iii. 191), explains the matter, saying--'The assendent sothly, as wel in

alle nativitez as in questiouns and _elecciouns of tymes_, is a thing which that thise Astrologiens gretly observen'; &c. The curious reader may find much more to the same effect in the same Treatise, with directions to 'make roots' in pt. ii. § 44.

The curious may further consult the Epitome Astrologiae of Johannes Hispalensis. The whole of Book iv. of that work is 'De Electionibus,' and the title of cap. xv. is 'Pro Itinere.'

Lydgate, in his Siege of Thebes, just at the beginning, describes the astronomers as casting the horoscope of the infant Oedipus. They were expected

'to yeue a judgement, The roote i-take at the ascendent, Truly sought out, by minute and degre, The selfe houre of his natiuite, Not foryet the heauenly mansions Clerely searched by smale fraccions,' &c.

To take a different example, Ashmole, in his Theatrum Chemicum, 1652, says in a note on p. 450--'Generally in all Elections the Efficacy of the Starrs are (_sic_) used, as it were by a certaine application made thereof to those unformed Natures that are to be wrought upon; whereby to further the working thereof, and make them more available to our purpose.... And by such Elections as good use may be made of the Celestiall influences, as a Physitian doth of the variety of herbes.... But Nativities are the Radices of Elections, and therefore we ought chiefly to looke backe upon them as the principal Root and Foundation of all Operations; and next to them the quality of the Thing we intend to fit must be respected, so that, by an apt position of Heaven, and fortifying the Planets and Houses in the Nativity of the Operator, and making them agree with the thing signified, the impression made by that influence will abundantly augment the Operation,' &c.; with much more to the same effect. Several passages in Norton's Ordinall, printed in the same volume (see pp. 60, 100), shew clearly what is meant by Chaucer in his Prologue, ll. 415-7. The Doctor could 'fortune the ascendent of his images,' by choosing a favourable moment for the making of charms in the form of images, when a suitable planet was in the ascendent. Cf. Troil. ii. 74.

314. _rote_ is the astrological term for the epoch from which to reckon. The exact moment of a nativity being known, the astrologers were supposed to be able to calculate everything else. See the last note.

332. _Alkaron_, the Koran; _al_ is the Arabic article. [153]

333. Here _Makomete_ is used instead of _Mahoun_ (l. 224). See Washington Irving's Life of Mahomet.

_message_, messenger. This is a correct form, according to the usages of Middle English; cf. l. 144. In like manner, we find _prison_ used to mean a _prisoner_, which is often puzzling at first sight.

340. 'Because we denied Mahomet, our (object of) belief.'

360. 'O serpent under the form of woman, like that Serpent that is bound in hell.' The allusion here is not a little curious. It clearly refers to the old belief that the serpent who tempted Eve appeared to her _with a woman's head_, and it is sometimes so represented. I observed it, for instance, in the chapter-house of Salisbury Cathedral; and see the woodcut at p. 73 of Wright's History of Caricature and Grotesque in Art. In Peter Comestor's Historia Libri Genesis, we read of Satan--'Elegit etiam quoddam genus serpentis (vt ait Beda) _virgineum vultum_ habens.' In the alliterative Troy Book, ed. Panton and Donaldson, p. 144, the Tempter is called Lyuyaton (i. e. Leviathan), and it is said of him that he

'Hade a face vne fourmet _as a fre maydon_'; l. 4451.

And, again, in Piers the Plowman, B. xviii. 355, Satan is compared to a 'lusarde [lizard] _with a lady visage_.' In the Ancren Riwle, p. 207, we are gravely informed that a scorpion is a kind of serpent that has a face somewhat like that of a woman, and puts on a pleasant countenance. To remember this gives peculiar force to ll. 370, 371. See also note to l. 404.

367. _knowestow_ is a trisyllable; and _the olde_ is to be read _tholdè_. But in l. 371, the word _Makestow_, being differently placed in the line, is to be read with the _e_ slurred over, as a dissyllable.

380. _moste_, might. It is not always used like the modern _must_.

401. See Lucan's Pharsalia, iii. 79--'Perdidit o qualem uincendo plura triumphum!' But Chaucer's reference, evidently made at random, is unlucky. Lucan laments that he had no triumph to record.

404. The line is deficient at the beginning, the word _But_ standing by itself as a foot. So also in A. 294, G. 341, &c. See Ellis's Early English Pronunciation, pp. 333, 649. (This peculiarity was pointed out by me in 1866, in the Aldine edition of Chaucer, i. 174.) For the sense of _scorpioun_, see the reference to the Ancren Riwle, in note to l. 360, and compare the following extracts. 'Thes is the scorpioun, thet maketh uayr mid the heauede, and enuenymeth mid the tayle'; Ayenbite of Inwyt, ed. Morris, p. 62. 'The scorpion, the whiche enoynteth with his tongue, and prycketh sore with his taylle'; Caxton, Fables of Æsop; Lib. iv. fable 3. Chaucer repeats the idea, somewhat more fully, in the Marchaunts Tale, E. 2058-2060. So also _this wikked gost_ means this Evil Spirit, this Tempter.

421. Pronounce _ever_ rapidly, and accent _súccessour_ on the first syllable. In the margin of MSS. E. Hn. Pt. and Cp. is the following [154] note: 'Nota, de inopinato dolore. Semper mundane leticie tristicia repentina succedit. Mundana igitur felicitas multis amaritudinibus est respersa. Extrema gaudii luctus occupat. Audi ergo salubre consilium; in die bonorum ne immemor sis malorum.' This is one of the passages from Innocent's treatise de Contemptu Mundi, of which I have already spoken in the note to B. 99-121 above (p. 140). Lib. i. c. 23 has the heading--'De inopinato dolore.' It begins:--'Semper enim mundanae letitiae tristitia repentina succedit. Et quod incipit a gaudio, desinit in moerore. Mundana quippe felicitas multis amaritudinibus est respersa. Noverat hoc qui dixerat: "Risus dolore miscebitur, et extrema gaudii luctus occupat."... Attende salubrem consilium: "In die bonorum, non immemor sis malorum."'

This passage is mostly made up of scraps taken from different authors. I find in Boethius, De Consolatione Philosophiae, lib. ii. pr. 4--'Quam multis amaritudinibus humanae felicitatis dulcedo respersa est'; which Chaucer translates by--'The swetnesse of mannes welefulnesse is _sprayned with many biternesses_'; see vol. ii. p. 34; and the same expression is repeated here, in l. 422. Gower quotes the same passage from Boethius in the prologue to his Confessio Amantis. The next sentence is from Prov. xiv. 13--'Risus dolore miscebitur, et extrema gaudii luctus occupat.' The last clause (see ll. 426, 427) is from Ecclesiasticus, xi. 27 (in the Vulgate version). Cf. Troil. iv. 836.

438. Compare Trivet's French prose version:--'Dount ele fist estorier vne neef de vitaile, de payn quest apele bisquit, & de peis, & de feues, de sucre, & de meel, & de vyn, pur sustenaunce de la vie de la pucele pur treis aunx; e en cele neef fit mettre la richesse & le tresour que Iempire Tiberie auoit maunde oue la pucele Constaunce, sa fille; e en cele neef fist la soudane mettre la pucele saunz sigle, & sauntz neuiroun, & sauntz chescune maner de eide de homme.' I. e. 'Then she caused a ship to be stored with victuals, with bread that is called biscuit, with peas, beans, sugar, honey, and wine, to sustain the maiden's life for three years. And in this ship she caused to be placed the riches and treasure which the Emperor Tiberius had sent with the maid Constance his daughter; and in this ship the Sultaness caused the maiden to be put, without sail or oar, or any kind of human aid.'

_foot-hot_, hastily. It occurs in Gower, ed. Pauli, ii. 114; in The Romaunt of the Rose, l. 3827: Octovian, 1224, in Weber's Met. Rom. iii. 208; Sevyn Sages, 843, in the same, iii. 34; Richard Coer de Lion, 1798, 2185, in the same, ii. 71, 86; and in Barbour's Bruce, iii. 418, xiii. 454. Compare the term _hot-trod_, explained by Sir W. Scott to mean the pursuit of marauders with bloodhounds: see note 3 H to the Lay of the Last Minstrel. We also find _hot fot_, i. e. immediately, in the Debate of the Body and the Soul, l. 481. It is a translation of the O. F. phrase _chalt pas_, immediately, examples of which are given by Godefroy.

449-62. Not in the original; perhaps added in revision. [155]

451-62. Compare these lines with verses 3 and 5 of the hymn 'Lustra sex qui iam peregit' in the office of Lauds from Passion Sunday to Wednesday in Holy Week inclusive, in the Roman breviary.

This hymn was written by Venantius Fortunatus; see Leyser's collection, p. 168.

'Crux fidelis, inter omnes Arbor una nobilis: Silua talem nulla profert Fronde, flore, germine: Dulce ferrum, dulce lignum, Dulce pondus sustinent....

Sola digna tu fuisti Ferre mundi uictimam; Atque portum praeparare, Arca mundo naufrago, Quam sacer cruor perunxit, Fusus Agni corpore.'

See the translation in Hymns Ancient and Modern, No. 97, part 2 (new edition), beginning--'Now the thirty years accomplished.'

We come still nearer to the original of Chaucer's lines when we consider the form of prayer quoted in the Ancren Riwle, p. 34, which is there given as follows:--'Salue crux sancta, arbor digna, quae sola fuisti digna portare Regem celorum et Dominum.... O crux gloriosa! o crux adoranda! o lignum preciosum, et admirabile signum, per quod et diabolus est victus, et mundus Christi sanguine redemptus.'

460. _him and here_, him and her, i. e. man and woman; as in Piers the Plowman, A. Pass. i. l. 100. The allusion is to the supposed power of the cross over evil spirits. See The Legends of the Holy Rood, ed. Morris; especially the story of the Invention of the Cross by St. Helen, p. 160--'And anone, as he had made the [sign of the] crosse, þe grete multitude of deuylles vanyshed awaye'; or, in the Latin original, 'statimque ut edidit signum crucis, omnis illa daemonum multitudo euanuit'; Aurea Legenda, ed. Grässe, 2nd ed. p. 311. Cf. Piers Plowman, B. xviii. 429-431.

461. The reading of this line is certain, and must not be altered. But it is impossible to _parse_ the line without at once noticing that there is some difficulty in the construction. The best solution is obtained by taking _which_ in the sense of _whom_. A familiar example of this use of _which_ for _who_ occurs in the Lord's Prayer. See also Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar, Sect. 265. The construction is as follows--'O victorious tree, protection of true people, that alone wast worthy to bear the King of Heaven with His new wounds--the White Lamb that was hurt with the spear--O expeller of fiends out of both man and woman, on whom (i. e. the men and women on whom) thine arms faithfully spread out,' &c. _Limes_ means the arms of the cross, spread before a person to protect him. [156]

464. _see of Grece_, here put for the Mediterranean Sea.

465. _Marrok_, Morocco; alluding to the Strait of Gibraltar; cf. l. 947. So also in Barbour's Bruce, iii. 688.

470-504. Not in the French text; perhaps added in revision.

474. _Ther_, where; as usual. _knave_, servant.

475. 'Was eaten by the lion ere he could escape.' Cf. l. 437.

480. The word _clerkes_ refers to Boethius. This passage is due to Boeth. bk. iv. pr. 6. 114-117, and 152-4; see vol. ii. pp. 117, 118.

491. See Revelation vii. 1-3.

497. Here (if _that_ be omitted) _As_ seems to form a foot by itself, which gives but a poor line. See note to l. 404.

500. Alluding to St. Mary the Egyptian (_Maria Egiptiaca_), who according to the legend, after a youth spent in debauchery, lived entirely alone for the last forty-seven years of her life in the wilderness beyond the Jordan. She lived in the fifth century. Her day is April 9. See Mrs. Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art; Rutebuef, ed. Jubinal, ii. 106-150; Maundeville's Travels, ed. Halliwell, p. 96; Aurea Legenda, ed. Grässe, cap. lvi. She was often confused with St. Mary Magdalen.

508. _Northumberlond_, the district, not the county. Yorkshire is, in fact, meant, as the French version expressly mentions the Humber.

510. _of al a tyde_, for the whole of an hour.

512. _the constable_; named _Elda_ by Trivet and Gower.

519. Trivet says that she answered Elda in his own language, 'en sessoneys,' in Saxon, for she had learnt many languages in her youth.

525. The word _deye_ seems to have had two pronunciations; in l. 644 it is _dye_, with a different rime. In fact, Mr. Cromie's 'Ryme-Index' to Chaucer proves the point. On the one hand, _deye_ rimes to _aweye_, _disobeye_, _dreye_, _preye_, _seye_, _tweye_, _weye_; and on the other, _dye_ rimes to _avoutrye_, _bigamye_, _compaignye_, _Emelye_, _genterye_, _lye_, _maladye_, &c. So also, _high_ appears both as _hey_ and _hy_.

527. _forgat hir minde_, lost her memory.

531. The final _e_ in _plese_ is preserved from elision by the cæsural pause. Or, we may read _plesen_; yet the MSS. have _plese_.

533. _Hermengild_; spelt _Hermyngild_ in Trivet; answering to A. S. _Eormengild_ (Lappenberg, Hist. England, i. 285). Note that St. Hermengild was martyred just at this very time, Apr. 13, 846.

543. _plages_, regions; we even find the word in Marlowe's Tamburlaine, pt. i. act iv. sc. 4, and pt. ii. act i. sc. 1. The latter passage is--'From Scythia to the oriental _plage_ Of India.'

552. 'Eyes of his mind.' Jean de Meun has the expression _les yex de cuer_, the eyes of the heart; see his Testament, ll. 1412, 1683.

578. _Alla_, i. e. Ælla, king of Northumberland, A.D. 560-567; the same whose name Gregory (afterwards Pope) turned, by a pun, into Alleluia, according to the version of the celebrated story about Gregory and the English slaves, as given in Beda, Eccl. Hist. b. ii. c. 1. [157]

584. _quyte her whyle_, repay her time; i. e. her pains, trouble; as when we say 'it is worth _while_.' _Wile_ is _not_ intended.

