occurs more appropriately as an example of hypocritical excuses for
not giving, ‘Li Maistres dit: Après te garde de malicieus engin de
escondire, si comme fist le rois Antigonus, qui dist à un menestrier
qui li demandoit un besant, que il demandoit plus que à lui n’aferoit;
et quant il li demanda un denier, il dist que rois ne devoit pas si
povrement doner. Ci ot malicieus escondit; car il li pooit bien doner
un besant, porce que il estoit rois, ou un denier, porce que il estoit
menestrel. Mais Alixandres le fist mieulx; car quant il dona une cité
à un home, cil li dist que il estoit de trop has afaire à avoir cité;
Alixandres li respondit: Je ne pren pas garde quel chose tu dois avoir,
mais quel chose je doi doner’ (p. 412). This may serve as a rather
favourable example of Latini’s style.
2132. _is in manere_: cp. l. 4344. It seems to mean that the virtue of
giving depends on the measure with which it is done: cp. _Praise of
Peace_, 53.
2139. _To helpe with_: cp. i. 452, 2172, ii. 283, &c.
2194. _holden up his oil_: cp. l. 2584, ‘To bere up oil.’ The only
other instance which I can quote of this expression is from Trevisa’s
translation of the _Polychronicon_ (Rolls’ Series, vol. iii. p. 447, a
reference which I owe to Dr. Murray), ‘There Alisaundre gan to boste
... and a greet deel of hem that were at the feste hilde up the kynges
oyl.’ (In the Latin, magna convivantium parte assentiente.’) In all
these cases it is used of flatterers, and ‘oil’ seems to stand in this
phrase for ‘pride’ or ‘vainglory.’ I am disposed to think it is simply
the French ‘oil,’ meaning ‘eye,’ and getting its present sense from
such Biblical expressions as ‘oculi sublimium deprimentur,’ ‘oculos
superborum humiliabis,’ ‘oculos sublimes, linguam mendacem’; but I can
quote no examples of this meaning in French.
2217 ff. This story is based originally on an anecdote told by Valerius
Maximus: ‘Idem Syracusis, cum holera ei lavanti Aristippus dixisset,
Si Dionysium adulari velles, ista non esses, Immo, inquit, si tu ista
esse velles, non adularere Dionysium’ (_Mem._ iv. 3). It has been
repeated often in a short form.
2268. _the worldes crok_, that is, the crooked way of the world. See
the quotations in the _New Engl. Dictionary_ under ‘crook,’ 12.
2279. _joutes_: see Godefroy’s Dictionary, where an instance is quoted
of the use of this word in a French version of this very story.
2302. F punctuates after ‘pyke,’ and no doubt rightly so. The word
‘trewely’ corresponds to the Latin ‘certe’ in the margin above.
2355 ff. The Roman Triumph as here related was a commonplace of
preachers and moralists, cp. Bromyard, _Summa Praedicantium_, T. v. 36,
‘Triumphus enim secundum Isidorum dicitur a tribus: quia triumphator
Romanus cum victoria versus civitatem veniens tres honores habere
debuit,’ &c. So l. 2366, ‘Of treble honour he was certein.’ It is also
in the _Gesta Romanorum_, 30 (ed. Oesterley), but from neither of these
could Gower have got his ‘Notheos’ (for Γνῶθι σεαυτόν).
2416 ff. This custom is spoken of in Hoccleve’s _Regement of Princes_
with a marginal reference to the _Vita Iohannis Eleemosynarii_, where
it is in fact mentioned (Migne, _Patrol._, vol. 73, p. 354).
2527 ff. From 1 Kings xxii. It will be seen that the story is told
rather freely as regards order of events, as if from memory.
2531 (margin). _organizate_, used in a musical sense.
2553. _Godelie_: the person meant is Athaliah.
2584. _bere up oil_: see note on l. 2194.
2660. _astraied._ See _New Engl. Dict._, under ‘astray,’ _verb_ and
_adv._
2698 (margin). No manuscript here gives the reading ‘regiminis,’ so far
as I know; but it is required by the sense, and the reading ‘regis’
might easily arise from the abbreviation of ‘regiminis,’ as we find it
in some MSS. at l. 3106 (margin). Note that S is defective here, and J,
Ad, K omit the Latin margin. Δ attempts an emendation.
