Chapter XXIV: Part 24

565. 'He was all spotted with foam, so that he looked like a magpie.' The word _He_ (like _his_ in l. 566) refers to the Canon, whose clothing was _black_ (l. 557); and the white spots of foam upon it gave him this appearance. The horse is denoted by _it_ (l. 563), the word _hors_ being neuter in the Oldest English. Most MSS. read _he_ for _it_ in l. 563, but there is nothing gained by it. _Flecked_, in the sense of 'spotted,' is still in use; see N. and Q. 7 S. i. 507, ii. 96.

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. _cl[=a]te_ as _Arctium lappa_, with numerous references. The A. S. _cl[=a]te_ 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 _cl[=a]te s[=e]o 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. [418]

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.

581. _Were ful_, that might be full, that might chance to be full. _Were_ is the subjunctive, and the relative is omitted.

588. _now_, &c.; lately, in the time of early morning.

589. This shews that the pilgrims had rested all night on the road; see note to l. 555 above.

597. _oght_, in any way, at all. Cf. Kn. Ta., A. 3045; and Prioresses Tale, B. 1792.

599. _ye_, yea. There is a difference between _ye_, yea, and _yis_, yes. The former merely assents, or answers a simple question in the affirmative. The latter is much more forcible, is used when the question involves a negative, and is often followed by an oath. See note to Specimens of Eng. 1394-1579, ed. Skeat, sect. xvii. (D), l. 22; and note to _[gh]is_ in the Glossary to my edition of William of Palerne. See an example of _[gh]us_ (yes) after a negative in Piers the Plowman, B. v. 125. Similarly, _nay_ is the weaker, _no_ the stronger form of negation.

602. A note in Bell's edition makes a difficulty of the scansion of this line. It is perfectly easy. The caesura (carefully _marked_ in MS. E. as occurring after _knewe_) preserves the final _e_ in _knewe_ from elision.

And yé | him knéw | e, ás | wel ás | do I ||

Tyrwhitt reads _also_ for the former _as_; which is legitimate, because _as_ and _also_ are merely different spellings of the same word.

It is true that the final _e_ in _wondre_, and again that in _werke_, are both elided, under similar circumstances, in the two lines next following; but the cases are not quite identical. The _e_ in _knewe_, representing not merely the plural, but also the subjunctive mood, is essential to the conditional form of the sentence, and is of much higher value than the others. If this argument be not allowed, Tyrwhitt's suggestion may be adopted. Or we may read _knewen_.

608. _rit_, contracted from _rideth_; see A. 974, 981. See also _slit_ for _slideth_ in l. 682 below.

611. _leye in balaunce_, place in the balance, weigh against it.

620. _can_, knows, knows how to exercise.

622. The Yeoman puts in a word for himself--'and moreover, I am of some assistance to him.'

625. _up-so-doun_, i. e. upside doun, according to our modern phrase. Chaucer's phrase is very common; see Pricke of Conscience, ed. Morris, l. 7230; P. Plowman, B. xx. 53; Gower, Conf. Amantis, i. 218, &c.

628. _benedicite_, pronounced _ben'cite_, in three syllables, as in B. 1170, 1974. See note to B. 1170.

632. _worship_, dignity, honour; here, respectable appearance.

633. _oversloppe_, upper garment. So in Icelandic, _yfirsloppr_ means [419] an outer gown; as, 'prestar skrýddir yfirsloppum,' i. e. priests clad in over-slops, Historia Ecclesiastica, i. 473. The word _slop_ is preserved in the somewhat vulgar '_slop_-shop,' i. e. shop for second-hand clothes.

635. _baudy_, dirty. _to-tore_, torn in half. So in Piers Plowman, B. v. 197, Avarice is described as wearing a 'tabard' which is 'al to-torn and baudy.'

639. The second person sing. imperative seldom exhibits a final _e_; but it is sometimes found in weak verbs, _tellen_ being one of them. The readings are--_Telle_, E. Cp. Pt. Hl.; _Tel_, Ln. Cm. Elsewhere, we find _tel_, as in D. 1298.

641. _for_, &c.; because he shall never thrive. The Yeoman blurts out the truth, and is then afraid he has said too much. In l. 644, he gives an evasive and politer reason, declaring that his lord is 'too wise'; see l. 648.

645. _That that_, that which. In the margin of MS. E. is written--'Omne quod est nimium, &c.'; which is probably short for--'Omne quod est nimium uertitur in uitium.' We also find--'Omne nimium nocet.' The corresponding English proverb is--'Too much of one thing is not good' (Heywood); on which Ray remarks--'Assez y a si trop n'y a; _French_. Ne quid nimis; _Terentius_. [Greek: Mêden agan.] This is an apothegm of one of the seven wise men; some attribute it to Thales, some to Solon. Est modus in rebus, sunt certi denique fines; _Horat._ Sat. i. 1. 106. L'abbondanza delle cose ingenera fastidio; _Ital._ Cada dia olla, amargo el caldo; _Spanish_.' We also find in Hazlitt's English Proverbs--'Too much cunning undoes.'--'Too much is stark nought.'--'Too much of a good thing.'--'Too much spoileth, too little is nothing.' See also the collection of similar proverbs in Ida v. Düringsfeld's Sprichwörter, i. 37, 38.

648. Cf. Butler's description of Hudibras:--

'We grant, although he had much wit,
He was very shy of using it.'

652. _Ther-of no fors_, never mind about that.

655. The adj. _sly_ here appears in the indefinite form, and rimes with _hertely_; correctly. Lounsbury (Studies, i. 388) admits the fact, but immediately proceeds to rate Chaucer for using the form _dry-e_ (dissyllabic) as an indefinite form! The attack, being founded on an error, ignominiously fails. It so happens that _sly_ is, etymologically, a monosyllable, whilst _drye_ is etymologically dissyllabic; see _sleh_ and _druye_ in Stratmann.

658. A _blind lane_ is one that has no opening at the farther end; a _cul de sac_.

659. _theves by kinde_, thieves by natural disposition.

