Chapter XXVII: Part 27

1052. Observe that, in 1038, Chaucer says that _bodily pain_ stands in (1) prayers; (2) watching; (3) fasting; and (4) virtuous teachings. He speaks of _prayers_ in 1039-1047; of _watching_ in 1048-9; of _fasting_ in 1050-1. He now takes up 'teaching,' by which he means, in the first place, _bodily_ 'discipline'; and the words 'or techinge by word or by writinge or in ensample' are, practically, parenthetical. The word _discipline_ is due to the Fr. text; cf. Ayenb. p. 250, l. 2: 'ase ine _uestinges_, ine _wakiinges_, ine _dissiplines_,' &c.

_heyres_, hair-shirts; see P. Plowman, C. vii. 6, and the note.

_haubergeons_, habergeons, shirts of mail. It is surprising to find, in the Romance of Tristan, ed. Michel, ii. 36, that the heroine (Yseult) is described as wearing a 'byrnie' or shirt of mail next her skin:--'Vest une brunie à sa char nue.' Michel quotes from Le Voyage de Charlemagne à Constantinople, I. 635:--'Il lur a cumaundet que aient vestu brunies.'

1054. Tyrwhitt puts a comma after _herte_, and none after _God_, and other editors follow him. But the text (Col. iii. 12) has: 'Induite uos ergo, sicut electi Dei, ... uiscera misericordiae, benignitatem, ... patientiam.' Hence 'in herte of misericorde' simply translates 'uiscera misericordiae.'

1055-6. _Not_ in the Fr. text. Cf. P. Plowm. C. viii. 61, and the note.

1057. The Fr. text mentions _five_ things; the fifth is a wicked love of sin; see Ayenb. p. 179.

1059. Fr. 'au regart de la peine d'enfer.'

1067. _surquidrie_, too great confidence; see 403 above, and the note.

1069. From S. Gregorii Moralium lib. xxxiv. cap. xix. § 36 (ed. Migne, vol. 76, col. 738):--'Ad districti ergo iudicis iustitiam pertinet, ut nunquam careant supplicio, quorum mens in hac uita nunquam uoluit carere peccato.'

1073. There is here a sad oversight. For 'the _seconde_ wanhope,' we should read 'the _same_ wanhope.' The _second_ kind of despair is discussed in 1074. All the MSS. have this mistake.

1080. _poverte espirituel_; this refers to the 'poor in spirit'; Matt. v. 3. _lowenesse_, i. e. meekness; Matt. v. 5. _hunger_; Matt. v. 6. _travaille_; Matt. v. 4, 10, 11. _lyf_; Rom. viii. 13. This concluding passage may be compared with the concluding passage of the Ayenbite, p. 261. [475]

1081. This final paragraph is variously headed in the MSS. E. has: 'Here taketh the makere of this book his leue.' So also Cm. So also Pt., preceded by 'Explicit fabula Rectoris.' Hl. has: 'Preces de Chauceres.' The words 'this litel tretis' refer, of course, to the Persones Tale _as originally written_, so that some part of this concluding address was certainly added afterwards. The interpolation (due to Chaucer himself, if we may trust the evidence) probably extends (as Tyrwhitt suggested) from the words _and namely_ in 1085 to the words _salvacioun of my soule_ in 1090. This accounts for the unusual length of the sentence in 1084-1092. The addition was made at the time of revision, when Chaucer had made up his mind that the Persones Tale was to be the last; and he took the opportunity of writing the _conclusion_ of the work before it was, in reality, completed. This accounts for the whole matter.

1083. Alluding to Rom. xv. 4.

1085. _I revoke in my retracciouns_, I recall by retracting what I may have said amiss. There is no need to lay an undue stress on this expression, as if the author had been compelled to denounce and retract most of his works. We may fairly understand the expression 'thilke that sownen into sinne' as applicable to _all_ the works, and not to the Tales alone. Whilst thanking God for his devotional works, it was not out of place for him to 'recall' his more secular ones; for this expression seems to mean no more than that he could not claim that they were written in God's service. To 'revoke' cannot here mean 'to withdraw,' because the poems named were _not_ withdrawn, nor was there any way in which such a result could have been brought about. Cf. vol. iii. p. 503.

1086. _The book of the xix. Ladies_ is, of course, the Legend of Good Women. For _xix._, most MSS. have 'xxv.'; MS. Harl. 1758 has '25'; MS. Ln. has 'xv.'; and MS. Hl. has '29'; but we know, from the Poem itself, that 'xix.' is correct. Numbers, as the various readings shew, easily went wrong; see note to 565 above.

'The book of seint Valentynes day of the Parlement of Briddes' is all one title; the poem itself is well known.

1087. 'The book of the Lion' is now lost; most likely, as Tyrwhitt suggests, it was a translation from, or adaptation of, Le Dit du Lione, a poem by G. de Machault, composed in the year 1342. It is printed among Machault's poems. Lydgate, in his Prologue to the Falls of Princes, ascribes this work to Chaucer in the words:--

'And of the Lyon a boke he did wryte.'

But it is probable that Lydgate is merely quoting from the present passage, and knew no more of the matter than we do.

I may here note that Tyrwhitt expresses his astonishment that Chaucer does not expressly 'revoke' his translation of the Romaunt of the Rose; but it is sufficiently indicated by the words 'and namely [i. e. _especially_] of my _translacions_'; see 1085. [476]

1088. _Boece_, i. e. his translation of Boethius. _Legendes_, i. e. the Legend of St. Cecilia and the Legend of the boy-saint in the Prioresses Tale. _Omelies_, homilies; such as the Parson's Tale and the Tale of Melibeus. _moralitee and devocioun_; such as Chaucer's A B C, and his Balades on Fortune, Truth, Gentilesse, and Lack of Steadfastness; also the Monkes Tale, which is expressly called 'a Tragedie.' The Pardoneres Tale, moreover, is called 'an honest thing'; and even of the Nonnes Prestes Tale we are bidden, at the end, to 'take the moralitee.'

* * * * *

[477]

NOTES

TO

THE TALE OF GAMELYN.

1. _Litheth_, hearken ye; cf. l. 169. This is the imperative plural; so also _lesteneth_, _herkeneth_. See remarks on the dialect in vol. iii. p. 400. For the explanation of the harder words, see the Glossary. Compare: 'Now list and _lithe_, you gentlemen'; Percy Folio MS., ii. 218; 'Now _lithe_ and listen, gentlemen,' id. iii. 77.

