HANDBOUND
AT THE
UNIVERSITY OF
TORONTO PRESS
ClarfiiboiT IJrtss Scries.
-J n
CHAUCER
THE MINOR POEMS
SKEAT
I
HENRY FROWDE
Oxford University Press Warehouse
Amen Corner, E.G.
III
CHAUCER
T HE MINOR P O E M S
EDITED BY THE
Rev. WALTER VV. SKEAT, Litt.D.
LL.D. EDIN., M.A. OXON.
Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon
in the University of Ca7nbridge
' He made the book that hight the Hous of Fame,
And eek the Deeth of Blaunche the Duchesse,
And the Parlament of Foules, as I gesse, . . .
And many an ympne for your halydayes,
That highten B^Iades, Roundels, Virelayes.'
Legend of Good Il-'oinen, 417-423
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
MDCCCLXXXVIII
[ A// rights reserved ]
aop.X.
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CONTENTS.
\L
Introduction
Testimony of Chaucer regarding his works
Lydgate's list of Chaucer's Poems .
Testimony of John Shirley
Testimony of Scribes ok the MSS. .
Testimony of Caxton ....
Early Editions of Chaucer's Works
Table of Contents of Stowe's Edition (1561)
Discussion of the Poems in Part I. of the Edition of
1561
Discussion of the Poems in Part II. ok the Edition of
1561
Poems added in Speght's Editions .
Pieces added in Morris's Edition, 1866 .
Description of the Manuscripts
List of the Manuscripts ....
Remarks on some of the Manuscripts —
Manuscripts at Oxford .
Manuscripts at Cambridge
Manuscripts in London .
Remarks on Poems i-xxiii ....
1. An A. B. C
Nik The Compleynte unto Pite .
III. The Book ok the Duchesse .
IV. The Complevnt of Mars
vf' The Parlem^nt of Foules
VI. Merciles Beaute: a triple Roundel
VII. Anelida and Arcite
^Yuf. Chaucer's Wordes unto Adam
IX. Tue House of Fame: in three books
^ -m^ The Former Age ....
XI. Fortune
PAGE
vii
viii
X
xiii
xiv
XV
XV
xix
XXX
xxxii
XXXV
xxxvii
xxxvii
xl
xlii
xlv
xlvii
I
8-
i3
61
73.
100
102
117.
118
1S6
189
VI
CONTENTS.
• xVi. Truth
*lil. CiENTILESSE
XIV. Lak of Stedfastnesse
XV. Against Women Unconstaunt
XVI. Lenvoy de Chaucer a Scogan
XVII. Lenvov ue Chaucer a Bukton
XVIII. The Compleynt of Venus
XIX. The Compleynt to his Empty Purse
XX. Proverbs
Appendix —
XXI. A Compleint to his Lady
XXII. An amorous Compleint .
XXIII. Balade of Compleint
Notes to the Minor Poems
Glossarial Index
Index of Proper Names
Index of Subjects explained in the Notes
PAGE
«95
197
199
201
204
306
210
212
213
218
222
223
405
452
457
vn
INTRODUCTION.
Now that the fifth century since the death of Chaucer is
ahnost completed, it seems high time that a serious attempt
should be made to present to readers an edition of his Minor
Poems in something Uke a reasonable spcHing and with a suf-
ficient quantity of illustration in the form of notes. IMr. Sweet
has given us a few extracts from these, in his Second Middle-
English Primer, but confesses that he has ' not attempted to fore-
stall the inevitable German, who, it is to be hoped, will some day
give us a critical edition of Chaucer.' Though I am perhaps to
some extent disqualified, as being merely a native of London,
in which aity Chaucer himself was born, I hope I may be pardoned
the temerity of attempting something in this direction. At the
same time, it is only right to say that we owe something to
Dr. John Koch, who produced 'A Critical Edition of some of
Chaucer's Minor Poems,' published at Berlin in 1883. The
only fault of this edition is that it contains so very little ; the
number of short poems in it is only ten, extending in all to
483 lines. It does not seem to be at all well known in England,
and perhaps I should never have heard of it, but for the kind-
ness of Dr. Koch himself, to whom I beg leave to return my
best thanks, at the same time acknowledging my indebtedness
to his researches. The present edition is of a fuller character,
as it includes all of Chaucer's genuine poetical works with the
exception of the three of most importance, that is to say, the
Canterbury Talcs, Troilus and Cressida, and the Legend of
Good Women.
Just half an hour after writing the above sentences I received
from Dr. Willert his edition of 'The House of Fame,' too late,
unfortunately, to be of much assistance to me. See further
below, with respect to that poem.
The first question that arises is, naturally, which of the Minor
Poems are genuine ? The list here given partly coincides with
that adopted by Dr. Fumivall in the publications of the
viii CHAUCER'S OWN TESTIMONY.
Chaucer Society. I have, however, added five, here numbered
vi, XV, xxi, xxii, and xxiii ; my reasons for doing so are given
below, where each poem is discussed separately. At the same
time, I have omitted the poem entitled ' The Mother of God,'
by the advice of Dr. f'urnivall himself ; for although he once
told us that 'no one can suppose that poor Hoccleve had the
power of writing his Master's Mother of God,' there is clear
evidence that it was written by the pupil, and not by the
master. The only known copy of it is in a MS. now in the
library of the late Sir Thomas Phillipps, which contains sixteen
poems, all of which are by the same hand, viz. that of Hoc-
cleve. After all, it is only a translation ; still, it is well and
'carefully written, and the imitation of Chaucer's style is good.
It was printed, together with five other poems from the same
MS., in the edition of some of 'Occleve's Poems ' by G. Mason,
in 1796. Among the unprinted poems, according to the editor's
preface, is a similar hymn to the Virgin, beginning ' Modir of
lyf'.'
First, we must consider the external evidence generally.
Testimony of Chaucer regarding his works.
The most important evidence is that afforded by the poet
himself. In an Introduction prefixed to the Man of Law's
Prologue (printed in my edition of the Prioresses Tale, at p. 3),
he says —
' In youth he made of Ccys and Alcioun ' —
a story which is preserved at the beginning of the Book of the
Duchesse.
In the Prologue to the Legend of Good Women, he refers to
his translation of the Romaunce of the Rose, and to his Troilus;
and, according to MS. Fairfax 16, II. 417-423, he says —
' He made the book that bight the Hoits of Fame,
And eke the deeth of Blauiiche the Duchesse,
And the Parlement of Foules, as I gesse,
' I note by the way that, in one of these poems, addressed to Sir
J. Oldcastle, occurs the line — ' Right as a spectacle helpeth feeble
sighte ' ; an early reference to the use of spectacles. A ' Ballad ' begins
with — ' Go litil famflet, and streight thee dresse ' ; giving an early
spelling of pamphlet.
CHAUCER'S OWN TESTIMONY. ix
And al the love of Palamon and Arcite
Of Thebes, thogh the story ys knowen lyte,
And many an ympne for your halydayes
That highten Balades, Roundels, Virelayes,' &c.
The rest of the passage does not immediately concern us, ex-
cepting 11. 427, 428, where we find—
' He made also, goon ys a grete while,
Origc7ies vpon the Maiiddeyne.'
In the copy of the same Prologue, as extant in MS. Gg. 4. 27,
in the Cambridge University Library, there are two additional
lines, doubtless genuine, to this effect —
' And of the zurechede engendrynge of inankynde.
As man may in pope Innocent I-fynde.'
There is also a remarkable passage at the end of his Persones
Tale, the genuineness of which has been doubted by some, but
it appears in the MSS., and I do not know of any sound reason
for rejecting it. According to the Ellesmere MS., he here
mentions—' the book of Troilus, the book also of Fame, the
book of the xxv. Ladies ^ the book of the Duchesse, the book of
seint Valentynes day of the parlement of briddes ... the book
of the Leoun . . . and many a song,' &c.
Besides this, in the House of Fame, 1. 729, he mentions his
own name, viz. ' Geffrey.' We thus may be quite certain as to
the genuineness of this poem, the longest and most important
of all the Minor Poems, and we may at once add to the list the
Book of the Duchesse, the next in order of length, and the
Parliament of Foules, which is the third in the same order.
We also learn that he composed some poems which have
not come down to us, concerning which a few words may be
useful.
I. ' Origenes vpon the Maudeleyne' must have been a trans-
lation from a piece attributed to Origen. In consequence,
probably, of this remark of the poet, the old editions insert a
piece called the ' Lamentacion -of Marie Magdaleinc,' which has
no pretence to be considered Chaucer's, and may be summarily
' The Legend of Good Women is here meant ; and ' xxv.' is certainly
an error for ' xix.'
X LYD gate's list.
dismissed. It is sufficient to notice that it contains a consider-
able number of rimes such as are never found in his genuine
works, as, for example, the dissyllabic dy-e^ riming with why (st.
13) ; the plural adjective ken-e riming with j-^«, i.e. eyes, which
would, with this Chaucerian pronunciation, be no rime at all
(St. 19) ; and thirdly, disgised riming with rived, which is a mere
assonance, and saves us from the trouble of further investi-
gation (st. 25). See below, p. xxvi,
2. ' The wrechede engendrynge of mankynde ' is obviously
meant to describe a translation or imitation of the treatise by
Pope Innocent III, entitled De Miseria Conditionis Hiinianae.
The same treatise is referred to by Richard Rolle de Hampole,
in his Pricke of Conscience, 1. 498.
3. 'The book of the Leoun,' i.e. of the lion, was probably a
translation of the poem called Le Dit du Lion by Machault ;
see the note to 1. 1024 of the Book of the Duchesse in the
present volume.
Lydgate's list of Chaucer's Poems.
The next piece of evidence is that given in what is known as
* Lydgate's list.' This is contained in a long passage in the
prologue to his poem known as the ' Fall of Princes,' translated
from the French version (by Laurens de Premierfait) of the
Latin book by Boccaccio, entitled ' De Casibus Virorum Illus-
triumV In this Lydgate commends his ' maister Chaucer,'
and mentions many of his works, as, e. g. Troilus and Creseide,
the translation of Boethius' De Cofisolatione Philosophiae, the
treatise on the Astrolabe addressed to his ' sonne that called
was Lowys,' the Legend of Good Women, and the Canterbury
Tales. The whole passage is given in Morris's edition of
Chaucer, vol. i. pp. 79-81 ; but I shall only cite so much of it as
refers to the Minor Poems, and I take the opportunity of doing
so directly, from an undated black-letter edition published by
John Wayland.
^ Of course I mean that dy-e is the Chaucerian form ; the author of
the Lamentation pronounced it differently, viz. as dy.
* .See the excellent treatise by Dr. E. Koppel entitled ' Laurents de
Premierfait und John Lydgates Bearbeitungeu von Boccaccios De Ca-
sibus Virorum lUustrium'; Mtinchen, 1885.
LYDGATE S LIST. Xt
* He wrote also full many a day agone
Dant in English, him-selfe doth so expresse,
The piteous story of Ceix and Ale ion :
And the death also of Blaiinche the duches :
And notably [he] did his businesse
By great auise his wittes to dispose,
To translate the Romaynt of the Rose.
* Thus in vertue he set all his entent,
Idelnes and vyces for to fle :
Oi fowles also he wrote the parliament,
Therein remembring of royall Eagles thre,
Howe in their choyse they felt aduersitye,
To-fore nature profered the battayle,
Eche for his partye, if it woulde auayle.
* He did also his diligence and payne
in our vulgare to translate and endite
Orygene vpon the Alaudelayn :
And of the Lyon a Iwke he did %vrite.
0/ Annelida and of false Arcite
He made a coviplaynt dolefuU and piteous ;
And of the broche which that Uulcamis
* At Thebes wrought, ful diuers of nature;
Guide * writeth : who-so thereof had a syght.
For high desire, he shoulde not endure
But he it had, neuer be glad ne light :
And if he had it once in his myght,
Like as my master sayth & writeth in dede,
It to conserue he shoulde euer Hue in dred.*
It is clear to me that Lydgate is, at first, simply repeating
the information which we have already had upon Chaucer's
own authority ; he begins by merely following Chaucer's own
language in the extracts above cited. Possibly he knew no
more than we do of ' Orygene vpon the Maudelayn,' and of the
' boke of the Lyon.' At any rate, he tells us no more about
them. Naturally, in speaking of the Minor Poems, we should
expect to find him following, as regards the three chief poems,
the order of length ; that is, we should expect to find here
a notice of (l) the House of Fame ; (2) the Book of the
Duchesse; and (3) the Parliament of Foules. We are natu-
' Not Ovid, but Statius ; Lydgate makes a slip here ; see note to IV.
245. P- 279-
Nil
LYD gate's list.
rally disposed to exclaim with Ten Brink {Studien,^. 152)—
' Why did he leave out the House of Fame ? ' But we need not
say with him, that * to this question I know of no answer.' For
it is perfectly clear to me, though I cannot find that any one
else seems to have thought of it, that ' Dant in English ' and
'The House of Fame' are one and the same poem, described
in the same position and connexion. If anything about the
House of Fame is clear at all, it is that (as Ten Brink so clearly
points out, in his Studicn, p. 89) the influence of Dante is
more obvious in this poem than in any other. I would even go
further and say that it is the only poem which owes its chief
inspiration t;o Dante in the whole of English literature during,
at least, the Middle-English period. There is absolutely
nothing else to which such a name as ' Dante in English ' can
with any fitness be applied. The only thing at all odd about
it, is that Lydgate should say— ' himselfe doth so expresse';
which seems somewhat too explicit. Perhaps he refers to the
lines which really relate only to the description of hell, viz.—
' Which who-so willeth for to knowe.
He moste rede many a rowe
On Virgile or on Claudian,
Or Datmte, that hit telle can ' ; 11. 447-450.
Or I should be quite willing to believe that Chaucer did, on
some occasion, allude to his poem by the somewhat humorous
title of ' Dante in English,' as confessing his indebtedness ; and
that Lydgate has preserved for us a record of the remark. This,
however, would require us to read did rather than doth in the
phrase ' him-sclfe doth so expresse.' In any case, I refuse to
take any other view until some competent critic will undertake
to tell me, what poem of Chaucer's, other than the House of
Fame, can possibly be intended.
To which argument I have to add a second, viz. that Lydgate
mentions the House of Fame in yet another way ; for he refers
to it at least three times, in clear terms, in other passages of
the same poem, i.e. of the Fall of Princes.
' Fame in her palice hath tniwpcs mo than one,
Some of golde, that geueth a freshe soun ' ; &c.
Book I. cap. 14.
' Within my house called the house of Fame
The golden trumpet with blastes of good name
SHIRLEY S TESTIMONY. XI 11
Enhaunceth on to ful hie parties,
\Vher lupiter sytteth amowg the heue«ly skies.
