In the black-letter editions, this Tale is called 'The ryme of Sir Thopas,'
a title copied by Tyrwhitt, but not found in the seven best MSS. This word
is now almost universally misspelt _rhyme_, owing to confusion with the
Greek _rhythm_; but this misspelling is _never_ found in old MSS. or in
early printed books, nor has any example yet been found earlier than the
reign of Elizabeth. The old spelling _rime_ is confirmed by the A. S.
_r[=i]m_, Icel. _rím_, Dan. _rim_, Swed. _rim_, Germ. _reim_, Dutch _rijm_,
Old Fr. _rime_, &c. Confusion with _rime_, hoarfrost, is impossible, as the
context always decides which is meant; but it is worth notice that it is
the latter word which has the better title to an _h_, as the A. S. word for
hoarfrost is _hr[=i]m_. Tyrwhitt, in his edition of Chaucer, attempted two
reforms in spelling, viz. _rime_ for _rhyme_, and _coud_ for _could_. Both
are most rational, but probably unattainable.
_Thopas._ In the Supplement to Ducange we find--'_Thopasius_, pro Topasius,
Acta S. Wencesl. tom. 7. Sept. p. 806, col. 1.' The Lat. _topazius_ is our
_topaz_. The whole poem is a burlesque (see vol. iii. p. 423), and _Sir
Topaz_ is an excellent title for such a gem of a knight. The name _Topyas_
occurs in Richard Coer de Lion, ed. Weber, ii. 11, as that of a sister of
King Richard I; but no such name is known to history.
The metre is that commonly used before and in Chaucer's time by long-winded
ballad-makers. Examples of it occur in the Romances of Sir Percevall, Sir
Isumbras, Sir Eglamour, and Sir Degrevant (in the Thornton Romances, ed.
Halliwell), and in several romances in the Percy Folio MS. (ed. Hales and
Furnivall), such as Libius Disconius, Sir Triamour, Sir Eglamour, Guy and
Colbrande, The Grene Knight, &c.; see also Amis and Amiloun, and Sir Amadas
in Weber's Metrical Romances; and Lybeaus Disconus, The King of Tars, Le
Bone Florence, Emare, The Erle of Tolous, and Horn Childe in Ritson's
collection. To point out Chaucer's sly imitations of phrases, &c. would be
a long task; the reader would gain the best idea of his manner by reading
any one of these old ballads. To give a few illustrations is all that can
be attempted here; I refer the reader to Prof. Kölbing's elaborate article
in the Englische Studien, xi. 495, for further information; also to the
dissertation by C. J. Bennewitz mentioned in vol. iii. [184] p. 424. It is
remarkable that we find in Weber a ballad called 'The Hunting of the Hare,'
which is a pure burlesque, like Chaucer's, but a little broader in tone and
more obviously comic.
1902. _Listeth, lordes_, hearken, sirs. This is the usual style of
beginning. For example, Sir Bevis begins--
'_Lordynges, lystenyth_, grete and smale';
and Sir Degaré begins--
'_Lystenyth, lordynges_, gente and fre,
Y wylle yow telle of syr Degaré.'
Warton well remarks--'This address to the lordings, requesting their
silence and attention, is a manifest indication that these ancient pieces
were originally sung to the harp, or recited before grand assemblies, upon
solemn occasions'; Obs. on F. Queene, p. 248.
1904. _solas_, mirth. See Prol. l. 798. 'This word is often used in
describing the festivities of elder days. "She and her ladyes called for
their minstrells, and _solaced_ themselves with the disports of dauncing";
Leland, Collectanea, v. 352. So in the Romance of Ywaine and Gawin:--
"Full grete and gay was the assemble
Of lordes and ladies of that cuntre,
And als of knyghtes war and wyse,
And damisels of mykel pryse;
Ilkane with other made grete gamen
And grete _solace_, &c."' (l. 19, ed. Ritson).
Todd's Illust. of Chaucer, p. 378.