3. _Iohan of Boundys._ It is not clear what is meant by _Boundys_, which is repeated in l. 226; nor is there any clear indication of the supposed locality of the story. Lodge, in his novel (see vol. iii. p. 404), ingeniously substitutes _Bourdeaux_, and calls the knight 'Sir John of Bourdeaux.'[29] In Shakespeare, he becomes Sir Roland de Bois.

The reading _righte_ (for _right_) is demanded by grammar, the article being in the definite form; and the same reading is equally demanded by the metre. Where the final _e_ is thus necessary to the grammar and metre alike, there is little difficulty in restoring the correct reading. Compare _the good-e knight_ in ll. 11, 25, 33.

4. 'He was sufficiently instructed by right bringing up, and knew much about sport.' _Nurture_ is the old phrase for a 'genteel education.' Thus we find 'The boke of _Nurture_, or Schoole of good maners: for men, seruants, and children,' written by Hugh Rhodes, and printed in 1577; and John Russell's 'Boke of Nurture,' in MS. Harl. 4011. See the Babees Book, ed. F. J. Furnivall, 1868; where much information as to the behaviour of our forefathers is given. By _game_ is meant what is now called _sport_; 'The Master of the Game' is the name of an old treatise on hunting; see Reliquiae Antiquae, i. 149. Cf. As You Like It, ii. 7. 97: 'Yet am I inland bred, And know some nurture.'

5. _Thre sones_, three sons. They are here named Johan, Ote, and Gamelyn; Lodge calls them Saladyne, Fernandine, and Rosader; in Shakespeare, they are Oliver, Jaques, and Orlando. The characters of the three are much the same in all three versions of the story.

6. _sone he began_, he soon began, viz. to evince his disposition. [478]

12. _his day_, his term of life, his lifetime. So in Hamlet, v. 1. 315, the 'dog will have his _day_.' Hence _after his day_ is, practically, after his death.

14. 'This appears to mean, that the knight had himself acquired his land, and held it in fee simple (_verrey purchas_), not entailed nor settled; and that, consequently, he had a right to divide it among his children as he pleased. The _housbond_ in this case means a man who was kept at home looking after his domestic business and his estates, and who could not be _wyde-wher_,' i. e. often far from home; note by Mr. Jephson. See ll. 58-61 below, which prove that the knight had partly inherited his land, and partly won it by military service. Cf. Chaucer, Prol. 256, 319. In the Freres Tale (D. 1449) we find:--

'And here I ryde about my _purchasing_,
To wite wher men wolde yeve me any-thing;
My _purchas_ is theffect of al my rente.'

I cannot think that Dr. Morris is right in explaining _purchasing_ by 'prosecution'; see _Purchas_ in the Glossary.

16. _hadde_, might have; the subjunctive mood.

20. _on lyve_, in life; now written _a-live_ or _alive_. _Lyve_ is the dat. case, governed by _on_, which constantly has the sense of 'in' in A.S. and M.E.

23. _ther_, where. The reader should note this common idiom, or he will miss the structure of the sentence. Cf. ll. 33, 52, 66, &c.

31. _ne dismay you nought_, do not dismay yourself; i. e. be not dismayed or dispirited.

32. 'God can bring good out of the evil that is now wrought.' _Boot_, advantage, remedy, or profit, is continually contrasted with _bale_ or evil; the alliteration of the words rendered them suitable for proverbial phrases. One of the commonest is 'When _bale_ is hext, then _boot_ is next,' i. e. when evil is highest (at its height), then the remedy is nighest. This is one of the Proverbs of Hendyng; see Specimens of English, ed. Morris and Skeat, part ii. p. 40. So, in l. 34, _Boote of bale_ means 'remedy of evil,' good out of evil. See note to l. 631.

34. _it is no nay_, there is no denying it, it cannot be denied. So in Chaucer, C. T. 8693, 9015 (E. 817, 1139).

39. _that on, that other_, the one, the other. Sometimes corruptly written _the ton, the tother_; and hence the vulgar English _the tother_.

43. Such was their intention, but it was partly overruled; for we see, from l. 45, that the second son duly received his share.

48. _whan he good cowde_, when he knew what was good, i. e. when he was old enough to know right from wrong; or, as we now say, when he came to years of discretion. Observe that the division of land here proposed was not final; for the good knight, being still alive, altered it; see l. 54.

53. 'Saint Martin was a Hungarian by birth, and served in the army under Constantius and Julian. He is represented in pictures as [479] a Roman knight on horseback, with his sword dividing his cloak into two pieces, one of which he gives to a beggar. He was a strenuous opponent of the Arians, and died at Tours, where his relics were preserved and honoured.'--Jephson. St. Martin's day, commonly called Martinmas, is Nov. 11. The knight swears by St. Martin in his character of soldier. Cf. l. 225.

57. _plowes_, ploughlands; see the Glossary.

62. The knight's intention was, evidently, that Gamelyn's share should be the best. In Lodge's novel, Sir John gives to the eldest 'fourteen ploughlands, with all my manner-houses and my richest plate'; to the second, 'twelve ploughlands'; but to the youngest, says he, 'I give my horse, my armour, and my launce, with sixteene ploughlands; for, if the inwarde thoughts be discovered by outward shadows, Rosader wil exceed you all in bountie and honour.'

64. 'That my bequest may stand,' i. e. remain good.

67. _stoon-stille_, as still as a stone. So Chaucer has 'as stille as stoon'; Clerkes Tale, E. 121. See ll. 263, 423.

76. 'And afterwards he paid for it in his fair skin.' We should now say, his recompense fell upon his own head.

78. _of good wil_, readily, of their own accord. 'They of their own accord feared him as being the strongest.' So also 'of thine own good will,' Shak. Rich. II. iv. 1. 177; 'by her good will,' Venus and Adonis, 479. But the nearest parallel passage is in Octouian Imperator, l. 561, pr. in Weber's Metrical Romances, iii. 180. It is there said of some sailors who were chased by a lioness, that they ran away very hastily 'with good wylle.' Cf. _in wille_, i. e. anxious, in l. 173.

