Chapter XXXII: Part II: The Legend of Medea

1580. From this line to l. 1655 Chaucer mainly follows the second book of Guido delle Colonne's Historia Troiana, which he epitomises. See Gower, C. A. ii. 236-258.

1581. 'Who is a devourer of love, and a very dragon'; with reference to the supposed insatiability of dragons.

1582. 'As matter always seeks to have a definite form, and may pass from one form into another.' Mr. Archer Hind refers me to Aristotle, Metaphysica, [LAMDA]. vii. 1072 b. 3:--[Greek: kinei de hôs erômenon, kinoumenon de talla kinei]. Bech shews that this is all from Guido, who has: 'Scimus enim mulieris animum semper uirum appetere, sicut appetit materia semper formam.... Sed sicut ad formam de forma procedere materiam notum est, sic mulieris concupiscentia dissoluta procedere de uiro ad uirum ... sine fine, cum sit quaedam profunditas sine fundo,' &c. Hence Lydgate, in his Troy-book, bk. i. c. 5 (fol. C 6, back) has:--

'For as nature by kyndly appetyte
Kyndly seketh to sewen after fourme,' &c.

1590. _Iaconitos_, Iaconites. This is a clear proof that Chaucer follows Guido. At p. 12* of the alliterative Troy-book, ed. Panton and Donaldson, the following passage is quoted from Guido, lib. ii.: 'In insula igitur Colcos erat tunc temporis quaedam ciuitas nomine _Iaconites_, caput regni pro sua magnitudine constituta.' Further extracts from this Latin text are given by Horstmann, in his edition entitled 'Barbours Legendensammlung,' vol. ii. (Heilbronn, 1882), p. 221; where will also be found a parallel passage in a fifteenth-century poem which has wrongly been ascribed to Barbour. Hence Lydgate, in his Troy-book, bk. i. c. 5 (fol. C 3, back), says of the chief city of Colchos:--'And Iaconites tho it bare the name.'

1594. Read _Preyíng_; and drop the final _e_ of _moste_.

1597. Compare the allit. Troy-book, ll. 388-391:--

'The kyng was full curtais, calt on a maiden,
Bede his doughter come downe, and his dere heire,
To sit by that semely, and solas to make.
This mayden full mylde Medea was callid.'

1605. 'And in his mien as royal as a lion.'

1606. _Famulere_, familiar, affable. See Ch. Prol. 215.

1609. 'And, as Fortune owed her an evil mishap.'

1617. Cf. the Troy-book, l. 544:--

'That causes me with counsell to caste for your helpe,
And put you in plite your purpos to wyn,
In sound for to saile home, and your sute all.'

1620. Cf. the same, l. 554:--

'Now louely and leell, for your lefe speche
I thanke you a thowsande tymes in my thro hert,
That ye kythe me suche kyndnes withouten cause why;
And here I put me full plainly in your pure wille,
To do with me, damsell, as your desyre thynke.'

1631. _Disioint_, perilous situation, peril. Cf. Kn. Ta., A 2962. 'But sith I see I stonde in this _disioint_'; Shipman's Tale, B 1601.

1639. Cf. the Troy-book, 942; and 711:--

'Yow swiftly shall sweire vppon swete goddes,
This couenaunt to kepe and for no case chaunge.'

'And swiftly he sware on that swete[70] god,
All tho couenaundes to kepe, and for no cause let,
Whill hym lastes the lyffe; he laid on his hond.'

1653. _Unwist of_, unknown to. Cf. Troy-book, 987:--

'Then leuyt thai the lond, and no leue toke,
Stale from the styth king stylle by night;
With the maiden Medea and myche other goodes,
Thai turne into Tessaile with-outen tale more.'

Here Chaucer ceases to follow Guido, except in ll. 1662-6.

1661. Her name was Creusa; cf. Ovid, Met. vii. 391-6; Horace, Epod. v. 64.

1662. Cf. the Troy-book, l. 718:--

'And thou hedis not the harme of that hend lady,
Ne tentes not thy trouth that thou tynt has;
Soche a maiden to mar that the most louet,
That forsec hir fader and hir fre londe.'

1667. _Vassalage_, prowess; cf. Kn. Ta., A 3054. It is here used ironically. Trench refers us to Lydgate's Minor Poems, ed. Halliwell, p. 176:--

'And Catoun seith, is noon so greet encress
Of wordly tresour, as for to live in pees,
Which among vertues hath the _vasselage_.'

1670. _Lettre_, letter; i.e. the 12th letter in Ovid's Heroides; see l. 1678. Lines 1672-7 answer to lines 13, 14, and 19 in Ovid:--

'Cur mihi plus aequo flaui placuere capilli,
et decor, et linguae gratia ficta tuae?...
Quantum perfidiae tecum, scelerate, perîsset!'

1672. _Why lyked me_, why did it please me? But, in l. 1674, _lyked_ is a personal verb.

V. THE LEGEND OF LUCRETIA.

Chaucer cites Ovid and Livy, and in l. 1873 again appeals to Livy as the authority. The story is in Livy, bk. i. c. 57-59; and in Ovid, Fasti, ii. 721-852. Chaucer doubtless appeals to Livy as being a professed historian, but the reader will find that, as a matter of fact, he follows mainly the account in Ovid from beginning to end, and sometimes almost word for word. Livy and Ovid were contemporary; the former was born B.C. 59, and died A.D. 17; the latter was born B.C. 43, and died A.D. 18. Gower also tells this story, and likewise follows Ovid and (near the end) Livy; C. A. iii. 251.

1680. Ovid tells the story of Lucretia under the date Feb. 22 (viii Kal. Martii), which was commemorated as 'Fuga Tarquinii Superbi,' and begins his account in the Fasti, ii. 685. Chaucer here borrows from Ovid's first line, viz.:--'Nunc mihi dicenda est regis fuga.'

Ll. 1680-1693 form Chaucer's own Prologue to the story.

1682. The 'last king' of Rome was Tarquinius Superbus, father of the Tarquinius Sextus whom Chaucer calls in l. 1698 'Tarquinius the yonge.' The word _And_, at the beginning of the line, though absolutely necessary to the sense, is preserved only in MS. Addit. 12524, a bad copy from a good type. It reads:--'And specially off the last king Tarquinius'; but no other MS. retains _specially_, and of course it makes the line too long.

1684. 'I do not tell the story for the sake of Tarquin's exile.'

1690. 'St. Augustin, commenting on the story in the milder and more rational spirit of Christian morality, while he admires the purity of Lucrece, blames her folly in committing the crime of self-murder as a punishment on herself for that of which she was really innocent. "Si adultera," he asks, "cur laudata? Si pudica, cur occisa?" See August. _De Civitate Dei_, c. xix.'--Bell.

1694. Here Chaucer begins his close copy of Ovid, Fast. ii. 721:--'Cingitur interea Romanis Ardea signis.' The original should be compared throughout. _Ardea_, capital of the Rutuli; in Latium.

1696. _Wroghte_, pt. t. 'The siege (or the besiegers) lay before the city long, and accomplished little'; G. L. Kittredge, Harvard Studies, p. 7.

1698. 'Tarquinius iuuenis'; i.e. Tarquinius Sextus.

1705. _Colatyne._ Chaucer found the name in Livy (or Augustine). Ovid merely has: 'cui dederat clarum Collatia nomen.' Livy has: 'ubi et Collatinus cenebat Tarquinius, Egerii filius.' Collatinus was the cousin of Sextus, and took his name from Collatia, an ancient town of the Sabines, in the neighbourhood of Rome.

1707. From Ovid: 'Non opus est uerbis, credite rebus, ait.'

1708. From Livy: 'paucis id quidem horis posse sciri, quantum ceteris praestet Lucretia sua.'

1711. 'That pleases me.' Ovid: 'Dicta placent'; l. 736.

1715. Cf. 'And knew the _estres_ bet than dide this John'; C. T., A 4295 (Reves Tale); and see Kn. Ta., A 1971; also, in particular, the Romaunt of the Rose, 1448, where the F. text has _l'estre_ (shewing where Ch. found the word); see vol. i. p. 153.

