2105. 'The pavements were made of encaustic tiles, and therefore must have
been rather expensive.'--Wright. See my note to Pierce the Ploughman's
Crede, l. 194; and Our English Home, p. 20.
2107. 'For the sake of Him who harried hell'; see note to A. 3512; p. 107.
2116. _Elie_, Elias, Elijah. _Elisee_, Eliseus, Elisha. There was great
strife among the four orders of friars as to the priority of their order.
The Carmelites, who took their name from mount Carmel (see 1 Kings, xviii.
19, 20), actually pretended that their order was founded by the prophet
Elijah when he retired to mount Carmel to escape the wrath of Ahab; and by
this unsurpassable fiction secured to themselves the credit of priority to
the rest. It is therefore clear that the friar of Chaucer's story was a
_Carmelite_, as _no other_ friar would have alluded to this story. See
Wyclif's Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 353; Pierce the Ploughman's Crede, 382.
2119. _for seinte charitee_; a common expression. It occurs in the Tale of
Gamelin, 513; with which Chaucer was familiar. Cf. B. 4510.
2126. _your brother._ This alludes to the _letters of fraternity_, which
friars were accustomed to grant, under the conventual seal, to such laymen
as had given them benefactions or were likely to leave them money in their
wills. The benefactors received in return a brotherly participation in such
spiritual benefits as the friars could confer. Thus, in Jack Upland, §§ 28,
29, we find:--'Why be ye [friars] so hardie to grant, by letters of
fraternitie, to men and women, that they shall haue part and merite of all
your good deeds, and ye weten neuer whether God be apayed with your deeds
because of your sin?... What betokeneth that yee haue ordeined that, whan
such one as ye haue made your brother or sister, and hath a letter of your
seale, that letter mought be brought in your holy chapter, and there be
rad, [340] or els yee will not pray for him?' See Wyclif's Works, ed.
Arnold, iii. 377, 420; ed. Matthew, p. 4. Such lay brethren were usually
dressed for burial in a friar's habit; see Milton, P. L. iii. 479; Rock,
Church of our Fathers, i. 487. A benefactor could even thus belong to _all_
the orders of friars at once; cf. P. Plowman, C. x. 343 (B. vii. 192). This
gives point to the question in l. 1955 above.
2156. _His meynee_, i. e. the menials of the sick man.
2159. His companion was in the nearest inn; see l. 1779.
2162. _court_, the house of the lord of the manor. 'The larger
country-houses consisted generally of an enclosed court, from which
circumstance this name was usually given to the manorial residence, and it
has been preserved to modern times, as a common term for gentlemen's
seats.'--Wright. Cf. P. Plowman, C. xxiii. 344. It was also called a
_place_; see note to B. 1910; p. 184.
2164. 'Of ech sich privat seete, by licence of the pope, ben maad, some
_chapeleyns of houshold_, summe chapeleyns of honour,' &c.; Wyclif's Works,
ed. Arnold, iii. 511. 'Frere, what charity is this, to be confessors of
lords and ladies,' &c.; Jack Upland, § 37. And see Wyclif's Works, ed.
Matthew, p. 333; P. Plowman, B. v. 136-142, xx. 341-345.
2185. _maister._ The hypocrite here declines to be called 'master,' though
he had allowed the good wife to call him so twice without reproof; see ll.
1800, 1836; and cf. l. 1781. At the same time, he declares that he had
gained the title of Master in the schools. As he was the prior or principal
of his convent (see ll. 2260, 2265, 2276) he may have been 'capped,' or
have received the degree of Master of Divinity. 'Also capped freris, that
ben calde maystres of dyvynite, have her chaumber and servise as lordis or
kynges.... And what cursidenesse in this ... to gete hym a cappe of
maysterdome, by preyer of lordis and grete giftis,' &c.; Wyclif's Works,
ed. Arnold, iii. 376. An LL.D. of Edinburgh is 'capped,' or has a doctor's
cap momentarily laid upon his head, when he receives his degree; as I know
by experience.
See also Pierce the Ploughman's Crede, ll. 498, 574.
2187. See Matt. xxiii. 7, 8.
2196. See Matt. v. 13.
2205. 'How does it seem to me?' Read _think'th_.
2209. 'I consider him to be in a kind of frenzy'; cf. 2240, 2292.