Chapter VII: Part 7

3223. _eight-e-ten-e_ has four syllables; cf. B. 5. Tyrwhitt read it as of _two_ syllables, and inserted _I gesse_ after _she was_. He duly notes that the words _I gesse_ are 'not in the MSS.'

3226. 'And considered himself to be like.' Tyrwhitt has _belike_, which he probably took to be an adverb; but this is a gross anachronism. The adv. _belike_ is unknown earlier than the year 1533.

3227. _Catoun_, Dionysius Cato; see note to G. 688. But Tyrwhitt notes, that 'the maxim here alluded to is not properly one of Cato's; but I find it (he says) in a kind of Supplement to the Moral Distichs entitled _Facetus_, int. Auctores octo morales, Lugd. 1538, cap. iii.

"Duc tibi prole parem sponsam moresque venustam,
Si cum pace velis vitam deducere justam."'

He refers to the catalogue of MSS. in Trin. Coll. Dublin, No. 275 (under _Urbanus_, another name for _Facetus_); and to Bale, Cent. iii. 17, and Fabricius, Bib. Med. Aetatis.

3230. Note _is_, in the singular. 'Crabbed age and youth cannot live together';--_Passionate Pilgrim_.

3235. _ceynt_, girdle; _barred_, adorned with cross stripes. Warton could not understand the word; but a _bar_ is a transverse stripe on a girdle or belt, as in A. 329, which see.

3236-7. _barm-clooth_, lap-cloth, i. e. an apron 'over her loins.' _gore_, a triangular slip, used as an insertion to widen a garment in any particular place. The apron spread out towards the bottom, owing rather, it appears, to inserted 'gores' below than to pleats above. Or the pleats may be called gores here, from their triangular shape. [99] Cf. A. S. _g[=a]ra_, an angular projection of land, as in Kensington _Gore_. '_Gheroni_, the _gores_ or gussets of a smocke or shirt'; Florio's Ital. Dict. See note to B. 1979, and the note to l. 3321 below.

3238. _brouded_, embroidered; cf. B. 3659, Leg. Good Women, 227. _Of_ in l. 3240 means 'with.'

3241. _voluper_, lit. 'enveloper' or 'wrapper'; hence, kerchief, or cap. In l. 4303, it means a night-cap. In Wright's Vocabularies, it translates Lat. _calamandrum_ (568, 28), _inuolutarium_ (590, 28), and _mafora_ (594, 19). In the Prompt. Parv. we find: '_volypere_, kerche, _teristrum_'; and in the Catholicon, '_volyper_, caliend[r]um.' In Baret's Alvearie, h. 596, we find: 'A woman's cap, hood, or bonet, _Calyptra_, _Caliendrum_.' The tapes of this cap were 'of the same suit' as the embroidery of her collar, i. e. were of black silk.

3245. _smale y-pulled_, i. e. partly plucked out, to make them narrow, even, and well-marked.

3247. Tyrwhitt at first had '_for_ to see,' but corrected it to '_on_ to see,' i. e. to look upon. Cf. Leg. Good Women, 2425.

3248. _pere-ionette_, early-ripe pear. Tyrwhitt refers us to a F. _poire jeunette_, or an Ital. _pero giovanetto_, i. e. very young pear-tree; but I believe the explanation is as imaginary as are these terms, which I seek for in vain. I take it that he has been misled by a false etymology from F. _jeune_, Ital. _giovane_, young, whereas the reference is to the early-ripe pear called in O. F. _poire de hastivel_ (F. _hâtiveau_); see _hastivel_ in Godefroy. The corresponding E. term is _gennitings_, applied to apples, but applicable to pears also; and I take the etymology to be from F. _Jean_, John, because such apples and pears ripen about St. John's day (June 24), which is very early. Cotgrave has: '_Hastivel_, a soon-ripe apple, called the St. John's apple.' Littré, s. v. _poire_, has: 'La poire appellée à Paris _de messire Jean_ est celle qu'en Dauphiné et Languedoc l'on nomme _de coulis_.' Lacroix (Manners, &c. during the Middle Ages, p. 116) says that, in the thirteenth century, one of the best esteemed pears was the _hastiveau_, which was 'an early sort, and no doubt the golden pear now called St. Jean.' Finally, we learn from Piers Plowman, C. xiii. 221, that 'pere-Ionettes' were very sweet and very early ripe, and therefore very soon rotten; see my note to that line. The text, accordingly, compares this young and forward beauty to the _newe_ (i. e. fresh-leaved) early-ripe pear-tree; and there is much propriety in the simile. Of course, this explanation is somewhat of a guess; and perhaps I may add another possible etymology, viz. from _jaune_, yellow, with reference to the golden colour of the pear. Cf. _jaulnette_, in Cotgrave, as a name for St. John's wort, and the form _floure-jonettis_ in the King's Quair, st. 47.

3251. 'With silk tassels, and pearls (or pearl-shaped knobs or buttons) made of the metal called _latoun_.' Such is Tyrwhitt's simple explanation. In Riley's Memorials of London, p. 398, we find that a man was accused of having 'silvered 240 buttons of _latone_ ... for [100] purses.' The notes in Warton are doubly misleading, first confusing _latoun_ with _cheklatoun_ (which are unconnected words), and then quoting the expression 'perled cloth of gold,' which is another thing again. As to _latoun_, see note to C. 350, and cf. A. 699, B. 2067, &c.

3254. _popelote_, darling, poppet. Not connected with _papillon_, but with F. _poupée_ and E. _puppet_. Halliwell gives: '_Poplet_, a term of endearment, generally applied to a young girl: _poppet_ is still in common use.' Cotgrave has: '_Popelin_, masc. a little finicall darling.' Godefroy gives: '_poupelet_, m. petit poupon.'

3256. Wright says: 'The gold noble of this period was a very beautiful coin; specimens are engraved in Ruding's Annals of the Coinage. It was coined in the Tower of London [as here said], the place of the principal London mint.' It was worth 6s. 8d., and first coined about 1339. See C. 907, and note.

3258. 'Sitting on a barn.' Repeated in C. 397.

3261. _bragot_, a sweet drink, made of ale and honey fermented together; afterwards, the honey was replaced by sugar and spice. See _Bragget_ in New E. Dict. The full receipt for 'Braket' is given in Strutt, Manners and Customs, iii. 74; it contained 4 gallons of ale to a pint of honey. In 1783, it was made of ale, sugar, and spices, and drunk at Easter; Brand, Pop. Antiq. i. 112. Spelt _bragot_, Palladius on Husbandry, p. 90, l. 812; &c. Of British origin; Welsh _bragawd_; cf. O. Irish _brac_, later _braich_, malt. See also the note on _Bragott_ in the Catholicon, ed. Herrtage.

