Chapter D: CAMB. UNIV. Dd. viii. 19 (Bern. Cat. ii. 9653). Confessio Amantis (21)

The following points in Ovid (among others) are reproduced by Chaucer and not by Gower: l. 56, ‘quas Oriens habuit’; 58, ‘Coctilibus muris’; 59, ‘Notitiam primosque gradus vicinia fecit’ (which Chaucer misunderstands, however); 62, ‘Ex aequo captis ’ &c.; 64, ‘Quoque magis tegitur, tectus magis aestuat ignis’; 65, ‘Fissus erat tenui rima,’ &c.; 68, ‘Quid non sentit amor?’; 73-77, the speeches of the lovers to the wall; 81 f., ‘Postera nocturnos aurora’ &c.; 85, ‘Fallere custodes’; 87, ‘Neve sit errandum’ &c.; 94, ‘adopertaque vultum’; 97, ‘leaena’; 99, ‘ad lunae radios’; 100, ‘in antrum’; 105, ‘vestigia vidit in alto Pulvere’ &c.; 108, ‘Una duos nox, inquit, perdet amantes,’ and the rest of this speech; 117 f., ‘Utque dedit notae lacrimas,’ &c.; 122, ‘Non aliter quam cum vitiato fistula plumbo Scinditur’; 130, ‘Quantaque vitarit narrare pericula gestit’; 133, ‘tremebunda videt pulsare cruentum Membra solum’; 134 f., ‘oraque buxo’ &c.; 140, ‘Vulnera supplevit’ &c.; 145, ‘oculos iam morte gravatos’; 148 ff., the speech of Thisbe, except the reference to the mulberry-tree.

Gower’s rendering of the story is inferior to that of Chaucer, as might be expected, but nevertheless it is simple and pathetic. It has even some points of superiority, as 1386 f., the passage of Thisbe through the town at night; 1400, ‘with his blodi snoute’; 1411, the terror of Thisbe when concealed in the bush; and finally 1486 ff., where instead of deliberately resolving on death and inflicting it with calm resolution, she is more naturally represented as overcome by a sudden impulse in the midst of her mourning and killing herself almost without consciousness of what she did.

1348. _as it scholde be_: cp. 1222, ‘As thing which scholde so betyde.’

1356. All the best copies have ‘miht’ or ‘might’ here: cp. 1440. The distinction, however, between ‘miht’ (= mayest) and ‘mihte’ is usually well preserved by our author.

1394. _In haste and_: so ll. 1396, 1415. On the other hand, in 1430 we have a stop after ‘folhaste’ (in F), while 1447 remains doubtful.

1442. _as it schal betide_, cp. 1222.

1448. _For sche_, a reference to the ‘folhaste’ of the previous line. It was his haste that destroyed him, for if he had waited but a little he would have seen her come.

1466 f. ‘If it be only by this mishap which has befallen my love and me together.’ For the use of ‘betwen’ see note on ii. 653. The position of ‘Only’ is affected by metrical requirements: see note on ii. 709.

1473. _oure herte bothe_, ‘the hearts of us both.’ The singular ‘herte’ is given by the best copies of each recension.

1496. _Bewar_: thus written several times in F, e.g. 1738. Here A also has ‘Bewar.’

1524. _him stant of me no fere_: cp. ii. 2124.

1537. _Daunger_: see note on i. 2443.

1593 ff. The construction of the sentence is interrupted, but the sense is clear: ‘For if I, who have given all my will and wit to her service, should in reward thereof be suffered to die, it would be pity.’ For this kind of irregularity cp. i. 98, 2948, &c.

1605. The reading ‘in such,’ though given by both S and F, must be wrong.

1630. _overthrewe._ The verb no doubt is intransitive, as often, e.g. i. 1886, 1962, and below, l. 1638.

1666. _him oghte have be_: cp. 704.

1685 ff. Ovid, _Met._ i. 453-567. Gower cuts the story short.

1701. Ovid, _Met._ i. 470,

‘Quod facit auratum est et cuspide fulget acuta.’

(Merkel alters ‘auratum’ to ‘hamatum,’ but this is certainly wrong.)

1704. Note that the final syllable of ‘Daphne’ is subject to elision here and in 1716: so ‘Progne’ v. 5574, &c.

1718 ff. The suggestion is Gower’s own, as in other similar cases, e.g. i. 2355.

1743. ‘And it is to be desired that a man,’ &c.

1757 ff. This story is chiefly from Benoît, _Roman de Troie_, 28025 ff. Guido omits many details which are given by Gower. Note that in l. 28025, where Joly’s edition has ‘Samas,’ Guido and Gower both have ‘Athemas.’ Our author has treated his materials freely and tells the story at greater length. The speech which he assigns to Nestor is for the most part original.

1885 ff. The tale of Orestes is from Benoît de Sainte-More, _Rom. de Troie_, 27925-27990, 28155-28283, and 28339-28402. Guido omits the visit of Orestes to Athens to obtain help for his expedition, the portion of the oracle which bad him tear away his mother’s breasts, and the name of Menetius (or Menesteus), who defended Orestes, and Gower’s details are in general more in accordance with those of Benoît. A few exceptions may be found, however. For example, Gower says that Agamemnon was murdered as he lay in bed (1915), Guido, ‘dum suo soporatus dormiret in lecto,’ but Benoît only, ‘L’ont la premiere nuit ocis.’ Again, Guido calls Idomeneus ‘consanguineum eius,’ and Gower says, ‘So as he was of his lignage,’ of which Benoît says nothing. No doubt Gower was acquainted with both, and preferred the French because he perceived it to be better.

1911. ‘To set her love in place where it cannot be secure.’

2022 f. _Cropheon ... Phoieus._ The names are given as ‘Trofion’ and ‘Florentes’ by Benoît (Joly’s text), ‘Troiesem’ (‘Croeze’ MS.) and ‘Forensis’ by Guido. They are originally derived from a misunderstanding of a passage in Dictys, _Bell. Troi._ vi. 3, ‘armatus cum praedicta manu ad Strophium venit: is namque Phocensis, cuius filia,’ &c.

2055 ff. This speech is introduced by Gower.

2112 f.

‘Li un dient qu’il a fet dreit,
Et li autre que non aveit.’

_Rom. de Troie_, 28275.

2145. _Menesteüs._ This is a more correct form of the name than the ‘Menetius,’ which we have in Joly’s text of Benoît.

2148. _of the goddes bede._ Here we perhaps have Guido rather than Benoît.

2173. _Egiona._ The name is properly Erigona, and so it is given by Benoît. The moralization on her fate, 2183 ff., is due to our author, and it is rather out of place, considering the circumstances of the story.

2346. _the trew man._ In F we have ‘trew,’ altered apparently from ‘trewe,’ which is the usual and the more correct form: ‘the trew man to the plowh’ means the labourer who truly serves the plough.

