Chapter D: CAMB. UNIV. Dd. viii. 19 (Bern. Cat. ii. 9653). Confessio Amantis (19)

85*. The true reading is probably ‘listen pleie,’ which is preferable both as regards form and construction: cp. iv. 3147, ‘whan the wommen listen pleie.’ The readings are as follows: ‘listen pleye’ J, ‘lusten pleie’ M, ‘luste pley’ B₂; the rest mostly ‘lust to pleye.’ The verb seems usually to be followed by a preposition when used impersonally, as i. 147, 1403, and otherwise more generally not, as i. 2741, iv. 3147, but there are exceptions both ways, e.g. iv. 907 and iii. 111, iv. 3187.

90*. Cp. 54 ff.

92*. _for to newe._ This is the reading of the better MSS., and ‘schewe’ is probably the correction of a copyist who did not understand it. The word ‘newe’ means here ‘produce,’ but in l. 59 ‘neweth’ is intransitive and means ‘comes into being.’

* * * * *

_Latin Verses_, ii. 2. _vertit in orbe_, ‘turns round,’ as upon her wheel.

4. Cp. 111 f.

11. ‘And thus those regions which were once the strongest fall into decay throughout the world, and have no centre of rest there.’ (The first ‘que’ is the relative, for ‘quae.’) It is possible however that ‘per orbem’ may refer again to Fortune’s wheel, cp. 138 ff., where the sense of this couplet seems to be expressed, and in that case the meaning is, ‘fall into decay as they turn upon the wheel.’

116. _the vertu_: for this French use of the article, which is often found in Gower, see note on l. 72.

122 ff. ‘And in witness of that I take the common voice of every land, which may not lie.’ This appeal to the common voice, the ‘commune dictum,’ is characteristic of our author, who repeats the proverb ‘Vox populi vox dei’ several times in various forms, e.g. _Mirour_, 12725. For the use of ‘that’ in such expressions cp. l. 907, and iv. 2040.

133. _to loke_ &c., ‘when we look on all sides’: cp. 31, i. 1060, 2278, &c.

139. _blinde fortune._ ‘Fortune’ must here be taken as a proper name, and hence the definite form of adjective: cp. i. 3396, ‘wyse Peronelle,’ ii. 588, 2721, ‘of grete Rome,’ ii. 2304, ‘false Nessus,’ iii. 2100, ‘false Egiste,’ &c.

143. _upon a weer_, i.e. in doubt or distress: cp. iii. 1148, and Chaucer, _House of Fame_, 979,

‘Tho gan I wexen in a wer.’

144 ff. ‘And especially if the power of the rulers of the world be not kept upright by good counsel in such wise that’ &c.

152. _heved_, always a monosyllable in the metre: the word also appears as ‘hefd’ i. 199, and frequently as ‘hed.’

154. _her trowthe allowe_, ‘approve of their loyalty,’ i.e. accept it.

155. ‘And welcome them with all his heart.’ For the position of the conjunction cp. 521, 756, 759, 1014, i. 854, 863, &c., and note on _Mirour_, 415. Mr. Liddell points out to me that the same usage occurs frequently in the ME. Palladius.

156 (margin). The quotation is from Ecclus. xxxii. 24, ‘Fili, sine consilio nihil facias.’ This book is often cited as Solomon in the _Mirour_.

162. A truce with both France and Scotland was made for three years in 1389, but peace was not finally concluded till 1396.

166 f. Cp. _Praise of Peace_, 190.

172. _at alle assaies_, ‘in every way’: cp. ii. 2447.

_Latin Verses._ iii. 1. _Iohannes_: St. John the Evangelist, who is mentioned either as the teacher of brotherly love or because his Gospel contains the exhortations to St. Peter, ‘Feed my sheep,’ ‘Feed my lambs.’

2. _ista_, ‘this.’

3. _bina virtute_, perhaps charity and chastity, cp. 464 ff.

4. _inculta_, nominative in spite of metre, so _auaricia_ in l. 8.

8. _tepente_, ‘being lukewarm,’ that is, held in a lukewarm manner.

196 (margin). _Roberti Gibbonensis_, Robert of Geneva, elected pope in opposition to Urban VI, under the title of Clement VII.

198. _the god_, see note on l. 72.

204. _Simon_, i.e. Simon Magus, whence simony has its name: cp. 442 ff., _Mirour_, 18451 ff., and _Vox Clamantis_, iii. 249, 1217, &c.

207 ff. The reference is to Lombard bankers employed as intermediaries in obtaining Church preferment. The ‘letter’ referred to is the papal provision, or perhaps the letter of request addressed to the pope in favour of a particular person: cp. _Vox Clam._ iii. 1375 f.,

‘Littera dum Regis papales supplicat aures,
Simon et est medius, vngat vt ipse manus.’

210. _provende_, equivalent to prebend, and in fact ‘prebende’ is a var. reading here. Littré quotes from Wace,

‘Cil me dona et Diez li rende
À Baiex une provende,’

and from Rutebeuf,

‘Qui argent porte a Rome, assés tot provende a.’

212. ‘The authority of the Church’ (symbolized by the key) ‘did not then lie at the mercy of armed bands or depend upon the issue of battle.’ For ‘brigantaille,’ meaning bands of irregular troops, cp. _Mir._ 18675.

218. _defence_, ‘prohibition’: cp. iv. 1026, v. 1710, and Chaucer, _Troil._ iii. 138, ‘if that I breke your defence.’

220. ‘was then no charge of theirs,’ i.e. did not come under their authority: ‘baillie’ means the charge or government of a thing, as _Trait._ xi. 19, ‘Le duc q’ot lors Ravenne en sa baillie,’ hence a thing placed in a person’s charge.

221. _The vein honour_: the definite form is rather less regularly used by Gower in adjectives taken from French than in others, e.g. iii. 889, ‘For with here fals compassement’; but on the other hand, i. 864, ‘the pleine cas,’ ii. 412, ‘And thurgh his false tunge endited,’ and 824, ‘This false knyht upon delay.’

246. _is went_: cp. iii. 878 and Chaucer, _Cant. Tales_, E 1013, F 567.

247. _here lawe positif_: the ‘lex positiva’ is that which is not morally binding in itself, but only so because imposed by (ecclesiastical) authority: cp. _Vox Clam._ iii. 227 ff. This is naturally the sphere within which Church dispensations of all kinds take effect.

248. _Hath set._ Apparently ‘set’ is intransitive, ‘Since their positive law hath set itself to make,’ &c. There is no good authority for reading ‘hire.’.

252. There is hardly another instance of ‘but’ for ‘bot’ in F, and the form ‘right’ for ‘riht’ in the preceding line is very unusual.

260. _the manhode_, i.e. human nature: see note on l. 72. For ‘thenkth’ see note on 461.

263. _withholde_, ‘retained as her servant.’

