PRINCIPAL AUTHORITIES CONSULTED IN THIS BOOK.
Sir S. Meyrick, ‘Antient Armour.’
Lacroix, ‘Manners, Customs, and Dress during the Middle Ages,’ &c., &c.
Skeat, ‘Chaucer,’ &c.
Morris, ‘Chaucer’ (Aldine edition), 1866, and ‘Chaucer’ (Clarendon Press), 1874.
Tyrwhitt’s ‘Chaucer.’
Bell’s edition of ‘Chaucer’s Poetical Works.’
Fairholt, ‘Costume in England.’
Wright, ‘Domestic Manners during the Middle Ages,’ and ‘Womankind in Western Europe.’
Froissart’s ‘Chronicles.’
Planché, ‘British Costume.’
Shaw, ‘Dresses and Decorations,’ ‘Ornaments,’ &c.
Furnivall, ‘Babee’s Book,’ and ‘Trial Forewords’ (Chaucer Society), &c.
‘Arthur of Britayn.’
Six-Text Edition of Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales.’
Bonnard & Mercurj, ‘Costumes des XIIIe, XIVe, et XVe Siècles,’ 1840.
Le Grand, ‘Fabliaux et Contes du XIIe et du XIIIe Siècle,’ 1781.
Barbazan, ‘Fabliaux et Contes,’ 1808.
Printed by McCorquodale & Co. Limited, “The Armoury,” Southwark.
Footnotes:
[1] I use the word ‘emphasis’ in the same sense as one might speak of a crotchet in music, to which you count two, being more emphatic than a quaver, to which you count one.
[2] Those who wish to study systematically the grammar, and construction of the metre, I can only refer to the best authorities, Dr. R. Morris and Mr. Skeat, respectively. It would be superfluous to enter on these matters in the present volume.
[3] “No better MS. of the ‘Canterbury Tales’ could be found than the Harleian MS. 7334, which is far more uniform and accurate than any other I have examined; it has therefore been selected, and faithfully adhered to throughout, as the text of the present edition. Many clerical errors and corrupt readings have been corrected by collating it, line for line, with the Lansdowne MS. 851, which, notwithstanding its provincial peculiarities, contains many excellent readings, some of which have been adopted in preference to the Harleian MS.” (Preface to Morris’s Revised Ed. 1866.) This method I have followed when I have ventured to change a word or sentence, in which case I have, I believe, invariably given my authority.
[4] Roger Ascham.
[5] Mr. Furnivall, among some of his recent interesting researches anent Chaucer, has discovered with certainty his father’s name and profession.
[6] The position of Chaucer, and his wife, in the King’s service, and that of the latter in the service of Constance, Duchess of Lancaster, shared with two ladies of rank, be well as their lifelong interest at Court, prove, I think, that neither of them was of mean parentage, and that they occupied a very good social status.
[7] See also [p. 19], note 34.
[8] It must not be forgotten, in reading praises of warm and sunny May, often now a bleak and chilly month, that the seasons were a fortnight later at that time, May-day coming therefore in the middle of the month, and May ending in the middle of June. The change in the almanac was made in Italy in 1582, in England in 1752.
[9] Dr. Morris writes—“The old supposition that the Philippa whom Chaucer married was the daughter of Sir Paon de Roet (a native of Hainault and King of Arms of Guienne), and sister to Katherine, widow of Sir Hugh Swynford, successively governess, mistress, and wife of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, was founded on heraldic grounds. The Roet arms were adopted by Thomas Chaucer. Then Thomas Chaucer was made (without the slightest evidence) Geoffrey’s son, and Philippa Roet was then made Geoffrey’s wife.” And again, “It is possible that Philippa Chaucer was a relative or namesake of Geoffrey, and that he married her in the spring or early summer of 1374.” It is, however, much less likely that there were so many Chaucers about the Court, unconnected with each other, than that the common supposition is correct. At any rate, until there is any evidence to the contrary, this tradition may be fairly accepted. The recent discovery, in the Record Office, of Thomas Chaucer’s deed, by Mr. Hunter, sealed with a seal bearing the legend, ‘S Ghofrai Chaucer,’ seems to support the tradition.
[10] A mark was 13s. 4d. of our money, but the buying power of money was eight or ten times greater than at present. So that, although ten marks was only £6 12s. of our currency, it was fully equal to £50.
[11] There are entries mentioning Philippa Chaucer in 1366, 1372, and 1374. The former names her as one of the ladies of the bedchamber to Queen Philippa, who conferred the annuity of ten marks in September, 1366. In 1372 John of Gaunt conferred on Philippa Chaucer an annuity of £10 (equal to £100). Her name is mentioned when the grant to Chaucer of a pitcher of wine daily is commuted into money payment, June 13, 1374, by John of Gaunt (again a pension of £10), for good services rendered by the Chaucers to the said Duke, his consort, and his mother the Queen.