' Another truwpet of sownes full vengeable
^Vhich blowelh vp at feastcs funerall,
Nothinge bright, but of colour sable ' ; &c.
Prol. to Book VI.
' The golden trampe of the house of Fame '
Through the world blew abrode his name.'
Book VI. cap. 15.
Lydgate describes the Parliament of Foules in terms which
clearly shew that he had read it. He also enables us to add to
our list the Complaint of Anelida and the Complaint of Mars ;
for it "is the latter poem which contains the storj^ of the brocJic of
Thebes ; see p. 70. We have, accordingly, complete authority
for the genuineness of the five longest of the Minor Poems, which,
as arranged in order of length, are these : The House of Fame
(2158 lines); Book of the Duchesse (1334 lines); Parliament
of Foules (699 lines) ; Anelida and Arcite (357 lines) ; and
Complaint of Mars (298 lines). This gives us a total of 4846
lines, furnishing a very fair standard of comparison whereby to
consider the claims to genuineness of other poems. Lydgate
further tells us that Chaucer
'Made and compiled many a freshe dittie,
ComplajTits, ballades, roundels, \7relaies.'
Testimony of John Shirley.
The next best evidence is that afforded by notes in the exist-
ing MSS. ; and here, in particular, we should first consider the
remarks by Chaucer's great admirer, John Shirley, who took
considerable pains to copy out and preserve his poems, and is
said by Stowe to have died Oct. 21, 1456, at the great age of
ninety, so that he was born more than 30 years before Chaucer
died. On his authority, we may attribute to Chaucer the
A. B. C. ; the Complaint to Pity (see p. 229) ; the Complaint of
Mars (according to a heading in MS. T.) ; the Complaint of
* In Lydgate's Lyfe of St. Albon, ed. Horstmann, 1. 15, this line
appears in the more melodious form — ' The golden trumpet of the
House of Fame.'
xiv TESTIMONY OF THE SCRIBES.
Anclida (according to a heading in MS. Addit. 16165) ; the
Lines to Adam, called in MS. T. ' Chauciers Wordes a. Geffrey
vn-to Adam his owen scryveyne' (seep. 117); Fortune (see
p. 374) ; Truth (sec p. 380) ; Gentilesse (see p. 383) ; Lak of
Stedfastnesse (see p. 386); the Compleint of Venus (see p. 392);
and the Compleint to his Empty Purse (see p. 396). The MSS.
due to Shirley are the Sion College MS., Trin. Coll. Cam. R.
3. 20, Addit. 16165, Ashmole 59, Harl. 78, Harl. 2251, and Harl.
Testimony of Scribes of the Mss.
The Fairfax MS. 16, a very fair MS. of the fifteenth century,
contains several of the Minor Poems ; and in this the name of
Chaucer is written at the end of the poem on Truth (see p. 194)
and of the Compleint to his Purse (see p. 211) ; it also appears
in the title of Lenvoy de Chmicer a Scogan (see p. 201); in
that of Lenvoy de Chancer a Bukton (see p. 204) ; in that of the
Compleint q{ Cliaiicer to his empty Purse (p. 210), and in that
of ' Proverbe of Chancer' (p. 398).
Again, the Pepys MS. no. 2006 attributes to Chaucer the
A. B. C, the title there given being * Pryer a nostre Dame, per
Chaucer ' ; as well as the Compleint to his Purse, the title
being ' La Compleint de Chaucer a sa Bourse Voide ' (see
p. 210). It also has the title ' Lenvoy de Chaucer a Scogan.'
The ' Former Age ' is entitled ' Chawcer vp-on this fyfte
metur of the second book' in the Cambridge MS. li. 3. 21 ; and
at the end of the same poem is written ' Finit etas prima.
Chaucers ' in the Cambridge MS. Hh. 4. 12 (see p. 188). The
poem on Fortune is also marked ' Causer ' in the former of
these MSS. ; and in fact these two poems practically belong to
Chaucer's translation of Boethius, though probably written at a
somewhat later period.
The Cambridge MS. Gg. 4. 27, which contains an excellent
copy of the Canterbury Tales, attributes to Chaucer the Parlia-
ment of Foules (see p. 99) ; and gives us the title ' Litera
directa de Scogon per G. C (see p. 201). Of course ' G. C is
Geoffrey Chaucer.
From Furnivall's Trial Forewords, p. 13, we learn that there
is a verse translation of De Deguileville's PdUrinage de la Vie
Hiimaine, attributed to Lydgate, in MS. Cotton, Vitellius C.
TESTIMONY OF CAXTON. XV
XIII. (leaf 256), in which the 'A. B. C is distinctly attributed
to Chaucer \
Testimony of Caxton.
At p. 116 of the same Trial Forewords is a description by
Mr. Bradshaw of a very rare edition by Caxton of some of
Chaucer's Minor Poems. It contains: (i) Parliament of Foules ;
(2) a treatise by Scogan, in which Chaucer's ' Gentilesse ' is
introduced ; (3) a single stanza of 7 lines, beginning — ' Wyth
empty honde men may no hawkes lure ' ; (4) Chaucer's ' Truth,'
entitled — 'The good counceyl of Chawcer'; (5) the poem on
' Fortune ' ; and (6) part of Lenvoy to Scogan, viz. the first
three stanzas. The volume is imperfect at the end. As to the
article No. 3, it was probably included because the first line of
it is quoted from 1. 415 of the Wyf of Bathes Prologue (Cant.
Ta. 5997).
At p. 118 of the same is another description, also by Mr.
Bradshaw, of a small quarto volume printed by Caxton, con-
sisting of only ten leaves. It contains: (i) Anelida and Arcite,
11. 1-210; (2) The Compleint of Anelida, being the continuation
of the former, 11. 211-350, where the poem ends ; (3) The Com-
plaint of Chaucer vnto his empty purse, with an Envoy headed
— ' Thcnuoye of Chaucer vnto the kynge ' ; (4) Three ^ couplets,
beginning — ' Whan feyth faillcth in prestes sawes,' and ending —
' Be brought to grete confusiozm ' ; (5) Two couplets, beginning
— ' Hit falleth for euery gentilman,' and ending — 'And the soth
in his presence ' ; (6) Two couplets, beginning — ' Hit cometh by
kynde of gentil blode,' and ending— ' The werk of wisedom
berith witnes ' ; followed by—' Et sic est finis.' The last three
articles only make fourteen lines in all, and are of little im-
portance ^.
Early Editions of Chaucer's Works.
The first collected edition of Chaucer's W^orks is that edited
by W^. Thynne in 1532, but there were earlier editions of his
separate poems. The best account of these is that which I
' Hoccleve's poem entitled ' Moder of God' is erroneously attributed
to Chaucer in two Scottish copies (Arch. Seld. B 24, and Edinb.
18. 2.8).
^ Printed ' Six couplets ' ; clearly a slip of the pen.
' They are printed in full below, on p. xxxiv.
xvi EARLY EDITIONS OF CHAUCER.
here copy from a note on p. 70 of Furnivall's edition of F.
Thynne's ' Animaduersions vpon the Annotacions and Correc-
tions of some imperfections of imprcssiones of Chaucer's
Workes' ; published for the Chaucer Society in 1875.
Only one edition of Chaucer's Works had been published
before the date of Thynne's, 1532, and that was Pynson's in
1526, without a general title, but containing three parts, with
separate signatures, and seemingly intended to sell separately ;
I. the boke of Cauntcrbury tales ; 2. the boke of Fame . . . with
dyuers other of his workes [i. e. Assemble of Foules ^ La Belle
Dame'*, Morall Prouerbes] ; 3. the boke of Troylus and Cry-
seyde. But of separate works of Chaucer before 1532, the
following had been published : —
Ca7iterbujy Tales. 1. Caxton, about 1477-8, from a poor MS.;
2. Caxton, ab. 1483, from a better MS. ; 3. Pynson, ab.
1493; 4. Wynkyn de Worde, 1498; 5. Pynson, 1526.
Book of Fame. 1. Caxton, ab. 1483; 2. Pynson, 1526.
Troylus. 1. Caxton, ab. 1483; 2. Wynkyn de Worde, 15 17;
3. Pynson, 1526.
Parliament of Foules'. 1. Caxton, ab. 1477-8; 2. Pynson,
1526 ; 3. Wynkyn de Worde, 1530.
Gentilnessc'^ (in Scogan's poem). 1. Caxton, ab. 1477-8.
Truth^. (The good counceyl of chawcer). 1. Caxton, ab.
1477-8.
Fortune'^. (Balade of the vilage [sic] without peyntyng).
1. Caxton, ab. 1477-8.
Envoy to Skogaji^. 1. Caxton, ab. 1477-8 (all lost, after the
third stanza).
Anelida and Arcyte*. 1. Caxton, ab. 1477-8.
Purse^. (The comple^mt of chaucer vnto his empty purse).
1. Caxton, ab. 1477-8.
Mars; Venus; Marriage (Lenvoy to Bukton). 1. Julian Notary,
1499-1502.
^ La Belle Dame sans Merci, a poem translated from the French ori-
ginally written by ' Maister Aleyn,' chief secretary to the King of France.
Certainly not by Chaucer; for Alain Chartier, the author of the original
French poem, was only about four years old when Chaucer died.
' All in Caxton's edition of the Minor Poems, described above, p. xv.
* Both in the small quarto volume described above, p. xv.
EARLY EDITIOXS OF CHAUCER. XVil
After Thynne's first edition of the Works in 1532 (printed by
Thomas Godfray), came his second in 1542 (for John Rcynes
and Wyllyam Bonham), to which he added ' The Plowman's
Tale ' aftc7- the Parson's Tale.
Then came a reprint for the booksellers (Wm. Bonham, R.
Kele, T. Petit, Robert Toye), about 1550, which put the Plow-
^ '- man's Talc before the Parson's. This was followed by an
edition in 1561 for the booksellers (Ihon Kyngston, Henry
Bradsha, citizen and grocer of London, &c.), to which, when
more than half printed, Stowe contributed some fresh pieces,
the spurious Court of Love, Lydgate's 5't;ift' of Thebes, and other
poems. Next came Speght's edition of 1598— on which William
Thynne comments in his Animadversions — which added the
spurious ' Dreme,' and 'Flower and Leaf.' This was followed
by Speght's second edition, in 1602, in which Francis Thynne
helped him, and to which were added Chaucer's 'A. B. C, and
the spurious 'Jack Upland \' Jack Upland had been before
printed, with Chaucer's name on the title-page, about 1536-40
(London, J. Gough, no date, 8vo.)
In an Appendix to the Preface to Tyrwhitt's edition of the
Canterbury Tales, there is a similar account of the early editions
of Chaucer, to which the reader may refer. He quotes the
whole of Caxton's preface to his second edition of the Canter-
bury Tales, shewing how Caxton reprinted the book because he
had meanwhile come upon a more correct MS. than that which
he had first followed.
If we now briefly consider all the earlier editions, we find that
they may be thus tabulated.
Separate Works. Various editions before 1532; see the
list above, on p. xvi.
Collected Works. Pynson's edition of 1526, containing
only a portion, as above ; La Belle Dame being spurious. Also
the following : — •
1. Ed. by Wm. Thynne ; London, 1532. Folio. Pr. by
Godfray.
2. Reprinted, witli additional matter ; London, 1542. Folio.
The chief addition is the spurious Plowman's Talc.
3. Reprinted, with the matter rearranged ; London, no date,
about' 1550. Folio.
' Speght added three more pieces ; see below, p. xxxiii.
b
xviii EARLY EDITIOXS OF CHAUCER.
Here the Plowman's Talc is put before the Parson's.
4. Reprinted, with large additions by John Stowe. London,
1 56 1. Folio. (Sec further below.)
5. Reprinted, with additions and alterations by Thomas
Spcght ; London, 1598. Folio.
Here, for the first time, appear ' Chaucer's Dream ' and ' The
Flower and the Leaf ; both are spurious.
6. Reprinted, with further additions and alterations by
Thomas Spcght ; London, 1602. Folio.
Here, for the first time, appear the spurious Jack LTpland ^
and the genuine A. B. C.
7. Reprinted, with slight additions ; London, 1687. Folio.
S. Reprinted, with additions and great alterations in spelling,
by John Urry ; London, 1721. Folio.
This edition is the worst that has appeared. It is not neces-
sary for our purpose to enumerate the numerous later editions.
An entirely new edition of the Canterbury Tales was produced
by Thomas Tyrwhitt in 1775-8, in 5 vols., 8vo. ; to which all
later editions have been much indebted ''■.
The manner in which these editions were copied one from
the other renders it no very difficult task to describe the whole
contents of them accurately. The only important addition in
the editions of 1542 and 1550 is the spurious Plowman's Tale,
which in no way concerns us. Again, the only important addi-
tional poems after 1561 are the spurious Chancers Dream, The
Flo7i'er and the Leaf, and the genuine A.B. C. The two repre-
sentative editions are really those of 1532 and 1561. Now the
edition of 1561 consists of two parts; the former consists of
a reprint from former editions, and so differs but little from the
* Jack Upland is in prose, and in the form of a succession of questions
directed against the friars.
^ I have often made use of a handy edition with the following title-
page : ' The Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, with an Essay on his
Language and Versification and an Introductory Discourse, together with
Notes and a Glossary. By Tiiomas Tyrwhitt. London, Edward Moxon,
Dover Street, 1S55.' I cannot but think that this title-page may
have misled others, as it for a long time misled myself. As a
fact, Tyrwhitt never edited anything beyond the Canterbury Tales,
though he has left us some useful notes upon the Minor Poems,
and his (Glossary covers the wliole ground. The Minor Poems
in this edition are merely reprinted from the black-letter editions.
EDITION BY JOHN STOWE. xix
edition of 1532 ; whilst the latter part consists of additional
matter furnished by John Stowe. Hence a careful examination
of tlic edition of 1561 is, practically, sufficient to give us all the
information which we need. I shall therefore give a complete
table of the contents of this edition.
Table of Contents of Stowe's Edition (1561)'.
Part I. Reprinted Matter.
1. Caunterburie Tales. (The Prologue begins on a page with
the signature A 2, the first quire of six leaves not being num-
bered ; the Knightcs Tale begins on a page with the signature
B ii.. and marked Fol. i. The spurious Plowman's Tale pre-
cedes the Parson's Tale).
2. The Romatint of the Rose ^ Fol. cxvi.
3. Troilus and Creseide. Fol. cli., back.
4. The testcDiicnt of Creseide. [By Robert Henryson.] P'ol.
cxciiii. Followed by its continuation, called The Complaint oj
Creseide ; by the same.
