With these examples in view, we might interpret ferne halwes in Chaucer’s Prologue, l. 14, by ‘olden’ rather than by ‘distant’ saints; yet the latter is decisively authenticated by a passage in his translation of Boethius, bk. ii. met. 7, where the expression ‘renoun ysprad to ferne poeples, goth by dyverse tonges,’ can only mean ‘distant’ peoples. Fern, in the sense of old, is explained at once by the Gothic fairnis, old; but, in the sense of distant, would seem to be corruptly and incorrectly formed, since the A. S. feorran, meaning far, is strictly an adverb, from the adjective feorr. But in course of time this adverb came to be declined as an adjective; see the examples in Stratmann, s. v. feorren.
258. Cf. ‘What is the cause of thunder’; K. Lear, iii. 4. 160. The opinions of various ancient philosophers as to the cause of thunder are given in Plutarch’s treatise, De Placitis Philosophorum (περὶ τω̑ν ἀρεσκόντων τοι̑ς ϕιλοσόϕοις), lib. iii. c. 3. It was usually believed to result from the collision of clouds. ‘Fulmina autem collisa nubila faciunt’; Isidore, Originum lib. xiii. c. 9. Cf. A. S. Leechdoms, iii. 281.
263. For a full explanation of this difficult passage, I must be content to refer the reader to Mr. Brae’s edition of Chaucer’s Astrolabe, pp. 77 and 86, and my own edition of the same (E. E. T. S.), p. lvi. The chief points that now seem tolerably certain are these.
(1) The Angle Meridional was an astrological term. The heavens were divided into twelve equal parts called ‘mansions,’ and four of these mansions were technically called ‘angles’; the angle meridional was the same as the tenth mansion, which was bounded on the one edge by the meridian, and on the other by a semi-circle passing through the N. and S. points of the horizon, and lying 30° to the E. of the meridian; so that, at the equinoxes, at any place situate on the equator, the sun would cross this portion of the sky between 10 a.m. and the hour of noon.
(2) Since this ‘angle’ corresponds to the end of the forenoon, the sun leaves the said angle at the moment of noon, and l. 263 means no more than ‘it was now past noon.’
(3) The ‘royal beast’ means the king of beasts, the lion, and (here in particular) the sign of the zodiac named Leo. This sign, on March 15, in Chaucer’s time, and in the latitude of London, began to ‘ascend,’ or rise above the horizon, just about noon. An additional reason for calling Leo ‘royal’ is because the principal star in the constellation is called Regulus in Latin, Βασιλίσκος in Greek, and Melikhi in Arabic, all epithets signifying kingly or royal.
(4) But, before the Tartar king rose from the feast, the time past noon had so increased that the star called Aldiran, situate in Leo, was now rising above the horizon. In other words it was very nearly two o’clock. It may be added, that, by the time the whole of the sign had ascended, it would be about a quarter to three. Hence Chaucer speaks of the sign as yet (i. e. still) ascending.
The chief remaining point is to fix the star Aldiran.
Most MSS. read Aldrian, owing to the frequent shifting of r in a word; just as brid, for instance, is the old spelling of bird. But the Hengwrt MS. is right. The name Aldiran, Aldurin, or Aldiraan, occurs in the old Parisian star-lists as the name of a star in the constellation Leo, and is described in them as being ‘in fronte Leonis.’ The word means ‘the two fore-paws,’ and the notes of the star’s position are such that I am persuaded it is the star now called θ Hydrae, situate near the Lion’s fore-paws, as commonly drawn. The only objection to this explanation arises from the comparative insignificance of the star; but whoever will take the trouble to examine the old lists will see that certain stars were chosen quite as much for the sake of position as of brightness. When it was desired to mark particular points in the sky, bright stars were chosen if they were conveniently placed; but, failing that, any would serve the purpose that were fairly distinct. This is why, in a star-list of only 49 stars in MS. Camb. Univ. Lib. Ii. 3. 3, such stars as δ Capricorni, δ Aquarii, δ Ophiuchi, c., find a place. The star Aldiran (θ Hydrae) was remarkable for rising, in the latitude of Paris, just before the splendid star α Leonis of the first magnitude, whose coming it thus heralded. That star is also found in the same star-lists, with the name Calbalesed, or ‘the lion’s heart’; in Latin, Cor Leonis; another name for it being Regulus, as stated above.
On the whole, we fairly suppose Chaucer’s meaning to be, that before the feast concluded, it was not only past noon, but nearly two hours past noon.
269. chambre of parements. Tyrwhitt’s note is—‘ Chambre de parement is translated by Cotgrave, the presence-chambre, and lit de parement, a bed of state. Parements originally signified all sorts of ornamental furniture or clothes, from Fr. parer, to adorn. See Kn. Ta. 1643 (A. 2501), and Legend of Good Women; Dido, l. 181.’ He adds that the Italians use camera de’ paramenti in the same sense.
272. Venus children, the worshippers or subjects of Venus. It merely means the knights and ladies at the feast, whose thoughts then turned upon love, because the season was astrologically favourable for it; cf. Kn. Tale, 1628, 1629 (A. 2486). The reason is given in l. 273, viz. that ‘hir lady,’ i. e. their lady or goddess, as represented by the planet Venus, was then situate in the sign Pisces. This sign, in astrology, is called the ‘exaltation’ of Venus, or the sign in which she exerts most power. Hence the expression ful hye, and the statement that Venus regarded her servants with a friendly aspect. In the Wyf of Bathes Prol. (D. 704), Chaucer has the line—
‘In Pisces, wher Venus is exaltat. ’
‘Who will not commend the wit of astrology? Venus, born out of the sea, hath her exaltation in Pisces’; Sir T. Browne, Works, ed. Wilkin, iv. 382.
287. Lancelot, the celebrated lover of queen Guinever in the Arthur romances. Cp. Dante, Inf. v. 128.
291. ‘The steward bids (them) to be quick with the spices.’ Cf. Joseph of Arimathea, ed. Skeat, note to l. 698. And see vol. ii. 506.
300. Hath is here used like the mod. F. il y a, for which O. F. often has a only. The sense is—‘there is plenty.’ The idiom is borrowed from French, and the text is correct. (I owe this note to a friend.)
316. ‘You must twirl round a pin (which) stands in his ear.’
318. ‘You must also tell him to what place or country you wish to ride.’
334. Ryde, ride; so in the Six-text; Hl. has Byd, i. e. bid.
340. The bridle is here said to have been put away with the jewels. So also, when Richard I., in a crusade, took Cyprus, among the treasures in the castles are mentioned precious stones, golden cups, c., together with golden saddles, bridles, and spurs; Geoffrey of Vinsauf, Iter Hierosol. c. xli. p. 328; in Vet. Script. Angl. tom. ii.
346. Tyrwhitt inserts that after Til, to fill up the line. It is not required; it is one of the many lines in which the first syllable is lacking.
347. ‘Sleep, digestion’s nurse, winked upon them, and bade them take notice, that much drink and exercise must require repose.’ Cf. 2 Hen. IV., iii. 1. 6. Tyrwhitt supposes l. 349 to be corrupt; I do not know why.
351. To scan the line, retain the e in seyde, preserved by the caesura.
352. By the old physicians, blood was supposed to be in domination, or chief power, for seven hours, from the ninth hour of the night (beginning at 8 p.m. ) to the third hour of the day. Tyrwhitt quotes from a book De Natura, ascribed to Galen, tom. v. p. 327—‘ Sanguis dominatur horis septem, ab hora noctis nona ad horam diei tertiam.’ Other authorities were pleased to state the matter somewhat differently. ‘Six houres after midnight bloud hath the mastery, and in the sixe houres afore noon choler reigneth, and six houres after noon raigneth melancholy, and six hours afore midnight reigneth the flegmatick’; Shepheardes Kalender, ed. 1656, ch. xxix. Chaucer no doubt followed this latter account, which he may have found in the original French Calendrier des Bergers; see note to l. 51, p. 373.
358. fumositee, fumes arising from wine-drinking. See C. 567; and concerning dreams, see the Nonne Prestes Tale, 103–149 (B. 4113–59).
359. no charge, no weight; to which no weight, or no significance, can be attached.
360. pryme large; probably the same as fully pryme, Sir Thop., B. 2015, which see. It must then mean the time when the period of prime was quite ended; i. e. 9 a.m. This would be a very late hour for rising, but the occasion was exceptional.
365. appalled, enfeebled, languid; lit. ‘rendered pallid,’ cf. Kn. Ta. 2195 (A. 3053); and Shipm. Tale, B. 1290–2:—
373. ‘Before the sun began to rise’; i. e. before 6 a.m., as it was near the equinox.
374. maistresse, governess; as appears from the Phis. Tale, C. 72.
376–377. Though the sense is clear, the grammar is incurably wrong. Chaucer says —‘These old women, that would fain seem wise, just as did her governess, answered her at once.’ What he means is—‘This governess, that would fain seem wise, as such old women often do, answered her,’ c. The second part of this tale seems to have been hastily composed, left unfinished, and never revised. Cf. l. 382.
383. wel a ten, i. e. about ten. Cf. Prol. l. 24.
386. four. The Harl. MS. wrongly has ten. There is no doubt about it, because on March 15, the day before, the sun was in the third degree of the sign; on the 16th, he was in the fourth degree.
387. It means—‘and, moreover, the sun had risen but four degrees above the horizon’; i. e. it was not yet a quarter past six.
396. her hertes, their hearts. lighte, to feel light, to feel happy; an unusual use of the verb; but see F. 914. In l. 398, the sudden change to the singular she is harsh.
401. Again hastily written. Chaucer says—‘The point for which every tale is told—if it be delayed till the pleasure of them that have hearkened after (or listened attentively to) the former part of it grows cold—then the pleasantness of it passes off, on account of the prolixity in telling it; and the more so, the longer it is spun out.’ Knotte is cognate with the Lat. nodus (written for gnodus ), as used by Horace, Ars Poet. l. 191.
409. fordrye, exceedingly dry. The tree was white too, owing to loss of its bark. This reminds me of the famous Arbre Sec, or Dry Tree; see Marco Polo, ed. Yule, i. 119; Maundeville, ed. Halliwell, p. 68; Mätzner, Sprachproben, ii. 185.
428. faucon peregryn. ‘This species of falcon is thus described in the Tresor de Brunet Latin, P. i. ch. Des Faucons; MS. Reg. 19 C. x. “La seconde lignie est faucons, qui hom apele pelerins, par ce que nus ne trove son ni; ains est pris autresi come en pelerinage, et est mult legiers a norrir, et mult cortois et vaillans, et de bone maniere” [i. e. the second kind is the falcon which is called the pilgrim (or peregrine), because no one ever finds its nest; but it is otherwise taken, as it were on pilgrimage, and is very easily fed, and very tame and bold, and well-mannered]. Chaucer adds that this falcon was of fremde lond, i. e. from a foreign country.’—Tyrwhitt.
435. ledene, language; from A. S. læden, leden, sometimes used in the sense of language, though it is, after all, a mere corruption of Latin, which is the sense which it most often bears. Thus, the inscription on the cross of Christ is said to have been written ‘Ebreisceon stafon, and Grecisceon, and Leden stafon,’ in Hebrew letters and in Greek and Latin letters; John, xix. 20. So also ‘on Ledenisc gereorde,’ in the Latin language; Beda, bk. iv. c. 1. Hence the word was used more generally in the sense of language; as, ‘Mara is, on ure lyden, biternes,’ i. e. Marah is, in our speech, bitterness; Exod. xv. 23. This extension of the meaning, and the form of the word, were both influenced, probably, by confusion with the sb. lēod, people. The student should learn to distinguish this word from the A. S. lēoð, G. lied, a song. Tyrwhitt notes that Dante uses latino in the sense of language; ‘E cantine gli augelli Ciascuno in suo latino ’; Canzone 1.
458. as dooth, so do, pray do. See Note to Cler. Tale, E. 7.
469. ‘As verily as may the great God of nature help me.’ Wisly, verily, is quite different from wysly, wisely; cf. Kn. Ta. 1376 (A. 2234).
471. ‘To heal your hurts with quickly.’ Note the position of with; and cf. l. 641.
474. aswowne=a swowne=on swoune, in a swoon.
479. Chaucer’s favourite line; he repeats it four times. See Kn. Ta. 903 (A. 1761); March. Ta. 9860 (E. 1986); Prol. to Leg. G. W. 503. Also, in The Man of Lawes Ta. B. 660, we have it again in the form—‘As gentil herte is fulfild of pitee.’
480. similitude is pronounced nearly as sim’litude.
483. kytheth, manifests. Cf. Rom. Rose, 2187–2238 (vol. i. p. 172).
490. ‘And to make others take heed by my example, as the lion is chastised (or reproved) by means of the dog.’ The explanation of this passage was a complete riddle to me till I fortunately discovered the proverb alluded to. It appears in George Herbert’s Jacula Prudentum (Herbert’s Works, ed. Willmott, 1859, p. 328) in the form ‘Beat the dog before the lion,’ where before means in the sight of. This is cleared up by Cotgrave, who, in his French Dictionary, s. v. Batre, has the proverb—‘Batre le chien devant le Lion, to punish a mean person in the presence, and to the terror of, a great one.’ It is even better explained by Shakespeare, Othello, ii. 3. 272—‘What, man! there are ways to recover the general again: you are but now cast in his mood, a punishment more in policy than in malice; even so as one would beat his offenceless dog to affright an imperious lion.’
499. Ther, where. The numerous expressions in this narrative certainly shew that the falcon was really a princess (cf. l. 559) who had been changed into a falcon for a time, as is so common in the Arabian Tales. Thus, in l. 500, the roche or rock may be taken to signify a palace, and the tercelet (l. 504) to be a prince. This gives the whole story a human interest.
505–506. welle, well, fountain. Al were he, although he was.
511. coloures, colours; and, in a secondary sense, pretences, which meaning is also intended; cf. l. 560. On dyeing in grain, i. e. of a fast colour, see note to Sir Thopas, B. 1917.
512. hit him, hideth himself. The allusion is to the well-known lines ‘Qui legitis flores . . . fugite hinc, latet anguis in herba’; Verg. Bucol. iii. 92. Cf. D. 1994; and Macbeth, i. 5. 66.
516. Read kēp’th. MS. Hl. gives lines 514–6 thus:—
517. sowneth in-to, tend to, are consonant with; see Prol. 307.
518. Cf. P. Plowm. B. xv. 109. Both passages are from Matt. xxiii. 27.
537. Chaucer clearly quotes this as a proverb; true man means honest man, according to Dogberry; Much Ado about Nothing, iii. 3. 54. The sense seems to be much the same as ‘You cannot make a silk purse of a sow’s ear,’ or ‘Once a knave, always a knave.’ Compare the use of theef in Anelida, l. 161; also—
548. The reading Troilus (in E. Hn.) must be a mistake, because he was not guilty of transferring his love to another; it was Cressida who did that, so that the falcon would take care not to refer to that story. Paris deserted Oenone for Helen, and Jason deserted Medea for Glauce. Lamech was the first to have two wives, viz. Adah and Zillah; Gen. iv. 23. The whole of this passage is a recast of Chaucer’s earlier poem of Anelida, where Lamech is introduced just in the same way (l. 150).
555. Imitated, but not with good taste, from Mark, i. 7.
558. This line resembles Troil. ii. 637.
579. ‘Whether it was a grief to me, does not admit of doubt.
583. ‘Such grief I felt because he could not stay.’
593. Chaucer has this expression again, Kn. Ta. 2184 (A. 3042); Troilus, iv. 1586. It was a common proverb. Shakespeare has it frequently; Two G. of Ver. iv. i. 62; Rich. II., i. 3. 278; King Lear, iii. 2. 70. An early example of it is in Matt. Paris (Record Series), i. 20:—‘Vitam in tantam sanctitatem commutavit, faciendo de necessitate virtutem,’ c.
596. to borwe, for a security; borwe being a sb., not a verb. Cf. Kn. Ta. 360, 764 (A. 1218, 1622). Hence it means, ‘Saint John being for a security,’ i. e. Saint John being my security; as in The Complaint of Mars, l. 9. She pledges herself by Saint John, the apostle of truth; see 1 John, iii. 19, iv. 20. Lydgate has ‘seint John to borowe’ in his Complaint of the Black Knight, st. 2.
601. ‘When he has well said everything, he has done (all he means to do).’
602. This is a common proverb; cf. Com. of Errors, iv. 3. 64; Tempest, ii. 2. 103; Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iii. 4.
607. From Boethius, De Cons. Phil. lib. iii. met. 2:—
A few lines above is a passage answering to ll. 611–620, which in the original runs thus (cf. vol. ii. p. 56):—
Chaucer repeats the example yet a third time, in the Manciple’s Tale, H. 163. Moreover, Jean de Meun copied the whole passage in Le Roman de la Rose, 14145.