82. To handle his beard, i. e. to feel, by his beard, that he was of full age. Lodge has a parallel passage, but gives a more literal sense to the expression 'hondlen his berd,' which merely signifies that he was growing up. 'With that, casting up his hand, he felt haire on his face, and perceiving his beard to bud, for choler he began to blush, and swore to himselfe he would be no more subject to such slaverie.' Cf. As You Like It, iii. 2. 218, 396.

90. 'Is our meat prepared,' i. e. is our dinner ready? _Our_ perhaps means _my_, being used in a lordly style. See the next note.

92. Observe the use of the familiar _thou_, in place of the usual respectful _ye_. This accounts for the elder brother's astonishment, as expressed in the next line.

100. 'Brother by name, and brother in that only.'

101. _that rape was of rees_, who was hasty in his fit of passion. Mr. Jephson's explanation 'deprived of reason for anger' is incorrect. _Rape_ is hasty; see the Glossary. _Rees_ is the modern E. _race_, A. S. _r[=æ]s_, applied to any sudden course, whether bodily or mental; cf. l. 547. So in Gower, ed. Pauli, i. 335, we find:--

'Do thou no-thinge in suche a _rees_,'

i. e. do nothing in such a sudden fit; referring to Pyramus, who rashly slew himself upon the hasty false assumption that Thisbe was dead. [480]

102. _gadeling_, fellow; a term of reproach. But observe that the sarcasm lies in the similarity of the sound of the word to _Gamelyn_. Hence Gamelyn's indignant reply. In P. Plowman, C. xi. 297, _gadelynges_ are ranked with false folk, deceivers, and liars.

103. 'Thou shall be glad to get mere food and clothing.'

109. _ner_, nigher, the old _comparative_ form; afterwards written _near_, and wrongly extended to _near-er_, with a _double_ comparative suffix. Cf. l. 135, 352.

_a-foote_, on foot; not _a foot_, the length of a foot, as that would have no final e.

115. _schal algate_, must in any case.

116. This is obscure; it may mean 'unless _thou_ art the one (to do it)'; i. e. to give me the beating. In other words, Gamelyn dares his brother to use the rod himself, not to delegate such an office to another. But his brother was much too wary to take such advice; he preferred to depute the business to his men.

121. _over-al_, all about, all round, everywhere.

122. _stood_, i. e. which stood. The omission of the relative is common.

125. _good woon_, good store; plentifully.

129. _for his eye_, for awe of him. _His_ is not the possessive pronoun here, but the genitive of the personal pronoun.

130. _by halves_, lit. by sides; i. e. some to one side, some to the other. _drowe by halves_ = sidled away.

131. 'May ye prosper ill!' Cf. Chaucer, Pard. Tale, C. 947.

136. 'I will teach thee some play with the buckler.' An allusion to the 'sword and buckler play,' described in Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, bk. iii. ch. 6. § 22. Not unlike our modern 'single-stick,' but with the addition of a buckler in the left hand. Strutt gives a picture from a Bodleian MS., dated 1344, in which clubs or bludgeons are substituted for swords; and, no doubt, the swords used in sport were commonly of wood. Gamelyn is speaking jocosely; he had no buckler, but he had a wooden 'pestel,' which did very well for a sword.

137. '_by Saint Richard_ was a favourite oath[30] with the outlaws of Robin Hood's stamp, probably because of his Saxon extraction'; Jephson. Mr. Jephson adds the following quotation from the English Martyrologe, 1608: 'Saint Richard, King and Confessor, was sonne to Lotharius, King of Kent, who, for the love of Christ, taking upon him a long peregrination, went to Rome for devotion to that sea [_see_], and, on his way homeward, died at Lucca, about the year of Christ 750, where his body is kept until this day, with great veneration, in the oratory and chappell of St. Frigidian, and adorned with an epitaph both in verse and prose.' But this is altogether beside the mark; for Mr. Jephson certainly refers to the wrong saint. There were four St. Richards, commemorated, respectively, on Feb. 7, April 3, June 9, and August 21; see Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints. The day of [481] the Saxon king is Feb. 7; but he could hardly have been so fresh in the memory of Englishmen as the more noted St. Richard, bishop of Chichester, who died in 1253, and was canonized in 1262; his day being April 3. There is a special fitness in the allusion to this latter saint, because he was a pattern of _brotherly love_, and Johan is here deprecating Gamelyn's anger. Alban Butler says of him: 'The unfortunate situation of his eldest brother's affairs gave him an occasion of exercising his benevolent disposition. Richard condescended to become his _brother's servant_, undertook the management of his farms, and by his industry and generosity effectually retrieved his brother's before distressed circumstances.' His name still appears in our Prayer-books.

141. _I mot nede_ is used for 'I must needs'; see examples in Mätzner, Alteng. Sprachproben, i. 302 (182). _Mot_ is the present tense; whereas _moste_ (mod. E. _must_) is the past tense, and was once grammatically incorrect as a form of the present tense.

150. _of thing_, of a thing; as in Sir Tristram, 406.

154. 'And mind that thou blame me, unless I soon grant it.'

156. 'If we are to be at one,' i. e. to be reconciled. Cf. l. 166.

158. 'Thou must cause me to possess it, if we are not to quarrel.'

160. We should now say--'All that your father left you, and more too, if you would like to have it.' The offer is meant to be very liberal.

164. 'As he well knew (how to do).'

167. 'In no respect he knew with what sort of a false treason his brother kissed him.' _Whiche_ is cognate with the Latin _qualis_, and has here the same sense.

171. 'There was a wrestling-match proclaimed there, hard by.'

172. 'And, as prizes for it, there were exhibited a ram and a ring.' In Lodge's novel, 'a day of wrastling and tournament' is appointed by Torimond, king of France. In Chaucer's Prologue, A. 548, we find: 'At wrastling he wolde have alwey the ram.' On this Tyrwhitt has the following note: 'This was the usual prize at wrestling-matches. See C. T. l. 13671 [Sir Thopas, st. 5], and Gamelyn, ll. 184, 280. Mathew Paris mentions a wrestling-match at Westminster, A. D. 1222, at which a ram was the prize.' In Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, bk. ii. ch. 2. § 14, two men are represented as wrestling for a live cock. Strutt also quotes a passage from 'A mery Geste of Robin Hode,' which gives an account of a wrestling, at which the following prizes were 'set up' (the same phrase being used as here), viz. a white bull, a courser with saddle and bridle, a pair of gloves, a _red gold ring_, and a pipe of wine!

