669. As to the character of the Pardoner, see further in the Pardoner's
Prologue, C. 329-462; P. Plowman, B. prol. 68-82; Heywood's Interlude of
the _Four Ps_, which includes a shameless plagiarism from Chaucer's
Pardoner's Prologue; and Sir David Lyndesay's Satire of the Three Estaits,
l. 2037. Cf. note to C. 349. See also the Essay on Chaucer's Pardoner and
the Pope's Pardoners, by Dr. J. Jusserand, in the Essays on Chaucer
(Chaucer Society), p. 423; and the Chapter on [55] Pardoners in Jusserand's
English Wayfaring Life. Jusserand shews that Chaucer has not in the least
exaggerated; for exaggeration was not possible.
670. _Of Rouncival._ Of course the Pardoner was an Englishman, so that he
could hardly belong to Roncevaux, in Navarre. The reference is clearly to
the hospital of the Blessed Mary of Rouncyvalle, in the parish of St.
Martin in the Fields, at Charing (London), mentioned in Dugdale's
Monasticon, ii. 443. Stow gives its date of foundation as the 15th year of
Edward IV., but this was only a revival of it, after it had been suppressed
by Henry V. It was a 'cell' to the Priory of Roncevaux in Navarre. See
Todd's Illustrations of Gower, p. 263: and _Rouncival_ in Nares. Cf. note
to l. 172.
672. _Com hider, love, to me._ 'This, I suppose, was the beginning or the
burthen of some known song.'--Tyrwhitt. It is quoted again in l. 763 of the
poem called 'The Pearl,' in the form--'Come hyder to me, my lemman swete.'
_hider_, hither.
The rime of _tó me_ with _Róme_ should be particularly noted, as it enables
even the reader who is least skilled in English phonology to perceive that
_Ro-me_ was really dissyllabic, and that the final _e_ in such words was
really pronounced. Similarly, in Octouian Imperator, ed. Weber, l. 1887, we
find _seint Ja-mè_, riming with _frá me_ (from me). Perhaps the most
amusing example of editorial incompetence is seen in the frequent
occurrence of the mysterious word _byme_ in Pauli's edition of Gower; as,
e.g. in bk. iii. vol. i. p. 370:--
'So woll I nought, that any time
Be lost, of that thou hast do _byme_.'
Of course, _by me_ should have been printed as two words, riming with
_ti-mè_. This is what happens when grammatical facts are ignored. _Time_ is
dissyllabic, because it represents the A. S. _t[=i]ma_, which is never
reduced to a monosyllable in A. S.
673. _bar ... a stif burdoun_, sang the bass. See A. 4165, and N. and Q. 4
S. vi. 117, 255. Cf. Fr. _bourdon_, the name of a deep organ-stop.
675, 676. _wex_, wax. _heng_, hung. _stryke of flex_, hank of flax.