[12] Green was the favourite colour of the time.
[13] Astrolabe: a machine used at sea to measure the distances of stars. The quadrant now in use has superseded the astrolabe.
[14] Thomas Chaucer was born in or about 1367, and died in 1434. Elizabeth Chaucer’s noviciate was paid for by John of Gaunt in 1381. If Elizabeth Chaucer was about 16 in 1381 she would have been born about 1365; and, therefore, as far as dates are concerned, either Thomas or Elizabeth may well have been elder children of the poet: the chances being that he married in 1361-64. Moreover, John of Gaunt’s interest in both of these persons, Thomas Chaucer and Elizabeth Chaucer, gives this a colour of probability. At the same time Chaucer seems to have been no uncommon name.
Chaucer’s exceptional notice of his little son Lewis who must have been born in 1381, the year of Elizabeth’s novitiate, since Chaucer describes him as being ten years old in his treatise on the astrolabe in 1391, may have been due to the appearance of a ‘Benjamin’ rather late in life.
[15] On the hypothesis, of course, that Chaucer married a Roet.
[16] For many new and curious facts about Chaucer, see my Chaucer for Schools, “Chaucer’s Court Life and Position.”
[17] In these cases, the sum received on the marriage of the ward was legally a fine on the marriage.
[18] See Chambers’s Encyclopædia, ‘Chaucer’.
[19] See Chaucer for Schools, p. 22, for further details.
[20] I have assumed that Thomas Chaucer was Geoffrey Chaucer’s son, as there is no proof to the contrary, and a probability in point of dates that he was.
[21] See ‘Notes by the Way,’ [p. 103].
[22] See Chaucer for Schools.
[23] Remembering the discussion raised as to the year of Chaucer’s birth, coupled with the tradition of his venerable looks, we may suggest that in those days men were older at sixty than now. The average duration of life was shorter, and the paucity of comforts probably told on appearance.
[24] Author of the ‘Testament of Love.’
[25] Alluding to the numerous dialects in use in England at the time.
[26] The mother should here read to the child some lines with the proper pronunciation: see Preface, [pp. x., xi.]
[27] Zephyrus, or Zephyr: the god of the west wind. It is become a name for the wind of summer.
[28] Pilgrims who have brought a palm branch from the Holy Land.
[29] Kouthe: past participle of the verb conne, to know, or to be able. It was used much as savoir is in French—to be able to do, to know how to do a thing. The verse means ‘To serve the saints they could, or they knew of, or knew how to serve.’
[30] Thomas Beket, Chancellor of Henry II. He was Archbishop of Canterbury for eight years, and was murdered by servants of the King in 1170. He was canonized, or made a saint, by the Pope, after his death, and pilgrimages were then constantly made to his tomb in Canterbury Cathedral. In those days it was usual in sickness or peril to vow a pilgrimage to the shrine of some saint who was supposed to be able to help people by interceding with God, when pilgrims prayed him to. Erasmus alludes to the quantities of offerings on Thomas Beket’s shrine, given by those who believed the saint had healed or helped them.
[31] A tabard was an outer coat without sleeves, worn by various classes, but best known as the coat worn over the armour (see [p. 48]), whereon there were signs and figures embroidered by which to recognize a man in war or tournament: for the face was hidden by the helmet, and it was easier to detect a pattern in bright colours than engraved in dark steel. So, of course, the pattern represented the arms used by him. And thus the tabard got to be called the coat of arms. Old families still possess what they call their coat of arms, representing the device chosen by their ancestors in the lists; but they do not wear it any more: it is only a copy of the pattern on paper. A crest was also fastened to the helmet for the same purpose of recognition, and there is usually a ‘crest’ still surmounting the modern ‘coat of arms.’ The inn where Chaucer slept was simply named after the popular garment. It, or at least a very ancient inn on its site, was recently standing, and known as the Talbot Inn, High Street, Borough: Talbot being an evident corruption of Tabard. We may notice here, that the Ploughman, described later on, wears a tabard, which may have been a kind of blouse or smock-frock, but was probably similar in form to the knight’s tabard.
[32] People were glad to travel in parties for purposes of safety, the roads were so bad and robbers so numerous.
[33] Probably all or many occupied but one bedroom, and they became acquainted on retiring to rest, at the ordinary time—sunset.
[34] The word Knight (knecht) really means servant. The ancient knights attended on the higher nobles and were their servants, fighting under them in battle. For as there was no regular army, when a war broke out everybody who could bear arms engaged himself to fight under some king or lord, anywhere, abroad or in England, and was paid for his services. That was how hundreds of nobly born men got their living—the only way they could get it. This is what the knight Arviragus does in the ‘Franklin’s Tale;’ leaving his bride, to win honour (and money) by fighting wherever he could.