2358. This is simply a repetition of 2355, ‘thei stonde of on acord.’ ‘As of corage’ means as regards their feeling or inclination: for this use of ‘as’ cp. Prol. 492, i. 557, &c.

2363 ff. A very common story, found shortly in Augustine, _Civ. Dei_, iv. 4, and repeated in the _Gesta Romanorum_ and many other books. Gower has expanded it after his own fashion.

2424 f. ‘that men set their hearts to make gain by such wrong doing.’

2451. _homward_, i.e. ‘going homeward.’ The word included something of a verbal sense, as we see in i. 938, iii. 1021: so also ‘toward’ in l. 2643.

2458. _the world mistimed._ The verb ‘mistime’ means properly ‘to happen amiss,’ with the suggestion that it is by the fault of the person concerned. Gower uses it here transitively for ‘to manage amiss,’ while in vi. 4 ‘was mystymed’ means ‘came unhappily about.’

2508. _what man ... rede_: for the subjunctive see note on Prol. 460.

2536. ‘Hardly have any fear’: see note on ii. 2124.

2555. Acastus was king of Iolcos. He purified Peleus, as some say of the murder of Eurytion, but according to others of that of Phocus: cp. Bocc. _Gen. Deorum_, xii. 50, ‘ad Magnetas abiit, ubi ab Achasto fraterna caede purgatus est.’

2563 f. Alcmaeon, son of Amphiaraus, was purified by Achelous, whom our author here takes for a priest.

2599 ff. This anecdote is told also in the _Mirour_, 5029-5040, and there also it is ascribed to Solinus. I do not find it, however, in his book.

2608 ff. For the irregularity of this sentence cp. 1593 ff.

2639 ff. The story is taken from Benoît _(Rom. de Troie_, 6497-6590), as we may see at once from the name ‘Theucer,’ which Guido gives rather more correctly as ‘Theutran.’ Also ll. 2674-2680, _Roman de Troie_, 6545-6553, have nothing corresponding to them in Guido. Guido here certainly referred to a copy of the so-called Dares, where the name occurs in its classical form ‘Teuthras.’ He is particularly interested in the story on local grounds, being concerned to show that the ‘Messe’ which he found in Benoît might be connected with the name of his place of residence, Messina, and that the events related occurred actually in Sicily. Accordingly he speaks of certain columns popularly called ‘columns of Hercules,’ which existed in his own time in Sicily, ‘ex parte Barbarorum,’ i.e. on the south coast, and takes them as evidence of the connexion of Hercules with the island, and hence of the probability that this story (which in the original has to do with Hercules, though Gower has excluded him from it) had its scene in Sicily. Dares, he admits, says nothing of this, and his reference to Dares is here in more precise form than usual, ‘in suo codice’ according to the Bodleian MS., though the printed editions give ‘in suo opere’ (MS. Add. A. 365, f. 50 v^o).

He says of the place where these columns are, ‘qui locus dicitur adhuc columpnarum,’ and adds that the emperor Frederic II has established a town there, and that the place is now called ‘terra nova.’ This is obviously identical with the modern Terranova, founded by Frederic II near the site of the ancient Gela. It seems probable that Guido may have been himself a native of this place or of its immediate neighbourhood, and that he chose to call himself after its former designation, ‘Columpna’ or ‘Columpnae,’ instead of by the new name which had come into use during his own lifetime[AN].

2643. _His Sone._ This is a mistake on the part of Gower. Both Benoît and Guido state quite clearly that Telephus was the son of Hercules, and that it was to Hercules that the obligation was due which is referred to in 2690 ff. Perhaps the copy of the _Roman de Troie_ which Gower used had ‘Thelefus fu filz Achilles’ for ‘Thelefus fu filz Hercules,’ in l. 6506.

2756. We should rather have expected ‘That I fro you wol nothing hele.’

LIB. IV.

9. Cp. _Mirour_, 5606,

‘Lachesce dist, Demein, Demein.’

38. _Thou schalt mowe_: cp. ii. 1670, where we have ‘mow’ for ‘mowe.’

60. _a fin._ This is a French expression, which appears repeatedly in the _Mirour_ as ‘au fin.’

77 ff. The only definite indication of sources here is the reference (such as it is) to Ovid, _Her. Ep._ vii., contained in ll. 104-115.

92. _as it be scholde_, cp. iii. 1348.

104 ff. This picture seems to be constructed partly from a misreading or misunderstanding of Ovid, _Her. Ep._ vii. 1 f.,

‘Sic ubi fata vocant, udis abiectus in herbis
Ad vada Maeandri concinit albus olor.’

It is difficult to see how our author translated these lines, but the result, which must have been chiefly due to his imagination, is rather creditable to him. Chaucer gives the true sense in the _Legend of Good Women_, 1355 ff.,

‘Ryght so,’ quod she, ‘as that the white swan
Ayenst his deth begynneth for to synge.
Ryght so to yow I make my compleynynge.’

128. _such a lak of Slowthe_, ‘such a fault of Sloth.’

137. That is, to put all the slothful in mind (of their duty).

147 ff. The general idea of this is taken from the letter of Penelope to Ulysses, Ovid, _Her. Ep._ i, but this is not closely followed in details, and it will be noticed that Gower represents the letter as sent while the siege of Troy still continued, and apparently he knows nothing of the great length of the wandering afterwards: cp. 226 ff.

170. The reading ‘Had’ for ‘Hath’ is given by many MSS., including F. We find ‘Hath’ in the following, H₁C, SAdTΔ, W, and it must certainly be the true reading.

196 ff. Ovid, _Her. Ep._ i. 2, ‘Nil mihi rescribas, attamen ipse veni.’

234. Robert Grosteste’s reputation for learning in the sciences earned for him, as for his contemporary Roger Bacon, the character of a student of magic. In the metrical life of Grosteste by Robert of Bardney (Wharton, _Anglia Sacra_, i. 333) one chapter is ‘De aeneo capite quod Oxoniae fecit Grosthede ad dubia quaeque determinanda.’ This author says only that by some accident the head fell and was broken, and that its inventor thereupon abandoned the study of forbidden sciences.

Naudé in his _Apologie pour les grands hommes soupçonnez de Magie_ classes ‘Robert de Lincolne’ and Albertus Magnus together as supposed makers of speaking images, but the former only on the authority of Gower, with whom he had been made acquainted by Selden.

242 f. That is, he lost all that he had done from the time when he first began to work; an inversion of clauses for the sake of the rhyme: cp. ii. 709 ff.

249. _kept_: more properly ‘kepe,’ but the infinitive is attracted into the form of the participle ‘wold,’ much as the participle of the mood auxiliary in modern German takes the form of the infinitive: see note on ii. 1799.