617–1223. Eight leaves are here lost in MS. HI.
618. newefangel, i. e. eager for novelty; of four syllables, as in l. 89 of the Manc. Tale, H. 193. The word newefangelnesse will be found in the poem of Anelida, l. 141, and in Leg. of Good Wom., Prol. 154. ‘Be not newfangil in no wise’; Babees Book, ed. Furnivall, p. 51, l. 115; cf. p. 9, l. 13. And see the Balade against Women Unconstant, l. 1 (vol. i. p. 409).
624. kyte. Mr. Jephson notes that ‘the kite is a cowardly species of hawk, quite unfit for falconry, and was therefore the emblem of everything base.’
640. Compare ll. 153–155, which shew that Canace knew what herbs to choose.
644. Blue was the colour of truth and constancy; hence the expression ‘true blue’; cf. Cler. Tale, E. 254. Green (l. 646) signified inconstancy. Lydgate, in his Fall of Princes, fol. e 7, speaking of Dalilah, says—
Tyrwhitt draws attention to the Balade against Women Unconstant (in vol. i. p. 409), the burden of which is—
‘In stede of blew, thus may ye were al grene. ’
648. tidifs. The tidif is mentioned as an inconstant bird in Prol. to Leg. G. W. l. 154—
Drayton uses tydy as the name of a small bird, Polyolb. xiii. 79; not the wren, which is mentioned five lines above. In a piece called The Parlament of Byrdes, pr. for A. Kytson, one of the birds is called a tytyfer; see Hazlitt’s Early Pop. Poetry, iii. 177. Schmeller gives Zitzerl as the Bavarian name for a wren; but cf. E. tit.
649–650. These lines are transposed in Tyrwhitt’s edition. Such a transposition makes the sense much clearer, beyond doubt. But I am not convinced that the confused construction in the text is not Chaucer’s own. It is very like his manner. Cf. notes to ll. 376, 401.
667. Observe that Cambalo, if not inserted here in the MSS. by error, is quite a different person from the Cambalus in l. 656 (called Cambalo in l. 31). He is Canace’s lover, who is to fight in the lists against her brothers Cambalo and Algarsif, and win her. Spenser (F. Q. iv. 3) introduces three brethren as suitors for Canace, who have to fight against Cambello her brother; this is certainly not what Chaucer intended, nor is it very satisfactory.
671–672. Some suppose these two lines to be spurious. I believe them to be genuine; for they occur in MS. E. Hn. Cp. Pt., and others, and are not to be too lightly rejected. The Lansdowne MS. has eight lines here, which are certainly spurious. In MS. E., atfer l. 672, the rest of the page is blank. The lines are quite intelligible, if we add the words He entreth. We then have—‘Apollo (the sun) whirls up his chariot so highly (continues his course in the zodiac) till he enters the mansion of the god Mercury, the cunning one’; the construction in the last line being similar to that in l. 209. The sun was described as in Aries, l. 51. By continuing his upward course, i. e. his Northward course, by which he approached the zenith daily, he would soon come to the sign Gemini, which was the mansion of Mercury. It is a truly Chaucerian way of saying that two months had elapsed. We may conclude that Chaucer just began the Third Part of this Tale, but never even finished the first sentence. It is worth noting that these two lines are imitated at the beginning of the (spurious) poem called The Flower and the Leaf; and in Skelton’s Garland of Laurel, l. 1471.
675. youthe is a dissyllable; observe the rime with allow the, i. e. commend thee, which is written as one word ( allowthe ) in several MSS.
683. pound, i. e. pounds worth of land.
686. possessioun, i. e. property, wealth. Cf. D. 1722.
688. and yet shal, and shall still do so.
709. Britons, Bretons, inhabitants of Brittany. Observe Chaucer’s mention of Armorik or Armorica in l. 729.
As to the existence of early Breton Lays, a fact which Ritson rashly denied in his anxiety to blame Warton (see Ritson, Met. Rom. iii. 332), the reader may consult Price’s remarks in the latest edition of Warton, 1871, vol. i. 169–177. It cannot be doubted that the Lais of Marie de France were, in a large measure, founded upon Breton tales which she had heard or found recorded. Sir F. Madden refers us, for further information, to De la Rue’s Essais sur les Bardes, c., iii. 47–100; Robert, Fables Inédites, c., i. ciii-clix.; the Preface to Roman du Rénart; and Costello’s Specimens of the Early Poetry of France, 43–49. The Lais of Marie de France were edited by Roquefort, Paris, 1820; and by Warnke, Halle, 1885. See further in vol. iii. p. 480.
721. Pernaso, Parnassus. The form is Parnaso in Anelida, 16, and Ho. of Fame, 521; see also Troilus, iii. 1810, and my note to Anelida, 16. A side-note, in the margin of E., shews that Chaucer is here quoting a part of the first three lines of the Prologus to the Satires of Persius.
722. Cithero, Cicero; spelt Scithero in E. Hn., but Cithero in Cp. Pt. Ln. The three latter MSS. stupidly insert ne before Cithero, thus destroying both sense and metre, and tempting Mr. Wright to make the purely gratuitous suggestion, that Chaucer did it on purpose(!), in order to make the Frankeleyn appear really ignorant.
723. I. e. he knows no ‘colours’ of rhetoric; cf. F. 511.
729. Armorik, Armorica, the modern Brittany.
743. A note in Bell says this is meant ‘ironically.’ On the contrary, it is explanatory, and in perfect keeping with the context. Cf. l. 751, and the full discussion of the matter in ll. 764–790.
764. This passage is clearly founded on Le Roman de la Rose, ll. 9465–9534, a piece which is too long to be quoted. Compare, for example, ll. 9479–9482:—
Compare also ll. 8489–90 of the same:—
And see Kn. Ta., A. 1625–6. Spenser copies ll. 764–6 very closely; F. Q. iii. 1. 25. And see Butler, Hudib. iii. 1. 553–560; Pope, Eloisa, 76.
774. So in P. Plowman, C. xvi. 138, we find patientes uincunt. The reference is to Dionysius Cato, Distichorum lib. i. 38:—
And again, in his Breves Sententiae, Sent. xl., he has:—‘Parentes patientia uince.’ But Chaucer’s words agree still more closely with an altered version of Cato which is quoted in Old Eng. Homilies, ed. Morris, 2 Ser. p. 80, in the form:—‘Quem superare nequis, patienter uince ferendo.’ Compare the proverb—‘uincit qui patitur’; also Vergil, Æn. v. 710; Ovid, Art. Amat. ii. 197, Am. iii. 11. 7, Am. i. 2. 10. See also Troil. iv. 1584.
792. This is from the same passage of Le Roman as that mentioned in the note to l. 764. Compare, for example, the following lines (9489–94), where serjant means ‘servant’:—
801. Penmarch Point is a headland near Quimper, in the department of Finisterre; a little to the S. of Brest.
Tyrwhitt’s derivation of this name, from pen, a head, and mark, a mark or boundary, assumes that mark is a Celtic word. No doubt pen represents Bret. penn (Welsh pen ), a head, a promontory; but, instead of mark I can only find Bret. march (Welsh and Cornish march, Irish marc ), a horse. In the sense of boundary, mark is Teutonic.
808. Kayrrud, Caer-rud; evidently an old Celtic name. Caer is the Bret. ker, kear, a town; Welsh and Cornish caer, a fort, town. And perhaps rud is ‘red’; cf. Bret. rus, Welsh rhudd, Cornish rudh, red. It does not appear in the map.
Arveragus, a Latinised form of a Celtic name; spelt Aruiragus in Juvenal, Sat. iv. 127. Arviragus, son of Cymbeline, one of the fabulous kings of Britain, married a daughter of the Roman emperor Claudius; see Rob. of Glouc. l. 1450.
815. Dorigene; also a Celtic name. ‘Droguen, or Dorguen, was the wife of Alain I.—Lobineau, t. i. p. 70.’—Tyrwhitt. Lobineau was the author of a history of Brittany.
830. Cf. ‘Gutta cauat lapidem’; Ovid, Epist. iv. 10. 5.
861. Cf. ‘That she ne hath foot on which she may sustene’; Anelida, 177.
867. In ydel, in vain. In P. Plowman, A. vi. 61, we have in idel, and in B. v. 580, an ydel, in the same sense. With this passage, cf. Boeth. bk. i. met. 5. 22; bk. iii. met. 9. 1-10.
879. Cf. ‘a fayr party of so grete a werk’; Boeth. bk. i. met. 5. 38.
880. thyn owene merk, thine own likeness; cf. ‘ad imaginem suam,’ Gen. i. 27. It appears, from P. Plowman, B. xv. 343, C. xviii. 73, that the words merke and preynte (print) were both used of the ‘impression’ upon a coin. From a comparison of the Vulgate version of Gen. i. 27 and Matt. xxii. 20, we see that imago was used in the same way. This explains how merk came to mean ‘likeness,’ and how mark of Adam (in D. 696) came to mean ‘all such as are made in Adam’s likeness.’ See that passage.
883. menes, means, instruments of Thy will. The sing. mene, in the same sense, occurs in P. Plowman, C. xvii. 96, and frequently in Sir Generides, where it is spelt meane.
886. ‘All’s for the best’; a popular rendering of Romans, viii. 28. Cf. Boeth. bk. iv. pr. 6. 194–6.
889. this, short for this is; as in many other places.
899. delitables, a good example of a French pl. adj. in s. So also royales, B. 2038. See my note to P. Plowman, C. x. 342.
900. ches, chess. Chess was played in England even before the Conquest, in the days of Canute. ‘Tables’ is another name for back-gammon, and was called tabularum ludus in Latin. See Strutt’s Sports and Pastimes, bk. iv. c. 2. §§ 4, 16.
913. The odour is to be read as Th’odóur.
918. At-after, after; as in F. 302.
938. Aurelius. Tyrwhitt remarks that ‘this name, though of Roman origin, was common, we may presume, among the Britons. One of the princes mentioned by Gildas was called Aurelius Conanus. Another British king is called Aurelius Ambrosius by Geoffrey of Monmouth.’ See Fabyan’s History, pt. 1. capp. 93, 108.
942. With-outen coppe, without a cup. This expression means that he drank his penance in full measure, not by small quantities at a time. It occurs again in the Prologu to the Tale of Beryn, ll. 306, 460.
948. Chaucer wrote such things himself; see Leg. of Good Women, 423, and the note. See also, in his Minor Poems, the Complaint of Mars, the roundel in the Parl. of Foules, 680; and the exquisite triple roundel called Merciles Beautè.
950. The syllables as a fu - form the third foot. Some MSS. have fuyre, i. e. fire (see the footnote); but hell is not the place where fire was supposed to languish. The reading furye, i. e. fury, also presents some difficulty, but we must take languish to mean ‘endure continual pain.’ This precisely agrees with Chaucer’s language in Troilus, iv. 22–24.
We have already had a confusion between fury and fire in A. 2684. The reading furie is perfectly established by help of F. 448 (this furial pyne of helle ), and by further comparing l. 1101 below.
951. Ekko, Echo. So in the Book of the Duch. 735. Chaucer probably took this from Le Rom. de la Rose, 1447; see the English version, ll. 1469–1538. But he had learnt, by this time, that the true original was Ovid (Metamorph. iii. 407). Hence the side-note in MS. E.—‘Methamorposios’—( sic ).
963. And hadde, and she had; with a sudden change of subject.
974. Madame is here trisyllabic; in l. 967, the last syllable is very light.
982. The - ie in Aurelie is slurred over; know-e is dissyllabic. Cf. l. 989.
992. Lok-e, for Lok-en, imper. plural.
993. The first foot contains Ye remoe -; and the final - e of remoev-e is not cut off. Otherwise, place an accent on the syllable re -.
999–1000. These two lines are placed lower down in Tyrwhitt’s edition, after l. 1006, on the authority of three inferior MSS., viz. Harl. 7335, Harl. 7333, and Barlow 20. But the old editions agree with the best MSS., and nothing is gained by the change.
1018. A humorous apology for a poetical expression.
1031. A side-note in E. has—‘The compleint of Aurelius to the goddes and to the sonne.’
1033. after, i. e. according to. The change of seasons depends on the sun’s change of declination, which causes his position (called herberwe or ‘harbour’ in l. 1035) to be high or low in the sky. See note to l. 1058.
1045. In MS. E., Lucina is glossed by ‘luna,’ i. e. the moon; see A. 2085.
1049. Read knowen as know’n. All the six MSS. keep the final n; but Cp. Pt. Ln. drop the word that.
1054. more and lesse, greater and smaller, i. e. rivers.
1058. Leoun, the sign Leo. In l. 906, May 6 is mentioned, and the events recorded in ll. 906–1016 all belong to this day. Ll. 1019–1081 belong to the evening of the same day. But, in May, the sun is in Taurus, and the moon, when in opposition, would be in the opposite sign, which is Scorpio; and we should expect the reading—‘of Scorpioun.’ As it stands, the text means:—‘at the next opposition that takes place with the sun in Leo’; i. e. not at the very next opposition, with the sun in Taurus; nor yet after that, with the sun in Gemini or Cancer. The reason for the delay is astrological; for Leo was the mansion of the Sun, so that the sun’s power would then be greatest; besides which, the sign Leo greatly increased a planet’s influence; see A. 2462, and the note.
We may notice the various allusions in the above lines. In l. 1033, the sun’s declination changes from day to day, and with it the solar power and heat; so that the vegetable kingdom fails or grows according as the sun’s ‘harbour,’ or position in the ecliptic, causes his meridian altitude to be low or high (l. 1035). In l. 1046, the power of the moon over the tides is mentioned; and, in l. 1050, the dependence of lunar upon solar light. The highest tides occur when the sun and moon are either in conjunction or opposition; the latter is here fixed upon. If, says Aurelius, the sun and moon could always remain in opposition, viz. by moving at the same apparent rate (l. 1066), the moon would always remain at the full (l. 1069), and the spring-flood, or highest flood, would last all the while (l. 1070).
1074. Here Luna is identified with Proserpina; see note to A. 2051, where I have quoted the sentence—‘Diana, quae et Luna, Proserpina, Hecate nuncupatur.’ And see the parallel lines in A. 2081–2.
1077. Delphos, Delphi; Chaucer adopts, as usual, the accusative form. Ovid has Delphi, Met. x. 168; Delphica templa, Met. xi. 414.
1086. ‘Let him choose, as far as I am concerned, whether he wishes to live or die.’ whether is here cut down to whe’r, as frequently.
1088. Cf. ‘And in his host of chivalrye the flour’; A. 982.
1094–1096. imaginatyf, of a suspicious fancy. doute, fear.
1110. This is the Pamphilus already referred to in B. 2746 (see note to that line). The poem relates the poet’s love for Galatea. In the note to B. 2746, I have given the title of the poem as De Amore. Another title is—Pamphili Mauriliani Pamphilus, sive De Arte Amandi Elegiae. Skelton alludes to it also, and Dyce’s note (in his ed. of Skelton, ii. 345) tells us—‘It is of considerable length, and though written in barbarous Latin, was by some attributed to Ovid. It may be found in a little volume edited by Goldastus, Ovidii Nasonis Pelignensis Erotica et Amatoria Opuscula, c. 1610.’ Tyrwhitt quotes the first four lines, from MS. Cotton, Titus A. xx—‘Vulneror, et clausum porto sub pectore telum,’ c. In the margin of E. is here written—‘Pamphilus ad Galatheam,’ followed by the line—‘Vulneror . . . telum.’ Chaucer imitates this line in ll. 1111, 1112. And see Lounsbury, Studies, ii. 370.
1113. sursanure, a wound healed outwardly only. A F. word, from Lat. super and sanare. See soursanëure in Godefroy.
1115. But, unless. come therby, get at it, get hold of it.
1118. ‘There was a celebrated and very ancient university at Orleans, which fell into disrepute as the university of Paris became famous; and the rivalry probably led to the imputation that the occult sciences were cultivated at Orleans.’—Wright.
1121. ‘In every hiding-place and corner’; cf. G. 311, 658.
1130. I here quote from my Preface to Chaucer’s Astrolabe (E.E.T.S.), p. lix. ‘The twenty-eight “moon-stations” of the Arabs are given in Ideler’s Untersuchungen über die Bedeutung der Sternnamen, p. 287. He gives the Arabic names, the stars that help to fix their positions, c. See also Mr. Brae’s edition of the Astrolabe, p. 89. For the influence of the moon in these mansions, we must look elsewhere, viz. in lib. i. cap. 11, and lib. iv. cap. 18 of the Epitome Astrologiae of Johannes Hispalensis. Suffice it to say that there are 12 temperate mansions, 6 dry ones, and 10 moist ones.’ The number 28 corresponds with the number of days in a lunation.
