Chaucer's Works, Volume 5 — Notes to the Canterbury Tales
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Title: Chaucer's Works, Volume 5 — Notes to the Canterbury Tales
Author: Geoffrey Chaucer
Editor: Walter W. Skeat
Release date: June 23, 2013 [eBook #43016]
Most recently updated: October 23, 2024
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAUCER'S WORKS, VOLUME 5 — NOTES TO THE CANTERBURY TALES ***
Transcriber's note: A few typographical errors have been corrected: they
are listed at the end of the text.
* * * * *
In this text [*e] represents the "schwa" or unvoiced vowel, printed as
inverted-e, and [gh] represents the Middle English letter "yogh", similar
to the numeral 3. [=a] signifies "a macron"; [)u] "u breve"; [o,] "o with
Ogonek"; and so forth.
* * * * *
THE COMPLETE WORKS
OF
GEOFFREY CHAUCER
_EDITED, FROM NUMEROUS MANUSCRIPTS_
BY THE
REV. WALTER W. SKEAT, M.A.
LITT.D., LL.D., D.C.L., PH.D.
ELRINGTON AND BOSWORTH PROFESSOR OF ANGLO-SAXON
AND FELLOW OF CHRIST'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
* * * * *
NOTES TO THE CANTERBURY TALES
'hit oghte thee to lyke;
For hard langage and hard matere
Is encombrous for to here
At ones; wost thou not wel this?'
_Hous of Fame_; 860
SECOND EDITION
Oxford
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
M D CCCC
* * * * *
Oxford
PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
BY HORACE HART, M.A.,
PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
* * * * *
CONTENTS.
PAGE
INTRODUCTION.--§ 1. Some points for discussion. § 2. Canon
of Chaucer's Works. Thynne's edition of 1532. § 3. Later reprints.
§ 4. Tyrwhitt's edition; and his endeavours to establish a canon.
§ 5. The same; continued. § 6. Chalmers' edition. § 7. The
anonymous edition of 1845; published by Moxon. § 8. This
edition due to Tyrwhitt's suggestions. § 9. Later work; results
arrived at by Prof. Lounsbnry. § 10. Some of The Minor Poems
in The present edition. § 11. The Poem no. XXIV. § 12. Poems
numbered XXIII, XXV, and XXVI. § 13. The text of the
Canterbury Tales; lines 'clipped' at The beginning. § 14. The
Harleian MS. § 15. The Ellesmere MS. § 16. The old black-letter
editions. § 17. Stowe's edition in 1561. § 18. Dryden's
remarks on Chaucer's verse. § 19. Brief rules for scansion. § 20.
Accentuation. § 21. Examples. § 22. Old pronunciation. § 23.
Modernising of spelling. § 24. Sources of The Notes;
acknowledgments ix
NOTES TO GROUP A 1
THE GENERAL PROLOGUE 1
THE KNIGHTES TALE 60
THE MILLER'S PROLOGUE 95
THE MILLERES TALE 96
THE REVE'S PROLOGUE 112
THE REVES TALE 116
THE COOK'S PROLOGUE 128
THE COKES TALE 129
NOTES TO GROUP B 132
INTRODUCTION TO THE MAN OF LAWES TALE 132
PROLOGUE TO THE MAN OF LAWES TALE 141
THE TALE OF THE MAN OF LAWE 145
THE SHIPMAN'S PROLOGUE 165
THE SHIPMANNES TALE 168
THE PRIORESS'S PROLOGUE 173
THE PRIORESSES TALE 174
PROLOGUE TO SIR THOPAS 182
THE TALE OF SIR THOPAS 183
PROLOGUE TO MELIBEUS 201
THE TALE OF MELIBEUS 201
THE MONK'S PROLOGUE 224
THE MONKES TALE 227
THE NONNE PRESTES PROLOGUE 247
THE NONNE PREESTES TALE 248
EPILOGUE 258
NOTES TO GROUP C 260
THE PHISICIENS TALE 260
WORDS OF THE HOST 264
THE PARDONERES PROLOGUE 269
THE PARDONERES TALE 275
NOTES TO GROUP D 291
THE WIFE OF BATH'S PROLOGUE 291
THE TALE OF THE WYF OF BATHE 313
THE FRIAR'S PROLOGUE 322
THE FRERES TALE 323
THE SOMPNOUR'S PROLOGUE 330
THE SOMNOURS TALE 331
NOTES TO GROUP E 342
THE CLERKES PROLOGUE 342
THE CLERKES TALE 343
THE MARCHAUNTES PROLOGUE 353
THE MARCHANTES TALE 353
NOTES TO GROUP F 370
THE SQUIERES TALE 370
THE WORDS OF THE FRANKLIN 387
THE PROLOGUE OF THE FRANKLIN'S TALE 387
THE FRANKELEYNS TALE 388
NOTES TO GROUP G 401
THE SECOND NONNES TALE 401
THE CANON'S YEOMAN'S PROLOGUE 414
THE CHANOUNS YEMANNES TALE 421
NOTES TO GROUP H 435
THE MANCIPLE'S PROLOGUE 435
THE MAUNCIPLES TALE 439
NOTES TO GROUP I 444
THE PARSON'S PROLOGUE 444
THE PERSONES TALE 447
NOTES TO THE TALE OF GAMELYN 477
ADDENDA 490
INDEX TO THE SUBJECTS, ETC., EXPLAINED IN THE NOTES 495
* * * * *
[ix]
INTRODUCTION TO THE NOTES
§ 1. In the brief Introduction to vol. iv. I have given a list of the MSS.
