THE CANTERBURY INTERLUDE AND MERCHANT'S TALE OF BERYN: FOOTNOTES

1 Explicating swiftly the depiction, and upon the story meditated

2 Behave with more reserve, and hide your native (gauche) manner

3 "Lo, how worthwhile," said the Knight, "it is to be a scholar! / To summon such scholars among us, this motive was quite obscure."

4 And each person withdrew to settle down to sleep and take his rest

5 Nor, with such sorts of people, would I care ever to deal again

6 But when eight days had passed, the infection was located nearer the bone

7 That might have made him sorrowful or ever once have altered his cheerfulness

8 His name was Evander, who was so devious and cruel / That a man must be well counseled who would speak before him

9 In brief, let's shake hands on it; it seems to me I say nothing amiss

10 Whoever creates a disturbance or causes strife or mingles too much or swaggers

11 And they move as if they were alive. Acknowledge the subtle engineering!

THE CANTERBURY INTERLUDE AND MERCHANT'S TALE OF BERYN: NOTES

6-10 "but applied all their intellect and desires to foolishness, to such trickery as Harlequin's company, with their wild minds, (performs) behind every hedge that opens up when the green leaves withstand the weather - in this way I refer to them." Chaucer's fabliau characters are compared to the goblin-like spirit Harlequin and his legendary band of demonic (or dead) spirits pursuing wild hunts in the woods. See the criticism of Richard II's council in Mum and the Sothsegger (I, 90-91), p. 6: "Other hobbis ye hadden of Hurlewaynis kynne / Reffusynge the reule of realles kynde." For studies of Chaucer's revived characters, see Bashe (1933), Kohl (1983), and Winstead (1988) .

14 Brown (1991), p. 151, explains that the "Checker of the Hoop" was an inn built for the pilgrimage trade by Prior Chillenden between 1392 and 1395; its sign was a checkerboard enclosed in a metal or wooden hoop. Portions of the structure survive in Canterbury today at the west corner of Mercery Lane and High Street. Its preeminence as a pilgrim hostel went unchallenged until 1437-38, when "The Sun" was erected even closer to the cathedral.

15-18 The Host of Southwark is Harry Bailly, proprietor of the Tabard Inn, who proposed the tale-telling competition, accompanied Chaucer's pilgrims at his own expense, and offered to act as judge to select a winner (CT I, 747-818). If the phrase in town (18) means "at hand," the line indicates the Host settled for food served in the inn and did not send out for provisions.

19 The Pardoner beheld the activity, how various people (social ranks) behaved

19-22 The Pardoner had been described by Chaucer as a conniving con-artist (CT I, 669-714 and VI, 320-968). His misfortunes with Kit the Tapster figured as part of a contemporary stereotype. In 1407 the Lollard William Thorpe admitted to Archbishop Arundel that he had warned against the foolishness of pilgrims "spendynge these goodis upon vicious hosteleris which ben ofte unclene wymmen of her bodies" (The Oxford Book of Late Medieval Verse and Prose, ed. Douglas Gray [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988], p. 15). Much ironic symbolism is involved with the Pardoner's staff, since the pilgrimage staff was suggestive of a tumescent phallus, for example, at the conclusion of Le Roman de la Rose (lines 21,552-88).

22 He (the Pardoner) gave his staff to the barmaid. "Welcome, my dear brother."

30 Jenkyn is a fairly generic man's name (see line 62), for instance, the Wife of Bath's apprentice and later her fifth husband (CT III, 303 and 628). "Jenkyn Harpour" may recall Perkyn Revelour of the Cook's Tale (CT I, 4371).

38 For those who love so surpassingly, such fancies they each one have

43 "Aha! All whole (Good health)," said the Pardoner. "Your penance (mourning for your dead husband) is just about over."

The opening phrase, like Gesundheit!, is a response to the barmaid's sneeze. On the Properties of Things, p. 355, notes that "fnesinge" is sometimes caused by the brain's "superfluytees of smokes that beth cause of yvel othir of bredinge of som vice."

56"Many thanks, gentle sir," she said; "Pain on my behalf you didn't deserve."

59 It was customary for pilgrims to fast until they had visited the shrine; see lines 145-46.

65 Kit is not a name for a respectable woman, as indicated by Beryn's nasty reference to his father's maid-servant as "lewd Kit" (line 1011). See Tauno F. Mustanoja, "The Suggestive Use of Christian Names in Middle English Poetry," in Medieval Literary and Folklore Studies: Essays in Honor of Francis Lee Utley, ed. Jerome Mandel and Bruce A. Rosenberg (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970), pp. 51-76, at pp. 72-74.

66 This expression is also used by the Host in the Prologue to the Siege of Thebes (line 96): "`Daun John,' quod he, `wel broke ye youre name!"'

71 nat. MS: nowe.

78 This proverb is equivalent to "Once burned, twice shy."

98 For the Pardoner to designate Kit as his treasurer is ironic, since a pardoner's ultimate treasurer was the Pope who drew upon the thesaurus or "treasury of merit" for dispensations; see John M. Steadman, "Chaucer's Pardoner and the Thesaurus Meritorium," English Language Notes 3 (1965), 4-7.

99-100 Chaucer used the same vocabulary of dream-interpretation in The Book of the Duchess when claiming even Macrobius could scarcely "arede myn dremes even" (284-89).

106 The prophet Daniel was reckoned to be expert at dream-interpretation, as cited in The Nun's Priest's Tale (CT VII, 3127-29), particularly for unraveling Nebuchadnezzar's dream (Dan. 4).

120 list nat. MS: list. yit sirs. MS: yit sir ne yit sirs. This line recalls Chaucer's warnings for those "whoso list it nat yheere" in the Prologue to The Miller's Tale (CT I, 3170-85).

122-23 To "peel garlic" means to engage in a long, frustrating activity with an unhappy outcome.

133-34 Pilgrims typically made gifts of silver brooches and rings to the shrine, though such practices were criticized with increasing vehemence; see J. F. Davis, "Lollards, Reformers and St. Thomas of Canterbury," University of Birmingham Historical Journal 9 (1963), 1-15.

138 Chaucer described his Monk as "a manly man" (CT I, 167), though here the mildly flattering phrase "with a manly cher" is applied to a Canterbury monk, perhaps a confrere of the author. The Friar's attempt to usurp the office of sprinkler attests to the ongoing conflict between mendicants and monks (see lines 362 and 1643).

141-44 The Friar is depicted as a man of many appetites, including lechery (CT I, 208-69). The nun is probably the Second Nun, since the Prioress is named separately in line 287. Huberd's longing to see the Second Nun's face may be shared by many of Chaucer's readers, since this faceless pilgrim is given no real portrait in the General Prologue (CT I, 163-64).

