Book Duch., 660; and Kn. Tale, A 955. - 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

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: '_Relevé_, raised, lift, or set up again;

relieved, revived, fully restored.'

130. 'In the classical and middle ages small birds were a common article of

food, as they are on the continent at the present time; and the season for

catching them with a _panter_, or bag-net, was winter, when the scarcity of

food made them tame. The poet here represents their songs in the spring, as

the expression of their exultation at having baffled the stratagems,

quaintly called _sophistries_, by which the fowler had endeavoured to lure

them to their destruction.'--BELL.

The word _panter_ is curiously preserved in the mod. E. _painter_, a rope

for mooring a boat. I quote the following from my Etym. Dict.: '"_Painter_,

a rope employed to fasten a boat"; Hawkesworth's Voyages, 1773, vol. i. p.

xxix. Corrupted (by assimilation to the ordinary sb. _painter_) from M.E.

_panter_, a noose, esp. for catching birds. See Chaucer, Leg. of Good

Women, 131; Prompt. Parv., p. 381; spelt _paunter_, Polit. Songs, ed.

Wright, p. 344.--O.F. _pantiere_, a kind of snare for birds, Roquefort;

_panthiere_, "a great swoop-net"; Cotgrave. Cf. Ital. _pantiera_, "a kind

of tramell or fowling net"; Florio; _panthera_, "a net or haie to catch

conies with, also a kind of fowling-net"; id.--Lat. _panther_, a

hunting-net for catching wild beasts. Cf. _panthera_, an entire

capture.--Gk. [Greek: panthêros], catching all; cf. [Greek: panthêra], the

whole booty (a very late word).--Gk. [Greek: pan], neut. of [Greek: pas],

every; and [Greek: thêr], a wild beast.

'The Irish _painteir_, Gael. _painntear_, a gin, snare, are forms of the

same word [but were borrowed from English or French]. It is remarkable

that, in America, a _panther_ is also called a _painter_. See Cooper, The

Pioneers, cap. xxviii.'

132. _Upon_, against, in scorn of; cf. _in his despyt_, l. 134. _A-whaped_,

scared.

--A. 127. The A-text is hereabouts very imperfect, and some lines are too

short. I supply words within square brackets, in order to fill out the

lines, and to make sense.

145. See Parl. of Foules, 309, 683, and the note to the former passage in

vol. i. p. 516. Birds were supposed to choose their mates on St.

Valentine's day (Feb. 14).

146. _Chees_, chose: the past tense; A.S. _céas_.

154. _Tydif_, the name of some small bird, guessed by Skinner to be the

_titmouse_; more probably the _tydy_ mentioned by Drayton, which is

supposed to mean a wren. See _Tydy_ in Nares. Cf. Squi. Tale, F 648; id.

610, 611.

158. 'Provided that their mates would pity them.'

160. _Daunger_ usually means 'power to harm.' These allegorical personages

were suggested by the Roman de la Rose. In the English version (l. 3018)

_Daunger_ is the name of the 'foul churl,' who is set beside the Rose, to

prevent strangers from plucking it. In Chaucer's Complaint unto Pite, he

introduces such personages as Crueltee (corresponding to Daunger), Pite,

Bountee, Gentilesse, and Curtesye. So here, we are told that although

Daunger (i.e. power to harm or to repel) seemed for a time to have the

upper hand, yet at the last Pity induced relenting, and caused Mercy to

surpass (or prevail over) Right (or Justice). Just as Pity is opposed to

Danger or Cruelty, so we find, in the old theological allegories, that

Mercy is opposed to Justice. The pleading of Mercy against Justice will be

found at length in Grosteste's Chastel d'Amour, in the Cursor Mundi, p.

550, and in the Gesta Romanorum, Tale 55. See my note to P. Plowman, C.

xxi. 120.

163. 'By means of innocence and well-mannered courtesy.'

164. 'But I do not call folly, or false pity, by the name of innocence';

i.e. the poet does not approve of immodesty or weakness, because in all

things the chief virtue is moderation, or the 'golden mean.' Beauty should

be neither too yielding nor too pitiless.

166. _Etik_, Lat. _Ethica_; alluding to the Ethics of Aristotle, in which

happiness and virtue are discussed, and the nature of virtue is said to

shew itself in its appearing as the medium or mean between two extremes.

Similarly, Gower in his Conf. Amantis (ed. Pauli, iii. 153) refers us to

Aristotle's advice to Alexander, to keep the mean between avarice and

prodigality. See also Gower's remarks on _ethique_; id. iii. 140. Cf.

Lounsbury, Studies in Chaucer, ii. 387.

170. So in the Parl. of Foules, 680, the birds are described as joining in

the roundel--'Now _welcom somer_, with thy sonne softe.'

171. Here again is a reminiscence of the Roman de la Rose, ll. 8449-51:--

'Zephirus et Flora, sa fame,

Qui des flors est deesse et dame,

Cil dui font les floretes nestre,' &c.

i.e. Zephirus and his wife Flora, who is the goddess and lady of flowers,

these two make the little flowers grow. See Book of the Duchesse, 402; and

the note upon it.

184. 'The daisy, or, otherwise, the eye of day'; see note to l. 43.

186. 'I pray that she may fall fairly,' that she may light upon good

fortune. All the MSS. have _she_; otherwise we might read _her_, as such is

the more usual idiom, in which case it would mean--'that it may befall her

fairly.' We have a similar case in the Manciple's Prologue, H 40, where six

MSS. have the usual idiom 'foule mot _thee_ falle,' whilst the Ellesmere

MS. alone has 'foule mot _thou_ falle.' For a similar variation, cf. l. 277

below with A. 180, i.e. with the corresponding line in the earlier text.

191. 'For, as regards me, neither of them is dearer or more hateful than

the other; I am not yet retained on the side of either of them.' The sense

_with-holden_ is detained, kept back, hence reserved to one side, committed

to a particular view.

195. _Thing_ = _werk_ (A. 79), i.e. poem. _Of another tonne_, out of quite

a different cask. Cf. 'Nay, thou shalt drinken of another tonne Er that I

go'; C. T., D 170. Cf. Rom. Rose (French Text), 6838.

196. _Swich thing_, such a thing as the strife between the Leaf and the

Flower. The A-text (l. 80) helps us here, as it reads 'swich stryf.'

203. _Herber_, an arbour. This difficult word is fully explained in the New

E. Dict., s.v. _arbour_. It is there shewn that the original sense of the

M.E. _herber_ or _erber_ was 'a plot of ground covered with grass or turf;

a garden-lawn or green.' In the Medulla Grammatices, ab. 1460, we

find:--'_Viretum, locus pascualis virens_, a gres-yerd, or an herber.'

Subsequently it meant a herb-garden or flower-garden; a fruit-garden or

orchard; trees or shrubs trained on frame-work; and then a bower, or 'shady

retreat, of which the sides and roof are formed by trees and shrubs closely

planted or intertwined, or of lattice-work covered with climbing shrubs and

plants, as ivy, vine, &c.' Dr. Murray remarks that 'the original

characteristic of the arbour seems to have been the floor and benches of

herbage [as here]; in the modern idea the leafy covering is the prominent

feature.'

The present passage was imitated and amplified by the authoress of The

Flower and the Leaf, beginning at l. 49:--

'a pleasaunt herber well ywrought,

That benched was, and with turfes new,

Freshly turved, wherof the grene gras,

So small, so thicke, so short, so fresh of hew,

That most like unto green woll wot I it was;

The hegge also, that yede in compas

And closed in all the grene herbere,

With sicamour was set and eglatere'; &c.

So too, in the Assembly of Ladies, st. 7:--

'Which broght me to an herber fair and grene

Made with benches ful crafty and clene.'

208. _Hed_, hidden. This rare form occurs again in Will. of Palerne, 688.

The usual M.E. forms are _hud_ and _hid_. Similarly Chaucer uses _ken_ for

'kin' in Book Duch. 438, the usual M.E. forms being _kun_ and _kin_; and we

find _ken_ also in Will. of Palerne, 722. These forms are Southern, and

mostly Kentish.

213. _The god of love_, Cupid; cf. Parl. Foules, 212. Cf. the description

in the E. version of the Rom. of the Rose, ll. 890, 1003.

_In his hande_, i.e. leading by the hand; see l. 241.

_A quene_, a queen, viz. Alcestis, as we afterwards learn. She is so

clothed as to represent a daisy; hence her green dress, golden

hair-ornament or caul, and white crown; see l. 218, and note to l. 227.

215. _Fret_ here means a caul of gold wire. They were sometimes set with

stones. Cf. Rom. Rose, 1108, and The Flower and the Leaf, 152:--'A riche

_fret_ of gold,' &c. See Fairholt, Costume in England.

217. The pause after _smale_ saves the final _e_ from elision. See examples

in the Cant. Tales, B 2153, 3281, 3989; &c. We may translate the phrase

_and I shal nat lye_ by 'if I am not to lie'; see l. 357, and the note.

221. _Oriental_, eastern; here, of superior quality. 'The precious stones

called by lapidaries _oriental ruby_, _oriental topaz_, _oriental

amethyst_, and _oriental emerald_ are red, yellow, violet, and green

sapphires, distinguished from the other gems of the same name which have

not the prefix _oriental_, by their greatly superior hardness, and greater

specific gravity'; Engl. Cyclopædia, s.v. Adamantine Spar. Cf. P. Plowman,

B. 2. 14.

223. _For which_, by means of which, whereby.

227. In the Rom. of the Rose the 'god of love' is said to be clothed 'not

in silk, but all in flowers'; his garment was all covered with flowers,

intermingled with rose-leaves; and he had a chaplet of red roses upon his

head. See the E. version, l. 890. In l. 228, _fret_ means merely 'ornament'

or 'border' of embroidery, whereas in l. 215 it is used in the sense of a

caul or net worn on the head. The A-text (160) has _garlond_, and adds that

lilies were stuck about among the rose-leaves. Moreover, a 'rose-leaf' here

means a petal, or it would not be described as red. _Greves_ is properly

'groves or bushes,' but must here mean sprays or small boughs.

231. _For hevinesse_, to save him from the heaviness and weight of gold.

The peculiar use of _for_ in the sense of 'against,' or 'to prevent,'

should be noticed. See the note to Sir Thopas, B 2052.

242. _Corouned_ is pronounced as _Coróun'd_.

--A. 179. Notice this mention of Alcestis in the A-text. This is altered in

the later version, so that the poet does not know who the queen is till l.

511, though she actually announces herself in l. 432. See note to l. 255

(B.) below.

249. _Absolon_, Absalom; remarkable for the beauty of his hair; see 2 Sam.

xiv. 26. Cf. 'Absalom o ses treces soves'; Rom. de la Rose, 14074. I have

little doubt that the general idea of this Ballade is taken from one quoted

from MS. du Roi, à Paris (fonds de Saint-Victor, no. 275, fol. 45, recto,

col. 2), by M. Michel, in his edition of Tristan, i. lxxxviii. It begins as

follows:--

'_Hester_, Judith, _Penelope_, _Helaine_,

Sarre, _Tisbe_, Rebeque, et Sairy,

_Lucresse_, _Yseult_, Genèvre, chastelaine

La très loial nommée de Vergy,

Rachel, et la dame de Fayel

_Onc ne furent si precieulx jouel_

D'onneur, bonté, senz, beauté et valour

_Con est ma très doulce dame d'onnour_.

Se d'_Absalon_ la grant beauté humaine,' &c.

The refrain being, as before, 'Con est ma très doulce dame d'onnour.'

250. _Ester_, Esther; cited as an example of 'debonairte' in the Book of

the Duch. 986; see also C. T., E 1371, 1744 (Merch. Tale); and the Tale of

Melibeus, B 2291.

251. _Ionathas_, Jonathan; remarkable for his 'friendliness' towards David;

1 Sam. xix. 2.

252. _Penalopee_, Penelope, wife of Ulysses; see the note to Book of the

Duch. 1081; and Ovid, Her. i. _Marcia Catoun_, formerly said to be Marcia,

wife of M. Cato Uticensis [not Cato the Censor, as Bell says]. Bell notes

that 'her complaisance, apparently, in consenting to be lent to Cato's

friend, Hortensius, is the ground of her praise in this place.' Gilman

refers us to Clough's tr. of Plutarch, iv. 394, where the story is given.

