chapter 23
in the English version).
_walkinge as a swan_, i. e. with slow and stately gait. Jerome (Contra Iovin. i. 40) calls Jovinian 'iste formosus monachus, crassus, nitidus, et _quasi sponsus_ semper _incedens_.'
1931. 'All as full of wine as a bottle in the buttery.'
1932. For _gret_, ed. 1550 has _lytle_; but, as Tyrwhitt remarks, the expression is ironical.
1933. _Davit_ is put for _David_, for the rime. MSS. E. Hn. Ln. have _Dauit_; Cm. _dauith_; Cp. Hl. _dauid_; Pt. _davyd_.
1934. _Lo but_ is the reading of MS. E. But the right reading is probably _buf_, not _but_. The readings are; E. _but_; Hn. Cm. Ln. _buf_; [336] Cp. _buff_; Pt. _boþ_ (wrongly); Hl. _boef_; ed. 1550, _bouffe_. This gives the line in the following form:--
Lo, 'buf!' they seye, '_cor meum eructavit!_'
Here the interjectional '_buf!_' is probably intended to represent the sound of eructation. We find _baw!_ as an interjection of strong contempt in P. Plowman, C. xiii. 74, xxii. 398.
Ps. xlv (xliv in the Vulgate) begins, in Latin, with the words _Cor meum eructauit uerbum bonum_; and the Somnour here takes _eructauit_ in the most literal sense.
1935. _fore_, path, course; such is certainly the right reading, as in D. 110, on which see the note.
1937. See James, i. 22.
1938. _at a sours_, at a soaring, in her rise, in her upward swoop. The same word as _source_ of a river; from F. _source_, O. F. _sorse_, the fem. pp. of the verb which arose from Lat. _surgere_. Most likely, this is the origin of the later _souse_, v., in the sense 'to swoop downward'; see Pope, Epilogue to Satires, Dial. ii. 15; Sh. K. John, v. 2. 150; Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 8. See my note on the House of Fame, l. 544. In the Book of St. Alban's, fol. d 1, back, we find: 'Iff your hawke nym the fowle a-lofte, ye shall say, she toke it _at the mount_ or _at the souce_'; where the _r_ is dropped.
1939. _their_, for _the eir_, the air; see footnote.
1943. _Seint Yve_; see the note to B. 1417 (p. 172), with which this line entirely coincides.
1944. 'If thou wert not our brother, thou wouldst not fare well'; see l. 1951.
1947. _welden_, wield, have the full use of.
1963-5. These lines are quoted by the friar as (supposed) ejaculations by Thomas.
1968. In the margin of MS. E., 'Omnis virtus unita fortior est seipsa dispersa.' Compare the fable in Æsop about the difficulty of breaking a bundle of sticks; and see Boeth. bk. iii. pr. 11. 37-40.
1973. See Luke, x. 7. In the margin of MS. E., 'Dignus est operarius mercede, &c.'
1980. 'In the life of Thomas of India.' For this construction, see note to F. 209. St. Thomas the apostle is often so called, because he is said to have preached in India; and perhaps the tradition is true; see my note on P. Plowman, C. xxii. 165, and especially the remarks in Marco Polo, ed. Yule, ii. 292. Cf. note to E. 1230 (p. 353).
The mention of the 'building up of churches' refers to a well-known legend of St. Thomas, who built churches with the money given to him by King Gondoforus for the purpose of building a palace.
'Churchene he arerde mani on, and preostes he sette there.' Legends of Saints, ed. Horstmann, p. 381.
The story is prettily told in Mrs. Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art. [337]
Cf. 'Seyn Tomas of Ynde'; Amis and Amiloun, 758, in Weber, Met. Rom. ii. 401. So also in The Assumption of our Lady, 775; in King Horn, ed. Lumby, p. 96; Political and other Poems, ed. Furnivall, p. 112, l. 19, p. 123, l. 278, p. 139, l. 735.
How intent the friars were on building fine churches and convents for their own use, appears from Wyclif's Works, ed. Matthew, pp. 5, 14; Pierce the Plowman's Crede, 191; Jack Upland, § 10, and § 33; Skelton's Colin Clout, 936; &c.
1986. 'As will be best for thee.' Tyrwhitt has _the_ for _thy_; but _thy_ is right. I find in the New E. Dict., s. v. _Best_, 8 b, a quotation from Sir E. Sandys, Europae Speculum (1637), 247: 'I have also, to _my best_, avoyded that rashnesse.' Cf. 'for your beste,' in B. 2427.
1989. 'Be not as a lion in thy house, nor frantick among thy servants'; Ecclus. iv. 30. In the margin of MS. E. is the Vulgate version (Ecclus. iv. 35):--'Noli esse sicut leo in domo tua, euertens domesticos tuos, et opprimens subiectos tibi.'
1993. _hir_, her; so in all the MSS. but Pt., which has _yre_. Tyrwhitt has wrongly taken _ire_ as the reading, and Wright and Bell follow him, without giving any notice that MS. Hl. reads _hir_! But it makes all the difference; _hir_ means 'thy wife'; cf. ll. 1994-2004, all of which lines are robbed of their meaning by this insidious and uncalled-for alteration. Even ed. 1550 and ed. 1561 have _her_.
It is easily seen how the error crept in, viz. from confusion with the friar's sermon against _ire_; but that does not really begin till we come to l. 2005.
As this passage has been so grossly misunderstood, I annex an outline of the sense intended. 'Beware of thy wife; she is like the snake in the grass; remember how many men have lost their lives through their wives. But _your_ wife is a meek one; then why strive? No serpent is so venomous as a provoked woman.' The fact is, that this passage is imitated from Le Roman de la Rose, 16779, &c., where the author bids us beware of women, as being like Vergil's 'snake in the grass.' See next note. With ll. 2001-3 cf. Rom. de la Rose, 9832-6.
1995. Cf. 'latet anguis in herba'; Vergil, Ecl. iii. 95. See F. 512, 513. But Chaucer took this at second-hand, viz. from Le Roman de la Rose, l. 16793; and combined it with another passage from the same, 9832-6, which, in its turn, is copied from Ovid, Ars Amat. ii. 376:--'Nec breuis ignaro uipera laesa pede Femina quam,' &c.
2002. _tret_, short for _tredeth_, treads. Cm. has _trat_. Cf. _hit_, hideth, F. 512; _rit_, rideth, A. 974; &c.
2003. Cf. 'furens quid foemina possit'; Vergil, Æn. v. 6.
'Nulla uis flammae tumidique uenti Tanta, nec teli metuenda torti Quanta cum coniux uiduata taedis Ardet et odit.' Seneca, Medea; iii. 567.
2005. Here begins the sermon against _ire_. See the Persones Tale, [338] I. 533. _oon_, &c., 'one of the chief of the seven Deadly Sins'; all of which are described in the Persones Tale; see I. 387.
After l. 2004, MS. Hl. has two spurious lines, for which see the footnote. It is probable, however, that they are reminiscences of two _genuine_ lines; for they occur in Le Rom. de la Rose, 16536-8. There are two more such after l. 2012, where the sense of _grate_ is not obvious.
2007. _himself_, i. e. the sinner. See Pers. Tale, I. 557.
2009. _homicyde_; see this, in full, in the Pers. Tale, I. 564-579.
2010. 'Ire comth of pryde'; I. 534.
2017. '_Potestat_, a chief magistrate'; Halliwell. '_Podestà_, a potestate, a mayor'; Florio. See Malory, Morte Arth. bk. v. c. 8.
2018. _Senek_, Seneca. The story is given in Seneca's De Ira, i. 16, beginning:--'Cn. Piso fuit memoria nostra, uir a multis uitiis integer, sed prauus,' &c. It ends:--'Constituti sunt in eodem loco perituri tres, ob unius innocentiam.' This Piso was a governor of Syria under Tiberius. Precisely the same story is told, of the emperor Heraclius, in the Gesta Romanorum, cap. cxl. Warton gravely describes it in the words--'The emperor Eraclius reconciles (!) two knights.'
2030-1. Wright says these two lines are not in Tyrwhitt, but he is mistaken. His note was meant to refer to the spurious lines (in MS. Hl.) after l. 2037; the former of which is _repeated_ from l. 2030.
2043. 'This story is also in Seneca, De Ira, lib. iii. c. 14. It differs a little from one in Herodotus, lib. iii.' [capp. 34, 35].--Tyrwhitt. Seneca's story begins:--'Cambysen regem nimis deditum uino Praexaspes unus ex carissimis monebat.'
2048. Here MS. Hl. inserts two more spurious lines, for the fourth time; see the footnote.
2061. MSS. E. Hn. Cp. Ln. Dd. all insert _ful_, which is necessary to the rhythm. MSS. Pt. Hl. omit it, and actually read _dronk-e_ (!), with an impossible final e. Tyrwhitt has _dranke_, omitting _ful_, and even Wright, Bell, and Morris have _dronk-e_, with the same omission. Owing to the carelessness of scribes, who often added an idle final _e_, such forms as _dranke_, _dronke_ are not very astonishing. But it would be very curious to know _how these editors scanned this line_.
2075. _Placebo._ 'The allusion is to an anthem in the Romish church, from Ps. cxvi. 9, which in the Vulgate [Ps. cxiv. 9] stands thus: _Placebo Domino in regione uiuorum_. Hence the _complacent_ brother in the _Marchant's Tale_ is called _Placebo_.'--Tyrwhitt. Being used in the office for the dead, this anthem was familiar to every one; and 'to sing Placebo' came to mean 'to be complaisant'; as in Bacon, Essay 20. See Pers. Tale, I. 617; and see my notes to P. Plowman, C. iv. 467 (B. iii. 307), B. xv. 122.
2079. This story is also from Seneca, De Ira, lib. iii. c. 21. Cf. Herodotus, i. 189, 202; v. 52. In these authorities, the river is called the _Gyndes_; and in Alfred's translation of Orosius, bk. ii. c. 4, it is the _Gandes_. 'Sir John Maundeville (Travels, cap. 5) tells this story of the Euphrates.'--Wright. [339]
2085. _he_, i. e. Solomon; see Prov. xxii. 24, 25.
2090. _as Iust as is a squire_, as exact (i. e. upright) as a square. He means that he will deal out exact justice, and not condone the sick man's anger without appointing him a penance for it. A _squire_ is a measuring-square, or T-square, as explained in my Dictionary; it is used for measuring right angles with exactitude. For the use of the word, see Shak. L. L. L. v. 2. 474; Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 58; Minshew's Dict.; Romaunt of the Rose, 7064; Floris and Blancheflur, ed. Lumby, 325. Cotgrave gives: '_A l'esquierre_, justly, directly, evenly, straightly; by line and levell, to a haire.' Godefroy, s. v. _esquarre_, refers us to the O. F. translation of 1 Kings, v. 17; 'e que tuz fussent taillie _a esquire_.' Lydgate has: 'By compas cast, and squared out by _squyers_'; Siege of Troye, ed. 1555, fol. F 5, back, col. 1.
2095. 'Thei [the friars] cryen faste that thei haf more power in confessioun then other curatis; for thei may schryve alle that comen to hem, bot curatis may no ferther then her owne parischens'; Wyclif's Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 374. Cf. Rom. Rose, 6390-8 (vol. i. 238).
2098. So in I. 1008: 'but-if it lyke to thee of thyn humilitee.'
2105. 'The pavements were made of encaustic tiles, and therefore must have been rather expensive.'--Wright. See my note to Pierce the Ploughman's Crede, l. 194; and Our English Home, p. 20.
2107. 'For the sake of Him who harried hell'; see note to A. 3512; p. 107.
2116. _Elie_, Elias, Elijah. _Elisee_, Eliseus, Elisha. There was great strife among the four orders of friars as to the priority of their order. The Carmelites, who took their name from mount Carmel (see 1 Kings, xviii. 19, 20), actually pretended that their order was founded by the prophet Elijah when he retired to mount Carmel to escape the wrath of Ahab; and by this unsurpassable fiction secured to themselves the credit of priority to the rest. It is therefore clear that the friar of Chaucer's story was a _Carmelite_, as _no other_ friar would have alluded to this story. See Wyclif's Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 353; Pierce the Ploughman's Crede, 382.
2119. _for seinte charitee_; a common expression. It occurs in the Tale of Gamelin, 513; with which Chaucer was familiar. Cf. B. 4510.
2126. _your brother._ This alludes to the _letters of fraternity_, which friars were accustomed to grant, under the conventual seal, to such laymen as had given them benefactions or were likely to leave them money in their wills. The benefactors received in return a brotherly participation in such spiritual benefits as the friars could confer. Thus, in Jack Upland, §§ 28, 29, we find:--'Why be ye [friars] so hardie to grant, by letters of fraternitie, to men and women, that they shall haue part and merite of all your good deeds, and ye weten neuer whether God be apayed with your deeds because of your sin?... What betokeneth that yee haue ordeined that, whan such one as ye haue made your brother or sister, and hath a letter of your seale, that letter mought be brought in your holy chapter, and there be rad, [340] or els yee will not pray for him?' See Wyclif's Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 377, 420; ed. Matthew, p. 4. Such lay brethren were usually dressed for burial in a friar's habit; see Milton, P. L. iii. 479; Rock, Church of our Fathers, i. 487. A benefactor could even thus belong to _all_ the orders of friars at once; cf. P. Plowman, C. x. 343 (B. vii. 192). This gives point to the question in l. 1955 above.
2156. _His meynee_, i. e. the menials of the sick man.
2159. His companion was in the nearest inn; see l. 1779.
2162. _court_, the house of the lord of the manor. 'The larger country-houses consisted generally of an enclosed court, from which circumstance this name was usually given to the manorial residence, and it has been preserved to modern times, as a common term for gentlemen's seats.'--Wright. Cf. P. Plowman, C. xxiii. 344. It was also called a _place_; see note to B. 1910; p. 184.
2164. 'Of ech sich privat seete, by licence of the pope, ben maad, some _chapeleyns of houshold_, summe chapeleyns of honour,' &c.; Wyclif's Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 511. 'Frere, what charity is this, to be confessors of lords and ladies,' &c.; Jack Upland, § 37. And see Wyclif's Works, ed. Matthew, p. 333; P. Plowman, B. v. 136-142, xx. 341-345.
2185. _maister._ The hypocrite here declines to be called 'master,' though he had allowed the good wife to call him so twice without reproof; see ll. 1800, 1836; and cf. l. 1781. At the same time, he declares that he had gained the title of Master in the schools. As he was the prior or principal of his convent (see ll. 2260, 2265, 2276) he may have been 'capped,' or have received the degree of Master of Divinity. 'Also capped freris, that ben calde maystres of dyvynite, have her chaumber and servise as lordis or kynges.... And what cursidenesse in this ... to gete hym a cappe of maysterdome, by preyer of lordis and grete giftis,' &c.; Wyclif's Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 376. An LL.D. of Edinburgh is 'capped,' or has a doctor's cap momentarily laid upon his head, when he receives his degree; as I know by experience.
See also Pierce the Ploughman's Crede, ll. 498, 574.
2187. See Matt. xxiii. 7, 8.
2196. See Matt. v. 13.
2205. 'How does it seem to me?' Read _think'th_.
2209. 'I consider him to be in a kind of frenzy'; cf. 2240, 2292.
2219. _Shewe_ here means 'to propose' or 'propound.'
2235. See Chaucer's own explanation of the method of propagation of a sound, in the Hous of Fame, 782-821. He seems to have taken it from Boethius, De Musica, i. 14; see vol. iii. p. 260.
2238. _my cherl_, i. e. my serf; as being his dependant. It probably implies vassalage.
2244. Cf. A. 100. Although the squire was not above winning 'a new gown,' he was probably a young man of (future) equal rank with the lord of the manor. In fact, his scornful boldness proves it. [341]
2247. _goune-cloth._ 'In the middle ages, the most common rewards, and even those given by the feudal landholders to their dependants and retainers, were articles of apparel, especially the gown or outward robe.... Money was comparatively very scarce in the middle ages; and as the household retainers were lodged and fed, clothing was almost the only article they wanted.'--Wright.
2259. 'The regular number of monks or friars in a convent had been fixed at twelve, with [i. e. besides] their superior; in imitation, it is said, of the number of twelve apostles and their divine master. The larger religious houses were considered as consisting of a certain number of convents. Thus Thorn, speaking of the abbot of St. Augustine's at Canterbury, says:--Anno Domini m.c.xlvi, iste Hugo reparavit antiquum numerum monachorum istius monasterii, et erant lx. monachi professi praeter abbatem, hoc est, _quinque_ conuentus in universo.--_Decem Scriptores_, col. 1807.'--Wright. That is, this house consisted of sixty-one members, the abbot and five convents of twelve each. The smaller (single) convents were also called _cells_, and the principal, the _prior_; see A. 172, and note that, in A. 167, the Monk is said, not to be an abbot, but to be _fit_ to be an abbot. The expression '_his_ covent,' in l. 2261, shews that the friar confessor was the prior or head of his cell.
2279. 'Yif a frere be a _maister_, or a riche frere in-mong hise bretheren, he shal be loutid and worshipid more then Cristis lawe techith,' &c.; Wyclif's Works, ed. Matthew, p. 306.
2281. This implies that the squire, with the rest, had heard the friar preach in church that morning, and had been greatly bored by the sermon.
2289. I supply the word _as_, which is plainly wanted. MS. Hl. supplies _elles_, but I believe _as_ to be right. The way in which the second _as_ came to be dropped in this line, is very curious. It arose from misunderstanding the spelling of Ptolemy.
The occurrence of an unpronounceable _P_ at the beginning of _Ptolomee_ made the scribes think something must be _omitted_. Hence several of them introduced a stroke through the _p_, which stood as an abbreviation for 'ro,' and this turned it into _Protholomee_, which looked right, but made the second _as_ superfluous. Thus MSS. Cp. Hl. both have 'p_ro_tholome,' with the mark of abbreviation; in MSS. E. Hn. Dd. it is expanded into 'Protholomee' at length. We again find the scribes in the same difficulty in D. 324. A still stranger spelling is _plotolomee_, for which see vol. iii. p. 359, l. 18. Cf. the note on Ptolemy in the same volume, at p. 354.
* * * * *
[342]
NOTES TO GROUP E.
THE CLERKES PROLOGUE.
1. _clerk._ See the description of him, Prol. A. 285.
3. _were newe spoused_, who should be (i. e. is) newly wedded; see Rom. de la Rose, (F. version), 1004; in vol. i. p. 136.
6. See Eccles. iii. 1; 'To every thing there is a season,' &c.
7. _as beth_, pray be. The word _as_, nearly equivalent to 'I pray,' is sometimes used thus with the imperative mood. Since _as_ is short for _al-so_, it means literally _even so_, _just so_. Cp. _as keep_, A. 2302; _as sende_, A. 2317; _as doth_, F. 458; '_as beth_ not wroth with me,' Troil. and Cress. v. 145; '_as_ go we seen,' i. e. pray let us go to see, id. 523; see also A. 3777. See Mätzner, Engl. Gram. ii. 2. 505.
10. A French proverb. 'Ki en jeu entre jeu consente,' i. e. approves of; Le Roux de Lincy, Proverbes Français, ii. 85.
18. _Heigh style_, lofty, learned, somewhat pedantic style; see l. 41.
22. _yerde_, control, governance; lit. yard, rod; so we say 'under the rod.' Cf. B. 1287, and the note at p. 169.
27. _Padowe_, Padua, in the N. E. of Italy. Petrarch resided at Arqua, two miles from Padua. He died July 18, 1374. See vol. iii. p. 454; vol. i. p. xxv.
33. _of poetrye_, with his poetry. _Of_ is similarly used in l. 34.
34. _Linian_; 'the canonist Giovanni di Lignano, once illustrious, now forgotten, though several works of his remain. He was made Professor of Canon Law at Bologna in 1363, and died at Bologna in 1383'; Morley's English Writers, v. 339. Tyrwhitt first pointed out the person here alluded to, and says--'there is some account of him in Panzirolus, de Cl. Leg. Intrepret. l. iii. c. xxv:--Joannes, a Lignano, agri Mediolanensis vico, oriundus, et ob id _Lignanus_ dictus,' &c. One of his works, entitled Tractatus de Bello, is extant in MS. Reg. 13 B. ix [Brit. Mus.]. He composed it at Bologna in the year 1360. He was not however a mere lawyer. Chaucer speaks of him as excelling in _philosophy_, and so does his epitaph in Panzirolus. The only specimen of his philosophy that I have met with is in MS. Harl. 1006. It is an astrological work, entitled Conclusiones Judicii composite per Domnum Johannem de Lyniano super coronacione Domni Urbani [343] Pape VI. A.D. 1387,' &c. Lignano is here said to be near Milan, and to have been the lawyer's birthplace. In l. 38, Chaucer speaks of his death, showing that Chaucer wrote this prologue later than 1383.
43. _proheme_, proem, introduction. Petrarch's treatise (taken from Boccaccio's Decamerone, Day x. Novel 10) is entitled 'De obedientia ac fide uxoria Mythologia.' It is preceded by a letter to Boccaccio, but this is not here alluded to. What Chaucer means is the first section of the tale itself, which begins thus:--'Est ad Italiae latus occiduum Vesulus, ex Apennini iugis mons unus altissimus.... Padi ortu nobilissimus, qui eius a latere fonte lapsus exiguo orientem contra solem fertur, mirisque mox tumidus incrementis.... Liguriam gurgite uiolentus intersecat; dehinc Aemiliam, atque Flaminiam, Venetiamque discriminans ... in Adriaticum mare descendit.' _Pemond_, Piedmont. _Saluces_, Saluzzo, S. of Turin. _Vesulus_, Monte Viso. See the description of the route from Mont Dauphin to Saluzzo, by the Col de Viso, in Murray's Guide to Switzerland and Piedmont. Cf. Vergil, Aen. x. 708.
51. _To Emelward_, towards Aemilia. Tyrwhitt says--'One of the regions of Italy was called Aemilia, from the _via Aemilia_, which crossed it from Placentia [Piacenza] to Rimini. Placentia stood upon the Po. Pitiscus, Lex. Ant. Rom. in v. _Via Aemilia_. Petrarch's description ... is a little different.' See note above. _Ferrare_, Ferrara, on the Po, not far from its mouth. _Venyse_, rather the Venetian territory than Venice itself.
54. 'It seems to me a thing irrelevant, excepting that he wishes to impart his information.'
56. _this_, contraction for _this is_ (see footnote); common.
THE CLERKES TALE.
57. In many places this story is translated from Petrarch almost word for word; and as Tyrwhitt remarks, it would be endless to cite illustrative passages from the original Latin; see further in vol. iii. p. 453. The first stanza is praised by Professor Lowell, in his Study Windows, p. 208, where he says--'What a sweep of vision is here!' Chaucer is not quite so close a translator here as usual; the passage in Petrarch being--'Inter caetera ad radicem Vesuli, terra Salutiarum, uicis et castellis satis frequens, Marchionum arbitrio nobilium quorundum regitur uirorum.'
82. _leet he slyde_, he allowed to pass unattended to, neglected. So we find 'Let the world _slide_'; Induction to Taming of the Shrew, l. 5; and 'The state of vertue never _slides_'; The Sturdy Rock (in Percy's Reliques). See March's Student's Manual of Eng. Lang. p. 125, where the expression is noted as still current in America. Petrarch has--'alia pene cuncta negligeret.' With ll. 83-140, cf. Shakesp. Sonnets, i-xvii. [344]
86. _flockmele_, in a flock or troop; Pet. has 'cateruatim.' 'Treuly theder came _flockemele_ the multitude of tho blessyd sowlys':--Monk of Evesham, ed. Arber, c. 55; p. 107. Palsgrave's French Dict. has--'Flockmeale, _par troupeaux_'; fol. 440, back. Cf. E. _piece-meal_; we also find _wukemalum_, week by week, Ormulum, 536; _lim-mele_, limb from limb, Layamon, 25618; _hipyllmelum_, by heaps, Wycl. Bible, Wisdom xviii. 25: Koch, Eng. Gramm. ii. 292.
99. 'Although I have no more to do with this matter than others have who are here present.' Observe that the Marquis is addressed as _ye_, not _thou_, the former being a title of respect.
103-105. These three lines are not in the original.
106. We should have expected to find here _us lyketh ye_, i. e. you are pleasing to us; but we really have an instance of a double dative, so that _us lyketh yow_ is equivalent to 'it pleases us with respect to you.' The nominative case is _ye_, the dative and accusative _yow_ or _you_. _Yow leste_, it may please you, in l. 111, is the usual idiom.
107. _and ever han doon_, and (both you and your doings) have ever brought it about. Such is the usual force of _doon_; cf. ll. 253, 1098.
115. Cf. Barbour's Bruce, ed. Skeat, i. 266-8.--M.
118-119. Expanded from--'uolant enim dies rapidi.'
121. _still as stoon_; Latin text, 'tacita.' Cf. F. 171.
129. _we wol chese yow_, we will choose for you.
147. _Ther_, where. This line is Chaucer's own.
157. _Bountee_, goodness. _streen_, race, stock. Petrarch has--'Quicquid in homine boni est, non ab alio quam a Deo est.'
168. _As_, as if. This line, in Petrarch, comes after l. 173. Lines 174, 175 are Chaucer's own.
172. _as ever_, &c., as ever I may thrive, as I hope to thrive.
190-196. Expanded from--'Et ipse nihilominus eam ipsam nuptiarum curam domesticis suis imposuit, edixitque diem.'
197-203. Expanded from--'Fuit haud procul a palatio uillula paucorum atque inopum incolarum.'
211-217. Sometimes Chaucer translates literally, and sometimes he merely paraphrases, as here. Lines 215-217 are all his own.
220. _rype and sad corage_, a mature and staid disposition. Petrarch has--'sed uirilis senilisque animus uirgineo latebat in pectore.'
223. _spinning_; i. e. she spun whilst keeping the sheep; see a picture of St. Geneviève in Mrs. Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art. Line 224 is Chaucer's.
227. _shredde and seeth_, sliced and sod (or boiled). Lat. 'domum rediens oluscula et dapes fortunae congruas praeparabat, durumque cubiculum sternebat,' &c.
229. _on lofte_, aloft. She kept up her father's life, i. e. sustained him. His death is recorded in l. 1134.
234. For this line the Latin has only the word _transiens_.
237. _in sad wyse_, soberly; Lat. 'senili grauitate.' [345]
242. Here _the people_ means the common people; Lat. '_uulgi_ oculis.' In the next line _he_ is emphatic, meaning that _his_ eyes were quicker to perceive than _theirs_.
253. _hath don make_, hath caused to be made. Lat. 'Ipse interim et anulos aureos et coronas et balteos conquirebat.' Chaucer inserts _asure_, the colour of fidelity; see F. 644, and note. For _balteos_ he substitutes the English phrase _broches and ringes_; cf. P. Plowm. B. prol. 75.
257. Scan--Bý | a maýd | e lýk | to hír | statúrë. ||
259. Here Chaucer apparently omits a sentence, namely:--'Uenerat expectatus dies, et cum nullus sponsae rumor audiretur, admiratio omnium uehementer excreuerat.' But he has, in fact, given us this above, in ll. 246-8.
260. _undern_ (lit. the intervening or middle period) has two meanings in the Teutonic tongues; (1) mid-forenoon, i. e. originally 9 A. M.; and (2) mid-afternoon, originally 3 P. M. In this passage it is clearly the former that is meant; indeed in l. 981, where it occurs again, the original has 'proximae lucis _hora tertia_,' i. e. 9 A. M. In _this_ passage, the original has _hora prandii_, meaning luncheon-time, which in Chaucer's time would often be 9 A. M.; see note to B. 1396, at p. 171; and cf. Ælfric's Homilies, ed. Thorpe, ii. 77. See note to Piers Pl. B. vi. 147; and see _Undern_ in the Glossary.
But it may be noted here, that the sense of _undern_ is variable. Sometimes it meant the period from 9 to 12, or the middle of that period, i. e. about 10.30 or 11. Sometimes, the period from 3 to 6 P. M., or the middle of it, i. e. about 4.30 or 4. In modern E. dialects, it means about 4 P. M. See B. 4412, D. 875.
260-294. Expanded and improved from the following short passage: 'Hora iam prandii aderat, iamque apparatu ingenti domus tota feruebat. Tum Gualtherus, aduentanti ueluti sponsae obuiam profecturus, domo egreditur, prosequente uirorum et matronarum nobilium caterua. Griseldis omnium quae erga se pararentur ignara, peractis quae agenda domi erant, aquam e longinquo fonte conuectans paternum limen intrabat: ut, expedita curis aliis, ad uisendam domini sui sponsam cum puellis comitibus properaret.'
322. _governeth_, arrange, dispose of. Observe the use of the _plural_ imperative, as a mark of respect. When the marquis addresses Griseldis as _ye_, it is a mark of extreme condescension on his part; the Latin text has _tu_ and _te_.
337-343. Expanded from--'insolito tanti hospitis aduentu stupidam inuenere; quam iis uerbis Gualtherus aggreditur.'
350. _yow avyse_, consider the matter; really a delicate way of expressing refusal. Compare the legal formula _le roy s'avisera_ for expressing the royal refusal to a proposed measure.
364. _For to be deed_, even if I were to be dead, were to die; Lat. 'et si me mori iusseris, quod moleste feram.'
375-376. These characteristic lines are Chaucer's own. So are ll. 382, 383. [346]
381. _corone_, nuptial garland; Lat. 'corona.' See Brand's Pop. Antiq. ed. Ellis, ii. 123.
388. _snow-whyt_; Lat. 'niueo.' Perhaps Spenser took a hint from this; F. Q. i. 1. 4. In the Leg. of Good Women, l. 1198, Chaucer calls a horse _paper-whyt_.
393. Repeated, slightly altered, from l. 341.
409. _thewes_, mental qualities. So also in E. 1542; Gower, Conf. Amant. lib. vii. sect. 1 (ed. Pauli, iii. 85); Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 3; i. 10. 4; ii. 1. 33, &c. 'The common signification of the word _thews_ in our old writers, is manners, or qualities of mind and disposition.... By _thews_ Shakespeare means unquestionably brawn, nerves, muscular vigour (Jul. Caes. i. 3; 2 Hen. IV, iii. 2; Hamlet, i. 3). And to this sense, and this only, the word has now settled down; the other sense, which was formerly so familiar in our literature, is quite gone out and forgotten. [With respect to _theawe_ = sinew, in Layamon, l. 6361] Sir F. Madden remarks (iii. 471):--"This is the only instance in the poem of the word being applied to bodily qualities, nor has any other passage of an earlier date than the sixteenth century been found in which it is so used." It may be conjectured that it had only been a provincial word in this sense, till Shakespeare adopted it'; Craik's English of Shakespeare; note on Jul. Caesar, i. 3. 81.
412. _embrace_, hold fast; 'omnium animos nexu sibi magni amoris _astrinxerat_.' Compare Tennyson's Lord of Burleigh with ll. 394-413.
413. Nearly identical with Troil. i. 1078.
421. _royally_; alluding to the royal virtues of Griseldis.
429. Not only the context, but the Latin text, justifies the reading _homlinesse_. _Feet_ is fact, i. e. act. The Latin is--'Neque uero solers sponsa muliebria tantum haec _domestica_, sed, ubi res posceret, publica etiam obibat officia.' Lines 432-434 are Chaucer's own.
444. 'Although it would have been liefer to her to have borne a male child'; i. e. she would rather, &c. The Latin has--'quamuis filium maluisset.'
449-462. Expanded from--'Cepit (ut fit) interim Gualtherum, cum iam ablactata esset infantula (mirabilis quaedam quàm laudabilis, [_aliter_, an mirabile quidem magis quam laudabile,] doctiores iudicent) cupiditas satis expertam charae fidem coniugis experiendi altius [_aliter_, ulterius], et iterum atque iterum retentandi.'
452. _tempte_, make trial of, prove; see ll. 1152, 1153 below. _sadnesse_, constancy, equanimity.
483. Note Walter's use of the word _thee_ here, and of _thy_ twice in the next stanza, instead of the usual _ye_. It is a slight, but significant sign of insult, offered under pretence of reporting the opinion of others. In l. 492 we have _your_ again.
504. _thing_, possession. Lat. 'de rebus tuis igitur fac ut libet.'
516. _a furlong wey or two_, the distance of one or two furlongs, a short distance, a little. The line simply means--'a little after.' [347]
525. _stalked him_; marched himself in, as we should say. This use of _him_ is remarkable, but not uncommon.
533-539. Lat. 'Iussus sum hanc infantulam accipere, atque eam--Hîc sermone abrupto, quasi crudele ministerium silentio exprimens, subticuit.' Compare 'Quos ego--'; Vergil, Aen. i. 135.
540-546. Lat. 'Suspecta uiri fama; suspecta facies; suspecta hora; suspecta erat oratio; quibus etsi clare occisum iri dulcem filiam intelligeret, nec lachrymulam tamen ullam, nec suspirium dedit.' Mr. Wright quotes this otherwise, putting _dulce_ for _dulcem_, and stopping at _intelligeret_.
547-567. Chaucer expands the Latin, and transposes some of the matter. Lines 561-563 precede ll. 547-560 in the original, which merely has--'in nutrice quidem, nedum in matre durissimum; sed tranquilla fronte puellulam accipiens aliquantulum respexit & simul exosculans benedixit, ac signum sanctae crucis impressit, porrexitque satelliti.'
570. After _That_ in this line, we ought, in strict grammar, to have _ye burie_ in the next line, instead of the imperative _burieth_. But the phrase is idiomatic, and as all the seven best MSS. agree in this reading, it is best to retain it. Tyrwhitt alters _That but_ to _But if_.
579. _Somwhat_, in some degree. But Petrarch says differently--'_uehementer_ paterna animum pietas mouit.'
582-591. Lat. 'Iussit satelliti obuolutam pannis, cistae iniectam, ac iumento impositam, quiete omni quanta posset diligentia Bononiam deferret ad sororem suam, quae illic comiti de Panico nupta erat,' &c.
586. 'But, under penalty of having his head cut off'; lit. of cutting off his head.
589. _Boloigne_, Bologna, E. by S. from Modena, and a long way from Saluzzo. _Panik_ answers to the _de Panico_ in note to l. 582; Boccaccio has _Panago_. I observe in the map the river _Panaro_ flowing between Modena and Bologna; perhaps there is some connexion between the names. Tyrwhitt has _Pavie_ (Pavia) in his text, but corrects it in the notes.
602. _in oon_, in one and the same state: _ever in oon_, always alike, continually; so also in l. 677. Cf. Kn. Ta. 913 (A. 1771).
607. This must mean--'no accidental sign of any calamity.'
612. _A knave child_, a male child, boy; as in Barbour's Bruce, xiii. 693; English Gilds, ed. T. Smith, p. 30.
615. _merië_; three syllables; cf. A. 1386, B. 4156. Ll. 621-623 are Chaucer's own.
625. _sikly berth_, hardly bear, dislike. Lat. 'populum _aegre ferre_,' &c.
643. Lat. 'ne te inopinus et subitus dolor turbet.'
645-651. Expanded from--'Dixi (ait) et repeto, nihil possum seu uelle, seu nolle, nisi quae tu; neque uero in ijs filiis quicquam habeo, praeter laborem.'
663. _plesancë_, three syllables; _stabl'_, one syllable.
666. 'The pain of death is not to be compared to the pleasure of your [348] love.' Lat. 'nec mors ipsa nostro fuerit par amori.' Cf. ll. 817, 1091.
687. _ever lenger_, &c., i. e. ever the longer (he thinks of it) the more he wonders. In _the more_, the word _the_ is for A. S. _þý_.
700. _And he_; cf. _And ye_, l. 105.
701-707. Expanded from--'sed sunt qui, ubi semel inceperint, non desinant; immo incumbant, haereantque proposito.'
704. _a stake_; cf. Macb. v. 7. 1; Jul. Caesar, iv. 1. 48.
714. _more penible_, more painstaking; Lat. 'obsequentior.'
719. 'She made it clear that no wife should of herself, on account of any worldly anxiety, have any will, in practice, different from that of her husband.'
722. _sclaundre_, ill fame, ill report concerning Walter. See l. 730.
738. _message_, a messenger; Lat. '_nuncios_ Romam misit.' So in Old English we find _prisoun_ or _prison_ for prisoner; Piers Pl. B. vii. 30.
