1. It is not clear whence Chaucer derived this tale. Tyrwhitt
thinks it was taken from the story of Florent, in the first book of
Gower’s “Confessio Amantis;” or perhaps from an older
narrative from which Gower himself borrowed. Chaucer has
condensed and otherwise improved the fable, especially by
laying the scene, not in Sicily, but at the court of our own King
Arthur.
2. Limitours: begging friars. See note 18 to the prologue to the
Tales.
3. Thorpes: villages. Compare German, “Dorf,”; Dutch,
“Dorp.”
4. Undermeles: evening-tides, afternoons; “undern” signifies the
evening; and “mele,” corresponds to the German “Mal” or
“Mahl,” time.
5. Incubus: an evil spirit supposed to do violence to women; a
nightmare.
6. Where he had been hawking after waterfowl. Froissart says
that any one engaged in this sport “alloit en riviere.”