145 The knight's compers or companions are the Squire (his son) and their Yeoman.

147-57 It would be appropriate if the image causing such confusion in interpretation - a man with a staff? or rake? or spear? - were the panel originally in the north window, opposite the main southwest entrance, showing Adam delving the earth, since the Miller and his friends so clearly belong to the unregenerated class of the Old Adam. See Madeline Harrison Caviness, Early Stained Glass of Canterbury Cathedral, circa 1175-1220 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977), p. 113 and pl. 6 for Adam and his digging implement; the scene tends to confirm her statement (p. 104) that many of these windows, rather than betokening "a book to the lewyd peple" as commonly claimed by defenses of church art such as Dives and Pauper (ed. Priscilla Heath Barnum, EETS o.s. 275, 1976, p. 82), instead offered challenging, even esoteric images directed primarily at the monks of the cathedral. The expression "straight as a ram's horn" means crooked; that is, the low-born pilgrims have incorrectly interpreted the images. The line "And redith as right as the Ram is hornyd" carries much the same force in Mum and the Sothsegger (M 1725), p. 77. There was much heated controversy over church images at this time; see G. R. Owst, Literature and Pulpit in Medieval England (Oxford: Blackwell, 1961), pp. 126-48, and W. R. Jones, "Lollards and Images: The Defense of Religious Art in Later Medieval England," Journal of the History of Ideas 34 (1973), 27-50.

153 "That one bears a stout stick," said the one, "just like a rake handle."

158-67 The culmination of the pilgrimage was the ascent on one's knees to the shrine of St. Thomas à Becket in the Trinity Chapel behind the main altar, a gold-covered chest encrusted with jewels and supported on pink marble columns standing on a stepped plinth. See Daniel Knapp, "The Relyk of a Seint: A Gloss on Chaucer's Pilgrimage," ELH 39 (1972), 1-26.

168-69 The other holy sites would include the corona with a severed piece of St. Thomas's scalp, the place of martyrdom, and the altar of the sword's point broken off when Richard le Breton attacked the archbishop. The six major stations of the church, visited as a sort of pilgrimage within a pilgrimage, have been described by W. A. Scott Robertson, "The Crypt of Canterbury Cathedral," Archaeologia Cantiana 13 (1880), 500-51, at 518-19.

171-72 These tokens stamped with the image of St. Thomas or a Canterbury bell - as well as lead phials containing a portion of his "blood" - were sold as souvenirs of the pilgrimage. The Palmer is laden with such tokens in Piers Plowman (B.5.515-31). For discussion of the iconography of badges and other pilgrim lore, see John V. Fleming, "Chaucer and Erasmus on the Pilgrimage to Canterbury: An Iconographical Speculation," in The Popular Literature of Medieval England, ed. Thomas J. Heffernan (Knoxville: Tennessee Studies in Literature, vol. 28, 1985), pp. 148-66.

184-90 The Summoner refers to The Friar's Tale in which "the devil of hell" conveyed a fellow summoner to damnation. In the Northumberland manuscript the Friar has told his tale prior to the Canterbury Interlude; as a unique feature of this collection, the final section of The Summoner's Tale (III, 2159-2294) with its account of the fart's division has been re-positioned immediately after The Tale of Beryn (fols. 235b-236+b) to fulfil the Summoner's threat here to "quyte wele his mede" by telling a retaliatory tale against the Friar on the homeward trip.

188 I. MS: wee. "although I would reveal publicly all the maliciousness I know, I will not spare him in attacking his character, to do him harm."

195 "Till their stomachs began to bulge." Chaucer used a similar image in The Man of Law's Tale: "He drank, and wel his girdel underpighte" (CT II, 789).

196-99 Glending Olson, Literature as Recreation in the Later Middle Ages (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982), pp. 40-55, reviews medieval commentaries on "nonnaturals" such as food and drink in promoting glad spirits, as background to his argument that mirthful tales, like Chaucer's, have a hygienic justification.

207-11 The General Prologue (CT I, 790-94) stipulates that each pilgrim should tell two tales going to Canterbury, another two tales on the return trip, whereas the Parson's Prologue (CT X, 25) suggests the plan had been reduced to one tale from each pilgrim. Here, in yet another revision, the Host implies one tale per pilgrim has already been told and another, a second per pilgrim, should be offered on the journey back to Southwark.

214-22 The Friar's statement implies that the Host had agreed to pay for the meal back at the Tabard Inn, whereas originally the Host proposed that the winner alone "shal have a soper at oure aller cost" (CT I, 799), that is, purchased by all the others. The theme of "covenaunt" or contractual agreement will become central to The Tale of Beryn that follows.

231 Chaucer's General Prologue noted that the Knight wore a tunic stained by the rust from his coat of mail (CT I, 75-78); here he finally changes to a "fressher gown."

237-44 The Knight's company (meyné) would have included the Squire and the Yeoman, the latter not mentioned here. In response to the French threat, Canterbury's defenses were extensively rebuilt between 1378 and 1409 under supervision of Henry Yevele, the architectural genius also responsible for the cathedral's nave. It is noteworthy that the Knight mentions attack by gunfire ("shot of gonne"), since the West Gate, reconstructed at the expense of Archbishop Simon Sudbury, is the earliest surviving English fortification designed for defense with guns; see Brown, "Journey's End," p. 151. For the Knight to have "declared compendiously" is not surprising, as he offered by far the longest tale (CT I, 859-3108).

245 His. MS: He.

245-50 Description of the Squire is very faithful to the General Prologue (CT I, 79-100), down to the insomnia he suffers on account of his lady-love.

251-54 This abrupt transition led Vipan (p. 179) to suggest lines have been lost after 250. The Clerk's reference to the Summoner's criticism of the Friar as a vicious thief recalls the wholesale indictment of mendicants in The Summoner's Prologue and Tale (CT III, 1665-2294). The Clerk's comment that the Summoner lacks higher education reflects the General Prologue's portrait of him as a man, when drunk, parroting Latin phrases he does not understand (CT I, 637-46).

257 whoso hath. MS: who so.

268 ful curteysly for. MS: for curteysly for. See line 383 ful curteysly.

270 me. MS: hym.

271 The Monk's "brother in habit" might be another Benedictine confrere of the author - perhaps a witty reference to the author himself! - whose conviviality extends to the Parson and even the Friar, here designated a Gray Friar or Franciscan, though Chaucer is not so specific about his order.

274 frendes. MS: frende.

281 It is ironic that the Wife of Bath, who now has "no will to walk," was the great globe-trotter who previously boasted of knowing "muchel of wandrynge by the weye" (CT I, 467).

287 The Prioress, here described as "taught (nurtured? affected?) of gentil blood," was portrayed as a lady of great courtly pretensions in the General Prologue (CT I, 118-62). Enthusiasm for a kitchen garden would therefore be as comically inappropriate for her as for the Wife of Bath. On the Properties of Things, pp. 882-1091, describes the medicinal powers of herbs; for example, hyssop "clensith and purgith alle maner yveles that cometh of colde if it is y-sode in wyn with drye figes and the wyn y-give to the pacient to drynke, and doth awey ache of the stomak and of the guttes" (p. 975).

