And many a traytour envious.'
Again repeated in Cant. Tales, B 4515-8.
353. _Totelere_ (C. _totulour_), tattling; properly a sb., meaning
'tattler,' but here used in apposition, and, practically, as an adjective.
Tyrwhitt explains it by 'whisperer.' Halliwell quotes 'Be no _totiler_'
from MS. Bibl. Reg. 17 B. xvii. fol. 141. It clearly means a gossiping
tattler, or tale-bearer.
The word is scarce, but we find a helpful passage in P. Plowman, B. xx.
297:--
'Of alle taletellers and _tyterers_ in ydel.'
Here _tyterers_ means gossipers, or retailers of tittle-tattle; and various
readings give the forms _titeleris_ (as printed by Wright) and _tutelers_
(as printed by Crowley). The last form _tuteler_ is clearly identical with
Chaucer's _totelere_, spelt _tutelere_ in MS. Arch. Selden B. 24.
357. 'These are the causes why, if I am not to lie'; &c. See note to l.
217.
358. _Lavender_, laundress, washerwoman; (Bell's interpretation of 'gutter'
is utter nonsense). See _Laundress_ in my Etym. Dict., where I refer to the
present passage. _Laundress_ is formed by adding _-ess_ to _launder_ or
_laundre_, the contracted form of _lavender_ as here used. In Barbour's
Bruce, ed. Skeat, xvi. 273, 292, the word for 'washerwoman' is spelt
_lauender_, _laynder_, and _landar_. Palsgrave's Eng. and Fr. Dict.
gives--'_Laundre_, that wassheth clothes; _lauendiere_'; and Cotgrave
explains the Fr. _lauandiere_ by the Eng. _launderesse_. Chaucer's
presentation to us of Envy as the person who washes all the dirty linen in
the court, is particularly happy. As a matter of fact, he is here quoting
Dante, but he has substituted _lavender_ (perhaps in an ill sense, though I
do not feel sure of this) for the _meretrice_ of the original. The passage
referred to is in the Inferno, xiii. 64:--
'La meretrice, che mai dall' ospizio
Di Cesare non torse gli occhi putti,
Morte comune, e delle corti vizio,
Infiammò contre me gli animi tutti.'
Cary's translation has:--
'The harlot, who ne'er turned her gloating eyes
From Cæsar's household, common vice and pest
Of courts, 'gainst me inflamed the minds of all.'
Gower (C. A. ed. Pauli, i. 263) says:--
'Senec witnesseth openly
How that envie properly
Is of the court the comun wenche.'
Note that _parteth_ in l. 359 means 'departeth.'
361. 'Whoever goes away, at any rate she will not be wanting.' Men come and
go, but Envy remains. This is the right sense; but Bell, whom Prof. Corson
follows, gives it quite a false twist. He says, 'Whosoever goes, i.e.
falls, she will not be in want'; a desperate and unmeaning solution, due to
not appreciating the force of the verb _to want_, which here simply means
'to be absent,' and can be applied to _persons_ as well as to _things_.
'There _wanteth_ but a mean to fill your song'; Two Gent. of Verona, i. 2.
295; 'though bride and bridegroom _wants_,' i.e. are absent, Tam. Shrew,
iii. 2. 248: 'There _wanteth_ now our brother of Gloucester here'; Rich.
III. ii. 1. 43.
364. 'But only because he is accustomed to write poems.'
366. 'Or it was enjoined him by some patron to compose those two poems (the
Romaunce of the Rose and Troilus; _see_ A. 344); and he did not dare to
refuse.'
371. _As thogh that_, as he would have done if.
372. _And had_, i.e. and had composed it all himself.
374. 'The allusion is to the several successful adventurers, like the
Visconti, who in the 13th and 14th centuries succeeded in seizing upon the
governments of Milan, and other free cities of Lombardy'; Bell. See the
article _Visconti_ in the Eng. Cyclopædia; we are there referred to Verri,
Storia di Milano, and to Muratori, Annali d' Italia. Cf. Dante, Inf.
xxviii. 74, 81; and see Chaucer's reference to 'Barnabo Viscounte' in the
Monkes Tale, B 3589.
375. _Reward at_, regard to. _Reward_ and _regard_ are etymologically
identical. Observe the accent on the _former_ syllable. Cf. l. 399.
378. _Fermour_, a farmer of taxes; who is naturally exacting and
oppressive.
380. Before _is_ supply _hit_, which, as in l. 379, refers to a suppliant
culprit. His own vassals are a lord's treasures, to be cherished, not
oppressed.
381. Bech refers us to Seneca, De Clementia, lib. i. c. 3, § 3; c. 5, § 4.
Or perhaps Aristotle is meant, whose supposed advice to Alexander is fully
given in Gower's Confessio Amantis, bk. vii. See particularly the passage
in Pauli's edition, iii. 176:--
'What is a king in his legeaunce,
Wher that ther is no law in londe?'
There is a similar long and tedious passage in Lancelot of the Laik, ed.
Skeat, ll. 1463-1998. Gower calls Aristotle 'the philosophre'; C. A. iii.
86. We may also compare Hoccleve, De Regimine Principum, ed. Wright, pp.
102-3, translated from Ægidius, De Reg. Princ., lib. i. pars 1, cap. xiv;
where the reference to Aristotle is:--'Propter quod V. Ethicorum scribitur,
quod _principatus uirum ostendit_.'
384. _Al_, although. 'Although he will preserve their rank for his lords.'
Note that _his lordes_ is in the dative case. It was probably from not
observing this that Thynne's edition and the Pepys MS. have needlessly
inserted the word _in_ before _hir_. Cf. A. 370.
387. _Half-goddes_, demi-gods. Cf. 'the demi-god Authority'; Meas. for
Meas. i. 2. 124.
391. So, in his Epitaph on Inigo Jones, Ben Jonson says:--'The Libyan lion
hunts no butterflies'; which he took from Martial, Epig. xii. 61. 6. And
see Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 16.
397. _Areste._ Bell seems to suggest the sense of 'restraint,' and Prof.
Corson, following him, suggests 'self-command'; but such a sense does not
exactly appear in Murray's Dictionary. Nevertheless, 'self-restraint' suits
not only this passage, but also the passage cited from the Harleian MS. in
the foot-note to the Somnour's Tale, D 2048, in vol. iv. p. 381.
399. Here, as in l. 375, _reward_ means 'regard,' and is accented on the
_e_.
400. _Maystrie_, masterly act; _no maystrie_, an easy matter.
405. This is not altogether a metaphorical expression. We remember
something very like it at the siege of Calais in 1347, when, according to
Froissart, Edward III. sent for the six inhabitants of Calais, who were to
present themselves 'with bare heads and feet, with ropes round their
necks'; see Froissart, tr. by Johnes, bk. i. c. 145.
415. In the earlier text (A 403), the word _He_ stands alone in the first
foot, which is less pleasing.
417. See Introd. to the Minor Poems (in vol. i.) for a discussion of some
of the poems here mentioned. He here mentions, first of all, three of his
lesser poems, in the order of their length; viz. the Hous of Fame, the
Deeth of Blaunche, and the Parlement of Foules.
420. The 'Palamoun and Arcyte' here referred to was no doubt a translation
of Boccaccio's Teseide, or of selections from it, in seven-line stanzas.
Though not preserved to us in its entirety, several fragments of it remain.
These are to be found (1) in sixteen stanzas of the Parl. of Foules (ll.
183-294), translated from the Teseide, bk. vii. st. 51-66; (2) in part of
the first ten stanzas of Anelida, from the same, bk. i. st. 1-3, and bk.
ii. st. 10-12; (3) in three stanzas near the end of Troilus (viz. st. 7, 8,
and 9 from the end), from the same, xi. 1-3; and (4) in a re-written form,
in what is now known as the Knightes Tale. See Notes to Anelida, in vol. i.
pp. 529, 530.
421. 'Though the story is little known.' Tyrwhitt remarks that these words
'seem to imply that it [Chaucer's original version of Palamon and Arcite]
had not made itself very popular.' Unfortunately, Tyrwhitt, who so very
seldom goes astray, has here misled nearly all who have consulted him.
Chaucer is not referring to his own version of the story, nor even to
Boccaccio's version, but to the old story _itself_; and he is merely
repeating Boccaccio's own remark, when (in the Teseide, i. 2) he speaks of
it as
'--una storia antica,
Tanto negli anni riposta e nascosa,
Che Latino autor non par ne dica,
Per quel ch'io senta, in libro alcuna cosa.'
And, in truth, the story must have been known but to very few, till
Boccaccio rescued it from oblivion. This is all that is meant; and there is
no difficulty. Note further that Chaucer refers to the very same passage in
another poem; see note to Anelida, l. 8.
423. A Balade is, properly, a poem in three stanzas, in which each stanza
ends with the same line, called the refrain. There is also usually a fourth
stanza, called _Lenvoy_, or the Envoy, which is sometimes shorter than the
other three. Most of Chaucer's Balades have probably perished, as only a
few are now known. These are: _Fortune_, consisting of 3 Balades, each in
8-line stanzas, followed by a single Envoy; _Truth_, a Balade with Envoy,
in 7-line stanzas; _Gentilesse_, without Envoy; _Lak of Stedfastnesse_,
with Envoy; (probably) _A Balade against women unconstaunt_, without Envoy;
_The Complaint of Venus_, consisting of 3 Balades, with a general Envoy;
_The Compleint to his Purse_, with Envoy of five lines only; _To
Rosemounde_, without Envoy; and the Balade included in the present poem, at
ll. 249-269 above.
A _Roundel_ is a poem of from nine to fourteen lines, in which only eight
lines are different from each other, the rest being repetitions of lines
that have already occurred. See this fully explained in the note to l. 675
of the Parl. of Foules. The one certain example is the Roundel included in
the Parl. of Foules, beginning at l. 680. There is also a beautiful example
of a Triple Roundel, which I have included in the Minor Poems, with the
title of Merciless Beauty. No doubt Chaucer wrote many more, but they are
lost.
A _Virelay_ is a poem in an unusual metre, of which examples are very rare.
Only one entire poem of this character has been conjecturally assigned to
Chaucer, but it is written in later English, and cannot possibly be his. It
is not a true Virelay (in the French sense), and first appeared in the
edition of 1561; see vol. i. p. 33. In this poem, lines 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7
all rime together; and l. 4 rimes with l. 8. Then comes the 'veer' or
'turn,' which requires that, in the next stanza, lines 9, 10, 11, 13, 14,
15 shall rime with lines 4 and 8, as, in fact, they do; but lines 12 and 16
introduce a _new_ rime, as they should _not_ do. We find, however, two fair
examples of the Virelay in the poem of Anelida, viz. in lines 256-271 and
317-332. In the former of these, the rime in _-ee_ (_-e_) appears in lines
256-8 and 260-2, and the rime in _-yte_ ends lines 259 and 263; whereas,
conversely, the rime in _-yte_ ends lines 264-6 and 268-270, whilst lines
267 and 271 repeat the rime in _-ee_. Similarly, ll. 317-332 exhibit
veering rimes in _-eye_ and _-ure_.
In Hoccleve's Poems, ed. Furnivall (Early Eng. Text Soc., Extra Series,
1892), there are several clever and intricate examples of the Virelay.
Thus, in Balade IV, at p. 39, there are five stanzas, but only three rimes,
viz. in _-al_, _-ee_, and _-ay_. The formula of rimes, for the first and
third stanzas, is _a b a b b c b c_; for the second and fourth stanzas, _c
b c b b a b a_; and for the fifth stanza, _a c a c c b c b_. See also the
same, pp. 41, 47, 49, 58, 59, 61, 62. Beyond all doubt, Hoccleve copied the
forms of Chaucer's lost virelays.
424. _Holynesse_, holy employment, religious composition. This is, clearly,
an intentional substitution for the _besinesse_, i.e. 'laborious
employment,' in the A-text, l. 412.
425. Chaucer made an excellent prose translation of Boethius de
Consolatione Philosophiæ, a Latin treatise much admired in the middle ages,
and still worthy of admiration. For further remarks, see vol. iii.
--A. 414. This is the only notice we possess of a work by Chaucer which is
no longer extant. We gather from it that he made a translation of the Latin
prose treatise by Pope Innocent III., entitled De Miseria Conditionis
Humanæ, a gloomy enumeration of human woes without a single alleviating
touch of hope, fiercely and unrelentingly set forth. It is probable that it
was written in 7-line stanzas; for portions of it appear to be preserved in
the Prologue to the Man of Lawes Tale, B 99-126, and in other stanzas of
the same (B 421-7, 771-7, 925-931, 1135-8).
426. _The Lyf of Seynt Cecyle_ is happily preserved. It was one of
Chaucer's early productions; but he himself rescued it from possible
disappearance by introducing it into the Canterbury Tales, with the title
of the Second Nonnes Tale.
428. This is another of the lost works. We gather that he made a
translation from a piece attributed to Origen, one of the most eminent of
the early Christian writers, who was born at Alexandria in 186. Tyrwhitt
says the piece meant is doubtless 'the Homily _de Maria Magdalena_, which
has been commonly, though falsely, attributed to Origen; see Opp. Origenis,
Tom. ii. p. 291, ed. Paris, 1604.' Tyrwhitt adds, very justly and
incontrovertibly--'I cannot believe that the Poem entitled The Lamentation
of Marie Magdaleine, which is in all the [older] editions of Chaucer, is
really that work of his. It can hardly be considered as a translation, or
even as an imitation, of the Homily; and the composition, in every respect,
is infinitely meaner than the worst of his genuine pieces.'
432. Here, in the B-text, the name of Alcestis is first mentioned; yet
strange to say, Chaucer does not realise who she is till later; see l. 518.
She was the wife of Admetus, not king of Thrace (as here said) but of Pheræ
in Thessaly. Apollo obtained from the Moiræ a promise to grant Admetus
deliverance from death if, at the hour of his death, his father, mother, or
wife, would consent to die for him. Alcestis consented to die in his stead,
and is therefore here taken as the chief type of wifely devotion. The
mention of Alcestis in the Court of Love, st. 15, is merely copied from
Chaucer; so also Lydgate's use of _Alceste_ to mean 'a daisy,' in his
Legend of St. Edmund, l. 235 of the additional stanzas found in MS. Ashmole
46, as printed in Horstmann, Alteng. Legenden, Neue Folge (1881), p. 443.
Gower has the story of Alcestis in his Confessio Amantis; ed. Pauli, iii.
149.
452. An allusion to the common proverb--'Bis dat, qui cito dat'; he who
gives at once, gives twice. Publius Syrus has: 'Bis gratum est, quod dato
opus est, ultro si offeras,' v. 44; and again: 'Inopi beneficium bis dat,
qui dat celeriter'; v. 235.
465. 'Has no participation in the deed of a thief.' Similarly, in the Squi.
Tale, F 537, Chaucer tells us that 'A trew wight and a theef thenken nat
oon,' i.e. do not think alike. _Trew_ means 'honest.'
