rats in Political and Love Poems, ed. Furnivall, p. 23. I may add that, in Kemble's Solomon and Saturn, p. 136, is an A. S. poem, in which the Paternoster is _personified_, and destroys evil spirits. In Longfellow's Golden Legend, § II., Lucifer is made to say a _Black_ Paternoster.

3507. 'That, if you betray me, you shall go mad (as a punishment).' [107]

3509. _labbe_, chatterbox, talkative person. In P. Plowm. C. xiii. 39, we find the phrase 'ne _labbe_ it out,' i. e. do not chatter about it, do not utter it foolishly. In the Romans of Partenay, ed. Skeat, 3751, we find: 'a _labbyng_ tonge'; and Chaucer has elsewhere: 'a _labbing_ shrewe,' E. 2428. Sewel's Du. Dict. (1754) gives: '_labben_, or _labbekakken_, to blab, chat'; also '_labbekak_, a tattling gossip, a common blab'; and '_labbery_, chat, idle talk.'

3512. _him_, i. e. Christ. The story of the Harrowing (or despoiling) of Hell by Christ is derived from the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, and is a favourite and common subject in our older authors. It describes the descent of Christ into hell, after His crucifixion, in order to release the souls of the patriarchs, whom He takes with Him to paradise. It is given at length in P. Plowman, Text C. Pass. xxi; and was usually introduced into the mystery plays; see the Coventry Mysteries, the York Plays, &c. See also Cursor Mundi, 17,863; Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 12; &c.

3516. 'On Monday next, at the end of the first quarter of the night,' i. e. about 9 P.M. Cf. ll. 3554, 3645.

3530. See Ecclesiasticus, xxxii. 24 [Eng. version, 19]; this was not said by 'Solomon,' but by Jesus, son of Sirach. It is quoted again in the Tale of Melibeus; B. 2193.

3539. 'The trouble endured by Noah and his company.' _Noë_ is the form in the Latin Vulgate version. The allusion is to the intentionally comic scene introduced into the mystery plays, as, e. g. in the Chester Plays, the Towneley Plays, and the York Plays, in which Noah and his sons (_felawshipe_) have much ado to induce Noah's wife to enter the ark; and, in the course of the scene, she gives Noah a sound box on the ear.

3548. _kimelin_, a large shallow tub; especially one used for brewing; see Prompt. Parv. p. 274; and _Kimnell_ in Miss Jackson's Shropshire Glossary.

3554. _pryme_, i. e. about 9 A.M. See note to F. 73.

3565. This shows that the hall was open to the roof, with cross-beams, and that the stable was attached to it, between it and the garden.

3590. _sinne_, i. e. venial sin; see I. 859, 904, 920.

3598. Evidently a common proverb.

3616. It is obvious that the first foot is defective.

3624. _His owne hand_, with his own hand. Tyrwhitt points out the same idiom in Gower, ed. Pauli, ii. 83:--

'The craft Minerve of wolle fond And made cloth _her owne hond_.'

And again, id. ii. 310:--

'Thing which he said _his owne mouth_.'

3625. _ronges_, rungs, rounds, steps; _stalkes_, upright pieces. To [108] climb by the rungs and the stalks means to employ the hands as well as the feet. A rung was also called a _stayre_ (stair); and _stalke_ is the diminutive of _stele_, a handle, which was another name for the upright part of a ladder. In Allit. Poems, ed. Morris, C. 513, the author complains that some people cannot tell the difference between a _stele_ and a _stayre_; and, in fact, the Glossary does not point it out. In the Ancren Riwle, p. 354, we find mention of the two ladder-_stales_ that are upright to the heaven, between which _stales_ the _tinds_ (or rungs) are fastened. This makes the sense perfectly clear.

3637. _a furlong-way_, a few minutes; exactly, two minutes and a half, at the rate of three miles an hour.

3638. 'Now say a Paternoster, and keep silence.' Accordingly, the carpenter 'says his devotion.' '_Clom!_' is a word imposing silence, like 'mum!' So in the Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 266, we find: 'Yef ye me wylleth y-here, habbeth amang you _clom_ and reste'; i. e. if you wish to hear me, keep among you silence and rest.

3645. _corfew-tyme_, probably 8 P.M. The original time for ringing the curfew-bell, as a signal for putting out fires and lights, was eight o'clock. The custom has been kept up in some places till the present day; the hour for it is sometimes 8 P.M., and sometimes 9 P.M. In olden times, mention is usually made of the former of these hours; see Brand, Pop. Antiq. ii. 220; Prompt. Parv. p. 110. People invariably went to bed very early; see l. 3633.

3655. The service of _lauds_ followed that of _nocturns_; the latter originally began at midnight, but usually somewhat later. The time indicated seems to have been just before daybreak. 'These nocturns should begin at such a time as to be ended just as morning's twilight broke, so that the next of her services, the _lauds_, or _matutinae laudes_, might come on immediately after.'--Rock, Church of our Fathers, iii. 2. 6. From l. 3731, we learn, however, that the night was still 'as dark as pitch.' Perhaps the time was between two and three o'clock, as Wright suggests.

3668. _the grange_, lit. granary; but the term was applied to a farm-house and granary on an estate belonging to a feudal manor or (as here) to a religious house. As the estate often lay at some distance from the abbey, it might be necessary for the carpenter, who went to cut down trees, to stay at the grange for the night. Cf. note to P. Pl. C. xx. 71; and Prompt. Parv. (s. v. _grawnge_).

3675. _at cockkes crowe_; cf. l. 3687. The expression in l. 3674 must refer to Monday: the 'cock-crow' refers to Tuesday morning, when it was still pitch-dark (l. 3731). The time denoted by the 'first cock-crow' is very vague; see the Chapter on Cock-crowing in Brand's Pop. Antiquities. The 'second cock-crow' seems to be about 3 A.M., as in Romeo and Juliet, iv. 4. 4; and the 'first cock-crow,' shortly after midnight, as in K. Lear, iii. 4. 121, 1 Hen. IV. ii. 1. 20. An early mention of the first cock occurs in Ypomedon, 783, in Weber's Met. Romances, ii. 309:--'And at the fryst cokke roos he.' The clearest [109] statement is in Tusser's Husbandrie, sect. 74 (E. D. S. p. 165), where he says that cocks crow 'At midnight, at three, and an hower ere day,' which he afterwards explains by 'past five.'

3682. On 'itching omens,' see Miss Burne's _Shropshire Folk-Lore_, p. 269. 'If your right hand itches, you will receive money; ... if your nose itches, you will be kissed, cursed, or vexed.'

3684. Cf. 'If [in a dream] you see many loaves, it portends joy'; A. S. Leechdoms, iii. 215.

3689. _at point-devys_, with all exactness, precisely, very neatly; cf. As You Like It, iii. 2. 401. O. F. _devis_, 'ordre, beauté; _a devis_, _par devis_, en bel ordre, d'une manière bien ordonnée, à gré, à souhait'; Godefroy. See F. 560; Rom. of the Rose, 1215.

3690. _greyn_, evidently some sweet or aromatic seed or spice; apparently cardamoms, otherwise called _grains of Paradise_ (New E. Dict.) '_Greynys_, spyce, _Granum Paradisi_'; Prompt. Parv.; see Way's note. Cf. Rom. of the Rose, 1369, and the note (vol. i. p. 428).

3692. _trewe-love_, (probably) a leaf of herb-paris; in the efficacy of which he had some superstitious belief. _True-love_ is sometimes used as an abbreviation of _true-love knot_, as in the last stanza of the Court of Love; and such is the case here. True-love knots were of various shapes; see pictures of four such in Ogilvie's Dictionary. Some had four loops, which gave rise to the name _true-love_ as applied to herb-paris. Gerarde's Herball, 1597, p. 328, thus describes herb-paris (_Paris quadrifolia_):--At the top of the stalk 'come foorth fower leaves directly set one against another, in manner of a Burgonnion crosse or a true love knot; for which cause among the auncients it hath beene called herbe _Truelove_.' It is still called _True Love's Knot_ in Cumberland.

3700. Note the rime of _tó me_ with _cinam-ó-me_.

3708. _Iakke_, Jack, here an epithet of a fool, like _Iankin_ (B. 1172); and see note to B. 4000. Cf. E. _zany_.

3709. 'It wilt not be (a case of) come-kiss-me.' Chaucer has _ba_, to kiss, D. 433; and _come-ba-me_, i. e. come kiss me, is here used as a phrase; so that the line simply means 'you certainly will not get a kiss!' Observe the rime with _bla-me_. _Bas_ also meant to kiss, and Skelton uses the words together (ed. Dyce, i. 22):--

'With _ba, ba, ba_, and _bas, bas, bas_, She cheryshed hym, both cheke and chyn';

i. e. with repeated kisses on cheek and chin. So again (i. 127) we find: '_bas me_, buttyng, praty Cys!' And so again (ii. 6): '_bas me_, swete Parrot, _bas me_, swete, swete!' Further illustration is afforded by Burton's Anat. of Melancholy, pt. 3. sec. 2. mem. 4. subsec. 1: 'Yea, many times, this love will make old men and women ... dance, _come-kiss-me-now_, mask, and mum.' This complete explanation of an old _crux_ was first given by Mr. Ellis, in 1870, in his Early Eng. [110] Pronunciation, p. 715, who notes that the reading _com ba me_ is fairly well supported; see his Critical Note. Several MSS. turn it into _compame_, which is clearly due to the influence of the familiar word _companye_, which repeatedly ends a line in Chaucer. Mr. Ellis well remarks--'_Com ba me!_ was probably the name of a song, like ... the modern "Kiss me quick, and go, my love." It is also probable that Absolon's speech contained allusions to it, and that it was very well known at the time.'

The curious part of the story is that, in 1889, I adopted the same reading independently, and for precisely similar reasons. But Mr. Ellis was before me, by nineteen years. See l. 3716 below.

The following MSS. (says Mr. Ellis) read _combame_; viz. Harl. 7335--Camb. Univ. Library, Ii. 3. 26--Trin. Coll. Camb. R. 3. 3--Rawl. MS. Poet. 141. Bodl. 414 has _cum bame_; whilst Rawl. Misc. 1133 and Laud 739 have _come ba me_.

3713. Lit. 'in the way to twenty devils'; hence, in the name of twenty devils. 'In the twenty deuyll way, _Au nom du grant diable_'; Palsgrave (1852), p. 838. See ll. 3134, 4257.

3721-2. These two lines are in E. only; Tyrwhitt omits them. But the old black-letter editions retain them.

3723. He knelt down, because the window was so low (3696).

3725. Cf. 'For who-so kissing may attayne'; Rom. Rose, 3677; and Ovid, Ars Amatoria, i. 669.

3726. _thyn ore_, thy favour, thy grace; the words 'grant me' being understood. It is not uncommon.

'Syr Lybeaus durstede [thirsted] sore, And seyde, Maugys, _thyn ore_, To drynke lette me go.' Ritson, Met. Romances, ii. 57.

'I haue siked moni syk, lemmon, _for thin ore_'; Böddeker's Altengl. Dichtungen, p. 174.

See Specimens of E. Eng., Part I; Glossary to Havelok; &c.

3728. _com of_, i. e. be quick; like _Have do_, have done! We now say 'come on!' But strictly, _come on_ means 'begin,' and _come off_ means 'make an end.'

3751. 'If it be not so that, rather than possess all this town, I would like to be avenged.'

3770. _viritoot_ must be accepted as the reading; the reading _verytrot_ in MS. Hl. gives a false rime, as the _oo_ in _woot_ is long. The meaning is unknown; but the context requires the sense of 'upon the move,' or 'astir.' My guess is that _viri-_ is from F. _virer_, to turn (cf. E. _virelay_), and that _toot_ represents O. F. _tot_ (L. _totum_, F. _tout_), all; so that _viritoot_ may mean 'turn-all.' Cotgrave gives _virevoulte_, 'a veere, whirle a round gamball, friske, or turne,' like the Portuguese _viravolta_. The form _verytrot_ (very trot) is clearly due to an attempt to make sense. MS. Cam. has _merytot_, possibly with reference to M. E. _merytoter_, a swing [111] (Catholicon); which is derived from _mery_, merry, and _toteren_, to totter, oscillate. In the North of England, a swing is still called a _merry-trotter_ (corruption of _merry-totter_), as noted by Halliwell, who remarks that 'the _meritot_ is mentioned by Chaucer,' which is not the fact. Both these 'glosses' give the notion of movement, as this is obviously the general sense implied. Whatever the reading may be, we can see the sense, viz. 'some gay girl (euphemism for light woman) has brought you thus so early astir'; and Gervase accordingly goes on to say, 'you know what I mean.'

Ed. 1561 has _berytote_, a misprint for _verytote_.

3771. Here as elsewhere, _së-ynt_ is dissyllabic; several MSS. have _seinte_, but this can hardly be right. For _Note_, MSS. Pt. Hl. have _Noet_, meaning _St. Neot_, whose day is Oct. 28, and whose name remains in St. Neot's, in Cornwall, and St. Neot's, in Huntingdonshire. He died about 877; see Wright's Biogr. Brit. Litt., A. S. Period, p. 381. The spelling _Note_ is remarkable, as the mod. E. name (pronounced as _Neet_, riming with _feet_) suggests the A. S. form _N[=e]ot_, and M. E. _Neet_.

3774. A proverbial phrase. Tyrwhitt quotes from Froissart, v. iv. p. 92, ed. 1574; 'Il aura en bref temps autres estoupes en sa quenoille.' To 'have tow on one's distaff' is to have a task in hand. 'Towe on my dystaf have I for to spynne'; Hoccleve, De Regimine Principum, p. 45.

3777. _As lene_, pray lend; see note to E. 7.

3782. MS. Hl. has _fo_, which is silently altered to _fote_ by Bell and Wright. Tyrwhitt also has _fote_, which he found in the black-letter editions. The reading _foo_ is probably quite right, and is an intentional substitution for _foot_. It is notorious that oaths were constantly made unmeaning, to avoid a too open profanity. In Chaucer, we have _cokkes bones_, H. 9, I. 29, and _Corpus bones_, C. 314. Another corruption of a like oath is _'s foot_, Shak. Troil. ii. 3. 6, which is docked at the other end. It is poor work altering MSS. so as to destroy evidence. _Cristes foo_ might mean 'the devil'; but this is unlikely.

3785. _stele_, handle; i. e. by the cold end, which served as a handle. See note to D. 949. _st[=e]le_, i. e. steel, would give a false rime.

3811. Tyrwhitt inserted _al_ before _aboute_ in his text, but withdrew it in his notes. The A. S. has _hand-br[=æ]d_, but the M. E. _hand-e-brede_ had at least three syllables, if not four. This is shewn by MS. spellings and by the metre, and still more clearly by Wyclif's Bible, which has: 'a spanne, that is, an _handibreede_,' Ezek. xl. 5 (later version). It may have been formed by analogy with M. E. _handiwerk_ (A. S. _hand-geweorc_) and _handewrit_ (A. S. _hand-gewrit_). But the form is _handbrede_ in Palladius on Husbandry, p. 80, l. 536.

3818. _Nowelis flood_ is the mistake of the illiterate carpenter for _Noes flood_; see it again in l. 3834, where he is laughed at for having used the expression in his previous talks with the clerk and his wife. It is on a par with his _astromye_ (note to l. 3451). He was less familiar with the _Noe_ of the Bible than with the _Nowel_ of the [112] carol-singers at Christmas; see F. 1255. The editors carefully 'correct' the poet. In l. 3834, _Nowélis_ helps the scansion, whilst _Noes_ spoils the line, which has to be 'amended.' The readings are: E. Hn. _as in the text_; Cm. Pt. Ln. the Nowels flood; Pt. the Noes flood; Hl. He was agast and feerd of Noes flood. Tyrwhitt actually reads; He was agast-e so of Noes flood; regardless of the fact that _agast_ has no final _-e_. The carpenter's mistake is the more pardonable when we notice that _Noë_ was sometimes used, instead of _Noël_, to mean 'Christmas.' For an example, see the Poètes de Champagne, Reims, 1851, p. 146.

3821. This singular expression is from the French. Tyrwhitt cites:--

'Ainc tant come il mist a descendre, Ne trouva point de pain a vendre,'

i. e. he found no bread to sell in his descent. His reference is to the Fabliaux, t. ii. p. 282; Wright refers, for the same, to the fabliau of Aloul, in Barbazan, l. 591. I suppose the sense is, 'he never stopped, as if to transact business.'

3822. E. Hn. celle; _rest_ selle. The word _celle_ might mean 'chamber.' There was an approach to the roof, which they had reached by help of a ladder; and the three tubs were hung among the balks which formed the roof of the principal sitting-room below. But it is difficult to see how the word _celle_ could be applied to the chief room in the house. Tyrwhitt explains _selle_ as 'door-sill or threshold'; but we must bear in mind that the _usual_ M. E. form of _sill_ was either _sille_ or _sulle_, from A. S. _syll_. The spelling with _s_ proves nothing, since Chaucer undoubtedly means 'cell' in A. 1376, where Cm. Hl. have _selle_, and in B. 3162, where three MSS. (Cp. Pt. Ln.) all read _selle_ again. Why the carpenter should have arrived at the door-sill, I do not know.

Nevertheless, upon further thoughts, I accept Tyrwhitt's view, with some modification. We find that Chaucer actually uses Kentish forms (with _e_ for A. S. _y_) elsewhere, for the sake of a rime. A clear case is that of _fulfelle_, in Troil. iii. 510. This justifies the dat. form _selle_ (A. S. _sylle_). But we must take _selle_ to mean 'flooring' or 'boarding,' and _floor_ to mean the ground beneath it; just as we find, in Widegren's Swedish Dictionary, that _syll_ means 'the timber next the ground.' I would therefore read _selle_, with the sense of 'flooring'; and I explain _floor_ by 'flat earth.' In the allit. Morte Arthure, 3249, _flores_ signifies 'plains.' In Gawayn and the Grene Knyght, 55, _sille_ means 'floor.'

3841. Observe the form _cape_, as a variant of _gape_, both here and in l. 3444 (see footnotes); and in Troil. v. 1133.

THE REVE'S PROLOGUE.

3855. For _laughen_, Tyrwhitt has _laughed_, and in l. 3858 has the extraordinary form _lought_, but he corrects the former of these in his [113] Notes. The verb was originally strong; see examples in Stratmann, s. v. _hlahhen_.

3857. Repeated, nearly, in F. 202; see note.

3864. _so theek_, for _so thee ik_, so may I thrive, as I hope to thrive. The Reve came from Norfolk, and Chaucer makes him use the Northern _ik_ for _I_ in this expression, and again in l. 3867 (in the phrase _ik am_), and in l. 3888 (in the phrase _ik have_), but not elsewhere; whence it would seem that _ik_ for _I_ was then dying out in Norfolk; it has now died out even in the North. Both the Host and the Canon's Yeoman use the Southern form _so theech_; see C. 947, G. 929. Cf. _so the ik_, P. Pl., B. v. 228.

3865. To _blear_ (lit. to dim) _one's eye_ was to delude, hoodwink, or cheat a man. So also _blered is thyn yë_, H. 252.

3868. _gras-time_, the time when a horse feeds himself in the fields. _My fodder is now forage_, my food is now such as is provided for me; I am like a horse in winter, whose food is hay in a stable. Thynne animadverts upon this passage (Animadversions, p. 39), and says that _forage_ means 'such harde and olde prouisione as ys made for horses and cattle in winter.' He remarks, justly, that _forage_ is but loosely used in Sir Thopas, B. 1973.

3869. I take this to mean--'my old years write (mark upon me) this white head,' i. e. turn me grey.

3870. 'My heart is as old (lit. mouldy) as my hairs are.' _Mouled_ is the old pp. out of which we have made the mod. E. _mould-y_, adding _-y_ by confusion with the adj. formed from _mould_, the ground. It is fully explained in the Addenda to my Etym. Dict. 2nd ed. p. 818; and the verb _moulen_, to grow mouldy, occurs in B. 32.

3871. 'Unless I grow like a medlar, which gets worse all the while, till it be quite rotten, when laid up in a heap of rubbish or straw.'

3876. _hoppen_, dance; alluding to Luke vii. 32, where Wyclif has: 'we han sungun to you with pipis, and ye han not daunsid.'

3877. _nayl_, a hindrance; like a nail that holds a box from being opened, or that catches a man's clothes, and holds him back.

3878. 'E quegli che contro alla mia età parlando vanno, mostra mal che conoscano che, perchè il porro abbia il capo blanco, che la coda sia verde'; and, as for those that go speaking about my age, it shews that they ill understand how, although the leek has a white head, its tail (or blade) is green; Boccaccio, Decamerone; introduction to the Fourth Day. So also in Northward Ho, by Dekker and Webster, Act iv. sc. 1: 'garlic has a white head and a green stalk'; where Dyce remarks that it occurs again in The Honest Lawyer, 1616, sig. G 2. Cf. P. Plowman, B. xiii. 352.

3878-82. Compare Alanus de Insulis, Parabolae, cap. I (in Leyser's collection, p. 1067):--

'Extincti cineres, si ponas sulphura, uiuent; Sic uetus apposita mente calescit amor.'

[114]

3882. For _olde_, T. has _cold_, I cannot guess why: smouldering ashes are more likely to be hot. _Old ashes_ mean ashes left after a fire has died down, in which, if raked together, fire can be long preserved. 'Still, in our old ashes, is fire collected.' See the parallel passage in Troilus, ii. 538.

In Soliman and Persida (Dodsley's Old Plays, ed. Hazlitt, v. 339) we find:--

'as the fire That lay, with honour's hand raked up in ashes, Revives again to flames.'

We are reminded of line 92 in Gray's Elegy:--'Ev'n in our ashes live their wonted fires'; but Gray himself tells us that he was thinking, not of Chaucer, but of Sonnet 169 (170) of Petrarch:--

'Ch'i veggio nel pensier, dolce mio fuoco, Fredda una lingua e due begli occhi chiusi, Rimaner doppo noi pien di faville'--

i. e. which (love-songs) I see in thought, O my sweet flame, when (my) one tongue is cold, and (your) two fine eyes are closed, remaining after us, full of sparkles.

_y-reke_, raked or heaped together, collected. Not explained by Wright or Morris; Tyrwhitt explains it by 'smoking,' and takes it to be a _present_

## participle, which is impossible. It is the pt. t. of the scarce strong verb

_reken_, pt. t. _rak_, pp. _y-reken_, _y-reke_, of which the primary notion was to 'gather together.' It occurs, just once, in Gothic, in the translation of Romans, xii. 20: 'haurja funins _rikis_ ana haubith is,' i. e. coals of fire shalt thou heap together on his head. It is the very verb from which the sb. _rake_ is derived. See _Rake_ in my Etym. Dict., and the G. _Rechen_ in Kluge. The notion is taken from the heaping together of smouldering ashes to preserve the fire within. Lydgate copies this image in his Siege of Troye, ed. 1555, fol. B 4:--

'But inward brent of hate and of enuy The hoote fyre, and yet there was no smeke [smoke], So couertly the malyce was _yreke_.'

3895. _chimbe._ 'The prominency of the staves beyond the head of the barrel. The imagery is very exact and beautiful'; Tyrwhitt. '_Chime_ (pronounced _choim_), sb. a stave of a cask, barrel, &c.'; Leicestershire Glossary (E. D. S.) Urry gives '_Chimbe_, the Rim of a Cooper's Vessel on the outside of the Head. The ends of the Staves from the Grooves outward are called the _Chimes_.' Hexham's Du. Dict. has: '_Kimen_, _Kimmen_, the Brimmes of a tubb or a barrill.' Sewel's Du. Dict. has: '_Kim_, the brim of a barrel.' The Bremen _Kimm_ signifies not only the rim of a barrel, but the edge of the horizon; cf. Dan. _Kiming_, _Kimming_, the horizon. See further in New E. Dict. [115]

3901-2. _what amounteth_, to what amounts. _What shul_, why must.

3904. Tyrwhitt refers us to _Ex sutore medicus_, Phædrus, lib. i. fab. 14; and to _ex sutore nauclerus_, alluded to by Pynson the printer, at the end of his edition of Littleton's Tenures, 1525 (Ames, p. 488).

3906. _Depeford_ (lit. deep ford), Deptford; just beyond which is _Grenewich_, Greenwich. Thus the pilgrims had not advanced very far, considering that the Knight and Miller had both told a tale. They had made an early start, and it was now 'half-way prime.' 'Deptford,' says Dr. Furnivall, 'is 3 miles down the road [or a little more, it depends upon whence we reckon]; and, as only the Reeve's Tale and the incomplete Cook's Tale follow in Group A, we must suppose that Chaucer meant to insert here [at the end of Group A] the Tales of some, at least, of the Five City-Mechanics and the Ploughman ... in order to bring his party to their first night's resting-place, Dartford, 15 miles from London'; Temp. Preface, p. 19. 'The deep ford,' I may remark, must have been the one through the Ravensbourn. Deptford and Greenwich (where, probably, Chaucer was then residing) lay off the Old Kent Road, on the left; hence the host points them out.

_half-way prime._ That is, half-past seven o'clock; taking _prime_ to mean the first quarter of the day, or the period from 6 to 9 A.M. It was also used to denote the _end_ of that period, or 9 A.M., as in B. 4387, where the meaning is certain. In my Preface to Chaucer's Astrolabe, (E. E. T. S.), I said: 'What _prime_ means in all cases, I do not pretend to say. It is a most difficult word, and I think was used loosely. It might mean the beginning or end of a period, and the period might be an hour, or a quarter of a day. I think it was to obviate ambiguity that the end of the period was sometimes expressed by _high prime_, or _passed prime_, or _prime large_; we also find such expressions as _half prime_, _halfway prime_, or _not fully prime_, which indicate a somewhat long period. For further remarks, see Mr. Brae's Essay on Chaucer's Prime, in his edition of the Astrolabe, p. 90. I add some references for the word _prime_, which may be useful. We find _prime_ in Kn. Ta. 1331 (A. 2189); Mill. Ta. 368 (A. 3554); March. Ta. 613 (E. 1857); Pard. Ta. 200 (C. 662); Ship. Ta. 206 (B. 1396); Squi. Ta. 65 (F. 73); _fully prime_, Sir Topas, 114 (B. 2015); _halfway prime_, Reve's Prol. 52 (A. 3906); _passed prime_, Ship. Ta. 88 (B. 1278), Fre. Ta. 178 (D. 1476); _prime large_, Squi. Ta. ii. 14 (F. 360). See also _prime_ in Troilus, ii. 992, v. 15; _passed prime_, ii. 1095 (in the same); _an houre after the prime_, ii. 1557.' Cf. notes to F. 73, &c.

3911. _somdel_, in some degree. _sette his howve_, the same as _set his cappe_, i. e. make him look foolish; see notes to A. 586, 3143. To come behind a man, and alter the look of his head-gear, was no doubt a common trick; now that caps are moveable, the perennial joy of the street-boy is to run off with another boy's cap. [116]

3912. 'For it is allowable to repel (shove off) force by force.' The Ellesmere MS. has here the sidenote--'vim vi repellere.'

3919. _stalke_, (here) a bit of stick; Lat. _festuca_. _balke_, a beam; Lat. _trabs_. See the Vulgate version of Matt. vii. 3.

THE REVES TALE.

The origin of this Tale was a French Fabliau, like one that was first pointed out by Mr. T. Wright, and printed in his Anecdota Literaria, p. 15. Another similar one is printed in Méon's edition of Barbazan's Fabliaux, iii. 239 (Paris, 1808). Both were reprinted for the Chaucer Society, in Originals and Analogues, &c., p. 87. See further in vol. iii. p. 397.

3921. _Trumpington._ The modern mill, beside the bridge over the Granta, between the villages of Trumpington and Grantchester, is familiar to all Cambridge men; but this mill and bridge are both comparatively modern, being placed upon an artificial channel. The old 'bridge' is that over the old river-bed, somewhat nearer Trumpington; the 'brook' is this old course of the Granta, which is hereabouts very narrow and circuitous; and the mill stood a quarter of a mile above the bridge, at the spot marked 'Old Mills' on the ordnance-map, though better known as 'Byron's pool,' which is the old mill-pool. The fen mentioned in l. 4065 is probably the field between the Old Mills and the road, which must formerly have been fen-land; though Lingay Fen may be meant, which covers the space between Bourne Brook (flowing into the Granta at the Old Mills) and the Cambridge and Bedford Railway. We like to think that Chaucer saw the spot himself; but he certainly seems to have thought that Trumpington was somewhat further from Cambridge than it really is, as he actually makes the clerks to have been benighted there; and he might easily have learnt some local particulars from his wife's friend, Lady Blaunche de Trumpington, or from Sir Roger himself. In any case, it is interesting to find him thus boldly assigning a known locality to a mill which he had found in a French fabliau.

3927. _Pypen_, play the bag-pipe; see A. 565. The Reeve is clearly trying to make his description suit the Miller in the company, whom it is his express object to tease. Hence he says he could _wrestle well_ (cf. A. 548) and could play the bag-pipe.

_nettes bete_, mend nets; he knew how to net.

3928. _turne coppes_, turn cups, make wooden cups in a turning-lathe; not a very difficult operation. It is curious that Tyrwhitt gave up trying to explain this simple phrase. In Riley's Memorials of London, p. 666, we find that, in 1418, when the English were besieging Rouen, it was enacted that 'the turners should have 4s. for every hundred of 2,500 cups, in all 100s.': so that a wooden cup could be turned at the cost of a halfpenny. [117]

3929. Printed _pavade_ by Tyrwhitt, _pauade_ by Thynne (ed. 1532), but _panade_ in Wright. Levins' Manipulus Vocabulorum (1570) has: 'A PAUADE, _pugio_'; but this is probably copied from Thynne. The exact form is not found in O. F., but Godefroy's O. F. Dict. gives: '_Penart_, _pennart_, _penard_, _panart_, _pannart_, coutelas, espèce de grand couteau à deux tranchants ou taillants, sorte de poignard'; with seven examples, one of which shows that it could be hung at the belt: 'Un grant _pennart_ qu'il avoit pendu a sa sainture.' Ducange gives the Low Lat. form _penardus_, and wrongly connects it with F. _poignard_, from which it is clearly distinct; but he also gives the form _pennatum_ with the sense of 'pruning-knife,' and Torriano gives an Ital. _pennato_ with the same sense. Cf. Lat. _bi-pennis_. It was a two-edged cutlass, worn in addition to his sword; and see below. It is also printed _pauade_ in Lydgate's Siege of Troy, ed. 1555, fol. N 5, back.

3931. _popper_, thruster, i. e. dagger; from the verb _pop_, to thrust in; cf. _poke_. _Ioly_ probably means 'neat' or 'small.' This was the Miller's third weapon of offence, of which he had three sizes, viz. a sword, a cutlass, and a little dagger like a _misericorde_, used for piercing between the joints of armour. No wonder that no one durst touch him 'for peril.' The _poppere_ answers to the _boydekin_ of l. 3960, q.v. And besides these, he carried a knife. 'Poppe, to stryke'; Cathol. Angl. p. 286.

3933. _thwitel_, knife; from A.S. _thw[=i]tan_, to cut; now ill-spelt _whittle_. The portraits of Chaucer show a knife hanging from his breast; accordingly, in Greene's Description of Chaucer, we find this line: 'A whittle by his belt he bare'; see Greene's Works, ed. Dyce, 1883, p. 320. Note that Sheffield was already celebrated for its cutlery; so in the Witch of Edmonton, Act ii. sc. 2, Somerton speaks of 'the new pair of _Sheffield knives_.'

3934. _camuse_ (Hl. _camois_), low and concave; cf. l. 3974 below. F. _camus_, 'flat-nosed'; Cotgrave. Ital. _camuso_, 'one with a flat nose'; Florio. See _Camois_ in the New E. Dict., where it is thus explained: 'Of the nose: low and concave. Of persons: pug-nosed.' To the examples there given, add the following from Holland's tr. of Pliny, i. 229; 'As for the male goats, they are held for the best which are most _camoise_ or snout-nosed.' Hexham's Du. Dict., s. v. _Neuse_, has the curious entry: '_een Camuys ende opwaerts gaende Neuse_ [lit. a camus and upwards-going Nose], Camell-nosed.'

3936. _market-beter_, a frequenter of markets, who swaggered about, and was apt to be quarrelsome and in the way of others. See Wyclif's Works, ed. Matthew, pp. 511, 520; and cf. F. _battre le pavé_, 'aller et venir sans but, sans occupation'; Littré. And cf. E. 'policeman's _beat_.' Cotgrave has: '_Bateur de pavez_, a pavement-beater; ... one that walks much abroad, and riots it wheresoever he walks.' The following passage from the Complaint of the Ploughman (in Wright's Polit. Poems, i. 330) makes it clear-- [118]

'At the wrastling, and at the wake, And chief chantours at the nale [_ale_]; _Market-beaters_, and medling make, Hoppen and houten [_hoot_], with heve and hale.'

A synonymous term was _market-dasher_, spelt _market-daschare_ in the Prompt. Parv.; see Way's note.

_atte fulle_, completely, entirely.

3941. _Simkin_, diminutive of _Simond_, which was his real name (ll. 4022, 4127). Altered to _Sim-e-kin_ by Tyrwhitt, for the scansion; but cf. ll. 3945, 3947, 4034, &c. He makes the same alteration in l. 3959, for a like reason, but we may scan it: 'But if | he wold | e be | slayn,' &c. All the MSS. have _Symkyn_, except Hl., which has _Symekyn_ here and in l. 3959. We must either make the form variable, or else treat the word _de-y-nous_ as a trisyllable. _Deynous_ was his regular epithet.

3943. This statement, that the parson of the town was her father, has caused surprise. In Bell's Chaucer, the theory is started that the priest had been a widower before he took orders, which no one can be expected to believe; it is too subtle. It is clear that she was an illegitimate daughter; this is why her father paid money to get her married to a miller, and why she thought ladies ought to spare her (and not avoid her), because it was an honour to have a priest for a father, and because she had learnt so much good-breeding in a nunnery. The case is only too clear; cf. note to l. 3963.

3953. _tipet_, not here a cape, but the long pendant from the hood at one time fashionable, which Simkin wound round his head, in order to get it out of the way. See _Tippett_ in Fairholt's Costume in England; Glossary. Cf. notes to A. 233, 682.

3954. So also the Wife of Bath had 'gay scarlet _gytes_'; D. 559. Spelt _gide_ in MS. Ln., and _gyde_ in Blind Harry's _Wallace_, i. 214: 'In-till a _gyde_ of gudly ganand greyne,' where it is used of a gay dress worn by Wallace. It occurs also twice in Golagros and Gawain, used of the gay dress of a woman; see Jamieson. Nares shews that _gite_ is used once by Fairfax, and thrice by Gascoigne. The sense is usually dubious; it may mean 'robe,' or, in some places, 'head-dress.' The _g_ was certainly hard, and the word is of F. origin. Godefroy gives '_guite_, chapeau'; and Roquefort has '_wite_, voile.' The F. Gloss. appended to Ducange gives the word _witart_ as applied to a man, and _witarde_ as applied to a woman. Cf. O. F. _wiart_, which Roquefort explains as a woman's veil, whilst Godefroy explains _guiart_ as a dress or vestment. The form of the word suggests a Teutonic origin; perhaps from O. H. G. _wît_, wide, ample, which would explain its use to denote a veil or a robe indifferently. Ducange suggests a derivation from Lat. _uitta_, which is also possible.

3956. _dame_, lady; see A. 376.

3959. _wold-e_, wished, seems to be dissyllabic; see note to l. 3941. [119]

3960. _boydekin_, dagger, as in B. 3892, q. v. Cf. note to l. 3931.

3962. 'At any rate, they would that their wives should think so.' _Wenden_, pt. pl. subj. of _wenen_.

3963. _smoterlich_, besmutched; cf. _bismotered_ in A. 76. Tyrwhitt says: 'it means, I suppose, smutty, dirty; but the whole passage is obscure.' Rather, it is perfectly clear when the allusion is perceived. The allusion is to the smutch upon her reputation, on account of her illegitimacy. This explains also the use of _somdel_; 'because she was, in some measure, of indifferent reputation, she was always on her dignity, and ready to take offence'; which is true to human nature. Thus the whole context is illuminated at once.

3964. _digne_, full of dignity, and therefore (as Chaucer says, with exquisite satire) like (foul) water in a ditch, which keeps every one at a proper distance. However, the satire is not Chaucer's own, but due to a popular proverbial jest, which occurs again in The Ploughman's Crede, l. 375, where the Dominican friars are thus described:--

'Ther is more pryve pride in Prechours hertes Than ther lefte [_remained_] in Lucyfer, er he were lowe fallen; They ben _digne as dich-water_, that dogges in bayteth' [_feed in_].

And, again, in the same, l. 355:--

'For with the princes of pride the Prechours dwellen, They bene _as digne as the devel_, that droppeth fro hevene.'

Hence _digne_ is proud, repulsive.

3965. 'And full of scorn and reproachful taunting'; like the lady in Lay de Freine, l. 60 (in Weber's Met. Romances, i. 359):--

'A proud dame and an enuious, Hokerfulliche missegging, Squeymous and eke scorning; To ich woman sche hadde envie.'

_Hoker_ is the A. S. _h[=o]cor_, scorn. _Bismare_ is properly of _two_ syllables only (A. S. _bismor_), but is here made into three; MS. Cp. has _bisemare_, and Hl. has _bissemare_, and the spelling _bisemare_ also appears much earlier, in the Ancren Riwle, p. 132, and _bisemære_ in Layamon, i. 140. Owing to a change in the accentuation, the etymology had been long forgotten. See _Bismer_ in the New E. Dict., and see the Glossary.

3966. 'It seemed to her that ladies ought to treat her with consideration,' and not look down upon her; see note to l. 3943.

3977. _The person_, the parson, i. e. her grandfather.

3980. 'And raised difficulties about her marriage.'

3990. The _Soler-halle_ has been guessed to be Clare Hall, merely because that college was of early foundation, and was called a 'hall.' But a happy find by Mr. Riley tells us better, and sets the question at rest. In the First Report of the Historical MSS. Commission, p. 84, Mr. Riley gives several extracts from the Bursar's Books of King's [120] Hall, in which the word _solarium_ repeatedly occurs, shewing that this Hall possessed numerous _solaria_, or sun-chambers, used as dwelling-rooms, apparently by the fellows. They were probably fitted with bay-windows. This leaves little doubt that _Soler-Hall_ was another name for _King's Hall_, founded in 1337 by Edward III, and now merged in Trinity College. It stood on the ground now occupied by the Great Gate, the Chapel, Bowling-green, and Master's Lodge of that celebrated college. On the testimony of Chaucer, we learn that the King's Hall, even in his time, was 'a greet collegge.' Its successor is the largest in England.

In Wright's Hist. of Domestic Manners, pp. 83, 127, 128, it is explained that the early stone-built house usually had a hall on the ground-floor, and a _soler_ above. The latter, being more protected, was better lighted, and was considered a place of greater security. 'In the thirteenth century a proverbial characteristic of an avaricious and inhospitable person, was to shut his hall-door and live in the _soler_.' It was also 'considered as the room of honour for rich lodgers or guests who paid well.' Udall speaks of 'the _solares_, or loftes of my hous'; tr. of Erasmus' Apophthegmes, _Aug. Cæsar_, § 27.

3999. _made fare_, made a to-do (as we now say).

4014. _Strother._ There is now no town of this name in England, but the reference is probably to a place which gave its name to a Northumbrian family. Mr. Gollancz tells me:--'The Strother family, of Northumberland, famous in the fourteenth century, was a branch of the Strothers, of Castle Strother in Glendale, to the west of Wooler. The chief member of this Northumberland branch seems to have been _Alan de Strother_ the younger, who died in 1381. (See Calendarium Inquis. post Mortem, 4 Ric. II, vol. iii. p. 32.) The records contain numerous references to him; e. g. "Aleyn de Struther, conestable de nostre chastel de Rokesburgh," A. D. 1366 (Rymer's Foedera, iii. 784); "Alanum del Strother, vicecomitem de Rokesburgh et vicecomitem Northumbriæ" (id. iii. 919). It is a noteworthy point that this Alan de Strother had a son _John_.' This definite information does away with the old guess, that Strother is a mistake for Langstrothdale Chase almost at the N.W. extremity of the W. Riding of Yorkshire, joining the far end of Wharfdale to Ribblesdale, and even now not very accessible, though it can be reached from Ribblehead station, on the Skipton and Carlisle Railway, or from Horton-in-Ribblesdale.

I suppose that Castle Strother, mentioned above, must have been near Kirknewton, some 5 miles or so to the west of Wooler. The river Glen falls into the Till, which is a tributary of the Tweed. I find mention, in 1358-9, of 'Henry de Strother, of Kirknewton in Glendale'; Brand, Hist. of Newcastle, ii. 414, note. W. Hutchinson, in his View of Northumberland, 1778, i. 260, speaks of 'Kirknewton, one of the manors of the Barony of Wark, the ancient residence of the Strothers, now the property of John Strother Ker, Esq.' [121]

We may here notice some of the characteristics of the speech which Chaucer assigns to these two students from Northumberland.

(_a_) They use _a_ for A. S. _[=a]_, where Chaucer usually has _[=o]_ (long and open). Ex. _na_ (Ch. _no_), _swa_ (_so_), _ham_ (_hoom_), _gas_ (gooth), _fra_ (_fro_), _banes_ (_bones_), _anes_ (_ones_), _waat_ (_woot_), _raa_ (_ro_), _bathe_ (_bothe_), _ga_ (_go_), _twa_, (_two_), _wha_ (_who_). Similarly we find _saule_ for Ch. _soule_, soul, _tald_ for _told_, _halde_ for _holde_, _awen_ for _owen_, own.

(_b_) They use _a_ for A. S. short _a_ before _ng_. Ex. _wanges_, but Ch. also has _wang-tooth_, B. 3234; _sang_ for _song_ (4170), _lange_ for _longe_, _wrang_ for _wrong_.

(_c_) They use (perhaps) _ee_ for _oo_; as in _geen_ for _goon_, gone, 4078; _neen_ for _noon_, none, 4185. This is remarkable, and, in fact, the readings vary, as noted. _Geen_, _neen_ are in MS. E. Note also _pit_ for _put_, 4088.

(_d_) They use the indicative sing. and pl. in _-es_ or _-s_. Ex. 3 pers. sing. _far-es_, _bo-es_, _ga-s_, _wagg-es_, _fall-es_, _fynd-es_, 4130, _bring-es_, _tyd-es_, 4175, _say-s_, 4180. Pl. _werk-es_, 4030. So also is _I_, _I is_, _thou is_, 4089. In l. 4045, we find _are ye_, E.; _ar ye_ (better), Hn.; _ere ye_, Cp. Hl.; _is ye_, Cm. Pt.; _es ye_, Ln. Both _ar_ (_er_) and _is_ (_es_) are found in the present tense plural in Northern works; _we is_ occurs in Barbour's Bruce, iii. 317. It is not 'ungrammatical,' as Tyrwhitt supposes.

(_e_) Other grammatical peculiarities are: _sal_ for _shal_, shall, 4087; _slyk_ for _swiche_, such, 4173; _whilk_ for _whiche_, 4171; _thair_ for _hir_, their, 4172 (which is now the standard use); _hethen_ for _hennes_, hence, 4033; _til_ for _to_ (but Chaucer sometimes uses _til_ himself, chiefly before a vowel); _y-mel_ for _amonges_, 4171; _gif_ for _if_, 4181.

(_f_) Besides the use of the peculiar forms mentioned in (_e_), we find certain words employed which do not occur elsewhere in Chaucer, viz. _boes_ (see note to 4027), _lathe_, barn, _fonne_, fool, _hething_, contempt, _taa_, take. To these Tyrwhitt adds _gar_, reading _Gar us have mete_ in l. 4132, but I can only find _Get us som mete_ in my seven MSS. _Capul_, horse, occurs again in D. 1554, 2150.

I think Mr. Ellis a little underrates the 'marked northernism' of Chaucer's specimens. Certainly _thou is_ is as marked as _I is_; and other certain marks are the pl. indic. in _-es_, as in _werk-es_, 4030, the use of _sal_ for 'shall,' of _boes_ for 'behoves,' of _taa_ for 'take,' of _hethen_ for 'hence,' of _slyk_ for 'such,' the prepositions _fra_ and _y-mel_, and even some of the peculiarities of pronunciation, as _[=a]_ for _[=o]_, _wrang_ for _wrong_.

It is worth enquiring whether Chaucer has made any mistakes, and it is clear that he has made several. Thus _as clerkes sayn_ (4028) should be _as clerkes says_; and _sayth_ should again be _says_ in l. 4210. In l. 4171, _hem_ (them) should be _thaim_. In l. 4180, _y-greved_ should be _greved_; the Northern dialect knows nothing of the prefix _y-_. It also ignores the final _-e_ in definite adjectives; hence _thy fair-e_ (4023), _this short-e_ (4265), and _this lang-e_ (4175) all have a superfluous _-e_. Of course this is what we should expect; the poet merely gives [122] a Northern colouring to his diction to amuse us; he is not trying to teach us Northern grammar. The general effect is excellent, and that is all he was concerned with.

4020. The mill lay a little way off the road on the left (coming from Trumpington); so it was necessary to 'know the way.'

4026. _nede has na peer_, necessity has no equal, or, is above all. More commonly, _Nede ne hath no lawe_, as in P. Plowman, B. xx. 10, or C. xxiii. 10; 'Necessitas non habet legem'; a common proverb.

4027. _boës_, contracted from _behoves_, a form peculiar to Chaucer. In northern poems, the word is invariably a monosyllable, spelt _bos_, or more commonly _bus_; and the pt. t. is likewise a monosyllable, viz. _bud_ or _bood_, short for _behoved_. In Cursor Mundi, l. 9870, we have: 'Of a woman _bos him_ be born; and in l. 10639: 'Than _bus_ this may be clene and bright.' In M. E., it is always used impersonally; _him boes_ or _him bos_ means 'it behoves him,' or 'he must.' See _Bus_ in the New E. Dictionary.

Chaucer here evidently alludes to some such proverb as 'He who has no servant must serve himself,' but I do not know the precise form of it. The expression 'as clerkes sayn' hints that it is a Latin one.

4029. _hope_, expect, fear. Cf. P. Plowman, C. x. 275, and see _Hope_ in Nares, who cites the story of the tanner of Tamworth (from Puttenham's Arte of Poesie, bk. iii. c. 22) who said--'I _hope_ I shall be hanged to-morrow.' Cf. also Thomas of Erceldoun, ed. Murray, l. 78:--

'But-if I speke with yone lady bryghte, I _hope_ myne herte will bryste in three!'

4030. 'So ache his molar teeth.' _Wark_, to ache, is common in Yorkshire: 'My back _warks_ while I can hardly bide,' my back aches so that I can hardly endure; Mid. Yks. Gloss. (E. D. S.).

4032. _ham_, i. e. _h[=a]m_, _haam_, home.

4033. _hethen_, hence, is very characteristic of a Northern dialect; it occurs in Hampole, Havelok, Morris's Allit. Poems, Gawain, Robert of Brunne, the Ormulum, &c.; see examples in Mätzner.

4037. One clerk wants to watch above, and the other below, to prevent cheating. This incident is not in the French fabliaux. On the other hand, it occurs in the Jest of the Mylner of Abyngton, which is plainly copied from Chaucer.

4049. _blere hir yë_, blear their eyes, cheat them, as in l. 3865.

4055. 'The fable of the Wolf and the Mare is found in the Latin Esopean collections, and in the early French poem of _Renard le Contrefait_, from whence it appears to have been taken into the English _Reynard the Fox_'; Wright. Tyrwhitt observes that the same story is told of a mule in Cento Novelle Antiche, no. 91. See Caxton's Reynard, ch. 27, ed. Arber, p. 62, where the wolf wants to buy a mare's foal, who said that the price of the foal was written on her hinder foot; 'yf ye conne rede and be a clerk, ye may come see and rede it.' And when [123] the wolf said, 'late me rede it,' the mare gave him so violent a kick that 'a man shold wel haue ryden a myle er he aroos.' The Fox, who had brought it all about, hypocritically condoles with the Wolf, and observes--'Now I here wel it is true that I long syth haue redde and herde, that _the beste clerkes ben not the wysest men_.'

For the story in Le Roman du Renard Contrefait, see Poètes de Champagne, Reims, 1851, p. 156. For further information, see Caxton's Fables of Æsop, ed. Jacobs, lib. v. fab. 10; vol. i. 254, 255; vol. ii. 157, 179. La Fontaine has a similar fable of the Fox, the Wolf, and the Horse. In Croxall's Æsop, it is told of the Horse, who tells the Lion, who is acting as physician, that he has a thorn in his foot. See further references in the Exempla of Jacques de Vitry, ed. Crane, pp. 147, 197.

4061. _levesel_, an arbour or shelter formed of branches or foliage. _Lev-e_ is the stem of _leef_, A. S. _l[=e]af_, a leaf; and _-sel_ is the same as the A. S. _sæl_, _sele_, a hall, dwelling, Swed. _sal_, Icel. _salr_, G. _Saal_. The A. S. _sæl_ occurs also in composition, as _burg-sæl_, _folc-sæl_, _horn-sæl_, and _sele_ is still commoner; Grein gives twenty-three compounds with the latter, as _gæst-sele_, guest-hall, _hr[=o]f-sele_, roofed-hall, &c. In Icel. we have _lauf-hús_, leaf-house, but we find the very word we require in Swed. _löfsal_, 'a hut built of green boughs,' Widegren; Dan. _lövsals-fest_, feast of tabernacles. The word occurs again in the Persones Tale, l. 411, where it means a leafy arbour such as may still be seen to form the porch of a public-house. The word is scarce; but see the following:--

'Alle but Syr Gauan, graythest of alle, Was left with Dame Graynour, _vndur the greues_ [groves] _grene_. By a lauryel ho [she] lay, vndur a _lefe-sale_ Of box and of barberè, byggyt ful bene.' Anturs of Arthur, st. 6; in Three Met. Romances, ed. Robson, p. 3.

The editor prints it as _lefe sale_, and explains it by 'leafy hall,' but it is a compound word; the adjective would be _lefy_ or _leuy_. In this case the arbour was 'built' of box and barberry.

'All his devocioun and holynesse At the taverne is, as for the most dele, To Bacus syne, and to the _leef-sele_ His youthe hym haleth,' &c. Hoccleve, De Regim. Principum, p. 22.

Again, in Allit. Poems, ed. Morris, iii. 448, the arbour formed by Jonah's gourd is called a _lefsel_.

4066. Lydgate has 'through thinne and thikke'; Siege of Troy, fol. Cc. 6, back.

4078. _geen_, goon; so in MS. E., which again has _neen_, none, 4185. The usual Northern form is _gan_ (= _gaan_), as in Hl.; Hn. Ln. have _gane_. But we also find _gayn_, as in Wallace, iv. 102; Bruce, ii. 80. [124] The forms _geen_, _neen_, are so remarkable that they are likely to be the original ones.

4086. 'I am very swift of foot, God knows, (even) as is a roe; by God's heart, he shall not escape us both; why hadst thou not put the horse in the barn?' 'Light as a rae' [roe]; Tournament of Tottenham, st. 15.

4088. _capul_, a horse, occurs again, in D. 2150. _lathe_, a barn, is still in use in some parts of Yorkshire, but chiefly in local designations, being otherwise obsolescent; see the Cleveland and Whitby Glossaries. 'The northern man writing to his neighbour may say, "My _lathe_ standeth neer the _kirkegarth_," for My barne standeth neere the churchyard:' Coote's Eng. Schoolemaster, 1632 (Nares). Ray gives: '_Lathe_, a barn' in 1691; and we again find '_Leath_, a barn' in 1781 (E. D. S. Gloss. B. 1); and '_Leath_, _Laith_, a barn' in 1811 (E. D. S. Gloss. B. 7); in all cases as a Northern word.

4096. 'Trim his beard,' i. e. cheat him; and so again in D. 361. See Chaucer's Hous of Fame, 689, and my note upon it.

'Myght I thaym have spyde, I had _made thaym a berd_.' Towneley Mysteries, p. 144.

