Chapter XXX: Book III (3)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

576. _Shal telle_, has to narrate.

I. THE LEGEND OF CLEOPATRA.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

646. _Rent_, rendeth; the present tense.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

691. Pronounce _unreprovable_, as _unréprovábl'_.

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

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

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

II. THE LEGEND OF THISBE.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

782. _And for_, and because, &c.

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

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

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

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

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

803. 'Audacem faciebat amor'; 96.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

835. This line is Chaucer's own.

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

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

851-2.

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

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

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

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

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

862-8.

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

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

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

894.

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

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

913, 14.

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

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

III. THE LEGEND OF DIDO.

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

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

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

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

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

927. _Eneas_, Æneas, hero of the Æneid.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

978-82. Translated from Æn. i. 321-4.

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

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

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

994-1001. Alluding to Æn. i. 341-410.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1050. _For which_, on which account, wherefore.

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

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

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

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

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

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

1091-1102. From Æn. i 631-642.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1128-35. From Æn. i. 643-656.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See _Braid_ in the New E. Dictionary.

1170-81. From Vergil's Æn. iv. 9-29.

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

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

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

1188-1211. From Æn. iv. 129-159.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1305. _What womman_, what sort of a woman.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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