851-878. Of this graphic description there is no trace in the Italian story
as we now have it. Cf. Rom. and Juliet, v. 1.
860. _al-so_, as. The sense is--as (I hope) God may save my soul. That our
modern _as_ is for _als_, which is short for _also_, from the A. S.
_eall-swá_, is now well known. This fact was doubted by Mr. Singer, but Sir
F. Madden, in his Reply to Mr. Singer's remarks upon Havelok the Dane,
accumulated such a mass of evidence upon the subject as to set the question
at rest for ever. It follows that _as_ and _also_ are doublets, or various
spellings of the same word.
865. _sterve_, die; A. S. _steorfan_. The cognate German _sterben_ retains
the old general sense. See l. 888 below.
866. _goon a paas_, walk at an ordinary foot-pace; so also, _a litel more
than paas_, a little faster than at a foot-pace, Prol. 825. Cotgrave
has--'Aller le pas, to pace, or go at a foot-pace; to walk fair and softly,
or faire and leisurely.' _nat but_, no more than only; cf. North of England
_nobbut_. The time meant would be about twenty minutes at most.
888. In the Italian story--'amendue caddero morti,' both of them fell dead;
see vol. iii. p. 442.
889. _Avicen_, Avicenna; mentioned in the Prologue, l. 432. Avicenna, or
Ibn-Sina, a celebrated Arabian philosopher and physician, born near Bokhara
A.D. 980, died A.D. 1037. His chief work was a treatise on medicine known
as the Canon ('Kitâb al-Kânûn fi'l-Tibb,' that is, 'Book of the Canon in
Medicine'). This book, alluded to in the next line, is divided into books
and sections; and the Arabic word for 'section' is in the Latin version
denoted by _fen_, from the Arabic _fann_, a part of any science. Chaucer's
expression is not quite [290] correct; he seems to have taken _canon_ in
its usual sense of rule, whereas it is really the title of the whole work.
It is much as if one were to speak of Dante's work in the terms--'such as
Dante never wrote in any Divina Commedia nor in any canto.' Lib. iv. Fen 1
of Avicenna's Canon treats 'De Venenis.'
895. Against this line is written, in MS. E. only, the word 'Auctor'; to
shew that the paragraph contained in ll. 895-903 is a reflection by the
author.
897. The final _e_ in _glutonye_ is preserved by the caesural pause; but
the scansion of the line is more easily seen by supposing it suppressed.
Hence in order to scan the line, suppress the final _e_ in _glutonye_, lay
the accent on the second _u_ in _luxúrie_, and slur over the final _-ie_ in
that word. Thus--