4101. _Iossa_, 'down here'; a cry of direction. Composed of O. F. _jos_, _jus_, down; and _ça_, here. Bartsch gives an example of _jos_ in his Chrestomathie, 1875, col 8: 'tuit li felun cadegren _jos_,' all the felons fell down; and Cotgrave has: '_Jus_, downe, or to the ground.' Godefroy gives: _ça jus_, here below, down here. It is clearly a direction given by one clerk to the other, and was probably a common cry in driving horses.

_warderere_, i. e. _warde arere_, 'look out behind!' Another similar cry. MS. Cm. has: _ware the rere_, mind the rear, which is a sort of gloss upon it.

4110. _hething_, contempt. See numerous examples in Mätzner, s. v. _hæthing_, ii. 396. Cf. 'Bothe in _hething_ and in _scorn_'; Sir Amadace, l. 17, in Robson's _Three Met. Romances_, p. 27. 'Him thoght _scorn_ and gret _hething_'; Seven Sages, ed. Weber, l. 91.

4112. The first foot is 'trochaic.'

4115. _in his hond_, in his possession, in his hold.

4126. 'Or enlarge it by argument'; prove by logic that it is the size you wish it to be.

4127. _Cutberd_, St. Cuthbert, bishop of Lindisfarne, died in 686. Being a Northumberland man, John swears by a Northumberland saint.

4130. Evidently a proverb: 'a man must take (one) of two things, either such as he finds or such as he brings'; i. e. must put up with what he can get.

4134. Another proverb. Repeated in D. 415, with _lure_ for _tulle_. From the Policraticus of John of Salisbury, liv. v. c. 10: 'Veteri [125] celebratur proverbio: Quia vacuae manus temeraria petitio est.' MS. Cm. has the rimes _folle_, _tolle_. For _tulle_, a commoner spelling is _tille_, to draw, hence to allure, entice. Hence E. _till_ (for money), orig. meaning a 'drawer'; and the _tiller_ of a rudder, by which it is drawn aside. See _tullen_ in Stratmann, and _tollen_ in Boeth. bk. ii. pr. 7. 11 (in vol. ii. p. 45).

4140. _chalons_, blankets. The same word as mod. E. _shalloon_, 'a slight woollen stuff'; Ogilvie's Dict. 'The blanket was sometimes made of a texture originally imported from Chalons in France, but afterwards extensively manufactured in England by the Chaloners'; Our Eng. Home, p. 108. 'Qwyltes ne _chalouns_'; Eng. Gilds, ed. Toulmin Smith, p. 350.

4152. _quakke_, asthma, or difficulty of breathing that causes a croaking noise. Halliwell gives: '_Quack_, to be noisy, _West_. The term is applied to any croaking noise.' Also: '_Quackle_, to choke, or suffocate, _East_.' _Pose_, a cold in the head; A. S. _gepos_.

4155. '_To wet one's whistle_' is still in use for to drink deeply. '_I wete my whystell_, as good drinkers do'; Palsgrave, p. 780. In Walton's Complete Angler, Part i. ch. 5, we find: 'Let's drink the other cup to _wet our whistles_.'

4172. _wilde fyr_, erysipelas (to torment them); see Halliwell. Cf. E. 2252. The entry--'_Erysipela_ (_sic_), wilde fyr' occurs in Ælfric's Vocabulary. So in Le Rom. de la Rose:--'que Mal-Feu l'arde'; 7438, 8319.

4174. _flour_, choice, best of a thing; _il ending_, evil death, bad end. 'They shall have the best (i. e. here, the worst) of a bad end.' Rather a wish than a prophecy.

4181. Sidenote in MS. Hl.--'Qui in vno grauatur in alio debet releuari.' A Law Maxim.

4194. _upright_, upon her back. 'To slepe on the backe, _vpryght_, is vtterly to be abhorred'; Babees Book, ed. Furnivall, p. 245. Palsgrave, s. v. _Throwe_, has: 'I throwe a man _on his backe_ or _upright_, so that his face is upwarde, _Ie renuerse_.' And see Nares. Cf. 'Now dounward groffe [on your belly], and now _upright_'; Rom. Rose, 2561. _Bolt-upright_ occurs in l. 4266; where _bolt_ is 'like a bolt,' hence 'straight,' or exactly. See _Bolt_, adv., in the New E. Dictionary. And compare B. 1506.

4208. _daf_, fool; from E. _daf-t_. _cokenay_, a milk-sop, poor creature. The orig. sense of _coken-ay_ is 'cocks' egg,' from a singular piece of folk-lore which credited cocks with laying such eggs as happen to be imperfect. 'The small yolkless eggs which hens sometimes lay are called "cocks' eggs," generally in the firm persuasion that the name states a fact'; Shropshire Folklore, by C. S. Burne, p. 229. The idea is old, and may be found gravely stated as a fact in Bartolomæus De Proprietatibus Rerum (14th century). See _Cockney_ in the New E. Dictionary.

4210. _Unhardy is unsely_, the cowardly man has no luck. 'Audentes [126] fortuna iuuat'; Vergil, Aen. x. 284. So also our 'Nothing venture, nothing have,' and 'Faint heart never won fair lady'; which see in Hazlitt's Proverbs. For _seel_, luck, see l. 4239. See Troil. iv. 602, and the note.

4220. Pronounce _ben'cite_ in three syllables; as usual.

4233. _The thridde cok_; apparently, between 5 and 6 A.M.; see note to line 3675 above. It was near dawn; see l. 4249.

4236. _Malin_, another form of _Malkin_, which is a pet-name for _Matilda_. See my note to P. Plowman, C. ii. 181, where my statement that _Malkin_ occurs in the present passage refers to Tyrwhitt's edition, which substitutes _Malkin_ for the _Malin_ or _Malyn_ of the MSS. and of ed. 1532. Cf. B. 30.

'_Malyn_, tersorium,' Cath. Anglicum; i. e. _Malin_, like _Malkin_, also meant a dishclout. _Malin_ has now become _Molly_.

4244. _cake._ In Wright's Glossaries, ed. Wülker, col. 788, l. 36, we find, '_Hic panis subverucius_, a meleres cake'; on which Wright remarks: 'Perhaps this name alludes to the common report that the miller always stole the flour from his customers to make his cakes, which were baked on the sly.'

4253. _toty_, in the seven MSS.; _totty_ in ed. 1532. It means 'dizzy, reeling'; and Halliwell, s. v. _Totty_, quotes from MS. Rawl. C. 86: 'So _toty_ was the brayn of his hede.' Cf. 'And some also so _toty_ in theyr heade'; Lydgate, Siege of Troy, ed. 1555, fol. L 1, back. Spenser has the word twice, as _tottie_ or _totty_, and evidently copied it from this very passage, which he read in a black-letter edition; see his Shep. Kal., _February_, 55, and F. Q. vii. 7. 39. Cf. E. _totter_.

4257. _a twenty devel way_, with extremely ill-luck. See note to l. 3713.

4264. Compare B. 1417.

4272. _linage_; her grandfather was a priest; see note to l. 3943.

4278. _poke_, bag; cf. the proverb, 'To buy a pig in a poke.'

'Than on the grounde together rounde With many a sadde stroke They roule and rumble, they turne and tumble, _As pygges do in a poke_.' Sir T. More, A Merrie Iest, &c. (1510).

This juvenile poem by Sir T. More is printed in Hazlitt's Popular Poetry, iii. 128, and in the Preface to Todd's Johnson.

4286. _Bromeholm._ A piece of what was supposed to be the true cross was brought from the East by an English priest to Norfolk in 1223, and immediately became famous as an object of pilgrimage. It is called the 'Rode [rood] of Bromeholme' in P. Plowman, B. v. 231; see my note to that line.

4287. The full form is quoted in the note to Scott's Marmion, can. ii. st. 13:--'In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum; a vinculis enim mortis redemisti me, Domine veritatis, Amen.' In [127] Ratis Raving, &c., ed. Lumby, p. 8, l. 263, the form ends with 'spiritum meum, domine, deus veritatis.' In Reliquiae Antiquae, i. 235, the following translation of the Latin form is given:--

'Loverd Godd, in hondes thine I bequethe soule mine; Thu me boctest with thi deadd, Loverd Godd of sothfastheedd.'

It here occurs in company with the Creed, the Paternoster, and the Ave Maria; so that it was one of the very common religious formulae which were familiar, even in the Latin form, to people of no education. They frequently knew the words of these forms, without knowing more than the general sense. _In manus tuas_, &c., was even recited by criminals before being hung; see Skelton's Works, ed. Dyce, i. 5, 292, ii. 268. The words are mostly taken from the Vulgate version of Luke, xxiii. 46.

4290. _oon_, one, some one; not common at this date.

4295. Cf. Roman de la Rose, 12720:--'Qui set bien de l'ostel les _estres_,' i. e. who knows well the inner parts of the hostel. See note to A. 1971 above.

4302. _volupeer_, nightcap; see note to A. 3241.

4307. _harrow_, a cry for help; see note to A. 3286.

4320. _Him thar_, lit. 'it needs him,' i. e. he need, he must. For _thar_, ed. 1532 has _dare_, which Tyrwhitt rightly corrects to _thar_, which occurs again in D. 329, 336, 1365, and H. 352. It is common enough in early authors; the full form is _tharf_, as in Owl and Nightingale, 803 (or 180), Moral Ode (Jesus MS.), 44; spelt _tharrf_, Ormulum, 12886; _therf_, Ancren Riwle, p. 192; _darf_, Floris and Blancheflur, 315; _derf_, O. Eng. Homilies, ed. Morris, i. 187, l. 31; _dar_, Octovian, 1337; &c. The pt. t. is _thurfte_, _thurte_, _thorte_; see _tharf_ and _thurfen_ in Stratmann, and cf. A. S. _thearf_, pt. t. _thurfte_. For _wene_, the correct reading, Tyrwhitt substitutes _winne_, against all authority, because he could make no sense of _wene_. It is odd that he should have missed the sense so completely. _Wene_ is to imagine, think, also to expect; and the line means 'he must not expect good who does evil.' The very word is preserved by Ray, in his Proverbs, 3rd ed., 1737, p. 288:--'He that evil does, never good _weines_.' Hazlitt quotes a proverb to a like effect: 'He that does what he should not, shall feel what he would not.' Cf. 'Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap'; Gal. vi. 7.

4321. A common proverb; cf. Ps. vii. 16, ix. 15.

'For often he that will beguile Is guiled with the same guile, And thus the guiler is beguiled.' Gower, Conf. Amant (bk. vi), iii. 47.

'Begyled is the gyler thanne'; Rom. Rose, 5759.

See further in my note to P. Plowman, C. xxxi. 166, and Kemble's Solomon and Saturn, p. 63. Le Rom. de la Rose, 7381, has:--'Qui les deceveors deçoivent.' [128]

I can add another example from Caxton's Fables of Æsop, lib. ii. fab. 12 (The Fox and the Stork):--'And therfore he that begyleth other is oftyme begyled hymself.'

THE COOK'S PROLOGUE.

4329. _herbergage_, lodging; alluding to l. 4123.

4331. Not from Solomon, but from Ecclesiasticus, xi. 31: 'Non omnem hominem inducas in domum tuum; multae enim sunt insidiae dolosi.' In the E. version, it is verse 29.

4336. _Hogge_, Hodge, for _Roger_ (l. 4353). _Ware_, in Hertfordshire.

4346. _laten blood_, let blood, i. e. removed gravy from. It refers to a meat-pie, baked with gravy in it; as it was not sold the day it was made, the gravy was removed to make it keep longer; and so the pie was eaten at last, when far from being new.

4347. The meaning of 'a Jack of Dover' has been much disputed, but it probably meant a pie that had been cooked more than once. Some have thought it meant a sole (probably a fried sole), as 'Dover soles' are still celebrated; but this is only a guess, and seems to be wrong. Sir T. More, Works, p. 675 E, speaks of a '_Jak of Paris_, an evil pye twyse baken'; which is probably the same thing. Roquefort's _French Dict._ has:--

'_Jaquet_, _Jaket_, impudent, menteur. C'est sans doute de ce mot que les pâtissiers ont pris leur mot d'argot _jaques_, pour signifier qu'une pièce de volaille, de viande ou de pâtisserie cuite au four, est vieille ou dure.'

See Hazlitt's Proverbs, p. 20; and Hazlitt's Shakespeare Jest-books, ii. 366. Hence, in a secondary sense, _Jack of Dover_ meant an old story, or hashed up anecdote. Ray says:--'This he [T. Fuller] makes parallel to _Crambe bis cocta_, and applicable to such as grate the ears of their auditors with ungrateful tautologies of what is worthless in itself; tolerable as once uttered in the notion of novelty, but abominable if repeated.' This may explain the fact that an old jest-book was printed with the title _A Jack of Dover_ in 1604, and again in 1615. The E. word _jack_ has indeed numerous senses.

4350. The insinuation is that stray flies were mixed up with the parsley served up with the Cook's geese. Tyrwhitt quotes from MS. Harl. 279--'Take _percely_,' &c. in a receipt for stuffing a goose; so that parsley was sometimes used for this purpose. It was also used for stuffing chickens; see Liber Cure Cocorum, ed. Morris, p. 22.

4357. 'A true jest is an evil jest.' Hazlitt, in his Collection of Proverbs, gives, 'True jest is no jest,' and quotes 'Sooth bourd is no bourd' from Heywood, and from Harington's Brief Apologie of Poetrie, 1591. Kelly's Scotch Proverbs includes: 'A sooth bourd is nae bourd.' Tyrwhitt alters the second _play_ to _spel_, as being a Flemish word, but he only found it in two MSS. (Askew 1 and 2), and nothing is gained [129] by it. The fact is, that there is nothing Flemish about the proverb except the word _quad_, though there may have been an equivalent proverb in that language. We must take Chaucer's remark to mean that 'Sooth play is what a Fleming would call _quaad_ play'; which is then quite correct. For just as Flemish does not use the English words _sooth_ and _play_, so English seldom uses the Flemish form _quaad_, equivalent to the Dutch _kwaad_, evil, bad, spelt _quade_ in Hexham's Du. Dict. (1658). Cf. also O. Friesic _kwad_, _quad_, East Friesic _kwâd_ (still in common use). The Mid. Eng. form is not _quad_, but (properly) _qu[=e]d_ or _queed_; see examples in Stratmann, s. v. _cwêd_. In P. Plowman, B. xiv. 189, _the qued_ means the Evil One, the devil. _Queed_ occurs as a sb. as late as in Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 168. We find, however, the rare M. E. form _quad_ in Gower, ed. Pauli, ii. 246, and in the Story of Genesis and Exodus, ed. Morris, 536; and in another passage of the Cant. Tales, viz. B. 1628. The oldest English examples seem to be those in the Blickling Glosses, viz. 'of cweade arærende, _de stercore erigens_'; and 'cwed _uel_ meox, _stercus_.' There is no difficulty about the etymology; the corresponding O. H. G. word is _qu[=a]t_, whence G. _Koth_ or _Kot_, excrement; and the root appears in the Skt. _gu_ or _g[=u]_, to void excrement; see _Kot_ in Kluge.

4358. This is interesting, as giving us the Host's name. _Herry_ is the mod. E. _Harry_, with the usual change from _er_ to _ar_, as in M. E. _derk_, dark, &c. It is the same as the F. _Herri_ (not uncommon in O. F.), made from F. _Henri_ by assimilation of _nr_ to _rr_.

The name seems to have been taken from that of a real person. In the Subsidy Rolls, 4 Rich. II. (1380-1), for Southwark, occurs the entry--'Henri' Bayliff, Ostyler, Xpian [Christian] ux[or] eius ... ij s.' In the parliament held at Westminster, in 50 Edw. III. (1376-7), Henry Bailly was one of the representatives for that borough; and again, in the parliament at Gloucester, 2 Rich. II., the name occurs. See Notes and Queries, 2 S. iii. 228.

THE COKES TALE.

4368. 'Brown as a berry.' So in A. 207.

4377. 'There were sometimes Justs in Cheapside; Hollingshead, vol. ii. p. 348. But perhaps any procession may be meant.'--Tyrwhitt. 'Cheapside was the grand scene of city festivals and processions.'--Wright.

4379. T. has _And til_, but his note says that _And_ was inserted by himself. Wright reads, 'And tyl he hadde'; but _And_ is not in the Harleian MS. Observe that Wright insists very much on the fact that he reproduces this MS. 'with literal accuracy,' though he allows himself, according to his own account, to make silent alterations due to collation with the Lansdowne MS. But the word _And_ is not to be found in any of the seven MSS., and this is only _one_ example of the numerous cases in which he has _silently_ altered his text without any [130] MS. authority at all. His text, in fact, is full of treacherous pitfalls; and Bell's edition is quite as bad, though that likewise pretends to be accurate.

The easiest way of scanning the line is to ignore the elision of the final _e_ in _had-de_, which is preserved, as often, by the cæsural pause.

4383. _sette steven_, made an appointment; see A. 1524.

4394. 'Though he (the master) may have,' &c.

4396. 'Though he (the apprentice) may know how to play,' &c. Opposed to l. 4394. The sense is--'The master pays for the revelling of the apprentice, though he takes no part in such revel; and conversely, the apprentice may gain skill in minstrelsy, but takes no part in paying for it; for, in his case, his rioting is convertible with theft.' The master pays, but plays not; the other pays not, but plays.

4397. 'Revelling and honesty, in the case of one of low degree (who has no money), are continually wrath with (i. e. opposed to) each other.'

4402. 'And sometimes carried off to Newgate, with revel (such as he might be supposed to approve of).' The point of the allusion lies in the fact that, when disorderly persons were carried to prison, they were preceded _by minstrels_, in order to call public attention to their disgrace. This is clearly shewn in the Liber Albus, pp. 459, 460, (p. 396 of the E. translation). E. g. 'Item, if any person shall be impeached of adultery, and be thereof lawfully attainted, let him be _taken unto Newgate_, and from thence, _with minstrelsy_, through Chepe, to the Tun on Cornhulle [Cornhill], there to remain at the will of the mayor and alderman.'

4404. _paper._ The allusion is not clear; perhaps it means that he was referring to his account-book, and found it unsatisfactory.

4406. In Hazlitt's Proverbs we find; 'The rotten apple injures its neighbour.' Cf. G. 964.

In the Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 205, we are bidden to avoid bad company, because a rotten apple rots the sound ones, if left among them.

In Ida von Düringsfeld's Sprichwörter, 1872-5, no. 354, is:--'Ein fauler Apfel steckt den andern an. Pomum compunctum cito corrumpit sibi iunctum.'

4413. _his leve_, his leave to go, his dismissal, his _congé_.

4414. _or leve_, or leave it, i. e. or desist from it.

4415. _for_, because, since. _louke_, an accomplice who entices the dupe into the thief's company, a decoyer of victims. Not 'a receiver to a thief,' as Tyrwhitt guessed, but his assistant in thieving, one who helped him (as Chaucer says) to suck others by stealing or borrowing. It answers to an A. S. _*l[=u]ca_ (not found), formed with the agential suffix _-a_ from _l[=u]can_, lit. to pull, pluck, root up weeds, hence (probably) to draw, entice. The corresponding E. Friesic _l[=u]kan_ or _lukan_ means not only to pull, pluck, but also to milk or suck (see Koolman). The Low G. _luken_ means not only to pull up weeds, but [131] also to suck down, or to take a long pull in drinking; hence O. F. _louchier_, _loukier_, to swallow. From the A. S. _l[=u]can_, to pluck up, comes the common prov. E. _louk_, _lowk_, _look_, to pluck up weeds; see Ray, Whitby Glossary, &c.

4417. _brybe_, to purloin; not to bribe in the modern sense; see the New E. Dict.

4422. Here the Tale suddenly breaks off; so it was probably never finished.

*** See Notes to Gamelin at the end of the Notes to the Tales.

* * * * *

[132]

NOTES TO GROUP B.

INTRODUCTION TO THE MAN OF LAWES TALE.

1. If, as Mr. Furnivall supposes, the time of the telling of the Canterbury Tales be taken to be longer than one day, we may suppose the Man of Lawes Tale to begin the stories told on the _second_ morning of the journey, April 18. Otherwise, we must suppose all the stories in Group A to precede it, which is not impossible, if we suppose the pilgrims to have started early in the morning.

_Hoste._ This is one of the words which are sometimes dissyllabic, and sometimes monosyllabic; it is here a dissyllable, as in l. 39. See note to line 1883 below.

_sey_, i. e. saw. The forms of 'saw' vary in the MSS. In this line we find _saugh_, _sauh_, _segh_, _sauhe_, _sawh_, none of which are Chaucer's own, but due to the scribes. The true form is determined by the rime, as in the Clerkes Tale, E. 667, where most of the MSS. have _say_. A still better spelling is _sey_, which may be found in the House of Fame, 1151, where it rimes with _lay_. The A. S. form is _s[=e]ah_.

2. _The ark_, &c. In Chaucer's Treatise on the Astrolabe, pt. ii. ch. 7 (vol. iii. 194), is the proposition headed--'to knowe the arch of the day, that some folk callen the day artificial, from the sonne arysing til hit go to reste.' Thus, while the 'day natural' is twenty-four hours, the 'day artificial' is the time during which the sun is above the horizon. The 'arc' of this day merely means the extent or duration of it, as reckoned along the circular rim of an astrolabe; or, when measured along the horizon (as here), it means the arc extending from the point of sunrise to that of sunset. _ronne_, run, performed, completed.

3. _The fourthe part._ The true explanation of this passage, which Tyrwhitt failed to discover, is due to Mr. A. E. Brae, who first published it in May, 1851, and reprinted it at p. 68 of his edition of Chaucer's Treatise on the Astrolabe. His conclusions were based upon actual calculation, and will be mentioned in due order. In re-editing the 'Astrolabe,' I took the opportunity of roughly checking his calculations by other methods, and am satisfied that he is quite correct, and that the day meant is not the 28th of April, as in the Ellesmere MS., nor the 13th of April, as in the Harleian MS., but the 18th, as in the Hengwrt [133] MS. and most others. It is easily seen that _xviii_ may be corrupted into _xxviii_ by prefixing _x_, or into _xiii_ by the omission of _v_; this may account for the variations.

The key to the whole matter is given by a passage in Chaucer's 'Astrolabe,' pt. ii. ch. 29, where it is clear that Chaucer (who, however, merely translates from Messahala) actually confuses the hour-angle with the azimuthal arc; that is, he considered it correct to find the hour of the day by noting _the point of the horizon_ over which the sun appears to stand, and supposing this point to advance, with a _uniform_, not a _variable_, motion. The host's method of proceeding was this. Wanting to know the hour, he observed how far the sun had moved southward along the horizon since it rose, and saw that it had gone more than half-way from the point of sunrise to the exact southern point. Now the 18th of April in Chaucer's time answers to the 26th of April at present. On April 26, 1874, the sun rose at 4h. 43m., and set at 7h. 12m., giving a day of about 14h. 30m., the fourth part of which is at 8h. 20m., or, with sufficient exactness, at _half-past eight_. This would leave a whole hour and a half to signify Chaucer's 'half an houre and more,' shewing that further explanation is still necessary. The fact is, however, that the host reckoned, as has been said, in another way, viz. by observing the sun's position _with reference to the horizon_. On April 18 the sun was in the 6th degree of Taurus at that date, as we again learn from Chaucer's treatise. Set this 6th degree of Taurus on the East horizon on a globe, and it is found to be 22 degrees to the North of the East point, or 112 degrees from the South. The half of this is at 56 degrees from the South; and the sun would seem to stand above this 56th degree, as may be seen even upon a globe, at about a quarter past nine; but Mr. Brae has made the calculation, and shews that it was at _twenty minutes past nine_. This makes Chaucer's 'half an houre and more' to stand for _half an hour and ten minutes_; an extremely neat result. But this we can check again by help of the host's _other_ observation. He _also_ took note, that the lengths of a shadow and its object were equal, whence the sun's altitude must have been 45 degrees. Even a globe will shew that the sun's altitude, when in the 6th degree of Taurus, and at 10 o'clock in the morning, is somewhere about 45 or 46 degrees. But Mr. Brae has calculated it exactly, and his result is, that the sun attained its altitude of 45 degrees at _two minutes to ten_ exactly. This is even a closer approximation than we might expect, and leaves no doubt about the right date being the _eighteenth_ of April. For fuller particulars, see Chaucer on the Astrolabe, ed. Brae, p. 69; and ed. Skeat (E.E.T.S.), preface, p. 1.

5. _eightetethe_, eighteenth. Mr. Wright prints _eightetene_, with the remark that 'this is the reading in which the MSS. seem mostly to agree.' This is right in substance, but not critically exact. No such word as _eightetene_ appears here in the MSS., which denote the number by an abbreviation, as stated in the footnote. The Hengwrt MS. has _xviijthe_, and the Old English for _eighteenth_ must have have been [134] _eightetethe_, the ordinal, not the cardinal number. This form is easily inferred from the numerous examples in which _-teenth_ is represented by _-tethe_; see _feowertethe_, _fiftethe_, &c. in Stratmann's Old English Dictionary; we find the very form _eightetethe_ in Rob. of Glouc., ed. Wright, 6490; and _eighteteothe_ in St. Swithin, l. 5, as printed in Poems and Lives of Saints, ed. Furnivall, 1858, p. 43. _Eighte_ is of two syllables, from A. S. _eahta_, cognate with Lat. _octo_. _Eightetethe_ has four syllables; see A. 3223, and the note.

8. _as in lengthe_, with respect to its length.

13. The astrolabe which Chaucer gave to his little son Lewis was adapted for the latitude of Oxford. If, as is likely, the poet-astronomer checked his statements in this passage by a reference to it, he would neglect the difference in latitude between Oxford and the Canterbury road. In fact, it is less than a quarter of a degree, and not worth considering in the present case.

14. _gan conclude_, did conclude, concluded. _Gan_ is often used thus as an auxiliary verb.

15. _plighte_, plucked; cf. _shrighte_, shrieked, in Kn. A. 2817.--M.

16. _Lordinges_, sirs. This form of address is exceedingly common in Early English poetry. Cf. the first line in the Tale of Sir Thopas.

18. _seint Iohn._ See the Squire's Tale, F. 596.

19. _Leseth_, lose ye; note the form of the imperative plural in _-eth_; cf. l. 37. _As ferforth as ye may_, as far as lies in your power.

20. _wasteth_, consumeth; cf. _wastour_, a wasteful person, in P. Plowm. B. vi. 154.--M. Hl. has _passeth_, i. e. passes away; several MSS. insert _it_ before _wasteth_, but it is not required by the metre, since the _e_ in _time_ is here fully sounded; cf. A. S. _t[=i]ma_. Compare--

'The tyme, that passeth night and day, And rest[e]lees travayleth ay, And _steleth_ from us so prively, . . . . . . _As water that doun runneth ay,_ _But never drope returne may_,' &c. Romaunt of the Rose, l. 369.

See also Clerkes Tale, E. 118.

21. _what._ We now say--what with. It means, 'partly owing to.'

22. _wakinge_; strictly, it means _watching_; but here, _in our wakinge_ = whilst we are awake.

23. Cf. Ovid, Art. Amat. iii. 62-65:--

'Ludite; eunt anni more fluentis aquae. Nec quae praeteriit, cursu reuocabitur unda; Nec, quae praeteriit, hora redire potest. Utendum est aetate; cito pede labitur aetas.'

25. Seneca wrote a treatise De Breuitate Temporis, but this does not contain any passage very much resembling the text. I have no doubt that Chaucer was thinking of a passage which may easily have caught [135] his eye, as being very near the beginning of the first of Seneca's epistles. 'Quaedam tempora eripiuntur nobis, quaedam subducuntur, quaedam _effluunt. Turpissima tamen est iactura, quae per negligentiam fit._ Quem mihi dabis, qui aliquod pretium tempori ponat? qui diem aestimet?... In huius rei unius fugacis ac lubricae possessionem natura nos misit, ex qua expellit quicumque uult; et tanta stultitia mortalium est, ut, quae minima et uilissima sint, _certe reparabilia_, imputari sibi, quum impetrauere, patiantur; nemo se iudicet quidquam debere, qui tempus accepit, quum interim _hoc unum est, quod ne gratus quidem potest reddere_'; Epist. I.; Seneca Lucilio suo.

30. _Malkin_; a proverbial name for a wanton woman; see P. Plowman, C. ii. 181 (B. i. 182), and my note. 'There are more maids than Malkin'; Heywood's Proverbs.

32. _moulen_, lit. 'become mouldy'; hence, be idle, stagnate, remain sluggish, rot. See _Mouldy_ in the Appendix to my Etym. Dict. 2nd ed. 1884; and cf. note to A. 3870.

33. _Man of Lawe._ This is the 'sergeant of the lawe' described in the Prologue, ll. 309-330. _So have ye blis_, so may you obtain bliss; as you hope to reach heaven.

34. _as forward is_, as is the agreement. See Prologue, A. 33, 829.

35. _been submitted_, have agreed. This illustrates the common usage of expressing a perfect by the verb _to be_ and the past part. of an _intransitive_ verb. Cf. _is went_, in B. 1730.--M.

36. _at my Iugement_, at my decree; ready to do as I bid you. See Prologue, A. 818 and 833.

37. _Acquiteth yow_, acquit yourself, viz. by redeeming your promise. _holdeth your biheste_, keep your promise. _Acquit_ means to absolve or free oneself from a debt, obligation, charge, &c.; or to free oneself from the claims of duty, by fulfilling it.

38. _devoir_, duty; see Knightes Tale, A. 2598.

_atte leste_, at the least. _Atte_ or _atten_ is common in Old English for _at the_ or _at then_; the latter is a later form of A. S. _æt þ[=a]m_, where _then_ (= _þ[=a]m_) is the dative case of the article. But for the explanation of peculiar forms and words, the Glossarial Index should be consulted.

39. For _ich_, Tyrwhitt reads _jeo_ = _je_, though found in none of our seven MSS. This makes the whole phrase French--_de par dieux jeo assente_. Mr. Jephson suggests that this is a clever hit of Chaucer's, because he makes the Man of Lawe talk in French, with which, as a lawyer, he was very familiar. However, we find elsewhere--

'Quod Troilus, "_depardieux I assente_";'--

and again--

'"_Depardieux_," quod she, "god leve al be wel";' Troilus and Cres. ii. 1058 and 1212;

and in the Freres Tale, D. 1395--

'"_Depardieux_," quod this yeman, "dere brother."'

[136]

It is much more to the point to observe that the Man of Lawe talks about _law_ in l. 43. Cotgrave, in his French Dictionary, under _par_, gives--'_De par Dieu soit_, a [i. e. in] God's name be it. _De par moy_, by my means. _De par le roy_, by the king's appointment.' _De par_ is a corruption of O.Fr. _de part_, on the part or side of; so that _de par le roy_ means literally, 'as for the king,' i. e. 'in the king's name.' Similarly, _de par Dieu_ is 'in God's name.' See Burguy, Grammaire de la Langue D'oil, ii. 359. The form _dieux_ is a _nominative_, from the Latin _deus_; thus exhibiting an exception to the almost universal law in French, that the modern F. substantives answer to the _accusative_ cases of Latin substantives, as _fleur_ to _florem_, &c. Other exceptions may be found in some proper names, as _Charles_, _Jacques_, from _Carolus_, _Jacobus_, and in _fils_, from _filius_.

41. In the Morality entitled Everyman, in Hazlitt's Old Eng. Plays, i. 137, is the proverb--'Yet promise is debt.' Mr. Hazlitt wrongly considers that as the earliest instance of the phrase.--M. Cf. Hoccleve, De Regim. Principum, p. 64:--'And of a trewe man _beheest is dette_.'

_holde fayn_, &c.; gladly perform all my promise.

43. _man ... another_ = one ... another. The Cambridge MS. is right.--M. 'For whatever law a man imposes on others, he should in justice consider as binding on himself.' This is obviously a _quotation_, as appears from l. 45. The expression referred to was probably proverbial. An English proverb says--'They that make the laws must not break them'; a Spanish one--'El que ley establece, guardarla debe,' he who makes a law ought to keep it; and a Latin one--'Patere legem quam ipse tulisti,' abide by the law which you made yourself. The idea is expanded in the following passage from Claudian's Panegyric on the 4th consulship of Honorius, carm. viii., l. 296.--

'In commune iubes si quid censesue tenendum, Primus iussa subi; tunc obseruantior aequi Fit populus, nec ferre negat cum uiderit ipsum Auctorem parere sibi.'

45. _text_, quotation from an author, precept, saying. _Thus wol our text_, i. e. such is what the expression implies.

47. _But._ This reading is given by Tyrwhitt, from MS. Dd. 4. 24 in the Cambridge University Library and two other MSS. All our seven MSS. read _That_; but this would require the word _Nath_ (hath not) instead of _Hath_, in l. 49. Chaucer talks about his writings in a similar strain in A. 746, 1460; and at a still earlier period, in his House of Fame, 620, where Jupiter's eagle says to him:--

'And nevertheles hast set thy wit, Although that in thy hede ful lyte is, To make bokes, songes, dytees, In ryme, or elles in cadence, As thou best canst, in reverence Of Love, and of his servants eke'; &c.

[137]

_can but lewedly on metres_, is but slightly skilled in metre. _Can_ = _knows_ here; in the line above it is the ordinary auxiliary verb.

54. Ovid is mentioned for two reasons; because he has so many love-stories, and because Chaucer himself borrowed several of his own from Ovid.

_made of mencioun_; we should now say--'made mention of.'

55. _Epistelles_, Epistles. (T. prints _Epistolis_, the Lat. form, without authority. The word has here four syllables.) The book referred to is Ovid's Heroides, which contains twenty-one love-letters. See note to l. 61.

56. _What_, why, on what account? cf. Prologue, A. 184.

57. 'The story of Ceyx and Alcyone is related in the introduction to the poem which was for some time called "The Dreme of Chaucer," but which, in the MSS. Fairfax 16 and Bodl. 638, is more properly entitled, "The Boke of the Duchesse."'--Tyrwhitt. Chaucer took it from Ovid's Metamorphoses, bk. xi. 'Ceyx and Alcyone' was once, probably, an independent poem; see vol. i. p. 63.

59. _Thise_ is a monosyllable; the final _e_ probably denotes that _s_ was 'voiced,' and perhaps the _i_ was long, pronounced (dhiiz).

59, 60. For _eek_, _seek_, read _eke_, _seke_. Here _sek-e_ is in the infinitive mood. The form _ek-e_ is not etymological, as the A.S. _[=e]ac_ was a monosyllable; but, as _-e_ frequently denoted an _adverbial_ suffix, it was easily added. Hence, in M.E., both _eek_ and _ek-e_ occur; and Chaucer uses either form at pleasure, _ek-e_ being more usual. For examples of _eek_, see E. 1349, G. 794.

61. _the seintes legende of Cupyde_; better known now as The Legend of Good Women. Tyrwhitt says--'According to Lydgate (Prologue to Boccace), the number [of good women] was to have been _nineteen_; and perhaps the Legend itself affords some ground for this notion; see l. 283, and Court of Love, l. 108. But this number was never completed, and the last story, of Hypermnestra, is seemingly unfinished.... In this passage the Man of Lawe omits two ladies, viz. Cleopatra and Philomela, whose histories are in the Legend; and he enumerates eight others, of whom there are no histories in the Legend as we have it at present. Are we to suppose, that they have been lost?' The Legend contains the nine stories following: 1. Cleopatra; 2. Thisbe; 3. Dido; 4. Hypsipyle and Medea; 5. Lucretia; 6. Ariadne; 7. Philomela; 8. Phyllis; 9. Hypermnestra. Of these, Chaucer here mentions, as Tyrwhitt points out, all but two, Cleopatra and Philomela. Before discussing the matter further, let me note that in medieval times, proper names took strange shapes, and the reader must not suppose that the writing of _Adriane_ for _Ariadne_, for example, is peculiar to Chaucer. The meaning of the other names is as follows:--_Lucresse_, Lucretia; _Babilan Tisbee_, Thisbe of Babylon; _Enee_, Æneas; _Dianire_, Deianira; _Hermion_, Hermione; _Adriane_, Ariadne; _Isiphilee_, Hypsipyle; _Leander_, _Erro_, Leander and Hero; _Eleyne_, Helena; _Brixseyde_, [138] Briseis (acc. Briseïda); _Ladomea_, Laodamia; _Ypermistra_, Hypermnestra; _Alceste_, Alcestis.

Returning to the question of Chaucer's plan for his Legend of Good Women, we may easily conclude what his intention was, though it was never carried out. He intended to write stories concerning nineteen women who were celebrated for being martyrs of love, and to conclude the series by an additional story concerning queen Alcestis, whom he regarded as the best of all the good women. Now, though he does not expressly say who these women were, he has left us two lists, both incomplete, in which he mentions some of them; and by combining these, and taking into consideration the stories which he actually wrote, we can make out the whole intended series very nearly. One of the lists is the one given here; the other is in a Ballad which is introduced into the Prologue to the Legend. The key to the incompleteness of the present list, certainly the later written of the two, is that the poet chiefly mentions _here_ such names as are _also_ to be found in Ovid's Heroides; cf. l. 55. Putting all the information together, it is sufficiently clear that Chaucer's intended scheme must have been very nearly as follows, the number of women (if we include Alcestis) being twenty.

1. Cleopatra. 2. Thisbe. 3. Dido. 4. and 5. Hypsipyle and Medea. 6. Lucretia. 7. Ariadne. 8. Philomela. 9. Phyllis. 10. Hypermnestra (unfinished). _After which_, 11. Penelope. 12. Briseis. 13. Hermione. 14. Deianira. 15. Laodamia. 16. Helen. 17. Hero. 18. Polyxena (see the Ballad). 19. _either_ Lavinia (see the Ballad), _or_ Oenone (mentioned in Ovid, and in the House of Fame). 20. Alcestis.

Since the list of stories in Ovid's Heroides is the best guide to the whole passage, it is here subjoined.

In this list, the numbers refer to the letters as numbered in Ovid; the italics shew the stories which Chaucer actually wrote; the asterisk points out such of the remaining stories as he happens to mention in the present enumeration; and the dagger points out the ladies mentioned in his Prologue to the Legend of Good Women.

1. Penelope Ulixi.*+ 2. _Phyllis Demophoonti._*+ 3. Briseis Achilli.* 4. Phaedra Hippolyto. 5. Oenone Paridi. 6. _Hypsipyle Iasoni_;*+ 12. _Medea Iasoni_.* 7. _Dido Aeneae._*+ 8. Hermione Orestae.* 9. Deianira Herculi.* 10. _Ariadne Theseo._*+ 11. Canace Macareo*+ (_expressly rejected_). 13. Laodamia Protesilao.*+ 14. _Hypermnestra Lynceo._*+ 15. Sappho Phaoni. [139] 16. Paris Helenae; 17. Helena Paridi.*+ 18. Leander Heroni; 19. Hero Leandro.*+ 20. Acontius Cydippae; 21. Cydippe Acontio.

Chaucer's method, I fear, was to plan more than he cared to finish. He did so with his Canterbury Tales, and again with his Treatise on the Astrolabe; and he left the Squire's Tale half-told. According to his own account (Prologue to Legend of Good Women, l. 481) he never intended to write his Legend _all at once_, but only 'yeer by yere.' Such proposals are dangerous, and commonly end in incompleteness. To Tyrwhitt's question--'are we to suppose that they [i. e. the legends of Penelope and others] have been lost?' the obvious answer is, that they were never written.

Chaucer alludes to Ovid's Epistles again in his House of Fame, bk. i., where he mentions the stories of Phyllis, Briseis, _Oenone_ (not mentioned _here_), Hypsipyle, Medea, Deianira, Ariadne, and Dido; the last being told at some length. Again, in the Book of the Duchesse, he alludes to Medea, Phyllis, and Dido (ll. 726-734); to Penelope and Lucretia (l. 1081); and to Helen (l. 331). As for the stories in the Legend which are not in Ovid's Heroides, we find that of Thisbe in Ovid's Metamorphoses, bk. iv; that of Philomela in the same, bk. vi; whilst those of Cleopatra and Lucretia are in Boccaccio's book De Claris Mulieribus, from which he imitated the title 'Legend _of Good Women_,' and derived also the story of Zenobia, as told in the Monkes Tale. However, Chaucer also consulted other sources, such as Ovid's Fasti (ii. 721) and Livy for Lucretia, &c. See my Introduction to the Legend in vol. iii. pp. xxv., xxxvii.

With regard to the title 'seintes legend of Cupide,' which in modern English would be 'Cupid's Saints' Legend,' or 'the Legend of Cupid's Saints,' Mr. Jephson remarks--'This name is one example of the way in which Chaucer entered into the spirit of the heathen pantheism, as a real form of religion. He considers these persons, who suffered for love, to have been saints and martyrs for Cupid, just as Peter and Paul and Cyprian were martyrs for Christ.'

63. Gower also tells the story of Tarquin and Lucrece, which he took, says Professor Morley (English Writers, iv. 230), from the Gesta Romanorum, which again had it from Augustine's De Civitate Dei.

_Babilan_, Babylonian; elsewhere Chaucer has _Babiloine_ = Babylon, riming with _Macedoine_; Book of the Duchesse, l. 1061.

64. _swerd_, sword; put here for death by the sword. See Virgil's Aeneid, iv. 646; and Chaucer's Legend of Good Women, 1351.

65. _tree_, put here, most likely, for death by hanging; cf. last line. In Chaucer's Legend, 2485, we find--

'She was her owne deeth right _with a corde_.'

The word may also be taken literally, since Phyllis was metamorphosed after her death into a tree; Gower says she became a nut-tree, and [140] derives _filbert_ from Phyllis; Conf. Amant. bk. iv. Lydgate writes _filbert_ instead of Phyllis; Complaint of Black Knight, l. 68.

66. _The pleinte of Dianire_, the complaint of Deianira, referring to Ovid's letter 'Deianira Herculi'; so also that of _Hermion_ refers to the letter entitled 'Hermione Orestae'; that of _Adriane_, to the 'Ariadne Theseo'; and that of _Isiphilee_, to the 'Hypsipyle Iasoni.'

68. _bareyne yle_, barren island; of which I can find no correct explanation by a previous editor. It refers to Ariadne, mentioned in the previous line. The expression is taken from Ariadne's letter to Theseus, in Ovid's Heroides, Ep. x. 59, where we find 'uacat insula cultu'; and just below--

'Omne latus terrae cingit mare; nauita nusquam, Nulla per ambiguas puppis itura uias.'

Or, without referring to Ovid at all, the allusion might easily have been explained by observing Chaucer's Legend of Ariadne, l. 2163, where the island is described as solitary and desolate. It is said to have been the isle of Naxos.

69. Scan--The dreynt | e Lé | andér |. Here the pp. _dreynt_ is used adjectivally, and takes the final _e_ in the definite form. So in the Book of the Duchesse, 195, it is best to read _the dreynte_; and in the House of Fame, 1783, we must read _the sweynte_.

75. _Alceste._ The story of Alcestis--'that turned was into a dayesie'--is sketched by Chaucer in his Prologue to the Legend, l. 511, &c. No doubt he intended to include her amongst the Good Women, as the very queen of them all.

78. _Canacee_; not the Canace of the Squieres Tale, whom Chaucer describes as so kind and good as well as beautiful, but Ovid's Canace. The story is told by Gower, Confess. Amantis, book iii. It is difficult to resist the conclusion that Chaucer is here making a direct attack upon Gower, his former friend; probably because Gower had, in some places, imitated the earlier edition of Chaucer's Man of Lawes Tale. This difficult question is fully discussed in vol. iii. pp. 413-7.

81. 'Or else the story of Apollonius of Tyre.' The form _Tyro_ represents the Lat. ablative in 'Apollonius de Tyro.' This story, like that of Canacee (note to l. 78), is told by Gower, Conf. Amant. bk. viii., ed. Pauli, iii. 284; and here again Chaucer seems to reflect upon Gower. The story occurs in the Gesta Romanorum, in which it appears as Tale cliii., being the longest story in the whole collection. It is remarkable as being the only really romantic story extant in an Anglo-Saxon version; see Thorpe's edition of it, London, 1834. It is therefore much older than 1190, the earliest date assigned by Warton. Compare the play of Pericles, Prince of Tyre.

89. _if that I may_, as far as lies in my power (to do as I please); a common expletive phrase, of no great force.

90. _of_, as to, with regard to. _doon_, accomplish it.

92. _Pierides_; Tyrwhitt rightly says--'He rather means, I think, the [141] daughters of Pierus, that contended with the Muses, and were changed into pies; Ovid, Metam. bk. v.' Yet the expression is not wrong; it signifies--'I do not wish to be likened to those _would-be_ Muses, the Pierides'; in other words, I do not set myself up as worthy to be considered a poet.

93. _Metamorphoseos._ It was common to cite books thus, by a title in the _genitive case_, since the word _Liber_ was understood. There is, however, a slight error in this substitution of the singular for the plural; the true title being P. Ovidii Nasonis Metamorphoseon Libri Quindecim. See the use of _Eneydos_ in the Nonne Prestes Tale, B. 4549; and of _Judicum_ in Monk. Ta. B. 3236.

94. 'But, nevertheless, I care not a bean.' Cf. l. 4004 below.

95. _with hawe bake_, with plain fare, as Dr. Morris explains it; it obviously means something of a humble character, unsuited for a refined taste. This was left unexplained by Tyrwhitt, but we may fairly translate it literally by 'with a baked haw,' i. e. something that could just be eaten by a very hungry person. The expression _I sette nat an hawe_ (= I care not a haw) occurs in the Wyf of Bathes Prologue, D. 659. _Haws_ are mentioned as given to feed hogs in the Vision of Piers Plowman, B. x. 10; but in The Romance of William of Palerne, l. 1811, a lady actually tells her lover that they can live in the woods on _haws_, hips, acorns, and hazel-nuts. There is a somewhat similar passage in the Legend of Good Women, Prol. ll. 73-77. I see no difficulty in this explanation. That proposed by Mr. Jephson--'hark back'--is out of the question; we cannot rime _bak_ with _makë_, nor does it make sense.

_Baken_ was a strong verb in M. E., with the pp. _baken_ or _bake_ (A. S. _bacen_). Dr. Stratmann, apparently by mistake, enters this phrase under _hawe_, adj. dark grey! But he refrains from explaining _bake_.

96. _I speke in prose_, I generally have to speak in prose in the law courts; so that if my tale is prosy as compared with Chaucer's, it is only what you would expect. Dr. Furnivall suggests that perhaps the prose tale of Melibeus was originally meant to be assigned to the Man of Lawe. See further in vol. iii. p. 406.

98. _after_, afterwards, immediately hereafter. Cf. _other_ for _otherwise_ in Old English.--M.

PROLOGUE TO THE MAN OF LAWES TALE.

99-121. It is important to observe that more than three stanzas of this Prologue are little else than a translation from the treatise by Pope Innocent III. entitled De Contemptu Mundi, sive de Miseria Conditionis Humanae. This was first pointed out by Prof. Lounsbury, of Yale, Newhaven, U.S.A., in the _Nation_, July 4, 1889. He shewed that the lost work by Chaucer (viz. his translation of 'the Wreched Engendring of Mankinde As man may in Pope Innocent y-finde,' mentioned in the Legend of Good Women, Prologue A, l. 414) is not lost altogether, [142] since we find traces of it in the first four stanzas of the present Prologue; in the stanzas of the Man of Lawes Tale which begin, respectively, with lines 421, 771, 925, and 1135; and in some passages in the Pardoner's Prologue; as will be pointed out.

It will be observed that if Chaucer, as is probable, has preserved extracts from this juvenile work of his without much alteration, it must have been originally composed in seven-line stanzas, like his Second Nonnes Tale and Man of Lawes Tale.

I here transcribe the original of the present passage from Innocent's above-named treatise, lib. i. c. 16, marking the places where the stanzas begin.

_De miseria divitis et pauperis._ (99) Pauperes enim premuntur inedia, cruciantur aerumna, fame, siti, frigore, nuditate; vilescunt, tabescunt, spernuntur, et confunduntur. O miserabilis mendicantis conditio; et si petit, pudore confunditur, et si non petit, egestate consumitur, sed ut mendicet, necessitate compellitur. (106) Deum causatur iniquum, quod non recte dividat; proximum criminatur malignum, quod non plene subveniat. Indignatur, murmurat, imprecatur. (113) Adverte super hoc sententiam Sapientis, 'Melius est,' inquit, 'mori quam indigere': 'Etiam proximo suo pauper odiosus erit.' 'Omnes dies pauperis mali'; (120) 'fratres hominis pauperis oderunt eum; insuper et amici procul recesserunt ab eo.'

For further references to the quotations occurring in the above passage, see the notes below, to ll. 114, 118, 120.

99. _poverte_ = _povértë_, with the accent on the second syllable, as it rimes with _herte_; in the Wyf of Bathes Tale, it rimes with _sherte_. Poverty is here personified, and addressed by the Man of Lawe. The whole passage is illustrated by a similar long passage near the end of the Wyf of Bathes Tale, in which the opposite side of the question is considered, and the poet shews what can be said in Poverty's praise. See D. 1177-1206.

101. _Thee_ is a dative, like _me_ in l. 91.--M. See Gen. ii. 15 (A. S. version), where _him þæs ne sceamode_ = they were not ashamed of it; lit. it shamed them not of it.

102. _artow_, art thou; the words being run together: so also _seistow_ = sayest thou, in l. 110.

104. _Maugree thyn heed_, in spite of all you can do; lit. despite thy head; see Knightes Tale, A. 1169, 2618, D. 887.

105. _Or ... or_ = either ... or; an early example of this construction.--M.

108. _neighebour_ is a trisyllable; observe that _e_ in the middle of a word is frequently sounded; cf. l. 115. _wytest_, blamest.

110. 'By my faith, sayest thou, he will have to account for it hereafter, when his tail shall burn in the fire (lit. glowing coal), because he helps not the needy in their necessity.'

114. 'It is better (for thee) to die than be in need.' Tyrwhitt says--'This saying of Solomon is quoted in the Romaunt of the Rose, [143] l. 8573--Mieux vault mourir que pauvres estre'; [l. 8216, ed. Méon.] The quotation is not from Solomon, but from Jesus, son of Sirach; see Ecclus. xl. 28, where the Vulgate has--'Melius est enim mori quam indigere.' Cf. B. 2761.

115. _Thy selve neighebor_, thy very neighbour, even thy next neighbour. See note to l. 108.

118. In Prov. xv. 15, the Vulgate version has--'Omnes dies _pauperis_ mali'; where the A. V. has 'the afflicted.'

119. The reading _to_ makes the line harsh, as the final _e_ in _come_ should be sounded, and therefore needs elision. _in that prikke_, into that point, into that condition; cf. l. 1028.

120. Cf. Prov. xiv. 20--'the poor is hated even of his neighbour'; or, in the Vulgate, 'Etiam proximo suo pauper odiosus erit.' Also Prov. xix. 7--'all the brethren of the poor do hate him; how much more do his friends go far from him'; or, in the Vulgate, 'Fratres hominis pauperis oderunt eum; insuper et amici procul recesserunt ab eo.' So too Ovid, Trist. i. 9. 5:--

'Donec eris felix, multos numerabis amicos, Tempora si fuerint nubila, solus eris.'

Chaucer has the same thought again in his Tale of Melibeus (p. 227, B. 2749)--'and if thy fortune change, that thou wexe povre, farewel freendshipe and felaweshipe!' See also note to B. 3436.

123. _as in this cas_, as relates to this condition or lot in life. In Chaucer, _cas_ often means _chance_, _hap_.