466. The first foot contains _Ne a trew-_; _e_ in _Ne_ is elided.
475, 6. Closely imitated in the Court of Love, st. 61:--
'And argue not for reason ne for skill
Againe thy ladies pleasure ne entent,
For love will not be counterpleted indeede.'
The substitution of the dissyllabic _indeede_ for Chaucer's monosyllabic
_be_ just ruins the scansion of the line; but we must not expect always to
find melody in that grossly over-rated poem.
496, 7. Observe that these lines are not in the A-text. They must
necessarily have been added after 1382, when Richard II. married Anne of
Bohemia, and of course long before 1394, when 'the good queen Anne' died,
and her husband at once forsook their favourite residence of Shene, now
Richmond; see Annals of England, p. 201.
499. This is a strange question, seeing that Alcestis has already announced
her name at l. 432; we must suppose that the poet did not realise that she
was _the very_ Alcestis whom he longed to see. But it looks like an
oversight, due to his partially rewriting this Prologue.
503. Literally Chaucer's favorite line; for it reappears three times more,
viz. in the Kn. Ta., A 1761; March. Ta., E 1986; and Squi. Ta., F 479. And,
in the Man of Law's Tale, B 660, we have--'As gentil herte is fulfild of
pitee.' It is admirable.
510. Here Chaucer seems to be imitating Froissart; see the Introduction. I
cannot find any early account of Alcestis that turns her into a daisy[68].
See notes to ll. 432, 515.
515. Alcestis 'was afterwards brought back from the lower world by
Hercules, and restored to her husband'; Lewis and Short, Lat. Dict. s.v.
_Alcestis_. And see the Introduction.
522. _Bountee_, goodness. See Clerk. Ta., E 157, 415; and Trench, Sel.
Glossary.
526. _Agaton_, Agathon or Agatho; Dante's _Agatone_ (Purg. xxii. 107). An
Athenian poet (B.C. 447-400); who wrote a tragedy called 'the Flower.' See
the Introduction.
531. _Cibella_, Cybela, or more commonly Cybele, a Phrygian goddess, later
worshipped at Rome as Ops or Mater Magna. She was the goddess of the earth,
and especially represented its fertility; hence she is naturally said to
produce flowers. She here answers to the 'Ceres' of Froissart; see the
Introduction.
533. The reference is to the red tips on the white petals of the daisy, the
'wee, modest, crimson-tippèd flower.' This is said to be the gift of Mars,
as he was associated with that colour. He is called 'Mars the rede'; see l.
2589 below; Anelida, l. 1; Kn. Ta., A 1969. The colour of the planet Mars
is reddish.
In the present passage _reed_ is a sb.; 'And Mars gave redness to her
crown.'
539. Referring to the Balade at l. 249. In the A-text, Alcestis was
actually mentioned in the refrain; but Chaucer rewrote it so as to exclude
her name. He now writes (in l. 540) as if he had forgotten to put it in. Of
course ll. 539-541 are peculiar to the B-text, as marked.
542. _Kalender._ 'A kalendar is an almanac by which persons are guided in
their computation of time; hence it is used, as here, for a guide or
example generally'; Bell. The New E. Dict. quotes this passage, and
explains the word by 'a guide, directory; an example, model'; and cites
Hamlet, v. 2. 114--'He is the card or _calendar_ of gentry.' Nevertheless,
I doubt whether this sense arose from the mere _usefulness_ of the
calendar. I believe that Chaucer regarded it in quite another aspect, viz.
as containing the _record_ or _list_ of the saints whose lives are worthy
of imitation. Hence Schmidt explains the word in Hamlet as 'note-book' or
'record'; as is certainly the case in All's Well, i. 3. 4, which Murray
duly quotes with the sense of 'record.' So in the present case _kalender_
does not mean 'example' merely, but _a whole list_ or _complete record of
examples_, which gives the word a much greater force. Compare Chaucer's
ABC, under the letter _K_, and the note (l. 73).
549. We hence learn that Chaucer's nineteenth[69] and last Legend was to
have been the Legend of Alcestis; but he never wrote more than the former
_half_ of the work. Cf. A-text, 532.
555. _Thy balade_; see ll. 249-268; F. and Th. read _my_. We here learn
that the Ladies about whom the Legends were to be written (l. 557) are all
mentioned in the Ballad, which is an important hint. We must of course
remove the names of Absalom and Jonathan; and there is reason for supposing
that we should exclude Esther. Next, we set aside Lucretia, Cleopatra,
Thisbe, Dido, Phyllis, Hypsipyle, Hypermnestra, and Ariadne, whose Legends
we possess; observing at the same time that we also have the Legend of
Philomela (though she is not mentioned), and of Medea, who shares a Legend
with Hypsipyle. The names still left are those of Penelope, Martia, Isoude,
Helen, Lavinia, Polyxena, Hero, Laodamia, Canace, and Alcestis. But this
list only partially agrees with Chaucer's scheme as given elsewhere, viz.
in the Introduction to the Man of Law's Tale. See further in the
Introduction.
574. _The grete_, the substance; as in Book of the Duch. 1242; Parl.
Foules, 35.
575. 'According as these old authors are pleased to treat (them).'
576. _Shal telle_, has to narrate.
I. THE LEGEND OF CLEOPATRA.
It is not clear what account Chaucer followed; see the Introduction. The
chief sources for the history are Plutarch, Appian, Dion Cassius, and
Orosius (bk. vi. c. 19). I shall refer to the Life of M. Antonius in my
edition of Shakespeare's Plutarch (denoted below by Sh. Plut.). Bech points
out that one of Chaucer's sources was Florus; see note to l. 655.
581. Ptolemy XI., or Ptolemy Auletes, king of Egypt, died B.C. 51, leaving
two sons, _both_ called Ptolemy, and two daughters, Cleopatra and Arsinoe.
Cleopatra was then 17 years of age, and was appointed queen of Egypt in
conjunction with her brother, the elder Ptolemy, whom she was to marry; but
she was expelled from the throne by Ptolemy's guardians. In B.C. 47 she was
replaced upon it by Julius Cæsar, but still in conjunction with her
brother. This led to the Alexandrine war, in the course of which this elder
Ptolemy perished. After this, she reigned, nominally, in conjunction with
the _younger_ Ptolemy, to whom also she was nominally married; but he was
still quite a child, and was murdered by her orders in less than four
years, after which she was sole queen, in name as well as in reality.
We thus see that the Ptolemy here mentioned may be either of Cleopatra's
brothers of that name; but it is more likely that Chaucer refers to the
elder of them. Shakespeare also uses the expression 'queen of Ptolemy';
Ant. i. 4. 6.
583. _On a tyme_; viz. not long after the battle of Philippi, which took
place in B.C. 42. 'Antonius, going to make war with the Parthians, sent to
command Cleopatra to appear personally before him when he came into
Cilicia, to answer unto such accusations as were laid against her, being
this: that she had aided Cassius and Brutus in their war against him ...
Cleopatra on the other side ... guessing by the former access and credit
she had with Julius Cæsar and C. Pompey (the son of Pompey the Great) only
for her beauty, she began to have good hope that she might more easily win
Antonius. For Cæsar and Pompey knew her when she was but a young thing, and
knew not then what the world meant; but now she went to Antonius at the age
when a woman's beauty is at the prime, and she also of best judgment.'--Sh.
Plut. p. 174. Almost immediately after this passage follows the celebrated
description of Cleopatra in her barge upon the Cydnus, familiar to all in
the words of Shakespeare; Ant. and Cleop. ii. 2. 196.
591. 'Octavius Cæsar reporting all these things unto the Senate, and
oftentimes accusing him to the whole people and assembly in Rome, he
thereby stirred up all the Romans against him.'--Sh. Plut. p. 202.
592. After the death of his first wife, Fulvia, Antony had married Octavia,
sister of Octavianus (better known to us as Augustus). But in a few years
he deserted her, and surrendered himself wholly to the charms of Cleopatra.
Cf. Ant. and Cleop. iii. 6.
597. Cf. Sh. Plut. p. 192; Ant. and Cleop. i. 4. 55.
605. _Sterve_, to die. See _Starve_, in Trench, Sel. Glossary.
624. _Octovian_, Octavianus. 'Now for Cæsar, he had 250 ships of war,
80,000 footmen, and well near as many horsemen as his enemy Antonius'; Sh.
Plut. p. 207.
634. See the account of the battle of Actium, B.C. 31; in Sh. Plut. p. 210.
The vivid description here given by Chaucer resembles the parallel passage
in the Kn. Tale, A 2600-20, which should be compared. 'The soldiers fought
with their pikes, halbards and darts, and threw halbards and darts with
fire. Antonius' ships, on the other side, bestowed among them, with their
crossbows and engines of battery, great store of shot from their high
towers of wood that were set upon their ships.'--Sh. Plut. p. 211. There is
some description of the hostile fleets and of the battle in Florus (see
note to l. 655), who tells us that, whilst Octavius had 400 ships against
the 200 ships of Antony, the latter were nearly double the size of the
former; so that the fleets were thus of equal strength.
637. Bell says this is 'a ludicrous anachronism'; but it is nothing of the
kind. The word _gonne_ is here used in the sense of 'shot' or 'missile';
and the line means--'with terrible sound out rushes the huge missile,'
being hurled from one of the 'engines of battery' mentioned in the last
note. It is the missile, not the engine, that 'out goth'; as a moment's
reflection would have informed the commentator, whose remark was needless.
The use of _gonne_ in the sense of 'missile' is curious, but not
unexampled; for, in the Avowynge of Arthur, st. 65, we read that 'there
come fliand a _gunne_,' i.e. there came flying along a missile. I believe
it is also used in the sense of missile in Sir Ferumbras, 5176, though the
passage is not decisive.
Even if this were not the case, there is no 'anachronism'; for _gonne_ was
originally used in the sense of 'catapult,' as may be seen by consulting
the Prompt. Parvulorum, where the Latin for it is _petraria_, and
_mangonale_. The _grisly soun_ alludes to the whizzing of the ponderous
missile through the air; Barbour says of a great stone, hurled from a
catapult, that 'It flaw out, quhedirand, with a rout,' i.e. it flew out,
whirring, with a great noise. See The Bruce, xvii. 684.
On the other hand, in Ho. Fame, 1643, Chaucer certainly uses _gonne_ in the
sense of 'cannon'; but that does not affect the sense of the present
passage.
638. _Hurtlen_, push, dash, ram one against the other; cf. Kn. Ta., A 2616.
'Somtyme they _hurtled_ to-gyder that they felle grovelyng on the ground';
Morte Arthure; by Sir T. Malory, bk. vii. c. 12. _Heterly_, vehemently,
fiercely, occurs frequently in the Wars of Alexander, ed. Skeat (E. E. T.
S.) Compare Vergil's description of the battle, in Æn. viii. 689, &c.: 'Una
omnes ruere.'
640. _In goth_, in there go. _Goth_ is singular in form, because of its
position in the sentence; but it has two nominatives, viz. 'grapnel' and
'shearing-hooks.' The former was a contrivance for clutching the ropes, and
the latter for severing them.
642. This is wonderfully graphic. A boarder bursts in with a pole-axe; a
sailor, on the defence, flees behind the mast, then dashes forward again,
and drives the assailant overboard.
646. _Rent_, rendeth; the present tense.
648. By pouring hard peas upon the hatches, they became so slippery that
the boarders could not stand.
649. Some carried pots full of quicklime, which they threw into the eyes of
their enemies. See Notes and Queries, 5 S. x. 188. The English did this
very thing, when attacking a French fleet, in the time of Henry III. Strutt
(Manners and Customs, 1774, ii. 11) quotes from Matthew Paris to this
effect:--'Calcem quoque vivam et in pulverém subtilem reductam, in altum
projicientes, vento illam ferente, Francorum oculos excaecaverunt.' Cf. Æn.
viii. 694.
652. _Put_, short for _putteth_, puts; pres. tense.
653. _To-go_, disperse themselves; pres. tense. The prefix _to_ has the
same force as the Lat. _dis-_, i.e. 'in different directions.' We even find
_to-ga_ used as a past tense in Barbour's Bruce (viii. 351, ix. 263, 269,
xvii. 104, 575), with the sense 'fled in different directions,' or 'fled
away.' Cf. 'the wlcne _to-gað_,' the clouds part asunder; Morris; Spec. of
Eng. pt. I. p. 7, l. 169. And again, 'thagh the fourme of brede _to-go_,'
though the form of bread disappear; Shoreham's Poems, p. 29.
_That best go mighte_, each in the way he could best go; each made the best
of his way to a safe place. 'Sauve qui peut.'
655. 'Suddenly they saw the threescore ships of Cleopatra busily about
their yard-masts, and hoising sail to fly'; Sh. Plut. p. 212. Cf. Ant. and
Cleop. iii. 10. 10; Vergil, Æn. viii. 707-8. The remark about Cleopatra's
'purple sails' may remind us of Plutarch's description of Cleopatra on the
Cydnus, already referred to above (note to l. 583):--'the poop [of her
barge] was of gold, _the sails of purple_'; Sh. Plut. p. 174; Ant. and
Cleop. ii. 2. 198.
The truth is, however, that (as Bech points out) Chaucer has borrowed this
and a few other incidents from L. Annaeus Florus, who wrote an Epitome
Rerum Romanarum in the second century. In relating the battle of Actium, he
says:--'Prima dux fugae regina, cum aurea puppe _ueloque purpureo_, in
altum dedit. Mox secutus Antonius: sed instare uestigiis Caesar. Itaque nec
praeparata in Oceanum fuga, nec munita praesidiis utraque Ægypti cornua,
Paraetonium atque Pelusium, profuere: prope manu tenebantur. Prior ferrum
occupauit Antonius. Regina ad pedes Caesaris prouoluta tentauit oculos
ducis: frustra. Nam pulchritudo intra pudicitiam principis fuit. Nec illa
de uita, quae offerebatur, sed de parte regni, laborabat. Quod ubi
desperauit a principe, seruarique se triumpho uidit, incautiorem nacta
custodiam, in Mausoleum se (sepulcra regum sic uocant) recipit: ibi
maximos, ut solebat, induta cultus, in differto odoribus solio, iuxta suum
se collocauit Antonium: admotisque ad uenas serpentibus, sic morte quasi
somno, soluta est.'--Florus, Epit. Rerum Romanarum, lib. iv. c. 11.
662. Chaucer (following Florus) has hastened the catastrophe. Antony
stabbed himself at Alexandria, in the following year, B.C. 30. See Sh.
Plut. 221; Ant. and Cleop. iv. 14. 102.
672. _Shryne_; for 'solio' in Florus; cf. l. 675. Plutarch says only that
Cleopatra 'did sumptuously and royally bury him with her own hands'; Sh.
Plut. p. 224. Afterwards, however, she 'crowned the tomb with garlands and
sundry nosegays, and marvellous lovingly embraced the same'; Sh. Plut. p.
