Geoffrey Chaucer

“ The usual sense is 'the latch of a door'; but the sense here given is clearly caught from the related verb lacchen, which sometimes meant to catch birds. Thus in P. Plowman, B. v. 355, we find 'forto lacche foules,' i. e. to catch birds. We must not confuse lacche, as here used, with lace, a snare.
1641. We must read syked, not sighede, in order to rime with entryked. Observe that syketh rimes with entryketh in the Parl. of Foules, 404. Further, as the rime is a double one, the word have must be inserted, to fill up the line. ”

“ The expression 'to have a long loigne' means 'to have too much liberty.'
3895. Read trecherous, i. e. treacherous people, for the sake of the metre and the rime. Trechours means 'traitors.'
3907. Read loude; for loude and stille is an old phrase; see Barbour's Bruce, iii. 745. It means, 'whether loudly or silently,' i. e. under all circumstances. ”

“ Halliwell is quite wrong in confusing decoped with coppid, i. e. peaked. See note to Mill. Ta. A 3318.
860. The readings pleye, pley are evidently false; the scribe has omitted the stroke for n above the vowel. The right reading is obviously playn, i. e. plain, smooth; it translates F. poli, just as frounceles translates sans fronce, without a wrinkle.
865. If the reader prefers to keep eleven (or twelve) syllables in this line, I am sorry for him. ”

“ No doubt it had that sense (see Cotgrave) , but not here.
Timbestere is a mere English form of the O.F. tymberesse, a player on a timbre. Diez, in his Dictionary, cites a passage from a commentary on the Psalms, given in Roquefort, Poés. franç, p. 127, to this effect:—'li tymbres est uns estrumenz de musique qui est couverz d'un cuir sec de bestes'; i. e. it is the Lat. tympanum. So also, in Wright's Vocab. col. 616, l. 28, we have:—'Timpanum, a taber, or a tymbre.' In Allit. Poems, ed. Morris, ii. 1414, we read of the sound of 'tymbres and tabornes,' and of 'symbales,' i. e. cymbals. ”

“ But it is here a verb, as in 391, 392. The sense is:—'Time ... had made her grow so extremely old that, as far as I knew, she could in no wise help herself.'
401. inwith, for within, is common in Chaucer; the occurrence of pith, just before, probably caused the scribe to omit with. ”

“ The sense is; one friend must help another in every reasonable request; if the request seem unjust, he need not do so, except in two cases, viz. when his friend's life is in danger, or his honour is attacked: 'in quibus eorum aut caput agatur aut fama.' Read in cases two ”

“ The right spelling is vilaynsly; it occurs in the Pers. Tale, I 279; and the adj. vilayns in the same, I 627, 715, 854.
1517, 18. The right spellings are sene, adj., visible, and shene, adj., showy, bright.
1525. bere, bore; but it is in the subjunctive mood; A. S. bǣre.
1537. warisoun, reward; F. guerredon. But this is not the usual sense; it commonly means healing, cure, or remedy; see Guarison in Cotgrave. However, it also means provision, store, assistance; whence it is no great step to the sense of 'reward.' To 'winne a warisun' is to obtain a reward; Will. ”

“ The general sense clearly is, that the friars oppress the weak, but not the strong. If a man is master of a castle, they let him off easily, even if the castle be not built of freestone of the first quality, wrought by first-rate workmen. (Or read founded.)
7071. sleightes, missiles. The translator could think of no better word, because the context is jocular. If the lord of the castle pelted the friars, not exactly with stones, but with barrels of wine and other acceptable things, then the friars took his part. ”

“ Kaluza supplies the words within square brackets: G. has only 'But so sligh is the aperceyuyng,' followed by a blank line, in place of which Th. has the spurious line—'That al to late cometh knowyng.' F. text; 'Mès tant est fort la decevance Que trop est grief l'apercevance.'
6332. 'I am a man of every trade.'
6337. Sir Robert was a knight's name; Robin, that of a common man, as Robin Hood.
6338. Menour. The Friars Minors were the Franciscan, or Grey Friars; the Jacobins were the Dominicans, or Black Friars. ”

“ In Cambridge, the name is pronounced mavish (romic mei·vish) .
672. 'As spiritual angels do.'
676. 'Of man liable to death'; by mortal man.
684. sereyns, i. e. Sirens. Cotgrave has: 'Sereine, f. a Mermaid.' Chaucer takes no notice of G. de Lorris' notable etymology, by which he derives Seraines from the adj. seri. Cotgrave gives (marked as obsolete) : 'Seri, m. ie, f. Quiet, mild, calm, still; fair, clear.'
693. wel bigo, the opposite of 'woe begone'; as in l. 580. Cf. 'glad and wel begoon'; Parl. ”