This, however, is not the right solution. Prof. Lounsbury (Studies in

Chaucer, ii. 294) points out that the reference is clearly to Marcia,

_daughter_ of the same Cato, because Chaucer got the story from Hieronymus

contra Iovinianum (i. 46), where we find:--'Marcia Catonis filia minor,

quum quæreretur ab ea, cur post amissum maritum, denuo non nuberet,

respondit, non se inuenire uirum, qui se magis vellet quam sua.' A much

better example would have been her sister Porcia, the devoted wife of

Marcus Brutus (Jul. Cæsar, ii. 1).

254. _Isoude_, the heroine of the romance of Sir Tristram; see Parl. of

Foules, 288 (and the note on the line); also Ho. Fame, 1796. _Eleyne_,

Helen, heroine of the Trojan war.

255. Note how the original refrain of this Balade, beginning 'Alceste is

here,' is altered to 'My lady cometh'; in order to prevent the premature

mention of Alcestis' name. See note to A. 179 above, following the note to

l. 242. _Disteyne_, bedim; viz. by outshining them.

257. _Lavyne_, Lavinia, the heroine of the latter part of the Æneid; cf.

Book of the Duch. 331; Ho. Fame, 458. _Lucresse_, Lucretia of Rome, whose

'Legend' is related at length below; l. 1680. Cf. Cant. Tales, F 1405.

258. _Polixene_, Polyxena, daughter of Priam, who, like Lucretia, bought

love too dearly; for she was sacrificed on the tomb of Achilles, according

to Ovid, Met. xiii. 448. But according to Guido delle Colonne, whom Chaucer

probably regarded as a better authority, she was slain by Pyrrhus. Cf. Book

of the Duch. 1071. Note also:--'Alas, your love, I bye hit al to dere';

Anelida, 255.

259. _Cleopatre_, Cleopatra; whose Legend is the first of the series below:

l. 580.

261. _Tisbe_, Thisbe; whose Legend follows that of Cleopatra; l. 706.

263. _Herro_, Hero of Sestos, beloved by Leander; see Ovid, Her. xviii,

xix. Spelt _Erro_, Pref. to Man of Law, B 69; whence we learn that the

Legend of Hero was intended to be one of the set. _Dido_; whose Legend

occurs below; l. 924. _Laudomia_, Laodamia, wife of Protesilaus; see Ovid,

Her. xiii. Spelt _Ladomea_, and accented (as here) on the _o_; Pref. to Man

of Law, B 71. And see Cant. Tales, F 1445.

264. _Phyllis_; whose Legend occurs at l. 2394.

265. _Canace_, daughter of Æolus, beloved by Macareus; see Ovid, Her. xi.

See Pref. to Man of Law, B 78; whence we learn that Chaucer had _no_

intention of including her Legend in the set, but expressly rejected it.

_Chere_, sad countenance.

266. _Ysiphile_, Hypsipyle; whose Legend occurs at l. 1368.

268. _Ypermistre_, Hypermnestra; whose Legend occurs at l. 2562.

_Adriane_, Ariadne; whose Legend occurs at l. 1886.

For further remarks, see my long note to the Man of Law's Tale, B 61.

270. Bell remarks that the above beautiful Balade has been often imitated;

and cites a poem by Surrey with the title 'A Praise of his Love, wherein he

reproveth them that compare their ladies with his,' and beginning--'Geue

place, ye louers, here before That spent your bostes and bragges in vaine.'

See Tottell's Miscellany, ed. Arber, p. 20. Another such poem occurs in the

same collection, at p. 163; beginning--'Geue place, you Ladies, and begon';

this, it appears, was written by John Heywood; Warton, Hist. E. Poet.

(1840), iii. 56 (note). With respect to Surrey's verses, Warton (Hist. E.

P. 1840, iii. 33) remarks that 'the leading compliment, which has been used

by later writers, is in the spirit of Italian fiction.' But it is probable

that we here see Surrey's original before us. Among the beautiful songs on

this theme, we should not neglect 'You meaner beauties of the night,' by

Sir Henry Wotton. Cf. ll. 274, 275 below.

271. _By_, with respect to. _My lady_ is the queen Alcestis, whose name

Chaucer is supposed not to know as yet. See l. 432.

277. See note to l. 186 above.

278. _Nadde_ = _ne hadde_. 'For, had not the comfort of her presence

existed.' We should now say, 'Had it not been for the comfort.' Cf. Spec.

Eng. Literature, pt. iii. note to § xv (_b_). l. 96.

295. _For the nones_, for the once, for this special occasion. See the note

to Chaucer's Prologue, l. 379. The phrase was first explained, carefully

and fully, by Price, in a note to Warton's Hist. Eng. Poet. ed. 1840, ii.

74, 75.

298. 'That bears away the prize from us all in external beauty or figure.'

_Our alder_, of us all; where _our_ = A.S. _úre_, gen. pl. of the first

personal pronoun, and _alder_ is a more emphatic form of _aller_ (A.S.

_ealra_), gen. pl. of _all_. See Chaucer's Prol. 586, 710, 799, 823. Hence

_alderliefest_, dearest of all, in 2 Hen. VI. i. 1. 28; probably borrowed

from _alderlevest_ in Chaucer's Troilus, v. 576 (in vol. ii.). Prof. Corson

cites _altherbeste_, best of all, from Gower, C. A. ed. Pauli, i. 106;

_althermest_, most of all, from the same, i. 147; _althertrewest_, id. i.

176; _altherwerst_, id. i. 53. In Chaucer's Minor Poems the reader will

find _our alder_, of us all, ABC, 84; also _alderbeste_, Book Duch. 246;

_alderfaireste_, id. 1050; and _aldernext_, Parl. Foules, 244.

300. _A-compas enviroun_, in a circle, all round about.

304. _By and by_, one after another, in order; see the New E. Dict.

307. _Furlong-wey_, lit. two minutes and a-half; or the time of walking a

furlong, at 3 miles an hour. See Anelida, 328; Ho. Fame, 2064.

314. _Hit am I_, it is I; the usual M.E. idiom. See Kn. Tale, A 1736; Man

of Law's Tale, B 1109, and note. _Him neer_, nearer to him: _neer_ is the

comparative of _neh_ or _nigh_; cf. l. 316.

318. Dante has 'che noi siam vermi'; Purg. x. 124.

323. _Servaunt_ in Chaucer frequently means 'lover'; such is necessarily

the case here.

329. Chaucer here certainly seems to imply that he translated the whole of

the Romance of the Rose, or at any rate that part of it which is especially

directed against women. The existing English version consists of three

fragments, apparently by different authors, and I see little reason for

connecting more than fragment A (ll. 1-1705) with Chaucer. None of the

fragments contain such passages as the God of Love would most have objected

to; but we find some of them practically reproduced in the Prologue to the

Wyf of Bathes Tale. We also find numerous imitations of passages from that

poem scattered up and down throughout Chaucer's works; and it is remarkable

that such passages usually lie outside the contents of the English

fragments. Where they do not, Chaucer frequently varies from the English

version of the Romance. Thus where Chaucer (Book Duch. 419) has:--

'And every tree stood by himselve

Fro other wel ten foot or twelve.

So grete trees, so huge of strengthe'--

the Eng. version of the Rom. of the Rose (1391) has:--

'These trees were set, that I devyse,

Oon from another, in assyse,

Five fadome or sixe, I trowe so,

But they were hye and grete also.'

We may here note the variation between _ten foot or twelve_ and _five fadom

or six_; the original has _cinq toises, ou de sis_. Other passages in the

Book of the Duchesse which resemble the existing E. version of the Rom. of

the Rose are these. (1) Book Duch. 424; cf. R. R. 1396. (2) Book Duch. 291;

cf. R. R. 49. (3) Book Duch. 410; cf. R. R. 59. (4) Book Duch. 283; R. R.

7. (5) Book Duch. 340; R. R. 130. (6) Book Duch. 1152; R. R. 2084.

For a fuller discussion of this question, see the Pref. to Ch. Minor Poems,

in vol. i. p. 1.

--A. 260. _Paramours_ seems to be an adverb here, meaning 'with a lover's

affection.' So in the Kn. Tale, A 1155:--

'For _par amour_ I loved hir first er thow.'

And again, in A 2112:--

'Ye knowen wel, that every lusty knight

That loveth _paramours_, and hath his might.'

So also in Troilus, v. 158, 332, and in Barbour's Bruce, xiii. 485--'he

lufit his [Ross's] sistir _paramouris_.' Tyrwhitt quotes from Froissart,

bk. i. c. 196--'Il aima adonc _par amours_, et depuis espousa, Madame

Ysabelle de Juiliers.'

The following phrase 'too hard and hot' merely intensifies the sense of

_paramours_.

332. _Criseyde._ The allusion is to Chaucer's long poem entitled _Troilus

and Criseyde_ (or _Creseyde_). The A-text is more outspoken here, as it

alludes to the inconstancy of the heroine in direct terms.

--A. 280. _Valerie_, Valerius; see note to A. 281 below.

_Titus_; Titus Livius; see l. 1683, and the note. _Claudian_; Claudius

Claudianus, who wrote, amongst other things, a poem De Raptu Proserpinae,

to which Chaucer refers; see Ho. Fame, 449, 1509. He flourished about A.D.

400.

--A. 281. _Ierome_; Hieronymus, usually known as St. Jerome, a celebrated

father of the Latin Church; died Sept. 30, 420. In the Wyf of Bathes

Prologue (C. T. 6251, Group D, l. 669) we find:--

'He hadde a book, that gladly, night and day,

For his desport he wolde rede alway;

He cleped it Valerie and Theofraste,

At whiche book he lough alwey ful faste.

And eek ther was somtyme a clerk at Rome,

A cardinal, that highte Seint Ierome,

That made a book agayn Iovinian'; &c.

In Tyrwhitt's Introductory discourse, he says of this Prologue--'The

greatest part must have been of Chaucer's own invention, though one may

plainly see he had been reading the popular invectives against marriage and

women in general; such as, the Roman de la Rose; Valerius ad Rufinum _de

non ducenda uxore_; and particularly Hieronymus _contra Iovinianum_.' He

adds, in a note--'The holy Father, by way of recommending celibacy, has

exerted all his learning and eloquence (and he certainly was not deficient

in either) to collect together and aggravate whatever he could find to the

prejudice of the female sex. Among other things he has inserted his own

translation (probably) of a long extract from what he calls "Liber aureolus

Theophrasti de nuptiis."

'Next to him in order of time was the treatise entitled _Epistola Valerii

ad Rufinum de non ducenda uxore_ (MS. Reg. 12 D. iii.). It has been

printed, for the similarity of its contents, I suppose, among the works of

St. Jerome, though it is evidently of a much later date.... To these two

books _Jean de Meun_ has been obliged for some of the severest strokes in

his [part of the] _Roman de la Rose_; and Chaucer has transfused the

quintessence of all the three works, upon the subject of Matrimony, into

his _Wife of Bathes Prologue_ and _Merchant's Tale_.'

Tyrwhitt further observes that the _Epistola Valerii_ was written,

according to Tanner, by Walter Map; of this there appears to be no doubt.

Lounsbury (Studies, ii. 276) takes _Valerie_ to mean Valerius Maximus,

which is here improbable.

It is, at first, not very clear why the God of Love is here represented as

appealing to books _against_ women; but we are bidden to observe that, even

there, good women are incidentally mentioned; see A. 284. Even Valerius

praises Lucretia and Penelope.

--A. 288. Cf. the long passage in the Franklein's Tale about chaste women;

C. T. 11676-11766 (F 1364-1456). It is nearly all taken from Jerome.

--A. 305. _Epistels_ rather than _epistelle_ in the singular. The reference

is to Ovid's Heroides, which contains twenty-one love-letters. Cf.

Chaucer's Introd. to Man of Law, B 55, where he alludes to Ovid's mention

of lovers 'in his _Epistelles_.'

--A. 307. _Vincent_ is Vincent of Beauvais, who compiled an encyclopædia of

universal knowledge in the 13th century. One portion of this great work,

treating of universal history, is called _Speculum Historiale_, which

Chaucer has here turned into _Storial Mirour_. See Lounsbury's Studies in

Chaucer, ii. 375.

