1. Chaucer also takes up the topic of true nobility in the Wife of Bath’s Tale (1109–64), the Franklin’s Tale (1520ff.), and in the moral ballad Gentilesse. See Earle Birney, “Chaucer’s ‘gentil’ Manciple and his ‘gentil’ Tale,” Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 61 (1960), 257–67
2. and Wolfgang E.E. Rudat, “Gentillesse and the Marriage Debate in the ‘Franklin’s Tale”: Chaucer’s Squires and the Question of Nobility,” Neophilologus, 68 (1984), 451–70. The text I have used for citations from Chaucer is The Canterbury Tales: A Facsimile and Transcription of the Hengwrt Manuscript, with Variants from the Elles-mere Manuscript, ed. P.G. Ruggiers (1979).
3. The word gentilesse has a range of meaning in Chaucer’s work, implying “kindness,” “gentility,” “nobility,” and “good breeding.” See Heribert Rasbach, “Gentle-genteel,” in Comparative Studies in Key-Words of Culture, éd. G. Deeters et al. (1959), III, 25–53
4. and Howard H. Schless, Chaucer and Dante: A Revaluation (1984), pp. 192ff.
5. George McGill Vogt, “Gleanings for the History of a Sentiment: Generositas virtus, non sanguis,” The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 24 (1925), 102–124. Vogt gives special attention to the versions of the couplet made popular by John Ball in the 14th century: “When Adam delved and Eve span,/ who was then the gentleman?”