The Canterbury Tales, and Other Poems by Geoffrey Chaucer
page 416 of 1215 (34%)
page 416 of 1215 (34%)
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11. Fele: many; German, "viel."
12. Dear enough a jane: worth nothing. A jane was a small coin of little worth, so the meaning is "not worth a red cent". 13. Mo: me. "This is one of the most licentious corruptions of orthography," says Tyrwhitt, "that I remember to have observed in Chaucer;" but such liberties were common among the European poets of his time, when there was an extreme lack of certainty in orthography. 14. The fourteen lines that follow are translated almost literally from Petrarch's Latin. 15. For great skill is he proved that he wrought: for it is most reasonable that He should prove or test that which he made. 16. Chichevache, in old popular fable, was a monster that fed only on good women, and was always very thin from scarcity of such food; a corresponding monster, Bycorne, fed only on obedient and kind husbands, and was always fat. The origin of the fable was French; but Lydgate has a ballad on the subject. "Chichevache" literally means "niggardly" or "greedy cow." 17. Countertail: Counter-tally or counter-foil; something exactly corresponding. 18. Aventail: forepart of a helmet, vizor. |
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