THE KNIGHTES TALE.

1. 3. governour. It should be observed that Chaucer continually accents words (of Romance origin) in the Norman-French manner, on the last syllable. Thus we have here governóur; again in the next line, conqueróur; in 1. 7, chivalríe; in l. II, contré; in l. 18, manére, &c. &c. The most remarkable examples are when the words end in -oun or -ing (ll. 25, 26, 35, 36).

1. 6. contre is here accented on the first syllable; in l. 11, on the last. This is a good example of the unsettled state of the accents of such words in Chaucer's time, which afforded him an opportunity of licence, which he freely uses.

1. 7. chivalrie, knightly exploits. In 1. 20, chivalrye-knights; Eng. chivalry.

1. 8. regne of Femynye. The kingdom (Lat. regnum) of the Amazons. Femenye is from Lat. fœmina, a woman.

1. 9. Citbea, Scythia.

1. 27. as-now, at present, at this time. Cf. the O.E. adverbs as-swithe, as-sone, immediately.

1. 31. I wol not lette eek non of al this route, I desire not to hinder eke (also) none of all this company. Wol desire; cf. I will have mercy,' &c. 1. 43. creature is a word of three syllables.

1. 45, nolde, would not: ne wolde was no doubt pronounced nolde, would not; so ne bath, hath not, is pronounced nath.

stenten, stop. 'She stinted, and cried aye.' (Romeo and Juliet.)

1. 50. that thus, i. e. ye that thus.

1. 54. alle is to be pronounced al-lè, but Tyrwhitt reads than, then, after alle.

1. 55. a dedly chere, a deathly countenance.

1. 60. we beseken, we beseech, ask for. For such double forms as beseken and besechen, cf. mod. Eng. dik and ditch, kirk and chirch, sack and satchel, stick and stitch. In the Early Eng. period the harder forms with & were very frequently employed by Northern writers, who preferred them to the softer Southern forms (introduced by the Norman French) with ch.

1. 68. This line means that no estate ensureth to be well.'

1. 70. Clemence, clemency.

1. 83. for despyt, out of vexation.

1. 84. To do the deede bodyes vileinye, to treat the dead bodies shamefully. 1. 90. withoute more respite, without longer delay.

1. 91. they fillen gruf, they fell flat with the face to the ground. In O.E. we find the phrase to fall grovelinges, or to fall groveling.

1. 96. him thoughte, it seemed to him; cf. methinks, it seems to me. In O. E. the verbs like, list, seem, rue (pity), are used impersonally, and take the dative case of the pronoun. Cf. the modern expression if you please' = if it be pleasing to you.

1. 102. ferforthly, i. e. far-forth-like, to such an extent, as far as.

1. 107. abood, delay, awaiting, abiding.

1. 108. his baner be displayeth, i. e. he summoneth his troops to assemble for military service.

1. 110. No nerre, no nearer.

1. 119. feeldes, field, is an heraldic term for the ground upon which the various charges, as they are called, are emblazoned. The whole of this description is taken from the Thebais, lib. xii.

1. 130. in pleyn bataille, in open or fair fight.

1. 146. as bim leste, as it pleased him.

1. 147. tas, heap, collection. Some MSS. read cas (caas), which may= downfall, ruin, Lat. casus.

1. 152. Thurgh-girt, pierced through.

1. 153. liggyng by and by, lying separately. In later English, by and by signifies presently, immediately, as the end is not by and by."

1. 154. in oon armes, in one (kind of) arms or armour, showing that they belonged to the same house.

1. 157. Nat fully quyke, not wholly alive.

1. 158. by here coote-armures, by their coat armour, by the devices on the armour covering the breast.

by bere gere, by their gear, i. e. equipments.

1. 160. they. Tyrwhitt reads tho, those.

1. 165. Tathenes, to Athens.

1. 166. be nolde no ranceoun, he would accept of no ransom.

1. 171. Terme of bis lyf, the remainder of his life.

1. 180. strof bire bewe, strove her hue, i. e. her complexion contested the superiority.

1. 181. I not, I know not; not=ne wot.

1. 189. May. Against Maie, every parishe, towne, and village, assembled themselves together, bothe men, women, and children, olde and yonge, even all indifferently, and either going all together or devidying themselves into companies, they goe, some to the woodes and groves, some to the hills and mountaines, some to one place, some to another, when they spend all the night in pastimes; in the morninge they return, bringing with them birche, bowes and branches of trees, to deck their assemblies withalle.' (Stubbs, Anatomy of Abuses, p. 94.)

To do observance to a morn of May.' Cp. Midsummer Night's Dream, i. 1. 167.

