1682, pp. 681-704, and also in the Teubner series (ed. Riese, 1871,
1893). It is a translation from a Greek original, as is sufficiently
indicated by the Greek words that occur in it, and by the Greek customs
which it refers to or presupposes. Gower agrees with it pretty closely,
but the story is not improved in his hands. It loses, of course, the
Greek characteristics of which we have spoken, and several of the
incidents are related by Gower in a less effective manner than in
the original. For example, in the scene near the beginning between
Antiochus and Apollonius, the king asks, ‘Nosti nuptiarum conditionem?’
and the young man replies, ‘Novi et ad portam vidi,’ to which there is
nothing corresponding in Gower. Again, at a later stage of the story,
when the three young nobles send in their proposals to the daughter
of Archistrates, the original story makes her reply in a note which
declares that she will marry only ‘the ship-wrecked man.’ The king
innocently inquires of the three young men which of them has suffered
shipwreck, and finally hands the note to Apollonius to see if he can
make anything of it. This is much better managed than by Gower. On the
other hand our author has done well in dispensing with the rudeness and
boastfulness of Apollonius on the occasion when the king’s daughter
plays the harp at the feast, and also in modifying the scenes at
the brothel and excluding Athenagoras from taking part in them. The
quotations given in the following notes are made from the Bodleian MS.
Laud 247, a good copy of the twelfth century, which has a form of text
more nearly corresponding to that which Gower used than that of any
of the printed editions, and by means of which we can account for the
names Thaise and Philotenne.
It can hardly be necessary to observe that the play of _Pericles,
Prince of Tyre_, had another source besides Gower, and especially as
regards its fourth and fifth acts. Marina is waylaid while going to
visit the tomb of her old nurse, as in the original story, the scene
of the pirates agrees more nearly with the original than with Gower,
Lysimachus plays a part very like that which Gower took away from
Athenagoras, and the scene between Cleon and Dionyza (iv. 4) seems to
be suggested by the original. The story was current in English prose,
as is well known.
386. _And seileth_: cp. v. 3291 and note.
395. _he moste_, ‘that he might,’ ‘ut sibi liceret,’ a common use
of the word in older English (see examples in Bosworth and Toller’s
Dictionary).
405 ff. (margin). The riddle as given in the Laud MS. is, ‘Scelere
uehor. Materna carne uescor. Quero patrem meum matris mee uirum uxoris
mee filiam, nec inuenio.’ Most copies have ‘fratrem meum’ for ‘patrem
meum,’ but Gower agrees with the Laud MS. I do not attempt a solution
of it beyond that of Apollonius, which is, ‘Quod dixisti scelere uehor,
non es mentitus, ad te ipsum respice. Et quod dixisti materna carne
uescor, filiam tuam intuere.’
484. _the Stwes._ For the spelling cp. ‘Jwes,’ v. 1713, 1808.
536. This is by no means in accordance with the original. Antiochus
exclaims on hearing of the flight of Apollonius, ‘Fugere modo quidem
potest, effugere autem quandoque me minime poterit,’ and at once issues
an edict, ‘Quicunque mihi Apollonium contemptorem regni mei uiuum
adduxerit, quinquaginta talenta auri a me dabuntur ei: qui uero caput
eius mihi optulerit, talentorum c. receptor erit’ (f. 205 v^o), and he
causes search to be made after him both by land and sea. The change
made by Gower is not a happy one, for it takes away the motive for the
flight from Tarsus, where Apollonius heard of this proscription.
542 ff. In the original Apollonius meets ‘Hellanicus’ at once on
landing, and is informed by him of the proscription. He makes an offer
to Strangulio to sell his wheat at cost price to the citizens, if they
will conceal his presence among them. The money which he receives as
the price of the wheat is expended by him in public benefits to the
state, and the citizens set up a statue of him standing in a two-horse
chariot (biga), his right hand holding forth corn and his left foot
resting upon a bushel measure.
603. _ferketh_, ‘conveys,’ from OE. ‘fercian’: cp. Anglo-Saxon Chron.
1009, Hī fercodon ða scipo eft to Lundenne’ (quoted in Bosworth and
Toller’s Dictionary).
624. ‘But with cable and cord broken asunder ... the ship’ &c., past
participle absolute, as ii. 791, viii. 1830.
