Chapter II: Part 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

_accordaunt_, accordant, suitable, agreeable (to).

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

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

THE KNIGHT.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE SQUYER.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE YEMAN.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE PRIORESSE.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

_unknowe_, short for _unknowen_, unknown.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

_pinched_, gathered in small pleats, closely pleated.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[18]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE NONNE AND THREE PREESTES.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE MONK.

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

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

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

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

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

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

[20]

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

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

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

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

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

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

'With fyve hundred belles ryngande.'

And again, at l. 5712--

'His crouper heeng al full off belles.'

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

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

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

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

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

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

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