360. pryme large; probably the same as fully pryme, Sir Thop., B. 2015, which see. It must then mean the time when the period of prime was quite ended; i. e. 9 A. M. This would be a very late hour for rising, but the occasion was exceptional.
365. appalled, enfeebled, languid; lit. 'rendered pallid,' cf. Kn. Ta. 2195 (A. 3053); and Shipm. Tale, B. 1290-2:—
'"Nece," quod he, "it oghte y-nough suffyse
Fyve houres for to slepe upon a night,
But it were for an old appalled wight,"' &c.
373. 'Before the sun began to rise'; i. e. before 6 A. M., as it was near the equinox.
374. maistresse, governess; as appears from the Phis. Tale, C. 72.
376-377. Though the sense is clear, the grammar is incurably wrong. Chaucer says—'These old women, that would fain seem wise, just as did her governess, answered her at once.' What he means is—'This governess, that would fain seem wise, as such old women often do, answered her,' &c. The second part of this tale seems to have been hastily composed, left unfinished, and never revised. Cf. l. 382.
383. wel a ten, i. e. about ten. Cf. Prol. l. 24.
386. four. The Harl. MS. wrongly has ten. There is no doubt about it, because on March 15, the day before, the sun was in the third degree of the sign; on the 16th, he was in the fourth degree.