but it has the merit of a good hypothesis in that it takes account of all the facts, and the haphazard way in which Chaucer strings together his exploits really suggests that he was writing down from memory the adventures of an actual knight, which had been told him, without his quite following out their sequence. As it is, the dates of the four sieges he mentions come in the strange order, 1365 (Alisaundre, 1. 51), 1344 (Algezir, l. 57), 1367 (Lyeys, l. 58), 1361 (Satalye, same line).] 43. worthy, notable: here and in Il. 47 and 68 used especially of bravery. So in 1. 46 fredom means not 'liberty' but ‘generosity' in its fullest sense, as the opposite of meanness. 43, 44. That... he, frequently used by Chaucer for who. 45. To riden out, to go campaigning, not simply to travel. 47. his lordes werre, i.e. the war of his feudal superior, ultimately or immediately, Edward III. Some of the old commentators took his lord' to refer to Christ, probably from misunderstanding 'therto,' which means 'moreover, in the next line, as if it stood for 'thither.' 51. At Alisaundre he was whan it was wonne. Alexandria was captured by Pierre de Lusignan, King of Cyprus, 10th October, 1365. 52. hadde the bord bigonne, taken the head of the table as the most honoured person in the company. [In the Festial, a volume of English sermons of the fifteenth century, Christ is said to have told the servants at the marriage at Cana 'that they sholde bere' the newly made wine to hym that began the table,' i.e. the ruler of the feast.' Appolinus in Gower's Confessio Amantis, viii. 720, was mad beginne a middel bord' as a mark of honour (a reference usually attributed to Warton but in which Morell had forestalled him).1 6 53. In Pruce, i.e. among the Teutonic knights, who fought against the heathen of Lithuania (Lettowe) and Russia (Ruce). 54. reysed, gone on expeditions. [Dr. Flügel (in an article on Gower's Mirour de l'Omme and Chaucer's Prolog in Anglia, Bd. 24, to which we shall often have to refer) notes (p. 444) that both in Middle-English and in Old French 'reyse' or ' reze was the technical term for these Prussian expeditions. O.N. Reisa (cp. German Reise, a journey ').] 56. In Gernade at the seege eek hadde he be. Of Algezir, Algeçiras, near Gibraltar. Both places were captured from the Moors in 1344. 57. Belmarye, Benmarin, a Moorish kingdom in North Africa. [According to Leo Africanus "the Benmarini, a generation of Zeneti are said to have reigned for the space of 170 years," and the limits of their kingdom would vary with the fortunes of their perpetual wars. At the beginning of Book xvi. of the Historia de rebus Hispanicis of Mariana we read that Albohacenus, the ninth king of Morocco, of the family of the 'Merini,' was only kept from attacking Spain by a hereditary war with Botexesinius, king of Tremesene, and at the end of Chap. 4 of the same book the defeat of Botexesinius is recorded under the year 1335, whereupon Albohacenus began to attack Spain.] 58. Lyeys, Layas, or Lajazzo, the modern Ayas, in Armenia, attacked by Pierre de Lusignan in October, 1367. The town was 'won' easily enough, but the citadel resisted all the efforts of Pierre's small force, and after burning the town he retired. Satalye, Attalia, a stronghold on the coast of Asia Minor to the north-west of Cyprus. Captured by Pierre de Lusignan, August, 1361. 59. the Grete See, the eastern portion of the Mediterranean, of which Mandeville writes (Chapter XVI., Macmillan's English Classics, p. 97), 'the sea Mediterranean, the which sea dureth in length from Morocco, upon the sea of Spain, unto the Great Sea.' 60. At many a noble armee. 'Armee,' the reading of the Ellesmere and Hengwrt manuscripts, is a translation of the Latin armata or armata navium commonly found in the chronicles of the time. It can be used indifferently for an expedition (or the force which goes on it) whether by sea or land. The New Eng. Dict. follows this instance by one from Caxton's Faytes of Armes, 'They that by the see wol goo, be it in armee or to som other adoo.' The Harley Ms. 7334 and Cambridge Gg. read 'ariue' (aryve), explained as meaning an arrival or disembarkation of troops, but of which no other instance has been found. The two words would easily be confused by scribes, as Professor Skeat (who says that 'armee gives no good sense') has pointed out. But even if it could be proved that ariue' has any existence, the epithet 'noble' seems more suited to 'armee,' and we may note that Pierre de Lusignan's expeditions against Attalia and Alexandria were exactly what was understood by an 'armata.'] 62. Tramyssene, Tremezen, a Moorish kingdom on the north coast of Africa, next to that of Benmarin, under whose domination it passed in 1335. See note to 1. 57. 63. In lystes thries, and ay slayn his foo: Challenges to single combat were a frequent incident in medieval warfare; thus Edward III. challenged the king of France, and the eagerness of Richard Cœur de Lion to encounter Saladin is well known. 65. with the lord of Palatye. 'Palatye' is said to be 'Palathia,' and this again to be one of the Christian lordships in Anatolia (Asia Minor) which survived the general Turkish supremacy, sometimes by paying tribute. It may possibly be the 'Palice' mentioned by Froissart as a district adjoining Satalie, and if so may well have been the scene of fighting in 1361 or thereabouts. 68. though that he was worthy, E Hng., Cam. read 'were' instead of 'was,' but the indicative seems more suitable, as there is no doubt implied. 70. no vileynye ne sayde, villainy' was any language, whether foul or of unmannerly abuse, which was unworthy of a gentleman. 73. But for to tellen yow of his array, etc. 