2726 f. _lete Of wrong to don_, i. e. ‘abstain from doing wrong.’
2765 ff. From Godfrey of Viterbo (in _Monum. Germ. Hist._ xxii.
p. 169), ‘Quando voluit rectores dare provinciis ... nomina eorum
examinabat in populo, dicens: Si quis habet crimen contra eos, dicat et
probet,’ &c. This passage is not contained in the earlier redactions
of the _Pantheon_, and consequently we may conclude that Gower’s copy
was one which contained the later additions: cp. notes on 4181 ff. and
viii. 271 ff.
2771. _his name_, that is, his reputation: cp. 2774.
2780. _stod ... upon_, ‘rested upon,’ ‘was guided by.’
2783 ff. The saying by which this story is characterized, ‘malle
locupletibus imperare quam ipsum fieri locupletem,’ is more properly
attributed to M’. Curius Dentatus (Valerius Maximus, _Mem._ iv. 3. 5):
but Fabricius also rejected gifts sent him by the Samnites.
2810. _bothe_: apparently both the men and their possessions.
2833 ff. This is probably Conrad II, of whom Godfrey of Viterbo says
‘nulli violatori pacis parcebat.’
2845 ff. Originally taken from Valerius Maximus, who tells it,
however, with reference to Charondas, the supposed legislator of Thurii
(_Mem._ vi. 5).
2864. _sete_: apparently a strong past participle formed from ‘sette’
by confusion with ‘sitte ‘: cp. ‘upsete’ rhyming with ‘misgete,’ viii.
244.
2883. _of dawe_: equivalent to ‘of this lif,’ iv. 3414.
2889 ff. This is a story which we find very often repeated (originally
from Herodotus), e. g. Valerius Maximus, _Mem._ vi. 3, _Gesta
Romanorum_, 29 (without mention of Cambyses by name), Hoccleve’s
_Regement of Princes_, &c. In Δ we find added to the marginal Latin,
‘vnde versus,
Sede sedens ista iudex inflexibilis sta,
Sit tibi lucerna lux, lex, pellisque paterna,
Qua resides natus pro patre sponte datus.
A manibus reuoces munus, ab aure preces.’
It would seem that the last line should stand as the second.
2902. _Avise him_, ‘Let him consider.’
_flitte_, ‘turn aside,’ cp. iv. 214; but also intransitive, v. 7076.
2917 ff. Another often repeated story. The _Gesta Romanorum_ has it
(169) with a reference to Trogus Pompeius (that is Justin, _Epit._ iii.
3). Gower makes the city Athens instead of Sparta (cp. 3089), and the
god Mercury instead of Apollo.
3054 ff. This list of legislators is from the _Trésor_, p. 24, but the
text which our author used seems to have been corrupt. The passage
runs thus in the printed edition: ‘Moyses fu li premiers qui bailla la
loi as Hebreus; et li rois Foroneus fu li premiers qui la bailla as
Grezois; Mercures as Egypciens, et Solon à cels de Athenes; Ligurgus as
Troyens; Numa Pompilius, qui regna après Romulus en Rome, et puis ses
filz, bailla et fist lois as Romains premierement,’ &c. If we suppose
‘Solon’ to have been omitted in the MS., the passage might read (with
changes of punctuation) nearly as we have it in Gower.
3092. _on the beste Above alle other_: cp. iv. 2606, &c.
3137 ff. Cp. _Mirour de l’Omme_, 13921, and see also ii. 3204 ff.
(margin).
3144. _Troian_: so given in all MSS. for ‘Traian.’ So also in the
_Mirour_, 22168, and in Godfrey of Viterbo, _Spec. Reg._ ii. 14 (_Mon.
Germ. Hist._ xxii. p. 74).
3181 ff. Valerius Maximus, _Mem._ v. 6: but he does not mention the
Dorians as the enemy against whom Codrus fought. However, the story was
a common one: cp. _Gesta Romanorum_, 41.
3201. _lemes_: cp. Chaucer, _Cant. Tales_, A 3886.
* * * * *
3149* f. The reference is to the Epistle of St. James ii. 13, ‘Iudicium
enim sine misericordia illi qui non fecit misericordiam.’
