299. bothe yiftes, both (kinds of) gifts; i. e. gifts of fortune, such as wealth, and of nature, such as beauty. Compare Dr. Johnson's poem on the Vanity of Human Wishes, imitated from the tenth satire of Juvenal.
303. is no fors, it is no matter. It must be supplied, for the sense.
Sometimes Chaucer omits it is, and simply writes no fors, as in E. 1092, 2430. We also find I do no fors, I care not, D. 1234; and They yeve no fors, they care not, Romaunt of the Rose, 4826. Palsgrave has—'I gyue no force, I care nat for a thing, Il ne men chault.'
306. Ypocras is the usual spelling, in English MSS., of Hippocrates; see Prologue A. 431. So also in the Book of the Duchess, 571, 572:—
'Ne hele me may physicien,
Noght Ypocras, ne Galien.'
In the present passage it does not signify the physician himself, but a beverage named after him. 'It was composed of wine, with spices and sugar, strained through a cloth. It is said to have taken its name from Hippocrates' sleeve, the term apothecaries gave to a strainer'; Halliwell's Dict. s. v. Hippocras. In the same work, s. v. Ipocras, are several receipts for making it, the simplest being one copied from Arnold's Chronicle:—'Take a quart of red wyne, an ounce of synamon, and half an unce of gynger; a quarter of an ounce of greynes, and long peper, and halfe a pounde of sugar; and brose all this, and than put them in a bage of wullen clothe, made therefore, with the wyne; and lete it hange over a vessel, tyll the wyne be rune thorowe.' Halliwell adds that—'Ipocras seems to have been a great favourite with our ancestors, being served up at every entertainment, public or private. It generally made a part of the last course, and was taken immediately after dinner, with wafers or some other light biscuits'; &c. See Pegge's Form of Cury, p. 161; Babees Book, ed. Furnivall, pp. 125-128, 267, 378; Skelton, ed. Dyce, ii. 285; and Nares's Glossary, s. v. Hippocras.
Galianes. In like manner this word (hitherto unexplained as far as I am aware) must signify drinks named after Galen, whose name is spelt Galien (in Latin, Galienus) not only in Chaucer, but in other authors. See the quotation above from the Book of the Duchess. Speght guessed the word to mean 'Galen's works.'
310. lyk a prelat, like a dignitary of the church, like a bishop or abbot. Mr. Jephson, in Bell's edition, suggests that the Doctor was in holy orders, and that this is why we are told in the Prologue, l. 438, that 'his studie was but litel on the bible.' I see no reason for this guess, which is quite unsupported. Chaucer does not say he is a prelate, but that he is like one; because he had been highly educated, as a member of a 'learned profession' should be.
Ronyan is here of three syllables and rimes with man; in l. 320 it is of two syllables, and rimes with anon. It looks as if the Host and Pardoner were not very clear about the saint's name, only knowing him to swear by. In Pilkington's Works (Parker Society), we find a mention of 'St. Tronian's fast,' p. 80; and again, of 'St. Rinian's fast,' p. 551, in a passage which is a repetition of the former. The forms Ronyan and Rinian are evidently corruptions of Ronan, a saint whose