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

by Geoffrey Chaucer

Are flown in fumo, every glass is burst': &c.

921. chit, short for chideth; so also halt for holdeth.

922. Som seyde, i. e. one said; note that som is here singular, as in Kn. Tale, 2173 (A. 3031). Hence the use of the thridde, i. e. the third, in l. 925.

923. Lungs was a nickname for a fire-blower to an alchemist. See Lungs in Nares' Glossary.

929. so theech, for so thee ich, so may I thrive. See Pard. Tale, C. 947.

933. eft-sone, for the future; lit. soon afterwards.

934. 'I am quite sure that the pot was cracked.'

938. mullok, rubbish. This is a common provincial E. word; see (in the E. Dial. Society's Publications) Ray's Glossary, p. 57; and the Glossaries for Wilts., Hants., Lancashire, &c.

962. The reading shyneth is of course the right one. In the margin of MS. E. is written 'Non teneas aurum,' &c. This proves that Tyrwhitt's note is quite correct. He says—'This is taken from the Parabolae of Alanus de Insulis, who died in 1294; see Leyser, Hist. Poetarum Medii Ævi, p. 1074.

"Non teneas aurum totum quod splendet ut aurum,