3157*. That is, ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.’
3161* f. Cp. _Mirour de l’Omme_, 13918 ff., where the same is quoted.
3163* ff. Quoted also in the _Mirour_, 13925 ff.,and there also
attributed to Tullius, but I cannot give the reference.
* * * * *
3210. _drawe_: the change to subjunctive marks this sentence as really
conditional.
3215 ff. Valerius Maximus, _Mem._ v. 1. 9.
3217. _in jeupartie_, i. e. equally balanced, the result uncertain.
3267 ff. Justinian II is described by Gibbon as a cruel tyrant, whose
deposition by Leontius was fully deserved, and who, when restored by
the help of Terbelis, took a ferocious vengeance on his opponents:
‘during the six years of his new reign, he considered the axe, the
cord, and the rack as the only instruments of royalty.’ Nothing
apparently could be less appropriate than the epithet ‘pietous,’ which
Gower bestows upon him.
3295 ff. This again was a very common story: cp. _Gesta Romanorum_,
48 (ed. Oesterley). Hoccleve tells it with a reference to Orosius,
_Regement of Princes_, 3004 ff. Gower probably had it from Godfrey of
Viterbo, _Pantheon_, p. 181 (ed. 1584), where Berillus is given for
Perillus, as in our text. He takes ‘Phalaris Siculus’ as the tyrant’s
name, and shortens it to Siculus.
3302. I take the preceding three lines as a parenthesis, and this as
following l. 3298.
3341. ‘Dionys’ is a mistake for Diomede, or rather Diomedes is confused
with the tyrant Dionysius.
3355 ff. Cp. Ovid, _Metam._ i. 221 ff.
3359. _With othre men_, i. e. ‘by other men’: cp. viii. 2553.
3387 ff. This characteristic of the lion is mentioned by Brunetto
Latini, _Trésor_, p. 224.
3417 ff. This story is told much as it appears in Justin, _Epit._ i.
8, and Orosius, _Hist._ ii. 7, but the name Spertachus (Spartachus) is
apparently from Peter Comestor (Migne, _Patrol._. vol. 198, p. 1471),
who gives this as the name of Cyrus in his boyhood. The same authority
may have supplied the name ‘Marsagete,’ for the histories named above
call Thamyris only ‘queen of the Scythians’; but Comestor omits the
details of the story.
* * * * *
3207* ff. The tale of the Jew and the Pagan is from the _Secretum
Secretorum_, where it is told as a warning against trusting those who
are not of our faith. The differences are mainly as follows. No names
of places are mentioned in the original; the ‘pagan’ is called ‘magus
orientalis,’ and he rides a mule: the Jew is without provisions, and
the Magian feeds him as well as allowing him to ride: the Jew is
found not dead but thrown from the mule, with a broken leg and other
injuries--there is no mention of a lion except in the entreaties of
the Magian, ‘noli me derelinquere in deserto, ne forte interficiar a
leonibus.’ The Magian is about to leave him to die, but the Jew pleads
that he has acted only in accordance with his own law, and again
appeals to the Magian to show him the mercy which his religion enjoins.
Finally the Magian carries him away and delivers him safely to his own
people. Probably our author thought that this form of the story unduly
sacrificed justice to mercy, and therefore he killed his Jew outright.
3342* ff. Note the subjunctive after ‘who (that)’ here and in ll. 3349,
3355: see note on Prol. 460.
* * * * *
3418. The name ‘Spertachus’ is given in full by F in the Latin summary,
l. 3426 (margin). In the English text the first syllable is abbreviated
in most copies, but A has ‘Spartachus’ and H₃ ‘Spertachus.’
3539. _Pite feigned_: cp. l. 3835.
3581. The reference should be to Juvenal, _Sat._ viii. 269 ff.,
‘Malo pater tibi sit Thersites, dummodo tu sis
Aeacidae similis, Vulcaniaque arma capessas,
Quam te Thersitae similem genuisset Achilles.’
Gower has here taken the point out of the quotation to a great extent,
but it occurs in the _Mirour_, 23371 ff., in its proper form, though
with the same false reference.
3627 ff. From the Book of Judges, ch. vii.
3632. For the anacoluthon cp. iv. 3201, vi. 1798, and note on i. 98.
3639. The reading of the second recension, ‘hem,’ seems clearly to be
right here: ‘against those who would assail them.’
