746. _Charge_, a heavy weight, opposed t_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

understood from l. 744. 'A light thing (seeks to go) up, and a weight

(tends) downwards.' In Tyrwhitt's glossary, the word _charge_, in this

passage, is described as being a verb, with the sense 'to weigh, to incline

on account of weight.' How this can be made to suit the context, I cannot

understand. _Charge_ occurs as a sb. several times in Chaucer, but chiefly

with the secondary sense of 'importance'; see Kn. Tale, A 1284, 2287; Can.

Yem. Ta., G 749. In the Clerkes Tale, E 163, it means 'weight,' nearly as

here.

750. _Skilles_, reasons. The above 'reasons' prove nothing whatever as

regards the fish in the sea, or the trees in the earth; but the eagle's

mode of reasoning must not be too closely enquired into. The fault is not

Chaucer's, but arises from the extremely imperfect state of science in the

middle ages. Chaucer had to accept the usual account of the four elements,

disposed, according to their weight, in four layers; earth being at the

bottom, then water, then air, and lastly fire above the air. See the whole

scheme in Gower, Conf. Amant. bk. vii.; ed. Pauli, ii. 104: or Popular

Treatises on Science, ed. Wright, p. 134.

752. See Chaucer's tr. of Boethius, bk. iii. pr. 11, l. 72. Hence Boethius

is one of the 'clerkes' referred to in l. 760.

759. Dante mentions these two; Inf. iv. 131-4.

765. So also in Cant. Tales, D 2233:--

'every soun

Nis but of eir reverberacioun,

And ever it wasteth lyte and lyte awey.'

The theory of sound is treated of in Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum

Naturale, lib. iv. c. 14. The ancients seem to have understood that sound

is due to the vibration of the air; see ll. 775, 779. Thus, in the treatise

by Boethius, De Musica (to which Chaucer expressly refers in Non. Preest.

Tale, B 4484), lib. i. c. 3, I find:--'Sonus vero præter quendam pulsum

percussionemque non redditur.... Idcirco definitur sonus, aeris percussio

indissoluta usque ad auditum.'

788. _Experience_, i.e. experiment. The illustration is a good one; I have

no doubt that it is obtained, directly or at secondhand, from Boethius.

Vincent of Beauvais, Spec. Nat. lib. xxv. c. 58, says:--'Ad quod

demonstrandum inducit idem Boetius tale exemplum: Lapis proiectus in medio

stagni facit breuissimum circulum, et ille alium, et hoc fit donec vel ad

ripas peruenerit vel impetus defecerit.' This merely gives the substance of

what he says; it will be of interest to quote the original passage, from

the treatise De Musica, lib. i. c. 14, which chapter I quote in full:--

'Nunc quis modus sit audiendi disseramus. Tale enim quiddam fieri consuevit

in uocibus, quale cum paludibus uel quietis aquis iactum eminus mergitur

saxum. Prius enim in paruissimum orbem undam colligit, deinde maioribus

orbibus, undarum globos spargit, atque eo usque dum fatigatus motus ab

eliciendis fluctibus conquiescat. Semperque posterior et maior undula pulsu

debiliori diffunditur. Quod si quid sit, quod crescentes undulas possit

offendere, statim motus ille reuertitur, et quasi ad centrum, unde

profectus fuerat, eisdem undulis rotundatur. Ita igitur cum aer pulsus

fecerit sonum, pellit alium proximum, et quodammodo rotundum fluctum aeris

ciet. Itaque diffunditur et omnium circunstantium (_sic_) simul ferit

auditum, atque illi est obscurior uox, qui longius steterit, quoniam ad eum

debilior pulsi aeris unda peruenit.'

792. _Covercle_, a pot-lid. Cotgrave cites the proverb--'_Tel pot tel

couvercle_, Such pot, such potlid, like master, like man.'

794. _Wheel_ must have been glossed by _cercle_ (circle) in an early copy;

hence MSS. F. and B. have the reading--'That whele sercle wol cause another

whele,' where the gloss has crept into the text.

798. _Roundel_, a very small circle; _compas_, a very large circle.

_Roundel_ is still a general term for a small circular charge in heraldry;

if _or_ (golden), it is called a _bezant_; if _argent_ (white), it is

called a _plate_; and so on. In the Sec. Non. Tale, G 45, _compas_ includes

the whole world.

801. _Multiplying_, increasing in size.

805. 'Where you do not observe the motion above, it is still going on

underneath.' This seems to allude to some false notion as to a transmission

of motion below the surface.

808. This is an easy way of getting over a difficulty. It is no easy task

to prove the contrary of every false theory!

811. _An air aboute_, i.e. a surrounding layer, or hollow sphere, of air.

822. I would rather 'take it in game'; and so I accept it.

826. _Fele_, experience, understand by experiment.

827. I here take the considerable liberty of reading _the mansioun_, by

comparison with l. 831. Those who prefer to read _sum place stide_, or _som

styde_, or _some stede_, can do so! The sense intended is obviously--'And

that the dwelling-place, to which each thing is inclined to resort, has its

own natural stead,' i.e. position. Fishes, for example, naturally exist in

_water_; the trees, upon the _earth_; and sounds, in the _air_; water,

earth, air, and fire being the four 'elements.' Cf. the phrase--'to be in

his _element_.'

836. _Out of_, i.e. not in; answering to l. 838.

846. Referring to Ovid's description, Met. xii. 39, 40.

'Orbe locus medio est inter terrasque fretumque

Coelestesque plagas, triplicis confinia mundi.'

I suspect that Ovid's _triplicis confinia mundi_ is the origin of Chaucer's

phrase _tryne compas_, in Sec. Non. Tale, G 45.

857. The 'terms of philosophy' are all fully and remorselessly given by

Gower, Conf. Amant. bk. vii.

861. It is remarkable that Chaucer, some years later, repeated almost the

same thing in the Prologue to his Treatise on the Astrolabe, in somewhat

different words, viz. 'curious endyting and hard sentence is full hevy

atones for swich a child to lerne'; l. 32.

866. _Lewedly_, in unlearned fashion; in his Astrolabe, l. 43, Chaucer says

he is 'but a _lewd_ compilatour of the labour of olde Astrologiens.'

868. The eagle characteristically says that his reasons are so 'palpable,'

that they can be shaken by the _bills_, as men shake others by the hand. It

is perhaps worth adding that the word _bill_ was too vulgar and familiar to

be applied to a hawk, which had only a _beak_ (the French term, whereas

_bill_ is the A.S. _bile_). 'Ye shall say, this hauke has a large _beke_,

or a shortt beke; and call it not _bille_'; Book of St. Alban's, fol. a 6,

back. The eagle purposely employs the more familiar term.

873. Chaucer meekly allows that the eagle's explanation is a _likely_ one.

He was not in a comfortable position for contradiction in argument, and so

took a wiser course. The eagle resents this mild admission, and says he

will soon find out the truth, 'top, and tail, and every bit.' He then eases

his mind by soaring 'upper,' resumes his good temper, and proposes to speak

'all of game.'

888. Cf. Dante, Par. xxii. 128, which Cary thus translates:

'Look downward, and contemplate, what a world

Already stretch'd under our feet there lies.'

900. _Unethes_, with difficulty; because large animals could only just be

discerned. The graphic touches here are excellent.

901. _Rivér-es_, with accent on the former _e_ (pronounced as _a_ in

_bare_). Cf. Ital. _riviera_.

907. _Prikke_, a point. 'Al the environinge of the erthe aboute ne halt nat

but the resoun of a _prikke_ at regard of the greetnesse of hevene'; tr. of

Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 7. 17.

'And doun fro thennes faste he gan avyse

This litel spot of erthe, that with the see

Enbraced is';

Troilus, bk. v. ll. 1814-6.

'Vidi questo globo

Tal, ch' io sorriso del suo vil sembiante.'

Dante, Parad. xxii. 134.

See also Parl. Foules, 57, 58; and note that the above passage from Troilus

is copied from the Teseide (xi. 2).

915. The note in Gilman's Chaucer as to Alexander's _dreams_ is entirely

beside the mark. The word _dreme_ (l. 917) refers to Scipio only. The

reference is to the wonderful mode in which Alexander contrived to soar in

the air in a car upborne by four gigantic griffins.

'Now is he won þur[gh]e þar wingis vp to the wale cloudis;

So hi[gh]e to heuen þai him hale in a hand-quile,

Midil-erth bot as a mylnestane, na mare, to him semed.'

Wars of Alexander, ed. Skeat (E.E.T.S.), 5523.

_Macedo_, the Macedonian.

916. _King_, kingly hero; not king in the strict sense. _Dan Scipio_, lord

Scipio. See notes to Parl. Foules, 29; Book of the Duch. 284; Ho. Fame,

514.

917. _At point devys_, with great exactness; see Rom. Rose, 830, 1215.

919. _Dedalus_ (i.e. Dædalus) and _Ycarus_ (Icarus) are mentioned in the

Rom. de la Rose, 5242; and cf. Gower, Conf. Amant. bk. iv., ed. Pauli, ii.

36; and Dante, Inf. xvii. 109. All take the story from Ovid, Metam. viii.

183. Dædalus constructed wings for himself and his son Icarus, and flew

away from Crete. The latter flew too high, and the sun melted the wax with

which some of the feathers were fastened, so that he fell into the sea and

was drowned. Hence Dædalus is here called _wrecche_, i.e. miserable,

because he lost his son; and Icarus _nyce_, i.e. foolish, because he

disobeyed his father's advice, not to fly too high.

922. _Malt_, melted. Gower has the same word in the same story; ed. Pauli,

ii. 37.

925. Cf. Dante, Par. xxii. 19, which Cary thus translates:

'But elsewhere now I bid thee turn thy view.'

930. See note to l. 986 below, where the original passage is given.

931. This line seems to refer solely to the word _citizein_ in l. 930. The

note in Bell's Chaucer says: 'This appears to be an allusion to Plato's

Republic.' But it was probably suggested by the word _respublica_ in Alanus

(see note to l. 986).

932. _Eyrish bestes_, aerial animals; alluding to the signs of the zodiac,

such as the Ram, Bull, Lion, Goat, Crab, Scorpion, &c.; and to other

constellations, such as the Great Bear, Eagle, Swan, Pegasus, &c. Chaucer

himself explains that the 'zodiak is cleped the cercle of the signes, or

the cercle of the _bestes_; for _zodia_ in langage of Greek sowneth

_bestes_ in Latin tonge'; Astrolabe, Part 1, § 21, 1. 37. Cf. 'beasts' in

Rev. iv. 6. The phrase recurs in l. 965 below; see also ll. 1003-7.

934. _Goon_, march along, walk on, like the Ram or Bull; _flee_, fly like

the Eagle or Swan. He alludes to the apparent revolution of the heavens

round the earth.

936. _Galaxye_, galaxy, or milky way, formed by streaks of closely crowded

stars; already mentioned in the Parl. of Foules, 56; see note to the same,

l. 50. Cary, in a note to Dante, Parad. xxv. 18, says that Dante, in the

Convito, p. 74, speaks of _la galassia_--'the galaxy, that is, the white

circle which the common people call the way of St. James'; on which

Biscioni remarks:--'The common people formerly considered the milky way as

a sign by night to pilgrims, who were going to St. James of Galicia; and

this perhaps arose from the resemblance of the word _galaxy_ to _Galicia_;

[which may be doubted]. I have often,' he adds, 'heard women and peasants

call it the Roman road, _la strada di Roma_.'

The fact is simply, that the Milky Way looks like a sort of road or street;

hence the Lat. name _uia lactea_, as in Ovid, Metam. i. 168. Hence also the

Roman peasants called it _strada di Roma_; the pilgrims to Spain called it

_the road to Santiago_ (Quarterly Review, Oct. 1873, p. 464); and the

English called it the _Walsingham way_, owing to this being a route much

frequented by pilgrims, or else _Watling-street_, which was a famous old

road, and probably ran (not as usually said, from Kent to Cardigan Bay,

but) from Kent to the Frith of Forth; see Annals of England, p. 6. The name

of _Vatlant Streit_ (Watling Street) is given to the milky way in the

Complaint of Scotland, ed. Murray, p. 58; and G. Douglas calls it _Watling

Streit_ in his translation of Vergil, Æn. iii. 516, though there is no

mention of it in the original; see Small's edition of the Works of G.

Douglas, vol. ii. p. 151. And again, it is called _Wadlyng Strete_ in

Henrysoun's Traite of Orpheus; see Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary. So also:

'Galaxia, that is Watling-Strete'; Batman on Bartholome, lib. viii. c. 33.

See my note to P. Plowman, C. i. 52; Florence of Worcester, _sub anno_

1013; Laws of Edward the Confessor, cap. 12; Towneley Myst., p. 308; Cutts,

Scenes, &c. of the Middle Ages, p. 178; Grimm's Mythology, tr. by

Stallybras, i. 357.

