Wade's boat

Wade's boat
in Chaucer 's ‘The Merchant's Tale’ (see Canterbury Tales , 10):
And eek thise olde wydwes, God it woot,
They konne so muchel craft on Wades boot,
So muchel broken harm, whan that hem leste
(iv. 1423–5)
According to Skeat 's note, Wade was a famous hero of antiquity who is mentioned in various poems and in Malory (Caxton vii. ix; interestingly, it appears to be Caxton's addition, not being in Vinaver's Sir Gareth from the Winchester manuscript: Works, 188). The ‘tale of Wade’ is also mentioned in Troilus and Criseyde , III. 614. Speght in his 1598 edition of the Tales forbears from telling the story of Wade on the ground that it is too familiar. Wade (mentioned in the Old English Widsith , 22) was the father of Wayland, who in Norse legend built a famous boat to escape his pursuers.

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