199. 'Why dost thou thus behave?' i. e. make this lamentation. Cf. As You Like It, i. 2. 133-140.

204. 'Unless God be surety for them,' i. e. ensure their recovery. The story supposes that the two sons are not slain, but greatly disabled; as Shakespeare says, 'there is little hope of life' in them.

206. _with the nones_, on the occasion that, provided that. _For the_ [482] _nones_, for the occasion, stands for _for then ones_, for the once; so here _with the nones_ = _with then ones_, with the once. _Then_ is the dat. case of the article, being a weakened form of A.S. _ð[=a]m_. Cf. l. 456.

207. _wilt thow wel doon_, if thou wishest to do a kind deed.

214. _drede not of_, fear not for.

217. 'How he dared adventure himself, to prove his strength upon him that was so doughty a champion.'

224. _whyl he couthe go_, whilst he was able to go about.

230. _a moche schrewe thou were_, thou wast a great doer of mischief. Gamelyn retorts that he is now _a more_, i. e. a still greater doer of mischief. _Moche_ is often used of size. In Havelok, l. 982, _more than the meste_ = bigger than the biggest.

236. _gonne goon_, did go. _Gonne_ is a mere auxiliary verb.

237. 'The champion tried various sleights upon Gamelyn, who was prepared for them.'

240. _faste aboute_, busily employed, trying your best. Cf. l. 785.

248. Spoken ironically, 'shall it be counted as a throw, or as none?'

249. _whether_, &c., whichever it be accounted.

253. _of him_, &c., he stood in no awe of him. Instead of our modern expression 'he stood in awe of him,' the M.E. expression is, usually, 'he stood awe of him,' suppressing _in_. It probably arose out of the very construction here used, viz. 'awe of him stood to him,' i. e. arose in him. However that may be, the idiom is common. Thus, in Barbour's Bruce, iii. 62:--

'Quhen that the lord of Lorne saw
His men stand off him ane sik awe.'

In Havelok, l. 277:--

'Al Engelond of him stod awe,
Al Engelond was of him adrad.'

So also, 'he stode of him non eye'; Rob. of Brunne, tr. of Langtoft, p. 8, l. 24. So also in Wallace, v. 929, vi. 878.

255. 'Who was not at all well pleased.'

256. 'He is an evil master.' The reading _oure alther mayster_ (in Cp.) means--'he is master of us all.'

257. 'It is full yore ago'; it is very long ago.

262. _wil no-more_, desires no more, has had enough.

270. 'This fair is done.' A proverb, meaning that the things of the fair are sold, and there is no more business to be done.

271. 'As I hope to do well, I have not yet sold up the half of my ware'; i. e. I have more to offer. The wrestler, in spite of his pain, utters the grim joke that Gamelyn sells his ware too dearly.

272. _halvendel_ is for A.S. _healfne d[=æ]l_ or _þone healfan d[=æ]l_, the accusative case. The word _of_ is to be understood after it. See Zupitza's Notes to Guy of Warwick, l. 5916.

273. See note to l. 334.

276. _lakkest_, dispraisest, decriest. In P. Plowman, B. v. 130, we [483] find 'to blame mennes ware'; and, only two lines below, the equivalent phrase 'to lakke his chaffare.'

277. 'By Saint James in Galicia.' In Chaucer's Prologue, the Wife of Bath had been 'in Galice at Seint Jame.' The shrine of St. James, at Compostella in Galicia, was much frequented by pilgrims. See my note to Prol. 466, at p. 44 above. It is remarkable that _the whole of this line_ is quoted from A Poem on the Times of Edw. II., l. 475; see Political Songs, ed. Wright, p. 345. It occurs again below, l. 764.

278. 'Yet it is too cheap, that which thou hast bought.' The franklin tells the defeated wrestler that it is not for him to call Gamelyn's ware dear, for he has, in fact, been let off much too cheaply. Our modern _cheap_ is short for _good cheap_, i. e. bought in good market. _To buy in a good cheap_ was shortened to _to buy good cheap_, and finally became _to buy cheap_.

281. _have_, have, receive, take.

285. _rowte_, company. We are to suppose that a crowd of Gamelyn's admirers accompanied him home. In Lodge's novel, the elder brother 'sawe wher Rosader returned with the garland on his head, as having won the prize, accompanied with a crue of boon companions; greeved at this, he stepped in and shut the gate.'

297. See note to l. 334.

302. _though thou haddest swore_, though thou hadst sworn (the contrary). This curious phrase occurs also in Chaucer, Kn. Tale, A. 1089, where 'althogh we hadde it sworn' is equivalent to 'though we had sworn (the contrary).'

312. 'That desired either to walk or to ride in.' _Go_, when opposed to _ride_, means to go on foot, to walk.

318. _and ye wil doon after me_, if ye will act according to my advice; spoken parenthetically.

321. _oure catour_, caterer for us. _oure aller purs_, the purse of us all. Cf. footnotes to l. 256.

324. _largely_, liberally; the usual old meaning.

328. _no cheste_, no strife, no quarrelling.

334. _so_, &c., 'as I hope to enjoy the use of my eye'; lit. 'as I may use my eye.' This phrase occurs also in Havelok, 2545: 'So mote ich brouke mi rith eie,' as I hope to have the use of my right eye. And again in the same, l. 1743, with the substitution of 'finger or toe' for 'right eye'; and in l. 311, with the substitution of 'mi blake swire,' i. e. my black neck; cf. ll. 273, 297 above. See also ll. 407, 489, 567. Even Chaucer has: 'So mote I brouke wel myn eyen tweye,' as I hope to make good use of my two eyes; Nonne Prestes Tale, 479 (B. 4490).

338. _bitaughte_ is used in two senses; they commended Gamelyn to God's protection, and bade him good day.

345. _mangerye_, feast, lit. an eating. It occurs in P. Plowman, C. xiii. 46; Wyclif, Works, ed. Arnold, i. 4. In Sir Amadace, st. 55, a wedding-feast is called a _maungery_, and lasted 40 days; Early Eng. Metrical Romances, ed. Robson, p. 49. Cf. ll. 434, 464. [484]

349, 350. These lines are anticipatory; they give a brief summary of the next part of the story.

