Chapter Xvii. the Canterbury Pilgrims

"In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay, Redy to wenden on my pilgrymage, To Caunterbury with ful devout corage, At nyght were come into that hostelrye Wel nyne and twenty in a compaignye Of sondry folk, by aventure y-falle In felaweshipe, and pilgrimes were they alle, That toward Caunterbury wolden ryde."

(Prologue, 1. 20.)

This famous band of wayfarers includes representatives of all classes, save the highest and the lowest, just at the period when our surnames were becoming fixed. It seems natural to distinguish the following groups. The leisured class is represented by the Knight (Chapter XV) and his son the Squire, also found as Swire or Swyer, Old Fr. escuyer (ecuyer), a shield-bearer (Lat. Scutum), with their attendant Yeoman, a name that originally meant a small landowner and later a trusted attendant of the warlike kind--

"And in his hand he baar a myghty bow"

(A, 108.)

With these goes the Franklin (Chapter XV), who had been Sherriff, i.e. shire-reeve. He is also described as a Vavasour (p. ii)--

"Was nowher such a worthy vavasour" (A, 360.)

From the Church and the professions we have the Nunn, her attendant priests, whence the names Press, Prest, the Monk, the Frere, or Fryer, "a wantowne and a merye," the Clark of Oxenforde, the Sargent of the lawe, the Sumner, i.e. summoner or apparitor, the doctor of physic, i.e. the Leech or Leach--

"Make war breed peace; make peace stint war; make each Prescribe to other, as each other's leech"

(Timon of Athens, v. 4)--

and the poor parson. Le surgien and le fisicien were once common surnames, but the former is almost swallowed up by Sargent, and the latter seems to have died out. The name Leach has been reinforced by the dialect lache, a bog, whence also the compounds Blackleach, Depledge. Loosely attached to the church is the Pardoner, with his wallet--

"Bret-ful of pardon, comen from Rome al hoot."

(A, 687.)

His name still survives as Pardner, and perhaps as Partner, though both are very rare.

Commerce is represented by the Marchant, depicted as a character of weight and dignity, and the humbler trades and crafts by--

"An haberdasher, and a Carpenter, A Webbe, a deyer (Dyer), and a tapiser."

(A, 361.)

To these may be added the Wife of Bath, whose comfortable means were drawn from the cloth trade, then our staple industry.

From rural surroundings come the Miller and the Plowman, as kindly a man as the poor parson his brother, for--

"He wolde threshe, and therto dyke and delve, For Cristes sake, for every poure wight, Withouten hire, if it lay in his myght."

(A, 536.)

The Miller is the same as the Meller or Mellor--

"Upon the whiche brook ther stant a melle; And this is verray sooth, that I yow tell."

(A, 3923.)

The oldest form of the name is Milner, from Anglo-Sax. myln, Lat. molina; cf. Kilner from kiln, Lat. culina, kitchen.

The official or servile class includes the manciple, or buyer for a fraternity of templars, otherwise called an achatour, whence Cator, Chaytor, Chater (Chapter III), [Footnote: Chater, Chaytor may be also from escheatour, an official who has given us the word cheat.] the Reeve, an estate steward, so crafty that--

"Ther nas baillif (Chapter IV), ne herde (Chapter III), nor oother hyne (Chapter III), That he ne knew his sleights and his covyne"

(A, 603);

and finally the Cook, or Coke (Chapter I)--

"To boylle the chicknes and the marybones."

(A, 380.)

In a class by himself stands the grimmest figure of all, the Shipman, of whom we are told

"If that he faught, and hadde the hyer hond, By water he sente hem hoom to every lond."

(A, 399.)

The same occupation has given the name Marner, for mariner, and Seaman, but the medieval forms of the rare name Saylor show that it is from Fr. sailleur, a dancer, an artist who also survives as Hopper and Leaper--

"To one that leped at Chestre, 6s. 8d."

(Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VII, 1495.)