338. As Chaucer is pleased to call his poem by the name of 'seintes legende

of Cupyde' in the Introd. to Man of Law, B 61, he here turns Venus into a

saint, to keep up the analogy between his present undertaking and the

Legenda Sanctorum. But John de Meun had previously said much the same

thing. In Le Rom. de la Rose, 10863, Cupid is made to swear 'par _sainte_

Venus ma mere.' See the Eng. version, l. 5953. (Perhaps read _seynte_ in

Text B.)

343. In accordance with the proverb--'Audi alteram partem.' See A. 325. Cf.

Seneca, _Medea_, 195.

348. 'And even if you were not an omniscient god.'

352. From the Rom. of the Rose; the E. version has (ll. 1050, 1):--

'Hir court hath many a losengere,

And many a traytour envious.'

Again repeated in Cant. Tales, B 4515-8.

353. _Totelere_ (C. _totulour_), tattling; properly a sb., meaning

'tattler,' but here used in apposition, and, practically, as an adjective.

Tyrwhitt explains it by 'whisperer.' Halliwell quotes 'Be no _totiler_'

from MS. Bibl. Reg. 17 B. xvii. fol. 141. It clearly means a gossiping

tattler, or tale-bearer.

The word is scarce, but we find a helpful passage in P. Plowman, B. xx.

297:--

'Of alle taletellers and _tyterers_ in ydel.'

Here _tyterers_ means gossipers, or retailers of tittle-tattle; and various

readings give the forms _titeleris_ (as printed by Wright) and _tutelers_

(as printed by Crowley). The last form _tuteler_ is clearly identical with

Chaucer's _totelere_, spelt _tutelere_ in MS. Arch. Selden B. 24.

357. 'These are the causes why, if I am not to lie'; &c. See note to l.

217.

358. _Lavender_, laundress, washerwoman; (Bell's interpretation of 'gutter'

is utter nonsense). See _Laundress_ in my Etym. Dict., where I refer to the

present passage. _Laundress_ is formed by adding _-ess_ to _launder_ or

_laundre_, the contracted form of _lavender_ as here used. In Barbour's

Bruce, ed. Skeat, xvi. 273, 292, the word for 'washerwoman' is spelt

_lauender_, _laynder_, and _landar_. Palsgrave's Eng. and Fr. Dict.

gives--'_Laundre_, that wassheth clothes; _lauendiere_'; and Cotgrave

explains the Fr. _lauandiere_ by the Eng. _launderesse_. Chaucer's

presentation to us of Envy as the person who washes all the dirty linen in

the court, is particularly happy. As a matter of fact, he is here quoting

Dante, but he has substituted _lavender_ (perhaps in an ill sense, though I

do not feel sure of this) for the _meretrice_ of the original. The passage

referred to is in the Inferno, xiii. 64:--

'La meretrice, che mai dall' ospizio

Di Cesare non torse gli occhi putti,

Morte comune, e delle corti vizio,

Infiammò contre me gli animi tutti.'

Cary's translation has:--

'The harlot, who ne'er turned her gloating eyes

From Cæsar's household, common vice and pest

Of courts, 'gainst me inflamed the minds of all.'

Gower (C. A. ed. Pauli, i. 263) says:--

'Senec witnesseth openly

How that envie properly

Is of the court the comun wenche.'

Note that _parteth_ in l. 359 means 'departeth.'

361. 'Whoever goes away, at any rate she will not be wanting.' Men come and

go, but Envy remains. This is the right sense; but Bell, whom Prof. Corson

follows, gives it quite a false twist. He says, 'Whosoever goes, i.e.

falls, she will not be in want'; a desperate and unmeaning solution, due to

not appreciating the force of the verb _to want_, which here simply means

'to be absent,' and can be applied to _persons_ as well as to _things_.

'There _wanteth_ but a mean to fill your song'; Two Gent. of Verona, i. 2.

295; 'though bride and bridegroom _wants_,' i.e. are absent, Tam. Shrew,

iii. 2. 248: 'There _wanteth_ now our brother of Gloucester here'; Rich.

III. ii. 1. 43.

364. 'But only because he is accustomed to write poems.'

366. 'Or it was enjoined him by some patron to compose those two poems (the

Romaunce of the Rose and Troilus; _see_ A. 344); and he did not dare to

refuse.'

371. _As thogh that_, as he would have done if.

372. _And had_, i.e. and had composed it all himself.

374. 'The allusion is to the several successful adventurers, like the

Visconti, who in the 13th and 14th centuries succeeded in seizing upon the

governments of Milan, and other free cities of Lombardy'; Bell. See the

article _Visconti_ in the Eng. Cyclopædia; we are there referred to Verri,

Storia di Milano, and to Muratori, Annali d' Italia. Cf. Dante, Inf.

xxviii. 74, 81; and see Chaucer's reference to 'Barnabo Viscounte' in the

Monkes Tale, B 3589.

375. _Reward at_, regard to. _Reward_ and _regard_ are etymologically

identical. Observe the accent on the _former_ syllable. Cf. l. 399.

378. _Fermour_, a farmer of taxes; who is naturally exacting and

oppressive.

380. Before _is_ supply _hit_, which, as in l. 379, refers to a suppliant

culprit. His own vassals are a lord's treasures, to be cherished, not

oppressed.

381. Bech refers us to Seneca, De Clementia, lib. i. c. 3, § 3; c. 5, § 4.

Or perhaps Aristotle is meant, whose supposed advice to Alexander is fully

given in Gower's Confessio Amantis, bk. vii. See particularly the passage

in Pauli's edition, iii. 176:--

'What is a king in his legeaunce,

Wher that ther is no law in londe?'

There is a similar long and tedious passage in Lancelot of the Laik, ed.

Skeat, ll. 1463-1998. Gower calls Aristotle 'the philosophre'; C. A. iii.

86. We may also compare Hoccleve, De Regimine Principum, ed. Wright, pp.

102-3, translated from Ægidius, De Reg. Princ., lib. i. pars 1, cap. xiv;

where the reference to Aristotle is:--'Propter quod V. Ethicorum scribitur,

quod _principatus uirum ostendit_.'

384. _Al_, although. 'Although he will preserve their rank for his lords.'

Note that _his lordes_ is in the dative case. It was probably from not

observing this that Thynne's edition and the Pepys MS. have needlessly

inserted the word _in_ before _hir_. Cf. A. 370.

387. _Half-goddes_, demi-gods. Cf. 'the demi-god Authority'; Meas. for

Meas. i. 2. 124.

391. So, in his Epitaph on Inigo Jones, Ben Jonson says:--'The Libyan lion

hunts no butterflies'; which he took from Martial, Epig. xii. 61. 6. And

see Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 16.

397. _Areste._ Bell seems to suggest the sense of 'restraint,' and Prof.

Corson, following him, suggests 'self-command'; but such a sense does not

exactly appear in Murray's Dictionary. Nevertheless, 'self-restraint' suits

not only this passage, but also the passage cited from the Harleian MS. in

the foot-note to the Somnour's Tale, D 2048, in vol. iv. p. 381.

399. Here, as in l. 375, _reward_ means 'regard,' and is accented on the

_e_.

400. _Maystrie_, masterly act; _no maystrie_, an easy matter.

405. This is not altogether a metaphorical expression. We remember

something very like it at the siege of Calais in 1347, when, according to

Froissart, Edward III. sent for the six inhabitants of Calais, who were to

present themselves 'with bare heads and feet, with ropes round their

necks'; see Froissart, tr. by Johnes, bk. i. c. 145.

415. In the earlier text (A 403), the word _He_ stands alone in the first

foot, which is less pleasing.

417. See Introd. to the Minor Poems (in vol. i.) for a discussion of some

of the poems here mentioned. He here mentions, first of all, three of his

lesser poems, in the order of their length; viz. the Hous of Fame, the

Deeth of Blaunche, and the Parlement of Foules.

420. The 'Palamoun and Arcyte' here referred to was no doubt a translation

of Boccaccio's Teseide, or of selections from it, in seven-line stanzas.

Though not preserved to us in its entirety, several fragments of it remain.

These are to be found (1) in sixteen stanzas of the Parl. of Foules (ll.

183-294), translated from the Teseide, bk. vii. st. 51-66; (2) in part of

the first ten stanzas of Anelida, from the same, bk. i. st. 1-3, and bk.

ii. st. 10-12; (3) in three stanzas near the end of Troilus (viz. st. 7, 8,

and 9 from the end), from the same, xi. 1-3; and (4) in a re-written form,

in what is now known as the Knightes Tale. See Notes to Anelida, in vol. i.

pp. 529, 530.

421. 'Though the story is little known.' Tyrwhitt remarks that these words

'seem to imply that it [Chaucer's original version of Palamon and Arcite]

had not made itself very popular.' Unfortunately, Tyrwhitt, who so very

seldom goes astray, has here misled nearly all who have consulted him.

Chaucer is not referring to his own version of the story, nor even to

Boccaccio's version, but to the old story _itself_; and he is merely

repeating Boccaccio's own remark, when (in the Teseide, i. 2) he speaks of

it as

'--una storia antica,

Tanto negli anni riposta e nascosa,

Che Latino autor non par ne dica,

Per quel ch'io senta, in libro alcuna cosa.'

And, in truth, the story must have been known but to very few, till

Boccaccio rescued it from oblivion. This is all that is meant; and there is

no difficulty. Note further that Chaucer refers to the very same passage in

another poem; see note to Anelida, l. 8.

423. A Balade is, properly, a poem in three stanzas, in which each stanza

ends with the same line, called the refrain. There is also usually a fourth

stanza, called _Lenvoy_, or the Envoy, which is sometimes shorter than the

other three. Most of Chaucer's Balades have probably perished, as only a

few are now known. These are: _Fortune_, consisting of 3 Balades, each in

8-line stanzas, followed by a single Envoy; _Truth_, a Balade with Envoy,

in 7-line stanzas; _Gentilesse_, without Envoy; _Lak of Stedfastnesse_,

with Envoy; (probably) _A Balade against women unconstaunt_, without Envoy;

_The Complaint of Venus_, consisting of 3 Balades, with a general Envoy;

_The Compleint to his Purse_, with Envoy of five lines only; _To

Rosemounde_, without Envoy; and the Balade included in the present poem, at

ll. 249-269 above.

A _Roundel_ is a poem of from nine to fourteen lines, in which only eight

lines are different from each other, the rest being repetitions of lines

that have already occurred. See this fully explained in the note to l. 675

of the Parl. of Foules. The one certain example is the Roundel included in

the Parl. of Foules, beginning at l. 680. There is also a beautiful example

of a Triple Roundel, which I have included in the Minor Poems, with the

title of Merciless Beauty. No doubt Chaucer wrote many more, but they are

lost.

A _Virelay_ is a poem in an unusual metre, of which examples are very rare.

Only one entire poem of this character has been conjecturally assigned to

Chaucer, but it is written in later English, and cannot possibly be his. It

is not a true Virelay (in the French sense), and first appeared in the

edition of 1561; see vol. i. p. 33. In this poem, lines 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7

all rime together; and l. 4 rimes with l. 8. Then comes the 'veer' or

'turn,' which requires that, in the next stanza, lines 9, 10, 11, 13, 14,

15 shall rime with lines 4 and 8, as, in fact, they do; but lines 12 and 16

introduce a _new_ rime, as they should _not_ do. We find, however, two fair

examples of the Virelay in the poem of Anelida, viz. in lines 256-271 and

317-332. In the former of these, the rime in _-ee_ (_-e_) appears in lines

256-8 and 260-2, and the rime in _-yte_ ends lines 259 and 263; whereas,

conversely, the rime in _-yte_ ends lines 264-6 and 268-270, whilst lines

267 and 271 repeat the rime in _-ee_. Similarly, ll. 317-332 exhibit

veering rimes in _-eye_ and _-ure_.

In Hoccleve's Poems, ed. Furnivall (Early Eng. Text Soc., Extra Series,

1892), there are several clever and intricate examples of the Virelay.

Thus, in Balade IV, at p. 39, there are five stanzas, but only three rimes,

viz. in _-al_, _-ee_, and _-ay_. The formula of rimes, for the first and

third stanzas, is _a b a b b c b c_; for the second and fourth stanzas, _c

b c b b a b a_; and for the fifth stanza, _a c a c c b c b_. See also the

same, pp. 41, 47, 49, 58, 59, 61, 62. Beyond all doubt, Hoccleve copied the

forms of Chaucer's lost virelays.

424. _Holynesse_, holy employment, religious composition. This is, clearly,

an intentional substitution for the _besinesse_, i.e. 'laborious

employment,' in the A-text, l. 412.

