In the Six-text Edition, pref. col. 58, Dr. Furnivall calls attention to
the curious variations in this passage, in the MSS., especially in ll.
289-292, and in 297-300; as well as in ll. 487, 488 in the Pardoneres Tale.
I note these variations below, in their due places.
287. _wood_, mad, frantic, furious; esp. applied to the transient madness
of anger. See Kn. Tale, A. 1301, 1329, 1578; also Mids. Nt. Dr. ii. 1. 192.
Cf. G. _wüthend_, raging.
288. _Harrow!_ also spelt _haro_; a cry of astonishment; see A. 3286, 3825,
B. 4235, &c. '_Haro_, the ancient Norman hue and cry; the exclamation of a
person to procure assistance when his person or property was in danger. To
cry out _haro_ on any one, to denounce his evil doings'; Halliwell. Spenser
has it, F. Q. ii. 6. 43; see _Harrow_ in Nares, and the note above, to A.
3286.
On the oaths used by the Host, see note to l. 651 below.
289. _fals cherl_ is the reading in E. Hn., and is evidently right; see
[265] note to l. 140 above. It is supported by several MSS., among which
are Harl. 7335, Addit. 25718, Addit. 5140, Sloane 1686, Barlow 20, Hatton
1, Camb. Univ. Lib. Dd. 4. 24 and Mm. 2. 5, and Trin. Coll. Cam. R. 3. 3. A
few have _fals clerk_, viz. Sloane 1685, Arch. Seld. B. 14, Rawl. Poet.
149, Bodley 414. Harl. 7333 has _a fals thef, Acursid Iustise_; out of
which numerous MSS. have developed the reading _a cursed theef, a fals
Iustice_, which rolls the two Claudii into one. It is clearly wrong, but
appears in good MSS., viz. in Cp. Pt. Ln. Hl. See vol. iii. pp. 437-8, and
the note to l. 291 below.
290. _shamful._ MSS. Ln. Hl. turn this into _schendful_, i. e. ignominious,
which does not at all alter the sense. It is a matter of small moment, but
I may note that of the twenty-five MSS. examined by Dr. Furnivall, only the
two above-named MSS. adopt this variation.
291, 292. Here MSS. Cp. Ln. Hl., as noted in the footnote, have two totally
different lines; and this curious variation divides the MSS. (at least in
the present passage) into two sets. In the _first_ of these we find E. Hn.
Harl. 7335, Addit. 25718, Addit. 5140, Sloane 1685 and 1686, Barlow 20,
Arch. Seld. B. 14, Rawl. Poet. 149, Hatton 1, Bodley 414, Camb. Dd. 4. 24,
and Mm. 2. 5, Trin. Coll. Cam. R. 3. 3. In the _second_ set we find Cp. Ln.
Hl., Harl. 1758, Royal 18. C. 2, Laud 739, Camb. Ii. 3. 26, Royal 17. D.
15, and Harl. 7333.
There is no doubt as to the correct reading; for the 'false cherl' and
'false justice' were two different persons, and it was only because they
had been inadvertently rolled into one (see note to l. 289) that it became
possible to speak of '_his_ body,' '_his_ bones,' and '_him_.' Hence the
lines are rightly given in the text which I have adopted.
There is a slight difficulty, however, in the rime, which should be noted.
We see that the _t_ in _advocats_ was silent, and that the word was
pronounced (ad·vokaa·s), riming with _allas_ (alaa·s), where the raised dot
denotes the accent. That this was so, is indicated by the following
spellings:--Pt. _aduocas_, and so also in Harl. 7335, Addit. 5140, Bodl.
414; Rawl. Poet. 149 has _advocas_; whilst Sloane 1685, Sloane 1686, and
Camb. Mm. 2. 5 have _aduocase_, and Barlow 20, _advocase_. MS. Trin. Coll.
R. 3. 3 has _aduocasse_. The testimony of ten MSS. may suffice; but it is
worth noting that the F. pl. _aduocas_ occurs in Le Roman de la Rose, 5107.
293. 'Alas! she (Virginia) bought her beauty too dear'; she paid too high a
price; it cost her her life.
297-300. These four lines are genuine; but several MSS., including E. Hn.
Pt., omit the former pair (297-8), whilst several others omit the latter
pair. Ed. 1532 contains both pairs, but alters l. 299.
299. _bothe yiftes_, both (kinds of) gifts; i. e. gifts of fortune, such as
wealth, and of nature, such as beauty. Compare Dr. Johnson's poem on the
Vanity of Human Wishes, imitated from the tenth satire of Juvenal.
303. _is no fors_, it is no matter. _It_ must be supplied, for the sense.
[266] Sometimes Chaucer omits _it is_, and simply writes _no fors_, as in
E. 1092, 2430. We also find _I do no fors_, I care not, D. 1234; and _They
yeve no fors_, they care not, Romaunt of the Rose, 4826. Palsgrave has--'I
gyue no force, I care nat for a thing, _Il ne men chault_.'
306. _Ypocras_ is the usual spelling, in English MSS., of _Hippocrates_;
see Prologue A. 431. So also in the Book of the Duchess, 571, 572:--
'Ne hele me may physicien,
Noght Ypocras, ne Galien.'