We may explain _estres_ by 'inner premises' of a house or building. Godefroy's O. Fr. Dict. gives numerous examples. Cotgrave gives the verb _estre_, to be; whence the sb. _estre_, a being, substance, state; and then cites: '_les estres d'une maison_, the inward conveyances, private windings and turnings within, entries into, issues out of, a house.' The word is very common in Old French, and not uncommon in Middle English. Gower even has the sing. _estre_ in the sense of 'state'; C. A. i. 272. Cf. F. 'il sait tous les êtres de cette maison.'

For all this, the old editions turned the form into _efters_, and Bell follows them! Moreover, _eftures_ is gravely quoted in Halliwell's Dictionary, with a reference to Sir T. Malory. The passage is:--'Pleaseth it you to see the _eftures_ of this castle?' bk. xix. c. 7 (p. 444 in the Globe edition). Here _eftures_ is a mere misprint (in Caxton's original edition) for _estres_, due to reading the long _s_ as an _f_. _Efters_ and _Eftures_ are mere 'ghost-words,' the products of ignorance.

1716, 7. 'Tecta petunt; custos in fore nullus erat'; l. 738.

1720. _Dischevele_, with hair hanging loose. _Malice_, evil.

1721. 'Ante torum calathi _lanaque mollis_ erat'; l. 742. Of course 'our book' means Ovid; yet Thynne reads 'saith Liui.'

1729. A fine line; but I think Chaucer has wholly misunderstood l. 752 of the original.

1732-9.

'Desinit in lacrimas, intentaque fila remittit,
in gremium uultum deposuitque suum.
Hoc ipsum decuit: lacrimae decuere pudicae,
et facies animo dignaque parque fuit'; l. 755.

1740-3. 'Pone metum, ueni, coniux ait. Illa reuixit.'

1745-55. Six lines in Ovid; ll. 761-6.

1757. 'Iam dederat cantus lucis praenuntius ales'; l. 767.

1759-71. Twelve lines in Ovid; ll. 769-80.

1765. _Al to-shake_, wholly tossed about; see l. 962.

1771. 'Or a wicked inclination, with malice.' 'The original meaning (as of _talento_ in Italian, _talante_ in Spanish) was will, inclination, from _talentum_ ([Greek: talanton]), balance, scales, and then inclination of balance.'--Trench, Select Glossary, s.v. _Talent_.

1773. 'Audentes Forsque deusque iuuant.' We say, 'Fortune favours the bold.' Cf. 'Audentes fortuna iuuat'; Verg. Æn. x. 284; 'Audentes deus ipse iuuat'; Ovid, Met. x. 586.

1774. 'Whatever the event may be, my resolve is taken.' Audebimus ultima, dixit'; l. 781.

1775. _Girt_, girdeth; pr. t. So _rit_, rideth, in l. 1776.

1780. _Halke_, corner, hiding-place; as in Sec. Non. Ta. G 311.

1781. _Gan he stalke_, he moved stealthily; as in Clerk. Ta. E 525. It is remarkable that Shakespeare uses the same word in his Lucrece, l. 365:--'Into the chamber wickedly he _stalks_.' Prof. Corson notices its use by Gower; see Pauli's edition, vol. i. pp. 72, 187; ii. 256, 346, 347, 353, 360.

1798. 'Parua sub infesto quum iacet agna lupo'; l. 800.

1800-3. Cf. Fast. ii. 801, 2:--

'Quid faciat? Pugnet? uincetur femina pugna;
Clamet? at in dextra, qui uetet, ensis erat.'

1812-26. These lines are original, and breathe the spirit of chivalry.

1827-36. Eight lines in Ovid; 815, 816; 813, 814; 817-20.

1838-46. This passage is original.

1847-53. Compare Ovid, 829, 830. But Chaucer here follows Livy, who has: 'Dant ordine omnes fidem; consolantur aegram animi, auertendo noxam ab coacta in auctorem delicti; mentem peccare, non corpus; et unde consilium afuerit, culpam abesse.' Cf. Gower, C. A. iii. 261.

1856-60. Two lines in Ovid; 833, 834:--

'Tunc quoque, iam moriens, ne non procumbat honeste,
respicit. Haec etiam cura cadentis erat.'

1861. Chaucer here tells the tale more succinctly. Ll. 1864-5 answer to ll. 849, 850 in Ovid; l. 1866 answers to l. 847 and l. 1869 to l. 852. The rest is, practically, all Chaucer's own.

1871. This canonisation of Lucretia is strikingly medieval. It was evidently suggested by the fact that Ovid gives her story under a particular date, so that she seemed to have _her own day_, like a saint. Cf. note to l. 1680.

1880. Probably the syllables _That in Is-_ form the first foot of the line. Otherwise, _Israel_ is dissyllabic.

1881. The reference must be to the Syro-phenician woman; Matt. xv. 28; Mark, vii. 29. But it may be feared that Chaucer was really thinking of the centurion; Matt. viii. 10; Luke, vii. 9. Read _he ne_ as _he n'_.

1883, 4. _As of_, in the case of. _Alday_, always; F. _toujours_. 'Let whoever wishes (it) test them.'

VI. THE LEGEND OF ARIADNE.

For a remark upon the title, see note to l. 1966.

It is difficult to say whence Chaucer derived all of this Legend. The beginning is from Ovid, Metam. vii. 456-8, viii. 6-176; the main part of the story is like Plutarch's Life of Theseus, or some similar source; and the conclusion from Ovid's Heroides, epist. x. Further, ll. 2222-4 refer to Met. viii. 176-182. See also Hyginus, Fabulae, capp. xli-xliii; Æneid, vi. 20-30; and cf. Gower, C. A. ii. 302-311.

1886. 'O Minos, king of Crete, judge in the infernal regions, now comes thy lot, now comest thou into the ring (concourse).' In l. 1894 we again have mention of Minos, king of Crete; which looks as if Chaucer has confused the two kings of this name. The 'infernal judge' was, however, the grandfather of the second Minos; at least, such is the usual account. The mention of 'the lot' in connection with Minos looks as if Chaucer was thinking of Vergil's lines, Æn. vi. 431, 2:--

'Nec uero hae _sine sorte_ datae, sine iudice sedes.
Quaesitor Minos _urnam mouet_.'

Cf. also Æn. vi. 22:--'stat ductis sortibus urna.'

1889. _Memóri-e_ has four syllables, and is accented on the second.

1895. _Hadde_, had, possessed; referring to Crete. This seems better than the reading _wan_ (i.e. won), referring to Minos. Cf. Ovid, Her. x. 67:--'Non ego te, Crete, centum digesta per urbes.'

1896. Cf. Ovid, Met. vii. 456-8:--

'Bella parat Minos ...
Androgeique necem iustis ulciscitur armis.'

Androgeus is again mentioned in Ovid, Her. x. 99; and in Vergil, Æn. vi. 20.

'There came certain of king Minos' ambassadors out of Creta, to ask a tribute, being now the third time that it was demanded; which the Athenians paid for this cause. Androgeus, the eldest son of king Minos, was slain by treason within the country of Attica: for which cause Minos, pursuing the revenge of his death, made very hot and sharp wars upon the Athenians, and did them great hurt.'--Shakespeare's Plutarch, p. 280.

1900. From this point to l. 1921 Chaucer follows Ovid, Met. viii. 6-176, but gives a mere outline of the story of Scylla. See note to l. 1908.

1902. _Alcathoe_, the citadel of Megara, and hence a name for Megara. It was named after Alcathous, founder of Megara; indeed, in Ovid, Met. viii. 8, it is called _Alcathoi urbs_; but Chaucer found the right form in Met. vii. 443.

1904. _Nisus_, Nisus, king of Megara; Met. viii. 8.

1908. Nisus' daughter was named Scylla. In order to gain the love of Minos, she cut off her father's purple hair, on which the safety of his kingdom depended; whereupon Nisus was changed into a sparrow-hawk, and Scylla into the bird _ciris_; Met. viii. 9-151. But Chaucer omits these details. Cf. Parl. of Foules, 292, and the note.

1922. Chaucer here leaves Ovid; this part of the story is partly given in Plutarch and Hyginus, but Chaucer seems to have filled in details from some source unknown to me.