124. _ambes as_, double aces, two aces, in throwing dice. _Ambes_ is Old French for _both_, from Lat. _ambo_. The line in the Monkes Tale--'Thy _sys_ fortune hath turned into _as_' (B. 3851)--helps us out here in some measure, as it proves that a six was reckoned as a good throw, but an ace as a bad one. So in Shakespeare, Mids. Nt. Dream, v. 1. 314, we find _less than an ace_ explained as equivalent to _nothing_. In the next line, _sis cink_ means _a six and a five_, which was often a winning throw. The allusion is probably, however, not to the mere attempt as to which of two players could throw the highest, but to the particular game called _hazard_, in which the word _chance_ (here used) has a special sense. There is a good description of it in the Supplemental volume to the English Cyclopaedia, div. Arts and Sciences. The whole description has to be read, but it may suffice to say here that, when the caster is going to throw, he _calls a main_, or names one of the numbers five, six, seven, eight, or nine; most often, he calls seven. If he then throws either seven or eleven (Chaucer's _sis cink_), he wins; if he throws aces (Chaucer's _ambes as_) or deuce-ace (two and one), or double sixes, he loses. If he throws some other number, that number is called the caster's _chance_, and he goes on playing till either the main or the chance turns up. In the first case he loses, in the second, he wins. If he calls some other number, the winning and losing throws are somewhat varied; but in all cases, the double ace is a losing throw. [144]

Similarly, in The Pardoneres Tale, where _hazard_ is mentioned by name (C. 591), we find, at l. 653--'Seven is my chaunce, and thyn is cinq and treye,' i. e. eight.

In Lydgate's Order of Fools, printed in Queen Elizabeth's Academy, ed. Furnivall, p. 81, one fool is described--

'Whos chaunce gothe nether yn _synke or syse_; With _ambes ase_ encressithe hys dispence.'

And in a ballad printed in Chaucer's Works, ed. 1561, folio 340, back, we have--

'So wel fortuned is their chaunce The dice to turne[n] vppe-so-doune, With _sise and sincke_ they can auaunce.'

The phrase was already used proverbially before Chaucer's time. In the metrical Life of St. Brandan, ed. T. Wright, p. 23, we find, 'hi caste an _ambes as_,' they cast double aces, i. e. they wholly failed. See _Ambs-ace_ in the New E. Dict. Dr. Morris notes that the phrase 'aums ace' occurs in Hazlitt's O. E. Plays, ii. 35, with the editorial remark--'not mentioned elsewhere' (!).

126. _At Cristemasse_, even at Christmas, when the severest weather comes. In olden times, severe cold must have tried the poor even more than it does now.

'Muche myrthe is in may · amonge wilde bestes, And so forth whil somer lasteþ · heore solace dureþ; And muche myrthe amonge riche men is · þat han meoble [_property_] ynow and heele [_health_]. Ac beggers aboute myd-somere · bredlees þei soupe, And [gh]ut is wynter for hem wors · for wet-shood þei gangen, A-furst and a-fyngred [_Athirst and ahungered_] · and foule rebuked Of þese worlde-riche men · þat reuthe hit is to huyre [_hear of it_].' Piers Plowman, C. xvii. 10; B. xiv. 158.

127. _seken_, search through; much like the word _compass_ in the phrase 'ye compass sea and land' in Matth. xxiii. 15.

128. _thestaat_, for _the estaat_, i. e. the estate. This coalescence of the article and substantive is common in Chaucer, when the substantive begins with a vowel; cf. _thoccident_, B. 3864; _thorient_, B. 3871.

129. _fadres_, fathers, originators; by bringing tidings from afar.

130. _debat_, strife. Merchants, being great travellers, were expected to pick up good stories.

131. _were_, should be. _desolat_, destitute. 'The E. E. word is _westi_; 'westi of alle gode theawes,' destitute of all good virtues; O. Eng. Homilies, i. 285.'--M.

132. _Nere_, for _ne were_, were it not. _goon is, &c._, many a year ago, long since. [145]

THE TALE OF THE MAN OF LAWE.

A story, agreeing closely with The Man of Lawes Tale, is found in Book II. of Gower's Confessio Amantis, from which Tyrwhitt supposed that Chaucer borrowed it. But Gower's version seems to be later than Chaucer's, whilst Chaucer and Gower were both alike indebted to the version of the story in French prose (by Nicholas Trivet) in MS. Arundel 56, printed for the Chaucer Society in 1872. In some places Chaucer agrees with this French version rather closely, but he makes variations and additions at pleasure. Cf. vol. iii. p. 409.

The first ninety-eight lines of the preceding Prologue are written in couplets, in order to link the Tale to the others of the series; but there is nothing to show which of the other tales it was intended to follow. Next follows a more special Prologue of thirty-five lines, in five stanzas of seven lines each; so that the first line in the Tale is l. 134 of Group B, the second of the fragments into which the Canterbury Tales are broken up, owing to the incomplete state in which Chaucer left them.

134. _Surrie_, Syria; called _Sarazine_ (Saracen-land) by N. Trivet.

136. _spycerye_, grocery, &c., lit. spicery. The old name for a grocer was a _spicer_; and _spicery_ was a wide term. 'It should be noted that the Ital. _spezerie_ included a vast deal more than ginger and other "things hot i' the mouth." In one of Pegoletti's lists of _spezerie_ we find drugs, dye-stuffs, metals, wax, cotton,' &c.--Note by Col. Yule in his ed. of Marco Polo; on bk. i. c. 1.

143. _Were_ it, whether it were.

144. _message_, messenger, _not_ message; see l. 333, and the note.

145. The final _e_ in _Rome_ is pronounced, as in l. 142; but the words _the ende_ are to be run together, forming but _one_ syllable, _thende_, according to Chaucer's usual practice; cf. note to l. 255. Indeed in ll. 423, 965, it is actually so spelt; just as, in l. 150, we have _thexcellent_, and in l. 151, _themperoures_.

151. _themperoures_, the emperor's. Gower calls him Tiberius Constantine, who was Emperor (not of Rome, but) of the East, A. D. 578, and was succeeded, as in the story, by Maurice, A. D. 582. His capital was Constantinople, whither merchants from Syria could easily repair; but the greater fame of Rome caused the substitution of the Western for the Eastern capital.

156. _God him see_, God protect him. See note to C. 715.

161. _al Europe._ In the margin of MSS. E. Hn. Cp. Pt. Ln. is written the note 'Europa est tercia pars mundi.'

166. _mirour_, mirror. Such French words are frequently accented on the _last_ syllable. Cf. _minístr'_ in l. 168.

171. _han doon fraught_, have caused to be freighted. All the MSS. have _fraught_, not _fraughte_. In the Glossary to Specimens of English, I marked _fraught_ as being the infinitive mood, as Dr. Stratmann [146] supposes, though he notes the lack of the final e. I have now no doubt that _fraught_ is nothing but the past participle, as in William of Palerne, l. 2732--

'And feithliche _fraught_ ful of fine wines,'

which is said of a ship. The use of this past participle after a _perfect_ tense is a most remarkable idiom, but there is no doubt about its occurrence in the Clerkes Tale, Group E. 1098, where we find 'Hath doon yow _kept_,' where Tyrwhitt has altered _kept_ to _kepe_. On the other hand, Tyrwhitt actually notes the occurrence of 'Hath don _wroght_' in Kn. Tale, 1055, (A. 1913), which he calls an irregularity. A better name for it is idiom. I find similar instances of it in another author of the same period,

'Thai strak his hed of, and syne it Thai _haf gert saltit_ in-til a kyt.' Barbour's Bruce, ed. Skeat, xviii. 167.

I. e. they have caused it (to be) salted. And again in the same, bk. viii. l. 13, we have the expression _He gert held_, as if 'he caused to be held'; but it may mean 'he caused to incline.' Compare also the following:--

'And thai sall _let thame trumpit_ ill'; id. xix. 712.

I. e. and they shall consider themselves as evilly deceived.

In the Royal Wills, ed. Nichols, p. 278, we find:--'wher I have beforn ordeyned and _do mad_ [caused to be made] my tombe.'

The infinitive appears to have been _fraughten_, though the earliest certain examples of this form seem to be those in Shakespeare, Cymb. i. 1. 126, Temp. i. 2. 13. The proper form of the pp. was _fraughted_ (as in Marlowe, 2 Tamb. i. 2. 33), but the loss of final _-ed_ in past participles of verbs of which the stem ends in _t_ is common; cf. _set_, _put_, &c. Hence this form _fraught_ as a pp. in the present instance. It is a Scandinavian word, from Swed. _frakta_, Dan. _fragte_. At a later period we find _freight_, the mod. E. form. The vowel-change is due to the fact that there was an intermediate form _fret_, borrowed from the French form _fret_ of the Scandinavian word. This form _fret_ disturbed the vowel-sound, without wholly destroying the recollection of the original guttural _gh_, due to the Swed. _k_. For an example of _fret_, we have only to consult the old black-letter editions of Chaucer printed in 1532 and 1561, which give us the present line in the form--'These marchantes han don _fret_ her ships new.'

185. _ceriously_, 'seriously,' i. e. with great minuteness of detail. Used by Fabyan, who says that 'to reherce _ceryously_' all the conquests of Henry V would fill a volume; Chron., ed. Ellis, p. 589. Skelton, in his Garland of Laurell, l. 581, has: 'And _seryously_ she shewyd me ther denominacyons'; on which Dyce remarks that it means _seriatim_, and gives a clear example. It answers to the Low Latin _seriose_, used in two senses; (1) seriously, gravely; (2) minutely, [147] fully. In the latter case it is perhaps to be referred to the Lat. _series_, not _serius_. A similar word, _cereatly_ (Lat. _seriatim_), is found three times in the Romance of Partenay, ed. Skeat, with the sense of _in due order_; cf. _Ceriatly_ and _Ceryows_ in the New E. Dict.

In N. and Q. 7 S. xii. 183, I shewed that Lydgate has at least _ten_ examples of this use of the word in his Siege of Troye. In one instance it is spelt _seryously_ (with _s_).

190. This refers to the old belief in astrology and the casting of nativities. Cf. Prol. A. 414-418. Observe that ll. 190-203 are not in the original, and were doubtless added in revision. This is why _this sowdan_ in l. 186 is so far separated from the repetition of the same words in l. 204.

197. Tyrwhitt shews that this stanza is imitated closely from some Latin lines, some of which are quoted in the margin of many MSS. of Chaucer. He quotes them at length from the Megacosmos of Bernardus Silvestris, a poet of the twelfth century (extant in MS. Bodley 1265). The lines are as follows, it being premised that those printed in italics are cited in the margin of MSS. E. Hn. Cp. Pt. and Ln.:--

'Praeiacet in stellis series, quam longior aetas Explicet et spatiis temporis ordo suis, _Sceptra Phoronei, fratrum discordia Thebis,_ _Flamma Phaethontis Deucalionis aque_. In stellis Codri paupertas, copia Croesi, Incestus Paridis, Hippolytique pudor. _In stellis Priami species, audacia Turni,_ _Sensus Ulixeus, Herculeusque uigor._ In stellis pugil est Pollux et nauita Typhis, Et Cicero rhetor et geometra Thales. In stellis lepidum dictat Maro, Milo figurat, Fulgurat in Latia nobilitate Nero. Astra notat Persis, Ægyptus parturit artes, Graecia docta legit, praelia Roma gerit.'

See Bernardi Sylvestris Megacosmos, ed. C.S. Barach and J. Wrobel, Innsbruck, 1876, p. 16. The names _Ector_ (Hector), &c., are too well known to require comment. The death of Turnus is told at the end of Vergil's Æneid.

207, 208. Here _have_, forming part of the phrase _mighte have grace_, is unemphatic, whilst _han_ (for _haven_) is emphatic, and signifies possession. See _han_ again in l. 241.

211. Compare Squieres Tale, F. 202, 203, and the note thereon.

224. _Mahoun_, Mahomet. The French version does not mention Mahomet. This is an anachronism on Chaucer's part; the Emperor Tiberius II. died A. D. 582, when Mahomet was but twelve years old.

228. _I prey yow holde_, I pray you to hold. Here _holde_ is the infinitive mood. The imperative plural would be _holdeth_; see _saveth_, next line. [148]

236. _Maumettrye_, idolatry; from the Mid. E. _maumet_, an idol, corrupted from Mahomet. The confusion introduced by using the word _Mahomet_ for an idol may partly account for the anachronism in l. 224. The Mahometans were falsely supposed by our forefathers to be idolaters.

242. _noot_, equivalent to _ne woot_, know not.

248. _gret-è_ forms the fourth foot in the line. If we read _gret_, the line is left imperfect at the cæsura; and we should have to scan it with a medial pause, as thus:--

That thém | peróur || --óf | his grét | noblésse ||

Line 621 below may be read in a similar manner:--

But ná | thelées || --thér | was gréet | moorning ||

253. 'So, when Ethelbert married Bertha, daughter of the Christian King Charibert, she brought with her, to the court of her husband, a Gallican bishop named Leudhard, who was permitted to celebrate mass in the ancient British Church of St. Martin, at Canterbury.'--Note in Bell's Chaucer.

255. _ynowe_, being plural, takes a final _e_; we then read _th'ende_, as explained in note to l. 145. The pl. _ino[gh]he_ occurs in the Ormulum.

263. _alle and some_, collectively and individually; one and all. See Cler. Tale, E. 941, &c.

273-87. Not in the original; perhaps added in revision.

277. The word _alle_, being plural, is dissyllabic. _Thing_ is often a plural form, being an A. S. neuter noun. The words _over_, _ever_, _never_ are, in Chaucer, generally monosyllables, or nearly so; just as _o'er_, _e'er_, _ne'er_ are treated as monosyllables by our poets in general. Hence the scansion is--'Ov'r al | lë thing |,' &c.

289. The word _at_ is inserted from the Cambridge MS.; all the other six MSS. omit it, which makes the passage one of extreme difficulty. Tyrwhitt reads 'Or Ylion brent, or Thebes the citee.' Of course he means _brende_, past tense, not _brent_, the past participle; and his conjecture amounts to inserting _or_ before Thebes. It is better to insert _at_, as in MS. Cm.; see Gilman's edition. The sense is--'When Pyrrhus broke the wall, before Ilium burnt, (nor) at the city of Thebes, nor at Rome,' &c. _Nat_ (l. 290) = _Ne at_, as in Hl. _Ylion_, in medieval romance, meant 'the citadel' of Troy; see my note to l. 936 of the Legend of Good Women. Tyrwhitt well observes that 'Thebes the citee' is a French phrase. He quotes 'dedans Renes _la cite_,' Froissart, v. i. c. 225.

295-315. Not in the original, and clearly a later addition. They include an allusion to Boethius (see next note).

295. In the margin of the Ellesmere MS. is written--'Vnde Ptholomeus, libro i. cap. 8. Primi motus celi duo sunt, quorum vnus est qui mouet totum semper ab Oriente in Occidentem vno modo super orbes, &c. Item aliter vero motus est qui mouet orbem stellarum currencium [149] contra motum primum, videlicet, ab Occidente in Orientem super alios duos polos.' The old astronomy imagined nine spheres revolving round the central stationary earth; of the seven innermost, each carried with it one of the seven planets, viz. the Moon, Venus, Mercury, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn; the eighth sphere, that of the fixed stars, had a slow motion from west to east, round the axis of the zodiac (_super alios duos polos_), to account for the precession of the equinoxes; whilst the ninth or outermost sphere, called the _primum mobile_, or the sphere of first motion, had a diurnal revolution from east to west, carrying everything with it. This exactly corresponds with Chaucer's language. He addresses the outermost sphere or _primum mobile_ (which is the _ninth_ if reckoning from within, but the _first_ from without), and accuses it of carrying with it everything in its irresistible westward motion; a motion contrary to that of the 'natural' motion, viz. that in which the sun advances along the signs of the zodiac. The result was that the evil influence of the planet Mars prevented the marriage. It is clear that Chaucer was thinking of certain passages in Boethius, as will appear from consulting his own translation of Boethius, ed. Morris, pp. 21, 22, 106, and 110. I quote a few lines to shew this:--

'O þou maker of þe whele þat bereþ þe sterres, whiche þat art fastned to þi perdurable chayere, and turnest þe heuene wiþ a rauyssyng _sweighe_, and constreinest þe sterres to suffren þi lawe'; pp. 21, 22.

'þe regioun of þe fire þat eschaufiþ by þe swifte _moeuyng of þe firmament_'; p. 110.

The original is--

'O stelliferi conditor orbis Qui perpetuo nixus solio _Rapidum caelum turbine uersas_, Legemque pati sidera cogis'; Boeth. Cons. Phil. lib. i. met. 5.

'Quique _agili motu_ calet _aetheris_'; id. lib. iv. met. 1.

(See the same passages in vol. ii. pp. 16, 94).

To the original nine spheres, as above, was afterwards added a tenth or crystalline sphere; see the description in the Complaint of Scotland, ed. Murray (E. E. T. S.), pp. 47, 48. For the figure, see fig. 10 on Plate V., in my edition of Chaucer's Astrolabe (in vol. iii.).

Compare also the following passage:--

'The earth, in roundness of a perfect ball, Which as a point but of this mighty all Wise Nature fixed, that permanent doth stay, Wheras the spheres by a _diurnal sway_ Of the first Mover carried are about.' Drayton: The Man in the Moon.

299. _crowding_, pushing. This is still a familiar word in East [150] Anglia. Forby, in his Glossary of the East Anglian Dialect, says--'_Crowd_, v. to push, shove, or press close. To the word, in its _common_ acceptation, _number_ seems necessary. With us, _one_ individual can _crowd_ another.' To _crowd_ a wheelbarrow means to push it. The expression '_crod_ in a barwe,' i. e. wheeled or pushed along in a wheelbarrow, occurs in the Paston Letters, A.D. 1477, ed. Gairdner, iii. 215.

302. A planet is said to ascend directly, when in a direct sign; but tortuously, when in a tortuous sign. The tortuous signs are those which ascend most obliquely to the horizon, viz. the signs from Capricornus to Gemini inclusive. Chaucer tells us this _himself_; see his Treatise on the Astrolabe, part ii. sect. 28, in vol. iii. The most 'tortuous' of these are the two middle ones, Pisces and Aries. Of these two, Aries is called the mansion of Mars, and we may therefore suppose the ascending sign to be Aries, the lord of which (Mars) is said to have fallen 'from his angle into the darkest house.' The words 'angle' and 'house' are used technically. The whole zodiacal circle was divided into twelve equal parts, or 'houses.' Of these, four (beginning from the cardinal points) were termed 'angles,' four others (next following them) 'succedents,' and the rest 'cadents.' It appears that Mars was not then situate in an 'angle,' but in his 'darkest (i. e. darker) house.' Mars had _two_ houses, Aries and Scorpio. The latter is here meant; Aries being the ascendent sign, Scorpio was below the horizon, and beyond the western 'angle.'

Now Scorpio was 'called the house of death, and of trauaile, of harm, and of domage, of strife, of battaile, of guilefulnesse and falsnesse, and of wit'; Batman upon Bartholomè, lib. viii. c. 17. We may represent the position of Mars by the following table, where _East_ represents the _ascending_ sign, _West_ the _descending_ sign; and A., S., and C. stand for 'angle,' 'succedent,' and 'cadent house' respectively.

_East._--Aries. Taurus. Gemini. Cancer. Leo. Virgo. 1. A. 2. S. 3. C. 4. A. 5. S. 6. C.

_West._--Libra. Scorpio. Sagittarius. Capricornus. Aquarius. Pisces. 7. A. 8. S. 9. C. 10. A. 11. S. 12. C.

Again, the 'darkest house' was sometimes considered to be the _eighth_; though authorities varied. This again points to Scorpio.

'Nulla diuisio circuli tam pessima, tamque crudelis in omnibus, quam octaua est.'--Aphorismi Astrologi Ludovici de Rigiis; sect. 35. I may also note here, that in Lydgate's Siege of Troy, ed. 1555, fol. Y 4, there is a long passage on the evil effects of Mars in the 'house' of Scorpio.

305. The meaning of _Atazir_ has long remained undiscovered. But by the kind help of Mr. Bensly, one of the sub-librarians of the Cambridge University Library, I am enabled to explain it. _Atazir_ or _atacir_ is the Spanish spelling of the Arabic _al-tasir_, influence, given at p. 351 of Richardson's Pers. Dict., ed. 1829. It is a noun derived from _asara_, a verb of the second conjugation, meaning to leave a mark [151] on, from the substantive _asar_, a mark; the latter substantive is given at p. 20 of the same work. Its use in astrology is commented upon by Dozy, who gives it in the form _atacir_, in his Glossaire des Mots Espagnols dérivés de l'Arabique, p. 207. It signifies the _influence_ of a star or planet upon other stars, or upon the fortunes of men. In the present case it is clearly used in a bad sense; we may therefore translate it by 'evil influence,' i. e. the influence of Mars in the house of Scorpio. On this common deterioration in the meaning of words, see Trench, Study of Words, p. 52. The word _craft_, for example, is a very similar instance; it originally meant _skill_, and hence, a trade, and we find _star-craft_ used in

## particular to signify the science of astronomy.

307. 'Thou art in conjunction in an unfavourable position; from the position in which thou wast favourably placed thou art moved away.' This I take to mean that the Moon (as well as Mars) was in Scorpio; hence their conjunction. But Scorpio was called the Moon's _depression_, being the sign in which her influence was least favourable; she was therefore 'not well received,' i. e., not supported by a lucky planet, or by a planet in a lucky position. _weyved_, pushed aside.

312. 'Is there no choice as to when to fix the voyage?' The favourable moment for commencing a voyage was one of the points on which it was considered desirable to have an astrologer's opinion. Travelling, at that time, was a serious matter. Yet this was only one of the many undertakings which required, as was thought, to be begun at a favourable moment. Whole books were written on 'elections,' i. e. favourable times for commencing operations of all kinds. Chaucer was thinking, in particular, of the following passage, which is written in the margins of the Ellesmere and Hengwrt MSS.: 'Omnes concordati sunt quod elecciones sint debiles nisi in diuitibus: habent enim isti, licet debilitentur eorum elecciones, radicem, i. [_id est_] natiuitates eorum, que confortat omnem planetam debilem in itinere.' The sense of which is--'For all are agreed, that "elections" are weak, except in the case of the rich; for these, although their elections be weakened, have a "root" of their own, that is to say, their nativities (_or_ horoscopes); which root strengthens every planet that is of weak influence with respect to a journey.' This is extracted, says Tyrwhitt, from a Liber Electionum by a certain Zael; see MS. Harl. 80; MS. Bodley 1648. This is a very fair example of the jargon to be found in old books on astrology. The old astrologers used to alter their predictions almost at pleasure, by stating that their results depended on several causes, which

## partly counteracted one another; an arrangement of which the convenience is

obvious. Thus, if the aspect of the planets at the time inquired about appeared to be adverse to a journey, it might still be the case (they said) that such evil aspect might be overcome by the fortunate aspect of the inquirer's horoscope; or, conversely, an ill aspect in the horoscope could be counteracted by a fit election of a time for action. A rich man would probably be fitted with a fortunate [152] horoscope, or else why should he buy one? Such horoscope depended on the aspect of the heavens at the time of birth or 'nativity,' and, in particular, upon the 'ascendent' at that time; i. e. upon the planets lying nearest to the point of the zodiac which happened, at that moment, to be _ascending_, i. e. just appearing above the horizon. So Chaucer, in his Treatise on the Astrolabe, pt. ii. § 4, (vol. iii. 191), explains the matter, saying--'The assendent sothly, as wel in alle nativitez as in questiouns and _elecciouns of tymes_, is a thing which that thise Astrologiens gretly observen'; &c. The curious reader may find much more to the same effect in the same Treatise, with directions to 'make roots' in pt. ii. § 44.

The curious may further consult the Epitome Astrologiae of Johannes Hispalensis. The whole of Book iv. of that work is 'De Electionibus,' and the title of cap. xv. is 'Pro Itinere.'

Lydgate, in his Siege of Thebes, just at the beginning, describes the astronomers as casting the horoscope of the infant Oedipus. They were expected

'to yeue a judgement, The roote i-take at the ascendent, Truly sought out, by minute and degre, The selfe houre of his natiuite, Not foryet the heauenly mansions Clerely searched by smale fraccions,' &c.

To take a different example, Ashmole, in his Theatrum Chemicum, 1652, says in a note on p. 450--'Generally in all Elections the Efficacy of the Starrs are (_sic_) used, as it were by a certaine application made thereof to those unformed Natures that are to be wrought upon; whereby to further the working thereof, and make them more available to our purpose.... And by such Elections as good use may be made of the Celestiall influences, as a Physitian doth of the variety of herbes.... But Nativities are the Radices of Elections, and therefore we ought chiefly to looke backe upon them as the principal Root and Foundation of all Operations; and next to them the quality of the Thing we intend to fit must be respected, so that, by an apt position of Heaven, and fortifying the Planets and Houses in the Nativity of the Operator, and making them agree with the thing signified, the impression made by that influence will abundantly augment the Operation,' &c.; with much more to the same effect. Several passages in Norton's Ordinall, printed in the same volume (see pp. 60, 100), shew clearly what is meant by Chaucer in his Prologue, ll. 415-7. The Doctor could 'fortune the ascendent of his images,' by choosing a favourable moment for the making of charms in the form of images, when a suitable planet was in the ascendent. Cf. Troil. ii. 74.

314. _rote_ is the astrological term for the epoch from which to reckon. The exact moment of a nativity being known, the astrologers were supposed to be able to calculate everything else. See the last note.

332. _Alkaron_, the Koran; _al_ is the Arabic article. [153]

333. Here _Makomete_ is used instead of _Mahoun_ (l. 224). See Washington Irving's Life of Mahomet.

_message_, messenger. This is a correct form, according to the usages of Middle English; cf. l. 144. In like manner, we find _prison_ used to mean a _prisoner_, which is often puzzling at first sight.

340. 'Because we denied Mahomet, our (object of) belief.'

360. 'O serpent under the form of woman, like that Serpent that is bound in hell.' The allusion here is not a little curious. It clearly refers to the old belief that the serpent who tempted Eve appeared to her _with a woman's head_, and it is sometimes so represented. I observed it, for instance, in the chapter-house of Salisbury Cathedral; and see the woodcut at p. 73 of Wright's History of Caricature and Grotesque in Art. In Peter Comestor's Historia Libri Genesis, we read of Satan--'Elegit etiam quoddam genus serpentis (vt ait Beda) _virgineum vultum_ habens.' In the alliterative Troy Book, ed. Panton and Donaldson, p. 144, the Tempter is called Lyuyaton (i. e. Leviathan), and it is said of him that he

'Hade a face vne fourmet _as a fre maydon_'; l. 4451.

And, again, in Piers the Plowman, B. xviii. 355, Satan is compared to a 'lusarde [lizard] _with a lady visage_.' In the Ancren Riwle, p. 207, we are gravely informed that a scorpion is a kind of serpent that has a face somewhat like that of a woman, and puts on a pleasant countenance. To remember this gives peculiar force to ll. 370, 371. See also note to l. 404.

367. _knowestow_ is a trisyllable; and _the olde_ is to be read _tholdè_. But in l. 371, the word _Makestow_, being differently placed in the line, is to be read with the _e_ slurred over, as a dissyllable.

380. _moste_, might. It is not always used like the modern _must_.

401. See Lucan's Pharsalia, iii. 79--'Perdidit o qualem uincendo plura triumphum!' But Chaucer's reference, evidently made at random, is unlucky. Lucan laments that he had no triumph to record.

404. The line is deficient at the beginning, the word _But_ standing by itself as a foot. So also in A. 294, G. 341, &c. See Ellis's Early English Pronunciation, pp. 333, 649. (This peculiarity was pointed out by me in 1866, in the Aldine edition of Chaucer, i. 174.) For the sense of _scorpioun_, see the reference to the Ancren Riwle, in note to l. 360, and compare the following extracts. 'Thes is the scorpioun, thet maketh uayr mid the heauede, and enuenymeth mid the tayle'; Ayenbite of Inwyt, ed. Morris, p. 62. 'The scorpion, the whiche enoynteth with his tongue, and prycketh sore with his taylle'; Caxton, Fables of Æsop; Lib. iv. fable 3. Chaucer repeats the idea, somewhat more fully, in the Marchaunts Tale, E. 2058-2060. So also _this wikked gost_ means this Evil Spirit, this Tempter.

421. Pronounce _ever_ rapidly, and accent _súccessour_ on the first syllable. In the margin of MSS. E. Hn. Pt. and Cp. is the following [154] note: 'Nota, de inopinato dolore. Semper mundane leticie tristicia repentina succedit. Mundana igitur felicitas multis amaritudinibus est respersa. Extrema gaudii luctus occupat. Audi ergo salubre consilium; in die bonorum ne immemor sis malorum.' This is one of the passages from Innocent's treatise de Contemptu Mundi, of which I have already spoken in the note to B. 99-121 above (p. 140). Lib. i. c. 23 has the heading--'De inopinato dolore.' It begins:--'Semper enim mundanae letitiae tristitia repentina succedit. Et quod incipit a gaudio, desinit in moerore. Mundana quippe felicitas multis amaritudinibus est respersa. Noverat hoc qui dixerat: "Risus dolore miscebitur, et extrema gaudii luctus occupat."... Attende salubrem consilium: "In die bonorum, non immemor sis malorum."'

This passage is mostly made up of scraps taken from different authors. I find in Boethius, De Consolatione Philosophiae, lib. ii. pr. 4--'Quam multis amaritudinibus humanae felicitatis dulcedo respersa est'; which Chaucer translates by--'The swetnesse of mannes welefulnesse is _sprayned with many biternesses_'; see vol. ii. p. 34; and the same expression is repeated here, in l. 422. Gower quotes the same passage from Boethius in the prologue to his Confessio Amantis. The next sentence is from Prov. xiv. 13--'Risus dolore miscebitur, et extrema gaudii luctus occupat.' The last clause (see ll. 426, 427) is from Ecclesiasticus, xi. 27 (in the Vulgate version). Cf. Troil. iv. 836.

438. Compare Trivet's French prose version:--'Dount ele fist estorier vne neef de vitaile, de payn quest apele bisquit, & de peis, & de feues, de sucre, & de meel, & de vyn, pur sustenaunce de la vie de la pucele pur treis aunx; e en cele neef fit mettre la richesse & le tresour que Iempire Tiberie auoit maunde oue la pucele Constaunce, sa fille; e en cele neef fist la soudane mettre la pucele saunz sigle, & sauntz neuiroun, & sauntz chescune maner de eide de homme.' I. e. 'Then she caused a ship to be stored with victuals, with bread that is called biscuit, with peas, beans, sugar, honey, and wine, to sustain the maiden's life for three years. And in this ship she caused to be placed the riches and treasure which the Emperor Tiberius had sent with the maid Constance his daughter; and in this ship the Sultaness caused the maiden to be put, without sail or oar, or any kind of human aid.'

_foot-hot_, hastily. It occurs in Gower, ed. Pauli, ii. 114; in The Romaunt of the Rose, l. 3827: Octovian, 1224, in Weber's Met. Rom. iii. 208; Sevyn Sages, 843, in the same, iii. 34; Richard Coer de Lion, 1798, 2185, in the same, ii. 71, 86; and in Barbour's Bruce, iii. 418, xiii. 454. Compare the term _hot-trod_, explained by Sir W. Scott to mean the pursuit of marauders with bloodhounds: see note 3 H to the Lay of the Last Minstrel. We also find _hot fot_, i. e. immediately, in the Debate of the Body and the Soul, l. 481. It is a translation of the O. F. phrase _chalt pas_, immediately, examples of which are given by Godefroy.

449-62. Not in the original; perhaps added in revision. [155]

451-62. Compare these lines with verses 3 and 5 of the hymn 'Lustra sex qui iam peregit' in the office of Lauds from Passion Sunday to Wednesday in Holy Week inclusive, in the Roman breviary.

This hymn was written by Venantius Fortunatus; see Leyser's collection, p. 168.

'Crux fidelis, inter omnes Arbor una nobilis: Silua talem nulla profert Fronde, flore, germine: Dulce ferrum, dulce lignum, Dulce pondus sustinent....

Sola digna tu fuisti Ferre mundi uictimam; Atque portum praeparare, Arca mundo naufrago, Quam sacer cruor perunxit, Fusus Agni corpore.'

See the translation in Hymns Ancient and Modern, No. 97, part 2 (new edition), beginning--'Now the thirty years accomplished.'

We come still nearer to the original of Chaucer's lines when we consider the form of prayer quoted in the Ancren Riwle, p. 34, which is there given as follows:--'Salue crux sancta, arbor digna, quae sola fuisti digna portare Regem celorum et Dominum.... O crux gloriosa! o crux adoranda! o lignum preciosum, et admirabile signum, per quod et diabolus est victus, et mundus Christi sanguine redemptus.'

460. _him and here_, him and her, i. e. man and woman; as in Piers the Plowman, A. Pass. i. l. 100. The allusion is to the supposed power of the cross over evil spirits. See The Legends of the Holy Rood, ed. Morris; especially the story of the Invention of the Cross by St. Helen, p. 160--'And anone, as he had made the [sign of the] crosse, þe grete multitude of deuylles vanyshed awaye'; or, in the Latin original, 'statimque ut edidit signum crucis, omnis illa daemonum multitudo euanuit'; Aurea Legenda, ed. Grässe, 2nd ed. p. 311. Cf. Piers Plowman, B. xviii. 429-431.

461. The reading of this line is certain, and must not be altered. But it is impossible to _parse_ the line without at once noticing that there is some difficulty in the construction. The best solution is obtained by taking _which_ in the sense of _whom_. A familiar example of this use of _which_ for _who_ occurs in the Lord's Prayer. See also Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar, Sect. 265. The construction is as follows--'O victorious tree, protection of true people, that alone wast worthy to bear the King of Heaven with His new wounds--the White Lamb that was hurt with the spear--O expeller of fiends out of both man and woman, on whom (i. e. the men and women on whom) thine arms faithfully spread out,' &c. _Limes_ means the arms of the cross, spread before a person to protect him. [156]

464. _see of Grece_, here put for the Mediterranean Sea.

465. _Marrok_, Morocco; alluding to the Strait of Gibraltar; cf. l. 947. So also in Barbour's Bruce, iii. 688.

470-504. Not in the French text; perhaps added in revision.

474. _Ther_, where; as usual. _knave_, servant.

475. 'Was eaten by the lion ere he could escape.' Cf. l. 437.

480. The word _clerkes_ refers to Boethius. This passage is due to Boeth. bk. iv. pr. 6. 114-117, and 152-4; see vol. ii. pp. 117, 118.

491. See Revelation vii. 1-3.

497. Here (if _that_ be omitted) _As_ seems to form a foot by itself, which gives but a poor line. See note to l. 404.

500. Alluding to St. Mary the Egyptian (_Maria Egiptiaca_), who according to the legend, after a youth spent in debauchery, lived entirely alone for the last forty-seven years of her life in the wilderness beyond the Jordan. She lived in the fifth century. Her day is April 9. See Mrs. Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art; Rutebuef, ed. Jubinal, ii. 106-150; Maundeville's Travels, ed. Halliwell, p. 96; Aurea Legenda, ed. Grässe, cap. lvi. She was often confused with St. Mary Magdalen.

508. _Northumberlond_, the district, not the county. Yorkshire is, in fact, meant, as the French version expressly mentions the Humber.

510. _of al a tyde_, for the whole of an hour.

512. _the constable_; named _Elda_ by Trivet and Gower.

519. Trivet says that she answered Elda in his own language, 'en sessoneys,' in Saxon, for she had learnt many languages in her youth.

525. The word _deye_ seems to have had two pronunciations; in l. 644 it is _dye_, with a different rime. In fact, Mr. Cromie's 'Ryme-Index' to Chaucer proves the point. On the one hand, _deye_ rimes to _aweye_, _disobeye_, _dreye_, _preye_, _seye_, _tweye_, _weye_; and on the other, _dye_ rimes to _avoutrye_, _bigamye_, _compaignye_, _Emelye_, _genterye_, _lye_, _maladye_, &c. So also, _high_ appears both as _hey_ and _hy_.

527. _forgat hir minde_, lost her memory.

531. The final _e_ in _plese_ is preserved from elision by the cæsural pause. Or, we may read _plesen_; yet the MSS. have _plese_.

533. _Hermengild_; spelt _Hermyngild_ in Trivet; answering to A. S. _Eormengild_ (Lappenberg, Hist. England, i. 285). Note that St. Hermengild was martyred just at this very time, Apr. 13, 846.

543. _plages_, regions; we even find the word in Marlowe's Tamburlaine, pt. i. act iv. sc. 4, and pt. ii. act i. sc. 1. The latter passage is--'From Scythia to the oriental _plage_ Of India.'

552. 'Eyes of his mind.' Jean de Meun has the expression _les yex de cuer_, the eyes of the heart; see his Testament, ll. 1412, 1683.

578. _Alla_, i. e. Ælla, king of Northumberland, A.D. 560-567; the same whose name Gregory (afterwards Pope) turned, by a pun, into Alleluia, according to the version of the celebrated story about Gregory and the English slaves, as given in Beda, Eccl. Hist. b. ii. c. 1. [157]

584. _quyte her whyle_, repay her time; i. e. her pains, trouble; as when we say 'it is worth _while_.' _Wile_ is _not_ intended.

585. 'The plot of the knight against Constance, and also her subsequent adventure with the steward, are both to be found, with some variations, in a story in the Gesta Romanorum, ch. 101; MS. Harl. 2270. Occleve has versified the whole story'; Tyrwhitt. See vol. iii. p. 410, for further information. Compare the conduct of Iachimo, in Cymbeline.

609. See Troil. iv. 357.

620. _Berth hir on hond_, affirms falsely; lit. bears her in hand. Chaucer uses the phrase 'to bere in hond' with the sense of false affirmation, sometimes with the idea of accusing falsely, as here and in the Wyf of Bathes Prologue, D. 393; and sometimes with that of persuading falsely, D. 232, 380. In Shakespeare the sense is rather--'to keep in expectation, to amuse with false pretences'; Nares's Glossary. Barbour uses it in the more general sense of 'to affirm,' or 'to make a statement,' whether falsely or truly. In Dyce's Skelton, i. 237, occurs the line--'They bare me in hande that I was a spye'; which Dyce explains by 'they accused me, laid to my charge that,' &c. He refers us to Palsgrave, who has some curious examples of it. E.g., at p. 450:--'_I beare in hande_, I threp upon a man that he hath done a dede or make hym beleve so, _Ie fais accroyre_ ... I beare hym in hande he was wode, _Ie luy metz sus la raige_, or _ie luy metz sus quil estoyt enragé_. What crime or yuell mayest thou beare me in hande of'; &c. So also: 'Many be borne an hande of a faute, and punysshed therfore, that were neuer gylty; Plerique facinoris _insimulantur_,' &c.; Hormanni Vulgaria, sig. m. ii. ed. 1530. In Skelton's Why Come Ye Nat to Courte, l. 449, _bereth on hand_ simply means 'persuades.'

631-58. Not in the original. A later insertion, of much beauty.

634. 'And bound Satan; and he still lies where he (then) lay.' In the Apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, Christ descends into hell, and (according to some versions) binds him with chains; see Piers Plowman, B. xviii. 401.

639. _Susanne_; see the story of Susannah, in the Apocrypha.

641. The Virgin's mother is called Anna in the Apocryphal Gospel of James. Her day is July 26. See Aurea Legenda, ed. Grässe, cap. cxxxi; Cowper's Apocryphal Gospels, p. 4.

647. 'Where that he gat (could get) for himself no favour.'

660. 'For pitee renneth sone in gentil herte'; Knightes Tale, A. 1761. And see note to Sq. Tale, F. 479.

664. _us avyse_, deliberate with ourselves, consider the matter again. Compare the law-phrase _Le roi s'avisera_, by which the king refuses assent to a measure proposed. 'We will consider whom to appoint as judge.'

666. I. e. a copy of the Gospels in Welsh or British, called in the French prose version 'liure des Ewangeiles.' Agreements were [158] sometimes written on the fly-leaves of copies of the Gospels, as may be seen in two copies of the A. S. version of them.

669. A very similar miracle is recorded in the old alliterative romance of Joseph of Arimathea, l. 362. The French version has:--'a peine auoit fini la parole, qe vne mayn close, com poyn de homme, apparut deuant Elda et quant questoient en presence, et ferri tiel coup en le haterel le feloun, que ambedeus lez eus lui enuolerent de la teste, & les dentz hors de la bouche; & le feloun chai abatu a la terre; et a ceo dist vne voiz en le oyance de touz: Aduersus filiam matris ecclesie ponebas scandalum; hec fecisti, et tacui.' I. e. 'Scarcely had he ended the word, when a closed hand, like a man's fist, appeared before Elda and all who were in the presence, and smote such a blow on the nape of the felon's neck that both his eyes flew out of his head, and the teeth out of his mouth; and the felon fell smitten down to the earth; and thereupon a voice said in the hearing of all, "Against the daughter of Mother Church thou wast laying a scandal; this hast thou done, and I held my peace."' The reading _tacui_ suggests that, in l. 676, the word _holde_ should rather be _held_; but the MSS. do not recognise this reading.

697. _hir thoughte_, it seemed to her; _thoughte_ is here impersonal; so in l. 699. The French text adds that Domulde (Donegild) was, moreover, jealous of hearing the praises of Constance's beauty.

701. _Me list nat_, it pleases me not, I do not wish to. He does not wish to give every detail. In this matter Chaucer is often very judicious; Gower and others often give the more unimportant matters as fully as the rest. Cf. l. 706; and see Squyeres Tale, F. 401.

703. _What_, why. Cf. Squyeres Tale, F. 283, 298.

716. Trivet says--'Puis a vn demy aan passe, vint nouele al Roy que les gentz de Albanie, qe sountz les Escotz, furent passes lour boundes et guerrirent les terres le Roy. Dount par comun counseil, le Roi assembla son ost de rebouter ses enemis. Et auant son departir vers Escoce, baila la Reine Constaunce sa femme en la garde Elda, le Conestable du chastel, et a Lucius, leuesqe de Bangor; si lour chargea que quant ele fut deliueres denlaunt, qui lui feisoient hastiuement sauoir la nouele'; i. e. 'Then, after half-a-year, news came to the king that the people of Albania, who are the Scots, had passed their bounds, and warred on the king's lands. Then by common counsel the king gathered his host to rebut his foes. And before his departure towards Scotland, he committed Queen Constance his wife to the keeping of Elda, the constable of the castle, and of Lucius, bishop of Bangor, and charged them that when she was delivered, they should hastily let him know the news.'

722. _knave child_, male child; as in Clerkes Tale, E. 444.

723. _at the fontstoon_, i. e. at his baptism; French text--'al baptisme fu nome Moris.'

729. _to doon his avantage_, to suit his convenience. He hoped, by going only a little out of his way, to tell Donegild the news also, and to receive a reward for doing so. Trivet says that the old [159] Queen was then at Knaresborough, situated 'between England and Scotland, as in an intermediate place.' Its exact site is less than seventeen miles west of York. Donegild pretends to be very pleased at the news, and gives the man a rich present.

736. _lettres_; so in all seven MSS.; Tyrwhitt reads _lettre_. But it is right as it is. _Lettres_ is sometimes used, like Lat. _literae_, in a singular sense, and the French text has 'les lettres.' Examples occur in Piers Plowman, B. ix. 38; Bruce, ii. 80. See l. 744, and note to l. 747.

738. _If ye wol aught_, if you wish (to say) anything.

740. _Donegild_ is dissyllabic here, as in l. 695, but in l. 805 it appears to have three syllables. Chaucer constantly alters proper names so as to suit his metre.

743. _sadly_, steadily, with the idea of long continuance.

747. _lettre_; here the singular form is used, but it is a matter of indifference. Exactly the same variation occurs in Barbour's Bruce, ii. 80:--

'And, among othir, _lettres_ ar gayn To the byschop off Androwis towne, That tauld how slayn wes that baroun. The _lettir_ tauld hym all the deid,' &c.

This circumstance, of exchanging the messenger's letters for forged ones, is found in Matthew Paris's account of the Life of Offa the first; ed. Wats, pp. 965-968.

748. _direct_, directed, addressed; French text 'maundez.'

751. Pronounce _horrible_ as in French.

752. The last word in this line should rather be _nas_ (= was not), as has kindly been pointed out to me; though the seven MSS. and the old editions all have _was_. By this alteration we should secure a true rime.

754. _elf_; French text--'ele fu malueise espirit en fourme de femme,' she was an evil spirit in form of woman. _Elf_ is the A.S. _ælf_, Icel. _álfr_, G. _alp_ and _elfe_; Shakespeare writes _ouphes_ for _elves_. 'The Edda distinguishes between Ljósálfar, the elves of light, and Dökkálfar, elves of darkness; the latter are not elsewhere mentioned either in modern fairy tales or in old writers.... In the Alvismál, elves and dwarfs are clearly distinguished as different. The abode of the elves in the Edda is Álfheimar, fairy land, and their king the god Frey, the god of light. In the fairy tales the Elves haunt the hills; hence their name Huldufólk, hidden people; respecting their origin, life, and customs, see Íslenzkar þjóðsögur, i. 1. In old writers the Elves are rarely mentioned; but that the same tales were told as at present is clear'; note on the word _álfr_, in Cleasby and Vigfusson's Icelandic Dictionary. See also Keightley's Fairy Mythology, and Brand's Popular Antiquities. The word is here used in a bad sense, and is nearly equivalent to witch. In the Prompt. Parv. we find--'Elfe, spryte, _Lamia_'; and Mr. Way notes that these elves were often supposed to bewitch children, and to use them cruelly. [160]

767. Pronounce _ágreáble_ nearly as in French, and with an accent on the first and third syllables.

769. _take_, handed over, delivered. _Take_ often means to give or hand over in Middle English: very seldom to convey or bring.

771. In the margin of MSS. E. Hn. Cp. and Pt. is written--'Quid turpius ebrioso, cui fetor in ore, tremor in corpore, qui promit stulta, prodit occulta, cuius mens alienatur, facies transformatur? Nullum enim latet secretum ubi regnat ebrietas.' This is obviously the original of the stanza, ll. 771-777; cf. note to B. 99 above. There is nothing answering to it in Trivet, but it is to be found in Pope Innocent's treatise De Contemptu Mundi, lib. ii. c. 19--_De ebrietate_. Migne's edition has 'promittit multa' for 'promit stulta.' The last clause is quoted from Prov. xxxi. 4 in the Vulgate version; our English versions omit it. See B. 2384.

778. 'O Donegild, I have no language fit to tell,' &c.

782. _mannish_, man-like, i. e. harsh and cruel, not mild and gentle like a woman. But Chaucer is not satisfied with the epithet, and says he ought rather to call her 'fiend-like.' Perhaps it is worth while to say that in Gower's Conf. Amant., lib. vi., where Pauli (iii. 52) has 'Most liche to _mannes_ creature,' the older edition by Chalmers has the form _mannish_. Lines 778-84 are not in the original.

789. 'He stowed away plenty (of wine) under his girdle,' i. e. drank his fill.

794. Pronounce _constábl'_ much as if it were French, with an accent on a. In l. 808 the accent is on _o_. Lastly, in l. 858, all three syllables are fully sounded.

798. 'Three days and a quarter of an hour'; i. e. she was to be allowed only three days, and after that to start off as soon as possible. _Tide_ (like _tíð_ in Icelandic) sometimes means an hour. The French text says 'deynz quatre iours,' within four days.

801. _croude_, push; see ll. 296, 299 above; and note to l. 299.

813-26. Lines 813-819 are not in the French, and ll. 820-826 are not at all close to the original. The former stanza, which is due to Boeth. bk. i. met. 5. 22-30, was doubtless added in the revision.

827-33. The French text only has--'en esperaunce qe dure comencement amenera dieu a bon fyn, et qil me purra en la mere sauuer, qi en mere et en terre est de toute puissaunce.'

835. The beautiful stanzas in ll. 834-868 are all Chaucer's own; and of the next stanza, ll. 869-875, the French text gives but the merest hint.

842. _eggement_, incitement. The same word is used in other descriptions of the Fall. Thus, in Piers Plowman, B. i. 65, it is said of Satan that 'Adam and Eue he _egged_ to ille '; and in Allit. Poems, ed. Morris, B. 241, it is said of Adam that 'thurgh the _eggyng_ of Eue he ete of an apple.'

852. _refut_, refuge; see G. 75, and A. B. C. 14.

859. _As lat_, pray, let. See note to Clerkes Prologue, E. 7. [161]

873. _purchace_, provide, make provision. So in Troilus, bk. ii. 1125, the line 'And of som goodly answere you purchace' means--and provide yourself with some kind answer, i. e. be ready with a kind reply.

875-84. Much abridged from the French text.

885. _tormented_, tortured. However, the French text says the messenger acknowledged his drunkenness freely. Examination by torture was so common, that Chaucer seems to have regarded the mention of it as being the most simple way of telling the story.

893. _out of drede_, without doubt, certainly; cf. l. 869. The other equally common expression _out of doute_ comes to much the same thing, because _doute_ in Middle-English has in general the meaning of _fear_ or _dread_, not of hesitation. See Group E. 634, 1155; and Prol. A. 487.

894. _pleinly rede_, fully read, read at length. In fact, Chaucer judiciously omits the details of the French text, where we read that King Ælla rushed into his mother's room with a drawn sword as she lay asleep, roused her by crying 'traitress!' in a loud voice, and, after hearing the full confession which she made in the extremity of her terror, slew her and cut her to pieces as she lay in bed.

901. _fleteth_, floats. French text--'le quinte an de cest exil, come ele _flotaunt_ sur le mere,' &c. Cf. _fleet_ in l. 463.

905. The name of the castle is certainly not given in the French text, which merely says it was 'vn chastel dun Admiral de paens,' i. e. a castle of an admiral of the Pagans.

912. _gauren_, gaze, stare. See note to Squ. Tale, F. 190.

913. _shortly_, briefly; because the poet considerably abridges this part of the narrative. The steward's name was Thelous.

925. The word _Auctor_, here written in the margin of E., signifies that this stanza and the two following ones are additions to the story by the author. At the same time, ll. 925-931 are really taken from Chaucer's own translation of Pope Innocent's treatise De Contemptu Mundi; see further in the note to B. 99 above. Accordingly, we also find here, in the margin of E., the following Latin note:--'O extrema libidinis turpitudo, que non solum mentem effeminat, set eciam corpus eneruat. Semper sequ[u]ntur dolor et penitentia post,' &c. This corresponds to the above treatise, lib. ii. c. 21, headed 'De luxuria.' The last clause is abbreviated; the original has:--'Semper illam procedunt ardor et petulantia; semper comitantur fetor et immunditia; sequuntur semper dolor et poenitentia.'

932-45. These two stanzas are wholly Chaucer's, plainly written as a parallel passage to that in ll. 470-504 above.

934. _Golias_, Goliath. See I Samuel xvii. 25.

940. See the story of Holofernes in the Monkes Tale, B. 3741; and the note. I select the spelling _Olofernus_ here, because it is that of the majority of the MSS., and agrees with the title _De Oloferno_ in the Monkes Tale.

947. In l. 465, Chaucer mentions the 'Strait of Marrok,' i. e. Morocco, though there is no mention of it in the French text; so here he alludes [162] to it again, but by a different name, viz. 'the mouth of Jubalter and Septe.' _Jubaltar_ (Gibraltar) is from the Arabic _jabálu't tárik_, i. e. the mountain of Tarik; who was the leader of a band of Saracens that made a descent upon Spain in the eighth century. _Septe_ is Ceuta, on the opposite coast of Africa.

965. _shortly_, briefly; because Chaucer here again abridges the original, which relates how the Romans burnt the Sultaness, and slew more than 11,000 of the Saracens, without a single death or even wound on their own side.

967. _senatour._ His name was Arsemius of Cappadocia; his wife's name was Helen. Accent _victorie_ on the _o_.

969. _as seith the storie_, as the history says. The French text relates this circumstance fully.

971. The French text says that, though Arsemius did not recognise Constance, she, on her part, recognised him at once, though she did not reveal it.

981. _aunte._ Helen, the wife of Arsemius, was daughter of Sallustius, brother of the Emperor Tiberius, and Constance's uncle. Thus Helen was really Constance's first cousin. Chaucer may have altered it purposely; but it looks as if he had glanced at the sentence--'Cest heleyne, la nece Constaunce, taunt tendrement ama sa nece,' &c., and had read it as--'This Helen ... loved her _niece_ so tenderly.' In reality, the word _nece_ means 'cousin' here, being applied to Helen as well as to Constance.

982. _she_, i. e. Helen; for Constance knew Helen.

