2473. Fr. text:--'Or veez, dist Prudence, comment un chascun croist
legierement ce qu'il veut et desire!'--Mr.
2479. _For good_, &c., 'namely, in the sense that good,' &c.
2482. See Rom. xii. 17; cf. 1 Thess. v. 15; 1 Cor. iv. 12. The Lat. text
quotes part of verses 17-21 of Rom. xii. But it is clear that Chaucer has
altered the wording, and was thinking of 1 Pet. iii. 9.
2485. After _wyse folk_, Cp. inserts 'and olde folk,' and Ln. 'and the olde
folke.' The Fr. text has: 'les advocas, les sages, et les anciens.' Ed.
1532 also inserts 'and olde folke'; and perhaps it should be inserted.
2487. _Warnestore_, to supply with defensive materials, to garrison,
protect; see 2521, 2523, 2525 below. 'And wel thei were _warnestured_ of
vitailes inow'; Will, of Palerne, 1121. We also find a sb. of the same
form. 'In eche stude hii sette ther strong _warnesture_ and god'; Rob. of
Glouc. 2075 (ed. Hearne, p. 94). 'The Sarazins kept it [a castle] that tym
for ther chefe _warnistour_'; Rob. of Brunne, tr. of Langtoft, ed. Hearne,
p. 180. 'I will remayn quhill this _warnstor_ be gane'; Wallace, bk. ix. l.
1200, where ed. 1648 has 'till all the stuffe be gone.' Correctly
_warnisture_; a derivative of O. F. _warnir_, _garnir_, to supply (E.
_garnish_). Godefroy gives O. F.'_garnesture_, _garnisture_, _garniture_,
_warnesture_, s. f. provisions, ressource; authentication; garnison,
forteresse'; with eight examples. Cf. E. _garrison_ (M. E. _garnison_),
_garment_ (M. E. _garnement_), and _garniture_. The last of these is, in
fact, nothing but the O. F. _warnisture_ in a more modern [213] form. Hence
we obtain the sense by consulting Cotgrave, who gives: '_Garniture_,
garniture, garnishment, furniture; provision, munition, store, necessary
implements.' It also appears that the word is properly a substantive, with
the spelling _warnisture_; it became _warnistore_ or _warnestore_ by
confusion with O. F. _estor_, a store; and, as the word _store_ was easily
made into a verb, it was easy to treat _warnestore_ in the same way. It is
a sb. in Rob. of Gloucester, as shewn above, but appears as a verb in Will.
of Palerne. MS. Hl. has _warmstore_ (with _m_ for _ni_); and the same error
is in the editions of Wright, Bell, and Morris. Ed. 1532 has _warnstore_.
2494. From Ps. cxxvii. 1 (cxxvi. 1, Vulgate).
2496. From Dionysius Cato, lib. iv. dist. 14:--'Auxilium a nobis petito, si
forte laboras; Nec quisquam melior medicus quam fidus amicus.'
2499. _Piers Alfonce_, Petrus Alfonsi, in his Disciplina Clericalis, xviii.
10:--'Ne aggrediaris uiam cum aliquo nisi prius eum cognoueris; si quisquam
ignotus tibi in uia associauerit, iterque tuum inuestigauerit, dic te uelle
longius ire quam disposueris; et si detulerit lanceam, uade ad dextram; si
ensem, ad sinistram.'
2505. The repetition of _that_ before _ye_, following the former _that_
before _for_, is due to a striving after greater clearness. It is not at
all uncommon, especially in cases where the two _thats_ are farther apart.
Cf. the use of _he_ and _him_ in l. 2508.
_Lete the keping_, neglect the protection; A. S. _l[=æ]tan_.
2507. 'Beatus homo qui semper est pauidus; qui uero mentis est durae,
corruet in malum'; Prov. xxviii. 14. Hence the quotation-mark follows
_bityde_.
2509. _Counterwayte embusshements_, 'be on the watch against lyings in
ambush.' '_Contregaitier_, v. act. épier, guetter de son côté'; refl. se
garder, se mettre en garde'; Godefroy. Three examples are given of the
active use, and four of the reflexive use. _Espiaille_, companies of spies;
it occurs again in the sense of 'a set of spies' in D. 1323. Mätzner well
remarks that _espiaille_ does not mean 'spying' or 'watching,' as usually
explained, but is a _collective_ sb., like O. F. _rascaille_, _poraille_,
_pedaille_. Godefroy, in his O. F. Dict., makes the same mistake, though
his own example is against him. He has: '_Espiaille_, s. f. action d'épier:
Nous avons ja noveles par nos _espiailles_'; i. e. by means of our spies
(not of our spyings). This quotation is from an A. F. proclamation made in
London, July 26, 1347.
2510. _Senek_, Seneca; but, as before, the reference is really to the
Sentences of Publilius Syrus. Of these the Lat. text quotes no less than
four, viz. Nos. 542, 607, 380, and 116 (ed. Dietrich); as follows:--
'Qui omnes insidias timet, in nullas incidet.'
'Semper metuendo sapiens euitat malum.'
'Non cito perit ruina, qui ruinam timet.'
'Caret periculo, qui etiam [cum est] tutus cauet.'
[214]
2514. _Senek_; this again is from Publilius Syrus, Sent. 255:--'Inimicum,
quamuis humilem, docti est metuere.'
2515. The Lat. and Fr. texts both give the reference, correctly, to Ovid's
Remedia Amoris; see l. 421:--
'Parva necat morsu spatiosum uipera taurum;
A cane non magno saepe tenetur aper.'
Chaucer has here interpolated the reference to 'the thorn pricking the
king' between his translations of these two lines. The interpolation occurs
neither in the French nor in the Latin text.
_Wesele_, weasel. The origin of this queer mistake is easily perceived. The
Fr. text has: 'La petite _vivre_ occist le grant torel.' Here _vivre_
represents Lat. _uipera_, a viper (cf. E. _wivern_); but Ch. has construed
it as if it represented Lat. _uiuerra_, a ferret.
2518. _The book._ The quotation is from Seneca, Epist. 111. § 3:--'Quidam
fallere docuerunt, dum falli timent.' (_For_ Quidam _read_ Nam multi).
Tyrwhitt's text is here imperfect, and he says he has patched it up as he
best could; but the MSS. (except Cp. and Ln.) give a correct text.
2520. Lat. text:--'Cum irrisore consortium non habeas; loquelae eius
assiduitatem quasi toxica fugias.' From Albertano of Brescia, who here
quotes from his own work, De Arte Eloquendi, p. cviii.; according to
Sundby.
2521. _Warnestore_, protect; see note to 2487 above, and see 2523.