Chapter XI: Part 11

_Peter!_ by Saint Peter! a too common exclamation, shewing that even women used to swear. It occurs again in D. 446, 1332, and Hous of Fame, 1034, 2000.

1412. _elenge_, pronounced (eeléngg[*e]), in a dreary, tedious, lonely manner; drearily. From A. S. _[=æ]lenge_, lengthy, protracted; a derivative from _lang_, long; see P. Plowman, C. i. 204, and the note. In Pegge's Kenticisms (E. D. S. Gloss. C. 3), we have: '_Ellinge_ [_pronounced_ éllinj], _adj._ solitary, lonely, melancholy, farre from neighbours. See Ray.' It is also still in use in Sussex. The usual derivation from A. S. _ellende_, foreign, is incorrect; but it seems to have been confused with this word, whence the sense of 'strange, foreign,' was imported into it. See _Alange_ in the New E. Dictionary.

1413. _go we dyne_, let us go and dine; as in P. Plowman, C. i. 227.

1417. _Seint Yve._ 'St. Ivia, or Ivo,' says Alban Butler, 'was a Persian bishop, who preached in England in the seventh century.' He died at St. Ive's in Huntingdonshire. A church was also built in his honour at St. Ive's in Cornwall. His day is April 25. This line is repeated in D. 1943. Cf. A. 4264.

1421. _dryve forth_, spend our time in; cf. P. Plowman, C. i. 225.

1423. _pleye_, 'take some relaxation by going on a pilgrimage'; clearly shewing the chief object of pilgrimages. Cf. D. 557. The line also indicates that it was a practice, when men could no longer make a show in the world, to go on a pilgrimage, or 'go out of the way' somewhere, to avoid creditors.

1436. _houshold._ So in E. Hn. Cm.; Cp. Pt. Ln. Hl. T. have _housbonde_, _housbond_, but the application of this word to a housewife is not happy.

1441. _messe_, mass; it seems to have been said, on this occasion, about 9.30 A.M. It did not take long; cf. l. 1413.

1445. _At-after_, soon after. This curious form is still in use; see the Cleveland Glossary. So in the Whitby Glossary:--'All things in order; ploughing first, sowing _at-after_.' Cf. _'at-after_ supper,' Rich. III. iv. 3. 31; and see _At_, § 40, in the New E. Dict. We find also _at-under_ and _at-before_. It occurs again in F. 1219.

1466. _a myle-wey_, even by twenty minutes (the time taken to walk a mile).

1470. _Graunt mercy of_, many thanks for.

1476. 'God defend (forbid) that ye should spare.'

1484. _took_, handed over, delivered; see note to P. Plowman, C. iv. 47. And see l. 1594 below.

1496. _let_, leadeth, leads; note the various readings. Cf. 'Thet is the peth of pouerte huerby _let_ the holy gost tho thet,' &c.; i. e. that is the path of poverty whereby the Holy Ghost leads those that, &c.--Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 185; and so again in the same, p. 115, l. 9, and p. 51, l. 13. In P. Plowman, B. iii. 157, the Rawlinson MS. has _let_ instead of _ledeth_. [173]

1499. _crowne_; alluding to the priestly tonsure. See note to P. Plowman, C. i. 86.

1506. For _bolt-upright_, see note to A. 4194. This line is defective in the first foot; read--Hav' | hir in | his, &c. Tyrwhitt reads _Haven_, but admits, in the notes, that the final _n_ came out of his own head.

1515. _the faire_, the fair at Bruges. On fairs, see the note to P. Plowman, C. vii. 211.

1519. _chevisaunce_, a contract for borrowing money on his credit; see A. 282, and note to P. Plowman, B. v. 249. For the purpose of making such a contract, a proportional sum had to be paid down in ready money; see note to l. 1524.

1524. 'A certain (number of) franks; and some (franks) he took with him.' The latter sum refers to the money he had to pay down in order to get the _chevisance_ made. See note to Wyclif's Works, ed. Matthew, p. 528. And see l. 1558.

1542. Here _sheeld_ is used as a plural, by analogy with _pund_, i. e. pounds. A _sheeld_ was a French _écu_, or crown; see A. 278.

1557. _Lumbardes_, Lombards, the great money-lenders and bankers of the middle ages. Cf. 'Lumbardes of Lukes, that lyuen by lone as Iewes,' Lombards from Lucca, that live by lending, as Jews do; P. Plowman, C. v. 194. Owing to the accent, _Lumbard's_ is dissyllabic.

1558. _bond_ is misprinted _hond_ in Wright's edition; MS. Hl. has _bond_, correctly, though the note in Bell says otherwise.

1592. _Marie_, by St. Mary; the familiar 'Marry!' as used by our dramatists.

1595. _yvel thedom_, ill success. Cf. 'Now, sere, evyl thedom com to thi snoute'; Coventry Mysteries, p. 139. This is printed by Halliwell in the form--'Now, sere evyl Thedom, com to thi snoute,' i. e. 'now, sir Ill Success, come to thy snout'; but _how_ a man can come to his own nose, we are not told.

1599. _bele chere_, fair entertainment, hospitality. _Bele_ = mod. F. _belle_.

1606. 'Score it upon my tally,' make a note of it. See A. 570, and note to P. Plowman, C. v. 61.

1613. _to wedde_, as a pledge (common). Cf. A. 1218.

1621. _large_, liberal; hence E. _largesse_, liberality.

THE PRIORESS'S PROLOGUE.

1625. _corpus dominus_; of course for _corpus domini_, the Lord's body. But it is unnecessary to correct the Host's Latin.

1626. 'Now long mayest thou sail along the coast!'

1627. _marineer_, Fr. _marinier_; we now use the ending _-er_; but modern words of French origin shew their lateness by the accent on the last syllable, as _engineer_.--M. The Fr. _pionnier_ is _pioner_ in Shakespeare, but is now _pioneer_.

1628. 'God give this monk a thousand cart-loads of bad years!' [174] He alludes to the deceitful monk described in the Shipman's Tale. A _last_ is a very heavy load. In a Statute of 31 Edw. I. a _weight_ is declared to be 14 stone; 2 _weights_ of wool are to make a _sack_; and 12 _sacks_ a _last_. This makes a last of wool to be 336 stone, or 42 cwt. But the dictionaries shew that the weight was very variable, according to the substance weighed. The word means simply a heavy burden, from A. S. _hlæst_, a burden, connected with _hladan_, to load; so that _last_ and _load_ are alike in sense. _Laste_, in the sense of heavy weight, occurs in Richard the Redeles, ed. Skeat, iv. 74. _Quad_ is the Old English equivalent of the Dutch _kwaad_, bad, a word in very common use. In O.E., _þe qued_ means the evil one, the devil; P. Pl. B. xiv. 189. Cf. note to A. 4357. The omission of the word _of_ before _quad_ may be illustrated by the expression 'four score years,' i. e. _of_ years.