'The countenance of our Knight (i.e. in the coloured pictures in the Ellesmere manuscript, here reproduced in black and white) expresses great sedateness and dignity. His folded head covering is of a dark colour. His gipon is also dark, but his under-coat red, which is discernible through the sleeves at his wrists; his legs in armour, with gilt spurs; his dagger in a red sheath, by his side; and little points or aiglets of red tipped with gold near his neck and shoulder' (Todd's Illustrations of Gower and Chaucer, 1810, p. 229). 74. His hors was goode, E has ' weren' for 'was,' a quite possible reading, since 'hors' is plural as well as singular, and the plural might refer to those of the Squire and Yeoman who rode with the Knight. But as these have not yet been mentioned the singular seems slightly preferable. 76. Scan: Al | bismot | er'd with his habergeon. syllable of habergeon is pronounced 'joun,' not 'géon.' The last 78. And wente for to doon his pilgrymage. Just as sick people would vow to go on pilgrimage should they recover, so travellers and soldiers would make similar vows as a thank-offering for their safe return. Chaucer's language here takes it for granted that a pilgrimage would be the natural end of the knight's campaigning. It may be noted that 'viage' in the previous line may be influenced by the use of the Latin viagium for a military expedition. THE SQUIRE. An interesting account of the training and duties of squires will be found in Saunders' Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (Dent, 1889). After serving from his seventh to his fourteenth year as a page in some noble family a youth received his sword and girdle from the priest's hands at the altar. He might then have assigned to him various duties in the household, or be made personal attendant on his lady, until he was strong enough to follow his lord to the wars. As 'squire of the body' to a knight, he would have to hold his stirrup for him when he mounted, to carry his helmet for him, to lead his war-horse when he preferred to ride on a palfrey, to arm him for battle, and to attend him in the fight. In his lord's house a squire would not only act as carver, but help to entertain his guests, and wait personally on those of high rank. For the military experience which Chaucer's Squire may have had, see note to 1. 86. 80. a lusty bacheler. 'Bachelor' in Chaucer's time meant not merely an unmarried man, but distinctively a probationer for the honour of knighthood, or young knight. So Cambuscan in the Squire's Tale is said to have been: "Yong, fressh and strong, in armes desirous As any bacheler of al his hous." In like manner a Bachelor at the university was a probationer for the full degree of Master. 83. of evene lengthe. 'Even' here is explained in New. Eng. Dict. as 6 a just mean between extremes, of proper magnitude or degree.' 86. In Flaundres, in Artoys and Pycardie. There was probably always in Chaucer's time some fighting to be had on the borderland of France and Flanders, where the Free Companies were troublesome even in times of peace. But it looks as if Chaucer's Squire had followed in his father's footsteps and taken part in what was proclaimed as a 'Crusade,' the iniquitous expedition captained in 1382 by Henry Le Despencer, the fighting Bishop of Norwich, who, with the sanction of Pope Urban, led an English army into the districts here named, to plunder anyone who they could pretend was an The adherent of the anti-Pope Clement, the French candidate. expedition was at first successful, and much booty was sent home to England. Eventually it failed miserably. 88. in his lady grace. p. lvi., also note to 1. 695. For 'lady' as a genitive see Introduction, 89. Embrouded was he, etc. In the picture of the Squire in the Ellesmere manuscript, he wears a short coat (1. 93), whose long sleeves are blown behind him by the wind. The coat itself is green lined with red, and embroidered with small white patches. He wears white breeches, with tufts of ermine on the thighs, and his pointed shoes droop far below the stirrups. His curly hair is crowned by a high blue cap embroidered in the front. To prove his excellence as a rider (1. 94) his horse is rearing most alarmingly. 100. And carf biforn his fader. 'Froissart particularly mentions that the young Count de Foix, like Chaucer's Squire, carved before his father' (Saunders, op. cit.). So Barbour (Bruce ii. 91 sq.) writes of James off Douglas that ay quhar All wayis before the byshop schar,' for which cause the Bishop 'gert him were his knyvys.' THE YEOMAN. Chaucer describes his Yeoman as carrying not only a bow, sword and buckler, which he would do on military service, but also a hunting horn, and guesses that he was a Forester. He had, therefore, plainly not been abroad with the Knight, and we may imagine, in trying to picture how Chaucer thought of things as happening, that the Squire and Yeoman had ridden from some country place to meet the Knight and attend him on the pilgrimage which he was making before returning home. His handsome dagger and silver brooch show that the Yeoman was a man of substance, and while serving the Knight as a forester he would probably hold a farm as well. Modern commentators are agreed that the Tale of Gamelyn (the same story of the greenwood as that which Shakespeare used in his As You Like It) found in some manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales, was intended by Chaucer, when re-written, to be assigned to the Yeoman. As it is, he tells no story, so there is no picture of him in the Ellesmere manuscript. IOI. A Yeman hadde he. 'He' refers back to the Knight. 104. pocock arwes: cp. Lydgate's Hors Goose and Sheep, 1. 21 sqq.: "Through al the lond of Brute's Albion But some writers on archery considered peacocks' feathers as good only for show, and much inferior to those of the goose. H |