942. Gower also relates this story (Conf. Amant. ii. 34), calling the sun

_Phebus_, and his son _Pheton_, and using _carte_ in the sense of

'chariot,' as Chaucer does. Both copy from Ovid, Metam. ii. 32-328.

944. _Cart-hors_, chariot-horses (plural). There were four horses, named

Pyroeïs, Eous, Aethon, and Phlegon; Met. ii. 153. Hence _gonne_ and _beren_

are in the plural form; cf. l. 952.

948. _Scorpioun_, the well-known zodiacal constellation and sign; called

_Scorpius_ in Ovid, Met. ii. 196.

972. _Boece_, Boethius. He refers to the passage which he himself thus

translates: 'I have, forsothe, swifte fetheres that surmounten the heighte

of the hevene. Whan the swifte thought hath clothed it-self in tho

fetheres, it dispyseth the hateful erthes, and surmounteth the roundnesse

of the greet ayr; and it seeth the cloudes behinde his bak'; bk. iv. met.

1. Hence, in l. 973, Ten Brink (Studien, p. 186) proposes to read--'That

wryteth, Thought may flee so hye.'

981, 2. Imitated from 2 Cor. xii. 2.

985. _Marcian._ Cf. C. T., E 1732 (March. Tale):--

'Hold thou thy pees, thou poete Marcian,

That wrytest us that ilke wedding murie

Of hir, Philologye, and him, Mercurie.'

Martianus Minneus Felix Capella was a satirist of the fifth century, and

wrote the Nuptials of Mercury and Philology, De Nuptiis inter Mercurium et

Philologiam, above referred to. It consists of two books, followed by seven

books on the Seven Sciences; see Warton's Hist. E. Poetry, ed. 1871, iii.

77. 'Book viii (l. 857) gives a hint of the true system of astronomy. It is

quoted by Copernicus'; Gilman.

986. _Anteclaudian._ The Anticlaudianus is a Latin poem by Alanus de

Insulis, who also wrote the De Planctu Naturæ, alluded to in the Parl. of

Foules, 316 (see note). This poem is printed in Anglo-Latin Satirical

Poets, ed. Wright, pp. 268 428; see, in particular, Distinctio Quarta,

capp. 5-8, and Distinctio Quinta, cap. 1; pp. 338-347. It is from this poem

that Chaucer probably borrowed the curious word _citizein_ (l. 930) as

applied to the _eyrish bestes_ (l. 932). Thus, at pp. 338, 360 of Wright's

edition, we find--

'Vestigans, videt intuitu meliore _vagantes

Aerios cives_.'

'_Hic cives habitant_ supremi regis in urbe;

Civibus his servanda datur _respublica_ coeli.'

So again, ll. 966-969 above may well have been suggested by these lines (on

p. 340), and other similar lines:--

'Aeris excurso spatio, quo nubila coeli

Nocte sua texunt tenebras, quo pendula nubes

In se cogit aquas, quo grandinis ingruit imber,

Quo certant venti, quo fulminis ira tumescit,

Æthera transgreditur Phronesis.'

1003. _Or him or here_, or him or her, hero or heroine; e.g. Hercules,

Perseus, Cepheus, Orion; Andromeda, Callisto (the Great Bear), Cassiopeia.

Cf. Man of Lawes Tale, B 460.

1004. _Raven_, the constellation _Corvus_; see Ovid, Fasti, ii. 243-266.

_Either bere_; Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.

1005. _Ariones harpe_, Arion's harp, the constellation Lyra; Ovid's Fasti,

i. 316; ii. 76.

1006. _Castor_, _Pollux_; Castor and Pollux; the constellation Gemini.

_Delphyn_, Lat. Delphin; the constellation Delphin (Ovid, Fasti, i. 457) or

Delphinus, the Dolphin.

'Astris Delphina recepit

Iupiter, et Stellas iussit habere nouem.'

Ovid's Fasti, ii. 117.

1007. _Atlante_ does not mean Atalanta, but represents _Atlante_, the

ablative case of _Atlas_. Chaucer has mistaken the form, having taken the

story of the Pleiades (the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione) from

Ovid's Fasti, v. 83:--

'Hinc sata _Pleïone_ cum coelifero _Atlante_

iungitur, ut fama est; _Pleïadas_que parit.'

1021. _Up the heed_, up with your head; look about you.

1022. 'St. Julian (to our speed); lo! (here is) a good hostelry.' The eagle

invokes or praises St. Julian, because they have come to their journey's

end, and the poet may hope for a good reception in the House of Fame. St.

Julian was the patron saint of hospitality; see Chaucer's Prologue, 340. In

Le Roman de la Rose, 8872, I find (cf. note to l. 118 above):--

'Ainsinc m'aïst saint Juliens,

Qui pelerins errans herberge.'

In Bell's Chaucer, i. 92, is the following: '"Ce fut celluy Julien qui est

requis de ceux qui cheminent pour avoir _bon hostel_"; Legende Dorée.

Having by mischance slain his father and mother, as a penance he

established a hospital near a dangerous ford, where he lodged and fed

travellers gratuitously.'

See Tale xviii. in the Gesta Romanorum, in Swan's Translation; Caxton's

Golden Legende; and the Metrical Lives of Saints in MS. Bodley 1596, fol.

4, 'I pray God and St. Julian to send me a good lodging at night';

translation of Boccaccio, _Decam._ Second Day, nov. 2; quoted in Swan's tr.

of Gesta Romanorum, p. 372. See Warton, Hist. Eng. Poet., ed. Hazlitt, i.

247; ii. 58.

1024. 'Canst thou not hear that which I hear?'

1034. _Peter!_ By St. Peter; a common exclamation, which Warton amazingly

misunderstood, asserting that Chaucer is here addressed by the name of

Peter (Hist. E. P., ed. Hazlitt, ii. 331, note 6); whereas it is _Chaucer

himself_ who uses the exclamation. The Wyf of Bathe uses it also, C. T., D

446; so does the Sumpnour, C. T., D 1332; and the wife in the Shipman's

Tale, C. T., B 1404; and see l. 2000 below. See also my note to l. 665 of

the Canon's Yeoman's Tale. But Warton well compares the present passage

with Ovid, Met. xii. 49-52:--

'Nec tamen est clamor, sed paruae murmura uocis;

qualia de pelagi, si quis procul audiat, undis

esse solent: qualemve sonum, quum Iupiter atras

increpuit nubes, extrema tonitrua reddunt.'

1044. _Beten_, beat, occurs in MSS. F. and B. But the other reading _byten_

(bite) seems better. Cf. Troil. iii. 737, and the common saying 'It won't

bite you.'

1048. Cf. Dante, Purg. iii. 67-69. So also Inf. xxxi. 83.

1063. _Lyves body_, a person alive; _lyves_ is properly an adverb.

1066. _Seynte_; see note to l. 573. _Seynte Clare_, Saint Clara, usually

Saint Clare, whose day is Aug. 12. She was an abbess, a disciple of St.

Francis, and died A.D. 1253.

BOOK III.

1091-1109. Imitated from Dante, Parad. i. 13-27. Compare ll. 1106, 1107,

with Cary's translation--

'If thou to me of thine impart so much, ...

Thou shalt behold me of thy favour'd tree

Come to the foot, and crown myself with leaves.'

And compare l. 1109 with--'Entra nel petto mio.'

1098. This shews that Chaucer occasionally, and intentionally, gives a

syllable too little to the verse. In fact, he does so just below, in l.

1106; where _Thou_ forms the first foot of the verse, instead of _So thou_,

or _And thou_. This failure of the first syllable is common throughout the

poem.

1099. _And that_, i.e. And though that; see l. 1098.

1109. _Entreth_ is the imperative plural; see note to A. B. C. 17.

1114. MSS. _cite_, _cyte_ (F. _citee_!); but _site_ in Astrol. pt. ii. 17.

25 (p. 201).

1116. 'Fama tenet, summaque domum sibi legit in arce'; Ovid, Met. xii. 43.

Cf. Dante, Purg. iii. 46-48; also Ovid, Met. ii. 1-5.

1131. 'And swoor hir ooth by Seint Thomas of Kent'; C. T., A 3291. It

alludes to the celebrated shrine of Beket at Canterbury.

1136. _Half_, side; _al the half_, all the side of the hill which he was

ascending, which we find was the _south_ side (l. 1152).

1152. This suggests that Chaucer, in his travels, had observed a snow-clad

mountain; the snow lies much lower on the north side than on the south

side; see ll. 1160 (which means that it, i.e. the writing, was preserved by

the shade of a castle), 1163, 1164.

1159. _What hit made_, what caused it, what was the cause of it.

1167-80. This passage somewhat resembles one in Dante, Par. i. 4-12.

1177. _Craft_, art; _cast_, plan. _Craft_, in the MSS., has slipt into l.

1178.

1183. _Gyle_, Giles; St. Ægidius. His day is Sept. 1; see note to Can. Yem.

Tale, G 1185, where the phrase _by seint Gyle_ recurs.

1189. _Babewinnes_ is certainly meant; it is the pl. of _babewin_ (O. Fr.

_babuin_, Low Lat. _babewynus_, F. _babouin_), now spelt _baboon_. It was

particularly used of a grotesque figure employed in architectural

decoration, as in Early Eng. Allit. Poems, ed. Morris, B. 1411, where the

pl. form is spelt _baboynes_, and in Lydgate, Chron. Troy, II. xi; both

passages are given in Murray's Dict., s.v. _Baboon_. 'Babewyn, or babewen,

_detippus_, _ipos_, _figmentum_, _chimera_'; Prompt. Parv. 'Babwyne, beest,

_baboyn_'; Palsgrave. In Shak. _Macb._ iv. 1. 37--'Coole it with a báboones

blood'--the accent on the _a_ is preserved. The other spellings are

inferior or false.

1192. _Falle_, pres. pl., fall; (or perhaps fallen, the past participle).

1194. _Habitacles_, niches; such as those which hold images of saints on

the buttresses and pinnacles of our cathedrals. They are described as being

_al withoute_, all on the outside.

1196. _Ful the castel_, the castle (being) full, on all sides. This line is

parenthetical.

1197. Understand _Somme_, some, as nom. to _stoden_. 'In which stood ...

(some) of every kind of minstrels.' So in l. 1239. As to minstrels, &c.,

see note to Sir Topas (B 2035).

1203. _Orpheus_, the celebrated minstrel, whose story is in Ovid, Met. x.

1-85; xi. 1-66. Chaucer again mentions him in C. T., E 1716; and in Troil.

iv. 791.

1205. _Orion_; so in all the copies; put for _Arion_. His story is in Ovid,

Fasti, ii. 79-118.

Spelt _Arione_ in Gower, Conf. Amant. (end of prologue), ed. Pauli, i. 39.

We might read _Arion_ here; see l. 1005.

1206. _Chiron_; called _Chiro_ in Gower, C. A. ii. 67 (bk. iv). Chiron, the

centaur, was the tutor of Achilles; and Achilles, being the grandson of

Æacus, was called Æacides; Ovid, Met. xii. 82; Fasti, v. 390. Hence

_Eacides_ is here in the genitive case; and _Eacides Chiron_ means

'Achilles' Chiron,' i.e. Chiron, tutor of Achilles. In fact, the phrase is

copied from Ovid's _Æacidæ Chiron_, Art of Love, i. 17. Another name for

Chiron is _Phillyrides_; Ovid, Art of Love, i. 11; or _Philyrides_; Verg.

Georg. iii. 550; cf. Ovid, Fasti, v. 391. In a similar way, Chaucer calls

the paladin _Oliver_, friend of _Charles_ the Great, by the name of

_Charles Olyuer_; Monkes Tale, B 3577.

1208. _Bret_, Briton, one of the British. This form is quite correct, being

the A.S. _Bret_, a Briton (see A.S. Chronicle, an. 491), commonly used in

the pl. _Brettas_. This correct spelling occurs in MS. B. only; MS. P.

turns it into _Bretur_, Th. and Cx. read _Briton_, whilst MS. F. turns

_Bret_ into _gret_, by altering the first letter. The forms _gret_ and

_Bretur_ are clearly corruptions, whilst _Briton_ spoils the scansion.

_Glascurion_; the same as Glasgerion, concerning whom see the Ballad in the

Percy Folio MS., ed. Hales and Furnivall, i. 246. Of this 'a traditional

version, under the name of _Glenkindie_, a various form of Glasgerion, is

given in Jamieson's Popular Songs and Ballads, and in Alex. Laing's Thistle

of Scotland (1823).' G. Douglas associates 'Glaskeriane' with Orpheus in

his Palice of Honour, bk. i. (ed. Small, i. 21); this poem is a palpable

imitation of Chaucer's House of Fame. The name is Celtic, as the epithet

_Bret_ implies. Cf. Irish and Welsh _glas_, pale.

