Canterbury Tales (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

1 (p. 3) The holy blissful martyr: Saint Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, was assassinated in Canterbury Cathedral on December 29, 1170. The place where he was martyred quickly became one of Europe’s most popular pilgrimage sites.

2 (p. 3) Tabard: The Tabard is an inn in Southwark, a district across the Thames from London.

3 (p. 3) anon: At once, soon, shortly; the word occurs often in both Chaucer and Shakespeare.

4 (p. 5) A Knight there was: The list of battles that follows spans many decades, perhaps more than a single knight could be assumed to have undertaken, but all were places in which English knights fought during the fourteenth century, either as crusaders or in support of the ambitions of English or other rulers.

5 (p. 7) Flanders, Artois and Picardy: These are places where the English campaigned during the so-called Hundred Years’ War. The references here are probably to an abortive “crusade” against Flemish schismatics led by Bishop Dispencer of Norwich.

6 (p. 9) Stratford at Bow: The Benedictine Nunnery of Saint Leonard’s was located here, about two miles from London.

7 (p. 11) Amor vincit omnia: This translates from the Latin as “love conquers all” (from Virgil’s Eclogues 10.69). The phrase originally referred to erotic passion, but also was used in medieval Christian discourse.

8 (p. 11) The rule of Saint Maurus or of Saint Benedict: Benedict of Nursia (c.480—c.543) composed the Rule that came to be the authoritative document governing the life of Western European Christian monks. Saint Maurus was an influential follower of Benedict.

9 (p. 11) Augustine: Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430), an influential Church father, was the supposed author of a monastic rule followed by the religious order of Augustinian canons.

10 (p. 13) A Friar: A member of one of the four fraternal or mendicant orders, founded in the thirteenth century to combat heresy and to preach the faith to the largely ignorant laity of the Catholic Church. Originally they were to live in poverty, constantly moving from place to place and surviving by begging.

11 (p. 13) power of confession: During the thirteenth century, the Papacy allowed members of the mendicant orders to hear confessions, modifying the rule that laypeople could confess only to their parish priest. Because it was customary to offer a small donation to one’s confessor after confessing one’s sins, the parish clergy resented the intrusion of the friars and collaborated in the accusation that friars gave easy penances in return for larger donations (the sin of simony).

12 (p. 15) And gave a certain payment for the grant: A friar would be granted by his order a certain area (his “ferme”) in which to beg, from which he was expected to raise a certain amount (his “rente”). No other friars could beg in this area, and if the friar made more (his “purchas”) than his assigned “rente,” he sometimes kept the excess (improperly).

13 (p. 15) In principio: “In the beginning...” (Latin).

14 (p. 15) scholar: Modernized from “Clerk” in Middle English.

15 (p. 17) Middleburgh and Orowelle: Dutch and English ports, respectively, crucial to the export of wool and other commodities by English merchants in the late fourteenth century.

16 (p.19) Sergeant of the Law: One of a small group of powerful lawyers entitled to hear and argue the most important legal cases.

17 (p. 19) parvis: From the French word paradise. The porch of Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London, where clients came to consult with sergeants on legal matters.

18 (p. 19) assizes cases: Only sergeants could serve on assizes courts, which had jurisdiction over civil cases in English counties.

19 (p. 19) Franklin: A landholder of free but not noble status; many such men became rich and prominent after the Plague of 1348-1349 made land available for purchase by survivors.

20 (p. 19) Of his temperament he was sanguine: The theory of humors divided people into four groups, each dominated by a specific “humor” (bodily fluid) that determined their physical features and temperament. The Franklin’s behavior, as described in his “portrait,” accords with the sanguine (blood-dominated) humor.

21 (p. 19) Saint Julian: Patron saint of hospitality.

22 (p. 21 ) His table ... for his dinner set: Boards set upon trestles served as tables for meals in the great hall of a castle. Normally the tables were disassembled after each meal; the Franklin leaves his tables permanently assembled as a sign of his readiness to entertain all comers.

23 (p. 21) parish guild: An association of people from one or more trades and professions, attached to a parish church where they hold periodic services under the protection of the patron saint of the parish. Parish guilds also levied membership fees that were then used to make contributions to the widows of guild members and to support sick and destitute members.

24 (p. 23) Shipman: Ship captain.

25 (p. 23) the signs for his patient: Medieval medicine made use of astrological lore as well as the theory of humors in its treatment of the sick and injured.

26 (p. 25) The old Aesculapius ... and Gilbert: This passage lists a pantheon of classical and Arabic medieval medical theorists and practitioners.

27 (p. 25) Of clothmaking ... Ypres and Ghent: In the late fourteenth century, English cloth began to be exported in large quantities, in competition with the cloth manufactured in the Flemish towns of Ypres and Ghent. As a cloth-maker or clothier, the Wife of Bath is an entrepreneur who presides over the production of cloth by many cottage workers, then collects and sells the finished product to merchants who will market it in England or abroad.

28 (p. 25) certain so angry ... out of charity: This is a charge frequently made against women in misogynist literary discourse.

29 (p. 25) Husbands at church door: In much of medieval Europe, weddings were celebrated with a priest in attendance, but at the front door of the church rather than at the altar.

30 (p. 27) To Rome she had been . . . : The list that follows includes several popular European pilgrimage destinations.

31 (p. 27) excommunicate for his tithes: Laypeople were expected by the Church to commit a portion of their income (usually one-tenth) to support the parish priest. Many resented the necessity of tithing.

32 (p. 29) chantry-priest ... chaplain for a guild: A chantry-priest was employed by a wealthy family to say masses periodically for deceased members of the family buried within a private (chantry) chapel within a church. Parish guilds required the services of a priest to say mass for the deceased members of the guild. In the years following the plague, some poorly paid country parish priests decamped for London, where they could earn better pay as employees of guilds or well-to-do urban families.

33 (p. 29) Plowman: Farmhand.

34 (p. 31) Reeve: The head serf of an estate, who functioned as the manager or accountant for the property.

35 (p. 31) Summoner: The official who brought wrongdoers before the ecclesiastical court, in this instance having to do with matrimony, adultery, and fornication.

36 (p. 31) Pardoner: A pardoner sold papal indulgences (pardons for sinners); some pardoners were frauds.

37 (p. 31) Manciple: Steward; purchaser of provisions and keeper of accounts.

38 (p. 35) Questio quid iuris: The question is, what point of law applies? (Latin).

39 (p. 35) the Archdeacon’s curse: The archdeacon was the diocesan official responsible for the operation of the ecclesiastical courts in that diocese.

40 (p. 37) Rouncival: Saint Mary Rouncival was a hospital at Charing Cross, at that time outside London, that used pardoners to raise the money needed for its operation. Donations to the hospital would earn the donor remission of some of the purgatorial pain he or she would otherwise encounter. The system was subject to abuse.

41 (p. 37) A veronica: A badge showing that the wearer had made a pilgrimage to Rome. It depicted the cloth that Veronica used to wipe the face of Christ during his Passion; an image of Christ’s face was believed to have been imprinted on the cloth.

42 (p. 39) Bell: The Bell Inn.