640. _forto mote To gete ayein._ Apparently this means ‘to wish to get
again,’ a meaning derived from the phrase ‘so mot I,’ &c., expressing
a wish. The infinitive is very unusual. For the gerund with ‘to’ which
follows it cp. ii. 510, vii. 437, where we have this construction with
‘mai,’ ‘mihte.’
679. The account in the original story is here considerably different.
Gower did not understand the Greek customs. ‘Et dum cogitaret unde
uite peteret auxilium, uidit puerum nudum per plateam currentem, oleo
unctum, precinctum sabana, ferentem ludos iuueniles ad gymnasium
pertinentes, maxima uoce dicentem: Audite ciues, audite peregrini,
liberi et ingenui, gymnasium patet. Apollonius hoc audito exuens
se tribunario ingreditur lauacrum, utitur liquore palladio; et dum
exercentes singulos intueretur, parem sibi querit et non inuenit.
Subito Arcestrates rex totius illius regionis cum turba famulorum
ingressus est: dumque cum suis ad pile lusum exerceretur, uolente deo
miscuit se Apollonius regi, et dum currenti sustulit pilam, subtili
ueiocitate percussam ludenti regi remisit’ &c. (f. 207 v^o).
The story proceeds to say that the king, pleased with the skill of
Apollonius in the game of ball, accepted his services at the bath, and
was rubbed down by him in a very pleasing manner. The result was an
invitation to supper.
Gower agrees here with the _Pantheon_ in making the king a spectator
only.
691. _Artestrathes._ The name is Arcestrates in the Laud MS.
706. _lefte it noght_, ‘did not neglect it.’
720 f. ‘Ingressus Apollonius in triclinium, contra regem adsignato loco
discubuit.’ Gower apparently sets him at the head of the second table.
For ‘beginne’ cp. _Cant. Tales_, Prol. 52, with Skeat’s note.
767 ff. In the original all applaud the performance of the king’s
daughter except Apollonius, who being asked by the king why he alone
kept silence, replied, ‘Bone rex, si permittis, dicam quod sentio:
filia enim tua in artem musicam incidit, nam non didicit. Denique iube
mihi tradi liram, et scies quod nescit’ (f. 208 v^o). Gower has toned
this down to courtesy.
782. ‘ita stetit ut omnes discumbentes una cum rege non Apollonium sed
Apollinem estimarent.’
866 ff. In the original this incident takes place when the king is
in company with Apollonius. The king replies that his daughter has
fallen ill from too much study, but he bids them each write his name
and the sum of money which he is prepared to offer as dowry, and he
sends the bills at once to the princess by the hand of Apollonius. She
reads them, and then asks whether he is not sorry that she is going
to be married. He says, ‘Immo gratulor,’ and she replies, ‘Si amares,
doleres.’ Then she writes a note, saying that she wishes to have ‘the
shipwrecked man’ as her husband, adding ‘Si miraris, pater, quod pudica
uirgo tam inprudenter scripserim, scitote quia quod pudore indicare non
potui, per ceram mandaui, que ruborem non habet.’ The king having read
the note asks the young men which of them has been shipwrecked. One
claims the distinction, but is promptly exposed by his companions, and
the king hands the note to Apollonius, saying that he can make nothing
of it. Apollonius reads and blushes, and the king asks, ‘Inuenisti
naufragum?’ To which he replies discreetly, ‘Bone rex, si permittis,
inueni.’ The king at last understood, and dismissed the three young
men, promising to send for them when they were wanted.
901 ff. ‘cui si me non tradideris, amittis filiam tuam,’ but this is
afterwards, in a personal interview.
930 ff. There is no mention of the queen in the original. The king
calls his friends together and announces the marriage. The description
of the wedding, &c., ll. 952-974, is due to Gower.
1003 ff. In the original story it is here announced to Apollonius that
he has been elected king in succession to Antiochus; but this was
regarded by our author as an unnecessary complication.
1037 ff. The details of the description are due to our author.
1054 ff. So far as the original can be understood, it seems to say that
the birth of the child was brought about by the storm and that the
appearance of death in the mother took place afterwards, owing to a
coagulation of the blood caused by the return of fair weather.
1059-1083. This is all Gower, except 1076 f.