In the present passage it does not signify the physician himself, but a
beverage named after him. 'It was composed of wine, with spices and sugar,
strained through a cloth. It is said to have taken its name from
_Hippocrates' sleeve_, the term apothecaries gave to a strainer';
Halliwell's Dict. s. v. _Hippocras_. In the same work, s. v. _Ipocras_, are
several receipts for making it, the simplest being one copied from Arnold's
Chronicle:--'Take a quart of red wyne, an ounce of synamon, and half an
unce of gynger; a quarter of an ounce of greynes, and long peper, and halfe
a pounde of sugar; and brose all this, and than put them in a bage of
wullen clothe, made therefore, with the wyne; and lete it hange over a
vessel, tyll the wyne be rune thorowe.' Halliwell adds that--'Ipocras seems
to have been a great favourite with our ancestors, being served up at every
entertainment, public or private. It generally made a part of the last
course, and was taken immediately after dinner, with wafers or some other
light biscuits'; &c. See Pegge's Form of Cury, p. 161; Babees Book, ed.
Furnivall, pp. 125-128, 267, 378; Skelton, ed. Dyce, ii. 285; and Nares's
Glossary, s. v. _Hippocras_.
_Galianes._ In like manner this word (hitherto unexplained as far as I am
aware) must signify drinks named after Galen, whose name is spelt _Galien_
(in Latin, _Galienus_) not only in Chaucer, but in other authors. See the
quotation above from the Book of the Duchess. Speght guessed the word to
mean 'Galen's works.'
310. _lyk a prelat_, like a dignitary of the church, like a bishop or
abbot. Mr. Jephson, in Bell's edition, suggests that the Doctor was in holy
orders, and that this is why we are told in the Prologue, l. 438, that 'his
studie was but litel on the bible.' I see no reason for this guess, which
is quite unsupported. Chaucer does not say he _is_ a prelate, but that he
is _like_ one; because he had been highly educated, as a member of a
'learned profession' should be.
_Ronyan_ is here of three syllables and rimes with _man_; in l. 320 it is
of two syllables, and rimes with _anon_. It looks as if the Host and
Pardoner were not very clear about the saint's name, only knowing him to
swear by. In Pilkington's Works (Parker Society), we find a mention of 'St.
Tronian's fast,' p. 80; and again, of 'St. Rinian's fast,' p. 551, in a
passage which is a repetition of the former. The forms _Ronyan_ and
_Rinian_ are evidently corruptions of _Ronan_, a saint whose [267] name is
well known to readers of 'St. Ronan's Well.' Of St. Ronan scarcely anything
is known. The fullest account that can easily be found is the following:--
'Ronan, B. and C. Feb. 7.--Beyond the mere mention of his commemoration as
S. Ronan, bishop at Kilmaronen, in Levenax, in the body of the Breviary of
Aberdeen, there is nothing said about this saint.... Camerarius (p. 86)
makes this Ronanus the same as he who is mentioned by Beda (Hist. Ecc. lib.
iii. c. 25). This Ronan died in A. D. 778. The Ulster annals give at [A.
D.] 737 (736)--"Mors Ronain Abbatis Cinngaraid." Ængus places this saint at
the 9th of February,' &c.; Kalendars of Scottish Saints, by Bp. A. P.
Forbes, 1872, p. 441. Kilmaronen is Kilmaronock, in the county and parish
of Dumbarton. There are traces of St. Ronan in about seven place-names in
Scotland, according to the same authority. Under the date of Feb. 7
(February vol. ii. 3 B), the Acta Sanctorum has a few lines about St.
Ronan, who, according to some, flourished under King Malduin, A. D.
664-684; or, according to others, about 603. The notice concludes with the
remark--'Maiorem lucem desideramus.' Beda says that 'Ronan, a Scot by
nation, but instructed in ecclesiastical truth either in France or Italy,'
was mixed up in the controversy which arose about the keeping of Easter,
and was 'a most zealous defender of the true Easter.' This controversy took
place about A. D. 652, which does not agree with the date above.
311. Tyrwhitt thinks that Shakespeare remembered this expression of
Chaucer, when he describes the Host of the Garter as frequently repeating
the phrase 'said I well': Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 3. 11; ii. 1. 226; ii.
3. 93, 99.
_in terme_, in learned terms; cf. Prol. A. 323.
312. _erme_, to grieve. For the explanation of unusual _words_, the
Glossary should, in general, be consulted; the Notes are intended, for the
most part, to explain only phrases and allusions, and to give illustrations
of the _use_ of words. Such illustrations are, moreover, often omitted when
they can easily be found by consulting such a work as Stratmann's Old
English Dictionary. In the present case, for example, Stratmann gives
twelve instances of the use of _earm_ or _arm_ as an adjective, meaning
wretched; four examples of _ermlic_, miserable; seven of _earming_, a
miserable creature; and five of _earmthe_, misery. These twenty-eight
additional examples shew that the word was formerly well understood. We may
further note that a later instance of _ermen_ or _erme_, to grieve, occurs
in Caxton's translation of Reynard the Fox, A. D. 1481; see Arber's
reprint, p. 48, l. 5: 'Thenne departed he fro the kynge so heuyly that many
of them _ermed_,' i. e. then departed he from the king so sorrowfully that
many of them mourned, or were greatly grieved.
