1248. _Cataloigne and Aragon_, Catalonia and Arragon, in Spain, immediately to the S. of the Pyrenees. Warton remarks: 'The martial musicians of English tournaments, so celebrated in story, were a more natural and obvious allusion for an English poet'; Hist. E. P. ii. 331. The remark is, I think, entirely out of place. Chaucer is purposely taking a wide range; and, after mentioning even the pipers of the Dutch tongue, as well as Joab of Judæa and Thiodamas of Thebes, is quite consistent in mentioning the musicians of Spain. 1257. Repeated, at greater length, in C. T., Group B, ll. 19-28; see note to that passage. 1259. _Iogelours_, jugglers. See Squi. Tale, F 219. 1260. _Tregetours_; see C. T., F 1141, on which Tyrwhitt has a long note. A _jogelour_ was one who amused people, either by playing, singing, dancing, or tricks requiring sleight of hand; a _tregetour_ was one who brought about elaborate illusions, by the help of machinery or mechanical contrivance. Thus Chaucer tells us (in the Frank. Tale, as above) that _tregetoures_ even caused to appear, in a dining-hall, a barge floating in water, or what seemed like a lion, or a vine with grapes upon it, or a castle built of lime and stone; which vanished at their pleasure. Sir John Maundeville, in his Travels, ch. 22, declares that the 'enchanters' of the Grand Khan could turn day into night, or cause visions of damsels dancing or carrying cups of gold, or of knights justing; 'and many other thinges thei don, be craft of hire Enchauntementes; that it is marveyle for to see.' See note to l. 1277 below. Gawain Douglas imitates this passage in his Palice of Honour; see his Works, ed. Small, i. 65. 1261. _Phitonesses_, pythonesses. The witch of Endor is called a _phitonesse_ in the Freres Tale, C. T., D 1510; and in Gower, Conf. Amant. bk. iv, ed. Pauli, ii. 66; in Barbour's Bruce, ed. Skeat, iv. 753; and in Skelton's Phyllyp Sparowe, 1345. The Vulgate version has _mulier pythonem habens_, 1 Sam. xxviii. 7 (cf. Acts xvi. 16); but also the very word _pythonissam_ in 1 Chron. x. 13, where the witch of Endor is again referred to. Ducange notices _phitonissa_ as another spelling of _pythonissa_.