Chaucer's Works, Volume 5 — Notes to the Canterbury Tales (part 2 of 3)
1762. Wardrobe, privy. Godefroy's O. F. Dict. shews that garderobe meant not only a wardrobe, or place for keeping robes, &c., but also any small chamber; hence the sense. See Cotgrave.
1764. 'O accursed folk (composed) of Herods wholly new.'
1766. 'Murder will out'; a proverb; see B. 4242.
1769. Souded to, confirmed in. From O. F. souder, Lat. solidare, whence E. solder. Wyclif's later version has--'hise leggis and hise feet weren sowdid togidere'; Acts, iii. 7. The reference in ll. 1770-5 is to Rev. xiv. 3, 4.
1793. Iesu. This word is written 'Ihu' in E. Hn. Cm.; and 'ihc' in Cp. Pt. Ln.; in both cases there is a stroke through the h. This is frequently printed Ihesu, but the retention of h is unnecessary. It is not really an h at all, but the Greek [Eta], meaning long e ([=e]). So, also, in 'ihc,' the c is not the Latin c, but the Gk. C, meaning [Sigma] or s; and ihc are the first three letters of the word [Greek: IÊSOUS] = [Greek: iêsous] = iesus. Iesu, as well as Iesus, was used as a nominative, though really the genitive or vocative case. At a later period, ihs (still with a stroke through the h) was written for ihc as a contraction of iesus. By an odd error, a new meaning was invented for these letters, and common belief treated them as the initials of three Latin words, viz. Iesus Hominum Salvator. But as the stroke through the h or mark of contraction still remained unaccounted for, it was turned into a cross! Hence the common symbol I.H.S. with the small cross in the upper part of the middle letter. The wrong interpretation is still the favourite one, all errors being long-lived. Another common contraction is Xpc., where all the letters are Greek. The x is ch ([chi]), the p is r ([rho]), and c is s, so that Xpc = chrs, the contraction for christus or Christ. This is less common in decoration, and no false interpretation has been found for it.
1794. inwith, within. This form occurs in E. Hn. Pt. Ln.; the rest have within. Again, in the Merchant's Tale (E. 1944), MSS. E. Hn. Cm. Hl. have the form inwith. It occurs in the legend of St. Katharine, ed. Morton, l. 172; in Sir Perceval (Thornton Romances), l. 611; in Alliterative Poems, ed. Morris, A. 970; and in Palladius on Husbandry, ed. Lodge, iii. 404. Dr. Morris says it was [180] (like utwith = without) originally peculiar to the Northern dialect. See the Glossary, and the note to l. 2159 below (p. 202).
1805. coomen; so in E. Hn.; comen in Pt. Cp. But it is the past tense = came. The spelling comen for the past tense plural is very common in Early English, and we even find com in the singular. Thus, in l. 1807, the Petworth MS. has 'He come,' equivalent to 'coom,' the o being long. But herieth in l. 1808 is a present tense.
1814. nexte, nighest, as in Kn. Ta. A. 1413. So also hext = highest, as in the Old Eng. proverb--'When bale is hext, then bote is next,' i. e. 'when woe is highest, help is nighest.' Next is for neh-est, and hext is for heh-est.
1817. newe Rachel, second Rachel, as we should now say; referring to Matt. ii. 18.
1819. dooth for to sterve, causes to die. So also in l. 1823, dide hem drawe = caused them to be drawn.
1822. Evidently a proverb; compare Boeth. bk. iv. pr. 1. 37-40 (vol. ii. p. 93); and note to P. Plowman, C. v. 140.
1826. The body occupied the place of honour. 'The bier, if the deceased had been a clerk, went into the chancel; if a layman, and not of high degree, the bearers set it down in the nave, hard by the church-door'; Rock, Ch. of our Fathers, ii. 472. He cites the Sarum Manual, fol. c.
1827. the abbot; pronounced thabbòt. covent, convent; here used for the monks who composed the body over which the abbot presided. So in Shakespeare, Hen. VIII, iv. 2. 18--'where the reverend abbot, With all his covent, honourably received him.' The form covent is Old French, still preserved in Covent Garden.
1835. halse; two MSS. consulted by Tyrwhitt read conjure, a mere gloss, caught from the line above. Other examples of halse in the sense of conjure occur. 'Ich halsi þe o godes nome' = I conjure thee in God's name; St. Marherete, ed. Cockayne, p. 17. Again, in Joseph of Arimathie, ed. Skeat, l. 400--
'Vppon þe hei[gh]e trinite · I halse þe to telle'--
which closely resembles the present passage.
1838. to my seminge, i. e. as it appears to me.
1840. 'And, in the ordinary course of nature.'
1843. Wil, wills, desires. So in Matt. ix. 13, I will have mercy = I require mercy; Gk. [Greek: eleon thelô]; Vulgate, misericordiam uolo. Cf. B. 45.
1848. In the Ellesmere MS. (which has the metrical pauses marked) the pause in this line is marked after lyf. The word sholde is dissyllabic here, having more than the usual emphasis; it has the force of ought to. Cf. E. 1146.
1852. In the Cursor Mundi, 1373-6, Seth is told to place three pippins under the root of Adam's tongue.
1857. now is used in the sense of take notice that, without any [181] reference to time. There is no necessity to alter the reading to than, as proposed by Tyrwhitt. See Mätzner, Engl. Gram. ii. 2. 346, who refers to Luke ii. 41, John i. 44, and quotes an apt passage from Maundeville's Travels, p. 63--'Now aftre that men han visited the holy places, thanne will they turnen toward Jerusalem.' In A. S. the word used in similar cases is s[=o]þl[=i]ce = soothly, verily.
1873. Ther, where. leve, grant. No two words have been more confused by editors than lene and leue. Though sometimes written much alike in MSS., they are easily distinguished by a little care. The A. S. l[=y]fan or l[=e]fan, spelt lefe in the Ormulum (vol. i. p. 308), answers to the Germ. erlauben, and means grant or permit, but it can only be used in certain cases. The verb lene, A. S. l[=æ]nan, now spelt lend, often means to give or grant in Early English, but again only in certain cases. I quote from my article on these words in Notes and Queries, 4 Ser. ii. 127--'It really makes all the difference whether we are speaking of to grant a thing to a person, or to grant that a thing may happen. "God lene thee grace," means "God grant thee grace," where to grant is to impart; but "God leue we may do right" means "God grant we may do right," where to grant is to permit.... Briefly, lene requires an accusative case after it, leue is followed by a dependent clause.' Lene occurs in Chaucer, Prol. A. 611, Milleres Tale, A. 3777, and elsewhere. Examples of leue in Chaucer are (1) in the present passage, misprinted lene by Tyrwhitt, Morris, Wright, and Bell, though five of our MSS. have leue; (2) in the Freres Tale, D. 1644, printed lene by Tyrwhitt (l. 7226), leene by Morris, leeve by Wright and Bell; (3) (4) (5) in three passages in Troilus and Criseyde (ii. 1212, iii. 56, v. 1750), where Tyrwhitt prints leve, but unluckily recants his opinion in his Glossary, whilst Morris prints lene. For other examples see Stratmann, s. v. lænan and leven.
It may be remarked that leve in Old English has several other senses; such as (1) to believe; (2) to live; (3) to leave; (4) to remain; (5) leave, sb.; (6) dear, adj. I give an example in which the first, sixth, and third of these senses occur in one and the same line:--
'What! leuestow, leue lemman, that i the [thee] leue wold?' Will. of Palerne, 2358.
1874. Hugh of Lincoln. The story of Hugh of Lincoln, a boy supposed to have been murdered at Lincoln by the Jews, is placed by Matthew Paris under the year 1255. Thynne, in his Animadversions upon Speght's editions of Chaucer (p. 45 of the reprint of the E.E.T.S.), addresses Speght as follows--'You saye, that in the 29 Henry iii. eightene Jewes were broughte fro_m_ Lincolne, and hanged for crucyfyinge a childe of eight yeres olde. Whiche facte was in the 39 Hen. iii., so that yo_u_ mighte verye well haue sayed, that the same childe of eighte yeres olde was the same hughe of Lincolne; of whiche name there were twoe, viz. thys younger Seinte Hughe, and Seinte Hughe bishoppe of Lincolne, which dyed in the yere 1200, long before this [182] little seinte hughe. And to prove that this childe of eighte yeres olde and that yonge hughe of Lincolne were but one; I will sett downe two auctoryties out of Mathewe Paris and Walsinghame, wherof the fyrste wryteth, that in the yere of Christe 1255, being the 39 of Henry the 3, a childe called Hughe was sleyne by the Jewes at Lyncolne, whose lamentable historye he delyvereth at large; and further, in the yere 1256, being 40 Hen. 3, he sayeth, Dimissi sunt quieti 24 Judei á Turri London., qui ibidem infames tenebantur compediti pro crucifixione sancti Hugonis Lincolniae: All which Thomas Walsingham, in Hypodigma Neustriae, confirmeth: sayinge, Ao. 1255, Puer quidam Christianus, nomine Hugo, à Judeis captus, in opprobriu_m_ Christiani nominis crudeliter est crucifixus.' There are several ballads in French and English, on the subject of Hugh of Lincoln, which were collected by M. F. Michel, and published at Paris in 1834, with the title--'Hugues de Lincoln, Recueil de Ballades Anglo-Normandes et Ecossoises relatives au Meurtre de cet Enfant.' The day of St. Hugh, bishop of Lincoln, is Aug. 27; that of St. Hugh, boy and martyr, is June 29. See also Brand's Pop. Antiq. ed. Ellis, i. 431. And see vol. iii. p. 423.
1875. With, by. See numerous examples in Mätzner, Engl. Gram. ii. 1. 419, amongst which we may especially notice--'Stolne is he with Iues'; Towneley Mysteries, p. 290.
PROLOGUE TO SIR THOPAS.
1881. miracle, pronounced míracl'. Tyrwhitt omits al, and turns the word into mirácle, unnecessarily.
1883. hoste is so often an evident dissyllable (see l. 1897), that there is no need to insert to after it, as in Tyrwhitt. In fact, bigan is seldom followed by to.
1885. what man artow, what sort of a man art thou?
1886. woldest finde, wouldst like to find. We learn from this passage, says Tyrwhitt, that Chaucer 'was used to look much upon the ground; that he was of a corpulent habit; and reserved in his behaviour.' We cannot be quite sure that the poet is serious; but these inferences are probably correct; cf. Lenvoy a Scogan, 31.
1889. war you, mind yourselves, i. e. make way.
1890. as wel as I; said ironically. Chaucer is as corpulent as the host himself. See note to l. 1886 above.
1891. were, would be. tenbrace, to embrace. In the Romaunt of the Rose, true lovers are said to be always lean; but deceivers are often fat enough:--
'For men that shape hem other wey Falsly hir ladies to bitray, It is no wonder though they be fat'; l. 2689.
1893. elvish, elf-like, akin to the fairies; alluding to his absent looks [183] and reserved manner. See Elvish in the Glossary, and cf. 'this elvish nyce lore'; Can. Yeom. Tale, G. 842. Palsgrave has--'I waxe eluysshe, nat easye to be dealed with, Ie deuiens mal traictable.'
1900. Ye, yea. The difference in Old English between ye and yis (yes) is commonly well marked. Ye is the weaker form, and merely assents to what the last speaker says; but yis is an affirmative of great force, often followed by an oath, or else it answers a question containing a negative particle, as in the House of Fame, 864. Cf. B. 4006 below.
THE TALE OF SIR THOPAS.
In the black-letter editions, this Tale is called 'The ryme of Sir Thopas,' a title copied by Tyrwhitt, but not found in the seven best MSS. This word is now almost universally misspelt rhyme, owing to confusion with the Greek rhythm; but this misspelling is never found in old MSS. or in early printed books, nor has any example yet been found earlier than the reign of Elizabeth. The old spelling rime is confirmed by the A. S. r[=i]m, Icel. rím, Dan. rim, Swed. rim, Germ. reim, Dutch rijm, Old Fr. rime, &c. Confusion with rime, hoarfrost, is impossible, as the context always decides which is meant; but it is worth notice that it is the latter word which has the better title to an h, as the A. S. word for hoarfrost is hr[=i]m. Tyrwhitt, in his edition of Chaucer, attempted two reforms in spelling, viz. rime for rhyme, and coud for could. Both are most rational, but probably unattainable.
Thopas. In the Supplement to Ducange we find--'Thopasius, pro Topasius, Acta S. Wencesl. tom. 7. Sept. p. 806, col. 1.' The Lat. topazius is our topaz. The whole poem is a burlesque (see vol. iii. p. 423), and Sir Topaz is an excellent title for such a gem of a knight. The name Topyas occurs in Richard Coer de Lion, ed. Weber, ii. 11, as that of a sister of King Richard I; but no such name is known to history.
The metre is that commonly used before and in Chaucer's time by long-winded ballad-makers. Examples of it occur in the Romances of Sir Percevall, Sir Isumbras, Sir Eglamour, and Sir Degrevant (in the Thornton Romances, ed. Halliwell), and in several romances in the Percy Folio MS. (ed. Hales and Furnivall), such as Libius Disconius, Sir Triamour, Sir Eglamour, Guy and Colbrande, The Grene Knight, &c.; see also Amis and Amiloun, and Sir Amadas in Weber's Metrical Romances; and Lybeaus Disconus, The King of Tars, Le Bone Florence, Emare, The Erle of Tolous, and Horn Childe in Ritson's collection. To point out Chaucer's sly imitations of phrases, &c. would be a long task; the reader would gain the best idea of his manner by reading any one of these old ballads. To give a few illustrations is all that can be attempted here; I refer the reader to Prof. Kölbing's elaborate article in the Englische Studien, xi. 495, for further information; also to the dissertation by C. J. Bennewitz mentioned in vol. iii. [184] p. 424. It is remarkable that we find in Weber a ballad called 'The Hunting of the Hare,' which is a pure burlesque, like Chaucer's, but a little broader in tone and more obviously comic.
1902. Listeth, lordes, hearken, sirs. This is the usual style of beginning. For example, Sir Bevis begins--
'Lordynges, lystenyth, grete and smale';
and Sir Degaré begins--
'Lystenyth, lordynges, gente and fre, Y wylle yow telle of syr Degaré.'
Warton well remarks--'This address to the lordings, requesting their silence and attention, is a manifest indication that these ancient pieces were originally sung to the harp, or recited before grand assemblies, upon solemn occasions'; Obs. on F. Queene, p. 248.
1904. solas, mirth. See Prol. l. 798. 'This word is often used in describing the festivities of elder days. "She and her ladyes called for their minstrells, and solaced themselves with the disports of dauncing"; Leland, Collectanea, v. 352. So in the Romance of Ywaine and Gawin:--
"Full grete and gay was the assemble Of lordes and ladies of that cuntre, And als of knyghtes war and wyse, And damisels of mykel pryse; Ilkane with other made grete gamen And grete solace, &c."' (l. 19, ed. Ritson). Todd's Illust. of Chaucer, p. 378.
1905. gent, gentle, gallant. Often applied to ladies, in the sense of pretty. The first stanzas in Sir Isumbras and Sir Eglamour are much in the same strain as this stanza.
1910. Popering. 'Poppering, or Poppeling, was the name of a parish in the Marches of Calais. Our famous antiquary Leland was once rector of it. See Tanner, Bib. Brit. in v. Leland.'--Tyrwhitt. Here Calais means the district, not the town. Poperinge has a population of about 10,500, and is situate about 26 miles S. by W. from Ostend, in the province of Belgium called West Flanders, very near the French 'marches,' or border. Ypres (see A. 448) is close beside it. place, the mansion or chief house in the town. Dr. Pegge, in his Kentish Glossary, (Eng. Dial. Soc.), has--'Place, that is, the manor-house. Hearne, in his pref. to Antiq. of Glastonbury, p. xv, speaks of a manour-place.' He refers also to Strype's Annals, cap. xv.
1915. payndemayn. 'The very finest and the whitest [kind of bread] that was known, was simnel-bread, which ... was as commonly known under the name of pain-demayn (afterwards corrupted into [painmain or] payman); a word which has given considerable trouble to Tyrwhitt and other commentators on Chaucer, but which means no [185] more than "bread of our Lord," from the figure of our Saviour, or the Virgin Mary, impressed upon each round flat loaf, as is still the usage in Belgium with respect to certain rich cakes much admired there'; Chambers, Book of Days, i. 119. The Liber Albus (ed. Riley, p. 305) speaks of 'demesne bread, known as demeine,' which Mr. Riley annotates by--'Panis Dominicus. Simnels made of the very finest flour were thus called, from an impression upon them of the effigy of our Saviour.' Tyrwhitt refers to the poem of the Freiris of Berwick, in the Maitland MS., in which occur the expressions breid of mane and mane breid. It occurs also in Sir Degrevant (Thornton Romances, p. 235):--
'Paynemayn prevayly Sche brou[gh]th fram the pantry,' &c.
It is mentioned as a delicacy by Gower, Conf. Amantis, bk. vi. (ed. Pauli, iii. 22).
1917. rode, complexion. scarlet in grayn, i. e. scarlet dyed in grain, or of a fast colour. Properly, to dye in grain meant to dye with grain, i. e. with cochineal. In fact, Chaucer uses the phrase 'with greyn' in the epilogue to the Nonne Prestes Tale; B. 4649. See the long note in Marsh's Lectures on the English Language, ed. Smith, pp. 54-62, and the additional note on p. 64. Cf. Shak. Tw. Nt. i. 5. 255.
1920. saffroun; i. e. of a yellow colour. Cf. Bottom's description of beards--'I will discharge it in either your straw-colour beard, your orange-tawney beard, your purple-in-grain beard, or your French-crown-colour beard, your perfect yellow'; Mids. Nt. Dr. i. 2. In Lybeaus Disconus (ed. Ritson, Met. Rom. ii. 6, or ed. Kaluza, l. 139) a dwarf's beard is described as 'yelow as ony wax.'
1924. ciclatoun, a costly material. From the O. Fr. ciclaton, the name of a costly cloth. [It was early confused with the Latin cyclas, which Ducange explains by 'vestis species, et panni genus.' The word cyclas occurs in Juvenal (Sat. vi. 259), and is explained to mean a robe worn most often by women, and adorned with a border of gold or purple; see also Propertius, iv. 7. 40.] Ciclatoun, however, is of Eastern origin, as was well suggested in the following note by Col. Yule in his edition of Marco Polo, i. 249:--
'The term suklát is applied in the Punjab trade-returns to broadcloth. Does not this point to the real nature of the siclatoun of the Middle Ages? It is, indeed, often spoken of as used for banners, which implies that it was not a heavy woollen. But it was also a material for ladies' robes, for quilts, leggings, housings, pavilions. Michel does not decide what it was, only that it was generally red and wrought with gold. Dozy renders it "silk stuff brocaded with gold," but this seems conjectural. Dr. Rock says it was a thin glossy silken stuff, often with a woof of gold thread, and seems to derive it from the Arabic sakl, "polishing" (a sword), which is improbable.' Compare the following examples, shewing its use for tents, banners, &c.:-- [186]
'Off silk, cendale, and syclatoun Was the emperours pavyloun';... 'Kyng Richard took the pavylouns Off sendels and off sykelatouns'; Rich. Coer de Lion (Weber, ii. 90 and 201).
'There was mony gonfanoun Of gold, sendel, and siclatoun'; Kyng Alisaunder (Weber, i. 85).
Richardson's Pers. and Arab. Dict. (ed. Johnson, 1829), p. 837, gives: 'Pers. saqlat[=u]n, scarlet cloth (whence Arab. siql[=a]t, a fine painted or figured cloth)'; and the derivation is probably (as given in the New E. Dict.) from the very Pers. word which has given us the word scarlet; so that it was originally named from its colour. It was afterwards applied to various kinds of costly materials, which were sometimes embroidered with gold. See Ciclaton in Godefroy, and in the New E. Dict.; and Scarlet in my Etym. Dictionary.
The matter has been much confused by a mistaken notion of Spenser's. Not observing that Sir Thopas is here described in his robes of peace, not in those of war (as in a later stanza), he followed Thynne's spelling, viz. chekelatoun, and imagined this to mean 'that kind of guilded leather with which they [the Irish] use to embroder theyr Irish jackes'; View of the State of Ireland, in Globe edition, p. 639, col. 2. And this notion he carried out still more boldly in the lines--
'But in a jacket, quilted richly rare Upon cheklaton, he was straungely dight'; F. Q. vi. 7. 43.
1925. Jane, a small coin. The word is known to be a corruption of Genoa, which is spelt Jeane in Hall's Chronicles, fol. xxiv. So too we find Janueys and Januayes for Genoese. See Bardsley's English Surnames, s. v. Janeway. Stow, in his Survey of London, ed. 1599, p. 97, says that some foreigners lived in Minchin Lane, who had come from Genoa, and were commonly called galley-men, who landed wines, &c. from the galleys at a place called 'galley-key' in Thames Street. 'They had a certaine coyne of silver amongst themselves, which were half-pence of Genoa, and were called galley half-pence. These half-pence were forbidden in the 13th year of Henry IV, and again by parliament in the 3rd of Henry V, by the name of half-pence of Genoa.... Notwithstanding, in my youth, I have seen them passe currant,' &c. Chaucer uses the word again in the Clerkes Tale (E. 999), and Spenser adopted it from Chaucer; F. Q. iii. 7. 58. Mr. Wright observes that 'the siclaton was a rich cloth or silk brought from the East, and is therefore appropriately mentioned as bought with Genoese coin.'
1927. for rivéer, towards the river. This appears to be the best reading, and we must take for in close connexion with ryde; perhaps it [187] is a mere imitation of the French en riviere. It alludes to the common practice of seeking the river-side, because the best sport, in hawking, was with herons and waterfowl. Tyrwhitt quotes from Froissart, v. 1. c. 140--'Le Comte de Flandres estoit tousjours en riviere--un jour advint qu'il alla voller en la riviere--et getta son fauconnier un faucon apres le heron.' And again, in c. 210, he says that Edward III 'alloit, chacun jour, ou en chace on en riviere,' &c. So we read of Sir Eglamour:--
'Sir Eglamore took the way to the riuèr ffull right'; Percy Folio MS. ii. 347.
Of Ipomydon's education we learn that his tutor taught him to sing, to read, to serve in hall, to carve the meat, and
'Bothe of howndis and haukis game Aftir he taught hym, all and same, In se, in feld, and eke in ryuere, In wodde to chase the wild dere, And in the feld to ryde a stede, That all men had joy of his dede.' Weber's Met. Romances, ii. 283.
See also the Squire of Low Degree, in Ritson, vol. iii. p. 177.
1931. ram, the usual prize at a wrestling match. Cf. Gk. [Greek: tragôidia].
stonde, i. e. be placed in the sight of the competitors; be seen. Cf. Prol. A. 548, and the Tale of Gamelyn, 172. Tyrwhitt says--'Matthew Paris mentions a wrestling-match at Westminster, A.D. 1222, in which a ram was the prize, p. 265.' Cf. also--
'At wresteling, and at ston-castynge He wan the prys without lesynge,' &c.; Octouian Imperator, in Weber's Met. Rom. iii. 194.
1933. paramour, longingly; a common expression; see the Glossary.
1937. hepe, mod. E. 'hip,' the fruit of the dog-rose; A. S. h[=e]ope.
1938. Compare--'So hyt be-felle upon a day'; Erle of Tolous, Ritson's Met. Rom. iii. 134. Of course it is a common phrase in these romances.
1941. worth, lit. became; worth upon = became upon, got upon. It is a common phrase; compare--
'Ipomydon sterte vp that tyde; Anon he worthyd vppon his stede'; Weber, Met. Rom. ii. 334.
1942. launcegay, a sort of lance. Gower has the word, Conf. Amant. bk. viii. (ed. Pauli, iii. 369). Cowel says its use was prohibited by the statute of 7 Rich. II, cap. 13. Camden mentions it in his Remaines, p. 209. Tyrwhitt quotes, from Rot. Parl. 29 Hen. VI, n. 8, the following--'And the said Evan then and there with a launcegaye smote the said William Tresham throughe the body a foote and more, wherof he died.' Sir Walter Raleigh (quoted by Richardson) [188] says--'These carried a kind of lance de gay, sharp at both ends, which they held in the midst of the staff.' But this is certainly a corrupt form. It is no doubt a corruption of lancezagay, from the Spanish azagaya, a word of Moorish origin. Cotgrave gives--'Zagaye, a fashion of slender, long, and long-headed pike, used by the Moorish horsemen.' It seems originally to have been rather a short weapon, a kind of half-pike or dart. The Spanish word is well discussed in Dozy, Glossaire des mots Espagnols et Portugais dérivés de l'Arabe, 2nd ed. p. 225. The Spanish azagaya is for az-zagaya, where az is for the definite article al, and zagaya is a Berber or Algerian word, not given in the Arabic dictionaries. It is found in Old Spanish of the fourteenth century. Dozy quotes from a writer who explains it as a Moorish half-pike, and also gives the following passage from Laugier de Tassy, Hist. du royaume d'Alger, p. 58--'Leurs armes sont l'azagaye, qui est une espéce de lance courte, qu'ils portent toujours à la main.' The Caffre word assagai, in the sense of javelin, was simply borrowed from the Portuguese azagaia.
1949. a sory care, a grievous misfortune. Chaucer does not say what this was, but a passage in Amis and Amiloun (ed. Weber, ii. 410) makes it probable that Sir Thopas nearly killed his horse, which would have been grievous indeed; see l. 1965 below. The passage I allude to is as follows:--
'So long he priked, withouten abod, The stede that he on rode, In a fer cuntray, Was ouercomen and fel doun ded; Tho couthe he no better red [counsel]; His song was "waileway!"'
Readers of Scott will remember Fitz-James's lament over his 'gallant grey.'
1950. This can hardly be other than a burlesque upon the Squire of Low Degree (ed. Ritson, iii. 146), where a long list of trees is followed up, as here, by a list of singing-birds. Compare also the Romaunt of the Rose, l. 1367:--
'There was eek wexing many a spyce, As clow-gelofre and licoryce, Gingere, and greyn de paradys, Canelle, and setewale of prys,' &c.
Observe the mention of notemigges in the same, l. 1361.
Line 21 of the Milleres Tale (A. 3207) runs similarly:--
'Of licorys or any setewale.'
Maundeville speaks of the clowe-gilofre and notemuge in his 26th chapter; see Specimens of E. Eng. ed. Morris and Skeat, p. 171. Cetewale is generally explained as the herb valerian, but is certainly zedoary; see the Glossary. Clowe-gilofre, a clove; notemuge, a [189] nutmeg. 'Spiced ale' is amongst the presents sent by Absolon to Alisoun in the Milleres Tale (A. 3378). Cf. the list of spices in King Alisaunder, ed. Weber, 6790-9.
1955. leye in cofre, to lay in a box.
1956. Compare Amis and Amiloun, ed. Weber, ii, 391:--
'She herd the foules grete and smale, The swete note of the nightingale, Ful mirily sing on tre.'
See also Romaunt of the Rose, ll. 613-728. But Chaucer's burlesque is far surpassed by a curious passage in the singular poem of The Land of Cockaygne (MS. Harl. 913), ll. 71-100:--
'In þe praer [meadow] is a tre Swiþe likful for to se. Þe rote is gingeuir and galingale, Þe siouns beþ al sed[e]wale; Trie maces beþ þe flure; Þe rind, canel of swet odur; Þe frute, gilofre of gode smakke, &c. Þer beþ briddes mani and fale, Þ_rostil_, þruisse, and ni[gh]tingale, Chalandre and wod[e]wale, And oþer briddes wiþout tale [number], Þat stinteþ neuer by har mi[gh]t Miri to sing[e] dai and ni[gh]t,' &c.
1964. as he were wood, as if he were mad, 'like mad.' So in Amis and Amiloun (ed. Weber), ii. 419:--
'He priked his stede night and day As a gentil knight, stout and gay.'
Cf. note to l. 1949.
1974. seinte, being feminine, and in the vocative case, is certainly a dissyllable here--'O seintè Márie, ben'cite.' Cf. note to B. 1170 above.
1977. Me dremed, I dreamt. Both dremen (to dream) and meten (also to dream) are sometimes used with a dative case and reflexively in Old English. In the Nonne Prestes Tale we have me mette (l. 74) and this man mette (l. 182); B. 4084, 4192.
1978. An elf-queen. Mr. Price says--'There can be little doubt that at one period the popular creed made the same distinctions between the Queen of Faerie and the Elf-queen that were observed in Grecian mythology between their undoubted parallels, Artemis and Persephone.' Chaucer makes Proserpine the 'queen of faerie' in his Marchauntes Tale; but at the beginning of the Wyf of Bathes Tale, he describes the elf-queen as the queen of the fairies, and makes elf and fairy synonymous. Perhaps this elf-queen in Sire Thopas (called the queen of fairye in l. 2004) may have given Spenser the hint for his Faerie [190] Queene. But the subject is a vast one. See Price's Preface, in Warton's Hist. Eng. Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, pp. 30-36; Halliwell's Illustrations of Fairy Mythology; Keightley's Fairy Mythology; Warton's Observations on the Faerie Queene, sect. ii; Sir W. Scott's ballad of Thomas the Rhymer, &c.
1979. under my gore, within my robe or garment. In l. 2107 (on which see the note) we have under wede signifying merely 'in his dress.' We have a somewhat similar phrase here, in which, however, gore (lit. gusset) is put for the whole robe or garment. That it was a mere phrase, appears from other passages. Thus we find under gore, under the dress, Owl and Nightingale, l. 515; Reliquiae Antiquae, vol. i. p. 244, vol. ii. p. 210; with three more examples in the Gloss. to Böddeker's Altenglische Dichtungen des MS. Harl. 2253. In one of these a lover addresses his lady as 'geynest under gore,' i. e. fairest within a dress. For the exact sense of gore, see note to A. 3237.
1983. In toune, in the town, in the district. But it must not be supposed that much sense is intended by this inserted line. It is a mere tag, in imitation of some of the romances. Either Chaucer has neglected to conform to the new kind of stanza which he now introduces (which is most likely), or else three lines have been lost before this one. The next three stanzas are longer, viz. of ten lines each, of which only the seventh is very short. For good examples of these short lines, see Sir Gawayne and the Greene Kny[gh]t, ed. Morris; and for a more exact account of the metres here employed, see vol. iii. p. 425.
1993. So wilde. Instead of this short line, Tyrwhitt has:--
'Wherin he soughte North and South, And oft he spied with his mouth In many a forest wilde.'
But none of our seven MSS. agrees with this version, nor are these lines found in the black-letter editions. The notion of spying with one's mouth seems a little too far-fetched.
1995. This line is supplied from MS. Reg. 17 D. 15, where Tyrwhitt found it; but something is so obviously required here, that we must insert it to make some sense. It suits the tone of the context to say that 'neither wife nor child durst oppose him.' We may, however, bear in mind that the meeting of a knight-errant with one of these often preceded some great adventure. 'And in the midst of an highway he [Sir Lancelot] met a damsel riding on a white palfrey, and there either saluted other. Fair damsel, said Sir Lancelot, know ye in this country any adventures? Sir knight, said that damsel, here are adventures near hand, and thou durst prove them'; Sir T. Malory, Morte Arthur, bk. vi. cap. vii. The result was that Lancelot fought with Sir Turquine, and defeated him. Soon after, he was 'required of a damsel to heal her brother'; and again, 'at the request of a lady' he recovered a falcon; an adventure which ended in a fight, as usual. Kölbing points out a parallel line in Sir Guy of Warwick, 45-6:-- [191]
'In all Englond ne was ther none That durste in wrath ayenst hym goon'; Caius MS., ed. Zupitza, p. 5.
1998. Olifaunt, i. e. Elephant; a proper name, as Tyrwhitt observes, for a giant. Maundeville has the form olyfauntes for elephants. By some confusion the Moeso-Goth. ulbandus and A. S. olfend are made to signify a camel. Spenser has put Chaucer's Olifaunt into his Faerie Queene, bk. iii. c. 7. st. 48, and makes him the brother of the giantess Argantè, and son of Typhoeus and Earth. The following description of a giant is from Libius Disconius (Percy Folio MS. vol. ii. p. 465):--
'He beareth haires on his brow Like the bristles of a sow, His head is great and stout; Eche arme is the lenght of an ell, His fists beene great and fell, Dints for to driue about.'
Sir Libius says:--
'If God will me grace send, Or this day come to an end I hope him for to spill,' &c.
Another giant, 20 feet long, and 2 ells broad, with two boar's tusks, and also with brows like bristles of a swine, appears in Octouian Imperator, ed. Weber, iii. 196. See also the alliterative Morte Arthure, ed. Brock, p. 33.
2000. child; see note to l. 2020. Termagaunt; one of the idols whom the Saracens (in the medieval romances) are supposed to worship. See The King of Tars, ed. Ritson (Met. Rom., ii. 174-182), where the Sultan's gods are said to be Jubiter, Jovin (both forms of Jupiter), Astrot (Astarte), Mahoun (Mahomet), Appolin (Apollo), Plotoun (Pluto), and Tirmagaunt. Lybeaus Disconus (Ritson, Met. Rom. ii. 55) fought with a giant 'that levede yn Termagaunt.' The Old French form is Tervagant, Ital. Tervagante or Trivigante, as in Ariosto. Wheeler, in his Noted Names of Fiction, gives the following account--'Ugo Foscolo says: "Trivigante, whom the predecessors of Ariosto always couple with Apollino, is really Diana Trivia, the sister of the classical Apollo.".... According to Panizzi, Trivagante or Tervagante is the Moon, or Diana, or Hecate, wandering under three names. Termagant was an imaginary being, supposed by the crusaders, who confounded Mahometans with pagans, to be a Mahometan deity. This imaginary personage was introduced into early English plays and moralities, and was represented as of a most violent character, so that a ranting actor might always appear to advantage in it. See Hamlet, iii. 2. 15.' Fairfax, in his translation of Tasso (c. i. st. 84), speaks of Termagaunt and Mahound, but Tasso mentions 'Macometto' only. See also Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 47. Hence comes our termagant in the sense of a noisy boisterous woman. Shakespeare has--'that hot [192] termagant Scot'; 1 Hen. IV., v. 2. 114. Cf. Ritson's note, Met. Rom. iii. 257.
2002. slee, will slay. In Anglo-Saxon, there being no distinct future tense, it is expressed by the present. Cf. go for will go in 'we also go with thee'; John xxi. 3.
2005. simphonye, the name of a kind of tabor. In Ritson's Ancient Songs, i. lxiv., is a quotation from Hawkins's Hist. of Music, ii. 284, in which that author cites a passage from Batman's translation of Bartholomaeus de Proprietatibus Rerum, to the effect that the symphonie was 'an instrument of musyke ... made of an holowe tree [i. e. piece of wood], closyd in lether in eyther syde; and mynstrels beteth it with styckes.' Probably the symphangle was the same instrument. In Rob. of Brunne's Handlyng Synne, ll. 4772-3, we find:--
'Yn harpe, yn thabour, and symphangle, Wurschepe God, yn trumpes and sautre.'
Godefroy gives the O. F. spellings cifonie, siphonie, chifonie, cinfonie, cymphonie, &c.; all clearly derived from the Greek [Greek: sumphônia]; see Luke, xv. 25. Cf. Squyre of Lowe Degre, 1070-7.
2007. al-so mote I thee, as I may thrive; or, as I hope to thrive; a common expression. Cf. 'So mote y thee'; Sir Eglamour, ed. Halliwell, l. 430; Occleve, De Regimine Principum, st. 620. Chaucer also uses 'so thee ik,' i. e. so thrive I, in the Reves Prologue (A. 3864) and elsewhere.
2012. Abyen it ful soure, very bitterly shalt thou pay for it. There is a confusion between A. S. súr, sour, and A. S. sár, sore, in this and similar phrases; both were used once, but now we should use sorely, not sourly. In Layamon, l. 8158, we find 'þou salt it sore abugge,' thou shalt sorely pay for it; on the other hand, we find in P. Plowman, B. ii. 140:--
'It shal bisitte [gh]owre soules · ful soure atte laste.'
So also in the C-text, though the A-text has sore. Note that in another passage, P. Plowman, B. xviii. 401, the phrase is--'Thow shalt abye it bittre.' For abyen, see the Glossary.
2015. fully pryme. See note to Nonne Prestes Tale, B. 4045. Prime commonly means the period from 6 to 9 a.m. Fully prime refers to the end of that period, or 9 a.m.; and even prime alone may be used with the same explicit meaning, as in the Nonne Pres. Ta., B. 4387.
2019. staf-slinge. Tyrwhitt observes that Lydgate describes David as armed only 'with a staffe-slynge, voyde of plate and mayle.' It certainly means a kind of sling in which additional power was gained by fastening the lithe part of it on to the end of a stiff stick. Staff-slyngeres are mentioned in the romance of Richard Coer de Lion, l. 4454, in Weber's Metrical Romances, ii. 177. In Col. Yule's edition of Marco Polo, ii. 122, is a detailed description of the artillery engines of the middle ages. They can all be reduced to two classes; those [193] which, like the trebuchet and mangonel, are enlarged staff-slings, and those which, like the arblast and springold, are great cross-bows. Conversely, we might describe a staff-sling as a hand-trebuchet.
2020. child Thopas. Child is an appellation given to both knights and squires, in the early romances, at an age when they had long passed the period which we now call childhood. A good example is to be found in the Erle of Tolous, ed. Ritson, iii. 123:--
'He was a feyre chylde, and a bolde, Twenty wyntur he was oolde, In londe was none so free.'
Compare Romance of 'Horn Childe and Maiden Rimnild,' pr. in Ritson, iii. 282; the ballad of Childe Waters, &c. Byron, in his preface to Childe Harold, says--'It is almost superfluous to mention that the appellation "Childe," as "Childe Waters," "Childe Childers," &c., is used as more consonant with the old structure of versification which I have adopted.' He adopts, however, the late and artificial metre of Spenser.
2023. A palpable imitation. The first three lines of Sir Bevis of Hampton (MS. Camb. Univ. Lib. Ff. ii. 38, leaf 94, back) are--
'Lordynges, lystenyth, grete and smale, Meryar then the nyghtyngale I wylle yow synge.
In a long passage in Todd's Illustrations to Chaucer, pp. 284-292, it is contended that mery signifies sweet, pleasant, agreeable, without relation to mirth. Chaucer describes the Frere as wanton and merry, Prol. A. 208; he speaks of the merry day, Kn. Ta. 641 (A. 1499); a merry city, N. P. Ta. 251 (B. 4261); of Arcite being told by Mercury to be merry, i. e. of good cheer, Kn. Ta. 528 (A. 1386); in the Manciple's Tale (H. 138), the crow sings merrily, and makes a sweet noise; Chanticleer's voice was merrier than the merry organ, N. P. Ta. 31 (B. 4041); the 'erbe yve' is said to be merry, i. e. pleasant, agreeable, id. 146 (B. 4156); the Pardoner (Prol. A. 714) sings merrily and loud. We must remember, however, that the Host, being 'a mery man,' began to speak of 'mirthe'; Prol. A. 757, 759. A very early example of the use of the word occurs in the song attributed to Canute--'Merie sungen the Muneches binnen Ely,' &c. See the phrase 'mery men' in l. 2029.
2028. The phrase to come to toune seems to mean no more than simply to return. Cf. Specimens of E. Eng., ed. Morris and Skeat, p. 48--
'Lenten ys come wiþ loue to toune'--
which merely means that spring, with its thoughts of love, has returned. See the note on that line.
2034. for paramour, for love; but the par, or else the for, is redundant. Iolite, amusement; used ironically in the Kn. Ta. 949 (A. 1807). Sir Thopas is going to fight the giant for the love and amusement of [194] one who shone full bright; i. e. a fair lady, of course. But Sir Thopas, in dropping this mysterious hint to his merry men, refrains from saying much about it, as he had not yet seen the Fairy Queen, and had only the giant's word for her place of abode. The use of the past tense shone is artful; it implies that he wished them to think that he had seen his lady-love; or else that her beauty was to be taken for granted. Observe, too, that it is Sir Thopas, not Chaucer, who assigns to the giant his three heads.
2035. Do come, cause to come; go and call hither. Cf. House of Fame, l. 1197:--
'Of alle maner of minstrales, And gestiours, that tellen tales Bothe of weping and of game.'
Tyrwhitt's note on gestours is--'The proper business of a gestour was to recite tales, or gestes; which was only one of the branches of the Minstrel's profession. Minstrels and gestours are mentioned together in the following lines from William of Nassyngton's Translation of a religious treatise by John of Waldby; MS. Reg. 17 C. viii. p. 2:--
I warne you furst at the beginninge, That I will make no vain carpinge Of dedes of armys ne of amours, As dus mynstrelles and jestours, That makys carpinge in many a place Of Octoviane and Isembrase, And of many other jestes, And namely, whan they come to festes; Ne of the life of Bevys of Hampton, That was a knight of gret renoun, Ne of Sir Gye of Warwyke, All if it might sum men lyke, &c.
I cite these lines to shew the species of tales related by the ancient Gestours, and how much they differed from what we now call jests.'
The word geste here means a tale of the adventures of some hero, like those in the Chansons de geste. Cf. note to l. 2123 below. Sometimes the plural gestes signifies passages of history. The famous collection called the Gesta Romanorum contains narratives of very various kinds.
2038. royales, royal; some MSS. spell the word reales, but the meaning is the same. In the romance of Ywain and Gawain (Ritson, vol. i.) a maiden is described as reading 'a real romance.' Tyrwhitt thinks that the term originated with an Italian collection of romances relating to Charlemagne, which began with the words--'Qui se comenza la hystoria el Real di Franza,' &c.; edit. Mutinae, 1491, folio. It was reprinted in 1537, with a title beginning--'I reali di Franza,' &c. He refers to Quadrío, t. vi. p. 530. The word roial (in some MSS. real) [195] occurs again in l. 2043. Kölbing remarks that the prose romance of Generides is called a royal historie, though it has nothing to do with Charlemagne.
2043. No comma is required at the end of this line; the articles mentioned in ll. 2044-6 all belong to spicery. Cf. additional note to Troilus, vol. ii. p. 506.
2047. dide, did on, put on. The arming of Lybeaus Disconus is thus described in Ritson's Met. Rom. ii. 10:--
'They caste on hym a scherte of selk, A gypell as whyte as melk, In that semely sale; And syght [for sith] an hawberk bryght, That rychely was adyght Wyth mayles thykke and smale.'
2048. lake, linen; see Glossary. 'De panno de lake'; York Wills, iii. 4 (anno 1395).
2050. aketoun, a short sleeveless tunic. Cf. Liber Albus, p. 376.
'And Florentyn, with hys ax so broun, All thorgh he smoot Arm and mayle, and akketoun, Thorghout hyt bot [bit]'; Octouian, ed. Weber, iii. 205.
'For plate, ne for acketton, For hauberk, ne for campeson'; Richard Coer de Lion, ed. Weber, ii. 18.
The Glossary to the Percy Folio MS., ed. Hales and Furnivall, has--'Acton, a wadded or quilted tunic worn under the hauberk.--Planché, i. 108.' Thynne, in his Animadversions (Early Eng. Text Soc.), p. 24, says--'Haketon is a slevelesse jackett of plate for the warre, couered withe anye other stuffe; at this day also called a jackett of plate.'
It is certain that the plates were a later addition. It is the mod. F. hoqueton, O. F. auqueton; and it is certain that the derivation is from Arab. al-qoton or al-qutun, lit. 'the cotton'; so that it was originally made of quilted cotton. See auqueton in Godefroy, hoqueton in Devic's Supp. to Littré, and Acton in the New E. Dict.
2051. habergeoun, coat of mail. See Prol. A. 76, and the note.
2052. For percinge, as a protection against the piercing. So in P. Plowman, B. vi. 62, Piers puts on his cuffs, 'for colde of his nailles,' i. e. as a protection against the cold. So too in the Rom. of the Rose, l. 4229.
2053. The hauberk is here put on as an upper coat of mail, of finer workmanship and doubtless more flexible.
'The hauberk was al reed of rust, His platys thykke and swythe just'; Octouian, ed. Weber, iii. 200. [196]
'He was armed wonder weel, And al with plates off good steel, And ther aboven, an hawberk'; Richard Coer de Lion, ed. Weber, ii. 222.
2054. Jewes werk, Jew's work. Tyrwhitt imagined that Jew here means a magician, but there is not the least foundation for the idea. Mr. Jephson is equally at fault in connecting Jew with jewel, since the latter word is etymologically connected with joy. The phrase still remains unexplained. I suspect it means no more than wrought with rich or expensive work, such as Jews could best find the money for. It is notorious that they were the chief capitalists, and they must often have had to find money for paying armourers. Or, indeed, it may refer to damascened work; from the position of Damascus.
2055. plate. Probably the hauberk had a breastplate on the front of it. But on the subject of armour, I must refer the reader to Godwin's English Archaeologist's Handbook, pp. 252-268; Planché's History of British Costume, and Sir S. R. Meyrick's Observations on Body-armour, in the Archaeologia, vol. xix. pp. 120-145.
2056. The cote-armour was not for defence, but a mere surcoat on which the knight's armorial bearings were usually depicted, in order to identify him in the combat or 'debate.' Hence the modern coat-of-arms.
2059. reed, red. In the Romances, gold is always called red, and silver white. Hence it was not unusual to liken gold to blood, and this explains why Shakespeare speaks of armour being gilt with blood (King John, ii. 1. 316), and makes Lady Macbeth talk of gilding the groom's faces with blood (Macbeth, ii. 2. 56). See also Coriol. v. 1. 63, 64; and the expression 'blood bitokeneth gold'; Cant. Tales, D. 581.
2060. Cf. Libeaus Desconus, ed. Kaluza, 1657-8:--
'His scheld was asur fin, Thre bores heddes ther-inne.'
And see the editor's note, at p. 201.
2061. 'A carbuncle (Fr. escarboucle) was a common [armorial] bearing. See Guillim's Heraldry, p. 109.'--Tyrwhitt.
2062. Sir Thopas is made to swear by ale and bread, in ridiculous imitation of the vows made by the swan, the heron, the pheasant, or the peacock, on solemn occasions.
2065. Iambeux, armour worn in front of the shins, above the mail-armour that covered the legs; see Fairholt. He tells us that, in Roach Smith's Catalogue of London Antiquities, p. 132, is figured a pair of cuirbouilly jambeux, which are fastened by thongs. Spenser borrows the word, but spells it giambeux, F. Q. ii. 6. 29.
quirboilly, i. e. cuir bouilli, leather soaked in hot water to soften it that it might take any required shape, after which it was dried and became exceedingly stiff and hard. In Matthew Paris (anno 1243) it is [197] said of the Tartars--'De coriis bullitis sibi arma leuia quidem, sed tamen impenetrabilia coaptarunt.' In Marco Polo, ed. Yule, ii. 49, it is said of the men of Carajan, that they wear armour of boiled leather (French text, armes cuiracés de cuir bouilli). Froissart (v. iv. cap. 19) says the Saracens covered their targes with 'cuir bouilli de Cappadoce, ou nul fer ne peut prendre n'attacher, si le cuir n'est trop échaufé.' When Bruce reviewed his troops on the morning of the battle of Bannockburn, he wore, according to Barbour, 'ane hat of qwyrbolle' on his 'basnet,' and 'ane hye croune' above that. Some remarks on cuir bouilli will be found in Cutts, Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages, p. 344.
2068. rewel-boon, probably whale-ivory, or ivory made of whales' teeth. In the Turnament of Tottenham, as printed in Percy's reliques, we read that Tyb had 'a garland on her hed ful of rounde bonys,' where another copy has (says Halliwell, s. v. ruel) the reading--'fulle of ruelle-bones.' Halliwell adds--'In the romaunce of Rembrun, p. 458, the coping of a wall is mentioned as made 'of fin ruwal, that schon swithe brighte.' And in MS. Camb. Univ. Lib. Ff. v. 48, fol. 119, is the passage--
'Hir sadill_e_ was of reuylle-bone, Semely was þ_a_t sight to se, Stifly sette w_i_t_h_ p_re_cious ston_e_, Compaste about w_i_t_h_ crapote [toad-stone].'
In Sir Degrevant, 1429, a roof is said to be--
'buskyd above With besauntus ful bryghth, All of ruel-bon,' &c.
Quite near the beginning of the Vie de Seint Auban, ed. Atkinson, we have--
'mes ne ert d'or adubbee, ne d'autre metal, de peres preciuses, de ivoire ne roal';
i. e. but it was not adorned with gold nor other metal, nor with precious stones, nor ivory, nor rewel. Du Cange gives a Low Lat. form rohanlum, and an O. Fr. rochal, but tells us that the MS. readings are rohallum and rohal. The passage occurs in the Laws of Normandy about wreckage, and should run--'dux sibi retinet ... ebur, rohallum, lapides pretiosas'; or, in the French version, 'l'ivoire, et le rohal, et les pierres precieuses.' Ducange explains the word by 'rock-crystal,' but this is a pure guess, suggested by F. roche, a rock. It is clear that, when the word is spelt rochal, the ch denotes the same sound as the Ger. ch, a guttural resembling h, and not the F. ch at all. Collecting all the spellings, we find them to be, in French, rohal, rochal, roal; and, in English, ruwal, rewel, ruel, (reuylle, ruelle). The h and w might arise from a Teutonic hw, so that the latter part of the word was originally -hwal, i. e. whale; hence, perhaps, Godefroy explains F. rochal as 'ivoire de morse,' ivory of the walrus (A. S. hors-hwæl). The [198] true origin seems rather to be some Norse form akin to Norweg. röyrkval (E. rorqual). Some whales, as the cachalot, have teeth that afford a kind of ivory; and this is what seems to be alluded to. The expression 'white as whale-bone,' i. e. white as whale-ivory, was once common; see Weber's Met. Romances, iii. 350; and whales-bone in Nares. Most of this ivory was derived, however, from the tusk of the walrus or the narwhal. Sir Thopas's saddle was ornamented with ivory.
2071. cipress, cypress-wood. In the Assembly of Foules, l. 179, we have--
'The sailing firr, the cipres, deth to pleyne'--
i. e. the cypress suitable for lamenting a death. Vergil calls the cypress 'atra,' Æn. iii. 64, and 'feralis,' vi. 216; and as it is so frequently a symbol of mourning, it may be said to bode war.
2078. In Sir Degrevant (ed. Halliwell, p. 191) we have just this expression--
'Here endyth the furst fit. Howe say ye? will ye any more of hit?'
2085. love-drury, courtship. All the six MSS. have this reading. According to Wright, the Harl. MS. has 'Of ladys loue and drewery,' which Tyrwhitt adopts; but it turns out that Wright's reading is copied from Tyrwhitt; the MS. really has--'And of ladys loue drewery,' like the rest.
2088. The romance or lay of Horn appears in two forms in English. In King Horn, ed. Lumby, Early Eng. Text Soc., 1866, printed also in Mätzner's Altenglische Sprachproben, i. 207, the form of the poem is in short rimed couplets. But Chaucer no doubt refers to the other form with the title Horn Childe and Maiden Rimnild, in a metre similar to Sir Thopas, printed in Ritson's Metrical Romances, iii. 282. The Norman-French text was printed by F. Michel for the Bannatyne Club, with the English versions, in a volume entitled--Horn et Riemenhild; Recueil de ce qui reste des poëmes relatifs à leurs aventures, &c. Paris, 1845. See Mr. Lumby's preface and the remarks in Mätzner.
It is not quite clear why Chaucer should mention the romance of Sir Ypotis here, as it has little in common with the rest. There are four MS. copies of it in the British Museum, and three at Oxford. 'It professes to be a tale of holy writ, and the work of St. John the Evangelist. The scene is Rome. A child, named Ypotis, appears before the Emperor Adrian, saying that he is come to teach men God's law; whereupon the Emperor proceeds to interrogate him as to what is God's Law, and then of many other matters, not in any captious spirit, but with the utmost reverence and faith.... There is a little tract in prose on the same legend from the press of Wynkyn de Worde'; J. W. Hales, in Hazlitt's edition of Warton's Hist. of Eng. Poetry, ii. 183. It was printed in 1881, from the Vernon MS. at Oxford, in Horstmann's Altenglische Legenden, Neue Folge, pp. 341-8. It is hard to believe that, by Ypotys, Chaucer meant (as some say) Ypomadoun. [199]
The romance of Sir Bevis of Hampton (i. e. Southampton) was printed from the Auchinleck MS. for the Maitland Club in 1838, 4to. Another copy is in MS. Ff. 2. 38, in the Cambridge University Library. It has lately been edited, from six MS. copies and an old printed text, by Prof. Kölbing, for the Early Eng. Text Society. There is an allusion in it to the Romans, meaning the French original. It appears in prose also, in various forms. See Warton's Hist. of Eng. Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 142, where there is also an account of Sir Guy, in several forms; but a still fuller account of Sir Guy is given in the Percy Folio MS., ed. Hales and Furnivall, ii. 509. This Folio MS. itself contains three poems on the latter subject, viz. Guy and Amarant, Guy and Colbrande, and Guy and Phillis. 'Sir Guy of Warwick' has been edited for the Early Eng. Text Society by Prof. Zupitza.