227. But see the account by Florus, in the note to l. 655.
677. _Dede cors_, dead body; as in l. 876. Chaucer uses _cors_ of the
living body, as, e.g. in Sir Thopas, B 2098.
678. Chaucer seems to think that Florus meant, 'in sepulcrum [suum] se
recipit ... iuxta Antonium.'
679. Shakespeare follows closely the account in Plutarch, except that he
makes mention of _two_ asps, whereas Plutarch mentions but one, called by
Sir Thos. North 'an aspick'; Sh. Plut. p. 227. However, Florus uses the
plural _serpentibus_. Cf. Cower, C. A., iii. 361.
681. Cf. Cleopatra's lament in Sh. Plut. p. 226; Ant. and Cleop. iv. 15.
59; v. 2. 283.
691. Pronounce _unreprovable_, as _unréprovábl'_.
694. _Sene_, evident. Note that this is an adjective (A.S. _gesýne_), and
not the past participle; cf. l. 2655, and note. See also ll. 340, 741, and
my note to the Balade against Women Inconstaunt, l. 13.
696. _Naked._ It looks as if Chaucer took _induta_ (note to l. 655) to mean
'not clothed.' Perhaps he read it as _nudata_.
702. _Storial sooth_, historical truth. The old editions actually put the
comma after _storial_ instead of after _sooth_; and modern editors have
followed them. Surely the editors, in some passages, have never attempted
to construe their own texts.
II. THE LEGEND OF THISBE.
Chaucer follows Ovid, Metamorph. iv. 55-166; and frequently very closely.
The reader should compare the Latin text throughout. For example, Ovid
begins thus:--
'Pyramus et Thisbe, iuuenum pulcherrimus alter,
altera, quas Oriens habuit, praelata puellis,
contiguas habuere domos, ubi dicitur altam
coctilibus muris cinxisse Semiramis urbem.'
In Golding's translation, fol. 43, back, thus:--
'Within the town (of whose huge walles so monstrous high and thicke,
The fame is giuen Semiramis for making them of bricke)
Dwelt hard together two young folke in houses ioynde so nere,
That under all one roofe well nie both twaine conuayed were.
The name of him was Pyramus, and Thisbe call'd was she;
So faire a man in all the East was none aliue as he.
Nor nere a woman, mayde, nor wife in beautie like to her.'
This at once explains the allusion to Semiramis, the celebrated but
mythical queen who was said to have surrounded Babylon with walls of
fabulous strength, having a deep ditch outside them. See Orosius, as
translated by King Alfred, in Sweet's A.S. Reader, fourth ed. pp. 28, 29.
Gower tells the same story, and likewise follows Ovid; C. A. i. 324.
718. _Estward_; evidently from Ovid's 'Oriens'; see above.
722. The first foot consists of the single syllable _Mai-_.
725. _Naso_, i.e. Ovid; really named Publius Ouidius Naso.
726. _Réport_; accented on the _e_. _Y-shove_, pushed (into notice); cf. l.
1381.
727. 'Tempore creuit amor'; Met. iv. 60.
730. 'Sed uetuere patres'; id. 61.
735. 'As (to quote the proverb) cover up the glowing coal, and the hotter
the fire becomes.' Ovid has--'Quoque magis tegitur, tanto magis aestuat
ignis'; 64. _Wry_ is in the imperative mood, singular. Cf. Troilus, ii.
538-9.
741. _Sene_, visible; see note to l. 694. _Dere y-nogh a myte_, even in a
slight degree; lit. '(to an extent) dear enough at a mite.' A singular use
of the phrase. Cf. 'dere ynogh a leek'; Can. Yem. Ta., G 795; 'not worth a
myte'; id., G 633.
742. 'Quid non sentit amor?' Met. iv. 68.
745. 'In a tone as low as if uttering a confession.' A curious medieval
touch. Ovid says, 'murmure ... minimo'; 70.
756. 'Inuide, dicebant, paries, quid amantibus obstas?' 73.
763. _Holde_, beholden. 'Nec sumus ingrati'; 76.
773. Chaucer practically transposes the offices of Phoebus and Aurora.
'Postera nocturnos Aurora remouerat ignes,
solque pruinosas radiis siccauerat herbas'; 82.
782. _And for_, and because, &c.
783. _For_ stands alone in the first foot. Cf. l. 797.
784. 'Conueniant ad busta Nini, lateantque sub umbra Arboris'; 88. Ll. 786,
787 are explanatory, and added by Chaucer. Ninus, the supposed founder of
Nineveh, was the husband of Semiramis. Cf. Shak. Mid. Nt. Dr. v. 1. 139.
786. Lounsbury (Studies in Chaucer, i. 403) says that the pt. t. of
_herien_ is _heried-e_, with final _e_. But the form is right; _héried-e_
is hardly pronounceable, and the final _e_ is naturally dropped when the
accent is thrown so far back. The forms of the past tenses of weak verbs
are variable; whether they take a final _e_ or not often depends on the
form of the stem. See Ten Brink, Chaucer's Sprache, § 194.
797. _Y-wimpled_, covered with a wimple, or cloth covering the neck and
fitting close round the face, chiefly worn by nuns. Another medieval touch.
Ovid has 'adopertaque uultum'; 94. See note to l. 813.
798-801. These four lines are mainly original, and quite in Chaucer's own
manner. Ovid has merely 'fallitque suos.'
803. 'Audacem faciebat amor'; 96.
804. _She gan her dresse_, she settled herself, lit. directed herself. Lat.
'sedit.'
810. _Rist_, riseth; pres. tense, as in l. 887. So _arist_, Man of Law's
Tale, B 265.
811. _With dredful foot_; so again in Kn. Ta., A 1479. 'Timido pede fugit
in antrum'; 100. See _Dreadful_ in Trench, Select Glossary; and cf. ll.
109, 404 above.
813. 'Dumque fugit, tergo uelamina lapsa reliquit'; 101. 'For fere, and let
her wimple falle.'--Gower, Conf. Amant. i. 326.
814-6. These three lines are original. _Sit_, sitteth. _Darketh_, lies
close. 'The child than _darked_ in his den'; Will. of Palerne, 17; 'drawe
[drew] him into his den, and _darked_ ther stille'; id. 44. And again in
the same poem, ll. 1834, 2851.
823-31. Considerably expanded from the Latin:--
'Serius egressus uestigia uidit in alto
puluere certa ferae, totoque expalluit ore
Pyramus'; 105.
830. _Agroos_, shuddered; and again in l. 2314; and in Troil. ii. 930. The
infin. _agryse_ is in the Man of Law's Tale, B 614.
834. 'Una duos, inquit, nox perdet amantes'; 108.
835. This line is Chaucer's own.
842. _What_, whatsoever; 'quicunque ... leones'; 114.
847-9. 'Accipe nunc, inquit, nostri quoque sanguinis haustus'; 118.
851-2.
'Cruor emicat alte
non aliter quam quum uitiato fistula plumbo
scinditur, et tenues stridente foramine longe
eiaculatur aquas, atque ictibus aera rumpit'; 121.
With much good taste, Chaucer omits the next three lines, just as he has
omitted to tell us that the trysting-tree was 'a faire high Mulberie with
fruite _as white as snow_,' as Golding says. The blood of Pyramus turned
this fruit _black_, and so it remains to this day! Gower likewise
suppresses the mulberry-tree, but Shakespeare mentions it; see Mid. Nt. Dr.
v. 1. 149.
853-61. Admirably expanded out of three lines:--
'Ecce metu nondum posito, ne fallat amantem,
illa redit; iuuenemque oculis animoque requirit;
quantaque uitarit narrare pericula gestit'; 128.
859. The first syllable of _Bothe_ forms a foot by itself. So also in ll.
863, 901, 911, &c.
862-8.
'Dum dubitat, tremebunda uidet pulsare cruentum
membra solum; retroque pedem tulit; oraque buxo
pallidiora gerens, exhorruit aequoris instar,
quod fremit, exigua quum summum stringitur aura'; 133.
869-82. Fourteen lines where Ovid has eight. Chaucer has greatly improved
l. 882, where Ovid makes Thisbe _ask_ Pyramus to lift up his
head:--'uultusque attolle iacentes'; 144.
887. This line is original. _Bost_, noise, outcry; such is the original
sense of the word now spelt _boast_, which see in the New E. Dict. Cf. 'Now
ariseth cry and _boost_'; King Alisaunder, 5290; and see P. Plowman, C.
xvii. 89. Whitaker, writing in 1813, remarks that _boost_, in the sense of
noise, is 'a provincial word still familiar in the Midland counties.'
894.
'Persequar extinctum; letique miserrima dicar
caussa comesque tui'; 151.
905-12. Admirably substituted for Thisbe's address to the mulberry-tree,
requesting it to keep its berries always black thenceforth.
913, 14.
'Dixit; et aptato pectus mucrone sub imum
incubuit ferro, quod adhuc a caede tepebat'; 162.
916-23. These lines are original. With l. 917 cf. Le Rom. de la Rose,
14345:--'Mes moult est poi de tex amans.'
III. THE LEGEND OF DIDO.
This Legend purports to be taken from Vergil and Ovid; see l. 928. There is
very little of it from Ovid, viz. only the last 16 lines, which depend on
Ovid's Heroides, vii. 1-8, and ll. 1312-6, which owe something to the same
epistle.
The rest is from the Æneid, bks. i-iv, as will be pointed out.
Note that Chaucer had already given the story of Dido at some length in his
Hous of Fame, 151-382, which should be compared. He mentions Ovid there
also; l. 379.
924. _Mantuan_, born near Mantua. Publius Vergilius [not Virgilius] Maro
was born on the 15th Oct., B.C. 70, at Andes, now Pietola, a small village
near Mantua in Cisalpine Gaul; and died Sept. 22, B.C. 19. It is said that
an inscription was placed on his tomb, beginning 'Mantua me genuit.'
926. Cf. 'chi vi fu lucerna?' Dante, Purg. i. 43.
927. _Eneas_, Æneas, hero of the Æneid.
928. The late editions, for some mysterious reason, put a full stop after
_Eneid_ and insert _of_ before _Naso_. The sense is--'I will take the
general tenour (of the story as I find it) in thine Æneid and in Naso,'
i.e. in Ovid; 'and I will versify the chief circumstances.'
Roughly speaking, ll. 930-949 are from the Æneid, bk. ii; ll. 950-957 from
bk. iii; ll. 958-1155 from bk. i; and ll. 1156-1351 from bk. iv.
931. 'By the craft of the Greeks, and especially by Sinon.' Sinon allowed
himself to be taken prisoner by the Trojans, and persuaded them to take in
a wooden horse through the walls, which he said had been made as an
atonement to Minerva for the Palladium carried away by the Greeks. In the
dead of night Sinon let out the armed men concealed within the horse, and
thus Troy was taken by a stratagem. See Æn. ii. 57-267; and cf. Ho. Fame,
152-6.
934. The ghost of Hector appeared to Æneas, and advised him to flee; Æn.
ii. 268-298.
935. The verb agreeing with _fyr_ is _appered_. 'And there appeared also so
mad a fire that it could not be controlled.' See Æn. ii. 311.
936. _Ilioun_, the usual M.E. form of _Ilium_; Æn. i. 68, ii. 241, 325,
625. Ilium is only another name for Troy, but the medieval writers invented
the explanation here adopted by Chaucer, viz. that it was the palace of
Priam, and the _castle_ of Troy in particular. Perhaps they interpreted the
word _domus_ in too narrow a sense in the passage--'O patria, O Divum domus
Ilium'; Æn. ii. 241. This use of the word is invariable in Guido delle
Colonne, author of the Historia Destructionis Troie, a work which was
considered of the highest authority in the middle ages, though it was
shamelessly copied from the French Roman de Troie by Benoit de
Sainte-Maure. In fact, a long description of Priam's palace, called
_Ilion_, is given in the alliterative Troy-book, l. 1629, which is
translated from Guido; and in Lydgate's Troy-book, ed. 1555, fol. F 6,
back, and R 5, back. See the notes to Book Duch. 1070, Ho. Fame, 158, 1467,
1469, 1477.
939. For the death of Priam, killed by Pyrrhus, see Æn. ii. 531-558.
_Fordoon_, slain. _Noght_, nothing; this alludes to Vergil's 'sine nomine
corpus'; Æn. ii. 558.
940. Venus appears to her son Æneas; Æn. ii. 591. Cf. Ho. Fame, 162.
942. Cf. 'dextrae se paruus Iülus [Ascanius] Implicuit'; Æn. ii. 724. See
note to Ho. Fame, 177.
945. _Lees_, lost; 'erepta Creüsa'; Æn. ii. 738; Ho. Fame, 183.
947. _Felawshippe_, company, companions; 'ingentem comitum numerum'; Æn.
ii. 796.
949. _Stounde_, hour, time; usually dissyllabic in M.E.
953. For these adventures, see Æn. bk. iii; which Chaucer passes over. But
see Ho. Fame, 198-221.
959. _Libye_, Libya, on the N. coast of Africa; Æn. i. 158. For the seven
ships saved, see the same, i. 170.
960, 1. These two lines are in no previous edition, (except my own), being
preserved only in MSS. C. and P. But they are obviously genuine and
necessary; otherwise, the word _So_ (l. 962) is meaningless.
962. _Al to-shake_, all shaken to pieces, sorely distressed. Cf. l. 820.
964. Æneas and Achates sally forth, Æn. i. 312; Ho. Fame, 226.
971. _Hunteresse_, huntress; i.e. Venus so disguised; id. i. 319. 'As she
had been an _hunteresse_'; Ho. Fame, 229.
973. _Cutted_, cut short; 'nuda genu'; id. i. 320. The same expression
occurs as 'cutted to the kne' in P. Ploughman's Crede, 296. Compare also l.
434 of the same poem:--
'His wyf walked him with, with a longe gode [goad],
In a _cutted_ cote, _cutted_ full hey[gh]e.'
The editions have _knytte_, which is an erroneous spelling either of _knyt_
or of _knytted_; neither of which readings can be right.
978-82. Translated from Æn. i. 321-4.
982. _Y-tukked up_, with robe tucked up; 'Succinctam.' This settles the
meaning of _tukked_ in Ch. Prol. 621.
983-93. Shortened from Æn. i. 325-340.
986. 'Phoebus' sister'; Vergil has 'Phoebi soror'; 329.
994-1001. Alluding to Æn. i. 341-410.
997. _Hit nere but_, it would only be; _nere_ = _ne were_.
998. _Al and som_, the whole matter; wholly and in particulars.
1005. _Sitheo_, so in all the copies. Nothing is commoner than a confusion
between _c_ and _t_ in old MSS.; hence _Sitheo_ is for _Sichco_, i.e.
Sichaeus. Sichaeus (Æn. i. 343) is Vergil's name for Acerbas, a wealthy
Tyrian priest, who married Elissa (Vergil's Dido) sister of Pygmalion.
Pygmalion murdered Acerbas, hoping to appropriate his treasure; but Elissa
fled from Tyre, taking the treasure with her, and founded Carthage. Dante
has the form _Sicheo_; Inf. v. 62.