3262. Cf. 'An appyll-hurde, _pomarium_'; Catholicon Anglicum.

3263-4. These two lines are cited by Dryden with approval, in the Preface to his Fables, as being 'not much behind our present English.' We are amazed to find that Dryden condemns Chaucer's lines as unequal; and coolly remarks that 'equality of numbers ... was either not known, or not always practised in Chaucer's age.' The black-letter editions which Dryden read were, in fact, full of misspelt words; but even in them, he might have found plenty of good lines, if he had not been so prejudiced and (to say the truth) conceited.

3268. _prymerole_, primrose; as in Gower, C. A. iii. 130. _pigges-nye_, pig's eye, a term of endearment; pig's eyes being (as Tyrwhitt notes) remarkably small. Cf. 'Waked with a wench, pretty peat, pretty love, and my sweet pretty _pigsnie_'; Peele, Old Wives' Tale, ed. Dyce (1883), p. 455, col. 1. And see Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 28, ii. 97, 104. In fact, it is common. Brand, quoting Douce (Illust. of Shak. ii. 151), says that 'Shadwell not only uses the word _pigsney_ in this sense, but also _birdsney_ [bird's eye]; see his Plays, i. 357, iii. 385.' See also _pigsney_ in Todd's Johnson, where one quotation has the form _pigs eie_. _An ye_ became _a nye_; hence the pl. _nyes_, and even _nynon_ (= eyne), as in Halliwell. See note to P. Plowman, C. xx. 306, where _bler-eyed_, i. e. blear-eyed, appears as _bler-nyed_ in the B-text.

3269. _leggen_, to lay. Tyrwhitt has _liggen_, to lie, which is but poor grammar. [101]

3274. _Oseneye_, Oseney, in the suburbs of Oxford, where there was an Abbey of St. Austin's Canons; cf. l. 3666.

3286. _harrow_ (Pt. _harowe_), a cry for help, a cry of distress; O. F. _haro_, _harou_, the same; see Godefroy. Cf. ll. 3825, 4307.

'_Primus Demon._ Oute, haro, out, out! harkyn to this horne'--&c. Towneley Mysteries, Surtees Society, p. 307 (in the Mystery of "_Judicium_.") So in the Coventry Mysteries, we have:--

'_Omnes demones clamant._ Harrow and out! what xal we say?

harrow! we crye, owt! And Alas!
Alas, harrow! is þis þ_a_t day?...
Alas, harrow! and owt! we crye.'
(Play of _Judgment_.)

'My mother was afrayde there had ben theves in her house, and she kryed out _haroll alarome_ (F. elle sescria _harol alarme_)'; Palsgrave, s. v. _crye_, p. 501. See _Haro_ in Littré, _hara_ in Schade. Cf. l. 3825; and the note in Dyce's Skelton, ii. 274.

3291. I. e. St. Thomas of Canterbury.

3299. 'A clerk would have employed his time ill.'

3308. Defective in the first foot; scan: Crist | es, &c. Tyrwhitt inserts _Of_ before _Cristes_, and coolly observes, in his Notes, that it is 'added from conjecture only.' He might have said, that it makes bad grammar. And it is from such manipulated lines as this that the public forms its judgement of Chaucer's verse! Is it _nothing_ that all the authorities begin the line alike?

3316. _shode_, not 'hair,' as in Tyrwhitt, but 'parting of the hair.'

3318. 'It was the fashion to wear shoes with the upper leather cut into a variety of beautiful designs, resembling the tracery of window-heads, through which the bright colour of the green, blue, or scarlet stocking beneath was shewn to great advantage';--Rock, Church of our Fathers, ii. 239, with illustrations at p. 240. _Poules windowes_, windows like those in St. Paul's Cathedral; hence, designs resembling them. Wright conjectures that there may even be a reference to the rose-window of old St. Paul's; and he says that examples of such shoes still exist, in the museum of Mr. C. Roach Smith. Good illustrations of these beautifully cut shoes are given in Fairholt's Costume, pp. 64, 65, who also notes that 'in Dugdale's view of old St. Paul's ... the rose-window in the transept is strictly analogous in design.' The Latin name for such shoes was _calcei fenestrati_, which see in Ducange. Rock also quotes the phrase _corium fenestratum_ from Pope Innocent III. Observe the mention of his scarlet hose in the next line. Cf. note to Rom. of the Rose, 843, in vol. i. p. 423.

3321. _wachet_, a shade of blue. Tyrwhitt wrongly connects it with the town of _Watchet_, in Somersetshire. But it is French. Littré, s. v. _vaciet_, gives: 'Couleur d'hyacinthe ou _vaciet_,' colour of the hyacinth, or _bilberry_ (Lat. _uaccinium_). Roquefort defines _vaciet_ as a shrub which bears a dark fruit fit for dyeing violet; it is applied, he [102] says, both to the fruit and the dye; and he calls it _Vaccinium hysginum_. Phillips says _watchet_ is 'a kind of blew colour.' Todd's Johnson cites from Milton's Hist. of Muscovia, c. 5, '_watchet_ or sky-coloured cloth'; and the line, 'Who stares, in Germany, at _watchet_ eyes,' tr. of Juvenal, Sat. xiii, wrongly attributed to Dryden. See examples in Nares from Browne, Lyly, Drayton, and Taylor: and, in Richardson, from Beaumont and Fletcher, Hackluyt, Spenser, and Ben Jonson. Cotgrave explains F. _pers_ as 'watchet, blunket, skie-coloured,' and _couleur perse_ as 'skie-colour, azure-colour, a blunket, or light blue.' See _Blunket_ in the New E. Dict., and my article in Philolog. Soc. Trans. Nov. 6, 1885, p. 329. Webster has '_watchet_ stockings,' The Malcontent, A. iii. sc. 1. Lydgate has '_watchet_ blewe'; see Warton, Hist. Eng. Poet. (1840), ii. 280.

3322. _poyntes_, tagged laces, as in Shakespeare. MS. Hl. has here a totally different line, involving the word _gores_ (cf. l. 3237 above), viz. 'Schapen with goores in the newe get,' i. e. in the new fashion.

3329. Tyrwhitt says:--'The school of Oxford seems to have been in much the same estimation for its dancing, as that of Stratford for its French'; see l. 125. He probably meant this satirically; but it may mean the very opposite, or something nearly so. The Stratford-at-Bow French was excellent of its kind, but unlike that of France (see note to l. 125); and probably the Oxford dancing was, likewise, of no mean quality after its kind, having twenty 'maneres.'