1925. 'Whereupon the Athenians sent immediately unto him, and intreated him for peace: which he granted them, with condition that they should be bound to send him yearly, into Creta, seven young boys and as many young girls. Now thus far all the historiographers do very well agree, but in the rest not. And they which seem furthest off from the troth [including Chaucer] do declare, that when these young boys were delivered in Creta, they caused them to be devoured by the Minotaur within the labyrinth.'--Shakespeare's Plutarch, p. 280.

1928. The Minotaur was a monster, half bull and half man, dwelling in a labyrinth at Crete, constructed by Dædalus. He annually devoured the fourteen Athenian young people, as above said, till slain by Theseus. Cf. Ovid, Met. viii. 155.

1932. _Every thridde yeer_, every third year. This is due to Ovid's expression--'tertia sors annis domuit repetita nouenis' (Met. viii. 171), which Golding translates by--'The third time at the ninth yeares end the lot did chance to light On Theseus,' &c. But Hyginus (Fab. xli) says:--'Instituit autem ut anno unoquoque septenos liberos suos Minotauro ad epulandum mitterent.'

1944. _Egeus_, Ægeus, king of Athens; Met. vii. 402, 404.

1954. 'That thou wouldst be deeply indebted to any one who,' &c.

1960. 'Furthermore, after he [Theseus] was arrived in Creta, he slew there the Minotaur ... by the means and help of Ariadne: who being fallen in fancy with him, did give him a clue of thread, by the help wherof she taught him, how he might easily wind out of the turnings and crancks of the labyrinth.'--Shak. Plutarch, p. 283. Cf. Ovid, Met. viii. 172; Hyginus, Fab. xlii.

1962. _Foreyne_, outer chamber; belonging to the _chambres grete_, or set of larger rooms occupied by the daughters of the king. It seems to answer to the A.S. _búr_, mod. E. _bower_, explained in Murray's Dict. as 'an inner apartment, esp. as distinguished from the "hall," or large public room; _also_, esp. applied to a lady's private apartment; boudoir.' It is merely a peculiar use of our word _foreign_; the O. Fr. _forain_ (fem. _foraine_) often meant 'outer,' as in the phrases _une foraine rue_, an outer (more retired) street; _es tenebres forennes_, into outer darkness; see Godefroy's F. Dict. I agree with Mätzner, that there is no sufficient reason for explaining the word in this passage by 'privy,' though it admittedly has that meaning also (as given in Levins).

1965. _Maister-strete_, principal street; as in Kn. Ta., A 2902.

1966. Most MSS. begin the line with _Of Athenes_, as in l. 2306. This would be a most extraordinary oversight, as the scene is laid in Crete, in the town of Gnossus. MS. T. substitutes 'In mochell myrthe'; and the old printed editions have 'Of the towne,' which scans badly, though 'Of thilke toune' would do well enough. We seem justified in rejecting the reading _Of Athenes_, because Chaucer distinctly mentions _Athenes_ in ll. 1940, 1944, as being the place whence Theseus was sent 'unto the court of Minos'; l. 1949. Besides this, in l. 2122 Theseus calls Ariadne by the prospective title of 'duchess of Athens'; on which Ariadne playfully remarks that she and her sister are now 'assured to royal positions in Athens'; l. 2128. From all which it does not seem fair to charge the error upon Chaucer himself; and I therefore make the bold alteration suggested by MS. T., and supported by MS. Addit. 9832, which has 'In moche myrth.' In the title of the poem, Ariadne is called 'Adriane de Athenes,' but this is another matter, and has reference to l. 2122. She became 'duchess of Athens' in the right of her husband Theseus.

1969. _Adrian_ or _Adriane_, the M.E. spellings of Ariadne: see Ho. Fame, 407; Prol. to Man of Law, B 67. Ariadne and Phædra were the daughters of Minos; Theseus took both of them away from Crete; and, on the voyage, deserted Ariadne for her sister.

1990. 'And make this sorrowful man come with him.'

1992. _Quit_, free, delivered. It seems to have been an understood thing, that if a captive Athenian should succeed in slaying the Minotaur, he should go free, and the tribute paid by the Athenians should be remitted. One account in Plutarch says that Minos himself 'chose Theseus, upon condition agreed between them; ... and that after the death of the Minotaur this tribute should cease.'--Sh. Plut. p. 282. One condition was, that the captives should be _unarmed_. This explains Phædra's plan, in l. 1994, for arming Theseus surreptitiously; cf. l. 2011.

1993. _Taste_, test. The word _test_ was formerly used only as a sb., of a vessel in which gold or silver was tested; the place of the mod. E. verb to test was supplied by the M.E. _tasten_, and there can be little doubt that the words _taste_ and _test_ have been partially confused; see these words in my Etym. Dict., whence I quote the following: 'The M.E. _tasten_ meant both to feel and to taste. "I rede thee, lat thyn _hand_ upon it falle, And _taste_ it wel, and stoon thou shalt it finde"; Ch. C. T. 15970 (G 502). "Every thyng Himseolf schewith in _tastyng_;" King Alisaunder, 4042.--F. _taster_, to taste or take an assay of; also to handle, feel, touch; Cotgrave. Cf. mod. F. _tâter_; Ital. _tastare_, "to taste, to assaie, to feele, to grope, to trye, to proofe, to touch"; Florio.'

1996. The former syllable of _Fighten_ forms a foot by itself.

1997. 'Where he will have to descend.'

2002. _Shal do_, will be sure to do.

2004. Bell remarks that this resembles the stratagem by which Daniel destroyed the dragon at Babylon. 'Tulit igitur Daniel picem, et adipem, et pilos, et coxit pariter: fecitque massas, et dedit in os draconis, et diruptus est draco'; Dan. xiv. 26 (Vulgate).

2009. _To-hepe_, together; i.e. 'before they come to closer quarters.' Bell alters this, the reading of all the MSS. and old editions, to _to kepe_, which gives no sense; and Morris and Corson follow suit. Yet _to-hepe_, lit. 'to a heap,' but used adverbially in the precise sense of 'together,' is not a recondite expression. Morris explains it rightly elsewhere, viz. in Chaucer's tr. of Boethius, bk. iv. pr. 6, l. 182, where 'y-medled to-hepe' means 'mixed together.' It is also in Troil. iii. 1764:--'that Love halt now _to-hepe_,' which Love now holds together. And yet again, in Ch. Astrolabe, pt. i. § 14. 5. See also P. Plowm. Crede, 727.

2012. _The hous_, i.e. the famous labyrinth. _Crinkled_, full of turns or 'cranks'; see note to l. 1960. Cf. Mid. Du. _krunckel-winckel_, or _krinckel-winckel_, 'crooked here and there'; Hexham (A.D. 1658); Du. _krinkel_, a winding, _krinkelen_ or _kronkelen_, to wind about; all allied to E. _crank_, a twist, hence a twisted handle. Cf. Ovid, Met. viii. 173; Æn. vi. 27. And see Trevisa, tr. of Higden, i. 9.

2020. Read _drede_, dread; not _stede_, place. The Rime-indexes shew that, in the ending _-ede_ in Chaucer, the former _e_ is usually long (_-[=e]de_, _-eede_). However, _st[)e]de_, in the sense of 'stead' (A.S. _st[)e]de_), rimes once with _dr[=e]de_, in Ho. Fame, 829.

2028. _Sit on his knee_, kneels down. We also find _to setten him on knees_, _to fallen on knees_, _to knelen on knees_, _he lay on kne_, &c. See Mätzner, s.v. _cneo_, p. 442. 'On knes she sat adoun'; Lay le Freine, 159. Cf. Man of Lawes Tale, B 638.

2029. _The righte_; here used as a vocative case.

2037. Cf. Arcite's service as a page; Kn. Ta., A 1427.

2040. _Nat but_, only, merely; the familiar Northern E. _nob-but_. See l. 2091.

2041. _Swinke_, toil, labour hard. It is curious that this word should be obsolete. Perhaps no word that is now obsolete was once more common. It occurs in Chaucer, Langland, Gower, Spenser, &c.; but not in Shakespeare.

2044. 'Nor any one else, shall be able to espy me.'

