BOOK II.
The chief correspondences are shewn in the following table.
CHAUCER: BOOK II. FILOSTRATO: BOOK II.
ll. 265-6, 274-308. st. 35-37.
316-322. 46.
391-419, 428-455. 43, 54, 47-56.
501-523, 540-1. 55-57, 61.
554-578. 62-64.
584-588. 43.
589-602. 65, 66, 68.
645-665. 82-88, 71-78.
733-5, 746-763. 69, 70.
768-784. 73, 75-78.
937-8, 966-981. 79-81, 89.
995-1010. 90, 91.
1044-1104. 93-98, 100-109.
1125-1232. 109-128.
1305-1351. 128-131.
Other passages are mainly original; as, e.g. ll. 1352-1757 at the end, and
1-264 at the beginning.
1-3. These lines somewhat resemble Dante, Purgat. i. 1-3.
'Per correr miglior acqua alza le vele
Omai la navicella del mio ingegno,
Che lascia dietro a sè mar sì crudele;' &c.
7. _calendes_, the introduction to the beginning; see bk. v. l. 1634. Thus
the 'kalends of January' precede that month, being the period from Dec. 14
to Dec. 31.
8. _Cleo_; so in most copies; H2. has _Clyo_; Clio, the muse of history.
14. _Latin_ seems, in this case, to mean Italian, which was called _Latino
volgare_.
21. 'A blind man cannot judge well of colours;' a proverb.
22. Doubtless from Horace's Ars Poetica, 71-3; probably borrowed at
second-hand.
28. A proverb. In the Proverbs of Hendyng, l. 29, we have: 'Ase fele thede,
ase fele thewes,' i.e. so many peoples, so many customs. See l. 42 below.
Cf. Boethius, Bk. ii. Pr. 7. 49 (p. 47).
36. _went_, for _wendeth_; i.e. goes; pres. tense.
46. 'Yet all is told, or must be told.'
48. _bitit_, for _bitydeth_; i.e. betides, happens.
55. _Bole_, Bull, the sign Taurus. On the third of May, in Chaucer's time,
the sun would be in about the 20th degree of Taurus. The epithet _white_ is
from Ovid, Met. ii. 852.
63. _wente_, sb., a turn; i.e. he tossed about.
64-68. _forshapen_, metamorphosed. Progne was changed into a swallow; Ovid,
Met. vi. 668. Tereus carried off Progne's sister Philomela; see Leg. of
Good Women (Philomela).
74. 'And knew that the moon was in a good plight (position) for him to take
his journey.' That is, the moon's position was propitious; see note to Man
of Lawes Tale, B 312.
77. '_Janus_, god of (the) entry;' see Ovid, Fasti, i. 125.
81. 'And found (that) she and two other ladies were sitting.' _Sete_ (A. S.
_s[=æ]ton_) is the pt. t. pl., not the pp.
84. The celebrated story of the Siege of Thebes, known to Chaucer through
the Thebais of Statius; see bk. v. 1484. And see l. 100.
87. _Ey_, eh! a note of exclamation, of frequent occurrence in the present
poem.
103. _lettres rede_, i.e. the rubric describing the contents of the next
section.
100-105. Oedipus unwittingly slew his father Laius; and the two sons of
Oedipus contended for Thebes. For _Amphiorax_, see note to bk. v. 1500, and
to Anelida, 57.
108. _bokes twelve_; the 12 Books of the Thebais. The death of Amphioraus
is related at the end of Book vii.
110. _barbe_, 'part of a woman's dress, still sometimes worn by nuns,
consisting of a piece of white plaited linen, passed over or under the
chin, and reaching midway to the waist;' New E. Dict. She wore it because
she was a widow; see the quotations in the New E. Dict., esp. 'wearing of
_barbes_ at funerals.' And see _Barbuta_ in Ducange.
112. 'Let us perform some rite in honour of May;' see note to Kn. Ta. A
1500.
