the river Malva (Cellar. Geog. Ant. vii. p. 935), which perhaps may have given name to the vale here meant. (Tyrwhitt.) But perhaps Chaucer was thinking of the Vale of Gargaphie :—

Vallis erat piceis, et acutâ densa cupressa,

Nomine Gargaphie, succinctae sacra Dianae.'

1. 1817. Which, what, how great.

(Ovid Met. iii. 155, 156.)

1. 1825. al his cheere may mean 'altogether his, in countenance,' as she was so really in his heart.

1. 1838. Then was he cut out of his armour.

1. 1840. in memory, conscious.

1. 1853. As a remedy for (to) other wounds, &c.

11. 1854, 1855. charmes. . . save. It may be observed that the salves, charms, and pharmacies of herbs were the principal remedies of the physician in the age of Chaucer. save (salvia, the herb sage) was considered one of the most universally efficient mediaval remedies (Wright); whence the proverb of the school of Salerno,

'Cur moriatur homo,

Dum salvia crescit in horto?"

1. 1864. nis not but is only.

1. 1867. O persone, one person.

1. 1878. dayes thre. Wright says the period of three days was the usual duration of a feast among our early forefathers. As far back as the seventh century, when Wilfred consecrated his church at Ripon, he held magnum convivium trium dierum et noctium reges cum omni populo lætificantes.' (Eddius, Vit. S. Wilf. c. 17.)

1. 1903. This al and som, one and all said this-that Arcite must die. Some editors explain the phrase as this (is) the al and som, i. e. this is the short and long of it.

1. 1942. overcome. Tyrwhitt reads overnome, overtaken, the p.p. of overnimen.

1. 1957. ther Mars, &c., O that Mars would, &c.; may Mars, &c.

1. 1964. such sorwe, so great sorrow.

1. 2027. And surpassing others in weeping came Emily.

This sentiment is taken fron.

1. 2070. Amadrydes is a corruption of Hamadryades. 1. 2104. in no disjoynt, with no disadvantage. 1. 2133-2135. that fayre cheyne of love. Boethius, lib. ii. met. 8: þat þe world with stable feith / varieth acordable chaungynges // bat the contraryos qualite of element; holden amonge hem self aliaunce perdurable / þat phebus the sonne with his goldene chariet/ bryngeth forth the rosene day / þat the mone hath commaundement ouer the nyhtes // whiche nyhtes hesperus the eue sterre hat[h] browt // þat þe se gredy to flowen constreyneth with a certeyn ende hise floodes / so þat it is nat [e]ueful to strechche hise brode termes or bowndes vpon the erthes // þat is to seyn to couere alle the erthe // Al this a-cordaunce of thinges is bownden with looue / þat gouerneth erthe and see and [he] hath also commaundement to the heuenes and yif this looue slakede the brydelis / alle thinges pat now louen hem togederes / wolden maken a batayle contynuely and stryuen to fordoon the fasoun of this worlde / the which they now leden

in acordable feith by fayre moeuynges // this looue halt to gideres peoples / ioygned with an hooly bond/ and knytteth sacrement of maryages of chaste looues // And love enditeth lawes to trewe felawes // O weleful weere mankynde/yif thilke loue bat gouerneth heuene gouerned[e] yowre corages.' (Chaucer's Boethius, ed. Morris.)

1. 2136. What follows is taken from Boethius, lib. iv. pr. 6: 'þe engendrynge of alle binges quod she and alle be progressiouns of muuable nature. and alle þat moeueb in any manere takiþ hys causes. hys ordre. and hys formes. of þe stablenesse of þe deuyne þouzt [and thilke deuyne thowht] þat is yset and put in þe toure. þat is to seyne in þe hey3t of þe simplicite of god. stablisip many manere gyses to pinges pat ben to don.' (Chaucer's Boethius, ed. Morris.)

1. 2147. Chaucer again is indebted to Boethius, lib. iii. pr. 10, for what follows: For al þing þat is cleped inperfit. is proued inperfit by be amenusynge of perfeccioun. or of þing þat is perfit. and her of comep it. þat in euery þing general. yif þat. þat men seen any þing þat is inperfit. certys in þilke general þer mot ben somme þing þat is perfit. For yif so be þat perfeccioun is don awey. men may nat þinke nor seye fro whennes pilke þing is pat is cleped inperfit. For he nature of pinges ne taken nat her bygynnyng of pinges amenused and imperfit. but it procedip of pingus pat ben al hool. and absolut. and descendep so doune into outerest pinges and into pingus empty and wipoute fruyt. but as I haue shewed a litel her byforne. þat yif þer be a blysfulnesse þat be frele and vein and inperfit. þer may no man doute. þat þer nys som blisfulnesse pat is sad stedfast and perfit.'