1213. 'Or as art imitates nature.' Imitated from Le Rom. de la Rose, where

Art asks Nature to teach her; l. 16233 is--

'E la _contrefait comme singes_.'

1218. There is a similar list of musical instruments in Le Rom. de la Rose,

21285-21308:--

'Puis _chalemiaus_, et chalemele

Et tabor, et _fléute_, et timbre ...

Puis prent sa muse, et se travaille

As estives de Cornoaille.'

And in Le Remède de Fortune, by G. de Machault, 1849, p. 87, is a similar

long list:--

'_Cornemuses_, flaios, chevrettes,

Dousainnes, cimbales, clochettes,

Timbre, la _flahute_ brehaigne,

Et le grant cornet d'Alemaigne,

Flaiot de saus, fistule, _pipe_'; &c.

And a few lines below there is mention of the _muse de blez_ (see note to

l. 1224). Warton, Hist. E. Poet., ed. Hazlitt, iii. 177. quotes a similar

passage from Lydgate's poem entitled Reason and Sensualite, ending with--

'There were trumpes, and trumpettes,

Lowde shallys [shalmys?] and _doucettes_.'

Cf. also Spenser, F. Q. vi. 9, 5; Shep. Kal. _Feb._ 35-40. In the latter

passage, the imitation of ll. 1224-6 is obvious. _Cornemuse_ is a bagpipe;

_shalmye_ is a shawm, which was a wind-instrument, being derived from Lat.

_calamus_, a reed; Chaucer classes both instruments under _pipe_. Willert

(on the House of Fame, p. 36) suggests (and, I think, correctly) that

_doucet_ and _rede_ are both adjectival. Thus _doucet_ would refer to

_pipe_; cf. '_Doucet_, dulcet, pretty and sweet, or, a little sweet';

Cotgrave. _Rede_ would also refer to _pipe_, and would mean 'made with a

reed.' A reed-instrument is one 'in which the sound was produced by the

vibration of a reed, as in the clarionet or hautboys'; note in Bell's

Chaucer. There is no instrument properly called a _doucet_ in Old French,

but only _dousainne_ (see above) and _doucine_ (Godefroy).

1222. _Brede_, roast meat; A.S. _br['æ]de_, glossed by '_assura_, vel

_assatura_' in Ælfric's Glossary, ed. Wülcker, col. 127, l. 17. Cf. G.

_Braten_. Not elsewhere in Chaucer, but found in other authors.

'To meit was greithed beef and motoun,

_Bredes_, briddes, and venysoun.'

Kyng Alisaunder, ed. Weber, 5248.

In the allit. Morte Arthure, it occurs no less than five times. Also in

Havelok, l. 98, where the interpretation 'bread' is wrong. Also in

Altenglische Dichtungen, ed. Böddeker, p. 146, l. 47--'Cud as Cradoc in

court that carf the _brede_,' i.e. carved the roast meat; but the glossary

does not explain it. The scribe of MS. F. turns _brede_ into _bride_,

regardless of the rime. I cannot agree with the wholly groundless

conjecture of Willert, who reads _rude_ in l. 1221, in order to force

_brude_ into the text. For minstrelsy at feasts, see C. T., A 2197.

1223. Cf. G. Douglas, tr. of Vergil, Æn. vii. 513, 4:--'And in ane bowand

_horne_, at hir awyne will, A feindlych hellis voce scho _lyltis_ schyll.'

1224. Alluding to the simple pipes fashioned by rustics. The glossary to

Machault's Works (1849) has: '_Muse de blez_, chalumeau fait avec des brins

de paille.' The O.F. _estive_, in the quotation in the note to l. 1218, has

a like sense. Godefroy has: '_estive_, espèce de flûte, de flageolet ou

pipeau rustique, qui venait, ce semble, de Cornouaille.' Cf. the term

_corne-pipe_, in the Complaint of Scotland, ed. Murray, p. 65, l. 22; also

my note to R. Rose, 4250 (vol. i. p. 436).

1227-8. Nothing is known as to Atiteris (or Cytherus); nor as to Pseustis

(or Proserus). The forms are doubtless corrupt; famous musicians or poets

seem to have been intended. I shall venture, however, to record my guess,

that _Atiteris_ represents _Tyrtaeus_, and that _Pseustis_ is meant for

_Thespis_. Both are mentioned by Horace (Ars Poet. 276, 402); and Thespis

was a native of Attica, whose plays were acted at Athens. Another guess is

that _Atiteris_ means Vergil's _Tityrus_; Athenæum, Apr. 13, 1889. Willert

suggests that there is here an allusion to the so-called Ecloga Theoduli, a

Latin poem of the seventh or eighth century, wherein the shepherd Pseustis

and the shepherdess Alithia [who represent Falsehood and Truth] contend

about heathendom and Christianity; and Pseustis adduces various myths and

tales, from Ovid, Vergil, and Statius. He refers us to H. Dunger, Die Sage

v. troj. Kriege in den Bearbeitungen des Mittelalters: Dresden, 1869, p.

76; cf. Leyser, Hist. Poet. Medii Aevi, p. 295. This only accounts for

Pseustis; Atiteris can hardly be Alithia.

1229. This is a curious example of how names are corrupted. _Marcia_ is

Dante's _Marsia_, mentioned in the very passage which Chaucer partly

imitates in ll. 1091-1109 above. Dante addresses Apollo in the words--

'Entra nel petto mio, e spira tue

Si come quando Marsia traesti

Della vagina delle membra sue.'

As Chaucer had here nothing to guide him to the gender of _Marsia_, he

guessed the name to be feminine, from its termination; and Dante actually

has _Marzia_ (Inf. iv. 128), with reference to _Marcia_, wife of Cato. But

Dante's _Marsia_ represents the accus. case of Marsyas, or else the Lat.

nom. _Marsya_, which also occurs. Ovid, Met. vi. 400, has '_Marsya_ nomen

habet,' and tells the story. Apollo defeated the satyr Marsyas in a trial

of musical skill, and afterwards flayed him alive; so that he 'lost his

skin.'

1231. _Envyën_ (accent on _y_), vie with, challenge (at a sport). So strong

is the accent on the _y_, that the word has been reduced in E. to the

clipped form '_vie_; see _Vie_ in my Etym. Dict. It represents Lat.

_inuitare_, to challenge; and has nothing to do with E. _envy_. Florio's

Ital. Dict. has: '_Inuito_, a vie at play, a vie at any game; also an

inuiting.'

1234. 'Pipers of every Dutch (German) tongue.'

1236. _Reyes_, round dances, dances in a ring. The term is Dutch. Hexham's

Du. Dict. (1658), has: _een Rey_, or _een Reye_, a Daunce, or a round

Daunce'; and '_reyen_, to Daunce, or to lead a Daunce.' Cf. G. _Reihen_, a

dance, _Reihentanz_, a circular dance; M.H.G. _reie_, _reige_; which does

not seem to be connected, as might be thought, with G. _Reihe_, a row; see

Kluge and Weigand. Perhaps the Du. word was borrowed from O.F. _rei_,

_roi_, order, whence also the syllable _-ray_ in E. _ar-ray_; and the G.

word may have been borrowed from the Dutch; but this is a guess. 'I can

daunce the raye'; Barclay's First Egloge, sig. A ii. ed. 1570; quoted in

Dyce's Skelton, ii. 194.

1239. Understand _Somme_, some; see note to l. 1197. The expression _blody

soun_ recurs in Kn. Tale, A 2512, in connection with _trumpe_ and

_clarioun_. Our author explains his meaning here; ll. 1241-2.

1243. _Missenus_, Misenus, son of Æolus, trumpeter to Hector, and

subsequently to Æneas; Verg. Æn. iii. 239; vi. 162-170.

1245. _Joab_ and _Theodomas_ are again mentioned together in a like passage

in the Merch. Tale (C. T., E 1719). 'Joab blew a trumpet'; 2 Sam. ii. 28;

xviii. 16; xx. 22. Theodomas is said by Chaucer (Merch. Tale) to have blown

a trumpet 'At Thebes, when the citee was in doute.' He was therefore a

trumpeter mentioned in some legendary history of Thebes. With this hint, it

is easy to identify him with Thiodamas, mentioned in books viii. and x. of

the Thebaid of Statius. He succeeded Amphiaraus as augur, and furiously

excited the besiegers to attack Thebes. His invocation was succeeded by a

great sound of trumpets (Theb. viii. 343), to which Chaucer here refers.

But Statius does not expressly say that Thiodamas blew a trumpet himself.

1248. _Cataloigne and Aragon_, Catalonia and Arragon, in Spain, immediately

to the S. of the Pyrenees. Warton remarks: 'The martial musicians of

English tournaments, so celebrated in story, were a more natural and

obvious allusion for an English poet'; Hist. E. P. ii. 331. The remark is,

I think, entirely out of place. Chaucer is purposely taking a wide range;

and, after mentioning even the pipers of the Dutch tongue, as well as Joab

of Judæa and Thiodamas of Thebes, is quite consistent in mentioning the

musicians of Spain.

1257. Repeated, at greater length, in C. T., Group B, ll. 19-28; see note

to that passage.

1259. _Iogelours_, jugglers. See Squi. Tale, F 219.

1260. _Tregetours_; see C. T., F 1141, on which Tyrwhitt has a long note. A

_jogelour_ was one who amused people, either by playing, singing, dancing,

or tricks requiring sleight of hand; a _tregetour_ was one who brought

about elaborate illusions, by the help of machinery or mechanical

contrivance. Thus Chaucer tells us (in the Frank. Tale, as above) that

_tregetoures_ even caused to appear, in a dining-hall, a barge floating in

water, or what seemed like a lion, or a vine with grapes upon it, or a

castle built of lime and stone; which vanished at their pleasure. Sir John

Maundeville, in his Travels, ch. 22, declares that the 'enchanters' of the

Grand Khan could turn day into night, or cause visions of damsels dancing

or carrying cups of gold, or of knights justing; 'and many other thinges

thei don, be craft of hire Enchauntementes; that it is marveyle for to

see.' See note to l. 1277 below. Gawain Douglas imitates this passage in

his Palice of Honour; see his Works, ed. Small, i. 65.

1261. _Phitonesses_, pythonesses. The witch of Endor is called a

_phitonesse_ in the Freres Tale, C. T., D 1510; and in Gower, Conf. Amant.

bk. iv, ed. Pauli, ii. 66; in Barbour's Bruce, ed. Skeat, iv. 753; and in

Skelton's Phyllyp Sparowe, 1345. The Vulgate version has _mulier pythonem

habens_, 1 Sam. xxviii. 7 (cf. Acts xvi. 16); but also the very word

_pythonissam_ in 1 Chron. x. 13, where the witch of Endor is again referred

to. Ducange notices _phitonissa_ as another spelling of _pythonissa_.

1266. Cf. Chaucer's Prologue, 417-420. There is a parallel passage in

Dante, Inf. xx. 116-123, where the word _imago_ occurs in the sense of

'waxen image.' This of course refers to the practice of sticking needles

into a waxen image, with the supposed effect of injuring the person

represented. See Ovid, Heroid. vi. 91, and Ben Jonson's Masque of Queens

(_3rd Charm_). But this is only a particular case of a much more general

principle. Images of men or animals (or even of the things representing the

zodiacal signs) could be made of various substances, according to the

effect intended; and by proper treatment were supposed to cause good or

evil to the patient, as required. Much could be done, it was supposed, by

choosing the right time for making them, or for subjecting them to

celestial influences. To know the right time, it was necessary to observe

the _ascendent_ (see note to l. 1268). See much jargon on this subject in

Cornelius Agrippa, De Occulta Philosophia, lib. ii. capp. 35-47.

1268. The _ascendent_ is that point of the zodiacal circle which is seen to

be just ascending above the horizon at a given moment. Chaucer defines it

in his Treatise on the Astrolabe, and adds that astrologers, in calculating

horoscopes, were in the habit of giving it a wider meaning; they further

reckoned in 5 degrees of the zodiac above the horizon, and 25 degrees below

the ascending point, so as to make the whole _ascendent_ occupy 30 degrees,

which was the length of a 'sign.' In calculating nativities, great

importance was attached to this ascendent, the astrological concomitants of

which determined the horoscope. The phrase to be 'in the ascendant' is

still in use. Thus _in certeyn ascendentes_ is equivalent to 'in certain

positions of the heavens, at a given time,' such as the time of one's

birth, or the time for making an _image_ (see last note). See p. 191

(above).

1271. _Medea_, the famous wife of Jason, who restored her father Æson to

youth by her magical art; Ovid, Met. vii. 162. Gower tells the whole story,

C. A. bk. v. ed. Pauli, ii. 259.

1272. _Circes_, Circe, the enchantress; Homer's Odyssey, bk. x; Ovid, Met.

xiv. Ovid frequently has the form _Circes_, in the gen. case; Met. xiv. 10,

69, 71, 247, 294. Cf. Chaucer's Boethius, b. iv. met. 3. 24.