1132. Cf. Chaucer’s remark in his Astrolabe, ii. 4. 36—‘Natheles, thise ben observauncez of iudicial matiere and rytes of payens, in which my spirit ne hath no feith. ’
1133. In speaking of the First Commandment, Hampole says: ‘Astronomyenes byhaldes the daye and the houre and the poynte that man es borne in, and vndir whylke syngne he es borne, and the poynte that he begynnes to be in, and by thire syngnes, and other, thay saye that that sall befall the man aftyrwarde; but theyre errowre es reproffede of haly doctours.’—Eng. Prose Treatises of Hampole, ed. Perry, p. 9. So also in Religious Pieces in Prose and Verse, ed. Perry, p. 5.
1141. tregetoures, jugglers. Cf. F. 218, 219; Hous of Fame, 1260, and my note upon the line; also the same, 1277, and my note on it. From O. F. trasgeter, (Prov. trasgitar ), answering to a Low Lat. transiectare, i. e. to throw across, cause to pass. Thus the original sense of tregetour was one who caused rapid changes, by help of some mechanical contrivance. See Marco Polo, ed. Yule, i. 342; and note 9 to Bk. i. c. 61; Cornelius Agrippa, on Juggling; Ritson, Anc. Met. Romances, vol. i. p. ccv; and the verses on the Tregetour in Lydgate’s Dance of Machabre. Treget means imposture, juggling, deceit, in the E. version of the Romaunt of the Rose, 6267, 6312, 6825; and tregetrie means the same, 6374, 6382. (Not allied to trebuchet, as suggested by Tyrwhitt.)
1180. dawes, days; variant of dayes. The pl. dawes occurs here only; but dayes rimes with layes in l. 709 above, with delayes in l. 1293 below, and (in the phr. now a dayes ) with Iayes, G. 1396, and assayes, E. 1164. Chaucer also has dawe, v., to dawn, riming with felawe, A. 4250, and awe, B. 3872. The variant dawes is due to the A. S. dagas, where the g is followed, not by e, but by a; hence we only find it in the plural. But it is not uncommon; it occurs in St. Brandan, ed. Wright, p. 5, l. 3; Havelok, 2344; King Alisaunder, ed. Weber, l. 1436; Gower, Conf. Am. ii. 113, where it rimes with sawes; c.
1204. The use of our is graphic; it occurs in all six MSS. Tyrwhitt has the.
1222. Gerounde, the river Gironde; Sayne, the Seine. That is, all the S.W. coast from the Gironde to Brest, and all the N.W. coast from Brest to Honfleur; thus including much more than just the W. promontory.
1224. Here ceases the gap in Hl., F. 617–1223.
1241. Accent mágicién on the first and last syllables.
1245. ‘The sun grew old, and his hue was like that of latten.’ For latoun, later latten, see note to C. 350. That is, the sun had a dull coppery hue, as in December, when it may be said to be ‘old,’ as it was approaching the end of its annual course. Cf. yonge sonne; A. 7.
1246. ‘Who, when in his hot declination (i. e. in the sign of Cancer, when his northern declination was greatest) used to shine like burnished gold, with bright beams; but he had now arrived in Capricornus, where he was at his lowest altitude (i. e. at the winter solstice); and shone but dimly.’
In Chaucer’s time, the sun entered Capricorn on December 13; see his Treatise on the Astrolabe, ii. 1. 12.
1252. In the margin of E. is written—‘Janus biceps’; referring to ‘Iane biceps’ in Ovid’s Fasti, i. 65; and ‘Iane biformis,’ id. l. 89. The allusion is to the approach of January, after the winter solstice. This season, as indicated in ll. 1253, 1254, is the time of Christmas and New-Year festivities, when wine is drunk from horns, and the boar’s head appears at feasts. See Brand’s Pop. Antiq., ed. Ellis, i. 484, for the carol sung at the bringing in of the boar’s head as the first dish on Christmas day, as e. g. in the Inner Temple and at Queen’s College, Oxford. He quotes from Dekker:—‘like so many bores’ heads stuck with branches of rosemary, to be served in for brawne at Christmas.’
Skelton speaks of ‘Ianus, with his double chere,’ i. e. face; Garl. of Laurell, 1515. Cf. Chambers, Book of Days, i. 19; and ii. 754; Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 41.
1255. ‘ Nowel, ’ i. e. ‘the birthday,’ or Christmas day. From O. F. noël (Prov. nadal ); from Lat. natalem. Cotgrave quotes a French proverb:—‘Tant crie on Noël qu’il vient, So long is Christmas cried that at length it comes.’ Littré gives, as the second sense of Noël —‘Cantique en langue vulgaire, ayant ordinairement pour sujet la naissance de Jésus-Christ, que l’on chante à l’approche de la Noël.’ Hence ‘to cry Noël’ was to sing a Christmas carol; as was usual on Christmas eve. He further explains that ‘Noël!’ subsequently became a cry on any occasion of great rejoicing; so that, in this way, ‘to cry Noël’ meant to proclaim glad tidings. Hence the silly confusion of the word with ‘ nouvelles, ’ in the imaginative accounts of it given by some English writers.
1266. Read I n’ can; see note to A. 764.
1273. ‘The astronomical tables, composed by order of Alphonso X, king of Castile, about the middle of the thirteenth century, were called sometimes Tabulae Toletanae, from their being adapted to the city of Toledo. There is a very elegant copy of them in MS. Harl. 3647.’—T. In Chaucer’s Astrolabe, ii. 44. 16, we find:—‘And if hit so be that hit [i. e. the time for which the change in a planet’s position is being reckoned] passe 20 [years], consider wel that fro 1 to 20 ben anni expansi, and fro 20 to 3,000 ben anni collecti. ’ The changes in position of the various planets were obtained from these tables. The quantities denoting the amount of a planet’s motion during round periods of years, such as twenty, forty, or sixty years, were entered in a table headed Anni collecti. Similar quantities for lesser periods, from one year up to twenty years, were entered under the headings 1, 2, 3, c.; and such years were called Anni expansi, i. e. single or separate years. See Ptolemy’s Almagest, lib. vi. and lib. ix.; and the note in vol. iii. p. 367.
1276. rotes, roots. The ‘root’ is the tabulated quantity belonging to a given fixed date or era, from which corresponding quantities can be calculated by addition or subtraction. Thus the longitude of a planet at a given date is the ‘root’; and its longitude at another date, say twenty-three years later, can be obtained from the Toletan tables by adding (1) its change of longitude in twenty years, as given in the table of Anni collecti, and (2) its further change in three years, as given in the table of Anni expansi. Chaucer uses the term ‘root’ again in B. 314; and in his Astrolabe, ii. 44. 1; q. v.
1277. ‘Centre’ was a technical name for the end of the small brass projection on the ‘rete’ of an astrolabe which denoted the position of a fixed star (usually of the first magnitude). See Chaucer’s Astrolabe, Fig. 2 (in vol. iii.); and Centre in the Glossary. ‘Argument’ is an astronomical term still in use, and means ‘the angle, arc, or other mathematical quantity, from which another required quantity may be deduced, or on which its calculation depends’; New Eng. Dictionary.
In Chaucer’s Astrolabe, § 44 of Part II. is headed—‘Another maner conclusion, to knowe the mene mote and the argumentis of any planete.’
1278. proporcionels convenients, fitting proportionals; referring to a table of ‘proportional parts,’ by which fractional parts of a year can be taken into consideration, in calculating the motions of the planets.
1279. equacions, equations; probably here used in the sense of ‘exact quantities.’ Thus the ‘exact quantity’ of a planet’s motion, during a given time, can be obtained by adding together the motion during the ‘collect’ years, the ‘expanse’ years, and the fraction of a year; see the last note.
1280. eighte spere, eighth sphere; cf. ‘ninthe speere’ in l. 1283. In the old astronomy (as explained more fully in the note to B. 295), there were nine imaginary spheres, viz. the seven spheres of the seven planets, the eighth sphere or sphere of fixed stars (supposed to have a slow motion from west to east about the poles of the zodiac, to account for the precession of the equinoxes), and the ninth sphere or primum mobile, which had a diurnal motion from east to west, and carried everything with it. Alnath is still a name for the bright star a Arietis, of the first magnitude, which was necessarily situate in the eighth sphere. But the head of the fixed Aries, or the true equinoctial point, was in the ninth sphere above it.
The exact amount of the precession of the equinoxes (which is what Chaucer here alludes to) could be ascertained by observing, from time to time, the distance between the true equinoctial point and the star Alnath, which was conveniently situated for the purpose, being in the head of Aries. In the time of Hipparchus ( bc 150), the distance of Alnath from the true equinoctial point was but a few degrees; but at the present time it is ‘shove,’ in longitude, some 35° from the same. (The readings thre for eighte in l. 1280, and fourthe for ninthe in l. 1283, given by Wright from MS. Hl., are of course absurd).
1285. firste mansioun, first mansion, viz. of the moon. It was called Alnath, from the star. In the margin of E. is written—‘Alnath dicitur prima mansio lunae.’ Cf. note to l. 1130; and see l. 1289. His object was, clearly, to calculate the moon’s position; see l. 1287.
1288. ‘And knew in whose “face” the moon arose, and in what “term,” and all about it.’ Each sign of the zodiac, containing thirty degrees, was divided into three equal parts, each of ten degrees, called faces in the astrological jargon of the time. Not only each sign, but each face, was assigned to some peculiar planet; hence whos means ‘of which planet.’ Besides this equal division of each sign, we find unequal divisions, called terms. For example, the sign Aries, considered as a whole, was called ‘the mansion of Mars.’ Again, of this sign, degrees one to ten were called ‘the face of Mars’; degrees eleven to twenty, ‘the face of the Sun’; and degrees twenty-one to thirty, ‘the face of Venus.’ Lastly, of the same sign, degrees one to six were ‘a term of Jupiter’; degrees seven to twelve, of Venus; degrees thirteen to twenty, of Mercury; twenty-one to twenty-five, of Mars; and twenty-six to thirty, of Saturn. Of course, the whole of this assignment was purely fanciful, imposed at first by arbitrary authority, and afterwards kept up by tradition. Cf. l. 1293.
1311–1322. These lines form a ‘Complaint,’ quite in the style of the Compleint of Anelida, q. v. Thus, l. 1318 is like Anelida, l. 288:—‘As verily ye sleen me with the peyne.’ The ‘complaint’ of Dorigen begins at l. 1355.
1340. ‘Other colour then asshen hath she noon’; Anelida, 173.
1348. ‘She wepeth, waileth, swowneth pitously’; Anelida, 169.
1355. In the margin of E. is written—‘The compleynt of Dorigene ayeyns Fortune.’
1367. Tyrwhitt remarks that all these examples are taken from book i. of Hieronymus contra Iouinianum. In fact, this reference is expressly supplied in the margin of E., at l. 1465, where we find—‘Singulas has historias et plures, hanc materiam concernentes, recitat beatus Ieronimus contra Iouinianum in primo suo libro, cap. 39°.’ There is a similar note in Hn., at l. 1395.
On reference to Jerome, I find that the passages referred to are worthy of being expressly quoted, especially as Chaucer does not adhere to the order of the original. Moreover, most of them are quoted in the side-notes to E., with more or less correctness. I therefore give below all such as are worth giving.
1368. The passage in Jerome is as follows:—‘Triginta Atheniensium tyranni cum Phidonem in conuiuio necassent, filias eius uirgines ad se uenire iusserunt, et scortorum more nudari: ac super pauimenta, patris sanguine cruentata, impudicis gestibus ludere, quae paulisper dissimulato doloris habitu, cum temulentos conuiuas cernerent, quasi ad requisita naturae egredientes, inuicem se complexae praecipitauerunt in puteum, ut uirginitatem morte seruarent’; p. 48. This story (quoted in full in MS. E.) refers to the excesses committed in Athens by the Thirty Tyrants, who were overthrown by Thrasybulus, bc 403.
1370. ‘They commanded (men) to arrest his daughters.’
1379. Jerome has:—‘Spartiatae et Messenii diu inter se habuere amicitias, intantum ut ob quaedam sacra etiam uirgines ad se mutuo mitterent. Quodam igitur tempore, cum quinquaginta uirgines Lacedaemoniorum Messenii uiolare tentassent, de tanto numero ad stuprum nulla consensit, sed omnes libentissime pro pudicitia occubuerunt’; p. 48. Cf. Orosius, i. 14. 1.
1380. Lacedomie, Lacedaemonia; as in C. 605.
1387. Jerome has:—‘Aristoclides Orchomeni tyrannus adamauit uirginem Stymphalidem, quae cum patre occiso ad templum Dianae confugisset, et simulacrum eius teneret, nec ui posset auelli, in eodem loco confossa est’; p. 48. I suppose that Orchomenus is here the town so called in Arcadia, rather than the more famous one in Boeotia; for the district of Stymphalus is in Arcadia, and near Orchomenus.
1399. Jerome has:—‘Nam Hasdrubalis uxor capta, et incensa urbe, cum se cerneret a Romanis capiendam esse, apprehensis ab utroque latere paruulis filiis, in subiectum domus suae deuolauit incendium’; Valerius Maximus has a similar story, lib. iii. c. 2. ext. 8; cf. Orosius, iv. 13. 3. Chaucer has already alluded to this story; see note to B. 4553.
1402. alle; Valerius Maximus merely says—‘dextra laeuaque communes filios trahens.’
1405. Jerome says:—‘Ad Romanas foeminas transeam, et primam ponam Lucretiam; quae uiolatae pudicitiae pudens superuiuere, maculam corporis cruore deleuit’; p. 50. In the margin of E. we find:—‘primo ponam Lucretiam . . . deleuit’; with the reading nolens for pudens. See also the legend of Lucretia in the Legend of Good Women.
1409. Jerome says:—‘Quis ualeat silentio praeterire septem Milesias uirgines, quae Gallorum impetu cuncta uastante, ne quid indecens ab hostibus sustinerent, turpitudinem morte fugerunt; exemplum sui cunctis uirginibus relinquentes, honestis mentibus magis pudicitiam curae esse, quam uitam’; p. 50. MS. E. quotes this as far as ‘Gallorum.’ As Miletus is in Caria, perhaps Galli refers here to the Gallograeci or Galatae.
1414. ‘Xenophon in Cyri maioris scribit infantia, occiso Abradote uiro, quem Panthea uxor miro amore dilexerat, collocasse se iuxta corpus lacerum; et confosso pectore, sanguinem suum mariti infudisse uulneribus’; p. 50. MS. E. cites the first eight words of this, with the spelling Abradate; whence Chaucer’s Habradate. Chaucer’s account of Panthea’s exclamation is evidently imaginary. The story is told at length in Xenophon’s Cyropaedia, bk. vii. Abradates, king of the Susi, was killed in battle against the Egyptians. His wife Panthea slew herself with a dagger, and fell with her head upon his breast.
1426. ‘Demotionis Areopagitarum principis uirgo filia, audito sponsi Leosthenis interitu, qui bellum Lamiacum concitarat, se interfecit: asserens quanquam intacta esset corpore, tamen si alterum accipere cogeretur, quasi secundum acciperet, cum priori mente nupsisset’; p. 48. E. quotes the first five words of this.
1428. ‘Quo ore laudandae sunt Scedasi filiae in Leuctris Boeotiae, quas traditum est absente patre duo iuuenes praetereuntes iure hospitii suscepisse. Qui multum indulgentes uino, uim per noctem intulere uirginibus. Quae amissae pudicitiae nolentes superuiuere, mutuis conciderunt uulneribus’; p. 48. E. quotes the first six words, with the spelling Cedasii. The story of Scedasus (Σκέδασος) and his daughters is told at length by Plutarch, being the third story in his Amatoriae Narrationes (ἐρωτικαὶ διηγήσεις).
1432. ‘Nicanor uictis Thebis atque subuersis, unius uirginis captiuae amore superatus est. Cuius coniugium expetens, et uoluntarios amplexus, quod scilicet captiua optare debuerat, sensit pudicis mentibus plus uirginitatem esse quàm regnum; et interfectam propria manu, flens et lugens amator tenuit’; p. 49. E. cites a few words of this, with the spelling Nichanor. The reference is to the taking of Thebes by Alexander, bc 336. Nicanor was one of his officers.
1434. This story, in Jerome, immediately follows the former:—‘Narrant scriptores Graeci et aliam Thebanam uirginem, quam hostis Macedo corruperat, dissimulasse paulisper dolorem, et uiolatorem uirginitatis suae iugulasse postea dormientem; seque interfecisse gladio, ut nec uiuere uoluerit post perditam castitatem, nec ante mori, quàm sui ultrix existeret.’ E. quotes a few words of this.