306 The Franklin used a similar expression: "Withouten coppe he drank al his penaunce" (CT V, 942).

322 ye. MS: I.

326 I yewe prey. MS: yewe prey. "How could I know, I ask you, that you would return so soon?"

362 This unflattering comment on friars reflects an anti-mendicant sentiment typical of the age, as does line 1643 with its reference to the treachery and guile of friars. We should not be surprised by such snide references from a monk-poet with institutional bias against the mendicant orders.

370 feleshipp. MS: felshipp.

386-88 These lines are spoken by the Host. The "marchall" was the chief officer of a hall; Chaucer described the Host as worthy "to been a marchal in an halle" (CT I, 752). The other "officers" are the butler, pantry-keeper, and others who ate at the second-sitting.

396 He must sing the notes sol fa, that is, "go whistle."

410 Chaucer had cast both the Miller and the Cook as drunkards (CT I, 3120-50; IX, 15-93).

412-15 Chaucer's General Prologue remarked upon the Pardoner's singing skills (CT I, 672 and 710-14). The Summoner, here called the Pardoner's disciple, had a more suspicious role as "his freend and his compeer" in the General Prologue (CT I, 670).

422 the. MS: they.

434-35 People, like coins stamped at greater value than their worth, are not always what they seem.

453 This hyperbole relies upon the fabled elusiveness of Christ's garments as a holy relic for which even the Roman soldiers at the Crucifixion cast lots (Matthew 27:35). The Pardoner was a great purveyor of dubious relics (CT I, 694-704; VI, 347-84).

462 To vow to the peacock at table was part of a chivalric ceremony involving love or knightly service.

471 The verb dischauce can mean to remove one's shoes or one's hose (leggings); the root word is immortalized in the family trade-name Chaucer. Kit's order "dischauce yewe nat" instructs her lover not to undress fully for bed till dealing with the Pardoner.

474 The last line on fol. 186a is repeated as the first line on fol. 186b: "And by that tyme it was nere quarter nyghte." The variant nerhond/nere is perhaps suggestive of the copyist's free handling of his text.

476 Here meaning a merry creature, the goldfinch in the visual arts had a wide range of interpretations; see Herbert Friedmann, The Symbolic Goldfinch: Its History and Significance in European Devotional Art (Washington, DC: Pantheon, Bollingen Series, no. 7, 1946).

478 but. MS: by.

And expected to have found the door open, but the latch and also the hinge

480ff. The Pardoner's disappointment and anger at discovering Kit in bed with her lover is reminiscent of Absolon's response to finding Alison in bed with Nicholas in The Miller's Tale (CT I, 3687-3810). Likened to a dog as a creature of greed, the Pardoner will be beaten like a dog and end up spending the night in a dog's litter.

502 his. MS: he.

517 here. MS: hire.

520 The Pardoner, notoriously described by Chaucer as "a geldyng or a mare" (CT I, 691), here has been deprived of his phallic staff.

524ff. This fight in the dark bedroom, so typical of fabliau slapstick, recalls the chaotic brawl at the end of The Reeve's Tale (CT I, 4268-4310).

536 The half-line Jak, thow must be fele may be a warning preserved in the nursery rhyme "Jack, be nimble! Jack, be quick!"

538 Vipan (p. 183) observed that if chere is given the American pronunciation chore, it then rhymes with dorr in the preceding line.

545-48 The wife's foul temper may have been a popular commonplace in respect to the wives of innkeepers; Harry Bailly's wife Goodelief could be roused to murderous fury (CT VII, 1893-1922).

563-68 These lines are spoken by Kit's lover.

580 Like young Alison in The Miller's Tale, Kit escapes unscathed from the violence involving the three men.

593 This mysterious Seynt Amyas may be St. Aimo, St. Aime, St. Amatus, St. Hamo, St. Amos - the prophet who is supposed to have been transfixed with an iron bar through the temples - or even "holy Emmaus" near Jerusalem where the resurrected Christ appeared as the unknown third man (Luke 24:13-35), or perhaps even St. Thomas of Canterbury.

621 lyke. MS: lyle. Cologne was famous for producing solid, heavy weapons.

622 Symkyn uses such an expression for outwitting John and Aleyn in the Reeve's Tale: "Yet kan a millere make a clerkes berd" (CT I, 4096).

625-29 According to legend, St. Julian built a hospice beside a river where he and his wife tended the sick and poor, rowing travelers across the river, hence becoming the patron saint of travelers, innkeepers, and boatmen. The Pardoner's stifled, frustrated anger was previously seen at the end of his Tale when he was insulted by the Host (CT VI, 956-57).

640 The word warrok referring to a bound creature (see Piers Plowman B.4.21 and Patience 80) combines with warlock as a devilish monster. Mum and the Sothsegger (M 1703), p. 76, uses the word in an expression meaning "let sleeping dogs lie."

642 nere. MS: ne.

660 The scribe's spelling eres makes it unclear whether the Pardoner shook his "ears" or his "hairs," the former more likely, in keeping with the scoundrel's canine character. See Maria to Malvolio in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (2.3.125): "Go shake your ears!"

667 he. MS: they.

675-79 This passage reverses the Parson's Prologue, where Chaucer had left his pilgrims "at a thropes ende" in the late afternoon when "the sonne wole adoun" (CT X, 12, 70).

678 pipe. MS: pike. Rhyme with rype.

680 Southwork. MS: Southword.

682 Though modern scholars usually reckon Chaucer's time-setting around April 17-19, when "the yonge sonne / Hath in the Ram his half course yronne" (CT I, 7-8), here the dating at the end of the month, "entring into May," agrees with Lydgate's Prologue to the Siege of Thebes (1-17) where the astrological description suggests that the poem opens on April 27, with the homeward trip the next morning, April 28.

683 The break in rhyme suggests that a line may be missing.

685 ruddok. MS: oudduk.

686 The phrase twyneth smale may mean to intertwine neatly or to cry with a small, high-pitched voice.

689-90 Since Nature is usually feminine, the pronoun he may be understood as heo, "she" (see line 86). The same pronoun ambiguity arises with Fortune (lines 1365-69; see also 943-45) and Folly (lines 2319-20). The poet specifically refers to "Dame Fortune" at line 2196.

703-16 In the General Prologue, a drawing of lots determined the Knight as the first tale-teller on the outward journey (CT I, 835-55).

717 The Holy Cross of Bromholm Priory, a supposed relic of the true cross, was brought to Norfolk from Constantinople in the early thirteenth century following the Fourth Crusade. Famed for its miraculous powers, it became a popular destination for pilgrims - and figured as a common oath; see CT I, 4286.

