iii. 167, where we read that the Apocalypse of Golias and the confession of

Golias 'have by constant tradition been ascribed to him [Walter Map]; never to any other writer.' Golias is a medieval spelling of the Goliath of scripture, and occurs in Chaucer, Man of Lawes Tale, B. 934. In several authors of the thirteenth century, quoted by Du Cange, the _goliardi_ are classed with the _joculatores et buffones_, and it is very likely that the word _goliardus_ was, originally, quite independent of _Golias_, which was only connected with it by way of jest. The word _goliardus_ seems rather to have meant, originally, 'glutton,' and to be connected with _gula_, the throat; but it was quite a common term, in the thirteenth century, for certain men of some education but of bad repute, who composed or recited satirical [49] parodies and coarse verses and epigrams for the amusement of the rich. See T. Wright's Introduction to the poems of Walter Map (Camden Soc.); P. Plowman, ed. Skeat, note to B. prol. 139; Wright's History of Caricature, ch. X; and the account in Godefroy's O. French Dict., s. v. _Goliard_.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE MAUNCIPLE.

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

568. _which_, whom.

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

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

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

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

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

_achat_, buying; see l. 568.

572. _ay biforn_, ever before (others).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE REVE.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE SOMNOUR.

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

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

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

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

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

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

630. _Boras_, borax. [53]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE PARDONER.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

683. _Dischevele_, with his hair hanging loose.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CHAUCER'S APOLOGY.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE HOST.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

833. _be_, may be (subjunctive mood).

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

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

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

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

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

853. _shal biginne_, have to begin.

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

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

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

THE KNIGHTES TALE.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

'Pentasilee, Which was the quene of Feminee.'

[62]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

948. _withouten more respyt_, without longer delay.

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

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

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

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

965. _abood_, delay, awaiting, abiding.

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

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

970. _lay_, lodged for the night.

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

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

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

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

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

1004. _as him leste_, as it pleased him.

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

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

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

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

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

1015. _Nat fully quike_, not wholly alive.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

'To do observance to a morn of May.'

See also l. 1500, and the note.

1049. _Hir yelow heer was broyded_, her yellow hair was braided. Yellow hair was esteemed a beauty; see Seven Sages, 477, ed. Weber; King Alisaunder, 207; and the instances in Burton, Anat. of Melancholy, pt. 3. sec. 2. mem. 2. subsec. 2. Boccaccio has here--'Co' biondi crini avvolti alla sua testa'; Tes. iii. 10.

1051. _the sonne upriste_, the sun's uprising; the _-e_ in _sonne_ represents the old genitive inflexion. _Upriste_ is here the dat. of the sb. _uprist_. It occurs also in Gower, Conf. Amantis, bk. i. ed. Pauli, i. 116.

1052. _as hir liste_, as it pleased her.

1053. _party_, partly; Fr. _en partie_.

1054. _sotil gerland_, a subtle garland; _subtle_ has here the exact force of the Lat. _subtilis_, finely woven.

1055. Cf. 'Con angelica voce'; Tes. iii. 10: and Troil. ii. 826.

1060. _evene-Ioynant_, joining, or adjoining.

1061. _Ther as this Emelye hadde hir pleyinge_, i. e. where she was amusing herself.

1063. In the Teseide (iii. 11) it is Arcite who first sees Emily.

1074. _by aventure or cas_, by adventure or hap.

1076. _sparre_, a square wooden bolt; the bars, which were of iron, were as thick as they must have been if wooden. See l. 990.

1078. _bleynte_, the past tense of _blenche_ or _blenke_ (to blench), to start, draw back suddenly. Cf. _dreynte_, pt. t. of _drenchen_. 'Tutto stordito, Gridò, Omè!' Tes. iii. 17.