991. _to receyven_, i. e. to submit himself to any penance which the Pope might see fit to impose upon him. Journeys to Rome were actually made by English kings; Ælfred was sent to Rome as a boy, and his father, Æthelwulf, also spent a year there, but (as the Chronicle tells us) he went 'mid micelre weorðnesse,' with much pomp.

994. _wikked werkes_; especially the murder of his mother, as Trivet says. See note to l. 894.

999. _Rood him ageyn_, rode towards him, rode to meet him; cf. l. 391. See Cler. Tale, E. 911, and the note.

1009. _Som men wolde seyn_, some relate the story by saying. The expression occurs again in l. 1086. On the strength of it, Tyrwhitt concluded that Chaucer here refers to Gower, who tells the story of Constance in Book ii. of his Confessio Amantis. He observes that Gower's version of the story includes both the circumstances which are introduced by this expression. But this is not conclusive, since we find that Nicholas Trivet also makes mention of the same circumstances. In the present instance the French text has--'A ceo temps de la venuz le Roi a Rome, comensca Moris son diseotisme aan. Cist estoit _apris priuement de sa mere Constance, qe, quant il irreit a la feste ou son seignur le senatour_,' &c.; i. e. At this time of the king's coming to Rome, Maurice began his eighteenth year. _He was secretly instructed by his mother Constance, that, when he should go to the_ [163] _feast with his lord the senator_, &c. See also the note to l. 1086 below. Besides, Gower may have followed Chaucer.

1014. _metes space_, time of eating. This circumstance strikingly resembles the story of young Roland, who, whilst still a child, was instructed by his mother Bertha to appear before his uncle Charlemagne, by way of introducing himself. The story is well told in Uhland's ballad entitled 'Klein Roland,' a translation of which is given at pp. 335-340 of my 'Ballads and Songs of Uhland.'

'They had but waited a little while, When Roland returns more bold; With hasty step to the king he comes, And seizes his cup of gold.

"What ho, there! stop! you saucy imp!" Are the words that loudly ring. But Roland clutches the beaker still With eyes fast fixed on the king.

The king at the first looked fierce and dark, But soon perforce he smiled-- "Thou comest," he said, "into golden halls As though they were woodlands wild,"' &c.

The result is also similar; Bertha is reconciled to Charlemagne, much as Constance is to Ælla.

1034. _aught_, in any way, at all; lit. 'a whit.'

1035. _sighte_, sighed. So also _pighte_, 'pitched'; _plighte_, 'plucked'; and _shrighte_, 'shrieked.' It occurs again in Troil. iii. 1080, iv. 714, 1217, v. 1633; and in the Romaunt of the Rose, l. 1746.

1036. _that he mighte_, as fast as he could.

1038. 'I ought to suppose, in accordance with reasonable opinion.' Chaucer tells the story quite in his own way. There is no trace of ll. 1038-1042 in the French, and scarcely any of ll. 1048-1071, which is all in his own excellent strain.

1056. _shet_, shut, closed. Compare the description of Griselda in the Clerkes Tale, E. 1058-1061.

1058. Both _twyes_ and _owne_ are dissyllabic.

1060. _all his halwes_, all His saints. Hence the term All-hallow-mas, i. e. All Saints' day.

1061. _wisly_, certainly. _as have_, I pray that he may have; see note to l. 859 above. 'I pray He may so surely have mercy on my soul, as that I am as innocent of your suffering as Maurice my son is like you in the face.'

1078. After this line, the French text tells us that King Ælla presented himself before Pope Pelagius, who absolved him for the death of his mother. Pelagius II. was pope in 578-90.

1086. Here again, Tyrwhitt supposes Chaucer to follow Gower. But, in fact, Chaucer and Gower both consulted Trivet, who says [164] here--'Constaunce charga son fitz Morice del messager [_or_ message].... Et puis, quant Morice estoit deuaunt lempereur venuz, oue la compaignie honurable, et auoit son message fest de part le Roi son pere,' &c.; i. e. 'Constance charged her son Maurice with the message ... and then, when Maurice was come before the emperor, with the honourable company, and had done his message on behalf of the king his father,' &c. Or, as before, Gower may have copied Chaucer.

1090. _As he_; used much as we should now use 'as one.' It refers to the Emperor, of course.

1091. _Sente_, elliptical for 'as that he would send.' Tyrwhitt reads _send_; but it is best to leave an expression like this as it stands in the MSS. It was probably a colloquial idiom; and, in the next line, we have _wente_. Observe that _sente_ is in the subjunctive mood, and is equivalent to 'he would send.'

1107. Chaucer so frequently varies the length and accent of a proper name that there is no objection to the supposition that we are here to read _Cústancë_ in three syllables, with an accent on the first syllable. In exactly the same way, we find _Grísildis_ in three syllables (E. 948), though in most other passages it is _Grisíld_. We have had _Cústance_, accented on the first syllable, several times; see ll. 438, 556, 566, 576, &c.; also _Custáncë_, three syllables, ll. 184, 274, 319, 612, &c. Tyrwhitt inserts a second _your_ before _Custance_, but without authority.

1109. _It am I_; it is I. It is the usual idiom. So in the A.S. version of St. John vi. 20, we find 'ic hyt eom,' i. e. I it am, and in a Dutch New Testament, A.D. 1700, I find 'Ick ben 't,' i. e. I am it. The Moeso-Gothic version omits _it_, having simply 'Ik im'; so does Wyclif's, which has 'I am.' Tyndale, A.D. 1526, has 'it ys I.'

1113. _thonketh_, pronounced _thonk'th_; so also _eyl'th_, B. 1171, _Abyd'th_, B. 1175. So also _tak'th_, l. 1142 below. _of_, for. So in Chaucer's Balade of Truth, l. 19, we have 'thank God _of al_,' i. e. for all things. See my notes to Chaucer's Minor Poems, vol. i. p. 552.

1123. The French text tells us that he was named Maurice of Cappadocia, and was also known, in Latin, as _Mauritius Christianissimus Imperator_. Trivet tells us no more about him, except that he accounts for the title 'of Cappadocia' by saying that Arsemius (the senator who found Constance and Maurice and took care of them) was a Cappadocian. Gibbon says--'The Emperor Maurice derived his origin from ancient Rome; but his immediate parents were settled at Arabissus in Cappadocia, and their singular felicity preserved them alive to behold and partake the fortune of their august son.... Maurice ascended the throne at the mature age of 43 years; and he reigned above 20 years over the east and over himself.'--Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, cap. xlv. He was murdered, with all his seven children, by his successor, Phocas the Usurper; Nov. 27, A.D. 600. His accession was in A.D. 582.

1127. The statement 'I bere it not in minde,' i. e. I do not remember it, may be taken to mean that Chaucer could find nothing about [165] Maurice in his French text beyond the epithet _Christianissimus_, which he has skilfully expanded into l. 1123. He vaguely refers us to 'olde Romayn gestes,' that is, to lives of the Roman emperors, for he can hardly mean the Gesta Romanorum in this instance. Gibbon refers us to Evagrius, lib. v. and lib. vi.; Theophylact Simocatta; Theophanes, Zonaras, and Cedrenus.

1132. In the margin of MSS. E. Hn. Cp. Pt. is written--'A mane usque ad vesperam mutabitur tempus. Tenent tympanum et gaudent ad sonum organi,' &c. See the next note.

1135. In the margin of MSS. E. Hn. Cp. Pt. is written--'Quis vnquam vnicam diem totam duxit in sua dilectione [_vel_ delectatione] iocundam? quem in aliqua parte diei reatus consciencie, vel impetus Ire, vel motus concupiscencie non turbauerit? quem liuor Inuidie, vel Ardor Auaricie, vel tumor superbie non vexauerit? quem aliqua iactura vel offensa, vel passio non commouerit,' &c. Cp. Pt. insert _inde_ before _non turbauerit_. This corresponds to nothing in the French text, but it is quoted from Pope Innocent's treatise, De Contemptu Mundi, lib. i. c. 22; see note to B. 99 above. The extract in the note to l. 1132 occurs in the same chapter, but both clauses in it are borrowed; the former from Ecclus. xviii. 26, the latter from Job, xxi. 12.

1143. _I gesse_, I suppose. Chaucer somewhat alters the story. Trivet says that Ælla died at the end of nine months after this. Half-a-year after, Constance repairs to Rome. Thirteen days after her arrival, her father Tiberius dies. A year later, Constance herself dies, on St. Clement's day (Nov. 23), A.D. 584, and is buried at Rome, near her father, in St. Peter's Church. The date 584, here given by Trivet, should rather be 583; the death of Tiberius took place on Aug. 14, 582; see Gibbon.

THE SHIPMAN'S PROLOGUE.

1165. The host here refers to the Man of Lawes Tale, which had just been told, and uses the expression '_thrifty_ tale' with reference to the same expression above, B. 46. Most MSS. separate this end-link widely from the Tale, but MS. Hl. and MS. Arch. Seld. B. 14 have it in the right place. See vol. iii. pp. 417-9.

_for the nones_, for the nonce, for the occasion; see note to the Prologue, A. 379. The A.S. _[=a]nes_ (= once) is an adverb with a genitive case-ending; and, being an adverb, becomes indeclinable, and can accordingly be used as a _dative_ case after the preposition _for_, which properly governs the dative.

1166. The Host here turns to the Parson (see Prol. A. 477), and adjures him to tell a tale, according to the agreement.

1167. _yore_, put for _of yore_, formerly, already.--M.

1169. _Can moche good_, know (or are acquainted with) much good; i. e. with many good things, Cf. B. 47. [166]

1170. _Benedicite_, bless ye; i. e. bless ye the Lord; the first word of the Song of the Three Children, and a more suitable exclamation than most of those in common use at the time. In the Knightes Tale, A. 1785, where Theseus is _pondering_ over the strange event he had just witnessed, the word is pronounced _in full_, as five syllables. But in A. 2115, it is pronounced, as here, as a mere trisyllable. The syllables to be dropped are the second and third, so that we must say _ben'cite_. This is verified by a passage in the Townley Mysteries, p. 85, where it is actually spelt _benste_, and reduced to two syllables only. Cf. notes to B. 1974, and Troil. i. 780.

1171. _man_; dat. case after _eyleth_. Swearing is alluded to as a prevalent vice amongst Englishmen in Robert of Brunne, in the Persones Tale of Chaucer, and elsewhere.--M.

1172. _O Iankin_, &c.; 'O Johnny, you are there, are you?' That is, 'so it is you whom I hear, is it, Mr. Johnny?' A derisive interruption. It was common to call a priest _Sir John_, by way of mild derision; see Monkes Prol. (B. 3119) and Nonne Prestes Prol. (B. 4000). The Host carries the derision a little further by using the diminutive form. See note to B. 4000.

1173. _a loller_, a term of reproach, equivalent to a canting fellow. Tyrwhitt aptly cites a passage from a treatise of the period, referring to the Harleian Catalogue, no. 1666:--'Now in Engelond it is a comun protectioun ayens persecutioun, if a man is customable to swere nedeles and fals and unavised, by the bones, nailes, and sides, and other membres of Christ. And to absteyne fro othes nedeles and unleful, and repreve sinne by way of charite, is mater and cause now, why Prelates and sum Lordes sclaundren men, and clepen hem _Lollardes_, Eretikes,' &c.

The reader will not clearly understand this word till he distinguishes between the Latin _lollardus_ and the English _loller_, two words of different origin which were _purposely_ confounded in the time of Wyclif. The Latin _Lollardus_ had been in use before Wyclif. Ducange quotes from Johannes Hocsemius, who says, under the date 1309---'Eodem anno quidam hypocritae gyrovagi, qui _Lollardi_, sive Deum laudantes, vocabantur, per Hannoniam et Brabantiam quasdam mulieres nobiles deceperunt.' He adds that Trithemius says in his Chronicle, under the year 1315--'ita appellatos a Gualtero _Lolhard_, Germano quodam.' Kilian, in his Dictionary of Mid. Dutch, says--'_Lollaerd_, mussitator, mussitabundus'; i. e. a mumbler of prayers. This gives two etymologies for _Lollardus_. Being thus already in use as a term of reproach, it was applied to the followers of Wyclif, as we learn from Thomas Walsingham, who says, under the year 1377--'Hi uocabantur a uulgo _Lollardi_, incedentes nudis pedibus'; and again--'_Lollardi_ sequaces Joannis Wiclif.' But the Old English _loller_ (from the verb to _loll_) meant simply a lounger, an idle vagabond, as is abundantly clear from a notable passage in Piers the Plowman, C-text (ed. Skeat), x. 188-218; where William tells us plainly-- [167]

'Now kyndeliche, by crist · beþ suche callyd _lolleres_, As by englisch of oure eldres · of olde menne techynge. He that _lolleþ_ is lame · oþer his leg out of ioynte,' &c.

Here were already two (if not three) words confused, but this was not all. By a bad pun, the Latin _lolium_, tares, was connected with _Lollard_, so that we find in Political Poems, i. 232, the following--

'Lollardi sunt zizania, Spinae, uepres, ac _lollia_, Quae uastant hortum uineae.'

This obviously led to allusions to the Parable of the Tares, and fully accounts for the punning allusion to _cockle_, i. e. tares, in l. 1183. Mr. Jephson observes that _lolium_ is used in the Vulgate Version, Matt. xii. 25; but this is a mistake, as the word there used is _zizania_. Gower, Prol. to Conf. Amant., ed. Pauli, i. 15, speaks of--

'This newe secte of _lollardie_, And also many an heresie.'

Also in book v., id. ii. 187,--

'Be war that thou be nought oppressed With anticristes _lollardie_,' &c.

See Mosheim, Eccl. Hist. iii. 355-358; Wordsworth's Eccl. Biography, i. 331, note.

1180. 'He shall not give us any commentary on a gospel.' To _glose_ is to comment upon, with occasional free introduction of irrelevant matter. The _gospel_ is the text, or portion of the Gospel commented upon.

1181. 'We all agree in the one fundamental article of faith'; by which he insinuates--'and let that suffice; we want no theological subtilties discussed here.'

1183. _springen_, scatter, _sprink_-le. The pt. t. is _spreynde_ or _spreynte_; the pp. _spreynd_ occurs in B. 422, 1830.--M. Gower, Conf. Amantis, bk. v., ed. Pauli, ii. 190, speaks of _lollardie_

'Which now is come for to dwelle, To sowe cockel with the corne.'

1185. _body_, i. e. self. Cf. _lyf_ = a person, in P. Plowman, B. iii. 292.--M.

1186. See B. 3984, which suggests that there is a play upon words here. The Shipman will make his horse's bells ring loudly enough to awake them all; or he will ring so merry a peal, as to rouse them like a church bell that awakes a sleeper.

1189. It is plain that the unmeaning words _phislyas_ and _phillyas_, as in the MSS., must be corruptions of some difficult form. I think that form is certainly _physices_, with reference to the Physics of Aristotle, here conjoined with 'philosophy' and 'law' in order to include the chief forms of medieval learning. Aristotle was only known, in Chaucer's time, in Latin translations, and _Physices Liber_ would be a possible title for such a translation. Lewis and Short's Lat. Dict. gives '_physica_, gen. [168] _physicae_, and _physice_, gen. _physices_, f., = [Greek: phusikê], natural science, natural philosophy, physics, Cicero, Academ. 1. 7. 25; id. De Finibus, 3. 21. 72; 3. 22. 73.' Magister Artium et _Physices_ was the name of a degree; see Longfellow's Golden Legend, § vi.

That Chaucer should use the gen. _physices_ alone, is just in his usual manner; cf. _Iudicum_, B. 3236; _Eneidos_, B. 4549; _Metamorphoseos_, B. 93. Tyrwhitt's reading _of physike_ gives the same sense.

THE SHIPMANNES TALE.

This Tale agrees rather closely with one in Boccaccio's _Decamerone_, Day viii. nov. 1. See further in vol. iii. p. 420.

1191. _Seint Denys_, Saint Denis, in the environs of Paris. Cf. ll. 1247, 1249, and note to 1341.

1202. _us_, i. e. us women. This is clear proof that some of the opening lines of this Tale were not originally intended for the Shipman, but for the Wife of Bath, as she is the only lady in the company to whom they would be suitable. We may remember that Chaucer originally meant to make each pilgrim tell _four_ Tales; so there is nothing surprising in the fact that he once thought of giving this to the Wife. This passage is parallel to D. 337-339.

1209. _perilous._ Cf. D. 339: 'it is peril of our chastitee.'

1228. Referring to the common proverb--'As fain as a fowl [bird] of a fair day'; cf. l. 1241 below, A. 2437, G. 1342.

1233. _Daun_, Dan, for Lat. _Dominus_, corresponding to E. _sir_, as in 'Sir John,' a common title for a priest. Cf. B. 3119.

1244. _Shoop him_, lit. shaped himself, set about, got ready. Cf. P. Plowman, C. i. 2, xiv. 247, and the notes.

1245. _Brugges_, Bruges; which, as Wright remarks, was 'the grand central mart of European commerce in the middle ages.' Cf. P. Plowman, C. vii. 278, and the note.

1256. _graunges_, granges; cf. notes to A. 3668, and A. 166.

1260. _Malvesye_, Malmsey; so named from _Malvasia_, now _Napoli di Malvasia_, a town on the E. coast of Lacedaemonia in the Morea. See note in the Babees Book, ed. Furnivall, p. 206, where _Malvasia_ is explained as the Ital. corruption of _Monemvasia_, from Gk. [Greek: monê embasia], single entrance; with reference to its position.

1261. _Vernage._ In the Babees Book, ed. Furnivall, p. 203, _vernage_ is said to be a red wine, bright, sweet, and somewhat rough, from Tuscany and Genoa, and other parts of Italy. The Ital. name is _vernaccia_, lit. the name of a thick-skinned grape. The information in this note and the preceding one is drawn from Henderson's History of Ancient and Modern Wines, 1824: which see.

1262. _volatyl_, wild fowl, game; here used as a collective plural, to represent Lat. _uolatilia_. Littré quotes: 'Tant ot les _volatiles_ chieres'; Roman de la Rose, 20365. Wyclif has _al volatile_ to translate _cunctum_ [169] _uolatile_, Gen. vii. 14; also _my volatilis_ in Matt. xxii. 4, where the Vulgate has _altilia_. Cf. F. _volaille_.

1278. _passed pryme_, past 9 A.M. See notes to A. 3906, F. 73; and cf. B. 1396.

1281. _his thinges_, the things he had to say; cf. F. 78. It 'means the divine office in the Breviary, i. e. the psalms and lessons from scripture which, being absent from the convent, he was bound to say privately'; Bell. _curteisly_, reverently. See note to l. 1321 below.

1287. _under the yerde_, still subject to the discipline of the rod. As girls were married at a very early age, this should mean 'still quite a child.' Cf. _as hir list_ in l. 1286. And see E. 22. See Ælfric's Colloquy (Wright's Vocab. ed. Wülker, p. 102), where the boy says he is still _sub uirga_, on which the A.S. gloss is _under gyrda_. F. _sous la verge_ (Littré).

1292. _appalled_, enfeebled, languid; see F. 365.

1293. _dare_, lie motionless. This is the original sense of the word, as in E. Friesic _bedaren_. So also Low G. _bedaren_, to be still and quiet; as in _dat weer bedaart_, the weather becomes settled; _een bedaart mann_, a man who has lost the fire of youth. Du. _bedaren_, to compose, to calm. The rather common M.E. phrase _to droupe and dare_ means 'to sink down and lie quiet,' like a hunted animal in hiding; hence came the secondary sense 'to lurk' or 'lie close,' as in the Prompt. Parv. Cotgrave has F. _blotir_, 'to squat, skowke, or lie close to the ground, like a _daring_ lark or affrighted foul.' Hence also a third sense, 'to peer round,' as a lurking creature that looks out for possible danger. The word is common in M.E., and in many passages the sense 'to lie still' suits better than 'lurk,' as it is usually explained.

1295. _Were_, 'which might be,' 'which should happen to be'; the relative is understood. _forstraught_, distracted. Such is evidently the sense; but the word occurs nowhere else, and is incorrect. As far as I can make it out, Chaucer has coined this word incorrectly. The right word is _destrat_ (vol. ii. p. 67, l. 1), from O.F. _destrait_, pp. of _destraire_, to tear asunder (as by horses), to torment, fatigue (Godefroy). Next, he turned it (1) into _forstrait_, pp. of _forstraire_ (_fortraire_ in Cotgrave), to purloin; and (2) into _forstraught_, as if it were the pp. of an A.S. *_for-streccan_, to stretch exceedingly. Thus, he has made one change by altering the prefix, and another by misdividing the word and substituting English for French. A similar mistake is seen in the absurd form _distraught_, used for 'distracted,' though it is, formally, equivalent to _dis-straught_, as if made up of the prefix _dis_- and the pp. of _strecchen_, to stretch. An early instance occurs in Lydgate's Minor Poems, ed. Halliwell, p. 206, where we find '_Distrauhte_ in thouhte,' i. e. distracted in thought, mad. There is much confusion between the E. prefixes _for-_, _fore-_, and the F. _fors-_, _for-_. Chaucer has _straughte_ (correctly), as the pt. t. of _strecchen_, in A. 2916.

1298. Accent _labóured_ on the second syllable. [170]

1303. 'God knows all'; implying, 'I can contradict you, if I choose to speak.'

1321. _port-hors_, for _porte-hors_, lit. 'carry-abroad,' the F. equivalent of Lat. _portiforium_, a breviary. Also spelt _portous_, _portess_, &c. 'The _Portous_, or Breviary, contained whatever was to be said by all beneficed clerks, and those in holy orders, either in choir, or privately by themselves, as they recited their daily canonical hours; no musical notation was put into these books.'--Rock, Church of our Fathers, v. iii. pt. 2, p. 212. Dan John had just been saying 'his things' out of it (l. 1281). The music was omitted to save space. See P. Plowman, B. xv. 122, and my note on the line.

1327. _for to goon_, i. e. even though going to hell were the penalty of my keeping secret what you tell me.

1329. 'This I do, not for kinship, but out of true love.'

1335. _a legende_, a story of martyrdom, like that of a saint's life.

1338. St. Martin of Tours, whose day is Nov. 11.

1341. St. Denis of France, St. Dionysius, bishop of Paris, martyred A.D. 272, whose day is Oct. 9. Near his place of martyrdom was built a chapel, which was first succeeded by a church, and then by the famous abbey of St. Denis, in which King Dagobert and his successors were interred. The French adopted St. Denis as their patron saint; see Chambers, Book of Days, ii. 427; Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints, Oct. 9.

1353. _sit_, is becoming, befits; see E. 460, 1277.

1384. _Geniloun_, Genilon or Ganelon, the traitor who betrayed Charlemagne's army at Roncesvalles. For this deed he was torn to death by wild horses, according to the romance-writers. See La Chanson de Roland, l. 3735. Cf. note to B. 3579, and Book of the Duchesse, 1121, and my note upon it.

1396. _chilindre_, a kind of portable sun-dial, lit. cylinder. A thirteenth-century Latin treatise on the use of the _chilindre_ was edited by Mr. E. Brock for the Chaucer Society, and I here copy his clear description of the instrument. 'The Chilindre (_cylindrus_) or cylinder is one of the manifold forms of the sun-dial, very simple in its construction, but rude and inaccurate as a time-shower. According to the following treatise, it consists of a wooden cylinder, with a central bore from top to bottom, and with a hollow space in the top, into which a moveable rotary lid with a little knob at the top is fitted. This lid is also bored in the centre, and a string passed through the whole instrument. Upon this string the chilindre hangs [perpendicularly] when in use. The style or gnomon works on a pin fixed in the lid. When the instrument is in use, the style projects at a right angle to the surface of the cylindrical body, through a notch in the side of the lid, but can, at pleasure, be turned down and slipt into the central bore, which is made a little wider at the top to receive it. The body of the _chilindre_ is marked with a table of the points of the shadow, a table of degrees for finding the sun's altitude, and spaces corresponding to [171] the months of the year and the signs of the zodiac. Across these spaces are drawn six oblique hour-lines.

'To ascertain the time of day by the _chilindre_, consider what month it is, and turn the lid round till the style stands directly over the corresponding part of the _chilindre_; then hold up the instrument by the string so that the style points towards the sun, or in other words, so that the shadow of the style falls perpendicularly, and the hour will be shewn by the lowest line reached by the shadow.'

Another treatise of the same character was subsequently edited by Mr. Brock for the same Society. It is entitled 'Practica Chilindri; or the Working of the Cylinder; by John Hoveden.'

There is a curious reference to the same instrument in the following passage from Horman's Vulgaria, leaf 338, back:--'There be iorneyringis [day-circles, dials] and instrume_n_t_is_ lyke an ha_n_gynge pyler with a tu_n_ge lyllyng [lolling] out, to knowe what tyme of the day.'

In Wright's Vocabularies, ed. Wülker, 572. 22, we find: '_Chilindrus, anglice_ a leuel; _uel est instrumentum quo hore notantur, anglice_ a chylaundre.' It thus appears that the reading _kalendar_, in the old editions, is due to a mistake.

The most interesting comment on this passage is afforded by the opening lines of the Prologue to Part II. of Lydgate's _Siege of Thebes_, where Lydgate is clearly thinking of Chaucer's words. Here also the black-letter edition of 1561 has _Kalendar_, but the reading of MS. Arundel 119 (leaf 18) is more correct, as follows:--

'Passed the throp of Bowton on the Ble, By my _chilyndre_ I gan anon to se, Thorgh the sonne, that ful cler gan shyne, Of the clok[ke] that it drogh to nyne.'

_pryme of day_, 9 A.M., in the present passage; see above, and note the preparations for dinner in ll. 1399-1401; the dinner-hour being 10 A.M. See also note to A. 3906. 'Our forefathers dined at an hour at which we think it fashionable to breakfast; _ten o 'clock_ was the time established by ancient usage for the principal meal'; Our Eng. Home, p. 33. In earlier times it was _nine_ o'clock; see Wright, Hist. of Domestic Manners, p. 155.

1399. 'As cheery as a magpie.'

1404. _Qui la?_ who's there. All the MSS. agree in thus cutting down the expression _qui est la_ to two words; and this abbreviation is emphasised by the English gloss 'Who ther' in E. and Hn.; Cm. has _Who there_, without any French. It is clear, too, that the line is imperfect at the caesura, thus:--

_Qui la_? | quod he. | --Pe | ter it | am I ||

This medial pause is probably intentional, to mark the difference between the speakers. Ed. 1532 (which Tyrwhitt follows) has _Qui est la_, in order to fill out the line. Wright has the same; and (as usual) suppresses the fact that the word _est_ is not in the MS. which he follows 'with literal accuracy.' [172]

_Peter!_ by Saint Peter! a too common exclamation, shewing that even women used to swear. It occurs again in D. 446, 1332, and Hous of Fame, 1034, 2000.

1412. _elenge_, pronounced (eeléngg[*e]), in a dreary, tedious, lonely manner; drearily. From A. S. _[=æ]lenge_, lengthy, protracted; a derivative from _lang_, long; see P. Plowman, C. i. 204, and the note. In Pegge's Kenticisms (E. D. S. Gloss. C. 3), we have: '_Ellinge_ [_pronounced_ éllinj], _adj._ solitary, lonely, melancholy, farre from neighbours. See Ray.' It is also still in use in Sussex. The usual derivation from A. S. _ellende_, foreign, is incorrect; but it seems to have been confused with this word, whence the sense of 'strange, foreign,' was imported into it. See _Alange_ in the New E. Dictionary.

1413. _go we dyne_, let us go and dine; as in P. Plowman, C. i. 227.

1417. _Seint Yve._ 'St. Ivia, or Ivo,' says Alban Butler, 'was a Persian bishop, who preached in England in the seventh century.' He died at St. Ive's in Huntingdonshire. A church was also built in his honour at St. Ive's in Cornwall. His day is April 25. This line is repeated in D. 1943. Cf. A. 4264.

1421. _dryve forth_, spend our time in; cf. P. Plowman, C. i. 225.

1423. _pleye_, 'take some relaxation by going on a pilgrimage'; clearly shewing the chief object of pilgrimages. Cf. D. 557. The line also indicates that it was a practice, when men could no longer make a show in the world, to go on a pilgrimage, or 'go out of the way' somewhere, to avoid creditors.

1436. _houshold._ So in E. Hn. Cm.; Cp. Pt. Ln. Hl. T. have _housbonde_, _housbond_, but the application of this word to a housewife is not happy.

1441. _messe_, mass; it seems to have been said, on this occasion, about 9.30 A.M. It did not take long; cf. l. 1413.

1445. _At-after_, soon after. This curious form is still in use; see the Cleveland Glossary. So in the Whitby Glossary:--'All things in order; ploughing first, sowing _at-after_.' Cf. _'at-after_ supper,' Rich. III. iv. 3. 31; and see _At_, § 40, in the New E. Dict. We find also _at-under_ and _at-before_. It occurs again in F. 1219.

1466. _a myle-wey_, even by twenty minutes (the time taken to walk a mile).

1470. _Graunt mercy of_, many thanks for.

1476. 'God defend (forbid) that ye should spare.'

1484. _took_, handed over, delivered; see note to P. Plowman, C. iv. 47. And see l. 1594 below.

1496. _let_, leadeth, leads; note the various readings. Cf. 'Thet is the peth of pouerte huerby _let_ the holy gost tho thet,' &c.; i. e. that is the path of poverty whereby the Holy Ghost leads those that, &c.--Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 185; and so again in the same, p. 115, l. 9, and p. 51, l. 13. In P. Plowman, B. iii. 157, the Rawlinson MS. has _let_ instead of _ledeth_. [173]

1499. _crowne_; alluding to the priestly tonsure. See note to P. Plowman, C. i. 86.

1506. For _bolt-upright_, see note to A. 4194. This line is defective in the first foot; read--Hav' | hir in | his, &c. Tyrwhitt reads _Haven_, but admits, in the notes, that the final _n_ came out of his own head.

1515. _the faire_, the fair at Bruges. On fairs, see the note to P. Plowman, C. vii. 211.

1519. _chevisaunce_, a contract for borrowing money on his credit; see A. 282, and note to P. Plowman, B. v. 249. For the purpose of making such a contract, a proportional sum had to be paid down in ready money; see note to l. 1524.

1524. 'A certain (number of) franks; and some (franks) he took with him.' The latter sum refers to the money he had to pay down in order to get the _chevisance_ made. See note to Wyclif's Works, ed. Matthew, p. 528. And see l. 1558.

1542. Here _sheeld_ is used as a plural, by analogy with _pund_, i. e. pounds. A _sheeld_ was a French _écu_, or crown; see A. 278.

1557. _Lumbardes_, Lombards, the great money-lenders and bankers of the middle ages. Cf. 'Lumbardes of Lukes, that lyuen by lone as Iewes,' Lombards from Lucca, that live by lending, as Jews do; P. Plowman, C. v. 194. Owing to the accent, _Lumbard's_ is dissyllabic.

1558. _bond_ is misprinted _hond_ in Wright's edition; MS. Hl. has _bond_, correctly, though the note in Bell says otherwise.

1592. _Marie_, by St. Mary; the familiar 'Marry!' as used by our dramatists.

1595. _yvel thedom_, ill success. Cf. 'Now, sere, evyl thedom com to thi snoute'; Coventry Mysteries, p. 139. This is printed by Halliwell in the form--'Now, sere evyl Thedom, com to thi snoute,' i. e. 'now, sir Ill Success, come to thy snout'; but _how_ a man can come to his own nose, we are not told.

1599. _bele chere_, fair entertainment, hospitality. _Bele_ = mod. F. _belle_.

1606. 'Score it upon my tally,' make a note of it. See A. 570, and note to P. Plowman, C. v. 61.

1613. _to wedde_, as a pledge (common). Cf. A. 1218.

1621. _large_, liberal; hence E. _largesse_, liberality.

THE PRIORESS'S PROLOGUE.

1625. _corpus dominus_; of course for _corpus domini_, the Lord's body. But it is unnecessary to correct the Host's Latin.

1626. 'Now long mayest thou sail along the coast!'

1627. _marineer_, Fr. _marinier_; we now use the ending _-er_; but modern words of French origin shew their lateness by the accent on the last syllable, as _engineer_.--M. The Fr. _pionnier_ is _pioner_ in Shakespeare, but is now _pioneer_.

1628. 'God give this monk a thousand cart-loads of bad years!' [174] He alludes to the deceitful monk described in the Shipman's Tale. A _last_ is a very heavy load. In a Statute of 31 Edw. I. a _weight_ is declared to be 14 stone; 2 _weights_ of wool are to make a _sack_; and 12 _sacks_ a _last_. This makes a last of wool to be 336 stone, or 42 cwt. But the dictionaries shew that the weight was very variable, according to the substance weighed. The word means simply a heavy burden, from A. S. _hlæst_, a burden, connected with _hladan_, to load; so that _last_ and _load_ are alike in sense. _Laste_, in the sense of heavy weight, occurs in Richard the Redeles, ed. Skeat, iv. 74. _Quad_ is the Old English equivalent of the Dutch _kwaad_, bad, a word in very common use. In O.E., _þe qued_ means the evil one, the devil; P. Pl. B. xiv. 189. Cf. note to A. 4357. The omission of the word _of_ before _quad_ may be illustrated by the expression 'four score years,' i. e. _of_ years.

1630. 'The monk put an ape in the man's hood, and in his wife's too.' We should now say, he made him look like an ape. The contents of the _hood_ would be, properly, the man's head and face; but neighbours seemed to see peeping from it an ape rather than a man. It is a way of saying that he made a dupe of him. In the Milleres Tale (A. 3389), a girl is said to have made her lover _an ape_, i. e. a dupe; an expression which recurs in the Chanones Yemannes Tale, G. 1313. Spenser probably borrowed the expression from this very passage; it occurs in his Faerie Queene, iii. 9. 31:--

'Thus was _the ape_, By their faire handling, _put into Malbeccoes cape_.'

1632. 'Never entertain monks any more.'

1637. See the description of the Prioress in the Prologue, A. 118.

THE PRIORESSES TALE.

For general remarks upon this Tale, see vol. iii. p. 421.

1643. Cf. Ps. viii. 1-2. The Vulgate version has--'Domine Dominus noster, quam admirabile est nomen tuum in uniuersa terra! Quoniam eleuata est magnificentia tua super caelos! Ex ore infantium et lactentium perfecisti laudem,' &c.

1650. _can or may_, know how to, or have ability to do.

1651. The 'white lily' was the token of Mary's perpetual virginity. See this explained at length in Rock, Church of our Fathers, iii. 245.

1655. 'For she herself is honour, and, next after her Son, the root of bounty, and the help (or profit) of souls.'

1658. Cf. Chaucer's A.B.C, or Hymn to the Virgin, (Minor Poems, vol. i. p. 266), where we find under the heading M--

'Moises, that saugh the bush with flaumes rede Brenninge, of which ther never a stikke brende, Was signe of thyn unwemmed maidenhede; Thou art the bush, on which ther gan descende The Holy Gost, the which that Moises wende Had been a-fyr.'

[175] So also in st. 2 of an Alliterative Hymn in Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 284.

1659. 'That, through thy humility, didst draw down from the Deity the Spirit that alighted in thee.'

1660. _thalighte_ = _thee alighte_, the two words being run into one. Such agglutination is more common when the def. art. occurs, or with the word _to_; cf. _Texpounden_ in B. 1716.

1661. _lighte_ may mean either (1) cheered, lightened; or (2) illuminated. Tyrwhitt and Richardson both take the latter view; but the following passage, in which _hertes_ occurs, makes the former the more probable:--

'But nathelees, it was so fair a sighte That it made alle hir _hertes_ for to _lighte_.' Sq. Ta.; F. 395.

1664. Partly imitated from Dante, Paradiso, xxxiii. 16:--

'La tua benignità non pur soccorre A chi dimanda, ma molte fiate Liberamente al dimandar precorre. In te misericordia, in te pietate, In te magnificenza, in te s'aduna Quantunque in creatura è di bontate.

1668. _goost biforn,_ goest before, dost anticipate. _of_, by. The eighth stanza of the Seconde Nonnes Tale (G. 50-56) closely resembles ll. 1664-70; being imitated from the same passage in Dante.

1677. _Gydeth_, guide ye. The plural number is used, as a token of respect, in addressing superiors. By a careful analysis of the words _thou_ and _ye_ in the Romance of William of Palerne, I deduced the following results, which are generally true in Mid. English. '_Thou_ is the language of a lord to a servant, of an equal to an equal, and expresses also companionship, love, permission, defiance, scorn, threatening: whilst _ye_ is the language of a servant to a lord, and of compliment, and further expresses honour, submission, or entreaty. _Thou_ is used with singular verbs, and the possessive pronoun _thine_; but _ye_ requires plural verbs, and the possessive _your_.'--Pref. to Will. of Palerne, ed. Skeat, p. xlii. Cf. Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar, sect. 231.

1678. _Asie_, Asia; probably used, as Tyrwhitt suggests, in the sense of Asia Minor, as in the Acts of the Apostles.

1679. _a Iewerye_, a Jewry, i. e. a Jews' quarter. In many towns there was formerly a Jews' quarter, distinguished by a special name. There is still an _Old Jewry_ in London. In John vii. 1 the word is used as equivalent to _Judea_, as also in other passages in the Bible and in Shakesp. Rich. II, ii. 1. 55. Chaucer (House of Fame, 1435) says of Josephus--

'And bar upon his shuldres hye The fame up of the _Jewerye_.'

[176] Thackeray uses the word with an odd effect in his Ballad of 'The White Squall.' See also note to B. 1749.

1681. _vilanye._ So the six MSS.; Hl. has _felonye_, wrongly. In the margin of the Ellesmere MS. is written 'turpe lucrum,' i. e. vile gain, which is evidently the sense intended by _lucre of vilanye_, here put for _villanous lucre_ or _filthy lucre_, by poetical freedom of diction. See Chaucer's use of _vilanye_ in the Prologue, A. 70 and A. 726.

1684. _free_, unobstructed. People could ride and walk through, there being no barriers against horses, and no termination in a _cul de sac_. Cf. Troilus, ii. 616-8.

1687. _Children an heep_, a heap or great number of children. _Of_ is omitted before _children_ as it is before _quad yere_ in B. 1628. For _heep_, see Prologue, A. 575.

1689. _maner doctrine_, kind of learning, i. e. reading and singing, as explained below. Here again _of_ is omitted, as is usual in M.E. after the word _maner_; as--'In another _maner_ name,' Rob. of Glouc. vol. i. p. 147; 'with somme _manere_ crafte,' P. Plowman, B. v. 25: 'no _maner_ wight,' Ch. Prol. A. 71; &c. See Mätzner, Englische Grammatik, ii. 2. 313. _men used_, people used; equivalent to _was used_. Note this use of _men_ in the same sense as the French _on_, or German _man_. This is an excellent instance, as the poet does not refer to _men_ at all, but to _children_. Moreover, _men_ (spelt _me_ in note to B. 1702) is an attenuated form of the sing. _man_, and not the usual plural.

1693. _clergeon_, not 'a young clerk' merely, as Tyrwhitt says, but a happily chosen word implying that he was a chorister as well. Ducange gives--'_Clergonus_, junior clericus, vel puer choralis; jeune clerc, petit clerc ou enfant de choeur'; see Migne's edition. And Cotgrave has--'_Clergeon_, a singing man, or Quirester in a Queer [choir].' It means therefore 'a chorister-boy.' Cf. Span. _clerizon_, a chorister, singing-boy; see New E. Dict.

1694. _That_, as for whom. A London street-boy would say--'_which_ he was used to go to school.' _That ... his_ = whose.

1695. _wher-as_, where that, where. So in Shakespeare, 2 Hen. VI. i. 2. 58; Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 38. See Abbott's Shakesp. Grammar, sect. 135. _thimage_, the image; alluding to an image of the Virgin placed by the wayside, as is so commonly seen on the continent.

1698. _Ave Marie_; so in Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 35. The words were--'Aue Maria, gratia plena; Dominus tecum; benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus uentris tui. Amen.' See the English version in Specimens of Early English, ed. Morris and Skeat, p. 106. It was made up from Luke i. 28 and i. 42. Sometimes the word _Jesus_ was added after _tui_, and, at a later period, an additional clause--'Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.' See Rock, Church of our Fathers, iii. 315; and iii. pt. 2, 134. [177]

1702. 'For a good child will always learn quickly.' This was a proverbial expression, and may be found in the Proverbs of Hending, st. 9:--

'Me may lere a sely fode [_one may teach a good child_] That is euer toward gode With a lutel lore; Yef me nul [_if one will not_] him forther teche, Thenne is [_his_] herte wol areche Forte lerne more. _Sely chyld is sone ylered_; Quoth Hendyng.'

1704. _stant_, stands, is. Tyrwhitt says--'we have an account of the very early piety of this Saint in his lesson; Breviarium Romanum, vi. Decemb.--Cuius uiri sanctitas quanta futura esset, iam ab incunabulis apparuit. Nam infans, cum reliquas dies lac nutricis frequens sugeret, quarta et sexta feria (i. e. _on Wednesdays and Fridays_) semel duntaxat, idque uesperi, sugebat.' Besides, St. Nicholas was the patron of schoolboys, and the festival of the 'boy-bishop' was often held on his day (Dec. 6); Rock, Church of our Fathers, iii. 2. 215.

1708. _Alma redemptoris mater._ There is more than one hymn with this beginning, but the one meant is perhaps one of five stanzas printed in Hymni Latini Medii Ævi, ed. F. J. Mone, vol. ii. p. 200, from a St. Gallen MS. no. 452, p. 141, of the thirteenth century. The first and last stanzas were sung in the Marian Antiphon, from the Saturday evening before the 1st Sunday in Advent to Candlemas day. In l. 4 we have the _salutation_ which Chaucer mentions (l. 1723), and in the last stanza is the prayer (l. 1724). These two stanzas are as follows:--

'Alma redemptoris mater, quam de caelis misit pater propter salutem gentium; tibi dicunt omnes "aue!" quia mundum soluens a uae mutasti uocem flentium.... Audi, mater pietatis, nos gementes a peccatis et a malis nos tuere; ne damnemur cum impiis, in aeternis suppliciis, peccatorum miserere.'

There is another anthem that would suit almost equally well, but hardly comes so near to Chaucer's description. It occurs in the Roman Breviary, ed. 1583, p. 112, and was said at compline from Advent eve to Candlemas day, like the other; cf. l. 1730. The words are:-- [178]

'Alma redemptoris mater, quae peruia caeli Porta manes, et stella maris, succurre cadenti, Surgere qui curat, populo: Tu quae genuisti, Natura mirante, tuum sanctum Genitorem, Virgo priùs ac posteriùs, Gabrielis ab ore Sumens illud "Aue!" peccatorum miserere.'

In the Myrour of Our Lady, ed. Blunt, p. 174, an English translation of the latter anthem is given, with the heading 'Alma redemptoris mater.'

1709. _antiphoner_, anthem-book. 'The Antiphoner, or Lyggar, was always a large codex, having in it not merely the words, but the music and the tones, for all the invitatories, the hymns, responses, versicles, collects, and little chapters, besides whatever else belonged to the solemn chanting of masses and lauds, as well as the smaller canonical hours'; Rock, Church of our Fathers, v. 3, pt. 2, p. 212.

1710. _ner and ner_, nearer and nearer. The phrase _come neor and neor_ (= come nearer and nearer) occurs in King Alisaunder, in Weber's Metrical Romances, l. 599.

1713. _was to seye_, was to mean, meant. _To seye_ is the gerundial or dative infinitive; see Morris, Hist. Outlines of English Accidence, sect. 290.

1716. _Texpounden_, to expound. So also _tallege_ = to allege, Kn. Ta., A. 3000 (Harl. MS.); _tespye_ = to espy, Nonne Pr. Ta., B. 4478. See note to l. 1733.

1726. _can but smal_, know but little. Cf. 'the compiler is _smal_ learned'; Old Plays, ed. Hazlitt, i. 10.--M. Cf. _coude_ = knew, in l. 1735.

1733. _To honoure_; this must be read _tonóure_, like _texpounden_ in l. 1716.

1739. _To scholeward_; cf. _From Bordeaux ward_ in the Prologue, A. 397.--M.

1749. The feeling against Jews seems to have been very bitter, and there are numerous illustrations of this. In Gower's Conf. Amant. bk. vii, ed. Pauli, iii. 194, a Jew is represented as saying--

'I am a Jewe, and by my lawe I shal to no man be felawe To kepe him trouth in word ne dede.'

In Piers the Plowman, B. xviii. 104, Faith reproves the Jews, and says to them--

'[gh]e cherles, and [gh]owre children · chieue [_thrive_] shal [gh]e neure, Ne haue lordship in londe · ne no londe tylye [_till_], But al bareyne be · & vsurye vsen, Which is lyf þat owre lorde · in alle lawes acurseth.'

See also P. Pl., C. v. 194. Usury was forbidden by the canon law, and those who practised it, chiefly Jews and Lombards, were held to [179] be grievous sinners. Hence the character of Shylock, and of Marlowe's Jew of Malta. Cf. note on the Jews in England in the Annals of England, p. 162.

1751. _honest_, honourable; as in the Bible, Rom. xii. 17, &c.

1752. _swich_, such. The sense here bears out the formation of the word from _so-like_.--M.

1753. _your_, of you. Shakespeare has 'in _your_ despite,' Cymb. i. 6. 135; 'in _thy_ despite,' 1 Hen. VI, iv. 7. 22. _Despite_ is used, like the Early and Middle English _maugre_, with a genitive; as _maugre þin_, in spite of thee, in Havelok, ll. 1128, 1789.--M.

1754. 'Which is against the respect due to your law.' Cf. 'spretaeque iniuria formae'; Æneid, i. 27.

1762. _Wardrobe_, privy. Godefroy's O. F. Dict. shews that _garderobe_ meant not only a wardrobe, or place for keeping robes, &c., but also any small chamber; hence the sense. See Cotgrave.

1764. 'O accursed folk (composed) of Herods wholly new.'

1766. 'Murder will out'; a proverb; see B. 4242.

1769. _Souded to_, confirmed in. From O. F. _souder_, Lat. _solidare_, whence E. _solder_. Wyclif's later version has--'hise leggis and hise feet weren _sowdid_ togidere'; Acts, iii. 7. The reference in ll. 1770-5 is to Rev. xiv. 3, 4.

1793. _Iesu._ This word is written 'Ihu' in E. Hn. Cm.; and 'ihc' in Cp. Pt. Ln.; in both cases there is a stroke through the _h_. This is frequently printed _Ihesu_, but the retention of _h_ is unnecessary. It is not really an _h_ at all, but the Greek [Eta], meaning _long e_ ([=e]). So, also, in 'ihc,' the _c_ is not the Latin _c_, but the Gk. C, meaning [Sigma] or _s_; and _ihc_ are the first three letters of the word [Greek: IÊSOUS] = [Greek: iêsous] = iesus. _Iesu_, as well as _Iesus_, was used as a nominative, though really the genitive or vocative case. At a later period, _ihs_ (still with a stroke through the _h_) was written for _ihc_ as a contraction of _iesus_. By an odd error, a new meaning was invented for these letters, and common belief treated them as the initials of three Latin words, viz. Iesus Hominum Salvator. But as the stroke through the _h_ or mark of contraction still remained unaccounted for, it was turned into a cross! Hence the common symbol I.H.S. with the small cross in the upper part of the middle letter. The wrong interpretation is still the favourite one, all errors being long-lived. Another common contraction is _Xpc._, where _all_ the letters are Greek. The _x_ is _ch_ ([chi]), the _p_ is _r_ ([rho]), and _c_ is _s_, so that _Xpc_ = _chrs_, the contraction for _christus_ or Christ. This is less common in decoration, and no false interpretation has been found for it.

1794. _inwith_, within. This form occurs in E. Hn. Pt. Ln.; the rest have _within_. Again, in the Merchant's Tale (E. 1944), MSS. E. Hn. Cm. Hl. have the form _inwith_. It occurs in the legend of St. Katharine, ed. Morton, l. 172; in Sir Perceval (Thornton Romances), l. 611; in Alliterative Poems, ed. Morris, A. 970; and in Palladius on Husbandry, ed. Lodge, iii. 404. Dr. Morris says it was [180] (like _utwith_ = without) originally peculiar to the Northern dialect. See the Glossary, and the note to l. 2159 below (p. 202).

1805. _coomen_; so in E. Hn.; _comen_ in Pt. Cp. But it is the past tense = came. The spelling _comen_ for the _past_ tense plural is very common in Early English, and we even find _com_ in the singular. Thus, in l. 1807, the Petworth MS. has 'He come,' equivalent to 'coom,' the _o_ being long. But _herieth_ in l. 1808 is a _present_ tense.

1814. _nexte_, nighest, as in Kn. Ta. A. 1413. So also _hext_ = highest, as in the Old Eng. proverb--'When bale is hext, then bote is next,' i. e. 'when woe is highest, help is nighest.' _Next_ is for _neh-est_, and _hext_ is for _heh-est_.

1817. _newe Rachel_, second Rachel, as we should now say; referring to Matt. ii. 18.

1819. _dooth for to sterve_, causes to die. So also in l. 1823, _dide hem drawe_ = caused them to be drawn.

1822. Evidently a proverb; compare Boeth. bk. iv. pr. 1. 37-40 (vol. ii. p. 93); and note to P. Plowman, C. v. 140.

1826. The body occupied the place of honour. 'The bier, if the deceased had been a _clerk_, went into the chancel; if a layman, and not of high degree, the bearers set it down in the nave, hard by the church-door'; Rock, Ch. of our Fathers, ii. 472. He cites the Sarum Manual, fol. c.

1827. _the abbot_; pronounced _thabbòt_. _covent_, convent; here used for the monks who composed the body over which the abbot presided. So in Shakespeare, Hen. VIII, iv. 2. 18--'where the reverend abbot, With all his _covent_, honourably received him.' The form _covent_ is Old French, still preserved in _Covent Garden_.

1835. _halse_; two MSS. consulted by Tyrwhitt read _conjure_, a mere gloss, caught from the line above. Other examples of _halse_ in the sense of _conjure_ occur. 'Ich _halsi_ þe o godes nome' = I conjure thee in God's name; St. Marherete, ed. Cockayne, p. 17. Again, in Joseph of Arimathie, ed. Skeat, l. 400--

'Vppon þe hei[gh]e trinite · I _halse_ þe to telle'--

which closely resembles the present passage.

1838. _to my seminge_, i. e. as it appears to me.

1840. 'And, in the ordinary course of nature.'

1843. _Wil_, wills, desires. So in Matt. ix. 13, I _will_ have mercy = I require mercy; Gk. [Greek: eleon thelô]; Vulgate, misericordiam uolo. Cf. B. 45.

1848. In the Ellesmere MS. (which has the metrical pauses marked) the pause in this line is marked after _lyf_. The word _sholde_ is dissyllabic here, having more than the usual emphasis; it has the force of _ought to_. Cf. E. 1146.

1852. In the Cursor Mundi, 1373-6, Seth is told to place three pippins under the root of Adam's tongue.

1857. _now_ is used in the sense of _take notice that_, without any [181] reference to _time_. There is no necessity to alter the reading to _than_, as proposed by Tyrwhitt. See Mätzner, Engl. Gram. ii. 2. 346, who refers to Luke ii. 41, John i. 44, and quotes an apt passage from Maundeville's Travels, p. 63--'_Now_ aftre that men han visited the holy places, _thanne_ will they turnen toward Jerusalem.' In A. S. the word used in similar cases is _s[=o]þl[=i]ce_ = soothly, verily.