By Libeux is meant Lybeaus Disconus, printed by Ritson in his Metrical Romances, vol. ii. from the Cotton MS. Caligula A. 2. A later copy, with the title Libius Disconius, is in the Percy Folio MS. ii. 404, where a good account of the romance may be found. The best edition is that by Dr. Max Kulaza, entitled Libeaus Desconus; Leipzig, 1890. The French original was discovered in 1855, in a MS. belonging to the Duc d'Aumale. Its title is Li Biaus Desconneus, which signifies The Fair Unknown.
Pleyndamour evidently means plein d'amour, full of love, and we may suspect that the original romance was in French; but there is now no trace of any romance of that name, though a Sir Playne de Amours is mentioned in Sir T. Malory's Morte Darthur, bk. ix. c. 7. Spenser probably borrowed hence his Sir Blandamour, F. Q. iv. 1. 32.
2092. After examining carefully the rimes in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Mr. Bradshaw finds that this is the sole instance in which a word which ought etymologically to end in -yë is rimed with a word ending in -y without a following final e. A reason for the exception is easily found; for Chaucer has here adopted the swing of the ballad metre, and hence ventures to deprive chiualryë of its final e, and to call it chivalry' so that it may rime with Gy, after the manner of the ballad-writers; cf. Squyre of Lowe Degre, 79, 80. So again chivalryë, druryë become chivalry, drury; ll. 2084, 2085. We even find plas for plac-e, 1971; and gras for grac-e, 2021.
2094. glood, glided. So in all the MSS. except E., which has the poor reading rood, rode. For the expression in l. 2095, compare--
'But whenne he was horsede on a stede, He sprange als any sparke one [read of] glede'; Sir Isumbras, ed. Halliwell, p. 107.
'Lybeaus was redy boun, And lepte out of the arsoun [bow of the saddle] As sperk thogh out of glede'; Lybeaus Disconus, in Ritson, ii. 27. [200]
'Then sir Lybius with ffierce hart, Out of his saddle swythe he start As sparcle doth out of fyer'; Percy Folio MS. ii. 440.
2106. The first few lines of the romance of Sir Perceval of Galles (ed. Halliwell, p. 1) will at once explain Chaucer's allusion. It begins--
'Lef, lythes to me Two wordes or thre Of one that was faire and fre And felle in his fighte; His right name was Percyvelle, He was fostered in the felle, He dranke water of the welle, And [gh]itt was he wyghte!'
Both Sir Thopas and Sir Perceval were water-drinkers, but it did not impair their vigour.
In the same romance, p. 84, we find--
'Of mete ne drynke he ne roghte, So fulle he was of care! Tille the nynte daye byfelle That he come to a welle, Ther he was wonte for to duelle And drynk take hym thare.'
These quotations set aside Mr. Jephson's interpretation, and solve Tyrwhitt's difficulty. Tyrwhitt says that 'The Romance of Perceval le Galois, or de Galis, was composed in octosyllable French verse by Chrestien de Troyes, one of the oldest and best French romancers, before the year 1191; Fauchet, l. ii. c. x. It consisted of above 60,000 verses (Bibl. des Rom. t. ii. p. 250) so that it would be some trouble to find the fact which is, probably, here alluded to. The romance, under the same title, in French prose, printed at Paris, 1530, fol., can be an abridgement, I suppose, of the original poem.'
2107. worthy under wede, well-looking in his armour. The phrase is very common. Tyrwhitt says it occurs repeatedly in the romance of Emare, and refers to folios 70, 71 b, 73 a, and 74 b of the MS.; but the reader may now find the romance in print; see Ritson's Metrical Romances, ii. pp. 214, 229, 235, 245. The phrase is used of ladies also, and must then mean of handsome appearance when well-dressed. See Amis and Amiloun, ed. Weber, ii. pp. 370, 375. Cf. l. 1979.
2108. The story is here broken off by the host's interruption. MSS. Pt. and Hl. omit this line, and MSS. Cp. and Ln. omit ll. 2105-7 as well. [201]
PROLOGUE TO MELIBEUS.
2111. of, by. lewednesse, ignorance; here, foolish talk.
2112. also, &c.; as verily as (I hope) God will render my soul happy. See Kn. Ta. A. 1863, 2234.
2113. drasty, filthy. Tyrwhitt and Bell print drafty, explained by full of draff or refuse. But there is no such word; the adjective (were there one) would take the form draffy. See drestys, i. e. dregs, lees of wine, in the Prompt. Parv., and Way's note, which gives the spelling drastus (a plural form) as occurring in MS. Harl. 1002. The Lat. feces is glossed by drastys in Wright's Vocab., ed. Wülcker, p. 625, l. 16. And the Lat. feculentus is glossed by the A. S. dræstig in the same, col. 238, l. 20.
2123. in geste, in the form of a regular story of adventure of some well-known hero; cf. House of Fame, 1434, 1515. The gestes generally pretended to have some sort of historical foundation; from Low Lat. gesta, doings. Sir Thopas was in this form, but the Host would not admit it, and wanted to hear about some one who was more renowned. 'Tell us,' he says, 'a tale like those in the chansons de geste, or at least something in prose that is either pleasant or profitable.'
2131. 'Although it is sometimes told in different ways by different people.'
2137. 'And all agree in their general meaning.' sentence, sense; see ll. 2142, 2151.
2148. Read it--Tenforcë with, &c.
THE TALE OF MELIBEUS.
For the sources of the Tale of Melibeus, see vol. iii. p. 426. It may suffice to say here that Chaucer's Tale is translated from the French version entitled Le Livre de Mellibee et Prudence, ascribed by M. Paul Meyer to Jean de Meung. Of this text there are two MS. copies in the British Museum, viz. MS. Reg. 19 C. vii. and MS. Reg. 19 C. xi, both of the fifteenth century; the former is said by Mr. T. Wright to be the more correct. It is also printed, as forming part of Le Menagier de Paris, the author of which embodied it in his book, written about 1393; the title of the printed book being--'Le Menagier de Paris; publié pour la première fois par la Société des Bibliophiles François; a Paris M.D. CCC. XLVI'; (tome i. p. 186); ed. J. Pichon. In the following notes, this is alluded to as the French text.
This French version was, in its turn, translated from the Liber Consolationis et Consilii of Albertano of Brescia, excellently edited for the Chaucer Society in 1873 by Thor Sundby, with the title 'Albertani Brixiensis Liber Consolationis et Consilii.' This is alluded to, in the following notes, as the Latin text. Thor Sundby's edition is most helpful, as the editor has taken great pains to trace the sources of the [202] very numerous quotations with which the Tale abounds; and I am thus enabled to give the references in most cases. I warn the reader that Albertano's quotations are frequently inexact.
Besides this, the Tale of Melibeus has been admirably edited, as a specimen of English prose, in Mätzner's Altenglische Sprachproben, ii. 375, with numerous notes, of which I here make considerable use. Owing to the great care taken by Sundby and Mätzner, the task of explaining the difficulties in this Tale has been made easy. The more important notes from Mätzner are marked 'Mr.'
The first line or clause (numbered 2157) ends with the word 'Sophie,' as shewn by the slanting stroke. The whole Tale is thus divided into clauses, for the purpose of ready reference, precisely as in the Six-text edition; I refer to these clauses as if they were lines. The 'paragraphs' are the same as in Tyrwhitt's edition.
2157. Melibeus. The meaning of the name is given below (note to l. 2600).
Prudence. 'It is from a passage of Cassiodorus, quoted by Albertano in cap. vi., that he [Albertano] has taken the name of his heroine, if we may call her so, and the general idea of her character:--"Superauit cuncta infatigabilis et expedita prudentia"; Cass. Variarum lib. ii. epist. 15.'--Sundby.
Sophie, i. e. wisdom, [Greek: sophia]. Neither the Latin nor the French text gives the daughter's name.
2159. Inwith, within; a common form in Chaucer; see note to B. 1794. Y-shette, pl. of y-shet, shut; as in B. 560.
2160. Thre; Lat. text, tres; Fr. text, trois. Tyrwhitt has foure, as in MSS. Cp. Ln.; yet in l. 2562, he prints 'thin enemies ben three,' and in l. 2615, he again prints 'thy three enemies.' Again, in l. 2612, it is explained that these three enemies signify, allegorically, the flesh, the world, and the devil.
2164. As ferforth, as far; as in B. 19, 1099, &c. Mätzner also quotes from Troilus, ii. 1106--'How ferforth be ye put in loves daunce.'
2165. Mätzner would read--'ever the lenger the more'; but see E. 687, F. 404.
2166. Ovide, Ovid. The passage referred to is--
'Quis matrem, nisi mentis inops, in funere nati Flere uetet? non hoc illa monenda loco. Cum dederit lacrimas, animumque expleuerit aegrum, Ille dolor uerbis emoderandus erit.' Remedia Amoris, 127-130.
2172. Warisshe, recover; Cp. Ln. Hl. be warisshed, be cured. Chaucer uses this verb elsewhere both transitively and intransitively, so that either reading will serve. For the transitive use, see below, ll. 2207, 2466, 2476, 2480; also F. 856, 1138, 1162; Book of Duch. 1104. For the intransitive use, observe that, in F. 856, Cp. Pt. Ln. have--'then wolde myn herte Al waryssche of this bitter peynes [203] smerte'; and cf. Morte Arthure, 2186--'I am wathely woundide, waresche mon I neuer!'--M.
Lat. text--'Filia tua, dante Domino, bene liberabitur.'
2174. Senek, Seneca. 'Non affligitur sapiens liberorum amissione, non amicorum; eodem animo enim fert illorum mortem quo suam expectat'; Epist. 74, § 29.
2177. Lazarus; see John, xi. 35.
2178. Attempree, moderate; Lat. text, 'temperatus fletus.' Hl. attemperel, which Mätzner illustrates. Cf. D. 2053, where Hl. has attemperelly; and E. 1679, where Hl. has attemperely. Cf. ll. 2570, 2728 below.
Nothing defended, not at all forbidden.
2179. See Rom. xii. 15.
2181. 'According to the doctrine that Seneca teaches us.' Cf. 'Non sicci sint oculi, amisso amico, nec fluant; lacrimandum est, non plorandum'; Epist. 63, § 1.
2183. This is also, practically, from Seneca: 'Quem amabis extulisti, quaere quem ames; satius est amicum reparare, quam flere'; Epist. 63, § 9.
2185. Iesus Syrak, Jesus the son of Sirach. 'Ecclesiasticus is the title given in the Latin version to the book which is called in the Septuagint The Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach'; Smith, Dict. of the Bible. Compare the title 'A prayer of Jesus the son of Sirach' to Ecclus. ch. li. But the present quotation is really from Prov. xvii. 22. It is the next quotation, in l. 2186, that is from Ecclus. xxx. 25 (Vulgate), i. e. xxx. 23 in the English version. The mistake is due to misreading the original Lat. text, which quotes the passages in the reverse order, as being from 'Jesus Sirac' and 'alibi.'
2187. From Prov. xxv. 20; but the clause is omitted in the modern Eng. version, though Wycliffe has it. The Vulgate has:--'Sicut tinea uestimento, et uermis ligno: ita tristitia uiri nocet cordi.' The words in the shepes flees (in the sheep's fleece) are added by Chaucer, apparently by way of explanation. But the fact is that, according to Mätzner, the Fr. version here has 'la tigne, ou lartuison, nuit a la robe,' where artuison is the Mod. F. artison, explained by Cotgrave as 'a kind of moth'; and I strongly suspect that 'in the shepes flees' is due to this 'ou lartuison,' which Chaucer may have misread as en la toison. It looks very like it. I point other similar mistakes further on.
Anoyeth, harms; F. nuit, L. nocet. The use of to here is well illustrated by Mätzner, who compares Wycliffe's version of this very passage; 'As a moghe to the cloth, and a werm to the tree, so sorewe of a man noyeth to the herte'; whereas Purvey's later version thrice omits the to. In the Persones Tale, Group I. 847, anoyeth occurs both with to and without it.
2188. Us oghte, it would become us; oghte is in the subjunctive mood. Cf. hem oughte, it became them, in l. 2458; thee oughte, it became thee, in l. 2603.--Mr. The pres. indic. form is us oweth. [204]
Goodes temporels; F. text, biens temporels. Chaucer uses the F. pl. in -es or -s for the adjective in other places, and the adj. then usually follows the sb. Cf. lettres capitals, capital letters, Astrolabe, i. 16. 8; weyes espirituels, spiritual ways, Pers. Tale, I. 79; goodes espirituels, id. 312; goodes temporeles, id. 685; thinges espirituels, id. 784.--Mr.
2190. See Job, i. 21. Hath wold, hath willed (it); see 2615.
2193. Quotations from Solomon and from Ecclesiasticus are frequently confused, both throughout this Tale, and elsewhere. The reference is to Ecclus. xxxii. 24, in the Vulgate (cf. A. V. xxxii. 19); here Wycliffe has:--'Sone, withoute counseil no-thing do thou; and after thi deede thou shalt not othynke' (i. e. of-thinke, repent).
Thou shalt never repente; here Hl. has--'the thar neuer rewe,' i. e. it needeth never for thee to rue it.
2202. With-holde, retained. Cf. A. 511; Havelok, 2362.--Mr.
2204. Parties, &c.; Fr. text: supporter partie.--Mr.
2205. Hool and sound; a common phrase. Cf. Rob. of Glouc. pp. 163, 402, ed. Hearne (ll. 3417, 8301, ed. Wright); King Horn, l. 1365 (in Morris's Specimens of English); also l. 2300 below.--Mr.
2207. 'Heal, put a stop to, war by taking vengeance; a literal and very happy translation from the French--aussi doit on guerir guerre par vengence.'--Bell. Tyrwhitt omits the words by vengeaunce, and Lounsbury (Studies in Chaucer, i. 320) defends him, arguing that 'the physicians are represented as agreeing with the surgeons'; whereas Chaucer expressly says that 'they seyden a fewe wordes more.' The words 'by vengeaunce' are in all the seven MSS. and in the French original. Admittedly, they make nonsense, but the nonsense is expressly laid bare and exposed afterwards, when it appears that the physicians did not really add this clause, but Melibeus dreamt that they did (2465-2480). The fact is, however, that the words par vengence were wrongly interpolated in the French text. Chaucer should have omitted them, but the evidence shews that he did not. I decline to falsify the text in order to set the author right. We should then have to set the French text right also!
2209. 'Made this matter much worse, and aggravated it.'
2210. Outrely, utterly, entirely, i. e. without reserve; Fr. text tout oultre. Not from A. S. [=u]tor, outer, utter, but from F. oultre, outre, moreover; of which one sense, in Godefroy, is 'excessivement.' See E. 335, 639, 768, 953; C. 849; &c.
2216. Fr. text--'en telle maniere que tu soies bien pourveu d'espies et guettes.'--Mr.
2218. To moeve; Fr. text, de mouvoir guerre; cf. the Lat. phrase mouere bellum.--Mr.
2220. The Lat. text has here three phrases for Chaucer's 'common proverb.' It has: 'non enim subito uel celeriter est iudicandum, "omnia enim subita probantur incauta," et "in iudicando criminosa est celeritas," et "ad poenitendum properat qui cito iudicat."' Of these, the first is from Cassiodorus, Variarum lib. i. c. 17; and the second and [205] third from Publilius Syrus, Sententiae, 254 and 32 (ed. Friedrich, Berolini, 1880). For iudicando, as in some MSS., Friedrich has the variant vindicando. Cf. the Proverbs of Hending, l. 256: 'Ofte rap reweth,' haste often rues. See note to 2244.
2221. Men seyn; this does not necessarily mean that Chaucer is referring to a proverb. He is merely translating. The Lat. text has; 'quare dici consueuit, Optimum iudicem existimem, qui cito intelligit et tarde iudicat.' It also quotes two sentences (nos. 311 and 128) from Publilius Syrus: 'Mora omnis odio est, sed facit sapientiam'; and--'Deliberare utilia mora est tutissima.' Mätzner points out that there are two other sentences (nos. 659 and 32) in Publilius, which come very near the expression in the text, viz. 'Velox consilium sequitur poenitentia'; and--'Ad poenitendum properat, qui cito iudicat.'
2223. See John, viii. 3-8. For he wroot, Hl. has 'he_m_ wrot,' which is obviously wrong.
2227. Made contenaunce, made a sign, made a gesture. Among the senses of F. contenance, Cotgrave gives: 'gesture, posture, behaviour, carriage.'
2228. Fr. text--'qui ne scevent que guerre se monte.'--Mr.
2229. 'The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water'; Prov. xvii. 14.
2231. 'The chylde may rue that is vnborn'; Chevy Chase, l. 9.
2235. 'A tale out of season is as music in mourning'; Ecclus. xxii. 6.
2237. Not from 'Solomon,' but from 'Jesus, son of Sirach,' as before. The Lat. text agrees with the Vulgate version of Ecclus. xxxii. 6: 'ubi auditus non est, ne effundas sermonem'; the E. version (verse 4) is somewhat different, viz. 'Pour not out words where there is a musician, and shew not forth wisdom out of time.' Chaucer gives us the same saying again in verse; see B. 3991.
2238. Lat. text: 'semper consilium tunc deest, quando maxime opus est'; from Publilius Syrus, Sent. 594. (Read cum opus est maxime.)
2242. Cf. F. text--'Sire, dist elle, je vous prie que vous ne vous hastez, et que vous pour tous dons me donnez espace.'--Wright.
2243. Piers Alfonce, Petrus Alfonsi. 'Peter Alfonsus, or Alfonsi, was a converted Spanish Jew, who flourished in the twelfth century, and is well known for his Disciplina Clericalis, a collection of stories and moralisations in Latin prose, which was translated afterwards into French verse, under the title of the Chastoiement d'un pere a son fils. It was a book much in vogue among the preachers from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century.'--Wright. Tyrwhitt has a long note here; he says that a copy of this work is in MS. Bibl. Reg. 10 B. xii in the British Museum, and that there is also a copy of another work by the same author, entitled Dialogus contra Judaeos, in MS. Harl. 3861. He also remarks that the manner and style of the Disciplina Clericalis 'show many marks of an Eastern original; and one of his stories Of a trick put upon a thief is entirely taken from the Calilah a Damnah, a celebrated collection of Oriental apologues.' All the best fables of Alfonsus [206] were afterwards incorporated (says Tyrwhitt) into the Gesta Romanorum. He was born at Huesca, in Arragon, in 1062, and converted to Christianity in 1106.
The words here referred to are the following: 'Ne properes ulli reddere mutuum boni uel mali, quia diutius expectabit te amicus, et diutius timebit te inimicus'; Disc. Cler. xxv. 15; ed. F. W. V. Schmidt, Berlin, 1827, 4to., p. 71.
2244. The proverbe, &c.; not in either the Latin or the French texts. Cf. the proverb of Hending--'ofte rap reweth,' often haste rues it. Heywood has--'The more haste, the worse speed'; on which Ray notes--'Come s'ha fretta non si fa mai niente che stia bene'; Ital. Qui trop se hâte en cheminant, en beau chemin se fourvoye souvent; Fr. Qui nimis properè minus prosperè; et nimium properans serius absoluit.
'Tarry a little, that we may make an end the sooner, was a saying of Sir Amias Paulet. Presto e bene non si conviene; Ital.' See 2325 below, and observe that Chaucer has the same form of words in Troil. i. 956.
2247. From Ecclesiastes, vii. 28. Cf. A. 3154.
2249. From Ecclus. xxv. 30 (Vulgate): 'Mulier, si primatum habeat, contraria est uiro suo.' Not in the A. V.; cf. v. 22 of that version.
2250. From Ecclus. xxxiii. 20-22 (Vulgate); 19-21 (A. V.).
2251. After noght be, ed. 1550 adds--'if I shuld be cou_n_sayled by the'; but this is redundant. See next note.
2252-3. These clauses are omitted in the MSS. and black-letter editions, but are absolutely necessary to the sense. The French text has--'car il est escript: la jenglerie des femmes ne puet riens celer fors ce qu'elle ne scet. Apres, le philosophe dit: en mauvais conseil les femmes vainquent les hommes. Pour ces raisons, je ne doy point user de ton conseil.' It is easy to turn this into Chaucerian English, by referring to ll. 2274, 2280 below, where the missing passage is quoted with but slight alteration.
The former clause is quoted from Marcus Annaeus Seneca, father of Seneca the philosopher, Controversiarum Lib. ii. 13. 12:--'Garrulitas mulierum id solum nouit celare, quod nescit.' Cf. P. Plowman, B. v. 168; xix. 157; and see the Wyf of Bathes Tale, D. 950. The second clause is from Publilius Syrus, Sent. 324:--'Malo in consilio feminae uincunt uiros.'
2257. 'Non est turpe cum re mutare consilium'; Seneca, De Beneficiis, iv. 38, § 1.
Maketh no lesing, telleth no lie; compare the use of lyer just above.
Turneth his corage, changes his mind. Mätzner quotes a similar phrase from Halliwell's Dict., s. v. Torne:--
'But thogh a man himself be good, And he torne so his mood That he haunte fooles companye, It shal him torne to grete folie.'
MS. Lansdowne 793, fol. 68. [207]
2258. Thar ye nat, it needs not that ye; i. e. you are not obliged. But yow lyke, unless you please (lit. unless it please you).
2259. Ther, where. What that him lyketh, whatever he likes.
2260. Save your grace, with the same sense as the commoner phrase 'save your reverence.' The Lat. text has 'salua reuerentia tua'; which shews the original form of the phrase.
As seith the book. Here 'the book' probably means no more than the Latin text, which has 'nam qui omnes despicit, omnibus displicet'; without any reference.
2261. Senek. Mätzner says this is not to be found in Seneca; in fact, the Latin text refers us to 'Seneca, De Formula Honestae Vitae'; but Sundby has found it in Martinus Dumiensis, Formula Honestae Vitae, cap. iii. This shews that it was attributed to Seneca erroneously. Moreover, the original is more fully expressed, and runs thus--'Nullius imprudentiam despicias; rari sermonis ipse, sed loquentium patiens auditor; seuerus non saeuus, hilares neque aspernans; sapientiae cupidus et docilis; quae scieris, sine arrogantia postulanti imperties; quae nescieris, sine occultatione ignorantiae tibi benigne postula impertiri.' Cf. Horace, Epist. vi. 67, 68.
2265. Rather, sooner. See Mark, xvi. 9. The weakness of this argument for the goodness of woman appears by comparison with P. Plowman, C. viii. 138: 'A synful Marye the seyh er seynt Marie thy moder,' i. e. Christ was seen by St. Mary the sinner earlier than by St. Mary His mother, after His resurrection.
2266-9. This reappears in verse in the March. Tale, E. 2277-2290.
2269. Alluding to Matt. xix. 17; Luke xviii. 19.
2273. Or noon, or not. So elsewhere; see B. 2407, F. 778, I. 962, 963, 964.
2276. Cf. P. Plowman, C. xx. 297, on which my note is as follows. 'Perhaps the original form of this commonly quoted proverb is this:--"Tria sunt enim quae non sinunt hominem in domo permanere; fumus, stillicidium, et mala uxor"; Innocens Papa, de Contemptu Mundi, i. 18. It is a mere compilation from Prov. x. 26, xix. 13, and xxvii. 15. Chaucer refers to it in his Tale of Melibeus, Prologue to Wife of Bathes Tale (D. 278), and Persones Tale (I. 631); see also Kemble's Solomon and Saturn, pp. 43, 53, 63; Walter Mapes, ed. Wright, p. 83.' Cf. Wright's Bibliographia Britannica, Anglo-Norman Period, pp. 333, 334; Hazlitt's Proverbs, pp. 114, 339; Ida von Düringsfeld, Sprichwörter, vol. i. sect. 303; Peter Cantor, ed. Migne, col. 331; &c. A medieval proverbial line expresses the same thus:--
'Sunt tria dampna domus, imber, mala femina, fumus.'
2277. From Prov. xxi. 9; cf. Prov. xxv. 24. See D. 775.
2286. The Lat. text has: 'uulgo dici consueuit, Consilium feminile nimis carum aut nimis uile.' Cf. B. 4446, and the note. [208]
2288. The examples of Jacob, Judith, Abigail, and Esther are again quoted, in the same order, in the March. Tale, E. 1362-74. See Gen. xxvii; Judith, xi-xiii; 1 Sam. xxv. 14; Esther, vii.
2293. Forme-fader, first father. Here forme represents the A. S. forma, first, cognate with Goth. fruma, Lat. primus. Cf. 'Adam ure forme fader'; O. E. Homilies, ed. Morris, ii. 101; so also in Hampole, Pr. Cons. 483; Legends of the Holy Rood, ed. Morris, p. 62; Allit. Poems, A. 639.
2294. To been a man allone, for a man to be alone; for this idiom, cf. I. 456, 469, 666, 849, 935.--Mr. See Gen. ii. 18.
2296. Confusioun; see B. 4354, and the note.
2297. Lat. text:--'quare per uersus dici consueuit:
Quid melius auro? Iaspis. Quid iaspide? Sensus. Quid sensu? Mulier. Quid muliere? Nihil.'
Sundby quotes from Ebrardi Bituniensis Graecismus, cum comm. Vincentii Metulini, fol. C. 1, back--
Quid melius auro? Iaspis. Quid iaspide? Sensus. Quid sensu? Ratio. Quid ratione? Deus.
(A better reading is Auro quid melius.)
In MS. Harl. 3362, fol. 67, as printed in Reliquiae Antiquae, i. 91, we find:--
Vento quid leuius? fulgur. Quid fulgure? flamma. Flamma quid? mulier. Quid muliere? nichil.
And these lines are immediately followed by the second quotation above, with the variations 'Auro quid melius,' 'Sensu quid,' and 'nichil' for 'Deus.'
2303. From Prov. xvi. 24.
2306. For the use of to with biseken, cf. 2940 below.--Mr.
2308. From Tobit, iv. 20 (Vulgate); iv. 19 (A. V.). Dresse, direct; Lat. 'ut uias tuas dirigat.'
2309. From James, i. 5. At this point the Fr. text is much shortened, pp. 20-30 of the Latin text being omitted.
2311. Lat. text (p. 33):--'a te atque consiliariis tuis remoueas illa tria, quae maxime sunt consilio contraria, scilicet iram, uoluptatem siue cupiditatem atque festinantiam.'
2315. Lat. text:--'iratus semper plus putat posse facere, quam possit.'
2317. The Lat. text shews that the quotation is not from Seneca's De Ira, but from Publilius Syrus, Sent. 281:--'Iratus nil non criminis loquitur loco.' Cf. D. 2005, I. 537.
2320. From 1 Tim. vi. 10. See C. 334, I. 739.
2325. Lat. 'Ad poenitendum properat, qui cito iudicat'; from Publil. Syrus, Sent. 32. (Read cito qui.) See l. 2244 above, and the note.
2331. From Ecclus. xix. 8, 9 (A. V.).
2333. Lat. text (p. 40):--'Et alius dixit: Vix existimes ab uno posse celari secretum.' [209]
2334. The book. Lat. text:--'Consilium absconditum quasi in carcere tuo est retrusum, reuelatum uero te in carcere suo tenet ligatum.' Compare Petrus Alfonsi, Disciplina Clericalis, iv. 3. Cf. Ecclus. viii. 22 (Vulgate); viii. 19 (A. V.).
2337. Lat. text:--'Ait enim Seneca: Si tibi ipse non imperasti, ut taceres, quomodo ab alio silentium quaeris?' This, however, is not from Seneca, but from Martinus Dumiensis, De Moribus, Sent. 16. Sundby further quotes from Plutarch (Opera, ed. Hutten. Tubingae, 1814, vol. xiv. p. 395):--[Greek: Hoper an siôpasthai boulêi, mêdeni eipêis; ê pôs para tinos apaitêseis to piston tês siôpês, ho mê paresches seautôi?]
2338. Plyt, plight, condition. It rimes with appetyt, E. 2336, and wyte, G. 953. It occurs again in the Complaint of Anelida, 297, and Parl. of Foules, 294; and in Troilus, ii. 712, 1738, iii. 1039. The modern spelling is wrong, as it is quite a different word from the verb to plight. See it discussed in my Etym. Dict., Errata and Addenda, p. 822.
2342. Men seyn. This does not appear to be a quotation, but a sort of proverb. The Lat. text merely says:--'Et haec est ratio quare magnates atque potentes, si per se nesciunt, consilium bonum uix aut nunquam capere possunt.'
2348. From Prov. xxvii. 9.
2349. From Ecclus. vi. 15:--'Amico fideli non est comparatio; et non est digna ponderatio auri et argenti contra bonitatem fidei illius.' L. 2350 is a sort of paraphrase of the latter clause.
2351. From Ecclus. vi. 14:--'Amicus fidelis, protectio fortis; qui autem inuenit illum, inuenit thesaurum.' 'He [Socrates] was wonte to saie, that there is no possession or treasure more precious then a true and an assured good frende.'--N. Udall, tr. of Erasmus' Apophthegmes, Socrates, § 13.
2352. Cf. Prov. xxii. 17; Ecclus. ix. 14.
2354. Cf. Job xii. 12.
2355. From Cicero, De Senectute, vi. 17:--'Non uiribus aut uelocitatibus aut celeritate corporum res magnae geruntur, sed consilio, auctoritate, sententia; quibus non modo non orbari, sed etiam augeri senectus solet.'
2357. From Ecclus. vi. 6.
2361. From Prov. xi. 14; cf. xv. 22.
2363. From Ecclus. viii. 17.
2364. Lat. text:--'Scriptum est enim, Proprium est stultitiae aliena uitia cernere, suorum autem obliuisci.' From Cicero, Disput. Tusc. iii. 30. 73.
2366. 'Sic habendum est, nullam in amicitia pestem esse maiorem quam adulationem, blanditiam, assentationem'; Cicero, Laelius, xxvi. 97 [or xxv.]
2367. Lat. text:--'In consiliis itaque et in aliis rebus non acerba uerba, sed blanda timebis.' The last six words are from Martinus Dumiensis, De Quatuor Virtutibus Cardinalibus, cap. iii. Cf. Prov. xxviii. 23. [210]
2368. From Prov. xxix. 5. The words in the next clause (2369) seem to be merely another rendering of the same passage.
2370. 'Cauendum est, ne assentatoribus patefaciamus aures neue adulari nos sinamus'; Cicero, De Officiis, i. 26.
2371. From Dionysius Cato, Distich. iii. 6:--'Sermones blandos blaesosque cauere memento.'
2373. 'Cum inimico nemo in gratiam tuto [al. tute] redit'; Publilius Syrus, Sent. 91.
2374. Lat. text:--'Quare Ysopus dixit:
Ne confidatis secreta nec his detegatis, Cum quibus egistis pugnae discrimina tristis.'
2375. Not from Seneca, but from Publilius Syrus, Sent. 389:--'Nunquam ubi diu fuit ignis deficit uapor'; but the MSS. differ in their readings. 'There is no fire without some smoke'; Heywood's Proverbs.
2376. From Ecclus. xii. 10.
2379. The passage alluded to is the following:--'Ne te associaueris cum inimicis tuis, cum alios possis repperire socios; quae enim mala egeris notabunt, quae uero bona fuerint deuitabunt [Lat. text, deuiabunt]'; cf. Petrus Alfonsi, Disciplina Clericalis, iv. 4. The words 'they wol perverten it' seem to be due to the reading deuiabunt, taken to mean 'they will turn aside,' in a transitive sense.
2381. Lat. text (pp. 50, 51); 'ut quidam philosophus dixit, Nemo ei satis fidus est, quem metuit.'
2382. Inexactly quoted from the Latin text, taken from Cicero, De Officiis, ii. 7:--'Malus custos diuturnitatis est metus, contraque beniuolentia fidelis uel ad perpetuitatem.... Nulla uis imperii tanta est, quae premente metu possit esse diuturna.'
2384. From Prov. xxxi. 4, where the Vulgate has: 'Noli regibus, o Lamuel, noli regibus dare uinum; quia nullum secretum est ubi regnat ebrietas.' Cf. C. 561 (and note), 585, 587.
2386. Cassidorie, Cassiodorus, who wrote in the time of Theoderic the Great, king of the Ostrogoths (A.D. 475-526). The quotation is from his Variarum lib. x. epist. 18:--'quia laesionis instar est occulte consulere, et aliud uelle monstrare.' In the Latin text, cap. xxiii, the heading of the chapter is:--'De Vitando consilium illorum, qui secreto aliud consulunt, et palam aliud se uelle ostendunt.' Chaucer's rendering is far from being a happy one.
2387. Cf. Prov. xii. 5; but note that the Lat. text has:--'Malus homo a se nunquam bonum consilium refert'; which resembles Publilius Syrus, Sent. 354:--'Malus bonum ad se nunquam consilium refert.'
2388. From Ps. i. 1.
2391. Tullius. The reference is to Cicero's De Officiis, ii. 5, as quoted in the 'Latin text':--'quid in unaquaque re uerum sincerumque sit, quid consentaneum cuique rei sit, quid consequens, ex quibus [211] quaeque gignantur, quae cuiusque rei caussa sit.' This is expanded in the English, down to l. 2400.
2405. For distreyneth, MS. Hl. has the corrupt reading destroyeth. The reading is settled by the lines in Chaucer's Proverbs (see the Minor Poems, vol. i. p. 407):--
'Who-so mochel wol embrace Litel therof he shal distreyne.'
The Lat. text has: 'Qui nimis capit parum stringit'; the Fr. text has: 'Qui trop embrasse, pou estraint.'
2406. Catoun, Dionysius Cato; Distich. iii. 15:--
'Quod potes, id tentato; operis ne pondere pressus Succumbat labor, et frustra tentata relinquas.'
2408. The Lat. text has:--'Ait enim Petrus Alfunsus, Si dicere metuas unde poeniteas, semper est melius non quam sic.' From his Disciplina Clericalis, vi. 12.
2411. Defenden, forbid, i. e. advise one not to do. This passage is really a quotation from Cicero, De Officiis, i. 9:--'Bene praecipiunt qui uetant quidquid agere, quod dubites aequum sit an iniquum.'
2413. The Lat. text has:--'Nunc superest uidere, quando consilium uel promissum mutari possit uel debeat.' This shews that the reading counseil, as in Hl., is correct.
2415. Lat. text:--'Quae de nouo emergunt, nouo indigent consilio, ut leges dicunt.'
2416. Lat. text:--'Inde et Seneca dixit, Consilium tuum si audierit hostis, consilii dispositionem permutes.' But no such sentence has been discovered in Seneca.
2419. Lat. text:--'Generaliter enim nouimus, Turpes stipulationes nullius esse momenti, ut leges dicunt,' for which Sundby refers us to the Digesta, xlv. 1. 26.
2421. 'Malum est consilium, quod mutari non potest': Publilius Syrus, Sent. 362.
2431. First and forward; so in l. 2684. We now say 'first and foremost.'
2436. See above, ll. 2311-2325; vol. iv. p. 208.
2438. Anientissed, annulled, annihilated, done away with. In Rom. iv. 14, where Wycliffe's earlier text has anentyschid, the later text has distried. The Prompt. Parv. has: 'Anyyntyschyn, or enyntyschyn, Exinanio.' From O. F. anientiss-, pres. pt. stem of anientir, to bring to nothing, variant of anienter, a verb formed from prep. a, to, and O. F. nient (Ital. niente, mod. F. néant), nothing. The form nient answers to Lat. *ne-entem or *nec-entem, from ne, nec, not, and entem, acc. of ens, being. See the New E. Dict. Cf. anyente in P. Plowman, C. xx. 267, xxi. 389. As yow oghte, as it behoved you; Hl. as ye oughte. Both phrases occur.
2439. Talent; Fr. text, 'ta voulonte'; i. e. your desire, wish. 'Talent, [212] ... will, desire, lust, appetite, an earnest humour unto'; Cotgrave. Cf. C. 540, and l. 2441 below.
2444. This paragraph is omitted in MS. Hl.
2447. Hochepot; Hl. hochepoche, whence E. hodgepodge. From F. hochepot, 'a hotch-pot, or gallimaufrey, a confused mingle-mangle of divers things jumbled or put together'; Cotgrave. This again is from the M. Du. hutspot, with the same sense; from hutsen, to shake, and pot. See Hotchpot in my Etym. Dict. Ther been ye condescended, and to that opinion ye have submitted.
2449. Reward, regard; for reward is merely an older spelling of 'regard.' So in Parl. of Foules, 426; Leg. of Good Women, 375, 399, 1622.
2454. Lat. text:--'Humanum enim est peccare, diabolicum uero perseuerare.' Sundby refers us to St. Chrysostom, Adhortatio ad Theodorum lapsum, I. 14 (Opera, Paris, 1718, fol.; i. 26); where we find (in the Lat. version):--'Nam peccare quidem, humanum est; at in peccatis perseuerare, id non humanum est, sed omnino satanicum.' It is also quoted by Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Historiale, lib. xvii. c. 45.
2459. Lat. text:--'ad illorum officium spectat omnibus prodesse et nulli nocere.' This (says Sundby) is quoted from the Decretals of Gregory IX., lib. i. tit. 37. cap. 3.
2467. Cf. Lat. text:--'scilicet, Contraria contrariis curantur.'
2473. Fr. text:--'Or veez, dist Prudence, comment un chascun croist legierement ce qu'il veut et desire!'--Mr.
2479. For good, &c., 'namely, in the sense that good,' &c.
2482. See Rom. xii. 17; cf. 1 Thess. v. 15; 1 Cor. iv. 12. The Lat. text quotes part of verses 17-21 of Rom. xii. But it is clear that Chaucer has altered the wording, and was thinking of 1 Pet. iii. 9.
2485. After wyse folk, Cp. inserts 'and olde folk,' and Ln. 'and the olde folke.' The Fr. text has: 'les advocas, les sages, et les anciens.' Ed. 1532 also inserts 'and olde folke'; and perhaps it should be inserted.
2487. Warnestore, to supply with defensive materials, to garrison, protect; see 2521, 2523, 2525 below. 'And wel thei were warnestured of vitailes inow'; Will, of Palerne, 1121. We also find a sb. of the same form. 'In eche stude hii sette ther strong warnesture and god'; Rob. of Glouc. 2075 (ed. Hearne, p. 94). 'The Sarazins kept it [a castle] that tym for ther chefe warnistour'; Rob. of Brunne, tr. of Langtoft, ed. Hearne, p. 180. 'I will remayn quhill this warnstor be gane'; Wallace, bk. ix. l. 1200, where ed. 1648 has 'till all the stuffe be gone.' Correctly warnisture; a derivative of O. F. warnir, garnir, to supply (E. garnish). Godefroy gives O. F.'garnesture, garnisture, garniture, warnesture, s. f. provisions, ressource; authentication; garnison, forteresse'; with eight examples. Cf. E. garrison (M. E. garnison), garment (M. E. garnement), and garniture. The last of these is, in fact, nothing but the O. F. warnisture in a more modern [213] form. Hence we obtain the sense by consulting Cotgrave, who gives: 'Garniture, garniture, garnishment, furniture; provision, munition, store, necessary implements.' It also appears that the word is properly a substantive, with the spelling warnisture; it became warnistore or warnestore by confusion with O. F. estor, a store; and, as the word store was easily made into a verb, it was easy to treat warnestore in the same way. It is a sb. in Rob. of Gloucester, as shewn above, but appears as a verb in Will. of Palerne. MS. Hl. has warmstore (with m for ni); and the same error is in the editions of Wright, Bell, and Morris. Ed. 1532 has warnstore.
2494. From Ps. cxxvii. 1 (cxxvi. 1, Vulgate).
2496. From Dionysius Cato, lib. iv. dist. 14:--'Auxilium a nobis petito, si forte laboras; Nec quisquam melior medicus quam fidus amicus.'
2499. Piers Alfonce, Petrus Alfonsi, in his Disciplina Clericalis, xviii. 10:--'Ne aggrediaris uiam cum aliquo nisi prius eum cognoueris; si quisquam ignotus tibi in uia associauerit, iterque tuum inuestigauerit, dic te uelle longius ire quam disposueris; et si detulerit lanceam, uade ad dextram; si ensem, ad sinistram.'
2505. The repetition of that before ye, following the former that before for, is due to a striving after greater clearness. It is not at all uncommon, especially in cases where the two thats are farther apart. Cf. the use of he and him in l. 2508.
Lete the keping, neglect the protection; A. S. l[=æ]tan.
2507. 'Beatus homo qui semper est pauidus; qui uero mentis est durae, corruet in malum'; Prov. xxviii. 14. Hence the quotation-mark follows bityde.
2509. Counterwayte embusshements, 'be on the watch against lyings in ambush.' 'Contregaitier, v. act. épier, guetter de son côté'; refl. se garder, se mettre en garde'; Godefroy. Three examples are given of the active use, and four of the reflexive use. Espiaille, companies of spies; it occurs again in the sense of 'a set of spies' in D. 1323. Mätzner well remarks that espiaille does not mean 'spying' or 'watching,' as usually explained, but is a collective sb., like O. F. rascaille, poraille, pedaille. Godefroy, in his O. F. Dict., makes the same mistake, though his own example is against him. He has: 'Espiaille, s. f. action d'épier: Nous avons ja noveles par nos espiailles'; i. e. by means of our spies (not of our spyings). This quotation is from an A. F. proclamation made in London, July 26, 1347.
2510. Senek, Seneca; but, as before, the reference is really to the Sentences of Publilius Syrus. Of these the Lat. text quotes no less than four, viz. Nos. 542, 607, 380, and 116 (ed. Dietrich); as follows:--
'Qui omnes insidias timet, in nullas incidet.' 'Semper metuendo sapiens euitat malum.' 'Non cito perit ruina, qui ruinam timet.' 'Caret periculo, qui etiam [cum est] tutus cauet.'
[214]
2514. Senek; this again is from Publilius Syrus, Sent. 255:--'Inimicum, quamuis humilem, docti est metuere.'
2515. The Lat. and Fr. texts both give the reference, correctly, to Ovid's Remedia Amoris; see l. 421:--
'Parva necat morsu spatiosum uipera taurum; A cane non magno saepe tenetur aper.'
Chaucer has here interpolated the reference to 'the thorn pricking the king' between his translations of these two lines. The interpolation occurs neither in the French nor in the Latin text.
Wesele, weasel. The origin of this queer mistake is easily perceived. The Fr. text has: 'La petite vivre occist le grant torel.' Here vivre represents Lat. uipera, a viper (cf. E. wivern); but Ch. has construed it as if it represented Lat. uiuerra, a ferret.
2518. The book. The quotation is from Seneca, Epist. 111. § 3:--'Quidam fallere docuerunt, dum falli timent.' (For Quidam read Nam multi). Tyrwhitt's text is here imperfect, and he says he has patched it up as he best could; but the MSS. (except Cp. and Ln.) give a correct text.
2520. Lat. text:--'Cum irrisore consortium non habeas; loquelae eius assiduitatem quasi toxica fugias.' From Albertano of Brescia, who here quotes from his own work, De Arte Eloquendi, p. cviii.; according to Sundby.
2521. Warnestore, protect; see note to 2487 above, and see 2523.
2523. Swiche as han, 'such as castles and other kinds of edifices have.'
Artelleries, missile weapons; cf. 1 Sam xx. 40, 1 Macc. vi. 51 (A. V.). 'Artillarie now a dayes is taken for ii. thinges: Gunnes and Bowes'; Ascham, Toxophilus, ed. Arber, p. 65. In Chaucer's time it referred to bows, crossbows, and engines for casting stones. Cotgrave explains F. artillier as 'one that maketh both bowes and arrowes.'
2525-6. Owing to the repetition of the words grete edifices, one of the early scribes (whom others followed) passed from one to the other, thus omitting the words 'apperteneth som tyme to pryde and eek men make heighe toures and grete edifices.' But MSS. Cp. and Ln. supply all but the last three words 'and grete edifices,' and as we know that 'grete edifices' must recur, they really supply all but the sole word 'and,' which the sense absolutely requires. Curiously enough, these very MSS. omit the rest of clause 2525, so that none of the MSS. are perfect, but the text is easily pieced together. It is further verified by the Lat. text, which has:--'Munitio turrium et aliorum altorum aedificiorum ad superbiam plerumque pertinet ... praeterea turres cum magno labore et infinitis expensis fiunt; et etiam cum factae fuerint, nihil ualent, nisi cum auxilio prudentium et fidelium amicorum et cum magnis expensis defendantur.' The F. text supplies the gap with--'appartiennent aucune fois a orgueil: apres on fait les tours et les grans edifices.'--MS. Reg. 19 C. vii. leaf 133, back. Hence there is no doubt as to the reading. [215]
All former editions are here defective, and supply the gap with the single word is, which is found in ed. 1532.
2526. With gret costages, at great expense: Fr. text, 'a grans despens.'
Stree, straw; MS. Hl. has the spelling straw. We find the phrase again in the Book of the Duch. 671; also 'ne roghte of hem a stree,' id. 887; 'acounted nat a stree,' id. 1237; 'ne counted nat three strees,' id. 718.
2530. Lat. text:--'unum est inexpugnabile munimentum, amor ciuium.' Not from Cicero; but from Seneca, De Clementia, i. 19. 5.
2534. 'In omnibus autem negotiis, prius quam aggrediare, adhibenda est praeparatio diligens'; Cicero, De Officiis, i. 21.
2537. Lat. text:--'Longa praeparatio belli celerem uictoriam facit.' But the source is unknown; it does not seem to be in Cicero. Mätzner quotes a similar saying from Publilius Syrus, Sent. 125:--'Diu apparandum est bellum, ut uincas celerius.'
2538. 'Munitio quippe tunc efficitur praeualida, si diuturna fuerit excogitatione roborata'; Cassiodorus, Variarum lib. i. epist. 17.
2545. Tullius. This refers to what has already preceded in 2391-2400, the passage referred to being one from Cicero's De Officiis, ii. 5, where we are bidden to consider several points, viz. (1) 'quid in quaque re uerum sincerumque sit; (2) quid consentaneum cuique rei sit; (3) quid consequens; (4) ex quo quidque gignatur; (5) quae cuiusque rei caussa sit.' All these five points are taken below in due order; viz. (1) in 2546; (2) in 2550; (3) in 2577; (4) in 2580; and (5) in 2583.
2546. Trouthe; referring to uerum in clause (1) in the last note.
2550. Consentinge; i. e. consentaneum in clause (2) in note to 2545. Cf. 2571. MS. Hl. has here the false reading couetyng, but in l. 2571 it has consentynge.
2551. Lat. text:--'qui et quot et quales.' Thus whiche means 'of what sort.' The words and whiche been they, omitted in MS. E. only, are thus seen to be necessary; cf. l. 2552, where the phrase is repeated.
2558. Cosins germayns; Lat. 'consanguineos germanos.' Neigh kinrede, relations near of kin; cf. 'nis but a fer kinrede' in 2565.
2561. Reward, regard, care; as above, in 2449; (see the note).
2565. Litel sib, slightly related; ny sib, closely related. Cf. 'ne on his mæges láfe þe swa néah sib wære,' nor with the relict of his kinsman who was so near of kin; Laws of King Cnut, § vii; in Thorpe's Ancient Laws, i. 364.
2570. As the lawe; Sundby refers to Justinian's Codex, VIII. iv. 1.
2573. That nay; Fr. text--'que non.'
2577. Consequent; i. e. 'consequens' in clause (3), note to 2545.
2580. Engendringe; i. e. 'ex quo quidque gignatur' in clause (4), note to 2545.
2582. Mätzner says this is corrupt; but it is quite right, though obscure. The sense is--'and, out of the taking of vengeance in return for that, would arise another vengeance'; &c. Engendre is here taken [216] in the sense of 'be engendred' or 'breed'; see the New E. Dict. The Fr. text is clearer: 'de la vengence se engendrera autre vengence.'
2583. Causes; i. e. 'caussa' in clause (5), note to 2545.
2585. The Lat. text omits Oriens, which seems to be here used as synonymous with longinqua. 'Caussa igitur iniuriae tibi illatae duplex fuit efficiens, scilicet remotissima et proxima.'
2588. 'Occasio uero illius caussae, quae dicitur caussa accidentalis, fuit odium,' &c. So below, the Lat. text has caussa materialis, caussa formalis, and caussa finalis.
2591. It letted nat, it tarried not; Lat. text, 'nec per eos remansit.' This intransitive use of letten is awkward and rare. It occurs again in P. Plowman, C. ii. 204, xx. 76, 331.
2594. Book of Decrees; Sundby refers us to the Decretum Gratiani; P. ii, Caussa 1, Qu. 1. c. 25:--'uix bono peraguntur exitu, quae malo sunt inchoata principio.'
2596. Thapostle, the apostle Paul. The Lat. text refers expressly to the First Epistle to the Corinthians, meaning 1 Cor. iv. 5; but Chaucer has accommodated it to Rom. xi. 33.
2600. The Lat. text informs us that Melibeus signifies mel bibens. For similar curiosities of derivation, see note to G. 87. There was a town called Meliboea ([Greek: Meliboia]) on the E. coast of Thessaly.
2605. From Ovid, Amor. i. 8. 104:--'Impia sub dulci melle uenena latent.'
2606. From Prov. xxv. 16.
2611. The three enemys, i. e. the flesh, the devil and the world. The entrance of these into man through the five senses is the theme of numerous homilies. See especially Sawles Warde, in O. Eng. Homilies, ed. Morris, First Series, p. 245; and the Ayenbite of Inwyt, ed. Morris, p. 263.
2614. Deedly sinnes, the Seven Deadly Sins; see the Persones Tale. Fyve wittes, five senses; cf. P. Plowman, C. ii. 15, xvi. 257.
2615. Wold, willed; pp. of willen. F. text--'a voulu.' See 2190 above; Leg. of Good Women, 1209; Compl. of Venus, 11; P. Plowman, B. xv. 258; Malory's Morte Arthure, bk. xviii. c. 15--'[he] myghte haue slayne vs and he had wold'; and again, in c. 19--'I myght haue ben maryed and I had wolde.' Gower has--'if that he had wold'; Conf. Amantis, ii. 9.
2618. Falle, befall, come to pass; F. text--'advenir.'
2620. Were, would be; F. text--'ce seroit moult grant dommage.'
2623-4. The missing portion is easily supplied. The French text (MS. Reg. 19 C. vii, leaf 136) has:--'Et a ce respont Dame Prudence, Certes, dist elle, Ie t'octroye que de vengence vient molt de maulx et de biens; mais vengence n'appartient pas a vn chascun, fors seulement aux iuges et a ceulx qui ont la iuridicion sur les malfaitteurs.' Here 'mais vengence' should rather be 'mais faire vengence,' as in MS. Reg. 19 C. xi. leaf 59, back, and in the printed edition. It is [217] clear that the omission of this passage is due to the repetition of trespassours at the end of 2622 and 2624.
2627. Lat. text--'nam, ut ait Seneca, Bonis nocet, qui malis parcit.' This corresponds to--'Bonis necesse est noceat, qui parcit malis'; Pseudo-Seneca, De Moribus, Sent. 114; see Publilius Syrus, ed. Dietrich, p. 90. The Fr. text has:--'Cellui nuit [al. nuist] aux bons, qui espargne les mauvais.' Chaucer's translation is so entirely at fault, that I think his MS. must have been corrupt; he has taken nuist aux as maistre, and then could make but little of espargne, which he makes to mean 'proveth,' i. e. tests, tries the quality of; perhaps his MS. had turned espargne (or esparne) into esprouve. MSS. Cp. Pt. Ln. turn it into reproveth; this makes better sense, but contradicts the original still more.
2628. 'Quoniam excessus tunc sunt in formidine, cùm creduntur iudicibus displicere'; Cassiodorus, Variarum lib. i. epist. 4.
2629. Lat. text:--'Et alibi dixit, Iudex, qui dubitat ulcisci, multos improbos facit'; slightly altered from Publ. Syrus, Sent. 526:--'Qui ulcisci dubitat, inprobos plures facit.'
2630. From Rom. xiii. 4. For spere, as in all the copies, Chaucer should have written swerd. The Fr. text has glaive; Lat. gladium.
2632. Ye shul retourne or have your recours to the Iuge; explanatory of the F. text--'tu recourras au iuge.'
2633. As the lawe axeth and requyreth; explanatory of the Fr. text--'selon droit.' For this use of axeth (= requires), cf. P. Plowman, C. i. 21, ii. 34.
2635. Many a strong pas; Fr. text--'moult de fors pas.' MS. Hl. has:--'many a strayt passage.'
2638. Not from Seneca, but (as in other places where Seneca is mentioned) from Publilius Syrus, Sent. 320 (ed. Dietrich):--'Male geritur, quicquid geritur fortunae fide.'
2640. Again from Publilius Syrus, Sent. 189 (ed. Dietrich):--'Fortuna uitrea est; tum quum splendet frangitur.'
2642. Seur (E. sure) and siker are mere variants of the same word; the former is O. F. seur, from Lat. acc. sec[=u]rum; the latter is from Lat. séc[)u]rus, with a different accentuation and a shortening of the second vowel. We also have a third form, viz. secure.
2645. Again from Publ. Syrus, Sent. 173:--'Fortuna nimium quem fouet, stultum facit.'
2650. From Rom. xii. 19; cf. Deut. xxxii. 35, Ps. xciv. 1.
2653. From Publ. Syrus, Sent. 645:--'Veterem ferendo iniuriam inuites nouam.'
2655. Holden over lowe, esteemed too low, too lightly.
2656. From Publ. Syrus, Sent. 487:--'Patiendo multa [al. inulta] eueniunt [al. ueniunt] quae nequeas pati.' Mowe suffre, be able to endure. For mowe, Wright wrongly prints nowe; MS. Hl. has mowe, correctly. [218]
2663. From Caecilii Balbi Sententiae, ed. Friedrich, 1870, no. 162:--'Qui non corripit peccantem gnatum, peccare imperat.'
