Poppering, or Poppeling, a parish in the marches of Calais of which the famous antiquary Leland was once Rector. ↩
Either pain de matin, morning bread, or pain de Maine, because it was made best in that province; a kind of fine white bread. ↩
Or rudde; complexion. ↩
Cordovan; fine Spanish leather, so called from the name of the city where it was prepared ↩
A rich Oriental stuff of silk and gold, of which was made the circular robe of state called a “ciclaton,” from the Latin, cyclas. The word is French. ↩
A Genoese coin, of small value; in our old statutes called gallihalpens, or galley halfpence. ↩
Fruit of the dog-rose, hip. ↩
Mounted. ↩
Spear; azagay is the name of a Moorish weapon, and the identity of termination is singular. ↩
Befallen. ↩
Valerian. ↩
Clove-gilliflower; Caryophyllus hortensis. ↩
Sparrowhawk. ↩
Mad. ↩
Inclination, spirit. ↩
This. ↩
Mistress. ↩
Shirt, garment. ↩
Assuredly. ↩
Haunt. ↩
Literally, “Sir Elephant;” Sir John Mandeville calls those animals “Olyfauntes.” ↩
Young man. ↩
A pagan or Saracen deity, otherwise named Tervagan, and often mentioned in Middle Age literature. His name has passed into our language, to denote a ranter or blusterer, as be was represented to be. ↩
Unless. ↩
Thrive. ↩
Suffer for. ↩
Belly. ↩
Slain. ↩
Whisper. ↩
Cause. ↩
Tellers of tales of adventure and chivalry. ↩
So called because they related to Charlemagne and his family. ↩
Drinking-bowl of maple. ↩
Tried, refined. ↩
Put on, donned. ↩
Skin. ↩
Fine lawn. ↩
Cassock. ↩
Sleeves and gorget of mail. ↩
Plate-armour. ↩
Magicians’. ↩
Knight’s surcoat. ↩
Fight. ↩
Carbuncle; French, escarboucle; a heraldic device. ↩
Boots; from French, jambe, the leg. ↩
Cuir boulli, French, boiled or prepared leather; also used to cover shields, etc. ↩
Brass, or latten. ↩
No satisfactory explanation has been furnished of this word, used to describe some material from which rich saddles were made. ↩
Division of a metrical romance. ↩
Try. ↩
Tale, discourse, from Anglo-Saxon, spellian, to declare, tell a story. ↩
Gallantry. ↩
Worth, esteem. ↩
Sir Bevis of Hampton, and Sir Guy of Warwick, two knights of great renown. ↩
One of Arthur’s knights, called “Ly beau desconus,” “the fair unknown.” ↩
Glowed, shone as he rode. ↩
Torch. ↩
Harm. ↩
Adventurous. ↩
Lie. ↩
Pillow; from Anglo-Saxon, wangere, because the wanges; or cheeks, rested on it. ↩
Destrier, French, a warhorse; in Latin, dextrarius, as if led by the right hand. ↩
Sir Percival de Galois, whose adventures were written in more than 60,000 verses by Chretien de Troyes, one of the oldest and best French romancers, in 1191. ↩
Illiterates, stupidity. Chaucer crowns the satire on the romanticists by making the very landlord of the Tabard cry out in indignant disgust against the stuff which he had heard recited—the good Host ascribing to sheer ignorance the string of pompous platitudes and prosaic details which Chaucer had uttered. ↩
Surely. ↩
Worthless, vile; no better than draff or dregs; from the Anglo-Saxon, drifan to drive away, expel. ↩
Commend to. ↩
Prevent. ↩
Spendrest, wastest. ↩
Whether. ↩
By way of narrative. ↩
Some amusement or instruction. ↩
Suffering. ↩
Ought to please you. ↩
Fastidious. ↩
Although it be. ↩
Agony, passion. ↩
Sooth, true. ↩
Meaning. ↩
With which to enforce. ↩
That. ↩
Little. ↩
The “Tale of Meliboeus” is literally translated from a French story, or rather “treatise,” in prose, entitled Le Livre de Melibee et de Dame Prudence, of which two manuscripts, both dating from the fifteenth century, are preserved in the British Museum. Tyrwhitt, justly enough, says of it that it is indeed, as Chaucer called it in the prologue, “ ‘a moral tale virtuous,’ and was probably much esteemed in its time; but, in this age of levity, I doubt some readers will be apt to regret that he did not rather give us the remainder of Sir Thopas.” It has been remarked that in the earlier portion of the “Tale,” as it left the hand of the poet, a number of blank verses were