268. _in the point_ &c., i.e. so soon as it is collected. The allusion is to the circumstances of the campaign of the Bishop of Norwich in 1385; cp. _Vox Clam._ iii. 373 (margin), and see Froissart (ed. Lettenhove), vol. x. p. 207.

278. _That scholde be_ &c., i.e. the papacy, which by reason of the schism has become a cause of war and strife.

289. _Gregoire._ The reference is to such passages as _Regula Pastoralis_, i. cap. 8, 9. The quotation in the margin at l. 298 is loosely taken from the Homilies on the Gospel (Migne, _Patrol._ vol. 76. p. 1128), ‘Mercenarius quippe est qui locum quidem pastoris tenet, sed lucra animarum non quaerit: terrenis commodis inhiat, honore praelationis gaudet, temporalibus lucris pascitur, impensa sibi ab hominibus reverentia laetatur.’ The idea expressed by ‘non vt prosint sed vt presint’ often occurs in Gregory’s writings, e.g. _Reg. Past._ ii. cap. 6, ‘nec praeesse se hominibus gaudent sed prodesse.’

299. _manie_: the final ‘e’ counts as a syllable and the preceding vowel is absorbed; see note on 323: but ‘many’ is also used as the plural.

305. Cp. _Vox Clam._ iii. 1271, ‘In cathedram Moysi nunc ascendunt Pharisei,’ and see _Rom. de la Rose_, 11809 ff. (ed. Méon), English version, 6889 ff.

311. _is noght foryete_, an impersonal use, ‘there is no forgetting’: cp. 338.

323. Here ‘studie’ is reduced by elision to the value of a monosyllable: see note on _Mirour_, 296. The rule applies to substantives like ‘accidie,’ ‘Mercurie,’ ‘chirie,’ adjectives like ‘manie’ (l. 299), and verbs like ‘studie,’ ‘carie,’ ‘tarie.’

329. _If Ethna brenne_ &c. What is meant is the fire of Envy, which is often compared to that of Etna, ii. 20, 2337, &c.

338 f. The verb is used impersonally, ‘there is cause for us all to be sorry.’

348. ‘it causeth this new sect to be brought in.’ The subject must be supplied from the previous clause.

366 f. That is, the various claimants to the papacy are supported in various lands by national partiality or interest.

380 f. ‘They use no other reasoning than this as to the peril of religion.’

383. _his world_, i.e. his fortune, cp. 1081, i. 178, &c.

388 f. That is, the right cause has no defence but in the rule of personal inclination and interest, the principle expressed by ‘Where I love, there I hold.’

407 ff. This is a charge against those who hold office in the Church of deliberately throwing temptation in the way of their people, in order to profit by the fines which may be imposed for breaches of morality and discipline. The meaning is fully illustrated by parallel passages in the _Mirour de l’omme_, 20161 ff., and the _Vox Clamantis_, iii. 195; cp. Chaucer, _Pers. Tale_, 721. The sentence here is a little disorderly and therefore obscure: ‘Men say that they drive forth their flock from the smooth meadow into the briars, because they wish to seize and by such ill-treatment take away the wool which shall remain upon the thorns, torn out by the briars,’ &c. The archdeacon’s court is chiefly referred to.

416. _chalk for chese_, cp. ii. 2346: it is a proverbial expression still current.

430. ‘We see the lot drawn amiss’: for ‘merel’ cp. _Mir._ 23496.

434. Hebr. v. 4.

452. _in audience_, ‘in public assembly’: cp. ii. 2556.

454. _a chirie feire_, taken as an emblem of delights which are transitory: cp. vi. 890 f.,

‘And that endureth bot a throwe,
Riht as it were a cherie feste.’

460. _understode_, past subj. with indefinite sense: cp. i. 383, ii. 88, iii. 971, iv. 2597, 2728, vi. 1474. ‘Whoso understood their words, to him it seems likely,’ &c., instead of ‘to him it would seem likely’; cp. l. 520.

461. The distinction between ‘thinke’ and ‘thenke’ is completely lost in Gower’s usage: ‘thenke’ is the regular form for both, but ‘thinke’ is admitted equally for both in rhyme, as v. 213, 254.

480. ‘For fear that (On the chance that) I may say wrong.’ The subject is a delicate one and the author shows similar caution when dealing with it in the _Mirour_.

492. _as of_, ‘as regards’: cp. i. 557, iii. 1479, &c.

* * * * *

_Latin Verses_. iv. 4. _velle_, used as a noun, ‘will’: so ‘de puro velle’ in the lines at the beginning of the second book.

* * * * *

509 f. ‘Which with great difficulty man shall restrain, if he shall restrain it ever.’

521. For the position of ‘and’ see note on 155.

525. _stonde upon_: cp. 214.

529. _som men_: ‘som’ is uninflected in this expression: on the other hand we have ‘somme clerkes,’ l. 355.

546. _the man_, so 582: see note on 72.

550 f. ‘If any one thinks otherwise, look at the people of Israel’: ‘Behold’ is 2nd sing. imperative. The unusual form ‘Irael’ is given by the best MSS. here and elsewhere, and we must suppose that it proceeds from the author.

558. _stonde full_: perhaps a reference to 503 ff., or a metaphor from the tides.

567 (margin). The quotation is from _Cons. Phil._ ii. Pr. 4: ‘Quam multis amaritudinibus humanae felicitatis dulcedo respersa est.’ The constant references to Fortune and her wheel may probably be suggested by Boethius, e.g. ii. Pr. 1.

578. i.e. till the end of all things.

585 ff. This vision of Nebuchadnezzar, which our author takes as his guide to universal history, is made the subject of illustration in those MSS. which have miniatures at or near the beginning of the _Confessio Amantis_.

618. _Fel doun_: cp. iii. 2492, ‘That have I herd the gospell seith.’

668. _hol_: see note on 683.

676. ‘And he kept himself in this condition undisturbed,’ the subject being supplied from l. 671, ‘Was in that kinges time tho.’ For omission of pronoun cp. Prol. 348, i. 1895, 2083, 2462, &c. However, the fall of the Empire took place not in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar but of Belshazzar (see l. 685).

683. Here and in 693 the best MSS. have ‘put’ for ‘putte,’ and this entire suppression of the inflexional syllable in cases where it is lost to the metre by elision is sufficiently well-attested to justify us in accepting it as an occasional practice of the author, both in the case of verbs and adjectives; cp. 668, 739, &c. It is especially common with this particular verb, e.g. i. 1578, 1807, 3213, ii. 93, 1021, &c., where ‘put’ is used for infinitive as well as for the preterite. Much more rarely in cases where there is no elision, as i. 732. On the other hand, we have ‘putte’ pret. before an elision, l. 1069, i. 2797, ‘pute’ inf. i. 462, iv. 1641.

702. In the marginal summary here F gives ‘Imparatoris,’ and sometimes in other places where the word is fully written, as i. 1417, ii. 593, 2506, 3201. However, ‘Imperator’ is also found in various places of the same MS., as vii. 2416, and the contracted form ‘Imꝑator’ has in this edition been written out so.