2048. 'In order to have my life, and to retain your presence.' The sense is quite clear. The note in Corson--'_presence_ seems to mean here presentiment or suspicion'--is due to some mistake.

2051. Only MS. C. retains _now_; and it would be better before _is_ than after it.

2056. _Yif_, if; answering to _than_, then, in l. 2059.

2063. 'I pray Mars to do me such a favour.'

2064. _Shames deeth_, a death of shame; see l. 2072.

2065. _Póvert_ occurs as a dissyllable, in Cant. Ta., C 441.

2066. Pronounce _spirit_ nearly as _spir't_.

_Go_, walk about, roam. He prays that he may be punished by being made to walk as a ghost after death. A reference to the supposed restlessness of the spirits of wicked men; see Parl. of Foules, 80. But good spirits also 'walked' sometimes; Wint. Tale, iii. 3. 17.

2069. _For which_, for which cause, on which account. _Go_, may walk; the subjunctive mood.

2070. _Other degree_, i.e. a higher degree than that of page. He professes not to aspire to this, _unless_ she vouchsafes to give it him.

2072. 'May I die by a death of shame.' The _of_ depends on _deye_; cf. Man of Lawes Tale, B 819.

2075. _A twenty_, about twenty. _A_ is here used as expressly an approximative result; as in '_an_ eight days,' Luke ix. 28; so '_a_ ten,' Squi. Tale, F 383. Only MS. C. retains _a_, but it is wanted for the metre.

2082. _God shilde hit_, God defend or forbid it.

2083. _Leve_, grant. We also find _lene_, to grant, give, but it is only used with a following _case_; whilst _leve_ is only used with a following _clause_. _Me_ is governed by _befalle_. 'And grant that such a case may never befall me,' i.e. for Theseus to be merely her page.

2086. _And leve_, and may He also grant.

2089. 'Yet it would be better'; followed by _Then_ (= than) in l. 2092.

2094. The latter syllable of _profit_ comes at the caesura, and is easily read quickly. We need not change _unto_ into _to_, as in MS. A. only.

2096. _To my_, as for my.

2099. _That_, (I propose) that. _Sone_, Hippolytus. Yet, in l. 2075, Theseus was only 23 years old! Perhaps she proposes, in banter, a purely whimsical condition; cf. ll. 2102, 2120, 2127.

2100. _Hoom-coming_, arrival at home; cf. Kn. Tale, 26 (A 884).

2101. _Fynal ende_, definite settlement.

2105. _To borwe_, as a pledge; cf. Squi. Ta., F 596.

2107. To draw blood on oneself was a frequent mode of attestation. Cf. Wright's note on K. Lear, ii. I. 34; and note how Faustus stabs his arm in Marlowe's play; Act ii. sc. 1.

2120. _Servant_, devoted lover; the usual phrase. This asseveration of Theseus shews that he thought Ariadne immeasurably credulous.

2122. _Of Athenes duchesse_, (whom I hail as) duchess of Athens. That is, he promises her marriage. In l. 2127 Ariadne grows pleasant on the subject.

2128. 'And assured to the royalties (or regal attributes) of Athens'; i.e. we are secure of our future royal rank.

2130. _And saved_, and we have saved. Chaucer has _be_ just above; so that he has changed the idiom.

2132. _Emforth hir might_, even-forth with her might, to the extent of her power; cf. Kn. Ta., 1377 (A 2235).

2134. 'It seems to me, no one ought to blame us for this; nor give us an evil name on this account.'

2145. _Geeth_, goeth, goes; A.S. _g['æ]ð_. For two more examples, see _geð_ in Gloss. to Spec. of English, Part I.

2150. _By_, by help of, with the help of.

2151. _Of_, with. _Gan hit charge_, did load it. 'And they say, that having killed this Minotaur, he returned back again the same way he went, bringing with him those other young children of Athens [whom Chaucer forgets to mention], whom with Ariadne also he carried afterwards away.'--Sh. Plutarch, p. 283.

2155. _Ennopye_, Oenopia, another name for Ægina; which was on their way from Crete to Athens. Chaucer got the name from Ovid, Met. vii. 472, 473, 490; and introduces it naturally enough, because Æacus, then dwelling there, was an old ally of the Athenians; id. 485; cf. l. 2156 in our poem. Gilman suggests that Enope (i.e. Gerenia in Messenia) is meant, which is merely a wild guess.

2161. _Woon_, number. Originally, a hope; also, a resource, a store, a quantity; and hence _gret woon_ = a great number. For examples, see _w[=a]n_ in Stratmann; and cf. note to Troil. iv. 1181.

2163. _Yle_, island; usually said to be Naxos, on the supposition that it is not much out of the way in sailing from Gnossus in Crete to Attica. Chaucer has inadvertently brought Theseus to Ægina already; but we need not trouble about the geographical conditions. The description of the island is from Ovid, Her. x. 59:--'Uacat insula cultu'; &c.

2167. _Lette_, tarried; pt. t. of the weak verb _letten_; quite distinct from _leet_ or _l[=e]t_ (pt. t. of _leten_), which would not rime with _set-te_. This latter part of the story is nearly all from Ovid, Her. x.

Compare, e.g. ll. 4-6:--

'unde tuam sine me uela tulere ratem;
In quo me somnusque meus male prodidit, et tu,
pro facinus! somnis insidiate meis.'

2176. _To his contre-ward_, i.e. toward his country. Cf. 'To Thebes-ward'; Kn. Ta. 109 (A 967).

2177. _A twenty devil way_, in the way of twenty devils; i.e. in all sorts of evil ways or directions; cf. Can. Yem. Ta., G 782.

2178. _His fader_, king Ægeus (l. 1944). The story is that Theseus went to Crete in a ship with a black sail, in token of his unhappy fate. He had agreed to exchange this for a white sail, if his expedition was successful; but this he omitted to do. Hence Ægeus, 'seeing the black sail afar off, being out of all hope ever more to see his son again, took such a grief at his heart, that he threw himself headlong from the top of a cliff, and killed himself.'--Shak. Plutarch, p. 284.

2182. _Atake_, overtaken with sleep; cf. C. T. 6966 (D 1384).

2186. 'Perque torum moueo brachia; nullus erat'; Her. x. 12.

2189, 90.

'Alta puellares tardat arena pedes.
Interea toto clamanti littore, Theseu!' id. 20.

2192. Suggested by Ovid; ll. 81-6.

2193. 'Reddebant nomen concaua saxa tuum'; id. 22. The Latin and English lines are alike beautiful.

2194. 'Luna fuit; specto, si quid, nisi littora, cernam'; id. 17.

2195-7. These three lines represent eight in Ovid; 25-32.

2198. This line answers to the first line in Ovid, Epist. x.

2200, 1. _His meiny_, its (complete) crew. _Inne_, within; A.S. _innan_.

'Quo fugis, exclamo, scelerate? Reuertere, Theseu;
flecte ratem; numerum non habet illa suum'; id. 35.

2202.

'Candidaque imposui longae uelamina uirgae,
scilicet oblitos admonitura mei'; id. 41.

2208-17. Paraphrased from Ovid; Her. x. 51-64.

2212. _Answere of_, answer for; 'redde duos.'

2214. _Wher shal I become?_ Where shall I go to? the old idiom. We now say, 'what will become of me?' On this expression, see _Bicome_ in my Gloss. to P. Plowman (Clar. Press Series).

2215. 'For even if a ship or boat were to come this way, I dare not go home to my country, for fear (of my father).'

The reading _that bote none here come_ is nonsense, and expresses the converse of what is meant. The corresponding line in Ovid is--'Finge dari comitesque mihi, uentosque, ratemque'; 63.

2218. _What_, for what, why? See Cant. Ta., B 56, &c.

2220. _Naso_, Ouidius Naso. _Her epistle_, the epistle above quoted, the title of which is--'Ariadne Theseo.'