772. _anon_, immediately. It was not uncommon in olden times for girls to be married at twelve years of age. The Wife of Bath was first married at that age; see D. 4.
797. Lat. 'magna omnis fortuna seruitus magna est; non mihi licet, quod cuilibet liceret agricolae.'
850. _were_ agrees with the word _clothes_ following; cf. _it ben_, Piers Plowm. B. vi. 56. She did not really bring her husband even the dower of her old clothes, as they had been taken from her. Lines 851-861 are all Chaucer's own, and shew his delicacy of touch.
866. Lat. 'neque omnino alia mihi dos fuit, quam fides et nuditas.'
871. Probably suggested by Job, i. 21. So l. 902 is from Job, iii. 3.
880-882. These lines are Chaucer's own; l. 880 is characteristic of him. The phrase in l. 880 seems to have been proverbial. Cf. 'I walke as werme, withoute wede'; Coventry Mysteries, p. 28. But Chaucer got it from Le Roman de la Rose, 445; see his translation, l. 454; vol. i. p. 112.
888-889. The latter part of l. 888, and l. 889, are Chaucer's own.
903. _lyves_, alive; _a lyves creature_, a creature alive, a living being. _Lyves_ is an adverb, formed like _nedes_, from the genitive case of the substantive. There are other instances of its use.
'Yif I late him _liues_ go'; Havelok, 509.
i. e. if I let him go away _alive_. And again _lyues_ = alive, in Piers Pl. B. xix. 154. Nearly repeated from Troil. iv. 251-2.
910. After this line, Chaucer has omitted the circumstance of Janicola's preserving his daughter's old clothing; 'tunicam eius hispidam, et attritam senio, abditam paruae domus in parte seruauerat.' See l. 913.
911. _Agayns_, towards, so as to meet. _To go agayns_, in M. E., is _to go to meet_. So also _to come agayns_, _to ride agayns_ (or _agayn_). See _Agayn_ in Glossary to Spec. of Eng. (Morris and Skeat); and Barbour's Bruce, xiv. 420. Ll. 915-917 are Chaucer's own. [349]
916. 'For the cloth was poor, and many days older now than on the day of her marriage.'
932. 'Men speak of Job, and particularly of his humility.' Cf. Job, xl. 4, xlii. 1-6.
934. _Namely of men_, especially of _men_, where _men_ is emphatic. The whole of this stanza (932-938) is Chaucer's.
938. _but_, except, unless; _falle_, fallen, happened; _of-newe_, newly, an adverbial expression. It means then, 'unless it has happened very lately.' In other words, 'If there is an example of a man surpassing a woman in humility, it must have happened very lately; for I have never heard of it.'
939. _Pars Sexta._ This indication of a new part comes in a fitting place, and is taken from Tyrwhitt, who may have found it in a MS. But there is no break here in the Latin original, nor in any of the MSS. of Chaucer which I have consulted. _erl of Panik_; Lat. 'Panicius comes.'
940. _more and lesse_, greater or smaller; i. e. everybody. So also in the Frank. Tale, 'riveres _more and lesse_'; F. 1054. So also _moche and lyte_, great and small, Prol. 494; _moste and leste_, greatest and least, A. 2198. Spenser has, F. Q. vi. 6. 12,--
''Gainst all, both bad and good, both most and least.'
941. _alle and some_, i. e. all and one, one and all. See Morris's Eng. Accidence, sect. 218, p. 142.
960. _wommen_; some MSS. have _womman_, as in Tyrwhitt. But MS. E. is right. Petrarch uses the word _foeminas_, not _foeminam_.
965. _yvel biseye_, ill provided; lit. ill beseen. The word _yvel_ is pronounced here almost as a monosyllable (as it were _yv'l_), as is so commonly the case with _ever_; indeed generally, words ending with _el_ and _er_ are often thus clipped. A remarkable instance occurs in the Milleres Tale (A. 3715), where we not only have a similar ending, but the word _ever_ in the same line--
'That trewë love was ever so yvel biset.'
See also _yvel apayed_ in line 1052 below. The converse to _yvel biseye_, is _richely biseye_, richly provided or adorned, in l. 984 below.
981. Lat. 'Proximae lucis hora tertia comes superuenerat'; see note to l. 260.
995-1008. These two stanzas are Chaucer's own, and are so good that they must have been a later addition; Prof. Ten Brink suggests the date 1387 (Eng. Lit. ii. 123, Eng. version). In MS. E. the word _Auctor_ is inserted in the margin, and l. 995 begins with a large capital letter. At the beginning of l. 1009 is a paragraph-mark, shewing where the translation begins again. _unsad_, unsettled. Cf. Shakesp. Cor. i. 1. 186, Jul. Caesar, i. 1. 55; Scott, Lady of the Lake, v. 30.
999. 'Ever full of tittle-tattle, which would be dear enough at a halfpenny.' See n. to l. 1200. _Iane_, a small coin of Genoa (Janua); see Rime of Sir Thopas, B. 1925. The first stanza (995-1001) is supposed [350] to be uttered by the sober and discreet part of the population; see l. 1002.
1031. _lyketh thee_, pleases thee. The marquis addresses her as _thou_, because all suppose her to be a menial.
1039. _mo_, lit. more; but also used in the sense of _others_, or, as here, _another_. The modern phrase would be, 'as you did _somebody else_.' The extreme delicacy of the hint is admirable. This use of _mo_ is common in Chaucer; see the Glossary. So also, in Specimens of English, ed. Morris and Skeat, we have, at p. 47, l. 51--
'Y sike for vnsete; Ant mourne ase men doþ _mo_';
i. e. I sigh for unrest, and mourn as _other_ men do. And on the next page, p. 48, l. 22, we have
'Mody meneþ so doþ _mo_, Ichot ycham on of þo';
i. e. 'The moody moan as _others_ do; I wot I am one of them.' In l. 240 of How the Good Wife taught her Daughter, pr. with Barbour's Bruce, ed. Skeat, we find--'And slanderit folk vald euir haue _ma_,' i. e. would ever have _others like themselves_. Somewhat similar is the expression _oþer mo_, where we should now say _others as well_; Piers Plowman, C. v. 10, xxii. 54. A somewhat similar use of _mo_ occurs in Tudor English. 'It fortuned Diogenes to ... make one among the _moo_ at a dyner.'--Udall, tr. of Erasmus' Apophthegmes (1564), bk. i. § 91. So also:--'that he also, emong the _mo_ [i. e. the rest] might haue his pleasure'; id. bk. ii. § 13. Tyrwhitt's suggestion that Chaucer has licentiously turned _me_ into _mo_ for the mere sake of getting a rime, in which he has hitherto been followed by nearly every editor, is only to be repudiated. It may well have been with the very purpose of guarding against this error that, in the Ellesmere and Hengwrt MSS., the original Latin text is here quoted in the margin--'unum bona fide te precor ac moneo: ne hanc illis aculeis agites, quibus _alteram_ agitasti.' Chaucer, who throughout surpasses his original in delicacy of treatment, did not permit himself to be outdone here; and Boccaccio also has the word _altra_. The use of _me_ would have been a _direct_ charge of unkindness, spoiling the whole story. See l. 1045 and l. 449.
1049. _gan his herte dresse_, addressed his heart, i. e. prepared it, schooled it. The M. E. _dresse_ is our modern _direct_; both being from Lat. _dirigere_.
1053. Here we may once more note the use of the word _thy_, the more so as it is used with a quite different tone. We sometimes find it used, as here, _between equals_, as a term of _endearment_; it is, accordingly, very significant. See l. 1056.
1066. _that other_, the other, the boy.
1071. _non_, any, either. The use of it is due to the preceding _nat_.
1079. Professor Morley, in his English Writers, v. 342, aptly remarks here--'And when Chaucer has told all, and dwelt with an [351] exquisite pathos of natural emotion all his own upon the patient mother's piteous and tender kissing of her recovered children--for there is nothing in Boccaccio, and but half a sentence in Petrarch, answering to these four beautiful stanzas (1079-1106)--he rounds all, as Petrarch had done, with simple sense, which gives religious meaning to the tale, then closes with a lighter strain of satire which protects Griselda herself from the mocker.'
1098. 'Hath caused you (to be) kept.' For the same idiom, see Kn. Tale, A. 1913; Man of Law's Tale, B. 171, and the note. Cf. 'Wher I have beforn ordeyned and _do mad_ [caused to be made] my tombe.' Royal Wills, ed. Nichols, p. 278.
1133. _His wyves fader_, i. e. Janicola. This circumstance should have been mentioned _before_ l. 1128, as in the original.
1140. For _of_ (Ellesmere MS.) the other MSS. read _in_.
1141. _auctour_, author, i. e. Petrarch, whom Chaucer follows down to l. 1162. Ll. 1138-1141 are Chaucer's own, and may be compared with his poem on the Golden Age (vol. i. 380).
1144. _importable_, intolerable; Lat.--'huius uxoris patientiam, quae mihi _uix imitabilis_ uidetur.' Of course ll. 1147-8 are Chaucer's.
1151. 'Receive all with submission.' Fr. _en gré_, gratefully, in good part. _sent_, sendeth; present tense, as in Piers Plowman, C. xxii. 434. The past tense is _sente_, which would not rime.
1152. 'For it is very reasonable that He should prove (or test) that which He created.'
1153. _boghte_, (hath) redeemed. See St. James, i. 13.
1162. Here Petrarch ends his narrative, and here, beyond all doubt, Chaucer's translation originally ended also. From this point to the end is the work of a later period, and in his best manner, though _unsuited to the coy Clerk_. He easily links on his addition by the simple expression _lordinges, herkneth_; and in l. 1170, he alludes to the _Wife of Bath_, of whom probably he had never thought when first translating the story.
We can thus understand the stanza in the footnote, on p. 424. It is genuine, but was rejected at the time of adding ll. 1163-1212. It was afterwards expanded into The Monkes Prologue, with the substitution of the patient Prudence for the patient Griselda; see B. 3083-6.
1177. Here the metre changes; the stanzas are of six lines; and all six stanzas are linked together. There are but three rimes throughout; _-ence_ in the first and third lines of every stanza, _-aille_ in the second, fourth, and sixth, (requiring _eighteen_ rimes in all), and _-inde_ in the fifth line. It is a fine example even from a metrical point of view alone.
1188. _Chichevache_, for _chiche vache_, i. e. lean cow. The allusion is to an old fable, of French origin, which describes a monstrous cow named _Chiche Vache_ as feeding entirely upon patient wives, and being very lean in consequence of the scarcity of her diet. A later form of the fable adds a second beast, named _Bicorne_ (two-horned), who, by adopting the wiser course of feeding upon patient husbands, was [352] always fat and in good case. Mr. Wright says--'M. Achille Jubinal, in the notes to his _Mystères inédits du xv Siècle_, tom. i. p. 390, has printed a French poetical description of _Chichevache_ from a MS. of the fourteenth century. In the French miracle of St. Geneviève, of the fifteenth century (Jubinal, ib. p. 281), a man says satirically to the saint,
"Gardez vous de la _chicheface_, El vous mordra s'el vous encontre, Vous n'amendez point sa besoigne."'
A poem by Lydgate on _Bycorne and Chichevache_ is printed in Mr. Halliwell's Minor Poems of Dan John Lydgate, p. 129 (Percy Society); see Morley's English Writers, vi. 107, and his Shorter English Poems, p. 55. In his Étude sur G. Chaucer, p. 221, M. Sandras refers us, for information about _Chicheface_, lit. 'thin face' or 'ugly face' (of which _Chiche vache_ was a perversion), to the Histoire Littéraire de France, vol. xxiii. Dr. Murray refers us to Montaiglon, _Poésie franç. 15^e et 16^e siècles_ (1855), ii. 191. The passage in Chaucer means, 'Beware of being too patient, lest Chichevache swallow you down.'
1189. _Folweth Ekko_, imitate Echo, who _always replies_.
1196. The forms _chamail_, _kamail_, a camel, occur in the A. F. Romance of King Horn, ed. Brede and Stengel, l. 4177. For the M. E. _camayl_, see Rich. Cuer de Lion, 2323; Cursor Mundi, 3304 (Trin. MS.).
1200. 'Always talk (or rattle) on, like a mill' (that is always going round and making a noise). 'Janglinge is whan men speken to muche biforn folk, and _clappen as a mille_, and taken no kepe what they seye'; Ch. Persones Tale, De Superbia (I. 406). Palsgrave's French Dict. has--'I clappe, I make a noyse as the clapper of a mill, _Ie clacque_.'
'Thou art as fulle of clappe, as is a mille.' Hoccleve, de Regimine Principum, ed. Wright, p. 7.
Cf. 'As fast as millwheels strike'; Tempest, i. 2. 281.
1204. _aventaille_, the lower half of the moveable part of a helmet which admitted air; called by Spenser the _ventail_, F. Q. iv. 6. 19; v. 8. 12; and by Shakespeare the _beaver_, Hamlet, i. 2. 230. It is explained, in Douce's Illustrations of Shakespeare, that the moveable part of the helmet in front was made in two parts, which turned on hinges at the sides of the head. The upper part is the _visor_, to admit of vision, the lower the _ventail_, to admit of breathing. Both parts could be removed from the face, but only by lifting them _upwards_, and throwing them _back_. If the _visor_ alone were lifted, only the upper part of the face was exposed; but if the _ventail_ were lifted, the visor also went with it, and the whole of the face was seen. Compare Fairfax's Tasso, vii. 7:--
'But sweet Erminia comforted their fear, Her _ventail_ up, her visage _open laid_.'
So also in Hamlet. With reference to the present passage, Mr. Jephson says that _and eek his aventaille_ is a perfect example of bathos. I fail to see why; the weapon that pierced a _ventail_ would pass into the [353] head, and inflict a death-wound. The passage is playful, but not silly.
1206. _couche_, cower. Hence the phrase--'to play couch-quail'; see Skelton, ed. Dyce, ii. 348.
1211. 'As light as a leaf on a linden-tree' was an old proverb. See Piers Pl. B. i. 154.
THE MARCHAUNTES PROLOGUE.
1213. _Weping and wayling_; an expression caught from l. 1212, and linking this Prologue to the foregoing Tale. Yet in fourteen MSS. the Merchant's Tale is separated from the Clerk's; Trial Forewords, by F. J. Furnivall (Chaucer Soc.), p. 28.
1221-2. _What_, why. _at al_, in every respect; like Lat. _omnino_.
1227. This theme is enlarged upon in Lenvoy de Chaucer à Bukton, a late minor poem (vol. i. 398).
1230. _Seint Thomas._ Whenever this Apostle is mentioned, he is nearly always said to be _of India_, to distinguish him, it may be, from Saint Thomas of Canterbury. See D. 1980, and the note. Some account of the shrine of St. Thomas, of the manner of his death, and of miracles wrought by him, is given in Marco Polo, bk. iii. ch. 18. Colonel Yule tells us that the body of St. Thomas lay at Mailapúr, a suburb of Madras. The legend of St. Thomas's preaching in India is of very high antiquity. St. Jerome speaks of the Divine Word being everywhere present in His fulness 'cum Thomâ in India, cum Petro Romae,' &c.; Sci. Hieronomi Epist. lix., ad Marcellam. Gregory of Tours (A. D. 544-595) speaks of the place _in India_ where the body of St. Thomas lay before it was transported to Edessa in the year 394. See the whole of Colonel Yule's long note upon the subject; and the account of Saint Thomas in Mrs. Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art.
THE MARCHANTES TALE.
For remarks on the sources of this Tale, see vol. iii. p. 458. The modern version by Pope may be compared, though it was a juvenile performance. Cf. Lydgate, Minor Poems, p. 28.
This Tale frequently adopts passages from the Tale of Melibeus, which was doubtless written several years before it. See also the article by Dr. Köppel in Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen, vol. 86, p. 39.
1246. _Pavye_, Pavia. I suppose that Chaucer had no special reason for locating the tale in Lombardy.
1248-52. For _sixty_, some MSS. have _lx._; the scribes of MSS. Hl. and Ln. wrongly have _fourty_, which looks as if they took _lx._ to mean _xl._ I see no point in turning the former _sixty_ (in 1248) into _fourty_, as Wright does, on the pretence that the first twenty years of his life did not count. Sixty was considered a great age (l. 1401). [354]
1251. _seculeer_, secular; as distinguished from the monks and friars. Chaucer probably speaks ironically, meaning that these holy orders were as bad as the rest. See l. 1322.
1267-1392. The whole of this passage presents the arguments that prevailed with January; as shewn by the words _For which_ (i. e. wherefore) in l. 1393. That is to say, Chaucer here purposely keeps reasons _against_ marriage out of sight, reserving them for ll. 1521-1565, 1659-1681. Hence the opinion in l. 1269, that a man should marry when old, is not Chaucer's opinion at all.
1270. 'The fruit of his treasure,' i. e. purchased with his own wealth. A queer reason, and not Chaucer's. Cf. l. 1276.
1277. _sit wel_, is very fit. Palsgrave has: 'It sytteth, it becometh, _il siet_.'
1284. For _blisful_, MS. Hl. wrongly has _busily_.
1294. _Theofraste_, Theophrastus. The allusion is to the Liber Aureolus Theophrasti de Nuptiis, partly preserved by St. Jerome, who quotes a long extract from it in his tractate Contra Iovinianum, lib. i. John of Salisbury quotes the same passage, almost word for word, in his Polycraticus, lib. viii. c. 11. The point discussed is:--'an uir sapiens ducat uxorem.' Amongst other things, he has a passage answering to ll. 1296-1304 below. 'Quod si propter dispensationem domus ... ducuntur uxores: multo melius seruus fidelis dispensat, obediens auctoritati domini, et dispensationi eius obtemperans quàm uxor.... Assidere autem aegrotanti magis possunt amici et uernulae beneficiis obligati, quàm illa quae nobis imputat lachrymas suas, et haereditatis spe uendit illuuiem.' Cf. Lounsbury, Studies, ii. 366.
1305-6. These two lines occur in E. Cm., and are doubtless correct. The MSS. vary considerably; see Six-Text, Pref. p. 70.
Hn.--And if thow take a wyf _she wole destroye_ _Thy good substance, and thy body annoye_.
N.B. The words in italics are added in a later hand.
Hl.--And if that thou take a wif be war Of oon peril which declare I ne dar.
Neither of these lines will scan. MSS. Harl. 7335 and Bodley 686 nearly agree with this, but read _be wel y-war_ for _be war_.
Arch. Seld.--And if thow take a wiff in thin age oolde Ful lightly maist thow be a cokewoolde.
Pt.--And if thou take a wif that to the is vntrewe Ful ofte tyme it shal the r[e]we.
So also MS. Harl. 1758, Laud 600 and 739, Lichfield, &c. The black-letter editions of 1550 and 1561 have a much better version of the same, for they omit _that_ and _is_ in the former (too long) line, and insert _sore_ before _rewe_ in the latter (too short) one.
Dd.--And if thow take a wyf of heye lynage She shal be hauteyn and of gret costage.
[355] So also (according to Tyrwhitt) the Haistwell MS. and MS. Royal 17. D. xv; and, according to Furnivall, MS. Chr. Ch. C. 6.
In six MSS., according to Tyrwhitt, they are omitted; and on this account he omits them, on the plea that they 'form the opening of a new argument,... and consequently would have been cancelled, if he [Chaucer] had lived to publish his work.' But the sense is quite complete in the form in which I give them, from the two best MSS.
1311. Against this line is written, in the margin of MS. E.--'Uxor est diligenda quia donum Dei est: Iesus filius Sirac: domus et diuicie dantur a parentibus, a Domino autem proprie uxor bona uel prudens.' But the reference is wrong; the quotation is not from Ecclesiasticus (or Jesus the son of Sirach), but from Prov. xix. 14. The Vulgate has _uxor prudens_, omitting _bona uel_. The _whole_ quotation is from Albertano of Brescia's Liber de Amore Dei (Köppel).
1315. Compare B. 1199, and I. 1068.
1318. This parenthetical line is Chaucer's very own.
1319. 'Sacramentum hoc magnum est'; Eph. v. 32. Marriage, in the Romish Church, is one of the seven sacraments.
1323-35. All from Albertano of Brescia's Liber de Amore Dei (Köppel).
1326. Hl. has _body-naked_; but all the rest (like the old editions) have _bely-naked_, which is the usual expression; see examples in Halliwell.
1328. In the margin of E.--'Faciamus ei adiutorium,' &c. From Gen. ii. 18, 24.
1335-6. From Le Roman de la Rose, 16640-4.
1337. _Seint-e_ is feminine; _ben'cite_ is trisyllabic.
1358-61. Of course these lines are genuine; they occur in nearly every MS. but E. and Trin. Coll. R. 3. 3. The scribe of E. slipped from _reed_ in 1357 to _rede_ in 1362; a common mistake. Dr. Furnivall objects that _wyse_ in 1359 is made to rime with _wyse_ in 1360, and _rede_ in 1361 with _rede_ in 1362; the riming words being used _in the same sense_. This is not the case. The first _wyse_ is plural; the second is singular, and used generally. The first _rede_ means 'advise'; the second, 'read.' To leave them out would give a rime of _reed_ (monosyllable) with _rede_ (dissyllable).
1362. The examples of Rebecca, Judith, Abigail, and Esther are quoted, in the same order and in similar terms, in the Tale of Melibeus; see B. 2288-2291, and the Notes.
1373, 4. _Mardochee_, Mordecai; in the Vulgate, Mardochaeus. _Assuere_, Ahasuerus; in the Vulgate, Assuerus; see l. 1745.
1376. In the margin of MS. Hn. is written:--'Seneca: sicut nichil est superius benigna coniuge, ita nichil est crudelius infesta muliere.' This is from Albertano of Brescia, Lib. Consolationis, cap. v. (p. 18). Sundby gives the reference, not to Seneca, but to Fulgentius, Mythologiarum, L. i. c. 27.
1377. _bit_, biddeth, bids. The passage referred to is in Dionysius [356] Cato, lib. iii. dist. 25, and is given in the margin of MSS. E. Hn. and Dd.,
Uxoris linguam, si frugi est, ferre memento.
Quoted, at second-hand, from Albertano (Köppel).
1380. In the margin of MS. E.--'Bona mulier fidelis custos est, et bona domus.' From Albertano, as above.
1381-2. 'Ubi non est mulier, ingemiscit _egens_'; Ecclus. xxxvi. 27. Albertano quotes this, but alters _egens_ to _eger_; hence Chaucer has 'the syke man'; see Köppel's article, p. 42.
1384. See Eph. v. 25, 28, 29, 31.
1385. _thou lovest_, thou wilt love; the present for the future; in the second instance. There is no real difficulty here, though Tyrwhitt makes one, and alters the text to _love thou_.
1401. 'On the brink of my grave.' Cf. Ps. xxx. 3, 9; &c.
1407-16. 'Uxorem accipias potius puellam quam uiduam'; from Albertano. See Köppel's article, p. 42.
1412. _mo_, more in number; T. has _more_ (badly).
1418. 'I like fish when old, preferring a full grown pike to a pikerel; and I like flesh young, preferring veal to beef.'
1424. _Wades boot_, Wade's boat. Wade was a famous hero of antiquity, to whom Chaucer again alludes in Troil. iii. 614. In the Traveller's Song, l. 22, we find:--'Witta w[=e]old Sw[=æ]fum, Wada Hælsingum,' i. e. Witta ruled over the Swabians, Wada over the Hælsings.' Wade is again mentioned in the alliterative Morte Arthure, l. 964. In a translation of Guido delle Colonne, in MS. Laud K. 76, in the Bodleian library, the romance of Wade is mentioned in conjunction with those of Havelok and Horn, both of which are well known; see the whole passage, as cited in Warton, Hist. E. Poetry, in a note to Section III. In Sir Beves of Hamtoun, ed. Kölbing, 2605, we have an allusion to his fight with a fire-drake or fiery dragon. And in Sir T. Malory's Morte Arthur, bk. vii. c. 9, we find:--'were thou as wyghte as euer was Wade or Launcelot.' Speght knew the story, but has not recorded it; his note is:--'Concerning Wade and his bote called Guingelot, as also his straunge exploits in the same, because the matter is long and fabulous, I pass it over.' On which Tyrwhitt remarks--'_Tantamne rem tam negligenter?_ Mr. Speght probably did not foresee, that posterity would be as much obliged to him for a little of this _fabulous matter_ concerning _Wade_ and his _bote_, as for the gravest of his annotations.' Tyrwhitt also refers us, for a mention of Wade, to Camden's Britannia, 907, and to Charlton's History of Whitby, p. 40. M. Michel endeavoured to collect the
## particulars concerning Wade, and published them in a brochure, entitled
_Wade: Lettre à M. Henri Ternaux-Compans, &c. sur une Tradition Angloise du Moyen Age_; Paris, 1837; 8vo. But it does not tell us much more that is helpful, except in furnishing a reference to the Wilkina Saga, capp. 18-20.
After all, the most light is given us by the following sentence in the [357] Corpus Poeticum Boreale, ed. Vigfusson and Powell, i. 168, with reference to the Lay of Weyland. 'Weyland is trapped by Nidad, king of the Niars, hamstrung, and forced to work for him in his forge on the isle of Seastead in lake Wolfmere. He contrives to slay his tyrant's sons, beguile his daughter [named Bodwild], and by the aid of a pair of wings which he has fashioned to soar away from his prison-house, rejoicing in his revenge.... That the King's daughter had a son by Weyland, _the famous Wade_ (the memory of whose magic boat _Wingelock_ lingered in N. England till the Reformation), we know from Wilkina Saga.'
I entirely differ from M. Michel's extraordinary conclusion about the boat--'Nous avons quelques raisons de croire que ce bateau n'étoit pas d'une course aussi rapide: en effet, dans l'Edda il est dit qu'Odin avoit un valet et une servante nommés _Ganglate_ et _Gangloet_, mots qu'on dit signifier _marchant lentement_.' Of course _Ganglati_ and _Ganglöt_ (as they should be written) mean 'slow-goer,' but this has nothing to do with _Guingelot_, which is merely a French spelling of some such form as _Wingelok_. It is obvious that the sole use of a magic boat is to transport its possessor from place to place in a few minutes, like the magic wings of Wade's own father. This is all we need to know, to see the point of the allusion. Old widows, says Chaucer in effect, know too much of the craft of Wade's boat; they can fly from place to place in a minute, and, if charged with any misdemeanour, will swear they were a mile away from the place at the time alleged. Mr. Pickwick, on the other hand, being only a man, failed to set up the plea of an _alibi_, and suffered accordingly.
1425. _broken harm._ This is one of the phrases which Tyrwhitt includes in his list as being 'not understood'; nor is it easy. But if we take it in connexion with the context, I think it can be explained. _Harm_ is 'mischief, injury'; broken is 'fragmentary,' as in 'broken meat,' and the like; so that _broken harm_ refers to slight disconnected acts of mischief, or what we should now call 'petty annoyances,' or 'small worries.' Thus the sense is that 'widows know so much about ways of creating small annoyances, that I should never live in peace with one.' Taken all together, ll. 1424-6 simply imply that 'old widows are so full of tricks for deceiving me, and can inflict at pleasure such small but constant annoyances, that I,' &c.
1447. _Take him_, let him take; see the Exhortation in the Marriage-Service in the Book of Common Prayer; cf. Pers. Tale, I. 939, 940, 861.
1469. Cf. F. 202.
1474. _disputisoun_, disputation. Many MSS. have _disputacioun_, which is too long. The form, as Tyrwhitt remarks, is quite correct; see B. 4428, F. 890. Spelt _desputeson_ in Gower, Conf. Amant. i. 90. See _disputoison_ in Godefroy, with the variants in _-aison_, _-eison_, _-eson_, _-ison_. Compare _orison_ with _oration_.
1476. _Placebo._ This name has reference to his complaisant disposition; see note to D. 2075. So, in the Ayenbite of Inwyt, ed. [358] Morris, p. 60, we have: 'The verthe zenne is, thet huanne hi alle zingeth Placebo, thet is to zigge: "mi lhord zayth zoth, my lhord doth wel"; and wendeth to guode al thet the guodeman deth other zayth, by hit guod, by hit kuead.'
1485. This quotation is not from Solomon, but from Jesus son of Sirach; see Ecclus. xxxii. 19:--'Do nothing without advice, and when thou hast once done, repent not.' Chaucer follows the Vulgate version; see note to B. 2193, where the quotation recurs.
1516. 'Your heart hangs on a jolly pin,' i. e. is in a merry state. A _pin_ was a name for a wooden peg; and _to hang on a pin_ was to be hung up conspicuously. Palsgrave, p. 844, has: 'Upon a mery pynne, _de hayt_; as, _il a le cueur de hayt_'; cf. '_Hait_, liveliness, ... cheerfulness' in Cotgrave. Halliwell gives: '_on the pin_, on the _qui vive_.' Later, the phrase became _in a merry pin_, i. e. in a good humour; but this is thought to refer to the pins or pegs in a 'peg-tankard'; see _Pin_ in Nares. Cowper, in his John Gilpin, has 'in merry pin.'
1523. See Seneca, De Beneficiis, capp. 14-16; Lounsbury, Studies, ii. 270. However, it is _really_ taken from Map's Epistola Valerii, c. 9: 'Philosophicum est: Videto cui des. Ethica est: Videto cui te des.'--Anglia, xiii. 183. Cf. P. Plowman, B. vii. 74, and the note.
1535. _chydester_, the feminine form of _chyder_, which is the form used in MSS. Pt. and Hl. I can find no other example; but, in the Romaunt of the Rose, ll. 150, 4266, we find _chideresse_.
1536. _mannish wood_, with masculine manners, and mad; virago-like. Certainly the right reading, and found in E. Hn. Cm. Unluckily, Tyrwhitt and others have adopted the nonsensical reading of Pt. and Hl., viz. _a man is wood_! Cp. Ln. have _of maneres wood_, which is better, but is clearly a mere substitution for the original _mannish_. For _mannish_, masculine, we have Chaucer's own authority; see B. 782, and the note.
1538. 'A metaphor from horses, meaning, No woman is without faults, just as there is no horse which will trot perfectly sound in all respects.'--Bell. From Albertano of Brescia, Liber de Amore Dei: 'Nulla tam bona uxor, in qua non inuenias quod queraris.'--Köppel.
1553. 'I know best where my shoe pinches me.' This story has been already alluded to; see D. 492, and the note.
1558. Tyrwhitt has:--'By him that made water, _fire_, erthe, and aire.' This will not scan, and the word _fire_ is introduced merely to please the editor, being found in none of the seven MSS., nor in the old editions. When Chaucer wishes to mention _all_ the four elements, he does so; see A. 1246, 2992.
1560-1. From Le Rom. de la Rose, 14055-6:--
'Car cil a moult poi de savoir Qui seus cuide sa fame avoir.'
1582. Cf. Boeth. bk. v. met. 4. 8; Troil. i. 365; Ayenb. of Inwyt, p. 158.
1584. E. Hn. have _se ful many_, but the rest omit _ful_. Scan the [359] line by reading _many a_ in one foot, and making _figúr-e_ trisyllabic, as in B. 3412, E. 16.
1592. _voys_, fame, general approval.
1609. Read _inpossíbl'_, and _wer-e_. _were_, would be.
1640-1. The seven deadly sinnes, for which see the Persones Tale. 'The popular medieval treatises on the seven sins arrange the minor transgressions connected with each as _branches_ of the primary tree.'--Wright. And each of the _branches_ have _twigs_, as Chaucer himself says; see I. 389. Cf. my note to P. Plowman, C. viii. 70.
1665. _forbed-e_, may (God) forbid. _sente_, subj., could send.
1682. This line is incomplete in all the seven MSS. There is a pause at the caesura, so that the word _for_ occupies the whole of the third foot. Tyrwhitt conceals this fact by inserting _but_ before _thinne_. Cf. D. 1647, and the note.
1684-7. These four parenthetical lines interrupt the story rather awkwardly. They obviously belong to the narrator, the Marchant, as it is out of the question that Justinus had heard of the Wife of Bath. Perhaps it is an oversight.
If we take these lines in this way, it is necessary to read _we have_ in l. 1686, as in Hn. The other MSS. and editions read _ye have_. I explain 'which we have on honde' as meaning, 'which we are now discussing.' Moreover, the reading _we_ is exactly appropriate after the reading _us_ of l. 1684, where it is difficult to see how _us_ can refer to any but the Canterbury pilgrims.
1693. _Maius_ is a masculine form, because the name of the month is so; see l. 1748.
1702. _sacrement_, i. e. of marriage; see l. 1319. The couple also used to 'receive the sacrament,' i. e. the eucharist, in the modern sense.
1704. Referring to the prayers in the marriage service, which mention Isaac and Rebecca, and Abraham and Sarah.
1709-52. Quoted by Warton, Hist. E. Poetry, ed. 1871, ii. 354.
1716. _Orpheus_, the celebrated minstrel, whose story is in Ovid, Met. x. 1-85; xi. 1-66. Mentioned again in the Book of the Duchesse, 569; House of Fame, 1203; Troil. iv. 791. For the minstrelsy at the feast, cf. F. 78.
_Amphioun_, Amphion, king of Thebes, who helped to build Thebes by the magic of his music; Hyginus, Fab. 6 and 7; cf. Ovid, Met. vi. 221, 271, 402; xv. 427. Already mentioned in connexion with Thebes in A. 1546. (The _i_ is shortened.)
1719. Cf. 'Ther herde I trumpe Ioab also'; Ho. of Fame, 1245. 'Joab blew a trumpet,' 2 Sam. ii. 28; xviii. 16; xx. 22.
1720. _Theodomas_; also mentioned in the above passage, Ho. of Fame, 1246. As he blew a trumpet at Thebes, when the city was in fear (or danger), he is clearly to be identified with the Thiodamas mentioned in the Thebaid of Statius. He succeeded Amphiaraus as augur, and furiously excited the besiegers to attack Thebes. His invocation was succeeded by a great sound of trumpets (Theb. viii. [360] 343), but Statius does not expressly say that he blew a trumpet himself.
1723. _Venus_; cf. F. 272-274.
1727. _fyrbrond_, fire-brand, torch; which she carried as appropriate to the marriage procession. This attribute of Venus is found in Le Roman de la Rose, l. 3434:--
'Ele tint ung brandon flamant En sa main destre, dont la flame A eschauffee mainte dame.'
Observe that l. 2250 of the Legend of Good Women runs thus:--'N'Ymenëus, that god of wedding is.' This agrees with line 1730 except as regards the prefixed _Ne_. The 'fire-brand' reappears in l. 1777 below.
1731. _his lyf_, i. e. during his life, in all his life.
1732. _Marcian._ Chaucer is still thinking of his own House of Fame (cf. notes to ll. 1719, 1720), where he had already mentioned Marcian, at l. 985. Martianus Minneus Felix Capella, a native of Carthage, was a writer of the fifth century, and wrote the Nuptials of Philology and Mercury, _De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii_. This consists of two books, immediately followed by seven books on the Seven Sciences; see Warton's Hist. E. Poetry, ed. 1871, iii. 77; Smith's Classical Dictionary, s. v. _Capella_; Lydgate's Temple of Glass, l. 130.
1734. _hir_; cf. 'he, Theofraste,' in l. 1294; also ll. 1368, 1373. For _him_ (as in E. Cm.), MSS. Hn. Hl. have _he_ (badly).
1745. _Assuer_, Ahasuerus, as in l. 1374. There is a special reference here to the banquet at which Esther obtained her request; see Esther, v. 6. See further in Warton, Hist. E. Poetry, ed. 1871, i. 288, iii. 142.
1754. For other allusions to Paris and Eleyne, see Parl. of Foules, 290, 291; Book of the Duch. 331.
1783. The word 'Auctor' in the margin of MS. E. signifies that ll. 1783-1794 form a reflection on the subject by the author, who here personates the Marchant. There are similar passages further on, viz. ll. 1866-1874, 2057-2068, 2107-2115, and 2125-2131.
1784. _bedeth_, proffers; cf. G. 1065. From Boeth. bk. iii. pr. 5. 50.