425. Chaucer made an excellent prose translation of Boethius de

Consolatione Philosophiæ, a Latin treatise much admired in the middle ages,

and still worthy of admiration. For further remarks, see vol. iii.

--A. 414. This is the only notice we possess of a work by Chaucer which is

no longer extant. We gather from it that he made a translation of the Latin

prose treatise by Pope Innocent III., entitled De Miseria Conditionis

Humanæ, a gloomy enumeration of human woes without a single alleviating

touch of hope, fiercely and unrelentingly set forth. It is probable that it

was written in 7-line stanzas; for portions of it appear to be preserved in

the Prologue to the Man of Lawes Tale, B 99-126, and in other stanzas of

the same (B 421-7, 771-7, 925-931, 1135-8).

426. _The Lyf of Seynt Cecyle_ is happily preserved. It was one of

Chaucer's early productions; but he himself rescued it from possible

disappearance by introducing it into the Canterbury Tales, with the title

of the Second Nonnes Tale.

428. This is another of the lost works. We gather that he made a

translation from a piece attributed to Origen, one of the most eminent of

the early Christian writers, who was born at Alexandria in 186. Tyrwhitt

says the piece meant is doubtless 'the Homily _de Maria Magdalena_, which

has been commonly, though falsely, attributed to Origen; see Opp. Origenis,

Tom. ii. p. 291, ed. Paris, 1604.' Tyrwhitt adds, very justly and

incontrovertibly--'I cannot believe that the Poem entitled The Lamentation

of Marie Magdaleine, which is in all the [older] editions of Chaucer, is

really that work of his. It can hardly be considered as a translation, or

even as an imitation, of the Homily; and the composition, in every respect,

is infinitely meaner than the worst of his genuine pieces.'

432. Here, in the B-text, the name of Alcestis is first mentioned; yet

strange to say, Chaucer does not realise who she is till later; see l. 518.

She was the wife of Admetus, not king of Thrace (as here said) but of Pheræ

in Thessaly. Apollo obtained from the Moiræ a promise to grant Admetus

deliverance from death if, at the hour of his death, his father, mother, or

wife, would consent to die for him. Alcestis consented to die in his stead,

and is therefore here taken as the chief type of wifely devotion. The

mention of Alcestis in the Court of Love, st. 15, is merely copied from

Chaucer; so also Lydgate's use of _Alceste_ to mean 'a daisy,' in his

Legend of St. Edmund, l. 235 of the additional stanzas found in MS. Ashmole

46, as printed in Horstmann, Alteng. Legenden, Neue Folge (1881), p. 443.

Gower has the story of Alcestis in his Confessio Amantis; ed. Pauli, iii.

149.

452. An allusion to the common proverb--'Bis dat, qui cito dat'; he who

gives at once, gives twice. Publius Syrus has: 'Bis gratum est, quod dato

opus est, ultro si offeras,' v. 44; and again: 'Inopi beneficium bis dat,

qui dat celeriter'; v. 235.

465. 'Has no participation in the deed of a thief.' Similarly, in the Squi.

Tale, F 537, Chaucer tells us that 'A trew wight and a theef thenken nat

oon,' i.e. do not think alike. _Trew_ means 'honest.'

466. The first foot contains _Ne a trew-_; _e_ in _Ne_ is elided.

475, 6. Closely imitated in the Court of Love, st. 61:--

'And argue not for reason ne for skill

Againe thy ladies pleasure ne entent,

For love will not be counterpleted indeede.'

The substitution of the dissyllabic _indeede_ for Chaucer's monosyllabic

_be_ just ruins the scansion of the line; but we must not expect always to

find melody in that grossly over-rated poem.

496, 7. Observe that these lines are not in the A-text. They must

necessarily have been added after 1382, when Richard II. married Anne of

Bohemia, and of course long before 1394, when 'the good queen Anne' died,

and her husband at once forsook their favourite residence of Shene, now

Richmond; see Annals of England, p. 201.

499. This is a strange question, seeing that Alcestis has already announced

her name at l. 432; we must suppose that the poet did not realise that she

was _the very_ Alcestis whom he longed to see. But it looks like an

oversight, due to his partially rewriting this Prologue.

503. Literally Chaucer's favorite line; for it reappears three times more,

viz. in the Kn. Ta., A 1761; March. Ta., E 1986; and Squi. Ta., F 479. And,

in the Man of Law's Tale, B 660, we have--'As gentil herte is fulfild of

pitee.' It is admirable.

510. Here Chaucer seems to be imitating Froissart; see the Introduction. I

cannot find any early account of Alcestis that turns her into a daisy[68].

See notes to ll. 432, 515.

515. Alcestis 'was afterwards brought back from the lower world by

Hercules, and restored to her husband'; Lewis and Short, Lat. Dict. s.v.

_Alcestis_. And see the Introduction.

522. _Bountee_, goodness. See Clerk. Ta., E 157, 415; and Trench, Sel.

Glossary.

526. _Agaton_, Agathon or Agatho; Dante's _Agatone_ (Purg. xxii. 107). An

Athenian poet (B.C. 447-400); who wrote a tragedy called 'the Flower.' See

the Introduction.

531. _Cibella_, Cybela, or more commonly Cybele, a Phrygian goddess, later

worshipped at Rome as Ops or Mater Magna. She was the goddess of the earth,

and especially represented its fertility; hence she is naturally said to

produce flowers. She here answers to the 'Ceres' of Froissart; see the

Introduction.

533. The reference is to the red tips on the white petals of the daisy, the

'wee, modest, crimson-tippèd flower.' This is said to be the gift of Mars,

as he was associated with that colour. He is called 'Mars the rede'; see l.

2589 below; Anelida, l. 1; Kn. Ta., A 1969. The colour of the planet Mars

is reddish.

In the present passage _reed_ is a sb.; 'And Mars gave redness to her

crown.'

539. Referring to the Balade at l. 249. In the A-text, Alcestis was

actually mentioned in the refrain; but Chaucer rewrote it so as to exclude

her name. He now writes (in l. 540) as if he had forgotten to put it in. Of

course ll. 539-541 are peculiar to the B-text, as marked.

542. _Kalender._ 'A kalendar is an almanac by which persons are guided in

their computation of time; hence it is used, as here, for a guide or

example generally'; Bell. The New E. Dict. quotes this passage, and

explains the word by 'a guide, directory; an example, model'; and cites

Hamlet, v. 2. 114--'He is the card or _calendar_ of gentry.' Nevertheless,

I doubt whether this sense arose from the mere _usefulness_ of the

calendar. I believe that Chaucer regarded it in quite another aspect, viz.

as containing the _record_ or _list_ of the saints whose lives are worthy

of imitation. Hence Schmidt explains the word in Hamlet as 'note-book' or

'record'; as is certainly the case in All's Well, i. 3. 4, which Murray

duly quotes with the sense of 'record.' So in the present case _kalender_

does not mean 'example' merely, but _a whole list_ or _complete record of

examples_, which gives the word a much greater force. Compare Chaucer's

ABC, under the letter _K_, and the note (l. 73).

549. We hence learn that Chaucer's nineteenth[69] and last Legend was to

have been the Legend of Alcestis; but he never wrote more than the former

_half_ of the work. Cf. A-text, 532.

555. _Thy balade_; see ll. 249-268; F. and Th. read _my_. We here learn

that the Ladies about whom the Legends were to be written (l. 557) are all

mentioned in the Ballad, which is an important hint. We must of course

remove the names of Absalom and Jonathan; and there is reason for supposing

that we should exclude Esther. Next, we set aside Lucretia, Cleopatra,

Thisbe, Dido, Phyllis, Hypsipyle, Hypermnestra, and Ariadne, whose Legends

we possess; observing at the same time that we also have the Legend of

Philomela (though she is not mentioned), and of Medea, who shares a Legend

with Hypsipyle. The names still left are those of Penelope, Martia, Isoude,

Helen, Lavinia, Polyxena, Hero, Laodamia, Canace, and Alcestis. But this

list only partially agrees with Chaucer's scheme as given elsewhere, viz.

in the Introduction to the Man of Law's Tale. See further in the

Introduction.

574. _The grete_, the substance; as in Book of the Duch. 1242; Parl.

Foules, 35.

575. 'According as these old authors are pleased to treat (them).'

576. _Shal telle_, has to narrate.

I. THE LEGEND OF CLEOPATRA.

It is not clear what account Chaucer followed; see the Introduction. The

chief sources for the history are Plutarch, Appian, Dion Cassius, and

Orosius (bk. vi. c. 19). I shall refer to the Life of M. Antonius in my

edition of Shakespeare's Plutarch (denoted below by Sh. Plut.). Bech points

out that one of Chaucer's sources was Florus; see note to l. 655.

581. Ptolemy XI., or Ptolemy Auletes, king of Egypt, died B.C. 51, leaving

two sons, _both_ called Ptolemy, and two daughters, Cleopatra and Arsinoe.

Cleopatra was then 17 years of age, and was appointed queen of Egypt in

conjunction with her brother, the elder Ptolemy, whom she was to marry; but

she was expelled from the throne by Ptolemy's guardians. In B.C. 47 she was

replaced upon it by Julius Cæsar, but still in conjunction with her

brother. This led to the Alexandrine war, in the course of which this elder

Ptolemy perished. After this, she reigned, nominally, in conjunction with

the _younger_ Ptolemy, to whom also she was nominally married; but he was

still quite a child, and was murdered by her orders in less than four

years, after which she was sole queen, in name as well as in reality.

We thus see that the Ptolemy here mentioned may be either of Cleopatra's

brothers of that name; but it is more likely that Chaucer refers to the

elder of them. Shakespeare also uses the expression 'queen of Ptolemy';

Ant. i. 4. 6.

583. _On a tyme_; viz. not long after the battle of Philippi, which took

place in B.C. 42. 'Antonius, going to make war with the Parthians, sent to

command Cleopatra to appear personally before him when he came into

Cilicia, to answer unto such accusations as were laid against her, being

this: that she had aided Cassius and Brutus in their war against him ...

Cleopatra on the other side ... guessing by the former access and credit

she had with Julius Cæsar and C. Pompey (the son of Pompey the Great) only

for her beauty, she began to have good hope that she might more easily win

Antonius. For Cæsar and Pompey knew her when she was but a young thing, and

knew not then what the world meant; but now she went to Antonius at the age

when a woman's beauty is at the prime, and she also of best judgment.'--Sh.

Plut. p. 174. Almost immediately after this passage follows the celebrated

description of Cleopatra in her barge upon the Cydnus, familiar to all in

the words of Shakespeare; Ant. and Cleop. ii. 2. 196.

591. 'Octavius Cæsar reporting all these things unto the Senate, and

oftentimes accusing him to the whole people and assembly in Rome, he

thereby stirred up all the Romans against him.'--Sh. Plut. p. 202.

592. After the death of his first wife, Fulvia, Antony had married Octavia,

sister of Octavianus (better known to us as Augustus). But in a few years

he deserted her, and surrendered himself wholly to the charms of Cleopatra.

Cf. Ant. and Cleop. iii. 6.

597. Cf. Sh. Plut. p. 192; Ant. and Cleop. i. 4. 55.

605. _Sterve_, to die. See _Starve_, in Trench, Sel. Glossary.

624. _Octovian_, Octavianus. 'Now for Cæsar, he had 250 ships of war,

80,000 footmen, and well near as many horsemen as his enemy Antonius'; Sh.

Plut. p. 207.

634. See the account of the battle of Actium, B.C. 31; in Sh. Plut. p. 210.

The vivid description here given by Chaucer resembles the parallel passage

in the Kn. Tale, A 2600-20, which should be compared. 'The soldiers fought

with their pikes, halbards and darts, and threw halbards and darts with

fire. Antonius' ships, on the other side, bestowed among them, with their

crossbows and engines of battery, great store of shot from their high

towers of wood that were set upon their ships.'--Sh. Plut. p. 211. There is

some description of the hostile fleets and of the battle in Florus (see

note to l. 655), who tells us that, whilst Octavius had 400 ships against

the 200 ships of Antony, the latter were nearly double the size of the

former; so that the fleets were thus of equal strength.

637. Bell says this is 'a ludicrous anachronism'; but it is nothing of the

kind. The word _gonne_ is here used in the sense of 'shot' or 'missile';

and the line means--'with terrible sound out rushes the huge missile,'

being hurled from one of the 'engines of battery' mentioned in the last

note. It is the missile, not the engine, that 'out goth'; as a moment's

reflection would have informed the commentator, whose remark was needless.