1437. Chaucer has translated here very literally. For Jerome has:—‘Quid loquar Nicerati coniugem? quae impatiens iniuriae uiri, mortem sibi ipsa consciuit; ne triginta tyrannorum, quos Lysander uictis Athenis imposuerat, libidinem substineret’; p. 49. Compare Plutarch’s Life of Lysander. Niceratus, son of Nicias, was put to death by the Thirty Tyrants, who were imposed upon Athens by Lysander, bc 404.
1439. ‘Alcibiades ille Socraticus, uictis Atheniensibus, fugit ad Pharnabacum [i. e. Pharnabazum]. Qui accepto precio à Lysandro principe Lacedaemoniorum, iussit eum interfici. Cumque suffocato caput esset ablatum, et missum Lysandro in testimonium caedis expletae, reliqua pars corporis iacebat insepulta. Sola igitur concubina contra crudelissimi hostis imperium inter extraneos et imminente discrimine, funeri iusta persoluit; mori parata pro mortuo, quem uiuum dilexerat’; pp. 49, 50. E. quotes the first four words. See Plutarch’s Life of Alcibiades; or the extracts from it in my edition of ‘Shakespeare’s Plutarch,’ p. 304. The woman’s name was Timandra; cf. Timon of Athens, iv. 3.
1442–4. Jerome says:—‘Alcestin fabulae ferunt pro Admento sponte defunctam, et Penelopes pudicitia Homeri carmen est’; p. 50. Quoted in E., with the spellings Alcesten, Adameto, and Omeri. Cf. Legend of Good Women, l. 432, and the note; also vol. iii. p. xxix.
1445. ‘Laodamia quoque poetarum ore cantatur, occiso apud Troiam Protesilao, noluisse superuiuere’; p. 50. E. quotes most of this, with the spellings Lacedomia and Protheselao. See Ovid, Heroid. Ep. xiii.; Hyginus, Fabula 243.
1448. ‘Sine Catone uiuere Martia potuit, Portia sine Bruto non potuit’; p. 50. Partly quoted in E. The death of Portia is told by Plutarch, at the very end of his Life of M. Brutus.
1451. ‘Artemisia quoque uxor Mausoli insignis pudicitiae fuisse perhibetur. Quae cum esset regina Cariae . . . defunctum maritum sic semper amauit, ut uiuum, et mirae magnitudinis exstruxit sepulchrum; intantum, ut usque hodie omnia sepulchra preciosa ex nomine eius Mausolaea nuncupentur’; p. 49. E. quotes a part of this, with the spelling Arthemesia. There is an account of her in Valerius Maximus, bk. iv. cap. 6. ext. I. Hence comes our word mausoleum.
1452. Barbarye, barbarian territory, heathendom. Cf. ‘the Barbre nacioun’; B. 281.
1453. Jerome says:—‘Teuta Illyricorum regina, ut longo tempore uiris fortissimis imperaret, et Romanos saepe frangeret, miraculo utique meruit castitatis’; p. 49. Called Teutana by Florus, ii. 5. 2. Pliny says that Teuta, the queen of the Illyrians, put to death some Roman ambassadors; Nat. Hist. xxxiv. 6. 11.
1455. Tyrwhitt omits this line and the next. Both lines appear in the old editions; but they are omitted in all the seven MSS. except E. They are certainly genuine, because the names in them are taken from Jerome, like the rest. E. has the spelling Bilyea, but I alter it to Bilia (as in the old editions) because such is Jerome’s spelling. The story is rather a long one.
‘Duellius, qui primus Romae nauali certamine triumphauit, Biliam uirginem duxit uxorem, tantae pudicitiae, ut illo quoque seculo pro exemplo fuerit: quo impudicitia monstrum erat, non uitium. Is iam senex et trementi corpore, in quodam iurgio audiuit exprobrari sibi os foetidum, et tristis se domum contulit. Cumque uxori questus esset, quare nunquam se monuisset, ut huic uitio mederetur: Fecissem, inquit, illa, nisi putassem omnibus uiris sic os olere. Laudanda in utroque pudica et nobilis foemina, et si ignorauit uitium uiri, et si patienter tulit, et quod maritus infelicitatem corporis sui, non uxoris fastidio, sed maledicto sensit inimici’; p. 50. This Duellius or Duillius, or Duilius, was the famous conqueror of the Carthaginians, in honour of whom the Columna rostrata was erected, to celebrate his naval victory, the first of that character ever gained by the Romans, bc 260. See Florus, Epitome, lib. ii. c. 2.
Hoccleve has this story in his De Regimine Principum, ed. Wright, p. 134. He turns Bilia into Ulye, because he got the story from Jacobus de Cessolis, who calls her Ylia.
1456. Jerome says:—‘Rhodogune filia Darii, post mortem uiri, nutricem quae illi secundas nuptias suadebat, occidit’; p. 50. According to Erasmus, Rhodogune is mentioned in the Imagines (Εἰκόνες) of Flavius Philostratus.
Again (at p. 50) Jerome says:—‘Valeria, Messalarum soror, amisso Seruio uiro, nulli uolebat nubere. Quae interrogata cur hoc faceret, ait sibi semper maritum Seruium uiuere.’
1457. Notwithstanding the length of Dorigene’s complaint, Chaucer seems to have contemplated adding more examples to the list. For in the margin of E. is the note:—‘Mem. Strato regulus. Vidi et omnes pene Barbares ( sic ); cap. xxvi o . primi [libri]. Item, Cornelia, c. Imitentur ergo nupte Theanam, Cleobiliam, Gorgun., Thymodiam, Claudias atque Cornelias; in fine primi libri.’ All these names are in Jerome, who says: ‘Imitentur ergo nuptae Theano, Cleobulinam, Gorguntem, Timocliam, Claudias atque Cornelias’; c.
1470. as wis, as (it is) certain; cf. Ancren Riwle, p. 38; Ormulum, l. 2279, c. Stratmann (ed. Bradley) gives the example also wis so he god is, as surely as he is God. Of course the i is short, as wis rimes with this. Cf. A. S. ge-wis, ge-wiss, Icel. viss, adj., certain, sure. And see wisly, i. e. certainly, in l. 1475.
1472. Referring to the proverb—‘Let sleeping dogs lie’; or to one with the same sense. Cf. Troil. iii. 764.
1483. tel is here the right form of the imperative; see l. 1591. So in D. 1298.
1493–8. Of our seven MSS., only E. contains these six lines. They are omitted in most modern editions, except Gilman’s. But they occur, as Tyrwhitt pointed out, in the second edition printed by Caxton. In l. 1496, Caxton has him for hir; which, perhaps, is better.
1502. quikkest, most lively, i. e. most frequented.
1503. boun, all ready, prepared; as she was boun implies that she had already set out, and was on her way. Preserved in mod. E., in the form bound, in such phrases as ‘the ship is bound for New York.’ See Bound, pp., in the New E. Dictionary. Cf. l. 1505.
1525. For which, for which reason, wherefore.
1529–1531. The phrases him were lever and I have lever are here seen to have been both in use at the same time. See, again, ll. 1599, 1600 below.
1532. Than I departe, than that I may part. So in all seven MSS. T. altered I to to.
1541. ‘But let every woman beware of her promise.’
1544. withouten drede, without doubt; as in B. 196. So also out of drede, E. 634; it is no drede, F. 1612.
1575. dayes, days of respite, time to pay in by instalments.
1580. To goon a-begged, to go a begging. Here begged is for beggeth, a sb. formed from the verb to beg. The spelling gon a-beggeth actually occurs twice in the Ilchester MS. of P. Plowman, C. ix. 138, 246. In the latter case, we even find gon abribeth and abeggeth, i. e. go a-robbing and a-begging. So in Rob. of Gloucester, l. 7710—‘As he rod an-honteth, ’ as he rode a-hunting; and l. 9113—‘he wende an-honteth, ’ he went a-hunting. This suffix - eth answers to the A. S. - aþ or - oþ. ‘On fēawum stōwum wīciaþ Finnas, on huntoþe on wintra, and on sumera on fiscaþe’; the Fins live in a few places, by hunting in winter, and by fishing in summer; Ælfred’s tr. of Orosius, 1. 1. In M. E. - eth was changed to - ed by confusion with the common suffix of the pp. See also the notes to C. 406, D. 354; and to P. Plowm. C. ix. 138.
1602. apparence, an illusion caused by magic.
1604–5. Corruptly given in MS. Hl. (note by Wright).
1614. I. e. ‘as if you had just made your first appearance in the world.’ An idiomatic allusion to the creeping of an insect out of the earth for the first time. It is obvious that there was nothing offensive in the phrase.
1622. as thinketh yow, as it seems to you. ‘The same question is stated in the conclusion to Boccace’s Tale; Philocopo, lib. v.—“Dubitasi ora qual di costoro fusse maggior liberalità,” c. The Queen determines in favour of the husband.’—T. The questions discussed in the medieval Courts of Love were usually of a similar character.
For general remarks on this Tale, see vol. iii. p. 485. Chaucer chiefly follows the Legenda Aurea; see note to l. 84 below, and to l. 25. It further appears that he consulted another Latin life of St. Cecilia, derived from Simeon Metaphrastes; as well as the Lives of Valerian and Tiburtius, in the Acta Sanctorum (April 14). See note to l. 369.
Prologue. This consists of twelve stanzas, and is at once divisible into three parts.
(1) The first four stanzas, the idea of which is taken from Jehan de Vignay’s Introduction to his French translation of the Legenda Aurea. This Introduction is reprinted at length, from the Paris edition of 1513, in the Originals and Analogues published by the Chaucer Society, pt. ii. p. 190.
(2) The Invocation to the Virgin, in stanzas 5-11; see note to ll. 29, 36.
(3) An Envoy to the reader, in stanza 12; see note to l. 78.
Line 1. Jehan de Vignay attributes the idea of this line to St. Bernard. He says—‘Et pour ce que oysiuete est tant blasmee que sainct Bernard dit qu’elle est mere de truffes [mother of trifles], marrastre de vertus: . . et fait estaindre vertu et nourrir orgueil, ’ c. Chaucer says again, in his Persones Tale (de Accidia), I. 710:—‘And how that ignoraunce be moder of alle harme, certes, necligence is the norice. ’
2. ydelnesse, idleness; considered as a branch of Sloth, which was one of the Seven Deadly Sins. See The Persones Tale, De Accidia.
3. Chaucer took this idea from the Romaunt of the Rose; see ll. 528–594 of the English version, where a lover is described as knocking at the wicket of a garden, which was opened by a beautiful maiden named Idleness. He afterwards repeated it in the Knightes Tale, A. 1940; and again in the Persones Tale (de Accidia), I. 714: ‘Thanne comth ydelnesse, that is the yate [ gate ] of alle harmes. . . the hevene is yeven to hem that wol labouren, and nat to ydel folk.’
4. To eschue, to eschew; the gerund. The sentence really begins with l. 6, after which take the words to eschue; then take ll. 1-3, followed by the rest of l. 4 and by l. 5.
7. Jehan de Vignay’s Introduction begins thus: ‘Monseigneur sainct Hierosme dit ceste auctorite—“Fays tousiours aucune chose de bien, que le dyable ne te trouue oyseux.” ’ That is, he refers us to St. Jerome for the idea. A like reference is given in the Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 206. We are reminded, too, of the familiar lines by Dr. Watts—
8. Cf. Persones Tale (de Accidia), I. 714:—‘An ydel man is lyk to a place that hath no walles; the develes may entre on every syde.’
10. ‘Ydelnesse is the develis panter [ net ], to tempte men to synne’; Wyclif, Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 200.
14. Cf. Pers. Tale (de Accidia), I. 689:—‘Agayns this roten-herted sinne of accidie and slouthe sholde men exercise hemself to doon gode werkes’; c. ‘Laborare est orare’ was the famous motto of St. Bernard.
15. though men dradden never, even if men never feared.
17. roten, rotten; Wright reads rote of, i. e. root of. Yet his MS. has roten; observe its occurrence in the note to l. 14 above.
19. ‘And (men also) see that Sloth holds her in a leash, (for her) to do nothing but sleep, and eat and drink, and devour all that others obtain by toil.’ The reading hir refers to Idleness, which, as I have before explained, was a branch of Sloth, and was personified by a female. See notes to ll. 2 and 3 above. Tyrwhitt has hem, which is not in any of our seven MSS.
21. Compare Piers Plowman, B. prol. 21, 22—
25. After the legende, following the Legend; i. e. the Legenda Aurea. A very small portion is wholly Chaucer’s own. He has merely added a line here and there, such as ll. 488–497, 505–511, 535, 536. At l. 346 he begins to be less literal; see notes to 380, 395, 443.
27. St. Cecilia and St. Dorothea are both depicted with garlands. Mrs. Jameson tells us how to distinguish them in her Sacred and Legendary Art, 3rd ed. 591. She also says, at p. 35—‘The wreath of roses on the brow of St. Cecilia, the roses or fruits borne by St. Dorothea, are explained by the legends.’ And again, at p. 36—‘White and red roses expressed love and innocence, or love and wisdom, as in the garland with which the angels crown St. Cecilia.’ Red was the symbol of love, divine fervour, c.; white, of light, purity, innocence, virginity. See ll. 220, 244, 279. The legend of St. Dorothea forms the subject of Massinger’s Virgin Martyr.
29. virgin-es must be a trisyllable here; such words are often shortened to a dissyllable. The word thou is addressed to the Virgin Mary. In the margin of MSS. E. and Hn. is written—‘Inuocatio ad Mariam.’
30. Speaking of St. Bernard, Mrs. Jameson says—‘One of his most celebrated works, the Missus est, was composed in her honour [i. e. in honour of the Virgin] as Mother of the Redeemer; and in eighty Sermons on texts from the Song of Solomon, he set forth her divine perfection as the Selected and Espoused, the type of the Church on earth’; Legends of the Monastic Orders, 2nd ed. p. 144. Cf. note to l. 58.
See a further illustration of the great favour shewn by the Virgin to St. Bernard at p. 142 of the same volume; and, at p. 145, the description of a painting by Murillo, quoted from Stirling’s Spanish Painters, p. 914. See also Dante, Paradiso, xxxi. 102.
32. comfort of us wrecches, comfort of us miserable sinners; see note to l. 58.
do me endyte, cause me to indite.
34. of the feend, over the Fiend. Tyrwhitt reads over for of, but it is unneccessary. Accent victórie on the o.
36. Lines 36–51 are a free translation of a passage in Dante’s Paradiso, Canto xxxiii. ll. 1-21; and are quoted in the notes to Cary’s translation. I am persuaded that ll. 36–56 (three stanzas) were added at a later period. Being taken from Dante, they could hardly have been written very early; whereas the Life of St. Cecile seems to have been quite a juvenile performance. And this explains why the phrase ‘Me, flemed wrecche’ in l. 58 is so far removed from the parallel expression, viz. ‘us wrecches,’ in l. 32. Cf. note to l. 58.
| l. 36. | ‘Vergine madre, figlia del tuo Figlio, |
| l. 39. | Umile ed alta più che creatura, |
| Termine fisso d’eterno consiglio, | |
| Tu se’ colei che l’ umana natura | |
| l. 40, 41. | Nobilitastì si, che il suo Fattore |
| l. 41, 42. | Non disdegnò di farsi sua fattura. |
| l. 43. | Nel ventre tuo si raccese l’ amore, |
| l. 44. | Per lo cui caldo nell’ eterna pace |
| Cosi è germinato questo fiore. | |
| Qui sei a noi meridiana face | |
| Di caritade, e giuso, intra i mortali, | |
| Sé’ di speranza fontana vivace. | |
| Donna, se’ tanto grande, e tanto vali, | |
| Che qual vuol grazia, e a te non ricorre, | |
| Sua disianza vuol volar senz’ ali. | |
| ll. 53, 54. | La tua benignità non pur soccorre |
| ll. 53, 54. | A chi dimanda, ma molte fiate |
| ll. 55, 56. | Liberamente al dimandar precorre. |
| l. 51. | In te misericordia, in te pietate, |
| l. 50. | In te magnificenza, in te s’aduna |
| Quatunque in creatura è di bontate.’ |
The numbers at the side denote the corresponding lines.
40. nobledest, didst ennoble; Dante’s ‘nobilitasti.’
42. The translation is inexact. Dante says—‘that its Maker (i. e. the Maker of human nature) did not disdain to become His own creature,’ i. e. born of that very human nature which He had Himself created. Cf. l. 49.
45. ‘Who is Lord and Guide of the threefold space’; i. e. of the three abodes of things created, viz. the earth, the sea, and the heavens.
46. out of relees, without release, i. e. without relaxation, without ceasing. Out of means without, as is clear from Prol. 487; Kn. Tale, A. 1141; and relees means acquittance (O. Fr. relais ); see Cler. Tale, E. 153, c. There has been some doubt about the meaning of this phrase, but there need be none; especially when it is remembered that to release is another form of to relax, so that relees=relaxation, i. e. slackening. The idea is the same as that so admirably expressed in the Prolog im Himmel to Goethe’s Faust.
