Chapter D: CAMB. UNIV. Dd. viii. 19 (Bern. Cat. ii. 9653). Confessio Amantis (20)

3296. _leste_: elsewhere ‘lest’; cp. 3106, 3313. Here we have ‘leste’ A, F, ‘lest’ JC, B. The form ‘moste’ is undoubtedly used for ‘most’ (adv.) i. 307.

3308. _reprise_, ‘trouble,’ as we have ‘paine et reprise’ in _Mirour_, 3968.

3365 f. _lete That I ne scholde be_: cp. iv. 454. In both cases ‘lete’ is the past participle of ‘leten’ (lǣtan), and not from ‘letten,’ meaning ‘hinder.’ In these expressions ‘lete’ means ‘left’ in the sense of ‘omitted’ (like ‘lete Of wrong to don,’ vii. 2726), and in this usage is naturally followed by a negative: cp. v. 4465, ‘I wol noght lete, What so befalle of mi beyete, That I ne schal hire yive and lene.’ The same phrase occurs with the past participle ‘let’ (meaning ‘hindered’) in ii. 128, and the sense is nearly the same.

3369 ff. Several corrections have been made by the author in this passage, either to make the verse run more smoothly, as 3369 ‘it mot ben holde’ for ‘mot nede be holde,’ 3374 ‘mad a Pier’ for ‘an Erl hier,’ 3412 ‘vice be received’ for ‘vice schal be received,’ or to improve the sense and expression, as 3381 ‘maide’ for ‘place,’ 3396 ‘wyse Peronelle’ for ‘name Peronelle,’ 3414 ‘worth, and no reprise’ for ‘worthy, and no prise,’ 3416 ‘If eny thing stond in contraire’ for ‘And it is alway debonaire,’ an awkward parenthesis. It should be noted that Λ (the Wollaton copy of the second recension) here goes with the unrevised first recension, whereas B agrees with the revised form, except in ll. 3369, 3381.

3381. _the maide asterte_, ‘escape the influence of the maiden.’

3442 f. The hellish nature of Envy consists in the fact that it wrongs both itself and others without cause, that is without having any further object to gain. It rejoices in evil for the sake of the evil itself and not for any advantage to be won from it. Cp. ii. 3132 ff.

LIB. II.

11. _if it be so_, equivalent to ‘is it so,’ from the form ‘I ask if it be so.’

20. _Ethna_: cp. _Mirour_, 3805 ff.,

‘Ly mons Ethna, quele art toutdiz,
Nulle autre chose du paiis
Forsque soy mesmes poet ardoir;
Ensi q’ Envie tient ou pis
En sentira deinz soy le pis.’

The idea is that Envy, like Mount Etna, burns within itself continually, but is never consumed: cp. Ovid, _Met._ xiii. 867 (in the tale which follows below of Acis and Galatea),

‘Uror enim, laesusque exaestuat acrius ignis,
Cumque suis videor translatam viribus Aetnam
Pectore ferre meo.’

83. _Write in Civile._ ‘Civile’ is certainly the Civil Law, for so we find it in _Mirour_, 15217, 16092, &c., and also personified in _Piers Plowman_. The reference here has puzzled me rather, but the following, I believe, is the explanation of it, strange as it may seem at first sight.

In the Institutions of Justinian, i. 7, ‘De lege Furia Caninia sublata,’ we read that this law, which restricted the power of owners of slaves to manumit them by will, was repealed ‘quasi libertatibus impedientem et quodammodo invidam.’ It seems that medieval commentators upon this, reading ‘canina’ for Caninia in the title of the law, explained the supposed epithet by reference to the adjective ‘invidam’ used in the description of it, and conceived the law to have been called ‘canina’ because it compelled men to imitate the dog in the manger by withholding liberty from those for whom they no longer had any use as slaves. In Bromyard’s _Summa Predicantium_ we find the following under the head of ‘Invidia’: ‘Omnes isti sunt de professione legis Fusie canine. Ille enim Fusius inventor fuit legis cuius exemplum seu casus est iste. Quidam habet fontem quo non potest proprium ortum irrigare ... posset tamen alteri valere sine illius nocumento; ipse tamen impedit ne alteri prosit quod sibi prodesse non potest, ad modum canis, sicut predictum est: a cuius condicione lex canina vocata est inter leges duodecim tabularum, que quia iniqua fuit, in aliis legibus correcta est, sicut patet Institut. lib. i. de lege Fusia canina tollenda.’

It seems likely then that Gower took the fable from some comment on this passage of the Institutions.

88. _who that understode_, ‘if a man understood,’ subjunctive: see notes on Prol. 13, 460.

104 ff. From Ovid, _Met._ xiii. 750 ff., where it is told at greater length. The circumstance, however, of Polyphemus running round Etna and roaring with rage and jealousy before he killed Acis, is added by Gower, possibly from a misunderstanding of l. 872. It is certainly an improvement.

128. _it myhte noght be let_ &c. See note on i. 3365.

196. _as he whilom_ &c. This suggestion is due to our author: cp. i. 2355 ff.

252. _who overthrowe, Ne who that stonde._ The verbs are probably singular and subjunctive: cp. iii. 665.

258. _And am_: cp. note on i. 1895.

261. Cp. Chaucer, _Cant. Tales_, G 746 ff., where the Ellesmere MS. has in the margin ‘Solacium miseriorum’ &c. The quotation does not seem to be really from Boethius.

265 f. ‘When I see another man labour where I cannot achieve success.’ For this use of ‘to’ cp. Prol. 133, &c.

283. _to hindre with_, ‘whereby to hinder’: cp. i. 452, 2172.

291 ff. This story, as Prof. Morley points out, is to be found among the fables of Avian, which were widely known. Gower has amplified it considerably. The fable is as follows:

xxii. ‘Iuppiter, ambiguas hominum praediscere mentes,
Ad terram Phoebum misit ab arce poli.
Tunc duo diversis poscebant numina votis,
Namque alter cupidus, invidus alter erat;
His sese medium Titan scrutatus utrumque
Obtulit et, “Precibus Iuppiter aecus,” ait,
“Praestandi facilis; nam quae speraverit unus,
Protinus haec alter congeminata feret.”
Sed cui longa iecur nequiit satiare cupido,
Distulit admotas in sua dona preces, 10
Spem sibi confidens alieno crescere voto,
Seque ratus solum munera ferre duo.
Ille ubi captantem socium sua praemia vidit,
Supplicium proprii corporis optat ovans;
Nam petit extincto iam lumine degat ut uno,
Alter ut hoc duplicans vivat utroque carens.
Tum sortem sapiens humanam risit Apollo,
Invidiaeque malum rettulit ipse Iovi,
Quae dum proventis aliorum gaudet iniquis,
Laetior infelix et sua damna cupit.’ 20

l. 6. Iuppiter aecus _Lachmann_ vt peteretur _codd._

309. _Now lowde wordes_ &c., i.e. Now with loud words, &c.; cp. vii. 170.

