[1024]. 'Canst thou not hear that which I hear?'
[1034]. Peter! By St. Peter; a common exclamation, which Warton amazingly misunderstood, asserting that Chaucer is here addressed by the name of Peter (Hist. E. P., ed. Hazlitt, ii. 331, note 6); whereas it is Chaucer himself who uses the exclamation. The Wyf of Bathe uses it also, C. T., D 446; so does the Sumpnour, C. T., D 1332; and the wife in the Shipman's Tale, C. T., B 1404; and see l. 2000 below. See also my note to l. 665 of the Canon's Yeoman's Tale. But Warton well compares the present passage with Ovid, Met. xii. 49-52:—
'Nec tamen est clamor, sed paruae murmura uocis;
qualia de pelagi, si quis procul audiat, undis
esse solent: qualemve sonum, quum Iupiter atras
increpuit nubes, extrema tonitrua reddunt.'
[1044]. Beten, beat, occurs in MSS. F. and B. But the other reading byten (bite) seems better. Cf. Troil. iii. 737, and the common saying 'It won't bite you.'
[1048]. Cf. Dante, Purg. iii. 67-69. So also Inf. xxxi. 83.
[1063]. Lyves body, a person alive; lyves is properly an adverb.
[1066]. Seynte; see note to l. 573. Seynte Clare, Saint Clara, usually Saint Clare, whose day is Aug. 12. She was an abbess, a disciple of St. Francis, and died A.D. 1253.