2664. 'And the judges and sovereign lords might, each in his own land, so largely tolerate wicked men and evil-doers,' &c. Lat. text:--'si multa maleficia patiuntur fieri.'
2667. Let us now putte, let us suppose; Fr. text--'posons.' A more usual phrase is 'putte cas,' put the case; cf. note to 2681.
2668. As now, at present; see 2670.
2671. From Seneca, De Ira, ii. 34, § 1:--'Cum pare contendere, anceps est; cum superiore, furiosum; cum inferiore, sordidum.'
2675. From Prov. xx. 3.
2678. From Publilius Syrus, Sent. 483:--'Potenti irasci sibi periclum est quaerere.'
2679. From Dion. Cato, Dist. iv. 39:--
'Cede locum laesus Fortunae, cede potenti; Laedere qui potuit, aliquando prodesse ualebit.'
2681. Yet sette I caas, but I will suppose; Fr. text--'posons,' as in 2667 above.
2684. First and foreward; Fr. text--'premierement.' See note to 2431 above.
2685. The poete; Fr. text, 'le poete.' Not in the Latin text, and the source of the quotation is unknown. Cf. Luke, xxiii. 41.
2687. Seint Gregorie. Not in the Lat. text; source unknown.
2692. From 1 Pet. ii. 21.
2700. Referring to 2 Cor. iv. 17.
2702. From Prov. xix. 11, where the Vulgate has:--'Doctrina uiri per patientiam noscitur.'
2703. From Prov. xiv. 29, where the Vulgate has:--'Qui patiens est multa gubernatur prudentia.'
2704. From Prov. xv. 18.
2705. From Prov. xvi. 32.
2707. From James, i. 4:--'Patientia autem opus perfectum habet.'
2713. Corage, desire, inclination; cf. E. 1254.
2715. The Fr. text is fuller: 'et si ie fais un grant exces, car on dit que exces n'est corrige que par exces, c'est a dire que oultrage ne se corrige fors que par oultrage.'--Mr. Perhaps part of the clause has been accidentally omitted, owing to repetition of 'exces.'
2718. 'Quid enim discrepat a peccante, qui se per excessum nititur uindicare?'--Cassiodorus, Variarum lib. i. epist. 30.
2721. Lat. text:--'ait enim Seneca, Nunquam scelus scelere uindicandum.' Not from Seneca; Sundby refers us to Martinus Dumiensis, De Moribus, S. 139.
2723. Withouten intervalle ... delay; the Fr. text merely has 'sans intervalle.' Chaucer explains the word intervalle.
2729. 'Qui impatiens est sustinebit damnum'; Prov. xix. 19.
2730. Of that that, in a matter that. [219]
2731. Lat. text (p. 95):--'Culpa est immiscere se rei ad se non pertinenti.' Sundby refers us to the Digesta, l. xvii. 36.
2732. From Prov. xxvi. 17.
2733. Outherwhyle, sometimes, occasionally; cf. 2857. So in Ch. tr. of Boethius, bk. iii. pr. 12. 119 (vol. ii. p. 89); P. Plowman, C. vi. 50, vii. 160, xxii. 103, &c.
2740. From Ecclesiastes, x. 19:--'pecuniae oboediunt omnia.'
2741. All the copies have power; but, as Mätzner remarks, we should read poverte; the Fr. text has povrete.
2743. Richesses ben goode; the Lat. text here quotes 1 Tim. iv. 4.
2744. 'Homo sine pecunia est quasi corpus sine anima' is written on a fly-leaf of a MS.; see my Pref. to P. Plowman, C-text, p. xx.
2746. All the MSS. have Pamphilles instead of Pamphilus. The allusion is to Pamphilus Maurilianus, who wrote a poem, well-known in the fourteenth century, entitled Liber de Amore, which is extant in MSS. (e.g. in MS. Bodley 3703) and has been frequently printed. Tyrwhitt cites the lines here alluded to from the Bodley MS.
'Dummodo sit diues cuiusdam nata bubulci, Eligit e mille, quem libet, illa uirum.'
Sundby quotes the same (with ipsa for illa) from the Paris edition of 1510, fol. a iiii, recto. Chaucer again refers to Pamphilus in F. 1110, on which see the note.
2748. This quotation is not in the Latin text, and is certainly not from Pamphilus; but closely follows Ovid's lines in his Tristia, i. 9. 5:--
'Donec eris felix, multos numerabis amicos; Tempora si fuerint nubila, solus eris.'
See notes to B. 120 and B. 3436.
2751. Neither is this from Pamphilus, but from some author quoted by Petrus Alfonsi, Discip. Cler. vi. 4, who says:--'ait quidam uersificator, Clarificant [al. Glorificant] gazae priuatos nobilitate.'
2752. We know, from the Lat. text, that there is here an allusion to Horace, Epist. i. 6. 37:--
'Et genus et formam regina pecunia donat.'
2754. The Lat. text has mater criminum, and the Fr. text, mere des crimes. It is clear that Chaucer has misread ruines for crimes, or his MS. was corrupt; and he has attempted an explanation by subjoining a gloss of his own--'that is to seyn ... overthrowinge or fallinge doun.' The reference is to Cassiodorus, Variarum lib. ix. epist. 13:--'Ut dum mater criminum necessitas tollitur, peccandi ambitus auferatur.'
2756. 'Est una de aduersitatibus huius saeculi grauioribus libero homini, quod necessitate cogitur, ut sibi subueniat, requirere inimicum'; Petrus Alfonsi, Disciplina Clericalis, iv. 4.
2758. Lat. text:--'O miserabilis mendicantis conditio! Nam, si petit, pudore confunditur; et si non petit, egestate consumitur; sed ut [220] mendicet necessitate compellitur'; Innocentius III (Papa), De Contemptu Mundi, lib. i. c. 16. See note to B. 99, at p. 142.
2761. 'Melius est enim mori quam indigere'; Ecclus. xl. 29; cf. A. V., Ecclus. xl. 28. See note to B. 114, at p. 142.
2762. 'Melior est mors quam uita amara'; Ecclus. xxx. 17. The Fr. text has:--'Mieulx vault la mort amere que telle vie'; where, as in Chaucer, the adjective is shifted.
2765. How ye shul have yow, how you ought to behave yourself. In fact, behave is merely a compound of be- and have.
2766. Sokingly, gradually. In the Prompt. Parv. we find 'Esyly, or sokyngly, Sensim, paulatim.' And compare the following:--'Domitius Corbulo vsed muche to saie, that a mannes enemies in battaill are to be ouercomed (sic) with a carpenters squaring-axe, that is to saie, sokingly, one pece after another. A common axe cutteth through at the first choppe; a squaring-axe, by a little and a little, werketh the same effecte.'--Udall, tr. of Erasmus' Apophthegmes, Julius Caesar, § 32.
2768. From Prov. xxviii. 20.
2769. From Prov. xiii. 11.
2773. Not in the Latin text.
2775. 'Detrahere igitur alteri aliquid, et hominem hominis incommodo suum augere commodum, magis est contra naturam, quam mors, quam paupertas, quam dolor, quam cetera, quae possunt aut corpori accidere aut rebus externis'; Cicero, De Officiis, iii. 5.
2779. 'For idleness teacheth much evil'; Ecclus. xxxiii. 27.
2780. From Prov. xxviii. 19; cf. xii. 11.
2783. Cf. Prov. xx. 4.
2784. From Dionysius Cato, Distich. i. 2:--
'Plus uigila semper, nec somno deditus esto; Nam diuturna quies uitiis alimenta ministrat.'
2785. Quoted again in G. 6, 7; see note to G. 7.
2789. Fool-large, foolishly liberal; Fr. text, 'fol larges.' Cf. 2810.
2790. Chincherye, miserliness, parsimony; from the adj. chinche, which occurs in 2793. Chinche, parsimonious, miserly, is the nasalised form of chiche; see Havelok, 1763, 2941; and see Chinch in the New E. Dictionary. To the examples there given add:--'A Chinche, tenax: Chinchery, tenacitas'; Catholicon Anglicum.
'But such an other chinche as he Men wisten nought in all the londe.' Gower, Conf. Amant. ii. 288.
2792. From Dionysius Cato, Distich. iv. 16:--
'Utere quaesitis opibus; fuge nomen auari; Quo tibi diuitias, si semper pauper abundas?'
2795. From Dionysius Cato, Distich. iii. 22:--
'Utere quaesitis, sed ne uidearis abuti; Qui sua consumunt, quum deest, aliena sequuntur.'
[221]
2796. Folily, foolishly. We find M. E. folliche, both adj. and adv., and follichely, folily as adv. It is spelt folily in Wycliffe, Num. xii. 11, and in the Troy-book, 573; also folili, Will. of Palerne, 4596; folyly, Rom. of the Rose, 5942 (see the footnote).
2800. Weeldinge (so in E., other MSS. weldinge), wielding, i. e. power.
2802. Not in the Latin text.
2807. Compare Prov. xxvii. 20.
2811. 'Quamobrem nec ita claudenda est res familiaris, ut eam benignitas aperire non possit; nec ita reseranda, ut pateat omnibus'; Cicero, De Officiis, ii. 15.
2818. See Prov. xv. 16; xvi. 8.
2820. The prophete, i. e. David; see Ps. xxxvii. 16.
2824. See 2 Cor. i. 12.
2825. 'Riches are good unto him that hath no sin'; Ecclus. xiii. 24.
2828. From Prov. xxii. 1.
2829. The reference seems to be to Prov. xxv. 10 in the Vulgate version (not in the A. V.):--'Gratia et amicitia liberant; quas tibi serua, ne exprobrabilis fias.'
2832. The reference is clearly to the following:--'Est enim indigni [al. digni] animi signum, famae diligere commodum'; Cassiodorus, Variarum lib. i. epist. 4. This is quoted by Albertano (p. 120), with the reading ingenui for indigni; hence Chaucer's 'gentil.' Mätzner refers us to the same, lib. v. epist. 12:--'quia pulchrum est commodum famae.'
2833. 'Duae res sunt conscientia et fama. Conscientia tibi, fama proximo tuo'; Augustini Opera, ed. Caillou, Paris, 1842, tom. xxi. p. 347.--Mr.
2837. Fr. text:--'il est cruel et villain.'--Mr.
2841. Lat. text:--'nam dixit quidam philosophus, Nemo in guerra constitutus satis diues esse potest. Quantumcunque enim sit homo diues, oportet illum, si in guerra diu perseuerauerit, aut diuitias aut guerram perdere, aut forte utrumque simul et personam.'--p. 102.
2843. See Ecclesiastes, v. 11.
2851. 'With the God of heaven it is all one, to deliver with a great multitude, or a small company: For the victory of battle standeth not in the multitude of an host; but strength cometh from heaven.' 1 Macc. iii. 18, 19.
2854. The gap is easily detected and filled up by comparison with the Fr. text, which Mätzner cites from Le Menagier de Paris, i. 226, thus:--'pour ce ... que nul n'est certain s'il est digne que Dieu lui doint victoire ne plus que il est certain se il est digne de l'amour de Dieu ou non.' We must also compare the text from Solomon, viz. Ecclesiastes, ix. 1, as it stands in the Vulgate version.
2857. Outher-whyle, sometimes; see note to 2733.
2858. The seconde book of Kinges, i. e. Liber secundus Regum, now called 'the second book of Samuel.' The reference is to 2 Sam. xi. 25, [222] where the Vulgate has: 'uarius enim euentus est belli; nunc hunc et nunc illum consumit gladius.' The A. V. varies.
2860. In as muchel; Fr. text:--'tant comme il puet bonnement.' This accounts for goodly, i. e. meetly, fitly, creditably. Cotgrave has: 'Bonnement, well, fitly, aptly, handsomely, conveniently, orderly, to the purpose.'
2861. Salomon; rather Jesus son of Sirach. 'He that loveth danger shall perish therein'; Ecclus. iii. 26.
2863. The werre ... nothing, 'war does not please you at all.'
2866. Seint Iame is a curious error for Senek, Seneca. For the Fr. text has:--'Seneque dit en ses escrips,' according to Mätzner; and MS. Reg. 19 C. xi (leaf 63, col. 2) has 'Seneques.' There has clearly been confusion between Seneques and Seint iaques. Hence the use of the pl. epistles is correct. The reference is to Seneca, Epist. 94, § 46; but Seneca, after all, is merely quoting Sallust:--'Nam concordia paruae res crescunt, discordia maximae dilabuntur'; Sallust, Jugurtha, 10.
2870. From Matt. v. 9.
2872. Brige, strife, contention; F. brigue, Low Lat. briga. 'Brigue, s. f. ... debate, contention, altercation, litigious wrangling about any matter'; Cotgrave. See Brigue in the New E. Dict.
2876. Here Hl. has pryde and despysing for homlinesse and dispreysinge, thus spoiling the sense. The allusion is to our common saying--Familiarity breeds contempt.
2879. Syen, saw; Cm. seyen; Ln. sawe; Cp. saugh.
2881. Lat. text (p. 107):--'scriptum est enim, Semper ab aliis dissensio incipiat, a te autem reconciliatio.' From Martinus Dumiensis, De Moribus, Sent. 49.
2882. The prophete, i. e. David; Ps. xxxiv. 14.
2883. The words 'as muchel as in thee is' are an addition, due to the Fr. text:--'tant comme tu pourras.'--Mr.
2884. The use of to after pursue is unusual; Mätzner compares biseke to, in 2940 below and 2306 above.
2886. From Prov. xxviii. 14.
2891. Fr. text:--'Pour ce dit le philosophe, que les troubles ne sont pas bien cler voyans.' Cf. the Fr. proverb:--'À l'oeil malade la lumière nuit, an eie distempered cannot brook the light; sick thoughts cannot indure the truth'; Cotgrave.
2895. From Prov. xxviii. 23.
2897. This quotation is merely an expansion of the former part of Eccles. vii. 3, viz. 'sorrow is better than laughter'; the latter part of the same verse appears in 2900, immediately below.
2901. I shal not conne answere, I shall not be able to answer; Fr. text:--'ie ne sauroie respondre.'--Mr.
2909. From Prov. xvi. 7.
2915. Fr. text:--'ie met tout mon fait en vostre disposition.'--Mr. [223]
2925. Referring to Ps. xx. 4 (Vulgate)--'in benedictionibus dulcedinis'; A. V.--'with the blessings of goodness,' Ps. xxi. 3.
2930. From Ecclus. vi. 5:--'Verbum dulce multiplicat amicos, et mitigat inimicos.' The A. V. omits the latter clause, having only:--'Sweet language will multiply friends.'
2931. Fr. text:--'nous mettons nostre fait en vostre bonne voulente.'--Mr.
2936. Hise amendes, i. e. amends to him. For hise or his, Cp. Ln. have him, which is a more usual construction. Cf. 'What shall be thy amends For thy neglect of truth?' Shak., Sonnet 101. 'If I have wronged thee, seek thy mends at the law'; Greene, Looking-Glass for London, ed. Dyce, 1883, p. 122.
2940. Biseke to; so in 2306; see note to 2884.
2945. From Ecclus. xxxiii. 18, 19:--'Hear me, O ye great men of the people, and hearken with your ears, ye rulers of the congregation: Give not thy son and wife, thy brother and friend, power over thee while thou livest.'
2965. Not from Seneca, but from Martinus Dumiensis, De Moribus, S. 94 (Sundby). The Lat. text has:--'ubi est confessio, ibi est remissio.'
2967. Neither is this from Seneca, but from the same source as before. Lat. text has:--'Proximum ad innocentiam locum tenet uerecundia peccati et confessio.'
2973. Lat. text:--'Nihil enim tam naturale est, quam aliquid dissolui eo genere, quo colligatum est.' From the Digesta, lib. xvii. 35.
2984. Lat. text:--'Semper audiui dici, Quod bene potes facere, noli differre.' Fr. text:--'Le bien que tu peus faire au matin, n'attens pas le soir ne l'endemain.'
2986. Messages, messengers; Cp. messagers; Hl. messageres. See B. 144, 333. In 2992, 2995, we have the form messagers.
2997. Borwes, sureties; as in P. Plowman, C. v. 85. In 3018 it seems to mean 'pledges' rather than 'sureties.'
3028. A coveitous name, a reputation for covetousness.
3030. From 1 Tim. vi. 10. See C. 334.
3032. Lat. text (p. 120):--'Scriptum est enim, Mallem perdidisse quam turpiter accepisse.' This is from Publilius Syrus, Sent. 479:--
'Perdidisse ad assem mallem, quam accepisse turpiter.'
3036. Also from P. Syrus, Sent. 293:--
'Laus noua nisi oritur, etiam uetus amittitur.'
3040. For 'it is writen,' the Fr. text has 'le droit dit.' This indicates the source. The Lat. text has:--'priuilegium meretur amittere, qui concessa sibi abutitur potestate.' This Sundby traces to the Decretalia Gregorii IX., iii. 31. 18.
3042. Which I trowe ... do; Lat. 'quod non concedo.'
3045. Ye moste ... curteisly; Lat. 'remissius imperare oportet.' [224]
3047. Lat. text:--'Remissius imperanti melius paretur'; from Seneca, De Clementia, i. 24. 1.
3049. 'Ait enim Seneca'; the Lat. text then quotes from Publilius Syrus, Sent. 64:--'Bis uincit, qui se uincit in uictoria.'
3050. Lat. text:--'Nihil est laudabilius, nihil magno et praeclaro uiro dignius, placabilitate atque clementia.' From Cicero, De Officiis, i. 25. 88.
3054. Of mercy, i. e. on account of your mercy.
3056. 'Male uincit iam quem poenitet uictoriae'; Publilius Syrus, Sent. 366. Attributed to Seneca in the Latin text.
3059. From James, ii. 13.
3066. Unconninge, ignorance; cf. Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 131; Prick of Conscience, l. 169.
3067. Misborn, borne amiss, misconducted. See Life of Beket, l. 1248.
THE MONK'S PROLOGUE.
3079. The tale of Melibee (as told above) is about a certain Melibeus and his wife Prudence, who had a daughter called Sophie. One day, while Melibeus is absent, three of his enemies break into his house, beat his wife, and wound his daughter. On returning, he takes counsel as to what must be done. He is for planning a method of revenge, but his wife advises him to forgive the injuries, and in the end her counsels prevail.
3082. corpus Madrian, body of Madrian: which has been interpreted in two ways. Urry guessed it to refer to St. Materne, bishop of Treves, variously commemorated on the 14th, 19th, or 25th of September, the days of his translations being July 18 and October 23. Mr. Steevens suggested, in a note printed in Tyrwhitt's Glossary, that the 'precious body' was that of St. Mathurin, priest and confessor, commemorated on Nov. 1 or Nov. 9. The latter is more likely, since in his story in the Golden Legende, edit. 1527, leaf 151 back, the expressions 'the precious body' and 'the holy body' occur, and the story explains that his body would not stay in the earth till it was carried back to France, where he had given directions that it should be buried.
3083. 'Rather than have a barrel of ale, would I that my dear good wife had heard this story.' Cf. morsel breed, B. 3624.
lief is not a proper name, as has been suggested, I believe, by some one ignorant of early English idiom. Cf. 'Dear my lord,' Jul. Caesar, ii. 1. 255; and other instances in Abbott's Shakesp. Grammar, sect. 13.
3101. 'Who is willing (or who suffers himself) to be overborne by everybody.'
3108. neighëbor, three syllables; thannè, two syllables.
3112. Observe the curious use of seith for misseith.
3114. Monk. See him described in the Prologue, A. 165.
3116. Rouchester. The MSS. have Rouchester, (Hl. Rowchestre), [225] shewing that Lo stands alone in the first foot of the line. Tyrwhitt changed stant into stondeth, but all our seven MSS. have stant.
According to the arrangement of the tales in Tyrwhitt's edition, the pilgrims reach Rochester after coming to Sittingborne (mentioned in the Wife of Bath's Prologue), though the latter is some eleven miles nearer Canterbury. The present arrangement of the Groups remedies this. See note to B. 1165, at p. 165.
3117. Ryd forth, ride forward, draw near us.
3119. Wher, whether. dan, for Dominus, a title of respect commonly used in addressing monks. But Chaucer even uses it of Arcite, in the Knightes Tale, and of Cupid, Ho. Fame, 137.
3120. The monk's name was Piers. See B. 3982, and the note.
3124. Cf. 'He was not pale as a for-pyned goost'; Prol. A. 205. Jean de Meun says, in his Testament, l. 1073, that the friars have good pastures (il ont bonnes pastures).
3127. as to my doom, in my judgment.
3130. Scan the line--Bút a góvernoúr wylý and wýs. The Petworth MS. inserts 'boþ' before 'wyly': but this requires the very unlikely accentuation 'govérnour' and an emphasis on a. The line would scan better if we might insert art, or lyk, after But, but there is no authority for this.
3132. Read--A wél-faríng persónë, after which comes the pause, as marked in E. and Hn.
3139. The monk's semi-cope, which seems to have been an ample one, is mentioned in the Prologue, A. 262. In Jack Upland, § 4, a friar is asked what is signified by his 'wide cope.'
3142. 'Shaven very high on his crown'; alluding to the tonsure.
3144. the corn, i. e. the chief part or share.
3145. borel men, lay-men. Borel means 'rude, unlearned, ignorant,' and seems to have arisen from a peculiar use of borel or burel, sb., a coarse cloth; so that its original sense, as an adj., was 'in coarse clothing,' or 'rudely clad.' See borrel and burel in the New Eng. Dictionary.
shrimpes, diminutive or poor creatures.
3146. wrecched impes, poor grafts, weakly shoots. Cf. A. S. impian, to graft, imp, a graft; borrowed from Low Lat. impotus, a graft, from Gk. [Greek: emphutos], engrafted.
3152. lussheburghes, light coins. In P. Plowman, B. xv. 342, we are told that 'in Lussheborwes is a lyther alay (bad alloy), and yet loketh he lyke a sterlynge.' They were spurious coins imported into England from Luxembourg, whence the name. See Liber Albus, ed. Riley, 1841, p. 495; and Blount's Nomolexicon. Luxembourg is called Lusscheburghe in the Allit. Morte Arthure, l. 2388. The importation of this false money was frequently forbidden, viz. in 1347, 1348, and 1351.
3157. souneth into, tends to, is consistent with; see Prol. A. 307, and Sq. Ta., F. 517. The following extracts from Palsgrave's French Dictionary are to the point. 'I sownde, I appartayne or belong, Ie tens. [226] Thys thyng sowndeth to a good purpose, Ceste chose tent a bonne fin.' Also, 'I sownde, as a tale or a report sowndeth to ones honesty or dyshonesty, Ie redonde. I promise you that this matter sowndeth moche to your dishonoure, Ie vous promets que ceste matyere redonde fort a votre deshonneur.'
3160. Seint Edward. There are two of the name, viz. Edward, king and martyr, commemorated on March 16, 18, or 19, and the second King Edward, best known as Edward the Confessor, commemorated on Jan. 5. In Piers the Plowman, B. xv. 217, we have--
'Edmonde and Edwarde · eyther were kynges, And seyntes ysette · tyl charite hem folwed.'
But Edward the Confessor is certainly meant; and there is a remarkable story about him that he was 'warned of hys death certain dayes before hee dyed, by a ring that was brought to him by certain pilgrims coming from Hierusalem, which ring hee hadde secretly given to a poore man that askyd hys charitie in the name of God and sainte Johan the Evangelist.' See Mr. Wright's description of Ludlow Church, where are some remains of a stained glass window representing this story, in the eastern wall of the chapel of St. John. See also Chambers, Book of Days, i. 53, 54, where we read--'The sculptures upon the frieze of the present shrine (in Westminster Abbey) represent fourteen scenes in the life of Edward the Confessor.... He was canonized by Pope Alexander about a century after his death.... He was esteemed the patron-saint of England until superseded in the thirteenth century by St. George.' These fourteen scenes are fully described in Brayley's Hist. of Westminster Abbey, in an account which is chiefly taken from a life of St. Edward written by Ailred of Rievaulx in 1163. Three 'Lives of Edward the Confessor' were edited, for the Master of the Rolls, by Mr. Luard in 1858. See Morley's Eng. Writers, 1888, ii. 375.
3162. celle, cell. The monk calls it his cell because he was 'the keper' of it; Prol. 172.
3163. Tragédie; the final ie might be slurred over before is, in which case we might read for to for to (see footnote); but it is needless. The definition of 'tragedy' here given is repeated from Chaucer's own translation of Boethius, which contains the remark--'Glose. Tragedie is to seyn, a ditee [ditty] of a prosperitee for a tyme, that endeth in wrecchednesse'; bk. ii. pr. 2. 51. This remark is Chaucer's own, as the word Glose marks his addition to, or gloss upon, his original. His remark refers to a passage in Boethius immediately preceding, viz. 'Quid tragoediarum clamor aliud deflet, nisi indiscreto ictu fortunam felicia regna uertentem?' De Consolatione Philosophiae, lib. ii. prosa 2. See also the last stanza of 'Cresus' in the Monkes Tale (vol. i. p. 268).
3169. exametron, hexameter. Chaucer is speaking of Latin, not of English verse; and refers to the common Latin hexameter used in heroic verse; he would especially be thinking of the Thebaid of Statius, [227] the Metamorphoseon Liber of Ovid, the Aeneid of Vergil, and Lucan's Pharsalia. This we could easily have guessed, but Chaucer has himself told us what was in his thoughts. For near the conclusion of his Troilus and Criseyde, which he calls a tragedie, he says--
'And kis the steppes wheras thou seest pace Virgile, Ovyde, Omer, Lucan, and Stace.'
Lucan is expressly cited in B. 401, 3909.
3170. In prose. For example, Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum and De Claris Mulieribus contain 'tragedies' in Latin prose. Cf. ll. 3655, 3910.
3171. in metre. For example, the tragedies of Seneca are in various metres, chiefly iambic. See also note to l. 3285.
3177. After hir ages, according to their periods; in chronological order. The probable allusion is to Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum, which begins with Adam and Nimrod, and keeps tolerably to the right order. For further remarks on this, shewing how Chaucer altered the order of these Tragedies in the course of revision, see vol. iii. p. 428.
THE MONKES TALE.
For some account of this Tale, see vol. iii. p. 427.
3181. Tragédie; accented on the second syllable, and riming with remédie; cf. B. 3163. Very near the end of Troilus and Criseyde, we find Chaucer riming it with comédie. That poem he also calls a tragedie (v. 1786)--
'Go, litel book, go, litel myn tragédie,' &c.
3183. fillen, fell. nas no, for ne was no, a double negative. Cf. Ch. tr. of Boethius--'the olde age of tyme passed, and eek of present tyme now, is ful of ensaumples how that kinges ben chaunged in-to wrecchednesse out of hir welefulnesse'; bk. iii. pr. 5. 3.
3186. The Harl. MS. has--'Ther may no man the cours of hir whiel holde,' which Mr. Wright prefers. But the reading of the Six-text is well enough here; for in the preceding line Chaucer is speaking of Fortune under the image of a person fleeing away, to which he adds, that no one can stay her course. Fortune is also sometimes represented as stationary, and holding an ever-turning wheel, as in the Book of the Duchesse, 643; but that is another picture.
3188. Be war by, take warning from.
LUCIFER.
3189. Lucifer, a Latin name signifying light-bringer, and properly applied to the morning-star. In Isaiah xiv. 12 the Vulgate has--'Quomodo cecidisti de caelo, Lucifer, qui mane oriebaris? corruisti in terram, qui uulnerabas gentes?' &c. St. Jerome, Tertullian, St. Gregory, and [228] other fathers, supposed this passage to apply to the fall of Satan. It became a favourite topic for writers both in prose and verse, and the allusions to it are innumerable. See note to Piers the Plowman, B. i. 105 (Clar. Press Series). Gower begins his eighth book of the Confessio Amantis with the examples of Lucifer and Adam.
Sandras, in his Étude sur Chaucer, p. 248, quotes some French lines from a 'Volucraire,' which closely agree with this first stanza. But it is a common theme.
3192. sinne, the sin of pride, as in all the accounts; probably from 1 Tim. iii. 6. Thus Gower, Conf. Amant. lib. i. (ed. Pauli, i. 153):--
'For Lucifer, with them that felle, Bar pride with him into helle. Ther was pride of to grete cost, Whan he for pride hath heven lost.'
3195. artow, art thou. Sathanas, Satan. The Hebrew sâtân means simply an adversary, as in 1 Sam. xxix. 4; 2 Sam. xix. 22; &c. A remarkable application of it to the evil spirit is in Luke x. 18. Milton also indentifies Lucifer with Satan; Par. Lost, vii. 131; x. 425; but they are sometimes distinguished, and made the names of two different spirits. See, for example, Piers Plowman, B. xviii. 270-283.
3196. Read misérie, after which follows the metrical pause.
ADAM.
3197. Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum Illustrium begins with a chapter 'De Adam et Eua.' It contains the passage--'Et ex agro, qui postea Damascenus,... ductus in Paradisum deliciarum.' Lydgate, in his Fall of Princes (fol. a 5), has--
'Of slyme of the erthe, in damascene the feelde, God made theym aboue eche creature.'
The notion of the creation of Adam in a field whereupon afterwards stood Damascus, occurs in Peter Comestor's Historia Scholastica, where we find (ed. 1526, fol. vii)--'Quasi quereret aliquis, Remansit homo in loco vbi factus est, in agro scilicet damasceno? Non. Vbi ergo translatus est? In paradisum.' See also Maundeville's Travels, cap. xv; Genesis and Exodus, ed. Morris, l. 207; and note in Mätzner's Altenglische Sprachproben, ii. 185.
3199. Cf. 'Formatus est homo ... de spurcissimo spermate'; Innocent III., De Miseria Conditionis Humanae, i. 1 (Köppel).
3200. So Boccaccio--'O caeca rerum cupiditas! Hii, quibus rerum omnium, dante Deo, erat imperium,' &c. Cf. Gen. i. 29; ii. 16.
SAMPSON.
3205. The story of Sampson is also in Boccaccio, lib. i. c. 17 (not 19, as Tyrwhitt says). But Chaucer seems mostly to have followed [229] the account in Judges, xiii-xvi. The word annunciat, referring to the announcement of Samson's birth by the angel (Judges xiii. 3), may have been suggested by Boccaccio, whose account begins--'Praenunciante per angelum Deo, ex Manue Israhelita quodam et pulcherrima eius vxore Sanson progenitus est.' thangel in l. 3206=the angel.
3207. consecrat, consecrated. A good example of the use of the ending -at; cf. situate for situated.--M. Shakespeare has consecrate; Com. of. Err. ii. 2. 134.
3208. whyl he mighte see, as long as he preserved his eyesight.
3210. To speke of strengthe, with regard to strength; to speke of is a kind of preposition.--M. Cf. Milton's Samson Agonistes, 126-150.
3211. wyves. Samson told the secret of his riddle to his wife, Judges xiv. 17; and of his strength to Delilah, id. xvi. 17.
3215. al to-rente, completely rent in twain. The prefix to- has two powers in Old English. Sometimes it is the preposition to in composition, as in towards, or M. E. to-flight (G. zuflucht), a refuge. But more commonly it is a prefix signifying in twain, spelt zer- in German, and dis- in Moeso-Gothic and Latin. Thus to-rente = rent in twain; to-brast = burst in twain, &c. The intensive adverb al, utterly, was used not merely (as is commonly supposed) before verbs beginning with to-, but in other cases also. Thus, in William of Palerne, l. 872, we find--'He was al a-wondred,' where al precedes the intensive prefix a- = A. S. of. Again, in the same poem, l. 661, we have--'al bi-weped for wo,' where al now precedes the prefix bi-. In Barbour's Bruce, ed. Skeat, x. 596, is the expression--
'For, hapnyt ony to slyde or fall, He suld be soyne to-fruschit al.'
Where al to-fruschit means utterly broken in pieces. Perhaps the clearest example of the complete separability of al from to is seen in l. 3884 of William of Palerne;--
'Al to-tare his atir · þat he to-tere mi[gh]t';
i. e. he entirely tore apart his attire, as much of it as he could tear apart. But at a later period of English, when the prefix to- was less understood, a new and mistaken notion arose of regarding al to as a separable prefix, with the sense of all to pieces. I have observed no instance of this use earlier than the reign of Henry VIII. Thus Surrey, Sonnet 9, has 'al-to shaken' for shaken to pieces. Latimer has--'they love and al-to love (i. e. entirely love) him'; Serm. p. 289. For other examples, see Al-to in the Bible Word-book; and my notes in Notes and Queries, 3 Ser. xii. 464, 535; also All, § C. 15, in the New E. Dict.
3220. Samson's wife was given to a friend; Judges, xiv. 20. She was afterwards burnt by her own people; Judges, xv. 6.
3224. on every tayl; one brand being fastened to the tails of two foxes; Judg. xv. 4.
3225. cornes. The Vulgate has segetes and fruges; also utneas for [230] vynes, and oliueta for oliveres. The plural form cornes is not uncommon in Early English. Cf. 'Quen thair corns war in don,' i. e. when their harvests were gathered in; Spec. of Eng. pt. ii. ed. Morris and Skeat, p. 70, l. 39. And again, 'alle men-sleeris and brenneris of houses and cornes [misprinted corves] ben cursed opynly in parische chirches'; Wyclif's Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 329.
3234. wang-toth, molar tooth. This expression is taken from the Vulgate, which has--'Aperuit itaque Dominus molarem dentem in maxilla asini'; where the A. V. has only--'an hollow place that was in the jaw'; Judg. xv. 19.
3236. Judicum, i. e. Liber Judicum, the Book of Judges. Cf. note to B. 93, at p. 141.
3237. Gazan, a corruption of Gazam, the acc. case, in Judg. xvi. 1, Vulgate version.
3244. ne hadde been, there would not have been. Since hadde is here the subjunctive mood, it is dissyllabic. Read--worldë n' haddë.
3245. sicer, from the Lat. sicera, Greek [Greek: sikera], strong drink, is the word which we now spell cider; see Wyclif's Works, ed. Arnold, i. 363, note. It is used here because found in the Vulgate version of Judges xiii. 7; 'caue ne uinum bibas, nec siceram.' I slightly amend the spelling of the MSS., which have ciser, siser, sythir, cyder. Wyclif has sither, cyther, sidir, sydur.
3249. twenty winter, twenty years; Judg. xvi. 31. The English used to reckon formerly by winters instead of years; as may be seen in a great many passages in the A. S. Chronicle.
3253. Dalida; from Gk. [Greek: Dalida], in the Septuagint. The Vulgate has Dalila; but Chaucer (or his scribes) naturally adopted a form which seemed to have a nearer resemblance to an accusative case, such being, at that time, the usual practice; cf. Briseide (from Briseida), Criseyde and Anelida. Lydgate also uses the form Dalida.
3259. in this array, in this (defenceless) condition.
3264. querne, hand-mill. The Vulgate has--'et clausum in carcere molere fecerunt'; Judg. xvi. 21. But Boccaccio says--'ad molas manuarias coegere.' The word occurs in the House of Fame, 1798; and in Wyclif's Bible, Exod. xi. 5; Mat. xxiv. 41. In the Ayenbite of Inwyt, ed. Morris, p. 181, the story of Samson is alluded to, and it is said of him that he 'uil [fell] into þe honden of his yuo [foes], þet him deden grinde ate querne ssamuolliche,' i. e. who made him grind at the mill shamefully (in a shameful manner). Lydgate copies Chaucer rather closely, in his Fall of Princes, fol. e 7:--
'And of despite, after as I fynde, At their quernes made hym for to grinde.'
3269. Thende, the end. Caytif means (1) a captive, (2) a wretch. It is therefore used here very justly.
3274. two pilers, better than the reading the pilers of MS. E.; because two are expressly mentioned; Judg. xvi. 29. [231]
3282. So Boccaccio--'Sic aduersa credulitas, sic amantis pietas, sic mulieris egit inclyta fides. Vt quem non poterant homines, non uincula, non ferrum uincere, a mulieribus latrunculis uinceretur.' Lydgate has the expressions--
'Beware by Sampson your counseyll well to kepe, Though [misprinted That] Dalida compleyne, crye, and wepe';
and again:--
'Suffre no nightworm within your counseyll crepe, Though Dalida compleyne, crye, and wepe.'
HERCULES.
3285. There is little about Hercules in Boccaccio; but Chaucer's favourite author, Ovid, has his story in the Metamorphoses, book ix, and Heroides, epist. 9. Tyrwhitt, however, has shewn that Chaucer more immediately copies a passage in Boethius, de Cons. Phil. lib. iv. met. 7, which is as follows:--
'Herculem duri celebrant labores; Ille Centauros domuit superbos; Abstulit saeuo spolium leoni; Fixit et certis uolucres sagittis; Poma cernenti rapuit draconi, Aureo laeuam grauior metallo; Cerberum traxit triplici catena. Victor immitem posuisse fertur Pabulum saeuis dominum quadrigis. Hydra combusto periit ueneno; Fronte turpatus Achelous amnis Ora demersit pudibunda ripis. Strauit Antaeum Libycis arenis, Cacus Euandri satiauit iras, Quosque pressurus foret altus orbis Setiger spumis humeros notauit. Ultimus caelum labor irreflexo Sustulit collo, pretiumque rursus Ultimi caelum meruit laboris.'
But it is still more interesting to see Chaucer's own version of this passage, which is as follows (ed. Morris, p. 147; cf. vol. ii. p. 125):--
'Hercules is celebrable for his harde trauaile; he dawntede þe proude Centauris, half hors, half man; and he rafte þe despoylynge fro þe cruel lyoun; þat is to seyne, he slou[gh] þe lyoun and rafte hym hys skyn. He smot þe birds þat hy[gh]ten arpijs in þe palude of lyrne wiþ certeyne arwes. He rauyssede applis fro þe wakyng dragoun, & hys hand was þe more heuy for þe goldene metal. He drou[gh] Cerberus þe hound of helle by his treble cheyne; he, ouer-comer, as it is seid, haþ put an vnmeke lorde fodre to his cruel hors; þis is to sein, þat [232] hercules slou[gh] diomedes and made his hors to etyn hym. And he, hercules, slou[gh] Idra þe serpent & brende þe venym; and achelaus þe flode, defoulede in his forhede, dreinte his shamefast visage in his strondes; þis is to seyn, þat achelaus couþe transfigure hymself into dyuerse lykenesse, & as he fau[gh]t wiþ ercules, at þe laste he turnide hym in-to a bole [bull]; and hercules brak of oon of hys hornes, & achelaus for shame hidde hym in hys ryuer. And he, hercules, caste adoun Antheus þe geaunt in þe strondes of libye; & kacus apaisede þe wraþþes of euander; þis is to sein, þat hercules slou[gh] þe monstre kacus & apaisede wiþ þat deeþ þe wraþþe of euander. And þe bristlede boor markede wiþ scomes [scums, foam] þe sholdres of hercules, þe whiche sholdres þe heye cercle of heuene sholde þreste [was to rest upon]. And þe laste of his labours was, þat he sustenede þe heuene upon his nekke unbowed; & he deseruede eftsones þe heuene, to ben þe pris of his laste trauayle.'
And in his House of Fame, book iii. (l. 1413), he mentions--
'Alexander, and Hercules, That with a sherte his lyf lees.'
3288. Hercules' first labour was the slaying of the Nemean lion, whose skin he often afterwards wore.
3289. Centauros; this is the very form used by Boethius, else we might have expected Centaurus or Centaures. After the destruction of the Erymanthian boar, Hercules slew Pholus the centaur; and (by accident) Chiron. His slaughter of the centaur Nessus ultimately brought about his own death; cf. l. 3318.
3290. Arpies, harpies. The sixth labour was the destruction of the Stymphalian birds, who ate human flesh.
3291. The eleventh labour was the fetching of the golden apples, guarded by the dragon Ladon, from the garden of the Hesperides.
3292. The twelfth labour was the bringing of Cerberus from the lower world.
3293. Busirus. Here Chaucer has confused two stories. One is, that Busiris, a king of Egypt, used to sacrifice all foreigners who came to Egypt, till the arrival of Hercules, who slew him. The other is 'the eighth labour,' when Hercules killed Diomedes, a king in Thrace, who fed his mares with human flesh, till Hercules slew him and gave his body to be eaten by the mares, as Chaucer himself says in his translation. The confusion was easy, because the story of Busiris is mentioned elsewhere by Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 6, in a passage which Chaucer thus translates (see vol. ii. p. 43):--'I have herd told of Busirides, þat was wont to sleen his gestes [guests] þat herberweden [lodged] in his hous; and he was sleyn him-self of Ercules þat was his gest.' Lydgate tells the story of Busiris correctly.
3295. serpent, i. e. the Lernean hydra, whom Chaucer, in the passage from Boethius, calls 'Idra [or Ydra] the serpent.'
3296. Achelois, seems to be used here as a genitive form from [233] a nominative Achelo; in his translation of Boethius we find Achelous and Achelaus. The spelling of names by old authors is often vague. The line means--he broke one of the two horns of Achelous. The river-god Achelous, in his fight with Hercules, took the form of a bull, whereupon the hero broke off one of his horns.
3297. The adventures with Cacus and Antaeus are well known.
3299. The fourth labour was the destruction of the Erymanthian boar.
3300. longe, for a long time; in the margin of MS. Camb. Univ. Lib. Dd. 4. 24, is written the gloss diu.
3307. The allusion is to the 'pillars' of Hercules. The expression 'both ends of the world' refers to the extreme points of the continents of Europe and Africa, world standing here for continent. The story is that Hercules erected two pillars, Calpe and Abyla, on the two sides of the Strait of Gibraltar. The words 'seith Trophee' seem to refer to an author named Trophaeus. In Lydgate's prologue to his Fall of Princes, st. 41, he says of Chaucer that--
'In youth he made a translacion Of a boke whiche called is Trophe In Lumbarde tonge, as men may rede and se; And in our vulgar, long er that he deyde, Gave it the name of Troylus and Creseyde.'
This seems to say that Trophe was the Italian name of a Book (or otherwise, the name of a book in Italian), whence Chaucer drew his story of Troilus. But the notion must be due to some mistake, since that work was taken from the 'Filostrato' of Boccaccio. The only trace of the name of Trophaeus as an author is in a marginal note--possibly Chaucer's own--which appears in both the Ellesmere and Hengwrt MSS., viz. 'Ille vates Chaldeorum Tropheus.' See, however, vol. ii. p. lv, where I shew that, in this passage at any rate, Trophee really refers to Guido delle Colonne, who treats of the deeds of Hercules in the first book of his Historia Troiana, and makes particular mention of the famous columns (as to which Ovid and Boethius are alike silent).
3311. thise clerkes, meaning probably Ovid and Boccaccio. See Ovid's Heroides, epist. ix., entitled Deianira Herculi, and Metamorph. lib. ix.; Boccaccio, De Casibus Virorum Illustrium, lib. i. cap. xviii., and De Mulieribus Claris, cap. xxii. See also the Trachineae of Sophocles, which Chaucer of course never read.
3315. wered, worn; so in A. 75, and B. 3320, wered is the form of the past tense. Instances of verbs with weak preterites in Chaucer, but strong ones in modern English, are rare indeed; but there are several instances of the contrary, e.g. wep, slep, wesh, wex, now wept, slept, washed, waxed. Wore is due to analogy with bore; cf. could for coud.
3317. Both Ovid and Boccaccio represent Deianira as ignorant of the fatal effects which the shirt would produce. See Ovid, Metam. [234] ix. 133. Had Chaucer written later, he might have included Gower among the clerks, as the latter gives the story of Hercules and Deianira in his Conf. Amantis, lib. ii. (ed. Pauli, i. 236), following Ovid. Thus he says--
'With wepend eye and woful herte She tok out thilke vnhappy sherte, As she that wende wel to do.'
3326. For long upbraidings of Fortune, see The Boke of the Duchesse, 617; Rom. Rose, 5407; Boethius, bk. i. met. 5; &c.
NABUGODONOSOR.
3335. Nabugodonosor; generally spelt Nabuchodonosor in copies of the Vulgate, of which this other spelling is a mere variation. Gower has the same spelling as Chaucer, and relates the story near the end of book i. of the Conf. Amantis (ed. Pauli, i. 136). Both no doubt took it directly from Daniel i-iv.
3338. The vessel is here an imitation of the French idiom; F. vaisselle means the plate, as Mr. Jephson well observes. Cf. l. 3494.
3349. In the word statue the second syllable is rapidly slurred over, like that in glorie in l. 3340. See the same effect in the Kn. Tale, ll. 117, 1097 (A. 975, 1955).
3356. tweye, two; a strange error for three, whose names are familiar; viz. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
BALTHASAR.
3373. Balthasar; so spelt by Boccaccio, who relates the story very briefly, De Cas. Virorum Illust., lib. ii. cap. 19. So also, by Peter Comestor, in his Historia Scholastica; and by Gower, Conf. Amant., lib. v (ed. Pauli, ii. 365). The Vulgate generally has Baltassar; Daniel, cap. v.
3379. and ther he lay; cf. l. 3275 above.
3384. The word tho is supplied for the metre. The scribes have considered vesselles (sic) as a trisyllable; but see ll. 3391, 3416, 3418.
3388. Of, for. Cf. 'thank God of al,' i. e. for all; in Chaucer's Balade of Truth.--M. See note in vol. i. pp. 552-3.
3422. Tyrwhitt has trusteth, in the plural, but thou is used throughout. Elsewhere Chaucer also has 'on whom we truste,' Prol. A. 501; 'truste on fortune,' B. 3326; cf. 'syker on to trosten,' P. Pl. Crede, l. 350.
3427. Dárius, so accented. degree, rank, position.
3429-36. I have no doubt that this stanza was a later addition.
3436. proverbe. The allusion is, in the first place, to Boethius, de Cons. Phil., bk. iii. pr. 5--'Sed quem felicitas amicum fecit, infortunium [235] faciet inimicum'; which Chaucer translates--'Certes, swiche folk as weleful fortune maketh freendes, contrarious fortune maketh hem enemys'; see vol. ii. p. 63. Cf. Prov. xix. 4--'Wealth maketh many friends; but the poor is separated from his neighbour,' &c. So also--'If thou be brought low, he [i. e. thy friend] will be against thee, and will hide himself from thy face'; Ecclus. vi. 12. In Hazlitt's Collection of English Proverbs, p. 235, we find--
'In time of prosperity, friends will be plenty; In time of adversity, not one among twenty.'
See also note to l. 120 above; and, not to multiply instances, note st. 19 of Goldsmith's Hermit:--
'And what is friendship but a name, A charm that lulls to sleep; A shade that follows wealth or fame, And leaves the wretch to weep?'
ZENOBIA.
3437. Cenobia. The story of Zenobia is told by Trebellius Pollio, who flourished under Constantine, in cap. xxix. of his work entitled Triginta Tyranni; but Chaucer no doubt followed later accounts, one of which was clearly that given by Boccaccio in his De Mulieribus Claris, cap. xcviii. Boccaccio relates her story again in his De Casibus Virorum, lib. viii. c. 6; in an edition of which, printed in 1544, I find references to the biography of Aurelian by Flavius Vopiscus, to the history of Orosius, lib. vii. cap. 23, and to Baptista Fulgosius, lib. iv. cap. 3. See, in particular, chap. xi. of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, where the story of Zenobia is given at length. Palmyra is described by Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. v. cap. 21. Zenobia's ambition tempted her to endeavour to make herself a Queen of the East, instead of remaining merely Queen of Palmyra; but she was defeated by the Roman emperor Aurelian, A.D. 273, and carried to Rome, where she graced his triumph, A.D. 274. She survived this reverse of fortune for some years.
Palimerie. Such is the spelling in the best MSS.; but MS. Hl. reads--'of Palmire the queene.' It is remarkable that MS. Trin. Coll. Cam. R. 3. 19 has the reading--'Cenobia, of Belmary quene,' which suggests confusion with Belmarie, in the Prol. A. 57; but see the note to that line. It occupied the site of the ancient Tadmor, or 'city of palmtrees,' in an oasis of the Great Syrian desert. It has been in ruins since about A.D. 1400.
3441. In the second ne in, the e is slurred over; cf. nin, Sq. Ta., F. 35.
3442. Perse. This (like l. 3438) is Chaucer's mistake. Boccaccio says expressly that she was of the race of the Ptolemies of Egypt; but further [236] on he remarks--'Sic cum Persis et Armenis principibus, vt illos urbanitate et facetia superaret.' This may account for the confusion.
3446. Boccaccio says (de Mul. Clar.)--'Dicunt autem hanc a pueritia sua spretis omnino muliebribus officiis, cum iam corpusculum eduxisset in robur, syluas & nemora incoluisse plurimum, & accinctam pharetra, ceruis caprisque cursu atque sagittis fuisse infestam. Inde cum in acriores deuenisset uires, ursus amplecti ausam, pardos, leonesque insequi, obuios expectare, capere & occidere, ac in praedam trahere.' This accounts for the word office, and may shew how closely Chaucer has followed his original.
3496. lafte not, forbore not; see A. 492.
3497. She was acquainted with Egyptian literature, and studied Greek under the philosopher Longinus, author of a celebrated treatise on 'The Sublime.'
3502. housbonde. Her husband was Odenathus, or Odenatus, the ruler of Palmyra, upon whom the emperor Gallienus had bestowed the title of Augustus. He was murdered by some of his relations, and some have even insinuated that Zenobia consented to the crime. Most scribes spell the name Onedake, by metathesis for Odenake (Odenate), like the spelling Adriane for Ariadne.
3507. doon hem flee, cause them (her and her husband) to flee.
3510. Sapor I. reigned over Persia A.D. 240-273. He defeated the emperor Valerian, whom he kept in captivity for the rest of his life. After conquering Syria and taking Caesarea, he was defeated by Odenatus and Zenobia, who founded a new empire at Palmyra. See Gibbon, Decline, &c., chap. x.
3511. proces, succession of events. fil, fell, befell.
3512. title, pronounced nearly as title in French, the e being elided before had.
3515. Petrark. Tyrwhitt suggests that perhaps Boccaccio's book had fallen into Chaucer's hands under the name of Petrarch. We may, however, suppose that Chaucer had read the account in a borrowed book, and did not certainly know whether Petrarch or Boccaccio was the author. Instances of similar mistakes are common enough in Early English. Modern readers are apt to forget that, in the olden times, much information had to be carried in the memory, and there was seldom much facility for verification or for a second perusal of a story.
3519. cruelly. The Harl. MS. has the poor reading trewely, miswritten for crewely.
3525. Claudius II., emperor of Rome, A.D. 268-270. He succeeded Gallienus, as Chaucer says, and was succeeded by Aurelian.
3535. Boccaccio calls them Heremianus and Timolaus, so that Hermanno (as in the MSS.) should probably be Heremanno. Professor Robertson Smith tells me that the right names are Herennianus and Timoleon. The line cannot well be scanned as it stands.
3550. char, chariot. Boccaccio describes this 'currum, quem sibi ex auro gemmisque praeciocissimum Zenobia fabricari fecerat.' [237]
3556. charged, heavily laden. She was so laden with chains of massive gold, and covered with pearls and gems, that she could scarcely support the weight; so says Boccaccio. Gibbon says the same.
3562. vitremyte. I have no doubt this reading (as in Tyrwhitt) is correct. All the six MSS. in the Six-text agree in it. The old printed editions have were autremyte, a mere corruption of were a u[i]tremyte; and the Harl. MS. has wyntermyte, which I take to be an attempt to make sense of a part of the word, just as we have turned écrevisse into cray-fish. What the word means, is another question; it is perhaps the greatest 'crux' in Chaucer. As the word occurs nowhere else, the solution I offer is a mere guess. I suppose it to be a coined word, formed on the Latin vitream mitram, expressing, literally, a glass head-dress, in complete contrast to a strong helmet. My reasons for supposing this are as follows.
(1) With regard to mitra. In Low-Latin, its commonest meaning is a woman's head-dress. But it was especially and widely used as a term of mockery, both in Latin, Italian, Spanish, and French. The mitra was the cap which criminals were made to wear as a sign of degradation; see Carpenter's Supp. to Ducange, s. v. Mitra; Vocabulario degli Accad. della Crusca, s. v. Mitera; and any large Spanish Dict. s. v. Mitra. Even Cotgrave has--'Mitré, mitred; hooded with a miter, wearing a miter; set on a pillory or scaffold, with a miter of paper on his head.' The chief difficulty in this derivation is the loss of the r, but Godefroy has a quotation (s. v. mite, 2), which would suit the sense--'mites de toile costonnees, et par dessus ung grand chappel de fer ou de cuir bouilli.'
