The Canterbury Tales

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Work. ↩

Unless. ↩

This is the best counsel that I know. ↩

Hinder. ↩

Pleasures. ↩

Moderately. ↩

Alarmed, afraid. ↩

Was named. ↩

Writing and bond. ↩

Crossed. ↩

Prayed that. ↩

Secure. ↩

Delicate. ↩

Poured out; from Anglo-Saxon, scencan. ↩

Marcianus Capella, who wrote a kind of philosophical romance, De Nuptiis Mercurii et Philologiae. “Her” and “him,” two lines after, like “he” applied to Theodomas, are prefixed to the proper names for emphasis, according to the Anglo-Saxon usage. ↩

That same, that. ↩

Know. ↩

Countenance. ↩

Afraid. ↩

Gone away. ↩

Mad. ↩

Fainted. ↩

Bewail. ↩

Domestic; belonging to the familia, or household. ↩

Offers. ↩

Domestic servant; from Anglo-Saxon, hiwa. Tyrwhitt reads “false of holy hue;” but Mr. Wright has properly restored the reading adopted in the text. ↩

Born; owing to January faith and loyalty because born in his household. ↩

Dishonour, outrage. ↩

Enemy in the household. ↩

Diurnal. ↩

Pleasant company. ↩

Eager. ↩

Spiced wine. ↩

A wine believed to have come from Crete, although its name⁠—Italian, Vernaccia⁠—seems to be derived from Verona. ↩

A medical author who wrote about 1080; his works were printed at Basle in 1536. ↩

Curtains. ↩

Mate, consort. ↩

Dogfish. ↩

Briar. ↩

No matter. ↩

Wantonness. ↩

Quavered in his singing. ↩

Discover, betray. ↩

Risk. ↩

Writing-case, carried about by clerks or scholars. ↩

That. ↩

Nearly all the manuscripts read “in two of Taure;” but Tyrwhitt has shown that, setting out from the second degree of Taurus, the moon, which in the four complete days that Maius spent in her chamber could not have advanced more than fifty-three degrees, would only have been at the twenty-fifth degree of Gemini⁠—whereas, by reading “ten,” she is brought to the third degree of Cancer. ↩

Hindered. ↩

Grieves, causes uneasiness. ↩

Secret, trusty. ↩

When only I have rested me a little. ↩

Then. ↩

Saw. ↩

Or kidde, past participle of “kythe” or “kithe,” to show or discover. ↩

Fragments. ↩

Is thoughtful. ↩

Whether she were willing or reluctant. ↩

Precise, overnice; French, precieux, affected. ↩

Let him judge. ↩

To satisfy his desire. ↩

Generosity. ↩

Closely consider. ↩

Die. ↩

Or “pruned;” carefully trimmed and dressed himself. The word is used in falconry of a hawk when she picks and trims her feathers. ↩

A dog attending a hunter with the bow. ↩

Writers, scholars. ↩

Prepared, arranged. ↩

Honourably, suitably. ↩

Which opens with a description of a beautiful garden. ↩

Tell, describe. ↩

Son of Bacchus and Venus: he was regarded as the promoter of fertility in all agricultural life, vegetable and animal; while not only gardens, but fields, flocks, bees⁠—and even fisheries⁠—were supposed to be under his protection. ↩

Fountain. ↩

Pleasure. ↩

Key. ↩

Unshut, opened. ↩

Deceitful. ↩

Strange. ↩

Both great and small. ↩

Pleasure. ↩

Mate. ↩

He could not cease to be jealous continually. ↩

Unless. ↩

Pleased. ↩

Expected. ↩

Burst. ↩

Unless. ↩

End, aim. ↩

Deceived; by Mercury, see note 405. ↩

Think confidently. ↩

Taken an impression of the key. ↩

Learn. ↩

They exchanged the assurances of their love; came. ↩

Whispering. ↩

It befell, it happened. ↩

Inciting. ↩

Wet. See Song of Solomon, chap. II. ↩

Dove’s eyes. ↩

Rather. ↩

Chose. ↩

Covetousness. ↩

Surely. ↩

Blame. ↩

Dissimilar, incompatible. ↩

Die not. ↩

Cause. ↩

Cause. ↩

Drown. ↩

Reproof. ↩

Mate. ↩

Pear-tree. ↩

“That fair field,
Of Enna, where Proserpine, gath’ring flowers,
Herself a fairer flow’r, by gloomy Dis
Was gather’d.”

Milton, Paradise Lost, IV 268.

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Fetched. ↩

Deny. ↩

Inconstancy. ↩

Knows. ↩

Goodness. ↩

See Ecclesiastes 7:28. ↩

Jesus, the son of Sirach, to whom is ascribed one of the books