1630. 'The monk put an ape in the man's hood, and in his wife's too.' We should now say, he made him look like an ape. The contents of the _hood_ would be, properly, the man's head and face; but neighbours seemed to see peeping from it an ape rather than a man. It is a way of saying that he made a dupe of him. In the Milleres Tale (A. 3389), a girl is said to have made her lover _an ape_, i. e. a dupe; an expression which recurs in the Chanones Yemannes Tale, G. 1313. Spenser probably borrowed the expression from this very passage; it occurs in his Faerie Queene, iii. 9. 31:--

'Thus was _the ape_,
By their faire handling, _put into Malbeccoes cape_.'

1632. 'Never entertain monks any more.'

1637. See the description of the Prioress in the Prologue, A. 118.

THE PRIORESSES TALE.

For general remarks upon this Tale, see vol. iii. p. 421.

1643. Cf. Ps. viii. 1-2. The Vulgate version has--'Domine Dominus noster, quam admirabile est nomen tuum in uniuersa terra! Quoniam eleuata est magnificentia tua super caelos! Ex ore infantium et lactentium perfecisti laudem,' &c.

1650. _can or may_, know how to, or have ability to do.

1651. The 'white lily' was the token of Mary's perpetual virginity. See this explained at length in Rock, Church of our Fathers, iii. 245.

1655. 'For she herself is honour, and, next after her Son, the root of bounty, and the help (or profit) of souls.'

1658. Cf. Chaucer's A.B.C, or Hymn to the Virgin, (Minor Poems, vol. i. p. 266), where we find under the heading M--

'Moises, that saugh the bush with flaumes rede
Brenninge, of which ther never a stikke brende,
Was signe of thyn unwemmed maidenhede;
Thou art the bush, on which ther gan descende
The Holy Gost, the which that Moises wende
Had been a-fyr.'

[175] So also in st. 2 of an Alliterative Hymn in Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 284.

1659. 'That, through thy humility, didst draw down from the Deity the Spirit that alighted in thee.'

1660. _thalighte_ = _thee alighte_, the two words being run into one. Such agglutination is more common when the def. art. occurs, or with the word _to_; cf. _Texpounden_ in B. 1716.

1661. _lighte_ may mean either (1) cheered, lightened; or (2) illuminated. Tyrwhitt and Richardson both take the latter view; but the following passage, in which _hertes_ occurs, makes the former the more probable:--

'But nathelees, it was so fair a sighte
That it made alle hir _hertes_ for to _lighte_.'
Sq. Ta.; F. 395.

1664. Partly imitated from Dante, Paradiso, xxxiii. 16:--

'La tua benignità non pur soccorre
A chi dimanda, ma molte fiate
Liberamente al dimandar precorre.
In te misericordia, in te pietate,
In te magnificenza, in te s'aduna
Quantunque in creatura è di bontate.

1668. _goost biforn,_ goest before, dost anticipate. _of_, by. The eighth stanza of the Seconde Nonnes Tale (G. 50-56) closely resembles ll. 1664-70; being imitated from the same passage in Dante.

1677. _Gydeth_, guide ye. The plural number is used, as a token of respect, in addressing superiors. By a careful analysis of the words _thou_ and _ye_ in the Romance of William of Palerne, I deduced the following results, which are generally true in Mid. English. '_Thou_ is the language of a lord to a servant, of an equal to an equal, and expresses also companionship, love, permission, defiance, scorn, threatening: whilst _ye_ is the language of a servant to a lord, and of compliment, and further expresses honour, submission, or entreaty. _Thou_ is used with singular verbs, and the possessive pronoun _thine_; but _ye_ requires plural verbs, and the possessive _your_.'--Pref. to Will. of Palerne, ed. Skeat, p. xlii. Cf. Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar, sect. 231.

1678. _Asie_, Asia; probably used, as Tyrwhitt suggests, in the sense of Asia Minor, as in the Acts of the Apostles.

1679. _a Iewerye_, a Jewry, i. e. a Jews' quarter. In many towns there was formerly a Jews' quarter, distinguished by a special name. There is still an _Old Jewry_ in London. In John vii. 1 the word is used as equivalent to _Judea_, as also in other passages in the Bible and in Shakesp. Rich. II, ii. 1. 55. Chaucer (House of Fame, 1435) says of Josephus--

'And bar upon his shuldres hye
The fame up of the _Jewerye_.'

[176] Thackeray uses the word with an odd effect in his Ballad of 'The White Squall.' See also note to B. 1749.

1681. _vilanye._ So the six MSS.; Hl. has _felonye_, wrongly. In the margin of the Ellesmere MS. is written 'turpe lucrum,' i. e. vile gain, which is evidently the sense intended by _lucre of vilanye_, here put for _villanous lucre_ or _filthy lucre_, by poetical freedom of diction. See Chaucer's use of _vilanye_ in the Prologue, A. 70 and A. 726.

1684. _free_, unobstructed. People could ride and walk through, there being no barriers against horses, and no termination in a _cul de sac_. Cf. Troilus, ii. 616-8.

1687. _Children an heep_, a heap or great number of children. _Of_ is omitted before _children_ as it is before _quad yere_ in B. 1628. For _heep_, see Prologue, A. 575.

1689. _maner doctrine_, kind of learning, i. e. reading and singing, as explained below. Here again _of_ is omitted, as is usual in M.E. after the word _maner_; as--'In another _maner_ name,' Rob. of Glouc. vol. i. p. 147; 'with somme _manere_ crafte,' P. Plowman, B. v. 25: 'no _maner_ wight,' Ch. Prol. A. 71; &c. See Mätzner, Englische Grammatik, ii. 2. 313. _men used_, people used; equivalent to _was used_. Note this use of _men_ in the same sense as the French _on_, or German _man_. This is an excellent instance, as the poet does not refer to _men_ at all, but to _children_. Moreover, _men_ (spelt _me_ in note to B. 1702) is an attenuated form of the sing. _man_, and not the usual plural.

1693. _clergeon_, not 'a young clerk' merely, as Tyrwhitt says, but a happily chosen word implying that he was a chorister as well. Ducange gives--'_Clergonus_, junior clericus, vel puer choralis; jeune clerc, petit clerc ou enfant de choeur'; see Migne's edition. And Cotgrave has--'_Clergeon_, a singing man, or Quirester in a Queer [choir].' It means therefore 'a chorister-boy.' Cf. Span. _clerizon_, a chorister, singing-boy; see New E. Dict.

1694. _That_, as for whom. A London street-boy would say--'_which_ he was used to go to school.' _That ... his_ = whose.

1695. _wher-as_, where that, where. So in Shakespeare, 2 Hen. VI. i. 2. 58; Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 38. See Abbott's Shakesp. Grammar, sect. 135. _thimage_, the image; alluding to an image of the Virgin placed by the wayside, as is so commonly seen on the continent.