1010. _Fredom_, liberality; the old sense of _free_ being 'liberal.' _Of_
here means 'for'; in l. 1012 it means 'by.'
1016. _Maister-temple_, chief temple; cf. _maistre-strete_, chief street
(Kn. Ta., A 2902), and _maistre-tour_, chief tower (Squi. Tale, F 226). It
was the temple of Juno; Æn. i. 446.
1022. 'So the book says'; Vergil says that Venus shrouded Æneas and Achates
with a cloud (i. 412, 516).
1024. The first syllable of _Hadden_ forms a foot by itself; cf. l. 1030.
_Ov'r al_ forms the last foot.
1025. 'Uidet Iliacas ex ordine pugnas'; i. 456.
1028. 'Bellaque iam fama totum uulgata per orbem'; i. 457.
1032. _Kepe_, care; usually with a negative; see Kn. Ta., A 2238, 2960.
1035. See Æn. i. 496, &c. Vergil likens Dido to Diana. In l. 1039 Chaucer
uses _god_ in the heathen sense, meaning Jupiter.
1044-6. These lines are original. _Fremd_, strange; A.S. _fremede_. In the
Squi. Tale, F 429, it means 'foreign.' 'To frende ne to _fremmed_,' to
friend nor to stranger; P. Plowm. B. xv. 137. Misspelt _frenne_ (riming
with _glenne_) in Spenser, Shep. Kal. April, 28, with the sense of
'stranger'; unless he means it for _foreign_.
1047-60. Epitomised from Æn. i. 509-612.
1048. _Wende han loren_, he supposed to have lost, he supposed that he had
lost.
1050. _For which_, on which account, wherefore.
1059. _Meynee_, attendants, followers, lit. household; O.F. _meisnee_,
_mesnee_, _meinee_. Very common in Chaucer. The derived adj. _menial_ is
still in use. See l. 1089.
1061-5. From Æn. i. 613, 614. Ll. 1066-1074 are from the same, 588-591.
1075. 'Non ignara mali, miseris succurrere disco'; id. 630.
1076. The first syllable of _Lyked_ forms a foot by itself. _God do bote_,
may God give (us) help! A parenthetical explanation. All former editions
(except my own) omit the necessary comma after _as_.
1077-85. Chaucer here gives a general outline of the state of the case,
without following Vergil's words.
1086-90. This answers to Æn. i. 615-630.
1091-1102. From Æn. i 631-642.
1099. _His lyve_, in his life, during his life.
1103-27. This passage is, practically, original. Chaucer here tells the
story in his own language, and gives it a wholly medieval cast.
1104. The M.E. _swolow_ usually means 'a whirlpool' or 'gulf,' and such is
Tyrwhitt's explanation. See the Catholicon Anglicum, p. 373, note 1, for
examples. Thus, in Wyclif's Works, ed. Matthew, p. 97, we find--'_Swolwis_
of the see and _helle_, that resceyuen al that thei may and [gh]elden not
a[gh]en.' Very rarely, it is used of an open mouth; thus in Allit. Poems,
ed. Morris, iii. 250, it is said that the whale 'opened his _swol[gh]_' to
engulf Jonah. Hence, probably, arose the suggestion in Bell's note, that
the reference is to the open mouth of hell, as represented in medieval
drawings. Nevertheless, I believe Tyrwhitt is right; though either sense
will serve. It is the mod. E. _swallow_, used as a sb. Cf. Dante, Inf.
xxxiv. 137-9.
1106. _Parements_, ornaments; probably hangings. Cf. 'chambre of parementz'
in Squi. Ta., F 269, and Tyrwhitt's note, quoted in my note to the line. In
the Kn. Ta., A 2501, _paramentz_ means 'rich clothes.' See Æn. i. 637-9.
1107. For _ornaments_, which is preserved in MSS. C. and T. only, the other
MSS. and all the old editions have the odd reading _pavements_, which is
strangely out of place. I think it clear that this arose from a repetition
of the word _parements_, which was afterwards turned into _pavements_ by
way of desperate emendation. The letters _v_ and _r_ are often somewhat
alike, and have been mistaken for one another, as shewn in my paper on
'ghost-words' in the Phil. Soc. Transactions, 1886.
1109. The MSS. (except T.) and the black-letter editions have _he_.
Morris's, Bell's, and Corson's editions have _she_, which gives no sense,
and will not suit l. 1111. I do not undertake to notice all the vagaries of
the various editions, as the readings of the MSS. are so much more
satisfactory. In the present case, I suppose that _she_ is a mere misprint
in Bell, preserved in the editions that follow him. _Sete_ is short for
_seten_, the usual M.E. pp. of _sitten_, to sit; see Kn. Ta., A 1452. It
answers to the A.S. pp. _seten_, with short _e_. The _e_ in _mete_ was also
short in A.S.; hence the rime is perfect.
1110. Cf. Squi. Ta., F 294--'The spyces and the wyn is come anon.' This
refers to the custom of serving wine mixed with spices to the guests before
going to rest; see a long note in Warton, Hist. E. Poetry, ed. 1840, i. 178
(on the word _piment_); Weber's note on King Alisaunder, 4178; and Our
English Home, p. 85.
1114. The first syllable _Ther_ probably constitutes the first foot of the
line. I believe Chaucer accents _courser_ on the former syllable; see Kn.
Ta., A 1502, 1704; Squi. Ta., F 195, 310.
1117. _Fretted_, adorned; not 'fraught,' as in Corson's note.
1119. _Shynedè_; trisyllabic; in MS. C. only; rest, _shyned_, _shyneth_,
which will not scan. Cf. _lakkedè_, Prol. 756; _knokkeden_, Compl. Mars,
84. Line 2194 has _shinèd_, and l. 1428 has _shoon_. _Shynede_ occurs in
_both_ the Wycliffite versions of Luke ii. 9; and is therefore an old form.
We still have _shined_ as a pt. t. in Ezek. xliii. 2, Acts ix. 3, xii. 7.
1120. 'Nor gentle high-flying falcon for striking herons.' Chaucer has
_gentil faucon_ in his Parl. of Foules, 337. Cotgrave, s.v. _haultain_,
has:--'_Faulcon haultain_, a high-flying hawke.' _Heronere_ means 'used for
flying at herons'; only the best hawks would serve for this.
1122. _Y-bete_, in the Knight's Ta., A 979, means 'ornamented with beaten
gold,' or with gold flattened out by the hammer (F. _or batu_). It might
mean 'ornamented by means of the hammer'; but as 'new florins' can hardly
be said to be used for decorating cups, it seems best to take _with_ in the
sense of 'as well as'; in which case _florins newe y-bete_ means 'florins
newly struck.' The allusion to _florins_ is curious; see note to P.
Plowman, B. iii. 45. Cf. Æn, i. 640--'Ingens argentum mensis, caelataque in
auro Fortia facta patrum.'
1128-35. From Æn. i. 643-656.
1135. _Take_, present, offer, deliver. This sense was once common; see Sec.
Non. Ta., G 223; Can. Yem. Ta., G 1030, 1034, 1365; P. Plowman, B. i. 56,
iv. 58, &c.
1136-49. Much abridged from Æn. i. 657-722.
1145. 'Let it be as it may; I care little about it.'
1150-55. Chaucer here comes to the end of Æn. bk. i, and passes over the
second book with the remark in l. 1153.
1155. _Entendeden_, gave their attention. Corson and Gilman explain it by
'attend,' as if it were the present tense.
1156. Chaucer here passes on to Vergil's fourth book, which he epitomises,
and seldom follows quite exactly.
1157. _Sely_, simple, unsuspecting; see l. 1254. See _Silly_ in Trench,
Select Glossary.
1161. 'Why I have told the story so far, and must tell the rest.'
1163. The reading _his_ (for _her_) in MS. C. can be justified, and may be
right. The A.S. _móna_ was masculine, but the Lat. _luna_ was feminine.
Hence arose a confusion, so that the M.E. _mone_ was of either gender.
Hence, in Chaucer's Astrolabe, pt. ii. § 34, l. 12, we find--'And _nota_,
that yif the mone shewe _himself_ by light of day,' &c.; whereas in the
same, pt. ii. § 40, l. 54, we find--'the mone, loke thou rekne wel _hir_
cours houre by houre; for _she_,' &c.
1166. _Brayd_, start, sudden movement. In the Cursor Mundi, 7169, we read
of Samson, that--
'Vte of thair handes son he stert
And gaue a _braid_ sa fers and fast,
That all the bandes of him brast.'
See _Braid_ in the New E. Dictionary.
1170-81. From Vergil's Æn. iv. 9-29.
1174. 'And eke so likely to be a hero.' _Man_ is here used emphatically;
cf. 'quam forti pectore et armis'; iv. 11.
1182, 3. Cf. Æn. iv. 31-53; but Chaucer cuts it short.
1187. _Love_ (A.S. _lufu_) is here monosyllabic; cf. Kn. Ta., A 1135. 'Love
desires (to have) love; for no one will it desist.' Cf. A.S. _wandian_, to
turn aside, blench, fear. And see _wol_, in l. 1191.
1188-1211. From Æn. iv. 129-159.
1191. _An hunting_, on hunting, a-hunting. Here _an_ is another form of the
prep. _on_, and _hunting_ is a substantive, like Lat. _uenatio_. See Skeat,
Principles of Eng. Etymology, Ser. 1, p. 260.
_Wol_, desires (to go); cf. _wol_ in l. 1187.
1196. _Hoven_, wait in readiness, hover. Cf. 'where that she _hoved_ and
abode'; Gower, C. A. iii. 63; and see P. Plowman, B. prol. 210, xviii. 83.
It just expresses the notion of slight movement, whilst remaining nearly in
the same place. The old editions read _heven_, which gives no sense; for it
never means 'mount,' as has been suggested. Cf. Vergil's 'expectant'; iv.
134.
1198. _Paper-whyt_, as white as paper; a curious and rare compound. Printed
_paper white_ (as two words!) in former editions.
1200. The 4th sense of _Bar_ in the New E. Dict. is--'An ornamental
transverse band on a girdle, saddle, &c.; subsequently, an ornamental boss
of any shape.'
1201. _Sit_, sits. _Wrye_, covered; A.S. _wrigen_, pp.
1204. _Startling_, moving suddenly; the frequentative form of _starting_,
which Chaucer preferred when repeating this same line in his Kn. Tale, A
1502.
1205. _A litel wyr_, i.e. a small bridle-bit. See l. 1208.
1206. _Phebus_; Vergil's 'Apollo'; iv. 144. _To devyse_, to describe (him).
1209. _Wold_, willed, desired; the pp. of _willen_. This form is very rare,
but we again find _hath wold_ in l. 11 of the Compl. of Venus; and _hadde
wold_ in P. Plowman, B. xv. 258. Prof. Corson aptly quotes three examples
from Malory's Morte Arthur, ed. T. Wright, with the references 'vol. i. c.
33, vol. iii. c. 119, and vol. iii. c. 123.' The first of these answers to
bk. ii. c. 8, p. 54 in the 'Globe' edition, where we find--'Then said
Merlin to Balin, Thou hast done thyself great hurt, because thou savedst
not this lady that slew herself, that might have saved her and thou
_wouldest_.' Caxton (ed. 1485) also has _woldest_; but Wright, following
the edition of 1634, has _had would_. For the other passages, see bk.
xviii. capp. 15 and 19, where Caxton has 'and he _had wold_,' and 'and I
_had wolde_.'
1212-31. From Vergil, Æn. iv. 154-170.
1213. _Go bet_, go more quickly, hasten; a term of encouragement. See Pard.
Tale, C 667, and the note. _Prik thou_, spur thou, push on; a like term.
_Lat goon_, let (the dogs) go.
1230. 'Ille dies primus leti, primusque malorum Causa fuit'; iv. 169. It
looks as if Chaucer has translated _leti_ by 'gladnesse,' as if it were
_letitiae_. (Bech makes a similar remark.)
1232-41. These lines are original. Cf. Ho. Fame, 253-292.
1242. Here follows, in Vergil, the celebrated description of Fame, which
Chaucer had already introduced into his Hous of Fame, 1368-1392; it is
therefore here omitted. He passes on to Æn. iv. 195.
1245. _Yarbas_, i.e. Iarbas, son of Ammon; Æn. iv. 196.
1254-84. Original; but see Ho. Fame, 269-292.
1262. _Pilled_, robbed. 'A knight ... sholde deffenden holy chirche, and
nat robben it ne _pilen_ it'; Persones Tale, _De Avaritia_, I 767.
1277. _Ther-as_, whereas. _Sterve_, to die.
1287. Perhaps copied by the author of fragment B. of the Romaunt of the
Rose. We there find (l. 4838, Glasgow MS.)--'The hoote ernes [ernest?] they
al foryeten'; there being nothing answering to it in the French text.
1288. 'And he secretly causes his ships to be prepared'; lit. 'causes (men)
to prepare his ships.'
1289. _Shapeth him_, intends, purposes. See Prologue, 772.
1295. 'Me patris Anchisae ... Admonet ... imago'; iv. 351.
1297. _Mercurie_, Mercury; 'interpres Divûm'; iv. 356.
1305. _What womman_, what sort of a woman.
1310. _Seketh halwes_, repairs to saints' shrines; a curious medieval
touch. Vergil only mentions the sacrifice; iv. 453. Cf. Prologue, 14, and
the note. 'To go _seken halwes_'; C. T. (Wyf of Bathes Prol.), D 657.
1312, 3. 'Si pudet uxoris, non nupta, sed hospita dicar,' &c.; Ovid, Her.
vii. 167.
1316. Cf. 'Sed neque fers tecum'; Her. vii. 79.
1317. _Thise lordes_; 'Nomadumque tyranni'; Æn. iv. 320. Also Pygmalion and
Iarbas, id. 325, 6.
1324. The former syllable of _Mercy_ forms the first foot in the line; cf.
l. 1342. 'Have pitee on my sorwes smerte!' Ho. Fame, 316; which see.
1331. _Lavyne_, Lavinia, daughter of King Latinus; Æn. vii. 359.
1332. _A cloth._ This refers to the Trojan garments left behind by Æneas;
'Iliacas uestes'; iv. 648. The sword is mentioned by Vergil just two lines
above; 646.
1338-40. Here the _cloth_ answers to the Lat. _exuuiae_; and _whyl hit
leste_ = whilst it pleased. These three lines are a close imitation of
Vergil, Æn. iv. 651-3:--
'Dulces exuuiae, dum fata Deusque sinebant;
Accipite hanc animam, meque his exsoluite curis;
Vixi, et quem dederat cursum fortuna, peregi.'
We hence see that, in l. 1339, the right reading is _unbind me of this
unreste_, a close translation from the Latin. _Me of_ are run together; see
note to Complaint to Pitè, l. 11.
1341. _Withouten_, without any succour from Æneas.
1346. _Her norice_, her nurse, or rather the nurse of Sichæus, named Barce;
Æn. iv. 632.