725. _Of that honour which tok_, i.e. ‘of such honour that he took.’

738. _so vileins_: a clear case of French plural of the adjective, used here for the sake of the rhyme.

739. _fals_: see notes on 221, 683.

745 ff. It is hardly necessary to point out that our author’s history is here incorrect. Charlemagne was not called in against the Emperor Leo, who died in the year before he was born, but against the Lombards by Adrian I, and then against the rebellious citizens of Rome by Leo III, on which latter occasion he received the imperial crown. The authority here followed is the Trésor of Brunetto Latini, pp. 84-88 (ed. 1863).

756. _Of Rome and_: cp. ll. 759, 766, and note on 155.

761. _doth restore_, i.e. ‘causeth to be restored.’

772 ff. Here again the story is historically inaccurate, but it is not worth while to set it straight.

786 ff. The meaning seems to be, ‘But this after all is what we might expect, for prosperity (they say) seldom endures.’

795. _hath no felawe_ ‘hath no supporter or champion’: cp. _Praise of Peace_, 266, ‘And in this wise hath charite no brother.’

809. The punctuation follows F.

823. _expondeth._ This form occurs also in ll. 663, 873, as a reading of F. The French terminations ‘-on,’ ‘-oun,’ had the same sound and rhymed together, and the same is true of ‘-ance,’ ‘-aunce.’ Probably on the same principle therefore ‘expondeth’ may stand for ‘expoundeth,’ and rhyme with ‘foundeth’: cp. viii. 235 f. On the other hand, in i. 2867 we have expo_u_nde, founde. It maybe noted that ‘exponde’ is the form used in the French works, e.g. _Mir._ 22192, _Trait._ xi. 20, where it rhymes with _Rosemonde_, _responde_, _immonde_. As a rule in the _Mirour_ this class of words is given without ‘u,’ but in one stanza we have ‘responde,’ ‘monde,’ ‘blo_u_nde’ in rhyme together, 8681 ff.

836. _Cit_: this is the true reading; the word occurs also _Mir._ 7197.

843. _now with that beforn_, ‘the present with the past,’ ‘now’ being used as a substantive.

850. _the sothe seie_: this is the reading of the third recension; the others have ‘the soth schal seie.’ Either text is admissible, for ‘soth’ is used as a substantive, but ‘the sothe’ is usually preferred, as in l. 834, and i. 981, iii. 765.

858. Cp. ii. 3490.

881. _writ_: syncopated present, ‘writeth.’ The reference is to 1 Cor. x. 11.

891. _Statue_: a dissyllable in Gower and Chaucer (equivalent to ‘statwe’), and here reduced to one syllable by elision: cp. _Cant. Tales_, A. 975. The longer form ‘stature’ occurs vi. 1524.

900. _these clerkes_: demonstrative for definite article, as in French; cp. i. 608, and see note on _Mir._ 301.

905. See l. 965. Perhaps here ‘cause of’ means ‘because of,’ as ‘whos cause’ for ‘because of which’ 1040; but I suspect rather an inversion of order, for ‘Man is cause of al this wo.’

907. _that in tokne_, cp. 122.

910 ff. This matter of the corruption of all creation through man’s fall is discussed at length both in the _Mirour_, 26605 ff., and in the _Vox Clamantis_, vii. 509 ff.

945 ff. This is one of Gower’s favourite citations: it occurs also _Mir._ 26869, _Vox Clam._ vii. 639. It is quoted here from _Moralia_, vi. 16 (Migne, _Patr._ vol. 75, p. 740): ‘Homo itaque, quia habet commune esse cum lapidibus, vivere cum arboribus, sentire cum animalibus, discernere cum angelis, recte nomine universitatis exprimitur.’ In the _Mirour_ it is given as from the Homilies; see _Hom. in Ev._ xxix. 2. The passage is also quoted in the _Roman de la Rose_, 19246 ff. (ed. Méon),

‘Il a son estre avec les pierres,
Et vit avec les herbes drues,
Et sent avec les bestes mues,’ &c.

947. _the lasse world_, i.e. a microcosm: cp. _Vox Clam._ vii. 645,

‘Sic minor est mundus homo, qui fert singula solus.’

The saying is attributed to Aristotle in _Mirour_, 26929.

953. That is, the stones have existence and so hath he, this being the only point in common.

955. _as telleth the clergie_, ‘as learning informs us.’

975. _The which_, resumed by ‘He’ in 978: _for_, i.e. ‘since.’

979. That is, the opposite elements in his constitution (‘complexioun’) are so much at variance with one another.

985. ‘Without separation of parts.’

995. _also_, a repetition of ‘yit over this,’ 991.

1013. _sende_, pret., cp. i. 851, 992, 1452, &c. (but ‘sente’ in rhyme i. 3095, ii. 613, v. 1072), so ‘bende’ ii. 2235.

1047. That is, there can be no conciliation of the discord.

1055 ff. Cp. Ovid, _Fasti_, ii. 83 ff.

1066. _commun_: this form, as well as ‘commune,’ occurs in the _Mirour_.

1085. _The horse side_: cp. i. 1536, 2301, &c.

_After_ 1088 the Sidney Coll. MS. (Δ) has the following lines,

‘So were it gode at þis tide
þat eueri man vpon his side
besowt and preied for þe pes
wiche is þe cause of al encres
of worschep and of werldis welþe
of hertis rest of soule helþe
withouten pes stant no þing gode
forthi to crist wiche sched his blode
for pes beseketh alle men
Amen amen amen amen.’

These were printed by Caxton, and after him by Berthelet, with some slight variations of spelling, and the reading ‘and soules helthe’ for ‘of soule helþe.’ No other MS. contains them, so far as I know, except Hatton 51, which is copied from Caxton’s edition. If we read ‘So were it good as at þis tide,’ and correct the spelling throughout, the lines will be such as Gower might have written, and I rather suspect that they may have been contained in the Stafford MS. (S), to which Δ is nearly allied. S has lost a leaf here, on which ample room for them could have been found, the number of lines missing being only 156, while the number for a full leaf is 184. The authority of S would be conclusive in their favour.

LIB. I.

After setting forth in the Prologue the evils of the existing state of society and tracing them for the most part to lack of love and concord between man and man, the author now deliberately renounces the task of setting right the balance of the world, an undertaking which he has not shrunk from in former years, but recognizes now as too great for his strength. He proposes to change the style of his writings and to deal with something which all may understand, with that emotion of love which Nature has implanted both in man and beast, which no one is able to keep within rule or measure, and which seems to be under the dominion of blind chance, like the gifts of fortune.

_Latin Verses._ i. 7 f. Cp. the lines ‘Est amor in glosa pax bellica, lis pietosa,’ &c., which follow the _Traitié_.

