653. _Draught_ is a move at chess; see ll. 682, 685. Thus in Caxton's Game
of the Chesse--'the alphyn [bishop] goeth in vj. _draughtes_ al the tablier
[board] rounde about.' So in The Tale of Beryn, 1779, 1812. It translates
the F. _trait_; see note to l. 618 (second quotation).
654. '_Fers_, the piece at chess next to the king, which we and other
European nations call the _queen_; though very improperly, as Hyde has
observed. _Pherz_, or _Pherzan_, which is the Persian name for the same
piece, signifies the King's _Chief Counsellor_, or _General_--Hist.
Shahilud. [_shahi-ludii_, chess-play], pp. 88, 89.'--Tyrwhitt's Glossary.
Chaucer follows Rom. Rose, where the word appears as _fierge_, l. 6688, and
_fierche_, l. 6735; see note to l. 618 above. (For another use of _fers_,
see note to l. 723 below.) Godefroy gives the O. F. spellings _fierce_,
_fierche_, _fierge_, _firge_, and quotes two lines, which give the O. F.
names of all the pieces at chess:--
'Roy, roc, chevalier, et alphin,
Fierge, et peon.'--
Caxton calls them _kyng_, _quene_, _alphyn_, _knyght_, _rook_, _pawn_.
Richardson's Pers. Dict. p. 1080, gives the Pers. name of the queen as
_farz[=i]_ or _farz[=i]n_, and explains _fars[=i]n_ by 'the queen at chess,
a learned man'; compare Tyrwhitt's remark above. In fact, the orig. Skt.
name for this piece was _mantrí_, i. e. the adviser or counsellor. He also
gives the Pers. _farz_, learned; _farz_ or _firz_, the queen at chess. I
suppose it is a mere chance that the somewhat similar Arab. _faras_ means
'a horse, and the knight at chess'; Richardson (as above). Oddly enough,
the _latter_ word has also some connection with Chaucer, as it is the
Arabic name of the 'wedge' of an astrolabe; see Chaucer's Astrolabe, Part
i. § 14 (footnote), in vol. iii.
655. When a chess-player, by an oversight, loses his queen for nothing, he
may, in general, as well as give up the game. Beryn was 'in hevy plyghte,'
when he only lost a rook for nothing; Tale of Beryn, 1812.
660. The word _the_ before _mid_ must of course be omitted. The lines are
to be scanned thus:--
'Therwith | fortun | e seid | e chek | here
And mate | in mid | pointe of | the chek | kere.'
The rime is a feminine one. Lines 660 and 661 are copied from the Rom.
Rose; see note to l. 618, above. To be checkmated by an 'errant' pawn in
the very middle of the board is a most ignominious way of losing the game.
Cf. _check-mate_ in Troil. ii. 754.
663. _Athalus_; see note to l. 618, above. Jean de Meun follows John of
Salisbury (bishop of Chartres, died 1180) in attributing the invention of
chess to Attalus. 'Attalus Asiaticus, si Gentilium creditur historiis, hanc
ludendi lasciuiam dicitur inuenisse ab exercitio numerorum, paululum
deflexa materia;' Joan. Saresburiensis Policraticus, lib. i. c. 5. Warton
(Hist. E. Poet. 1871, iii. 91) says the person meant is Attalus Philometor,
king of Pergamus; who is mentioned by Pliny, Nat. Hist. xviii. 3, xxviii.
2. It is needless to explain here how chess was developed out of the old
Indian game for four persons called _chaturanga_, i. e. consisting of four
members or parts (Benfey's Skt. Dict. p. 6). I must refer the reader to
Forbes's History of Chess, or the article on _Chess_ in the English
Cyclopædia. See also the E. version of the Gesta Romanorum, ed. Herrtage,
p. 70; A. Neckam, De Naturis Rerum, ed. Wright, p. 324; and Sir F. Madden's
article in the Archæologia, xxiv. 203.
666. _Ieupardyes_, hazards, critical positions, problems; see note on Cant.
Tales, Group G, 743.
667. _Pithagores_, put for Pythagoras; for the rime. Pythagoras of Samos,
born about B.C. 570, considered that all things were founded upon numerical
relations; various discoveries in mathematics, music, and astronomy, were
attributed to him.
682. 'I would have made the same move'; i. e. had I had the power, I would
have taken her _fers_ from her, just as she took mine.
684. _She_, i. e. Fortune; so in Thynne. The MSS. have _He_, i. e. God,
which can hardly be meant.
685. The cæsural pause preserves _e_ in _draughte_ from elision. It rimes
with _caughte_ (l. 682). Similar examples of 'hiatus' are not common: Ten
Brink (Sprache, § 270) instances Cant. Tales, Group C, 599, 772 (Pard.
Tale).