117. The right reading is necessarily _sete_, for A. S. _s[=æ]te_, 3 p. s.
pt. t. subj. of _sitten_; 'it would befit.' Cf. _seten_, they sat, 81,
1192.
134. 'And I am your surety,' i.e. you may depend upon me; see bk. i. 1038.
151. _unkouth_, unknown, strange; hence, very; Sc. _unco'_.
154. _wal_, wall, defence; _yerde_, rod, scourge, as in bk. i. 740.
167. From Le Rom. de la Rose, 5684-6:--
'Lucan redit, qui moult fu sages,
C'onques _vertu et grant pooir_
Ne pot nus _ensemble veoir_.'
Cf. Lucan, Phar. i. 92.
236. _Withoute_, excepting sweethearts; or, excepting by way of passionate
love. The latter is the usual sense in Chaucer.
273. 'Therefore I will endeavour to humour her intelligence.'
294. _so well bigoon_, so well bestead, so fortunate. Cf. Parl. Foules,
171.
318. _Which ... his_, whose; cf. _that ... his_, Kn. Ta. A 2710.
328. 'Then you have fished to some purpose;' ironical. To _fish fair_ is to
catch many fish.
329. _What mende ye_, what do you gain, though we both lose?
344. Gems were supposed to have hidden virtues.
387. _fele_, find out, investigate.
391, 2. Cf. Ovid, Art. Amat. ii. 107: 'Ut ameris, amabilis esto.'
393. In the same, 113, we find: 'Forma bonum fragile est,' &c.
396. 'Go and love; for, when old, no one will have you.'
398. 'I am warned too late, when it has past away, quoth Beauty.'
400. The 'king's fool' got the hint from Ovid, Art. Amat. ii. 118: 'Iam
uenient rugae,' &c.
403. _crowes feet_, crow's feet; wrinkles at the corners of the eyes; from
the shape. So in Spenser, Shep. Kal. _December_, 136: 'And by myne eie the
crow his clawe doth write.'
408. _breste a wepe_, burst out a-weeping.
413. _Ret_, for _redeth_, advises; cf. P. Plowman C. iv. 410, and note.
425. _Pallas_; perhaps invoked with reference to the Palladium of Troy; bk.
I. l. 153. Moreover, Pallas was a virgin goddess.
434. 'Of me no consideration need be taken.'
477. 'Except that I will not give him encouragement;' see 1222.
483. 'But when the cause ceases, the disease ceases.'
507. _gon_, gone; 'not very long ago.'
525. _mea culpa_, by my fault; words used in confession: see P. Plowman, B.
v. 77, and note.
527. _Ledest the fyn_, guidest the end; cf. Boeth. Bk. iv. Pr. 6. 149.
537. _biwryen_, used in place of _biwreyen_, to bewray. The same rather
arbitrary form appears in Parl. Foules, 348.
539. 'Because men cover them up,' &c.
586. _were never_, never would be; _were_ is in the subjunctive mood.
611. _Thascry_, for _The ascry_, the alarm. _Ascry_ occurs in Wyclif, Prov.
vii. 6.
615. _latis_, lattice. The reading _yates_, gates, is wrong, as shewn by l.
617.
618. Dardanus, ancestor of Priam. Cf. _Dardanidae_, i. e. Trojans, Verg.
Aen. i. 560, ii. 72, &c. Troy had six gates, according to Guido; the
strongest of these was _Dardanus_; see the allit. Destruction of Troy, ed.
Panton and Donaldson, l. 1557, Lydgate, Siege of Troy, b. ii. c. 11, and
Shakespeare's Prologue to his Troilus.
_ther open is the cheyne_, where the chain is open, or unfastened. Alluding
to the chains sometimes drawn across a street, to block it against
horsemen. The sense is, 'he will come down _this_ street, because the
others are blocked.'
621. _happy_, fortunate. It was a lucky day for him.
627. _a pas_, at a foot-pace; see Prol. A 825, and l. 620 above.
637. _an heven_, a beautiful sight; cf. Sq. Ta. F 558.
639. _tissew_, lace, twisted band; from F. _tistre_, to weave.