43 (p. 41) And Plato says ... The words must be cousin to the deed: The phrase is originally from Plato’s Timaeus, which Chaucer could have known in the Latin translation by Calcidius; it is repeated in Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy, which Chaucer translated.

44 (p. 45) Saint Thomas a Watering: The reference is to a brook a short distance outside London on the Canterbury road.

1 (p. 51) Fortune and her false wheel: Medieval images of the goddess Fortune characteristically depict her with an ever-turning wheel on which she places great rulers, who first rise on it, then inevitably fall off it as it revolves.

2 (p. 53) king Capaneus: One of seven kings who, according to classical legend, attacked the city of Thebes. The lore about Thebes in “The Knight’s Tale” is based on Statius’ Roman epic the Thebaid, directly or through the mediation of Boccaccio’s romance epic Il Teseida, on which Chaucer’s tale is based.

3 (p. 55) The Minotaur: A mythical creature, half human, half bull, slain by Theseus as a young man, with the help of Ariadne, whom he promised to marry but later abandoned on the island of Naxos. The story was widely known in classical antiquity

4 (p. 61) Some wicked aspect ... some constellation: Astrology is based on the belief that the interaction of planets with the constellations they pass through in the night sky has profound effects on human lives.

5 (p. 65) A worthy duke named Perotheus: The friendship of Theseus and Pirithous was reported in a number of classical sources, which do not, however, include a journey to the underworld to rescue a dead friend.

6 (p. 73) Juno, jealous, angry and wild: Chaucer derives Juno’s hatred of Thebes from the Thebaid, where the goddess is depicted as furious with Jupiter for his love affairs with Theban women.

7 (p. 83) “In hope that I something green may get”: This is an oblique reference to the fact that young men and women went into the woods to celebrate May and along the way managed to get “green” on their clothes from lying on the grass to make love. Compare the famous English carol “Greensleeves.”

8 (p. 83) Seldom is Friday like the week’s other days: In folklore, Friday was the most changeable day of the week.

9 (p. 89) Who stood in the clearing with a spear: In hunting ferocious animals, beaters and dogs formed a circle around the beast’s lair, leaving a gap through which it would seek to escape, but at which those responsible for killing it would wait with their weapons.

10 (p. 97) benedicite: God bless you (Latin).

11 (p. 103) a cuckoo sitting on her hand: In medieval popular culture, the cuckoo, which laid its eggs in other birds’ nests, was a symbol of the cuckolded husband.

12 (p. 105) the mount of Cythaeron: A confusion with the island of Cytherea, traditional home of Venus in classical legend.

13 (p. 105) Medea and Circe: A mortal woman and a goddess, respectively, famous in classical legend as practitioners of sorcery to gain power over mortal lovers.

14 (p. 105) Turnus: Aeneas’ rival for the hand of Lavinia in Virgil’s Aeneid.

15 (p. 105) Croesus: King of Lydia, fabled in classical civilization for his wealth and bad fortune.

16 (p.107) Crime, Treachery, and all the plotting ... : The elaborate description of misdeeds and calamities within the temple of Mars reflects the fact that Mars was both the classical god of war and the planetary deity whose astrological influence was widely believed to result in all types of violence, intended or accidental.

17 (p. 109) Puella ... Rubeus: Figures related to Mars in medieval systems of divination.

18 (p. 111) Callisto: A nymph, follower of Diana, who was punished by the goddess for becoming pregnant. See Ovid, Metamorphoses, 2, 409-507.

19 (p. 111 ) Daphne: Beautiful daughter of a river god, wooed by Apollo and, as she flees his advances, turned into a laurel tree. See Ovid, Metamorphoses, 2, 452-567.

20 (p. 111) Actaeon: A hunter who saw Diana naked at her bath and was punished by the goddess by being turned into a stag and hunted down by his own hounds. See Ovid, Metamorphoses, 3, 138-252.

21 (p. 111 ) Lucina: Diana in her manifestation as the goddess of childbirth.

22 (p.119) And in her hour: Each planet was supposed to govern certain hours of the day, depending upon certain variables. Palamon, Emily, and Arcita all visit the temples of their respective protecting deities at the proper time for the god or goddess in question to have the most influence.

23 (p. 127) When Vulcan caught you in his net: In classical myth, Venus and Mars enjoy a love affair until they are discovered by Venus’ husband, Vulcan, smith of the gods, who imprisons them in a net for all the inhabitants of Olympus to see and laugh at.

24 (p. 131) pale Saturn, baleful and cold: Saturn is the planetary deity (compare “my orbit, that has a circuit so wide to turn”) who presides over catastrophe and chaos. His power is especially strong in Leo, “the sign of the lion.”

25 (p. 137) prime: This is a reference to the system of canonical hours, the ancient division of the hours of the day; monks and clerics said certain prayers at set times during the day. Prime is the “first” hour of the day, 6 A.M.

26 (p. 159) The First Mover ... the fair chain of love: The First (or Unmoved) Mover is the Aristotelian principle of origin for the created world. Classical myth and, later, neoplatonic philosophy imagined the universe held together in a harmony of discordant parts by a great chain extending from the highest heaven to the least animate parts of the earth.

1 (p. 167) Pilate’s voice: In medieval mystery plays, based on biblical stories and incidents, villains such as Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor who gave up Jesus to be crucified, ranted and raved in a high, loud, hoarse voice, not only at other characters, but at the audience. This is the first of several references in “The Miller’s Tale” to characters and episodes from mystery plays.

2 (p. 171) astrolabe: An instrument used to measure distances and determine latitude, hence of special use to sailors. Chaucer wrote (more precisely translated) a treatise on the use of the astrolabe.

3 (p. 171) augrim-stones: Counting stones for arithmetical calculation.

4 (p. 171) the king’s note: A song now unknown. It may have symbolic significance in the story, like the Annunciation song “Angelus ad virginem,” the situation of which is broadly parodied in Nicholas’ wooing of Alison.

5 (p. 175) Osney: Suburb of Oxford, site of an Augustinian abbey.

6 (p. 175) quack: Pun on a colloquial word for the pudendum mulieris (Latin for female external genitalia).

7 (p. 177) clerk: Assistant.

8 (p. 177) Saint Paul’s windows cut in his shoes: The reference is to a design, similar to the pattern of Saint Paul’s Cathedral windows, cut into the leather of his shoe uppers.

9 (p. 177) Well could he let blood... : Absolon appears to have mastered the often-repeated skills of a barber-surgeon and a notary. Compare the famous Figaro of Beaumarchais’ plays and Rossini’s opera.

10 (p. 181) Herod: He played the loud and boastful character of King Herod in the medieval mystery plays.

11 (p. 183) Saint Frideswide: Patron saint of Oxford, whose prayers turned a young man seeking to ravish her into a hog.

12 (p. 183) astromony: John mispronounces “astronomy.”

13 (p. 185) paternoster: The Latin words pater noster, meaning “our Father,” are the opening words of the Lord’s Prayer.

14 (p. 187) quarter night: About 9 P.M.

15 (p. 189) The troubles of Noah... wife to ship: Noah’s difficulties with his shrewish wife, and her resistance to joining him and their children in the Ark, was a popular subject in the mystery plays, in which it usually took the form of knockabout comedy à la Punch and Judy.