3331. _rubible_; also _ribible_ (4396). Cf. 'where was his fedylle [fiddle] or hys _ribible_'; Knight de la Tour, cap. 117. See _Ribibe_, _Ribible_ in Halliwell; The Squire of Low Degree (in Ritson), l. 1071; Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, ii. 194. Also called a _rebeck_, as in Milton. A two-stringed musical instrument, played with a bow, of Moorish origin; Arab. _rab[=a]b_. '_Hec vitula_, a rybybe'; Wright's Gloss. 738. 19.

3332. _quinible._ Not a musical instrument, as Tyrwhitt supposed, but a kind of voice. It is not singing consecutive fifths upon a plain song, as Mr. Chappell once thought (Pop. Music of the Olden Time, i. 34); but, as afterwards explained by him in Notes and Queries, 4 S. vi. 117, it refers to a very high voice. The _quinible_ was an octave higher than the _treble_; the _quatreble_ was an octave higher than the mean. The _mean_ was intermediate between the _plain-song_ or _tenor_ (so called from its _holding on_ the notes) and the _treble_. It means 'at the extreme pitch of the voice.' Skelton miswrites it _quibyble_.

3333. _giterne_, a kind of guitar. 'The gittern and the kit the wand'ring fiddlers like'; Drayton, Polyolbion, song 4. See note to P. Pl. C. xvi. 208; Prompt. Parv. p. 196.

3337. _squaymous_, squeamish, particular. Tyrwhitt says--'I know not how to make this sense agree with what follows' (l. 3807). But it is easy to understand that he was, ordinarily, squeamish, retentive; exceptionally, far otherwise. In the Knight de la Tour, cap. cxiv, p. 155, there is a story of a lady who waited on her old husband, and nursed him under most trying conditions; 'and unnethe there might [103] haue be founde a woman but atte sum tyme she wolde haue lothed her, or ellys to haue be right _scoymous_ ta haue do the seruice as thes good lady serued her husbonde contynuelly.' In a version of the Te Deum, composed about 1400, we read--'Thou were not _skoymus_ of the maidens wombe'; Maskell, Monumenta Ritualia, ii. 14[24]. Cf. '_squaymose_, verecundus,' Catholicon; '_skeymowse_, or _sweymows_ or _queymows_, abhominativus'; Prompt. Parv. Spelt _squmous_ (badly), Court of Love, l. 332; and _sqymouse_ in Morris's reprint of it. See _Desdaigneux_ in Cotgrave. 'To be _squamish_, or nice, _delicias facere_'; Baret's Alvearie. 'They that be subiect to Saturne ... be not _skoymous_ of foule and stinking clothing'; Batman on Bartholomè, lib. 8. c. 23. In Weber's Metrical Romances, i. 359, we find:

'Than was the leuedi of the hous
A proude dame and an envieous,
Hokerfulliche missegging,
_Squeymous_ and eke scorning.'
Lay le Freine, ll. 59-62.

These examples quite establish the sense. The derivation is from the rare A. F. _escoymous_, which occurs in P. Meyer's ed. of Nicole Bozon (Soc. des Anc. Textes Français), p. 158:--'si il poy mange e beyt poy, lors est gageous ou _escoymous_,' if he eats and drinks little, then is he delicate or nice. Robert of Brunne has the spelling _esquaymous_; Handlyng Synne, l. 7249.

3338. _dangerous_, sparing; see the Glossary.

3340. Cutts (Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages, p. 219) seems to think that the clerk went _about the parish_ with his censer, as he sometimes certainly went about with holy water. Warton, on the other hand, says that 'on holidays it was his business to carry the censer _about the church_, and he takes this opportunity of casting unlawful glances on the handsomest ladies of the parish.' Warton is clearly right here, for there is an allusion to the ladies coming forward with the usual offering (l. 3350); cf. note to A. 450. And see Persones Tale, l. 407.

3354. _for paramours_, for love's sake: a redundant expression, since _par_ means 'for.' Cf. n. to l. 1155, at p. 67.

3358. _shot-windowe._ Brockett's Northern Glossary gives: '_Shot-window_, a projecting window, common in old houses'; but this may have been copied from Horne Tooke, who seems to have guessed at, and misunderstood, the passage, below, in Gawain Douglas. In the new edition of Jamieson, Mr. Donaldson defines _Schot_ as 'a window set on hinges and opening like a shutter,' and explains that, 'in the West of Scotland, a projecting window is called an _out-shot window_, whereas a _shot-window_ or _shot_ is one that can be opened or shut like [104] a door or shutter by turning on its hinges.' It is material to the story that the window here mentioned should be readily opened and shut. The passage in G. Douglas's tr. of Virgil, prol. to bk. vii, evidently refers to a window of this character, as the poet first says:--

'Ane _schot-wyndo_ vnschet a lytill on char,'

i. e. I unshut the shot-window, and left it a little ajar; and he goes on to say that the weather was so cold that he soon shut it again--

'The _schot_ I clossit, and drew inwart in hy.'

See also ll. 3695, 6 below. In the next line, _upon_ merely means 'in' or 'formed in.'

It is curious that, in Bell's Chaucer, a quotation is given from the Ballad of _Clerk Saunders_ (Border Minstrelsy, vol. ii.) to shew that _shot-window_ cannot mean '_shut_ window.' But it does not prove that it cannot mean 'hinge-shutting window,' as I have shewn the right sense to be.

'Then she has ta'en a crystal wand,
And she has stroken her troth thereon;
She has given it him out at the _shot-window_,
With mony a sad sigh and heavy groan.'

3361. Tyrwhitt absurdly says that ll. 3361, 3362 should be broken into four short verses, and that _ladý_ (sic) rimes with _be_! In Bell's edition, they are printed in small type! They are just ordinary lines; and _be_ (pronounced nearly as modern _bay_) certainly never rimed with _lády_--nor yet with _la-dý_--in Chaucer's time, when the final _y_ was sounded like the modern _ee_ in _meet_, and would rather have rimed with a word like _my_. It is a mere whim.

3375. _menes_, intermediate people, go-betweens; see _Mene_, sb., in Gloss. to P. Plowman, with numerous references. _Brocage_ is the employment of a 'broker' or agent, and so means much the same. See _Brokage_ in New E. Dict., and _Brocage_ in Gloss. to P. Plowman.

3377. _brokkinge_, with quick regular interruptions, quavering, in a 'broken' manner. See _Brock_ in New E. Dict.

3379. _wafres_, wafers. 'They (F. _gaufres_) are usually sold at fairs, and are made of a kind of batter poured into an iron instrument, which shuts up like a pair of snuffers. It is then thrust into the fire, and when it is with-drawn and opened, the _gaufre_, or wafer, is taken out and eaten "piping hote out of the glede," as here described.'--Note in Bell's Chaucer.

3380. _mede_, reward, money; distinct from _meeth_, mead, in l. 3378. The sense of _mede_ is very amply illustrated in P. Plowman. L. 3380 intimates that, as she lived in a town, she could spend money at any time.