1089 ff. Apparently the meaning is that the sea will necessarily cast
a dead body up on the shore, and therefore they must throw it out of
the ship, otherwise the ship itself will be cast ashore with it. The
Latin says only, ‘nauis mortuum non suffert: iube ergo corpus in pelago
mitti’ (f. 211 v^o).
1101. The punctuation is that of F.
1128. _tak in his mynde_, ‘let him take thought’: cp. v. 3573, and l.
1420 below.
1165. _the wisest_: cp. Introduction, p. cxi.
1184 ff. In the original it is not Cerimon himself, but a young
disciple of his, who discovers the signs of life and takes measures
for restoring her. She has already been laid upon the pyre, and he by
carefully lighting the four corners of it (cp. l. 1192) succeeds in
liquefying the coagulated blood. Then he takes her in and warms her
with wool steeped in hot oil.
1195. ‘began’ is singular, and the verbs ‘hete,’ ‘flacke,’ ‘bete’ are
used intransitively: ‘to flacke’ means to flutter.
1219. ‘In short, they speak of nothing’: ‘as for an ende’ seems to
mean the same as ‘for end’ or ‘for an end’ in later English: cp. _New
English Dictionary_, ‘end.’
1248. This daughter is apparently an invention of Gower’s, who perhaps
misread the original, ‘adhibitis amicis filiam sibi adoptauit,’ that
is, he adopted her as his daughter.
1285. _his In_, ‘his lodging,’ in this case the house of Strangulio.
Note the distinction made here by the capital letter between the
substantive and the adverb: see Introduction, p. clix.
1293. _whiche_: note the plural, referring to Strangulio and his wife.
1295. The name here in the original is ‘Tharsia,’ given to her by her
father’s suggestion from the name of the city, Tharsus, where she was
left; but the Laud MS. afterwards regularly calls her Thasia.
1311 ff. This is not in accordance with the Latin prose story. He is
there represented as telling Strangulio that he does not care, now that
he has lost his wife, either to accept the offered kingdom or to return
to his father-in-law, but intends to lead the life of a merchant. Here
the expression is ‘ignotas et longinquas petens Egypti regiones.’
On the other hand the _Pantheon_ makes him proceed to his kingdom,
apparently Antioch.
1337. _Philotenne_: the name in the Laud MS. is ‘Philothemia,’ but
it is not distinguishable in writing from Philothenna. There is much
variation as to this name in other copies.
1349 ff. Much is made in the original story of the death of this nurse
and of the revelation which she made to Tharsia of her real parentage.
Up to this time she had supposed herself to be the daughter of
Strangulio. The nurse suspected some evil, and advised Tharsia, if her
supposed parents dealt ill with her, to go and take hold of the statue
of her father in the market-place and appeal to the citizens for help.
After her death Tharsia visited her tomb by the sea-shore every day,
‘et ibi manes parentum suorum inuocabat.’ Here Theophilus lay in wait
for her by order of Dionysiades.
1374. _cherles._ This is the reading of the best copies of each
recension: cp. ‘lyves’ for ‘livissh’ i. e. living, ‘worldes’ for
‘worldly,’ ‘dethes’ for ‘dedly,’ iii. 2657, iv. 382, &c.
1376. _what sche scholde_, that is, what should become of her.
1391. _Scomerfare._ The first part of this word must be the French
‘escumerie,’ meaning piracy: see Du Cange under ‘escumator,’ e. g. ‘des
compaignons du pays de Bretaigne, qui étaient venuz d’Escumerie.’
1393. _and he to go_, that is, ‘and he proceeded to go,’ a kind of
historic infinitive: cp. Chaucer, _Troilus_, ii. 1108, ‘And she to
laughe,’ _Leg. of Good Women_, 653 ‘And al his folk to go.’ (In
_Piers Plowman_, A. Prol. 33, ‘And somme murthes to make,’ quoted
by Mätzner, it is more probable that ‘to make’ is dependent on
‘chosen.’) In addition to these instances we have the repeated use of
‘to ga’ in Barbour’s _Bruce_, e. g. viii. 251, ix. 263, which is much
more probably to be explained in this way than as a compound verb.
Cp. Skeat’s _Chaucer_, vol. vi. p. 403, with C. Stoffel’s note on
_Troilus_, ii. 1108, which is there quoted.
