993. The first foot contains _Ye remoe-_; and the final _-e_ of _remoev-e_
is not cut off. Otherwise, place an accent on the syllable _re-_.
999-1000. These two lines are placed lower down in Tyrwhitt's edition,
after l. 1006, on the authority of three inferior MSS., viz. Harl. 7335,
Harl. 7333, and Barlow 20. But the old editions agree with the best MSS.,
and nothing is gained by the change.
1018. A humorous apology for a poetical expression.
1031. A side-note in E. has--'The compleint of Aurelius to the goddes and
to the sonne.'
1033. _after_, i. e. according to. The change of seasons depends on the
sun's change of declination, which causes his position (called _herberwe_
or 'harbour' in l. 1035) to be high or low in the sky. See note to l. 1058.
1045. In MS. E., _Lucina_ is glossed by 'luna,' i. e. the moon; see A.
2085.
1049. Read _knowen_ as _know'n_. All the six MSS. keep the final _n_; but
Cp. Pt. Ln. drop the word _that_.
1054. _more and lesse_, greater and smaller, i. e. rivers.
1058. _Leoun_, the sign Leo. In l. 906, May 6 is mentioned, and the events
recorded in ll. 906-1016 all belong to this day. Ll. 1019-1081 belong to
the evening of the same day. But, in May, the sun is in [391] Taurus, and
the moon, when in opposition, would be in the _opposite_ sign, which is
Scorpio; and we should expect the reading--'of Scorpioun.' As it stands,
the text means:--'at the next opposition that takes place with the sun in
Leo'; i. e. not at the _very_ next opposition, with the sun in Taurus; nor
yet after that, with the sun in Gemini or Cancer. The reason for the delay
is astrological; for Leo was the _mansion_ of the Sun, so that the sun's
power would then be greatest; besides which, the sign Leo greatly increased
a planet's influence; see A. 2462, and the note.
We may notice the various allusions in the above lines. In l. 1033, the
sun's declination changes from day to day, and with it the solar power and
heat; so that the vegetable kingdom fails or grows according as the sun's
'harbour,' or position in the ecliptic, causes his meridian altitude to be
low or high (l. 1035). In l. 1046, the power of the moon over the tides is
mentioned; and, in l. 1050, the dependence of lunar upon solar light. The
highest tides occur when the sun and moon are either in conjunction or
opposition; the latter is here fixed upon. If, says Aurelius, the sun and
moon could always _remain_ in opposition, viz. by moving at the same
apparent rate (l. 1066), the moon would always remain at the full (l.
1069), and the spring-flood, or highest flood, would last all the while (l.
1070).
1074. Here Luna is identified with Proserpina; see note to A. 2051, where I
have quoted the sentence--'Diana, quae et _Luna, Proserpina_, Hecate
nuncupatur.' And see the parallel lines in A. 2081-2.
1077. _Delphos_, Delphi; Chaucer adopts, as usual, the accusative form.
Ovid has _Delphi_, Met. x. 168; _Delphica templa_, Met. xi. 414.
1086. 'Let him choose, as far as I am concerned, whether he wishes to live
or die.' _whether_ is here cut down to _whe'r_, as frequently.
1088. Cf. 'And in his host of chivalrye the flour'; A. 982.
1094-1096. _imaginatyf_, of a suspicious fancy. _doute_, fear.
1110. This is the Pamphilus already referred to in B. 2746 (see note to
that line). The poem relates the poet's love for Galatea. In the note to B.
2746, I have given the title of the poem as _De Amore_. Another title
is--Pamphili Mauriliani Pamphilus, sive De Arte Amandi Elegiae. Skelton
alludes to it also, and Dyce's note (in his ed. of Skelton, ii. 345) tells
us--'It is of considerable length, and though written in barbarous Latin,
was by some attributed to Ovid. It may be found in a little volume edited
by Goldastus, Ovidii Nasonis Pelignensis Erotica et Amatoria Opuscula, &c.
1610.' Tyrwhitt quotes the first four lines, from MS. Cotton, Titus A.
xx--'Vulneror, et clausum porto sub pectore telum,' &c. In the margin of E.
is here written--'Pamphilus ad Galatheam,' followed by the line--'Vulneror
... telum.' Chaucer imitates this line in ll. 1111, 1112. And see
Lounsbury, Studies, ii. 370.
1113. _sursanure_, a wound healed outwardly only. A F. word, from Lat.
_super_ and _sanare_. See _soursanëure_ in Godefroy.
1115. _But_, unless. _come therby_, get at it, get hold of it.
