Chapter XXXI: Book III (4)

'Dulces exuuiae, dum fata Deusque sinebant;
Accipite hanc animam, meque his exsoluite curis;
Vixi, et quem dederat cursum fortuna, peregi.'

We hence see that, in l. 1339, the right reading is _unbind me of this unreste_, a close translation from the Latin. _Me of_ are run together; see note to Complaint to Pitè, l. 11.

1341. _Withouten_, without any succour from Æneas.

1346. _Her norice_, her nurse, or rather the nurse of Sichæus, named Barce; Æn. iv. 632.

1351. 'She roof hir-selve to the herte'; Ho. Fame, 373.

1352. Here Chaucer, having done with Vergil, takes up Ovid, who is intended by the words _myn autour_.

1354. _A lettre_, i.e. the 7th Epistle in Ovid's Heroides. See l. 1367.

1355-65. From the first 8 lines in the above Epistle.

'Sic, ubi fata uocant, udis abiectus in herbis,
ad uada Maeandri concinit albus olor.
Nec, quia te nostra sperem prece posse moueri,
alloquor. Aduerso mouimus ista deo.
Sed merita et famam, corpusque animumque pudicum
quum male perdiderim, perdere uerba leue est.
Certus es ire tamen, miseramque relinquere Dido;
atque îdem uenti uela fidemque ferent.'

IV. (PART I.) THE LEGEND OF HYPSIPYLE.

The chief sources of this fourth Legend are Guido delle Colonne's Historia Troiana, Ovid's Metamorphoses, bk. vii, and Heroides, letters vi. and xii. The story of Hypsipyle is also in Statius' Thebaid, bk. v, and in l. 1437 (see note) there is a reference to the Argonauticon of Valerius Flaccus. See further in the Preface; and see the notes to ll. 1396, 1467.

1368-95. This is a Prologue to the Legend, and is original.

1371. _Reclaiming_, enticement, power to subdue; lit. a calling back. Halliwell has: 'To _reclaim_ a hawk, to make her gentle and familiar, to bring her to the wrist by a certain call. It is often used metaphorically, to tame.' Cf. 'since this same wayward girl is so _reclaimed_'; Romeo, iv. 2. 47.

1373. _Of_, by means of. _Farced_, stuffed; as in Prol. to C. T., 233.

1377. 'Where others betray one, thou betrayest two.'

1381. _Shove_, pushed forward, brought into notice; cf. l. 726.

1383. _Have at thee!_ let me attack (or pursue) thee. _Thyn horn is blowe_, the horn is blown that summons all to pursue thee; a metaphor taken from the chase.

1387. _Aboght_, bought; pp. of _abye_, which was corrupted into _abide_; whence 'thou shalt dearly _abide_ it.'

1388. _Box_, blow, buffet; now only used of 'a box on the ear.'

1389. _Et_, eateth; pres. tense. So in the Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 135, l. 10, and in Ælfric's Grammar, ed. Zupitza, p. 200.

1391. Prof. Lounsbury would read 'the goodë man that ther-for payede,' and remarks that this gives a false rime, because the preterite form _payede_ will not rime with the pp. _betrayed_. He adds--'in order to follow the reading of the one MS. that makes _payed_ a participial form, the adj. _goode_, of the definite declension, has to be shorn of its final _e_ in pronunciation.'--Studies in Chaucer, i. 405. I take _good-man_ to be, practically, one word, as in the A. V., Matt. xx. 11, so that the def. form of the adj. is not really required. And I prefer the reading _hath payed_, though it rests on the authority of one (the best) MS. only. If, however, we adopt the proposed reading, it makes no difference at all to the rime. For the pt. t. of verbs of F. origin, as _payen_, _serven_, is usually _payed_, _served_, the full ending _-ede_ (with both syllables sounded) being extremely rare in Chaucer; cf. note to l. 1119. We even have _shined_, not _shinede_, in l. 2194, in a word of E. origin. Hence there is really no fault to be found, whichever reading be taken; and the cricitism, which is quite superfluous, comes to nothing.

1394, 5. _On_, in the case of. _Y-sene_, evident; as in l. 2655. _By_, with reference to.

1396. The reading _Guido_ (in MSS. C., T., A.) where the other MSS. and the editions have _Ouyde_, is important; especially as it is correct, and gives us a new clue. The Historia Troiana of Guido delle Colonne begins with the story of Jason, and it is evident that Chaucer follows him, at least as far as l. 1461. This can easily be seen by comparing the present passage with the beginning of Book I. of the alliterative Troy-book, ed. Panton and Donaldson, otherwise called the Gest Historiale of the Destruction of Troy, which is closely translated from Guido; or else with Lydgate's Troy-book, bk. i. capp. 1-3. Gower also tells the story of Jason (C. A. ii. 236), and says that the tale 'is in the boke of Troie write.'

