16. Lavine: Lavinia, the heroine of the Aeneid, who became the
wife of Aeneas.
17. Polyxena, daughter of Priam, king of Troy, fell in
love with Achilles, and, when he was killed, she fled to the
Greek camp, and slew herself on the tomb of her hero-lover.
18. Mountance: extent, duration. See note 84 to “The House of
Fame”.
19. Relic: emblem; or cherished treasure; like the relics at
the shrines of saints.
20. Losengeour: deceiver. See note 31 to the Nun’s Priest’s
Tale.
21. “Toteler” is an old form of the word “tatler,” from the
Anglo-Saxon, “totaelan,” to talk much, to tattle.
22. Envy is lavender of the court alway: a “lavender” is a
washerwoman or laundress; the word represents “meretrice”in
Dante’s original — meaning a courtezan; but we can well
understand that Chaucer thought it prudent, and at the same
time more true to the moral state of the English Court, to
change the character assigned to Envy. He means that Envy is
perpetually at Court, like some garrulous, bitter old woman
employed there in the most servile offices, who remains at her
post through all the changes among the courtiers. The passage
cited from Dante will be found in the “Inferno,” canto xiii. 64 —
69.
23. Chaucer says that the usurping lords who seized on the
government of the free Lombard cities, had no regard for any
rule of government save sheer tyranny — but a natural lord, and
no usurper, ought not to be a tyrant.
24. Farmer: one who merely farms power or revenue for his
own purposes and his own gain.
25. This was the first version of the Knight’s tale. See the
introductory note, above
26. Boece: Boethius’ “De Consolatione Philosophiae;” to which
frequent reference is made in The Canterbury Tales. See, for
instances, note 91 to the Knight’s Tale; and note 34 to the
Squire’s Tale.
27. A poem entitled “The Lamentation of Mary Magdalene,”
said to have been “taken out of St Origen,” is included in the
editions of Chaucer; but its authenticity, and consequently its
identity with the poem here mentioned, are doubted.
28. For the story of Alcestis, see note 11 to “The Court of
Love.”
29. “For he who gives a gift, or doth a grace,
Do it betimes, his thank is well the more”
A paraphrase of the well-known proverb, “Bis dat qui cito dat.”
(“He gives twice who gives promptly”)
30. The same prohibition occurs in the Fifteenth Statute of “The
Court of Love.”
31. Chaucer is always careful to allege his abstinence from the
pursuits of gallantry; he does so prominently in “The Court of
Love,” “The Assembly of Fowls,” and “The House of Fame.”
32. Pity runneth soon in gentle heart: the same is said of
Theseus, in The Knight’s Tale, and of Canace, by the falcon, in
The Squire’s Tale.
33. Stellify: assign to a place among the stars; as Jupiter did to
Andromeda and Cassiopeia.
34. Agathon: there was an Athenian dramatist of this name,
who might have made the virtues and fortunes of Alcestis his
theme; but the reference is too vague for the author to be
identified with any confidence.
CHAUCER’S A. B. C. <1>
CALLED
LA PRIERE DE NOSTRE DAME <2>