of the Canterbury Tales; some account of the early printed editions; and
some explanation of the methods employed in preparing the present edition.
I propose here to discuss further certain important points of general
interest. And first, I would say a few words as to the Canon of Chaucer's
Works, whereby the genuine works are separated from others that have been
attributed to him, at various times, by mistake or inadvertence.
§ 2. CANON OF CHAUCER'S WORKS.
This has already been considered, at considerable length, in vol. i. pp.
20-90. But it is necessary to say a few words on the whole subject, owing
to the extremely erroneous opinions that are so widely prevalent.
Sometimes a poem is claimed for Chaucer because it occurs 'in a Chaucer
MS.' There is a certain force in this plea in a few cases, as I have
already pointed out. But it commonly happens that such MSS. (as, for
example, MS. Fairfax 16, MS. Bodley 638, and others) are mere collections
of poetry of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, from which nothing can
safely be inferred as to the authorship of the poems which they contain,
unless the scribe distinctly gives the author's name[1]. As a rule,
however, the scribes not only omit to mention names, but they frequently
omit the very title of the poem, and thus [x] withhold such help as, in
many cases, they might easily have afforded.
The celebrated first edition of 'Chaucer's Works,' edited by William Thynne
in 1532, made no attempt to establish any canon. Thynne simply put together
such a book as he believed would be generally acceptable; and deliberately
inserted poems which he knew to be by other authors. Some of these poems
bear the name of Lydgate; one has the name of Gower; and another, by
Hoccleve, is dated 1402, or two years after Chaucer's death. They were
tossed together without much attempt at order; so that even the eleventh
poem in the volume is 'The Floure of Curtesie, made by Ihon lidgate.' The
edition, in fact, is a mere collection of poems by Chaucer, Lydgate, Gower,
Hoccleve, Robert Henrysoun, Sir Richard Ros, and various anonymous authors;
and the number of poems by other authors almost equals the number of
Chaucer's. The mere accident of the inclusion of a given piece in this
volume practically tells us nothing, unless it happens to be distinctly
marked; though we can, of course, often tell the authorship from some
remark made by Chaucer himself, or by others. And the net result is this;
that Thynne neither attempted to draw up a list of Chaucer's genuine works,
nor to exclude such works as were not his. He merely printed such things as
came to hand, without any attempt at selection or observance of order, or
regard to authorship. All that we can say is, that he did not knowingly
exclude any of the genuine pieces. Nevertheless, he omitted Chaucer's
A.B.C., of which there must have been many copies in existence, for we have
twelve still extant.
§ 3. The mere repetition of this collection, in various reprints, did not
confer on it any fresh authority. Stowe indeed, in 1561, added more pieces
to the collection, but he suppressed nothing. Neither did he himself
exercise much principle of selection; see vol. i. p. 56. He even added The
Storie of Thebes, which he must have known to be Lydgate's. Later reprints
were all edited after the same bewildering fashion.
