book ii

. of his Megale Syntaxis. See the same in Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii. 68.

28. _wel unnethe_, scarcely, hardly at all: 'uix angustissima inhabitandi hominibus area relinquetur.'

34. _And also sette_: 'Adde, quod hoc ipsum breuis habitaculi septum plures incolunt nationes.'

38. _defaute ... marchaundise_; Lat. only: 'tum conmercii insolentia.'

41. _Marcus Tullius_, i.e. Cicero, in his Somnium Scipionis, which originally formed part of the sixth book of the De Republica. See cap. vi. of that work, and Note to Parl. Foules, 31.

43. _Caucasus_; mentioned again in the Wyf of Bathes Tale, D 1140.

45. _Parthes_, Parthians.

59. _hath the wrecched_: 'scriptorum inops deleuit obliuio.'

69. _ended_: 'definitum.' We now say 'finite.'

73. _endeles_: 'interminabilem.' We now say 'infinite.'

77. _were thought_, were considered in comparison with eternity.

89. _This rather man_, this former man, the former.

95. _seyde_: 'Iam tandem, inquit, intelligis me esse philosophum? Tum ille nimium mordaciter, Intellexeram, inquit, si tacuisses.' This story is alluded to in Piers Plowman; see my note to that poem, C. xiv. 226.

108. _despyseth it_; cf. Troilus, v. 1821-7.

METRE 7. 1. _with overthrowing thought_: 'mente praecipiti.'

3. _shewinge_, evident, open to the view: 'Latè patentes ... plagas.'

7. _dedly_, mortal, perishable: 'mortali iugo.'

8. _ferne_, distant: 'remotos.' This is important, as settling the sense of 'ferne halwes' in the Prologue to the Tales, l. 14.

13. _Fabricius_, the conqueror of Pyrrhus; censor in B.C. 275. _Brutus_, the slayer of Cæsar.

14. _Catoun_, Cato of Utica (B.C. 95-46).

17. _Liggeth_, lie ye; 'Iacetis.' The imperative mood.

20. _cruel_; Lat. 'sera,' which Chaucer has taken as 'seua.' 'Cum sera uobis rapiet hoc etiam dies.' _thanne is_: 'Iam uos secunda mors manet.'

PROSE 8. 2. _untretable_, not to be treated with, intractable, inexorable: 'inexorabile.'

7. _unpleyten_, unplait, explain: 'explicare.'

17. _windinge._ Read _windy_, i.e. unstable; Lat. 'uentosam.' Caxton's edition has _wyndy_, which proves the point. So also other old black-letter editions.

23. _aspre_: 'haec aspera, haec horribilis fortuna.'

26. _visages_, faces. See Notes to the poem on Fortune.

METRE 8. 1. It begins 'Quòd mundus stabile fide Concordes uariat uices; Quòd pugnantia semina Foedus perpetuum tenent.' The whole of this metre reappears in Troilus, iii. 1744-1764.

6. _hath brought_, hath led in, introduced: 'duxerit.'

_greedy to flowen_; the Lat. text merely has _auidum_; 'Ut fluctus auidum mare Certo fine coerceat.' The Lat. _fluctus_ answers to 'hise flodes.'

7. _ende_, boundary: 'fine.'

8. _termes or boundes_, borders: 'terminos.'

10. _Love_: 'Et caelo imperitans amor.' On this passage is founded one in the Knightes Tale, A 2991-3.

11. _slakede_, were to relax. The last lines are:--

'Et quam nunc socia fide Pulcris motibus incitant, Certent soluere machinam. Hic sancto populos quoque Iunctos foedere continet: Hic et coniugii sacrum Castis nectit amoribus: Hic fidis etiam sua Dictat iura sodalibus. O felix hominum genus, Si uestros animos amor, Quo caelum regitur, regat!'

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