Part I, sect. 18, l. 8.
10. _a certein_, i.e. a certain number; but the word _nombre_ need not be
repeated; cf. _a certein holes_, Pt. I. sect. 13, l. 2, and see the very
expression in the Milleres Tale, l. 7 (A 3193).
21. _suffyse_, let them suffice.
32. Repeated from Ho. Fame, 861-2, q.v.
62. 'Nicolaus de Lynna, i.e. of Lynn, in Norfolk, was a noted astrologer in
the reign of Edward III., and was himself a writer of a treatise on the
Astrolabe. See Bale--who mentions "Joannes Sombe" as the collaborateur of
Nicolaus--"Istos ob eruditionem multiplicem, non vulgaribus in suo
Astrolabio celebrat laudibus Galfridus Chaucer poeta lepidissimus;" BALE
(edit. 1548), p. 152.'--Note by Mr. Brae, p. 21 of his edition of the
Astrolabe.
Warton says that 'John Some and Nicholas Lynne' were both Carmelite friars,
and wrote calendars constructed for the meridian of Oxford. He adds that
Nicholas Lynne is said to have made several voyages to the most northerly
parts of the world, charts of which he presented to Edward III. These
charts are, however, lost. See Hakluyt's Voyages, i. 121, ed. 1598; Warton,
Hist. E. P. ii. 357; ed. 1871.
Tyrwhitt, in his Glossary to Chaucer, s.v. _Somer_, has the following. 'The
Kalendar of John Somer is extant in MS. Cotton, Vesp. E. vii. It is
calculated for 140 years from 1367, the year of the birth of Richard II.,
and is said, in the introduction, to have been published in 1380, at the
instance of Joan, mother to the king. The Kalendar of Nicholas Lenne, or
Lynne, was calculated for 76 years from 1387. Tanner in v. _Nicolans
Linensis_. The story there quoted from Hakluit of a voyage made by this
Nicholas in 1360 _ad insulas septentrionales antehac Europæis incognitas_,
and of a book written by him to describe these countries _a gradu .54.
usque ad polum_, is a mere fable: as appears from the very authorities
which Hakluit has produced in support of it.' It seems probable, therefore,
that the 'charts' which Warton says are 'lost' were never in existence at
all. The false spelling 'Some' no doubt arose from neglecting the curl of
contraction in Som_er_e.