873. _purchace_, provide, make provision. So in Troilus, bk. ii. 1125, the
line 'And of som goodly answere you purchace' means--and provide yourself
with some kind answer, i. e. be ready with a kind reply.
875-84. Much abridged from the French text.
885. _tormented_, tortured. However, the French text says the messenger
acknowledged his drunkenness freely. Examination by torture was so common,
that Chaucer seems to have regarded the mention of it as being the most
simple way of telling the story.
893. _out of drede_, without doubt, certainly; cf. l. 869. The other
equally common expression _out of doute_ comes to much the same thing,
because _doute_ in Middle-English has in general the meaning of _fear_ or
_dread_, not of hesitation. See Group E. 634, 1155; and Prol. A. 487.
894. _pleinly rede_, fully read, read at length. In fact, Chaucer
judiciously omits the details of the French text, where we read that King
Ælla rushed into his mother's room with a drawn sword as she lay asleep,
roused her by crying 'traitress!' in a loud voice, and, after hearing the
full confession which she made in the extremity of her terror, slew her and
cut her to pieces as she lay in bed.
901. _fleteth_, floats. French text--'le quinte an de cest exil, come ele
_flotaunt_ sur le mere,' &c. Cf. _fleet_ in l. 463.
905. The name of the castle is certainly not given in the French text,
which merely says it was 'vn chastel dun Admiral de paens,' i. e. a castle
of an admiral of the Pagans.