1397. _Pelleus_; so spelt in the allit. Troy-book, l. 104; Gower has _Peleus_. Medieval names are strangely confused. The right form is not _Peleus_, but _Pelias_. He was king of Thessaly, half-brother of Æson, and guardian of Jason. The reading _king_ gives him his title in anticipation, but is right. So also, in the allit. Troy-book, l. 103: 'There was a _kyng_ in that coste,' &c.; and Guido has 'rex' here.

1398. _Eson_ (as in Gower); Æson, the aged father of Jason.

1420. _Al made he_, although he made.

1425. _Colcos_, properly Colchis, now Mingrelia; between the Caucasus and the Eastern shore of the Black Sea. In the allit. Troy-book, it is called _Colchos_, l. 152; and so in Gower. It is not really an island, but Chaucer follows the Latin text, which has 'insula'; see note to l. 1590.

1430. _Kept_, guarded; _with_, by. Compare the Troy-book, l. 164:--

'Thus coyntly it kept was, all with clene art,
By too oxen, oribull on for to loke,
And a derfe dragon, drede to behold.'

1438. _Oëtes_ (as in Guido); properly _Aeëtes_, Ovid, Her. xii. 51. He was king of Colchis, and father of Medea.

1447. 'Then should I be bound to requite thy toil.'

1453. _Argus_, the builder of the ship Argo, in which Jason undertook the voyage. The name is given by Guido (see the E. Troy-book, l. 273), by Valerius Flaccus, in his Argonauticon, lib. i. 314, and in the Argonautics of Apollonius Rhodius.

1457. As Bech points out, Chaucer here copies the remark in Dares:--'Demonstrare cos qui cum Iasone profecti sunt non uidetur nostrum esse: sed qui uolunt eos cognoscere, Argonautas legant.'--De excidio Troiae historia, ed. Meister, 1873; cap. 1. The reference is to the Argonauticon of Valerius Flaccus, lib. i., where the list of the Argonauts may be found. It also occurs in bk. i. of the Argonautics of Apollonius Rhodius. It is a dreary catalogue; or, as Chaucer says, a sufficiently long tale. There is a shorter list in Statius, Thebaid, bk. v. All the lists make much of Hercules (see l. 1454).

1459. _Philotetes_ (so spelt by Guido, see the Eng. version, p. 12, ll. 6 and 10, where the passage from Guido is quoted) was the name of the pilot to the expedition. Valerius Flaccus identifies him with Philoctetes, son of Poeas or Pæas; as he introduces him by the name of Poeantius; Argon, i. 391.

1463. _Lemnoun_, Lemnos; it is very common to quote proper names in forms resembling the accusative case. This, as Chaucer says, is not in Guido, but in Ovid; see Ovid's Heroid. vi. 50, 117, 136. At the same time it would be interesting to know _what version_ of Guido Chaucer followed; for it is a very singular fact, that whilst the story of Hypsipyle is neither in the alliterative Eng. version, nor in Lydgate, it _does_ occur, at this point, in a _Spanish_ version, printed at Medina in 1587. There the heading of bk. ii. c. x. is--'Como Iason aporto co_n_ tormenta a la Isla de Lemos, y caso con la infanta Hisifile.'

1467. _Isiphilee_, Hypsipyle, daughter of Thoas, and queen of Lemnos; she saved her father when the women of Lemnos killed all the other men in the island, and subsequently entertained Jason. As the letter in Ovid does not give all the circumstances, perhaps Chaucer consulted Valerius Flaccus, Argonauticon, lib. ii., and Statius, Thebais, lib. v., or, perhaps, the Fables of Hyginus, cap. xv.; but he makes more of Hercules than do these authorities, and seems to be inventing.

1468. _Thoas doghter the king_, the daughter of king Thoas. This is the usual idiom; see my note to Squi. Tale, F 209.

1469. Cf. Valerius Flaccus, Argon. ii. 311:--

'Ecce procul ualidis Lemnon tendentia remis
Arma notant: rapitur subito regina tumultu,
Conciliumque uocat: non illis obuia tela
Ferre, nec infestos deerat furor improbus ignes,
Ni Ueneris saeuas fregisset Mulciber iras.'

In Statius, Theb. v., the Lemnian women receive the Argonauts with hostility at first, and attack them with missiles.

1476. _Socour_; cf. 'succurrere disco'; Verg. Æn. i. 630.

1479. This is a curious error; _him_ should be _her_. As the Lemnian women had just killed every man in the island, the messenger must needs have been a woman. In fact, her name was Iphinoë; Val. Flacc. Argon. ii. 327. The account in Apollonius Rhodius is somewhat fuller; but I find no mention of the _cogge_.