585. 'The plot of the knight against Constance, and also her subsequent adventure with the steward, are both to be found, with some variations, in a story in the Gesta Romanorum, ch. 101; MS. Harl. 2270. Occleve has versified the whole story'; Tyrwhitt. See vol. iii. p. 410, for further information. Compare the conduct of Iachimo, in Cymbeline.

609. See Troil. iv. 357.

620. _Berth hir on hond_, affirms falsely; lit. bears her in hand. Chaucer uses the phrase 'to bere in hond' with the sense of false affirmation, sometimes with the idea of accusing falsely, as here and in the Wyf of Bathes Prologue, D. 393; and sometimes with that of persuading falsely, D. 232, 380. In Shakespeare the sense is rather--'to keep in expectation, to amuse with false pretences'; Nares's Glossary. Barbour uses it in the more general sense of 'to affirm,' or 'to make a statement,' whether falsely or truly. In Dyce's Skelton, i. 237, occurs the line--'They bare me in hande that I was a spye'; which Dyce explains by 'they accused me, laid to my charge that,' &c. He refers us to Palsgrave, who has some curious examples of it. E.g., at p. 450:--'_I beare in hande_, I threp upon a man that he hath done a dede or make hym beleve so, _Ie fais accroyre_ ... I beare hym in hande he was wode, _Ie luy metz sus la raige_, or _ie luy metz sus quil estoyt enragé_. What crime or yuell mayest thou beare me in hande of'; &c. So also: 'Many be borne an hande of a faute, and punysshed therfore, that were neuer gylty; Plerique facinoris _insimulantur_,' &c.; Hormanni Vulgaria, sig. m. ii. ed. 1530. In Skelton's Why Come Ye Nat to Courte, l. 449, _bereth on hand_ simply means 'persuades.'

631-58. Not in the original. A later insertion, of much beauty.

634. 'And bound Satan; and he still lies where he (then) lay.' In the Apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, Christ descends into hell, and (according to some versions) binds him with chains; see Piers Plowman, B. xviii. 401.

639. _Susanne_; see the story of Susannah, in the Apocrypha.

641. The Virgin's mother is called Anna in the Apocryphal Gospel of James. Her day is July 26. See Aurea Legenda, ed. Grässe, cap. cxxxi; Cowper's Apocryphal Gospels, p. 4.

647. 'Where that he gat (could get) for himself no favour.'

660. 'For pitee renneth sone in gentil herte'; Knightes Tale, A. 1761. And see note to Sq. Tale, F. 479.

664. _us avyse_, deliberate with ourselves, consider the matter again. Compare the law-phrase _Le roi s'avisera_, by which the king refuses assent to a measure proposed. 'We will consider whom to appoint as judge.'

666. I. e. a copy of the Gospels in Welsh or British, called in the French prose version 'liure des Ewangeiles.' Agreements were [158] sometimes written on the fly-leaves of copies of the Gospels, as may be seen in two copies of the A. S. version of them.

669. A very similar miracle is recorded in the old alliterative romance of Joseph of Arimathea, l. 362. The French version has:--'a peine auoit fini la parole, qe vne mayn close, com poyn de homme, apparut deuant Elda et quant questoient en presence, et ferri tiel coup en le haterel le feloun, que ambedeus lez eus lui enuolerent de la teste, & les dentz hors de la bouche; & le feloun chai abatu a la terre; et a ceo dist vne voiz en le oyance de touz: Aduersus filiam matris ecclesie ponebas scandalum; hec fecisti, et tacui.' I. e. 'Scarcely had he ended the word, when a closed hand, like a man's fist, appeared before Elda and all who were in the presence, and smote such a blow on the nape of the felon's neck that both his eyes flew out of his head, and the teeth out of his mouth; and the felon fell smitten down to the earth; and thereupon a voice said in the hearing of all, "Against the daughter of Mother Church thou wast laying a scandal; this hast thou done, and I held my peace."' The reading _tacui_ suggests that, in l. 676, the word _holde_ should rather be _held_; but the MSS. do not recognise this reading.

697. _hir thoughte_, it seemed to her; _thoughte_ is here impersonal; so in l. 699. The French text adds that Domulde (Donegild) was, moreover, jealous of hearing the praises of Constance's beauty.

701. _Me list nat_, it pleases me not, I do not wish to. He does not wish to give every detail. In this matter Chaucer is often very judicious; Gower and others often give the more unimportant matters as fully as the rest. Cf. l. 706; and see Squyeres Tale, F. 401.

703. _What_, why. Cf. Squyeres Tale, F. 283, 298.

716. Trivet says--'Puis a vn demy aan passe, vint nouele al Roy que les gentz de Albanie, qe sountz les Escotz, furent passes lour boundes et guerrirent les terres le Roy. Dount par comun counseil, le Roi assembla son ost de rebouter ses enemis. Et auant son departir vers Escoce, baila la Reine Constaunce sa femme en la garde Elda, le Conestable du chastel, et a Lucius, leuesqe de Bangor; si lour chargea que quant ele fut deliueres denlaunt, qui lui feisoient hastiuement sauoir la nouele'; i. e. 'Then, after half-a-year, news came to the king that the people of Albania, who are the Scots, had passed their bounds, and warred on the king's lands. Then by common counsel the king gathered his host to rebut his foes. And before his departure towards Scotland, he committed Queen Constance his wife to the keeping of Elda, the constable of the castle, and of Lucius, bishop of Bangor, and charged them that when she was delivered, they should hastily let him know the news.'

722. _knave child_, male child; as in Clerkes Tale, E. 444.

723. _at the fontstoon_, i. e. at his baptism; French text--'al baptisme fu nome Moris.'

729. _to doon his avantage_, to suit his convenience. He hoped, by going only a little out of his way, to tell Donegild the news also, and to receive a reward for doing so. Trivet says that the old [159] Queen was then at Knaresborough, situated 'between England and Scotland, as in an intermediate place.' Its exact site is less than seventeen miles west of York. Donegild pretends to be very pleased at the news, and gives the man a rich present.

736. _lettres_; so in all seven MSS.; Tyrwhitt reads _lettre_. But it is right as it is. _Lettres_ is sometimes used, like Lat. _literae_, in a singular sense, and the French text has 'les lettres.' Examples occur in Piers Plowman, B. ix. 38; Bruce, ii. 80. See l. 744, and note to l. 747.

738. _If ye wol aught_, if you wish (to say) anything.

740. _Donegild_ is dissyllabic here, as in l. 695, but in l. 805 it appears to have three syllables. Chaucer constantly alters proper names so as to suit his metre.

743. _sadly_, steadily, with the idea of long continuance.

747. _lettre_; here the singular form is used, but it is a matter of indifference. Exactly the same variation occurs in Barbour's Bruce, ii. 80:--

'And, among othir, _lettres_ ar gayn To the byschop off Androwis towne, That tauld how slayn wes that baroun. The _lettir_ tauld hym all the deid,' &c.

This circumstance, of exchanging the messenger's letters for forged ones, is found in Matthew Paris's account of the Life of Offa the first; ed. Wats, pp. 965-968.

748. _direct_, directed, addressed; French text 'maundez.'

751. Pronounce _horrible_ as in French.

752. The last word in this line should rather be _nas_ (= was not), as has kindly been pointed out to me; though the seven MSS. and the old editions all have _was_. By this alteration we should secure a true rime.

754. _elf_; French text--'ele fu malueise espirit en fourme de femme,' she was an evil spirit in form of woman. _Elf_ is the A.S. _ælf_, Icel. _álfr_, G. _alp_ and _elfe_; Shakespeare writes _ouphes_ for _elves_. 'The Edda distinguishes between Ljósálfar, the elves of light, and Dökkálfar, elves of darkness; the latter are not elsewhere mentioned either in modern fairy tales or in old writers.... In the Alvismál, elves and dwarfs are clearly distinguished as different. The abode of the elves in the Edda is Álfheimar, fairy land, and their king the god Frey, the god of light. In the fairy tales the Elves haunt the hills; hence their name Huldufólk, hidden people; respecting their origin, life, and customs, see Íslenzkar þjóðsögur, i. 1. In old writers the Elves are rarely mentioned; but that the same tales were told as at present is clear'; note on the word _álfr_, in Cleasby and Vigfusson's Icelandic Dictionary. See also Keightley's Fairy Mythology, and Brand's Popular Antiquities. The word is here used in a bad sense, and is nearly equivalent to witch. In the Prompt. Parv. we find--'Elfe, spryte, _Lamia_'; and Mr. Way notes that these elves were often supposed to bewitch children, and to use them cruelly. [160]

767. Pronounce _ágreáble_ nearly as in French, and with an accent on the first and third syllables.

769. _take_, handed over, delivered. _Take_ often means to give or hand over in Middle English: very seldom to convey or bring.

771. In the margin of MSS. E. Hn. Cp. and Pt. is written--'Quid turpius ebrioso, cui fetor in ore, tremor in corpore, qui promit stulta, prodit occulta, cuius mens alienatur, facies transformatur? Nullum enim latet secretum ubi regnat ebrietas.' This is obviously the original of the stanza, ll. 771-777; cf. note to B. 99 above. There is nothing answering to it in Trivet, but it is to be found in Pope Innocent's treatise De Contemptu Mundi, lib. ii. c. 19--_De ebrietate_. Migne's edition has 'promittit multa' for 'promit stulta.' The last clause is quoted from Prov. xxxi. 4 in the Vulgate version; our English versions omit it. See B. 2384.

778. 'O Donegild, I have no language fit to tell,' &c.

782. _mannish_, man-like, i. e. harsh and cruel, not mild and gentle like a woman. But Chaucer is not satisfied with the epithet, and says he ought rather to call her 'fiend-like.' Perhaps it is worth while to say that in Gower's Conf. Amant., lib. vi., where Pauli (iii. 52) has 'Most liche to _mannes_ creature,' the older edition by Chalmers has the form _mannish_. Lines 778-84 are not in the original.

789. 'He stowed away plenty (of wine) under his girdle,' i. e. drank his fill.

794. Pronounce _constábl'_ much as if it were French, with an accent on a. In l. 808 the accent is on _o_. Lastly, in l. 858, all three syllables are fully sounded.

798. 'Three days and a quarter of an hour'; i. e. she was to be allowed only three days, and after that to start off as soon as possible. _Tide_ (like _tíð_ in Icelandic) sometimes means an hour. The French text says 'deynz quatre iours,' within four days.

801. _croude_, push; see ll. 296, 299 above; and note to l. 299.

813-26. Lines 813-819 are not in the French, and ll. 820-826 are not at all close to the original. The former stanza, which is due to Boeth. bk. i. met. 5. 22-30, was doubtless added in the revision.

827-33. The French text only has--'en esperaunce qe dure comencement amenera dieu a bon fyn, et qil me purra en la mere sauuer, qi en mere et en terre est de toute puissaunce.'

835. The beautiful stanzas in ll. 834-868 are all Chaucer's own; and of the next stanza, ll. 869-875, the French text gives but the merest hint.

842. _eggement_, incitement. The same word is used in other descriptions of the Fall. Thus, in Piers Plowman, B. i. 65, it is said of Satan that 'Adam and Eue he _egged_ to ille '; and in Allit. Poems, ed. Morris, B. 241, it is said of Adam that 'thurgh the _eggyng_ of Eue he ete of an apple.'

852. _refut_, refuge; see G. 75, and A. B. C. 14.

859. _As lat_, pray, let. See note to Clerkes Prologue, E. 7. [161]

873. _purchace_, provide, make provision. So in Troilus, bk. ii. 1125, the line 'And of som goodly answere you purchace' means--and provide yourself with some kind answer, i. e. be ready with a kind reply.

875-84. Much abridged from the French text.

885. _tormented_, tortured. However, the French text says the messenger acknowledged his drunkenness freely. Examination by torture was so common, that Chaucer seems to have regarded the mention of it as being the most simple way of telling the story.

893. _out of drede_, without doubt, certainly; cf. l. 869. The other equally common expression _out of doute_ comes to much the same thing, because _doute_ in Middle-English has in general the meaning of _fear_ or _dread_, not of hesitation. See Group E. 634, 1155; and Prol. A. 487.

894. _pleinly rede_, fully read, read at length. In fact, Chaucer judiciously omits the details of the French text, where we read that King Ælla rushed into his mother's room with a drawn sword as she lay asleep, roused her by crying 'traitress!' in a loud voice, and, after hearing the full confession which she made in the extremity of her terror, slew her and cut her to pieces as she lay in bed.

901. _fleteth_, floats. French text--'le quinte an de cest exil, come ele _flotaunt_ sur le mere,' &c. Cf. _fleet_ in l. 463.

905. The name of the castle is certainly not given in the French text, which merely says it was 'vn chastel dun Admiral de paens,' i. e. a castle of an admiral of the Pagans.

912. _gauren_, gaze, stare. See note to Squ. Tale, F. 190.

913. _shortly_, briefly; because the poet considerably abridges this part of the narrative. The steward's name was Thelous.

925. The word _Auctor_, here written in the margin of E., signifies that this stanza and the two following ones are additions to the story by the author. At the same time, ll. 925-931 are really taken from Chaucer's own translation of Pope Innocent's treatise De Contemptu Mundi; see further in the note to B. 99 above. Accordingly, we also find here, in the margin of E., the following Latin note:--'O extrema libidinis turpitudo, que non solum mentem effeminat, set eciam corpus eneruat. Semper sequ[u]ntur dolor et penitentia post,' &c. This corresponds to the above treatise, lib. ii. c. 21, headed 'De luxuria.' The last clause is abbreviated; the original has:--'Semper illam procedunt ardor et petulantia; semper comitantur fetor et immunditia; sequuntur semper dolor et poenitentia.'

932-45. These two stanzas are wholly Chaucer's, plainly written as a parallel passage to that in ll. 470-504 above.

934. _Golias_, Goliath. See I Samuel xvii. 25.

940. See the story of Holofernes in the Monkes Tale, B. 3741; and the note. I select the spelling _Olofernus_ here, because it is that of the majority of the MSS., and agrees with the title _De Oloferno_ in the Monkes Tale.