1785. _false hoomly hewe_, O false domestic servant! Cp. Pt. Ln. have the reading _holy_, which doubtless arose, as Wright points out, from missing the mark of abbreviation in the form 'h[=o]ly,' i. e. ho_m_ly. 'Tyrwhitt, however,' he adds, 'adopts this reading, mistakes the meaning of the word _hewe_, adds _of_, which is found in none of the MSS.; and in his text it stands _false of holy hewe_, which he supposes to signify false of holy colour. Conjectural emendations are always dangerous.' Yet Wright _silently adopts_ such emendations over and over again; cf. l. 1812 below. Cf. _hoomly fo_ in ll. 1792, 1794.
1786. 'Like the sly and treacherous snake in the bosom.' This refers to the fable in Phaedrus, lib. iv. fab. 18. But Chaucer probably [361] took it from the Gesta Romanorum, ch. clxxiv. For numerous references, see the Exempla of Jacques de Vitry, ed. Crane, 1890, p. 201.
1790. Here the monosyllabic pp. _born_ takes a final _e_ in the definite form, as noticed by Prof. Child; see Ellis, E. E. Pronunc. p. 350, § 32. Cf. _her dreint-e lord_, Gower, C. A., ii. 105; and see B. 69.
1793. From Boethius, lib. iii. pr. 5:--'Quae uero pestis efficacior ad nocendum, quàm familiaris inimicus?' See vol. ii. p. 63.
1795. _his ark diurne_, the daily arc of his apparent motion. See Chaucer on the Astrolabe, pt. ii. § 7:--'To knowe the _arch of the day_'; or, as in l. 7 of the same:--'tak ther thyn _ark of the day_.'
1797. _On thorisonte_, upon the horizon; i. e. the time was come for the sun to descend _below_ it.
_that latitude_; because the apparent motion of the sun depends upon the latitude as well as upon the day of the year; cf. the Treatise on the Astrolabe, pt. ii. § 13.
1799. _hemisperie_, the hemisphere above the horizon; see the Treatise on the Astrolabe, pt. i. § 18.
1807. _ipocras_, the usual medieval spelling of Hippocrates; but the name is here given to a prepared drink. Halliwell (s. v. _Hippocras_) defines it as 'a beverage composed of wine, with spices and sugar, strained through a cloth. It is said to have taken its name from _Hippocrates' sleeve_, the term [which] apothecaries gave to a strainer.' Long and elaborate recipes for it exist, and may be found in the Babees Book, ed. Furnivall, pp. 125 and 267; and in Halliwell's Dictionary, s. v. _ipocras_. The shortest is that in Arnold's Chronicle:--'Take a quarte of red wyne, an ounce of synamon, and halfe an unce of gynger; a quarter of an ounce of greynes [i. e. cardamoms], and longe peper, and half a pounde of suger; and brose [bruise] all this, and than put them in a bage of wullen clothe, made therefore [i. e. for the purpose], with the wyne; and lete it hange over a vessel, tyll the wyne be rune thorowe.' All the recipes insist upon the straining, and some direct the use of as many as six straining-bags. See Our English Home, p. 83.
_clarree_, clarified wine; see note to A. 1471.
_vernage_, a sweet wine, sometimes red, but more often white; 'grown in Tuscany, and other parts of Italy, and [it] derived its name from the thick-skinned grape, _vernaccia_ (corresponding with the _vinaciola_ of the ancients), that was used in the preparation of it. The wine known as _vernaccia_ in Tuscany was always of a white or golden colour. See Bacci, Nat. Vinor. Hist., pp. 20, 62.'--Henderson, Hist. of Ancient and Modern Wines, 1824; quoted in the Babees Book, ed. Furnivall, p. 203. Florio's Ital. Dict. gives:--'_Vernaccia_, a kinde of strong wine like malmesie or muskadine, or bastard wine.' Chaucer speaks of it again, in conjunction with _malvesye_; see B. 1261. For other notices of it, see Babees Book, pp. 125, 267, and the Glossary; Halliwell, s. v. _Piment_; Gower, C. A., iii. 8; Squyer of Lowe Degree, l. 754. The derivation, sometimes given, of _vernage_ from _Verona_, is clearly wrong. [362]
1810. _dan_, i. e. _Dominus_, a common title; see note to B. 3119.
_Constantine._ 'Dan Constantine, according to Fabricius, Bibl. Med. Æt. t. i. p. 423, ed. Pat. 4to., wrote about the year 1080. His works, including the treatise mentioned in the text, were printed at Basil, 1536, fol.'--T. He has been mentioned before; see A. 433; and cf. Warton, Hist. E. Poetry, ed. 1871, ii. 368.
1812. _nas no-thing eschu_, was not at all remiss, or _shy_. Cm. Ln. read _was_; the rest _nas_; but the sense is the same. Tyrwhitt reads--_he wolde nothing eschue_. Wright says: 'the Harl. MS. reads _nas_, which seems not to furnish so good a grammatical construction'; accordingly, he reads--_he wold nothing eschieu_. Morris likewise reads _wolde_; and Bell reads _wold_. But the editors are all wrong; for the verb _eschew-e_ will not rime with _coitu_, and it is clear that they did not know that _eschu_ is here _an adjective_! Yet it occurs again in the Pers. Tale, Group I, 971; and I subjoin three more examples.
'She is escheue [_read_ eschu] of bothe two.' Gower, Conf. Amant. ii. 286.
'Yit gooses dounge _eschew is_.' Palladius on Husbandry, bk. i. l. 528.
In this passage it rimes with _mew-es_, pl. sb.
'Her taste is eke _eschewe_.'--id. bk. iv. l. 586.
Godefroy gives the O. F. adj. _eschif_, _eskif_, 'animé de sentiments hostiles, défavorables, mauvais, mécontent, de mauvaise volonté, rétif.' Amongst his examples, we find the spellings _eskius_, _eschius_, _eskieus_, _esqueus_, _eskieu_, _esquieu_, _esehieu_; where the _-s_ is a case-ending. The O. F. adj. is derived from the adj. which appears as M. H. G. _schiech_, cognate with E. _shy_. Chaucer's _eschu_ is, accordingly, just as good an adjective as the mod. E. _shy_.
1817. _travers_, curtain, drawn across to form a screen; as in Troil. iii. 674. Ill spelt _trauas_ in the Prompt. Parv., but explained by _transversum_, which is the Low Latin form. See Way's note; he quotes--"i. trauers du satin vermaille," so that they were sometimes made of crimson satin. In the Kingis Quair, st. 90, we find the form _trauerse_; in st. 82 it is spelt _travesse_, and is there applied to a screen which happened to be nearly transparent, as was not the case in our text. See vol. ii. pp. 478, 506.
1819. A note in Bell's Chaucer gives a translation of the form of blessing the nuptial bed to be found in old service-books.
1825. _houndfish_, dog-fish. I suppose this is the spotted dog-fish, _Scyllium catulus_, or _Scyllium canicula_. Randle Holme has: '_Dog fish_, or _Sea dog fish_. It is by the Dutch termed a _Flackhund_ and a _Hundfisch_; the skin is hard and redish, beset with hard and sharp scales, sharp, and rough and black; the Belly is more white and softer.' Bk. ii. ch. xiv. See Gloss. to the Babees Book; Lydgate, Minor Poems, p. 201.
[363] 1840. In the Pers. Tale, Chaucer says just the contrary; see I. 859.
1849. _shaketh._ Cf. 'The slake skin trembleth upon myn empted body'; Ch. tr. of Boethius, bk. i. met. 1. 12.
1862. From Le Rom. de la Rose, 19931-2.
1879. _a penner._ 'The penner was a case containing the pens, ink, and other apparatus of writing, which the clerk carried about with him, as the Eastern students do at the present day. As such articles belonged only to clergy and scholars, we understand why the squire Damyan was obliged to borrow one for his use. An early vocabulary entitled _Nominale_ mentions, among the _Nomina rerum pertinentium clerico_, 'Hoc pennare, _a pener_.'--Wright. See Wright-Wülcker, Vocab. 682. 15; also 601. 34.
1881. _compleynt._ See specimens in Chaucer's Compleints of Mars, of Venus, and of Anelida; also the Compleint to his Lady. And cf. F. 943-948.
1883. _heng_, i. e. which hung; the relative is omitted.
1887. _two of Taur_, the second degree of Taurus. Tyrwhitt unluckily altered _two_ to _ten_, on the plea that 'the time given (_four days complete_, l. 1893) is not sufficient for the moon to pass from the second degree of Taurus into Cancer.' And he then proceeds to shew this, taking the _mean_ daily motion of the moon as being 13 degrees, 10 minutes, and 35 seconds. But, as Mr. Brae has shewn, in his edition of Chaucer's Astrolabe, p. 93, footnote, it is a mistake to reckon here the moon's _mean_ motion; we must rather consider her _actual_ motion. The question is simply, can the moon move from the 2nd degree of Taurus to the 1st of Cancer (through 59 degrees) in four days? Mr. Brae says decidedly, that examples of such motion are to be seen 'in every almanac.'
E.g. in the Nautical Almanac, in June, 1886, the moon's longitude at noon was 30° 22' on the 9th, and 90° 17' on the 13th; i. e. the moon was in the _first_ of Taurus on the former day, and in the _first_ of Cancer on the latter day, at the same hour; which gives (very nearly) a degree more of change of longitude than we here require. The MSS. all have _two_ or _tuo_, and they are quite right. The motion of the moon is so variable that the mean motion affords no safe guide.
1887-8. The _i_ in _gliden_, _biden_ (as in M. E. _riden_, E. _ridden_) is short.
1921. _At-after_, immediately after; a compound preposition; see F. 302.
1924. _a gentil man_, a man of rank, as squires usually were, although in service, and therefore a _hewe_ (1785). Cf. l. 1907, and note to D. 2243.
1932. This proceeding was quite in accordance with ancient custom. See the tale of Eglamore, in the Percy Folio MS., st. 11; and the Ballad of Sir Cauline, st. 9.
1943-4. Misarranged and corrupt in MS. Hl.
1962. _precious_, over-nice, scrupulous, prim; as in D. 148.
1966. _evensong._ Only Cp. Ln. have _euesong_. Perhaps _even_ was [364] pronounced as _e'en_ (een); cf. _yest're'en_, _Hallowe'en_. But _eve_ for _even_ is very common.
1971. For _Was_, only Hn. Hl. have _As_. The latter seems to afford an easier construction, and is adopted by the editors. But we are bound to take the reading _Was_, as in most MSS., and explain it. I take it thus:--'Whether it were ... that the heavens stood in such a condition, that it was a fortunate time.' This is quite exact, though one dependent clause on the top of another is not felicitous. The reference is, of course, to the old astrological belief about fortunate positions of the planets; cf. A. 417. See Boeth. bk. iv. pr. 6, 62-71.
1986. Chaucer's favourite line; see note to F. 479.
1991. _lete_, allowed; A. S. _l[=æ]ten_. MS. Harl. omits _him_.
2002. _visit-è_; trisyllabic. See the footnote.
2013. _lowe_ means 'tractable, docile, obedient'; cf. note to D. 1369. 'And after that he had with lacke of vitailles brought those pratlers as _lowe as dogge to the bowe_'; Udall, tr. of Erasmus' Apophthegmes; Antigonus, § 27. This shews how the dogs were tamed.
2018. _lady_, lady's. See note to A. 88.
2021. 'Alluding to the Epicurean philosophy.'--Bell. See A. 335-8.
2026. _honestly_, honourably, worthily; cf. l. 2028.
2032. _he_, viz. Guillaume de Lorris. There were _two_ authors of Le Roman de la Rose, but the reference is here to the earlier portion of it; see ll. 130-146, 480-512, 645-688 of the English version, where the description of the garden occurs; and for the description of the well mentioned in l. 2036, see ll. 1462-1634 of the same.
2034. 'Hortorum decus et tutela Priapus'; Ovid, Fast. i. 415.
2038. _Pluto._ In his Introductory Discourse, Tyrwhitt remarks:--'The machinery of the Fairies, which Chaucer has used so happily, was probably added by himself; and indeed, I cannot help thinking that his _Pluto_ and _Proserpine_ were the true progenitors of _Oberon_ and _Titania_.... This observation is not meant to extend further than _the King and Queen_ of Faery; in whose characters I think it is plain that Shakespeare, in imitation of Chaucer, has dignified our Gothic Elves with the manners and language of the classical Gods and Goddesses. In the rest of his Faery system, Shakespeare seems to have followed the popular superstition of his own time.'
This remark is important; I doubt if the influence of Chaucer upon Shakespeare in this matter has been sufficiently recognised. In both works, the Fairy king and queen have a dispute in hand, which is settled by the assistance of mortals.
Not only here, but in the Hous of Fame, 1509-1511, Chaucer refers us to Claudian as his authority for Pluto and Proserpine; see note to l. 2232 below.
2046. The insertion of _smal_ is necessary; the rime _wiket, cliket_, being a feminine one.
_cliket_, (1) a latch, (2) a latch-key; here used in the latter sense. In Shropshire, the word is used of a particular kind of fastening for a gate, [365] which Miss Jackson thus describes. 'An iron link is attached to the gate by means of a staple; this link is terminated by a short hasp-like bolt. On the gate-post is an iron plate, having in it a kind of key-hole, into which the before-mentioned bolt fits, much after the manner of the fastening of a trunk, thus securing the gate.'
2058. _scorpion_, scorpion; see notes to B. 360, 404; cf. H. 271, and see Chaucer's description of the scorpion in the Book of the Duchesse, ll. 636-641. Vincent of Beauvais, in his Speculum Naturale, bk. xx. c. 160, quotes from the Liber de Naturis Rerum--'Scorpio blandum et quasi virgineum dicitur vultum habere, sed habet in cauda nodosa venenatum aculeum, quo pungit et inficit proximantem.' And see Boeth. bk. ii. pr. 1. 10-14; Ayenb. of Inwyt, p. 62, l. 13.
2080. _Soul_, sole; cf. the law-phrase _femme sole_. See P. de Thaun, Bestiary, 1250; Morris, O. E. Misc. p. 22; Ayenb. of Inwyt, p. 226.
2093. _Damian_, here to be read as _Dam-yan_, nearly in two syllables. _Benignely_, favourably; altered by Tyrwhitt to _brenningly_, without authority; pronounced _benign-e-ly_, in four syllables.
2107. 'What might it avail thee if thou couldst see to the very horizon?'
2109. 'For it is just as good to be deceived when blind.'
2111. See note to A. 1390.
2115. Cf. 'Of sufferance cometh ease'; in Heywood's Proverbs.
2117. To scan the line, we must read _warm-e_, and _émprentèd_. _Emprented hath_ would run much better. The scribes who wrote _warm_ probably pronounced the last word as _clikét_; but the rime is feminine. And see l. 2121, 2123.
2125. The reference is to the story of Pyramus in Ovid, Met. iv. 55; especially (in l. 2126) to the line--'Quid non sentit amor?'
2127. _he_, i. e. the lover; used generally. This line answers to l. 742 of the Legend of Good Women:--'But what is that, that _love_ can nat espye'; where _love_ means a lover.
2133. This has to be taken in connexion with ll. 2222-4 below, in which the date is said to be _a little before June 12_; see note to the line. Consequently, the 'eight days' mentioned in l. 2132 must be _the first eight days of June_. Again, if we refer to l. 2049, we see that January used to go to the garden 'in the summer season,' which would seem to be intended to begin with June. Accordingly, the month of June is here expressed, in a mere parenthesis, by the phrase 'ere the month of July.' Hence the sense really is--'ere that eight days (of the summer season) were passed, (of the month) before that of July.' And the whole passage merely means--'before the 8th of June was over,' or simply, 'on June 8.' This date precisely agrees with that given, by quite a different method, in ll. 2222-4.
As the month meant is here certainly that of _June_, as shewn by Mr. Brae in 1851 (see his edition of Chaucer's Astrolabe, pp. 67, 83), Mr. Brae proposed to read _Juin_ for _Juil_. But this was because he followed Tyrwhitt's text, which has _of_ for _er_, and therefore reads-- [366]
'er that daies eighte Were passed _of_ the month of Juil, befill,' &c.
And it is the fact, that, with the reading _of_, we also should have to accept the reading _Juin_. But we must set against this the fact that no MS. (at least of any authority) reads either _Juin_ or _of_! Tyrwhitt has made this alteration _silently_, and Wright and Bell have _silently_ adopted it. Morris also makes the alteration, but prints _of_ in italics to shew that it is not the reading of his MS. These _silent_ conjectural emendations are very troublesome, as they are copied by one editor after another without any enquiry as to the sense of the context.
The Harl. MS., supposed to be followed by Wright, actually has _a stop_ before 'er'; the reading being--'were passid . er the moneth of Iuyl bifille.' The reading _bifille_ (might befal) is probably due to taking _Iuyl_ as the nominative to this verb, whereas _bifil_ is meant to be impersonal, with the sense--'it happened.'
2138-2148. This passage is almost entirely composed of fragments of Solomon's Song. We may compare ll. 2138-2140 with ch. ii. vv. 10, 11, 12; l. 2141 with ch. i. v. 15; l. 2142 with ch. iv. v. 10; l. 2143 with ch. iv. vv. 12, 16; ll. 2144, 2145 with ch. iv. vv. 9, 10; l. 2146 with ch. iv. v. 7.
2194. The first foot is defective (in all seven MSS.). To fill out the line, Tyrwhitt inserts _owen_ before _lord_; a 'correction' which Wright and Bell _silently_ adopt. There is no hint as to the source of this _owen_. Thynne's edition (as frequently elsewhere) agrees with the seven MSS.
2200. This drowning in a sack is quite oriental. Cf. 'There yawns the sack, and yonder rolls the sea'; Byron, The Corsair, iii. 8.
2202. _wenche._ For this word, cf. H. 220, and Ho. of Fame, 206.
2222. _in Geminis_, in the sign of Gemini. We are also told that he was near his 'declination of Cancer,' i. e. his _maximum_ northern declination, which he obtains when entering Cancer, at the summer solstice. In Chaucer's time, the sun entered Cancer about June 12, and therefore just before that day was in Gemini. Taking this statement in conjunction with the 'eight days' of the summer season mentioned in l. 2132, we may feel sure that the date meant is June 8, just four days before the sun left Gemini, and attained his maximum declination. See my edition of Chaucer's Astrolabe (E. E. T. S.), p. lv., which requires partial correction, as shewn in the note to l. 2132 above.
2224. The 'exaltation' of a planet was the sign in which it was (quite arbitrarily) supposed to exercise its greatest power. The exaltation of Jupiter was Cancer, as Chaucer correctly says.
2227. This notion of identifying Pluto with the king of Fairyland occurs again in the Romance of Sir Orpheo; see Ritson, Met. Rom. ii. 259. Sir Orpheo is the Greek Orpheus, who redeemed Eurydice from 'the kyng of fayrè,' i. e. from Pluto. See the remarks on this poem in Warton, Hist. E. Poet. ed. 1871, i. 31, 32.
The construction of this sentence is awkward. Lines 2231-3 are [367] parenthetical; _Pluto_ is in apposition with _This king_ in l. 2234, and agrees with the verb _sette_ in the same.
2229-30. Tyrwhitt prints these lines differently, thus:--
Folwing his wif, the quene Proserpina, Which that he ravisshed out of Ethna.
This reading is from MS. Harl. 7335; and T. adds--'In some other MSS. _Ethna_, by a manifest error of the copyist, has been changed into _Proserpina_ [as in Cp. Pt. Ln.]. The passage being thus made nonsense, other transcribers left out the [second] line, and substituted in its stead--
Eche after other, right as any lyne.'
But it would appear that the line just quoted, which Tyrwhitt pronounces to be a substitution, is really the original reading, and we must not hastily reject it. It is found in E. Cm. and Hl., whilst in Hn. the line has been erased or omitted, and then filled in (in a spurious form) by a later hand.
Wright and Bell have followed Tyrwhitt's lead, and altered the passage accordingly. Morris silently changes the _preserpine_ of the Harl. MS. to _Preserpina_, and gives the next line in the objectionable form--'Whiche that he ravysched out of _Cecilia_' (Sicily).
It seems very much better to restore the original reading, especially when we notice that _Próserpýne_ (not Prosérpiná) is the undoubted reading in the House of Fame, 1511, and that _quen-e_ is constantly dissyllabic (see B. 161, 1671, G. 1089), In l. 2264, we again have _Próserpýne _. The old black-letter editions are not of much value; still they give line 2230 as in my text, except that they wrongly change _any_ into a.
2232. _Claudian_; Claudius Claudianus, at the close of the fourth century, wrote an epic poem in three books _De raptu Proserpinae_, which he left unfinished, besides several other works. He is mentioned again in the Ho. of Fame, 449, 1509. The story of Proserpine is also in Ovid, Fasti, iv. 427; and in Gower, C. A., ii. 170.
2240. The line is plainly imperfect, both in sense and rhythm, yet is the same in all seven MSS. and in ed. 1550. They agree in reading:--
Ten hundred thousand telle(n) I can.
Tyrwhitt reads:--
Ten hundred thousand _stories_ tell I can.
He does not tell us where he found the word _stories_. Wright and Bell silently adopt _stories_; Morris inserts it between square brackets. It occurs, however, in a parallel line, F. 1412, as well as in a similar passage in the Leg. of Good Women, Prol. A. 274.
2247. From Eccles. vii. 28. Cf. B. 2247, where Chaucer quotes the same passage.
2250. I. e. the author of Ecclesiasticus. This book contains both praise and dispraise of women; see Ecclus. xxiii. 22-26; xxv. 17-26; [368] xxvi. 1-3, 7-16, 22-27; xxxvi. 21-24; xl. 19, 23; xlii. 9-14. The dispraise predominates.
2252. _wilde fyr_; see A. 4172, and the note.
2264. 'So you shall, if you so wish.'
2265. 'I swear by the soul of my mother's sire'; i. e. by Saturn (Ovid, Fasti, vi. 285). The wisdom of Saturn is referred to in A. 2444. Tyrwhitt altered _sires_ into _Ceres_, for which I find no authority. Wright notes that Hl. has _sires_, and Ln. _sire_; and adds--'Ceres is of course the word intended.' I see no evidence for it; and I do not admit that an editor should alter all that he fails to understand.
2273. _visage_, pronounced (vizaa·j), the _e_ being elided. We still say 'to _face_ a thing out.' 'Suffolk doth not flatter, _face_, or feign'; 1 Hen. VI. v. 3. 142; and see Com. Errors, iii. 1. 6; Tam. Shrew, ii. 291; Tw. Nt. iv. 2. 201; &c.
2279-2281. Repeated from B. 2266, 7; so also ll. 2286-2290 is taken from B. 2268, 9.
2283. Cf. The Second Nonnes Tale, G. 512.
2284. Here 'the Romayn gestes' simply means Roman history. The Gesta Romanorum also contains a story of a devoted wife, in ch. vi; the story of Lucretia, ch. cxxxv; and of the faithful wife of Guido, ch. clxxii. But there are other stories of a very different character.
2300. Referring to 1 Kings, xi. 12.
2304. _ye_, i. e. ye men. So in all the seven MSS. Tyrwhitt alters it to--That _he_ of women _wrote_. But why? Cf. D. 688-696.
2308. 'As ever I desire to keep my tresses whole.' See _Brouke_ in the Glossary.
2310. 'That would wish (to do) us a disgrace.'
2321-2. Cf. Rom. de la Rose, 10131-2:--
'Cerchant prés et jardins et gaus, Plus envoisiés que papegaus.'
See also above, B. 1559, 1957.
2335. _plyt_, condition. 'An allusion to the well-known vulgar error about the longings of pregnant women.'--Bell.
2355. By confusion with l. 2357, MS. Harl. alters _agayn his sighte_ to _his sight agayn_, and then misses ll. 2356, 7.
2365. From Ovid; see B. 2167, and the note.
2367. _store_, bold, rude, audacious, impudent; lit. 'great.' A. S. _st[=o]r_, great; Icel. _stórr_, great, rough, strong, proud. _Stronge_ must here have a similar sense:--'O bold rude lady.' _Strong-e_ and _stor-e_ both have final _e_, as being vocatives.
2410. 'He who misapprehends comes to a false conclusion.'
EPILOGUE TO THE MERCHANT'S TALE.
2420. _swich a wyf_, such a wife as that described in the Merchant's Tale.
2422. _bees_, bees. Elsewhere, the pl. is _been_; see B. 4582, F. 204. [369]
2431. _in conseil_, in (secret) counsel, between ourselves. For this use of _conseil_, see C. 819, and the note; also G. 145, 192.
2435. The phrase _cause why_ is now considered vulgar; it is common in London. _Caus-e_ is dissyllabic.
2436. _of somme_, by some, by some one. So _of whom_ = by whom; in the next line. He says, he need not say _by whom_ it would be told; for women are sure to utter such things, as is expressly said in D. 950. This alludes, of course, to the ladies in the company, and, in particular, to the Wife of Bath, who was not the person to keep such things to herself. _outen_, to utter; a rare word; it occurs again in G. 834, and in D. 521. Also in The Tale of Beryn, 2408.
* * * * *
[370]
NOTES TO GROUP F.
THE SQUIERES TALE.
1. There is nothing to link this tale with the preceding one; hence it begins a new Group. In many MSS. (including E.) it follows the preceding Epilogue without any break. In other MSS. it follows the Man of Law's Tale; but that is the wrong place for it. See note to B. 1165; also vol. iii. p. 462.
2. An allusion to Prol. l. 97, unless (which is quite as probable) the passage in the Prologue was written afterwards.
9. _Sarray_, Sarai. This place has been identified, past all doubt, by Colonel Yule in his edition of Marco Polo's Travels, vol. i. p. 5, and vol. ii. p. 424. The modern name is Tzarev, near Sarepta. Sarepta is easily found on any good map of Russia by following the course of the Volga from its mouth _upwards_. At first this backward course runs N. W. till we have crossed the province of Astrakhan, when it makes a sudden bend, at Sarepta and Tsaritzin. Tsarev is now a place of no importance, but the ancient Sarai was so well known, that the Caspian Sea was sometimes named from it; thus it is called 'the sea of Sarain' in Marco Polo, ed. Yule, ii. 424; 'the sea of Sarra' in the Catalan map of 1375; and Mare Seruanicum, or the Sea of Shirwan, by Vincent of Beauvais. Thynne, in his Animadversions on Speight's Chaucer, speaks to the same effect, and says of 'Sara' that it is 'a place yet well knowen, and bordering vppon the lake Mare Caspium.' Sarai was the place where Batu Khan, the grandson of Gengis Khan, held his court. Batu, with his Mongolian followers known as the _Golden Horde_, had established an empire in Kaptchak, or Kibzak, now S. E. Russia, about A. D. 1224. The Golden Horde further invaded Russia, and made Alexander Newski grand-duke of it, A. D. 1252. (See _Golden Horde_ in Haydn's Dictionary of Dates.)
Chaucer has here confused two accounts. There were two celebrated Khans, both grandsons of Gengis Khan, who were ruling about the same time. Batu Khan held his court at Sarai, and ruled over the S. E. of Russia; but the Great Khan, named Kublai, held his court at Cambaluc, the modern Pekin, in a still more magnificent manner. And it is easy to see that, although Chaucer _names_ Sarai, his description really _applies to_ Cambaluc. See vol. iii. pp. 471-2. [371]
10. _Russye_, Russia; invaded by the Golden Horde, as just explained. The end of the Tartar influence in Russia was in the year 1481, when Svenigorod, general of Ivan III., defeated them at the battle of Bielawisch. In the following year Ivan assumed the title of czar.
12. _Cambinskan_; so in all seven MSS. (Six-text and Harleian), except that in the Ellesmere MS. it more resembles _Cambyuskan_. Yet Tyrwhitt prints _Cambuscan_, probably in deference to Milton, who, however, certainly accents the word wrongly, viz. on the second syllable; Il Penseroso, l. 110. Thynne, in his Animadversions on Speight's Chaucer, speaking of the year 1240, says--'whiche must be in the tyme of the fyrst Tartariane emperor called _Caius canne_, beinge, I suppose, he whome Chaucer namethe _Cambiuscan_, for so ys [it in] the written copies, such affynytye is there betwene those two names.' Now, although the celebrated Gengis Khan died probably in 1227, the allusion to the 'fyrst Tartariane emperor' is clear; so that Thynne makes the forms _Cambius_, _Caius_ (perhaps miswritten for C[=a]ius, i. e. Ca_m_ius) and _Gengis_ all equivalent. But this is the very result for which Colonel Yule has found authority, as explained in vol. iii. p. 471; to which the reader is referred. It is there explained that Chaucer has again confused two accounts; for, whilst he _names_ Gengis Khan (the first 'Grand Khan'), his description really _applies_ to Kublai Khan, his grandson, the celebrated 'Grand Khan' described by Marco Polo.
18. _lay_, religious profession or belief. 'King Darie swor by his _lay_': King Alisaunder, ed. Weber, l. 1325. From A. F. _lei_, law. See _lei_ in Stratmann.
20. This line scans ill as it stands in most MSS. Tyrwhitt and Wright insert _and_, which gives _two_ accented 'ands'--
And pí | tous ánd | just ánd | alwéy | ylíche.
The Hengwrt MS. has--
Pietous and Iust, and euere-moore yliche,
which, otherwise spelt, becomes--
Pitous and Iust, and ever-more y-liche--
and this is the reading which I have adopted in the text. However, I have since observed that Chaucer twice makes _pi-e-tous_ trisyllabic, viz. in Troil. iii. 1444, v. 451; and the Hengwrt MS. has the same spelling here. The common reading, with this alteration, becomes quite right. That is, we may read--
And piëtous and Iust, alwey y-liche.
22. _centre_; often used in the sense of a fulcrum or pivot, or point of extreme stability. Cf. Milton, Par. Reg. iv. 533--
'Proof against all temptation, as a rock Of adamant, _and, as a centre, firm_.'
The old astronomy supposed the centre of the earth to be the _fixed_ centre of the universe.
30. Tyrwhitt inserts _sone_ after _eldeste_; fortunately, it is not in the [372] MSS. _Whichë_ is a dissyllable, the _e_ denoting the plural form. The words _th' eldest'_ form but two syllables, the _e_'s being elided; but we may fairly preserve the _e_ in _highte_ (cf. l. 33) from elision, for the greater emphasis, by a short pause; and we then have a perfect line--
Of which | e th' el | dest' high | te--Al | garsyf.
31. _Cambalo._ I have no doubt that this name was suggested by the _Cambaluc_ of Marco Polo. See vol. iii. p. 472.
39. _longing for_, belonging to. Cf. _longen_, Kn. Ta. 1420 (A. 2278).
44. _I deme_, I suppose. This looks as if Chaucer had read some account of a festival made by the Grand Khan on _one_ of his birthdays, from which he inferred that he _always_ held such a feast every year; as, indeed, was the case. See vol. iii. p. 473.
45. _He leet don cryen_, he caused (men) to have the feast cried. The use of both _leet_ and _don_ is remarkable; cf. E. 523. He gave his orders to his officers, and they took care that the proclamation was made.
47. It is not clear _why_ Chaucer hit upon this day in particular. Kublai's birthday was in September, but perhaps Chaucer noted that the White Feast was on New Year's day, which he took to mean the vernal equinox, or some day near it. The day, however, is well defined. The 'last Idus' is the very day of the Ides, i. e. March 15. The sun entered Aries, according to Chaucer (Treatise on the Astrolabe, ii. 1. 4) on March 12, at the vernal equinox; and, as a degree answers to a day very nearly, would be in the _first_ degree of Aries on the 12th, in the _second_ on the 13th, in the _third_ on the 14th, in the _fourth_ on the 15th, and in the _fifth_ (or at the end of the _fourth_) on the 16th, as Chaucer most expressly says below; see note to l. 386. The sign Aries was said, in astrology, to be the _exaltation_ of the Sun, or that sign in which the Sun had most influence for good or ill. In particular, the 19th degree of Aries, for some mysterious reason, was selected as the Sun's exaltation, when most exactly reckoned. Chaucer says, then, that the Sun was in the sign of Aries, in the fourth degree of that sign, and therefore nigh (and approaching to) the 19th degree, or his special degree of exaltation. Besides this, the poet says the sun was in the 'face' of Mars, and in the mansion of Mars; for '_his_ mansioun' in l. 50 means _Mars's_ mansion. This is exactly in accordance with the astrology of the period. Each sign, such as Aries, was said to contain 30 degrees, or 3 _faces_; a _face_ being 10 degrees. The first face of Aries (degrees 1-10) was called the face of Mars, the second (11-20) the face of the Sun, the third (21-30) that of Venus. Hence the sun, being in the fourth degree, was in Mars's _face_. Again, every planet had its (so-called) _mansion_ or _house_; whence Aries was called the mansion of Mars, Taurus that of Venus, Gemini that of Mercury, &c. See Chaucer's Astrolabe, in vol. iii. p. lxxviii; or Johannis Hispalensis Isagoge in Astrologiam, which gives all the technical terms.
50. _Martes_ is a genitive from the nom. _Mart._ or _Marte_ (A. 2021), which is itself formed, as usual, from the Latin acc. _Martem_. [373]
51. In the old astrology, different qualities are ascribed to the different signs. Thus Aries is described as _choleric and fiery_ in MS. Trin. Coll. Cam. R. 15. 18, tract 3, p. 11. So, too, Tyrwhitt quotes from the Calendrier des Bergers that Aries is 'chault et sec,' i. e. hot and dry.
53. _agayn_, against, opposite to. So also in Kn. Ta. 651 (A. 1509).
54. _What for_; cf. Mod. Eng. _what with_. See Kn. Tale, 595 (A. 1453).
59. _deys_, raised platform, as at English feasts. But this is in Marco Polo too; see vol. iii. p. 473. Cf. Kn. Tale, l. 1342 (A. 2200); and note to Prol. l. 370.
63. In a similar indirect manner, Chaucer describes feasts, &c. elsewhere: see Kn. Ta. 1339 (A. 2197); Man of Lawes Tale, B. 701-707. And Spenser imitates him; F. Q. i. 12. 14; v. 3. 3.
67. _sewes_, seasoned broths. '_Sewes_ and potages'; Babees Book, ed. Furnivall, p. 151, l. 523; cf. p. 149, l. 509.
68. Mr. Wright's note on the line is--'It is hardly necessary to observe that _swans_ were formerly eaten at table, and considered among the choicest ornaments of the festive board. Tyrwhitt informs us that at the intronization of Archbp. Nevil, 6 Edward iv, there were "Heronshawes iiijc." [i. e. 400]; Leland's Collectanea, vi. 2: and that at another feast in 1530 we read of "16 _Heronsews_, every one 12_d_"; Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, ii. 12.' _Heronsew_ is derived from A. F. _heronceau_, variant of _heroncel_. Godefroy gives _herouncel_, from the Liber Custumarum, i. 304 (14 Edw. II.), and the pl. _heroncaulx_ in an account dated 1330. Cotgrave only has 'Haironneau, a young heron,' and 'Hairon, a heron, herne, _herneshaw_.' Halliwell quotes 'Ardeola, an _hearnesew_' from Elyot's Dict. 1559, and the form _herunsew_ from Reliquiae Antiquae, i. 88. Certainly _heronsewe_ is the name of a bird, not of a dish, as some have guessed, by comparing the _sewes_ in l. 67. In fact, the word _heronsew_ (for heron) is still used in Swaledale, Yorkshire. And in Hazlitt's old Plays (The Disobedient Child), vol. ii. p. 282, we have--
'There must be also pheasant and swan; There must be _heronsew_, partridge, and quail.'
See the quotations in Nares; also Notes and Queries, 1st Ser. iii. 450, 507; iv. 76; vii. 13; Babees Book, ed. Furnivall, p. 152, l. 539. Cf. _handsaw_, for _hernshaw_, in Hamlet, ii. 2. _Heroncel_, or _-ceu_, or _-ceau_, is simply the diminutive form; so also, _lioncel_, or _lionçeau_, as a diminutive of _lion_.
70. _som mete_; viz. 'horses, dogs, and Pharaoh's rats.' See vol. iii. p. 474.
73. _pryme_; the word _prime_ seems to mean, in Chaucer, the first quarter of the day, reckoned from 6 A.M. to 6 P.M.; and more particularly, the _end_ of that period, i. e. 9 A.M. In the Nonne Prestes Tale, B. 4387, the cock crew at _prime_, or 9 A.M. So here, the Squire says it is 9 o'clock, and he must proceed quickly with his story. The word is used in different senses by different writers. [374]
75. _firste_, first design or purpose. I believe this reading is right. MS. Harl. has _purpos_, which will not scan: unless _my_ be omitted, as in Tyrwhitt, though that MS. retains _my_. MSS. Cp. Ln. insert _purpos_ as well as _firste_, making the line too long: whilst Hn. Cm. Pt. agree with the text here given, from MS. E.
