Part I

of the Six-text edition, pp. xvii*-xx*.

[140] Chaucer und Albertanus Brixiensis; in Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen; vol. 86, p. 29.

[141] To which are appended fables by Avian (leaf 106); by Alfonce (leaf 120, back); and by Poge the Florentyn (leaf 134).

[142] The 'reasons' are not recondite; for fifteen MSS., at the least, have this arrangement.

[143] Tyrwhitt is quite right; he is alluding to the true Shipman's Prologue; B 1163-90.

[144] Only a few hours after writing this sentence, I found that Mr. Keightley, in his Tales and Popular Fictions, published in 1834, at p. 76, distinctly derives Chaucer's Tale from the travels of Marco Polo. I let the sentence stand, however, as an example of undesigned coincidence.

[145] So in Mr. Hazlitt's edition; Warton originally wrote--'to believe this story to be one of the many fables which the Arabians imported into Europe.'

[146] 'All things can be known by Perspective, because all operations of things take place according to the multiplication of forms and forces, by means of this world's agents, upon yielding materials.'--Opus Minus (see Warton).

[147] 'That sword, wrought with such art, that it cuts through enchantment and every charm.' I correct the errors in these quotations.

[148] 'Enchantment avails not, where it inflicts a cut.'

[149] 'O splendid falsehood, when is truth so beautiful that one can prefer her to thee?' In Warton's book, the Italian quotations abound in misprints, not all of which are removed in Hazlitt's edition. I cannot construe '_al_ vero,' as there printed.

[150] I would ask the reader to observe that the seven best MSS. all have the spelling _Cambynskan_ or _Kambynskan_. The form _Cambuscan_ (in Milton, Il Pens. 110) is found in the old black-letter editions. It is strange that Milton should accent the wrong syllable. _Cambynskan_ arose from reading _Camiuscan_ as _Caminskan_.

[151] I find that Mr. Keightley has already suggested this.

[152] Evidently Shangtu, Coleridge's Xanadu. See his well-known lines--'In Xanadu did Kubla Khan,' &c.

[153] This is Chaucer's 'Sarra'; see note to F 9.

[154] Mr. Keightley shews, in his Tales and Popular Fictions, p. 75, that Cervantes has confused two stories, (1) that of a prince carrying off a princess on a wooden horse; and (2) that of Peter of Provence running away with the fair Magalona.

[155] See Arber's reprint, p. 85, where 'the hors of tree' [i.e. wood], ridden by 'Cleomedes the kynges sone,' is expressly mentioned, and is said to be 'torned' by 'a pynne that stode on his brest.'

[156] This magic ring is likewise referred to in chap. 32 of Caxton's Reynard the Fox. It had 'thre hebrews names therin,' and it contained 'a stone of thre maner colours.' The same chapter mentions the magic mirror.

[157] A friend of Milton's father; see Masson, Life of Milton, i. 42.

[158] Printed at Brussels, 1865; ed. A. van Hasselt.

[159] I take the liberty of abridging the story by omitting several details.

[160] It had previously appeared in the fifth book of his Philocopo, a juvenile work.

[161] But Dr. Köppel argues that the date must be several years later. See his article in Anglia, xiv. 227; and observe Chaucer's use of Dante, Par. xxxiii. 1-21, in ll. 36-56, which may, however, be due to the insertion of ll. 36-56 at a later time. His argument that the Lyf of Seint Cecyle was written _after_ Troilus, because it contains neither _forthy_ nor _forwhy_, seems to me entirely valueless. The whole Tale only contains 553 lines, whereas we find in Troilus 777 consecutive lines in which neither word occurs, viz. in V. 351-1127.

[162] In l. 32, we have 'Thou comfort of us wrecches,' and in l. 58, 'Me flemed wrecche.' I suspect that these lines were, in the original draught, not far apart. l. 57 would follow l. 35 very suitably.

[163] Compare the section in the Acta Sanctorum, April 14, p. 209, headed: 'Nova corporum inventio sub Clemente VIII, A.D. MDXCIX.'

[164] See my note to l. 134 of the Tale.

[165] Tyrwhitt further explains that a poem in Ashmole's volume, called Hermes Bird, and by him attributed to Raymund Lully, is really a poem of Lydgate's, printed by Caxton with the title The Chorle and the Bird.

[166] It is a totally different work from the Latin collection of alchemical works, also called Theatrum Chemicum, so often cited in my notes.

[167] At p. 470, Ashmole gives a brief account of Chaucer, made up from Speght, Bale, Pits, and others, of no particular value. At p. 226, he gives an engraving of the marble monument erected to Chaucer's memory in Westminster Abbey, by Nicholas Brigham, A.D. 1556.

[168] This is somewhat amusing. Charnock describes his numerous misadventures, and it is not clear that he preserved his faith in alchemy unshaken.

[169] Thomson's Hist. Chemistry, i. 25.

[170] '_Sir To._ What shall we do else? Were we not born under Taurus? _Sir And._ Taurus! that's sides and heart. _Sir To._ No, sir; it's legs and thighs.' Both are wrong, of course, as Shakespeare knew. Chaucer says--'Aries hath thin heved [head], and Taurus _thy nekke and thy throte_;' Astrolabe, pt. i. sec. 21. l. 52.

[171] See Browning's drama entitled 'Paracelsus.'

[172] It is useless to try and discover an etymology for this word. It was invented wittingly. The most that can be said was that Van Helmont may have been thinking of the Dutch _geest_, a spirit; E. _ghost_.

[173] This seems to us a strange selection; red, green, and violet would have been better. But this scale of colours is due to Aristotle, De Sensu, ii.; cf. Bartholomeus, De Proprietatibus Rerum, bk. xix. c. 7.

[174] The Indian god Siva, was actually worshipped _under the form of quicksilver_. Professor Cowell refers me to Marco Polo, ed. Yule, ii. 300, and to his own edition of Colebrooke's Essays, i. 433; also to the semi-mythic life of Sankara Áchárya, the great reformer of the eighth century.

[175] This explains why the alchemists, in seeking gold, sometimes supposed that they had obtained silver.

[176] Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen, ed. L. Herrig; vol. 86, p. 44.

[177] MS. Douce 162 has a copy of the treatise in Provençal.

[178] Urry, the worst of editors, originated it.

[179] Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen, ed. L. Herrig, vol. 87, p. 33.