1873. _Ther_, where. _leve_, grant. No two words have been more confused by editors than _lene_ and _leue_. Though sometimes written much alike in MSS., they are easily distinguished by a little care. The A. S. _l[=y]fan_ or _l[=e]fan_, spelt _lefe_ in the Ormulum (vol. i. p. 308), answers to the Germ. _erlauben_, and means _grant_ or _permit_, but it can only be used in certain cases. The verb _lene_, A. S. _l[=æ]nan_, now spelt _lend_, often means to give or grant in Early English, but again only in certain cases. I quote from my article on these words in Notes and Queries, 4 Ser. ii. 127--'It really makes all the difference whether we are speaking of to _grant_ a thing to a person, or to _grant_ that a thing may happen. "God _lene_ thee grace," means "God _grant_ thee grace," where to grant is to _impart_; but "God _leue_ we may do right" means "God _grant_ we may do right," where to _grant_ is to permit.... Briefly, _lene_ requires _an accusative case_ after it, _leue_ is followed by _a dependent clause_.' _Lene_ occurs in Chaucer, Prol. A. 611, Milleres Tale, A. 3777, and elsewhere. Examples of _leue_ in Chaucer are (1) in the present passage, misprinted _lene_ by Tyrwhitt, Morris, Wright, and Bell, though five of our MSS. have _leue_; (2) in the Freres Tale, D. 1644, printed _lene_ by Tyrwhitt (l. 7226), _leene_ by Morris, _leeve_ by Wright and Bell; (3) (4) (5) in three passages in Troilus and Criseyde (ii. 1212, iii. 56, v. 1750), where Tyrwhitt prints _leve_, but unluckily recants his opinion in his Glossary, whilst Morris prints _lene_. For other examples see Stratmann, s. v. _lænan_ and _leven_.

It may be remarked that _leve_ in Old English has several other senses; such as (1) to believe; (2) to live; (3) to leave; (4) to remain; (5) leave, _sb._; (6) dear, _adj._ I give an example in which the first, sixth, and third of these senses occur in one and the same line:--

'What! leuestow, leue lemman, that i the [_thee_] leue wold?' Will. of Palerne, 2358.

1874. _Hugh of Lincoln._ The story of Hugh of Lincoln, a boy supposed to have been murdered at Lincoln by the Jews, is placed by Matthew Paris under the year 1255. Thynne, in his Animadversions upon Speght's editions of Chaucer (p. 45 of the reprint of the E.E.T.S.), addresses Speght as follows--'You saye, that in the 29 Henry iii. eightene Jewes were broughte fro_m_ Lincolne, and hanged for crucyfyinge a childe of eight yeres olde. Whiche facte was in the 39 Hen. iii., so that yo_u_ mighte verye well haue sayed, that the same childe of eighte yeres olde was the same hughe of Lincolne; of whiche name there were twoe, viz. thys younger Seinte Hughe, and Seinte Hughe bishoppe of Lincolne, which dyed in the yere 1200, long before this [182] little seinte hughe. And to prove that this childe of eighte yeres olde and that yonge hughe of Lincolne were but one; I will sett downe two auctoryties out of Mathewe Paris and Walsinghame, wherof the fyrste wryteth, that in the yere of Christe 1255, being the 39 of Henry the 3, a childe called Hughe was sleyne by the Jewes at Lyncolne, whose lamentable historye he delyvereth at large; and further, in the yere 1256, being 40 Hen. 3, he sayeth, Dimissi sunt quieti 24 Judei á Turri London., qui ibidem infames tenebantur compediti pro crucifixione sancti Hugonis Lincolniae: All which Thomas Walsingham, in Hypodigma Neustriae, confirmeth: sayinge, Ao. 1255, Puer quidam Christianus, nomine Hugo, à Judeis captus, in opprobriu_m_ Christiani nominis crudeliter est crucifixus.' There are several ballads in French and English, on the subject of Hugh of Lincoln, which were collected by M. F. Michel, and published at Paris in 1834, with the title--'Hugues de Lincoln, Recueil de Ballades Anglo-Normandes et Ecossoises relatives au Meurtre de cet Enfant.' The day of St. Hugh, bishop of Lincoln, is Aug. 27; that of St. Hugh, boy and martyr, is June 29. See also Brand's Pop. Antiq. ed. Ellis, i. 431. And see vol. iii. p. 423.

1875. _With_, by. See numerous examples in Mätzner, Engl. Gram. ii. 1. 419, amongst which we may especially notice--'Stolne is he _with_ Iues'; Towneley Mysteries, p. 290.

PROLOGUE TO SIR THOPAS.

1881. _miracle_, pronounced _míracl'_. Tyrwhitt omits _al_, and turns the word into _mirácle_, unnecessarily.

1883. _hoste_ is so often an evident dissyllable (see l. 1897), that there is no need to insert _to_ after it, as in Tyrwhitt. In fact, _bigan_ is seldom followed by _to_.

1885. _what man artow_, what sort of a man art thou?

1886. _woldest finde_, wouldst like to find. We learn from this passage, says Tyrwhitt, that Chaucer 'was used to look much upon the ground; that he was of a corpulent habit; and reserved in his behaviour.' We cannot be quite sure that the poet is serious; but these inferences are probably correct; cf. Lenvoy a Scogan, 31.

1889. _war you_, mind yourselves, i. e. make way.

1890. _as wel as I_; said ironically. Chaucer is as corpulent as the host himself. See note to l. 1886 above.

1891. _were_, would be. _tenbrace_, to embrace. In the Romaunt of the Rose, true lovers are said to be always lean; but deceivers are often fat enough:--

'For men that shape hem other wey Falsly hir ladies to bitray, It is no wonder though they be fat'; l. 2689.

1893. _elvish_, elf-like, akin to the fairies; alluding to his absent looks [183] and reserved manner. See _Elvish_ in the Glossary, and cf. 'this _elvish_ nyce lore'; Can. Yeom. Tale, G. 842. Palsgrave has--'I waxe _eluysshe_, nat easye to be dealed with, _Ie deuiens mal traictable_.'

1900. _Ye_, yea. The difference in Old English between _ye_ and _yis_ (yes) is commonly well marked. _Ye_ is the weaker form, and merely assents to what the last speaker says; but _yis_ is an affirmative of great force, often followed by an oath, or else it answers a question containing a _negative_ particle, as in the House of Fame, 864. Cf. B. 4006 below.

THE TALE OF SIR THOPAS.

In the black-letter editions, this Tale is called 'The ryme of Sir Thopas,' a title copied by Tyrwhitt, but not found in the seven best MSS. This word is now almost universally misspelt _rhyme_, owing to confusion with the Greek _rhythm_; but this misspelling is _never_ found in old MSS. or in early printed books, nor has any example yet been found earlier than the reign of Elizabeth. The old spelling _rime_ is confirmed by the A. S. _r[=i]m_, Icel. _rím_, Dan. _rim_, Swed. _rim_, Germ. _reim_, Dutch _rijm_, Old Fr. _rime_, &c. Confusion with _rime_, hoarfrost, is impossible, as the context always decides which is meant; but it is worth notice that it is the latter word which has the better title to an _h_, as the A. S. word for hoarfrost is _hr[=i]m_. Tyrwhitt, in his edition of Chaucer, attempted two reforms in spelling, viz. _rime_ for _rhyme_, and _coud_ for _could_. Both are most rational, but probably unattainable.

_Thopas._ In the Supplement to Ducange we find--'_Thopasius_, pro Topasius, Acta S. Wencesl. tom. 7. Sept. p. 806, col. 1.' The Lat. _topazius_ is our _topaz_. The whole poem is a burlesque (see vol. iii. p. 423), and _Sir Topaz_ is an excellent title for such a gem of a knight. The name _Topyas_ occurs in Richard Coer de Lion, ed. Weber, ii. 11, as that of a sister of King Richard I; but no such name is known to history.

The metre is that commonly used before and in Chaucer's time by long-winded ballad-makers. Examples of it occur in the Romances of Sir Percevall, Sir Isumbras, Sir Eglamour, and Sir Degrevant (in the Thornton Romances, ed. Halliwell), and in several romances in the Percy Folio MS. (ed. Hales and Furnivall), such as Libius Disconius, Sir Triamour, Sir Eglamour, Guy and Colbrande, The Grene Knight, &c.; see also Amis and Amiloun, and Sir Amadas in Weber's Metrical Romances; and Lybeaus Disconus, The King of Tars, Le Bone Florence, Emare, The Erle of Tolous, and Horn Childe in Ritson's collection. To point out Chaucer's sly imitations of phrases, &c. would be a long task; the reader would gain the best idea of his manner by reading any one of these old ballads. To give a few illustrations is all that can be attempted here; I refer the reader to Prof. Kölbing's elaborate article in the Englische Studien, xi. 495, for further information; also to the dissertation by C. J. Bennewitz mentioned in vol. iii. [184] p. 424. It is remarkable that we find in Weber a ballad called 'The Hunting of the Hare,' which is a pure burlesque, like Chaucer's, but a little broader in tone and more obviously comic.

1902. _Listeth, lordes_, hearken, sirs. This is the usual style of beginning. For example, Sir Bevis begins--

'_Lordynges, lystenyth_, grete and smale';

and Sir Degaré begins--

'_Lystenyth, lordynges_, gente and fre, Y wylle yow telle of syr Degaré.'

Warton well remarks--'This address to the lordings, requesting their silence and attention, is a manifest indication that these ancient pieces were originally sung to the harp, or recited before grand assemblies, upon solemn occasions'; Obs. on F. Queene, p. 248.

1904. _solas_, mirth. See Prol. l. 798. 'This word is often used in describing the festivities of elder days. "She and her ladyes called for their minstrells, and _solaced_ themselves with the disports of dauncing"; Leland, Collectanea, v. 352. So in the Romance of Ywaine and Gawin:--

"Full grete and gay was the assemble Of lordes and ladies of that cuntre, And als of knyghtes war and wyse, And damisels of mykel pryse; Ilkane with other made grete gamen And grete _solace_, &c."' (l. 19, ed. Ritson). Todd's Illust. of Chaucer, p. 378.

1905. _gent_, gentle, gallant. Often applied to ladies, in the sense of pretty. The first stanzas in Sir Isumbras and Sir Eglamour are much in the same strain as this stanza.

1910. _Popering._ 'Poppering, or Poppeling, was the name of a parish in the Marches of Calais. Our famous antiquary Leland was once rector of it. See Tanner, Bib. Brit. in v. _Leland_.'--Tyrwhitt. Here _Calais_ means the district, not the town. _Poperinge_ has a population of about 10,500, and is situate about 26 miles S. by W. from Ostend, in the province of Belgium called West Flanders, very near the French 'marches,' or border. Ypres (see A. 448) is close beside it. _place_, the mansion or chief house in the town. Dr. Pegge, in his Kentish Glossary, (Eng. Dial. Soc.), has--'_Place_, that is, the manor-house. Hearne, in his pref. to Antiq. of Glastonbury, p. xv, speaks of a _manour-place_.' He refers also to Strype's Annals, cap. xv.

1915. _payndemayn._ 'The very finest and the _whitest_ [kind of bread] that was known, was _simnel-bread_, which ... was as commonly known under the name of _pain-demayn_ (afterwards corrupted into [_painmain_ or] _payman_); a word which has given considerable trouble to Tyrwhitt and other commentators on Chaucer, but which means no [185] more than "bread of our Lord," from the figure of our Saviour, or the Virgin Mary, impressed upon each round flat loaf, as is still the usage in Belgium with respect to certain rich cakes much admired there'; Chambers, Book of Days, i. 119. The Liber Albus (ed. Riley, p. 305) speaks of '_demesne_ bread, known as _demeine_,' which Mr. Riley annotates by--'_Panis Dominicus_. Simnels made of the very finest flour were thus called, from an impression upon them of the effigy of our Saviour.' Tyrwhitt refers to the poem of the Freiris of Berwick, in the Maitland MS., in which occur the expressions _breid of mane_ and _mane breid_. It occurs also in Sir Degrevant (Thornton Romances, p. 235):--

'_Paynemayn_ prevayly Sche brou[gh]th fram the pantry,' &c.

It is mentioned as a delicacy by Gower, Conf. Amantis, bk. vi. (ed. Pauli, iii. 22).

1917. _rode_, complexion. _scarlet in grayn_, i. e. scarlet dyed in grain, or of a fast colour. Properly, to dye _in_ grain meant to dye _with_ grain, i. e. with cochineal. In fact, Chaucer uses the phrase '_with greyn_' in the epilogue to the Nonne Prestes Tale; B. 4649. See the long note in Marsh's Lectures on the English Language, ed. Smith, pp. 54-62, and the additional note on p. 64. Cf. Shak. Tw. Nt. i. 5. 255.

1920. _saffroun_; i. e. of a yellow colour. Cf. Bottom's description of beards--'I will discharge it in either your straw-colour beard, your orange-tawney beard, your purple-in-grain beard, or your French-crown-colour beard, _your perfect yellow_'; Mids. Nt. Dr. i. 2. In Lybeaus Disconus (ed. Ritson, Met. Rom. ii. 6, or ed. Kaluza, l. 139) a dwarf's beard is described as 'yelow as ony wax.'

1924. _ciclatoun_, a costly material. From the O. Fr. _ciclaton_, the name of a costly cloth. [It was early confused with the Latin _cyclas_, which Ducange explains by 'vestis species, et panni genus.' The word _cyclas_ occurs in Juvenal (Sat. vi. 259), and is explained to mean a robe worn most often by women, and adorned with a border of gold or purple; see also Propertius, iv. 7. 40.] _Ciclatoun_, however, is of Eastern origin, as was well suggested in the following note by Col. Yule in his edition of Marco Polo, i. 249:--

'The term _suklát_ is applied in the Punjab trade-returns to _broadcloth_. Does not this point to the real nature of the _siclatoun_ of the Middle Ages? It is, indeed, often spoken of as used for banners, which implies that it was not a heavy woollen. But it was also a material for ladies' robes, for quilts, leggings, housings, pavilions. Michel does not decide what it was, only that it was generally _red_ and wrought with gold. Dozy renders it "silk stuff brocaded with gold," but this seems conjectural. Dr. Rock says it was a thin glossy silken stuff, often with a woof of gold thread, and seems to derive it from the Arabic _sakl_, "polishing" (a sword), which is improbable.' Compare the following examples, shewing its use for tents, banners, &c.:-- [186]

'Off silk, cendale, and _syclatoun_ Was the emperours pavyloun';... 'Kyng Richard took the pavylouns Off sendels and off _sykelatouns_'; Rich. Coer de Lion (Weber, ii. 90 and 201).

'There was mony gonfanoun Of gold, sendel, and _siclatoun_'; Kyng Alisaunder (Weber, i. 85).

Richardson's Pers. and Arab. Dict. (ed. Johnson, 1829), p. 837, gives: 'Pers. _saqlat[=u]n_, scarlet cloth (whence Arab. _siql[=a]t_, a fine painted or figured cloth)'; and the derivation is probably (as given in the New E. Dict.) from the very Pers. word which has given us the word _scarlet_; so that it was originally named from its colour. It was afterwards applied to various kinds of costly materials, which were sometimes embroidered with gold. See _Ciclaton_ in Godefroy, and in the New E. Dict.; and _Scarlet_ in my Etym. Dictionary.

The matter has been much confused by a mistaken notion of Spenser's. Not observing that Sir Thopas is here described in his robes of _peace_, not in those of _war_ (as in a later stanza), he followed Thynne's spelling, viz. _chekelatoun_, and imagined this to mean 'that kind of guilded leather with which they [the Irish] use to embroder theyr Irish jackes'; View of the State of Ireland, in Globe edition, p. 639, col. 2. And this notion he carried out still more boldly in the lines--

'But in a jacket, quilted richly rare Upon _cheklaton_, he was straungely dight'; F. Q. vi. 7. 43.

1925. _Jane_, a small coin. The word is known to be a corruption of _Genoa_, which is spelt _Jeane_ in Hall's Chronicles, fol. xxiv. So too we find _Janueys_ and _Januayes_ for _Genoese_. See Bardsley's English Surnames, s. v. _Janeway_. Stow, in his Survey of London, ed. 1599, p. 97, says that some foreigners lived in Minchin Lane, who had come from _Genoa_, and were commonly called galley-men, who landed wines, &c. from the galleys at a place called 'galley-key' in Thames Street. 'They had a certaine coyne of silver amongst themselves, which were half-pence of Genoa, and were called _galley half-pence_. These half-pence were forbidden in the 13th year of Henry IV, and again by parliament in the 3rd of Henry V, by the name of _half-pence of Genoa_.... Notwithstanding, in my youth, I have seen them passe currant,' &c. Chaucer uses the word again in the Clerkes Tale (E. 999), and Spenser adopted it from Chaucer; F. Q. iii. 7. 58. Mr. Wright observes that 'the _siclaton_ was a rich cloth or silk brought from the East, and is therefore appropriately mentioned as bought with Genoese coin.'

1927. _for rivéer_, towards the river. This appears to be the best reading, and we must take _for_ in close connexion with _ryde_; perhaps it [187] is a mere imitation of the French _en riviere_. It alludes to the common practice of seeking the river-side, because the best sport, in hawking, was with herons and waterfowl. Tyrwhitt quotes from Froissart, v. 1. c. 140--'Le Comte de Flandres estoit tousjours _en riviere_--un jour advint qu'il alla voller _en la riviere_--et getta son fauconnier un faucon _apres le heron_.' And again, in c. 210, he says that Edward III 'alloit, chacun jour, ou _en chace_ on _en riviere_,' &c. So we read of Sir Eglamour:--

'Sir Eglamore took the way to the riuèr ffull right'; Percy Folio MS. ii. 347.

Of Ipomydon's education we learn that his tutor taught him to sing, to read, to serve in hall, to carve the meat, and

'Bothe of howndis and haukis game Aftir he taught hym, all and same, In se, in feld, and eke _in ryuere_, In wodde _to chase the wild dere_, And in the feld to ryde a stede, That all men had joy of his dede.' Weber's Met. Romances, ii. 283.

See also the Squire of Low Degree, in Ritson, vol. iii. p. 177.

1931. _ram_, the usual prize at a wrestling match. Cf. Gk. [Greek: tragôidia].

_stonde_, i. e. be placed in the sight of the competitors; be seen. Cf. Prol. A. 548, and the Tale of Gamelyn, 172. Tyrwhitt says--'Matthew Paris mentions a wrestling-match at Westminster, A.D. 1222, in which a ram was the prize, p. 265.' Cf. also--

'At wresteling, and at ston-castynge He wan the prys without lesynge,' &c.; Octouian Imperator, in Weber's Met. Rom. iii. 194.

1933. _paramour_, longingly; a common expression; see the Glossary.

1937. _hepe_, mod. E. 'hip,' the fruit of the dog-rose; A. S. _h[=e]ope_.

1938. Compare--'So hyt be-felle upon a day'; Erle of Tolous, Ritson's Met. Rom. iii. 134. Of course it is a common phrase in these romances.

1941. _worth_, lit. became; _worth upon_ = became upon, got upon. It is a common phrase; compare--

'Ipomydon sterte vp that tyde; Anon he _worthyd vppon_ his stede'; Weber, Met. Rom. ii. 334.

1942. _launcegay_, a sort of lance. Gower has the word, Conf. Amant. bk. viii. (ed. Pauli, iii. 369). Cowel says its use was prohibited by the statute of 7 Rich. II, cap. 13. Camden mentions it in his Remaines, p. 209. Tyrwhitt quotes, from Rot. Parl. 29 Hen. VI, n. 8, the following--'And the said Evan then and there with a _launcegaye_ smote the said William Tresham throughe the body a foote and more, wherof he died.' Sir Walter Raleigh (quoted by Richardson) [188] says--'These carried a kind of _lance de gay_, sharp at both ends, which they held in the midst of the staff.' But this is certainly a corrupt form. It is no doubt a corruption of _lancezagay_, from the Spanish _azagaya_, a word of Moorish origin. Cotgrave gives--'_Zagaye_, a fashion of slender, long, and long-headed pike, used by the Moorish horsemen.' It seems originally to have been rather a short weapon, a kind of half-pike or dart. The Spanish word is well discussed in Dozy, Glossaire des mots Espagnols et Portugais dérivés de l'Arabe, 2nd ed. p. 225. The Spanish _azagaya_ is for _az-zagaya_, where _az_ is for the definite article _al_, and _zagaya_ is a Berber or Algerian word, not given in the Arabic dictionaries. It is found in Old Spanish of the fourteenth century. Dozy quotes from a writer who explains it as a Moorish half-pike, and also gives the following passage from Laugier de Tassy, Hist. du royaume d'Alger, p. 58--'Leurs armes sont _l'azagaye_, qui est une espéce de _lance courte_, qu'ils portent toujours à la main.' The Caffre word _assagai_, in the sense of javelin, was simply borrowed from the Portuguese _azagaia_.

1949. _a sory care_, a grievous misfortune. Chaucer does not say what this was, but a passage in Amis and Amiloun (ed. Weber, ii. 410) makes it probable that Sir Thopas nearly killed his horse, which would have been grievous indeed; see l. 1965 below. The passage I allude to is as follows:--

'So long he priked, withouten abod, The stede that he on rode, In a fer cuntray, Was ouercomen and fel doun ded; Tho couthe he no better red [_counsel_]; His song was "waileway!"'

Readers of Scott will remember Fitz-James's lament over his 'gallant grey.'

1950. This can hardly be other than a burlesque upon the Squire of Low Degree (ed. Ritson, iii. 146), where a long list of _trees_ is followed up, as here, by a list of _singing-birds_. Compare also the Romaunt of the Rose, l. 1367:--

'There was eek wexing many a spyce, As _clow-gelofre_ and _licoryce_, Gingere, and greyn de paradys, Canelle, and _setewale_ of prys,' &c.

Observe the mention of _notemigges_ in the same, l. 1361.

Line 21 of the Milleres Tale (A. 3207) runs similarly:--

'Of _licorys_ or any _setewale_.'

Maundeville speaks of the _clowe-gilofre_ and _notemuge_ in his 26th chapter; see Specimens of E. Eng. ed. Morris and Skeat, p. 171. _Cetewale_ is generally explained as the herb valerian, but is certainly zedoary; see the Glossary. _Clowe-gilofre_, a clove; _notemuge_, a [189] nutmeg. 'Spiced ale' is amongst the presents sent by Absolon to Alisoun in the Milleres Tale (A. 3378). Cf. the list of spices in King Alisaunder, ed. Weber, 6790-9.

1955. _leye in cofre_, to lay in a box.

1956. Compare Amis and Amiloun, ed. Weber, ii, 391:--

'She herd the foules grete and smale, The swete note of the nightingale, Ful mirily sing on tre.'

See also Romaunt of the Rose, ll. 613-728. But Chaucer's burlesque is far surpassed by a curious passage in the singular poem of The Land of Cockaygne (MS. Harl. 913), ll. 71-100:--

'In þe praer [_meadow_] is a tre Swiþe likful for to se. Þe rote is gingeuir and galingale, Þe siouns beþ al _sed_[_e_]_wale_; Trie maces beþ þe flure; Þe rind, canel of swet odur; Þe frute, _gilofre_ of gode smakke, &c. Þer beþ briddes mani and fale, Þ_rostil_, þruisse, and ni[gh]tingale, Chalandre and wod[e]wale, And oþer briddes wiþout tale [_number_], Þat stinteþ neuer by har mi[gh]t Miri to sing[e] dai and ni[gh]t,' &c.

1964. _as he were wood_, as if he were mad, 'like mad.' So in Amis and Amiloun (ed. Weber), ii. 419:--

'He priked his stede _night and day_ As a gentil knight, stout and gay.'

Cf. note to l. 1949.

1974. _seinte_, being feminine, and in the vocative case, is certainly a dissyllable here--'O seintè Márie, _ben'cite_.' Cf. note to B. 1170 above.

1977. _Me dremed_, I dreamt. Both _dremen_ (to dream) and _meten_ (also to dream) are sometimes used with a dative case and reflexively in Old English. In the Nonne Prestes Tale we have _me mette_ (l. 74) and _this man mette_ (l. 182); B. 4084, 4192.

1978. _An elf-queen._ Mr. Price says--'There can be little doubt that at one period the popular creed made the same distinctions between the Queen of Faerie and the Elf-queen that were observed in Grecian mythology between their undoubted parallels, Artemis and Persephone.' Chaucer makes Proserpine the 'queen of faerie' in his Marchauntes Tale; but at the beginning of the Wyf of Bathes Tale, he describes the _elf-queen_ as the queen of the _fairies_, and makes _elf_ and _fairy_ synonymous. Perhaps this _elf-queen_ in Sire Thopas (called the _queen of fairye_ in l. 2004) may have given Spenser the hint for _his_ Faerie [190] Queene. But the subject is a vast one. See Price's Preface, in Warton's Hist. Eng. Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, pp. 30-36; Halliwell's Illustrations of Fairy Mythology; Keightley's Fairy Mythology; Warton's Observations on the Faerie Queene, sect. ii; Sir W. Scott's ballad of Thomas the Rhymer, &c.

1979. _under my gore_, within my robe or garment. In l. 2107 (on which see the note) we have _under wede_ signifying merely 'in his dress.' We have a somewhat similar phrase here, in which, however, _gore_ (lit. gusset) is put for the whole robe or garment. That it was a mere phrase, appears from other passages. Thus we find _under gore_, under the dress, Owl and Nightingale, l. 515; Reliquiae Antiquae, vol. i. p. 244, vol. ii. p. 210; with three more examples in the Gloss. to Böddeker's Altenglische Dichtungen des MS. Harl. 2253. In one of these a lover addresses his lady as 'geynest under gore,' i. e. fairest within a dress. For the exact sense of _gore_, see note to A. 3237.

1983. _In toune_, in the town, in the district. But it must not be supposed that much _sense_ is intended by this inserted line. It is a mere tag, in imitation of some of the romances. Either Chaucer has neglected to conform to the new kind of stanza which he now introduces (which is most likely), or else three lines have been lost before this one. The next three stanzas are longer, viz. of _ten_ lines each, of which only the seventh is very short. For good examples of these short lines, see Sir Gawayne and the Greene Kny[gh]t, ed. Morris; and for a more exact account of the metres here employed, see vol. iii. p. 425.

1993. _So wilde._ Instead of this short line, Tyrwhitt has:--

'Wherin he soughte North and South, And oft he spied with his mouth In many a forest wilde.'

But none of our seven MSS. agrees with this version, nor are these lines found in the black-letter editions. The notion of _spying_ with one's _mouth_ seems a little too far-fetched.

1995. This line is supplied from MS. Reg. 17 D. 15, where Tyrwhitt found it; but something is so obviously required here, that we must insert it to make some sense. It suits the tone of the context to say that 'neither wife nor child durst oppose him.' We may, however, bear in mind that the meeting of a knight-errant with one of these often preceded some great adventure. 'And in the midst of an highway he [Sir Lancelot] met a damsel riding on a white palfrey, and there either saluted other. Fair damsel, said Sir Lancelot, know ye in this country any adventures? Sir knight, said that damsel, here are adventures near hand, and thou durst prove them'; Sir T. Malory, Morte Arthur, bk. vi. cap. vii. The result was that Lancelot fought with Sir Turquine, and defeated him. Soon after, he was 'required of a damsel to heal her brother'; and again, 'at the request of a lady' he recovered a falcon; an adventure which ended in a fight, as usual. Kölbing points out a parallel line in Sir Guy of Warwick, 45-6:-- [191]

'In all Englond ne was ther none That durste in wrath ayenst hym goon'; Caius MS., ed. Zupitza, p. 5.

1998. _Olifaunt_, i. e. Elephant; a proper name, as Tyrwhitt observes, for a giant. Maundeville has the form _olyfauntes_ for _elephants_. By some confusion the Moeso-Goth. _ulbandus_ and A. S. _olfend_ are made to signify a _camel_. Spenser has put Chaucer's _Olifaunt_ into his Faerie Queene, bk. iii. c. 7. st. 48, and makes him the brother of the giantess Argantè, and son of Typhoeus and Earth. The following description of a giant is from Libius Disconius (Percy Folio MS. vol. ii. p. 465):--

'He beareth haires on his brow Like the bristles of a sow, His head is great and stout; Eche arme is the lenght of an ell, His fists beene great and fell, Dints for to driue about.'

Sir Libius says:--

'If God will me grace send, Or this day come to an end I hope him for to spill,' &c.

Another giant, 20 feet long, and 2 ells broad, with two boar's tusks, and also with brows like bristles of a swine, appears in Octouian Imperator, ed. Weber, iii. 196. See also the alliterative Morte Arthure, ed. Brock, p. 33.

2000. _child_; see note to l. 2020. _Termagaunt_; one of the idols whom the Saracens (in the medieval romances) are supposed to worship. See The King of Tars, ed. Ritson (Met. Rom., ii. 174-182), where the Sultan's gods are said to be Jubiter, Jovin (both forms of Jupiter), Astrot (Astarte), Mahoun (Mahomet), Appolin (Apollo), Plotoun (Pluto), and _Tirmagaunt_. Lybeaus Disconus (Ritson, Met. Rom. ii. 55) fought with a giant 'that levede yn Termagaunt.' The Old French form is _Tervagant_, Ital. _Tervagante_ or _Trivigante_, as in Ariosto. Wheeler, in his Noted Names of Fiction, gives the following account--'Ugo Foscolo says: "_Trivigante_, whom the predecessors of Ariosto always couple with Apollino, is really Diana _Trivia_, the sister of the classical Apollo.".... According to Panizzi, _Trivagante_ or _Tervagante_ is the Moon, or Diana, or Hecate, _wandering under three names_. _Termagant_ was an imaginary being, supposed by the crusaders, who confounded Mahometans with pagans, to be a Mahometan deity. This imaginary personage was introduced into early English plays and moralities, and was represented as of a most violent character, so that a ranting actor might always appear to advantage in it. See Hamlet, iii. 2. 15.' Fairfax, in his translation of Tasso (c. i. st. 84), speaks of Termagaunt and Mahound, but Tasso mentions 'Macometto' only. See also Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 47. Hence comes our _termagant_ in the sense of a noisy boisterous woman. Shakespeare has--'that hot [192] _termagant_ Scot'; 1 Hen. IV., v. 2. 114. Cf. Ritson's note, Met. Rom. iii. 257.

2002. _slee_, will slay. In Anglo-Saxon, there being no distinct future tense, it is expressed by the present. Cf. _go_ for _will go_ in 'we also _go_ with thee'; John xxi. 3.

2005. _simphonye_, the name of a kind of tabor. In Ritson's Ancient Songs, i. lxiv., is a quotation from Hawkins's Hist. of Music, ii. 284, in which that author cites a passage from Batman's translation of Bartholomaeus de Proprietatibus Rerum, to the effect that the _symphonie_ was 'an instrument of musyke ... made of an holowe tree [i. e. piece of wood], closyd in lether in eyther syde; and mynstrels beteth it with styckes.' Probably the _symphangle_ was the same instrument. In Rob. of Brunne's Handlyng Synne, ll. 4772-3, we find:--

'Yn harpe, yn thabour, and _symphangle_, Wurschepe God, yn trumpes and sautre.'

Godefroy gives the O. F. spellings _cifonie_, _siphonie_, _chifonie_, _cinfonie_, _cymphonie_, &c.; all clearly derived from the Greek [Greek: sumphônia]; see Luke, xv. 25. Cf. Squyre of Lowe Degre, 1070-7.

2007. _al-so mote I thee_, as I may thrive; or, as I hope to thrive; a common expression. Cf. 'So mote y thee'; Sir Eglamour, ed. Halliwell, l. 430; Occleve, De Regimine Principum, st. 620. Chaucer also uses 'so thee ik,' i. e. so thrive I, in the Reves Prologue (A. 3864) and elsewhere.

2012. _Abyen it ful soure_, very bitterly shalt thou pay for it. There is a confusion between A. S. _súr_, sour, and A. S. _sár_, sore, in this and similar phrases; both were used once, but now we should use _sorely_, not _sourly_. In Layamon, l. 8158, we find 'þou salt it sore abugge,' thou shalt sorely pay for it; on the other hand, we find in P. Plowman, B. ii. 140:--

'It shal bisitte [gh]owre soules · ful _soure_ atte laste.'

So also in the C-text, though the A-text has _sore_. Note that in another passage, P. Plowman, B. xviii. 401, the phrase is--'Thow shalt abye it _bittre_.' For _abyen_, see the Glossary.

2015. _fully pryme._ See note to Nonne Prestes Tale, B. 4045. _Prime_ commonly means the period from 6 to 9 a.m. _Fully prime_ refers to the end of that period, or 9 a.m.; and even _prime_ alone may be used with the same explicit meaning, as in the Nonne Pres. Ta., B. 4387.

2019. _staf-slinge._ Tyrwhitt observes that Lydgate describes David as armed only 'with a _staffe-slynge_, voyde of plate and mayle.' It certainly means a kind of sling in which additional power was gained by fastening the lithe part of it on to the end of a stiff stick. _Staff-slyngeres_ are mentioned in the romance of Richard Coer de Lion, l. 4454, in Weber's Metrical Romances, ii. 177. In Col. Yule's edition of Marco Polo, ii. 122, is a detailed description of the artillery engines of the middle ages. They can all be reduced to two classes; those [193] which, like the trebuchet and mangonel, are enlarged staff-slings, and those which, like the arblast and springold, are great cross-bows. Conversely, we might describe a staff-sling as a hand-trebuchet.

2020. _child Thopas._ _Child_ is an appellation given to both knights and squires, in the early romances, at an age when they had long passed the period which we now call childhood. A good example is to be found in the Erle of Tolous, ed. Ritson, iii. 123:--

'He was a feyre chylde, and a bolde, _Twenty wyntur he was oolde_, In londe was none so free.'

Compare Romance of 'Horn Childe and Maiden Rimnild,' pr. in Ritson, iii. 282; the ballad of Childe Waters, &c. Byron, in his preface to Childe Harold, says--'It is almost superfluous to mention that the appellation "Childe," as "Childe Waters," "Childe Childers," &c., is used as more consonant with the old structure of versification which I have adopted.' He adopts, however, the late and artificial metre of Spenser.

2023. A palpable imitation. The first three lines of Sir Bevis of Hampton (MS. Camb. Univ. Lib. Ff. ii. 38, leaf 94, back) are--

'Lordynges, lystenyth, grete and smale, _Meryar then the nyghtyngale_ I wylle yow synge.

In a long passage in Todd's Illustrations to Chaucer, pp. 284-292, it is contended that _mery_ signifies sweet, pleasant, agreeable, without relation to mirth. Chaucer describes the Frere as wanton and _merry_, Prol. A. 208; he speaks of the _merry_ day, Kn. Ta. 641 (A. 1499); a _merry_ city, N. P. Ta. 251 (B. 4261); of Arcite being told by Mercury to be _merry_, i. e. of good cheer, Kn. Ta. 528 (A. 1386); in the Manciple's Tale (H. 138), the crow sings _merrily_, and makes a _sweet_ noise; Chanticleer's voice was _merrier_ than the _merry_ organ, N. P. Ta. 31 (B. 4041); the 'erbe yve' is said to be _merry_, i. e. pleasant, agreeable, id. 146 (B. 4156); the Pardoner (Prol. A. 714) sings _merrily_ and loud. We must remember, however, that the Host, being 'a _mery_ man,' began to speak of '_mirthe_'; Prol. A. 757, 759. A very early example of the use of the word occurs in the song attributed to Canute--'_Merie_ sungen the Muneches binnen Ely,' &c. See the phrase '_mery_ men' in l. 2029.

2028. The phrase _to come to toune_ seems to mean no more than simply _to return_. Cf. Specimens of E. Eng., ed. Morris and Skeat, p. 48--

'Lenten ys _come_ wiþ loue _to toune_'--

which merely means that spring, with its thoughts of love, has _returned_. See the note on that line.

2034. _for paramour_, for love; but the _par_, or else the _for_, is redundant. _Iolite_, amusement; used ironically in the Kn. Ta. 949 (A. 1807). Sir Thopas is going to fight the giant for the love and amusement of [194] one who shone full bright; i. e. a fair lady, of course. But Sir Thopas, in dropping this mysterious hint to his merry men, refrains from saying much about it, as he had not yet seen the Fairy Queen, and had only the giant's word for her place of abode. The use of the past tense _shone_ is artful; it implies that he wished them to think that he _had_ seen his lady-love; or else that her beauty was to be taken for granted. Observe, too, that it is _Sir Thopas_, not _Chaucer_, who assigns to the giant his _three_ heads.

2035. _Do come_, cause to come; go and call hither. Cf. House of Fame, l. 1197:--

'Of alle maner of _minstrales_, And _gestiours_, _that tellen tales_ Bothe of weping and of _game_.'

Tyrwhitt's note on _gestours_ is--'The proper business of a _gestour_ was to _recite tales_, or _gestes_; which was only _one_ of the branches of the Minstrel's profession. _Minstrels_ and _gestours_ are mentioned together in the following lines from William of Nassyngton's Translation of a religious treatise by John of Waldby; MS. Reg. 17 C. viii. p. 2:--

I warne you furst at the beginninge, That I will make no vain carpinge Of dedes of armys ne of amours, As dus _mynstrelles_ and _jestours_, That makys carpinge in many a place Of _Octoviane_ and _Isembrase_, And of many other _jestes_, And namely, whan they come to festes; Ne of the life of _Bevys of Hampton_, That was a knight of gret renoun, Ne of _Sir Gye of Warwyke_, All if it might sum men lyke, &c.

I cite these lines to shew the species of tales related by the ancient Gestours, and how much they differed from what we now call _jests_.'

The word _geste_ here means a tale of the adventures of some hero, like those in the _Chansons de geste_. Cf. note to l. 2123 below. Sometimes the plural _gestes_ signifies passages of history. The famous collection called the Gesta Romanorum contains narratives of very various kinds.

2038. _royales_, royal; some MSS. spell the word _reales_, but the meaning is the same. In the romance of Ywain and Gawain (Ritson, vol. i.) a maiden is described as reading 'a _real_ romance.' Tyrwhitt thinks that the term originated with an Italian collection of romances relating to Charlemagne, which began with the words--'Qui se comenza la hystoria el _Real di Franza_,' &c.; edit. Mutinae, 1491, folio. It was reprinted in 1537, with a title beginning--'_I reali di Franza_,' &c. He refers to Quadrío, t. vi. p. 530. The word _roial_ (in some MSS. _real_) [195] occurs again in l. 2043. Kölbing remarks that the prose romance of Generides is called _a royal historie_, though it has nothing to do with Charlemagne.

2043. No comma is required at the end of this line; the articles mentioned in ll. 2044-6 all belong to _spicery_. Cf. additional note to Troilus, vol. ii. p. 506.

2047. _dide_, did on, put on. The arming of Lybeaus Disconus is thus described in Ritson's Met. Rom. ii. 10:--

'They caste on hym a scherte of selk, A gypell as whyte as melk, In that semely sale; And syght [_for_ sith] an hawberk bryght, That rychely was adyght Wyth mayles thykke and smale.'

2048. _lake_, linen; see Glossary. 'De panno de lake'; York Wills, iii. 4 (anno 1395).

2050. _aketoun_, a short sleeveless tunic. Cf. Liber Albus, p. 376.

'And Florentyn, with hys ax so broun, All thorgh he smoot Arm and mayle, and _akketoun_, Thorghout hyt bot [_bit_]'; Octouian, ed. Weber, iii. 205.

'For plate, ne for _acketton_, For hauberk, ne for campeson'; Richard Coer de Lion, ed. Weber, ii. 18.

The Glossary to the Percy Folio MS., ed. Hales and Furnivall, has--'_Acton_, a wadded or quilted tunic worn under the hauberk.--_Planché_, i. 108.' Thynne, in his Animadversions (Early Eng. Text Soc.), p. 24, says--'_Haketon_ is a slevelesse jackett of plate for the warre, couered withe anye other stuffe; at this day also called _a jackett of plate_.'

It is certain that the plates were a later addition. It is the mod. F. _hoqueton_, O. F. _auqueton_; and it is certain that the derivation is from Arab. _al-qoton_ or _al-qutun_, lit. 'the cotton'; so that it was originally made of quilted _cotton_. See _auqueton_ in Godefroy, _hoqueton_ in Devic's Supp. to Littré, and _Acton_ in the New E. Dict.

2051. _habergeoun_, coat of mail. See Prol. A. 76, and the note.

2052. _For percinge_, as a protection against the piercing. So in P. Plowman, B. vi. 62, Piers puts on his cuffs, 'for colde of his nailles,' i. e. as a protection against the cold. So too in the Rom. of the Rose, l. 4229.

2053. The hauberk is here put on as an upper coat of mail, of finer workmanship and doubtless more flexible.

'The _hauberk_ was al reed of rust, His platys thykke and swythe just'; Octouian, ed. Weber, iii. 200. [196]

'He was armed wonder weel, And al with plates off good steel, _And ther aboven, an hawberk_'; Richard Coer de Lion, ed. Weber, ii. 222.

2054. _Jewes werk_, Jew's work. Tyrwhitt imagined that _Jew_ here means a magician, but there is not the least foundation for the idea. Mr. Jephson is equally at fault in connecting _Jew_ with _jewel_, since the latter word is etymologically connected with _joy_. The phrase still remains unexplained. I suspect it means no more than wrought with rich or expensive work, such as Jews could best find the money for. It is notorious that they were the chief capitalists, and they must often have had to find money for paying armourers. Or, indeed, it may refer to damascened work; from the position of Damascus.

2055. _plate._ Probably the hauberk had a breastplate on the front of it. But on the subject of armour, I must refer the reader to Godwin's English Archaeologist's Handbook, pp. 252-268; Planché's History of British Costume, and Sir S. R. Meyrick's Observations on Body-armour, in the Archaeologia, vol. xix. pp. 120-145.

2056. The _cote-armour_ was not for defence, but a mere surcoat on which the knight's armorial bearings were usually depicted, in order to identify him in the combat or 'debate.' Hence the modern _coat-of-arms_.

2059. _reed_, red. In the Romances, _gold_ is always called _red_, and silver _white_. Hence it was not unusual to liken gold to blood, and this explains why Shakespeare speaks of armour being _gilt_ with blood (King John, ii. 1. 316), and makes Lady Macbeth talk of _gilding_ the groom's faces with blood (Macbeth, ii. 2. 56). See also Coriol. v. 1. 63, 64; and the expression 'blood bitokeneth gold'; Cant. Tales, D. 581.

2060. Cf. Libeaus Desconus, ed. Kaluza, 1657-8:--

'His scheld was asur fin, Thre bores heddes ther-inne.'

And see the editor's note, at p. 201.

2061. 'A carbuncle (Fr. _escarboucle_) was a common [armorial] bearing. See Guillim's Heraldry, p. 109.'--Tyrwhitt.

2062. Sir Thopas is made to swear by ale and bread, in ridiculous imitation of the vows made by the swan, the heron, the pheasant, or the peacock, on solemn occasions.

2065. _Iambeux_, armour worn in front of the shins, above the mail-armour that covered the legs; see Fairholt. He tells us that, in Roach Smith's Catalogue of London Antiquities, p. 132, is figured a pair of cuirbouilly jambeux, which are fastened by thongs. Spenser borrows the word, but spells it _giambeux_, F. Q. ii. 6. 29.

_quirboilly_, i. e. _cuir bouilli_, leather soaked in hot water to soften it that it might take any required shape, after which it was dried and became exceedingly stiff and hard. In Matthew Paris (anno 1243) it is [197] said of the Tartars--'De _coriis bullitis_ sibi arma leuia quidem, sed tamen impenetrabilia coaptarunt.' In Marco Polo, ed. Yule, ii. 49, it is said of the men of Carajan, that they wear armour of boiled leather (French text, _armes cuiracés de cuir bouilli_). Froissart (v. iv. cap. 19) says the Saracens covered their targes with '_cuir bouilli_ de Cappadoce, ou nul fer ne peut prendre n'attacher, si le cuir n'est trop échaufé.' When Bruce reviewed his troops on the morning of the battle of Bannockburn, he wore, according to Barbour, 'ane hat of _qwyrbolle_' on his 'basnet,' and 'ane hye croune' above that. Some remarks on _cuir bouilli_ will be found in Cutts, Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages, p. 344.

2068. _rewel-boon_, probably whale-ivory, or ivory made of whales' teeth. In the Turnament of Tottenham, as printed in Percy's reliques, we read that Tyb had 'a garland on her hed ful of _rounde_ bonys,' where another copy has (says Halliwell, s. v. _ruel_) the reading--'fulle of _ruelle_-bones.' Halliwell adds--'In the romaunce of Rembrun, p. 458, the coping of a wall is mentioned as made 'of fin _ruwal_, that schon swithe brighte.' And in MS. Camb. Univ. Lib. Ff. v. 48, fol. 119, is the passage--

'Hir sadill_e_ was of _reuylle-bone_, Semely was þ_a_t sight to se, Stifly sette w_i_t_h_ p_re_cious ston_e_, Compaste about w_i_t_h_ crapote [_toad-stone_].'

In Sir Degrevant, 1429, a roof is said to be--

'buskyd above With besauntus ful bryghth, All of _ruel-bon_,' &c.

Quite near the beginning of the Vie de Seint Auban, ed. Atkinson, we have--

'mes ne ert d'or adubbee, ne d'autre metal, de peres preciuses, de ivoire ne _roal_';

i. e. but it was not adorned with gold nor other metal, nor with precious stones, nor ivory, nor _rewel_. Du Cange gives a Low Lat. form _rohanlum_, and an O. Fr. _rochal_, but tells us that the MS. readings are _rohallum_ and _rohal_. The passage occurs in the Laws of Normandy about wreckage, and should run--'dux sibi retinet ... ebur, _rohallum_, lapides pretiosas'; or, in the French version, 'l'ivoire, et le _rohal_, et les pierres precieuses.' Ducange explains the word by 'rock-crystal,' but this is a pure guess, suggested by F. _roche_, a rock. It is clear that, when the word is spelt _rochal_, the _ch_ denotes the same sound as the Ger. _ch_, a guttural resembling _h_, and not the F. _ch_ at all. Collecting all the spellings, we find them to be, in French, _rohal_, _rochal_, _roal_; and, in English, _ruwal_, _rewel_, _ruel_, (_reuylle_, _ruelle_). The _h_ and _w_ might arise from a Teutonic _hw_, so that the latter part of the word was originally -_hwal_, i. e. whale; hence, perhaps, Godefroy explains F. _rochal_ as 'ivoire de morse,' ivory of the walrus (A. S. _hors-hwæl_). The [198] true origin seems rather to be some Norse form akin to Norweg. _röyrkval_ (E. _rorqual_). Some whales, as the _cachalot_, have teeth that afford a kind of ivory; and this is what seems to be alluded to. The expression 'white as _whale-bone_,' i. e. white as whale-ivory, was once common; see Weber's Met. Romances, iii. 350; and _whales-bone_ in Nares. Most of this ivory was derived, however, from the tusk of the walrus or the narwhal. Sir Thopas's saddle was ornamented with ivory.

2071. _cipress_, cypress-wood. In the Assembly of Foules, l. 179, we have--

'The sailing firr, the _cipres_, deth to pleyne'--

i. e. the cypress suitable for lamenting a death. Vergil calls the cypress 'atra,' Æn. iii. 64, and 'feralis,' vi. 216; and as it is so frequently a symbol of mourning, it may be said to _bode war_.

2078. In Sir Degrevant (ed. Halliwell, p. 191) we have just this expression--

'Here endyth the furst fit. Howe say ye? will ye any more of hit?'

2085. _love-drury_, courtship. All the six MSS. have this reading. According to Wright, the Harl. MS. has 'Of ladys loue and drewery,' which Tyrwhitt adopts; but it turns out that Wright's reading is _copied from Tyrwhitt_; the MS. really has--'And of ladys loue drewery,' like the rest.

2088. The romance or lay of Horn appears in two forms in English. In King Horn, ed. Lumby, Early Eng. Text Soc., 1866, printed also in Mätzner's Altenglische Sprachproben, i. 207, the form of the poem is in short rimed couplets. But Chaucer no doubt refers to the other form with the title _Horn Childe_ and Maiden Rimnild, _in a metre similar to Sir Thopas_, printed in Ritson's Metrical Romances, iii. 282. The Norman-French text was printed by F. Michel for the Bannatyne Club, with the English versions, in a volume entitled--Horn et Riemenhild; Recueil de ce qui reste des poëmes relatifs à leurs aventures, &c. Paris, 1845. See Mr. Lumby's preface and the remarks in Mätzner.

It is not quite clear why Chaucer should mention the romance of Sir Ypotis here, as it has little in common with the rest. There are four MS. copies of it in the British Museum, and three at Oxford. 'It professes to be a tale of holy writ, and the work of St. John the Evangelist. The scene is Rome. A child, named Ypotis, appears before the Emperor Adrian, saying that he is come to teach men God's law; whereupon the Emperor proceeds to interrogate him as to what is God's Law, and then of many other matters, not in any captious spirit, but with the utmost reverence and faith.... There is a little tract in prose on the same legend from the press of Wynkyn de Worde'; J. W. Hales, in Hazlitt's edition of Warton's Hist. of Eng. Poetry, ii. 183. It was printed in 1881, from the Vernon MS. at Oxford, in Horstmann's Altenglische Legenden, Neue Folge, pp. 341-8. It is hard to believe that, by Ypotys, Chaucer meant (as some say) Ypomadoun. [199]

The romance of Sir Bevis of Hampton (i. e. Southampton) was printed from the Auchinleck MS. for the Maitland Club in 1838, 4to. Another copy is in MS. Ff. 2. 38, in the Cambridge University Library. It has lately been edited, from six MS. copies and an old printed text, by Prof. Kölbing, for the Early Eng. Text Society. There is an allusion in it to the _Romans_, meaning the French original. It appears in prose also, in various forms. See Warton's Hist. of Eng. Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 142, where there is also an account of Sir Guy, in several forms; but a still fuller account of Sir Guy is given in the Percy Folio MS., ed. Hales and Furnivall, ii. 509. This Folio MS. itself contains three poems on the latter subject, viz. Guy and Amarant, Guy and Colbrande, and Guy and Phillis. 'Sir Guy of Warwick' has been edited for the Early Eng. Text Society by Prof. Zupitza.

By _Libeux_ is meant Lybeaus Disconus, printed by Ritson in his Metrical Romances, vol. ii. from the Cotton MS. Caligula A. 2. A later copy, with the title Libius Disconius, is in the Percy Folio MS. ii. 404, where a good account of the romance may be found. The best edition is that by Dr. Max Kulaza, entitled Libeaus Desconus; Leipzig, 1890. The French original was discovered in 1855, in a MS. belonging to the Duc d'Aumale. Its title is Li Biaus Desconneus, which signifies The Fair Unknown.

_Pleyndamour_ evidently means _plein d'amour_, full of love, and we may suspect that the original romance was in French; but there is now no trace of any romance of that name, though a Sir Playne de Amours is mentioned in Sir T. Malory's Morte Darthur, bk. ix. c. 7. Spenser probably borrowed hence his _Sir Blandamour_, F. Q. iv. 1. 32.

2092. After examining carefully the rimes in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Mr. Bradshaw finds that this is the _sole_ instance in which a word which ought etymologically to end in -_yë_ is rimed with a word ending in -_y_ without a following final e. A reason for the exception is easily found; for Chaucer has here adopted the swing of the ballad metre, and hence ventures to deprive _chiualryë_ of its final _e_, and to call it _chivalry'_ so that it may rime with _Gy_, after the manner of the ballad-writers; cf. Squyre of Lowe Degre, 79, 80. So again _chivalryë_, _druryë_ become _chivalry_, _drury_; ll. 2084, 2085. We even find _plas_ for _plac-e_, 1971; and _gras_ for _grac-e_, 2021.

2094. _glood_, glided. So in all the MSS. except E., which has the poor reading _rood_, rode. For the expression in l. 2095, compare--

'But whenne he was horsede on a stede, He sprange als any sparke one [_read_ of] glede'; Sir Isumbras, ed. Halliwell, p. 107.

'Lybeaus was redy boun, And lepte out of the arsoun [_bow of the saddle_] As sperk thogh out of glede'; Lybeaus Disconus, in Ritson, ii. 27. [200]

'Then sir Lybius with ffierce hart, Out of his saddle swythe he start As sparcle doth out of fyer'; Percy Folio MS. ii. 440.

2106. The first few lines of the romance of Sir Perceval of Galles (ed. Halliwell, p. 1) will at once explain Chaucer's allusion. It begins--

'Lef, lythes to me Two wordes or thre Of one that was faire and fre And felle in his fighte; His right name was _Percyvelle_, He was fostered in the felle, _He dranke water of the welle_, And [gh]itt was he wyghte!'

