3972. The host alludes to the concluding lines of the Monkes Tale, l. 3956,
then repeats the words _no remedie_ from l. 3183, and cites the word
_biwaille_ from l. 3952. Compare all these passages.
3982. _Piers._ We must suppose that the host had by this time learnt the
monk's name. In B. 3120 above, he did not know it.
3984. 'Were it not for the ringing of your bells'; lit. were there not a
clinking of your bells (all the while). 'Anciently no person seems to have
been gallantly equipped on horseback, unless the horse's bridle or some
other part of the furniture was stuck full of small bells. Vincent of
Beauvais, who wrote about 1264, censures this piece of pride in the
knights-templars; Hist. Spec. lib. xxx. c. 85'; &c.--Warton, Hist. Eng.
Poetry (ed. Hazlitt), ii. 160; i. 264. See also note to Prol. A. 170.
3990. 'Ubi auditus non est, non effundas sermonem'; Ecclus. xxxii. 6.
(Vulgate); the A. V. is different. See above, B. 2237. The common proverb,
'Keep your breath to cool your broth,' nearly expresses what Chaucer here
intends.
3993. _substance_ is explained by Tyrwhitt to mean 'the material part of a
thing.' Chaucer's meaning seems not very different from Shakespeare's in
Love's La. Lost, v. 2. 871--
'A jest's prosperity lies in the ear
Of him that hears it; never in the tongue
Of him that makes it.'
[248]
3995. 'For the propriety of this remark, see note to Prol. A. 166';
Tyrwhitt.
4000. _Sir_; 'The title of _Sir_ was usually given, by courtesy, to
priests, both secular and regular'; Tyrwhitt. Tyrwhitt also remarks that,
'in the principal modern languages, John, or its equivalent, is a name of
contempt or at least of slight. So the Italians use _Gianni_, from whence
_Zani_ [Eng. _zany_]; the Spaniards _Juan_, as _Bobo Juan_, a foolish John;
the French _Jean_, with various additions.' The reason (which Tyrwhitt
failed to see) is simply that _John_ is one of the commonest of common
names. For example, twenty-three popes took that name; and cf. our phrase
_John_ Bull, which answers to the French _Jean_ Crapaud, and the Russian
_Ivan_ Ivanovitch, 'the embodiment of the peculiarities of the Russian
people'; Wheeler's Noted Names of Fiction. Ivan Ivanovitch would be John
Johnson in English and Evan Evans in Welsh. Hence _sir John_ became the
usual contemptuous name for a priest; see abundant examples in the Index to
the Parker Society's publications.
4004. _serve_ has two syllables; hence _rek_, in the Harl. MS., is perhaps
better than _rekke_ of the other MSS. _A bene_, the value of a bean; in the
Milleres Tale _a kers_ (i. e. a blade of grass) occurs in a similar manner
(A. 3756); which has been corrupted into 'not caring a _curse_'!
4006. _Ye_, yea, is a mild form of assent; _yis_ is a stronger form,
generally followed, as here, by some form of asseveration. See note to B.
1900 above.
4008. _attamed_, commenced, begun. The Lat. _attaminare_ and Low Lat.
_intaminare_ are equivalent to _contaminare_, to contaminate, soil, spoil.
From Low Lat. _intaminare_ comes F. _entamer_, to cut into, attack, enter
upon, begin. From _attaminare_ comes the M. E. _attame_ or _atame_, with a
similar sense. The metaphor is taken from the notion of cutting into a
joint of meat or of broaching or opening a cask. This is well shewn by the
use of the word in P. Plowman, B. xvii. 68, where it is said of the Good
Samaritan in the parable that he 'breyde to his boteles, and bothe he
_atamede_,' i. e. he went hastily to his bottles, and broached or opened
them both. So here, the priest broached, opened, or began his tale.