662. _the sothe_, the truth. The reader should carefully note the full pronunciation of the final _e_ in _sothe_. If he should omit to sound it, he will be put to shame when he comes to the end of the next line, ending with _tó thee_. A very similar instance is that of _tyme_, riming with _bý me_, G. 1204 below. The case is the more remarkable because [420] the A. S. _s[=o]ð_, truth, is a monosyllable; but the truth is that the definite adjective _the sothe_ (A. S. _þæt s[=o]ðe_) may very well have supplied its place, the adjective being more freely used than the substantive in this instance. Chaucer has _sothe_ at the end of a line in other places, where it rimes with the dissyllabic _bothe_; G. 168; Troil. iv. 1035.

We may remark that _the sothe_ is written and pronounced instead of _the sooth_ (as shewn by the metre) in the Story of Genesis and Exodus, ed. Morris, l. 74:--

'He [_they_] witen the sothe, that is sen.'

665. _Peter!_ by St. Peter; as in B. 1404, D. 446. The full form of the phrase--'bi seynt Peter of Rome'--occurs in Piers the Plowman, B. vi. 3. The shorter exclamation--'Peter!' also occurs in the same, B. v. 544; see my note on that line. _harde grace_, disfavour, ill-favour; a mild imprecation. In l. 1189, it expresses a mild malediction.

669. _multiplye._ This was the technical term employed by alchemists to denote their supposed power of transmuting the baser metals into gold; they thought to _multiply_ gold by turning as much base metal as a piece of it would buy into gold itself; see l. 677. Some such pun seems here intended; yet it is proper to remember that the term originally referred solely to the supposed fact, that the strength of an elixir could be multiplied by repeated operations. See the article 'De Multiplicatione,' in Theatrum Chemicum, iii. 301, 818; cf. 131. Cf. Ben Jonson's Alchemist, ii. 1:--

'For look, how oft I iterate the work,
So many times I add unto his virtue'; &c.

686. To scan the line, accent _yeman_ on the latter syllable, as in ll. 684, 701.

687. To scan the line, pronounce _ever_ nearly as _e'er_, and remember that _hadde_ is of two syllables. The MSS. agree here.

688. _Catoun_, Cato. Dionysius Cato is the name commonly assigned to the author of a Latin work in four books, entitled Dionysii Catonis Disticha de Moribus ad Filium. The work may be referred to the fourth century. It was extremely popular, not only in Latin, but in French and English versions. Chaucer here quotes from Lib. i. Distich. 17:--

'Ne cures si quis tacito sermone loquatur;
Conscius ipse sibi de se putat omnia dici.'

See other quotations from Cato in the Nonne Preestes Tale, B. 4130; Merch. Ta., E. 1377; and see my note to Piers Plowman, B. vi. 316.

It is worth noticing that _Catoun_ follows the form of the Lat. _Catonem_, the accusative case. Such is the usual rule.

694. _dere abye_, pay dearly for it. _abye_ (lit. to buy off) was corrupted at a later date to _abide_, as in Shak. Jul. Caesar, iii. 1. 94.

703. _game_, amusement. In l. 708, it is used ironically. Cf. _ernest_, i. e. a serious matter, in l. 710. Cf. The Alchemist, ii. 1:--

'Alchemy is a pretty kind of game,' &c.

[421]

THE CHANOUNS YEMANNES TALE.

720. This Tale is divided, in MS. E., into two parts. _Pars prima_ is not really a tale at all, but a description of alchemy and its professors. The real tale, founded on the same subject, is contained in _Pars Secunda_, beginning at l. 972. The rubric means--'Here the Canon's Yeoman begins his tale.' The word _tale_ is not to be taken as a nominative case.

I may observe that I frequently refer below to the Theatrum Chemicum, printed in 1659, in five volumes. Also to Ashmole's Theatrum Chemicum (quite a different work).

721. _neer_, nearer; this explains _near_ in Macbeth, ii. 3. 146.

724. _Ther_, where; observe the use. In l. 727, we have _wher_.

726. _hose_, an old hose, instead of a hood. A pair of hose meant what we should now call a pair of tight-fitting drawers, which also covered the feet.

730. 'And, in return for all my labour, I am cajoled.' To '_blere_ one's eye' is to cajole, to deceive, to hoodwink. See Piers the Plowman, B. prol. 74, and the note.

731. _which_, what sort of a; Lat. _qualis_. On _multiplye_, see note to l. 669.

739. 'I consider his prosperity as done with.'

743. _Iupartye_, jeopardy, hazard. Tyrwhitt remarks that the derivation is not from _jeu perdu_, as some have guessed, but from _jeu parti_. He adds--'A _jeu parti_ is properly a game, in which the chances are exactly even; see Froissart, v. i. c. 234--"Ils n'estoient pas à _jeu parti_ contre les François"; and v. ii. c. 9--"si nous les voyons à _jeu parti_." From hence it signifies anything uncertain or hazardous. In the old French poetry, the discussion of a problem, where much might be said on both sides, was called a _Jeu parti_. See Poésies du Roy de Navarre, Chanson xlviii., and _Gloss._ in v. See also Ducange, in v. _Jocus Partitus_.' Ducange has--'_Jocus partitus_ dicebatur, cum alicui facultas concedebatur, alterum e duobus propositis eligendi.' Hence was formed not only _jeopardy_, but even the verb to _jeopard_, used in the A. V., Judges v. 18; 2 Macc. xi. 7.

746. In the margin of MS. E. is written--'Solacium miseriorum (_sic_), &c.' In Marlowe's Faustus, ii. 1. 42, the proverb is quoted in the form 'Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris.' Dr. Wagner says: 'The purport of this line may have been originally derived from Seneca, De Consol. ad Polybium, xii. 2: est autem hoc ipsum solatii loco, inter multos dolorem suum diuidere; qui quia dispensatur inter plures, exigua debet apud te parte subsidere.' Cf. Milton, P. R. i. 398. The idea is that conveyed in the fable of the Fox who had lost his tail, and wished to persuade the other foxes to cut theirs off likewise. See Troil. i. 708.

752. 'The technical terms which we use are so learned and fine.' See this well illustrated in Jonson's Alchemist, ii. 1:--'What else are all your terms,' &c. [422]

764. _lampe_; so in the MSS. It is clearly put for _lambe_, a corruption of O. Fr. _lame_, Lat. _lamina_. Were there any MS. authority, it would be better to read _lame_ at once. Cotgrave has--'_Lame_; f. a thin plate of any metall; also, a blade.' &c. Nares has--'_Lamm_, s. a plate, from Lat. _lamina_. "But he strake Phalantus just upon the gorget, so as he batred the _lamms_ thereof, and make his head almost touch the back of his horse"; Pembr. Arcadia, lib. iii. p. 269.' _Lame_ in old French also means, the flat slab covering a tomb; see Godefroy. So here, after the ingredients have all been placed in a pot, they are covered over with a plate of glass laid flat upon the top.

