69. _Ther-as_, where that. _Osanne_, Hosanna, i. e. 'Save, we pray,' from
Ps. cxviii. 25. See Concise Dict. of the Bible.
70. The Virgin Mary was said to have been the daughter of Joachim and Anna;
see the Protevangelion of James, and the Legenda Aurea, cap. cxxi--'De
natiuitate beatae Mariae uirginis.' Cf. D. 1613.
75. _haven of refut_, haven of refuge. See the same term similarly applied
in B. 852, above. Cf. Chaucer's A. B. C., l. 14.
78. _reden_, read. This is still clearer proof that the story was not
originally meant to be narrated. Cf. note to l. 62.
82. _him_, i. e. Jacobus Januensis. _at the_, &c., out of reverence for the
saint.
83. _hir legende_, her (St. Cecilia's) legend as told in the Aurea Legenda.
But cf. note to l. 349.
85. The five stanzas in ll. 85-119 really belong to the Legend itself, and
are in the original Latin. Throughout the notes to the rest of this Tale I
usually follow the 2nd edition of the Legenda Aurea, cap. clxix, as edited
by Dr. Th. Grässe; Leipsic, 1850.
87. Several of the Legends of the Saints begin with ridiculous etymologies.
Thus the Legend of St. Valentine (Aur. Leg. cap. xlii) begins with the
explanation that Valentinus means _ualorem tenens_, or else _ualens tyro_.
So here, as to the etymology of Caecilia, we are generously offered _five_
solutions, all of them being wrong. As it is hopeless to understand them
without consulting the original, I shall quote as much of it as is
necessary, arranged in a less confused order. The true etymology is, of
course, that Caecilia is the feminine of Caecilius, a name borne by members
of the Caecilia gens, which claimed descent from Caeculus, an ancient
Italian hero, son of Vulcan, who is said to have founded Praeneste.
Caeculus, probably a nickname, can hardly be other than a mere diminutive
of _caecus_, blind. The legendary etymologies are right, accordingly, only
so far as they relate to _caecus_. Beyond that, they are strange indeed.
The following are the etymologies, with their reasons.
(1) Caecilia = coeli lilia (_sic_), i. e. _hevenes lilie_. Reasons:--'Fuit
enim coeleste lilium per uirginitatis pudorem; uel dicitur _lilium_, quia
habuit candorem munditiae, uirorem conscientiae, odorem bonae famae.' See
ll. 87-91. Thus _grene_ (= greenness) translates _uirorem_.
(2) Caecilia = caecis uia, i. e. _the wey to blinde_, a path for the blind.
Reason:--'Fuit enim caecis uia per exempli informationem.' See ll. 92, 93.
(3) Caecilia is from _caelum_ and _lya_. 'Fuit enim ... _coelum_ (_sic_)
per iugem contemplationem, _lya_ per assiduam operationem.' Here _lya_ is
[406] the same as _Lia_, which is the Latin spelling of Leah in the Book of
Genesis. It was usual to consider Leah as the type of activity, or the
Active Life, and Rachel as the type of the Contemplative Life. See
Hampole's Prose Treatises, ed. Perry (E. E. T. S.), p. 29, where the
comparison is attributed to St. Gregory. '_Lya_ is als mekill at say as
trauyliose, and betakyns actyfe lyfe.'
(4) Caecilia, 'quasi caecitate carens.' This is on the celebrated principle
of 'lucus a non lucendo.' Reason:--'fuit caecitate carens per sapientiae
splendorem.' See ll. 99-101.
(5) 'Vel dicitur a _coelo_ et _leos_, i. e. populus.' Finally, recourse is
had to Greek, viz. Gk. [Greek: leôs], the Attic form of [Greek: laos].
Reason:--'fuit et coelum populi, quia in ipsa tamquam in coelo spirituali
populus ad imitandum intuetur coelum, solem, lunam, et stellas, i. e.
sapientiae perspicacitatem, fidei magnanimitatem et uirtutum uarietatem.'
See ll. 102-112.
113-118. Chaucer has somewhat varied the order; this last stanza belongs in
the Latin to derivation (3), though it may serve also for derivation (5).
It is probably for this reason that he has reserved it. The Latin is--'Vel
dicitur coelum, quia, sicut dicit Ysidorus, coelum philosophi uolubile,
rotundum et ardens esse dixerunt. Sic et ipsa fuit uolubilis per
operationem sollicitam, rotunda per perseuerantiam, ardens per caritatem
succensam.' For the _swiftness_ and _roundness_ of heaven, see note to B.
295. The epithet _burning_ is due to quite another matter, not explained in
that note. The nine astronomical spheres there mentioned did not suffice
for the wants of theology. Hence a _tenth_ sphere was imagined, external to
the ninth; but this was supposed to be fixed, whereas the _ninth_ sphere
(or _primum mobile_) had a swift diurnal movement of revolution (note to B.
295), and thus supplied the two former epithets. The outermost sphere was
called the _empyraeum_ (from Gk. [Greek: empuros], burning, which from
[Greek: en], in, and [Greek: pur], fire) where the pure element of fire
subsisted alone; and it was supposed to be the abode of saints and angels.
Milton, in his Paradise Lost, uses the word _empyrean_ six times, ii. 771,
iii. 57, vi. 833, vii. 73, 633, x. 321; and the word _empyreal_ eleven
times.
120. For some account of St. Caecilia, see vol. iii. p. 489. Compare also
the Life of St. Cecilia as printed in the South-English Legendary, ed.
Horstmann (E. E. T. S.), p. 490.
133. _an heyre_, a hair shirt. The usual expression; see I. 1052; and P.
Plowman, B. v. 66. Lat. text--'cilicio erat induta.'
134. _the organs_; Lat. 'cantantibus organis.' We should now say 'the
organ'; but in old authors the plural form is commonly employed. Sometimes
the word _organ_ seems to refer to a single pipe only, and the whole
instrument was called 'the organs' or 'a pair of organs,' where _pair_
means a _set_, as in the phrase 'a peire of bedes'; Ch. Prol. 159. In the
Nonne Preestes Tale, B. 4041, Chaucer uses _orgon_ as a plural, equivalent
to the Lat. _organa_. On the early meaning of _organum_, see Chappell's
Hist. of Music, i. 327. [407]
St. Cecilia is commonly considered the patroness of music; see Dryden's Ode
for St. Cecilia's day, and Alexander's Feast, ll. 132-141. But the
connexion of her name with music is not very ancient, as Mrs. Jameson
explains. The _reason_ for this connexion seems to me clear enough, viz.
the simple fact that the word _organis_ occurs in this very passage.
Besides, St. Cecilia is here represented as singing _herself_--'in corde
soli domino _decantabat_ dicens'; see l. 135. The South-E. Legendary (see
n. to l. 120) says she sang a verse of the Psalter.
145. _conseil_, a secret; Lat. 'mysterium.' And so in l. 192, and in P.
Plowm. B. v. 168; see note to C. 819 above. _and_, if.
150. _here_, her, is a dissyllable in Chaucer whenever it ends a line,
which it does six times; see e.g. B. 460; Kn. Tale, 1199 (A. 2057). This is
quite correct, because the A. S. form _hire_ is dissyllabic also.