993. _obséquies_ (Elles., &c.); _exéquies_ (Harl.); accented on the
_second_ syllable.
1004. _as him leste_, as it pleased him.
1005. _tas_, heap, collection. Some MSS. read _cas_ (_caas_), which might =
downfall, ruin, Lat. _casus_; but, as _c_ and _t_ are constantly confused,
this reading is really due to a mere blunder. Gower speaks of gathering 'a
_tasse_' of sticks; Conf. Amant. bk. v. ed. Pauli, ii. 293. Palsgrave
has--'On a heape, _en vng tas_'; p. 840. Hexham's Dutch Dict. (1658)
has--'_een Tas_, a Shock, a Pile, or a Heape.' Chaucer found the word in Le
Roman de la Rose, 14870: 'ung _tas_ de paille,' a heap of straw.
1006. _harneys._ 'And _arma_ be not taken onely for the instruments of al
maner of crafts, but also for _harneys_ and weapon; also standards and
banners, and sometimes battels.'--Bossewell's Armorie, p. 1, ed. 1597. Cf.
l. 1613.
1010. _Thurgh-girt_, pierced through. This line is taken from Troilus, iv.
627: 'Thourgh-girt with many a wyd and blody wounde.'
1011. _liggyng by and by_, lying near together, as in A. 4143; the usual
old sense being 'in succession,' or 'in order'; see examples in the New
Eng. Dict., p. 1233, col. 3. In later English, _by and by_ signifies
presently, immediately, as 'the end is not _by and by_.'
1012. _in oon armes_, in one (kind of) arms or armour, shewing that they
belonged to the same house. Chaucer adapts ancient history to medieval time
throughout his works.
1015. _Nat fully quike_, not wholly alive.
1016. _by hir cote-armures_, by their coat-armour, by the devices on the
vest worn above the armour covering the breast. The _cote-armure_, as
explained in my note to Barbour's Bruce, xiii. 183, was 'of no use as a
defence, being made of a flimsy material; but was worn over the true armour
of defence, and charged with armorial bearings'; see Ho. Fame, 1326. Cf. l.
1012. _by hir gere_, by their _gear_, i. e. equipments.
1018. _they._ Tyrwhitt (who relied too much on the black-letter editions)
reads _tho_, those; but the seven best MSS. have _they_.
1023. _Tathenes_, to Athens (Harl. MS., which reads _for to_ for _to_). Cf.
_tallegge_, l. 3000 (foot-note).
1024. _he nolde no raunsoun_, he would accept of no ransom.
1029. _Terme of his lyf_, the remainder of his life. Cf. 'The end and
_term_ of natural philosophy.'--Bacon's Advancement of Learning, Bk. ii. p.
129, ed. Aldis Wright.
1035. Cf. Leg. of Good Women, 2425, 2426.
1038. _stroof hir hewe_, strove her hue; i. e. her complexion contested the
superiority with the rose's colour. [65]
1039. _I noot_, I know not; _noot_ = _ne woot_.
1047. _May._ 'Against Maie, every parishe, towne, and village, assembled
themselves together, bothe men, women, and children, olde and yonge, even
all indifferently, and either going all together or devidyng themselves
into companies, they goe, some to the woodes and groves, some to the hills
and mountaines, some to one place, some to another, where they spend all
the night in pastimes; in the morninge they return, bringing with them
birche, bowes and branches of trees, to deck their assemblies
withalle.'--Stubbes, Anatomy of Abuses, ed. 1585, leaf 94 (ed. Furnivall,
p. 149). See also Strutt, Manners and Customs, iii. 177. Cf. Midsummer
Night's Dream, i. 1, 167:--
'To do observance to a morn of May.'
See also l. 1500, and the note.
1049. _Hir yelow heer was broyded_, her yellow hair was braided. Yellow
hair was esteemed a beauty; see Seven Sages, 477, ed. Weber; King
Alisaunder, 207; and the instances in Burton, Anat. of Melancholy, pt. 3.
sec. 2. mem. 2. subsec. 2. Boccaccio has here--'Co' biondi crini avvolti
alla sua testa'; Tes. iii. 10.
1051. _the sonne upriste_, the sun's uprising; the _-e_ in _sonne_
represents the old genitive inflexion. _Upriste_ is here the dat. of the
sb. _uprist_. It occurs also in Gower, Conf. Amantis, bk. i. ed. Pauli, i.
116.
1052. _as hir liste_, as it pleased her.
1053. _party_, partly; Fr. _en partie_.
1054. _sotil gerland_, a subtle garland; _subtle_ has here the exact force
of the Lat. _subtilis_, finely woven.
1055. Cf. 'Con angelica voce'; Tes. iii. 10: and Troil. ii. 826.
1060. _evene-Ioynant_, joining, or adjoining.
1061. _Ther as this Emelye hadde hir pleyinge_, i. e. where she was amusing
herself.
1063. In the Teseide (iii. 11) it is Arcite who first sees Emily.
1074. _by aventure or cas_, by adventure or hap.
1076. _sparre_, a square wooden bolt; the bars, which were of iron, were as
thick as they must have been if wooden. See l. 990.
1078. _bleynte_, the past tense of _blenche_ or _blenke_ (to blench), to
start, draw back suddenly. Cf. _dreynte_, pt. t. of _drenchen_. 'Tutto
stordito, Gridò, Omè!' Tes. iii. 17.
1087. _Som wikke aspect._ Cf. 'wykked planete, as Saturne or Mars,'
Astrolabe, ii. 4. 22; notes in Wright's edition, ll. 2453, 2457; and Piers
the Plowman, B. vi. 327; and see Leg. of Good Women, 2590-7. Add to these
the description of Saturn: 'Significat in _quartanis_, _lepra_, _scabie_,
in mania, _carcere_, _submersione_, &c. Est infortuna.'--Johannis
Hispalensis, Isagoge in Astrologiam, cap. xv. See A. 1328, 2469.
1089. _al-though_, &c., although we had sworn to the contrary. Cf. 'And can
nought flee, _if I had it sworn_'; Lydgate, Dance of Machabre (The
Sergeaunt). Also--'he may himselfe not sustene Upon his feet, _though he
had it sworne_'; Lydgate, Siege of Thebes (The Sphinx), pt. i. [66]
'_Thofe_ the rede knyghte _had sworne_,
Out of his sadille is he borne.'
Sir Percevalle, l. 61.
1091. _the short and pleyn_, the brief and manifest statement of the case.
Pronounce _this is_ as _this_; as frequently elsewhere; see l. 1743, E. 56,
F. 889.
1100. Cf. 'That cause is of my torment and my sorwe': Troil. v. 654.
1101. Cf. 'But whether goddesse or womman, y-wis, She be, I noot'; Troil.
i. 425.
_wher_, a very common form for _whether_.
1105. _Yow_ (used reflexively), yourself.
1106. _wrecche_, wretched, is a word of two syllables, like _wikke_,
wicked, where the _d_ is a later and unnecessary addition.
1108. _shapen_, shaped, determined. '_Shapes_ our ends.'--Shakespeare,
Hamlet, v. 2. 10. Cf. l. 1225.