137. 'Alas; that my orbit has so wide a compass'; because the orbit of Mars
is so very much larger than that of Venus. Still larger was the orbit of
Saturn; Kn. Tale, 1596 (A 2454). _Spere_ is sphere, orbit.
139. _Twelfte_, twelfth. The false reading _twelve_ arose from misreading
the symbol '.xij.,' which was used as an abbreviation both for _twelfte_
and for _twelve_. See Furnivall, Trial Forewords, p. 88. As a fact, it was
on the _12th day of April_ that the sun entered Taurus; see note to l. 81.
144. _Cylenius_, Mercury; as in l. 113. _Chevauche_, equestrian journey,
ride. Used ludicrously to mean a feat of horsemanship in l. 50 of the
Manciple's Prologue. The closely related word _chivachye_, in Prologue to
C. T. 85, means a military (equestrian) expedition. In the present case it
simply means 'swift course,' with reference to the rapid movement of
Mercury, which completes its orbit in about 88 days. Thus the line
means--'Mercury, advancing in his swift course.'
145. _Fro Venus valance._ This is the most difficult expression in the
poem, but I explain it by reading _fallance_, which of course is only a
_guess_. I must now give my reasons, as every preceding commentator has
given up the passage as hopeless.
The readings of the MSS. all point back to a form _valance_ (as in Ar.) or
_valauns_ (as in Tn.); whence the other readings, such as _Valaunses_,
_valanus_ (for _valauns_), _balance_, _balaunce_, are all deduced, by easy
corruptions. But, as no assignable sense has been found for _valance_, I
can only suppose that it is an error for _falance_ or _fallance_. I know of
no instance of its use in English, but Godefroy gives examples of
_fallance_ and _falence_ in O. French, though the usual spelling is
_faillance_. The change from _faillance_ or _fallance_ to _vallance_ or
_valance_ would easily be made by scribes, from the alliterative influence
of the initial letter of the preceding word _Venus_. Moreover, we have _v_
for _f_ in E. _vixen_ (for _fixen_), and in Southern English generally.
Even in a Chaucer MS., the curious spelling _vigour_ or _vigur_ for
_figure_ occurs over and over again; viz. in the Cambridge MS. (Dd. 3. 53)
of Chaucer's 'Astrolabe.'
The sense of _fallance_ or _faillance_ is failure, defection. Cotgrave
gives us: 'Faillance, f. a defection, failing, decaying.' The numerous
examples in Godefroy shew that it was once a common word. It represents a
Lat. fem. *_fallentia_.
I hold it to be the exact literal translation into French of the Lat.
technical (astrological) term _detrimentum_. In my edition of Chaucer's
Astrolabe (E. E. T. S.), p. lxvii., I explained that every planet had
either one or two _mansions_, and one or two _detrimenta_. The
_detrimentum_ is the sign of the Zodiac opposite to the planet's mansion.
The mansions of Venus were Taurus and Libra (see note to l. 54); and her
_detrimenta_ were Scorpio and Aries. The latter is here intended; so that,
after all, this apparently mysterious term 'Venus valance' is nothing but
another name for _the sign Aries_, which, _from other considerations_, must
necessarily be here intended.
If the correction of _valance_ to _fallance_ be disallowed, I should plead
that _valance_ might be short for _avalance_ (mod. E. _avalanche_,
literally _descent_), just as every reader of our old literature knows that
_vale_ is a common form instead of _avale_, to descend or lower, being the
verb from which _avalance_ is derived. This _valance_ (= _avalance_) is a
fair translation of the Lat. _occasus_, which was an alternative name for
the sign called _detrimentum_; see my edition of the Astrolabe, as above.
The result would then be just the same as before, and would bring us back
to _the sign of Aries_ again.
But we know that Aries is meant, from purely astronomical considerations.
For the planet Mercury is always so near the sun that it can never have a
greater elongation, or angular distance, from it than 29°, which is just a
little less than the length of a sign, which was 30°. But, the sun being
(as said) in the 1st degree of Taurus on the 12th of April, it is quite
certain that Mercury was either in Taurus or in Aries. Again, as there was
no mention of Mercury being in Taurus when Mars and Venus were there and
were undisturbed (see note to l. 114), we can only infer that Mercury was
then _in Aries_.