3382. A side-note, in several MSS., says: 'Unde Ouidius: Ictibus agrestis.' But the quotation is not from Ovid.

3384. The parish-clerks often took part in the Mystery Plays. The part of Herod was an important one; cf. Hamlet, iii. 2. 15. [105]

3387. 'I presume this was a service that generally went unrewarded.'--Wright. It was like 'piping in an ivy-leaf'; see A. 1838.

3389. _ape_, dupe; as in A. 706.

3392. Gower has the like, ed. Pauli, i. 343:--

'An olde sawe is: who that is sligh,
In place w[h]ere he may be nigh,
He maketh the ferre leve loth
Of love; and thus ful ofte it goth.'

Hending, among his Proverbs, has--'Fer from eye, fer from herte,' answering to the mod. E. 'out of sight, out of mind.' Kemble cites: 'Quod raro cernit oculi lux, cor cito spernit,' from MS. Trin. Coll., fol. 365. Also 'Qui procul est oculis, procul est a lumine cordis,' from Gartner, Dict. 8 b.

3427. _deyde_, should die; subjunctive mood.

3430. _that ... him_ is equivalent to _whom_. Cf. A. 2710.

3445. _kyked_, stared, gazed; see l. 3841. Cf. Scotch _keek_, to peep, pry; Burns has it in his Twa Dogs, l. 58.

3449. The carpenter naturally invokes St. Frideswide, as there was a priory of St. Frideswide at Oxford, the church of which has become the present cathedral. The shrine of St. Frideswide is still to be seen, though in a fragmentary state, at the east end of the cathedral, on its former site near the original chancel-arches and wall of her early stone church. In this line, _seint-e_ has the fem. suffix.

3451. _astromye_ is obviously intentional, as it fills up the line, and is repeated six lines below. The carpenter was not strong in technical terms. In like manner, he talks of 'Nowelis flood'; see note to l. 3818. The reading _astronomy_ just spoils both lines, and loses the jest.

3456. 'That knows nothing at all except his Creed.'

3457. This story is told of Thales by Plato, in his Theaetetus; it also occurs, says Tyrwhitt, in the Cento Novelle Antiche, no. 36. It has often been repeated, and may now be found in James's edition of Æsop, 1852, Fable 170.

3469. Nearly repeated from A. 545.

3479. 'I defend thee with the sign of the cross from elves and living creatures.' At the same time, the carpenter would make the sign over him. _Wightes_ does not mean 'witches,' as Tyrwhitt thought, but 'creatures.' Cf. l. 3484.

3480. _night-spel_, night-spell, a charm said at night to keep off evil spirits. The carpenter says it five times, viz. towards the four corners of the house and on the threshold. The charm is contained in lines 3483-6, and is partly intentional nonsense, as such charms often were. See several unintelligible examples in Cockayne's Leechdoms, iii. 286. The object of saying it four times towards the four corners of the house was to invoke the four evangelists, just as in the child's hymn still current, which is, in fact, a charm:-- [106]

'Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
Bless the bed that I lie on;
Four angels round my bed,' &c.

Lines 3483-4 are clear, viz. 'May Jesus Christ and St. Benedict bless this house from every wicked creature.' As this is a reproduction of a popular saying, it is not necessary that the lines should scan; still, they run correctly, if we pronounce _seynt_ as _se-ynt_, as elsewhere (note to A. 509), and if we take both to be defective at the beginning. The last two lines are mere scraps of older charms. It is just possible that _for nightes verye_[25] represents an A. S. _for nihte werigum_, 'against the evil spirits of night'; against whom 'the white Paternoster' is to be said. The reading _white_ is perfectly correct. There really was a prayer so called. See Notes and Queries, 1 Ser. xi. 206, 313; whence we learn that the charm above quoted, beginning 'Matthew, Mark,' &c., resembles one in the _Patenôtre Blanche_, to be found in the (apocryphal) Enchiridion Leonis Papae (Romae, MDCLX), where occurs:--'Petite Patenôtre Blanche, que Dieu fit, que Dieu dit, que Dieu mit en Paradis. Au soir m'allant coucher, je trouvis trois anges à mon lit, couchès, un aux pieds, deux au chevet'; &c. Here is a charm that mentions it, quoted in Notes and Queries, 1 Ser. viii. 613:--

'White Paternoster, Saint Peter's brother,
What hast thou i' th' t'one hand? White Booke leaves.
What hast i' th' t'other hand? Heven-Yate Keyes.
Open Heaven-Yates, and steike [shut] Hell-Yates.
And let every crysome-child creepe to its owne mother.
White Paternoster! Amen.'

The mention of St. Peter's brother is remarkable. It is a substitution for the older 'Saint Peter's sister' here mentioned. Again, St. Peter's sister is a substitution for St. Peter's daughter, who is a well-known saint, usually called St. Petronilla, or, in English, Saint Parnell, once a very common female name, and subsequently a surname. Her day is May 31, and she was said to cure the quartan ague; see Brand, Pop. Antiq., ed. Ellis, i. 363. A curious passage in the Ancren Riwle, p. 47, gives directions for crossing oneself at night, and particularly mentions the use of four crosses on 'four halves,' or in the original, 'vour creoices a uour halue'; with the remark 'Crux fugat omne malum,' &c. For 'Rural Charms,' see the chapter in Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. iii.; and see the charm against rats in Political and Love Poems, ed. Furnivall, p. 23. I may add that, in Kemble's Solomon and Saturn, p. 136, is an A. S. poem, in which the Paternoster is _personified_, and destroys evil spirits. In Longfellow's Golden Legend, § II., Lucifer is made to say a _Black_ Paternoster.

3507. 'That, if you betray me, you shall go mad (as a punishment).' [107]

3509. _labbe_, chatterbox, talkative person. In P. Plowm. C. xiii. 39, we find the phrase 'ne _labbe_ it out,' i. e. do not chatter about it, do not utter it foolishly. In the Romans of Partenay, ed. Skeat, 3751, we find: 'a _labbyng_ tonge'; and Chaucer has elsewhere: 'a _labbing_ shrewe,' E. 2428. Sewel's Du. Dict. (1754) gives: '_labben_, or _labbekakken_, to blab, chat'; also '_labbekak_, a tattling gossip, a common blab'; and '_labbery_, chat, idle talk.'

3512. _him_, i. e. Christ. The story of the Harrowing (or despoiling) of Hell by Christ is derived from the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, and is a favourite and common subject in our older authors. It describes the descent of Christ into hell, after His crucifixion, in order to release the souls of the patriarchs, whom He takes with Him to paradise. It is given at length in P. Plowman, Text C. Pass. xxi; and was usually introduced into the mystery plays; see the Coventry Mysteries, the York Plays, &c. See also Cursor Mundi, 17,863; Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 12; &c.

