---+-----------+-----------+-----------+--------- | March. | April. | May. | ---+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+--- | Aries. | Taurus. | Gemini. | ---------+-----------+-----------+-----------+---
The sun had, in fact, only just completed his course through the first of the twelve signs, as the said course was supposed to begin at the vernal equinox. This is why it is called 'the yonge sonne,' an expression which Chaucer repeats under similar circumstances in the Squyeres Tale, F. 385. _Y-ronne_, for A. S. _gerunnen_, pp. of _rinnan_, to run (M. E. _rinnen_, _rinne_). The M. E. _y-_, A. S. _ge-_, is a mere prefix, mostly used with past participles.
9. Pron. ([*e]nd smaa·l[*e] fuu·lez maa·ken melodii·[*e]); 'and little birds make melody.' Cf. _fowel_ (fuul), a bird, in l. 190.
10. _open ye_, open eye. Cf. the modern expression 'with one eye open.' This line is copied in the Sowdone of Babylon, ll. 41-46.
11. 'So nature excites them, in their feelings (instincts).' _hir_, their; A. S. _hira_, lit. 'of them,' gen. pl. of _h[=e]_, he. _corage_ (kuraa·j[*e]); mod. E. courage; see l. 22.
12, 13. According to ordinary English construction, the verb _longen_ must be supplied after _palmers_. In fact, l. 13 is parenthetical. Note that _Than_, in l. 12, answers to _Whan_ in l. 1.
13. _palmer_, originally, one who made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and brought home a _palm_-branch as a token. Chaucer, says Tyrwhitt, seems to consider all pilgrims to foreign parts as palmers. The essential difference between the two classes of persons here mentioned, the palmer and the pilgrim, was, that the latter had 'some dwelling-place, a palmer had none; the pilgrim travelled to some certain place, the palmer to all, and not to any one in particular; the pilgrim might go at his own charge, the palmer must profess wilful poverty; the pilgrim might give over his profession, the palmer must be constant'; Blount's Glossographia (taken from Speght). See note to P. Plowman, B. v. 523.
The fact is, that palmers did not always reach the Holy Land. They commonly went to Rome first, where not unfrequently the Pope 'allowed them to wear the palm as if they had visited Palestine'; Rock, Church of our Fathers, vol. iii. pt. 1. p. 439.