1905. _gent_, gentle, gallant. Often applied to ladies, in the sense of
pretty. The first stanzas in Sir Isumbras and Sir Eglamour are much in the
same strain as this stanza.
1910. _Popering._ 'Poppering, or Poppeling, was the name of a parish in the
Marches of Calais. Our famous antiquary Leland was once rector of it. See
Tanner, Bib. Brit. in v. _Leland_.'--Tyrwhitt. Here _Calais_ means the
district, not the town. _Poperinge_ has a population of about 10,500, and
is situate about 26 miles S. by W. from Ostend, in the province of Belgium
called West Flanders, very near the French 'marches,' or border. Ypres (see
A. 448) is close beside it. _place_, the mansion or chief house in the
town. Dr. Pegge, in his Kentish Glossary, (Eng. Dial. Soc.), has--'_Place_,
that is, the manor-house. Hearne, in his pref. to Antiq. of Glastonbury, p.
xv, speaks of a _manour-place_.' He refers also to Strype's Annals, cap.
xv.
1915. _payndemayn._ 'The very finest and the _whitest_ [kind of bread] that
was known, was _simnel-bread_, which ... was as commonly known under the
name of _pain-demayn_ (afterwards corrupted into [_painmain_ or] _payman_);
a word which has given considerable trouble to Tyrwhitt and other
commentators on Chaucer, but which means no [185] more than "bread of our
Lord," from the figure of our Saviour, or the Virgin Mary, impressed upon
each round flat loaf, as is still the usage in Belgium with respect to
certain rich cakes much admired there'; Chambers, Book of Days, i. 119. The
Liber Albus (ed. Riley, p. 305) speaks of '_demesne_ bread, known as
_demeine_,' which Mr. Riley annotates by--'_Panis Dominicus_. Simnels made
of the very finest flour were thus called, from an impression upon them of
the effigy of our Saviour.' Tyrwhitt refers to the poem of the Freiris of
Berwick, in the Maitland MS., in which occur the expressions _breid of
mane_ and _mane breid_. It occurs also in Sir Degrevant (Thornton Romances,
p. 235):--
'_Paynemayn_ prevayly Sche brou[gh]th fram the pantry,' &c.
It is mentioned as a delicacy by Gower, Conf. Amantis, bk. vi. (ed. Pauli,
iii. 22).
1917. _rode_, complexion. _scarlet in grayn_, i. e. scarlet dyed in grain,
or of a fast colour. Properly, to dye _in_ grain meant to dye _with_ grain,
i. e. with cochineal. In fact, Chaucer uses the phrase '_with greyn_' in
the epilogue to the Nonne Prestes Tale; B. 4649. See the long note in
Marsh's Lectures on the English Language, ed. Smith, pp. 54-62, and the
additional note on p. 64. Cf. Shak. Tw. Nt. i. 5. 255.
1920. _saffroun_; i. e. of a yellow colour. Cf. Bottom's description of
beards--'I will discharge it in either your straw-colour beard, your
orange-tawney beard, your purple-in-grain beard, or your
French-crown-colour beard, _your perfect yellow_'; Mids. Nt. Dr. i. 2. In
Lybeaus Disconus (ed. Ritson, Met. Rom. ii. 6, or ed. Kaluza, l. 139) a
dwarf's beard is described as 'yelow as ony wax.'
1924. _ciclatoun_, a costly material. From the O. Fr. _ciclaton_, the name
of a costly cloth. [It was early confused with the Latin _cyclas_, which
Ducange explains by 'vestis species, et panni genus.' The word _cyclas_
occurs in Juvenal (Sat. vi. 259), and is explained to mean a robe worn most
often by women, and adorned with a border of gold or purple; see also
Propertius, iv. 7. 40.] _Ciclatoun_, however, is of Eastern origin, as was
well suggested in the following note by Col. Yule in his edition of Marco
Polo, i. 249:--
'The term _suklát_ is applied in the Punjab trade-returns to _broadcloth_.