317. _That on_, ‘The one.’

323 (margin). _maculauit._ Du Cange has, ‘_Maculare_, Vulnerare, vel vulnerando deformare.’

389. _Malebouche_, cp. _Roman de la Rose_, 2847 ff., _Mirour de l’omme_, 2677 ff.

390. _pyl ne crouche_, ‘pile nor cross,’ cross and pile being the two sides of a coin, head and tail.

399 f. The meaning of ‘heraldie’ is rather uncertain here. Probably it stands for ‘office of herald,’ and the passage means, ‘Holding the place of herald in the court of liars’; but the _New Engl. Dict._ apparently takes it in the sense of ‘livery,’ comparing the French ‘heraudie,’ a cassock, and an eighteenth-century example in English. In this case we must understand the lines to mean ‘wearing the livery of those who lie,’ that is, being in their service.

401 ff. Cp. _Mirour_, 3721 ff.

404. _fals_, see note on Prol. 221. Just below (l. 412) we have ‘his false tunge.’

413 ff. Cp. _Mirour_, 2893 ff.,

‘La hupe toutdis fait son ny,
Et l’escarbud converse auci,
Entour l’ordure et la merdaille;
Mais de ces champs qui sont flori
N’ont garde: et par semblance ensi
Malvoise langue d’enviaille,’ &c.

447. ‘That many envious tale is stered,’ ‘many’ being a monosyllable for the metre before the vowel, as frequently in the expression ‘many a,’ and ‘envious’ accented on the penultimate syllable. For the use of ‘many’ by itself in the singular cp. ii. 89, iv. 1619, &c.

473. That is, she is on her guard against doing that of which she might afterwards repent. For ‘hadde I wist’ cp. i. 1888.

510 f. _I myhte noght To soffre_ &c. A very unusual construction.

547 ff. ‘I cannot find that I have spoken anything amiss by reason of envy,’ &c.

565. ‘In which he knows that there is poison’: for the arrangement of words cp. i. 833.

583. ‘To be amended’: cp. Prol. 83.

587 ff. The tale of Constance is Chaucer’s _Man of Law’s Tale_, and the story was derived by the two authors from the same source, Nicholas Trivet’s Anglo-Norman chronicle. The story as told by him has been printed for the Chaucer Society from MS. Arundel 56, with collation of a Stockholm copy (_Originals and Analogues_, 1872). The quotations in these Notes, however, are from the Bodleian MS., Rawlinson B. 178.

Gower has followed the original more closely than Chaucer, but he diverges from it in a good many points, as will be seen from the following enumeration:

(1) Gower says nothing of the proficiency of Constance in sciences and languages, on which Trivet lays much stress. (2) He abridges the negotiations for marriage with the Souldan (620 ff.). (3) He does not mention the seven hundred Saracens with whom the Souldan’s mother conspired. (4) He brings Constance to land in Northumberland in the summer instead of on Christmas day (732). (5) He omits the talk between Constance and Hermyngeld which leads to the conversion of the latter (cp. 752 ff.). (6) According to Trivet the blind man who received his sight was one of the British Christians who had remained after the Saxon conquest, and he went to Wales to bring the bishop Lucius. (7) The knight who solicited Constance had been left, according to Trivet, in charge during Elda’s absence, and planned his accusation against her for fear she should report his behaviour to Elda on his return (cp. 792 ff.). (8) The words spoken when the felon knight was smitten are not the same. Gower moreover makes him confess his crime and then die, whereas in the French book he is put to death by the king (cp. 879 ff.). (9) The reasons for Domilde’s hatred of Constance are omitted by Gower. (10) Trivet says that Domilde gave the messenger a drugged potion on each occasion (cp. 952 ff., 1008 ff.). (11) The communication to Constance of the supposed letter from the king, and her acceptance of her fate, are omitted by Gower. (12) The prayers of Constance for herself and her child upon the sea and her nursing of the child are additions made by Gower (1055-1083). (13) According to Trivet, Constance landed at the heathen admiral’s castle and was entertained there, going back to her ship for the night. Then in the night Thelous came to her, and professing to repent of having denied his faith, prayed that he might go with her and return to a Christian country. So they put out at sea, and he, moved by the devil, tempted her to sin. She persuaded him to look out for land, with a promise of yielding to his desires on reaching the shore, and while he is intent on this occupation, she pushes him overboard (cp. 1084-1125). (14) The vengeance of king Alle on his mother is related by Trivet immediately after this, by Gower later. According to Trivet he hewed her to pieces (cp. 1226-1301). In the ballad of _Emaré_ the mother is condemned to be burnt, but her sentence is changed to exile. (15) Gower omits the entry of king Alle into Rome and the incident of his being seen by Constance as he passed through the streets. (16) Trivet says that when Morice took the message to the Emperor, the latter was struck by his resemblance to his lost daughter. (17) Gower adds the incident of Constance riding forward to meet her father (1500 ff.). (18) According to Trivet, Constance returned to Rome because of the illness of her father (cp. 1580 ff.).

These differences, besides others of detail, show that Gower treated the story with some degree of freedom.

Before Trivet was known as the common source for Chaucer and Gower, Tyrrwhitt suggested that Chaucer’s tale was taken from Gower. Chaucer in fact criticizes and rejects one feature of the tale which occurs in Gower’s version of it, namely the sending of ‘the child Maurice’ to invite the Emperor. This incident however comes from Trivet, and it is probably to him that Chaucer refers.

