Chaucer's "ferthing of grece."

Author / Editor
Reid, T. B. W.

Title
Chaucer's "ferthing of grece."

Published
Notes and Queries 209 (1964): 373-74.

Description
Argues that an analogue (perhaps source) of Chaucer's image of a coin-shaped ("farthing") spot of grease in his GP description of the Prioress (1.134) is "Clef d'amors," line 3236. The play in the French may derive from a punning echo of "speck" and "halfpenny" ("maillete" and "mäaillete").

Chaucer Subjects
Prioress and Her Tale
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations