666, 667. _gerland._ A _garland_ for an ale-stake was distinct from a _bush_. The latter was made of ivy-leaves; and every tavern had an ivy-bush hanging in front as its sign; hence the phrase, 'Good wine needs no bush,' &c. But the _garland_, often used in addition to the _bush_, was made of three equal hoops, at right angles to each other, and decorated with ribands. It was also called a _hoop_. The sompnour wore only a _single_ hoop or circlet, adorned with large flowers (apparently roses), according to his picture in the Ellesmere MS. Emelye, in the Knightes Tale, is described as gathering white and red flowers to make 'a sotil gerland' for her head; A. 1054. 'Garlands of flowers were often worn on festivals, especially in ecclesiastical processions'; Rock, Church of our Fathers, ii. 72. Some garlands, worn on the head, were made of metal; see Riley, Memorials of London, p. 133. 667. _ale-stake_, a support for a garland in front of an ale-house. For a picture of an ale-stake with a garland, see Hotten's Book of Signboards. The position of it was such that it did not stand upright, but projected _horizontally_ from the side of a tavern at some height from the ground, as shewn in Larwood and Hotten's Book of Signboards. Hence the enactments made, that it should never extend above the roadway for more than seven feet; see Liber Albus, ed. H. T. Riley, 1861, pp. 292, 389. Speght wrongly explained _ale-stake_ as 'a Maypole,' and has misled many others, including Chatterton, who thus was led to write the absurd line--'_Around_ the ale-stake minstrels sing the song'; Ælla, st. 30. '_At_ the ale-stake' is correct; see C. 321. THE PARDONER. 669. As to the character of the Pardoner, see further in the Pardoner's Prologue, C. 329-462; P. Plowman, B. prol. 68-82; Heywood's Interlude of the _Four Ps_, which includes a shameless plagiarism from Chaucer's Pardoner's Prologue; and Sir David Lyndesay's Satire of the Three Estaits, l. 2037. Cf. note to C. 349. See also the Essay on Chaucer's Pardoner and the Pope's Pardoners, by Dr. J. Jusserand, in the Essays on Chaucer (Chaucer Society), p. 423; and the Chapter on [55] Pardoners in Jusserand's English Wayfaring Life. Jusserand shews that Chaucer has not in the least exaggerated; for exaggeration was not possible. 670. _Of Rouncival._ Of course the Pardoner was an Englishman, so that he could hardly belong to Roncevaux, in Navarre. The reference is clearly to the hospital of the Blessed Mary of Rouncyvalle, in the parish of St. Martin in the Fields, at Charing (London), mentioned in Dugdale's Monasticon, ii. 443. Stow gives its date of foundation as the 15th year of Edward IV., but this was only a revival of it, after it had been suppressed by Henry V. It was a 'cell' to the Priory of Roncevaux in Navarre. See Todd's Illustrations of Gower, p. 263: and _Rouncival_ in Nares. Cf. note to l. 172.