It has been argued however in recent times from certain minute resemblances in detail and forms of expression between Chaucer’s tale and Gower’s, that Chaucer was acquainted with Gower’s rendering of the story as well as with Trivet’s (E. Lücke in _Anglia_, vol. xiv); and the same line of reasoning has been employed by others, e.g. Dr. Skeat in his edition of Chaucer, to prove that Gower borrowed to some extent from Chaucer. It seems probable that Chaucer’s tale of Constance was written earlier than Gower’s, and it is likely enough that Gower was acquainted with his friend’s work and may have conveyed some expressions from it into his own. Lücke adduces twenty-seven instances, more than half of them trivial or unconvincing, but amounting on the whole to a tolerably strong proof that one of the two poets was acquainted with the other’s story. The most convincing of the parallels are the following: Gower, ‘Let take anon this Constantine’ 706, Chaucer, ‘And Custance have they take anon’ _Cant. Tales_, B 438; Gower, ‘lich hir oghne lif Constance loveth’ 750, Chaucer, ‘loved hire right as hir lif’ B 535; Gower, ‘yif me my sihte’ 765, Chaucer, ‘yif me my sighte again’ B 560, Trivet, ‘qe tu me facetz le signe de la croiz sur mes eux enveugles’ f. 34; Gower, ‘The king with many another mo Hath christned’ 907, Chaucer, ‘The kyng and many another in that place converted was’ B 685; Gower, ‘to kepe his wif’ 925, Chaucer, ‘his wyf to kepe’ B 717; Gower, ‘goth to seke Ayein the Scottes for to fonde The werre’ 928 ff.; Chaucer, ‘whan he is gon To Scotlondward, his fomen for to seke’ B 717 f.; Gower, ‘The time set of kinde is come, This lady hath hir chambre nome’ 931 f. Chaucer, ‘She halt hire chambre abiding Cristes wille. The tyme is come’ B 721 f. These resemblances of phrase are such as we might expect to find if Gower had read Chaucer’s story before writing his own. In all essentials he is independent, and it is surely not necessary to suppose, as Dr. Skeat does, that a quarrel between them was caused by such a matter as this.

590. Tiberius Constantinus was Emperor (at Constantinople) for four years only, 578-582; his wife’s name was Anastasia. He selected Maurice of Cappadocia to succeed him, and gave him his daughter in marriage. The romance related by Trivet seems to have no historical foundation, but it was during the reign of Maurice that the mission went from Rome for the conversion of the English, and this may have had something to do with the story that Maurice himself was partly of English origin. Trivet himself mentions the historical form of the story, but pretends that he finds a different account in the old Saxon chronicles, ‘les aunciens croniques des Sessouns,’ or ‘l’estoire de Sessons.’

594. _the god_: cp. Prol. 72. We find both ‘god’ and ‘godd’ as forms of spelling, so ‘rod’ and ‘rodd,’ ‘bed’ and ‘bedd.’ Here ‘godd’ has been altered in F by erasure.

613. Both Chaucer and Gower make the Souldan send for the merchants, whereas in Trivet they are brought before him on accusation: but in fact here Gower agrees in essentials with Trivet, while Chaucer invents a quite different occasion for the interview.

653. _Betwen hem two_, ‘by themselves together’: cp. 752, 3517, iii. 1466.

684. _Hire clos Envie_: see note on Prol. 221. The metaphor here may be from spreading a net, or perhaps it means simply she displayed her secret envy.

693 f. Compare Chaucer’s development of the idea with examples, _Cant. Tales_, B 470 ff.

709. _withoute stiere_: Chaucer says ‘a ship al steereles’ where Trivet has ‘sanz sigle et sanz naviroun,’ or ‘sanz viron’ (MS. Rawl.): but either ‘viron’ or ‘naviron’ might stand for the oar with which the ship was steered.

709 ff. Note the free transposition of clauses for the sake of the rhymes. The logical order would be 709, 711, 710, 713, 712.

711. _for yeres fyve._ Trivet says ‘pur treis aunz,’ but he keeps her at sea nevertheless for nearly five.

736. _gon_, plural, ‘he and his wife go’: cp. 1152.

749 ff. In the MSS. the paragraph begins at ‘Constance loveth,’ l. 751.

752. ‘They speaking every day together alone,’ an absolute use: cp. 1723. For ‘betwen hem two’ cp. 653.

762. Punctuated after ‘hire’ in F.

771. _Thou bysne man._ The word ‘bysne’ is taken from the original story. Trivet says she spoke in the Saxon language and said, ‘Bisne man, en Ihesu name in rode yslawe haue þi siht’ (MS. Rawl. f. 34).

785. _As he that._ The reference is to the king, so that we should rather expect ‘As him that,’ but the phrase is a stereotyped one and does not always vary in accordance with grammatical construction: cp. 1623. We find however also ‘As him which,’ iii. 1276.

791. ‘The time being appointed moreover’: an absolute use of the participle.

831. ‘trencha la gowle Hermigild’: therefore the fact that Gower and Chaucer agree in saying that he cut her throat has no special significance.

833. The reading ‘that dier,’ or ‘that diere,’ was apparently a mistake of the original copyist. It appears in all the unrevised copies of the first recension and also in B. Λ however has the corrected reading.

857. _After_, ‘In accordance with.’

880 ff. Here Chaucer follows the original more closely than Gower, as also just above, ‘him smoot upon the nekke boon.’ The words of the miraculous voice are given in Latin by Trivet, ‘Aduersus filiam matris ecclesie ponebas scandalum: hoc fecisti et tacui’ (‘et non tacui’ Rawl. Stockh.). Chaucer has (B 674 ff.),

‘And seyde, “Thou hast desclaundred gilteles
The doughter of holy chirche in heigh presence:
Thus hastou doon and yet holde I my pees.”’

895. This line occurs several times, e.g. i. 2106, ii. 2670.

905. _Lucie_, apparently to be pronounced ‘Lucíe.’ Such names usually appear either in the Latin forms ‘Lucius,’ ‘Tiberius,’ ‘Claudius,’ ‘Virginius,’ or with accent on the antepenultimate syllable ‘Tibérie,’ ‘Mercúrie,’ the ‘i’ not being counted as a syllable.

947. What the right name really is we can hardly say for certain. The printed text of the French gives ‘Domulde’ or ‘Domilde,’ the Rawlinson MS. has ‘Downilde,’ and Chaucer makes it ‘Donegild.’

964. _which is of faierie._ In the French book the letter states that the queen has been transformed since the king’s departure into the likeness of another creature and is an evil spirit in woman’s form.

994 f. ‘comaunda qe sanz nul countredit feissent sa femme sauvement garder’ f. 34 v^o.

1001. I punctuate after ‘Knaresburgh’ on the authority of F.

1010. The manuscript has a stop after ‘drunke’ and this seems best.

1020. Here we have apparently one of the original corruptions of the author’s text.

1046 ff. The original has only ‘grant duel et grant dolour demeneient.’

