Chaucer's Works, Volume 5 — Notes to the Canterbury Tales

by Geoffrey Chaucer

In Ida von Düringsfeld's Sprichwörter, 1872-5, no. 354, is:—'Ein fauler Apfel steckt den andern an. Pomum compunctum cito corrumpit sibi iunctum.'

4413. his leve, his leave to go, his dismissal, his congé.

4414. or leve, or leave it, i. e. or desist from it.

4415. for, because, since. louke, an accomplice who entices the dupe into the thief's company, a decoyer of victims. Not 'a receiver to a thief,' as Tyrwhitt guessed, but his assistant in thieving, one who helped him (as Chaucer says) to suck others by stealing or borrowing. It answers to an A. S. *lūca (not found), formed with the agential suffix -a from lūcan, lit. to pull, pluck, root up weeds, hence (probably) to draw, entice. The corresponding E. Friesic lūkan or lukan means not only to pull, pluck, but also to milk or suck (see Koolman). The Low G. luken means not only to pull up weeds, but

also to suck down, or to take a long pull in drinking; hence O. F. louchier, loukier, to swallow. From the A. S. lūcan, to pluck up, comes the common prov. E. louk, lowk, look, to pluck up weeds; see Ray, Whitby Glossary, &c.

4417. brybe, to purloin; not to bribe in the modern sense; see the New E. Dict.

4422. Here the Tale suddenly breaks off; so it was probably never finished.

^*_*^* See Notes to Gamelin at the end of the Notes to the Tales.

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