3516. 'On Monday next, at the end of the first quarter of the night,' i. e. about 9 P.M. Cf. ll. 3554, 3645.

3530. See Ecclesiasticus, xxxii. 24 [Eng. version, 19]; this was not said by 'Solomon,' but by Jesus, son of Sirach. It is quoted again in the Tale of Melibeus; B. 2193.

3539. 'The trouble endured by Noah and his company.' _Noë_ is the form in the Latin Vulgate version. The allusion is to the intentionally comic scene introduced into the mystery plays, as, e. g. in the Chester Plays, the Towneley Plays, and the York Plays, in which Noah and his sons (_felawshipe_) have much ado to induce Noah's wife to enter the ark; and, in the course of the scene, she gives Noah a sound box on the ear.

3548. _kimelin_, a large shallow tub; especially one used for brewing; see Prompt. Parv. p. 274; and _Kimnell_ in Miss Jackson's Shropshire Glossary.

3554. _pryme_, i. e. about 9 A.M. See note to F. 73.

3565. This shows that the hall was open to the roof, with cross-beams, and that the stable was attached to it, between it and the garden.

3590. _sinne_, i. e. venial sin; see I. 859, 904, 920.

3598. Evidently a common proverb.

3616. It is obvious that the first foot is defective.

3624. _His owne hand_, with his own hand. Tyrwhitt points out the same idiom in Gower, ed. Pauli, ii. 83:--

'The craft Minerve of wolle fond
And made cloth _her owne hond_.'

And again, id. ii. 310:--

'Thing which he said _his owne mouth_.'

3625. _ronges_, rungs, rounds, steps; _stalkes_, upright pieces. To [108] climb by the rungs and the stalks means to employ the hands as well as the feet. A rung was also called a _stayre_ (stair); and _stalke_ is the diminutive of _stele_, a handle, which was another name for the upright part of a ladder. In Allit. Poems, ed. Morris, C. 513, the author complains that some people cannot tell the difference between a _stele_ and a _stayre_; and, in fact, the Glossary does not point it out. In the Ancren Riwle, p. 354, we find mention of the two ladder-_stales_ that are upright to the heaven, between which _stales_ the _tinds_ (or rungs) are fastened. This makes the sense perfectly clear.

3637. _a furlong-way_, a few minutes; exactly, two minutes and a half, at the rate of three miles an hour.

3638. 'Now say a Paternoster, and keep silence.' Accordingly, the carpenter 'says his devotion.' '_Clom!_' is a word imposing silence, like 'mum!' So in the Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 266, we find: 'Yef ye me wylleth y-here, habbeth amang you _clom_ and reste'; i. e. if you wish to hear me, keep among you silence and rest.

3645. _corfew-tyme_, probably 8 P.M. The original time for ringing the curfew-bell, as a signal for putting out fires and lights, was eight o'clock. The custom has been kept up in some places till the present day; the hour for it is sometimes 8 P.M., and sometimes 9 P.M. In olden times, mention is usually made of the former of these hours; see Brand, Pop. Antiq. ii. 220; Prompt. Parv. p. 110. People invariably went to bed very early; see l. 3633.

3655. The service of _lauds_ followed that of _nocturns_; the latter originally began at midnight, but usually somewhat later. The time indicated seems to have been just before daybreak. 'These nocturns should begin at such a time as to be ended just as morning's twilight broke, so that the next of her services, the _lauds_, or _matutinae laudes_, might come on immediately after.'--Rock, Church of our Fathers, iii. 2. 6. From l. 3731, we learn, however, that the night was still 'as dark as pitch.' Perhaps the time was between two and three o'clock, as Wright suggests.

3668. _the grange_, lit. granary; but the term was applied to a farm-house and granary on an estate belonging to a feudal manor or (as here) to a religious house. As the estate often lay at some distance from the abbey, it might be necessary for the carpenter, who went to cut down trees, to stay at the grange for the night. Cf. note to P. Pl. C. xx. 71; and Prompt. Parv. (s. v. _grawnge_).

3675. _at cockkes crowe_; cf. l. 3687. The expression in l. 3674 must refer to Monday: the 'cock-crow' refers to Tuesday morning, when it was still pitch-dark (l. 3731). The time denoted by the 'first cock-crow' is very vague; see the Chapter on Cock-crowing in Brand's Pop. Antiquities. The 'second cock-crow' seems to be about 3 A.M., as in Romeo and Juliet, iv. 4. 4; and the 'first cock-crow,' shortly after midnight, as in K. Lear, iii. 4. 121, 1 Hen. IV. ii. 1. 20. An early mention of the first cock occurs in Ypomedon, 783, in Weber's Met. Romances, ii. 309:--'And at the fryst cokke roos he.' The clearest [109] statement is in Tusser's Husbandrie, sect. 74 (E. D. S. p. 165), where he says that cocks crow 'At midnight, at three, and an hower ere day,' which he afterwards explains by 'past five.'

3682. On 'itching omens,' see Miss Burne's _Shropshire Folk-Lore_, p. 269. 'If your right hand itches, you will receive money; ... if your nose itches, you will be kissed, cursed, or vexed.'

3684. Cf. 'If [in a dream] you see many loaves, it portends joy'; A. S. Leechdoms, iii. 215.

3689. _at point-devys_, with all exactness, precisely, very neatly; cf. As You Like It, iii. 2. 401. O. F. _devis_, 'ordre, beauté; _a devis_, _par devis_, en bel ordre, d'une manière bien ordonnée, à gré, à souhait'; Godefroy. See F. 560; Rom. of the Rose, 1215.

3690. _greyn_, evidently some sweet or aromatic seed or spice; apparently cardamoms, otherwise called _grains of Paradise_ (New E. Dict.) '_Greynys_, spyce, _Granum Paradisi_'; Prompt. Parv.; see Way's note. Cf. Rom. of the Rose, 1369, and the note (vol. i. p. 428).

3692. _trewe-love_, (probably) a leaf of herb-paris; in the efficacy of which he had some superstitious belief. _True-love_ is sometimes used as an abbreviation of _true-love knot_, as in the last stanza of the Court of Love; and such is the case here. True-love knots were of various shapes; see pictures of four such in Ogilvie's Dictionary. Some had four loops, which gave rise to the name _true-love_ as applied to herb-paris. Gerarde's Herball, 1597, p. 328, thus describes herb-paris (_Paris quadrifolia_):--At the top of the stalk 'come foorth fower leaves directly set one against another, in manner of a Burgonnion crosse or a true love knot; for which cause among the auncients it hath beene called herbe _Truelove_.' It is still called _True Love's Knot_ in Cumberland.