5. The Legende of Good Women. Fol. cxcvij.
6. A goodlie balade of Chaucer ; beginning—' Mother of
norture, best beloued of all.' Fol. ccx.
7. Boecius de Consolatione Philosophic. Fol. ccx., back.
8. The dreame of Chaucer. [The Book of the Duchesse.]
Fol. ccxliiij.
9. Begins—' My master. (S:c. Whe/; of Christ our kyng.
[Lenvoy to Buckton.] Fol. ccxliiii.
10. The assemble of Foules. [Parlement of Foules.] Fol.
ccxliiii., back.
11. The Floure of Ctiriesie, made by Ihon lidgate. Fol.
ccxlviij. Followed by a Balade, which fonns part of it.
12. How pyte is deed, etc. [Complaint vnto Pite.] Fol.
ccxlix., back.
^ Probably copies slightly differ. The book described by me is a
copy in my own possession, somewhat torn at the beginning, and im-
perfect at the end. Eut the three missing leaves only refer to Lydgate's
Storie of Thebes.
^ I print in italics the names of the pieces which I reject as spurious.
b 2
XX EDITION BY JOHN STOWE.
x^. La belle Dame sans Mercy. [By Sir R. Ros.] Fol. ccl.
14. Of Quene Annelida and false Arcite. Fol. cclv.
15. Tlie assemble of ladies. Fol. ccxlvij.
16. The conclucions of the Astrolabie. Fol. ccl.xi.
17. The complamt of the blacke Knight. [By Lydgate ; see
p. xlv.] Fol. cclxx.
1 8. A praise of Women. Begins — ' Al tho the lyste of women
euill to speke.' Fol. cclxxiii.\ back.
19. The House of Fame. Fol. cclxxiiij,, back.
20. The Testament of Lotie (in prose). YoX. cclxxxiiij., back.
21. The lamentacion of Marie Alagdaleifie. Fol. cccxviij.
22. The remedie of Lou e. Fol. cccxxj., back.
23. 24. The complaint of Mars and Venus. Fol. cccxxiiij.,
back. (Printed as one poem ; but there is a new title — The
compkiint of Venus — at the beginning of the latter).
25. The letter of Ctipide. [By Hoccleve ; ^ato/ 1402.] Fol.
cccxxvj., back.
26. A Ballade in commendacion of our Ladie. Fol. cccxxix.
27. Ihon Gower vnto the noble King Henry the .iiij. Fol.
cccxxx, back.
28. A saiyng of dan Ihoft. [By Lydgate.] Fol. cccxxxii.,
back.
29. Yet of the same. [By Lydgate.] On the same page.
30. Balade de bon consail. Begins — If it be falle that God the
list visite. (Only 7 lines.) On the same page.
31. Of the Cuckowe and the Nightifigale. Fol. cccxxxiij.
32. Balade with Envoy (no title). Begins — ' O leude booke
w/t/; thyfoule rudenesse.' Fol. cccxxxiiij., back.
33. Scogan, vtito the Lordes atid Getttibnen of the Kinges
house. (This poem, by H. Scogan, quotes Chaucer's ' Genti-
lesse ' in full). Fol. cccxxxiiij., back.
34. BegiiTs — ' Somtyme the worlde so stedfast was and
stable.' [Lak of Stedfastnesse]. Fol. cccxxxv., back.
35. Good counsail of Chaucer. [Truth.] Same page.
36. Balade of the village {sic) without paintyng. [Fortune.]
Fol. cccxxxvj.
37. Begins — ' Tobroken been the statutes hie in heauen ' ;
headed Lentioye. [Lenvoy to Scogan.] Fol. cccxxxvj., back.
* Marked Fol. cclxxvj. by mistake.
EDITION BY JOHN STCWE. xxi
38. Poem in two stanzas of seven lines each. Begins — 'Go
foorthe kyng, rule thee by Sapience.' Same page.
39. Chaucer to his emptie purse. Same page.
40. A balade of good counseilc translated out of Latin verses
iti-to Englishe, by Dan Ikon lidgat cleped the monke of Biiri.
Begins — ' COnsyder well euery circumstaunce.' Fol. cccxxxvij.
41. A balade in the Praise and comviendacion of master
Geffray Chauser for his golden eloquence. (Only 7 lines.) Same
leaf, back. [See p. xliv.]
Part II. Additions by John Stowe.
At the top of fol. cccxl. is the following remark : —
IF Here foloweth certaine woorkes of Geffray Chauser, whiche
hath not heretofore been .printed, and are gathered and added
to this booke by Ihon Stowe.
42. A balade made by Chaucer, teching what is gentilnes^
[Gentilesse.] Fol. cccxl.
43. A Prouerbe \read Prouerbs] agaynst couitise and negli-
gence. [Proverbs.] Same page.
44. A balade which Chaucer made agaynst women vncon-
staunt. Same page.
45. A balade which Chaucer made in the praise or rather
dispraise, of women for ther doublenes. [By Lydgate.] Begins
— ' This world is full of variaunce.' Same page.
46. TJiis werke folowi^ige was compiled by Chaucer, and is
caled the craft of louers. Fol. cccxli.
47. A Balade. Begins—' Of their nature they greatly the;/v
delite.' Fol. cccxli., back.
48. The .X. Commaujtdementes of Loue. Fol. cccxlij.
49. The dx. Ladies worthie. Fol. cccxlij., back.
50. \Virelai J no titlc.l Begins — 'Alone walkyng.' Fol.
cccxliij.
51. A Ballade. Begins — ' In the season of Feuerere when
it was full colde.' Same page.
52. A Ballade. Begins — ' O IVIercifull and o merciable.'
Fol. cccxliij., back. [See p. xlvi.]
53. Here foloweth how- Mercurie with Pallas, Venus and
' Stowe did not observe that this occurs already, in the midst of poem
no. 33.
xxii STOIVE'S EDITION': PART I.
Minarua, appered to Paris of Trote, he slepyng by a fountain.
Fol. cccxliiij.
54. A baladc plcasaiinte. Begins — ' I haue a Ladie where so
she bee.' Same page. At the end — 'Explicit the discriuyng
of a faire Ladie.'
55. An other Balade. Begins — ' O Mossie Quince, hangyng
by your stalke.' Fol. cccxliiij., back.
^d. A balade,tvarnyftg men tobeivarc of deceit ptf nil iL>07nen (sic).
Begins — ' LOke well aboute ye that louers bee.' Same page.
57. These verses next folowing were compiled by Geffray
Chauser, and in the writen copies foloweth at the ende of the
complainte of petee. Begins — ' THe long nyghtes when euery
[cjreature.' [See p. 213.] Fol. cccxiv ^
^8. A balade declaring that iveinens chastite Doeth nioche
excel all treasure worldly. Begins — ' IN womanhede as auc-
tours al write.' Back of same leaf.
59. The Court of Loue. Begins — 'With temerous herte, and
trewbling hand of drede.' Fol. cccxlviij.
60. Chancers woordes vnto his owne Scriuener ^. (See p.
117.) Fol. ccclv., back. At the end — Thus endeth the workes
of Gefifray Chaucer. (This is followed by 34 Latin verses,
entitled Epiiaphiuui Galfridi Chaucer, Sec.)
61. The Storie of Thebes. [By Lydgate.] Fol. ccclvj.
Discussion of the Poems in Part I. of ed. 1561.
Of the 41 pieces in Part I. of the above, we must of course
accept as Chaucer's the three poems entitled Canterbury Tales,
Troilus, and the Legend of Good Women ; also the prose trans-
lation of Boethius, and the prose treatise on the Astrolabie.
The remaining number of Minor Poems (including the Romaunt
of the Rose) is 36 ; out of which number I accept the 14 num-
bered above with the numbers 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 19, 23, 24, 33 (so
far as it quotes Chaucer), 34, 35, 36, 37, and 39. Every one of
these has already been shewn to be genuine on sufficient ex-
ternal evidence, and it is not likely that their genuineness will
' Miscalled Fol. cccxxxix. Also, the next folio is called cccxlviij,
after which follows cccxlix, and so on.
^ In the Preface to Morris's Chaucer, p. x, we are told that the editor
took his copy of this poem from Thynne's edition of 1532. This is an
oversight ; for it does not occur there ; Stowe's edition is meant.
STOIVES EDITIOX: PART I. xxili
be doubted. In t'no present volume they appear, respectively,
as nos. Ill, XVII, V, II, VII, IX, IV, XVIII, XIII, XIV, XII,
XI, XVI, and XIX. Of the remaining 22, several may be dis-
missed in a few words. No. 4 is well known to have been
written by Robert Henryson. Nos. 1 1, 28, 29, and 40 are dis-
tinctly claimed for Lydgate in all the editions ; and no. 27 is
similarly claimed for Gower. No. 25 was written by IIocclcvc' ;
and the last line gives the date — ' A thousande, foure hundred
and seconde,' i.e. 1402, or two years after Chaucer's death.
No. 13 is translated from Alain Chartier, who was only four
years old when Chaucer died ; see p. xvi., note 2. Tyrwhitt
remarks that, in MS. Harl. 372, this poem is expressly attributed
to a Sir Richard Ros '^. No one can suppose that no. 41 is by
Chaucer, seeing that the first line is — ' Maister Geffray Chauser,
that now lithe in graue.' Mr. Bradshaw once assured me that
no. 17 is ascribed, on MS. authority, to Lydgate ; and no one
who reads it with care can doubt that this is correct ^. It is, in
a measure, an imitation of the Book of the Duchesse ; and it
contains some interesting references to Chaucer, as in the lines
— 'Of Arcite, or of him Palemoun,' and ' Of Thebes eke the
false Arcite.' No. 20, i.e. the Testament of Love, is in prose,
and does not concern us ; still it is worth pointing out that it
contains a passage (near the end) such as we cannot suppose
that Chaucer would have written concerning himself*.
' ' Thomas Occleve mentions it himself, as one of his own compo-
sitions, in a Dialogue \\\\\(^ follows his Complaint, MS. Bodley 1504.' —
Tyrwhitt.
* See Political, Religions, and Love Poems, ed. Furnivall, p. 52. Cf.
Englische Sttidien, x. 206.
^ I have found the reference. It is Shirley who says so, in a poetical
'introduction'; see MS. Addit. 16165, fol. 3.
* It runs thus: — ' Quod loue, I shall tcl thee, this lesson to leame,
mjTie owne true seruaunte, the noble Philosophical! Pocte in Englishc,
which euermore hym busieth & trauailcth right sore, my name to
encrease, wherefore all that willen me good, owe to doe him worship
and reuerence both ; truly his better ne his pere, in schole of my rules,
coud I neuer fmde : He, quod she, in a treatise that he made of my
seruaunt Troilns, hath this matter touched, & at the full this question
[<y predestination^ assoiled. Certainly his noble saiyngs can I not
amewd ; in goodness of ge;/til mawlich spech, without any maner of
nicitie of starieres {sic) imaginacion, in wit and in good reason of
sentence, he passeth al other makers,' (Read storicres, story-writer's).
XXIV STOIVE S EDITION: PARTI.
After thus removing from consideration nos. 4, 11, 13, 17, 20,
25, 27, 28, 29, 40, and 41, half of the remaining 22 pieces have
been considered. The only ones left over for consideration are
nos. 2, 6, 15, 18, 21, 22, 26, 30, 31, 32, 38. As to nos. 2 and 6,
there is some external evidence in their favour, which will be
considered separately; but as to the rest, there is absolutely
nothing to connect them with Chaucer beyond their almost
accidental appearance in an edition by \Vm. Thynne, published
in 1532, i.e. one hundred and thirty -two years after Chaucer's
death ; and it has just been demonstrated that Thynne is
obviously wrong in at least eleven instances, and that he wit-
tingly and purposely chose to throw into his edition poems
which he knew to have been written by Lydgate or by Gower !
It is ridiculous to attach much importance to such testimony as
this. And now let me discuss, as briefly as I can, the above-
named poems separately.
2. TJie Roniaunt of the Rose. Chaucer himself tells us that
he translated the Romaunt of the Rose from the original French,
but there is nothing to prove that the two fragments of the
existing English translation form any part of Chaucer's work.
The first fragment, which I shall call A, consists of 5813 lines,
and the second fragment B, of 1S85 lines (see note on p, 245) ;
the two fragments being separated by a gap of more than 5000
lines. Even if this were really all Chaucer's work, it would
be excluded from this volume as not being one of the minor,
but of the major, poems ; but there is a great deal to be said
against its genuineness, which I need not here repeat, having
already printed a long note on this subject at the end of the
preface to my edition of the Prioresses Tale. I will, however,
take the opportunity of remarking that, in a painstaking article
which appeared in Englische Stiidien, xi. 163, Lindner has made
it appear to be highly probable that the fragments A and B
are by different hands ; so that those who support the claims
of Chaucer to this work will have, in future, to elect which
fragment it will please them to assign to him. Lindner leaves
this an open question for the present, but hints pretty clearly
that he is inclined to associate Chaucer with fragment A,
apparently on the g^round that it is the more correctly trans-
lated. Unfortunately, it is precisely from fragment A that
all the most damaging arguments against Chaucer's association
STOW E S EDITION: PARTI. XXV
with the work can be drawn. It is there that we meet with
the riming of -y with ye, with the use of assonant rimes, with
the use of such strange rimes as Joynl and qiuynt, doun and
toiirne, (Sic, with such a use of the final -e as is inconsistent
with Chaucer's practice, and with the Northumbrian present
participles sittand and doand at the end of lines ! Neither
is it at all a sound argument to rely upon, that Chaucer's
translation was necessarily correct ; in his A. B. C, 1. loo, he
translates tire/ire by ' melodye ' when it means a money-box,
and in his Boethius he translates the Latin clavus by keye,
and co/iipe/idi'u/n (gain) by abreggyyig; see Morris's preface,
p. XV. I will only add here my own conviction, that if any
part of the English translation of this poem is by Chaucer,
it is fragment B ; and even against this I believe that something
(yet much less) can be urged.
6. A goodlie balade of Chaucer; begins — ' Mother of norture,
best beloued of all'; printed in Morris's edition, vi. 275; and
in Bell's edition, iii. 413. I have little to say against this poem ;
yet the rime of supposcth with riseth (st. 8) is somewhat startling.
It is clearly addressed to a lady named Margaret ', as appears
from her being likened to the daisy, and called the sun's
daughter. I suspect it was merely attributed to Chaucer by
association w^ith the opening lines of the Legend of Good
Women. The suggestion, in Bell's Chaucer, that it possibly
refers to the Countess of Pembroke, is one of those bad guesses
which are discreditable. Tyrwhitt shews, in note n to his
* Appendix to the Preface,' that she must have died not later
than 1370, whereas this Balade must be much later than that
date ; and I agree with him in supposing that le Dit de la Jleur
de lis et de la Matgtterile, by Guillaumc de Machault (printed
in Tarbe's edition, 1849, p. 123), and the Dittid de la flour dc la
Margherite, by Froissart, may furnish us with the true key
to those mystical compliments which Chaucer and others
were accustomed to pay to the daisy.
