Chaucer's Works, Volume 3 — The House of Fame; The Legend of Good Women; The Treatise on the Astrolabe; The Sources of the Canterbury Tales
By Chaucer, Geoffrey
Classic work by Chaucer, Geoffrey.
Table of Contents
the invaluable help thus rendered, the edition of 1889 would never have been undertaken, and I should never have attained to so clear an understanding of the text. I have already s...
I have now only to record my indebtedness to others, especially to Dr. Furnivall for his invaluable prints in the Parallel-Texts; to the excellent essay by M. Bech, in vol. v. of A...
may very well have been transmitted to little Lewis. Indeed, they may have been prepared by or copied from Nicholas of Lynn and John Somer, before Chaucer took the rest in hand. Th...
causes. This was probably never written, though there is an allusion to it in Part ii. § 11, l. 12. It was also to contain a table to shew the position of the moon, according to an...
equations of houses, dignities of planets, and other useful things which God and the Virgin might vouchsafe that the author should accomplish. Sections 36 and 37 tell us something ...
that 'natheles, thise ben observauncez of iudicial matiere & _rytes of payens, in which my spirit ne hath no feith_'; ii. 4. 36; (p. 192). § 25. SOURCES OF THE TREATISE. I next ha...
not be omitted, that the MSS. of Messahala are not all alike; that some copies have propositions which are not in others; and that the order of the Conclusions is not invariable. T...
God turne us every dreem to gode! For hit is wonder, by the rode, To my wit, what causeth swevenes Either on morwes, or on evenes; And why the effect folweth of somme, ...
INCIPIT LIBER SECUNDUS. _Proem._ Now herkneth, every maner man That English understonde can, 510 And listeth of my dreem...
INCIPIT LIBER TERCIUS. _Invocation._ O god of science and of light, Apollo, through thy grete might, This litel laste book thou gye! Nat that I wilne, for maist...
Thou rote of false lovers, duk Iasoun! Thou sly devourer and confusioun Of gentil-wommen, tender creatures, 1370 Thou madest thy reclaiming a...
To Colcos comen is this duk Iasoun, 1580 That is of love devourer and dragoun. As matere appetyteth forme al-wey, And from forme in-to forme hi...
HERE BIGINNETH THE DESCRIPCION OF THE ASTROLABIE. 1. Thyn Astrolabie hath a ring to putten on the thoumbe of thy right hand in taking the heighte of thinges. And tak keep, for...
HERE BIGINNEN THE CONCLUSIONS OF THE ASTROLABIE. 1. TO FYNDE THE DEGREE IN WHICH THE SONNE IS DAY BY DAY, AFTER HIR COURS A-BOUTE. [HIC INCIPIUNT CONCLUSIONES ASTROLABI...
MS. in St. John's College, Cambridge.] See fig. 1. Any straight edge laid across from the centre will shew this at once. Chaucer, reckoning by the old style, differs from us by abo...
§ 2, l. 2. _Rowm_ is here an adjective, meaning _large_, _ample_. It is the right reading; we find Rowm AB rowme C; rvm M. § 3, l. 1. AB _omit_ the. § 9, l. 3. nombre AB; nou_m_b...
§ 3, ll. 31, 32. A _has_ 12 degres, _corrected to_ 18 degres; B. _has_ 12 degrees; C _has_ 18. The numbers in the MSS. in these propositions are somewhat uncertain; it seems probab...
Written in three Books; but I number the lines consecutively throughout, for convenience; at the same time giving the _separate_ numbering (of Books II. and III.) within marks of p...
December. But first let me invoke Morpheus. May those who gladly hear me have joy; but may those who dislike my words have as evil a fate as Croesus, King of Lydia! (1-110). I sle...
Nebuchadnezzar, Pharaoh, or Turnus. O Venus and Muses, help me to tell it! The great eagle swooped down upon me, seized me, and bore me aloft, and told me (in a man's voice) not to...
at expressing my thoughts only (1091-1109). The House of Fame stood high upon a lofty rock, which I climbed laboriously. The rock was formed of ice. On the southern side it was co...
511. _Listeth_, pleases, is pleased; the alteration (in MS. F.) to _listeneth_ is clearly wrong, and due to confusion with _herkneth_ above. (I do not think _listeth_ is the imp. p...
1091-1109. Imitated from Dante, Parad. i. 13-27. Compare ll. 1106, 1107, with Cary's translation-- 'If thou to me of thine impart so much, ... Thou shalt behold me of thy favou...
1460. _Stace_ (as in Troil. bk. v, near the end, and Kn. Tale, A 2294) is Publius Papinius Statius, who died A.D. 96, author of the Thebais and Achilleis (see l. 1463), the latter ...
128. _Atempre_, temperate, mild. See Book of the Duch., 341, and the note. This again is from the Rom. de la Rose, 125. _Releved_, raised up again, revived. Cotgrave gives: '_Relev...
1580. From this line to l. 1655 Chaucer mainly follows the second book of Guido delle Colonne's Historia Troiana, which he epitomises. See Gower, C. A. ii. 236-258. 1581. 'Who is ...
10. _a certein_, i.e. a certain number; but the word _nombre_ need not be repeated; cf. _a certein holes_, Pt. I. sect. 13, l. 2, and see the very expression in the Milleres Tale, ...
as I said,) from the foresaid cross to the border. This appears awkward, and we should have expected 'fro the forseide _centre_,' as Mr. Brae suggests; but there is no authority fo...
Anglo-Saxon, and that of the moon masculine; but in Chaucer's time, the gender was very variable, owing to the influence of Latin and French. § 3. Between sections 2 and 3, a sect...
[52] Mr. Bradshaw gave me the hint; I afterwards found this remark by Selden, in his Preface to Drayton's Polyolbion: 'his [Chaucer's] Treatise of the Astrolabe, which ...