The origin of this Tale was a French Fabliau, like one that was first
pointed out by Mr. T. Wright, and printed in his Anecdota Literaria, p. 15.
Another similar one is printed in Méon's edition of Barbazan's Fabliaux,
iii. 239 (Paris, 1808). Both were reprinted for the Chaucer Society, in
Originals and Analogues, &c., p. 87. See further in vol. iii. p. 397.
3921. _Trumpington._ The modern mill, beside the bridge over the Granta,
between the villages of Trumpington and Grantchester, is familiar to all
Cambridge men; but this mill and bridge are both comparatively modern,
being placed upon an artificial channel. The old 'bridge' is that over the
old river-bed, somewhat nearer Trumpington; the 'brook' is this old course
of the Granta, which is hereabouts very narrow and circuitous; and the mill
stood a quarter of a mile above the bridge, at the spot marked 'Old Mills'
on the ordnance-map, though better known as 'Byron's pool,' which is the
old mill-pool. The fen mentioned in l. 4065 is probably the field between
the Old Mills and the road, which must formerly have been fen-land; though
Lingay Fen may be meant, which covers the space between Bourne Brook
(flowing into the Granta at the Old Mills) and the Cambridge and Bedford
Railway. We like to think that Chaucer saw the spot himself; but he
certainly seems to have thought that Trumpington was somewhat further from
Cambridge than it really is, as he actually makes the clerks to have been
benighted there; and he might easily have learnt some local particulars
from his wife's friend, Lady Blaunche de Trumpington, or from Sir Roger
himself. In any case, it is interesting to find him thus boldly assigning a
known locality to a mill which he had found in a French fabliau.
3927. _Pypen_, play the bag-pipe; see A. 565. The Reeve is clearly trying
to make his description suit the Miller in the company, whom it is his
express object to tease. Hence he says he could _wrestle well_ (cf. A. 548)
and could play the bag-pipe.
_nettes bete_, mend nets; he knew how to net.
3928. _turne coppes_, turn cups, make wooden cups in a turning-lathe; not a
very difficult operation. It is curious that Tyrwhitt gave up trying to
explain this simple phrase. In Riley's Memorials of London, p. 666, we find
that, in 1418, when the English were besieging Rouen, it was enacted that
'the turners should have 4s. for every hundred of 2,500 cups, in all
100s.': so that a wooden cup could be turned at the cost of a halfpenny.
[117]
3929. Printed _pavade_ by Tyrwhitt, _pauade_ by Thynne (ed. 1532), but
_panade_ in Wright. Levins' Manipulus Vocabulorum (1570) has: 'A PAUADE,
_pugio_'; but this is probably copied from Thynne. The exact form is not
found in O. F., but Godefroy's O. F. Dict. gives: '_Penart_, _pennart_,
_penard_, _panart_, _pannart_, coutelas, espèce de grand couteau à deux
tranchants ou taillants, sorte de poignard'; with seven examples, one of
which shows that it could be hung at the belt: 'Un grant _pennart_ qu'il
avoit pendu a sa sainture.' Ducange gives the Low Lat. form _penardus_, and
wrongly connects it with F. _poignard_, from which it is clearly distinct;
but he also gives the form _pennatum_ with the sense of 'pruning-knife,'
and Torriano gives an Ital. _pennato_ with the same sense. Cf. Lat.
_bi-pennis_. It was a two-edged cutlass, worn in addition to his sword; and
see below. It is also printed _pauade_ in Lydgate's Siege of Troy, ed.
1555, fol. N 5, back.
3931. _popper_, thruster, i. e. dagger; from the verb _pop_, to thrust in;
cf. _poke_. _Ioly_ probably means 'neat' or 'small.' This was the Miller's
third weapon of offence, of which he had three sizes, viz. a sword, a
cutlass, and a little dagger like a _misericorde_, used for piercing
between the joints of armour. No wonder that no one durst touch him 'for
peril.' The _poppere_ answers to the _boydekin_ of l. 3960, q.v. And
besides these, he carried a knife. 'Poppe, to stryke'; Cathol. Angl. p.
286.
3933. _thwitel_, knife; from A.S. _thw[=i]tan_, to cut; now ill-spelt
_whittle_. The portraits of Chaucer show a knife hanging from his breast;
accordingly, in Greene's Description of Chaucer, we find this line: 'A
whittle by his belt he bare'; see Greene's Works, ed. Dyce, 1883, p. 320.
