part ii

. p. 43. Again, we have a like mention of the May-season and of the singing of birds in the introduction to the Roman de la Rose; see vol. i. p. 96.

Nevertheless, the whole of the present passage is highly characteristic of the author, and extremely interesting. Cf. ll. 108, 176.

40. _Condicioun_, temperament, character, disposition. Prof. Corson here refers us to Shakespeare, Merch. Ven. i. 2. 143; Cor. v. 4. 10; Oth. iv. 1. 204; Jul. Cæs. ii. 1. 254, &c.

41. On the scansion, see note to l. 67.

43. _Daysyes_, daisies; here dissyllabic. But in l. 182 we have the full form _day-es-y-e_, of four syllables, answering to the A.S. _dæges éage_ (or _ége_), lit. day's eye, or eye of day, as Chaucer himself says in l. 184. And it is worth adding that his etymology is perfectly correct; for, in the few instances in which etymologies are suggested in Middle English, they are usually ludicrously wrong. In l. 184, the word is only trisyllabic (_day-es-y'_), the last syllable suffering elision. The A.S. _dægesége_ occurs in a list of plants in A.S. Leechdoms, ed. Cockayne, iii. 292, l. 8; and we also find in Wright's A.S. Vocabularies, ed. Wülker, col. 135, l. 22, and col. 322, l. 11, the following entries:--'_Consolda_, dægesege,' and '_Consolda_, dægeseage.'

The primary meaning of _dæges éage_ is doubtless the sun; the daisy is named from its supposed likeness to the sun, the white petals being the rays, and the yellow centre the sun's sphere.

Compare Lydgate's Troy-book, ed. 1555, fol. K 6, back:--

'And next, Appollo, so clere, shene, and bright, The _dayes eye_, and voyder of the nyght.'

46. 'That, when in my bed, no day dawns upon me on which I am not (at once) up, and (am soon) walking in the meadow.' _Nam_ = _ne am_, am not.

49. _By the morwe_, with the (dawn of the) morning.

50. _Sight-e_ is dissyllabic, as the scansion shews. In l. 15, _wight_ is monosyllabic. It is often difficult to ascertain Chaucer's usage of such forms, and we have to observe, where we can, any instances that are helpful. The Rime-Indexes to the Canterbury Tales and to the Minor Poems are often of great service. We learn from them that _wight_ rimes with the monosyllables _bright_, _knight_, _might_, _night_, _right_, &c., whereas _sighte_ rimes with the infin. moods _light-e_, _fight-e_, &c., as well as with monosyllables, and is therefore used somewhat capriciously. Another helpful list is that given in Ellis's Early Eng. Pronunciation, ch. iv. § 5, founded upon Prof. Child's articles on Chaucer and Gower. This at once refers us to C. T. 2118 (It were a lusty _sight-e_ for to see); 2335 (But sodeinly she saugh a _sight-e_ queynte); &c.

We should also consider the etymology. Now _wight_ = A.S. _wiht_, is monosyllabic, and gives no difficulty. On the other hand, the A.S. for 'sight' is _gesiht_ or _gesihþ_; but it is a fem. sb., and makes _all_ its oblique cases with a final _-e_, viz. _gesiht-e_ or _gesihþ-e_. In such instances, the nominative case often lost its distinctive form, and took the form of the other cases, so that already in the Ormulum (l. 12670) we find the nom. case _sihhþ-e_, dissyllabic. Such usages have received careful attention in the present edition, and in almost every case the addition of a final _e_ in an unexpected place can be amply justified by instances of Chaucer's usage in other passages. If the student will endeavour to _verify_ some of the examples here given, he will soon come to a clearer knowledge of the matter.

52. _Hit_, it, i.e. the daisy. But in l. 53 it is referred to as _she_. We shall see why this is hereafter. As a mere flower, it is neuter; but as being the type of Alcestis, it is feminine. Cf. ll. 62, 63.

53. We have come to the first instance in which Chaucer transposed the order of his material in the course of revision. Line 53 of the B-text corresponds to A. 55, whilst B. 61 corresponds to A. 51. All such instances are clearly shewn by printing the transposed passages twice over, once in their right place, and again in their changed place _in a smaller type_. By this arrangement all such transpositions can be understood at a glance.

The blank space which here appears in the A-text corresponds to ll. 50-52 in B, which are marked with an asterisk as being peculiar to the latter text. In order to save space, a small blank space (of one or two lines only) often corresponds to an insertion in the other text of some length.

56. 'And I love it, and ever (do so) equally anew,' i.e. unalterably.

57. The word _herte_ is so common that it is worth while to remember that it is usually dissyllabic; the A.S. form being _heorte_.

58. _Al_, although (very common). _Of this_, in this matter.

61. _Weste_, is here a verb; 'to turn to the west.' See l. 197.

65. Probably to be scanned thus: Óf | the sónn' | for thér | hit wól | unclós-e. See note to l. 67, and cf. l. 111.

66. _Ne had_, pronounced as _nad_; and often so written.

67. The first syllable of a line is often wanting in Chaucer; so that the first foot consists of a single emphatic syllable. Such lines are now considered faulty, though examples may be found in Tennyson's 'Vision of Sin,' which cannot be called unmelodious; but they were once common, especially in Lydgate. Some examples from the present poem are the following:--

That | of alle the floures in the mede; 41.

Suf | fisant this flour to preyse aright; 67.

Of | this flour, whan that hit shulde unclose; 111.

Made | hir lyk a daysie for to sene; 224.

So also ll. 245, 303, 722, 783, 797, 859, 863, 901, 911, 1024, 1030, 1076, 1187, 1275, 1324, 1342, 1498, 1551, 1828, 1996, 2471, 2575.

68. _Conning_, knowledge. Many words now used with a changed signification are well explained in Trench's Select Glossary, which should be consulted for them. Thus, in the article upon _cunning_, Trench quotes the following from the examination of Wm. Thorpe, as preserved in Foxe's Book of Martyrs:--'I believe that all these three Persons [in the Godhead] are even in power and in _cunning and in might_'.

69. _Make_, compose poetry; _of sentement_, concerning your feelings. So in l. 74, _making_ is 'poetry.' See Trench, s.v. _make_; where it is shewn that the use of the word arose quite independently of the Gk. use of [Greek: poiein] and [Greek: poiêtês]. 'One of the earliest instances of the use of _makyere_ in the sense of "author" occurs in the Kentish Ayenbite of Inwyt, ed. Morris, p. 269; written A.D. 1340. The A.S. _scóp_ and O.H.G. _scóf_ mean "a shaper." The G. _Dichter_ means an "arranger"; the Fr. _trouvère_, Provençal _troubadour_, and Ital. _trovatore_ means a "finder."'--Skeat, note to P. Plowman, B. xii. 16 (where _makynges_ means 'poems').

72. Cf. l. 193. There appears to be here some reference to a poem of the kind called in F. _tenson_ (O.F. _tençon_) or in O. Provençal _tenso_, i.e. 'dispute,' in which the relative merits of two subjects are discussed. An early example in English is the poem called The Owl and the Nightingale, in which these birds contend for the superiority. In the present case, the suggestion is to discuss the value of the Leaf, representing no doubt constancy or any enduring virtue, as compared with that of the Flower, the representative of perishable beauty and the freshness of first love. Chaucer probably refers to some such poem in French, but I cannot point out the exact source.

On the other hand, the present passage doubtless suggested the poem called 'The Flower and the Leaf,' a pretty but somewhat tedious poem of the fifteenth century, in which Chaucer's style is imitated with no remarkable exactness or success. This poem was formerly rashly attributed to Chaucer himself without any evidence, though it was printed for the first time as late as 1598. See it discussed in vol. i. p. 44. Gower also refers to the present passage; C. A. iii. 358.

In scanning this line, remember to pronounce _Whether_ as _Whe'r_, a monosyllable. This is common also in Shakespeare, as in his 59th Sonnet: '_Whe'r_ we are mended, or _whe'r_ better they.'

74. _Making_, poetry; _ropen_, reaped. 'For I well know, that ye (poets) have long ere this reaped the field of poetry, and carried away the corn from it; and I come after you as a gleaner.' See note to l. 69. Compare Parl. Foules, 22-25.

The A.S. _rípan_, to reap, was a strong verb; pt. t. _ráp_, pp. _ripen_. The M.E. forms are various and corrupt, and not very common. In P. Plowman, B. xiii. 374, the pt. t. is _rope_, pl. _ropen_. The proper form of the pp. is _r[)i]pen_; the form _ropen_ is due to that confusion between the past tense and past participle which is so extremely common in English. See Morris, Hist. Outlines of Eng. Accidence, p. 160.

80. _Evel apayd_, ill pleased, displeased; a common phrase. See Cler. Tale, E 1052; Can. Yem. Tale, G 921, 1049. _Apayd_, pleased, occurs in the Kn. Tale, 1010 (A 1868).

85. _Wynt_, windeth, turns (me) about, directs (me). These contracted forms of the third person singular of the present indicative are almost universal in Anglo-Saxon, and very common in M.E. Chaucer has _fynt_ = findeth, _rit_ = rideth, _hit_ = hideth, _et_ = eateth, l. 1389, &c. A much earlier example of _wint_ for _windeth_ is in the Ancren Riwle, p. 296.

86. _In-with_, within. This curious form is not very common in Chaucer. Still it occurs in l. 228 below; in the Prior. Tale, B 1794; Cler. Tale, E 870; March. Tale, E 1944; Troilus, ii. 508, iii. 1499, &c. See Mätzner.

88. _Nothing I_, I am not at all (the master of it).

90. This is a fine simile. His lady sovereign can evoke from him any tone at will. _And maketh_ = and (the hand) makes. Bell puts _That_ for _And_, without authority.

93. _Yow list_, it pleases you. _List_ = _listeth_; cf. note to l. 85.

97. 'But why said I that we should give credence?' See ll. 10, 20.

In the A-text (l. 81) _But wherfor_ is used differently, and means--'But the reason why,' &c.

100. _Seen at eye_, see evidently. So in the Can. Yem. Tale, G 1059. Cf. _fair at yë_, fair to the sight, id. G 964; Cler. Tale, E 1168. The promise made in l. 101 was not fulfilled.

103. _Besy gost_, active spirit. _Thrusteth_, thirsteth.

105. _Gledy_, glowing; an adj. formed from _gleed_, a glowing coal. I know of no other example of this word. The compound adj. _gled-read_, glede-red, i.e. red as a glowing coal, occurs in O. Eng. Homilies, ed. Morris, i. 249.

108. The first of May was a favourite time for joyful observances. See note to Kn. Tale, A 1500.

109. _Dredful_, timid, timorous; as in Kn. Tale, A 1479.

112. _Agayn_, against, towards, turned towards; as in l. 48.

113. _The beste_, i.e. the Bull, the sign Taurus. _Agenores doghter_ is Europa, daughter of Agenor of Phoenicia, who, according to the fable, was carried off by Jupiter in the form of a bull. Hence Ovid uses the expression 'Agenoreus bos,' Fast. vi. 712; and calls Europa 'Agenore nata,' Met. ii. 858. For the story, see the latter reference.

Chaucer here tells us that the Sun, on the 1st of May, was 'in the breast' of Taurus, i.e. in the middle of it. It was, in fact, far advanced in the sign, near the 20th degree. See Fig. 1 in this volume, which shews the back of the Astrolabe.

118. Cf. Book of the Duchesse, 399.

125. Cf. Book of the Duchesse, ll. 410-2, which is a parallel passage. Both passages are borrowed from the Roman de la Rose, 55-58; see vol. i. p. 95.

126. _Mat_, dead; a term borrowed from the game of chess. See Anelida, 176;

## Book Duch., 660; and Kn. Tale, A 955.

128. _Atempre_, temperate, mild. See Book of the Duch., 341, and the note. This again is from the Rom. de la Rose, 125. _Releved_, raised up again, revived. Cotgrave gives: '_Relevé_, raised, lift, or set up again; relieved, revived, fully restored.'

