HKB
A Godde’s kichel/halfpenny: a little cake/halfpenny, given for God’s sake.
Harlot: hired servant; from Anglo-Saxon, “hyran,” to hire; the word was commonly applied to males.
Potent: staff; French, “potence,” crutch, gibbet.
Je vous dis sans doute: French; “I tell you without doubt.”
Dortour: dormitory; French, “dortoir.”
The Rules of St Benedict granted peculiar honours and immunities to monks who had lived fifty years — the jubilee period — in the order. The usual reading of the words ending the two lines is “loan” or “lone,” and “alone;” but to walk alone does not seem to have been any peculiar privilege of a friar, while the idea of precedence, or higher place at table and in processions, is suggested by the reading in the text.
Borel folk: laymen, people who are not learned; “borel” was a kind of coarse cloth.
Eli: Elijah (1 Kings, xix.)
An emperor Jovinian was famous in the mediaeval legends for his pride and luxury
Cor meum eructavit: literally, “My heart has belched forth;” in our translation, (i.e. the Authorised “King James” Version - Transcriber) “My heart is inditing a goodly matter.” (Ps. xlv. 1.). “Buf” is meant to represent the sound of an eructation, and to show the “great reverence” with which “those in possession,” the monks of the rich monasteries, performed divine service,
N’ere thou our brother, shouldest thou not thrive: if thou wert not of our brotherhood, thou shouldst have no hope of recovery.
Thomas’ life of Ind: The life of Thomas of India - i.e. St. Thomas the Apostle, who was said to have travelled to India.
Potestate: chief magistrate or judge; Latin, “potestas;” Italian, “podesta.” Seneca relates the story of Cornelius Piso; “De Ira,” i. 16.
Placebo: An anthem of the Roman Church, from Psalm cxvi. 9, which in the Vulgate reads, “Placebo Domino in regione vivorum” — “I will please the Lord in the land of the living”
The Gysen: Seneca calls it the Gyndes; Sir John Mandeville tells the story of the Euphrates. “Gihon,” was the name of one of the four rivers of Eden (Gen. ii, 13).
Him that harrowed Hell: Christ. See note 14 to the Reeve’s Tale.
Mr. Wright says that “it was a common practice to grant under the conventual seal to benefactors and others a brotherly participation in the spiritual good works of the convent, and in their expected reward after death.”
The friar had received a master’s degree.
The regular number of monks or friars in a convent was fixed at twelve, with a superior, in imitation of the apostles and their Master; and large religious houses were held to consist of so many convents.
THE CLERK’S TALE.
THE PROLOGUE.
“SIR Clerk of Oxenford,” our Hoste said, “Ye ride as still and coy, as doth a maid That were new spoused, sitting at the board: This day I heard not of your tongue a word. I trow ye study about some sophime:* sophism But Solomon saith, every thing hath time. For Godde’s sake, be of better cheer, livelier mien It is no time for to study here. Tell us some merry tale, by your fay; *faith For what man that is entered in a play, He needes must unto that play assent. But preache not, as friars do in Lent, To make us for our olde sinnes weep, Nor that thy tale make us not to sleep. Tell us some merry thing of aventures. Your terms, your coloures, and your figures, Keep them in store, till so be ye indite High style, as when that men to kinges write. Speake so plain at this time, I you pray, That we may understande what ye say.”