566. male tweyfold, a double budget or leathern bag; see Prol. l. 694.
571. Chaucer tells us that the Pardoner's hood, on the contrary, was not fastened to his cloak; see Prol. 680. Dr. Rock, in The Church of our Fathers, ii. 44, says:—'Sometimes the hood of the cope was not only sewed to it, but stitched all round, and not allowed to hang with the lower part free; in such instances, the hood was necessarily left on the cope and folded with it.'
575. 'Rather faster than at a trot or a foot-pace.' Said ironically. Cf. Prol. 825.
577. clote-leef, the leaf of a burdock. Cotgrave has—'Lampourde, f. the Cloot or great Burre.' Also—'Glouteron, m. The Clote, Burre Docke, or great Burre.' And again—'Bardane, f. the Clote, burre-dock, or great Burre.'
In the Prompt. Parv. we find—'Clote, herbe; Lappa bardana, lappa rotunda.' In Wyclif's Version of the Bible, Hosea ix. 6, x. 8, we find clote or cloote where the Vulgate version has lappa. The Glossary to Cockayne's 'Leechdoms' explains A. S. clāte as Arctium lappa, with numerous references. The A. S. clāte is related to G. Klette, a bur, a burdock; O. H. G. chletta; Mid. Du. kladde.
It is clear that clote originally meant the bur itself, just as the name of bur-dock has reference to the same. The clote is, accordingly, the Arctium lappa, or Common Burdock, obtaining its name from the clotes (i. e. burs or knobs) upon it; and one of the large leaves of this plant would be very suitable for the purpose indicated.
We may safely dismiss the suggestion in Halliwell's Dictionary, founded on a passage in Gerarde's Herball, p. 674 D, that the Clote here means the yellow water-lily. We know from Cockayne's 'Leechdoms' that the name clāte sēo þe swimman wille (i. e. swimming clote) was sometimes used for that flower (Nuphar lutea), either on account of its large round leaves or its globose flowers; but in the present passage we have only to remember the Canon's haste to feel assured, that he might much more easily have caught up a burdock-leaf from the road-side than have searched in a ditch for a water-lily.
578. For swoot, to prevent sweat, to keep off the heat. See note to Sir Thopas, B. 2052.
580. It is probable that stillatorie (now shortened to still) is really a shortened form of distillatorie. Both forms occur in the Book of Quintessence, p. 10, l. 24, p. 13, l. 10.