725-27 In the Northumberland manuscript, the Merchant's Tale of Beryn is in fact followed by contributions from the Summoner, Chaucer the pilgrim, the Monk, the Nun's Priest, the Manciple, and the Parson.

729-32 The Merchant's apology for ignorance and inability to "peynt" his tale is reminiscent of the Franklin's modest disclaimers (CT V, 716-28).

756 Two of the Cinque Ports towns, Winchelsea and Rye on the Sussex coast, were victims of naval raids by the French and their allies, notably the vicious attack of 1360 that included plunder and massacre of citizens in a useless attempt to free King Jean. Rye was again sacked and burned in 1377, Winchelsea in 1380; see Tamanini, pp. 73-74. The phrase "here fast by" further suggests that The Tale of Beryn was composed in the southeast, as does the poet's dialect and the Canterbury associations. Green, "Legal Satire in The Tale of Beryn," pp. 61-62, suggests that the two port cities declined because their economies had been depressed by a drop in foreign trade as a result of legal abuses of the sort described in the tale that follows.

758-59 The twins Romulus and Remus were the legendary founders of Rome according to "old bookes" such as Ovid's Metamorphoses (14.771-851).

762-64 The narrator maintains the pretense that he is speaking to an audience of pilgrims on horseback.

772 Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People (1.2) recounts Julius Caesar's campaign to conquer Britain in 55-54 B.C.

776 The poet's sense of Roman history becomes confused. Here he equates the Senate with the Douzepers, the twelve peers of Charlemagne.

783-86 This account of imperial succession has no basis in Roman history; see Tamanini, pp. 296-97. Constantine the Great was emperor in 324-37; Constantine III was a Byzantine emperor who ruled briefly in 641. Philippus was emperor in Rome in 243-49, while Philippicus was a Byzantine usurper reigning 711-13.

789 The Seven Sages, or advisors to the Roman emperor, appear in the romance tradition of The Seven Sages of Rome, ed. Karl Brunner, EETS o.s. 191, 1933; see Killis Campbell, "A Study of the Romance of the Seven Sages," PMLA 14 (1899), 1-107.

810 men. MS: me.

812 myght. MS: mygth.

822 the. MS: thes. Scribal confusion of t for c has led to the spellings Stypio for Scipio and Sithero for Sichero (Cicero); see Kane (1960), p. 120. Their common surname was Astrolage after their shared profession of astrology or "astonomy" (line 824); see On the Properties of Things, Book VIII, "De Mundo et Corporibus Supracelestibus," pp. 441-515.

837 Sportes may have been miswritten for portes, doorways.

850 to be. MS: to.

913 Seven was considered the first year of childhood, the transition from infantia (the "age of innocence") to pueritia (the "age of accountability"); see On the Properties of Things, pp. 291-93 and 298-301, and Burrow, The Ages of Man, p. 74.

922 over mischeff. MS: ovir. Supply of this missing word "mischeff" is suggested by the French source.

938 in is hard. MS: in hard.

943-46 The wheel of Fortune is a traditional image of life's ups and downs; see Howard R. Patch, The Goddess Fortuna in Medieval Literature (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1927).

971 krase. MS: karse. Rhyme with pase.

984 had. MS: have.

987 yew lafft me. MS: I lafft yew.

998 kissed Beryn, but. MS: kissid but.

1011 The Canterbury Interlude made clear that Kit was not a name befitting a respectable woman.

1015 ought. MS: outgh.

1017 Beryn swore by the mass book and the church bell.

1019 thow. MS: were thow. Beryn threatens to knock out her teeth.

1021 now. MS: nowgh.

1022 And he struck the damsel under her ear; the blood spurted upward.

1058 every. MS: by. The scribe was probably confused by the contracted form of every.

1064 withey. MS: with.

1065 overgrowe. MS: ovir grove.

1066 bowe. MS: growe.

1084 ne write. MS: write. halffyndele. MS: halsfyndele.

1085 "[as a result of] his son's disobedience and his wife's death."

1090 And Faunus. MS: A ffawnus.

1099 When. MS: With.

1114-15 See the opening line of Chaucer's "To Rosemounde": "Madame, ye ben of al beaute shryne."

1120 snell. MS: swell.

1137 nas. MS: was.

1139 When. MS: With.

1140 For the medieval imagery of Love with his arrows, see Erwin Panofsky, "Blind Cupid," in Studies in Iconology, rev. ed. (New York: Harper & Row, 1962), pp. 95-128, plates 69-106.

1145 made. MS: did make. Rhyme with sade; the word make is crossed out in the manuscript.

1148-56 The assumption that women are by nature treacherous is embedded in the clerical ideology that a monastic poet would share with the Wife of Bath's fifth husband, Jankyn, whose chief reading was his "book of wikked wyves" containing such "olde Romayn geestes" as Beryn (see CT III, 642-787).

1150 condicioune. MS: condicoune.

1167 spak. MS: spal. This emendation resists the difficilior lectio or "harder reading" of the manuscript, where spal could be the preterite of spell, meaning to cast a spell or speak bewitchingly.

1175 erthly. MS: ertly.

1179 own. MS: hown.

1200 refreit. MS: frefreit.

1221-23 These lines are spoken by Faunus.

1229 spede. MS: spech. Anticipation of reche.

1249 rebawdry. MS: rebawdy. The rhyme is with hazardry; see line 1257.

1250 The two-man game merelles or morris is played on a board with an equal number of pebbles, pegs, pins, or disks.

1275 Curs com. MS: Com. Some noun has been omitted at the head of the line; Tamanini astutely emended to Curse com. See line 1280 for the spelling curs.

1300 thys. MS: thy.

1308 "To claw a sorry man's head" means to realize one's own miserable condition.

1318 This reference to Beryn's coat is mocking, since lines 1295-98 indicate his makeshift wardrobe does not cover his nakedness.

1340 And. MS: Ant.

1342 "I think that (his fainting) might prove he had his share of sorrow."

1346 Dame Fortune typically carries a sceptre rather than a spear; for a survey of the iconographic tradition, see Kolve (1984), pp. 327-30 and 490-91. The poet may have been thinking of the spear carried by Death; see CT VI, 675-78.

1350 totare his ere: The spelling makes it unclear whether Beryn tore his ear or his hair; the latter is more likely.

1365-69 The copyist was confused by the pronoun he for heo ("she") in reference to Fortune; the gender of the goddess is later clarified by the phrase "Dame Fortune" (line 2196).

1383 witted. MS: wit. Emended on the basis of line 1376.

1422 as sone as. MS: as sone a.

1423 lenger. MS: legir.

1425-42 Vipan (p. 190) observed that Faunus, warming to his repentant son, switches from the formal thow to the familiar yewe.

1431 I shall. MS: Shall.

1433 that for thy moder. MS: for thy modir that.

1463 In this tale told by the Merchant, it is apt that the protagonist prefers the life of a merchant to that of a knight.

1475 she made. MS: & made.

1478 Besides "belly," the word kite can also mean "bird of prey" or "rapacious person." Thus the odd phrase went lowe for the kite might otherwise mean to dive like a bird avoiding a kite's attack, or to swoop down as a kite does upon its prey. On the Properties of Things, p. 634, describes the cowardice and treachery of the kite: "And he is a ravyschinge foul and hardy among smale briddes and coward and fereful among grete briddes; . . . and lighth ofte in waite to take tame briddes and lith ofte in waite to take chekenes and to slee ham that he fyndith unwaar."

1489 mekerly. MS: mekely. Rhyme with sikerly.

1531 A side bond, here a sealed document executed in the presence of witnesses, was given to the new owner when the release or conveyance of property was handed over to him. For such "conditional bonds," see Simpson (1975), pp. 90-92.

1555-99 Whereas the French source does not describe the voyage or tempest in any detail, the English version expands the account with so much nautical terminology that Vipan (p. 191) speculated the author might have been a seafaring man earlier in life. Such fascination with nautical detail is in fact typical of English poets, as in Patience (97-244) and Chaucer's Legend of Cleopatra (LGW 628-55).

1565 They. MS: The.

1581 nas. MS: was.

1582 The expression the thiknes of a skale means "in the least bit."

1589 shippes that. MS: shippis.

1598 The break in rhyme suggests a line may be missing.

1631 longed. MS: longeth. Correct verb-tense, rhyming with honged.

1637 A manciple was a subordinate official who arranged provisions for some corporate institution, like Chaucer's pilgrim who managed supplies for one of the inns of court, to his own advantage (CT I, 567-86).

1641 A burgess was a freeman or citizen of a town, a term often used to describe a merchant.

1643-44 A friar's obligation to divide his ill-gotten gain with the other members of his convent became the topic of Chaucer's Summoner's Tale, whose last section with the solution for dividing Thomas's donation (a fart) immediately follows Beryn in the Northumberland manuscript.

1646 ches. MS: dise. The rhyme with dres confirms this substitution for sense.

1652 I. MS: or.

1717 fremd. MS: frend.

1737 Distances such as a mile or a furlong are used to express durations of time, that is, how long it would take to walk a mile or a quarter-mile.

1754 faileth. MS: fallith.

1765-78 Beryn has rashly entered into a contractual agreement ("covenant") sealed with a handshake ("hond in hond") in front of witnesses. As opposed to the modern contract, the medieval covenant is best understood as a transaction promising reciprocal gifts; it was by definition an agreement to perform something in the future, so that failure to perform might result in "assumpsit," an action for the recovery of damages for the non-performance of a parol or unsealed contract. See William M. McGovern, "The Enforcement of Informal Contracts in the Later Middle Ages," California Law Review 59 (1971), 1145-93, and Simpson (1975), "Covenants," pp. 9-52 and 146-53.

1787-90 Dame Philosophy's advice on avoiding the snares of Fortune occupies Book II of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy.

1790 world wide. MS: world. Adjective supplied for rhyme with ryde.

1795 The "sergauntes" were not policemen in the modern sense but rather officers of the court, in the later Middle Ages a generic name for lawyers. See Chaucer's Sergeant of the Lawe (CT I, 309). The evolution of the term is outlined by Pollock and Maitland, The History of English Law, 1:282-90.

1823 scleve. - "Sirs. MS: scleve and seyd sirs.

1837 The word gesolreut refers to the three musical pitches G (ge-sol), D (re) and high C (ut). In the medieval scale there were two gesolreuts, the lower and the upper, the haut. To cry "in gesolreut the haut" means to shout in the uppermost register or at an extremely high pitch.

1843 Chaucer makes this careful distinction, for example, in his warning about the vulgarity of the Miller: "And eek men shal nat maken ernest of game" (CT I, 3186). On the invalidity of Dorigen's contract made "in pley" with Aurelius in The Franklin's Tale, see Hornsby (1988), pp. 52-54.

1851 For the zigzag of an indenture, see Black's Law Dictionary, p. 911: "if a deed was made by more parties than one, it was usual to make as many copies of it as there were parties, and each was cut or indented (either in acute angles, like the teeth of a saw, or in a wavering line) at the top or side, to tally or correspond with the others, and the deed so made was called an `indenture'."

1858-60 The Burgeyse, as plaintiff, enters an oral plea before the court to describe the contract. The author invokes the same ancient dichotomy between words (verba) and deeds (res) that Chaucer uses in statements like "The word moot nede accorde with the dede" (CT IX, 208), which he derived from the Platonic philosophy of the Boece (III, prose 12.205-07).

1873 Beryn correctly understands that he can lose the case merely because his account of events is inaccurate or deficient in some small detail ("in som word"). See Pollock and Maitland, 2:602-05.

1876-81 Beryn's "borow" was a piece of valuable property that served to secure a promise. The surety was forfeited if the contract were not fulfilled, that is, if Beryn were unable to drink all of the salt water in the sea. See Henry, Contracts, pp. 179-201. For the provost to have seized Beryn's five ships ("i-sesed in our honde") means that he has assumed legal possession of them while acting as Beryn's custodian; see Pollock and Maitland, 2:29-80. For uses of the term sesed elsewhere in Middle English literature, see John A. Alford, "Literature and Law in Medieval England," PMLA 92 (1977), 941-51, at 945-47. Beryn's ineptitude as a merchant is reflected in his persistent failure to obtain a sealed covenant, an indenture, or a tally as evidence of his transactions.

1881 As provost or chief magistrate of the town, Hanybald can overrule Evander who, as steward, exercises less judicial authority.

1884-85 Besides seizing the ships, Hanybald undertakes the obligation of mainpernor to ensure the arrested defendant's appearance in court.

1891 is. MS: it.

1897ff. Hanybald appears to offer a scheme by which Beryn's cargo might be safeguarded against seizure by transfer of possession secured with merchandise stored in his own house, merchandise liable to forfeiture if Hanybald fails in his agreement. He solicits Beryn's "vowe" (line 1905). They signal good faith by drinking on the terms (line 1915), then Hanybald pushes for a handshake contract (line 1922). The subsequent emptying of the house is a breech of good faith, which could have served Beryn as the pretext for nullifying the contract. Hanybald preempts this tact by accusing Beryn himself of wavering (lines 1971-77).

1904 The break in rhyme suggests a missing line.

1905 yeur vow also. MS: yeur also.

1909 Here "arest" refers to the seizure of Beryn's ships as well as his own personal detention.

1918 high. MS: his. The copyist mistook the yogh for an s.

1924 ye. MS: I.

2002 Here. MS: Ther.

2010 The words "Out!" and "Harrowe!" were shouted to raise the hue and cry for neighbors to pursue and arrest a criminal. Chaucer uses these cries in the Miller's Tale (CT I, 3824-29) and The Nun's Priest's Tale (CT VII, 3375-82).

2035 never yit. MS: nevir.

2063 Evander. MS: Edwandir.

2065-70 Probate proceedings involve establishing proof in civil law. Since the Blind Man alleges that his complaint has a history and he can produce witnesses or compurgators, including Evander himself, to establish his grievance, he has the advantage as plaintiff. Sir John Fortescue (1394?-1476?) in his De Laudibus Legum Anglie (XXI), ed. and trans. S. B. Chrimes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1942), pp. 44-45, criticized this procedure: "By the civil law, the party who has taken the affirmative in the joinder of issue ought to produce the witnesses, whom he shall name at his pleasure. But a negative cannot be proven, that is, directly, though it may be indirectly. Feeble indeed . . . who cannot find, out of all the men he knows, two who are so lacking in conscience . . . they will contradict every truth. . . . And since their statements are in the affirmative, they are not easily disproved by circumstantial or other indirect evidence."

2083-84 Vipan (pp. 192-93) notes condempnyd/examened would make a bad rhyme, but I have not judged this failing sufficient to emend to examned.

2098 Hit. MS: Yit.

2101 howe lome. MS: lome.

2128 of his child. MS: of his.

2130 with. MS: without.

2135-39 If Beryn were really her husband, his spousal bond ("trowth") would oblige him to a marital debt comparable to commercial indebtedness; see Hornsby, pp. 100-03. The Woman apparently has a "gage" or pledge that she offers as security to be forfeited upon failure of her case (which should actually be tried in ecclesiastical court).

2139 Steward. MS: Stwarge.

2161 worldlich. MS: wordlich.

2179 ne down. MS: the down.

2182 they woll. MS: the woll.

2194 Vipan (p. 193) suggests this hypermetric line be shortened by deleting he did.

2208 they pursu. MS: the pursu.

2210 A catchpoll, like a sergeant, was a constable or deputy officer whose duty it was to arrest persons. To detain and control prisoners he would place a yoke with pikes around the prisoner's neck. The yoke was attached to a pole which enabled the officer to direct the prisoner as he wished. If the prisoner struggled, the pikes would impale his throat.

2227 eche man. MS: eke man.

2260 Again Beryn enters into a rash handshake agreement.

2266 he had. MS: they had.

2273 good. MS: God. See line 2291.

2275 There appears to be some confusion between dromodaries meaning "camels" and dromoundes meaning "large ships." Camels are called dromondaries in Morte Arthure (line 2286), ed. Edmund Brock, EETS o.s. 8, 1871, p. 68.

2286 sesed hym. MS: sesid.

2293-98 Beryn, who has previously been accused only of violating various contracts, is now charged with the felony of murder. Distinct from homicide (which may have been man-slaughter with extenuating circumstances) the term murder designated those slayings committed in secret, at night, or by devious or clandestine means. Murder was a capital offense punishable by death. The wording murder woll out perhaps echoes Chaucer's Prioress (CT VII, 576) or the Nun's Priest's echoing of her phrase (CT VII, 3052).

2300 were. MS: where.

2335-38 Beryn imagines himself in a morality play with Fortune, Wisdom, Wit, and Governance.

2340 wrought hymselff. MS: wrought myselff.

2357 I, iwis. MS: I wis

2363 his. MS: is.

2386 An incumbrance is a claim, charge, or liability attaching property as part of a writ or judgment. Beryn fears he is going to be sued by the Crippled Man, no doubt for causing his physical disability.

2388 prece. MS: preche. Rhyme with cese.

2394 no word. MS: o word.

2405 Wolde ye had. MS: yee had.

2408 Phrases like outed all yeur chaffare are used by the Wife of Bath (CT III, 521) and the Host (CT IV, 2438).

2436 contreman. MS: contremen.

2450 Vipan (p. 195) says the cleiks was a leg-cramp afflicting horses, hence the mocking name for the crippled-looking Geffrey. Since cleek was a verb meaning to catch with a crook, here the lame man's crutch, the name might otherwise be understood as "Sir Snatch 'em."

2460-61 Geffrey invites the crew to be summoned as witnesses to the conversation. One of Beryn's major legal problems has been his inability to produce witnesses to testify in his favor against his accusers and their array of witnesses.

2466 how goodly Geffrey spak. MS: how goodly as Geffrey spak.

2476 in whom. MS: I whom.

2488 A "behest" is a legal promise creating an obligation. The Man of Law's statement "Bihest is dette" (CT II, 41) reflects the fundamental idea behind the secular law of contracts that agreements must be kept.

2503 I dure. MS: I dryve dure.

2518-20 Looking back upon the longevity of the Old Testament patriarchs, readers in the Middle Ages believed that in ancient times men lived longer, with life-expectancy becoming shorter as the world itself became more corrupt. See Burrow, The Ages of Man, esp. pp. 79-92, for the ages of the world.

2530 Beryn offers to become the lawyer's liegeman or sworn follower rendering service in exchange for protections, another rash promise which Geffrey wisely refuses. For the legal workings of feudal service, see F. W. Maitland, The Constitutional History of England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1908), pp. 141-64.

2538 Beryn replied: "Were I not to grant you that, I would be more stupid than an ass!"

2569-74 The contract between Geffrey and Beryn is sealed "in signe of trowth" not with a handshake, but a kiss followed by wine.

2583 Vipan (p. 195) suggests i-secled (sickened) may be the victim of another c/t confusion, hence i-setled for the doublet "settled and fixed" as in line 1742.

2595-2600 Green, "Legal Satire," p. 57, notes that this prohibition of inquest (preferred by merchants) in favor of the old customary compurgation proof of witnesses (preferred by local burgesses) was practiced at this time by England's Cinque Ports, much to the chagrin of foreign traders and, ultimately, the ports themselves when trade declined; see note for line 756.

2601 togider. MS: togid.

2602 though ye were. MS: they ye were.

2603 wold gyve yewe. MS: wold gyve yeve yewe.

2605-07 Black's Law Dictionary, p. 82, gives this definition of affirmative: "The party who, upon the allegations of pleadings joining issue, is under the obligation of making proof, in the first instance, of matters alleged." Thus the citizens sustain the burden of proof, which they accomplish by lining up witnesses willing to perjure themselves. Beryn sustains the burden of negative proof, that is, he must produce evidence or witnesses to prove the contrary - which he cannot do. Green, p. 53, describes Beryn's procedural bind: "In this legal catch-22, the defendant is guilty until proved innocent, but as soon as he denies his guilt, he forfeits the right to prove anything at all."

2616 daunger. MS: daunser.

2645 that. MS: tha.

