The Canterbury Tales, and especially the Prologue, are so full of allusions
and expressions that either require or invite illustrations, that no
commentary upon them can be considered exhaustive. Consequently, those
points only have, for the most part, been considered where the expressions
used are for any reason difficult, obscure, or likely to be misunderstood;
for it frequently happens that, by a change in meaning, the modern form or
use of a word suggests a wrong impression.
A considerable number of words and phrases which occur in Chaucer have
already been explained by me in the Notes to Piers the Plowman. Hence, in
many cases, additional illustrations and references can easily be had by
consulting the 'Index to the Explanations in the Notes' printed in P.
Plowman, vol. iv. pp. 464-491.
The 'Index of Books referred to in the Notes' to the same, vol. iv. pp.
492-502, gives a long list of books, most of which are useful for the
illustration of Chaucer also. I add here a few additional notes, taken
almost at random, for two of which I am indebted to Professor Earle.
A. 30. Zupitza (Notes to Guy of Warwick, 855, p. 361) further illustrates
this line. 'There can be no doubt that the pp. _goon_ is to be supplied.'
He quotes 'to reste eode þa sunne,' Layamon, 28328; 'until the son was gon
to rest,' Iwaine, 3612, ed. Ritson (Met. Romances, i. 151); also from J.
Grimm, Mythology, p. 702, who treats of the M.H.G. phrase _ze reste
g[=a]n_.
A. 179. It is shown (vol. v. p. 22) that the simile about the fish out of
water occurs in the Life of St. Anthony. Chaucer clearly took it from Jehan
de Meung (_or_ Jean de Meun); but the French poet probably took it from the
Life of St. Anthony in the Legenda Aurea. We find it even in Caxton's
Golden Legende:--'for lyke as fysshes that haue ben longe in the water whan
they come in-to drye londe they muste dye, in lyke wyse the monkes that
goon out of theyr cloystre or selles, yf they conuerse longe wyth seculiers
they must nedes lose theyr holynesse and leue theyr good lyf.'
A. 387. _With the beste_, 'as well as possible,' but originally 'among the
best.' So in Zupitza, notes to Guy of Warwick, l. 1496. He quotes Mätzner's
Grammatik, II. 2. 434; King Horn, 1326, _knight with the beste_; &c. Cf.
_with the furste_, King Horn, 1119.
A. 467. _She coude muche of wandring by the weye_; i. e. she knew much
which she had learnt through being so great a traveller.--J. Earle.
I have explained it above, p. 44, by--'She knew much about travelling.' The
original will bear either interpretation; all depends upon the meaning of
the word _of_. [493]
A. 655. See Freeman, vol. v. p. 497, and his quotation from John of
Salisbury, Ep. 146 (Giles, i. 260):--'Erat, ut memini, genus hominum, qui
in ecclesia Dei _archidiaconorum_ censentur nomine, quibus vestra discretio
omnem salutis viam querebatur esse praeclusam. Nam, ut dicere consuevistis,
diligunt munera, sequuntur retributiones, ad injurias proni sunt, calumniis
gaudent, peccata populi comedunt et bibunt, quibus vivitur ex rapto, ut non
sit hospes ab hospite tutus.'--J. Earle. [From Freeman's Hist. of the
Norman Conquest, ed. 1867-79.]
Cf. the Somnours Tale; especially D. 1315, 1317, and the notes.
A. 1155. For _par amour_, see all the instances referred to in the
Glossary. The fact that it sometimes means 'with all affection,' or
'affectionately,' is well illustrated by a passage in the Coventry
Mysteries, p. 50, where it is put into the mouth of Abraham, when
addressing Isaac. 'Thu art my suete childe, and _par amoure_ Ful wele in
herte do I the loue.'
A. 1452. _Seven yeer_ is an old proverbial expression for a long time; see
_Seven-year_ in Halliwell; P. Plowman, C. vii. 214, xi. 73; Zupitza's notes
to Guy of Warwick (l. 8667); &c. The curious thing is that Chaucer
understood himself literally: 'It fel that in the seventhe yeer, in May';
A. 1462.
A. 2749. Some further illustration of the word _expulsive_ as a technical
term may be found in old treatises. Thus Brunetto Latini, in his Livres dou
Tresor, livre i. part iii. chap. 103, says that the four virtues which
sustain life are the _appetitive_ (due to the element of fire), the
_retentive_ (due to earth), the _digestive_ (due to air), and the
_expulsive_ (due to water). Hence we have an appetite for food; we retain
it; we digest it; and expel it. 'L'aigue est froide et moiste, et fait la
vertu expulsive, ce est qu'ele chace fuer la viande quant ele est cuite.'
Sir Thos. Elyot, Castel of Helth, 1539, p. 10, says there are three Powers,
animal, spiritual, and natural. Of these, it is the _natural_ power which
'appetiteth, retayneth, digesteth, expelleth'; whereas it is the 'power
animall' that 'ordeyneth, discerneth, and composeth; that moueth by
voluntarye mocyon,' &c. Of the four 'operations,' he says that 'expulsion
[is] by colde and moyste.' The whole of this sort of jargon is full of
inconsistencies.
A. 3287. _Do wey_, i. e. take away. So also _go wey_ occurs for 'go away.'
See these phrases plentifully illustrated in Zupitza's notes to Guy of
Warwick, l. 3097.
B. 124. After all, this line is probably merely a reproduction from Le
Roman de la Rose, l. 10438:--
'Tu n'a pas geté _ambesas_.'
B. 1983. The phrase _in toune_ is, as I have said, practically otiose, and
means nothing, being merely introduced as a tag. So again _in londe_, in l.
2077. For further illustrations see Zupitza's notes to Guy of Warwick, l.
5841. [494]
B. 3917. A correspondent kindly reminds me that the story of Cyrus in
Vincent of Beauvais came originally from Herodotus, who tells it, not of
Cyrus, but of Polycrates of Samos; see Herodotus, bk. iii. capp. 124, 125.
In Herodotus, the vision is seen by the daughter.
C. 406. In the long note at pp. 272-274, I have shewn that the sense is
'though their souls go a-gathering blackberries,' i. e. wander wherever
they please. Mr. E.M. Spence suggests for comparison the well-known words
of Falstaff (1 Hen. IV. ii. 4. 448):--'Shall the blessed sun of heaven
prove a micher and eat blackberries?'
C. 570. In the Accounts of Henry, Earl of Derby, on his return from Prussia
in 1391, the following item occurs for March:--'Et per manus eiusdem pro ij
barrellis ferreres [vessels for carrying wine on horseback] vini de _Lepe_,
viz. lj stope per ipsum emptis ibidem, ij nobles'; printed for the Camden
Society, ed. L. Toulmin Smith, p. 95. Miss Toulmin Smith quotes from
Henderson's History of Wines, 1824, the note that Lepe wine is 'a strong
white wine of Spain,' and that Lepe is 'a small town on the sea-coast,
between Ayamont and Palos, long celebrated for figs, raisins, and wine.'
Its position was favourable, as it is in the part of Andalucia nearest to
England. See _Lepe_ in Pinero's Spanish Dictionary, ed. 1740.
D. 110. The word _fore_ occurs also, but with the Southern spelling _vore_,
in P. Plowman, C. vii. 118; on which see my note.
D. 325. At line 180 above (see the note), the Wife is plainly alluding to
one of the passages in Le Roman de la Rose in which the Almageste is
mentioned; and I have no doubt that she here refers to the other (l.
18772). For though the passage quoted by Jean de Meun, as from the
Almagest, is really quite different, there is a general reference, in the
context, to the idea of contentment:--
'Car soffisance fait richece,' &c.