660. 'For pitee renneth sone in gentil herte'; Knightes Tale, A. 1761. And
see note to Sq. Tale, F. 479.
664. _us avyse_, deliberate with ourselves, consider the matter again.
Compare the law-phrase _Le roi s'avisera_, by which the king refuses assent
to a measure proposed. 'We will consider whom to appoint as judge.'
666. I. e. a copy of the Gospels in Welsh or British, called in the French
prose version 'liure des Ewangeiles.' Agreements were [158] sometimes
written on the fly-leaves of copies of the Gospels, as may be seen in two
copies of the A. S. version of them.
669. A very similar miracle is recorded in the old alliterative romance of
Joseph of Arimathea, l. 362. The French version has:--'a peine auoit fini
la parole, qe vne mayn close, com poyn de homme, apparut deuant Elda et
quant questoient en presence, et ferri tiel coup en le haterel le feloun,
que ambedeus lez eus lui enuolerent de la teste, & les dentz hors de la
bouche; & le feloun chai abatu a la terre; et a ceo dist vne voiz en le
oyance de touz: Aduersus filiam matris ecclesie ponebas scandalum; hec
fecisti, et tacui.' I. e. 'Scarcely had he ended the word, when a closed
hand, like a man's fist, appeared before Elda and all who were in the
presence, and smote such a blow on the nape of the felon's neck that both
his eyes flew out of his head, and the teeth out of his mouth; and the
felon fell smitten down to the earth; and thereupon a voice said in the
hearing of all, "Against the daughter of Mother Church thou wast laying a
scandal; this hast thou done, and I held my peace."' The reading _tacui_
suggests that, in l. 676, the word _holde_ should rather be _held_; but the
MSS. do not recognise this reading.
697. _hir thoughte_, it seemed to her; _thoughte_ is here impersonal; so in
l. 699. The French text adds that Domulde (Donegild) was, moreover, jealous
of hearing the praises of Constance's beauty.
701. _Me list nat_, it pleases me not, I do not wish to. He does not wish
to give every detail. In this matter Chaucer is often very judicious; Gower
and others often give the more unimportant matters as fully as the rest.
Cf. l. 706; and see Squyeres Tale, F. 401.