343. _come_, coming, i. e. incarnation; Lat. 'aduentu.' Tyrwhitt reads
_sonde_, i. e. sending, message; but incorrectly.
345. _withholde_, detained, constrained to dwell; Lat. 'tentus'; Fr.
'tenu.'
346. Hitherto Chaucer's translation is, on the whole, very close. Here he
omits a whole sentence, and begins to abbreviate the story and alter it to
suit himself. See his hint in l. 360.
349. Here begins, practically, the _second part_ of the story, in which the
_second_ Latin text is more freely consulted; see vol. iii. p. 488.
351. _That_, who. In MS. E. the word is glossed by--'qui, scilicet
Vrbanus.' It is remarkable that the relative _who_ (as a _simple_ relative,
without _so_ suffixed) is hardly to be found in English of this date, in
the _nominative_ case. The A. S. hw[=a] is only used interrogatively. See
March, Anglo-Saxon Grammar, p. 179.
353. _goddes knight_, God's servant, or rather, God's soldier; see l. 383,
and the note. In the A. S. version of the Gospels, Christ's disciples are
called 'leorning-cnihtas.' In the Ormulum and in Wyclif _cniht_ or
_kni[gh]t_ sometimes means a servant, but more commonly a soldier. Priests
are called 'goddes knyghtes' in Piers Plowman, B. xi. 304. In scanning this
line, either _lerninge_ is of three syllables (which I doubt) or else the
first syllable in _Parfit_ forms a foot by itself; see note to l. 341
above. [411]
361. In the South-E. Legendary, their crime is specified; they had buried
two Christian martyrs.
362. _Almache_; Lat. 'Almachius praefectus.' The reigning emperor was
Alexander Severus (A.D. 222-235).
363. _apposed_, questioned, examined; written _opposed_ in most MSS., but
corrected by Tyrwhitt. Ed. 1532 also has _aposed_. A similar confusion
occurs in the Freres Tale, D. 1597, where only two MSS., viz. Pt. and Ln.,
have the spelling _appose_, as against five others which read _opposen_. In
MSS. of Piers the Plowman, we find _appose_, to question, B. iii. 5;
_apposed_, i. 47; _apposeden_, vii. 138. See _Appose_ in the New E. Dict.;
where it is shewn that _appose_ was, at first, a mere variant of _oppose_,
but came to be regarded as a correct form with a special sense; though,
strictly speaking, it was a corruption.
365. _sacrifyse_, sacrifice to the idol. This was the usual test to which
Christians were subjected; see note to l. 395. Compare Dan. iii. 14, 18. So
in the Virgin Martyr, iv. 2:--
'Bow but thy knee to Jupiter, and offer
Any slight sacrifice; or do but swear
By Caesar's fortune, and--be free!'