1351. 'She roof hir-selve to the herte'; Ho. Fame, 373.
1352. Here Chaucer, having done with Vergil, takes up Ovid, who is intended
by the words _myn autour_.
1354. _A lettre_, i.e. the 7th Epistle in Ovid's Heroides. See l. 1367.
1355-65. From the first 8 lines in the above Epistle.
'Sic, ubi fata uocant, udis abiectus in herbis,
ad uada Maeandri concinit albus olor.
Nec, quia te nostra sperem prece posse moueri,
alloquor. Aduerso mouimus ista deo.
Sed merita et famam, corpusque animumque pudicum
quum male perdiderim, perdere uerba leue est.
Certus es ire tamen, miseramque relinquere Dido;
atque îdem uenti uela fidemque ferent.'
IV. (PART I.) THE LEGEND OF HYPSIPYLE.
The chief sources of this fourth Legend are Guido delle Colonne's Historia
Troiana, Ovid's Metamorphoses, bk. vii, and Heroides, letters vi. and xii.
The story of Hypsipyle is also in Statius' Thebaid, bk. v, and in l. 1437
(see note) there is a reference to the Argonauticon of Valerius Flaccus.
See further in the Preface; and see the notes to ll. 1396, 1467.
1368-95. This is a Prologue to the Legend, and is original.
1371. _Reclaiming_, enticement, power to subdue; lit. a calling back.
Halliwell has: 'To _reclaim_ a hawk, to make her gentle and familiar, to
bring her to the wrist by a certain call. It is often used metaphorically,
to tame.' Cf. 'since this same wayward girl is so _reclaimed_'; Romeo, iv.
2. 47.
1373. _Of_, by means of. _Farced_, stuffed; as in Prol. to C. T., 233.
1377. 'Where others betray one, thou betrayest two.'
1381. _Shove_, pushed forward, brought into notice; cf. l. 726.
1383. _Have at thee!_ let me attack (or pursue) thee. _Thyn horn is blowe_,
the horn is blown that summons all to pursue thee; a metaphor taken from
the chase.
1387. _Aboght_, bought; pp. of _abye_, which was corrupted into _abide_;
whence 'thou shalt dearly _abide_ it.'
1388. _Box_, blow, buffet; now only used of 'a box on the ear.'
1389. _Et_, eateth; pres. tense. So in the Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 135, l.
10, and in Ælfric's Grammar, ed. Zupitza, p. 200.
1391. Prof. Lounsbury would read 'the goodë man that ther-for payede,' and
remarks that this gives a false rime, because the preterite form _payede_
will not rime with the pp. _betrayed_. He adds--'in order to follow the
reading of the one MS. that makes _payed_ a participial form, the adj.
_goode_, of the definite declension, has to be shorn of its final _e_ in
pronunciation.'--Studies in Chaucer, i. 405. I take _good-man_ to be,
practically, one word, as in the A. V., Matt. xx. 11, so that the def. form
of the adj. is not really required. And I prefer the reading _hath payed_,
though it rests on the authority of one (the best) MS. only. If, however,
we adopt the proposed reading, it makes no difference at all to the rime.
For the pt. t. of verbs of F. origin, as _payen_, _serven_, is usually
_payed_, _served_, the full ending _-ede_ (with both syllables sounded)
being extremely rare in Chaucer; cf. note to l. 1119. We even have
_shined_, not _shinede_, in l. 2194, in a word of E. origin. Hence there is
really no fault to be found, whichever reading be taken; and the cricitism,
which is quite superfluous, comes to nothing.
1394, 5. _On_, in the case of. _Y-sene_, evident; as in l. 2655. _By_, with
reference to.
1396. The reading _Guido_ (in MSS. C., T., A.) where the other MSS. and the
editions have _Ouyde_, is important; especially as it is correct, and gives
us a new clue. The Historia Troiana of Guido delle Colonne begins with the
story of Jason, and it is evident that Chaucer follows him, at least as far
as l. 1461. This can easily be seen by comparing the present passage with
the beginning of Book I. of the alliterative Troy-book, ed. Panton and
Donaldson, otherwise called the Gest Historiale of the Destruction of Troy,
which is closely translated from Guido; or else with Lydgate's Troy-book,
bk. i. capp. 1-3. Gower also tells the story of Jason (C. A. ii. 236), and
says that the tale 'is in the boke of Troie write.'
1397. _Pelleus_; so spelt in the allit. Troy-book, l. 104; Gower has
_Peleus_. Medieval names are strangely confused. The right form is not
_Peleus_, but _Pelias_. He was king of Thessaly, half-brother of Æson, and
guardian of Jason. The reading _king_ gives him his title in anticipation,
but is right. So also, in the allit. Troy-book, l. 103: 'There was a _kyng_
in that coste,' &c.; and Guido has 'rex' here.
1398. _Eson_ (as in Gower); Æson, the aged father of Jason.
1420. _Al made he_, although he made.
1425. _Colcos_, properly Colchis, now Mingrelia; between the Caucasus and
the Eastern shore of the Black Sea. In the allit. Troy-book, it is called
_Colchos_, l. 152; and so in Gower. It is not really an island, but Chaucer
follows the Latin text, which has 'insula'; see note to l. 1590.
1430. _Kept_, guarded; _with_, by. Compare the Troy-book, l. 164:--
'Thus coyntly it kept was, all with clene art,
By too oxen, oribull on for to loke,
And a derfe dragon, drede to behold.'
1438. _Oëtes_ (as in Guido); properly _Aeëtes_, Ovid, Her. xii. 51. He was
king of Colchis, and father of Medea.
1447. 'Then should I be bound to requite thy toil.'
1453. _Argus_, the builder of the ship Argo, in which Jason undertook the
voyage. The name is given by Guido (see the E. Troy-book, l. 273), by
Valerius Flaccus, in his Argonauticon, lib. i. 314, and in the Argonautics
of Apollonius Rhodius.
1457. As Bech points out, Chaucer here copies the remark in
Dares:--'Demonstrare cos qui cum Iasone profecti sunt non uidetur nostrum
esse: sed qui uolunt eos cognoscere, Argonautas legant.'--De excidio Troiae
historia, ed. Meister, 1873; cap. 1. The reference is to the Argonauticon
of Valerius Flaccus, lib. i., where the list of the Argonauts may be found.
It also occurs in bk. i. of the Argonautics of Apollonius Rhodius. It is a
dreary catalogue; or, as Chaucer says, a sufficiently long tale. There is a
shorter list in Statius, Thebaid, bk. v. All the lists make much of
Hercules (see l. 1454).
1459. _Philotetes_ (so spelt by Guido, see the Eng. version, p. 12, ll. 6
and 10, where the passage from Guido is quoted) was the name of the pilot
to the expedition. Valerius Flaccus identifies him with Philoctetes, son of
Poeas or Pæas; as he introduces him by the name of Poeantius; Argon, i.
391.
1463. _Lemnoun_, Lemnos; it is very common to quote proper names in forms
resembling the accusative case. This, as Chaucer says, is not in Guido, but
in Ovid; see Ovid's Heroid. vi. 50, 117, 136. At the same time it would be
interesting to know _what version_ of Guido Chaucer followed; for it is a
very singular fact, that whilst the story of Hypsipyle is neither in the
alliterative Eng. version, nor in Lydgate, it _does_ occur, at this point,
in a _Spanish_ version, printed at Medina in 1587. There the heading of bk.
ii. c. x. is--'Como Iason aporto co_n_ tormenta a la Isla de Lemos, y caso
con la infanta Hisifile.'
1467. _Isiphilee_, Hypsipyle, daughter of Thoas, and queen of Lemnos; she
saved her father when the women of Lemnos killed all the other men in the
island, and subsequently entertained Jason. As the letter in Ovid does not
give all the circumstances, perhaps Chaucer consulted Valerius Flaccus,
Argonauticon, lib. ii., and Statius, Thebais, lib. v., or, perhaps, the
Fables of Hyginus, cap. xv.; but he makes more of Hercules than do these
authorities, and seems to be inventing.
1468. _Thoas doghter the king_, the daughter of king Thoas. This is the
usual idiom; see my note to Squi. Tale, F 209.
1469. Cf. Valerius Flaccus, Argon. ii. 311:--
'Ecce procul ualidis Lemnon tendentia remis
Arma notant: rapitur subito regina tumultu,
Conciliumque uocat: non illis obuia tela
Ferre, nec infestos deerat furor improbus ignes,
Ni Ueneris saeuas fregisset Mulciber iras.'
In Statius, Theb. v., the Lemnian women receive the Argonauts with
hostility at first, and attack them with missiles.
1476. _Socour_; cf. 'succurrere disco'; Verg. Æn. i. 630.
1479. This is a curious error; _him_ should be _her_. As the Lemnian women
had just killed every man in the island, the messenger must needs have been
a woman. In fact, her name was Iphinoë; Val. Flacc. Argon. ii. 327. The
account in Apollonius Rhodius is somewhat fuller; but I find no mention of
the _cogge_.
1481. _Cogge_, a cock-boat; from the O. Fr. _coque_, also spelt _cogue_, a
kind of vessel, sometimes a ship of war, but also a merchant-vessel, and
here a small boat. See _coque_ or _cogue_ in Godefroy's O. Fr. Dict.
_Cogge_ occurs in the Morte Arthure, 476, 738; Allit. Poems, ed. Morris,
iii. 152; &c. 'Cogboote, cokbote, _scafa_'; Prompt. Parv.
1487. _Broken_, ship-wrecked. 'The ships were _broken_' 1 Kings xxii. 48;
cf. Jonah i. 4. _Oght wo begoon_, in any way distressed. Note resemblances
to the tale of Dido.
1488. _Lodesmen_, pilots; see note to Ch. Prol. 403. 'Lodesman of a shippe,
_pilotte_'; Palsgrave.
1509. Cf. Valerius Flaccus, Arg. ii. 351:--
'Praecipueque ducis casus mirata requirit
Hypsipyle; quae fata trahant, quae regis agat uis.'
1514. _Los_; spelt _loos_ in MS. Tn.; for the _o_ is long. It means
'praise' or 'renown,' and occurs six times in Ho. Fame (1620, 1621, 1626,
1722, 1817, 1900). _Los_, with short _o_, means 'loss.'
1515. Read _th'áventúres_, in four syllables.
1528. Prof. Corson cites some parallel passages, viz:--
'And therto he was _hardy_, _wys_, and _riche_'; Squi. Ta., F 19.
'_Hardy_, and _wyse_, and _riche_, and therto _free_'; Ship. Ta., B 1366.
'We alle desyren, if hit mighte be,
To have housbondes _hardy_, _wyse_, and _free_,
And _secree_'; Non. Pr. Ta., B 4103.
1529. _Three pointes._ The reference is not to l. 1528, which mentions
_four_ points, but to ll. 1530-3 following. I.e. the three points are
_fredom_, _lustihede_, and being _a greet gentil-man_; or otherwise,
liberality, youthful vigour, and high birth. Cf. l. 1405.
1533. Accent _Tessálie_ on the second syllable.
1535. _Shamefast_ (from A.S. _sceamu_) is here trisyllabic. On the corrupt
modern spelling _shamefaced_ see Trench, Eng. Past and Present.
1536. _He hadde lever_, he would have it dearer, he would rather.
1538-40. In order to scan l. 1538, the word _almighty_ is necessary, though
found in MS. A. only. Or else we must insert _him_, and read--'As wolde God
that I hadde him i-yive.' The sense is--'As (I pray) that God would permit
that I might have given [him] my blood and flesh, provided that I might
still live (to see the result), on the condition that he had anywhere a
wife (suitable) to his rank.' _So that_ means 'provided that'; as in '_so
that_ ye be not wroth,' C. T., D 2248 (Sompnoures Tale), in the Harleian
MS.; and in the following:--
'Sche saide, sire, ich wille help the,
_So that_ thou wille spousi me.'--Seven Sages, ed. Weber, 2663.
As to the expression _with the nones_, we may compare it with such
expressions as _with-than_, _with-thon-that_, _with-tho-the_, _with-that_,
all meaning 'provided that,' and all occurring in the Glossary to Spec. of
Eng., Part I. And since _for the nones_ means 'for the occasion' (see
Prologue to C. T., 379), so _with the nones_ is 'with the occasion,' and
hence 'provided that.' I cannot at all agree with what seems to me the
ludicrous emendation in some late editions, which change _nones_ into
_bones_, and delete the comma after _live_; 'provided that I might live
with the bones.' At any rate, there is _no authority_ for this. The old
editions and MSS. all alike read _nones_; and we have the phrase again
(pronounced _with th' non-es_), in the Ho. Fame, 2099.
1546. _To come to hous upon_, to become at home with, to become familiar
with.
1551. The former syllable in _Yiftes_ forms a foot by itself.
1552. _As wolde god_, as (I wish) that God might will or permit; as in l.
1538.
1558. _Thoriginal_, the original. As this 'tells all the case,' i.e. all
Jason's subtlety, he is probably referring to Ovid, Her. Ep. vi. Flaccus
says that Hercules induced Jason to quit Lemnos, and proceed on his voyage.
Statius mentions Hypsipyle's twin sons, and relates some of her later
history.
1564. Chaucer here follows the sixth letter of Ovid's Heroides. Lines
1569-1575 follow four lines of the Latin text, viz. 123-4, and 159-60,
which refer to the twins and Medea:--
'Si quaeris, cui sunt similes; cognosceris illis.
Fallere non norunt; caetera patris habent....
Quam fratri germana fuit, miseroque parenti
filia; tam natis, tam sit acerba uiro.'
PART II. THE LEGEND OF MEDEA.
1580. From this line to l. 1655 Chaucer mainly follows the second book of
Guido delle Colonne's Historia Troiana, which he epitomises. See Gower, C.
A. ii. 236-258.
1581. 'Who is a devourer of love, and a very dragon'; with reference to the
supposed insatiability of dragons.
1582. 'As matter always seeks to have a definite form, and may pass from
one form into another.' Mr. Archer Hind refers me to Aristotle,
Metaphysica, [LAMDA]. vii. 1072 b. 3:--[Greek: kinei de hôs erômenon,
kinoumenon de talla kinei]. Bech shews that this is all from Guido, who
has: 'Scimus enim mulieris animum semper uirum appetere, sicut appetit
materia semper formam.... Sed sicut ad formam de forma procedere materiam
notum est, sic mulieris concupiscentia dissoluta procedere de uiro ad uirum
... sine fine, cum sit quaedam profunditas sine fundo,' &c. Hence Lydgate,
in his Troy-book, bk. i. c. 5 (fol. C 6, back) has:--
'For as nature by kyndly appetyte
Kyndly seketh to sewen after fourme,' &c.