947. In l. 465, Chaucer mentions the 'Strait of Marrok,' i. e. Morocco, though there is no mention of it in the French text; so here he alludes [162] to it again, but by a different name, viz. 'the mouth of Jubalter and Septe.' _Jubaltar_ (Gibraltar) is from the Arabic _jabálu't tárik_, i. e. the mountain of Tarik; who was the leader of a band of Saracens that made a descent upon Spain in the eighth century. _Septe_ is Ceuta, on the opposite coast of Africa.

965. _shortly_, briefly; because Chaucer here again abridges the original, which relates how the Romans burnt the Sultaness, and slew more than 11,000 of the Saracens, without a single death or even wound on their own side.

967. _senatour._ His name was Arsemius of Cappadocia; his wife's name was Helen. Accent _victorie_ on the _o_.

969. _as seith the storie_, as the history says. The French text relates this circumstance fully.

971. The French text says that, though Arsemius did not recognise Constance, she, on her part, recognised him at once, though she did not reveal it.

981. _aunte._ Helen, the wife of Arsemius, was daughter of Sallustius, brother of the Emperor Tiberius, and Constance's uncle. Thus Helen was really Constance's first cousin. Chaucer may have altered it purposely; but it looks as if he had glanced at the sentence--'Cest heleyne, la nece Constaunce, taunt tendrement ama sa nece,' &c., and had read it as--'This Helen ... loved her _niece_ so tenderly.' In reality, the word _nece_ means 'cousin' here, being applied to Helen as well as to Constance.

982. _she_, i. e. Helen; for Constance knew Helen.

991. _to receyven_, i. e. to submit himself to any penance which the Pope might see fit to impose upon him. Journeys to Rome were actually made by English kings; Ælfred was sent to Rome as a boy, and his father, Æthelwulf, also spent a year there, but (as the Chronicle tells us) he went 'mid micelre weorðnesse,' with much pomp.

994. _wikked werkes_; especially the murder of his mother, as Trivet says. See note to l. 894.

999. _Rood him ageyn_, rode towards him, rode to meet him; cf. l. 391. See Cler. Tale, E. 911, and the note.

1009. _Som men wolde seyn_, some relate the story by saying. The expression occurs again in l. 1086. On the strength of it, Tyrwhitt concluded that Chaucer here refers to Gower, who tells the story of Constance in Book ii. of his Confessio Amantis. He observes that Gower's version of the story includes both the circumstances which are introduced by this expression. But this is not conclusive, since we find that Nicholas Trivet also makes mention of the same circumstances. In the present instance the French text has--'A ceo temps de la venuz le Roi a Rome, comensca Moris son diseotisme aan. Cist estoit _apris priuement de sa mere Constance, qe, quant il irreit a la feste ou son seignur le senatour_,' &c.; i. e. At this time of the king's coming to Rome, Maurice began his eighteenth year. _He was secretly instructed by his mother Constance, that, when he should go to the_ [163] _feast with his lord the senator_, &c. See also the note to l. 1086 below. Besides, Gower may have followed Chaucer.

1014. _metes space_, time of eating. This circumstance strikingly resembles the story of young Roland, who, whilst still a child, was instructed by his mother Bertha to appear before his uncle Charlemagne, by way of introducing himself. The story is well told in Uhland's ballad entitled 'Klein Roland,' a translation of which is given at pp. 335-340 of my 'Ballads and Songs of Uhland.'

'They had but waited a little while, When Roland returns more bold; With hasty step to the king he comes, And seizes his cup of gold.

"What ho, there! stop! you saucy imp!" Are the words that loudly ring. But Roland clutches the beaker still With eyes fast fixed on the king.

The king at the first looked fierce and dark, But soon perforce he smiled-- "Thou comest," he said, "into golden halls As though they were woodlands wild,"' &c.

The result is also similar; Bertha is reconciled to Charlemagne, much as Constance is to Ælla.

1034. _aught_, in any way, at all; lit. 'a whit.'

1035. _sighte_, sighed. So also _pighte_, 'pitched'; _plighte_, 'plucked'; and _shrighte_, 'shrieked.' It occurs again in Troil. iii. 1080, iv. 714, 1217, v. 1633; and in the Romaunt of the Rose, l. 1746.

1036. _that he mighte_, as fast as he could.

1038. 'I ought to suppose, in accordance with reasonable opinion.' Chaucer tells the story quite in his own way. There is no trace of ll. 1038-1042 in the French, and scarcely any of ll. 1048-1071, which is all in his own excellent strain.

1056. _shet_, shut, closed. Compare the description of Griselda in the Clerkes Tale, E. 1058-1061.

1058. Both _twyes_ and _owne_ are dissyllabic.

1060. _all his halwes_, all His saints. Hence the term All-hallow-mas, i. e. All Saints' day.

1061. _wisly_, certainly. _as have_, I pray that he may have; see note to l. 859 above. 'I pray He may so surely have mercy on my soul, as that I am as innocent of your suffering as Maurice my son is like you in the face.'

1078. After this line, the French text tells us that King Ælla presented himself before Pope Pelagius, who absolved him for the death of his mother. Pelagius II. was pope in 578-90.

1086. Here again, Tyrwhitt supposes Chaucer to follow Gower. But, in fact, Chaucer and Gower both consulted Trivet, who says [164] here--'Constaunce charga son fitz Morice del messager [_or_ message].... Et puis, quant Morice estoit deuaunt lempereur venuz, oue la compaignie honurable, et auoit son message fest de part le Roi son pere,' &c.; i. e. 'Constance charged her son Maurice with the message ... and then, when Maurice was come before the emperor, with the honourable company, and had done his message on behalf of the king his father,' &c. Or, as before, Gower may have copied Chaucer.

1090. _As he_; used much as we should now use 'as one.' It refers to the Emperor, of course.

1091. _Sente_, elliptical for 'as that he would send.' Tyrwhitt reads _send_; but it is best to leave an expression like this as it stands in the MSS. It was probably a colloquial idiom; and, in the next line, we have _wente_. Observe that _sente_ is in the subjunctive mood, and is equivalent to 'he would send.'

1107. Chaucer so frequently varies the length and accent of a proper name that there is no objection to the supposition that we are here to read _Cústancë_ in three syllables, with an accent on the first syllable. In exactly the same way, we find _Grísildis_ in three syllables (E. 948), though in most other passages it is _Grisíld_. We have had _Cústance_, accented on the first syllable, several times; see ll. 438, 556, 566, 576, &c.; also _Custáncë_, three syllables, ll. 184, 274, 319, 612, &c. Tyrwhitt inserts a second _your_ before _Custance_, but without authority.

1109. _It am I_; it is I. It is the usual idiom. So in the A.S. version of St. John vi. 20, we find 'ic hyt eom,' i. e. I it am, and in a Dutch New Testament, A.D. 1700, I find 'Ick ben 't,' i. e. I am it. The Moeso-Gothic version omits _it_, having simply 'Ik im'; so does Wyclif's, which has 'I am.' Tyndale, A.D. 1526, has 'it ys I.'

1113. _thonketh_, pronounced _thonk'th_; so also _eyl'th_, B. 1171, _Abyd'th_, B. 1175. So also _tak'th_, l. 1142 below. _of_, for. So in Chaucer's Balade of Truth, l. 19, we have 'thank God _of al_,' i. e. for all things. See my notes to Chaucer's Minor Poems, vol. i. p. 552.

1123. The French text tells us that he was named Maurice of Cappadocia, and was also known, in Latin, as _Mauritius Christianissimus Imperator_. Trivet tells us no more about him, except that he accounts for the title 'of Cappadocia' by saying that Arsemius (the senator who found Constance and Maurice and took care of them) was a Cappadocian. Gibbon says--'The Emperor Maurice derived his origin from ancient Rome; but his immediate parents were settled at Arabissus in Cappadocia, and their singular felicity preserved them alive to behold and partake the fortune of their august son.... Maurice ascended the throne at the mature age of 43 years; and he reigned above 20 years over the east and over himself.'--Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, cap. xlv. He was murdered, with all his seven children, by his successor, Phocas the Usurper; Nov. 27, A.D. 600. His accession was in A.D. 582.

1127. The statement 'I bere it not in minde,' i. e. I do not remember it, may be taken to mean that Chaucer could find nothing about [165] Maurice in his French text beyond the epithet _Christianissimus_, which he has skilfully expanded into l. 1123. He vaguely refers us to 'olde Romayn gestes,' that is, to lives of the Roman emperors, for he can hardly mean the Gesta Romanorum in this instance. Gibbon refers us to Evagrius, lib. v. and lib. vi.; Theophylact Simocatta; Theophanes, Zonaras, and Cedrenus.

1132. In the margin of MSS. E. Hn. Cp. Pt. is written--'A mane usque ad vesperam mutabitur tempus. Tenent tympanum et gaudent ad sonum organi,' &c. See the next note.

1135. In the margin of MSS. E. Hn. Cp. Pt. is written--'Quis vnquam vnicam diem totam duxit in sua dilectione [_vel_ delectatione] iocundam? quem in aliqua parte diei reatus consciencie, vel impetus Ire, vel motus concupiscencie non turbauerit? quem liuor Inuidie, vel Ardor Auaricie, vel tumor superbie non vexauerit? quem aliqua iactura vel offensa, vel passio non commouerit,' &c. Cp. Pt. insert _inde_ before _non turbauerit_. This corresponds to nothing in the French text, but it is quoted from Pope Innocent's treatise, De Contemptu Mundi, lib. i. c. 22; see note to B. 99 above. The extract in the note to l. 1132 occurs in the same chapter, but both clauses in it are borrowed; the former from Ecclus. xviii. 26, the latter from Job, xxi. 12.

1143. _I gesse_, I suppose. Chaucer somewhat alters the story. Trivet says that Ælla died at the end of nine months after this. Half-a-year after, Constance repairs to Rome. Thirteen days after her arrival, her father Tiberius dies. A year later, Constance herself dies, on St. Clement's day (Nov. 23), A.D. 584, and is buried at Rome, near her father, in St. Peter's Church. The date 584, here given by Trivet, should rather be 583; the death of Tiberius took place on Aug. 14, 582; see Gibbon.

THE SHIPMAN'S PROLOGUE.

1165. The host here refers to the Man of Lawes Tale, which had just been told, and uses the expression '_thrifty_ tale' with reference to the same expression above, B. 46. Most MSS. separate this end-link widely from the Tale, but MS. Hl. and MS. Arch. Seld. B. 14 have it in the right place. See vol. iii. pp. 417-9.

_for the nones_, for the nonce, for the occasion; see note to the Prologue, A. 379. The A.S. _[=a]nes_ (= once) is an adverb with a genitive case-ending; and, being an adverb, becomes indeclinable, and can accordingly be used as a _dative_ case after the preposition _for_, which properly governs the dative.

1166. The Host here turns to the Parson (see Prol. A. 477), and adjures him to tell a tale, according to the agreement.

1167. _yore_, put for _of yore_, formerly, already.--M.

1169. _Can moche good_, know (or are acquainted with) much good; i. e. with many good things, Cf. B. 47. [166]

1170. _Benedicite_, bless ye; i. e. bless ye the Lord; the first word of the Song of the Three Children, and a more suitable exclamation than most of those in common use at the time. In the Knightes Tale, A. 1785, where Theseus is _pondering_ over the strange event he had just witnessed, the word is pronounced _in full_, as five syllables. But in A. 2115, it is pronounced, as here, as a mere trisyllable. The syllables to be dropped are the second and third, so that we must say _ben'cite_. This is verified by a passage in the Townley Mysteries, p. 85, where it is actually spelt _benste_, and reduced to two syllables only. Cf. notes to B. 1974, and Troil. i. 780.

1171. _man_; dat. case after _eyleth_. Swearing is alluded to as a prevalent vice amongst Englishmen in Robert of Brunne, in the Persones Tale of Chaucer, and elsewhere.--M.

1172. _O Iankin_, &c.; 'O Johnny, you are there, are you?' That is, 'so it is you whom I hear, is it, Mr. Johnny?' A derisive interruption. It was common to call a priest _Sir John_, by way of mild derision; see Monkes Prol. (B. 3119) and Nonne Prestes Prol. (B. 4000). The Host carries the derision a little further by using the diminutive form. See note to B. 4000.

1173. _a loller_, a term of reproach, equivalent to a canting fellow. Tyrwhitt aptly cites a passage from a treatise of the period, referring to the Harleian Catalogue, no. 1666:--'Now in Engelond it is a comun protectioun ayens persecutioun, if a man is customable to swere nedeles and fals and unavised, by the bones, nailes, and sides, and other membres of Christ. And to absteyne fro othes nedeles and unleful, and repreve sinne by way of charite, is mater and cause now, why Prelates and sum Lordes sclaundren men, and clepen hem _Lollardes_, Eretikes,' &c.

The reader will not clearly understand this word till he distinguishes between the Latin _lollardus_ and the English _loller_, two words of different origin which were _purposely_ confounded in the time of Wyclif. The Latin _Lollardus_ had been in use before Wyclif. Ducange quotes from Johannes Hocsemius, who says, under the date 1309---'Eodem anno quidam hypocritae gyrovagi, qui _Lollardi_, sive Deum laudantes, vocabantur, per Hannoniam et Brabantiam quasdam mulieres nobiles deceperunt.' He adds that Trithemius says in his Chronicle, under the year 1315--'ita appellatos a Gualtero _Lolhard_, Germano quodam.' Kilian, in his Dictionary of Mid. Dutch, says--'_Lollaerd_, mussitator, mussitabundus'; i. e. a mumbler of prayers. This gives two etymologies for _Lollardus_. Being thus already in use as a term of reproach, it was applied to the followers of Wyclif, as we learn from Thomas Walsingham, who says, under the year 1377--'Hi uocabantur a uulgo _Lollardi_, incedentes nudis pedibus'; and again--'_Lollardi_ sequaces Joannis Wiclif.' But the Old English _loller_ (from the verb to _loll_) meant simply a lounger, an idle vagabond, as is abundantly clear from a notable passage in Piers the Plowman, C-text (ed. Skeat), x. 188-218; where William tells us plainly-- [167]

'Now kyndeliche, by crist · beþ suche callyd _lolleres_, As by englisch of oure eldres · of olde menne techynge. He that _lolleþ_ is lame · oþer his leg out of ioynte,' &c.