2223, 4. The story is that Bacchus took compassion on Ariadne, and finally placed her crown as a constellation in the heavens; see Ovid, Fasti, iii. 461-516; Met. viii. 178-182. This constellation is the Northern Crown, or Corona Borealis, which is just in the opposite side of the sky from Taurus. Ovid says--'qui medius nixique genu est anguemque tenentis,' Met. viii. 182. Here the holder of the snake is Ophiuchus; and _Nixus genu_ or _Engonasin_ ([Greek: en gonasin]) was a name for Hercules; see Hyginus, Poet. Ast. lib. ii. c. 6; lib. iii. c. 5; Ausonius, Eclog. iii. 2. The Northern Crown comes to the meridian with the sign Scorpio, not Taurus. We can only bring the sense right by supposing that _in the signe of Taurus_ means when the _sun_ is in that sign, viz. in April. In the nights of April, in our latitude, the Northern Crown is very conspicuous.

2227. _Quyte him his whyle_, repay him for his time, i.e. for the way in which he had spent his time; cf. Man of Law's Ta., B 584.

VII. THE LEGEND OF PHILOMELA.

Chaucer's Prologue ends at l. 2243. The tale is from Ovid, Met. vi. 424-605, with some omissions, and ends at l. 2382. Gower has the same story; C. A. bk. v. ed. Pauli, ii. 313.

2228. The words 'Deus dator formar_um_' are written after the title in MS. B.; and part of the first line corresponds to this expression. In MS. F. it appears as 'Deus dator formator_um_[71],' which can hardly be right.

Corson has the following note:--'In these verses (2228-30) the Platonic doctrine of forms or ideas is expressed. For whatever knowledge Chaucer may have had of the philosophy of Plato, he was probably indebted to the Italian poets, with whom, especially Petrarch, Plato was a favourite.' Corson also quotes the following from Sir Wm. Hamilton:--'Plato agreed with the rest of the ancient philosophers in this--that all things consist of matter and form; and that matter of which all things were made, existed from eternity, without form; but he likewise believed that there are external _forms_ of all possible things which exist, without matter; and to these eternal and immaterial forms he gave the name of ideas. In the Platonic sense, then, ideas were the patterns to which the Deity fashioned the phenomenal or ectypal world.' See also Spenser, Hymne in honour of Beautie, st. 5. And cf. l. 1582 above.

However, Chaucer here follows Boethius, De Consolatione Philosophiae, lib. iii. met. 9:--

... 'Tu cuncta superno
ducis ab exemplo, pulcrum pulcerrimus ipse
mundum mente gerens, similique in imagine formans.'

See Chaucer's version of the same, ll. 1-12. Cf. Le Rom. de la Rose, 16931-8, also copied from Boethius, who follows Plato.

2233. _As for that fyn_, with that particular object.

2236. _Fro this world_, i.e. from the centre of the universe; according to the old Ptolemaic system which made the earth the fixed centre of all things. _The firste hevene_, the first or outermost sphere, that of Saturn; see note to Complaint of Mars, 29.

2237. Understand _al_ (everything) as the nom. case to _corrumpeth_; i.e. everything becomes corrupt, is infected.

2238. _As to me_, as for me, in my opinion.

2241. _Yit last_, still lasts, still endures.

2243. Read--The stóry of Térë-ús, &c.; the _-y_ in _story_ being rapidly slurred over.

2244. Here begins Ovid, Met. vi. 424:--'Threïcius Tereus.' Tereus was king of Thrace; and Ovid says he could trace his descent from Gradivus, i.e. Mars (l. 427).

_Marte_, Mars. Corson here notes that '_Marte_ is the ablative case of Mars, as _Jove_ is of Jupiter.' It is worth while to say that this view is quite erroneous; for these forms did not arise in that way. _Marte_ was formed from _Martem_, the accusative case, by dropping the final _m_; and, generally, the Romance languages formed most of their substantives from _accusative_ cases, owing to the frequent use of that case, especially in the construction of the accus. with the infinitive, which in medieval Latin was very common. See Sir G. Cornewall Lewis' Essay on the Romance Languages, and Diez, Grammatik der Romanischen Sprachen, vol. ii. Thus the F. _corps_ represents the Lat. acc. _corpus_, not the abl. _corpore_; as is sufficiently obvious.

2247. Read--_Pán-di-ón-es_. Pandion, a king of Athens, was father of Progne and Philomela. Cf. The Passionate Pilgrim, xxi. 395.

2249. The original Latin should be consulted, as Chaucer sometimes copies Ovid literally, and sometimes goes his own way.

'Non pronuba Iuno,
non Hymenaeus adest illi, non Gratia lecto.
Eumenides tenuere faces de funere raptas:
Eumenides strauere torum: tectoque profanus
incubuit bubo, thalamique in culmine sedit.'--428.

2253. _Wond_, wound; _aboute the balkes wond_, kept winding (flying in circular wise) round about the balks (or transverse beams beneath the roof). Three good MSS. read _wond_, which is the past tense of _winden_, to wind. Bell and others read _wonde_, explained by 'dwelt'; but this is open to two objections, viz. (1) the pt. t. of _wonien_ to dwell, is _woned_ or _wonede_, not _wonde_; and (2) an owl cannot dwell _about_ a balk, but only _on_ it. The pt. pl. _woneden_ (three syllables) occurs in the Kn. Ta. 2069 (A 2927); and we learn from the Clerkes Tale, E 339, that the pp. _woned_ rimes with _astoned_. Ovid, indeed, has _incubuit_ and _sedit_; but that does not prove much; for Chaucer expresses things in his own manner at will.

2256. This original line refers to the medieval wedding-feasts, which sometimes lasted even forty days. See Havelok, l. 2344; and the note.

2259-68. From Ovid, Met. vi. 438-442.

2261. _Saw not longe_, had not seen for a long time.

2264. _Moste_, might. _Ones_, for once; lit. once.

2265. _And come anoon_, and return again soon.

2266. 'Or else, unless she might go to see her.'

2270. 'Caused his ships to be made ready.'

2270-8. From Ovid, Met. vi. 444-450. Chaucer next passes on to ll. 475, 483. Ll. 2288-2294 are abridged from ll. 451-471 of the Latin. Ll. 2295-2301 answer to ll. 495-501; ll. 2302-2307 to ll. 488, 489; but many touches are Chaucer's own, and he is seldom literal.

2282. Read _lovede_ as _lov'de_; cf. _preyde_, 2294. This line is imitated in Kn. Ta. 338 (A 1196)--'For in this world he lovede no man so.'

2290, 1. 'And that there was none like her in (royal) array'; Met. vi. 451. _Two so riche_, twice as rich; cf. _ten so wood_, in l. 736.

2308. Cf. Ovid, Met. vi. 512.

2312, 3. 'If it might please her, or (even) if it might not please her.'

2318-22. Ovid has these images of the lamb (l. 527) and of the dove (529).

2335. This 'castle' answers to Ovid's 'custodia' (572).

2340. 'God avenge thee, and grant thee thy petition (for vengeance).'

2342-9. Cf. Ovid, Met. vi. 563-570.

2352. _Stole_, stool, frame for tapestry work. Hexham's Du. Dict. (1658) gives: '_Stoel-doeck_, Tapistrie, or Hangings'; lit. stool-cloth. Cf. G. _Weberstuhl_, a loom; lit. weaver-stool. _Radevore_, a kind of serge; here, the material on which tapestry-work was executed. The only other example I have met with is in a poem beginning--'As ofte as syghes ben in herte trewe,' in the Tanner MS. 346, fol. 73. One stanza begins thus:--

'As ofte tymes as Penelapye
Renewed her werk in the _raduore_,
To saue her-selfe onely in honeste
Vnto Vlixes, that she louyd so sore.'

(Another copy of these lines is in MS. Ff. 1. 6 in the Cambridge Univ. Library, fol. 11.)

Here _raduore_ is clearly an error for _radeuore_ or _radevore_, as the scansion shews. Urry's Glossary gives the following explanation: '_Ras_ in French means any stuff [it means serge or satin], as _Ras de Chalons_, _Ras de Gennes_; _Ras de Vore_ or _Vaur_ may be a stuff made at such a place.' On which Tyrwhitt remarks--'There is a town in Languedoc called _La Vaur_; but I know not that it was ever famous for tapestry.' Cotgrave gives: '_Ras_, serge'; also '_Ras de Milain_, the finest kind of bare serge, or a silke serge.' Littré cites _ras de Châlons_ from Scarron, Virg. iv.; also 'bas de soye, _raz de Millan_ et d'estame.' _Ras_, in fact, is the same as the Tudor-English word _rash_. The loss of the _s_ in _ras de Vore_ is regular, because _s_ drops before _d_ in Anglo-French, though it is preserved in _ras_ when used alone. I find, on consulting the English Cyclopædia, that _La Vaur_, in the department of Tarn, produces silk and serge to this day; so that Urry is certainly right. The whole account in ll. 2350-72 is expanded from five lines in the Latin text, 576-580:--

'Stamina barbarica suspendit candida tela:
purpureasque notas filis intexuit albis'; &c.