10. _of thing_ is, i.e. ‘of thing which is’: cp. ii. 1393, ‘Withinne a Schip was stiereles,’ so iii. 219, v. 298 &c., and _Mirour_, 16956.

21. _natheles_: as in Prol. 36, this seems to mean here ‘moreover,’ or perhaps ‘in truth,’ rather than ‘nevertheless.’

37. That is, ‘Wheresoever it pleases him to set himself,’ ‘him’ serving a double function.

50. _went_: present tense, ‘goes.’

62. _I am miselven_ &c. Note, however, that the author guards himself in the margin with ‘quasi in persona aliorum, quos amor alligat, fingens se auctor esse Amantem.’

88. _jolif wo_, cp. ‘le jolif mal sanz cure,’ _Bal._ xiii. 24.

98 ff. The construction is broken off, and then resumed in a new form: cp. i. 2948, iii. 1595, 2610, iv. 3201, v. 1043, 1339, &c.

116. _other_: this must be regarded as a legitimate plural form beside ‘othre’: cp. iv. 1183, and see Morsbach, _Schriftsprache_, p. 23. On the other hand, ‘othre’ is sometimes used as singular, e.g. l. 481, ii. 283.

178. _Mi world_, i.e. ‘my fortune’: cp. Prol. 383.

196. The idea of ‘Genius’ is taken from the _Roman de la Rose_, where Genius is the priest of Nature, ‘Qui célébroit en sa chapelle,’ and she confesses to him, 16487 ff. (ed. Méon).

205. _Benedicite_: the regular beginning of a confessor’s address to his penitent.

213. Cp. _Rom. de la Rose_, 16927 f. (of Nature confessing to Genius),

‘Qui dit par grant dévocion
En plorant sa confession.’

225. _my schrifte oppose_, ‘question me as to my confession,’ cp. the use of ‘opponere’ in the margin here and 299, 708, &c.

232. _tome._ This is Gower’s usual form of combination where the accent is to be thrown on the preposition. We have also ‘byme,’ ii. 2016, &c., tome, l. 294, ii. 3160, &c., ‘untome,’ iii. 99, ‘tothe,’ iv. 1875. In such cases, as is seen below, l. 294, the final syllable becomes weak and subject to elision.

279. _remene_, ‘bring back,’ from Fr. ‘remener’: cp. ‘demenen.’

299 ff. See note on _Mir._ 16597.

320. The punctuation is here determined by that of F, which has a stop after ‘love.’ Otherwise the meaning might be, ‘And doth great mischief to love,’ the conjunction being transposed, as often.

333 ff. The story is from Ovid, _Metam._ iii. 138 ff.

350. _cam ride._ For this use of the infin. see _New Engl. Dict._, ‘come,’ B. i. 3. f.: so ‘thei comen ryde,’ iv. 1307.

367. For the use of ‘hire’ as a dissyllable in the verse, cp. 872, 1667: on the other hand, 884, 887, 939, 1673, &c.

383. That is, if a man gave heed to the matter, he would see that it was, &c.: cp. Prol. 460.

389. Ovid, _Metam._ iv. 772 ff. This, however, is not Gower’s only authority, for he mentions details, as for example the names of Medusa’s sisters, which are not given by Ovid. The confusion which we find here between the Graeae and the Gorgons appears in Boccaccio, _De Gen. Deorum_, x. 10, which possibly our author may have seen; but I suspect he had some other authority. The names which Gower gives as Stellibon and Suriale are properly Stheno (Stennio in Boccaccio) and Euryale.

422. _Mercurie_: see note on Prol. 323. Mercury’s sword is not mentioned either by Ovid or Boccaccio.

431. _gan enbrace_, ‘placed on his arm’; see the quotations in _New Engl. Dict._ under ‘embrace _v._ 1,’ e.g. _K. Alis._ 6651, ‘His scheld enbraceth Antiocus.’

452. _To tarie with_, ‘with which to vex’: cp. i. 2172, ii. 283, 1081, v. 925, &c., and _Cant. Tales_, F 471, ‘To hele with youre hurtes hastily.’

463 ff. Cp. _Mirour_, 15253. The legend is founded upon Psalm lviii. 4 f. (_Vulg._ lvii. 5 f.), ‘Furor illis secundum similitudinem serpentis; sicut aspidis surdae et obturantis aures suas, quae non exaudiet vocem incantantium,’ &c. (Hence the genitive form ‘Aspidis’ in our author.) The moral application is connected with the Gospel precept, ‘Be ye wise as serpents,’ to which reference is made in the _Mirour_. The serpent’s method of stopping his ears was perhaps first suggested by Augustine, _In Ps._ lvii, who is followed by Isid. _Etym._ xii. 4, but there is nothing in these authorities about the carbuncle. The authority for this is perhaps the Trésor, p. 191.

481. _an othre thing_: for ‘othre’ cp. i. 1496, ii. 511.

_who that recordeth_, ‘if a man calls it to mind’: see note on Prol. 13.

483. _tale of Troie_, i.e. Guido di Colonna, _Hist. Troiana_, lib. 32 (o2, ed. Argent. 1494), which is here followed. Benoît mentions the Sirens, but does not describe their form nor state that Ulysses stopped his men’s ears.

492 ff. This manner of piling up consecutive clauses is observable in the author’s French style, and the use of relatives like ‘wherof,’ ‘which’ (l. 771) to introduce them is parallel to that of ‘Dont,’ ‘Par quoy,’ &c. in the French: e.g. _Mir._ 219 ff.,

‘Et tant luy fist plesant desport,
Dont il fuist tant enamouré,
Que sur sa fille,’ &c.

Cp. _Mir._ 681.

527. ‘plus quam mille ex eis interfecimus,’ Guido, _Hist. Troi._, lib. 32.

532. _hiere_, subjunctive: cp. ii. 252, iii. 665, &c.

574. _othre thing_: plural no doubt, but we have also ‘othre (other) thinges,’ i. 2464, iv. 1183.

_Latin Verses._ v. i. _que Leone._ This position of ‘que’ is quite common in our author’s Latin writings: see the lines after the _Praise of Peace_, ll. 10, 49, 50, &c.

8. _sub latitante_, ‘lurking underneath,’ ‘sub’ being an adverb. The best copies have the words separate.

577. _applied_, ‘assigned’; cp. iv. 2607, v. 913, vii. 1100.

585. _seid_, ‘named.’

595. _feigneth conscience_, that is, makes pretence as to his feeling, or state of mind, (‘As thogh it were al innocence’): cp. iii. 1504, ‘Mi conscience I woll noght hyde.’ The explanation suggested in the _New Engl. Dict._ that ‘conscience’ stands for ‘conscientiousness’ or ‘rightful dealing,’ will hardly do, and the word does not seem to be used early in this sense.

599. _the vein astat_: see note on Prol. 221.

608. _these ordres_, i.e. ‘the orders’ (of religion): so ‘these clerkes,’ Prol. 900.