1087. _Som wikke aspect._ Cf. 'wykked planete, as Saturne or Mars,' Astrolabe, ii. 4. 22; notes in Wright's edition, ll. 2453, 2457; and Piers the Plowman, B. vi. 327; and see Leg. of Good Women, 2590-7. Add to these the description of Saturn: 'Significat in _quartanis_, _lepra_, _scabie_, in mania, _carcere_, _submersione_, &c. Est infortuna.'--Johannis Hispalensis, Isagoge in Astrologiam, cap. xv. See A. 1328, 2469.

1089. _al-though_, &c., although we had sworn to the contrary. Cf. 'And can nought flee, _if I had it sworn_'; Lydgate, Dance of Machabre (The Sergeaunt). Also--'he may himselfe not sustene Upon his feet, _though he had it sworne_'; Lydgate, Siege of Thebes (The Sphinx), pt. i. [66]

'_Thofe_ the rede knyghte _had sworne_, Out of his sadille is he borne.' Sir Percevalle, l. 61.

1091. _the short and pleyn_, the brief and manifest statement of the case. Pronounce _this is_ as _this_; as frequently elsewhere; see l. 1743, E. 56, F. 889.

1100. Cf. 'That cause is of my torment and my sorwe': Troil. v. 654.

1101. Cf. 'But whether goddesse or womman, y-wis, She be, I noot'; Troil. i. 425.

_wher_, a very common form for _whether_.

1105. _Yow_ (used reflexively), yourself.

1106. _wrecche_, wretched, is a word of two syllables, like _wikke_, wicked, where the _d_ is a later and unnecessary addition.

1108. _shapen_, shaped, determined. '_Shapes_ our ends.'--Shakespeare, Hamlet, v. 2. 10. Cf. l. 1225.

1120. 'And except I have her pity and her favour.'

1121. _atte leeste weye_, at the least. Cf. _leastwise_ = _at the leastwise_: '_at leastwise_'; Bacon's Advancement of Learning, ed. Wright, p. 146, l. 23. See English Bible (Preface of 'The Translators to the Reader').

1122. 'I am not but (no better than) dead, there is no more to say.' Chaucer uses _ne_--_but_ much in the same way as the Fr. _ne--que_. Cf. North English 'I'm _nobbut_ clemmed' = I am almost dead of hunger.

1126. _by my fey_, by my faith, in good faith.

1127. _me list ful yvele pleye_, it pleaseth me very badly to play.

1128. This debate is an imitation of the longer debate (in the Teseide), where Palamon and Arcite meet in the grove; cf. l. 1580 below.

1129. _It nere_ = _it were not_, it would not be.

1132. 'It was a common practice in the middle ages for persons to take formal oaths of fraternity and friendship; and a breach of the oath was considered something worse than perjury. This incident enters into the plots of some of the medieval romances. A curious example will be found in the Romance of Athelston; Reliquiæ Antiquæ, ii. 85.'--Wright. A note in Bell's Chaucer reminds us that instances occur also in the old heroic times; as in the cases of Theseus and Peirithous, Achilles and Patroclus, Pylades and Orestes, Nysus and Euryalus. See _Sworn Brothers_ in Nares' Glossary; Rom. of the Rose, 2884.

1133. 'That never, even though it cost us a miserable death, a death by torture.' So in Troilus, i. 674: 'That certayn, for to deyen in the peyne.' Also in the E. version of The Romaunt of the Rose, 3326.

1134. 'Till that death shall part us two.' Cf. the ingenious alteration in the Marriage Service, where the phrase 'till death us depart' was altered into 'do part' in 1661.

1136. _cas_, case. It properly means event, hap. See l. 1074.

_my leve brother_, my dear brother.

1141. _out of doute_, without doubt, doubtless.

1147. _to my counseil_, to my adviser. See l. 1161.

1151. _I dar wel seyn_, I dare maintain. [67]

1153. _Thou shalt be._ Chaucer occasionally uses _shall_ in the sense of _owe_, so that the true sense of _I shall_ is _I owe_ (Lat. _debeo_); it expresses a strong obligation. So here it is not so much the sign of a future tense as a separate verb, and the sense is 'Thou art sure to be false sooner than I am.'

