23. Gestiours: tellers of stories; reciters of brave feats or
“gests.”
24. Arion: the celebrated Greek bard and citharist, who, in the
seventh century before Christ, lived at the court of Periander,
tyrant of Corinth. The story of his preservation by the dolphin,
when the covetous sailors forced him to leap into the sea, is
well known.
25. Chiron the Centaur was renowned for skill in music and the
arts, which he owed to the teaching of Apollo and Artemis. He
became in turn the instructor of Peleus, Achilles, and other
descendants of Aeacus; hence he is called “Aeacides” — because
tutor to the Aeacides, and thus, so to speak, of that “family.”
26. Glasgerion is the subject of a ballad given in “Percy’s
Reliques,” where we are told that
“Glasgerion was a king’s own son,
And a harper he was good;
He harped in the king’s chamber,
Where cup and candle stood.”
27. Cornemuse: bagpipe; French, “cornemuse.” Shawmies:
shalms or psalteries; an instrument resembling a harp.
28. Dulcet: a kind of pipe, probably corresponding with the
“dulcimer;” the idea of sweet — French, “doux;” Latin, “dulcis”
— is at the root of both words.
29. In the early printed editions of Chaucer, the two names are
“Citherus” and “Proserus;” in the manuscript which Mr Bell
followed (No. 16 in the Fairfax collection) they are “Atileris”
and “Pseustis.” But neither alternative gives more than the
slightest clue to identification. “Citherus” has been retained in
the text; it may have been employed as an appellative of Apollo,
derived from “cithara,” the instrument on which he played; and
it is not easy to suggest a better substitute for it than “Clonas” -
- an early Greek poet and musician who flourished six hundred
years before Christ. For “Proserus,” however, has been
substituted “Pronomus,” the name of a celebrated Grecian
player on the pipe, who taught Alcibiades the flute, and who
therefore, although Theban by birth, might naturally be said by
the poet to be “of Athens.”
30. Marsyas: The Phrygian, who, having found the flute of
Athena, which played of itself most exquisite music, challenged
Apollo to a contest, the victor in which was to do with the
vanquished as he pleased. Marsyas was beaten, and Apollo
flayed him alive.
31. The German (Deutsche) language, in Chaucer’s time, had
not undergone that marked literary division into German and
Dutch which was largely accomplished through the influence of
the works of Luther and the other Reformers. Even now, the
flute is the favourite musical instrument of the Fatherland; and
the devotion of the Germans to poetry and music has been
celebrated since the days of Tacitus.
32. Reyes: a kind of dance, or song to be accompanied with
dancing.