1. 2158. sen at eye, see at a glance.

1. 2231. aughte passe right, should surpass mere equity or justice.

THE NONNE PRESTES TALE.

1. 1. stope. Lansd. MS. reads stoupe, as if it signified bent, stooped. It is, however, the past participle of the verb steppen, to step, advance. Stope in age-advanced in years. Roger Ascham has almost the same phrase: And [Varro] beyng depe stept in age, by negligence some wordes do scape and fall from him in those bookes as be not worth the taking up,' &c. (The Scholemaster, ed. Mayor, p. 189.)

1. 8. by bousbondry, by economy.

1. 12. Ful sooty was hire bour, and eek hire kalle. The widow's house consisted of only two apartments, designated by the terms bower and hall. Whilst the widow and her daughters two' slept in the bower, chanticleer and his seven wives roosted on a perch in the hall, and the swine ensconced themselves on the floor. The smoke of the fire had to find its way through (See Our English Home, pp. 139, 140.)

the crevices of the roof.

1. 19. bertes suffisaunce, a satisfied or contented mind; literally heart's satisfaction. Cp. our phrase to your heart's content.'

6

1. 22. wyn. . . whit nor reed. The white wine was sometimes called the wine of Ossey;' the red wine of Gascony, sometimes called Mountrose,' was deemed a liquor for a lord. (See Our English Home, p. 83.) See Piers Pl. prol.

1. 25. seynd bacoun, singed or broiled bacon.

an ey or tweye, an egg or two.

1. 26. deye. The daia is mentioned in Domesday among assistants in husbandry; and the term is again found in 2nd Stat. 25 Edward III (A.D. 1351). In Stat. 37 Edward III (A.D. 1363), the deye is mentioned among others of a certain rank, not having goods or chattels of 40s. value. The deye was mostly a female, whose duty was to make butter and cheese, attend to the calves and poultry, and other odds and ends of the farm. The dairy (in some parts of England, as in Shropshire, called a dey-house) was the department assigned to her.

1. 31. orgon. This is put for orgons or organs. It is plain, from goon in the next line, that Chaucer meant to use this word as a plural from the Lat. organa.

37. Fifteen degrees of the equinoctial = an exact hour. See note to 1. 374.

1. 40. and batayld. Lansd. MS. reads embateled, indented like a battlement. 1. 41. as the geet, like the jet. Beads used for the repetition of prayers were frequently formed of jet.

1. 50. damysel Pertelote. Cp. our 'Dame Partlet.'

1. 54. in bold, in possession.

1. 55. loken in every lith, locked in every limb.

1. 59. my liefe is faren on londe, my beloved is gone away. Probably the refrain of a popular song of the time.

1. 69. berte deere. This expression corresponds to 'dear heart,' or 'deary heart,' which still survives in some parts of the country.

=

1. 73. take it agreef take it in grief, i.e. to take it amiss, to be offended.

1. 74. me mette, I dreamed; literally it dreamed to me.

1. 76. my sweven rede aright, bring my dream to a good issue; literally 'interpret my dream favourably.'

1. 80. was lik. The relative that is often omitted by Chaucer before a relative clause.

1. 104. fume, the effects arising from drunkenness.

1. 118. That cause many a man in sleep to be very distressed.

1. 120. Caloun. Cato de Moribus, 1. ii. dist. 32; somnia ne cures. I observe by the way, that this distich is quoted by John of Salisbury, Polycrat. 1. ii. c. 16, as a precept viri sapientis. In another place, 1. vii. c. 9, he introduces his quotation of the first verse of dist. 20 (1. iii.) in this manner :Ait vel Cato vel alius, nam autor incertus est." (Tyrwhitt.)

66

1. 121. do no force of = take no notice of.

1. 150. graunt mercy; this in later authors is corrupted into grammercy. 1. 156. so mot I the, so may I thrive (or prosper).

1. 164. oon of the gretteste auctours. Cicero, De Divin. l. i. c. 27, relates this and the following story, but in a different order, and with so many other differences, that one might be led to suspect that he was here quoted at second-hand, if it were not usual with Chaucer, in these stories of familiar life, to throw in a number of natural circumstances, not to be found in his original authors. (Tyrwhitt.)

