1. _Wite ye_, know ye. The singular is _I woot_, A. S. _ic w[=a]t_,
Moeso-Goth. _ik wait_; the plural is _we witen_ or _we wite_, A. S. _we
witon_, Moeso-Goth. _weis witum_. See l. 82, where the right form occurs.
But it is certain that Chaucer also uses the construction _ye woot_, as in
A. 829, &c.; which, strictly speaking, was ungrammatical.
2. _Bob-up-and-doun._ This place is here described as being 'under the
Blee,' i. e. under Blean Forest. It is also between Boughton-under-Blean
(see Group G, l. 556) and Canterbury. This situation suits very well with
Harbledown, and it has generally been supposed that Harbledown is here
intended. Harbledown is spelt _Herbaldoun_ in the account of Queen
Isabella's journey to Canterbury (see Furnivall's Temporary Preface, p. 31;
p. 124, l. 18; p. 127, l. 21), and _Helbadonne_ in the account of King
John's journey (id. p. 131, l. 1). However, Mr. J. M. Cowper, in a letter
to The Athenæum, Dec. 26, 1868, p. 886, says that there still exists a
place called Up-and-down Field, in the parish of Thannington, which would
suit the position equally well, and he believes it to be the place really
meant. If so, the old road must have taken a somewhat different direction
from the present one, and there are reasons for supposing that such may
have been the case. This letter is reprinted in Furnivall's Temporary
Preface (Ch. Soc.), p. 32.
The break here between the Canon's Yeoman's and the Manciple's Tales
answers to the break between the first and second parts of Lydgate's Storie
of Thebes. At the end of Part I, Lydgate mentions the descent down the hill
(i. e. Boughton hill), and at the beginning of Part II, he says that the
pilgrims, on their _return_ from Canterbury, had 'passed the thorp of
Boughton-on-the-blee.'
5. _Dun is in the myre_, a proverbial saying originally used in an old
rural sport. _Dun_ means a dun horse, or, like _Bayard_, a horse in
general. The game is described in Brand's Popular Antiquities, 4to. ii.
289; and in Gifford's notes to Ben Jonson, vol. vii. p. 283. The latter
explanation is quoted by Nares, whom see. Briefly, the game was of this
kind. A large log of wood is brought into the midst of a kitchen or large
room. The cry is raised that 'Dun is in the mire,' [436] i. e. that the
cart-horse is stuck in the mud. Two of the company attempt to drag it
along; if they fail, another comes to help, and so on, till Dun is
extricated.
There are frequent allusions to it; see Hoccleve, De Regimine Principum, p.
86; Skelton, Garland of Laurell, l. 1433; Towneley Mysteries, p. 310; Romeo
and Juliet, i. 4. 41; Beaumont and Fletcher's Woman-hater, iv. 3; Hudibras,
pt. iii. c. iii. l. 110.
In the present passage it means--'we are all at a standstill'; or 'let us
make an effort to move on.' Mr. Hazlitt, in his Proverbial Phrases, quotes
a line--'And all gooth bacward, and _don is in the myr_.'