Observe that, in l. 2360, the stuff is called 'a _stamin_.'

2359. _By that_, by the time that.

2360. _A stamin large_, a large piece of stamine. _Stamin_ or _stamine_ is usually explained as a kind of woollen cloth. Cotgrave gives: '_Estamine_, the stuffe tamine.' Godefroy gives both _estamin_, masc. and _estamine_, fem. explained by 'tissu léger de laine ou de coton.' Palsgrave has:--'Stamell, fyne worstede, _estamine_'; and--'Stamyne, _estamine_.' The Prompt. Parv. has:--'Stamyn, clothe, _stamina_.' _Stamin_ was used as a material for shirts, and was worn by way of penance; Fosbrooke explains it as 'a shirt made of woollen and linen, used instead of a penitentiary hair-shirt.' '_Stamin_ habbe whoso wule,' whoso will may have a stamin; Ancren Riwle, p. 418. Chaucer uses it thus near the end of the Persones Tale (I 1052); 'Also in weringe of heyres or of _stamin_ or of haubergeons on hir naked flesh for Cristes sake, and swiche manere penances.'

MSS. C. T. A. have _stamyn_, which seems the better form; the rest (like the printed editions) have _stames_, which may be an error for _stamel_, O.F. _estamel_, used in the same sense as O.F. _estamine_. Else it may answer to O.F. _estame_, 'laine peignée, tricot de laine' in Godefroy. The fact that Ovid's word is _stamina_ is in favour of the spelling _stamin_. (Bell remarks that 'the printed copies read _flames_, which is nonsense.' He seems to have misread _stames_ (with long _s_) as _flames_. The editions of 1532, 1550, and 1561 certainly have _stames_.)

2373-82. Abridged from Met. vi. 581-605. Ovid mentions the triennial festival to Bacchus.

2379. _Compleint_ is a much better reading than the _constreynte_ of the old editions.

2383. _No charge_, of no consequence; Squi. Ta., F 359.

2383-93. All Chaucer's own. The last line is characteristic: 'unless it happens to be the case that he cannot get another,' i.e. a new love. For _non other_, old editions have _another_!

2385. Here _deserved_ is the usual Chaucerian form of the pt. tense. Prof. Lounsbury (Studies in Chaucer, i. 403) calls this a false form. But cf. _wyped_, _lipsed_ (in _-ed_, not _-ede_); Prol. to C. T., 133, 264.

VIII. THE LEGEND OF PHYLLIS.

Gower tells the same story in his Confessio Amantis, bk. iv. (ed. Pauli, ii. 26); and it is likely that he and Chaucer derived it from the same source, whatever that may have been. A portion of the latter part, from l. 2496, is taken from Ovid, Heroides, Ep. ii. And see note to l. 2423.

2395. An allusion to Matt. vii. 16, and to Legend VI, above.

2398. _Demophon_, usually Demophoön, son of Theseus and Phædra, who, on his return from Troy, gained the love of Phyllis, daughter of Sithon, king of Thrace. Observe that Gower says that Demophoön was on his way _towards_ Troy.

2400. 'Unless it were.'

2401. Observe that _grac-e_ is dissyllabic, as in l. 2433.

2403. 'Now I turn to the effect (the pith) of what I have to say.'

2413. _Him_ seems to stand alone in the first foot; for _were_, in this phrase, is usually monosyllabic; cf. Mancip. Prol., H 23. But it also occurs as a dissyllable, in which case the line is normal. Or else the _-er_ in _lever_ is dwelt on.

2416. 'And his rudder was broken by a wave.'

2420. _For wood_, as (if) mad, 'like mad.' _For_ is not a prefix, but a separate word; as shewn by 'for pure wood,' Rom. Rose, 276; and see Ho. Fame, 1747. _Posseth_, pusheth, tosseth. Bech observes that ll. 2411-21 are from Vergil, Æn. i. 85-90, 102, 142.

2422. _Chorus_; so in Thynne's edition; the MSS. have _Thorus_ (except T., which has _Thora_). Both _Chorus_ and _Thorus_ are unknown as sea-divinities; but I think I can guess Chaucer's authority, viz. Verg. Æn. v. 823-5:--

'Et senior Glauci _chorus_, Inousque Palaemon,
_Tritones_que citi, Phoreique _exercitus omnis_.
Laeua tenent _Thetis_ et Melite, Panopeaque uirgo.'

Here we find _Thetis_, _chorus_, _Triton_; whilst 'and they alle' answers to _exercitus omnis_. (So also Bech.) _Chorus_ is used for Caurus, the north-east wind, in Chaucer's Boethius, bk. iv. met. 5. 17; but this is not the purpose.

2423. _Lond_, i.e. Thrace. Phyllis, as said above, was the daughter of Sithon, king of Thrace; but both Chaucer and Gower make her father's name to be 'Ligurgus,' i.e. Lycurgus. This substitution may have been suggested by Ovid, Her. ii. 111--'quae tibi subieci latissima regna _Lycurgi_.' He is the same as the Lycurgus in Statius, Theb. iv. 386; in Ovid, Met. iv. 22, and in Homer, vi. 130; and was king of the Edoni, a people of _Thrace_. This accounts also for the introduction into the Knight's Tale of 'Ligurge himself, the grete king of Thrace'; l. 1271 (A 2129). Prof. Lounsbury (Studies in Chaucer, ii. 232) has usefully pointed out that the immediate authority for making Lycurgus the _father_ of Phyllis was Boccaccio's De Genealogia Deorum, lib. xi. c. 25, headed--'De Phyllidi Lycurgi filia.'

2425. _On to sene_, to look upon; cf. the parallel line, Kn. Ta., 177 (A 1035).

2427. _Is y-wonne_, is arrived. Cf. Æn. i. 173.

2434. _Chevisaunce_, borrowing; properly an agreement for borrowing money. See C. T. 13259, 13277, 13321 (B 1519, 1537, 1581); P. Plowman, B. 5. 249, and the note; and the Gloss. to Spenser.

2438. _Rodopeya_, the country near Rhodope, which was a mountain-range of Thrace, now a part of the Hæmus range. See l. 2498.

2448. 'As Reynard the fox doth, so (doth) the fox's son.' The line is incomplete, but the sense is clear. 'Reynard, which with us is a duplicate for fox, while in the French _renard_ has quite excluded the older _volpils_, was originally not the name of a kind, but the proper name of the fox-hero, the vulpine Ulysses, in that famous beast-epic of the middle ages, _Reineke Fuchs_; the immense popularity of which we gather from many evidences, from none more clearly than this. _Chanticleer_ is in like manner the name of the cock, and _Bruin_ of the bear in the same poem.'--Trench, Eng. Past and Present. _Reynard_ is from M.H.G. _ragin-hart_, strong in counsel; from _ragin_, counsel, and _hart_, strong.

2454. _Agroted_, surfeited, cloyed. A rare word; used also by Lydgate. See the New E. Dict.

2456. This is a hint that Chaucer was already getting tired of his task.

2477. _In a month._ So in Ovid; see l. 2503.

2485. _With a corde_, i.e. by hanging. Cf. Ovid, Her. ii. 141:--

'Colla quoque, infidis quae se nectenda lacertis
praebuerant, laqueis implicuisse libet.'

2493. _Hir soules_, their souls; of Theseus and Demophoön.

2495. 'Although it be but a small part of the whole letter.' In fact, Chaucer gives us ll. 1-8 of Ovid's second Epistle (in the Heroides); and, from l. 2518 onward, sentences made up from ll. 26, 27, 43, 44, 49-52, 63-68, 73-78, and 134-137 of the same.