1118. 'There was a celebrated and very ancient university at Orleans, [392]
which fell into disrepute as the university of Paris became famous; and the
rivalry probably led to the imputation that the occult sciences were
cultivated at Orleans.'--Wright.
1121. 'In every hiding-place and corner'; cf. G. 311, 658.
1130. I here quote from my Preface to Chaucer's Astrolabe (E. E. T. S.), p.
lix. 'The twenty-eight "moon-stations" of the Arabs are given in Ideler's
Untersuchungen über die Bedeutung der Sternnamen, p. 287. He gives the
Arabic names, the stars that help to fix their positions, &c. See also Mr.
Brae's edition of the Astrolabe, p. 89. For the influence of the moon in
these mansions, we must look elsewhere, viz. in lib. i. cap. 11, and lib.
iv. cap. 18 of the Epitome Astrologiae of Johannes Hispalensis. Suffice it
to say that there are 12 temperate mansions, 6 dry ones, and 10 moist
ones.' The number 28 corresponds with the number of days in a lunation.
1132. Cf. Chaucer's remark in his Astrolabe, ii. 4. 36--'Natheles, thise
ben observauncez of iudicial matiere and rytes of payens, _in which my
spirit ne hath no feith_.'
1133. In speaking of the First Commandment, Hampole says: 'Astronomyenes
byhaldes the daye and the houre and the poynte that man es borne in, and
vndir whylke syngne he es borne, and the poynte that he begynnes to be in,
and by thire syngnes, and other, thay saye that that sall befall the man
aftyrwarde; but theyre errowre es reproffede of haly doctours.'--Eng. Prose
Treatises of Hampole, ed. Perry, p. 9. So also in Religious Pieces in Prose
and Verse, ed. Perry, p. 5.
1141. _tregetoures_, jugglers. Cf. F. 218, 219; Hous of Fame, 1260, and my
note upon the line; also the same, 1277, and my note on it. From O. F.
_trasgeter_, (Prov. _trasgitar_), answering to a Low Lat. _transiectare_,
i. e. to throw across, cause to pass. Thus the original sense of
_tregetour_ was one who caused rapid changes, by help of some mechanical
contrivance. See Marco Polo, ed. Yule, i. 342; and note 9 to Bk. i. c. 61;
Cornelius Agrippa, on Juggling; Ritson, Anc. Met. Romances, vol. i. p. ccv;
and the verses on the Tregetour in Lydgate's Dance of Machabre. _Treget_
means imposture, juggling, deceit, in the E. version of the Romaunt of the
Rose, 6267, 6312, 6825; and _tregetrie_ means the same, 6374, 6382. (Not
allied to _trebuchet_, as suggested by Tyrwhitt.)
1180. _dawes_, days; variant of _dayes_. The pl. _dawes_ occurs here only;
but _dayes_ rimes with _layes_ in l. 709 above, with _delayes_ in l. 1293
below, and (in the phr. _now a dayes_) with _Iayes_, G. 1396, and
_assayes_, E. 1164. Chaucer also has _dawe_, v., to dawn, riming with
_felawe_, A. 4250, and _awe_, B. 3872. The variant _dawes_ is due to the
A. S. _dagas_, where the _g_ is followed, not by _e_, but by _a_; hence we
only find it in the plural. But it is not uncommon; it occurs in St.
Brandan, ed. Wright, p. 5, l. 3; Havelok, 2344; King Alisaunder, ed. Weber,
l. 1436; Gower, Conf. Am. ii. 113, where it rimes with _sawes_; &c.
1204. The use of _our_ is graphic; it occurs in all six MSS. Tyrwhitt has
_the_.
1222. _Gerounde_, the river Gironde; _Sayne_, the Seine. That is, all [393]
the S.W. coast from the Gironde to Brest, and all the N.W. coast from Brest
to Honfleur; thus including much more than just the W. promontory.
1224. Here ceases the gap in Hl., F. 617-1223.
1241. Accent _mágicién_ on the first and last syllables.
1245. 'The sun grew old, and his hue was like that of latten.' For
_latoun_, later _latten_, see note to C. 350. That is, the sun had a dull
coppery hue, as in December, when it may be said to be 'old,' as it was
approaching the end of its annual course. Cf. _yonge sonne_; A. 7.
1246. 'Who, when in his hot declination (i. e. in the sign of Cancer, when
his northern declination was greatest) used to shine like burnished gold,
with bright beams; but he had now arrived in Capricornus, where he was at
his lowest altitude (i. e. at the winter solstice); and shone but dimly.'
In Chaucer's time, the sun entered Capricorn on December 13; see his
Treatise on the Astrolabe, ii. 1. 12.