16 (p. 193) curfew-time: About 8 P.M.

17 (p. 195) chapel bell: About 4 A.M.

18 (p. 201 ) Saint Neot: Ninth-century saint, peripherally connected with the Anglo-Saxon King Alfred’s supposed founding of Oxford University.

19 (p. 201) coulter: Metal part of the plow, sometimes a round disk, that cuts into the earth.

20 (p. 203) Harrow!: Cry of distress, legally enjoining assistance by those who hear it.

21 (p. 203) Noel’s flood: The carpenter confuses Noah with Noel.

1 (p. 207) medlar fruit: A fruit that is inedible until it is almost rotten.

2 (p. 213) Solar Hall at Cambridge : Another name for King’s Hall, an undergraduate institution that is part of Cambridge University.

3 (p. 219) cake: The reference is to a loaf of bread.

4 (p. 221) Saint Cuthbert: Seventh-century bishop of Lindisfarne in northern England, hence appropriately invoked by the northerners Allen and John.

5 (p. 229) holy cross of Bromholm: Bromholm was a shrine in Norfolk; it contained a supposed relic of the True Cross and as such was an object of pilgrimage and devotion.

6 (p. 229) In manus tuas: These words are the beginning of a Christian Passion prayer: “Into your hands I commend my spirit, oh Lord” (Latin).

1 (p. 233) “(If I so often might have wedded be)”: Both the Wife of Bath and Chaucer are deliberately vague here.

2 (p. 233) degree: Station in society, rank.

3 (p. 233) Cana of Galilee: This is a reference to a passage in the Bible, John 2:1, in which Jesus turns water into wine.

4 (p. 233) in reproof to the Samaritan: In the Bible, John 4:6, Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman at a well and speaks the words that follow.

5 (p. 241) Ptolemy: Read in his Almagest : Ptolemy, a Greek astronomer and mathematician (second century C.E.), wrote an astronomical treatise to which Arab scholars gave the name Al-majisti, “the greatest.” The quoted proverb is from an Arabic collection added as a preface to a Latin translation of Ptolemy’s treatise.

6 (p. 243) Essex: At Dunmow, in Essex, a side of bacon was awarded annually to couples claiming that they had not argued or been unfaithful to each other during the previous year.

7 (p. 245) the talking bird is crazy: This is an allusion to a story, like that told in “The Manciple’s Tale,” in which a talking bird reveals a wife’s adultery to a husband. In this version, the wife, by a trick, convinces the husband that the bird is crazy and that its testimony is therefore worthless.

8 (p. 249) the Apostle’s name: The apostle Paul wrote the following lines in his first letter to Timothy, which appear in the New Testament as 1 Timothy 2:9.

9 (p. 251) Argus: Mythical creature with 100 eyes, commissioned by the goddess Juno to keep watch on Io, one of Jupiter’s lovers.

10 (p. 257) the sepulchre of old Darius: A fictitious tomb for King Darius of Persia, supposedly designed by an equally fictitious Jewish architect, Appelles (not the legendary Greek painter).

11 (p. 259) my secrets... parish priest: All Christians had to confess their sins, usually to their parish priest, and receive Communion at least once a year to avoid damnation.

12 (p. 263) the birthmark of Saint Venus’ seal: This kind of birthmark, often in the genital area, was traditionally associated with a libidinous nature.

13 (p. 263) pudendum: The wife here is using a polite word for female external genitalia, instead of a word more colloquial but considered vulgar.

14 (p. 263) My ascendant was Taurus, and Mars therein: The Wife claims that her sexual voracity is determined by the position of Mars in Taurus (a constellation associated with Venus) at the time of her birth.

15 (p. 265) Simplicius Gallus: The incident is taken from Valerius Maximus’ popular late-classical collection Facta et dicta memorabilia (Memorable Facts and Sayings).

16 (p. 267) Valerie and Theofraste: Valerius supposedly wrote a letter to his friend Rufinus urging him not to marry. The letter, actually written by Walter Map in the twelfth century, was widely known. Theophrastus, a classical author, wrote an anti-matrimonial tract, The Golden Book of Theophrastus on Marriage, that was preserved in Saint Jerome’s fourth-century C.E. anti-matrimonial Letter Against Jovinian, which is extensively paraphrased and mocked in the first part of the Wife of Bath’s prologue.

17 (p. 267) Tertulian, Chrysippus, Trotula: Tertulian was an early Christian ascetic theologian; Chrysippus was a misogynist writer quoted by Jerome; Trotula was an eleventh-century female physician at Salerno, site of a famous medical school in Italy.

18 (p. 267) Who painted the lion: In one of Aesop’s fables, a lion challenges a man painting a picture of a hunter killing a lion; the lion claims the picture would look quite different if painted by him.

19 (p. 269) The children of Mercury and of Venus: That is, people born under the astrological influence of those planets.

20 (p. 269) Hercules and his Deianira: Deianira was Hercules’ second wife. She gave him a poisoned shirt, mistakenly thinking it would restore his love; it killed him instead.

21 (p. 269) Pasiphae: The wife of King Minos of Crete, she fell in love with a bull and gave birth to the monster Minotaur (compare with note 3 of “The Knight’s Tale”).

22 (p. 271) Clytemnestra: The wife of King Agamemnon of Greece, she killed her husband on his return from the Trojan War along with a concubine he had brought home with him.

23 (p. 271 ) Amphiaraus: This Greek warrior was betrayed by his wife into fighting against Thebes (compare with “The Knight’s Tale,” which begins with Theseus’s attack on Thebes as part of that war).

24 (p. 271) Latumius ... Arrius: The reference is to the story of the hanging tree, which is widely quoted in misogamous literature.

25 (p. 275) Sittingbourne: Town on the road to Canterbury.

26 (p. 277) beggars and other holy friars: The lines that follow are a compendium of satirical commonplaces directed against the mendicant friars.

27 (p. 277) limitour: Friar licensed to beg within certain geographical limits or boundaries.

28 (p. 281) Ovid... Midas: Ovid tells the story of Midas and his ass’s ears in Metamorphoses 11. In Ovid’s version, it is Midas’ barber, not his wife, who reveals his secret.

29 (p. 291) Dante: Many of the old woman’s arguments are taken from Dante’s Il Convivio (The Banquet), book 4.

1 (p. 299) Petrarch: Chaucer may have met Italian poet and philosopher Petrarch (1304-1374) on a trip to Italy in 1373. “The Clerk’s Tale” is based in good part on Petrarch’s Latin version of Boccaccio’s story of Griselda, the last novella of his Decameron.

2 (p. 299) Legnano: Giovanni da Legnano, a fourteenth-century Italian legal scholar.

3 (p. 341) papal bulls: A bull was an official papal letter, closed with a leaden seal (bulla).

4 (p.367) The Envoy: An envoy (or envoi) is an explanatory concluding section of a poem or prose work.

5 (p. 367) Chichevache: In stories, Chichevache was a cow that fed only on patient wives and so was very lean.

1 (p. 371) Saint Thomas of India: Thomas the Apostle was reputed in medieval legend to have traveled to India to evangelize its inhabitants.