2496. Compare these lines with Ovid, Her. ii. 1-8:--

'Hospita, Demophoon, tua te Rhodopeïa Phyllis
ultra promissum tempus abesse queror.
Cornua quum Lunae pleno semel orbe coissent,
litoribus nostris ancora pacta tua est.
Luna quater latuit, toto quater orbe recrevit,
nec uehit Actæas Sithonis unda rates.
Tempora si numeres, bene quae numeramus amantes,
non uenit ante suum nostra querela diem.'

_Hostess-e_ is trisyllabic; MS. C. has--'Ostess-e thyn.'

2502. _Highte_, promised. But Chaucer seems to have mistaken the sense of Ovid's fourth line (in the note to l. 2496).

2508. 'Sithonis unda'; see note to l. 2496. Here _Sithonis_ is an adj. (gen. _Sithonidis_), and means 'Sithonian,' i.e. Thracian; because Sithon or Sitho, her father, was king of Thrace. I substitute _Sitho_ for the MS. spellings.

2518. See note to l. 2495 for references.

2521. _For_, because: 'quid feci, nisi non sapienter amaui?'

2529. _May_ occupies the first foot of the line.

2534. She prays that the glory of having betrayed her will be the greatest glory he will ever attain to. 'Di faciant, laudis summa sit ista tuae!' (66).

2551. _Mote ye_, may ye. 'Ad tua me fluctus proiectam littora portent'; (135).

2556. _And knew_, i.e. and _she_ knew.

2558. Read--'Such sórw' hath shé,' &c. Bell altered the second _she_ in this line to _he_, without authority, and unnecessarily. The word _besette_ does not mean 'served' or 'treated,' as those who keep this reading have to assert, but 'bestowed' or 'gave up,' and _her_ means 'herself.' The sense is therefore--'Such sorrow hath she, because she so disposed of herself.' See _Beset_ in the New E. Dict. § 7. Caxton has: 'Orgarus thought his doughter shol wel be maryed, and wel _beset_ upon hym'; Chron. Eng. cxii.

2561. _Trusteth_, imp. pl. _As in love_, in the matter of love. This playful line is in the same spirit as l. 2393 above.

IX. THE LEGEND OF HYPERMNESTRA.

The story is told in Ovid, Her. xiv. But Chaucer has taken some of the details from Boccaccio, De Genealogia Deorum, lib. ii. c. 22. Cf. Hyginus, Fab. 168. See the Introduction.

2563. _Danao_, Danaus. Danaus and Ægyptus were twin brothers. Ægyptus had 50 sons, and Danaus 50 daughters. Danaus had reason to fear his nephews, and fled with his daughters to Argos. Thither he was followed by the sons of Ægyptus, who demanded his daughters in marriage, and promised faithful alliance. Danaus distributed his daughters amongst them, but to each of them gave a dagger, with which they were to kill their husbands on the bridal night. They all did so, except Hypermnestra, who saved her husband Lynceus. Thus the attempt of Danaus failed, and he was slain by Lynceus, in accordance with the destiny predicted for him.

It must be particularly noted that Chaucer makes Ægyptus and Danaus change places. According to him, Ægyptus was the father of the _daughters_, and consequently attempted the life of Lynceus; whilst Danaus was the father of the _sons_, and therefore of Lynceus.

2569. _Lino_; by which perverted name Lynceus is meant; Boccaccio has '_Lino_ seu _Linceo_' (dat. case).

2570. _Egiste_ represents Boccaccio's Ægistus, i.e. Ægyptus.

2574. 'And caused (men) to call her,' i.e. had her named.

2575. _Ypermistra_, i.e. Hypermestra, a corrupter form of Hypermnestra; see the account in the Introduction. Note that the first syllable _Y-_ forms the first foot in the line.

2576. _Of her nativitee_, by her horoscope; see l. 2584.

2577. _Thewes_, qualities. Craik has a long note on this word in his edition of Julius Cæsar. It merely comes to this, that _thew_ must have meant strength or some excellent _bodily_ quality in the first instance, and some excellent _mental_ quality afterwards. Nevertheless it is remarkable that (with one exception in Layamon, 6361) the usual _old_ sense is the latter; and the usual _modern_ sense (notably in Jul. Cæs. i. 3. 81, 2 Hen. IV. iii. 2. 276) is the former. The A.S. form is _þéaw_. Craik's notion that this word was confused with A.S. _þéoh_, the thigh, is entirely out of the question, and gives no help.

2580. _Wirdes_, Fates; Lat. Parcæ; Gk. Moiræ. Corson shews that G. Douglas translates the Lat. _fata_ by _werdes_ in Æn. i. 18, and _Parcæ_ by _werd sisteris_ in the same, iii. 379. He also quotes from Holinshed's Hist. of Scotland--'the _weird sisters_, that is, as ye would say, the goddesses of destinie'; reproduced by Shakespeare in Macb. iv. 1. 136.

2582. The scansion suggests that _Pitous-e_, _sad-de_, are treated like French adjectives, the final _e_ denoting the feminine gender. This is natural in the case of _pitous-e_, fem. of _pitous_, just as we have _dispitous-e_, Book of the Duch. 624; but the distinction is not often made in M.E. Sweet's A.S. grammar gives _til-u_ as an occasional fem. form of the nom. of the indef. adjective; so that _sæd-u_ might have been used. _Wys-e_ is likewise dissyllabic, though the A.S. form was _wís_ even in the feminine. But the _definite_ forms of the M.E. adj. were _sad-de_, _wys-e_; and there may have been consequent confusion. In fact, Prof. Child gives a list of adjectives of this kind, being monosyllabic in A.S., but dissyllabic in Chaucer. He includes _wise_, but not _sad_, his examples being taken from the Canterbury Tales only, and thence only in clear cases. _Dispitous-e_ occurs as a vocative case, in Troil. ii. 435.

2584. Here comes in the old belief in astrology. Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn, as here mentioned, are not the gods, but the planets; and each planet had (it was thought) its peculiar influence, which was stronger or weaker according to its position in the heavens at the time of birth of the person whom it affected. The influences of Venus and Jupiter were for good (see note to Troil. iii. 1417); whilst the influences of Mars and Saturn were evil. See further below.

2585. _With_ is explained by Corson to mean 'by'; and such a sense is, of course, usual and common. For all that, it may here mean 'with.' The sense seems to me to be--'For, though the influence of the planet Venus gave her great beauty, she was (also) so compounded with a share of Jupiter,' &c. It does not make much difference, and the reader can choose.

2588. _Thoughte her_, it seemed to her.

2589. _Rede Mars_, red Mars, because the planet is reddish; see note to l. 533. Cf. Kn. Ta., 1111 (A 1969). As to the bad influence of Mars, compare the following:--

'Allas! thou _felle_ Mars!' Kn. Ta. 701 (A 1559). 'Noght was foryeten by the _infortune_ of Marte'; id. 1163 (A 2021). 'By _manasyng_ of Mars'; id. 1177 (A 2035). ... 'that no _wykkid_ planete, as Saturne or Mars' Treatise on the Astrolabe, ii. 4. 22 (p. 192, above).

2592. Venus was supposed to have much influence in repressing the evil influence of Mars, on account of their connection in mythology. See the Compleint of Mars. Moreover Mars is here said to be suppressed by 'the oppression of houses'; i.e. by the fact that he was in a 'house' or 'mansion,' which had such effect. The terms 'house' and 'mansion' are equivalent, and are names given to the signs of the zodiac. Every sign had a planet assigned to it, and was called the 'house' of that planet. When a planet was in its own house, its influence would be felt. The mansions of Mars were Aries and Scorpio. Besides this, each planet had a sign called its 'exaltation,' in which it had the greatest power of all. The 'exaltation' of Mars was Capricornus. Mars had also his positions of least influence; two of these, called his 'fall,' were the signs opposite to his mansions, viz. Libra and Taurus, and the third, called his 'depression,' was the sign opposite his exaltation, viz. Cancer. We may conclude that, at the period of taking Hypermnestra's horoscope, Mars was in Cancer, or else in Taurus or in Libra. Both Taurus and Libra were mansions of Venus; and, if Mars was in either of these, his evil influence would be kept under by her.

