591. _Hasard_, gambling. In the margin of MSS. E. and Hn. is
written--'Policratici libro primo; Mendaciorum et periuriarum mater est
Alea.' This shews that the line is a quotation from lib. i. [cap. 5] of the
Polycraticus of John of Salisbury, bishop of Chartres, who died in 1180.
See some account of this work in Prof. Morley's Eng. Writers, iii. 180. 'In
the first book, John treats of temptations and duties and of vanities, such
as hunting, _dice_, music, mimes and minstrelsy, magic and soothsaying,
prognostication by dreams and astrology.' See also the account of gaming,
considered as a branch of Avarice in the Ayenbyte of Inwyt, ed. Morris, pp.
45, 46.
595. Cf. 'Nonne satis improbata est cuiusque artis exercitatio, qua quanto
quisque doctior, tanto nequior? Aleator quidem omnis hic est.'--Joh.
Sarisb. Polycrat. i. 5.
603. _Stilbon._ It should rather be _Chilon_. Tyrwhitt remarks--'John of
Salisbury, from whom our author probably took this story and the following,
calls him _Chilon_; Polycrat. lib. i. c. 5. "Chilon Lacedaemonius,
iungendae societatis causa missus Corinthum, duces et seniores populi
ludentes inuenit in alea. Infecto itaque negotio reuersus est [dicens se
nolle gloriam Spartanorum, quorum uirtus constructo Byzantio clarescebat,
hac maculare infamia, ut dicerentur cum aleatoribus contraxisse
societatem]." Accordingly, in ver. 12539 [l. 605], MS. C. 1 [i. e. MS.
Camb. Univ. Lib. Dd. 4. 24] reads very rightly _Lacedomye_ instead of
_Calidone_, the common reading [of the old editions]. Our author has used
before _Lacedomie_ for _Lacedaemon_, v. 11692 [Frank. Tale, F. 1380].'
In the Petw. MS., the name _Stilbon_ is explained as meaning _Mercurius_.
So, in Liddell and Scott's Gk. Lexicon, we have '[Greek: stilbôn, -ontos,
ho] _the planet Mercury_, Arist. Mund. 2. 9; cf. Cic. Nat. D. 2. 20.' The
original sense of the word was 'shining,' from the verb [Greek: stilbein],
to glitter.
Chaucer has given the wrong name. He was familiar with the name _Stilbon_
(for Mercury), as it occurs (1) in the Epistola Valerii ad Rufinum, c. 27;
(2) in the work of Martianus referred to in E. 1732; and (3) in the
Anticlaudian, Distinctio quarta, c. 6. Cf. D. 671; E. 1732; Ho. Fame, 986;
Notes and Queries, 8th S. iv. 175. [283]
608. The first foot has but one syllable, viz. _Pley_. _atte_, for _at
the_. Tyrwhitt oddly remarks here, that '_atte_ has frequently been
corrupted into _at the_,' viz. in the old editions. Of course _atte_ is
rather, etymologically, a corruption of _at the_; Tyrwhitt probably means
that the editors might as well have let the form _atte_ stand. If so, he is
quite right; for, though etymologically a corruption, it was a recognised
form in the fourteenth century.
621. This story immediately follows the one quoted from John of Salisbury
in the note to l. 603. After 'societatem,' he proceeds:--'Regi quoque
Demetrio, in opprobrium puerilis leuitatis, tali aurei a rege Parthorum
dati sunt.' What Demetrius this was, we are not told; perhaps it may have
been Demetrius Nicator, king of Syria, who was defeated and taken prisoner
by the Parthians 138 B. C., and detained in captivity by them for ten
years. This, however, is but a guess. Compare the story told of our own
king, in Shakespeare's Henry V, Act i. sc. 2.
628. _To dryve the day awey_, to pass the time. The same phrase occurs in
Piers Plowman, B. prol. 224, where it is said of the labourers who tilled
the soil that they 'dryuen forth the longe day with _Dieu vous saue, Dame
emme_,' i. e. amuse themselves with singing idle songs.
633. In the margin of MSS. E. Hn. and Pt. is the quotation 'Nolite omnino
iurare,' with a reference (in Hn. only) to Matt. v. The Vulgate version of
Matt. v. 34 is--'Ego autem dico uobis, non iurare omnino, neque per caelum,
quia thronus Dei est.'
635. In the margin of MSS. E. Hn. Pt. is written--'Ieremie quarto Iurabis
in veritate, in Iudicio, et Iusticia'; see Jer. iv. 2.
There are several points of resemblance between the present passage and one
in the Persones Tale (_De Ira_), I. 588-594, part of which has been already
quoted in the note to l. 474. So also Wyclif: '[gh]it no man schulde swere,
nouther for life ne dethe, no but with these thre condiciones, that is, in
treuthe, in dome, and in rightwisenes, as God sais by the prophet Ieremye';
Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 483. Hence one of the 'olde bokes' mentioned in l.
630 is the Treatise by Frère Lorens from which the Persones Tale is largely
taken.
639. _the firste table_, i. e. the commandments that teach us our duty
towards God; those in the second table teach us our duty to our neighbour.
641. _seconde heste_, second commandment. Formerly, the first two
commandments were considered as one; the third commandment was therefore
the second, as here. The tenth commandment was divided into two parts, to
make up the number. See Wyclif's treatise on 'The ten Comaundements';
Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 82. Thus Wyclif says--'The secounde maner
maundement of God perteyneth to the Sone. Thow schalt not take the name of
thi Lord God in veyn, neþþer in word, neiþer in lyvynge.' So also in
Hampole's Prose Treatises, ed. Perry, p. 10; Religious Pieces in Prose and
Verse, ed. Perry (E. E. T. S.), pp. 5, 25. See note to l. 474; and cf.
Pers. Tale, I. 588. [284]
643. _rather_, sooner; because this commandment precedes those which relate
to murder, &c.