669. This book was evidently a MS. containing several choice extracts from
various authors; see l. 681.
671. _Valerie._ This refers to a treatise which Mr. Wright attributes to
Walter Mapes, entitled Epistola Valerii ad Rufinum, and common in
manuscripts; the subject is, _De non ducenda uxore_. See Warton, Hist. E.
Poetry, 1840, ii. 188, _note_. 'As to the rest of the contents of this
volume, Hieronymus contra Jovinianum, and Tertullian de Pallio are
sufficiently known; and so are the letters of Eloisa and Abelard, the
Parables of Solomon, and Ovid's Art of Love. I know of no Trotula but one,
whose book Curandarum aegritudinum muliebrium, ante, in, et post partum, is
printed int. Medicos antiquos, Ven. 1547. What is meant by Crisippus, I
cannot guess.'--Tyrwhitt.
_Theofraste_, Theophrastus, i. e. the treatise mentioned above; see note to
l. 221. It is frequently quoted above; see notes to ll. 221, 235, 257, 271,
282, 285, 293, 303. He is called _Theofrates_ in Le Roman, l. 8599. [309]
676. _Tertulan_, Tertullian. I do not quite understand why Tyrwhitt (see
note to l. 671) singled out his treatise De Pallio, which is a treatise
recommending the wearing of the Greek _pallium_ in preference to the Roman
_toga_. Quite as much to the present purpose are his treatises De
Exhortatione Castitatis, dissuading a friend from marrying a second time;
and De Monogamia and De Pudicitia, much to the same purport.
677. _Crisippus_, Chrysippus. There were at least two of this name: (1) the
Stoic philosopher, born B.C. 280, died 207, praised by Cicero (Academics)
and Horace. Also (2) the physician of Cnidos, in the time of Alexander the
Great, frequently mentioned by Pliny. It is highly probable that neither
the Wife of Bath nor Chaucer knew much about him. The poet certainly caught
the name from Jerome's treatise against Jovinian, near the end of bk. i.;
Epist. i. 52. We there find:--'Ridicule _Chrysippus_ ducendam uxorem
sapienti praecipit, ne Iouem Gamelium et Genethlium uiolet.'
_Helowys_, Heloise, niece of Fulbert, a canon in the cathedral of Paris,
was secretly married to the celebrated Abelard, a proficient in scholastic
learning. She afterwards became a nun in the convent of Argenteuil, of
which she was, in course of time, elected the prioress. Thence she removed,
with her nuns, to the oratory of the Paraclete, near Troyes, where the last
twenty years of her life were spent. She died in 1164, and was buried in
Abelard's tomb. I have no doubt at all that Chaucer derived his knowledge
of her from the short sketch of her life given in Le Roman de la Rose, ll.
8799-8870, where the title of 'abbess' (F. _abéesse_) is conferred upon
her. Only a few lines above, we find the name of _Valerius_, who (it is
there said, at l. 8727) declared that a modest woman was rarer than a
phoenix; and again, at l. 8759, we find: 'Si cum Valerius raconte'; and, at
l. 8767:--
'Valerius qui se doloit
De ce que Rufin se voloit
Marier,' &c.
This identifies Valerius as being the very one, whose name Walter Mapes
assumed; as is explained above (note to l. 671).
As to _Trotula_, I may here observe, in addition to what is said in the
note to l. 671, that Warton mentions a MS. in Merton College, with the
title 'Trottula Mulier Salerniterna de passionibus mulierum'; another copy
(which I have seen) is in the Camb. Univ. Library. He adds--'there is also
extant, "Trottula, seu potius Erotis medici muliebrium liber"; Basil. 1586;
4to.' See Warton, Hist. E. Poet. 1840, ii. 188, _note_.
