1. Tyrwhitt points out that “the Bull” should be read here, not
“the Ram,” which would place the time of the pilgrimage in the
end of March; whereas, in the Prologue to the Man of Law’s
Tale, the date is given as the “eight and twenty day of April,
that is messenger to May.”
2. Dante, in the “Vita Nuova,” distinguishes three classes of
pilgrims: palmieri - palmers who go beyond sea to the East,
and often bring back staves of palm-wood; peregrini, who go
the shrine of St Jago in Galicia; Romei, who go to Rome. Sir
Walter Scott, however, says that palmers were in the habit of
passing from shrine to shrine, living on charity — pilgrims on the
other hand, made the journey to any shrine only once,
immediately returning to their ordinary avocations. Chaucer
uses “palmer” of all pilgrims.
3. “Hallows” survives, in the meaning here given, in All Hallows
— All-Saints — day. “Couth,” past participle of “conne” to
know, exists in “uncouth.”
4. The Tabard — the sign of the inn — was a sleeveless coat,
worn by heralds. The name of the inn was, some three
centuries after Chaucer, changed to the Talbot.
5. In y-fall,” “y” is a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon “ge”
prefixed to participles of verbs. It is used by Chaucer merely to
help the metre In German, “y-fall,” or y-falle,” would be
“gefallen”, “y-run,” or “y-ronne”, would be “geronnen.”
6. Alisandre: Alexandria, in Egypt, captured by Pierre de
Lusignan, king of Cyprus, in 1365 but abandoned immediately
afterwards. Thirteen years before, the same Prince had taken
Satalie, the ancient Attalia, in Anatolia, and in 1367 he won
Layas, in Armenia, both places named just below.
7. The knight had been placed at the head of the table, above
knights of all nations, in Prussia, whither warriors from all
countries were wont to repair, to aid the Teutonic Order in their
continual conflicts with their heathen neighbours in “Lettowe”
or Lithuania (German. “Litthauen”), Russia, &c.
8. Algesiras was taken from the Moorish king of Grenada, in
1344: the Earls of Derby and Salisbury took part in the siege.
Belmarie is supposed to have been a Moorish state in Africa;
but “Palmyrie” has been suggested as the correct reading. The
Great Sea, or the Greek sea, is the Eastern Mediterranean.
Tramissene, or Tremessen, is enumerated by Froissart among
the Moorish kingdoms in Africa. Palatie, or Palathia, in
Anatolia, was a fief held by the Christian knights after the
Turkish conquests — the holders paying tribute to the infidel.
Our knight had fought with one of those lords against a heathen
neighbour.
9. Ilke: same; compare the Scottish phrase “of that ilk,” —
that is, of the estate which bears the same name as its owner’s
title.
10. It was the custom for squires of the highest degree to carve
at their fathers’ tables.