It sounds to me like a sartirical comment that her headdress was
really overdone. I think his reference to "ten pound" is hyperbole,
as when we may say that something "weighs a ton" when all we mean is
that it is "very heavy".
Joan
At 12:11 PM 2/10/2006, you wrote:
Somehow, I don't think that a linen veil would be so heavy as to
weight ten pounds on her head. Could she have had on some kind of
really elaborate hat or headgear?
Lalah, Never give up, Never surrender
On Wed, 08 Feb 2006 16:34:19 -0600 Melanie Schuessler
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> I'm wondering about the Wife of Bath and what she's got on her head
> in
> the Canterbury Tales:
>
> "Hir coverchiefs ful fyne weren of ground,
> I dorste swere they weyeden ten pound
> That on a Sonday weren upon hir heed."
>
> Mainly I'm wondering about the use of the word "ground" in the first
>
> line. I've seen a suggestion that this could translate to mean
> "texture", as in "her coverchiefs were of a very fine texture".
>
> The OED doesn't seem to offer any goodies, but perhaps I missed
> something--the entries for "ground" are quite long! Does anyone
> have
> other information about this?
>
> Thanks,
> Melanie Schuessler
>
>
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