1590. _Iaconitos_, Iaconites. This is a clear proof that Chaucer follows
Guido. At p. 12* of the alliterative Troy-book, ed. Panton and Donaldson,
the following passage is quoted from Guido, lib. ii.: 'In insula igitur
Colcos erat tunc temporis quaedam ciuitas nomine _Iaconites_, caput regni
pro sua magnitudine constituta.' Further extracts from this Latin text are
given by Horstmann, in his edition entitled 'Barbours Legendensammlung,'
vol. ii. (Heilbronn, 1882), p. 221; where will also be found a parallel
passage in a fifteenth-century poem which has wrongly been ascribed to
Barbour. Hence Lydgate, in his Troy-book, bk. i. c. 5 (fol. C 3, back),
says of the chief city of Colchos:--'And Iaconites tho it bare the name.'
1594. Read _Preyíng_; and drop the final _e_ of _moste_.
1597. Compare the allit. Troy-book, ll. 388-391:--
'The kyng was full curtais, calt on a maiden,
Bede his doughter come downe, and his dere heire,
To sit by that semely, and solas to make.
This mayden full mylde Medea was callid.'
1605. 'And in his mien as royal as a lion.'
1606. _Famulere_, familiar, affable. See Ch. Prol. 215.
1609. 'And, as Fortune owed her an evil mishap.'
1617. Cf. the Troy-book, l. 544:--
'That causes me with counsell to caste for your helpe,
And put you in plite your purpos to wyn,
In sound for to saile home, and your sute all.'
1620. Cf. the same, l. 554:--
'Now louely and leell, for your lefe speche
I thanke you a thowsande tymes in my thro hert,
That ye kythe me suche kyndnes withouten cause why;
And here I put me full plainly in your pure wille,
To do with me, damsell, as your desyre thynke.'
1631. _Disioint_, perilous situation, peril. Cf. Kn. Ta., A 2962. 'But sith
I see I stonde in this _disioint_'; Shipman's Tale, B 1601.
1639. Cf. the Troy-book, 942; and 711:--
'Yow swiftly shall sweire vppon swete goddes,
This couenaunt to kepe and for no case chaunge.'
'And swiftly he sware on that swete[70] god,
All tho couenaundes to kepe, and for no cause let,
Whill hym lastes the lyffe; he laid on his hond.'
1653. _Unwist of_, unknown to. Cf. Troy-book, 987:--
'Then leuyt thai the lond, and no leue toke,
Stale from the styth king stylle by night;
With the maiden Medea and myche other goodes,
Thai turne into Tessaile with-outen tale more.'
Here Chaucer ceases to follow Guido, except in ll. 1662-6.
1661. Her name was Creusa; cf. Ovid, Met. vii. 391-6; Horace, Epod. v. 64.
1662. Cf. the Troy-book, l. 718:--
'And thou hedis not the harme of that hend lady,
Ne tentes not thy trouth that thou tynt has;
Soche a maiden to mar that the most louet,
That forsec hir fader and hir fre londe.'
1667. _Vassalage_, prowess; cf. Kn. Ta., A 3054. It is here used
ironically. Trench refers us to Lydgate's Minor Poems, ed. Halliwell, p.
176:--
'And Catoun seith, is noon so greet encress
Of wordly tresour, as for to live in pees,
Which among vertues hath the _vasselage_.'
1670. _Lettre_, letter; i.e. the 12th letter in Ovid's Heroides; see l.
1678. Lines 1672-7 answer to lines 13, 14, and 19 in Ovid:--
'Cur mihi plus aequo flaui placuere capilli,
et decor, et linguae gratia ficta tuae?...
Quantum perfidiae tecum, scelerate, perîsset!'
1672. _Why lyked me_, why did it please me? But, in l. 1674, _lyked_ is a
personal verb.
V. THE LEGEND OF LUCRETIA.
Chaucer cites Ovid and Livy, and in l. 1873 again appeals to Livy as the
authority. The story is in Livy, bk. i. c. 57-59; and in Ovid, Fasti, ii.
721-852. Chaucer doubtless appeals to Livy as being a professed historian,
but the reader will find that, as a matter of fact, he follows mainly the
account in Ovid from beginning to end, and sometimes almost word for word.
Livy and Ovid were contemporary; the former was born B.C. 59, and died A.D.
17; the latter was born B.C. 43, and died A.D. 18. Gower also tells this
story, and likewise follows Ovid and (near the end) Livy; C. A. iii. 251.
1680. Ovid tells the story of Lucretia under the date Feb. 22 (viii Kal.
Martii), which was commemorated as 'Fuga Tarquinii Superbi,' and begins his
account in the Fasti, ii. 685. Chaucer here borrows from Ovid's first line,
viz.:--'Nunc mihi dicenda est regis fuga.'
Ll. 1680-1693 form Chaucer's own Prologue to the story.
1682. The 'last king' of Rome was Tarquinius Superbus, father of the
Tarquinius Sextus whom Chaucer calls in l. 1698 'Tarquinius the yonge.' The
word _And_, at the beginning of the line, though absolutely necessary to
the sense, is preserved only in MS. Addit. 12524, a bad copy from a good
type. It reads:--'And specially off the last king Tarquinius'; but no other
MS. retains _specially_, and of course it makes the line too long.
1684. 'I do not tell the story for the sake of Tarquin's exile.'
1690. 'St. Augustin, commenting on the story in the milder and more
rational spirit of Christian morality, while he admires the purity of
Lucrece, blames her folly in committing the crime of self-murder as a
punishment on herself for that of which she was really innocent. "Si
adultera," he asks, "cur laudata? Si pudica, cur occisa?" See August. _De
Civitate Dei_, c. xix.'--Bell.
1694. Here Chaucer begins his close copy of Ovid, Fast. ii. 721:--'Cingitur
interea Romanis Ardea signis.' The original should be compared throughout.
_Ardea_, capital of the Rutuli; in Latium.
1696. _Wroghte_, pt. t. 'The siege (or the besiegers) lay before the city
long, and accomplished little'; G. L. Kittredge, Harvard Studies, p. 7.
1698. 'Tarquinius iuuenis'; i.e. Tarquinius Sextus.
1705. _Colatyne._ Chaucer found the name in Livy (or Augustine). Ovid
merely has: 'cui dederat clarum Collatia nomen.' Livy has: 'ubi et
Collatinus cenebat Tarquinius, Egerii filius.' Collatinus was the cousin of
Sextus, and took his name from Collatia, an ancient town of the Sabines, in
the neighbourhood of Rome.
1707. From Ovid: 'Non opus est uerbis, credite rebus, ait.'
1708. From Livy: 'paucis id quidem horis posse sciri, quantum ceteris
praestet Lucretia sua.'
1711. 'That pleases me.' Ovid: 'Dicta placent'; l. 736.
1715. Cf. 'And knew the _estres_ bet than dide this John'; C. T., A 4295
(Reves Tale); and see Kn. Ta., A 1971; also, in particular, the Romaunt of
the Rose, 1448, where the F. text has _l'estre_ (shewing where Ch. found
the word); see vol. i. p. 153.
We may explain _estres_ by 'inner premises' of a house or building.
Godefroy's O. Fr. Dict. gives numerous examples. Cotgrave gives the verb
_estre_, to be; whence the sb. _estre_, a being, substance, state; and then
cites: '_les estres d'une maison_, the inward conveyances, private windings
and turnings within, entries into, issues out of, a house.' The word is
very common in Old French, and not uncommon in Middle English. Gower even
has the sing. _estre_ in the sense of 'state'; C. A. i. 272. Cf. F. 'il
sait tous les êtres de cette maison.'
For all this, the old editions turned the form into _efters_, and Bell
follows them! Moreover, _eftures_ is gravely quoted in Halliwell's
Dictionary, with a reference to Sir T. Malory. The passage is:--'Pleaseth
it you to see the _eftures_ of this castle?' bk. xix. c. 7 (p. 444 in the
Globe edition). Here _eftures_ is a mere misprint (in Caxton's original
edition) for _estres_, due to reading the long _s_ as an _f_. _Efters_ and
_Eftures_ are mere 'ghost-words,' the products of ignorance.
1716, 7. 'Tecta petunt; custos in fore nullus erat'; l. 738.
1720. _Dischevele_, with hair hanging loose. _Malice_, evil.
1721. 'Ante torum calathi _lanaque mollis_ erat'; l. 742. Of course 'our
book' means Ovid; yet Thynne reads 'saith Liui.'
1729. A fine line; but I think Chaucer has wholly misunderstood l. 752 of
the original.
1732-9.
'Desinit in lacrimas, intentaque fila remittit,
in gremium uultum deposuitque suum.
Hoc ipsum decuit: lacrimae decuere pudicae,
et facies animo dignaque parque fuit'; l. 755.
1740-3. 'Pone metum, ueni, coniux ait. Illa reuixit.'
1745-55. Six lines in Ovid; ll. 761-6.
1757. 'Iam dederat cantus lucis praenuntius ales'; l. 767.
1759-71. Twelve lines in Ovid; ll. 769-80.
1765. _Al to-shake_, wholly tossed about; see l. 962.
1771. 'Or a wicked inclination, with malice.' 'The original meaning (as of
_talento_ in Italian, _talante_ in Spanish) was will, inclination, from
_talentum_ ([Greek: talanton]), balance, scales, and then inclination of
balance.'--Trench, Select Glossary, s.v. _Talent_.
1773. 'Audentes Forsque deusque iuuant.' We say, 'Fortune favours the
bold.' Cf. 'Audentes fortuna iuuat'; Verg. Æn. x. 284; 'Audentes deus ipse
iuuat'; Ovid, Met. x. 586.
1774. 'Whatever the event may be, my resolve is taken.' Audebimus ultima,
dixit'; l. 781.
1775. _Girt_, girdeth; pr. t. So _rit_, rideth, in l. 1776.
1780. _Halke_, corner, hiding-place; as in Sec. Non. Ta. G 311.
1781. _Gan he stalke_, he moved stealthily; as in Clerk. Ta. E 525. It is
remarkable that Shakespeare uses the same word in his Lucrece, l.
365:--'Into the chamber wickedly he _stalks_.' Prof. Corson notices its use
by Gower; see Pauli's edition, vol. i. pp. 72, 187; ii. 256, 346, 347, 353,
360.
1798. 'Parua sub infesto quum iacet agna lupo'; l. 800.
1800-3. Cf. Fast. ii. 801, 2:--
'Quid faciat? Pugnet? uincetur femina pugna;
Clamet? at in dextra, qui uetet, ensis erat.'
1812-26. These lines are original, and breathe the spirit of chivalry.
1827-36. Eight lines in Ovid; 815, 816; 813, 814; 817-20.
1838-46. This passage is original.
1847-53. Compare Ovid, 829, 830. But Chaucer here follows Livy, who has:
'Dant ordine omnes fidem; consolantur aegram animi, auertendo noxam ab
coacta in auctorem delicti; mentem peccare, non corpus; et unde consilium
afuerit, culpam abesse.' Cf. Gower, C. A. iii. 261.
1856-60. Two lines in Ovid; 833, 834:--
'Tunc quoque, iam moriens, ne non procumbat honeste,
respicit. Haec etiam cura cadentis erat.'
1861. Chaucer here tells the tale more succinctly. Ll. 1864-5 answer to ll.
849, 850 in Ovid; l. 1866 answers to l. 847 and l. 1869 to l. 852. The rest
is, practically, all Chaucer's own.
1871. This canonisation of Lucretia is strikingly medieval. It was
evidently suggested by the fact that Ovid gives her story under a
particular date, so that she seemed to have _her own day_, like a saint.
Cf. note to l. 1680.
1880. Probably the syllables _That in Is-_ form the first foot of the line.
Otherwise, _Israel_ is dissyllabic.
1881. The reference must be to the Syro-phenician woman; Matt. xv. 28;
Mark, vii. 29. But it may be feared that Chaucer was really thinking of the
centurion; Matt. viii. 10; Luke, vii. 9. Read _he ne_ as _he n'_.
1883, 4. _As of_, in the case of. _Alday_, always; F. _toujours_. 'Let
whoever wishes (it) test them.'
VI. THE LEGEND OF ARIADNE.
For a remark upon the title, see note to l. 1966.
It is difficult to say whence Chaucer derived all of this Legend. The
beginning is from Ovid, Metam. vii. 456-8, viii. 6-176; the main part of
the story is like Plutarch's Life of Theseus, or some similar source; and
the conclusion from Ovid's Heroides, epist. x. Further, ll. 2222-4 refer to
Met. viii. 176-182. See also Hyginus, Fabulae, capp. xli-xliii; Æneid, vi.
20-30; and cf. Gower, C. A. ii. 302-311.
1886. 'O Minos, king of Crete, judge in the infernal regions, now comes thy
lot, now comest thou into the ring (concourse).' In l. 1894 we again have
mention of Minos, king of Crete; which looks as if Chaucer has confused the
two kings of this name. The 'infernal judge' was, however, the grandfather
of the second Minos; at least, such is the usual account. The mention of
'the lot' in connection with Minos looks as if Chaucer was thinking of
Vergil's lines, Æn. vi. 431, 2:--
'Nec uero hae _sine sorte_ datae, sine iudice sedes.
Quaesitor Minos _urnam mouet_.'
Cf. also Æn. vi. 22:--'stat ductis sortibus urna.'
1889. _Memóri-e_ has four syllables, and is accented on the second.
1895. _Hadde_, had, possessed; referring to Crete. This seems better than
the reading _wan_ (i.e. won), referring to Minos. Cf. Ovid, Her. x.
67:--'Non ego te, Crete, centum digesta per urbes.'
1896. Cf. Ovid, Met. vii. 456-8:--
'Bella parat Minos ...
Androgeique necem iustis ulciscitur armis.'
Androgeus is again mentioned in Ovid, Her. x. 99; and in Vergil, Æn. vi.
20.
'There came certain of king Minos' ambassadors out of Creta, to ask a
tribute, being now the third time that it was demanded; which the Athenians
paid for this cause. Androgeus, the eldest son of king Minos, was slain by
treason within the country of Attica: for which cause Minos, pursuing the
revenge of his death, made very hot and sharp wars upon the Athenians, and
did them great hurt.'--Shakespeare's Plutarch, p. 280.
1900. From this point to l. 1921 Chaucer follows Ovid, Met. viii. 6-176,
but gives a mere outline of the story of Scylla. See note to l. 1908.
1902. _Alcathoe_, the citadel of Megara, and hence a name for Megara. It
was named after Alcathous, founder of Megara; indeed, in Ovid, Met. viii.
8, it is called _Alcathoi urbs_; but Chaucer found the right form in Met.
vii. 443.
1904. _Nisus_, Nisus, king of Megara; Met. viii. 8.
1908. Nisus' daughter was named Scylla. In order to gain the love of Minos,
she cut off her father's purple hair, on which the safety of his kingdom
depended; whereupon Nisus was changed into a sparrow-hawk, and Scylla into
the bird _ciris_; Met. viii. 9-151. But Chaucer omits these details. Cf.
Parl. of Foules, 292, and the note.
1922. Chaucer here leaves Ovid; this part of the story is partly given in
Plutarch and Hyginus, but Chaucer seems to have filled in details from some
source unknown to me.