3700. Note the rime of _tó me_ with _cinam-ó-me_.

3708. _Iakke_, Jack, here an epithet of a fool, like _Iankin_ (B. 1172); and see note to B. 4000. Cf. E. _zany_.

3709. 'It wilt not be (a case of) come-kiss-me.' Chaucer has _ba_, to kiss, D. 433; and _come-ba-me_, i. e. come kiss me, is here used as a phrase; so that the line simply means 'you certainly will not get a kiss!' Observe the rime with _bla-me_. _Bas_ also meant to kiss, and Skelton uses the words together (ed. Dyce, i. 22):--

'With _ba, ba, ba_, and _bas, bas, bas_,
She cheryshed hym, both cheke and chyn';

i. e. with repeated kisses on cheek and chin. So again (i. 127) we find: '_bas me_, buttyng, praty Cys!' And so again (ii. 6): '_bas me_, swete Parrot, _bas me_, swete, swete!' Further illustration is afforded by Burton's Anat. of Melancholy, pt. 3. sec. 2. mem. 4. subsec. 1: 'Yea, many times, this love will make old men and women ... dance, _come-kiss-me-now_, mask, and mum.' This complete explanation of an old _crux_ was first given by Mr. Ellis, in 1870, in his Early Eng. [110] Pronunciation, p. 715, who notes that the reading _com ba me_ is fairly well supported; see his Critical Note. Several MSS. turn it into _compame_, which is clearly due to the influence of the familiar word _companye_, which repeatedly ends a line in Chaucer. Mr. Ellis well remarks--'_Com ba me!_ was probably the name of a song, like ... the modern "Kiss me quick, and go, my love." It is also probable that Absolon's speech contained allusions to it, and that it was very well known at the time.'

The curious part of the story is that, in 1889, I adopted the same reading independently, and for precisely similar reasons. But Mr. Ellis was before me, by nineteen years. See l. 3716 below.

The following MSS. (says Mr. Ellis) read _combame_; viz. Harl. 7335--Camb. Univ. Library, Ii. 3. 26--Trin. Coll. Camb. R. 3. 3--Rawl. MS. Poet. 141. Bodl. 414 has _cum bame_; whilst Rawl. Misc. 1133 and Laud 739 have _come ba me_.

3713. Lit. 'in the way to twenty devils'; hence, in the name of twenty devils. 'In the twenty deuyll way, _Au nom du grant diable_'; Palsgrave (1852), p. 838. See ll. 3134, 4257.

3721-2. These two lines are in E. only; Tyrwhitt omits them. But the old black-letter editions retain them.

3723. He knelt down, because the window was so low (3696).

3725. Cf. 'For who-so kissing may attayne'; Rom. Rose, 3677; and Ovid, Ars Amatoria, i. 669.

3726. _thyn ore_, thy favour, thy grace; the words 'grant me' being understood. It is not uncommon.

'Syr Lybeaus durstede [thirsted] sore,
And seyde, Maugys, _thyn ore_,
To drynke lette me go.'
Ritson, Met. Romances, ii. 57.

'I haue siked moni syk, lemmon, _for thin ore_';
Böddeker's Altengl. Dichtungen, p. 174.

See Specimens of E. Eng., Part I; Glossary to Havelok; &c.

3728. _com of_, i. e. be quick; like _Have do_, have done! We now say 'come on!' But strictly, _come on_ means 'begin,' and _come off_ means 'make an end.'

3751. 'If it be not so that, rather than possess all this town, I would like to be avenged.'

3770. _viritoot_ must be accepted as the reading; the reading _verytrot_ in MS. Hl. gives a false rime, as the _oo_ in _woot_ is long. The meaning is unknown; but the context requires the sense of 'upon the move,' or 'astir.' My guess is that _viri-_ is from F. _virer_, to turn (cf. E. _virelay_), and that _toot_ represents O. F. _tot_ (L. _totum_, F. _tout_), all; so that _viritoot_ may mean 'turn-all.' Cotgrave gives _virevoulte_, 'a veere, whirle a round gamball, friske, or turne,' like the Portuguese _viravolta_. The form _verytrot_ (very trot) is clearly due to an attempt to make sense. MS. Cam. has _merytot_, possibly with reference to M. E. _merytoter_, a swing [111] (Catholicon); which is derived from _mery_, merry, and _toteren_, to totter, oscillate. In the North of England, a swing is still called a _merry-trotter_ (corruption of _merry-totter_), as noted by Halliwell, who remarks that 'the _meritot_ is mentioned by Chaucer,' which is not the fact. Both these 'glosses' give the notion of movement, as this is obviously the general sense implied. Whatever the reading may be, we can see the sense, viz. 'some gay girl (euphemism for light woman) has brought you thus so early astir'; and Gervase accordingly goes on to say, 'you know what I mean.'

Ed. 1561 has _berytote_, a misprint for _verytote_.

3771. Here as elsewhere, _së-ynt_ is dissyllabic; several MSS. have _seinte_, but this can hardly be right. For _Note_, MSS. Pt. Hl. have _Noet_, meaning _St. Neot_, whose day is Oct. 28, and whose name remains in St. Neot's, in Cornwall, and St. Neot's, in Huntingdonshire. He died about 877; see Wright's Biogr. Brit. Litt., A. S. Period, p. 381. The spelling _Note_ is remarkable, as the mod. E. name (pronounced as _Neet_, riming with _feet_) suggests the A. S. form _N[=e]ot_, and M. E. _Neet_.

3774. A proverbial phrase. Tyrwhitt quotes from Froissart, v. iv. p. 92, ed. 1574; 'Il aura en bref temps autres estoupes en sa quenoille.' To 'have tow on one's distaff' is to have a task in hand. 'Towe on my dystaf have I for to spynne'; Hoccleve, De Regimine Principum, p. 45.

3777. _As lene_, pray lend; see note to E. 7.

3782. MS. Hl. has _fo_, which is silently altered to _fote_ by Bell and Wright. Tyrwhitt also has _fote_, which he found in the black-letter editions. The reading _foo_ is probably quite right, and is an intentional substitution for _foot_. It is notorious that oaths were constantly made unmeaning, to avoid a too open profanity. In Chaucer, we have _cokkes bones_, H. 9, I. 29, and _Corpus bones_, C. 314. Another corruption of a like oath is _'s foot_, Shak. Troil. ii. 3. 6, which is docked at the other end. It is poor work altering MSS. so as to destroy evidence. _Cristes foo_ might mean 'the devil'; but this is unlikely.

3785. _stele_, handle; i. e. by the cold end, which served as a handle. See note to D. 949. _st[=e]le_, i. e. steel, would give a false rime.