(2) With regard to vitream. This may refer to a proverb, probably rather English than foreign, to which I have never yet seen a reference. But its existence is clear. To give a man 'a glazen hood' meant, in Old English, to mock, delude, cajole. It appears in Piers the Plowman, B. xx. 171, where a story is told of a man who, fearing to die, consulted the physicians, and gave them large sums of money, for which they gave him in return 'a glasen houve,' i. e. a hood of glass, a thing that was no defence at all. Still clearer is the allusion to the same proverb in Chaucer himself, in a passage explained by no previous editor, in Troil. and Cres. v. 469, where Fortune is said to have an intention of deluding Troilus; or, as the poet says,
'Fortune his howve entended bet to glase,'
i. e. literally, Fortune intended to glaze his hood still better for him, i. e. to make a still greater fool of him. In the Aldine edition, howue is printed howen in this passage, but howue occurs elsewhere; Tyrwhitt has hove, a common variation of howue. If this note is unsatisfactory, I may yet claim to have explained in it at least one long-standing difficulty; viz. this line in Troilus. Tyrwhitt long ago explained that, in Chaucer, the phrases to set a man's hood, and to set a man's cap, have a like meaning, viz. to delude him. Chaucer uses verre for glass [238] in another passage of a similar character, viz. in Troil. and Cres. ii. 867, where we read--
'And forthy, who that hath an hede of verre, Fro cast of stones war him in the werre.'
3564. a distaf. This is from Boccaccio's other account, in the De Casibus Virorum. 'Haec nuper imperatoribus admiranda, nunc uenit miseranda plebeis. Haec nunc galeata concionari militibus assueta, nunc uelata cogitur muliercularum audire fabellas. Haec nuper Orienti praesidens sceptra gestabat, nunc Romae subiacens, colum, sicut ceterae, baiulat.' Zenobia survived her disgrace for some years, living at Rome as a private person on a small estate which was granted to her, and which, says Trebellius Pollio, 'hodie Zenobia dicitur.'
PETER, KING OF SPAIN.
3565. See vol. iii. p. 429, for the order in which the parts of the Monk's Tale are arranged. I follow here the arrangement in the Harleian MS. Peter, king of Castile, born in 1334, is generally known as Pedro the Cruel. He reigned over Castile and Leon from 1350 to 1362, and his conduct was marked by numerous acts of unprincipled atrocity. After a destructive civil war, he fell into the hands of his brother, Don Enrique (Henry). A personal struggle took place between the brothers, in the course of which Enrique stabbed Pedro to the heart; March 23, 1369. See the ballad by Sir Walter Scott, entitled the Death of Don Pedro, in Lockhart's Spanish Ballads, commencing--
'Henry and Don Pedro clasping Hold in straining arms each other; Tugging hard and closely grasping, Brother proves his strength with brother.'
It is remarkable that Pedro was very popular with his own party, despite his crimes, and Chaucer takes his part because our Black Prince fought on the side of Pedro against Enrique at the battle of Najera, April 3, 1367; and because John of Gaunt married Constance, daughter of Pedro, about Michaelmas, 1371.
3573. See the description of Du Gueschlin's arms as given below. The 'field' was argent, and the black eagle appears as if caught by a rod covered with birdlime, because the bend dexter across the shield seems to restrain him from flying away. The first three lines of the stanza refer to Bertrand Du Gueschlin, who 'brew,' i. e. contrived Pedro's murder, viz. by luring him to Enrique's tent. But the last three lines refer to another knight who, according to Chaucer, took a still more active part in the matter, being a worker in it. This second person was a certain Sir Oliver Mauny, whose name Chaucer conceals under the synonym of wicked nest, standing for O. Fr. mau ni, where [239] mau is O. Fr. for mal, bad or wicked, and ni is O. Fr. for nid, Lat. nidus, a nest. Observe too, that Chaucer uses the word need, not deed. There may be an excellent reason for this; for, in the course of the struggle between the brothers, Enrique was at first thrown, 'when (says Lockhart) one of Henry's followers, seizing Don Pedro by the leg, turned him over, and his master, thus at length gaining the upper hand, instantly stabbed the king to the heart. Froissart calls this man the Vicomte de Roquebetyn, and others the Bastard of Anisse.' I have no doubt that Chaucer means to tell us that the helper in Enrique's need was no other than Mauny. He goes on to say that this Mauny was not like Charles the Great's Oliver, an honourable peer, but an Oliver of Armorica, a man like Charles's Ganelon, the well-known traitor, of whom Chaucer elsewhere says (Book of the Duchess, l. 1121)--
'Or the false Genelon, He that purchased the treson Of Rowland and of Olivere.'
This passage has long been a puzzle, but was first cleared up in an excellent letter by Mr. Furnivall in Notes and Queries, which I here subjoin; I may give myself the credit, however, of identifying 'wicked nest' with O. Fr. mau ni.
'The first two lines [of the stanza] describe the arms of Bertrand du Guesclin, which were, a black double-headed eagle displayed on a silver shield, with a red band across the whole, from left to right [in heraldic language, a bend dexter, gules]--"the lymrod coloured as the glede" or live coal--as may be seen in Anselme's Histoire Généalogique de France, and a MS. Généalogies de France in the British Museum. Next, if we turn to Mr. D. F. Jamison's excellent Life and Times of Bertrand du Guesclin, we not only find on its cover Bertrand's arms as above described, but also at vol. ii. pp. 92-4, an account of the plot and murder to which Chaucer alludes, and an identification of his traitorous or "Genylon" Oliver, with Sir Oliver de Mauny of Brittany (or Armorica), Bertrand's cousin [or, according to Froissart, cap. 245, his nephew].
'After the battle of Monteil, on March 14, 1369, Pedro was besieged in the castle of Monteil near the borders of La Mancha, by his brother Enrique; who was helped by Du Guesclin and many French knights. Finding escape impossible, Pedro sent Men Rodriguez secretly to Du Guesclin with an offer of many towns and 200,000 gold doubloons if he would desert Enrique and reinstate Pedro. Du Guesclin refused the offer, and "the next day related to his friends and kinsmen in the camp, and especially to his cousin, Sir Oliver de Mauny, what had taken place." He asked them if he should tell Enrique; they all said yes: so he told the king. Thereupon Enrique promised Bertrand the same reward that Pedro had offered him, but asked him also to assure Men Rodriguez of Pedro's safety if he would come to his (Du Guesclin's) lodge. Relying on Bertrand's assurance, Pedro came to him on [240] March 23; Enrique entered the lodge directly afterwards, and after a struggle, stabbed Pedro, and seized his kingdom.
'We see then that Chaucer was justified in asserting that Du Guesclin and Sir Oliver Mauny "brew this cursednesse"; and his assertion has some historical importance; for as his patron and friend, John of Gaunt, married one of Pedro's daughters [named Constance] as his second wife [Michaelmas, 1371], Chaucer almost certainly had the account of Pedro's death from his daughter, or one of her attendants, and is thus a witness for the truth of the narrative of the Spanish chronicler Ayala, given above, against the French writers, Froissart, Cuvelier, &c., who make the Bégue de Villaines the man who inveigled Pedro. This connexion of Chaucer with John of Gaunt and his second wife must excuse the poet in our eyes for calling so bad a king as Pedro the Cruel "worthy" and "the glorie of Spayne, whom Fortune heeld so hy in magestee."
'In the Corpus MS. these knights are called in a side-note Bertheu_n_ Clayky_n_ (which was one of the many curious ways in which Du Guesclin's name was spelt) and Olyu_er_ Mawny; in MS. Harl. 1758 they are called Barthilmewe Claykeynne and Olyuer Mawyn; and in MS. Lansdowne 851 they are called Betelmewe Claykyn and Oliuer Mawnye. Mauni or Mauny was a well-known Armorican or Breton family. Chaucer's epithet of "Genilon" for Oliver de Mauny is specially happy, because Genelon was the Breton knight who betrayed to their death the great Roland and the flower of Charlemagne's knights to the Moors at Roncesvalles. Charles's or Charlemagne's great paladin, Oliver, is too well known to need more than a bare mention.'--F. J. Furnivall, in Notes and Queries, 4th Series, viii. 449.
PETER, KING OF CYPRUS.
3581. In a note to Chaucer's Prologue, A. 51, Tyrwhitt says--'Alexandria in Egypt was won, and immediately afterwards abandoned, in 1365, by Pierre de Lusignan, king of Cyprus. The same Prince, soon after his accession to the throne in 1352, had taken Satalie, the antient Attalia; and in another expedition about 1367 he made himself master of the town of Layas in Armenia. Compare 11 Mémoire sur les Ouvrages de Guillaume de Machaut, Acad. des Ins. tom. xx. pp. 426, 432, 439; and Mémoire sur la Vie de Philippe de Maizières, tom. xvii. p. 493.' He was assassinated in 1369. Cf. note to A. 51.
BARNABO OF LOMBARDY.
3589. 'Bernabo Visconti, duke of Milan, was deposed by his nephew and thrown into prison, where he died in 1385.'--Tyrwhitt. This date of Dec. 18, 1385 is that of the latest circumstance incidentally referred to in the Canterbury Tales. Chaucer had been sent to treat with Visconti [241] in 1378, so that he knew him personally. See Froissart, bk. ii. ch. 158; Engl. Cyclopaedia, s. v. Visconti; Furnivall's Trial Forewords, p. 109. And see vol. i. p. xxxii.
UGOLINO OF PISA.
3597. 'Chaucer himself has referred us to Dante for the original of this tragedy: see Inferno, canto xxxiii.'--Tyrwhitt. An account of Count Ugolino is given in a note to Cary's Dante, from Villani, lib. vii. capp. 120-127. This account is different from Dante's, and represents him as very treacherous. He made himself master of Pisa in July 1288, but in the following March was seized by the Pisans, who threw him, with his two sons, and two of his grandsons, into a prison, where they perished of hunger in a few days. Chaucer says three sons, the eldest being five years of age. Dante says four sons.
3606. Roger; i. e. the Archbishop Ruggieri degli Ubaldini, who was Ugolino's enemy.
3616. This line is imperfect at the caesura; accent but. Tyrwhitt actually turns herde into hered, to make it dissyllabic; but such an 'emendation' is not legitimate. The Harl. MS. has--'He herd it wel, but he saugh it nought'; where Mr. Jephson inserts ne before saugh without any comment. Perhaps read--he [ne] spak.
'The hour drew near When they were wont to bring us food; the mind Of each misgave him through his dream, and I Heard, at its outlet underneath, lock'd up The horrible tower: whence, uttering not a word, I look'd upon the visage of my sons. I wept not: so all stone I felt within. They wept: and one, my little Anselm, cried, "Thou lookest so! Father, what ails thee?"' &c. Cary's Dante.
3621. Dante does not mention the ages; but he says that the son named Gaddo died on the fourth day, and the other three on the fifth and sixth days. Observe that Chaucer's tender lines, ll. 3623-8, are his own.
3624. Morsel breed, morsel of bread; cf. barel ale for barrel of ale, B. 3083.--M.
3636. 'I may lay the blame of all my woe upon thy false wheel.' Cf. B. 3860.
3640. two; there were now but two survivors, the youngest, according to Chaucer, being dead.
'They, who thought I did it through desire of feeding, rose O' the sudden, and cried, "Father, we should grieve Far less, if thou wouldst eat of us: thou gavest These weeds of miserable flesh we wear, And do thou strip them off from us again."' Cary's Dante.
[242]
3651. Dant; i. e. Dante Alighieri, the great poet of Italy, born in 1265, died Sept. 14, 1321. Chaucer mentions him again in his House of Fame, book i., as the author of the Inferno, in the Prologue to the Legend of Good Women, l. 360, and in the Wyf of Bathes Tale, D. 1126.
NERO.
3655. Swetonius; this refers to the Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Suetonius; but it would be a mistake to suppose that Chaucer has followed his account very closely. Our poet seems to have had a habit of mentioning authorities whom he did not immediately follow, by which he seems to have meant no more than that they were good authorities upon the subject. Here, for instance, he merely means that we can find in Suetonius a good account of Nero, which will give us all minor details. But in reality he draws the story more immediately from other sources, especially from Boccaccio, De Casibus Virorum, lib. vii. cap. 4, from the Roman de la Rose, and from Boethius, de Cons. Philos. lib. ii. met. 6, and lib. iii. met. 4. The English Romaunt of the Rose does not contain the passage about Nero, but it is interesting to refer to Chaucer's translation of Boethius. Vincent of Beauvais has an account of Nero, in his Speculum Historiale, lib. ix. capp. 1-7, in which he chiefly follows Suetonius. See also Orosius, lib. vii. 7, and Eutropius, lib. vii.
3657. South; the MSS. have North, but it is fair to make the correction, as Chaucer certainly knew the sense of Septemtrioun, and the expression is merely borrowed from the Roman de la Rose, ed. Méon, l. 6271, where we read,
'Cis desloiaus, que ge ci di; Et d'Orient et de Midi, D'Occident, de Septentrion Tint il la juridicion.'
And, in his Boethius, after saying that Nero ruled from East to West, he adds--'And eke þis Nero gouernede by Ceptre alle þe peoples þat ben vndir þe colde sterres þat hy[gh]ten þe seuene triones; þis is to seyn, he gouernede alle þe poeples þat ben vndir þe parties of þe norþe. And eke Nero gouerned alle þe poeples þat þe violent wynde Nothus scorchiþ, and bakiþ þe brennynge sandes by his drie hete; þat is to seyne, alle þe poeples in þe souþe'; ed. Morris, p. 55 (cf. vol. ii. p. 45).
3663. From Suetonius; cf. Lounsbury, Studies in Chaucer, ii. 285.
3665. This is from Suetonius, who says--'Piscatus est rete aurato, purpura coccoque funibus nexis'; cap. xxx. So also Orosius, vii. 7; Eutropius, vii. 9.
3669. This passage follows Boethius, bk. ii. met. 6, very closely, as is evident by comparing it with Chaucer's translation (see vol. ii. p. 44). 'He leet brenne the citee of Rome, and made sleen the senatoures. And he, cruel, whylom slew his brother. And he was maked [243] moist with the blood of his moder; that is to seyn, he leet sleen and slitten the body of his moder, to seen wher he was conceived; and he loked on every halve upon her colde dede body; ne no tere ne wette his face; but he was so hard-herted that he mighte ben domesman, or Iuge, of hir dede beautee.... Allas, it is a grevous fortune, as ofte as wikked swerd is ioigned to cruel venim; that is to seyn, venimous crueltee to lordshippe.' Thus Chaucer himself explains domesman (l. 3680) by Iuge, i. e. judge. In the same line ded-è is dissyllabic.
3685. a maister; i. e. Seneca, mentioned below by name. In the year 65, Nero, wishing to be rid of his old master, sent him an order to destroy himself. Seneca opened a vein, but the blood would not flow freely; whereupon, to expedite its flow, he entered into a warm bath, and thence was taken into a vapour stove, where he was suffocated. 'Nero constreynede Senek, his familier and his mayster, to chesen on what deeth he wolde deyen'; Chaucer's Boethius, lib. iii. pr. 5. 34 (vol. ii. 63).
3692. 'It was long before tyranny or any other vice durst attack him'; literally, 'durst let dogs loose against him.' To uncouple is to release dogs from the leash that fastened them together; see P. Pl. B. pr. 206. Compare--
'At the uncoupling of his houndes.' Book of the Duchesse, l. 377.
'The laund on which they fought, th' appointed place In which th' uncoupled hounds began the chace.' Dryden; Palamon and Arcite, bk. ii. l. 845.
3720. 'Where he expected to find some who would aid him.' Suetonius says--'ipse cum paucis hospitia singulorum adiit. Verum clausis omnium foribus, respondente nullo, in cubiculum rediit,' &c.; cap. xlvii. He afterwards escaped to the villa of his freedman Phaon, four miles from Rome, where he at length gave himself a mortal wound in the extremity of his despair. Cf. Rom. de la Rose, 6459-76.
3736. girden of, to strike off; cf. 'gurdeth of gyles hed,' P. Pl. B. ii. 201. A gird is also a sharp striking taunt or quip.--M.
HOLOFERNES.
3746. Oloferne. The story of Holofernes is to be found in the apocryphal book of Judith.
3750. For lesinge, for fear of losing, lest men should lose.
3752. 'He had decreed to destroy all the gods of the land, that all nations should worship Nabuchodonosor only,' &c.; Judith, iii. 8.
3756. Eliachim. Tyrwhitt remarks that the name of the high priest was Joacim; Judith, iv. 6. But this is merely the form of the name in our English version. The Vulgate version has the equivalent form Eliachim; cf. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 4.
3761. upright, i. e. on his back, with his face upwards. See Knightes Tale, l. 1150 (A. 2008), and the note to A. 4194. [244]
ANTIOCHUS.
3765. Antiochus Epiphanes, King of Syria (B.C. 175-164). Paraphrased from 2 Maccabees, ix. 7, 28, 10, 8, 7, 3-7, 9-12, 28.
ALEXANDER.
3821. There is a whole cycle of Alexander romances, in Latin, French, and English, so that his story is common enough. There is a good life of him by Plutarch, but in Chaucer's time the principal authority for an account of him was Quintus Curtius. See Ten Brink, Hist. Eng. Lit., bk. ii. sect. 8.
3826. 'They were glad to send to him (to sue) for peace.'
3843. write, should write, pt. subj.; hence the change of vowel from indic. wroot.--M. The i is short.
3845. 'So Alexander reigned twelve years, and then died'; 1 Mac. i. 7. Machabee, i. e. the first book of the Maccabees.
3850. Quintus Curtius says that Alexander was poisoned by Antipater; and this account is adopted in the romances. Cf. Barbour's Bruce, i. 533.
3851. 'Fortune hath turned thy six (the highest and most fortunate throw at dice) into an ace (the lowest).' Cf. note to B. 124.
3860. 'Which two (fortune and poison) I accuse of all this woe.'
JULIUS CAESAR.
3862. For humble bed Tyrwhitt, Wright, and Bell print humblehede, as in some MSS. But this word is an objectionable hybrid compound, and I think it remains to be shewn that the word belongs to our language. In the Knightes Tale, Chaucer has humblesse, and in the Persones Tale, humilitee. Until better authority for humblehede can be adduced, I am content with the reading of the four best MSS., including the Harleian, which Wright silently alters.
3863. Julius. For this story Chaucer refers us below to Lucan, Suetonius, and Valerius; see note to l. 3909. There is also an interesting life of him by Plutarch. Boccaccio mentions him but incidentally.
3866. tributárie; observe the rime with aduersárie. Fortune in l. 3868 is a trisyllable; so also in l. 3876.
3870. 'Against Pompey, thy father-in-law.' Rather, 'son-in-law'; for Caesar gave Pompey his daughter Julia in marriage.
3875. puttest; to be read as putt'st; and thórient as in l. 3883.
3878. Pompeius. Boccaccio gives his life at length, as an example of misfortune; De Casibus Virorum, lib. vi. cap. 9. He was killed Sept. 29, B.C. 48, soon after the battle of Pharsalia in Thessaly (l. 3869).
3881. him, for himself; but in the next line it means 'to him.'--M.
3885. Chaucer refers to this triumph in the Man of Lawes Tale, B. 400; but see the note. Cf. Shak. Henry V, v. prol. 28. [245]
3887. Chaucer is not alone in making Brutus and Cassius into one person; see note to l. 3892.
3891. cast, contrived, appointed; pp., after hath.
3892. boydekins, lit. bodkins, but with the signification of daggers. It is meant to translate the Lat. pugio, a poniard. In Barbour's Bruce, i. 545, Caesar is said to have been slain with a weapon which in one edition is called punsoun, in another a botkin, and in the Edinburgh MS. a pusoune, perhaps an error for punsoune, since Halliwell's Dictionary gives the form punchion. Hamlet uses bodkin for a dagger; Act iii. sc. 1. l. 76. In the margin of Stowe's Chronicle, ed. 1614, it is said that Caesar was slain with bodkins; Nares' Glossary. Nares also quotes--'The chief woorker of this murder was Brutus Cassius, with 260 of the senate, all having bodkins in their sleeves'; Serp. of Division, prefixed to Gorboduc, 1590.
3906. lay on deying, lay a-dying. In l. 3907, deed = mortally wounded.
3909. recomende, commit. He means that he commits the full telling of the story to Lucan, &c. In other words, he refers the reader to those authors. Cf. Lounsbury, Studies in Chaucer, ii. 254, 274.
Lucan (born A.D. 39, died A.D. 65) was the author of the Pharsalia, an incomplete poem in ten books, narrating the struggle between Pompey and Caesar. There is an English translation of it by Rowe.
Suetonius Tranquillus (born about A.D. 70) wrote several works, the principal of which is The Lives of the Twelve Caesars.
Valerius. There were two authors of this name, (1) Valerius Flaccus, author of a poem on the Argonautic expedition, and (2) Valerius Maximus, author of De Factis Dictisque Memorabilibus Libri ix. Mr. Jephson says that Valerius Flaccus is meant here, I know not why. Surely the reference is to Valerius Maximus, who at least tells some anecdotes of Caesar; lib. iv. c. 5; lib. vii. cap. 6.
3911. word and ende, beginning and end; a substitution for the older formula ord and ende. Tyrwhitt notes that the suggested emendation of ord for word was proposed by Dr. Hickes, in his Anglo-Saxon Grammar, p. 70. Hickes would make the same emendation in Troil. and Cres. v. 1669;
'And of this broche he tolde him ord and ende,'
where the editions have word. He also cites the expression ord and ende from Cædmon; see Thorpe's edition, p. 225, l. 30. We also find from orde [=o]ð ende = from beginning to end, in the poem of Elene (Vercelli MS.), ed. Grein, l. 590. Orde and ende occurs also at a later period, in the Ormulum, l. 6775; and still later, in Floriz and Blancheflur, l. 47, ed. Lumby, in the phrase,
'Ord and ende he haþ him told Hu blauncheflur was þarinne isold.'
Tyrwhitt argues that the true spelling of the phrase had already become [246] corrupted in Chaucer's time, and such seems to have been the fact, as all the MSS. have word. See Zupitza's note to Guy of Warwick, l. 7927, where more examples are given; and cf. my note to Troil. ii. 1495. Ord and ende explains our modern odds and ends; see Garnett's Essays, p. 37. Moreover, it is not uncommon to find a w prefixed to a word where it is not required etymologically, especially before the vowel o. The examples wocks, oaks, won, one, wodur, other, wostus, oast-house, woth, oath, wots, oats, wolde, old, are all given in Halliwell's Prov. Dictionary.
CROESUS.
3917. Cresus; king of Lydia, B.C. 560-546, defeated by Cyrus at Sardis. Cyrus spared his life, and Croesus actually survived his benefactor. Chaucer, however, brings him to an untimely end. The story of Croesus is in Boccaccio, De Casibus Virorum, lib. iii. cap. 20. See also Herodotus, lib. 1; Plutarch's life of Solon, &c. But Boccaccio represents Croesus as surviving his disgraces. Tyrwhitt says that the story seems to have been taken from the Roman de la Rose, ll. 6312-6571 (ed. Méon); where the English Romaunt of the Rose is defective. In Chaucer's translation of Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 2, see vol. ii. p. 28, we find this sentence: 'Wistest thou not how Cresus, the king of Lydiens, of whiche king Cyrus was ful sore agast a litel biforn, that this rewliche [pitiable] Cresus was caught of [by] Cyrus, and lad to the fyr to ben brent; but that a rayn descendede doun fro hevene, that rescowede him?' In the House of Fame, bk. i. ll. 104-6, we have an allusion to the 'avision' [vision, dream] of
'Cresus, that was king of Lyde, That high upon a gebet dyde.'
See also Nonne Pr. Ta. l. 318 (B. 4328). The tragic version of the fate of Croesus is given by Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Historiale, iii. 17; and I give an extract, as it seems to be the account which is followed in the Roman de la Rose. It must be premised that Vincent makes Croesus to have been taken prisoner by Cyrus three times.
'Alii historiographi narrant, quod in secunda captione, iussit eum Cyrus rogo superponi et assari, et subito tanta pluuia facta est, vt eius immensitate ignis extingueretur, vnde occasionem repperit euadendi. Cumque postea hoc sibi prospere euenisse gloriaretur, et opum copia nimium se iactaret, dictum est ei a Solone quodam sapientissimo, non debere quemquam in diuitiis et prosperitate gloriari. Eadem nocte uidit in somnis quod Jupiter eum aqua perfunderet, et sol extergeret. Quod cum filiae suae mane indicasset, illa (vt res se habebat) prudenter absoluit, dicens: quod cruci esset affigendus et aqua perfundendus et sole siccandus. Quod ita demum contigit, nam postea a Cyro crucifixus est.' Compare the few following lines from the Roman de la Rose, with ll. 3917-22, 3934-8, 3941, and l. 3948:-- [247]
'Qui refu roi de toute Lyde; Puis li mist-l'en où col la bride, Et fu por ardre au feu livrés, Quant par pluie fu délivrés, Qui le grant feu fist tout estraindre:... Jupiter, ce dist, le lavoit, Et Phebus la toaille avoit, Et se penoit de l'essuier.... Bien le dist Phanie sa fille, Qui tant estoit saige et soutille,... L'arbre par le gibet vous glose,' &c.
3951. The passage here following is repeated from the Monkes Prologue, and copied, as has been said, from Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 2. It is to be particularly noted that the passage quoted from Boethius in the note to B. 3917 almost immediately precedes the passage quoted in the note to B. 3163.
3956. See note to B. 3972 below.
THE NONNE PRESTES PROLOGUE.
3957. the knight. See the description of him, Prol. A. 43.
3961. for me, for myself, for my part. Cp. the phrase 'as for me.'--M.
3970. 'By the bell of Saint Paul's church (in London).'
3972. The host alludes to the concluding lines of the Monkes Tale, l. 3956, then repeats the words no remedie from l. 3183, and cites the word biwaille from l. 3952. Compare all these passages.
3982. Piers. We must suppose that the host had by this time learnt the monk's name. In B. 3120 above, he did not know it.
3984. 'Were it not for the ringing of your bells'; lit. were there not a clinking of your bells (all the while). 'Anciently no person seems to have been gallantly equipped on horseback, unless the horse's bridle or some other part of the furniture was stuck full of small bells. Vincent of Beauvais, who wrote about 1264, censures this piece of pride in the knights-templars; Hist. Spec. lib. xxx. c. 85'; &c.--Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry (ed. Hazlitt), ii. 160; i. 264. See also note to Prol. A. 170.
3990. 'Ubi auditus non est, non effundas sermonem'; Ecclus. xxxii. 6. (Vulgate); the A. V. is different. See above, B. 2237. The common proverb, 'Keep your breath to cool your broth,' nearly expresses what Chaucer here intends.
3993. substance is explained by Tyrwhitt to mean 'the material part of a thing.' Chaucer's meaning seems not very different from Shakespeare's in Love's La. Lost, v. 2. 871--
'A jest's prosperity lies in the ear Of him that hears it; never in the tongue Of him that makes it.'
[248]
3995. 'For the propriety of this remark, see note to Prol. A. 166'; Tyrwhitt.
4000. Sir; 'The title of Sir was usually given, by courtesy, to priests, both secular and regular'; Tyrwhitt. Tyrwhitt also remarks that, 'in the principal modern languages, John, or its equivalent, is a name of contempt or at least of slight. So the Italians use Gianni, from whence Zani [Eng. zany]; the Spaniards Juan, as Bobo Juan, a foolish John; the French Jean, with various additions.' The reason (which Tyrwhitt failed to see) is simply that John is one of the commonest of common names. For example, twenty-three popes took that name; and cf. our phrase John Bull, which answers to the French Jean Crapaud, and the Russian Ivan Ivanovitch, 'the embodiment of the peculiarities of the Russian people'; Wheeler's Noted Names of Fiction. Ivan Ivanovitch would be John Johnson in English and Evan Evans in Welsh. Hence sir John became the usual contemptuous name for a priest; see abundant examples in the Index to the Parker Society's publications.
4004. serve has two syllables; hence rek, in the Harl. MS., is perhaps better than rekke of the other MSS. A bene, the value of a bean; in the Milleres Tale a kers (i. e. a blade of grass) occurs in a similar manner (A. 3756); which has been corrupted into 'not caring a curse'!
4006. Ye, yea, is a mild form of assent; yis is a stronger form, generally followed, as here, by some form of asseveration. See note to B. 1900 above.
4008. attamed, commenced, begun. The Lat. attaminare and Low Lat. intaminare are equivalent to contaminare, to contaminate, soil, spoil. From Low Lat. intaminare comes F. entamer, to cut into, attack, enter upon, begin. From attaminare comes the M. E. attame or atame, with a similar sense. The metaphor is taken from the notion of cutting into a joint of meat or of broaching or opening a cask. This is well shewn by the use of the word in P. Plowman, B. xvii. 68, where it is said of the Good Samaritan in the parable that he 'breyde to his boteles, and bothe he atamede,' i. e. he went hastily to his bottles, and broached or opened them both. So here, the priest broached, opened, or began his tale.
THE NONNE PREESTES TALE.
We may compare Dryden's modernised version of this tale, entitled 'The Cock and the Fox.' See further in vol. iii. pp. 431-3.
4011. stape. Lansd. MS. reads stoupe, as if it signified bent, stooped; but stoop is a weak verb. Stape or stope is the past participle of the strong verb stapen, to step, advance. Stape in age = advanced in years. Roger Ascham has almost the same phrase: 'And [Varro] beyng depe stept in age, by negligence some wordes do scape and fall from him in those bookes as be not worth the taking up,' &c.--The Schoolmaster, ed. Mayor, p. 189; ed. Arber, p. 152. [249]
4018-9. by housbondrye, by economy; fond hir-self, 'found herself,' provided for herself.
4022. Ful sooty was hir bour, and eek hir halle. The widow's house consisted of only two apartments, designated by the terms bower and hall. Whilst the widow and her 'daughters two' slept in the bower, Chanticleer and his seven wives roosted on a perch in the hall, and the swine disposed themselves on the floor. The smoke of the fire had to find its way through the crevices of the roof. See Our English Home, pp. 139, 140. Cf. Virgil, Ecl. vii. 50--'assidua postes fuligine nigri.' Also--
'At his beds feete feeden his stalled teme, His swine beneath, his pullen ore the beame.' Hall's Satires, bk. v. sat. 1; v. 1. p. 56, ed. 1599.
4025. No deyntee (Elles. &c.); Noon deynteth (Harl.).
4029. hertes suffisaunce, a satisfied or contented mind, literally heart's satisfaction. Cf. our phrase 'to your heart's content.'
4032. wyn ... whyt nor reed. The white wine was sometimes called 'the wine of Osey' (Alsace); the red wine of Gascony, sometimes called 'Mountrose,' was deemed a liquor for a lord. See Our English Home, p. 83; Piers Pl. prol. l. 228.
4035. Seynd bacoun, singed or broiled bacon. an ey or tweye, an egg or two.
4036. deye. The daia (from the Icel. deigja) is mentioned in Domesday among assistants in husbandry; and the term is again found in 2nd Stat. 25 Edward III (A.D. 1351). In Stat. 37 Edward III (A.D. 1363), the deye is mentioned among others of a certain rank, not having goods or chattels of 40s. value. The deye was usually a female, whose duty was to make butter and cheese, attend to the calves and poultry, and other odds and ends of the farm. The dairy (in some parts of England, as in Shropshire, called a dey-house) was the department assigned to her. See Prompt. Parv., p. 116.
4039. In Caxton's translation of Reynard the Fox, the cock's name is Chantecleer. In the original, it is Canticleer; from his clear voice in singing. In the same, Reynard's second son is Rosseel; see l. 4524.
4041. merier, sweeter, pleasanter. In Todd's Illustrations of Chaucer, p. 284, there is a long passage illustrative of mery in the sense of 'pleasant.' Cf. l. 4156. orgon is put for orgons or organs. It is plain from gon in the next line, that Chaucer meant to use this word as a plural from the Lat. organa. Organ was used until lately only in the plural, like bellows, gallows, &c. 'Which is either sung or said or on the organs played.'--Becon's Acts of Christ, p. 534. It was sometimes called a pair of organs. See note to P. Plowman, C. xxi. 7.
4044. Cf. Parl. of Foules, 350:--
'The cok, that orloge is of thorpes lyte.'
[250]
Orloge (of an abbey) occurs in Religious Pieces, ed. Perry, p. 56; and see Stratmann.
4045. 'The cock knew each ascension of the equinoctial, and crew at each; that is, he crew every hour, as 15° of the equinoctial make an hour. Chaucer adds [l. 4044] that he knew the hour better than the abbey-clock. This tells us, clearly, that we are to reckon clock-hours, and not the unequal hours of the solar or 'artificial' day. Hence the prime, mentioned in l. 4387, was at a clock-hour, at 6, 7, 8, or 9, suppose. The day meant is May 3, because the sun [l. 4384] had passed the 21st degree of Taurus (see fig. 1 of Astrolabe).... The date, May 3, is playfully denoted by saying [l. 4379] that March was complete, and also (since March began) thirty-two days more had passed. The words "since March began" are parenthetical; and we are, in fact, told that the whole of March, the whole of April, and two days of May were done with. March was then considered the first month in the year, though the year began with the 25th, not with the 1st; and Chaucer alludes to the idea that the Creation itself took place in March. The day, then, was May 3, with the sun past 21 degrees of Taurus. The hour must be had from the sun's altitude, rightly said (l. 4389) to be Fourty degrees and oon. I use a globe, and find that the sun would attain the altitude 41° nearly at 9 o'clock. It follows that prime in l. 4387 signifies the end of the first quarter of the day, reckoned from 6 A.M. to 6 P.M.'--Skeat's Astrolabe, (E.E.T.S.), p. lxi. This rough test, by means of a globe, is perhaps sufficient; but Mr. Brae proved it to be right by calculation. Taking the sun's altitude at 41½°, he 'had the satisfaction to find a resulting hour, for prime, of 9 o'clock A.M. almost to the minute.' It is interesting to find that Thynne explains this passage very well in his Animadversions on Speght's Chaucer; ed. Furnivall, p. 62, note 1.
The notion that the Creation took place on the 18th of March is alluded to in the Hexameron of St. Basil (see the A. S. version, ed. Norman, p. 8, note j), and in Ælfric's Homilies, ed. Thorpe, i. 100.
4047. Fifteen degrees of the equinoctial = an exact hour. See note to l. 4045 above. Skelton imitates this passage in his Phillyp Sparowe, l. 495.
4050. And batailed. Lansd. MS. reads Enbateled, indented like a battlement, embattled. Batailed has the same sense.
4051. as the Ieet, like the jet. Beads used for the repetition of prayers were frequently formed of jet. See note to Prol. A. 159.
4060. damoysele Pertelote. Cf. our 'Dame Partlet.'
'I'll be as faithful to thee As Chaunticleer to Madame Partelot.' The Ancient Drama, iii. p. 158.
In Le Roman de Renart, the hen is called Pinte or Pintain.
4064. in hold; in possession. Cf. 'He hath my heart in holde'; Greene's George a Greene, ed. Dyce, p. 256. [251]
4065. loken in every lith, locked in every limb.
4069. my lief is faren in londe, my beloved is gone away. Probably the refrain of a popular song of the time.
4079. herte dere. This expression corresponds to 'dear heart,' or 'deary heart,' which still survives in some parts of the country.
4083. take it nat agrief = take it not in grief, i. e. take it not amiss, be not offended.
4084. me mette, I dreamed; literally it dreamed to me.
4086. my swevene recche (or rede) aright, bring my dream to a good issue; literally 'interpret my dream favourably.'
4090. Was lyk. The relative that is often omitted by Chaucer before a relative clause, as, again, in l. 4365.
4098. Avoy (Elles.); Away (Harl.). From O. F. avoi, interj. fie! It occurs in Le Roman de la Rose, 7284, 16634.
4113. See the Chapter on Dreams in Brand's Pop. Antiquities.
4114. fume, the effects arising from gluttony and drunkenness. 'Anxious black melancholy fumes.'--Burton's Anat. of Mel. p. 438, ed. 1845. 'All vapours arising out of the stomach,' especially those caused by gluttony and drunkenness. 'For when the head is heated it scorcheth the blood, and from thence proceed melancholy fumes that trouble the mind.'--Ibid. p. 269.
4118. rede colera ... red cholera caused by too much bile and blood (sometimes called red humour). Burton speaks of a kind of melancholy of which the signs are these--'the veins of their eyes red, as well as their faces.' The following quotation explains the matter. 'Ther be foure humours, Bloud, Fleame, Cholar, and Melancholy.... First, working heate turneth what is colde and moyst into the kind of Fleme, and then what is hot and moyst, into the kinde of Bloud; and then what is hot and drye into the kinde of Cholera; and then what is colde and drye into the kinde of Melancholia.... By meddling of other humours, Bloud chaungeth kinde and colour: for by meddling of Cholar, it seemeth red, and by Melancholy it seemeth black, and by Fleame it seemeth watrie, and fomie.'--Batman upon Bartholomè, lib. iv. c. 6. So also--'in bloud it needeth that there be red Cholera'; lib. iv. c. 10; &c.
The following explains the belief as to dreams caused by cholera. Men in which red Cholera is excesssive 'dreame of fire, and of lyghtening, and of dreadful burning of the ayre'; Batman upon Bartholomè, lib. iv. c. 10. Those in which Melancholia is excessive dream 'dredfull darke dreames, and very ill to see'; id. c. 11. And again: 'He that is Sanguine hath glad and liking dreames, the melancholious dremeth of sorrow, the Cholarike, of firy things, and the Flematike, of Raine, Snow,' &c.; id. lib. vi. c. 27.
4123. the humour of malencolye. 'The name (melancholy) is imposed from the matter, and disease denominated from the material cause, as Bruel observes, [Greek: melancholia] quasi [Greek: melainacholê], from black choler.' Fracastorius, in his second book of Intellect, calls those melancholy [252] 'whom abundance of that same depraved humour of black choler hath so misaffected, that they become mad thence, and dote in most things or in all, belonging to election, will, or other manifest operations of the understanding.'--Burton's Anat. of Melancholy, p. 108, ed. 1805.
4128. 'That cause many a man in sleep to be very distressed.'
4130. Catoun. Dionysius Cato, de Moribus, l. ii. dist. 32: somnia ne cures. 'I observe by the way, that this distich is quoted by John of Salisbury, Polycrat. l. ii. c. 16, as a precept viri sapientis. In another place, l. vii. c. 9, he introduces his quotation of the first verse of dist. 20 (l. iii.) in this manner:--"Ait vel Cato vel alius, nam autor incertus est."'--Tyrwhitt. Cf. note to G. 688.
4131. do no fors of = take no notice of, pay no heed to. Skelton, i. 118, has 'makyth so lytyll fors,' i. e. cares so little for.
4153. 'Wormwood, centaury, pennyroyal, are likewise magnified and much prescribed, especially in hypochondrian melancholy, daily to be used, sod in whey. And because the spleen and blood are often misaffected in melancholy, I may not omit endive, succory, dandelion, fumitory, &c., which cleanse the blood.'--Burton's Anat. of Mel. pp. 432, 433. See also p. 438, ed. 1845. 'Centauria abateth wombe-ache, and cleereth sight, and vnstoppeth the splene and the reines'; Batman upon Bartholomè, lib. xvii. c. 47. 'Fumus terre [fumitory] cleanseth and purgeth Melancholia, fleme, and cholera'; id. lib. xvii. c. 69. 'Medicinal herbs were grown in every garden, and were dried or made into decoctions, and kept for use'; Wright, Domestic Manners, p. 279.
4154. ellebor. Two kinds of hellebore are mentioned by old writers; 'white hellebore, called sneezing powder, a strong purger upward' (Burton's Anat. of Mel. pt. 2. § 4. m. 2. subsec. 1.), and 'black hellebore, that most renowned plant, and famous purger of melancholy.'--Ibid. subsec. 2.
4155. catapuce, caper-spurge, Euphorbia Lathyris. gaytres (or gaytrys) beryis, probably the berries of the buck-thorn, Rhamnus catharticus; which (according to Rietz) is still called, in Swedish dialects, the getbärs-trä (goat-berries tree) or getappel (goat-apple). I take gaytre to stand for gayt-tre, i. e. goat-tree; a Northern form, from Icel. geit (gen. geitar), a goat. The A. S. g[=a]te-tr[=e]ow, goat-tree, is probably the same tree, though the prov. Eng. gaiter-tree, gatten-tree, or gatteridge-tree is usually applied to the Cornus sanguinea or cornel-tree, the fruits of which 'are sometimes mistaken for those of the buck-thorn, but do not possess the active properties of that plant'; Eng. Cyclop., s. v. Cornus. The context shews that the buck-thorn is meant. Langham says of the buck-thorn, that 'the beries do purge downwards mightily flegme and choller'; Garden of Health, 1633, p. 99 (New E. Dict., s. v. Buckthorn). This is why Chanticleer was recommended to eat them.
4156. erbe yve, herb ive or herb ivy, usually identified with the ground-pine, Ajuga chamæpitys. mery, pleasant, used ironically; as the leaves are extremely nauseous. [253]
4160. graunt mercy, great thanks; this in later authors is corrupted into grammercy or gramercy.
4166. so mote I thee, as I may thrive (or prosper). Mote = A. S. m[=o]t-e, first p. s. pr. subj.
4174. Oon of the gretteste auctours. 'Cicero, De Divin. l. i. c. 27, relates this and the following story, but in a different order, and with so many other differences, that one might be led to suspect that he was here quoted at second-hand, if it were not usual with Chaucer, in these stories of familiar life, to throw in a number of natural circumstances, not to be found in his original authors.'--Tyrwhitt. Warton thinks that Chaucer took it rather from Valerius Maximus, who has the same story; i. 7. He has, however, overlooked the statement in l. 4254, which decides for Cicero. I here quote the whole of the former story, as given by Valerius. 'Duo familiares Arcades iter una facientes, Megaram venerunt; quorum alter ad hospitem se contulit, alter in tabernam meritoriam devertit. Is, qui in hospitio venit, vidit in somnis comitem suam orantem, ut sibi cauponis insidiis circumvento subveniret: posse enim celeri ejus accursu se imminenti periculo subtrahi. Quo viso excitatus, prosiluit, tabernamque, in qua is diversabatur, petere conatus est. Pestifero deinde fato ejus humanissimum propositum tanquam supervacuum damnavit, et lectum ac somnum repetiit. Tunc idem ei saucius oblatus obsecravit, ut qui auxilium vitae suae ferre neglexisset, neci saltem ultionem non negaret. Corpus enim suum à caupone trucidatum, tum maxime plaustro ad portam ferri stercore coöpertum. Tam constantibus familiaris precibus compulsus, protinus ad portam cucurrit, et plaustrum, quod in quiete demonstratum erat, comprehendit, cauponemque ad capitale supplicium perduxit.' Valerii Maximi, lib. i. c. 7 (De Somniis). Cf. Cicero, De Divinatione, i. 27.
4194. oxes; written oxe in Hl. Cp. Ln; where oxe corresponds to the older English gen. oxan, of an ox--oxe standing for oxen (as in Oxenford, see note on l. 285 of Prologue). Thus oxes and oxe are equivalent.
4200. took of this no keep, took no heed to this, paid no attention to it.
4211. sooth to sayn, to say (tell) the truth.
4232. gapinge. The phrase gaping upright occurs elsewhere (see Knightes Tale, A. 2008), and signifies lying flat on the back with the mouth open. Cf. 'Dede he sate uprighte,' i. e. he lay on his back dead. The Sowdone of Babyloyne, l. 530.
4235. Harrow, a cry of distress; a cry for help. 'Harrow! alas! I swelt here as I go.'--The Ordinary; see vol. iii. p. 150, of the Ancient Drama. See F. haro in Godefroy and Littré; and note to A. 3286.
4237. outsterte (Elles., &c.); upsterte (Hn., Harl.)
4242. A common proverb. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 50, has 'I drede mordre wolde come oute.'
4274. And preyde him his viáge for to lette, And prayed him to abandon his journey. [254]
4275. to abyde, to stay where he was.
4279. my thinges, my business-matters.
4300. 'Kenelm succeeded his father Kenulph on the throne of the Mercians in 821 [Haydn, Book of Dates, says 819] at the age of seven years, and was murdered by order of his aunt, Quenedreda. He was subsequently made a saint, and his legend will be found in Capgrave, or in the Golden Legend.'--Wright.
St. Kenelm's day is Dec. 13. Alban Butler, in his Lives of the Saints, says:--[Kenulph] 'dying in 819, left his son Kenelm, a child only seven years old [see l. 4307] heir to his crown, under the tutelage of his sister Quindride. This ambitious woman committed his person to the care of one Ascobert, whom she had hired to make away with him. The wicked minister decoyed the innocent child into an unfrequented wood, cut off his head, and buried him under a thorn-tree. His corpse is said to have been discovered by a heavenly ray of light which shone over the place, and by the following inscription:--
In Clent cow-pasture, under a thorn, Of head bereft, lies Kenelm, king born.'
Milton tells the story in his History of Britain, bk. iv. ed. 1695, p. 218, and refers us to Matthew of Westminster. He adds that the 'inscription' was inside a note, which was miraculously dropped by a dove on the altar at Rome. Our great poet's verson of it is:--
'Low in a Mead of Kine, under a thorn, Of Head bereft, li'th poor Kenelm King-born.'
Clent is near the boundary between Staffordshire and Worcestershire.
Neither of these accounts mentions Kenelm's dream, but it is given in his Life, as printed in Early Eng. Poems, ed. Furnivall (Phil. Soc. 1862), p. 51, and in Caxton's Golden Legend. St. Kenelm dreamt that he saw a noble tree with waxlights upon it, and that he climbed to the top of it; whereupon one of his best friends cut it down, and he was turned into a little bird, and flew up to heaven. The little bird denoted his soul, and the flight to heaven his death.
4307. For traisoun, i. e. for fear of treason.
4314. Cipioun. The Somnium Scipionis of Cicero, as annotated by Macrobius, was a favourite work during the middle ages. See note to l. 31 of the Parl. of Foules.
4328. See the Monkes Tale, B. 3917, and the note, p. 246.
4331. Lo heer Andromacha. Andromache's dream is not to be found in Homer. It is mentioned in chapter xxiv. of Dares Phrygius, the authority for the history of the Trojan war most popular in the middle ages. See the Troy-book, ed. Panton and Donaldson (E.E.T.S.), l. 8425; or Lydgate's Siege of Troye, c. 27.
4341. as for conclusioun, in conclusion.
4344. telle ... no store, set no store by them; reckon them of no value; count them as useless.
4346. never a del, never a whit, not in the slightest degree. [255]
4350. This line is repeated from the Compleynt of Mars, l. 61.
4353-6. 'By way of quiet retaliation for Partlet's sarcasm, he cites a Latin proverbial saying, in l. 344, 'Mulier est hominis confusio,' which he turns into a pretended compliment by the false translation in ll. 345, 346.'--Marsh. Tyrwhitt quotes it from Vincent of Beauvais, Spec. Hist. x. 71. Chaucer has already referred to this saying above; see p. 207, l. 2296. 'A woman, as saith the philosofre [i. e. Vincent], is the confusion of man, insaciable, &c.'; Dialogue of Creatures, cap. cxxi. 'Est damnum dulce mulier, confusio sponsi'; Adolphi Fabulae, x. 567; pr. in Leyser, Hist. Poet. Med. Aevi, p. 2031. Cf. note to D. 1195.
4365. lay, for that lay. Chaucer omits the relative, as is frequently done in Middle English poetry; see note to l. 4090.
4377. According to Beda, the creation took place at the vernal equinox; see Morley, Eng. Writers, 1888, ii. 146. Cf. note to l. 4045.
4384. See note on l. 4045 above.
4395. Cf. Man of Lawes Tale, B. 421, and note. See Prov. xiv. 13.
4398. In the margin of MSS. E. and Hn. is written 'Petrus Comestor,' who is probably here referred to.
4402. See the Squieres Tale, F. 287, and the note.
4405. col-fox; explained by Bailey as a 'coal-black fox'; and he seems to have caught the right idea. Col- here represents M. E. col, coal; and the reference is to the brant-fox, which is explained in the New E. Dict. as borrowed from the G. brand-fuchs, 'the German name of a variety of the fox, chiefly distinguished by a greater admixture of black in its fur; according to Grimm, it has black feet, ears, and tail.' Chaucer expressly refers to the black-tipped tail and ears in l. 4094 above. Mr. Bradley cites the G. kohlfuchs and Du. koolvos, similarly formed; but the ordinary dictionaries do not give these names. The old explanation of col-fox as meaning 'deceitful fox' is difficult to establish, and is now unnecessary.
4412. undern; see note to E. 260.
4417. Scariot, i. e. Judas Iscariot. Genilon; the traitor who caused the defeat of Charlemagne, and the death of Roland; see Book of the Duchesse, 1121, and the note in vol. i. p. 491.
4418. See Vergil, Æn. ii. 259.
4430. bulte it to the bren, sift the matter; cf. the phrase to boult the bran. See the argument in Troilus, iv. 967; cf. Milton, P. L. ii. 560.
4432. Boece, i. e. Boethius. See note to Kn. Tale, A. 1163.
Bradwardyn. Thomas Bradwardine was Proctor in the University of Oxford in the year 1325, and afterwards became Divinity Professor and Chancellor of the University. His chief work is 'On the Cause of God' (De Causâ Dei). See Morley's English Writers, iv. 61.
4446. colde, baneful, fatal. The proverb is Icelandic; 'köld eru opt kvenna-ráð,' cold (fatal) are oft women's counsels; Icel. Dict. s. v. kaldr. It occurs early, in The Proverbs of Alfred, ed. Morris, Text 1, l. 336:--'Cold red is quene red.' Cf. B. 2286, and the note. [256]
4450-6. Imitated from Le Roman de la Rose, 15397-437.
4461. Phisiologus. 'He alludes to a book in Latin metre, entitled Physiologus de Naturis xii. Animalium, by one Theobaldus, whose age is not known. The chapter De Sirenis begins thus:--
Sirenae sunt monstra maris resonantia magnis Vocibus, et modulis cantus formantia multis, Ad quas incaute veniunt saepissime nautae, Quae faciunt sompnum nimia dulcedine vocum.'--Tyrwhitt.
See The Bestiary, in Dr. Morris's Old English Miscellany, pp. 18, 207; Philip de Thaun, Le Bestiaire, l. 664; Babees Book, pp. 233, 237; Mätzner's Sprachproben, i. 55; Gower, C.A. i. 58; and cf. Rom. Rose, Eng. Version, 680 (in vol. i. p. 122).
4467. In Douglas's Virgil, prol. to Book xi. st. 15, we have--
'Becum thow cowart, craudoun recryand, And by consent cry cok, thi deid is dycht';
i. e. if thou turn coward, (and) a recreant craven, and consent to cry cok, thy death is imminent. In a note on this passage, Ruddiman says--'Cok is the sound which cocks utter when they are beaten.' But it is probable that this is only a guess, and that Douglas is merely quoting Chaucer. To cry cok! cok! refers rather to the utterance of rapid cries of alarm, as fowls cry when scared. Brand (Pop. Antiq., ed. Ellis, ii. 58) copies Ruddiman's explanation of the above passage.
4484. Boethius wrote a treatise De Musica, quoted by Chaucer in the Hous of Fame; see my note to l. 788 of that poem (vol. iii. p. 260).
4490. 'As I hope to retain the use of my two eyes.' So Havelok, l. 2545:--
'So mote ich brouke mi Rith eie!'
And l. 1743:--'So mote ich brouke finger or to.'
And l. 311:--'So brouke i euere mi blake swire!'
swire = neck. See also Brouke in the Glossary to Gamelyn.
4502. daun Burnel the Asse. 'The story alluded to is in a poem of Nigellus Wireker, entitled Burnellus seu Speculum Stultorum, written in the time of Richard I. In the Chester Whitsun Playes, Burnell is used as a nickname for an ass. The original word was probably brunell, from its brown colour; as the fox below is called Russel, from his red colour.'--Tyrwhitt. The Latin story is printed in The Anglo-Latin Satirists of the Twelfth Century, ed. T. Wright, i. 55; see also Wright's Biographia Britannica Literaria, Anglo-Norman Period, p. 356. There is an amusing translation of it in Lowland Scotch, printed as 'The Unicornis Tale' in Small's edition of Laing's Select Remains of Scotch Poetry, ed. 1885, p. 285. It tells how a certain young Gundulfus broke a cock's leg by throwing a stone at him. On the morning of the day when Gundulfus was to be ordained and to receive a benefice, the cock took his revenge by not crowing till much later [257] than usual; and so Gundulfus was too late for the ceremony, and lost his benefice. Cf. Warton, Hist. E. P., ed. 1871, ii. 352; Lounsbury, Studies in Chaucer, ii. 338. As to the name Russel, see note to l. 4039.
4516. See Rom. of the Rose (E. version), 1050. MS. E. alone reads courtes; Hn. Cm. Cp. Pt. have court; Ln. courte; Hl. hous.
4519. Ecclesiaste; not Ecclesiastes, but Ecclesiasticus, xii. 10, 11, 16. Cf. Tale of Melibeus, B. 2368.
4525. Tyrwhitt cites the O. F. form gargate, i. e. (throat), from the Roman de Rou. Several examples of it are given by Godefroy.
4537. O Gaufred. 'He alludes to a passage in the Nova Poetria of Geoffrey de Vinsauf, published not long after the death of Richard I. In this work the author has not only given instructions for composing in the different styles of poetry, but also examples. His specimen of the plaintive style begins thus:--
'Neustria, sub clypeo regis defensa Ricardi, Indefensa modo, gestu testare dolorem; Exundent oculi lacrimas; exterminet ora Pallor; connodet digitos tortura; cruentet Interiora dolor, et verberet aethera clamor; Tota peris ex morte sua. Mors non fuit eius, Sed tua, non una, sed publica mortis origo. O Veneris lacrimosa dies! O sydus amarum! Illa dies tua nox fuit, et Venus illa venenum. Illa dedit vulnus,' &c.