Does not this point to the real nature of the _siclatoun_ of the Middle
Ages? It is, indeed, often spoken of as used for banners, which implies
that it was not a heavy woollen. But it was also a material for ladies'
robes, for quilts, leggings, housings, pavilions. Michel does not decide
what it was, only that it was generally _red_ and wrought with gold. Dozy
renders it "silk stuff brocaded with gold," but this seems conjectural. Dr.
Rock says it was a thin glossy silken stuff, often with a woof of gold
thread, and seems to derive it from the Arabic _sakl_, "polishing" (a
sword), which is improbable.' Compare the following examples, shewing its
use for tents, banners, &c.:-- [186]
'Off silk, cendale, and _syclatoun_
Was the emperours pavyloun';...
'Kyng Richard took the pavylouns
Off sendels and off _sykelatouns_';
Rich. Coer de Lion (Weber, ii. 90 and 201).
'There was mony gonfanoun
Of gold, sendel, and _siclatoun_';
Kyng Alisaunder (Weber, i. 85).
Richardson's Pers. and Arab. Dict. (ed. Johnson, 1829), p. 837, gives:
'Pers. _saqlat[=u]n_, scarlet cloth (whence Arab. _siql[=a]t_, a fine
painted or figured cloth)'; and the derivation is probably (as given in the
New E. Dict.) from the very Pers. word which has given us the word
_scarlet_; so that it was originally named from its colour. It was
afterwards applied to various kinds of costly materials, which were
sometimes embroidered with gold. See _Ciclaton_ in Godefroy, and in the New
E. Dict.; and _Scarlet_ in my Etym. Dictionary.
The matter has been much confused by a mistaken notion of Spenser's. Not
observing that Sir Thopas is here described in his robes of _peace_, not in
those of _war_ (as in a later stanza), he followed Thynne's spelling, viz.
_chekelatoun_, and imagined this to mean 'that kind of guilded leather with
which they [the Irish] use to embroder theyr Irish jackes'; View of the
State of Ireland, in Globe edition, p. 639, col. 2. And this notion he
carried out still more boldly in the lines--
'But in a jacket, quilted richly rare
Upon _cheklaton_, he was straungely dight';
F. Q. vi. 7. 43.
1925. _Jane_, a small coin. The word is known to be a corruption of
_Genoa_, which is spelt _Jeane_ in Hall's Chronicles, fol. xxiv. So too we
find _Janueys_ and _Januayes_ for _Genoese_. See Bardsley's English
Surnames, s. v. _Janeway_. Stow, in his Survey of London, ed. 1599, p. 97,
says that some foreigners lived in Minchin Lane, who had come from _Genoa_,
and were commonly called galley-men, who landed wines, &c. from the galleys
at a place called 'galley-key' in Thames Street. 'They had a certaine coyne
of silver amongst themselves, which were half-pence of Genoa, and were
called _galley half-pence_. These half-pence were forbidden in the 13th
year of Henry IV, and again by parliament in the 3rd of Henry V, by the
name of _half-pence of Genoa_.... Notwithstanding, in my youth, I have seen
them passe currant,' &c. Chaucer uses the word again in the Clerkes Tale
(E. 999), and Spenser adopted it from Chaucer; F. Q. iii. 7. 58. Mr. Wright
observes that 'the _siclaton_ was a rich cloth or silk brought from the
East, and is therefore appropriately mentioned as bought with Genoese
coin.'
1927. _for rivéer_, towards the river. This appears to be the best reading,
and we must take _for_ in close connexion with _ryde_; perhaps it [187] is
a mere imitation of the French _en riviere_. It alludes to the common
practice of seeking the river-side, because the best sport, in hawking, was
with herons and waterfowl. Tyrwhitt quotes from Froissart, v. 1. c.
140--'Le Comte de Flandres estoit tousjours _en riviere_--un jour advint
qu'il alla voller _en la riviere_--et getta son fauconnier un faucon _apres
le heron_.' And again, in c. 210, he says that Edward III 'alloit, chacun
jour, ou _en chace_ on _en riviere_,' &c. So we read of Sir Eglamour:--
'Sir Eglamore took the way
to the riuèr ffull right';
Percy Folio MS. ii. 347.