_Calipsa_, Calypso, the nymph who detained Ulysses in an island; Odyssey,

bk. i; Ovid, ex Ponto, iv. 10. 13.

1273. _Hermes_ is mentioned in the Can. Yeom. Tale, C. T., Group G, 1434,

where the reference is to Hermes Trismegistus, fabled to have been the

founder of alchemy, though none of the works ascribed to him are really

his. The name _Balenus_ occurs, in company with the names of _Medea_ and

_Circe_, in the following passage of the Rom. de la Rose, l. 14599:--

'Que ja riens d'enchantement croie,

Ne sorcerie, ne charroie,

Ne _Balenus_, ne sa science,

Ne magique, ne nigromance, ...

Onques ne pot tenir _Medée_

Jason por nul enchantement;

N'onc _Circe_ ne tint ensement

Ulixes qu'il ne s'enfoïst,' &c.

(_Charroie_ is the dance of witches on their sabbath.) _Hermes Ballenus_ is

really a compound name, the true significance of which was pointed out to

me by Prof. Cowell, and explained in my letter to The Academy, Apr. 27,

1889, p. 287. _Ballenus_ is 'the sage Belinous,' who discovered, beneath a

statue of _Hermes_, a book containing all the secrets of the universe.

Hence _Hermes' Ballenus_ (where _Hermes_ is an epithet) means 'Belinous,

who adopted the philosophy of Hermes.' For an explanation of the whole

matter, see the fourth volume of the Notices et Mémoires des Manuscrits de

la Bibliothèque du Roi, p. 107. In this there is an article by De Sacy,

describing MS. Arabe de la Bibl. du Roi, no. 959, the title of which is 'Le

Livre du Secret de la Creature, par le sage Belinous.' Belinous possessed

the art of talismans, which he professed to have learnt from Hermes. There

is some reason for identifying him with Apollonius of Tyana.

1274. _Lymote_, according to Warton, is Limotheus; but he omits to tell us

where he found such a name; and the suggestion seems no better than his

mistake of supposing _Calipsa_ (l. 1272) to mean the muse Calliope!

Considering that he is mentioned in company with Simon Magus, or Simon the

magician (Acts viii. 9), the suggestion of Prof. Hales seems probable, viz.

that _Lymote_ or _Lymete_ (as in F.) means Elymas the sorcerer (Acts xiii.

8).

1275. 'I saw, and knew by name, those that,' &c.

1277. _Colle tregetour_, Colle the juggler; see l. 1260. _Colle_ is here a

proper name, and distinct from the prefix _col-_ in _col-fox_, Non. Pr.

Tale, B 4405. _Colle_ is the name of a dog; Non. Pr. Tale, B 4573. _Colyn_

and _Colle_ are names of grooms; Polit. Songs, p. 237. Tyrwhitt quotes a

passage from The Testament of Love, bk. ii:--'Buserus [Busiris] slew his

gestes, and he was slayne of Hercules his gest. Hugest betraished many

menne, and of _Collo_ was he betraied'; ed. 1561, fol. 301, col. 2. With

regard to _tregetour_, see the account of the performances of Eastern

jugglers in Yule's edition of Marco Polo; vol. i. p. 342, and note 9 to Bk.

i. c. 61. Col. Yule cites the O.F. forms _tregiteor_ and _entregetour_;

also Ital. _tragettatore_, a juggler, and Prov. _trasjitar_, _trajitar_, to

juggle. Bartsch, in his Chrestomathie Française, has examples of

_trasgeter_, to mould, form, _tresgeteïs_, a work of mechanical art; and,

in his Chrestomathie Provençale, col. 82, has the lines--

'Non saps balar ni _tras-gitar_

a guiza de juglar guascon';

i.e. thou know'st not how to dance, nor how to juggle, after the manner of

a Gascon juggler. A comparison of the forms leaves no doubt as to the

etymology. The Prov. _trasgitar_ answers to a Low Lat. form _trans-iectare_

= _tra-iectare_, frequentative of Lat. _trans-icere_, _tra-icere_, to throw

across, transfer, cause to pass. Thus, the orig. sense of _tregetour_ was

one who causes rapid changes, by help of some mechanical contrivance. The

F. _trajecter_, to ferry, transport, in Cotgrave, is the same word as the

Prov. _trasgitar_, in a different (but allied) sense.

1292. 'As is the usual way with reports.'

1295. Accent _Which_ and _so_.

1297. 'And yet it was wrought by haphazard quite as often as by heed.'

1300. _To longe_, too long; not 'to dwell long.' The barbarous practice of

inserting an adverb between _to_ and an infinitive, as in 'to

ungrammatically talk,' is of later date, though less modern than we might

perhaps imagine. Cf. l. 1354.

1302. Elide the former _Ne_; read _N'of_.

1303. Read--Ne hów they hátt' in másonéries; i.e. nor how they are named in

masonry, as, for example, corbets full of imageries. _They hatte_, i.e.

they are called, was turned into _hakking_, and the sense lost.

1304. _Corbets_, corbels. Florio's Ital. Dict. has, '_Corbella_,

_Corbetta_, a little basket'; shewing the equivalence of such forms. The E.

_corbel_ is the same word as O.F. _corbel_ (F. _corbeau_), apparently from

the Lat. _coruus_. The spelling with _z_ (= _ts_) in MSS. F. and B. shews

that the form is really _corbetts_ or _corbets_, not _corbelles_. Spenser

has the simple form _corb_; F. Q. iv. 10. 6:--

'It was a bridge ybuilt in goodly wise

With curious _corbes_ and pendants graven faire.'

'A _Corbel_, _Corbet_, or _Corbill_ in masonrie, is a iutting out like a

_bragget_ [bracket] as carpenters call it, or shouldering-peece in

timber-work'; Minsheu's Dict. ed. 1627. Tyrwhitt explains _corbets_ by

'niches for statues'; but 'imageries' are not necessarily statues or

_images_, but rather specimens of carved work.

1309. 'A bounty! a bounty! hold up (your hands) well (to catch it).' Sir W.

Scott explains _largesse_ as 'the cry with which heralds and pursuivants

were wont to acknowledge the bounty received from the knights'; note to

Marmion, canto i. St. 11. The word is still in use amongst gleaners in East

Anglia; see my note to P. Plowman, C. viii. 109.

1311. In Anglia, xiv. 236, Dr. Köppell points out some resemblances between

the present poem and Boccaccio's Amorosa Visione. He compares this line

with the A. V. vi. 75:--'Io son la Gloria del popol mondano.'

1316, 7. _Kinges_, i.e. kings-at-arms; _losenges_, lozenges (with _g_ as

_j_).

1326. _Cote-armure_, surcoat; see Way's note in Prompt. Parv.

1329-35. Imitated from Rom. Rose, 6762-4.

1330. _Been aboute_, used like the old phrase _go about_.

1342-6. Cf. Boccaccio, Amorosa Visione, iv. 9:--'Ed in una gran sala ci

trovammo; Chiara era e bella e risplendente d'oro.'

1346. _Wikke_, poor, much alloyed.

1352. _Lapidaire_, 'a treatise on precious stones, so entitled; probably a

French translation of the Latin poem of Marbodus _De Gemmis_, which is

frequently cited by the name of _Lapidarius_; Fabricius, Bibl. Med. Æt., in

v. _Marbodus_'; Tyrwhitt's Glossary. The Lapidarium of Abbot Marbodus

(Marboeuf), composed about 1070-80, is chiefly taken from Pliny and

Solinus. A translation in English verse is given in King's Antique Gems.

See note to l. 1363 below. There is some account of several precious stones

in Philip de Thaun's Bestiary, printed in Wright's Popular Treatises on

Science; at p. 127 he refers to the _Lapidaire_. Vincent of Beauvais refers

to it repeatedly, in book viii. of his Speculum Naturale. There is a note

about this in Warton, Hist. E. P. ed. 1871, ii. 324. And see note to l.

1363.

1360. _Dees_, daïs; see the note to Prol. 370, in vol. v. Lines 1360-7 may

be compared with various passages in Boccaccio's Amorosa Visione, which

describe a lady in a rich vesture, seated on a royal throne:--

'Tutti li _soprastava_ veramente

Di _ricche pietre_ coronata e d'oro' ...

'Il suo vestire a guisa _imperiale_

Era, e teneva nella man sinestra

Un pomo d'oro; e'n _trono_ alla reale

Vidi sedeva' ...

'Odi: che mai _natura_ con sua arte

_Forma_ non diede a si bella figura' ...

'Donna pareva li leggiadra e pura'....

See Am. Vis. vi. 49, 58, 43, 48. See note to l. 1311 above.

1361. The reading _Sit_ would mean 'sitteth' or 'sits'; the reading _Sat_

would mean 'sat.' Both are wrong; the construction is _sitte I saugh_ = _I

saugh sitte_, I saw sit; so that _sitte_ is the infin. mood.

1363. _Carbuncle._ Vincent of Beauvais, Spec. Nat bk. viii. c. 51, has:

'_Carbunculus_, qui et Græcè _anthrax_ dicitur, vulgariter _rubith_.' An

account of the _Carbunculus_ is given in King's Natural History of Precious

Stones and Gems. He remarks that the ruby 'must also be included among the

numerous species of the _carbunculus_ described by Pliny, although he gives

the first rank to the _Carbunculi amethystizontes_, our Almandines or

Garnets of Siam.' See also his Antique Gems, where he translates sect. 23

of the Lapidarium of Marbodus thus:--

'The _Carbuncle_ eclipses by its blaze

All shining gems, and casts its fiery rays

Like to the burning coal; whence comes its name,

Among the Greeks as _Anthrax_ known to fame.

Not e'en by darkness quenched, its vigour tires;

Still at the gazer's eye it darts its fires;

A numerous race; within the Lybian ground

Twelve kinds by mining Troglydytes are found.'

1368-76. Cf. Boethius, in Chaucer's translation; bk. i. pr. 1, ll. 8-13

(vol. ii. p. 2).

1376. _Sterres sevene_, the seven planets.

1380. _Tolde_, counted; observe this sense.

1383. _Bestes foure_, four beasts; Rev. iv. 6. Cf. Dante, Purg. xxix. 92.

1386. Thynne remarks that _oundy_, i.e. wavy, is a term in heraldry; cf. E.

_ab-ound_, _red-ound_, _surr-ound_ (for _sur-ound_); all from Lat. _unda_.

Cf. Chaucer's use of _ounded_ in Troilus, iv. 736, and Le Roman de la Rose,

21399, 21400:--

'Et voit ses biaus crins blondoians

Comme undes ensemble ondoians.'

1390. 'And tongues, as (there are) hairs on animals.' 'Her feet are

furnished with partridge-wings to denote swiftness, as the partridge is

remarkable for running with great swiftness with outstretched wings. This

description is taken almost literally from the description of Fame in the

Æneid [iv. 176-183], except the allusion to the Apocalypse and the

partridge-wings'; note in Bell's Chaucer. But it is to be feared that

Chaucer simply blundered, and mistook Vergil's _pernicibus_ as having the

sense of _perdicibus_; cf. '_pedibus_ celerem et _pernicibus alis_'; Aen.

iv. 180.

1400. _Caliopee_, Calliope the muse; her eight sisters are the other Muses.

With ll. 1395-1405 cf. Dante, Par. xxiii. 97-111.

1411. Read--Bóth-e th'ármes. _Armes_, i.e. coats of arms. _Name_, name

engraved on a plate or written on a scroll.

1413. _Alexander_; see Monkes Tale, in C. T., B 3821. _Hercules_; see the

same; the story of the shirt is given in B 3309-3324. In Le Roman de la

Rose, l. 9238, it is called 'la venimeuse chemise.' Cf. Dante, Inf. xii.

68.

1431. _Lede_, lead, the metal of Saturn; _yren_, iron, the metal of Mars.

See note to Can. Yeom. Tale, G 820, and ll. 827, 828 of the same; also ll.

1446, 1448 below.

1433. Read--Th'Ebráyk Jósephús. In a note on Gower's Conf. Amantis, Warton

remarks--'Josephus, on account of his subject, had long been placed almost

on a level with the Bible. He is seated on the first pillar in Chaucer's

House of Fame. His Jewish History, translated into Latin by Rufinus in the

fourth century, had given rise to many old poems and romances; and his

Maccabaics, or History of the seven Maccabees, martyred with their father

Eleazar under the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, a separate work

translated also by Rufinus, produced the Judas Maccabee of Belleperche in

the year 1240, and at length enrolled the Maccabees among the most

illustrious heroes of romance.'--ed. Hazlitt, iii. 26.