305. _hadde I wist_, cp. i. 1888, ii. 473. It is the exclamation of those who fall into evil by neglect of proper precaution. The same sentiment is expressed more fully in l. 899,

‘Ha, wolde god I hadde knowe!’

345. _dar._ This form stands as plural here and l. 350.

371 ff. The story of Pygmalion is from Ovid, _Metam._ x. 243-297.

377. ‘Being destined to the labours of love’; cp. note on iii. 143 (end).

415. _how it were_, i.e. ‘how so ever it were’: cp. l. 1848.

448. _a solein tale_, ‘a strange tale.’ This word ‘solein’ (or ‘soulein’), which English etymologists in search for the origin of ‘sullen’ report as hardly to be found in French, occurs repeatedly in the _Mirour de l’omme_ in the sense of ‘alone,’ ‘lonely.’ For the meaning here assigned to it we may compare the modern use of the word ‘singular,’ which in Gower’s French meant ‘lonely.’ There is no authority for Pauli’s reading ‘solempne,’ and it gives neither sense nor metre.

451 ff. The tale of Iphis is from Ovid, _Metam._ ix. 666-797, abbreviated and altered with advantage.

453 ff. The authority of the MSS. is strongly in favour of ‘grete: lete’ in these lines, and this reading is certainly right. We must take ‘lete’ as the past participle of the strong verb ‘leten’ (from ‘lǣtan’), meaning ‘leave,’ ‘omit,’ and ‘grete’ as accommodated to the rhyme. The negative construction following rather suggests ‘let,’ meaning ‘hindered’ as ii. 128 ff., but the rhyme ‘let: gret’ would be an impossible one. See note on i. 3365 and cp. l. 1153.

585. _And stonde_, i.e. ‘And I stonde’: cp. i. 1895, &c., and below, l. 697.

624. _on miself along_, so below l. 952, ‘It is noght on mi will along,’ and Chaucer, _Troilus_, ii. 1001,

‘On me is nought along thyn yvel fare.’

The use of ‘on’ for ‘of’ in this phrase is still known in some dialects.

647 ff. For the Ring of Forgetfulness here spoken of see Petrus Comestor, _Exodus_ vi., where it is related that Moses in command of the Egyptians captured the chief city of the Ethiopians by the help of Tarbis, daughter of their king, and married her in recompense of her services. Then, wishing to return to Egypt and being detained by his wife, ‘tanquam vir peritus astrorum duas imagines sculpsit in gemmis huius efficaciae, ut altera memoriam, altera oblivionem conferret. Cumque paribus anulis eas inseruisset, alterum, scilicet oblivionis anulum, uxori praebuit, alterum ipse tulit; ut sic pari amore sic paribus anulis insignirentur. Coepit ergo mulier amoris viri oblivisci, et tandem libere in Aegyptum regressus est’ (Migne, _Patrol._ vol. 198, p. 1144). Cp. Godfr. Viterb., _Pantheon_, v. (p. 115).

731 ff. Partly from Ovid, _Her. Ep._ ii. and _Rem. Am._ 591-604; but there was probably some other source, for our author would not find anything in Ovid about the transformation into a tree. Many of the details seem to be of his own invention, and he is probably responsible for the variation which makes the visit of Demophon to Thrace take place on the way to Troy instead of on the return. Chaucer’s form of the story in the _Legend of Good Women_ is quite different.

733. F is here followed in punctuation.

776. _a Monthe day_: Ovid, _Her. Ep._ ii. 3 f.,

‘Cornua cum lunae pleno semel orbe coissent,
Litoribus nostris ancora pacta tua est.’

782. Cp. Ovid, _Ars Am._ ii. 354,

‘Exarsit velis acrius illa datis.’

787 ff. Except the idea of a letter being sent, Gower takes little here from Ovid.

816 ff. This passage seems mostly of Gower’s invention, partly perhaps on the suggestion of the story of Hero and Leander in Ovid, _Her. Ep._ xix. 33 ff. See Bech in _Anglia_, v. 347.

_do set up._ Apparently ‘set’ is the participle, cp. ii. 1799.

833. _al hire one._ This idea is emphasized by Ovid, _Rem. Am._ 591 f.

869. This piece of etymology is perhaps due to our author, who usually adds something of his own to the stories of transformation which he relates; see note on i. 2355. Lydgate says that Phyllis hanged herself upon a filbert-tree, but he perhaps took the notion from Gower:

‘Upon the walles depeint men myght se
Hou she was honged upon a filbert tre.’

_Temple of Glas_, 88.

See the note in Dr. Schick’s edition, E.E.T.S. 1891.

893. Cp. _Mirour_, 5436,

‘Lors est il sage apres la mein,’

of which this line is an exact reproduction.

904. _pleith an aftercast._ This looks like a metaphor from casting dice, but it is difficult to see the exact application. It means of course here that he is always too late in what he says and does.

914. _come at thin above_, i.e. attain to success: cp. _Mirour_, 25350,

‘Car lors est Triche a son dessus.’

964. See note on i. 2677.

979 ff. The story may probably enough be taken from Ovid, _Metam._ ii. 1-324, but if so it is much abbreviated.

_which is the Sonne hote_, ‘which is called the Sun’; cp. ii. 131 f. Possibly, however, ‘hote’ may be the adjective, with definite termination for the sake of the rhyme. There would be no objection to rhyming with it the adverb of the same form.

1030 ff. The moral drawn by Gower from the story of Phaeton is against going too low, that is abandoning the higher concerns of love owing to slothful negligence. The next story is against aiming too high and neglecting the due claims of service.

1035 ff. Ovid, _Metam._ viii. 183-235.

1090 f. Cp. _Mirour_, 5389 ff.

1096. _who as evere take_: so ‘what man’ is very commonly used with subjunctive, iii. 2508 &c., but the uncertainty of the construction is shown by ‘And thinkth’ in the next line. See notes on Prol. 13, 460.

1108 ff. Cp. _Mirour_, 5395 ff.

1131. A superfluous syllable, such as we have at the pause in this line, is very unusual in Gower’s verse; but cp. v. 447.

1153. _lete I ne mai_, ‘I may not neglect’: see note on i. 3365.

1180. Cp. i. 698, ‘And many a contenance he piketh.’ It means here perhaps ‘thus I keep up a pretence (for staying).’

1245 ff. A somewhat similar story to this is to be found in Andreas Capellanus, _De Amore_, to which my attention was first called by Mr. Archer. This book (written about 1220) gives imaginary colloquies between different kinds of persons, to illustrate the ways of courtship, ‘Plebeius loquitur plebeiae,’ ‘Plebeius nobili,’ ‘Nobilis plebeiae,’ ‘Nobilis nobili.’ In this last occurs the story of a squire who saw the god of love leading a great company of ladies in three bands, the first well mounted and well attended, the second well mounted but attended by so many that it was a hindrance rather than a help, and the third in wretched array with lame horses and no attendance. The meaning of the sight is explained to the squire by one of these last, and he is taken to see the appropriate rewards and punishments of each band. He relates what he has seen to his mistress in order to make her more ready to accept his suit (pp. 91-108, ed. Trojel, 1892).

