2891. See the description of old English funerals in Rock, Church of our
Fathers, ii. 488: 'If the deceased was a knight, his helmet, shield, sword,
and coat-armour were each carried by some near kinsman, or by a herald clad
in his blazoned tabard'; &c.
2895. Cf. 'deux ars Turquois,' i. e. two Turkish bows; Rom. de la Rose,
913; see vol. i. p. 132.
2903. Compare the mention of 'blake clothes' in l. 2884. When 'master
Machyll, altherman, was bered, all the chyrche [was] hangyd with blake and
armes [coats-of-arms], and the strett [street] with blake and armes, and
the place'; &c.--Machyn's Diary (Camden Soc.) p. 171.
2923. _whippeltree_ (better _wippeltree_) is the cornel-tree or dogwood
(_Cornus sanguinea_); the same as the Mid. Low G. _wipel-bom_, the cornel.
Cf. '_wepe_, or _weype_, the dog-tree'; Hexham. See N. and Q. 7 S. vi. 434.
2928. _Amadrides_; i. e. _Hamadryades_; see Ovid, Met. i. 192, 193, 690.
The idea is taken from Statius, Theb. vi. 110-113.
2943. _men made the fyr_ (Hn., Cm.); _maad was the fire_ (Corp., Pet.).
2953. _loud_ (Elles.); _heih_ (Harl.); _bowe_ (Corp.).
2958. 'Chaucer seems to have confounded the _wake-plays_ of his own time
with the funeral games of the antients.'--Tyrwhitt. Cf. Troil. v. 304; and
see 'Funeral Entertainments' in Brand's Popular Antiquities.
2962. _in no disioynt_, with no disadvantage. Cf. Verg. Æn. iii. 281.
2967-86. Cf. the _Teseide_, xii. 3-5.
2968. Lounsbury (Studies in Chaucer, i. 345) proposes to put a full stop at
the end of this line, after _teres_; and to put _no_ stop at the end of l.
2969.
2991-3. _that faire cheyne of love._ This sentiment is taken from Boethius,
lib. ii. met. 8: 'þat þe world with stable feith / varieth acordable
chaungynges // þat the contraryos qualite of elementz holden amonge hem
self aliaunce perdurable / þat phebus the sonne with his goldene chariet /
bryngeth forth the rosene day / þat the mone hath commaundement ouer the
nyhtes // whiche nyhtes hesperus the euesterre hat[h] browt // þat þe se
gredy to flowen constreyneth with a certeyn ende hise floodes / so þat it
is nat l[e]ueful to strechche hise brode termes or bowndes vpon the erthes
// þat is to seyn to couere alle the erthe // Al this a-cordaunce of
thinges is bownden with looue / þat gouerneth erthe and see and hath also
commaundementz to the heuenes / and yif this looue slakede the brydelis /
alle thinges þat now louen hem togederes / wolden maken a batayle
contynuely and stryuen to fordoon the fasoun of this worlde / the which
they now leden in acordable feith by fayre moeuynges // this looue halt
to-gideres peoples ioygned with an hooly bond / and knytteth sacrement of
[94] maryages of chaste looues // And love enditeth lawes to trewe felawes
// O weleful weere mankynde / yif thilke loue þat gouerneth heuene
gouerned[e] yowre corages.'--Chaucer's Boethius, ed. Morris, p. 62; cf.
also pp. 87, 143. (See the same passage in vol. ii. p. 50; cf. pp. 73,
122.) And cf. the Teseide, ix. 51; Homer, II. viii. 19. Also Rom. de la
Rose, 16988:--
'La bele chaéne dorée
Qui les quatre elemens enlace.'
2994. What follows is taken from Boethius, lib. iv. pr. 6: 'þe engendrynge
of alle þinges, quod she, and alle þe progressiouns of muuable nature, and
alle þat moeueþ in any manere, takiþ hys causes, hys ordre, and hys formes,
of þe stablenesse of þe deuyne þou[gh]t; [and thilke deuyne thowht] þat is
yset and put in þe toure, þat is to seyne in þe hey[gh]t of þe simplicite
of god, stablisiþ many manere gyses to þinges þat ben to don.'--Chaucer's
Boethius, ed. Morris, p. 134. (See the same passage in vol. ii. p. 115).
3005. Chaucer again is indebted to Boethius, lib. iii. pr. 10, for what
follows: 'For al þing þat is cleped inperfit, is proued inperfit by þe
amenusynge of perfeccioun, or of þing þat is perfit; and her-of comeþ it,
þat in euery þing general, yif þat þat men seen any þing þat is inperfit,
certys in þilke general þer mot ben somme þing þat is perfit. For yif so be
þat perfeccioun is don awey, men may nat þinke nor seye fro whennes þilke
þing is þat is cleped inperfit. For þe nature of þinges ne token nat her
bygynnyng of þinges amenused and inperfit; but it procediþ of þingus þat
ben al hool and absolut, and descendeþ so doune into outerest þinges and
into þingus empty and wiþoute fruyt; but, as I haue shewed a litel
her-byforne, þat yif þer be a blisfulnesse þat be frele and vein and
inperfit, þer may no man doute þat þer nys som blisfulnesse þat is sad,
stedfast, and perfit.'--Chaucer (as above), p. 89. (See the same passage in
vol. ii. pp. 74, 75.)
3013. 'And thilke same ordre neweth ayein alle thinges growyng and fallyng
adoune by semblables progressiouns of seedes and of sexes.'--Chaucer's
Boethius, ed. Morris, p. 137. (See the same passage in vol. ii. p. 117;
i. e. in bk. iv. pr. 6. l. 103).
3016. _seen at ye_, see at a glance. Gower, ed. Pauli, i. 33, has:--'The
thing so open is at theye,' i. e. is so open at the eye, is so obvious.
'Now is the tyme _sen at eye_,' i. e. clearly seen; Coventry Myst. p. 122.
3017-68. Cf. the Teseide, xii. 7-10, 6, 11, 13, 9, 12-17, 19.
3042. So in Troilus, iv. 1586: 'Thus maketh vertu of necessite'; and in
Squire's Tale, pt. ii. l. 247 (Group F, l. 593): 'That I made vertu of
necessite.' It is from Le Roman de la Rose, 14217:--
'S'il ne fait de necessité
Vertu.'