Dr. Liddell writes: 'a where 'spiced' seems to mean easy-going. spiced conscience was one that depended on formal distinctions, spiced being identical in meaning with N.E. specious.' This would account for the two apparently contradictory meanings the word seems to have, for it is as easy by artificial distinctions to turn wrong into right as right into wrong. THE PLOUGHMAN. As Chaucer's Ploughman paid tithes, both of the fruits of his tillage and of his cattle, he must have been his own master, not merely a 'hind,' or hired labourer, though not far removed from one. He may have been a small tenant farmer, or the lands he held may have been Lammas iands,' .e. the property of the village, but held as private property, from August to August, by successive cultivators. The latter supposition would fit very well with his lending a hand to a poor neighbour, as under the Lammas system such mutual help would be needed. As he tells no story there is no picture of him in the Ellesmere manuscript. 529. was his brother. The relative (who) is here omitted, just as the pronoun (he) in introducing the Parson (1. 468). There was nothing unusual in Chaucer's days in a priest, although 'a lerned man, a clerk' having the smallest of small farmers as his brother. 539. His tithes payede he ful faire and wel. The smallest pig in a litter is still called 'the parson's pig' as the one which a reluctant tithe-payer would offer his parson. In the Wakefield miracle-play of the "Death of Abel," Cain is shown counting his corn-sheaves wrongly, so as to make fewer tenths among them, and refusing to include any of the specially good ones. No person 540. Bothe of his propre swynk and his catel: i.e. both of the fruits of the fields he ploughed and of the increase of his cattle. 541. In a tabard he rood upon a mere. Chaucer mounts his ploughman on a mare, as became his social position. pretending to belong to the 'quality' would have mounted a mare, except under circumstances of the direst necessity. [In a Latin poem on the execution of Archbishop Scrope (1405) allusion is made to the additional indignity of being led to the scene of punishment riding on a mare: "jumento vehitur hinc ad supplicium" (Dr. Karkeek).] Save that it is doubtful whether it had sleeves, the tabard was the fourteenth century equivalent for the smock-frock now dying out of use. THE MILLer. A lively account of the rights and privileges of a Scottish miller will be found in Chap. XIII. of Sir Walter Scott's Monastery, and with some difference of terms this will apply very well to Chaucer's Miller. There was little free-trade in milling in those days, and restrictions survived as late as the eighteenth century. Every one raising corn on a manor would have to take it to the manor mill to be ground, and thus, free from any check of competition, medieval millers became famous for their knavish thefts. In the Reeve's Tale Chaucer tells how two Cambridge clerks tried to protect the college corn by standing one where the corn went in, the other where the ever. THE MILLER. meal came out. But the Miller turned their horse loose and made it run away, and while they were trying to catch it he stole more than Scott suggests that millers in those days had to be 'stout carles,' like the Miller of the Prologue, to silence complainants and enforce their fines, when corn was taken to be ground elsewhere. The illustration in the Ellesmere manuscript does justice both to our Miller's blue hood and to his bagpipe. As to the appropriateness of this last on a pilgrimage, see Introduction. 545. for the nones. The n in nones belongs to the previous word, cp. atte nale=atten ale, at the alehouse (D 1349), then being a corruption of them, the old dative of the definite article. Thus, for the nones is for the once,' for the occasion. In ll. 379, 523 the ་ meaning is clear. The gildsmen took the cook with them, the Parson reproved his erring parishioners for the occasion,' i.e. for that particular time. It is not so easy to see why we are told that the Miller was a stout carl for the occasion. It has been suggested to me that the order of the words is loose, and that we should take for the nones with Miller, the Miller for the nones being equivalent to the Miller we had with us,' 'our particular Miller.' But perhaps Chaucer means that the Miller was a stouter fellow than you could expect to meet on a peaceful pilgrimage. 