1. 191. Hire yelwe beer was browded, her yellow hair was braided.

1. 193. the sonne upriste, the sun's uprising; the -e in sonne represents the old genitive inflexion.

1. 194. as hire liste, as it pleased her.

1. 195. party, partly; Fr. en partie.

1. 196. sotil gerland, a subtle garland; subtle has here the exact force of the Lat. subtilis, finely woven.

1. 202. evene joynyng, closely joining, or adjoining.

1. 203. Ther as this Emily hadde hire pleyynge, i. e. where she was amusing herself.

1. 216. by aventure or cas, by adventure or hap.

1. 218. sparre, a square wooden bolt; the bars, which were of iron, were as thick as they must have been if wooden. See 1. 132.

1. 220. bleynte, the past tense of blenche, or blenke (to blink), to start, draw back suddenly.

1. 233. the schort and pleyn, the brief and manifest statement of the case. 1. 243. whether, to be pronounced wher. Some MS. reads where, a very common form for whether.

1. 247. Yow (used reflexively), yourself.

1. 248. wrecche, wretched, is a word of two syllables, like wikke, wicked, where the d is a later and unnecessary addition.

=

1. 250. schape schapen, shaped, determined. Shapes our ends.' (Shakespeare.)

1. 262. And except I have her pity and her favour.

1. 263. atte leste weye, at the least.

1. 264. I am not but (no better than) dead, there is no more to say. Chaucer uses ne-but much in the same way as the Fr. ne-que. Cp. North English, I'm nobbut clemmed' I am almost dead of hunger.

1. 268. by my fey, by my faith, in good faith.

1. 269. me lust ful evele pleye, it pleaseth me very badly to play.

1. 271. It nere= it were not, it would not be.

1. 275. That never, even though it cost us a miserable death.

1. 276. Till that death shall part us two.

1. 278. cas, case. It properly means event, hap. See 1. 216. my leeve brother, my dear brother.

1. 283. out of doute, without doubt, doubtless.

1. 289. counseil, advice. See 1. 303.

1. 293. I dar wel sayn, I dare maintain.

1. 295. thou schalt be. Chaucer occasionally uses shall in the sense of owe, so that the true sense of I shall is I owe (Lat. debeo); it expresses a strong obligation. So here it is not so much the sign of a future tense as a separate verb, and the sense is Thou art sure to be false sooner than I am.'

1. 297. par amour, with love, in the way of love. To love par amour is an old phrase for to love excessively.

1. 300. affeccioun of bolynesse, a sacred affection, or aspiration after. 1. 304. I pose, I put the case, I will suppose.

1. 305. Knowest thou not well the old writer's saying? The olde clerke is Boethius, from whose book, De Consolatione, Chaucer has borrowed largely in many places. The passage alluded to is in lib. iii. met. 12:— Quis legem det amantibus?

Major lex amor est sibi.'

1. 309. and such decré, and (all) such ordinances.

1. 310. in ech degree, in every rank of life.

1. 314. and eek it is, &c., and moreover it is not likely that ever in all thy

life thou wilt stand in her favour.

1. 328. everych of us, each of us, every one of us.

1. 331. to the effect, to the result, or end.

1. 342. in belle.

An allusion to Theseus accompanying Perithous in his expedition to carry off Proserpina, daughter of Aidoneus, king of the Molos. sians, when both were taken prisoners, and Perithous torn in pieces by the dog Cerberus.

1. 354. o stounde, one moment, any short interval of time.

1. 360. bis nekke lith to wedde, his neck is in jeopardy.

1. 364. To slen himself be wayteth pryvyly, he watches for an opportunity to slay himself unperceived.

1. 367. now is me schape, now am I destined; literally, now is it shapen (or appointed) for me.

1. 379. paradys must be pronounced as a word of two syllables (parays), and is often found written so in old English writers

1. 399. And another man would fain (get) out of his prison.

1. 401. mateere, in the matter of thinking to excel God's providence. 1. 402. We wi/ ten nat / what thing we pray / en heere, We never know what thing it is that we pray for here below. See Romans viii. 26.

1. 404. This is from Boethius, De Consolatione, lib. iii. pr. 2: But I returne again to the studies of men, of which men the corage always reherseth and seeketh the soveraine good, al be it so that it be with a dyrked memory; but he not by whiche pathe, right as a dronken man note nought by which pathe be may returne bome to his house.' (Chaucer's Translation of Boethius.)

1. 421. pure fettres, the very fetters. So in the Duchesse, v. 583, the pure deth. The Greeks used kalapós in the same sense. (Tyrwhitt.)

1. 425. at thi large at large.