1698. _Ave Marie_; so in Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 35. The words were--'Aue Maria, gratia plena; Dominus tecum; benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus uentris tui. Amen.' See the English version in Specimens of Early English, ed. Morris and Skeat, p. 106. It was made up from Luke i. 28 and i. 42. Sometimes the word _Jesus_ was added after _tui_, and, at a later period, an additional clause--'Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.' See Rock, Church of our Fathers, iii. 315; and iii. pt. 2, 134. [177]

1702. 'For a good child will always learn quickly.' This was a proverbial expression, and may be found in the Proverbs of Hending, st. 9:--

'Me may lere a sely fode [_one may teach a good child_]
That is euer toward gode
With a lutel lore;
Yef me nul [_if one will not_] him forther teche,
Thenne is [_his_] herte wol areche
Forte lerne more.
_Sely chyld is sone ylered_; Quoth Hendyng.'

1704. _stant_, stands, is. Tyrwhitt says--'we have an account of the very early piety of this Saint in his lesson; Breviarium Romanum, vi. Decemb.--Cuius uiri sanctitas quanta futura esset, iam ab incunabulis apparuit. Nam infans, cum reliquas dies lac nutricis frequens sugeret, quarta et sexta feria (i. e. _on Wednesdays and Fridays_) semel duntaxat, idque uesperi, sugebat.' Besides, St. Nicholas was the patron of schoolboys, and the festival of the 'boy-bishop' was often held on his day (Dec. 6); Rock, Church of our Fathers, iii. 2. 215.

1708. _Alma redemptoris mater._ There is more than one hymn with this beginning, but the one meant is perhaps one of five stanzas printed in Hymni Latini Medii Ævi, ed. F. J. Mone, vol. ii. p. 200, from a St. Gallen MS. no. 452, p. 141, of the thirteenth century. The first and last stanzas were sung in the Marian Antiphon, from the Saturday evening before the 1st Sunday in Advent to Candlemas day. In l. 4 we have the _salutation_ which Chaucer mentions (l. 1723), and in the last stanza is the prayer (l. 1724). These two stanzas are as follows:--

'Alma redemptoris mater,
quam de caelis misit pater
propter salutem gentium;
tibi dicunt omnes "aue!"
quia mundum soluens a uae
mutasti uocem flentium....
Audi, mater pietatis,
nos gementes a peccatis
et a malis nos tuere;
ne damnemur cum impiis,
in aeternis suppliciis,
peccatorum miserere.'

There is another anthem that would suit almost equally well, but hardly comes so near to Chaucer's description. It occurs in the Roman Breviary, ed. 1583, p. 112, and was said at compline from Advent eve to Candlemas day, like the other; cf. l. 1730. The words are:-- [178]

'Alma redemptoris mater, quae peruia caeli
Porta manes, et stella maris, succurre cadenti,
Surgere qui curat, populo: Tu quae genuisti,
Natura mirante, tuum sanctum Genitorem,
Virgo priùs ac posteriùs, Gabrielis ab ore
Sumens illud "Aue!" peccatorum miserere.'

In the Myrour of Our Lady, ed. Blunt, p. 174, an English translation of the latter anthem is given, with the heading 'Alma redemptoris mater.'

1709. _antiphoner_, anthem-book. 'The Antiphoner, or Lyggar, was always a large codex, having in it not merely the words, but the music and the tones, for all the invitatories, the hymns, responses, versicles, collects, and little chapters, besides whatever else belonged to the solemn chanting of masses and lauds, as well as the smaller canonical hours'; Rock, Church of our Fathers, v. 3, pt. 2, p. 212.

1710. _ner and ner_, nearer and nearer. The phrase _come neor and neor_ (= come nearer and nearer) occurs in King Alisaunder, in Weber's Metrical Romances, l. 599.

1713. _was to seye_, was to mean, meant. _To seye_ is the gerundial or dative infinitive; see Morris, Hist. Outlines of English Accidence, sect. 290.

1716. _Texpounden_, to expound. So also _tallege_ = to allege, Kn. Ta., A. 3000 (Harl. MS.); _tespye_ = to espy, Nonne Pr. Ta., B. 4478. See note to l. 1733.

1726. _can but smal_, know but little. Cf. 'the compiler is _smal_ learned'; Old Plays, ed. Hazlitt, i. 10.--M. Cf. _coude_ = knew, in l. 1735.

1733. _To honoure_; this must be read _tonóure_, like _texpounden_ in l. 1716.

1739. _To scholeward_; cf. _From Bordeaux ward_ in the Prologue, A. 397.--M.

1749. The feeling against Jews seems to have been very bitter, and there are numerous illustrations of this. In Gower's Conf. Amant. bk. vii, ed. Pauli, iii. 194, a Jew is represented as saying--

'I am a Jewe, and by my lawe
I shal to no man be felawe
To kepe him trouth in word ne dede.'

In Piers the Plowman, B. xviii. 104, Faith reproves the Jews, and says to them--

'[gh]e cherles, and [gh]owre children · chieue [_thrive_] shal [gh]e
neure,
Ne haue lordship in londe · ne no londe tylye [_till_],
But al bareyne be · & vsurye vsen,
Which is lyf þat owre lorde · in alle lawes acurseth.'

See also P. Pl., C. v. 194. Usury was forbidden by the canon law, and those who practised it, chiefly Jews and Lombards, were held to [179] be grievous sinners. Hence the character of Shylock, and of Marlowe's Jew of Malta. Cf. note on the Jews in England in the Annals of England, p. 162.

1751. _honest_, honourable; as in the Bible, Rom. xii. 17, &c.

1752. _swich_, such. The sense here bears out the formation of the word from _so-like_.--M.

1753. _your_, of you. Shakespeare has 'in _your_ despite,' Cymb. i. 6. 135; 'in _thy_ despite,' 1 Hen. VI, iv. 7. 22. _Despite_ is used, like the Early and Middle English _maugre_, with a genitive; as _maugre þin_, in spite of thee, in Havelok, ll. 1128, 1789.--M.

1754. 'Which is against the respect due to your law.' Cf. 'spretaeque iniuria formae'; Æneid, i. 27.

1762. _Wardrobe_, privy. Godefroy's O. F. Dict. shews that _garderobe_ meant not only a wardrobe, or place for keeping robes, &c., but also any small chamber; hence the sense. See Cotgrave.

1764. 'O accursed folk (composed) of Herods wholly new.'

1766. 'Murder will out'; a proverb; see B. 4242.

1769. _Souded to_, confirmed in. From O. F. _souder_, Lat. _solidare_, whence E. _solder_. Wyclif's later version has--'hise leggis and hise feet weren _sowdid_ togidere'; Acts, iii. 7. The reference in ll. 1770-5 is to Rev. xiv. 3, 4.