352. _ful neer_, much nearer. See note to l. 109.

366. _Iohan_ was pronounced like modern E. _Jawn_, and rimes with _noon_, pronounced as _nawn_ (with _aw_ as in _awe_). So also in Chaucer, Man of Lawes Tale, B. 1019.

367. 'By my faith'; cf. l. 555. Chaucer has 'by my fey'; Kn. Tale, 268 (A. 1126).

368. 'If thou thinkest the same as thou sayst, may God requite it thee!'

372. _Tho_, when. _threwe_, didst throw; observe the absence of _-st_ in the suffix of the second person of the past tense of strong verbs.

373. _moot_, meeting, assembly, concourse of people; in allusion to the crew of companions whom Gamelyn introduced. Moreover, the word _moot_ was especially used of an assembly of men in council, like our modern _meeting_. But it is, perhaps, simpler to take it in the sense of public disputation, dispute; cf. St. Katherine, l. 1314, and cf. M.E. _motien_, to dispute publicly. Indeed, as the rimes are often imperfect, the original word may have been _mood_, i. e. anger.

376. It was not uncommon, to prevent a person from being forsworn, that the terms of an oath should be literally fulfilled; cf. Merch. Ven. iv. l. 326. In his novel, Lodge avoids all improbability by a much simpler device. He makes the eldest brother surprise the youngest in his sleep. 'On a morning very early he cald up certain of his servants, and went with them to the chamber of Rosader, which being open, he entered with his crue, and surprized his brother when he was asleepe, and bound him with fetters,' &c.

382. Here, as in l. 420, all the MSS. have _honde_. The final _e_ probably represents the dative or _instrumental_ case, and the correct reading is _fote and honde_, as in MSS. Pt. and Ln. in both passages.

386. _wood_, mad. It was common to bind and starve madmen, and to treat them cruelly. Even Malvolio was to be put 'in a dark room and bound'; Tw. Nt. iii. 4. 147. Cf. As You Like It, iii. 2. 421.

392. _a party_ is an adverb, meaning 'partly,' or 'in some measure.' Cf. P. Plowman, B. xv. 17; Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 2334.

394. _or_, ere, before; not 'or.' _be_, been.

398. '_Spence_, or (according to the original French form of the word) _despense_, was the closet or room in convents and large houses where the victuals, wine, and plate were locked up; and the person who had the charge of it was called the _spencer_, or the _despencer_. Hence originated two common family names.'--Wright. The _spence_, however, like the _spencer_, owed its name to the O.F. verb _despendre_, to spend; as explained in my Etym. Dict. s. v. _spend_. See the Glossary. Lodge retains the name of Adam Spencer; whence Adam in Shakespeare.

411. 'Upon such an agreement.'

413. 'All as I may prosper'; as I hope to thrive.

414. After _wil_ supply _lose_; see the footnote. 'I will hold covenant with thee, if thou wilt loose me.' [485]

430. _wher I go_, whether shall I go. _Wher_ is a contracted form of _whether_, like _or_ for _other_. _Girde of_, strike off.

433. _that this_, &c., that this is a thing not to be denied, a sure thing.

438. _hem_, them, i. e. the fetters (understood); cf. l. 498.

441. _borwe the_, be surety for thee, go bail for thee.

444. _do an other_, act in another way, try another course. There is no authority for inserting _thing_ after _other_.

445. Lodge says: 'and at the ende of the hall shall you see stand a couple of good pollaxes, one for you and another for me.'

449. 'If we must in any case absolve them of their sin.' Said jocosely; he was going to absolve them after a good chastisement.

451. St. Charity was the daughter of St. Sophia, who christened her three daughters _Fides_, _Spes_, and _Caritas_; see Butler's Lives of the Saints (Aug. 1). Cf. Percy Folio MS., i. 28; l. 26.

453. Lodge says: 'When I give you a wincke,' &c.

456. _for the nones_, for the occasion; see note to l. 206.

460. _leste and meste_, least and greatest.

461. _halle_, of the hall; A. S. _healle_, gen. case of _heal_, a hall. Here, and in l. 496, we may take _halle-dore_ as a compound word, but _halle_ is still a genitive form.

471. _ther that_, where that; as commonly.

481. 'Who beggeth for thee (to come) out of prison, or who may be surety for thee; but ever may it be well with them that cause thee much sorrow.'

485. 'All that may be surety for thee, may evil befall them'; lit. 'may it befall them evilly.'

489. _so_, &c., 'as I hope to make use of my bones,' lit. bone.

503. 'Gamelyn sprinkles holy water with an oaken sprig.' Said jocosely; Gamelyn flourishes his staff like one who sprinkles holy water. A _spire_ is properly a springing shoot, hence a sprig or sapling. Cf. Troil. ii. 1335. See the Glossary.

509. Mr. Jephson here remarks as follows:--'The hatred of churchmen, of holy water, and of everything connected with the church, observable in all the ballads of this class, is probably owing to the fact, that William the Conqueror and his immediate successors systematically removed the Saxon bishops and abbots, and intruded Normans in their stead into all the valuable preferments in England. But there were also other grounds for the odium in which these foreign prelates were held. Sharing in the duties of the common law judges, they participated in the aversion with which the functionaries of the law were naturally regarded by outlaws and robbers,' &c. He also quotes, from the Lytel Geste of Robin Hood, the following:--

'These bysshopes and these archebysshoppes,
Ye shall them beete and bynde;
The high sheryfe of Notynghame,
Hym holde ye in your mynde.'

[486] It may be added that Lodge entirely omits here all mention of abbot, prior, monk, or canon. Times had changed.

514. 'Pay a liberal allowance,' i. e. deal your blows bountifully.

515. _so ever_, &c., 'as sure as ever I hear mass.' Cf. l. 595.

520. _telle largely_, count fully.

523. _the croune_, i. e. the crown of each man's head; alluding to the tonsure. It means, do not spoil the tonsure on their crowns, but break their legs and arms.

531. _cold reed_, cold counsel, unprofitable counsel. So in Chaucer, Nonne Prestes Tale, B. 4446; see the note. So Shakespeare has '_colder_ tidings'; Rich. III, iv. 4. 536. Cf. l. 759 below.