50. Assembled is in thee, there is united in thee; cf. Dante—‘in te s’aduna.’ This stanza closely resembles the fourth stanza of the Prioresses Prologue, B. 1664–1670.
52. sonne. By all means let the reader remember that sonne was probably still feminine in English in Chaucer’s time, as it is in German, Dutch, and Icelandic to this day. It will be found, however, that Chaucer commonly identifies the sun with Phœbus, making it masculine; see Prol. 8, Kn. Tale, A. 1493. Still, there is a remarkable example of the old use in the first rubric of Part ii. of Chaucer’s Astrolabe—‘To fynde the degree in which the sonne is day by day, after hir cours a-boute.’ So again, in Piers Plowman, B. xviii. 243.
56. hir lyves leche, the physician of their lives ( or life).
58. flemed wrecche, banished exile. The proper sense of A. S. wræcca is an exile, a stranger; and thence, a miserable being. The phrase ‘fleming of wrecches,’ i. e. banishment of the miserable, occurs in Chaucer’s Troilus, iii. 933. And see note to l. 36 above.
Lounsbury (Studies, ii. 389) compares this line with l. 62 below, and suggests that Chaucer may have been influenced here by an expression in St. Bernard’s Works (cf. l. 30): Respice ergo, beatissima Virgo, ad nos proscriptos in exsilio filios Euae’; Tractatus ad Laudem Gloriosae Virginis; in the Works, vol. i. p. 1148, in Migne’s Patrologia, vol. 182. This suggestion greatly strengthens the probability, that ll. 36–56 form a later insertion.
galle, bitterness. There is probably an allusion to the name Mary, and to the Hebrew mar, fem. mârâh, bitter. Cf. Exod. xv. 23; Acts viii. 23; Ruth i. 20. Cf. Chaucer’s A B C, l. 50.
59. womman Cananee, a translation of mulier Chananaea in the Vulgate version of Matt. xv. 22. Wyclif calls her ‘a womman of Canane.’
60. Compare Wyclif’s version—‘for whelpis eten of the crummes that fallen doun fro the bord of her lordis’; Matt. xv. 27.
62. sone of Eve, son of Eve, i. e. the author himself. This, as Tyrwhitt remarks (Introd. Discourse, note 30), is a clear proof that the Tale was never properly revised to suit it for the collection. The expression is unsuitable for the supposed narrator, the Second Nun.
64. See James, ii. 17.
67. ful of grace; alluding to the phrase ‘Aue gratia plena’ in Luke, i. 28.
68. advócat, accented on the penultimate.
69. Ther-as, where that. Osanne, Hosanna, i. e. ‘Save, we pray,’ from Ps. cxviii. 25. See Concise Dict. of the Bible.
70. The Virgin Mary was said to have been the daughter of Joachim and Anna; see the Protevangelion of James, and the Legenda Aurea, cap. cxxi—‘De natiuitate beatae Mariae uirginis.’ Cf. D. 1613.
75. haven of refut, haven of refuge. See the same term similarly applied in B. 852, above. Cf. Chaucer’s A. B. C., l. 14.
78. reden, read. This is still clearer proof that the story was not originally meant to be narrated. Cf. note to l. 62.
82. him, i. e. Jacobus Januensis. at the, c., out of reverence for the saint.
83. hir legende, her (St. Cecilia’s) legend as told in the Aurea Legenda. But cf. note to l. 349.
85. The five stanzas in ll. 85–119 really belong to the Legend itself, and are in the original Latin. Throughout the notes to the rest of this Tale I usually follow the 2nd edition of the Legenda Aurea, cap. clxix, as edited by Dr. Th. Grässe; Leipsic, 1850.
87. Several of the Legends of the Saints begin with ridiculous etymologies. Thus the Legend of St. Valentine (Aur. Leg. cap. xlii) begins with the explanation that Valentinus means ualorem tenens, or else ualens tyro. So here, as to the etymology of Caecilia, we are generously offered five solutions, all of them being wrong. As it is hopeless to understand them without consulting the original, I shall quote as much of it as is necessary, arranged in a less confused order. The true etymology is, of course, that Caecilia is the feminine of Caecilius, a name borne by members of the Caecilia gens, which claimed descent from Caeculus, an ancient Italian hero, son of Vulcan, who is said to have founded Praeneste. Caeculus, probably a nickname, can hardly be other than a mere diminutive of caecus, blind. The legendary etymologies are right, accordingly, only so far as they relate to caecus. Beyond that, they are strange indeed.
The following are the etymologies, with their reasons.
(1) Caecilia=coeli lilia ( sic ), i. e. hevenes lilie. Reasons:—‘Fuit enim coeleste lilium per uirginitatis pudorem; uel dicitur lilium, quia habuit candorem munditiae, uirorem conscientiae, odorem bonae famae.’ See ll. 87–91. Thus grene (=greenness) translates uirorem.
(2) Caecilia=caecis uia, i. e. the wey to blinde, a path for the blind. Reason:—‘Fuit enim caecis uia per exempli informationem.’ See ll. 92, 93.
(3) Caecilia is from caelum and lya. ‘Fuit enim . . coelum ( sic ) per iugem contemplationem, lya per assiduam operationem.’ Here lya is the same as Lia, which is the Latin spelling of Leah in the Book of Genesis. It was usual to consider Leah as the type of activity, or the Active Life, and Rachel as the type of the Contemplative Life. See Hampole’s Prose Treatises, ed. Perry (E. E. T. S.), p. 29, where the comparison is attributed to St. Gregory. ‘ Lya is als mekill at say as trauyliose, and betakyns actyfe lyfe.’
(4) Caecilia, ‘quasi caecitate carens.’ This is on the celebrated principle of ‘lucus a non lucendo.’ Reason:—‘fuit caecitate carens per sapientiae splendorem.’ See ll. 99–101.
(5) ‘Vel dicitur a coelo et leos, i. e. populus.’ Finally, recourse is had to Greek, viz. Gk. λεώς, the Attic form of λαός. Reason:—‘fuit et coelum populi, quia in ipsa tamquam in coelo spirituali populus ad imitandum intuetur coelum, solem, lunam, et stellas, i. e. sapientiae perspicacitatem, fidei magnanimitatem et uirtutum uarietatem.’ See ll. 102–112.
113–118. Chaucer has somewhat varied the order; this last stanza belongs in the Latin to derivation (3), though it may serve also for derivation (5). It is probably for this reason that he has reserved it. The Latin is—‘Vel dicitur coelum, quia, sicut dicit Ysidorus, coelum philosophi uolubile, rotundum et ardens esse dixerunt. Sic et ipsa fuit uolubilis per operationem sollicitam, rotunda per perseuerantiam, ardens per caritatem succensam.’ For the swiftness and roundness of heaven, see note to B. 295. The epithet burning is due to quite another matter, not explained in that note. The nine astronomical spheres there mentioned did not suffice for the wants of theology. Hence a tenth sphere was imagined, external to the ninth; but this was supposed to be fixed, whereas the ninth sphere (or primum mobile ) had a swift diurnal movement of revolution (note to B. 295), and thus supplied the two former epithets. The outermost sphere was called the empyraeum (from Gk. ἔμπυρος, burning, which from ἐν, in, and πυ̑ρ, fire) where the pure element of fire subsisted alone; and it was supposed to be the abode of saints and angels. Milton, in his Paradise Lost, uses the word empyrean six times, ii. 771, iii. 57, vi. 833, vii. 73, 633, x. 321; and the word empyreal eleven times.
120. For some account of St. Caecilia, see vol. iii. p. 489. Compare also the Life of St. Cecilia as printed in the South-English Legendary, ed. Horstmann (E. E. T. S), p. 490.
133. an heyre, a hair shirt. The usual expression; see I. 1052; and P. Plowman, B. v. 66. Lat. text—‘cilicio erat induta.’
134. the organs; Lat. ‘cantantibus organis.’ We should now say ‘the organ’; but in old authors the plural form is commonly employed. Sometimes the word organ seems to refer to a single pipe only, and the whole instrument was called ‘the organs’ or ‘a pair of organs,’ where pair means a set, as in the phrase ‘a peire of bedes’; Ch. Prol. 159. In the Nonne Preestes Tale, B. 4041, Chaucer uses orgon as a plural, equivalent to the Lat. organa. On the early meaning of organum, see Chappell’s Hist. of Music, i. 327.
St. Cecilia is commonly considered the patroness of music; see Dryden’s Ode for St. Cecilia’s day, and Alexander’s Feast, ll. 132–141. But the connexion of her name with music is not very ancient, as Mrs. Jameson explains. The reason for this connexion seems to me clear enough, viz. the simple fact that the word organis occurs in this very passage. Besides, St. Cecilia is here represented as singing herself —‘in corde soli domino decantabat dicens’; see l. 135. The South-E. Legendary (see n. to l. 120) says she sang a verse of the Psalter.
145. conseil, a secret; Lat. ‘mysterium.’ And so in l. 192, and in P. Plowm. B. v. 168; see note to C. 819 above. and, if.
150. here, her, is a dissyllable in Chaucer whenever it ends a line, which it does six times; see e. g. B. 460; Kn. Tale, 1199 (A. 2057). This is quite correct, because the A. S. form hire is dissyllabic also.
159. me gye, rule me, keep me; lit. guide me.
173. Chaucer has here mistranslated the Latin. It is not said that the Via Appia (which led out of Rome through the Porta Capena to Aricia, Tres Tabernae, Appii Forum, and so on towards Capua and Brundusium) was situated three miles from Rome; but that Valerian is to go along the Appian Way as far as to the third milestone. ‘Vade igitur in tertium milliarium ab urbe uia quae Appia nuncupatur.’ See the South-E. Legendary, l. 37.
177. Urban. St. Urban’s day is May 25. This is Urban I., pope, who succeeded Calixtus, ad 222. Besides the notice of him in this Tale, his legend is given separately in the Legenda Aurea, cap. lxxvii. He was beheaded May 25, 230, and succeeded by Pontianus.
178. secree nedes, secret necessary reasons; Lat. ‘secreta mandata.’
181. purged yow, viz. by the rite of baptism.
186. seintes buriels, burial-places of the saints; Lat. ‘sepulchra martirum.’ It is worth observing, perhaps, that the form buriels is properly singular, not plural; cf. A. S. byrigels, a sepulchre, and see the examples in Stratmann. In P. Plowman, B. xix. 142, the Jews are represented as guarding Christ’s body because it had been foretold that He should rise from the tomb—
‘þat þat blessed body · of burieles shulde rise.’
The mistake of supposing s to be the mark of a plural was easily made, and the singular form buriel was evolved. This mistake occurs as early as in Wyclif’s Bible, IV Kings xxiii. 17; see Way’s note in Prompt. Parv. p. 37, note 1. Consequently, it is most likely that Chaucer has made the same mistake here. The South-E. Legendary (see note to l. 120) says that Urban dwelt ‘among puttes and burieles.’
There is here a most interesting allusion to the celebrated catacombs of Rome; see Chambers, Book of Days, i. 101, 102.
lotinge, lying hid. In MS. E., the Latin word latitantem is written above, as a gloss. This was taken from the Latin text, which has—‘intra sepulchra martirum latitantem.’ Stratmann gives six examples of the use of lotien or lutien, to lie hid. It occurs once in P. Plowman, B. xvii. 102.
201. An old man; i.e. an angel in the form of an old man, viz. St. Paul. Cf. note to l. 207.
202. with lettre of gold; Lat. ‘tenens librum aureis litteris scriptum.’ L. 203 is not in the original.
205. ‘When he (Valerian) saw him (the old man); and he (the old man) lifted up him (Valerian); and then he (Valerian) began thus to read in his (the old man’s) book.’ This is very ambiguous in Chaucer, but the Latin is clear. ‘Quem uidens Ualerianus prae nimio timore quasi mortuus cecidit, et a sene leuatus sic legit.’
207. Oo lord, one lord. Tyrwhitt prints On, ‘to guard against the mistake which the editions generally have fallen into, of considering o, in this passage, as the sign of the vocative case.’ For the same reason, I have printed Oo, as in MS. Pt., in preference to the single O, as in most MSS. Even one of the scribes has fallen into the trap, and has written against this passage—‘Et lamentat.’ See MS. Cp., in the Six-text edition. The fact is, obviously, that ll. 207–209 are a close translation of Eph. iv. 5, 6. Hence the old man was St. Paul.
208. Cristendom, baptism; Lat. ‘baptisma.’ See l. 217.
216. We must read the before oldë, not this or that, because e in the must be elided; otherwise the line will not scan.
223–224. that oon, the one; sometimes written the ton or the toon. That other, the one; sometimes written the tother. ‘The ton’ is obsolete; but ‘the tother’ may still be heard. That is the neuter of the A. S. def. article se, sēo, þæt; cf. Germ der, die, das.
As to the signification of the red and white flowers, see note to l. 27 above.
Compare Act v. sc. 1 of Massinger’s Virgin Martyr, where an angel brings flowers from St. Dorothea, who is in paradise, to Theophilus. See note to l. 248 below.
232. for, because; Lat. ‘quia.’
236. Afterwards repeated, very nearly, in Kn. Tale, l. 338 (A. 1196).
243. savour undernom, perceived the scent; Lat. ‘sensisset odorem.’
246. Cf. the South-E. Legendary (see note to l. 120), l. 89.
‘Brother, he seyde, how goth this? This tyme of the yere So swote smul ne smelde I neuere, me thinkth, as I do here.’
248. rose. We should have expected roses. Perhaps this is due to the peculiar form of the Latin text, which has—‘roseus hic odor et liliorum.’
Compare the words of Theophilus in the Virgin Martyr, v. 1:—
‘What flowers are these?’ c.
270. Ll. 270–283 are certainly genuine, and the passage is in the Latin text. It is also in the French version, but it does not appear in the Early English version of the story printed by Mr. Furnivall from MS. Ashmole 43, nor in the English version printed by Caxton in 1483; nor in the version in the South-E. Legendary. Tyrwhitt’s supposition is no doubt correct, viz. that this passage ‘appears evidently to have been at first a marginal observation and to have crept into the [Latin] text by the blunder of some copyist.’ He truly observes that these fourteen lines ‘interrupt the narrative awkwardly, and to little purpose.’
271. Ambrose. ‘Huic miraculo de coronis rosarum Ambrosius attestatur in praefatione, sic dicens,’ c. I cannot find anything of the kind in the indices to the works of St. Ambrose.
In the Sermons of Jacques de Vitry, a story is given beginning with the words—‘Beatus Ambrosius narrat,’ to this effect. St. Ambrose tells of a virgin going to martyrdom, who was asked by a pagan whither she was going. She answered: ‘to see my friend, who has invited me to his wedding-feast.’ The pagan, deriding her, said: ‘Tell your friend to send me some of his roses.’ Shortly after her death, a beautiful youth brought to the pagan a basket full of full-blown roses, saying, ‘The friend of the woman, who just now passed by, sends you some of the roses you desired,’ and then disappeared. The pagan was converted and himself suffered martyrdom. This is the story of St. Dorothea, whose day is Feb. 6; for which Alban Butler refers us to Aldhelm, De Laude Virginitatis, c. 25.
276. eek hir chambre, even hir marriage-chamber, i.e. even marriage. weyve, waive, abandon. Lat. ‘ipsum mundum est cum thalamis exsecrata.’ weyve occurs again in some MSS. of Chaucer’s Truth, l. 20.
277. shrifte, confession. Lat. ‘testis est Valeriani coniugis et Tiburtii prouocata confessio, quos, Domine, angelica manu odoriferis floribus coronasti.’ For Valerians, all the MSS. have Cecilies. Whether the mistake is Chaucer’s or his scribes’, I cannot say; but it is so obviously a mere slip, that we need not hesitate to correct it. The French text is even clearer than the Latin; it has—‘et de cest tesmoing Valerien son mary et Tiburcien son frere.’ Besides, the express mention of ‘these men’ in l. 281 is enough, in my opinion, to shew that the slip was not Chaucer’s own; or, at any rate, was a mere oversight.
282. ‘The world hath known (by their example) how much, in all truth, it is worth to love such devotion to chastity.’ Lat. ‘mundus agnouit, quantum ualeat deuotio castitatis;—haec Ambrosius.’ This is quoted as St. Ambrose’s opinion. The parenthesis ends here.
288. beste, i. e. void of understanding, as a beast of the field is. Lat. ‘pecus est.’
315. And we. Tyrwhitt remarks that we should have been us. But a glance at the Latin text shews what was in Chaucer’s mind; he is here merely anticipating the we in l. 318. Lat. ‘et nos in illius flammis pariter inuoluemur, et dum quaerimus diuinitatem latentem in coelis, incurremus furorem exurentem in terris.’ The sentence is awkward; but we was intended. The idiom has overridden the grammar. Cf. the South-E. Legendary (see note to l. 120), l. 121:—
‘Forberne he scholde, and we also, yif we with him were.’
