Chaucer's Works, Volume 5 — Notes to the Canterbury Tales — John Shaqi
Chaucer's Works, Volume 5 — Notes to the Canterbury TalesChaucer, Geoffrey
General
Chaucer's Works, Volume 5 — Notes to the Canterbury Tales
Chaucer, Geoffrey
Chaucer, Geoffrey, -1400. Canterbury tales -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
53, 54. _Pruce._ When our English knights wanted employment, 'it was usual
for them to go and serve in Pruce, or Prussia, with the knights of the
Teutonic order, who were in a state of constant warfare with their heathen
neighbours in _Lettow_ (Lithuania), _Ruce_ (Russia), and
elsewhere.'--Tyrwhitt. Cf. Gower, Conf. Amant. ii. 56.
The larger part of Lithuania now belongs to Russia, and the remainder to
Prussia; but in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the natives long
maintained their independence against the Russians and Poles (Haydn, Dict.
of Dates).
_reysed_, made a military expedition. The O. F. _reise_, sb., a military
expedition, was in common use on the continent at that time. Numerous
examples of its use are given in Godefroy's O. F. Dict. It was borrowed
from O. H. G. _reisa_ (G. _Reise_), an expedition. Pron. (reized).
Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, ed. 1840, ii. 210, remarks--'Thomas duke of
Gloucester, youngest son of Edw. III, and Henry earl of Derby, afterwards
Henry IV, travelled into Prussia; and, in conjunction with the grand
Masters and Knights of Prussia and Livonia, fought the infidels of
Lithuania. Lord Derby was greatly instrumental in taking Vilna, the capital
of that country, in the year 1390. Here is a seeming compliment to some of
these expeditions.' Cf. Walsingham, Hist., ed. Riley, ii. 197. Hackluyt, in
his Voyages, ed. 1598, i. 122, cites and translates the passage from
Walsingham referred to above. However, the present passage was written
before 1390; see n. to l. 277.
In an explanation of the drawings in MS. Jul. E. 4, relating to the life of
Rd. Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick (born 1381, died 1439), I find--'Here shewes
how erle Richard from Venise took his wey to _Russy_, _Lettow_, and Velyn,
and Cypruse, Westvale, and other coostes of Almayn toward
Englond.'--Strutt, Manners and Customs.
56-8. _Gernade_, Granada. 'The city of Algezir was taken from the Moorish
King of _Granada_ in 1344.'--T. The earls of Derby and Salisbury assisted
at the siege; Weber, Met. Rom. iii. 306. It is the modern _Algeciras_ on
the S. coast of Spain, near Cape Trafalgar.
_Belmarye_ and _Tramissene_ (Tremezen), l. 62, were Moorish kingdoms in
Africa, as appears from a passage in Froissart (bk. iv. c. 24) cited by
Tyrwhitt. Johnes' translation has--'Tunis, Bugia, Morocco, Benmarin,
Tremeçen.' Cf. Kn. Tale, l. 1772 (A. 2630). Benmarin is called _Balmeryne_
in Barbour's Bruce, xx. 393, and _Belmore_ in the Sowdone of Babylon, 3122.
The Gulf of Tremezen is on the coast of Algiers, to the west.
_Lyeys_, in Armenia, was taken from the Turks by Pierre de Lusignan [8]
about 1367. It is the _Layas_ mentioned by Froissart (see note to l. 51)
and the modern _Ayas_; see the description of it in Marco Polo, ed. Yule,
i. 15. Cf. 'Laiazzo's gulf,' Hoole's tr. of Ariosto's Orlando; bk. xix. l.
389.
_Satalye_ (Attalia, now Adalia, on the S. coast of Asia Minor) was taken by
the same prince soon after 1352.--T. See Acts xiv. 25.
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