3437. _Cenobia._ The story of Zenobia is told by Trebellius Pollio, who
flourished under Constantine, in cap. xxix. of his work entitled Triginta
Tyranni; but Chaucer no doubt followed later accounts, one of which was
clearly that given by Boccaccio in his De Mulieribus Claris, cap. xcviii.
Boccaccio relates her story again in his De Casibus Virorum, lib. viii. c.
6; in an edition of which, printed in 1544, I find references to the
biography of Aurelian by Flavius Vopiscus, to the history of Orosius, lib.
vii. cap. 23, and to Baptista Fulgosius, lib. iv. cap. 3. See, in
particular, chap. xi. of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
where the story of Zenobia is given at length. Palmyra is described by
Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. v. cap. 21. Zenobia's ambition tempted her to
endeavour to make herself a Queen of the East, instead of remaining merely
Queen of Palmyra; but she was defeated by the Roman emperor Aurelian, A.D.
273, and carried to Rome, where she graced his triumph, A.D. 274. She
survived this reverse of fortune for some years.
_Palimerie._ Such is the spelling in the best MSS.; but MS. Hl. reads--'of
Palmire the queene.' It is remarkable that MS. Trin. Coll. Cam. R. 3. 19
has the reading--'Cenobia, of _Belmary_ quene,' which suggests confusion
with _Belmarie_, in the Prol. A. 57; but see the note to that line. It
occupied the site of the ancient Tadmor, or 'city of palmtrees,' in an
oasis of the Great Syrian desert. It has been in ruins since about A.D.
1400.
3441. In the second _ne in_, the _e_ is slurred over; cf. _nin_, Sq. Ta.,
F. 35.
3442. _Perse._ This (like l. 3438) is Chaucer's mistake. Boccaccio says
expressly that she was of the race of the Ptolemies of Egypt; but further
[236] on he remarks--'Sic cum _Persis_ et Armenis principibus, vt illos
urbanitate et facetia superaret.' This may account for the confusion.
3446. Boccaccio says (de Mul. Clar.)--'Dicunt autem hanc a pueritia sua
spretis omnino muliebribus _officiis_, cum iam corpusculum eduxisset in
robur, syluas & nemora incoluisse plurimum, & accinctam pharetra, ceruis
caprisque cursu atque sagittis fuisse infestam. Inde cum in acriores
deuenisset uires, ursus amplecti ausam, pardos, leonesque insequi, obuios
expectare, capere & occidere, ac in praedam trahere.' This accounts for the
word _office_, and may shew how closely Chaucer has followed his original.
3496. _lafte not_, forbore not; see A. 492.
3497. She was acquainted with Egyptian literature, and studied Greek under
the philosopher Longinus, author of a celebrated treatise on 'The Sublime.'
3502. _housbonde._ Her husband was Odenathus, or Odenatus, the ruler of
Palmyra, upon whom the emperor Gallienus had bestowed the title of
Augustus. He was murdered by some of his relations, and some have even
insinuated that Zenobia consented to the crime. Most scribes spell the name
_Onedake_, by metathesis for _Odenake_ (_Odenate_), like the spelling
_Adriane_ for _Ariadne_.
3507. _doon hem flee_, cause them (her and her husband) to flee.
3510. Sapor I. reigned over Persia A.D. 240-273. He defeated the emperor
Valerian, whom he kept in captivity for the rest of his life. After
conquering Syria and taking Caesarea, he was defeated by Odenatus and
Zenobia, who founded a new empire at Palmyra. See Gibbon, Decline, &c.,
chap. x.
3511. _proces_, succession of events. _fil_, fell, befell.
3512. _title_, pronounced nearly as _title_ in French, the _e_ being elided
before _had_.
3515. _Petrark._ Tyrwhitt suggests that perhaps Boccaccio's book had fallen
into Chaucer's hands under the name of Petrarch. We may, however, suppose
that Chaucer had read the account in a borrowed book, and did not certainly
know whether Petrarch or Boccaccio was the author. Instances of similar
mistakes are common enough in Early English. Modern readers are apt to
forget that, in the olden times, much information had to be carried in the
memory, and there was seldom much facility for verification or for a second
perusal of a story.
3519. _cruelly._ The Harl. MS. has the poor reading _trewely_, miswritten
for _crewely_.
3525. Claudius II., emperor of Rome, A.D. 268-270. He succeeded Gallienus,
as Chaucer says, and was succeeded by Aurelian.