1. 459. to letten of bis wille, to refrain from his will (or lusts).

1. 486. upon his beed. Froissart has sur sa teste, sur la teste, and sur peine de la teste.

1. 489. this question. An implied allusion to the medieval courts of love, in which questions of this kind were seriously discussed. (Wright.)

1. 508. making bis moone, making his complaint or moan.

11. 514-517. And in his manner for all the world he conducted himself not like one suffering from the lover's melancholy of Eros, but rather (his disease was) like mania engendered of 'humour melancholy.'

1. 518. in his selle fantastyk. Tyrwhitt reads Beforne his bed in his celle fantastike. The division of the brain into cells, according to the different sensitive faculties, is very ancient, and is found depicted in medieval manuscripts. The fantastic cell (fantasia) was in front of the head. (Wright.) 1. 547. bar him low, conducted himself as one of low estate. 1. 586. sleighly, prudently, wisely. The O. E. sleigh, sly, wise, knowing; and slight wisdom, knowledge. (For change of meaning compare cunning, originally knowledge; craft, originally power; art, &c.)

'Ne swa sleygh payntur never nan was,
Thogh his sleght mught alle other pas,

=

That couthe ymagyn of þair [devils'] gryslynes.'

(Hampole's Pricke of Consc. II. 2308, 2309.)

1. 605. The third night is followed by the fourth day; so Palamon and Arcite meet on the 4th of May (1. 715), which was a Friday (1. 676), and the first hour of which (1. 635) was dedicated to Venus (1. 678) and to lover's vows (1. 643).

1. 613. clarré. The French term claré seems simply to have denoted a clear transparent wine, but in its most usual sense a compound drink of wine with honey and spices, so delicious as to be comparable to the nectar

of the gods. In Sloan MS. 1. 2584, f. 173, the following directions are found for making clarré :- Take a galoun of honi, and skome (skim) it wel, and loke whanne it is isoden (boiled) that ther be a galoun; thanne take viii galouns of red wyn, than take a pounde of pouder canel (cinnamon), and a half a pounde of pouder gynger, and a quarter of a pounde of pouder pepper, and medle (mix) alle these thynges togeder and (with) the wyn; and do hym in a clene barelle, and stoppe it fast, and rolle it wel ofte sithes, as men don verjous iii dayes.' (Way.)

1. 619. needes-cost, for needes coste, by the force of necessity. It seems to be equivalent to O. E. needes-wyse, of necessity.

1. 664. Veld haued hege, and wude haueð heare,' i. e. 'Field hath eyes, and wood hath ears.'.

Campus habet lumen, et habet nemus auris acumen.' This old proverb, with Latin version, occurs in MS. Trin. Coll. Cam. O. 2. 45, and is quoted by Mr. T. Wright in his Essays on England in the Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 168.

1. 666. atte unset stevene, at a meeting not previously fixed upon, an unexpected meeting or appointment.

1. 673. bere queynte geeres, their strange behaviours.

1. 674. Now in the top (i. e. elevated, in high spirits), now down in the briars (i. e. depressed, in low spirits).

'Allas! where is this worldes stabilnesse?

Here up, bere doune; here honour, here repreef;
Now hale, now sike; now bounté, now myscheef.'

(Occleve, De Reg. Princip. p. 2.)

1. 675. boket in a welle. cp. Shakespeare's Richard II. iv. 1. 184.

1. 679. A writer in Notes and Queries quotes the following Devonshire proverb Fridays in the week are never aleek.'

1. 708. Compare Legend of Goode Women,—

'Sens first that day that schapen was my sherte,
Or by the fatal suster had my dome.'

1. 735. I drede not, I have no fear, I doubt not.

11. 735, 736. other..
... or either... or.

1. 764. to borwe.

pledge. See 1. 360.

This expression has the same force as to wedde, in

1. 768. his thonkes, willingly, with his good will. Cp. O. E. myn untbonkes = ingratis.

1. 807. bath seyn byforn, hath seen before, hath foreseen.

1. 818. ther daweth him no day, no day dawns upon him.

1. 820. bonte is here written for bunte, hunter.

1. 848. Hoo, an exclamation made by heralds, to stop the fight. It was also used to enjoin silence. See 1. 1667.

1. 878. it am I. This is the regular construction in early English. In modern English the pronoun it is regarded as the direct nominative, and I as forming part of the predicate.

1. 881. Therefore I ask my death and my doom.

1. 889. Mars the reede. Boccaccio uses the same epithet in the opening of his Teseide: O rubiconde Marte.' Reede refers to the colour of the planet. 1. 922. can no divisioun, knows no distinction.