_where he duelleth_, that is, the hypocrite, standing for Hypocrisy in general.

623. _religioun_, the members of the religious orders, as distinguished from the rest of the clergy.

626. _It scheweth_, ‘it appears’: cp. Prol. 834.

636. _devolte apparantie_: the words are pure French, and the French feminine form is as naturally used for the adjective, as in the ‘seinte apparantie’ of _Mir._ 1124. We cannot apply the English rule of the definite adjective to such combinations as this: cp. note on Prol. 221. However, ‘devoute’ in l. 669 seems to be the plural form.

637. _set_, present tense: so ll. 650, 707, &c.

648. _these othre seculers_, ‘the men of the world also.’

650. ‘He makes no reckoning in his account.’

695. _As he which_ &c.; that is simply, ‘feigning to be sick,’ so iv. 1833, ‘As he who feigneth to be wod’; cp. vii. 3955. The expression ‘as he which,’ ‘as sche which,’ is very commonly used by Gower in this sense; cp. i. 925, 1640, &c., and _Mir._ 27942, ‘Comme cil q’est tout puissant,’ ‘being all-powerful.’

698. Cp. iv. 1180, ‘And thus mi contienance I pike.’ It means ‘he makes many a pretence.’

709. _Entamed_, ‘wounded’: used in a similar moral sense in _Mir._ 25161, ‘Car Covoitise les entame.’

713. _As forto feigne_, i.e. ‘as regards feigning’: so l. 723, ‘as to my ladi diere.’

718 ff. For the form of sentence, which is a favourite one with our author in all his three languages, but especially perhaps in Latin, cp. _Mirour_, 18589 ff.,

‘Unques le corps du sainte Heleine
Serchant la croix tant ne se peine,
Qe nous ovesque nostre Court,
Assetz n’y mettons plus du peine,’ &c.

_Vox Clam._ i. 263 ff.,

‘In Colchos tauri, quos vicit dextra Iasonis,
Non ita sulphureis ignibus ora fremunt,
Quin magis igne boues isti,’ &c.

So also _Bal._ vii. 23, xviii. 8, xxx. 10; _Vox Clam._ i. 355, 449, 499, &c.; _Conf. Am._ i. 1259, 1319, &c.

733. ‘For I shall not declare this in my defence, that’ &c.; a somewhat different use of the word from that which we find in the quotations given by the _New Engl. Dict._, ‘Excuse _v._’ i. 1. d.

761 ff. The story of Mundus and Paulina is historical, related by Josephus, _Ant._ xviii. 66 ff., and after him by Hegesippus, ii. 4, from whom it was taken by Vincent of Beauvais, _Spec. Hist._ vii. 4, and also doubtless, directly or indirectly, by Gower. It is told in verse by Godfrey of Viterbo, _Pantheon_, xv, but it is certain that this was not Gower’s source.

771. _Which_: for this use of the relative in a consecutive clause, which is very common in our author’s style, see note on 492, and cp. 801.

773. _thilke bore frele kinde._ Human nature is described as frail from birth, and by its weakness causing blindness of the heart.

776 f. ‘And such were the fortunes of this tale of which I would speak,’ i.e. this was the passion which determined its course.

816. _his thonk pourchace_, ‘win their gratitude towards himself.’

833. ‘In which a false heart was concealed,’ an instance of inverted order, for which cp. ii. 565,

‘Whiche as he wot is puyson inne.’

872. _hire_, cp. 367.

894. _which stod thanne upon believe_, ‘which then was thought to be possible.’

938. _homward_, i.e. ‘goes towards home’; cp. iii. 1021, 2451.

940 ff. In Hegesippus the address is as follows: ‘Beata Paulina concubitu dei. Magnus deus Anubis cuius tu accepisti mysteria. Sed disce te sicut diis ita et hominibus non negare, quibus dii tribuant quod tu negaveras: quia nec formas suas dare nobis nec nomina dedignantur. Ecce ad sacra sua deus Anubis vocavit et Mundum, ut tibi iungeret. Quid tibi profuit duritia tua, nisi ut te xx milium quae obtuleram defraudaret compendio? Imitare deos indulgentiores, qui nobis sine pretio tribuunt quod abs te magno pretio impetrari nequitum est. Quod si te humana offendunt vocabula, Anubem me vocari placuit, et nominis huius gratia effectum iuvit.’ It must be allowed that our author has improved upon this offensive prolixity.

987. _sche may ther noght_, ‘she hath no power in the matter’: cp. 725, ‘there I lye noght.’

1006. _Citezeine._ Gower uses several of these feminine forms of substantives. Besides ‘citezeine’ we have cousine, ii. 1201, capiteine, v. 1972, enemie, v. 6753, anemie, viii. 1355 (all of which also occur in the _Mirour_), and occasionally adjectives, as ‘veine’ (gloire), i. 2677 ff., (vertu) ‘sovereine,’ ii. 3507, ‘seinte’ (charite), iv. 964, ‘soleine,’ v. 1971, and probably ‘divine,’ ii. 3243, ‘gentile,’ viii. 2294.

1013 ff. ‘questioni subicit, confessos necat.’ Our author here expands his original.

1040. _Whos cause_, ‘for the sake of which.’

1051. _put_, pres. tense, ‘putteth.’

1067. _menable_, ‘fit to guide,’ the ship; cp. ii. 1123, ‘A wynd menable fro the londe.’ The word occurs several times in our author’s French, as _Mirour_, 3676, 11882, 17392. The meaning in English is not always the same, the word being, like others of this form, sometimes active and sometimes passive: cp. ‘deceivable’ (ii. 1698, 2202). Here and in the passage quoted the meaning is ‘leading,’ ‘fit to guide’: elsewhere it stands for ‘easily led,’ ‘apt to be guided,’ as in iii. 390 and the French examples.

1068. ‘tobreken’ is the reading of JH₁XGL, SBΔ, W, and is evidently required by the sense.

1077 ff. Here Gower mainly follows Benoît de Sainte-More (_Roman de Troie_, 25620 ff.), but he was of course acquainted also with Guido (_Historia Troiana_, lib. 27: m 5, ed. Argent. 1494). The name Epius is from Benoît, for Guido has ‘Apius’: on the other hand, Guido and not Benoît describes the horse as made of brass. In speaking of the discussion about pulling down a portion of the walls, and of the walls themselves as built by Neptune, 1146, 1152 ff., our author is certainly drawing from Benoît. Some points of the story and many details are original.

_Of hem that_ &c., ‘As regards those who have such deceit in
their hearts,’ i.e. hypocrites: cp. 956, ‘O derke ypocrisie.’

1102. The MS. can hardly be right in punctuating after ‘Togedre.’

1129 f. So Lydgate, perhaps with this passage in his mind,

‘Makynge a colour of devocion
Through holynesse under ypocrisie.’

_Tale of Troye_, bk. iv.