1410. The Laud MS. has ‘leno leoninus nomine,’ but many copies give no
name.
1420. _Lei doun_, ‘let him lay down’: cp. l. 1128.
1423. There is an interesting touch in the original here which would
not be intelligible to Gower. When Tharsia is led into the house, the
character of which she does not know, she is bidden to do reverence to
a statue of Priapus which stands in the entrance hall. She asks her
master whether he is a native of Lampsacus, and he explains to her that
his interest in this matter is not local but professional.
1424 ff. There is much in the original about the visit of Athenagoras
and of other persons, who are successively so far overcome by the tears
and entreaties of Tarsia, as not only to spare her but to give her
large sums of money, while at the same time they make a jest both of
themselves and of one another for doing so.
1451 f. The rhyme is saved from being an identical one by the adverbial
use of ‘weie’ in the second line, ‘mi weie’ being equivalent to ‘aweie.’
1513. In the original she is reproached by her husband for the deed,
and this is the case in the play of _Pericles_ also.
1518. _of record_, ‘of good repute.’
1534 f. Cp. _Pericles_, iv. 4, ‘The fairest, sweetest, best lies here,’
but the rest of the epitaph compares unfavourably with Gower’s.
1567 ff. Here we have a curious lapse on the part of our author.
He represents that the king had no sooner held his parliament and
celebrated the sacrifice in memory of his wife, than he began to
prepare for his voyage to Tharsis. The story requires however that
at least fourteen years should elapse, and this, according to the
original narrative, has been spent by Apollonius in travelling about
as a merchant, a matter of which Gower says nothing. Probably the
_Pantheon_, which is not very clear on the matter, is responsible for
the oversight.
1587. ‘For she is continually changing with regard to him.’
1617. _besihe_, ‘attended to.’ The use of this verb was not very
common in Gower’s time except in the participle ‘beseie,’ ‘besein.’
The verb means (1) look, see, (2) look to, attend to, (3) provide,
arrange: hence the participle is quite naturally used in the sense
of ‘furnished,’ ‘provided,’ and we have ‘unbesein of,’ l. 153, for
‘unprovided with.’ It is usually explained by reference to its first
sense, as having regard necessarily to appearance. ‘Appearing in
respect of dress, &c.,’ ‘Appearing as to accomplishments, furnished’
(so _New English Dictionary_), but it is more natural to take these
meanings of the participle as from senses (2) (3) of the verb. It
is doubtful whether even the phrase ‘well besein’ used of personal
appearance means anything but ‘well furnished.’
1636. _fordrive_, ‘driven about’ by storms, actually and metaphorically.
1670 ff. Her song is given in the original; it is rather pretty, but
very much corrupted in the manuscripts. It begins thus,
‘Per sordes gradior, sed sordis conscia non sum,
Ut rosa in spinis nescit mucrone perire,’ &c.
1681 ff. Several of her riddles are given in the original story and he
succeeds in answering them all at once. One is this,
‘Longa feror uelox formose filia silue,
Innumeris pariter comitum stipata cateruis:
Curro uias multas, uestigia nulla relinquens.’
The answer is ‘Nauis.’
She finally falls on his neck and embraces him, upon which he kicks
her severely. She begins to lament, and incidentally lets him know her
story. The suggestion contained in ll. 1702 ff., of the mysterious
influence of kinship, is Gower’s own, and we find the same idea in the
tale of Constance, ii. 1381 f.,
‘This child he loveth kindely,
And yit he wot no cause why.’
1830. ‘And all other business having been left’: cp. ii. 791.
1890. _With topseilcole_: cp. v. 3119,
‘Bot evene topseilcole it blew.’
The word ‘topseilcole’ (written as one word in the best copies of each
recension) does not seem to occur except in these two passages. It is
evidently a technical term of the sea, and in both these passages it is
used in connexion with a favourable wind. Morley quotes from Godefroy
a use of the word ‘cole’ in French in a nautical sense, ‘Se mistrent
en barges et alerent aux salandres, et en prisrent les xvii, et l’une
eschapa, qui estoit a la cole.’ Unfortunately, however, it is uncertain
what this means. The vessels in question were in port when they were
attacked, and therefore ‘a la cole’ might reasonably mean with sails
(or topsails) set, and so ready to start. A topsail breeze would be one
which was fairly strong, but not too strong to allow of sailing under
topsails, and this is rather the idea suggested by the two passages in
Gower.