319. Cecile. This is one of the clearest instances to shew that Chaucer followed the Latin and not the French version. Lat. ‘Cui Caecilia’; Fr. ‘et Valerien dist.’ Mr. Furnivall has noted this and other instances, and there is no doubt about the matter.
320. skilfully, reasonably; the usual meaning at this date. See l. 327.
325–332. Not in the South-E. Legendary.
327. ‘And all that has been created by a reasonable Intelligence.’
329. Hath sowled, hath endued with a soul, hath quickened; Lat. ‘animauit.’
335. o god, one God. We must suppose this teaching to be included in the mention of Christ in l. 295; otherwise there is no allusion to it in the words of Cecilia. The doctrine had been taught to Valerian however; see ll. 207, 208.
There are continual allusions, in the Lives of the Saints, to the difficulty of this doctrine.
338. Chaucer is not quite exact. The Latin says that three things reside in a man’s wisdom, the said wisdom being but one. ‘Sicut in una hominis sapientia tria sunt, ingenium, memoria et intellectus.’ The notion resembles that in a favourite passage from Isidore quoted in Piers Plowman, B. xv. 39, to the effect that the soul ( anima ) has different names according to its functions. Compare the curious illustrations of the doctrine of the Trinity in the same, B. xvi. 220–224, xvii. 137–249. The illustration in the text is, as Mr. Jephson points out, by no means a good one.
341. The word Three stands alone in the first foot. See note to l. 353.
343. come, coming, i. e. incarnation; Lat. ‘aduentu.’ Tyrwhitt reads sonde, i. e. sending, message; but incorrectly.
345. withholde, detained, constrained to dwell; Lat. ‘tentus’; Fr. ‘tenu.’
346. Hitherto Chaucer’s translation is, on the whole, very close. Here he omits a whole sentence, and begins to abbreviate the story and alter it to suit himself. See his hint in l. 360.
349. Here begins, practically, the second part of the story, in which the second Latin text is more freely consulted; see vol. iii. p. 488.
351. That, who. In MS. E. the word is glossed by—‘qui, scilicet Vrbanus.’ It is remarkable that the relative who (as a simple relative, without so suffixed) is hardly to be found in English of this date, in the nominative case. The A. S. hwā is only used interrogatively. See March, Anglo-Saxon Grammar, p. 179.
353. goddes knight, God’s servant, or rather, God’s soldier; see l. 383, and the note. In the A. S. version of the Gospels, Christ’s disciples are called ‘leorning-cnihtas.’ In the Ormulum and in Wyclif cniht or kniȝt sometimes means a servant, but more commonly a soldier. Priests are called ‘goddes knyghtes’ in Piers Plowman, B. xi. 304. In scanning this line, either lerninge is of three syllables (which I doubt) or else the first syllable in Parfit forms a foot by itself; see note to l. 341 above.
361. In the South-E. Legendary, their crime is specified; they had buried two Christian martyrs.
362. Almache; Lat. ‘Almachius praefectus.’ The reigning emperor was Alexander Severus ( ad 222–235).
363. apposed, questioned, examined; written opposed in most MSS., but corrected by Tyrwhitt. Ed. 1532 also has aposed. A similar confusion occurs in the Freres Tale, D. 1597, where only two MSS., viz. Pt. and Ln., have the spelling appose, as against five others which read opposen. In MSS. of Piers the Plowman, we find appose, to question, B. iii. 5; apposed, i. 47; apposeden, vii. 138. See Appose in the New E. Dict.; where it is shewn that appose was, at first, a mere variant of oppose, but came to be regarded as a correct form with a special sense; though, strictly speaking, it was a corruption.
365. sacrifyse, sacrifice to the idol. This was the usual test to which Christians were subjected; see note to l. 395. Compare Dan. iii. 14, 18. So in the Virgin Martyr, iv. 2:—
367. thise martirs; note that this is an accusative case.
369. corniculere, a sort of officer. The note in Bell’s edition, that the French version has prevost here, is wrong. The word prevost (Lat. praefectus ) is applied to Almachius. Maximus was only a subordinate officer, and is called in the Early Eng. version (MS. Ashmole 43) the ‘gailer.’ The expression ‘Maximo Corniculario’ occurs only in the Lives of Valerian and Tiburtius, in the Acta Sanctorum (April 14); and we thus gather that Chaucer consulted this source also. This was noticed by Dr. Kölbing, in the Englische Studien, i. 215; and I subsequently noticed it myself, independently.
Riddle’s Lat. Dict. gives—‘ Cornicularius, -i. m. a soldier who was presented with a corniculum, and by means of it promoted to a higher rank; hence, an assistant of an officer, Suetonius, Domit. 17; then also in the civil service, an assistant of a magistrate, a clerk, registrar, secretary; Cod. Just.’
‘ Corniculum, -i. n. (dimin. of cornu ). 1. A little horn, Pliny; also, a small funnel of horn, Columella. An ornament in the shape of a horn worn on the helmet, with which officers presented meritorious soldiers; Livy, 10. 44.’
Ducange gives several examples, shewing that the word commonly meant a secretary, clerk, or registrar. Tyrwhitt refers us to Pitiscus, Lex. Ant. Rom. s. v. Cornicularius.
373. ‘He got leave for himself from the executioners.’ tormentoures, executioners; Lat. ‘carnifices.’ See l. 527. Cf. tormentor in Matt. xviii. 34; see Wright’s Bible Word-book.
380. preestes, priests. The original says that pope Urban came himself.
383. knightes, soldiers; as in l. 353. Lat. ‘Eia milites Christi, abicite opera tenebrarum, et induimini arma lucis.’ See Rom. xiii. 12.
386. Tyrwhitt notes a slight defect in the use of y-doon in l. 386, followed by doon in l. 387. The first six lines in this stanza are not in the original, but are imitated from 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8.
395. ‘This was the criterion. The Christians were brought to the image of Jupiter or of the Emperor, and commanded to join in the sacrifice, by eating part of it, or to throw a few grains of incense into the censer, in token of worship; if they refused, they were put to death. See Pliny’s celebrated letter to Trajan. Those who complied were termed sacrificati and thurificati by the canons, and were excluded from the communion for seven or ten years, or even till their death, according to the circumstances of their lapse.—See Bingham’s Antiquities, b. xvi. 4. 5.’—Note in Bell’s edition of Chaucer. Cf. note to l. 365.
This stanza is represented in the original (in spite of the hint in l. 394) by only a few words. ‘Quarto igitur milliario ab urbe sancti ad statuam Iovis ducuntur, et dum sacrificare nollent, pariter decollantur.’
405. to-bete, beat severely; dide him so to-bete, caused (men) to beat him so severely, caused him to be so severely beaten. I have no hesitation in adopting the reading of ed. 1532 here. To-bete is just the right word, and occurs in MSS. Cp. Pt. Ln.; and, though these MSS. are not the best ones, it is clear that to-bete is the original reading, or it would not appear. To scan the line, slur over - ius in Almachius, and accent dide.
406. whippe of leed, i. e. a whip furnished with leaden plummets. Lat. ‘eum plumbatis tamdiu caedi fecit,’ c.; French text—‘il le fist tant batre de plombees,’ c.; Caxton—‘he dyd do bete hym with plomettes of leed.’
413. encense, offer incense to; see note to l. 395.
414. they. Over this word is written in MS. E.—‘scilicet Ministres.’ The Latin original says that Cecilia converted as many as 400 persons upon this occasion. Hence the expression o voys (one voice) in l. 420.
417. withouten difference, i. e. without difference in might, majesty, or glory.
430. lewedly, ignorantly. The ‘two answers’ relate to her rank and her religion, subjects which had no real connexion.
434. Lat. ‘de conscientia bona et fide non ficta’; cf. 1 Tim. i. 5.
437. to drede, to be feared; the gerund, and right according to the old idiom. We still say—‘he is to blame, ’ ‘this house to let. ’ March in his Anglo-Saxon Grammar, p. 198, says—‘The gerund after the copula expresses what must, may, or should be done. Ex. Mannes sunu is tō syllanne, the Son of Man must be delivered up, Matt. xvii. 22’; c.
439. ‘For it nis bote a bladre i-blowe ful of a wreche wynde;
Be it with a litel prikke i-priked, a-wey it shrinketh al’;—
442. bigonne, didst begin; the right form, for which Tyrwhitt has begonnest. For the Mid. Eng. biginnen we commonly find onginnan in Anglo-Saxon, and the past tense runs thus— ongann, ongunne, ongann; pl. ongunnon. The form in Middle English is— bigan, bigunne (or bigonne ), bigan; pl. bigunnen (or bigonne ). The very form here used occurs in the Ayenbite of Inwyt, ed. Morris, p. 71. The suffix - st does not appear in strong verbs; cf. Thou sawe, B. 848; thou bar, G. 48.
The whole of ll. 443–467 varies considerably from the original, the corresponding passage of which is as follows: ‘Cui Almachius: “ab iniuriis caepisti, et in iniuriis perseueras.” Caecilia respondit: “iniuria non dicitur quod uerbis fallentibus irrogatur; unde aut iniuriam doce, si falsa locuta sum, aut te ipsum corripe calumniam inferentem, sed nos scientes sanctum Dei nomen omnino negare non possumus; melius est enim feliciter mori quam infeliciter uiuere.” Cui Almachius: “ad quid cum tanta superbia loqueris?” Et illa: “non est superbia, sed constantia.” Cui Almachius: “infelix, ignoras,” ’ c. (l. 468). However, Chaucer has adopted an idea from this in ll. 473, 475.
463. To scan this, remember that Iuge has two syllables; and accent confus on the first syllable.
485. Lat. ‘es igitur minister mortis, non uitae.’
487. Do wey, do away with; Lat. ‘depone.’ The phrase occurs again in the Milleres Tale, A. 3287.
489–497. These lines are wholly Chaucer’s own.
490. To scan the line, elide e in suffre, and read phílosóphre.
492. spekest; to be read as spek’st.
498. utter yen, outer eyes, bodily eyes. In MS. E. it is glossed by ‘exterioribus oculis.’ The Latin has—‘nescio ubi oculos amiseris; nam quos tu Deos dicis, omnes nos saxa esse uidemus; mitte igitur manum et tangendo disce, quod oculis non uales uidere.’
503. taste, test, try; Lat. ‘tangendo disce.’ The word is now restricted to one of the five senses; it could once have been used also of the sense of feeling, at the least. Bottom even ventures on the strange expression—‘I trust to taste of truest Thisbe’s sight ’; Mid. Nt. Dream, v. 1. 280; such is the reading in the first folio.
505–511. This stanza is all Chaucer’s own.
515. bath of flambes rede; Lat. ‘in bulliente balneo.’
516–522. The Latin merely has—‘Quae quasi in loco frigido permansit, nec modicum saltem sudoris persensit.’
533. Lat. ‘eam semiuiuam cruentus carnifex dereliquit.’
534. is went, though only in the (excellent) Cambridge MS., is the right reading; the rest have he wente, sometimes misspelt he went. In the first place, is went is a common phrase in Chaucer; cf. German er ist gegangen, and Eng. he is gone. But secondly, the false rime detects the blunder at once; Chaucer does not rime the weak past tense wentë with a past participle like yhent. This was obvious to me at the first glance, but the matter was made sure by consulting Mr. Cromie’s excellent ‘Ryme-Index.’ This at once gives the examples is went, riming with pp. to-rent, E. 1012 (Clerkes Tale); is went, riming with instrument, F. 567 (Sq. Tale); is went, riming with innocent, B. 1730, and ben went, riming with pavement, B. 1869 (Prioresses Tale). Besides this, there are two more examples, viz. be they went, riming with sacrement, E. 1701; and that he be went, riming with sent, A. 3665. On the other hand, we find wente, sente, hente, and to-rente, all (weak) past tenses, and all riming together, in the Monkes Tale, B. 3446. The student should particularly observe an instance like this. The rules of rime in Chaucer are, on the whole, so carefully observed that, when once they are learnt, a false rime jars upon the ear with such discord as to be unpleasantly remarkable, and should be at once detected.
535–536. These two lines are not in the original.
539. ‘She began to preach to them whom she had fostered,’ i. e. converted. To foster is here to nurse, to bring up, to educate in the faith; see l. 122 above. The Latin text has—‘omnes quos ad fidem conuerterat, Urbano episcopo commendauit.’ Tyrwhitt makes nonsense of this line by placing the comma after hem instead of after fostred, and other editors have followed him. In MSS. E. and Hn. the metrical pause is rightly marked as occurring after fostred. The story here closely resembles the end of the Prioresses Tale, B. 1801–1855.
545. do werche, cause to be constructed.
549. Lat. ‘inter episcopos sepeliuit.’
550. ‘It is now a church in Rome, and gives a title to a cardinal’; note in Bell’s edition. In a poem called the Stacyons of Rome, ed. Furnivall, l. 832, we are told that 100 years’ pardon may be obtained by going to St. Cecilia’s church. Mr. W. M. Rossetti, in a note on this line, says—‘The Church of St. Cecilia, at the end of the Trastevere, near the Quay of Ripa Grande, was built on the site of the saint’s own house in 230; rebuilt by pope Paschal I. in 821, and dedicated to God and Sts. Mary, Peter, Paul, and Cecilia; and altered to its present form in 1599 and 1725. In the former of these years, 1599, the body of the saint was found on the spot, with a contemporary inscription identifying her: the celebrated statue by Stefano Maderno, now in the church, represents her in the attitude she was discovered lying in.’
553. After this line the Latin adds—‘Passa est autem circa annos domini cc et xxiii, tempore Alexandri imperatoris. Alibi autem legitur, quod passa sit tempore Marci Aurelii, qui imperauit circa annos domini xxcc. ’ The confusion of names here is easily explained. Marcus Aurelius died in 180; but Marcus Aurelius Alexander Severus (for such was his title in full) reigned from 222 to 235. The true date is generally considered to be 230, falling within his reign, as it should do.
554. the lyf of seint Cecyle, i. e. the Second Nun’s Tale. This notice is important, because it inseparably links the Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale to the preceding one.
555. fyve myle, five miles. Tyrwhitt says that it is five miles ‘from some place, which we are now unable to determine with certainty.’ He adds that he is in doubt whether the pilgrims are here supposed to be riding from or towards Canterbury; but afterwards thinks that ‘the manner in which the Yeman expresses himself in ver. 16091, 2 [i. e. ll. 623, 624] seems to shew that he was riding to Canterbury.’
It is really very easy to explain the matter, and to tell all about it. It is perfectly clear that these two lines express the fact that they were riding to Canterbury. It is even probable that every one of the extant Tales refers to the outward journey: for Chaucer would naturally write his first set of Tales before beginning a second, and the extant Tales are insufficient to make even the first set complete. Consequently, we have only to reckon backwards from Boughton (see l. 556) for a five-mile distance along the old Canterbury road, and we shall find the name of the place intended.
The answer to this is—Ospringe. The matter is settled by the discovery that Ospringe was, as a matter of fact, one of the halting places for the night of travellers from London to Canterbury. Dean Stanley, in his Historical Memorials of Canterbury, p. 237, quotes from a paper in the Archæologia, xxxv. 461, by Mr. E. A. Bond, to shew that queen Isabella, wife of Edw. II., rested in London on June 6, 1358; at Dartford on the 7th; at Rochester on the 8th; at Ospringe on the 9th; and at Canterbury on the 10th and 11th; and returned, on the 12th, to Ospringe again. See this, more at length, in Dr. Furnivall’s Temporary Preface to the Canterbury Tales (Chaucer Soc.), pp. 13, 14.
Dr. Furnivall quotes again from M. Douet-d’Arcq, concerning a journey made by king John of France from London to Dover, by way of Canterbury, in 1360. On June 30, 1360, king John left London and came to Eltham. On July 1, he slept at Dartford; on July 2, at Rochester; on July 3, he dined at Sittingbourne (noted as being thirty-nine miles and three-quarters from London), and slept at Ospringe; and on July 4, came to Canterbury (noted as being fifty-four miles and a half from London).
These extracts clearly shew (1) that the whole journey was usually made to occupy three or four days; (2) that the usual resting-places were (at least) Dartford, Rochester, and Ospringe; and (3) that Sittingbourne was considered as being about fifteen miles from Canterbury.
Now, in passing from Sittingbourne to Canterbury, we find that the distance is divided into three very nearly equal parts by the situations of Ospringe and Boughton, giving five miles for each portion. The distance from Ospringe to Canterbury, only ten miles, left very little to be done on the last day; but pilgrims liked arriving at Canterbury in good time. Chaucer says, as plainly as possible, that the pilgrims really did rest all night on the road, at a place which can only be Ospringe; see ll. 588, 589.