1436. _Iewerye_, kingdom of the Jews; cf. Prior. Tale, B 1679.

1437. Who the other seven are, we can but guess; the reference seems to be

to Jewish historians. Perhaps we may include Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Isaiah,

Daniel, Nehemiah; and, in any case, Ezra. The number _seven_ was probably

taken at random. With l. 1447 cf. Troil. ii. 630.

1450. _Wheel_, orbit. The orbit of Saturn is the largest of the (old) seven

planets; see Kn. Tale, 1596 (A 2454). The reason why Josephus is placed

upon Saturn's metal, is because history records so many unhappy casualties,

such as Saturn's influence was supposed to cause. All this is fully

explained in the Kn. Tale, 1597-1611 (A 2455-69).

1457. _Yren_, the metal of Mars; see note to l. 1431.

1459. This allusion to 'tiger's blood' is curious; but is fully accounted

for by the account of the two tigers in bk. vii. of the Thebaid. A peace

had nearly been made up between the Thebans and the other Greeks, when two

tigers, sacred to Bacchus, broke loose, and killed three men. They were

soon wounded by Aconteus, whereupon 'They fly, and flying, draw upon the

plain A bloody line'; according to Lewis's translation. They fall and die,

but are avenged; and so the whole war was renewed. Lydgate reduces the two

tigers to one; see his chapter 'Of a tame Tigre dwelling in Thebes'; in

part 3 of his Sege of Thebes.

1460. _Stace_ (as in Troil. bk. v, near the end, and Kn. Tale, A 2294) is

Publius Papinius Statius, who died A.D. 96, author of the Thebais and

Achilleis (see l. 1463), the latter being left incomplete. _Tholosan_ means

Toulousan, or inhabitant of Toulouse; and he is here so called because by

some (including Dante, whom Chaucer follows) he was incorrectly supposed to

have been a native of Toulouse. He was born at Naples, A.D. 61. Dante calls

him _Tolosano_ in Purg. xxi. 89, on which Cary remarks:--'Dante, as many

others have done, confounds Statius the poet, who was a Neapolitan, with a

rhetorican of the same name, who was of Tolosa or Thoulouse. Thus Chaucer;

and Boccaccio, as cited by Lombardi: "E Stazio di Tolosa ancora caro";

Amorosa Vis. _cant._ 5.'

Dr. Köppell quotes the last passage, from Boccaccio, Am. Vis. v. 34, in

Anglia, xiv. 237, and shews that other passages in the same resemble other

lines in the Hous of Fame. See notes to ll. 1311, 1342, 1360, 1483, 1487,

and 1499.

1463. 'Cantai di Tebe, e poi del grande Achille'; Dante, Purg. xxi. 92.

1466. _Omeer_, Homer; see ll. 1477-1480 below.

1467. In Chaucer's Troil. i. 146, is the line--'In Omer, or in Dares, or in

Dyte.' _Dares_ means Dares Phrygius; and _Tytus_ is doubtless intended for

the same person as _Dyte_, i.e. Dictys Cretensis. See the account in

Warton, Hist. E. Poet., ed. Hazlitt, ii. 127, beginning:--'But the Trojan

story was still kept alive in two Latin pieces, which passed under the

names of Dares Phrygius and Dictys Cretensis,' &c.; and further in vol.

iii. p. 81. The chief source of the romantic histories of Troy in the

middle ages is the Roman de Troie by Benoit de Sainte-Maure, which appeared

between 1175 and 1185, and has lately been edited by M. Joly. This was

copied by Guido delle Colonne (see note to l. 1469 below), who pretended,

nevertheless, to follow Dares and Dictys. Chaucer cites Dares and Dictys at

second-hand, from Guido.

1468. _Lollius_; evidently supposed by Chaucer to be a writer on the Trojan

war. See Tyrwhitt's note on the words _the boke of Troilus_, as occurring

at the end of the Persones Tale. Chaucer twice quotes _Lollius_ in Troilus,

viz. in bk. i. 394 and bk. v. 1653. At the beginning of sect. xiv of his

Hist. of Eng. Poetry, Warton shews that there was a Lollius Urbicus among

the _Historici Latini profani_ of the third century; 'but this could not be

Chaucer's Lollius; ... none of his works remain.' The difficulty has never

been wholly cleared up; we know, however, that the Troilus is chiefly taken

from Boccaccio's Filostrato, just as his Knight's Tale is chiefly taken

from Boccaccio's Teseide. My idea of the matter is that, in the usual mode

of appealing to old authorities, Chaucer refers us (not to Boccaccio, whom

he does not mention, but) to the authorities whom he supposed Boccaccio

must have followed. Accordingly, in his Troilus, he mentions Homer, Dares,

Dictys, and Lollius, though he probably knew next to nothing of _any one_

of these authors. On this account, the suggestion made by Dr. Latham

(Athenæum, Oct. 3, 1868, p. 433) seems quite reasonable, viz. that he got

the idea that Lollius wrote on the Trojan war by misunderstanding the lines

of Horace, Epist. i. 2:--

'Troiani belli scriptorem, maxime Lolli,

Dum tu declamas Romæ, Præneste relegi.'

See Ten Brink, Studien, p. 87. This supposition becomes almost a certainty

when we observe how often medieval writers obtained their information from

MSS. containing short extracts. Chaucer clearly never read Horace at all;

he merely stumbled on a very few extracts from him in notebooks. In this

way, he may easily have met with the _first line_ above, apart from its

context. Cf. vol. ii. pp. lii, liii.

1469. Guido delle Colonne, or Guido de Columnis (_not_ da Colonna),

finished his translation or version of Benoit de Sainte-Maure's Roman de

Troie in the year 1287. His work is called Historia Troiana. The 'Geste

Hystoriale' of the Destruction of Troy, edited by Panton and Donaldson for

the Early English Text Society, is a translation of Guido's Historia into

Middle English alliterative verse. See Warton, Hist. E. P., ed. Hazlitt,

iii. 81; and Introd. to vol. ii. pp. liv-lxv.

1470. _Gaufride_, Geoffrey, viz. Geoffrey of Monmouth, who died A.D. 1154,

and wrote a History of the Britons in Latin, full of extravagant but lively

fictions, which was completed in 1147; see Morley's Hist. E. Writers, i.

496. He is rightly mentioned among the writers who 'bore up Troy,' because

he makes the Britons the descendants of Æneas. See note below.

1477. _Oon seyde_, one (of them) said. Guido was one of those who said

this; this appears from the Gest Hystoriale above mentioned, which was

translated from Guido; see ll. 41-47, and 10312-10329 of Panton and

Donaldson's edition. Guido asserts, for example, that Achilles slew Hector

by treachery, and not, as Homer says, in fair fight; and Chaucer asserts

the same, Troil. v. 1560. The fact is, that the Latin races declined to

accept an account which did not sufficiently praise the Trojans, whom they

regarded as their ancestors. Geoffrey of Monmouth ingeniously followed up

this notion, by making the Trojans also the ancestors of the ancient

Britons. Hence English writers followed on the same side; Lydgate, as well

as Chaucer, exclaims against Homer. See Warton, ed. Hazlitt, iii. 82. But

Dante exalts Homer above Horace, Ovid, and Lucan: Inf. iv. 88.

1482. 'Homer's iron is admirably represented as having been by Virgil

covered over with tin'; note in Bell's Chaucer.

1483. There is a similar mention of Vergil in Boccaccio, Amorosa Visione,

v. 7. See note to l. 1460.

1487. _Ovide_, Ovid; from whom perhaps Chaucer borrows more than from any

other Latin writer. He stands on a pillar of copper, the metal sacred to

Venus. See note to l. 820 of Can. Yeom. Tale. And cf. Boccaccio, Amorosa

Visione, v. 25: 'Eravi Ovidio, lo quale poetando Iscrisse tanti versi per

amore.'

1494. _High the_ (as in F.) is an error for _highthe_, height; Cx. Th. have

_heyght_. Read _highte_, as in l. 744.

1499. _Lucan_; alluding to Lucan's Pharsalia, which narrates the war

between Cæsar and Pompey. See Man of Lawes Tale, B 401; Monkes Tale, De

Caesare, B 3909 (and note), and a fourth mention of him in Troilus, v.

1792. There is an English translation by Rowe. Cf. Boccaccio, Amorosa

Visione, v. 19: 'A' quai Lucan seguitava, ne' cui Atti parea ch'ancora la

battaglia Di Cesare narrasse, e di colui Magno Pompeo chiamato.'

1509. Claudius Claudianus, in the fourth century, wrote a poem De Raptu

Proserpinæ, alluded to here and in the Merchant's Tale (C. T., E 2232), and

several other pieces. See note to Parl. Foules, 99.

1512. Imitated from Dante, Inf. ix. 44: 'Della regina dell' eterno pianto.'

1519. _Write_, wrote; pt. t. pl. _Highte_, were named.

1521. Perhaps from Dante, Inf. xvi. 1, which Cary translates:--

'Now came I where the water's din was heard,...

Resounding like the hum of swarming bees,

When forth together issued from a troop,' &c.

1527. Cf. Ovid, Met. xii. 53: 'Atria turba tenent; ueniunt leue uulgus,

euntque.'

1530. _Alles-kinnes_ is in the gen. sing., and _Of_ governs _condiciouns_;

thus the line is equivalent to--'Of conditions of every kind'; whereas

modern English uses--'Of every kind of condition.' This peculiar idiom was

formerly common; and precisely similar to it is the phrase _noskinnes_, for

which see note to l. 1794. Observe that the phrase is oddly written _alle

skynnes_ in MS. F., by a misdivision of the words. So in Piers Plowman, A.

ii. 175, we have the phrase _for eny kunnes yiftus_, for gifts of any kind,

where one MS. has _any skynes_. In my note to P. Plowman, C. xi. 128, I

give numerous examples, with references, of phrases such as _none kynnes

riche_, _many kynnes maneres_, _summes kunnes wise_, _what kyns schape_,

&c.

1550. 'Those that did pray her for her favour.'

1564. 'Because it does not please me.'

1570. I here alter _Vpon peyne_ to _Vp peyne_, as the former will not scan,

and the latter is the usual idiom. See _up peyne_ in Kn. Tale, A 1707,

2543; Man of Lawes Tale, B 795, 884. Cf. _vp the toft_, upon the toft, P.

Plowman, B. i. 12; _vp erthe_, upon earth, id. B. ix. 99.

1571. Cf. Rom. Rose, 18206--'Car Eolus, li diex des vens.' From Vergil, Æn.

i. 52; cf. Ovid, Met. xiv. 223, where Æolus is said to reign over the

Tuscan sea. The connection of Æolus with Thrace is not obvious; cf. l.

1585. Ovid, however, has 'Threicio Borea'; Art. Am. ii. 431. And see

Lounsbury, Studies in Chaucer, ii. 382.

1596. _Took to_, delivered to. _Triton_, Triton; imitated from Ovid, Met.

i. 333, where Neptune calls Triton, and bids him sound his 'shell,' the

sound of which resounded everywhere.

1598. We rarely find _to_ used after _leet_; the usual formula is _leet

go_. But cf. _leet to glyde_ in Cant. Ta., F 1415. Or read _to-go_,

_to-glyde_.

1618. _Wite_ is badly spelt _wete_ or _wote_ in the MS. copies; but the

very phrase _wite ye what_ occurs in C. T., E 2431. However, Ch. certainly

uses the phrase _ye woot_ instead of _ye wite_, more than once.

1640. _Overthrowe_, be overthrown; as in the Tale of Gamelin, 512. Cf.

Melibeus, B 2755.

1643. A _pelet_ was a stone ball, such as used to be fired from the

earliest kind of cannon, of which this is a very early mention. See my

glossary to P. Plowman (Clar. Press).

1670. _Lat goon_, let go, lay aside.

1702. The word _turned_, which is dissyllabic, has evidently been

substituted here in the printed editions and in MS. P. for the older and

rare word _clew_, which does not occur elsewhere in Chaucer. The line

means--'With that (therupon) I rubbed my head all round'; which is a rustic

way of expressing perplexity. The verb _clawen_, to scratch, stroke, is not

uncommon, but the usual pt. t. is _clawed_. We find, however, at least one

other example of the strong form of the past tense in the Seven Sages, ed.

Weber, l. 925--He _clew_ the bor on the rigge,' he stroked the boar on the

back, and made him go to sleep; cf. 'thi maister the _clawes_,' i.e. your

master strokes you, to flatter you, in l. 937 of the same. Chaucer has, 'to

_clawen_ [rub] him on his hele' [heel], Troil. iv. 728; 'he _clawed_ him on

the bak,' he stroked him on the back, to encourage him, Cook's Prol., A

4326 (where _clew_ would suit the line better). See _claw_ in Jamieson's

Scot. Dict.