Here were already two (if not three) words confused, but this was not all. By a bad pun, the Latin _lolium_, tares, was connected with _Lollard_, so that we find in Political Poems, i. 232, the following--

'Lollardi sunt zizania, Spinae, uepres, ac _lollia_, Quae uastant hortum uineae.'

This obviously led to allusions to the Parable of the Tares, and fully accounts for the punning allusion to _cockle_, i. e. tares, in l. 1183. Mr. Jephson observes that _lolium_ is used in the Vulgate Version, Matt. xii. 25; but this is a mistake, as the word there used is _zizania_. Gower, Prol. to Conf. Amant., ed. Pauli, i. 15, speaks of--

'This newe secte of _lollardie_, And also many an heresie.'

Also in book v., id. ii. 187,--

'Be war that thou be nought oppressed With anticristes _lollardie_,' &c.

See Mosheim, Eccl. Hist. iii. 355-358; Wordsworth's Eccl. Biography, i. 331, note.

1180. 'He shall not give us any commentary on a gospel.' To _glose_ is to comment upon, with occasional free introduction of irrelevant matter. The _gospel_ is the text, or portion of the Gospel commented upon.

1181. 'We all agree in the one fundamental article of faith'; by which he insinuates--'and let that suffice; we want no theological subtilties discussed here.'

1183. _springen_, scatter, _sprink_-le. The pt. t. is _spreynde_ or _spreynte_; the pp. _spreynd_ occurs in B. 422, 1830.--M. Gower, Conf. Amantis, bk. v., ed. Pauli, ii. 190, speaks of _lollardie_

'Which now is come for to dwelle, To sowe cockel with the corne.'

1185. _body_, i. e. self. Cf. _lyf_ = a person, in P. Plowman, B. iii. 292.--M.

1186. See B. 3984, which suggests that there is a play upon words here. The Shipman will make his horse's bells ring loudly enough to awake them all; or he will ring so merry a peal, as to rouse them like a church bell that awakes a sleeper.

1189. It is plain that the unmeaning words _phislyas_ and _phillyas_, as in the MSS., must be corruptions of some difficult form. I think that form is certainly _physices_, with reference to the Physics of Aristotle, here conjoined with 'philosophy' and 'law' in order to include the chief forms of medieval learning. Aristotle was only known, in Chaucer's time, in Latin translations, and _Physices Liber_ would be a possible title for such a translation. Lewis and Short's Lat. Dict. gives '_physica_, gen. [168] _physicae_, and _physice_, gen. _physices_, f., = [Greek: phusikê], natural science, natural philosophy, physics, Cicero, Academ. 1. 7. 25; id. De Finibus, 3. 21. 72; 3. 22. 73.' Magister Artium et _Physices_ was the name of a degree; see Longfellow's Golden Legend, § vi.

That Chaucer should use the gen. _physices_ alone, is just in his usual manner; cf. _Iudicum_, B. 3236; _Eneidos_, B. 4549; _Metamorphoseos_, B. 93. Tyrwhitt's reading _of physike_ gives the same sense.

THE SHIPMANNES TALE.

This Tale agrees rather closely with one in Boccaccio's _Decamerone_, Day viii. nov. 1. See further in vol. iii. p. 420.

1191. _Seint Denys_, Saint Denis, in the environs of Paris. Cf. ll. 1247, 1249, and note to 1341.

1202. _us_, i. e. us women. This is clear proof that some of the opening lines of this Tale were not originally intended for the Shipman, but for the Wife of Bath, as she is the only lady in the company to whom they would be suitable. We may remember that Chaucer originally meant to make each pilgrim tell _four_ Tales; so there is nothing surprising in the fact that he once thought of giving this to the Wife. This passage is parallel to D. 337-339.

1209. _perilous._ Cf. D. 339: 'it is peril of our chastitee.'

1228. Referring to the common proverb--'As fain as a fowl [bird] of a fair day'; cf. l. 1241 below, A. 2437, G. 1342.

1233. _Daun_, Dan, for Lat. _Dominus_, corresponding to E. _sir_, as in 'Sir John,' a common title for a priest. Cf. B. 3119.

1244. _Shoop him_, lit. shaped himself, set about, got ready. Cf. P. Plowman, C. i. 2, xiv. 247, and the notes.

1245. _Brugges_, Bruges; which, as Wright remarks, was 'the grand central mart of European commerce in the middle ages.' Cf. P. Plowman, C. vii. 278, and the note.

1256. _graunges_, granges; cf. notes to A. 3668, and A. 166.

1260. _Malvesye_, Malmsey; so named from _Malvasia_, now _Napoli di Malvasia_, a town on the E. coast of Lacedaemonia in the Morea. See note in the Babees Book, ed. Furnivall, p. 206, where _Malvasia_ is explained as the Ital. corruption of _Monemvasia_, from Gk. [Greek: monê embasia], single entrance; with reference to its position.

1261. _Vernage._ In the Babees Book, ed. Furnivall, p. 203, _vernage_ is said to be a red wine, bright, sweet, and somewhat rough, from Tuscany and Genoa, and other parts of Italy. The Ital. name is _vernaccia_, lit. the name of a thick-skinned grape. The information in this note and the preceding one is drawn from Henderson's History of Ancient and Modern Wines, 1824: which see.

1262. _volatyl_, wild fowl, game; here used as a collective plural, to represent Lat. _uolatilia_. Littré quotes: 'Tant ot les _volatiles_ chieres'; Roman de la Rose, 20365. Wyclif has _al volatile_ to translate _cunctum_ [169] _uolatile_, Gen. vii. 14; also _my volatilis_ in Matt. xxii. 4, where the Vulgate has _altilia_. Cf. F. _volaille_.

1278. _passed pryme_, past 9 A.M. See notes to A. 3906, F. 73; and cf. B. 1396.

1281. _his thinges_, the things he had to say; cf. F. 78. It 'means the divine office in the Breviary, i. e. the psalms and lessons from scripture which, being absent from the convent, he was bound to say privately'; Bell. _curteisly_, reverently. See note to l. 1321 below.

1287. _under the yerde_, still subject to the discipline of the rod. As girls were married at a very early age, this should mean 'still quite a child.' Cf. _as hir list_ in l. 1286. And see E. 22. See Ælfric's Colloquy (Wright's Vocab. ed. Wülker, p. 102), where the boy says he is still _sub uirga_, on which the A.S. gloss is _under gyrda_. F. _sous la verge_ (Littré).

1292. _appalled_, enfeebled, languid; see F. 365.

1293. _dare_, lie motionless. This is the original sense of the word, as in E. Friesic _bedaren_. So also Low G. _bedaren_, to be still and quiet; as in _dat weer bedaart_, the weather becomes settled; _een bedaart mann_, a man who has lost the fire of youth. Du. _bedaren_, to compose, to calm. The rather common M.E. phrase _to droupe and dare_ means 'to sink down and lie quiet,' like a hunted animal in hiding; hence came the secondary sense 'to lurk' or 'lie close,' as in the Prompt. Parv. Cotgrave has F. _blotir_, 'to squat, skowke, or lie close to the ground, like a _daring_ lark or affrighted foul.' Hence also a third sense, 'to peer round,' as a lurking creature that looks out for possible danger. The word is common in M.E., and in many passages the sense 'to lie still' suits better than 'lurk,' as it is usually explained.

1295. _Were_, 'which might be,' 'which should happen to be'; the relative is understood. _forstraught_, distracted. Such is evidently the sense; but the word occurs nowhere else, and is incorrect. As far as I can make it out, Chaucer has coined this word incorrectly. The right word is _destrat_ (vol. ii. p. 67, l. 1), from O.F. _destrait_, pp. of _destraire_, to tear asunder (as by horses), to torment, fatigue (Godefroy). Next, he turned it (1) into _forstrait_, pp. of _forstraire_ (_fortraire_ in Cotgrave), to purloin; and (2) into _forstraught_, as if it were the pp. of an A.S. *_for-streccan_, to stretch exceedingly. Thus, he has made one change by altering the prefix, and another by misdividing the word and substituting English for French. A similar mistake is seen in the absurd form _distraught_, used for 'distracted,' though it is, formally, equivalent to _dis-straught_, as if made up of the prefix _dis_- and the pp. of _strecchen_, to stretch. An early instance occurs in Lydgate's Minor Poems, ed. Halliwell, p. 206, where we find '_Distrauhte_ in thouhte,' i. e. distracted in thought, mad. There is much confusion between the E. prefixes _for-_, _fore-_, and the F. _fors-_, _for-_. Chaucer has _straughte_ (correctly), as the pt. t. of _strecchen_, in A. 2916.

1298. Accent _labóured_ on the second syllable. [170]

1303. 'God knows all'; implying, 'I can contradict you, if I choose to speak.'

1321. _port-hors_, for _porte-hors_, lit. 'carry-abroad,' the F. equivalent of Lat. _portiforium_, a breviary. Also spelt _portous_, _portess_, &c. 'The _Portous_, or Breviary, contained whatever was to be said by all beneficed clerks, and those in holy orders, either in choir, or privately by themselves, as they recited their daily canonical hours; no musical notation was put into these books.'--Rock, Church of our Fathers, v. iii. pt. 2, p. 212. Dan John had just been saying 'his things' out of it (l. 1281). The music was omitted to save space. See P. Plowman, B. xv. 122, and my note on the line.

1327. _for to goon_, i. e. even though going to hell were the penalty of my keeping secret what you tell me.

1329. 'This I do, not for kinship, but out of true love.'

1335. _a legende_, a story of martyrdom, like that of a saint's life.

1338. St. Martin of Tours, whose day is Nov. 11.

1341. St. Denis of France, St. Dionysius, bishop of Paris, martyred A.D. 272, whose day is Oct. 9. Near his place of martyrdom was built a chapel, which was first succeeded by a church, and then by the famous abbey of St. Denis, in which King Dagobert and his successors were interred. The French adopted St. Denis as their patron saint; see Chambers, Book of Days, ii. 427; Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints, Oct. 9.

1353. _sit_, is becoming, befits; see E. 460, 1277.

1384. _Geniloun_, Genilon or Ganelon, the traitor who betrayed Charlemagne's army at Roncesvalles. For this deed he was torn to death by wild horses, according to the romance-writers. See La Chanson de Roland, l. 3735. Cf. note to B. 3579, and Book of the Duchesse, 1121, and my note upon it.

1396. _chilindre_, a kind of portable sun-dial, lit. cylinder. A thirteenth-century Latin treatise on the use of the _chilindre_ was edited by Mr. E. Brock for the Chaucer Society, and I here copy his clear description of the instrument. 'The Chilindre (_cylindrus_) or cylinder is one of the manifold forms of the sun-dial, very simple in its construction, but rude and inaccurate as a time-shower. According to the following treatise, it consists of a wooden cylinder, with a central bore from top to bottom, and with a hollow space in the top, into which a moveable rotary lid with a little knob at the top is fitted. This lid is also bored in the centre, and a string passed through the whole instrument. Upon this string the chilindre hangs [perpendicularly] when in use. The style or gnomon works on a pin fixed in the lid. When the instrument is in use, the style projects at a right angle to the surface of the cylindrical body, through a notch in the side of the lid, but can, at pleasure, be turned down and slipt into the central bore, which is made a little wider at the top to receive it. The body of the _chilindre_ is marked with a table of the points of the shadow, a table of degrees for finding the sun's altitude, and spaces corresponding to [171] the months of the year and the signs of the zodiac. Across these spaces are drawn six oblique hour-lines.

'To ascertain the time of day by the _chilindre_, consider what month it is, and turn the lid round till the style stands directly over the corresponding part of the _chilindre_; then hold up the instrument by the string so that the style points towards the sun, or in other words, so that the shadow of the style falls perpendicularly, and the hour will be shewn by the lowest line reached by the shadow.'

Another treatise of the same character was subsequently edited by Mr. Brock for the same Society. It is entitled 'Practica Chilindri; or the Working of the Cylinder; by John Hoveden.'

There is a curious reference to the same instrument in the following passage from Horman's Vulgaria, leaf 338, back:--'There be iorneyringis [day-circles, dials] and instrume_n_t_is_ lyke an ha_n_gynge pyler with a tu_n_ge lyllyng [lolling] out, to knowe what tyme of the day.'

In Wright's Vocabularies, ed. Wülker, 572. 22, we find: '_Chilindrus, anglice_ a leuel; _uel est instrumentum quo hore notantur, anglice_ a chylaundre.' It thus appears that the reading _kalendar_, in the old editions, is due to a mistake.

The most interesting comment on this passage is afforded by the opening lines of the Prologue to Part II. of Lydgate's _Siege of Thebes_, where Lydgate is clearly thinking of Chaucer's words. Here also the black-letter edition of 1561 has _Kalendar_, but the reading of MS. Arundel 119 (leaf 18) is more correct, as follows:--

'Passed the throp of Bowton on the Ble, By my _chilyndre_ I gan anon to se, Thorgh the sonne, that ful cler gan shyne, Of the clok[ke] that it drogh to nyne.'

_pryme of day_, 9 A.M., in the present passage; see above, and note the preparations for dinner in ll. 1399-1401; the dinner-hour being 10 A.M. See also note to A. 3906. 'Our forefathers dined at an hour at which we think it fashionable to breakfast; _ten o 'clock_ was the time established by ancient usage for the principal meal'; Our Eng. Home, p. 33. In earlier times it was _nine_ o'clock; see Wright, Hist. of Domestic Manners, p. 155.

1399. 'As cheery as a magpie.'

1404. _Qui la?_ who's there. All the MSS. agree in thus cutting down the expression _qui est la_ to two words; and this abbreviation is emphasised by the English gloss 'Who ther' in E. and Hn.; Cm. has _Who there_, without any French. It is clear, too, that the line is imperfect at the caesura, thus:--

_Qui la_? | quod he. | --Pe | ter it | am I ||

This medial pause is probably intentional, to mark the difference between the speakers. Ed. 1532 (which Tyrwhitt follows) has _Qui est la_, in order to fill out the line. Wright has the same; and (as usual) suppresses the fact that the word _est_ is not in the MS. which he follows 'with literal accuracy.' [172]

_Peter!_ by Saint Peter! a too common exclamation, shewing that even women used to swear. It occurs again in D. 446, 1332, and Hous of Fame, 1034, 2000.

