993. obséquies (Elles., &c.); exéquies (Harl.); accented on the second syllable.
1004. as him leste, as it pleased him.
1005. tas, heap, collection. Some MSS. read cas (caas), which might = downfall, ruin, Lat. casus; but, as c and t are constantly confused, this reading is really due to a mere blunder. Gower speaks of gathering 'a tasse' of sticks; Conf. Amant. bk. v. ed. Pauli, ii. 293. Palsgrave has—'On a heape, en vng tas'; p. 840. Hexham's Dutch Dict. (1658) has—'een Tas, a Shock, a Pile, or a Heape.' Chaucer found the word in Le Roman de la Rose, 14870: 'ung tas de paille,' a heap of straw.
1006. harneys. 'And arma be not taken onely for the instruments of al maner of crafts, but also for harneys and weapon; also standards and banners, and sometimes battels.'—Bossewell's Armorie, p. 1, ed. 1597. Cf. l. 1613.
1010. Thurgh-girt, pierced through. This line is taken from Troilus, iv. 627: 'Thourgh-girt with many a wyd and blody wounde.'
1011. liggyng by and by, lying near together, as in A. 4143; the usual old sense being 'in succession,' or 'in order'; see examples in the New Eng. Dict., p. 1233, col. 3. In later English, by and by signifies presently, immediately, as 'the end is not by and by.'
1012. in oon armes, in one (kind of) arms or armour, shewing that they belonged to the same house. Chaucer adapts ancient history to medieval time throughout his works.
1015. Nat fully quike, not wholly alive.
1016. by hir cote-armures, by their coat-armour, by the devices on the vest worn above the armour covering the breast. The cote-armure, as explained in my note to Barbour's Bruce, xiii. 183, was 'of no use as a defence, being made of a flimsy material; but was worn over the true armour of defence, and charged with armorial bearings'; see Ho. Fame, 1326. Cf. l. 1012. by hir gere, by their gear, i. e. equipments.
1018. they. Tyrwhitt (who relied too much on the black-letter editions) reads tho, those; but the seven best MSS. have they.