Book iii

. pr. 12, l. 143). The Academic philosophers were followers of Plato.

49. _mermaidenes_; Lat. 'Sirenes,' Sirens; cf. N. P. Tale, B 4461, and note.

_til it be at the laste_; a false translation. Rather _unto destruction_; 'usque in exitium.' But, instead of _exitium_, MS. C. has _exitum_.

55. _plounged_, drowned; 'mersa.' Cf. _dreint_, Met. 2, l. 1.

59. _ner_, nearer; comparative, not positive; 'propius.'

METRE 2. 2. _mintinge_, intending; 'tendit ... ire.' Still in use in Cambridgeshire.

8. _sterres of the cold moon_: 'gelidae sidera lunae.' I suppose this means the constellations seen by moonlight, but invisible in the day. The expression _sidus lunae_, the moon's bright form, occurs in Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii. 9. 6; but it is difficult to see how _sidera_ can have the same sense, as some commentators say.

9. _recourses_, orbits; referring to the planets.

_y-flit_, moved or whirled along by their different spheres; alluding to the old Ptolemaic system of astronomy, which supposed that each planet was fastened to a revolving sphere, thus causing it to perform its orbit in a certain time, varying in the case of each.

_this man_: 'Comprensam [sc. stellam] in numeris uictor habebat.'

16. _highteth_, adorns; 'ornet.' Prob. from the sb. _hight_, _hiht_ (A. S. _hyht_), joy, delight.

17. _fleteth_, flows (i.e. abounds); 'grauidis influat uuis.'

20. _empted_: 'Nunc iacet effeto lumine mentis.'

22. _fool_, i.e. foolish, witless, senseless; 'stolidam.'

PROSE 2. 6. _armures_, i.e. defensive armour; 'arma.'

8. _in sikernesse_: 'inuicta te firmitate tuerentur.'

14. _litargie_; better _letargye_, i.e. lethargy. Cf. Troil. i. 730.

19. _yplyted_, pleated into a wrinkle; 'contracta in rugam ueste.'

METRE 3. 1. _discussed_, driven away; 'discussâ ... nocte.'

4. _clustred_; 'glomerantur'; or 'covered with clouds,' as Chaucer says.

5. _Chorus_, Corus, or Caurus, the north-west wind.

6. _ploungy_, stormy, rainy; 'nimbosis ... imbribus.'

8. _Borias_, Boreas, the north wind, from Thrace.

9. _caves_; better _cave_, as in Caxton and Thynne; Lat. 'antro.' _beteth_; 'uerberet'; hence Chaucer's gloss.

11. _y-shaken_, 'uibratus'; i.e. tremulous, sparkling.

PROSE 3. 2. _took_, drew in, received light; 'hausi caelum.'

4. _beholde_, the present tense; 'respicio.'

10. _norry_, pupil, lit. nourished one; 'alumne.'

11. _parten the charge_, share the burden.

15. _redoute my blame_, fear blame. _agrysen_, shudder.

16. _quasi diceret non_, as if she would say no; as if she expected the answer no. This remark is often inserted by Chaucer.

19. _Plato_; B.C. 428-347. Before his time, Solon, Anaxagoras, and Pythagoras all met with opposition. The fate of Socrates is well known.

21. _The heritage_: 'Cuius hereditatem cum deinceps Epicureum uulgus ac Stoicum, ceterique pro sua quisque parte raptum ire molirentur, meque reclamantem renitentemque uelut in partem praedae detraherent, uestem, quam meis texueram manibus, disciderunt, abreptisque ab ea panniculis, totam me sibi cessisse credentes abiere.'

38. _Anaxogore_, Anaxagoras, a Greek philosopher (B.C. 500-428); exiled from Athens (B.C. 450).

39. _Zeno_; Zeno of Elea (see p. 420), born about B.C. 488, is said to have risked his life to defend his country. His fate is doubtful.

40. _Senecciens_, apparently meant for 'the followers of Seneca.' The original has: 'at Canios, at Senecas, at Soranos ... scire potuisti.'

_Canios_, the Canii; i. e. men like Canius. The constancy and death of Julius Canius (or Canus) is related by Seneca, De Tranquillitate, cap. xiv. Cf. Pr. iv. 131, and note, p. 424.

41. _Sorans_, the Sorani; men like Soranus. Soranus is mentioned in Tacitus, Annal. xvi. 23. Caxton and Thynne read _Soranos_, as in the Latin text.

42. _unsolempne_, uncelebrated; 'incelebris.'

49. _it is to dispyse_, it (the host) is to be despised.

53. _ententif_, busy about seizing useless baggage as spoil.

_sarpulers_, sacks made of coarse canvas; in Caxton, _sarpleris_; 'sarcinulas.' Cotgrave has: '_Serpillere_, a Sarpler, or Sarp-cloth, a piece of course canvas to pack up things in.' Cf. mod. F. _serpillière_.

56. _palis_, also spelt _paleis_ (O. F. _palis_), lit. a palisading, or a piece of strong paling, a rampart, used to translate Lat. _uallum_. When spelt _paleis_, it must not be confused with _paleis_, a palace.

METRE 4. 3. _either fortune_, good fortune or bad.

5. _hete_: 'Versum funditus excitantis aestum.' I suppose that _aestum_ is rather 'surge' than 'heat' here. See Met. vii. below, l. 3.

6. _Vesevus_, 'Veseuus'; the same as Vesuvius; cf. Vergil, Georg. ii. 224.

7. _wrytheth_, writhes out, throws forth wreaths of smoke. Here the old printed editions by Caxton and Thynne, as well as MS. Ii. 1. 38, happily restore the text; Lat. 'Torquet.'

8. Caxton and Thynne have _thonder-leyte_, which is perhaps better. MS. Ii. 1. 38 has _thonder leit_.

13. _stable of his right_: 'stabilis, suique iuris.'

PROSE 4. 2. _Artow lyk_. The original is partly in Greek. 'An [Greek: onos luras]?' Some MSS. have: 'Esne [Greek: onos pros luran]?' And MS. C. has: 'Esne asinus ad liram?' In an edition of Boethius by Renatus Vallinus, printed in 1656, I find the following note: 'Ut et omnes veteres scripsere, Varro in satyra quæ Testamentum inscribitur apud Agellium, lib. iii. cap. xvi: _Ii_ liberi, _si erunt_ [Greek: onoi luras], _exheredes sunto_. Suidas ex Menandro, Lucianus, Martian. Capella, lib. viii., atque alii quos refert Erasmus, in eo adagio. Imo et apud Varronem id nominis satyra extitit.' It has clearly a proverbial reference to dullness of perception. Ch. quotes it again in his Troilus, i. 731, where he so explains it.

3. _why spillestow teres_, why do you waste tears; 'Quid lacrimis manas?' After these words occur, in the original, four Greek words which Chaucer does not translate, viz.: [Greek: Exauda, mê keuthe noô]: i. e. speak out, do not hide them in your mind; quoted from Homer, Iliad i. 363.

With lines 3 and 4 compare Troilus, i. 857.

7. _by him-self_, in itself; 'per se.' Alluding to 'sharpnesse,' i. e. 'asperitas.'

15. _enformedest_, didst conform; 'formares.'

17. _ordre of hevene_; 'ad caelestis ordinis exemplar.' This refers to the words of Plato just at the end of the 9th book of The Republic: [Greek: en ouranô isôs paradeigma anakeitai.] Cf. also the last lines of