I wish to add that I am convinced that one stanza, probably
the sixth, is missing. It ought to form a triple Balade, i. e.
three Balades of 21 lines each, each with its own refrain ; but the
second is imperfect. There seems to be some affectation about
* Hocclcve appeals to St. Margaret, in his Letter of Cupid, st. 6 from
the end.
XXVI STOWES EDITIOX: PARTT.
the letters beginning the stanzas which I cannot solve ; these
are M, M, M (probably for Margaret) in the first Balade ;
/^, D in the second ; and_/, C, Q in the third. The poet goes
out of his way to bring in these letters. The result looks like
Margaret de Jacques.
15. The assemble of Llxdies. This poem Tyrwhitt decisively
rejects. There is absolutely notliing to connect it with Chaucer.
It purports to have been written by 'a gentlewoman'; and
perhaps it was. It ends with the rime of done, pp., with sone
(soon) ; which in Chaucer are spelt doo7i and son-e respectively,
and never rim.e. Most of the later editions omit this poem.
It is conveniently printed in Chalmers' English Poets, vol. i.
p. 526 ; and consists of 108 7-line stanzas.
\%. A praise of Women. In no way connected with Chaucer.
Rejected by Tyrwhitt. Printed in Bell's edition, iv. 416, and
in Chalmers' English Poets, vol. i. p. 344. In 25 7-line stanzas.
The rime of lie (to tell a lie) with sie (I saw), in st. 20, is
suspicious; Chaucer has /j'-^, jy/. The rime of ^/^£:^;2-^ (dissyllabic
in Chaucer) with beette (miswritten for been, they be, st. 23) is
more than suspicious. It contains the adjective sere, i.e. various
(st. 11), which Chaucer never uses.
21. The lamentacio}i of Marie Magdaleine. Printed in Bell's
Chaucer, iv. 395 ; and in Chalmers, i. 532. Tyrwhitt's remarks
are admirable. He says, in his Glossary, s.v. Origenes : — ' In
the list of Chaucer's Works, in Legend of Good Women, 1. 427,
he says of himself: —
" He made also, gon is a grete while,
Origenes upon the Maudeleine" —
meaning, I suppose, a translation, into prose or verse, of the
Homily de Maria Afagdaletta, which has been commonly,
though falsely, attributed to Origen ; v. 0pp. Origenis, T. ii. p.
291, ed. Paris, 1604. I cannot believe that the poem entitled
The Lamentation of Marie IMagdaleine, which is in all the
[older] editions of Chaucer, is really that work of his. It can
hardly be considered as a translation, or even as an imitation,
of the Homily ; and the composition, in every respect, is in-
finitely meaner than the worst of his genuine pieces.' To those
who are interested in Chaucer's rimes I will merely point out
the following: die, why (Ch. dy-e, why); kene, iyen (Ch. ken-e,
y-en)j disguised, to-rived, a mere assonance; crie, incessauntly
SrOlVES EDITION : PARTI. XXVli
(Ch. cry-'e,incessaunily) ; shmte, paine (Ch. slein, pein-e) ; y-fet^
let {Ch.y-/e/, let-te) ; accept, beioept, (Ch. accepi-e,he7ucpt) ; die,
mihi (Ch. dy-e, inihi). To those interested in Chaucer's lan-
guage, let me point out ' dogges rabiate ' — ' embcsilc his pre-
sence ' — ' my soveraine and very gentilman.' See st. 34, 39, 99.
22. The remcdieof Lotie. Printed in Chalmers' British Poets,
i. 539. In 62 7-line stanzas. Rejected by Tyrwhitt. The lan-
guage is extremely late ; it seems to have been written in the
1 6th century. It contains such words as i?tcongruitte, deduction,
allective, can't (for cannot), scribable (fit for writing on), olibane,
pant, babe (baby), cokohi (which Chaucer spells coke^uold), orio-
g}-aphie, cthiniologie, etJiiiiiologisc (\'erb). The provincial word
lait, to search for, is well known to belong to the Northern
dialect. Dr. Murray, s.v. allective, dates this piece about A.l).
1560; but it must be somewhat earlier than this, as it was
printed in 1532. I should date it about 1530.
26. A Ballade in connncndacion of our Ladie. TjTvvhitt
remarks that ' a poem with the same beginning is ascribed to
Lydgate, under the title of Invocation to our Lady ; see Tanner,
s.v. Lydgate.' The poem consists of 35 7-line stanzas. It has
all the marks of Lydgate's style, and imitates Chaucer's language.
Thus the line — ' I have none English conuenient and digne ' is
an echo of the Man of Law's Tale, 1. 778 — 'O Donegild, I ne
haue noon English digne.' Some of the lines imitate Chaucer's
A. B.C. But the most remarkable thing is his quotation of the
first line of Chaucer's Merciless Beauty (see p. 100), which he
applies to the Virgin Mary ! See note on p. 209.
30. Balade de bon consail. Printed in Chalmers, i. 552. Only
7 lines, and here they are, duly edited : —
' If it befall that God thee list visite
With any tourment or adversitec,
Thank first the Lord, and [fond] thy-self to quite ;
Upon suffraunce and humilitee
Found thou thy quarel, what ever that it be;
Mak thy defence, and thou shall have no losse,
The remembraunce of Christ and of his crosse.'
In 1. I, ed. 1 561 has the; 2. adueysite; 3. Thanke ; lorde ; I
supplyy^;/^/, i.e. endeavour; thyself ej 4. (scans ill) ; z,. Founde ;
6. Make.
xxviii STOIVE's EDITION: PART /.
31. Of the Ciickowe and the Nightingale. Printed in Bell's
Chaucer, iv. 334 ; and in Morris's Chaucer, iv. 75. Not un-
common in MSS. ; there is a copy in MS. Ff. i. 6 in the Cam-
bridge University Library ; another in MS. Fairfax 16; another
in MS. Bodley 638 ; another in MS. Tanner 346 ; and a fifth
(imperfect) in MS. Arch. Selden B. 24, in the Bodleian Library.
A sixth is in MS. Harl. 7333, in the British Museum. From
some of these, Morris's better text was constructed ; see his
edition, pref. p. ix.
That the first two lines are by Chaucer, we cannot doubt, for
they are quoted from the Knightes Tale, 11. 927, 928. Chaucer
often quotes his own lines, but it is not likely that he would take
them as the subject of a new poem. On the other hand, this is
just what we should expect one of his imitators to do. The
present poem is a very fair imitation cjf Chaucer's style, and
follows his peculiarities of metre iax more closely than is usually
the case with Lydgate. The notion, near the end, of holding
a parliament of birds, with the Eagle for lord, is evidently
borrowed from Chaucer's Parliament of Foules. I can see but
one author to whom this poem can well be attributed, viz.
Hoccleve. I believe that it was written at much about the
same period as his Letter of Cupid (no. 25 above), i.e. about
1402 ; and I think it is connected with that poem in a way
not hitherto observed. In MS. Bodley 638, the Cuckoo and
Nightingale is not called by this name, but is headed ' The
boke of Cupide god of loue,' fol. 11, back ; whilst the Letter of
Cupid is called ' The lettre of Cupide god of loue,' fol. 38, back.
The copy in the Fairfax MS. ends with the colophon — Explicit
liber Cupidinis. There is at least a presumption that the Book
of Cupid and the Letter of Cupid are by the same author. Whilst
admitting that the present poem is much more worthy of Chaucer
than most of the others with which it has been proposed to
burden his reputation, I can see no sufficient reason for con-
necting him with it. There is no external evidence bearing in
that direction. The rimes are mostly Chaucerian ; but the rime
of day with the gerund to assay-e in st. 1 1 is suspicious ; so also
is that of nozu with the gerund to rescow-e in st. 45.
One point about this poem is its very peculiar metre ; the
5-hne stanza, riming aabba, is certainly rare. If the question
arises, whence is it copied, the answer is clear, viz. from
STOWE's EDITION: PART I. xxix
Chaucer's Envoy to his Compleint to his Purse (see p. 211),
This is a further reason for dating it later than 1399.
32. Balade with ejivoy ; ' O leude book,' &c. A Balade in
the usual form, viz. 3 7-line stanzas, with a refrain ; the refrain
is — ' For of all good she is the best liuyng.' The envoy consists
of only 6 lines, instead of 7, rimed ababcc, and that for a suf-
ficient reason, which has not been hitherto observed. The
initial letters of the lines form, in fact, an anagram on the
name Alison ; which is therefore the name of the lady to whom
the Balade is addressed. There is a copy of this poem in MS.
Fairfax 16, and another in MS. Tanner 346. It is therefore as
old as the 15th century. But to attribute to Chaucer the fourth
line of the Envoy would be too much. It runs thus — ' Suspires
whiche I effund in silence.' Perhaps it is Hoccleve's.
38. Poem in two j-li?te stunzas. There is nothing to connect
this with Chaucer ; and it is utterly unworthy of him. I now
quote the whole poem, just as it stands in the edition of 1561 : —
' Go foorthe king, rule thee by Sapience,
Bishoppe, be able to minister doctrine,
Lorde, to trae connsale yeue audience,
AVomanhodc, to chastitie euer encline ;
Knight, let thy deedes worship determine;
Be righteous. Judge, in sauyng thy name ;
Rich, do almose, lest thou lese blisse wit/i shame.
* People, obeie your kyng and the lawe ;
Age, be ruled by good religion ;
True seruaunt, be dredfull & kepe the \-nder awe;
And, thou poore, fie on presumpcion ;
Inobedience to youth is vtter destruccion ;
Remembre you, how God hath set you, lo !
And doe your parte, as ye be ordained to.'
Surely it must be Lydgate's.
I have now gone through all the poems published in 1532 and
copied into the later editions ; and I see no way of augmenting
the list of Chaucer's Minor Poems any further from this source.
XXX STOIVE^S EDITION: FART II.
Discussion of the Poems in Part II, ob' ed. 1561.
It is hardly worth while to discuss at length all the poems
which it pleased John Stovve to fling together into the edition
of 1 56 1. But a few remarks may be useful.
Nos. 42, 43, and 60 are admittedly genuine ; and are printed
below, nos. XIII., XX., and VIII. I believe nos. 44 and 57 to
be so also ; they are discussed below, and are printed as nos.
XV. and XXI. No. 61 is, of course, Lydgate's. Besides this,
no. 45 is correctly ascribed to Lydgate in the MSS. ; there are
copies of it in MS. Fairfax 16 and in MS. Ashmole 59. No. 56
is also Lydgate's. and is so marked in MS. Harl. 2251. As to
no. 46, called the Craft of Lovers, it is dated by help of two
lines in the last stanza, which are thus printed by Stowe : —
' In the yere of our lorde a .M. by rekeninge
CCCXL. .&. UIII. yere folowing.'
This seevis \o give the date as 1348; whereas the language is
palpably that of the fifteenth century. Whether Stowe or his
printer thought fit to alter the date intentionally, I cannot say.
Still, the fact is, that in the MS. marked R. 3. 19 in Trinity
College Library, at fol. 156, the reading is ' CCCCXL & VIII
yere,' so that the true date is rather 1448, or nearly half a cen-
tury after Chaucer's deaths The same MS., which I suppose
belonged to Stowe, contains several other of these pieces, viz.
nos. 48, 49, 50, 51, 53, 54, 55, 56, and perhaps others. The
language and, in some cases, the ruggedness of the metre, forbid
us to suppose that Chaucer can have had anything to do with
them, and some are palpably of a much later date ; one or more
of these considerations at once exclude all the rest of Stowe's
additions. It may, however, be noted that no. 47 quotes the
line * Beware alwaye, the blind eats many a fly,' which occurs as
a refrain in no. 56, and it is therefore later than the time of
Lydgate. The author of no. 48 says he is ' a man vnknowne.'
Many lines in no. 49 are of abnormal length ; it begins with —
• Profulgent in preciousnes, O Sinope the queen.' The same is
true of no. 51, which is addressed to a Margaret, and begins
' There is another copy of The Craft of Lovers in MS. Harl. 2251.
It is there dated 1459.
STOWE S EDITION: PART II. xxxi
with — ' In the season of Feucrere when it was full coldc' Of
no. 52, Tyrwhitt says that the four first stanzas are found in
different parts of an imperfect poem upon the Fall of Man, in-
MS. Harl. 2251 ; whilst the llth stanza makes part of an Envoy,
which in the same MS. is annexed to the poem entitled the
Craft of Lovers. No. 53 is a poor affair. No. 54, called a
Balade Pleasaiinte, is very unpleasant and scurrilous, and
alludes to the wedding of ' queene lane ' as a circumstance
that happened many years ago. No. 55 is scurrilous, odious,
and stupid. I doubt if no. 58 is good enough for Lydgate. No.
59 belongs to the sixteenth century.
All the poems here rejected were rejected by Tyrwhitt, with
two strange exceptions, viz. nos. 50 and 59, the Virelai and the
Court of Love. Of both -of these, the language is quite late.
The Virelai is interesting from a metrical point of view, because
such poems are scarce ; the only similar poem that 1 can call to
mind is the Balet (or rather Virelai) composed by Lord Rivers
during his imprisonment in 1483, and printed by Percy in his
Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. Percy says that Lord
Rivers copies the Virelai mentioned above, which he assumes
to be Chaucer's ; but it is quite as likely that the copying was
in the other direction, and that Lord Rivers copied some
genuine Virelai (either Chaucer's or in French) that is now
lost^ The final rime of ejid \\\\h find is bad enough ; but the
supposition that the language is of the 14th century is ridiculous.
Still the Virelai is good in its way, though it can hardly be older
than 1500, and may be still later.
Of all poems that have been falsely ascribed to Chaucer, I
know of none more amazing than The Court of Love. The
language is palpably that of the 1 6th century, and there are
absolutely no examples of the occurrence in it of a final -e that is
fully pronounced, and fornis a syllable ! Yet there are critics
who lose their heads over it, and will not give it up. Tyrwhitt
says — ' I am induced by the internal evidence (!) to consider it
as one of Chaucer's genuine productions.' As if the * internal
evidence ' of a poem containing no sonant final -e is not enough
to condemn it at once. The original MS. copy exists in ^LS.
R. 3. 19 in Trinity College, and the writing is later than 1500.
' A good French Virelai is one by Eustace Deschamps, ed. Tarbe,
1S49; i- 25.
xxxii EDITIONS BY SPEGIIT.