1708. 'They would not give a leek.' Cf. 'dere ynough a leek'; Can. Yeom.

Tale, Group G, 795.

1740. 'Although no brooch or ring was ever sent us.'

1742-4. 'Nor was it once intended in their heart to make us even friendly

cheer, but they might (i.e. were ready to) bring us to our bier'; i.e. so

far from caring to please us, they would be satisfied to see us dead.

The M.E. _temen_, to produce, to bring, is the same word as mod. E. _teem_,

to produce. _To temen on bere_ is parallel to the old phrase _to bringen on

bere_; cf. Gaw. Douglas, tr. of Æneid, bk. x. ch. 10, l. 138 (ed. Small,

iii. 326), where _brocht on beyr_ means 'brought to their grave.' See

_Bier_ in the New Eng. Dictionary.

1747. _For wood_, as (if) mad, 'like mad.' The same phrase recurs in Leg.

Good Women, _Phyllis_, l. 27; cf. _as it were wood_, Kn. Tale, A 2950; and

_for pure wood_, Rom. Rose, 276.

1759-62. Cf. Rom. de la Rose, 9887-90:--

'Si se sunt maint vanté de maintes;

Par paroles fauces et faintes,

Dont les cors avoir ne pooient,

Lor non à grant tort diffamoient.'

1761. _The name_, the name of it, the credit of it.

1777. _Masty_ (miswritten _maisty_ in F., but _masty_ in the rest) means

fat, fattened up, and hence unwieldy, sluggish. Bell alters it to _maisly_,

and Moxon's edition to _nastie_; both being wrong. Palsgrave has: '_Masty_,

fatte, as swyne be, _gras_.' The Promp. Parv. has: 'Mast-hog or swyne, [or]

mastid swyne, _Maialis_'; and 'Mastyn beestys, _sagino, impinguo_.' Way

rightly explains _masty_ as 'glutted with acorns or berries'; cf. 'Acorne,

_mast_ for swyne, _gland_,' in Palsgrave. See The Former Age, l. 37.

1779. _Wher_, whether, 'is it the case that?'

1782. As the word _oughte_ is never followed by _to_ with a following

gerund, it is certain that _to-hangen_ is all one word, the prefix _to-_

being intensive. MSS. F. and B. omit _to_, but the rest have it, and the

syllable is wanted. I know of no other example of _to-hangen_, to hang

thoroughly, but this is of little moment. The prefix _to-_ was freely added

to all sorts of verbs expressing strong action; Stratmann gives _more than

a hundred_ examples. Cf. note to l. 1598.

1783. We must read _sweynte_, the form preserved in MS. B, where the final

_e_ is added to the pp. _sweynt_, as if it were an adjective used in the

definite form. The reading _swynt_ is false, being an error for _sweynte_.

The reading _slepy_ is a mere gloss upon this rare word, but fairly

expresses the meaning. Bell's Chaucer has _swynt_, which the editor

supposes to be put for _swinkt_ = _swinked_, pp. of _swinken_, to toil, as

in Milton's 'swinkd hedger'; Comus, 293. He is, however, entirely wrong,

for Milton's _swink'd_ is quite a late form; in Chaucer's time the verb

_swinken_ was strong, and the pp. was _swunken_! Chaucer has _queynt_ as

the pp. of _quenchen_, Kn. Tale, A 2321; and _dreynt_ as the pp. of

_drenchen_, Non. Prest. Tale, B 4272. Similarly _sweynt_ is the pp. of

_swenchen_, to cause to toil, to fatigue, tire out, the causal verb formed

from the aforesaid strong intransitive verb _swinken_, to toil. For

examples, see _swenchen_ in Stratmann; I may instance, 'Euwer feond eou ne

scal ... _swenchen_,' your enemies shall not harass you, Old Eng. Homilies,

ed. Morris, i. 13; and 'hi _swencten_ swiðe heom-seolfe,' they sore

afflicted themselves, id. 101. Hence, 'the sweynte cat' means the

over-toiled or tired-out cat; or, secondarily, a cat that will take no

trouble, a slothful or _sleepy_ cat, as the gloss says. Compare Gower,

Conf. Amant. ed. Pauli, ii. 39, where the same cat is brought forward as an

example of the deadly sin of _Sloth_:--

'For he [a knight] ne wol no travail take

To ride for his ladies sake,

But liveth al upon his wisshes,

And--as a cat wolde ete fisshes

Withoute weting of his clees--

So wolde he do, but netheles

He faileth ofte of that he wolde.'

The 'adage' is referred to in Macbeth, i. 7. 45. It occurs in MS. Harl.

2321, fol. 146, printed in Reliq. Antiquæ, i. 207, in the form: 'The cat

doth love the fishe, she will not wett her foote.' In Heywood's Proverbs,

1562 (p. 28, ed. Spenser Soc.): 'The cat would eate fyshe, and would not

wet her feete.' So also in Camden's Remains, 1614, p. 312. Hazlitt gives a

rimed version:--

'Fain would the cat fish eat,

But she's loth to wet her feet.'

In Piers the Plowman's Crede, 405, is the allusion:--

'Thou woldest not weten thy fote, and woldest fich cacchen.'

In a medieval Latin verse, it appears as: 'Catus amat piscem, sed non vult

tingere plantam'; see Proverbialia Dicteria ... per A. Gartnerum, 1574,

8vo. Ray quotes the French: 'Le chat aime le poisson, mais il n'aime pas à

mouiller la patte.' The German form is--'Die Katze hätt' der Fische gern;

aber sie will die Füsse nit nass machen'; N. and Q. 4 S. ix. 266.

1794. _Noskinnes_; miswritten _no skynnes_ in MSS. F. and B.; Th. and Cx.

_no kyns_. _Nos-kinnes_ is short for _noneskinnes_, of no kind; _noskinnes

labour_ is 'work of no kind'; in mod. E. 'no kind of work.' It also occurs

without the former _s_; as in _no kyne catel_, property of no kind, P.

Plowm. C. xi. 250; _none kynnes riche_, rich men of no kind, id. B. xi.

185. Cf. also _of foure kunne thinges_, of things of four kinds, of four

kinds of things, where one MS. has _of foure skynnes thinges_; P. Plowm. A.

x. 2. And see note to l. 1530 above.

1796. _Bele Isaude_, Isaude (or Isoude, or Isolde) the fair; here a type of

a high form of female beauty. See Parl. Foules, 290; and the note.

1798. 'She that grinds at a hand-mill'; a poor slave.

1810. _Hir_ (their) refers to the 'seventh company.' 'Such amusement they

found in their hoods'; a phrase meaning 'so much did they laugh at them';

see Troil. ii. 1110. Cf. the phrase 'to put an ape in a man's hood,' i.e.

to make him look like an ape, or look foolish; see note to C. T., Group B,

1630.

1823. 'Then a company came running in.'

1824. _Choppen_, strike downwards. They began hitting people on the head,

regardless of consequences. The same expression occurs in Richard the

Redeless, iii. 230--'And ich man i-charchid to schoppe at his croune';

where _i-charchid_ = _i-charged_, i.e. was charged, was commanded, and

_schoppe_ = _choppe_.

1840. _Pale_, a perpendicular stripe; chiefly used as an heraldic term. The

object of the conspicuous stripe upon the hose was to draw men's attention

to him; for the same reason, he wore a bell on his tippet, and, in fact,

his dress resembled that of the professional fool. _Paled_ or striped hose

were sometimes worn for display.

'Buskins he wore of costliest cordwayne,

Pinckt upon gold, and _paled_ part per part,

As then the guize was for each gentle swayne.'

Spenser, _F. Q._ vi. 2. 6.

I.e. his buskins were adorned with golden dots or eyelets, and regularly

intersected with stripes arranged perpendicularly.

1844. _Isidis_, Isis; _Isidis_ being a form of the genitive case. Chaucer

doubtless refers to Herostratus, the wretch who set fire to the temple of

Diana at Ephesus, in order to immortalise his name. Why Diana here appears

as Isis, and Ephesus as Athens, I cannot explain. Perhaps it was due to a

defect of memory; we are apt to forget how _very_ largely medieval authors

had to trust to their memories for names and facts. It is almost impossible

for us moderns, with our facilities for reference, to imagine what were the

difficulties of learned men in the olden time. Perhaps Chaucer was thinking

of Ovid's line (ex Ponto, i. 1. 51)--'Uidi ego linigerae numen uiolasse

fatentem _Isidis_.' The story is in Solinus, Polyhistor, cap. xl. § 3.

'See, Erostratus the second

Fires again Diana's fane.'

Rejected Addresses; _Drury's Dirge_, st. 5.

1853. Thynne prints--'(Though it be naught) for shreudness'; but this is

very forced. MS. B. and Caxton both omit _noght_, rightly.

1857. 'And, in order to get (some) of the meed of fame.'

1880. An allusion to the old proverb--'As I brew, so must I needs drink';

in Camden's Remains. Gower has it, Conf. Amant. bk. iii, ed. Pauli, ii.

334:--

'And who so wicked ale breweth,

Ful ofte he mot the werse drinke.'

1908. The form _bringes_, for _bringest_, though (strictly speaking) a

Northern form, is not uncommon in East Midland. It occurs frequently, for

example, in Havelok the Dane. But, as there is no other clear example in

Chaucer, Koch thinks the passage is corrupt, and proposes to read:--

'Which than be, lo! thise tydinges,

That bringe thee hider, and thise thinges

That thou wilt here'; &c.

1920. Here _that_ means 'that very.' The description of 'the house of

Dædalus' is in Ovid, Met. viii. 159; and the word _labyrinthus_, used with

reference to it, is in Vergil, Æn. v. 588. Chaucer again refers to it in

the Leg. of Good Women (Ariadne), 2010; and it is mentioned in his

translation of Boethius, bk. iii. pr. 12. 118 (vol. ii. p. 89). And see

Gower, Conf. Amant. ed. Pauli, ii. 304.

1926. This somewhat resembles Dante, Inf. iii. 53, which Cary translates:--

'Which whirling ran about so rapidly

That it no pause obtain'd.'

1928. _Oise_, a river which flows into the Seine, from the north, not far

below Paris. Chaucer says the sound might have been heard from there to

Rome. From this vague statement, Warton would wish us to infer that the

whole poem was founded on some foreign production now (and probably always)

unknown. There is no need to draw any such conclusion. The English were

fairly familiar with the north of France in days when a good deal of French

soil belonged more or less to the king of England. The Oise, being a

northern affluent of the Seine, must have been a well-known river. I think

the allusion proves just nothing at all.

1933. This is an excellent and picturesque allusion, but in these days can

no longer be appreciated. Compare Barbour's Bruce, xvii. 681:--

'The engynour than deliuerly

Gert bend the gyne in full gret hy,

And the stane smertly swappit out.

It flaw out, quhedirand, with a _rout_.'

1940. Though the authorities read _hattes_ (Th. _hutches_), I alter this

word to _hottes_ without hesitation. We do not make _hats_ with twigs or

osiers. Chaucer says that some of the twigs were white, such as men use to

make cages with, or panniers (i.e. baskets), or _hottes_, or _dossers_. Now

Cotgrave explains F. _Panier_ by 'a Pannier, or Dosser; also, a Pedlers

Pack; also, a fashion of trunke made of wicker'; and he explains F. _Hotte_

by 'a Scuttle, Dosser, Basket to carry on the back; the right _hotte_ is

wide at the top, and narrow at the bottom.' Dr. Murray kindly refers me to

Cursor Mundi, l. 5524:--

'Apon þer neckes sal þai bere

_Hott_ wit stan and wit morter.'

He also tells me that in Caxton's Golden Legend (1483), fol. cix. col. 2,

is the sentence--'And bare on hys sholdres vij. _hottis_ or baskettis fulle

of erthe.' In a Glossary of North of England Words, printed as Gloss. B. 1,

by the Eng. Dial. Society, I find: '_Hots_, s. pl. a sort of panniers to

carry turf or slate in'; and Halliwell gives it as a Cumberland word.

Dickenson's Cumberland Glossary has: '_Muck-hots_, panniers for conveying

manure on horseback.' Brockett's Gloss. of Northern Words has: '_Hot_, a

sort of square basket, formerly used for taking manure into fields of steep

ascent; the bottom opened by two wooden pins to let out the contents.' Thus

the existence of the word in English is fully proved; and the fitness of it

is evident.

1943. 'Al ful of chirking was that sory place'; Kn. Tale, A 2004.

1946. Again from Ovid, Met. xii. 44-47.

1970. Read--'Of estáts and éek of regióuns.' The _e_ in _estat_ was very

light; hence mod. E. _state_.

1975. _Mis_ is here an adjective, meaning 'bad' or 'wrong'; cf. 'But to

correcten that is _mis_ I mente'; Can. Yeom. Tale, G 999.

1980. 'Although the timber,' &c.

