Here the interjectional '_buf!_' is probably intended to represent the
sound of eructation. We find _baw!_ as an interjection of strong contempt
in P. Plowman, C. xiii. 74, xxii. 398.
Ps. xlv (xliv in the Vulgate) begins, in Latin, with the words _Cor meum
eructauit uerbum bonum_; and the Somnour here takes _eructauit_ in the most
literal sense.
1935. _fore_, path, course; such is certainly the right reading, as in D.
110, on which see the note.
1937. See James, i. 22.
1938. _at a sours_, at a soaring, in her rise, in her upward swoop. The
same word as _source_ of a river; from F. _source_, O. F. _sorse_, the fem.
pp. of the verb which arose from Lat. _surgere_. Most likely, this is the
origin of the later _souse_, v., in the sense 'to swoop downward'; see
Pope, Epilogue to Satires, Dial. ii. 15; Sh. K. John, v. 2. 150; Spenser,
F. Q. i. 5. 8. See my note on the House of Fame, l. 544. In the Book of St.
Alban's, fol. d 1, back, we find: 'Iff your hawke nym the fowle a-lofte, ye
shall say, she toke it _at the mount_ or _at the souce_'; where the _r_ is
dropped.
1939. _their_, for _the eir_, the air; see footnote.
1943. _Seint Yve_; see the note to B. 1417 (p. 172), with which this line
entirely coincides.
1944. 'If thou wert not our brother, thou wouldst not fare well'; see l.
1951.
1947. _welden_, wield, have the full use of.
1963-5. These lines are quoted by the friar as (supposed) ejaculations by
Thomas.
1968. In the margin of MS. E., 'Omnis virtus unita fortior est seipsa
dispersa.' Compare the fable in Æsop about the difficulty of breaking a
bundle of sticks; and see Boeth. bk. iii. pr. 11. 37-40.
1973. See Luke, x. 7. In the margin of MS. E., 'Dignus est operarius
mercede, &c.'
1980. 'In the life of Thomas of India.' For this construction, see note to
F. 209. St. Thomas the apostle is often so called, because he is said to
have preached in India; and perhaps the tradition is true; see my note on
P. Plowman, C. xxii. 165, and especially the remarks in Marco Polo, ed.
Yule, ii. 292. Cf. note to E. 1230 (p. 353).
The mention of the 'building up of churches' refers to a well-known legend
of St. Thomas, who built churches with the money given to him by King
Gondoforus for the purpose of building a palace.
'Churchene he arerde mani on, and preostes he sette there.'
Legends of Saints, ed. Horstmann, p. 381.
The story is prettily told in Mrs. Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art.
[337]
Cf. 'Seyn Tomas of Ynde'; Amis and Amiloun, 758, in Weber, Met. Rom. ii.
401. So also in The Assumption of our Lady, 775; in King Horn, ed. Lumby,
p. 96; Political and other Poems, ed. Furnivall, p. 112, l. 19, p. 123, l.
278, p. 139, l. 735.
How intent the friars were on building fine churches and convents for their
own use, appears from Wyclif's Works, ed. Matthew, pp. 5, 14; Pierce the
Plowman's Crede, 191; Jack Upland, § 10, and § 33; Skelton's Colin Clout,
936; &c.
1986. 'As will be best for thee.' Tyrwhitt has _the_ for _thy_; but _thy_
is right. I find in the New E. Dict., s. v. _Best_, 8 b, a quotation from
Sir E. Sandys, Europae Speculum (1637), 247: 'I have also, to _my best_,
avoyded that rashnesse.' Cf. 'for your beste,' in B. 2427.
1989. 'Be not as a lion in thy house, nor frantick among thy servants';
Ecclus. iv. 30. In the margin of MS. E. is the Vulgate version (Ecclus. iv.
35):--'Noli esse sicut leo in domo tua, euertens domesticos tuos, et
opprimens subiectos tibi.'
1993. _hir_, her; so in all the MSS. but Pt., which has _yre_. Tyrwhitt has
wrongly taken _ire_ as the reading, and Wright and Bell follow him, without
giving any notice that MS. Hl. reads _hir_! But it makes all the
difference; _hir_ means 'thy wife'; cf. ll. 1994-2004, all of which lines
are robbed of their meaning by this insidious and uncalled-for alteration.
Even ed. 1550 and ed. 1561 have _her_.
It is easily seen how the error crept in, viz. from confusion with the
friar's sermon against _ire_; but that does not really begin till we come
to l. 2005.
As this passage has been so grossly misunderstood, I annex an outline of
the sense intended. 'Beware of thy wife; she is like the snake in the
grass; remember how many men have lost their lives through their wives. But
_your_ wife is a meek one; then why strive? No serpent is so venomous as a
provoked woman.' The fact is, that this passage is imitated from Le Roman
de la Rose, 16779, &c., where the author bids us beware of women, as being
like Vergil's 'snake in the grass.' See next note. With ll. 2001-3 cf. Rom.
de la Rose, 9832-6.
1995. Cf. 'latet anguis in herba'; Vergil, Ecl. iii. 95. See F. 512, 513.
But Chaucer took this at second-hand, viz. from Le Roman de la Rose, l.
16793; and combined it with another passage from the same, 9832-6, which,
in its turn, is copied from Ovid, Ars Amat. ii. 376:--'Nec breuis ignaro
uipera laesa pede Femina quam,' &c.