§ 4. The first person to exercise any discrimination in this matter was
Thomas Tyrwhitt, who published a new edition of the Canterbury Tales in
five volumes, 8vo., in 1775-8; being the first edition in which some
critical care was exercised. After Tyrwhitt had printed the Canterbury
Tales, accompanied by [xi] a most valuable commentary in the shape of
Notes, it occurred to him to make a Glossary. He had not proceeded far
before he decided that such a Glossary ought to be founded upon the whole
of Chaucer's Works, instead of referring to the Tales only; since this
would alone suffice to shew clearly the nature of Chaucer's vocabulary. He
at once began to draw up something in the nature of a canon. He rejected
the works that were marked with the names of other poets, and remorselessly
swept away a large number of Stowe's very casual additions. And,
considering that he was unable, at that date, to apply any linguistic tests
of any value--that he had no means of distinguishing Chaucer's rimes from
those of other poets--that he had, in fact, nothing to guide him but his
literary instinct and a few notes found in the MSS.--his attempt was a
fairly good one. He decisively rejected the following poems found in
Thynne's edition, viz. no. 4 (Testament of Criseyde, by Henrysoun); 11 (The
Floure of Curtesie, by Lydgate); 13 (La Belle Dame, by Sir R. Ros); 15 (The
Assemblee of Ladies); 18 (A Praise of Women); 21 (The Lamentacion of Marie
Magdaleine); 22 (The Remedie of Love); 25 (The Letter of Cupide, by
Hoccleve); 26 (A Ballade in commendacion of our Ladie, by Lydgate); 27
(Jhon Gower to Henry IV); 28 and 29 (Sayings of Dan John, by Lydgate); 30
(Balade de Bon Conseil, by Lydgate); 32 (Balade with Envoy--O leude booke);
33 (Scogan's poem, except the stanzas on Gentilesse); 40 (A balade..., by
Dan John lidgat); and in no single instance was he wrong in his rejection.
He also implied that the following had no claim to be Chaucer's, as he did
not insert them in his final list; viz. no. 6 (A goodlie balade of
Chaucer); and 38 (Two stanzas--Go foorthe, kyng); and here he was again
quite right. It is also obvious that no. 41 (A balade in the Praise of
Master Geffray Chauser) was written by another hand; and indeed, the first
line says that Chaucer 'now lith in grave.' It will at once be seen that
Tyrwhitt did excellent service; for, in fact, he eliminated from Thynne's
edition no less than nineteen pieces out of forty-one; leaving only
twenty-two[2] remaining. Of this remainder, if we include The Romaunt of
the Rose, all but three are unhesitatingly accepted by scholars. The three
exceptions are nos. 17, 20, and [xii] 31; i. e. The Complaint of the Black
Knight[3]; The Testament of Love[4]; and The Cuckoo and the Nightingale.
§ 5. When Tyrwhitt came to examine the later editions, the only other
pieces that seemed to him sufficiently good for the purpose of being quoted
in his Glossary were the six following, viz. Chaucer's A.B.C. (in ed.
1602); The Court of Love (in ed. 1561); Chaucer's Dreme (in ed. 1598); The
Flower and the Leaf (in ed. 1598); Proverbes by Chaucer (in ed. 1561); and
Chaucer's Words to his Scrivener Adam (in ed. 1561). Of these, we may
accept the first and the two last; but there is no external evidence in
favour of the other three. He also added that the Virelai (no. 50, in ed.
1561) may 'perhaps' be Chaucer's.
§ 6. In 1810 we find an edition of Chaucer's Works, by A. Chalmers, F.S.A.,
in the first volume of the 'English Poets,' collected in twenty-one
volumes. In this edition, some sort of attempt was made, for the first
time, to separate the spurious from the genuine poems. But this separation
was made with such reckless carelessness that we actually find no less than
six poems (nos. 36, 38, 39, 42, 43, 44, in vol. i. 32, 33, above) printed
twice over, once as being genuine, and once as being spurious[5]. It is
obvious that we cannot accept a canon of Chaucer's Works of such a
character as this.
§ 7. In 1845 appeared the edition in which modern critics, till quite
recently, put all their trust; and no student will ever understand what is
really meant by 'the canon of Chaucer's Works' until he examines this
edition with something like common care. It bears this remarkable
title:--'The Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. With an Essay on his
Language and Versification, and an [xiii] Introductory Discourse; together
with Notes and a Glossary. By Thomas Tyrwhitt. London: Edward Moxon, Dover
Street, 1855[6].'
In this title, which must be most carefully scanned, there is one very
slight unintentional misprint, which alters its whole character. The stop
after the word 'Glossary' should have been a comma only. The difference in
sense is something startling. The title-page was meant to convey that the
volume contains, (1) The Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer (comprising
Tyrwhitt's text of the Canterbury Tales, _the remaining poems being
anonymously re-edited_); and that it _also_ contains, (2) an Essay, a
Discourse, Notes, and a Glossary, all by Thomas Tyrwhitt. Such are the
facts; and such would have been the (possible) sense of the title-page, if
the comma after 'Glossary' had not been misprinted as a full stop. But as
the title actually appears, even serious students have fallen into the
error of supposing that Tyrwhitt edited these Poetical Works; an error of
the first magnitude, which has produced disastrous results. A moment's
reflection will shew that, as Tyrwhitt edited the Canterbury Tales only,
and died in 1786, he could not have edited the Poetical Works in 1845,
fifty-nine years after his death. It would have been better if a short
explanation, to this effect, had been inserted in the volume; but there is
nothing of the kind.