76. The second syllable in _after_ is rapidly pronounced, and _thridde_ is a dissyllable.
78. _thinges_, pieces of music. Minstrelsy at feasts was common; cf. Man of Lawes Tale, B. 705; March. Tale, E. 1715.
80. The incident of a man _riding_ into the hall is nothing uncommon. Thus we have, in the Percy Folio MS. ii. 486, the line--
'The one came _ryding into the hall_.'
Warton observes--'See a fine romantic story of a Comte de Macon who, while revelling in his hall with many knights, is suddenly alarmed by the entrance of a gigantic figure of a black man, mounted on a black steed. This terrible stranger, without receiving any obstruction from guards or gates, rides directly forward to the high table, and, with an imperious tone, orders the count to follow him--Nic. Gillos. Chron. ann. 1120.' Alexander rode into a hall up to the high table, according to the romance, ed. Weber, l. 1083. See also Warton's Obs. on the Fairy Queen, p. 202; the Ballad of King Estmere; and Stowe's Survey of London, p. 387, ed. 1599. In Scott's Rokeby, Bertram _rides_ into a church.
81. _stede of bras_, &c. See note to I. 209, and vol. iii. pp. 465, 475.
95. Sir Gawain, nephew to king Arthur, according to the British History which goes by the name of Geoffrey of Monmouth, is always upheld as a model of courtesy in the French romances and the English translations of them. He is often contrasted with Sir Kay, who was equally celebrated for churlishness. See the Percy Folio MS.; Sir Gawain, ed. by Sir F. Madden; Sir Gawain and the Grene Knight, ed. by Dr. Morris; the Morte D'Arthur, &c. Cf. Rom. Rose, 2205-12.
103. _Accordant_, according. The change from the Fr. _-ant_ to the common Eng. _-ing_ should be noted.--M.
106. _style_, stile. Such puns are not common in Chaucer; cf. E. 1148.--M.
116. _day naturel._ In his Treatise on the Astrolabe, pt. ii. c. 7 (see vol. iii. p. 194), Chaucer explains that the day _artificial_ is the time from sunrise to sunset, which varies; to which he adds--'but the _day natural_, that is to seyn 24 houres, is the revolucioun of the equinoxial with as moche partie of the zodiak as the sonne of his propre moevinge passeth in the mene whyle.' See note to B. 2.
122. _the air_, pronounced _th'air_, as usual with Chaucer; see D. 1939.
129. _wayted_, watched; alluding to the care with which the maker watched for the moment when the stars were in a propitious position, according to the old belief in astrology.
131. _seel_, seal. Mr. Wright notes that 'the making and arrangement [375] of seals was one of the important operations of medieval magic, and treatises on this subject are found in MSS.' He refers to MS. Arundel, no. 295, fol. 265. _Solomon's seal_ is still commemorated in the name of a flower.
132. _mirour._ For some account of this, see vol. iii. p. 476, and note to l. 231.
137. _over al this_, besides all this. Elsewhere _over-al_ is a compound word, meaning _everywhere_; as in Prol. 216.--M.
150. Compare Tale xv (The Ravens) in the Seven Sages, ed. Weber, about the child who understood the language of all birds.
154. _and whom_, &c., and to whom it will do good, or operate as a remedy; alluding to the virtues attributed to many herbs. So Spenser, F. Q. i. 2. 10--
'O who can tell The hidden power of herbes, and might of magicke spell!'
162. _with the platte_, with the flat side of it; see l. 164. Cf. Troil. iv. 927.
171. _Stant_, stands; contracted from _standeth_; so also in l. 182. Cf. _sit_ for _sitteth_ in l. 179, _hit_ for _hideth_ in l. 512, and note to E. 1151.
184. 'By means of any machine furnished with a windlass or a pulley.' The modern _windlass_ looks like a compound of _wind_ and _lace_, but really stands for _windel-as_, variant of the form _windas_ here used. The confusion would be facilitated by the fact that there was another form _windlas_ (probably from _wind_ and _lace_) with a different meaning, viz. that of a circuitous way or path; see note to Hamlet, ii. 1. 65 (Clar. Press). In the Promptorium Parvulorum, our word is spelt both _wyndlas_ and _wyndas_; p. 529. The Mid. E. _windas_ may have been derived from the Low-German directly, or more probably from the Old French, which has both _guindas_ and _windas_. The meaning and derivation are clearly shewn by the Du. _windas_, which means a winding-axle or capstan, from the sb. _as_, an axle; so, too, the Icel. _vindâss_. In Falconer's Shipwreck, canto 1, note 3, the word _windlass_ is used in the sense of capstan.
190. _gauren_, gaze, stare. Used again by Chaucer, A. 3827, B. 3559, and in Troil. and Cres. ii. 1157 (vol. ii. p. 225). In the Clerkes Tale (E. 1003), he has _gazed_. Mr. Wedgwood is perhaps right in considering _gaze_ and _gaure_ (also spelt _gare_) as mere variations of the same word. Cf. the adj. _garish_, i. e. staring, in Milton, Il Pens. 141. For the occasional change of _s_ to _r_, see my Principles of Eng. Etymology, i. 379.
_gauring_, i. e. stupor, occurs in Batman upon Bartholomè, lib. vii. c. 7.
193. _Lumbardye_, Lombardy, formerly celebrated for horses. Tyrwhitt quotes from a patent in Rymer, 2 Edw. II--'De dextrariis in _Lumbardiâ_ emendis,' i. e. of horses to be bought in Lombardy.
195. _Poileys_, Apulian. Apulia was called _Poille_ or _Poile_ in Old French, and even in Middle English; the phrase 'king of _Poile_' occurs in the Seven Sages (ed. Weber), l. 2019. It was celebrated for [376] its horses. Tyrwhitt quotes from MS. James vi. 142 (Bodleian Library), a passage in which Richard, archbishop of Armagh, in the fourteenth century, has the words--'nec mulus Hispaniae, nec _dextrarius Apuliae_, nec repedo Æthiopiae, nec elephantus Asiae, nec camelus Syriae.' Chaucer ascribes strength and size to the horses of Lombardy, and high breeding to those of Apulia.
200. _goon_, i. e. move, go about, have motion.
201. _of Fairye_, of fairy origin, magical. I do not subscribe to Warton's opinion (Obs. on Faerie Queene, p. 86) that this necessarily means that it was 'the work of the devil.' Cf. the same expression in Piers Pl. B. prol. 6.
203. Compare the Latin proverb--'quot homines, tot sententiae.' See Hazlitt's Eng. Proverbs, pp. 340, 437. A good epigram on this proverb is given in Camden's Remaines concerning Britaine, ed. 1657, sig. Gg.
'So many heads, so many wits--fie, fie! Is't not a shame for Proverbs thus to lie? My selfe, though my acquaintance be but small, Know many heads that have _no wit at all_.'
207. _the Pegasee_, Pegasus. In the margin of MSS. E. Hn. Hl. is written 'i. equs Pegaseus,' meaning 'id est, equus Pegaseus'; shewing that Chaucer was thinking of the adjective _Pegaseus_ rather than of the sb. _Pegasus_, the name of the celebrated winged horse of Bellerophon and of the Muses. Cf. Lydgate's Complaint of the Black Knight, l. 92.
209. 'Or else it was the horse of the Greek named Sinon.' This very singular-looking construction is really common in Middle English; yet the scribe of the Harleian MS. actually writes 'the Grekissch hors Synon,' which makes Sinon the _name of the horse_; and this odd blunder is retained in the editions by Wright, Bell, and Morris. The best way of clearing up the difficulty is by noting similar examples; a few of which are here appended:--
'The kinges meting Pharao';
i. e. the dream of King Pharaoh; Book of the Duchesse, l. 282.
'The erles wif Alein';
i. e. the wife of earl Alein; Rob. of Gloucester, in Spec. of Eng., ed. Morris and Skeat, p. 11, l. 303.
'Themperours moder william,'
i. e. the mother of the Emperor named William; Will. of Palerne, l. 5437.
'Pieres pardon þe plowman';
i. e. the pardon of Piers the Plowman; P. Pl. B. xix. 182.
'In Piers berne þe plowman';
i. e. in the barn of Piers the Plowman; id. xix. 354.
'For Piers loue þe plowman';
i. e. for love of Piers the Plowman; id. xx. 76. Chaucer again alludes [377] to Sinon in the House of Fame, i. 152, and in the Legend of Good Women, Dido, 8; which shews that he took that legend partly from Vergil, Aen. ii. 195. But note that Chaucer here compares a horse of _brass_ to the Trojan horse; this is because the latter was also said to have been of brass, not by Vergil, but by Guido delle Colonne; see note to l. 211. This is why Gower, in his Confess. Amant. bk. i., and Caxton, in his Recuyell of the Historyes of Troy, both speak of the Trojan horse as a 'horse of brass'; see Spec. of English, 1394-1579, ed. Skeat, p. 91, l. 67.
211. _olde gestes_, old accounts. The account of the taking of Troy most valued in the middle ages was not that by Vergil or Homer, but the Latin prose story written in 1287 by Guido delle Colonne, who obtained a great reputation very cheaply, since he borrowed his work almost entirely from an old French _Roman de Troie_, written by Benoit de Sainte-Maure. See the preface to The Gest Hystoriale of the Destruction of Troy, ed. Panton and Donaldson (Early English Text Society). And see vol. ii. p. lxi.
219. _Iogelours_, jugglers. See the quotation from Marco Polo, i. 340, in vol. iii. p. 473; and cf. The Franklin's Tale, F. 1140-1151, and the notes.
223. _comprehende_; so in the MSS. But read _comprende_; see Troil. iii. 1687; and pronounce _lew-ed-nes_ fully.
224. 'They are very prone to put down things to the worst cause.'
226. _maister-tour_, principal tower, the donjon or keep-tower. So also _maistre strete_, principal street, Kn. Ta. 2044 (A. 2902); _maister temple_, Leg. of Good Women, l. 1016.
230. For _slye_, MS. Hl. has _heigh_, an inferior reading. Mr. Marsh observes upon this line--'This reasoning reminds one of the popular explanation of table-turning and kindred mysteries. Persons who cannot detect the trick ... ascribe the alleged facts to _electricity_.... Men love to cheat themselves with hard words, and indolence often accepts the _name_ of a phenomenon as a substitute for the reason of it'; Origin and Progress of the English Language, Lect. ix. p. 427.
231. The magic mirror in Rome was said to have been set up there by Vergil, who was at one time reverenced, not as a poet, but as a great enchanter. The story occurs in the Seven Sages, in the Introduction to his edition of which Mr. Wright says, at p. lix., 'The story of Virgil's tower, which was called _salvatio Romae_, holds rather a conspicuous place in the legendary history of the magician. Such a tower is first mentioned, but without the name of Virgil, in a Latin MS. of the eighth century, in a passage published by Docen and republished by Keller, in his introduction to the _Sept Sages_. Vincent of Beauvais, in the thirteenth century ... describes Virgil's tower; and it is the subject of a chapter in the legendary history of Virgilius.' See also the other version of the Seven Sages edited by Weber, and reprinted in Mätzner's Sprachproben, i. 254; where the _mirror_ is mentioned. [378] Gower tells the story of this mirror in his Confessio Amantis, bk. v. It occurs also in the Chronicle of Helinand, and in the Otia Imperialia of Gervase of Tilbury; Morley's Eng. Writers, iv. 225. Warton notes that the same fiction is in Caxton's Troybook, bk. ii. ch. 22. It also occurs in Higden, Polychronicon, bk. i. c. 24.
232. '_Alhazeni et Vitellonis Opticae_ are extant, printed at Basil, 1572. The first is supposed by his editor to have lived about A.D. 1100, and the second to A.D. 1270.'--Tyrwhitt. Hole's Brief Biographical Dictionary has the notices--'Alhazel or Alhazen, Arabian Astronomer and Optician; died A.D. 1038'; and--'Vitello or Vitellio, Polish Mathematician; floruit circa 1254.' See also the remarks in Warton (Hist. Eng. Poetry), on the Clerk's Tale. _Alhacen (sic)_ is mentioned in Le Rom. de la Rose, l. 18234. In l. 18376 of the same, we find the very phrase: 'Par composicions diverses'; and again, in l. 18387: 'Par les diversités des angles.' Mirrors are there described at length. R. Scot, in his Discoverie of Witchcraft, bk. xiii. c. 19, declares that 'the wonderous deuises and miraculous sights and conceipts made and conteined in glasse, doo farre exceed all other.'
233. Aristotle, the famous Grecian philosopher, born B.C. 384, died 322. _writen in hir lyves_, wrote in their lifetime. Observe that _writen_ is here the past tense. The pres. pl. is _wryten_; pt. s. _wrat_, _wrot_, or _wroot_; pt. pl. _writen_; pp. _writen_.
238. _Thelophus._ Telephus, king of Mysia, in opposing the landing of the Greeks in the expedition against Troy, was wounded by the spear of Achilles. But as an oracle declared that the Greeks would require his aid, he was healed by means of the rust taken from the same spear. Chaucer may easily have learnt this story from his favourite Ovid, who says--
'Telephus aeterna consumptus tabe perisset Si non quae nocuit dextra tulisset opem. Tristium, lib. v. El. 2. 15.
And again--
'Vulnus Achilleo quae quondam fecerat hosti, Vulneris auxilium Pelias hasta tulit.' Remed. Amor. 47.
See also Met. xii. 112; xiii. 171; Ex Ponto, ii. 2. 26; Propertius, Eleg. ii. 1. 65 (_or_ 63). Or he may have taken it from Dante, Inferno, xxxi. 5; or from Hyginus, Fab. 101. Cf. Shak. 2 Hen. VI., v. i. 100.
247. _Canaceës_; four syllables, as in l. 631.
250. Great skill in magic was attributed in the middle ages to Moses and Solomon, especially by the Arabs. Moses was supposed to have learnt magic from the Egyptians; cf. Acts vii. 22; Exod. vii. 11. See the story of the Fisherman and Genie in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, where the genie invokes the name of Solomon.
253. 'Some said it was a wonderful thing to make glass from fern-ashes, since glass does not resemble fern-ashes at all.' Glass contains two principal ingredients, sand and some kind of alkali. For the latter, [379] the calcined ashes of seaweed, called _kelp_, were sometimes used; or, according to Chaucer, the ashes of ferns. Modern chemistry has developed many greater wonders.
256. 'But, because men have known it (the art of glass-making) so long, their talking and wonder about it ceases.' The art is of very high antiquity, having been known even to the Egyptians. _so fern_, so long ago; Chaucer sometimes rimes words which are spelt exactly alike, but only when their meanings differ. See Prol. l. 17, where _seke_, to seek, rimes with _seke_, sick. Other examples are seen in the Kn. Tale, _see_ being repeated in A. 1955-6; _caste_ in A. 2171-2; _caas_ in A. 2357-8; and _fare_ in A. 2435-6. Imperfect rimes like _disport_, _port_, Prol. 137, 138, are common; see Prol. 241, 433, 519, 579, 599, 613, 811; Kn. Ta. 379, 381 (A. 1237, 1239), &c. For examples of _fern_ compare--
'Ye, farewel al the snow of _ferne_ yere,'
i. e. good bye to all last year's snow; Troil. and Cres. v. 1176 (see vol. ii. p. 394). So also _fernyere_, long ago, in P. Pl. B. v. 440; spelt _uernyere_, in Ayenbite of Inwyt, ed. Morris, p. 92. Adverbs commonly terminate in _-e_, but the scribes are right in writing _fern_ here; see A. S. Gospels, Matt. xi. 21, for the forms _gefyrn_, _gefern_, meaning _long ago_. Occleve, in La Male Regle, 196, uses the expression _fern ago_, i. e. long ago; Poems, ed. Furnivall, p. 31. And in Levins's Manipulus Vocabulorum, ed. Wheatley, we find--'Old farne years, _anni praeteriti, seculum prius_.'
With these examples in view, we might interpret _ferne halwes_ in Chaucer's Prologue, l. 14, by 'olden' rather than by 'distant' saints; yet the latter is decisively authenticated by a passage in his translation of Boethius, bk. ii. met. 7, where the expression 'renoun ysprad to _ferne poeples_, goth by dyverse tonges,' can only mean 'distant' peoples. _Fern_, in the sense of _old_, is explained at once by the Gothic _fairnis_, old; but, in the sense of _distant_, would seem to be corruptly and incorrectly formed, since the A. S. _feorran_, meaning _far_, is strictly an adverb, from the adjective _feorr_. But in course of time this adverb came to be declined as an adjective; see the examples in Stratmann, s. v. _feorren_.
258. Cf. 'What is the cause of thunder'; K. Lear, iii. 4. 160. The opinions of various ancient philosophers as to the cause of thunder are given in Plutarch's treatise, De Placitis Philosophorum ([Greek: peri tôn areskontôn tois philosophois]), lib. iii. c. 3. It was usually believed to result from the collision of clouds. 'Fulmina autem collisa nubila faciunt'; Isidore, Originum lib. xiii. c. 9. Cf. A. S. Leechdoms, iii. 281.
263. For a full explanation of this difficult passage, I must be content to refer the reader to Mr. Brae's edition of Chaucer's Astrolabe, pp. 77 and 86, and my own edition of the same (E. E. T. S.), p. lvi. The chief points that now seem tolerably certain are these.
(1) The Angle Meridional was an astrological term. The heavens were divided into twelve equal parts called 'mansions,' and four of [380] these mansions were technically called 'angles'; the _angle meridional_ was the same as the _tenth mansion_, which was bounded on the one edge by the meridian, and on the other by a semi-circle passing through the N. and S. points of the horizon, and lying 30° to the E. of the meridian; so that, at the equinoxes, at any place situate on the equator, the sun would cross this portion of the sky between 10 A. M. and the hour of noon.
(2) Since this 'angle' corresponds to the end of the forenoon, the sun leaves the said angle at the moment of noon, and l. 263 means no more than 'it was now past noon.'
(3) The 'royal beast' means the king of beasts, the lion, and (here in
## particular) the sign of the zodiac named Leo. This sign, on March 15, in
Chaucer's time, and in the latitude of London, began to 'ascend,' or rise above the horizon, just about noon. An additional reason for calling Leo 'royal' is because the principal star in the constellation is called _Regulus_ in Latin, [Greek: Basiliskos] in Greek, and _Melikhi_ in Arabic, all epithets signifying _kingly_ or _royal_.
(4) But, before the Tartar king rose from the feast, the time past noon had so increased that the star called Aldiran, situate in Leo, was now rising above the horizon. In other words it was very nearly two o'clock. It may be added, that, by the time the _whole_ of the sign had ascended, it would be about a quarter to three. Hence Chaucer speaks of the sign as yet (i. e. still) ascending.
The chief remaining point is to fix the star _Aldiran_.
Most MSS. read _Aldrian_, owing to the frequent shifting of _r_ in a word; just as _brid_, for instance, is the old spelling of _bird_. But the Hengwrt MS. is right. The name _Aldiran_, _Aldurin_, or _Aldiraan_, occurs in the old Parisian star-lists as the name of a star in the constellation Leo, and is described in them as being 'in fronte Leonis.' The word means 'the two fore-paws,' and the notes of the star's position are such that I am persuaded it is the star now called [theta] Hydrae, situate near the Lion's fore-paws, as commonly drawn. The only objection to this explanation arises from the comparative insignificance of the star; but whoever will take the trouble to examine the old lists will see that certain stars were chosen quite as much for the sake of _position_ as of _brightness_. When it was desired to mark particular points in the sky, bright stars were chosen if they were conveniently placed; but, failing that, any would serve the purpose that were fairly distinct. This is why, in a star-list of only 49 stars in MS. Camb. Univ. Lib. Ii. 3. 3, such stars as [delta] Capricorni, [delta] Aquarii, [delta] Ophiuchi, &c., find a place. The star _Aldiran_ ([theta] Hydrae) was remarkable for rising, in the latitude of Paris, _just before_ the splendid star [alpha] Leonis of the first magnitude, whose coming it thus heralded. That star is _also_ found in the same star-lists, with the name _Calbalesed_, or 'the lion's heart'; in Latin, Cor Leonis; another name for it being _Regulus_, as stated above.
On the whole, we fairly suppose Chaucer's meaning to be, that before [381] the feast concluded, it was not only _past noon_, but nearly _two hours past noon_.
269. _chambre of parements._ Tyrwhitt's note is--'_Chambre de parement_ is translated by Cotgrave, the presence-chambre, and _lit de parement_, a bed of state. _Parements_ originally signified all sorts of ornamental furniture or clothes, from Fr. _parer_, to adorn. See Kn. Ta. 1643 (A. 2501), and Legend of Good Women; Dido, l. 181.' He adds that the Italians use _camera de' paramenti_ in the same sense.
272. _Venus children_, the worshippers or subjects, of Venus. It merely means the knights and ladies at the feast, whose thoughts then turned upon love, because the season was astrologically favourable for it; cf. Kn. Tale, 1628, 1629 (A. 2486). The reason is given in l. 273, viz. that 'hir lady,' i. e. _their_ lady or goddess, as represented by the planet Venus, was then situate in the sign Pisces. This sign, in astrology, is called the 'exaltation' of Venus, or the sign in which she exerts most power. Hence the expression _ful hye_, and the statement that Venus regarded her servants with a friendly aspect. In the Wyf of Bathes Prol. (D. 704), Chaucer has the line--
'In _Pisces_, wher _Venus is exaltat_.'
'Who will not commend the wit of astrology? Venus, born out of the sea, hath her exaltation in Pisces'; Sir T. Browne, Works, ed. Wilkin, iv. 382.
287. _Lancelot_, the celebrated lover of queen Guinever in the Arthur romances. Cp. Dante, Inf. v. 128.
291. 'The steward bids (them) to be quick with the spices.' Cf. Joseph of Arimathea, ed. Skeat, note to l. 698. And see vol. ii. 506.
300. _Hath_ is here used like the mod. F. _il y a_, for which O. F. often has _a_ only. The sense is--'there is plenty.' The idiom is borrowed from French, and the text is correct. (I owe this note to a friend.)
316. 'You must twirl round a pin (which) stands in his ear.'
318. 'You must also tell him to what place or country you wish to ride.'
334. _Ryde_, ride; so in the Six-text; Hl. has _Byd_, i. e. bid.
340. The bridle is here said to have been put away with the _jewels_. So also, when Richard I., in a crusade, took Cyprus, among the treasures in the castles are mentioned precious stones, golden cups, &c., together with golden saddles, _bridles_, and spurs; Geoffrey of Vinsauf, Iter Hierosol. c. xli. p. 328; in Vet. Script. Angl. tom. ii.
346. Tyrwhitt inserts _that_ after _Til_, to fill up the line. It is not required; it is one of the many lines in which the first syllable is lacking.
347. 'Sleep, digestion's nurse, winked upon them, and bade them take notice, that much drink and exercise must require repose.' Cf. 2 Hen. IV., iii. 1. 6. Tyrwhitt supposes l. 349 to be corrupt; I do not know why.
351. To scan the line, retain the _e_ in _seyde_, preserved by the caesura. [382]
352. By the old physicians, blood was supposed to be in domination, or chief power, for seven hours, from the ninth hour of the night (beginning at 8 P. M.) to the third hour of the day. Tyrwhitt quotes from a book De Natura, ascribed to Galen, tom. v. p. 327--'_Sanguis dominatur_ horis septem, ab hora noctis nona ad horam diei tertiam.' Other authorities were pleased to state the matter somewhat differently. 'Six houres after midnight bloud hath the mastery, and in the sixe houres afore noon choler reigneth, and six houres after noon raigneth melancholy, and six hours afore midnight reigneth the flegmatick'; Shepheardes Kalender, ed. 1656, ch. xxix. Chaucer no doubt followed this latter account, which he may have found in the original French Calendrier des Bergers; see note to l. 51, p. 373.
358. _fumositee_, fumes arising from wine-drinking. See C. 567; and concerning dreams, see the Nonne Prestes Tale, 103-149 (B. 4113-59).
359. _no charge_, no weight; to which no weight, or no significance, can be attached.
360. _pryme large_; probably the same as _fully pryme_, Sir Thop., B. 2015, which see. It must then mean the time when the period of prime was quite ended; i. e. 9 A. M. This would be a very late hour for rising, but the occasion was exceptional.
365. _appalled_, enfeebled, languid; lit. 'rendered pallid,' cf. Kn. Ta. 2195 (A. 3053); and Shipm. Tale, B. 1290-2:--
'"Nece," quod he, "it oghte y-nough suffyse Fyve houres for to slepe upon a night, But it were for an old _appalled_ wight,"' &c.
373. 'Before the sun began to rise'; i. e. before 6 A. M., as it was near the equinox.
374. _maistresse_, governess; as appears from the Phis. Tale, C. 72.
376-377. Though the sense is clear, the grammar is incurably wrong. Chaucer _says_--'These old women, that would fain seem wise, just as did her governess, answered her at once.' What he _means_ is--'This governess, that would fain seem wise, as such old women often do, answered her,' &c. The second part of this tale seems to have been hastily composed, left unfinished, and never revised. Cf. l. 382.
383. _wel a ten_, i. e. about ten. Cf. Prol. l. 24.
386. _four._ The Harl. MS. wrongly has _ten_. There is no doubt about it, because on March 15, the day before, the sun was in the _third_ degree of the sign; on the 16th, he was in the _fourth_ degree.
387. It means--'and, moreover, the sun had risen but four degrees above the horizon'; i. e. it was not yet a quarter past six.
396. _her hertes_, their hearts. _lighte_, to feel light, to feel happy; an unusual use of the verb; but see F. 914. In l. 398, the sudden change to the singular _she_ is harsh.
401. Again hastily written. Chaucer says--'The point for which every tale is told--if it be delayed till the pleasure of them that have [383] hearkened after (or listened attentively to) the former part of it grows cold--then the pleasantness of it passes off, on account of the prolixity in telling it; and the more so, the longer it is spun out.' _Knotte_ is cognate with the Lat. _nodus_ (written for _gnodus_), as used by Horace, Ars Poet. l. 191.
409. _fordrye_, exceedingly dry. The tree was white too, owing to loss of its bark. This reminds me of the famous _Arbre Sec_, or Dry Tree; see Marco Polo, ed. Yule, i. 119; Maundeville, ed. Halliwell, p. 68; Mätzner, Sprachproben, ii. 185.
428. _faucon peregryn._ 'This species of falcon is thus described in the Tresor de Brunet Latin, P. i. ch. _Des Faucons_; MS. Reg. 19 C. x. "La seconde lignie est _faucons_, qui hom apele _pelerins_, par ce que nus ne trove son ni; ains est pris autresi come en _pelerinage_, et est mult legiers a norrir, et mult cortois et vaillans, et de bone maniere" [i. e. the second kind is the falcon which is called the pilgrim (or peregrine), because no one ever finds its nest; but it is otherwise taken, as it were on _pilgrimage_, and is very easily fed, and very tame and bold, and well-mannered]. Chaucer adds that this falcon was of _fremde lond_, i. e. from a foreign country.'--Tyrwhitt.
435. _ledene_, language; from A. S. _læden_, _leden_, sometimes used in the sense of language, though it is, after all, a mere corruption of _Latin_, which is the sense which it most often bears. Thus, the inscription on the cross of Christ is said to have been written 'Ebreisceon stafon, and Grecisceon, and _Leden_ stafon,' in Hebrew letters and in Greek and Latin letters; John, xix. 20. So also 'on _Ledenisc_ gereorde,' in the Latin language; Beda, bk. iv. c. 1. Hence the word was used more generally in the sense of language; as, 'Mara is, on ure _lyden_, biternes,' i. e. Marah is, in our speech, bitterness; Exod. xv. 23. This extension of the meaning, and the form of the word, were both influenced, probably, by confusion with the sb. _l[=e]od_, people. The student should learn to distinguish this word from the A. S. _l[=e]oð_, G. _lied_, a song. Tyrwhitt notes that Dante uses _latino_ in the sense of language; 'E cantine gli augelli Ciascuno in suo _latino_'; Canzone 1.
458. _as dooth_, so do, pray do. See Note to Cler. Tale, E. 7.
469. 'As verily as may the great God of nature help me.' _Wisly_, verily, is quite different from _wysly_, wisely; cf. Kn. Ta. 1376 (A. 2234).
471. 'To heal your hurts with quickly.' Note the position of _with_; and cf. l. 641.
474. _aswowne_ = _a swowne_ = _on swoune_, in a swoon.
479. Chaucer's favourite line; he repeats it four times. See Kn. Ta. 903 (A. 1761); March. Ta. 9860 (E. 1986); Prol. to Leg. G. W. 503. Also, in The Man of Lawes Ta. B. 660, we have it again in the form--'As gentil herte is fulfild of pitee.'
480. _similitude_ is pronounced nearly as _sim'litude_.
483. _kytheth_, manifests. Cf. Rom. Rose, 2187-2238 (vol. i. p. 172).
490. 'And to make others take heed by my example, as the lion is [384] chastised (or reproved) by means of the dog.' The explanation of this passage was a complete riddle to me till I fortunately discovered the proverb alluded to. It appears in George Herbert's Jacula Prudentum (Herbert's Works, ed. Willmott, 1859, p. 328) in the form 'Beat the dog before the lion,' where _before_ means _in the sight of_. This is cleared up by Cotgrave, who, in his French Dictionary, s. v. _Batre_, has the proverb--'Batre le chien devant le Lion, to punish a mean person in the presence, and to the terror of, a great one.' It is even better explained by Shakespeare, Othello, ii. 3. 272--'What, man! there are ways to recover the general again: you are but now cast in his mood, _a punishment more in policy than in malice_; even so as one would beat his offenceless dog to affright an imperious lion.'
499. _Ther_, where. The numerous expressions in this narrative certainly shew that the falcon was really a princess (cf. l. 559) who had been changed into a falcon for a time, as is so common in the Arabian Tales. Thus, in l. 500, the _roche_ or rock may be taken to signify a palace, and the _tercelet_ (l. 504) to be a prince. This gives the whole story a human interest.
505-506. _welle_, well, fountain. _Al were he_, although he was.
511. _coloures_, colours; and, in a secondary sense, pretences, which meaning is also intended; cf. l. 560. On dyeing _in grain_, i. e. of a fast colour, see note to Sir Thopas, B. 1917.
512. _hit him_, hideth himself. The allusion is to the well-known lines 'Qui legitis flores ... fugite hinc, latet anguis in herba'; Verg. Bucol. iii. 92. Cf. D. 1994; and Macbeth, i. 5. 66.
516. Read _k[=e]p'th_. MS. Hl. gives lines 514-6 thus:--
'Right so this god of loue, this ypocrite, Doth so his sermonys and his obseruaunce Under subtil colour and aqueyntaunce.'
517. _sowneth in-to_, tend to, are consonant with; see Prol. 307.
518. Cf. P. Plowm. B. xv. 109. Both passages are from Matt. xxiii. 27.
537. Chaucer clearly quotes this as a proverb; _true_ man means _honest_ man, according to Dogberry; Much Ado about Nothing, iii. 3. 54. The sense seems to be much the same as 'You cannot make a silk purse of a sow's ear,' or 'Once a knave, always a knave.' Compare the use of _theef_ in Anelida, l. 161; also--
'Alas! I see a serpent or a theef, That many a trewe man hath doon mescheef; Knightes Tale, 467 (A. 1325).
548. The reading _Troilus_ (in E. Hn.) must be a mistake, because he was not guilty of transferring his love to another; it was _Cressida_ who did that, so that the falcon would take care not to refer to that story. Paris deserted Oenone for Helen, and Jason deserted Medea for Glauce. Lamech was the first to have two wives, viz. Adah and Ziilah; [385] Gen. iv. 23. The whole of this passage is a recast of Chaucer's earlier poem of Anelida, where Lamech is introduced just in the same way (l. 150).
555. Imitated, but not with good taste, from Mark, i. 7.
558. This line resembles Troil. ii. 637.
579. 'Whether it was a grief to me, does not admit of doubt.'
583. 'Such grief I felt because he could not stay.'
593. Chaucer has this expression again, Kn. Ta. 2184 (A. 3042); Troilus, iv. 1586. It was a common proverb. Shakespeare has it frequently; Two G. of Ver. iv. i. 62; Rich. II., i. 3. 278; King Lear, iii. 2. 70. An early example of it is in Matt. Paris (Record Series), i. 20:--'Vitam in tantam sanctitatem commutavit, faciendo de necessitate virtutem,' &c.
596. _to borwe_, for a security; _borwe_ being a sb., not a verb. Cf. Kn. Ta. 360, 764 (A. 1218, 1622). Hence it means, 'Saint John being for a security,' i. e. Saint John being my security; as in The Complaint of Mars, l. 9. She pledges herself by Saint John, the apostle of truth; see 1 John, iii. 19, iv. 20. Lydgate has 'seint John to borowe' in his Complaint of the Black Knight, st. 2.
601. 'When he has well _said_ everything, he has done (all he means to do).'
602. This is a common proverb; cf. Com. of Errors, iv. 3. 64; Tempest, ii. 2. 103; Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iii. 4.
607. From Boethius, De Cons. Phil. lib. iii. met. 2:--
'Repetunt proprios quaeque recursus Redituque suo singula gaudent.'
A few lines above is a passage answering to ll. 611-620, which in the original runs thus (cf. vol. ii. p. 56):--
'Quae canit altis garrula ramis Ales, caueae clauditur antro: Huic licet illita pocula melle, Largasque dapes dulci studio Ludens hominum cura ministret, Si tamen, arto saliens tecto, Nemorum gratas uiderit umbras, Sparsis pedibus proterit escas, Siluas tantum maesta requirit, Siluas dulci uoce susurrat.'
Chaucer repeats the example yet a third time, in the Manciple's Tale, H. 163. Moreover, Jean de Meun copied the whole passage in Le Roman de la Rose, 14145.
617-1223. Eight leaves are here lost in MS. Hl.
618. _newefangel_, i. e. eager for novelty; of four syllables, as in l. 89 of the Manc. Tale, H. 193. The word _newefangelnesse_ will be found in the poem of Anelida, l. 141, and in Leg. of Good Wom., Prol. [386] 154. 'Be not _newfangil_ in no wise'; Babees Book, ed. Furnivall, p. 51, l. 115; cf. p. 9, l. 13. And see the Balade against Women Unconstant, l. 1 (vol. i. p. 409).
624. _kyte._ Mr. Jephson notes that 'the kite is a cowardly species of hawk, quite unfit for falconry, and was therefore the emblem of everything base.'
640. Compare ll. 153-155, which shew that Canace knew what herbs to choose.
644. _Blue_ was the colour of truth and constancy; hence the expression 'true blue'; cf. Cler. Tale, E. 254. _Green_ (l. 646) signified _inconstancy_. Lydgate, in his Fall of Princes, fol. _e_ 7, speaking of Dalilah, says--
'In stede of _blewe_, which stedefast is and clene, She louyd chaungys of many diuers _grene_.'
'True blue will never stain'; Proverb.
''Twas Presbyterian true blue'; Hudibras, i. i. 191.
Tyrwhitt draws attention to the Balade against Women Unconstant (in vol. i. p. 409), the burden of which is--
'In stede of _blew_, thus may ye were al _grene_.'
648. _tidifs._ The _tidif_ is mentioned as an inconstant bird in Prol. to Leg. G. W. l. 154--
'And tho that hadde doon unkindenesse As dooth the _tydif_, for newfangelnesse,' &c.
Drayton uses _tydy_ as the name of a small bird, Polyolb. xiii. 79; _not_ the wren, which is mentioned five lines above. In a piece called The Parlament of Byrdes, pr. for A. Kytson, one of the birds is called a _tytyfer_; see Hazlitt's Early Pop. Poetry, iii. 177. Schmeller gives _Zitzerl_ as the Bavarian name for a wren; but cf. E. _tit_.
649-650. These lines are transposed in Tyrwhitt's edition. Such a transposition makes the sense much clearer, beyond doubt. But I am not convinced that the confused construction in the text is not Chaucer's own. It is very like his manner. Cf. notes to ll. 376, 401.