3811. Tyrwhitt inserted _al_ before _aboute_ in his text, but withdrew it in his notes. The A. S. has _hand-br[=æ]d_, but the M. E. _hand-e-brede_ had at least three syllables, if not four. This is shewn by MS. spellings and by the metre, and still more clearly by Wyclif's Bible, which has: 'a spanne, that is, an _handibreede_,' Ezek. xl. 5 (later version). It may have been formed by analogy with M. E. _handiwerk_ (A. S. _hand-geweorc_) and _handewrit_ (A. S. _hand-gewrit_). But the form is _handbrede_ in Palladius on Husbandry, p. 80, l. 536.

3818. _Nowelis flood_ is the mistake of the illiterate carpenter for _Noes flood_; see it again in l. 3834, where he is laughed at for having used the expression in his previous talks with the clerk and his wife. It is on a par with his _astromye_ (note to l. 3451). He was less familiar with the _Noe_ of the Bible than with the _Nowel_ of the [112] carol-singers at Christmas; see F. 1255. The editors carefully 'correct' the poet. In l. 3834, _Nowélis_ helps the scansion, whilst _Noes_ spoils the line, which has to be 'amended.' The readings are: E. Hn. _as in the text_; Cm. Pt. Ln. the Nowels flood; Pt. the Noes flood; Hl. He was agast and feerd of Noes flood. Tyrwhitt actually reads; He was agast-e so of Noes flood; regardless of the fact that _agast_ has no final _-e_. The carpenter's mistake is the more pardonable when we notice that _Noë_ was sometimes used, instead of _Noël_, to mean 'Christmas.' For an example, see the Poètes de Champagne, Reims, 1851, p. 146.

3821. This singular expression is from the French. Tyrwhitt cites:--

'Ainc tant come il mist a descendre,
Ne trouva point de pain a vendre,'

i. e. he found no bread to sell in his descent. His reference is to the Fabliaux, t. ii. p. 282; Wright refers, for the same, to the fabliau of Aloul, in Barbazan, l. 591. I suppose the sense is, 'he never stopped, as if to transact business.'

3822. E. Hn. celle; _rest_ selle. The word _celle_ might mean 'chamber.' There was an approach to the roof, which they had reached by help of a ladder; and the three tubs were hung among the balks which formed the roof of the principal sitting-room below. But it is difficult to see how the word _celle_ could be applied to the chief room in the house. Tyrwhitt explains _selle_ as 'door-sill or threshold'; but we must bear in mind that the _usual_ M. E. form of _sill_ was either _sille_ or _sulle_, from A. S. _syll_. The spelling with _s_ proves nothing, since Chaucer undoubtedly means 'cell' in A. 1376, where Cm. Hl. have _selle_, and in B. 3162, where three MSS. (Cp. Pt. Ln.) all read _selle_ again. Why the carpenter should have arrived at the door-sill, I do not know.

Nevertheless, upon further thoughts, I accept Tyrwhitt's view, with some modification. We find that Chaucer actually uses Kentish forms (with _e_ for A. S. _y_) elsewhere, for the sake of a rime. A clear case is that of _fulfelle_, in Troil. iii. 510. This justifies the dat. form _selle_ (A. S. _sylle_). But we must take _selle_ to mean 'flooring' or 'boarding,' and _floor_ to mean the ground beneath it; just as we find, in Widegren's Swedish Dictionary, that _syll_ means 'the timber next the ground.' I would therefore read _selle_, with the sense of 'flooring'; and I explain _floor_ by 'flat earth.' In the allit. Morte Arthure, 3249, _flores_ signifies 'plains.' In Gawayn and the Grene Knyght, 55, _sille_ means 'floor.'

3841. Observe the form _cape_, as a variant of _gape_, both here and in l. 3444 (see footnotes); and in Troil. v. 1133.

THE REVE'S PROLOGUE.

3855. For _laughen_, Tyrwhitt has _laughed_, and in l. 3858 has the extraordinary form _lought_, but he corrects the former of these in his [113] Notes. The verb was originally strong; see examples in Stratmann, s. v. _hlahhen_.

3857. Repeated, nearly, in F. 202; see note.

3864. _so theek_, for _so thee ik_, so may I thrive, as I hope to thrive. The Reve came from Norfolk, and Chaucer makes him use the Northern _ik_ for _I_ in this expression, and again in l. 3867 (in the phrase _ik am_), and in l. 3888 (in the phrase _ik have_), but not elsewhere; whence it would seem that _ik_ for _I_ was then dying out in Norfolk; it has now died out even in the North. Both the Host and the Canon's Yeoman use the Southern form _so theech_; see C. 947, G. 929. Cf. _so the ik_, P. Pl., B. v. 228.

3865. To _blear_ (lit. to dim) _one's eye_ was to delude, hoodwink, or cheat a man. So also _blered is thyn yë_, H. 252.

3868. _gras-time_, the time when a horse feeds himself in the fields. _My fodder is now forage_, my food is now such as is provided for me; I am like a horse in winter, whose food is hay in a stable. Thynne animadverts upon this passage (Animadversions, p. 39), and says that _forage_ means 'such harde and olde prouisione as ys made for horses and cattle in winter.' He remarks, justly, that _forage_ is but loosely used in Sir Thopas, B. 1973.

3869. I take this to mean--'my old years write (mark upon me) this white head,' i. e. turn me grey.

3870. 'My heart is as old (lit. mouldy) as my hairs are.' _Mouled_ is the old pp. out of which we have made the mod. E. _mould-y_, adding _-y_ by confusion with the adj. formed from _mould_, the ground. It is fully explained in the Addenda to my Etym. Dict. 2nd ed. p. 818; and the verb _moulen_, to grow mouldy, occurs in B. 32.

3871. 'Unless I grow like a medlar, which gets worse all the while, till it be quite rotten, when laid up in a heap of rubbish or straw.'

3876. _hoppen_, dance; alluding to Luke vii. 32, where Wyclif has: 'we han sungun to you with pipis, and ye han not daunsid.'

3877. _nayl_, a hindrance; like a nail that holds a box from being opened, or that catches a man's clothes, and holds him back.

3878. 'E quegli che contro alla mia età parlando vanno, mostra mal che conoscano che, perchè il porro abbia il capo blanco, che la coda sia verde'; and, as for those that go speaking about my age, it shews that they ill understand how, although the leek has a white head, its tail (or blade) is green; Boccaccio, Decamerone; introduction to the Fourth Day. So also in Northward Ho, by Dekker and Webster, Act iv. sc. 1: 'garlic has a white head and a green stalk'; where Dyce remarks that it occurs again in The Honest Lawyer, 1616, sig. G 2. Cf. P. Plowman, B. xiii. 352.

3878-82. Compare Alanus de Insulis, Parabolae, cap. I (in Leyser's collection, p. 1067):--

'Extincti cineres, si ponas sulphura, uiuent;
Sic uetus apposita mente calescit amor.'