130. 'In the classical and middle ages small birds were a common article of food, as they are on the continent at the present time; and the season for catching them with a _panter_, or bag-net, was winter, when the scarcity of food made them tame. The poet here represents their songs in the spring, as the expression of their exultation at having baffled the stratagems, quaintly called _sophistries_, by which the fowler had endeavoured to lure them to their destruction.'--BELL.

The word _panter_ is curiously preserved in the mod. E. _painter_, a rope for mooring a boat. I quote the following from my Etym. Dict.: '"_Painter_, a rope employed to fasten a boat"; Hawkesworth's Voyages, 1773, vol. i. p. xxix. Corrupted (by assimilation to the ordinary sb. _painter_) from M.E. _panter_, a noose, esp. for catching birds. See Chaucer, Leg. of Good Women, 131; Prompt. Parv., p. 381; spelt _paunter_, Polit. Songs, ed. Wright, p. 344.--O.F. _pantiere_, a kind of snare for birds, Roquefort; _panthiere_, "a great swoop-net"; Cotgrave. Cf. Ital. _pantiera_, "a kind of tramell or fowling net"; Florio; _panthera_, "a net or haie to catch conies with, also a kind of fowling-net"; id.--Lat. _panther_, a hunting-net for catching wild beasts. Cf. _panthera_, an entire capture.--Gk. [Greek: panthêros], catching all; cf. [Greek: panthêra], the whole booty (a very late word).--Gk. [Greek: pan], neut. of [Greek: pas], every; and [Greek: thêr], a wild beast.

'The Irish _painteir_, Gael. _painntear_, a gin, snare, are forms of the same word [but were borrowed from English or French]. It is remarkable that, in America, a _panther_ is also called a _painter_. See Cooper, The Pioneers, cap. xxviii.'

132. _Upon_, against, in scorn of; cf. _in his despyt_, l. 134. _A-whaped_, scared.

--A. 127. The A-text is hereabouts very imperfect, and some lines are too short. I supply words within square brackets, in order to fill out the lines, and to make sense.

145. See Parl. of Foules, 309, 683, and the note to the former passage in vol. i. p. 516. Birds were supposed to choose their mates on St. Valentine's day (Feb. 14).

146. _Chees_, chose: the past tense; A.S. _céas_.

154. _Tydif_, the name of some small bird, guessed by Skinner to be the _titmouse_; more probably the _tydy_ mentioned by Drayton, which is supposed to mean a wren. See _Tydy_ in Nares. Cf. Squi. Tale, F 648; id. 610, 611.

158. 'Provided that their mates would pity them.'

160. _Daunger_ usually means 'power to harm.' These allegorical personages were suggested by the Roman de la Rose. In the English version (l. 3018) _Daunger_ is the name of the 'foul churl,' who is set beside the Rose, to prevent strangers from plucking it. In Chaucer's Complaint unto Pite, he introduces such personages as Crueltee (corresponding to Daunger), Pite, Bountee, Gentilesse, and Curtesye. So here, we are told that although Daunger (i.e. power to harm or to repel) seemed for a time to have the upper hand, yet at the last Pity induced relenting, and caused Mercy to surpass (or prevail over) Right (or Justice). Just as Pity is opposed to Danger or Cruelty, so we find, in the old theological allegories, that Mercy is opposed to Justice. The pleading of Mercy against Justice will be found at length in Grosteste's Chastel d'Amour, in the Cursor Mundi, p. 550, and in the Gesta Romanorum, Tale 55. See my note to P. Plowman, C. xxi. 120.

163. 'By means of innocence and well-mannered courtesy.'

164. 'But I do not call folly, or false pity, by the name of innocence'; i.e. the poet does not approve of immodesty or weakness, because in all things the chief virtue is moderation, or the 'golden mean.' Beauty should be neither too yielding nor too pitiless.

166. _Etik_, Lat. _Ethica_; alluding to the Ethics of Aristotle, in which happiness and virtue are discussed, and the nature of virtue is said to shew itself in its appearing as the medium or mean between two extremes. Similarly, Gower in his Conf. Amantis (ed. Pauli, iii. 153) refers us to Aristotle's advice to Alexander, to keep the mean between avarice and prodigality. See also Gower's remarks on _ethique_; id. iii. 140. Cf. Lounsbury, Studies in Chaucer, ii. 387.

170. So in the Parl. of Foules, 680, the birds are described as joining in the roundel--'Now _welcom somer_, with thy sonne softe.'

171. Here again is a reminiscence of the Roman de la Rose, ll. 8449-51:--

'Zephirus et Flora, sa fame, Qui des flors est deesse et dame, Cil dui font les floretes nestre,' &c.

i.e. Zephirus and his wife Flora, who is the goddess and lady of flowers, these two make the little flowers grow. See Book of the Duchesse, 402; and the note upon it.

184. 'The daisy, or, otherwise, the eye of day'; see note to l. 43.

186. 'I pray that she may fall fairly,' that she may light upon good fortune. All the MSS. have _she_; otherwise we might read _her_, as such is the more usual idiom, in which case it would mean--'that it may befall her fairly.' We have a similar case in the Manciple's Prologue, H 40, where six MSS. have the usual idiom 'foule mot _thee_ falle,' whilst the Ellesmere MS. alone has 'foule mot _thou_ falle.' For a similar variation, cf. l. 277 below with A. 180, i.e. with the corresponding line in the earlier text.

191. 'For, as regards me, neither of them is dearer or more hateful than the other; I am not yet retained on the side of either of them.' The sense _with-holden_ is detained, kept back, hence reserved to one side, committed to a particular view.

195. _Thing_ = _werk_ (A. 79), i.e. poem. _Of another tonne_, out of quite a different cask. Cf. 'Nay, thou shalt drinken of another tonne Er that I go'; C. T., D 170. Cf. Rom. Rose (French Text), 6838.

196. _Swich thing_, such a thing as the strife between the Leaf and the Flower. The A-text (l. 80) helps us here, as it reads 'swich stryf.'

203. _Herber_, an arbour. This difficult word is fully explained in the New E. Dict., s.v. _arbour_. It is there shewn that the original sense of the M.E. _herber_ or _erber_ was 'a plot of ground covered with grass or turf; a garden-lawn or green.' In the Medulla Grammatices, ab. 1460, we find:--'_Viretum, locus pascualis virens_, a gres-yerd, or an herber.' Subsequently it meant a herb-garden or flower-garden; a fruit-garden or orchard; trees or shrubs trained on frame-work; and then a bower, or 'shady retreat, of which the sides and roof are formed by trees and shrubs closely planted or intertwined, or of lattice-work covered with climbing shrubs and plants, as ivy, vine, &c.' Dr. Murray remarks that 'the original characteristic of the arbour seems to have been the floor and benches of herbage [as here]; in the modern idea the leafy covering is the prominent feature.'

The present passage was imitated and amplified by the authoress of The Flower and the Leaf, beginning at l. 49:--

'a pleasaunt herber well ywrought, That benched was, and with turfes new, Freshly turved, wherof the grene gras, So small, so thicke, so short, so fresh of hew, That most like unto green woll wot I it was; The hegge also, that yede in compas And closed in all the grene herbere, With sicamour was set and eglatere'; &c.

So too, in the Assembly of Ladies, st. 7:--

'Which broght me to an herber fair and grene Made with benches ful crafty and clene.'

208. _Hed_, hidden. This rare form occurs again in Will. of Palerne, 688. The usual M.E. forms are _hud_ and _hid_. Similarly Chaucer uses _ken_ for 'kin' in Book Duch. 438, the usual M.E. forms being _kun_ and _kin_; and we find _ken_ also in Will. of Palerne, 722. These forms are Southern, and mostly Kentish.

213. _The god of love_, Cupid; cf. Parl. Foules, 212. Cf. the description in the E. version of the Rom. of the Rose, ll. 890, 1003.

_In his hande_, i.e. leading by the hand; see l. 241.

_A quene_, a queen, viz. Alcestis, as we afterwards learn. She is so clothed as to represent a daisy; hence her green dress, golden hair-ornament or caul, and white crown; see l. 218, and note to l. 227.

215. _Fret_ here means a caul of gold wire. They were sometimes set with stones. Cf. Rom. Rose, 1108, and The Flower and the Leaf, 152:--'A riche _fret_ of gold,' &c. See Fairholt, Costume in England.

217. The pause after _smale_ saves the final _e_ from elision. See examples in the Cant. Tales, B 2153, 3281, 3989; &c. We may translate the phrase _and I shal nat lye_ by 'if I am not to lie'; see l. 357, and the note.

221. _Oriental_, eastern; here, of superior quality. 'The precious stones called by lapidaries _oriental ruby_, _oriental topaz_, _oriental amethyst_, and _oriental emerald_ are red, yellow, violet, and green sapphires, distinguished from the other gems of the same name which have not the prefix _oriental_, by their greatly superior hardness, and greater specific gravity'; Engl. Cyclopædia, s.v. Adamantine Spar. Cf. P. Plowman, B. 2. 14.

223. _For which_, by means of which, whereby.

227. In the Rom. of the Rose the 'god of love' is said to be clothed 'not in silk, but all in flowers'; his garment was all covered with flowers, intermingled with rose-leaves; and he had a chaplet of red roses upon his head. See the E. version, l. 890. In l. 228, _fret_ means merely 'ornament' or 'border' of embroidery, whereas in l. 215 it is used in the sense of a caul or net worn on the head. The A-text (160) has _garlond_, and adds that lilies were stuck about among the rose-leaves. Moreover, a 'rose-leaf' here means a petal, or it would not be described as red. _Greves_ is properly 'groves or bushes,' but must here mean sprays or small boughs.

231. _For hevinesse_, to save him from the heaviness and weight of gold. The peculiar use of _for_ in the sense of 'against,' or 'to prevent,' should be noticed. See the note to Sir Thopas, B 2052.

242. _Corouned_ is pronounced as _Coróun'd_.

--A. 179. Notice this mention of Alcestis in the A-text. This is altered in the later version, so that the poet does not know who the queen is till l. 511, though she actually announces herself in l. 432. See note to l. 255 (B.) below.

249. _Absolon_, Absalom; remarkable for the beauty of his hair; see 2 Sam. xiv. 26. Cf. 'Absalom o ses treces soves'; Rom. de la Rose, 14074. I have little doubt that the general idea of this Ballade is taken from one quoted from MS. du Roi, à Paris (fonds de Saint-Victor, no. 275, fol. 45, recto, col. 2), by M. Michel, in his edition of Tristan, i. lxxxviii. It begins as follows:--

'_Hester_, Judith, _Penelope_, _Helaine_, Sarre, _Tisbe_, Rebeque, et Sairy, _Lucresse_, _Yseult_, Genèvre, chastelaine La très loial nommée de Vergy, Rachel, et la dame de Fayel _Onc ne furent si precieulx jouel_ D'onneur, bonté, senz, beauté et valour _Con est ma très doulce dame d'onnour_.

Se d'_Absalon_ la grant beauté humaine,' &c.

The refrain being, as before, 'Con est ma très doulce dame d'onnour.'

250. _Ester_, Esther; cited as an example of 'debonairte' in the Book of the Duch. 986; see also C. T., E 1371, 1744 (Merch. Tale); and the Tale of Melibeus, B 2291.

251. _Ionathas_, Jonathan; remarkable for his 'friendliness' towards David; 1 Sam. xix. 2.

252. _Penalopee_, Penelope, wife of Ulysses; see the note to Book of the Duch. 1081; and Ovid, Her. i. _Marcia Catoun_, formerly said to be Marcia, wife of M. Cato Uticensis [not Cato the Censor, as Bell says]. Bell notes that 'her complaisance, apparently, in consenting to be lent to Cato's friend, Hortensius, is the ground of her praise in this place.' Gilman refers us to Clough's tr. of Plutarch, iv. 394, where the story is given. This, however, is not the right solution. Prof. Lounsbury (Studies in Chaucer, ii. 294) points out that the reference is clearly to Marcia, _daughter_ of the same Cato, because Chaucer got the story from Hieronymus contra Iovinianum (i. 46), where we find:--'Marcia Catonis filia minor, quum quæreretur ab ea, cur post amissum maritum, denuo non nuberet, respondit, non se inuenire uirum, qui se magis vellet quam sua.' A much better example would have been her sister Porcia, the devoted wife of Marcus Brutus (Jul. Cæsar, ii. 1).