The squire waited on the knight much as the knight did on the earl—much in the position of an aide-de-camp of the present day. The page served earl, knights, ladies. But knight, squire, and page were all honourable titles, and borne by noblemen’s sons. The page was often quite a boy, and when he grew older changed his duties for those of squire, till he was permitted to enter the knighthood. The present knight is described as being in a lord’s service, and fighting under him ‘in his war,’ but he was a man held in the highest honour.
[35] See [p. 48] and Appendix, [p. 107].
[36] “On nommait Bacheliers les chevaliers pauvres, les bas Chevaliers ... quand ceux-ci avaient reçu la chevalerie, on les appelait Chevaliers-Bacheliers ... quant à l’Ecuyer (Squire) c’était le prétendant à la Chevalerie.”—Le Grand, Fabliaux & Contes.
[37] Chivachie: military expeditions.
[39] Mr. Bell considers that these two lines refer to the squire’s complexion of red and white. Speght thinks it means freckled. But there is little doubt that the material of his dress is what Chaucer means, for there is no other instance of Chaucer calling a complexion embroidered, and gorgeously flowered fabrics embroidered with the needle were peculiar to the period and in common use.
[40] As it was the custom for sons to do.
[41] Peacocks’ feathers on them instead of swans’.
[42] It was a sign of the yeoman’s carefulness in his business that they stuck out from the shaft instead of drooping.
[43] Bracer: a leathern defence for the arm: a similar shield is now worn in archery.
[44] Bokeler—buckler: a small shield—used chiefly for a warder to catch the blow of an adversary. Some pictures show the buckler to have been only the size of a plate, but it varied. In comparing the Wife of Bath’s hat to a buckler, Chaucer could not have meant so small a one. It was usual for serving men of noble families to carry swords and bucklers when in attendance on them.
[45] Bawdrik—baldrick: ornamented strap to suspend the horn or dagger.
[46] Oaths were only too common among ladies as well as men. It was an exceptional refinement to use only a small oath. Tyrwhitt prints the name of the saint, Eloy, contraction of Eligius—a saint who, having been a worker in metals, was often invoked by smiths (see ‘Friar’s Tale’), &c.; but Dr. Morris says St. Loy is the old spelling of St. Louis of France, by whom the Prioress swore.
[47] Bell approves reading voice for nose, as Speght has actually done. It has not struck either of them that Chaucer is all the way through laughing at the fastidious and rather over-attractive nun!
[48] Knives and forks were not in use—people had to use their fingers; but some used them more agreeably than others.
[49] At meals one cup for drinking passed from guest to guest, instead of each having his own glass, as now. It was considered polite to wipe one’s mouth well before drinking, so that the next drinker should find no grease in the wine. The great stress Chaucer lays on the pretty nun’s courtesy seems to hint at very dirty habits among ordinary folk at meals!
[50] Mr. Bell naïvely points out the innocence and ‘ignorance of the ways of the world,’ which pervade the whole of the ‘simple Prioress’s character;’ but you will notice that in laughing at the cheerful nun’s affectation of court manners, Chaucer never once gives her credit for very high or noble character, though he does not speak ill-naturedly. I have ere now alluded to his dislike of the Church, friars, nuns, and all included: and here he shows that her charitableness and compassion were spent on wholly inadequate objects. She is extravagant to the last degree in feeding her dogs, and weeping for dead mice; but nothing is said of charity to the poor, or any good works at all. She is too intent on fascinating everybody, and dressing smartly. There is sharp sarcasm in all this.
[51] Wastel breed—a kind of cake—the most expensive of all bread.
[52] Wimple: a loose covering for the neck, close up to the chin, plaited daintily; worn especially by nuns.
[53] A rosary, the coral beads of which were divided by smaller ones, or gauds, of a green colour.
[54] ‘Love conquers all things.’ The Prioress might have twisted this device to refer to the text, ‘The greatest of these is charity;’ but the double entendre is apparent.
[55] From a French phrase, bone pur la maistrie = good to excel all others. The monk bids fair to excel all others or outstrip the rest in promotion, on account of his worldliness.
[56] “The custom of hanging small bells on the bridle and harness of horses is still observed on the Continent for the purpose of giving notice to foot-passengers to get out of the way; but it was no doubt often used for ostentation. So Wicliffe inveighs against the clergy in his Triologe for their ‘fair hors, and jolly and gay sadels, and bridels ringing by the way.’”
[57] A bird more commonly eaten in those days than it is now, but expensive even then.
[58] Lymytour: a friar licensed to beg within a certain district or limit. This friar, no very pleasing character, is described as making such a good thing out of his begging, that he bribed his fellow friars not to come within his particular haunt, and interfere with his doings: an unprincipled dandy who is another instance of Chaucer’s sarcasm against the Church.