1925. 'Whereupon the Athenians sent immediately unto him, and intreated him
for peace: which he granted them, with condition that they should be bound
to send him yearly, into Creta, seven young boys and as many young girls.
Now thus far all the historiographers do very well agree, but in the rest
not. And they which seem furthest off from the troth [including Chaucer] do
declare, that when these young boys were delivered in Creta, they caused
them to be devoured by the Minotaur within the labyrinth.'--Shakespeare's
Plutarch, p. 280.
1928. The Minotaur was a monster, half bull and half man, dwelling in a
labyrinth at Crete, constructed by Dædalus. He annually devoured the
fourteen Athenian young people, as above said, till slain by Theseus. Cf.
Ovid, Met. viii. 155.
1932. _Every thridde yeer_, every third year. This is due to Ovid's
expression--'tertia sors annis domuit repetita nouenis' (Met. viii. 171),
which Golding translates by--'The third time at the ninth yeares end the
lot did chance to light On Theseus,' &c. But Hyginus (Fab. xli)
says:--'Instituit autem ut anno unoquoque septenos liberos suos Minotauro
ad epulandum mitterent.'
1944. _Egeus_, Ægeus, king of Athens; Met. vii. 402, 404.
1954. 'That thou wouldst be deeply indebted to any one who,' &c.
1960. 'Furthermore, after he [Theseus] was arrived in Creta, he slew there
the Minotaur ... by the means and help of Ariadne: who being fallen in
fancy with him, did give him a clue of thread, by the help wherof she
taught him, how he might easily wind out of the turnings and crancks of the
labyrinth.'--Shak. Plutarch, p. 283. Cf. Ovid, Met. viii. 172; Hyginus,
Fab. xlii.
1962. _Foreyne_, outer chamber; belonging to the _chambres grete_, or set
of larger rooms occupied by the daughters of the king. It seems to answer
to the A.S. _búr_, mod. E. _bower_, explained in Murray's Dict. as 'an
inner apartment, esp. as distinguished from the "hall," or large public
room; _also_, esp. applied to a lady's private apartment; boudoir.' It is
merely a peculiar use of our word _foreign_; the O. Fr. _forain_ (fem.
_foraine_) often meant 'outer,' as in the phrases _une foraine rue_, an
outer (more retired) street; _es tenebres forennes_, into outer darkness;
see Godefroy's F. Dict. I agree with Mätzner, that there is no sufficient
reason for explaining the word in this passage by 'privy,' though it
admittedly has that meaning also (as given in Levins).
1965. _Maister-strete_, principal street; as in Kn. Ta., A 2902.
1966. Most MSS. begin the line with _Of Athenes_, as in l. 2306. This would
be a most extraordinary oversight, as the scene is laid in Crete, in the
town of Gnossus. MS. T. substitutes 'In mochell myrthe'; and the old
printed editions have 'Of the towne,' which scans badly, though 'Of thilke
toune' would do well enough. We seem justified in rejecting the reading _Of
Athenes_, because Chaucer distinctly mentions _Athenes_ in ll. 1940, 1944,
as being the place whence Theseus was sent 'unto the court of Minos'; l.
1949. Besides this, in l. 2122 Theseus calls Ariadne by the prospective
title of 'duchess of Athens'; on which Ariadne playfully remarks that she
and her sister are now 'assured to royal positions in Athens'; l. 2128.
From all which it does not seem fair to charge the error upon Chaucer
himself; and I therefore make the bold alteration suggested by MS. T., and
supported by MS. Addit. 9832, which has 'In moche myrth.' In the title of
the poem, Ariadne is called 'Adriane de Athenes,' but this is another
matter, and has reference to l. 2122. She became 'duchess of Athens' in the
right of her husband Theseus.
1969. _Adrian_ or _Adriane_, the M.E. spellings of Ariadne: see Ho. Fame,
407; Prol. to Man of Law, B 67. Ariadne and Phædra were the daughters of
Minos; Theseus took both of them away from Crete; and, on the voyage,
deserted Ariadne for her sister.
1990. 'And make this sorrowful man come with him.'
1992. _Quit_, free, delivered. It seems to have been an understood thing,
that if a captive Athenian should succeed in slaying the Minotaur, he
should go free, and the tribute paid by the Athenians should be remitted.
One account in Plutarch says that Minos himself 'chose Theseus, upon
condition agreed between them; ... and that after the death of the Minotaur
this tribute should cease.'--Sh. Plut. p. 282. One condition was, that the
captives should be _unarmed_. This explains Phædra's plan, in l. 1994, for
arming Theseus surreptitiously; cf. l. 2011.
1993. _Taste_, test. The word _test_ was formerly used only as a sb., of a
vessel in which gold or silver was tested; the place of the mod. E. verb to
test was supplied by the M.E. _tasten_, and there can be little doubt that
the words _taste_ and _test_ have been partially confused; see these words
in my Etym. Dict., whence I quote the following: 'The M.E. _tasten_ meant
both to feel and to taste. "I rede thee, lat thyn _hand_ upon it falle, And
_taste_ it wel, and stoon thou shalt it finde"; Ch. C. T. 15970 (G 502).
"Every thyng Himseolf schewith in _tastyng_;" King Alisaunder, 4042.--F.
_taster_, to taste or take an assay of; also to handle, feel, touch;
Cotgrave. Cf. mod. F. _tâter_; Ital. _tastare_, "to taste, to assaie, to
feele, to grope, to trye, to proofe, to touch"; Florio.'
1996. The former syllable of _Fighten_ forms a foot by itself.
1997. 'Where he will have to descend.'
2002. _Shal do_, will be sure to do.
2004. Bell remarks that this resembles the stratagem by which Daniel
destroyed the dragon at Babylon. 'Tulit igitur Daniel picem, et adipem, et
pilos, et coxit pariter: fecitque massas, et dedit in os draconis, et
diruptus est draco'; Dan. xiv. 26 (Vulgate).
2009. _To-hepe_, together; i.e. 'before they come to closer quarters.' Bell
alters this, the reading of all the MSS. and old editions, to _to kepe_,
which gives no sense; and Morris and Corson follow suit. Yet _to-hepe_,
lit. 'to a heap,' but used adverbially in the precise sense of 'together,'
is not a recondite expression. Morris explains it rightly elsewhere, viz.
in Chaucer's tr. of Boethius, bk. iv. pr. 6, l. 182, where 'y-medled
to-hepe' means 'mixed together.' It is also in Troil. iii. 1764:--'that
Love halt now _to-hepe_,' which Love now holds together. And yet again, in
Ch. Astrolabe, pt. i. § 14. 5. See also P. Plowm. Crede, 727.
2012. _The hous_, i.e. the famous labyrinth. _Crinkled_, full of turns or
'cranks'; see note to l. 1960. Cf. Mid. Du. _krunckel-winckel_, or
_krinckel-winckel_, 'crooked here and there'; Hexham (A.D. 1658); Du.
_krinkel_, a winding, _krinkelen_ or _kronkelen_, to wind about; all allied
to E. _crank_, a twist, hence a twisted handle. Cf. Ovid, Met. viii. 173;
Æn. vi. 27. And see Trevisa, tr. of Higden, i. 9.
2020. Read _drede_, dread; not _stede_, place. The Rime-indexes shew that,
in the ending _-ede_ in Chaucer, the former _e_ is usually long (_-[=e]de_,
_-eede_). However, _st[)e]de_, in the sense of 'stead' (A.S. _st[)e]de_),
rimes once with _dr[=e]de_, in Ho. Fame, 829.
2028. _Sit on his knee_, kneels down. We also find _to setten him on
knees_, _to fallen on knees_, _to knelen on knees_, _he lay on kne_, &c.
See Mätzner, s.v. _cneo_, p. 442. 'On knes she sat adoun'; Lay le Freine,
159. Cf. Man of Lawes Tale, B 638.
2029. _The righte_; here used as a vocative case.
2037. Cf. Arcite's service as a page; Kn. Ta., A 1427.
2040. _Nat but_, only, merely; the familiar Northern E. _nob-but_. See l.
2091.
2041. _Swinke_, toil, labour hard. It is curious that this word should be
obsolete. Perhaps no word that is now obsolete was once more common. It
occurs in Chaucer, Langland, Gower, Spenser, &c.; but not in Shakespeare.
2044. 'Nor any one else, shall be able to espy me.'
2048. 'In order to have my life, and to retain your presence.' The sense is
quite clear. The note in Corson--'_presence_ seems to mean here
presentiment or suspicion'--is due to some mistake.
2051. Only MS. C. retains _now_; and it would be better before _is_ than
after it.
2056. _Yif_, if; answering to _than_, then, in l. 2059.
2063. 'I pray Mars to do me such a favour.'
2064. _Shames deeth_, a death of shame; see l. 2072.
2065. _Póvert_ occurs as a dissyllable, in Cant. Ta., C 441.
2066. Pronounce _spirit_ nearly as _spir't_.
_Go_, walk about, roam. He prays that he may be punished by being made to
walk as a ghost after death. A reference to the supposed restlessness of
the spirits of wicked men; see Parl. of Foules, 80. But good spirits also
'walked' sometimes; Wint. Tale, iii. 3. 17.
2069. _For which_, for which cause, on which account. _Go_, may walk; the
subjunctive mood.
2070. _Other degree_, i.e. a higher degree than that of page. He professes
not to aspire to this, _unless_ she vouchsafes to give it him.
2072. 'May I die by a death of shame.' The _of_ depends on _deye_; cf. Man
of Lawes Tale, B 819.
2075. _A twenty_, about twenty. _A_ is here used as expressly an
approximative result; as in '_an_ eight days,' Luke ix. 28; so '_a_ ten,'
Squi. Tale, F 383. Only MS. C. retains _a_, but it is wanted for the metre.
2082. _God shilde hit_, God defend or forbid it.
2083. _Leve_, grant. We also find _lene_, to grant, give, but it is only
used with a following _case_; whilst _leve_ is only used with a following
_clause_. _Me_ is governed by _befalle_. 'And grant that such a case may
never befall me,' i.e. for Theseus to be merely her page.
2086. _And leve_, and may He also grant.
2089. 'Yet it would be better'; followed by _Then_ (= than) in l. 2092.
2094. The latter syllable of _profit_ comes at the caesura, and is easily
read quickly. We need not change _unto_ into _to_, as in MS. A. only.
2096. _To my_, as for my.
2099. _That_, (I propose) that. _Sone_, Hippolytus. Yet, in l. 2075,
Theseus was only 23 years old! Perhaps she proposes, in banter, a purely
whimsical condition; cf. ll. 2102, 2120, 2127.
2100. _Hoom-coming_, arrival at home; cf. Kn. Tale, 26 (A 884).
2101. _Fynal ende_, definite settlement.
2105. _To borwe_, as a pledge; cf. Squi. Ta., F 596.
2107. To draw blood on oneself was a frequent mode of attestation. Cf.
Wright's note on K. Lear, ii. I. 34; and note how Faustus stabs his arm in
Marlowe's play; Act ii. sc. 1.
2120. _Servant_, devoted lover; the usual phrase. This asseveration of
Theseus shews that he thought Ariadne immeasurably credulous.
2122. _Of Athenes duchesse_, (whom I hail as) duchess of Athens. That is,
he promises her marriage. In l. 2127 Ariadne grows pleasant on the subject.
2128. 'And assured to the royalties (or regal attributes) of Athens'; i.e.
we are secure of our future royal rank.
2130. _And saved_, and we have saved. Chaucer has _be_ just above; so that
he has changed the idiom.
2132. _Emforth hir might_, even-forth with her might, to the extent of her
power; cf. Kn. Ta., 1377 (A 2235).
2134. 'It seems to me, no one ought to blame us for this; nor give us an
evil name on this account.'
2145. _Geeth_, goeth, goes; A.S. _g['æ]ð_. For two more examples, see _geð_
in Gloss. to Spec. of English, Part I.
2150. _By_, by help of, with the help of.
2151. _Of_, with. _Gan hit charge_, did load it. 'And they say, that having
killed this Minotaur, he returned back again the same way he went, bringing
with him those other young children of Athens [whom Chaucer forgets to
mention], whom with Ariadne also he carried afterwards away.'--Sh.
Plutarch, p. 283.
2155. _Ennopye_, Oenopia, another name for Ægina; which was on their way
from Crete to Athens. Chaucer got the name from Ovid, Met. vii. 472, 473,
490; and introduces it naturally enough, because Æacus, then dwelling
there, was an old ally of the Athenians; id. 485; cf. l. 2156 in our poem.
Gilman suggests that Enope (i.e. Gerenia in Messenia) is meant, which is
merely a wild guess.
2161. _Woon_, number. Originally, a hope; also, a resource, a store, a
quantity; and hence _gret woon_ = a great number. For examples, see
_w[=a]n_ in Stratmann; and cf. note to Troil. iv. 1181.
2163. _Yle_, island; usually said to be Naxos, on the supposition that it
is not much out of the way in sailing from Gnossus in Crete to Attica.
Chaucer has inadvertently brought Theseus to Ægina already; but we need not
trouble about the geographical conditions. The description of the island is
from Ovid, Her. x. 59:--'Uacat insula cultu'; &c.
2167. _Lette_, tarried; pt. t. of the weak verb _letten_; quite distinct
from _leet_ or _l[=e]t_ (pt. t. of _leten_), which would not rime with
_set-te_. This latter part of the story is nearly all from Ovid, Her. x.
Compare, e.g. ll. 4-6:--
'unde tuam sine me uela tulere ratem;
In quo me somnusque meus male prodidit, et tu,
pro facinus! somnis insidiate meis.'
2176. _To his contre-ward_, i.e. toward his country. Cf. 'To Thebes-ward';
Kn. Ta. 109 (A 967).
2177. _A twenty devil way_, in the way of twenty devils; i.e. in all sorts
of evil ways or directions; cf. Can. Yem. Ta., G 782.
2178. _His fader_, king Ægeus (l. 1944). The story is that Theseus went to
Crete in a ship with a black sail, in token of his unhappy fate. He had
agreed to exchange this for a white sail, if his expedition was successful;
but this he omitted to do. Hence Ægeus, 'seeing the black sail afar off,
being out of all hope ever more to see his son again, took such a grief at
his heart, that he threw himself headlong from the top of a cliff, and
killed himself.'--Shak. Plutarch, p. 284.
2182. _Atake_, overtaken with sleep; cf. C. T. 6966 (D 1384).
2186. 'Perque torum moueo brachia; nullus erat'; Her. x. 12.
2189, 90.
'Alta puellares tardat arena pedes.
Interea toto clamanti littore, Theseu!' id. 20.
2192. Suggested by Ovid; ll. 81-6.
2193. 'Reddebant nomen concaua saxa tuum'; id. 22. The Latin and English
lines are alike beautiful.
2194. 'Luna fuit; specto, si quid, nisi littora, cernam'; id. 17.
2195-7. These three lines represent eight in Ovid; 25-32.
2198. This line answers to the first line in Ovid, Epist. x.
2200, 1. _His meiny_, its (complete) crew. _Inne_, within; A.S. _innan_.
