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.
The Lat. name for this officer was _exequitator_, as appears from Wyclif,
Sermones, iii. 326 (Wyclif Soc.). I am indebted for these references and
for the explanation of _out-rydere_ to Mr. Tancock; see his note in N. and
Q. 7 S. vi. 425. The same vol. of Visitations also shews that, in the same
abbey, another monk, 'Thomas Stonham tertius prior' was devoted to hunting;
'communis venator ... solet exire solus ad venatum mane in aurora.' There
is also a complaint of the great number of dogs kept there--'superfluus
numerus canum est in domo.' In the Rolls of Parliament (1406), vol. iii. p.
598, the sheriffs collect payments for the repair of roads and bridges 'par
lour Ministres appellez Outryders'; N. and Q. 8 S. ii. 39. Note that this
fully explains the use of _outryders_ in P. Plowman, C. v. 116.
_venerye_, hunting; cf. A. 2308. 'The monks of the middle ages were
extremely attached to hunting and field-sports; and this was a frequent
subject of complaint with the more austere ecclesiastics, and of satire
with the laity.'--Wright. See Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, bk. i. c. 1. §§
9, 10; Our Eng. Home, p. 23. From Lat. _uenari_, to hunt.
168. _deyntee_, dainty, i. e. precious, valuable, rare; orig. a sb., viz.
O. F. _deintee_, dignity, from Lat. acc. _dignitatem_. Cf. l. 346.
170. _Ginglen_, jingle. (The line is deficient in the first foot.)
Fashionable riders were in the habit of hanging small bells on the bridles
and harness of their horses. Wyclif speaks of 'a worldly preest ... in
pompe and pride, coveitise and envye ... with fatte hors, and jolye and
gaye sadeles, and bridelis _ryngynge be the weye_, and himself in costy
clothes and pelure' [fur]; Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 519, 520.
In Richard Cuer de Lion, l. 1517, we read of a mounted messenger, with silk
trappings--
'With fyve hundred belles ryngande.'
And again, at l. 5712--
'His crouper heeng al full off belles.'
'Vincent of Beauvais, speaking of the Knights Templars, and their gorgeous
horse-caparisons, says they have--in pectoralibus campanulas infixas magnum
emittentes sonitum'; Hist. lib. xxx. c. 85 (cited by Warton, Hist. E. P. i.
167). See B. 3984; and Spenser, F. Q. i. 2. 13; also Englische Studien,
iii. 105.
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