2 (p. 373) fools who are secular: Here “secular” is used in the sense of “not clergy”; the Merchant is ironic at January’s expense.

3 (p. 375) Theofrastus: See note 16 to “The Wife of Bath’s Tale.”

4 (p. 379) Rebecca ... Judith... Abigail... Esther: In the Hebrew Scriptures, these four women demonstrated their wisdom through trickery, albeit in good causes.

5 (p. 379) Seneca: Seneca was a first-century C.E. Roman philosopher, politician, and educator; the saying is actually from Fulgentius’ late-classical Mythologies.

6 (p. 379) Cato: The Dystichs of Cato, a collection of maxims and proverbs used in medieval elementary education, has no connection with the Roman philosopher of that name.

7 (p. 383) Placebo: In Latin, placebo means “I will please”; it is a traditional name for a counselor who offers only advice his lord wants to hear.

8 (p. 385) Solomon: To the biblical king Solomon were attributed many statements of proverbial wisdom, including the one that follows.

9 (p. 387) a man ought him consider well / To whom he gives his land or his goods: Another false attribution to Seneca, this time from the Dystichs falsely attributed to Cato (see note 6, above).

10 (p. 395) The Wife of Bath, if you have understood: Only here does a character within a tale refer to an “actual” Canterbury pilgrim.

11 (p. 395) Sarah and Rebecca: Sarah, Abraham’s wife, and Rebecca, Isaac’s wife, are figures in the biblical book of Genesis.

12 (p. 397) Orpheus, nor Amphioun ... Joab... Theodamas: Orpheus and Amphioun were legendary musicians of classical antiquity. In the Bible (2 Samuel 2:28), joab was a trumpeter for Israel. Theodamus was an Argive soothsayer in Statius’ Thebaid, a first-century C.E. Roman epic of the siege of Thebes.

13 (p. 397) Martianus: Martianus Capella, a fifth-century C.E. grammarian, wrote The Marriage of Mercury and Philology, a treatise on the liberal arts in the guise of an allegorical marriage celebration.

14 (p. 397) Queen Esther: The heroine of the biblical Book of Esther saved the Jews from persecution by King Ahasuerus and his wicked henchman Haman.

15 (p. 401) Sir Constantine: Constantine the African was a translator of Arab medical texts, including De Coitu, a manual on sexual disorders and their cures.

16 (p. 405) The moon ... was into Cancer gliding: The moon has passed from one constellation into the next during the four days of May’s restriction to her bedchamber.

17 (p. 413) That he who wrote the Romance of the Rose: An allegorical dream vision describing the quest of a young man to achieve sexual union with his beloved, Romance of the Rose was the work of two thirteenth-century authors—first Guillaume de Lorris, then Jean de Meun; it was extremely popular and influential.

18 (p. 413) Priapus: The Roman god of sexual desire, as well as gardens, Priapus is usually depicted with an erect phallus.

19 (p. 413) Pluto and his queen, / Proserpina, and all their fairy crew: In Roman mythology, Pluto, god of the underworld, kidnapped Proserpina, daughter of Ceres, goddess of the harvest. Medieval Europe knew the story through Claudian’s late-classical poem De raptu Proserpinae (The Rape of Proserpina), mentioned below.

20 (p. 417) Argus: After Jupiter seduced Io, she was turned into a cow by the god’s jealous consort, Juno, who commissioned Argus, a creature with 100 eyes, to keep eternal watch over her.

21 (p. 417) By Pyramus and Thisbe... kept apart by measures strict: In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Pyramus and Thisbe are young lovers forbidden by their parents from seeing one another; their attempt to elope ends tragically.

22 (p. 419) “Rise up... No fault in you have I known in all my life”: The lines paraphrase the biblical Song of Songs, also known as the Song of Solomon.

23 (p. 423) Phoebus... was that time in Gemini: These lines describe a date in early May.

24 (p. 423) Solomon: The Middle Ages attributed to Solomon several books of the Old Testament (Hebrew scriptures), including Ecclesiastes, from which the saying below is taken (Ecclesiastes 7:28).

25 (p. 423) Jesus, filius Syrak: Jesus, the son of Sirach, was the author of the book of Ecclesiasticus in the Vulgate (Latin) Old Testament. Saint Jerome (346-420), translated much of what Christians called the Old Testament from Hebrew into Latin during the last years of the fourth and first years of the fifth centuries. These translations, and Jerome’s of the Four Gospels (from Greek), were combined in following centuries with other, older translations to make a complete Latin Bible that came to be called the versio vulgata, or common edition.

1 (p. 437) Bretons: The Bretons were famous as storytellers, circulating tales of King Arthur and other legendary Celtic heroes. So-called “Breton lays” were short narrative poems about love and adventure, often featuring supernatural elements.

2 (p. 437) Marcus Tullius Cicero: The Roman politician and philosopher Cicero was widely known in medieval Europe for, among other works, his rhetorical treatise De inventione.

3 (p. 453) Apollo: The sun god, to whom Aurelius prays because of his influence on Lucina, goddess of the moon and thus controller of tides.

4 (p. 457) Pamphilus for Galatea: The twelfth-century Latin scholastic “comedy” of Pamphilus’ love for Galatea, whom he eventually rapes, circulated widely in small manuscripts from which the modern English word “pamphlet” derives.

5 (p. 457) Orleans in France: Seat of a university, and center of astrological studies.

6 (p. 457) eight and twenty mansions / That belong to the moon: In astrology, the division of the lunar month into twenty-eight equal divisions, in order to make calculations about human fortunes.

7 (p. 463) Phoebus waxed old ... : A description of December and its characteristic activities, taken from the medieval tradition of the “labors of the months”; however, Janus, the two-faced god, is taken from descriptions of January.

8 (p. 465) tables Toledan... : The following lines reveal the Franklin’s knowledge of astrological procedures, even as he mocks them. The temporary “disappearance” of the rocks may only be a natural result of an exceptionally high tide.

9 (p. 471) these stories bear witness: Dorigen calls to mind a series of classical stories and legends of women who killed themselves rather than submit to sexual degradation. Chaucer would have found these stories in a section of Jerome’s treatise against the monk Jovinian (see note 17 to “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”).

1 (p. 485) corpus bones: Christ’s bones.

2 (p. 485) “You sweet friend, you Pardoner”: There appears to be a sexually derogatory element in the Host’s summons; compare the narrator’s comment in “The General Prologue” that he believes the Pardoner to be a gelding or a mare.

3 (p. 485) “by Saint Runyan!”: The Pardoner is mimicking the Host, who has used this oath a few lines before. This is a pun on Ronan, an Irish saint, and “runyan,” kidney; the latter word also has sexual overtones.

4 (p. 485) Radix malorum est Cupiditas: Greed is the root of all evil (Latin).

5 (p. 487) Saints’ relics they are: The relics of holy men and women were highly prized (and often fabricated) in medieval Europe, as they were considered to possess some of the power that the saints had during their lifetime, as conduits of divine grace and power.

6 (p. 493) Our blessed Lord’s body they into pieces tore: Swearing, and all other sins for which Christ died on the cross, were thought therefore to have contributed to the brutality of his Passion.

7 (p. 493) Lot: See the Bible, Genesis 19:30-36.