254. _Isoude_, the heroine of the romance of Sir Tristram; see Parl. of Foules, 288 (and the note on the line); also Ho. Fame, 1796. _Eleyne_, Helen, heroine of the Trojan war.

255. Note how the original refrain of this Balade, beginning 'Alceste is here,' is altered to 'My lady cometh'; in order to prevent the premature mention of Alcestis' name. See note to A. 179 above, following the note to l. 242. _Disteyne_, bedim; viz. by outshining them.

257. _Lavyne_, Lavinia, the heroine of the latter part of the Æneid; cf. Book of the Duch. 331; Ho. Fame, 458. _Lucresse_, Lucretia of Rome, whose 'Legend' is related at length below; l. 1680. Cf. Cant. Tales, F 1405.

258. _Polixene_, Polyxena, daughter of Priam, who, like Lucretia, bought love too dearly; for she was sacrificed on the tomb of Achilles, according to Ovid, Met. xiii. 448. But according to Guido delle Colonne, whom Chaucer probably regarded as a better authority, she was slain by Pyrrhus. Cf. Book of the Duch. 1071. Note also:--'Alas, your love, I bye hit al to dere'; Anelida, 255.

259. _Cleopatre_, Cleopatra; whose Legend is the first of the series below: l. 580.

261. _Tisbe_, Thisbe; whose Legend follows that of Cleopatra; l. 706.

263. _Herro_, Hero of Sestos, beloved by Leander; see Ovid, Her. xviii, xix. Spelt _Erro_, Pref. to Man of Law, B 69; whence we learn that the Legend of Hero was intended to be one of the set. _Dido_; whose Legend occurs below; l. 924. _Laudomia_, Laodamia, wife of Protesilaus; see Ovid, Her. xiii. Spelt _Ladomea_, and accented (as here) on the _o_; Pref. to Man of Law, B 71. And see Cant. Tales, F 1445.

264. _Phyllis_; whose Legend occurs at l. 2394.

265. _Canace_, daughter of Æolus, beloved by Macareus; see Ovid, Her. xi. See Pref. to Man of Law, B 78; whence we learn that Chaucer had _no_ intention of including her Legend in the set, but expressly rejected it. _Chere_, sad countenance.

266. _Ysiphile_, Hypsipyle; whose Legend occurs at l. 1368.

268. _Ypermistre_, Hypermnestra; whose Legend occurs at l. 2562.

_Adriane_, Ariadne; whose Legend occurs at l. 1886.

For further remarks, see my long note to the Man of Law's Tale, B 61.

270. Bell remarks that the above beautiful Balade has been often imitated; and cites a poem by Surrey with the title 'A Praise of his Love, wherein he reproveth them that compare their ladies with his,' and beginning--'Geue place, ye louers, here before That spent your bostes and bragges in vaine.' See Tottell's Miscellany, ed. Arber, p. 20. Another such poem occurs in the same collection, at p. 163; beginning--'Geue place, you Ladies, and begon'; this, it appears, was written by John Heywood; Warton, Hist. E. Poet. (1840), iii. 56 (note). With respect to Surrey's verses, Warton (Hist. E. P. 1840, iii. 33) remarks that 'the leading compliment, which has been used by later writers, is in the spirit of Italian fiction.' But it is probable that we here see Surrey's original before us. Among the beautiful songs on this theme, we should not neglect 'You meaner beauties of the night,' by Sir Henry Wotton. Cf. ll. 274, 275 below.

271. _By_, with respect to. _My lady_ is the queen Alcestis, whose name Chaucer is supposed not to know as yet. See l. 432.

277. See note to l. 186 above.

278. _Nadde_ = _ne hadde_. 'For, had not the comfort of her presence existed.' We should now say, 'Had it not been for the comfort.' Cf. Spec. Eng. Literature, pt. iii. note to § xv (_b_). l. 96.

295. _For the nones_, for the once, for this special occasion. See the note to Chaucer's Prologue, l. 379. The phrase was first explained, carefully and fully, by Price, in a note to Warton's Hist. Eng. Poet. ed. 1840, ii. 74, 75.

298. 'That bears away the prize from us all in external beauty or figure.' _Our alder_, of us all; where _our_ = A.S. _úre_, gen. pl. of the first personal pronoun, and _alder_ is a more emphatic form of _aller_ (A.S. _ealra_), gen. pl. of _all_. See Chaucer's Prol. 586, 710, 799, 823. Hence _alderliefest_, dearest of all, in 2 Hen. VI. i. 1. 28; probably borrowed from _alderlevest_ in Chaucer's Troilus, v. 576 (in vol. ii.). Prof. Corson cites _altherbeste_, best of all, from Gower, C. A. ed. Pauli, i. 106; _althermest_, most of all, from the same, i. 147; _althertrewest_, id. i. 176; _altherwerst_, id. i. 53. In Chaucer's Minor Poems the reader will find _our alder_, of us all, ABC, 84; also _alderbeste_, Book Duch. 246; _alderfaireste_, id. 1050; and _aldernext_, Parl. Foules, 244.

300. _A-compas enviroun_, in a circle, all round about.

304. _By and by_, one after another, in order; see the New E. Dict.

307. _Furlong-wey_, lit. two minutes and a-half; or the time of walking a furlong, at 3 miles an hour. See Anelida, 328; Ho. Fame, 2064.

314. _Hit am I_, it is I; the usual M.E. idiom. See Kn. Tale, A 1736; Man of Law's Tale, B 1109, and note. _Him neer_, nearer to him: _neer_ is the comparative of _neh_ or _nigh_; cf. l. 316.

318. Dante has 'che noi siam vermi'; Purg. x. 124.

323. _Servaunt_ in Chaucer frequently means 'lover'; such is necessarily the case here.

329. Chaucer here certainly seems to imply that he translated the whole of the Romance of the Rose, or at any rate that part of it which is especially directed against women. The existing English version consists of three fragments, apparently by different authors, and I see little reason for connecting more than fragment A (ll. 1-1705) with Chaucer. None of the fragments contain such passages as the God of Love would most have objected to; but we find some of them practically reproduced in the Prologue to the Wyf of Bathes Tale. We also find numerous imitations of passages from that poem scattered up and down throughout Chaucer's works; and it is remarkable that such passages usually lie outside the contents of the English fragments. Where they do not, Chaucer frequently varies from the English version of the Romance. Thus where Chaucer (Book Duch. 419) has:--

'And every tree stood by himselve Fro other wel ten foot or twelve. So grete trees, so huge of strengthe'--

the Eng. version of the Rom. of the Rose (1391) has:--

'These trees were set, that I devyse, Oon from another, in assyse, Five fadome or sixe, I trowe so, But they were hye and grete also.'

We may here note the variation between _ten foot or twelve_ and _five fadom or six_; the original has _cinq toises, ou de sis_. Other passages in the Book of the Duchesse which resemble the existing E. version of the Rom. of the Rose are these. (1) Book Duch. 424; cf. R. R. 1396. (2) Book Duch. 291; cf. R. R. 49. (3) Book Duch. 410; cf. R. R. 59. (4) Book Duch. 283; R. R. 7. (5) Book Duch. 340; R. R. 130. (6) Book Duch. 1152; R. R. 2084.

For a fuller discussion of this question, see the Pref. to Ch. Minor Poems, in vol. i. p. 1.

--A. 260. _Paramours_ seems to be an adverb here, meaning 'with a lover's affection.' So in the Kn. Tale, A 1155:--

'For _par amour_ I loved hir first er thow.'

And again, in A 2112:--

'Ye knowen wel, that every lusty knight That loveth _paramours_, and hath his might.'

So also in Troilus, v. 158, 332, and in Barbour's Bruce, xiii. 485--'he lufit his [Ross's] sistir _paramouris_.' Tyrwhitt quotes from Froissart, bk. i. c. 196--'Il aima adonc _par amours_, et depuis espousa, Madame Ysabelle de Juiliers.'

The following phrase 'too hard and hot' merely intensifies the sense of _paramours_.

332. _Criseyde._ The allusion is to Chaucer's long poem entitled _Troilus and Criseyde_ (or _Creseyde_). The A-text is more outspoken here, as it alludes to the inconstancy of the heroine in direct terms.

--A. 280. _Valerie_, Valerius; see note to A. 281 below.

_Titus_; Titus Livius; see l. 1683, and the note. _Claudian_; Claudius Claudianus, who wrote, amongst other things, a poem De Raptu Proserpinae, to which Chaucer refers; see Ho. Fame, 449, 1509. He flourished about A.D. 400.

--A. 281. _Ierome_; Hieronymus, usually known as St. Jerome, a celebrated father of the Latin Church; died Sept. 30, 420. In the Wyf of Bathes Prologue (C. T. 6251, Group D, l. 669) we find:--

'He hadde a book, that gladly, night and day, For his desport he wolde rede alway; He cleped it Valerie and Theofraste, At whiche book he lough alwey ful faste. And eek ther was somtyme a clerk at Rome, A cardinal, that highte Seint Ierome, That made a book agayn Iovinian'; &c.

In Tyrwhitt's Introductory discourse, he says of this Prologue--'The greatest part must have been of Chaucer's own invention, though one may plainly see he had been reading the popular invectives against marriage and women in general; such as, the Roman de la Rose; Valerius ad Rufinum _de non ducenda uxore_; and particularly Hieronymus _contra Iovinianum_.' He adds, in a note--'The holy Father, by way of recommending celibacy, has exerted all his learning and eloquence (and he certainly was not deficient in either) to collect together and aggravate whatever he could find to the prejudice of the female sex. Among other things he has inserted his own translation (probably) of a long extract from what he calls "Liber aureolus Theophrasti de nuptiis."

'Next to him in order of time was the treatise entitled _Epistola Valerii ad Rufinum de non ducenda uxore_ (MS. Reg. 12 D. iii.). It has been printed, for the similarity of its contents, I suppose, among the works of St. Jerome, though it is evidently of a much later date.... To these two books _Jean de Meun_ has been obliged for some of the severest strokes in his [part of the] _Roman de la Rose_; and Chaucer has transfused the quintessence of all the three works, upon the subject of Matrimony, into his _Wife of Bathes Prologue_ and _Merchant's Tale_.'

Tyrwhitt further observes that the _Epistola Valerii_ was written, according to Tanner, by Walter Map; of this there appears to be no doubt. Lounsbury (Studies, ii. 276) takes _Valerie_ to mean Valerius Maximus, which is here improbable.

It is, at first, not very clear why the God of Love is here represented as appealing to books _against_ women; but we are bidden to observe that, even there, good women are incidentally mentioned; see A. 284. Even Valerius praises Lucretia and Penelope.

--A. 288. Cf. the long passage in the Franklein's Tale about chaste women; C. T. 11676-11766 (F 1364-1456). It is nearly all taken from Jerome.

--A. 305. _Epistels_ rather than _epistelle_ in the singular. The reference is to Ovid's Heroides, which contains twenty-one love-letters. Cf. Chaucer's Introd. to Man of Law, B 55, where he alludes to Ovid's mention of lovers 'in his _Epistelles_.'

--A. 307. _Vincent_ is Vincent of Beauvais, who compiled an encyclopædia of universal knowledge in the 13th century. One portion of this great work, treating of universal history, is called _Speculum Historiale_, which Chaucer has here turned into _Storial Mirour_. See Lounsbury's Studies in Chaucer, ii. 375.

338. As Chaucer is pleased to call his poem by the name of 'seintes legende of Cupyde' in the Introd. to Man of Law, B 61, he here turns Venus into a saint, to keep up the analogy between his present undertaking and the Legenda Sanctorum. But John de Meun had previously said much the same thing. In Le Rom. de la Rose, 10863, Cupid is made to swear 'par _sainte_ Venus ma mere.' See the Eng. version, l. 5953. (Perhaps read _seynte_ in Text B.)

