PROLOGUE, l. 1. _Lowis_ was at this time (1391) ten years old (see l. 18); he was therefore born in 1381, whence it is possible that his mother was the Cecilia de Chaumpaigne who, on May 1, 1380, released the poet from all liability _de raptu meo_. This is, of course, a mere conjecture. Probably Lowis died young, as nothing more is known concerning him. 5. _philosofre_; possibly Cicero. 'Haec igitur prima lex amicitiae sanciatur, ut ... amicorum causâ honesta faciamus'; Lælius, cap. xiii. 7. _suffisaunt_, sufficiently good. In the best instruments, the Almicanteras, or circles of altitude, were drawn at distances of one degree only; in less-carefully made instruments, they were drawn at distances of two degrees. The one given to his son by Chaucer was one of the latter; see Part I, sect. 18, l. 8. 10. _a certein_, i.e. a certain number; but the word _nombre_ need not be repeated; cf. _a certein holes_, Pt. I. sect. 13, l. 2, and see the very expression in the Milleres Tale, l. 7 (A 3193). 21. _suffyse_, let them suffice. 32. Repeated from Ho. Fame, 861-2, q.v. 62. 'Nicolaus de Lynna, i.e. of Lynn, in Norfolk, was a noted astrologer in the reign of Edward III., and was himself a writer of a treatise on the Astrolabe. See Bale--who mentions "Joannes Sombe" as the collaborateur of Nicolaus--"Istos ob eruditionem multiplicem, non vulgaribus in suo Astrolabio celebrat laudibus Galfridus Chaucer poeta lepidissimus;" BALE (edit. 1548), p. 152.'--Note by Mr. Brae, p. 21 of his edition of the Astrolabe. Warton says that 'John Some and Nicholas Lynne' were both Carmelite friars, and wrote calendars constructed for the meridian of Oxford. He adds that Nicholas Lynne is said to have made several voyages to the most northerly parts of the world, charts of which he presented to Edward III. These charts are, however, lost. See Hakluyt's Voyages, i. 121, ed. 1598; Warton, Hist. E. P. ii. 357; ed. 1871. Tyrwhitt, in his Glossary to Chaucer, s.v. _Somer_, has the following. 'The Kalendar of John Somer is extant in MS. Cotton, Vesp. E. vii. It is calculated for 140 years from 1367, the year of the birth of Richard II., and is said, in the introduction, to have been published in 1380, at the instance of Joan, mother to the king. The Kalendar of Nicholas Lenne, or Lynne, was calculated for 76 years from 1387. Tanner in v. _Nicolans Linensis_. The story there quoted from Hakluit of a voyage made by this Nicholas in 1360 _ad insulas septentrionales antehac Europæis incognitas_, and of a book written by him to describe these countries _a gradu .54. usque ad polum_, is a mere fable: as appears from the very authorities which Hakluit has produced in support of it.' It seems probable, therefore, that the 'charts' which Warton says are 'lost' were never in existence at all. The false spelling 'Some' no doubt arose from neglecting the curl of contraction in Som_er_e.