1155. _par amour_, with love, in the way of love. To love _par amour_ is an old phrase for to love excessively. Cf. Bruce, xiii. 485; and see A. 2112, below; Troil. v. 158, 332.

1158. _affeccioun of holinesse_, a sacred affection, or aspiration after.

1162. _I pose_, I put the case, I will suppose.

1163. 'Knowest thou not well the old writer's saying?' The _olde clerk_ is Boethius, from whose book, De Consolatione Philosophiae, Chaucer has borrowed largely in many places. The passage alluded to is in lib. iii. met. 12:--

'Quis legem det amantibus? Maior lex amor est sibi.'

Chaucer's translation (vol. ii. p. 92, l. 37) has--'But what is he that may yive a lawe to loveres? Love is a gretter lawe ... than any lawe that men may yeven.' And see Troil. iv. 618.

1167. _and swich decree_, and (all) such ordinances.

1168. _in ech degree_, in every rank of life.

1172. _And eek it is_, &c., 'and moreover it is not likely that ever in all thy life thou wilt stand in her favour.'

1177. This fable, in this particular form, is not in any of the usual collections; but it is, practically, the same as that called 'The Lion, the Tiger, and the Fox' in Croxall's Æsop. Sometimes it is 'the Lion, the Bear, and the Fox'; the Fox subtracts the prey for which the others fight. It is no. 247 in Halm's edition of the 'Fabulae Æsopicae,' Lips., Teubner, 1852, with the moral:--[Greek: ho muthos dêloi, hoti allôn kopiôntôn alloi kerdainousin.] In La Fontaine's Fables, it appears as Les Voleurs et l'Âne. Thynne coolly altered _kyte_ to _cur_, and then had to insert _so_ after _were_ to fill up the line.

1186. _everich of us_, each of us, every one of us.

1189. _to theffect_, to the result, or end.

1196. From the Legend of Good Women, 2282.

1200. _in helle._ An allusion to Theseus accompanying Pirithous in his expedition to carry off Proserpina, daughter of Aidoneus, king of the Molossians, when both were taken prisoner, and Pirithous torn in pieces by the dog Cerberus. At least, such is the story in Plutarch; see Shakespeare's Plutarch, ed. Skeat, p. 289. Chaucer found the mention of Pirithous' visit to Athens in Boccaccio's Teseide, iii. 47-51. The rest he found in Le Roman de la Rose, 8186--

'Si cum vesquist, ce dist l'istoire, Pyrithous apres sa mort, Que Theseus tant ama mort. Tant le queroit, tant le sivoit ... Que vis en enfer l'ala querre.'

[68]

1201. Observe the expression _to wryte_, which shews that this story was not originally meant to be _told_. (Anglia, viii. 453.)

1212. Most MSS. read _or stounde_, i. e. or at any hour. MS. Dd. has _o stound_, one moment, any short interval of time.

'The storme sesed within a stounde.' Ywaine and Gawin, l. 384.

On this slight authority, Tyrwhitt altered the reading, and is followed by Wright and Bell, though MS. Hl. really has _or_ like the rest, and the black-letter editions have the same.

1218. _his nekke lyth to wedde_, his neck is in jeopardy; lit. lies in pledge or in pawn.

1222. _To sleen himself he wayteth prively_, he watches for an opportunity to slay himself unperceived.

1223. This line, slightly altered, occurs also in the Legend of Good Women, 658.

1225. _Now is me shape_, now I am destined; literally, now is it _shapen_ (or appointed) for me.

1247. It was supposed that all things were made of the four elements mentioned in l. 1246. 'Does not our life consist of the four elements?'--Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, ii. 3. 10.

1255. Cf. P. Plowman, C. xiii. 236.

1257. 'And another man would fain (get) out of his prison.'

1259. _matere_; in the _matter_ of thinking to excel God's providence.

1260. 'We never know what thing it is that we pray for here below.' See Romans viii. 26.

1261. _dronke is as a mous._ This phrase seems to have given way to 'drunk as a rat.' 'Thus satte they swilling and carousyng, one to another, till they were both _as dronke as rattes_.'--Stubbes, Anatomie of Abuses; ed. Furnivall, p. 113.