1412. _elenge_, pronounced (eeléngg[*e]), in a dreary, tedious, lonely manner; drearily. From A. S. _[=æ]lenge_, lengthy, protracted; a derivative from _lang_, long; see P. Plowman, C. i. 204, and the note. In Pegge's Kenticisms (E. D. S. Gloss. C. 3), we have: '_Ellinge_ [_pronounced_ éllinj], _adj._ solitary, lonely, melancholy, farre from neighbours. See Ray.' It is also still in use in Sussex. The usual derivation from A. S. _ellende_, foreign, is incorrect; but it seems to have been confused with this word, whence the sense of 'strange, foreign,' was imported into it. See _Alange_ in the New E. Dictionary.

1413. _go we dyne_, let us go and dine; as in P. Plowman, C. i. 227.

1417. _Seint Yve._ 'St. Ivia, or Ivo,' says Alban Butler, 'was a Persian bishop, who preached in England in the seventh century.' He died at St. Ive's in Huntingdonshire. A church was also built in his honour at St. Ive's in Cornwall. His day is April 25. This line is repeated in D. 1943. Cf. A. 4264.

1421. _dryve forth_, spend our time in; cf. P. Plowman, C. i. 225.

1423. _pleye_, 'take some relaxation by going on a pilgrimage'; clearly shewing the chief object of pilgrimages. Cf. D. 557. The line also indicates that it was a practice, when men could no longer make a show in the world, to go on a pilgrimage, or 'go out of the way' somewhere, to avoid creditors.

1436. _houshold._ So in E. Hn. Cm.; Cp. Pt. Ln. Hl. T. have _housbonde_, _housbond_, but the application of this word to a housewife is not happy.

1441. _messe_, mass; it seems to have been said, on this occasion, about 9.30 A.M. It did not take long; cf. l. 1413.

1445. _At-after_, soon after. This curious form is still in use; see the Cleveland Glossary. So in the Whitby Glossary:--'All things in order; ploughing first, sowing _at-after_.' Cf. _'at-after_ supper,' Rich. III. iv. 3. 31; and see _At_, § 40, in the New E. Dict. We find also _at-under_ and _at-before_. It occurs again in F. 1219.

1466. _a myle-wey_, even by twenty minutes (the time taken to walk a mile).

1470. _Graunt mercy of_, many thanks for.

1476. 'God defend (forbid) that ye should spare.'

1484. _took_, handed over, delivered; see note to P. Plowman, C. iv. 47. And see l. 1594 below.

1496. _let_, leadeth, leads; note the various readings. Cf. 'Thet is the peth of pouerte huerby _let_ the holy gost tho thet,' &c.; i. e. that is the path of poverty whereby the Holy Ghost leads those that, &c.--Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 185; and so again in the same, p. 115, l. 9, and p. 51, l. 13. In P. Plowman, B. iii. 157, the Rawlinson MS. has _let_ instead of _ledeth_. [173]

1499. _crowne_; alluding to the priestly tonsure. See note to P. Plowman, C. i. 86.

1506. For _bolt-upright_, see note to A. 4194. This line is defective in the first foot; read--Hav' | hir in | his, &c. Tyrwhitt reads _Haven_, but admits, in the notes, that the final _n_ came out of his own head.

1515. _the faire_, the fair at Bruges. On fairs, see the note to P. Plowman, C. vii. 211.

1519. _chevisaunce_, a contract for borrowing money on his credit; see A. 282, and note to P. Plowman, B. v. 249. For the purpose of making such a contract, a proportional sum had to be paid down in ready money; see note to l. 1524.

1524. 'A certain (number of) franks; and some (franks) he took with him.' The latter sum refers to the money he had to pay down in order to get the _chevisance_ made. See note to Wyclif's Works, ed. Matthew, p. 528. And see l. 1558.

1542. Here _sheeld_ is used as a plural, by analogy with _pund_, i. e. pounds. A _sheeld_ was a French _écu_, or crown; see A. 278.

1557. _Lumbardes_, Lombards, the great money-lenders and bankers of the middle ages. Cf. 'Lumbardes of Lukes, that lyuen by lone as Iewes,' Lombards from Lucca, that live by lending, as Jews do; P. Plowman, C. v. 194. Owing to the accent, _Lumbard's_ is dissyllabic.

1558. _bond_ is misprinted _hond_ in Wright's edition; MS. Hl. has _bond_, correctly, though the note in Bell says otherwise.

1592. _Marie_, by St. Mary; the familiar 'Marry!' as used by our dramatists.

1595. _yvel thedom_, ill success. Cf. 'Now, sere, evyl thedom com to thi snoute'; Coventry Mysteries, p. 139. This is printed by Halliwell in the form--'Now, sere evyl Thedom, com to thi snoute,' i. e. 'now, sir Ill Success, come to thy snout'; but _how_ a man can come to his own nose, we are not told.

1599. _bele chere_, fair entertainment, hospitality. _Bele_ = mod. F. _belle_.

1606. 'Score it upon my tally,' make a note of it. See A. 570, and note to P. Plowman, C. v. 61.

1613. _to wedde_, as a pledge (common). Cf. A. 1218.

1621. _large_, liberal; hence E. _largesse_, liberality.

THE PRIORESS'S PROLOGUE.

1625. _corpus dominus_; of course for _corpus domini_, the Lord's body. But it is unnecessary to correct the Host's Latin.

1626. 'Now long mayest thou sail along the coast!'

1627. _marineer_, Fr. _marinier_; we now use the ending _-er_; but modern words of French origin shew their lateness by the accent on the last syllable, as _engineer_.--M. The Fr. _pionnier_ is _pioner_ in Shakespeare, but is now _pioneer_.

1628. 'God give this monk a thousand cart-loads of bad years!' [174] He alludes to the deceitful monk described in the Shipman's Tale. A _last_ is a very heavy load. In a Statute of 31 Edw. I. a _weight_ is declared to be 14 stone; 2 _weights_ of wool are to make a _sack_; and 12 _sacks_ a _last_. This makes a last of wool to be 336 stone, or 42 cwt. But the dictionaries shew that the weight was very variable, according to the substance weighed. The word means simply a heavy burden, from A. S. _hlæst_, a burden, connected with _hladan_, to load; so that _last_ and _load_ are alike in sense. _Laste_, in the sense of heavy weight, occurs in Richard the Redeles, ed. Skeat, iv. 74. _Quad_ is the Old English equivalent of the Dutch _kwaad_, bad, a word in very common use. In O.E., _þe qued_ means the evil one, the devil; P. Pl. B. xiv. 189. Cf. note to A. 4357. The omission of the word _of_ before _quad_ may be illustrated by the expression 'four score years,' i. e. _of_ years.

1630. 'The monk put an ape in the man's hood, and in his wife's too.' We should now say, he made him look like an ape. The contents of the _hood_ would be, properly, the man's head and face; but neighbours seemed to see peeping from it an ape rather than a man. It is a way of saying that he made a dupe of him. In the Milleres Tale (A. 3389), a girl is said to have made her lover _an ape_, i. e. a dupe; an expression which recurs in the Chanones Yemannes Tale, G. 1313. Spenser probably borrowed the expression from this very passage; it occurs in his Faerie Queene, iii. 9. 31:--

'Thus was _the ape_, By their faire handling, _put into Malbeccoes cape_.'

1632. 'Never entertain monks any more.'

1637. See the description of the Prioress in the Prologue, A. 118.

THE PRIORESSES TALE.

For general remarks upon this Tale, see vol. iii. p. 421.

1643. Cf. Ps. viii. 1-2. The Vulgate version has--'Domine Dominus noster, quam admirabile est nomen tuum in uniuersa terra! Quoniam eleuata est magnificentia tua super caelos! Ex ore infantium et lactentium perfecisti laudem,' &c.

1650. _can or may_, know how to, or have ability to do.

1651. The 'white lily' was the token of Mary's perpetual virginity. See this explained at length in Rock, Church of our Fathers, iii. 245.

1655. 'For she herself is honour, and, next after her Son, the root of bounty, and the help (or profit) of souls.'

1658. Cf. Chaucer's A.B.C, or Hymn to the Virgin, (Minor Poems, vol. i. p. 266), where we find under the heading M--

'Moises, that saugh the bush with flaumes rede Brenninge, of which ther never a stikke brende, Was signe of thyn unwemmed maidenhede; Thou art the bush, on which ther gan descende The Holy Gost, the which that Moises wende Had been a-fyr.'

[175] So also in st. 2 of an Alliterative Hymn in Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 284.

1659. 'That, through thy humility, didst draw down from the Deity the Spirit that alighted in thee.'

1660. _thalighte_ = _thee alighte_, the two words being run into one. Such agglutination is more common when the def. art. occurs, or with the word _to_; cf. _Texpounden_ in B. 1716.

1661. _lighte_ may mean either (1) cheered, lightened; or (2) illuminated. Tyrwhitt and Richardson both take the latter view; but the following passage, in which _hertes_ occurs, makes the former the more probable:--

'But nathelees, it was so fair a sighte That it made alle hir _hertes_ for to _lighte_.' Sq. Ta.; F. 395.

1664. Partly imitated from Dante, Paradiso, xxxiii. 16:--

'La tua benignità non pur soccorre A chi dimanda, ma molte fiate Liberamente al dimandar precorre. In te misericordia, in te pietate, In te magnificenza, in te s'aduna Quantunque in creatura è di bontate.

1668. _goost biforn,_ goest before, dost anticipate. _of_, by. The eighth stanza of the Seconde Nonnes Tale (G. 50-56) closely resembles ll. 1664-70; being imitated from the same passage in Dante.

1677. _Gydeth_, guide ye. The plural number is used, as a token of respect, in addressing superiors. By a careful analysis of the words _thou_ and _ye_ in the Romance of William of Palerne, I deduced the following results, which are generally true in Mid. English. '_Thou_ is the language of a lord to a servant, of an equal to an equal, and expresses also companionship, love, permission, defiance, scorn, threatening: whilst _ye_ is the language of a servant to a lord, and of compliment, and further expresses honour, submission, or entreaty. _Thou_ is used with singular verbs, and the possessive pronoun _thine_; but _ye_ requires plural verbs, and the possessive _your_.'--Pref. to Will. of Palerne, ed. Skeat, p. xlii. Cf. Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar, sect. 231.

1678. _Asie_, Asia; probably used, as Tyrwhitt suggests, in the sense of Asia Minor, as in the Acts of the Apostles.

1679. _a Iewerye_, a Jewry, i. e. a Jews' quarter. In many towns there was formerly a Jews' quarter, distinguished by a special name. There is still an _Old Jewry_ in London. In John vii. 1 the word is used as equivalent to _Judea_, as also in other passages in the Bible and in Shakesp. Rich. II, ii. 1. 55. Chaucer (House of Fame, 1435) says of Josephus--

'And bar upon his shuldres hye The fame up of the _Jewerye_.'

[176] Thackeray uses the word with an odd effect in his Ballad of 'The White Squall.' See also note to B. 1749.

1681. _vilanye._ So the six MSS.; Hl. has _felonye_, wrongly. In the margin of the Ellesmere MS. is written 'turpe lucrum,' i. e. vile gain, which is evidently the sense intended by _lucre of vilanye_, here put for _villanous lucre_ or _filthy lucre_, by poetical freedom of diction. See Chaucer's use of _vilanye_ in the Prologue, A. 70 and A. 726.

1684. _free_, unobstructed. People could ride and walk through, there being no barriers against horses, and no termination in a _cul de sac_. Cf. Troilus, ii. 616-8.

1687. _Children an heep_, a heap or great number of children. _Of_ is omitted before _children_ as it is before _quad yere_ in B. 1628. For _heep_, see Prologue, A. 575.

1689. _maner doctrine_, kind of learning, i. e. reading and singing, as explained below. Here again _of_ is omitted, as is usual in M.E. after the word _maner_; as--'In another _maner_ name,' Rob. of Glouc. vol. i. p. 147; 'with somme _manere_ crafte,' P. Plowman, B. v. 25: 'no _maner_ wight,' Ch. Prol. A. 71; &c. See Mätzner, Englische Grammatik, ii. 2. 313. _men used_, people used; equivalent to _was used_. Note this use of _men_ in the same sense as the French _on_, or German _man_. This is an excellent instance, as the poet does not refer to _men_ at all, but to _children_. Moreover, _men_ (spelt _me_ in note to B. 1702) is an attenuated form of the sing. _man_, and not the usual plural.

1693. _clergeon_, not 'a young clerk' merely, as Tyrwhitt says, but a happily chosen word implying that he was a chorister as well. Ducange gives--'_Clergonus_, junior clericus, vel puer choralis; jeune clerc, petit clerc ou enfant de choeur'; see Migne's edition. And Cotgrave has--'_Clergeon_, a singing man, or Quirester in a Queer [choir].' It means therefore 'a chorister-boy.' Cf. Span. _clerizon_, a chorister, singing-boy; see New E. Dict.

1694. _That_, as for whom. A London street-boy would say--'_which_ he was used to go to school.' _That ... his_ = whose.

1695. _wher-as_, where that, where. So in Shakespeare, 2 Hen. VI. i. 2. 58; Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 38. See Abbott's Shakesp. Grammar, sect. 135. _thimage_, the image; alluding to an image of the Virgin placed by the wayside, as is so commonly seen on the continent.

1698. _Ave Marie_; so in Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 35. The words were--'Aue Maria, gratia plena; Dominus tecum; benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus uentris tui. Amen.' See the English version in Specimens of Early English, ed. Morris and Skeat, p. 106. It was made up from Luke i. 28 and i. 42. Sometimes the word _Jesus_ was added after _tui_, and, at a later period, an additional clause--'Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.' See Rock, Church of our Fathers, iii. 315; and iii. pt. 2, 134. [177]

1702. 'For a good child will always learn quickly.' This was a proverbial expression, and may be found in the Proverbs of Hending, st. 9:--

'Me may lere a sely fode [_one may teach a good child_] That is euer toward gode With a lutel lore; Yef me nul [_if one will not_] him forther teche, Thenne is [_his_] herte wol areche Forte lerne more. _Sely chyld is sone ylered_; Quoth Hendyng.'

