jaunce

It has hitherto been explained as either an imaginary variant form of chances or |jaunts', |errands', |wearisome journies', these last three interpretations being dependent on assumed links between geance and the nouns jaunt or jaunce. Each of these suggestions faces serious difficulties in the matter of justifying the perceived formal relationship between geance and chance/jaunt/jaunce.

jaunt, took a similar view, glossing geances as |fatiguing journies' and relating the form jaunt to jaunce, from which he believed jaunt descended through metanalysis of jaunce as a plural form.

Where these interpretations fail is in their dependence on identification with jaunt or jaunce, and the problem lies in the absence of any reason why Jonson should have chosen such an obscure and unprecedented spelling of jaunt or jaunce.