[59] There were four orders of mendicant friars—Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites, and Augustins.
[60] Frankeleyns: a franklin was a rich landholder, free of feudal service, holding possessions immediately from the king. See [p. 28].
[61] Confession, absolution, and penance: sacraments in the Roman Catholic Church.
[62] The rotta was an ancient instrument of the guitar tribe.
[63] Clerk: a scholar probably preparing for the priesthood. In many Roman Catholic countries it was the custom till very lately for poor scholars to ask and receive contributions from the people for the expenses of their education. They were often extremely indigent, coming from the labouring classes. The parson, for instance, spoken of later, is said to be brother of the ploughman travelling with him. The poor scholar and the good parson are ‘birds of a feather.’
[64] Or, abounded: the O. E. snewe, like the Prov. Eng. snee, snie, snive, snew, signifies to swarm.
[65] The table dormant was a permanent table, not a board on trestles such as the ordinary one, mentioned on p. 2. It was only used by very rich people, for it was a new fashion, and expensive. See drawing of table dormant in 14th century, on [page 28].
[66] Well-to-do.
[67] Chaucer speaks, you see, in very different terms of the poor and conscientious parish priest (who was supported only by his benefice and tithes of the people—a small income) from what he does of the monastic orders, corrupted by the wealth they had accumulated. Bell says—“It was quite natural that Chaucer, the friend of John of Gaunt, should praise the parochial clergy, who were poor, and therefore not formidable, at the expense of the rich monastic orders who formed the only barriers which then existed against the despotic power of the aristocracy.” But, however that may be, there is no doubt that these parish parsons actually were a much better and more honest class of men than the monks, and the begging friars, and all the rest, were at this time. They were drawn, like the Roman Catholic secular clergy of the present day, from the labouring classes.
[68] No one of good position rode on a mare in the middle ages.
[69] Summoner: an officer employed by the ecclesiastical courts to summon any persons who broke the law to appear before the archdeacon, who imposed what penalty he thought fit. The Summoners found it to their interest to accept bribes not to report offences: therefore bad people who could afford to pay got off, whilst those who could not afford to pay were punished with rigour. Many Summoners extorted bribes by threatening to say people had transgressed the law who had not; and so they got to be detested by the masses, and Chaucer’s hideous picture gives the popular notion of a Summoner.
[70] A face as red as the fiery cherubin: a rather profane simile! In many ancient pictures we find the cherubin painted wholly scarlet; and the term had become a proverb. ‘Sawceflem’ is from salsum flegma, a disease of the skin.
[71] See note, [p. 92], note 175.
[72] Pardoner: Seller of the Pope’s indulgences.
[73] A vernicle—diminutive of Veronike—was a small copy of the face of Christ, worn as a token that he had just returned from a pilgrimage to Rome.
[74] The Pardoner’s eloquence and musical gifts account, perhaps, for the exquisite story he afterwards tells.
[75] Mr. Wright says this place was situated at the second milestone on the old Canterbury road.
[76] Tyrwhitt. Hyppolita, Smith’s Dic.
[77] Feste in this place means rather festival than feast, as Theseus was only on his way to the city.
[78] At this period, the personal pronoun you was used only in the plural sense, or in formal address, as on the Continent now; whilst thou implied familiarity. The Deity, or any superior, was therefore addressed as you: intimates and inferiors as thou. Throughout Chaucer the distinction is noticeable: but as the present mode reverses the order, I have in my lines adhered to no strict principle, but have used the singular or plural personal pronoun according as it seemed most forcible.
[79] Thebes, in Greece.
[80] A garment worn over the armour, on which the armorial bearings were usually embroidered, for the purpose of recognition. See tabard, [p. 48].
[81] The rites and ceremonies, observed on the approach of spring, from the earliest times in many countries, but which have now died out in England, are among the most natural and beautiful of all popular fêtes. I have already in the preface alluded lo the custom of riding out into the fields at daybreak to do honour to May, the month which was held to be the symbol of spring-time. Rich and poor, the court and the commoners, all rode out with one impulse. Boughs of hawthorn and laburnum were brought home to decorate all the streets, and dancing round the maypole, and feasting, and holiday-making, were observed almost like religious rites. It was a great privilege to be elected queen of May, and one which every young maiden coveted. At a later time we read of Henry VIII. and Queen Catherine of Aragon formally meeting the heads of the corporation of London, on Shooter’s Hill, to ‘go a maying.’