'Quo fugis, exclamo, scelerate? Reuertere, Theseu;
flecte ratem; numerum non habet illa suum'; id. 35.
2202.
'Candidaque imposui longae uelamina uirgae,
scilicet oblitos admonitura mei'; id. 41.
2208-17. Paraphrased from Ovid; Her. x. 51-64.
2212. _Answere of_, answer for; 'redde duos.'
2214. _Wher shal I become?_ Where shall I go to? the old idiom. We now say,
'what will become of me?' On this expression, see _Bicome_ in my Gloss. to
P. Plowman (Clar. Press Series).
2215. 'For even if a ship or boat were to come this way, I dare not go home
to my country, for fear (of my father).'
The reading _that bote none here come_ is nonsense, and expresses the
converse of what is meant. The corresponding line in Ovid is--'Finge dari
comitesque mihi, uentosque, ratemque'; 63.
2218. _What_, for what, why? See Cant. Ta., B 56, &c.
2220. _Naso_, Ouidius Naso. _Her epistle_, the epistle above quoted, the
title of which is--'Ariadne Theseo.'
2223, 4. The story is that Bacchus took compassion on Ariadne, and finally
placed her crown as a constellation in the heavens; see Ovid, Fasti, iii.
461-516; Met. viii. 178-182. This constellation is the Northern Crown, or
Corona Borealis, which is just in the opposite side of the sky from Taurus.
Ovid says--'qui medius nixique genu est anguemque tenentis,' Met. viii.
182. Here the holder of the snake is Ophiuchus; and _Nixus genu_ or
_Engonasin_ ([Greek: en gonasin]) was a name for Hercules; see Hyginus,
Poet. Ast. lib. ii. c. 6; lib. iii. c. 5; Ausonius, Eclog. iii. 2. The
Northern Crown comes to the meridian with the sign Scorpio, not Taurus. We
can only bring the sense right by supposing that _in the signe of Taurus_
means when the _sun_ is in that sign, viz. in April. In the nights of
April, in our latitude, the Northern Crown is very conspicuous.
2227. _Quyte him his whyle_, repay him for his time, i.e. for the way in
which he had spent his time; cf. Man of Law's Ta., B 584.
VII. THE LEGEND OF PHILOMELA.
Chaucer's Prologue ends at l. 2243. The tale is from Ovid, Met. vi.
424-605, with some omissions, and ends at l. 2382. Gower has the same
story; C. A. bk. v. ed. Pauli, ii. 313.
2228. The words 'Deus dator formar_um_' are written after the title in MS.
B.; and part of the first line corresponds to this expression. In MS. F. it
appears as 'Deus dator formator_um_[71],' which can hardly be right.
Corson has the following note:--'In these verses (2228-30) the Platonic
doctrine of forms or ideas is expressed. For whatever knowledge Chaucer may
have had of the philosophy of Plato, he was probably indebted to the
Italian poets, with whom, especially Petrarch, Plato was a favourite.'
Corson also quotes the following from Sir Wm. Hamilton:--'Plato agreed with
the rest of the ancient philosophers in this--that all things consist of
matter and form; and that matter of which all things were made, existed
from eternity, without form; but he likewise believed that there are
external _forms_ of all possible things which exist, without matter; and to
these eternal and immaterial forms he gave the name of ideas. In the
Platonic sense, then, ideas were the patterns to which the Deity fashioned
the phenomenal or ectypal world.' See also Spenser, Hymne in honour of
Beautie, st. 5. And cf. l. 1582 above.
However, Chaucer here follows Boethius, De Consolatione Philosophiae, lib.
iii. met. 9:--
... 'Tu cuncta superno
ducis ab exemplo, pulcrum pulcerrimus ipse
mundum mente gerens, similique in imagine formans.'
See Chaucer's version of the same, ll. 1-12. Cf. Le Rom. de la Rose,
16931-8, also copied from Boethius, who follows Plato.
2233. _As for that fyn_, with that particular object.
2236. _Fro this world_, i.e. from the centre of the universe; according to
the old Ptolemaic system which made the earth the fixed centre of all
things. _The firste hevene_, the first or outermost sphere, that of Saturn;
see note to Complaint of Mars, 29.
2237. Understand _al_ (everything) as the nom. case to _corrumpeth_; i.e.
everything becomes corrupt, is infected.
2238. _As to me_, as for me, in my opinion.
2241. _Yit last_, still lasts, still endures.
2243. Read--The stóry of Térë-ús, &c.; the _-y_ in _story_ being rapidly
slurred over.
2244. Here begins Ovid, Met. vi. 424:--'Threïcius Tereus.' Tereus was king
of Thrace; and Ovid says he could trace his descent from Gradivus, i.e.
Mars (l. 427).
_Marte_, Mars. Corson here notes that '_Marte_ is the ablative case of
Mars, as _Jove_ is of Jupiter.' It is worth while to say that this view is
quite erroneous; for these forms did not arise in that way. _Marte_ was
formed from _Martem_, the accusative case, by dropping the final _m_; and,
generally, the Romance languages formed most of their substantives from
_accusative_ cases, owing to the frequent use of that case, especially in
the construction of the accus. with the infinitive, which in medieval Latin
was very common. See Sir G. Cornewall Lewis' Essay on the Romance
Languages, and Diez, Grammatik der Romanischen Sprachen, vol. ii. Thus the
F. _corps_ represents the Lat. acc. _corpus_, not the abl. _corpore_; as is
sufficiently obvious.
2247. Read--_Pán-di-ón-es_. Pandion, a king of Athens, was father of Progne
and Philomela. Cf. The Passionate Pilgrim, xxi. 395.
2249. The original Latin should be consulted, as Chaucer sometimes copies
Ovid literally, and sometimes goes his own way.
'Non pronuba Iuno,
non Hymenaeus adest illi, non Gratia lecto.
Eumenides tenuere faces de funere raptas:
Eumenides strauere torum: tectoque profanus
incubuit bubo, thalamique in culmine sedit.'--428.
2253. _Wond_, wound; _aboute the balkes wond_, kept winding (flying in
circular wise) round about the balks (or transverse beams beneath the
roof). Three good MSS. read _wond_, which is the past tense of _winden_, to
wind. Bell and others read _wonde_, explained by 'dwelt'; but this is open
to two objections, viz. (1) the pt. t. of _wonien_ to dwell, is _woned_ or
_wonede_, not _wonde_; and (2) an owl cannot dwell _about_ a balk, but only
_on_ it. The pt. pl. _woneden_ (three syllables) occurs in the Kn. Ta. 2069
(A 2927); and we learn from the Clerkes Tale, E 339, that the pp. _woned_
rimes with _astoned_. Ovid, indeed, has _incubuit_ and _sedit_; but that
does not prove much; for Chaucer expresses things in his own manner at
will.
2256. This original line refers to the medieval wedding-feasts, which
sometimes lasted even forty days. See Havelok, l. 2344; and the note.
2259-68. From Ovid, Met. vi. 438-442.
2261. _Saw not longe_, had not seen for a long time.
2264. _Moste_, might. _Ones_, for once; lit. once.
2265. _And come anoon_, and return again soon.
2266. 'Or else, unless she might go to see her.'
2270. 'Caused his ships to be made ready.'
2270-8. From Ovid, Met. vi. 444-450. Chaucer next passes on to ll. 475,
483. Ll. 2288-2294 are abridged from ll. 451-471 of the Latin. Ll.
2295-2301 answer to ll. 495-501; ll. 2302-2307 to ll. 488, 489; but many
touches are Chaucer's own, and he is seldom literal.
2282. Read _lovede_ as _lov'de_; cf. _preyde_, 2294. This line is imitated
in Kn. Ta. 338 (A 1196)--'For in this world he lovede no man so.'
2290, 1. 'And that there was none like her in (royal) array'; Met. vi. 451.
_Two so riche_, twice as rich; cf. _ten so wood_, in l. 736.
2308. Cf. Ovid, Met. vi. 512.
2312, 3. 'If it might please her, or (even) if it might not please her.'
2318-22. Ovid has these images of the lamb (l. 527) and of the dove (529).
2335. This 'castle' answers to Ovid's 'custodia' (572).
2340. 'God avenge thee, and grant thee thy petition (for vengeance).'
2342-9. Cf. Ovid, Met. vi. 563-570.
2352. _Stole_, stool, frame for tapestry work. Hexham's Du. Dict. (1658)
gives: '_Stoel-doeck_, Tapistrie, or Hangings'; lit. stool-cloth. Cf. G.
_Weberstuhl_, a loom; lit. weaver-stool. _Radevore_, a kind of serge; here,
the material on which tapestry-work was executed. The only other example I
have met with is in a poem beginning--'As ofte as syghes ben in herte
trewe,' in the Tanner MS. 346, fol. 73. One stanza begins thus:--
'As ofte tymes as Penelapye
Renewed her werk in the _raduore_,
To saue her-selfe onely in honeste
Vnto Vlixes, that she louyd so sore.'
(Another copy of these lines is in MS. Ff. 1. 6 in the Cambridge Univ.
Library, fol. 11.)
Here _raduore_ is clearly an error for _radeuore_ or _radevore_, as the
scansion shews. Urry's Glossary gives the following explanation: '_Ras_ in
French means any stuff [it means serge or satin], as _Ras de Chalons_, _Ras
de Gennes_; _Ras de Vore_ or _Vaur_ may be a stuff made at such a place.'
On which Tyrwhitt remarks--'There is a town in Languedoc called _La Vaur_;
but I know not that it was ever famous for tapestry.' Cotgrave gives:
'_Ras_, serge'; also '_Ras de Milain_, the finest kind of bare serge, or a
silke serge.' Littré cites _ras de Châlons_ from Scarron, Virg. iv.; also
'bas de soye, _raz de Millan_ et d'estame.' _Ras_, in fact, is the same as
the Tudor-English word _rash_. The loss of the _s_ in _ras de Vore_ is
regular, because _s_ drops before _d_ in Anglo-French, though it is
preserved in _ras_ when used alone. I find, on consulting the English
Cyclopædia, that _La Vaur_, in the department of Tarn, produces silk and
serge to this day; so that Urry is certainly right. The whole account in
ll. 2350-72 is expanded from five lines in the Latin text, 576-580:--
'Stamina barbarica suspendit candida tela:
purpureasque notas filis intexuit albis'; &c.
Observe that, in l. 2360, the stuff is called 'a _stamin_.'
2359. _By that_, by the time that.
2360. _A stamin large_, a large piece of stamine. _Stamin_ or _stamine_ is
usually explained as a kind of woollen cloth. Cotgrave gives: '_Estamine_,
the stuffe tamine.' Godefroy gives both _estamin_, masc. and _estamine_,
fem. explained by 'tissu léger de laine ou de coton.' Palsgrave
has:--'Stamell, fyne worstede, _estamine_'; and--'Stamyne, _estamine_.' The
Prompt. Parv. has:--'Stamyn, clothe, _stamina_.' _Stamin_ was used as a
material for shirts, and was worn by way of penance; Fosbrooke explains it
as 'a shirt made of woollen and linen, used instead of a penitentiary
hair-shirt.' '_Stamin_ habbe whoso wule,' whoso will may have a stamin;
Ancren Riwle, p. 418. Chaucer uses it thus near the end of the Persones
Tale (I 1052); 'Also in weringe of heyres or of _stamin_ or of haubergeons
on hir naked flesh for Cristes sake, and swiche manere penances.'
MSS. C. T. A. have _stamyn_, which seems the better form; the rest (like
the printed editions) have _stames_, which may be an error for _stamel_,
O.F. _estamel_, used in the same sense as O.F. _estamine_. Else it may
answer to O.F. _estame_, 'laine peignée, tricot de laine' in Godefroy. The
fact that Ovid's word is _stamina_ is in favour of the spelling _stamin_.
(Bell remarks that 'the printed copies read _flames_, which is nonsense.'
He seems to have misread _stames_ (with long _s_) as _flames_. The editions
of 1532, 1550, and 1561 certainly have _stames_.)
2373-82. Abridged from Met. vi. 581-605. Ovid mentions the triennial
festival to Bacchus.
2379. _Compleint_ is a much better reading than the _constreynte_ of the
old editions.
2383. _No charge_, of no consequence; Squi. Ta., F 359.
2383-93. All Chaucer's own. The last line is characteristic: 'unless it
happens to be the case that he cannot get another,' i.e. a new love. For
_non other_, old editions have _another_!
2385. Here _deserved_ is the usual Chaucerian form of the pt. tense. Prof.
Lounsbury (Studies in Chaucer, i. 403) calls this a false form. But cf.
_wyped_, _lipsed_ (in _-ed_, not _-ede_); Prol. to C. T., 133, 264.
VIII. THE LEGEND OF PHYLLIS.
Gower tells the same story in his Confessio Amantis, bk. iv. (ed. Pauli,
ii. 26); and it is likely that he and Chaucer derived it from the same
source, whatever that may have been. A portion of the latter part, from l.
2496, is taken from Ovid, Heroides, Ep. ii. And see note to l. 2423.
2395. An allusion to Matt. vii. 16, and to Legend VI, above.
2398. _Demophon_, usually Demophoön, son of Theseus and Phædra, who, on his
return from Troy, gained the love of Phyllis, daughter of Sithon, king of
Thrace. Observe that Gower says that Demophoön was on his way _towards_
Troy.
2400. 'Unless it were.'
2401. Observe that _grac-e_ is dissyllabic, as in l. 2433.
2403. 'Now I turn to the effect (the pith) of what I have to say.'
2413. _Him_ seems to stand alone in the first foot; for _were_, in this
phrase, is usually monosyllabic; cf. Mancip. Prol., H 23. But it also
occurs as a dissyllable, in which case the line is normal. Or else the
_-er_ in _lever_ is dwelt on.
2416. 'And his rudder was broken by a wave.'
2420. _For wood_, as (if) mad, 'like mad.' _For_ is not a prefix, but a
separate word; as shewn by 'for pure wood,' Rom. Rose, 276; and see Ho.
Fame, 1747. _Posseth_, pusheth, tosseth. Bech observes that ll. 2411-21 are
from Vergil, Æn. i. 85-90, 102, 142.
2422. _Chorus_; so in Thynne's edition; the MSS. have _Thorus_ (except T.,
which has _Thora_). Both _Chorus_ and _Thorus_ are unknown as
sea-divinities; but I think I can guess Chaucer's authority, viz. Verg. Æn.
v. 823-5:--
'Et senior Glauci _chorus_, Inousque Palaemon,
_Tritones_que citi, Phoreique _exercitus omnis_.
Laeua tenent _Thetis_ et Melite, Panopeaque uirgo.'
Here we find _Thetis_, _chorus_, _Triton_; whilst 'and they alle' answers
to _exercitus omnis_. (So also Bech.) _Chorus_ is used for Caurus, the
north-east wind, in Chaucer's Boethius, bk. iv. met. 5. 17; but this is not
the purpose.