I. 184. oxe stalle. Oxe is here a dissyllable. It is not quite certain that oxe stalle is a compound = ox-stall; it seems rather to be for the older English oxan stalle, the stall of an ox-oxe standing for oxen (as in Oxenford, see note on 1. 285 of Prologue), of an ox.

1. 190. took of this no keep, took no heed of this, paid no attention to it. 1. 201. soth to sayn, to say (tell) the truth.

1. 222. gapinge. The phrase gapyng upright occurs elsewhere (see Knightes Tale, 1. 1150), and signifies lying flat on the back with the mouth

open.

1. 225. barrow, a cry of distress; a cry for help.

1. 264. And prayde him his viage for to lette, And prayed him to abandon his journey.

1. 265. to abyde, to postpone his voyage.

1. 269. my thinges, my business matters.

1. 290. Kenelm succeeded his father Kenulph on the throne of the Mercians in 821, at the age of seven years, and was murdered by order of his aunt, Quenedreda. He was subsequently made a saint, and his legend will be found in Capgrave, or in the Golden Legend. (Wright.)

1. 297. for traisoun, i. e. for fear of treason.

1. 304. Cipioun. The Somnium Scipionis of Macrobius was a favourite work during the middle ages.

1. 321. lo hire Andromacha. Andromache's dream is not to be found in Homer. It is related in chapter xxiv. of Dares Phrygius, the authority for the history of the Trojan war most popular in the middle ages. (Tyrwhitt.)

1. 331. as for conclusioun, in conclusion.

1. 334. telle... no store, set no store by them; reckon them of no value; count them as useless.

1. 336. never a del, never a whit, not in the slightest degree.

11. 343-346. By way of quiet retaliation for Partlet's sarcasm, he cites a Latin proverbial saying, in 1. 344, Mulier est hominis confusio,' which he turns into a pretended compliment by the false translation in ll. 345, 346. (Marsh.)

1. 354. lay, for that lay. Chaucer omits the relative, as is frequently done in Early English poetry.

1. 374. The day spoken of is May 3, as one month (April) and two days are past since March ended. On May 3 in Chaucer's time the sun was in the twenty-first degree of Taurus. This answers to May II now, when the sun rises at a quarter past four. Supposing twenty-one degrees of the ecliptic to ascend obliquely, we shall find that in that time the right equinoctial ascension is nearly fifteen degrees or about sixty minutes in time, which brings us to about a quarter past five. And this is what is here meant by prime, as is clear from 1. 37. Prime is not necessarily six o'clock, but varies according to the time of the year, depending on the artificial day. Tyrwhitt's calculation has reference to vertical or direct altitudes of the sun, which does not seem here to be intended. (Skeat.)

1. 390. col-fox, a treacherous fox. Tyrwhitt quotes Heywood for coleprophets and colepoysoun. See Glossary for the explanation of the prefix col.

1. 419. bulte it to the bren, sift the matter; cp. the phrase to boult the bran. 1. 421. Boece, i. e. Boethius.

Bradwardyn. Thomas Bradwardine was Proctor in the University of Oxford in the year 1325, and afterwards became Divinity Professor and Chancellor of the University. His chief work is On the Cause of God' (De Causâ Dei). See Morley's English Writers, ii. p. 62.

1. 423. for was probably inserted by the scribe, who did not know that needely was a word of three syllables. See 1. 424, where it is properly written.

1. 449. Phisiologus. He alludes to a book in Latin metre, entitled Physiologus de Naturis xii. Animalium, by one Theobaldus, whose age is not known. The chapter De Sirenis begins thus :—

'Sirenae sunt monstra maris resonantia magnis,

Vocibus et modulis cantus formantia multis,

Ad quas incaute veniunt saepissime nautae,

Quæ faciunt sompnum nimia dulcedine vocum.' (Tyrwhitt.)

1. 479. So Havelok, l. 2545 :—

So mote ich brouke mi Rith eie!'

And l. 1743-So mote ich brouke finger or to.'

And 1. 311-So brouke i euere mi blake swire!' swire = neck.

1. 491. daun Burnel the Asse. The story alluded to is in a poem of Nigellus Wireker, entitled Burnellus seu Speculum Stultorum, written in the time of Richard I. In the Chester Whitsun Playes, Burnell is used as a nickname for an ass. The original was probably brunell, from its brown colour; as the fox below is called Russel, from its red colour. (Tyrwhitt.)