1081. _To rocke with_: cp. i. 452.

1110. _if sche him daunger make_, ‘if she resist his desire’: see note on i. 2443.

1123. _menable_: see note on i. 1067.

1132. _er it be falle And hath_ &c.; that is, ‘until it be so come that it hath,’ &c.

1152. _scholden_: note the plural verb after ‘I forth with my litel Sone’: cp. 736.

1163. Trivet adds ‘qar issit l’apelerent les Sessoneis’ f. 35 v^o.

1164. _for noght he preide_ &c., ‘for none of his prayers to be told,’ &c.

1173. The stop after ‘Romeward’ is on the authority of F, with which A agrees. We can say either, ‘He was coming from Barbarie towards Rome, and was going home,’ or ‘He was coming from Barbarie, and was going home towards Rome’; but the latter perhaps is the more natural.

1191. _made sche no chiere._ This must mean here, ‘she gave no outward sign of her thought.’ Usually ‘to make cheer’ means to be cheerful.

1243. _what child that were_, subjunctive in indirect question: cp. 1943, iii. 708, 771, &c. See note on Prol. 41.

1259. _alle well_: ‘wel’ seems to be a substantive.

1275. _as seith the bok._ The ‘book’ only says ‘ia tut enflammé de ire.’

1285. _I schal be venged_: cp. v. 6766. The first and second recensions have ‘It schal.’

1300. _was after sunge._ The French book does not say this. It seems probable that Gower was acquainted with ballads on the subject, such as that of _Emaré_, printed in Ritson’s _Metrical Romances_, ii. 204 ff. It is to be noted that _Emaré_ is taken from a Breton lay:

‘Thys ys of Brytayne layes,
That was used by olde dayes
Men callys playn the garye.’

1317. According to Trivet he came especially to get absolution for having killed his mother, and Chaucer follows him here.

1329. _In help to ben his herbergour._ This seems to mean that the question was asked with a view to helping to provide a lodging for the king. The expression is rather obscure however.

1351. _seknesse of the See._ This is absurd here, but not so in the original story. Constance attributes her weakness to the effects produced by her long wanderings at sea, ‘se acundut par feblesce de sa cervele que lui avint en la mere’ f. 36.

1369. _sihe_, subjunctive, ‘so that the king might see him.’

1381 f. Cp. viii. 1702 ff.

1393. ‘a ship which was,’ cp. i. 10.

1405 f. See note on 1163. Trivet speaks here only of the name of Moris.

1423 f. Gower’s more usual form would be, ‘Desireth not the heaven so much, that he ne longeth more,’ as i. 718, &c.

1464 ff. The connexion of this remark is clearer in the original story, which says that Constance told her husband, if the Emperor should refuse his prayer, to ask ‘pur l’amur q’il avoit al alme sa fille Constaunce’; because she knew that he denied no one who prayed in this form.

1586 ff. _after that_, ‘according as’: cp. Prol. 544, iii. 1074. The book says in fact with much apparent accuracy that Alla died nine months after his return, that Constance returned to Rome half a year after, ‘pur la novele qe ele oit de la maladie son pere,’ that on the thirteenth day after her arrival the Emperor died in the arms of his daughter, and she followed him in a year, the date being St. Clement’s day of the year 585. It is further stated that Elda, who had accompanied Constance to Rome, died at Tours on his way back to England.

1599. _the wel meninge of love._ In spite of the variations there can hardly be a doubt about the true reading here. The word is clearly ‘meninge’ both in F and S, and the change to ‘whel’ was suggested no doubt by the misreading ‘meuinge.’ For the expression cp. iii. 599, ‘To love and to his welwillinge.’

1613 ff. Gower apparently pieced together this story of Demetrius and Perseus from several sources, for it does not seem to occur in any single authority precisely as he gives it. The first part, which has to do with the false accusation brought against Demetrius and its consequences, agrees with the account given in Justin, _Epitome_, lib. xxxii. The story of the daughter of Paulus Emilius and her little dog is told by Valerius Maximus, _Mem._ i. 5. 3. Finally, the details of the defeat of Perseus seem to be taken from the account of a catastrophe which about the same time befell the Basternae, a Thracian tribe allied with Perseus, who according to Orosius (iv. 20), when crossing the Danube in winter with large numbers of men and horses, were almost annihilated by the breaking of the ice. The same author mentions that after the defeat and capture of Perseus his son exercised the craft of a brass-worker at Rome.

It is possible of course that Gower had before him some single account in which these elements were already combined. In Vincent of Beauvais, _Speculum Hist._ v. 65 f., we find first the catastrophe of the Basternae, taken from Orosius, then the Macedonian war from Justin and Orosius, with the incident of the dog inserted from Valerius.

1631 (margin). _testibus que iudicibus_, ‘witnesses and judges,’ a common use of the conjunction in Gower’s Latin: cp. ‘Celsior est Aquila que Leone ferocior,’ _Latin Verses after_ i. 574.

1633. _dorst_, so here in the best MSS. for ‘dorste.’

1711. _apparant_, for ‘heir apparant,’ which was the original reading of the first recension: cp. _Mirour_, 5580,

‘Car d’autre bien n’est apparant.’

1723. _livende his father_: for this absolute use cp. 752.

1757. _upon depos_, that is, having his power given to him as a temporary charge. See the examples in the _New Engl. Dict._

1778. _And he._ ‘As he’ is an error which crept into the third recension. The interchange of ‘As’ with ‘And’ in Gower MSS. is very common.

1793 f. ‘For such an omen of an hound was most like to him,’ the words being transposed for the sake of the metre.

1799. _do slain._ This is apparently past participle by attraction for infinitive: cp. i. 3153, iv. 249, 816.

1817 ff. This incident is not related of the army of Perseus in any history, so far as I know: see note on 1613.

_Latin Verses._ iv. 7 f. As punctuated in F the couplet runs,

‘Quod patet esse fides in eo, fraus est que politi
Principium pacti, finis habere negat.’

This does not seem to give any sense. The text may be translated thus: ‘What appears to be faith in him is in fact fraud, and the end of the smooth covenant disowns the beginning’ (_lit._ ‘denies that it has the beginning’).

1921. _it scheweth_, ‘there appeareth’: cp. iii. 809.

1943. _how it were_: subjunctive of indirect question; cp. 1243.

1950. _of love, and._ The punctuation is that of F.

2016. _byme_: see note on i. 232.

2018. _For this I weene_, ‘the other cause is because I ween,’ &c.