“ The F. text has: 'Toutes fretelées de crotes,' which means all bedaubed with dirt; see frestelé in Godefroy. The translation freely varies from the original, in a score of places. See next line.
7260. knopped, knobbed, dagges, clouts, patches. A more usual sense of dagge is a strip of cloth; see dagge in Stratmann.
7261. frouncen, shew wrinkles; cf. ll. 155, 3137. The comparison to a quail-pipe seems like a guess; in the F. text, we have Hosiaus froncis, wrinkled hose, and 'large boots like a borce à caillier,' said (in Méon) to mean a net for quails. ”

“ Beggers is here used as a proper name, answering to F. Beguins. The Beguins, members of certain lay brotherhoods which arose in the Low Countries in the beginning of the thirteenth century, were also called Beguards or Begards, which in E. became Beggars. ”

“ It was compiled by some Dominican and Franciscan friars, from notes made by an abbot named Joachim, and from the visions of one Cyril, a Carmelite. It is thus explained in Southey's Book of the Church, chap. xi. 'The opinion which they started was ... that there should be three Dispensations, one from each Person. That of the Father had terminated when the Law was abolished by the Gospel; ... the uses of the Gospel were obsolete; and in its place, they produced a book, in the name of the Holy Ghost, under the title of the Eternal Gospel.... ”

“ This shews that Fals-Semblaunt does not really condemn the book; he only says it is best to suppress it for the present, till Antichrist comes to strengthen the friars' cause. The satire is of the keenest. Note that, in l. 7164, Fals-Semblaunt shamelessly calls the Eternal Gospel 'our book.' See also ll. ”

“ Unnethe that he nis, it is hard if he is not; i. e. he probably is. micher, a petty thief, a purloiner; F. 'lierres.' See the examples of mich in Halliwell. For goddis, read god is; F. 'ou Diex est mentieres.' See Prov. xxx. 9.
6556. 'The simple text, and neglect the commentary.'
6571. bilden is here used as a pt. tense; 'built.' In the next line, read leye, lay, lodged. There is an allusion to the splendid houses built by the friars. ”

“ Ll. 2185-2202 are not in the French; so they may have been suggested by Chaucer's Tale.
2203. 'Gravis est culpa, tacenda loqui'; Ovid, Ars Amat. ii. 604.
2206. Keye, Sir Kay, one of the knights of the Round Table, who was noted for his discourtesy. For his rough treatment of Sir Beaumains, see Sir T. Malory's Morte d'Arthur, bk. vii. c. 1. On the other hand, Sir Gawain was famed for his courtesy; see Squi. Ta. F 95.
2271. The word aumenere is here used, as in l. 2087 above, to translate the F. aumosniere or aumoniere. In Th., it is miswritten aumere, and in G. it appears as awmere. ”

“ A 329.
1106. 'In each bar was a bezant-weight of gold.' A bezant was a gold coin, originally struck at Byzantium, whence the name. It 'varied in weight between the English sovereign and half-sovereign, or less'; New E. Dict.
1117. The false reading ragounces is easily corrected by the original. In Lydgate's Chorle and Bird, st. 34, we find:—'There is a stone which called is iagounce.' Warton rather hastily identifies it with the jacinth. Godefroy says that some make it to be a jacinth, but others, a garnet. ”

“ I may abey, 'I may suffer for it'; see Cant. Ta. C 100. The F. text varies.
6749. 'In the rescue of our law (of faith) '; i. e. of Christianity. 6763. William of Saint-Amour, a doctor of the Sorbonne, and a canon of Beauvais, about A.D. 1260, wrote a book against the friars, entitled De Periculis nouissimorum Temporum. He was answered by St. Bonaventure and St. Thomas Aquinas, his book was condemned by Pope Alexander IV, and he was banished from France (see l. 6777) . See the note in Méon's edition of Le Roman.
6782. This noble, this brave man; F. 'Le vaillant homme.'
6787. ”

“ We are here referred back to ll. 3815-3818, where Wicked-Tongue reports evil about the author (here called the 'young man') and Bialacoil (here called Fair-Welcoming) .
7534. 'You have also caused the man to be chased.'
7538. The repetition of thought (in the rime) is correct; the F. text repeats pensee.
7562. 'Meditate there, you sluggard, all day.'
7573. 'Take it not amiss; it were a good deed.'
7578. F. text—'Vous en irez où puis [pit] d'enfer.' And, for puis, some MSS. have cul; a fact which at once sets aside the argument in Lounsbury's Studies in Chaucer, ii. 119. ”