It should be noted that in F and in some other MSS. there is a stop
after the word ‘topseilcole.’
1948. _forto honge and drawe_: the verbs are transitive, ‘that men
should hang and draw them’ (i. e. pluck out their bowels).
1983. This must mean apparently ‘They had no need to take in a reef.’
The use of ‘slake’ with this meaning does not seem quite appropriate,
but a sail or part of a sail is slackened in a certain sense when it is
taken in, seeing that it is no longer subject to the pressure of the
wind.
2055. _leng the lasse_: cp. iii. 71, ‘the leng the ferre.’ This form of
the comparative is usual in such phrases, as Chaucer, _Cant. Tales_, A
3872, ‘That ilke fruit is ever leng the wers,’ and perhaps also E 687,
F 404, _Compl. unto Pite_, 95, where the MSS. gives ‘lenger.’ The form
‘leng’ is the original comparative adverb of ‘long.’
2077. _toward Venus_: cp. v. 6757. Here it means ‘on the side of Venus.’
2095. _sett_, imperative, like ‘set case,’ i. e. ‘suppose that.’ The
reading ‘sith’ is certainly wrong.
2113. _his oghne dom._ The word ‘dom’ is used here in special reference
to ‘kingdom’ in the line above. ‘Every man has a royal rule to
exercise, that is the rule over himself.’
2124 f. ‘When he has not kept possession for himself of his own heart.’
2165. _And felt it_: we have here the elision-apocope in the case of a
preterite subjunctive.
2194. _hath nothing set therby_, ‘accounted it as nothing.’
2198. _withholde_, ‘kept’ (in service).
2212 f. Cp. iii. 298, _Vox Clam._ ii. 1.
2217 ff. This ‘Supplication’ is a finished and successful composition
in its way, and it may make us desire that our author had written more
of the same kind. The poem _In Praise of Peace_, which is written in
the same metre and stanza, is too much on a political subject to give
scope for poetical fancy. The nearest parallel in style is to be found
in some of the author’s French Balades.
2245. _Whom nedeth help_, ‘He to whom help is needful’: cp. Prol. 800,
i. 2446.
2253 ff. Cp. vi. 330 ff.
2259 ff. Cp. _Balades_, xx.
2265. _Danger_: see note on i. 2443.
2288. Cp. i. 143 ff.
2312. _a Mile_: cp. iv. 689. It means apparently the time that it takes
to go a mile: cp. Chaucer, _Astrol._ i. 16, ‘five of these degres maken
a milewey and thre mileweie maken an houre.’
2319. _a game_, for ‘agame’: cp. Chaucer, _Troilus_, iii. 636, 648.
More usually ‘in game,’ as l. 2871.
2341. _fulofte hath pleigned_: as for example in the _Planctus Naturae_
of Alanus de Insulis.
2365. ‘And I will consider the matter’: practically equivalent to a
refusal of the petition, as in the form ‘Le Roy s’avisera.’
2367. _is noght to sieke_, ‘is not wanting’: cp. i. 924, ii. 44, &c.
2378. ‘In no security, but as men draw the chances of Ragman.’ To
understand this it is necessary to refer to compositions such as we
find in the Bodleian MSS., Fairfax 16, and Bodley 638, under the name
of ‘Ragman (or Ragmans) Rolle.’ The particular specimen contained in
these MSS. begins thus:
‘My ladyes and my maistresses echone,
Lyke hit unto your humble wommanhede,
Resave in gre of my sympill persone
This rolle, which withouten any drede
Kynge Ragman me bad [me] sowe in brede,
And cristyned yt the merour of your chaunce.
Drawith a strynge and that shal streight yow lede
Unto the verry path of your governaunce.’
After two more stanzas about the uncertainty of Fortune and the
chances of drawing well or ill, there follows a disconnected series of
twenty-two more, each giving a description of the personal appearance
and character of a woman, in some cases complimentary and in others
very much the reverse, usually in the form of an address to the lady
herself, e. g.
‘A smal conceyt may ryght enogh suffyse
Of your beaute discripcion for to make;
For at on word ther kan no wyght devyse
Oon that therof hath lasse, I undertake,’ &c.
