Pulling Finches and Woodcocks.

Author / Editor
Ericson, Eston Everett.

Title
Pulling Finches and Woodcocks.

Published
English Studies 42 (1961): 306.

Description
Offers evidence from Thomas Dekker's "The Bel-man of London" (1608) that supports reading "to pull a finch" as "having to do with extortion based upon a trumped-up charge of fornication," hence an accusation against the Summoner (GP 1.652) for extorting money and sharing it with a "female accomplice."

Chaucer Subjects
Language and Word Studies
Summoner and His Tale