2660 They shuld. MS: The shuld.

2666 Seneca (c. 4 B.C. - A.D. 65) was the Roman stoic philosopher and dramatist frequently cited by Chaucer. Sydrak was a philosopher to whom was attributed a medieval book of popular wisdom, The Book of Sydrach. "Salamones sawes" refers to the Proverbs of Solomon. This alliterative trio also appears in Mum and the Sothsegger (M 1212), p. 62.

2667 The seven sciences are the seven liberal arts of the Trivium (grammar, rhetoric, logic) and the Quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music). The conduct of war was the subject of Vegetius's foundational De Re Militari (fourth century A.D.) and later Honoré Bonet's Arbre des Batailles (c. 1387), principal sources for Christine de Pizan's Book of Fayttes of Armes and of Chyualrye (c. 1408-10), translated in 1489 by William Caxton (ed. A. T. P. Byles, EETS o.s. 189, 1932).

2673 The French source joins with several texts from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in which Denmark is cited as the birthplace of great men, saints as well as villains, whose origins are otherwise obscure.

2689 That seven score. MS: Tha vii xx.

2695 this ilch day. MS: his ilch day.

2702 But whoso ly. MS: Both who so ly.

2703 The correct reading may be enpechements to rhyme with thens.

2723 keveryng above. MS: keveryng of bove. On the Properties of Things, p. 841, describes how celidony "helpeth ageins the passioun lunatik and ageins woodnes and ageins old sorwe and maketh a man kynde and plesyng"; since it is "a litel stoon and precious," an entire ceiling of celidony would have been very impressive. (Celidony was a fabulous stone, of two kinds [either black or red], that was said to be found in the stomach of a swallow.)

2731 On the Properties of Things, p. 843, says nothing about the coldness of the stone dionisius, only its power to prevent drunkenness.

2741-46 On the Properties of Things, pp. 1219-20, says much about the leopard's violence and aggressiveness, but nothing about the animal's irritation at human breathing.

2753-58 Ptolemy, originally known as Claudius Ptolomaios (c. A.D. 100-170), was a Greek astronomer best known for his treatise Almagest. His renown as a scientist was so great that here he is credited with inventing robotic animals. On medieval automatons, see William Eamon, "Technology as Magic in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance," Janus 70 (1983), 171-212. See also Rosemary Ascherl, "The Technology of Chivalry in Reality and Romance," in The Study of Chivalry: Resources and Approaches, ed. Howell Chickering and Thomas H. Seiler (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 1988), pp. 263-311, esp. 285-87 and bibliographies on pp. 310-11.

2758 move. MS: mowe.

2771-78 Chaucer showed great respect for the illusionist powers of "tregetours" in The House of Fame (1259-81) and The Franklin's Tale (CT VII, 1138-51). See Laura Hibbard Loomis, "Secular Dramatics in the Royal Palace, Paris, 1378, 1389, and Chaucer's `Tregetoures'," Speculum 33 (1958), 242-55.

2774 apparence. MS: apparene.

2791 wrieth. MS: wrighe. On indenture ("dentour"), see note for line 1851.

2801 herte. MS: hertis.

2813 They had. MS: The had.

2815-18 In desperation, the crew wishes to be convicted of a felony, which would carry the death penalty, rather than to be reduced to slavery through forfeiture of all their property in civil suits.

2823 Thurhout all the long nyghte, till cokkes gan to syng. MS: Thurhout the nyghte till Cokkis gan to syng. A fuller version of the first half-line is copied following line 2830 - Thurh out all the long nyghte - which I have conflated with line 2823, but which Furnivall (p. 86) reconstructed as a full couplet based on lines 2815-16: Thurh-out all the long nyghte [this was hir compleynt], / They wisshid that of felony they had been atteynt (2831-32).

2825 wynd. MS: wyne.

2826 they had been. MS: he had been.

2827 apassed hope. MS: a passid.

2872 Here meaning a crafty plot, wanlase was the circuit made in hunting to intercept game, especially deer.

2888 tyll Geffrey gan. MS: to Geffrey gan.

2925 i-dight. MS: in dight. See line 2968.

2943 Geffrey will describe a nonsense game instead of the well-known board game called "quek." Quek as a dialect variant for "neck" may account for the abrupt transition between images.

2946 haled. MS: hale.

2977 Beryn makes a point which he ought to have pressed harder, namely, that he is a merchant who should be accorded his rights under "law merchant" (lex mercatoria), a special legal code which extended to mercantile transactions and was internationally recognized by the fifteenth century. Though ley marchaunt normally differed from common law only in expeditious procedure, the merchants themselves could act as judges; if a civil case such as Beryn's was tried by jury, half of the jury might consist of foreigners like the defendant himself. Beryn is placed at a decided disadvantage because law merchant denied wager of law (lining up of witnesses) as a means of establishing the negative and enabled plaintiffs to prove informal contracts by suit ("pleynt"); see note for lines 2605-07. See Frederic Rockwell Sanborn, Origins of the Early English Maritime and Commercial Law (New York: Century, 1930), pp. 324-401, and J. H. Baker, "The Law Merchant and the Common Law Before 1700," Cambridge Law Journal 38 (1979), 295-322. Green, pp. 54-62, makes the case that Beryn is entangled in law-merchant proceedings throughout.

2979 yf. MS: yef.

2982 A "wed" was an object or even hostages given as security to guarantee a party's intention to perform a promise in good faith. See Henry, Contracts, pp. 202-06. The address Sir John is used mockingly for "silly man."

2987 sor. MS: for.

3003 Geffrey's ceaseless chatter is compared, proverbially, to the clatter of a waterwheel.

3018 chasted. MS: chased.

3046 Gilhochet, the name that Geffrey assumes, appears in the French original as Guinehoches, formed from guignol for "hand-puppet clown" and hochet for "toy rattle," according to Tamanini, p. 309.

3054 in company. MS: a company. The phrase "the grettest of the town" may mean the majority of the citizens or the most distinguished men of the town.

3070 So shall I. MS: So shall.

3074 A guest at a medieval banquet would often have a dinner companion, someone of equal social rank with whom to share servings of food and even the same wine cup, as Geffrey claims in asserting intimacy with the Emperor of Rome.

3096-98 In law merchant, these ten witnesses who are neighbors (unlike Beryn who is a foreigner) have the double function of affirming the truth of the Burgeyse's testimony and acting as compurgators or "oath-helpers" who swear that the plaintiff can be believed. The irregularity of the procedure is underscored by the fact that eleven oath-helpers were normally required for wager of law. Green, pp. 54-56, details Beryn's disadvantages as a non-citizen defendant barred from jury inquest.

3097 every word. MS: evir word.

3131 this. MS: thes.

3153 shall nat nede. MS: shall nede.

3154-57 Geffrey offers to prove the justice of Beryn's cause by ordeal of judicial combat, absurdly boasting a record of four previous victories as if he were the sort of professional champion sometimes in the employ of a prince for deciding such cases. See Henry C. Lea, Superstition and Force: Essays on the Wager of Law, the Wager of Battle, the Ordeal, Torture, 2nd ed. rev. (1870; rpt. New York: Greenwood, 1968), pp. 85-199, and M. J. Russell, "I. Trial by Battle and the Writ of Right" and "II. Trial by Battle and the Appeals of Felony," Journal of Legal History 1 (1981), 111-34 and 135-64.

3171 on hond. MS: an hond.

3176 til at the last. MS: til al the last.

3178 For "tregitours," see note for lines 2771-78; also Kieckhefer, Magic in the Middle Ages, pp. 95-100.

3182 Bayard is used as a typical name for a horse in Langland's Piers Plowman (B.4.53) and in a famous simile in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde (I, 218-24).

3190 yit shuld it. MS: it shuld it.

3202 Besides making it difficult for the Woman to talk, a slit tongue would have indicated punishment for some previous conviction of false accusation; Pollock and Maitland, 2:453.

3206 harmes. MS: Armys.

3221 Womman. MS: vommen.

3229 Secret marriages formed a suspicious practice in the period; see Henry Ansgar Kelly, "Clandestine Marriage and Chaucer's Troilus," Viator 4 (1973), 435-57, and Hornsby, pp. 56-68.

3230 Geffrey alludes to the proverb "The child is as much like the father as if he had been spit out of his mouth."

3235 tanry. MS: tavener crossed out and corrected to tanry. The line means "until he is old enough to be apprenticed to the tanner's trade."

3239-40 Geffrey refers back to the insane notion that all the townspeople have a mouse for their mother (lines 2955-58).

3247 he thought nat so. MS: he thought nat nat so.

3287 yit sith his departyng. MS: gift crossed out after sith.

3300 On celidony, see note for line 2723; On The Properties of Things discusses the lore of rubies (pp. 839-40) and sapphires (pp. 869-71).

3327-28 On Geffrey's offer of "wager of battle," see note for line 3153.

3350 This line is recopied by mistake after line 3356. The first time the scribe wrote o tale I shall yew tell, the second time o tale I shall yewe tell; the difference in spelling yew/yewe suggests the copyist's flexible attitude toward final -e.

3364-65 The proverb runs something like "He who arrives last to dinner (the cook-pot) is served the worst."

3381 we. MS: I.

3392 They wisshed. MS: The wisshid.

3416 comand. MS: comyng. Rhyme with honde.

3423 hem. MS: hym.

3425ff. By playing the fool, Geffrey has avoided entering any plea until he has heard all five complaints. He then pleads additional matter, a tactic known as confession and avoidance (Black's Law Dictionary, p. 369), which gives his client the advantage of being in the affirmative position.

3452 thertofor. MS: therfor. See line 3457 for heretofore.

3462 The expression "drive the nail to the head" refers to increasing a victim's agony.

3466 but fynde it clene. MS: but clene.

3475 This compressed line might be expanded thus: "Nor can anyone play chess better than I, though I myself say so, who knows not half so much as my master."

3476 Nowe how he lost. MS: Ne how he lost.

3477 went. MS: wend.

3487 to seche the Sepulker. MS: to se the the sepulkir. Another c/t confusion.

3502 this was the end. MS: this was end.

3531 failleth. MS: fallith.

3552 though ye sotil pry. MS: thought sotil pry. Vipan (p. 199) suggested emending pry > be for the sake of the rhyme with iniquité.

3565 The gage was a pawn given as security against the future delivery of a debt, while the pledge was usually a glove given as public acknowledgement of the debt.

3584 he. MS: they.

3594 hem. MS: hym.

3629 This proverbial expression is not as close to the Latin Ars long, vita brevis as it is to the opening line of Chaucer's Parliament of Fowls: "The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne." Geffrey's altered form of the name "Sir Hanyball," here and in line 3619, seems to be mocking.

3637 yit it is. MS: yit is.

3656 The line combines two proverbial expressions, "wipe a man's nose" and "shave a man's beard," both implying the party has been bested.

3658 They profered. MS: The proferid. For pledge and gage, see note for line 3565 above.

3723 For the practice of necromancy, see Kiekhefer, Magic in the Middle Ages, pp. 151-75; and see line 339.

3751 For "borowes" or sureties, see note for lines 1876-81 above.

3761 thre. MS: the.

3769 asyde. MS: a seyd.

3777 The shaved head was the sign of a fool or lunatic.

3780 they myght. MS: the myght.

3795 than. MS: that.

3798-99 first tho / To have. MS: first to / To have.

3801 i-passed. MS: & passid.

3816 Beryn shouts "Out!" to raise the hue and cry; see note for line 2010 above.

3830-32 Customary law established that a weapon's owner was responsible for any injury inflicted with it; Pollock and Maitland, 1:54.

3855 Normally composed of twelve men, a jury might be doubled in size to twenty-four to decide cases of unusual importance, hence literally a "grand jury." Green, pp. 59-60, compares this to a "jury of attaint."

3866 therof. MS: therof therof.

3879 they were. MS: the were.

3912 quod Beryn. MS: Beryn.

3928 cloth. MS: cloith.

3930 In tokyn. MS: I tokyn.

3957 with Beryn. MS: wit B.

3981 Thes wymmen. MS: This wymmen.

3982 as it was do. MS: at it was do.

3987-90 Isope interprets Beryn's instinctive choice of the sword as a sign of well-bred nobility.

3993 To cond him saff. MS: To cond his saff. performed. MS: perfomyd.

4002 Thurh the wit of Geffrey, it fil so. MS: Thurh the wit of Geffrey that ech day did hym lere it fil so. The phrase that ech day did hym lere has been imported from line 4006, by mistake, though the corruption probably runs deeper.

4013 "Except the town's citizens, who were the source of falsehood." Furnivall (p. 120) ignored the mid-line caesura and lack of capitalization in the manuscript to take the town of falshede as a proper noun; hence "Falsetown" figures in his commentary as the name of the port city where Beryn encounters so much fraud.

4015 were fawe. MS: fawe. The word were is added in the manuscript's right margin.

The Latin colophon forming a couplet at the bottom of the last page of The Tale of Beryn can be translated "The name of the author presenting the chronicle of Rome, and of the translator, is a son of the Church of St. Thomas." Brown, "Journey's End," pp. 148-50, proposes that the author might have been a monk charged with the care of the shrine of St. Thomas à Becket in the cathedral's Trinity Chapel, which was almost universally called the St. Thomas Chapel, hence "Filius ecclesie Thome." The wording suggests that the clerical poet's name may also have been Thomas. Therefore worth noting is Green's suggestion, pp. 61-62 n. 49, that the author was Thomas Astell, rector of St. Thomas the Martyr in Winchelsea.