692. _peintede_, depicted; alluding to the fable in Æsop, where a sculptor
represented a man conquering a lion. The lion's criticism was to the effect
that he had heard of cases in which the lion conquered the man. So
likewise, the Wife's view of clerks differed widely from the clerk's view
of wives. In the margin of E. is the note--'Quis pinxit leonem?' The fable
is amongst the 'Fables of Æsop' as [310] printed by Caxton, lib. iv. fab.
15; see Jacobs' edition, i. 251. In his note upon the sources of this
fable, Mr. Jacobs refers us to--'Romulus, iv. 15. Man and Lion (statue). I.
Lôqman, 7; Sophos, 58. II. Plutarch, Apophth., Laced. 69; Scol. Eurip.,
Kor., 103; Aphth. 38; Phaedrus, App. Burm., p. 20; Gabr., i. (not in
Babrius); Avian, 24. III. Ademar, 52; Marie, 69; Berach., 56; Wright, ii.
28. IV. Kirch., i. 80; Lafontaine, iii. 10; Rob., Oest. V. Spectator, no.
11; L. 100, J. 84; Croxall, 30 (Lion and Statue).'
It is well put by Steele, in The Spectator, no. 11: 'Your quotations put me
in mind of the Fable of the Lion and the Man. The Man, walking with that
noble Animal, shewed him, in the Ostentation of Human Superiority, a Sign
of a Man killing a Lion. Upon which the Lion said very justly, We Lions are
none of us Painters, else we could shew you a hundred Men killed by Lions,
for one Lion killed by a Man.' Observe that here, as in Chaucer, the
reference is to a painting, not to sculpture.
696. _all the mark of Adam_, all beings made like Adam, i. e. all males.
This idiomatic expression is cleared up by reference to F. 880, where
_merk_ means 'image' or 'likeness'; see that passage.
697. The _children of Mercurie_ are the _clerks_, and those of _Venus_ are
the _women_; see ll. 693, 694. See below.
699, 700. Here the reference is to astrology. The whole matter is explained
in a side-note in E., which is copied from § 2 of Almansoris Astrologi
Propositiones (see note to l. 613 above), and requires some correction. It
should run as follows:--'Vniuscuiusque planetarum septem exaltacio in illo
loco esse dicitur, in quo substantialiter patitur ab alio contrarium,
veluti Sol in Ariete, qui Saturni casus est. Sol enim habet claritatem,
Saturnus tenebrositatem.... Et sic Mercurius in Virgine, qui casus est
Veneris. Alter [scilicet Mercurius] namque significat scientiam et
philosophiam. Altera vero causat alacritates et quicquid est saporiferum
corpori.' I take this to mean, that the sign which is called the
'exaltation' of one planet (in which it exhibits its greatest influence) is
also the 'dejection' of another which is there weakest. Thus the sign Virgo
was the 'exaltation' of Mercury; but it was also the 'dejection' of Venus,
whose 'exaltation' was in Pisces. For the dejection of every planet occurs
in the sign opposite to that in which is its exaltation; and Virgo and
Pisces are opposite. The word _casus_ is here used in the astrological
sense of 'dejection.' It further follows that Pisces was the 'depression'
of Mercury, which Chaucer expresses by the term _desolat_. The note also
tells us that the planet Mercury implies 'science and philosophy'; whilst
Venus implies 'lively joys and whatever is agreeable to the body.'
Venus is again alluded to as being in her exaltation in Pisces, in F. 273.
Gower refers to Virgo as being the exaltation of Mercury; Conf. Amant. iii.
121.
715. _Eva_, Eve. The spelling _Eva_ is frequently contrasted with that of
_Ave_, the salutation of Gabriel to Mary. Tyrwhitt says:--'Most [311] of
the following instances are mentioned in the Epistola Valerii ad Rufinum de
non ducenda uxore. See also Rom. de la Rose, 9140, 9615, et suiv.' In
Méon's edition of Le Rom. de la Rose, Deianira is mentioned in l. 9235, and
Samson in l. 9243; I do not quite make out Tyrwhitt's numbering of the
lines.