9. _Ever in oon_, continually, constantly, always in the same way; cf.
Cant. Tales, E 602, 677, F 417.
11. _Me awreke._ 'The _e_ of _me_ is elided'; Ten Brink. He compares also
Cant. Ta. Prol. 148; (the correct reading of which is, probably--
'But sorë weep sche if oon of hem were deed';
the _e_ of _sche_ being slurred over before _i_ in _if_). He also refers to
the Prioresses Tale (B 1660), where _thalighte_ = _thee alighte_; and to
the Second Nonnes Tale (G 32), where _do me endyte_ is to be read as _do
mendyte_. Cf. note to A B C, l. 8.
14. The notion of Pity being '_buried in_ a heart' is awkward, and
introduces an element of confusion. If Pity could have been buried _out of_
the heart, and thus _separated_ from it, the whole would have been a great
deal clearer. This caution is worth paying heed to; for it will really be
found, further on, that the language becomes confused in consequence of
this very thing. In the very next line, for example, the hearse of Pity
appears, and in l. 19 the corpse of Pity; in fact, Pity is never fairly
buried out of sight throughout the poem.
15. _Herse_, hearse; cf. l. 36 below. It should be remembered that the old
_herse_ was a very different thing from the modern _hearse_. What Chaucer
refers to is what we should now call 'a lying in state'; with especial
reference to the array of lighted torches which illuminated the bier. See
the whole of Way's note in Prompt. Parvulorum, pp. 236, 237, part of which
is quoted in my Etym. Dict., s. v. _hearse_. The word _hearse_ (F. _herce_)
originally denoted a harrow; next, a frame with spikes for holding lights
in a church service; thirdly, a frame for lights at a funeral pageant or
'lying in state'; fourthly, the funeral pageant itself; fifthly, a frame on
which a body was laid, and so on. 'Chaucer,' says Way, 'appears to use the
term _herse_ to denote the decorated bier, or funeral pageant, and not
exclusively the illumination, which was a part thereof; and, towards the
sixteenth century, it had such a general signification alone.' In ll.
36-42, Chaucer describes a company of persons who stood round about the
hearse. Cf. Brand's Popular Antiquities, ed. Ellis, ii. 236-7; Eng. Gilds,
ed. Toulmin Smith, p. 176.
'The _hearse_ was usually a four-square frame of timber, which was hung
with black cloth, and garnished with flags and scutcheons and lights';
Strutt, Manners and Customs of the English, iii. 159. See the whole
passage, which describes the funeral of Henry VII.
16. In most MSS., _Deed_ stands alone in the first foot. In which case,
scan--Deed | as stoon | whyl that | the swogh | me laste. Cf. A B C, l.
176, and the note. However, two MSS. insert _a_, as in the text.
27. Cf. _Deth of Blaunche_, l. 587--'This is my peyne withoute reed'; Ten
Brink. See p. 297.
33. Ten Brink reads _ay_ for _ever_, on the ground that _ever_ and _never_,
when followed by a consonant, are dissyllabic in Chaucer. But see Book of
the Duchesse, l. 73 (p. 279).
34. _Hadde_, dissyllabic; it occasionally is so; mostly when it is used by
itself, as here. Cf. Book of the Duch. l. 951 (p. 309).
37. 'Without displaying any sorrow.' He now practically identifies Pity
with the fair one in whose heart it was said (in l. 14) to be buried. This
fair one was attended by Bounty, Beauty, and all the rest; they are called
a _folk_ in l. 48.
41. Insert _and_ after _Estaat_ or _Estat_, for this word has no final _-e_
in Chaucer; see Prol. A 522; Squi. Tale, F 26; &c.