1481. _Cogge_, a cock-boat; from the O. Fr. _coque_, also spelt _cogue_, a kind of vessel, sometimes a ship of war, but also a merchant-vessel, and here a small boat. See _coque_ or _cogue_ in Godefroy's O. Fr. Dict. _Cogge_ occurs in the Morte Arthure, 476, 738; Allit. Poems, ed. Morris, iii. 152; &c. 'Cogboote, cokbote, _scafa_'; Prompt. Parv.

1487. _Broken_, ship-wrecked. 'The ships were _broken_' 1 Kings xxii. 48; cf. Jonah i. 4. _Oght wo begoon_, in any way distressed. Note resemblances to the tale of Dido.

1488. _Lodesmen_, pilots; see note to Ch. Prol. 403. 'Lodesman of a shippe, _pilotte_'; Palsgrave.

1509. Cf. Valerius Flaccus, Arg. ii. 351:--

'Praecipueque ducis casus mirata requirit
Hypsipyle; quae fata trahant, quae regis agat uis.'

1514. _Los_; spelt _loos_ in MS. Tn.; for the _o_ is long. It means 'praise' or 'renown,' and occurs six times in Ho. Fame (1620, 1621, 1626, 1722, 1817, 1900). _Los_, with short _o_, means 'loss.'

1515. Read _th'áventúres_, in four syllables.

1528. Prof. Corson cites some parallel passages, viz:--

'And therto he was _hardy_, _wys_, and _riche_'; Squi. Ta., F 19.

'_Hardy_, and _wyse_, and _riche_, and therto _free_'; Ship. Ta., B 1366.

'We alle desyren, if hit mighte be,
To have housbondes _hardy_, _wyse_, and _free_,
And _secree_'; Non. Pr. Ta., B 4103.

1529. _Three pointes._ The reference is not to l. 1528, which mentions _four_ points, but to ll. 1530-3 following. I.e. the three points are _fredom_, _lustihede_, and being _a greet gentil-man_; or otherwise, liberality, youthful vigour, and high birth. Cf. l. 1405.

1533. Accent _Tessálie_ on the second syllable.

1535. _Shamefast_ (from A.S. _sceamu_) is here trisyllabic. On the corrupt modern spelling _shamefaced_ see Trench, Eng. Past and Present.

1536. _He hadde lever_, he would have it dearer, he would rather.

1538-40. In order to scan l. 1538, the word _almighty_ is necessary, though found in MS. A. only. Or else we must insert _him_, and read--'As wolde God that I hadde him i-yive.' The sense is--'As (I pray) that God would permit that I might have given [him] my blood and flesh, provided that I might still live (to see the result), on the condition that he had anywhere a wife (suitable) to his rank.' _So that_ means 'provided that'; as in '_so that_ ye be not wroth,' C. T., D 2248 (Sompnoures Tale), in the Harleian MS.; and in the following:--

'Sche saide, sire, ich wille help the,
_So that_ thou wille spousi me.'--Seven Sages, ed. Weber, 2663.

As to the expression _with the nones_, we may compare it with such expressions as _with-than_, _with-thon-that_, _with-tho-the_, _with-that_, all meaning 'provided that,' and all occurring in the Glossary to Spec. of Eng., Part I. And since _for the nones_ means 'for the occasion' (see Prologue to C. T., 379), so _with the nones_ is 'with the occasion,' and hence 'provided that.' I cannot at all agree with what seems to me the ludicrous emendation in some late editions, which change _nones_ into _bones_, and delete the comma after _live_; 'provided that I might live with the bones.' At any rate, there is _no authority_ for this. The old editions and MSS. all alike read _nones_; and we have the phrase again (pronounced _with th' non-es_), in the Ho. Fame, 2099.

1546. _To come to hous upon_, to become at home with, to become familiar with.

1551. The former syllable in _Yiftes_ forms a foot by itself.

1552. _As wolde god_, as (I wish) that God might will or permit; as in l. 1538.

1558. _Thoriginal_, the original. As this 'tells all the case,' i.e. all Jason's subtlety, he is probably referring to Ovid, Her. Ep. vi. Flaccus says that Hercules induced Jason to quit Lemnos, and proceed on his voyage. Statius mentions Hypsipyle's twin sons, and relates some of her later history.

1564. Chaucer here follows the sixth letter of Ovid's Heroides. Lines 1569-1575 follow four lines of the Latin text, viz. 123-4, and 159-60, which refer to the twins and Medea:--

'Si quaeris, cui sunt similes; cognosceris illis.
Fallere non norunt; caetera patris habent....
Quam fratri germana fuit, miseroque parenti
filia; tam natis, tam sit acerba uiro.'