Both Sir Thopas and Sir Perceval were water-drinkers, but it did not impair their vigour.

In the same romance, p. 84, we find--

'Of mete ne drynke he ne roghte, So fulle he was of care! Tille the nynte daye byfelle _That he come to a welle,_ _Ther he was wonte for to duelle_ _And drynk take hym thare_.'

These quotations set aside Mr. Jephson's interpretation, and solve Tyrwhitt's difficulty. Tyrwhitt says that 'The Romance of Perceval le Galois, or de Galis, was composed in octosyllable French verse by Chrestien de Troyes, one of the oldest and best French romancers, before the year 1191; Fauchet, l. ii. c. x. It consisted of above 60,000 verses (Bibl. des Rom. t. ii. p. 250) so that it would be some trouble to find the fact which is, probably, here alluded to. The romance, under the same title, in French prose, printed at Paris, 1530, fol., can be an abridgement, I suppose, of the original poem.'

2107. _worthy under wede_, well-looking in his armour. The phrase is very common. Tyrwhitt says it occurs repeatedly in the romance of Emare, and refers to folios 70, 71 b, 73 a, and 74 b of the MS.; but the reader may now find the romance in print; see Ritson's Metrical Romances, ii. pp. 214, 229, 235, 245. The phrase is used of ladies also, and must then mean of handsome appearance when well-dressed. See Amis and Amiloun, ed. Weber, ii. pp. 370, 375. Cf. l. 1979.

2108. The story is here broken off by the host's interruption. MSS. Pt. and Hl. omit this line, and MSS. Cp. and Ln. omit ll. 2105-7 as well. [201]

PROLOGUE TO MELIBEUS.

2111. _of_, by. _lewednesse_, ignorance; here, foolish talk.

2112. _also_, &c.; as verily as (I hope) God will render my soul happy. See Kn. Ta. A. 1863, 2234.

2113. _drasty_, filthy. Tyrwhitt and Bell print _drafty_, explained by full of draff or refuse. But there is no such word; the adjective (were there one) would take the form _draffy_. See _drestys_, i. e. dregs, lees of wine, in the Prompt. Parv., and Way's note, which gives the spelling _drastus_ (a plural form) as occurring in MS. Harl. 1002. The Lat. _feces_ is glossed by _drastys_ in Wright's Vocab., ed. Wülcker, p. 625, l. 16. And the Lat. _feculentus_ is glossed by the A. S. _dræstig_ in the same, col. 238, l. 20.

2123. _in geste_, in the form of a regular story of adventure of some well-known hero; cf. House of Fame, 1434, 1515. The _gestes_ generally pretended to have some sort of historical foundation; from Low Lat. _gesta_, doings. Sir Thopas was in this form, but the Host would not admit it, and wanted to hear about some one who was more renowned. 'Tell us,' he says, 'a tale like those in the _chansons de geste_, or at least something in prose that is either pleasant or profitable.'

2131. 'Although it is sometimes told in different ways by different people.'

2137. 'And all agree in their general meaning.' _sentence_, sense; see ll. 2142, 2151.

2148. Read it--_Tenforcë with_, &c.

THE TALE OF MELIBEUS.

For the sources of the Tale of Melibeus, see vol. iii. p. 426. It may suffice to say here that Chaucer's Tale is translated from the French version entitled _Le Livre de Mellibee et Prudence_, ascribed by M. Paul Meyer to Jean de Meung. Of this text there are two MS. copies in the British Museum, viz. MS. Reg. 19 C. vii. and MS. Reg. 19 C. xi, both of the fifteenth century; the former is said by Mr. T. Wright to be the more correct. It is also printed, as forming part of _Le Menagier de Paris_, the author of which embodied it in his book, written about 1393; the title of the printed book being--'Le Menagier de Paris; publié pour la première fois par la Société des Bibliophiles François; a Paris M.D. CCC. XLVI'; (tome i. p. 186); ed. J. Pichon. In the following notes, this is alluded to as _the French text_.

This French version was, in its turn, translated from the _Liber Consolationis et Consilii_ of Albertano of Brescia, excellently edited for the Chaucer Society in 1873 by Thor Sundby, with the title 'Albertani Brixiensis Liber Consolationis et Consilii.' This is alluded to, in the following notes, as _the Latin text_. Thor Sundby's edition is most helpful, as the editor has taken great pains to trace the sources of the [202] very numerous quotations with which the Tale abounds; and I am thus enabled to give the references in most cases. I warn the reader that Albertano's quotations are frequently _inexact_.

Besides this, the Tale of Melibeus has been admirably edited, as a specimen of English prose, in Mätzner's Altenglische Sprachproben, ii. 375, with numerous notes, of which I here make considerable use. Owing to the great care taken by Sundby and Mätzner, the task of explaining the difficulties in this Tale has been made easy. The more important notes from Mätzner are marked 'Mr.'

The first line or clause (numbered 2157) ends with the word 'Sophie,' as shewn by the slanting stroke. The whole Tale is thus divided into clauses, for the purpose of ready reference, precisely as in the Six-text edition; I refer to these _clauses_ as if they were _lines_. The 'paragraphs' are the same as in Tyrwhitt's edition.

2157. _Melibeus._ The meaning of the name is given below (note to l. 2600).

_Prudence._ 'It is from a passage of Cassiodorus, quoted by Albertano in cap. vi., that he [Albertano] has taken the name of his heroine, if we may call her so, and the general idea of her character:--"Superauit cuncta infatigabilis et expedita _prudentia_"; Cass. Variarum lib. ii. epist. 15.'--Sundby.

_Sophie_, i. e. wisdom, [Greek: sophia]. Neither the Latin nor the French text gives the daughter's name.

2159. _Inwith_, within; a common form in Chaucer; see note to B. 1794. _Y-shette_, pl. of _y-shet_, shut; as in B. 560.

2160. _Thre_; Lat. text, _tres_; Fr. text, _trois_. Tyrwhitt has _foure_, as in MSS. Cp. Ln.; yet in l. 2562, he prints 'thin enemies ben three,' and in l. 2615, he again prints 'thy three enemies.' Again, in l. 2612, it is explained that these three enemies signify, allegorically, the flesh, the world, and the devil.

2164. _As ferforth_, as far; as in B. 19, 1099, &c. Mätzner also quotes from Troilus, ii. 1106--'How ferforth be ye put in loves daunce.'

2165. Mätzner would read--'ever _the_ lenger the more'; but see E. 687, F. 404.

2166. _Ovide_, Ovid. The passage referred to is--

'Quis matrem, nisi mentis inops, in funere nati Flere uetet? non hoc illa monenda loco. Cum dederit lacrimas, animumque expleuerit aegrum, Ille dolor uerbis emoderandus erit.' Remedia Amoris, 127-130.

2172. _Warisshe_, recover; Cp. Ln. Hl. _be warisshed_, be cured. Chaucer uses this verb elsewhere both transitively and intransitively, so that either reading will serve. For the transitive use, see below, ll. 2207, 2466, 2476, 2480; also F. 856, 1138, 1162; Book of Duch. 1104. For the intransitive use, observe that, in F. 856, Cp. Pt. Ln. have--'then wolde myn herte Al _waryssche_ of this bitter peynes [203] smerte'; and cf. Morte Arthure, 2186--'I am wathely woundide, _waresche_ mon I neuer!'--M.

Lat. text--'Filia tua, dante Domino, bene liberabitur.'

2174. _Senek_, Seneca. 'Non affligitur sapiens liberorum amissione, non amicorum; eodem animo enim fert illorum mortem quo suam expectat'; Epist. 74, § 29.

2177. _Lazarus_; see John, xi. 35.

2178. _Attempree_, moderate; Lat. text, 'temperatus fletus.' Hl. _attemperel_, which Mätzner illustrates. Cf. D. 2053, where Hl. has _attemperelly_; and E. 1679, where Hl. has _attemperely_. Cf. ll. 2570, 2728 below.

_Nothing defended_, not at all forbidden.

2179. See Rom. xii. 15.

2181. 'According to the doctrine that Seneca teaches us.' Cf. 'Non sicci sint oculi, amisso amico, nec fluant; lacrimandum est, non plorandum'; Epist. 63, § 1.

2183. This is also, practically, from Seneca: 'Quem amabis extulisti, quaere quem ames; satius est amicum reparare, quam flere'; Epist. 63, § 9.

2185. _Iesus Syrak_, Jesus the son of Sirach. 'Ecclesiasticus is the title given in the Latin version to the book which is called in the Septuagint The Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach'; Smith, Dict. of the Bible. Compare the title 'A prayer of Jesus the son of Sirach' to Ecclus. ch. li. But the present quotation is really from Prov. xvii. 22. It is the _next_ quotation, in l. 2186, that is from Ecclus. xxx. 25 (Vulgate), i. e. xxx. 23 in the English version. The mistake is due to misreading the original Lat. text, which quotes the passages _in the reverse order_, as being from 'Jesus Sirac' and 'alibi.'

2187. From Prov. xxv. 20; but the clause is omitted in the modern Eng. version, though Wycliffe has it. The Vulgate has:--'Sicut tinea uestimento, et uermis ligno: ita tristitia uiri nocet cordi.' The words _in the shepes flees_ (in the sheep's fleece) are added by Chaucer, apparently by way of explanation. But the fact is that, according to Mätzner, the Fr. version here has 'la tigne, ou lartuison, nuit a la robe,' where _artuison_ is the Mod. F. _artison_, explained by Cotgrave as 'a kind of moth'; and I strongly suspect that 'in the shepes flees' is due to this 'ou lartuison,' which Chaucer may have misread as _en la toison_. It looks very like it. I point other similar mistakes further on.

_Anoyeth_, harms; F. _nuit_, L. _nocet_. The use of _to_ here is well illustrated by Mätzner, who compares Wycliffe's version of this very passage; 'As a moghe to the cloth, and a werm to the tree, so sorewe of a man _noyeth to_ the herte'; whereas Purvey's later version thrice omits the _to_. In the Persones Tale, Group I. 847, _anoyeth_ occurs both with _to_ and without it.

2188. _Us oghte_, it would become us; _oghte_ is in the subjunctive mood. Cf. _hem oughte_, it became them, in l. 2458; _thee oughte_, it became thee, in l. 2603.--Mr. The pres. indic. form is _us oweth_. [204]

_Goodes temporels_; F. text, _biens temporels_. Chaucer uses the F. pl. in _-es_ or _-s_ for the adjective in other places, and the adj. then usually follows the sb. Cf. _lettres capitals_, capital letters, Astrolabe, i. 16. 8; _weyes espirituels_, spiritual ways, Pers. Tale, I. 79; _goodes espirituels_, id. 312; _goodes temporeles_, id. 685; _thinges espirituels_, id. 784.--Mr.

2190. See Job, i. 21. _Hath wold_, hath willed (it); see 2615.

2193. Quotations from Solomon and from Ecclesiasticus are frequently confused, both throughout this Tale, and elsewhere. The reference is to Ecclus. xxxii. 24, in the Vulgate (cf. A. V. xxxii. 19); here Wycliffe has:--'Sone, withoute counseil no-thing do thou; and after thi deede thou shalt not othynke' (i. e. _of-thinke_, repent).

_Thou shalt never repente_; here Hl. has--'the thar neuer rewe,' i. e. it needeth never for thee to rue it.

2202. _With-holde_, retained. Cf. A. 511; Havelok, 2362.--Mr.

2204. _Parties_, &c.; Fr. text: _supporter partie_.--Mr.

2205. _Hool and sound_; a common phrase. Cf. Rob. of Glouc. pp. 163, 402, ed. Hearne (ll. 3417, 8301, ed. Wright); King Horn, l. 1365 (in Morris's Specimens of English); also l. 2300 below.--Mr.

2207. 'Heal, put a stop to, war by taking vengeance; a literal and very happy translation from the French--_aussi doit on guerir guerre par vengence_.'--Bell. Tyrwhitt omits the words _by vengeaunce_, and Lounsbury (Studies in Chaucer, i. 320) defends him, arguing that 'the physicians are represented as agreeing with the surgeons'; whereas Chaucer expressly says that 'they seyden a fewe wordes more.' The words 'by vengeaunce' are in all the seven MSS. and in the French original. Admittedly, they make nonsense, but the nonsense is expressly laid bare and exposed afterwards, when it appears that the physicians did _not really_ add this clause, but Melibeus dreamt that they did (2465-2480). The fact is, however, that the words _par vengence_ were wrongly interpolated in the French text. Chaucer _should_ have omitted them, but the evidence shews that he _did not_. I decline to falsify the text in order to set the author right. We should then have to set the French text right also!

2209. 'Made this matter much worse, and aggravated it.'

2210. _Outrely_, utterly, entirely, i. e. without reserve; Fr. text _tout oultre_. Not from A. S. _[=u]tor_, outer, utter, but from F. _oultre_, _outre_, moreover; of which one sense, in Godefroy, is 'excessivement.' See E. 335, 639, 768, 953; C. 849; &c.

2216. Fr. text--'en telle maniere que tu soies bien pourveu d'espies et guettes.'--Mr.

2218. _To moeve_; Fr. text, _de mouvoir guerre_; cf. the Lat. phrase _mouere bellum_.--Mr.

2220. The Lat. text has here _three_ phrases for Chaucer's 'common proverb.' It has: 'non enim subito uel celeriter est iudicandum, "omnia enim subita probantur incauta," et "in iudicando criminosa est celeritas," et "ad poenitendum properat qui cito iudicat."' Of these, the first is from Cassiodorus, Variarum lib. i. c. 17; and the second and [205] third from Publilius Syrus, Sententiae, 254 and 32 (ed. Friedrich, Berolini, 1880). For _iudicando_, as in some MSS., Friedrich has the variant _vindicando_. Cf. the Proverbs of Hending, l. 256: 'Ofte rap reweth,' haste often rues. See note to 2244.

2221. _Men seyn_; this does not necessarily mean that Chaucer is referring to a proverb. He is merely translating. The Lat. text has; 'quare _dici consueuit_, Optimum iudicem existimem, qui cito intelligit et tarde iudicat.' It also quotes two sentences (nos. 311 and 128) from Publilius Syrus: 'Mora omnis odio est, sed facit sapientiam'; and--'Deliberare utilia mora est tutissima.' Mätzner points out that there are two other sentences (nos. 659 and 32) in Publilius, which come very near the expression in the text, viz. 'Velox consilium sequitur poenitentia'; and--'Ad poenitendum properat, qui cito iudicat.'

2223. See John, viii. 3-8. For _he wroot_, Hl. has 'he_m_ wrot,' which is obviously wrong.

2227. _Made contenaunce_, made a sign, made a gesture. Among the senses of F. _contenance_, Cotgrave gives: 'gesture, posture, behaviour, carriage.'

2228. Fr. text--'qui ne scevent que guerre se monte.'--Mr.

2229. 'The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water'; Prov. xvii. 14.

2231. 'The chylde may rue that is vnborn'; Chevy Chase, l. 9.

2235. 'A tale out of season is as music in mourning'; Ecclus. xxii. 6.

2237. Not from 'Solomon,' but from 'Jesus, son of Sirach,' as before. The Lat. text agrees with the Vulgate version of Ecclus. xxxii. 6: 'ubi auditus non est, ne effundas sermonem'; the E. version (verse 4) is somewhat different, viz. 'Pour not out words where there is a musician, and shew not forth wisdom out of time.' Chaucer gives us the same saying again _in verse_; see B. 3991.

2238. Lat. text: 'semper consilium tunc deest, quando maxime opus est'; from Publilius Syrus, Sent. 594. (_Read_ cum opus est maxime.)

2242. Cf. F. text--'Sire, dist elle, je vous prie que vous ne vous hastez, et que vous pour tous dons me donnez espace.'--Wright.

2243. _Piers Alfonce_, Petrus Alfonsi. 'Peter Alfonsus, or Alfonsi, was a converted Spanish Jew, who flourished in the twelfth century, and is well known for his _Disciplina Clericalis_, a collection of stories and moralisations in Latin prose, which was translated afterwards into French verse, under the title of the _Chastoiement d'un pere a son fils_. It was a

## book much in vogue among the preachers from the thirteenth to the fifteenth

century.'--Wright. Tyrwhitt has a long note here; he says that a copy of this work is in MS. Bibl. Reg. 10 B. xii in the British Museum, and that there is also a copy of another work by the same author, entitled _Dialogus contra Judaeos_, in MS. Harl. 3861. He also remarks that the manner and style of the _Disciplina Clericalis_ 'show many marks of an Eastern original; and one of his stories _Of a trick put upon a thief_ is entirely taken from the Calilah a Damnah, a celebrated collection of Oriental apologues.' All the best fables of Alfonsus [206] were afterwards incorporated (says Tyrwhitt) into the Gesta Romanorum. He was born at Huesca, in Arragon, in 1062, and converted to Christianity in 1106.

The words here referred to are the following: 'Ne properes ulli reddere mutuum boni uel mali, quia diutius expectabit te amicus, et diutius timebit te inimicus'; Disc. Cler. xxv. 15; ed. F. W. V. Schmidt, Berlin, 1827, 4to., p. 71.

2244. _The proverbe_, &c.; not in either the Latin or the French texts. Cf. the proverb of Hending--'ofte rap reweth,' often haste rues it. Heywood has--'The more haste, the worse speed'; on which Ray notes--'Come s'ha fretta non si fa mai niente che stia bene'; _Ital._ Qui trop se hâte en cheminant, en beau chemin se fourvoye souvent; _Fr._ Qui nimis properè minus prosperè; et nimium properans serius absoluit.

'Tarry a little, that we may make an end the sooner, was a saying of Sir Amias Paulet. Presto e bene non si conviene; _Ital._' See 2325 below, and observe that Chaucer has _the same form of words_ in Troil. i. 956.

2247. From Ecclesiastes, vii. 28. Cf. A. 3154.

2249. From Ecclus. xxv. 30 (Vulgate): 'Mulier, si primatum habeat, contraria est uiro suo.' Not in the A. V.; cf. v. 22 of that version.

2250. From Ecclus. xxxiii. 20-22 (Vulgate); 19-21 (A. V.).

2251. After _noght be_, ed. 1550 adds--'if I shuld be cou_n_sayled by the'; but this is redundant. See next note.

2252-3. These clauses are omitted in the MSS. and black-letter editions, but are absolutely necessary to the sense. The French text has--'car il est escript: la jenglerie des femmes ne puet riens celer fors ce qu'elle ne scet. Apres, le philosophe dit: en mauvais conseil les femmes vainquent les hommes. Pour ces raisons, je ne doy point user de ton conseil.' It is easy to turn this into Chaucerian English, by referring to ll. 2274, 2280 below, where the missing passage is quoted with but slight alteration.

The former clause is quoted from Marcus Annaeus Seneca, father of Seneca the philosopher, Controversiarum Lib. ii. 13. 12:--'Garrulitas mulierum id solum nouit celare, quod nescit.' Cf. P. Plowman, B. v. 168; xix. 157; and see the Wyf of Bathes Tale, D. 950. The second clause is from Publilius Syrus, Sent. 324:--'Malo in consilio feminae uincunt uiros.'

2257. 'Non est turpe cum re mutare consilium'; Seneca, De Beneficiis, iv. 38, § 1.

_Maketh no lesing_, telleth no lie; compare the use of _lyer_ just above.

_Turneth his corage_, changes his mind. Mätzner quotes a similar phrase from Halliwell's Dict., s. v. _Torne_:--

'But thogh a man himself be good, And he _torne_ so _his mood_ That he haunte fooles companye, It shal him torne to grete folie.'

MS. Lansdowne 793, fol. 68. [207]

2258. _Thar ye nat_, it needs not that ye; i. e. you are not obliged. _But yow lyke_, unless you please (lit. unless it please you).

2259. _Ther_, where. _What that him lyketh_, whatever he likes.

2260. _Save your grace_, with the same sense as the commoner phrase 'save your reverence.' The Lat. text has 'salua reuerentia tua'; which shews the original form of the phrase.

_As seith the book._ Here 'the book' probably means no more than the Latin text, which has 'nam qui omnes despicit, omnibus displicet'; without any reference.

2261. _Senek._ Mätzner says this is not to be found in Seneca; in fact, the Latin text refers us to 'Seneca, De Formula Honestae Vitae'; but Sundby has found it in Martinus Dumiensis, Formula Honestae Vitae, cap. iii. This shews that it was attributed to Seneca erroneously. Moreover, the original is more fully expressed, and runs thus--'Nullius imprudentiam despicias; rari sermonis ipse, sed loquentium patiens auditor; seuerus non saeuus, hilares neque aspernans; sapientiae cupidus et docilis; quae scieris, sine arrogantia postulanti imperties; quae nescieris, sine occultatione ignorantiae tibi benigne postula impertiri.' Cf. Horace, Epist. vi. 67, 68.

2265. _Rather_, sooner. See Mark, xvi. 9. The weakness of this argument for the _goodness_ of woman appears by comparison with P. Plowman, C. viii. 138: 'A synful Marye the seyh er seynt Marie thy moder,' i. e. Christ was seen by St. Mary the sinner earlier than by St. Mary His mother, after His resurrection.

2266-9. This reappears in verse in the March. Tale, E. 2277-2290.

2269. Alluding to Matt. xix. 17; Luke xviii. 19.

2273. _Or noon_, or not. So elsewhere; see B. 2407, F. 778, I. 962, 963, 964.

2276. Cf. P. Plowman, C. xx. 297, on which my note is as follows. 'Perhaps the original form of this commonly quoted proverb is this:--"Tria sunt enim quae non sinunt hominem in domo permanere; fumus, stillicidium, et mala uxor"; Innocens Papa, de Contemptu Mundi, i. 18. It is a mere compilation from Prov. x. 26, xix. 13, and xxvii. 15. Chaucer refers to it in his Tale of Melibeus, Prologue to Wife of Bathes Tale (D. 278), and Persones Tale (I. 631); see also Kemble's Solomon and Saturn, pp. 43, 53, 63; Walter Mapes, ed. Wright, p. 83.' Cf. Wright's Bibliographia Britannica, Anglo-Norman Period, pp. 333, 334; Hazlitt's Proverbs, pp. 114, 339; Ida von Düringsfeld, Sprichwörter, vol. i. sect. 303; Peter Cantor, ed. Migne, col. 331; &c. A medieval proverbial line expresses the same thus:--

'Sunt tria dampna domus, imber, mala femina, fumus.'

2277. From Prov. xxi. 9; cf. Prov. xxv. 24. See D. 775.

2286. The Lat. text has: 'uulgo dici consueuit, Consilium feminile nimis carum aut nimis uile.' Cf. B. 4446, and the note. [208]

2288. The examples of Jacob, Judith, Abigail, and Esther are again quoted, in the same order, in the March. Tale, E. 1362-74. See Gen. xxvii; Judith, xi-xiii; 1 Sam. xxv. 14; Esther, vii.

2293. _Forme-fader_, first father. Here _forme_ represents the A. S. _forma_, first, cognate with Goth. _fruma_, Lat. _primus_. Cf. 'Adam ure _forme fader_'; O. E. Homilies, ed. Morris, ii. 101; so also in Hampole, Pr. Cons. 483; Legends of the Holy Rood, ed. Morris, p. 62; Allit. Poems, A. 639.

2294. _To been a man allone_, for a man to be alone; for this idiom, cf. I. 456, 469, 666, 849, 935.--Mr. See Gen. ii. 18.

2296. _Confusioun_; see B. 4354, and the note.

2297. Lat. text:--'quare per uersus dici consueuit:

Quid melius auro? Iaspis. Quid iaspide? Sensus. Quid sensu? Mulier. Quid muliere? Nihil.'

Sundby quotes from Ebrardi Bituniensis Graecismus, cum comm. Vincentii Metulini, fol. C. 1, back--

Quid melius auro? Iaspis. Quid iaspide? Sensus. Quid sensu? Ratio. Quid ratione? Deus.

(A better reading is _Auro quid melius_.)

In MS. Harl. 3362, fol. 67, as printed in Reliquiae Antiquae, i. 91, we find:--

Vento quid leuius? fulgur. Quid fulgure? flamma. Flamma quid? mulier. Quid muliere? nichil.

And these lines are immediately followed by the second quotation above, with the variations 'Auro quid melius,' 'Sensu quid,' and 'nichil' for 'Deus.'

2303. From Prov. xvi. 24.

2306. For the use of _to_ with _biseken_, cf. 2940 below.--Mr.

2308. From Tobit, iv. 20 (Vulgate); iv. 19 (A. V.). _Dresse_, direct; Lat. 'ut uias tuas _dirigat_.'

2309. From James, i. 5. At this point the Fr. text is much shortened, pp. 20-30 of the Latin text being omitted.

2311. Lat. text (p. 33):--'a te atque consiliariis tuis remoueas illa tria, quae maxime sunt consilio contraria, scilicet iram, uoluptatem siue cupiditatem atque festinantiam.'

2315. Lat. text:--'iratus semper plus putat posse facere, quam possit.'

2317. The Lat. text shews that the quotation is not from Seneca's De Ira, but from Publilius Syrus, Sent. 281:--'Iratus nil non criminis loquitur loco.' Cf. D. 2005, I. 537.

2320. From 1 Tim. vi. 10. See C. 334, I. 739.

2325. Lat. 'Ad poenitendum properat, qui cito iudicat'; from Publil. Syrus, Sent. 32. (_Read_ cito qui.) See l. 2244 above, and the note.

2331. From Ecclus. xix. 8, 9 (A. V.).

2333. Lat. text (p. 40):--'Et alius dixit: Vix existimes ab uno posse celari secretum.' [209]

2334. _The book._ Lat. text:--'Consilium absconditum quasi in carcere tuo est retrusum, reuelatum uero te in carcere suo tenet ligatum.' Compare Petrus Alfonsi, Disciplina Clericalis, iv. 3. Cf. Ecclus. viii. 22 (Vulgate); viii. 19 (A. V.).

2337. Lat. text:--'Ait enim Seneca: Si tibi ipse non imperasti, ut taceres, quomodo ab alio silentium quaeris?' This, however, is not from Seneca, but from Martinus Dumiensis, De Moribus, Sent. 16. Sundby further quotes from Plutarch (Opera, ed. Hutten. Tubingae, 1814, vol. xiv. p. 395):--[Greek: Hoper an siôpasthai boulêi, mêdeni eipêis; ê pôs para tinos apaitêseis to piston tês siôpês, ho mê paresches seautôi?]

2338. _Plyt_, plight, condition. It rimes with _appetyt_, E. 2336, and _wyte_, G. 953. It occurs again in the Complaint of Anelida, 297, and Parl. of Foules, 294; and in Troilus, ii. 712, 1738, iii. 1039. The modern spelling is wrong, as it is quite a different word from the verb to _plight_. See it discussed in my Etym. Dict., Errata and Addenda, p. 822.

2342. _Men seyn._ This does not appear to be a quotation, but a sort of proverb. The Lat. text merely says:--'Et _haec est ratio_ quare magnates atque potentes, si per se nesciunt, consilium bonum uix aut nunquam capere possunt.'

2348. From Prov. xxvii. 9.

2349. From Ecclus. vi. 15:--'Amico fideli non est comparatio; et non est digna ponderatio auri et argenti contra bonitatem fidei illius.' L. 2350 is a sort of paraphrase of the latter clause.

2351. From Ecclus. vi. 14:--'Amicus fidelis, protectio fortis; qui autem inuenit illum, inuenit thesaurum.' 'He [Socrates] was wonte to saie, that there is no possession or treasure more precious then a true and an assured good frende.'--N. Udall, tr. of Erasmus' Apophthegmes, Socrates, § 13.

2352. Cf. Prov. xxii. 17; Ecclus. ix. 14.

2354. Cf. Job xii. 12.

2355. From Cicero, De Senectute, vi. 17:--'Non uiribus aut uelocitatibus aut celeritate corporum res magnae geruntur, sed consilio, auctoritate, sententia; quibus non modo non orbari, sed etiam augeri senectus solet.'

2357. From Ecclus. vi. 6.

2361. From Prov. xi. 14; cf. xv. 22.

2363. From Ecclus. viii. 17.

2364. Lat. text:--'Scriptum est enim, Proprium est stultitiae aliena uitia cernere, suorum autem obliuisci.' From Cicero, Disput. Tusc. iii. 30. 73.

2366. 'Sic habendum est, nullam in amicitia pestem esse maiorem quam adulationem, blanditiam, assentationem'; Cicero, Laelius, xxvi. 97 [_or_ xxv.]

2367. Lat. text:--'In consiliis itaque et in aliis rebus non acerba uerba, sed blanda timebis.' The last six words are from Martinus Dumiensis, De Quatuor Virtutibus Cardinalibus, cap. iii. Cf. Prov. xxviii. 23. [210]

2368. From Prov. xxix. 5. The words in the next clause (2369) seem to be merely another rendering of the same passage.

2370. 'Cauendum est, ne assentatoribus patefaciamus aures neue adulari nos sinamus'; Cicero, De Officiis, i. 26.

2371. From Dionysius Cato, Distich. iii. 6:--'Sermones blandos blaesosque cauere memento.'

2373. 'Cum inimico nemo in gratiam tuto [_al._ tute] redit'; Publilius Syrus, Sent. 91.

2374. Lat. text:--'Quare Ysopus dixit:

Ne confidatis secreta nec his detegatis, Cum quibus egistis pugnae discrimina tristis.'

2375. Not from Seneca, but from Publilius Syrus, Sent. 389:--'Nunquam ubi diu fuit ignis deficit uapor'; but the MSS. differ in their readings. 'There is no fire without some smoke'; Heywood's Proverbs.

2376. From Ecclus. xii. 10.

2379. The passage alluded to is the following:--'Ne te associaueris cum inimicis tuis, cum alios possis repperire socios; quae enim mala egeris notabunt, quae uero bona fuerint deuitabunt [Lat. text, deuiabunt]'; cf. Petrus Alfonsi, Disciplina Clericalis, iv. 4. The words 'they wol perverten it' seem to be due to the reading _deuiabunt_, taken to mean 'they will turn aside,' in a transitive sense.

2381. Lat. text (pp. 50, 51); 'ut quidam philosophus dixit, Nemo ei satis fidus est, quem metuit.'

2382. Inexactly quoted from the Latin text, taken from Cicero, De Officiis, ii. 7:--'Malus custos diuturnitatis est metus, contraque beniuolentia fidelis uel ad perpetuitatem.... Nulla uis imperii tanta est, quae premente metu possit esse diuturna.'

2384. From Prov. xxxi. 4, where the Vulgate has: 'Noli regibus, o Lamuel, noli regibus dare uinum; quia nullum secretum est ubi regnat ebrietas.' Cf. C. 561 (and note), 585, 587.

2386. _Cassidorie_, Cassiodorus, who wrote in the time of Theoderic the Great, king of the Ostrogoths (A.D. 475-526). The quotation is from his Variarum lib. x. epist. 18:--'quia laesionis instar est occulte consulere, et aliud uelle monstrare.' In the Latin text, cap. xxiii, the heading of the chapter is:--'De Vitando consilium illorum, qui secreto aliud consulunt, et palam aliud se uelle ostendunt.' Chaucer's rendering is far from being a happy one.

2387. Cf. Prov. xii. 5; but note that the Lat. text has:--'Malus homo a se nunquam bonum consilium refert'; which resembles Publilius Syrus, Sent. 354:--'Malus bonum ad se nunquam consilium refert.'

2388. From Ps. i. 1.

2391. _Tullius._ The reference is to Cicero's De Officiis, ii. 5, as quoted in the 'Latin text':--'quid in unaquaque re uerum sincerumque sit, quid consentaneum cuique rei sit, quid consequens, ex quibus [211] quaeque gignantur, quae cuiusque rei caussa sit.' This is expanded in the English, down to l. 2400.

2405. For _distreyneth_, MS. Hl. has the corrupt reading _destroyeth_. The reading is settled by the lines in Chaucer's Proverbs (see the Minor Poems, vol. i. p. 407):--

'Who-so mochel wol embrace Litel therof he shal _distreyne_.'

The Lat. text has: 'Qui nimis capit parum stringit'; the Fr. text has: 'Qui trop embrasse, pou estraint.'

2406. _Catoun_, Dionysius Cato; Distich. iii. 15:--

'Quod potes, id tentato; operis ne pondere pressus Succumbat labor, et frustra tentata relinquas.'

2408. The Lat. text has:--'Ait enim Petrus Alfunsus, Si dicere metuas unde poeniteas, semper est melius _non_ quam _sic_.' From his Disciplina Clericalis, vi. 12.

2411. _Defenden_, forbid, i. e. advise one not to do. This passage is really a quotation from Cicero, De Officiis, i. 9:--'Bene praecipiunt qui uetant quidquid agere, quod dubites aequum sit an iniquum.'

2413. The Lat. text has:--'Nunc superest uidere, quando consilium uel promissum mutari possit uel debeat.' This shews that the reading _counseil_, as in Hl., is correct.

2415. Lat. text:--'Quae de nouo emergunt, nouo indigent consilio, ut leges dicunt.'

2416. Lat. text:--'Inde et Seneca dixit, Consilium tuum si audierit hostis, consilii dispositionem permutes.' But no such sentence has been discovered in Seneca.

2419. Lat. text:--'Generaliter enim nouimus, Turpes stipulationes nullius esse momenti, ut leges dicunt,' for which Sundby refers us to the Digesta, xlv. 1. 26.

2421. 'Malum est consilium, quod mutari non potest': Publilius Syrus, Sent. 362.

2431. _First and forward_; so in l. 2684. We now say 'first and foremost.'

2436. See above, ll. 2311-2325; vol. iv. p. 208.

2438. _Anientissed_, annulled, annihilated, done away with. In Rom. iv. 14, where Wycliffe's earlier text has _anentyschid_, the later text has _distried_. The Prompt. Parv. has: 'Anyyntyschyn, or enyntyschyn, _Exinanio_.' From O. F. _anientiss_-, pres. pt. stem of _anientir_, to bring to nothing, variant of _anienter_, a verb formed from prep. _a_, to, and O. F. _nient_ (Ital. _niente_, mod. F. _néant_), nothing. The form _nient_ answers to Lat. *_ne-entem_ or *_nec-entem_, from _ne_, _nec_, not, and _entem_, acc. of _ens_, being. See the New E. Dict. Cf. _anyente_ in P. Plowman, C. xx. 267, xxi. 389. _As yow oghte_, as it behoved you; Hl. _as ye oughte_. Both phrases occur.

2439. _Talent_; Fr. text, 'ta voulonte'; i. e. your desire, wish. '_Talent_, [212] ... will, desire, lust, appetite, an earnest humour unto'; Cotgrave. Cf. C. 540, and l. 2441 below.

2444. This paragraph is omitted in MS. Hl.

2447. _Hochepot_; Hl. _hochepoche_, whence E. _hodgepodge_. From F. _hochepot_, 'a hotch-pot, or gallimaufrey, a confused mingle-mangle of divers things jumbled or put together'; Cotgrave. This again is from the M. Du. _hutspot_, with the same sense; from _hutsen_, to shake, and _pot_. See _Hotchpot_ in my Etym. Dict. _Ther been ye condescended_, and to that opinion ye have submitted.

2449. _Reward_, regard; for _reward_ is merely an older spelling of 'regard.' So in Parl. of Foules, 426; Leg. of Good Women, 375, 399, 1622.

2454. Lat. text:--'Humanum enim est peccare, diabolicum uero perseuerare.' Sundby refers us to St. Chrysostom, Adhortatio ad Theodorum lapsum, I. 14 (Opera, Paris, 1718, fol.; i. 26); where we find (in the Lat. version):--'Nam peccare quidem, humanum est; at in peccatis perseuerare, id non humanum est, sed omnino satanicum.' It is also quoted by Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Historiale, lib. xvii. c. 45.

2459. Lat. text:--'ad illorum officium spectat omnibus prodesse et nulli nocere.' This (says Sundby) is quoted from the Decretals of Gregory IX., lib. i. tit. 37. cap. 3.

2467. Cf. Lat. text:--'scilicet, Contraria contrariis curantur.'

2473. Fr. text:--'Or veez, dist Prudence, comment un chascun croist legierement ce qu'il veut et desire!'--Mr.

2479. _For good_, &c., 'namely, in the sense that good,' &c.

2482. See Rom. xii. 17; cf. 1 Thess. v. 15; 1 Cor. iv. 12. The Lat. text quotes part of verses 17-21 of Rom. xii. But it is clear that Chaucer has altered the wording, and was thinking of 1 Pet. iii. 9.

2485. After _wyse folk_, Cp. inserts 'and olde folk,' and Ln. 'and the olde folke.' The Fr. text has: 'les advocas, les sages, et les anciens.' Ed. 1532 also inserts 'and olde folke'; and perhaps it should be inserted.

2487. _Warnestore_, to supply with defensive materials, to garrison, protect; see 2521, 2523, 2525 below. 'And wel thei were _warnestured_ of vitailes inow'; Will, of Palerne, 1121. We also find a sb. of the same form. 'In eche stude hii sette ther strong _warnesture_ and god'; Rob. of Glouc. 2075 (ed. Hearne, p. 94). 'The Sarazins kept it [a castle] that tym for ther chefe _warnistour_'; Rob. of Brunne, tr. of Langtoft, ed. Hearne, p. 180. 'I will remayn quhill this _warnstor_ be gane'; Wallace, bk. ix. l. 1200, where ed. 1648 has 'till all the stuffe be gone.' Correctly _warnisture_; a derivative of O. F. _warnir_, _garnir_, to supply (E. _garnish_). Godefroy gives O. F.'_garnesture_, _garnisture_, _garniture_, _warnesture_, s. f. provisions, ressource; authentication; garnison, forteresse'; with eight examples. Cf. E. _garrison_ (M. E. _garnison_), _garment_ (M. E. _garnement_), and _garniture_. The last of these is, in fact, nothing but the O. F. _warnisture_ in a more modern [213] form. Hence we obtain the sense by consulting Cotgrave, who gives: '_Garniture_, garniture, garnishment, furniture; provision, munition, store, necessary implements.' It also appears that the word is properly a substantive, with the spelling _warnisture_; it became _warnistore_ or _warnestore_ by confusion with O. F. _estor_, a store; and, as the word _store_ was easily made into a verb, it was easy to treat _warnestore_ in the same way. It is a sb. in Rob. of Gloucester, as shewn above, but appears as a verb in Will. of Palerne. MS. Hl. has _warmstore_ (with _m_ for _ni_); and the same error is in the editions of Wright, Bell, and Morris. Ed. 1532 has _warnstore_.

2494. From Ps. cxxvii. 1 (cxxvi. 1, Vulgate).

2496. From Dionysius Cato, lib. iv. dist. 14:--'Auxilium a nobis petito, si forte laboras; Nec quisquam melior medicus quam fidus amicus.'

2499. _Piers Alfonce_, Petrus Alfonsi, in his Disciplina Clericalis, xviii. 10:--'Ne aggrediaris uiam cum aliquo nisi prius eum cognoueris; si quisquam ignotus tibi in uia associauerit, iterque tuum inuestigauerit, dic te uelle longius ire quam disposueris; et si detulerit lanceam, uade ad dextram; si ensem, ad sinistram.'

2505. The repetition of _that_ before _ye_, following the former _that_ before _for_, is due to a striving after greater clearness. It is not at all uncommon, especially in cases where the two _thats_ are farther apart. Cf. the use of _he_ and _him_ in l. 2508.

_Lete the keping_, neglect the protection; A. S. _l[=æ]tan_.

2507. 'Beatus homo qui semper est pauidus; qui uero mentis est durae, corruet in malum'; Prov. xxviii. 14. Hence the quotation-mark follows _bityde_.

2509. _Counterwayte embusshements_, 'be on the watch against lyings in ambush.' '_Contregaitier_, v. act. épier, guetter de son côté'; refl. se garder, se mettre en garde'; Godefroy. Three examples are given of the

## active use, and four of the reflexive use. _Espiaille_, companies of spies;

it occurs again in the sense of 'a set of spies' in D. 1323. Mätzner well remarks that _espiaille_ does not mean 'spying' or 'watching,' as usually explained, but is a _collective_ sb., like O. F. _rascaille_, _poraille_, _pedaille_. Godefroy, in his O. F. Dict., makes the same mistake, though his own example is against him. He has: '_Espiaille_, s. f. action d'épier: Nous avons ja noveles par nos _espiailles_'; i. e. by means of our spies (not of our spyings). This quotation is from an A. F. proclamation made in London, July 26, 1347.

2510. _Senek_, Seneca; but, as before, the reference is really to the Sentences of Publilius Syrus. Of these the Lat. text quotes no less than four, viz. Nos. 542, 607, 380, and 116 (ed. Dietrich); as follows:--

'Qui omnes insidias timet, in nullas incidet.' 'Semper metuendo sapiens euitat malum.' 'Non cito perit ruina, qui ruinam timet.' 'Caret periculo, qui etiam [cum est] tutus cauet.'

[214]

2514. _Senek_; this again is from Publilius Syrus, Sent. 255:--'Inimicum, quamuis humilem, docti est metuere.'

2515. The Lat. and Fr. texts both give the reference, correctly, to Ovid's Remedia Amoris; see l. 421:--

'Parva necat morsu spatiosum uipera taurum; A cane non magno saepe tenetur aper.'

Chaucer has here interpolated the reference to 'the thorn pricking the king' between his translations of these two lines. The interpolation occurs neither in the French nor in the Latin text.

_Wesele_, weasel. The origin of this queer mistake is easily perceived. The Fr. text has: 'La petite _vivre_ occist le grant torel.' Here _vivre_ represents Lat. _uipera_, a viper (cf. E. _wivern_); but Ch. has construed it as if it represented Lat. _uiuerra_, a ferret.

2518. _The book._ The quotation is from Seneca, Epist. 111. § 3:--'Quidam fallere docuerunt, dum falli timent.' (_For_ Quidam _read_ Nam multi). Tyrwhitt's text is here imperfect, and he says he has patched it up as he best could; but the MSS. (except Cp. and Ln.) give a correct text.

2520. Lat. text:--'Cum irrisore consortium non habeas; loquelae eius assiduitatem quasi toxica fugias.' From Albertano of Brescia, who here quotes from his own work, De Arte Eloquendi, p. cviii.; according to Sundby.

2521. _Warnestore_, protect; see note to 2487 above, and see 2523.

2523. _Swiche as han_, 'such as castles and other kinds of edifices have.'

_Artelleries_, missile weapons; cf. 1 Sam xx. 40, 1 Macc. vi. 51 (A. V.). 'Artillarie now a dayes is taken for ii. thinges: Gunnes and Bowes'; Ascham, Toxophilus, ed. Arber, p. 65. In Chaucer's time it referred to bows, crossbows, and engines for casting stones. Cotgrave explains F. _artillier_ as 'one that maketh both bowes and arrowes.'

2525-6. Owing to the repetition of the words _grete edifices_, one of the early scribes (whom others followed) passed from one to the other, thus omitting the words 'apperteneth som tyme to pryde and eek men make heighe toures and grete edifices.' But MSS. Cp. and Ln. supply all but the last three words 'and grete edifices,' and as we know that 'grete edifices' must recur, they really supply all but the sole word 'and,' which the sense absolutely requires. Curiously enough, these very MSS. omit the rest of clause 2525, so that none of the MSS. are perfect, but the text is easily pieced together. It is further verified by the Lat. text, which has:--'Munitio turrium et aliorum altorum aedificiorum ad superbiam plerumque pertinet ... praeterea turres cum magno labore et infinitis expensis fiunt; et etiam cum factae fuerint, nihil ualent, nisi cum auxilio prudentium et fidelium amicorum et cum magnis expensis defendantur.' The F. text supplies the gap with--'appartiennent aucune fois a orgueil: apres on fait les tours et les grans edifices.'--MS. Reg. 19 C. vii. leaf 133, back. Hence there is no doubt as to the reading. [215]

All former editions are here defective, and supply the gap with the single word _is_, which is found in ed. 1532.

2526. _With gret costages_, at great expense: Fr. text, 'a grans despens.'

_Stree_, straw; MS. Hl. has the spelling _straw_. We find the phrase again in the Book of the Duch. 671; also 'ne roghte of hem a _stree_,' id. 887; 'acounted _nat a stree_,' id. 1237; 'ne counted _nat three strees_,' id. 718.

2530. Lat. text:--'unum est inexpugnabile munimentum, amor ciuium.' Not from Cicero; but from Seneca, De Clementia, i. 19. 5.

2534. 'In omnibus autem negotiis, prius quam aggrediare, adhibenda est praeparatio diligens'; Cicero, De Officiis, i. 21.

2537. Lat. text:--'Longa praeparatio belli celerem uictoriam facit.' But the source is unknown; it does not seem to be in Cicero. Mätzner quotes a similar saying from Publilius Syrus, Sent. 125:--'Diu apparandum est bellum, ut uincas celerius.'

2538. 'Munitio quippe tunc efficitur praeualida, si diuturna fuerit excogitatione roborata'; Cassiodorus, Variarum lib. i. epist. 17.

2545. _Tullius._ This refers to what has already preceded in 2391-2400, the passage referred to being one from Cicero's De Officiis, ii. 5, where we are bidden to consider several points, viz. (1) 'quid in quaque re uerum sincerumque sit; (2) quid consentaneum cuique rei sit; (3) quid consequens; (4) ex quo quidque gignatur; (5) quae cuiusque rei caussa sit.' All these five points are taken below in due order; viz. (1) in 2546; (2) in 2550; (3) in 2577; (4) in 2580; and (5) in 2583.

2546. _Trouthe_; referring to _uerum_ in clause (1) in the last note.

2550. _Consentinge_; i. e. _consentaneum_ in clause (2) in note to 2545. Cf. 2571. MS. Hl. has here the false reading _couetyng_, but in l. 2571 it has _consentynge_.

2551. Lat. text:--'qui et quot et quales.' Thus _whiche_ means 'of what sort.' The words _and whiche been they_, omitted in MS. E. only, are thus seen to be necessary; cf. l. 2552, where the phrase is repeated.

2558. _Cosins germayns_; Lat. 'consanguineos germanos.' _Neigh kinrede_, relations near of kin; cf. 'nis but a fer kinrede' in 2565.

2561. _Reward_, regard, care; as above, in 2449; (see the note).

2565. _Litel sib_, slightly related; _ny sib_, closely related. Cf. 'ne on his mæges láfe þe swa _néah sib_ wære,' nor with the relict of his kinsman who was so near of kin; Laws of King Cnut, § vii; in Thorpe's Ancient Laws, i. 364.

2570. _As the lawe_; Sundby refers to Justinian's Codex, VIII. iv. 1.

2573. _That nay_; Fr. text--'que non.'

2577. _Consequent_; i. e. 'consequens' in clause (3), note to 2545.

2580. _Engendringe_; i. e. 'ex quo quidque gignatur' in clause (4), note to 2545.

2582. Mätzner says this is corrupt; but it is quite right, though obscure. The sense is--'and, out of the taking of vengeance in return for that, would arise another vengeance'; &c. _Engendre_ is here taken [216] in the sense of 'be engendred' or 'breed'; see the New E. Dict. The Fr. text is clearer: 'de la vengence _se engendrera_ autre vengence.'

2583. _Causes_; i. e. 'caussa' in clause (5), note to 2545.

2585. The Lat. text omits _Oriens_, which seems to be here used as synonymous with _longinqua_. 'Caussa igitur iniuriae tibi illatae duplex fuit _efficiens_, scilicet _remotissima_ et _proxima_.'

2588. 'Occasio uero illius caussae, quae dicitur _caussa accidentalis_, fuit odium,' &c. So below, the Lat. text has _caussa materialis_, _caussa formalis_, and _caussa finalis_.

2591. _It letted nat_, it tarried not; Lat. text, 'nec per eos remansit.' This intransitive use of _letten_ is awkward and rare. It occurs again in P. Plowman, C. ii. 204, xx. 76, 331.

2594. _Book of Decrees_; Sundby refers us to the Decretum Gratiani; P. ii, Caussa 1, Qu. 1. c. 25:--'uix bono peraguntur exitu, quae malo sunt inchoata principio.'

2596. _Thapostle_, the apostle Paul. The Lat. text refers expressly to the First Epistle to the Corinthians, meaning 1 Cor. iv. 5; but Chaucer has accommodated it to Rom. xi. 33.

2600. The Lat. text informs us that _Melibeus_ signifies _mel bibens_. For similar curiosities of derivation, see note to G. 87. There was a town called Meliboea ([Greek: Meliboia]) on the E. coast of Thessaly.

2605. From Ovid, Amor. i. 8. 104:--'Impia sub dulci melle uenena latent.'

2606. From Prov. xxv. 16.

2611. _The three enemys_, i. e. the flesh, the devil and the world. The entrance of these into man through the five senses is the theme of numerous homilies. See especially Sawles Warde, in O. Eng. Homilies, ed. Morris, First Series, p. 245; and the Ayenbite of Inwyt, ed. Morris, p. 263.

2614. _Deedly sinnes_, the Seven Deadly Sins; see the Persones Tale. _Fyve wittes_, five senses; cf. P. Plowman, C. ii. 15, xvi. 257.

2615. _Wold_, willed; pp. of _willen_. F. text--'a voulu.' See 2190 above; Leg. of Good Women, 1209; Compl. of Venus, 11; P. Plowman, B. xv. 258; Malory's Morte Arthure, bk. xviii. c. 15--'[he] myghte haue slayne vs and he had _wold_'; and again, in c. 19--'I myght haue ben maryed and I had _wolde_.' Gower has--'if that he had _wold_'; Conf. Amantis, ii. 9.

2618. _Falle_, befall, come to pass; F. text--'advenir.'

2620. _Were_, would be; F. text--'ce seroit moult grant dommage.'

2623-4. The missing portion is easily supplied. The French text (MS. Reg. 19 C. vii, leaf 136) has:--'Et a ce respont Dame Prudence, Certes, dist elle, Ie t'octroye que de vengence vient molt de maulx et de biens; mais vengence n'appartient pas a vn chascun, fors seulement aux iuges et a ceulx qui ont la iuridicion sur les malfaitteurs.' Here 'mais vengence' should rather be 'mais faire vengence,' as in MS. Reg. 19 C. xi. leaf 59, back, and in the printed edition. It is [217] clear that the omission of this passage is due to the repetition of _trespassours_ at the end of 2622 and 2624.

2627. Lat. text--'nam, ut ait Seneca, Bonis nocet, qui malis parcit.' This corresponds to--'Bonis necesse est noceat, qui parcit malis'; Pseudo-Seneca, De Moribus, Sent. 114; see Publilius Syrus, ed. Dietrich, p. 90. The Fr. text has:--'Cellui nuit [_al._ nuist] aux bons, qui espargne les mauvais.' Chaucer's translation is so entirely at fault, that I think his MS. must have been corrupt; he has taken _nuist aux_ as _maistre_, and then could make but little of _espargne_, which he makes to mean 'proveth,' i. e. tests, tries the quality of; perhaps his MS. had turned _espargne_ (or _esparne_) into _esprouve_. MSS. Cp. Pt. Ln. turn it into _reproveth_; this makes better sense, but contradicts the original still more.

2628. 'Quoniam excessus tunc sunt in formidine, cùm creduntur iudicibus displicere'; Cassiodorus, Variarum lib. i. epist. 4.

2629. Lat. text:--'Et alibi dixit, Iudex, qui dubitat ulcisci, multos improbos facit'; slightly altered from Publ. Syrus, Sent. 526:--'Qui ulcisci dubitat, inprobos plures facit.'

2630. From Rom. xiii. 4. For _spere_, as in all the copies, Chaucer should have written _swerd_. The Fr. text has _glaive_; Lat. _gladium_.

2632. _Ye shul retourne or have your recours to the Iuge_; explanatory of the F. text--'tu recourras au iuge.'

2633. _As the lawe axeth and requyreth_; explanatory of the Fr. text--'selon droit.' For this use of _axeth_ (= requires), cf. P. Plowman, C. i. 21, ii. 34.

2635. _Many a strong pas_; Fr. text--'moult de fors pas.' MS. Hl. has:--'many a strayt passage.'

2638. Not from Seneca, but (as in other places where Seneca is mentioned) from Publilius Syrus, Sent. 320 (ed. Dietrich):--'Male geritur, quicquid geritur fortunae fide.'