It is strange that no editor has made any attempt to explain this word. It obviously does not mean _lamp_! For the insertion of the _p_, cf. _solempne_ for _solemne_, and _nempne_ for _nemne_; also _flambe_ for _flame_; see the Glossary.

766. _enluting._ To _enlute_ is to close with _lute_. Webster has--'_Lute_, n. (Lat. _lutum_, mud, clay). A composition of clay or other tenacious substance, used for stopping the juncture of vessels so closely as to prevent the escape or entrance of air, or to protect them when exposed to heat.'

The process is minutely described in a MS. by Sir George Erskine, of Innertiel (temp. James I.), printed by Mr. J. Small in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. xi. 1874-75, p. 193, as follows:--'Thairfoir when all the matter which must be in, is gathered together into the pot, tak a good _lute_ maid of potters clay, and mix it with bolus and rust of iron tempered with whitts of eggs and chopt hair, and mingle and worke thame weill togither, and lute [gh]oure pott ane inch thick thairwith, and mak a stopple of potters earth weill brunt, to shut close in the hole that is in the top of the cover of the pott, and lute the pott and the cover very close togither, so as no ayre may brek furth, and when any craks cum into it, in the drying of the lute, dawbe them up againe; and when the lute is perfectly drie in the sunne, then take a course linen or canvas, and soke it weill in the whitts of eggs mixt with iron rust, and spred this cloth round about the luting, and then wet it weill again with whitts of eggs and upon the luting'; &c.

768. The alchemists were naturally very careful about the heat of the fire. So in The Alchemist, ii. 1:--

'Look well to the register,
And let your heat still lessen by degrees.'

And again, in iii. 2:--

'We must now increase
Our fire to _ignis ardens_,' &c.

770. _matires sublyming_, sublimation of materials. To 'sublimate' is to render vaporous, to cause matter to pass into a state of vapour by the application of heat. 'Philosophi considerantes eorum materiam, quae est in vase suo, et calorem sentit, evaporatur in speciem fumi, et [423] ascendit in capite vasis: et vocant _sublimationem_'; Theatrum Chemicum, 1659, vol. ii. p. 125.

'_Subtle._ How do you sublime him [mercury]?

_Face._ With the calce of egg-shells,
White marble, talc.' The Alchemist, ii. 1.

771. _amalgaming._ To 'amalgamate' is to compound or mix intimately, especially used of mixing quicksilver with other metals. The term is still in use; thus 'an _amalgam_ of tin' means a mixture of tin and quicksilver.

_calcening._ To 'calcine' is to reduce a metal to an oxide, by the action of heat. What is now called an oxide was formerly called 'a metallic calx'; hence the name. The term is here applied to quicksilver or mercury. For example--'When mercury is heated, and at the same time exposed to atmospheric air, it is found that the volume of the air is diminished, and the weight of the mercury increased, and that it becomes, during the operation, a red crystalline body, which is the binoxide of mercury, formed by the metal combining with the oxygen of the air'; English Cyclopaedia, Div. Arts and Sciences, s. v. _Oxygen_. 'The alchemists used to keep mercury at a boiling heat for a month or longer in a matrass, or a flask with a tolerably long neck, having free communication with the air. It thus slowly absorbed oxygen, becoming converted into binoxide, and was called by them _mercurius precipitatus per se_. It is now however generally prepared by calcination from mercuric nitrate'; id., s. v. _Mercury_.

772. _Mercurie crude_, crude Mercury. See note to l. 820. See the description of Mercury in Ashmole's Theat. Chem. p. 272. The alchemists pretended that _their_ quicksilver, which they called the Green Lion, was something different from quicksilver as ordinarily found. See treatise on 'The Greene Lyon,' in Ashmole's Theat. Chem. p. 280.

774. Note the accents--'súblyméd Mercúrie.'

778. Here the 'ascension of spirits' refers to the rising of gases or vapours from certain substances; and the 'matters that lie all fix adown' are the materials that lie at the bottom in a fixed (i. e. in a solid) state. There were four substances in particular which were technically termed 'spirits'; viz. sulphur, sal ammoniac, quicksilver, and arsenic, or (as some said) orpiment. See Theatrum Chemicum, iii. 81, 129; ii. 430; iii. 276.

782. Here _a_ = in; being short for _an_, a variant of _on_, used in the old sense of 'in.' The expression signifies, literally, in the way to (or of) twenty devils; see note to A. 3713.

790. _bole armoniak._ The latter word should rather be _Armeniak_, i. e. Armenian, but we have _armoniak_ again below, in l. 798; see note to that line.

'_Bole_, a kind of fine, compact, or earthy clay, often highly coloured with iron, and varying in shades of colour from white to yellowish, [424] reddish, blueish, and brownish. Fr. _bol_, Lat. _bolus_, Gk. [Greek: bôlos], a clod or lump of earth'; Webster's Dict., ed. Goodrich and Porter. Cotgrave has--'_Bol_, m. the astringent and medicinable red earth or minerall called _Bolearmenie_ ... _Bol Oriental_, et _Bol Armenien Oriental_, Oriental Bolearmenie; the best and truest kind of Bolearmenie, ministred with good effect against all poisons, and in pestilent diseases; and more red than the ordinary one, which should rather be tearmed Sinopian red earth than Bolearmeny.' And see _Bole_ in the New E. Dict.

Mr. Paget Toynbee has lately shewn (in The Academy, Sept. 16, 1893) that _verdegrees_ is from the O. Fr. _verd de Grece_, lit. 'green of Greece.' Cotgrave has the curious form _verderis_, which probably represents the Latin _viride aeris_, the green of brass. This term (_viride aeris_) is the common one in the old Latin treatises on alchemy. See the chapter in Albertus Magnus--'Quomodo viride aeris fit, et quomodo rubificatur, et super omnia valet ad artem istam'; Theatrum Chemicum, ii. 436. It is the bibasic acetate of copper.