Of Ipomydon's education we learn that his tutor taught him to sing, to
read, to serve in hall, to carve the meat, and
'Bothe of howndis and haukis game
Aftir he taught hym, all and same,
In se, in feld, and eke _in ryuere_,
In wodde _to chase the wild dere_,
And in the feld to ryde a stede,
That all men had joy of his dede.'
Weber's Met. Romances, ii. 283.
See also the Squire of Low Degree, in Ritson, vol. iii. p. 177.
1931. _ram_, the usual prize at a wrestling match. Cf. Gk. [Greek:
tragôidia].
_stonde_, i. e. be placed in the sight of the competitors; be seen. Cf.
Prol. A. 548, and the Tale of Gamelyn, 172. Tyrwhitt says--'Matthew Paris
mentions a wrestling-match at Westminster, A.D. 1222, in which a ram was
the prize, p. 265.' Cf. also--
'At wresteling, and at ston-castynge
He wan the prys without lesynge,' &c.;
Octouian Imperator, in Weber's Met. Rom. iii. 194.
1933. _paramour_, longingly; a common expression; see the Glossary.
1937. _hepe_, mod. E. 'hip,' the fruit of the dog-rose; A. S. _h[=e]ope_.
1938. Compare--'So hyt be-felle upon a day'; Erle of Tolous, Ritson's Met.
Rom. iii. 134. Of course it is a common phrase in these romances.
1941. _worth_, lit. became; _worth upon_ = became upon, got upon. It is a
common phrase; compare--
'Ipomydon sterte vp that tyde;
Anon he _worthyd vppon_ his stede';
Weber, Met. Rom. ii. 334.
1942. _launcegay_, a sort of lance. Gower has the word, Conf. Amant. bk.
viii. (ed. Pauli, iii. 369). Cowel says its use was prohibited by the
statute of 7 Rich. II, cap. 13. Camden mentions it in his Remaines, p. 209.
Tyrwhitt quotes, from Rot. Parl. 29 Hen. VI, n. 8, the following--'And the
said Evan then and there with a _launcegaye_ smote the said William Tresham
throughe the body a foote and more, wherof he died.' Sir Walter Raleigh
(quoted by Richardson) [188] says--'These carried a kind of _lance de gay_,
sharp at both ends, which they held in the midst of the staff.' But this is
certainly a corrupt form. It is no doubt a corruption of _lancezagay_, from
the Spanish _azagaya_, a word of Moorish origin. Cotgrave gives--'_Zagaye_,
a fashion of slender, long, and long-headed pike, used by the Moorish
horsemen.' It seems originally to have been rather a short weapon, a kind
of half-pike or dart. The Spanish word is well discussed in Dozy, Glossaire
des mots Espagnols et Portugais dérivés de l'Arabe, 2nd ed. p. 225. The
Spanish _azagaya_ is for _az-zagaya_, where _az_ is for the definite
article _al_, and _zagaya_ is a Berber or Algerian word, not given in the
Arabic dictionaries. It is found in Old Spanish of the fourteenth century.
Dozy quotes from a writer who explains it as a Moorish half-pike, and also
gives the following passage from Laugier de Tassy, Hist. du royaume
d'Alger, p. 58--'Leurs armes sont _l'azagaye_, qui est une espéce de _lance
courte_, qu'ils portent toujours à la main.' The Caffre word _assagai_, in
the sense of javelin, was simply borrowed from the Portuguese _azagaia_.
1949. _a sory care_, a grievous misfortune. Chaucer does not say what this
was, but a passage in Amis and Amiloun (ed. Weber, ii. 410) makes it
probable that Sir Thopas nearly killed his horse, which would have been
grievous indeed; see l. 1965 below. The passage I allude to is as
follows:--
'So long he priked, withouten abod,
The stede that he on rode,
In a fer cuntray,
Was ouercomen and fel doun ded;
Tho couthe he no better red [_counsel_];
His song was "waileway!"'