Moreover, he continued his swift course, always approaching and tending to
overtake the slower bodies that preceded him, viz. the Sun, Mars, and
Venus. At last, he got so near that he was able to 'see' or get a glimpse
of his mansion Gemini, which was not so very far ahead of him. This I take
to mean that he was swiftly approaching the end of Aries.
We can now tell the exact position of all the bodies on the 14th of April,
two days after the sun had burst into Taurus, where he had found Mars and
Venus at no great distance apart. By that time, Venus was in the second
degree of Gemini, Mars was left behind in Taurus, the sun was in the third
degree of Taurus, and Mercury near the end of Aries, sufficiently near to
Venus to salute and cheer her with a kindly and favourable aspect.
I will add that whilst the whole of the sign of Aries was called the
_occasus_ or _detrimentum_ of Venus, it is somewhat curious that the last
ten degrees of Aries (degrees 20 to 30) were called _the face of Venus_.
Chaucer uses this astrological term _face_ elsewhere with reference to the
_first_ ten degrees of Aries, which was 'the face of Mars' (see my note to
Squieres Tale, F 47). Hence another possible reading is _Fro Venus facë
mighte_, &c.
In any case, I think we are quite sufficiently near to Chaucer's meaning;
especially as he is, after all, only speaking in allegory, and there is no
need to strain his words to suit rigid astronomical calculations.
I only give this as a guess, for what it is worth; I should not care to
defend it.
150. _Remembreth me_, comes to my memory; the nom. case being the preceding
part of the sentence. _Me_, by the way, refers to the extraordinary bird
who is made responsible for the whole poem, with the sole exception of
lines 13 and 14, and half of l. 15. The bird tells us he will say and sing
the Complaint of Mars, and afterwards take his leave.
155. We now come to the part of the poem which exhibits great metrical
skill. In order to shew the riming more clearly, I have 'set back' the 3rd,
6th, and 7th lines of each stanza. Each stanza exhibits the order of rimes
_a a b a a b b c c_; i. e. the first rime belongs to lines 1, 2, 4, 5; the
second rime to lines 3, 6, 7; and the last rime to lines 8 and 9. The first
stanza forms an Introduction or Proem. The rest form five Terns, or sets of
three stanzas, as has been already said. Each Tern has its own subject,
quite separate from the rest.
The first line can only be scanned by reading _The ordre_ as _Th'ordr'_
(monosyllable).
164. The first Tern expresses his Devotion to his love's service. I gave my
love, he says, to her for ever; She is the very source of all beauty; and
now I will never leave her, but will die in her service.
170. That is--who ever approaches her, but obtains from her no favour,
loses all joy in love, and only feels its bitterness.
176. _Men_, people; _men hit selle_ = it is sold. This parenthetical
ejaculation is an echo to that in l. 168.
185. _Hette_, promised (incorrectly). The M.E. _haten_, to promise, is a
complicated verb; see the excellent examples in Mätzner's Dictionary, and
in Grein's A. S. Dict., s. v. _hátan_. It had two past tenses; the first
_heet_, a strong form, meaning 'promised, commanded,' answering to A.S.
_héht_ and Goth. _haihait_; and the second _hette_, _hatte_, a weak form,
meaning 'I was named,' answering to A. S. _hátte_ (used both as a present
and a past tense without change of form) and to the Goth. present passive
_haitada_. Chaucer has here used the intransitive weak past tense with the
sense of the transitive strong one; just as he uses _lernen_ with the sense
of 'teach.' The confusion was easy and common.
190. _But grace be_, unless favour be shewn me. _See_, shall see; present
as future.
191. Tern 2. Shall I complain to my lady? Not so; for she is in distress
herself. Lovers may be as true as new metal, and yet suffer. To return: my
lady is in distress, and I ought to mourn for her, even though I knew no
other sorrow.