The use of _gonne_ in the sense of 'missile' is curious, but not

unexampled; for, in the Avowynge of Arthur, st. 65, we read that 'there

come fliand a _gunne_,' i.e. there came flying along a missile. I believe

it is also used in the sense of missile in Sir Ferumbras, 5176, though the

passage is not decisive.

Even if this were not the case, there is no 'anachronism'; for _gonne_ was

originally used in the sense of 'catapult,' as may be seen by consulting

the Prompt. Parvulorum, where the Latin for it is _petraria_, and

_mangonale_. The _grisly soun_ alludes to the whizzing of the ponderous

missile through the air; Barbour says of a great stone, hurled from a

catapult, that 'It flaw out, quhedirand, with a rout,' i.e. it flew out,

whirring, with a great noise. See The Bruce, xvii. 684.

On the other hand, in Ho. Fame, 1643, Chaucer certainly uses _gonne_ in the

sense of 'cannon'; but that does not affect the sense of the present

passage.

638. _Hurtlen_, push, dash, ram one against the other; cf. Kn. Ta., A 2616.

'Somtyme they _hurtled_ to-gyder that they felle grovelyng on the ground';

Morte Arthure; by Sir T. Malory, bk. vii. c. 12. _Heterly_, vehemently,

fiercely, occurs frequently in the Wars of Alexander, ed. Skeat (E. E. T.

S.) Compare Vergil's description of the battle, in Æn. viii. 689, &c.: 'Una

omnes ruere.'

640. _In goth_, in there go. _Goth_ is singular in form, because of its

position in the sentence; but it has two nominatives, viz. 'grapnel' and

'shearing-hooks.' The former was a contrivance for clutching the ropes, and

the latter for severing them.

642. This is wonderfully graphic. A boarder bursts in with a pole-axe; a

sailor, on the defence, flees behind the mast, then dashes forward again,

and drives the assailant overboard.

646. _Rent_, rendeth; the present tense.

648. By pouring hard peas upon the hatches, they became so slippery that

the boarders could not stand.

649. Some carried pots full of quicklime, which they threw into the eyes of

their enemies. See Notes and Queries, 5 S. x. 188. The English did this

very thing, when attacking a French fleet, in the time of Henry III. Strutt

(Manners and Customs, 1774, ii. 11) quotes from Matthew Paris to this

effect:--'Calcem quoque vivam et in pulverém subtilem reductam, in altum

projicientes, vento illam ferente, Francorum oculos excaecaverunt.' Cf. Æn.

viii. 694.

652. _Put_, short for _putteth_, puts; pres. tense.

653. _To-go_, disperse themselves; pres. tense. The prefix _to_ has the

same force as the Lat. _dis-_, i.e. 'in different directions.' We even find

_to-ga_ used as a past tense in Barbour's Bruce (viii. 351, ix. 263, 269,

xvii. 104, 575), with the sense 'fled in different directions,' or 'fled

away.' Cf. 'the wlcne _to-gað_,' the clouds part asunder; Morris; Spec. of

Eng. pt. I. p. 7, l. 169. And again, 'thagh the fourme of brede _to-go_,'

though the form of bread disappear; Shoreham's Poems, p. 29.

_That best go mighte_, each in the way he could best go; each made the best

of his way to a safe place. 'Sauve qui peut.'

655. 'Suddenly they saw the threescore ships of Cleopatra busily about

their yard-masts, and hoising sail to fly'; Sh. Plut. p. 212. Cf. Ant. and

Cleop. iii. 10. 10; Vergil, Æn. viii. 707-8. The remark about Cleopatra's

'purple sails' may remind us of Plutarch's description of Cleopatra on the

Cydnus, already referred to above (note to l. 583):--'the poop [of her

barge] was of gold, _the sails of purple_'; Sh. Plut. p. 174; Ant. and

Cleop. ii. 2. 198.

The truth is, however, that (as Bech points out) Chaucer has borrowed this

and a few other incidents from L. Annaeus Florus, who wrote an Epitome

Rerum Romanarum in the second century. In relating the battle of Actium, he

says:--'Prima dux fugae regina, cum aurea puppe _ueloque purpureo_, in

altum dedit. Mox secutus Antonius: sed instare uestigiis Caesar. Itaque nec

praeparata in Oceanum fuga, nec munita praesidiis utraque Ægypti cornua,

Paraetonium atque Pelusium, profuere: prope manu tenebantur. Prior ferrum

occupauit Antonius. Regina ad pedes Caesaris prouoluta tentauit oculos

ducis: frustra. Nam pulchritudo intra pudicitiam principis fuit. Nec illa

de uita, quae offerebatur, sed de parte regni, laborabat. Quod ubi

desperauit a principe, seruarique se triumpho uidit, incautiorem nacta

custodiam, in Mausoleum se (sepulcra regum sic uocant) recipit: ibi

maximos, ut solebat, induta cultus, in differto odoribus solio, iuxta suum

se collocauit Antonium: admotisque ad uenas serpentibus, sic morte quasi

somno, soluta est.'--Florus, Epit. Rerum Romanarum, lib. iv. c. 11.

662. Chaucer (following Florus) has hastened the catastrophe. Antony

stabbed himself at Alexandria, in the following year, B.C. 30. See Sh.

Plut. 221; Ant. and Cleop. iv. 14. 102.

672. _Shryne_; for 'solio' in Florus; cf. l. 675. Plutarch says only that

Cleopatra 'did sumptuously and royally bury him with her own hands'; Sh.

Plut. p. 224. Afterwards, however, she 'crowned the tomb with garlands and

sundry nosegays, and marvellous lovingly embraced the same'; Sh. Plut. p.

227. But see the account by Florus, in the note to l. 655.

677. _Dede cors_, dead body; as in l. 876. Chaucer uses _cors_ of the

living body, as, e.g. in Sir Thopas, B 2098.

678. Chaucer seems to think that Florus meant, 'in sepulcrum [suum] se

recipit ... iuxta Antonium.'

679. Shakespeare follows closely the account in Plutarch, except that he

makes mention of _two_ asps, whereas Plutarch mentions but one, called by

Sir Thos. North 'an aspick'; Sh. Plut. p. 227. However, Florus uses the

plural _serpentibus_. Cf. Cower, C. A., iii. 361.

681. Cf. Cleopatra's lament in Sh. Plut. p. 226; Ant. and Cleop. iv. 15.

59; v. 2. 283.

691. Pronounce _unreprovable_, as _unréprovábl'_.

694. _Sene_, evident. Note that this is an adjective (A.S. _gesýne_), and

not the past participle; cf. l. 2655, and note. See also ll. 340, 741, and

my note to the Balade against Women Inconstaunt, l. 13.

696. _Naked._ It looks as if Chaucer took _induta_ (note to l. 655) to mean

'not clothed.' Perhaps he read it as _nudata_.

702. _Storial sooth_, historical truth. The old editions actually put the

comma after _storial_ instead of after _sooth_; and modern editors have

followed them. Surely the editors, in some passages, have never attempted

to construe their own texts.

II. THE LEGEND OF THISBE.

Chaucer follows Ovid, Metamorph. iv. 55-166; and frequently very closely.

The reader should compare the Latin text throughout. For example, Ovid

begins thus:--

'Pyramus et Thisbe, iuuenum pulcherrimus alter,

altera, quas Oriens habuit, praelata puellis,

contiguas habuere domos, ubi dicitur altam

coctilibus muris cinxisse Semiramis urbem.'

In Golding's translation, fol. 43, back, thus:--

'Within the town (of whose huge walles so monstrous high and thicke,

The fame is giuen Semiramis for making them of bricke)

Dwelt hard together two young folke in houses ioynde so nere,

That under all one roofe well nie both twaine conuayed were.

The name of him was Pyramus, and Thisbe call'd was she;

So faire a man in all the East was none aliue as he.

Nor nere a woman, mayde, nor wife in beautie like to her.'

This at once explains the allusion to Semiramis, the celebrated but

mythical queen who was said to have surrounded Babylon with walls of

fabulous strength, having a deep ditch outside them. See Orosius, as

translated by King Alfred, in Sweet's A.S. Reader, fourth ed. pp. 28, 29.

Gower tells the same story, and likewise follows Ovid; C. A. i. 324.

718. _Estward_; evidently from Ovid's 'Oriens'; see above.

722. The first foot consists of the single syllable _Mai-_.

725. _Naso_, i.e. Ovid; really named Publius Ouidius Naso.

726. _Réport_; accented on the _e_. _Y-shove_, pushed (into notice); cf. l.

1381.

727. 'Tempore creuit amor'; Met. iv. 60.

730. 'Sed uetuere patres'; id. 61.

735. 'As (to quote the proverb) cover up the glowing coal, and the hotter

the fire becomes.' Ovid has--'Quoque magis tegitur, tanto magis aestuat

ignis'; 64. _Wry_ is in the imperative mood, singular. Cf. Troilus, ii.

538-9.

741. _Sene_, visible; see note to l. 694. _Dere y-nogh a myte_, even in a

slight degree; lit. '(to an extent) dear enough at a mite.' A singular use

of the phrase. Cf. 'dere ynogh a leek'; Can. Yem. Ta., G 795; 'not worth a

myte'; id., G 633.

742. 'Quid non sentit amor?' Met. iv. 68.

745. 'In a tone as low as if uttering a confession.' A curious medieval

touch. Ovid says, 'murmure ... minimo'; 70.

756. 'Inuide, dicebant, paries, quid amantibus obstas?' 73.

763. _Holde_, beholden. 'Nec sumus ingrati'; 76.

773. Chaucer practically transposes the offices of Phoebus and Aurora.

'Postera nocturnos Aurora remouerat ignes,

solque pruinosas radiis siccauerat herbas'; 82.

782. _And for_, and because, &c.

783. _For_ stands alone in the first foot. Cf. l. 797.

784. 'Conueniant ad busta Nini, lateantque sub umbra Arboris'; 88. Ll. 786,

787 are explanatory, and added by Chaucer. Ninus, the supposed founder of

Nineveh, was the husband of Semiramis. Cf. Shak. Mid. Nt. Dr. v. 1. 139.

786. Lounsbury (Studies in Chaucer, i. 403) says that the pt. t. of

_herien_ is _heried-e_, with final _e_. But the form is right; _héried-e_

is hardly pronounceable, and the final _e_ is naturally dropped when the

accent is thrown so far back. The forms of the past tenses of weak verbs

are variable; whether they take a final _e_ or not often depends on the

form of the stem. See Ten Brink, Chaucer's Sprache, § 194.

797. _Y-wimpled_, covered with a wimple, or cloth covering the neck and

fitting close round the face, chiefly worn by nuns. Another medieval touch.

Ovid has 'adopertaque uultum'; 94. See note to l. 813.

798-801. These four lines are mainly original, and quite in Chaucer's own

manner. Ovid has merely 'fallitque suos.'

803. 'Audacem faciebat amor'; 96.

804. _She gan her dresse_, she settled herself, lit. directed herself. Lat.

'sedit.'

810. _Rist_, riseth; pres. tense, as in l. 887. So _arist_, Man of Law's

Tale, B 265.

811. _With dredful foot_; so again in Kn. Ta., A 1479. 'Timido pede fugit

in antrum'; 100. See _Dreadful_ in Trench, Select Glossary; and cf. ll.

109, 404 above.

813. 'Dumque fugit, tergo uelamina lapsa reliquit'; 101. 'For fere, and let

her wimple falle.'--Gower, Conf. Amant. i. 326.

814-6. These three lines are original. _Sit_, sitteth. _Darketh_, lies

close. 'The child than _darked_ in his den'; Will. of Palerne, 17; 'drawe

[drew] him into his den, and _darked_ ther stille'; id. 44. And again in

the same poem, ll. 1834, 2851.

823-31. Considerably expanded from the Latin:--

'Serius egressus uestigia uidit in alto

puluere certa ferae, totoque expalluit ore

Pyramus'; 105.

830. _Agroos_, shuddered; and again in l. 2314; and in Troil. ii. 930. The

infin. _agryse_ is in the Man of Law's Tale, B 614.

834. 'Una duos, inquit, nox perdet amantes'; 108.

