by: John M. Bowers (Editor)
The Cook's Tale
THE COOK'S TALE: FOOTNOTES
1 With Care-never and Reckless this lesson he learns
2 With Impudent and with Ill-advised - such a gang were they named
THE COOK'S TALE: NOTES
3 Goldfinches are lively, happy creatures. See Canterbury Interlude, line 476 (note).
13 Cheapside was a busy London thoroughfare that served as a favorite site for processions and festivals, including the notorious "lords of misrule."
19-24 This interpolation with its alliteration and moralized personifications is reminiscent of Langland's Piers Plowman (e.g., B.4.16-21, 5.566-93, and 6.69-82). The playmate "Drawe-abak," as a companion to "Drynke-more," embodies the habit of drawing ale from a barrel.
31 The alliterative duo of Margot and Millicent might be taken as typical names for loose women.
32 When a powder-bag was untied, its contents were quickly dispersed.
36 Presumably a child, then as now, was not allowed to eat fish because of the small bones.
41-44 The anonymous reviser has thoroughly rewritten these boldface lines based on CT I, 4391-95.
48 mow not. MS: mow mow not.
53 woole. MS: wolle.
54 Though. MS: They.
58 When disorderly persons were conducted to the celebrated prison at Newgate, they were sometimes preceded by minstrels attracting more spectators to complete the criminal's disgrace.
85-86 The moralizing intentions of the reviser are clearly exposed in this couplet, which concluded Chaucer's fragment with the authentic reading: "And hadde a wyf that heeld for contenance / A shoppe, and swyved for hir sustenance."
90 Originally, a member of a religious order could plead "benefit of clergy" to be tried by an ecclesiastical rather than a secular court; later, a felon could plead exemption from his first conviction merely by virtue of the fact he could read. Since Perkyn Reveler had neglected his education, he could not escape execution.
(Bodley MS 686, fols. 54b-55b)
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