343. In accordance with the proverb--'Audi alteram partem.' See A. 325. Cf. Seneca, _Medea_, 195.

348. 'And even if you were not an omniscient god.'

352. From the Rom. of the Rose; the E. version has (ll. 1050, 1):--

'Hir court hath many a losengere, And many a traytour envious.'

Again repeated in Cant. Tales, B 4515-8.

353. _Totelere_ (C. _totulour_), tattling; properly a sb., meaning 'tattler,' but here used in apposition, and, practically, as an adjective. Tyrwhitt explains it by 'whisperer.' Halliwell quotes 'Be no _totiler_' from MS. Bibl. Reg. 17 B. xvii. fol. 141. It clearly means a gossiping tattler, or tale-bearer.

The word is scarce, but we find a helpful passage in P. Plowman, B. xx. 297:--

'Of alle taletellers and _tyterers_ in ydel.'

Here _tyterers_ means gossipers, or retailers of tittle-tattle; and various readings give the forms _titeleris_ (as printed by Wright) and _tutelers_ (as printed by Crowley). The last form _tuteler_ is clearly identical with Chaucer's _totelere_, spelt _tutelere_ in MS. Arch. Selden B. 24.

357. 'These are the causes why, if I am not to lie'; &c. See note to l. 217.

358. _Lavender_, laundress, washerwoman; (Bell's interpretation of 'gutter' is utter nonsense). See _Laundress_ in my Etym. Dict., where I refer to the present passage. _Laundress_ is formed by adding _-ess_ to _launder_ or _laundre_, the contracted form of _lavender_ as here used. In Barbour's Bruce, ed. Skeat, xvi. 273, 292, the word for 'washerwoman' is spelt _lauender_, _laynder_, and _landar_. Palsgrave's Eng. and Fr. Dict. gives--'_Laundre_, that wassheth clothes; _lauendiere_'; and Cotgrave explains the Fr. _lauandiere_ by the Eng. _launderesse_. Chaucer's presentation to us of Envy as the person who washes all the dirty linen in the court, is particularly happy. As a matter of fact, he is here quoting Dante, but he has substituted _lavender_ (perhaps in an ill sense, though I do not feel sure of this) for the _meretrice_ of the original. The passage referred to is in the Inferno, xiii. 64:--

'La meretrice, che mai dall' ospizio Di Cesare non torse gli occhi putti, Morte comune, e delle corti vizio, Infiammò contre me gli animi tutti.'

Cary's translation has:--

'The harlot, who ne'er turned her gloating eyes From Cæsar's household, common vice and pest Of courts, 'gainst me inflamed the minds of all.'

Gower (C. A. ed. Pauli, i. 263) says:--

'Senec witnesseth openly How that envie properly Is of the court the comun wenche.'

Note that _parteth_ in l. 359 means 'departeth.'

361. 'Whoever goes away, at any rate she will not be wanting.' Men come and go, but Envy remains. This is the right sense; but Bell, whom Prof. Corson follows, gives it quite a false twist. He says, 'Whosoever goes, i.e. falls, she will not be in want'; a desperate and unmeaning solution, due to not appreciating the force of the verb _to want_, which here simply means 'to be absent,' and can be applied to _persons_ as well as to _things_. 'There _wanteth_ but a mean to fill your song'; Two Gent. of Verona, i. 2. 295; 'though bride and bridegroom _wants_,' i.e. are absent, Tam. Shrew, iii. 2. 248: 'There _wanteth_ now our brother of Gloucester here'; Rich. III. ii. 1. 43.

364. 'But only because he is accustomed to write poems.'

366. 'Or it was enjoined him by some patron to compose those two poems (the Romaunce of the Rose and Troilus; _see_ A. 344); and he did not dare to refuse.'

371. _As thogh that_, as he would have done if.

372. _And had_, i.e. and had composed it all himself.

374. 'The allusion is to the several successful adventurers, like the Visconti, who in the 13th and 14th centuries succeeded in seizing upon the governments of Milan, and other free cities of Lombardy'; Bell. See the article _Visconti_ in the Eng. Cyclopædia; we are there referred to Verri, Storia di Milano, and to Muratori, Annali d' Italia. Cf. Dante, Inf. xxviii. 74, 81; and see Chaucer's reference to 'Barnabo Viscounte' in the Monkes Tale, B 3589.

375. _Reward at_, regard to. _Reward_ and _regard_ are etymologically identical. Observe the accent on the _former_ syllable. Cf. l. 399.

378. _Fermour_, a farmer of taxes; who is naturally exacting and oppressive.

380. Before _is_ supply _hit_, which, as in l. 379, refers to a suppliant culprit. His own vassals are a lord's treasures, to be cherished, not oppressed.

381. Bech refers us to Seneca, De Clementia, lib. i. c. 3, § 3; c. 5, § 4. Or perhaps Aristotle is meant, whose supposed advice to Alexander is fully given in Gower's Confessio Amantis, bk. vii. See particularly the passage in Pauli's edition, iii. 176:--

'What is a king in his legeaunce, Wher that ther is no law in londe?'

There is a similar long and tedious passage in Lancelot of the Laik, ed. Skeat, ll. 1463-1998. Gower calls Aristotle 'the philosophre'; C. A. iii. 86. We may also compare Hoccleve, De Regimine Principum, ed. Wright, pp. 102-3, translated from Ægidius, De Reg. Princ., lib. i. pars 1, cap. xiv; where the reference to Aristotle is:--'Propter quod V. Ethicorum scribitur, quod _principatus uirum ostendit_.'

384. _Al_, although. 'Although he will preserve their rank for his lords.' Note that _his lordes_ is in the dative case. It was probably from not observing this that Thynne's edition and the Pepys MS. have needlessly inserted the word _in_ before _hir_. Cf. A. 370.

387. _Half-goddes_, demi-gods. Cf. 'the demi-god Authority'; Meas. for Meas. i. 2. 124.

391. So, in his Epitaph on Inigo Jones, Ben Jonson says:--'The Libyan lion hunts no butterflies'; which he took from Martial, Epig. xii. 61. 6. And see Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 16.

397. _Areste._ Bell seems to suggest the sense of 'restraint,' and Prof. Corson, following him, suggests 'self-command'; but such a sense does not exactly appear in Murray's Dictionary. Nevertheless, 'self-restraint' suits not only this passage, but also the passage cited from the Harleian MS. in the foot-note to the Somnour's Tale, D 2048, in vol. iv. p. 381.

399. Here, as in l. 375, _reward_ means 'regard,' and is accented on the _e_.

400. _Maystrie_, masterly act; _no maystrie_, an easy matter.

405. This is not altogether a metaphorical expression. We remember something very like it at the siege of Calais in 1347, when, according to Froissart, Edward III. sent for the six inhabitants of Calais, who were to present themselves 'with bare heads and feet, with ropes round their necks'; see Froissart, tr. by Johnes, bk. i. c. 145.

415. In the earlier text (A 403), the word _He_ stands alone in the first foot, which is less pleasing.

417. See Introd. to the Minor Poems (in vol. i.) for a discussion of some of the poems here mentioned. He here mentions, first of all, three of his lesser poems, in the order of their length; viz. the Hous of Fame, the Deeth of Blaunche, and the Parlement of Foules.

420. The 'Palamoun and Arcyte' here referred to was no doubt a translation of Boccaccio's Teseide, or of selections from it, in seven-line stanzas. Though not preserved to us in its entirety, several fragments of it remain. These are to be found (1) in sixteen stanzas of the Parl. of Foules (ll. 183-294), translated from the Teseide, bk. vii. st. 51-66; (2) in part of the first ten stanzas of Anelida, from the same, bk. i. st. 1-3, and bk. ii. st. 10-12; (3) in three stanzas near the end of Troilus (viz. st. 7, 8, and 9 from the end), from the same, xi. 1-3; and (4) in a re-written form, in what is now known as the Knightes Tale. See Notes to Anelida, in vol. i. pp. 529, 530.

421. 'Though the story is little known.' Tyrwhitt remarks that these words 'seem to imply that it [Chaucer's original version of Palamon and Arcite] had not made itself very popular.' Unfortunately, Tyrwhitt, who so very seldom goes astray, has here misled nearly all who have consulted him. Chaucer is not referring to his own version of the story, nor even to Boccaccio's version, but to the old story _itself_; and he is merely repeating Boccaccio's own remark, when (in the Teseide, i. 2) he speaks of it as

'--una storia antica, Tanto negli anni riposta e nascosa, Che Latino autor non par ne dica, Per quel ch'io senta, in libro alcuna cosa.'

And, in truth, the story must have been known but to very few, till Boccaccio rescued it from oblivion. This is all that is meant; and there is no difficulty. Note further that Chaucer refers to the very same passage in another poem; see note to Anelida, l. 8.

423. A Balade is, properly, a poem in three stanzas, in which each stanza ends with the same line, called the refrain. There is also usually a fourth stanza, called _Lenvoy_, or the Envoy, which is sometimes shorter than the other three. Most of Chaucer's Balades have probably perished, as only a few are now known. These are: _Fortune_, consisting of 3 Balades, each in 8-line stanzas, followed by a single Envoy; _Truth_, a Balade with Envoy, in 7-line stanzas; _Gentilesse_, without Envoy; _Lak of Stedfastnesse_, with Envoy; (probably) _A Balade against women unconstaunt_, without Envoy; _The Complaint of Venus_, consisting of 3 Balades, with a general Envoy; _The Compleint to his Purse_, with Envoy of five lines only; _To Rosemounde_, without Envoy; and the Balade included in the present poem, at ll. 249-269 above.

A _Roundel_ is a poem of from nine to fourteen lines, in which only eight lines are different from each other, the rest being repetitions of lines that have already occurred. See this fully explained in the note to l. 675 of the Parl. of Foules. The one certain example is the Roundel included in the Parl. of Foules, beginning at l. 680. There is also a beautiful example of a Triple Roundel, which I have included in the Minor Poems, with the title of Merciless Beauty. No doubt Chaucer wrote many more, but they are lost.

A _Virelay_ is a poem in an unusual metre, of which examples are very rare. Only one entire poem of this character has been conjecturally assigned to Chaucer, but it is written in later English, and cannot possibly be his. It is not a true Virelay (in the French sense), and first appeared in the edition of 1561; see vol. i. p. 33. In this poem, lines 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 all rime together; and l. 4 rimes with l. 8. Then comes the 'veer' or 'turn,' which requires that, in the next stanza, lines 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15 shall rime with lines 4 and 8, as, in fact, they do; but lines 12 and 16 introduce a _new_ rime, as they should _not_ do. We find, however, two fair examples of the Virelay in the poem of Anelida, viz. in lines 256-271 and 317-332. In the former of these, the rime in _-ee_ (_-e_) appears in lines 256-8 and 260-2, and the rime in _-yte_ ends lines 259 and 263; whereas, conversely, the rime in _-yte_ ends lines 264-6 and 268-270, whilst lines 267 and 271 repeat the rime in _-ee_. Similarly, ll. 317-332 exhibit veering rimes in _-eye_ and _-ure_.

In Hoccleve's Poems, ed. Furnivall (Early Eng. Text Soc., Extra Series, 1892), there are several clever and intricate examples of the Virelay. Thus, in Balade IV, at p. 39, there are five stanzas, but only three rimes, viz. in _-al_, _-ee_, and _-ay_. The formula of rimes, for the first and third stanzas, is _a b a b b c b c_; for the second and fourth stanzas, _c b c b b a b a_; and for the fifth stanza, _a c a c c b c b_. See also the same, pp. 41, 47, 49, 58, 59, 61, 62. Beyond all doubt, Hoccleve copied the forms of Chaucer's lost virelays.

424. _Holynesse_, holy employment, religious composition. This is, clearly, an intentional substitution for the _besinesse_, i.e. 'laborious employment,' in the A-text, l. 412.