1793. _Iesu._ This word is written 'Ihu' in E. Hn. Cm.; and 'ihc' in Cp. Pt. Ln.; in both cases there is a stroke through the _h_. This is frequently printed _Ihesu_, but the retention of _h_ is unnecessary. It is not really an _h_ at all, but the Greek [Eta], meaning _long e_ ([=e]). So, also, in 'ihc,' the _c_ is not the Latin _c_, but the Gk. C, meaning [Sigma] or _s_; and _ihc_ are the first three letters of the word [Greek: IÊSOUS] = [Greek: iêsous] = iesus. _Iesu_, as well as _Iesus_, was used as a nominative, though really the genitive or vocative case. At a later period, _ihs_ (still with a stroke through the _h_) was written for _ihc_ as a contraction of _iesus_. By an odd error, a new meaning was invented for these letters, and common belief treated them as the initials of three Latin words, viz. Iesus Hominum Salvator. But as the stroke through the _h_ or mark of contraction still remained unaccounted for, it was turned into a cross! Hence the common symbol I.H.S. with the small cross in the upper part of the middle letter. The wrong interpretation is still the favourite one, all errors being long-lived. Another common contraction is _Xpc._, where _all_ the letters are Greek. The _x_ is _ch_ ([chi]), the _p_ is _r_ ([rho]), and _c_ is _s_, so that _Xpc_ = _chrs_, the contraction for _christus_ or Christ. This is less common in decoration, and no false interpretation has been found for it.

1794. _inwith_, within. This form occurs in E. Hn. Pt. Ln.; the rest have _within_. Again, in the Merchant's Tale (E. 1944), MSS. E. Hn. Cm. Hl. have the form _inwith_. It occurs in the legend of St. Katharine, ed. Morton, l. 172; in Sir Perceval (Thornton Romances), l. 611; in Alliterative Poems, ed. Morris, A. 970; and in Palladius on Husbandry, ed. Lodge, iii. 404. Dr. Morris says it was [180] (like _utwith_ = without) originally peculiar to the Northern dialect. See the Glossary, and the note to l. 2159 below (p. 202).

1805. _coomen_; so in E. Hn.; _comen_ in Pt. Cp. But it is the past tense = came. The spelling _comen_ for the _past_ tense plural is very common in Early English, and we even find _com_ in the singular. Thus, in l. 1807, the Petworth MS. has 'He come,' equivalent to 'coom,' the _o_ being long. But _herieth_ in l. 1808 is a _present_ tense.

1814. _nexte_, nighest, as in Kn. Ta. A. 1413. So also _hext_ = highest, as in the Old Eng. proverb--'When bale is hext, then bote is next,' i. e. 'when woe is highest, help is nighest.' _Next_ is for _neh-est_, and _hext_ is for _heh-est_.

1817. _newe Rachel_, second Rachel, as we should now say; referring to Matt. ii. 18.

1819. _dooth for to sterve_, causes to die. So also in l. 1823, _dide hem drawe_ = caused them to be drawn.

1822. Evidently a proverb; compare Boeth. bk. iv. pr. 1. 37-40 (vol. ii. p. 93); and note to P. Plowman, C. v. 140.

1826. The body occupied the place of honour. 'The bier, if the deceased had been a _clerk_, went into the chancel; if a layman, and not of high degree, the bearers set it down in the nave, hard by the church-door'; Rock, Ch. of our Fathers, ii. 472. He cites the Sarum Manual, fol. c.

1827. _the abbot_; pronounced _thabbòt_. _covent_, convent; here used for the monks who composed the body over which the abbot presided. So in Shakespeare, Hen. VIII, iv. 2. 18--'where the reverend abbot, With all his _covent_, honourably received him.' The form _covent_ is Old French, still preserved in _Covent Garden_.

1835. _halse_; two MSS. consulted by Tyrwhitt read _conjure_, a mere gloss, caught from the line above. Other examples of _halse_ in the sense of _conjure_ occur. 'Ich _halsi_ þe o godes nome' = I conjure thee in God's name; St. Marherete, ed. Cockayne, p. 17. Again, in Joseph of Arimathie, ed. Skeat, l. 400--

'Vppon þe hei[gh]e trinite · I _halse_ þe to telle'--

which closely resembles the present passage.

1838. _to my seminge_, i. e. as it appears to me.

1840. 'And, in the ordinary course of nature.'

1843. _Wil_, wills, desires. So in Matt. ix. 13, I _will_ have mercy = I require mercy; Gk. [Greek: eleon thelô]; Vulgate, misericordiam uolo. Cf. B. 45.

1848. In the Ellesmere MS. (which has the metrical pauses marked) the pause in this line is marked after _lyf_. The word _sholde_ is dissyllabic here, having more than the usual emphasis; it has the force of _ought to_. Cf. E. 1146.

1852. In the Cursor Mundi, 1373-6, Seth is told to place three pippins under the root of Adam's tongue.

1857. _now_ is used in the sense of _take notice that_, without any [181] reference to _time_. There is no necessity to alter the reading to _than_, as proposed by Tyrwhitt. See Mätzner, Engl. Gram. ii. 2. 346, who refers to Luke ii. 41, John i. 44, and quotes an apt passage from Maundeville's Travels, p. 63--'_Now_ aftre that men han visited the holy places, _thanne_ will they turnen toward Jerusalem.' In A. S. the word used in similar cases is _s[=o]þl[=i]ce_ = soothly, verily.

1873. _Ther_, where. _leve_, grant. No two words have been more confused by editors than _lene_ and _leue_. Though sometimes written much alike in MSS., they are easily distinguished by a little care. The A. S. _l[=y]fan_ or _l[=e]fan_, spelt _lefe_ in the Ormulum (vol. i. p. 308), answers to the Germ. _erlauben_, and means _grant_ or _permit_, but it can only be used in certain cases. The verb _lene_, A. S. _l[=æ]nan_, now spelt _lend_, often means to give or grant in Early English, but again only in certain cases. I quote from my article on these words in Notes and Queries, 4 Ser. ii. 127--'It really makes all the difference whether we are speaking of to _grant_ a thing to a person, or to _grant_ that a thing may happen. "God _lene_ thee grace," means "God _grant_ thee grace," where to grant is to _impart_; but "God _leue_ we may do right" means "God _grant_ we may do right," where to _grant_ is to permit.... Briefly, _lene_ requires _an accusative case_ after it, _leue_ is followed by _a dependent clause_.' _Lene_ occurs in Chaucer, Prol. A. 611, Milleres Tale, A. 3777, and elsewhere. Examples of _leue_ in Chaucer are (1) in the present passage, misprinted _lene_ by Tyrwhitt, Morris, Wright, and Bell, though five of our MSS. have _leue_; (2) in the Freres Tale, D. 1644, printed _lene_ by Tyrwhitt (l. 7226), _leene_ by Morris, _leeve_ by Wright and Bell; (3) (4) (5) in three passages in Troilus and Criseyde (ii. 1212, iii. 56, v. 1750), where Tyrwhitt prints _leve_, but unluckily recants his opinion in his Glossary, whilst Morris prints _lene_. For other examples see Stratmann, s. v. _lænan_ and _leven_.

