'Nay than,' quod he, 'I shrewe us bothe two, And first I shrewe my-self, bothe blood and bones, If thou bigyle me1 ofter than ones. Thou shalt namore, thurgh thy flaterye Do me to singe and winke with myn yë. For he that winketh, whan he sholde see, 610 (4621) 'Nay,' quod the fox, 'but God yive him meschaunce, That is so undiscreet of governaunce, That iangleth whan he sholde holde his pees.' 615 Lo, swich it is for to be recchelees, And necligent, and truste on flaterye. Here is ended the Nonne3 preestes tale. 620 (4631) 625 1 E. Hn. Hl. ins. any. 2 Hl. therof; which the rest omit. 3 Cp. Nonne; E. Hn. Nonnes. NOTES. In the Notes, 'CH. 2' refers to the Clarendon Press edition of Chaucer's Prioresses Tale, &c.; and 'CH. 3' to the same of Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale, &c. THE PROLOGUE. 1. Aprille. It appears that Chaucer's Prologue refers to the 16th and 17th of April. See Man of Law's Prol. 11. 1-6; and CH. 2, p. 129 and P. xi. soote, pl. of soot. swete in 1. 5 is the definite form of sweet. 4. vertu, power, corresponding to the A.S. miht, might. 4-6. Hawes seems to have had Chaucer's opening lines in view in the first and second stanzas, chap. i, of his Pastime of Pleasure : 'When that Aurora did well appeare In the depured ayre and cruddy firmament, Into a medowe both gaye and glorious, Of Zepherus breath, whiche that every floure Lydgate (Minor Poems, ed. Halliwell, pp. 243, 244) copies Chaucer still more closely in his description of Ver (spring), On the other hand, Chaucer seems to have had in his mind some passage like the following account in Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Naturale, lib. xv. c. 66, entitled De Vere:-'Sol vero ad radices herbarum et arborum penetrans, humorem quem ibi coadunatum hyeme reperit, attrahit; herba vero, vel arbor suam inanitionem sentiens a terra attrahit humorem, quem ibi sui similitudine adiuuante calore Solis transmutat, sicque reuiuiscit; inde est quod quidem mensis huius temporis Aprilis dicitur, quia tunc terra praedicto modo aperitur.' 5. Chaucer twice refers again to Zephirus, in his translation of Boethius, bk. i. met 5; bk. ii. met. 3. 7. yonge sonne. The sun is here said to be young because it had not long entered upon its annual course through the signs of the zodiac. 8. the Ram. 'The difficulty here really resides in the expression "his halfe cours," which means what it says, viz. "his half-course," and not, as Tyrwhitt unfortunately supposed, "half his course." The results of the two explanations are quite different. Taking Chaucer's own expression as it stands, he tells us that, a little past the middle of April, "the young sun has run his half-course in the Ram." Turning to Fig. I (in The Astrolabe, ed. Skeat) we see that, against the month " Aprilis " there appears in the circle of zodiacal signs, the latter half (roughly speaking) of Aries, and the former half of Taurus. Thus the sun in April runs a half-course in the Ram and a half-course in the Bull. "The former of these was completed," says the poet; which is as much as to say, that it was past the eleventh of April. The sun had, in fact, only just completed his course through the first of the twelve signs, as the said course was supposed to begin at the vernal equinox. This is why it may well be called "the yonge sonne," an expression which Chaucer repeats under similar circumstances in the Squyeres Tale, Part ii. 1. 39.'—Chaucer's Astrolabe, ed. Skeat, p. xlvii. Mr. Brae, in his edition of Chaucer's Astrolabe, shews that Chaucer never refers to the constellations, but always to the signs. Also twelue monpes ben in the 3ere, and eueriche monpe pe sonne entrep into a signe as it falleþ for þe monpe. And so in March þey entrep into pe Weber; in Auerel in-to be Boole.'-Trevisa's transl. of Higden's Polychronicon, ii. 207. 10. open ye. 'Hit bifelle bytwyxte March and Maye, As nightyngalis on grene tre.' The Sowdone of Babyloyne, ll. 41–46. 12, 13. Professor Ten Brink thinks that a colon should be placed after pilgrimages, and wenden understood after palmers. According to ordinary English construction the verb longen must be supplied after palmers, and seken before To ferne halwes. 13. palmer, originally one who made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and brought home a palm-branch as a token. Chaucer, says Tyrwhitt, seems to consider all pilgrims to foreign parts as palmers. The essential difference between the two classes of persons here mentioned, the palmer and the pilgrim, was, that the latter had 'some dwelling-place, a palmer had none; the pilgrim travelled to some certain place, the palmer to all, and not to any one in particular; the pilgrim might go at his own charge, the palmer must profess wilful poverty; the pilgrim might give over his profession, the palmer must be constant;' Blount's Glossographia. See note to P. Plowman, v. 523 (Clar. Press, smaller edition). 'But a prest that a palmer was A palme in his hand he had, And in a slaveyn he was clad.'