The poem itself has all the smoothness of the Tudor period ' ;
it excels the style of Hawes, and would do credit to Sackville.
One reference is too interesting to be passed over. In the
second stanza, the poet regrets that he has neither the eloquence
of TuUy, the power of Virgil, nor the 'craft of Galfride:
Tyrwhitt explains Galfride as ' Geoffrey of Monmouth,' though
it is difficult to understand on what ground he could have been
here thought of. Bell's 'Chaucer' explains Galfride as 'Geoffrey
of Vinsauf,' which is still more curious ; for Geoffrey of Vinsauf
is the very Gm(fride whom Chaucer holds up to eternal ridicule
in the Nonne Prestes Tale (1. 526). The Geoffrey really intended
is, I suspect, no other than our own immortal poet, whose sur-
name was Chaucer.
Poems added in Speght's Editions of 1598 and 1602.
We have now to consider the additions made by Speght in
1598. These were only two, viz. Chaucer's Dream and The
Flower and the Leaf.
62. Chaucer's Dream. A long poem of 2206 short lines, in
metre similar to that of The House of Fame; accepted by
Tyrwhitt, and in all the editions. But there is no early trace
of it ; and we are not bound to accept as Chaucer's a poem first
ascribed to him in 1598, and of which the MS. (at Longleat) was
written about 1550. The language is of late date, and the
sonant final -e is decidedly scarce. The poem is badly named,
and may have been so named by Speght ; the proper title is ' The
Isle of Ladies.' We find such rimes as be, companie (Ch. be,
company-e); know, low, i.e. law (Ch. know-e, law-e)j grene,
yene, i.e. eyes (Ch. gren-e, y-en); plesaiince, fesaimce (Ch.
plesaunc-e, fesaunts) J ywis, kisse (Ch./wu, kis-se)j and when
we come to destroied riming with conclude, it is time to stop.
The tediousness of this poem is appalling ^
63. The Flower and the Leaf. This is rather a pretty poem,
in 7-line stanzas. The language is that of the fifteenth century.
' See remarks on this poem in The New English, by T. L. Kington
Oliphant, i. 402.
^ A great peculiarity of this poem is the astonishing length of the
sentences. Many of them run to fifty lines or more. As to the MS., see
Thyime's Jni,y/adversious, ed. Furnivall, 1875, p. 30.
EDITIONS BY SPEGHT. XXXUl
It professes to be written by a gentlewoman, like the Assemble
of Ladies ; and perhaps it was. Very likely, the same ' gentle-
woman ' wrote both these poems. If so, the Flower and the
Leaf is the better finished, and probably the later of the two. It
contains the word hendiman, for which the earliest dated quo-
tation which I have yet found is 1415 (Royal Wills, ed. Nichols,
p. 220). An interesting reference is given in the lines —
' Eke there be knightes old of the garter
That in hir time did right worthily.'
The order of the Garter was established in 1349; and we
should expect that more than half a century would elapse before
it would be natural to refer to the Knights as old knights, who
did worthily /« their ti»ie. Of course the poem cannot be
Chaucer's, and it is hardly necessary to look for rimes such as
he never uses ; yet such may easily be found, such as grew, pt.
t. sing., riming with the dissyllabic hew-e, 7teii'-e; sid-e with
cspide, pp. (Ch. espy-ed) ; eie, eye (Ch. y-e) with sie, saw (Ch.
sy); zxidi plesure"^ with desire ; after which we may stop.
In 1602, Speght issued another edition, in which, according
to Bohn's edition of Lowndes' Bibliographer's Manual, two more
pieces were added, viz. the prose treatise against Friars called
Jack Upland, and the genuine poem entitled 'A. B. C But this
is not all; for I find, in a still later edition, that of 1687, which
is said to be a ' reimpression of Speght's edition of 1602,' that,
at the very end of all the prefatory matter, on what was probably
a spare blank leaf, three more poems appear, which might as
well have been consigned to oblivion. But the editors of Chaucer
evidently thought that a thing once added must be added for
ever, and so these three productions are retained in Bell's
Chaucer, and must therefore be noticed with the rest.
64. Jack Upland. An invective against friars, in prose, worth
printing, but obviously not Chaucer's.
65. Chaucer's A. B. C. Genuine ; here printed as poem no. I.
66. Eight goodly questions with their atiswers ; printed in
Bell's Chaucer, vol. iv. p. 421 ; 9 7-line stanzas. In st. 3, ti'ee
rimes with prefer; but tree is an obvious misprint for cofer !
In St. 5, the gerund to lie (Ch. ly-e) rimes with honest ie (Ch.
' Plcsir may be meant, but Chaucer does not use it ; he says ple-
saunce.
C
xxxiv EDITIONS BY SPEGIIT.
honestee). This is quite enough to condemn it. But it may be
Lydgate's.
67. To the Kings most noble Grace, and to the Lords and
Knights of the Garter; pr. as above, p. 424 ; 8 8-line stanzas.
In MS. Phillipps 8151, and written by Hoccleve ; it much
resembles his poem printed in A7tglia, v. 23. The date may
be 1 41 6.
68. Sayings. Really three separate pieces. They are all
derived from the fly-leaf of the small quarto edition of Caxton,
described above, p. xv. When Caxton printed Chaucer's Anelida
and Purse on a quire of ten leaves, it so happened that he only-
filled up nine of them. But, after adding explicit at the bottom of
the ninth leaf, to shew that he had come to the end of his
Chaucer, he thought it a pity to waste space, and so added
three popular sayings on the front of leaf 10, leaving the back
of it still blank. Here is what he printed : —
' Whan feyth failleth in prestes sawes
And lordes hestes ar holden for lawes
And robbery is holden purchas
And lechery is holden solas
Than shal the lond of albyon
Be brought to grete confusioz^n.
' Hit falleth for euery gentilman
To saye the best that he can
In mannes absence
And the soth in his presence.
' Hit Cometh by kynde of genlil blode
To cast away al heuynes
And gadre to-gidre wordes good
The werk of wisedom berith witnes
Et sic est finis ^ * ^ * .'
The first of these sayings was probably a bit of popular rime,
of the character quoted in Shakespeare's King Lear, iii. 2. 81.
Shakespeare calls his lines Merlin's prophecy ; and it has
pleased the editors of Chaucer to call the first six lines Chaucer's
Prophecy \ They appear in Bell's Chaucer, vol. iii. p. 427, in
an 'improved ' form, not worth discussing ; and the last eight lines
are also printed in the same, vol. iv. p. 426. Why they are sepa-
^ It is so termed in a table of contents in MS. Trin. Coll. Cam.
R. 3. 15. This MS. contains all three of the pieces here numbered 66,
67, and 68.
EDITION BY MORRIS. XXXV
rated, is mysterious. Those who think them genuine may thank
me for giving them Caxton's spelling instead of Speght's.
Pieces added in Morris's Edition, 1866.
In Morris's edition are some pieces which either do not appear
in previous editions, or were first printed later than 1700.
69. Roundel ; pr. in vol. vi. p. 304. The same as Merciless
Beaute ; here printed as no. VI. It first appeared, however,
in Percy's Reliques of English Poetry. See p. Ixvii. below.
70. The Former Age ; pr. in vol. vi. p. 300, for the first time.
Here printed as no. X. See p. Ixxiii.
71. Prosperity J pr. in vol. vi. p. 296, for the first time. This
is taken from MS. Arch. Selden B. 24, fol. 119, where it follows
Chaucer's Poem on ' Truth.' It has but one stanza of eight lines,
and I here give it precisely as it stands in this Scottish MS. :—
* Richt as poiu'rt causith sobimes.
And febilnes enforcith contenence,
Ry(r//t so prosperitee and grete riches
The moder is of vice and negligence ;
And powere also causith Insolence ;
And honoz^;- oftsiss changith gude thewis ;
Thare is no more pmlouss pestilence
Than hie estate geven vnto schrewis.
Q««l Chaucere.'
I have no belief in the genuineness of this piece, though it is
not ill written. In general, the ascription of a piece to Chaucer
in a MS. is valuable. But the scribe of this particular MS. was
reckless. It is he who made the mistake of marking Hoccleve's
* Mother of God ' with the misleading remark — ' Explicit oxacid
Galfridi Chaucere.' At fol. 119, back, he gives us a poem be-
ginning ' Deuise prowes and eke humylitee' in 7 7-line stanzas,
and here again at the end is the absurd remark — ' Qz/^d Chaucer
quhen he was rycht auisit.' But he was himself quite ' wrongly
advised'; for it is plainly not Chaucer's at all. His next feat
is to mark Lydgate's Complaynt of the Black Knight by saying —
' Here endith the Maying and disporte of Chaucere' ; which
shews how the editors were misled as to this poem. Nor is
this all ; for he gives us, at fol. 137, back, another poem in
6 8-line stanzas, beginning ' O hie Empcricc and queue cclcs-
c 2
XXXvi EDITION BY MORRIS.
tial' ; and here again at the end is his stupid — ' Q^uodi Chaucere.'
The date of this MS. appears to be 1472 ; so it is of no high
authority ; and, unless we make some verbal alteration, we shall
have to explain how Chaucer came to write oftsiss in two syllables
instead of ofte sithe in four ; see his Can. Yem. Tale, Group G,
1. 1031.
72. Leatilte vmdt Richesse ; pr. in vol. vi. p. 302, for the first
time. This is from the same MS., fol. 138, and is as follows : —
* This warldly loy is onely fantasy,
Of quhich non erdly wicht caw be rowtent ;
Quho most has wit, leste suld In It affy,
Quho taistM It most, most sail him repent ;
Quhat valis all this richess and this rent.
Sen no maw wate quho sail his tresour haue?
Presume nor/it g^evin that god has done but lent,
Within schort tyme the quhiche he think?> to crane.
Leatilte vault richess^
On this poem, I have three remarks to make. The first is that
not even the reckless Scottish scribe attributes it to Chaucer.
The second is that Chaucer's fomis are content and lent without
a final e, and repent-e and reni-e with a final -e, so that the
poem cannot be his ; although content, repe7tt, rent, and lent
rime well enough in the Northern dialect. The third is that if
I could be sure that the above lines were by a well-known
author, I should at once ascribe them to King James I., who
might very well have written these and the lines called Pros-
j)erity above. It is somewhat of a coincidence that the very
MS. here discussed is that in which the unique copy of the
Kingis Quair is preserved.
73. Proverbs of Chaucer; printed in vol. vi. p. 303. The
first eight lines are genuine. But two 7-line stanzas are added,
which are spurious. In MS. Addit. 16165, Shirley tells us
that they were ' made by Halsham Esquyer' ; but they seem
to be Lydgate's, unless he added lo them. See Lydgate's Minor
Poems (Percy Soc. 1840), pp. 193 and 74. And see pp. xli., xlv.
It thus appears that, of the 73 pieces formerly attributed to
Chaucer, not more than 26 can be genuine. These are : Canter-
bury Tales, Troihis, Legend of Good Women, the first 2 1 Minor
Poems printed in the present volume, and two pieces in prose.
DESCRIPTION OF THE JIISS. XXXvii
Description of the MSS.
After the preceding somewhat tedious, but necessary dis-
cussion of the contents of the black-letter and other editions
(in many of which poems were as recklessly attributed to
Chaucer as medieval proverbs used to be to King Solomon),
it is some relief to turn to the manuscripts, which usually afford
much better texts, and are altogether more trustworthy.
The following is a hst of the MSS. which have been followed.
I must here acknowledge my great debt to Dr. Furnivall, whose
excellent, careful, and exact reproduction in print of the various
MSS. leaves nothing to be desired, and is a great boon to all
Chaucer scholars. They are nearly all ' printed among the
Chaucer Society's publications. At the same time, I desire
to say that I have myself consulted most of the MSS., and
have thus gleaned a few hints which could hardly have been
otherwise acquired ; it was by this process that I became ac-
quainted whh the poems numbered XXII. and XXIII. , which
are probably genuine. An editor should always look at the
INISS. for himself, if he can possibly contrive to do so.
List of the MSS. ; with abbreviations.
N.B. The roman numbers following the name of each MS.
denote the numbers of the poems in the present edition.
A.— Ashmole 59, Bodleian Library (Shirley's).— XL XIII.
XVIII.
Ad.— Addit. 16165, British Museum.— VII. XX. XXIII.
Add.— Addit. 22139, British Museum.— XII. XIII. XIV. XIX.
Ar.— Arch. Selden B. 24, Bodleian Library.— IV. V. XIL
XVIII.
At. — Addit. 10340, British Museum.— XII.
B.— Bodley 638 (Oxford).— I. II. III. V. VII. IX. XL XXII.-^
Bannatync MS. 1568, Hunterian Museum, Glasgow, — XIV.
Bedford MS. (Bedford Library).— I.
C. — Cambridge Univ. Library, Ff. 5. 30. — I.
Corpus. — Corpus Chr. Coll., Oxford, 203. — XII.
' The copy of no. XV in MS. Fairfax 16 has not been printed. T
lade a transcript of it myself There is another unprinted copy in
MS. Ilarl. 757S.
m
7
XXXVlll DESCRIPTION OF THE MSS.
Ct.— Cotton, Cleopatra D. 7; Brit. Mus.— XII. XIII. XIV. XV.
Cx. — Caxton's editions; see above (p. xv). — V. VII. IX. XI.
XII. XIII. XVI. (part) ; XIX.
D.— Digby 181, Bodleian Library.— V. VII.
E.— Ellesmere MS. (also has the Cant. Tales).— XII.
ed. 1561.— Stowe's edition, 1561.— VIII. XV. XX. XXI., &c.
F.— Fairfax 16, Bodleian Library.— I. II. IIL IV. V. VII. IX.
XI. XII. (two copies) ; XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XX.
XXIL
Ff.— Cambridge Univ. Library, Ff. i. 6.— II. V. VII (part) ;
XVIII. XIX.
Gg. ^— Cambridge Univ. Library, Q%. 4. 27.— I. V. XII. XVI.
Gl. — Glasgow, Hunterian Museum, Q. 2. 25. — I.
H.— Harleian 2251, Brit. Mus.— I. XL XIII. XIX.
Ha.— Harleian 7578, Brit. Mus.— 1. II. XIII. XIV. XV. XX.
Harl.— Harleian 7333, Brit. Mus.— IV. V. VII. XII. XIII.
XIV. XIX. XXIL
Harleian 78, Brit. Mus. (Shirley's). See Sh. below.
Harleian 372, Brit. Mus. — VII.
Hh. — Cambridge Univ. Library, Hh. 4. 12. — ;V (part) ; X.
