'So drunke he was, he nyste what he wrought,
_And therfore sore repente him oughte_.
Heroudes, who-so wole the stories seche,
_Ther may ye lerne and by ensample teche_.'
Of the second line, Dr. Furnivall remarks--'Besides being a line of only 4
measures, it is foolish--how could Lot in the grave repent him? Both lines
[those in italics] interrupt the flow of the story, and weaken the
instances brought forward.' He adds--'None of our best MSS. have these
spurious lines.'
They evidently arose from the stupidity of some scribe, who did not
understand that _soghte_ is here the pt. t. subj., meaning 'were to seek.'
He therefore 'corrected' Chaucer's grammar by writing _wol_ for _wel_ and
_seche_ for _soghte_; and he then had to make up two more lines to hide the
alteration.
488. 'Herod, (as may be seen by any one) who would consult the [278]
"stories" carefully.' The Harleian MS. has the inferior reading _story_;
but the reference is particular, not vague. Peter Comestor (died A. D.
1198) was the author of an Historia Scholastica, on which account he was
called 'the maister of stories,' or 'clerk of the stories,' as explained in
my note to Piers Plowman, B. vii. 73. The use of the plural is due to the
fact that the whole Historia Scholastica, which is a sort of epitome of the
Bible, with notes and additions, is divided into sections, each of which is
_also_ called 'Historia.' The account of Herod occurs, of course, in the
section entitled Historia Evangelica, cap. lxxii; De decollatione ioannis.
Cf. Matt. xiv; Mark vi. And see vol. iii. p. 444.
492. _Senek_, Seneca. The reference appears to be, as pointed out by
Tyrwhitt, to Seneca's Letters; Epist. lxxxiii: 'Extende in plures dies
illum ebrii habitum: numquid de furore dubitabis? nunc quoque non est
minor, sed brevior.'
496. 'Except that madness, when it has come upon a man of evil nature,
lasts longer than does a fit of drunkenness.' See _Shrew_ in Trench, Select
Glossary.
499. 'First cause of our misfortune'; alluding to the Fall of Adam. See l.
505.
501. _boght us agayn_, redeemed us; a translation of the Latin _redemit_.
Hence we find Christ called, in Middle English, the _A[gh]enbyer_. 'See now
how dere he [Christ] boughte man, that he made after his owne ymage, and
how dere he _a[gh]enboght_ us, for the grete love that he hadde to us'; Sir
J. Maundeville, Prologue to his Voiage (Specimens of Eng. 1298-1393, p.
165). See l. 766 below.