There are some expressions which resemble those which Gower uses, as ‘quarum quaelibet in equo _pinguissimo_ et formoso et _suavissime ambulante_ sedebat’ (p. 92), cp. 1309 f.,

‘On faire amblende hors thei sete
That were al whyte, fatte and grete.’

And again, ‘domina quaedam ... habens equum macerrimum et turpem et tribus pedibus claudicantem,’ cp. 1343 ff. The story, however, is different in many ways from that of Gower. For other similar stories see the article in _Romania_ for January 1900 on the ‘Purgatory of Cruel Beauties’ by W. A. Neilson.

The tale of Rosiphelee is well told by Gower, and in more than one passage it bears marks of having been carefully revised by the author. The alteration of 1321 f. is peculiarly happy, and gives us one of the best couplets in the _Confessio Amantis_.

1285. _the Sonne Ariste_: cp. iii. 1224. The capital letter was perhaps intended to mark ‘Ariste’ as a substantive.

1307. _comen ryde_: cp. i. 350.

1309. ‘hors’ is evidently plural here: so i. 2036 and often.

1320. _long and smal_, i.e. tall and slender. Adjectives used predicatively with a plural subject take the plural inflection or not according to convenience. Thus in Prol. 81 we have ‘Bot for my wittes ben to smale’ in rhyme with ‘tale.’

1323. _beere._ This is pret. plur., as 1376: the same form for pret. subj. 2749.

1330. _For pure abaissht_: cp. Chaucer, _Troilus_, ii. 656, ‘And with that thought for pure ashamed she Gan in hir hed to pulle.’ The parallel, to which my attention was called by Prof. M^cCormick, suggests the idea that ‘abaissht’ is a participle rather than a noun, and the use of the past participle with ‘for’ in this manner occurs several times in Lydgate, e.g. ‘for unknowe,’ ‘meaning from ignorance,’ _Temple of Glas_, 632, ‘for astonied,’ 934, 1366, and so with an adjective, ‘for pure wood’ in the English _Rom. of the Rose_, 276. See Dr. Schick’s note on Lydgate, _Temple of Glas_, 632.

1422. _That I ne hadde_, ‘I would that I had’: cp. v. 3747,

‘Ha lord, that he ne were alonde!’

‘to late war’ is in a kind of loose apposition to the subject.

1429. _swiche._ Rather perhaps ‘swich,’ as ii. 566 f., v. 377. Most MSS. have ‘such.’

1432 ff. _warneth ... bidd._ The singular of the imperative seems to be freely interchanged with the plural in this form of address.

1454 (margin). The author dissociates himself personally from the extreme doctrines enunciated in the text, as at first he took care to remind his readers that the character of a lover was for him only an assumed one (i. 63 ff. margin).

1490. _and longe er that sche changeth_ &c. This is a puzzling sentence, and we are not helped by the punctuation of the MSS., which for the most part have a stop after ‘herte.’ I can only suppose that it means ‘and is long before she changes her heart in her youth to marriage.’ We can hardly make ‘longe’ a verb, ‘and may be eager until she changes,’ because of the lines which follow.

1505 ff. Judges xi. Our author has expanded the story so far as regards the mourning for the virginity of Jephthah’s daughter, that being the point with which he was particularly concerned here.

1516. ‘Whether it be of man or woman.’

1537 ff. In the original this is different, ‘Heu me, filia mea, decepisti me et ipsa decepta es: aperui enim os meum ad Dominum, et aliud facere non potero.’ Gower deals freely here as elsewhere with the narrative, especially in the matter of speeches.

1563. _fourty daies_: in the original ‘duobus mensibus.’

1632 ff. Cp. _Mirour_, 11694.

1649. _as me thenketh ... That_, equivalent to ‘me thinketh ... That,’ either ‘as’ or ‘That’ being redundant.

1659. The best MSS. give ‘heþen’ here, not ‘heþene.’

1693 ff. _Roman de Troie_, 18385 ff. In the medieval Tale of Troy it is the love of Polyxena which serves as motive for the withdrawal of Achilles from the war.

1723. _which I travaile fore._ We have here rather a remarkable instance of emphasis thrown on the preposition, with a modification of form for the sake of the rhyme: cp. ii. 565.

1741. _On whether bord_, i.e. on which tack: technical terms of the sea occur several times in the _Confessio Amantis_, e.g. v. 3119, 7048, viii. 1983.

1810. _made_: cp. Prol. 300.

1815 ff. Gower seems to have dealt rather freely with this story. The usual form of it gives Palamedes, not Nauplius, as the person who came to fetch Ulysses, and makes Ulysses yoke a horse and an ox together in a plough as a sign of madness: see Hyginus, _Fab._ xcv. As to the name of Nauplus, see notes on iii. 973, 1002.

1833. That is, ‘feigning to be mad,’ not ‘like one who feigns to be mad’: see note on i. 695.

1847 ff. ‘He thought to try if he were mad or no, however it might please Ulysses,’ that is, whether it pleased him or not. ‘Hou’ seems to be for ‘How so evere’: cp. l. 415.

1875. _tothe_, written so when the emphasis falls on the preposition, see note on i. 232.

1901 ff. Ovid, _Her. Ep._ xiii.

1927. F has a stop after ‘londeth,’ thus throwing the clause, ‘and was the ferste there Which londeth,’ into a parenthesis.

1935 ff. 1 Sam. xxviii., where the witch is called ‘mulier pythonem habens.’

1968 ff. The story of the education of Achilles by Chiron, as we have it here, is apparently taken, directly or indirectly, from Statius, _Achill._ ii. 121 (407) ff.,

‘Nunquam ille imbelles Ossaea per avia damas
Sectari, aut timidas passus me cuspide lyncas
Sternere, sed tristes turbare cubilibus ursos
Fulmineosque sues, et sicubi maxima tigris
Aut seducta iugis fetae spelunca leaenae.
Ipse sedens vasto facta exspectabat in antro,
Si sparsus magno remearem sanguine; nec me
Ante nisi inspectis admisit ad oscula telis.’

2014 ff. The argument is to the effect that Prowess, which is acknowledged to be the virtue opposed to Sloth, see _Mirour_, 10136 &c., must show itself partly in the spirit of warlike boldness, ‘the corage of hardiesce,’ leading to such undertakings as those of which the Lover had disputed the necessity.

2040. _And that_, i.e. ‘And as to that’: cp. Prol. 122.

2045 ff. The fight between Hercules and Achelous is related in detail by Ovid, _Metam._ ix. 31-88. Some parts of this seem to be reproduced by Gower, but the details are not very exactly copied. For the story generally he had some other authority, whence he got for example the names ‘Oënes’ and ‘Calidoyne.’