2025. _Forwhy and_, ‘provided that’: the same line occurs again in v. 2563. Compare the use of ‘for why that’ in _Le Morte Arth._ 389 (Roxb.), ‘Thou shalt haue yiftis good, For why þat thou wilte dwelle wyth me,’ quoted in the _New Engl. Dict._

2066. _of his oghne hed._ It may be questioned whether ‘hed’ is not here from an O. E. ‘*hǣd,’ a collateral form of ‘hád,’ like the termination ‘-hed’ for ‘-hod.’ See _New Engl. Dict._, ‘hede.’ In that case, ‘of his oghne hed’ would mean ‘about his own condition.’ The rhyme with ‘red’ is no guide to us.

2071. _Bot hield_, i.e. ‘But I held’; see note on i. 1895.

2098 ff. With this attack on the Lombards compare _Mirour de l’omme_, 25429 ff. It is the usual popular jealousy of foreign rivals in trade.

2122. _Fa crere_, ‘make-believe,’ the art by which they acquired credit in business. The form ‘crere’ is used in Gower’s French, e. g. _Mirour_, 4474.

2124. _hem stant no doute_, ‘they have no fear,’ ‘they are sure’: cp. iii. 1524, v. 7244. In v. 2118, ‘which stant of him no doute,’ we have a somewhat different form of the expression: cp. iii. 2536.

2157 ff. The story is mainly taken from Ovid, _Metam._ ix. 101 ff., but probably Gower was acquainted also with the epistle, _Deianira Herculi_, and he has (naturally enough) supposed that what is there said of Hercules and Omphale, the exchange of clothes &c., referred to the relations of Hercules and Iole: see 2268 ff. ‘The kinges dowhter of Eurice’ is no doubt derived from the expression ‘Eurytidosque Ioles’: cp. _Traitié_, vii. 2. Ovid’s account of the death of Hercules is very much shortened by our author, and not without good reason.

2160. That is, ‘it befell him to desire,’ &c.

2297. Ovid, _Met._ ix. 229 ff.

2299. _al of_: so the first and second recension copies generally, and also W. The sense seems to require it, rather than ‘of al,’ given by FH₃.

2341. _his slyh compas_: a clear case of the loss of inflexion in the adjective, notwithstanding that it is a native English stem. The same word occurs in the definite form in l. 2374 ‘with his slyhe cast.’

2346. _chalk for chese_: cp. Prol. 416.

2366. _axeth no felawe_, ‘requires none to share it.’

2392. The metre requires the form ‘bote,’ which is etymologically correct, and is given in the best MSS.

2403. _Me roghte noght_: pret. subjunctive, ‘I should not care.’

2423. _I wolde_: cp. iii. 78. We should expect the negative ‘I nolde,’ as in i. 2750 f.,

‘I wol noght say
That I nam glad on other side.’

The conditional clause thrown in has broken the thread of the sentence.

2430. _tant ne quant_: so _Mirour de l’omme_, 3654, 23358.

2437. _A man to ben_, cp. vi. 57.

2447. _in a wayt_: so given by the best copies, cp. 2999, but ‘upon await’ iii. 955, 1016.

2451 ff. In the MSS. the paragraph is marked as beginning with the next line, ‘At Troie how that,’ the line before being insignificant. As to the first story referred to in the text, Gower may have known it from Hyginus (_Fab._ cvi), or from Ovid, _Her. Ep._ iii. The example of Diomede and Troilus had been popularized by Chaucer, who had the name ‘Criseide’ from Boccaccio’s ‘Griseida.’ In Benoît and Guido the name is ‘Briseida,’ but Boccaccio was aware that Briseis was a different person (_Gen. Deorum_, xii. 52).

2459 ff. The name Geta was taken by Gower from the Geta of Vitalis Blesensis, a dramatic piece in Latin elegiacs founded on Plautus, in which Geta takes the place of Sosia: see Wright’s Early Mysteries, &c., pp. 79-90. It may be suspected that our author himself modified the story in order to make it more suitable for his purpose by substituting a mortal friend for Jupiter. We may note that he has also reversed the part played by Amphitryon.

2501 ff. I cannot indicate the source of this tale.

2537. _As thei._ The sense seems to require this reading, which is found however in only two MSS., so far as I know, and those not the best. It appears as a correction in Berthelet’s second edition.

2550. _which that him beclipte._ Either this means ‘who was encompassing him,’ that is pressing upon his borders, referring to the Caliph of Egypt, or ‘which encircled his territory,’ referring to what follows, ‘in a Marche costeiant.’ In the latter case we should have a very bold inversion of clauses for the sake of rhyme, but hardly more so than in 709 ff.

2558. _unto Kaire._ It is evident that the author conceives this as the capital not of Egypt but of Persia: cp. 2648.

2578. _hair._ The form of the word is accommodated to the rhyme: so iv. 1252.

2642. _Upon hire oth_ &c., inverted order, ‘how it was a token that she should be his wife upon her oath,’ i.e. in accordance with her oath.

2670. The same line occurs also i. 2106, ii. 895.

2680. _tome_, i.e. ‘leisure,’ ‘opportunity,’ from the adjective ‘tom,’ empty. The reading ‘come’ is due probably to the misunderstanding of a rather unusual word, but the rhyme ‘Rome: come’ (past partic.) is not an admissible one (cp. K. Fahrenburg in _Archiv für neuere Sprachen_, vol. 89, p. 406, who of course is not aware of the corruption).

2803. The account of Boniface VIII which was most current in England is that which we find given in Rishanger’s Chronicle and repeated by Higden and Walsingham. It is as follows, under the year 1294:--

_Papa cedit._

‘Coelestinus Papa se minus sufficientem ad regendam Ecclesiam sentiens, de consilio Benedicti Gaietani cessit Papatui, edita prius constitutione super cessione Pontificum Romanorum.

_Supplantatio Papae._

‘In vigilia Natalis Domini apud Neapolim in Papam eligitur Benedictus Gaietanus.... De quo praedecessor eius Coelestinus, vir vitae anachoriticae, eo quod eum ad cedendum Papatui subdole induxisset, prophetavit in hunc modum, prout fertur: “Ascendisti ut vulpes, regnabis ut leo, morieris ut canis.” Et ita sane contigit; nam ipsum Papam ut Papatui cederet et ut Papa quilibet cedere posset, constitutionem edere fecit; quam quidem postmodum ipsemet Papa effectus revocavit. Deinde rigide regens generosos quosdam de Columpna Cardinales deposuit; Regi Francorum in multis non solum obstitit, sed eum totis viribus deponere insudavit. Igitur Senescallus Franciae, Willelmus de Longareto, vir quidem in agibilibus admodum circumspectus, et fratres de Columpna praedicti, foederatis viribus Bonifacium Papam comprehenderunt et in equum effrenem, versa facie ad caudam, sine freno posuerunt; quem sic discurrere ad novissimum halitum coegerunt, ac tandem fame necaverunt.’