667. Observe that _Cambalo_, if not inserted here in the MSS. by error, is quite a different person from the _Cambalus_ in l. 656 (called _Cambalo_ in l. 31). He is Canace's _lover_, who is to fight in the lists _against_ her brothers Cambalo and Algarsif, and win her. Spenser (F. Q. iv. 3) introduces three brethren as suitors for Canace, who have to fight against Cambello her brother; this is certainly not what Chaucer intended, nor is it very satisfactory.
671-672. Some suppose these two lines to be spurious. I believe them to be genuine; for they occur in MS. E. Hn. Cp. Pt., and others, and are not to be too lightly rejected. The Lansdowne MS. has _eight_ lines here, which are certainly spurious. In MS. E., after l. 672, the rest of the page is _blank_. The lines are quite intelligible, if we add the words _He entreth_. We then have--'Apollo (the sun) whirls up his chariot so highly (continues his course in the zodiac) till he enters the [387] mansion of the god Mercury, the cunning one'; the construction in the last line being similar to that in l. 209. The sun was described as in Aries, l. 51. By continuing his _upward_ course, i. e. his _Northward_ course, by which he approached the zenith daily, he would soon come to the sign Gemini, which was the mansion of Mercury. It is a truly Chaucerian way of saying that two months had elapsed. We may conclude that Chaucer just began the Third Part of this Tale, but never even finished the first sentence. It is worth noting that these two lines are imitated at the beginning of the (spurious) poem called The Flower and the Leaf; and in Skelton's Garland of Laurel, l. 1471.
THE WORDS OF THE FRANKLIN.
675. _youthe_ is a dissyllable; observe the rime with _allow the_, i. e. commend thee, which is written as one word (_allowthe_) in several MSS.
683. _pound_, i. e. pounds worth of land.
686. _possessioun_, i. e. property, wealth. Cf. D. 1722.
688. _and yet shal_, and shall still do so.
THE PROLOGUE OF THE FRANKLIN'S TALE.
709. _Britons_, Bretons, inhabitants of Brittany. Observe Chaucer's mention of _Armorik_ or Armorica in l. 729.
As to the existence of early Breton Lays, a fact which Ritson rashly denied in his anxiety to blame Warton (see Ritson, Met. Rom. iii. 332), the reader may consult Price's remarks in the latest edition of Warton, 1871, vol. i. 169-177. It cannot be doubted that the Lais of Marie de France were, in a large measure, founded upon Breton tales which she had heard or found recorded. Sir F. Madden refers us, for further information, to De la Rue's Essais sur les Bardes, &c., iii. 47-100; Robert, Fables Inédites, &c., i. clii-clix.; the Preface to Roman du Rénart; and Costello's Specimens of the Early Poetry of France, 43-49. The Lais of Marie de France were edited by Roquefort, Paris, 1820; and by Warnke, Halle, 1885. See further in vol. iii. p. 480.
721. _Pernaso_, Parnassus. The form is _Parnaso_ in Anelida, 16, and Ho. of Fame, 521; see also Troilus, iii. 1810, and my note to Anelida, 16. A side-note, in the margin of E., shews that Chaucer is here quoting a part of the first three lines of the Prologus to the Satires of Persius.
'Nec fonte labra prolui caballino, Neque in bicipiti somniasse _Parnasso_ Memini, ut repente sic poeta prodirem.'
722. _Cithero_, Cicero; spelt _Scithero_ in E. Hn., but _Cithero_ in Cp. Pt. Ln. The three latter MSS. stupidly insert _ne_ before _Cithero_, thus destroying both sense and metre, and tempting Mr. Wright to make the purely gratuitous suggestion, that Chaucer did it on purpose (!), in order to make the Frankeleyn appear really ignorant.
723. I. e. he knows no 'colours' of rhetoric; cf. F. 511. [388]
THE FRANKELEYNS TALE.
729. _Armorik_, Armorica, the modern Brittany.
743. A note in Bell says this is meant 'ironically.' On the contrary, it is explanatory, and in perfect keeping with the context. Cf. l. 751, and the full discussion of the matter in ll. 764-790.
764. This passage is clearly founded on Le Roman de la Rose, ll. 9465-9534, a piece which is too long to be quoted. Compare, for example, ll. 9479-9482:--
'Car il convient amor morrir Quant amant vuelent _seignorir_. Amors ne puet durer ne vivre, Se n'est en cuer franc et delivre.'
Compare also ll. 8489-90 of the same:--
'Qu'onques Amor et seignorie Ne s'entrefirent compaignie.'
And see Kn. Ta., A. 1625-6. Spenser copies ll. 764-6 very closely; F. Q. iii. 1. 25. And see Butler, Hudib. iii. 1. 553-560; Pope, Eloisa, 76.
774. So in P. Plowman, C. xvi. 138, we find _patientes uincunt_. The reference is to Dionysius Cato, Distichorum lib. i. 38:--
'Quem superare potes, interdum uince ferendo, Maxima enim morum semper patientia uirtus.'
And again, in his Breves Sententiae, Sent. xl., he has:--'Parentes patientia uince.' But Chaucer's words agree still more closely with an altered version of Cato which is quoted in Old Eng. Homilies, ed. Morris, 2 Ser. p. 80, in the form:--'Quem superare _nequis_, _patienter_ uince ferendo.' Compare the proverb--'uincit qui patitur'; also Vergil, Æn. v. 710; Ovid, Art. Amat. ii. 197, Am. iii. 11. 7, Am. i. 2. 10. See also Troil. iv. 1584.
792. This is from the same passage of Le Roman as that mentioned in the note to l. 764. Compare, for example, the following lines (9489-94), where _serjant_ means 'servant':--
'Car cil, quant par amor amoit, Serjant à cele se clamoit Qui sa mestresse soloit estre; Or se clame seignor et mestre Sur cele que dame ot clamée, Quant ele iert par amor amée.'
801. Penmarch Point is a headland near Quimper, in the department of Finisterre; a little to the S. of Brest.
Tyrwhitt's derivation of this name, from _pen_, a head, and _mark_, a mark or boundary, assumes that _mark_ is a Celtic word. No doubt _pen_ represents Bret. _penn_ (Welsh _pen_), a head, a promontory; but, instead of _mark_ I can only find Bret. _march_ (Welsh and Cornish _march_, Irish _marc_), a horse. In the sense of boundary, _mark_ is Teutonic. [389]
808. _Kayrrud_, Caer-rud; evidently an old Celtic name. _Caer_ is the Bret. _ker_, _kear_, a town; Welsh and Cornish _caer_, a fort, town. And perhaps _rud_ is 'red'; cf. Bret. _ruz_, Welsh _rhudd_, Cornish _rudh_, red. It does not appear in the map.
_Arveragus_, a Latinised form of a Celtic name; spelt _Aruiragus_ in Juvenal, Sat. iv. 127. Arviragus, son of Cymbeline, one of the fabulous kings of Britain, married a daughter of the Roman emperor Claudius; see Rob. of Glouc. l. 1450.
815. _Dorigene_; also a Celtic name. 'Droguen, or Dorguen, was the wife of Alain I.--Lobineau, t. i. p. 70.'--Tyrwhitt. Lobineau was the author of a history of Brittany.
830. Cf. 'Gutta cauat lapidem'; Ovid, Epist. iv. 10. 5.
861. Cf. 'That she ne hath foot on which she may sustene'; Anelida, 177.
867. _In ydel_, in vain. In P. Plowman, A. vi. 61, we have _in idel_, and in B. v. 580, _an ydel_, in the same sense. With this passage, cf. Boeth. bk. i. met. 5. 22; bk. iii. met. 9. 1-10.
879. Cf. 'a fayr party of so grete a werk'; Boeth. bk. i. met. 5. 38.
880. _thyn owene merk_, thine own likeness; cf. 'ad imaginem suam,' Gen. i. 27. It appears, from P. Plowman, B. xv. 343, C. xviii. 73, that the words _merke_ and _preynte_ (print) were both used of the 'impression' upon a coin. From a comparison of the Vulgate version of Gen. i. 27 and Matt. xxii. 20, we see that _imago_ was used in the same way. This explains how _merk_ came to mean 'likeness,' and how _mark of Adam_ (in D. 696) came to mean 'all such as are made in Adam's likeness.' See that passage.
883. _menes_, means, instruments of Thy will. The sing. _mene_, in the same sense, occurs in P. Plowman, C. xvii. 96, and frequently in Sir Generides, where it is spelt _meane_.
886. 'All's for the best'; a popular rendering of Romans, viii. 28. Cf. Boeth. bk. iv. pr. 6. 194-6.
889. _this_, short for _this is_; as in many other places.
899. _delitables_, a good example of a French pl. adj. in _s_. So also _royales_, B. 2038. See my note to P. Plowman, C. x. 342.
900. _ches_, chess. Chess was played in England even before the Conquest, in the days of Canute. 'Tables' is another name for backgammon, and was called _tabularum ludus_ in Latin. See Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, bk. iv. c. 2. §§ 4, 16.
913. _The odour_ is to be read as _Th'odóur_.
918. _At-after_, after; as in F. 302.
938. _Aurelius._ Tyrwhitt remarks that 'this name, though of Roman origin, was common, we may presume, among the Britons. One of the princes mentioned by Gildas was called _Aurelius Conanus_. Another British king is called _Aurelius Ambrosius_ by Geoffrey of Monmouth.' See Fabyan's History, pt. 1. capp. 93, 108.
942. _With-outen coppe_, without a cup. This expression means that he drank his penance in full measure, not by small quantities [390] at a time. It occurs again in the Prologue to the Tale of Beryn, ll. 306, 460.
948. Chaucer wrote such things himself; see Leg. of Good Women, 423, and the note. See also, in his Minor Poems, the Complaint of Mars, the roundel in the Parl. of Foules, 680; and the exquisite triple roundel called Merciles Beautè.
950. The syllables _as a fu-_ form the third foot. Some MSS. have _fuyre_, i. e. fire (see the footnote); but hell is not the place where fire was supposed to languish. The reading _furye_, i. e. fury, also presents some difficulty, but we must take _languish_ to mean 'endure continual pain.' This precisely agrees with Chaucer's language in Troilus, iv. 22-24.
We have already had a confusion between _fury_ and _fire_ in A. 2684. The reading _furie_ is perfectly established by help of F. 448 (this _furial_ pyne of _helle_), and by further comparing l. 1101 below.
951. _Ekko_, Echo. So in the Book of the Duch. 735. Chaucer probably took this from Le Rom. de la Rose, 1447; see the English version, ll. 1469-1538. But he had learnt, by this time, that the true original was Ovid (Metamorph. iii. 407). Hence the side-note in MS. E.--'Methamorposios'--(_sic_).
963. _And hadde_, and _she_ had; with a sudden change of subject.
974. _Madame_ is here trisyllabic; in l. 967, the last syllable is very light.
982. The _-ie_ in _Aurelie_ is slurred over; _know-e_ is dissyllabic. Cf. l. 989.
992. _Lok-e_, for _Lok-en_, imper. _plural_.
993. The first foot contains _Ye remoe-_; and the final _-e_ of _remoev-e_ is not cut off. Otherwise, place an accent on the syllable _re-_.
999-1000. These two lines are placed lower down in Tyrwhitt's edition, after l. 1006, on the authority of three inferior MSS., viz. Harl. 7335, Harl. 7333, and Barlow 20. But the old editions agree with the best MSS., and nothing is gained by the change.
1018. A humorous apology for a poetical expression.
1031. A side-note in E. has--'The compleint of Aurelius to the goddes and to the sonne.'
1033. _after_, i. e. according to. The change of seasons depends on the sun's change of declination, which causes his position (called _herberwe_ or 'harbour' in l. 1035) to be high or low in the sky. See note to l. 1058.
1045. In MS. E., _Lucina_ is glossed by 'luna,' i. e. the moon; see A. 2085.
1049. Read _knowen_ as _know'n_. All the six MSS. keep the final _n_; but Cp. Pt. Ln. drop the word _that_.
1054. _more and lesse_, greater and smaller, i. e. rivers.
1058. _Leoun_, the sign Leo. In l. 906, May 6 is mentioned, and the events recorded in ll. 906-1016 all belong to this day. Ll. 1019-1081 belong to the evening of the same day. But, in May, the sun is in [391] Taurus, and the moon, when in opposition, would be in the _opposite_ sign, which is Scorpio; and we should expect the reading--'of Scorpioun.' As it stands, the text means:--'at the next opposition that takes place with the sun in Leo'; i. e. not at the _very_ next opposition, with the sun in Taurus; nor yet after that, with the sun in Gemini or Cancer. The reason for the delay is astrological; for Leo was the _mansion_ of the Sun, so that the sun's power would then be greatest; besides which, the sign Leo greatly increased a planet's influence; see A. 2462, and the note.
We may notice the various allusions in the above lines. In l. 1033, the sun's declination changes from day to day, and with it the solar power and heat; so that the vegetable kingdom fails or grows according as the sun's 'harbour,' or position in the ecliptic, causes his meridian altitude to be low or high (l. 1035). In l. 1046, the power of the moon over the tides is mentioned; and, in l. 1050, the dependence of lunar upon solar light. The highest tides occur when the sun and moon are either in conjunction or opposition; the latter is here fixed upon. If, says Aurelius, the sun and moon could always _remain_ in opposition, viz. by moving at the same apparent rate (l. 1066), the moon would always remain at the full (l. 1069), and the spring-flood, or highest flood, would last all the while (l. 1070).
1074. Here Luna is identified with Proserpina; see note to A. 2051, where I have quoted the sentence--'Diana, quae et _Luna, Proserpina_, Hecate nuncupatur.' And see the parallel lines in A. 2081-2.
1077. _Delphos_, Delphi; Chaucer adopts, as usual, the accusative form. Ovid has _Delphi_, Met. x. 168; _Delphica templa_, Met. xi. 414.
1086. 'Let him choose, as far as I am concerned, whether he wishes to live or die.' _whether_ is here cut down to _whe'r_, as frequently.
1088. Cf. 'And in his host of chivalrye the flour'; A. 982.
1094-1096. _imaginatyf_, of a suspicious fancy. _doute_, fear.
1110. This is the Pamphilus already referred to in B. 2746 (see note to that line). The poem relates the poet's love for Galatea. In the note to B. 2746, I have given the title of the poem as _De Amore_. Another title is--Pamphili Mauriliani Pamphilus, sive De Arte Amandi Elegiae. Skelton alludes to it also, and Dyce's note (in his ed. of Skelton, ii. 345) tells us--'It is of considerable length, and though written in barbarous Latin, was by some attributed to Ovid. It may be found in a little volume edited by Goldastus, Ovidii Nasonis Pelignensis Erotica et Amatoria Opuscula, &c. 1610.' Tyrwhitt quotes the first four lines, from MS. Cotton, Titus A. xx--'Vulneror, et clausum porto sub pectore telum,' &c. In the margin of E. is here written--'Pamphilus ad Galatheam,' followed by the line--'Vulneror ... telum.' Chaucer imitates this line in ll. 1111, 1112. And see Lounsbury, Studies, ii. 370.
1113. _sursanure_, a wound healed outwardly only. A F. word, from Lat. _super_ and _sanare_. See _soursanëure_ in Godefroy.
1115. _But_, unless. _come therby_, get at it, get hold of it.
1118. 'There was a celebrated and very ancient university at Orleans, [392] which fell into disrepute as the university of Paris became famous; and the rivalry probably led to the imputation that the occult sciences were cultivated at Orleans.'--Wright.
1121. 'In every hiding-place and corner'; cf. G. 311, 658.
1130. I here quote from my Preface to Chaucer's Astrolabe (E. E. T. S.), p. lix. 'The twenty-eight "moon-stations" of the Arabs are given in Ideler's Untersuchungen über die Bedeutung der Sternnamen, p. 287. He gives the Arabic names, the stars that help to fix their positions, &c. See also Mr. Brae's edition of the Astrolabe, p. 89. For the influence of the moon in these mansions, we must look elsewhere, viz. in lib. i. cap. 11, and lib. iv. cap. 18 of the Epitome Astrologiae of Johannes Hispalensis. Suffice it to say that there are 12 temperate mansions, 6 dry ones, and 10 moist ones.' The number 28 corresponds with the number of days in a lunation.
1132. Cf. Chaucer's remark in his Astrolabe, ii. 4. 36--'Natheles, thise ben observauncez of iudicial matiere and rytes of payens, _in which my spirit ne hath no feith_.'
1133. In speaking of the First Commandment, Hampole says: 'Astronomyenes byhaldes the daye and the houre and the poynte that man es borne in, and vndir whylke syngne he es borne, and the poynte that he begynnes to be in, and by thire syngnes, and other, thay saye that that sall befall the man aftyrwarde; but theyre errowre es reproffede of haly doctours.'--Eng. Prose Treatises of Hampole, ed. Perry, p. 9. So also in Religious Pieces in Prose and Verse, ed. Perry, p. 5.
1141. _tregetoures_, jugglers. Cf. F. 218, 219; Hous of Fame, 1260, and my note upon the line; also the same, 1277, and my note on it. From O. F. _trasgeter_, (Prov. _trasgitar_), answering to a Low Lat. _transiectare_, i. e. to throw across, cause to pass. Thus the original sense of _tregetour_ was one who caused rapid changes, by help of some mechanical contrivance. See Marco Polo, ed. Yule, i. 342; and note 9 to Bk. i. c. 61; Cornelius Agrippa, on Juggling; Ritson, Anc. Met. Romances, vol. i. p. ccv; and the verses on the Tregetour in Lydgate's Dance of Machabre. _Treget_ means imposture, juggling, deceit, in the E. version of the Romaunt of the Rose, 6267, 6312, 6825; and _tregetrie_ means the same, 6374, 6382. (Not allied to _trebuchet_, as suggested by Tyrwhitt.)
1180. _dawes_, days; variant of _dayes_. The pl. _dawes_ occurs here only; but _dayes_ rimes with _layes_ in l. 709 above, with _delayes_ in l. 1293 below, and (in the phr. _now a dayes_) with _Iayes_, G. 1396, and _assayes_, E. 1164. Chaucer also has _dawe_, v., to dawn, riming with _felawe_, A. 4250, and _awe_, B. 3872. The variant _dawes_ is due to the A. S. _dagas_, where the _g_ is followed, not by _e_, but by _a_; hence we only find it in the plural. But it is not uncommon; it occurs in St. Brandan, ed. Wright, p. 5, l. 3; Havelok, 2344; King Alisaunder, ed. Weber, l. 1436; Gower, Conf. Am. ii. 113, where it rimes with _sawes_; &c.
1204. The use of _our_ is graphic; it occurs in all six MSS. Tyrwhitt has _the_.
1222. _Gerounde_, the river Gironde; _Sayne_, the Seine. That is, all [393] the S.W. coast from the Gironde to Brest, and all the N.W. coast from Brest to Honfleur; thus including much more than just the W. promontory.
1224. Here ceases the gap in Hl., F. 617-1223.
1241. Accent _mágicién_ on the first and last syllables.
1245. 'The sun grew old, and his hue was like that of latten.' For _latoun_, later _latten_, see note to C. 350. That is, the sun had a dull coppery hue, as in December, when it may be said to be 'old,' as it was approaching the end of its annual course. Cf. _yonge sonne_; A. 7.
1246. 'Who, when in his hot declination (i. e. in the sign of Cancer, when his northern declination was greatest) used to shine like burnished gold, with bright beams; but he had now arrived in Capricornus, where he was at his lowest altitude (i. e. at the winter solstice); and shone but dimly.'
In Chaucer's time, the sun entered Capricorn on December 13; see his Treatise on the Astrolabe, ii. 1. 12.
1252. In the margin of E. is written--'Janus biceps'; referring to 'Iane biceps' in Ovid's Fasti, i. 65; and 'Iane biformis,' id. l. 89. The allusion is to the approach of January, after the winter solstice. This season, as indicated in ll. 1253, 1254, is the time of Christmas and New-Year festivities, when wine is drunk from horns, and the boar's head appears at feasts. See Brand's Pop. Antiq., ed. Ellis, i. 484, for the carol sung at the bringing in of the boar's head as the first dish on Christmas day, as e.g. in the Inner Temple and at Queen's College, Oxford. He quotes from Dekker:--'like so many bores' heads stuck with branches of rosemary, to be served in _for brawne_ at Christmas.'
Skelton speaks of 'Ianus, with his double chere,' i. e. face; Garl. of Laurell, 1515. Cf. Chambers, Book of Days, i. 19; and ii. 754; Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 41.
1255. '_Nowel_,' i. e. 'the birthday,' or Christmas day. From O. F. _noël_ (Prov. _nadal_); from Lat. _natalem_. Cotgrave quotes a French proverb:--'Tant crie on Noël qu'il vient, So long is Christmas cried that at length it comes.' Littré gives, as the second sense of _Noël_--'Cantique en langue vulgaire, ayant ordinairement pour sujet la naissance de Jésus-Christ, que l'on chante à l'approche de la Noël.' Hence 'to cry Noël' was to sing a Christmas carol; as was usual on Christmas eve. He further explains that 'Noël!' subsequently became a cry on _any_ occasion of great rejoicing; so that, in this way, 'to cry Noël' meant to proclaim glad tidings. Hence the silly confusion of the word with '_nouvelles_,' in the imaginative accounts of it given by some English writers.
1266. Read _I n' can_; see note to A. 764.
1273. 'The astronomical tables, composed by order of Alphonso X, king of Castile, about the middle of the thirteenth century, were called sometimes _Tabulae Toletanae_, from their being adapted to the city of Toledo. There is a very elegant copy of them in MS. Harl. 3647.'--T. [394] In Chaucer's Astrolabe, ii. 44. 16, we find:--'And if hit so be that hit [i. e. the time for which the change in a planet's position is being reckoned] passe 20 [years], consider wel that fro 1 to 20 ben _anni expansi_, and fro 20 to 3,000 ben _anni collecti_.' The changes in position of the various planets were obtained from these tables. The quantities denoting the amount of a planet's motion during _round periods_ of years, such as twenty, forty, or sixty years, were entered in a table headed _Anni collecti_. Similar quantities for lesser periods, from one year up to twenty years, were entered under the headings 1, 2, 3, &c.; and such years were called _Anni expansi_, i. e. single or separate years. See Ptolemy's Almagest, lib. vi. and lib. ix.; and the note in vol. iii. p. 367.
1276. _rotes_, roots. The 'root' is the tabulated quantity belonging to a given fixed date or era, from which corresponding quantities can be calculated by addition or subtraction. Thus the longitude of a planet at a given date is the 'root'; and its longitude at another date, say twenty-three years later, can be obtained from the Toletan tables by adding (1) its change of longitude in twenty years, as given in the table of _Anni collecti_, and (2) its further change in three years, as given in the table of _Anni expansi_. Chaucer uses the term 'root' again in B. 314; and in his Astrolabe, ii. 44. 1; q.v.
1277. 'Centre' was a technical name for the end of the small brass projection on the 'rete' of an astrolabe which denoted the position of a fixed star (usually of the first magnitude). See Chaucer's Astrolabe, Fig. 2 (in vol. iii.); and _Centre_ in the Glossary. 'Argument' is an astronomical term still in use, and means 'the angle, arc, or other mathematical quantity, from which another required quantity may be deduced, or on which its calculation depends'; New Eng. Dictionary.
In Chaucer's Astrolabe, § 44 of Part II. is headed--'Another maner conclusion, to knowe the mene mote and the _argumentis_ of any planete.'
1278. _proporcionels convenients_, fitting proportionals; referring to a table of 'proportional parts,' by which fractional parts of a year can be taken into consideration, in calculating the motions of the planets.
1279. _equacions_, equations; probably here used in the sense of 'exact quantities.' Thus the 'exact quantity' of a planet's motion, during a given time, can be obtained by adding together the motion during the 'collect' years, the 'expanse' years, and the fraction of a year; see the last note.
1280. _eighte spere_, eighth sphere; cf. 'ninthe speere' in l. 1283. In the old astronomy (as explained more fully in the note to B. 295), there were nine imaginary spheres, viz. the seven spheres of the seven planets, the eighth sphere or sphere of fixed stars (supposed to have a slow motion from west to east about the poles of the zodiac, to account for the precession of the equinoxes), and the ninth sphere or _primum mobile_, which had a diurnal motion from east to west, and carried [395] everything with it. _Alnath_ is still a name for the bright star [alpha] Arietis, of the first magnitude, which was necessarily situate in the eighth sphere. But the head of the _fixed_ Aries, or the true equinoctial point, was in the ninth sphere above it.
The exact amount of the precession of the equinoxes (which is what Chaucer here alludes to) could be ascertained by observing, from time to time, the distance between the true equinoctial point and the star Alnath, which was conveniently situated for the purpose, being in the head of Aries. In the time of Hipparchus (B.C. 150), the distance of Alnath from the true equinoctial point was but a few degrees; but at the present time it is 'shove,' in longitude, some 35° from the same. (The readings _thre_ for _eighte_ in l. 1280, and _fourthe_ for _ninthe_ in l. 1283, given by Wright from MS. Hl., are of course absurd).
1285. _firste mansioun_, first mansion, viz. of the moon. It was called _Alnath_, from the star. In the margin of E. is written--'Alnath dicitur prima mansio lunae.' Cf. note to l. 1130; and see l. 1289. His object was, clearly, to calculate the moon's position; see l. 1287.
1288. 'And knew in whose "face" the moon arose, and in what "term," and all about it.' Each sign of the zodiac, containing thirty degrees, was divided into three equal parts, each of ten degrees, called _faces_ in the astrological jargon of the time. Not only each _sign_, but each _face_, was assigned to some peculiar planet; hence _whos_ means 'of which planet.' Besides this equal division of each sign, we find unequal divisions, called _terms_. For example, the sign Aries, considered as a whole, was called 'the mansion of Mars.' Again, of this sign, degrees one to ten were called 'the face of Mars'; degrees eleven to twenty, 'the face of the Sun'; and degrees twenty-one to thirty, 'the face of Venus.' Lastly, of the same sign, degrees one to six were 'a term of Jupiter'; degrees seven to twelve, of Venus; degrees thirteen to twenty, of Mercury; twenty-one to twenty-five, of Mars; and twenty-six to thirty, of Saturn. Of course, the whole of this assignment was purely fanciful, imposed at first by arbitrary authority, and afterwards kept up by tradition. Cf. l. 1293.
1311-1322. These lines form a 'Complaint,' quite in the style of the Compleint of Anelida, q.v. Thus, l. 1318 is like Anelida, l. 288:--'As verily ye sleen me with the peyne.' The 'complaint' of Dorigen begins at l. 1355.
1340. 'Other colour then asshen hath she noon'; Anelida, 173.
1348. 'She wepeth, waileth, swowneth pitously'; Anelida, 169.
1355. In the margin of E. is written--'The compleynt of Dorigene ayeyns Fortune.'
1367. Tyrwhitt remarks that all these examples are taken from book i. of Hieronymus contra Iouinianum. In fact, this reference is expressly supplied in the margin of E., at l. 1465, where we find--'Singulas has historias et plures, hanc materiam concernentes, recitat beatus Ieronimus contra Iouinianum in primo suo libro, cap. 39°.' There is a similar note in Hn., at l. 1395. [396]
On reference to Jerome, I find that the passages referred to are worthy of being expressly quoted, especially as Chaucer does not adhere to the order of the original. Moreover, most of them are quoted in the side-notes to E., with more or less correctness. I therefore give below all such as are worth giving.
1368. The passage in Jerome is as follows:--'Triginta Atheniensium tyranni cum Phidonem in conuiuio necassent, filias eius uirgines ad se uenire iusserunt, et scortorum more nudari: ac super pauimenta, patris sanguine cruentata, impudicis gestibus ludere, quae paulisper dissimulato doloris habitu, cum temulentos conuiuas cernerent, quasi ad requisita naturae egredientes, inuicem se complexae praecipitauerunt in puteum, ut uirginitatem morte seruarent'; p. 48. This story (quoted in full in MS. E.) refers to the excesses committed in Athens by the Thirty Tyrants, who were overthrown by Thrasybulus, B.C. 403.
1370. 'They commanded (men) to arrest his daughters.'
1379. Jerome has:--'Spartiatae et Messenii diu inter se habuere amicitias, intantum ut ob quaedam sacra etiam uirgines ad se mutuo mitterent. Quodam igitur tempore, cum quinquaginta uirgines Lacedaemoniorum Messenii uiolare tentassent, de tanto numero ad stuprum nulla consensit, sed omnes libentissime pro pudicitia occubuerunt'; p. 48. Cf. Orosius, i. 14. 1.
1380. _Lacedomie_, Lacedaemonia; as in C. 605.
1387. Jerome has:--'Aristoclides Orchomeni tyrannus adamauit uirginem Stymphalidem, quae cum patre occiso ad templum Dianae confugisset, et simulacrum eius teneret, nec ui posset auelli, in eodem loco confossa est'; p. 48. I suppose that Orchomenus is here the town so called in Arcadia, rather than the more famous one in Boeotia; for the district of Stymphalus is in Arcadia, and near Orchomenus.
1399. Jerome has:--'Nam Hasdrubalis uxor capta, et incensa urbe, cum se cerneret a Romanis capiendam esse, apprehensis ab utroque latere paruulis filiis, in subiectum domus suae deuolauit incendium'; Valerius Maximus has a similar story, lib. iii. c. 2. ext. 8; cf. Orosius, iv. 13. 3. Chaucer has already alluded to this story; see note to B. 4553.
1402. _alle_; Valerius Maximus merely says--'dextra laeuaque communes filios trahens.'
1405. Jerome says:--'Ad Romanas foeminas transeam, et primam ponam Lucretiam; quae uiolatae pudicitiae pudens superuiuere, maculam corporis cruore deleuit'; p. 50. In the margin of E. we find:--'primo ponam Lucretiam ... deleuit'; with the reading _nolens_ for _pudens_. See also the legend of Lucretia in the Legend of Good Women.
1409. Jerome says:--'Quis ualeat silentio praeterire septem Milesias uirgines, quae Gallorum impetu cuncta uastante, ne quid indecens ab hostibus sustinerent, turpitudinem morte fugerunt; exemplum sui cunctis uirginibus relinquentes, honestis mentibus magis pudicitiam curae esse, quam uitam'; p. 50. MS. E. quotes this as far as 'Gallorum.' As Miletus is in Caria, perhaps _Galli_ refers here to the Gallograeci or Galatae. [397]
1414. 'Xenophon in Cyri maioris scribit infantia, occiso Abradote uiro, quem Panthea uxor miro amore dilexerat, collocasse se iuxta corpus lacerum; et confosso pectore, sanguinem suum mariti infudisse uulneribus'; p. 50. MS. E. cites the first eight words of this, with the spelling _Abradate_; whence Chaucer's _Habradate_. Chaucer's account of Panthea's exclamation is evidently imaginary. The story is told at length in Xenophon's Cyropaedia, bk. vii. Abradates, king of the Susi, was killed in battle against the Egyptians. His wife Panthea slew herself with a dagger, and fell with her head upon his breast.
1426. 'Demotionis Areopagitarum principis uirgo filia, audito sponsi Leosthenis interitu, qui bellum Lamiacum concitarat, se interfecit: asserens quanquam intacta esset corpore, tamen si alterum accipere cogeretur, quasi secundum acciperet, cum priori mente nupsisset'; p. 48. E. quotes the first five words of this.
1428. 'Quo ore laudandae sunt Scedasi filiae in Leuctris Boeotiae, quas traditum est absente patre duo iuuenes praetereuntes iure hospitii suscepisse. Qui multum indulgentes uino, uim per noctem intulere uirginibus. Quae amissae pudicitiae nolentes superuiuere, mutuis conciderunt uulneribus'; p. 48. E. quotes the first six words, with the spelling _Cedasii_. The story of Scedasus ([Greek: Skedasos]) and his daughters is told at length by Plutarch, being the third story in his Amatoriae Narrationes ([Greek: erôtikai diêgêseis]).
1432. 'Nicanor uictis Thebis atque subuersis, unius uirginis captiuae amore superatus est. Cuius coniugium expetens, et uoluntarios amplexus, quod scilicet captiua optare debuerat, sensit pudicis mentibus plus uirginitatem esse quàm regnum; et interfectam propria manu, flens et lugens amator tenuit'; p. 49. E. cites a few words of this, with the spelling _Nichanor_. The reference is to the taking of Thebes by Alexander, B.C. 336. Nicanor was one of his officers.
1434. This story, in Jerome, immediately follows the former:--'Narrant scriptores Graeci et aliam Thebanam uirginem, quam hostis Macedo corruperat, dissimulasse paulisper dolorem, et uiolatorem uirginitatis suae iugulasse postea dormientem; seque interfecisse gladio, ut nec uiuere uoluerit post perditam castitatem, nec ante mori, quàm sui ultrix existeret.' E. quotes a few words of this.
1437. Chaucer has translated here very literally. For Jerome has:--'Quid loquar Nicerati coniugem? quae impatiens iniuriae uiri, mortem sibi ipsa consciuit; ne triginta tyrannorum, quos Lysander uictis Athenis imposuerat, libidinem substineret'; p. 49. Compare Plutarch's Life of Lysander. Niceratus, son of Nicias, was put to death by the Thirty Tyrants, who were imposed upon Athens by Lysander, B.C. 404.
1439. 'Alcibiades ille Socraticus, uictis Atheniensibus, fugit ad Pharnabacum [i. e. Pharnabazum]. Qui accepto precio à Lysandro principe Lacedaemoniorum, iussit eum interfici. Cumque suffocato caput esset ablatum, et missum Lysandro in testimonium caedis expletae, reliqua pars corporis iacebat insepulta. Sola igitur concubina [398] contra crudelissimi hostis imperium inter extraneos et imminente discrimine, funeri iusta persoluit; mori parata pro mortuo, quem uiuum dilexerat'; pp. 49, 50. E. quotes the first four words. See Plutarch's Life of Alcibiades; or the extracts from it in my edition of 'Shakespeare's Plutarch,' p. 304. The woman's name was Timandra; cf. Timon of Athens, iv. 3.
1442-4. Jerome says:--'Alcestin fabulae ferunt pro Admeto sponte defunctam, et Penelopes pudicitia Homeri carmen est'; p. 50. Quoted in E., with the spellings _Alcesten_, _Adameto_, and _Omeri_. Cf. Legend of Good Women, l. 432, and the note; also vol. iii. p. xxix.
1445. 'Laodamia quoque poetarum ore cantatur, occiso apud Troiam Protesilao, noluisse superuiuere'; p. 50. E. quotes most of this, with the spellings _Lacedomia_ and _Protheselao_. See Ovid, Heroid. Ep. xiii.; Hyginus, Fabula 243.
1448. 'Sine Catone uiuere Martia potuit, Portia sine Bruto non potuit'; p. 50. Partly quoted in E. The death of Portia is told by Plutarch, at the very end of his Life of M. Brutus.
1451. 'Artemisia quoque uxor Mausoli insignis pudicitiae fuisse perhibetur. Quae cum esset regina Cariae ... defunctum maritum sic semper amauit, ut uiuum, et mirae magnitudinis exstruxit sepulchrum; intantum, ut usque hodie omnia sepulchra preciosa ex nomine eius _Mausolaea_ nuncupentur'; p. 49. E. quotes a part of this, with the spelling _Arthemesia_. There is an account of her in Valerius Maximus, bk. iv. cap. 6. ext. I. Hence comes our word _mausoleum_.
1452. _Barbarye_, barbarian territory, heathendom. Cf. 'the Barbre nacioun'; B. 281.
1453. Jerome says:--'Teuta Illyricorum regina, ut longo tempore uiris fortissimis imperaret, et Romanos saepe frangeret, miraculo utique meruit castitatis'; p. 49. Called _Teutana_ by Florus, ii. 5. 2. Pliny says that Teuta, the queen of the Illyrians, put to death some Roman ambassadors; Nat. Hist. xxxiv. 6. 11.
1455. Tyrwhitt omits this line and the next. Both lines appear in the old editions; but they are omitted in all the seven MSS. except E. They are certainly genuine, because the names in them are taken from Jerome, like the rest. E. has the spelling _Bilyea_, but I alter it to _Bilia_ (as in the old editions) because such is Jerome's spelling. The story is rather a long one.