It is to be noted that Gower gives ‘Achelons’ instead of Achelous, as he does also in the _Traitié_, vii. 5, where the story is shortly told in the same way as here, and there we find ‘Achelontis’ in the margin as the genitive case. He ought to have been preserved from the mistake by the occurrence of the name in Ovid’s verse.

2054. For these two pillars cp. Chaucer, _Cant. Tales_, B 3307 f., but Gower supposes them to have been both set up in the ‘desert of India,’ ‘El grant desert d’Ynde superiour’ as he has it in _Traitié_, vii. 1, whereas according to Chaucer one was set up in the East and the other in the West, to mark the extreme bounds of the world.

2123 f. Such forms of spelling as ‘sleighte,’ ‘heighte’ are unusual with our author, but cp. vii. 1121, 1227 f.

2135. For the stories of ‘Pantasilee’ and Philemenis we may refer to the _Roman de Troie_, 23283 ff. and 25663-25704.

2200 ff. From this question arises the inevitable discussion of the nature of ‘gentilesse’ and how far it depends upon birth, riches or personal merit. Gower accepts only the last qualification, and argues for it after the fashion of John Ball, though he was neither a Lollard nor a social revolutionist: cp. _Mirour_, 23389 ff. For the general subject cp. Dante, _Convito_, iv. 10, _Roman de la Rose_, 18807 ff. (ed. Méon), Chaucer, _Cant. Tales_, D 1109, ff.

To Gower we must grant the merit of clearness and conciseness in handling the well-worn theme.

2208 f. Cp. Dante, _Convito_, iv. 3.

2305 ff. ‘And love is of profit also as regards women, so that they may be the better “affaited.”’

2314. _make it queinte_, ‘behave gently’: cp. ‘make it tough,’ Chaucer, _Troilus_, v. 101. For the meaning of ‘queinte’ see the quotations in Godefroy’s Dictionary under ‘cointe.’

2325. 1 John iii. 14.

2342. This is from Job v. 7.

2396 ff. Many of these names are unknown to me, and Warton’s conjectures on the subject are very wild, but some points may be illustrated from Godfrey of Viterbo. For example, as regards the first we find,

‘Septem quas legimus Cham primus scripserat artes.’

_Pantheon_, iii. (p. 88).

2401. Godf. Vit., _Pantheon_, vi. (p. 133), ‘Tunc Cadmus Graecas literas sedecim fecit.’

2410. _Termegis._ The word is a dissyllable for the metre. Probably this name stands for Termegistus (i.e. Trismegistus), and in that case we must throw the accent upon the final syllable and pass lightly over the preceding one.

2418 ff. I suspect that ‘Poulins’ means Apollo or Apollinis: cp. _Pantheon_, vi. (p. 133), ‘Apollo etiam citharam condidit et artem medicinalem invenit.’

2421. _Zenzis_, i.e. Zeuxis, who is referred to in the _Rom. de la Rose_ (for example) as the chief of painters, 16387 ff. (ed. Méon).

2422. Cp. Godf. Vit, _Panth._ v. (p. 121),

‘Tunc et Prometheus, qui filius est Atlantis
Dat statuas hominis humano more meantes.’

2427. ‘Jadahel’ is the Jabal (or Jebal) of the Bible (Gen. iv. 20). Godfrey of Viterbo calls him by the same name and makes the same statement about his hunting and fishing:

‘In mundo Iadahel posuit tentoria primus,
Venator prior ipse fuit feritate ferinus,
Primus et invalidis retia mersit aquis.’

_Panth._ ii. (p. 77).

2439 ff. Godf. Vit., _Panth._ iv. (p. 98),

‘Saturnus statuit super aequora vela moueri,
Denarios posuit commercia rite mereri.
. . . . . . . . . . .
Aedificans Sutrium dum vivit ibi dominatur,
Triticeum semen primus in urbe serens.’

2462 ff. For the seven bodies and four spirits of Alchemy cp. Chaucer, _Cant. Tales_, G 818 ff. Mercury, it will be noticed, is reckoned both as a body and as a spirit, but some authorities called this a spirit only and reckoned six metallic bodies.

2476. _after the bok it calleth_, ‘according as the book calls it.’

2488 ff. Cp. 2565 ff.

2501. The seven forms are those enumerated in 2513 ff., viz. distillation, congelation, solution, descension, sublimation, calcination, fixation.

2522. Cp. Chaucer, _Cant. Tales_, G 862 f.

2533. _Thre Stones._ According to some authors, as Hortulanus (MS. Ashmole 1478, iv.), there was but one stone, the Elixir, which had vegetable, animal and mineral qualities or functions; but in Lydgate, _Secrees of the Philosophres_, l. 530 (E.E.T.S.), we have,

‘And of stones, specially of three,
Oon mineral, another vegetatyff,’ &c.;

and the editor quotes from _Rosarium Philosophorum_, ‘Tres sunt lapides et tres sales sunt, ex quibus totum magisterium consistit, scilicet mineralis, plantalis et animalis.’ In the _Secreta Secretorum_, however, the stone seems to be one only, see the chapter ‘De lapide animali vegetabili.’

2597. _who that it knewe_: cp. ii. 88, and see note on Prol. 460.

2606. _Hermes_, i.e. Hermes Trismegistus, to whom the invention of the science was attributed.

_on the ferste_, ‘the very first,’ cp. vi. 1481. It may be questioned, however, whether the theory put forward by C. Stoffel in _Englische Studien_, xxvii. 253 ff., is the correct explanation of this expression, which survived to Elizabethan times (Shaksp., _Cymb._ i. 6. 165, ‘he is one the truest mannered’). He takes ‘on’ in the sense of the Latin ‘unus’ in ‘iustissimus unus,’ to mean ‘alone,’ ‘above all.’ It is perhaps more likely that the usual explanation, which regards it as an elliptical expression for ‘one who was the first,’ is correct, especially in view of such expressions as ‘two the first,’ ‘three the noblest,’ &c., which also occur in the fourteenth century. The use of ‘on’ (‘oon’) for ‘a person’ is common enough, as in the expressions ‘so good on,’ ‘so worthi on,’ ii. 1217, 1240, and ‘Oon Theloüs,’ ii. 1092. We find a similar expression in Gower’s French, e.g. _Mirour_, 2462.

2608. A work by Geber, ‘Super Artem Alkemie,’ in six books, translated from Arabic into Latin, may be found in MS. Ashmole 1384. It seems to treat in a practical and systematic manner of the method of transmutation of metals into gold.

2609. ‘Ortolan’ is the Englishman John Garland, called Hortulanus, for which name see the note in MS. Ashmole 1471 iv. prefixed to an English translation of his ‘Commentary on the Smaragdine Table of Hermes.’