792, 794. Perhaps Chaucer had read the following lines:

'Par _alambics_ et _descensoires_,
_Cucurbites_, distillatoires.'
Les Remonstrances de Nature, par J. de Meung, ll. 39,40.

794. _Cucurbites_, vessels supposed to bear some resemblance to a gourd, whence the name (Lat. _cucurbita_, a gourd). 'Cucurbita est uas quod debet stare in aqua, usque ad juncturam firmatum in caldario, ut non moueatur'; Theatrum Chemicum, ii. 452.

795. _dere y-nough a leek_, dear enough at the price of a leek. Cf. Clerkes Tale, E. 999.

797. _Watres rubifying_, reddening waters. This is well illustrated by a long passage in The Boke of Quinte Essence, ed. Furnivall, p. 13, where instructions are given for extracting the quintessence out of the four elements. After various processes, we are directed to put the vessel into 'the fier of flawme right strong, and the _reed water_ schal ascende'; and again--'thanne yn the stillatorie, to the fier of bath, cleer water schall asende; and in the botum shall remayne the _reed water_, that is, the element of fier.' A long and unintelligible passage about 'rubrificatio' and 'aqua spiritualis rubea' occurs in the Theatrum Chemicum, iii. 41. See also 'modus rubrificandi' and the recipe for 'aqua rubea'; id. iii. 110.

798. _Arsenic_ was by some considered as one of the 'four spirits'; see note to l. 778. For a long passage 'de arsenico,' see Theatrum Chemicum, iii. 177; also p. 110, and ii. 238. _Sal armoniacum_ was another of them (see l. 824) and is constantly mentioned in the old treatises; see 'praeparatio salis Armoniaci secundum Rasim'; Theat. Chem. iii. 179; also pp. 89, 94, 102; ii. 445. In vol. ii. p. 138 of the same work, it is twice called '_sal armeniacum_.' See the account of _sal ammoniac_ in Thomson, Hist. of Chemistry, i. 124. _Brimstoon_ was also a 'spirit' (see l. 824); it is only another name for sulphur. [425]

800. _egrimoine_, common agrimony, _Ægrimonia officinalis_; valerian, _Valeriana officinalis_; _lunarie_, a kind of fern called in English moonwort, _Botrychium lunaria_. The belief in the virtue of herbs was very strong; cf. Spenser, (F. Q. i. 2. 10). The root of valerian yields valerianic acid. The following quotation is from the English Encyclopaedia, s. v. _Botrychium_:--

'In former times the ferns had a great reputation in medicine, not so
much on account of their obvious as their supposed virtues. The lunate
shape of the pinnæ of this fern (_B. lunaria_) gave it its common name,
and was the origin of much of the superstitious veneration with which
it was regarded. When used it was gathered by the light of the moon.
Gerarde says--"it is singular [i. e. sovereign] to heal green and fresh
wounds. It hath been used among the _alchymists and witches_ to do
wonders withall."'

In Ashmole's Theatrum Chemicum, p. 348, is a full description of 'lunayrie,' with an engraving of it. It is there also called _asterion_, and we are told that its root is black, its stalk red, and its leaves round; and moreover, that the leaves _wax and wane with the moon_, and on each of them is a mark of the breadth of a penny. See also pp. 315, 318 of the same work.

805. _albificacioun_, i. e. the rendering the water of a white colour, as distinguishing from the reddening of it, mentioned in l. 797. In a long chapter printed in the Theatrum Chemicum (iii. 634-648) much is said about red and white colours. Compare the Alchemist, ii. 1:--

'_Mammon._ Of _white oil_?

_Subtle._ No, sir, of _red_.'

No doubt, too, _water_ is here used in the sense of the Lat. _aqua_, to denote any substance that is in a liquid state.

808. _Cered pokets._ Tyrwhitt reads _Sered pokettes_, and includes this phrase in his short 'List of Phrases not understood'; and indeed, it has never been explained. But there is little difficulty about it. _Poket_ is the diminutive of _poke_, a bag, and means a little bag. _Cered_ (Lat. _ceratus_) means waxed. Thus Cotgrave has--'_Ciré_, m. _-ée_, f. waxed, _seared_; dressed, covered, closed, or mingled, with wax.' In many MSS. the word is spelt _sered_, but this makes no difference, since Cotgrave has 'seared' in this very place. So we find both 'cere-cloth' and 'sear-cloth.' It is obvious that bags or cases prepared or closed with wax would be useful for many of the alchemist's purposes; see Theat. Chem. iii. 13.

_sal peter_, Lat. _sal petrae_, or rock-salt, also called _nitre_, is nitrate of potassa. A recipe for preparing it is given in Theat. Chem. iii. 195.

_vitriole_, i. e. sulphuric acid. See 'vitrioli praeparatio'; Theat. Chem. iii. 95.

810. _Sal tartre_, salt of tartar, i. e. carbonate of potash; so called from its having been formerly prepared from cream of tartar.

_sal preparat_, common salt prepared in a certain manner. See the [426] section--'quod ualeat sal commune, et quomodo praeparetur'; Theat. Chem. ii. 433, 435.

812. _maad_, i. e. prepared, mixed. _oile of tartre_, oil of tartar, cream of tartar; see Prol. 630. See the section--'quomodo praeparatur tartarum, ut oleum fiat ex illo, quo calces soluuntur'; Theat. Chem. ii. 436; and again--'ad faciendum oleum de Tartaro'; id. iii. 303. To scan l. 813, remember to pronounce _tartre_ as in French, and to accent _alum_ on the latter syllable.

Of tártr' | alúm | glas bérm | wort ánd | argoíle ||

813. _argoile_, crude cream of tartar deposited as a hard crust on wine-casks. Called _argoil_ in Anglo-French; Liber Albus, i. 225, 231.

814. _resalgar_, realgar, red orpiment, or the red sulphuret of arsenic; symbol (As S_2); found native in some parts of Europe, and of a brilliant red colour. _Resalgar_ is adapted from the old Latin name, _risigallum_. The word is explained by Thynne in his Animadversions, ed. Furnivall, p. 36--'This _resalgar_ is that whiche by some is called Ratesbane, a kynde of poysone named Arsenicke.'

_enbibing_, imbibition; see this term used in The Alchemist, ii. 1. It means absorption; cf. Theat. Chem. iii. 132, l. 27.

816. _citrinacioun._ This also is explained by Thynne, who says (p. 38)--'Citrinatione is bothe a coolor [colour] and parte of the philophers stoone.' He then proceeds to quote from a Tractatus Avicennae, cap. 7, and from Arnoldus de Nova Villa, lib. i. cap. 5. It was supposed that when the materials for making the philosopher's stone had been brought into a state very favourable to the ultimate success of the experiment, they would assume the colour of a citron; or, as Thynne says, Arnold speaks of 'this citrinatione, perfecte digestione, or the coolor provinge the philosophers stoone broughte almoste to the heighte of his perfectione'; see _Citrinacio_ in Ducange. So in the Alchemist, iii. 2:--

'How's the moon now? eight, nine, ten days hence
He will be silver potate; then three days
Before he _citronise_. Some fifteen days,
The magisterium will be perfected.'

817. _fermentacioun_, fermentation. This term is also noticed by Thynne (p. 33), who says--'fermentacione ys a peculier terme of Alchymye, deduced from the bakers fermente or levyne'; &c. See Theat. Chem. ii. 115, 175.

820. _foure spirites._ Chaucer enumerates these below. I have already mentioned them in the note to l. 778; see also note to l. 798. Tyrwhitt refers us to Gower's Confessio Amantis, bk. iv., where we find a passage very much to the point. See Pauli's edition, ii. 84.

Gower enumerates the seven bodies and the four spirits; and further explains that gold and silver are the two 'extremities,' and the other metals agree with one or other of them more or less, so as to be capable of transmutation into one of them. For this purpose, the [427] alchemist must go through the processes of distillation, congelation, solution, descension, sublimation, calcination, and fixation, after which he will obtain the perfect elixir of the philosopher's stone. He adds that there are really three philosopher's stones, one vegetable, capable of healing diseases; another animal, capable of assisting each of the five senses of man; and the third mineral, capable of transforming the baser metals into silver and gold.

It is easy to see how the various metals were made to answer to the seven planets. _Gold_, the chief of metals and yellow, of course answered to the _sun_; and similarly _silver_, to the paler moon. _Mercury_, the swiftest planet, must be the shifty _quicksilver_; Saturn, the slowest, of cold and dull influence, must be _lead_. The etymology of _copper_ suggested the connexion with the _Cyprian_ Venus. This left but two metals, iron and tin, to be adjusted; iron was suggestive of Mars, the god of war, leaving tin to Jupiter. The notion of thus naming the metals is attributed to Geber; see Thomson, Hist. of Chemistry, i. 117. In the Book of Quinte Essence, ed. Furnivall, p. 8, we find: 'a plate of _venus_ or _Iubiter_,' i. e. of copper or tin.

Quicksilver, be it observed, is still called _mercury_; and nitrate of _silver_ is still _lunar_ caustic. Gold and silver are constantly termed _sol_ and _luna_ in the old treatises on alchemy. See further allusions in Chaucer's House of Fame, 1431-1487, as pointed out in the notes to ll. 1431, 1450, 1457, 1487 of that poem.

834. 'Whosoever pleases to utter (i. e. display) his folly.'

838. _Ascaunce_, possibly, perhaps; lit. 'just as if.' See note to D. 1745.

846. _Al conne he_, whether he know. The use of _al_ at the beginning of a sentence containing a supposition is common in Chaucer; see Prol. 734. Cf. _al be_, Prol. 297; Kn. Tale, 313 (A. 1171). And see l. 861 below.

848. _bothe two_, both learned and unlearned alike.

853. _limaille_, filings, fine scrapings. 'Take fyn gold and make it into smal _lymail_'; Book of Quinte Essence, p. 8.

861. 'To raise a fiend, though he look never so rough,' i. e. forbidding, cross.

874. _it is to seken euer_, it is always to seek, i. e. never found. In Skelton's Why Come Ye Nat to Court, l. 314, the phrase 'they are to seke' means 'they are at a loss'; this latter is the commoner use.

875. _temps_, tense. The editors explain it by 'time.' If Chaucer had _meant_ time, it is reasonable to suppose that he would have _said_ so. Surely it is better to take 'that futur temps' in the special sense of 'that future tense.' The allusion is to the phrase 'to seken' in the last line, which is not an infinitive mood but a gerund, and often used as a future tense, as Chaucer very well knew. Compare the A. S. version of Matt. xi. 3--'eart þ[=u] þe to cumenne eart'--with the Lat. 'Tu es qui _uenturus_ es.'

878. _bitter swete_, i. e. a fatal, though alluring, pursuit. An example [428] of oxymoron; cf. 'insaniens sapientia,' Horat. Carm. i. 34; 'strenua inertia,' Epist. i. xi. 28. Cf. the plant-name _bittersweet_ (_Solanum dulcamara_).

879. _nadde they but_, if they only should have (_or_, were to have). _Nadde_ is for _ne hadde_, past tense subjunctive.

880. _inne_, within; A. S. _innan_; see l. 881. _a-night_, for _on night_, in the night. Perhaps it should be _nighte_ (with final _e_), and _lighte_ in l. 881.

881. _bak_, cloth; any rough sort of covering for the back. So in most MSS.; altered in E. to _brat_, but unnecessarily. That the word _bak_ was used in the sense of garment is quite certain; see William of Palerne, ed. Skeat, l. 2096; Piers the Plowman, B. x. 362; and the same, A. xi. 184.

Pronounce the words _And a_ rapidly, in the time of one syllable.

907. _to-brek'th_, bursts in pieces. _go_, gone. This must have been a very common result; the old directions about 'luting' and hermetically sealing the vessels employed are so strict, that every care seems to have been (unwittingly) taken to secure an explosion; see note to l. 766 above. So in the Alchemist, iv. 3:--

_Face._ O, sir, we are defeated! all the works
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,
Nec pulchrum pomum quodlibet esse bonum."'

Shakespeare has--'All that glisters is not gold'; Merch. of Venice, ii. 7. 65. Hazlitt's English Proverbs has--'All is not gold that glisters (Heywood). See Chaucer, Chan. Yeom. Prol.; Roxburghe Ballads, ed. Collier, p. 102; Udall's Royster Doyster, 1566, where we read: All things that shineth is not by and by pure golde (Act v. sc. 1). Fronti [429] nulla fides, Juvenal, Sat. ii. 8. The French say, Tout ce qui luict n'est pas or. Non é oro tutto quel che luce; _Ital._ No es todo or lo que reluce; _Span._' So in German--'Est ist nicht Alles Gold was glänzt'; and again--'Rothe Aepfel sind auch faul.' See Ida v. Düringsfeld's Sprichwörter, i. 53, 107. Cf. Chaucer's House of Fame, i. 272.

