_atte leste_, at the least. _Atte_ or _atten_ is common in Old English for
_at the_ or _at then_; the latter is a later form of A. S. _æt þ[=a]m_,
where _then_ (= _þ[=a]m_) is the dative case of the article. But for the
explanation of peculiar forms and words, the Glossarial Index should be
consulted.
39. For _ich_, Tyrwhitt reads _jeo_ = _je_, though found in none of our
seven MSS. This makes the whole phrase French--_de par dieux jeo assente_.
Mr. Jephson suggests that this is a clever hit of Chaucer's, because he
makes the Man of Lawe talk in French, with which, as a lawyer, he was very
familiar. However, we find elsewhere--
'Quod Troilus, "_depardieux I assente_";'--
and again--
'"_Depardieux_," quod she, "god leve al be wel";'
Troilus and Cres. ii. 1058 and 1212;
and in the Freres Tale, D. 1395--
'"_Depardieux_," quod this yeman, "dere brother."'
[136]
It is much more to the point to observe that the Man of Lawe talks about
_law_ in l. 43. Cotgrave, in his French Dictionary, under _par_,
gives--'_De par Dieu soit_, a [i. e. in] God's name be it. _De par moy_, by
my means. _De par le roy_, by the king's appointment.' _De par_ is a
corruption of O.Fr. _de part_, on the part or side of; so that _de par le
roy_ means literally, 'as for the king,' i. e. 'in the king's name.'
Similarly, _de par Dieu_ is 'in God's name.' See Burguy, Grammaire de la
Langue D'oil, ii. 359. The form _dieux_ is a _nominative_, from the Latin
_deus_; thus exhibiting an exception to the almost universal law in French,
that the modern F. substantives answer to the _accusative_ cases of Latin
substantives, as _fleur_ to _florem_, &c. Other exceptions may be found in
some proper names, as _Charles_, _Jacques_, from _Carolus_, _Jacobus_, and
in _fils_, from _filius_.
41. In the Morality entitled Everyman, in Hazlitt's Old Eng. Plays, i. 137,
is the proverb--'Yet promise is debt.' Mr. Hazlitt wrongly considers that
as the earliest instance of the phrase.--M. Cf. Hoccleve, De Regim.
Principum, p. 64:--'And of a trewe man _beheest is dette_.'
_holde fayn_, &c.; gladly perform all my promise.
43. _man ... another_ = one ... another. The Cambridge MS. is right.--M.
'For whatever law a man imposes on others, he should in justice consider as
binding on himself.' This is obviously a _quotation_, as appears from l.
45. The expression referred to was probably proverbial. An English proverb
says--'They that make the laws must not break them'; a Spanish one--'El que
ley establece, guardarla debe,' he who makes a law ought to keep it; and a
Latin one--'Patere legem quam ipse tulisti,' abide by the law which you
made yourself. The idea is expanded in the following passage from
Claudian's Panegyric on the 4th consulship of Honorius, carm. viii., l.
296.--
'In commune iubes si quid censesue tenendum,
Primus iussa subi; tunc obseruantior aequi
Fit populus, nec ferre negat cum uiderit ipsum
Auctorem parere sibi.'
45. _text_, quotation from an author, precept, saying. _Thus wol our text_,
i. e. such is what the expression implies.
47. _But._ This reading is given by Tyrwhitt, from MS. Dd. 4. 24 in the
Cambridge University Library and two other MSS. All our seven MSS. read
_That_; but this would require the word _Nath_ (hath not) instead of
_Hath_, in l. 49. Chaucer talks about his writings in a similar strain in
A. 746, 1460; and at a still earlier period, in his House of Fame, 620,
where Jupiter's eagle says to him:--
'And nevertheles hast set thy wit,
Although that in thy hede ful lyte is,
To make bokes, songes, dytees,
In ryme, or elles in cadence,
As thou best canst, in reverence
Of Love, and of his servants eke'; &c.
[137]
_can but lewedly on metres_, is but slightly skilled in metre. _Can_ =
_knows_ here; in the line above it is the ordinary auxiliary verb.
54. Ovid is mentioned for two reasons; because he has so many love-stories,
and because Chaucer himself borrowed several of his own from Ovid.
_made of mencioun_; we should now say--'made mention of.'
55. _Epistelles_, Epistles. (T. prints _Epistolis_, the Lat. form, without
authority. The word has here four syllables.) The book referred to is
Ovid's Heroides, which contains twenty-one love-letters. See note to l. 61.