1982. 'As long as it pleases Chance, who is the mother of news, just as the

sea (is mother) of wells and springs.'

1997. _Paráventure_; also spelt _paraunter_, shewing how rapidly the third

syllable could be slurred over.

2000. _Peter!_ by St Peter; see note to l. 1034.

2004. _Cunne ginne_, know how to begin. (_Gin_, a contrivance, is

monosyllabic).

2009. I substitute the dissyllabic _swich-e_ for the monosyllabic _these_,

to preserve the melody.

2011. 'To drive away thy heaviness with.'

2017. MS. F. has _frot_, which has no meaning, but may be a misspelling of

_froit_, which is another form of _fruit_. As Koch says, we must read _The

fruit_, remembering that Chaucer uses _fruit_ in the peculiar sense of

'upshot' or 'result.'

'And for it is no _fruit_ but los of tyme'; Squi. Ta., F 74.

'The _fruyt_ of this matere is that I telle'; Man of Lawes Ta., B 411.

In the present case, it would be used in a _double_ sense; (1) of result,

(2) of a fruit that withers and is ready to burst open. As to the spelling

_froit_, we find _froyte_ in the Petworth MS. in the latter of the above

quotations, where other MSS. have _fruyt_ or _fruite_. _The swote_ (Cx.

Th.) means 'the sweetness.'

2019. _That_, in this line, goes back to _Sith that_ in l. 2007.

2021. I suppress _in_ after _yaf_, because it is not wanted for the sense,

and spoils the metre.

2034-40. Suggested by Dante, Inf. iii. 55-57, just as ll. 1924-6 above are

by the two preceding lines in Dante; see note to l. 1926. Cary has:--

'and following came

Such a long train of spirits, I should ne'er

Have thought that death so many had despoil'd.'

In l. 2038, _left_ means 'left alive.'

2044. I substitute _ech_ for _euerych_ (in Caxton). The two MSS. (F. and

B.) have merely _Rouned in others ere_, which is of course defective.

2048. I here follow B. (except that it wrongly omits _lo_).

2059. _Wondermost_; superl. of _wonder_, which is very common as an

_adjective_.

2076. As the reading of the MSS. is obviously wrong (the word _mouth_ being

repeated three times), whilst the reading of the printed editions (_Wente

every tydyng_) cannot be right on account of the scansion, I put _word_ for

the first of the three _mouths_. This gives the right sense, and probably

Chaucer actually wrote it.

2089. Again from Ovid, Met. xii. 54, 55. _A sad soth-sawe_, a sober truth.

2099. _With the nones_, on the condition; see Leg. of Good Women, 1540; and

the note. So also in the Tale of Gamelyn, 206.

2101. See Kn. Tale, 273, 274 (A 1131).

2105. _Beside_, without; without asking his leave.

2119. Cf. Cant. Tales, D 1695--'Twenty thousand freres on a route,' where

Tyrwhitt prints _A twenty_. But the MSS. (at least the seven best ones) all

omit the _A_. Just as the present line wants its first syllable, and is to

be scanned--'Twénty thoúsand ín a roúte'; so the line in the Cant. Tales

wants its first syllable, and is to be scanned--Twénty thoúsand fréres ón a

roúte. For having called attention to this fact, my name (misspelt)

obtained a mention in Lowell's My Study Windows, in his (otherwise

excellent) article on Chaucer. 'His (Chaucer's) ear would never have

tolerated the verses of nine[63] syllables with a strong accent on the

first, attributed to him by Mr. Skeate and Mr. Morris. Such verses seem to

me simply impossible in the pentameter iambic as Chaucer wrote it.' Surely

this is assumption, not proof. I have only to say that the examples are

rather numerous, and nine-syllable lines are not impossible to a poet with

a good ear; for there are twelve consecutive lines of this character in

Tennyson's Vision of Sin. It may suffice to quote one of them:--

'Pánted hánd in hánd with fáces pále.'

I will merely add here, that similar lines _abound_ in Lydgate's 'Sege of

Thebes,' and that there are 25 clear examples of such lines in the Legend

of Good Women, as I shew in my Introduction to that Poem.

2123. Cf. P. Plowman; B. prol. 46-52. _Bretful_, brim-ful, occurs in P. Pl.

C. i. 42; also in Chaucer, Prol. 687; Kn. Tale, 1306 (A 2164).

2130. _Lyes_; F. _lies_, E. _lees_. '_Lie_, f. the lees, dregs, grounds';

Cotgrave.

2140. Sooner or later, every sheaf in the barn has to come out to be

thrashed.

2152. 'And cast up their noses on high.' I adopt this reading out of

deference to Dr. Koch, who insists upon its correctness. Otherwise, I

should prefer the graphic reading in MS. B.--'And up the nose and yën

caste.' Each man is trying to peer beyond the rest.

2154. 'And stamp, as a man would stamp on a live eel, to try to secure it.'

Already in Plautus, Pseudolus, 2. 4. 56, we have the proverb _anguilla est,

elabitur_, he is an eel, he slips away from you; said of a sly or slippery

fellow. In the Rom. de la Rose, 9941, we are told that it is as hard to be

sure of a woman's constancy as it is to hold a live eel by the tail. 'To

have an eel by the tail' was an old English proverb; see _Eel_ in Nares'

Glossary, ed. Halliwell and Wright.

2158. The poem ends here, in the middle of a sentence. It seems as if

Chaucer did not quite know how to conclude, and put off finishing the poem

till that more 'convenient season' which never comes. Practically, nothing

is lost.

The copy printed by Caxton broke off still earlier, viz. at l. 2094. In

order to make a sort of ending to it, Caxton added twelve lines of his own,

with his name--Caxton--at the side of the first of them; and subjoined a

note in prose, as follows:--

And wyth the noyse of them [t]wo[64]

I Sodeynly awoke anon tho[65]

And remembryd what I had seen

And how hye and ferre I had been

In my ghoost / and had grete wonder

Of that [that?] the god of thonder

Had lete me knowen / and began to wryte[66]

Lyke as ye haue herd me endyte

Wherfor to studye and rede alway[67]

I purpose to doo day by day

Thus in dremyng and in game

Endeth thys lytyl book of Fame.

I fynde nomore of this werke to-fore sayd. For as fer as I can vnderstonde

/ This noble man Gefferey Chaucer fynysshed at the sayd conclusion of the

metyng of lesyng and sothsawe / where as yet they ben chekked and may nat

departe / whyche werke as me semeth is craftyly made'; &c. (The rest is in

praise of Chaucer). But, although Caxton's copy ended at l. 2094, lines

2095-2158 appear in the two MSS., and are obviously genuine. Thynne also

printed them, and must have found them in the MS. which he followed. After

l. 2158, Thynne subjoins Caxton's ending, with an alteration in the first

three lines, as unsuitable to follow l. 2158. Hence Thynne prints them as

follows:--

And therwithal I abrayde

Out of my slepe halfe a frayde

Remembri[n]g wel what I had sene.

We thus see that it was never pretended that the lines following l. 2158

were Chaucer's. They are admittedly Caxton's and Thynne's. Even if we had

not been told this, we could easily have detected it by the sudden

inferiority in the style. Caxton's second line will not scan at all

comfortably; neither will the third, nor the fourth. (The seventh can be

improved by altering _began_ to _gan_). And Thynne's lines are but little

better.

NOTES TO THE LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN.

NOTES TO THE PROLOGUE.

*** N.B. The references are to the B-text, except where special mention

of the A-text is made. The latter is denoted by the letter 'A', preceded

by a short line.

2. Compare Chaucer's Troilus, book ii. ll. 894-6.

5. _Nis noon_ = _ne is noon_, is not none, i.e. is no one. This use of the

double negative, as in modern provincial English, is extremely common, and

need not be again remarked upon. Cf. ll. 7, 15, &c.

9. 'For there may no man prove it by actual trial.'

10. _Leve_, believe. Notice the numerous senses of _leve_, viz. (1)

believe; (2) leave, _v._; (3) grant; (4) dear; (5) leave, _sb._; (6) leaf

(dat. case).

11. _Wel more thing_, many more things. The word _thing_ was originally

neuter, and long remained unchanged in the plural. In l. 23, we have

_thinges_. The M.E. _more_ usually means 'greater'; it is seldom used (as

here) in the modern sense.

12. _Men shal nat_, people ought not to. The use of _men_ in the general

sense of 'people' is extremely common in Chaucer, and the student should

notice that it usually takes a _singular_ verb, when thus used. With ll.

12, 13 cf. Hamlet, i. 5. 166.

13. _But-if_, unless, except. Great attention should be paid to the exact

sense of these apparently less important words. Frequently the whole sense

of a sentence is missed, even by editors, owing to inattention to their

use.

14. 'For, God knoweth, a thing is none the less true, although no one can

see it.'

16. In the margins of MSS. C. and F. is written the Latin proverb here

referred to, viz. 'Bernardus monachus non uidit omnia'; i.e. Bernard the

monk (even) did not see everything. The reference is to the great learning

and experience of St. Bernard of Clairvaux (born A.D. 1091, died Aug. 20,

1153). This we know from an entry in J. J. Hofmann's Lexicon Universale

(Basileæ, 1677), s.v. _Bernardus_, where we find: 'Nullos habuit

præceptores præter quercus et fagos. Hinc proverb: _Neque enim Bernardus

vidit omnia_.' See an account of St. Bernard in Alban Butler's Lives of the

Saints, or in Chambers' Book of Days, under the date of Aug. 20.

18. _Minde_, remembrance; see l. 26. Cf. 'to bear in _mind_.'

25. Cf. Le Rom. de la Rose, ed. Méon, 9669-72:--

'Car par l'escript que nous avons,

Les fais des anciens savons;

Si les en devons mercier,

Et loer et regracier.'

26. _Rémembráunce_; accented on the first and last syllables. The melody of

innumerable lines in Chaucer is only apparent to those who perceive the

difference between the present and the old accentuation, especially in the

case of French words. Besides, such accent is frequently variable; Chaucer

has _hónour_, _rénoun_, &c. at one time, and _honóur_, _renóun_, &c. at

another. Thus in l. 27 we have _honóuren_; and in l. 31 _credénce_.

27. _Wel oghte us_, it is very necessary for us, it well behoves us. _Us_

is here the dative case, and _oghte_ is the impersonal verb; in accordance

with Chaucer's usual method. But, in this case, there is a grammatical

difficulty; for the past tense _oghte_ is here used with the sense of the

present; the right form would be expressed, in modern English, by _oweth_,

and in M.E. by _ah_ (also _awe_, _o[gh]e_). Such use of the right form of

the present tense is exceedingly rare; and (possibly owing to a sense of

uncertainty about its true form) the form of the past tense was used both

for past and present, whether personal or impersonal, precisely as we now

use _must_ in place both of M.E. _mot_ (present) and _moste_ (past).

Mätzner only gives three examples of the present tense of this verb, when

used impersonally; viz. '_Hym awe_ to rise,' it behoves him to rise,

Metrical Homilies, p. 77; '_Vus o[gh]e_,' it behoves us, Allit. Poems, ed.

Morris, i. 552; '_Him owith_ to mynystre,' Reliquiæ Antiquæ, ii. 48.

The only right way of thoroughly understanding Chaucer's grammar is by

comparing one passage with another, observing how particular expressions

occur. This is best done by the proper process of reading the text; but

even the usual glossarial indexes will often furnish ready examples. Thus

the glossary to the Prioresses Tale gives the following examples:--

'And ther she was honoured as _hir oughte_'; E 1120.

--'wel more _us oughte_

Receyven al in gree that god us sent'; E 1150.

The glossary to the Man of Law's Tale gives:--

'Alla goth to his in, and, as _him oughte_,' &c.; B 1097.

'But that they weren as hem _oughte be_'; G 1340.

'Wel _oughten we_ to doon al our entente'; G 6.

'Wel _oughte us_ werche, and ydelnes withstonde'; G 14.

As to the spelling of the word, it may be remarked that _oghte_ is the more

correct form, because _[=o]_ answers to A.S. _[=a]_, and _gh_ to A.S. _h_

in the A.S. form _[=a]hte_. But a confusion between the symbols _ogh_,

_ugh_, and _ough_ soon arose, and all three were merged in the form _ough_;

hence neither _ogh_ nor _ugh_ occurs in modern English. See Skeat, Eng.

Etymology, § 333, p. 361.

The full explanation of this and similar phrases would extend these notes

to an inordinate length. Only brief hints can here be given.

28. _Ther_, where. The sense 'where' is commoner than the sense 'there.'

29. _Can but lyte_, know but little. Cf. Prior. Tale, B 1726, 1898.

30. _For to rede_, to read. The use of _for to_ with the gerundial

infinitive is found in Layamon and the Ormulum, and may have been suggested

by the like use of the French _pour_, O. Fr. _por_ (and even _por a_). See

Mätzner, Engl. Grammatik, ii. 2. 54. Compare Parl. Foules, 16, 695; Ho.