835. This line is Chaucer's own.

842. _What_, whatsoever; 'quicunque ... leones'; 114.

847-9. 'Accipe nunc, inquit, nostri quoque sanguinis haustus'; 118.

851-2.

'Cruor emicat alte

non aliter quam quum uitiato fistula plumbo

scinditur, et tenues stridente foramine longe

eiaculatur aquas, atque ictibus aera rumpit'; 121.

With much good taste, Chaucer omits the next three lines, just as he has

omitted to tell us that the trysting-tree was 'a faire high Mulberie with

fruite _as white as snow_,' as Golding says. The blood of Pyramus turned

this fruit _black_, and so it remains to this day! Gower likewise

suppresses the mulberry-tree, but Shakespeare mentions it; see Mid. Nt. Dr.

v. 1. 149.

853-61. Admirably expanded out of three lines:--

'Ecce metu nondum posito, ne fallat amantem,

illa redit; iuuenemque oculis animoque requirit;

quantaque uitarit narrare pericula gestit'; 128.

859. The first syllable of _Bothe_ forms a foot by itself. So also in ll.

863, 901, 911, &c.

862-8.

'Dum dubitat, tremebunda uidet pulsare cruentum

membra solum; retroque pedem tulit; oraque buxo

pallidiora gerens, exhorruit aequoris instar,

quod fremit, exigua quum summum stringitur aura'; 133.

869-82. Fourteen lines where Ovid has eight. Chaucer has greatly improved

l. 882, where Ovid makes Thisbe _ask_ Pyramus to lift up his

head:--'uultusque attolle iacentes'; 144.

887. This line is original. _Bost_, noise, outcry; such is the original

sense of the word now spelt _boast_, which see in the New E. Dict. Cf. 'Now

ariseth cry and _boost_'; King Alisaunder, 5290; and see P. Plowman, C.

xvii. 89. Whitaker, writing in 1813, remarks that _boost_, in the sense of

noise, is 'a provincial word still familiar in the Midland counties.'

894.

'Persequar extinctum; letique miserrima dicar

caussa comesque tui'; 151.

905-12. Admirably substituted for Thisbe's address to the mulberry-tree,

requesting it to keep its berries always black thenceforth.

913, 14.

'Dixit; et aptato pectus mucrone sub imum

incubuit ferro, quod adhuc a caede tepebat'; 162.

916-23. These lines are original. With l. 917 cf. Le Rom. de la Rose,

14345:--'Mes moult est poi de tex amans.'

III. THE LEGEND OF DIDO.

This Legend purports to be taken from Vergil and Ovid; see l. 928. There is

very little of it from Ovid, viz. only the last 16 lines, which depend on

Ovid's Heroides, vii. 1-8, and ll. 1312-6, which owe something to the same

epistle.

The rest is from the Æneid, bks. i-iv, as will be pointed out.

Note that Chaucer had already given the story of Dido at some length in his

Hous of Fame, 151-382, which should be compared. He mentions Ovid there

also; l. 379.

924. _Mantuan_, born near Mantua. Publius Vergilius [not Virgilius] Maro

was born on the 15th Oct., B.C. 70, at Andes, now Pietola, a small village

near Mantua in Cisalpine Gaul; and died Sept. 22, B.C. 19. It is said that

an inscription was placed on his tomb, beginning 'Mantua me genuit.'

926. Cf. 'chi vi fu lucerna?' Dante, Purg. i. 43.

927. _Eneas_, Æneas, hero of the Æneid.

928. The late editions, for some mysterious reason, put a full stop after

_Eneid_ and insert _of_ before _Naso_. The sense is--'I will take the

general tenour (of the story as I find it) in thine Æneid and in Naso,'

i.e. in Ovid; 'and I will versify the chief circumstances.'

Roughly speaking, ll. 930-949 are from the Æneid, bk. ii; ll. 950-957 from

bk. iii; ll. 958-1155 from bk. i; and ll. 1156-1351 from bk. iv.

931. 'By the craft of the Greeks, and especially by Sinon.' Sinon allowed

himself to be taken prisoner by the Trojans, and persuaded them to take in

a wooden horse through the walls, which he said had been made as an

atonement to Minerva for the Palladium carried away by the Greeks. In the

dead of night Sinon let out the armed men concealed within the horse, and

thus Troy was taken by a stratagem. See Æn. ii. 57-267; and cf. Ho. Fame,

152-6.

934. The ghost of Hector appeared to Æneas, and advised him to flee; Æn.

ii. 268-298.

935. The verb agreeing with _fyr_ is _appered_. 'And there appeared also so

mad a fire that it could not be controlled.' See Æn. ii. 311.

936. _Ilioun_, the usual M.E. form of _Ilium_; Æn. i. 68, ii. 241, 325,

625. Ilium is only another name for Troy, but the medieval writers invented

the explanation here adopted by Chaucer, viz. that it was the palace of

Priam, and the _castle_ of Troy in particular. Perhaps they interpreted the

word _domus_ in too narrow a sense in the passage--'O patria, O Divum domus

Ilium'; Æn. ii. 241. This use of the word is invariable in Guido delle

Colonne, author of the Historia Destructionis Troie, a work which was

considered of the highest authority in the middle ages, though it was

shamelessly copied from the French Roman de Troie by Benoit de

Sainte-Maure. In fact, a long description of Priam's palace, called

_Ilion_, is given in the alliterative Troy-book, l. 1629, which is

translated from Guido; and in Lydgate's Troy-book, ed. 1555, fol. F 6,

back, and R 5, back. See the notes to Book Duch. 1070, Ho. Fame, 158, 1467,

1469, 1477.

939. For the death of Priam, killed by Pyrrhus, see Æn. ii. 531-558.

_Fordoon_, slain. _Noght_, nothing; this alludes to Vergil's 'sine nomine

corpus'; Æn. ii. 558.

940. Venus appears to her son Æneas; Æn. ii. 591. Cf. Ho. Fame, 162.

942. Cf. 'dextrae se paruus Iülus [Ascanius] Implicuit'; Æn. ii. 724. See

note to Ho. Fame, 177.

945. _Lees_, lost; 'erepta Creüsa'; Æn. ii. 738; Ho. Fame, 183.

947. _Felawshippe_, company, companions; 'ingentem comitum numerum'; Æn.

ii. 796.

949. _Stounde_, hour, time; usually dissyllabic in M.E.

953. For these adventures, see Æn. bk. iii; which Chaucer passes over. But

see Ho. Fame, 198-221.

959. _Libye_, Libya, on the N. coast of Africa; Æn. i. 158. For the seven

ships saved, see the same, i. 170.

960, 1. These two lines are in no previous edition, (except my own), being

preserved only in MSS. C. and P. But they are obviously genuine and

necessary; otherwise, the word _So_ (l. 962) is meaningless.

962. _Al to-shake_, all shaken to pieces, sorely distressed. Cf. l. 820.

964. Æneas and Achates sally forth, Æn. i. 312; Ho. Fame, 226.

971. _Hunteresse_, huntress; i.e. Venus so disguised; id. i. 319. 'As she

had been an _hunteresse_'; Ho. Fame, 229.

973. _Cutted_, cut short; 'nuda genu'; id. i. 320. The same expression

occurs as 'cutted to the kne' in P. Ploughman's Crede, 296. Compare also l.

434 of the same poem:--

'His wyf walked him with, with a longe gode [goad],

In a _cutted_ cote, _cutted_ full hey[gh]e.'

The editions have _knytte_, which is an erroneous spelling either of _knyt_

or of _knytted_; neither of which readings can be right.

978-82. Translated from Æn. i. 321-4.

982. _Y-tukked up_, with robe tucked up; 'Succinctam.' This settles the

meaning of _tukked_ in Ch. Prol. 621.

983-93. Shortened from Æn. i. 325-340.

986. 'Phoebus' sister'; Vergil has 'Phoebi soror'; 329.

994-1001. Alluding to Æn. i. 341-410.

997. _Hit nere but_, it would only be; _nere_ = _ne were_.

998. _Al and som_, the whole matter; wholly and in particulars.

1005. _Sitheo_, so in all the copies. Nothing is commoner than a confusion

between _c_ and _t_ in old MSS.; hence _Sitheo_ is for _Sichco_, i.e.

Sichaeus. Sichaeus (Æn. i. 343) is Vergil's name for Acerbas, a wealthy

Tyrian priest, who married Elissa (Vergil's Dido) sister of Pygmalion.

Pygmalion murdered Acerbas, hoping to appropriate his treasure; but Elissa

fled from Tyre, taking the treasure with her, and founded Carthage. Dante

has the form _Sicheo_; Inf. v. 62.

1010. _Fredom_, liberality; the old sense of _free_ being 'liberal.' _Of_

here means 'for'; in l. 1012 it means 'by.'

1016. _Maister-temple_, chief temple; cf. _maistre-strete_, chief street

(Kn. Ta., A 2902), and _maistre-tour_, chief tower (Squi. Tale, F 226). It

was the temple of Juno; Æn. i. 446.

1022. 'So the book says'; Vergil says that Venus shrouded Æneas and Achates

with a cloud (i. 412, 516).

1024. The first syllable of _Hadden_ forms a foot by itself; cf. l. 1030.

_Ov'r al_ forms the last foot.

1025. 'Uidet Iliacas ex ordine pugnas'; i. 456.

1028. 'Bellaque iam fama totum uulgata per orbem'; i. 457.

1032. _Kepe_, care; usually with a negative; see Kn. Ta., A 2238, 2960.

1035. See Æn. i. 496, &c. Vergil likens Dido to Diana. In l. 1039 Chaucer

uses _god_ in the heathen sense, meaning Jupiter.

1044-6. These lines are original. _Fremd_, strange; A.S. _fremede_. In the

Squi. Tale, F 429, it means 'foreign.' 'To frende ne to _fremmed_,' to

friend nor to stranger; P. Plowm. B. xv. 137. Misspelt _frenne_ (riming

with _glenne_) in Spenser, Shep. Kal. April, 28, with the sense of

'stranger'; unless he means it for _foreign_.

1047-60. Epitomised from Æn. i. 509-612.

1048. _Wende han loren_, he supposed to have lost, he supposed that he had

lost.

1050. _For which_, on which account, wherefore.

1059. _Meynee_, attendants, followers, lit. household; O.F. _meisnee_,

_mesnee_, _meinee_. Very common in Chaucer. The derived adj. _menial_ is

still in use. See l. 1089.

1061-5. From Æn. i. 613, 614. Ll. 1066-1074 are from the same, 588-591.

1075. 'Non ignara mali, miseris succurrere disco'; id. 630.

1076. The first syllable of _Lyked_ forms a foot by itself. _God do bote_,

may God give (us) help! A parenthetical explanation. All former editions

(except my own) omit the necessary comma after _as_.

1077-85. Chaucer here gives a general outline of the state of the case,

without following Vergil's words.

1086-90. This answers to Æn. i. 615-630.

1091-1102. From Æn. i 631-642.

1099. _His lyve_, in his life, during his life.

1103-27. This passage is, practically, original. Chaucer here tells the

story in his own language, and gives it a wholly medieval cast.

1104. The M.E. _swolow_ usually means 'a whirlpool' or 'gulf,' and such is

Tyrwhitt's explanation. See the Catholicon Anglicum, p. 373, note 1, for

examples. Thus, in Wyclif's Works, ed. Matthew, p. 97, we find--'_Swolwis_

of the see and _helle_, that resceyuen al that thei may and [gh]elden not

a[gh]en.' Very rarely, it is used of an open mouth; thus in Allit. Poems,

ed. Morris, iii. 250, it is said that the whale 'opened his _swol[gh]_' to

engulf Jonah. Hence, probably, arose the suggestion in Bell's note, that

the reference is to the open mouth of hell, as represented in medieval

drawings. Nevertheless, I believe Tyrwhitt is right; though either sense

will serve. It is the mod. E. _swallow_, used as a sb. Cf. Dante, Inf.

xxxiv. 137-9.

1106. _Parements_, ornaments; probably hangings. Cf. 'chambre of parementz'

in Squi. Ta., F 269, and Tyrwhitt's note, quoted in my note to the line. In

the Kn. Ta., A 2501, _paramentz_ means 'rich clothes.' See Æn. i. 637-9.

