THE KNIGHTES TALE.

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

1. 6. contre is here accented on the first syllable; in 1. II, 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. So also in l. 124.

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

1. 9. Cithea, Scythia.

1. 10. Ipolita, Shakespeare's Hippolyta, in Mids. Night's Dream.

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 rowte, I desire not to hinder eke (also) none of all this company. Elles. reads letten eek noon of this route.

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 barb, hath not, was pronounced nath.

stenten, stop. 'She stinted, and cried aye.' (Romeo and Juliet, i. 3. 48.)

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

1. 53. clothed thus (Elles.); clad thus al (Harl.).

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 k were very frequently employed by Northern writers, who preferred them to the softer Southern forms (introduced by the Norman-French) with ch.

brig and rigg with bridge and ridge.

I. 68. This line means that ensureth no estate to be good.'

1. 70. Clemence, clemency.

Cp. O. E.

1. 74. Capaneus, one of the seven heroes who besieged Thebes: struck dead by lightning as he was scaling the walls of the city, because he had defied Zeus.

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.

L

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. 97. maat, dejected. 'Ententyfly not feynt, wery ne mate.' (Hardyng, p. 129.)

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 he desplayeth, 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 taken from the Thebais, lib. xii.

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

1. 135. obsequies (Elles., &c.); exequies (Harl.): accented on the second syllable.

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

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

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1. 148. herneys. And arma be not taken onely for the instruments of al maner of crafts, but also for harneys and weapon; also standards and banners, and sometimes battels.' (Bossewell's Armorie, p. 1, ed. 1597.) Cp. l. 755.

1. 152. Thurgh-girt, pierced through. This line occurs again in Troilus, iv. 599: Thorwgh-gyrt with many wyde and blody wounde.'

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

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

1. 165. Tathenes, to Athens.

1. 166. he nolde no raunsoun, he would accept of no ransom.

1. 171. Terme of his lyf, the remainder of his life. Cp. The end and term of natural philosophy.' (See Bacon's Advancement of Learning, Bk. ii. p. 129, ed. Aldis Wright.)

1. 180. strof hire hewe, strove her hue, i. e. her complexion contested the superiority with the rose's colour.

1. 181. I not, I know not; not=ne wot. For fayrer Elles. has fyner.

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

See also 1. 642.

1. 191. Hire yelwe heer 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 joynant, closely joining, or adjoining.

203. Ther as this Emelye 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. 229. Som wikke aspect. "Cp. "wykked planetes, as Saturne or Mars," Astrolabe, ii. 4. 21; notes in Wright's edition, 11. 2453, 2457; and Piers the Plowman, B. vi. 327. Add to these the description of Saturn, "Significat in quartanis, lepra, scabie, in mania, carcere, submersione, &c. Est infortuna." Johannis Hispalensis, Isagoge in Astrologiam, cap. xv. See Knightes Tale, 11. 470, 1576, 1611.' (Skeat's Astrolabe, xlviii.)

1. 233. the schort and pleyn, the brief and manifest statement of the case. 1. 243. whether, to be pronounced wher. Some MSS. read where, a very common form for whether. This line is also in Troilus, i. 425.

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, Hamlet, v. 2. 10.)

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

1. 263. atte leste weye, at the least. Cf. leastwise at the leastwise; at leastwise. (Bacon's Advancement of Learning, ed. Wright, p. 147, 1, 23.) See English Bible (Preface of The Translators to the Reader').

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, a death by torture. So in Troilus, i. 674: That certein, for to dyen in the peyne.' 1. 276. Till that death shall part us two. Cp. the ingenious alteration in the Marriage Service, where the phrase 'till death us depart' was altered into do part' in 1661.

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 holynesse, 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 theffect, to the result, or end.

1. 342. in helle.

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

1. 354. o stound, one moment, any short interval of time. 'The storme sesed within a stownde.'

Most MSS. read or stounde.

(Ywaine and Gawin, l. 384.)

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

1. 364. To slen himself he wayteth pryvely, 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. Some MSS. omit in. 1. 389. It was supposed that all things were made of the four elements mentioned 1. 388. Does not our life consist of the four elements?' (Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, ii. 3. 10.)

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. 403. dronke is as a mous. The phrase seems to have given way to 'drunk as a rat.' Thus satte they swilling and carousyng, one to another, till they were both as dronke as rattes.' (Anatomie of Abuses.)

I am a Flemyng, what for all that,

Although I wyll be dronken otherwhyles as a rat.'

(Andrew Boorde, ed. Furnivall, p. 147.) 1. 404. This is from Boethius, De Consolatione, lib. iii. pr. 2: But returne again to the studies of men, of which men the corage always reherseth and seeketh the soveraine good, al be so that it be with a dyrked memory; but he not by whiche pathe, right as a dronken man note nought by which pathe he may returne home to his house.' (Chaucer's Translation of Boethius.)

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

1. 425. at thi large, at large.

1. 444. White like box wood, or ashen-gray; cf. l. 506.

1. 459. to letten of his wille, to refrain from his will (or lusts). 1. 486. upon his heed.

peine de la teste.

Froissart has sur sa teste, sur la teste, and sur

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

1. 508. making his 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 hed in his celle fantastike. Elles. has Byforn his owene celle fantastik. The division of the brain into cells, according to the different sensitive faculties, is very ancient, and is found depicted in mediæval manuscripts. The fantastic cell (fantasia) was in front of the head. (Wright.)

1. 532. Argus, Argus of the hundred eyes, whom Mercury charmed to sleep before slaying him.

1. 547. bar him lowe, conducted himself as one of low estate.

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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.)

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'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., 11. 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 lovers' vows (1, 643). (Skeat.)

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,