“ Méon) .
4790. avaunt, forward; F. 'Ge n'en sai pas plus que devant.'
4793. For ever read er, i. e. ere, before; for the rime.
4796. can, know. parcuere, by heart; F. 'par cuer.'
4831. 'For paramours only feign.' But the original has: 'Mes par Amors amer ne daignent,' i. e. 'But they do not deign to love like true lovers'; unless it is a mere exclamation, 'I swear by Love.'
4859. 'To save the progeny (or strain) of our species'; cf. Cl. Ta. E 157.
4875, 6. Not in the original. It seems to mean—'who very often seek after destroyed increase (abortion) and the play of love.' Cf. tenen, to harm. ”

“ F. 'Tous les méisse."
6017. they; i. e. a number of barons; see l. 5812.
6024. 'They act like fools who are outrageous,' i. e. they act foolishly. F. 'Il ne feront mie que sage'; which seems to mean just the contrary.
6025. forsworn, with trilled r, seems to be trisyllabic; see note to l. 5978. But it is better to read forsworen.
6026. Ne lette, nor cease. Cf. l. 5967. But read let, pp. prevented.
6027. piment is much the same as clarree; in fact, in l. 5967, where the E. has clarree, the F. text has piment. Tyrwhitt says, s. v. clarre ”

“ A 1626, 2107.
1324. durst is an error for thurte; see note to l. 1089.
1334. For hadde (which gives no sense) , read bad; confusion of b and h is not uncommon. And for bent, read bende it; see l. 1336.
1341. Some mending of the text is absolutely necessary, because shette is altogether a false form; the pp. of sheten, to shoot, is shoten. The suggested emendation satisfies the conditions, and makes better sense. So, in l. ”

“ It is clear that Fard, not Farce, is the right reading. Farce would mean 'stuff' or 'cram'; see Prol. A 233. The F. text has—'Mais ne te farde ne ne guigne.' Among the additions by Halliwell and Wright to Nares' Glossary will be found: 'Fard, to paint the face'; with three examples. Cotgrave also has: 'Fardé, Farded, coloured, painted.'
2294. knowith is a strange error for lowhith, or lauhwith, forms of laugheth; F. text, rit.
2296. meynd, mingled; see Kn. Ta. A 2170.
2301-4. Not in the F. text. I alter pleyneth in l. 2302 to pleyeth, to suit the context more closely.
2309. sitting, becoming ”

“ F. trenche. 'Whom Guile cuts into thirteen branches.' I. e. Guile makes thirteen tonsured men at once; because the usual number in a convent was thirteen, viz. a prior and twelve friars.
6204. Gibbe, Gib (Gilbert) ; a common name for a tom-cat. Shak. has gib-cat, 1 Hen. IV. i. 2. 83. The F. text has Tibers, whence E. Tibert, Tybalt.
6205. A blank line in G.; Th. has—'That awayteth mice and rattes to killen,' which will not rime, and is spurious. I supply a line which, at any rate, rimes ”

“ Beet, beat, struck, i. e. bordered closely; a translation of F. batoit.
131. So also 'And ful atempre'; Book Duch. 341.
147. The descriptions of allegorical personages in this poem are clearly imitated from similar descriptions in Latin poets. Compare the celebrated description of Envy in Ovid, Metam. ii. 775, and the like. MS. G. absurdly reads a hate for Hate.
149. The reading must, of course, be moveresse, as in the Fr. text; Speght corrected it in 1598; it means a mover or stirrer up of strife.
196. Read miscounting (Kaluza) ; F. text, mesconter. ”

“ F. de soi celer.
2561. 'Now groveling on your face, and now on your back.'
2564. 'Like a man that should be defeated in war.' To get a rime to abrede or abreed, abroad, read forwerreyd; see l. 3251.
2573. 'Thou shalt imagine delightful visions.' The 'castles in Spain' are romantic fictions. Cf. Gower, Conf. Am. ii. 99.
2617, 2624. In both lines, wher is short for 'whether.'
2628. To liggen, to lie, is a Northern form; I alter liggen to ly, which occurs in the next line. ”

“ The friars did not seek retirement, like the monks.
7016. ravisable (F. ravissables) , ravenous, ravening; Matt. vii. 15.
7017. Imitated from Matt. xxiii. 15.
7018. werreyen, war; F. 'avons pris guerre.'
7022. bougerons, sodomites; see Godefroy; F. 'bogres.' This long sentence goes on to l. 7058; if (7021) is answered by He shal (7050) .
7029. In G. and Th., thefe has become these, by confusion of f with long s; hence also or has become that. But the F. text has—'Ou lerres ou simoniaus.'
7038. But, unless; unless the sinners bribe the friars. ”

“ Iolyly, especially; a curious use; F. 'bien.'
7680. 1. 'To shrive folk that are of the highest dignity, as long as the world lasts.' So in the F. text.
7682. I. e. the Mendicant friars had license to shrive in any parish whatever.
7693. 'To read (i. e. give lectures) in divinity'; a privilege reserved for doctors of divinity.
7694. Here G. merely has a wrong half-line:—'And longe haue red' ”