3640 ff. The meaning apparently is that each single division of the
three which the enemy had was twice as large as Gideon’s whole army.
The original text says nothing of the kind.
3752. _per compaignie_, ‘together.’
3820 ff. 1 Samuel xv.
3860 ff. 1 Kings ii.
3877. _natheles_, ‘moreover’: cp. 4242 and note on Prol. 39.
3884. _that_, for ‘to that’: cp. Prol. 122.
3891 ff. 1 Kings iii.
4011. _propre_, i. e. ‘in himself.’
4027 ff. 1 Kings xii.
4144. _can ... mai_, used in their original senses, the one implying
knowledge and the other active power.
4181 ff. The person meant is Antoninus Pius, of whom his biographer
Capitolinus says that he loved peace ‘eousque ut Scipionis sententiam
frequentarit, qua ille dicebat, malle se unum civem servare quam mille
hostes occidere’ (_Hist. August._ ed. 1620, p. 20). Godfrey of Viterbo,
in the text given by Waitz (_Mon. Germ. Hist._ xxii. pp. 75, 163),
regularly calls him Antonius, and probably Gower had the saying from
this source. It is one of the later additions to the _Pantheon_: cp.
note on 2765 ff.
4195. _is due To Pite._ This seems to mean ‘is bound by duty’ to show
mercy.
4228. _His trouthe plight_, ‘the engagement of his faith.’ Here we have
the word ‘plight’ from OE. ‘pliht,’ to be distinguished from ‘plit.’
4242. _natheles_: cp. l. 3877.
4245. _hihe_: note the definite form after the possessive genitive, as
after a possessive pronoun.
4284. ‘And even if it should chance that he obtained any friendliness
from her.’ For the use of ‘compainie’ cp. v. 4558.
4335. _Barbarus_: more properly Arbaces, but ‘Barbatus’ in the
_Pantheon_ (p. 165, ed. 1584).
4361 ff. Cp. Justin, _Epit._ i. 7, where however the expedient is said
to have been used (as related by Herodotus) after Cyrus had put down a
revolt.
4406 ff. Numbers xxv.
4408. _Amalech_: Balak is meant.
4464 ff. This means apparently that the later time of life will be as a
dark night which is not illuminated by any sunshine of dawn; but it is
not very clearly expressed.
4469 ff. 1 Kings xi.
4515. That is, ‘Ahijah the Shilonite,’ called ‘Ahias Silonites’ in the
Latin version.
4559 ff. (margin). The quotation is from the _Secretum Secretorum_:
‘O summe rex, studeas modis omnibus custodire et retinere calorem
naturalem’ (ed. 1520, f. 25 v^{o}).
4574 f. Caracalla, son of Severus, is here meant. His name was Aurelius
Antoninus, and he is called Aurelius Antonius in the _Pantheon_ (_Mon.
Germ. Hist._ xxii. p. 166). Caracalla is called by Orosius ‘omnibus
hominibus libidine intemperantior, qui etiam novercam suam Iuliam
uxorem duxerit’ (_Hist._ vii. 18), and this character of him is
repeated in the _Pantheon_.
4593 ff. This story is from Ovid, _Fasti_, ii. 687-720. Gower’s
rendering of it is remarkable for ease and simplicity of style: see
especially ll. 4667-4685, 4701-4717.
4598. Neither Aruns nor Sextus is mentioned by name in Ovid, who speaks
only of ‘Tarquinius iuvenis.’ Gower gives to Aruns the place of Sextus
throughout this and the following story.
4623. _schette_, intransitive, equivalent to ‘were shut’: cp. iii. 1453.
4701 ff. The sacrifice at which this portent occurred is here brought
into connexion with the capture of Gabii, a construction which is not
unnaturally suggested by Ovid’s abrupt transition, l. 711.
4718 ff.
‘Consulitur Phoebus. Sors est ita reddita: Matri
Qui dederit princeps oscula, victor erit.’ _Fasti_, ii. 713 f.
Ovid means that a message was sent to Delphi; but our author
understands it differently.
4739 f. ‘Creditus offenso procubuisse pede’ (720).