'Duellius, qui primus Romae nauali certamine triumphauit, Biliam uirginem duxit uxorem, tantae pudicitiae, ut illo quoque seculo pro exemplo fuerit: quo impudicitia monstrum erat, non uitium. Is iam senex et trementi corpore, in quodam iurgio audiuit exprobrari sibi os foetidum, et tristis se domum contulit. Cumque uxori questus esset, quare nunquam se monuisset, ut huic uitio mederetur: Fecissem, inquit, illa, nisi putassem omnibus uiris sic os olere. Laudanda in utroque pudica et nobilis foemina, et si ignorauit uitium uiri, et si patienter tulit, et quod maritus infelicitatem corporis sui, non uxoris fastidio, sed maledicto sensit inimici'; p. 50. This Duellius or Duillius, [399] or Duilius, was the famous conqueror of the Carthaginians, in honour of whom the _Columna rostrata_ was erected, to celebrate his naval victory, the first of that character ever gained by the Romans, B.C. 260. See Florus, Epitome, lib. ii. c. 2.
Hoccleve has this story in his De Regimine Principum, ed. Wright, p. 134. He turns _Bilia_ into _Ulye_, because he got the story from Jacobus de Cessolis, who calls her _Ylia_.
1456. Jerome says:--'Rhodogune filia Darii, post mortem uiri, nutricem quae illi secundas nuptias suadebat, occidit'; p. 50. According to Erasmus, Rhodogune is mentioned in the _Imagines_ [Greek: Eikones] of Flavius Philostratus.
Again (at p. 50) Jerome says:--'Valeria, Messalarum soror, amisso Seruio uiro, nulli uolebat nubere. Quae interrogata cur hoc faceret, ait sibi semper maritum Seruium uiuere.'
1457. Notwithstanding the length of Dorigene's complaint, Chaucer seems to have contemplated adding more examples to the list. For in the margin of E. is the note:--'Mem. Strato regulus. Vidi et omnes pene Barbares (_sic_); cap. xxvi^o. primi [libri]. Item, Cornelia, &c. Imitentur ergo nupte Theanam, Cleobiliam, Gorgun., Thymodiam, Claudias atque Cornelias; in fine primi libri.' All these names are in Jerome, who says: 'Imitentur ergo nuptae Theano, Cleobulinam, Gorguntem, Timocliam, Claudias atque Cornelias'; &c.
1470. _as wis_, as (it is) certain; cf. Ancren Riwle, p. 38; Ormulum, l. 2279, &c. Stratmann (ed. Bradley) gives the example _also wis so he god is_, as surely as he is God. Of course the _i_ is short, as _wis_ rimes with _this_. Cf. A. S. _ge-wis_, _ge-wiss_, Icel. _viss_, adj., certain, sure. And see _wisly_, i. e. certainly, in l. 1475.
1472. Referring to the proverb--'Let sleeping dogs lie'; or to one with the same sense. Cf. Troil. iii. 764.
1483. _tel_ is here the right form of the imperative; see l. 1591. So in D. 1298.
1493-8. Of our seven MSS., only E. contains these six lines. They are omitted in most modern editions, except Gilman's. But they occur, as Tyrwhitt pointed out, in the second edition printed by Caxton. In l. 1496, Caxton has _him_ for _hir_; which, perhaps, is better.
1502. _quikkest_, most lively, i. e. most frequented.
1503. _boun_, all ready, prepared; _as she was boun_ implies that she had already set out, and was on her way. Preserved in mod. E., in the form _bound_, in such phrases as 'the ship is _bound_ for New York.' See _Bound_, pp., in the New E. Dictionary. Cf. l. 1505.
1525. _For which_, for which reason, wherefore.
1529-1531. The phrases _him were lever_ and _I have lever_ are here seen to have been both in use at the same time. See, again, ll. 1599, 1600 below.
1532. _Than I departe_, than that I may part. So in all seven MSS. T. altered _I_ to _to_.
1541. 'But let every woman beware of her promise.' [400]
1544. _withouten drede_, without doubt; as in B. 196. So also _out of drede_, E. 634; _it is no drede_, F. 1612.
1575. _dayes_, days of respite, time to pay in by instalments.
1580. _To goon a-begged_, to go a begging. Here _begged_ is for _beggeth_, a sb. formed from the verb _to beg_. The spelling _gon a-beggeth_ actually occurs twice in the Ilchester MS. of P. Plowman, C. ix. 138, 246. In the latter case, we even find _gon abribeth and abeggeth_, i. e. go a-robbing and a-begging. So in Rob. of Gloucester, l. 7710--'As he rod _an-honteth_,' as he rode a-hunting; and l. 9113--'he wende _an-honteth_,' he went a-hunting. This suffix _-eth_ answers to the A. S. _-aþ_ or _-oþ_. 'On f[=e]awum st[=o]wum w[=i]ciaþ Finnas, on huntoþe on wintra, and on sumera on fiscaþe'; the Fins live in a few places, by hunting in winter, and by fishing in summer; Ælfred's tr. of Orosius, 1. 1. In M. E. _-eth_ was changed to _-ed_ by confusion with the common suffix of the pp. See also the notes to C. 406, D. 354; and to P. Plowm. C. ix. 138.
1602. _apparence_, an illusion caused by magic.
1604-5. Corruptly given in MS. Hl. (note by Wright).
1614. I. e. 'as if you had just made your first appearance in the world.' An idiomatic allusion to the creeping of an insect out of the earth for the first time. It is obvious that there was nothing offensive in the phrase.
1622. _as thinketh yow_, as it seems to you. 'The same question is stated in the conclusion to Boccace's Tale; Philocopo, lib. v.--"Dubitasi ora qual di costoro fusse maggior liberalità," &c. The Queen determines in favour of the husband.'--T. The questions discussed in the medieval Courts of Love were usually of a similar character.
* * * * *
[401]
NOTES TO GROUP G.
THE SECOND NONNES TALE.
For general remarks on this Tale, see vol. iii. p. 485. Chaucer chiefly follows the Legenda Aurea; see note to l. 84 below, and to l. 25. It further appears that he consulted another Latin life of St. Cecilia, derived from Simeon Metaphrastes; as well as the Lives of Valerian and Tiburtius, in the Acta Sanctorum (April 14). See note to l. 369.
PROLOGUE. This consists of twelve stanzas, and is at once divisible into three parts.
(1) The first four stanzas, the idea of which is taken from Jehan de Vignay's Introduction to his French translation of the Legenda Aurea. This Introduction is reprinted at length, from the Paris edition of 1513, in the Originals and Analogues published by the Chaucer Society, pt. ii. p. 190.
(2) The Invocation to the Virgin, in stanzas 5-11; see note to ll. 29, 36.
(3) An Envoy to the reader, in stanza 12; see note to l. 78.
Line 1. Jehan de Vignay attributes the idea of this line to St. Bernard. He says--'Et pour ce que oysiuete est tant blasmee que sainct Bernard dit qu'elle est _mere de truffes_ [mother of trifles], marrastre de vertus: ... et fait estaindre vertu et _nourrir orgueil_,' &c. Chaucer says again, in his Persones Tale (de Accidia), I. 710:--'And how that ignoraunce be moder of alle harme, certes, _necligence is the norice_.'
2. _ydelnesse_, idleness; considered as a branch of Sloth, which was one of the Seven Deadly Sins. See The Persones Tale, _De Accidia_.
3. Chaucer took this idea from the Romaunt of the Rose; see ll. 528-594 of the English version, where a lover is described as knocking at the wicket of a garden, which was opened by a beautiful maiden named Idleness. He afterwards repeated it in the Knightes Tale, A. 1940; and again in the Persones Tale (de Accidia), I. 714: 'Thanne comth ydelnesse, that is the yate [_gate_] of alle harmes ... the hevene is yeven to hem that wol labouren, and nat to ydel folk.'
4. _To eschue_, to eschew; the gerund. The sentence really begins with l. 6, after which take the words _to eschue_; then take ll. 1-3, followed by the rest of l. 4 and by l. 5. [402]
7. Jehan de Vignay's Introduction begins thus: 'Monseigneur sainct Hierosme dit ceste auctorite--"Fays tousiours aucune chose de bien, que le dyable ne te trouue oyseux."' That is, he refers us to St. Jerome for the idea. A like reference is given in the Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 206. We are reminded, too, of the familiar lines by Dr. Watts--
'For Satan finds some mischief still For idle hands to do.'
8. Cf. Persones Tale (de Accidia), I. 714:--'An ydel man is lyk to a place that hath no walles; the develes may entre on every syde.'
10. 'Ydelnesse is the develis panter [_net_], to tempte men to synne'; Wyclif, Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 200.
14. Cf. Pers. Tale (de Accidia), I. 689:--'Agayns this roten-herted sinne of accidie and slouthe sholde men exercise hemself to doon gode werkes'; &c. 'Laborare est orare' was the famous motto of St. Bernard.
15. _though men dradden never_, even if men never feared.
17. _roten_, rotten; Wright reads _rote of_, i. e. root of. Yet his MS. has _roten_; observe its occurrence in the note to l. 14 above.
19. 'And (men also) see that Sloth holds her in a leash, (for her) to do nothing but sleep, and eat and drink, and devour all that others obtain by toil.' The reading _hir_ refers to Idleness, which, as I have before explained, was a branch of Sloth, and was personified by a female. See notes to ll. 2 and 3 above. Tyrwhitt has _hem_, which is not in any of our seven MSS.
21. Compare Piers Plowman, B. prol. 21, 22--
'In settyng and in sowyng · swonken ful harde, And wonnen that wastours · with glotonye destruyeth.'
25. _After the legende_, following the Legend; i. e. the Legenda Aurea. A very small portion is wholly Chaucer's own. He has merely added a line here and there, such as ll. 488-497, 505-511, 535, 536. At l. 346 he begins to be less literal; see notes to 380, 395, 443.
27. St. Cecilia and St. Dorothea are both depicted with garlands. Mrs. Jameson tells us how to distinguish them in her Sacred and Legendary Art, 3rd ed. 591. She also says, at p. 35--'The wreath of roses on the brow of St. Cecilia, the roses or fruits borne by St. Dorothea, are explained by the legends.' And again, at p. 36--'White and red roses expressed love and innocence, or love and wisdom, as in the garland with which the angels crown St. Cecilia.' _Red_ was the symbol of love, divine fervour, &c.; _white_, of light, purity, innocence, virginity. See ll. 220, 244, 279. The legend of St. Dorothea forms the subject of Massinger's Virgin Martyr.
29. _virgin-es_ must be a trisyllable here; such words are often shortened to a dissyllable. The word _thou_ is addressed to the Virgin Mary. In the margin of MSS. E. and Hn. is written--'Inuocatio ad Mariam.'
30. Speaking of St. Bernard, Mrs. Jameson says--'One of his most [403] celebrated works, the _Missus est_, was composed in her honour [i. e. in honour of the Virgin] as Mother of the Redeemer; and in eighty Sermons on texts from the Song of Solomon, he set forth her divine perfection as the Selected and Espoused, the type of the Church on earth'; Legends of the Monastic Orders, 2nd ed. p. 144. Cf. note to l. 58.
See a further illustration of the great favour shewn by the Virgin to St. Bernard at p. 142 of the same volume; and, at p. 145, the description of a painting by Murillo, quoted from Stirling's Spanish Painters, p. 914. See also Dante, Paradiso, xxxi. 102.
32. _comfort of us wrecches_, comfort of us miserable sinners; see note to l. 58.
_do me endyte_, cause me to indite.
34. _of the feend_, over the Fiend. Tyrwhitt reads _over_ for _of_, but it is unneccessary. Accent _victórie_ on the _o_.
36. Lines 36-51 are a free translation of a passage in Dante's Paradiso,
## Canto xxxiii. ll. 1-21; and are quoted in the notes to Cary's translation.
I am persuaded that ll. 36-56 (three stanzas) were added at a later period. Being taken from Dante, they could hardly have been written very early; whereas the Life of St. Cecile seems to have been quite a juvenile performance. And this explains why the phrase 'Me, flemed wrecche' in l. 58 is so far removed from the parallel expression, viz. 'us wrecches,' in l. 32. Cf. note to l. 58.
l. 36. 'Vergine madre, figlia del tuo Figlio, l. 39. Umile ed alta più che creatura, Termine fisso d'eterno consiglio, Tu se' colei che l' umana natura l. 40, 41. Nobilitastì si, che il suo Fattore l. 41, 42. Non disdegnò di farsi sua fattura. l. 43. Nel ventre tuo si raccese l' amore, l. 44. Per lo cui caldo nell' eterna pace Cosi è germinato questo fiore. Qui sei a noi meridiana face Di caritade, e giuso, intra i mortali, Sé' di speranza fontana vivace. Donna, se' tanto grande, e tanto vali, Che qual vuol grazia, e a te non ricorre, Sua disianza vuol volar senz' ali. ll. 53, 54. La tua benignità non pur soccorre ll. 53, 54. A chi dimanda, ma molte fiate ll. 55, 56. Liberamente al dimandar precorre. l. 51. In te misericordia, in te pietate, l. 50. In te magnificenza, in te s'aduna Quatunque in creatura è di bontate.'
The numbers at the side denote the corresponding lines.
40. _nobledest_, didst ennoble; Dante's 'nobilitasti.' [404]
42. The translation is inexact. Dante says--'that its Maker (i. e. the Maker of human nature) did not disdain to become His own creature,' i. e. born of that very human nature which He had Himself created. Cf. l. 49.
45. 'Who is Lord and Guide of the threefold space'; i. e. of the three abodes of things created, viz. the earth, the sea, and the heavens.
46. _out of relees_, without release, i. e. without relaxation, without ceasing. _Out of_ means _without_, as is clear from Prol. 487; Kn. Tale, A. 1141; and _relees_ means _acquittance_ (O. Fr. _relais_); see Cler. Tale, E. 153, &c. There has been some doubt about the meaning of this phrase, but there need be none; especially when it is remembered that _to release_ is another form of _to relax_, so that _relees_ = _relaxation_, i. e. slackening. The idea is the same as that so admirably expressed in the Prolog im Himmel to Goethe's Faust.
50. _Assembled is in thee_, there is united in thee; cf. Dante--'in te s'aduna.' This stanza closely resembles the fourth stanza of the Prioresses Prologue, B. 1664-1670.
52. _sonne._ By all means let the reader remember that _sonne_ was probably still feminine in English in Chaucer's time, as it is in German, Dutch, and Icelandic to this day. It will be found, however, that Chaucer commonly identifies the sun with Phoebus, making it masculine; see Prol. 8, Kn. Tale, A. 1493. Still, there is a remarkable example of the old use in the first rubric of Part ii. of Chaucer's Astrolabe--'To fynde the degree in which the sonne is day by day, after _hir_ cours a-boute.' So again, in Piers Plowman, B. xviii. 243.
56. _hir lyves leche_, the physician of their lives (_or_ life).
58. _flemed wrecche_, banished exile. The proper sense of A. S. _wræcca_ is an exile, a stranger; and thence, a miserable being. The phrase 'fleming of wrecches,' i. e. banishment of the miserable, occurs in Chaucer's Troilus, iii. 933. And see note to l. 36 above.
Lounsbury (Studies, ii. 389) compares this line with l. 62 below, and suggests that Chaucer may have been influenced here by an expression in St. Bernard's Works (cf. l. 30): Respice ergo, beatissima Virgo, ad nos proscriptos in exsilio filios Euae'; Tractatus ad Laudem Gloriosae Virginis; in the Works, vol. i. p. 1148, in Migne's Patrologia, vol. 182. This suggestion greatly strengthens the probability, that ll. 36-56 form a later insertion.
_galle_, bitterness. There is probably an allusion to the name Mary, and to the Hebrew _mar_, fem. _mârâh_, bitter. Cf. Exod. xv. 23; Acts viii. 23; Ruth i. 20. Cf. Chaucer's A B C, l. 50.
59. _womman Cananee_, a translation of _mulier Chananaea_ in the Vulgate version of Matt. xv. 22. Wyclif calls her 'a womman of Canane.'
60. Compare Wyclif's version--'for whelpis eten of the crummes that fallen doun fro the bord of her lordis'; Matt. xv. 27.
62. _sone of Eve_, son of Eve, i. e. the author himself. This, as Tyrwhitt remarks (Introd. Discourse, note 30), is a clear proof that [405] the Tale was never properly revised to suit it for the collection. The expression is unsuitable for the supposed narrator, the Second Nun.
64. See James, ii. 17.
67. _ful of grace_; alluding to the phrase 'Aue gratia plena' in Luke, i. 28.
68. _advócat_, accented on the penultimate.
69. _Ther-as_, where that. _Osanne_, Hosanna, i. e. 'Save, we pray,' from Ps. cxviii. 25. See Concise Dict. of the Bible.
70. The Virgin Mary was said to have been the daughter of Joachim and Anna; see the Protevangelion of James, and the Legenda Aurea, cap. cxxi--'De natiuitate beatae Mariae uirginis.' Cf. D. 1613.
75. _haven of refut_, haven of refuge. See the same term similarly applied in B. 852, above. Cf. Chaucer's A. B. C., l. 14.
78. _reden_, read. This is still clearer proof that the story was not originally meant to be narrated. Cf. note to l. 62.
82. _him_, i. e. Jacobus Januensis. _at the_, &c., out of reverence for the saint.
83. _hir legende_, her (St. Cecilia's) legend as told in the Aurea Legenda. But cf. note to l. 349.
85. The five stanzas in ll. 85-119 really belong to the Legend itself, and are in the original Latin. Throughout the notes to the rest of this Tale I usually follow the 2nd edition of the Legenda Aurea, cap. clxix, as edited by Dr. Th. Grässe; Leipsic, 1850.
87. Several of the Legends of the Saints begin with ridiculous etymologies. Thus the Legend of St. Valentine (Aur. Leg. cap. xlii) begins with the explanation that Valentinus means _ualorem tenens_, or else _ualens tyro_. So here, as to the etymology of Caecilia, we are generously offered _five_ solutions, all of them being wrong. As it is hopeless to understand them without consulting the original, I shall quote as much of it as is necessary, arranged in a less confused order. The true etymology is, of course, that Caecilia is the feminine of Caecilius, a name borne by members of the Caecilia gens, which claimed descent from Caeculus, an ancient Italian hero, son of Vulcan, who is said to have founded Praeneste. Caeculus, probably a nickname, can hardly be other than a mere diminutive of _caecus_, blind. The legendary etymologies are right, accordingly, only so far as they relate to _caecus_. Beyond that, they are strange indeed.
The following are the etymologies, with their reasons.
(1) Caecilia = coeli lilia (_sic_), i. e. _hevenes lilie_. Reasons:--'Fuit enim coeleste lilium per uirginitatis pudorem; uel dicitur _lilium_, quia habuit candorem munditiae, uirorem conscientiae, odorem bonae famae.' See ll. 87-91. Thus _grene_ (= greenness) translates _uirorem_.
(2) Caecilia = caecis uia, i. e. _the wey to blinde_, a path for the blind. Reason:--'Fuit enim caecis uia per exempli informationem.' See ll. 92, 93.
(3) Caecilia is from _caelum_ and _lya_. 'Fuit enim ... _coelum_ (_sic_) per iugem contemplationem, _lya_ per assiduam operationem.' Here _lya_ is [406] the same as _Lia_, which is the Latin spelling of Leah in the Book of Genesis. It was usual to consider Leah as the type of activity, or the
## Active Life, and Rachel as the type of the Contemplative Life. See
Hampole's Prose Treatises, ed. Perry (E. E. T. S.), p. 29, where the comparison is attributed to St. Gregory. '_Lya_ is als mekill at say as trauyliose, and betakyns actyfe lyfe.'
(4) Caecilia, 'quasi caecitate carens.' This is on the celebrated principle of 'lucus a non lucendo.' Reason:--'fuit caecitate carens per sapientiae splendorem.' See ll. 99-101.
(5) 'Vel dicitur a _coelo_ et _leos_, i. e. populus.' Finally, recourse is had to Greek, viz. Gk. [Greek: leôs], the Attic form of [Greek: laos]. Reason:--'fuit et coelum populi, quia in ipsa tamquam in coelo spirituali populus ad imitandum intuetur coelum, solem, lunam, et stellas, i. e. sapientiae perspicacitatem, fidei magnanimitatem et uirtutum uarietatem.' See ll. 102-112.
113-118. Chaucer has somewhat varied the order; this last stanza belongs in the Latin to derivation (3), though it may serve also for derivation (5). It is probably for this reason that he has reserved it. The Latin is--'Vel dicitur coelum, quia, sicut dicit Ysidorus, coelum philosophi uolubile, rotundum et ardens esse dixerunt. Sic et ipsa fuit uolubilis per operationem sollicitam, rotunda per perseuerantiam, ardens per caritatem succensam.' For the _swiftness_ and _roundness_ of heaven, see note to B. 295. The epithet _burning_ is due to quite another matter, not explained in that note. The nine astronomical spheres there mentioned did not suffice for the wants of theology. Hence a _tenth_ sphere was imagined, external to the ninth; but this was supposed to be fixed, whereas the _ninth_ sphere (or _primum mobile_) had a swift diurnal movement of revolution (note to B. 295), and thus supplied the two former epithets. The outermost sphere was called the _empyraeum_ (from Gk. [Greek: empuros], burning, which from [Greek: en], in, and [Greek: pur], fire) where the pure element of fire subsisted alone; and it was supposed to be the abode of saints and angels. Milton, in his Paradise Lost, uses the word _empyrean_ six times, ii. 771, iii. 57, vi. 833, vii. 73, 633, x. 321; and the word _empyreal_ eleven times.
120. For some account of St. Caecilia, see vol. iii. p. 489. Compare also the Life of St. Cecilia as printed in the South-English Legendary, ed. Horstmann (E. E. T. S.), p. 490.
133. _an heyre_, a hair shirt. The usual expression; see I. 1052; and P. Plowman, B. v. 66. Lat. text--'cilicio erat induta.'
134. _the organs_; Lat. 'cantantibus organis.' We should now say 'the organ'; but in old authors the plural form is commonly employed. Sometimes the word _organ_ seems to refer to a single pipe only, and the whole instrument was called 'the organs' or 'a pair of organs,' where _pair_ means a _set_, as in the phrase 'a peire of bedes'; Ch. Prol. 159. In the Nonne Preestes Tale, B. 4041, Chaucer uses _orgon_ as a plural, equivalent to the Lat. _organa_. On the early meaning of _organum_, see Chappell's Hist. of Music, i. 327. [407]
St. Cecilia is commonly considered the patroness of music; see Dryden's Ode for St. Cecilia's day, and Alexander's Feast, ll. 132-141. But the connexion of her name with music is not very ancient, as Mrs. Jameson explains. The _reason_ for this connexion seems to me clear enough, viz. the simple fact that the word _organis_ occurs in this very passage. Besides, St. Cecilia is here represented as singing _herself_--'in corde soli domino _decantabat_ dicens'; see l. 135. The South-E. Legendary (see n. to l. 120) says she sang a verse of the Psalter.
145. _conseil_, a secret; Lat. 'mysterium.' And so in l. 192, and in P. Plowm. B. v. 168; see note to C. 819 above. _and_, if.
150. _here_, her, is a dissyllable in Chaucer whenever it ends a line, which it does six times; see e.g. B. 460; Kn. Tale, 1199 (A. 2057). This is quite correct, because the A. S. form _hire_ is dissyllabic also.
159. _me gye_, rule me, keep me; lit. guide me.
173. Chaucer has here mistranslated the Latin. It is not said that the Via Appia (which led out of Rome through the Porta Capena to Aricia, Tres Tabernae, Appii Forum, and so on towards Capua and Brundusium) was situated three miles from Rome; but that Valerian is to go along the Appian Way as far as to the third milestone. 'Vade igitur in tertium milliarium ab urbe uia quae Appia nuncupatur.' See the South-E. Legendary, l. 37.
177. _Urban._ St. Urban's day is May 25. This is Urban I., pope, who succeeded Calixtus, A.D. 222. Besides the notice of him in this Tale, his legend is given separately in the Legenda Aurea, cap. lxxvii. He was beheaded May 25, 230, and succeeded by Pontianus.
178. _secree nedes_, secret necessary reasons; Lat. 'secreta mandata.'
181. _purged yow_, viz. by the rite of baptism.
186. _seintes buriels_, burial-places of the saints; Lat. 'sepulchra martirum.' It is worth observing, perhaps, that the form _buriels_ is properly _singular_, not plural; cf. A. S. _byrigels_, a sepulchre, and see the examples in Stratmann. In P. Plowman, B. xix. 142, the Jews are represented as guarding Christ's body because it had been foretold that He should rise from the tomb--
'þat þat blessed body · of _burieles_ shulde rise.'
The mistake of supposing _s_ to be the mark of a plural was easily made, and the singular form _buriel_ was evolved. This mistake occurs as early as in Wyclif's Bible, IV Kings xxiii. 17; see Way's note in Prompt. Parv. p. 37, note 1. Consequently, it is most likely that Chaucer has made the same mistake here. The South-E. Legendary (see note to l. 120) says that Urban dwelt 'among puttes and burieles.'
There is here a most interesting allusion to the celebrated catacombs of Rome; see Chambers, Book of Days, i. 101, 102.
_lotinge_, lying hid. In MS. E., the Latin word _latitantem_ is written above, as a gloss. This was taken from the Latin text, which has--'intra sepulchra martirum latitantem.' Stratmann gives six examples [408] of the use of _lotien_ or _lutien_, to lie hid. It occurs once in P. Plowman, B. xvii. 102.
201. _An old man_; i. e. an angel in the form of an old man, viz. St. Paul. Cf. note to l. 207.
202. _with lettre of gold_; Lat. 'tenens librum aureis litteris scriptum.' L. 203 is not in the original.
205. 'When he (Valerian) saw him (the old man); and he (the old man) lifted up him (Valerian); and then he (Valerian) began thus to read in his (the old man's) book.' This is very ambiguous in Chaucer, but the Latin is clear. 'Quem uidens Ualerianus prae nimio timore quasi mortuus cecidit, et a sene leuatus sic legit.'
207. _Oo lord_, one lord. Tyrwhitt prints _On_, 'to guard against the mistake which the editions generally have fallen into, of considering _o_, in this passage, as the sign of the vocative case.' For the same reason, I have printed _Oo_, as in MS. Pt., in preference to the single _O_, as in most MSS. Even one of the scribes has fallen into the trap, and has written against this passage--'Et lamentat.' See MS. Cp., in the Six-text edition. The fact is, obviously, that ll. 207-209 are a close translation of Eph. iv. 5, 6. Hence the old man was St. Paul.
208. _Cristendom_, baptism; Lat. 'baptisma.' See l. 217.
216. We must read _the_ before _oldë_, not _this_ or _that_, because _e_ in _the_ must be elided; otherwise the line will not scan.
223-224. _that oon_, the one; sometimes written _the ton_ or _the toon_. _That other_, the one; sometimes written _the tother_. 'The ton' is obsolete; but 'the tother' may still be heard. _That_ is the neuter of the A. S. def. article _se_, _s[=e]o_, _þæt_; cf. Germ. _der_, _die_, _das_.
As to the signification of the red and white flowers, see note to l. 27 above.
Compare Act v. sc. 1 of Massinger's Virgin Martyr, where an angel brings flowers from St. Dorothea, who is in paradise, to Theophilus. See note to l. 248 below.
232. _for_, because; Lat. 'quia.'
236. Afterwards repeated, very nearly, in Kn. Tale, l. 338 (A. 1196).
243. _savour undernom_, perceived the scent; Lat. 'sensisset odorem.'
246. Cf. the South-E. Legendary (see note to l. 120), l. 89.
'Brother, he seyde, how goth this? _This tyme of the yere_ So swote smul ne smelde I neuere, me thinkth, as I do here.'
248. _rose._ We should have expected _roses_. Perhaps this is due to the peculiar form of the Latin text, which has--'roseus hic odor et liliorum.'
Compare the words of Theophilus in the Virgin Martyr, v. 1:--
'What flowers are these?' &c.
270. Ll. 270-283 are certainly genuine, and the passage is in the Latin text. It is also in the French version, but it does not appear in the Early English version of the story printed by Mr. Furnivall from MS. Ashmole 43, nor in the English version printed by Caxton in 1483; [409] nor in the version in the South-E. Legendary. Tyrwhitt's supposition is no doubt correct, viz. that this passage 'appears evidently to have been at first a marginal observation and to have crept into the [Latin] text by the blunder of some copyist.' He truly observes that these fourteen lines 'interrupt the narrative awkwardly, and to little purpose.'
271. _Ambrose._ 'Huic miraculo de coronis rosarum Ambrosius attestatur in praefatione, sic dicens,' &c. I cannot find anything of the kind in the indices to the works of St. Ambrose.
In the Sermons of Jacques de Vitry, a story is given beginning with the words--'Beatus Ambrosius narrat,' to this effect. St. Ambrose tells of a virgin going to martyrdom, who was asked by a pagan whither she was going. She answered: 'to see my friend, who has invited me to his wedding-feast.' The pagan, deriding her, said: 'Tell your friend to send me some of his roses.' Shortly after her death, a beautiful youth brought to the pagan a basket full of full-blown roses, saying, 'The friend of the woman, who just now passed by, sends you some of the roses you desired,' and then disappeared. The pagan was converted and himself suffered martyrdom. This is the story of St. Dorothea, whose day is Feb. 6; for which Alban Butler refers us to Aldhelm, De Laude Virginitatis, c. 25.
276. _eek hir chambre_, even hir marriage-chamber, i. e. even marriage. _weyve_, waive, abandon. Lat. 'ipsum mundum est cum thalamis exsecrata.' _weyve_ occurs again in some MSS. of Chaucer's _Truth_, l. 20.
277. _shrifte_, confession. Lat. 'testis est Valeriani coniugis et Tiburtii prouocata confessio, quos, Domine, angelica manu odoriferis floribus coronasti.' For _Valerians_, all the MSS. have _Cecilies_. Whether the mistake is Chaucer's or his scribes', I cannot say; but it is so obviously a mere slip, that we need not hesitate to correct it. The French text is even clearer than the Latin; it has--'et de cest tesmoing Valerien son mary et Tiburcien son frere.' Besides, the express mention of 'these men' in l. 281 is enough, in my opinion, to shew that the slip was _not_ Chaucer's own; or, at any rate, was a mere oversight.
282. 'The world hath known (by their example) how much, in all truth, it is worth to love such devotion to chastity.' Lat. 'mundus agnouit, quantum ualeat deuotio castitatis;--haec Ambrosius.' This is quoted as St. Ambrose's opinion. The parenthesis ends here.
288. _beste_, i. e. void of understanding, as a beast of the field is. Lat. 'pecus est.'
315. _And we._ Tyrwhitt remarks that _we_ should have been _us_. But a glance at the Latin text shews what was in Chaucer's mind; he is here merely anticipating the _we_ in l. 318. Lat. 'et _nos_ in illius flammis pariter inuoluemur, et dum quaerimus diuinitatem latentem in coelis, incurremus furorem exurentem in terris.' The sentence is awkward; but _we_ was intended. The idiom has overridden the grammar. Cf. the South-E. Legendary (see note to l. 120), l. 121:--
'Forberne he scholde, and _we_ also, yif we with him were.' [410]
319. _Cecile._ This is one of the clearest instances to shew that Chaucer followed the Latin and not the French version. Lat. 'Cui Caecilia'; Fr. 'et Valerien dist.' Mr. Furnivall has noted this and other instances, and there is no doubt about the matter.
320. _skilfully_, reasonably; the usual meaning at this date. See l. 327.
325-332. Not in the South-E. Legendary.
327. 'And all that has been created by a reasonable Intelligence.'
329. _Hath sowled_, hath endued with a soul, hath quickened; Lat. 'animauit.'
335. _o god_, one God. We must suppose this teaching to be included in the mention of Christ in l. 295; otherwise there is no allusion to it in the words of Cecilia. The doctrine had been taught to Valerian however; see ll. 207, 208.
There are continual allusions, in the Lives of the Saints, to the difficulty of this doctrine.
338. Chaucer is not quite exact. The Latin says that three things reside in a man's wisdom, the said wisdom being but _one_. 'Sicut in una hominis sapientia tria sunt, ingenium, memoria et intellectus.' The notion resembles that in a favourite passage from Isidore quoted in Piers Plowman, B. xv. 39, to the effect that the soul (_anima_) has different names according to its functions. Compare the curious illustrations of the doctrine of the Trinity in the same, B. xvi. 220-224, xvii. 137-249. The illustration in the text is, as Mr. Jephson points out, by no means a good one.
341. The word _Three_ stands alone in the first foot. See note to l. 353.
343. _come_, coming, i. e. incarnation; Lat. 'aduentu.' Tyrwhitt reads _sonde_, i. e. sending, message; but incorrectly.
345. _withholde_, detained, constrained to dwell; Lat. 'tentus'; Fr. 'tenu.'
346. Hitherto Chaucer's translation is, on the whole, very close. Here he omits a whole sentence, and begins to abbreviate the story and alter it to suit himself. See his hint in l. 360.
349. Here begins, practically, the _second part_ of the story, in which the _second_ Latin text is more freely consulted; see vol. iii. p. 488.
351. _That_, who. In MS. E. the word is glossed by--'qui, scilicet Vrbanus.' It is remarkable that the relative _who_ (as a _simple_ relative, without _so_ suffixed) is hardly to be found in English of this date, in the _nominative_ case. The A. S. hw[=a] is only used interrogatively. See March, Anglo-Saxon Grammar, p. 179.
353. _goddes knight_, God's servant, or rather, God's soldier; see l. 383, and the note. In the A. S. version of the Gospels, Christ's disciples are called 'leorning-cnihtas.' In the Ormulum and in Wyclif _cniht_ or _kni[gh]t_ sometimes means a servant, but more commonly a soldier. Priests are called 'goddes knyghtes' in Piers Plowman, B. xi. 304. In scanning this line, either _lerninge_ is of three syllables (which I doubt) or else the first syllable in _Parfit_ forms a foot by itself; see note to l. 341 above. [411]
361. In the South-E. Legendary, their crime is specified; they had buried two Christian martyrs.
362. _Almache_; Lat. 'Almachius praefectus.' The reigning emperor was Alexander Severus (A.D. 222-235).
363. _apposed_, questioned, examined; written _opposed_ in most MSS., but corrected by Tyrwhitt. Ed. 1532 also has _aposed_. A similar confusion occurs in the Freres Tale, D. 1597, where only two MSS., viz. Pt. and Ln., have the spelling _appose_, as against five others which read _opposen_. In MSS. of Piers the Plowman, we find _appose_, to question, B. iii. 5; _apposed_, i. 47; _apposeden_, vii. 138. See _Appose_ in the New E. Dict.; where it is shewn that _appose_ was, at first, a mere variant of _oppose_, but came to be regarded as a correct form with a special sense; though, strictly speaking, it was a corruption.
365. _sacrifyse_, sacrifice to the idol. This was the usual test to which Christians were subjected; see note to l. 395. Compare Dan. iii. 14, 18. So in the Virgin Martyr, iv. 2:--
'Bow but thy knee to Jupiter, and offer Any slight sacrifice; or do but swear By Caesar's fortune, and--be free!'
367. _thise martirs_; note that this is an accusative case.
369. _corniculere_, a sort of officer. The note in Bell's edition, that the French version has _prevost_ here, is wrong. The word _prevost_ (Lat. _praefectus_) is applied to Almachius. Maximus was only a subordinate officer, and is called in the Early Eng. version (MS. Ashmole 43) the 'gailer.' The expression 'Maximo Corniculario' occurs only in the Lives of Valerian and Tiburtius, in the Acta Sanctorum (April 14); and we thus gather that Chaucer consulted this source also. This was noticed by Dr. Kölbing, in the Englische Studien, i. 215; and I subsequently noticed it myself, independently.
Riddle's Lat. Dict. gives--'_Cornicularius_, -i. m. a soldier who was presented with a _corniculum_, and by means of it promoted to a higher rank; hence, _an assistant of an officer_, Suetonius, Domit. 17; then also in the civil service, _an assistant of a magistrate, a clerk, registrar, secretary_; Cod. Just.'
'_Corniculum_, -i. n. (dimin. of _cornu_). 1. _A little horn_, Pliny; also, _a small funnel of horn_, Columella. _An ornament in the shape of a horn worn on the helmet_, with which officers presented meritorious soldiers; Livy, 10. 44.'
