'In settyng and in sowyng · swonken ful harde,
And wonnen that wastours · with glotonye destruyeth.'
25. _After the legende_, following the Legend; i. e. the Legenda Aurea. A
very small portion is wholly Chaucer's own. He has merely added a line here
and there, such as ll. 488-497, 505-511, 535, 536. At l. 346 he begins to
be less literal; see notes to 380, 395, 443.
27. St. Cecilia and St. Dorothea are both depicted with garlands. Mrs.
Jameson tells us how to distinguish them in her Sacred and Legendary Art,
3rd ed. 591. She also says, at p. 35--'The wreath of roses on the brow of
St. Cecilia, the roses or fruits borne by St. Dorothea, are explained by
the legends.' And again, at p. 36--'White and red roses expressed love and
innocence, or love and wisdom, as in the garland with which the angels
crown St. Cecilia.' _Red_ was the symbol of love, divine fervour, &c.;
_white_, of light, purity, innocence, virginity. See ll. 220, 244, 279. The
legend of St. Dorothea forms the subject of Massinger's Virgin Martyr.
29. _virgin-es_ must be a trisyllable here; such words are often shortened
to a dissyllable. The word _thou_ is addressed to the Virgin Mary. In the
margin of MSS. E. and Hn. is written--'Inuocatio ad Mariam.'
30. Speaking of St. Bernard, Mrs. Jameson says--'One of his most [403]
celebrated works, the _Missus est_, was composed in her honour [i. e. in
honour of the Virgin] as Mother of the Redeemer; and in eighty Sermons on
texts from the Song of Solomon, he set forth her divine perfection as the
Selected and Espoused, the type of the Church on earth'; Legends of the
Monastic Orders, 2nd ed. p. 144. Cf. note to l. 58.
See a further illustration of the great favour shewn by the Virgin to St.
Bernard at p. 142 of the same volume; and, at p. 145, the description of a
painting by Murillo, quoted from Stirling's Spanish Painters, p. 914. See
also Dante, Paradiso, xxxi. 102.
32. _comfort of us wrecches_, comfort of us miserable sinners; see note to
l. 58.
_do me endyte_, cause me to indite.
34. _of the feend_, over the Fiend. Tyrwhitt reads _over_ for _of_, but it
is unneccessary. Accent _victórie_ on the _o_.
36. Lines 36-51 are a free translation of a passage in Dante's Paradiso,
Canto xxxiii. ll. 1-21; and are quoted in the notes to Cary's translation.
I am persuaded that ll. 36-56 (three stanzas) were added at a later period.
Being taken from Dante, they could hardly have been written very early;
whereas the Life of St. Cecile seems to have been quite a juvenile
performance. And this explains why the phrase 'Me, flemed wrecche' in l. 58
is so far removed from the parallel expression, viz. 'us wrecches,' in l.
32. Cf. note to l. 58.
l. 36. 'Vergine madre, figlia del tuo Figlio,
l. 39. Umile ed alta più che creatura,
Termine fisso d'eterno consiglio,
Tu se' colei che l' umana natura
l. 40, 41. Nobilitastì si, che il suo Fattore
l. 41, 42. Non disdegnò di farsi sua fattura.
l. 43. Nel ventre tuo si raccese l' amore,
l. 44. Per lo cui caldo nell' eterna pace
Cosi è germinato questo fiore.
Qui sei a noi meridiana face
Di caritade, e giuso, intra i mortali,
Sé' di speranza fontana vivace.
Donna, se' tanto grande, e tanto vali,
Che qual vuol grazia, e a te non ricorre,
Sua disianza vuol volar senz' ali.
ll. 53, 54. La tua benignità non pur soccorre
ll. 53, 54. A chi dimanda, ma molte fiate
ll. 55, 56. Liberamente al dimandar precorre.
l. 51. In te misericordia, in te pietate,
l. 50. In te magnificenza, in te s'aduna
Quatunque in creatura è di bontate.'
The numbers at the side denote the corresponding lines.