425. Chaucer made an excellent prose translation of Boethius de Consolatione Philosophiæ, a Latin treatise much admired in the middle ages, and still worthy of admiration. For further remarks, see vol. iii.

--A. 414. This is the only notice we possess of a work by Chaucer which is no longer extant. We gather from it that he made a translation of the Latin prose treatise by Pope Innocent III., entitled De Miseria Conditionis Humanæ, a gloomy enumeration of human woes without a single alleviating touch of hope, fiercely and unrelentingly set forth. It is probable that it was written in 7-line stanzas; for portions of it appear to be preserved in the Prologue to the Man of Lawes Tale, B 99-126, and in other stanzas of the same (B 421-7, 771-7, 925-931, 1135-8).

426. _The Lyf of Seynt Cecyle_ is happily preserved. It was one of Chaucer's early productions; but he himself rescued it from possible disappearance by introducing it into the Canterbury Tales, with the title of the Second Nonnes Tale.

428. This is another of the lost works. We gather that he made a translation from a piece attributed to Origen, one of the most eminent of the early Christian writers, who was born at Alexandria in 186. Tyrwhitt says the piece meant is doubtless 'the Homily _de Maria Magdalena_, which has been commonly, though falsely, attributed to Origen; see Opp. Origenis, Tom. ii. p. 291, ed. Paris, 1604.' Tyrwhitt adds, very justly and incontrovertibly--'I cannot believe that the Poem entitled The Lamentation of Marie Magdaleine, which is in all the [older] editions of Chaucer, is really that work of his. It can hardly be considered as a translation, or even as an imitation, of the Homily; and the composition, in every respect, is infinitely meaner than the worst of his genuine pieces.'

432. Here, in the B-text, the name of Alcestis is first mentioned; yet strange to say, Chaucer does not realise who she is till later; see l. 518. She was the wife of Admetus, not king of Thrace (as here said) but of Pheræ in Thessaly. Apollo obtained from the Moiræ a promise to grant Admetus deliverance from death if, at the hour of his death, his father, mother, or wife, would consent to die for him. Alcestis consented to die in his stead, and is therefore here taken as the chief type of wifely devotion. The mention of Alcestis in the Court of Love, st. 15, is merely copied from Chaucer; so also Lydgate's use of _Alceste_ to mean 'a daisy,' in his Legend of St. Edmund, l. 235 of the additional stanzas found in MS. Ashmole 46, as printed in Horstmann, Alteng. Legenden, Neue Folge (1881), p. 443. Gower has the story of Alcestis in his Confessio Amantis; ed. Pauli, iii. 149.

452. An allusion to the common proverb--'Bis dat, qui cito dat'; he who gives at once, gives twice. Publius Syrus has: 'Bis gratum est, quod dato opus est, ultro si offeras,' v. 44; and again: 'Inopi beneficium bis dat, qui dat celeriter'; v. 235.

465. 'Has no participation in the deed of a thief.' Similarly, in the Squi. Tale, F 537, Chaucer tells us that 'A trew wight and a theef thenken nat oon,' i.e. do not think alike. _Trew_ means 'honest.'

466. The first foot contains _Ne a trew-_; _e_ in _Ne_ is elided.

475, 6. Closely imitated in the Court of Love, st. 61:--

'And argue not for reason ne for skill Againe thy ladies pleasure ne entent, For love will not be counterpleted indeede.'

The substitution of the dissyllabic _indeede_ for Chaucer's monosyllabic _be_ just ruins the scansion of the line; but we must not expect always to find melody in that grossly over-rated poem.

496, 7. Observe that these lines are not in the A-text. They must necessarily have been added after 1382, when Richard II. married Anne of Bohemia, and of course long before 1394, when 'the good queen Anne' died, and her husband at once forsook their favourite residence of Shene, now Richmond; see Annals of England, p. 201.

499. This is a strange question, seeing that Alcestis has already announced her name at l. 432; we must suppose that the poet did not realise that she was _the very_ Alcestis whom he longed to see. But it looks like an oversight, due to his partially rewriting this Prologue.

503. Literally Chaucer's favorite line; for it reappears three times more, viz. in the Kn. Ta., A 1761; March. Ta., E 1986; and Squi. Ta., F 479. And, in the Man of Law's Tale, B 660, we have--'As gentil herte is fulfild of pitee.' It is admirable.

510. Here Chaucer seems to be imitating Froissart; see the Introduction. I cannot find any early account of Alcestis that turns her into a daisy[68]. See notes to ll. 432, 515.

515. Alcestis 'was afterwards brought back from the lower world by Hercules, and restored to her husband'; Lewis and Short, Lat. Dict. s.v. _Alcestis_. And see the Introduction.

522. _Bountee_, goodness. See Clerk. Ta., E 157, 415; and Trench, Sel. Glossary.

526. _Agaton_, Agathon or Agatho; Dante's _Agatone_ (Purg. xxii. 107). An Athenian poet (B.C. 447-400); who wrote a tragedy called 'the Flower.' See the Introduction.

531. _Cibella_, Cybela, or more commonly Cybele, a Phrygian goddess, later worshipped at Rome as Ops or Mater Magna. She was the goddess of the earth, and especially represented its fertility; hence she is naturally said to produce flowers. She here answers to the 'Ceres' of Froissart; see the Introduction.

533. The reference is to the red tips on the white petals of the daisy, the 'wee, modest, crimson-tippèd flower.' This is said to be the gift of Mars, as he was associated with that colour. He is called 'Mars the rede'; see l. 2589 below; Anelida, l. 1; Kn. Ta., A 1969. The colour of the planet Mars is reddish.

In the present passage _reed_ is a sb.; 'And Mars gave redness to her crown.'

539. Referring to the Balade at l. 249. In the A-text, Alcestis was actually mentioned in the refrain; but Chaucer rewrote it so as to exclude her name. He now writes (in l. 540) as if he had forgotten to put it in. Of course ll. 539-541 are peculiar to the B-text, as marked.

542. _Kalender._ 'A kalendar is an almanac by which persons are guided in their computation of time; hence it is used, as here, for a guide or example generally'; Bell. The New E. Dict. quotes this passage, and explains the word by 'a guide, directory; an example, model'; and cites Hamlet, v. 2. 114--'He is the card or _calendar_ of gentry.' Nevertheless, I doubt whether this sense arose from the mere _usefulness_ of the calendar. I believe that Chaucer regarded it in quite another aspect, viz. as containing the _record_ or _list_ of the saints whose lives are worthy of imitation. Hence Schmidt explains the word in Hamlet as 'note-book' or 'record'; as is certainly the case in All's Well, i. 3. 4, which Murray duly quotes with the sense of 'record.' So in the present case _kalender_ does not mean 'example' merely, but _a whole list_ or _complete record of examples_, which gives the word a much greater force. Compare Chaucer's ABC, under the letter _K_, and the note (l. 73).

549. We hence learn that Chaucer's nineteenth[69] and last Legend was to have been the Legend of Alcestis; but he never wrote more than the former _half_ of the work. Cf. A-text, 532.

555. _Thy balade_; see ll. 249-268; F. and Th. read _my_. We here learn that the Ladies about whom the Legends were to be written (l. 557) are all mentioned in the Ballad, which is an important hint. We must of course remove the names of Absalom and Jonathan; and there is reason for supposing that we should exclude Esther. Next, we set aside Lucretia, Cleopatra, Thisbe, Dido, Phyllis, Hypsipyle, Hypermnestra, and Ariadne, whose Legends we possess; observing at the same time that we also have the Legend of Philomela (though she is not mentioned), and of Medea, who shares a Legend with Hypsipyle. The names still left are those of Penelope, Martia, Isoude, Helen, Lavinia, Polyxena, Hero, Laodamia, Canace, and Alcestis. But this list only partially agrees with Chaucer's scheme as given elsewhere, viz. in the Introduction to the Man of Law's Tale. See further in the Introduction.

574. _The grete_, the substance; as in Book of the Duch. 1242; Parl. Foules, 35.

575. 'According as these old authors are pleased to treat (them).'

576. _Shal telle_, has to narrate.

I. THE LEGEND OF CLEOPATRA.

It is not clear what account Chaucer followed; see the Introduction. The chief sources for the history are Plutarch, Appian, Dion Cassius, and Orosius (bk. vi. c. 19). I shall refer to the Life of M. Antonius in my edition of Shakespeare's Plutarch (denoted below by Sh. Plut.). Bech points out that one of Chaucer's sources was Florus; see note to l. 655.

581. Ptolemy XI., or Ptolemy Auletes, king of Egypt, died B.C. 51, leaving two sons, _both_ called Ptolemy, and two daughters, Cleopatra and Arsinoe. Cleopatra was then 17 years of age, and was appointed queen of Egypt in conjunction with her brother, the elder Ptolemy, whom she was to marry; but she was expelled from the throne by Ptolemy's guardians. In B.C. 47 she was replaced upon it by Julius Cæsar, but still in conjunction with her brother. This led to the Alexandrine war, in the course of which this elder Ptolemy perished. After this, she reigned, nominally, in conjunction with the _younger_ Ptolemy, to whom also she was nominally married; but he was still quite a child, and was murdered by her orders in less than four years, after which she was sole queen, in name as well as in reality.

We thus see that the Ptolemy here mentioned may be either of Cleopatra's brothers of that name; but it is more likely that Chaucer refers to the elder of them. Shakespeare also uses the expression 'queen of Ptolemy'; Ant. i. 4. 6.

583. _On a tyme_; viz. not long after the battle of Philippi, which took place in B.C. 42. 'Antonius, going to make war with the Parthians, sent to command Cleopatra to appear personally before him when he came into Cilicia, to answer unto such accusations as were laid against her, being this: that she had aided Cassius and Brutus in their war against him ... Cleopatra on the other side ... guessing by the former access and credit she had with Julius Cæsar and C. Pompey (the son of Pompey the Great) only for her beauty, she began to have good hope that she might more easily win Antonius. For Cæsar and Pompey knew her when she was but a young thing, and knew not then what the world meant; but now she went to Antonius at the age when a woman's beauty is at the prime, and she also of best judgment.'--Sh. Plut. p. 174. Almost immediately after this passage follows the celebrated description of Cleopatra in her barge upon the Cydnus, familiar to all in the words of Shakespeare; Ant. and Cleop. ii. 2. 196.

591. 'Octavius Cæsar reporting all these things unto the Senate, and oftentimes accusing him to the whole people and assembly in Rome, he thereby stirred up all the Romans against him.'--Sh. Plut. p. 202.

592. After the death of his first wife, Fulvia, Antony had married Octavia, sister of Octavianus (better known to us as Augustus). But in a few years he deserted her, and surrendered himself wholly to the charms of Cleopatra. Cf. Ant. and Cleop. iii. 6.

597. Cf. Sh. Plut. p. 192; Ant. and Cleop. i. 4. 55.

605. _Sterve_, to die. See _Starve_, in Trench, Sel. Glossary.

624. _Octovian_, Octavianus. 'Now for Cæsar, he had 250 ships of war, 80,000 footmen, and well near as many horsemen as his enemy Antonius'; Sh. Plut. p. 207.

634. See the account of the battle of Actium, B.C. 31; in Sh. Plut. p. 210. The vivid description here given by Chaucer resembles the parallel passage in the Kn. Tale, A 2600-20, which should be compared. 'The soldiers fought with their pikes, halbards and darts, and threw halbards and darts with fire. Antonius' ships, on the other side, bestowed among them, with their crossbows and engines of battery, great store of shot from their high towers of wood that were set upon their ships.'--Sh. Plut. p. 211. There is some description of the hostile fleets and of the battle in Florus (see note to l. 655), who tells us that, whilst Octavius had 400 ships against the 200 ships of Antony, the latter were nearly double the size of the former; so that the fleets were thus of equal strength.