642. The shield was covered with horn, sinews or _nerf_, and skin or
_rind_.
651. 'Who has given me a love-potion?'
656. _for pure ashamed_, for being completely ashamed, i.e. for very shame.
A curious idiom.
666. _envýous_, envious person; accented on _y_, as in l. 857.
677. _Ma | de_; two syllables. The first foot is imperfect.
681. The astrological term 'house' has two senses; it sometimes means a
zodiacal sign, as when, e.g. Taurus is called the 'house' or mansion of
Venus; and sometimes it has another sense, as, probably, in the present
passage. See Chaucer's treatise on the Astrolabe, pt. ii. § 37, on 'the
equations of houses.' In the latter case, the whole celestial sphere was
divided into twelve equal parts, called 'houses,' by great circles passing
through the north and south points of the horizon. The first of these,
reckoning upwards from the eastern horizon, was called the _first_ house,
and the _seventh_ house, being opposite to it, was reckoned downwards from
the western horizon. The _first_ and _seventh_ houses were both considered
very fortunate; and it is here said that Venus was in her seventh house,
i.e. was just below the western horizon at the moment when Criseyde first
saw him. The same planet was also 'well disposed,' i.e. in a favourable
sign of the zodiac; and at the same time was 'pleased (or made propitious)
by favourable aspects' of other planets, i.e. other planets were favourably
situated as regards their angular distances from Venus. Moreover, Venus was
no foe to Troilus in his nativity, i.e. she was also favourably situated at
the moment of his birth.
716. Imitated from Le Rom. de la Rose, 5765-9, q.v.
746. 'I am one (who is) the fairest.' The _-e_ in _fairest-e_ is not
elided; neither is the _-e_ in _wist-e_ in l. 745.
750. I.e. 'I am my own mistress.'
752. _lese_, pasture; 'I stand, unfastened, in a pleasant pasture.' From A.
S. _l[=æ]su_. Cf. Ho. Fame, 1768. It does not mean 'leash,' as usually
said; Chaucer's form of 'leash' is _lees_, as in Cant. Ta. G 19.
754. _chekmat_, check-mate, as in chess; see Book Duch. 659. Bell sees a
pun in it; '_check_ to my _mate_,' i.e. wife; but it remains to be shewn
that the form _mate_ (wife) was known to Chaucer, who spells it _make_
(Cant. Ta. E 2080).
759. I.e. 'I am not a nun,' nor vowed to chastity.
767, 769. _sprat_, for _spredeth_, spreads, pres. t.; _spradde_, pt. t. Cf.
Boethius, Bk. i. Met. 3. 9-12.
777. According to Bell, MS. Harl. 1239 also has _why_, i.e. wherefore, a
reason why, cause.
784. Cf. 'S'il fait folie, si la boive;' Rom. Rose, 12844.
797. 'No one stumbles over it;' for it is too unsubstantial.
802. 'Yet all things seem to them to be harmful, wherein folks please their
friends.'
807. 'Nothing venture, nothing have.'
830. _hertes lust_, heart's pleasure; _to rente_, by way of rent.
831. _no wight_, to no one; dat. case.
861. See Hazlitt's notes on the proverb--'Many talk of Robin Hood, that
never shot in his bow,' &c.
866. 'Who cannot endure sorrow deserves no joy.'
867. 'And therefore let him, who has a glass head, beware of stones cast in
battle.'
882. _let_, short for _ledeth_, leads (Stratmann).
884. The MSS. end the line with _syke_. It has been pointed out that _syke_
is not a perfect rime to _endyte_, _whyte_, but only an assonance. It is
difficult to believe Chaucer guilty of this oversight; and hence I would
suggest, with all submission to the critics, that possibly Chaucer wrote
_syte_. The M. E. _syte_ means to be anxious, and occurs in the Cursor
Mundi, 11675; where Joseph says to Mary:--'Bot I _site_ for an other thing
That we o water has nu wanting,' i.e. but I am anxious about another thing,
that we lack water. The sb. _site_, grief, occurs in the Midland dialect as
well as in Northumbrian; see _site_ in Stratmann. As the word is unusual,
it would naturally be altered by the scribes to the familiar _syke_, to
sigh, with a cognate meaning.
