Note 887 — Chapter XI

Gentle is here in opposition to villein. Gentle and otherwise: nobles and villeins. Here we must interpret the terms comrades and gentle according to their true meaning and not consider them as used ironically, as in the following passage from Froissart: "Il (le duc de Lancastre) entendit comme il pourroit estre saisy de quatre gentils compaignons qui estranglé avoyent son oncle, le duc de Glocestre, au chasteau de Calais." "He (the Duke of Lancaster) realised how he might be seized by the four gentle comrades who had strangled his uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, in the Castle of Calais." (Froissart in La Curne.)