Canterbury Tales (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

by Geoffrey Chaucer

  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.

  The Miller’s Tale

  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.

  The Reeve’s Tale

  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).

  The Wife of Bath’s Tale

  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.

  The Clerk’s Tale

  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.

  The Merchant’s Tale

  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.

  The Franklin’s Tale

  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”).

  The Pardoner’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.