972. _Pars secunda._ This is where the Tale begins. Even now, the Yeoman has some more to say by way of preface, and only makes a real start at l. 1012.

975. _Alisaundre_, Alexandria, _and othere three_, and three more as well.

999. _I mente_, I intended; as in l. 1051 below. 'But my intention was to correct that which is amiss.'

The reading _I-ment_, as a past participle, adopted by Mr. Wright, is incorrect, as shewn by Mr. Cromie's Ryme-Index. Cf. Nonne Pr. Tale, 604 (B. 4614); Sq. Tale, F. 108. See note to G. 534 above.

1005. _by yow_, with reference to you canons. See _By_ in Wright's Bible Word-book.

1012. _annueleer._ So called, as Tyrwhitt explains, 'from their being employed solely in singing _annuals_ or anniversary masses for the dead, without any cure of souls. See the Stat. 36 Edw. III. c. viii, where the _Chappelleins Parochiels_ are distinguished from others _chantanz annuales, et a cure des almes nient entendantz_. They were both to receive yearly stipends, but the former was allowed to take six marks, the latter only five. Compare Stat. 2 Hen. V. St. 2. c. 2, where the stipend of the _Chapellein Parochiel_ is raised to eight marks, and that of the _Chapellein annueler_ (he is so named in the statute) to seven.' See also the note at p. 505 of Wyclif's Works, ed. Matthew (E. E. T. S.); and Monumenta Franciscana, p. 605.

1015. That is, to the lady of the house where he lodged.

1018. _spending-silver_, money to spend, ready money. The phrase occurs in Piers the Plowman, B. xi. 278.

1024. _a certeyn_, a certain sum, a stated sum. Cf. l. 776.

1027. _at my day_, on the day agreed upon, on the third day.

1029. _Another day_, another time, on the next occasion.

1030. _him took_, handed over to him; so in ll. 1034, 1112.

1055. 'In some measure to requite your kindness.' See note to Sq. Tale, F. 471, and cf. l. 1151.

1059. _seen at yë_, see evidently; lit. see at eye.

1066. 'Proffered service stinketh' is among Heywood's Proverbs. Ray remarks on it--'Merx ultronea putet, _apud_ Hieronymum. Erasmus saith, Quin uulgo etiam in ore est, ultro delatum obsequium plerumque ingratum esse. So that it seems this proverb is in use among the Dutch too. In French, Merchandise offerte est à demi vendue. Ware that is proffered is sold for half the worth, or at half the price.' The German is--'Angebotene Hülfe hat keinen Lohn'; see Ida v. Düringsfeld's Sprichwörter, i. 86.

1096. _Algates_, at any rate. Observe the context. [430]

1103. _that we it hadde_, that we might have it. _Hadde_ is here the subjunctive. Perhaps _have_ would be better, but it lacks authority.

1126. _mortifye_, mortify; a technical term. See note to l. 1431.

1151. 'To blind the priest with.' See note to l. 1055.

1171. For _torned_, read _terved_, i. e. flayed, skinned; MS. E. has _terued_ (so it may be read). See l. 1274.

1185. _Seint Gyles_, saint Giles; a corrupted form of Ægidius. His day is Sept. 1; see Chambers' Book of Days, ii. 296; Legenda Aurea, cap. cxxx.; or Caxton's Golden Legende.

1204-1205. The rime is given by _týmë_ (two syllables, from A. S. _t[=i]ma_) riming with _by me_.

On referring to Prof. Child's Observations on the Language of Gower, I find _seven_ references given for this rime, as occurring in the edition by Dr. Pauli. The references are--i. 227, 309, 370; ii. 41, 114, 277; iii. 369. Dr. Pauli prints _byme_ as one word!

1210. The last foot contains the words--or a pannë.

1238-1239. MS. E. omits these two lines: the other MSS. retain them.

1244. _halwes_ is in the genitive plural. 'And the blessing of all the saints may ye have, Sir Canon!'

1245. 'And may I have their malison,' i. e. their curse.

1274. For _torne_, read _terve_, i. e. flay; as in MS. E. Cf. l. 1171.

1283. 'Why do you wish it to be better than well?' Answering nearly to--'what would you have better?'

1292. A rather lax line. _Is ther_ is to be pronounced rapidly, in the time of one syllable, and _her-inne_ is of three syllables.

1299. Pronounce _simple_ as _simpl'_; _tong-e_ is dissyllabic.

1313. _his ape_, his dupe. See Prol. 706, B. 1630. The simile is evidently taken from the fact that showmen used to carry apes about with them much as organ-boys do at the present day, the apes being secured by a string. Thus, 'to make a man one's ape' is to lead him about at will. The word _apewarde_ occurs in Piers the Plowman, B. v. 540. To _lead apes_ means to lead about a train of dupes.

1319. _heyne_, wretch. This word has never before been properly explained. It is not in Tyrwhitt's Glossary. Dr. Morris considers it as another form of _hyne_, a peasant, or hind, but leaves the phonetic difference of vowel unaccounted for; the words are clearly distinct. It occurs in Skelton's Bowge of Courte, l. 327:--

'It is great scorne to see suche an _hayne_
As thou arte, one that cam but yesterdaye,
With vs olde seruauntes suche maysters to playe.'

Here Mr. Dyce also explains it by _hind_, or servant, whereas the context requires the opposite meaning of a despised _master_. Halliwell gives--'_Heyne_, a miser, a worthless person'; but without a reference. It means 'miser' in Udall's translation of Erasmus' Apophthegmes (1564), where it occurs thrice. Thus, in bk. i. § 106, we find: 'Soch [431] a niggard or _hayn_, that he coulde not finde in his harte ... to departe with an halfpeny.' In the same, § 22, we find: '_haines_ and niggardes of their purse'; and, for a third example, see note to Parl. Foules, 610 (vol. i. p. 523). The word seems to be Scandinavian; cf. Icel. _hegna_, Dan. _hegne_, to hedge in, Swed. _hägna_, to fence, guard, protect; whence Lowl. Sc. _hain_, to hedge in, to preserve, to spare, to save money, to be penurious (Jamieson).