These lines are sufficient to show the object and the propriety of Chaucer's ridicule. The whole poem is printed in Leyser's Hist. Poet. Med. Ævi, pp. 862-978.'--Tyrwhitt. See a description of the poem, with numerous quotations, in Wright's Biographia Britannica Literaria, Anglo-Norman Period, p. 400; cf. Lounsbury, Studies, ii. 341.
4538. Richard I. died on April 6, 1199, on Tuesday; but he received his wound on Friday, March 26.
4540. Why ne hadde I = O that I had.
4547. streite swerd = drawn (naked) sword. Cf. Aeneid, ii. 333, 334:--
'Stat ferri acies mucrone corusco Stricta, parata neci.'
4548. See Aeneid, ii. 550-553.
4553. Hasdrubal; not Hannibal's brother, but the King of Carthage when the Romans burnt it, B.C. 146. Hasdrubal slew himself; and his wife and her two sons burnt themselves in despair; see Orosius, iv. 13. 3, or Ælfred's translation, ed. Sweet, p. 212. Lydgate has the story in his Fall of Princes, bk. v. capp. 12 and 27.
4573. See note to Ho. Fame, 1277 (in vol. iii. p. 273). 'Colle furit'; Morley, Eng. Writers, 1889, iv. 179.
4584. Walsingham relates how, in 1381, Jakke Straw and his men killed many Flemings 'cum clamore consueto.' He also speaks of the noise made by the rebels as 'clamor horrendissimus.' See Jakke in [258] Tyrwhitt's Glossary. So also, in Riley's Memorials of London, p. 450, it is said, with respect to the same event--'In the Vintry was a very great massacre of Flemings.'
4590. houped. See Piers Plowman, B. vi. 174; 'houped after Hunger, that herde hym,' &c.
4616. Repeated in D. 1062.
4633. 'Mes retiengnent le grain et jettent hors la paille'; Test. de Jean de Meun, 2168.
4635. my Lord. A side-note in MS. E. explains this to refer to the Archbishop of Canterbury; doubtless William Courtenay, archbishop from 1381 to 1396. Cf. note to l. 4584, which shews that this Tale is later than 1381; and it was probably earlier than 1396. Note that good men is practically a compound, as in l. 4630. Hence read good, not g[=o]d-e.
EPILOGUE TO THE NONNE PREESTES TALE.
4641. Repeated from B. 3135.
4643. Thee wer-e nede, there would be need for thee.
4649. brasil, a wood used for dyeing of a bright red colour; hence the allusion. It is mentioned as being used for dyeing leather in Riley's Memorials of London, p. 364. 'Brazil-wood; this name is now applied in trade to the dye-wood imported from Pernambuco, which is derived from certain species of Cæsalpinia indigenous there. But it originally applied to a dye-wood of the same genus which was imported from India, and which is now known in trade as Sappan. The history of the word is very curious. For when the name was applied to the newly discovered region in S. America, probably, as Barros alleges, because it produced a dye-wood similar in character to the brazil of the East, the trade-name gradually became appropriated to the S. American product, and was taken away from that of the E. Indies. See some further remarks in Marco Polo, ed. Yule, 2nd ed. ii. 368-370.
'This is alluded to also by Camo[e]s (Lusiad, x. 140). Burton's translation has:--
"But here, where earth spreads wider, ye shall claim Realms by the ruddy dye-wood made renowned; These of the 'Sacred Cross' shall win the name, By your first navy shall that world be found."
'The medieval forms of brazil were many; in Italian, it is generally verzi, verzino, or the like.'--Yule, Hobson-Jobson, p. 86.
Again--'Sappan, the wood of Cæsalpinia sappan; the baqqam of the Arabs, and the Brazil-wood of medieval commerce. The tree appears to be indigenous in Malabar, the Deccan, and the Malay peninsula.'--id. p. 600. And in Yule's edition of Marco Polo, ii. 315, he tells us that 'it is extensively used by native dyers, chiefly for common and cheap [259] cloths, and for fine mats. The dye is precipitated dark-brown with iron, and red with alum.'
Cf. Way's note on the word in the Prompt. Parv. p. 47.
Florio explains Ital. verzino as 'brazell woode, or fernanbucke [Pernambuco] to dye red withall.'
The etymology is disputed, but I think brasil and Ital. verzino are alike due to the Pers. wars, saffron; cf. Arab. war[=i]s, dyed with saffron or wars.
greyn of Portingale. Greyn, mod. E. grain, is the term applied to the dye produced by the coccus insect, often termed, in commerce and the arts, kermes; see Marsh, Lectures on the E. Language, Lect. III. The colour thus produced was 'fast,' i. e. would not wash out; hence the phrase to engrain, or to dye in grain, meaning to dye of a fast colour. Various tones of red were thus produced, one of which was crimson, and another carmine, both forms being derivatives of kermes. Of Portingale means 'imported from Portugal.' In the Libell of English Policy, cap. ii. (l. 132), it is said that, among 'the commoditees of Portingale' are:--'oyl, wyn, osey [Alsace wine], wex, and graine.'
4652. to another, to another of the pilgrims. This is so absurdly indefinite that it can hardly be genuine. Ll. 4637-4649 are in Chaucer's most characteristic manner, and are obviously genuine; but there, I suspect, we must stop, viz. at the word Portingale. The next three lines form a mere stop-gap, and are either spurious, or were jotted down temporarily, to await the time of revision. The former is more probable.
This Epilogue is only found in three MSS.; (see footnote, p. 289). In Dd., Group G follows, beginning with the Second Nun's Tale. In the other two MSS., Group H follows, i. e. the Manciple's Tale; nevertheless, MS. Addit. absurdly puts the Nunne, in place of another. The net result is, that, at this place, the gap is complete; with no hint as to what Tale should follow.
It is worthy of note that this Epilogue is preserved in Thynne and the old black-letter editions, in which it is followed immediately by the Manciple's Prologue. This arrangement is obviously wrong, because that Prologue is not introduced by the Host (as said in l. 4652).
In l. 4650, Thynne has But for Now; and his last line runs--'Sayd to a nother man, as ye shal here.' I adopt his reading of to for unto (as in the MSS.).
* * * * *
[260]
NOTES TO GROUP C.
THE PHISICIENS TALE.
For remarks on the spurious Prologues to this Tale, see vol. iii. p. 434. For further remarks on the Tale, see the same, p. 435, where its original is printed in full.
1. The story is told by Livy, lib. iii.; and, of course, his narrative is the source of all the rest. But Tyrwhitt well remarks, in a note to l. 12074 (i. e. C. 140):--'In the Discourse, &c., I forgot to mention the Roman de la Rose as one of the sources of this tale; though, upon examination, I find that our author has drawn more from thence, than from either Gower or Livy.' It is absurd to argue, as in Bell's Chaucer, that our poet must necessarily have known Livy 'in the original,' and then to draw the conclusion that we must look to Livy only as the true source of the Tale. For it is perfectly obvious that Tyrwhitt is right as regards the Roman de la Rose; and the belief that Chaucer may have read the tale 'in the original' does not alter the fact that he trusted much more to the French text. In this very first line, he is merely quoting Le Roman, ll. 5617, 8:--
'Qui fu fille Virginius, Si cum dist Titus Livius.'
The story in the French text occupies 70 lines (5613-5682, ed. Méon); the chief points of resemblance are noted below.
Gower has the same story, Conf. Amant. iii. 264-270; but I see no reason why Chaucer should be considered as indebted to him. It is, however, clear that, if Chaucer and Gower be here compared, the latter suffers considerably by the comparison.
Gower gives the names of Icilius, to whom Virginia was betrothed, and of Marcus Claudius. But Chaucer omits the name Marcus, and ignores the existence of Icilius. The French text does the same.
11. This is the 'noble goddesse Nature' mentioned in the Parl. of Foules, ll. 368, 379. Cf. note to l. 16.
14. Pigmalion, Pygmalion; alluding to Ovid, Met. x. 247, where it is said of him:--
'Interea niueum mira feliciter arte Sculpit ebur, formamque dedit, qua femina nasci Nulla potest; operisque sui concepit amorem.'
[261]
In the margin of E. Hn. is the note--'Quere in Methamorphosios'; which supplies the reference; but cf. note to l. 16 below, shewing that Chaucer also had in his mind Le Roman de la Rose, l. 16379. So also the author of the Pearl, l. 750; see Morris, Allit. Poems.
16. In the margin of E. Hn. we find the note:--'Apelles fecit mirabile opus in tumulo Darii; vide in Alexandri libro .1.º [Hn. has .6.º]; de Zanze in libro Tullii.' This note is doubtless the poet's own; see further, as to Apelles, in the note to D. 498.
Zanzis, Zeuxis. The corruption of the name was easy, owing to the confusion in MSS. between n and u.[26] In the note above, we are referred to Tullius, i. e. Cicero. Dr. Reid kindly tells me that Zeuxis is mentioned, with Apelles, in Cicero's De Oratore, iii. § 26, and Brutus, § 70; also, with other artists, in Academia, ii. § 146; De Finibus, ii. § 115; and alone, in De Inventione, ii. § 52, where a long story is told of him. Cf. note to Troil. iv. 414.
However, the fact is that Chaucer really derived his knowledge of Zeuxis from Le Roman de la Rose (ed. Méon, l. 16387); for comparison with the context of that line shews numerous points of resemblance to the present passage in our author. Jean de Meun is there speaking of Nature, and of the inability of artists to vie with her, which is precisely Chaucer's argument here. The passage is too long for quotation, but I may cite such lines as these:--
'Ne Pymalion entaillier' (l. 16379),
'voire Apelles Que ge moult bon paintre appelles, Biautés de li james descrive Ne porroit,' &c. (l. 16381).
'Zeuxis neis par son biau paindre Ne porroit a tel forme ataindre,' &c. (l. 16387).
Si cum Tules le nous remembre Ou livre de sa retorique'; (l. 16398).
Here the reference is to the passage in De Oratore, iii. § 26.
'Mes ci ne péust-il riens faire Zeuxis, tant séust bien portraire, Ne colorer sa portraiture, Tant est de grant biauté Nature.' (l. 16401).
A little further on, Nature is made to say (l. 16970):--
'Cis Diex méismes, par sa grace,... Tant m'ennora, tant me tint chere, Qu'il m'establi sa chamberiere ... Por chamberiere! certes vaire, Por connestable, et por vicaire.'
[262]
20. See just above; and cf. Parl. of Foules, 379--'Nature, the vicaire of thalmighty lord.'
32-4. Cf. Le Rom. de la Rose, 16443-6.
35. From this line to l. 120, Chaucer has it all his own way. This fine passage is not in Le Roman, nor in Gower.
37. I. e. she had golden hair; cf. Troil. iv. 736, v. 8.
49. Perhaps Chaucer found the wisdom of Pallas in Vergil, Aen. v. 704.--
'Tum senior Nautes, unum Tritonia Pallas Quem docuit, multaque insignem reddidit arte.'
50. fácound, eloquence; cf. facóunde in Parl. Foules, 558.
54. Souninge in, conducing to; see A. 307, B. 3157, and notes.
58. Bacus, Bacchus, i. e. wine; see next note.
59. youthe, youth; such is the reading in MSS. E. Hn., and edd. 1532 and 1561. MS. Cm. has lost a leaf; the rest have thought, which gives no sense. It is clear that the reading thought arose from misreading the y of youthe as þ (th). How easily this may be done appears from Wright's remark, that the Lansdowne MS. has youthe, whilst, in fact, it has þouht.
Tyrwhitt objects to the reading youthe, and proposes slouthe, wholly without authority. But youthe, meaning 'youthful vigour,' is right enough; I see no objection to it at all. Rather, it is simply taken from Ovid, Ars Amat. i. 243:--
'Illic saepe animos iuuenum rapuere puellae; Et Venus in uinis, ignis in igne fuit.'
Only a few lines above (l. 232), Bacchus occurs, and there is a reference to wine, throughout the context. Cf. the Romaunt of the Rose, l. 4925:--
'For Youthe set man in al folye ... In leccherye and in outrage.'
Cf. note to l. 65.
60. Alluding to a proverbial phrase, occurring in Horace, Sat. ii. 3. 321, viz. 'oleum adde camino'; and elsewhere.
65. This probably refers to the same passage in Ovid as is mentioned in the note to l. 59. For we there find (l. 229):--
'Dant etiam positis aditum conuiuia mensis; Est aliquid, praeter uina, quod inde petas ... Vina parant animos, faciuntque caloribus aptos'; &c.
79. See A. 476, and the note. Chaucer is here thinking of the same passage in Le Roman de la Rose. I quote a few lines (3930-46):--
'Une vielle, que Diex honnisse! Avoit o li por li guetier, Qui ne fesoit autre mestier [263] Fors espier tant solement Qu'il ne se maine folement.... Bel-Acueil se taist et escoute Por la vielle que il redoute, Et n'est si hardis qu'il se moeve, Que la vielle en li n'aperçoeve Aucune fole contenance, Qu'el scet toute la vielle dance.'
See the English version in vol. i. p. 205, ll. 4285-4300.
82. See the footnote for another reading. The line there given may also be genuine. It is deficient in the first foot.
85. This is like our proverb:--'Set a thief to catch [or take] a thief.' An old poacher makes a good gamekeeper.
98. Cf. Prov. xiii. 24; P. Plowman, B. v. 41.
101. See a similar proverb in P. Plowman, C. x. 265, and my note on the line. The Latin lines quoted in P. Plowman are from Alanus de Insulis, Liber Parabolarum, cap. i. 31; they are printed in Leyser, Hist. Poet. Med. Aevi, 1721, p. 1066, in the following form:--
'Sub molli pastore capit lanam lupus, et grex Incustoditus dilaceratur eo.'
117. The doctour, i. e. the teacher; viz. St. Augustine. (There is here no reference whatever to the 'Doctor' or 'Phisicien' who is supposed to tell the tale.) In the margin of MSS. E. Hn. is written 'Augustinus'; and the matter is put beyond doubt by a passage in the Persones Tale, l. 484:--'and, after the word of seint Augustin, it [Envye] is sorwe of other mannes wele, and Ioye of othere mennes harm.' See note to l. 484.
The same idea is exactly reproduced in P. Plowman, B. v. 112, 113. Cf. 'Inuidus alterius macrescit rebus opimis'; Horace, Epist. i. 2. 57.
135. From Le Roman, l. 5620-3; see vol. iii. p. 436.
140. cherl, dependant. It is remarkable that, throughout the story, MSS. E. Hn. and Cm. have cherl, but the rest have clerk. In ll. 140, 142, 153, 164, the Camb. MS. is deficient; but it at once gives the reading cherl in l. 191, and subsequently.
Either reading might serve; in Le Roman, l. 5614, the dependant is called 'son serjant'; and in l. 5623, he is called 'Li ribaus,' i. e. the ribald, which Chaucer Englishes by cherl. But when we come to C. 289, the MSS. gives us the choice of 'fals cherl' and 'cursed theef'; very few have clerk (like MS. Sloane 1685). Cf. vol. iii. p. 437.
153, 154. The 'churl's' name was Marcus Claudius, and the 'judge' was 'Appius Claudius.' Chaucer simply follows Jean de Meun, who calls the judge Apius; and speaks of the churl as 'Claudius li chalangieres' in l. 5675. [264]
165. Cf. Le Roman, l. 5623-7; see vol. iii. p. 436.
168-9. From Le Roman, 5636-8, as above.
174. The first foot is defective; read--Thou | shalt have | al, &c. al right, complete justice. MS. Cm. has alle.
184. Cf. Le Roman, l. 5628-33.
203. From Le Roman, 5648-54.
207-253. The whole of this fine passage appears to be original. There is no hint of it in Le Roman de la Rose, except as regards l. 225, where Le Roman (l. 5659) has:--'Car il par amors, sans haïne.' We may compare the farewell speech of Virginius to his daughter in Webster's play of Appius and Virginia, Act iv. sc. 1.
240. Iepte, Jephtha; in the Vulgate, Jephte. See Judges, xi. 37, 38. MSS. E. Hn. have in the margin--'fuit illo tempore Jephte Galaandes' [error for Galaadites]. This reference by Virginia to the book of Judges is rather startling; but such things are common enough in old authors, especially in our dramatists.
255. Here Chaucer returns to Le Roman, 5660-82. The rendering is pretty close down to l. 276.
280. Agryse of, shudder at; 'nor in what kind of way the worm of conscience may shudder because of (the man's) wicked life'; cf. 'of pitee gan agryse,' B. 614. When agryse is used with of, it is commonly passive, not intransitive; see examples in Mätzner and in the New E. Dictionary. Cf. been afered, i. e. be scared, in l. 284.
'Vermis conscientiae tripliciter lacerabit'; Innocent III., De Contemptu Mundi, l. iii. c. 2.
286. Cf. Pers. Tale, I. 93:--'repentant folk, that stinte for to sinne, and forlete [give up] sinne er that sinne forlete hem.'
WORDS OF THE HOST.
In the Six-text Edition, pref. col. 58, Dr. Furnivall calls attention to the curious variations in this passage, in the MSS., especially in ll. 289-292, and in 297-300; as well as in ll. 487, 488 in the Pardoneres Tale. I note these variations below, in their due places.
287. wood, mad, frantic, furious; esp. applied to the transient madness of anger. See Kn. Tale, A. 1301, 1329, 1578; also Mids. Nt. Dr. ii. 1. 192. Cf. G. wüthend, raging.
288. Harrow! also spelt haro; a cry of astonishment; see A. 3286, 3825, B. 4235, &c. 'Haro, the ancient Norman hue and cry; the exclamation of a person to procure assistance when his person or property was in danger. To cry out haro on any one, to denounce his evil doings'; Halliwell. Spenser has it, F. Q. ii. 6. 43; see Harrow in Nares, and the note above, to A. 3286.
On the oaths used by the Host, see note to l. 651 below.
289. fals cherl is the reading in E. Hn., and is evidently right; see [265] note to l. 140 above. It is supported by several MSS., among which are Harl. 7335, Addit. 25718, Addit. 5140, Sloane 1686, Barlow 20, Hatton 1, Camb. Univ. Lib. Dd. 4. 24 and Mm. 2. 5, and Trin. Coll. Cam. R. 3. 3. A few have fals clerk, viz. Sloane 1685, Arch. Seld. B. 14, Rawl. Poet. 149, Bodley 414. Harl. 7333 has a fals thef, Acursid Iustise; out of which numerous MSS. have developed the reading a cursed theef, a fals Iustice, which rolls the two Claudii into one. It is clearly wrong, but appears in good MSS., viz. in Cp. Pt. Ln. Hl. See vol. iii. pp. 437-8, and the note to l. 291 below.
290. shamful. MSS. Ln. Hl. turn this into schendful, i. e. ignominious, which does not at all alter the sense. It is a matter of small moment, but I may note that of the twenty-five MSS. examined by Dr. Furnivall, only the two above-named MSS. adopt this variation.
291, 292. Here MSS. Cp. Ln. Hl., as noted in the footnote, have two totally different lines; and this curious variation divides the MSS. (at least in the present passage) into two sets. In the first of these we find E. Hn. Harl. 7335, Addit. 25718, Addit. 5140, Sloane 1685 and 1686, Barlow 20, Arch. Seld. B. 14, Rawl. Poet. 149, Hatton 1, Bodley 414, Camb. Dd. 4. 24, and Mm. 2. 5, Trin. Coll. Cam. R. 3. 3. In the second set we find Cp. Ln. Hl., Harl. 1758, Royal 18. C. 2, Laud 739, Camb. Ii. 3. 26, Royal 17. D. 15, and Harl. 7333.
There is no doubt as to the correct reading; for the 'false cherl' and 'false justice' were two different persons, and it was only because they had been inadvertently rolled into one (see note to l. 289) that it became possible to speak of 'his body,' 'his bones,' and 'him.' Hence the lines are rightly given in the text which I have adopted.
There is a slight difficulty, however, in the rime, which should be noted. We see that the t in advocats was silent, and that the word was pronounced (ad·vokaa·s), riming with allas (alaa·s), where the raised dot denotes the accent. That this was so, is indicated by the following spellings:--Pt. aduocas, and so also in Harl. 7335, Addit. 5140, Bodl. 414; Rawl. Poet. 149 has advocas; whilst Sloane 1685, Sloane 1686, and Camb. Mm. 2. 5 have aduocase, and Barlow 20, advocase. MS. Trin. Coll. R. 3. 3 has aduocasse. The testimony of ten MSS. may suffice; but it is worth noting that the F. pl. aduocas occurs in Le Roman de la Rose, 5107.
293. 'Alas! she (Virginia) bought her beauty too dear'; she paid too high a price; it cost her her life.
297-300. These four lines are genuine; but several MSS., including E. Hn. Pt., omit the former pair (297-8), whilst several others omit the latter pair. Ed. 1532 contains both pairs, but alters l. 299.
299. bothe yiftes, both (kinds of) gifts; i. e. gifts of fortune, such as wealth, and of nature, such as beauty. Compare Dr. Johnson's poem on the Vanity of Human Wishes, imitated from the tenth satire of Juvenal.
303. is no fors, it is no matter. It must be supplied, for the sense. [266] Sometimes Chaucer omits it is, and simply writes no fors, as in E. 1092, 2430. We also find I do no fors, I care not, D. 1234; and They yeve no fors, they care not, Romaunt of the Rose, 4826. Palsgrave has--'I gyue no force, I care nat for a thing, Il ne men chault.'
306. Ypocras is the usual spelling, in English MSS., of Hippocrates; see Prologue A. 431. So also in the Book of the Duchess, 571, 572:--
'Ne hele me may physicien, Noght Ypocras, ne Galien.'
In the present passage it does not signify the physician himself, but a beverage named after him. 'It was composed of wine, with spices and sugar, strained through a cloth. It is said to have taken its name from Hippocrates' sleeve, the term apothecaries gave to a strainer'; Halliwell's Dict. s. v. Hippocras. In the same work, s. v. Ipocras, are several receipts for making it, the simplest being one copied from Arnold's Chronicle:--'Take a quart of red wyne, an ounce of synamon, and half an unce of gynger; a quarter of an ounce of greynes, and long peper, and halfe a pounde of sugar; and brose all this, and than put them in a bage of wullen clothe, made therefore, with the wyne; and lete it hange over a vessel, tyll the wyne be rune thorowe.' Halliwell adds that--'Ipocras seems to have been a great favourite with our ancestors, being served up at every entertainment, public or private. It generally made a part of the last course, and was taken immediately after dinner, with wafers or some other light biscuits'; &c. See Pegge's Form of Cury, p. 161; Babees Book, ed. Furnivall, pp. 125-128, 267, 378; Skelton, ed. Dyce, ii. 285; and Nares's Glossary, s. v. Hippocras.
Galianes. In like manner this word (hitherto unexplained as far as I am aware) must signify drinks named after Galen, whose name is spelt Galien (in Latin, Galienus) not only in Chaucer, but in other authors. See the quotation above from the Book of the Duchess. Speght guessed the word to mean 'Galen's works.'
310. lyk a prelat, like a dignitary of the church, like a bishop or abbot. Mr. Jephson, in Bell's edition, suggests that the Doctor was in holy orders, and that this is why we are told in the Prologue, l. 438, that 'his studie was but litel on the bible.' I see no reason for this guess, which is quite unsupported. Chaucer does not say he is a prelate, but that he is like one; because he had been highly educated, as a member of a 'learned profession' should be.
Ronyan is here of three syllables and rimes with man; in l. 320 it is of two syllables, and rimes with anon. It looks as if the Host and Pardoner were not very clear about the saint's name, only knowing him to swear by. In Pilkington's Works (Parker Society), we find a mention of 'St. Tronian's fast,' p. 80; and again, of 'St. Rinian's fast,' p. 551, in a passage which is a repetition of the former. The forms Ronyan and Rinian are evidently corruptions of Ronan, a saint whose [267] name is well known to readers of 'St. Ronan's Well.' Of St. Ronan scarcely anything is known. The fullest account that can easily be found is the following:--
'Ronan, B. and C. Feb. 7.--Beyond the mere mention of his commemoration as S. Ronan, bishop at Kilmaronen, in Levenax, in the body of the Breviary of Aberdeen, there is nothing said about this saint.... Camerarius (p. 86) makes this Ronanus the same as he who is mentioned by Beda (Hist. Ecc. lib. iii. c. 25). This Ronan died in A. D. 778. The Ulster annals give at [A. D.] 737 (736)--"Mors Ronain Abbatis Cinngaraid." Ængus places this saint at the 9th of February,' &c.; Kalendars of Scottish Saints, by Bp. A. P. Forbes, 1872, p. 441. Kilmaronen is Kilmaronock, in the county and parish of Dumbarton. There are traces of St. Ronan in about seven place-names in Scotland, according to the same authority. Under the date of Feb. 7 (February vol. ii. 3 B), the Acta Sanctorum has a few lines about St. Ronan, who, according to some, flourished under King Malduin, A. D. 664-684; or, according to others, about 603. The notice concludes with the remark--'Maiorem lucem desideramus.' Beda says that 'Ronan, a Scot by nation, but instructed in ecclesiastical truth either in France or Italy,' was mixed up in the controversy which arose about the keeping of Easter, and was 'a most zealous defender of the true Easter.' This controversy took place about A. D. 652, which does not agree with the date above.
311. Tyrwhitt thinks that Shakespeare remembered this expression of Chaucer, when he describes the Host of the Garter as frequently repeating the phrase 'said I well': Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 3. 11; ii. 1. 226; ii. 3. 93, 99.
in terme, in learned terms; cf. Prol. A. 323.
312. erme, to grieve. For the explanation of unusual words, the Glossary should, in general, be consulted; the Notes are intended, for the most part, to explain only phrases and allusions, and to give illustrations of the use of words. Such illustrations are, moreover, often omitted when they can easily be found by consulting such a work as Stratmann's Old English Dictionary. In the present case, for example, Stratmann gives twelve instances of the use of earm or arm as an adjective, meaning wretched; four examples of ermlic, miserable; seven of earming, a miserable creature; and five of earmthe, misery. These twenty-eight additional examples shew that the word was formerly well understood. We may further note that a later instance of ermen or erme, to grieve, occurs in Caxton's translation of Reynard the Fox, A. D. 1481; see Arber's reprint, p. 48, l. 5: 'Thenne departed he fro the kynge so heuyly that many of them ermed,' i. e. then departed he from the king so sorrowfully that many of them mourned, or were greatly grieved.
313. cardiacle, pain about the heart, spasm of the heart; more correctly, cardiake, as the l is excrescent. See Cardiacle and Cardiac in the New E. Dictionary. In Batman upon Bartholomè, lib. vii. c. 32, [268] we have a description of 'Heart-quaking and the disease Cardiacle.' We thus learn that 'there is a double manner of Cardiacle,' called 'Diaforetica' and 'Tremens.' Of the latter, 'sometime melancholy is the cause'; and the remedies are various 'confortatives.' This is why the host wanted some 'triacle' or some ale, or something to cheer him up.
314. The Host's form of oath is amusingly ignorant; he is confusing the two oaths 'by corpus Domini' and 'by Christes bones,' and evidently regards corpus as a genitive case. Tyrwhitt alters the phrase to 'By corpus domini,' which wholly spoils the humour of it.
triacle, a restorative remedy; see Man of Lawes Tale, B. 479.
315. moyste, new. The word retains the sense of the Lat. musteus and mustus. In Group H. 60, we find moysty ale spoken of as differing from old ale. But the most peculiar use of the word is in the Prologue, A. 457, where the Wyf of Bath's shoes are described as being moyste and newe.
corny, strong of the corn or malt; cf. l. 456. Skelton calls it 'newe ale in cornys'; Magnificence, 782; or 'in cornes,' Elynour Rummyng, 378. Baret's Alvearie, s. v. Ale, has: 'new ale in cornes, ceruisia cum recrementis.' It would seem that ale was thought the better for having dregs of malt in it.
318. bel amy, good friend; a common form of address in old French. We also find biaus douz amis, sweet good friend; as in--
'Charlot, Charlot, biaus doux amis'; Rutebuef; La Disputoison de Charlot et du Barbier, l. 57.
Belamy occurs in an Early Eng. Life of St. Cecilia, MS. Ashmole 43, l. 161; and six other examples are given in the New Eng. Dictionary. Similar forms are beau filtz, dear son, Piers Plowman, B. vii. 162; beau pere, good father; beau sire, good sir. Cf. beldame.
321. ale-stake, inn-sign. Speght interprets this by 'may-pole.' He was probably thinking of the ale-pole, such as was sometimes set up before an inn as a sign; see the picture of one in Larwood and Hotten's History of Signboards, Plate II. But the ale-stakes of the fourteenth century were differently placed; instead of being perpendicular, they projected horizontally from the inn, just like the bar which supports a painted sign at the present day. At the end of the ale-stake a large garland was commonly suspended, as mentioned by Chaucer himself (Prol. 667), or sometimes a bunch of ivy, box, or evergreen, called a 'bush'; whence the proverb 'good wine needs no bush,' i. e. nothing to indicate where it is sold; see Hist. Signboards, pp. 2, 4, 6, 233. The clearest information about ale-stakes is obtained from a notice of them in the Liber Albus, ed. Riley, where an ordinance of the time of Richard II. is printed, the translation of which runs as follows: 'Also, it was ordained that whereas the ale-stakes, projecting in front of the taverns in Chepe and elsewhere in the said city, extend too far over the king's highways, to the impeding of riders and others, and, by reason of their excessive weight, to the great deterioration of the houses to which they [269] are fixed,... it was ordained,... that no one in future should have a stake bearing either his sign or leaves [i. e. a bush] extending or lying over the king's highway, of greater length than 7 feet at most,' &c. And, at p. 292 of the same work, note 2, Mr. Riley rightly defines an ale-stake to be 'the pole projecting from the house, and supporting a bunch of leaves.'
The word ale-stake occurs in Chatterton's poem of Ælla, stanza 30, where it is used in a manner which shews that the supposed 'Rowley' did not know what it was like. See my note on this; Essay on the Rowley Poems, p. xix; and cf. note to A. 667.
322. of a cake; we should now say, a bit of bread; the modern sense of 'cake' is a little misleading. The old cakes were mostly made of dough, whence the proverb 'my cake is dough,' i. e. is not properly baked; Taming of the Shrew, v. 1. 145. Shakespeare also speaks of 'cakes and ale,' Tw. Nt. ii. 3. 124. The picture of the 'Simnel Cakes' in Chambers' Book of Days, i. 336, illustrates Chaucer's use of the word in the Prologue, l. 668.
324. The Pardoner was so ready to tell some 'mirth or japes' that the more decent folks in the company try to repress him. It is a curious comment on the popular estimate of his character. He has, moreover, to refresh himself, and to think awhile before he can recollect 'some honest (i. e. decent) thing.'
327, 328. The Harleian MS. has--
'But in the cuppe wil I me bethinke Upon some honest tale, whil I drinke.'
THE PARDONERES PROLOGUE.
Title. The Latin text is copied from l. 334 below; it appears in the Ellesmere and Hengwrt MSS. The A. V. has--'the love of money is the root of all evil'; 1 Tim. vi. 10. It is well worth notice that the novel by Morlinus, quoted in vol. iii. p. 442, as a source of the Pardoner's Tale, contains the expression--'radice malorum cupiditate affecti.'
336. bulles, bulls from the pope, whom he here calls his 'liege lord'; see Prol. A. 687, and Piers the Plowman, B. Prol. 69. See also Wyclif's Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 308.
alle and somme, one and all. Cf. Clerkes Tale, E. 941, and the note.
337. patente; defined by Webster as 'an official document, conferring a right or privilege on some person or party'; &c. It was so called because 'patent' or open to public inspection. 'When indulgences came to be sold, the pope made them part of his ordinary revenue; and, according to the usual way in those, and even in much later times, of farming the revenue, he let them out usually to the Dominican friars'; Massingberd, Hist. Eng. Reformation, p. 126.
345. 'To colour my devotion with.' For saffron, MS. Harl. reads savore. Tyrwhitt rightly prefers the reading saffron, as 'more [270] expressive, and less likely to have been a gloss.' And he adds--'Saffron was used to give colour as well as flavour.' For example, in the Babees Book, ed. Furnivall, p. 275, we read of 'capons that ben coloured with saffron.' And in Winter's Tale, iv. 3. 48, the Clown says--'I must have saffron to colour the warden-pies.' Cf. Sir Thopas, B. 1920. As to the position of with, cf. Sq. Ta., F. 471, 641.
346. According to Tyrwhitt, this line is, in some MSS. (including Camb. Dd. 4. 24. and Addit. 5140), replaced by three, viz.--
'In euery village and in euery toun, This is my terme, and shal, and euer was, Radix malorum est cupiditas.'
Here terme is an error for teme, a variant of theme; so that the last two lines merely repeat ll. 333-4.
347. cristal stones, evidently hollow pieces of crystal in which relics were kept; so in the Prologue, A. 700, we have--
'And in a glas he hadde pigges bones.'
348. cloutes, rags, bits of cloth. 'The origin of the veneration for relics may be traced to Acts, xix. 12. Hence clouts, or cloths, are among the Pardoner's stock'; note in Bell's edition.
349. Reliks. In the Prologue, we read that he had the Virgin Mary's veil and a piece of the sail of St. Peter's ship. Below, we have mention of the shoulder-bone of a holy Jew's sheep, and of a miraculous mitten. See Heywood's impudent plagiarism from this passage in his description of a Pardoner, as printed in the note to l. 701 of Dr. Morris's edition of Chaucer's Prologue. See also a curious list of relics in Chambers' Book of Days, i. 587; and compare the humorous descriptions of the pardoner and his wares in Sir David Lyndesay's Satyre of the Three Estates, ll. 2037-2121. Chaucer probably here took several hints from Boccaccio's Decamerone, Day 6, Nov. 10, wherein Frate Cipolla produces many very remarkable relics to the public gaze. See also the list of relics in Political, Religious, and Love Poems, ed. Furnivall (E. E. T. S.), pp. xxxii, 126-9.
350. latoun. The word latten is still in use in Devon and the North of England for plate tin, but as Halliwell remarks, that is not the sense of latoun in our older writers. It was a kind of mixed metal, somewhat resembling brass both in its nature and colour, but still more like pinchbeck. It was used for helmets (Rime of Sir Thopas, B. 2067), lavers (P. Pl. Crede, 196), spoons (Nares), sepulchral memorials (Way in Prompt. Parv.), and other articles. Todd, in his Illustrations of Chaucer, p. 350, remarks that the escutcheons on the tomb of the Black Prince are of laton over-gilt, in accordance with the Prince's instructions; see Nichols's Royal Wills, p. 67. He adds--'In our old Church Inventories a cross of laton frequently occurs.' See Prol. A. 699, and the note. I here copy the description of this metal given in Batman upon Bartholomè; lib. xvi. c. 5. 'Of Laton. [271] Laton is called Auricalcum, and hath that name, for, though it be brasse or copper, yet it shineth as gold without, as Isidore saith; for brasse is calco in Greeke. Also laton is hard as brasse or copper; for by medling of copper, of tinne, and of auripigment [orpiment] and with other mettal, it is brought in the fire to the colour of gold, as Isidore saith. Also it hath colour and likenesse of gold, but not the value.'
351. The expression 'holy Jew' is remarkable, as the usual feeling in the middle ages was to regard all Jews with abhorrence. It is suggested, in a note to Bell's edition, that it 'must be understood of some Jew before the Incarnation.' Perhaps the Pardoner wished it to be understood that the sheep was once the property of Jacob; this would help to give force to l. 365. Cp. Gen. xxx.
The best comment on the virtues of a sheep's shoulder-bone is afforded by a passage in the Persones Tale (De Ira), I. 602, where we find--'Sweringe sodeynly withoute avysement is eek a sinne. But lat us go now to thilke horrible swering of adiuracioun and coniuracioun, as doon thise false enchauntours or nigromanciens in bacins ful of water, or in a bright swerd, in a cercle, or in a fyr, or in a shulder-boon of a sheep'; &c. Cf. also a curious passage in Trevisa's tr. of Higden's Polychronicon, lib. i. cap. 60, which shews that it was known among the Flemings who had settled in the west of Wales. He tells us that, by help of a bone of a wether's right shoulder, from which the flesh had been boiled (not roasted) away, they could tell what was being done in far countries, 'tokens of pees and of werre, the staat of the reeme, sleynge of men, and spousebreche.' Selden, in his notes to song 5 of Drayton's Polyolbion, gives a curious instance of such divination, taken from Giraldus, Itin. i. cap. 11; and a writer in the Retrospective Review, Feb. 1854, p. 109, says it is 'similar to one described by Wm. de Rubruquis as practised among the Tartars.' And see spade-bone in Nares. Cf. Notes and Queries, 1 S. ii. 20.
In Part I. of the Records of the Folk-lore Society is an article by Mr. Thoms on the subject of divination by means of the shoulder-bone of a sheep. He shews that it was still practised in the Scottish Highlands down to the beginning of the present century, and that it is known in Greece. He further cites some passages concerning it from some scarce books; and ends by saying--'let me refer any reader desirous of knowing more of this wide-spread form of divination to Sir H. Ellis's edition of Brand's Popular Antiquities, iii. 179, ed. 1842, and to much curious information respecting Spatulamancia, as it is called by Hartlieb, and an analogous species of divination ex anserino sterno, to Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie, 2nd ed. p. 1067.'
355. The sense is--'which any snake has bitten or stung.' The reference is to the poisonous effects of the bite of an adder or venomous snake. The word worm is used by Shakespeare to describe the asp whose bite was fatal to Cleopatra; and it is sometimes used to describe a dragon of the largest size. In Icelandic, the term 'miðgarðsormr,' [272] lit. worm of the middle-earth, signifies a great sea-serpent encompassing the entire world.
363. Fastinge. This word is spelt with a final e in all seven MSS.; and as it is emphatic and followed by a slight pause, perhaps the final e should be pronounced. Cp. A. S. fæstende, the older form of the present participle. Otherwise, the first foot consists of but one syllable.
366. For heleth, MS. Hl. has kelith, i. e. cooleth.
379. The final e in sinne must not be elided; it is preserved by the caesura. Besides, e is only elided before h in the case of certain words.
387. assoile, absolve. In Michelet's Life of Luther, tr. by W. Hazlitt, chap. ii, there is a very similar passage concerning Tetzel, the Dominican friar, whose shameless sale of indulgences roused Luther to his famous denunciations of the practice. Tetzel 'went about from town to town, with great display, pomp, and expense, hawking the commodity [i. e. the indulgences] in the churches, in the public streets, in taverns and ale-houses. He paid over to his employers as little as possible, pocketing the balance, as was subsequently proved against him. The faith of the buyers diminishing, it became necessary to exaggerate to the fullest extent the merit of the specific.... The intrepid Tetzel stretched his rhetoric to the very uttermost bounds of amplification. Daringly piling one lie upon another, he set forth, in reckless display, the long list of evils which this panacea could cure. He did not content himself with enumerating known sins; he set his foul imagination to work, and invented crimes, infamous atrocities, strange, unheard of, unthought of; and when he saw his auditors stand aghast at each horrible suggestion, he would calmly repeat the burden of his song:--Well, all this is expiated the moment your money chinks in the pope's chest.' This was in the year 1517.
390. An hundred mark. A mark was worth about 13s. 4d., and 100 marks about £66 13s. 4d. In order to make allowance for the difference in the value of money in that age, we must at least multiply by ten; or we may say in round numbers, that the Pardoner made at least £700 a year. We may contrast this with Chaucer's own pension of 20 marks, granted him in 1367, and afterwards increased till, in the very last year of his life, he received in all, according to Sir Harris Nicolas, as much as £61 13s. 4d. Even then his income did not quite attain to the 100 marks which the Pardoner gained so easily.
397. dowve, a pigeon; lit. a dove. See a similar line in the Milleres Tale, A. 3258.
402. namely, especially, in particular; cf. Kn. Ta. 410 (A. 1068).
406. blakeberied. The line means--'Though their souls go a-blackberrying'; i. e. wander wherever they like. This is a well-known crux, which all the editors have given up as unintelligible. I have been so fortunate as to obtain the complete solution of it, which was printed in Notes and Queries, 4 S. x. 222, xii. 45, and again in my preface to the C-text of Piers the Plowman, p. lxxxvii. The simple explanation is that, by a grammatical construction which was [273] probably due (as will be shewn) to an error, the verb go could be combined with what was apparently a past participle, in such a manner as to give the participle the force of a verbal substantive. In other words, instead of saying 'he goes a-hunting,' our forefathers sometimes said 'he goes a-hunted.' The examples of this use are at least seven. The clearest is in Piers Plowman, C. ix. 138, where we read of 'folk that gon a-begged,' i. e. folk that go a-begging. In Chaucer, we not only have 'goon a-begged,' Frank. Tale, F. 1580, and the instance in the present passage, but yet a third example in the Wyf of Bath's Tale, Group D. 354, where we have 'goon a-caterwawed,' with the sense of 'to go a-caterwauling'; and it is a fortunate circumstance that in two of these cases the idiomatic forms occur at the end of a line, so that the rime has preserved them from being tampered with. Gower (Conf. Amant. bk. i. ed. Chalmers, pp. 32, 33, or ed. Pauli, i. 110) speaks of a king of Hungary riding out 'in the month of May,' adding--
'This king with noble purueiance Hath for him-selfe his chare [car] arayed, Wherein he wolde ryde amayed,' &c.
that is, wherein he wished to ride a-Maying. Again (in bk. v, ed. Chalmers, p. 124, col. 2, or ed. Pauli, ii. 132) we read of a drunken priest losing his way:--
'This prest was dronke, and goth a-strayed';
i. e. he goes a-straying, or goes astray.
The explanation of this construction I take to be this; the -ed was not really a sign of the past participle, but a corruption of the ending -eth (A. S.-að) which is sometimes found at the end of a verbal substantive. Hence it is that, in the passage from Piers Plowman above quoted, one of the best and earliest MSS. actually reads 'folk that gon a-beggeth.' And again, in another passage (P. Pl., C. ix. 246) is the phrase 'gon abrybeth,' or, in some MSS., 'gon abrybed,' i. e. go a-bribing or go a-thieving, since Mid. Eng. briben often means to rob. This form is clearly an imitation of the form a-hunteth in the old phrase gon a-hunteth or riden an honteth, used by Robert of Gloucester (Specimens of English, ed. Morris and Skeat, p. 14, l. 387):--
'As he rod an honteth, and par-auntre [h]is hors spurnde.'
Now this honteth is the dat. case of a substantive, viz. of the A. S. huntað or huntoð. This substantive would easily be mistaken for a part of a verb, and, particularly, for the past participle of a verb; just as many people at this day are quite unable to distinguish between the true verbal substantive and the present participle in -ing. This mistake once established, the ending -ed would be freely used after the verbs go or ride. In D. 1778, we even find go walked, without a.
The result is that the present phrase, hitherto so puzzling, is a mere variation of 'gon a blake-berying,' i. e. 'go a-gathering blackberries,' a humorous expression for 'wander wherever they please.' A not very [274] dissimilar expression occurs in the proverbial saying--'his wits are gone a-wool-gathering.'
The Pardoner says, in effect, 'I promise them full absolution; however, when they die and are buried, it matters little to me in what direction their souls go.'
407. Tyrwhitt aptly adduces a parallel passage from the Romaunt of the Rose, l. 5763 (or l. 5129 in the French)--
'For oft good predicacioun Cometh of evel entencioun.'
'Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife'; Phil. i. 15.
413. In Piers Plowman (B-text), v. 87, it is said of Envy that--
'Eche a worde that he warpe · was of an addres tonge.'
Cf. Rom. iii. 13; Ps. cxl. 3.
440. for I teche, because I teach, by my teaching.
441. Wilful pouerte signifies voluntary poverty. This is well illustrated by the following lines concerning Christ in Piers Plowman, B. xx. 48, 49:--
'Syth he that wroughte al the worlde · was wilfullich nedy, Ne neuer non so nedy · ne pouerer deyde.'
Several examples occur in Richardson's Dictionary in which wilfully has the sense of willingly or voluntarily. Thus--'If they wylfully would renounce the sayd place and put them in his grace, he wolde vtterlye pardon theyr trespace'; Fabyan's Chronicle, c. 114. It even means gladly; thus in Wyclif's Bible, Acts xxi. 17, we find, 'britherin resseyuyden vs wilfulli.' Speaking of palmers, Speght says--'The pilgrim travelled at his own charge, the palmer professed wilful poverty.'
The word wilful still means willing in Warwickshire; see Eng. Dialect Soc. Gloss. C. 6.
445. The context seems to imply that some of the apostles made baskets. So in Piers Plowman, B. xv. 285, we read of St. Paul--
'Poule, after his prechyng · panyers he made.'
Yet in Acts xviii. 3 we only read that he wrought as a tent-maker. However, it was St. Paul who set the example of labouring with his hands; and, in imitation of him, we find an early example of basket-making by St. Arsenius, 'who, before he turned hermit, had been the tutor of the emperors Arcadius and Honorius,' and who is represented in a fresco in the Campo Santo at Pisa, by Pietro Laurati, as 'weaving baskets of palm-leaves'; whilst beside him another hermit is cutting wooden spoons, and another is fishing. See Mrs. Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art, 3rd ed. ii. 757.
Note that baskettes is trisyllabic, as in Palladius on Husbandry, bk. xii. l. 307.
448. The best description of the house-to-house system of begging, as adopted by the mendicant friars, is near the beginning of the [275] Sompnour's Tale, D. 1738. They went in pairs to the farm-houses, begging a bushel of wheat, or malt, or rye, or a piece of cheese or brawn, or bacon or beef, or even a piece of an old blanket. Nothing seems to have come amiss to them.
450. See Prologue, A. 255; and cf. the description of the poor widow at the beginning of the Nonne Prestes Tale, B. 4011.
THE PARDONERES TALE.
For some account of the source of this Tale, see vol. iii. p. 439. The account which I here quote as the 'Italian' text is that contained in Novella lxxxii of the Libro di Novelle.
Observe also the quotations from Pope Innocent given in vol. iii. pp. 444, 445. To which may be added, that Chaucer here frequently quotes from his Persones Tale, which must have been written previously. Compare ll. 475, 482, 504, 529, 558, 590, 631-650, with I. 591, 836, 819, 820, 822, 793, 587-593.
463. In laying the scene in Flanders, Chaucer probably followed an original which is now lost. Andrew Borde, in his amusing Introduction of Knowledge, ch. viii, says:--'Flaunders is a plentyfull countre of fyshe & fleshe & wyld fowle. Ther shal a man be clenly serued at his table, & well ordred and vsed for meate & drynke & lodgyng. The countre is playn, & somwhat sandy. The people be gentyl, but the men be great drynkers; and many of the women be vertuous and wel dysposyd.' He describes the Fleming as saying--
'I am a Fleming, what for all that, Although I wyll be dronken other whyles as a rat? "Buttermouth Flemyng" men doth me call,' &c.
464. haunteden, followed after; cf. note to l. 547. The same expression occurs in The Tale of Beryn, a spurious (but not ill-told) addition to the Canterbury Tales:--
'Foly, I haunted it ever, ther myght no man me let'; l. 2319.
473. grisly, terrible, enough to make one shudder. It is exactly the right word. The mention of these oaths reminds us of the admission of my Uncle Toby in Sterne's Tristram Shandy, ch. xi, that 'our armies swore terribly in Flanders.'
474. to-tere, tear in pieces, dismember. Cf. to-rente in B. 3215; see note on p. 229. Chaucer elsewhere says--'For Cristes sake ne swereth nat so sinfully, in dismembringe of Crist, by soule, herte, bones, and body; for certes it semeth, that ye thinke that the cursede Iewes ne dismembred nat ynough the preciouse persone of Crist, but ye dismembre him more'; Persones Tale (De Ira), I. 591. And see ll. 629-659 below.
'And than Seint Johan seid--"These [who are thus tormented in [276] hell] ben thei that sweren bi Goddes membris, as bi his nayles and other his membris, and thei thus dismembrid God in horrible swerynge bi his limmes"'; Vision of Wm. Staunton (A. D. 1409), quoted in Wright's St. Patrick's Purgatory, p. 146. In the Plowman's Tale (Chaucer, ed. 1561, fol. xci) we have--
'And Cristes membres al to-tere On roode as he were newe yrent.'
Barclay, in his Ship of Fools (ed. Jamieson, i. 97), says--
'Some sweryth armes, naylys, herte, and body, Terynge our Lord worse than the Jowes hym arayed.'
And again (ii. 130) he complains of swearers who crucify Christ afresh, swearing by 'his holy membres,' by his 'blode,' by 'his face, his herte, or by his croune of thorne,' &c. See also the Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 64; Political, &c., Poems, ed. Furnivall, p. 193; Wyclif's Works, ed. Matthew, pp. 60, 278, 499. Todd, in his Illustrations of Chaucer, p. 264, quotes (from an old MS.) the old second commandment in the following form:--
'II. Thi goddes name and b[e]autte Thou shalt not take for wel nor wo; Dismembre hym not that on rode-tre For the was mad boyth blak and blo.'
477. tombesteres, female dancers. 'Sir Perdicas, whom that kinge Alysandre made to been his heire in Grece, was of no ki_n_ges blod; his dame [mother] was a to_m_bystere'; Testament of Love, Book ii. ed. 1561, fol. ccxcvi b.
Tombestere is the feminine form; the A. S. spelling would be tumbestre; the masc. form is the A. S. tumbere, which is glossed by saltator, i. e. a dancer; the verb is tumbian, to dance, used of Herodias' daughter in the A. S. version of Mark, vi. 22. The medieval idea of tumbling was, that the lady stood on her hands with her heels in the air; see Strutt, Sports, &c. bk. iii. c. 5.
On the feminine termination -ster (formerly -estre, or -stre) see the remarks in Marsh's Lectures on the English Language, printed in (the so-called) Smith's Student's Manual of the English Language, ed. 1862, pp. 207, 208, with an additional note at p. 217. Marsh's remarks are, in this case, less clear than usual. He shews that the termination was not always used as a feminine, and that, in fact, its force was early lost. It is, however, merely a question of chronology. That the termination was originally feminine in Anglo-Saxon, is sufficiently proved by the A. S. version of the Gospels. There we find the word witega frequently used in the sense of prophet; but, in one instance, where it is necessary to express the feminine, we find this accomplished by the use of this very termination. 'And anna waes witegystre (another MS. witegestre)'; i. e. and Anna was a prophetess, Luke, ii. 36. Similar instances might easily be multiplied; see Dr. Morris's Hist. Outlines of Eng. Accidence, pp. 89, 90. Thus, wasshestren (pl.) is used as the [277] translation of lotrices; Old Eng. Homilies, ed. Morris, ii. 57. But it is also true that, in the fourteenth century, the feminine force of this termination was becoming very weak, so that, whilst in P. Plowman, B. v. 306, we find 'Beton the brewestere' applied to a female brewer, we cannot thence certainly conclude that 'brewestere' was always feminine at that period. On the other hand, we may point to one word, spinster, which has remained feminine to this very day.
Dr. Morris remarks that tombestere is a hybrid word; in which I believe that he has been misled by the spelling. It is a pure native word, from the A. S. tumbian, but the scribes have turned it from tumbestere into tombestere, by confusion with the French tomber. Yet even the Fr. tomber was once spelt tumber (Burguy, Roquefort), being, in fact, a word of Germanic origin. An acrobat can still be called a tumbler: we find 'rope-dancers and tumblers' in Locke, Conduct of the Understanding, § 4. Indeed, the Cambridge MS. has here the true spelling tumbesteris, whilst the Corpus, Petworth, and Lansdowne MSS. have the variations tomblisteres and tomblesters. The A. S. masc. form tumbere occurs in Ælfric's Vocabulary.
As to the source of the suffix -ster, it is really a compound suffix, due to composition of the Aryan suffixes -es and -ter-; cf. Lat. mag-is-ter, min-is-ter, poet-as-ter. The feminine use is peculiar to Anglo-Saxon and to some other Teutonic languages.
478. fruytesteres, female sellers of fruit; see note to last line.
479. wafereres, sellers of confectionery, confectioners. The feminine form wafrestre occurs in Piers Plowman, v. 641. From Beaumont and Fletcher we learn that 'wafer-women' were often employed in amorous embassies, as stated in Nares' Glossary, q. v.
483. holy writ. In the margin of the MSS. E. Hn. Cp. Pt. and Hl. is the note--'Nolite inebriari vino, in quo est luxuria,' quoted from the Vulgate version of Eph. v. 18. See vol. iii. p. 444.
487. Cp. Ln. have here two additional spurious lines. Cp. reads--
'So drunke he was, he nyste what he wrought, And therfore sore repente him oughte. Heroudes, who-so wole the stories seche, Ther may ye lerne and by ensample teche.'
Of the second line, Dr. Furnivall remarks--'Besides being a line of only 4 measures, it is foolish--how could Lot in the grave repent him? Both lines [those in italics] interrupt the flow of the story, and weaken the instances brought forward.' He adds--'None of our best MSS. have these spurious lines.'
They evidently arose from the stupidity of some scribe, who did not understand that soghte is here the pt. t. subj., meaning 'were to seek.' He therefore 'corrected' Chaucer's grammar by writing wol for wel and seche for soghte; and he then had to make up two more lines to hide the alteration.