It may be remarked that _leve_ in Old English has several other senses; such as (1) to believe; (2) to live; (3) to leave; (4) to remain; (5) leave, _sb._; (6) dear, _adj._ I give an example in which the first, sixth, and third of these senses occur in one and the same line:--

'What! leuestow, leue lemman, that i the [_thee_] leue wold?'
Will. of Palerne, 2358.

1874. _Hugh of Lincoln._ The story of Hugh of Lincoln, a boy supposed to have been murdered at Lincoln by the Jews, is placed by Matthew Paris under the year 1255. Thynne, in his Animadversions upon Speght's editions of Chaucer (p. 45 of the reprint of the E.E.T.S.), addresses Speght as follows--'You saye, that in the 29 Henry iii. eightene Jewes were broughte fro_m_ Lincolne, and hanged for crucyfyinge a childe of eight yeres olde. Whiche facte was in the 39 Hen. iii., so that yo_u_ mighte verye well haue sayed, that the same childe of eighte yeres olde was the same hughe of Lincolne; of whiche name there were twoe, viz. thys younger Seinte Hughe, and Seinte Hughe bishoppe of Lincolne, which dyed in the yere 1200, long before this [182] little seinte hughe. And to prove that this childe of eighte yeres olde and that yonge hughe of Lincolne were but one; I will sett downe two auctoryties out of Mathewe Paris and Walsinghame, wherof the fyrste wryteth, that in the yere of Christe 1255, being the 39 of Henry the 3, a childe called Hughe was sleyne by the Jewes at Lyncolne, whose lamentable historye he delyvereth at large; and further, in the yere 1256, being 40 Hen. 3, he sayeth, Dimissi sunt quieti 24 Judei á Turri London., qui ibidem infames tenebantur compediti pro crucifixione sancti Hugonis Lincolniae: All which Thomas Walsingham, in Hypodigma Neustriae, confirmeth: sayinge, Ao. 1255, Puer quidam Christianus, nomine Hugo, à Judeis captus, in opprobriu_m_ Christiani nominis crudeliter est crucifixus.' There are several ballads in French and English, on the subject of Hugh of Lincoln, which were collected by M. F. Michel, and published at Paris in 1834, with the title--'Hugues de Lincoln, Recueil de Ballades Anglo-Normandes et Ecossoises relatives au Meurtre de cet Enfant.' The day of St. Hugh, bishop of Lincoln, is Aug. 27; that of St. Hugh, boy and martyr, is June 29. See also Brand's Pop. Antiq. ed. Ellis, i. 431. And see vol. iii. p. 423.

1875. _With_, by. See numerous examples in Mätzner, Engl. Gram. ii. 1. 419, amongst which we may especially notice--'Stolne is he _with_ Iues'; Towneley Mysteries, p. 290.

PROLOGUE TO SIR THOPAS.

1881. _miracle_, pronounced _míracl'_. Tyrwhitt omits _al_, and turns the word into _mirácle_, unnecessarily.

1883. _hoste_ is so often an evident dissyllable (see l. 1897), that there is no need to insert _to_ after it, as in Tyrwhitt. In fact, _bigan_ is seldom followed by _to_.

1885. _what man artow_, what sort of a man art thou?

1886. _woldest finde_, wouldst like to find. We learn from this passage, says Tyrwhitt, that Chaucer 'was used to look much upon the ground; that he was of a corpulent habit; and reserved in his behaviour.' We cannot be quite sure that the poet is serious; but these inferences are probably correct; cf. Lenvoy a Scogan, 31.

1889. _war you_, mind yourselves, i. e. make way.

1890. _as wel as I_; said ironically. Chaucer is as corpulent as the host himself. See note to l. 1886 above.

1891. _were_, would be. _tenbrace_, to embrace. In the Romaunt of the Rose, true lovers are said to be always lean; but deceivers are often fat enough:--

'For men that shape hem other wey
Falsly hir ladies to bitray,
It is no wonder though they be fat'; l. 2689.

1893. _elvish_, elf-like, akin to the fairies; alluding to his absent looks [183] and reserved manner. See _Elvish_ in the Glossary, and cf. 'this _elvish_ nyce lore'; Can. Yeom. Tale, G. 842. Palsgrave has--'I waxe _eluysshe_, nat easye to be dealed with, _Ie deuiens mal traictable_.'

1900. _Ye_, yea. The difference in Old English between _ye_ and _yis_ (yes) is commonly well marked. _Ye_ is the weaker form, and merely assents to what the last speaker says; but _yis_ is an affirmative of great force, often followed by an oath, or else it answers a question containing a _negative_ particle, as in the House of Fame, 864. Cf. B. 4006 below.

THE TALE OF SIR THOPAS.

In the black-letter editions, this Tale is called 'The ryme of Sir Thopas,' a title copied by Tyrwhitt, but not found in the seven best MSS. This word is now almost universally misspelt _rhyme_, owing to confusion with the Greek _rhythm_; but this misspelling is _never_ found in old MSS. or in early printed books, nor has any example yet been found earlier than the reign of Elizabeth. The old spelling _rime_ is confirmed by the A. S. _r[=i]m_, Icel. _rím_, Dan. _rim_, Swed. _rim_, Germ. _reim_, Dutch _rijm_, Old Fr. _rime_, &c. Confusion with _rime_, hoarfrost, is impossible, as the context always decides which is meant; but it is worth notice that it is the latter word which has the better title to an _h_, as the A. S. word for hoarfrost is _hr[=i]m_. Tyrwhitt, in his edition of Chaucer, attempted two reforms in spelling, viz. _rime_ for _rhyme_, and _coud_ for _could_. Both are most rational, but probably unattainable.

_Thopas._ In the Supplement to Ducange we find--'_Thopasius_, pro Topasius, Acta S. Wencesl. tom. 7. Sept. p. 806, col. 1.' The Lat. _topazius_ is our _topaz_. The whole poem is a burlesque (see vol. iii. p. 423), and _Sir Topaz_ is an excellent title for such a gem of a knight. The name _Topyas_ occurs in Richard Coer de Lion, ed. Weber, ii. 11, as that of a sister of King Richard I; but no such name is known to history.

The metre is that commonly used before and in Chaucer's time by long-winded ballad-makers. Examples of it occur in the Romances of Sir Percevall, Sir Isumbras, Sir Eglamour, and Sir Degrevant (in the Thornton Romances, ed. Halliwell), and in several romances in the Percy Folio MS. (ed. Hales and Furnivall), such as Libius Disconius, Sir Triamour, Sir Eglamour, Guy and Colbrande, The Grene Knight, &c.; see also Amis and Amiloun, and Sir Amadas in Weber's Metrical Romances; and Lybeaus Disconus, The King of Tars, Le Bone Florence, Emare, The Erle of Tolous, and Horn Childe in Ritson's collection. To point out Chaucer's sly imitations of phrases, &c. would be a long task; the reader would gain the best idea of his manner by reading any one of these old ballads. To give a few illustrations is all that can be attempted here; I refer the reader to Prof. Kölbing's elaborate article in the Englische Studien, xi. 495, for further information; also to the dissertation by C. J. Bennewitz mentioned in vol. iii. [184] p. 424. It is remarkable that we find in Weber a ballad called 'The Hunting of the Hare,' which is a pure burlesque, like Chaucer's, but a little broader in tone and more obviously comic.