532. 'It had been better for us.' Cf. l. 621.

533. This is ironical, and refers, as Mr. Jephson rightly says, to the _laying on of hands_, whereby Gamelyn made his victims deacons and priests after a new fashion of his own.

543. _here love_, love of them; _here awe_, awe of them. _Here_ = A.S. _hira_, gen. pl. of _h[=e]_, he. Hence _here_ also means 'their,' as in l. 569.

558. _ther ... inne_, wherein (Gamelyn was).

567. 'As I hope to have the use of my chin.' See note to l. 334.

578. 'I will repay thee for thy words, when I see my opportunity.'

583. _It ben_, they are; lit. it are. A common idiom in Middle English. See P. Plowman, C. vi. 59, ix. 217, xvi. 309; and compare _it am I_, as in Chaucer, Man of Lawes Tale, B. 1109.

588. 'Make their beds in the fen,' i. e. lie down in the fen or mud.

596. Spoken ironically. Adam offers them some refreshment. They reply, that his wine is not good, being too strong; indeed, so strong that it will not only, like ordinary wine, steal away a man's brains, but even take them out of his head altogether, so that they lie scattered in his hood. In other words. Adam's staff breaks their heads, and lets the brains out.

606. 'It is better for us to be there at large.'

609. Lodge says that they 'tooke their way towards the forest of Arden.'

610. 'Then the sheriff found the nest, but no egg (in it).' So also in William of Palerne, l. 83: 'Than fond he nest and no nei[gh] · for nou[gh]t nas ther leued'; i. e. for nothing was left there. _No nei[gh]_ = _non ei[gh]_, no egg.

616. _and loke how he fare_, and let us see how he may fare.

618. Here Adam merely expresses disgust of his new mode of life. In Lodge's novel, he begins to faint, being old. Cf. l. 817.

621. _lever me were_, it would be preferable for me.

631. 'After misery comes help.' So in the Proverbs of Hendyng, as said above, in note to l. 32. Trench, in his book On Proverbs, quotes a Hebrew proverb:--When the tale of bricks is doubled, Moses comes.

642. 'Whoso looked aright,' i. e. if one were to look carefully.

651. i. e. I only curse (or blame) myself if I yield. [487]

652. 'Though ye fetched five more, ye would then be only twelve in number.' He means that he would fight twelve of them.

660. In Lodge's novel, the chief is 'Gerismond the lawfull King of France, banished by Torismond, who with a lustie crue of Outlawes lived in that Forrest.' But the present text evidently refers to an English outlaw, such as Robin Hood.

666. 'I will adventure myself as far as the door.' Spoken proverbially, there being no door in the wood. He means that he will venture within sight of the chief. _hadde mete_, might have food.

689. 'His peace was made'; i. e. his pardon had been obtained.

698. 'And caused his brother to be indicted.'

700. _wolves-heed_, wolf's head. 'This was the ancient Saxon formula of outlawry, and seems to have been literally equivalent to setting the man's head at the same estimate as a wolf's head. In the laws of Edward the Confessor [§ 6], it is said of a person who has fled justice, 'Si postea repertus fuerit et teneri possit, vivus regi reddatur, vel caput ipsius si se defenderit; lupinum enim caput geret a die utlagacionis sue, quod ab Anglis _wluesheued_ nominatur. Et hec sententia communis est de omnibus utlagis.'--Wright. See Thorpe, Ancient Laws, &c., i. 445.

701. _of his men_, i. e. (some) of his men.

703. 'How the wind was turned'; i. e. which way the wind blew, as we now say.

704. 'When a man's lands were seized by force or unjustly, the peasantry on the estates were exposed to be plundered and ill-treated by the followers of the intruder.'--Wright.

707. 'The messengers of ill tidings, however innocent themselves, often experienced all the first anger of the person to whom they carried them, in the ages of feudal power. Hence the bearer of ill news generally began by deprecating the wrath of the person addressed.'--Wright. This was not, however, peculiar to those times. Cf. Sophocles, Antigone, 228; 2 Hen. IV. i. I. 100; Rich. III. iv. 4. 510; Macb. v. 5. 39.

709. 'I. e. has obtained government of the bailiwick. In former times ... the high sheriff was the officer personally responsible for the peace of his bailiwick, which he maintained by calling out the _posse comitatus_ to assist him.'--Jephson.

710. _doth thee crye_, causes thee to be proclaimed.

713. 'Greet well my husbands (i. e. servants) and their wives.' The A.S. _wif_ was a neuter substantive, and remained unchanged in the plural, like _sheep_ and _deer_ in modern English. We find _wif_ as a pl. form also in Layamon, l. 1507. The present is a very late example.

714. 'I will go to (attend) the next assizes; see note to l. 715. If _schire_ refers to the shire or county, the result is much the same. In venturing into the shire of which his brother was sheriff, Gamelyn was boldly putting himself into his brother's power.

715. _nexte schire_, may mean 'next (succeeding) assizes'; for _schire_ [488] may be used in the sense of A. S. _sc[=i]r-gem[=o]t_; and the Lat. _comitatus_ meant _curia_ as well as 'county.' See, for example, the last quotation in the note to l. 871.

718. 'Put down his hood,' lowered his hood, so as to show his face.

724. _leet take Gamelyn_, caused (men) to take Gamelyn; we now say 'caused Gamelyn to be taken,' changing the verb from active to passive. The active use of the verb is universal in such phrases in Middle English, as is still common in German. 'Er liess Gamelyn nehmen.' Cf. l. 733.

727. _Ote_ is not a common name; we find mention of 'Sir Otes de Lile' in Libius Disconius, l. 1103, in the Percy Folio MS., ii. 455. _Otes_ is equivalent to 'Otho'; see Le Livere de Reis de Angletere, ed. Glover, p. 268, l. 6; and p. 272. The form _Otoun_ or _Oton_ is equivalent to Lat. acc. _Othonem_.

732. _wonder sory_, wonderfully sorry. _nothing light_, in no degree light-hearted.

738. 'May evil befall such another brother (as thou art)'; cf. l. 485.

744. 'I offer to bail him,' lit. I bid for him for bail; _mainprise_ being a sb., and _him_ a dative case. Mr. Jephson says--'I demand that he be granted to me on mainprise, or bail, till the assize for general gaol-delivery.'