I. — Cambridge Univ. Library, li. 3. 21. — X. XL
Jo. — St. John's College, Cambridge, G. 21. — I.
Ju.— Julian Notary's edition (see p. xvi.).— IV. XVII. XVIII.
Kk. — Cambridge Univ. Library, Kk. I. 5. — XII.
L. — Laud 740, Bodleian Library. — I.
Lansdowne 699, Brit. Mus. — XI. XII.
Laud. — Laud 416, Bodleian Library.— V (part).
Lt.— Longleat MS. 258 (Marquis of Bath).— II. IV. V. VII.
O.— St. John's College, Oxford (no. Ivii.).— V.
P. — Pepys 2006, Magd. Coll., Cambridge. — I. (two copies) ; IV.
V. VI. VII (part) ; IX. XL XVI. XVIII. (two copies) ; XIX.
Sh.— Shirley's MS. Harl. 78, Brit. Mus.— II. XXI.
Sion College MS. (Shirley's).— 1.
T. — Trinity College, Cambridge, R. 3. 20. — IV. VII (part) ;
VIII. XL XII. (two copies) ; XIII. XIV. XVIII.
^Th.— W. Thynne's edition, 1532.— III. IX. XIV. XVII., &c.
^Tn.— Tanner 346, Bodleian Library.- 11. III. IV. V. VII.
XVIII.
* Called ' Cm.' in my editions of parts of the Canterbury Tales.
DESCRIPTION OF THE MSS. XXXIX
Trin.— Trinity College, Cambridge, R. 3. 19.— II. V.
Trinity College, Cambridge, R. 14, 51.— XIII. XIV.
Conversely, I here give a list of the Poems in the present
volume, shewing from which MSS. each one is derived. I
mention first the MSS. of most importance. I also note the
number of lines in each piece.
I. A. B. C. (184 lines).— C. Jo. Gl. L. Gg. F. ; other copies hi
H. P.' Bedford. Ha. Sion. B.^
II. Piic (119).— Tn. F. B. Sh. Ff. Trin. ; also Ha. Lt.
III. Duchess (1334).— F. Tn. B. Th.
IV. Mars (298).— F. Tn. Ju. Harl. T. Ar. ; also P.^ Lt.
V. Pari. Follies (699).— F, Gg. Trin. Cx. Harl. O. Ff. Tn. D. ;
also Ar. B. Lt. P. ; Hh. (365 lines) ; Laud (142 lines).
VI. Merciless Beaute (39).— P.
VII. ATielida (357).— Harl. F. Tn. D. Cx. ; also B. Lt. Ad. ;
Harl. 372 ; partly in T. Ff. P.
VIII. Lines to Adatn (7).— T. ; ed. 1561.
IX. Fame (2158).— F. B. P. Cx. Th.
X. Former Age (64). — I. Hh.
XI. Fortune (79).— I. A. T. F. B. H. ; also P. Cx. ; Lansd. 699.
XII. Truth (28).— At. Gg. E. Ct. T.^ ; also Had. F.* Add.
Cx ; Ar. Kk. Corpus ; Lansd. 699.
XIII. Gentilesse (21).— A. T. Harl. Ct. Ha. Add. Cx ; also H.
and Trinity.
XIV. Lak of Stcdfastnesse (28).— Harl. T. Ct. F. Add.; also
Th. Ha. ; Trinity, a7id Bannatyne.
XV. Against Women Unconstaunt (21 ). — Ct. F. Ha. ; ed. 1 56 1 .
XVI. To Scogan (49). — Gg. F. P. ; also Cx. (21 lines).
XVII. To Bukton (32).— F. Th. ; also Ju.
XVI I I. Venus (82).— T. A. Tn. F. Ff. ; also Ar. Ju. P.''
XIX. Purse (26).— F. Harl. Ff. P. Add. ; also H. Cx.
XX. Proverbs (8).— F. Ha. Ad. ; ed. 1561.
XXI. Complaint to his Lady (123). — Harleian 78 ; ed. 1561.
XXI I. An Amorous Coinplaitit (91). — Harl. F. B.
XXIII. Balade of Complaint (21).— Ad.
' There are two copies in MS. P. ; they may be called Pi and P2.
' I make but little use of the copies in the second group.
^ Two copies ; may be called T i and T 2.
^ Two copies ; F i and F 2.
' Two copies; Pi and P2,
xl MSS. AT OXFORD.
Remarks on some of the MSS.
Some of these MSS. deserve a few special remarks.
Shirley's MSS. are— A. Ad. H. Harl. Sh. Sion, and T.
MSS. in Scottish spelling are — Ar. Bannatyne. Kk. ; L. shews
Northern tendencies.
MSS. AT Oxford.
F. (Fairfax i6) is a valuable MS. ; not only does it contain
as many as seventeen of these Minor Poems, but it is a fairly
written MS. of the fifteenth century. The spelling does not very
materially differ from that of such an excellent MS. as the Elles-
mere MS. of the Canterbury Tales, excepting in the fact that
a great number of final ^'s are added in wrong places, and are
dropped where they are required. This is a matter that can
be to a large extent rectified, and I have endeavoured to do so,
taking it in many instances as the standard text. Next to this
misuse of final ^'s, which is merely due to the fact that it was
written out at a time when the true use of them was already lost,
its most remarkable characteristic is the scribe's excessive love
of the letter _y in place of t ; he writes hyt ys instead of hit is,
and the like. In a great number of instances I have restored /,
where the vowel is short. When the text of the Fairfax MS. is
thus restored, it is by no means a bad one. It also contains fair
copies of many poems by Hoccleve and Lydgate, such as the
former's Letter of Citpide ', and the latter's Complaitit of the
Black Knight, Temple of Glass, and Balade against IVomen^s
Doubleness, being the very piece which is introduced into Stowe's
edition, and is numbered 45 above (see p. xxi). We are also
enabled, by comparing this MS. with MS. Harl. 7578, to solve
another riddle, viz. why it is that Chaucer's Proverbs, as printed
in Morris's and Bell's editions, are followed by two 7-line stanzas
which have nothing whatever to do with them. In MS. Harl.
7578 these two stanzas immediately follow, and MS. F. im-
mediately/r^r^/f^ Chaucer's Proverbs, and therefore were near
.enough to them to give an excuse for throwing them in together.
However, both these stanzas are by Lydgate, and are mere frag-
* Also a Balade, beginning ' Victorious kyng,' printed in G. Mason's
edition of Occleve, 1 796 ; as well as The Book of Cupid, which is
another name for the Ctickoo and Nightingale.
MSS. AT OXFORD. xH
ments ^ The former of them, beginning * The worlde so wide,
thaire so remuable,' really belongs to a poem of i8 stanzas,
printed in Halliwell's edition of Lydgate's INIinor Poems (Percy
Soc), p. 193. The latter of them, beginning 'The more I goo,
the ferther I am behinde,' belongs to a poem of 11 stanzas,
printed in the same, p. 74. Perhaps this will serve as a hint to
future editors of Chaucer, from whose works it is high time to
exclude poems knozun to be by some other hand.
In this MS. there is also a curious and rather long poem upon
the game of chess ; the board is called the cheker, and the pieces
are the kytig, the quene or the fers (described on fol. 294), the
rokys {duo Rod), the k»ygJi/ys, the Aiufyns [duo a/Jinz), and the
■bov7tys {pedim). This is interesting in connection with the Book
of the Duchess ; see note to 1. 654, on p. 255. The author tells
us how ' he plaid at the chesse,' and ' was mated of a Ferse.'
B. (Bodley 638) is very closely related to MS. F. ; in the case
of some of the poems, both must have been drawn from a com-
mon source. MS. B. is not a mere copy of F., for it sometimes
has the correct reading where F. is wrong; as, e.g. in the case
of the reading Bret in the House of Fame, 1. 1208, on p. 156.
It contains seven of these Mmor Poems, as well as The boke of
Cnpide god of lone {Cuckoo and Nightingale), Hoccleve's Lettre
of Cupide god of loue, Lydgate's Temple of Glass (oddly called
Temple of Bras (!), a mistake which occurs in MS. F. also), his
Ordre of Folys, printed in Halliwell's Minor Poems of Lydgate,
p. 164, and his Complaint of the Black Knight.
A. (Shirley's MS. Ashmole 59) is remarkable for containing
a large number of pieces by Lydgate, most of which are marked
as his. It corroborates the statement in MS. F. that he wrote
the Balade against Women's Doublcness. It contains the whole
of Scogan's poem in which Chaucer's Geittilesse is quoted : see
the complete print of it, from this MS., in the Chaucer Society's
publications.
Another poem in this IMS. requires a few words. At the
back of leaf 38 is a poem entitled ' The Cronycle made by
Chancier,' with a second title to this effect : — ' Here nowe
folowe the names of the nyene worshipfullest Ladyes that in alle
cronycles and storyal bokes haue beo founden of trouthe of con-
' Unless they were composed, as Shirley says, by one Halsham, and
adopted by Lydgate as subjects for new poenfis; see pp. xxxvi., xlv.
xlii JirSS. AT OXFORD.
staunce and vertuous or reproched {sic) womanhode by Chau-
cier.' The poem consists of nine stanzas of eight Hnes (in the
ordinary heroic metre), and is printed in Furnivall's Odd Text
of Chaucer's Minor Poems, Part I. It would be a gross libel to
ascribe this poem to Chaucer, as it is very poor, and contains
execrable rimes (such as prysoun, bycottie ; apply-e, pytc ; thee,
dy-e). But we may easily see that the title is likely to give rise
to a misconception. It does not really mean that the poem
itself is by Chaucer, but that it gives a brief epitome of the
' Cronicle made by Chaucier ' of ' the nyene worshipfullest
Ladyes.' And, in fact, it does this. Each stanza briefly de-
scribes one of the nine women celebrated in Chaucer's Legend
of Good Women. It is sufficient to add that the author makes
a ludicrous mistake, which is quite enough to acquit Chaucer
of having had any hand in this wholly valueless produc-
tion; for he actually addresses 'quene Alceste' as sorrowing
for ' Seyse her husbande.' Seyse is Chaucer's Ceyx, and Alceste
is the author's comic substitution for Alcyotie ; see Book of the
Duchess, 1, 220, on p. 20. This is not a fault of the scribe ; for
Alceste rimes with byheste, whereas Alcione does not. I much
suspect that Shirley wrote this poem himself. His verses, in
MS. Addit. 16165, are veiy poor.
Tn. (Tanner 346) is a fair MS. of the 15th century, and con-
tains, besides six of the Minor Poems, the Legend of Good
Women, Hoccleve's Letter of Cupid (called litem Cupidinis dei
Ainoris directa subditis suis Amatoribiis), the Cuckoo and
Nightingale (called the god of loue), Lydgate's Temple of Glas
and Black Knight, Sec. One of them is the Ballad no. 32 dis-
cussed above (p. xxix.). At fol. 7^ is a poem in 13 8-line stanzas,
beginning ' As ofte as syghes ben in herte trewe.' One stanza
begins with these lines : —
' As ofte tymes as Penelapye
Renewed her werk in the radttorc,^ Sec.
I quote this for the sake of the extremely rare Chaucerian word
spelt radevore in the Legend of Good Women, 2341 (or 2352 in
Furnivall's prints of the MSS.). The same line occurs in
another copy of the same poem in MS. Ff., fol. 12, back.
Ar. (Arch. Seld. B. 24) is a Scottish MS., apparently written
in 1472, and contains, amongst other things, the unique copy of
MSS. AT CAMBRIDGE. xliii
the Kingis Quair, by James I. of Scotland. This is the MS.
wherein the scribe attributes pieces to Chaucer quite recklessly :
see p. XXXV. It is also the authority for the pieces called Pros-
perity and Leatiltc vault Richesse. Here, once more, we find
the Letter of Cupid and the Cuckoo and Nightingale ; it is
remarkable how often these poems occur in the same MS. It
also contains Troilus and the Legeftd of Good lVo7nen.
D. (Digby i8i) contains, besides two of the Minor Poems,
an imperfect copy of Troilus ; also the Letter of Cupid and
Complaint of the Black KttigJit. At fol. 52 is a piece entitled
' Here Bochas repr^uyth hem that yeue hasti credence to euery
reporte or tale'; and it begins — 'Ail-though so be in Guer^-
maner age'; in 19 7-hne stanzas. This is doubtless a part
of chapter 13 of Book I. of Lydgate's Fall of Princes.
Cambridge MSS.
Ff. (Ff. I. 6) contains, besides five of the Minor Poems, many
other pieces. One is a copy of Pyranms and Thisde, being
part of the Legend of Good Women. There are four extracts
from various parts of Gower's Confessio Amantis ; the Cuckoo
and Nightingale and Letter of Cupid ; the Romance of Sir
Degrei'aufit ; La Belle Dame sans Merci. Some pieces from
this MS. are printed in Reliquiae Antiquae, i. 23, 169, 202 ; and
two more, called The Parliametit of Love Tind The Seven Deadly
Sins, are printed in Political, Religious, and Love Poems, ed.
Furnivall (E. E. T. S.), pp. 48, 215. We also find here a copy of
Lydgate's Ballad of Good Coutisail, printed in the old editions
of Chaucer (piece no. 40 ; see above, p. xxi.).
Gg. (Gg. 4. 27) 'is the MS. which contains so excellent a copy
of the Canterbury Tales, printed as the ' Cambridge MS.' in the
Chaucer Society's pubhcations. Four leaves arc lost at the
beginning. On leaf 5 is Chaucer's A. B. C. ; on leaf 7, back, the
Envoy to Scogan ; and on leaf 8, back, Chaucer's Truth, en-
titled Balade de bone conseyl. This is followed by a rather
pretty poem, in 15 8-line stanzas, which is interesting as quoting
from Chaucer's Parliament of Foules. Examples are : ' Qui
Men ayme tard oublye' (1. 32; cf. P. F. 679): 'The fesaunt,
scornere of the cok Be nihter-tyme in frostis colde ' (11. 49, 50 ;
cf. P. F. 357) ; 'Than spak the frosty feldefare ' (1. 89; cf. P. F.
364). Line 41 runs — 'Robert redbrest and the wrenne'; which
xHv MSS. AT CAMBRIDGE,
throws some light on the etymology of robin. This valuable
MS. also contains Troilus and the Legend of Good Women,
with the unique earlier form of the Prologue ; and Lydgate's
Temple of Glas. At fol. 467 is a Supplicacio amaniis, a long
piece of no great value, but the first four lines give pretty clear
evidence that the author was well acquainted with Chaucer's
Anelida, and aspired to imitate it.
* Redresse of sorweful, O Cytherea,
That wiUi the stremys of thy plesauwt hete
Gladist the cuntreis of al Cirrea,
"Wher thou hast chosyn thy paleys and thy seta.'