1133. _trapped._ ‘In quo construentur quedam clausure sic artificiose composite, quod’ &c. _Hist. Troiana_, m 4 v^o. Gower does not say that men were contained within, though this is stated by his authorities, of whom Benoît places Sinon inside the horse, while Guido finds room there for a thousand armed men. The ‘twelve’ wheels seem to be due to Gower, as also the picturesque touch, ‘And goth glistrende ayein the Sunne.’

1146 ff. Cp. _Roman de Troie_, 25814 ff. (ed. Joly),

‘Et quant ço virent Troien,
Conseil pristrent que des terralz
Abatroient les granz muralz,
Les biax, les granz, que Neptunus
Ot fet, M. anz aveit et plus,
Et qu’ Apollo ot dedié.’

1165. _crossen seil_, ‘set their sails across (the mast).’

1172. _Synon._ The reading of F may be right, for ‘Simon’ is the form of the name given in many copies of Guido. Here however the whole of the second recension and the better copies of the first give ‘Synon,’ and a copyist’s alteration would be towards the more familiar name.

1225. _lok._ In l. 1703 we have ‘loke’ for the imperative, which must be regarded as more strictly correct.

_Latin Verses._ vi. 1 f. _olle Fictilis ad cacabum_, a proverb derived from Ecclus. xiii. 3, ‘Quid communicabit cacabus ad ollam? quando enim se colliserint confringetur.’

6. The elephant was supposed to have no joints.

1262 f. _That I ... ne bowe more._ For the form of expression see note on 718. Pauli makes the text here quite unintelligible by reproducing an error of Berthelet’s edition and adding to it another of his own.

1293. A proverbial expression like that in vi. 447, ‘For selden get a domb man lond.’

1328. _retenue_, ‘engagement of service’: cp. _Bal._ viii. 17,

‘Q’a vous servir j’ai fait ma retenue.’

1354. _the decerte Of buxomnesse_, i.e. ‘the service of obedience.’ For both the spelling and meaning of ‘decerte’ cp. _Mir._ 10194,

‘Qe ja ne quiert ou gaign ou perte
Du siecle avoir pour sa decerte.’

1407 ff. The ‘Tale of Florent’ is essentially the same as Chaucer’s ‘Wife of Bath’s Tale,’ but the details are in many ways different. According to Chaucer the hero of the adventure is a knight of Arthur’s court and the occasion of his trouble a much less creditable one than in the case of Florent. In Chaucer’s tale the knight sees a fairy dance of ladies in the forest before he meets his repulsive deliverer, and she gets from him a promise that he will grant her next request if it lies in his power, the demand of marriage being put off until after the question has been successfully solved by her assistance. The rather unseasonable lectures on gentilesse, poverty, and old age are not introduced by Gower. On the other hand, Chaucer’s alternative, ‘Will you have me old and ugly but a faithful wife, or young and fair with the attendant risks?’ is more pointed and satisfactory than the corresponding feature in Gower’s tale. Finally, Chaucer has nothing about the enchantment by which the lady had been transformed.

It is tolerably certain that neither borrowed the story from the other, though there are a few touches of minute resemblance which may suggest that one was acquainted with the other’s rendering of it: see ll. 1587, 1727.

We cannot point to the precise original of either; but a very similar story is found in _The Weddynge of Sir Gawene and Dame Ragnell_, published in the collection of poems relating to Gawain edited by Sir F. Madden (Bannatyne Club, 1839) and contained in MS. Rawlinson C. 86. In this ballad Arthur’s life is spared by a strange knight who meets him unarmed in the forest, on condition of answering his question, ‘What do women love best,’ at the end of twelve months. He is assisted by Dame Ragnell, who demands in return to be married to Sir Gawain. Sir Gawain accepts the proposal from loyalty to his lord, and the rest is much as in Gower’s version. It should be noted that the alternative of day or night appears in the ballad and was a feature of the original story, which Chaucer altered.

The Percy fragment of _The Marriage of Sir Gawain_, also printed in Sir F. Madden’s volume, is the same story as we have in the other ballad. The name Florent and that of the Emperor Claudius are probably due to Gower, who is apt to attach to his stories names of his own choosing: cp. Lucius and Dionys (_Conf. Am._ v. 7124*, _Mir._ 7101).

Shakespeare refers to Gower’s story in the line,

‘Be she as foul as was Florentius’ love.’

_Tam. of the Shr._ i. 2. 69.

1427. _his oghne hondes_: cp. iii. 2011, 2142; v. 1884, 5455 (‘seide his oghne mouth’).

1509. _schape unto the lere_, ‘prepared for the loss’ (O. E. lyre).

1521. _par aventure_, or ‘per aventure’ as given by J. The former of the two words is as usual contracted in F.

1536. _his horse heved_, ‘his horse’s head’: cp. Prol. 1085, iv. 1357, &c. The word ‘heved,’ also written ‘hefd,’ ‘hed,’ is a monosyllable as regards the metre.

1541. _Florent be thi name_: cp. Chaucer, _Cant. Tales_, B 3982, ‘dan Piers be youre name.’

1556. ‘I ask for nothing better (to be imposed) as a task.’

1587. _Have hier myn hond_: so in Chaucer, ‘Have heer my trouthe,’ D 1013.

1662. This is one of the closest parallels with the ballad,

‘And she that told the nowe, sir Arthoure,
I pray to god I maye se her bren on a fyre.’

_Weddynge of Syr Gawene_, 475.

1676. _what_: cp. the use of ‘quoy’ in French, e.g. _Mir._ 1781.

1677. _caste on his yhe_, ‘cast his eye upon.’

1714. ‘He must, whom fate compels.’ The words ‘schal,’ ‘scholde’ are regularly used by Gower to express the idea of destiny, e.g. iii. 1348, iv. 92, 377.

1722. ‘Placing her as he best could.’

1727. _Bot as an oule_ &c. So in Chaucer,

‘And al day after hidde him as an owle,
So wo was hym, his wyf looked so foule.’

D 1081 f.

1767. _tok thanne chiere on honde_, ‘began to be merry.’

1771. _And profreth him ... to kisse_, i.e. offers to kiss him: cp. v. 6923, ‘Anon he profreth him to love.’

1886. _til it overthrowe_, i.e. till it fall into calamity, ‘overthrowe’ being intransitive, as 1962.

1888. _Hadde I wist_: cp. ii. 473, iv. 305.

1895. _And is_, i.e. ‘And he is,’ the pronoun being frequently omitted: cp. Prol. 348, 676, i. 2083, 2462, ii. 258, 624, 2071, 2985, iii. 1063, &c.

1917 f. A proverbial expression: cp. Lydgate, _Secrees of the Philosophres_, 459, ‘Yit wer me loth ovir myn hed to hewe.’

1934. _ne schal me noght asterte_, ‘shall not escape me,’ in the sense of letting a fault be committed by negligence in repressing it: cp. i. 722.

1967. _unbende_, 1st sing. pret., ‘I unbent (my bow).’ For the form cp. ‘sende,’ Prol. 1013.