4754 ff. This again is from Ovid, where it occurs as a continuation of
the last story, _Fasti_, 721-852. Chaucer, who tells this story in the
_Legend of G. Women_, 1680 ff., also follows Ovid, and more closely
than Gower, e. g. 1761 ff., 1805 ff., 1830f.
4757. _unskilfully_, that is, ‘unjustly,’ without due ‘skile’ or reason.
4778 ff. ‘Non opus est verbis, credite rebus, ait’ (734).
4805 f. This is derived from a misunderstanding of _Fasti_, ii. 785,
‘Accipit aerata iuvenem Collatia porta.’
Cp. l. 4911 below. Both Chaucer and Gower make the tragedy occur at
Rome, though Chaucer professes to have Livy before him.
4902. ‘audentes forsve deusve iuvat.’
4937. _To hire_: cp. v. 5724. It means here much the same as ‘by her.’
5062. _sche myhte it noght_, ‘sche could not help it.’
5088 ff.
‘Illa iacens ad verba oculos sine lumine mouit,
Visaque concussa dicta probare coma.’ _Fasti_, ii. 845 f.
5093 ff. This latter part is added from other sources, perhaps from
Livy.
5131 ff. Chaucer tells the story of Virginia as the Tale of the
Doctor of Physic, professing to follow Livy, but actually taking his
materials chiefly from the _Roman de la Rose_, 5613 ff., from which he
transcribes also the reference to ‘Titus Livius.’ His story differs
from that of Livy in many respects, and the changes are not at all
for the better. For example, Chaucer does not mention the absence of
Virginius in the camp, and he makes him kill his daughter at home and
carry her head to Appius. Gower follows Livy, or some account drawn
from Livy, without material alteration. It may be observed that Chaucer
(following the _Rom. de la Rose_) uses the name ‘Apius’ alone for the
judge, and ‘Claudius’ for the dependent, while Gower names them more
correctly ‘Apius Claudius’ and ‘Marchus Claudius.’ On the subject
generally reference may be made to Rumbaur’s dissertation, _Geschichte
von Appius und Virginia in der engl. Litteratur_, Breslau, 1890.
5136. _Livius Virginius_, a mistake for ‘Lucius Virginius.’
5151. _Ilicius_, that is, Icilius.
5209. _til that he come_, ‘till he should come,’ the verb being pret.
subjunctive.
5254 ff. The sentence is irregular in construction, but intelligible
and vigorous: ‘but as to that command, like the hunted wild boar, who
when he feels the hounds hard upon him, throws them off on both sides
and goes his way, so (we may say) this knight,’ &c. The simile is due
to Gower.
5261. _kepte_, ‘waited for.’
5307 ff. From the Book of Tobit, ch. vi-viii. The moral of the story is
given by vi. 17, where Raphael says to Tobias, ‘Hi namque qui coniugium
ita suscipiunt, ut Deum a se et a sua mente excludant, et suae libidini
ita vacent sicut equus et mulus, quibus non est intellectus, habet
potestatem daemonium super eos.’ This, however, is absent from the
English version (which follows the LXX), as are also the precepts
which follow, about nights to be spent in prayer by the newly married
couple. The same is the case with the five precepts given to Sara by
her parents, which are mentioned in the _Mirour_, 17701 ff.
5390. This line, written in F as follows,
‘Hov trewe · hou large · hou ioust · hov chaste,’
is enough to show that _v_ and _u_ are used indifferently in this kind
of position: cp. movþe: couþe, 5285 f.
5408. _Do wey_, ‘Have done’: see _New English Dictionary_, ‘do,’ 52.
LIB. VIII.
We may suppose that our author had some embarrassment as regards the
subject of his eighth book. It should properly have dealt with the
seventh Deadly Sin and its various branches, that is, as the _Mirour de
l’Omme_ gives them, ‘Fornicacioun,’ ‘Stupre,’ ‘Avolterie,’ ‘Incest,’
‘Foldelit.’ Nearly all of these subjects, however, have already been
treated of more or less fully, either in the fifth book, where branches
of Avarice are spoken of with reference to the case of love, or in the
seventh, under the head of Chastity as a point of Policy. Even the
author’s commendation of Virginity, which might well have been reserved
for this place, and which would have been rather less incongruous at
the end than in the middle of the shrift, has already been set forth
in the fifth book. There remained only Incest, and of this unpromising
subject he has made the best he could, first tracing out the gradual
development of the moral (or rather the ecclesiastical) law with regard
to it, and then making it an excuse for the Tale of Apollonius (or
Appolinus) of Tyre, which extends over the larger half of the book. The
last thousand lines or so are occupied with the conclusion of the whole
poem.