2594. Probably the whole of Chaucer's astrological talk was intended to shew _why_ Hypermnestra disliked handling a knife in malice. He has made much of the weak influence of Mars, precisely because those who were born under his influence were very ready with a knife. See the note to the Kn. Ta., 1163 (A 2021), where the Compost of Ptolemeus is quoted to shew that a man born under Mars is apt to be 'a maker of swordes and knyves, and a sheder of mannes blode, ... and good to be a barboure and a blode-letter, and to draw tethe, and is peryllous of his handes.'

2597. 'She had too evil aspects of Saturn, which caused her to die in prison.' All the MSS. have _To_ (= too, excessively), except T., which has _Ryght bad_. Thynne has _Two_, but there is no authority for this, nor does it give any sense. The evil influence of Saturn is spoken of at length in the Kn. Tale, 1596-1611 (A 2454-69). Note especially l. 1599, where Saturn says:--

'Myn is the _prison_ in the derke cote,
Myn is the strangling and hanging by the throte.'

2600. Here _Egiste_ (see l. 2570) is turned into _Egistes_.

2602. 'For, at that time, no lineage was spared'; i.e. no consanguinity was considered as being a bar to marriage.

2603. _Hem_ is in apposition with _Danao_ and _Egistes_; 'it pleased these two.'

2604. Note the shifted accentuation--Ypérmistrá. Chaucer (except in l. 2660) entirely drops all mention of Hypermnestra's 49 sisters, and of Lynceus' 49 brothers. This is extremely judicious, as it concentrates the interest on the heroine.

2610. Chaucer is here thinking of Ovid, Her. xiv. 25:--

'Undique collucent praecinctae lampades auro.
Dantur in inuitos impia tura focos.
Uulgus "Hymen, Hymenaee" uocant.'

2624. 'He caused men to call his daughter'; he had his daughter called to him.

2629. 'Ever since the day when my shirt was first shaped for me.' The sense is--'ever since the day of my birth.' The _shirt_ here refers, as Tyrwhitt remarks, to the linen in which a new-born babe is wrapped. See Kn. Ta., 708 (A 1566); and cf. Troil. iii. 733:--

'O fatal sustren, which, er any cloth
Me shapen was, my destenee me sponne.'

2630. Supply _I_ before _had_. Cf. note to l. 2580.

2634. _After thy wyser_, according to the advice of thy superior in wisdom.' Cf. 'Thenne doth we as the wise'; O. English Miscellany, ed. Morris, p. 79, l. 228. 'And gif yow list nocht wirk eftir the wise'; G. Douglas, tr. of Vergil, Prol. to bk. vi. l. 15.

2637. Read _Ne I_ as _N'I_. 'Nor would I advise thee to thy harm.'

2640. 'And, at the same time, I make protestation in this manner, viz. that, unless thou do as I shall direct thee.'

2653. 'I will not have any reservation.'

2655. _Y-sene_, visible; an adj., not a pp. See l. 1394; and Prol. to Cant. Tales, 592.

2660. _Siker_, secure. The use of the word is precisely like that in the well-known anecdote of Kirkpatrick of Closeburn. Meeting Bruce at the door of the Greyfriars' Church in Dumfries, he asked what tidings. 'Bad tidings,' answered Bruce, 'I doubt I have slain Comyn.' 'Doubtest thou?' said Kirkpatrick; 'I make _sicker_.' With these words, he and Lindsay rushed into the church and despatched the wounded Comyn. See Note K to Scott's Lord of the Isles, c. 1. st. 27, c. 2. st. 13.

2661. _Biker_, quarrel, altercation; also a skirmish, encounter.

2662. 'By him that I have (already) sworn by.' See l. 2642.

2666. _Costrel_, a flask, a kind of bottle. '_Costred_, or _costrelle_, grete botelle, _Onopherum_, _aristophorum_'; Prompt. Parv.; see Way's note. 'A _Costrelle_, oneferum, &c., vbi a flakett'; Cath. Angl. p. 77; see Herrtage's note. See _costa_, _costarez_, _costarium_, _costrelli_, in Ducange; and _coste_, _costeret_, _costerel_, in Godefroy. In the Craven dialect, a _costril_ is the little wooden barrel carried by reapers.

2671. 'Lest that the time may seem long to him.' Ovid alludes to the narcotic drink; Her. xiv. 42:--'quaeque tibi dederam uina, soporis erant.' Cf. Kn. Tale, 614 (A 1472).

2676. The line is too short in most MSS. Unless _sone_ be supplied from MS. T., we shall have to scan the line by putting _This_ (with a strong accent) alone in the first foot. Cf. l. 2711, and slur over the _o_ in _Lino_ before _and_.

2680. Cf. Her. xiv. 44:--'Erigor, et capio tela tremente manu.'

2681. Accent _Zephírus_ on the _i_. From Her. xiv. 39:--

'Utque leui Zephyro graciles uibrantur aristae,
frigida populeas ut quatit aura comas.'

2682. From Her. xiv. 34:--'Securumque quies alta per Argos erat.'

2683. 'Sanguis abit; mentemque calor corpusque reliquit'; Her. xiv. 37. And, in the next line--'frigida facta.'

2686. 'Ter male sublato decidit ense manus'; 46.

2690. From Her. xiv. 55, &c.:--

'Femina sum et uirgo, natura mitis et annis.
Non faciunt molles ad fera tela manus....
Quid mihi cum ferro? Quo bellica tela puellae?'

2696. _And me beshende_, and bring myself to ruin, and perish. I know of only one other example of this rare word, viz. the example given by Murray from Cursor Mundi, l. 14838, where the Trinity MS. has: 'Allas! nu has he [gh]u _bischent_'; alas! now has he ruined you. But it is a perfectly legitimate compound from the M.E. _shenden_. All former editions give this line wrongly; they omit _me_, and read 'and be shende,' explained by 'and be destroyed.' Now, in the first place, this will not scan; and secondly, the idea of adding a final _e_ to the pp. _beshend_ (more correctly _beshent_) is a characteristic commentary on that ignorance of M.E. grammar which is only too common. Yet the final _e_ must needs be added, for _ende_ (in l. 2697) is essentially dissyllabic. Hence it follows, irresistibly, that _shende_ is not a past participle; and we are driven to see that _beshende_ is the infinitive mood of a compound verb.

2697. _Nedes cost_, by condition of necessity, i.e. necessarily; see Kn. Ta., 619 (A 1477), and the note.

2700. Supply _he_ before _hath_; cf. note to l. 2630.

2705. _Goter_, gutter, channel for water. This is an addition. The original merely has (ll. 77, 78):--

'Quaerenti caussam, "Dum nox sinit, effuge," dixi;
"dum nox atra sinit, tu fugis, ipsa moror."'

2708. _Roggeth_, shaketh. '_Roggyn_, or mevyn, or scogghyn, rokkyn. _Agito_'; Prompt. Parv. See P. Plowman, B. xvi. 78; and _ruggen_ in Stratmann. Cf. Icel. _rugga_, to rock a cradle. Prof. Napier tells me that the A.S. _roccan_, to rock, has been found in a gloss. Bell's edition has the singular and unauthorised reading _jeggeth_ (_sic_).

2709. The rest of the story seems to be Chaucer's addition. Ovid merely has (ll. 83, 84):--

'Abstrahor a patriis pedibus; raptamque capillis
(haec meruit pietas praemia) carcer habet.'

2710. _Doon him bote_, given him assistance.

2715. 'Her cruel father caused her to be seized,' lit. caused (men) to seize her.

2723. 'This tale is told for the following reason.' And here the MSS. break off, in the middle of the sentence.

NOTES TO THE TREATISE ON THE ASTROLABE.

The title 'Tractatus de Conclusionibus Astrolabii' is suggested by the wording of the colophon on p. 223. But a better title is, simply, 'Tractatus de Astrolabio,' or 'Treatise on the Astrolabe,' as the 'Conclusiones' only occupy the Second Part of the work; see p. 188. Indeed MS. F. has 'Tractatus Astrolabii'; see p. 233. MSS. B. and E. have the singular title--'Bred and mylk for childeren.'