1980 ff. The example of Capaneus is probably from Statius. The medieval romances (e.g. the French _Roman de Thèbes_) do not represent Capaneus as slain by a lightning stroke. The impious speech alluded to here, ‘Primus in orbe deos fecit timor!’ is Statius, _Theb._ iii. 661, and the death of Capaneus, _Theb._ x. 827 ff.

2007. _it proeveth_, i.e. ‘it appears’: cp. Prol. 926.

2021 ff. This story was probably taken by Gower from the _Vita Barlaam et Josaphat_, cap. vi (Migne, _Patrol._ vol. 74. p. 462 f.). The incidents are the same, but amplified with details by Gower, who has also invented the title of the king. In the original he is only ‘magnus quidam et illustris rex.’ The story is found in several collections, as _Gesta Romanorum_, 143, Holkot, 70, see _Gesta Romanorum_, ed. Oesterley.

2030. _ride amaied_: cp. Chaucer, _Cant. Tales_, C 406, and Skeat’s note.

2049. _par charite._ Rather perhaps ‘per charite,’ following J. F and A both have the contracted form. So also ‘per chance,’ ‘per chaunce,’ in ll. 2225, 2290, 3203, and ‘per aventure,’ l. 2350.

2073. _was the same ... which_, cp. viii. 3062*.

2078. This line, which would more naturally follow the next, seems to be thrown in parenthetically here.

2106. So also ii. 895, 2670.

2172. _to tendre with_, ‘whereby to soften’: cp. i. 452, ‘To tarie with a mannes thoght,’ and ii. 283.

2176. _sihe_: the mixture of past with present tenses is common in Gower.

2214 ff. ‘O stulte ac demens, si fratris tui, cum quo idem tibi genus et par honos est, in quem nullius omnino sceleris tibi conscius es, praeconem ita extimuisti, quonam modo mihi reprehensionis notam idcirco inussisti, quod Dei mei praecones, qui mortem, ac Domini, in quem me multa et gravia scelera perpetrasse scio, pertimescendum adventum mihi quavis tuba vocalius altiusque denuntiant, humiliter ac demisse salutarim?’ _Barl. et Jos._ cap. vi.

2225. See note on 2049.

2236. _obeie_, ‘do obeisance to’: cp. v. 1539.

2275 ff. The tale of Narcissus is no doubt from Ovid, _Met._ iii. 402 ff., but the account of his death is different from that which we find there. Ovid relates that he pined away gradually, and that his body was not found, but in place of it a flower.

2290. _par chance_: see note on 2049.

2316 f. Cp. Bocc. _Gen. Deorum_, vii. 59, ‘existimans fontis Nympham.’ By the margin we find that the nymph here meant is Echo, who is represented by Ovid as having wasted away for love of Narcissus and as giving an answer now to his cries.

2317. _as tho was faie_, ‘as then was endued with (magic) power,’ ‘faie’ being an adjective, as in ii. 1019, v. 3769.

2320. _of his sotie_, to be taken with what follows.

2340 ff. I know of no authority for this manner of his death.

2343-2358. This pretty passage is a late addition, appearing only in the third recension MSS. and one other copy, so far as I know. According to Ovid, the nymphs of the fountains and of the woods mourned for Narcissus,

‘Planxere sorores
Naides, et sectos fratri posuere capillos;
Planxerunt Dryades, plangentibus assonat Echo,’

but when they desired to celebrate his obsequies, they found nothing there but a flower.

2350. _par aventure_: see note on 2049.

2355 ff. This application of the story, founded on the fact that the narcissus blooms in early spring, seems to be due to our author: cp. ii. 196, iii. 1717.

2377. _a place_, equivalent to ‘aplace,’ which we find in l. 1888, i.e. ‘on place,’ ‘into place.’ We might read ‘aplace’ here also, for though the words were at first written separately in F, there seems to have been an intention of joining them afterwards. However, such separations are often found elsewhere, as ‘a doun,’ iv. 2710, v. 385; ‘a ferr’; i. 2335; ‘a game,’ viii. 2319; and most MSS. have ‘a place’ here.

2398. The reading of F, ‘Which elles scholde haue his wille,’ is a possible one, but the preservation of final ‘e’ before ‘have’ used unemphatically, as here, would be rather unusual. Instances such as l. 2465, ‘a werre hadde,’ are not to the point, and in l. 2542, where there is a better example, ‘Of such werk as it scholde have,’ the word ‘have’ is made more emphatic by standing in rhyme.

_Latin Verses._ ix. 2. _cilens._ Such forms of spelling are not uncommon in Gower’s Latin: cp. ‘cenatore,’ v. 4944 (margin).

2410. _wynd._ The curious corruption ‘hunt,’ which appears in one form or another in all the copies of the unrevised first recension, must have been one of the mistakes of the original copyist. The critical note here should be, ‘hunt(e) H₁YX ... C hante L haunt B₂,’ and the actual reading in L is, ‘Haþ þilke errour hante in his office,’ which seems due to a marginal note having been incorporated in the text.

2411. _Which_, for ‘that’ in consecutive sense, answering to ‘thilke,’ see note on l. 492. In this case it does not even stand as the subject of the verb, for we have ‘he overthroweth.’

2421. _tok._ This is second person singular, and we might rather expect ‘toke,’ which in fact is the reading of some good copies: cp. ii. 234, iii. 2629, viii. 2076.

2443. _daunger._ See note on _Balades_, xii. 8. The name represents the influences which are unfavourable to the lover’s suit, and chiefly the feelings in the lady’s own mind which tend towards prudence or prompt her to disdain. The personification in the _Roman de la Rose_ is well known. There Danger is the chief guardian of the rose-bush, and has for his helpers Malebouche, who spreads unfavourable reports of the lover, with Honte and Paour, who represent the feelings in the lady’s mind which lead her to resist his advances: see _Roman de la Rose_, 2837 ff., Chaucer, _Leg. of G. Women_, B 160, _Troilus_, ii. 1376. Danger, however, also stands without personification for scornfulness or reluctance in love, and so the adjective ‘dangereus’ _Rom. de la Rose_, 479 (Eng. ‘dangerous,’ _Cant. Tales_, D 1090, ‘Is every knight of his so dangerous?’).

In the _Confessio Amantis_ the principal passages relating to Danger as a person are iii. 1537 ff. and v. 6613 ff. Such expressions also frequently occur as ‘hire daunger,’ iv. 2813; ‘thi Daunger,’ iv. 3589; ‘make daunger,’ ii. 1110; ‘withoute danger,’ iv. 1149: cp. Chaucer, _Troilus_, ii. 384.

For the references to Danger in Lydgate see Dr. Schick’s note on _Temple of Glas_, 156 (E. E. T. S.).