Morien is said to have been a hermit in the mountains near Jerusalem. The two ‘books of Morien’ in the form of dialogues between him and Kalid the son of Gesid may be read in Latin (translated from Arabic) in MS. Digby 162.

2610. A short treatise of Avicen on Alchemy may be found in MS. Ashm. 1420.

2624. _the parfite medicine._ The inflexion is perhaps in imitation of the definite form of the English adjective, as in vii. 2168, 4994, while in l. 2522, where the accent is thrown back, we have ‘the parfit Elixir.’ It is possible, however, that this is a case of the French feminine form such as we have in i. 2677, ii. 3507, iv. 964, cp. i. 636. So perhaps ii. 3243, ‘O thou divine pourveance,’ and viii. 23, ‘O thou gentile Venus.’

2637. _Carmente_: cp. Godf. Vit., _Panth._ vi. (p. 135).

2641. Dindymus here means the grammarian Didymus, a follower of the school of Aristarchus and a very voluminous writer on Greek language and literature. Our author here classes Aristarchus and Didymus with Donatus, and supposes them all to be concerned with the Latin tongue.

2648. _Tullius with Cithero._ It is apparent from this passage, which has been differently given without any authority in the printed editions, that Gower supposed Tullius and Cicero to be two different persons. There would have been reason to suspect this from the passage in the seventh book where he refers to the debate on the death sentence of the Catiline conspirators, speaking of Tullius as his authority for the rules of rhetoric there illustrated, and ‘Cithero’ as the consul, without any hint that they are the same person (vii. 1588 ff.). In Gower’s French works Tullius (Tulles) is the only name used. The form Cithero (or Scithero) is used also by Chaucer, _Cant. Tales_, F 722.

2738 ff. Cp. _Mirour_, 5185 ff.

2749. _beere_, past tense subjunctive, cp. 1323.

2756 ff. Gower seems to be exceptionally well informed on the subject of the Fates and their separate functions.

2792. This casting with the dice would not be for ordinary gambling, but for divining characters and telling fortunes in matters of love. Each combination produced by the three dice thrown would have a certain meaning determined beforehand, as we see by the piece called _The Chaunces of the Dyse_ in the Bodleian MSS. Fairfax 16 and Bodl. 638. For example, the throw of six, four and ace is there explained by the following stanza:

‘O mekenesse of vertu principal,
That may be founde in eny creature!
In this persone of kunnynge ordinal
Is ful assembled, I yow dar assure,
The lorde of vertu and al vices cure,
Perfit beaute grounded without envye,
Assured trust withoute gelousye.’

And similarly there is a stanza, complimentary or otherwise, for each possible throw.

2813. _Hire daunger_: see note on i. 2443.

2855. _whi ne were it_, ‘would it were’: cp. the expression ‘that he ne were,’ vii. 3747, &c.

2895 f. Apparently he means that his dreams were of no such harmless things as sheep and their wool, or perhaps not of business matters, alluding to wool as the staple of English commerce.

2901 ff. Cp. _Roman de la Rose_, 2449-2479.

2905. _I ne bede nevere awake_: cp. _Romaunt of the Rose_, 791, ‘Ne bode I never thennes go.’ It means apparently ‘I should desire never to awake’ (‘I should not pray ever to awake’).

2924. _in my wrytinges._ The author forgets here that he is speaking in the person of the Confessor.

2927 ff. This is from Ovid, _Metam._ xi. 266-748, where the story is told at great length. Gower follows some parts of it, as the description of the House of Sleep and its surroundings, very closely.

Chaucer tells the story in the _Book of the Duchess_, but he has not been so successful in reproducing it as Gower. It is here introduced only as an illustration of the truth of dreams, but with its description of the House of Sleep it is very appropriate also in other respects to the subject of Somnolence, which is under discussion.

2928. _Trocinie_, from the adjective ‘Trachinia,’ in such expressions as ‘Trachinia tellus,’ _Metam._ xi. 269.

2973. The reading of all the best MSS. in this line is ‘he’: (S however is defective). We cannot doubt that the author meant to write ‘sche,’ for in what follows he regularly refers to Iris as female; but the mistake apparently escaped his notice, and we must regard the reading ‘she’ in the two copies in which I have found it as an unauthorized correction. Chaucer makes the messenger male, but does not name him.

2977-3055. This passage very happily follows Ovid, _Met._ xi. 589-645. Our author gives all the essential features, but rearranges them freely and adds details of his own.

2996. _Metam._ xi. 608,

‘Ianua, ne verso stridores cardine reddat,
Nulla domo tota.’

3009 ff. _Metam._ xi. 602 ff.,

‘saxo tamen exit ab imo
Rivus aquae Lethes, per quem cum murmure labens
Invitat somnos crepitantibus unda lapillis.’

3015 ff. _Metam._ xi. 610 ff.,

‘At medio torus est ebeno sublimis in antro,
Plumeus, unicolor, pullo velamine tectus,
Quo cubat ipse deus membris languore solutis.
Hunc circa passim varias imitantia formas
Somnia vana iacent,’ &c.

3044. ‘Ithecus’ is a misreading of ‘Icelos,’ as ‘Panthasas’ in l. 3049 of ‘Phantasos.’

3061 ff. Here Gower has made a real improvement in the story by employing the two other ministers of Sleep, whose functions have been described, to represent the scene of the tempest and the wreck, while Morpheus plays the part of Ceyx in the same scene. Ovid introduces the characters of Icelos and Phantasos, but makes no use of them, sending Morpheus alone to relate what has taken place, instead of representing it in action, as it would more naturally appear in a dream.

3159. _mi herte_: more usually ‘min herte’ as 3139, and so generally before ‘h,’ whether aspirated or not, e.g. 3561; but ‘for mi housebondes were,’ vii. 4813, (with ‘myn housebonde’ below, 4829).

3187 ff. This seems to be for the most part original. A hint may have been given by the lines of Ovid in which it is suggested that Aurora might have used a somewhat similar prayer:

‘At si quem manibus Cephalum complexa teneres,
Clamares, Lente currite, noctis equi.’

_Amor._ i. 13, 39.

3222. The sun enters Capricorn on Dec. 21.

3273. _that he arise_: so 3374, ‘Til it be dai that I arise,’ and v. 3422, ‘Til dai cam that sche moste arise.’

The verb seems here to be attracted into the subjunctive by the indefinite meaning of ‘Til.’ In the other passages the mood is uncertain.

3317 ff. Ovid, _Metam._ i. 588-723, much abbreviated. It was, however, Jupiter who turned Io into a cow.

3386. _for thou thee schalt avise_, ‘in order that thou mayest consider.’

3414. _that I nere of this lif_, ‘would that I were out of this life.’ For ‘that I nere’ cp. note on 1422. For ‘of this lif’ cp. vii. 2883, ‘whan he were of dawe.’