1704. _stant_, stands, is. Tyrwhitt says--'we have an account of the very early piety of this Saint in his lesson; Breviarium Romanum, vi. Decemb.--Cuius uiri sanctitas quanta futura esset, iam ab incunabulis apparuit. Nam infans, cum reliquas dies lac nutricis frequens sugeret, quarta et sexta feria (i. e. _on Wednesdays and Fridays_) semel duntaxat, idque uesperi, sugebat.' Besides, St. Nicholas was the patron of schoolboys, and the festival of the 'boy-bishop' was often held on his day (Dec. 6); Rock, Church of our Fathers, iii. 2. 215.

1708. _Alma redemptoris mater._ There is more than one hymn with this beginning, but the one meant is perhaps one of five stanzas printed in Hymni Latini Medii Ævi, ed. F. J. Mone, vol. ii. p. 200, from a St. Gallen MS. no. 452, p. 141, of the thirteenth century. The first and last stanzas were sung in the Marian Antiphon, from the Saturday evening before the 1st Sunday in Advent to Candlemas day. In l. 4 we have the _salutation_ which Chaucer mentions (l. 1723), and in the last stanza is the prayer (l. 1724). These two stanzas are as follows:--

'Alma redemptoris mater, quam de caelis misit pater propter salutem gentium; tibi dicunt omnes "aue!" quia mundum soluens a uae mutasti uocem flentium.... Audi, mater pietatis, nos gementes a peccatis et a malis nos tuere; ne damnemur cum impiis, in aeternis suppliciis, peccatorum miserere.'

There is another anthem that would suit almost equally well, but hardly comes so near to Chaucer's description. It occurs in the Roman Breviary, ed. 1583, p. 112, and was said at compline from Advent eve to Candlemas day, like the other; cf. l. 1730. The words are:-- [178]

'Alma redemptoris mater, quae peruia caeli Porta manes, et stella maris, succurre cadenti, Surgere qui curat, populo: Tu quae genuisti, Natura mirante, tuum sanctum Genitorem, Virgo priùs ac posteriùs, Gabrielis ab ore Sumens illud "Aue!" peccatorum miserere.'

In the Myrour of Our Lady, ed. Blunt, p. 174, an English translation of the latter anthem is given, with the heading 'Alma redemptoris mater.'

1709. _antiphoner_, anthem-book. 'The Antiphoner, or Lyggar, was always a large codex, having in it not merely the words, but the music and the tones, for all the invitatories, the hymns, responses, versicles, collects, and little chapters, besides whatever else belonged to the solemn chanting of masses and lauds, as well as the smaller canonical hours'; Rock, Church of our Fathers, v. 3, pt. 2, p. 212.

1710. _ner and ner_, nearer and nearer. The phrase _come neor and neor_ (= come nearer and nearer) occurs in King Alisaunder, in Weber's Metrical Romances, l. 599.

1713. _was to seye_, was to mean, meant. _To seye_ is the gerundial or dative infinitive; see Morris, Hist. Outlines of English Accidence, sect. 290.

1716. _Texpounden_, to expound. So also _tallege_ = to allege, Kn. Ta., A. 3000 (Harl. MS.); _tespye_ = to espy, Nonne Pr. Ta., B. 4478. See note to l. 1733.

1726. _can but smal_, know but little. Cf. 'the compiler is _smal_ learned'; Old Plays, ed. Hazlitt, i. 10.--M. Cf. _coude_ = knew, in l. 1735.

1733. _To honoure_; this must be read _tonóure_, like _texpounden_ in l. 1716.

1739. _To scholeward_; cf. _From Bordeaux ward_ in the Prologue, A. 397.--M.

1749. The feeling against Jews seems to have been very bitter, and there are numerous illustrations of this. In Gower's Conf. Amant. bk. vii, ed. Pauli, iii. 194, a Jew is represented as saying--

'I am a Jewe, and by my lawe I shal to no man be felawe To kepe him trouth in word ne dede.'

In Piers the Plowman, B. xviii. 104, Faith reproves the Jews, and says to them--

'[gh]e cherles, and [gh]owre children · chieue [_thrive_] shal [gh]e neure, Ne haue lordship in londe · ne no londe tylye [_till_], But al bareyne be · & vsurye vsen, Which is lyf þat owre lorde · in alle lawes acurseth.'

See also P. Pl., C. v. 194. Usury was forbidden by the canon law, and those who practised it, chiefly Jews and Lombards, were held to [179] be grievous sinners. Hence the character of Shylock, and of Marlowe's Jew of Malta. Cf. note on the Jews in England in the Annals of England, p. 162.

1751. _honest_, honourable; as in the Bible, Rom. xii. 17, &c.

1752. _swich_, such. The sense here bears out the formation of the word from _so-like_.--M.

1753. _your_, of you. Shakespeare has 'in _your_ despite,' Cymb. i. 6. 135; 'in _thy_ despite,' 1 Hen. VI, iv. 7. 22. _Despite_ is used, like the Early and Middle English _maugre_, with a genitive; as _maugre þin_, in spite of thee, in Havelok, ll. 1128, 1789.--M.

1754. 'Which is against the respect due to your law.' Cf. 'spretaeque iniuria formae'; Æneid, i. 27.

1762. _Wardrobe_, privy. Godefroy's O. F. Dict. shews that _garderobe_ meant not only a wardrobe, or place for keeping robes, &c., but also any small chamber; hence the sense. See Cotgrave.

1764. 'O accursed folk (composed) of Herods wholly new.'

1766. 'Murder will out'; a proverb; see B. 4242.

1769. _Souded to_, confirmed in. From O. F. _souder_, Lat. _solidare_, whence E. _solder_. Wyclif's later version has--'hise leggis and hise feet weren _sowdid_ togidere'; Acts, iii. 7. The reference in ll. 1770-5 is to Rev. xiv. 3, 4.

1793. _Iesu._ This word is written 'Ihu' in E. Hn. Cm.; and 'ihc' in Cp. Pt. Ln.; in both cases there is a stroke through the _h_. This is frequently printed _Ihesu_, but the retention of _h_ is unnecessary. It is not really an _h_ at all, but the Greek [Eta], meaning _long e_ ([=e]). So, also, in 'ihc,' the _c_ is not the Latin _c_, but the Gk. C, meaning [Sigma] or _s_; and _ihc_ are the first three letters of the word [Greek: IÊSOUS] = [Greek: iêsous] = iesus. _Iesu_, as well as _Iesus_, was used as a nominative, though really the genitive or vocative case. At a later period, _ihs_ (still with a stroke through the _h_) was written for _ihc_ as a contraction of _iesus_. By an odd error, a new meaning was invented for these letters, and common belief treated them as the initials of three Latin words, viz. Iesus Hominum Salvator. But as the stroke through the _h_ or mark of contraction still remained unaccounted for, it was turned into a cross! Hence the common symbol I.H.S. with the small cross in the upper part of the middle letter. The wrong interpretation is still the favourite one, all errors being long-lived. Another common contraction is _Xpc._, where _all_ the letters are Greek. The _x_ is _ch_ ([chi]), the _p_ is _r_ ([rho]), and _c_ is _s_, so that _Xpc_ = _chrs_, the contraction for _christus_ or Christ. This is less common in decoration, and no false interpretation has been found for it.

1794. _inwith_, within. This form occurs in E. Hn. Pt. Ln.; the rest have _within_. Again, in the Merchant's Tale (E. 1944), MSS. E. Hn. Cm. Hl. have the form _inwith_. It occurs in the legend of St. Katharine, ed. Morton, l. 172; in Sir Perceval (Thornton Romances), l. 611; in Alliterative Poems, ed. Morris, A. 970; and in Palladius on Husbandry, ed. Lodge, iii. 404. Dr. Morris says it was [180] (like _utwith_ = without) originally peculiar to the Northern dialect. See the Glossary, and the note to l. 2159 below (p. 202).

1805. _coomen_; so in E. Hn.; _comen_ in Pt. Cp. But it is the past tense = came. The spelling _comen_ for the _past_ tense plural is very common in Early English, and we even find _com_ in the singular. Thus, in l. 1807, the Petworth MS. has 'He come,' equivalent to 'coom,' the _o_ being long. But _herieth_ in l. 1808 is a _present_ tense.

1814. _nexte_, nighest, as in Kn. Ta. A. 1413. So also _hext_ = highest, as in the Old Eng. proverb--'When bale is hext, then bote is next,' i. e. 'when woe is highest, help is nighest.' _Next_ is for _neh-est_, and _hext_ is for _heh-est_.

1817. _newe Rachel_, second Rachel, as we should now say; referring to Matt. ii. 18.

1819. _dooth for to sterve_, causes to die. So also in l. 1823, _dide hem drawe_ = caused them to be drawn.

1822. Evidently a proverb; compare Boeth. bk. iv. pr. 1. 37-40 (vol. ii. p. 93); and note to P. Plowman, C. v. 140.

1826. The body occupied the place of honour. 'The bier, if the deceased had been a _clerk_, went into the chancel; if a layman, and not of high degree, the bearers set it down in the nave, hard by the church-door'; Rock, Ch. of our Fathers, ii. 472. He cites the Sarum Manual, fol. c.

1827. _the abbot_; pronounced _thabbòt_. _covent_, convent; here used for the monks who composed the body over which the abbot presided. So in Shakespeare, Hen. VIII, iv. 2. 18--'where the reverend abbot, With all his _covent_, honourably received him.' The form _covent_ is Old French, still preserved in _Covent Garden_.

1835. _halse_; two MSS. consulted by Tyrwhitt read _conjure_, a mere gloss, caught from the line above. Other examples of _halse_ in the sense of _conjure_ occur. 'Ich _halsi_ þe o godes nome' = I conjure thee in God's name; St. Marherete, ed. Cockayne, p. 17. Again, in Joseph of Arimathie, ed. Skeat, l. 400--

'Vppon þe hei[gh]e trinite · I _halse_ þe to telle'--

which closely resembles the present passage.

1838. _to my seminge_, i. e. as it appears to me.

1840. 'And, in the ordinary course of nature.'

1843. _Wil_, wills, desires. So in Matt. ix. 13, I _will_ have mercy = I require mercy; Gk. [Greek: eleon thelô]; Vulgate, misericordiam uolo. Cf. B. 45.

1848. In the Ellesmere MS. (which has the metrical pauses marked) the pause in this line is marked after _lyf_. The word _sholde_ is dissyllabic here, having more than the usual emphasis; it has the force of _ought to_. Cf. E. 1146.

1852. In the Cursor Mundi, 1373-6, Seth is told to place three pippins under the root of Adam's tongue.

1857. _now_ is used in the sense of _take notice that_, without any [181] reference to _time_. There is no necessity to alter the reading to _than_, as proposed by Tyrwhitt. See Mätzner, Engl. Gram. ii. 2. 346, who refers to Luke ii. 41, John i. 44, and quotes an apt passage from Maundeville's Travels, p. 63--'_Now_ aftre that men han visited the holy places, _thanne_ will they turnen toward Jerusalem.' In A. S. the word used in similar cases is _s[=o]þl[=i]ce_ = soothly, verily.

1873. _Ther_, where. _leve_, grant. No two words have been more confused by editors than _lene_ and _leue_. Though sometimes written much alike in MSS., they are easily distinguished by a little care. The A. S. _l[=y]fan_ or _l[=e]fan_, spelt _lefe_ in the Ormulum (vol. i. p. 308), answers to the Germ. _erlauben_, and means _grant_ or _permit_, but it can only be used in certain cases. The verb _lene_, A. S. _l[=æ]nan_, now spelt _lend_, often means to give or grant in Early English, but again only in certain cases. I quote from my article on these words in Notes and Queries, 4 Ser. ii. 127--'It really makes all the difference whether we are speaking of to _grant_ a thing to a person, or to _grant_ that a thing may happen. "God _lene_ thee grace," means "God _grant_ thee grace," where to grant is to _impart_; but "God _leue_ we may do right" means "God _grant_ we may do right," where to _grant_ is to permit.... Briefly, _lene_ requires _an accusative case_ after it, _leue_ is followed by _a dependent clause_.' _Lene_ occurs in Chaucer, Prol. A. 611, Milleres Tale, A. 3777, and elsewhere. Examples of _leue_ in Chaucer are (1) in the present passage, misprinted _lene_ by Tyrwhitt, Morris, Wright, and Bell, though five of our MSS. have _leue_; (2) in the Freres Tale, D. 1644, printed _lene_ by Tyrwhitt (l. 7226), _leene_ by Morris, _leeve_ by Wright and Bell; (3) (4) (5) in three passages in Troilus and Criseyde (ii. 1212, iii. 56, v. 1750), where Tyrwhitt prints _leve_, but unluckily recants his opinion in his Glossary, whilst Morris prints _lene_. For other examples see Stratmann, s. v. _lænan_ and _leven_.

It may be remarked that _leve_ in Old English has several other senses; such as (1) to believe; (2) to live; (3) to leave; (4) to remain; (5) leave, _sb._; (6) dear, _adj._ I give an example in which the first, sixth, and third of these senses occur in one and the same line:--

'What! leuestow, leue lemman, that i the [_thee_] leue wold?' Will. of Palerne, 2358.

