57. 'The story of Ceyx and Alcyone is related in the introduction to the
poem which was for some time called "The Dreme of Chaucer," but which, in
the MSS. Fairfax 16 and Bodl. 638, is more properly entitled, "The Boke of
the Duchesse."'--Tyrwhitt. Chaucer took it from Ovid's Metamorphoses, bk.
xi. 'Ceyx and Alcyone' was once, probably, an independent poem; see vol. i.
p. 63.
59. _Thise_ is a monosyllable; the final _e_ probably denotes that _s_ was
'voiced,' and perhaps the _i_ was long, pronounced (dhiiz).
59, 60. For _eek_, _seek_, read _eke_, _seke_. Here _sek-e_ is in the
infinitive mood. The form _ek-e_ is not etymological, as the A.S. _[=e]ac_
was a monosyllable; but, as _-e_ frequently denoted an _adverbial_ suffix,
it was easily added. Hence, in M.E., both _eek_ and _ek-e_ occur; and
Chaucer uses either form at pleasure, _ek-e_ being more usual. For examples
of _eek_, see E. 1349, G. 794.
61. _the seintes legende of Cupyde_; better known now as The Legend of Good
Women. Tyrwhitt says--'According to Lydgate (Prologue to Boccace), the
number [of good women] was to have been _nineteen_; and perhaps the Legend
itself affords some ground for this notion; see l. 283, and Court of Love,
l. 108. But this number was never completed, and the last story, of
Hypermnestra, is seemingly unfinished.... In this passage the Man of Lawe
omits two ladies, viz. Cleopatra and Philomela, whose histories are in the
Legend; and he enumerates eight others, of whom there are no histories in
the Legend as we have it at present. Are we to suppose, that they have been
lost?' The Legend contains the nine stories following: 1. Cleopatra; 2.
Thisbe; 3. Dido; 4. Hypsipyle and Medea; 5. Lucretia; 6. Ariadne; 7.
Philomela; 8. Phyllis; 9. Hypermnestra. Of these, Chaucer here mentions, as
Tyrwhitt points out, all but two, Cleopatra and Philomela. Before
discussing the matter further, let me note that in medieval times, proper
names took strange shapes, and the reader must not suppose that the writing
of _Adriane_ for _Ariadne_, for example, is peculiar to Chaucer. The
meaning of the other names is as follows:--_Lucresse_, Lucretia; _Babilan
Tisbee_, Thisbe of Babylon; _Enee_, Æneas; _Dianire_, Deianira; _Hermion_,
Hermione; _Adriane_, Ariadne; _Isiphilee_, Hypsipyle; _Leander_, _Erro_,
Leander and Hero; _Eleyne_, Helena; _Brixseyde_, [138] Briseis (acc.
Briseïda); _Ladomea_, Laodamia; _Ypermistra_, Hypermnestra; _Alceste_,
Alcestis.
Returning to the question of Chaucer's plan for his Legend of Good Women,
we may easily conclude what his intention was, though it was never carried
out. He intended to write stories concerning nineteen women who were
celebrated for being martyrs of love, and to conclude the series by an
additional story concerning queen Alcestis, whom he regarded as the best of
all the good women. Now, though he does not expressly say who these women
were, he has left us two lists, both incomplete, in which he mentions some
of them; and by combining these, and taking into consideration the stories
which he actually wrote, we can make out the whole intended series very
nearly. One of the lists is the one given here; the other is in a Ballad
which is introduced into the Prologue to the Legend. The key to the
incompleteness of the present list, certainly the later written of the two,
is that the poet chiefly mentions _here_ such names as are _also_ to be
found in Ovid's Heroides; cf. l. 55. Putting all the information together,
it is sufficiently clear that Chaucer's intended scheme must have been very
nearly as follows, the number of women (if we include Alcestis) being
twenty.
1. Cleopatra. 2. Thisbe. 3. Dido. 4. and 5. Hypsipyle and Medea. 6.
Lucretia. 7. Ariadne. 8. Philomela. 9. Phyllis. 10. Hypermnestra
(unfinished). _After which_, 11. Penelope. 12. Briseis. 13. Hermione. 14.
Deianira. 15. Laodamia. 16. Helen. 17. Hero. 18. Polyxena (see the Ballad).
19. _either_ Lavinia (see the Ballad), _or_ Oenone (mentioned in Ovid, and
in the House of Fame). 20. Alcestis.
Since the list of stories in Ovid's Heroides is the best guide to the whole
passage, it is here subjoined.
In this list, the numbers refer to the letters as numbered in Ovid; the
italics shew the stories which Chaucer actually wrote; the asterisk points
out such of the remaining stories as he happens to mention in the present
enumeration; and the dagger points out the ladies mentioned in his Prologue
to the Legend of Good Women.
1. Penelope Ulixi.*+
2. _Phyllis Demophoonti._*+
3. Briseis Achilli.*
4. Phaedra Hippolyto.
5. Oenone Paridi.
6. _Hypsipyle Iasoni_;*+ 12. _Medea Iasoni_.*
7. _Dido Aeneae._*+
8. Hermione Orestae.*
9. Deianira Herculi.*
10. _Ariadne Theseo._*+
11. Canace Macareo*+ (_expressly rejected_).
13. Laodamia Protesilao.*+
14. _Hypermnestra Lynceo._*+
15. Sappho Phaoni.
[139]
16. Paris Helenae; 17. Helena Paridi.*+
18. Leander Heroni; 19. Hero Leandro.*+
20. Acontius Cydippae; 21. Cydippe Acontio.
Chaucer's method, I fear, was to plan more than he cared to finish. He did
so with his Canterbury Tales, and again with his Treatise on the Astrolabe;
and he left the Squire's Tale half-told. According to his own account
(Prologue to Legend of Good Women, l. 481) he never intended to write his
Legend _all at once_, but only 'yeer by yere.' Such proposals are
dangerous, and commonly end in incompleteness. To Tyrwhitt's question--'are
we to suppose that they [i. e. the legends of Penelope and others] have
been lost?' the obvious answer is, that they were never written.