3438 f. ‘And yet he (Obstinacy) cannot support his own cause by any argument but by headstrong wilfulness.’

For the expression ‘of hed’ we may compare the Latin expression quoted by Du Cange ‘de testa esse,’ explained ‘esse obstinatum’ (Ital. ‘essere di testa’), and the French adjective ‘testu,’

‘Car fol estoient et testu,’ &c.

Froissart says of Pope Urban VI that after his election ‘il s’en outrecuida et enorguilli, et volt user de poissance et de teste,’ which is translated by Berners, ‘he waxed proude and worked all on heed.’ We find also the Latin adjective ‘capitosus’ used by Gower in the margin at the beginning of the _Cronica Tripertita_, and the adverb ‘capitose,’ meaning ‘in a headstrong manner,’ in Walsingham, _Hist. Anglica_, e.g. ‘Regem contra regni consuetudinem Cancellarium deposuisse capitose,’ vol. ii. p. 70 (Rolls Series).

The usual way of reading the sentence has been to punctuate after ‘skile’ and to take ‘bot of hed’ with the next line, ‘but he wastes away in his condition’ (‘hed’ from a supposed ‘hǣd’ akin to the suffix ‘-hed’ or ‘-hede’). This word perhaps occurs _Conf. Am._ ii. 2066, but it would give no very good sense here, and it is doubtful whether it would be rhymed with ‘ded.’ The suffix ‘-hed’ ‘-hede’ apparently has ‘ẹ’ in Gower’s rhymes. Again, if so marked a break in the middle of the line were intended, the Fairfax MS. would almost certainly have had a stop to indicate it, as in 3423, 3431, 3458, 3459, 3484, 3485, to quote instances only from the same page of the MS.

For the use of ‘avowe’ in this sense, cp. v. 124.

3515 ff. The story is based upon Ovid, _Metam._ xiv. 698-761. Our author, however, has reversed the position of the lover and his mistress. In Ovid Anaxarete is a high-born maid of the race of Teucer, while Iphis is ‘humili de stirpe creatus.’ Moreover, the story is considerably developed by Gower, to whom belong the speech of Iphis, the whole account of the grief and self-condemnation of Araxarathen, the details of the funeral and the tomb, and finally the very successful epitaph. Ovid says that she saw from a window the body of Iphis being carried by for burial, and was forthwith turned into stone, and that as witness of the truth of his tale a statue may still be seen at Salamis. There is nothing said about remorse on her part, rather the opposite is implied.

3516. Our author supposes this to be the same as the person mentioned in iii. 2645 ff. (who is really Teuthras king of Mysia). This is Teucer son of Telamon, founder of Salamis in Cyprus.

3520 f. These lines are transposed for the sake of the rhyme. It means ‘on a maid of low estate compared with his’: cp. ii. 709, and below, l. 3616.

3542. Punctuated in accordance with F.

3589. _Thi Daunger_, ‘thy unwillingness to love’: see note on i. 2443.

3658 f. Naturally the expression of Ovid,

‘Veneris quoque nomine templum
Prospicientis habet,’

was not understood.

LIB. V.

18. _it cam to londe, wherof_, ‘the occasion arose, whence,’ &c.

22. _him supposeth_: the verb is used impersonally, like ‘him thenketh.’ Probably the confusion between ‘thinke’ and ‘thenke’ gave rise to this expression.

29 ff. So below, 348 ff.: cp. _Mirour_, 7585 ff.

47 f. This seems, as it stands at present, to be an application of the instances to the case of the avaricious man, ‘Thus he so possesses his wealth that he in truth possesses nothing,’ (‘that’ for ‘so that’). The original couplet however, as read by all the unrevised class of manuscripts, applies to the case of the sheep, and we may take it so also in its revised form (‘Thus’ being answered by ‘that’).

49 ff. Cp. _Mirour_, 7645 ff.,

‘L’en dist, mais c’est inproprement,
Qe l’averous ad grant argent;
Mais voir est que l’argent luy a:
En servitude ensi le prent,’ &c.

65. _nevere hier._ Note that there is no elision before ‘hier.’

81 f. ‘And yet, though I held her fast (as a miser his hoard), my life would be a perpetual feast, even on Fridays.’ If he possessed the treasure, his avarice would not allow him to let it go, and yet he would not keep it unused, as a miser does his gold. So later, 93, ‘Though I should hold it fast, I should so be doing that which I were bound to do.’

95. _pipe_, ‘be content’: perhaps from the idea of a bird-catcher piping or whistling for birds, but failing to snare them.

127-136. Note the repetition of the word ‘gold’ in an emphatic position.

141 ff. Ovid, _Metam._ xi. 85-147, freely treated as usual. The debate of Midas as to which of three things he should prefer (ll. 180-245) is all due to our author. In Ovid he chooses without hesitation.

143. _Cillenus_, i.e. Silenus.

154 f. Gower attributes the action of the king to pure courtesy, Ovid to the fact that Midas recognized in Silenus a fellow-mystic.

249 ff. Cp. _Mirour_, 7603 ff.

272 ff. Ovid, _Metam._ xi. 106,

‘Laetus abit gaudetque malo Berecyntius heros:
Pollicitique fidem tangendo singula temptat.
Ilice detraxit virgam, virga aurea facta est:
Tollit humo saxum, saxum quoque palluit auro’: &c.

298. See note on i. 10.

315-332. This is an expansion of _Metam._ xi. 146 f.,

‘Ille perosus opes silvas et rura colebat,
Panaque montanis habitantem semper in antris.’

363 ff. The punishment referred to is certainly more appropriate for avarice than for the offence committed by Tantalus: cp. Hor. _Sat._ i. 1. 68. The story of Tantalus is alluded to several times in Ovid, as _Metam._ iv. 458, and told by Hyginus, Fab. lxxxii. Perhaps our author rather followed Fulgentius, _Mythol._ ii. 18, who quotes from Petronius,

‘Divitis haec magni facies erit, omnia late
Qui tenet, et sicco concoquit ore famem.’

Cp. _Mirour_, 7621 ff.,

‘Dame Avarice est dite auci
Semblable au paine Tantali,’ &c.

370. This seems to mean that it serves for the punishment of the avaricious; but from what follows in 391 ff. we gather that the pains of avarice in this life also are to be compared with this particular pain of hell, and so the application is made in the _Mirour_, 7621-7632.

388. _which a wreche_, ‘what a punishment.’

418. _suie_: cp. Prol. 460.

447. For the superfluous syllable at the pause in the middle of this line cp. iv. 1131.

496. _berth an hond_: equivalent to ‘berth on hond,’ l. 546.

519. Count ‘evel’ as a monosyllable for the verse; so regularly, e. g. iii. 1272, vii. 2773.

526. _janglere._ The final ‘-e’ is not pronounced here.