Apparently these stanzas are to be drawn for and then read out in order
as they come, for the game ends with the last,
‘And sythen ye be so jocunde and so good,
And in the rolle last as in wrytynge,
I rede that this game ende in your hood.’
Evidently the same kind of game might be played by men with a view to
their mistresses. It is much the same thing as the ‘Chaunces of the
Dyse,’ where each stanza is connected with a certain throw made with
three dice: cp. note on iv. 2792. The name ‘Ragman Rolle’ seems to be
due to the disconnected character of the composition.
2407. _olde grisel_: cp. _Chaucer, To Scogan_, 35: ‘grisel’ means grey
horse.
2415. _upon the fet_, that is, when the time comes for action. The
rhyme with ‘retret’ shows that this is not the plural of ‘fot’:
moreover, that is elsewhere regularly spelt ‘feet’ by Gower.
2428. _sitte_ for ‘sit’: cp. Introduction, p. cxiv.
2435. _torned into was_: the verb used as a substantive, cp. vi. 923.
2450 ff. The situation here has some resemblance to that in the
Prologue of the _Legend of Good Women_, where the author has a vision
of the god of Love coming to him in a meadow, as he lies worshipping
the daisy, accompanied by queen Alcestis, and followed first by
the nineteen ladies of the Legend, and then by a vast multitude of
other women who had been true in love. The differences, however, are
considerable. Here we have Venus and Cupid, the latter armed with a bow
and blind (whereas Chaucer gives him two fiery darts and his eyesight),
with two companies of lovers, both men and women, marshalled by Youth
and Eld as leaders; and the colloquy with the poet has for its result
to dismiss him with wounds healed from Love’s service, as one who has
earned his discharge, while in the case of Chaucer it is a question
of imposing penance for transgressions in the past and of enlisting
him for the future as the servant of Love. The conception of the god
of Love appearing with a company of true lovers in attendance may be
regarded as the common property of the poets of the time, and so also
was the controversy between the flower and the leaf (l. 2468), which
Chaucer introduces as a thing familiar already to his readers. If our
author had any particular model before him, it may quite as well have
been the description in Froissart’s _Paradys d’Amours_ (ed. Scheler, i.
29 f.):
‘Lors regardai en une lande,
Si vi une compagne grande
De dames et de damoiselles
Friches et jolies et belles,
Et grant foison de damoiseaus
Jolis et amoureus et beaus.
* * * * *
“Dame,” di je, “puis je sçavoir
Qui sont ceuls que puis là veoir?”
“Oil,” dit ma dame de pris;
“Troïllus y est et Paris,
Qui furent fil au roi Priant,
Et cesti que tu vois riant,
C’est Laiscelos tout pour certain,”’ &c.
and she proceeds to enumerate the rest, including Tristram and Yseult,
Percival, Galehaus, Meliador and Gawain, Helen, Hero, Polyxena, and
Medea with Jason.
I do not doubt that Gower may have seen the _Legend of Good Women_, but
it was not much his practice to borrow from contemporary poets of his
own country, however free he might make with the literature of former
times or of foreign lands.
2461. _who was who_: cp. vii. 2001.
2468. Cp. Chaucer, _Leg. of G. Women_, 72, 188, &c.
2470. _the newe guise of Beawme_, that is, the new fashions of dress,
&c., introduced from Bohemia by the marriage of Richard II in 1382.
2500 f. _which was believed With bele Ysolde_, ‘who was accepted as
a lover by Belle Isolde.’ Apparently ‘believed’ is here used in the
primary sense of the verb, from which we have ‘lief.’ For the use of
‘with’ cp. l. 2553. We may note here that the spelling ‘believe’ is
regular in Gower, ‘ie’ representing ‘̄ẹ.’
2502. _Galahot_, i. e. Galahalt, called by Mallory ‘the haut prince.’
2504 ff. It may be noted that several of the lovers in the company of
Youth are impenitent in their former faithlessness, as Jason, Hercules
and Theseus, while Medea, Deianira and Ariadne are left to complain by
themselves. Troilus has recovered Cressida, if only for a time. It is
hard to say why Pyramus failed of Thisbe’s company, unless indeed she
were unable to pardon his lateness (cp. 2582).
2515 ff. Cp. v. 7213 ff.
2553. _with Enee_: cp. vii. 3359 and l. 2501.