Ducange gives several examples, shewing that the word commonly meant a secretary, clerk, or registrar. Tyrwhitt refers us to Pitiscus, Lex. Ant. Rom. s. v. _Cornicularius_.
373. 'He got leave for himself from the executioners.' _tormentoures_, executioners; Lat. 'carnifices.' See l. 527. Cf. _tormentor_ in Matt, xviii. 34; see Wright's Bible Word-book.
380. _preestes_, priests. The original says that pope Urban came himself. [412]
383. _knightes_, soldiers; as in l. 353. Lat. 'Eia milites Christi, abicite opera tenebrarum, et induimini arma lucis.' See Rom. xiii. 12.
386. Tyrwhitt notes a slight defect in the use of _y-doon_ in l. 386, followed by _doon_ in l. 387. The first six lines in this stanza are not in the original, but are imitated from 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8.
395. 'This was the criterion. The Christians were brought to the image of Jupiter or of the Emperor, and commanded to join in the sacrifice, by eating part of it, or to throw a few grains of incense into the censer, in token of worship; if they refused, they were put to death. See Pliny's celebrated letter to Trajan. Those who complied were termed _sacrificati_ and _thurificati_ by the canons, and were excluded from the communion for seven or ten years, or even till their death, according to the circumstances of their lapse.--See Bingham's Antiquities, b. xvi. 4. 5.'--Note in Bell's edition of Chaucer. Cf. note to l. 365.
This stanza is represented in the original (in spite of the hint in l. 394) by only a few words. 'Quarto igitur milliario ab urbe sancti ad statuam Iovis ducuntur, et dum sacrificare nollent, pariter decollantur.'
405. _to-bete_, beat severely; _dide him so to-bete_, caused (men) to beat him so severely, caused him to be so severely beaten. I have no hesitation in adopting the reading of ed. 1532 here. _To-bete_ is just the right word, and occurs in MSS. Cp. Pt. Ln.; and, though these MSS. are not the best ones, it is clear that _to-bete_ is the original reading, or it would not appear. To scan the line, slur over _-ius_ in _Almachius_, and accent _dide_.
406. _whippe of leed_, i. e. a whip furnished with leaden plummets. Lat. 'eum plumbatis tamdiu caedi fecit,' &c.; French text--'il le fist tant batre de plombees,' &c.; Caxton--'he dyd do bete hym with plomettes of leed.'
413. _encense_, offer incense to; see note to l. 395.
414. _they._ Over this word is written in MS. E.--'scilicet Ministres.' The Latin original says that Cecilia converted as many as 400 persons upon this occasion. Hence the expression _o voys_ (one voice) in l. 420.
417. _withouten difference_, i. e. without difference in might, majesty, or glory.
430. _lewedly_, ignorantly. The 'two answers' relate to her rank and her religion, subjects which had no real connexion.
434. Lat. 'de conscientia bona et fide non ficta'; cf. 1 Tim. i. 5.
437. _to drede_, to be feared; the gerund, and right according to the old idiom. We still say--'he is _to blame_,' 'this house _to let_.' March in his Anglo-Saxon Grammar, p. 198, says--'The gerund after the copula expresses what _must_, _may_, or _should_ be done. Ex. _Mannes sunu is t[=o] syllanne_, the Son of Man must be delivered up, Matt. xvii. 22'; &c.
439.
'For it nis bote a bladre i-blowe ful of a wreche wynde; Be it with a litel prikke i-priked, a-wey it shrinketh al';-- South-E. Legendary, l. 194.
[413]
442. _bigonne_, didst begin; the right form, for which Tyrwhitt has _begonnest_. For the Mid. Eng. _biginnen_ we commonly find _onginnan_ in Anglo-Saxon, and the past tense runs thus--_ongann_, _ongunne_, _ongann_; pl. _ongunnon_. The form in Middle English is--_bigan_, _bigunne_ (or _bigonne_), _bigan_; pl. _bigunnen_ (or _bigonne_). The very form here used occurs in the Ayenbite of Inwyt, ed. Morris, p. 71. The suffix _-st_ does not appear in _strong_ verbs; cf. _Thou sawe_, B. 848; _thou bar_, G. 48.
The whole of ll. 443-467 varies considerably from the original, the corresponding passage of which is as follows: 'Cui Almachius: "ab iniuriis caepisti, et in iniuriis perseueras." Caecilia respondit: "iniuria non dicitur quod uerbis fallentibus irrogatur; unde aut iniuriam doce, si falsa locuta sum, aut te ipsum corripe calumniam inferentem, sed nos scientes sanctum Dei nomen omnino negare non possumus; melius est enim feliciter mori quam infeliciter uiuere." Cui Almachius: "ad quid cum tanta superbia loqueris?" Et illa: "non est superbia, sed constantia." Cui Almachius: "infelix, ignoras,"' &c. (l. 468). However, Chaucer has adopted an idea from this in ll. 473, 475.
463. To scan this, remember that _Iuge_ has two syllables; and accent _confus_ on the first syllable.
485. Lat. 'es igitur minister mortis, non uitae.'
487. _Do wey_, do away with; Lat. 'depone.' The phrase occurs again in the Milleres Tale, A. 3287.
489-497. These lines are wholly Chaucer's own.
490. To scan the line, elide _e_ in _suffre_, and read _phílosóphre_.
492. _spekest_; to be read as _spek'st_.
498. _utter yen_, outer eyes, bodily eyes. In MS. E. it is glossed by 'exterioribus oculis.' The Latin has--'nescio ubi oculos amiseris; nam quos tu Deos dicis, omnes nos saxa esse uidemus; mitte igitur manum et tangendo disce, quod oculis non uales uidere.'
503. _taste_, test, try; Lat. 'tangendo disce.' The word is now restricted to _one_ of the five senses; it could once have been used also of the sense of feeling, at the least. Bottom even ventures on the strange expression--'I trust to _taste_ of truest Thisbe's _sight_'; Mid. Nt. Dream, v. 1. 280; such is the reading in the first folio.
505-511. This stanza is all Chaucer's own.
515. _bath of flambes rede_; Lat. 'in bulliente balneo.'
516-522. The Latin merely has--'Quae quasi in loco frigido permansit, nec modicum saltem sudoris persensit.'
533. Lat. 'eam semiuiuam cruentus carnifex dereliquit.'
534. _is went_, though only in the (excellent) Cambridge MS., is the right reading; the rest have _he wente_, sometimes misspelt _he went_. In the first place, _is went_ is a common phrase in Chaucer; cf. German _er ist gegangen_, and Eng. _he is gone_. But secondly, the false rime detects the blunder at once; Chaucer does not rime the weak past tense _wentë_ with a past participle like _yhent_. This was obvious to me at the first glance, but the matter was made sure by consulting Mr. Cromie's excellent 'Ryme-Index.' This at once gives the examples _is went_, [414] riming with pp. _to-rent_, E. 1012 (Clerkes Tale); _is went_, riming with _instrument_, F. 567 (Sq. Tale); _is went_, riming with _innocent_, B. 1730, and _ben went_, riming with _pavement_, B. 1869 (Prioresses Tale). Besides this, there are two more examples, viz. _be they went_, riming with _sacrement_, E. 1701; and _that he be went_, riming with _sent_, A. 3665. On the other hand, we find _wente_, _sente_, _hente_, and _to-rente_, all (weak) past tenses, and all riming together, in the Monkes Tale, B. 3446. The student should particularly observe an instance like this. The rules of rime in Chaucer are, on the whole, so carefully observed that, when once they are learnt, a false rime jars upon the ear with such discord as to be unpleasantly remarkable, and should be at once detected.
535-536. These two lines are not in the original.
539. 'She began to preach to them whom she had fostered,' i. e. converted. To _foster_ is here to nurse, to bring up, to educate in the faith; see l. 122 above. The Latin text has--'omnes quos ad fidem conuerterat, Urbano episcopo commendauit.' Tyrwhitt makes nonsense of this line by placing the comma after _hem_ instead of after _fostred_, and other editors have followed him. In MSS. E. and Hn. the metrical pause is rightly marked as occurring after _fostred_. The story here closely resembles the end of the Prioresses Tale, B. 1801-1855.
545. _do werche_, cause to be constructed.
549. Lat. 'inter episcopos sepeliuit.'
550. 'It is now a church in Rome, and gives a title to a cardinal'; note in Bell's edition. In a poem called the Stacyons of Rome, ed. Furnivall, l. 832, we are told that 100 years' pardon may be obtained by going to St. Cecilia's church. Mr. W. M. Rossetti, in a note on this line, says--'The Church of St. Cecilia, at the end of the Trastevere, near the Quay of Ripa Grande, was built on the site of the saint's own house in 230; rebuilt by pope Paschal I. in 821, and dedicated to God and Sts. Mary, Peter, Paul, and Cecilia; and altered to its present form in 1599 and 1725. In the former of these years, 1599, the body of the saint was found on the spot, with a contemporary inscription identifying her: the celebrated statue by Stefano Maderno, now in the church, represents her in the attitude she was discovered lying in.'
553. After this line the Latin adds--'Passa est autem circa annos domini CC et XXIII, tempore Alexandri imperatoris. Alibi autem legitur, quod passa sit tempore Marci Aurelii, qui imperauit circa annos domini XXCC.' The confusion of names here is easily explained. Marcus Aurelius died in 180; but Marcus Aurelius Alexander Severus (for such was his title in full) reigned from 222 to 235. The true date is generally considered to be 230, falling within his reign, as it should do.
THE CANON'S YEOMAN'S PROLOGUE.
554. _the lyf of seint Cecyle_, i. e. the Second Nun's Tale. This notice is important, because it inseparably links the Canon's Yeoman's Tale to the preceding one. [415]
555. _fyve myle_, five miles. Tyrwhitt says that it is five miles 'from _some place_, which we are now unable to determine with certainty.' He adds that he is in doubt whether the pilgrims are here supposed to be riding _from_ or _towards_ Canterbury; but afterwards thinks that 'the manner in which the Yeman expresses himself in ver. 16091, 2 [i. e. ll. 623, 624] seems to shew that he was riding _to_ Canterbury.'
It is really very easy to explain the matter, and to tell all about it. It is perfectly clear that these two lines express the fact that they were riding _to_ Canterbury. It is even probable that _every one_ of the extant Tales refers to the outward journey: for Chaucer would naturally write his first set of Tales before beginning a second, and the extant Tales are insufficient to make even the first set complete. Consequently, we have only to reckon backwards from Boughton (see l. 556) for a five-mile distance along the _old_ Canterbury road, and we shall find the name of the place intended.
The answer to this is--Ospringe. The matter is settled by the discovery that Ospringe was, as a matter of fact, one of the halting-places for the night of travellers from London to Canterbury. Dean Stanley, in his Historical Memorials of Canterbury, p. 237, quotes from a paper in the Archæologia, xxxv. 461, by Mr. E. A. Bond, to shew that queen Isabella, wife of Edw. II., rested in London on June 6, 1358; at Dartford on the 7th; at Rochester on the 8th; at _Ospringe_ on the 9th; and at Canterbury on the 10th and 11th; and returned, on the 12th, to _Ospringe again_. See this, more at length, in Dr. Furnivall's Temporary Preface to the Canterbury Tales (Chaucer Soc.), pp. 13, 14.
Dr. Furnivall quotes again from M. Douet-d'Arcq, concerning a journey made by king John of France from London to Dover, by way of Canterbury, in 1360. On June 30, 1360, king John left London and came to Eltham. On July 1, he slept at Dartford; on July 2, at Rochester; on July 3, he dined at Sittingbourne (noted as being thirty-nine miles and three-quarters from London), and slept at _Ospringe_; and on July 4, came to Canterbury (noted as being fifty-four miles and a half from London).
These extracts clearly shew (1) that the whole journey was usually made to occupy three or four days; (2) that the usual resting-places were (at least) Dartford, Rochester, and Ospringe; and (3) that Sittingbourne was considered as being about fifteen miles from Canterbury.
Now, in passing from Sittingbourne to Canterbury, we find that the distance is divided into three very nearly equal parts by the situations of Ospringe and Boughton, giving five miles for each portion. The distance from Ospringe to Canterbury, only ten miles, left very little to be done on the last day; but pilgrims liked arriving at Canterbury in good time. Chaucer says, as plainly as possible, that the pilgrims really _did_ rest all night on the road, at a place which can only be Ospringe; see ll. 588, 589.
Mr. Furnivall also notes (Temp. Pref. p. 29), that Lydgate, in his [416] Storie of Thebes (in Speght's Chaucer, 1602, fol. 353 back, col. 2) makes the pilgrims, on their homeward-journey, return from Canterbury to Ospringe to dinner.
556. _Boghton-under-Blee._ Here _Blee_ is the same as _the blee_ in Group H, l. 3, which see. It is now called Blean Forest, and the village is called Boughton-under-Blean, in order to distinguish it from other villages of the same name. I find, in a map, Boughton Aluph between Canterbury and Ashford, Boughton Malherb between Ashford and Maidstone, and Boughton Monchelsea between Maidstone and Staplehurst.
557. _A man_, i. e. the Canon. This is an additional pilgrim, not described in the Prologue, and therefore described here in ll. 566-581, 600-655, &c.
'The name of Canon, as applied to an officer in the Church, is derived from the Gk. [Greek: kanôn] (_kanôn_) signifying a rule or measure, and also the roll or catalogue of the Church, in which the names of the Ecclesiastics were registered; hence the clergy so registered were denominated Canonici or Canons. Before the Reformation, they were divided into two classes, Regular and Secular. The Secular were so called, because they canonized _in saeculo_, abroad in the world. Regular Canons were such as lived under a rule, that is, a code of laws published by the founder of that order. They were a less strict sort of religious than the monks, but lived together under one roof, had a common dormitory and refectory, and were obliged to observe the statutes of their order. The chief rule for these [regular] canons is that of St. Augustine, who was made bishop of Hippo in the year 395.... Their habit was a long black cassock with a white rochet over it, and over that a black coat and hood; from whence they were called _Black_ Canons Regular of St. Augustine.'--Hook's Church Dictionary. And see _Canon_ in the New E. Dictionary.
There were several other orders, such as the Gilbertine Canons of Sempringham in Lincolnshire, the Praemonstratenses or _White_ Canons, &c. See also the description of them in Cutts's Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages, p. 19; and see Rock, Church of our Fathers, ii. 79, 84. At the latter reference, Dr. Rock says:--'Some families of canons regular still require their members, whenever they go out of the house, to wear over their cassock _a linen surplice_, and above that a large, full, black canon's _cope_.'
I should imagine, from the description of the Canon's house in l. 657, and from the general tenor of the Tale, that Chaucer's Canon was but a secular one. Still, their rule seems to have been less strict than that of the monks.
558. I have omitted to note that E. has _wered a_, where all the other MSS. read _hadde a whyt_.
561. _priked myles three_, ridden hard for three miles. The Canon and his yeoman may be supposed to have ridden rather fast for the first two miles; and then, finding they could not otherwise overtake [417] the pilgrims, they took to the best pace they could force out of their horses for three miles more.
562. _yeman_, yeoman, attendant, servant. His face was all discoloured with blowing his master's fire (ll. 664-667), and he seems to have been the more honest man of the two. He is the teller of the Tale, and begins by describing himself; l. 720.
565. 'He was all spotted with foam, so that he looked like a magpie.' The word _He_ (like _his_ in l. 566) refers to the Canon, whose clothing was _black_ (l. 557); and the white spots of foam upon it gave him this appearance. The horse is denoted by _it_ (l. 563), the word _hors_ being neuter in the Oldest English. Most MSS. read _he_ for _it_ in l. 563, but there is nothing gained by it. _Flecked_, in the sense of 'spotted,' is still in use; see N. and Q. 7 S. i. 507, ii. 96.
566. _male tweyfold_, a double budget or leathern bag; see Prol. l. 694.
571. Chaucer tells us that the Pardoner's hood, on the contrary, was _not_ fastened to his cloak; see Prol. 680. Dr. Rock, in The Church of our Fathers, ii. 44, says:--'Sometimes the hood of the cope was not only sewed to it, but stitched all round, and not allowed to hang with the lower part free; in such instances, the hood was necessarily left on the cope and folded with it.'
575. 'Rather faster than at a trot or a foot-pace.' Said ironically. Cf. Prol. 825.
577. _clote-leef_, the leaf of a burdock. Cotgrave has--'_Lampourde_, f. the _Cloot_ or great Burre.' Also--'_Glouteron_, m. The _Clote_, Burre Docke, or great Burre.' And again--'_Bardane_, f. the _Clote_, burre-dock, or great Burre.'
In the Prompt. Parv. we find--'_Clote_, herbe; Lappa bardana, lappa rotunda.' In Wyclif's Version of the Bible, Hosea ix. 6, x. 8, we find _clote_ or _cloote_ where the Vulgate version has _lappa_. The Glossary to Cockayne's 'Leechdoms' explains A. S. _cl[=a]te_ as _Arctium lappa_, with numerous references. The A. S. _cl[=a]te_ is related to G. _Klette_, a bur, a burdock; O. H. G. _chletta_; Mid. Du. _kladde_.
It is clear that _clote_ originally meant the bur _itself_, just as the name of _bur-dock_ has reference to the same. The _clote_ is, accordingly, the _Arctium lappa_, or Common Burdock, obtaining its name from the _clotes_ (i. e. burs or knobs) upon it; and one of the large leaves of this plant would be very suitable for the purpose indicated.
We may safely dismiss the suggestion in Halliwell's Dictionary, founded on a passage in Gerarde's Herball, p. 674 D, that the _Clote_ here means the yellow water-lily. We know from Cockayne's 'Leechdoms' that the name _cl[=a]te s[=e]o þe swimman wille_ (i. e. swimming clote) was sometimes used for that flower (_Nuphar lutea_), either on account of its large round leaves or its globose flowers; but in the present passage we have only to remember the Canon's haste to feel assured, that he might much more easily have caught up a burdock-leaf from the road-side than have searched in a ditch for a water-lily. [418]
578. _For swoot_, to prevent sweat, to keep off the heat. See note to Sir Thopas, B. 2052.
580. It is probable that _stillatorie_ (now shortened to _still_) is really a shortened form of _distillatorie_. Both forms occur in the Book of Quintessence, p. 10, l. 24, p. 13, l. 10.
581. _Were ful_, that might be full, that might chance to be full. _Were_ is the subjunctive, and the relative is omitted.
588. _now_, &c.; lately, in the time of early morning.
589. This shews that the pilgrims had rested all night on the road; see note to l. 555 above.
597. _oght_, in any way, at all. Cf. Kn. Ta., A. 3045; and Prioresses Tale, B. 1792.
599. _ye_, yea. There is a difference between _ye_, yea, and _yis_, yes. The former merely assents, or answers a simple question in the affirmative. The latter is much more forcible, is used when the question involves a negative, and is often followed by an oath. See note to Specimens of Eng. 1394-1579, ed. Skeat, sect. xvii. (D), l. 22; and note to _[gh]is_ in the Glossary to my edition of William of Palerne. See an example of _[gh]us_ (yes) after a negative in Piers the Plowman, B. v. 125. Similarly, _nay_ is the weaker, _no_ the stronger form of negation.
602. A note in Bell's edition makes a difficulty of the scansion of this line. It is perfectly easy. The caesura (carefully _marked_ in MS. E. as occurring after _knewe_) preserves the final _e_ in _knewe_ from elision.
And yé | him knéw | e, ás | wel ás | do I ||
Tyrwhitt reads _also_ for the former _as_; which is legitimate, because _as_ and _also_ are merely different spellings of the same word.
It is true that the final _e_ in _wondre_, and again that in _werke_, are both elided, under similar circumstances, in the two lines next following; but the cases are not quite identical. The _e_ in _knewe_, representing not merely the plural, but also the subjunctive mood, is essential to the conditional form of the sentence, and is of much higher value than the others. If this argument be not allowed, Tyrwhitt's suggestion may be adopted. Or we may read _knewen_.
608. _rit_, contracted from _rideth_; see A. 974, 981. See also _slit_ for _slideth_ in l. 682 below.
611. _leye in balaunce_, place in the balance, weigh against it.
620. _can_, knows, knows how to exercise.
622. The Yeoman puts in a word for himself--'and moreover, I am of some assistance to him.'
625. _up-so-doun_, i. e. upside doun, according to our modern phrase. Chaucer's phrase is very common; see Pricke of Conscience, ed. Morris, l. 7230; P. Plowman, B. xx. 53; Gower, Conf. Amantis, i. 218, &c.
628. _benedicite_, pronounced _ben'cite_, in three syllables, as in B. 1170, 1974. See note to B. 1170.
632. _worship_, dignity, honour; here, respectable appearance.
633. _oversloppe_, upper garment. So in Icelandic, _yfirsloppr_ means [419] an outer gown; as, 'prestar skrýddir yfirsloppum,' i. e. priests clad in over-slops, Historia Ecclesiastica, i. 473. The word _slop_ is preserved in the somewhat vulgar '_slop_-shop,' i. e. shop for second-hand clothes.
635. _baudy_, dirty. _to-tore_, torn in half. So in Piers Plowman, B. v. 197, Avarice is described as wearing a 'tabard' which is 'al to-torn and baudy.'
639. The second person sing. imperative seldom exhibits a final _e_; but it is sometimes found in weak verbs, _tellen_ being one of them. The readings are--_Telle_, E. Cp. Pt. Hl.; _Tel_, Ln. Cm. Elsewhere, we find _tel_, as in D. 1298.
641. _for_, &c.; because he shall never thrive. The Yeoman blurts out the truth, and is then afraid he has said too much. In l. 644, he gives an evasive and politer reason, declaring that his lord is 'too wise'; see l. 648.
645. _That that_, that which. In the margin of MS. E. is written--'Omne quod est nimium, &c.'; which is probably short for--'Omne quod est nimium uertitur in uitium.' We also find--'Omne nimium nocet.' The corresponding English proverb is--'Too much of one thing is not good' (Heywood); on which Ray remarks--'Assez y a si trop n'y a; _French_. Ne quid nimis; _Terentius_. [Greek: Mêden agan.] This is an apothegm of one of the seven wise men; some attribute it to Thales, some to Solon. Est modus in rebus, sunt certi denique fines; _Horat._ Sat. i. 1. 106. L'abbondanza delle cose ingenera fastidio; _Ital._ Cada dia olla, amargo el caldo; _Spanish_.' We also find in Hazlitt's English Proverbs--'Too much cunning undoes.'--'Too much is stark nought.'--'Too much of a good thing.'--'Too much spoileth, too little is nothing.' See also the collection of similar proverbs in Ida v. Düringsfeld's Sprichwörter, i. 37, 38.
648. Cf. Butler's description of Hudibras:--
'We grant, although he had much wit, He was very shy of using it.'
652. _Ther-of no fors_, never mind about that.
655. The adj. _sly_ here appears in the indefinite form, and rimes with _hertely_; correctly. Lounsbury (Studies, i. 388) admits the fact, but immediately proceeds to rate Chaucer for using the form _dry-e_ (dissyllabic) as an indefinite form! The attack, being founded on an error, ignominiously fails. It so happens that _sly_ is, etymologically, a monosyllable, whilst _drye_ is etymologically dissyllabic; see _sleh_ and _druye_ in Stratmann.
658. A _blind lane_ is one that has no opening at the farther end; a _cul de sac_.
659. _theves by kinde_, thieves by natural disposition.
662. _the sothe_, the truth. The reader should carefully note the full pronunciation of the final _e_ in _sothe_. If he should omit to sound it, he will be put to shame when he comes to the end of the next line, ending with _tó thee_. A very similar instance is that of _tyme_, riming with _bý me_, G. 1204 below. The case is the more remarkable because [420] the A. S. _s[=o]ð_, truth, is a monosyllable; but the truth is that the definite adjective _the sothe_ (A. S. _þæt s[=o]ðe_) may very well have supplied its place, the adjective being more freely used than the substantive in this instance. Chaucer has _sothe_ at the end of a line in other places, where it rimes with the dissyllabic _bothe_; G. 168; Troil. iv. 1035.
We may remark that _the sothe_ is written and pronounced instead of _the sooth_ (as shewn by the metre) in the Story of Genesis and Exodus, ed. Morris, l. 74:--
'He [_they_] witen the sothe, that is sen.'
665. _Peter!_ by St. Peter; as in B. 1404, D. 446. The full form of the phrase--'bi seynt Peter of Rome'--occurs in Piers the Plowman, B. vi. 3. The shorter exclamation--'Peter!' also occurs in the same, B. v. 544; see my note on that line. _harde grace_, disfavour, ill-favour; a mild imprecation. In l. 1189, it expresses a mild malediction.
669. _multiplye._ This was the technical term employed by alchemists to denote their supposed power of transmuting the baser metals into gold; they thought to _multiply_ gold by turning as much base metal as a piece of it would buy into gold itself; see l. 677. Some such pun seems here intended; yet it is proper to remember that the term originally referred solely to the supposed fact, that the strength of an elixir could be multiplied by repeated operations. See the article 'De Multiplicatione,' in Theatrum Chemicum, iii. 301, 818; cf. 131. Cf. Ben Jonson's Alchemist, ii. 1:--
'For look, how oft I iterate the work, So many times I add unto his virtue'; &c.
686. To scan the line, accent _yeman_ on the latter syllable, as in ll. 684, 701.
687. To scan the line, pronounce _ever_ nearly as _e'er_, and remember that _hadde_ is of two syllables. The MSS. agree here.
688. _Catoun_, Cato. Dionysius Cato is the name commonly assigned to the author of a Latin work in four books, entitled Dionysii Catonis Disticha de Moribus ad Filium. The work may be referred to the fourth century. It was extremely popular, not only in Latin, but in French and English versions. Chaucer here quotes from Lib. i. Distich. 17:--
'Ne cures si quis tacito sermone loquatur; Conscius ipse sibi de se putat omnia dici.'
See other quotations from Cato in the Nonne Preestes Tale, B. 4130; Merch. Ta., E. 1377; and see my note to Piers Plowman, B. vi. 316.
It is worth noticing that _Catoun_ follows the form of the Lat. _Catonem_, the accusative case. Such is the usual rule.
694. _dere abye_, pay dearly for it. _abye_ (lit. to buy off) was corrupted at a later date to _abide_, as in Shak. Jul. Caesar, iii. 1. 94.
703. _game_, amusement. In l. 708, it is used ironically. Cf. _ernest_, i. e. a serious matter, in l. 710. Cf. The Alchemist, ii. 1:--
'Alchemy is a pretty kind of game,' &c.
[421]
THE CHANOUNS YEMANNES TALE.
720. This Tale is divided, in MS. E., into two parts. _Pars prima_ is not really a tale at all, but a description of alchemy and its professors. The real tale, founded on the same subject, is contained in _Pars Secunda_, beginning at l. 972. The rubric means--'Here the Canon's Yeoman begins his tale.' The word _tale_ is not to be taken as a nominative case.
I may observe that I frequently refer below to the Theatrum Chemicum, printed in 1659, in five volumes. Also to Ashmole's Theatrum Chemicum (quite a different work).
721. _neer_, nearer; this explains _near_ in Macbeth, ii. 3. 146.
724. _Ther_, where; observe the use. In l. 727, we have _wher_.
726. _hose_, an old hose, instead of a hood. A pair of hose meant what we should now call a pair of tight-fitting drawers, which also covered the feet.
730. 'And, in return for all my labour, I am cajoled.' To '_blere_ one's eye' is to cajole, to deceive, to hoodwink. See Piers the Plowman, B. prol. 74, and the note.
731. _which_, what sort of a; Lat. _qualis_. On _multiplye_, see note to l. 669.
739. 'I consider his prosperity as done with.'
743. _Iupartye_, jeopardy, hazard. Tyrwhitt remarks that the derivation is not from _jeu perdu_, as some have guessed, but from _jeu parti_. He adds--'A _jeu parti_ is properly a game, in which the chances are exactly even; see Froissart, v. i. c. 234--"Ils n'estoient pas à _jeu parti_ contre les François"; and v. ii. c. 9--"si nous les voyons à _jeu parti_." From hence it signifies anything uncertain or hazardous. In the old French poetry, the discussion of a problem, where much might be said on both sides, was called a _Jeu parti_. See Poésies du Roy de Navarre, Chanson xlviii., and _Gloss._ in v. See also Ducange, in v. _Jocus Partitus_.' Ducange has--'_Jocus partitus_ dicebatur, cum alicui facultas concedebatur, alterum e duobus propositis eligendi.' Hence was formed not only _jeopardy_, but even the verb to _jeopard_, used in the A. V., Judges v. 18; 2 Macc. xi. 7.
746. In the margin of MS. E. is written--'Solacium miseriorum (_sic_), &c.' In Marlowe's Faustus, ii. 1. 42, the proverb is quoted in the form 'Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris.' Dr. Wagner says: 'The purport of this line may have been originally derived from Seneca, De Consol. ad Polybium, xii. 2: est autem hoc ipsum solatii loco, inter multos dolorem suum diuidere; qui quia dispensatur inter plures, exigua debet apud te parte subsidere.' Cf. Milton, P. R. i. 398. The idea is that conveyed in the fable of the Fox who had lost his tail, and wished to persuade the other foxes to cut theirs off likewise. See Troil. i. 708.
752. 'The technical terms which we use are so learned and fine.' See this well illustrated in Jonson's Alchemist, ii. 1:--'What else are all your terms,' &c. [422]
764. _lampe_; so in the MSS. It is clearly put for _lambe_, a corruption of O. Fr. _lame_, Lat. _lamina_. Were there any MS. authority, it would be better to read _lame_ at once. Cotgrave has--'_Lame_; f. a thin plate of any metall; also, a blade.' &c. Nares has--'_Lamm_, s. a plate, from Lat. _lamina_. "But he strake Phalantus just upon the gorget, so as he batred the _lamms_ thereof, and make his head almost touch the back of his horse"; Pembr. Arcadia, lib. iii. p. 269.' _Lame_ in old French also means, the flat slab covering a tomb; see Godefroy. So here, after the ingredients have all been placed in a pot, they are covered over with a plate of glass laid flat upon the top.
It is strange that no editor has made any attempt to explain this word. It obviously does not mean _lamp_! For the insertion of the _p_, cf. _solempne_ for _solemne_, and _nempne_ for _nemne_; also _flambe_ for _flame_; see the Glossary.
766. _enluting._ To _enlute_ is to close with _lute_. Webster has--'_Lute_, n. (Lat. _lutum_, mud, clay). A composition of clay or other tenacious substance, used for stopping the juncture of vessels so closely as to prevent the escape or entrance of air, or to protect them when exposed to heat.'
The process is minutely described in a MS. by Sir George Erskine, of Innertiel (temp. James I.), printed by Mr. J. Small in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. xi. 1874-75, p. 193, as follows:--'Thairfoir when all the matter which must be in, is gathered together into the pot, tak a good _lute_ maid of potters clay, and mix it with bolus and rust of iron tempered with whitts of eggs and chopt hair, and mingle and worke thame weill togither, and lute [gh]oure pott ane inch thick thairwith, and mak a stopple of potters earth weill brunt, to shut close in the hole that is in the top of the cover of the pott, and lute the pott and the cover very close togither, so as no ayre may brek furth, and when any craks cum into it, in the drying of the lute, dawbe them up againe; and when the lute is perfectly drie in the sunne, then take a course linen or canvas, and soke it weill in the whitts of eggs mixt with iron rust, and spred this cloth round about the luting, and then wet it weill again with whitts of eggs and upon the luting'; &c.
768. The alchemists were naturally very careful about the heat of the fire. So in The Alchemist, ii. 1:--
'Look well to the register, And let your heat still lessen by degrees.'
And again, in iii. 2:--
'We must now increase Our fire to _ignis ardens_,' &c.
770. _matires sublyming_, sublimation of materials. To 'sublimate' is to render vaporous, to cause matter to pass into a state of vapour by the application of heat. 'Philosophi considerantes eorum materiam, quae est in vase suo, et calorem sentit, evaporatur in speciem fumi, et [423] ascendit in capite vasis: et vocant _sublimationem_'; Theatrum Chemicum, 1659, vol. ii. p. 125.
'_Subtle._ How do you sublime him [mercury]?
_Face._ With the calce of egg-shells, White marble, talc.' The Alchemist, ii. 1.
771. _amalgaming._ To 'amalgamate' is to compound or mix intimately, especially used of mixing quicksilver with other metals. The term is still in use; thus 'an _amalgam_ of tin' means a mixture of tin and quicksilver.
_calcening._ To 'calcine' is to reduce a metal to an oxide, by the action of heat. What is now called an oxide was formerly called 'a metallic calx'; hence the name. The term is here applied to quicksilver or mercury. For example--'When mercury is heated, and at the same time exposed to atmospheric air, it is found that the volume of the air is diminished, and the weight of the mercury increased, and that it becomes, during the operation, a red crystalline body, which is the binoxide of mercury, formed by the metal combining with the oxygen of the air'; English Cyclopaedia, Div. Arts and Sciences, s. v. _Oxygen_. 'The alchemists used to keep mercury at a boiling heat for a month or longer in a matrass, or a flask with a tolerably long neck, having free communication with the air. It thus slowly absorbed oxygen, becoming converted into binoxide, and was called by them _mercurius precipitatus per se_. It is now however generally prepared by calcination from mercuric nitrate'; id., s. v. _Mercury_.
772. _Mercurie crude_, crude Mercury. See note to l. 820. See the description of Mercury in Ashmole's Theat. Chem. p. 272. The alchemists pretended that _their_ quicksilver, which they called the Green Lion, was something different from quicksilver as ordinarily found. See treatise on 'The Greene Lyon,' in Ashmole's Theat. Chem. p. 280.
774. Note the accents--'súblyméd Mercúrie.'
778. Here the 'ascension of spirits' refers to the rising of gases or vapours from certain substances; and the 'matters that lie all fix adown' are the materials that lie at the bottom in a fixed (i. e. in a solid) state. There were four substances in particular which were technically termed 'spirits'; viz. sulphur, sal ammoniac, quicksilver, and arsenic, or (as some said) orpiment. See Theatrum Chemicum, iii. 81, 129; ii. 430; iii. 276.
782. Here _a_ = in; being short for _an_, a variant of _on_, used in the old sense of 'in.' The expression signifies, literally, in the way to (or of) twenty devils; see note to A. 3713.
790. _bole armoniak._ The latter word should rather be _Armeniak_, i. e. Armenian, but we have _armoniak_ again below, in l. 798; see note to that line.
'_Bole_, a kind of fine, compact, or earthy clay, often highly coloured with iron, and varying in shades of colour from white to yellowish, [424] reddish, blueish, and brownish. Fr. _bol_, Lat. _bolus_, Gk. [Greek: bôlos], a clod or lump of earth'; Webster's Dict., ed. Goodrich and Porter. Cotgrave has--'_Bol_, m. the astringent and medicinable red earth or minerall called _Bolearmenie_ ... _Bol Oriental_, et _Bol Armenien Oriental_, Oriental Bolearmenie; the best and truest kind of Bolearmenie, ministred with good effect against all poisons, and in pestilent diseases; and more red than the ordinary one, which should rather be tearmed Sinopian red earth than Bolearmeny.' And see _Bole_ in the New E. Dict.
Mr. Paget Toynbee has lately shewn (in The Academy, Sept. 16, 1893) that _verdegrees_ is from the O. Fr. _verd de Grece_, lit. 'green of Greece.' Cotgrave has the curious form _verderis_, which probably represents the Latin _viride aeris_, the green of brass. This term (_viride aeris_) is the common one in the old Latin treatises on alchemy. See the chapter in Albertus Magnus--'Quomodo viride aeris fit, et quomodo rubificatur, et super omnia valet ad artem istam'; Theatrum Chemicum, ii. 436. It is the bibasic acetate of copper.
792, 794. Perhaps Chaucer had read the following lines:
'Par _alambics_ et _descensoires_, _Cucurbites_, distillatoires.' Les Remonstrances de Nature, par J. de Meung, ll. 39,40.
794. _Cucurbites_, vessels supposed to bear some resemblance to a gourd, whence the name (Lat. _cucurbita_, a gourd). 'Cucurbita est uas quod debet stare in aqua, usque ad juncturam firmatum in caldario, ut non moueatur'; Theatrum Chemicum, ii. 452.
795. _dere y-nough a leek_, dear enough at the price of a leek. Cf. Clerkes Tale, E. 999.