313. _cardiacle_, pain about the heart, spasm of the heart; more correctly,
_cardiake_, as the _l_ is excrescent. See _Cardiacle_ and _Cardiac_ in the
New E. Dictionary. In Batman upon Bartholomè, lib. vii. c. 32, [268] we
have a description of 'Heart-quaking and the disease Cardiacle.' We thus
learn that 'there is a double manner of Cardiacle,' called 'Diaforetica'
and 'Tremens.' Of the latter, 'sometime _melancholy is the cause_'; and the
remedies are various 'confortatives.' This is why the host wanted some
'triacle' or some ale, or something to cheer him up.
314. The Host's form of oath is amusingly ignorant; he is confusing the two
oaths 'by corpus Domini' and 'by Christes bones,' and evidently regards
_corpus_ as a genitive case. Tyrwhitt alters the phrase to 'By corpus
domini,' which wholly spoils the humour of it.
_triacle_, a restorative remedy; see Man of Lawes Tale, B. 479.
315. _moyste_, new. The word retains the sense of the Lat. _musteus_ and
_mustus_. In Group H. 60, we find _moysty ale_ spoken of as differing from
_old ale_. But the most peculiar use of the word is in the Prologue, A.
457, where the Wyf of Bath's shoes are described as being _moyste and
newe_.
_corny_, strong of the corn or malt; cf. l. 456. Skelton calls it 'newe ale
in cornys'; Magnificence, 782; or 'in cornes,' Elynour Rummyng, 378.
Baret's Alvearie, s. v. _Ale_, has: 'new ale in cornes, ceruisia cum
recrementis.' It would seem that ale was thought the better for having
dregs of malt in it.
318. _bel amy_, good friend; a common form of address in old French. We
also find _biaus douz amis_, sweet good friend; as in--
'Charlot, Charlot, _biaus doux amis_';
Rutebuef; La Disputoison de Charlot et du Barbier, l. 57.
_Belamy_ occurs in an Early Eng. Life of St. Cecilia, MS. Ashmole 43, l.
161; and six other examples are given in the New Eng. Dictionary. Similar
forms are _beau filtz_, dear son, Piers Plowman, B. vii. 162; _beau pere_,
good father; _beau sire_, good sir. Cf. _beldame_.
321. _ale-stake_, inn-sign. Speght interprets this by 'may-pole.' He was
probably thinking of the _ale-pole_, such as was sometimes set up before an
inn as a sign; see the picture of one in Larwood and Hotten's History of
Signboards, Plate II. But the _ale-stakes_ of the fourteenth century were
differently placed; instead of being perpendicular, they projected
horizontally from the inn, just like the bar which supports a painted sign
at the present day. At the end of the ale-stake a large garland was
commonly suspended, as mentioned by Chaucer himself (Prol. 667), or
sometimes a bunch of ivy, box, or evergreen, called a 'bush'; whence the
proverb 'good wine needs no _bush_,' i. e. nothing to indicate where it is
sold; see Hist. Signboards, pp. 2, 4, 6, 233. The clearest information
about ale-stakes is obtained from a notice of them in the Liber Albus, ed.
Riley, where an ordinance of the time of Richard II. is printed, the
translation of which runs as follows: 'Also, it was ordained that whereas
the _ale-stakes_, projecting in front of the taverns in Chepe and elsewhere
in the said city, extend too far over the king's highways, to the impeding
of riders and others, and, by reason of their excessive weight, to the
great deterioration of the houses to which they [269] are fixed,... it was
ordained,... that no one in future should have a stake _bearing either his
sign or leaves_ [i. e. a bush] extending or lying over the king's highway,
_of greater length than 7 feet at most_,' &c. And, at p. 292 of the same
work, note 2, Mr. Riley rightly defines an _ale-stake_ to be 'the pole
projecting from the house, and supporting a bunch of leaves.'
The word _ale-stake_ occurs in Chatterton's poem of Ælla, stanza 30, where
it is used in a manner which shews that the supposed 'Rowley' did not know
what it was like. See my note on this; Essay on the Rowley Poems, p. xix;
and cf. note to A. 667.
322. _of a cake_; we should now say, a bit of bread; the modern sense of
'cake' is a little misleading. The old cakes were mostly made of dough,
whence the proverb 'my cake is dough,' i. e. is not properly baked; Taming
of the Shrew, v. 1. 145. Shakespeare also speaks of 'cakes and ale,' Tw.
Nt. ii. 3. 124. The picture of the 'Simnel Cakes' in Chambers' Book of
Days, i. 336, illustrates Chaucer's use of the word in the Prologue, l.
668.
324. The Pardoner was so ready to tell some 'mirth or japes' that the more
decent folks in the company try to repress him. It is a curious comment on
the popular estimate of his character. He has, moreover, to refresh
himself, and to think awhile before he can recollect 'some honest (i. e.
decent) thing.'