'I am a Flemying, what for all that, Although I wyll be _dronken_ otherwhyles _as a rat_.' Andrew Boorde, ed. Furnivall, p. 147.

Cf. 'When that he is _dronke as a dreynt mous_'; Ritson, Ancient Songs, i. 70 (Man in the Moon, l. 31). 'And I will pledge Tom Tosspot, till I be _drunk as a mouse-a_'; Old Plays, ed. Hazlitt, iii. 339. See also Skelton, Colin Clout, 803; and D. 246.

1262. This is from Boethius, De Consolatione, lib. iii. pr. 2: 'But I retorne ayein to the studies of men, of whiche men the corage alwey reherseth and seketh the sovereyn good, al be it so that it be with a derked memorie; but he not by whiche path, _right as a dronken man not nat by whiche path he may retorne him to his hous_.'--Chaucer's Translation of Boethius; vol. ii. p. 54, l. 57.

1264. _slider_, slippery; as in the Legend of Good Women, l. 648. Cf. the gloss--'_Lubricum_, slidere'; Reliquiae Antiquae, i. 7.

1279. _pure fettres_, the very fetters. 'So in the Duchesse, l. 583, _the pure deeth_. The Greeks used [Greek: katharos] in the same sense.'--Tyrwhitt. [69]

1283. _at thy large_, at large. Cf. l. 2288.

1302. 'White like box-wood, or ashen-gray'; cf. l. 1364. Cf. 'And pale as box she wex'; Legend of Good Women, l. 866. Also 'asshen pale and dede'; Troil. ii. 539.

1308. Copied in Lydgate's Horse, Sheep, and Goose, 124:--'But here this schepe, rukkyng in his folde.' '_Rukkun_, or cowre down'; Prompt. Parv. In B. 4416, MSS. Cp. Pt. Ln. have _rouking_ in place of _lurking_.

1317. _to letten of his wille_, to refrain from his will (or lusts).

1333. Cf. the phrase 'paurosa gelosia'; Tes. v. 2.

1344. _upon his heed_, on pain of losing his head. 'Froissart has _sur sa teste, sur la teste_, and _sur peine de la teste_.'--T.

1347. _this questioun._ 'An implied allusion to the medieval courts of love, in which questions of this kind were seriously discussed.'--Wright.

1366. _making his mone_, making his complaint or _moan_.

1372. 'In his changing mood, for all the world, he conducted himself not merely like one suffering from the lover's disease of Eros, but rather (his disease was) like _mania_ engendered of melancholy humour.' This is one of the numerous allusions to the four humours, viz. the choleric, phlegmatic, sanguine, and melancholic. An excess of the latter was supposed to produce 'melancholy madness.' _gere_, flighty manner, changeableness; 'Siche _wilde gerys_ hade he mo'; Thornton Romances, Sir Percival, l. 1353. See note to l. 1536.

1376. _in his celle fantastyk._ Tyrwhitt reads _Beforne his hed in his celle fantastike_. Elles. has _Biforn his owene celle fantastik_. 'The division of the brain into cells, according to the different sensitive faculties, is very ancient, and is found depicted in medieval manuscripts. The _fantastic cell_ (_fantasia_) was in front of the head.'--Wright. Hence _Biforen_ means 'in the front part of his head.'

'Madnesse is infection of the formost cel of the head, with priuation of imagination, lyke as melancholye is the infection of the middle cell of the head, with priuation of reason, as Constant. saith in _libro de Melancolia_. Melancolia (saith he) is an infection that hath mastry of the soule, the which commeth of dread and of sorrow. And these passions be diuerse after the diuersity of the hurt of their workings; for by madnesse that is called _Mania_, principally the imagination is hurt; and in the other reson is hurted.'--Batman upon Bartholomè, lib. vii. c. 6. Vincent of Beauvais, bk. xxviii. c. 41, cites a similar statement from the _Liber de Anatomia_, which begins:--'Cerebrum itaque tribus cellulis est distinctum. Duae namque meringes cerebri faciunt tres plicaturas inter se denexas, in quibus tres sunt cellulae: phantastica scilicet ab anteriori parte capitis, in qua sedem habet imaginatio.' So in Batman upon Bartholomè, lib. v. c. 3:--'The Braine ... is diuided in three celles or dens.... In the formost cell ... imagination is conformed and made; in the middle, reason; in the hindermost, recordation and minde' [memory]. Cf. also Burton, Anat. of Melancholy, pt. 2. sec. 3. mem. 1. subsec. 2. [70]