1902. _Listeth, lordes_, hearken, sirs. This is the usual style of beginning. For example, Sir Bevis begins--

'_Lordynges, lystenyth_, grete and smale';

and Sir Degaré begins--

'_Lystenyth, lordynges_, gente and fre,
Y wylle yow telle of syr Degaré.'

Warton well remarks--'This address to the lordings, requesting their silence and attention, is a manifest indication that these ancient pieces were originally sung to the harp, or recited before grand assemblies, upon solemn occasions'; Obs. on F. Queene, p. 248.

1904. _solas_, mirth. See Prol. l. 798. 'This word is often used in describing the festivities of elder days. "She and her ladyes called for their minstrells, and _solaced_ themselves with the disports of dauncing"; Leland, Collectanea, v. 352. So in the Romance of Ywaine and Gawin:--

"Full grete and gay was the assemble
Of lordes and ladies of that cuntre,
And als of knyghtes war and wyse,
And damisels of mykel pryse;
Ilkane with other made grete gamen
And grete _solace_, &c."' (l. 19, ed. Ritson).
Todd's Illust. of Chaucer, p. 378.

1905. _gent_, gentle, gallant. Often applied to ladies, in the sense of pretty. The first stanzas in Sir Isumbras and Sir Eglamour are much in the same strain as this stanza.

1910. _Popering._ 'Poppering, or Poppeling, was the name of a parish in the Marches of Calais. Our famous antiquary Leland was once rector of it. See Tanner, Bib. Brit. in v. _Leland_.'--Tyrwhitt. Here _Calais_ means the district, not the town. _Poperinge_ has a population of about 10,500, and is situate about 26 miles S. by W. from Ostend, in the province of Belgium called West Flanders, very near the French 'marches,' or border. Ypres (see A. 448) is close beside it. _place_, the mansion or chief house in the town. Dr. Pegge, in his Kentish Glossary, (Eng. Dial. Soc.), has--'_Place_, that is, the manor-house. Hearne, in his pref. to Antiq. of Glastonbury, p. xv, speaks of a _manour-place_.' He refers also to Strype's Annals, cap. xv.

1915. _payndemayn._ 'The very finest and the _whitest_ [kind of bread] that was known, was _simnel-bread_, which ... was as commonly known under the name of _pain-demayn_ (afterwards corrupted into [_painmain_ or] _payman_); a word which has given considerable trouble to Tyrwhitt and other commentators on Chaucer, but which means no [185] more than "bread of our Lord," from the figure of our Saviour, or the Virgin Mary, impressed upon each round flat loaf, as is still the usage in Belgium with respect to certain rich cakes much admired there'; Chambers, Book of Days, i. 119. The Liber Albus (ed. Riley, p. 305) speaks of '_demesne_ bread, known as _demeine_,' which Mr. Riley annotates by--'_Panis Dominicus_. Simnels made of the very finest flour were thus called, from an impression upon them of the effigy of our Saviour.' Tyrwhitt refers to the poem of the Freiris of Berwick, in the Maitland MS., in which occur the expressions _breid of mane_ and _mane breid_. It occurs also in Sir Degrevant (Thornton Romances, p. 235):--

'_Paynemayn_ prevayly Sche brou[gh]th fram the pantry,' &c.

It is mentioned as a delicacy by Gower, Conf. Amantis, bk. vi. (ed. Pauli, iii. 22).

1917. _rode_, complexion. _scarlet in grayn_, i. e. scarlet dyed in grain, or of a fast colour. Properly, to dye _in_ grain meant to dye _with_ grain, i. e. with cochineal. In fact, Chaucer uses the phrase '_with greyn_' in the epilogue to the Nonne Prestes Tale; B. 4649. See the long note in Marsh's Lectures on the English Language, ed. Smith, pp. 54-62, and the additional note on p. 64. Cf. Shak. Tw. Nt. i. 5. 255.

1920. _saffroun_; i. e. of a yellow colour. Cf. Bottom's description of beards--'I will discharge it in either your straw-colour beard, your orange-tawney beard, your purple-in-grain beard, or your French-crown-colour beard, _your perfect yellow_'; Mids. Nt. Dr. i. 2. In Lybeaus Disconus (ed. Ritson, Met. Rom. ii. 6, or ed. Kaluza, l. 139) a dwarf's beard is described as 'yelow as ony wax.'

1924. _ciclatoun_, a costly material. From the O. Fr. _ciclaton_, the name of a costly cloth. [It was early confused with the Latin _cyclas_, which Ducange explains by 'vestis species, et panni genus.' The word _cyclas_ occurs in Juvenal (Sat. vi. 259), and is explained to mean a robe worn most often by women, and adorned with a border of gold or purple; see also Propertius, iv. 7. 40.] _Ciclatoun_, however, is of Eastern origin, as was well suggested in the following note by Col. Yule in his edition of Marco Polo, i. 249:--

'The term _suklát_ is applied in the Punjab trade-returns to _broadcloth_. Does not this point to the real nature of the _siclatoun_ of the Middle Ages? It is, indeed, often spoken of as used for banners, which implies that it was not a heavy woollen. But it was also a material for ladies' robes, for quilts, leggings, housings, pavilions. Michel does not decide what it was, only that it was generally _red_ and wrought with gold. Dozy renders it "silk stuff brocaded with gold," but this seems conjectural. Dr. Rock says it was a thin glossy silken stuff, often with a woof of gold thread, and seems to derive it from the Arabic _sakl_, "polishing" (a sword), which is improbable.' Compare the following examples, shewing its use for tents, banners, &c.:-- [186]

'Off silk, cendale, and _syclatoun_
Was the emperours pavyloun';...
'Kyng Richard took the pavylouns
Off sendels and off _sykelatouns_';
Rich. Coer de Lion (Weber, ii. 90 and 201).

'There was mony gonfanoun
Of gold, sendel, and _siclatoun_';
Kyng Alisaunder (Weber, i. 85).

Richardson's Pers. and Arab. Dict. (ed. Johnson, 1829), p. 837, gives: 'Pers. _saqlat[=u]n_, scarlet cloth (whence Arab. _siql[=a]t_, a fine painted or figured cloth)'; and the derivation is probably (as given in the New E. Dict.) from the very Pers. word which has given us the word _scarlet_; so that it was originally named from its colour. It was afterwards applied to various kinds of costly materials, which were sometimes embroidered with gold. See _Ciclaton_ in Godefroy, and in the New E. Dict.; and _Scarlet_ in my Etym. Dictionary.