1320. 'This priest being meanwhile unaware of his false practice.' See l. 1324.

1342. Alluding to the proverb--'As fain as a fowl [i. e. bird] of a fair morrow'; given by Hazlitt in the form--'As glad as fowl of a fair day.' See Piers the Plowman, B. x. 153; Kn. Tale, 1579 (A. 2437).

1348. _To stonde in grace_; cf. Prol. 88; also A. 1173.

1354. _By our_; pronounced _By'r_, as spelt in Shakespeare, Mid. Nt. Dr. iii. 1. 14.

1362. _nere_, for _ne were_; meaning 'were it not for.'

1381. _sy_, saw. The scribes also use the form _sey_ or _seigh_, as in Kn. Tale, 208 (A. 1066); Franklin's Tale, F. 850, in both of which places it rimes with _heigh_ (high). Of these spellings _sey_ (riming with _hey_) is to be preferred in most cases. See note to Group B, l. 1.

1388. This line begins with a large capital C in the Ellesmere MS., shewing that the Tale itself is at an end, and the rest is the Yeoman's application of it.

1389. 'There is strife between men and gold to that degree, that there is scarcely any (gold) left.'

1408. Alluding to the proverb--'Burnt bairns fear fire.' This occurs among the Proverbs of Hendyng, in the form--'Brend child fur dredeth.' So in the Romaunt of the Rose, l. 1820--'Brent child of fyr hath muche drede.' The German is--'Ein gebranntes Kind fürchtet das Feuer'; see Ida v. Düringsfeld's Sprichwörter, i. 531.

1410. Alluding to the proverb--'Better late than never'; in French 'Il vaut mieux tard que jamais.' The German is--'Besser spät als nie'; see Ida v. Düringsfeld's Sprichwörter, i. 204.

1411. In Hazlitt's Proverbs--'Never is a long term.'

1413. _Bayard_ was a colloquial name for a horse; see Piers Plowman, B. iv. 53, 124; vi. 196; and 'As bold as blind Bayard' was a common proverb. See also Troil. i. 218; Gower, Conf. Amant. iii. 44; Skelton, ed. Dyce, ii. 139, 186. 'Bot al blustyrne forth unblest as Bayard the blynd'; Awdelay's Poems, p. 48.

1416. 'As to turn aside from an obstacle in the road.'

1419. Compare this with the Man of Lawes Tale, B. 552.

1422. _rape and renne_, seize and clutch. The phrase, as it stands, is meaningless; _rapen_ is to hurry, and _rennen_ is to run, both verbs being intransitive. But it took the place of the older phrase _repen and rinen_ (Ancren Riwle, p. 128), from A. S. _hrepian and hr[=i]nan_, to handle and touch. The Ancren Riwle gives the form _arepen and arechen_, with the various readings _repen and rinen_, _ropen and rimen_. Ihre quotes the [432] English '_rap and ran_, per fas et nefas ad se pertrahere.' Mr. Wedgwood notices _rap and ran_, to get by hook or crook, to seize whatever one can lay hands on, but misses the etymology. Palsgrave has--'_I rap or rende_, je rapine.' Coles (Eng. Dict. ed. 1684) has '_rap an[d] ren_, snatch and catch.' 'All they could rap and rend and pilfer'; Butler, Hudibras, pt. ii. c. 2. 789. (First ed., _rap and run_.) The phrase is still in use in the (corrupted) form to _rape and rend_, or (in Cleveland) _to rap and ree_.

Briefly, _rape_, properly to hurry (Icel. _hrapa_), is a false substitute for A. S. _hrepian_, allied to G. _raffen_; whilst _renne_, to run, is a false substitute for A. S. _hr[=i]nan_, to touch, lay hold of.

1428. Arnoldus de Villa Nova was a French physician, theologian, astrologer, and alchemist; born about A. D. 1235, died A. D. 1314. Tyrwhitt refers us to Fabricius, Bibl. Med. Æt., in v. Arnaldus Villanovanus. In a tract printed in Theatrum Chemicum, iii. 285, we have a reference to the same saying--'Et hoc est illud quod magni philosophi scripserunt, quod lapis noster fit ex Mercurio et sulphure praeparatis et separatis, et de hoc opere et substantia dicit Magister Arnoldus in tractatu suo parabolice, nisi granum frumenti in terra cadens mortuum fuerit, &c. Intelligens pro grano mortuo in terra, Mercurium mortuum cum sale petrae et vitriolo Romano, et cum sulphure; et ibi mortificatur, et ibi sublimatur cum igne, et sic multum fructus adfert, et hic est lapis major omnibus, quem philosophi quaesiverunt, et inventum absconderunt.' The whole process is described, but it is quite unintelligible to me. It is clear that two circumstances stand very much in the way of our being able to follow out such processes; these are (1) that the same substance was frequently denoted by six or seven different names; and (2) that one name (such as sulphur) denoted five or six different things (such as sulphuric acid, orpiment, sulphuret of arsenic, &c.).

1429. _Rosarie_, i. e. Rosarium Philosophorum, the name of a treatise on alchemy by Arnoldus de Villa Nova; Theat. Chem. iv. 514.

1431. The word _mortification_ seems to have been loosely used to denote any change due to chemical action. Phillips explained _Mortify_ by--'Among chymists, to change the outward form or shape of a mixt body; as when quicksilver, or any other metal, is dissolved in an acid menstruum.'

1432. 'Unless it be with the knowledge (i. e. aid) of his brother.' The 'brother' of Mercury was sulphur or brimstone (see l. 1439). The dictum itself is, I suppose, as worthless as it is obscure.

1434. _Hermes_, i. e. Hermes Trismegistus, fabled to have been the inventor of alchemy. Several books written by the New Platonists in the fourth century were ascribed to him. Tyrwhitt notes that a treatise _under his name_ may be found in the Theatrum Chemicum, vol. iv. See Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graeca, lib. i. c. 10; and Smith's Classical Dictionary. The name is preserved in the phrase 'to seal _hermetically_.' [433]

Mr. Furnivall printed, for the Early Eng. Text Society, a tract called The Book of Quinte Essence, 'a tretice in Englisch breuely drawe out of the book of quintis essenciis in latyn, that _Hermys_ the prophete and kyng of Egipt, after the flood of Noe, fadir of philosophris, hadde by reuelacioun of an aungil of god to him sende.'

