1. Bob-up-and-down: Mr Wright supposes this to be the village of
Harbledown, near Canterbury, which is situated on a hill, and near
which there are many ups and downs in the road. Like Boughton,
where the Canon and his Yeoman overtook the pilgrims, it stood on
the skirts of the Kentish forest of Blean or Blee.
2. Dun is in the mire: a proverbial saying. “Dun” is a name for an
ass, derived from his colour.
3. The mention of the Cook here, with no hint that he had already
told a story, confirms the indication given by the imperfect
condition of his Tale, that Chaucer intended to suppress the Tale
altogether, and make him tell a story in some other place.
4. The quintain; called “fan” or “vane,” because it turned round like
a weather-cock.
5. Referring to the classification of wine, according to its effects on
a man, given in the old “Calendrier des Bergiers,” The man of
choleric temperament has “wine of lion;” the sanguine, “wine of
ape;” the phlegmatic, “wine of sheep;” the melancholic, “wine of
sow.” There is a Rabbinical tradition that, when Noah was planting
vines, Satan slaughtered beside them the four animals named; hence
the effect of wine in making those who drink it display in turn the
characteristics of all the four.
6. The pose: a defluxion or rheum which stops the nose and
obstructs the voice.
7. Bring thee to his lure: A phrase in hawking — to recall a hawk to
the fist; the meaning here is, that the Cook may one day bring the
Manciple to account, or pay him off, for the rebuke of his
drunkenness.