637. Bell says this is 'a ludicrous anachronism'; but it is nothing of the kind. The word _gonne_ is here used in the sense of 'shot' or 'missile'; and the line means--'with terrible sound out rushes the huge missile,' being hurled from one of the 'engines of battery' mentioned in the last note. It is the missile, not the engine, that 'out goth'; as a moment's reflection would have informed the commentator, whose remark was needless. The use of _gonne_ in the sense of 'missile' is curious, but not unexampled; for, in the Avowynge of Arthur, st. 65, we read that 'there come fliand a _gunne_,' i.e. there came flying along a missile. I believe it is also used in the sense of missile in Sir Ferumbras, 5176, though the passage is not decisive.

Even if this were not the case, there is no 'anachronism'; for _gonne_ was originally used in the sense of 'catapult,' as may be seen by consulting the Prompt. Parvulorum, where the Latin for it is _petraria_, and _mangonale_. The _grisly soun_ alludes to the whizzing of the ponderous missile through the air; Barbour says of a great stone, hurled from a catapult, that 'It flaw out, quhedirand, with a rout,' i.e. it flew out, whirring, with a great noise. See The Bruce, xvii. 684.

On the other hand, in Ho. Fame, 1643, Chaucer certainly uses _gonne_ in the sense of 'cannon'; but that does not affect the sense of the present passage.

638. _Hurtlen_, push, dash, ram one against the other; cf. Kn. Ta., A 2616. 'Somtyme they _hurtled_ to-gyder that they felle grovelyng on the ground'; Morte Arthure; by Sir T. Malory, bk. vii. c. 12. _Heterly_, vehemently, fiercely, occurs frequently in the Wars of Alexander, ed. Skeat (E. E. T. S.) Compare Vergil's description of the battle, in Æn. viii. 689, &c.: 'Una omnes ruere.'

640. _In goth_, in there go. _Goth_ is singular in form, because of its position in the sentence; but it has two nominatives, viz. 'grapnel' and 'shearing-hooks.' The former was a contrivance for clutching the ropes, and the latter for severing them.

642. This is wonderfully graphic. A boarder bursts in with a pole-axe; a sailor, on the defence, flees behind the mast, then dashes forward again, and drives the assailant overboard.

646. _Rent_, rendeth; the present tense.

648. By pouring hard peas upon the hatches, they became so slippery that the boarders could not stand.

649. Some carried pots full of quicklime, which they threw into the eyes of their enemies. See Notes and Queries, 5 S. x. 188. The English did this very thing, when attacking a French fleet, in the time of Henry III. Strutt (Manners and Customs, 1774, ii. 11) quotes from Matthew Paris to this effect:--'Calcem quoque vivam et in pulverém subtilem reductam, in altum projicientes, vento illam ferente, Francorum oculos excaecaverunt.' Cf. Æn. viii. 694.

652. _Put_, short for _putteth_, puts; pres. tense.

653. _To-go_, disperse themselves; pres. tense. The prefix _to_ has the same force as the Lat. _dis-_, i.e. 'in different directions.' We even find _to-ga_ used as a past tense in Barbour's Bruce (viii. 351, ix. 263, 269, xvii. 104, 575), with the sense 'fled in different directions,' or 'fled away.' Cf. 'the wlcne _to-gað_,' the clouds part asunder; Morris; Spec. of Eng. pt. I. p. 7, l. 169. And again, 'thagh the fourme of brede _to-go_,' though the form of bread disappear; Shoreham's Poems, p. 29.

_That best go mighte_, each in the way he could best go; each made the best of his way to a safe place. 'Sauve qui peut.'

655. 'Suddenly they saw the threescore ships of Cleopatra busily about their yard-masts, and hoising sail to fly'; Sh. Plut. p. 212. Cf. Ant. and Cleop. iii. 10. 10; Vergil, Æn. viii. 707-8. The remark about Cleopatra's 'purple sails' may remind us of Plutarch's description of Cleopatra on the Cydnus, already referred to above (note to l. 583):--'the poop [of her barge] was of gold, _the sails of purple_'; Sh. Plut. p. 174; Ant. and Cleop. ii. 2. 198.

The truth is, however, that (as Bech points out) Chaucer has borrowed this and a few other incidents from L. Annaeus Florus, who wrote an Epitome Rerum Romanarum in the second century. In relating the battle of Actium, he says:--'Prima dux fugae regina, cum aurea puppe _ueloque purpureo_, in altum dedit. Mox secutus Antonius: sed instare uestigiis Caesar. Itaque nec praeparata in Oceanum fuga, nec munita praesidiis utraque Ægypti cornua, Paraetonium atque Pelusium, profuere: prope manu tenebantur. Prior ferrum occupauit Antonius. Regina ad pedes Caesaris prouoluta tentauit oculos ducis: frustra. Nam pulchritudo intra pudicitiam principis fuit. Nec illa de uita, quae offerebatur, sed de parte regni, laborabat. Quod ubi desperauit a principe, seruarique se triumpho uidit, incautiorem nacta custodiam, in Mausoleum se (sepulcra regum sic uocant) recipit: ibi maximos, ut solebat, induta cultus, in differto odoribus solio, iuxta suum se collocauit Antonium: admotisque ad uenas serpentibus, sic morte quasi somno, soluta est.'--Florus, Epit. Rerum Romanarum, lib. iv. c. 11.

662. Chaucer (following Florus) has hastened the catastrophe. Antony stabbed himself at Alexandria, in the following year, B.C. 30. See Sh. Plut. 221; Ant. and Cleop. iv. 14. 102.

672. _Shryne_; for 'solio' in Florus; cf. l. 675. Plutarch says only that Cleopatra 'did sumptuously and royally bury him with her own hands'; Sh. Plut. p. 224. Afterwards, however, she 'crowned the tomb with garlands and sundry nosegays, and marvellous lovingly embraced the same'; Sh. Plut. p. 227. But see the account by Florus, in the note to l. 655.

677. _Dede cors_, dead body; as in l. 876. Chaucer uses _cors_ of the living body, as, e.g. in Sir Thopas, B 2098.

678. Chaucer seems to think that Florus meant, 'in sepulcrum [suum] se recipit ... iuxta Antonium.'

679. Shakespeare follows closely the account in Plutarch, except that he makes mention of _two_ asps, whereas Plutarch mentions but one, called by Sir Thos. North 'an aspick'; Sh. Plut. p. 227. However, Florus uses the plural _serpentibus_. Cf. Cower, C. A., iii. 361.

681. Cf. Cleopatra's lament in Sh. Plut. p. 226; Ant. and Cleop. iv. 15. 59; v. 2. 283.

691. Pronounce _unreprovable_, as _unréprovábl'_.

694. _Sene_, evident. Note that this is an adjective (A.S. _gesýne_), and not the past participle; cf. l. 2655, and note. See also ll. 340, 741, and my note to the Balade against Women Inconstaunt, l. 13.

696. _Naked._ It looks as if Chaucer took _induta_ (note to l. 655) to mean 'not clothed.' Perhaps he read it as _nudata_.

702. _Storial sooth_, historical truth. The old editions actually put the comma after _storial_ instead of after _sooth_; and modern editors have followed them. Surely the editors, in some passages, have never attempted to construe their own texts.

II. THE LEGEND OF THISBE.

Chaucer follows Ovid, Metamorph. iv. 55-166; and frequently very closely. The reader should compare the Latin text throughout. For example, Ovid begins thus:--

'Pyramus et Thisbe, iuuenum pulcherrimus alter, altera, quas Oriens habuit, praelata puellis, contiguas habuere domos, ubi dicitur altam coctilibus muris cinxisse Semiramis urbem.'

In Golding's translation, fol. 43, back, thus:--

'Within the town (of whose huge walles so monstrous high and thicke, The fame is giuen Semiramis for making them of bricke) Dwelt hard together two young folke in houses ioynde so nere, That under all one roofe well nie both twaine conuayed were. The name of him was Pyramus, and Thisbe call'd was she; So faire a man in all the East was none aliue as he. Nor nere a woman, mayde, nor wife in beautie like to her.'

This at once explains the allusion to Semiramis, the celebrated but mythical queen who was said to have surrounded Babylon with walls of fabulous strength, having a deep ditch outside them. See Orosius, as translated by King Alfred, in Sweet's A.S. Reader, fourth ed. pp. 28, 29. Gower tells the same story, and likewise follows Ovid; C. A. i. 324.

718. _Estward_; evidently from Ovid's 'Oriens'; see above.

722. The first foot consists of the single syllable _Mai-_.

725. _Naso_, i.e. Ovid; really named Publius Ouidius Naso.

726. _Réport_; accented on the _e_. _Y-shove_, pushed (into notice); cf. l. 1381.

727. 'Tempore creuit amor'; Met. iv. 60.

730. 'Sed uetuere patres'; id. 61.

735. 'As (to quote the proverb) cover up the glowing coal, and the hotter the fire becomes.' Ovid has--'Quoque magis tegitur, tanto magis aestuat ignis'; 64. _Wry_ is in the imperative mood, singular. Cf. Troilus, ii. 538-9.

741. _Sene_, visible; see note to l. 694. _Dere y-nogh a myte_, even in a slight degree; lit. '(to an extent) dear enough at a mite.' A singular use of the phrase. Cf. 'dere ynogh a leek'; Can. Yem. Ta., G 795; 'not worth a myte'; id., G 633.

742. 'Quid non sentit amor?' Met. iv. 68.

745. 'In a tone as low as if uttering a confession.' A curious medieval touch. Ovid says, 'murmure ... minimo'; 70.

756. 'Inuide, dicebant, paries, quid amantibus obstas?' 73.

763. _Holde_, beholden. 'Nec sumus ingrati'; 76.

773. Chaucer practically transposes the offices of Phoebus and Aurora.

'Postera nocturnos Aurora remouerat ignes, solque pruinosas radiis siccauerat herbas'; 82.

782. _And for_, and because, &c.

783. _For_ stands alone in the first foot. Cf. l. 797.

784. 'Conueniant ad busta Nini, lateantque sub umbra Arboris'; 88. Ll. 786, 787 are explanatory, and added by Chaucer. Ninus, the supposed founder of Nineveh, was the husband of Semiramis. Cf. Shak. Mid. Nt. Dr. v. 1. 139.

786. Lounsbury (Studies in Chaucer, i. 403) says that the pt. t. of _herien_ is _heried-e_, with final _e_. But the form is right; _héried-e_ is hardly pronounceable, and the final _e_ is naturally dropped when the accent is thrown so far back. The forms of the past tenses of weak verbs are variable; whether they take a final _e_ or not often depends on the form of the stem. See Ten Brink, Chaucer's Sprache, § 194.

797. _Y-wimpled_, covered with a wimple, or cloth covering the neck and fitting close round the face, chiefly worn by nuns. Another medieval touch. Ovid has 'adopertaque uultum'; 94. See note to l. 813.

798-801. These four lines are mainly original, and quite in Chaucer's own manner. Ovid has merely 'fallitque suos.'

803. 'Audacem faciebat amor'; 96.

804. _She gan her dresse_, she settled herself, lit. directed herself. Lat. 'sedit.'

810. _Rist_, riseth; pres. tense, as in l. 887. So _arist_, Man of Law's Tale, B 265.

811. _With dredful foot_; so again in Kn. Ta., A 1479. 'Timido pede fugit in antrum'; 100. See _Dreadful_ in Trench, Select Glossary; and cf. ll. 109, 404 above.

813. 'Dumque fugit, tergo uelamina lapsa reliquit'; 101. 'For fere, and let her wimple falle.'--Gower, Conf. Amant. i. 326.

814-6. These three lines are original. _Sit_, sitteth. _Darketh_, lies close. 'The child than _darked_ in his den'; Will. of Palerne, 17; 'drawe [drew] him into his den, and _darked_ ther stille'; id. 44. And again in the same poem, ll. 1834, 2851.

823-31. Considerably expanded from the Latin:--

'Serius egressus uestigia uidit in alto puluere certa ferae, totoque expalluit ore Pyramus'; 105.

830. _Agroos_, shuddered; and again in l. 2314; and in Troil. ii. 930. The infin. _agryse_ is in the Man of Law's Tale, B 614.

