Geoffrey Chaucer

“ The note in Bell's Chaucer, connecting it with oaf, is wrong. The carpenter's name was John (l. 3501) .
3190. This shews that students used often to live in lodgings, as is so common at Cambridge, where the number of students far exceeds the number of college-rooms.
3192, 3. Chaucer himself knew something of astrology, as shewn by his numerous references to it. The word conclusions in l. 3193 is the technical name for 'propositions' or problems. ”

“ In astrology, much depended on times; certain times were supposed to be more favourable than others for obtaining solutions of problems. The great book for prognostications of weather was the Calendrier des Bergiers, an English version of which was frequently reprinted as The Shepheards Kalendar. The old almanacks also predicted the weather; see Ben Jonson's Every Man Out of his Humour, A. i. sc. 1—'Enter Sordido, with an almanack in his hand.'
3199. hende, gracious, mild; hence, gentle, courteous; orig. near at hand, hence, useful, serviceable; A. S. gehende. Ill spelt hendy in Tyrwhitt. ”

“ The carpenter was not strong in technical terms. In like manner, he talks of 'Nowelis flood'; see note to l. 3818. The reading astronomy just spoils both lines, and loses the jest.
3456. 'That knows nothing at all except his Creed.'
3457. This story is told of Thales by Plato, in his Theaetetus; it also occurs, says Tyrwhitt, in the Cento Novelle Antiche, no. 36. It has often been repeated, and may now be found in James's edition of Æsop, 1852, Fable 170. ”

“ E. Hn. celle; rest selle. The word celle might mean 'chamber.' There was an approach to the roof, which they had reached by help of a ladder; and the three tubs were hung among the balks which formed the roof of the principal sitting-room below. But it is difficult to see how the word celle could be applied to the chief room in the house. Tyrwhitt explains selle as 'door-sill or threshold'; but we must bear in mind that the usual M. E. form of sill was either sille or sulle, from A. S. syll. The spelling with s proves nothing, since Chaucer undoubtedly means 'cell' in A. 1376, where Cm. ”

“ It is obvious that the first foot is defective.
3624. His owne hand, with his own hand. Tyrwhitt points out the same idiom in Gower, ed. Pauli, ii. 83:—
'The craft Minerve of wolle fond
And made cloth her owne hond.'
And again, id. ii. 310:—
'Thing which he said his owne mouth.'
3625. ronges, rungs, rounds, steps; stalkes, upright pieces. To climb by the rungs and the stalks means to employ the hands as well as the feet. A rung was also called a stayre (stair) ; and stalke is the diminutive of stele, a handle, which was another name for the upright part of a ladder. In Allit. Poems, ed. ”

“ Cotgrave explains F. pers as 'watchet, blunket, skie-coloured,' and couleur perse as 'skie-colour, azure-colour, a blunket, or light blue.' See Blunket in the New E. Dict., and my article in Philolog. ”

“ Hl. have selle, and in B. 3162, where three MSS. (Cp. Pt. Ln.) all read selle again. Why the carpenter should have arrived at the door-sill, I do not know.
Nevertheless, upon further thoughts, I accept Tyrwhitt's view, with some modification. We find that Chaucer actually uses Kentish forms (with e for A. S. y) elsewhere, for the sake of a rime. A clear case is that of fulfelle, in Troil. iii. 510. This justifies the dat. form selle (A. S. sylle) . But we must take selle to mean 'flooring' or 'boarding,' and floor to mean the ground beneath it ”

“ MS. Hl. has fo, which is silently altered to fote by Bell and Wright. Tyrwhitt also has fote, which he found in the black-letter editions. The reading foo is probably quite right, and is an intentional substitution for foot. It is notorious that oaths were constantly made unmeaning, to avoid a too open profanity. In Chaucer, we have cokkes bones, H. 9, I. 29, and Corpus bones, C. 314. Another corruption of a like oath is 's foot, Shak. Troil. ii. 3. 6, which is docked at the other end. It is poor work altering MSS. so as to destroy evidence. ”

“ It is just possible that for nightes verye [2] represents an A. S. for nihte werigum, 'against the evil spirits of night'; against whom 'the white Paternoster' is to be said. The reading white is perfectly correct. There really was a prayer so called. See Notes and Queries, 1 Ser. xi. 206, 313; whence we learn that the charm above quoted, beginning 'Matthew, Mark,' &c., resembles one in the Patenôtre Blanche, to be found in the (apocryphal) Enchiridion Leonis Papae (Romae, MDCLX) , where occurs:—'Petite Patenôtre Blanche, que Dieu fit, que Dieu dit, que Dieu mit en Paradis. ”

“ And see Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 28, ii. 97, 104. In fact, it is common. Brand, quoting Douce (Illust. of Shak. ii. 151) , says that 'Shadwell not only uses the word pigsney in this sense, but also birdsney [bird's eye] ; see his Plays, i. 357, iii. 385.' See also pigsney in Todd's Johnson, where one quotation has the form pigs eie. An ye became a nye; hence the pl. nyes, and even nynon (= eyne) , as in Halliwell. See note to P. Plowman, C. xx. 306, where bler-eyed, i. e. blear-eyed, appears as bler-nyed in the B-text.
3269. leggen, to lay. Tyrwhitt has liggen, to lie, which is but poor grammar. ”