488. 'Herod, (as may be seen by any one) who would consult the [278] "stories" carefully.' The Harleian MS. has the inferior reading story; but the reference is particular, not vague. Peter Comestor (died A. D. 1198) was the author of an Historia Scholastica, on which account he was called 'the maister of stories,' or 'clerk of the stories,' as explained in my note to Piers Plowman, B. vii. 73. The use of the plural is due to the fact that the whole Historia Scholastica, which is a sort of epitome of the Bible, with notes and additions, is divided into sections, each of which is also called 'Historia.' The account of Herod occurs, of course, in the section entitled Historia Evangelica, cap. lxxii; De decollatione ioannis. Cf. Matt. xiv; Mark vi. And see vol. iii. p. 444.
492. Senek, Seneca. The reference appears to be, as pointed out by Tyrwhitt, to Seneca's Letters; Epist. lxxxiii: 'Extende in plures dies illum ebrii habitum: numquid de furore dubitabis? nunc quoque non est minor, sed brevior.'
496. 'Except that madness, when it has come upon a man of evil nature, lasts longer than does a fit of drunkenness.' See Shrew in Trench, Select Glossary.
499. 'First cause of our misfortune'; alluding to the Fall of Adam. See l. 505.
501. boght us agayn, redeemed us; a translation of the Latin redemit. Hence we find Christ called, in Middle English, the A[gh]enbyer. 'See now how dere he [Christ] boughte man, that he made after his owne ymage, and how dere he a[gh]enboght us, for the grete love that he hadde to us'; Sir J. Maundeville, Prologue to his Voiage (Specimens of Eng. 1298-1393, p. 165). See l. 766 below.
504. Cf. Pers. Tale, I. 819.
505. Here, in the margin of MS. E. Hn. Cp. Pt. Hl., is a quotation from 'Hieronymus contra Jovinianum' (i. e. from St. Jerome): 'Quamdiu ieiunauit Adam, in Paradiso fuit; comedit et eiectus est; eiectus, statim duxit uxorem.' See Hieron. contra Jov. lib. ii. c. 15; ed. Migne, ii. 305.
510. defended, forbidden. Even Milton has it; see P. Lost, xi. 86. See also l. 590 below.
512. 'O gluttony! it would much behove us to complain of thee!' See vol. iii. pp. 444, 445. The quotation 'Noli auidus' (iii. 445) is from the close of Ecclus. xxxvii.
517. Here Chaucer is thinking of a passage in Jerome, which also occurs in John of Salisbury's Policraticus, lib. viii. c. 6. In such cases, Chaucer consulted Jerome himself, rather than his copyist, as might be shewn. I therefore quote from the former.
'Propter breuem gulae uoluptatem, terrae lustrantur et maria: et ut mulsum uinum preciosusque cibus fauces nostras transeat, totius uitae opera desudamus.'--Hieronymus, contra Iouinianum, lib. ii.; in Epist. Hieron. Basil. 1524, t. ii. p. 76.
At the same time, he had an eye to the passage in Pope Innocent, quoted in vol. iii. p. 445. 'The shorte throte' answers to 'Tam breuis est,' &c. [279]
522. In the margin of MSS. E. and Hn. is written the quotation--'Esca ventri, et venter escis. Deus autem et hunc et illam destruet.' For illam, the usual reading of the Vulgate is has; see 1 Cor. vi. 13.
526. whyte and rede, white wine and red wine; see note to Piers Plowman, B. prol. 228, and the note to B. 4032 above, p. 249.
527. Again from Jerome (see note to l. 517). 'Qualis [est] ista refectio post ieiunium, cum pridianis epulis distendimur, et guttur nostrum meditatorium efficitur latrinarum.'--Hieron. c. Iouin. lib. ii.; in Epist. Hieron. Basil. 1524, t. ii. p. 78.
529. In the margin of MSS. E. and Hn. is written--'Ad Philipenses, capitulo tertio.' See Phil. iii. 18. Cf. Pers. Tale, I. 820.
534. See the quotation in vol. iii. p. 445.
537. 'How great toil and expense (it is) to provide for thee!' Chaucer is here addressing man's appetite for delicacies. Cf. fond, Non. Pr. Tale, B. 4019.
538. See the quotation in vol. iii. p. 445.
There is a somewhat similar passage in John of Salisbury, as follows:--
'Multiplicantur fercula, cibi alii aliis farciuntur, condiuntur haec illis, et in iniuriam naturae, innatum relinquere, et alienum coguntur afferre saporem. Conficiuntur et salsamenta.... Coquorum solicitudo fervet arte multiplici,' &c.--Joh. Salisburiensis, Policraticus, lib. viii. c. 6.
539. There is here an allusion to the famous disputes in scholastic philosophy between the Realists and Nominalists. To attempt any explanation of their language is to become lost in subtleties of distinction. It would seem however that the Realists maintained that everything possesses a substance, which is inherent in itself, and distinct from the accidents or outward phenomena which the thing presents. According to them, the form, smell, taste, colour, of anything are merely accidents, and might be changed without affecting the substance itself. See the excellent article on Substance in the Engl. Cyclopaedia; also that on Nominalists. Cf. Wyclif's Works, ed. Matthew, p. 526.
According to Chaucer, then, or rather, according to Pope Innocent III., (of all people), the cooks who toil to satisfy man's appetite change the nature of the things cooked so effectually as to confound substance with accident. Translated into plain language, it means that those who partook of the meats so prepared, could not, by means of their taste and smell, form any precise idea as to what they were eating. The art is not lost. Cf. Troil. iv. 1505.
547. haunteth, practises, indulges in; cf. l. 464. In the margin of MSS. E. and Hn. is written--'Qui autem in deliciis est, viuens mortuus est.' This is a quotation from the Vulgate version of 1 Tim. v. 6, but with Qui for quae, and mortuus for mortua.
549. In the margin of MSS. E. and Hn. is written--'Luxuriosa res vinum, et contumeliosa ebrietas.' The Vulgate version of Prov. xx. 1 [280] agrees with this nearly, but has tumultuosa for contumeliosa. This is of course the text to which Chaucer refers. And see note to the parallel passage at B. 771-7. The variant contumeliosa occurs in the text as quoted by St. Jerome, Contra Jovinianum, lib. ii. 10 (Köppel).
554. He means that the drunkard's stertorous breathing seems to repeat the sound of the word Sampsoún. The word was probably chosen for the sake of its nasal sounds, to imitate a sort of grunt. Perhaps we should here pronounce the m and n as in French, but with exaggerated emphasis. So also in l. 572.
555. See note to the Monkes Tale, B. 3245. In Judges, xiii. 4, 7, the command to drink no wine is addressed, not to Samson, but to his mother. Of Samson himself it is said that he was 'a Nazarite,' which implies the same thing; see Numbers, vi. 3, 5.
558. sepulture, burial; see Pers. Tale, I. 822.
561. In Chaucer's Tale of Melibeus (B. 2383) we find--'Thou shalt also eschewe the conseiling of folk that been dronkelewe; for they ne can no conseil hyde; for Salomon seith, Ther is no privetee ther-as regneth dronkenesse'; and see B. 776. The allusion is to Prov. xxxi. 4: 'Noli regibus, O Lamuel, noli regibus dare uinum; quia nullum secretum est ubi regnat ebrietas.' This last clause is quite different from that in our own version; which furnishes, perhaps, a reason why the allusion here intended has not been perceived by previous editors.
563. namely, especially. Tyrwhitt's note is as follows: 'According to the geographers, Lepe was not far from Cadiz. This wine, of whatever sort it may have been, was probably much stronger than the Gascon wines, usually drunk in England. La Rochelle and Bordeaux (l. 571), the two chief ports of Gascony, were both, in Chaucer's time, part of the English dominions.
'Spanish wines might also be more alluring upon account of their great rarity. Among the Orders of the Royal Household, in 1604, is the following (MS. Harl. 293, fol. 162): "And whereas, in tymes past, Spanish wines, called Sacke, were little or noe whit used in our courte, and that in later years, though not of ordinary allowance, it was thought convenient that noblemen ... might have a boule or glas, &c. We understanding that it is now used as common drinke ... reduce the allowance to xii. gallons a day for the court,"' &c. Several regulations to be observed by London vintners are mentioned in the Liber Albus, ed. Riley, pp. 614-618. Amongst them is--'Item, that white wine of Gascoigne, of la Rochele, of Spain, or other place, shall not be put in cellars with Rhenish wines.' See also note to l. 565.
564. To selle, for sale; the true gerund, of which to is, in Anglo-Saxon, the sign. So also 'this house to let' is the correct old idiom, needing no such alteration as some would make. Cf. Morris, Hist. Outlines of Eng. Accidence, sect. 290, subsect. 4. Fish Street leads out of Lower Thames Street, close to the North end of London Bridge. The Harleian MS. alone reads Fleet Street, which is certainly wrong. [281] Considering that Thames Street is especially mentioned as a street for vintners (Liber Albus, p. 614), and that Chaucer's own father was a Thames Street vintner, there can be little doubt about this matter. The poet is here speaking from his own knowledge; a consideration which gives the present passage a peculiar interest. Chepe is Cheapside.
565. This is a fine touch. The poet here tells us that some of this strong Spanish wine used to find its way mysteriously into other wines; not (he ironically suggests) because the vintners ever mixed their wines, but because the vines of Spain notoriously grew so close to those of Gascony that it was not possible to keep them apart! Crepeth subtilly = finds its way mysteriously. Observe the humour in the word growing, which expresses that the mixture of wines must be due to the proximity of the vines producing them in the vineyards, not to any accidental proximity of the casks containing them in the vintners' cellars. In fact, the different kinds of wine were to be kept in different cellars, as the Regulations in the Liber Albus (pp. 615-618) shew. 'Item, that no Taverner shall put Rhenish wine and White wine in a cellar together.' 'Item, that new wines shall not be put in cellars with old wines.' 'Item, that White wine of Gascoigne, of la Rochele, of Spain, or other place shall not be put in cellars with Rhenish wines.' 'Item, that white wine shall not be sold for Rhenish wine.' 'Item, that no one shall expose for sale wines counterfeit or mixed, made by himself or by another, under pain of being set upon the pillory.' But pillories have vanished, and all such laws are obsolete.
570. 'He is in Spain'; i. e. he is, as it were, transported thither. He imagines he has never left Cheapside, yet is far from knowing where he is, as we should say.
571. 'Not at Rochelle,' where the wines are weak.
579. 'The death of Attila took place in 453. The commonly received account is that given by Jornandes, that he died by the bursting of a blood-vessel on the night of his marriage with a beautiful maiden, whom he added to his many other wives; some, with a natural suspicion, impute it to the hand of his bride. Priscus observes, that no one ever subdued so many countries in so short a time.... Jornandes, De Rebus Geticis, and Priscus, Excerpta de Legationibus, furnish the best existing materials for the history of Attila. For modern compilations, see Buat, Histoire des Peuples de l'Europe; De Guignes, Hist. des Huns; and Gibbon, capp. xxxiv and xxxv'; English Cyclopaedia. And see Amédée Thierry, Histoire d'Attila.
Mr. Jephson (in Bell's Chaucer) quotes the account of Attila's death given by Paulus Diaconus, Gest. Rom. lib. xv: 'Qui reuersus ad proprias sedes, supra plures quas habebat uxores, valde decoram, indicto nomine, sibi in matrimonium iunxit. Ob cuius nuptias profusa conuiuia exercens, dum tantum uini quantum nunquam antea insimul bibisset, cum supinus quiesceret, eruptione sanguinis, qui ei de naribus solitus erat effluere, suffocatus et extinctus est.'
The older account in Jornandes, De Rebus Geticis, § 82, is of more [282] interest. 'Qui [Attila], ut Priscus historicus refert, extinctionis suae tempore puellam, Ildico nomine, decoram valde, sibi in matrimonium post innumerabiles uxores, vt mos est gentis illius, socians: eiusque in nuptiis magna hilaritate resolutus, vino somnoque grauatus, resupinus iacebat; redundansque sanguis, qui ei solitè de naribus effluebat, dum consuetis meatibus impeditur, itinere ferali faucibus illapsus eum extinxit.'
585. Lamuel, i. e. King Lemuel, mentioned in Prov. xxxi. 1, q. v.; not to be confused, says Chaucer, with Samuel. The allusion is to Prov. xxxi. 4, 5; and not (as Mr. Wright suggests) to Prov. xxiii. In fact, in the margin of MSS. E. and Hn. is written 'Noli uinum dare,' words found in Prov. xxxi. 4. See note to l. 561.
590. Compare Pers. Tale, I. 793.
591. Hasard, gambling. In the margin of MSS. E. and Hn. is written--'Policratici libro primo; Mendaciorum et periuriarum mater est Alea.' This shews that the line is a quotation from lib. i. [cap. 5] of the Polycraticus of John of Salisbury, bishop of Chartres, who died in 1180. See some account of this work in Prof. Morley's Eng. Writers, iii. 180. 'In the first book, John treats of temptations and duties and of vanities, such as hunting, dice, music, mimes and minstrelsy, magic and soothsaying, prognostication by dreams and astrology.' See also the account of gaming, considered as a branch of Avarice in the Ayenbyte of Inwyt, ed. Morris, pp. 45, 46.
595. Cf. 'Nonne satis improbata est cuiusque artis exercitatio, qua quanto quisque doctior, tanto nequior? Aleator quidem omnis hic est.'--Joh. Sarisb. Polycrat. i. 5.
603. Stilbon. It should rather be Chilon. Tyrwhitt remarks--'John of Salisbury, from whom our author probably took this story and the following, calls him Chilon; Polycrat. lib. i. c. 5. "Chilon Lacedaemonius, iungendae societatis causa missus Corinthum, duces et seniores populi ludentes inuenit in alea. Infecto itaque negotio reuersus est [dicens se nolle gloriam Spartanorum, quorum uirtus constructo Byzantio clarescebat, hac maculare infamia, ut dicerentur cum aleatoribus contraxisse societatem]." Accordingly, in ver. 12539 [l. 605], MS. C. 1 [i. e. MS. Camb. Univ. Lib. Dd. 4. 24] reads very rightly Lacedomye instead of Calidone, the common reading [of the old editions]. Our author has used before Lacedomie for Lacedaemon, v. 11692 [Frank. Tale, F. 1380].'
In the Petw. MS., the name Stilbon is explained as meaning Mercurius. So, in Liddell and Scott's Gk. Lexicon, we have '[Greek: stilbôn, -ontos, ho] the planet Mercury, Arist. Mund. 2. 9; cf. Cic. Nat. D. 2. 20.' The original sense of the word was 'shining,' from the verb [Greek: stilbein], to glitter.
Chaucer has given the wrong name. He was familiar with the name Stilbon (for Mercury), as it occurs (1) in the Epistola Valerii ad Rufinum, c. 27; (2) in the work of Martianus referred to in E. 1732; and (3) in the Anticlaudian, Distinctio quarta, c. 6. Cf. D. 671; E. 1732; Ho. Fame, 986; Notes and Queries, 8th S. iv. 175. [283]
608. The first foot has but one syllable, viz. Pley. atte, for at the. Tyrwhitt oddly remarks here, that 'atte has frequently been corrupted into at the,' viz. in the old editions. Of course atte is rather, etymologically, a corruption of at the; Tyrwhitt probably means that the editors might as well have let the form atte stand. If so, he is quite right; for, though etymologically a corruption, it was a recognised form in the fourteenth century.
621. This story immediately follows the one quoted from John of Salisbury in the note to l. 603. After 'societatem,' he proceeds:--'Regi quoque Demetrio, in opprobrium puerilis leuitatis, tali aurei a rege Parthorum dati sunt.' What Demetrius this was, we are not told; perhaps it may have been Demetrius Nicator, king of Syria, who was defeated and taken prisoner by the Parthians 138 B. C., and detained in captivity by them for ten years. This, however, is but a guess. Compare the story told of our own king, in Shakespeare's Henry V, Act i. sc. 2.
628. To dryve the day awey, to pass the time. The same phrase occurs in Piers Plowman, B. prol. 224, where it is said of the labourers who tilled the soil that they 'dryuen forth the longe day with Dieu vous saue, Dame emme,' i. e. amuse themselves with singing idle songs.
633. In the margin of MSS. E. Hn. and Pt. is the quotation 'Nolite omnino iurare,' with a reference (in Hn. only) to Matt. v. The Vulgate version of Matt. v. 34 is--'Ego autem dico uobis, non iurare omnino, neque per caelum, quia thronus Dei est.'
635. In the margin of MSS. E. Hn. Pt. is written--'Ieremie quarto Iurabis in veritate, in Iudicio, et Iusticia'; see Jer. iv. 2.
There are several points of resemblance between the present passage and one in the Persones Tale (De Ira), I. 588-594, part of which has been already quoted in the note to l. 474. So also Wyclif: '[gh]it no man schulde swere, nouther for life ne dethe, no but with these thre condiciones, that is, in treuthe, in dome, and in rightwisenes, as God sais by the prophet Ieremye'; Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 483. Hence one of the 'olde bokes' mentioned in l. 630 is the Treatise by Frère Lorens from which the Persones Tale is largely taken.
639. the firste table, i. e. the commandments that teach us our duty towards God; those in the second table teach us our duty to our neighbour.
641. seconde heste, second commandment. Formerly, the first two commandments were considered as one; the third commandment was therefore the second, as here. The tenth commandment was divided into two parts, to make up the number. See Wyclif's treatise on 'The ten Comaundements'; Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 82. Thus Wyclif says--'The secounde maner maundement of God perteyneth to the Sone. Thow schalt not take the name of thi Lord God in veyn, neþþer in word, neiþer in lyvynge.' So also in Hampole's Prose Treatises, ed. Perry, p. 10; Religious Pieces in Prose and Verse, ed. Perry (E. E. T. S.), pp. 5, 25. See note to l. 474; and cf. Pers. Tale, I. 588. [284]
643. rather, sooner; because this commandment precedes those which relate to murder, &c.
646. 'They that understand his commandments know this,' &c.
649. Wyclif says--'For it is written in Ecclesiasticus, the thre and twenti chapitre, there he seith this: A man much sweringe schal be fulfilled with wickidnesse, and veniaunce schal not go away fro his hous'; Works, iii. 84. Chaucer here quotes the same text; see Ecclus. xxiii. 11. And he quotes it once more, in I. 593.
651. So Wyclif, iii. 483--'hit is not leeful to swere by creaturis, ne by Goddys bonys, sydus, naylus, ne armus, or by ony membre of Cristis body, as þe moste dele of men usen.'
Tyrwhitt says--'his nayles, i. e. with which he was nailed to the cross. Sir J. Maundeville, c. vii--"And thereby in the walle is the place where the 4 Nayles of our Lord weren hidd; for he had 2 in his hondes, and 2 in his feet: and one of theise the Emperoure of Constantynoble made a brydille to his hors, to bere him in bataylle; and thorgh vertue thereof he overcame his enemies," &c. He had said before, c. ii., that "on of the nayles that Crist was naylled with on the cross" was "at Constantynoble; and on in France, in the kinges chapelle."'
Mr. Wright adds, what is doubtless true, that these nails 'were objects of superstition in the middle ages.' Nevertheless, I am by no means satisfied that these comments are to the point. I strongly suspect that swearers did not stop to think, nor were they at all particular as to the sense in which the words might be used. Here, for example, nails are mentioned between heart and blood; in the quotation from Wyclif which begins this note, we find mention of 'bones, sides, nails, and arms,' followed by 'any member of Christ's body.' Still more express is the phrase used by William Staunton (see note to l. 474 above) that 'God's members' include 'his nails.' On the other hand, in Lewis's Life of Pecock, p. 155 [or p. 107, ed. 1820], is a citation from a MS. to the effect that, in the year 1420, many men died in England 'emittendo sanguinem per iuncturas et per secessum, scilicet in illis partibus corporis per quas horribiliter iurare consueuerunt, scilicet, per oculos Christi, per faciem Christi, per latera Christi, per sanguinem Christi, per cor Christi preciosum, per clauos Christi in suis manibus et pedibus.' See 'Snails in Nares' Glossary. A long essay might be written upon the oaths found in our old authors, but the subject is, I think, a most repulsive one.
652. Here Tyrwhitt notes--'The Abbey of Hailes, in Glocestershire, was founded by Richard, king of the Romans, brother to Henry III. This precious relick, which was afterwards called "the blood of Hailes," was brought out of Germany by the son of Richard, Edmund, who bestowed a third part of it upon his father's Abbey of Hailes, and some time after gave the other two parts to an Abbey of his own foundation at Ashrug near Berkhamsted.--Hollinshed, vol. ii. p. 275.' The Legend says that the holy blood was obtained by Titus from Joseph of Arimathea. Titus put it in the temple of Peace, in Rome. [285] Thence Charlemagne took half of it to Germany, where Edmund found it, as said above. The Legend is printed in Horstmann's Altenglische Legenden, p. 275. 'A vial was shewn at Hales in Glocestershire, as containing a portion of our blessed Saviour's blood, which suffered itself to be seen by no person in a state of mortal sin, but became visible when the penitent, by his offerings, had obtained forgiveness. It was now discovered that this was performed by keeping blood, which was renewed every week, in a vial, one side of which was thick and opaque, the other transparent, and turning it by a secret hand as the case required. A trick of the same kind, more skilfully executed, is still annually performed at Naples.'--Southey, Book of the Church, ch. xii. He refers to Fuller, b. vi. Hist. of Abbeys, p. 323; Burnet, i. 323, ed. 1681. See also the word Hales in the Index to the works published by the Parker Society; Pilgrimages to Walsingham and Canterbury (by Erasmus), ed. J. G. Nichols, 2nd ed. 1875, p. 88; Dodsley's Old Plays, ed. Hazlitt, i. 339, where a long account is given, with a reference to Hearne's ed. of Benedictus Abbas, ii. 751; and Skelton's Garland of Laurel, l. 1461, on which see Dyce's note.
653. 'My chance is seven; yours is five and three.' This is an allusion to the particular game called hazard, not to a mere comparison of throws to see which is highest. A certain throw (here seven) is called the caster's chance. This can only be understood by an acquaintance with the rules of the game. See the article Hazard in Supplement to Eng. Cyclopaedia, or in Hoyle's Games. See the note to B. 124; and see the Monkes Tale, B. 3851. Compare--'Not unlyke the use of foule gamesters, who having lost the maine by [i. e. according to] true iudgement, thinke to face it out with a false oath'; Lyly's Euphues and his England, ed. Arber, p. 289.
656. In the Towneley Mysteries, p. 241, when the soldiers dice for Christ's garments, one says--
'I was falsly begyled withe thise byched bones, Ther cursyd thay be.'
The readings are:--E. Cp. bicched; Ln. becched; Hl. bicched; Hn. Cm. bicche; Pt. and old edd. thilk, thilke (wrongly). Besides which, Tyrwhitt cites bichet, MS. Harl. 7335; becched, Camb. Univ. Lib. Dd. 4. 24; and, from other MSS., bicched, bicchid, bitched, bicche. The general consensus of the MSS. and the quotation from the Towneley Mysteries establish the reading given in the text beyond all doubt. Yet Tyrwhitt reads bicchel, for which he adduces no authority beyond the following. 'Bickel, as explained by Kilian, is talus, ovillus et lusorius; and bickelen, talis ludere. See also Had. Junii Nomencl. n. 213. Our dice indeed are the ancient tesserae ([Greek: kuboi]) not tali ([Greek: astragaloi]); but, both being games of hazard, the implements of one might be easily attributed to the other. It should seem from Junius, loc. cit., that the Germans had preserved the custom of playing with the natural bones, [286] as they have different names for a game with tali ovilli, and another with tali bubuli.'
I find in the Tauchnitz Dutch Dictionary--'Bikkel, cockal. Bikkelen, to play at cockals.' Here cockal is the old name for a game with four hucklebones (Halliwell), and is further made to mean the hucklebone itself. But there is nothing to connect bicched with Du. bickel, and the sense is very different. From the article on Bicched in the New Eng. Dict., it appears that the sense is 'cursed, execrable,' and is an epithet applied to other things besides dice. It is evidently an opprobrious word, and seems to be derived from the sb. bitch, opprobriously used. There is even a quotation in which the verb bitch means to bungle or spoil a business. We may explain it by 'cursed bones.'
662. pryme, about nine o'clock; see notes to A. 3906, B. 2015. Here it means the canonical hour for prayer so called, to announce which bells were rung.
664. A hand-bell was carried before a corpse at a funeral by the sexton. See Rock, Church of Our Fathers, ii. 471; Grindal's Works, p. 136; Myre's Instructions for Parish Priests, l. 1964.
666. That oon of them, the one of them; the old phrase for 'one of them.' knave, boy.
667. Go bet, lit. go better, i. e. go quicker; a term of encouragement to dogs in the chase. So in the Legend of Good Women, 1213 (Dido, l. 290), we have--
'The herd of hertes founden is anoon, With "hey! go bet! prik thou! lat goon, lat goon!"'
In Skelton's Elynour Rummyng, l. 332, we have--'And bad Elynour go bet.' Halliwell says--'Go bet, an old hunting cry, often introduced in a more general sense. See Songs and Carols, xv; Shak. Soc. Pap. i. 58; Chaucer, C. T. 12601 [the present passage]; Dido, 288 [290]; Tyrwhitt's notes, p. 278; Ritson's Anc. Pop. Poetry, p. 46. The phrase is mentioned by [Juliana] Berners in the Boke of St. Alban's, and seems nearly equivalent to go along.' It is strange that no editor has perceived the exact sense of this very simple phrase. Cf. 'Keep bet our good,' i. e. take better care of my property; Shipmannes Tale, B. 1622.
679. this pestilence, during this plague. Alluding to the Great Plagues that took place in the reign of Edward III. There were four such, viz. in 1348-9, 1361-2, 1369, and 1375-6. As Chaucer probably had the story from an Italian source, the allusion must be to the first and worst of these, the effects of which spread nearly all over Europe, and which was severely felt at Florence, as we learn from the description left by Boccaccio. See my note to Piers Plowman, B. v. 13.
684. my dame, my mother; as in H. 317; Piers Plowman, B. v. 37.
695. avow, vow; to make avow is the old phrase for to vow. Tyrwhitt alters it to a vow, quite unnecessarily; and the same alteration has been made by editors in other books, owing to want of familiarity [287] with old MSS. It is true that the form vow does occur, as, e. g. in P. Plowm. B. prol. 71; but it is no less certain that avow occurs also, and was the older form; since we have oon auow (B. 334), and the phrase 'I make myn avou,' P. Plowman, A. v. 218; where no editorial sophistication can evade giving the right spelling. Equally clear is the spelling in the Prompt. Parv.--'Avowe, Votum. Awowyn, or to make awowe, Voveo.' And Mr. Way says--'Auowe, veu; Palsgrave. This word occurs in R. de Brunne, Wiclif, and Chaucer. The phrase "performed his auowe" occurs in the Legenda Aurea, fol. 47.' Those who are familiar with MSS. know that a prefixed a is often written apart from the word; thus the word now spelt accord is often written 'a corde'; and so on. Hence, even when the word is really one word, it is still often written 'a uow,' and is naturally printed a vow in two words, where no such result was intended. Tyrwhitt himself prints min avow in the Knightes Tale, A. 2237, and again this avow in the same, A. 2414; where no error is possible. See more on this word in my note to l. 1 of Chevy Chase, in Spec. of Eng. 1394-1579. I have there said that the form vow does not occur in early writers; I should rather have said, it is by no means the usual form.
698. brother, i. e. sworn friend; see Kn. Tale, A. 1131, 1147. In l. 704, yboren brother means brother by birth.
709. to-rente, tare in pieces, dismembered. See note to l. 474 above.
713. This 'old man' answers to the romito or hermit of the Italian text. Note an old (indefinite), as compared with this oldë (definite) in l. 714.
715. Tyrwhitt, in his Glossary, remarks--'God you see! 7751 [D. 2169]; God him see! 4576 [B. 156]. May God keep you, or him, in his sight! In Troilus, ii. 85, it is fuller[27]:--God you save and see!' Gower has--'And than I bidde, God hir see!' Conf. Amant. bk. iv. (ed. Chalmers, p. 116, col. 2, or ed. Pauli, ii. 96). In Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, ed. Stallybrass, i. 21, we find a similar phrase in O. H. German:--'daz si got iemer schouwe'; Iwain, l. 794. Cf. 'now loke the owre lorde!' P. Plowman, B. i. 207. See also l. 766 below.
727. This is a great improvement upon the Italian Tale, which represents the hermit as fleeing from death. 'Fratelli miei, io fuggo la morte, che mi vien dietro cacciando mi.'
Professor Kittredge, of Harvard University, informs me that ll. 727-733 are imitated from the first Elegy of Maximian, of which ll. 1-4, 223-8 are as follows:--
'Almula cur cessas finem properare senectus? Cur et in hoc fesso corpore tarda sedes? Solue, precor, miseram tali de carcere uitam; Mors est iam requies, uiuere poena mihi.... Hinc est quod baculo incumbens ruitura senectus Assiduo pigram uerbere pulsat humum. [288] Et numerosa mouens certo uestigia passu Talia rugato creditur ore loqui: "Suscipe me, genetrix, nati miserere laborum, Membra uelis gremio fessa fouere tuo."'
Cf. Calderon, Les Tres Justicias en Una; Act ii. sc. 1.
731. leve moder, dear mother Earth; see 'genetrix' above.
734. cheste. Mr. Jephson (in Bell's edition) is puzzled here. He takes cheste to mean a coffin, which is certainly the sense in the Clerk's Prologue, E. 29. The simple solution is that cheste refers here, not to a coffin, but to the box for holding clothes which, in olden times, almost invariably stood in every bedroom, at the foot of the bed. 'At the foot of the bed there was usually an iron-bound hutch or locker, which served both as a seat, and as a repository for the apparel and wealth of the owner, who, sleeping with his sword by his side, was prepared to protect it against the midnight thief'; Our English Home, p. 101. It was also called a coffer, a hutch, or an ark. The old man is ready, in fact, to exchange his chest, containing all his worldly gear, for a single hair-cloth, to be used as his shroud.
743. In the margin of MSS. E. Hn. and Pt. is the quotation 'Coram canuto capite consurge,' from Levit. xix. 32. Hence we must understand Agayns, in l. 743, to mean before, or in presence of. Cf. B. 3702.
748. God be with you is said, with probability, to have been the original of our modern unmeaning Good bye! go or ryde, a general phrase for locomotion; go here means walk. Cp. 'ryde or go,' Kn. Tale, A. 1351. Cf. note to l. 866.
771. The readings are:--E. Hn. Cm. an .viij.; Ln. a .vij.; Cp. Pt. Hl. a seuen. The word eighte is dissyllabic; cf. A. S. eahta, Lat. octo. Wel ny an eighte busshels = very nearly the quantity of eight bushels. The mention of florins is quite in keeping with the Italian character of the poem. Those coins were so named because originally coined at Florence, the first coinage being in 1252; note in Cary's Dante, Inferno, c. xxx. The expression 'floreyn of florence' occurs in The Book of Quintessence, ed. Furnivall, p. 6. The value of an English florin was 6s. 8d.; see note to Piers Plowman, B. ii. 143. There is an excellent note on florins in Thynne's Animadversions on Speght's Chaucer, ed. Furnivall, p. 45.
781. In allusion to the old proverb--'Lightly come, lightly go.' Cotgrave, s. v. Fleute, gives the corresponding French proverb thus:--'Ce qui est venu par la fleute s'en retourne avec le tabourin; that the pipe hath gathered, the tabour scattereth; goods ill gotten are commonly ill spent.' In German--'wie gewonnen, so zerronnen.'
782. wende, would have weened, would have supposed. It is the past tense subjunctive.
790. doon us honge, lit. cause (men) to hang us; we should now say, cause us to be hanged. 'The Anglo-Saxons nominally punished theft with death, if above 12d. value; but the criminal could redeem [289] his life by a ransom. In the 9th of Henry I. this power of redemption was taken away, 1108. The punishment of theft was very severe in England, till mitigated by Peel's Acts, 9 and 10 Geo. IV. 1829.'--Haydn, s. v. Theft.
793. To draw cuts is to draw lots; see Prologue, 835, 838, 845. A number of straws were held by one of the company; the rest drew one apiece, and whoever drew the longest (or the shortest) was the one on whom the lot fell. The fatal straw was the cut; cf. Welsh cwtws, a lot. In France, the lot fell on him who drew the longest straw; so that their phrase was--'tirer la longue paille.'
797. So in the Italian story--'rechi del pane e del vino,' let him fetch bread and wine.
806-894. Here Chaucer follows the general sense of the Italian story rather closely, but with certain amplifications.
807. That oon, the one; that other, the other (vulgarly, the tother).
819. conseil, a secret; as in P. Plowman, B. v. 168. We still say--'to keep one's own counsel.'
838. rolleth, revolves; cf. D. 2217, Troil. v. 1313.
844. So the Italian story--'Il Demonio ... mise in cuore a costui,' &c.; the devil put it in his heart; see vol. iii. p. 441.
848. leve, leave. 'That he had leave to bring him to sorrow.'
851-878. Of this graphic description there is no trace in the Italian story as we now have it. Cf. Rom. and Juliet, v. 1.
860. al-so, as. The sense is--as (I hope) God may save my soul. That our modern as is for als, which is short for also, from the A. S. eall-swá, is now well known. This fact was doubted by Mr. Singer, but Sir F. Madden, in his Reply to Mr. Singer's remarks upon Havelok the Dane, accumulated such a mass of evidence upon the subject as to set the question at rest for ever. It follows that as and also are doublets, or various spellings of the same word.
865. sterve, die; A. S. steorfan. The cognate German sterben retains the old general sense. See l. 888 below.
866. goon a paas, walk at an ordinary foot-pace; so also, a litel more than paas, a little faster than at a foot-pace, Prol. 825. Cotgrave has--'Aller le pas, to pace, or go at a foot-pace; to walk fair and softly, or faire and leisurely.' nat but, no more than only; cf. North of England nobbut. The time meant would be about twenty minutes at most.
888. In the Italian story--'amendue caddero morti,' both of them fell dead; see vol. iii. p. 442.
889. Avicen, Avicenna; mentioned in the Prologue, l. 432. Avicenna, or Ibn-Sina, a celebrated Arabian philosopher and physician, born near Bokhara A.D. 980, died A.D. 1037. His chief work was a treatise on medicine known as the Canon ('Kitâb al-Kânûn fi'l-Tibb,' that is, 'Book of the Canon in Medicine'). This book, alluded to in the next line, is divided into books and sections; and the Arabic word for 'section' is in the Latin version denoted by fen, from the Arabic fann, a part of any science. Chaucer's expression is not quite [290] correct; he seems to have taken canon in its usual sense of rule, whereas it is really the title of the whole work. It is much as if one were to speak of Dante's work in the terms--'such as Dante never wrote in any Divina Commedia nor in any canto.' Lib. iv. Fen 1 of Avicenna's Canon treats 'De Venenis.'
895. Against this line is written, in MS. E. only, the word 'Auctor'; to shew that the paragraph contained in ll. 895-903 is a reflection by the author.
897. The final e in glutonye is preserved by the caesural pause; but the scansion of the line is more easily seen by supposing it suppressed. Hence in order to scan the line, suppress the final e in glutonye, lay the accent on the second u in luxúrie, and slur over the final -ie in that word. Thus--
O glút | oný' | luxú | r_ie_ and hás | ardrýë ||
904. good' men is the common phrase of address to hearers in old homilies, answering to the modern 'dear brethren.' The Pardoner, having told his tale (after which Chaucer himself has thrown in a moral reflection), proceeds to improve his opportunity by addressing the audience in his usual professional style; see l. 915.
907. noble, a coin worth 6s. 8d., first coined by Edward III. about 1339. See note to P. Plowman, B. iii. 45.
908. So in P. Plowman, B. prol. 75, it is said of the Pardoner that he 'raughte with his ragman [bull] rynges and broches.'
910. Cometh is to be pronounced Com'th, as in Prol. 839; so also in l. 925 below.
920. male, bag; see Prol. 694. Cf. E. mail-bag.
935. The first two syllables in peravénture are to be very rapidly pronounced; it is not uncommon to find the spelling peraunter, as in P. Plowman, B. xi. 10.
937. which a, what sort of a, how great a, what a.
945. Ye, for a grote, yea, even for a groat, i. e. 4d.
946. have I, may I have; an imprecation.
947. so theech, a colloquialism for so thee ich, as I may thrive, as I hope to thrive. The Host proceeds to abuse the Pardoner.
951. This is a reference to the 'Invention of the Cross,' or finding of the true cross by St. Helen, the mother of Constantine; commemorated on May 3. See Chambers, Book of Days, i. 586; Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints.
962. right ynough, quite enough; right is an adverb. Cf. l. 960.
* * * * *
[291]
NOTES TO GROUP D.
THE WIFE OF BATH'S PROLOGUE.
There is nothing whatever to connect this Prologue with any preceding Tale. In MS. E. and most others, it follows the Man of Law's Tale, which cannot be right, as that Tale must be followed by the Shipman's Prologue. Curiously enough, that Prologue does follow the Man of Law's Tale in the Harleian MS., but the Wife of Bath's Tale is made to follow next, in place of the Shipman's Tale.
In MS. Pt., and several others, the Wife's Prologue follows the Merchant's Tale; such is the arrangement in edd. 1532 and 1561. This is possible, as the Merchant's Tale ends a Fragment, and the Wife's Prologue begins one; but it is easier to fit the lines at the end of the Merchant's Tale to the Squire's Prologue. In the Royal MS. 18. C. 2, and in MSS. Laud 739 and Barlow 20, there is an attempt to introduce the Wife's Prologue by some spurious lines which are printed in vol. iii. p. 446. I just note that we have a genuine Epilogue to the Merchant's Tale (see E. 2419-2440); which is quite enough to put the above lines out of court.
MS. Ln. has a different arrangement. It gives eight spurious lines at the end of the Squire's Tale, and then four more spurious lines to link them with the Wife's Prologue; see vol. iii. p. 446.
In the Ellesmere MS. there are numerous quotations in the margin, as will be noted in due course. In the Essays on Chaucer, pp. 293, the Rev. W. W. Woollcombe has shewn that the passages which seem to be taken from John of Salisbury are really taken from Jerome, whom John copied, verbally, at some length. I may add, that I came independently to the same conclusion; indeed, it becomes obvious, on investigation, that such was the case. Chaucer's chief sources for this Prologue are: Jerome's Epistle against Jovinian, and Le Roman de la Rose. I quote the former (frequently) from Hieronymi Opus Epistolarum, edited by Erasmus, printed at Basle in 1524.
1. auctoritee, authoritative text, quotable statement of a good author. 'Though there were no written statement on the subject, my own experience would enable me to speak of the evils of marriage.' Cf. the [292] character of the Wife in the Prologue, A. 445-476. Lines 1-3 are imitated from Le Rom. de la Rose, 13006-10.
6. So in A. 460, with she hadde for I have had; see note to that line.
7. The alternative reading (in the footnote) does not agree with l. 6. MS. E. is quite right here. Probably MS. Cm. would have given us the same reading, but it is here mutilated.
11. In E., a sidenote has:--'In Cana Galilee'; from John, ii. 1.
12-13. In E., a sidenote has:--'Qui enim semel iuit ad nuptias, docuit semel esse nubendum.' This is from Hieronymi lib. i. c. Jovinianum; Epist. (ut supra), t. ii. p. 29. But the edition has uenit for iuit, and semel docuit.
14-22. This also is from Jerome, as above (p. 28):--'Siquidem et illa in Euangelio Iohannis Samaritana, sextum se maritum habere dicens, arguitur a domino, quod non sit uir eius. Vbi enim numerus maritorum est, ibi uir, qui proprie unus est, esse desiit.' Cf. John, iv. 18.
23-25. In the margin of E. we find:--'Non est uxorum numerus diffinitus.' About 15 lines after the last quotation, we find in Jerome:--'non esse uxorum numerum definitum.' This is immediately preceded (in Jerome) by a quotation from St. Paul (1 Cor. vii. 29), which is also quoted in the margin of E.
28. In the margin of E.--'Crescite et multiplicamini'; Gen. i. 28. The text was suggested by the fact that Jerome quotes it near the beginning of his letter (p. 18). Soon after (p. 19), he quotes Matt. xix. 5, which Chaucer quotes accordingly in l. 31.
33. bigamye. 'Bigamy, according to the canonists, consisted not only in marrying two wives at a time, but in marrying two spinsters successively.'--Bell.
octogamye, marriage of eight husbands. This queer word is due to Jerome, and affords clear proof of Chaucer's indebtedness. 'Non damno digamos, imò nec trigamos; et (si dici potest) octogamos'; p. 29. Cf. 'A dodecagamic Potter,' in a note to 'And a polygamic Potter,' in Shelley's Prologue to Peter Bell the Third.
35. here, hear; a gloss in E. has 'audi.' See 1 Kings, xi. 3.
44. Tyrwhitt says that, after this verse, some MSS. (as Camb. Dd. 4. 24, Ii. 3. 26, and Egerton 2726) have the six lines following:--
'Of whiche I have pyked out the beste Both of here nether purs and of here cheste. Diverse scoles maken parfyt clerkes, And diverse practyk in many sondry werkes Maken the werkman parfyt sekirly; Of five husbondes scoleryng am I.'
He adds--'if these lines are not Chaucer's, they are certainly more in his manner than the generality of the imitations of him. Perhaps he wrote them, and afterwards blotted them out. They come in but [293] awkwardly here, and he has used the principal idea in another place:--
For sondry scoles maken sotil clerkes; Womman of many scoles half a clerk is'; E. 1427.
I beg leave to endorse Tyrwhitt's opinion; the six lines are certainly genuine, and I therefore repeat them, in a better spelling and form.
Of whiche I have y-piked out the beste, Bothe of hir nether purs and of hir cheste. Diverse scoles maken parfit clerkes; Divers praktyk in many sondry werkes Maketh the werkman parfit sekirly; Of fyve housbondes scolering am I.
I know of no other example of scoler-ing, i. e. young scholar.
46. In the margin of E. is here written--'Si autem non continent, nubant'; from 1 Cor. vii. 9.
47. In the margin of E. is a quotation from Jerome, p. 28; but it is really from the Vulgate, 1 Cor. vii. 39; viz.--'Quod si dormierit uir eius, libera est; cui uult, nubat, tantum in Domino.' Cf. Rom. vii. 3.
51-52. Alluding to 1 Cor. vii. 28, and 1 Cor. vii. 9, here quoted in the margin of E.
54. 'Primus Lamech sanguinarius et homicida, unam carnem in duas diuisit uxores'; Jerome (as above), p. 29, l. 1; partly quoted here in the margin of E. Cf. Gen. iv. 19-23. 'There runs through the whole of this doctrine about bigamy a confusion between marrying twice and having two wives at once.'--Bell. See the allusions to Lamech in F. 550, and Anelida, 150.
55-56. In the margin of E. is:--'Abraham trigamus: Iacob quadrigamus.' Discussed by Jerome, p. 19, near the bottom.
61. 'Ecce, inquit [Iouinianus], Apostolus profitetur de uirginibus Domini se non habere praeceptum; et qui cum autoritate de maritis et uxoribus iusserat, non audet imperare quod Dominus non praecepit.... Frustra enim iubetur, quod in arbitrio eius ponitur cui iussum est'; &c.--Jerome (as above), p. 25.
65. See 1 Cor. vii. 25, here quoted in the margin of E.
69. 'Si uirginitatem Dominus imperasset, uidebatur nuptias condemnare, et hominum auferre seminarium, unde et ipsa uirginitas nascitur'; Jerome, p. 25.
75. Tyrwhitt aptly quotes from Lydgate's Falls of Princes, fol. xxvi:--
'And oft it happeneth, he that hath best ron Doth not the spere like his desert possede.'
We must conclude that a dart or spear was the prize given (in some games) to the best runner. That dart here means 'prize,' appears from another proof altogether. For in the margin of E. we here find a quotation from Jerome, p. 26, which runs in a fuller form, thus:--'Proponit [Greek: agônothetês] praemium, inuitat ad cursum, tenet in manu [294] uirginitatis brauium, ... et clamitat, ... qui potest capere, capiat.' The word brauium, i. e. prize in a race, is borrowed from the Vulgate, 1 Cor. ix. 24, where the Greek has [Greek: brabeion]. 'Catch who so may,' in l. 76, represents 'qui potest capere, capiat.' Hence cacche here means 'win.'
81. Alluding to 1 Cor. vii. 7, here quoted in E.
84. 'Haec autem dico secundum indulgentiam'; 1 Cor. vii. 6.
87. Alluding to 1 Cor. vii. 1, here quoted in E.
89. tassemble, for to assemble, to bring together.
Cf. 'qui ignem tetigerit, statim aduritur,' &c.--Jerome, p. 21.
91. Cf. 'Simulque considera, quod aliud donum uirginitatis sit, aliud nuptiarum'; Jerome (as above), ii. 22.
96. preferre is evidently a neuter verb here, meaning 'be preferable to.'
101. tree, wood; alluding to 2 Tim. ii. 20.
103. a propre yifte, a gift peculiar to him; see 1 Cor. vii. 7, here quoted in E.
105. See Rev. xiv. 1-4, a line or two from which is here quoted in E.
110. fore, track, course, footsteps; glossed 'steppes' in MS. E. Some MSS. have the inferior lore, shewing that the scribes understood the word no better than the writer of the note in Bell's Chaucer, who says--'Harl. MS. reads fore, which is probably a mere clerical error.' Wright, however, correctly retains fore. It occurs again in D. 1935, q. v., where Tyrwhitt again alters it to lore. Bradley gives ten examples of it, to which I can add another, viz. 'he folowede the fore of an oxe,' Trevisa, ii. 343 (repeated from the example in i. 197, which Bradley cites). A. S. f[=o]r, a course, way; from faran (pt. t. f[=o]r), to go. Cf. Matt. xix. 21, which is quoted in Cp. and Pt.
115. 'Et cur, inquies, creata sunt genitalia, et sic a conditore sapientissimo fabricati sumus, &c. ... ipsa organa ... sexus differentiam praedicant'; Jerome (as above), p. 42.
117. I give the reading of E., which seems much the best. For wight, Cm. has wyf. Hn. has: And of so p_ar_fit wys a wight y-wroght; which is also good. But Cp. Pt. Ln. have: And of so parfyt wise and why y-wrought. Hl. has: And in what wise was a wight y-wrought. The last reading is the worst.
128. ther, where, wherein. With l. 130, cf. 1 Cor. vii. 3, where the Vulgate has 'Uxori uir debitum reddat.'
135. 'Nunquam ergo cessemus a libidine, ne frustra huiuscemodi membra portemus'; Jerome, p. 42.
144. hoten, be called; A. S. h[=a]tan. The sense is--'Let virgins be as bread made of selected wheaten flour; and let us wives be called barley-bread; nevertheless Jesus refreshed many a man with barley-bread, as St. Mark tells us.' Chaucer makes a slight mistake; it is St. John who speaks of barley-loaves; see John vi. 9 (cf. Mark vi. 38). For hoten, Tyrwhitt, Wright, Bell, and Morris, all give the mistaken reading eten, which misses the whole point of the argument; but [295] Gilman has hoten. There is no question as to what the Wife should eat, but only as to her condition in life. It is the Wife herself who is compared to something edible.
The comparison is from Jerome (as above), p. 21:--'Velut si quis definiat: Bonum est triticeo pane uesci, et edere purissimam similam. Tamen ne quis compulsus fame stercus bubulum: concedo ei, ut uescatur et hordeo.'
147. Alluding to 1 Cor. vii. 20, here quoted in E.
151. daungerous, difficult of access; cf. l. 514.
155. In the margin of E.--'Qui uxorem habet, et debitor dicitur, et esse in praeputio, et seruus uxoris,' &c. From Jerome (as above), p. 26.
156. Alluding to 1 Cor. vii. 28, here quoted in E.
158. Alluding to 1 Cor. vii. 4, here quoted in E.
161. Alluding to Eph. v. 25, here quoted in E.
167-168. What, why. to-yere, this year; cf. to-day. 'To-yere, horno, hornus, hornotinus'; Catholicon Anglicum. The phrase is still in use in some of our dialects.
170. another tonne. This expression is probably due to Le Roman de la Rose, 6839:--
'Jupiter en toute saison A sor le suel de sa maison, Ce dit Omers, deus plains tonneaus,' &c.
This again is from Homer's two urns, sources of good and evil (Iliad, xxiv. 527), as quoted by Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 2. See note in vol. ii. p. 428 (l. 53). It is suggested that the Pardoner has been used to a tun of ale, and now he must expect to have a taste of something less pleasant. Cf. l. 177.
One of Gower's French Balades contains the lines:--
'Deux tonealx ad [Cupide] dont il les gentz fait boire; L'un est assetz plus douls que n'est pyment, L'autre est amier plus que null arrement.'
180. The saying referred to is written in the margin of Dd., as Tyrwhitt tells us. It runs:--'Qui per alios non corrigitur, alii per ipsum corrigentur.' With regard to its being written in Ptolemy's Almagest, Tyrwhitt quaintly remarks:--'I suspect that the Wife of Bath's copy of Ptolemy was very different from any that I have been able to meet with.' The same remark applies to her second quotation in l. 326 below. I have no doubt that the Wife is simply copying, for convenience, these words in Le Roman de la Rose, 7070:--
'Car nous lisons de Tholomee Une parole moult honeste Au comencier de s'Almageste,' &c.
Jean de Meun then cites a passage of quite another kind, but the Wife of Bath did not stick at such a trifle. The Almagest is mentioned again in the same, l. 18772. [296]
As to the above saying, cf. Barbour's Bruce, i. 121, 2; and my notes to the line at pp. 545 and 612 of the same. 'Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum'; cf. Rom. de la Rose, 8041; Robert of Brunne, Handlyng Synne, 8086.
183. Almageste. The celebrated astronomer, Claudius Ptolemaeus, who flourished in the second century, wrote, as his chief work, the [Greek: megalê suntaxis tês astronomias]. This work was also called, for brevity, [Greek: megalê], and afterwards [Greek: megistê] (greatest); out of which, by prefixing the Arab. article al, the Arabs made Al-mejisti, or Al-magest.
197. Here wér-e is made dissyllabic. For The three, Hl. has Tuo; which is clearly wrong.
199. In the margin of E. is written part of the last sentence in Part I. of Jerome's treatise:--'hierophantas quoque Atheniensium usque hodie cicutae sorbitione castrari; et postquam in pontificatum fuerint electi, uiros esse desinere.' Probably quoted to emphasize the sense of uiros.
207-210. Imitated from Le Rom. de la Rose, 13478-82.
218. Dunmowe, in Essex, N. W. of Chelmsford. Tyrwhitt refers us to Blount's Ancient Tenures, p. 162, and adds:--'This whimsical institution was not peculiar to Dunmow; there was the same in Bretagne. "A l'Abbaie Sainct Melaine, près Rennes, y a, plus de six cens ans sont, un costé de lard encore tous frais et non corrumpu; et neantmoins voué et ordonné aux premiers, qui par an et jour ensemble mariez ont vescut san debat, grondement, et sans s'en repentir."--Contes d'Eutrap, t. ii. p. 161.' See P. Plowman, C. xi. 276, and my long note on the subject.
220. fawe, fain; a variant form of fain, A. S. fægen, fægn. See Havelok, 2160; Alisaunder, ed. Weber, 1956; &c.
221. Here occurs the first reference to the Aureolus Liber de Nuptiis, written by a certain Theophrastus, who is mentioned below (l. 671), and in E. 1310. Jerome gives a long extract from this work in his book against Jovinian (so frequently cited above), and has thus preserved a portion of it; and John of Salisbury transferred the whole extract bodily to his Policraticus. It it clear that Chaucer used the work of Jerome rather than that of John of Salisbury. The extract from Theophrastus occurs not far from the end of the first book of the epistle against Jovinian; and near the beginning of it occur the words--'de foro ueniens quid attulisti?'--Jerome (as above), p. 51. This probably suggested the present line, as it is a question put by a wife to her husband.
226. and bere hem, i. e. and wrongly accuse them, or make them believe.
227. Tyrwhitt quotes two corresponding lines from Le Roman de la Rose:--
'Car plus hardiment que nulz homs Certainement jurent et mentent.'
He refers to l. 19013; but in Méon's edition, these are ll. 18336-7. [297]
229. Cf. Le Rom. de la Rose, 9949:--'Ce ne di-ge pas por les bonnes.'
231. wys, cunning. In MSS. E. and Hn. the caesural pause is marked after wyf. The line, as it stands, is imperfect, and only to be scanned by making the pause after wyf occupy the space of a syllable. The reading wys-e gets over the difficulty, but is hardly what we should expect; it is remarkable that E. Hn. and Cm. all read wys, without a final e; cf. wys in A. 68, 785, 851. The only justification of the form wys-e would be to consider it as feminine; and such seems to be the case in Gower, Conf. Am., ed. Pauli, i. 156:--'His doughter wis-e Petronel-le.' if that she can hir good, if she knows what is to her advantage.
232. 'Will make him believe that the chough is mad.' In the New E. Dict., s. v. Chough, Dr. Murray shews that the various readings cou, cowe, kowe, &c. tend to prove that cow in this passage may well mean 'chough' or 'jackdaw' rather than 'cow.' This solves the difficulty; for the allusion is clearly to one of the commonest of medieval stories, told of various talking birds, originally of a parrot.
