1035. _sighte_, sighed. So also _pighte_, 'pitched'; _plighte_, 'plucked';
and _shrighte_, 'shrieked.' It occurs again in Troil. iii. 1080, iv. 714,
1217, v. 1633; and in the Romaunt of the Rose, l. 1746.
1036. _that he mighte_, as fast as he could.
1038. 'I ought to suppose, in accordance with reasonable opinion.' Chaucer
tells the story quite in his own way. There is no trace of ll. 1038-1042 in
the French, and scarcely any of ll. 1048-1071, which is all in his own
excellent strain.
1056. _shet_, shut, closed. Compare the description of Griselda in the
Clerkes Tale, E. 1058-1061.
1058. Both _twyes_ and _owne_ are dissyllabic.
1060. _all his halwes_, all His saints. Hence the term All-hallow-mas,
i. e. All Saints' day.
1061. _wisly_, certainly. _as have_, I pray that he may have; see note to
l. 859 above. 'I pray He may so surely have mercy on my soul, as that I am
as innocent of your suffering as Maurice my son is like you in the face.'
1078. After this line, the French text tells us that King Ælla presented
himself before Pope Pelagius, who absolved him for the death of his mother.
Pelagius II. was pope in 578-90.
1086. Here again, Tyrwhitt supposes Chaucer to follow Gower. But, in fact,
Chaucer and Gower both consulted Trivet, who says [164] here--'Constaunce
charga son fitz Morice del messager [_or_ message].... Et puis, quant
Morice estoit deuaunt lempereur venuz, oue la compaignie honurable, et
auoit son message fest de part le Roi son pere,' &c.; i. e. 'Constance
charged her son Maurice with the message ... and then, when Maurice was
come before the emperor, with the honourable company, and had done his
message on behalf of the king his father,' &c. Or, as before, Gower may
have copied Chaucer.
1090. _As he_; used much as we should now use 'as one.' It refers to the
Emperor, of course.
1091. _Sente_, elliptical for 'as that he would send.' Tyrwhitt reads
_send_; but it is best to leave an expression like this as it stands in the
MSS. It was probably a colloquial idiom; and, in the next line, we have
_wente_. Observe that _sente_ is in the subjunctive mood, and is equivalent
to 'he would send.'
1107. Chaucer so frequently varies the length and accent of a proper name
that there is no objection to the supposition that we are here to read
_Cústancë_ in three syllables, with an accent on the first syllable. In
exactly the same way, we find _Grísildis_ in three syllables (E. 948),
though in most other passages it is _Grisíld_. We have had _Cústance_,
accented on the first syllable, several times; see ll. 438, 556, 566, 576,
&c.; also _Custáncë_, three syllables, ll. 184, 274, 319, 612, &c. Tyrwhitt
inserts a second _your_ before _Custance_, but without authority.
1109. _It am I_; it is I. It is the usual idiom. So in the A.S. version of
St. John vi. 20, we find 'ic hyt eom,' i. e. I it am, and in a Dutch New
Testament, A.D. 1700, I find 'Ick ben 't,' i. e. I am it. The Moeso-Gothic
version omits _it_, having simply 'Ik im'; so does Wyclif's, which has 'I
am.' Tyndale, A.D. 1526, has 'it ys I.'
1113. _thonketh_, pronounced _thonk'th_; so also _eyl'th_, B. 1171,
_Abyd'th_, B. 1175. So also _tak'th_, l. 1142 below. _of_, for. So in
Chaucer's Balade of Truth, l. 19, we have 'thank God _of al_,' i. e. for
all things. See my notes to Chaucer's Minor Poems, vol. i. p. 552.
1123. The French text tells us that he was named Maurice of Cappadocia, and
was also known, in Latin, as _Mauritius Christianissimus Imperator_. Trivet
tells us no more about him, except that he accounts for the title 'of
Cappadocia' by saying that Arsemius (the senator who found Constance and
Maurice and took care of them) was a Cappadocian. Gibbon says--'The Emperor
Maurice derived his origin from ancient Rome; but his immediate parents
were settled at Arabissus in Cappadocia, and their singular felicity
preserved them alive to behold and partake the fortune of their august
son.... Maurice ascended the throne at the mature age of 43 years; and he
reigned above 20 years over the east and over himself.'--Decline and Fall
of the Roman Empire, cap. xlv. He was murdered, with all his seven
children, by his successor, Phocas the Usurper; Nov. 27, A.D. 600. His
accession was in A.D. 582.
1127. The statement 'I bere it not in minde,' i. e. I do not remember it,
may be taken to mean that Chaucer could find nothing about [165] Maurice in
his French text beyond the epithet _Christianissimus_, which he has
skilfully expanded into l. 1123. He vaguely refers us to 'olde Romayn
gestes,' that is, to lives of the Roman emperors, for he can hardly mean
the Gesta Romanorum in this instance. Gibbon refers us to Evagrius, lib. v.
and lib. vi.; Theophylact Simocatta; Theophanes, Zonaras, and Cedrenus.
1132. In the margin of MSS. E. Hn. Cp. Pt. is written--'A mane usque ad
vesperam mutabitur tempus. Tenent tympanum et gaudent ad sonum organi,' &c.
See the next note.
1135. In the margin of MSS. E. Hn. Cp. Pt. is written--'Quis vnquam vnicam
diem totam duxit in sua dilectione [_vel_ delectatione] iocundam? quem in
aliqua parte diei reatus consciencie, vel impetus Ire, vel motus
concupiscencie non turbauerit? quem liuor Inuidie, vel Ardor Auaricie, vel
tumor superbie non vexauerit? quem aliqua iactura vel offensa, vel passio
non commouerit,' &c. Cp. Pt. insert _inde_ before _non turbauerit_. This
corresponds to nothing in the French text, but it is quoted from Pope
Innocent's treatise, De Contemptu Mundi, lib. i. c. 22; see note to B. 99
above. The extract in the note to l. 1132 occurs in the same chapter, but
both clauses in it are borrowed; the former from Ecclus. xviii. 26, the
latter from Job, xxi. 12.
1143. _I gesse_, I suppose. Chaucer somewhat alters the story. Trivet says
that Ælla died at the end of nine months after this. Half-a-year after,
Constance repairs to Rome. Thirteen days after her arrival, her father
Tiberius dies. A year later, Constance herself dies, on St. Clement's day
(Nov. 23), A.D. 584, and is buried at Rome, near her father, in St. Peter's
Church. The date 584, here given by Trivet, should rather be 583; the death
of Tiberius took place on Aug. 14, 582; see Gibbon.