Book I

, but gives a false reason and etymology. The real reason is plain enough, viz. that the two smaller squares in the diagram stick up like two horns. And, as this proposition is somewhat difficult for beginners, it here takes the sense of 'puzzle;' hence Criseyde was _at Dulcarnon_, because she was in perplexity. Speght refers to Alex. Neckam, De Naturis Rerum; see Wright's edition, p. 295.

But this is not all. In l. 933, Pandarus explains that Dulcarnon is called 'fleming of wrecches.' There is a slight error here: 'fleming of wrecches,' i.e. banishment of the miserable, is a translation of _Fuga miserorum_, which is written opposite this line in MS. Harl. 1239; and further, _Fuga miserorum_ is a sort of Latin translation of _Eleëfuga_ or _Eleufuga_, from [Greek: eleos] pity, and [Greek: phygê], flight. The error lies in confusing _Dulcarnon_, the 47th proposition, with _Eleufuga_, a name for the 5th proposition; a confusion due to the fact that both propositions were considered difficult. Roger Bacon, Opus Tertium, cap. 6, says: 'Quinta propositio geometricae Euclidis dicitur _Elefuga_, id est, _fuga miserorum_.' Ducange, s. v. _Eleufuga_, quotes from Alanus, Anticlaudiani lib. iii. cap. 6--'Huius tirones curantis [_read_ cur artis] _Eleufuga_ terret,' &c. The word also occurs in Richard of Bury's Philobiblon, cap. xiii, somewhat oddly translated by J.B. Inglis in 1832. 'How many scholars has the Helleflight of Euclid repelled!'

This explanation, partly due to the Rev. W.G. Clark (joint-editor of the Globe Shakespeare), was first given in the _Athenæum_, Sept. 23, 1871, p. 393, in an article written by myself.

934. _It_, i.e. _Dulcarnon_, or Euclid's proposition. 'It seems hard, because the wretched pupils will not learn it, owing to their very sloth or other wilful defects.'

936. _This_ = _this is_; as elsewhere. _fecches_, vetches.

947. Understand _be_; 'where (I hope) good thrift may be.' Cf. 966.

978. _fere_, fire; as in Bk. i. 229. Usually _fyre_.

979. _fond his contenaunce_, lit. found his demeanour, i.e. composed himself as if to read.

1010. _wivere_, viper; O. F. _wivre_ (F. _givre_), from Lat. _uipera_. The heraldic _wiver_ or _wyvern_ became a wondrous winged dragon, with two legs; wholly unlike the original viper. See Thynne's Animadversions, &c., ed. Furnivall, p. 41.

1013. 'Alas! that he, either entirely, or a slice of him.'

1021. 'That sufferest undeserved jealousy (to exist).'

1029. _after that_, accordingly; _his_, its.

1035. See note to Bk. ii. 784.

1046. _ordal_, ordeal, trial by ordeal, i.e. by fire or water. See Thynne's Animadversions, ed. Furnivall, p. 66.

1056. _wreigh_, covered; A. S. _wr[=a]h_; see _wr[=i]hen_ in Stratmann.

1064. _shoures_, assaults. Bell actually substitutes _stouris_, as being 'clearly the true reading.' But editors have no right to reject real words which they fail to understand. _Shour_ sometimes means a shower of arrows or darts, an assault, &c.; cf. A.S. _hildesc[=u]r_, a flight of missiles. In fact, it recurs in this sense in Bk. iv. 47, where Bell again turns it into _stoure_, against authority.

1067. 'For it seemed to him not like (mere) strokes with a rod ... but he felt the very cramp of death.'

1106. _al forgeve_, all is forgiven. _stint_, stopped.

1154. _bar him on honde_, assured him.

1177. 'For a crime, there is mercy (to be had).'

1194. _sucre be or soot_, may be like sugar or like soot, i.e. pleasant or the reverse. We must read _soot_ (not _sote_, sweet, as in Bell) because it rimes with _moot_. Moreover, soot was once proverbially bitter. 'Bittrore then the sote' occurs in Altenglische Dichtungen, ed. Boddeker, p. 121; and in Rutebuef's Vie Sainte Marie l'Egiptianne, ed. Jubinal, 280, we find 'plus amer que suie;' cf. Rom. Rose, 10670: 'amer Plus que n'est suie.'

1215. Cf. 'Bitter pills may have sweet effects;' Hazlitt's Proverbs.

1231. _Bitrent_, for _bitrendeth_, winds round; cf. iv. 870. _wryth_, for _wrytheth_, writhes.

1235. 'When she hears any shepherd speak.'

1249. 'And often invoked good luck upon her snowy throat.'

1257. _welwilly_, full of good will, propitious.

1258. _Imeneus_, Hymenæus, Hymen; cf. Ovid, Her. xiv. 27.

1261-4. Imitated from Dante, Parad. xxxiii. 14:--

'Che qual vuol grazie, e a te non ricorre, Sua disianza vuol volar senz' ali. La tua benignità non pur soccorre,' &c.

1282. 'Mercy prevails over (lit. surpasses) justice.'

1344. 'Or else do I dream it?'

1357. _sooth_, for _sooth is_, i.e. it is true.

1369. Bell takes _scripture_ to mean the mottos or posies on the rings. Perhaps this is right.

1374. _holt_, holds; 'that holds it in despite.'

1375. 'Of the money, that he can heap up and lay hold of.' For _mokren_, cf. Chaucer's Boethius, Bk. ii. Pr. 5. 11. _Pens_, pence, is a translation of Ital. _denari_, money, in the Filostrato,