Very briefly, the story runs thus. A jealous husband, leaving his wife, sets his parrot to watch her. On his return, the bird reports her misconduct. But the wife avers that the parrot lies, and tries to prove it by an ingenious stratagem. The husband believes his frail wife's plot, and promptly wrings the bird's neck for telling stories, under the impression that it has gone mad.
I formerly explained this in The Academy, April 5, 1890, p. 239. In the no. for April 19, p. 269, Mr. Clouston referred me to his paper on 'The Tell-tale Bird' printed in the Chaucer Society's Originals and Analogues, p. 439, with reference to the Manciple's Tale, which relates a similar story. See the account of the Manciple's Tale in vol. iii. p. 501. It is the story of the Husband and the Parrot, in the Arabian Nights' Entertainment.
This line of Chaucer's seems to have attracted attention, though there is nothing to shew how it was understood. Thus, in Roy's Rede me and be nott Wrothe, ed. Arber, p. 80, we find:--
'Because they canne flatter and lye, Makynge beleve the cowe is wode.'
In Awdelay's Fraternyte of Vacabondes (E. E. T. S.), p. 14, we find: 'Gyle Hather is he, that wyll stand by his Maister when he is at dinner, and byd him beware that he eate no raw meate, because he would eate it himself. This is a pickthanke knaue, that would make his Maister beleue that the Cowe is woode.' Palsgrave, in his French Dictionary, p. 421, has:--'I am borne in hande of a thyng; On me faict a croyre. He wolde beare me in hande the kowe is woode; il me veult fayre a croyre de blanc que ce soit noyr.' The spelling coe for 'jackdaw' occurs in Skelton's Phyllyp Sparowe, l. 468. See also Hoccleve's Works, ed. Furnivall, p. 217, where 'Magge, the good kowe' is [298] an obvious error for 'Magge the wode kowe,' since 'Magge' is a name for a mag-pie. This I also explained in The Academy, April 1, 1893, p. 285.
233. 'And she will take witness, of her own maid, of her (the maid's) assent (to her truth).' This is part of the proof of the correctness of the interpretation of the preceding line. For, in most of the versions of the tale above referred to, the lady is aided and abetted by a maid who is in her confidence.
235. Here Chaucer takes several hints from the book of Theophrastus as quoted by Jerome; see note to l. 221. Thus (in Jerome, as above, p. 51) we find:--'Deinde per noctes totas garrulae conquestiones:--Illa ornatior procedit in publicum; haec honoratior ab omnibus: ego in conuentu feminarum misella despicior. Cur aspiciebas uicinam? Quid cum ancillula loquebaris?' It is continued at l. 243; cf. 'Non amicum habere possumus, non sodalem.' Next, at l. 248; cf. 'Pauperem alere difficile est, diuitem ferre tormentum.' Next, at l. 253; cf. 'Pulchra cito adamatur.... Difficile custoditur quod plures amant.' Jean de Meun also quotes from Theophrastus plentifully, mentioning him by name in Le Rom. de la Rose, l. 8599; see the whole passage. 'Caynard, obsolete, adapted from F. cagnard, sluggard (according to Littré, from Ital. cagna, bitch, fem. of cane, dog). A lazy fellow, a sluggard; a term of reproach. (1303) Rob. of Brunne, Handlyng Synne, l. 8300: A kaynarde ande an olde folte [misprinted folle]. (About 1310) in Wright's Lyric Poems, xxxix. 110 (1842): This croked caynard, sore he is a-dred.'--New Eng. Dict. (where the present passage is also quoted).
246. See A. 1261, and the note. Wright here adds two more examples. He says--'In the satirical poem of Doctor Double-ale, [in Hazlitt's Early Pop. Poetry, iii. 308], we have the lines:--
Then seke another house, This is not worth a louse; As dronken as a mouse.
Among the Letters relating to the Suppression of Monasteries (Camden Soc.), p. 133, there is one from a monk of Pershore, who says that his brother monks of that house "drynk an bowll after collacyon tell ten or xii. of the clock, and cum to mattens as dronck as mys."'
248. See note to l. 235 above; so again, for l. 253, cf. Le Rom. de la Rose, 8617-8638.
255. Cf. Ovid, Heroid. xvi. 288:--
'Lis est cum forma magna pudicitiae.'
257. Probably Chaucer was thinking of a passage in Theophrastus, following soon after that quoted in the note to l. 235. 'Alius forma, alius ingenio, alius facetiis, alius liberalitate sollicitat.' But Theophrastus is referring to the accomplishments of the wooers rather than of the women wooed. Cf. Le Rom. de la Rose, ll. 8629-36--'S'ele est bele,' &c. [299]
263. Clearly from Le Rom. de la Rose, l. 8637--
'Car tor de toutes pars assise Envis eschape d'estre prise.'
265. Immediately after, we have--
'S'ele rest lede, el vuet à tous plaire; ... vuet tous ceus qui la voient.'
269. See in Hazlitt's Proverbs: 'Joan's as good as my lady in the dark.'
271. 'It is a hard matter to control a thing that no one would willingly keep.' Simply translated from Theophrastus (see note to l. 235), who has--'Molestum est possidere, quod nemo habere dignetur.'
272. helde, a variant form of holde, hold, keep; from A. S. healdan. As Chaucer usually has holde (see D. 1144), helde is probably used for the sake of the rime. Note that it is the only example of a rime in -elde in the whole of the Canterbury Tales; indeed, the only other example is in Troil. ii. 337-8. We find the same rime in King Horn, l. 911:--
'Mi rengne thu schalt welde, And to spuse helde Reynild mi doghter.'
275. Again from Theophrastus (near the beginning):--'Non est ergo uxor ducenda sapienti. Primum enim impediri studia philosophiae,' &c.
277. welked, withered; see C. 738, and Stratmann.
278. Chaucer quotes this, as from Solomon, in the Pers. Tale, I. 631, and explains it there more fully; and again, in the Tale of Melibeus, B. 2276. An Anglo-French poet named Herman wrote a poem 'on the three words, smoke, rain, and woman, which, according to Solomon, drive a man from his house; and it appears from the poem that it was composed at the suggestion of Alexander, bishop of Lincoln, who died in 1147.'--T. Wright, Biographia Brit. Literaria, Anglo-Norman Period, p. 333. See also my note to P. Plowman, C. xx. 297, quoted in the note to B. 2276 above, at p. 207.
282. This again is from Theophrastus (see note to l. 235):--'Si iracunda, si fatua, si deformis, si superba, si foetida; quodcunque uitii est, post nuptias discimus.'
285. Immediately after the last quotation there follows:--'Equus, asinus, bos, canis, et uilissima mancipia, uestes quoque et lebetes, sedile lignum, calix et urceolus fictilis probantur prius, et sic emuntur: sola uxor non ostenditur, ne ante displiceat, quàm ducatur.'
293. Next follows:--'Attendenda semper eius est facies, et pulchritudo laudanda.... Vocanda "domina," celebrandus natalis eius, ... honoranda nutrix eius, et gerula, seruus, patrimus, et alumnus,' &c. Cf. Le Rom. de la Rose, 13914.
303-306. Next follows:--'et formosus assecla, et procurator calamistratus, et in longam securamque libidinem exectus spado: sub quibus nominibus adulteri delitescunt.'
Chaucer has merely taken the general idea, and given it a form peculiarly adapted to his sketch. That he really was thinking of this [300] passage is clear from the fact that, in the margin of E., appears this note--'Et procurator calamistratus.'
311. of our dame, of the mistress, i. e. of myself.
312. Seint Iame, St. James; see A. 466, and the note.
320. Alis, Alice; A. F. Alice, Alys, Aleyse; Lat. Alicia. Skelton rimes Ales with tales; Elinour Rummyng, 351-2.
322. at our large, free, at large; we now drop our. Cf. A. 1283.
325. See notes to ll. 180, 183. We need not search in Ptolemy for this saying.
327. who hath the world in honde, i. e. who has abundant wealth. Cf. l. 330. The sense of the proverb is, that the wisest man is he who is contented, who cares nothing that others are much richer than himself. Cf. 1 Tim. vi. 6, 8; and the proverb--'Content is all.' In the margin of E. is written the Latin form of the saying:--'Inter omnes altior existit, qui non curat in cuius manu sit mundus.'
333. werne, forbid, refuse. The idea is from Le Roman de la Rose, l. 7447:--
'Moult est fox qui tel chose esperne, C'est la chandele en la lanterne; Qui mil en i alumeroit, Ja mains de feu n'i troveroit. Chascun set la similitude,' &c.
It was quite a proverbial phrase, as the last line shews. It occurs, for example, in Alexander and Dindimus, ed. Skeat, l. 233, and in the original Latin text of the same. Duke Francesco Maria della Rovere used the device of 'a lighted candle, by which others are lighted, with the motto Non degener addam'; i. e. I will add without loss.--Mrs. Palliser, Historic Devices, p. 263. Cicero (De Officiis, i. 16) quotes three lines from Ennius containing the same idea.
342. From 1 Tim. ii. 9, here quoted in the margin of E.
350. his, its. The pronoun is here neuter, and is the same in all the MSS. Tyrwhitt altered it to hire (her), but needlessly. But in l. 352, the sex of the cat is defined. As to the singed cat, 'that, as they say, does not like to roam,' see The Exempla of Jacques de Vitry, ed. Crane, (Folk Lore Soc.), 1890, pp. 219, 241.
354. goon a-caterwawed, go a-caterwauling. I explain the suffix -ed as put for -eth, A. S. -að, as in on huntað, a-hunting; where -að is a substantival suffix. I have given several examples of this curious substitution in the note to C. 406, q. v. Cotgrave has: 'Aller à gars, to hunt after lads; (a wench) to go a caterwawling.' And see Caterwaul in the New Eng. Dict.
357. Clearly from Le Rom. de la Rose, 14583:--
'Nus ne puet metre en fame garde, S'ele meisme ne se garde: Se c'iert Argus qui la gardast, Qui de ses cent yex l'esgardast, ... [301] N'i vaudroit sa garde mès riens: Fox est qui se garde tel mesriens.'
As to Argus, see Ovid, Met. i. 625.
362. Here Chaucer again quotes largely from Hieronymus c. Iouinianum, lib. ii.; in Epist. (Basil. 1524), ii. 36, 37. Many of the passages are cited from the Vulgate, but they are all found in this treatise of Jerome's, which furnishes the real key. Jerome says:--'Per tria mouetur terra, quartum autem non potest ferre; si seruus regnet, et stultus si saturetur panibus, et odiosa uxor (see l. 366) si habeat bonum uirum, et ancilla si eiciat dominam suam. Ecce et hic inter malorum magnitudinem uxor ponitur'; p. 37. Really quoted from Prov. xxx. 21-23.
371. Again from Jerome, p. 37: 'Infernus, et amor mulieris, et terra quae non satiatur aqua, et ignis non dicit "satis est."' Really from Prov. xxx. 16, where the A. V. has 'the grave' instead of 'hell.' Note that Jerome here has amor mulieris, though the Vulgate has os uuluae. The passage is quoted in E., with dicent for dicit.
373. wylde fyr, wild fire; i. e. fiercely burning fire, probably with reference to lighted naphtha or the like. Chaucer again uses the term in the Pers. Tale, I. 445. Greek fire was of a like character. In the Romance of Rich. Coer de Lion, l. 2627, we find:--
'King Richard, oute of hys galye, Caste wylde-fyr into the skye, And fyr Gregeys into the see, And al on fyr wer[en] the[y] ... The see brent all off fyr Gregeys.'
Thus the Greek fire, at any rate, was not quenched by the sea. See La Chimie an moyen âge, par M. Berthelot, p. 100.
376. From Jerome (p. 36):--'Sicut in ligno uermis, ita perdit uirum suum uxor malefica.' Quoted in the margin of E., with perdet for perdit. Cf. 'Sicut ... uermis ligno,' Prov. xxv. 20 (Vulgate); not in the A. V.
378. Jerome has (p. 39):--'Nemo enim melius scire potest quid sit uxor uel mulier, illo qui passus est.' (Quoted in E.)
386. byte and whyne, i. e. both bite (when in a bad temper) and whine or whinny as if wanting a caress (when in a good one). It is made clearer by the parallel line in Anelida, l. 157, on which see my note in vol. i. p. 535.
389. Cf. our proverb--'first come, first served.' Hazlitt quotes the medieval Lat. proverb--'Ante molam primus qui venit, non molat imus.' And Mr. Wright quotes the French proverb of the fifteenth century--'Qui premier vient au moulin premier doit mouldre.' Cotgrave, s. v. Mouldre, has the same; with arrive for vient, and le premier for premier.
392. hir lyve, i. e. during their (whole) life. With ll. 393-6, cf. Le Rom. de la Rose, 14032-42. [302]
399. colour, pretext; as in Acts, xxvii. 30.
401. In the margin of Cp. and Ln. is the medieval line: 'Fallere, flere, nere, dedit Deus in muliere.' Pt. has the same, with statuit for dedit.
406. grucching, grumbling; mod. E. grudge. Hl. has chidyng.
407. Suggested by the complaint of a jealous man to his wife, in Le Roman de la Rose, 9129:--
'Car quant ge vous voil embracier Por besier et por solacier,' &c.
414. 'Everything has its price.'
415. This proverb has occurred before; see A. 4134. Lydgate quotes it in st. 2 of a poem with the burden--'Lyk thyn audience, so utter thy langage'; see Polit., Relig., and Love Poems, ed. Furnivall, p. 25, l. 15. John of Salisbury says:--'Veteri celebratur prouerbio: quia uacuae manus temeraria petitio est'; Policraticus, lib. v. c. 10.
418. Cf. l. 417. Bacon was considered as a common food for rustics. Cf. 'bacon-fed knaves'; 1 Hen. IV. ii. 2. 88. It is not worth while to discuss the matter further.
430. conclusioun, purpose, aim, object.
432. Wilkin was evidently, like Malle or Malkin, a name for a pet lamb or sheep; see B. 4021. In this line (if mekely be trisyllabic, and lok'th monosyllabic), the word our-e is dissyllabic, which is not common in Chaucer.
433. ba, kiss; see note to A. 3709.
435. spyced conscience, scrupulous conscience; see note to A. 526.
446. Peter, by St. Peter; cf. Hous of Fame, 1034, 2000; also G. 665, and the note; and B. 1404. I shrewe you, I beshrew you.
460. This story is from Valerius Maximus; Pliny tells it of one Mecenius. In the margin of E., the reference is exactly given, viz. to 'Valerius, lib. 6. cap. 3,' which is quite right. I quote the passage: 'Egnatii autem Metelli longe minori de caussa; qui uxorem, quod vinum bibisset, fuste percussam interemit. Idque factum non accusatore tantum, sed etiam reprehensore caruit; unoquoque existimante, optimo illam exemplo violatae sobrietatis poenas pependisse.'--Valerii Maximi lib. vi. c. 3. Cf. Pliny, xiv. 13; Tertullian, Apologeticus, 6. Chaucer twice quotes again the same chapter; see notes to ll. 642, 647.
464. moste I thinke, I must (needs) think. For moste, Cm. has muste, Ln. must. So also moste = must, in l. 478.
467. From Le Roman de la Rose, 13656:--
'Car puis que fame est enyvree Il n'a point en li de deffense.'
Cf. Ovid, Art. Amat. iii. 765; &c.
469. Cf. Le Roman de la Rose, 13136:--
'Par Diex! si me plest-il encores: Quant ge m'i sui bien porpensée, Moult me délite en ma pensée, [303] Et me resbaudissent li membre, Quant de mon bon tens me remembre, Et de la jolivete vie Dont mes cuers a si grant envie.'
And again, just above, l. 13128:--
'Més riens n'i vaut le regreter; Qui est alé, ne puet venir,' &c.
These lines form part of the speech of La Vieille, on whom the Wife of Bath is certainly modelled; cf. note to A. 461.
483. Ioce, in Latin Judocus, a Breton saint, whose day is Dec. 13, and who died in A. D. 669. Alban Butler says that his hermitage became a famous monastery, which stood in the diocese of Amiens, and was called St. Josse-sur-mer. This part of France became familiar to many Englishmen in the course of the wars of Edward III. See, however, Le Testament de Jean de Meung, 461-4, which I take to mean:--'When dame Katherine sees the proof of Sir Joce, who cares not a prune for his wife's love, she is so fearful that her own husband will do her a like harm, that she often makes for him a staff of a similar bit of wood'; F. 'Si li refait sovent d'autel fust une croce.' It is obvious that Chaucer has copied this in l. 484, and that he here found his rime to croce.
484. 'I made a stick for him of the same wood'; i. e. I retaliated by rousing his jealousy; compare the last note. Croce, a staff, O. F. croce, F. crosse; see Croche in the New E. Dictionary. Cf. Prompt. Parv., p. 103, note 5; and my note to P. Plowm. C. xi. 92.
487. In Hazlitt's Proverbs is given--'To fry in his own grease,' from Heywood; it is explained to mean 'to be very passionate,' but means rather 'to torment oneself.' He also quotes, from Heywood:--
'She fryeth in hir owne grease, but as for my parte, If she be angry, beshrew her angry harte.'
See also Rich. Coer de Lion, 4409; Lydgate's Temple of Glas, ed. Schick, pp. 14, 94.
492. The story is given by Jerome, in the treatise so often quoted above. 'Legimus quendam apud Romanos nobilem, cum eum amici arguerent quare uxorem formosam et castam et diuitem repudiasset, protendisse pedem, et dixisse eis: Et hic soccus quem cernitis, uidetur uobis nouus et elegans, sed nemo scit praeter me ubi me premat.'--Hieron. c. Iouinianum, lib. i.: Epist. ii. 52 (Basil. 1524). John of Salisbury has the same story, almost in the same words, but gives the name of the noble Roman, viz. P. Cn. Graecinus. See his Policraticus, lib. v. c. 10. Chaucer alludes to it again below, in E. 1553.
495. She went thrice to Jerusalem; see A. 463.
496. 'Across the arch which usually divides the chancel from the nave in English churches was stretched a beam, on which was placed a rood, i. e. a figure of our Lord on the cross.'--Bell.
498. In the margin of E. is the note:--'Appelles fecit mirabile opus [304] in tumulo Darij: vnde in Alexandro, libro sexto.' There is a similar sidenote at C. 16; see note to that line. This tomb of Darius is due to fiction. The description of it occurs (as said) in the sixth book of the Alexandreid, a vast poem in Latin, by one Philippe Gualtier de Chatillon, a native of Lille and a canon of Tournay, who flourished about A. D. 1200. According to this poet, the tomb was the work of a Jewish artist named Apelles. See Lounsbury, Studies in Chaucer, ii. 353-5, and G. Douglas, ed. Small, i. 134.
503. There is a parallel passage in Le Rom. de la Rose, 14678-99.
514. daungerous, sparing, not free; cf. l. 151.
517. Wayte, observe, watch; 'observe what thing it is that we have a difficulty in obtaining.'
521. 'With great demur (or caution) we set forth all we have to sell.' With daunger implies that the seller makes a great difficulty of selling things, i. e. drives a hard bargain, and makes a great favour of it. Withoute daunger means without opposition, or without resistance; Gower, C. A. v. ii. p. 40.
Outen, put out, set out or forth, is from A. S. [=u]tian, verb, a derivative of [=u]t, out. Both here and in G. 834, Tyrwhitt needlessly alters the reading to uttren, against all the MSS. The note in Bell's Chaucer says--'Difficulty in making our market makes us bring out all our ware for sale'; which is utterly remote from the true sense, and would be the conduct of a reckless, not of a cautious woman. Compare the next two lines.
522. 'A great throng of buyers makes ware dear (because there is then great demand); and offering things too cheaply makes people think they are of little value (because there is then too ready a supply).' Hence the wise woman is careful not to be in too great a hurry to sell; and such is the meaning of l. 521. It is further implied that, when she gets her expected price, she does not hold out for a higher one.
552. From Le Rom. de la Rose, 9068, which again is from Ovid. 'Spectatum ueniunt, ueniunt spectentur ut ipsae'; Art. Amat. i. 99.
553. 'How could I know where my favour was destined to be bestowed?'
555. From Le Rom. de la Rose, 13726:--
'Sovent voise à la mestre eglise, Et face visitacions, A noces, à processions, A geus, à festes, à karoles,' &c.
556. vigilies, festivals held on the eves or vigils of saints' days. See note to A. 377.
557. For preching, Cm. has prechyngis, and Hl. prechings; but all the rest have preching, which I therefore retain. To preching means 'to any place where a sermon was being preached'; much as we say 'to church.' But the sermons were often given in the open air. The Wife's object was to go wherever there was a concourse of people, in order to shew her best clothes. Women still go 'to church' for a like [305] reason. Wycliff speaks strongly of the evil of pilgrimages; see his Works, ed. Matthew, p. 279; ed. Arnold, i. 83.
558. 'The miracle-plays were favourite occasions for people to assemble in great numbers.'--Wright. Wright refers to a tale among his Latin Stories, p. 100. See the Sermon against Miracle-Plays, in Reliquiae Antiquae, ii. 42; reprinted in Mätzner's Sprachproben, ii. 224.
559. 'And wore upon (me) my gay scarlet gowns.' The use of upon without a case following it is curious; but see D. 1018, 1382 below.
The word gyte occurs again in A. 3954, where Simkin's wife wears 'a gyte of reed,' i. e. a red gown. Nares shews that it is used thrice by Gascoigne, and once by Fairfax. The sense of 'robe' will suit the passage there quoted. Skelton has gyte in Elynour, l. 68, where the sense of 'robe' or 'dress' is certain. It is clearly the same word as the Lowland Scotch gyde, a dress, robe; see note to A. 3954 (p. 118). That the word meant both 'veil' and 'gown' appears from the fact that Roquefort explains the derived O. F. wiart as a veil with which women cover their faces; whilst Godefroy explains its variant form guiart as a dress or vestment.
560. The sense is; 'the worms, moths, and mites never fretted them (i. e. my dresses) one whit; I say it at my peril.' There is no difficulty, and the reading is quite correct. Yet Tyrwhitt altered peril to paraille, which he explains by 'apparel,' and Wright actually explains perel, in the Harl. MS., in the same way! Such an explanation turns the whole into nonsense, as it could then only mean: 'the worms, &c. never devoured themselves (!) at all upon my apparel.' Tyrwhitt evidently took it to mean 'never fed themselves upon (i. e. with) my apparel'; but it is impossible that frete hem could ever be so interpreted. Frete can only mean 'devoured,' and it requires an accusative case; this accusative is hem, which can only refer to the gytes or 'gowns.' And this leaves no other sense for peril except precisely 'peril,' which is of course right. Upon my peril is clearly a phrase, with the same sense as 'at my peril.' The phrase is no recondite one; cf. Rich. III. iv. i. 26, where we find 'on my peril'; and again, 'upon his peril,' in Antony, v. 2. 143; Cymbeline, v. 4. 189.
566. of my purveyance, owing to my prudence, or prudent foresight; cf. l. 570. Purveyance, providence, and prudence are mere variants; from Lat. prouidentia.
572. From Le Rom. de la Rose, 13354:--
'Moult a soris povre secors, Et fait en grant peril sa druge, Qui n'a c'ung partuis à refuge. Tout ainsinc est-il de la fame,' &c.
In Kemble's Solomon and Saturn, p. 57, several parallel proverbs are given; e.g.--
'Mus miser est antro qui tantum clauditur uno.' 'Dolente la souris qui ne seit c'un pertuis.'
He refers us to Collins' Dict. of Span. Proverbs, p. 36; MS. Harl. [306] 3362, fol. 40; Grüter, Florilegium Ethico-politicum, p. 32; G. Herbert, Jacula Prudentum, p. 67; MS. Proverbs, Corp. Chr. Cam. no. 450; MS. Harl. 1800, fol. 37 b. The proverb in Herbert is--'The mouse that hath but one hole is quickly taken'; cf. Hazlitt's Proverbs, p. 380.
575. 'I made him believe'; see above. enchanted, bewitched, viz. with philtres or love-potions; according to an old belief. See Othello, i. 2. 63-79. Cf. also Le Rom. de la Rose, 13895:--'Si croi que m'aves enchantee'; and the note to D. 747 (p. 311).
581. Red occurs so frequently as an epithet of gold, that association of gold with blood was easy enough. See note to B. 2059 (p. 196).
602. a coltes tooth, the tooth of a young colt. Cf. 'Young folks [are] most apt to love ... the colt's evil is common to all complexions'; Burton, Anat. of Mel. pt. 3. sec. 2. mem. 2. subsec. 1. 'Your colt's tooth is not cast yet'; Hen. VIII. i. 3. 48. And see A. 3888, E. 1847.
603. Gat-tothed; see note to A. 468.
604. 'I bore the impress of the seal of saint Venus.'
609, 610. Venerien, influenced by Venus; Marcien, influenced by Mars; cf. ll. 611, 612.
613. ascendent, the sign in the ascendant (or just rising in the east) at my birth. This sign was Taurus, which was also called 'the mansion of Venus.' When Mars was seen in this sign when ascending, it shewed the influence of Mars on Venus. Cf. the 'Compleint of Mars.'
In the margin of E. is a Latin note, referring us to 'Mansor Amphorison' 19'; followed by a quotation. The reference is to a treatise called 'Almansoris Propositiones,' which begins with the words:--'Aphorismorum compendiolum, mi Rex, petiisti,' &c. Hence 'Amphorison' 19' is an error for 'Aphorismorum 19.' This treatise is printed in a small volume entitled 'Astrologia Aphoristica Ptolomaei, Hermetis, ... Almansoris, &c.; Ulmae, 1641.' In this edition, the section quoted (at p. 66) is not 19, but 14; and runs thus:--'Cuicunque fuerint in ascendente infortunae, turpem notam in facie patietur.' With 'infortunae,' we must supply 'planetae'; and the object of this quotation is, clearly, to explain l. 619. Still more to the point is a remark in sect. 74 of a treatise printed in the same volume, entitled 'Cl. Ptolomaei Centum Dicta'; where we find--'Quicunque Martem ascendentem habet, omnino cicatricem in facie habebit.'
Immediately after the above, in the margin of E., is a second quotation, with a reference in the words:--'Hec Hermes in libro fiducie; Amphoris^o. 24^o.' Here 'Amphoris_m_o' should be 'Aphorismo.' The quotation occurs in a third treatise, printed in the same volume as the other two already mentioned, with the title 'Hermetis centum Aphorismorum liber.' In this printed edition, the section quoted is not the 24th, but the 25th; and runs thus:--'In natiuitatibus mulierum, cum fuerit ascendens aliqua de domibus Veneris, Marte existente in eis [vel e contrario][28], erit mulier impudica. Idem erit, si Capricornum habuerit [307] in ascendente.' Here 'aliqua ... Veneris' means 'one of the mansions of Venus; her two mansions being Taurus and Libra.' The former is expressly referred to in l. 613, and is therefore intended.
In sect. 28 of the same treatise, we find:--'Cum fuerit interrogatio pro muliere, simpliciter accipe significationem à Venere.' Hence Venus is the planet that ruled over women.
'The woman that is born in this time [i. e. under Taurus] shall be effectuall ... she shall have many husbands and many children; she shall be in her best estate at xvi years, and she shall have a sign in the middest of her body.'--Shepherdes Kalender, ed. 1656, sig. Q 5.
618. The phrase 'la chambre Venus' occurs in Le Rom. de la Rose, 13540.
621. wis, surely, certainly: 'for, may God so surely be my,' &c.
624. 'Ne vous chaut s'il est cors ou lons'; Rom. de la Rose, 8554.
634. on the list, on the ear. Such is the sense of lust in the Ancren Riwle, p. 212, l. 7, where the editor mistakes it. In Sir Ferumbras, l. 1900, mention is made of a man striking another 'on the luste' with his hand. The original sense of A. S. hlyst is the sense of 'hearing'; but the Icel. hlust commonly means 'ear.' Cf. E. listen. For on the list, Hl. Cm. and Tyrwhitt have with his fist; but Tyrwhitt, in his note on the line, inclines to the reading here given, and quotes from Sir T. More's poem entitled 'A Merry Jest of a Serjeant,' the lines:--
'And with his fist Upon the lyst He gave hym such a blow.'
This juvenile poem is printed at length in the Preface to Todd's edition of Johnson's Dictionary, ed. 1827, i. 64.
640. 'Although he had sworn to the contrary'; see a similar use of this phrase in A. 1089; and the note at p. 65.
642. Romayn gestes, the 'Roman gests,' in the collection called Gesta Romanorum, or stories of a like character. The reference, however, in this case is to Valerius Maximus, lib. vi. c. 3, as is certified by the note in the margin of E., viz. 'Valerius, lib. vi. fol. 19.' The passage is: 'Horridum C. quoque Sulpicii Galli maritale supercilium. Nam uxorem dimisit, quod eam capite aperto foris versatam cognouerat.'
647. This story is from the same chapter in Valerius. The passage is: 'Jungendus est his P. Sempronius Sophus, qui coniugem repudii nota affecit, nihil aliud quam se ignorante ludos ausam spectare.'
648. someres game, summer-game; called somer-game in P. Plowman, B. v. 413; and, in later English, a summering; a rural sport at Midsummer. The great day was on Midsummer eve, and the games consisted of athletic sports, followed usually by bonfires. See Brand's Pop. Antiquities; Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, bk. iv. c. 3. § 22; the description of the Cotswold Games in Chambers, Book of Days, i. 714; the word Summering in Nares' Glossary, &c. They were not always respectably conducted. [308]
'Daunces, karols, somour-games, Of manye swych come many shames.' Rob. of Brunne, Handl. Synne, l. 4684.
'As the common sorte of vnfaythfull women are wonte to goe forth vnto weddynges and may-games'; Paraphr. of Erasmus, 1549; Tim. f. 8. Stubbes is severe upon May-games and Whitsun-games; see his Anatomy of Abuses, ed. Furnivall (Shak. Soc.), p. 149.
651. See Ecclus. xxv. 25:--'Give the water no passage; neither a wicked woman liberty to gad abroad.' The Latin version is here quoted in the margin of E.
655. This is clearly a quotation of some old saying, as shewn by the metre, which here varies, and becomes irregular. There is a slightly different version of it in Reliquiae Antiquae, i. 233:--
'Who that byldeth his howse all of salos, And prikketh a blynde horsse over the falowes, And suffereth his wif to seke many halos, God sende hym the blisse of everlasting galos!'
The proverb implies that these three things are the signs of a foolish man. Salwes are osiers; the osier is commonly called sally in Shropshire, and the same name is given to all kinds of willows. It is not from the Lat. salix directly, but from the native A. S. sealh, which is merely cognate with salix, not borrowed from it. The three foolish things to do are; to build a house all of osiers, to spur a blind horse over a fallow-field, and to allow a wife to go on a pilgrimage. To go on a pilgrimage is here called 'to seek hallows,' i. e. saints, or saints' shrines; and the expression was a common one; cf. A. 14. 'Gone to seke hallows' occurs in Skelton, i. 426, l. 7, ed. Dyce; and the editor quotes two more examples at p. 337 of vol. ii.
659. 'I do not care the value of a haw for his proverbs.' In l. 660, nof stands for ne of; see footnote.
662. 'Si het quicunques l'en chastoie'; Rom. de la Rose, 10012.
669. This book was evidently a MS. containing several choice extracts from various authors; see l. 681.
671. Valerie. This refers to a treatise which Mr. Wright attributes to Walter Mapes, entitled Epistola Valerii ad Rufinum, and common in manuscripts; the subject is, De non ducenda uxore. See Warton, Hist. E. Poetry, 1840, ii. 188, note. 'As to the rest of the contents of this volume, Hieronymus contra Jovinianum, and Tertullian de Pallio are sufficiently known; and so are the letters of Eloisa and Abelard, the Parables of Solomon, and Ovid's Art of Love. I know of no Trotula but one, whose book Curandarum aegritudinum muliebrium, ante, in, et post partum, is printed int. Medicos antiquos, Ven. 1547. What is meant by Crisippus, I cannot guess.'--Tyrwhitt.
Theofraste, Theophrastus, i. e. the treatise mentioned above; see note to l. 221. It is frequently quoted above; see notes to ll. 221, 235, 257, 271, 282, 285, 293, 303. He is called Theofrates in Le Roman, l. 8599. [309]
676. Tertulan, Tertullian. I do not quite understand why Tyrwhitt (see note to l. 671) singled out his treatise De Pallio, which is a treatise recommending the wearing of the Greek pallium in preference to the Roman toga. Quite as much to the present purpose are his treatises De Exhortatione Castitatis, dissuading a friend from marrying a second time; and De Monogamia and De Pudicitia, much to the same purport.
677. Crisippus, Chrysippus. There were at least two of this name: (1) the Stoic philosopher, born B.C. 280, died 207, praised by Cicero (Academics) and Horace. Also (2) the physician of Cnidos, in the time of Alexander the Great, frequently mentioned by Pliny. It is highly probable that neither the Wife of Bath nor Chaucer knew much about him. The poet certainly caught the name from Jerome's treatise against Jovinian, near the end of bk. i.; Epist. i. 52. We there find:--'Ridicule Chrysippus ducendam uxorem sapienti praecipit, ne Iouem Gamelium et Genethlium uiolet.'
Helowys, Heloise, niece of Fulbert, a canon in the cathedral of Paris, was secretly married to the celebrated Abelard, a proficient in scholastic learning. She afterwards became a nun in the convent of Argenteuil, of which she was, in course of time, elected the prioress. Thence she removed, with her nuns, to the oratory of the Paraclete, near Troyes, where the last twenty years of her life were spent. She died in 1164, and was buried in Abelard's tomb. I have no doubt at all that Chaucer derived his knowledge of her from the short sketch of her life given in Le Roman de la Rose, ll. 8799-8870, where the title of 'abbess' (F. abéesse) is conferred upon her. Only a few lines above, we find the name of Valerius, who (it is there said, at l. 8727) declared that a modest woman was rarer than a phoenix; and again, at l. 8759, we find: 'Si cum Valerius raconte'; and, at l. 8767:--
'Valerius qui se doloit De ce que Rufin se voloit Marier,' &c.
This identifies Valerius as being the very one, whose name Walter Mapes assumed; as is explained above (note to l. 671).
As to Trotula, I may here observe, in addition to what is said in the note to l. 671, that Warton mentions a MS. in Merton College, with the title 'Trottula Mulier Salerniterna de passionibus mulierum'; another copy (which I have seen) is in the Camb. Univ. Library. He adds--'there is also extant, "Trottula, seu potius Erotis medici muliebrium liber"; Basil. 1586; 4to.' See Warton, Hist. E. Poet. 1840, ii. 188, note.
692. peintede, depicted; alluding to the fable in Æsop, where a sculptor represented a man conquering a lion. The lion's criticism was to the effect that he had heard of cases in which the lion conquered the man. So likewise, the Wife's view of clerks differed widely from the clerk's view of wives. In the margin of E. is the note--'Quis pinxit leonem?' The fable is amongst the 'Fables of Æsop' as [310] printed by Caxton, lib. iv. fab. 15; see Jacobs' edition, i. 251. In his note upon the sources of this fable, Mr. Jacobs refers us to--'Romulus, iv. 15. Man and Lion (statue). I. Lôqman, 7; Sophos, 58. II. Plutarch, Apophth., Laced. 69; Scol. Eurip., Kor., 103; Aphth. 38; Phaedrus, App. Burm., p. 20; Gabr., i. (not in Babrius); Avian, 24. III. Ademar, 52; Marie, 69; Berach., 56; Wright, ii. 28. IV. Kirch., i. 80; Lafontaine, iii. 10; Rob., Oest. V. Spectator, no. 11; L. 100, J. 84; Croxall, 30 (Lion and Statue).'
It is well put by Steele, in The Spectator, no. 11: 'Your quotations put me in mind of the Fable of the Lion and the Man. The Man, walking with that noble Animal, shewed him, in the Ostentation of Human Superiority, a Sign of a Man killing a Lion. Upon which the Lion said very justly, We Lions are none of us Painters, else we could shew you a hundred Men killed by Lions, for one Lion killed by a Man.' Observe that here, as in Chaucer, the reference is to a painting, not to sculpture.
696. all the mark of Adam, all beings made like Adam, i. e. all males. This idiomatic expression is cleared up by reference to F. 880, where merk means 'image' or 'likeness'; see that passage.
697. The children of Mercurie are the clerks, and those of Venus are the women; see ll. 693, 694. See below.
699, 700. Here the reference is to astrology. The whole matter is explained in a side-note in E., which is copied from § 2 of Almansoris Astrologi Propositiones (see note to l. 613 above), and requires some correction. It should run as follows:--'Vniuscuiusque planetarum septem exaltacio in illo loco esse dicitur, in quo substantialiter patitur ab alio contrarium, veluti Sol in Ariete, qui Saturni casus est. Sol enim habet claritatem, Saturnus tenebrositatem.... Et sic Mercurius in Virgine, qui casus est Veneris. Alter [scilicet Mercurius] namque significat scientiam et philosophiam. Altera vero causat alacritates et quicquid est saporiferum corpori.' I take this to mean, that the sign which is called the 'exaltation' of one planet (in which it exhibits its greatest influence) is also the 'dejection' of another which is there weakest. Thus the sign Virgo was the 'exaltation' of Mercury; but it was also the 'dejection' of Venus, whose 'exaltation' was in Pisces. For the dejection of every planet occurs in the sign opposite to that in which is its exaltation; and Virgo and Pisces are opposite. The word casus is here used in the astrological sense of 'dejection.' It further follows that Pisces was the 'depression' of Mercury, which Chaucer expresses by the term desolat. The note also tells us that the planet Mercury implies 'science and philosophy'; whilst Venus implies 'lively joys and whatever is agreeable to the body.'
Venus is again alluded to as being in her exaltation in Pisces, in F. 273. Gower refers to Virgo as being the exaltation of Mercury; Conf. Amant. iii. 121.
715. Eva, Eve. The spelling Eva is frequently contrasted with that of Ave, the salutation of Gabriel to Mary. Tyrwhitt says:--'Most [311] of the following instances are mentioned in the Epistola Valerii ad Rufinum de non ducenda uxore. See also Rom. de la Rose, 9140, 9615, et suiv.' In Méon's edition of Le Rom. de la Rose, Deianira is mentioned in l. 9235, and Samson in l. 9243; I do not quite make out Tyrwhitt's numbering of the lines.
721. Cf. the Monkes Tale, B. 3205, 3256.
725. Cf. the Monkes Tale, B. 3285, 3310.
727. From Jerome against Jovin., lib. i. (near the end); Epist. i. 52. 'Socrates Xantippen et Myron neptem Aristidis duas habebat uxores ... Quodam autem tempore cum infinita conuicia ex superiori loco ingerenti Xantippae restitisset, aqua perfusus immunda, nihil amplius respondit, quàm, capite deterso: Sciebam (inquit) futurum, ut ista tonitrua hymber sequeretur.' The story is thus told by Erasmus, as translated by Udall. 'Socrates, after that he had within dores forborne his wife Xantippe, a greate while scoldyng, and at the last beyng wearie, had set him doune without the strete doore, she beyng moche the more incensed, by reason of her housbandes quietnesse and stilnesse, powred down a pisse-bolle upon him out of a windore, and al beraied him. But upon soche persones as passed by, laughing and hauing a good sport at it, Socrates also, for his part, laughed again as fast as the best, saiyng: Naie, I thought verie well in my minde, and did easily prophecie, that after so great a thonder would come a raine.'--Udall, tr. of Erasmus' Apophthegmes, Socrates, § 59.
733. These instances are also from Jerome, some twenty lines further on (same page). 'Quid referam Pasiphaën, Clytemnestram, et Eriphylam; quarum prima deliciis diffluens, quippe regis uxor, tauri dicitur expetisse concubitus: altera occidisse uirum ob amorem adulteri: tertia prodidisse Amphiarãum, et saluti uiri monile aureum praetulisse.' This passage is quoted, almost in the same words, in the margin of E. As to Eriphyle, Chaucer shews that he possessed further information, as he mentions Thebes. He consulted, in fact, the Thebaid of Statius, bk. iv, where we learn that Eriphyle betrayed her husband Amphiaraus, for a golden necklace; he was thus forced to accompany Polynices to the siege of Thebes, where he perished by being swallowed up by an earthquake. Chaucer again calls him Amphiorax in Anelida, 57, and in Troilus, ii. 105, v. 1500. Cf. Lydgate's Siege of Thebes, part 3.
747. Tyrwhitt says:--'In the Epistola Valerii, in MS. Reg. 12. D. iii. [in the British Museum], the story is told thus: "Luna virum suum interfecit quem nimis odivit: Lucilia suum quem nimis amavit. Illa sponte miscuit aconita: haec decepta furorem propinavit pro amoris poculo." Lima and Luna in many MSS. are only distinguishable by a small stroke over the i, which may easily be overlooked where it is, and supposed where it is not.' However, the right name is neither Lima nor Luna, but Liuia (Livia), which is easily confused with either of the other forms. Livia poisoned her husband Drusus (son of Tiberius), at the instigation of Sejanus, A. D. 23. See Ben Jonson's [312] Sejanus, Act ii. sc. 1. Lucia (or rather Lucilia) was the wife of Lucretius the poet; see Tennyson's poem of Lucretius (Lounsbury, Studies in Chaucer, ii. 369).
757. This is a stock story, told of various people. Tyrwhitt says that it occurs in the Epistola Valerii, of one Pavorinus, and that the story begins:--'Pavorinus flens ait Arrio.' Lounsbury (Studies in Chaucer, ii. 369) referring to the same story, gives the name as Pacuvius. It is, in fact, one of the stories in the Gesta Romanorum (tale 33), where it is ascribed to Valerius. (By Valerius is, of course, meant the Epistola Valerii of Walter Mapes, where it duly appears, as Tyrwhitt notes, and may be found in MS. Reg. 12. D. iii; as is observed by Sir F. Madden, in a note to Warton's Hist. E. Poet., ed. Hazlitt, 1871, i. 250. It does not refer to Valerius Maximus, as I have ascertained.)
In the Gesta, it is told of Paletinus, who lamented to his friend Arrius that a certain tree in his garden was fatal, for three of his wives had, successively, hung themselves upon it. Arrius at once begged to have some slips of it; and Paletinus 'found this remarkable tree the most productive part of his estate.'
The story is really from Cicero, De Oratore, lib. ii. 69; 278. 'Salsa sunt etiam, quae habent suspicionem ridiculi absconditam; quo in genere est illud Siculi, cum familiaris quidam quereretur, quod diceret, uxorem suam suspendisse se de ficu. Amabo te, inquit, da mihi ex ista arbore, quos seram, surculos.'
Thus the original story only mentions one wife. This is just how stories grow.
A similar story is ascribed to Diogenes. 'When he [Diogenes] had on a time espied women hanging upon an olive-tree, and there strangled to death with the halters: Would God (said he) that the other trees had like fruite hanging on them!'--Udall, tr. of Erasmus' Apophthegmes, Diogenes, § 124.
766. The horrible story of 'the Widow of Ephesus' is of this character, but not quite so bad, as her husband died naturally. See Wright's introduction to his edition of The Seven Sages, p. lxvi; and the text of the same, pp. 84-9. It occurs in John of Salisbury, Policraticus, viii. 11. And see Exempla of Jacques de Vitry, ed. Crane, 1890, p. 228; Clouston's Pop. Tales, i. 29.
769. Alluding, doubtless, to Jael and Sisera; see note to A. 2007.
775. 'I had rather dwell with a lion and a dragon, than to keep house with a wicked woman'; Ecclus. xxv. 16. Cf. Prov. xxi. 19.
778. From Prov. xxi. 9; and ll. 780, 781 seem to have been suggested by the following verse (xxi. 10).
782. This is from Jerome, near the end of bk. i. of his treatise against Jovinian (p. 52):--'Scribit Herodotus, quod mulier cum ueste deponat et uerecundiam.' This again is from Herodotus, bk. i. c. 8, where it is told as a saying of Gyges:--[Greek: hama de kithôni ekduomenôi, sunekduetai kai tên aidô gunê]. [313]
784. From Prov. xi. 22.
799. breyde, started, woke up. The A. S. verb bregdan is properly a strong verb, with the pt. t. brægd; so that the true form of the pt. t. in M. E. is breyd, without a final e. But it was turned into a weak verb, with the pt. t. breyd-e (as here), by confusion with such verbs as seyd-e, deyd-e, leyd-e, and the like. It is remarkable that our author is inconsistent in the use of the form for the pt. t. In his earlier poems, he has the older form abrayd, riming with sayd (pp.), Book of the Duch. 192; or abreyd, riming with seyd (pp.), Ho. of Fame, 110. But in the Cant. Tales, we find only the weak form breyd-e, riming with seyd-e, preyd-e, and deyd-e, B. 3728; with seyd-e, leyd-e, B. 837; and with seyd-e, A. 4285, F. 1027. Also abreyd-e, riming with seyd-e, deyd-e, A. 4190, E. 1061.
816. This is one of the ways in which our MSS. have perished.
824. Cf. 'from Hulle to Cartage'; A. 404; and see C. 722.
844. now elles, now otherwise; i. e. and so you may; I defy you.
847. Sidingborne, Sittingbourne, about forty miles from London, and beyond Rochester, which is mentioned in the Monk's Prologue, B. 3116.
THE TALE OF THE WYF OF BATHE.
For a discussion of the source of this Tale, see vol. iii. p. 447.
A very similar story occurs in Gower's Confessio Amantis, bk. i. (p. 89, Pauli's edition), where the hero of the story is named Florent, and is said to have been a grandson of the Roman Emperor Claudius.
It also occurs in the Book of Ballymote, an Irish MS. of the fourteenth century. The Irish text was printed, together with a translation by Dr. Whitley Stokes, in The Academy, Apr. 23, 1892, p. 399. Dr. Stokes claims for the Tale a Celtic origin. See also The Academy, Apr. 30, 1892.
Chaucer's Tale has been modernised by Dryden. This later version contains many spirited lines, but lacks the grace of the original. It is interesting as a commentary, and is worth comparison.
This Tale has been well edited, with notes, in Mätzner's Altenglische Sprachproben, i. 338.
857. The author of the spurious Pilgrim's Tale, which, it is said, William Thynne wished to insert in his edition of Chaucer, has plagiarised from the opening lines of the Wife of Bath's Tale in the coolest manner. I quote some of his lines, for comparison, from Thynne's Animadversions, &c., ed. Furnivall, Appendix I., p. 79, ll. 85-98:--
'The cronikis old from kynge Arthur He could rehers, and of his founder Tell full many a whorthy story. Wher this man walked, there was no farey [314] Ner other spiritis, for his blessynges And munbling of his holy thinges Did vanquyche them from euery buch and tre: There is no nother incubus but he; For Chaucer sathe, in the sted of the quen elfe, "Ther walketh now the limitour himself." For whan that the incubus dyd fle, Yt was to bringe .vii. worse than he; And that is the cause there beyn now no fareys In hallis, bowris, kechyns, ner deyris.'
For a general discussion of the legends about King Arthur, see the essay in vol. i. (p. 401) of the Percy Folio MS., ed. Hales and Furnivall. In Malory's Morte Arthure we have an example of a fairy in Arthur's sister, Morgan le Fay, who was 'put to scole in a nonnery; and ther she lerned so moche that she was a grete clerke of nygromancye'; bk. i. cap. 2.
860. elf-queen, Proserpine, according to Chaucer; see E. 2229; also B. 754, 1978, and the notes.
861. Hence the 'fairy-rings,' as Dryden tells us:--
'And where the jolly troop had led the round, The grass unbidden rose, and mark'd the ground.'
On the subject of Fairies, see Keightley's Fairy Mythology, and similar works. Tyrwhitt notes that few old authors tell us so much about them as Gervase of Tilbury.
866. limitours, limiters; see A. 209, and the note; D. 1711; P. Plowman, B. v. 138, C. xxiii. 346; Massingberd, Eng. Reformation, p. 110.
868. The number of mendicant friars in England, during the latter half of the fourteenth century, was indeed large. In Wyclif's Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 400, we read that 'now ben mony thousand of freris in Englond'; and, at p. 511, that they were, 'as who seith, withoute noumbre.' In P. Plowman, C. xxiii. 269, Conscience accuses the friars of waxing 'oute of numbre,' and reminds them that 'Hevene haveth evene numbre, and helle is withoute numbre.'
869. The occurrence here of three consecutive lines (869-871) in which the first foot is deficient, consisting only of a single accented syllable, is worth notice. The way in which Tyrwhitt 'amends' these lines is most surprising. He inserts and five times, and his first line defies scansion, though I suppose he made hall's a monosyllable, and kichen-es trisyllabic, whereas it plainly has but two syllables. Here is his result.
'Blissing halles, chambres, kichenes, and boures, Citees and burghes, castles highe and toures, Thropes and bernes, shepenes, and dairies, This maketh that ther ben no faeries.'
Note that he actually seems to have read dairies and faeries as [315] riming dissyllabic words! In which case the last of these four lines would have but four accents! But the rime merely concerns the two final syllables of those quadrisyllabic words. The riming of the two former syllables is unessential, and for the purpose of rime, accidental and otiose.
MS. Pt. admits and before boures; and MS. Hl. admits and before toures and dairies (which does not alter the character of the lines). With these exceptions, all the seven MSS. omit all the five and's inserted by Tyrwhitt; and, in fact, they are all of them superfluous.
For the benefit of those who are but little acquainted with this peculiarity of Middle English metre, I cite four consecutive lines of a similar character from Lydgate's Siege of Thebes, ll. 1239-1242:--
'Drogh | the brydyl from his horses hede, Let | hym goon, and took no maner hede, Thorgh | the gardyn that enclosed was, Hym | to pasture on the grene gras.'
There are plenty more of the same kind in the same poem; e. g. 1068, 1081, 1082, 1089, 1103, 1107, 1116, 1120, 1122, 1123, 1140, 1141, 1151, &c., &c., all printed in Specimens of English from 1394-1579, ed. Skeat, pp. 28-34. For similar lines in Hoccleve, see the same, p. 16, st. 604, l. 6; st. 605, l. 2; p. 20, st. 622, l. 2; p. 21, st. 624, l. 4.
871. Thropes = thorpes, villages; see E. 199.
shipnes, stables, or cow-houses; see A. 2000. 'Shippen, Shuppen, a cow-house'; E. D. S. Gloss. B. 1. 'Shippen, an ox-house'; id. B. 6. 'Shuppen, a cow-house'; id. B. 7; 'Shippen, a cow-house'; id. B. 15.
875. undermeles, for undern-meles, undern-times. For the time of undern, see note to E. 260. Meel (pl. meles) is the A. S. m[=æ]l, a time. The time referred to, in this particular instance, seems to be the middle of the afternoon; or simply 'afternoons,' as opposed to 'mornings.' For this sense, cf. 'Undermele, Postmeridies,' in the Prompt. Parv. Nares, s. v. under-meal, gives other instances; but he fails to realise the changeable sense of the word; and is quite wrong in saying (s. v. undertime) that the last-named word is unconnected with undern. He also wrongly dissociates undern from arndern and orndern.
876. 'All religious persons were bound, if possible, to recite the divine office ... at the proper hour, in the choir; but secular priests, not living in common, and friars, being by their rule obliged to walk about within their limitation, to beg their maintenance, were allowed to say it privately,... as they walked.'--Bell. Cf. B. 1281.
880. incubus. Milton (P. R. ii. 152) speaks of Belial as being, after Asmodai, 'the fleshliest incubus.' Mr. Jerram's note on the line says: 'Some of the ejected angels were believed not to have fallen into hell, but to have remained in the middle of the region of air (P. R. ii. 117), where in various shapes they tempt men to sin. It was said that they hoped to counteract the effects of Christ's coming by engendering with some virgin a semi-demon, who should be a power of evil. In this way Merlin, and even Luther, were reported to have been [316] begotten.' See the Romance of Merlin, ed. Wheatley, ch. i. pp. 9, 10; and the poem of Merlin in the Percy Folio MS.
881. Tyrwhitt and others adopt the reading no dishonour, as in the old black-letter editions; and MS. Cm. has the reading non. At first sight, this looks right, but a little reflection will incline us rather to adopt the reading of nearly all the MSS., as given in the present text. For to say that the friar was an incubus, and yet did women no dishonour, is contradictory. The meaning is, possibly, that the friar brought upon women dishonour, and nothing more; whereas the incubus never failed to cause conception. Lounsbury (Studies in Chaucer, i. 257) adopts the reading here given, but interprets it thus:--'The dishonour of a woman is, in the eyes of the Wife of Bath, to be reckoned not as a crime, but as a peccadillo.' (See the whole passage.) The subject will hardly bear further discussion; but it is impossible to ignore the repeated charges of immorality brought against the friars by Wyclif and others. Wyclif says--'thei slen wommen that withstonden hem in this synne'; Works, ed. Matthew, p. 6.
884. fro river, i. e. he was returning from hawking at the river-side. See B. 1927, and the note.
887. maugree hir heed, lit. 'in spite of her head,' i. e. in spite of all she could do, without her consent. Cf. A. 1169, 2618; also I. 974, where we find:--'if the womman, maugree hir heed, hath been afforced.' Mätzner remarks that, in some cases, we find a part of the head referred to, instead of the whole head. Hence the expressions: maugre his nose, Rob. of Gloucester, 2090 (p. 94, ed. Hearne); maugree thyne yen, Ch. C. T., D. 315; maugree hir eyen two, id., A. 1796; maugree my chekes, Allit. Poems, ed. Morris, C. 54; m. here chekis, P. Plowman, B. iv. 50; &c.