2640. Again from Publilius Syrus, Sent. 189 (ed. Dietrich):--'Fortuna uitrea est; tum quum splendet frangitur.'

2642. _Seur_ (E. _sure_) and _siker_ are mere variants of the same word; the former is O. F. _seur_, from Lat. acc. _sec[=u]rum_; the latter is from Lat. _séc[)u]rus_, with a different accentuation and a shortening of the second vowel. We also have a third form, viz. _secure_.

2645. Again from Publ. Syrus, Sent. 173:--'Fortuna nimium quem fouet, stultum facit.'

2650. From Rom. xii. 19; cf. Deut. xxxii. 35, Ps. xciv. 1.

2653. From Publ. Syrus, Sent. 645:--'Veterem ferendo iniuriam inuites nouam.'

2655. _Holden over lowe_, esteemed too low, too lightly.

2656. From Publ. Syrus, Sent. 487:--'Patiendo multa [_al._ inulta] eueniunt [_al._ ueniunt] quae nequeas pati.' _Mowe suffre_, be able to endure. For _mowe_, Wright wrongly prints _nowe_; MS. Hl. has _mowe_, correctly. [218]

2663. From Caecilii Balbi Sententiae, ed. Friedrich, 1870, no. 162:--'Qui non corripit peccantem gnatum, peccare imperat.'

2664. 'And the judges and sovereign lords might, each in his own land, so largely tolerate wicked men and evil-doers,' &c. Lat. text:--'si multa maleficia patiuntur fieri.'

2667. _Let us now putte_, let us suppose; Fr. text--'posons.' A more usual phrase is 'putte cas,' put the case; cf. note to 2681.

2668. _As now_, at present; see 2670.

2671. From Seneca, De Ira, ii. 34, § 1:--'Cum pare contendere, anceps est; cum superiore, furiosum; cum inferiore, sordidum.'

2675. From Prov. xx. 3.

2678. From Publilius Syrus, Sent. 483:--'Potenti irasci sibi periclum est quaerere.'

2679. From Dion. Cato, Dist. iv. 39:--

'Cede locum laesus Fortunae, cede potenti; Laedere qui potuit, aliquando prodesse ualebit.'

2681. _Yet sette I caas_, but I will suppose; Fr. text--'posons,' as in 2667 above.

2684. _First and foreward_; Fr. text--'premierement.' See note to 2431 above.

2685. _The poete_; Fr. text, 'le poete.' Not in the Latin text, and the source of the quotation is unknown. Cf. Luke, xxiii. 41.

2687. _Seint Gregorie._ Not in the Lat. text; source unknown.

2692. From 1 Pet. ii. 21.

2700. Referring to 2 Cor. iv. 17.

2702. From Prov. xix. 11, where the Vulgate has:--'Doctrina uiri per patientiam noscitur.'

2703. From Prov. xiv. 29, where the Vulgate has:--'Qui patiens est multa gubernatur prudentia.'

2704. From Prov. xv. 18.

2705. From Prov. xvi. 32.

2707. From James, i. 4:--'Patientia autem opus perfectum habet.'

2713. _Corage_, desire, inclination; cf. E. 1254.

2715. The Fr. text is fuller: 'et si ie fais un grant exces, car on dit que exces n'est corrige que par exces, c'est a dire que oultrage ne se corrige fors que par oultrage.'--Mr. Perhaps part of the clause has been accidentally omitted, owing to repetition of 'exces.'

2718. 'Quid enim discrepat a peccante, qui se per excessum nititur uindicare?'--Cassiodorus, Variarum lib. i. epist. 30.

2721. Lat. text:--'ait enim Seneca, Nunquam scelus scelere uindicandum.' Not from Seneca; Sundby refers us to Martinus Dumiensis, De Moribus, S. 139.

2723. _Withouten intervalle ... delay_; the Fr. text merely has 'sans intervalle.' Chaucer explains the word _intervalle_.

2729. 'Qui impatiens est sustinebit damnum'; Prov. xix. 19.

2730. _Of that that_, in a matter that. [219]

2731. Lat. text (p. 95):--'Culpa est immiscere se rei ad se non pertinenti.' Sundby refers us to the Digesta, l. xvii. 36.

2732. From Prov. xxvi. 17.

2733. _Outherwhyle_, sometimes, occasionally; cf. 2857. So in Ch. tr. of Boethius, bk. iii. pr. 12. 119 (vol. ii. p. 89); P. Plowman, C. vi. 50, vii. 160, xxii. 103, &c.

2740. From Ecclesiastes, x. 19:--'pecuniae oboediunt omnia.'

2741. All the copies have _power_; but, as Mätzner remarks, we should read _poverte_; the Fr. text has _povrete_.

2743. _Richesses ben goode_; the Lat. text here quotes 1 Tim. iv. 4.

2744. 'Homo sine pecunia est quasi corpus sine anima' is written on a fly-leaf of a MS.; see my Pref. to P. Plowman, C-text, p. xx.

2746. All the MSS. have _Pamphilles_ instead of _Pamphilus_. The allusion is to Pamphilus Maurilianus, who wrote a poem, well-known in the fourteenth century, entitled _Liber de Amore_, which is extant in MSS. (e.g. in MS. Bodley 3703) and has been frequently printed. Tyrwhitt cites the lines here alluded to from the Bodley MS.

'Dummodo sit diues cuiusdam nata bubulci, Eligit e mille, quem libet, illa uirum.'

Sundby quotes the same (with _ipsa_ for _illa_) from the Paris edition of 1510, fol. a iiii, recto. Chaucer again refers to Pamphilus in F. 1110, on which see the note.

2748. This quotation is not in the Latin text, and is certainly not from Pamphilus; but closely follows Ovid's lines in his Tristia, i. 9. 5:--

'Donec eris felix, multos numerabis amicos; Tempora si fuerint nubila, solus eris.'

See notes to B. 120 and B. 3436.

2751. Neither is this from Pamphilus, but from some author quoted by Petrus Alfonsi, Discip. Cler. vi. 4, who says:--'ait quidam uersificator, Clarificant [_al._ Glorificant] gazae priuatos nobilitate.'

2752. We know, from the Lat. text, that there is here an allusion to Horace, Epist. i. 6. 37:--

'Et genus et formam regina pecunia donat.'

2754. The Lat. text has _mater criminum_, and the Fr. text, _mere des crimes_. It is clear that Chaucer has misread _ruines_ for _crimes_, or his MS. was corrupt; and he has attempted an explanation by subjoining a gloss of his own--'that is to seyn ... overthrowinge or fallinge doun.' The reference is to Cassiodorus, Variarum lib. ix. epist. 13:--'Ut dum _mater criminum_ necessitas tollitur, peccandi ambitus auferatur.'

2756. 'Est una de aduersitatibus huius saeculi grauioribus libero homini, quod necessitate cogitur, ut sibi subueniat, requirere inimicum'; Petrus Alfonsi, Disciplina Clericalis, iv. 4.

2758. Lat. text:--'O miserabilis mendicantis conditio! Nam, si petit, pudore confunditur; et si non petit, egestate consumitur; sed ut [220] mendicet necessitate compellitur'; Innocentius III (Papa), De Contemptu Mundi, lib. i. c. 16. See note to B. 99, at p. 142.

2761. 'Melius est enim mori quam indigere'; Ecclus. xl. 29; cf. A. V., Ecclus. xl. 28. See note to B. 114, at p. 142.

2762. 'Melior est mors quam uita amara'; Ecclus. xxx. 17. The Fr. text has:--'Mieulx vault la mort amere que telle vie'; where, as in Chaucer, the adjective is shifted.

2765. _How ye shul have yow_, how you ought to behave yourself. In fact, _behave_ is merely a compound of _be-_ and _have_.

2766. _Sokingly_, gradually. In the Prompt. Parv. we find 'Esyly, or _sokyngly_, Sensim, paulatim.' And compare the following:--'Domitius Corbulo vsed muche to saie, that a mannes enemies in battaill are to be ouercomed (_sic_) with a carpenters squaring-axe, that is to saie, _sokingly_, one pece after another. A common axe cutteth through at the first choppe; a squaring-axe, by a little and a little, werketh the same effecte.'--Udall, tr. of Erasmus' Apophthegmes, Julius Caesar, § 32.

2768. From Prov. xxviii. 20.

2769. From Prov. xiii. 11.

2773. Not in the Latin text.

2775. 'Detrahere igitur alteri aliquid, et hominem hominis incommodo suum augere commodum, magis est contra naturam, quam mors, quam paupertas, quam dolor, quam cetera, quae possunt aut corpori accidere aut rebus externis'; Cicero, De Officiis, iii. 5.

2779. 'For idleness teacheth much evil'; Ecclus. xxxiii. 27.

2780. From Prov. xxviii. 19; cf. xii. 11.

2783. Cf. Prov. xx. 4.

2784. From Dionysius Cato, Distich. i. 2:--

'Plus uigila semper, nec somno deditus esto; Nam diuturna quies uitiis alimenta ministrat.'

2785. Quoted again in G. 6, 7; see note to G. 7.

2789. _Fool-large_, foolishly liberal; Fr. text, 'fol larges.' Cf. 2810.

2790. _Chincherye_, miserliness, parsimony; from the adj. _chinche_, which occurs in 2793. _Chinche_, parsimonious, miserly, is the nasalised form of _chiche_; see Havelok, 1763, 2941; and see _Chinch_ in the New E. Dictionary. To the examples there given add:--'A Chinche, _tenax_: Chinchery, _tenacitas_'; Catholicon Anglicum.

'But such an other _chinche_ as he Men wisten nought in all the londe.' Gower, Conf. Amant. ii. 288.

2792. From Dionysius Cato, Distich. iv. 16:--

'Utere quaesitis opibus; fuge nomen auari; Quo tibi diuitias, si semper pauper abundas?'

2795. From Dionysius Cato, Distich. iii. 22:--

'Utere quaesitis, sed ne uidearis abuti; Qui sua consumunt, quum deest, aliena sequuntur.'

[221]

2796. _Folily_, foolishly. We find M. E. _folliche_, both adj. and adv., and _follichely_, _folily_ as adv. It is spelt _folily_ in Wycliffe, Num. xii. 11, and in the Troy-book, 573; also _folili_, Will. of Palerne, 4596; _folyly_, Rom. of the Rose, 5942 (see the footnote).

2800. _Weeldinge_ (so in E., other MSS. _weldinge_), wielding, i. e. power.

2802. Not in the Latin text.

2807. Compare Prov. xxvii. 20.

2811. 'Quamobrem nec ita claudenda est res familiaris, ut eam benignitas aperire non possit; nec ita reseranda, ut pateat omnibus'; Cicero, De Officiis, ii. 15.

2818. See Prov. xv. 16; xvi. 8.

2820. _The prophete_, i. e. David; see Ps. xxxvii. 16.

2824. See 2 Cor. i. 12.

2825. 'Riches are good unto him that hath no sin'; Ecclus. xiii. 24.

2828. From Prov. xxii. 1.

2829. The reference seems to be to Prov. xxv. 10 in the Vulgate version (not in the A. V.):--'Gratia et amicitia liberant; quas tibi serua, ne exprobrabilis fias.'

2832. The reference is clearly to the following:--'Est enim indigni [_al._ digni] animi signum, famae diligere commodum'; Cassiodorus, Variarum lib. i. epist. 4. This is quoted by Albertano (p. 120), with the reading _ingenui_ for _indigni_; hence Chaucer's 'gentil.' Mätzner refers us to the same, lib. v. epist. 12:--'quia pulchrum est commodum famae.'

2833. 'Duae res sunt conscientia et fama. Conscientia tibi, fama proximo tuo'; Augustini Opera, ed. Caillou, Paris, 1842, tom. xxi. p. 347.--Mr.

2837. Fr. text:--'il est cruel et villain.'--Mr.

2841. Lat. text:--'nam dixit quidam philosophus, Nemo in guerra constitutus satis diues esse potest. Quantumcunque enim sit homo diues, oportet illum, si in guerra diu perseuerauerit, aut diuitias aut guerram perdere, aut forte utrumque simul et personam.'--p. 102.

2843. See Ecclesiastes, v. 11.

2851. 'With the God of heaven it is all one, to deliver with a great multitude, or a small company: For the victory of battle standeth not in the multitude of an host; but strength cometh from heaven.' 1 Macc. iii. 18, 19.

2854. The gap is easily detected and filled up by comparison with the Fr. text, which Mätzner cites from Le Menagier de Paris, i. 226, thus:--'pour ce ... que nul n'est certain s'il est digne que Dieu lui doint victoire _ne plus que il est certain se il est digne de l'amour de Dieu_ ou non.' We must also compare the text from Solomon, viz. Ecclesiastes, ix. 1, as it stands in the Vulgate version.

2857. _Outher-whyle_, sometimes; see note to 2733.

2858. _The seconde book of Kinges_, i. e. Liber secundus Regum, now called 'the second book of Samuel.' The reference is to 2 Sam. xi. 25, [222] where the Vulgate has: 'uarius enim euentus est belli; nunc hunc et nunc illum consumit gladius.' The A. V. varies.

2860. _In as muchel_; Fr. text:--'tant comme il puet bonnement.' This accounts for _goodly_, i. e. meetly, fitly, creditably. Cotgrave has: '_Bonnement_, well, fitly, aptly, handsomely, conveniently, orderly, to the purpose.'

2861. _Salomon_; rather Jesus son of Sirach. 'He that loveth danger shall perish therein'; Ecclus. iii. 26.

2863. _The werre ... nothing_, 'war does not please you at all.'

2866. _Seint Iame_ is a curious error for _Senek_, Seneca. For the Fr. text has:--'Seneque dit en ses escrips,' according to Mätzner; and MS. Reg. 19 C. xi (leaf 63, col. 2) has 'Seneques.' There has clearly been confusion between _Seneques_ and _Seint iaques_. Hence the use of the pl. _epistles_ is correct. The reference is to Seneca, Epist. 94, § 46; but Seneca, after all, is merely quoting Sallust:--'Nam concordia paruae res crescunt, discordia maximae dilabuntur'; Sallust, Jugurtha, 10.

2870. From Matt. v. 9.

2872. _Brige_, strife, contention; F. _brigue_, Low Lat. _briga._ '_Brigue_, s. f. ... debate, contention, altercation, litigious wrangling about any matter'; Cotgrave. See _Brigue_ in the New E. Dict.

2876. Here Hl. has _pryde_ and _despysing_ for _homlinesse_ and _dispreysinge_, thus spoiling the sense. The allusion is to our common saying--Familiarity breeds contempt.

2879. _Syen_, saw; Cm. seyen; Ln. sawe; Cp. saugh.

2881. Lat. text (p. 107):--'scriptum est enim, Semper ab aliis dissensio incipiat, a te autem reconciliatio.' From Martinus Dumiensis, De Moribus, Sent. 49.

2882. _The prophete_, i. e. David; Ps. xxxiv. 14.

2883. The words 'as muchel as in thee is' are an addition, due to the Fr. text:--'tant comme tu pourras.'--Mr.

2884. The use of _to_ after _pursue_ is unusual; Mätzner compares _biseke to_, in 2940 below and 2306 above.

2886. From Prov. xxviii. 14.

2891. Fr. text:--'Pour ce dit le philosophe, que les troubles ne sont pas bien cler voyans.' Cf. the Fr. proverb:--'À l'oeil malade la lumière nuit, an eie distempered cannot brook the light; sick thoughts cannot indure the truth'; Cotgrave.

2895. From Prov. xxviii. 23.

2897. This quotation is merely an expansion of the former part of Eccles. vii. 3, viz. 'sorrow is better than laughter'; the latter part of the same verse appears in 2900, immediately below.

2901. _I shal not conne answere_, I shall not be able to answer; Fr. text:--'ie ne sauroie respondre.'--Mr.

2909. From Prov. xvi. 7.

2915. Fr. text:--'ie met tout mon fait en vostre disposition.'--Mr. [223]

2925. Referring to Ps. xx. 4 (Vulgate)--'in benedictionibus dulcedinis'; A. V.--'with the blessings of goodness,' Ps. xxi. 3.

2930. From Ecclus. vi. 5:--'Verbum dulce multiplicat amicos, et mitigat inimicos.' The A. V. omits the latter clause, having only:--'Sweet language will multiply friends.'

2931. Fr. text:--'nous mettons nostre fait en vostre bonne voulente.'--Mr.

2936. _Hise amendes_, i. e. amends to him. For _hise_ or _his_, Cp. Ln. have _him_, which is a more usual construction. Cf. 'What shall be _thy amends_ For thy neglect of truth?' Shak., Sonnet 101. 'If I have wronged thee, seek _thy mends_ at the law'; Greene, Looking-Glass for London, ed. Dyce, 1883, p. 122.

2940. _Biseke to_; so in 2306; see note to 2884.

2945. From Ecclus. xxxiii. 18, 19:--'Hear me, O ye great men of the people, and hearken with your ears, ye rulers of the congregation: Give not thy son and wife, thy brother and friend, power over thee while thou livest.'

2965. Not from Seneca, but from Martinus Dumiensis, De Moribus, S. 94 (Sundby). The Lat. text has:--'ubi est confessio, ibi est remissio.'

2967. Neither is this from Seneca, but from the same source as before. Lat. text has:--'Proximum ad innocentiam locum tenet uerecundia peccati et confessio.'

2973. Lat. text:--'Nihil enim tam naturale est, quam aliquid dissolui eo genere, quo colligatum est.' From the Digesta, lib. xvii. 35.

2984. Lat. text:--'Semper audiui dici, Quod bene potes facere, noli differre.' Fr. text:--'Le bien que tu peus faire au matin, n'attens pas le soir ne l'endemain.'

2986. _Messages_, messengers; Cp. _messagers_; Hl. _messageres_. See B. 144, 333. In 2992, 2995, we have the form _messagers_.

2997. _Borwes_, sureties; as in P. Plowman, C. v. 85. In 3018 it seems to mean 'pledges' rather than 'sureties.'

3028. _A coveitous name_, a reputation for covetousness.

3030. From 1 Tim. vi. 10. See C. 334.

3032. Lat. text (p. 120):--'Scriptum est enim, Mallem perdidisse quam turpiter accepisse.' This is from Publilius Syrus, Sent. 479:--

'Perdidisse ad assem mallem, quam accepisse turpiter.'

3036. Also from P. Syrus, Sent. 293:--

'Laus noua nisi oritur, etiam uetus amittitur.'

3040. For 'it is writen,' the Fr. text has 'le droit dit.' This indicates the source. The Lat. text has:--'priuilegium meretur amittere, qui concessa sibi abutitur potestate.' This Sundby traces to the Decretalia Gregorii IX., iii. 31. 18.

3042. _Which I trowe ... do_; Lat. 'quod non concedo.'

3045. _Ye moste ... curteisly_; Lat. 'remissius imperare oportet.' [224]

3047. Lat. text:--'Remissius imperanti melius paretur'; from Seneca, De Clementia, i. 24. 1.

3049. 'Ait enim Seneca'; the Lat. text then quotes from Publilius Syrus, Sent. 64:--'Bis uincit, qui se uincit in uictoria.'

3050. Lat. text:--'Nihil est laudabilius, nihil magno et praeclaro uiro dignius, placabilitate atque clementia.' From Cicero, De Officiis, i. 25. 88.

3054. _Of mercy_, i. e. on account of your mercy.

3056. 'Male uincit iam quem poenitet uictoriae'; Publilius Syrus, Sent. 366. Attributed to Seneca in the Latin text.

3059. From James, ii. 13.

3066. _Unconninge_, ignorance; cf. Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 131; Prick of Conscience, l. 169.

3067. _Misborn_, borne amiss, misconducted. See Life of Beket, l. 1248.

THE MONK'S PROLOGUE.

3079. The tale of _Melibee_ (as told above) is about a certain Melibeus and his wife Prudence, who had a daughter called Sophie. One day, while Melibeus is absent, three of his enemies break into his house, beat his wife, and wound his daughter. On returning, he takes counsel as to what must be done. He is for planning a method of revenge, but his wife advises him to forgive the injuries, and in the end her counsels prevail.

3082. _corpus Madrian_, body of Madrian: which has been interpreted in two ways. Urry guessed it to refer to St. Materne, bishop of Treves, variously commemorated on the 14th, 19th, or 25th of September, the days of his translations being July 18 and October 23. Mr. Steevens suggested, in a note printed in Tyrwhitt's Glossary, that the 'precious body' was that of St. Mathurin, priest and confessor, commemorated on Nov. 1 or Nov. 9. The latter is more likely, since in his story in the Golden Legende, edit. 1527, leaf 151 back, the expressions 'the precious body' and 'the holy body' occur, and the story explains that his body would not stay in the earth till it was carried back to France, where he had given directions that it should be buried.

3083. 'Rather than have a barrel of ale, would I that my dear good wife had heard this story.' Cf. _morsel breed_, B. 3624.

_lief_ is not a proper name, as has been suggested, I believe, by some one ignorant of early English idiom. Cf. 'Dear my lord,' Jul. Caesar, ii. 1. 255; and other instances in Abbott's Shakesp. Grammar, sect. 13.

3101. 'Who is willing (_or_ who suffers himself) to be overborne by everybody.'

3108. _neighëbor_, three syllables; _thannè_, two syllables.

3112. Observe the curious use of _seith_ for _misseith_.

3114. _Monk._ See him described in the Prologue, A. 165.

3116. _Rouchester._ The MSS. have _Rouchester_, (Hl. _Rowchestre_), [225] shewing that _Lo_ stands alone in the first foot of the line. Tyrwhitt changed _stant_ into _stondeth_, but all our seven MSS. have _stant_.

According to the arrangement of the tales in Tyrwhitt's edition, the pilgrims reach Rochester _after_ coming to Sittingborne (mentioned in the Wife of Bath's Prologue), though the latter is some eleven miles nearer Canterbury. The present arrangement of the Groups remedies this. See note to B. 1165, at p. 165.

3117. _Ryd forth_, ride forward, draw near us.

3119. _Wher_, whether. _dan_, for Dominus, a title of respect commonly used in addressing monks. But Chaucer even uses it of Arcite, in the Knightes Tale, and of Cupid, Ho. Fame, 137.

3120. The monk's name was _Piers_. See B. 3982, and the note.

3124. Cf. 'He was not pale as a for-pyned goost'; Prol. A. 205. Jean de Meun says, in his Testament, l. 1073, that the friars have good pastures (il ont bonnes pastures).

3127. _as to my doom_, in my judgment.

3130. Scan the line--Bút a góvernoúr wylý and wýs. The Petworth MS. inserts 'boþ' before 'wyly': but this requires the very unlikely accentuation 'govérnour' and an emphasis on a. The line would scan better if we might insert _art_, or _lyk_, after _But_, but there is no authority for this.

3132. Read--_A wél-faríng persónë_, after which comes the pause, as marked in E. and Hn.

3139. The monk's _semi-cope_, which seems to have been an ample one, is mentioned in the Prologue, A. 262. In Jack Upland, § 4, a friar is asked what is signified by his 'wide cope.'

3142. 'Shaven very high on his crown'; alluding to the tonsure.

3144. _the corn_, i. e. the chief part or share.

3145. _borel men_, lay-men. _Borel_ means 'rude, unlearned, ignorant,' and seems to have arisen from a peculiar use of _borel_ or _burel_, sb., a coarse cloth; so that its original sense, as an adj., was 'in coarse clothing,' or 'rudely clad.' See _borrel_ and _burel_ in the New Eng. Dictionary.

_shrimpes_, diminutive or poor creatures.

3146. _wrecched impes_, poor grafts, weakly shoots. Cf. A. S. _impian_, to graft, _imp_, a graft; borrowed from Low Lat. _impotus_, a graft, from Gk. [Greek: emphutos], engrafted.

3152. _lussheburghes_, light coins. In P. Plowman, B. xv. 342, we are told that 'in Lussheborwes is a lyther alay (bad alloy), and yet loketh he lyke a sterlynge.' They were spurious coins imported into England from Luxembourg, whence the name. See Liber Albus, ed. Riley, 1841, p. 495; and Blount's Nomolexicon. Luxembourg is called _Lusscheburghe_ in the Allit. Morte Arthure, l. 2388. The importation of this false money was frequently forbidden, viz. in 1347, 1348, and 1351.

3157. _souneth into_, tends to, is consistent with; see Prol. A. 307, and Sq. Ta., F. 517. The following extracts from Palsgrave's French Dictionary are to the point. 'I sownde, I appartayne or belong, _Ie tens_. [226] Thys thyng sowndeth to a good purpose, _Ceste chose tent a bonne fin_.' Also, 'I sownde, as a tale or a report sowndeth to ones honesty or dyshonesty, _Ie redonde_. I promise you that this matter sowndeth moche to your dishonoure, _Ie vous promets que ceste matyere redonde fort a votre deshonneur_.'

3160. _Seint Edward._ There are two of the name, viz. Edward, king and martyr, commemorated on March 16, 18, or 19, and the second King Edward, best known as Edward the Confessor, commemorated on Jan. 5. In Piers the Plowman, B. xv. 217, we have--

'Edmonde and Edwarde · eyther were kynges, And seyntes ysette · tyl charite hem folwed.'

But Edward the Confessor is certainly meant; and there is a remarkable story about him that he was 'warned of hys death certain dayes before hee dyed, by a ring that was brought to him by certain pilgrims coming from Hierusalem, which ring hee hadde secretly given to a poore man that askyd hys charitie in the name of God and sainte Johan the Evangelist.' See Mr. Wright's description of Ludlow Church, where are some remains of a stained glass window representing this story, in the eastern wall of the chapel of St. John. See also Chambers, Book of Days, i. 53, 54, where we read--'The sculptures upon the frieze of the present shrine (in Westminster Abbey) represent _fourteen scenes in the life_ of Edward the Confessor.... He was canonized by Pope Alexander about a century after his death.... He was esteemed the _patron-saint of England_ until superseded in the thirteenth century by St. George.' These fourteen scenes are fully described in Brayley's Hist. of Westminster Abbey, in an account which is chiefly taken from a life of St. Edward written by Ailred of Rievaulx in 1163. Three 'Lives of Edward the Confessor' were edited, for the Master of the Rolls, by Mr. Luard in 1858. See Morley's Eng. Writers, 1888, ii. 375.

3162. _celle_, cell. The monk calls it _his_ cell because he was 'the keper' of it; Prol. 172.

3163. _Tragédie_; the final _ie_ might be slurred over before _is_, in which case we might read _for to_ for _to_ (see footnote); but it is needless. The definition of 'tragedy' here given is repeated from Chaucer's own translation of Boethius, which contains the remark--'_Glose._ Tragedie is to seyn, a ditee [_ditty_] of a prosperitee for a tyme, that endeth in wrecchednesse'; bk. ii. pr. 2. 51. This remark is Chaucer's _own_, as the word _Glose_ marks his addition to, or _gloss_ upon, his original. His remark refers to a passage in Boethius immediately preceding, viz. 'Quid _tragoediarum_ clamor aliud deflet, nisi indiscreto ictu fortunam felicia regna uertentem?' De Consolatione Philosophiae, lib. ii. prosa 2. See also the last stanza of 'Cresus' in the Monkes Tale (vol. i. p. 268).

3169. _exametron_, hexameter. Chaucer is speaking of Latin, not of English verse; and refers to the common Latin hexameter used in heroic verse; he would especially be thinking of the Thebaid of Statius, [227] the Metamorphoseon Liber of Ovid, the Aeneid of Vergil, and Lucan's Pharsalia. This we could easily have guessed, but Chaucer has himself told us what was in his thoughts. For near the conclusion of his Troilus and Criseyde, which he calls a _tragedie_, he says--

'And kis the steppes wheras thou seest pace _Virgile_, _Ovyde_, Omer, _Lucan_, and _Stace_.'

Lucan is expressly cited in B. 401, 3909.

3170. _In prose._ For example, Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum and De Claris Mulieribus contain 'tragedies' in Latin prose. Cf. ll. 3655, 3910.

3171. _in metre._ For example, the tragedies of Seneca are in various metres, chiefly iambic. See also note to l. 3285.

3177. _After hir ages_, according to their periods; in chronological order. The probable allusion is to Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum, which begins with Adam and Nimrod, and keeps tolerably to the right order. For further remarks on this, shewing how Chaucer altered the order of these Tragedies in the course of revision, see vol. iii. p. 428.

THE MONKES TALE.

For some account of this Tale, see vol. iii. p. 427.

3181. _Tragédie_; accented on the second syllable, and riming with _remédie_; cf. B. 3163. Very near the end of Troilus and Criseyde, we find Chaucer riming it with _comédie_. That poem he also calls a tragedie (v. 1786)--

'Go, litel book, go, litel myn _tragédie_,' &c.

3183. _fillen_, fell. _nas no_, for _ne was no_, a double negative. Cf. Ch. tr. of Boethius--'the olde age of tyme passed, and eek of present tyme now, is ful of ensaumples how that kinges ben chaunged in-to wrecchednesse out of hir welefulnesse'; bk. iii. pr. 5. 3.

3186. The Harl. MS. has--'Ther may no man the cours of hir whiel holde,' which Mr. Wright prefers. But the reading of the Six-text is well enough here; for in the preceding line Chaucer is speaking of Fortune under the image of a person fleeing away, to which he adds, that no one can _stay her course_. Fortune is also sometimes represented as stationary, and holding an ever-turning wheel, as in the Book of the Duchesse, 643; but that is another picture.

3188. _Be war by_, take warning from.

LUCIFER.

3189. _Lucifer_, a Latin name signifying _light-bringer_, and properly applied to the morning-star. In Isaiah xiv. 12 the Vulgate has--'Quomodo cecidisti de caelo, _Lucifer_, qui mane oriebaris? corruisti in terram, qui uulnerabas gentes?' &c. St. Jerome, Tertullian, St. Gregory, and [228] other fathers, supposed this passage to apply to the fall of Satan. It became a favourite topic for writers both in prose and verse, and the allusions to it are innumerable. See note to Piers the Plowman, B. i. 105 (Clar. Press Series). Gower begins his eighth book of the Confessio Amantis with the examples of Lucifer and Adam.

Sandras, in his Étude sur Chaucer, p. 248, quotes some French lines from a 'Volucraire,' which closely agree with this first stanza. But it is a common theme.

3192. _sinne_, the sin of _pride_, as in all the accounts; probably from 1 Tim. iii. 6. Thus Gower, Conf. Amant. lib. i. (ed. Pauli, i. 153):--

'For Lucifer, with them that felle, Bar _pride_ with him into helle. Ther was pride of to grete cost, Whan he for pride hath heven lost.'

3195. _artow_, art thou. _Sathanas_, Satan. The Hebrew _sâtân_ means simply an _adversary_, as in 1 Sam. xxix. 4; 2 Sam. xix. 22; &c. A remarkable application of it to the evil spirit is in Luke x. 18. Milton also indentifies Lucifer with Satan; Par. Lost, vii. 131; x. 425; but they are sometimes distinguished, and made the names of two different spirits. See, for example, Piers Plowman, B. xviii. 270-283.

3196. Read _misérie_, after which follows the metrical pause.

ADAM.

3197. Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum Illustrium begins with a chapter 'De Adam et Eua.' It contains the passage--'Et ex agro, qui postea _Damascenus_,... ductus in Paradisum deliciarum.' Lydgate, in his Fall of Princes (fol. a 5), has--

'Of slyme of the erthe, in _damascene_ the feelde, God made theym aboue eche creature.'

The notion of the creation of Adam in a field whereupon afterwards stood Damascus, occurs in Peter Comestor's Historia Scholastica, where we find (ed. 1526, fol. vii)--'Quasi quereret aliquis, Remansit homo in loco vbi factus est, in agro scilicet damasceno? Non. Vbi ergo translatus est? In paradisum.' See also Maundeville's Travels, cap. xv; Genesis and Exodus, ed. Morris, l. 207; and note in Mätzner's Altenglische Sprachproben, ii. 185.

3199. Cf. 'Formatus est homo ... de spurcissimo spermate'; Innocent III., De Miseria Conditionis Humanae, i. 1 (Köppel).

3200. So Boccaccio--'O caeca rerum cupiditas! Hii, _quibus rerum omnium_, dante Deo, _erat imperium_,' &c. Cf. Gen. i. 29; ii. 16.

SAMPSON.

3205. The story of Sampson is also in Boccaccio, lib. i. c. 17 (not 19, as Tyrwhitt says). But Chaucer seems mostly to have followed [229] the account in Judges, xiii-xvi. The word _annunciat_, referring to the announcement of Samson's birth by the angel (Judges xiii. 3), may have been suggested by Boccaccio, whose account begins--'_Praenunciante_ per angelum Deo, ex Manue Israhelita quodam et pulcherrima eius vxore Sanson progenitus est.' _thangel_ in l. 3206=_the angel_.

3207. _consecrat_, consecrated. A good example of the use of the ending _-at_; cf. _situate_ for _situated_.--M. Shakespeare has _consecrate_; Com. of. Err. ii. 2. 134.

3208. _whyl he mighte see_, as long as he preserved his eyesight.

3210. _To speke of strengthe_, with regard to strength; _to speke of_ is a kind of preposition.--M. Cf. Milton's Samson Agonistes, 126-150.

3211. _wyves_. Samson told the secret of his riddle to his wife, Judges xiv. 17; and of his strength to Delilah, id. xvi. 17.

3215. _al to-rente_, completely rent in twain. The prefix _to-_ has two powers in Old English. Sometimes it is the preposition _to_ in composition, as in _towards_, or M. E. _to-flight_ (G. _zuflucht_), a refuge. But more commonly it is a prefix signifying _in twain_, spelt _zer-_ in German, and _dis-_ in Moeso-Gothic and Latin. Thus _to-rente_ = rent in twain; _to-brast_ = burst in twain, &c. The intensive adverb _al_, utterly, was used not merely (as is commonly supposed) before verbs beginning with _to-_, but in other cases also. Thus, in William of Palerne, l. 872, we find--'He was _al a-wondred_,' where _al_ precedes the intensive prefix _a-_ = A. S. _of_. Again, in the same poem, l. 661, we have--'_al bi-weped_ for wo,' where _al_ now precedes the prefix _bi-_. In Barbour's Bruce, ed. Skeat, x. 596, is the expression--

'For, hapnyt ony to slyde or fall, He suld be soyne _to-fruschit al_.'

Where _al to-fruschit_ means utterly broken in pieces. Perhaps the clearest example of the complete separability of _al_ from _to_ is seen in l. 3884 of William of Palerne;--

'_Al to-tare_ his atir · þat he _to-tere_ mi[gh]t';

i. e. he entirely tore apart his attire, as much of it as he could tear apart. But at a later period of English, when the prefix _to-_ was less understood, a new and mistaken notion arose of regarding _al to_ as a separable prefix, with the sense of _all to pieces_. I have observed no instance of this use earlier than the reign of Henry VIII. Thus Surrey, Sonnet 9, has '_al-to_ shaken' for shaken to pieces. Latimer has--'they love and _al-to_ love (i. e. entirely love) him'; Serm. p. 289. For other examples, see _Al-to_ in the Bible Word-book; and my notes in Notes and Queries, 3 Ser. xii. 464, 535; also _All_, § C. 15, in the New E. Dict.

3220. Samson's wife was given to a friend; Judges, xiv. 20. She was afterwards burnt by her own people; Judges, xv. 6.

3224. _on every tayl_; one brand being fastened to the tails of two foxes; Judg. xv. 4.

3225. _cornes._ The Vulgate has _segetes_ and _fruges_; also _utneas_ for [230] _vynes_, and _oliueta_ for _oliveres_. The plural form _cornes_ is not uncommon in Early English. Cf. 'Quen thair _corns_ war in don,' i. e. when their harvests were gathered in; Spec. of Eng. pt. ii. ed. Morris and Skeat, p. 70, l. 39. And again, 'alle men-sleeris and brenneris of houses and cornes [misprinted _corves_] ben cursed opynly in parische chirches'; Wyclif's Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 329.

3234. _wang-toth_, molar tooth. This expression is taken from the Vulgate, which has--'Aperuit itaque Dominus _molarem dentem_ in maxilla asini'; where the A. V. has only--'an hollow place that was in the jaw'; Judg. xv. 19.

3236. _Judicum_, i. e. Liber Judicum, the Book of Judges. Cf. note to B. 93, at p. 141.

3237. _Gazan_, a corruption of Gazam, the acc. case, in Judg. xvi. 1, Vulgate version.

3244. _ne hadde been_, there would not have been. Since _hadde_ is here the subjunctive mood, it is dissyllabic. Read--_worldë n' haddë_.

3245. _sicer_, from the Lat. _sicera_, Greek [Greek: sikera], strong drink, is the word which we now spell _cider_; see Wyclif's Works, ed. Arnold, i. 363, note. It is used here because found in the Vulgate version of Judges xiii. 7; 'caue ne uinum bibas, nec _siceram_.' I slightly amend the spelling of the MSS., which have _ciser_, _siser_, _sythir_, _cyder_. Wyclif has _sither_, _cyther_, _sidir_, _sydur_.

3249. _twenty winter_, twenty years; Judg. xvi. 31. The English used to reckon formerly by _winters_ instead of _years_; as may be seen in a great many passages in the A. S. Chronicle.

3253. _Dalida_; from Gk. [Greek: Dalida], in the Septuagint. The Vulgate has _Dalila_; but Chaucer (or his scribes) naturally adopted a form which seemed to have a nearer resemblance to an accusative case, such being, at that time, the usual practice; cf. _Briseide_ (from _Briseida_), _Criseyde_ and _Anelida_. Lydgate also uses the form _Dalida_.

3259. _in this array_, in this (defenceless) condition.

3264. _querne_, hand-mill. The Vulgate has--'et clausum in carcere molere fecerunt'; Judg. xvi. 21. But Boccaccio says--'ad _molas manuarias_ coegere.' The word occurs in the House of Fame, 1798; and in Wyclif's Bible, Exod. xi. 5; Mat. xxiv. 41. In the Ayenbite of Inwyt, ed. Morris, p. 181, the story of Samson is alluded to, and it is said of him that he 'uil [_fell_] into þe honden of his yuo [_foes_], þet him deden grinde _ate querne_ ssamuolliche,' i. e. who made him grind at the mill shamefully (in a shameful manner). Lydgate copies Chaucer rather closely, in his Fall of Princes, fol. e 7:--

'And of despite, after as I fynde, At their _quernes_ made hym for to grinde.'

3269. _Thende_, the end. _Caytif_ means (1) a captive, (2) a wretch. It is therefore used here very justly.

3274. _two pilers_, better than the reading _the pilers_ of MS. E.; because _two_ are expressly mentioned; Judg. xvi. 29. [231]

3282. So Boccaccio--'Sic aduersa credulitas, sic amantis pietas, sic mulieris egit inclyta fides. Vt quem non poterant homines, non uincula, non ferrum uincere, a mulieribus latrunculis uinceretur.' Lydgate has the expressions--

'Beware by Sampson your counseyll well to kepe, Though [_misprinted_ That] Dalida compleyne, crye, and wepe';

and again:--

'Suffre no nightworm within your counseyll crepe, Though Dalida compleyne, crye, and wepe.'

HERCULES.

3285. There is little about Hercules in Boccaccio; but Chaucer's favourite author, Ovid, has his story in the Metamorphoses, book ix, and Heroides, epist. 9. Tyrwhitt, however, has shewn that Chaucer more immediately copies a passage in Boethius, de Cons. Phil. lib. iv. met. 7, which is as follows:--

'Herculem duri celebrant labores; Ille Centauros domuit superbos; Abstulit saeuo spolium leoni; Fixit et certis uolucres sagittis; Poma cernenti rapuit draconi, Aureo laeuam grauior metallo; Cerberum traxit triplici catena. Victor immitem posuisse fertur Pabulum saeuis dominum quadrigis. Hydra combusto periit ueneno; Fronte turpatus Achelous amnis Ora demersit pudibunda ripis. Strauit Antaeum Libycis arenis, Cacus Euandri satiauit iras, Quosque pressurus foret altus orbis Setiger spumis humeros notauit. Ultimus caelum labor irreflexo Sustulit collo, pretiumque rursus Ultimi caelum meruit laboris.'

But it is still more interesting to see Chaucer's own version of this passage, which is as follows (ed. Morris, p. 147; cf. vol. ii. p. 125):--

'Hercules is celebrable for his harde trauaile; he dawntede þe proude Centauris, half hors, half man; and he rafte þe despoylynge fro þe cruel lyoun; þat is to seyne, he slou[gh] þe lyoun and rafte hym hys skyn. He smot þe birds þat hy[gh]ten arpijs in þe palude of lyrne wiþ certeyne arwes. He rauyssede applis fro þe wakyng dragoun, & hys hand was þe more heuy for þe goldene metal. He drou[gh] Cerberus þe hound of helle by his treble cheyne; he, ouer-comer, as it is seid, haþ put an vnmeke lorde fodre to his cruel hors; þis is to sein, þat [232] hercules slou[gh] diomedes and made his hors to etyn hym. And he, hercules, slou[gh] Idra þe serpent & brende þe venym; and achelaus þe flode, defoulede in his forhede, dreinte his shamefast visage in his strondes; þis is to seyn, þat achelaus couþe transfigure hymself into dyuerse lykenesse, & as he fau[gh]t wiþ ercules, at þe laste he turnide hym in-to a bole [_bull_]; and hercules brak of oon of hys hornes, & achelaus for shame hidde hym in hys ryuer. And he, hercules, caste adoun Antheus þe geaunt in þe strondes of libye; & kacus apaisede þe wraþþes of euander; þis is to sein, þat hercules slou[gh] þe monstre kacus & apaisede wiþ þat deeþ þe wraþþe of euander. And þe bristlede boor markede wiþ scomes [_scums_, _foam_] þe sholdres of hercules, þe whiche sholdres þe heye cercle of heuene sholde þreste [_was to rest upon_]. And þe laste of his labours was, þat he sustenede þe heuene upon his nekke unbowed; & he deseruede eftsones þe heuene, to ben þe pris of his laste trauayle.'

And in his House of Fame, book iii. (l. 1413), he mentions--

'Alexander, and Hercules, That with a sherte his lyf lees.'

3288. Hercules' first labour was the slaying of the Nemean lion, whose skin he often afterwards wore.

3289. _Centauros_; this is _the very form_ used by Boethius, else we might have expected _Centaurus_ or _Centaures_. After the destruction of the Erymanthian boar, Hercules slew Pholus the centaur; and (by accident) Chiron. His slaughter of the centaur Nessus ultimately brought about his own death; cf. l. 3318.

3290. _Arpies_, harpies. The sixth labour was the destruction of the Stymphalian birds, who ate human flesh.

3291. The eleventh labour was the fetching of the golden apples, guarded by the dragon Ladon, from the garden of the Hesperides.

3292. The twelfth labour was the bringing of Cerberus from the lower world.

3293. _Busirus._ Here Chaucer has confused two stories. One is, that Busiris, a king of Egypt, used to sacrifice all foreigners who came to Egypt, till the arrival of Hercules, who slew him. The other is 'the eighth labour,' when Hercules killed Diomedes, a king in Thrace, who fed his mares with human flesh, till Hercules slew him and gave his body to be eaten by the mares, as Chaucer _himself_ says in his translation. The confusion was easy, because the story of Busiris is mentioned elsewhere by Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 6, in a passage which Chaucer thus translates (see vol. ii. p. 43):--'I have herd told of Busirides, þat was wont to sleen his gestes [_guests_] þat herberweden [_lodged_] in his hous; and he was sleyn him-self of Ercules þat was his gest.' Lydgate tells the story of Busiris correctly.

3295. _serpent_, i. e. the Lernean hydra, whom Chaucer, in the passage from Boethius, calls 'Idra [_or_ Ydra] the serpent.'

3296. _Achelois_, seems to be used here as a genitive form from [233] a nominative _Achelo_; in his translation of Boethius we find _Achelous_ and _Achelaus_. The spelling of names by old authors is often vague. The line means--he broke one of the two horns of Achelous. The river-god Achelous, in his fight with Hercules, took the form of a bull, whereupon the hero broke off one of his horns.

3297. The adventures with Cacus and Antaeus are well known.

3299. The fourth labour was the destruction of the Erymanthian boar.

3300. _longe_, for a long time; in the margin of MS. Camb. Univ. Lib. Dd. 4. 24, is written the gloss _diu_.

3307. The allusion is to the 'pillars' of Hercules. The expression 'both ends of the world' refers to the extreme points of the continents of Europe and Africa, _world_ standing here for _continent_. The story is that Hercules erected two pillars, Calpe and Abyla, on the two sides of the Strait of Gibraltar. The words 'seith Trophee' seem to refer to an author named Trophaeus. In Lydgate's prologue to his Fall of Princes, st. 41, he says of Chaucer that--

'In youth he made a translacion Of a boke whiche called is _Trophe_ In Lumbarde tonge, as men may rede and se; And in our vulgar, long er that he deyde, Gave it the name of Troylus and Creseyde.'

This seems to say that _Trophe_ was the Italian name of a Book (or otherwise, the name of a book in Italian), whence Chaucer drew his story of Troilus. But the notion must be due to some mistake, since that work was taken from the 'Filostrato' of Boccaccio. The only trace of the name of _Trophaeus_ as an author is in a marginal note--possibly Chaucer's own--which appears in both the Ellesmere and Hengwrt MSS., viz. 'Ille vates Chaldeorum Tropheus.' See, however, vol. ii. p. lv, where I shew that, in _this_ passage at any rate, _Trophee_ really refers to Guido delle Colonne, who treats of the deeds of Hercules in the first book of his Historia Troiana, and makes particular mention of the famous columns (as to which Ovid and Boethius are alike silent).

3311. _thise clerkes_, meaning probably Ovid and Boccaccio. See Ovid's Heroides, epist. ix., entitled Deianira Herculi, and Metamorph. lib. ix.; Boccaccio, De Casibus Virorum Illustrium, lib. i. cap. xviii., and De Mulieribus Claris, cap. xxii. See also the Trachineae of Sophocles, which Chaucer of course never read.

3315. _wered_, worn; so in A. 75, and B. 3320, _wered_ is the form of the past tense. Instances of verbs with weak preterites in Chaucer, but strong ones in modern English, are rare indeed; but there are several instances of the contrary, e.g. _wep_, _slep_, _wesh_, _wex_, now _wept_, _slept_, _washed_, _waxed_. _Wore_ is due to analogy with _bore_; cf. _could_ for _coud_.

3317. Both Ovid and Boccaccio represent Deianira as ignorant of the fatal effects which the shirt would produce. See Ovid, Metam. [234] ix. 133. Had Chaucer written later, he might have included Gower among the clerks, as the latter gives the story of Hercules and Deianira in his Conf. Amantis, lib. ii. (ed. Pauli, i. 236), following Ovid. Thus he says--

'With wepend eye and woful herte She tok out thilke vnhappy sherte, _As she that wende wel to do_.'

3326. For long upbraidings of Fortune, see The Boke of the Duchesse, 617; Rom. Rose, 5407; Boethius, bk. i. met. 5; &c.

NABUGODONOSOR.

3335. _Nabugodonosor_; generally spelt _Nabuchodonosor_ in copies of the Vulgate, of which this other spelling is a mere variation. Gower has the same spelling as Chaucer, and relates the story near the end of book i. of the Conf. Amantis (ed. Pauli, i. 136). Both no doubt took it directly from Daniel i-iv.

3338. _The vessel_ is here an imitation of the French idiom; F. _vaisselle_ means _the plate_, as Mr. Jephson well observes. Cf. l. 3494.

3349. In the word _statue_ the second syllable is rapidly slurred over, like that in _glorie_ in l. 3340. See the same effect in the Kn. Tale, ll. 117, 1097 (A. 975, 1955).

3356. _tweye_, two; a strange error for _three_, whose names are familiar; viz. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

BALTHASAR.

3373. _Balthasar_; so spelt by Boccaccio, who relates the story very briefly, De Cas. Virorum Illust., lib. ii. cap. 19. So also, by Peter Comestor, in his Historia Scholastica; and by Gower, Conf. Amant., lib. v (ed. Pauli, ii. 365). The Vulgate generally has _Baltassar_; Daniel, cap. v.

3379. _and ther he lay_; cf. l. 3275 above.

3384. The word _tho_ is supplied for the metre. The scribes have considered _vesselles_ (_sic_) as a trisyllable; but see ll. 3391, 3416, 3418.

3388. _Of_, for. Cf. 'thank God _of_ al,' i. e. for all; in Chaucer's Balade of Truth.--M. See note in vol. i. pp. 552-3.

3422. Tyrwhitt has _trusteth_, in the plural, but _thou_ is used throughout. Elsewhere Chaucer also has '_on_ whom we _truste_,' Prol. A. 501; '_truste on_ fortune,' B. 3326; cf. 'syker _on_ to trosten,' P. Pl. Crede, l. 350.

3427. _Dárius_, so accented. _degree_, rank, position.

3429-36. I have no doubt that this stanza was a later addition.

3436. _proverbe._ The allusion is, in the first place, to Boethius, de Cons. Phil., bk. iii. pr. 5--'Sed quem felicitas amicum fecit, infortunium [235] faciet inimicum'; which Chaucer translates--'Certes, swiche folk as weleful fortune maketh freendes, contrarious fortune maketh hem enemys'; see vol. ii. p. 63. Cf. Prov. xix. 4--'Wealth maketh many friends; but the poor is separated from his neighbour,' &c. So also--'If thou be brought low, he [i. e. thy friend] will be against thee, and will hide himself from thy face'; Ecclus. vi. 12. In Hazlitt's Collection of English Proverbs, p. 235, we find--

'In time of prosperity, friends will be plenty; In time of adversity, not one among twenty.'

See also note to l. 120 above; and, not to multiply instances, note st. 19 of Goldsmith's Hermit:--

'And what is friendship but a name, A charm that lulls to sleep; _A shade that follows wealth or fame_, And leaves the wretch to weep?'

ZENOBIA.

3437. _Cenobia._ The story of Zenobia is told by Trebellius Pollio, who flourished under Constantine, in cap. xxix. of his work entitled Triginta Tyranni; but Chaucer no doubt followed later accounts, one of which was clearly that given by Boccaccio in his De Mulieribus Claris, cap. xcviii. Boccaccio relates her story again in his De Casibus Virorum, lib. viii. c. 6; in an edition of which, printed in 1544, I find references to the biography of Aurelian by Flavius Vopiscus, to the history of Orosius, lib. vii. cap. 23, and to Baptista Fulgosius, lib. iv. cap. 3. See, in

## particular, chap. xi. of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,

where the story of Zenobia is given at length. Palmyra is described by Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. v. cap. 21. Zenobia's ambition tempted her to endeavour to make herself a Queen of the East, instead of remaining merely Queen of Palmyra; but she was defeated by the Roman emperor Aurelian, A.D. 273, and carried to Rome, where she graced his triumph, A.D. 274. She survived this reverse of fortune for some years.

_Palimerie._ Such is the spelling in the best MSS.; but MS. Hl. reads--'of Palmire the queene.' It is remarkable that MS. Trin. Coll. Cam. R. 3. 19 has the reading--'Cenobia, of _Belmary_ quene,' which suggests confusion with _Belmarie_, in the Prol. A. 57; but see the note to that line. It occupied the site of the ancient Tadmor, or 'city of palmtrees,' in an oasis of the Great Syrian desert. It has been in ruins since about A.D. 1400.

3441. In the second _ne in_, the _e_ is slurred over; cf. _nin_, Sq. Ta., F. 35.

3442. _Perse._ This (like l. 3438) is Chaucer's mistake. Boccaccio says expressly that she was of the race of the Ptolemies of Egypt; but further [236] on he remarks--'Sic cum _Persis_ et Armenis principibus, vt illos urbanitate et facetia superaret.' This may account for the confusion.

3446. Boccaccio says (de Mul. Clar.)--'Dicunt autem hanc a pueritia sua spretis omnino muliebribus _officiis_, cum iam corpusculum eduxisset in robur, syluas & nemora incoluisse plurimum, & accinctam pharetra, ceruis caprisque cursu atque sagittis fuisse infestam. Inde cum in acriores deuenisset uires, ursus amplecti ausam, pardos, leonesque insequi, obuios expectare, capere & occidere, ac in praedam trahere.' This accounts for the word _office_, and may shew how closely Chaucer has followed his original.

