For some account of the source of this Tale, see vol. iii. p. 439. The
account which I here quote as the 'Italian' text is that contained in
Novella lxxxii of the Libro di Novelle.
Observe also the quotations from Pope Innocent given in vol. iii. pp. 444,
445. To which may be added, that Chaucer here frequently quotes from his
Persones Tale, which must have been written previously. Compare ll. 475,
482, 504, 529, 558, 590, 631-650, with I. 591, 836, 819, 820, 822, 793,
587-593.
463. In laying the scene in Flanders, Chaucer probably followed an original
which is now lost. Andrew Borde, in his amusing Introduction of Knowledge,
ch. viii, says:--'Flaunders is a plentyfull countre of fyshe & fleshe &
wyld fowle. Ther shal a man be clenly serued at his table, & well ordred
and vsed for meate & drynke & lodgyng. The countre is playn, & somwhat
sandy. The people be gentyl, but the men be great drynkers; and many of the
women be vertuous and wel dysposyd.' He describes the Fleming as saying--
'I am a Fleming, what for all that,
Although I wyll be dronken other whyles as a rat?
"Buttermouth Flemyng" men doth me call,' &c.
464. _haunteden_, followed after; cf. note to l. 547. The same expression
occurs in The Tale of Beryn, a spurious (but not ill-told) addition to the
Canterbury Tales:--
'_Foly, I haunted it ever_, ther myght no man me let'; l. 2319.
473. _grisly_, terrible, enough to make one shudder. It is exactly the
right word. The mention of these oaths reminds us of the admission of my
Uncle Toby in Sterne's Tristram Shandy, ch. xi, that 'our armies swore
terribly _in Flanders_.'
474. _to-tere_, tear in pieces, dismember. Cf. _to-rente_ in B. 3215; see
note on p. 229. Chaucer elsewhere says--'For Cristes sake ne swereth nat so
sinfully, in _dismembringe_ of Crist, by soule, herte, bones, and body; for
certes it semeth, that ye thinke that the cursede Iewes ne dismembred nat
ynough the preciouse persone of Crist, but ye dismembre him more'; Persones
Tale (_De Ira_), I. 591. And see ll. 629-659 below.
'And than Seint Johan seid--"These [who are thus tormented in [276] hell]
ben thei that sweren bi Goddes membris, as bi his nayles and other his
membris, and thei thus dismembrid God in horrible swerynge bi his limmes"';
Vision of Wm. Staunton (A. D. 1409), quoted in Wright's St. Patrick's
Purgatory, p. 146. In the Plowman's Tale (Chaucer, ed. 1561, fol. xci) we
have--
'And Cristes membres al to-tere
On roode as he were newe yrent.'