Chaucer alludes to Ovid's Epistles again in his House of Fame, bk. i.,
where he mentions the stories of Phyllis, Briseis, _Oenone_ (not mentioned
_here_), Hypsipyle, Medea, Deianira, Ariadne, and Dido; the last being told
at some length. Again, in the Book of the Duchesse, he alludes to Medea,
Phyllis, and Dido (ll. 726-734); to Penelope and Lucretia (l. 1081); and to
Helen (l. 331). As for the stories in the Legend which are not in Ovid's
Heroides, we find that of Thisbe in Ovid's Metamorphoses, bk. iv; that of
Philomela in the same, bk. vi; whilst those of Cleopatra and Lucretia are
in Boccaccio's book De Claris Mulieribus, from which he imitated the title
'Legend _of Good Women_,' and derived also the story of Zenobia, as told in
the Monkes Tale. However, Chaucer also consulted other sources, such as
Ovid's Fasti (ii. 721) and Livy for Lucretia, &c. See my Introduction to
the Legend in vol. iii. pp. xxv., xxxvii.
With regard to the title 'seintes legend of Cupide,' which in modern
English would be 'Cupid's Saints' Legend,' or 'the Legend of Cupid's
Saints,' Mr. Jephson remarks--'This name is one example of the way in which
Chaucer entered into the spirit of the heathen pantheism, as a real form of
religion. He considers these persons, who suffered for love, to have been
saints and martyrs for Cupid, just as Peter and Paul and Cyprian were
martyrs for Christ.'
63. Gower also tells the story of Tarquin and Lucrece, which he took, says
Professor Morley (English Writers, iv. 230), from the Gesta Romanorum,
which again had it from Augustine's De Civitate Dei.
_Babilan_, Babylonian; elsewhere Chaucer has _Babiloine_ = Babylon, riming
with _Macedoine_; Book of the Duchesse, l. 1061.
64. _swerd_, sword; put here for death by the sword. See Virgil's Aeneid,
iv. 646; and Chaucer's Legend of Good Women, 1351.
65. _tree_, put here, most likely, for death by hanging; cf. last line. In
Chaucer's Legend, 2485, we find--
'She was her owne deeth right _with a corde_.'
The word may also be taken literally, since Phyllis was metamorphosed after
her death into a tree; Gower says she became a nut-tree, and [140] derives
_filbert_ from Phyllis; Conf. Amant. bk. iv. Lydgate writes _filbert_
instead of Phyllis; Complaint of Black Knight, l. 68.
66. _The pleinte of Dianire_, the complaint of Deianira, referring to
Ovid's letter 'Deianira Herculi'; so also that of _Hermion_ refers to the
letter entitled 'Hermione Orestae'; that of _Adriane_, to the 'Ariadne
Theseo'; and that of _Isiphilee_, to the 'Hypsipyle Iasoni.'
68. _bareyne yle_, barren island; of which I can find no correct
explanation by a previous editor. It refers to Ariadne, mentioned in the
previous line. The expression is taken from Ariadne's letter to Theseus, in
Ovid's Heroides, Ep. x. 59, where we find 'uacat insula cultu'; and just
below--
'Omne latus terrae cingit mare; nauita nusquam,
Nulla per ambiguas puppis itura uias.'
Or, without referring to Ovid at all, the allusion might easily have been
explained by observing Chaucer's Legend of Ariadne, l. 2163, where the
island is described as solitary and desolate. It is said to have been the
isle of Naxos.
69. Scan--The dreynt | e Lé | andér |. Here the pp. _dreynt_ is used
adjectivally, and takes the final _e_ in the definite form. So in the Book
of the Duchesse, 195, it is best to read _the dreynte_; and in the House of
Fame, 1783, we must read _the sweynte_.
75. _Alceste._ The story of Alcestis--'that turned was into a dayesie'--is
sketched by Chaucer in his Prologue to the Legend, l. 511, &c. No doubt he
intended to include her amongst the Good Women, as the very queen of them
all.
78. _Canacee_; not the Canace of the Squieres Tale, whom Chaucer describes
as so kind and good as well as beautiful, but Ovid's Canace. The story is
told by Gower, Confess. Amantis, book iii. It is difficult to resist the
conclusion that Chaucer is here making a direct attack upon Gower, his
former friend; probably because Gower had, in some places, imitated the
earlier edition of Chaucer's Man of Lawes Tale. This difficult question is
fully discussed in vol. iii. pp. 413-7.
81. 'Or else the story of Apollonius of Tyre.' The form _Tyro_ represents
the Lat. ablative in 'Apollonius de Tyro.' This story, like that of Canacee
(note to l. 78), is told by Gower, Conf. Amant. bk. viii., ed. Pauli, iii.
284; and here again Chaucer seems to reflect upon Gower. The story occurs
in the Gesta Romanorum, in which it appears as Tale cliii., being the
longest story in the whole collection. It is remarkable as being the only
really romantic story extant in an Anglo-Saxon version; see Thorpe's
edition of it, London, 1834. It is therefore much older than 1190, the
earliest date assigned by Warton. Compare the play of Pericles, Prince of
Tyre.
89. _if that I may_, as far as lies in my power (to do as I please); a
common expletive phrase, of no great force.