But one thing should be remembered when we see how many pleasures were referred to May, and how much more people seemed to count on the weather of a month nowadays proverbially disappointing. The seasons were not the same then as they are now. Not because the climate of the land has altered so much, though that may be fairly surmised; but because the seasons were actually arranged otherwise. In Chaucer’s time, May began twelve days later than our May, and ended in the midst of June, and therefore there was a much better chance of settled weather than we have. This fact also accounts for the proverbial connection of Christmas and hard weather, snow, and ice, which we get as a rule in January, while December is foggy and wet. Twelfth Day was the old Christmas Day. (See [page 4].)
[82] At point devise—with exactness.
[83] The love of the Anglo-Saxons and the early English for flowers is very remarkable. The wearing of garlands of fresh flowers was a common practice with both sexes: a beautiful custom, followed by the Romans, and previously by the Greeks.
[84] Formal compacts for the purpose of mutual counsel and assistance were common to the heroic and chivalrous ages.—B.
[85] The words court and royal, now applied only to the sovereign of the land, were applicable then to the domains of the great nobles, who were to all intents and purposes kings. Their pride, and wealth, and immense power, made them very formidable to the sovereign, as we constantly find in following the history of England or any other country. They often mustered as big an army as the king, because they could afford to pay the knights (see note, [p. 19]), and were invincible in their strongholds, surrounded by their serfs dependent on them.
[86] Tyrwhitt.
[87] Crop, the top of the wood; briars, the thorny brushwood and weeds growing on the ground. This pretty metaphor well expresses the fluctuating moods of an overwrought state of feeling.
[88] Tyrwhitt.
[89] Harness was a technical term for the complete armour or equipment, as opposed to portions, which were equally armour.
[90] Even these similes separate the two characters: the lion may be mad with rage; the tiger, which is a cat, is crafty as well as fierce.
[91] An exaggeration simply for picturesque effect, such as many have indulged in since Chaucer.
[92] The helmet entirely concealing the face.
[93] Ho was the word by which the heralds or the king commanded the cessation of any action.
[94] What were called the ‘lists’ were the places built and enclosed for combats on horseback, and tournaments. These combats got sometimes very serious, and many knights and horses were wounded, or even killed.
[95] A form of torture to extort confession. Theseus’ grim humour at this juncture implies how far lightlier human life was held then than now. But he was naturally in a great rage when he knew who the knights were. Palamon’s insolent address in the singular personal pronoun was not likely to mollify him, coming as it did from a captive, though an equal by birth.
[96] How idealized, and how idolized, the passion of love had crown to be with the new elevation of woman’s condition in these times is well known. Love literally covered a multitude of sins: the malefactor was pardoned whose offences were caused by love; the rough was made smooth for the feet of love to tread upon. There was a reason for this. It is but too true that the morals of the people will not bear the light of modern times; but it would be unfair to judge them by that light. Those were rough days, when laws were often feeble, narrow, or ill-enforced. The want of legal organization placed a great refining and ennobling power in the hands of woman. Many a knight, who was coarse or cowardly, was pricked to courteous ways and deeds of courage by his love of some fair woman, when without it he would have sunk lower and lower in vice and degradation. The arts were ofttimes cultivated to win a woman’s ear or eye; knowledge itself was sought for her sake, for knowledge is power. Of course the love of courtesy, valour, and learning were deeply rooted in the age, or the woman’s sympathy could not have existed. But her encouragement of all that was æsthetic, her influence over men, and therefore the impetus she gave to the higher life, must never be underrated, however we may reprove the errors of that day. The institution of actual ‘Courts of Love’—tribunals for the judgment of love-matters, bearing a definite recognition, and which seem so strange, almost repulsive to us, presided over as they were by ladies only—was the result of the worship of physical beauty and the passion which it inspired, and the proof, however grotesque, of the real value seen to lie in it. This will be better understood when we observe that even children were encouraged to cultivate somewhat of this ideal love, and the childish education of boys and girls consisted to a very large extent in learning the art of writing love-letters. Thus Palamon’s and Arcite’s adoration of fresh Emelye are seen to be neither exaggerated nor futile.
[97] ‘To pipe in an ivy leaf:’ A proverbial expression, similar to ‘go whistle’—meaning to be engaged in any useless employment.
[98] The tournament, great as the loss of life often was, seems to have been the greatest delight of the people in the middle ages. The ladies especially loved them, as they were often in homage to themselves. The victor in the mimic battle received a crown from the queen of the tournament. In this case, Emelye is not asked whether she likes to be disposed of thus coolly! but she could not fail to be touched by the great compliment paid her.
[99] There are no portraits, otherwise, of these two princes, whose characters are so clear and forcible all through that some physical description is sorely needed. The portraits of the two sovereigns fit singularly well the fierce, passionate nature of Palamon, and the cooler but equally noble one of Arcite.
