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.