Chaucer's Alaunts 139 



tion, as he has done elsewhere.*^ The alaunts can not have been 

 'as grete as any steer, '*^ since we hear of no dog measuring more 

 than 35, or at most 37^^ inches in height at the shoulder; 

 Chaucer's have collars of gold,*^ instead of velvet collars and 

 silken leashes, with clasps of gilded brass; 'twenty and mo' 

 replace the six which Chaucer may have seen; 'leoun' and 'deer' 

 are inexact equivalents. On the other hand, the best alaunts 

 were white,*^ and these dogs were regularly muzzled,** just as 

 Chaucer says. In fine, when we consider the rarity of alaunts 

 in that period, outside of Spain and the French territory imme- 

 diately contiguous, neither of which Chaucer ever visited; that 

 Lionel did not bring them back to England, and there is no 

 indication that an alaunt was ever seen in England; that', so 

 far as we know, Chaucer's only opportunity of seeing alaunts 

 would have been either at Paris*^ or at Milan,*^ both of which 



It is possible that the collars, leashes, and buckles appertained merely 

 to the 'striveri'; but in a somewhat similar case, in the first course, the 

 two kinds of furniture are mentioned separately (velvet collars and silken 

 leashes: gilded brazen chains, leather collars, silken leashes). 



*' So in the *ful ofte tyme' of Prol. 52 (cf. Hist. Background, pp. 209 

 ff.) ; 'no Cristen man so ofte of his degree' (Prol. 55) ; 'many a noble 

 armee' (Prol. 60) ; freckles (fraknes) for pockmarks (Hist. Background, 

 pp. 167, 170); 'an egle tame, as eny lilie whyt' (K. T. 1320; cf. Hist. 

 Background, p. 171 ; in Guy of Warwick 823 and Liheaus Desconus Tiz, 

 a gerfalcon is called white as a swan) ; 'an hundred lordes' (K. T. 1321 ; 

 cf. Hist. Background, p. 172, note i) ; 'dukes, erles, kinges' (K. T. 

 1324; cf. Hist. Background, p. 173, note i) ; *ful many a tame leoun and 

 lepart' (K. T. 1328; cf. Hist. Background, p. 17 A, note i). 



*^Thus in King Alisaunder, composed before 1330 (Wells, p. 100), the 

 author says of two greyhounds (5286), 



Hy weren mychel als lyouns; 



so in the Avowynge of King Arthur (1350-1400) we are told of a wild 

 boar (49), 



He is hejer thenne a horse, 



*^In King Alisaunder (5284) there appear 



In a cheyne of golde tweie greihoundes ; 



but 'golde' may here mean gilded brass, as in the gift at the first course 

 at the wedding- feast (see above, p. 66). 



^ See above, p. 133. 



** See above, p. 136. 



*' Hotel St Paul. 



''Perhaps also in the park at Pavia; cf. Hist. Background, p. 186, note. 