The matter has been much confused by a mistaken notion of Spenser's. Not observing that Sir Thopas is here described in his robes of _peace_, not in those of _war_ (as in a later stanza), he followed Thynne's spelling, viz. _chekelatoun_, and imagined this to mean 'that kind of guilded leather with which they [the Irish] use to embroder theyr Irish jackes'; View of the State of Ireland, in Globe edition, p. 639, col. 2. And this notion he carried out still more boldly in the lines--

'But in a jacket, quilted richly rare
Upon _cheklaton_, he was straungely dight';
F. Q. vi. 7. 43.

1925. _Jane_, a small coin. The word is known to be a corruption of _Genoa_, which is spelt _Jeane_ in Hall's Chronicles, fol. xxiv. So too we find _Janueys_ and _Januayes_ for _Genoese_. See Bardsley's English Surnames, s. v. _Janeway_. Stow, in his Survey of London, ed. 1599, p. 97, says that some foreigners lived in Minchin Lane, who had come from _Genoa_, and were commonly called galley-men, who landed wines, &c. from the galleys at a place called 'galley-key' in Thames Street. 'They had a certaine coyne of silver amongst themselves, which were half-pence of Genoa, and were called _galley half-pence_. These half-pence were forbidden in the 13th year of Henry IV, and again by parliament in the 3rd of Henry V, by the name of _half-pence of Genoa_.... Notwithstanding, in my youth, I have seen them passe currant,' &c. Chaucer uses the word again in the Clerkes Tale (E. 999), and Spenser adopted it from Chaucer; F. Q. iii. 7. 58. Mr. Wright observes that 'the _siclaton_ was a rich cloth or silk brought from the East, and is therefore appropriately mentioned as bought with Genoese coin.'

1927. _for rivéer_, towards the river. This appears to be the best reading, and we must take _for_ in close connexion with _ryde_; perhaps it [187] is a mere imitation of the French _en riviere_. It alludes to the common practice of seeking the river-side, because the best sport, in hawking, was with herons and waterfowl. Tyrwhitt quotes from Froissart, v. 1. c. 140--'Le Comte de Flandres estoit tousjours _en riviere_--un jour advint qu'il alla voller _en la riviere_--et getta son fauconnier un faucon _apres le heron_.' And again, in c. 210, he says that Edward III 'alloit, chacun jour, ou _en chace_ on _en riviere_,' &c. So we read of Sir Eglamour:--

'Sir Eglamore took the way
to the riuèr ffull right';
Percy Folio MS. ii. 347.

Of Ipomydon's education we learn that his tutor taught him to sing, to read, to serve in hall, to carve the meat, and

'Bothe of howndis and haukis game
Aftir he taught hym, all and same,
In se, in feld, and eke _in ryuere_,
In wodde _to chase the wild dere_,
And in the feld to ryde a stede,
That all men had joy of his dede.'
Weber's Met. Romances, ii. 283.

See also the Squire of Low Degree, in Ritson, vol. iii. p. 177.

1931. _ram_, the usual prize at a wrestling match. Cf. Gk. [Greek: tragôidia].

_stonde_, i. e. be placed in the sight of the competitors; be seen. Cf. Prol. A. 548, and the Tale of Gamelyn, 172. Tyrwhitt says--'Matthew Paris mentions a wrestling-match at Westminster, A.D. 1222, in which a ram was the prize, p. 265.' Cf. also--

'At wresteling, and at ston-castynge
He wan the prys without lesynge,' &c.;
Octouian Imperator, in Weber's Met. Rom. iii. 194.

1933. _paramour_, longingly; a common expression; see the Glossary.

1937. _hepe_, mod. E. 'hip,' the fruit of the dog-rose; A. S. _h[=e]ope_.

1938. Compare--'So hyt be-felle upon a day'; Erle of Tolous, Ritson's Met. Rom. iii. 134. Of course it is a common phrase in these romances.

1941. _worth_, lit. became; _worth upon_ = became upon, got upon. It is a common phrase; compare--

'Ipomydon sterte vp that tyde;
Anon he _worthyd vppon_ his stede';
Weber, Met. Rom. ii. 334.

1942. _launcegay_, a sort of lance. Gower has the word, Conf. Amant. bk. viii. (ed. Pauli, iii. 369). Cowel says its use was prohibited by the statute of 7 Rich. II, cap. 13. Camden mentions it in his Remaines, p. 209. Tyrwhitt quotes, from Rot. Parl. 29 Hen. VI, n. 8, the following--'And the said Evan then and there with a _launcegaye_ smote the said William Tresham throughe the body a foote and more, wherof he died.' Sir Walter Raleigh (quoted by Richardson) [188] says--'These carried a kind of _lance de gay_, sharp at both ends, which they held in the midst of the staff.' But this is certainly a corrupt form. It is no doubt a corruption of _lancezagay_, from the Spanish _azagaya_, a word of Moorish origin. Cotgrave gives--'_Zagaye_, a fashion of slender, long, and long-headed pike, used by the Moorish horsemen.' It seems originally to have been rather a short weapon, a kind of half-pike or dart. The Spanish word is well discussed in Dozy, Glossaire des mots Espagnols et Portugais dérivés de l'Arabe, 2nd ed. p. 225. The Spanish _azagaya_ is for _az-zagaya_, where _az_ is for the definite article _al_, and _zagaya_ is a Berber or Algerian word, not given in the Arabic dictionaries. It is found in Old Spanish of the fourteenth century. Dozy quotes from a writer who explains it as a Moorish half-pike, and also gives the following passage from Laugier de Tassy, Hist. du royaume d'Alger, p. 58--'Leurs armes sont _l'azagaye_, qui est une espéce de _lance courte_, qu'ils portent toujours à la main.' The Caffre word _assagai_, in the sense of javelin, was simply borrowed from the Portuguese _azagaia_.

1949. _a sory care_, a grievous misfortune. Chaucer does not say what this was, but a passage in Amis and Amiloun (ed. Weber, ii. 410) makes it probable that Sir Thopas nearly killed his horse, which would have been grievous indeed; see l. 1965 below. The passage I allude to is as follows:--

'So long he priked, withouten abod,
The stede that he on rode,
In a fer cuntray,
Was ouercomen and fel doun ded;
Tho couthe he no better red [_counsel_];
His song was "waileway!"'

Readers of Scott will remember Fitz-James's lament over his 'gallant grey.'

1950. This can hardly be other than a burlesque upon the Squire of Low Degree (ed. Ritson, iii. 146), where a long list of _trees_ is followed up, as here, by a list of _singing-birds_. Compare also the Romaunt of the Rose, l. 1367:--

'There was eek wexing many a spyce,
As _clow-gelofre_ and _licoryce_,
Gingere, and greyn de paradys,
Canelle, and _setewale_ of prys,' &c.