It must therefore be carefully borne in mind, that this edition of 1845, on
the title-page of which the name of Tyrwhitt is so conspicuous, was really
edited anonymously, or may even be said not to have been edited at all. The
Canterbury Tales are reprinted from Tyrwhitt; and so also are the Essay,
the Discourse, the Notes, and the Glossary; and it is most important to
observe that 'the Glossary' is preceded by Tyrwhitt's 'Advertisement,' and
by his 'Account of the Works of Chaucer to which this Glossary is adapted;
and of those other pieces[7] which have been improperly intermixed with his
in the Editions.' The volume is, in fact, made up in this way. Pages i-lxx
and 1-209 are all due to Tyrwhitt; and contain a Preface, an Appendix to
the Preface, an Abstract of Passages of the Life of Chaucer, an Essay, an
Introductory Discourse to the Tales, and the Tales themselves. [xiv] Again,
pp. 441-502 are all due to Tyrwhitt, and contain an Advertisement to the
Glossary, an Account of Chaucer's Works (as above), and a Glossary.
Moreover, this Glossary contains a large number of words from most of
Chaucer's Works, including even his _prose_ treatises; besides a handful of
words from spurious works such as 'Chaucer's Dream.'
In this way, all the former part and all the latter part of the volume are
due to Tyrwhitt; it is the _middle part_ that is wholly independent of him.
It is here that we find no less than twenty-five poems, _which he never
edited_, reprinted (inexactly) from the old black-letter editions or from
Chalmers. It thus becomes plain that the words 'By Thomas Tyrwhitt' on the
title-page refer only to the second clause of it, but have no reference to
the former clause, consisting of the words, 'The Poetical Works of Geoffrey
Chaucer.' It remains to be said that the twenty-five poems which are here
appended to the Canterbury Tales are well selected; and that the anonymous
editor or superintendent was guided in his choice by Tyrwhitt's 'Account of
the Works.'
§ 8. This somewhat tedious account is absolutely necessary, every word of
it, in order to enable the reader to understand what has always been meant
(since 1845) by critics who talk about some works as being 'attributed to
Chaucer.' They really mean (in the case, for example, of The Cuckoo and the
Nightingale) that it happens to be included in a certain volume _by an
anonymous editor_, published in 1845, in which the suggestions made by
Tyrwhitt in 1778 were practically adopted without any important deviation.
In the case of any other author, such a basis for a canon would be
considered rather a sandy one; it derives its whole value from the fact
that Tyrwhitt was an excellent literary critic, who may well be excused for
a few mistakes, considering how much service he did in thus reducing the
number of poems in 'Chaucer's Works' from 64 to little more than 26[8].
Really, this was a grand achievement, especially as it clearly emphasised
the absurdity of trusting to the old editions. But it is an abuse of
language to say that 'The Cuckoo and Nightingale' has 'always been
attributed to Chaucer,' merely [xv] because it happens to have been printed
by Thynne in 1532, and had the good luck to be accepted by Tyrwhitt in
1778. On the contrary, such a piece remains on its trial; and it must be
rejected absolutely, both on the external and on the internal evidence.
Externally, because no scribe or early writer connects it with him in any
way. Internally, for reasons given in vol. i. p. 39[9]; and for other
reasons given in Lounsbury's Studies in Chaucer.
§ 9. The chief value of the anonymous edition in 1845 is, that it gave
practical expression to Tyrwhitt's views. The later editions by Bell and
Morris were, in some respects, retrogressive. Both, for example, include
The Lamentation of Mary Magdalene, which Tyrwhitt rightly denounced in no
dubious terms; (see vol. i. above, pp. 37, 38). But, of late years, the
question of constructing a canon of Chaucer's genuine works has received
proper attention, and has been considered by such scholars as Henry
Bradshaw, Bernhard ten Brink, Dr. Koch, Dr. Furnivall, Professor Lounsbury,
and others; with a fairly unanimous result. The whole question is well
summed up in Lounsbury's Studies in Chaucer, 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 Lib
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