Chaucer and Costume. The Secular Pilgrims in the General Prologue. By Laura Hodges. Chaucer Studies XXVI. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2000. Pp. xiv + 285; 8 color and 17 b/w plates. $90.

As Chaucer begins his General Prologue, he announces that first he will describe for us his pilgrim-companions:

Me thynketh it acordaunt to resoun
To telle yow al the condicioun
Of ech of hem, so as it semed me,
And whiche they weren, and of what degree,
And eek in what array that they were inne. (ll. 37-41)

Of these overlapping and somewhat vague categories, "array" would seem the least ambiguous. And yet, as quickly becomes clear, not only is the order of each pilgrim-portrait far from any formula of itemization, but details of clothing are often skimpy or absent altogether. If "array" could be translated "outfit," as in the Western ballad: "I see by your outfit that you are a cowboy," it must be taken to include what we assume a pilgrim is wearing even if the outfit has not been explicitly described.

Alan T. Gaylord
Dartmouth College