1021. _In balaunce_, i. e. in a state of suspense. F. _en balance_; Rom. de
la Rose, 13871, 16770.
1024. This sending of lovers on expeditions, by way of proving them, was in
accordance with the manners of the time. Gower explains the whole matter,
in his Conf. Amant, lib. 4 (ed. Pauli, ii. 56):--
'Forthy who secheth loves grace,
Where that these worthy women are,
He may nought than him-selve spare
Upon his travail for to serve,
Wherof that he may thank deserve,...
So that by londe and ek by ship
He mot travaile for worship
And make many hastif rodes,
Somtime in _Pruse_, somtime in Rodes,
And somtime into _Tartarie_,
So that these heralds on him crie
"Vailant! vailant! lo, where he goth!"' &c.
Chaucer's Knight (in the Prologue) sought for renown in _Pruce_,
_Alisaundre_, and _Turkye_.
There is a similar passage in Le Rom. de la Rose, 18499-18526. The first
part of Machault's Dit du Lion (doubtless the Book of the Lion of which
Chaucer's translation is now lost) is likewise taken up with the account of
lovers who undertook feats, in order that the news of their deeds might
reach their ladies. Among the places to which they used to go are mentioned
_Alexandres_, Alemaigne, Osteriche, Behaigne, Honguerie, Danemarche,
_Prusse_, Poulaine, Cracoe, _Tartarie_, &c. Some even went 'jusqu'à l'Arbre
sec, Ou li oisel pendent au bec.' This alludes to the famous _Arbre sec_ or
Dry Tree, to reach which was a feat indeed; see Yule's edition of Marco
Polo, i. 119; Maundeville, ed. Halliwell, p. 68; Mätzner, Sprachproben, ii.
185.
As a specimen of the modes of expression then prevalent, Warton draws
attention to a passage in Froissart, c. 81, where Sir Walter Manny prefaces
a gallant charge upon the enemy with the words--'May I never be embraced by
my mistress and dear friend, if I enter castle or fortress before I have
unhorsed one of these gallopers.'
1028. _Go hoodles_, travel without even the protection of a hood; by way of
bravado. Warton, Hist. Eng. Poet. § 18 (ed. Hazlitt, iii. 4), says of a
society called the Fraternity of the Penitents of Love--'Their object was
to prove the excess of their love, by shewing with an invincible fortitude
and consistency of conduct ... that they could bear extremes of heat and
cold.... It was a crime to wear fur on a day of the most piercing cold; or
to appear _with a hood_, cloak, gloves or muff.' See the long account of
this in the Knight de la Tour Landry, ed. Wright, p. 169; and cf. The
Squyer of Low Degree, 171-200.
What is meant by _the drye se_ (dry sea) is disputed; but it matters
little, for the general idea is clear. Mr. Brae, in the Appendix to his
edition of Chaucer's Astrolabe (p. 101), has a long note on the present
passage. Relying on the above quotation from Warton, he supposes _hoodless_
to have reference to a practice of going unprotected in winter, and says
that 'dry sea' may refer to any _frozen_ sea. But it may equally refer to
going unprotected in summer, in which case he offers us an alternative
suggestion, that 'any arid sandy desert might be metaphorically called a
dry sea.' The latter is almost a sufficient explanation; but if we must be
particular, Mr. Brae has yet more to tell us. He says that, at p. 1044
(Basle edition) of Sebastian Munster's Cosmographie, there is a description
of a large lake which was dry in summer. 'It is said that there is a lake
near the city of Labac, adjoining the plain of Zircknitz [Czirknitz], which
in winter-time becomes of great extent.... But in summer the water drains
away, the fish expire, the bed of the lake is ploughed up, corn grows to
maturity, and, after the harvest is over, the waters return, &c. The
Augspourg merchants have assured me of this, and it has been since
confirmed to me by Vergier, the bishop of Cappodistria' [Capo d'Istria].
The lake still exists, and is no fable. It is the variable lake of
_Czirknitz_, which sometimes covers sixty-three square miles, and is
sometimes dry. It is situate in the province of Krain, or Carniola; _Labac_
is the modern Laybach or Laibach, N.E. of Trieste. See the articles
_Krain_, _Czirknitz_ in the Engl. Cyclopædia, and the account of the lake
in The Student, Sept. 1869.