8 (p. 493) Herod... Slew John the Baptist: See the Bible, Matthew 14:3-12 and Mark 6:17-29, with no mention of Herod’s drunkenness, however.

9 (p. 493) Seneca: Roman philosopher, from whose Epistle 83 the lines are taken.

10 (p. 495) “Meat unto stomach,...” : See the Bible, 1 Corinthians 6:13.

11 (p. 495) The apostle, weeping, said full piteously... : See the Bible, Philippi ans 3:18-19.

12 (p. 497) turn substance into accident: A punning reference to the doctrine of Transubstantiation, which seeks to explain what happens to the Eucharistic host at the moment of consecration as Christ’s body and blood. The definition was contested by religious reformers in Chaucer’s day.

13 (p. 497) Samson: From the Bible, the great Israelite warrior in the book of Judges.

14 (p. 499) Attila: This king of the Huns died in 453 C.E. as a result of drinking too much.

15 (p. 499) Lemuel: In the Bible, Proverbs 31:4, Lemuel is advised not to give wine to kings, lest they reveal all the realm’s secrets.

16 (p. 501 ) Stilbon... Demetrius: Chaucer found the stories of Demetrius and Stilbon in John of Salisbury’s Policraticus, a twelfth-century treatise on court politics.

17 (p. 501) Jeremiah: See the Bible, Jeremiah 4:2.

18 (p. 501) Hayles: The reference is to the abbey of Hayles in Gloucestershire, which claimed to have a vial of Christ’s blood.

19 (p. 503) bitchy bones two: Dice.

20 (p. 503) this plague: The so-called Black Death that swept through Europe in the late 1340s, or one of the later outbreaks of the plague that recurred during the fourteenth century and beyond.

21 (p. 507) In Holy Writ you may yourselves well read: See the Bible, Leviticus 19:32.

22 (p. 515) Avicenna: The reference is to Ibn Sina (980-1037 C.E.), an Arabic medical theorist and author of the widely known textbook the Canon of Medicine, which covers poisons in book 4.

1 (p. 521) Oh Lord, our Lord... Do they celebrate your praise: The opening stanza recalls the biblical verses of Psalm 8 (Vulgate numbering).

2 (p. 521 ) the white lily flower / Who bore you, and is a maid always: The reference is to the Virgin Mary.

3 (p. 521) Oh bush unburned, burning in Moses’ sight: In medieval biblical interpretation, the burning bush seen by Moses (Exodus 3:2) was frequently understood to anticipate the virgin birth of Jesus.

4 (p. 521) Conceived was the Father’s knowledge: In medieval theology Jesus was often spoken of as Sapientia Dei, the knowledge or wisdom of God.

5 (p. 523) Ave Maria: The prayer Ave Maria (Hail Mary) is based on the Archangel Gabriel’s words to Mary (Luke 1:28).

6 (p. 523) Saint Nicholas: A fourth-century bishop of Myra in Asia Minor, Saint Nicholas was the subject of many medieval miracle stories that included descriptions of his learning and piety at a young age.

7 (p. 525) Alma redemptoris: A liturgical prayer to Mary: Alma Redemptoris Mater (Nurturing Mother of the Redeemer), sung during the Advent and Christmas seasons.

8 (p.525) “I know little grammar”: Here “grammar” refers to Latin.

9 (p. 527) Herods: In the Gospel of Matthew, Herod, king of Judea, tries to kill the infant Jesus; he is one of the major villains of medieval religious drama.

10 (p. 527) Of which the great evangelist, Saint John, / In Patmos wrote: The Book of Revelation (The Apocalypse) claims to have been written by the apostle and evangelist Saint John on the Aegean island of Patmos.

11 (p. 531 ) Hardly might the people who were there l This new Rachel bring from his bier: In the Bible, Jeremiah 31:15 tells of Rachel “weeping for her children ... because they are no more.” The verse is quoted in Matthew 2:18, the gospel passage read on the Feast of the Holy Innocents, December 28.

12 (p. 531) Therefore with wild horses he did them draw, / And then he them hung as held the law: The passage describes the medieval punishment for high treason.

13 (p. 533) Hugh of Lincoln: A child reputedly killed by Jews in 1255, Hugh of Lincoln was venerated as a martyr for centuries; in modern times the story has been disproved.

1 (p. 537) “good sir, no more of this”: These words of the Knight interrupt the Monk’s catalog of “tragedies” of fortune.

2 (p. 541) Chanticleer: The rooster’s name comes from medieval beast fables, descendants of Aesop’s fable collection.

3 (p. 541 ) horloge: Abbey great clock.

4 (p. 543) “my love has gone far away”: Popular song.

5 (p. 545) Cato: Cato’s Distychs, a popular medieval school-text, consisted of proverbial bits of advice.

6 (p. 547) “merci beaucoup”: Thank you very much (French).

7 (p. 547) One of the greatest authors: Either Cicero or Valerius Maximus could be intended; both tell the stories that follow.

8 (p. 553) japes: Tricks.

9 (p. 553) Saint Kenelm: The reference is to the legendary ninth-century king of Mercia in Anglo-Saxon England, who became king at age seven but was murdered at his sister’s instigation, after having a predictive dream.

10 (p. 555) Macrobius: Sixth-century C.E. author of the Commentary on the Dream of Scipio, a widely read allegorical treatise based on the dream of Scipio that concludes Cicero’s De re publica (On the Republic). It includes a taxonomy of dream types.

11 (p. 555) Daniel... Joseph: Successful interpreters of dreams in the Hebrew Scriptures.

12 (p. 557) In principio, / Mulier est hominis confusio: In the beginning, woman is man’s ruin (Latin).

13 (p. 559) the book of Lancelot de Lake: A thirteenth-century compendium of Arthurian adventures centered around the love of Lancelot for Arthur’s queen, Guinevere, an adulterous liaison that contributed to the downfall of the Round Table.

14 (p. 561) Iscariot ... Ganelon ... Sinon: These are famous traitors of history and legend. Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus; Ganelon betrayed Charlemagne and Roland; Sinon fooled the Trojans into allowing a wooden horse full of Greek soldiers within the walls of Troy.

15 (p. 561) Augustine... Boethius... Bradwardine: These are famous contributors to Christian thought and argument about the nature of divine foreknowledge and its implication for the idea of free will.

16 (p. 563) Physiologus: A popular medieval text describing the characteristics of real or imaginary animals and birds, and allegorizing these characteristics to illustrate Christian doctrine.

17 (p. 563) in music more feeling / Than had Boethius: Boethius, a sixth-century Christian philosopher, wrote a theoretical treatise on music—that is, on universal harmonies—that was well known in medieval Europe.

18 (p. 565) ‘Sir Burnel the Ass’: Burnel is the protagonist of Nigel Longchamps’ twelfth-century satire Speculum stultorum, which, like “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale,” comments on human folly under the guise of an animal fable.

19 (p. 565) Ecclesiastes on flattery: Flattery is warned against in the biblical books of Ecclesiastes and Proverbs, and, in the apocrypha, Ecclesiasticus.

20 (p. 567) on your day to die: That is, on Friday, Venus’ day (compare French vendredi and Italian venerdi).