1874. _Hugh of Lincoln._ The story of Hugh of Lincoln, a boy supposed to have been murdered at Lincoln by the Jews, is placed by Matthew Paris under the year 1255. Thynne, in his Animadversions upon Speght's editions of Chaucer (p. 45 of the reprint of the E.E.T.S.), addresses Speght as follows--'You saye, that in the 29 Henry iii. eightene Jewes were broughte fro_m_ Lincolne, and hanged for crucyfyinge a childe of eight yeres olde. Whiche facte was in the 39 Hen. iii., so that yo_u_ mighte verye well haue sayed, that the same childe of eighte yeres olde was the same hughe of Lincolne; of whiche name there were twoe, viz. thys younger Seinte Hughe, and Seinte Hughe bishoppe of Lincolne, which dyed in the yere 1200, long before this [182] little seinte hughe. And to prove that this childe of eighte yeres olde and that yonge hughe of Lincolne were but one; I will sett downe two auctoryties out of Mathewe Paris and Walsinghame, wherof the fyrste wryteth, that in the yere of Christe 1255, being the 39 of Henry the 3, a childe called Hughe was sleyne by the Jewes at Lyncolne, whose lamentable historye he delyvereth at large; and further, in the yere 1256, being 40 Hen. 3, he sayeth, Dimissi sunt quieti 24 Judei á Turri London., qui ibidem infames tenebantur compediti pro crucifixione sancti Hugonis Lincolniae: All which Thomas Walsingham, in Hypodigma Neustriae, confirmeth: sayinge, Ao. 1255, Puer quidam Christianus, nomine Hugo, à Judeis captus, in opprobriu_m_ Christiani nominis crudeliter est crucifixus.' There are several ballads in French and English, on the subject of Hugh of Lincoln, which were collected by M. F. Michel, and published at Paris in 1834, with the title--'Hugues de Lincoln, Recueil de Ballades Anglo-Normandes et Ecossoises relatives au Meurtre de cet Enfant.' The day of St. Hugh, bishop of Lincoln, is Aug. 27; that of St. Hugh, boy and martyr, is June 29. See also Brand's Pop. Antiq. ed. Ellis, i. 431. And see vol. iii. p. 423.

1875. _With_, by. See numerous examples in Mätzner, Engl. Gram. ii. 1. 419, amongst which we may especially notice--'Stolne is he _with_ Iues'; Towneley Mysteries, p. 290.

PROLOGUE TO SIR THOPAS.

1881. _miracle_, pronounced _míracl'_. Tyrwhitt omits _al_, and turns the word into _mirácle_, unnecessarily.

1883. _hoste_ is so often an evident dissyllable (see l. 1897), that there is no need to insert _to_ after it, as in Tyrwhitt. In fact, _bigan_ is seldom followed by _to_.

1885. _what man artow_, what sort of a man art thou?

1886. _woldest finde_, wouldst like to find. We learn from this passage, says Tyrwhitt, that Chaucer 'was used to look much upon the ground; that he was of a corpulent habit; and reserved in his behaviour.' We cannot be quite sure that the poet is serious; but these inferences are probably correct; cf. Lenvoy a Scogan, 31.

1889. _war you_, mind yourselves, i. e. make way.

1890. _as wel as I_; said ironically. Chaucer is as corpulent as the host himself. See note to l. 1886 above.

1891. _were_, would be. _tenbrace_, to embrace. In the Romaunt of the Rose, true lovers are said to be always lean; but deceivers are often fat enough:--

'For men that shape hem other wey Falsly hir ladies to bitray, It is no wonder though they be fat'; l. 2689.

1893. _elvish_, elf-like, akin to the fairies; alluding to his absent looks [183] and reserved manner. See _Elvish_ in the Glossary, and cf. 'this _elvish_ nyce lore'; Can. Yeom. Tale, G. 842. Palsgrave has--'I waxe _eluysshe_, nat easye to be dealed with, _Ie deuiens mal traictable_.'

1900. _Ye_, yea. The difference in Old English between _ye_ and _yis_ (yes) is commonly well marked. _Ye_ is the weaker form, and merely assents to what the last speaker says; but _yis_ is an affirmative of great force, often followed by an oath, or else it answers a question containing a _negative_ particle, as in the House of Fame, 864. Cf. B. 4006 below.

THE TALE OF SIR THOPAS.

In the black-letter editions, this Tale is called 'The ryme of Sir Thopas,' a title copied by Tyrwhitt, but not found in the seven best MSS. This word is now almost universally misspelt _rhyme_, owing to confusion with the Greek _rhythm_; but this misspelling is _never_ found in old MSS. or in early printed books, nor has any example yet been found earlier than the reign of Elizabeth. The old spelling _rime_ is confirmed by the A. S. _r[=i]m_, Icel. _rím_, Dan. _rim_, Swed. _rim_, Germ. _reim_, Dutch _rijm_, Old Fr. _rime_, &c. Confusion with _rime_, hoarfrost, is impossible, as the context always decides which is meant; but it is worth notice that it is the latter word which has the better title to an _h_, as the A. S. word for hoarfrost is _hr[=i]m_. Tyrwhitt, in his edition of Chaucer, attempted two reforms in spelling, viz. _rime_ for _rhyme_, and _coud_ for _could_. Both are most rational, but probably unattainable.

_Thopas._ In the Supplement to Ducange we find--'_Thopasius_, pro Topasius, Acta S. Wencesl. tom. 7. Sept. p. 806, col. 1.' The Lat. _topazius_ is our _topaz_. The whole poem is a burlesque (see vol. iii. p. 423), and _Sir Topaz_ is an excellent title for such a gem of a knight. The name _Topyas_ occurs in Richard Coer de Lion, ed. Weber, ii. 11, as that of a sister of King Richard I; but no such name is known to history.

The metre is that commonly used before and in Chaucer's time by long-winded ballad-makers. Examples of it occur in the Romances of Sir Percevall, Sir Isumbras, Sir Eglamour, and Sir Degrevant (in the Thornton Romances, ed. Halliwell), and in several romances in the Percy Folio MS. (ed. Hales and Furnivall), such as Libius Disconius, Sir Triamour, Sir Eglamour, Guy and Colbrande, The Grene Knight, &c.; see also Amis and Amiloun, and Sir Amadas in Weber's Metrical Romances; and Lybeaus Disconus, The King of Tars, Le Bone Florence, Emare, The Erle of Tolous, and Horn Childe in Ritson's collection. To point out Chaucer's sly imitations of phrases, &c. would be a long task; the reader would gain the best idea of his manner by reading any one of these old ballads. To give a few illustrations is all that can be attempted here; I refer the reader to Prof. Kölbing's elaborate article in the Englische Studien, xi. 495, for further information; also to the dissertation by C. J. Bennewitz mentioned in vol. iii. [184] p. 424. It is remarkable that we find in Weber a ballad called 'The Hunting of the Hare,' which is a pure burlesque, like Chaucer's, but a little broader in tone and more obviously comic.

1902. _Listeth, lordes_, hearken, sirs. This is the usual style of beginning. For example, Sir Bevis begins--

'_Lordynges, lystenyth_, grete and smale';

and Sir Degaré begins--

'_Lystenyth, lordynges_, gente and fre, Y wylle yow telle of syr Degaré.'

Warton well remarks--'This address to the lordings, requesting their silence and attention, is a manifest indication that these ancient pieces were originally sung to the harp, or recited before grand assemblies, upon solemn occasions'; Obs. on F. Queene, p. 248.

1904. _solas_, mirth. See Prol. l. 798. 'This word is often used in describing the festivities of elder days. "She and her ladyes called for their minstrells, and _solaced_ themselves with the disports of dauncing"; Leland, Collectanea, v. 352. So in the Romance of Ywaine and Gawin:--

"Full grete and gay was the assemble Of lordes and ladies of that cuntre, And als of knyghtes war and wyse, And damisels of mykel pryse; Ilkane with other made grete gamen And grete _solace_, &c."' (l. 19, ed. Ritson). Todd's Illust. of Chaucer, p. 378.

1905. _gent_, gentle, gallant. Often applied to ladies, in the sense of pretty. The first stanzas in Sir Isumbras and Sir Eglamour are much in the same strain as this stanza.

1910. _Popering._ 'Poppering, or Poppeling, was the name of a parish in the Marches of Calais. Our famous antiquary Leland was once rector of it. See Tanner, Bib. Brit. in v. _Leland_.'--Tyrwhitt. Here _Calais_ means the district, not the town. _Poperinge_ has a population of about 10,500, and is situate about 26 miles S. by W. from Ostend, in the province of Belgium called West Flanders, very near the French 'marches,' or border. Ypres (see A. 448) is close beside it. _place_, the mansion or chief house in the town. Dr. Pegge, in his Kentish Glossary, (Eng. Dial. Soc.), has--'_Place_, that is, the manor-house. Hearne, in his pref. to Antiq. of Glastonbury, p. xv, speaks of a _manour-place_.' He refers also to Strype's Annals, cap. xv.

1915. _payndemayn._ 'The very finest and the _whitest_ [kind of bread] that was known, was _simnel-bread_, which ... was as commonly known under the name of _pain-demayn_ (afterwards corrupted into [_painmain_ or] _payman_); a word which has given considerable trouble to Tyrwhitt and other commentators on Chaucer, but which means no [185] more than "bread of our Lord," from the figure of our Saviour, or the Virgin Mary, impressed upon each round flat loaf, as is still the usage in Belgium with respect to certain rich cakes much admired there'; Chambers, Book of Days, i. 119. The Liber Albus (ed. Riley, p. 305) speaks of '_demesne_ bread, known as _demeine_,' which Mr. Riley annotates by--'_Panis Dominicus_. Simnels made of the very finest flour were thus called, from an impression upon them of the effigy of our Saviour.' Tyrwhitt refers to the poem of the Freiris of Berwick, in the Maitland MS., in which occur the expressions _breid of mane_ and _mane breid_. It occurs also in Sir Degrevant (Thornton Romances, p. 235):--

'_Paynemayn_ prevayly Sche brou[gh]th fram the pantry,' &c.

It is mentioned as a delicacy by Gower, Conf. Amantis, bk. vi. (ed. Pauli, iii. 22).

1917. _rode_, complexion. _scarlet in grayn_, i. e. scarlet dyed in grain, or of a fast colour. Properly, to dye _in_ grain meant to dye _with_ grain, i. e. with cochineal. In fact, Chaucer uses the phrase '_with greyn_' in the epilogue to the Nonne Prestes Tale; B. 4649. See the long note in Marsh's Lectures on the English Language, ed. Smith, pp. 54-62, and the additional note on p. 64. Cf. Shak. Tw. Nt. i. 5. 255.

1920. _saffroun_; i. e. of a yellow colour. Cf. Bottom's description of beards--'I will discharge it in either your straw-colour beard, your orange-tawney beard, your purple-in-grain beard, or your French-crown-colour beard, _your perfect yellow_'; Mids. Nt. Dr. i. 2. In Lybeaus Disconus (ed. Ritson, Met. Rom. ii. 6, or ed. Kaluza, l. 139) a dwarf's beard is described as 'yelow as ony wax.'

1924. _ciclatoun_, a costly material. From the O. Fr. _ciclaton_, the name of a costly cloth. [It was early confused with the Latin _cyclas_, which Ducange explains by 'vestis species, et panni genus.' The word _cyclas_ occurs in Juvenal (Sat. vi. 259), and is explained to mean a robe worn most often by women, and adorned with a border of gold or purple; see also Propertius, iv. 7. 40.] _Ciclatoun_, however, is of Eastern origin, as was well suggested in the following note by Col. Yule in his edition of Marco Polo, i. 249:--

'The term _suklát_ is applied in the Punjab trade-returns to _broadcloth_. Does not this point to the real nature of the _siclatoun_ of the Middle Ages? It is, indeed, often spoken of as used for banners, which implies that it was not a heavy woollen. But it was also a material for ladies' robes, for quilts, leggings, housings, pavilions. Michel does not decide what it was, only that it was generally _red_ and wrought with gold. Dozy renders it "silk stuff brocaded with gold," but this seems conjectural. Dr. Rock says it was a thin glossy silken stuff, often with a woof of gold thread, and seems to derive it from the Arabic _sakl_, "polishing" (a sword), which is improbable.' Compare the following examples, shewing its use for tents, banners, &c.:-- [186]

'Off silk, cendale, and _syclatoun_ Was the emperours pavyloun';... 'Kyng Richard took the pavylouns Off sendels and off _sykelatouns_'; Rich. Coer de Lion (Weber, ii. 90 and 201).

'There was mony gonfanoun Of gold, sendel, and _siclatoun_'; Kyng Alisaunder (Weber, i. 85).

Richardson's Pers. and Arab. Dict. (ed. Johnson, 1829), p. 837, gives: 'Pers. _saqlat[=u]n_, scarlet cloth (whence Arab. _siql[=a]t_, a fine painted or figured cloth)'; and the derivation is probably (as given in the New E. Dict.) from the very Pers. word which has given us the word _scarlet_; so that it was originally named from its colour. It was afterwards applied to various kinds of costly materials, which were sometimes embroidered with gold. See _Ciclaton_ in Godefroy, and in the New E. Dict.; and _Scarlet_ in my Etym. Dictionary.

The matter has been much confused by a mistaken notion of Spenser's. Not observing that Sir Thopas is here described in his robes of _peace_, not in those of _war_ (as in a later stanza), he followed Thynne's spelling, viz. _chekelatoun_, and imagined this to mean 'that kind of guilded leather with which they [the Irish] use to embroder theyr Irish jackes'; View of the State of Ireland, in Globe edition, p. 639, col. 2. And this notion he carried out still more boldly in the lines--

'But in a jacket, quilted richly rare Upon _cheklaton_, he was straungely dight'; F. Q. vi. 7. 43.

1925. _Jane_, a small coin. The word is known to be a corruption of _Genoa_, which is spelt _Jeane_ in Hall's Chronicles, fol. xxiv. So too we find _Janueys_ and _Januayes_ for _Genoese_. See Bardsley's English Surnames, s. v. _Janeway_. Stow, in his Survey of London, ed. 1599, p. 97, says that some foreigners lived in Minchin Lane, who had come from _Genoa_, and were commonly called galley-men, who landed wines, &c. from the galleys at a place called 'galley-key' in Thames Street. 'They had a certaine coyne of silver amongst themselves, which were half-pence of Genoa, and were called _galley half-pence_. These half-pence were forbidden in the 13th year of Henry IV, and again by parliament in the 3rd of Henry V, by the name of _half-pence of Genoa_.... Notwithstanding, in my youth, I have seen them passe currant,' &c. Chaucer uses the word again in the Clerkes Tale (E. 999), and Spenser adopted it from Chaucer; F. Q. iii. 7. 58. Mr. Wright observes that 'the _siclaton_ was a rich cloth or silk brought from the East, and is therefore appropriately mentioned as bought with Genoese coin.'