909. lere, learn; as in B. 181, 630, C. 325, 578, &c. But the right sense is 'teach.' See l. 921.
twelf-month, &c. 'There seems to have been some mysterious importance attached to this particular time of grace,' &c.--Bell. I think not. The solution is simply, that it takes an extra day to make the date agree. If we fix any date, as Nov. 21, 1890, the space of a year afterwards only brings us to Nov. 20, 1891; if we want to keep to the same day of the month, we must make the space include 'a year and a day.' This is what any one would naturally do; and that is all. Cf. A. 1850, and the note. 'Year and Day, is a time that determines a right in many cases;... So is the Year and Day given in case of Appeal, in case of Descent after Entry or Claim,' &c.; Cowell, Intrepreter of Words and Terms. See l. 916 below; and cf. Eight days, i. e. a week, in the New Eng. Dictionary.
922. cost, coast, i. e. region; as in 1 Sam. v. 6; Matt. viii. 34, &c.
924. The scansion is--Two cré-a-túr-es áccordínge in-fére.
925. Cf. Gower, Conf. Amant. i. 92:--
'To som woman it is plesaunce That to another is grevaunce'; &c.
[317]
929-30. Cf. Rom. de la Rose, 9977-94. For y-plesed, Tyrwhitt and Wright read y-preised, contrary to the seven best MSS.; which gives an imperfect rime. preysed rimes with reysed (D. 706).
940. galle, sore place. 'Galle, soore yn man or beeste'; Prompt. Parv. 'Let the galled jade wince'; Hamlet, iii. 2. 253.
clawe means 'to scratch'; and to clawe upon the galle is to scratch or rub a sore. This may be taken in two ways; hence the difficulty about the reading in l. 941, where E. Cm. have kike, i. e. kick, whilst Hn. Hl. have like, and Cp. Pt. Ln. have loke or he seith us soth. The last of these three variations gives no sense, and is certainly wrong; but either of the other readings will serve. I take them in order.
(1) kike, kick. Here the sense is:--'if any one scratch us on a sore place (and so hurt us), we shall kick, because he tells us the truth (too plainly).' This goes well with the context, as it answers to the repreve us of our vyce in l. 937.
(2) like, like (it), be pleased. Here the sense is:--'if any one stroke us on a sore place (and so soothe the itching), we shall be pleased, because he tells us the truth (or what we think to be the truth).' But I feel inclined to reject this reading, because it gives so forced a sense to the words--for he seith us sooth. There is, however, no difficulty about the use of claw in the sense of 'to rub lightly, so as to soothe irritation'; for which see examples in the New English Dictionary. It is particularly used in the phrase to claw one's back, i. e. to soothe, flatter; but the word galle suggests a place where friction would rather hurt than soothe.
I leave it to the reader to settle this nice question.
949. rake-stele, the handle of a rake. The word stele is still in use provincially. 'Stale, any stick, or handle, such as the stick of a mop or a fork'; South Warwickshire; E. D. S. Gl. C. 6. 'Stale [stae·ul], s. handle; as, mop-stale, pick-stale, broom-stale'; Elworthy's West Somerset Words. And see Steal in Ray's Glossary; Stele in Nares; Steale in Halliwell; &c. Cf. A. 3785; P. Plowman, C. xxii. 279. Golding translates Ovid's hastile (Metam. vii. 676) by 'Iaueling-steale.' The e is 'open'; cf. A. S. stela; hence the rime with hele (A. S. helan) is perfect.
950. 'Car fame ne puet riens celer'; Rom. de la Rose, 19420. See also the same, 16549-70.
952. Ovyde; see Metamorph. xi. 174-193. But Chaucer seems to have purposely altered the story, since Ovid attributes the betrayal of the secret to Midas' barber, not his wife; and again, Ovid says that the barber dug a hole, and whispered it into the pit. Chaucer's version is an improved one. Cf. Troil. iii. 1389.
961. Cf. Rom. de la Rose, 16724-32.
968. Dryden is plainer, and less polite:--'But she must burst or blab.' Cf. Rom. de la Rose, 16568-9.
972. bitore, bittern; bumbleth, makes a bellowing noise, which is also expressed by bumping or booming. Note that MS. Cm. has [318] bumbith. Owing to the loud booming note of the male bittern, it is called in A. S. r[=a]re-dumle or r[=a]re-dumbla, from r[=a]rian, to roar; see Wright's Glossaries. In provincial English, it is called a butter-bump, or a bumble; or, from its frequenting moist places, a bog-bumper, a bog-drum, or a bull o' the bog; see Swainson's Provincial Names of British Birds, E. D. S., p. 146. It was formerly thought that the cry was produced by the bird plunging its bill into mud and then blowing, as in the present passage; others thought that it put its bill into a reed, a view taken by Dryden, as he here has the line:--'And, as a bittern bumps within a reed.' Sir T. Browne, in his Vulgar Errors, bk. iii. c. 27, controverts these notions, and attributes the note to the conformation of the bird's organs of voice. 'The same contradiction of the common notion is given, from personal experience, by the Rev. S. Fovargue, in his New Catalogue of Vulgar Errors, pp. 19-21'; note to Sir T. Browne, ed. S. Wilkin. The same editor further refers us to papers by Dr. Latham and Mr. Yarrell in the Linnaean Transactions, vols. iv, xv, and xvi. See Prof. Newton's Dict. of Birds.
981. There is not much 'remnant' of the tale; Ovid adds that some reeds grew out of the pit, which, when breathed upon by the South wind, uttered the words which had been buried.
992. This reminds us of Chaucer's own vision of Alcestis and her nineteen attendant ladies in the Prologue to the Legend of Good Women.
997. Cf. Gower, Conf. Amantis, i. 93:--
'In a forest, there under a tree He sigh where sat a creature, A lothly womannish figure, That, for to speke of flesshe and boon, So foul yet sigh he never noon.'
Also, in the Marriage of Sir Gawaine, st. 15:--
'And, as he rode over a more, Hee see a lady where she sate Betwixt an oake and a greene hollen [holly]; She was cladd in red scarlett.... Her nose was crooked and turnd outward, Her mouth stood foule a-wry; A worse formed lady than shee was Neuer man saw with his eye.'
1004. can, know; but the form is singular, to agree with folk. Cf. the proverb--'older and wiser'--in Hazlitt's Collection; and see A. 2448.
1018. wereth on, wears upon (her), has on; cf. l. 559 above.
calle, caul; a close-fitting netted cap or head-dress, often richly ornamented; see Fairholt, Costume in England, s. v. Caul.
1021. pistell, (1) an epistle, as in E. 1154; hence (2), a short lesson, as here. [319]
1024. holde his day, kept his time, come back at the specified time. hight, promised.
1028. 'Queen Guenever is here represented sitting as judge in a Court of Love, similar to those in fashion in later ages.... Fontenelle (in the third volume of his works, Paris, 1742) has given a description of one of the fantastic suits tried in these courts.... The best source of information on these strange follies is a book entitled Erotica, seu Amatoria, Andreæ Capellarii Regis, &c., written about A.D. 1170, and published at Dorpmund in 1610.'--Bell.
1038. Cf. Gower, Conf. Amantis, i. 96:--
'That alle women levest wolde Be soverein of mannes love,' &c.
So also in the Marriage of Sir Gawaine, st. 28:--
--'a woman will have her will, And this is all her cheef desire.'
1069. The scansion is--'Shold' ev'r | so foul | e dis | pará | ged be.'
1074. It is curious to note how Chaucer seems to have felt that romance-writers were constrained to describe feasts, a duty which he usually evades. Cf. A. 2197, B. 419, 1120, E. 1710, F. 278. In fact, the original business of the minstrel was to praise his lord's bounty, especially on grand occasions.
1081. So in Gower's Conf. Amantis, i. 100:--
'But as an oule fleeth by nighte Out of all other briddes sighte, Right so this knight, on daies brode,' &c.
This line, for a wonder, is unaltered by Dryden in his paraphrase.
1085. walweth, rolls from side to side, turns about restlessly; cf. Leg. Good Wom. 1166; Troil. i. 699; Rom. Rose, 2562.
1088. Fareth, pronounced as Far'th; cf. tak'th in 1072.
1090. dangerous, distant, unapproachable; see D. 151.
1109. Gentilesse. See my notes (in vol. i. 431, 553) on R. R. 2190, and Gentilesse. Compare Boethius, bk. iii. pr. 6 and met. 6; Roman de la Rose, ed. Méon, 6603-6616, and 18807-19096; and see B. 2831.
1114. Cf. privee n'apert in l. 1136; 'in private and in public.'
1117. wol we, desires that we; see 1130 below.
1121. Cf. Balade of Gentilesse, ll. 16, 17.
1128. Cf. Dante, Purgat. vii. 121:--
'Rade volte risurge per li rami L'umana probitate: e questo vuole Quei che la dâ, perchè da lui si chiami.'
Cary's translation is:--
'Rarely into the branches of the tree Doth human worth mount up: and so ordains He who bestows it, that as His free gift It may be called.'
[320] Marsh notes that similar sentiments occur in the Canzone prefixed to the fourth Trattato in Dante's Convito.
1135. The general sense is--'if gentle conduct were naturally implanted in a particular family, none of that family could ever behave badly.' Cf. ll. 1150, 1151.
'Were virtue by descent, a noble name Could never villanise his father's fame.' Dryden's paraphrase.
1140. Chaucer's tr. of Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 7. 43, mentions 'the mountaigne that highte Caucasus.' This is probably where he got the name from. Cf. Shakespeare's 'frosty Caucasus'; Rich. II. i. 3. 295. The whole passage is imitated from another place in Boethius, where Chaucer's translation has:--'Certes, yif that honour of poeple were a natural yift to dignitees, it ne mighte never cesen ... to don his office, right as fyr in every contree ne stinteth nat to eschaufen and to ben hoot'; bk. iii. pr. 4. 44-8. In l. 1139, Dryden merely alters in to to.
1142. lye, i. e. blaze. 'Hevene y-leyed wose syth,' whoever sees heaven in a blaze; Relig. Antiq. i. 266. The sb. lye, a flame, occurs in P. Pl. C. xx. 172. Cf. A. S. l[=y]g, l[=i]g, flame.
1146-56. Much altered and expanded in Dryden.
1158. Cf. Rom. of the Rose, 2181:--
'For vilany makith vilayn; And by his dedis a cherl is seyn.'
1165. 'Incunabula Tulli Hostilii agreste tugurium cepit: ejusdem adolescentia in pecore pascendo fuit occupata: validior aetas imperium Romanum rexit, et duplicavit: senectus excellentissimis ornamentis decorata in altissimo majestatis fastigio fulsit.'--Valerius Maximus, lib. iii. c. 4 (De Humili Loco Natis). Cf. Livy, i. 22; Dionysius Halicarnasseus, iii; Ælian, xiv. 36.
1168. Senek, Seneca. Boece, Boethius; see note to 1109.
1184. Ll. 1183-1190 are imitated from the following; 'Honesta, inquit [Epicurus], res est laeta paupertas. Illa uero non est paupertas, si laeta est. Cui enim cum paupertate bene conuenit, diues est. Non qui parum habet, sed qui plus cupit, pauper est.'--Seneca, Epist. ii. § 4. This passage is quoted by John of Salisbury, Policraticus, l. vii. c. 13.
Othere clerkes also includes Epicurus, whose sentiments Seneca here expresses; see Diogenes Laertius, x. 11. MS. E. here quotes the words 'honesta res est laeta paupertas' in the margin, and refers to 'Seneca, in epistola.' It also has:--'Pauper est qui eget, eo quod non habet; sed qui non habet, nec appetit habere, ille diues est; de quo intelligitur id Apocalypsis tertio [Rev. iii. 17]--dicis quia diues sum.' With l. 1187 cf. Rom. de la Rose, 18766:--'Et convoitise fait povrece.'
1191. All the editions adopt the reading is sinne, as in all the MSS. except E. and Cm. (the two best); see footnote, p. 354. But surely this is nonsense, and exactly contradicts l. 1183.
1192. In the margin of MS. E. are quoted two lines from Juvenal, [321] Sat. x. 21,22:--'Cantabit uacuus coram latrone uiator; Et nocte ad lumen trepidabit arundinis umbram.' The latter of these lines should come first, and the usual readings are motae (not nocte), lunam, and trepidabis. However, it is only the other (and favourite) line that is here alluded to. The same line is quoted in Piers Plowman, B. xiv. 305; and is alluded to in Chaucer's tr. of Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 5. 129-130. In Wyclif's Works, ed. Arnold, ii. 364, is the remark:--'For it is said comounli, that a wey-goer, whan he is voide, singith sure bi the theef.'
1195. In the margin of E. is written:--'Secundus philosophus: Paupertas est odibile bonum, sanitatis mater, curarum remocio, sapientie reparatrix, possessio sine calumpnia.' This is the very passage quoted, even more fully, in Piers Plowman, B. xiv. 275 (C. xvii. 117). Tyrwhitt's note is--'In this commendation of Poverty, our author seems plainly to have had in view the following passage of a fabulous conference between the emperor Adrian and Secundus the philosopher, reported by Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Historiale, lib. x. cap. 71. "Quid est paupertas? Odibile bonum, sanitatis mater, remotio curarum, sapientie repertrix, negotium sine damno, possessio absque calumnia, sine sollicitudine felicitas." What Vincent has there published seems to have been extracted from a larger collection of Gnomae under the name of Secundus, which are still extant in Greek and Latin. See Fabricius, Bib. Gr., l. vi. c. x, and MS. Harl. 399.' Thus l. 1195 is a translation of Paupertas est odibile bonum, so that the proposal by Dr. Morris (Aldine edition of Chaucer, vol. i. p. vi) to adopt the reading hatel from MSS. Cp. Pt. Ln. instead of hateful, is founded on a mistake. The expression is contradictory, but it is so intentionally. 'Poverty is a gift which its possessors hate' is, of course, the meaning. Dryden well explains it:--
'Want is a bitter and a hateful good, Because its virtues are not understood.'
1196. This translates 'remotio curarum.'
1197. This translates 'sapientie reparatrix,' not 'repertrix.'
1199. elenge, miserable, hard to bear. Elenge is also spelt alenge, alinge, alange; see Alange in the New English Dictionary, though the proper form is rather alenge. It is a derivative of the intensive A. S. prefix [=æ] and lenge, a secondary form of lang, long; so that A. S. [=æ]lenge meant protracted, tedious, wearisome, as in Alfred's tr. of Boethius, xxxix. 4. But it was confused with the M. E. elend, strange, foreign, and so acquired the sense of 'strange' as well as 'trying' or 'miserable.' See Elynge in the Gl. to P. Plowman, and the note to P. Pl. C. i. 204; also Mätzner's note to the Land of Cokayne, l. 15.
1200. This line translates 'possessio absque calumnia.' The E. challenge is, in fact, derived from calumnia, through Old French.
1202. Understand him: 'maketh (him) know his God and himself'; see Dryden's paraphrase. Against this line, in the margin of MS. E., [322] is written:--'Unde et Crates ille Thebanus, proiecto in mari non paruo auri pondere, Abite (inquit) pessime male cupiditates! Ego uos mergam, ne ipse mergar a uobis.' Probably Chaucer once intended to introduce this story into the text. It relates, apparently, to Crates of Thebes, the Cynic philosopher, who flourished about B. C. 320.
1203. spectacle, i. e. an optic glass, a kind of telescope. In the modern sense, the word was used in the plural, as at present. From Lydgate's London Lickpenny, st. 7, we learn that 'spectacles to reede' was, in his time, one of the cries of London. Cf. prospectyves, i. e. perspective glasses, in F. 234. Chaucer is here thinking of a passage in Le Roman de la Rose, where the E. version (l. 5551) has:--
'For infortune makith anoon To knowe thy freendis fro thy foon.'
This, again, is from Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 8. 22-33. Compare Chaucer's poem on Fortune, ll. 9, 32, 34, and my notes upon these lines; vol. i. pp. 383, 544.
1208. See note to l. 1276 below; and cf. D. 1.
1210. Compare C. 743, and the note.
1215. For also, Tyrwhitt reads also so, against all authority, as he admits. The text is right as it stands. Eld-e is dissyllabic, the final e being preserved by the cæsura; and also means no more than 'so.' I suspect this is quoted from some French proverb. Dryden alters 'filth' to 'ugliness.'
1224. repair, great resort, viz. of visitors.
1234. 'I care not which of the two it shall be.' Cf. Gower, Conf. Amantis, i. 103:--
'Chese for us bothe, I you praie, And what as ever that ye saie, Right as ye wolle, so wol I. My lord, she saide, grauntmercy. For of this word that ye now sain, That ye have made me soverein, My destinè is overpassed'; &c.
1260. toverbyde, to over-bide, to outlive. Tyrwhitt substitutes to overlive, from the black-letter editions. Gra-ce is dissyllabic.
1261. shorte, shorten; see D. 365.
THE FRIAR'S PROLOGUE.
1276. auctoritees; a direct reference to l. 1208 above. This goes far to show that the Friar's Tale was written immediately after the Wife's Tale. The Friar says, quite truly, that the Wife's Tale contains passages not unlike 'school-matter,' or disquisitions in the schools. Such a passage is that in ll. 1109-1212. Tyrwhitt shews that auctoritas was the usual word applied to a text of scripture; Bell adds, that it was applied, as now, to any authority for a statement. We might very well translate auctoritees by 'quotations.' [323]
1284. mandements, 'citations, or summonses, addressed to those accused of breaches of the canons, to appear and answer in the archdeacon's court'; Bell. Hence the name somnour, i. e. a server of summonses.
1285. tounes ende (whence the name Townsend); we should now say, 'at the entry to every town'; cf. l. 1537. The Somnour was often opposed with violence, and was a very unpopular character.
1294. The limiters had to cultivate the art of flattery, because they lived by begging from house to house.
*** After this line all the MSS. (except Hl.) wrongly insert lines 1307, 1308 (on p. 359). Perhaps the poet himself introduced these lines here at first, and afterwards perceived how much better they came in after l. 1306. It is not an important matter.
1296. MS. Hl. has:--'Our host answerd and sayd the sompnour this'; which cannot be right.
THE FRERES TALE.
With respect to the source of this Tale, see vol. iii. p. 450.
1300. erchedeken. As to the duties of the archdeacon, here described, compare A. 655, 658. He enforced discipline by threats of excommunication, and inflicted fines for various offences. Compare Wyclif's Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 166.
1305. I. e. he punished church-reeves if they did ill, and all cases in which wills or contracts had been wantonly violated. 'Lakke of sacraments' refers, chiefly, to the neglect of the precept to communicate at Easter; also to neglect of baptism, and, possibly, of matrimony, as that was also a 'sacrament' in the church of our fathers.
1307-8. These two lines occur here in MS. Hl. only; see note to 1294 above.
1309. Usury was prohibited by the Canon Law; cf. P. Plowman, C. vii. 239.
1314. 'No fine could save the accused from punishment.'
1315. 'The neglect to pay tithes and Easter offerings came under the archdeacon's jurisdiction, as the bishop's diocesan officer. The friar does not scruple to make an invidious use of this subject at the expense of the parochial clergy, because, being obliged by his rule to gain his livelihood by begging, he had no interest in tithes.'--Bell.
1317. Alluding to the shape of the bishop's crosier. In P. Plowman, C. xi. 92, the crosier is described as having a hook at one end, by which he draws men back to a good life, and a spike at the other, which he uses against hardened offenders. On the crosier, see Rock, Church of Our Fathers, ii. 181. The bishop dealt with such offenders as were contumacious to the archdeacon.
1321. For the character of a Somnour, see A. 623.
1323. espiaille, set of spies; see note to B. 2509, p. 213. [324]
1324. taughte, informed; the final e is not elided.
1327. wood were, should be, were to be as mad as a hare. See 'As mad as a March hare' in Hazlitt's Proverbs.
1329. The mendicant orders were subject only to their own general or superior, not to the bishops. In the piece called Jack Upland (§ 11), Jack asks the friars--'Why be ye not vnder your bishops visitations, and leegemen to our king?'--British Poets, ed. Chalmers, 1810; i. 567.
1331. terme, i. e. during the term.
1332. Peter, by saint Peter. 'The summoner's repartee is founded upon the law by which houses of ill-fame were exempted from ecclesiastical interference, and licensed.'--Bell. 'Stewes, are those places which were permitted in England to women of professed incontinency.... But king Henry VIII., about the year 1546, prohibited them for ever.'--Cowel's Interpreter. Cock Lane, Smithfield, contained such houses; see my notes to P. Plowman, C. vii. 366, 367.
1343. approwours, agents, men who looked after his profits. From the O. Fr. approuer, apprower, to cause to profit, to enrich; from the O. Fr. sb. prou, profit, whence also E. prowess. Miswritten as approver in the seventeenth century, though distinct from approve (from approbare). See the New Eng. Dictionary. Tyrwhitt has the spelling approvers.
1347. Cristes curs, i. e. excommunication.
1349. atte nale, put for atten ale, lit. at the ale, where ale is put for 'ale-house.' Atten is for A. S. æt tham, where tham is the dat. neut. of the def. article. The expression is common; as in 'fouhten atten ale,' fought at the ale-house, P. Plowman, C. i. 43; 'with ydel tales atte nale,' id. C. viii. 19. 'Thou hast not so much charity in thee as to goe to the Ale with a Christian'; Two Gent. of Verona, ii. v. 61. So also atte noke, for atten oke, at the oak; see note to P. Pl. C. vii. 207.
1350. See John, xii. 6; and cf. the Legend of Judas Iscariot, printed (from MS. Harl. 2277) in Early Eng. Poems, ed. Furnivall, 1862; p. 107.
1352. duetee (Cp. dewete) is trisyllabic; see l. 1391. It is a coined word, having no Latin equivalent. The spelling duete occurs, in Anglo-French, in the Liber Albus, p. 211, l. 23.
1356. Sir Robert; the title of Sir was usually given to one of the secular clergy; cf. note to B. 4000, p. 248.
1364. hir, her; so in E. Hn., but other MSS. have thee. The reading given is the better. The Somnour fined the man, but let the woman go; and then said that he let her go out of friendship for the man. This is intelligible; but the reading thee gives no sense to the words for thy sake.
1365. 'You need not take any more trouble in this matter.'
1367. bryberý-es (four syllables), i. e. modes of robbery. So in MSS. Hn. Cm. Cp. MSS. Hl. Pt. Ln. have bribours, which will not scan, unless (as in Hl.) we also read Certeinly, giving a line defective in the first foot. Tyrwhitt inserts many before mo, to fill up the line. [325]
1369. dogge for the bowe, a dog used to accompany an archer, to follow up a stricken deer; see the next line. The docility of such a dog is alluded to in E. 2014.
1373. 'And, because such acquaintance brought him in the chief part of all his income.'
1377. ribybe. In l. 1573, she is called 'an old rebekke.' So in Skelton's Elinour Rummyng, l. 492:--'There came an old rybybe.' And Ben Jonson speaks of 'some good ribibe ... you would hang now for a witch'; The Devil is an Ass, i. 1. 16. But probably Skelton and Ben Jonson merely took the word from Chaucer. A ribybe was, properly, a two-stringed Moorish fiddle; see note to A. 3331. Gifford's note on the passage in Ben Jonson, says:--'Ribibe, together with its synonym rebeck, is merely a cant term for an old woman. A ribibe, the reader knows, is a rude kind of a fiddle, and the allusion is, probably, to the inharmonious nature of its sounds.' Halliwell suggests some (improbable) confusion between vetula and vitula.
I suspect that this old joke, for such it clearly is, arose in a very different way, viz. from a pun upon rebekke, a fiddle, and Rebekke, a married woman, from the mention of Rebecca in the marriage-service. For Chaucer himself notices the latter in E. 1704, which see. Observe that the form rebekke, as applied to the fiddle, is a corrupt one, though it is found in other languages. See rebebe in Godefroy's O. F. Dictionary, and rebec in Littré.
1378. Cause and wolde are dissyllabic; and brybe, to rob, is a verb. But the editors ignore such elementary facts. The old editions insert haue a before brybe; and the modern editions insert han a; which, as Wright observes, is not to be found in the MSS!
1381. See A. 103, 104, 108; and, for courtepy, A. 290.
1382. hadde upon, had on; cf. D. 559, 1018.
1384. 'Well overtaken, well met.' So in Partonope of Blois, 6390: 'Syr, wele atake!' Cf. G. 556.
1394. for the name, because of the disgrace attaching to the very name. The Friar is severe.
1405. sworn-e, a plural form; the word sworn being here used adjectivally. See note to A. 1132, p. 66.
1408. venim, spite. wariangles, shrikes. According to C. Swainson (Provincial Names of British Birds), this is the Red-backed Shrike (Lanius collurio), called in Yorkshire the Weirangle or Wariangle. Some make it the Great Grey Shrike (Lanius excubitor). Thus Ray, in his Provincial Words, ed. 1674, p. 83, gives warringle as a name for the Great Butcher-bird in the Peak of Derbyshire. 'This Bird,' says Willughby, 'in the North of England is called Wierangle, a name, it seems, common to us with the Germans, who (as Gesner witnesseth) about Strasburg, Frankfort, and elsewhere, call it Werkangel or Warkangel, perchance (saith he) as it were Wurchangel, which literally rendered signifies "a suffocating angel."' So also, the mod. G. name is Würgengel, as if from würgen and Engel. But this is a form [326] due to popular etymology, as will presently appear. Cotgrave has 'Pie engrouée, a Wariangle, or a small Woodpecker'; but a wariangle is really a Shrike; indeed Cotgrave also has: 'Arneat, the ravenous birde called a Shrike, Nynmurder, Wariangle'; which is correct. In the Wars of Alexander, ed. Skeat, l. 1706, the word wayryngle occurs as a term of abuse, signifying 'a little villain'; this is probably the same word, and answers to a dimin. form of A. S. wearg (Icel. vargr, O. H. G. warg, warc), a felon, with the suffix -incel, as seen in A. S. r[=a]p-incel, a little rope, h[=u]s-incel, a little house. Bradley cites, as parallel forms, the O. H. G. warchengil (see below), and the M. L. G. wargingel, which are probably formed in a similar way. The epithet 'little felon' or 'little murderer' agrees with other names for the shrike, viz. 'butcher-bird,' 'murdering-bird,' 'nine-murder,' nine-killer,' so called because it impales beetles and small birds on thorns, for the purpose of pulling them to pieces. This is why I take venim to mean 'spite' rather than 'poison' in this passage.
Schmeller, in his Bavarian Dict., ii. 999, says that the Lanius excubitor is called, in O. H. G. glosses, Warchengel (Graff, i. 349); also Wargengel, Würgengel, and Würger.
1413. north contree. This is a sly joke, because, in the old Teutonic mythology, hell was supposed to be in the north. Wright refers us, for this belief, to his St. Patrick's Purgatory. See my note to P. Plowman, C. ii. 111, about Lucifer's sitting in the north; cf. Isaiah, xiv. 13, 14; Milton, P. L. v. 755-760; Myrour of our Lady, ed. Blunt, p. 189. In the Icelandic Gylfaginning, we find--'niðr ok norðr liggr Helvegr,' i. e. downwards and northwards lies the way to hell. Cf. l. 1448.
1428. laborous is right; offyc-e is trisyllabic.
1436. A proverbial expression; still in use in Lancashire and elsewhere; see N. and Q., 7 S. x. 446, 498. Cf. 'a taker and a bribing [robbing] feloe, and one for whom nothing was to hotte nor to heauie.' Udall, tr. of Erasmus' Apophthegmes; Cicero, § 50.
'Their loues they on the tenter-hookes did racke, Rost, boyl'd, bak'd, too too much white, claret, sacke, Nothing they thought too heavy nor too hot, Canne followed Canne, and pot succeeded pot.' John Taylor; Pennilesse Pilgrimage.
Of course the sense is--'too hot to hold.' Tyrwhitt quotes a similar phrase from Froissart, v. i. c. 229, 'ne laissoient riens a prendre, s'il n'estoit trop chaud, trop froid, ou trop pesant.'
1439. 'Were it not for my extortion, I could not live.'
1451. 'What I can thus acquire is the substance of all my income.' See note to A. 256; and Feck in the New Eng. Dictionary.
1456. Read ben'cite; and observe the rime: prey-e, sey ye. Pronounce: (prei·y[*e], sei·y[*e]), where ([*e]) represents the obscure vowel, or the a in China. [327]
1459. Such questions were eagerly discussed in the middle ages; see l. 1461-5.
1463. make yow seme, make it seem to you. Tyrwhitt has wene (for seme), which occurs in MS. Cp. only.
1467. iogelour, juggler; for their tricks, see F. 1143. Wright says:--'The jogelour (joculator) was originally the minstrel, and at an earlier period was an important member of society. He always combined mimicry and mountebank performances with poetry and music. In Chaucer's time he had so far degenerated as to have become a mere mountebank, and as it appears, to have merited the energetic epithet here applied to him.' Cf. my note to P. Plowman, C. xvi. 207.
1472. Read abl' is. MS. Hl. has:--'As most abíl is our-e pray to take.' Cf. F. habile, for which Cotgrave gives one meaning as 'apt unto anything he undertakes.'
1476. pryme, 9 A.M., a late time with early risers. See note to B. 4045, p. 250.
1483-91. Cf. Boeth. bk. iv. pr. 6. 62-71; Job, i. 12; ii. 6.
1502. I suspect this to be an allusion to a story similar to that entitled 'A Lay of St. Dunstan' in the Ingoldsby Legends.
1503. This probably alludes to some of the legends about the apostles. Thus, in The Lives of Saints, ed. Horstmann, p. 36, l. 72, some fiends are represented as doing the will of St. James the Greater; and in the same, p. 368, l. 50, a fiend says of St. Bartholomew:--'He mai do with us al that he wole, for bi-neothe him we beoth.' Cf. Acts, xix. 15.
1508. 'The adoption of the bodies of the deceased by evil spirits in their wanderings upon earth, was an important part of the medieval superstitions of this country, and enters largely into a variety of legendary stories found in the old chroniclers.'--Wright. Bell quotes from Hamlet, ii. 2:--'The spirit that I have seen May be the devil,' &c.
1509. renably, reasonably. The A. F. form of 'reasonable' was resnable (as in the Life of Edw. the Confessor, l. 1602); and, by the law that s became silent before l, m, and n (as in isle, blasmer, disner, E. isle, blame, dine), this became renable. See note to P. Plowman, C. i. 176.
1510. Phitonissa; this is another spelling of pythonissa, which is the word used, in the Vulgate version of 1 Chron. x. 13, with reference to the witch of Endor. In 1 Sam. xxviii. 7, the phrase is mulier pythonem habens. The witch of Endor is also called phitonesse in Gower, Conf. Amant. bk. iv, ed. Pauli, ii. 66; Barbour's Bruce, iv. 753; Skelton's Philip Sparowe, l. 1345; Lydgate's Falls of Princes, bk. ii. leaf xl, ed. Wayland; Gawain Douglas, prol. to the Æneid, ed. Small, ii. 10, l. 2; and in Sir D. Lyndesay's Monarchè, bk. iv. l. 5842. And see Hous of Fame, 1261. Cf. [Greek: pneuma Puthônos], Acts, xvi. 16.
1518. in a chayer rede, lecture about this matter as in a professorial chair, lecture like a professor; cf. l. 1638. The fiend is satirical.
1519. Referring to Vergil's Æneid, bk. vi, and Dante's Inferno.
1528. This much resembles A. 1132, q.v. [328]
1541. for which, for which reason; stood, stood still, was stuck fast.
1543. In Brand's Popular Antiquities, ed. Ellis, ii. 15, 'Heit or Heck' is mentioned as being 'a well-known interjection used by the country people to their horses.' Brand adds that 'the name of Brok is still, too, in frequent use amongst farmers' draught oxen.' In the Towneley Mysteries, p. 9, is the exclamation 'hyte!' The word for 'stop!' was 'ho!' like the modern whoa! This explains a line in Gascoigne's Dan Bartholmew of Bathe, ed. Hazlitt, i. 136:--'His thought sayd haight, his sillie speache cryed ho.' Bell notes that 'Hayt is still the word used by waggoners in Norfolk, to make their horses go on'; and adds--'Brok means a badger, hence applied to a gray horse, myne owene lyard boy (l. 1563). Scot is a common name for farm-horses in East-Anglia; as in A. 616.' In the Towneley Mysteries, p. 9, names of oxen are Malle, Stott (doubtless miswritten for Scott), Lemyng, Morelle, and White-horne. The Craven Glossary says hyte is used to turn horses to the left; whilst the Ger. hott! or hottot! is used to turn them to the right. In Shropshire, 'ait or 'eet, said to horses, means 'go from me'; see Waggoners' Words in Miss Jackson's Shropsh. Wordbook.
1548. MS. Hl. has--'her schal we se play.' Tyrwhitt has pray, which gives a false rime, for it should be prey-e; see l. 1455, and the note to l. 1456. The six MSS. all have a pley.
1559. thakketh (pronounced thakk'th) his hors, pats, or strokes his horses; to encourage them. From A. S. þaccian, to stroke (a horse), Gregory's Pastoral Care, ed. Sweet, p. 303, l. 10. So also in A. 3304. (Not to thwack, or whack.)
1560. I adopt the reading of MSS. E. and Hn. MSS. Cm. Pt. Ln. have:--'And they bigunne to drawe and to stoupe,' which throws an awkward accent on the former to. MS. Hl. has:--'And thay bygon to drawen and to stowpe.' But I take to-stoupe to be a compound verb, with the sense 'stoop forward'; though I can find no other example of its use. Being uncommon, it would easily have been resolved into two words, and this would necessitate the introduction of to before drawen. Bigonne usually takes to after it, but not always; cf. 'Iapen tho bigan,' B. 1883.
1563. twight, pulled, lit. 'twitched.' 'Liard, a common appellative for a horse, from its grey colour, as bayard was from bay (see A. 4115). See P. Plowman, C. xx. 64 [and my note on the same]. Bp. Douglas, in his Virgil, usually puts liart for albus, incanus, &c.'--T. Other names of horses are, Favel for a chestnut, Dun for a dun horse, Ferrand for an iron-gray, and Morel, i. e. mulberry-coloured, for a roan.
1564. I give the reading of MSS. Hn. Cp. Pt. Ln., and of the black-letter editions. MS. Hl. has 'I pray god saue thy body and seint loy'; for which Cm. has 'the body,' as if 'the' were the original reading, and 'body' a supplied word. I take se-ynt to be dissyllabic, as in A. 120, 509, 697, D. 604. As to seint Loy, the patron-saint of goldsmiths, farriers, smiths, and carters, see note to A. 120. [329]
1568. Cf. Rom. de la Rose, 10335-6: 'car ge fesoie Une chose, et autre pensoie.'
1570. upon cariage, by way of quitting my claim to this cart and team; a satirical reflection on his failure to win anything by the previous occurrence. Cariage was a technical term for a service of carrying, or a payment in lieu of it, due from a tenant to his landlord or feudal superior; see the New Eng. Dictionary, s. v. Carriage, I. 4. The landlord used to claim the use of the tenant's horses and carts for his own service, without payment for the use of them; and the tenant could only get off by paying cariage. This difficult use of the word is exemplified by two other passages in Chaucer, one of which is in the Cant. Tales, I. 752; q.v. The other is in his Boethius, bk. i. pr. 4, l. 50, where he says:--'The poeple of the provinces ben harmed outher by privee ravynes, or by comune tributes or cariages,' where the Lat. text has uectigalibus.
1573. rebekke, old woman; lit. Rebecca; see note to l. 1377 above.
1576. Twelve pence was a considerable sum in those days; being equivalent to something like fifteen shillings of our present money.
1580. winne thy cost, earn your expenses.
1582. viritrate, a term of contempt for an old woman. Cf. 'thou olde trot,' addressed to an old woman; Thersites, in Hazlitt's Old Plays, i. 415. Jamieson gives trat, an old woman; with three examples from G. Douglas. Levins (1570) has: 'Tratte, anus.'
1591. wisly, certainly. I ne may, I cannot (come).
1593. go, walk; as usual, when used with ryde.
1595. axe a libel, apply to have a written declaration of the complaint against me, i. e. a copy of the indictment.
1596. procutour, proctor, to appear on my behalf. Only MS. Hl. has the full form procuratour; the rest have procutour or procatour, as suitable for the metre. These forms are interesting, as furnishing the intermediate step between procurator and proctor. So, in the Prompt. Parv., we find 'proketowre, Procurator,' and 'prokecye, Procuracia'; whence, by loss of e, proctor and proxy. there is dissyllabic, as in A. 3165, and frequently.
1613. Seinte Anne, saint Anna, whose day is July 26. In Luke, ii. 36, is mentioned 'Anna the prophetess.' At the commencement of the apocryphal gospel of Mary, we are told that the virgin's 'father's name was Joachim, and her mother's Anna.' This is the saint Anna here alluded to. See B. 641; G. 70; and Cursor Mundi, l. 10147. Hence it became a common practice to give a girl the name of Mary Ann, which combined the name of the virgin with that of her mother.
1617. I payde, and which I paid.
1618. lixt, liest; a common form; see P. Plowman, C. vii. 138 (B. v. 163); Plowman's Crede, 542.
1630. stot, properly a stallion (as in A. 615), or a bullock; also applied, as in the Cleveland Glossary, to an old ox. Here it clearly means 'old cow,' as a term of abuse. [330]
1635. by right; because the old woman really meant it; cf. l. 1568.
1644. leve, grant. Tyrwhitt wrongly has lene, lend. The difference between these two words, which are constantly confused (being written leue, lene, often indistinguishably) is explained in my note to P. Plowman, B. v. 263. Leue (grant, permit) is usually followed by a dependent clause; but lene (lend, grant, give) by an accusative case.
1647. I supply and to fill up the line. This and appears in all the modern editions, but without authority, and without any notice that the MSS. omit it. Yet it neither appears in any one of our seven MSS. nor in MSS. Dd., Ii., or Mm. Neither does it appear in the black-letter editions. Indeed MS. E. marks the scansion thus: After the text of Crist | Poul | and John; as if the word 'Poul' occupied a whole foot of the verse. And I can readily believe that the line was meant to be so scanned.
1657. See Ps. x. 9. sit, short for sitteth.
1661. See 1 Cor. x. 13. over, above, beyond.
1662. For Christ as a 'knight,' see P. Plowman, C. xxi. 11; Ancren Riwle, p. 390.
1663. For Somnours, several MSS. have Somnour. MS. Cm. is defective; MS. Dd. supports the reading which I have given. It is immaterial, as thise Somnours includes the particular Somnour who was one of the party.
THE SOMPNOUR'S PROLOGUE.
1676. The words of St. Paul, 2 Cor. xii. 4, have suggested numerous accounts of revelations made to saints regarding heaven and hell. In Bede's Eccl. History, bk. iii. c. 19, we are told how St. Furseus saw a vision of hell; so also did St. Guthlac, as related in his life, cap. 5. A long vision of purgatory is recounted in the Revelation to the Monk of Evesham, ed. Arber; and another in the account of St. Patrick's Purgatory, in the Lives of Saints, ed. Horstmann. Long descriptions of hell are common, as in the Cursor Mundi, l. 23195, and Hampole's Pricke of Conscience, l. 6464. But the particular story to which Chaucer here alludes is, probably, not elsewhere extant.
1688. Possibly Chaucer was thinking of the wings of Lucifer, greater than any sails, as described in Dante's Inferno, xxxiv. 48; whence also Milton speaks of Satan's 'sail-broad vans,' P. L. ii. 927. A carrik or carrack is a large trading-ship, and we have here the earliest known example of the use of the word in English; see Carrack in the New Eng. Dictionary.
1690-1. Cf. Rom. of the Rose, 7577-8; in vol. i. p. 257.
1695. Line 2119 of the House of Fame is: 'Twenty thousand in a route'; here we have the same line with the addition of freres. [331] Both lines are cast in the same mould, both being deficient in the first foot. Thus the scansion is: Twen | ty thou | sand, &c. In order to conceal this fact, Tyrwhitt reads: 'A twenty thousand,' &c., against all authority; but Wright, Bell, Morris, and Gilman all allow the line to stand as Chaucer wrote it, and as it is here given. The black-letter editions do the same. It is a very small matter that all the copies except E. have on for in; as the words are equivalent, I keep in (as in E.), because in is the reading in the Hous of Fame.
THE SOMNOURS TALE.
For further remarks about this Tale, see vol. iii. p. 452.
It is principally directed against the Frere; see the description of him in the Prologue, A. 208.
1710. Holderness is an extremely flat district; it lies at the S. E. angle of Yorkshire, between Hull, Driffield, Bridlington and Spurn Point; see the Holderness Glossary, E. D. S. 1877. We find that Chaucer makes no attempt here, as in the Reeve's Tale, to imitate the Yorkshire dialect.
1712. to preche. The friars were popular preachers of the middle ages. They were to live by begging, and were therefore often called the Mendicant Orders; see l. 1912, and the notes to A. 208, 209. The friar of our story was a Carmelite; see note to l. 2116.
1717. trentals. A trental (from Low Lat. trentale, O. F. trentel) was an office of thirty masses, to be said on so many consecutive days, for the benefit of souls in purgatory. It also meant, as here, the sum paid for the same to the priest or friar. See Wyclif's Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 299, 374; ed. Matthew (E. E. T. S.) pp. 211, 516; and the poem entitled St. Gregory's Trental, in Religious, Political, and Love Poems, ed. Furnivall, p. 83.
1722. possessioners. This term seems to have been applied (1) to the regular orders of monks who possessed landed property, and (2) to the beneficed clergy. I think there is here particular reference to the latter, as indicated by the occurrence of preest in l. 1727, curat in 1816, and viker and persone in l. 2008. The friars, on the contrary, were supposed to have no endowments, but to subsist entirely upon alms; they contrived, however, to evade this restriction, and in Pierce the Plowman's Crede, there is a description of a Dominican convent built with considerable splendour. I take the expression 'Thanked be god' in l. 1723 to be a parenthentical remark made by the Somnour who tells the story, as it is hardly consistent with the views of the friars. As to the perpetual jealousies between the friars and the possessioners, see P. Plowman, B. v. 144.
1728. It was usual (as said in note to l. 1717) to sing the thirty masses on thirty consecutive days, as Chaucer here remarks. But the friar says they are better when 'hastily y-songe'; and it would appear [332] that the friars used occasionally to sing all the thirty masses in one day, and so save a soul from twenty-nine days of purgatory; cf. ll. 1729, 1732. In English Gilds, ed. Toulmin Smith, p. 8, we have an example of this. The wardens are there directed to summon the Minorite Friars to say the dirge, 'and on the morwe to seie a trent of masses atte same freres.'
In Jack Upland, § 13, we find: 'Why make ye [freres] men beleeue that your golden trentall sung of you, to take therefore ten shillings, or at least fiue shillings, woll bring souls out of hell, or out of purgatorie?'
1730. oules. The M. E. forms oule, owel, owul, as well as A. S. awul, awel, are various spellings of E. awl, which see in the New Eng. Dict. Hence oules means awls or piercing instruments. In the Life of St. Katherine, l. 2178, the tormentors torture the saint with 'eawles of irne,' i. e. iron awls. In Horstmann's South-English Legendary (E. E. T. S.), St. Blase is tormented with 'oules kene,' which tore his flesh as when men comb wool (p. 487, l. 84); hence he became the patron saint of wool-combers. Similar tortures were applied by fiends in the medieval descriptions of hell. See Ancren Riwle, p. 212; St. Brandan, ed. Wright, pp. 22, 48.
'There are the furies tossing damnèd souls On burning forks.' Marlowe, Faustus, Act v. sc. 4.
1734. qui cum patre. 'This is part of the formula with which prayers and sermons are still sometimes concluded in the Church of England.'--Bell. In a sermon for Ascension Day, in Morris's O. E. Homilies, ii. 115, we have at the end an allusion, in English, to Christ, after which follows:--'qui cum patre et spiritu sancto uiuit et regnat per omnia secula seculorum.' Such was the usual formula.
1740. The friars often begged in pairs; in this way, each was a check upon the other as regarded the things thus obtained. In Jack Upland, § 23, we find the friars are asked:--'What betokeneth that ye goe tweine and tweine togither?' Langland tells us how he met two friars; see P. Plowman, C. xi. 8.
1741. tables, writing tablets. In Horman's Vulgaria, leaf 81, we read:--'Tables be made of leues of yuery, boxe, cyprus, and other stouffe, daubed with waxe to wrytte on.' And again, in the same:--'Poyntellis of yron, and poyntyllis of syluer, bras, boon, or stoone.' This is a survival of the use of the Roman waxed tablet and stilus.
1743. Jack Upland (§ 20) asks the friar:--'Why writest thou hir names in thy tables that yeueth thee mony?' The usual reason was, that the donors might be prayed for; see l. 1745. Cf. l. 1752.
1745. Ascaunces, as if, as though, as if to promise. In G. 838, q.v., it means 'you might suppose that,' or 'possibly.' In Troilus, i. 205, it means 'as if to say'; Boccaccio's Italian has quasi dicesse. It also occurs in Troilus, i. 292; Lydgate, Fall of Princes, fol. 136 b (Tyrwhitt); [333] Tale of Beryn, 1797; Palladius on Husbandry, vi. 39; Sidney's Arcadia, ed. 1622, p. 162; and in Gascoigne's Works, ed. Hazlitt, i. 113, where the marginal note has 'as who should say.' See the New Eng. Dictionary, where the etymology is said to be unknown.
I have since found that it is a hybrid compound. The first part of it is E. as, used superflously and tautologically; the latter part of it is the O. F. quanses, 'as if,' first given in a dictionary by Godefroy in 1889, with six examples, and three other spellings, viz. qanses, quainses, and queinsi. Godefroy refers us to Romania, xviii. 152, and to Foerster's edition of Cliges, note to l. 4553. Kilian gives Mid. Du. 'quantsuys, quasi'; borrowed from O. French, without any prefix.
1746. Nothing came amiss to the friars. They begged for 'corn, monee, chese,' &c.; see Wyclif's Works, ed. Matthew, p. 304. And in Skelton's Colin Clout, l. 842, we read of the friars:--
'Some to gather chese; Loth they are to lese Eyther corne or malte; Somtyme meale and salte, Somtyme a bacon-flycke,' &c.
1747. Goddes here translated the French expression de Dieu, meaning 'sent from God.' Tyrwhitt says that the true meaning of de Dieu 'is explained by M. de la Monnoye in a note upon the Contes de D. B. Periers, t. ii. p. 107. Belle serrure de Dieu: Expression du petit peuple, qui raporte pieusement tout à Dieu. Rien n'est plus commun dans la bouche des bonnes vieilles, que ces espèces d'Hébraïsmes: Il m'en conte un bel écu de Dieu; Il ne me reste que ce pauvre enfant de Dieu. Donnez-moi une bénite aumône de Dieu. See goddes halfpeny in l. 1749. (The explanation by Speght, and in Cowel's Interpreter, s. v. kichell, seems to be, as Tyrwhitt says, an invention.)
kechil, a little cake. The form kechell occurs in the Ormulum, l. 8662; answering to the early A. S. coecil, occurring as a gloss to tortum in the Epinal Glossary, 993; different from A. S. c[=i]cel (for c[=y]cel), given as cicel in Bosworth's Dictionary. The cognate M. H. G. word is küechel[=i]n (Schade), O. H. G. chuochel[=i]n, double dimin. from O. H. G. kuocho (G. Kuchen), a cake; see Kuchen in Kluge. The E. cake is a related word, but with a difference in vowel-gradation.
trip, 'a morsel.' 'Les tripes d'un fagot, the smallest sticks in a faggot'; Cotgrave.
1749. masse-peny, a penny for saying a mass. Jack Upland, § 19, says:--'Freer, whan thou receiuest a peny for to say a masse, whether sellest thou Gods body for that peny, or thy prayer, or els thy travell?'
1751. 'dagon, a slip, or piece. It is found in Chaucer, Berners, and Steevens' Supp. to Dugdale, ii. ap. 370, applied in each instance to a blanket'; Halliwell. Cf. M. E. dagge, a strip of cloth.
1755. hostes man, servant to the guests at the convent. Hoste seems here to mean 'guest,' which is one of the meanings of O. F. hoste (see [334] Cotgrave). This sense is rare in M. E., but it occurs in the Romance of Merlin, ed. Wheatley, iii. 684, last line but one. Because he 'bare the bag,' this attendant on the friars was nicknamed Iscariot; cf. John, xii. 6. 'Thei leden with hem a Scarioth, stolen fro is eldris by thefte, to robbe pore men bi beggynge'; Wyclif's Works, ed. Matthew, p. 49.
1768. the gode man, the goodman, or master of the house. MS. Hl. has housbond-man, and MSS. Cp. Ln. bonde man; all with the same sense. place, house; cf. note to B. 1910; p. 184.
1770. Deus hic, God be here; 'the ordinary formula of benediction on entering a house'; Wright.
1775. A fine realistic touch; the friar made himself quite at home.
1778. go walked, gone on a walk. For go walked, as in all the seven MSS., Tyrwhitt substitutes y-walked, suppressing this characteristic idiom. See note to C. 406; p. 272.
1792. glose, gloss, interpretation, as distinguished from the text.
1794. Cf. 2 Cor. iii. 6. In the margin of E., 'Litera occidit, &c.'
1804. Kissing was an ordinary form of salutation.
1810. It was usual, I believe, to use a form of deprecation of this sort in reply to praise. The sense is--'but I am aware that I have defects, and may God amend them.'
1816. curats, parish clergy; cf. note to l. 1722.
1820. Cf. 'thou shalt catch men'; Luke, v. 10; 'fishers of men,' Matt. iv. 19; Rom. Rose, (E. version), 7492.
1824. 'For (the sake of the) holy Trinity.' Seint-e is feminine.
1825. pissemyre, ant. Cf. 'as angry as a wasp,' in Heywood's Proverbs.
1832. Ie vous dy, I tell you. A common phrase; see King Alisaunder, ed. Weber, l. 79; Rom. of the Rose, 7408 (in vol. i. p. 254).
1834. ire (Lat. ira) is one of the seven deadly sins; hence the friar's sermon against it, in ll. 2005-2088.
1842. 'But I hope no animal is ever killed on my account.' A strong hint that he always expected some special provision to be made for him.
1845. Cf. John, iv. 34; Job, xxiii. 12.
1853. toun, village; or, precincts of this farm-house.
1857. Visions of saints being carried to heaven are not uncommon. Bede relates one, of Saint Earcongota; Eccl. Hist. bk. iii. c. 8.
1859. fermerer, the friar who had charge of the infirmary. Put for enfermerer, from O. Fr. enfermerier (Godefroy). So also fermorie, an infirmary, in P. Pl. B. xiii. 108.
1862. maken hir Iubilee, keep their jubilee; i. e. having served fifty years in the convent, they have obtained certain privileges, one of which was to go about alone; see note to l. 1740. Tyrwhitt refers us to Ducange, s. v. Sempectæ.
1864. trikling, so E. Hn.; Cm. trynkelynge (probably by error); rest trilling. Cf. B. 1864.
1866. 'Nothing but a thanksgiving would have been appropriate for [335] a child dying in infancy, of whose translation to paradise the friar pretends that he had seen a vision'; Bell.
1872. burel (Pt. Hl. borel) folk, lay folk, the laity. 'The term seems to have arisen from the material of their clothing, which was not used by the clergy'; Wright. Cf. borel, in D. 356; borel men, i. e. laymen, in B. 3145; and borel clerkes, lay clerks, learned laymen, in P. Plowman, B. x. 286.
1877. See Luke, xvi. 19, 20.
1880. In the margin of E., 'Melius est animam saginare quam corpus.' Jean de Meun, in his Testament, 346, says of misers: 'Amegrient leurs ames, plus que leurs cors n'engressent.'
1881. See 1 Tim. vi. 8.
1885. See Exod. xxxiv. 28.
1890. See 1 Kings, xix. 8.
1894. See Levit. x. 9.
1906. mendinants, mendicant friars. Tyrwhitt has mendiants, but, in his notes, admits that mendinants is the right reading, as he found the word to be 'constantly so spelled in the Stat. 12 Rich. II. capp. 7, 8, 9, 10.' The same spelling occurs repeatedly in P. Plowman; see note to P. Pl. C. xvi. 3. See Mendiener, to beg, in Godefroy's O. Fr. Dictionary.
1911. 'The thridde deceyt of thise ordris is that thei passen othere in preyeris, bothe for tyme thei preyen and for multitude of hem'; Wyclif's Works, ed. Matthew, p. 317.
1915-7. See note to C. 505; p. 278.
1923. See Matt. v. 3. by freres, (1922), concerning friars. Certainly, there is no 'text' to this effect; but the friar trusted to find it in a maner glose, in some kind of comment on the text.
1926. An allusion to possessioners; see note to l. 1722.
1929. Iovinian. I think this is the same Jovinian as is mentioned in D. 675; for Chaucer frequently quotes the treatise by Jerome against this heretic. Gibbon, in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ch. 30, refers in a footnote to 'Jovinian, the enemy of fasts and of celibacy, who was persecuted and insulted by the furious Jerome.' The other Jovinian was a fabulous Roman emperor, who was awhile deposed, like Nebuchadnezzar, for his pride and luxury, as related in the Gesta Romanorum, cap. 59 (or 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.