It remains to be asked where Gower found the story of the speaking-trumpet by means of which Celestin was moved to his abdication, why he supposed that the capture of Boniface took place near Avignon, and whence came such additional details as we have in l. 3028.

As to the first, it was certainly a current story, because we find it repeated by later writers, as Paulus Langius, _Chron. Citiz._, ann. 1294, ‘Per fistulam etiam frequentius noctu in cubili per parietem missam, velut coelica vox esset, loquebatur ei: “Celestine, Celestine, renuncia papatui, quia aliter saluari non poteris, nam vires tuas excedit.”’

As to the death of Boniface, it was commonly reported that he had been starved in prison, the fact being that after the episode of his captivity he refused to take food, and the biting of his hands was observed as a symptom of extreme vexation, ‘saepe caput muro concussit et digitos momordit,’ ‘per plures dies ira feruidus manus sibi arrodere videbatur,’ &c. Ciacon. _Vita Pont._ p. 655.

2837 f. cp. Prol. 329.

2875. _of such prolacioun_,’with so prolonged a note.’

2889. _hedde_: cp. v. 1254.

2966. _Lowyz._ This of course is a mistake historically.

2985. _And seiden._ For omission of pronoun cp. i. 1895.

2995. _de Langharet._ We find this form of the name, or something equivalent, in the English Chronicles quoted, and also in Villani. The true name was apparently ‘de Nogaret.’

3001. _at Avinoun._ This is quite unhistorical, and the precise mention of ‘Pontsorge’ (or as our author first wrote it, ‘Poursorge’) seems to point to the use of some particular form of the story, which cannot at present be indicated.

3033 ff. This saying is sometimes given in the form of a prophecy, and attributed to the predecessor of Boniface, whose resignation he was said to have procured: see the passage quoted on l. 2803.

3037. _to the houndes like_, ‘after the likeness of the hound’: cp. i. 2791, ‘to his liche.’ The form ‘like’ would hardly be admissible here as an adjective for ‘lik.’

3056. This prophecy no doubt was current among the many attributed to the Abbot Joachim, but I do not find it exactly in the form here given. The quotation of it in the margin of F is in a different hand from that of the text and of the heading ‘Nota de prophecia’ &c. The omission of the Latin altogether in some manuscripts, as AdT, W, has no special significance for this passage.

3081 f. ‘He shall not be able to abstain from hindering him.’

3095. This saying, which is here attributed to Seneca, and which appears also in the _Mirour de l’omme_ in a slightly different form, 3831 ff., may be based really upon the well-known passage of Dante, _Inf._ xiii. 64.

_Latin Verses._ vi. 4. _Dumque_, for ‘Dum,’ as sometimes in the _Vox Clamantis_.

_ethnica flamma_: see note on l. 20.

3122 ff. Cp. _Mirour_, 3819 ff.

3160. See note on i. 232.

3187. The Latin books referred to are the current lives of Saint Silvester, the substance of which is reproduced in the _Legenda Aurea_. Gower tells the story in considerably better style than we have it there, with amplifications of his own, especially as regards the reflections of Constantine, 3243 ff., and the preaching of Silvester to the Emperor, 3383 ff. There are some variations in detail from the current account which may or may not point to a special source. For example, in the Life of Silvester we are told that the Emperor met the lamenting mothers as he was riding up to the Capitol to take his bath of blood, and in all forms of the legend that I have seen the mountain where Silvester lay in hiding was Soracte (or Saraptis) and not Celion. The name may however have been altered by Gower for metrical reasons, as was sometimes his habit; see note on i. 1407 (end).

3210. _of Accidence._ ‘Accidentia’ in its medical sense is explained as ‘affectus praeter naturam’: cp. v. 763.

3243 ff. These reflections, continued to l. 3300, are an expanded and improved form of the rather tasteless string of maxims given in the legend, the most pointed of which is that with which our author concludes, ‘Omnium se esse dominum comprobat, qui servum se monstraverit pietatis.’

3260. _his oghne wone._ This appears to mean ‘according to his own habits,’ like ‘his oghne hondes’ (i. 1427), ‘his oghne mouth’ (v. 5455), for ‘with his own hands,’ &c.

3507. _vertu sovereine_: a clear case of the French feminine inflexion, which must have been a very natural variation in such expressions as this; cp. i. 2677. In French as in English our author would feel at liberty to adapt the form to the rhyme or metre: so we have ‘sa joye soverein’ _Mir._ 4810, but ‘ma sovereine joie’ _Bal._ ix. 7.

3517. _betwen ous tweie_, i.e. ‘together’; cp. l. 653.

LIB. III.

4. _ther nis on._ Note the repetition of the negative from the clause above.

71. _the leng the ferre_, i.e. ‘the lengere the ferre.’

78. _mihte I_, for ‘ne mihte I’: cp. ii. 2423.

83. _redy to wraththe_: cp. ii. 3444, ‘redi to the feith.’

143 ff. The story is from Ovid, _Her. Ep._ xi. It is that which is referred to by Chaucer, _Cant. Tales_, B 77,

‘But certeinly no word ne writeth he
Of thilke wikke ensample of Canacee,
That loved hir owene brother synfully.’

(Note that the name ‘Canace’ is used by Gower so as to rhyme with ‘place.’)

In spite of the character of the subject, it must be allowed that Gower tells the story in a very touching manner, and he shows good taste in omitting some of Ovid’s details, as for example those in _Ep._ 39-44. The appeal of Canace to her father as given by Gower is original, and so for the most part is the letter to her brother and the picturesque and pathetic scene of her death. On the whole this must be regarded as a case in which our author has greatly improved upon his authority. Lydgate obviously has Gower’s story before him when he introduces the tale (quite needlessly) into his _Fall of Princes_. It may be noted that in Ovid also the catastrophe is given as a consequence of ungoverned anger:

‘Imperat, heu! ventis, tumidae non imperat irae.’