1252. In the margin of E. is written--'Janus biceps'; referring to 'Iane
biceps' in Ovid's Fasti, i. 65; and 'Iane biformis,' id. l. 89. The
allusion is to the approach of January, after the winter solstice. This
season, as indicated in ll. 1253, 1254, is the time of Christmas and
New-Year festivities, when wine is drunk from horns, and the boar's head
appears at feasts. See Brand's Pop. Antiq., ed. Ellis, i. 484, for the
carol sung at the bringing in of the boar's head as the first dish on
Christmas day, as e.g. in the Inner Temple and at Queen's College, Oxford.
He quotes from Dekker:--'like so many bores' heads stuck with branches of
rosemary, to be served in _for brawne_ at Christmas.'
Skelton speaks of 'Ianus, with his double chere,' i. e. face; Garl. of
Laurell, 1515. Cf. Chambers, Book of Days, i. 19; and ii. 754; Spenser,
F. Q. vii. 7. 41.
1255. '_Nowel_,' i. e. 'the birthday,' or Christmas day. From O. F. _noël_
(Prov. _nadal_); from Lat. _natalem_. Cotgrave quotes a French
proverb:--'Tant crie on Noël qu'il vient, So long is Christmas cried that
at length it comes.' Littré gives, as the second sense of _Noël_--'Cantique
en langue vulgaire, ayant ordinairement pour sujet la naissance de
Jésus-Christ, que l'on chante à l'approche de la Noël.' Hence 'to cry Noël'
was to sing a Christmas carol; as was usual on Christmas eve. He further
explains that 'Noël!' subsequently became a cry on _any_ occasion of great
rejoicing; so that, in this way, 'to cry Noël' meant to proclaim glad
tidings. Hence the silly confusion of the word with '_nouvelles_,' in the
imaginative accounts of it given by some English writers.
1266. Read _I n' can_; see note to A. 764.
1273. 'The astronomical tables, composed by order of Alphonso X, king of
Castile, about the middle of the thirteenth century, were called sometimes
_Tabulae Toletanae_, from their being adapted to the city of Toledo. There
is a very elegant copy of them in MS. Harl. 3647.'--T. [394] In Chaucer's
Astrolabe, ii. 44. 16, we find:--'And if hit so be that hit [i. e. the time
for which the change in a planet's position is being reckoned] passe 20
[years], consider wel that fro 1 to 20 ben _anni expansi_, and fro 20 to
3,000 ben _anni collecti_.' The changes in position of the various planets
were obtained from these tables. The quantities denoting the amount of a
planet's motion during _round periods_ of years, such as twenty, forty, or
sixty years, were entered in a table headed _Anni collecti_. Similar
quantities for lesser periods, from one year up to twenty years, were
entered under the headings 1, 2, 3, &c.; and such years were called _Anni
expansi_, i. e. single or separate years. See Ptolemy's Almagest, lib. vi.
and lib. ix.; and the note in vol. iii. p. 367.
1276. _rotes_, roots. The 'root' is the tabulated quantity belonging to a
given fixed date or era, from which corresponding quantities can be
calculated by addition or subtraction. Thus the longitude of a planet at a
given date is the 'root'; and its longitude at another date, say
twenty-three years later, can be obtained from the Toletan tables by adding
(1) its change of longitude in twenty years, as given in the table of _Anni
collecti_, and (2) its further change in three years, as given in the table
of _Anni expansi_. Chaucer uses the term 'root' again in B. 314; and in his
Astrolabe, ii. 44. 1; q.v.
1277. 'Centre' was a technical name for the end of the small brass
projection on the 'rete' of an astrolabe which denoted the position of a
fixed star (usually of the first magnitude). See Chaucer's Astrolabe, Fig.
2 (in vol. iii.); and _Centre_ in the Glossary. 'Argument' is an
astronomical term still in use, and means 'the angle, arc, or other
mathematical quantity, from which another required quantity may be deduced,
or on which its calculation depends'; New Eng. Dictionary.
In Chaucer's Astrolabe, § 44 of Part II. is headed--'Another maner
conclusion, to knowe the mene mote and the _argumentis_ of any planete.'
1278. _proporcionels convenients_, fitting proportionals; referring to a
table of 'proportional parts,' by which fractional parts of a year can be
taken into consideration, in calculating the motions of the planets.
1279. _equacions_, equations; probably here used in the sense of 'exact
quantities.' Thus the 'exact quantity' of a planet's motion, during a given
time, can be obtained by adding together the motion during the 'collect'
years, the 'expanse' years, and the fraction of a year; see the last note.
