1276. _auctoritees_; a direct reference to l. 1208 above. This goes far to
show that the Friar's Tale was written immediately after the Wife's Tale.
The Friar says, quite truly, that the Wife's Tale contains passages not
unlike 'school-matter,' or disquisitions in the schools. Such a passage is
that in ll. 1109-1212. Tyrwhitt shews that _auctoritas_ was the usual word
applied to a text of scripture; Bell adds, that it was applied, as now, to
_any_ authority for a statement. We might very well translate _auctoritees_
by 'quotations.' [323]
1284. _mandements_, 'citations, or summonses, addressed to those accused of
breaches of the canons, to appear and answer in the archdeacon's court';
Bell. Hence the name _somnour_, i. e. a server of summonses.
1285. _tounes ende_ (whence the name _Townsend_); we should now say, 'at
the entry to every town'; cf. l. 1537. The Somnour was often opposed with
violence, and was a very unpopular character.
1294. The limiters had to cultivate the art of flattery, because they lived
by begging from house to house.
*** After this line all the MSS. (except Hl.) wrongly insert lines 1307,
1308 (on p. 359). Perhaps the poet himself introduced these lines here at
first, and afterwards perceived how much better they came in after l. 1306.
It is not an important matter.
1296. MS. Hl. has:--'Our host answerd and sayd the sompnour this'; which
cannot be right.