834. 'Una duos, inquit, nox perdet amantes'; 108.

835. This line is Chaucer's own.

842. _What_, whatsoever; 'quicunque ... leones'; 114.

847-9. 'Accipe nunc, inquit, nostri quoque sanguinis haustus'; 118.

851-2.

'Cruor emicat alte non aliter quam quum uitiato fistula plumbo scinditur, et tenues stridente foramine longe eiaculatur aquas, atque ictibus aera rumpit'; 121.

With much good taste, Chaucer omits the next three lines, just as he has omitted to tell us that the trysting-tree was 'a faire high Mulberie with fruite _as white as snow_,' as Golding says. The blood of Pyramus turned this fruit _black_, and so it remains to this day! Gower likewise suppresses the mulberry-tree, but Shakespeare mentions it; see Mid. Nt. Dr. v. 1. 149.

853-61. Admirably expanded out of three lines:--

'Ecce metu nondum posito, ne fallat amantem, illa redit; iuuenemque oculis animoque requirit; quantaque uitarit narrare pericula gestit'; 128.

859. The first syllable of _Bothe_ forms a foot by itself. So also in ll. 863, 901, 911, &c.

862-8.

'Dum dubitat, tremebunda uidet pulsare cruentum membra solum; retroque pedem tulit; oraque buxo pallidiora gerens, exhorruit aequoris instar, quod fremit, exigua quum summum stringitur aura'; 133.

869-82. Fourteen lines where Ovid has eight. Chaucer has greatly improved l. 882, where Ovid makes Thisbe _ask_ Pyramus to lift up his head:--'uultusque attolle iacentes'; 144.

887. This line is original. _Bost_, noise, outcry; such is the original sense of the word now spelt _boast_, which see in the New E. Dict. Cf. 'Now ariseth cry and _boost_'; King Alisaunder, 5290; and see P. Plowman, C. xvii. 89. Whitaker, writing in 1813, remarks that _boost_, in the sense of noise, is 'a provincial word still familiar in the Midland counties.'

894.

'Persequar extinctum; letique miserrima dicar caussa comesque tui'; 151.

905-12. Admirably substituted for Thisbe's address to the mulberry-tree, requesting it to keep its berries always black thenceforth.

913, 14.

'Dixit; et aptato pectus mucrone sub imum incubuit ferro, quod adhuc a caede tepebat'; 162.

916-23. These lines are original. With l. 917 cf. Le Rom. de la Rose, 14345:--'Mes moult est poi de tex amans.'

III. THE LEGEND OF DIDO.

This Legend purports to be taken from Vergil and Ovid; see l. 928. There is very little of it from Ovid, viz. only the last 16 lines, which depend on Ovid's Heroides, vii. 1-8, and ll. 1312-6, which owe something to the same epistle.

The rest is from the Æneid, bks. i-iv, as will be pointed out.

Note that Chaucer had already given the story of Dido at some length in his Hous of Fame, 151-382, which should be compared. He mentions Ovid there also; l. 379.

924. _Mantuan_, born near Mantua. Publius Vergilius [not Virgilius] Maro was born on the 15th Oct., B.C. 70, at Andes, now Pietola, a small village near Mantua in Cisalpine Gaul; and died Sept. 22, B.C. 19. It is said that an inscription was placed on his tomb, beginning 'Mantua me genuit.'

926. Cf. 'chi vi fu lucerna?' Dante, Purg. i. 43.

927. _Eneas_, Æneas, hero of the Æneid.

928. The late editions, for some mysterious reason, put a full stop after _Eneid_ and insert _of_ before _Naso_. The sense is--'I will take the general tenour (of the story as I find it) in thine Æneid and in Naso,' i.e. in Ovid; 'and I will versify the chief circumstances.'

Roughly speaking, ll. 930-949 are from the Æneid, bk. ii; ll. 950-957 from bk. iii; ll. 958-1155 from bk. i; and ll. 1156-1351 from bk. iv.

931. 'By the craft of the Greeks, and especially by Sinon.' Sinon allowed himself to be taken prisoner by the Trojans, and persuaded them to take in a wooden horse through the walls, which he said had been made as an atonement to Minerva for the Palladium carried away by the Greeks. In the dead of night Sinon let out the armed men concealed within the horse, and thus Troy was taken by a stratagem. See Æn. ii. 57-267; and cf. Ho. Fame, 152-6.

934. The ghost of Hector appeared to Æneas, and advised him to flee; Æn. ii. 268-298.

935. The verb agreeing with _fyr_ is _appered_. 'And there appeared also so mad a fire that it could not be controlled.' See Æn. ii. 311.

936. _Ilioun_, the usual M.E. form of _Ilium_; Æn. i. 68, ii. 241, 325, 625. Ilium is only another name for Troy, but the medieval writers invented the explanation here adopted by Chaucer, viz. that it was the palace of Priam, and the _castle_ of Troy in particular. Perhaps they interpreted the word _domus_ in too narrow a sense in the passage--'O patria, O Divum domus Ilium'; Æn. ii. 241. This use of the word is invariable in Guido delle Colonne, author of the Historia Destructionis Troie, a work which was considered of the highest authority in the middle ages, though it was shamelessly copied from the French Roman de Troie by Benoit de Sainte-Maure. In fact, a long description of Priam's palace, called _Ilion_, is given in the alliterative Troy-book, l. 1629, which is translated from Guido; and in Lydgate's Troy-book, ed. 1555, fol. F 6, back, and R 5, back. See the notes to Book Duch. 1070, Ho. Fame, 158, 1467, 1469, 1477.

939. For the death of Priam, killed by Pyrrhus, see Æn. ii. 531-558. _Fordoon_, slain. _Noght_, nothing; this alludes to Vergil's 'sine nomine corpus'; Æn. ii. 558.

940. Venus appears to her son Æneas; Æn. ii. 591. Cf. Ho. Fame, 162.

942. Cf. 'dextrae se paruus Iülus [Ascanius] Implicuit'; Æn. ii. 724. See note to Ho. Fame, 177.

945. _Lees_, lost; 'erepta Creüsa'; Æn. ii. 738; Ho. Fame, 183.

947. _Felawshippe_, company, companions; 'ingentem comitum numerum'; Æn. ii. 796.

949. _Stounde_, hour, time; usually dissyllabic in M.E.

953. For these adventures, see Æn. bk. iii; which Chaucer passes over. But see Ho. Fame, 198-221.

959. _Libye_, Libya, on the N. coast of Africa; Æn. i. 158. For the seven ships saved, see the same, i. 170.

960, 1. These two lines are in no previous edition, (except my own), being preserved only in MSS. C. and P. But they are obviously genuine and necessary; otherwise, the word _So_ (l. 962) is meaningless.

962. _Al to-shake_, all shaken to pieces, sorely distressed. Cf. l. 820.

964. Æneas and Achates sally forth, Æn. i. 312; Ho. Fame, 226.

971. _Hunteresse_, huntress; i.e. Venus so disguised; id. i. 319. 'As she had been an _hunteresse_'; Ho. Fame, 229.

973. _Cutted_, cut short; 'nuda genu'; id. i. 320. The same expression occurs as 'cutted to the kne' in P. Ploughman's Crede, 296. Compare also l. 434 of the same poem:--

'His wyf walked him with, with a longe gode [goad], In a _cutted_ cote, _cutted_ full hey[gh]e.'

The editions have _knytte_, which is an erroneous spelling either of _knyt_ or of _knytted_; neither of which readings can be right.

978-82. Translated from Æn. i. 321-4.

982. _Y-tukked up_, with robe tucked up; 'Succinctam.' This settles the meaning of _tukked_ in Ch. Prol. 621.

983-93. Shortened from Æn. i. 325-340.

986. 'Phoebus' sister'; Vergil has 'Phoebi soror'; 329.

994-1001. Alluding to Æn. i. 341-410.

997. _Hit nere but_, it would only be; _nere_ = _ne were_.

998. _Al and som_, the whole matter; wholly and in particulars.

1005. _Sitheo_, so in all the copies. Nothing is commoner than a confusion between _c_ and _t_ in old MSS.; hence _Sitheo_ is for _Sichco_, i.e. Sichaeus. Sichaeus (Æn. i. 343) is Vergil's name for Acerbas, a wealthy Tyrian priest, who married Elissa (Vergil's Dido) sister of Pygmalion. Pygmalion murdered Acerbas, hoping to appropriate his treasure; but Elissa fled from Tyre, taking the treasure with her, and founded Carthage. Dante has the form _Sicheo_; Inf. v. 62.

1010. _Fredom_, liberality; the old sense of _free_ being 'liberal.' _Of_ here means 'for'; in l. 1012 it means 'by.'

1016. _Maister-temple_, chief temple; cf. _maistre-strete_, chief street (Kn. Ta., A 2902), and _maistre-tour_, chief tower (Squi. Tale, F 226). It was the temple of Juno; Æn. i. 446.

1022. 'So the book says'; Vergil says that Venus shrouded Æneas and Achates with a cloud (i. 412, 516).

1024. The first syllable of _Hadden_ forms a foot by itself; cf. l. 1030. _Ov'r al_ forms the last foot.

1025. 'Uidet Iliacas ex ordine pugnas'; i. 456.

1028. 'Bellaque iam fama totum uulgata per orbem'; i. 457.

1032. _Kepe_, care; usually with a negative; see Kn. Ta., A 2238, 2960.

1035. See Æn. i. 496, &c. Vergil likens Dido to Diana. In l. 1039 Chaucer uses _god_ in the heathen sense, meaning Jupiter.

1044-6. These lines are original. _Fremd_, strange; A.S. _fremede_. In the Squi. Tale, F 429, it means 'foreign.' 'To frende ne to _fremmed_,' to friend nor to stranger; P. Plowm. B. xv. 137. Misspelt _frenne_ (riming with _glenne_) in Spenser, Shep. Kal. April, 28, with the sense of 'stranger'; unless he means it for _foreign_.

1047-60. Epitomised from Æn. i. 509-612.

1048. _Wende han loren_, he supposed to have lost, he supposed that he had lost.

1050. _For which_, on which account, wherefore.

1059. _Meynee_, attendants, followers, lit. household; O.F. _meisnee_, _mesnee_, _meinee_. Very common in Chaucer. The derived adj. _menial_ is still in use. See l. 1089.

1061-5. From Æn. i. 613, 614. Ll. 1066-1074 are from the same, 588-591.

1075. 'Non ignara mali, miseris succurrere disco'; id. 630.

1076. The first syllable of _Lyked_ forms a foot by itself. _God do bote_, may God give (us) help! A parenthetical explanation. All former editions (except my own) omit the necessary comma after _as_.

1077-85. Chaucer here gives a general outline of the state of the case, without following Vergil's words.

1086-90. This answers to Æn. i. 615-630.

1091-1102. From Æn. i 631-642.

1099. _His lyve_, in his life, during his life.

1103-27. This passage is, practically, original. Chaucer here tells the story in his own language, and gives it a wholly medieval cast.

1104. The M.E. _swolow_ usually means 'a whirlpool' or 'gulf,' and such is Tyrwhitt's explanation. See the Catholicon Anglicum, p. 373, note 1, for examples. Thus, in Wyclif's Works, ed. Matthew, p. 97, we find--'_Swolwis_ of the see and _helle_, that resceyuen al that thei may and [gh]elden not a[gh]en.' Very rarely, it is used of an open mouth; thus in Allit. Poems, ed. Morris, iii. 250, it is said that the whale 'opened his _swol[gh]_' to engulf Jonah. Hence, probably, arose the suggestion in Bell's note, that the reference is to the open mouth of hell, as represented in medieval drawings. Nevertheless, I believe Tyrwhitt is right; though either sense will serve. It is the mod. E. _swallow_, used as a sb. Cf. Dante, Inf. xxxiv. 137-9.