1385-8. Probably from Claudian, De Raptu Proserpinae, i. 77:--

'Cyllenius astitit ales, Somniferam quatiens uirgam, tectusque galero.'

See Lounsbury, Studies, ii. 382.

1390. _Argus_, Argus of the hundred eyes, whom Mercury charmed to sleep before slaying him. Ovid, Met. i. 714.

1401. Cf. 'Hir face ... Was al ychaunged in another kinde'; Troil. iv. 864.

1405. _bar him lowe_, conducted himself as one of low estate. Cf. E. 2013.

1409. Cf. 'in maniera di pover valletto'; Tes. iv. 22.

1428. In the Teseide, iv. 3, he takes the name of _Penteo_. _Philostrato_ is the name of another work by Boccaccio, answering to Chaucer's Troilus. The Greek [Greek: philostratos] means, literally, 'army-lover'; but it is to be noted that Boccaccio did not so understand it. He actually connected it with the Lat. _stratus_, and explained it to mean 'vanquished or prostrated with love'; and this is how the name is here used.

1444. _slyly_, prudently, wisely. The M. E. _sleigh_, _sly_ = wise, knowing: and _sleight_ = wisdom, knowledge. (For change of meaning compare _cunning_, originally knowledge; _craft_, originally power; _art_, &c.)

'Ne swa _sleygh_ payntur never nan was, Thogh his _sleght_ mught alle other pas, That couthe ymagyn of þair [devils'] gryslynes.' Hampole's Pricke of Consc., ll. 2308, 2309.--M.

1463. The third night is followed by the fourth day; so Palamon and Arcite meet on the 4th of May (l. 1574), which was a Friday (l. 1534); the first hour of which was dedicated to Venus (l. 1536) and to lovers' vows (l. 1501). The 4th of May was a Friday in 1386.

1471. _clarree._ 'The French term _claré_ seems simply to have denoted a clear transparent wine, but in its most usual sense a compounded drink of wine with honey and spices, so delicious as to be comparable to the nectar of the gods. In Sloane MS. 2584, f. 173, the following directions are found for making _clarré_:--"Take a galoun of honi, and skome (skim) it wel, and loke whanne it is isoden (boiled), that ther be a galoun; thanne take viii galouns of red wyn, than take a pound of pouder canel (cinnamon), and half a pounde of pouder gynger, and a quarter of a pounde of pouder peper, and medle (mix) alle these thynges togeder and (with) the wyn; and do hym in a clene barelle, and stoppe it fast, and rolle it wel ofte sithes, as men don verious, iii dayes."'--Way; note to Prompt. Parv., p. 79. 'The Craft to make Clarre' is also given in Arnold's Chronicle of London; and see the Gloss. to the Babees Book. See Rom. of the Rose, 5971.

1472. Burton mentions 'opium Thebaicum,' which produced stupefaction; Anat. Met. pt. 3. sec. 2. mem. 6. subsec. 2. The words 'Opium Thebaicum' are written in the margin in MSS. E. and Hn. [71]

1477. _nedes-cost_, for _needes coste_, by the force of necessity. It seems to be equivalent to M. E. _needes-wyse_, of necessity. _Alre-coste_ (Icelandic _alls-kostar_, in all respects) signifies 'in every wise.' It occurs in Old English Homilies (ed. Morris), part i. p. 21: 'We ne ma[gh]en _alre-coste_ halden Crist(es) bibode,' we are not able in every wise to keep Christ's behests. The right reading in Leg. Good Women, 2697, is:--

'And nedes cost this thing mot have an ende.'

