'Car c'est mes cuers, c'est ma creance,
C'est _mes desirs_, c'est _m'esperaunce_,
C'est _ma santé_....
C'est _toute ma bonne éürté_,
C'est ce qui me soustient en vie,' &c.
Line 1039 is closely translated. See Furnivall's Trial Forewords, p. 48.
1040. I here substitute _lisse_ for _goddesse_, as in the authorities. The
blunder is obvious; _goddesse_ clogs the line with an extra syllable, and
gives a false rime such as Chaucer never makes[289]. He rimes _blisse_ with
_kisse_, _lisse_, _misse_, and _wisse_. Thus in the Frankelein's Tale, F
1237--
'What for his labour and his hope of blisse,
His woful herte of penaunce hadde a lisse.'
_Lisse_ is alleviation, solace, comfort; and l. 1040 as emended, fairly
corresponds to Machault's 'C'est ce qui me soustient en vie,' i. e. it is
she who sustains my life. The word _goddesse_ was probably substituted for
_lisse_, because the latter was obsolescent.
1041. I change _hoolly hirs_ into _hirs hoolly_, and omit the following
_and_. In the next line we have--By'r lord; as before (ll. 544, 651, 690).
1047. _Leve_ (i. e. believe) is here much stronger than _trowe_, which
merely expresses general assent.
1050. Read--'And to | behold | e th'alder | fayrest | e.' After _beholde_
comes the cæsural pause, so that the final _e_ in _beholde_ does not count.
Koch proposes to omit _alder-_. But how came it there?
1057. The spelling _Alcipiades_ occurs in the Roman de la Rose, 8981, where
he is mentioned as a type of beauty--'qui de biauté avoit adès'--on the
authority of 'Boece.' The ultimate reference is to Boethius, Cons. Phil. b.
iii. pr. 8. l. 32--'the body of Alcibiades that was ful fayr.'
1058. Hercules is also mentioned in Le Rom. de la Rose, 9223, 9240. See
also Ho. Fame, 1413.
1060. Koch proposes to omit _al_; I would rather omit _the_. But we may
read _al th_.'
1061. See note to l. 310.
1067. _He_, i. e. Achilles himself; see next note.
1069. _Antilegius_, a corruption of _Antilochus_; and again, _Antilochus_
is a mistake for _Archilochus_, owing to the usual medieval confusion in
the forms of proper names. For the story, see next note.
1070. _Dares Frigius_, i. e. Dares Phrygius, or Dares of Phrygia. Chaucer
again refers to him near the end of Troilus, and in Ho. Fame, 1467 (on
which see the note). The works of Dares and Dictys are probably spurious.
The reference is really to the very singular, yet popular, medieval version
of the story of the Trojan war which was written by Guido of Colonna, and
is entitled 'Historia destructionis Troie, per iudicem Guidonem de Columpna
Messaniensem.' Guido's work was derived from the Roman de Troie, written by
Benoit de Sainte-Maure; of which romance there is a late edition by M.
Joly. In Mr. Panton's introduction to his edition of the Gest Historiale of
the Destruction of Troy (Early Eng. Text Society), p. ix., we read--'From
the exhaustive reasonings and proofs of Mons. Joly as to the person and age
and country of his author, it is sufficiently manifest that the _Roman du
Troie_ appeared between the years 1175 and 1185. The translation, or
version, of the _Roman_ by Guido de Colonna was finished, as he tells us at
the end of his _Historia Trioana_, in 1287. From one or other, or both, of
these works, the various Histories, Chronicles, Romances, Gestes, and Plays
of _The Destruction of Troy_, _The_ _Prowess and Death of Hector_, _The
Treason of the Greeks_, &c., were translated, adapted, or amplified, in
almost every language of Europe.'
The fact is, that the western nations of Europe claimed connexion, through
Æneas and his followers, with the Trojans, and repudiated Homer as
favouring the Greeks. They therefore rewrote the story of the Trojan war
after a manner of their own; and, in order to give it authority, pretended
that it was derived from two authors named Dares Phrygius (or Dares of
Phrygia) and Dictys Cretensis (or Dictys of Crete). Dares and Dictys were
real names, as they were cited in the time of Ælian (A.D. 230); and it was
said that Dares was a Trojan who was killed by Ulysses. See further in Mr.
Panton's introduction, as above; Morley's English Writers, vi. 118; and
Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 127 (sect. 3). But Warton does
not seem to have known that Guido mainly followed Benoit de Sainte-Maure.
The story about the death of Achilles is taken, accordingly, not from Homer
but from Guido de Colonna and his predecessor Benoit. It may be found in
the alliterative Geste Hystoriale, above referred to (ed. Panton and
Donaldson, p. 342); or in Lydgate's Siege of Troye, bk. iv. c. 32. Hecuba
invites Achilles and Archilochus to meet her in the temple of Apollo. When
they arrive, they are attacked by Paris and a band of men and soon killed,
though Achilles first slays seven of his foes with his own hand.
'There kyld was the _kyng_, and the _knight_ bothe,
And by treason _in the temple_ tirnyt to dethe.'
Here 'the kyng' is Achilles, and 'the knyght' is Archilochus. It may be
added that Achilles was lured to the temple by the expectation that he
would there meet Polyxena, and be wedded to her; as Chaucer says in the
next line. Polyxena was a daughter of Priam and Hecuba; she is alluded to
in Shakespeare's Troilus, iii. 3. 208. According to Ovid, Metam. xiii. 448,
she was sacrificed on the tomb of Achilles.
Lydgate employs the forms _Archylogus_ and _Anthylogus_.
1071. I supply _hir_; Koch would supply _queen_. I do not find that she
_was_ a queen.
1075. _Trewely_ is properly (though not always) trisyllabic. It was
inserted after _nay_, because _nede_ and _gabbe_ were thought to be
monosyllables. Even so, the 'amended' line is bad. It is all right if
_trewly_ be omitted; and I omit it accordingly.
1081. _Penelope_ is accented on the first _e_ and on _o_, as in French.
Chaucer copies this form from the Roman de la Rose, l. 8694, as appears
from his coupling it with _Lucrece_, whilst at the same time he borrows a
pair of rimes. The French has:--
'Si n'est-il mès nule _Lucrece_,
Ne _Penelope_ nule _en Grece_.'
In the same passage, the story of Lucretia is told in full, on the
authority of Livy, as here. The French has: 'ce dit Titus Livius'; l. 8654.
In the prologue to the Legend of Good Women, Chaucer alludes again to
Penelope (l. 252), Lucrece of Rome (l. 257), and Polixene (l. 258); and he
gives the Legend of Lucrece in full. He again alludes to Lucrece and
Penelope in the lines preceding the Man of Lawes Prologue (B 63, 75); and
in the Frankelein's Tale (F 1405, 1443).
1085. This seems to mean--'she (Blaunche) was as good (as they), and (there
was) nothing like (her), though their stories are authentic (enough).' But
the expression 'nothing lyke' is extremely awkward, and seems wrong.
_Nothing_ also means 'not at all'; but this does not help us. In l. 1086,
_stories_ should perhaps be _storie_; then _her storie_ would be the story
of Lucrece; cf. l. 1087.