1107. For _ornaments_, which is preserved in MSS. C. and T. only, the other

MSS. and all the old editions have the odd reading _pavements_, which is

strangely out of place. I think it clear that this arose from a repetition

of the word _parements_, which was afterwards turned into _pavements_ by

way of desperate emendation. The letters _v_ and _r_ are often somewhat

alike, and have been mistaken for one another, as shewn in my paper on

'ghost-words' in the Phil. Soc. Transactions, 1886.

1109. The MSS. (except T.) and the black-letter editions have _he_.

Morris's, Bell's, and Corson's editions have _she_, which gives no sense,

and will not suit l. 1111. I do not undertake to notice all the vagaries of

the various editions, as the readings of the MSS. are so much more

satisfactory. In the present case, I suppose that _she_ is a mere misprint

in Bell, preserved in the editions that follow him. _Sete_ is short for

_seten_, the usual M.E. pp. of _sitten_, to sit; see Kn. Ta., A 1452. It

answers to the A.S. pp. _seten_, with short _e_. The _e_ in _mete_ was also

short in A.S.; hence the rime is perfect.

1110. Cf. Squi. Ta., F 294--'The spyces and the wyn is come anon.' This

refers to the custom of serving wine mixed with spices to the guests before

going to rest; see a long note in Warton, Hist. E. Poetry, ed. 1840, i. 178

(on the word _piment_); Weber's note on King Alisaunder, 4178; and Our

English Home, p. 85.

1114. The first syllable _Ther_ probably constitutes the first foot of the

line. I believe Chaucer accents _courser_ on the former syllable; see Kn.

Ta., A 1502, 1704; Squi. Ta., F 195, 310.

1117. _Fretted_, adorned; not 'fraught,' as in Corson's note.

1119. _Shynedè_; trisyllabic; in MS. C. only; rest, _shyned_, _shyneth_,

which will not scan. Cf. _lakkedè_, Prol. 756; _knokkeden_, Compl. Mars,

84. Line 2194 has _shinèd_, and l. 1428 has _shoon_. _Shynede_ occurs in

_both_ the Wycliffite versions of Luke ii. 9; and is therefore an old form.

We still have _shined_ as a pt. t. in Ezek. xliii. 2, Acts ix. 3, xii. 7.

1120. 'Nor gentle high-flying falcon for striking herons.' Chaucer has

_gentil faucon_ in his Parl. of Foules, 337. Cotgrave, s.v. _haultain_,

has:--'_Faulcon haultain_, a high-flying hawke.' _Heronere_ means 'used for

flying at herons'; only the best hawks would serve for this.

1122. _Y-bete_, in the Knight's Ta., A 979, means 'ornamented with beaten

gold,' or with gold flattened out by the hammer (F. _or batu_). It might

mean 'ornamented by means of the hammer'; but as 'new florins' can hardly

be said to be used for decorating cups, it seems best to take _with_ in the

sense of 'as well as'; in which case _florins newe y-bete_ means 'florins

newly struck.' The allusion to _florins_ is curious; see note to P.

Plowman, B. iii. 45. Cf. Æn, i. 640--'Ingens argentum mensis, caelataque in

auro Fortia facta patrum.'

1128-35. From Æn. i. 643-656.

1135. _Take_, present, offer, deliver. This sense was once common; see Sec.

Non. Ta., G 223; Can. Yem. Ta., G 1030, 1034, 1365; P. Plowman, B. i. 56,

iv. 58, &c.

1136-49. Much abridged from Æn. i. 657-722.

1145. 'Let it be as it may; I care little about it.'

1150-55. Chaucer here comes to the end of Æn. bk. i, and passes over the

second book with the remark in l. 1153.

1155. _Entendeden_, gave their attention. Corson and Gilman explain it by

'attend,' as if it were the present tense.

1156. Chaucer here passes on to Vergil's fourth book, which he epitomises,

and seldom follows quite exactly.

1157. _Sely_, simple, unsuspecting; see l. 1254. See _Silly_ in Trench,

Select Glossary.

1161. 'Why I have told the story so far, and must tell the rest.'

1163. The reading _his_ (for _her_) in MS. C. can be justified, and may be

right. The A.S. _móna_ was masculine, but the Lat. _luna_ was feminine.

Hence arose a confusion, so that the M.E. _mone_ was of either gender.

Hence, in Chaucer's Astrolabe, pt. ii. § 34, l. 12, we find--'And _nota_,

that yif the mone shewe _himself_ by light of day,' &c.; whereas in the

same, pt. ii. § 40, l. 54, we find--'the mone, loke thou rekne wel _hir_

cours houre by houre; for _she_,' &c.

1166. _Brayd_, start, sudden movement. In the Cursor Mundi, 7169, we read

of Samson, that--

'Vte of thair handes son he stert

And gaue a _braid_ sa fers and fast,

That all the bandes of him brast.'

See _Braid_ in the New E. Dictionary.

1170-81. From Vergil's Æn. iv. 9-29.

1174. 'And eke so likely to be a hero.' _Man_ is here used emphatically;

cf. 'quam forti pectore et armis'; iv. 11.

1182, 3. Cf. Æn. iv. 31-53; but Chaucer cuts it short.

1187. _Love_ (A.S. _lufu_) is here monosyllabic; cf. Kn. Ta., A 1135. 'Love

desires (to have) love; for no one will it desist.' Cf. A.S. _wandian_, to

turn aside, blench, fear. And see _wol_, in l. 1191.

1188-1211. From Æn. iv. 129-159.

1191. _An hunting_, on hunting, a-hunting. Here _an_ is another form of the

prep. _on_, and _hunting_ is a substantive, like Lat. _uenatio_. See Skeat,

Principles of Eng. Etymology, Ser. 1, p. 260.

_Wol_, desires (to go); cf. _wol_ in l. 1187.

1196. _Hoven_, wait in readiness, hover. Cf. 'where that she _hoved_ and

abode'; Gower, C. A. iii. 63; and see P. Plowman, B. prol. 210, xviii. 83.

It just expresses the notion of slight movement, whilst remaining nearly in

the same place. The old editions read _heven_, which gives no sense; for it

never means 'mount,' as has been suggested. Cf. Vergil's 'expectant'; iv.

134.

1198. _Paper-whyt_, as white as paper; a curious and rare compound. Printed

_paper white_ (as two words!) in former editions.

1200. The 4th sense of _Bar_ in the New E. Dict. is--'An ornamental

transverse band on a girdle, saddle, &c.; subsequently, an ornamental boss

of any shape.'

1201. _Sit_, sits. _Wrye_, covered; A.S. _wrigen_, pp.

1204. _Startling_, moving suddenly; the frequentative form of _starting_,

which Chaucer preferred when repeating this same line in his Kn. Tale, A

1502.

1205. _A litel wyr_, i.e. a small bridle-bit. See l. 1208.

1206. _Phebus_; Vergil's 'Apollo'; iv. 144. _To devyse_, to describe (him).

1209. _Wold_, willed, desired; the pp. of _willen_. This form is very rare,

but we again find _hath wold_ in l. 11 of the Compl. of Venus; and _hadde

wold_ in P. Plowman, B. xv. 258. Prof. Corson aptly quotes three examples

from Malory's Morte Arthur, ed. T. Wright, with the references 'vol. i. c.

33, vol. iii. c. 119, and vol. iii. c. 123.' The first of these answers to

bk. ii. c. 8, p. 54 in the 'Globe' edition, where we find--'Then said

Merlin to Balin, Thou hast done thyself great hurt, because thou savedst

not this lady that slew herself, that might have saved her and thou

_wouldest_.' Caxton (ed. 1485) also has _woldest_; but Wright, following

the edition of 1634, has _had would_. For the other passages, see bk.

xviii. capp. 15 and 19, where Caxton has 'and he _had wold_,' and 'and I

_had wolde_.'

1212-31. From Vergil, Æn. iv. 154-170.

1213. _Go bet_, go more quickly, hasten; a term of encouragement. See Pard.

Tale, C 667, and the note. _Prik thou_, spur thou, push on; a like term.

_Lat goon_, let (the dogs) go.

1230. 'Ille dies primus leti, primusque malorum Causa fuit'; iv. 169. It

looks as if Chaucer has translated _leti_ by 'gladnesse,' as if it were

_letitiae_. (Bech makes a similar remark.)

1232-41. These lines are original. Cf. Ho. Fame, 253-292.

1242. Here follows, in Vergil, the celebrated description of Fame, which

Chaucer had already introduced into his Hous of Fame, 1368-1392; it is

therefore here omitted. He passes on to Æn. iv. 195.

1245. _Yarbas_, i.e. Iarbas, son of Ammon; Æn. iv. 196.

1254-84. Original; but see Ho. Fame, 269-292.

1262. _Pilled_, robbed. 'A knight ... sholde deffenden holy chirche, and

nat robben it ne _pilen_ it'; Persones Tale, _De Avaritia_, I 767.

1277. _Ther-as_, whereas. _Sterve_, to die.

1287. Perhaps copied by the author of fragment B. of the Romaunt of the

Rose. We there find (l. 4838, Glasgow MS.)--'The hoote ernes [ernest?] they

al foryeten'; there being nothing answering to it in the French text.

1288. 'And he secretly causes his ships to be prepared'; lit. 'causes (men)

to prepare his ships.'

1289. _Shapeth him_, intends, purposes. See Prologue, 772.

1295. 'Me patris Anchisae ... Admonet ... imago'; iv. 351.

1297. _Mercurie_, Mercury; 'interpres Divûm'; iv. 356.

1305. _What womman_, what sort of a woman.

1310. _Seketh halwes_, repairs to saints' shrines; a curious medieval

touch. Vergil only mentions the sacrifice; iv. 453. Cf. Prologue, 14, and

the note. 'To go _seken halwes_'; C. T. (Wyf of Bathes Prol.), D 657.

1312, 3. 'Si pudet uxoris, non nupta, sed hospita dicar,' &c.; Ovid, Her.

vii. 167.

1316. Cf. 'Sed neque fers tecum'; Her. vii. 79.

1317. _Thise lordes_; 'Nomadumque tyranni'; Æn. iv. 320. Also Pygmalion and

Iarbas, id. 325, 6.

1324. The former syllable of _Mercy_ forms the first foot in the line; cf.

l. 1342. 'Have pitee on my sorwes smerte!' Ho. Fame, 316; which see.

1331. _Lavyne_, Lavinia, daughter of King Latinus; Æn. vii. 359.

1332. _A cloth._ This refers to the Trojan garments left behind by Æneas;

'Iliacas uestes'; iv. 648. The sword is mentioned by Vergil just two lines

above; 646.

1338-40. Here the _cloth_ answers to the Lat. _exuuiae_; and _whyl hit

leste_ = whilst it pleased. These three lines are a close imitation of

Vergil, Æn. iv. 651-3:--

'Dulces exuuiae, dum fata Deusque sinebant;

Accipite hanc animam, meque his exsoluite curis;

Vixi, et quem dederat cursum fortuna, peregi.'

We hence see that, in l. 1339, the right reading is _unbind me of this

unreste_, a close translation from the Latin. _Me of_ are run together; see

note to Complaint to Pitè, l. 11.

1341. _Withouten_, without any succour from Æneas.

1346. _Her norice_, her nurse, or rather the nurse of Sichæus, named Barce;

Æn. iv. 632.

1351. 'She roof hir-selve to the herte'; Ho. Fame, 373.

1352. Here Chaucer, having done with Vergil, takes up Ovid, who is intended

by the words _myn autour_.

1354. _A lettre_, i.e. the 7th Epistle in Ovid's Heroides. See l. 1367.

1355-65. From the first 8 lines in the above Epistle.

'Sic, ubi fata uocant, udis abiectus in herbis,

ad uada Maeandri concinit albus olor.

Nec, quia te nostra sperem prece posse moueri,

alloquor. Aduerso mouimus ista deo.

Sed merita et famam, corpusque animumque pudicum

quum male perdiderim, perdere uerba leue est.

Certus es ire tamen, miseramque relinquere Dido;

atque îdem uenti uela fidemque ferent.'

IV. (PART I.) THE LEGEND OF HYPSIPYLE.

The chief sources of this fourth Legend are Guido delle Colonne's Historia

Troiana, Ovid's Metamorphoses, bk. vii, and Heroides, letters vi. and xii.

The story of Hypsipyle is also in Statius' Thebaid, bk. v, and in l. 1437

(see note) there is a reference to the Argonauticon of Valerius Flaccus.

See further in the Preface; and see the notes to ll. 1396, 1467.