Note that Sheffield was already celebrated for its cutlery; so in the Witch
of Edmonton, Act ii. sc. 2, Somerton speaks of 'the new pair of _Sheffield
knives_.'
3934. _camuse_ (Hl. _camois_), low and concave; cf. l. 3974 below. F.
_camus_, 'flat-nosed'; Cotgrave. Ital. _camuso_, 'one with a flat nose';
Florio. See _Camois_ in the New E. Dict., where it is thus explained: 'Of
the nose: low and concave. Of persons: pug-nosed.' To the examples there
given, add the following from Holland's tr. of Pliny, i. 229; 'As for the
male goats, they are held for the best which are most _camoise_ or
snout-nosed.' Hexham's Du. Dict., s. v. _Neuse_, has the curious entry:
'_een Camuys ende opwaerts gaende Neuse_ [lit. a camus and upwards-going
Nose], Camell-nosed.'
3936. _market-beter_, a frequenter of markets, who swaggered about, and was
apt to be quarrelsome and in the way of others. See Wyclif's Works, ed.
Matthew, pp. 511, 520; and cf. F. _battre le pavé_, 'aller et venir sans
but, sans occupation'; Littré. And cf. E. 'policeman's _beat_.' Cotgrave
has: '_Bateur de pavez_, a pavement-beater; ... one that walks much abroad,
and riots it wheresoever he walks.' The following passage from the
Complaint of the Ploughman (in Wright's Polit. Poems, i. 330) makes it
clear-- [118]
'At the wrastling, and at the wake,
And chief chantours at the nale [_ale_];
_Market-beaters_, and medling make,
Hoppen and houten [_hoot_], with heve and hale.'
A synonymous term was _market-dasher_, spelt _market-daschare_ in the
Prompt. Parv.; see Way's note.
_atte fulle_, completely, entirely.
3941. _Simkin_, diminutive of _Simond_, which was his real name (ll. 4022,
4127). Altered to _Sim-e-kin_ by Tyrwhitt, for the scansion; but cf. ll.
3945, 3947, 4034, &c. He makes the same alteration in l. 3959, for a like
reason, but we may scan it: 'But if | he wold | e be | slayn,' &c. All the
MSS. have _Symkyn_, except Hl., which has _Symekyn_ here and in l. 3959. We
must either make the form variable, or else treat the word _de-y-nous_ as a
trisyllable. _Deynous_ was his regular epithet.
3943. This statement, that the parson of the town was her father, has
caused surprise. In Bell's Chaucer, the theory is started that the priest
had been a widower before he took orders, which no one can be expected to
believe; it is too subtle. It is clear that she was an illegitimate
daughter; this is why her father paid money to get her married to a miller,
and why she thought ladies ought to spare her (and not avoid her), because
it was an honour to have a priest for a father, and because she had learnt
so much good-breeding in a nunnery. The case is only too clear; cf. note to
l. 3963.
3953. _tipet_, not here a cape, but the long pendant from the hood at one
time fashionable, which Simkin wound round his head, in order to get it out
of the way. See _Tippett_ in Fairholt's Costume in England; Glossary. Cf.
notes to A. 233, 682.
3954. So also the Wife of Bath had 'gay scarlet _gytes_'; D. 559. Spelt
_gide_ in MS. Ln., and _gyde_ in Blind Harry's _Wallace_, i. 214: 'In-till
a _gyde_ of gudly ganand greyne,' where it is used of a gay dress worn by
Wallace. It occurs also twice in Golagros and Gawain, used of the gay dress
of a woman; see Jamieson. Nares shews that _gite_ is used once by Fairfax,
and thrice by Gascoigne. The sense is usually dubious; it may mean 'robe,'
or, in some places, 'head-dress.' The _g_ was certainly hard, and the word
is of F. origin. Godefroy gives '_guite_, chapeau'; and Roquefort has
'_wite_, voile.' The F. Gloss. appended to Ducange gives the word _witart_
as applied to a man, and _witarde_ as applied to a woman. Cf. O. F.
_wiart_, which Roquefort explains as a woman's veil, whilst Godefroy
explains _guiart_ as a dress or vestment. The form of the word suggests a
Teutonic origin; perhaps from O. H. G. _wît_, wide, ample, which would
explain its use to denote a veil or a robe indifferently. Ducange suggests
a derivation from Lat. _uitta_, which is also possible.
3956. _dame_, lady; see A. 376.