'Nus ne puet metre en fame garde,
S'ele meisme ne se garde:
Se c'iert _Argus_ qui la gardast,
Qui de ses cent yex l'esgardast, ...
[301]
N'i vaudroit sa garde mès riens:
Fox est qui se garde tel mesriens.'
As to Argus, see Ovid, Met. i. 625.
362. Here Chaucer again quotes largely from Hieronymus c. Iouinianum, lib.
ii.; in Epist. (Basil. 1524), ii. 36, 37. Many of the passages are cited
from the Vulgate, but they are all found in this treatise of Jerome's,
which furnishes the real key. Jerome says:--'Per tria mouetur terra,
quartum autem non potest ferre; si seruus regnet, et stultus si saturetur
panibus, et _odiosa uxor_ (see l. 366) si habeat bonum uirum, et ancilla si
eiciat dominam suam. Ecce et hic inter malorum magnitudinem uxor ponitur';
p. 37. Really quoted from Prov. xxx. 21-23.
371. Again from Jerome, p. 37: 'Infernus, et amor mulieris, et terra quae
non satiatur aqua, et ignis non dicit "satis est."' Really from Prov. xxx.
16, where the A. V. has 'the grave' instead of 'hell.' Note that Jerome
here has _amor mulieris_, though the Vulgate has _os uuluae_. The passage
is quoted in E., with _dicent_ for _dicit_.
373. _wylde fyr_, wild fire; i. e. fiercely burning fire, probably with
reference to lighted naphtha or the like. Chaucer again uses the term in
the Pers. Tale, I. 445. Greek fire was of a like character. In the Romance
of Rich. Coer de Lion, l. 2627, we find:--
'King Richard, oute of hys galye,
Caste _wylde-fyr_ into the skye,
And _fyr Gregeys_ into the see,
And al on fyr wer[en] the[y] ...
The see brent all off _fyr Gregeys_.'
Thus the Greek fire, at any rate, was not quenched by the sea. See La
Chimie an moyen âge, par M. Berthelot, p. 100.
376. From Jerome (p. 36):--'Sicut in ligno uermis, ita perdit uirum suum
uxor malefica.' Quoted in the margin of E., with _perdet_ for _perdit_. Cf.
'Sicut ... uermis ligno,' Prov. xxv. 20 (Vulgate); not in the A. V.
378. Jerome has (p. 39):--'Nemo enim melius scire potest quid sit uxor uel
mulier, illo qui passus est.' (Quoted in E.)
386. _byte and whyne_, i. e. both bite (when in a bad temper) and whine or
whinny as if wanting a caress (when in a good one). It is made clearer by
the parallel line in Anelida, l. 157, on which see my note in vol. i. p.
535.
389. Cf. our proverb--'first come, first served.' Hazlitt quotes the
medieval Lat. proverb--'Ante molam primus qui venit, non molat imus.' And
Mr. Wright quotes the French proverb of the fifteenth century--'Qui premier
vient au moulin premier doit mouldre.' Cotgrave, s. v. _Mouldre_, has the
same; with _arrive_ for _vient_, and _le premier_ for _premier_.
392. _hir lyve_, i. e. during their (whole) life. With ll. 393-6, cf. Le
Rom. de la Rose, 14032-42. [302]