That Chaucer really referred to this very lake becomes almost certain, if
we are to accept Mr. Brae's explanation of the next line. See the next
note.
1029. _Carrenare._ Mr. Brae suggests that the reference is to the 'gulf of
the _Carnaro_ or _Quarnaro_ in the Adriatic,' to which Dante alludes in the
Inferno, ix. 113, as being noted for its perils. Cary's translation runs
thus:--
'As where Rhone stagnates on the plains of Arles,
Or as at Pola, near _Quarnaro's_ gulf,
That closes Italy and laves her bounds,
The place is all _thick spread with sepulchres_.'
It is called in Black's Atlas the Channel of Quarnerolo, and is the gulf
which separates Istria from Croatia. The head of the gulf runs up towards
the province of Carniola, and approaches within forty miles (at the
outside) of the lake of Czirknitz (see note above). I suppose that
_Quarnaro_ may be connected with _Carn-iola_ and the _Carn-ic_ Alps, but
popular etymology interpreted it to mean 'charnel-house,' from its evil
reputation. This appears from the quotations cited by Mr. Brae; he says
that the Abbé Fortis quotes a Paduan writer, Palladio Negro, as saying--'E
regione Istriæ, sinu Palatico, quem nautæ _carnarium_ vocitant'; and again,
Sebastian Munster, in his Cosmographie, p. 1044 (Basle edition) quotes a
description by Vergier, Bishop of Capo d'Istria--'par deça le gouffre
enragé lequel on appelle vulgairement _Carnarie_, d'autantque le plus
souvent on le voit agité de tempestes horribles; et là s'engloutissent
beaucoup de navires et se perdent plusieurs hommes.' In other words, the
true name _Quarnaro_ or _Carnaro_ was turned by the sailors into
_Carnario_, which means in Italian 'the shambles'; see Florio's Dict., ed.
1598. This _Carnario_ might become _Careynaire_ or _Carenare_ in Chaucer's
English, by association with the M.E. _careyne_ or _caroigne_, carrion.
This word is used by Chaucer in the Kn. Tale, 1155 (Six-text, A 2013),
where the Ellesmere MS. has _careyne_, and the Cambridge and Petworth MSS.
have _careyn_.
For myself, I am well satisfied with the above explanation. It is probable,
and it suffices; and stories about this _dry sea_ may easily have been
spread by Venetian sailors. I may add that Maundeville mentions 'a gravely
see' in the land of Prestre John, 'that is alle gravele and sonde,
with-outen any drope of watre; and it ebbethe and flowethe in grete wawes,
as other sees don': ed. Halliwell, p. 272. This curious passage was pointed
out by Prof. Hales, in a letter in the Academy, Jan. 28, 1882, p. 65.
We certainly ought to reject the explanation given with great assurance in
the Saturday Review, July, 1870, p. 143, col. 1, that the allusion is to
the chain of mountains called the _Carena_ or _Charenal_, a continuation of
the Atlas Mountains in Africa. The writer says--'Leonardo Dati (A.D. 1470),
speaking of Africa, mentions a chain of mountains in continuation of the
Atlas, 300 miles long, "commonly called Charenal." In the fine chart of
Africa by Juan de la Coxa (1500), this chain is made to stretch as far as
Egypt, and bears the name of Carena. La Salle, who was born in 1398, lays
down the same chain, which corresponds, says Santarem (Histoire de la
Cosmographie, iii. 456), to the [Greek: Karênê] of Ptolemy. These allusions
place it beyond doubt [?] that the _drie see_ of Chaucer was the Great
Sahara, the return from whence [_sic_] homewards would be by the chain of
the Atlas or [_sic_] Carena.' On the writer's own shewing, the Carena was
_not_ the Atlas, but a chain stretching thence towards Egypt; not an
obvious way of returning home! Whereas, if the 'dry sea' were the lake of
Czirknitz, the obvious way of getting away from it would be to take ship in
the neighbouring gulf of Quarnaro. And how could Chaucer come to hear of
this remote chain of mountains?
1034. 'But why do I tell you my story?' I. e. let me go on with it, and
tell you the result.