58. _flemed wrecche_, banished exile. The proper sense of A. S. _wræcca_ is
an exile, a stranger; and thence, a miserable being. The phrase 'fleming of
wrecches,' i. e. banishment of the miserable, occurs in Chaucer's Troilus,
iii. 933. And see note to l. 36 above.
Lounsbury (Studies, ii. 389) compares this line with l. 62 below, and
suggests that Chaucer may have been influenced here by an expression in St.
Bernard's Works (cf. l. 30): Respice ergo, beatissima Virgo, ad nos
proscriptos in exsilio filios Euae'; Tractatus ad Laudem Gloriosae
Virginis; in the Works, vol. i. p. 1148, in Migne's Patrologia, vol. 182.
This suggestion greatly strengthens the probability, that ll. 36-56 form a
later insertion.
_galle_, bitterness. There is probably an allusion to the name Mary, and to
the Hebrew _mar_, fem. _mârâh_, bitter. Cf. Exod. xv. 23; Acts viii. 23;
Ruth i. 20. Cf. Chaucer's A B C, l. 50.
59. _womman Cananee_, a translation of _mulier Chananaea_ in the Vulgate
version of Matt. xv. 22. Wyclif calls her 'a womman of Canane.'
60. Compare Wyclif's version--'for whelpis eten of the crummes that fallen
doun fro the bord of her lordis'; Matt. xv. 27.
62. _sone of Eve_, son of Eve, i. e. the author himself. This, as Tyrwhitt
remarks (Introd. Discourse, note 30), is a clear proof that [405] the Tale
was never properly revised to suit it for the collection. The expression is
unsuitable for the supposed narrator, the Second Nun.