752. 'Cause (men) to deliver him at once, and to hand him over to me.'

761. _sitte_ means 'may sit'; cf. l. 749.

779. _cors_, curse. He was never cursed by those with whom he had dealings. This can only refer to the poor whom he never oppressed. The author quietly ignores the strong language of the churchmen whom he stripped of everything. This is precisely the tone adopted in the Robin Hood ballads.

782. _nom_, catch, take; a new form of the infinitive mood. It arose from the pt. t. _cam_, by analogy of _comen_ from _cam_. See Mätzner, Alteng. Sprachproben, i. 261, l. 80.

785. _fast aboute_, busily employed. See l. 240.

786. _to hyre the quest_, to suborn the jury. See l. 801.

790. _seet_, should sit. The A.S. for _sat_ is _sæt_, but for _should sit_ (3rd pers. sing. of the pt. t. subj.) is _s[=æ]te_. The latter became the M.E. _seete_; hence _seet_, by loss of the final e. It rimes with _beheet_ (A.S. _beh[=e]t_).

806. _spet_, short for _speedeth_; cf. _stant_ for _standeth_, &c.

834. _of_, in. So in Shakespeare, Jul. Cæsar, ii. 1. 157--'We shall find _of_ him A shrewd contriver.'

840. _the quest is oute_, the verdict is (already) delivered.

852. _the barre_, the bar in front of the justice's seat; see ll. 860, 867.

864. 'It seemed a very long time to him.'

871. _sisours_, jury-men. I copy the following from my note on P. Plowman, B. ii. 62. 'The exact signification of _sisour_ does not seem quite certain, and perhaps it has not always the same meaning. The [489] Low-Latin name was _assissores_ or _assisiarii_, interpreted by Ducange to mean "qui a principe vel a domino feudi delegati _assisias_ tenent"; whence Halliwell's explanation of _sisour_ as a person deputed to hold assizes. Compare--

"Þys fals men, þat beyn _sysours_,
Þat for hate a trew man wyl endyte,
And a þefe for syluer quyte."
Robert of Brunne, Handlyng Synne, 1335.'

Mr. Furnivall's note says--'_Sysour_, an inquest-man at assizes. The _sisour_ was really a juror, though differing greatly in functions and in position from what jurymen subsequently became; see Forsyth's Hist. of Trial by Jury.' In the tale of Gamelyn, however, it is pretty clear that 'the twelve sisours that weren of the quest' were simply the twelve gentlemen of the jury, who were hired to give false judgment (l. 786). Blount, in his Law Dictionary, says of _assisors_, that 'in Scotland (according to Skene) they are the same with our jurors.' The following stanza from A Poem of the Times of Edw. II., ll. 469-474 (printed in Political Songs, ed. Wright, p. 344), throws some light on the text:--

'And thise _assisours_, that comen to shire and to hundred,
Damneth men for silver, and that nis no wonder.
For whan the riche justise wol do wrong for mede,
Thanne thinketh hem thei muwen the bet, for thei han more nede
To winne.
Ac so is al this world ablent, that no man douteth sinne.'

880. 'To swing about with the ropes, and to be dried in the wind.'

881. 'Sorrow may he have who cares for it.' Not an uncommon phrase. In P. Plowman, B. vi. 122, it appears as 'þe deuel haue þat reccheth,' i. e. the devil take him who regrets it.

885. This seems to mean, 'he was hanged by the neck, and not by the purse.' That is, he was really hanged, and not merely made to suffer in his purse by paying a fine; cf. Ch. Prol. 657.

889. _of the best assise_, in the truest manner; cf. l. 544.

900. 'Buried under the earth.'

901. 'No man can escape it.'

* * * * *

[490]

ADDENDA.

NOTE: to vol. i. p. ix. I am informed that it appears, from a charter in the British Museum, that one Galfridus de Chaucere is a witness to a grant of land to Hatfield Broad Oak Priory, co. Essex, about A.D. 1300. This shews that the poet was not the first of his surname to bear the name of Geoffrey.

ROM. ROSE, 923. _Turke bowes_, Turkish bows. The form _Turke_ can hardly be right, as the adjective is required. The original copy probably had 'Turk_is_,' with the _is_ written as a contraction; this would easily be misread as 'Turk_e_,' i. e. as if the contraction stood for e. The French text has _ars turquois_, as the reader can see.

Cotgrave gives: 'Arc turquois, _the Turkish long-bow_.' But the Turkish long-bow was short, as compared with the English. Strutt speaks of his seeing the Turkish ambassador shoot; this was in the year 1800. 'The bow he used was much shorter than those belonging to the English archers; and his arrows were of the bolt kind, with round heads made of wood'; Sports and Pastimes, bk. ii. c. i. § 17. Cf. 'with bowes turkoys,' Percy Folio MS., ed. Hales and Furnivall, ii. 458.

III. (Book of the Duchesse), 1318, 1319. The lines are:--

A LONG CASTEL with walles WHYTE,
By seynt IOHAN! on a RICHE HIL.

There can be no doubt that (as has been suggested by the Bishop of Oxford) these apparently otiose lines contain punning allusions to the whole subject of the poem. LONG-CASTELL (put for _Lon-castell_, or the castle on the Lune) was another name for Lancaster; compare the modern _Lonsdale_ as a name for the valley of the Lune, and see Barbour's Bruce, xvii. 285, 582. WHYTE alludes to Blanche. Thus the former line expresses Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster.

In the second line, the RICHE HIL refers to Richmond in Yorkshire; and the whole line expresses John, Earl of Richmond. John of Gaunt had been created Earl of Richmond (vol. i. p. xviii).

BOETHIUS. For some corrections, see vol. ii. p. lxxix.

TROILUS. For some corrections and additions, see vol. ii. pp. lxxix, lxxx.

For an Additional Note to Bk. iii. 674, see vol. ii. p. 506.

LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN. For an Additional Note to ll. 1896-8, see vol. iii. p. lvi. [491]

VOL. III. pp. 421, 422. SOURCES OF THE PRIORESSES TALE. It is tolerably clear that Chaucer really got the former part of this story from one of the Miracles of our Lady, by Gautier de Coinci or Coincy[31]. And I have now little doubt that he adapted the latter part of it from another story in the same collection (and therefore in the same MS.), by the same author. It so happens that the latter story is printed in Bartsch and Horning's collection in 'La Langue et la Littérature Françaises'; Paris, 1887; col. 367. It is there entitled 'De Clerico Sancte Virgini devoto, in cuius iam mortui ore flos inuentus est.' It is rather a stupid and pointless story, to the following effect. There was a wicked cleric at Chartres, who gave himself up to all kinds of debauchery; but he had one merit. He never passed an image of Our Lady without kneeling down and saying a prayer. Some enemies killed him; and it was at once resolved to bury him in a ditch, as an outcast; and this was done. But Our Lady appeared to one of the chief clergy, and commanded that he should be buried again, in the holiest spot in the cemetery. When the body was recovered, it was found that the tongue of the corpse remained uncorrupted, being as red as a rose, and a miraculous flower was blossoming in his mouth. He was reburied in holy ground, with many tears from the pious. It was also observed that his tongue still slowly moved, _as if_ endeavouring to sing the Virgin's praises.

This is rather a clumsy assumption; for the tongue might have been trying to swear. Hence Chaucer gives it a real voice; and substitutes a small grain in place of the flower; probably because there was a well-known legend about the three grains found by Seth under Adam's tongue (above, p. 180, note to l. 1852). Chaucer's tale is really made up, with great skill, from a combination of these two poems by Gautier de Coinci; and it is highly remarkable that, in the Vernon MS., there is a version of the story which says that _five roses_ were found in the child's head; one _in his mouth_, two in his eyes, and two in his ears. In the Legend of Alphonsus of Lincoln (see vol. iii. p. 421), the child has a precious stone in place of a tongue; but this legend was composed in 1459, and was probably copied from Chaucer. I think it highly probable that Chaucer combined the two 'Miracles' himself; though of course some one else may have done it before him. In any case, it is worth while pointing out that we must combine the two stories by de Coinci, before we obtain the whole of Chaucer's poem.

VOL. III. pp. 502, 503. The statement that the French treatise by Frère Lorens, entitled La Somme des Vices et des Vertus, 'has never been printed,' is incorrect. However, the book is scarce. Mr. Bradley tells me that there is a copy of it in the British Museum, printed by Anthoine Verard 'sus le pont notre dame,' Paris. It is undated, but it is said to have been printed in 1495. [492]

CANTERBURY TALES.

The Canterbury Tales, and especially the Prologue, are so full of allusions and expressions that either require or invite illustrations, that no commentary upon them can be considered exhaustive. Consequently, those points only have, for the most part, been considered where the expressions used are for any reason difficult, obscure, or likely to be misunderstood; for it frequently happens that, by a change in meaning, the modern form or use of a word suggests a wrong impression.

A considerable number of words and phrases which occur in Chaucer have already been explained by me in the Notes to Piers the Plowman. Hence, in many cases, additional illustrations and references can easily be had by consulting the 'Index to the Explanations in the Notes' printed in P. Plowman, vol. iv. pp. 464-491.

The 'Index of Books referred to in the Notes' to the same, vol. iv. pp. 492-502, gives a long list of books, most of which are useful for the illustration of Chaucer also. I add here a few additional notes, taken almost at random, for two of which I am indebted to Professor Earle.

A. 30. Zupitza (Notes to Guy of Warwick, 855, p. 361) further illustrates this line. 'There can be no doubt that the pp. _goon_ is to be supplied.' He quotes 'to reste eode þa sunne,' Layamon, 28328; 'until the son was gon to rest,' Iwaine, 3612, ed. Ritson (Met. Romances, i. 151); also from J. Grimm, Mythology, p. 702, who treats of the M.H.G. phrase _ze reste g[=a]n_.

A. 179. It is shown (vol. v. p. 22) that the simile about the fish out of water occurs in the Life of St. Anthony. Chaucer clearly took it from Jehan de Meung (_or_ Jean de Meun); but the French poet probably took it from the Life of St. Anthony in the Legenda Aurea. We find it even in Caxton's Golden Legende:--'for lyke as fysshes that haue ben longe in the water whan they come in-to drye londe they muste dye, in lyke wyse the monkes that goon out of theyr cloystre or selles, yf they conuerse longe wyth seculiers they must nedes lose theyr holynesse and leue theyr good lyf.'

A. 387. _With the beste_, 'as well as possible,' but originally 'among the best.' So in Zupitza, notes to Guy of Warwick, l. 1496. He quotes Mätzner's Grammatik, II. 2. 434; King Horn, 1326, _knight with the beste_; &c. Cf. _with the furste_, King Horn, 1119.

A. 467. _She coude muche of wandring by the weye_; i. e. she knew much which she had learnt through being so great a traveller.--J. Earle.

I have explained it above, p. 44, by--'She knew much about travelling.' The original will bear either interpretation; all depends upon the meaning of the word _of_. [493]

A. 655. See Freeman, vol. v. p. 497, and his quotation from John of Salisbury, Ep. 146 (Giles, i. 260):--'Erat, ut memini, genus hominum, qui in ecclesia Dei _archidiaconorum_ censentur nomine, quibus vestra discretio omnem salutis viam querebatur esse praeclusam. Nam, ut dicere consuevistis, diligunt munera, sequuntur retributiones, ad injurias proni sunt, calumniis gaudent, peccata populi comedunt et bibunt, quibus vivitur ex rapto, ut non sit hospes ab hospite tutus.'--J. Earle. [From Freeman's Hist. of the Norman Conquest, ed. 1867-79.]

Cf. the Somnours Tale; especially D. 1315, 1317, and the notes.

A. 1155. For _par amour_, see all the instances referred to in the Glossary. The fact that it sometimes means 'with all affection,' or 'affectionately,' is well illustrated by a passage in the Coventry Mysteries, p. 50, where it is put into the mouth of Abraham, when addressing Isaac. 'Thu art my suete childe, and _par amoure_ Ful wele in herte do I the loue.'

A. 1452. _Seven yeer_ is an old proverbial expression for a long time; see _Seven-year_ in Halliwell; P. Plowman, C. vii. 214, xi. 73; Zupitza's notes to Guy of Warwick (l. 8667); &c. The curious thing is that Chaucer understood himself literally: 'It fel that in the seventhe yeer, in May'; A. 1462.