1438. _dragoun_, dragon. Here, of course, it means mercury, or some compound containing it. In certain processes, the solid residuum was also called _draco_ or _draco qui comedit caudam suam_. This _draco_ and the _cauda draconis_ are frequently mentioned in the old treatises; see Theatrum Chemicum, iii. 29, 36, &c. The terms may have been derived from astrology, since 'dragon's head' and 'dragon's tail' were common terms in that science. Chaucer mentions the latter in his Astrolabe, ii. 4. 23. And see 'Draco' in Theat. Chem. ii. 456.

1440. _sol_ and _luna_, gold and silver. The alchemists called _sol_ (gold) the father, and _luna_ (silver) the mother of the elixir or philosopher's stone. See Theat. Chem. iii. 9, 24, 25; iv. 528. Similarly, sulphur was said to be the father of minerals, and mercury the mother. Id. iii. 7.

1447. _secree_, secret of secrets. Tyrwhitt notes--'Chaucer refers to a treatise entitled Secreta Secretorum, which was supposed to contain the sum of Aristotle's instructions to Alexander. See Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graeca, vol. ii. p. 167. It was very popular in the middle ages. Ægidius de Columnâ, a famous divine and bishop, about the latter end of the 13th century, built upon it his book De Regimine Principum, of which our Occleve made a free translation in English verse, and addressed it to Henry V. while Prince of Wales. A part of Lydgate's translation of the Secreta Secretorum is printed in Ashmole's Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, p. 397. He did not translate more than about half of it, being prevented by death. See MS. Harl. 2251, and Tanner, Bibl. Brit. s. v. Lydgate. The greatest part of the viith Book of Gower's Confessio Amantis [see note to l. 820] is taken from this supposed work of Aristotle.' In the Theatrum Chemicum, iii. 14, I find an allusion to the philosopher's stone ending with these words--'Et Aristoteles ad Alexandrum Regem dicit in libro de secretis secretorum, capitulo penultimo: O Alexander, accipe lapidem mineralem, vegetabilem, et animalem, et separa elementa.' See Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, sect. 19; iii. 19 (ed. 1871), or ii. 230 (ed. 1840).

1450. Tyrwhitt says--'The book alluded to is printed in the Theatrum Chemicum, vol. v. p. 219 [p. 191, ed. 1660], under this title, Senioris Zadith fil. Hamuelis Tabula Chemica. The story which follows of Plato and his disciples is there told, p. 249 [p. 224, ed. 1660], with some variations, of Solomon. "Dixit Salomon rex, Recipe lapidem qui dicitur Thitarios (_sic_).... Dixit sapiens, Assigna mihi illum.... Dixit, Est corpus magnesiae.... Dixit, Quid est magnesia?... Respondit, Magnesia est aqua, composita," &c.' The name of Plato [434] occurs thrice _only a few lines below_, which explains Chaucer's mistake. We find 'Titan Magnesia' in Ashmole's Theat. Chem. p. 275; cf. pp. 42, 447. The Gk. [Greek: titanos] means lime, gypsum, white earth, chalk, &c.

1457. _ignotum per ignotius_, lit. an unknown thing through a thing more unknown; i. e. an explanation of a hard matter by means of a term that is harder still.

1460. The theory that all things were made of the four elements, earth, air, fire, and water, was the foundation on which all alchemy was built; and it was the obstinacy with which this idea was held that rendered progress in science almost impossible. The words were used in the widest sense; thus air meant any vapour or gas; water, any liquid; earth, any solid sediment; and fire, any amount of heat. Hence also the theory of the four complexions of men; for even man was likewise composed of the four elements, under the influence of the planets and stars. See Gower, Conf. Amant. bk. vii; Theat. Chem. iii. 82; iv. 533, 537; and the note to A. 420, at p. 40 above.

1461. _rote_ represents the Lat. _radix_. In the Theat. Chem., ii. 463, we read that the philosopher's stone 'est _radix_, de quo omnes sapientes tractauerunt.'

1469. 'Except where it pleases His Deity to inspire mankind, and again, to forbid whomsoever it pleases Him.'

1479. _terme of his lyve_, during the whole term of his life.

1481. _bote of his bale_, a remedy for his evil, help out of his trouble.

* * * * *

[435]

NOTES TO GROUP H.

THE MANCIPLE'S PROLOGUE.

1. _Wite ye_, know ye. The singular is _I woot_, A. S. _ic w[=a]t_, Moeso-Goth. _ik wait_; the plural is _we witen_ or _we wite_, A. S. _we witon_, Moeso-Goth. _weis witum_. See l. 82, where the right form occurs. But it is certain that Chaucer also uses the construction _ye woot_, as in A. 829, &c.; which, strictly speaking, was ungrammatical.

2. _Bob-up-and-doun._ This place is here described as being 'under the Blee,' i. e. under Blean Forest. It is also between Boughton-under-Blean (see Group G, l. 556) and Canterbury. This situation suits very well with Harbledown, and it has generally been supposed that Harbledown is here intended. Harbledown is spelt _Herbaldoun_ in the account of Queen Isabella's journey to Canterbury (see Furnivall's Temporary Preface, p. 31; p. 124, l. 18; p. 127, l. 21), and _Helbadonne_ in the account of King John's journey (id. p. 131, l. 1). However, Mr. J. M. Cowper, in a letter to The Athenæum, Dec. 26, 1868, p. 886, says that there still exists a place called Up-and-down Field, in the parish of Thannington, which would suit the position equally well, and he believes it to be the place really meant. If so, the old road must have taken a somewhat different direction from the present one, and there are reasons for supposing that such may have been the case. This letter is reprinted in Furnivall's Temporary Preface (Ch. Soc.), p. 32.

The break here between the Canon's Yeoman's and the Manciple's Tales answers to the break between the first and second parts of Lydgate's Storie of Thebes. At the end of Part I, Lydgate mentions the descent down the hill (i. e. Boughton hill), and at the beginning of Part II, he says that the pilgrims, on their _return_ from Canterbury, had 'passed the thorp of Boughton-on-the-blee.'