3496. _lafte not_, forbore not; see A. 492.

3497. She was acquainted with Egyptian literature, and studied Greek under the philosopher Longinus, author of a celebrated treatise on 'The Sublime.'

3502. _housbonde._ Her husband was Odenathus, or Odenatus, the ruler of Palmyra, upon whom the emperor Gallienus had bestowed the title of Augustus. He was murdered by some of his relations, and some have even insinuated that Zenobia consented to the crime. Most scribes spell the name _Onedake_, by metathesis for _Odenake_ (_Odenate_), like the spelling _Adriane_ for _Ariadne_.

3507. _doon hem flee_, cause them (her and her husband) to flee.

3510. Sapor I. reigned over Persia A.D. 240-273. He defeated the emperor Valerian, whom he kept in captivity for the rest of his life. After conquering Syria and taking Caesarea, he was defeated by Odenatus and Zenobia, who founded a new empire at Palmyra. See Gibbon, Decline, &c., chap. x.

3511. _proces_, succession of events. _fil_, fell, befell.

3512. _title_, pronounced nearly as _title_ in French, the _e_ being elided before _had_.

3515. _Petrark._ Tyrwhitt suggests that perhaps Boccaccio's book had fallen into Chaucer's hands under the name of Petrarch. We may, however, suppose that Chaucer had read the account in a borrowed book, and did not certainly know whether Petrarch or Boccaccio was the author. Instances of similar mistakes are common enough in Early English. Modern readers are apt to forget that, in the olden times, much information had to be carried in the memory, and there was seldom much facility for verification or for a second perusal of a story.

3519. _cruelly._ The Harl. MS. has the poor reading _trewely_, miswritten for _crewely_.

3525. Claudius II., emperor of Rome, A.D. 268-270. He succeeded Gallienus, as Chaucer says, and was succeeded by Aurelian.

3535. Boccaccio calls them _Heremianus_ and _Timolaus_, so that _Hermanno_ (as in the MSS.) should probably be _Heremanno_. Professor Robertson Smith tells me that the right names are _Herennianus_ and _Timoleon_. The line cannot well be scanned as it stands.

3550. _char_, chariot. Boccaccio describes this 'currum, quem sibi ex auro gemmisque praeciocissimum Zenobia fabricari fecerat.' [237]

3556. _charged_, heavily laden. She was so laden with chains of massive gold, and covered with pearls and gems, that she could scarcely support the weight; so says Boccaccio. Gibbon says the same.

3562. _vitremyte._ I have no doubt this reading (as in Tyrwhitt) is correct. All the six MSS. in the Six-text agree in it. The old printed editions have _were autremyte_, a mere corruption of _were a u[i]tremyte_; and the Harl. MS. has _wyntermyte_, which I take to be an attempt to make sense of a part of the word, just as we have turned _écrevisse_ into _cray-fish_. What the word means, is another question; it is perhaps the greatest 'crux' in Chaucer. As the word occurs nowhere else, the solution I offer is a mere guess. I suppose it to be a coined word, formed on the Latin _vitream mitram_, expressing, literally, a glass head-dress, in complete contrast to a strong helmet. My reasons for supposing this are as follows.

(1) With regard to _mitra_. In Low-Latin, its commonest meaning is a woman's head-dress. But it was especially and widely used as a term of mockery, both in Latin, Italian, Spanish, and French. The _mitra_ was the cap which criminals were made to wear as a sign of degradation; see Carpenter's Supp. to Ducange, s. v. _Mitra_; Vocabulario degli Accad. della Crusca, s. v. _Mitera_; and any large Spanish Dict. s. v. _Mitra_. Even Cotgrave has--'_Mitré_, mitred; hooded with a _miter_, wearing a _miter_; set on a pillory or scaffold, with a _miter_ of paper on his head.' The chief difficulty in this derivation is the loss of the _r_, but Godefroy has a quotation (s. v. _mite_, 2), which would suit the sense--'_mites_ de toile costonnees, et par dessus ung grand chappel de fer ou de cuir bouilli.'

(2) With regard to _vitream_. This may refer to a proverb, probably rather English than foreign, to which I have never yet seen a reference. But its existence is clear. To give a man 'a glazen hood' meant, in Old English, to mock, delude, cajole. It appears in Piers the Plowman, B. xx. 171, where a story is told of a man who, fearing to die, consulted the physicians, and gave them large sums of money, for which they gave him in return 'a glasen houve,' i. e. a _hood of glass_, a thing that was no defence at all. Still clearer is the allusion to the same proverb _in Chaucer_ himself, in a passage explained by no previous editor, in Troil. and Cres. v. 469, where Fortune is said to have an intention of deluding Troilus; or, as the poet says,

'Fortune his _howve_ entended bet _to glase_,'

i. e. literally, Fortune intended _to glaze his hood_ still better for him, i. e. to make a still greater fool of him. In the Aldine edition, _howue_ is printed _howen_ in this passage, but _howue_ occurs elsewhere; Tyrwhitt has _hove_, a common variation of _howue_. If this note is unsatisfactory, I may yet claim to have explained in it at least _one_ long-standing difficulty; viz. this line in Troilus. Tyrwhitt long ago explained that, in Chaucer, the phrases _to set a man's hood_, and _to set a man's cap_, have a like meaning, viz. to delude him. Chaucer uses _verre_ for glass [238] in another passage of a similar character, viz. in Troil. and Cres. ii. 867, where we read--

'And forthy, who that hath an hede of _verre_, Fro cast of stones war him in the werre.'

3564. _a distaf._ This is from Boccaccio's _other_ account, in the De Casibus Virorum. 'Haec nuper imperatoribus admiranda, nunc uenit miseranda plebeis. Haec nunc galeata concionari militibus assueta, nunc uelata cogitur muliercularum audire fabellas. Haec nuper Orienti praesidens sceptra gestabat, nunc Romae subiacens, colum, sicut ceterae, baiulat.' Zenobia survived her disgrace for some years, living at Rome as a private person on a small estate which was granted to her, and which, says Trebellius Pollio, 'hodie _Zenobia_ dicitur.'

PETER, KING OF SPAIN.

3565. See vol. iii. p. 429, for the _order_ in which the parts of the Monk's Tale are arranged. I follow here the arrangement in the Harleian MS. Peter, king of Castile, born in 1334, is generally known as Pedro the Cruel. He reigned over Castile and Leon from 1350 to 1362, and his conduct was marked by numerous acts of unprincipled atrocity. After a destructive civil war, he fell into the hands of his brother, Don Enrique (Henry). A personal struggle took place between the brothers, in the course of which Enrique stabbed Pedro to the heart; March 23, 1369. See the ballad by Sir Walter Scott, entitled the Death of Don Pedro, in Lockhart's Spanish Ballads, commencing--

'Henry and Don Pedro clasping Hold in straining arms each other; Tugging hard and closely grasping, Brother proves his strength with brother.'

It is remarkable that Pedro was very popular with his own party, despite his crimes, and Chaucer takes his part because our Black Prince fought on the side of Pedro against Enrique at the battle of Najera, April 3, 1367; and because John of Gaunt married Constance, daughter of Pedro, about Michaelmas, 1371.

3573. See the description of Du Gueschlin's arms as given below. The 'field' was argent, and the black eagle appears as if _caught_ by a rod covered with birdlime, because the bend dexter across the shield seems to restrain him from flying away. The first three lines of the stanza refer to Bertrand Du Gueschlin, who 'brew,' i. e. contrived Pedro's murder, viz. by luring him to Enrique's tent. But the last three lines refer to another knight who, according to Chaucer, took a still more active part in the matter, being a _worker_ in it. This second person was a certain Sir Oliver Mauny, whose name Chaucer conceals under the synonym of _wicked nest_, standing for O. Fr. _mau ni_, where [239] _mau_ is O. Fr. for _mal_, bad or wicked, and _ni_ is O. Fr. for _nid_, Lat. _nidus_, a nest. Observe too, that Chaucer uses the word _need_, not _deed_. There may be an excellent reason for this; for, in the course of the struggle between the brothers, Enrique was at first thrown, 'when (says Lockhart) one of Henry's followers, seizing Don Pedro by the leg, turned him over, and his master, thus at length gaining the upper hand, instantly stabbed the king to the heart. Froissart calls this man the Vicomte de Roquebetyn, and others the Bastard of Anisse.' I have no doubt that Chaucer means to tell us that the helper in Enrique's _need_ was no other than Mauny. He goes on to say that this Mauny was not like Charles the Great's Oliver, an honourable peer, but an Oliver of Armorica, a man like Charles's Ganelon, the well-known traitor, of whom Chaucer elsewhere says (Book of the Duchess, l. 1121)--

'Or the false Genelon, He that purchased the treson Of Rowland and of Olivere.'

This passage has long been a puzzle, but was first cleared up in an excellent letter by Mr. Furnivall in Notes and Queries, which I here subjoin; I may give myself the credit, however, of identifying 'wicked nest' with O. Fr. _mau ni_.

'The first two lines [of the stanza] describe the arms of Bertrand du Guesclin, which were, a black double-headed eagle displayed on a silver shield, with a red band across the whole, from left to right [in heraldic language, a bend dexter, gules]--"the lymrod coloured as the glede" or live coal--as may be seen in Anselme's _Histoire Généalogique de France_, and a MS. _Généalogies de France_ in the British Museum. Next, if we turn to Mr. D. F. Jamison's excellent _Life and Times of Bertrand du Guesclin_, we not only find on its cover Bertrand's arms as above described, but also at vol. ii. pp. 92-4, an account of the plot and murder to which Chaucer alludes, and an identification of his traitorous or "Genylon" Oliver, with Sir Oliver de Mauny of Brittany (or Armorica), Bertrand's cousin [or, according to Froissart, cap. 245, his nephew].

'After the battle of Monteil, on March 14, 1369, Pedro was besieged in the castle of Monteil near the borders of La Mancha, by his brother Enrique; who was helped by Du Guesclin and many French knights. Finding escape impossible, Pedro sent Men Rodriguez secretly to Du Guesclin with an offer of many towns and 200,000 gold doubloons if he would desert Enrique and reinstate Pedro. Du Guesclin refused the offer, and "the next day related to his friends and kinsmen in the camp, and _especially to his cousin, Sir Oliver de Mauny_, what had taken place." He asked them if he should tell Enrique; they all said yes: so he told the king. Thereupon Enrique promised Bertrand the same reward that Pedro had offered him, but asked him also to assure Men Rodriguez of Pedro's safety if he would come to his (Du Guesclin's) lodge. Relying on Bertrand's assurance, Pedro came to him on [240] March 23; Enrique entered the lodge directly afterwards, and after a struggle, stabbed Pedro, and seized his kingdom.

'We see then that Chaucer was justified in asserting that Du Guesclin and Sir Oliver Mauny "brew this cursednesse"; and his assertion has some historical importance; for as his patron and friend, John of Gaunt, married one of Pedro's daughters [named Constance] as his second wife [Michaelmas, 1371], Chaucer almost certainly had the account of Pedro's death from his daughter, or one of her attendants, and is thus a witness for the truth of the narrative of the Spanish chronicler Ayala, given above, against the French writers, Froissart, Cuvelier, &c., who make the Bégue de Villaines the man who inveigled Pedro. This connexion of Chaucer with John of Gaunt and his second wife must excuse the poet in our eyes for calling so bad a king as Pedro the Cruel "worthy" and "the glorie of Spayne, whom Fortune heeld so hy in magestee."

'In the Corpus MS. these knights are called in a side-note Bertheu_n_ Clayky_n_ (which was one of the many curious ways in which Du Guesclin's name was spelt) and Olyu_er_ Mawny; in MS. Harl. 1758 they are called Barthilmewe Claykeynne and Olyuer Mawyn; and in MS. Lansdowne 851 they are called Betelmewe Claykyn and Oliuer Mawnye. Mauni or Mauny was a well-known Armorican or Breton family. Chaucer's epithet of "Genilon" for Oliver de Mauny is specially happy, because Genelon was the Breton knight who betrayed to their death the great Roland and the flower of Charlemagne's knights to the Moors at Roncesvalles. Charles's or Charlemagne's great paladin, Oliver, is too well known to need more than a bare mention.'--F. J. Furnivall, in Notes and Queries, 4th Series, viii. 449.

PETER, KING OF CYPRUS.

3581. In a note to Chaucer's Prologue, A. 51, Tyrwhitt says--'Alexandria in Egypt was won, and immediately afterwards abandoned, in 1365, by Pierre de Lusignan, king of Cyprus. The same Prince, soon after his accession to the throne in 1352, had taken Satalie, the antient Attalia; and in another expedition about 1367 he made himself master of the town of Layas in Armenia. Compare 11 Mémoire sur les Ouvrages de Guillaume de Machaut, Acad. des Ins. tom. xx. pp. 426, 432, 439; and Mémoire sur la Vie de Philippe de Maizières, tom. xvii. p. 493.' He was assassinated in 1369. Cf. note to A. 51.

BARNABO OF LOMBARDY.

3589. 'Bernabo Visconti, duke of Milan, was deposed by his nephew and thrown into prison, where he died in 1385.'--Tyrwhitt. This date of Dec. 18, 1385 is that of the _latest circumstance_ incidentally referred to in the Canterbury Tales. Chaucer had been sent to treat with Visconti [241] in 1378, so that he knew him personally. See Froissart, bk. ii. ch. 158; Engl. Cyclopaedia, s. v. _Visconti_; Furnivall's Trial Forewords, p. 109. And see vol. i. p. xxxii.

UGOLINO OF PISA.

3597. 'Chaucer himself has referred us to Dante for the original of this tragedy: see Inferno, canto xxxiii.'--Tyrwhitt. An account of Count Ugolino is given in a note to Cary's Dante, from Villani, lib. vii. capp. 120-127. This account is different from Dante's, and represents him as very treacherous. He made himself master of Pisa in July 1288, but in the following March was seized by the Pisans, who threw him, with his two sons, and two of his grandsons, into a prison, where they perished of hunger in a few days. Chaucer says _three sons_, the eldest being five years of age. Dante says _four sons_.

3606. _Roger_; i. e. the Archbishop Ruggieri degli Ubaldini, who was Ugolino's enemy.

3616. This line is imperfect at the caesura; accent _but_. Tyrwhitt actually turns _herde_ into _hered_, to make it dissyllabic; but such an 'emendation' is not legitimate. The Harl. MS. has--'He herd it wel, but he _saugh_ it nought'; where Mr. Jephson inserts _ne_ before _saugh_ without any comment. Perhaps read--he [ne] spak.

'The hour drew near When they were wont to bring us food; the mind Of each misgave him through his dream, and I Heard, at its outlet underneath, lock'd up The horrible tower: whence, _uttering not a word_, I look'd upon the visage of my sons. I wept not: so all stone I felt within. They wept: and one, my little Anselm, cried, "Thou lookest so! Father, what ails thee?"' &c. Cary's Dante.

3621. Dante does not mention the ages; but he says that the son named Gaddo died on the fourth day, and the other three on the fifth and sixth days. Observe that Chaucer's tender lines, ll. 3623-8, are _his own_.

3624. _Morsel breed_, morsel of bread; cf. _barel ale_ for barrel of ale, B. 3083.--M.

3636. 'I may lay the blame of all my woe upon thy false wheel.' Cf. B. 3860.

3640. _two_; there were now but two survivors, the youngest, according to Chaucer, being dead.

'They, who thought I did it through desire of feeding, rose O' the sudden, and cried, "Father, we should grieve Far less, if thou wouldst eat of us: thou gavest These weeds of miserable flesh we wear, And do thou strip them off from us again."' Cary's Dante.

[242]

3651. _Dant_; i. e. Dante Alighieri, the great poet of Italy, born in 1265, died Sept. 14, 1321. Chaucer mentions him again in his House of Fame, book i., as the author of the Inferno, in the Prologue to the Legend of Good Women, l. 360, and in the Wyf of Bathes Tale, D. 1126.

NERO.

3655. _Swetonius_; this refers to the Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Suetonius; but it would be a mistake to suppose that Chaucer has followed his account very closely. Our poet seems to have had a habit of mentioning authorities whom he did not _immediately_ follow, by which he seems to have meant no more than that they were good authorities upon the subject. Here, for instance, he merely means that we can find in Suetonius a good account of Nero, which will give us all minor details. But in reality he draws the story more immediately from other sources, especially from Boccaccio, De Casibus Virorum, lib. vii. cap. 4, from the Roman de la Rose, and from Boethius, de Cons. Philos. lib. ii. met. 6, and lib. iii. met. 4. The English Romaunt of the Rose does not contain the passage about Nero, but it is interesting to refer to Chaucer's translation of Boethius. Vincent of Beauvais has an account of Nero, in his Speculum Historiale, lib. ix. capp. 1-7, in which he chiefly follows Suetonius. See also Orosius, lib. vii. 7, and Eutropius, lib. vii.

3657. _South_; the MSS. have _North_, but it is fair to make the correction, as Chaucer certainly knew the sense of _Septemtrioun_, and the expression is merely borrowed from the Roman de la Rose, ed. Méon, l. 6271, where we read,

'Cis desloiaus, que ge ci di; Et d'Orient et de _Midi_, D'Occident, de Septentrion Tint il la juridicion.'

And, in his Boethius, after saying that Nero ruled from East to West, he adds--'And eke þis Nero gouernede by Ceptre alle þe peoples þat ben vndir þe colde sterres þat hy[gh]ten þe seuene triones; þis is to seyn, he gouernede alle þe poeples þat ben vndir þe parties of þe norþe. And eke Nero gouerned alle þe poeples þat þe violent wynde Nothus scorchiþ, and bakiþ þe brennynge sandes by his drie hete; þat is to seyne, alle þe poeples in þe _souþe_'; ed. Morris, p. 55 (cf. vol. ii. p. 45).

3663. From Suetonius; cf. Lounsbury, Studies in Chaucer, ii. 285.

3665. This is from Suetonius, who says--'Piscatus est rete aurato, purpura coccoque funibus nexis'; cap. xxx. So also Orosius, vii. 7; Eutropius, vii. 9.

3669. This passage follows Boethius, bk. ii. met. 6, very closely, as is evident by comparing it with Chaucer's translation (see vol. ii. p. 44). 'He leet brenne the citee of Rome, and made sleen the senatoures. And he, cruel, whylom slew his brother. And he was maked [243] moist with the blood of his moder; that is to seyn, he leet sleen and slitten the body of his moder, to seen wher he was conceived; and he loked on every halve upon her colde dede body; ne no tere ne wette his face; but he was so hard-herted that he mighte ben domesman, or Iuge, of hir dede beautee.... Allas, it is a grevous fortune, as ofte as wikked swerd is ioigned to cruel venim; that is to seyn, venimous crueltee to lordshippe.' Thus Chaucer himself explains _domesman_ (l. 3680) by _Iuge_, i. e. judge. In the same line _ded-è_ is dissyllabic.

3685. _a maister_; i. e. Seneca, mentioned below by name. In the year 65, Nero, wishing to be rid of his old master, sent him an order to destroy himself. Seneca opened a vein, but the blood would not flow freely; whereupon, to expedite its flow, he entered into a warm bath, and thence was taken into a vapour stove, where he was suffocated. 'Nero constreynede Senek, his familier and his mayster, to chesen on what deeth he wolde deyen'; Chaucer's Boethius, lib. iii. pr. 5. 34 (vol. ii. 63).

3692. 'It was long before tyranny or any other vice durst attack him'; literally, 'durst let dogs loose against him.' To _uncouple_ is to release dogs from the leash that fastened them together; see P. Pl. B. pr. 206. Compare--

'At the _uncoupling_ of his houndes.' Book of the Duchesse, l. 377.

'The laund on which they fought, th' appointed place In which th' _uncoupled_ hounds began the chace.' Dryden; Palamon and Arcite, bk. ii. l. 845.

3720. 'Where he expected to find some who would aid him.' Suetonius says--'ipse cum paucis hospitia singulorum adiit. Verum clausis omnium foribus, respondente nullo, in cubiculum rediit,' &c.; cap. xlvii. He afterwards escaped to the villa of his freedman Phaon, four miles from Rome, where he at length gave himself a mortal wound in the extremity of his despair. Cf. Rom. de la Rose, 6459-76.

3736. _girden of_, to strike off; cf. '_gurdeth_ of gyles hed,' P. Pl. B. ii. 201. A _gird_ is also a sharp striking taunt or quip.--M.

HOLOFERNES.

3746. _Oloferne._ The story of Holofernes is to be found in the apocryphal book of Judith.

3750. _For lesinge_, for fear of losing, lest men should lose.

3752. 'He had decreed to destroy all the gods of the land, that all nations should worship Nabuchodonosor only,' &c.; Judith, iii. 8.

3756. _Eliachim._ Tyrwhitt remarks that the name of the high priest was Joacim; Judith, iv. 6. But this is merely the form of the name in our English version. The Vulgate version has the equivalent form _Eliachim_; cf. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 4.

3761. _upright_, i. e. on his back, with his face upwards. See Knightes Tale, l. 1150 (A. 2008), and the note to A. 4194. [244]

ANTIOCHUS.

3765. Antiochus Epiphanes, King of Syria (B.C. 175-164). Paraphrased from 2 Maccabees, ix. 7, 28, 10, 8, 7, 3-7, 9-12, 28.

ALEXANDER.

3821. There is a whole cycle of Alexander romances, in Latin, French, and English, so that his story is common enough. There is a good life of him by Plutarch, but in Chaucer's time the principal authority for an account of him was Quintus Curtius. See Ten Brink, Hist. Eng. Lit., bk. ii. sect. 8.

3826. 'They were glad to send to him (to sue) for peace.'

3843. _write_, should write, pt. subj.; hence the change of vowel from indic. _wroot_.--M. The _i_ is short.

3845. 'So Alexander reigned twelve years, and then died'; 1 Mac. i. 7. _Machabee_, i. e. the first book of the Maccabees.

3850. Quintus Curtius says that Alexander was poisoned by Antipater; and this account is adopted in the romances. Cf. Barbour's Bruce, i. 533.

3851. 'Fortune hath turned thy _six_ (the highest and most fortunate throw at dice) into an _ace_ (the lowest).' Cf. note to B. 124.

3860. 'Which two (fortune and poison) I accuse of all this woe.'

JULIUS CAESAR.

3862. For _humble bed_ Tyrwhitt, Wright, and Bell print _humblehede_, as in some MSS. But this word is an objectionable hybrid compound, and I think it remains to be shewn that the word belongs to our language. In the Knightes Tale, Chaucer has _humblesse_, and in the Persones Tale, _humilitee_. Until better authority for _humblehede_ can be adduced, I am content with the reading of the four best MSS., including the Harleian, which Wright _silently alters_.

3863. _Julius._ For this story Chaucer refers us below to Lucan, Suetonius, and Valerius; see note to l. 3909. There is also an interesting life of him by Plutarch. Boccaccio mentions him but incidentally.

3866. _tributárie_; observe the rime with _aduersárie_. _Fortune_ in l. 3868 is a trisyllable; so also in l. 3876.

3870. 'Against Pompey, thy father-in-law.' Rather, 'son-in-law'; for Caesar gave Pompey his daughter Julia in marriage.

3875. _puttest_; to be read as _putt'st_; and _thórient_ as in l. 3883.

3878. _Pompeius._ Boccaccio gives his life at length, as an example of misfortune; De Casibus Virorum, lib. vi. cap. 9. He was killed Sept. 29, B.C. 48, soon after the battle of Pharsalia in Thessaly (l. 3869).

3881. _him_, for himself; but in the next line it means 'to him.'--M.

3885. Chaucer refers to this triumph in the Man of Lawes Tale, B. 400; but see the note. Cf. Shak. Henry V, v. prol. 28. [245]

3887. Chaucer is not alone in making Brutus and Cassius into _one_ person; see note to l. 3892.

3891. _cast_, contrived, appointed; pp., after _hath_.

3892. _boydekins_, lit. bodkins, but with the signification of daggers. It is meant to translate the Lat. _pugio_, a poniard. In Barbour's Bruce, i. 545, Caesar is said to have been slain with a weapon which in one edition is called _punsoun_, in another a _botkin_, and in the Edinburgh MS. a _pusoune_, perhaps an error for _punsoune_, since Halliwell's Dictionary gives the form _punchion_. Hamlet uses _bodkin_ for a dagger; Act iii. sc. 1. l. 76. In the margin of Stowe's Chronicle, ed. 1614, it is said that Caesar was slain with _bodkins_; Nares' Glossary. Nares also quotes--'The chief woorker of this murder was _Brutus Cassius_, with 260 of the senate, all having _bodkins_ in their sleeves'; Serp. of Division, prefixed to Gorboduc, 1590.

3906. _lay on deying_, lay a-dying. In l. 3907, _deed_ = mortally wounded.

3909. _recomende_, commit. He means that he commits the full telling of the story to Lucan, &c. In other words, he refers the reader to those authors. Cf. Lounsbury, Studies in Chaucer, ii. 254, 274.

Lucan (born A.D. 39, died A.D. 65) was the author of the Pharsalia, an incomplete poem in ten books, narrating the struggle between Pompey and Caesar. There is an English translation of it by Rowe.

Suetonius Tranquillus (born about A.D. 70) wrote several works, the principal of which is The Lives of the Twelve Caesars.

Valerius. There were two authors of this name, (1) Valerius Flaccus, author of a poem on the Argonautic expedition, and (2) Valerius Maximus, author of De Factis Dictisque Memorabilibus Libri ix. Mr. Jephson says that Valerius Flaccus is meant here, I know not why. Surely the reference is to Valerius Maximus, who at least tells some anecdotes of Caesar; lib. iv. c. 5; lib. vii. cap. 6.

3911. _word and ende_, beginning and end; a substitution for the older formula _ord and ende_. Tyrwhitt notes that the suggested emendation of _ord_ for _word_ was proposed by Dr. Hickes, in his Anglo-Saxon Grammar, p. 70. Hickes would make the same emendation in Troil. and Cres. v. 1669;

'And of this broche he tolde him _ord and ende_,'

where the editions have _word_. He also cites the expression _ord and ende_ from Cædmon; see Thorpe's edition, p. 225, l. 30. We also find _from orde [=o]ð ende_ = from beginning to end, in the poem of Elene (Vercelli MS.), ed. Grein, l. 590. _Orde and ende_ occurs also at a later period, in the Ormulum, l. 6775; and still later, in Floriz and Blancheflur, l. 47, ed. Lumby, in the phrase,

'_Ord and ende_ he haþ him told Hu blauncheflur was þarinne isold.'

Tyrwhitt argues that the true spelling of the phrase had already become [246] corrupted in Chaucer's time, and such seems to have been the fact, as all the MSS. have _word_. See Zupitza's note to Guy of Warwick, l. 7927, where more examples are given; and cf. my note to Troil. ii. 1495. _Ord and ende_ explains our modern _odds and ends_; see Garnett's Essays, p. 37. Moreover, it is not uncommon to find a _w_ prefixed to a word where it is not required etymologically, especially before the vowel _o_. The examples _wocks_, oaks, _won_, one, _wodur_, other, _wostus_, oast-house, _woth_, oath, _wots_, oats, _wolde_, old, are all given in Halliwell's Prov. Dictionary.

CROESUS.

3917. _Cresus_; king of Lydia, B.C. 560-546, defeated by Cyrus at Sardis. Cyrus spared his life, and Croesus actually survived his benefactor. Chaucer, however, brings him to an untimely end. The story of Croesus is in Boccaccio, De Casibus Virorum, lib. iii. cap. 20. See also Herodotus, lib. 1; Plutarch's life of Solon, &c. But Boccaccio represents Croesus as surviving his disgraces. Tyrwhitt says that the story seems to have been taken from the Roman de la Rose, ll. 6312-6571 (ed. Méon); where the English Romaunt of the Rose is defective. In Chaucer's translation of Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 2, see vol. ii. p. 28, we find this sentence: 'Wistest thou not how Cresus, the king of Lydiens, of whiche king Cyrus was ful sore agast a litel biforn, that this rewliche [_pitiable_] Cresus was caught of [_by_] Cyrus, and lad to the fyr to ben brent; but that a rayn descendede doun fro hevene, that rescowede him?' In the House of Fame, bk. i. ll. 104-6, we have an allusion to the 'avision' [_vision_, dream] of

'Cresus, that was king of Lyde, That high upon a gebet dyde.'

See also Nonne Pr. Ta. l. 318 (B. 4328). The tragic version of the fate of Croesus is given by Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Historiale, iii. 17; and I give an extract, as it seems to be the account which is followed in the Roman de la Rose. It must be premised that Vincent makes Croesus to have been taken prisoner by Cyrus _three times_.

'Alii historiographi narrant, quod in secunda captione, iussit eum Cyrus rogo superponi et assari, et subito tanta pluuia facta est, vt eius immensitate ignis extingueretur, vnde occasionem repperit euadendi. Cumque postea hoc sibi prospere euenisse gloriaretur, et opum copia nimium se iactaret, dictum est ei a Solone quodam sapientissimo, non debere quemquam in diuitiis et prosperitate gloriari. Eadem nocte uidit in somnis quod Jupiter eum aqua perfunderet, et sol extergeret. Quod cum filiae suae mane indicasset, illa (vt res se habebat) prudenter absoluit, dicens: quod cruci esset affigendus et aqua perfundendus et sole siccandus. Quod ita demum contigit, nam postea a Cyro crucifixus est.' Compare the few following lines from the Roman de la Rose, with ll. 3917-22, 3934-8, 3941, and l. 3948:-- [247]

'Qui refu roi de toute Lyde; Puis li mist-l'en où col la bride, Et fu por ardre au feu livrés, Quant par pluie fu délivrés, Qui le grant feu fist tout estraindre:... Jupiter, ce dist, le lavoit, Et Phebus la _toaille_ avoit, Et se penoit de l'essuier.... Bien le dist _Phanie_ sa fille, Qui tant estoit saige et soutille,... L'arbre par le gibet vous glose,' &c.

3951. The passage here following is repeated from the Monkes Prologue, and copied, as has been said, from Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 2. It is to be

## particularly noted that the passage quoted from Boethius in the note to B.

3917 almost immediately precedes the passage quoted in the note to B. 3163.

3956. See note to B. 3972 below.

THE NONNE PRESTES PROLOGUE.

3957. _the knight._ See the description of him, Prol. A. 43.

3961. _for me_, for myself, for my part. Cp. the phrase 'as for me.'--M.

3970. 'By the bell of Saint Paul's church (in London).'

3972. The host alludes to the concluding lines of the Monkes Tale, l. 3956, then repeats the words _no remedie_ from l. 3183, and cites the word _biwaille_ from l. 3952. Compare all these passages.

3982. _Piers._ We must suppose that the host had by this time learnt the monk's name. In B. 3120 above, he did not know it.

3984. 'Were it not for the ringing of your bells'; lit. were there not a clinking of your bells (all the while). 'Anciently no person seems to have been gallantly equipped on horseback, unless the horse's bridle or some other part of the furniture was stuck full of small bells. Vincent of Beauvais, who wrote about 1264, censures this piece of pride in the knights-templars; Hist. Spec. lib. xxx. c. 85'; &c.--Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry (ed. Hazlitt), ii. 160; i. 264. See also note to Prol. A. 170.

3990. 'Ubi auditus non est, non effundas sermonem'; Ecclus. xxxii. 6. (Vulgate); the A. V. is different. See above, B. 2237. The common proverb, 'Keep your breath to cool your broth,' nearly expresses what Chaucer here intends.

3993. _substance_ is explained by Tyrwhitt to mean 'the material part of a thing.' Chaucer's meaning seems not very different from Shakespeare's in Love's La. Lost, v. 2. 871--

'A jest's prosperity lies in the ear Of him that hears it; never in the tongue Of him that makes it.'

[248]

3995. 'For the propriety of this remark, see note to Prol. A. 166'; Tyrwhitt.

4000. _Sir_; 'The title of _Sir_ was usually given, by courtesy, to priests, both secular and regular'; Tyrwhitt. Tyrwhitt also remarks that, 'in the principal modern languages, John, or its equivalent, is a name of contempt or at least of slight. So the Italians use _Gianni_, from whence _Zani_ [Eng. _zany_]; the Spaniards _Juan_, as _Bobo Juan_, a foolish John; the French _Jean_, with various additions.' The reason (which Tyrwhitt failed to see) is simply that _John_ is one of the commonest of common names. For example, twenty-three popes took that name; and cf. our phrase _John_ Bull, which answers to the French _Jean_ Crapaud, and the Russian _Ivan_ Ivanovitch, 'the embodiment of the peculiarities of the Russian people'; Wheeler's Noted Names of Fiction. Ivan Ivanovitch would be John Johnson in English and Evan Evans in Welsh. Hence _sir John_ became the usual contemptuous name for a priest; see abundant examples in the Index to the Parker Society's publications.

4004. _serve_ has two syllables; hence _rek_, in the Harl. MS., is perhaps better than _rekke_ of the other MSS. _A bene_, the value of a bean; in the Milleres Tale _a kers_ (i. e. a blade of grass) occurs in a similar manner (A. 3756); which has been corrupted into 'not caring a _curse_'!

4006. _Ye_, yea, is a mild form of assent; _yis_ is a stronger form, generally followed, as here, by some form of asseveration. See note to B. 1900 above.

4008. _attamed_, commenced, begun. The Lat. _attaminare_ and Low Lat. _intaminare_ are equivalent to _contaminare_, to contaminate, soil, spoil. From Low Lat. _intaminare_ comes F. _entamer_, to cut into, attack, enter upon, begin. From _attaminare_ comes the M. E. _attame_ or _atame_, with a similar sense. The metaphor is taken from the notion of cutting into a joint of meat or of broaching or opening a cask. This is well shewn by the use of the word in P. Plowman, B. xvii. 68, where it is said of the Good Samaritan in the parable that he 'breyde to his boteles, and bothe he _atamede_,' i. e. he went hastily to his bottles, and broached or opened them both. So here, the priest broached, opened, or began his tale.

THE NONNE PREESTES TALE.

We may compare Dryden's modernised version of this tale, entitled 'The Cock and the Fox.' See further in vol. iii. pp. 431-3.

4011. _stape._ Lansd. MS. reads _stoupe_, as if it signified bent, _stooped_; but _stoop_ is a _weak_ verb. _Stape_ or _stope_ is the past

## participle of the strong verb _stapen_, to step, advance. _Stape in age_ =

advanced in years. Roger Ascham has almost the same phrase: 'And [Varro] beyng depe _stept in age_, by negligence some wordes do scape and fall from him in those bookes as be not worth the taking up,' &c.--The Schoolmaster, ed. Mayor, p. 189; ed. Arber, p. 152. [249]

4018-9. _by housbondrye_, by economy; _fond hir-self_, 'found herself,' provided for herself.

4022. _Ful sooty was hir bour, and eek hir halle._ The widow's house consisted of only two apartments, designated by the terms bower and hall. Whilst the widow and her 'daughters two' slept in the bower, Chanticleer and his seven wives roosted on a perch in the hall, and the swine disposed themselves on the floor. The smoke of the fire had to find its way through the crevices of the roof. See Our English Home, pp. 139, 140. Cf. Virgil, Ecl. vii. 50--'assidua postes fuligine nigri.' Also--

'At his beds feete feeden his stalled teme, His swine beneath, his _pullen ore the beame_.' Hall's Satires, bk. v. sat. 1; v. 1. p. 56, ed. 1599.

4025. _No deyntee_ (Elles. &c.); _Noon deynteth_ (Harl.).

4029. _hertes suffisaunce_, a satisfied or contented mind, literally heart's satisfaction. Cf. our phrase 'to your heart's content.'

4032. _wyn ... whyt nor reed._ The white wine was sometimes called 'the wine of Osey' (Alsace); the red wine of Gascony, sometimes called 'Mountrose,' was deemed a liquor for a lord. See Our English Home, p. 83; Piers Pl. prol. l. 228.

4035. _Seynd bacoun_, singed or broiled bacon. _an ey or tweye_, an egg or two.

4036. _deye._ The _daia_ (from the Icel. _deigja_) is mentioned in Domesday among assistants in husbandry; and the term is again found in 2nd Stat. 25 Edward III (A.D. 1351). In Stat. 37 Edward III (A.D. 1363), the _deye_ is mentioned among others of a certain rank, not having goods or chattels of 40s. value. The _deye_ was usually a female, whose duty was to make butter and cheese, attend to the calves and poultry, and other odds and ends of the farm. The _dairy_ (in some parts of England, as in Shropshire, called a _dey_-house) was the department assigned to her. See Prompt. Parv., p. 116.

4039. In Caxton's translation of Reynard the Fox, the cock's name is _Chantecleer_. In the original, it is _Canticleer_; from his clear voice in singing. In the same, Reynard's second son is _Rosseel_; see l. 4524.

4041. _merier_, sweeter, pleasanter. In Todd's Illustrations of Chaucer, p. 284, there is a long passage illustrative of _mery_ in the sense of 'pleasant.' Cf. l. 4156. _orgon_ is put for _orgons_ or _organs_. It is plain from _gon_ in the next line, that Chaucer meant to use this word as a plural from the Lat. _organa_. _Organ_ was used until lately only in the plural, like _bellows_, _gallows_, &c. 'Which is either sung or said or on the _organs_ played.'--Becon's Acts of Christ, p. 534. It was sometimes called _a pair of organs_. See note to P. Plowman, C. xxi. 7.

4044. Cf. Parl. of Foules, 350:--

'The cok, that orloge is of thorpes lyte.'

[250]

_Orloge_ (of an abbey) occurs in Religious Pieces, ed. Perry, p. 56; and see Stratmann.

4045. 'The cock knew _each_ ascension of the equinoctial, and crew at each; that is, he crew every hour, as 15° of the equinoctial make an hour. Chaucer adds [l. 4044] that he knew the hour better than the abbey-clock. This tells us, clearly, that we are to reckon clock-hours, and not the unequal hours of the solar or 'artificial' day. Hence the prime, mentioned in l. 4387, was at a clock-hour, at 6, 7, 8, or 9, suppose. The day meant is May 3, because the sun [l. 4384] had passed the 21st degree of Taurus (see fig. 1 of Astrolabe).... The date, May 3, is playfully denoted by saying [l. 4379] that March was complete, and also (since March began) thirty-two days more had passed. The words "since March began" are parenthetical; and we are, in fact, told that the whole of March, the whole of April, and two days of May were done with. March was then considered the first month in the year, though the year began with the 25th, not with the 1st; and Chaucer alludes to the idea that the Creation itself took place in March. The day, then, was May 3, with the sun past 21 degrees of Taurus. The hour must be had from the sun's altitude, rightly said (l. 4389) to be _Fourty degrees and oon_. I use a globe, and find that the sun would attain the altitude 41° nearly at 9 o'clock. It follows that prime in l. 4387 signifies the end of the first quarter of the day, reckoned from 6 A.M. to 6 P.M.'--Skeat's Astrolabe, (E.E.T.S.), p. lxi. This rough test, by means of a globe, is perhaps sufficient; but Mr. Brae proved it to be right by calculation. Taking the sun's altitude at 41½°, he 'had the satisfaction to find a resulting hour, for prime, of 9 o'clock A.M. _almost to the minute_.' It is interesting to find that Thynne explains this passage very well in his Animadversions on Speght's Chaucer; ed. Furnivall, p. 62, note 1.

The notion that the Creation took place on the 18th of March is alluded to in the Hexameron of St. Basil (see the A. S. version, ed. Norman, p. 8, note _j_), and in Ælfric's Homilies, ed. Thorpe, i. 100.

4047. Fifteen degrees of the equinoctial = an exact hour. See note to l. 4045 above. Skelton imitates this passage in his Phillyp Sparowe, l. 495.

4050. _And batailed._ Lansd. MS. reads _Enbateled_, indented like a battlement, embattled. _Batailed_ has the same sense.

4051. _as the Ieet_, like the jet. Beads used for the repetition of prayers were frequently formed of _jet_. See note to Prol. A. 159.

4060. _damoysele Pertelote._ Cf. our 'Dame Partlet.'

'I'll be as faithful to thee As Chaunticleer to Madame Partelot.' The Ancient Drama, iii. p. 158.

In Le Roman de Renart, the hen is called _Pinte_ or _Pintain_.

4064. _in hold_; in possession. Cf. 'He hath my heart _in holde_'; Greene's George a Greene, ed. Dyce, p. 256. [251]

4065. _loken in every lith_, locked in every limb.

4069. _my lief is faren in londe_, my beloved is gone away. Probably the refrain of a popular song of the time.

4079. _herte dere._ This expression corresponds to 'dear heart,' or 'deary heart,' which still survives in some parts of the country.

4083. _take it nat agrief_ = _take it not in grief_, i. e. take it not amiss, be not offended.

4084. _me mette_, I dreamed; literally _it dreamed to me_.

4086. _my swevene recche_ (or _rede_) _aright_, bring my dream to a good issue; literally 'interpret my dream favourably.'

4090. _Was lyk._ The relative _that_ is often omitted by Chaucer before a relative clause, as, again, in l. 4365.

4098. _Avoy_ (Elles.); _Away_ (Harl.). From O. F. _avoi_, interj. fie! It occurs in Le Roman de la Rose, 7284, 16634.

4113. See the Chapter on Dreams in Brand's Pop. Antiquities.

4114. _fume_, the effects arising from gluttony and drunkenness. 'Anxious black melancholy _fumes_.'--Burton's Anat. of Mel. p. 438, ed. 1845. 'All vapours arising out of the stomach,' especially those caused by gluttony and drunkenness. 'For when the head is heated it scorcheth the blood, and from thence proceed melancholy _fumes_ that trouble the mind.'--Ibid. p. 269.

4118. _rede colera_ ... red cholera caused by too much bile and _blood_ (sometimes called _red humour_). Burton speaks of a kind of melancholy of which the signs are these--'the veins of their eyes red, as well as their faces.' The following quotation explains the matter. 'Ther be foure humours, Bloud, Fleame, Cholar, and Melancholy.... First, working heate turneth what is colde and moyst into the kind of Fleme, and then what is hot and moyst, into the kinde of Bloud; and then what is hot and drye into the kinde of Cholera; and then what is colde and drye into the kinde of Melancholia.... By meddling of other humours, Bloud chaungeth kinde and colour: for by meddling of _Cholar_, it seemeth _red_, and by Melancholy it seemeth _black_, and by Fleame it seemeth watrie, and fomie.'--Batman upon Bartholomè, lib. iv. c. 6. So also--'in bloud it needeth that there be _red Cholera_'; lib. iv. c. 10; &c.

The following explains the belief as to dreams caused by _cholera_. Men in which red _Cholera_ is excesssive 'dreame of fire, and of lyghtening, and of dreadful burning of the ayre'; Batman upon Bartholomè, lib. iv. c. 10. Those in which _Melancholia_ is excessive dream 'dredfull darke dreames, and very ill to see'; id. c. 11. And again: 'He that is Sanguine hath glad and liking dreames, the melancholious dremeth of sorrow, the Cholarike, of _firy_ things, and the Flematike, of Raine, Snow,' &c.; id. lib. vi. c. 27.

4123. _the humour of malencolye._ 'The name (melancholy) is imposed from the matter, and disease denominated from the material cause, as Bruel observes, [Greek: melancholia] _quasi_ [Greek: melainacholê], from black choler.' Fracastorius, in his second book of Intellect, calls those melancholy [252] 'whom abundance of that same depraved humour of black choler hath so misaffected, that they become mad thence, and dote in most things or in all, belonging to election, will, or other manifest operations of the understanding.'--Burton's Anat. of Melancholy, p. 108, ed. 1805.

4128. 'That cause many a man in sleep to be very distressed.'

4130. _Catoun._ Dionysius Cato, de Moribus, l. ii. dist. 32: _somnia ne cures_. 'I observe by the way, that this distich is quoted by John of Salisbury, Polycrat. l. ii. c. 16, as a precept _viri sapientis_. In another place, l. vii. c. 9, he introduces his quotation of the first verse of dist. 20 (l. iii.) in this manner:--"_Ait vel Cato vel alius_, nam autor incertus est."'--Tyrwhitt. Cf. note to G. 688.

4131. _do no fors of_ = take no notice of, pay no heed to. Skelton, i. 118, has 'makyth so lytyll fors,' i. e. cares so little for.

4153. 'Wormwood, _centaury_, pennyroyal, are likewise magnified and much prescribed, especially in hypochondrian melancholy, daily to be used, sod in whey. And because the spleen and blood are often misaffected in melancholy, I may not omit endive, succory, dandelion, _fumitory_, &c., which cleanse the blood.'--Burton's Anat. of Mel. pp. 432, 433. See also p. 438, ed. 1845. '_Centauria_ abateth wombe-ache, and cleereth sight, and vnstoppeth the splene and the reines'; Batman upon Bartholomè, lib. xvii. c. 47. '_Fumus terre_ [fumitory] cleanseth and purgeth Melancholia, fleme, and cholera'; id. lib. xvii. c. 69. 'Medicinal herbs were grown in every garden, and were dried or made into decoctions, and kept for use'; Wright, Domestic Manners, p. 279.

4154. _ellebor._ Two kinds of hellebore are mentioned by old writers; 'white hellebore, called sneezing powder, a strong purger upward' (Burton's Anat. of Mel. pt. 2. § 4. m. 2. subsec. 1.), and '_black hellebore_, that most renowned plant, and famous purger of melancholy.'--Ibid. subsec. 2.

4155. _catapuce_, caper-spurge, _Euphorbia Lathyris_. _gaytres_ (or _gaytrys_) _beryis_, probably the berries of the buck-thorn, _Rhamnus catharticus_; which (according to Rietz) is still called, in Swedish dialects, the _getbärs-trä_ (goat-berries tree) or _getappel_ (goat-apple). I take _gaytre_ to stand for _gayt-tre_, i. e. goat-tree; a Northern form, from Icel. _geit_ (gen. _geitar_), a goat. The A. S. _g[=a]te-tr[=e]ow_, goat-tree, is probably the same tree, though the prov. Eng. _gaiter-tree_, _gatten-tree_, or _gatteridge-tree_ is usually applied to the _Cornus sanguinea_ or cornel-tree, the fruits of which 'are sometimes mistaken for those of the buck-thorn, but do not possess the active properties of that plant'; Eng. Cyclop., s. v. _Cornus_. The context shews that the buck-thorn is meant. Langham says of the buck-thorn, that 'the beries do purge downwards mightily flegme and choller'; Garden of Health, 1633, p. 99 (New E. Dict., s. v. _Buckthorn_). This is why Chanticleer was recommended to eat them.

4156. _erbe yve_, herb ive or herb ivy, usually identified with the ground-pine, _Ajuga chamæpitys_. _mery_, pleasant, used ironically; as the leaves are extremely nauseous. [253]

4160. _graunt mercy_, great thanks; this in later authors is corrupted into _grammercy_ or _gramercy_.

4166. _so mote I thee_, as I may thrive (or prosper). _Mote_ = A. S. _m[=o]t-e_, first p. s. pr. subj.

4174. _Oon of the gretteste auctours._ 'Cicero, De Divin. l. i. c. 27, relates this and the following story, but in a different order, and with so many other differences, that one might be led to suspect that he was here quoted at second-hand, if it were not usual with Chaucer, in these stories of familiar life, to throw in a number of natural circumstances, not to be found in his original authors.'--Tyrwhitt. Warton thinks that Chaucer took it rather from Valerius Maximus, who has the same story; i. 7. He has, however, overlooked the statement in l. 4254, which decides for Cicero. I here quote the whole of the former story, as given by Valerius. 'Duo familiares Arcades iter una facientes, Megaram venerunt; quorum alter ad hospitem se contulit, alter in tabernam meritoriam devertit. Is, qui in hospitio venit, vidit in somnis comitem suam orantem, ut sibi cauponis insidiis circumvento subveniret: posse enim celeri ejus accursu se imminenti periculo subtrahi. Quo viso excitatus, prosiluit, tabernamque, in qua is diversabatur, petere conatus est. Pestifero deinde fato ejus humanissimum propositum tanquam supervacuum damnavit, et lectum ac somnum repetiit. Tunc idem ei saucius oblatus obsecravit, ut qui auxilium vitae suae ferre neglexisset, neci saltem ultionem non negaret. Corpus enim suum à caupone trucidatum, tum maxime plaustro ad portam ferri stercore coöpertum. Tam constantibus familiaris precibus compulsus, protinus ad portam cucurrit, et plaustrum, quod in quiete demonstratum erat, comprehendit, cauponemque ad capitale supplicium perduxit.' Valerii Maximi, lib. i. c. 7 (De Somniis). Cf. Cicero, De Divinatione, i. 27.

4194. _oxes_; written _oxe_ in Hl. Cp. Ln; where _oxe_ corresponds to the older English gen. _oxan_, of an ox--_oxe_ standing for _oxen_ (as in Oxenford, see note on l. 285 of Prologue). Thus _oxes_ and _oxe_ are equivalent.

4200. _took of this no keep_, took no heed to this, paid no attention to it.

4211. _sooth to sayn_, to say (tell) the truth.

4232. _gapinge._ The phrase _gaping upright_ occurs elsewhere (see Knightes Tale, A. 2008), and signifies lying flat on the back with the mouth open. Cf. 'Dede he sate uprighte,' i. e. he lay on his back dead. The Sowdone of Babyloyne, l. 530.

4235. _Harrow_, a cry of distress; a cry for help. 'Harrow! alas! I swelt here as I go.'--The Ordinary; see vol. iii. p. 150, of the Ancient Drama. See F. _haro_ in Godefroy and Littré; and note to A. 3286.

4237. _outsterte_ (Elles., &c.); _upsterte_ (Hn., Harl.)

4242. A common proverb. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 50, has 'I drede mordre wolde come oute.'

4274. _And preyde him his viáge for to lette_, And prayed him to abandon his journey. [254]

4275. _to abyde_, to stay where he was.

4279. _my thinges_, my business-matters.

4300. 'Kenelm succeeded his father Kenulph on the throne of the Mercians in 821 [Haydn, Book of Dates, says 819] at the age of seven years, and was murdered by order of his aunt, Quenedreda. He was subsequently made a saint, and his legend will be found in Capgrave, or in the Golden Legend.'--Wright.

St. Kenelm's day is Dec. 13. Alban Butler, in his Lives of the Saints, says:--[Kenulph] 'dying in 819, left his son Kenelm, a child only seven years old [see l. 4307] heir to his crown, under the tutelage of his sister Quindride. This ambitious woman committed his person to the care of one Ascobert, whom she had hired to make away with him. The wicked minister decoyed the innocent child into an unfrequented wood, cut off his head, and buried him under a thorn-tree. His corpse is said to have been discovered by a heavenly ray of light which shone over the place, and by the following inscription:--

In Clent cow-pasture, under a thorn, Of head bereft, lies Kenelm, king born.'

Milton tells the story in his History of Britain, bk. iv. ed. 1695, p. 218, and refers us to Matthew of Westminster. He adds that the 'inscription' was inside a note, which was miraculously dropped by a dove on the altar at Rome. Our great poet's verson of it is:--

'Low in a Mead of Kine, under a thorn, Of Head bereft, li'th poor _Kenelm_ King-born.'

Clent is near the boundary between Staffordshire and Worcestershire.

Neither of these accounts mentions Kenelm's dream, but it is given in his Life, as printed in Early Eng. Poems, ed. Furnivall (Phil. Soc. 1862), p. 51, and in Caxton's Golden Legend. St. Kenelm dreamt that he saw a noble tree with waxlights upon it, and that he climbed to the top of it; whereupon one of his best friends cut it down, and he was turned into a little bird, and flew up to heaven. The little bird denoted his soul, and the flight to heaven his death.

4307. _For traisoun_, i. e. for fear of treason.

4314. _Cipioun._ The Somnium Scipionis of Cicero, as annotated by Macrobius, was a favourite work during the middle ages. See note to l. 31 of the Parl. of Foules.

4328. See the Monkes Tale, B. 3917, and the note, p. 246.

4331. _Lo heer Andromacha._ Andromache's dream is not to be found in Homer. It is mentioned in