920. 'And loude he song ageyn the sonne shene;' Kn. Ta. A 1509.
959. 'Unless lack of pursuit is the cause (of failure),' &c.; cf. 1075.
964. _hameled_, cut off, docked; cf. P. Pl. Crede, 300.
1001. 'Your ill hap is not owing to me.'
1017. Read _And úpon mé_, where _me_ is emphatic.
1022. When people's ears glow, it is because they are being talked of;
according to folk-lore. See Brand's Popular Antiquities, ed. Ellis, iii.
171.
1026. 'Sed lateant uires, nec sis in fronte disertus;' Ovid, Art. Am. i.
463.
1027. 'Quascunque adspicies, lacrimae fecere lituras;' Ovid, Heroid. iii.
3.
1033. 'Or always harp one tune.'
1041. 'Humano capiti,' &c.; Horace, Ars Poet. 1-5. _pyk_, a pike (fish), as
in the Balade to Rosemounde, 17.
1062. Accent _Mínervá_ on the first and third syllables.
1075-7. _it made_, was the cause of it. _ley_, lied.
1107. _hoppe_, dance. 'I always dance in the rear.'
1108. _to-laugh_ (H2, _to lagh_, Cm. _to law_), laughed exceedingly. I know
of no other example. A better form is _to-lough_; see l. 1163, and Pard.
Ta. C 476.
1119. _spek-e_, might speak, should say; pt. t. subjunctive.
1123. _sent_, i. e. _sendeth_, sends; the pt. t. is _sent-e_ or _send-e_.
1177-8. _Avysed_, she took notice; pt. tense. So also _fond_, found, which
Bell takes to be a pp.; but the pp. is _founden_. _Coude good_, knew what
was becoming. So, in l. 1197, _Can he_ means 'has he skill.'
1201, 1204. _sowe_, to sew the pieces of parchment together. Tyrwhitt
remarks, s. v. _sowe_; 'It was usual, and indeed necessary, formerly to
_sew_ letters, when they were written upon parchment; but the practice
continued long after the invention of paper.' _plyte_, to fold it up.
1229. 'A cushion, beaten with gold;' cf. Kn. Ta. A 979.
1238. A proverb: 'slight impressions soon fade.'
1249. Tyrwhitt, s. v. _somme_, boggles over this line, but it is quite
right. Bell takes occasion to speak of the 'rugged lines' to be found in
this poem; which is true enough of his own peculiar text. In Beowulf, l.
207, we have _fift[=e]na sum_, one of fifteen, where the cardinal number is
used; and this is the usual idiom. But the ordinal number is used also. In
St. Juliana, p. 79, we read that 'te sea sencte him on his _thrituthe
sum_,' the sea drowned him and 'thirtieth some' of his men, which I
understand to mean 'and twenty-nine of his men,' the master being the
thirtieth; but Mr. Cockayne and Mr. Bradley make it mean 'him and thirty
others.' So again, in Sir Tristrem, 817, we have: 'He busked and made him
yare hi[s] _fiftend som_ of knight,' he made ready for himself his
'fifteenth some' of knights, which I should explain to mean a band of
fifteen knights, _himself included_, or, himself being the fifteenth.
_Some_ in such phrases has a collective force. However, the examples in
Bosworth and Toller's A. S. Dict., s. v. _sum_, shew that this mode of
expression is also sometimes used _exclusively_ of the leader.
1274. _on to pyke_, for her to pick upon, or pick at; i. e. for her to pull
out; see l. 1273. See examples in Halliwell, s. v. _pike_, of 'to _pyke
out_ thornes,' to pick out thorns.
1276. Cf. 'to strike while the iron is hot;' see Melibeus, B 2226.
1289. 'But therein he had much to heave at and to do.'
