Cottage, cell. ↩
Discontent. ↩
Full. ↩
Contrivances, plots. ↩
Promised. ↩
Grandfather; French aieul. ↩
Pleasure. ↩
Cease speaking. ↩
That. ↩
Armour. ↩
Train, retinue. ↩
Rare. ↩
Embroidering. ↩
Headpieces, helmets; from the French teste, tete, head. ↩
Trappings. ↩
Ornamental garb; French, parer, to deck. ↩
Rubbing, polishing; Anglo-Saxon gnidan, to rub. ↩
Thongs; compare lanyards. ↩
Servants. ↩
As close as they can walk. ↩
Drums, used in the cavalry; Boccaccio’s word is nachere. ↩
Conversation. ↩
Conjecturing. ↩
Bald. ↩
Double-headed axe; Latin, bipennis. ↩
Conjecturing. ↩
Alike. ↩
Fetched, brought. ↩
Behest, command. ↩
Discourse. ↩
“Ho! Ho!” to command attention; like “Oyez,” the call for silence in law-courts or before proclamations. ↩
Done. ↩
Arrange, contrive. ↩
Kind of. ↩
Fence, thrust. ↩
Defend. ↩
In peril of distress. ↩
Happen. ↩
His equal, match. ↩
Sound. ↩
In orderly array. ↩
Serge, woollen cloth. ↩
First quarter, between six and nine a.m. ↩
Same, selfsame; German, derselbe. ↩
Bold demeanour. ↩
Equal. ↩
Arrange themselves in two ranks and rows. ↩
Fraud. ↩
Spurring, riding. ↩
Steadily. ↩
Concave part of the breast, where the lower ribs join the cartilago ensiformis. ↩
Strike in pieces; “to” before a verb implies extraordinary violence in the action denoted. ↩
Burst, shatter. ↩
Push his way; “he” refers impersonally to any of the combatants. ↩
Thrusteth. ↩
Afterwards taken. ↩
Covenant. ↩
Caused. ↩
Pleased. ↩
Those. ↩
Twice. ↩
Galapha, in Mauritania. ↩
Little. ↩
Mad. ↩
Seize, assail. ↩
By the bargain, that whoever was brought to the atake, or barrier, should be out of the fight. ↩
Fell. ↩
Contented. ↩
Lord. ↩
Keep silence. ↩
Rides from end to end. ↩
Generally speaking. ↩
Countenance, outward show. ↩
Stumble. ↩
Care. ↩
Pitched him on the top. ↩
Cut. ↩
Quickly; belive is still used in Scotland to mean by and by, immediately. ↩
Befallen. ↩
Discourage. ↩
Glad. ↩
Although. ↩
Especially. ↩
Pierced. ↩
The herb sage; Latin, salvia. ↩
Chance, accident. ↩
Dragged, hurried. ↩
Servants. ↩
Imputed to him as no disgrace. ↩
Call it cowardice. ↩
Caused to be proclaimed. ↩
Stop. ↩
Prize, merit. ↩
Day’s journey. ↩
Surgical skill. ↩
Left in his body. ↩
Neither opening veins nor cupping; French, ventouser, to cup. ↩
Sinew, muscle. ↩
Destroyed. ↩
Availeth. ↩
Work. ↩
Church. ↩
Spirit. ↩
The severance. ↩
So surely guide my soul. ↩
Humility. ↩
Overtaken, overcome. ↩
Gone. ↩
Grew him. ↩
Went whither I cannot tell you, as I was not there. ↩
Refrain. Tyrwhitt thinks that Chaucer is sneering at Boccacio’s pompous account of the passage of Arcite’s soul to heaven. Up to this point, the description of the death-scene is taken literally from the Theseida. ↩
Diviner; or divine. ↩
Guide. ↩
Gone. ↩
Rank, condition. ↩
Care; Latin, cura. ↩
Deliberates. ↩
Selfsame. ↩
A funeral pyre. ↩
Caused orders straightway to be given. ↩
Row. ↩
Logs, pieces. ↩
Well arranged to burn. ↩
Run. ↩
With face uncovered. ↩
Made by the people who saw him lie in state. ↩
With neglected beard, and rough hair strewn with ashes. “Flotery” is the general reading; but “sluttery” seems to be more in keeping with the picture of abandonment to grief. ↩
Un order that. ↩
Turkish. ↩
Burnished. ↩