1368-95. This is a Prologue to the Legend, and is original.

1371. _Reclaiming_, enticement, power to subdue; lit. a calling back.

Halliwell has: 'To _reclaim_ a hawk, to make her gentle and familiar, to

bring her to the wrist by a certain call. It is often used metaphorically,

to tame.' Cf. 'since this same wayward girl is so _reclaimed_'; Romeo, iv.

2. 47.

1373. _Of_, by means of. _Farced_, stuffed; as in Prol. to C. T., 233.

1377. 'Where others betray one, thou betrayest two.'

1381. _Shove_, pushed forward, brought into notice; cf. l. 726.

1383. _Have at thee!_ let me attack (or pursue) thee. _Thyn horn is blowe_,

the horn is blown that summons all to pursue thee; a metaphor taken from

the chase.

1387. _Aboght_, bought; pp. of _abye_, which was corrupted into _abide_;

whence 'thou shalt dearly _abide_ it.'

1388. _Box_, blow, buffet; now only used of 'a box on the ear.'

1389. _Et_, eateth; pres. tense. So in the Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 135, l.

10, and in Ælfric's Grammar, ed. Zupitza, p. 200.

1391. Prof. Lounsbury would read 'the goodë man that ther-for payede,' and

remarks that this gives a false rime, because the preterite form _payede_

will not rime with the pp. _betrayed_. He adds--'in order to follow the

reading of the one MS. that makes _payed_ a participial form, the adj.

_goode_, of the definite declension, has to be shorn of its final _e_ in

pronunciation.'--Studies in Chaucer, i. 405. I take _good-man_ to be,

practically, one word, as in the A. V., Matt. xx. 11, so that the def. form

of the adj. is not really required. And I prefer the reading _hath payed_,

though it rests on the authority of one (the best) MS. only. If, however,

we adopt the proposed reading, it makes no difference at all to the rime.

For the pt. t. of verbs of F. origin, as _payen_, _serven_, is usually

_payed_, _served_, the full ending _-ede_ (with both syllables sounded)

being extremely rare in Chaucer; cf. note to l. 1119. We even have

_shined_, not _shinede_, in l. 2194, in a word of E. origin. Hence there is

really no fault to be found, whichever reading be taken; and the cricitism,

which is quite superfluous, comes to nothing.

1394, 5. _On_, in the case of. _Y-sene_, evident; as in l. 2655. _By_, with

reference to.

1396. The reading _Guido_ (in MSS. C., T., A.) where the other MSS. and the

editions have _Ouyde_, is important; especially as it is correct, and gives

us a new clue. The Historia Troiana of Guido delle Colonne begins with the

story of Jason, and it is evident that Chaucer follows him, at least as far

as l. 1461. This can easily be seen by comparing the present passage with

the beginning of Book I. of the alliterative Troy-book, ed. Panton and

Donaldson, otherwise called the Gest Historiale of the Destruction of Troy,

which is closely translated from Guido; or else with Lydgate's Troy-book,

bk. i. capp. 1-3. Gower also tells the story of Jason (C. A. ii. 236), and

says that the tale 'is in the boke of Troie write.'

1397. _Pelleus_; so spelt in the allit. Troy-book, l. 104; Gower has

_Peleus_. Medieval names are strangely confused. The right form is not

_Peleus_, but _Pelias_. He was king of Thessaly, half-brother of Æson, and

guardian of Jason. The reading _king_ gives him his title in anticipation,

but is right. So also, in the allit. Troy-book, l. 103: 'There was a _kyng_

in that coste,' &c.; and Guido has 'rex' here.

1398. _Eson_ (as in Gower); Æson, the aged father of Jason.

1420. _Al made he_, although he made.

1425. _Colcos_, properly Colchis, now Mingrelia; between the Caucasus and

the Eastern shore of the Black Sea. In the allit. Troy-book, it is called

_Colchos_, l. 152; and so in Gower. It is not really an island, but Chaucer

follows the Latin text, which has 'insula'; see note to l. 1590.

1430. _Kept_, guarded; _with_, by. Compare the Troy-book, l. 164:--

'Thus coyntly it kept was, all with clene art,

By too oxen, oribull on for to loke,

And a derfe dragon, drede to behold.'

1438. _Oëtes_ (as in Guido); properly _Aeëtes_, Ovid, Her. xii. 51. He was

king of Colchis, and father of Medea.

1447. 'Then should I be bound to requite thy toil.'

1453. _Argus_, the builder of the ship Argo, in which Jason undertook the

voyage. The name is given by Guido (see the E. Troy-book, l. 273), by

Valerius Flaccus, in his Argonauticon, lib. i. 314, and in the Argonautics

of Apollonius Rhodius.

1457. As Bech points out, Chaucer here copies the remark in

Dares:--'Demonstrare cos qui cum Iasone profecti sunt non uidetur nostrum

esse: sed qui uolunt eos cognoscere, Argonautas legant.'--De excidio Troiae

historia, ed. Meister, 1873; cap. 1. The reference is to the Argonauticon

of Valerius Flaccus, lib. i., where the list of the Argonauts may be found.

It also occurs in bk. i. of the Argonautics of Apollonius Rhodius. It is a

dreary catalogue; or, as Chaucer says, a sufficiently long tale. There is a

shorter list in Statius, Thebaid, bk. v. All the lists make much of

Hercules (see l. 1454).

1459. _Philotetes_ (so spelt by Guido, see the Eng. version, p. 12, ll. 6

and 10, where the passage from Guido is quoted) was the name of the pilot

to the expedition. Valerius Flaccus identifies him with Philoctetes, son of

Poeas or Pæas; as he introduces him by the name of Poeantius; Argon, i.

391.

1463. _Lemnoun_, Lemnos; it is very common to quote proper names in forms

resembling the accusative case. This, as Chaucer says, is not in Guido, but

in Ovid; see Ovid's Heroid. vi. 50, 117, 136. At the same time it would be

interesting to know _what version_ of Guido Chaucer followed; for it is a

very singular fact, that whilst the story of Hypsipyle is neither in the

alliterative Eng. version, nor in Lydgate, it _does_ occur, at this point,

in a _Spanish_ version, printed at Medina in 1587. There the heading of bk.

ii. c. x. is--'Como Iason aporto co_n_ tormenta a la Isla de Lemos, y caso

con la infanta Hisifile.'

1467. _Isiphilee_, Hypsipyle, daughter of Thoas, and queen of Lemnos; she

saved her father when the women of Lemnos killed all the other men in the

island, and subsequently entertained Jason. As the letter in Ovid does not

give all the circumstances, perhaps Chaucer consulted Valerius Flaccus,

Argonauticon, lib. ii., and Statius, Thebais, lib. v., or, perhaps, the

Fables of Hyginus, cap. xv.; but he makes more of Hercules than do these

authorities, and seems to be inventing.

1468. _Thoas doghter the king_, the daughter of king Thoas. This is the

usual idiom; see my note to Squi. Tale, F 209.

1469. Cf. Valerius Flaccus, Argon. ii. 311:--

'Ecce procul ualidis Lemnon tendentia remis

Arma notant: rapitur subito regina tumultu,

Conciliumque uocat: non illis obuia tela

Ferre, nec infestos deerat furor improbus ignes,

Ni Ueneris saeuas fregisset Mulciber iras.'

In Statius, Theb. v., the Lemnian women receive the Argonauts with

hostility at first, and attack them with missiles.

1476. _Socour_; cf. 'succurrere disco'; Verg. Æn. i. 630.

1479. This is a curious error; _him_ should be _her_. As the Lemnian women

had just killed every man in the island, the messenger must needs have been

a woman. In fact, her name was Iphinoë; Val. Flacc. Argon. ii. 327. The

account in Apollonius Rhodius is somewhat fuller; but I find no mention of

the _cogge_.

1481. _Cogge_, a cock-boat; from the O. Fr. _coque_, also spelt _cogue_, a

kind of vessel, sometimes a ship of war, but also a merchant-vessel, and

here a small boat. See _coque_ or _cogue_ in Godefroy's O. Fr. Dict.

_Cogge_ occurs in the Morte Arthure, 476, 738; Allit. Poems, ed. Morris,

iii. 152; &c. 'Cogboote, cokbote, _scafa_'; Prompt. Parv.

1487. _Broken_, ship-wrecked. 'The ships were _broken_' 1 Kings xxii. 48;

cf. Jonah i. 4. _Oght wo begoon_, in any way distressed. Note resemblances

to the tale of Dido.

1488. _Lodesmen_, pilots; see note to Ch. Prol. 403. 'Lodesman of a shippe,

_pilotte_'; Palsgrave.

1509. Cf. Valerius Flaccus, Arg. ii. 351:--

'Praecipueque ducis casus mirata requirit

Hypsipyle; quae fata trahant, quae regis agat uis.'

1514. _Los_; spelt _loos_ in MS. Tn.; for the _o_ is long. It means

'praise' or 'renown,' and occurs six times in Ho. Fame (1620, 1621, 1626,

1722, 1817, 1900). _Los_, with short _o_, means 'loss.'

1515. Read _th'áventúres_, in four syllables.

1528. Prof. Corson cites some parallel passages, viz:--

'And therto he was _hardy_, _wys_, and _riche_'; Squi. Ta., F 19.

'_Hardy_, and _wyse_, and _riche_, and therto _free_'; Ship. Ta., B 1366.

'We alle desyren, if hit mighte be,

To have housbondes _hardy_, _wyse_, and _free_,

And _secree_'; Non. Pr. Ta., B 4103.

1529. _Three pointes._ The reference is not to l. 1528, which mentions

_four_ points, but to ll. 1530-3 following. I.e. the three points are

_fredom_, _lustihede_, and being _a greet gentil-man_; or otherwise,

liberality, youthful vigour, and high birth. Cf. l. 1405.

1533. Accent _Tessálie_ on the second syllable.

1535. _Shamefast_ (from A.S. _sceamu_) is here trisyllabic. On the corrupt

modern spelling _shamefaced_ see Trench, Eng. Past and Present.

1536. _He hadde lever_, he would have it dearer, he would rather.

1538-40. In order to scan l. 1538, the word _almighty_ is necessary, though

found in MS. A. only. Or else we must insert _him_, and read--'As wolde God

that I hadde him i-yive.' The sense is--'As (I pray) that God would permit

that I might have given [him] my blood and flesh, provided that I might

still live (to see the result), on the condition that he had anywhere a

wife (suitable) to his rank.' _So that_ means 'provided that'; as in '_so

that_ ye be not wroth,' C. T., D 2248 (Sompnoures Tale), in the Harleian

MS.; and in the following:--

'Sche saide, sire, ich wille help the,

_So that_ thou wille spousi me.'--Seven Sages, ed. Weber, 2663.

As to the expression _with the nones_, we may compare it with such

expressions as _with-than_, _with-thon-that_, _with-tho-the_, _with-that_,

all meaning 'provided that,' and all occurring in the Glossary to Spec. of

Eng., Part I. And since _for the nones_ means 'for the occasion' (see

Prologue to C. T., 379), so _with the nones_ is 'with the occasion,' and

hence 'provided that.' I cannot at all agree with what seems to me the

ludicrous emendation in some late editions, which change _nones_ into

_bones_, and delete the comma after _live_; 'provided that I might live

with the bones.' At any rate, there is _no authority_ for this. The old

editions and MSS. all alike read _nones_; and we have the phrase again

(pronounced _with th' non-es_), in the Ho. Fame, 2099.

1546. _To come to hous upon_, to become at home with, to become familiar

with.

1551. The former syllable in _Yiftes_ forms a foot by itself.

1552. _As wolde god_, as (I wish) that God might will or permit; as in l.

1538.

1558. _Thoriginal_, the original. As this 'tells all the case,' i.e. all

Jason's subtlety, he is probably referring to Ovid, Her. Ep. vi. Flaccus

says that Hercules induced Jason to quit Lemnos, and proceed on his voyage.

Statius mentions Hypsipyle's twin sons, and relates some of her later

history.

1564. Chaucer here follows the sixth letter of Ovid's Heroides. Lines

1569-1575 follow four lines of the Latin text, viz. 123-4, and 159-60,

which refer to the twins and Medea:--

'Si quaeris, cui sunt similes; cognosceris illis.

Fallere non norunt; caetera patris habent....

Quam fratri germana fuit, miseroque parenti

filia; tam natis, tam sit acerba uiro.'