21 (p. 567) Geoffrey, dear sovereign master: Twelfth-century poet, author, and rhetorical theorist Geoffrey of Vinsauf’s Poetria nova, a treatise on writing poetry, contains a lament for the death of King Richard I of England as a school exercise.

22 (p. 567) Pyrrhus... seized king Priam: Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, kills Priam, king of Troy, in the Aeneid, book 2.

23 (p. 567) Hasdrubal’s wife: Hasdrubal was king of Carthage when the Romans burned it in 146 B.C.E.

24 (p. 569) Colle... Talbot... Gerland: These were common names for dogs.

25 (p. 569) Jack Straw and his company: Jack Straw was a leader of the Great Rising (also called the Peasants’ Revolt) of 1381. When rebel forces broke into London, one of the targets of their hostility was foreigners, such as Flemish textile workers, whom they felt threatened their livelihoods. This is Chaucer’s only overt reference in his poetry to the Rising, and one of very few topical references in The Canterbury Tales.

26 (p. 569) Fleming: Many of those killed in the suppression of the Peasants’ Revolt were Flemish weavers.

27 (p. 571) Saint Paul says all that is written: See the Bible, Romans 15:4. The Nun’s Priest’s application of Paul’s words to this beast fable is a final comic comment on human attempts to understand life.

1 (p. 575) the life of Saint Cecilia: The immensely popular story of the life of Saint Cecilia, based on a fictitious account of her life and martyrdom written at the end of the fifth century, is told in “The Second Nun’s Tale,” not included in this edition.

2 (p. 575) canon: A canon is a member of a religious community who may (as a “regular canon”) or may not (as a “secular canon”) follow a monastic or other religious rule.

3 (p. 575) plantain and pellitory: Two herbs used for distilling.

4 (p. 581 ) he who guilty is / Deems everything spoken to be of him: The allusion is to the Dystichs of Cato (1.17). See note 6 to “The Merchant’s Tale.”

5 (p. 585) porphyry: The hard igneous rock called porphyry was used as a surface on which to grind or mix ingredients.

6 (p. 587) sublimatories: Vessels used for changing solid substances into vapors.

7 (p. 597) Nineveh: Capital of ancient Assyria.

8 (p. 599) chantry priest: Chantry priests were hired to say (chant) masses and prayers for the souls of members of a family or association in a special chapel (a chantry) constructed for that purpose within a church or cathedral. See also note 32 to “The General Prologue.”

9 (p. 607) he is here and there; lHe is so changeable, he abides nowhere: Traditional attributes of the Devil.

10 (p. 619) Bayard the blind: A traditional name for a horse.

11 (p. 619) Arnaldus of Villanova: In the thirteenth century, Arnold of Villanova wrote scientific and alchemical treatises, including Rosarium philosophorum (Rose Garland of the Philosophers).

12 (p. 619) Hermes Trismegistus: “Thrice Great Hermes,” the Egyptian god Thoth, credited by the Greeks as the founder of alchemy.

13 (p. 621) “take heed to my screed”: The several lines that follow are adapted from Arnold of Villanova’s De lapide philosophorum (On the Philosopher’s Stone).

14 (p. 621) there was a disciple of Plato: The dialogue between Plato and Zadith is adopted from an alchemical treatise by the tenth-century Arab scientific writer Muhammad ibn Umail.

15 (p. 621) ignotum per ignocius: The Latin phrase means “[explaining] the unknown by the even more unknown.”

1 (p. 625) this worthy limitour: A limitour was a friar who begged and preached within boundaries assigned him by his order. (See note 10 to “The General Prologue”)

2 (p. 625) leave citing authorities, in God’s name, / To preaching and to schools of clergy: The medieval Church, following the biblical injunctions of the First Epistle to Timothy (2:12), forbade women to preach or teach publicly.

3 (p. 627) an archdeacon, a man of high degree: Archdeacons were diocesan officials responsible, among other duties, for the ecclesiastical courts.

4 (p. 627) simony: Simony is the sin of selling of ecclesiastical offices or positions. The term is also used for any sale of spiritual favors.

5 (p. 627) tithes: An offering of one-tenth of one’s wages or produce to the Church. Theoretically required of all laity in medieval Europe, the practice was widely resented and resisted.

6 (p. 629) lewd: Here the term means “ignorant.”

7 (p. 631 ) He wore a jacket of green: In medieval legends about him, the Devil often wears green.

8 (p. 631 ) Depardieux: The term means “by God.”

9 (p. 633) far in the north country: The north was traditionally where the Devil dwelled, based on an assumed reference to him in the Bible, Isaiah 14:13.

10 (p. 633) confessors: Confessors are priests who hear confessions and assign penances for sins such as those to which the Summoner here “confesses.”

11 (p. 635) prime: The first hour of the liturgical day.

12 (p. 637) Saint Dunstan: A tenth-century archbishop of Canterbury, Dunstan was celebrated in medieval legends for his power over devils.

13 (p. 637) As to the Witch of Endor did Samuel: The reference is to the Bible, 1 Samuel 28:7-25.

14 (p. 639) Saint Loy: Another name for Saint Eligius, patron saint of carters.

15 (p. 643) Saint Anne: The mother of the Virgin Mary, Saint Anne was much revered in late-medieval England.

16 (p. 643) master of divinity: A university professor of theology.

17 (p. 645) “The lion sits in a bush always / To slay the innocent, if he may”: A reference to the Bible, Psalm 10:8-9 (Vulgate).

1 (p. 647) you have oftentime heard tell / How that a friar abducted was to hell: The Summoner here parodies a popular medieval religious genre, the admonitory vision of the afterlife, featuring the pains of Hell and Purgatory.

2 (p. 649) holy houses: The reference is to convents for friars, as opposed to priests and monks (secular and monastic clergy, mentioned below), traditionally the enemies of the friars. (See note 10 to “The General Prologue.”) Monks took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and lived in communities they were not to leave without special permission; the orders of friars, or medicants, were charged by the institutional Catholic Church with the duty of moving about the world preaching the gospel to Christians of every class and situation. They were supposed to beg for their (simple) needs. Friars sometimes accused monks of living too well, which earned them the enmity of some monastic writers; on the enmity between parish priests and friars, see note 9 on the next page.

3 (p. 649) qui cum patre: The Latin phrase translates as “Who with the father” and continues with wording that translates as “reigns in Heaven ...” The phrase occurred at the conclusion of many liturgical prayers.

4 (p. 651 ) folding ivory writing tablets, / And a well-polished stylus: In medieval Europe, as in classical antiquity, all impermanent writing was done with a stylus on easily erasable, thus reusable, waxed wooden or ivory tablets.

5 (p. 651) mass penny: A donation to have a mass said for one’s intention (that is, for a favor one wishes to be granted by God).

6 (p. 651 ) “Deus hic!”: The Latin phrase translates as “God be here” (that is, in this house).

7 (p. 653) orison: The word means “prayer.”

8 (p. 653) The letters slay: A reference to the Bible, 2 Corinthians 3:6: “the letter [of the law] kills, but the spirit gives life.”

