(Vol. i., p. 254.; Vol. v., pp. 252-3.)
By the aid of Dr. Adam Littleton and your correspondent A. N., all
future editors of Chaucer and glossarists are helped over this _pons
asinorum_: the word being evidently nothing more than the adoption of
the Arabic DHU 'LKARNEIN, i.e. _two-horned_; and hence, as the reputed
son of Jupiter Ammon, Alexander's oriental name, Iscander _Dhu
'lkarnein_, i.e. Bicornis.
The legend of the building of the wall, in the fabulous Eastern lives of
Alexander, is to be found in the 18th chapter of the Koran; and it is
related with variations and amplification by Sir John Mandeville. The
metrical as well as prose romances on the subject of Alexander also
contain it; and those who wish for more information will find it in the
third volume of Weber's _Metrical Romances_, p. 331.
I cannot say that I am quite convinced of the truth of the ingenious
supposition of your correspondent, that "Sending to Dulcarnein is merely
an ellipsis of the person for his place, _i.e._ for the rampart of
Dulcarnein." It appears to me more probable, that as, according to St.
Jerome and other writers of the Middle Ages, the _Dilemma_ was also
called Syllogismum _Cornutum_, its Arabic name was _Dhu 'lkarnein_; and
we know how much in science and literature the darker ages were indebted
to the Arabian writers. Wyttenbach, in his _Logic_, says "_Dilemma_
etiam _Cornutus_ est; quod _utrimque_ veluti _Cornibus_ pugnat." At any
rate it is clear that the enclosure had another name:
"En Ynde si naist uns grans mons
Qui est une grans regions
C'on apiele _Mont Capien_.
Illuec a unes gens sans bien,
Qu' Alixandres dedens enclost,
Et sont la gent _Got_ et _Magot_."
_Extrait de l'Image du Monde, par Le Roux de Lincy, Livre des
Légendes_, p. 208.
It does not appear to me that _to be at Dalcarnon_ is equivalent to
being _sent to Coventry_, or to Jericho, as your correspondent A. N.
supposes; or that the word _flemyng_, in this passage, means
_banishing_, but rather _defeating_, _daunting_, _dismaying_, in which
sense it occurs more than once in Layamon; thus, vol. ii. p. 410.:--
"Thine feond _flæmen_
& driven hem of londen."
The general sense of the word is, however, _to expel_, _to drive out_,
and not _to enclose_, as Alexander is said to have done the Gog and
Magog people, by his iron, or rather bituminous, wall. Now those who
were at Dulcarnon, or _in a Dilemma_, might well be said to be defeated
or dismayed.
Let us hope that some oriental scholar among your correspondents may be
able to indicate where the word is to be found in some Arabian expositor
of logic or dialectic, &c., and thus set the question entirely at rest.
Are we never to have an edition of Chaucer worthy of him, and creditable
to us? Had our northern neighbours possessed such a treasure, every MS.
in existence would have been examined and collated, and the text
settled. His language would have been thoroughly investigated and
explained[3], and every possible source of elucidation made available.
May we not hope that the able editor of Layamon and Wickliffe will yet
add to the obligation every lover of our early literature owes to him,
an edition of our first great poet, such as his previous labours have
shown that he is so well qualified to give?
[Footnote 3: This is evident from the interest the Germans have
manifested, _e.g._ the younger Gesenius, in his able essay, _De
Lingua Chauceri Commentationem Grammaticam_; and Edward Fiedler's
_Translation of the Canterbury Tales_.]