[114]

3882. For _olde_, T. has _cold_, I cannot guess why: smouldering ashes are more likely to be hot. _Old ashes_ mean ashes left after a fire has died down, in which, if raked together, fire can be long preserved. 'Still, in our old ashes, is fire collected.' See the parallel passage in Troilus, ii. 538.

In Soliman and Persida (Dodsley's Old Plays, ed. Hazlitt, v. 339) we find:--

'as the fire
That lay, with honour's hand raked up in ashes,
Revives again to flames.'

We are reminded of line 92 in Gray's Elegy:--'Ev'n in our ashes live their wonted fires'; but Gray himself tells us that he was thinking, not of Chaucer, but of Sonnet 169 (170) of Petrarch:--

'Ch'i veggio nel pensier, dolce mio fuoco,
Fredda una lingua e due begli occhi chiusi,
Rimaner doppo noi pien di faville'--

i. e. which (love-songs) I see in thought, O my sweet flame, when (my) one tongue is cold, and (your) two fine eyes are closed, remaining after us, full of sparkles.

_y-reke_, raked or heaped together, collected. Not explained by Wright or Morris; Tyrwhitt explains it by 'smoking,' and takes it to be a _present_ participle, which is impossible. It is the pt. t. of the scarce strong verb _reken_, pt. t. _rak_, pp. _y-reken_, _y-reke_, of which the primary notion was to 'gather together.' It occurs, just once, in Gothic, in the translation of Romans, xii. 20: 'haurja funins _rikis_ ana haubith is,' i. e. coals of fire shalt thou heap together on his head. It is the very verb from which the sb. _rake_ is derived. See _Rake_ in my Etym. Dict., and the G. _Rechen_ in Kluge. The notion is taken from the heaping together of smouldering ashes to preserve the fire within. Lydgate copies this image in his Siege of Troye, ed. 1555, fol. B 4:--

'But inward brent of hate and of enuy
The hoote fyre, and yet there was no smeke [smoke],
So couertly the malyce was _yreke_.'

3895. _chimbe._ 'The prominency of the staves beyond the head of the barrel. The imagery is very exact and beautiful'; Tyrwhitt. '_Chime_ (pronounced _choim_), sb. a stave of a cask, barrel, &c.'; Leicestershire Glossary (E. D. S.) Urry gives '_Chimbe_, the Rim of a Cooper's Vessel on the outside of the Head. The ends of the Staves from the Grooves outward are called the _Chimes_.' Hexham's Du. Dict. has: '_Kimen_, _Kimmen_, the Brimmes of a tubb or a barrill.' Sewel's Du. Dict. has: '_Kim_, the brim of a barrel.' The Bremen _Kimm_ signifies not only the rim of a barrel, but the edge of the horizon; cf. Dan. _Kiming_, _Kimming_, the horizon. See further in New E. Dict. [115]

3901-2. _what amounteth_, to what amounts. _What shul_, why must.

3904. Tyrwhitt refers us to _Ex sutore medicus_, Phædrus, lib. i. fab. 14; and to _ex sutore nauclerus_, alluded to by Pynson the printer, at the end of his edition of Littleton's Tenures, 1525 (Ames, p. 488).

3906. _Depeford_ (lit. deep ford), Deptford; just beyond which is _Grenewich_, Greenwich. Thus the pilgrims had not advanced very far, considering that the Knight and Miller had both told a tale. They had made an early start, and it was now 'half-way prime.' 'Deptford,' says Dr. Furnivall, 'is 3 miles down the road [or a little more, it depends upon whence we reckon]; and, as only the Reeve's Tale and the incomplete Cook's Tale follow in Group A, we must suppose that Chaucer meant to insert here [at the end of Group A] the Tales of some, at least, of the Five City-Mechanics and the Ploughman ... in order to bring his party to their first night's resting-place, Dartford, 15 miles from London'; Temp. Preface, p. 19. 'The deep ford,' I may remark, must have been the one through the Ravensbourn. Deptford and Greenwich (where, probably, Chaucer was then residing) lay off the Old Kent Road, on the left; hence the host points them out.

_half-way prime._ That is, half-past seven o'clock; taking _prime_ to mean the first quarter of the day, or the period from 6 to 9 A.M. It was also used to denote the _end_ of that period, or 9 A.M., as in B. 4387, where the meaning is certain. In my Preface to Chaucer's Astrolabe, (E. E. T. S.), I said: 'What _prime_ means in all cases, I do not pretend to say. It is a most difficult word, and I think was used loosely. It might mean the beginning or end of a period, and the period might be an hour, or a quarter of a day. I think it was to obviate ambiguity that the end of the period was sometimes expressed by _high prime_, or _passed prime_, or _prime large_; we also find such expressions as _half prime_, _halfway prime_, or _not fully prime_, which indicate a somewhat long period. For further remarks, see Mr. Brae's Essay on Chaucer's Prime, in his edition of the Astrolabe, p. 90. I add some references for the word _prime_, which may be useful. We find _prime_ in Kn. Ta. 1331 (A. 2189); Mill. Ta. 368 (A. 3554); March. Ta. 613 (E. 1857); Pard. Ta. 200 (C. 662); Ship. Ta. 206 (B. 1396); Squi. Ta. 65 (F. 73); _fully prime_, Sir Topas, 114 (B. 2015); _halfway prime_, Reve's Prol. 52 (A. 3906); _passed prime_, Ship. Ta. 88 (B. 1278), Fre. Ta. 178 (D. 1476); _prime large_, Squi. Ta. ii. 14 (F. 360). See also _prime_ in Troilus, ii. 992, v. 15; _passed prime_, ii. 1095 (in the same); _an houre after the prime_, ii. 1557.' Cf. notes to F. 73, &c.

3911. _somdel_, in some degree. _sette his howve_, the same as _set his cappe_, i. e. make him look foolish; see notes to A. 586, 3143. To come behind a man, and alter the look of his head-gear, was no doubt a common trick; now that caps are moveable, the perennial joy of the street-boy is to run off with another boy's cap. [116]

3912. 'For it is allowable to repel (shove off) force by force.' The Ellesmere MS. has here the sidenote--'vim vi repellere.'

3919. _stalke_, (here) a bit of stick; Lat. _festuca_. _balke_, a beam; Lat. _trabs_. See the Vulgate version of Matt. vii. 3.

THE REVES TALE.

The origin of this Tale was a French Fabliau, like one that was first pointed out by Mr. T. Wright, and printed in his Anecdota Literaria, p. 15. Another similar one is printed in Méon's edition of Barbazan's Fabliaux, iii. 239 (Paris, 1808). Both were reprinted for the Chaucer Society, in Originals and Analogues, &c., p. 87. See further in vol. iii. p. 397.