9 (p. 655) These curates be full negligent and slow / To plumb tenderly a conscience / In confession: Friars were permitted to hear parishioners’ confessions, to the annoyance of parish clergy, who were thereby deprived of the offering customarily given to the confessor by the penitent. (See note 11 to “The General Prologue.”)

10 (p. 655) je vous dis: “I tell you” (see also, below: “I tell you without doubt”). The friar’s French is an affectation.

11 (p. 657) They may now... Mark their jubilee and walk alone: Friars were normally required by their orders to go about begging and preaching in pairs; after fifty years of service they were exempt from this requirement.

12 (p. 657) Te Deum: The reference is to “Te Deum laudamus” (“We Praise You, God”), a liturgical hymn of praise.

13 (p. 657) Lazar and Dives lived differently: See the Bible, Luke 16:19-31 for this parable of the rich man (Dives) and the poor leper (Lazarus).

14 (p. 657) Moses... on the mount of Sinai: See the Bible, Exodus 34:28.

15 (p. 659) Elijah... fasted long and was in contemplation: See the Bible, 1 Kings 19, where Elijah is said to have fasted on Mount Horeb.

16 (p. 659) They would not drink... Lest they die: See the Bible, Leviticus 10:8-9.

17 (p. 659) Jovinianus, /Fat as a whale, and waddling like a duck: Saint Jerome attacked Jovinian, a fourth-century monk with whose views on marriage and virginity he violently disagreed, and whom he derided as fat and overly groomed.

18 (p. 661) ‘cor meum eructavit!’: The Latin words are the opening of Psalm 44 (Vulgate); eructavit can mean either “proclaimed” or “belched.”

19 (p. 661 ) Saint Ives: Several medieval saints were called Saint Yves or Yvo.

20 (p. 663) ‘Within your house be not a lion; ... Nor make your acquaintances want to flee’: The source for this advice is the Vulgate Bible (Ecclesiasticus 4:35), plus other proverbial material.

21 (p.665) “Once there was an angry ruler / As said Seneca...” : The reference is to the first-century C.E. Roman philosopher, politician, and educator Seneca and his work Concerning Anger 1.18.

22 (p.665) “Angry Cambises was also a drunkard, lAnd ever delighted him to be a shrew...”: See Seneca’s Concerning Anger 3.14.

23 (p.667) “Look how Cyrus the Great, the Persian...”: See Seneca’s Concerning Anger 3.21.

24 (p. 667) ‘Be not a companion to an angry man ...’: See the Bible, Proverbs 22:24-25.

25 (p. 669) he who harrowed hell: In what was described as the Harrowing of Hell, Jesus was believed to have descended to Hell after his death and before his Resurrection, and to have liberated from Hell the righteous souls of the Old Testament.

26 (p. 669) “But since Elijah was, or Elisha, / Have friars been—that I find of record—/ In service”: The Carmelite Friars claimed to have been founded by the Old Testament prophet Elijah when he triumphed over the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel, as described in the Bible, 1 Kings 18:20-40.

27 (p. 675) art of mathematics: The Middle English ars-metrike contains an obvious pun on Thomas’s fart.

28 (p. 679) Euclid or Ptolomy: The fourth-century B.C.E. Greek mathematician Euclid invented geometry. The celebrated second-century C.E. Greek astronomer Ptolemy wrote a treatise, the Almagest, that was well known in medieval Europe.

1 (p. 681) the bright sun l His daylight arc had run / The first quarter, and half an hour and more: In keeping with the general wordiness of the tale to follow, this is a very circuitous way of announcing the time (ten o‘clock).

2 (p. 681) ’Loss of property may recovered be, / But loss of time ruins us’: The Host cites Seneca (Moral Epistles 1.3), but the expression is commonplace.

3 (p. 683) More than Ovid made of mention l In his Epistles: The reference is to Ovid’s Heroides, a collection of letters supposedly written (mostly) by women of classical myth and legend to their lovers and ex-lovers.

4 (p. 683) “In youth he wrote of Ceyx and Alcion”: The Book of the Duchess, apparently Chaucer’s earliest extant long poem, contains a paraphrase of Ovid’s story of Ceyx and Alcyone from Metamorphoses, book 11.

5 (p. 683) the Legend of Good Women: The list of abandoned or mistreated classical heroines that follows includes those who appear in The Legend of Good Women and several who do not; the latter may have been slated for inclusion had Chaucer completed the collection.

6 (p. 685) wicked example of Canacee: See Ovid, Heroides 2.

7 (p. 685) Apollonius of Tyre: The story of Apollonius of Tyre was widely known in medieval Europe. Apollonius is a prince who must go into exile when his life is threatened by Antiochus, the incestuous father of the woman Apollonius wishes to marry.

8 (p. 685) Pierides: The Pierides (daughters of Pierus) challenged the Muses to a singing contest and for their presumption were transformed into magpies (Ovid, Metamorphoses 5). But the term Pierides can also refer to the Muses themselves, who, according to legend, were born in Pieria.

9 (p. 685) Oh hateful misfortune, condition of poverty!: The dispraise of poverty is adapted from On the Misery of the Human Condition (also known as De contemptu mundi [On Contempt for the World]), a late-twelfth-century oration by Cardinal Lothario de’ Segni, who later became Pope Innocent III. A companion oration on the dignity of humanity was planned but never executed. The Man of Law’s subsequent praise of merchants has no connection to Innocent’s text.

10 (p. 691) Hector... Julius Caesar: Hector and Achilles were, respectively, Trojan and Greek heroes of the Trojan War. Pompey the Great and Julius Caesar were first allies, then bitter rivals at the end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Empire.

11 (p. 691) The siege of Thebes: In classical myth, the city of Thebes was the home of Oedipus, who blinded himself in punishment for unintentionally killing his father and marrying his own mother. After Oedipus’ death his two sons, Polynices and Eteocles, agreed to take turns ruling Thebes, but Eteocles broke the agreement, refusing to vacate the throne when his time was up, so Polynices raised an army and besieged the city. Eventually, the two brothers met and killed each other in battle. The story is the subject of the first-century C.E. epic, the Thebaid, by Statius.

12 (p. 691) Turnus: Prince of the Rutulians, he was Aeneas’ rival in the war fought by the exiled Trojans for a place to settle in Latium on the Italian peninsula, as told by Virgil in the Aeneid.

13 (p. 697) the Berber nation: The Berbers, a north African civilization, are here used broadly to represent non-Christian nations.

14 (p. 697) Pyrrhus: The son of Achilles. See the Aeneid, book 2.

15 (P. 697) O primum mobile!: The primum mobile (“prime mover”) was the outermost heavenly sphere in the Ptolemaic model of the universe; it was thought to be the force that moved the other spheres from east to west.

16 (p. 697) Inauspicious ascendent tortuous: This stanza describes the conditions of the heavens that made Constance’s voyage inauspicious. Three lines below, the atazir of a planetary configuration was its dominant factor with respect to human affairs.

17 (p. 703) Caesar’s triumphal march, / Of which Lucan makes such a boast: Lucan’s Pharsalia (a history of the Roman civil wars) reports Caesar’s plans for a triumph (that is, a celebration of his victory) on his return to Rome after defeating Pompey; the triumph never materialized.

