1. “The introduction,” says Tyrwhitt, “of the Canon’s
Yeoman to tell a Tale at a time when so many of the original
characters remain to be called upon, appears a little
extraordinary. It should seem that some sudden resentment
had determined Chaucer to interrupt the regular course of his
work, in order to insert a satire against the alchemists. That
their pretended science was much cultivated about this time,
and produced its usual evils, may fairly be inferred from the
Act, which was passed soon after, 5 H. IV. c. iv., to make it
felony ‘to multiply gold or silver, or to use the art of
multiplication.’” Tyrwhitt finds in the prologue some colour
for the hypothesis that this Tale was intended by Chaucer to
begin the return journey from Canterbury; but against this
must be set the fact that the Yeoman himself expressly speaks
of the distance to Canterbury yet to be ridden.
2. Fully five mile: From some place which the loss of the
Second Nun’s Prologue does not enable us to identify.
3. Peytrel: the breast-plate of a horse’s harness; French,
“poitrail.”
4. A maile twyfold: a double valise; a wallet hanging across
the crupper on either side of the horse.
5. Multiply: transmute metals, in the attempt to multiply gold
and silver by alchemy.
6. “Conscius ipse sibi de se putat omnia dici” (“The
conspirator believes that everything spoken refers to himself”)
— “De Moribus,” I. i. dist. 17.