2002. _tret_, short for _tredeth_, treads. Cm. has _trat_. Cf. _hit_,
hideth, F. 512; _rit_, rideth, A. 974; &c.
2003. Cf. 'furens quid foemina possit'; Vergil, Æn. v. 6.
'Nulla uis flammae tumidique uenti
Tanta, nec teli metuenda torti
Quanta cum coniux uiduata taedis
Ardet et odit.' Seneca, Medea; iii. 567.
2005. Here begins the sermon against _ire_. See the Persones Tale, [338] I.
533. _oon_, &c., 'one of the chief of the seven Deadly Sins'; all of which
are described in the Persones Tale; see I. 387.
After l. 2004, MS. Hl. has two spurious lines, for which see the footnote.
It is probable, however, that they are reminiscences of two _genuine_
lines; for they occur in Le Rom. de la Rose, 16536-8. There are two more
such after l. 2012, where the sense of _grate_ is not obvious.
2007. _himself_, i. e. the sinner. See Pers. Tale, I. 557.
2009. _homicyde_; see this, in full, in the Pers. Tale, I. 564-579.
2010. 'Ire comth of pryde'; I. 534.
2017. '_Potestat_, a chief magistrate'; Halliwell. '_Podestà_, a potestate,
a mayor'; Florio. See Malory, Morte Arth. bk. v. c. 8.
2018. _Senek_, Seneca. The story is given in Seneca's De Ira, i. 16,
beginning:--'Cn. Piso fuit memoria nostra, uir a multis uitiis integer, sed
prauus,' &c. It ends:--'Constituti sunt in eodem loco perituri tres, ob
unius innocentiam.' This Piso was a governor of Syria under Tiberius.
Precisely the same story is told, of the emperor Heraclius, in the Gesta
Romanorum, cap. cxl. Warton gravely describes it in the words--'The emperor
Eraclius reconciles (!) two knights.'
2030-1. Wright says these two lines are not in Tyrwhitt, but he is
mistaken. His note was meant to refer to the spurious lines (in MS. Hl.)
after l. 2037; the former of which is _repeated_ from l. 2030.
2043. 'This story is also in Seneca, De Ira, lib. iii. c. 14. It differs a
little from one in Herodotus, lib. iii.' [capp. 34, 35].--Tyrwhitt.
Seneca's story begins:--'Cambysen regem nimis deditum uino Praexaspes unus
ex carissimis monebat.'
2048. Here MS. Hl. inserts two more spurious lines, for the fourth time;
see the footnote.
2061. MSS. E. Hn. Cp. Ln. Dd. all insert _ful_, which is necessary to the
rhythm. MSS. Pt. Hl. omit it, and actually read _dronk-e_ (!), with an
impossible final e. Tyrwhitt has _dranke_, omitting _ful_, and even Wright,
Bell, and Morris have _dronk-e_, with the same omission. Owing to the
carelessness of scribes, who often added an idle final _e_, such forms as
_dranke_, _dronke_ are not very astonishing. But it would be very curious
to know _how these editors scanned this line_.
2075. _Placebo._ 'The allusion is to an anthem in the Romish church, from
Ps. cxvi. 9, which in the Vulgate [Ps. cxiv. 9] stands thus: _Placebo
Domino in regione uiuorum_. Hence the _complacent_ brother in the
_Marchant's Tale_ is called _Placebo_.'--Tyrwhitt. Being used in the office
for the dead, this anthem was familiar to every one; and 'to sing Placebo'
came to mean 'to be complaisant'; as in Bacon, Essay 20. See Pers. Tale, I.
617; and see my notes to P. Plowman, C. iv. 467 (B. iii. 307), B. xv. 122.
2079. This story is also from Seneca, De Ira, lib. iii. c. 21. Cf.
Herodotus, i. 189, 202; v. 52. In these authorities, the river is called
the _Gyndes_; and in Alfred's translation of Orosius, bk. ii. c. 4, it is
the _Gandes_. 'Sir John Maundeville (Travels, cap. 5) tells this story of
the Euphrates.'--Wright. [339]
2085. _he_, i. e. Solomon; see Prov. xxii. 24, 25.
2090. _as Iust as is a squire_, as exact (i. e. upright) as a square. He
means that he will deal out exact justice, and not condone the sick man's
anger without appointing him a penance for it. A _squire_ is a
measuring-square, or T-square, as explained in my Dictionary; it is used
for measuring right angles with exactitude. For the use of the word, see
Shak. L. L. L. v. 2. 474; Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 58; Minshew's Dict.;
Romaunt of the Rose, 7064; Floris and Blancheflur, ed. Lumby, 325. Cotgrave
gives: '_A l'esquierre_, justly, directly, evenly, straightly; by line and
levell, to a haire.' Godefroy, s. v. _esquarre_, refers us to the O. F.
translation of 1 Kings, v. 17; 'e que tuz fussent taillie _a esquire_.'
Lydgate has: 'By compas cast, and squared out by _squyers_'; Siege of
Troye, ed. 1555, fol. F 5, back, col. 1.
2095. 'Thei [the friars] cryen faste that thei haf more power in
confessioun then other curatis; for thei may schryve alle that comen to
hem, bot curatis may no ferther then her owne parischens'; Wyclif's Works,
ed. Arnold, iii. 374. Cf. Rom. Rose, 6390-8 (vol. i. 238).