[100] Kemped heres: Dr. Morris rejects the usual rendering of the word kemped as combed, and asserts that it means the very reverse, and, “instead of smoothly combed, means bent, curled, and hence rough, shaggy.” A similar term occurs a few lines farther on, describing the hair ‘kempt behind his back,’ where Dr. Morris reads combed. It seems, however, contrary to the rule of courtesy observed by lovers, that a noble knight should appear at a festival like a wild man of the woods. If, on the other hand, the shaggy hairs were on the eyebrow, it certainly adds to the ferocity of his look. I prefer the former reading for Emelye’s bridegroom.
[102] Alauns. A species of dog used for hunting the boar, &c. Sp. alano. Speght says they were greyhounds, Tyrwhitt mastiffs, much esteemed in Italy in the 14th century. See Cotgrave—‘Allan, a kind of big, strong, thick-headed, and short-snowted dog—the brood whereof came first out of Albania.’
[104] A kind of rich silk.
[105] The ‘mantelet’ was at first devised to protect the burnished helmet from becoming inconveniently heated by the sun: it became afterwards fantastic in form, and is the origin of the ‘mantling’ seen in modern coats of arms.
[106] This fair countenance is oddly assigned to an Indian monarch: but some of the details of his appearance are poetic embellishments and must not be relied upon. The white eagle carried for his pleasure is probably one of the many exaggerations for picturesque effect, and is only a magnified falcon, a bird which was at this time the constant companion of the noble: hawking was in high favour, and the bird’s tameness depended on its habituation to its owner’s voice and touch. A little later on the hawks are mentioned as sitting on perches during the festival; such perches were in every room and hall in common life; so provision had to be made for their accommodation on the grandest occasions. In Wright’s ‘Womankind,’ we read: “Different species of the hawk were allotted to persons of the different grades and ranks of society. Thus we are told that the eagle and the vulture belonged to the emperor, from which we must understand that the emperor was not expected to go often a-hawking.” Evidently Chaucer was well read in his books on falconry.
[107] Carole (Tyrwhitt—the other editions have dance) was a round dance.
[108] The term for the whole panoply of knight or steed—armour and coat-armour included.
[109] A knight in armour was in very little danger from a cut of a broadsword, or even from the blow of a mace; but a thrusting sword might easily pierce through the joints of his armour.—Bell.
[110] Tyrwhitt’s and Bell’s editions read, ‘Farwel, my swete, farwel, myn Emelye!’
[111] Tyrwhitt. Overnome is participle past of overnimen (Sax.), to overtake. The following, and the sixth line further on, are also Tyrwhitt’s reading.
[112] See Chaucer for Schools, p. 86, for some curious details.
[113] The Summoners and the Friars were naturally always at variance, both deriving their money from the same Source: both belonged to the Church, but the Summoner was legally qualified to extort, whilst the Friar was only permitted to beg. Thus, if the Summoner had been to a house first, the Friar was likely to suffer.
[114] Houses of ill-fame were exempted from ecclesiastical interference on the ground that they were a necessary evil, and might be thus better surveillé.
[115] Gale—sing: it means here, ‘If the Summoner likes to squeak when he feels the shoe pinch, let him!’
[116] “A dog trained for shooting with the bow, part of whose education consisted in following the stricken deer only, and separating it from the herd.”—Bell.
[117] Ribibe: a shrill musical instrument—metaphorical for a shrill old woman.
[118] Tyrwhitt.
[119] The hell of the Teutonic race, before they were Christians, was in the north, and after their conversion, as their converters adopted their name, only giving the place a Christian character, it was natural that the people should retain their original notion of its position.—Bell.
[120] Tyrwhitt.
[121] Money forced out of people by threats or ill-usage.
[122] A proverbial expression.
[123] Tyrwhitt.
[124] Tyrwhitt; more forcible.
[125] The first quarter of the artificial day: i.e. 9 o’clock.
[126] Tyrwhitt. Morris has ‘nothing for to leere.’
[127] This verse means, ‘You shall hereafter understand this subject so well, as to be able to give lectures on it, as a professor in his chair;’ chayer being the term for pulpit or professor’s chair; conne part of the verb conne, to know or be able; and rede, to counsel. The evil one is sarcastic on the special wickedness of the Summoner.
[128] Alluding to Eneas’ visit to infernal regions (6th book of ‘Eneid’) and Dante’s ‘Inferno.’
[129] The text has ‘Heit, Scot, heit, brok, what spare ye for the stones?’ and it is singular that ‘hayt’ is still the word used by waggoners in Norfolk to make their horses go on; while Scot remains one of the commonest names for a horse in Norfolk and Suffolk. The Reeve’s horse in the Prologue is called Scot also. Brock means a badger, hence applied to a grey horse. The carter presently calls this horse ‘myn oughne lyard (grey) boy.’
[130] The value of twelve pence may be estimated by the relative value of food and labour. Bell says, “Twelve pence would have bought two dozen hens, or three gallons of red wine, or hired a dozen common labourers for twelve days,” but surely he means a dozen labourers for one day, or one labourer for twelve days.