-Tundal's Poems, p. 14. 14. ferne halwes, distant saints, i. e. shrines. Here ferne=ferrene = distant, foreign; cf. 'prie kinges. ... comen fram verrene londes; ' O.E. Miscel. p. 27. Also 'this man of ferne londe,' i. e. from a distant land; Havelok, 2031. To ferne peoples;' Chaucer's Boethius, bk. ii. met. 7. See Mätzner. Ferne also means 'ancient,' but not here. halwes, saints; cp. Scotch Hallow-e'en, the eve of All Hallows, or All Saints; here applied to their shrines. Chaucer has: 'to go seken halwes,' to go (on a pilgrimage) to seek saints' shrines; C. T. 6239. 16. wende, go; pret. wente, Eng. went. The old preterite of go (A.S. gangan) was giéng, which gave place to eode, zede, or yode, from the root i (cf. Lat. i-re) of the weak conjugation. Spenser uses yode as a past tense, but also yeed (wrongly) as a gerund (F. Q. ii. 4. 2). 17. The holy blisful martir, Thomas à Becket. On pilgrimages, see Saunders, Chaucer, p. 15; and Erasmus, Peregrinatio religionis ergo. 18. holpen, pp. of helpen. The older preterites of this verb are heolp, help, halp. Seke, sick, rimes to seke, seek; this apparent repetition is only allowed when the repeated word is used in two different senses. 20. Tabard. Of this word Speght gives the following account in his Glossary to Chaucer :- Tabard—a jaquet or slevelesse coate, worne in times past by noblemen in the warres, but now only by heraults (heralds), and is called theyre "coate of armes in servise." It is the signe of an inne in Southwarke by London, within the which was the lodging of the Abbot of Hyde by Winchester. This is the hostelry where Chaucer and the other Pilgrims mett together, and, with Henry Baily their hoste, accorded about the manner of their journey to Canterbury. And whereas through time it hath bin much decayed, it is now by Master J. Preston, with the Abbot's house thereto adgoyned, newly repaired, and with convenient rooms much encreased, for the receipt of many guests.' The inn is well described in Saunders (on Chaucer), p. 19. The Taberdars of Queen's College, Oxford, were scholars supposed originally to have worn the tabard, since called, by mistake, the Talbot. 23. hostelrye, a lodging, inn, house, residence. Hostler properly signifies the keeper of an inn, and not, as now, the servant of an inn who looks after the horses. (The A.S. hors-hús signifies an inn-another term was gæst-hús; and hors-herde: =an inn-keeper.) 24. wel is here used like our word full. 25. by aventure y-falle, by adventure (chance) fallen (into company). 26. felawshipe, fellowship, from M.E. felawe, companion, fellow. 29. esed atte beste, accommodated or entertained in the best manner. Easement is still used as a law term, signifying accommodation. atte = M.E. atpan=attan or atten, A.S. æt thám. In the older stages of the language we find atte used only before masc. and neuter nouns beginning with a consonant; the corresponding feminine form is atter (A.S. at thære), which is not used by Chaucer. 30. to reste at rest. Spenser has to friend for friend; F. Q. i. 1. 28. 33. forward, agreement. 'Fals was here foreward so forst is in May,' i.e. their agreement was as false as a frost in May; Ritson's Ancient Songs, i. 30. 34. ther as I you devyse, to that place that I tell you of (sc. Canterbury); ther in M. E. frequently signifies where; devyse = to speak of, describe. 35. whyl, whilst; Eng. while, time. Cp. M.E. hwilum, hwile, whilen, awhile. The form in -es (whiles, the reading of some MSS.) is comparatively a modern adverbial form, and may be compared with M.E.' hennes, thennes, hence, thence; ones, twies, thries, once, twice, thrice; of which older forms are found in -enne and -e respectively. 37. 'It seemeth to me it is reasonable.' Me thinketh: =me thinks, where me is the dative before the impersonal vb. thinken, to appear, seem; cp. me liketh, me list, it pleases me. So the phrase if you please if it please you, you being the dative and not the nominative case. semed me, it seemed to me, occurs in 1. 39. = 41. inne. In M.E. in is the preposition, and inne the adverb. 43. Knight. It was a common thing in this age for knights to seek employment in foreign countries which were at war. Tyrwhitt cites from Leland the epitaph of a knight of this period, Matthew de Gourney, who had been at the battle of Benamaryn, at the siege of Algezir, and at the battles of Crecy, Poitiers, &c. See note to 1. 51. worthy, worthy, is here used in its literal signification of distinguished, honourable. See 11. 47, 50. For notes on the dresses, &c., of the pilgrims, see Todd's Illustrations of Chaucer, p. 227; and Fairholt's Costume in England, 1885, i. 129. Also Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, sect. 17. 45. chivalrye, knighthood; also the manners, exercises, and exploits of a knight. 48. ferre, the comp. of fer, far. Cf. M.E. derre, dearer, sarre, sorer, &c. 49. hethenesse, heathen lands, as distinguished from Cristendom, Christian countries. |