Mr. Furnivall also notes (Temp. Pref. p. 29), that Lydgate, in his Storie of Thebes (in Speght’s Chaucer, 1602, fol. 353 back, col. 2) makes the pilgrims, on their homeward-journey, return from Canterbury to Ospringe to dinner.
556. Boghton-under-Blee. Here Blee is the same as the blee in Group H, l. 3, which see. It is now called Blean Forest, and the village is called Boughton-under-Blean, in order to distinguish it from other villages of the same name. I find, in a map, Boughton Aluph between Canterbury and Ashford, Boughton Malherb between Ashford and Maidstone, and Boughton Monchelsea between Maidstone and Staplehurst.
557. A man, i.e. the Canon. This is an additional pilgrim, not described in the Prologue, and therefore described here in ll. 566–581, 600–655, c.
‘The name of Canon, as applied to an officer in the Church, is derived from the Gk. κανών ( kanôn ) signifying a rule or measure, and also the roll or catalogue of the Church, in which the names of the Ecclesiastics were registered; hence the clergy so registered were denominated Canonici or Canons. Before the Reformation, they were divided into two classes, Regular and Secular. The Secular were so called, because they canonized in saeculo, abroad in the world. Regular Canons were such as lived under a rule, that is, a code of laws published by the founder of that order. They were a less strict sort of religious than the monks, but lived together under one roof, had a common dormitory and refectory, and were obliged to observe the statutes of their order. The chief rule for these [regular] canons is that of St. Augustine, who was made bishop of Hippo in the year 395. . . . Their habit was a long black cassock with a white rochet over it, and over that a black coat and hood; from whence they were called Black Canons Regular of St. Augustine.’—Hook’s Church Dictionary. And see Canon in the New E. Dictionary.
There were several other orders, such as the Gilbertine Canons of Sempringham in Lincolnshire, the Praemonstratenses or White Canons, c. See also the description of them in Cutts’s Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages, p. 19; and see Rock, Church of our Fathers, ii. 79, 84. At the latter reference, Dr. Rock says:—‘Some families of canons regular still require their members, whenever they go out of the house, to wear over their cassock a linen surplice, and above that a large, full, black canon’s cope. ’
I should imagine, from the description of the Canon’s house in l. 657, and from the general tenor of the Tale, that Chaucer’s Canon was but a secular one. Still, their rule seems to have been less strict than that of the monks.
558. I have omitted to note that E. has wered a, where all the other MSS. read hadde a whyt.
561. priked myles three, ridden hard for three miles. The Canon and his yeoman may be supposed to have ridden rather fast for the first two miles; and then, finding they could not otherwise overtake the pilgrims, they took to the best pace they could force out of their horses for three miles more.
562. yeman, yeoman, attendant, servant. His face was all discoloured with blowing his master’s fire (ll. 664–667), and he seems to have been the more honest man of the two. He is the teller of the Tale, and begins by describing himself; l. 720.
565. ‘He was all spotted with foam, so that he looked like a magpie.’ The word He (like his in l. 566) refers to the Canon, whose clothing was black (l. 557); and the white spots of foam upon it gave him this appearance. The horse is denoted by it (l. 563), the word hors being neuter in the Oldest English. Most MSS. read he for it in l. 563, but there is nothing gained by it. Flecked, in the sense of ‘spotted,’ is still in use; see N. and Q. 7 S. i. 507, ii. 96.
566. male tweyfold, a double budget or leathern bag; see Prol. l. 694.
571. Chaucer tells us that the Pardoner’s hood, on the contrary, was not fastened to his cloak; see Prol. 680. Dr. Rock, in The Church of our Fathers, ii. 44, says:—‘Sometimes the hood of the cope was not only sewed to it, but stitched all round, and not allowed to hang with the lower part free; in such instances, the hood was necessarily left on the cope and folded with it.’
575. ‘Rather faster than at a trot or a foot-pace.’ Said ironically. Cf. Prol. 825.
577. clote-leef, the leaf of a burdock. Cotgrave has—‘ Lampourde, f. the Cloot or great Burre.’ Also—‘ Glouteron, m. The Clote, Burre Docke, or great Burre.’ And again—‘ Bardane, f. the Clote, burre-dock, or great Burre.’
In the Prompt. Parv. we find—‘ Clote, herbe; Lappa bardana, lappa rotunda.’ In Wyclif’s Version of the Bible, Hosea ix. 6, x. 8, we find clote or cloote where the Vulgate version has lappa. The Glossary to Cockayne’s ‘Leechdoms’ explains A.S. clāte as Arctium lappa, with numerous references. The A. S. clāte is related to G. Klette, a bur, a burdock; O. H. G. chletta; Mid. Du. kladde.
It is clear that clote originally meant the bur itself, just as the name of bur-dock has reference to the same. The clote is, accordingly, the Arctium lappa, or Common Burdock, obtaining its name from the clotes (i.e. burs or knobs) upon it; and one of the large leaves of this plant would be very suitable for the purpose indicated.
We may safely dismiss the suggestion in Halliwell’s Dictionary, founded on a passage in Gerarde’s Herball, p. 674 D, that the Clote here means the yellow water-lily. We know from Cockayne’s ‘Leechdoms’ that the name clāte sēo þe swimman wille (i.e. swimming clote) was sometimes used for that flower ( Nuphar lutea ), either on account of its large round leaves or its globose flowers; but in the present passage we have only to remember the Canon’s haste to feel assured, that he might much more easily have caught up a burdock-leaf from the road-side than have searched in a ditch for a water-lily.
578. For sweet, to prevent sweat, to keep off the heat. See note to Sir Thopas, B. 2052.
580. It is probable that stillatorie (now shortened to still ) is really a shortened form of distillatorie. Both forms occur in the Book of Quintessence, p. 10, l. 24, p. 13, l. 10.
581. Were ful, that might be full, that might chance to be full. Were is the subjunctive, and the relative is omitted.
588. now, c.; lately, in the time of early morning.
589. This shews that the pilgrims had rested all night on the road; see note to l. 555 above.
597. oght, in any way, at all. Cf. Kn. Ta., A. 3045; and Prioresses Tale, B. 1792.
599. ye, yea. There is a difference between ye, yea, and yis, yes. The former merely assents, or answers a simple question in the affirmative. The latter is much more forcible, is used when the question involves a negative, and is often followed by an oath. See note to Specimens of Eng. 1394–1579, ed. Skeat, sect. xvii. (D), l. 22; and note to ȝ is in the Glossary to my edition of William of Palerne. See an example of ȝ us (yes) after a negative in Piers the Plowman, B. v. 125. Similarly, nay is the weaker, no the stronger form of negation.
602. A note in Bell’s edition makes a difficulty of the scansion of this line. It is perfectly easy. The caesura (carefully marked in MS. E. as occurring after knewe ) preserves the final e in knewe from elision.
And yé | him knéw | e, ás | wel ás | do I ∥
Tyrwhitt reads also for the former as; which is legitimate, because as and also are merely different spellings of the same word.
It is true that the final e in wondre, and again that in werke, are both elided, under similar circumstances, in the two lines next following; but the cases are not quite identical. The e in knewe, representing not merely the plural, but also the subjunctive mood, is essential to the conditional form of the sentence, and is of much higher value than the others. If this argument be not allowed, Tyrwhitt’s suggestion may be adopted. Or we may read knewen.
608. rit, contracted from rideth; see A. 974, 981. See also slit for slideth in l. 682 below.
611. leye in balaunce, place in the balance, weigh against it.
620. can, knows, knows how to exercise.
622. The Yeoman puts in a word for himself—‘and moreover, I am of some assistance to him.’
625. up-so-doun, i.e. upside doun, according to our modern phrase. Chaucer’s phrase is very common; see Pricke of Conscience, ed. Morris, l. 7230; P. Plowman, B. xx. 53; Gower, Conf. Amantis, i. 218, c.
628. benedicite, pronounced ben’cite, in three syllables, as in B. 1170, 1974. See note to B. 1170.
632. worship, dignity, honour; here, respectable appearance.
633. oversloppe, upper garment. So in Icelandic, yfirsloppr means an outer gown; as, ‘prestar skrýddir yfirsloppum,’ i.e. priests clad in over-slops, Historia Ecclesiastica, i. 473. The word slop is preserved in the somewhat vulgar ‘ slop -shop,’ i.e. shop for second-hand clothes.
635. baudy, dirty. to-tore, torn in half. So in Piers Plowman, B. v. 197, Avarice is described as wearing a ‘tabard’ which is ‘al to-torn and baudy.’
639. The second person sing. imperative seldom exhibits a final e; but it is sometimes found in weak verbs, tellen being one of them. The readings are— Telle, E. Cp. Pt. Hl.; Tel, Ln. Cm. Elsewhere, we find tel, as in D. 1298.
641. for, c.; because he shall never thrive. The Yeoman blurts out the truth, and is then afraid he has said too much. In l. 644, he gives an evasive and politer reason, declaring that his lord is ‘too wise’; see l. 648.
645. That that, that which. In the margin of MS. E. is written—‘Omne quod est nimium, c.’; which is probably short for—‘Omne quod est nimium uertitur in uitium.’ We also find—‘Omne nimium nocet.’ The corresponding English proverb is—‘Too much of one thing is not good’ (Heywood); on which Ray remarks—‘Assez y a si trop n’y a; French. Ne quid nimis; Terentius. Μηδὲν ἄγαν. This is an apothegm of one of the seven wise men; some attribute it to Thales, some to Solon. Est modus in rebus, sunt certi denique fines; Horat. Sat. i. 1. 106. L’abbondanza delle cose ingenera fastidio; Ital. Cada dia olla, amargo el caldo; Spanish. ’ We also find in Hazlitt’s English Proverbs—‘Too much cunning undoes.’—‘Too much is stark nought.’—‘Too much of a good thing.’—‘Too much spoileth, too little is nothing.’ See also the collection of similar proverbs in Ida v. Düringsfeld’s Sprichwörter, i. 37, 38.
648. Cf. Butler’s description of Hudibras:—
652. Ther-of no fors, never mind about that.
655. The adj. sly here appears in the indefinite form, and rimes with hertely; correctly. Lounsbury (Studies, i. 388) admits the fact, but immediately proceeds to rate Chaucer for using the form dry-e (dissyllabic) as an indefinite form! The attack, being founded on an error, ignominiously fails. It so happens that sly is, etymologically, a monosyllable, whilst drye is etymologically dissyllabic; see sleh and druye in Stratmann.
658. A blind lane is one that has no opening at the farther end; a cul de sac.
659. theves by kinde, thieves by natural disposition.
662. The sothe, the truth. The reader should carefully note the full pronunciation of the final e in sothe. If he should omit to sound it, he will be put to shame when he comes to the end of the next line, ending with tó thee. A very similar instance is that of tyme, riming with bý me, G. 1204 below. The case is the more remarkable because the A. S. sōð, truth, is a monosyllable; but the truth is that the definite adjective the sothe (A. S. þæt sōðe ) may very well have supplied its place, the adjective being more freely used than the substantive in this instance. Chaucer has sothe at the end of a line in other places, where it rimes with the dissyllabic bothe; G. 168; Troil. iv. 1035.
We may remark that the sothe is written and pronounced instead of the sooth (as shewn by the metre) in the Story of Genesis and Exodus, ed. Morris, l. 74:—
‘He [ they ] witen the sothe, that is sen.’
665. Peter! by St. Peter; as in B. 1404, D. 446. The full form of the phrase—‘bi seynt Peter of Rome’—occurs in Piers the Plowman, B. vi. 3. The shorter exclamation—‘Peter!’ also occurs in the same, B. v. 544; see my note on that line. harde grace, disfavour, ill-favour; a mild imprecation. In l. 1189, it expresses a mild malediction.
669. multiplye. This was the technical term employed by alchemists to denote their supposed power of transmuting the baser metals into gold; they thought to multiply gold by turning as much base metal as a piece of it would buy into gold itself; see l. 677. Some such pun seems here intended; yet it is proper to remember that the term originally referred solely to the supposed fact, that the strength of an elixir could be multiplied by repeated operations. See the article ‘De Multiplicatione,’ in Theatrum Chemicum, iii. 301, 818; cf. 131. Cf. Ben Jonson’s Alchemist, ii. 1:—
686. To scan the line, accent yeman on the latter syllable, as in ll. 684, 701.
687. To scan the line, pronounce ever nearly as e’er, and remember that hadde is of two syllables. The MSS. agree here.
688. Catoun, Cato. Dionysius Cato is the name commonly assigned to the author of a Latin work in four books, entitled Dionysii Catonis Disticha de Moribus ad Filium. The work may be referred to the fourth century. It was extremely popular, not only in Latin, but in French and English versions. Chaucer here quotes from Lib. i. Distich. 17:—
See other quotations from Cato in the Nonne Preestes Tale, B. 4130; Merch. Ta., E. 1377; and see my note to Piers Plowman, B. vi. 316.
It is worth noticing that Catoun follows the form of the Lat. Catonem, the accusative case. Such is the usual rule.
694. dere abye, pay dearly for it. abye (lit. to buy off) was corrupted at a later date to abide, as in Shak. Jul. Caesar, iii. 1. 94.
703. game, amusement. In l. 708, it is used ironically. Cf. ernest, i.e. a serious matter, in l. 710. Cf. The Alchemist, ii. 1:—
‘Alchemy is a pretty kind of game,’ c.
720. This Tale is divided, in MS. E., into two parts. Pars prima is not really a tale at all, but a description of alchemy and its professors. The real tale, founded on the same subject, is contained in Pars Secunda, beginning at l. 972. The rubric means—‘Here the Canon’s Yeoman begins his tale.’ The word tale is not to be taken as a nominative case.
I may observe that I frequently refer below to the Theatrum Chemicum, printed in 1659, in five volumes. Also to Ashmole’s Theatrum Chemicum (quite a different work).
721. neer, nearer; this explains near in Macbeth, ii. 3. 146.
724. Ther, where; observe the use. In l. 727, we have wher.
726. hose, an old hose, instead of a hood. A pair of hose meant what we should now call a pair of tight-fitting drawers, which also covered the feet.
730. ‘And, in return for all my labour, I am cajoled.’ To ‘ blere one’s eye’ is to cajole, to deceive, to hoodwink. See Piers the Plowman, B. prol. 74, and the note.
731. which, what sort of a; Lat. qualis. On multiplye, see note to l. 669.
739. ‘I consider his prosperity as done with.’
743. Iupartye, jeopardy, hazard. Tyrwhitt remarks that the derivation is not from jeu perdu, as some have guessed, but from jeu parti. He adds—‘A jeu parti is properly a game, in which the chances are exactly even; see Froissart, v. i. c. 234—“Ils n’estoient pas à jeu parti contre les François’; and v. ii. c. 9—“si nous les voyons à jeu parti. ” From hence it signifies anything uncertain or hazardous. In the old French poetry, the discussion of a problem, where much might be said on both sides, was called a Jeu parti. See Poésies du Roy de Navarre, Chanson xlviii., and Gloss. in v. See also Ducange, in v. Jocus Partitus. ’ Ducange has—‘ Jocus partitus dicebatur, cum alicui facultas concedebatur, alterum e duobus propositis eligendi.’ Hence was formed not only jeopardy, but even the verb to jeopard, used in the A. V., Judges v. 18; 2 Macc. xi. 7.
746. In the margin of MS. E. is written—‘Solacium miseriorum ( sic ), c.’ In Marlowe’s Faustus, ii. 1. 42, the proverb is quoted in the form ‘Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris.’ Dr. Wagner says: ‘The purport of this line may have been originally derived from Seneca, De Consol. ad Polybium, xii. 2: est autem hoc ipsum solatii loco, inter multos dolorem suum diuidere; qui quia dispensatur inter plures, exigua debet apud te parte subsidere.’ Cf. Milton, P. R. i. 398. The idea is that conveyed in the fable of the Fox who had lost his tail, and wished to persuade the other foxes to cut theirs off likewise. See Troil. i. 708.
752. ‘The technical terms which we use are so learned and fine.’ See this well illustrated in Jonson’s Alchemist, ii. 1:—‘What else are all your terms,’ c.
764. lampe; so in the MSS. It is clearly put for lambe, a corruption of O. Fr. lame, Lat. lamina. Were there any MS. authority, it would be better to read lame at once. Cotgrave has—‘ Lame; f. a thin plate of any metall; also, a blade.’ c. Nares has—‘ Lamm, s. a plate, from Lat. lamina. “But he strake Phalantus just upon the gorget, so as he batred the lamms thereof, and make his head almost touch the back of his horse”; Pembr. Arcadia, lib. iii. p. 269.’ Lame in old French also means, the flat slab covering a tomb; see Godefroy. So here, after the ingredients have all been placed in a pot, they are covered over with a plate of glass laid flat upon the top.