547. That proved wel, his muscle and bones stood the test of hard work. 548. he wolde have alwey the ram. The ram was the usual prize at a wrestling match. For 'have alway' (E. C. Hn.), H reads 'bere awey.' 561. And that, i.e. his talk. 562. and tollen thries, take his proper toll or due three times over. 563. And yet he hadde a thombe of gold, pardee. "If the allusion be, as is most probable, to the old proverb Every [An?] honest Miller has a thumb of gold, this passage may mean that our Miller, notwithstanding his thefts, was an honest miller, i.e. as honest as his brethren" (Tyrwhitt's note). But honest in the fourteenth century did not necessarily refer to scrupulous integrity: it carried with it the idea of skill, just as 'good' does at present. The miller's thumb is said to take a peculiar shape from its constant use in testing the fineness of samples of corn or flour spread out on the palm of the hand. The proverb may be one of those which owe their success to their bearing two meanings, (i.) a clever miller grows rich, (ii.) an upright miller is as rare as one with a gold thumb. But I am inclined to take it here in its good sense and paraphrase, he could steal cleverly and yet he had no need to, since he was skilful and could have done well without stealing.' THE MANCIPLE. A Manciple (the derivation of the word seems uncertain) is a servant of a college or inn-of-court who purchases provisions under the direction of the cook and the steward. Chaucer's Manciple was attached to a temple,' i.e. to one of the two inns-of-court (Inner and Middle Temple) which occupied the buildings of the old Knights Templar in the Strand at London. In an account of the Middle Temple (quoted by Robert Pearce, in his Guide to the Inns of Court (1855 ed., p. 276) from a manuscript of the time of Henry VIII. (Cotton Ms. Vitell. c. ix.), the wages of the steward are given as 53s. 4d., the chief cook received 40s., while "the manciple, or steward's servant, his wages by the year were 26s. 8d. A note informs us, 66 also at Easter the cook's manciple has in reward of every L gentleman of the house 12d. or therabouts," and if this refers to the same person his wage must thus have been considerably increased. As Chaucer, however, plainly hints, the Manciple had ways of making money independently of his wages and tips. In the Talks by the Road the hint is repeated, for when the Manciple lectures the Cook on his drunkenness, the tolerant Host remarks: "But yet, Manciple, in feith thou art to nyce1 Reclayme thee 2 and bringe thee to lure, 1 to nyce, too foolish. 2 reclayme thee, etc., pull you up short. I meene he speke wole of smale thynges, No, quod the Manciple, that were a greet mescheef ! and to propitiate the already drunken Cook he gives him a draught of wine from a 'gourd' he carries with him. According to Mr. Saunders it is this gourd or bottle that he is carrying in his hand in the Ellesmere picture, and Mr. Saunders is probably right. His coat is blue; its lining, as well as the cape, hose, and purse, red. 567. of a temple, i.e. of an inn of court, or college for lawyers. After the dissolution of the order of the Knights Templar in 1312 the house which they had built for themselves in the Strand in the reign of Henry II. was first bestowed on some royal favourites and ultimately by Edward III. on the Knights Hospitaller of S. John, who let it, it is said for a rent of £10, to the teachers and students of law who had previously occupied Thavies Inn, Holborn. The buildings were attacked and the lawyers' records destroyed by Wat Tyler, but the Temple is still occupied by the lawyers at the present day. 570. took by taille, i.e. on credit. The 'taille,' or tally, was a stick marked with notches to indicate payments. When split down the middle it provided debtor and creditor with identical records. The use of tallies in the Exchequer for certain purposes survived till about 1812. 581. by his propre good, on his own income. 582. wood, mad. 586. sette hir aller cappe: set the caps of, i.e. befooled, them all. Hir aller is the genitive plural. We find the phrase again in A 3143, 'a clerk hath set the wrightes cappe,' and in A 3911 the similar one, 'somdeel sette his howve.' A very slight alteration in the tilt of a hat will make the most respectable citizen look ridiculous. THE REEVE. It is fortunate that Chaucer's sketch of the Reeve presents no difficulties, as materials for illustrating it are unusually scanty. Except from the accounts of Robert Oldham, the bailiff of Cuxham in Roger's Agriculture and Prices in England (Vol. I.) there is little to be gleaned. In noting that Oldham was a serf of the manor, Prof. Skeat adds "as reeves always were"; but the Oldhams lived before the Black Death, in which the whole family perished, and it seems improbable that Chaucer's Reeve, who belongs to a period some forty years later, was a serf. The Ellesmere picture shows the Reeve wearing a blue coat, with a red hood and red 1 that were nat honeste, that would not be creditable. |