It seems to be a continuation of the Temple of Glas, and is
probably Lydgate's own.
Hh. (Camb. Univ. Lib. Hh. 4. 12) contains much of Lydgate,
and is fully described in the Catalogue.
Trin. (Trin. Coll. Camb. R. 3. 19) not only contains two of the
Minor Poems, but a large number of other pieces, including the
Legend of Good Women and many of Lydgate's Poems. In
particular, it is the source of most of Stowe's additions to
Chaucer: I may mention The Craft of Lovers, dated 1448 in
the MS. (fol. 156), but 1348 in Stowe ; the Ten Cojmnaftdmenis
of Love, Nine Ladies worthy, Virelai (fol. 160), Balade begin-
ning Ln the seson of Feuerer (fol. 160), Goddesses aftd Paris
(fol. 161, back), A balade plesaunte (fol. 205), O Mossie Qiiince
(fol. 205), Balade beginning Loke well abonte (fol. 207) ; and
The Court of Love ; see the pieces numbered 46, 48, 49, 50, 51,
53> 54) 55j 56, 59 (p. xxi). The piece numbered 41 also occurs
here, at the end of the Parliament of Foiiles, and is headed
' Verba translatoris.' One poem, by G. Ashby, is dated 1463,
and I suppose most of the pieces are in a handwriting of a later
date, not far from 1500. It is clear that Stowe had no better
reason for inserting pieces in his edition of Chaucer than their
occurrence in this MS. to which he had access. If he had had
access to any other MS. of the same character, the additions in
his book would have been different. This is the sort of evi-
dence which some people accept as being quite sufficient to
prove that Chaucer learnt the language of a century after his
own date in order to qualify himself for writing The Court of
Love !
MSS. IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. xlv
London MSS.
Ad. (MS. Addit. 16165). One of Shirley's MSS., marked
with his name in large letters. It contains a copy of Chaucer's
Boethitis ; Trevisa's translation of the gospel of NicliodcDitis ;
the Maistre of the game (on hunting) ; the Compleint of the
Black KtJight and the Drenie of a Lover, both by Lydgate.
The latter is the same poem, I suppose, as The Temple of G las.
It is here we learn from Shirley that the Co/iiplaint of the Black
Knight is Lydgate's. Not only is it headed, on some pages, as
* The complaynte of a knight made by Lidegate,' but on fol. 3 he
refers to the same poem, speaking of it as being a complaint —
' al in balade *,
That daun lohan of Bury made,
Lydgate the Munk clothed in blakke.'
Here also we find two separate fragments of A7ieUda'^', the
two stanzas mentioned above (p. xli, 1. i), called by Shirley 'two
verses made in wyse of balade by Halsham, Esquyer'; Chaucer's
Proverbs; the poem no. 45 above (p. xxi), attributed in this
MS. to Lydgate ; &c. At fol. 256, back, is the Balade of com-
pleynte printed in this volume as poem no. XXIII.
Add. (MS. Addit. 22139). This is a fine folio MS., contain-
ing Gower's Confessio Amantis. At fol. 138 are Chaucer's
Purse, Gentilesse, Lak of Stedfastnesse, and Truth.
At. (MS. Addit. 10340). Contains Chaucer's Boethius (foil.
1-40) ; also Truth, with the unique envoy, and the description
of the ' Persone,' from the Canterbury Tales, on fol. 41, recto ^
Ct. (MS. Cotton, Cleopatra, D. 7.) The Chaucer poems are all
on leaves 188, 189. They are all ballads, viz. Gefittlesse, Lak of
Stedfastness, Truth, and Against Women Unconstaunt. All
four are in the same hand ; and we may remark that the last of
the four is thus, in a manner, linked with the rest ; see p. xlvi,
H. (MS. Harl. 2251.) Shirley's MS. contains a large number
of pieces, chiefly by Lydgate. Also Chaucer's Prioresses Tale,
^ i. e. in the ballad-measure, or 7-Iine stanzas.
■ One page of this, in Shirley's writing, has been reproduced in
facsimile for the Chaucer Society.
" This page has been reproduced, in facsimile, for the Chaucer Society.
xlvi Jl/SS. I.V THE BRITISH MUSEUM,
Fortune (fol. 46), Geniilesse (fol. 48, back), A. B. C. (fol. 49), and
Purse (fol. 271). The Cra/f of Lovers also occurs, and is dated
1459 in this copy. Poem no. 56 (p. xxii.j also occurs here, and is
marked as Lydgate's. We also see from this MS. that the first
four stanzas of no. 52 (p. xxi.) form part of a poem on the Fall of
Man, in which Truth, Mercy, Righteousness, and Peace are in-
troduced as allegorical personages. The four stanzas form part
of Mercy's plea, and this is why the word mercy occurs ten
times. At fol. 153, back (formerly 158, back), we actually find
a copy of Henry Scogan's poem in which Chaucer's Geniilesse
is 7iot quoted, the requisite stanzas being entirely omitted. At
fol. 249, back, Lydgate quotes the line ' this world is a thurghfare
ful of woo,' and says it is from Chaucer's ' tragedyes.' It is
from the Knightes Tale, 1. 1989.
Ha. (Harl. 7578.) Contains Lydgate's Proverbs ; Chaucer's
Pite (fol. 13, back), Geniilesse and Lak of Stedfastnesse (fol. 17),
immediately followed by the Balade against Women uncon-
staunt, precisely in the place where we should expect to find it ;
also Chaucer's Proverbs, immediately followed by the wholly
unconnected stanzas discussed above; p. xli, 1. i. At fol. .20,
back, are six stanzas of Chaucer's A. B. C.
Harl, (MS. Harl. TZZl-) This is a fine foho MS., and con-
tains numerous pieces. At fol. "^"j, recto, begins a copy of the
Canterbury Tales, with a short prose Proem by Shirley ; this
page has been reproduced in facsimile for the Chaucer Society.
At fol. 129, back, begins the Parlia7nent of Foules, at the end
of which is the stanza which appears as poem no. 41 in Stowe's
edition (see p. xxi). Then follow the Broche of Thebes, i. e. the
Complaint of Mars, and Atielida. It also contains some of the
Gesta Romanorum and of Hoccleve's De Regimine Priticipum.
But the most remarkable thing in this MS. is the occurrence, at
fol. 136, of a poem hitherto (as I believe) unprinted, yet ob-
viously (in my opinion) written by Chaucer ; see no. XXII. in
the present volume. Other copies occur in F. and B.
Sh. (MS. Harl. 78 ; one of Shirley's MSS.). At fol. 80 begins
the Complai7it to Pity ; on fol. 82 the last stanza of this poem is
immediately followed by the poem here printed as no. XXI ;
the only mark of separation is a star-like mark placed upon the
line which is drawn to separate one stanza from another. At.
the end of fol. Z-^, back, the last line of the poem occurs at the
/. A. B. C. xlvii
bottom of the page, and fol. 84 is gone. Hence we cannot tell
whether the poem really ended there, or whether tliere was
once some more of it.
MS. Harl. 372. This MS. contains many poems by Lydgatc.
Also a copy of Atieh'da ; followed by La Belle Dame sans
mercy ^ ' translated out of Frenche by Sir Richard Ros,' &c.
MS. Lansdowne 699. This MS. contains numerous poems by
Lydgate, such as Guy of Wanvick, the Dance of Macabre^ the
Horse, Sheep, and Goose, &c. ; and copies of Chaucer's
Fortune and Truth.
I. A. B. C.
This piece was first printed in Spcght's edition of 1602, with
this title : ' Chaucer's A. B. C. called La Prierede Nostre Dame :
made, as some say, at the request of Blanch, Duchesse of Lan-
caster, as a praier for her priuat vse, being a woman in her
religion very deuout.' This is proba,bly a mere guess, founded
on the fact that Chaucer wrote the Book of the Duchess. It
cannot be literally true, because it is not strictly ' made,' or com-
posed, but only translated. Stiil, it is just possible that it was
translated for her pleasure (rather than use) ; and if so, must
have been written between 1359 and 1369. A probable date
is about 1366. In any case, it may well stand first in chro-
nological order, being a translation just of that unambitious
character which requires no great experience. Indeed, the
translation shews one mark of want of skill ; each stanza begins
by following the original for a line or two, after which the stanza
is completed rather according to the requirements of rime than
with an endeavour to render the original at all closely. There
are no less than thirteen MS. copies of it ; and its genuineness
is attested both by Lydgate and Shirley \ The latter marks it
with Chaucer's name in the Sion College MS. Lydgate's testi-
mony is curious, and requires a few words of explanation.
Guillaume De Deguileville, a Cistercian monk in the royal
abbey of Chalis^, in the year 1330 or 1331 ■', wrote a prose piece
entitled PHcrinage de la Vie Jnunaine. Of this there are two
' It is also twice attributed to Chaucer in MS. P.
* I follow the account in Motley's ^w^/^V/i Writers, 1867, ii 204 ; the
name is there given as de Guilcvile ; but M. Paul Meyer writes De
Deguileville.
^ Morley says 1330; a note in the Camb. MS. Ff. 6. 30 says 1331.
xlvlii /. A. B. c.
extant English translations, one in prose and one in verse, the
latter being attributed to Lydgate. Of the prose translation ',
four copies exist, viz. in the MSS. which I call C, Gl., Jo., and
L. In all of these, Chaucer's A. B. C. is inserted, in order to
gi\'e a verse rendering of a similar prayer in verse in the
original. Of Lydgate's verse translation there is a copy in MS.
Cotton, Vitell. C. xiii. (see foil. 255, 256) ; and when he comes to
the place where the verse prayer occurs in his original, he
says that, instead of translating the prayer himself, he will
quote Chaucer's translation, observing —
'My mayster Chaucer, in hys tyme,
Affter the Frenchs he dyde yt ryme.'
Curiously enough, he does not do so ; a blank space was left in
the MS. for the scribe to copy it out, but it was never filled in ^.
However, it places the genuineness of the poem beyond doubt ;
and the internal evidence confirms it ; though it was probably,
as was said, quite an early work.
In order to illustrate the poem fully, it is necessary to give
the French original, which I copy from the print of it in Fumi-
vall's One-text Print of Chaucei^ s Mifior Poems, Part I. p. 84.
From Guillaume De Deguileville's Pelerinage de VAnie,
Part I, Le Pelerinage de la Vie humaine. Edited from the
MS. 1645, Fonds Franqais, in the National Library, Paris (A),
and collated with the MSS. 1649 (B), 376 (C), and m (D), in
the same collection, by Paul Meyer" : —
* K. toy du monde le refui,
Vierge glorieuse, m'en fui
Tout confus, ne puis miex faire;
A toy me tien a toy mapuy.
Relieve moy, abatu suy :
Vaincu m'a mon adversaire.
Puis qu'en toy ont tous repaire
Bien me doy vers toy retraire
Avant que j'aie plus d'annuy.
* Edited by Mr. W. Aldis Wright for the Roxburghe Club in 1869;
see p. 164 of that edition.
- See Furnivall's Trial Forewords, pp. 13-15, and p. 100, for further
information.
' I omit the collations ; the reader only wants a good text.
/. A. B. C. xlix
N'est pas luite neccessaire lo
A moy, se tu, debonnayre,
Ne me sequeurs comme a aulrui.
'Bicn voy que par toy confortes
Sera mes cuers desconfortcs,
Quer tu es de salu porta.
Se je me suis mal tresportez
Par .vij. larrons, pechies mortez,
Et erre jiar voie torte,
Esperance me conforte
Qui a toy hui me raporte 20
A ce que soie deportez.
Ma povre arme je t'aporte:
Sauve la : ne vaut que morte ;
En li sont tous biens avortez.
' Centre moy font une accion
Ma vergoigne et confusion,
Que devant toy ne doy venir
Pour ma tres grant transgression.
Rayson et desperacion
Contre moy veulent maintenir ; 30
Mes pour ce que veil plait fenir,
Devai.t toy les fes convenir
En faisant replicacion.
C'est que je di appartenir
A toy du tout et convenir
Pitie et miseracion.
' Dame es de misericorde
Par qui Diex bien se recorde
A sa gent estre racorde.
Par toy vint pes et concorde, ^o
Et fu pour oster di?corde
E'arc de justice descorde ;
Et pour ce me sui acorde,
Toi mercier et concorde,
Pour ce que ostas la corde;
Quar, ainsi com j'ay recorde,
S'encore fust Tare cncorde
Compare I'eust ma vie orde.
'En toy ay m'esperance eii
Quant a merci m'as receii ^o
Autre foys en mainte guise
d
/. A. B. C.
Du bien qui ou ciel fu creii
As ravive et repeii
M'ame qui estoit occise.
Las ! mes quant la grant assise
Sera, se n'y es assise
Pour moy mal y seray veii.
De bien n'ay nuUe reprise,
Las m'en clain quant bien m'avise,
Souvent en doy dire heii ! 60
' Fuiant m'en viens a ta tente
Moy mucier pour la tormente
Qui ou monde me tempeste.
Pour mon pechie ne t'absente,
A moy garder met t'en tente,
A mon besoing soiez preste.
Se lone temps j'ay este beste
A ce, Vierge, je m'arreste
Que de ta grace me sente.
Si te fais aussi requeste 7°
Que ta pitie nu me veste.
Car je n'ay nulle autre rente.
' Glorieuse vierge mere
Qui a nul onques amere
Ne fus en terre ne eii mer,
Ta douceur ores m'apere
Et ne sueffres que mon pere
De devant li me jecte puer.
Se devant li tout vuit j'apper,
Et par moy ne puis eschapper 80
Que ma faute ne compere.
Tu devant li pour moy te per
En li moustrant que, s'a li per
Ne sui, si est il mon frere.
' Homme voult par sa plaisance
Devenir, pour aliance
Avoir a humain lignage.
Avec li crut des enfance
Pitie dont j'ai esperance
Avoir eu en mon usage. 9°
EUe fu mise a forage
Qujint au cuer lui vint mesnge
Du cruel fer de la lance.
Ne puet estre, se sui sage,
I
no
/. ^. B. C. li
Que je n'en aie avantage,
Se tn vcus et abondance.
* le ne truis par nulle voie
Ou mon salut si bien voie
Gom, apres Dieu, en toy le voy ;
Quar qnant auctm se desvoie, loo
A ce que tost se ravoie,
De ta pitie li fais convoy.
Tu 11 fes lessier son desroy
Et li refaiz sa pais au roy,
Et remez en droite voie.
Moult est done oil en bon arroy,
En bon atour, en bon conroy
Que ta grace si conroie.
' Kalendier sont enlumine
Et autre livre enterine
Quant ton non les enlumine.
