2235. See Chaucer's own explanation of the method of propagation of a
sound, in the Hous of Fame, 782-821. He seems to have taken it from
Boethius, De Musica, i. 14; see vol. iii. p. 260.
2238. _my cherl_, i. e. my serf; as being his dependant. It probably
implies vassalage.
2244. Cf. A. 100. Although the squire was not above winning 'a new gown,'
he was probably a young man of (future) equal rank with the lord of the
manor. In fact, his scornful boldness proves it. [341]
2247. _goune-cloth._ 'In the middle ages, the most common rewards, and even
those given by the feudal landholders to their dependants and retainers,
were articles of apparel, especially the gown or outward robe.... Money was
comparatively very scarce in the middle ages; and as the household
retainers were lodged and fed, clothing was almost the only article they
wanted.'--Wright.
2259. 'The regular number of monks or friars in a convent had been fixed at
twelve, with [i. e. besides] their superior; in imitation, it is said, of
the number of twelve apostles and their divine master. The larger religious
houses were considered as consisting of a certain number of convents. Thus
Thorn, speaking of the abbot of St. Augustine's at Canterbury, says:--Anno
Domini m.c.xlvi, iste Hugo reparavit antiquum numerum monachorum istius
monasterii, et erant lx. monachi professi praeter abbatem, hoc est,
_quinque_ conuentus in universo.--_Decem Scriptores_, col. 1807.'--Wright.
That is, this house consisted of sixty-one members, the abbot and five
convents of twelve each. The smaller (single) convents were also called
_cells_, and the principal, the _prior_; see A. 172, and note that, in A.
167, the Monk is said, not to be an abbot, but to be _fit_ to be an abbot.
The expression '_his_ covent,' in l. 2261, shews that the friar confessor
was the prior or head of his cell.
2279. 'Yif a frere be a _maister_, or a riche frere in-mong hise bretheren,
he shal be loutid and worshipid more then Cristis lawe techith,' &c.;
Wyclif's Works, ed. Matthew, p. 306.
2281. This implies that the squire, with the rest, had heard the friar
preach in church that morning, and had been greatly bored by the sermon.
2289. I supply the word _as_, which is plainly wanted. MS. Hl. supplies
_elles_, but I believe _as_ to be right. The way in which the second _as_
came to be dropped in this line, is very curious. It arose from
misunderstanding the spelling of Ptolemy.
The occurrence of an unpronounceable _P_ at the beginning of _Ptolomee_
made the scribes think something must be _omitted_. Hence several of them
introduced a stroke through the _p_, which stood as an abbreviation for
'ro,' and this turned it into _Protholomee_, which looked right, but made
the second _as_ superfluous. Thus MSS. Cp. Hl. both have 'p_ro_tholome,'
with the mark of abbreviation; in MSS. E. Hn. Dd. it is expanded into
'Protholomee' at length. We again find the scribes in the same difficulty
in D. 324. A still stranger spelling is _plotolomee_, for which see vol.
iii. p. 359, l. 18. Cf. the note on Ptolemy in the same volume, at p. 354.
* * * * *
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