1106. _Parements_, ornaments; probably hangings. Cf. 'chambre of parementz' in Squi. Ta., F 269, and Tyrwhitt's note, quoted in my note to the line. In the Kn. Ta., A 2501, _paramentz_ means 'rich clothes.' See Æn. i. 637-9.

1107. For _ornaments_, which is preserved in MSS. C. and T. only, the other MSS. and all the old editions have the odd reading _pavements_, which is strangely out of place. I think it clear that this arose from a repetition of the word _parements_, which was afterwards turned into _pavements_ by way of desperate emendation. The letters _v_ and _r_ are often somewhat alike, and have been mistaken for one another, as shewn in my paper on 'ghost-words' in the Phil. Soc. Transactions, 1886.

1109. The MSS. (except T.) and the black-letter editions have _he_. Morris's, Bell's, and Corson's editions have _she_, which gives no sense, and will not suit l. 1111. I do not undertake to notice all the vagaries of the various editions, as the readings of the MSS. are so much more satisfactory. In the present case, I suppose that _she_ is a mere misprint in Bell, preserved in the editions that follow him. _Sete_ is short for _seten_, the usual M.E. pp. of _sitten_, to sit; see Kn. Ta., A 1452. It answers to the A.S. pp. _seten_, with short _e_. The _e_ in _mete_ was also short in A.S.; hence the rime is perfect.

1110. Cf. Squi. Ta., F 294--'The spyces and the wyn is come anon.' This refers to the custom of serving wine mixed with spices to the guests before going to rest; see a long note in Warton, Hist. E. Poetry, ed. 1840, i. 178 (on the word _piment_); Weber's note on King Alisaunder, 4178; and Our English Home, p. 85.

1114. The first syllable _Ther_ probably constitutes the first foot of the line. I believe Chaucer accents _courser_ on the former syllable; see Kn. Ta., A 1502, 1704; Squi. Ta., F 195, 310.

1117. _Fretted_, adorned; not 'fraught,' as in Corson's note.

1119. _Shynedè_; trisyllabic; in MS. C. only; rest, _shyned_, _shyneth_, which will not scan. Cf. _lakkedè_, Prol. 756; _knokkeden_, Compl. Mars, 84. Line 2194 has _shinèd_, and l. 1428 has _shoon_. _Shynede_ occurs in _both_ the Wycliffite versions of Luke ii. 9; and is therefore an old form. We still have _shined_ as a pt. t. in Ezek. xliii. 2, Acts ix. 3, xii. 7.

1120. 'Nor gentle high-flying falcon for striking herons.' Chaucer has _gentil faucon_ in his Parl. of Foules, 337. Cotgrave, s.v. _haultain_, has:--'_Faulcon haultain_, a high-flying hawke.' _Heronere_ means 'used for flying at herons'; only the best hawks would serve for this.

1122. _Y-bete_, in the Knight's Ta., A 979, means 'ornamented with beaten gold,' or with gold flattened out by the hammer (F. _or batu_). It might mean 'ornamented by means of the hammer'; but as 'new florins' can hardly be said to be used for decorating cups, it seems best to take _with_ in the sense of 'as well as'; in which case _florins newe y-bete_ means 'florins newly struck.' The allusion to _florins_ is curious; see note to P. Plowman, B. iii. 45. Cf. Æn, i. 640--'Ingens argentum mensis, caelataque in auro Fortia facta patrum.'

1128-35. From Æn. i. 643-656.

1135. _Take_, present, offer, deliver. This sense was once common; see Sec. Non. Ta., G 223; Can. Yem. Ta., G 1030, 1034, 1365; P. Plowman, B. i. 56, iv. 58, &c.

1136-49. Much abridged from Æn. i. 657-722.

1145. 'Let it be as it may; I care little about it.'

1150-55. Chaucer here comes to the end of Æn. bk. i, and passes over the second book with the remark in l. 1153.

1155. _Entendeden_, gave their attention. Corson and Gilman explain it by 'attend,' as if it were the present tense.

1156. Chaucer here passes on to Vergil's fourth book, which he epitomises, and seldom follows quite exactly.

1157. _Sely_, simple, unsuspecting; see l. 1254. See _Silly_ in Trench, Select Glossary.

1161. 'Why I have told the story so far, and must tell the rest.'

1163. The reading _his_ (for _her_) in MS. C. can be justified, and may be right. The A.S. _móna_ was masculine, but the Lat. _luna_ was feminine. Hence arose a confusion, so that the M.E. _mone_ was of either gender. Hence, in Chaucer's Astrolabe, pt. ii. § 34, l. 12, we find--'And _nota_, that yif the mone shewe _himself_ by light of day,' &c.; whereas in the same, pt. ii. § 40, l. 54, we find--'the mone, loke thou rekne wel _hir_ cours houre by houre; for _she_,' &c.

1166. _Brayd_, start, sudden movement. In the Cursor Mundi, 7169, we read of Samson, that--

'Vte of thair handes son he stert And gaue a _braid_ sa fers and fast, That all the bandes of him brast.'

See _Braid_ in the New E. Dictionary.

1170-81. From Vergil's Æn. iv. 9-29.

1174. 'And eke so likely to be a hero.' _Man_ is here used emphatically; cf. 'quam forti pectore et armis'; iv. 11.

1182, 3. Cf. Æn. iv. 31-53; but Chaucer cuts it short.

1187. _Love_ (A.S. _lufu_) is here monosyllabic; cf. Kn. Ta., A 1135. 'Love desires (to have) love; for no one will it desist.' Cf. A.S. _wandian_, to turn aside, blench, fear. And see _wol_, in l. 1191.

1188-1211. From Æn. iv. 129-159.

1191. _An hunting_, on hunting, a-hunting. Here _an_ is another form of the prep. _on_, and _hunting_ is a substantive, like Lat. _uenatio_. See Skeat, Principles of Eng. Etymology, Ser. 1, p. 260.

_Wol_, desires (to go); cf. _wol_ in l. 1187.

1196. _Hoven_, wait in readiness, hover. Cf. 'where that she _hoved_ and abode'; Gower, C. A. iii. 63; and see P. Plowman, B. prol. 210, xviii. 83. It just expresses the notion of slight movement, whilst remaining nearly in the same place. The old editions read _heven_, which gives no sense; for it never means 'mount,' as has been suggested. Cf. Vergil's 'expectant'; iv. 134.

1198. _Paper-whyt_, as white as paper; a curious and rare compound. Printed _paper white_ (as two words!) in former editions.

1200. The 4th sense of _Bar_ in the New E. Dict. is--'An ornamental transverse band on a girdle, saddle, &c.; subsequently, an ornamental boss of any shape.'

1201. _Sit_, sits. _Wrye_, covered; A.S. _wrigen_, pp.

1204. _Startling_, moving suddenly; the frequentative form of _starting_, which Chaucer preferred when repeating this same line in his Kn. Tale, A 1502.

1205. _A litel wyr_, i.e. a small bridle-bit. See l. 1208.

1206. _Phebus_; Vergil's 'Apollo'; iv. 144. _To devyse_, to describe (him).

1209. _Wold_, willed, desired; the pp. of _willen_. This form is very rare, but we again find _hath wold_ in l. 11 of the Compl. of Venus; and _hadde wold_ in P. Plowman, B. xv. 258. Prof. Corson aptly quotes three examples from Malory's Morte Arthur, ed. T. Wright, with the references 'vol. i. c. 33, vol. iii. c. 119, and vol. iii. c. 123.' The first of these answers to bk. ii. c. 8, p. 54 in the 'Globe' edition, where we find--'Then said Merlin to Balin, Thou hast done thyself great hurt, because thou savedst not this lady that slew herself, that might have saved her and thou _wouldest_.' Caxton (ed. 1485) also has _woldest_; but Wright, following the edition of 1634, has _had would_. For the other passages, see bk. xviii. capp. 15 and 19, where Caxton has 'and he _had wold_,' and 'and I _had wolde_.'

1212-31. From Vergil, Æn. iv. 154-170.

1213. _Go bet_, go more quickly, hasten; a term of encouragement. See Pard. Tale, C 667, and the note. _Prik thou_, spur thou, push on; a like term. _Lat goon_, let (the dogs) go.

1230. 'Ille dies primus leti, primusque malorum Causa fuit'; iv. 169. It looks as if Chaucer has translated _leti_ by 'gladnesse,' as if it were _letitiae_. (Bech makes a similar remark.)

1232-41. These lines are original. Cf. Ho. Fame, 253-292.

1242. Here follows, in Vergil, the celebrated description of Fame, which Chaucer had already introduced into his Hous of Fame, 1368-1392; it is therefore here omitted. He passes on to Æn. iv. 195.

1245. _Yarbas_, i.e. Iarbas, son of Ammon; Æn. iv. 196.

1254-84. Original; but see Ho. Fame, 269-292.

1262. _Pilled_, robbed. 'A knight ... sholde deffenden holy chirche, and nat robben it ne _pilen_ it'; Persones Tale, _De Avaritia_, I 767.

1277. _Ther-as_, whereas. _Sterve_, to die.

1287. Perhaps copied by the author of fragment B. of the Romaunt of the Rose. We there find (l. 4838, Glasgow MS.)--'The hoote ernes [ernest?] they al foryeten'; there being nothing answering to it in the French text.

1288. 'And he secretly causes his ships to be prepared'; lit. 'causes (men) to prepare his ships.'

1289. _Shapeth him_, intends, purposes. See Prologue, 772.

1295. 'Me patris Anchisae ... Admonet ... imago'; iv. 351.

1297. _Mercurie_, Mercury; 'interpres Divûm'; iv. 356.

1305. _What womman_, what sort of a woman.

1310. _Seketh halwes_, repairs to saints' shrines; a curious medieval touch. Vergil only mentions the sacrifice; iv. 453. Cf. Prologue, 14, and the note. 'To go _seken halwes_'; C. T. (Wyf of Bathes Prol.), D 657.

1312, 3. 'Si pudet uxoris, non nupta, sed hospita dicar,' &c.; Ovid, Her. vii. 167.

1316. Cf. 'Sed neque fers tecum'; Her. vii. 79.

1317. _Thise lordes_; 'Nomadumque tyranni'; Æn. iv. 320. Also Pygmalion and Iarbas, id. 325, 6.

1324. The former syllable of _Mercy_ forms the first foot in the line; cf. l. 1342. 'Have pitee on my sorwes smerte!' Ho. Fame, 316; which see.

1331. _Lavyne_, Lavinia, daughter of King Latinus; Æn. vii. 359.

1332. _A cloth._ This refers to the Trojan garments left behind by Æneas; 'Iliacas uestes'; iv. 648. The sword is mentioned by Vergil just two lines above; 646.

1338-40. Here the _cloth_ answers to the Lat. _exuuiae_; and _whyl hit leste_ = whilst it pleased. These three lines are a close imitation of Vergil, Æn. iv. 651-3:--

'Dulces exuuiae, dum fata Deusque sinebant; Accipite hanc animam, meque his exsoluite curis; Vixi, et quem dederat cursum fortuna, peregi.'

We hence see that, in l. 1339, the right reading is _unbind me of this unreste_, a close translation from the Latin. _Me of_ are run together; see note to Complaint to Pitè, l. 11.

1341. _Withouten_, without any succour from Æneas.

1346. _Her norice_, her nurse, or rather the nurse of Sichæus, named Barce; Æn. iv. 632.

1351. 'She roof hir-selve to the herte'; Ho. Fame, 373.

1352. Here Chaucer, having done with Vergil, takes up Ovid, who is intended by the words _myn autour_.

1354. _A lettre_, i.e. the 7th Epistle in Ovid's Heroides. See l. 1367.

1355-65. From the first 8 lines in the above Epistle.

'Sic, ubi fata uocant, udis abiectus in herbis, ad uada Maeandri concinit albus olor. Nec, quia te nostra sperem prece posse moueri, alloquor. Aduerso mouimus ista deo. Sed merita et famam, corpusque animumque pudicum quum male perdiderim, perdere uerba leue est. Certus es ire tamen, miseramque relinquere Dido; atque îdem uenti uela fidemque ferent.'

IV. (