HKB
Corbets: the corbels, or capitals of pillars in a Gothic building; they were often carved with fantastic figures and devices.
A largess!: the cry with which heralds and pursuivants at a tournament acknowledged the gifts or largesses of the knights whose achievements they celebrated.
Nobles: gold coins of exceptional fineness. Sterlings: sterling coins; not “luxemburgs”, but stamped and authorised money. See note 9 to the Miller’s Tale and note 6 to the Prologue to the Monk’s tale.
Coat-armure: the sleeveless coat or “tabard,” on which the arms of the wearer or his lord were emblazoned.
“But for to prove in alle wise As fine as ducat of Venise”
Lapidaire: a treatise on precious stones.
See imperial: a seat placed on the dais, or elevated portion of the hall at the upper end, where the lord and the honoured guests sat.
The starres seven: Septentrion; the Great Bear or Northern Wain, which in this country appears to be at the top of heaven.
The Apocalypse: The last book of the New Testament, also called Revelations. The four beasts are in chapter iv. 6.
“Oundy” is the French “ondoye,” from “ondoyer,” to undulate or wave.
Partridges’ wings: denoting swiftness.
Hercules lost his life with the poisoned shirt of Nessus, sent to him by the jealous Dejanira.
Of the secte Saturnine: Of the Saturnine school; so called because his history of the Jewish wars narrated many horrors, cruelties, and sufferings, over which Saturn was the presiding deity. See note 71 to the Knight’s tale.
Compare the account of the “bodies seven” given by the Canon’s Yeoman: “Sol gold is, and Luna silver we threpe; Mars iron, Mercury quicksilver we clepe; Saturnus lead, and Jupiter is tin, And Venus copper, by my father’s kin.”
Statius is called a “Tholosan,” because by some, among them Dante, he was believed to have been a native of Tolosa, now Toulouse. He wrote the “Thebais,” in twelve books, and the “Achilleis,” of which only two were finished.
Dares Phrygius and Dictys Cretensis were the names attached to histories of the Trojan War pretended to have been written immediately after the fall of Troy.
Lollius: The unrecognisable author whom Chaucer professes to follow in his “Troilus and Cressida,” and who has been thought to mean Boccaccio.
Guido de Colonna, or de Colempnis, was a native of Messina, who lived about the end of the thirteenth century, and wrote in Latin prose a history including the war of Troy.
English Gaufrid: Geoffrey of Monmouth, who drew from Troy the original of the British race. See Spenser’s “Faerie Queen,” book ii. canto x.
Lucan, in his “Pharsalia,” a poem in ten books, recounted the incidents of the war between Caesar and Pompey.
Claudian of Alexandria, “the most modern of the ancient poets,” lived some three centuries after Christ, and among other works wrote three books on “The Rape of Proserpine.”
Triton was a son of Poseidon or Neptune, and represented usually as blowing a trumpet made of a conch or shell; he is therefore introduced by Chaucer as the squire of Aeolus.
Sky: cloud; Anglo-Saxon, “scua;” Greek, “skia.”
Los: reputation. See note 5 to Chaucer’s Tale of Melibœus.
Swart: black; German, “schwarz.”
Tewell: the pipe, chimney, of the furnace; French “tuyau.” In the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, the Monk’s head is described as steaming like a lead furnace.
Tetches: blemishes, spots; French, “tache.”
For the story of Belle Isaude see note 21 to the Assembly of Fowls.
Quern: mill. See note 6 to the Monk’s Tale.
To put an ape into one’s hood, upon his head, is to befool him; see the prologue to the Prioresses’s Tale, l.6.