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

by Geoffrey Chaucer

4060. damoysele Pertelote. Cf. our 'Dame Partlet.'

'I'll be as faithful to thee

As Chaunticleer to Madame Partelot.'

The Ancient Drama, iii. p. 158.

In Le Roman de Renart, the hen is called Pinte or Pintain.

4064. in hold; in possession. Cf. 'He hath my heart in holde'; Greene's George a Greene, ed. Dyce, p. 256.

4065. loken in every lith, locked in every limb.

4069. my lief is faren in londe, my beloved is gone away. Probably the refrain of a popular song of the time.

4079. herte dere. This expression corresponds to 'dear heart,' or 'deary heart,' which still survives in some parts of the country.