1494. A beautiful line; but copied from Dante, Purg. i. 20--'Faceva tutto rider l'oriente.'

1500. See note to l. 1047, where the parallel line from Shakespeare is quoted. And cf. Troil. ii. 112--'And lat us don to May som observaunce.' See the interesting article on May-day Customs in Brand's Popular Antiquities (where the quotation from Stubbes will be found); also Chambers, Book of Days, i. 577, where numerous passages relating to May are cited from old poems. An early passage relative to the 1st of May occurs in the Orologium Sapientiae, printed in Anglia, x. 387:--'And thanne is the custome of dyuerse contrees that yonge folke gone on the nyghte or erely on the morow to Medowes and woddes, and there they kutten downe bowes that haue fayre grene leves, and arayen hem with flowres; and after they setten hem byfore the dores where they trowe to haue amykes [friends?] in her lovers, in token of frendschip and trewe loue.' And see _May-day_ in Nares.

1502. From the Legend of Good Women, 1204.

1508. _Were it_ = if it were only.

1509. So in Troilus, ii. 920:--

'Ful loude sang ayein the mone shene.'

1522. 'Veld haueð hege, and wude haueð heare,' i. e. 'Field hath eye, and wood hath ear.'

'Campus habet lumen, et habet nemus auris acumen.'

This old proverb, with Latin version, occurs in MS. Trin. Coll. Cam. O. 2. 45, and is quoted by Mr. T. Wright in his Essays on England in the Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 168. Cf. Cotgrave's F. Dict. s. v. _Oeillet_.

'Das Feld hat Augen, der Wald hat Ohren'; Ida von Düringsfeld, Sprichwörter, vol. i. no. 453.

1524. _at unset stevene_, at a meeting not previously fixed upon, an unexpected meeting or appointment. This was a proverbial saying, as is evident from the way in which it is quoted in Sir Eglamour, 1282 (Thornton Romances, p. 174):--

'_Hyt ys sothe seyde_, be God of heven, Mony metyn at on-sett stevyn.'

Cf. 'Wee may chance to meet with Robin Hood Here _att some unsett steven_.' Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne; in Percy's Reliques of Eng. Poetry.

[72]

'Thei _setten steuen_,' they made an appointment; Knight de la Tour-Landry, ch. iii. And see below, The Cokes Tale:

'And ther they _setten steven_ for to mete'; A. 4383.

1531. _hir queynte geres_, their strange behaviours.

1532. Now in the top (i. e. elevated, in high spirits), now down in the briars (i. e. depressed, in low spirits).

'Allas! where is this worldes stabilnesse? _Here up, here doune_; here honour, here repreef; Now hale, now sike; now bounté, now myscheef.' Occleve, De Reg. Princip. p. 2.

1533. _boket in a welle._ Cf. Shakespeare's Richard II., iv. 1. 184. 'Like so many buckets in a well; as one riseth another falleth, one's empty, another's full.'--Burton's Anat. of Mel. p. 33.

1536. _gery_, changeable; so also _gerful_ in l. 1538. Observe also the sb. _gere_, a changeable mood, in ll. 1372, 1531, and Book of the Duchesse, 1257. This very scarce word deserves illustration. Mätzner's Dictionary gives us some examples.

'By revolucion and turning of the yere A _gery_ March his stondis doth disclose, Nowe reyne, nowe storme, nowe Phebus bright and clere.' Lydgate, Minor Poems, p. 24.

'Her _gery_ Iaces,' their changeful ribands; Richard Redeless, iii. 130.

'Now _gerysshe_, glad and anoon aftir wrothe.' Lydgate, Minor Poems, p. 245.

'In _gerysshe_ Marche'; id. 243. '_Gerysshe_, wylde or lyght-headed'; Palsgrave's Dict., p. 313. In Skelton's poem of Ware the Hauke (ed. Dyce,