Chaucer's Works, Volume 5 — Notes to the Canterbury TalesChaucer, Geoffrey
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Chaucer's Works, Volume 5 — Notes to the Canterbury Tales
Chaucer, Geoffrey
Chaucer, Geoffrey, -1400. Canterbury tales -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
_Galianes._ In like manner this word (hitherto unexplained as far as I am
aware) must signify drinks named after Galen, whose name is spelt _Galien_
(in Latin, _Galienus_) not only in Chaucer, but in other authors. See the
quotation above from the Book of the Duchess. Speght guessed the word to
mean 'Galen's works.'
310. _lyk a prelat_, like a dignitary of the church, like a bishop or
abbot. Mr. Jephson, in Bell's edition, suggests that the Doctor was in holy
orders, and that this is why we are told in the Prologue, l. 438, that 'his
studie was but litel on the bible.' I see no reason for this guess, which
is quite unsupported. Chaucer does not say he _is_ a prelate, but that he
is _like_ one; because he had been highly educated, as a member of a
'learned profession' should be.
_Ronyan_ is here of three syllables and rimes with _man_; in l. 320 it is
of two syllables, and rimes with _anon_. It looks as if the Host and
Pardoner were not very clear about the saint's name, only knowing him to
swear by. In Pilkington's Works (Parker Society), we find a mention of 'St.
Tronian's fast,' p. 80; and again, of 'St. Rinian's fast,' p. 551, in a
passage which is a repetition of the former. The forms _Ronyan_ and
_Rinian_ are evidently corruptions of _Ronan_, a saint whose [267] name is
well known to readers of 'St. Ronan's Well.' Of St. Ronan scarcely anything
is known. The fullest account that can easily be found is the following:--
'Ronan, B. and C. Feb. 7.--Beyond the mere mention of his commemoration as
S. Ronan, bishop at Kilmaronen, in Levenax, in the body of the Breviary of
Aberdeen, there is nothing said about this saint.... Camerarius (p. 86)
makes this Ronanus the same as he who is mentioned by Beda (Hist. Ecc. lib.
iii. c. 25). This Ronan died in A. D. 778. The Ulster annals give at [A.
D.] 737 (736)--"Mors Ronain Abbatis Cinngaraid." Ængus places this saint at
the 9th of February,' &c.; Kalendars of Scottish Saints, by Bp. A. P.
Forbes, 1872, p. 441. Kilmaronen is Kilmaronock, in the county and parish
of Dumbarton. There are traces of St. Ronan in about seven place-names in
Scotland, according to the same authority. Under the date of Feb. 7
(February vol. ii. 3 B), the Acta Sanctorum has a few lines about St.
Ronan, who, according to some, flourished under King Malduin, A. D.
664-684; or, according to others, about 603. The notice concludes with the
remark--'Maiorem lucem desideramus.' Beda says that 'Ronan, a Scot by
nation, but instructed in ecclesiastical truth either in France or Italy,'
was mixed up in the controversy which arose about the keeping of Easter,
and was 'a most zealous defender of the true Easter.' This controversy took
place about A. D. 652, which does not agree with the date above.
311. Tyrwhitt thinks that Shakespeare remembered this expression of
Chaucer, when he describes the Host of the Garter as frequently repeating
the phrase 'said I well': Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 3. 11; ii. 1. 226; ii.
3. 93, 99.
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