[131] There was then no means of conveyance for people who could not walk except horseback.
[132] A libel, a copy of the information or indictment. A libel is still the expression in the ecclesiastical courts.—Bell. The abuses, we see, have led to another interpretation of the word libel—as libellous.
[133] This singular (to us) term as applied to Christ, was of course borrowed from the popular notion of warfare, when each knight, inspired by some fair inciter, was the more valiant for her sake. The term is both picturesque and forcible as an appeal to the common understanding, in which the Friars were naturally adepts.
[134] Tyrwhitt.
[135] The Summoner’s Tale (omitted) follows here.
[136] Students then entered the university at a far younger age than at the present day, almost indeed when boys now enter the public schools, so that the Clerk of Oxford may have been but a boy, which would account for his diffident demeanour: yet his education and knowledge might warrant mine host’s fear of his being too learned for them.
[137] Table: a board upon trestles.
[138] These are the lines on which the supposition is based that Petrarch and Chaucer had met.
[139] “Joannes of Lignano, near Milan, a canonist and natural philosopher, who flourished about 1378.”—B.
[140] Saluzzo, a marquisate near Mount Viso: Lat. Vesulus.
[141] Corage is used in several senses: impulse (as in the opening lines of the Prologue), feeling, or disposition may be implied. The word is derived from the Latin cor, the heart.
[142] See note 144 below.
[143] The courtsey of modern times is all that remains of the old custom of kneeling.
[144] The house without. In these early times, dwelling-places were usually built within a court. The court was, among the poor, a spot enclosed by a hedge or fence of sticks, and often a dry ditch; in the middle of this enclosure or house, the hall in which they lived stood—a mere covered room. The chamber or bower, for sleeping and privacy, was a second erection within the court; but, in the case of so poor a man as Janicula, probably there was but one covered room, hall or chamber, used for any purpose of shelter. So when the guests came into the house without, the enclosure is meant, within which a single hut stood, built of planks. Janicula’s ox (used for draught, as now in Italy) inhabited the hut with them, and Griselda sets down her can in the stall when she enters the hut. In and around Naples we may still see the turkeys, pigs, and donkeys sharing the hovels with the peasants in this miserable way.
[145] On the Continent, even at the present day, the bride is expected to assent to the bridegroom chosen by her parents. Walter treated Griselda with especial consideration and respect by consulting her. Skeat quotes the legal formula of refusal, Le roy s’avisera, to show that Walter’s question, “Wol ye assent, or elles yow avyse?” gave her the chance to refuse.
[146] In the 14th century it was the custom for everybody to go to bed with the sun. They rose in the morning at 4 or 5, had breakfast at 6, dinner at 10 or 11, and supper about 6.
[147] Sergeant and servant are doublets.—Skeat. Probably he was a cross between a highwayman and a soldier. Sergeant at one time meant squire to a prince or nobleman.
[148] Tyrwhitt.
[149] It was common, nay usual, in mediæval times for noble children to be put out to nurse in the family of some equal or dependent, for purposes of security. The removal of Walter’s children from the mother was not an outrage: but concealing their fate from her was.
[150] Panico, Petrarch; Panigo, Boccace. I cannot be sure of the situation of this place, but there is a certain Paganico near Urbino, marked in old maps as a castle or fortress, which is not too far from Bologna to be possibly the place referred to. A river Panaro flows between Modena and Bologna.
[151] Tyrwhitt.
[152] It was not uncommon in olden times for girls to be married at twelve years of age.
[153] Skeat.
[154] The smock, or shift, was a high garment with long sleeves, often embroidered with black stitchery.
[155] “A jane is a small coin of Genoa (Janua); the meaning is, your praise is dear enough at a farthing.”—B. Or the verse may be taken to mean, the smallest coin is dear enough to you when you are tired of better—for novelty’s sake.
[156] Skeat; also second line beyond.
[157] Tyrwhitt and Skeat.
[158] Tyrwhitt.
[159] Skeat.
[160] Skeat and Tyrwhitt.
[161] For the analysis of these two remarkable and elaborately worked-out characters, see Chaucer for Schools, p. 111.
[162] Basse Bretaigne in France, called anciently Britannia Armorica.
[163] See Notes to this tale, [p. 91], touching the homage paid to women during the middle ages.
[164] Penmark is placed on the maps on the western coast of Brittany, between Brest and Port l’Orient.
[165] The only means of subsistence a knight had was fighting—of course for hire.
[166] Backgammon.
[167] About the 20th of May by our almanac.
[168] Clerk at that time denoted a man of learning, and a student at the universities—generally in holy orders.