Fame, 657.

36. This connection of 'the month of May' with song and poetry is common in

Mid. Eng. poetry, from the natural association of spring with a time of joy

and hope. We even find something of the kind in A.S. poetry. See The

Phoenix, l. 250; Menologium, l. 75.

The earliest song in Middle English relates to the cuckoo; and, before

Chaucer, we already find, in the Romance of Alexander, l. 2049, such lines

as--

'In tyme of May hot is in boure;

Divers, in medewe, spryngith floure;

The ladies, knyghtis honourith;

Treowe love in heorte durith'; &c.

See also the poem on Alisoun, in Morris and Skeat, Spec. of Eng., part ii.

p. 43. Again, we have a like mention of the May-season and of the singing

of birds in the introduction to the Roman de la Rose; see vol. i. p. 96.

Nevertheless, the whole of the present passage is highly characteristic of

the author, and extremely interesting. Cf. ll. 108, 176.

40. _Condicioun_, temperament, character, disposition. Prof. Corson here

refers us to Shakespeare, Merch. Ven. i. 2. 143; Cor. v. 4. 10; Oth. iv. 1.

204; Jul. Cæs. ii. 1. 254, &c.

41. On the scansion, see note to l. 67.

43. _Daysyes_, daisies; here dissyllabic. But in l. 182 we have the full

form _day-es-y-e_, of four syllables, answering to the A.S. _dæges éage_

(or _ége_), lit. day's eye, or eye of day, as Chaucer himself says in l.

184. And it is worth adding that his etymology is perfectly correct; for,

in the few instances in which etymologies are suggested in Middle English,

they are usually ludicrously wrong. In l. 184, the word is only trisyllabic

(_day-es-y'_), the last syllable suffering elision. The A.S. _dægesége_

occurs in a list of plants in A.S. Leechdoms, ed. Cockayne, iii. 292, l. 8;

and we also find in Wright's A.S. Vocabularies, ed. Wülker, col. 135, l.

22, and col. 322, l. 11, the following entries:--'_Consolda_, dægesege,'

and '_Consolda_, dægeseage.'

The primary meaning of _dæges éage_ is doubtless the sun; the daisy is

named from its supposed likeness to the sun, the white petals being the

rays, and the yellow centre the sun's sphere.

Compare Lydgate's Troy-book, ed. 1555, fol. K 6, back:--

'And next, Appollo, so clere, shene, and bright,

The _dayes eye_, and voyder of the nyght.'

46. 'That, when in my bed, no day dawns upon me on which I am not (at once)

up, and (am soon) walking in the meadow.' _Nam_ = _ne am_, am not.

49. _By the morwe_, with the (dawn of the) morning.

50. _Sight-e_ is dissyllabic, as the scansion shews. In l. 15, _wight_ is

monosyllabic. It is often difficult to ascertain Chaucer's usage of such

forms, and we have to observe, where we can, any instances that are

helpful. The Rime-Indexes to the Canterbury Tales and to the Minor Poems

are often of great service. We learn from them that _wight_ rimes with the

monosyllables _bright_, _knight_, _might_, _night_, _right_, &c., whereas

_sighte_ rimes with the infin. moods _light-e_, _fight-e_, &c., as well as

with monosyllables, and is therefore used somewhat capriciously. Another

helpful list is that given in Ellis's Early Eng. Pronunciation, ch. iv. §

5, founded upon Prof. Child's articles on Chaucer and Gower. This at once

refers us to C. T. 2118 (It were a lusty _sight-e_ for to see); 2335 (But

sodeinly she saugh a _sight-e_ queynte); &c.

We should also consider the etymology. Now _wight_ = A.S. _wiht_, is

monosyllabic, and gives no difficulty. On the other hand, the A.S. for

'sight' is _gesiht_ or _gesihþ_; but it is a fem. sb., and makes _all_ its

oblique cases with a final _-e_, viz. _gesiht-e_ or _gesihþ-e_. In such

instances, the nominative case often lost its distinctive form, and took

the form of the other cases, so that already in the Ormulum (l. 12670) we

find the nom. case _sihhþ-e_, dissyllabic. Such usages have received

careful attention in the present edition, and in almost every case the

addition of a final _e_ in an unexpected place can be amply justified by

instances of Chaucer's usage in other passages. If the student will

endeavour to _verify_ some of the examples here given, he will soon come to

a clearer knowledge of the matter.

52. _Hit_, it, i.e. the daisy. But in l. 53 it is referred to as _she_. We

shall see why this is hereafter. As a mere flower, it is neuter; but as

being the type of Alcestis, it is feminine. Cf. ll. 62, 63.

53. We have come to the first instance in which Chaucer transposed the

order of his material in the course of revision. Line 53 of the B-text

corresponds to A. 55, whilst B. 61 corresponds to A. 51. All such instances

are clearly shewn by printing the transposed passages twice over, once in

their right place, and again in their changed place _in a smaller type_. By

this arrangement all such transpositions can be understood at a glance.

The blank space which here appears in the A-text corresponds to ll. 50-52

in B, which are marked with an asterisk as being peculiar to the latter

text. In order to save space, a small blank space (of one or two lines

only) often corresponds to an insertion in the other text of some length.

56. 'And I love it, and ever (do so) equally anew,' i.e. unalterably.

57. The word _herte_ is so common that it is worth while to remember that

it is usually dissyllabic; the A.S. form being _heorte_.

58. _Al_, although (very common). _Of this_, in this matter.

61. _Weste_, is here a verb; 'to turn to the west.' See l. 197.

65. Probably to be scanned thus: Óf | the sónn' | for thér | hit wól |

unclós-e. See note to l. 67, and cf. l. 111.

66. _Ne had_, pronounced as _nad_; and often so written.

67. The first syllable of a line is often wanting in Chaucer; so that the

first foot consists of a single emphatic syllable. Such lines are now

considered faulty, though examples may be found in Tennyson's 'Vision of

Sin,' which cannot be called unmelodious; but they were once common,

especially in Lydgate. Some examples from the present poem are the

following:--

That | of alle the floures in the mede; 41.

Suf | fisant this flour to preyse aright; 67.

Of | this flour, whan that hit shulde unclose; 111.

Made | hir lyk a daysie for to sene; 224.

So also ll. 245, 303, 722, 783, 797, 859, 863, 901, 911, 1024, 1030, 1076,

1187, 1275, 1324, 1342, 1498, 1551, 1828, 1996, 2471, 2575.

68. _Conning_, knowledge. Many words now used with a changed signification

are well explained in Trench's Select Glossary, which should be consulted

for them. Thus, in the article upon _cunning_, Trench quotes the following

from the examination of Wm. Thorpe, as preserved in Foxe's Book of

Martyrs:--'I believe that all these three Persons [in the Godhead] are even

in power and in _cunning and in might_'.

69. _Make_, compose poetry; _of sentement_, concerning your feelings. So in

l. 74, _making_ is 'poetry.' See Trench, s.v. _make_; where it is shewn

that the use of the word arose quite independently of the Gk. use of

[Greek: poiein] and [Greek: poiêtês]. 'One of the earliest instances of the

use of _makyere_ in the sense of "author" occurs in the Kentish Ayenbite of

Inwyt, ed. Morris, p. 269; written A.D. 1340. The A.S. _scóp_ and O.H.G.

_scóf_ mean "a shaper." The G. _Dichter_ means an "arranger"; the Fr.

_trouvère_, Provençal _troubadour_, and Ital. _trovatore_ means a

"finder."'--Skeat, note to P. Plowman, B. xii. 16 (where _makynges_ means

'poems').

72. Cf. l. 193. There appears to be here some reference to a poem of the

kind called in F. _tenson_ (O.F. _tençon_) or in O. Provençal _tenso_, i.e.

'dispute,' in which the relative merits of two subjects are discussed. An

early example in English is the poem called The Owl and the Nightingale, in

which these birds contend for the superiority. In the present case, the

suggestion is to discuss the value of the Leaf, representing no doubt

constancy or any enduring virtue, as compared with that of the Flower, the

representative of perishable beauty and the freshness of first love.

Chaucer probably refers to some such poem in French, but I cannot point out

the exact source.

On the other hand, the present passage doubtless suggested the poem called

'The Flower and the Leaf,' a pretty but somewhat tedious poem of the

fifteenth century, in which Chaucer's style is imitated with no remarkable

exactness or success. This poem was formerly rashly attributed to Chaucer

himself without any evidence, though it was printed for the first time as

late as 1598. See it discussed in vol. i. p. 44. Gower also refers to the

present passage; C. A. iii. 358.

In scanning this line, remember to pronounce _Whether_ as _Whe'r_, a

monosyllable. This is common also in Shakespeare, as in his 59th Sonnet:

'_Whe'r_ we are mended, or _whe'r_ better they.'

74. _Making_, poetry; _ropen_, reaped. 'For I well know, that ye (poets)

have long ere this reaped the field of poetry, and carried away the corn

from it; and I come after you as a gleaner.' See note to l. 69. Compare

Parl. Foules, 22-25.

The A.S. _rípan_, to reap, was a strong verb; pt. t. _ráp_, pp. _ripen_.

The M.E. forms are various and corrupt, and not very common. In P. Plowman,

B. xiii. 374, the pt. t. is _rope_, pl. _ropen_. The proper form of the pp.

is _r[)i]pen_; the form _ropen_ is due to that confusion between the past

tense and past participle which is so extremely common in English. See

Morris, Hist. Outlines of Eng. Accidence, p. 160.

80. _Evel apayd_, ill pleased, displeased; a common phrase. See Cler. Tale,

E 1052; Can. Yem. Tale, G 921, 1049. _Apayd_, pleased, occurs in the Kn.

Tale, 1010 (A 1868).

85. _Wynt_, windeth, turns (me) about, directs (me). These contracted forms

of the third person singular of the present indicative are almost universal

in Anglo-Saxon, and very common in M.E. Chaucer has _fynt_ = findeth, _rit_

= rideth, _hit_ = hideth, _et_ = eateth, l. 1389, &c. A much earlier

example of _wint_ for _windeth_ is in the Ancren Riwle, p. 296.

86. _In-with_, within. This curious form is not very common in Chaucer.

Still it occurs in l. 228 below; in the Prior. Tale, B 1794; Cler. Tale, E

870; March. Tale, E 1944; Troilus, ii. 508, iii. 1499, &c. See Mätzner.

88. _Nothing I_, I am not at all (the master of it).

90. This is a fine simile. His lady sovereign can evoke from him any tone

at will. _And maketh_ = and (the hand) makes. Bell puts _That_ for _And_,

without authority.

93. _Yow list_, it pleases you. _List_ = _listeth_; cf. note to l. 85.

97. 'But why said I that we should give credence?' See ll. 10, 20.

In the A-text (l. 81) _But wherfor_ is used differently, and means--'But

the reason why,' &c.

100. _Seen at eye_, see evidently. So in the Can. Yem. Tale, G 1059. Cf.

_fair at yë_, fair to the sight, id. G 964; Cler. Tale, E 1168. The promise

made in l. 101 was not fulfilled.

103. _Besy gost_, active spirit. _Thrusteth_, thirsteth.

105. _Gledy_, glowing; an adj. formed from _gleed_, a glowing coal. I know

of no other example of this word. The compound adj. _gled-read_, glede-red,

i.e. red as a glowing coal, occurs in O. Eng. Homilies, ed. Morris, i. 249.

108. The first of May was a favourite time for joyful observances. See note

to Kn. Tale, A 1500.

109. _Dredful_, timid, timorous; as in Kn. Tale, A 1479.

112. _Agayn_, against, towards, turned towards; as in l. 48.

113. _The beste_, i.e. the Bull, the sign Taurus. _Agenores doghter_ is

Europa, daughter of Agenor of Phoenicia, who, according to the fable, was

carried off by Jupiter in the form of a bull. Hence Ovid uses the

expression 'Agenoreus bos,' Fast. vi. 712; and calls Europa 'Agenore nata,'

Met. ii. 858. For the story, see the latter reference.

Chaucer here tells us that the Sun, on the 1st of May, was 'in the breast'

of Taurus, i.e. in the middle of it. It was, in fact, far advanced in the

sign, near the 20th degree. See Fig. 1 in this volume, which shews the back

of the Astrolabe.

118. Cf. Book of the Duchesse, 399.

125. Cf. Book of the Duchesse, ll. 410-2, which is a parallel passage. Both

passages are borrowed from the Roman de la Rose, 55-58; see vol. i. p. 95.

126. _Mat_, dead; a term borrowed from the game of chess. See Anelida, 176;

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

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):--

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 · 第 7 / 11 章

746. _Charge_, a heavy weight, opposed to _light thing_. The verb _seke_ is