797. _Watres rubifying_, reddening waters. This is well illustrated by a long passage in The Boke of Quinte Essence, ed. Furnivall, p. 13, where instructions are given for extracting the quintessence out of the four elements. After various processes, we are directed to put the vessel into 'the fier of flawme right strong, and the _reed water_ schal ascende'; and again--'thanne yn the stillatorie, to the fier of bath, cleer water schall asende; and in the botum shall remayne the _reed water_, that is, the element of fier.' A long and unintelligible passage about 'rubrificatio' and 'aqua spiritualis rubea' occurs in the Theatrum Chemicum, iii. 41. See also 'modus rubrificandi' and the recipe for 'aqua rubea'; id. iii. 110.
798. _Arsenic_ was by some considered as one of the 'four spirits'; see note to l. 778. For a long passage 'de arsenico,' see Theatrum Chemicum, iii. 177; also p. 110, and ii. 238. _Sal armoniacum_ was another of them (see l. 824) and is constantly mentioned in the old treatises; see 'praeparatio salis Armoniaci secundum Rasim'; Theat. Chem. iii. 179; also pp. 89, 94, 102; ii. 445. In vol. ii. p. 138 of the same work, it is twice called '_sal armeniacum_.' See the account of _sal ammoniac_ in Thomson, Hist. of Chemistry, i. 124. _Brimstoon_ was also a 'spirit' (see l. 824); it is only another name for sulphur. [425]
800. _egrimoine_, common agrimony, _Ægrimonia officinalis_; valerian, _Valeriana officinalis_; _lunarie_, a kind of fern called in English moonwort, _Botrychium lunaria_. The belief in the virtue of herbs was very strong; cf. Spenser, (F. Q. i. 2. 10). The root of valerian yields valerianic acid. The following quotation is from the English Encyclopaedia, s. v. _Botrychium_:--
'In former times the ferns had a great reputation in medicine, not so much on account of their obvious as their supposed virtues. The lunate shape of the pinnæ of this fern (_B. lunaria_) gave it its common name, and was the origin of much of the superstitious veneration with which it was regarded. When used it was gathered by the light of the moon. Gerarde says--"it is singular [i. e. sovereign] to heal green and fresh wounds. It hath been used among the _alchymists and witches_ to do wonders withall."'
In Ashmole's Theatrum Chemicum, p. 348, is a full description of 'lunayrie,' with an engraving of it. It is there also called _asterion_, and we are told that its root is black, its stalk red, and its leaves round; and moreover, that the leaves _wax and wane with the moon_, and on each of them is a mark of the breadth of a penny. See also pp. 315, 318 of the same work.
805. _albificacioun_, i. e. the rendering the water of a white colour, as distinguishing from the reddening of it, mentioned in l. 797. In a long chapter printed in the Theatrum Chemicum (iii. 634-648) much is said about red and white colours. Compare the Alchemist, ii. 1:--
'_Mammon._ Of _white oil_?
_Subtle._ No, sir, of _red_.'
No doubt, too, _water_ is here used in the sense of the Lat. _aqua_, to denote any substance that is in a liquid state.
808. _Cered pokets._ Tyrwhitt reads _Sered pokettes_, and includes this phrase in his short 'List of Phrases not understood'; and indeed, it has never been explained. But there is little difficulty about it. _Poket_ is the diminutive of _poke_, a bag, and means a little bag. _Cered_ (Lat. _ceratus_) means waxed. Thus Cotgrave has--'_Ciré_, m. _-ée_, f. waxed, _seared_; dressed, covered, closed, or mingled, with wax.' In many MSS. the word is spelt _sered_, but this makes no difference, since Cotgrave has 'seared' in this very place. So we find both 'cere-cloth' and 'sear-cloth.' It is obvious that bags or cases prepared or closed with wax would be useful for many of the alchemist's purposes; see Theat. Chem. iii. 13.
_sal peter_, Lat. _sal petrae_, or rock-salt, also called _nitre_, is nitrate of potassa. A recipe for preparing it is given in Theat. Chem. iii. 195.
_vitriole_, i. e. sulphuric acid. See 'vitrioli praeparatio'; Theat. Chem. iii. 95.
810. _Sal tartre_, salt of tartar, i. e. carbonate of potash; so called from its having been formerly prepared from cream of tartar.
_sal preparat_, common salt prepared in a certain manner. See the [426] section--'quod ualeat sal commune, et quomodo praeparetur'; Theat. Chem. ii. 433, 435.
812. _maad_, i. e. prepared, mixed. _oile of tartre_, oil of tartar, cream of tartar; see Prol. 630. See the section--'quomodo praeparatur tartarum, ut oleum fiat ex illo, quo calces soluuntur'; Theat. Chem. ii. 436; and again--'ad faciendum oleum de Tartaro'; id. iii. 303. To scan l. 813, remember to pronounce _tartre_ as in French, and to accent _alum_ on the latter syllable.
Of tártr' | alúm | glas bérm | wort ánd | argoíle ||
813. _argoile_, crude cream of tartar deposited as a hard crust on wine-casks. Called _argoil_ in Anglo-French; Liber Albus, i. 225, 231.
814. _resalgar_, realgar, red orpiment, or the red sulphuret of arsenic; symbol (As S_2); found native in some parts of Europe, and of a brilliant red colour. _Resalgar_ is adapted from the old Latin name, _risigallum_. The word is explained by Thynne in his Animadversions, ed. Furnivall, p. 36--'This _resalgar_ is that whiche by some is called Ratesbane, a kynde of poysone named Arsenicke.'
_enbibing_, imbibition; see this term used in The Alchemist, ii. 1. It means absorption; cf. Theat. Chem. iii. 132, l. 27.
816. _citrinacioun._ This also is explained by Thynne, who says (p. 38)--'Citrinatione is bothe a coolor [colour] and parte of the philophers stoone.' He then proceeds to quote from a Tractatus Avicennae, cap. 7, and from Arnoldus de Nova Villa, lib. i. cap. 5. It was supposed that when the materials for making the philosopher's stone had been brought into a state very favourable to the ultimate success of the experiment, they would assume the colour of a citron; or, as Thynne says, Arnold speaks of 'this citrinatione, perfecte digestione, or the coolor provinge the philosophers stoone broughte almoste to the heighte of his perfectione'; see _Citrinacio_ in Ducange. So in the Alchemist, iii. 2:--
'How's the moon now? eight, nine, ten days hence He will be silver potate; then three days Before he _citronise_. Some fifteen days, The magisterium will be perfected.'
817. _fermentacioun_, fermentation. This term is also noticed by Thynne (p. 33), who says--'fermentacione ys a peculier terme of Alchymye, deduced from the bakers fermente or levyne'; &c. See Theat. Chem. ii. 115, 175.
820. _foure spirites._ Chaucer enumerates these below. I have already mentioned them in the note to l. 778; see also note to l. 798. Tyrwhitt refers us to Gower's Confessio Amantis, bk. iv., where we find a passage very much to the point. See Pauli's edition, ii. 84.
Gower enumerates the seven bodies and the four spirits; and further explains that gold and silver are the two 'extremities,' and the other metals agree with one or other of them more or less, so as to be capable of transmutation into one of them. For this purpose, the [427] alchemist must go through the processes of distillation, congelation, solution, descension, sublimation, calcination, and fixation, after which he will obtain the perfect elixir of the philosopher's stone. He adds that there are really three philosopher's stones, one vegetable, capable of healing diseases; another animal, capable of assisting each of the five senses of man; and the third mineral, capable of transforming the baser metals into silver and gold.
It is easy to see how the various metals were made to answer to the seven planets. _Gold_, the chief of metals and yellow, of course answered to the _sun_; and similarly _silver_, to the paler moon. _Mercury_, the swiftest planet, must be the shifty _quicksilver_; Saturn, the slowest, of cold and dull influence, must be _lead_. The etymology of _copper_ suggested the connexion with the _Cyprian_ Venus. This left but two metals, iron and tin, to be adjusted; iron was suggestive of Mars, the god of war, leaving tin to Jupiter. The notion of thus naming the metals is attributed to Geber; see Thomson, Hist. of Chemistry, i. 117. In the Book of Quinte Essence, ed. Furnivall, p. 8, we find: 'a plate of _venus_ or _Iubiter_,' i. e. of copper or tin.
Quicksilver, be it observed, is still called _mercury_; and nitrate of _silver_ is still _lunar_ caustic. Gold and silver are constantly termed _sol_ and _luna_ in the old treatises on alchemy. See further allusions in Chaucer's House of Fame, 1431-1487, as pointed out in the notes to ll. 1431, 1450, 1457, 1487 of that poem.
834. 'Whosoever pleases to utter (i. e. display) his folly.'
838. _Ascaunce_, possibly, perhaps; lit. 'just as if.' See note to D. 1745.
846. _Al conne he_, whether he know. The use of _al_ at the beginning of a sentence containing a supposition is common in Chaucer; see Prol. 734. Cf. _al be_, Prol. 297; Kn. Tale, 313 (A. 1171). And see l. 861 below.
848. _bothe two_, both learned and unlearned alike.
853. _limaille_, filings, fine scrapings. 'Take fyn gold and make it into smal _lymail_'; Book of Quinte Essence, p. 8.
861. 'To raise a fiend, though he look never so rough,' i. e. forbidding, cross.
874. _it is to seken euer_, it is always to seek, i. e. never found. In Skelton's Why Come Ye Nat to Court, l. 314, the phrase 'they are to seke' means 'they are at a loss'; this latter is the commoner use.
875. _temps_, tense. The editors explain it by 'time.' If Chaucer had _meant_ time, it is reasonable to suppose that he would have _said_ so. Surely it is better to take 'that futur temps' in the special sense of 'that future tense.' The allusion is to the phrase 'to seken' in the last line, which is not an infinitive mood but a gerund, and often used as a future tense, as Chaucer very well knew. Compare the A. S. version of Matt. xi. 3--'eart þ[=u] þe to cumenne eart'--with the Lat. 'Tu es qui _uenturus_ es.'
878. _bitter swete_, i. e. a fatal, though alluring, pursuit. An example [428] of oxymoron; cf. 'insaniens sapientia,' Horat. Carm. i. 34; 'strenua inertia,' Epist. i. xi. 28. Cf. the plant-name _bittersweet_ (_Solanum dulcamara_).
879. _nadde they but_, if they only should have (_or_, were to have). _Nadde_ is for _ne hadde_, past tense subjunctive.
880. _inne_, within; A. S. _innan_; see l. 881. _a-night_, for _on night_, in the night. Perhaps it should be _nighte_ (with final _e_), and _lighte_ in l. 881.
881. _bak_, cloth; any rough sort of covering for the back. So in most MSS.; altered in E. to _brat_, but unnecessarily. That the word _bak_ was used in the sense of garment is quite certain; see William of Palerne, ed. Skeat, l. 2096; Piers the Plowman, B. x. 362; and the same, A. xi. 184.
Pronounce the words _And a_ rapidly, in the time of one syllable.
907. _to-brek'th_, bursts in pieces. _go_, gone. This must have been a very common result; the old directions about 'luting' and hermetically sealing the vessels employed are so strict, that every care seems to have been (unwittingly) taken to secure an explosion; see note to l. 766 above. So in the Alchemist, iv. 3:--
_Face._ O, sir, we are defeated! all the works Are flown _in fumo_, every glass is burst': &c.
921. _chit_, short for _chideth_; so also _halt_ for _holdeth_.
922. _Som seyde_, i. e. one said; note that _som_ is here singular, as in Kn. Tale, 2173 (A. 3031). Hence the use of _the thridde_, i. e. the third, in l. 925.
923. _Lungs_ was a nickname for a fire-blower to an alchemist. See _Lungs_ in Nares' Glossary.
929. _so theech_, for _so thee ich_, so may I thrive. See Pard. Tale, C. 947.
933. _eft-sone_, for the future; lit. soon afterwards.
934. 'I am quite sure that the pot was cracked.'
938. _mullok_, rubbish. This is a common provincial E. word; see (in the E. Dial. Society's Publications) Ray's Glossary, p. 57; and the Glossaries for Wilts., Hants., Lancashire, &c.
962. The reading _shyneth_ is of course the right one. In the margin of MS. E. is written 'Non teneas aurum,' &c. This proves that Tyrwhitt's note is quite correct. He says--'This is taken from the Parabolae of Alanus de Insulis, who died in 1294; see Leyser, Hist. Poetarum Medii Ævi, p. 1074.
"Non teneas aurum totum quod splendet ut aurum, Nec pulchrum pomum quodlibet esse bonum."'
Shakespeare has--'All that glisters is not gold'; Merch. of Venice, ii. 7. 65. Hazlitt's English Proverbs has--'All is not gold that glisters (Heywood). See Chaucer, Chan. Yeom. Prol.; Roxburghe Ballads, ed. Collier, p. 102; Udall's Royster Doyster, 1566, where we read: All things that shineth is not by and by pure golde (Act v. sc. 1). Fronti [429] nulla fides, Juvenal, Sat. ii. 8. The French say, Tout ce qui luict n'est pas or. Non é oro tutto quel che luce; _Ital._ No es todo or lo que reluce; _Span._' So in German--'Est ist nicht Alles Gold was glänzt'; and again--'Rothe Aepfel sind auch faul.' See Ida v. Düringsfeld's Sprichwörter, i. 53, 107. Cf. Chaucer's House of Fame, i. 272.
972. _Pars secunda._ This is where the Tale begins. Even now, the Yeoman has some more to say by way of preface, and only makes a real start at l. 1012.
975. _Alisaundre_, Alexandria, _and othere three_, and three more as well.
999. _I mente_, I intended; as in l. 1051 below. 'But my intention was to correct that which is amiss.'
The reading _I-ment_, as a past participle, adopted by Mr. Wright, is incorrect, as shewn by Mr. Cromie's Ryme-Index. Cf. Nonne Pr. Tale, 604 (B. 4614); Sq. Tale, F. 108. See note to G. 534 above.
1005. _by yow_, with reference to you canons. See _By_ in Wright's Bible Word-book.
1012. _annueleer._ So called, as Tyrwhitt explains, 'from their being employed solely in singing _annuals_ or anniversary masses for the dead, without any cure of souls. See the Stat. 36 Edw. III. c. viii, where the _Chappelleins Parochiels_ are distinguished from others _chantanz annuales, et a cure des almes nient entendantz_. They were both to receive yearly stipends, but the former was allowed to take six marks, the latter only five. Compare Stat. 2 Hen. V. St. 2. c. 2, where the stipend of the _Chapellein Parochiel_ is raised to eight marks, and that of the _Chapellein annueler_ (he is so named in the statute) to seven.' See also the note at p. 505 of Wyclif's Works, ed. Matthew (E. E. T. S.); and Monumenta Franciscana, p. 605.
1015. That is, to the lady of the house where he lodged.
1018. _spending-silver_, money to spend, ready money. The phrase occurs in Piers the Plowman, B. xi. 278.
1024. _a certeyn_, a certain sum, a stated sum. Cf. l. 776.
1027. _at my day_, on the day agreed upon, on the third day.
1029. _Another day_, another time, on the next occasion.
1030. _him took_, handed over to him; so in ll. 1034, 1112.
1055. 'In some measure to requite your kindness.' See note to Sq. Tale, F. 471, and cf. l. 1151.
1059. _seen at yë_, see evidently; lit. see at eye.
1066. 'Proffered service stinketh' is among Heywood's Proverbs. Ray remarks on it--'Merx ultronea putet, _apud_ Hieronymum. Erasmus saith, Quin uulgo etiam in ore est, ultro delatum obsequium plerumque ingratum esse. So that it seems this proverb is in use among the Dutch too. In French, Merchandise offerte est à demi vendue. Ware that is proffered is sold for half the worth, or at half the price.' The German is--'Angebotene Hülfe hat keinen Lohn'; see Ida v. Düringsfeld's Sprichwörter, i. 86.
1096. _Algates_, at any rate. Observe the context. [430]
1103. _that we it hadde_, that we might have it. _Hadde_ is here the subjunctive. Perhaps _have_ would be better, but it lacks authority.
1126. _mortifye_, mortify; a technical term. See note to l. 1431.
1151. 'To blind the priest with.' See note to l. 1055.
1171. For _torned_, read _terved_, i. e. flayed, skinned; MS. E. has _terued_ (so it may be read). See l. 1274.
1185. _Seint Gyles_, saint Giles; a corrupted form of Ægidius. His day is Sept. 1; see Chambers' Book of Days, ii. 296; Legenda Aurea, cap. cxxx.; or Caxton's Golden Legende.
1204-1205. The rime is given by _týmë_ (two syllables, from A. S. _t[=i]ma_) riming with _by me_.
On referring to Prof. Child's Observations on the Language of Gower, I find _seven_ references given for this rime, as occurring in the edition by Dr. Pauli. The references are--i. 227, 309, 370; ii. 41, 114, 277; iii. 369. Dr. Pauli prints _byme_ as one word!
1210. The last foot contains the words--or a pannë.
1238-1239. MS. E. omits these two lines: the other MSS. retain them.
1244. _halwes_ is in the genitive plural. 'And the blessing of all the saints may ye have, Sir Canon!'
1245. 'And may I have their malison,' i. e. their curse.
1274. For _torne_, read _terve_, i. e. flay; as in MS. E. Cf. l. 1171.
1283. 'Why do you wish it to be better than well?' Answering nearly to--'what would you have better?'
1292. A rather lax line. _Is ther_ is to be pronounced rapidly, in the time of one syllable, and _her-inne_ is of three syllables.
1299. Pronounce _simple_ as _simpl'_; _tong-e_ is dissyllabic.
1313. _his ape_, his dupe. See Prol. 706, B. 1630. The simile is evidently taken from the fact that showmen used to carry apes about with them much as organ-boys do at the present day, the apes being secured by a string. Thus, 'to make a man one's ape' is to lead him about at will. The word _apewarde_ occurs in Piers the Plowman, B. v. 540. To _lead apes_ means to lead about a train of dupes.
1319. _heyne_, wretch. This word has never before been properly explained. It is not in Tyrwhitt's Glossary. Dr. Morris considers it as another form of _hyne_, a peasant, or hind, but leaves the phonetic difference of vowel unaccounted for; the words are clearly distinct. It occurs in Skelton's Bowge of Courte, l. 327:--
'It is great scorne to see suche an _hayne_ As thou arte, one that cam but yesterdaye, With vs olde seruauntes suche maysters to playe.'
Here Mr. Dyce also explains it by _hind_, or servant, whereas the context requires the opposite meaning of a despised _master_. Halliwell gives--'_Heyne_, a miser, a worthless person'; but without a reference. It means 'miser' in Udall's translation of Erasmus' Apophthegmes (1564), where it occurs thrice. Thus, in bk. i. § 106, we find: 'Soch [431] a niggard or _hayn_, that he coulde not finde in his harte ... to departe with an halfpeny.' In the same, § 22, we find: '_haines_ and niggardes of their purse'; and, for a third example, see note to Parl. Foules, 610 (vol. i. p. 523). The word seems to be Scandinavian; cf. Icel. _hegna_, Dan. _hegne_, to hedge in, Swed. _hägna_, to fence, guard, protect; whence Lowl. Sc. _hain_, to hedge in, to preserve, to spare, to save money, to be penurious (Jamieson).
1320. 'This priest being meanwhile unaware of his false practice.' See l. 1324.
1342. Alluding to the proverb--'As fain as a fowl [i. e. bird] of a fair morrow'; given by Hazlitt in the form--'As glad as fowl of a fair day.' See Piers the Plowman, B. x. 153; Kn. Tale, 1579 (A. 2437).
1348. _To stonde in grace_; cf. Prol. 88; also A. 1173.
1354. _By our_; pronounced _By'r_, as spelt in Shakespeare, Mid. Nt. Dr. iii. 1. 14.
1362. _nere_, for _ne were_; meaning 'were it not for.'
1381. _sy_, saw. The scribes also use the form _sey_ or _seigh_, as in Kn. Tale, 208 (A. 1066); Franklin's Tale, F. 850, in both of which places it rimes with _heigh_ (high). Of these spellings _sey_ (riming with _hey_) is to be preferred in most cases. See note to Group B, l. 1.
1388. This line begins with a large capital C in the Ellesmere MS., shewing that the Tale itself is at an end, and the rest is the Yeoman's application of it.
1389. 'There is strife between men and gold to that degree, that there is scarcely any (gold) left.'
1408. Alluding to the proverb--'Burnt bairns fear fire.' This occurs among the Proverbs of Hendyng, in the form--'Brend child fur dredeth.' So in the Romaunt of the Rose, l. 1820--'Brent child of fyr hath muche drede.' The German is--'Ein gebranntes Kind fürchtet das Feuer'; see Ida v. Düringsfeld's Sprichwörter, i. 531.
1410. Alluding to the proverb--'Better late than never'; in French 'Il vaut mieux tard que jamais.' The German is--'Besser spät als nie'; see Ida v. Düringsfeld's Sprichwörter, i. 204.
1411. In Hazlitt's Proverbs--'Never is a long term.'
1413. _Bayard_ was a colloquial name for a horse; see Piers Plowman, B. iv. 53, 124; vi. 196; and 'As bold as blind Bayard' was a common proverb. See also Troil. i. 218; Gower, Conf. Amant. iii. 44; Skelton, ed. Dyce, ii. 139, 186. 'Bot al blustyrne forth unblest as Bayard the blynd'; Awdelay's Poems, p. 48.
1416. 'As to turn aside from an obstacle in the road.'
1419. Compare this with the Man of Lawes Tale, B. 552.
1422. _rape and renne_, seize and clutch. The phrase, as it stands, is meaningless; _rapen_ is to hurry, and _rennen_ is to run, both verbs being intransitive. But it took the place of the older phrase _repen and rinen_ (Ancren Riwle, p. 128), from A. S. _hrepian and hr[=i]nan_, to handle and touch. The Ancren Riwle gives the form _arepen and arechen_, with the various readings _repen and rinen_, _ropen and rimen_. Ihre quotes the [432] English '_rap and ran_, per fas et nefas ad se pertrahere.' Mr. Wedgwood notices _rap and ran_, to get by hook or crook, to seize whatever one can lay hands on, but misses the etymology. Palsgrave has--'_I rap or rende_, je rapine.' Coles (Eng. Dict. ed. 1684) has '_rap an[d] ren_, snatch and catch.' 'All they could rap and rend and pilfer'; Butler, Hudibras, pt. ii. c. 2. 789. (First ed., _rap and run_.) The phrase is still in use in the (corrupted) form to _rape and rend_, or (in Cleveland) _to rap and ree_.
Briefly, _rape_, properly to hurry (Icel. _hrapa_), is a false substitute for A. S. _hrepian_, allied to G. _raffen_; whilst _renne_, to run, is a false substitute for A. S. _hr[=i]nan_, to touch, lay hold of.
1428. Arnoldus de Villa Nova was a French physician, theologian, astrologer, and alchemist; born about A. D. 1235, died A. D. 1314. Tyrwhitt refers us to Fabricius, Bibl. Med. Æt., in v. Arnaldus Villanovanus. In a tract printed in Theatrum Chemicum, iii. 285, we have a reference to the same saying--'Et hoc est illud quod magni philosophi scripserunt, quod lapis noster fit ex Mercurio et sulphure praeparatis et separatis, et de hoc opere et substantia dicit Magister Arnoldus in tractatu suo parabolice, nisi granum frumenti in terra cadens mortuum fuerit, &c. Intelligens pro grano mortuo in terra, Mercurium mortuum cum sale petrae et vitriolo Romano, et cum sulphure; et ibi mortificatur, et ibi sublimatur cum igne, et sic multum fructus adfert, et hic est lapis major omnibus, quem philosophi quaesiverunt, et inventum absconderunt.' The whole process is described, but it is quite unintelligible to me. It is clear that two circumstances stand very much in the way of our being able to follow out such processes; these are (1) that the same substance was frequently denoted by six or seven different names; and (2) that one name (such as sulphur) denoted five or six different things (such as sulphuric acid, orpiment, sulphuret of arsenic, &c.).
1429. _Rosarie_, i. e. Rosarium Philosophorum, the name of a treatise on alchemy by Arnoldus de Villa Nova; Theat. Chem. iv. 514.
1431. The word _mortification_ seems to have been loosely used to denote any change due to chemical action. Phillips explained _Mortify_ by--'Among chymists, to change the outward form or shape of a mixt body; as when quicksilver, or any other metal, is dissolved in an acid menstruum.'
1432. 'Unless it be with the knowledge (i. e. aid) of his brother.' The 'brother' of Mercury was sulphur or brimstone (see l. 1439). The dictum itself is, I suppose, as worthless as it is obscure.
1434. _Hermes_, i. e. Hermes Trismegistus, fabled to have been the inventor of alchemy. Several books written by the New Platonists in the fourth century were ascribed to him. Tyrwhitt notes that a treatise _under his name_ may be found in the Theatrum Chemicum, vol. iv. See Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graeca, lib. i. c. 10; and Smith's Classical Dictionary. The name is preserved in the phrase 'to seal _hermetically_.' [433]
Mr. Furnivall printed, for the Early Eng. Text Society, a tract called The Book of Quinte Essence, 'a tretice in Englisch breuely drawe out of the book of quintis essenciis in latyn, that _Hermys_ the prophete and kyng of Egipt, after the flood of Noe, fadir of philosophris, hadde by reuelacioun of an aungil of god to him sende.'
1438. _dragoun_, dragon. Here, of course, it means mercury, or some compound containing it. In certain processes, the solid residuum was also called _draco_ or _draco qui comedit caudam suam_. This _draco_ and the _cauda draconis_ are frequently mentioned in the old treatises; see Theatrum Chemicum, iii. 29, 36, &c. The terms may have been derived from astrology, since 'dragon's head' and 'dragon's tail' were common terms in that science. Chaucer mentions the latter in his Astrolabe, ii. 4. 23. And see 'Draco' in Theat. Chem. ii. 456.
1440. _sol_ and _luna_, gold and silver. The alchemists called _sol_ (gold) the father, and _luna_ (silver) the mother of the elixir or philosopher's stone. See Theat. Chem. iii. 9, 24, 25; iv. 528. Similarly, sulphur was said to be the father of minerals, and mercury the mother. Id. iii. 7.
1447. _secree_, secret of secrets. Tyrwhitt notes--'Chaucer refers to a treatise entitled Secreta Secretorum, which was supposed to contain the sum of Aristotle's instructions to Alexander. See Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graeca, vol. ii. p. 167. It was very popular in the middle ages. Ægidius de Columnâ, a famous divine and bishop, about the latter end of the 13th century, built upon it his book De Regimine Principum, of which our Occleve made a free translation in English verse, and addressed it to Henry V. while Prince of Wales. A part of Lydgate's translation of the Secreta Secretorum is printed in Ashmole's Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, p. 397. He did not translate more than about half of it, being prevented by death. See MS. Harl. 2251, and Tanner, Bibl. Brit. s. v. Lydgate. The greatest part of the viith Book of Gower's Confessio Amantis [see note to l. 820] is taken from this supposed work of Aristotle.' In the Theatrum Chemicum, iii. 14, I find an allusion to the philosopher's stone ending with these words--'Et Aristoteles ad Alexandrum Regem dicit in libro de secretis secretorum, capitulo penultimo: O Alexander, accipe lapidem mineralem, vegetabilem, et animalem, et separa elementa.' See Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, sect. 19; iii. 19 (ed. 1871), or ii. 230 (ed. 1840).
1450. Tyrwhitt says--'The book alluded to is printed in the Theatrum Chemicum, vol. v. p. 219 [p. 191, ed. 1660], under this title, Senioris Zadith fil. Hamuelis Tabula Chemica. The story which follows of Plato and his disciples is there told, p. 249 [p. 224, ed. 1660], with some variations, of Solomon. "Dixit Salomon rex, Recipe lapidem qui dicitur Thitarios (_sic_).... Dixit sapiens, Assigna mihi illum.... Dixit, Est corpus magnesiae.... Dixit, Quid est magnesia?... Respondit, Magnesia est aqua, composita," &c.' The name of Plato [434] occurs thrice _only a few lines below_, which explains Chaucer's mistake. We find 'Titan Magnesia' in Ashmole's Theat. Chem. p. 275; cf. pp. 42, 447. The Gk. [Greek: titanos] means lime, gypsum, white earth, chalk, &c.
1457. _ignotum per ignotius_, lit. an unknown thing through a thing more unknown; i. e. an explanation of a hard matter by means of a term that is harder still.
1460. The theory that all things were made of the four elements, earth, air, fire, and water, was the foundation on which all alchemy was built; and it was the obstinacy with which this idea was held that rendered progress in science almost impossible. The words were used in the widest sense; thus air meant any vapour or gas; water, any liquid; earth, any solid sediment; and fire, any amount of heat. Hence also the theory of the four complexions of men; for even man was likewise composed of the four elements, under the influence of the planets and stars. See Gower, Conf. Amant. bk. vii; Theat. Chem. iii. 82; iv. 533, 537; and the note to A. 420, at p. 40 above.
1461. _rote_ represents the Lat. _radix_. In the Theat. Chem., ii. 463, we read that the philosopher's stone 'est _radix_, de quo omnes sapientes tractauerunt.'
1469. 'Except where it pleases His Deity to inspire mankind, and again, to forbid whomsoever it pleases Him.'
1479. _terme of his lyve_, during the whole term of his life.
1481. _bote of his bale_, a remedy for his evil, help out of his trouble.
* * * * *
[435]
NOTES TO GROUP H.
THE MANCIPLE'S PROLOGUE.
1. _Wite ye_, know ye. The singular is _I woot_, A. S. _ic w[=a]t_, Moeso-Goth. _ik wait_; the plural is _we witen_ or _we wite_, A. S. _we witon_, Moeso-Goth. _weis witum_. See l. 82, where the right form occurs. But it is certain that Chaucer also uses the construction _ye woot_, as in A. 829, &c.; which, strictly speaking, was ungrammatical.
2. _Bob-up-and-doun._ This place is here described as being 'under the Blee,' i. e. under Blean Forest. It is also between Boughton-under-Blean (see Group G, l. 556) and Canterbury. This situation suits very well with Harbledown, and it has generally been supposed that Harbledown is here intended. Harbledown is spelt _Herbaldoun_ in the account of Queen Isabella's journey to Canterbury (see Furnivall's Temporary Preface, p. 31; p. 124, l. 18; p. 127, l. 21), and _Helbadonne_ in the account of King John's journey (id. p. 131, l. 1). However, Mr. J. M. Cowper, in a letter to The Athenæum, Dec. 26, 1868, p. 886, says that there still exists a place called Up-and-down Field, in the parish of Thannington, which would suit the position equally well, and he believes it to be the place really meant. If so, the old road must have taken a somewhat different direction from the present one, and there are reasons for supposing that such may have been the case. This letter is reprinted in Furnivall's Temporary Preface (Ch. Soc.), p. 32.
The break here between the Canon's Yeoman's and the Manciple's Tales answers to the break between the first and second parts of Lydgate's Storie of Thebes. At the end of Part I, Lydgate mentions the descent down the hill (i. e. Boughton hill), and at the beginning of Part II, he says that the pilgrims, on their _return_ from Canterbury, had 'passed the thorp of Boughton-on-the-blee.'
5. _Dun is in the myre_, a proverbial saying originally used in an old rural sport. _Dun_ means a dun horse, or, like _Bayard_, a horse in general. The game is described in Brand's Popular Antiquities, 4to. ii. 289; and in Gifford's notes to Ben Jonson, vol. vii. p. 283. The latter explanation is quoted by Nares, whom see. Briefly, the game was of this kind. A large log of wood is brought into the midst of a kitchen or large room. The cry is raised that 'Dun is in the mire,' [436] i. e. that the cart-horse is stuck in the mud. Two of the company attempt to drag it along; if they fail, another comes to help, and so on, till Dun is extricated.
There are frequent allusions to it; see Hoccleve, De Regimine Principum, p. 86; Skelton, Garland of Laurell, l. 1433; Towneley Mysteries, p. 310; Romeo and Juliet, i. 4. 41; Beaumont and Fletcher's Woman-hater, iv. 3; Hudibras, pt. iii. c. iii. l. 110.
In the present passage it means--'we are all at a standstill'; or 'let us make an effort to move on.' Mr. Hazlitt, in his Proverbial Phrases, quotes a line--'And all gooth bacward, and _don is in the myr_.'
12. _Do him come forth_, make him come forward. Cf. Group B, 1888, 1889.
14. _a botel hay_, a bottle of hay; similarly, we have _a barel ale_, Monk's Prol. B. 3083. And see l. 24 below. A bottle of hay was a small bundle of hay, less than a truss, as explained in my note to The Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 2. 45. 'Nec vendant [foenum] per botellum'; Liber Albus, p. 721.
16. _by the morwe_, in the morning. There is no need to explain away the phrase, or to say that it means in the afternoon, as Tyrwhitt does. The Canon's Yeoman's tale is the first told on the third day, and the Manciple's is only the second. The Cook seems to have taken too much to drink over night, and to have had something more before starting. The fresh air has kept him awake for a while at first, but he is now very drowsy indeed.
Tyrwhitt well remarks that there is no allusion here to the unfinished Cook's Tale in Group A. This seems to shew that the Manciple's Prologue was written before the Cook's Tale was begun. Note that the Cook is here excused; l. 29.
23. 'I know not why, but I would rather go to sleep than have the best gallon of wine in Cheapside.' _me were lever slepe_, lit. it would be dearer to me to sleep.
24. _Than_ constitutes the first foot; _beste_ is dissyllabic.
29. _as now_, for the present; a common phrase.
33. _not wel disposed_, indisposed in health.
42. _fan_, the fan or vane or board of the quintain. The quintain, as is well known, consisted of a cross-bar turning on a pivot at the top of a post. At one end of the cross-bar was the fan or board, sometimes painted to look like a shield, and at the other was a club or bag of sand. The jouster at the fan had to strike the shield, and at the same time to avoid the stroke given by the swinging bag. The Cook was hardly in a condition for this; his eye and hand were alike unsteady, and his figure did not suggest that he possessed the requisite agility. See _Quintain_ in Nares, and Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, bk. iii. c. 1; As You Like It, i. 2. 263, on which see Mr. Wright's note (Clar. Press Series); Stow, Survey of London, ed. Thoms, pp. 36, 215.
44. _wyn ape_, ape-wine, or ape's wine. Tyrwhitt rightly considers this the same as the _vin de singe_ in the Calendrier des Bergers, sign. [437] l. ii. b., where the author speaks of the different effects produced by wine upon different men, according to their temperaments. 'The Cholerick, he says, _a vin de lyon; cest a dire, quant a bien beu, veult tanser, noyser, et battre_. The Sanguine _a vin de singe; quant a plus beu, tant est plus joyeux_. In the same manner, the Phlegmatic is said to have _vin de mouton_, and the Melancholick _vin de porceau_.'
Tyrwhitt adds--'I find the same four animals applied to illustrate the effects of wine in a little Rabbinical tradition, which I shall transcribe here from Fabricius, Cod. Pseudepig. Veteris Testamenti, vol. i. p. 275. "Vineas plantanti Noacho Satanam se junxisse memorant, qui, dum Noa vites plantaret, mactaverit apud illas _ovem_, _leonem_, _simiam_, et _suem_: Quod principio potûs vini homo sit instar _ovis_, vinum sumptum efficiat ex homine _leonem_, largius haustum mutet eum in saltantem _simiam_, ad ebrietatem infusum transformet illum in pollutam et prostratam _suem_." See also Gesta Romanorum, c. 159, where a story of the same purport is quoted from Josephus, _in libro de casu rerum naturalium_.' Wine of ape occurs in a detailed proverb, in Le Roux de Lincy, Prov. Franç. 1842, p. 157. The most ancient source is the Talmudical Parable, given in _Rabbinische Blumenlese_, Leipzig, 1844, p. 192, by Leopold Dukes (N. and Q. S. i. xii. 123).
In Bernardus de Cura Rei Familiaris, ed. Lumby, p. 13, a drunken man is thus described:--
'And qhuilis _a nape_, to mak mowis as a fule, Bot as _a sow_, quhen he fallis in a pule.'
And Lydgate, in his Troy-book, L. 1, back, col. 2, says of one:--'And with a strawe playeth lyke an ape.'
Warton (Hist. E. P. ed. 1871, i. 283) gives a slight sketch of