36. _upon his grace_, that is, free for him to bestow on whom he would.
44. Raphael is not named in Genesis.
48. _Metodre_, that is, Methodius, in whose _Revelationes_ it is
written, ‘Sciendum namque est, exeuntes Adam et Evam de Paradiso
virgines fuisse,’ so that ‘Into the world’ in l. 53 must mean from
Paradise into the outer world.
62 ff. This is not found in Genesis, only ‘genuitque filios et filias,’
but Methodius says that the sisters of Cain and Abel were Calmana and
Debora.
110. For the hiatus cp. _Mirour_, 12241,
‘De Isaäk auci je lis.’
158. _ne yit religion._ The seduction of one who was a professed member
of a religious order was usually accounted to be incest: cp. _Mirour_,
9085 ff. and l. 175 below.
170. ‘I keep no such booth (or stall) at the fair,’ that is, ‘I do no
such trade.’
244. _upsete_: see Introduction, p. cxix, and cp. vii. 2864.
271 ff. Gower tells us here that he finds the story in the _Pantheon_.
That is true, no doubt: it is told there in the peculiar kind of verse
with which Godfrey of Viterbo diversified his chronicle, and a most
useful text of this particular story, showing the differences of three
redactions, is given by S. Singer in his _Apollonius von Tyrus_, Halle,
1895, pp. 153-177. There is ample evidence that Gower was acquainted
with the _Pantheon_, but it is not the case that he followed it in this
story, as has been too readily assumed. Godfrey tells the tale in a
much abbreviated form, and Gower unquestionably followed mainly the
Latin prose narrative which was commonly current, though he thought
the _Pantheon_, as a grave historical authority, more fit to be cited.
The very first sentence, with its reference, ‘as seith the bok,’ is
enough to indicate this, but a few more points may be mentioned here in
which the story of the _Pantheon_ differs from Gower and from the prose
_Historia Apollonii Tyrii_. (1) Godfrey of Viterbo does not say what
was the problem proposed by Antiochus, nor does he mention the period
of thirty days. (2) He gives no details of the flight of Apollonius or
of the mourning of his people, and he does not mention the incident of
Taliart (or Thaliarchus). (3) The name Pentapolim is not introduced.
(4) There is no mention in the _Pantheon_ of the wooing of the daughter
of Archistrates by three princes (or nobles) or of the bills which
they wrote. (5) There is no mention of the nurse Lichorida being taken
with Apollonius and his wife on shipboard, of the master of the ship
insisting that the corpse should be thrown into the sea, or of the name
of the physician, Cerimon. (6) The _Pantheon_ says nothing of the vow
of Apollonius in ll. 1301-1306. (7) The name Theophilus is not given.
(8) There is no mention of the tomb of Thaise (or Tharsia) being shown
to Apollonius. (9) In the _Pantheon_ the punishment of Strangulio and
Dionysia precedes the visit to Ephesus, and there is no mention of the
dream which caused Apollonius to sail to Ephesus.
There are indeed some points in which Gower agrees with the _Pantheon_
against the _Historia_, for example in making the princess ask for
Apollonius as her teacher on the very night of the banquet instead
of the next morning, and in representing that Apollonius went to his
kingdom after leaving his daughter at Tharsis (cp. E. Klebs, _Die
Erzählung von Apollonius aus Tyrus_, Berlin, 1899). Perhaps however
the most marked correspondence is where Gower makes the wife of
Apollonius ‘Abbesse’ of Diana’s temple (l. 1849), which is evidently
from Godfrey’s line, ‘Sic apud Ephesios velut abbatissa moratur’: cp.
also l. 1194 ‘warmed ofte.’ These are both among the later additions to
the _Pantheon_, and apparently were overlooked by Singer and Klebs when
they pronounced that Gower probably knew only the earlier redaction:
cp. notes on vii. 2765, 4181.