1291. 'And why? for fear of shame.' Cm. has _for speche_, i. e. for fear of
talk or scandal.
1315. _accesse_, attack, as of fever. See New E. Dict.
1343. _refreyde_, grow cool; cf. Balade to Rosemounde, l. 21.
1349. _after his gestes_, according to his deeds, or adventures.
1390. _forbyse_, to give (thee) instances. Hardly a correct form; it should
rather be _forbysne_, short for _forbysnen_, as the verb is formed from the
sb. _forbysne_, A. S. _foreb[=y]sen_, an example, instance. The word was
obsolescent.
1398. _Deiphebus_ (= _Dé'ph[)e]bús)_ is always trisyllabic.
1410. He means that he would do more for him than for any one, 'except for
him whom he loves most,' i. e. Troilus.
1427. 'With spur and whip,' i. e. with all expedition.
1495. _word and ende_, beginning and end; cf. iii. 702, v. 1669. The right
phrase is _ord and ende_, where _ord_ is 'beginning;' but it would seem
that, by Chaucer's time, _word_ had been corruptly substituted for the
obsolescent _ord_. See Monk. Ta. B 3911, and the note.
1534. _triste_, station for a huntsman to shoot from. See _Tristre_ in
Stratmann.
1554. _renne_, to run, like an excited madman.
1564. 'Bon fait prolixite foïr;' Rom. de la Rose, 18498.
1581. 'Although it does not please her to recommend (a remedy).'
1594. _To mowen_, to have it in her power; A. S. _mugan_.
1650. _for my bettre arm_, not even to save my right arm.
1661. _him thar nought_, 'him needeth not,' he need not do.
1735. An obscure allusion. 'Perhaps it means, in regard for the king and
queen, his parents;' Bell. My own guess is different. I think it quite
possible that Chaucer is referring to the two 'crowns' or garlands, one of
roses and one of lilies, about which so much is said in his early work
entitled the _Lyf of Seint Cecile_, afterwards called the Second Nonnes
Tale (see G 270). Thus Pandarus, with his usual impudence, conjures
Criseyde to pity Troilus by two solemn adjurations, viz. for the sake of
Him who gave us all our souls, and by the virtue of the two heavenly crowns
which an angel once brought _to a chaste couple_. He thus boldly insinuates
that the proposed meeting is of the most innocent character. This I take to
be the whole point of the allusion.
1737. 'Fie on the devil!' I. e. despise detraction.
1738. _com of_, come off; we _now_ say 'come on!' See ll. 1742, 1750.
1751. 'But now (I appeal) to you.'
1752. _cankedort_, a state of suspense, uncertainty, or anxiety; as appears
from the context. The word occurs nowhere else. Only one MS. (H2) has the
spelling _kankerdort_, usually adopted in modern editions; Thynne has
_cankedorte_, but it needs no final _e_. The etymology is unknown nor do we
even know how to divide it. There is a verb _kanka_, to shake, be unsteady,
&c., in Swedish dialects (Rietz), and the Swed. _ort_ is a place, quarter;
if there is any relationship, _kanked-ort_ might mean 'shaky place,' or
ticklish position. Another theory is that _canker_ relates to _canker_, a
cancer, disease, and that _dort_ is related to Lowl. Sc. _dort_, sulkiness.
But this is assuming that the right spelling is _canker-dort_, a theory
which the MSS. do not favour. Neither does the sense of 'ill-humour' seem
very suitable. As I am bound, in this difficult case, to suggest what I
can, I must add that it is also possible to suppose that _cankedort_ is of
French origin, answering to an O. F. _quant que dort_, lit. 'whenever he is
asleep (?),' or 'although he is asleep(?);' and hence (conceivably) meaning
'in a sleepy state.' The phrase _quant que_, also spelt _kan ke_ (and in
many other ways) is illustrated by a column of examples in Godefroy's
Dictionary; but its usual sense is 'as well as,' or 'whatever'; thus _kan
ke poet_ = as well as he can. Or can we make it = _com ki dort_, like one
who sleeps?