2459 ff. The story of Alboin and Rosemund is related by Paulus Diaconus, _Gest. Langob._ ii. 28, and after him by many others. This historian declares that he has himself seen the cup made of a skull from which the queen was invited to drink. According to him, Helmichis, the king’s foster-brother and shield-bearer, plotted with Rosemunda against the king and induced her to gain the support of one Peredeus by the device of substituting herself for her waiting-maid. In some versions of the story this Peredeus was omitted. For example, in the _Pantheon_ of Godfrey of Viterbo (xvii), where the story is related first in prose and then in verse, he is only slightly mentioned in the prose account and not at all in the verse, Helmegis being substituted for him in both as the object of the queen’s artifice. It seems probable that Gower followed this author, with whose book we know he was acquainted (viii. 271). The name of the waiting-maid, Glodeside, seems to have been supplied by our author, who took it no doubt from ‘Glodosinda,’ the name of Alboin’s former wife. Helmege the king’s ‘boteler’ is the ‘Helmegis pincerna regis’ of the _Pantheon_, and some expressions correspond closely, as 2474 (margin), ‘ciphum ex ea gemmis et auro circumligatum ... fabricari constituit,’ with the line ‘Arte scyphum fieri statuens auroque ligari.’

The tale is well told by Gower, but he alters the final catastrophe, so as not to lengthen the story unnecessarily and divert attention from his principal object, which has to do with Alboin’s punishment for boasting and not with the fate of the adulterous pair. He is responsible for most of the details: in the _Pantheon_ the story occupies only sixty lines of Latin verse and is rather meagre in style. Compare, for example, the following with the account given by Gower of the holding of the banquet, the cruel boast of Alboin, and the feelings of the queen (2495-2569),

‘Ipse caput soceri, quem fecerat ense necari,
Arte scyphum fieri statuens auroque ligari,
Vina suae sponsae praecipit inde dari.
Femina nescisset quod testa paterna fuisset,
Vina nec hausisset, nisi diceret impius ipse,
“Testa tui patris est, cum patre, nata, bibe.”
Dum bibit immunda data vina gemens Rosimunda,
Pectora pessumdat, lacrymae vehementer inundant,
Occisique patris res fit amara satis.’

2485 (margin). _Bibe cum patre tuo_: these are the exact words of the prose account in the _Pantheon_.

2504. There is a stop after ‘ordeine’ in F, therefore ‘sende’ should be taken as a past tense rather than as infinitive dependent on ‘let.’

2533. ‘And took a pride within his heart.’

2548. The punctuation is that of the MSS.

2569. _had mad._ The use of ‘had’ for ‘hadde’ in a position like this, where it is followed by a consonant (or of ‘hadde’ with the value of a monosyllable in such a position), is most unusual in Gower’s verse. If there were a little more authority for it, we might read ‘hath,’ as given by J: cp. iv. 170, where many of the best copies read ‘Had mad’ for ‘Hath mad.’ It is possible that the author meant here ‘hath had mad’ (‘had’ being past participle), but I cannot quote any clear example of this form of speech at so early a date.

2642 ff. Here Gower departs from the authorities and winds up the story abruptly. According to the original story, Longinus the prefect of Ravenna conspired with Rosemunda to poison Helmichis; and he, having received drink from her hand and feeling himself poisoned, compelled her to drink also of the same cup.

2677. _veine gloire._ The adjective here adopts the French feminine form, as we have it in this very combination in the _Mirour_, e.g. l. 1219. On the other hand, where the words are separated, as l. 2720, the uninflected form is used. See note on l. 1006.

_Latin Verses._ x. 5. _strigilare fauellum_, ‘to curry favel.’

2684. ‘Heaven seems no gain to him.’ The forms ‘þinken’ and ‘þenken’ are identified by Gower under ‘þenken’; but ‘þinke’ is sometimes used in rhyme, and indifferently for either, e.g. v. 213, 254.

2701. _unavised_, adv., ‘in a foolish fashion.’

2703 ff. Cp. _Mir._ 27337 ff., where the author pleads guilty to these crimes, as the lover also does below.

2705 (margin). Ecclus. xix. 27, ‘Amictus corporis et risus dentium et ingressus hominis enunciant de illo.’

2706 f. _the newe guise of lusti folk_, i.e. the latest fashion for men of pleasure.

2713 f. This is one of the cases in which the third recension reading has been introduced over erasure into the text of F: cp. Prol. 336, iv. 1321, 1361, vii. _Lat. Verses_ after ll. 1640 and 1984.

The original lines are given in the foot-note in accordance with S. They were altered perhaps to avoid repetition of 2681 f.

2745. _songe_, so here in F and A, elsewhere ‘song.’

2746. _Wherof_: cp. l. 498.

2764. _hire good astat._ For the loss of inflexion cp. ii. 2341, ‘his slyh compas.’

2769. _whiche_: often treated as a monosyllable in the verse, as ii. 604, iv. 1498, &c., but cp. l. 2825.

2787. Prol. 585 ff.

2795. _bere_: pret., as shown both by sense and rhyme.

2801. _good._ The original reading was ‘godd,’ which perhaps may be thought better, but the alteration may have been made by the author to avoid a repetition of the same word that he had used in l. 2796. The meaning is, ‘he did not remember that there was anything else of worth except himself.’

2830. _And fedden hem_, i.e. ‘And that they fed themselves,’ &c.; cp. 2833, ‘and seide.’

2883. _sein_: so ii. 170, iii. 757, in rhyme always.

2890. Written in F ‘vnder the þe kinges,’ as if to make a distinction, but ‘þee’ in the next line.

2939. The punctuation after ‘godd’ is on the authority of F: otherwise it would be better to take ‘with godd and stonde in good acord’ together.

2951. _He let it passe_ &c. The preceding sentence is broken off, and a new one begins which takes no account of the negative: see note on i. 98. This seems better than to make ‘it’ refer to his pride, for ‘mynde’ can hardly mean anything here but memory.

3032. ‘He found the same gentleness in his God.’

3050. _can no love assise_, ‘can adapt no love to his liking.’

3067 ff. The tale of the Three Questions is one of which I cannot trace the origin, notwithstanding the details of name and place which are given at the end, viz. that the king was of Spain and was called Alphonso, that the knight’s name was Pedro and his daughter’s Petronilla. A reference to the second and third questions occurs in the _Mirour de l’omme_, 12601 ff.

3153. _herd you seid_: so v. 1623, 7609, ‘herd me told.’ This form of expression, for ‘herd you seie,’ ‘herd me telle,’ may have sprung from such a use of the participle as we have in v. 3376, ‘Sche hadde herd spoke of his name’: cp. the use of participle for infinitive with ‘do’ in ii. 1799 and Chaucer, _Cant. Tales_, A 1913, ‘Hath Theseüs doon wroght,’ E 1098, ‘Hath doon yow kept.’

3203. _par chaunce_: see note on 2049.

3246. _ansuerde._ This seems to be a plural form of the participle, used here for the rhyme: so iv. 1810, v. 6789.