172. _lawe positif_: see note on Prol. 247. Gower’s view is that there is nothing naturally immoral about an incestuous marriage, but that it is made wrong by the ‘lex positiva’ of the Church. This position he makes clear at the beginning of the eighth book, by showing that in the first ages of the world such marriages must have been sanctioned by divine authority, and that the idea of kinship as a bar to marriage had grown up gradually, cousins being allowed to marry among the Jews, though brother and sister might not, and that finally the Church had ordered,

‘That non schal wedden of his ken
Ne the seconde ne the thridde.’ viii. 147 f.

If attacked by Chaucer with regard to the subject of this story, he would no doubt defend himself by arguing that the vice with which it dealt was not against nature, and that the erring brother and sister were in truth far more deserving of sympathy than the father who took such cruel vengeance. Notwithstanding his general strictness in matters of morality, Gower was something of a fatalist, cp. the recurring phrases of 1222, 1348, 1677, iv. 1524, &c., and he repeatedly emphasizes the irresistible character of the impulses of nature in love; cp. i. 17 ff., 1051 ff., 2621, vi. 1261 ff., and here l. 161 (margin), ‘intollerabilem iuuentutis concupiscenciam.’

219. ‘the child which was,’ cp. i. 10.

253 f. Ovid, _Her. Ep._ xi. 96,

‘Et iubet ex merito scire quid iste velit.’

279 ff. This letter is for the most part original. That which we have in Ovid is mainly narrative.

292. _If that_ &c. The point of this as it occurs in Ovid depends upon the fact that her child has already been exposed and, as she conceives, torn by wild beasts, and she entreats her brother if possible to collect his remains and lay them by her,--a very natural and pathetic request. Gower has chosen for the sake of picturesque effect in this scene to make the exposure of the child come after the death of the mother, and he should therefore perhaps have omitted the reference to the child’s burial.

300 f. Ovid, _Her. Ep._ xi. 3, 4,

‘Dextra tenet calamum, strictum tenet altera ferrum,
Et iacet in gremio charta soluta meo.’

315. The word ‘baskleth’ is perhaps a genuine alternative reading.

331. ‘Of such a thing done as that was.’ We must not be tempted by the correction ‘tho’ for ‘that.’

352. A fatalistic maxim which is often repeated, e.g. i. 1714, ‘nede he mot that nede schal.’

355. The revision of this line for the third recension may indicate a preference for throwing back the accent of ‘nature’ in the English fashion: so ii. 1376, but ‘natúre’ ll. 175, 350.

361 ff. This is from Ovid, _Met._ iii. 324 ff. Gower has chosen to omit the sequel of the story, which was that after seven years Tiresias saw the same snakes again, and by striking them a second time recovered his former sex. This being so, he is obliged to make a separate story (736 ff.) of the dispute between Jupiter and Juno, which gave Ovid occasion for mentioning the incident of the snakes.

382. _Wherof_,’ In regard to which.’

390. _menable_, ‘apt to be led’; see note on i. 1067. For the variations of reading cp. ii. 1599, and below, 519.

417. ‘Cheste’ is that form of contention which expresses itself in angry words. Gower seems to have taken it to be connected with the verb ‘chide,’ see 443, 492, 534, 552 ff.

431. Cp. _Mirour_, 4146 ff.,

‘ly sage auci
Ce dist, que deinz le cuer de luy
Folie buylle tresparmy,
Comme du fontaine la liquour.’

The reference is to Proverbs xv. 2, ‘os fatuorum ebullit stultitiam.’

436. _oppose_, ‘inquire.’

463 ff. See note on the Latin verses at the beginning of the Prologue, 5 f.

479. That is, rather than sing such a creed, I would choose to be unlearned and know no creed at all.

487. _Upon hirself_, i.e. upon her authority.

515. _balketh._ A ‘balk’ is a ridge left unploughed, and ‘to balk’ in ploughing is to leave a ridge either between two furrows or in the furrow itself, the plough being permitted to pass over a piece of ground without breaking it. Here it is referred to as an accident arising either from not ploughing straight or not keeping the ploughshare regularly at the proper depth. From this idea of leaving out something come most of the other meanings of the verb: see _New Engl. Dict._

544. _Hire oghte noght be._ For this impersonal use with the simple infinitive cp. 704.

545. _For I_, i.e. ‘For that I’: cp. 820, &c.

585. This expression, which Pauli for some reason calls an ‘obscene proverb,’ seems to be nearly equivalent to the saying about the bird that fouls his own nest (cp. _Mirour_, 23413), and refers apparently to recriminations between the owl and the stock upon which he sits, on the matter of cleanliness. The application is to the case of the man who quarrels with his own performances, and naturally has the worst of it himself.

626. ‘World’ seems to be the true reading here, though ‘word’ stood in the earlier form of text. The meaning is ‘that state of things shall never be permitted by me.’ The use of ‘world’ is like that which we have in i. 178, where ‘mi world’ means ‘my condition’: cp. Prol. 383, 1081. The verb ‘asterte’ is used in the sense of escaping notice and so being allowed to pass or to happen: cp. i. 1934,

‘Bot that ne schal me noght asterte,
To wene forto be worthi,’ &c.

Cp. i. 722.

The expression ‘that word schal me nevere asterte’ is a more ordinary one (and therefore more likely to have been introduced by a copyist), but it gives no satisfactory sense here.

641 ff. The story was a hackneyed one, and occurs in many places. It is shortly told by Jerome, _Adv. Jovin._ i. 48.

665. _what labour that sche toke._ The verb is subjunctive, either because the form of speech is indirect, cp. 708, or because the expression is indefinite.

699. Cp. _Mirour_, 4185 ff., where after telling the same story the author roundly declares that he shall not follow the example.

704. _Him oghte ... bere_: cp. 544, 1666.

708. _how that it stode_: subjunctive of indirect speech, under rhyme influence: cp. ii. 1243 and l. 771 below, and see note on Prol. 41.

736. _Met._ iii. 316 ff. We have here the rest of the story which was referred to above, 361 ff. The point of the incident as told by Ovid is (perhaps purposely) missed by Gower, who does not mention the reason why Tiresias was selected as judge.

737. That is, according to the religious belief which then prevailed.

762. ‘And yet the other state would have pleased him better, to have had’ &c.

771. _what he mene_: for the subjunctive cp. 708.

782. _of olde ensample_: for ‘olde’ in this expression cp. 1683; but ‘of old time,’ i. 1072, ‘an old ensample,’ iv. 75.