“ Tyrwhitt omits these two lines in his text, but admits, in his Notes, that they should have been inserted. The former of the two lines is repeated from l. 277 of the original (but rejected) Prologue to the Legend of Good Women. but-if thou madde, unless thou art going mad.
3161. oon, one, i. e. a cuckold; or, possibly, an ox (l. 3159) . As an ox was a 'horned' animal, it comes to the same thing, according to the miserable jest so common in our dramatists.
3165. goddes foyson, sufficient abundance, i. e. all he wants, all the affection he expects. there, in his wife. ”

“ In the Knight de la Tour, cap. cxiv, p. 155, there is a story of a lady who waited on her old husband, and nursed him under most trying conditions; 'and unnethe there might haue be founde a woman but atte sum tyme she wolde haue lothed her, or ellys to haue be right scoymous ta haue do the seruice as thes good lady serued her husbonde contynuelly.' In a version of the Te Deum, composed about 1400, we read—'Thou were not skoymus of the maidens wombe' ”

“ She has given it him out at the shot-window,
⁠With mony a sad sigh and heavy groan.'
3361. Tyrwhitt absurdly says that ll. 3361, 3362 should be broken into four short verses, and that ladý (sic) rimes with be! In Bell's edition, they are printed in small type! They are just ordinary lines; and be (pronounced nearly as modern bay) certainly never rimed with lády—nor yet with la-dý—in Chaucer's time, when the final y was sounded like the modern ee in meet, and would rather have rimed with a word like my. It is a mere whim.
3375. menes, intermediate people, go-betweens ”

“ As to latoun, see note to C. 350, and cf. A. 699, B. 2067, &c.
3254. popelote, darling, poppet. Not connected with papillon, but with F. poupée and E. puppet. Halliwell gives: 'Poplet, a term of endearment, generally applied to a young girl: poppet is still in common use.' Cotgrave has: 'Popelin, masc. a little finicall darling.' Godefroy gives: 'poupelet, m. petit poupon.'
3256. Wright says: 'The gold noble of this period was a very beautiful coin ”

“ The custom has been kept up in some places till the present day; the hour for it is sometimes 8 P.M., and sometimes 9 P.M. In olden times, mention is usually made of the former of these hours; see Brand, Pop. Antiq. ii. 220; Prompt. Parv. p. 110. People invariably went to bed very early ”

“ The reading companye (as in old editions and Tyrwhitt) in place of route makes the line too long.
3115. I. e. the bag is unbuckled, the budget is opened; as when a packman displays his wares. See Group I, l. ”

“ He died about 877; see Wright's Biogr. Brit. Litt., A. S. Period, p. 381. The spelling Note is remarkable, as the mod. E. name (pronounced as Neet, riming with feet) suggests the A. S. form Nēot, and M. E. Neet.
3774. A proverbial phrase. Tyrwhitt quotes from Froissart, v. iv. p. 92, ed. 1574; 'Il aura en bref temps autres estoupes en sa quenoille.' To 'have tow on one's distaff' is to have a task in hand. 'Towe on my dystaf have I for to spynne' ”

“ Note is, in the singular. 'Crabbed age and youth cannot live together';—Passionate Pilgrim.
3235. ceynt, girdle; barred, adorned with cross stripes. Warton could not understand the word; but a bar is a transverse stripe on a girdle or belt, as in A. 329, which see.
3236-7. barm-clooth, lap-cloth, i. e. an apron 'over her loins.' gore, a triangular slip, used as an insertion to widen a garment in any particular place. The apron spread out towards the bottom, owing rather, it appears, to inserted 'gores' below than to pleats above. ”

“ Soc. Trans. Nov. 6, 1885, p. 329. Webster has 'watchet stockings,' The Malcontent, A. iii. sc. 1. Lydgate has 'watchet blewe'; see Warton, Hist. Eng. Poet. (1840) , ii. 280.
3322. poyntes, tagged laces, as in Shakespeare. MS. Hl. has here a totally different line, involving the word gores (cf. l. 3237 above) , viz. 'Schapen with goores in the newe get,' i. e. in the new fashion.
3329. Tyrwhitt says:—'The school of Oxford seems to have been in much the same estimation for its dancing, as that of Stratford for its French'; see l. 125. ”

“ Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, ii. 194. Also called a rebeck, as in Milton. A two-stringed musical instrument, played with a bow, of Moorish origin; Arab. rabāb. 'Hec vitula, a rybybe'; Wright's Gloss. 738. 19.
3332. quinible. Not a musical instrument, as Tyrwhitt supposed, but a kind of voice. It is not singing consecutive fifths upon a plain song, as Mr. Chappell once thought (Pop. Music of the Olden Time, i. 34) ; but, as afterwards explained by him in Notes and Queries, 4 S. vi. ”