1280. _eighte spere_, eighth sphere; cf. 'ninthe speere' in l. 1283. In the
old astronomy (as explained more fully in the note to B. 295), there were
nine imaginary spheres, viz. the seven spheres of the seven planets, the
eighth sphere or sphere of fixed stars (supposed to have a slow motion from
west to east about the poles of the zodiac, to account for the precession
of the equinoxes), and the ninth sphere or _primum mobile_, which had a
diurnal motion from east to west, and carried [395] everything with it.
_Alnath_ is still a name for the bright star [alpha] Arietis, of the first
magnitude, which was necessarily situate in the eighth sphere. But the head
of the _fixed_ Aries, or the true equinoctial point, was in the ninth
sphere above it.
The exact amount of the precession of the equinoxes (which is what Chaucer
here alludes to) could be ascertained by observing, from time to time, the
distance between the true equinoctial point and the star Alnath, which was
conveniently situated for the purpose, being in the head of Aries. In the
time of Hipparchus (B.C. 150), the distance of Alnath from the true
equinoctial point was but a few degrees; but at the present time it is
'shove,' in longitude, some 35° from the same. (The readings _thre_ for
_eighte_ in l. 1280, and _fourthe_ for _ninthe_ in l. 1283, given by Wright
from MS. Hl., are of course absurd).
1285. _firste mansioun_, first mansion, viz. of the moon. It was called
_Alnath_, from the star. In the margin of E. is written--'Alnath dicitur
prima mansio lunae.' Cf. note to l. 1130; and see l. 1289. His object was,
clearly, to calculate the moon's position; see l. 1287.
1288. 'And knew in whose "face" the moon arose, and in what "term," and all
about it.' Each sign of the zodiac, containing thirty degrees, was divided
into three equal parts, each of ten degrees, called _faces_ in the
astrological jargon of the time. Not only each _sign_, but each _face_, was
assigned to some peculiar planet; hence _whos_ means 'of which planet.'
Besides this equal division of each sign, we find unequal divisions, called
_terms_. For example, the sign Aries, considered as a whole, was called
'the mansion of Mars.' Again, of this sign, degrees one to ten were called
'the face of Mars'; degrees eleven to twenty, 'the face of the Sun'; and
degrees twenty-one to thirty, 'the face of Venus.' Lastly, of the same
sign, degrees one to six were 'a term of Jupiter'; degrees seven to twelve,
of Venus; degrees thirteen to twenty, of Mercury; twenty-one to
twenty-five, of Mars; and twenty-six to thirty, of Saturn. Of course, the
whole of this assignment was purely fanciful, imposed at first by arbitrary
authority, and afterwards kept up by tradition. Cf. l. 1293.
1311-1322. These lines form a 'Complaint,' quite in the style of the
Compleint of Anelida, q.v. Thus, l. 1318 is like Anelida, l. 288:--'As
verily ye sleen me with the peyne.' The 'complaint' of Dorigen begins at l.
1355.
1340. 'Other colour then asshen hath she noon'; Anelida, 173.
1348. 'She wepeth, waileth, swowneth pitously'; Anelida, 169.
1355. In the margin of E. is written--'The compleynt of Dorigene ayeyns
Fortune.'
1367. Tyrwhitt remarks that all these examples are taken from book i. of
Hieronymus contra Iouinianum. In fact, this reference is expressly supplied
in the margin of E., at l. 1465, where we find--'Singulas has historias et
plures, hanc materiam concernentes, recitat beatus Ieronimus contra
Iouinianum in primo suo libro, cap. 39°.' There is a similar note in Hn.,
at l. 1395. [396]
On reference to Jerome, I find that the passages referred to are worthy of
being expressly quoted, especially as Chaucer does not adhere to the order
of the original. Moreover, most of them are quoted in the side-notes to E.,
with more or less correctness. I therefore give below all such as are worth
giving.
1368. The passage in Jerome is as follows:--'Triginta Atheniensium tyranni
cum Phidonem in conuiuio necassent, filias eius uirgines ad se uenire
iusserunt, et scortorum more nudari: ac super pauimenta, patris sanguine
cruentata, impudicis gestibus ludere, quae paulisper dissimulato doloris
habitu, cum temulentos conuiuas cernerent, quasi ad requisita naturae
egredientes, inuicem se complexae praecipitauerunt in puteum, ut
uirginitatem morte seruarent'; p. 48. This story (quoted in full in MS. E.)
refers to the excesses committed in Athens by the Thirty Tyrants, who were
overthrown by Thrasybulus, B.C. 403.