783. This is from Ovid, _Met._ ii. 542 ff. The Cornide of Gower’s story is Coronis. The story is told at greater length by Chaucer as the _Manciple’s Tale_.

818 ff. From Ovid, _Fasti_, ii. 585 ff.

889. _fals_: see note on Prol. 221.

918. F alone gives ‘overmor,’ but it is probably what the author intended, though his first editions had the common variation ‘evermor.’ S is here defective.

957. _sleth_, ‘strikes.’

971. _who so rede_: subjunctive because indefinite; cp. 2508 and note on Prol. 460.

973 ff. This story may be found in Benoît’s _Roman de Troie_, 27551 ff. and in Guido, lib. 32 (n 3 v^o, ed. Argent.). We must note however that for the classical Nauplius we find in Gower ‘Namplus,’ whereas in Benoît and Guido both it is ‘Naulus’: therefore it would seem that our author had before him also some other form of the story, where he found the name ‘Nauplius’ or ‘Nauplus,’ which he read ‘Nanplus’ or ‘Namplus.’ Perhaps this may have been Hyginus, _Fab._ cxvi. Elsewhere Gower usually follows Benoît rather than Guido, but here several expressions occur which seem to be suggested by Guido’s form of the story: see notes on 1030 and 1063. Also Gower says nothing of the incident of rocks being hurled down on the Greeks (_Rom. de Troie_, 27795 ff.), which is also omitted by Guido.

1002. The name which appears here and in the Latin margin as ‘Namplus,’ with no important variation of reading, is quite clearly ‘Nauplus’ in iv. 1816 ff.

1021. _Homward_, i.e. going towards home: cp. 2451.

1030 f. _Hist. Troiana_, n 4, ‘qui necesse habebant per confinia regni sui transire.’

1036. _it sihe_, ‘might see it.’

1049. _ten or twelve._ Guido says two hundred. Benoît does not specify the number of ships, but says that ten thousand men were lost. Gower has judiciously reduced the number.

1063. Cp. _Hist. Troiana_, n 4 v^o, ‘fugiunt et se immittunt in pelagus spaciosum.’

1065. ‘what’ for ‘war,’ which appears in the unrevised form of the first recension, must be an error of the original scribe: on the other hand, ‘tyme’ for ‘dai’ proceeded no doubt originally from the author and was altered in order to make the verse run more smoothly.

_Latin Verses._ iv. 1. _et sit spiritus eius Naribus_: a reference to Isaiah ii. 22, ‘Quiescite ergo ab homine, cuius spiritus in naribus eius est.’ The same passage is quoted in _Mirour_, 4754, and it is evident there that the ‘breath in the nostrils’ was understood by our author to stand for fury of anger.

1113. _war hem wel_, ‘let them beware.’

1158. The contest in the heart between Wit and Reason on the one hand and Will and Hope on the other is quite in the style of the _Roman de la Rose_, where Reason and the Lover have an endless controversy (2983 ff.). Though the agencies are clearly personified here, the author has not assigned capital letters to their names.

1166. _out of retenue_, ‘out of my service.’

1173. _jeupartie_, ‘discord,’ one side being matched against the other. The first reading was ‘champartie,’ which may have proceeded from the author. It is clear that this word was used by Lydgate in the sense of ‘rivalry’ or ‘contest’ in the phrase ‘holde champartie,’ and this may either have come from the idea of partnership, implying division of power and so rivalry, as in Chaucer, _Cant. Tales_, A 1949, or from the legal sense, with which Gower and Lydgate would doubtless be acquainted, meaning partnership for a contentious purpose. There seems no sufficient reason for supposing (with the _New Engl. Dict._) that Lydgate’s use was founded on a misunderstanding of Chaucer.

1183. _and til._ Caxton and Berthelet both have ‘tyl that’ for ‘and til,’ and one is tempted to suggest that ‘and til’ was meant to stand for ‘until.’

1201 ff. The story of the visit of Alexander to Diogenes was a common one enough, and it is hardly worth while to investigate its source for Gower. He probably here combined various materials into one narrative, for the usual form of the story as given by Vincent of Beauvais, _Spec. Hist._ iii. 68 f., and in the _Gesta Romanorum_, does not include the conversation about the Reason and the Will. This may have been derived from Walter Burley, _De Vita Philosophorum_, cap. l., ‘Dum Alexander rex coram Diogene transiret, Diogenes tanquam illum spernens non respexit; cui dixit Alexander, “Quid est Diogenes quod me non respicis, quasi mei non indigeas?” Cui ille, “Ad quid necesse habeo servi servorum meorum?” Et Alexander, “Numquid servorum tuorum servus sum?” Ait, “Ego prevaleo cupiditatibus meis refrenans illas et subiciens mihi illas ut serviant: tibi autem cupiditates prevalent, et servus earum efficeris, earum obtemperans iussioni: servus igitur es servorum meorum.”’ Burley gives the other part of the conversation separately.

The incident of the messenger sent to inquire and of the answer which he brought back is no doubt due to Gower, as also the idea of the ‘tun’ being set on an axle and adapted for astronomical observations.

1212. The ‘dolium’ was of course popularly regarded as a wooden cask.

1222. ‘As fate would have it’: see note on 172 (end), and cp. 1442.

1224. _the Sonne ariste_, i.e. the rising of the sun: so iv. 1285, ‘and that was er the Sonne Ariste.’

1310. _to schifte_, ‘to dispose of.’ In Burley, ‘rogo ne auferas quod dare non potes.’

1331 ff. The tale of Pyramus and Thisbe is from Ovid, _Met._ iv. 55-166. Chaucer has taken it from the same source in the _Legend of Good Women_. When we compare the results, we find that in this instance it is Chaucer who has followed his authority closely, while Gower gives a paraphrase in his own language and with several variations of detail. He says, for example, that the lovers themselves made the hole in the wall through which they conversed; he omits Ninus’ tomb; he speaks of a lion, not a lioness; he says that Thisbe hid herself in a bush (not a cave), and that then the lion slew and devoured a beast before drinking at the spring; he cuts short the speech of Pyramus before killing himself; he represents that Pyramus was slain at once instead of living until Thisbe came; he invents an entirely new speech for Thisbe; and he judiciously omits, as Chaucer does also, the mention of the mulberry-tree and its transformation.

In short, Gower writes apparently from a general recollection of the story, while Chaucer evidently has his Ovid before him and endeavours to translate almost every phrase, showing thereby his good taste, for Ovid tells the story well.