22. _Men_ is here a weakened form of _man_, and is used as a singular sb.,
with the same force as the F. _on_ or the G. _man_. Hence the vb. _seith_
is in the singular. This construction is extremely common in Middle
English. In ll. 23 and 25 _com'th_ is monosyllabic.
31. _Tullius_, i. e. M. Tullius Cicero, who wrote a piece entitled Somnium
Scipionis, which originally formed part of the sixth book of the De
Republica. Warton (Hist. Eng. Poetry, ed. Hazlitt. iii. 65) remarks:--'Had
this composition descended to posterity among Tully's six books _De
Republica_, to the last of which it originally belonged, perhaps it would
have been overlooked and neglected. But being preserved and illustrated
with a prolix commentary by Macrobius, it quickly attracted the attention
of readers who were fond of the marvellous, and with whom Macrobius was a
more admired classic than Tully. It was printed [at Venice] subjoined to
Tully's _Offices_, in [1470]. It was translated into Greek by Maximus
Planudes, and is frequently [i. e. four times] quoted by Chaucer.... Nor is
it improbable that not only the form, but the first idea, of Dante's
_Inferno_ was suggested by this apologue.' The other allusions to it in
Chaucer are in the Nonnes Prestes Tale, B 4314; Book of the Duchesse, 284;
Ho. of Fame, 514. See also l. 111 below, where _Macrobie_ is expressly
mentioned. In the E. version of the Romance of the Rose, l. 7, he is called
_Macrobes_.
Aurelius Theodosius Macrobius, about A.D. 400, not only preserved for us
Cicero's Somnium Scipionis, but wrote a long commentary on it in two books,
and a work called Saturnalia in seven books. The commentary is not very
helpful, and discusses collateral questions rather than the dream itself.
32. Chaucer's MS. copy was, it appears, divided into seven chapters. A
printed copy now before me is divided into nine chapters. As given in an
edition of Macrobius printed in 1670, it is undivided. The treatise speaks,
as Chaucer says, of heaven, hell, and earth, and men's souls. It recalls
the tale of Er, in Plato's Republic, bk. x.
35. _The grete_, the substance. Accordingly, in the next seven stanzas, we
have a fair summary of the general contents of the Somnium Scipionis. I
quote below such passages as approach most closely to Chaucer's text.
36. _Scipioun_, i. e. P. Cornelius Scipio Æmilianus Africanus Minor, the
hero of the third Punic War. He went to Africa in B.C. 150 to meet
Masinissa, King of Numidia, who had received many favours from Scipio
Africanus Major in return for his fidelity to the Romans. Hence Masinissa
received the younger Africanus joyfully, and so much was said about the
elder Africanus that the younger one dreamt about him after the protracted
conversation was over, and all had retired to rest. The younger Africanus
was the grandson, by adoption, of the elder.
'Cum in Africam venissem, ... nihil mihi potius fuit, quam ut Masinissam
convenirem ... Ad quem ut veni, complexus me senex collacrymavit ...
multisque verbis ... habitis, ille nobis consumptus est dies ... me ...
somnus complexus est ... mihi ... Africanus se ostendit'; &c.
43. 'Ostendebat autem Carthaginem de excelso, et pleno stellarum ... loco
... tu eris unus, in quo nitatur civitatis salus, &c.... Omnibus qui
patriam conservârint, adiuverint, auxerint, certum esse in cælo definitum
locum, ubi beati ævo sempiterno fruantur.'
50. 'Quæsivi tamen, viveretne ipse et Paullus pater et alii, quos nos
exstinctos arbitraremur. Immo vero, inquit, ii vivunt ... vestra vero, quæ
dicitur vita, mors est ... corpore laxati ilium incolunt locum, quem vides.
Erat autem is splendissimo candore inter flammas circus elucens, quem vos,
ut a Graiis accepistis, _orbem lacteum_ nuncupatis.'