The pilgrims were accompanied by the host of the Tabard Inn, whose occupation has given us the names Inman and Hostler, Oastler, Old Fr. hostelier (hotelier), now applied to the inn servant who looks after the 'osses. Another form is the modern-looking Hustler. Distinct from these is Oster, Fr. oiseleur, a bird-catcher; cf. Fowler.

ECCLESIASTICAL NAMES

If we deal here with ecclesiastical names, as being really nicknames (Chapter XV), that will leave the trader and craftsman, the peasant, and the official or servile class to be treated in separate chapters. Social, as distinguished from occupative, surnames have already been touched on, and the names, not very numerous, connected with warfare have also been mentioned in various connections.

Among ecclesiastical names Monk has the largest number of variants. Its Anglo-French form is sometimes represented by Munn and Moon, while Money is the oldest Fr. monie; cf. Vicary from Old Fr. vicarie. But the French names La Monnaie, de la Monnaie, are local, from residence near the mint. The canon appears as Cannon, Channen, and Shannon, Fr. chanoine--

"With this chanoun I dwelt have seven yere"

(G, 720);

but Dean is also local sometimes (Chapter XII) and Deacon is an imitative form of Dakin or Deakin, from David (Chapter VI). Charter was used of a monk of the Charter-house, a popular corruption of Chartreuse

"With a company dyde I mete, As ermytes, monkes, and freres, Chanons, chartores . . ."

(Cock Lorelles Bote.)

Charter also comes from archaic Fr. chartier (charretier), a carter, and perhaps sometimes from Old Fr. chartrier, "a jaylor; also, a prisoner" (Cotg.), which belongs to Lat. carcer, prison. [Footnote: The sense development of these two words is curious.]

Charters may be from the French town Chartres, but is more likely a perversion of Charterhouse, as Childers is of the obsolete "childer-house," orphanage.

Among lower orders of the church we have Lister, a reader, [Footnote: Found in Late Latin as legista, from Lat. Legere, to read.] Bennet, an exorcist, and Collet, aphetic for acolyte. But each of these is susceptible of another origin which is generally to be preferred. Chaplin is of course for chaplain, Fr. chapelain. The legate appears as Leggatt. Crosier or Crozier means cross-bearer. At the funeral of Anne of Cleves (1557) the mass was executed--

"By thabbott in pontificalibus wthis croysyer, deacon and subdeacon."

Canter, Caunter is for chanter, and has an apparent dim. Cantrell, corresponding to the French name Chantereau. The practice, unknown in English, of forming dims. from occupative names is very common in French, e.g. from Mercier we have Mercerot, from Berger, i.e. Shepherd, a number of derivatives such as Bergerat, Bergeret, Bergerot, etc. Sanger and Sangster were not necessarily ecclesiastical Singers. Converse meant a lay-brother employed as a drudge in a monastery. Sacristan, the man in charge of the sacristy, from which we have Secretan, is contracted into Saxton and Sexton, a name now usually associated with grave-digging and bell-ringing, though the latter task once belonged to the Knowler--

"Carilloneur, a chymer, or knowler of bells" (Cotgrave).

This is of course connected with "knell," though the only Kneller who has become famous was a German named Kniller.

Marillier, probably a Huguenot name, is an Old French form of marguillier, a churchwarden, Lat. matricularius. The hermit survives as Armatt, Armitt, with which cf. the Huguenot Lermitte (l'ermite), and the name of his dwelling is common (Chapter XIII); Anker, now anchorite, is also extant. Fals-Semblant says--

"Somtyme I am religious, Now lyk an anker in an hous."

(Romaunt of the Rose, 6348.)

PILGRIMS

While a Pilgrim acquired his name by a journey to any shrine, a Palmer must originally have been to the Holy Land, and a Romer to Rome. But the frequent occurrence of Palmer suggests that it was often a nickname for a pious fraud. We have a doublet of Pilgrim in Pegram, though this may come from the name Peregrine, the etymology being the same, viz. Lat. peregrines, a foreigner.