3535. Boccaccio calls them _Heremianus_ and _Timolaus_, so that _Hermanno_
(as in the MSS.) should probably be _Heremanno_. Professor Robertson Smith
tells me that the right names are _Herennianus_ and _Timoleon_. The line
cannot well be scanned as it stands.
3550. _char_, chariot. Boccaccio describes this 'currum, quem sibi ex auro
gemmisque praeciocissimum Zenobia fabricari fecerat.' [237]
3556. _charged_, heavily laden. She was so laden with chains of massive
gold, and covered with pearls and gems, that she could scarcely support the
weight; so says Boccaccio. Gibbon says the same.
3562. _vitremyte._ I have no doubt this reading (as in Tyrwhitt) is
correct. All the six MSS. in the Six-text agree in it. The old printed
editions have _were autremyte_, a mere corruption of _were a u[i]tremyte_;
and the Harl. MS. has _wyntermyte_, which I take to be an attempt to make
sense of a part of the word, just as we have turned _écrevisse_ into
_cray-fish_. What the word means, is another question; it is perhaps the
greatest 'crux' in Chaucer. As the word occurs nowhere else, the solution I
offer is a mere guess. I suppose it to be a coined word, formed on the
Latin _vitream mitram_, expressing, literally, a glass head-dress, in
complete contrast to a strong helmet. My reasons for supposing this are as
follows.
(1) With regard to _mitra_. In Low-Latin, its commonest meaning is a
woman's head-dress. But it was especially and widely used as a term of
mockery, both in Latin, Italian, Spanish, and French. The _mitra_ was the
cap which criminals were made to wear as a sign of degradation; see
Carpenter's Supp. to Ducange, s. v. _Mitra_; Vocabulario degli Accad. della
Crusca, s. v. _Mitera_; and any large Spanish Dict. s. v. _Mitra_. Even
Cotgrave has--'_Mitré_, mitred; hooded with a _miter_, wearing a _miter_;
set on a pillory or scaffold, with a _miter_ of paper on his head.' The
chief difficulty in this derivation is the loss of the _r_, but Godefroy
has a quotation (s. v. _mite_, 2), which would suit the sense--'_mites_ de
toile costonnees, et par dessus ung grand chappel de fer ou de cuir
bouilli.'
(2) With regard to _vitream_. This may refer to a proverb, probably rather
English than foreign, to which I have never yet seen a reference. But its
existence is clear. To give a man 'a glazen hood' meant, in Old English, to
mock, delude, cajole. It appears in Piers the Plowman, B. xx. 171, where a
story is told of a man who, fearing to die, consulted the physicians, and
gave them large sums of money, for which they gave him in return 'a glasen
houve,' i. e. a _hood of glass_, a thing that was no defence at all. Still
clearer is the allusion to the same proverb _in Chaucer_ himself, in a
passage explained by no previous editor, in Troil. and Cres. v. 469, where
Fortune is said to have an intention of deluding Troilus; or, as the poet
says,
'Fortune his _howve_ entended bet _to glase_,'
i. e. literally, Fortune intended _to glaze his hood_ still better for him,
i. e. to make a still greater fool of him. In the Aldine edition, _howue_
is printed _howen_ in this passage, but _howue_ occurs elsewhere; Tyrwhitt
has _hove_, a common variation of _howue_. If this note is unsatisfactory,
I may yet claim to have explained in it at least _one_ long-standing
difficulty; viz. this line in Troilus. Tyrwhitt long ago explained that, in
Chaucer, the phrases _to set a man's hood_, and _to set a man's cap_, have
a like meaning, viz. to delude him. Chaucer uses _verre_ for glass [238] in
another passage of a similar character, viz. in Troil. and Cres. ii. 867,
where we read--
'And forthy, who that hath an hede of _verre_,
Fro cast of stones war him in the werre.'
3564. _a distaf._ This is from Boccaccio's _other_ account, in the De
Casibus Virorum. 'Haec nuper imperatoribus admiranda, nunc uenit miseranda
plebeis. Haec nunc galeata concionari militibus assueta, nunc uelata
cogitur muliercularum audire fabellas. Haec nuper Orienti praesidens
sceptra gestabat, nunc Romae subiacens, colum, sicut ceterae, baiulat.'
Zenobia survived her disgrace for some years, living at Rome as a private
person on a small estate which was granted to her, and which, says
Trebellius Pollio, 'hodie _Zenobia_ dicitur.'