1927. _for rivéer_, towards the river. This appears to be the best reading, and we must take _for_ in close connexion with _ryde_; perhaps it [187] is a mere imitation of the French _en riviere_. It alludes to the common practice of seeking the river-side, because the best sport, in hawking, was with herons and waterfowl. Tyrwhitt quotes from Froissart, v. 1. c. 140--'Le Comte de Flandres estoit tousjours _en riviere_--un jour advint qu'il alla voller _en la riviere_--et getta son fauconnier un faucon _apres le heron_.' And again, in c. 210, he says that Edward III 'alloit, chacun jour, ou _en chace_ on _en riviere_,' &c. So we read of Sir Eglamour:--

'Sir Eglamore took the way to the riuèr ffull right'; Percy Folio MS. ii. 347.

Of Ipomydon's education we learn that his tutor taught him to sing, to read, to serve in hall, to carve the meat, and

'Bothe of howndis and haukis game Aftir he taught hym, all and same, In se, in feld, and eke _in ryuere_, In wodde _to chase the wild dere_, And in the feld to ryde a stede, That all men had joy of his dede.' Weber's Met. Romances, ii. 283.

See also the Squire of Low Degree, in Ritson, vol. iii. p. 177.

1931. _ram_, the usual prize at a wrestling match. Cf. Gk. [Greek: tragôidia].

_stonde_, i. e. be placed in the sight of the competitors; be seen. Cf. Prol. A. 548, and the Tale of Gamelyn, 172. Tyrwhitt says--'Matthew Paris mentions a wrestling-match at Westminster, A.D. 1222, in which a ram was the prize, p. 265.' Cf. also--

'At wresteling, and at ston-castynge He wan the prys without lesynge,' &c.; Octouian Imperator, in Weber's Met. Rom. iii. 194.

1933. _paramour_, longingly; a common expression; see the Glossary.

1937. _hepe_, mod. E. 'hip,' the fruit of the dog-rose; A. S. _h[=e]ope_.

1938. Compare--'So hyt be-felle upon a day'; Erle of Tolous, Ritson's Met. Rom. iii. 134. Of course it is a common phrase in these romances.

1941. _worth_, lit. became; _worth upon_ = became upon, got upon. It is a common phrase; compare--

'Ipomydon sterte vp that tyde; Anon he _worthyd vppon_ his stede'; Weber, Met. Rom. ii. 334.

1942. _launcegay_, a sort of lance. Gower has the word, Conf. Amant. bk. viii. (ed. Pauli, iii. 369). Cowel says its use was prohibited by the statute of 7 Rich. II, cap. 13. Camden mentions it in his Remaines, p. 209. Tyrwhitt quotes, from Rot. Parl. 29 Hen. VI, n. 8, the following--'And the said Evan then and there with a _launcegaye_ smote the said William Tresham throughe the body a foote and more, wherof he died.' Sir Walter Raleigh (quoted by Richardson) [188] says--'These carried a kind of _lance de gay_, sharp at both ends, which they held in the midst of the staff.' But this is certainly a corrupt form. It is no doubt a corruption of _lancezagay_, from the Spanish _azagaya_, a word of Moorish origin. Cotgrave gives--'_Zagaye_, a fashion of slender, long, and long-headed pike, used by the Moorish horsemen.' It seems originally to have been rather a short weapon, a kind of half-pike or dart. The Spanish word is well discussed in Dozy, Glossaire des mots Espagnols et Portugais dérivés de l'Arabe, 2nd ed. p. 225. The Spanish _azagaya_ is for _az-zagaya_, where _az_ is for the definite article _al_, and _zagaya_ is a Berber or Algerian word, not given in the Arabic dictionaries. It is found in Old Spanish of the fourteenth century. Dozy quotes from a writer who explains it as a Moorish half-pike, and also gives the following passage from Laugier de Tassy, Hist. du royaume d'Alger, p. 58--'Leurs armes sont _l'azagaye_, qui est une espéce de _lance courte_, qu'ils portent toujours à la main.' The Caffre word _assagai_, in the sense of javelin, was simply borrowed from the Portuguese _azagaia_.

1949. _a sory care_, a grievous misfortune. Chaucer does not say what this was, but a passage in Amis and Amiloun (ed. Weber, ii. 410) makes it probable that Sir Thopas nearly killed his horse, which would have been grievous indeed; see l. 1965 below. The passage I allude to is as follows:--

'So long he priked, withouten abod, The stede that he on rode, In a fer cuntray, Was ouercomen and fel doun ded; Tho couthe he no better red [_counsel_]; His song was "waileway!"'

Readers of Scott will remember Fitz-James's lament over his 'gallant grey.'

1950. This can hardly be other than a burlesque upon the Squire of Low Degree (ed. Ritson, iii. 146), where a long list of _trees_ is followed up, as here, by a list of _singing-birds_. Compare also the Romaunt of the Rose, l. 1367:--

'There was eek wexing many a spyce, As _clow-gelofre_ and _licoryce_, Gingere, and greyn de paradys, Canelle, and _setewale_ of prys,' &c.

Observe the mention of _notemigges_ in the same, l. 1361.

Line 21 of the Milleres Tale (A. 3207) runs similarly:--

'Of _licorys_ or any _setewale_.'

Maundeville speaks of the _clowe-gilofre_ and _notemuge_ in his 26th chapter; see Specimens of E. Eng. ed. Morris and Skeat, p. 171. _Cetewale_ is generally explained as the herb valerian, but is certainly zedoary; see the Glossary. _Clowe-gilofre_, a clove; _notemuge_, a [189] nutmeg. 'Spiced ale' is amongst the presents sent by Absolon to Alisoun in the Milleres Tale (A. 3378). Cf. the list of spices in King Alisaunder, ed. Weber, 6790-9.

1955. _leye in cofre_, to lay in a box.

1956. Compare Amis and Amiloun, ed. Weber, ii, 391:--

'She herd the foules grete and smale, The swete note of the nightingale, Ful mirily sing on tre.'

See also Romaunt of the Rose, ll. 613-728. But Chaucer's burlesque is far surpassed by a curious passage in the singular poem of The Land of Cockaygne (MS. Harl. 913), ll. 71-100:--

'In þe praer [_meadow_] is a tre Swiþe likful for to se. Þe rote is gingeuir and galingale, Þe siouns beþ al _sed_[_e_]_wale_; Trie maces beþ þe flure; Þe rind, canel of swet odur; Þe frute, _gilofre_ of gode smakke, &c. Þer beþ briddes mani and fale, Þ_rostil_, þruisse, and ni[gh]tingale, Chalandre and wod[e]wale, And oþer briddes wiþout tale [_number_], Þat stinteþ neuer by har mi[gh]t Miri to sing[e] dai and ni[gh]t,' &c.

1964. _as he were wood_, as if he were mad, 'like mad.' So in Amis and Amiloun (ed. Weber), ii. 419:--

'He priked his stede _night and day_ As a gentil knight, stout and gay.'

Cf. note to l. 1949.

1974. _seinte_, being feminine, and in the vocative case, is certainly a dissyllable here--'O seintè Márie, _ben'cite_.' Cf. note to B. 1170 above.

1977. _Me dremed_, I dreamt. Both _dremen_ (to dream) and _meten_ (also to dream) are sometimes used with a dative case and reflexively in Old English. In the Nonne Prestes Tale we have _me mette_ (l. 74) and _this man mette_ (l. 182); B. 4084, 4192.

1978. _An elf-queen._ Mr. Price says--'There can be little doubt that at one period the popular creed made the same distinctions between the Queen of Faerie and the Elf-queen that were observed in Grecian mythology between their undoubted parallels, Artemis and Persephone.' Chaucer makes Proserpine the 'queen of faerie' in his Marchauntes Tale; but at the beginning of the Wyf of Bathes Tale, he describes the _elf-queen_ as the queen of the _fairies_, and makes _elf_ and _fairy_ synonymous. Perhaps this _elf-queen_ in Sire Thopas (called the _queen of fairye_ in l. 2004) may have given Spenser the hint for _his_ Faerie [190] Queene. But the subject is a vast one. See Price's Preface, in Warton's Hist. Eng. Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, pp. 30-36; Halliwell's Illustrations of Fairy Mythology; Keightley's Fairy Mythology; Warton's Observations on the Faerie Queene, sect. ii; Sir W. Scott's ballad of Thomas the Rhymer, &c.

1979. _under my gore_, within my robe or garment. In l. 2107 (on which see the note) we have _under wede_ signifying merely 'in his dress.' We have a somewhat similar phrase here, in which, however, _gore_ (lit. gusset) is put for the whole robe or garment. That it was a mere phrase, appears from other passages. Thus we find _under gore_, under the dress, Owl and Nightingale, l. 515; Reliquiae Antiquae, vol. i. p. 244, vol. ii. p. 210; with three more examples in the Gloss. to Böddeker's Altenglische Dichtungen des MS. Harl. 2253. In one of these a lover addresses his lady as 'geynest under gore,' i. e. fairest within a dress. For the exact sense of _gore_, see note to A. 3237.

1983. _In toune_, in the town, in the district. But it must not be supposed that much _sense_ is intended by this inserted line. It is a mere tag, in imitation of some of the romances. Either Chaucer has neglected to conform to the new kind of stanza which he now introduces (which is most likely), or else three lines have been lost before this one. The next three stanzas are longer, viz. of _ten_ lines each, of which only the seventh is very short. For good examples of these short lines, see Sir Gawayne and the Greene Kny[gh]t, ed. Morris; and for a more exact account of the metres here employed, see vol. iii. p. 425.

1993. _So wilde._ Instead of this short line, Tyrwhitt has:--

'Wherin he soughte North and South, And oft he spied with his mouth In many a forest wilde.'

But none of our seven MSS. agrees with this version, nor are these lines found in the black-letter editions. The notion of _spying_ with one's _mouth_ seems a little too far-fetched.

1995. This line is supplied from MS. Reg. 17 D. 15, where Tyrwhitt found it; but something is so obviously required here, that we must insert it to make some sense. It suits the tone of the context to say that 'neither wife nor child durst oppose him.' We may, however, bear in mind that the meeting of a knight-errant with one of these often preceded some great adventure. 'And in the midst of an highway he [Sir Lancelot] met a damsel riding on a white palfrey, and there either saluted other. Fair damsel, said Sir Lancelot, know ye in this country any adventures? Sir knight, said that damsel, here are adventures near hand, and thou durst prove them'; Sir T. Malory, Morte Arthur, bk. vi. cap. vii. The result was that Lancelot fought with Sir Turquine, and defeated him. Soon after, he was 'required of a damsel to heal her brother'; and again, 'at the request of a lady' he recovered a falcon; an adventure which ended in a fight, as usual. Kölbing points out a parallel line in Sir Guy of Warwick, 45-6:-- [191]

'In all Englond ne was ther none That durste in wrath ayenst hym goon'; Caius MS., ed. Zupitza, p. 5.

1998. _Olifaunt_, i. e. Elephant; a proper name, as Tyrwhitt observes, for a giant. Maundeville has the form _olyfauntes_ for _elephants_. By some confusion the Moeso-Goth. _ulbandus_ and A. S. _olfend_ are made to signify a _camel_. Spenser has put Chaucer's _Olifaunt_ into his Faerie Queene, bk. iii. c. 7. st. 48, and makes him the brother of the giantess Argantè, and son of Typhoeus and Earth. The following description of a giant is from Libius Disconius (Percy Folio MS. vol. ii. p. 465):--

'He beareth haires on his brow Like the bristles of a sow, His head is great and stout; Eche arme is the lenght of an ell, His fists beene great and fell, Dints for to driue about.'

Sir Libius says:--

'If God will me grace send, Or this day come to an end I hope him for to spill,' &c.

Another giant, 20 feet long, and 2 ells broad, with two boar's tusks, and also with brows like bristles of a swine, appears in Octouian Imperator, ed. Weber, iii. 196. See also the alliterative Morte Arthure, ed. Brock, p. 33.

2000. _child_; see note to l. 2020. _Termagaunt_; one of the idols whom the Saracens (in the medieval romances) are supposed to worship. See The King of Tars, ed. Ritson (Met. Rom., ii. 174-182), where the Sultan's gods are said to be Jubiter, Jovin (both forms of Jupiter), Astrot (Astarte), Mahoun (Mahomet), Appolin (Apollo), Plotoun (Pluto), and _Tirmagaunt_. Lybeaus Disconus (Ritson, Met. Rom. ii. 55) fought with a giant 'that levede yn Termagaunt.' The Old French form is _Tervagant_, Ital. _Tervagante_ or _Trivigante_, as in Ariosto. Wheeler, in his Noted Names of Fiction, gives the following account--'Ugo Foscolo says: "_Trivigante_, whom the predecessors of Ariosto always couple with Apollino, is really Diana _Trivia_, the sister of the classical Apollo.".... According to Panizzi, _Trivagante_ or _Tervagante_ is the Moon, or Diana, or Hecate, _wandering under three names_. _Termagant_ was an imaginary being, supposed by the crusaders, who confounded Mahometans with pagans, to be a Mahometan deity. This imaginary personage was introduced into early English plays and moralities, and was represented as of a most violent character, so that a ranting actor might always appear to advantage in it. See Hamlet, iii. 2. 15.' Fairfax, in his translation of Tasso (c. i. st. 84), speaks of Termagaunt and Mahound, but Tasso mentions 'Macometto' only. See also Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 47. Hence comes our _termagant_ in the sense of a noisy boisterous woman. Shakespeare has--'that hot [192] _termagant_ Scot'; 1 Hen. IV., v. 2. 114. Cf. Ritson's note, Met. Rom. iii. 257.

2002. _slee_, will slay. In Anglo-Saxon, there being no distinct future tense, it is expressed by the present. Cf. _go_ for _will go_ in 'we also _go_ with thee'; John xxi. 3.

2005. _simphonye_, the name of a kind of tabor. In Ritson's Ancient Songs, i. lxiv., is a quotation from Hawkins's Hist. of Music, ii. 284, in which that author cites a passage from Batman's translation of Bartholomaeus de Proprietatibus Rerum, to the effect that the _symphonie_ was 'an instrument of musyke ... made of an holowe tree [i. e. piece of wood], closyd in lether in eyther syde; and mynstrels beteth it with styckes.' Probably the _symphangle_ was the same instrument. In Rob. of Brunne's Handlyng Synne,