18 (p. 707) Who saved Daniel in the horrible cave: Daniel is saved from the lions’ den, as told in the Bible, Daniel 6:16-24.

19 (p. 707) Who kept Jonas in the fish’s maw: See the Bible, Jonah 1:17-2:10.

20 (p. 709) Who kept the Hebrew people from their drowning, / With dry feet passing through the sea: See the Bible, Exodus 14:21-23.

21 (p. 709) the four angels of tempest: See the Bible, Revelation 7:1-3.

22 (p. 709) Who fed Saint Mary the Egyptian in the cave: The legend of Saint Mary the Egyptian, a repentant prostitute who lived a solitary life in the desert for forty-seven years, was widely known throughout medieval Europe.

23 (p. 711) In all that land no Christians dared gather; ... Because of the pagans, who conquered all about / The coasts of the north, by land and sea: Chaucer takes these details of early English history from Nicholas Trevet’s Anglo-Norman chronicle, his source for the Constance story. Behind Trevet stands Bede’s authoritative account in his Ecclesiastical History of the English (c.735 C.E.).

24 (p. 717) saved Susanna / From false blame: See the Bible, Daniel 13 (Vulgate), the story of Susannah and the Elders who want to have sex with her, and accuse her of fornication when she refuses. Daniel’s intervention saves her from being condemned to death.

25 (p. 735) Oh Goliath, immeasurable of length: See the Bible, 1 Samuel 17:4-51.

26 (p. 735) Who gave Judith courage or strength / To slay Holofernes in his tent: See the Vulgate Bible, Judith 13:1-10.

1 (p. 751 ) Bob-up-and-down: The reference is probably to the town of Har bledown, outside Canterbury on the road from London.

2 (p. 751) We’re stuck in the mire!: “Dun is in the mire” is the name of a rural game of strength and a popular expression for getting stuck.

3 (p. 751) in Cheap: The reference is to Cheapside, a London district of shops; the name derives from the Old English ceap, meaning a bargain or a business dealing.

4 (p. 753) very drunk: In medieval popular thought, wyn ape (“ape drunk”) was one of the four stages of drunkenness; each stage was related to the behavior of a particular animal.

5 (p. 753) he could not prop himself up with his ladle: That is, he should have been content to remain a cook instead of trying to imitate a knight on a campaign (chyvachee); this is said ironically, of course.

6 (p. 755) Phoebus: Apollo, the god of the sun and of music.

7 (p. 755) Python, the serpent: See Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.438-451.

8 (p. 759) Take any bird, and put it in a cage: The following is a popular piece of conventional wisdom, also told in “The Squire’s Tale.” Chaucer could have found it in Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy (sixth century C.E.) or Romance of the Rose, both of which he translated.

9 (p. 761) To Alexander was told this sentence: This well-known story was available to Chaucer from several sources, including works by Cicero and Saint Augustine.

10 (p. 763) “Cuckoo! Cuckoo! Cuckoo!”: The cry of the cuckoo was often used to refer to a husband who had been cuckolded by his wife. See also note 11 to “The Knight’s Tale.”

11 (p. 767) Lord Solomon, as wise scholars say, / Teaches a man to keep his tongue well: See the Bible, Proverbs 21:23.

1 (p. 771) in the land of Tartary : Tartary was the generic medieval term for the Mongol Empire.

2 (p. 773) In Mars’ face and in his mansion / In Aries, the coleric hot sign: The sun’s relation to the planets and constellations is an important element of an astrological horoscope, here relevant because this is the ruler’s birthday (a horoscope is cast based upon the subject’s date of birth).

3 (p. 775) Gawain: In medieval chivalric romances, Gawain, a knight of Arthur’s Round Table, was considered a model of courtesy.

4 (p. 777) He waited many a constellation: That is, he waited until the stars were so aligned as to favor his enterprise.

5 (p. 781) Diverse folk diversely they deemed: A favorite line of Chaucer’s, expressing the inevitable multiplicity of human opinions on most matters in life.

6 (p. 781) Pegasus: In classical myth, Pegasus was a winged horse belonging to the hero Bellerophon.

7 (p. 781 ) Synon: The Greek Synon, pretending to be a refugee from persecution by his fellow Greeks besieging Troy, convinced the Trojans to take the wooden horse, its hollow belly full of Greek soldiers, into Troy, assuring the city’s destruction. See Virgil, Aeneid, book 2.

8 (p. 783) Alhazen, and Vitulon: Alhazen was an Arabic author of a treatise on optics. Vitulon (Witelo) was a Polish author of a treatise on perspective.

9 (p. 783) Telephus the king: Telephus was an enemy wounded and then healed by Achilles during the Trojan War.

10 (p. 785) ascending was the beast royal, / The gentle Lion, with his Aldiran: The gentle lion is the constellation Leo; the precise meaning of “Aldiran” is unclear; the time is after noon.

11 (p. 785) Now danced Venus’ lusty children dear: Venus’ astrological “children” are lovers. Venus is most powerful when favorably located in the constellation of Pisces.

12 (p. 791 ) the young sun, / That in the Ram is four degrees uprisen: That is, it is just after 6 A.M.

13 (p. 799) neither Jason nor Paris of Troy: In classical mythology, Jason was the lover and betrayer of Medea. Paris, son of the king of Troy, brought on the Trojan War by abducting Helen from her home in Argos.

14 (p. 799) Lamech: In the Bible, Lamech had two wives; see Genesis 4:19-23.

15 (p. 801) As birds do that men in cages feed: The piece of conventional wisdom that follows also appears in “The Manciple’s Tale” (see note 8).

1 (p. 807) as Livy tells: The story of Virginia originates in the history of Rome from its beginnings (Ab urbe condita) by Livy (Titus Livius; 59 B.C.E.-17 C.E.), but Chaucer probably knew it from Romance of the Rose, lines 5589-5658. It was widely known in the Middle Ages, and is also told by Chaucer’s contemporary John Gower in his story collection Confessio amantis (The Lover’s Confession).

2 (p. 807) Pygmalion: Pygmalion made a sculpture of a beautiful woman and fell in love with his work of art, so the gods brought her to life for his pleasure. See Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.243-297.

3 (p. 807) Apelles, Zeuxis: Apelles and Zeuxis were fabled artists of antiquity. Their marvelous works were known to the Middle Ages only from stories about them in various classical texts.

4 (p. 807) Phoebus: Apollo, the sun god.

5 (p. 809) Pallas: Another name for Athena, the goddess of wisdom.

6 (p. 811) the old dance: The “old dance” is a colloquial way of referring to the maneuvers of courtship and seduction as practiced by experts in these matters; the term is also used by Chaucer elsewhere in The Canterbury Tales to describe the Wife of Bath, and in his Troilus and Criseyde to describe Pandar, the go-between figure who woos Criseyde for Troilus.

7 (p. 813) Saint Augustine made this description: See Augustine, Interpretation of the Psalms 104.17, on envy.

8 (p. 819) Jephtha gave his daughter grace: See the Bible, Judges 11, where Jephtha promises God, in return for victory in battle, to sacrifice to him the first creature he encounters on his return home; it is his daughter, who requests a two-month respite to mourn before dying.