20. _Tabard_. Of this word Speght gives the following account in his
Glossary to Chaucer:--'Tabard--a jaquet or sleveless coate, worne in times
past by noblemen in the warres, but now only by heraults (heralds), and is
called theyre "coate of armes in servise." It is the signe of an inne in
Southwarke by London, within the which was the lodging of the Abbot of Hyde
by Winchester. This is the hostelry where _Chaucer_ and the other pilgrims
mett together, and, with Henry Baily their hoste, accorded about the manner
of their journey to Canterbury. And whereas through time it hath bin much
decayed, it is now by Master _J. Preston_, with the Abbot's house thereto
adgoyned, newly repaired, and with convenient rooms much encreased, for the
receipt of many guests.' The inn is well described in Saunders (on
Chaucer), p. 13. See also Stow, Survey of London (ed. Thoms, p. 154);
Nares' Glossary, s. v. _Tabard_; Dyce's Skelton, ii. 283; Furnivall's
Temporary Preface to Chaucer, p. 18.
The tabard, however, was _not_ sleeveless, though the sleeves, at first,
were very short. See the plate in Boutell's Heraldry, ed. Aveling, p. 69;
cf. note to P. Plowman, C. vii. 203.
_lay_; used like the modern 'lodged,' or 'was stopping.'
23. _come_ (kum'), short for _comen_, pp. of _comen_. _hostelrye_, a
lodging, inn, house, residence. _Hostler_ properly signifies the keeper of
an inn, and not, as now, the servant of an inn who looks after the horses.