[169] Natural Magic, Chaucer.—All kinds of conjuring were very popular at this time. The minstrels or jougleurs added to their other accomplishments marvellous skill in sleight of hand (derived from the East): hence the modern signification of the word juggler. It is quite clear that many of their tricks were due to electro-biology, a science known to those mighty cultivators and preservers of learning, the Arabs. For some knowledge of what we owe to the Arabs, and of their influence upon mediæval European literature, I refer the reader to the ‘Literary Remains of Emanuel Deutsch’ (published by John Murray), containing two articles on Arabic Poetry; and to Draper’s popular ‘History of the Conflict between Religion and Science.’
[170] This and the following line are not in Morris’s edition.
[171] Bell’s edition. This and the next six lines are not in Morris’s edition.
[172] Equal to eight or ten times the amount now.
[173] Equivalent to ‘What is done cannot be undone.’
[174] I could not resist inserting the vigorous old words.
[175] The ale-stake was a stake set up as a sign before the inn, generally adorned with a bush. This custom prevails in Normandy still, where you may see a goodly bunch of mistletoe hanging out wherever wine or cider is sold.
[176] “A small bell used formerly to be rung before the corpse as it was carried to the grave, to give notice to those who were charitably disposed that they might pray for the soul of the deceased. Our ‘passing bell’ has the same origin, though the reason for it has ceased.”—Bell.
[177] “Perhaps an allusion to the great pestilence which devastated Europe during the 14th century. This pestilence means during this pestilence, as this year means during this year.”—Bell.
[178] “This is still the ceremony used in taking an oath in courts of justice in Prussia.”—Bell. Notice the emphasis laid on their close friendship, and their constant allusion to their being all ‘one,’ over and above the solemnity of the profane vow they make.
[179] The kindly custom of greeting passers-by, now rapidly going out even in our country districts, was more common in days when passers-by were infinitely rarer. Probably half a mile from the inn the road was lonesome enough, wherefore the old man’s anticipation of rough treatment from three reckless and half-tipsy ruffians was not unreasonable. His calm and fearless answer was the wisest as well as the most dignified course to pursue with such assailants, being calculated to sober them as well as to save himself.
[180] Making a jest of the close coverings and wraps of old age.
[181] Caitif, wretch, wretched. Italian—cattivo, captive. Fr.-chétif, poor, wretched, paltry, pitiful, &c. Captive seems to give the most pathetic meaning, as though death were a looked-for freedom by a restless prisoner in the body. Fugitive is the next best for the sense, as the old man may be supposed to be flying to the gate for safety and comfort.
[182] Hair-shroud, sackcloth, the roughest cloth.
[183] Tyrwhitt’s edition has the less bloody threat, ‘Tell wher he is, or thou shalt it abie!’
[184] The old man probably saw that the young men were scarcely responsible for their actions, and determined to wreak violence on some one, and therefore he played on their mood to avert their violence from himself to some other object.
[185] Tyrwhitt.
[186] Probably in the vessels, &c., which had contained the food, thus avoiding the appearance of transporting treasure.
[187] Shall counsel he kept between us? literally, in schoolboys’ language, ‘Mum’s the word—eh?’
[188] Bell’s edition.
[189] Games which we now leave to children were formerly as popular with grown-up people. Hunt-the-slipper and blind-man’s-buff were 200 years ago the common recreation of ladies and gentlemen, and wrestling and other romping was indulged in far more commonly than now by young men. Playing at ball was a favourite pastime.
[190] Tyrwhitt. Outrely, utterly, beyond all things. Vide the French—outre mesure, beyond measure. The common mediæval expressions, ‘out of measure,’ ‘out of doubt,’ were probably from the same word, outre = beyond.
[191] Tyrwhitt.
[192] Cast, as in ‘cast a nativity,’ means fix upon, arrange, discover.
[193] Tyrwhitt.
[194] Avicen, Ebn Sina, an Arabian physician of the 10th century. Fen, apparently an Arabic word, is the name given to the sections of Avicenna’s great work on physic, entitled Canun.—Tyrwhitt.
[195] A play on the word: light meant also fickle or untrue.
[196] Tyrwhitt has treasure; Morris has tresorere, treasurer. The former seems the most appropriate to a lady-love. A similar expression is found in ‘Li Congiés Adan d’Aras’ (MS. de la Vallière, No. 2736 Bibl. Imp.), ‘De mon cuer serós tresoriere.’
[197] Bereft of money as a friar’s tonsure is of hair.
[198] Bell’s edition reads tene, taken.
[199] Tyrwhitt’s and Bell’s editions. Morris has ‘Do wel.’
[200] Fortune with her wheel.
[201] ‘Kick against the pricks.’
[202] For the clay pot is the weaker of the two.
[203] Tyrwhitt. Morris has daunte and dauntest (Fr., dompter), meaning control.