It is strange that no editor has made any attempt to explain this word. It obviously does not mean lamp ! For the insertion of the p, cf. solempne for solemne, and nempne for nemne; also flambe for flame; see the Glossary.
766. enluting. To enlute is to close with lute. Webster has—‘ Lute, n. (Lat. lutum, mud, clay). A composition of clay or other tenacious substance, used for stopping the juncture of vessels so closely as to prevent the escape or entrance of air, or to protect them when exposed to heat.’
The process is minutely described in a MS. by Sir George Erskine, of Innertiel (temp. James I.), printed by Mr. J. Small in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. xi. 1874–75, p. 193, as follows:—‘Thairfoir when all the matter which must be in, is gathered together into the pot, tak a good lute maid of potters clay, and mix it with bolus and rust of iron tempered with whitts of eggs and chopt hair, and mingle and worke thame weill togither, and lute ȝoure pott ane inch thick thairwith, and mak a stopple of potters earth weill brunt, to shut close in the hole that is in the top of the cover of the pott, and lute the pott and the cover very close togither, so as no ayre may brek furth, and when any craks cum into it, in the drying of the lute, dawbe them up againe; and when the lute is perfectly drie in the sunne, then take a course linen or canvas, and soke it weill in the whitts of eggs mixt with iron rust, and spred this cloth round about the luting, and then wet it weill again with whitts of eggs and upon the luting’; c.
768. The alchemists were naturally very careful about the heat of the fire. So in The Alchemist, ii. 1:—
And again, in iii. 2:—
770. matires sublyming, sublimation of materials. To ‘sublimate’ is to render vaporous, to cause matter to pass into a state of vapour by the application of heat. ‘Philosophi considerantes eorum materiam, quae est in vase suo, et calorem sentit, evaporatur in speciem fumi, et ascendit in capite vasis: et vocant sublimationem ’; Theatrum Chemicum, 1659, vol. ii. p. 125.
771. amalgaming. To ‘amalgamate’ is to compound or mix intimately, especially used of mixing quicksilver with other metals. The term is still in use; thus ‘an amalgam of tin’ means a mixture of tin and quicksilver.
calcening. To ‘calcine’ is to reduce a metal to an oxide, by the action of heat. What is now called an oxide was formerly called ‘a metallic calx’; hence the name. The term is here applied to quicksilver or mercury. For example—‘When mercury is heated, and at the same time exposed to atmospheric air, it is found that the volume of the air is diminished, and the weight of the mercury increased, and that it becomes, during the operation, a red crystalline body, which is the binoxide of mercury, formed by the metal combining with the oxygen of the air’; English Cyclopaedia, Div. Arts and Sciences, s. v. Oxygen. ‘The alchemists used to keep mercury at a boiling heat for a month or longer in a matrass, or a flask with a tolerably long neck, having free communication with the air. It thus slowly absorbed oxygen, becoming converted into binoxide, and was called by them mercurius precipitatus per se. It is now however generally prepared by calcination from mercuric nitrate’; id., s. v. Mercury.
772. Mercurie crude, crude Mercury. See note to l. 820. See the description of Mercury in Ashmole’s Theat. Chem. p. 272. The alchemists pretended that their quicksilver, which they called the Green Lion, was something different from quicksilver as ordinarily found. See treatise on ‘The Greene Lyon,’ in Ashmole’s Theat. Chem. p. 280.
774. Note the accents—‘súblyméd Mercúrie.’
778. Here the ‘ascension of spirits’ refers to the rising of gases or vapours from certain substances; and the ‘matters that lie all fix adown’ are the materials that lie at the bottom in a fixed (i. e. in a solid) state. There were four substances in particular which were technically termed ‘spirits’; viz. sulphur, sal ammoniac, quicksilver, and arsenic, or (as some said) orpiment. See Theatrum Chemicum, iii. 81, 129; ii. 430; iii. 276.
782. Here a =in; being short for an, a variant of on, used in the old sense of ‘in.’ The expression signifies, literally, in the way to (or of) twenty devils; see note to A. 3713.
790. bole armoniak. The latter word should rather be Armeniak, i. e. Armenian, but we have armoniak again below, in l. 798; see note to that line.
‘ Bole, a kind of fine, compact, or earthy clay, often highly coloured with iron, and varying in shades of colour from white to yellowish, reddish, blueish, and brownish. Fr. bol, Lat. bolus, Gk. βω̑λος, a clod or lump of earth’; Webster’s Dict., ed. Goodrich and Porter. Cotgrave has—‘ Bol, m. the astringent and medicinable red earth or minerall called Bolearmenie . . . Bol Oriental, et Bol Armenien Oriental, Oriental Bolearmenie; the best and truest kind of Bolearmenie, ministred with good effect against all poisons, and in pestilent diseases; and more red than the ordinary one, which should rather be tearmed Sinopian red earth than Bolearmeny.’ And see Bole in the New E. Dict.
Mr. Paget Toynbee has lately shewn (in The Academy, Sept. 16, 1893) that verdegrees is from the O. Fr. verd de Grece, lit. ‘green of Greece.’ Cotgrave has the curious form verderis, which probably represents the Latin viride aeris, the green of brass. This term ( viride aeris ) is the common one in the old Latin treatises on alchemy. See the chapter in Albertus Magnus—‘Quomodo viride aeris fit, et quomodo rubificatur, et super omnia valet ad artem istam’; Theatrum Chemicum, ii. 436. It is the bibasic acetate of copper.
792, 794. Perhaps Chaucer had read the following lines:
794. Cucurbites, vessels supposed to bear some resemblance to a gourd, whence the name (Lat. cucurbita, a gourd). ‘Cucurbita est uas quod debet stare in aqua, usque ad juncturam firmatum in caldario, ut non moueatur’; Theatrum Chemicum, ii. 452.
795. dere y-nough a leek, dear enough at the price of a leek. Cf. Clerkes Tale, E. 999.
797. Watres rubifying, reddening waters. This is well illustrated by a long passage in The Boke of Quinte Essence, ed. Furnivall, p. 13, where instructions are given for extracting the quintessence out of the four elements. After various processes, we are directed to put the vessel into ‘the fier of flawme right strong, and the reed water schal ascende’; and again—‘thanne yn the stillatorie, to the fier of bath, cleer water schall asende; and in the botum shall remayne the reed water, that is, the element of fier.’ A long and unintelligible passage about ‘rubrificatio’ and ‘aqua spiritualis rubea’ occurs in the Theatrum Chemicum, iii. 41. See also ‘modus rubrificandi’ and the recipe for ‘aqua rubea’; id. iii. 110.
798. Arsenic was by some considered as one of the ‘four spirits’; see note to l. 778. For a long passage ‘de arsenico,’ see Theatrum Chemicum, iii. 177; also p. 110, and ii. 238. Sal armoniacum was another of them (see l. 824) and is constantly mentioned in the old treatises; see ‘praeparatio salis Armoniaci secundum Rasim’; Theat. Chem. iii. 179; also pp. 89, 94, 102; ii. 445. In vol. ii. p. 138 of the same work, it is twice called ‘ sal armeniacum. ’ See the account of sal ammoniac in Thomson, Hist. of Chemistry, i. 124. Brimstoon was also a ‘spirit’ (see l. 824); it is only another name for sulphur.
800. egrimoine, common agrimony, Ægrimonia officinalis; valerian, Valeriana officinalis; lunarie, a kind of fern called in English moon-wort, Botrychium lunaria. The belief in the virtue of herbs was very strong; cf. Spenser, (F. Q. i. 2. 10). The root of valerian yields valerianic acid. The following quotation is from the English Encyclopaedia, s. v. Botrychium: —
‘In former times the ferns had a great reputation in medicine, not so much on account of their obvious as their supposed virtues. The lunate shape of the pinnæ of this fern ( B. lunaria ) gave it its common name, and was the origin of much of the superstitious veneration with which it was regarded. When used it was gathered by the light of the moon. Gerarde says—“it is singular [i. e. sovereign] to heal green and fresh wounds. It hath been used among the alchymists and witches to do wonders withall.” ’
In Ashmole’s Theatrum Chemicum, p. 348, is a full description of ‘lunayrie,’ with an engraving of it. It is there also called asterion, and we are told that its root is black, its stalk red, and its leaves round; and moreover, that the leaves wax and wane with the moon, and on each of them is a mark of the breadth of a penny. See also pp. 315, 318 of the same work.
805. albificacioun, i. e. the rendering the water of a white colour, as distinguishing from the reddening of it, mentioned in l. 797. In a long chapter printed in the Theatrum Chemicum (iii. 634–648) much is said about red and white colours. Compare the Alchemist, ii. 1:—
No doubt, too, water is here used in the sense of the Lat. aqua, to denote any substance that is in a liquid state.
808. Cered pokets. Tyrwhitt reads Sered pokettes, and includes this phrase in his short ‘List of Phrases not understood’; and indeed, it has never been explained. But there is little difficulty about it. Poket is the diminutive of poke, a bag, and means a little bag. Cered (Lat. ceratus ) means waxed. Thus Cotgrave has—‘ Ciré, m. - ée, f. waxed, seared; dressed, covered, closed, or mingled, with wax.’ In many MSS. the word is spelt sered, but this makes no difference, since Cotgrave has ‘seared’ in this very place. So we find both ‘cere-cloth’ and ‘sear-cloth.’ It is obvious that bags or cases prepared or closed with wax would be useful for many of the alchemist’s purposes; see Theat. Chem. iii. 13.
sal peter, Lat. sal petrae, or rock-salt, also called nitre, is nitrate of potassa. A recipe for preparing it is given in Theat. Chem. iii. 195.
vitriole, i. e. sulphuric acid. See ‘vitrioli praeparatio’; Theat. Chem. iii. 95.
810. Sal tartre, salt of tartar, i. e. carbonate of potash; so called from its having been formerly prepared from cream of tartar.
sal preparat, common salt prepared in a certain manner. See the section—‘quod ualeat sal commune, et quomodo praeparetur’; Theat. Chem. ii. 433, 435.
812. maad, i. e. prepared, mixed. oile of tartre, oil of tartar, cream of tartar; see Prol. 630. See the section—‘quomodo praeparatur tartarum, ut oleum fiat ex illo, quo calces soluuntur’; Theat. Chem. ii. 436; and again—‘ad faciendum oleum de Tartaro’; id. iii. 303. To scan l. 813, remember to pronounce tartre as in French, and to accent alum on the latter syllable.
Of tártr’ | alúm | glas bérm | wort ánd | argofle ∥
813. argoile, crude cream of tartar deposited as a hard crust on winecasks. Called argoil in Anglo-French; Liber Albus, i. 225, 231.
814. resalgar, realgar, red orpiment, or the red sulphuret of arsenic; symbol (As S 2 ); found native in some parts of Europe, and of a brilliant red colour. Resalgar is adapted from the old Latin name, risigallum. The word is explained by Thynne in his Animadversions, ed. Furnivall, p. 36—‘This resalgar is that whiche by some is called Ratesbane, a kynde of poysone named Arsenicke.’
enbibing, imbibition; see this term used in The Alchemist, ii. 1. It means absorption; cf. Theat. Chem. iii. 132, l. 27.
816. citrinacioun. This also is explained by Thynne, who says (p. 38)—‘Citrinatione is bothe a coolor [colour] and parte of the philophers stoone.’ He then proceeds to quote from a Tractatus Avicennae, cap. 7, and from Arnoldus de Nova Villa, lib. i. cap. 5. It was supposed that when the materials for making the philosopher’s stone had been brought into a state very favourable to the ultimate success of the experiment, they would assume the colour of a citron; or, as Thynne says, Arnold speaks of ‘this citrinatione, perfecte digestione, or the coolor provinge the philosophers stoone broughte almoste to the heighte of his perfectione’; see Citrinacio in Ducange. So in the Alchemist, iii. 2:—
817. fermentacioun, fermentation. This term is also noticed by Thynne (p. 33), who says—‘fermentacione ys a peculier terme of Alchymye, deduced from the bakers fermente or levyne’; c. See Theat. Chem. ii. 115, 175.
820. foure spirites. Chaucer enumerates these below. I have already mentioned them in the note to l. 778; see also note to l. 798. Tyrwhitt refers us to Gower’s Confessio Amantis, bk. iv., where we find a passage very much to the point. See Pauli’s edition, ii. 84.
Gower enumerates the seven bodies and the four spirits; and further explains that gold and silver are the two ‘extremities,’ and the other metals agree with one or other of them more or less, so as to be capable of transmutation into one of them. For this purpose, the alchemist must go through the processes of distillation, congelation, solution, descension, sublimation, calcination, and fixation, after which he will obtain the perfect elixir of the philosopher’s stone. He adds that there are really three philosopher’s stones, one vegetable, capable of healing diseases; another animal, capable of assisting each of the five senses of man; and the third mineral, capable of transforming the baser metals into silver and gold.
It is easy to see how the various metals were made to answer to the seven planets. Gold, the chief of metals and yellow, of course answered to the sun; and similarly silver, to the paler moon. Mercury, the swiftest planet, must be the shifty quicksilver; Saturn, the slowest, of cold and dull influence, must be lead. The etymology of copper suggested the connexion with the Cyprian Venus. This left but two metals, iron and tin, to be adjusted; iron was suggestive of Mars, the god of war, leaving tin to Jupiter. The notion of thus naming the metals is attributed to Geber; see Thomson, Hist. of Chemistry, i. 117. In the Book of Quinte Essence, ed. Furnivall, p. 8, we find: ‘a plate of venus or Iubiter, ’ i. e. of copper or tin.
Quicksilver, be it observed, is still called mercury; and nitrate of silver is still lunar caustic. Gold and silver are constantly termed sol and luna in the old treatises on alchemy. See further allusions in Chaucer’s House of Fame, 1431–1487, as pointed out in the notes to ll. 1431, 1450, 1457, 1487 of that poem.
834. ‘Whosoever pleases to utter (i. e. display) his folly.’
838. Ascaunce, possibly, perhaps; lit. ‘just as if.’ See note to D. 1745.
846. Al conne he, whether he know. The use of al at the beginning of a sentence containing a supposition is common in Chaucer; see Prol. 734. Cf. al be, Prol. 297; Kn. Tale, 313 (A. 1171). And see l. 861 below.
848. bothe two, both learned and unlearned alike.
853. limaille, filings, fine scrapings. ‘Take fyn gold and make it into smal lymail ’; Book of Quinte Essence, p. 8.
861. ‘To raise a fiend, though he look never so rough,’ i. e. forbidding, cross.
874. it is to seken euer, it is always to seek, i. e. never found. In Skelton’s Why Come Ye Nat to Court, l. 314, the phrase ‘they are to seke’ means ‘they are at a loss’; this latter is the commoner use.
875. temps, tense. The editors explain it by ‘time.’ If Chaucer had meant time, it is reasonable to suppose that he would have said so. Surely it is better to take ‘that futur temps’ in the special sense of ‘that future tense.’ The allusion is to the phrase ‘to seken’ in the last line, which is not an infinitive mood but a gerund, and often used as a future tense, as Chaucer very well knew. Compare the A. S. version of Matt. xi. 3—‘eart þū þe to cumenne eart’—with the Lat. ‘Tu es qui uenturus es.’
878. bitter swete, i. e. a fatal, though alluring, pursuit. An example of oxymoron; cf. ‘insaniens sapientia,’ Horat. Carm. i. 34; ‘strenua inertia,’ Epist. i. xi. 28. Cf. the plant-name bittersweet ( Solanum dulcamara ).
879. nadde they but, if they only should have ( or, were to have). Nadde is for ne hadde, past tense subjunctive.
880. inne, within; A. S. innan; see l. 881. a-night, for on night, in the night. Perhaps it should be nighte (with final e ), and lighte in l. 881.
881. bak, cloth; any rough sort of covering for the back. So in most MSS.; altered in E. to brat, but unnecessarily. That the word bak was used in the sense of garment is quite certain; see William of Palerne, ed. Skeat, l. 2096; Piers the Plowman, B. x. 362; and the same, A. xi. 184.
Pronounce the words And a rapidly, in the time of one syllable.
907. to-brek’th, bursts in pieces. go, gone. This must have been a very common result; the old directions about ‘luting’ and hermetically sealing the vessels employed are so strict, that every care seems to have been (unwittingly) taken to secure an explosion; see note to l. 766 above. So in the Alchemist, iv. 3:—
921. chit, short for chideth; so also halt for holdeth.
922. Som seyde, i. e. one said; note that som is here singular, as in Kn. Tale, 2173 (A. 3031). Hence the use of the thridde, i. e. the third, in l. 925.
923. Lungs was a nickname for a fire-blower to an alchemist. See Lungs in Nares’ Glossary.
929. so theech, for so thee ich, so may I thrive. See Pard. Tale, C. 947.