Observe the mention of _notemigges_ in the same, l. 1361.

Line 21 of the Milleres Tale (A. 3207) runs similarly:--

'Of _licorys_ or any _setewale_.'

Maundeville speaks of the _clowe-gilofre_ and _notemuge_ in his 26th chapter; see Specimens of E. Eng. ed. Morris and Skeat, p. 171. _Cetewale_ is generally explained as the herb valerian, but is certainly zedoary; see the Glossary. _Clowe-gilofre_, a clove; _notemuge_, a [189] nutmeg. 'Spiced ale' is amongst the presents sent by Absolon to Alisoun in the Milleres Tale (A. 3378). Cf. the list of spices in King Alisaunder, ed. Weber, 6790-9.

1955. _leye in cofre_, to lay in a box.

1956. Compare Amis and Amiloun, ed. Weber, ii, 391:--

'She herd the foules grete and smale,
The swete note of the nightingale,
Ful mirily sing on tre.'

See also Romaunt of the Rose, ll. 613-728. But Chaucer's burlesque is far surpassed by a curious passage in the singular poem of The Land of Cockaygne (MS. Harl. 913), ll. 71-100:--

'In þe praer [_meadow_] is a tre
Swiþe likful for to se.
Þe rote is gingeuir and galingale,
Þe siouns beþ al _sed_[_e_]_wale_;
Trie maces beþ þe flure;
Þe rind, canel of swet odur;
Þe frute, _gilofre_ of gode smakke, &c.
Þer beþ briddes mani and fale,
Þ_rostil_, þruisse, and ni[gh]tingale,
Chalandre and wod[e]wale,
And oþer briddes wiþout tale [_number_],
Þat stinteþ neuer by har mi[gh]t
Miri to sing[e] dai and ni[gh]t,' &c.

1964. _as he were wood_, as if he were mad, 'like mad.' So in Amis and Amiloun (ed. Weber), ii. 419:--

'He priked his stede _night and day_
As a gentil knight, stout and gay.'

Cf. note to l. 1949.

1974. _seinte_, being feminine, and in the vocative case, is certainly a dissyllable here--'O seintè Márie, _ben'cite_.' Cf. note to B. 1170 above.

1977. _Me dremed_, I dreamt. Both _dremen_ (to dream) and _meten_ (also to dream) are sometimes used with a dative case and reflexively in Old English. In the Nonne Prestes Tale we have _me mette_ (l. 74) and _this man mette_ (l. 182); B. 4084, 4192.

1978. _An elf-queen._ Mr. Price says--'There can be little doubt that at one period the popular creed made the same distinctions between the Queen of Faerie and the Elf-queen that were observed in Grecian mythology between their undoubted parallels, Artemis and Persephone.' Chaucer makes Proserpine the 'queen of faerie' in his Marchauntes Tale; but at the beginning of the Wyf of Bathes Tale, he describes the _elf-queen_ as the queen of the _fairies_, and makes _elf_ and _fairy_ synonymous. Perhaps this _elf-queen_ in Sire Thopas (called the _queen of fairye_ in l. 2004) may have given Spenser the hint for _his_ Faerie [190] Queene. But the subject is a vast one. See Price's Preface, in Warton's Hist. Eng. Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, pp. 30-36; Halliwell's Illustrations of Fairy Mythology; Keightley's Fairy Mythology; Warton's Observations on the Faerie Queene, sect. ii; Sir W. Scott's ballad of Thomas the Rhymer, &c.

1979. _under my gore_, within my robe or garment. In l. 2107 (on which see the note) we have _under wede_ signifying merely 'in his dress.' We have a somewhat similar phrase here, in which, however, _gore_ (lit. gusset) is put for the whole robe or garment. That it was a mere phrase, appears from other passages. Thus we find _under gore_, under the dress, Owl and Nightingale, l. 515; Reliquiae Antiquae, vol. i. p. 244, vol. ii. p. 210; with three more examples in the Gloss. to Böddeker's Altenglische Dichtungen des MS. Harl. 2253. In one of these a lover addresses his lady as 'geynest under gore,' i. e. fairest within a dress. For the exact sense of _gore_, see note to A. 3237.

1983. _In toune_, in the town, in the district. But it must not be supposed that much _sense_ is intended by this inserted line. It is a mere tag, in imitation of some of the romances. Either Chaucer has neglected to conform to the new kind of stanza which he now introduces (which is most likely), or else three lines have been lost before this one. The next three stanzas are longer, viz. of _ten_ lines each, of which only the seventh is very short. For good examples of these short lines, see Sir Gawayne and the Greene Kny[gh]t, ed. Morris; and for a more exact account of the metres here employed, see vol. iii. p. 425.

1993. _So wilde._ Instead of this short line, Tyrwhitt has:--

'Wherin he soughte North and South,
And oft he spied with his mouth
In many a forest wilde.'

But none of our seven MSS. agrees with this version, nor are these lines found in the black-letter editions. The notion of _spying_ with one's _mouth_ seems a little too far-fetched.

1995. This line is supplied from MS. Reg. 17 D. 15, where Tyrwhitt found it; but something is so obviously required here, that we must insert it to make some sense. It suits the tone of the context to say that 'neither wife nor child durst oppose him.' We may, however, bear in mind that the meeting of a knight-errant with one of these often preceded some great adventure. 'And in the midst of an highway he [Sir Lancelot] met a damsel riding on a white palfrey, and there either saluted other. Fair damsel, said Sir Lancelot, know ye in this country any adventures? Sir knight, said that damsel, here are adventures near hand, and thou durst prove them'; Sir T. Malory, Morte Arthur, bk. vi. cap. vii. The result was that Lancelot fought with Sir Turquine, and defeated him. Soon after, he was 'required of a damsel to heal her brother'; and again, 'at the request of a lady' he recovered a falcon; an adventure which ended in a fight, as usual. Kölbing points out a parallel line in Sir Guy of Warwick, 45-6:-- [191]

'In all Englond ne was ther none
That durste in wrath ayenst hym goon';
Caius MS., ed. Zupitza, p. 5.

1998. _Olifaunt_, i. e. Elephant; a proper name, as Tyrwhitt observes, for a giant. Maundeville has the form _olyfauntes_ for _elephants_. By some confusion the Moeso-Goth. _ulbandus_ and A. S. _olfend_ are made to signify a _camel_. Spenser has put Chaucer's _Olifaunt_ into his Faerie Queene, bk. iii. c. 7. st. 48, and makes him the brother of the giantess Argantè, and son of Typhoeus and Earth. The following description of a giant is from Libius Disconius (Percy Folio MS. vol. ii. p. 465):--

'He beareth haires on his brow
Like the bristles of a sow,
His head is great and stout;
Eche arme is the lenght of an ell,
His fists beene great and fell,
Dints for to driue about.'

Sir Libius says:--

'If God will me grace send,
Or this day come to an end
I hope him for to spill,' &c.