3205. The story of Sampson is also in Boccaccio, lib. i. c. 17 (not 19, as
Tyrwhitt says). But Chaucer seems mostly to have followed [229] the account
in Judges, xiii-xvi. The word _annunciat_, referring to the announcement of
Samson's birth by the angel (Judges xiii. 3), may have been suggested by
Boccaccio, whose account begins--'_Praenunciante_ per angelum Deo, ex Manue
Israhelita quodam et pulcherrima eius vxore Sanson progenitus est.'
_thangel_ in l. 3206=_the angel_.
3207. _consecrat_, consecrated. A good example of the use of the ending
_-at_; cf. _situate_ for _situated_.--M. Shakespeare has _consecrate_; Com.
of. Err. ii. 2. 134.
3208. _whyl he mighte see_, as long as he preserved his eyesight.
3210. _To speke of strengthe_, with regard to strength; _to speke of_ is a
kind of preposition.--M. Cf. Milton's Samson Agonistes, 126-150.
3211. _wyves_. Samson told the secret of his riddle to his wife, Judges
xiv. 17; and of his strength to Delilah, id. xvi. 17.
3215. _al to-rente_, completely rent in twain. The prefix _to-_ has two
powers in Old English. Sometimes it is the preposition _to_ in composition,
as in _towards_, or M. E. _to-flight_ (G. _zuflucht_), a refuge. But more
commonly it is a prefix signifying _in twain_, spelt _zer-_ in German, and
_dis-_ in Moeso-Gothic and Latin. Thus _to-rente_ = rent in twain;
_to-brast_ = burst in twain, &c. The intensive adverb _al_, utterly, was
used not merely (as is commonly supposed) before verbs beginning with
_to-_, but in other cases also. Thus, in William of Palerne, l. 872, we
find--'He was _al a-wondred_,' where _al_ precedes the intensive prefix
_a-_ = A. S. _of_. Again, in the same poem, l. 661, we have--'_al bi-weped_
for wo,' where _al_ now precedes the prefix _bi-_. In Barbour's Bruce, ed.
Skeat, x. 596, is the expression--
'For, hapnyt ony to slyde or fall,
He suld be soyne _to-fruschit al_.'
Where _al to-fruschit_ means utterly broken in pieces. Perhaps the clearest
example of the complete separability of _al_ from _to_ is seen in l. 3884
of William of Palerne;--
'_Al to-tare_ his atir · þat he _to-tere_ mi[gh]t';
i. e. he entirely tore apart his attire, as much of it as he could tear
apart. But at a later period of English, when the prefix _to-_ was less
understood, a new and mistaken notion arose of regarding _al to_ as a
separable prefix, with the sense of _all to pieces_. I have observed no
instance of this use earlier than the reign of Henry VIII. Thus Surrey,
Sonnet 9, has '_al-to_ shaken' for shaken to pieces. Latimer has--'they
love and _al-to_ love (i. e. entirely love) him'; Serm. p. 289. For other
examples, see _Al-to_ in the Bible Word-book; and my notes in Notes and
Queries, 3 Ser. xii. 464, 535; also _All_, § C. 15, in the New E. Dict.
3220. Samson's wife was given to a friend; Judges, xiv. 20. She was
afterwards burnt by her own people; Judges, xv. 6.
3224. _on every tayl_; one brand being fastened to the tails of two foxes;
Judg. xv. 4.
3225. _cornes._ The Vulgate has _segetes_ and _fruges_; also _utneas_ for
[230] _vynes_, and _oliueta_ for _oliveres_. The plural form _cornes_ is
not uncommon in Early English. Cf. 'Quen thair _corns_ war in don,' i. e.
when their harvests were gathered in; Spec. of Eng. pt. ii. ed. Morris and
Skeat, p. 70, l. 39. And again, 'alle men-sleeris and brenneris of houses
and cornes [misprinted _corves_] ben cursed opynly in parische chirches';
Wyclif's Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 329.
3234. _wang-toth_, molar tooth. This expression is taken from the Vulgate,
which has--'Aperuit itaque Dominus _molarem dentem_ in maxilla asini';
where the A. V. has only--'an hollow place that was in the jaw'; Judg. xv.
19.
3236. _Judicum_, i. e. Liber Judicum, the Book of Judges. Cf. note to B.
93, at p. 141.
3237. _Gazan_, a corruption of Gazam, the acc. case, in Judg. xvi. 1,
Vulgate version.
3244. _ne hadde been_, there would not have been. Since _hadde_ is here the
subjunctive mood, it is dissyllabic. Read--_worldë n' haddë_.
3245. _sicer_, from the Lat. _sicera_, Greek [Greek: sikera], strong drink,
is the word which we now spell _cider_; see Wyclif's Works, ed. Arnold, i.
363, note. It is used here because found in the Vulgate version of Judges
xiii. 7; 'caue ne uinum bibas, nec _siceram_.' I slightly amend the
spelling of the MSS., which have _ciser_, _siser_, _sythir_, _cyder_.
Wyclif has _sither_, _cyther_, _sidir_, _sydur_.
3249. _twenty winter_, twenty years; Judg. xvi. 31. The English used to
reckon formerly by _winters_ instead of _years_; as may be seen in a great
many passages in the A. S. Chronicle.
3253. _Dalida_; from Gk. [Greek: Dalida], in the Septuagint. The Vulgate
has _Dalila_; but Chaucer (or his scribes) naturally adopted a form which
seemed to have a nearer resemblance to an accusative case, such being, at
that time, the usual practice; cf. _Briseide_ (from _Briseida_), _Criseyde_
and _Anelida_. Lydgate also uses the form _Dalida_.
3259. _in this array_, in this (defenceless) condition.
3264. _querne_, hand-mill. The Vulgate has--'et clausum in carcere molere
fecerunt'; Judg. xvi. 21. But Boccaccio says--'ad _molas manuarias_
coegere.' The word occurs in the House of Fame, 1798; and in Wyclif's
Bible, Exod. xi. 5; Mat. xxiv. 41. In the Ayenbite of Inwyt, ed. Morris, p.
181, the story of Samson is alluded to, and it is said of him that he 'uil
[_fell_] into þe honden of his yuo [_foes_], þet him deden grinde _ate
querne_ ssamuolliche,' i. e. who made him grind at the mill shamefully (in
a shameful manner). Lydgate copies Chaucer rather closely, in his Fall of
Princes, fol. e 7:--
'And of despite, after as I fynde,
At their _quernes_ made hym for to grinde.'
3269. _Thende_, the end. _Caytif_ means (1) a captive, (2) a wretch. It is
therefore used here very justly.
3274. _two pilers_, better than the reading _the pilers_ of MS. E.; because
_two_ are expressly mentioned; Judg. xvi. 29. [231]
3282. So Boccaccio--'Sic aduersa credulitas, sic amantis pietas, sic
mulieris egit inclyta fides. Vt quem non poterant homines, non uincula, non
ferrum uincere, a mulieribus latrunculis uinceretur.' Lydgate has the
expressions--
'Beware by Sampson your counseyll well to kepe,
Though [_misprinted_ That] Dalida compleyne, crye, and wepe';
and again:--
'Suffre no nightworm within your counseyll crepe,
Though Dalida compleyne, crye, and wepe.'