558 f. _the gold ... The which was leid upon the bok._ The gold in question is that which is laid upon the service-book in payment of the marriage fees: ‘and the Man shall give unto the Woman a Ring, laying the same upon the book with the accustomed duty to the Priest and Clerk.’ _Marriage Service._

564. ‘though he will not praise it,’ i.e. he gives her no credit for it: cp. Prol. 154.

635 ff. Ovid, _Ars Am._ ii. 561-592, but the original is not very closely followed.

665. Cp. iii. 1362 ff.

729 ff. From this arises the very ill-advised digression of ll. 747-1970 about the various forms of Religion. There is no more reason why this should come in here than anywhere else, indeed if the question of false gods was to be raised at all, it ought to have come in as an explanation of the appearance of Venus and Cupid in the first book. Many stories have been told, for example those of Acteon, of the Gorgons, of Tiresias, of Phoebus and Daphne, of Phaeton, of Ceix, of Argus, and of Midas, which required the explanation quite as much as this one, and the awkwardness of putting it all info the mouth of the priest of Venus is inexcusable.

The main authority followed in this account of the religions of Chaldea, Egypt, and Greece is the _Vita Barlaam et Josaphat_, cap. xxvii. (Migne, _Patrol._ vol. 73, p. 548 ff.), but Gower adds much to it, especially as regards the gods and goddesses of Greece.

763. _of Accidence_: cp. ii. 3210.

774. _hevenly_: so Prol. 918, but ‘hevenely’ i. 834, 3136, the second syllable in that case being syncopated, as regularly in ‘hevene.’ So also in the case of ‘evermore’ and ‘everemore’ as compared with ‘evere.’

782. _les_, that is, ‘falsehood.’

798. _Isirus_, i.e. Osiris.

811. _thegipcienes._ This must be the true reading for the sake of the metre, both here and in l. 821, though the best copies fail to give it. A similar case occurs in l. 1119, but there the authority for ‘Jupiteres’ is made much stronger by the accession of S.

897. _Mynitor_, i.e. Numitor.

899 f. _that Remus and Romulus._ For the position of ‘that’ cp. 1166, 1249.

925. _To gete him with_: cp. i. 452.

1004. _wel the more lete by_, ‘much the more esteemed’: cp. _Piers Plowman_, A vi. 105, ‘to lete wel by thyselve,’ and xi. 29: also with ‘of,’ v. 5840; cp. _Piers Plowm._ iv. 160, ‘Love let of hire lighte and lewte yit lasse,’ _Orm._ 7523, ‘uss birrth ... lætenn wel off othre menn.’

1009. _Nonarcigne._ The name is taken no doubt from the adjective ‘Nonacrinus’ (from Nonacris), used as in Ovid, _Met._ i. 690, where it occurs in the story of Pan and Syrinx, told by Mercury to lull Argus to sleep: cp. _Conf. Am._ iv. 3345 ff.

1040. Cp. Prol. 118.

1043 ff. The sentence is interrupted and then begun again at l. 1051: see note on i. 98.

1063. _That he_, i.e. ‘In that he.’ Gower has here mistaken his authority, which says ‘post autem eum propter Tyndarei Lacedaemonii filium a Jove fulmine percussum interiisse narrant.’ _Vita Barl. et Jos._ xxvii.

1071. Delphi and Delos are very naturally confused in the medieval Tale of Troy and elsewhere; but Delos is mentioned correctly enough below, 1256.

1097. _no reason inne_: cp. i. 3209.

1163. _Philerem_, presumably Philyra, but there is no authority for making her the mother of Jupiter.

1249. _that_: cp. 899. Apparently it means, ‘that Diane of whom I am to speak.’ The necessities of rhyme are responsible for these forms of speech.

1276. ‘Which may not attain to reason.’

1323. The paragraph is made to begin here in the MSS. with what is, strictly speaking, its second line, because it is marked by a proper name which indicates its subject, the first line being a mere formal introduction. So also below, 1453: cp. ii. 2451.

1337. The name ‘Dorus’ seems to have been suggested by that of Doris, mother of the Nereids.

1389. _alle danger_, that is, all reluctance or coyness.

1397. _Armene_, i.e. Harmonia.

1398. _Andragene_ Androgynus or Hermaphroditus.

1428. _noght forsake To ben_, i.e. ‘not refuse to be.’

1449. ‘whether it was of weal or wo’; ‘wher’ for ‘whether.’

1453. See note on 1323.

As for the letters said to have been exchanged between Alexander and the king of the Bragmans (or Brahmins), we find them at length in the _Historia Alexandri Magni de Preliis_, which was the source of most of the current stories about Alexander. The passage referred to is as follows: ‘Tot deos colis quot in tuo corpore membra portas. Nam hominem dicis paruum mundum, et sicut corpus hominis habet multa membra, ita et in celo dicis multos deos existere. Iunonem credis esse deum cordis, eo quod iracundia nimia mouebatur. Martem vero deum pectoris esse dicis, eo quod princeps extitit preliorum. Mercurium deum lingue vocas, ex eo quod plurimum loquebatur. Herculem deum credis brachiorum, eo quod duodecim virtutes exercuit preliando. Bachum deum gutturis esse putas, eo quod ebrietatem primus inuenit. Cupidinem esse deam dicis, eo quod fornicatrix extitit; tenere dicis facem ardentem, cum qua libidinem excitat et accendit, et ipsam deam iecoris etiam existimas. Cererem deam ventris esse dicis, et Venerem, eo quod fuit mater luxurie, deam genitalium membrorum esse profers’ (e 2, ed. Argent. 1489).

Cp. the English alliterative _Wars of Alexander_, E.E.T.S., 1886, ll. 4494 ff. There is no mention of Minerva in either of these.

1520 ff. The usual account is to the effect that Ninus set up the first idol: see below, 1541. What we have here seems to be taken from Fulgentius, _Mythol._ ii. 9, where the authorities here cited, Nicagoras and Petronius, are quoted. The passage is apparently corrupt, and our author obviously did not quite understand it: ‘Et quamvis Nicagoras in Disthemithea libro quem scripsit, primum illum formasse idolum referat, et quod vulturi iecur praebeat livoris quasi pingat imaginem: unde et Petronius Arbiter ait,

“Qui vultur iecor intimum pererrat”’ &c.

From the same author, _Mythol._ i. 1, he got the story about Syrophanes, who set up an image of his dead son, to which offerings were made by those who wished to gain his favour.

1541. Cp. Godfr. Vit., _Panth._ iv. (p. 102), whose account agrees very nearly with what we have here, though he represents this image as the first example of an idol, under the heading, ‘Quare primum idolum in mundo et quo tempore fuit.’ Cp. Guido, _Hist. Troiana_, lib. x (e 5, ed. Argent. 1494).