A tout meschief ont resine
Ceus qui se sont achemine
A toy pour leur medicine.
A moy done, virge, t'encline,
Car a toy je m'achemine
Pour estre bicn medicine ;
Ne sueffre que de gainne
Isse justice devine
Par quoy je soye extermine. 120
' La douceur de toy pourtraire
Je ne puis, a qui retraire
Doit ton filz de ton sane estrait ;
Pour ce a toy m'ay volu traire
Afin que contre moy traire
Ne le sueuffres nul cruel trait.
Je recongnois bien mon mesfait
Et qu'au colier j'ai souvent trait
Dont Ten me devroit detraire ;
Mez se tu veus tu as I'entrait 130
Par quoy tantost sera retrait
Le mehain qui m'est contraire.
' Moyses vit en figure
Que tu, vierge nete et pure,
Jesu le filz Dieu conceiis :
Un bysson contre nature
Vit qui ardoit sans arsure.
d2
Hi /. A. B. C.
C'es tu, n'en suis point deceiis,
Dex est li feus qn'en toy eiis;
Et tu, buisson des recreiiz 140
Es, pour tremper leur ardure.
A ce veoir, vierge, veils
Soie par toy et receiis,
Oste chaussement d'ordure.
' Noble princesse dn monde
Qui n'as ne per no seconde
En royaume n'en enpire,
De toy vient, de toy redonde
Tout le bien qui nous abonde,
N'avons autre tirelire. 15°
En toy tout povre homme espire
Et de toy son salu tire,
Et en toy seule se fonde.
Ne puet uul penser ne dire,
Nul pourtraire ne escrire
Ta bonte comme est parfonde.
' O Lumiere des non voians
Et vrai repos des recreans
Et de tout bien tresoriere,
A toy sont toutez gens beans 160
Qui en la foy sont bien creans
Et en toy ont foy entiere;
A nul onques ne fus fiere,
Ains toy dels chamberiere
Quant en toy vint li grans geans.
Or es de Dieu chanceliere
Et de graces aumosniere
Et confort a tons recreans.
' Pris m'est volente d'enqnerre
Pour savoir que Diex vint querre 170
Quant en toy se vint enserrer;
En toy devint vers de terre ;
Ne cuit pas que fust pour guerre
Ne pour moy jus aterrer.
Vierge, se ne me sens errer,
D'armes ne me faut point ferrer
Fors sans plus de li requerre.
Quant pour moy se vint enterrer,
Se il ne se veut desterrer
Encor puis s'amour acquerre. 180
T. A. B. C. liii
* Qnant pourpense apr^s me sui
Qu'ay offendu et toy et lui,
Et qu'a mal est m'ame duite,
Que, fors pechie, en moi n'estui,
Et que mal hyer et pis m'est hui,
Tost apres si me ranvite,
Vierge douce, se pren fuite,
Se je fui a la poursuite,
Ou fuiray, qu'a mon refui?
S'a nul bien je ne m'affruite igo
Et mas sui avant que luite.
Plus grief encore en est I'anuy.
* Eeprens moy, mere, ct chastie
Quar mon pere n'ose mie
Attendre a mon chastiement
Son chastoy si fiert a hie;
Rien n'ataint que tout n'esmie
Quant il veut prendre vengemenL
Mere, bien doi tel batement
Douter, quar en empirement 200
A tous jours este ma vie.
A toy dont soit le jugement,
Car de pi tie as I'oingnement,
Mes que merci Ten te prie.
' Sans toy nul bien ne foysonne
Et sans toy Diex riens ne donne,
Quar de tout t'a fet maistresse.
Quant tu veus trestout pardonne;
Et par toy est mise bonne
A justice la mairesse; 210
N'est royne ne princesse
Pour qui nul ainsi se cesse
Et de droit se dessaisonne.
Du monde es gouvemeresse,
Et du ciel ordeneresse ;
Sans reson n'as pas couronne.
' Temple saint ou Dieu habile
Dont prive sont li herite
Et a tous jours deshcrite,
A toy vieng de toy me herite, 220
Re9oif moy par ta merite
Quar de toy n'ay point hesite.
Et se je me sui herit^
liv /. ^- B. C.
Des espines d'iniquite
Pour quoy terre fu mandite.
Las m'en clain en verite,
Car a ce fait ra'a excite
L'ame qui n'en est pas quite.
' Vierge de noble et haut atour.
Qui au chastel et a la tour 230
De paradis nous atoumes, '
Atourne moy ens et entour
De tel atour que au retour
De ta grace me retoumes,
Se vil sui, si me raoumes.
A toy vieng, ne te destoumes,
Quer au besoing es mon destour.
Sequeur moy, point ne sejoumes,
Ou-tu a la court m'ajoumes,
Ou ta pitie fait son sejour. 240
' Xpc ' ton filz, qui descendi
En terre et en la crois pendi,
Ot pour moy le coste fendu.
Sa grant rigour il destendi
Quant pour moy I'esperit rendi.
Son corps pendant et estendu ;
Pour moy son sane fu espandu.
Se ceci j'ai bien entendu
A mon salut bien entendi,
Et pour ce, se I'ay offendu 250
Et il ne le m'a pas rendu,-
Merci t'en reus, graces Ten di.
' Ysaac le prefigura
Qui de sa mort rien ne cura
En obeisant au pere.
Comme .j. aignel tout endura;
En endurant tout espura
Par crueuse mort amere.
O tres douce vierge mere,
Par ce fait fai que se pere 260
Par plour l'ame qui cuer dur a ;
Fai que grace si m'apere ;
Et n'en soiez pas avere
Quar largement la mesura.
* Xpc is the contraction for Christus; see p. 228.
/. A. B. C. Iv
' Zacharie dc mon somme
Me exite, et si me somme
D'en toy ma merci atendre;
Fontaine patent te nomme
Pour laver pecheiir homme :
C'est lecon bonne a aprendre. 270
Se tu done as le cuer tendre
Et m'offense n'est pas mendre
De cil qui menga la pomme,
Moy laver veillez entendre,
Moy garder et moy deffendre,
Que justice ne m'asomme.
' Ethiques ^ s'avoie leii,
Tout recorde et tout sceii,
Et apres riens n'en ouvrasse
Du tout seroie deceii. 280
Aussi con cil qui est cheii,
En sa rois et en sa nasse.
Vierge, m'ame je claim lasse,
Quar en toy priant se lasse
Et si ne fait point son deii.
Pou vault chose que je amasse ;
Ma priere n'est que quasse
S'a bien je ne sui esmeii.
' Contre " moy doubt que ne prie
Ou que en vain merci ne crie. 290
Je te promet amandement ;
Et pour ce que je ne nie
Ma promesse, je t'en lie
L'ame de moy en gaigement ;
Puis si te pri finablement
Que quant sera mon finement
Tu ne me defailles mie :
Pour moy soies au jugement
Afin que hereditablement
J'aie pardurable vie. Amen.' 300
It will be observed that Chaucer did not translate the last two
stanzas.
MS. C. affords, on the whole, the best text, and is therefore
' The initial E stands for ct.
'' The initial C stands for cetera. It was usual to place &-'c. ^=et
cetera) at the end of the alphabet.
Ivi //. COMPLEYNT UNTO PITE.
followed, all variations from it being duly noted in the foot-
notes, except (occasionally) when / is put for _y, my for /. The
scribes are very capricious in the use of these letters, using
them indifferently ; but it is best to use i when the vowel is
short (as a general rule), and y when it is long. Thus, it is is
better than_>'/_yj-, and wysc than wise, in order to shew that the
vowel is long in the latter case. I also use y at the end of a
word, as usual ; as in lady, my. When the spelling of the MS.
is thus slightly amended, it gives a fair text, which can easily
be read with the old and true pronunciation. See my edition
of the Man of Law's Tale, pref. p. ix.
II. The Compleynt unto Pite.
The word compleynt answers to the O. F. cotnplaint, sb.
masc, as distinguished from O. F. complainte, sb. fem., and was
the technical name, as it were, for a love-poem of a mournful
tone, usually addressed to the unpitying loved one. See Gode-
froy's Old French Dictionary ^ Dr. Furnivall's account of
this poem begins as follows : ' In seventeen 7-line stanzas : I of
Proem, 7 of Stor^', and '9 of Complaint, arranged in three Terns
[sets of three] of stanzas ; first printed by Thynne in 1532 . . .
The poem looks not easy to construe ; but it is clearly a Com-
plaint to Pity, as 5 INISS. read, and not ^Pity, as Shirley reads
in MS. Harl. 78. This Pity once lived in the heart of the
loved-one of the poet . . . But in his mistress's heart dwells also
Pity's rival. Cruelty ; and when the poet, after waiting many
years ^, seeks to declare his love, even before he can do so,
he finds that Pity for him is dead in his mistress's heart,
Cruelty has prevailed, and deprived him of her.' His theory is,
that this poem is Chaucer's earliest original work, and relates to
his own feelings of hopeless love ; also, that Chaucer was not
married till 1374, when he married his namesake Philippa
Chaucer ^ If this be so, a probable conjectural date for this
poem is about 1367. I have remarked, in a note to 1. 14
(p. 230), that the allegory of the poem is somewhat confused ;
' Chaucer speaks of writing compleintes ; Cant. Ta. 11 260.
^ Cf. ' this eight yere' ; Book of the Diuhcsse 37.
^ ' Philippa Chaucer was a lady of the bedchamber, and therefore
married, in 1366'; N. and Q. 7 S. v. 289.
///. BOOK OF THE DUC HESSE. Ivii
and this implies a certain want of skill and clearness, which
makes the supposition of its being an early work the more
probable'. It is extremely difticult to determine to what ex-
tent the sentiments are artificial. If a French poem of a
similar character should one day be found, it would not be very
surprising. Meanwhile, it is worth observing that the notion
of personifying Pity is taken from Chaucer's favorite author
Statius ; see the Thcbaid, bk. xi. 458-496, and compare the
context, 11. 1-457. It is this which enables us to explain the
word Herenus in 1. 92, which is an error for Herines, the form
used by Chaucer to denote the Ej-intiyes or Furies'^. The
Erinnyes are mentioned in Statius, Thcb. xi. 345 (cf. 11. 58, 60,
383) ; and Statius leads up to the point of the story where it is
an even chance whether there will be peace or war. The
Furies urge on the combatants to war ; and at this crisis, the
only power who can overrule them is Pietas, personified by
Statius for this express purpose (11. 458, 465, 466). The struggle
between Pity and Cruelty in Chaucer's poem is parallel to the
struggle between Pietas and the fury Tisiphone as told in Statius.
Pity is called Herines quene, or queen of the Furies, because she
alone is supposed to be able to control them. See my notes
to 11. 57, 64, and 92 (pp. 231, 232).
The poem is extant in eight J\ISS. It is attributed to Chaucer
by Shirley (see p. 229), and the internal evidence confirms this.
There is a fairly good copy in MS. F, on which my edition of
it is based. There is, further, an excellent critical edition of
this poem by Prof. Ten Brink, in Essays on Chancer, Part II,
p. 170 (Chaucer Soc.) ; this I carefully consulted after making
my own copy, and I found that the differences were very
slight.
III. The Book of the Duchesse.
Here we are on firm ground. The genuineness of this poem
has never been doubted. It is agreed that the word Whyte in
1. 948, which is given as the name of the lady lately dead, is a
translation oi Blanche, ixnd. that the reference is to the wife of the
• But Ten Brink {^Sfrache tind Verskunst, p. 174) dates it about
1370-1372-
'^ ' O ye Herines, nightes doughters thre ' ; Troiltis, last stanza of the
invocation in bk. iv.
Ivlii ///. BOOK OF THE DUC HESSE.
Duke of Lancaster (John of Gaunt), who died Sept. 12, 1369, at
the age of twenty-nine, her husband being then of the same age.
As the poem would naturally be written soon after this event,
the date must be near the end of 1369. In fact, John of Gaunt
married again in 1372, whereas he is represented in the poem as
being inconsolable. Chaucer's own testimony, in the Legend of
Good Women, 1. 418, is that he made 'the deeth of Blaunche
the Duchesse' ; and again, in the Introduction to the Man of
Law's Prologue, 1. 57, that ' In youthe he made of Ceys and
Alcioun.' In 1369, Chaucer was already twenty-nine years of
age (taking the year of his birth to be 1340, not 1328), which is
rather past the period of youth ; and the fact that he thus
mentions ' Ceys and Alcioun ' as if it were the name of an in-
dependent poem, renders it almost certain that such was once
the case. He clearly thought it too good to be lost, and so
took the opportunity of inserting it in a more ambitious effort.
The original ' Ceys and Alcioun ' evidently ended at 1. 220 ;
where it began, we cannot say, for the poem was doubtless
revised and somewhat altered. LI. 215, 216 hint that a part of
it was suppressed. The two subjects were easily connected,
the sorrow of Alcyone for the sudden and unexpected loss of
her husband being the counterpart of the sorrow of the duke
for the loss of his wife. The poem of ' Ceys and Alcioun '
shews Chaucer under the influence of Ovid, just as part of his
Complaint to Pity was suggested by Statius ; but in the later
part of the poem of the Book of the Duchesse we see him strongly
influenced by French authors, chiefly Guillaume de Machault and
the authors of Le Roman de la Rose. His familiarity with the
latter poem (as pointed out in the notes) is such as to prove
that he had already been previously employed in making his
translation of that extremely lengthy work, and possibly quotes
lines from his own translation ^
The relationship between the MSS. and Thynne's edition
has been investigated by Koch, in Anglia, vol. iv. Anzeiger,
p. 95, and by Max Lange, in his excellent dissertation entitled
U7itersuchn7igen iiber Chaucer's Boke of the Duchesse, Halle,
' Most of the passages which he quotes are not extant in the English
version of the Romaunt. Where we can institute a comparison between
that version and the Book of the Duchess, the passages are differently
worded. Cf. B. Duch. 420, with R. Rose, 1393.
I
IV. COMPLEYNT OF MARS. lix
18S3. They both agree in representing the scheme of relation-
ship SQ as to give the following result :
^ Th\Tinc.
7 [ Tanner MS.
]■ ( Fairfax MS.
( ^ I Bodley MS.
Here o represents the lost original MS., and i3 and y are lost
MSS. derived from it. Thynne follows ^ ; whilst y is followed
by the Tanner MS. and a lost MS. 5. The Fairfax and Bodley
MSS., which are much alike, are copies of S. The MS. y had
lost a leaf, containing 11. 31-96; hence the same omission
occurs in the three MSS. derived from it. However, a much
later hand has filled in the gap in MS. F, though it remains
blank in the other two MSS. On the whole, the authorities for
this poem are not ver}' good; I have, in general, followed MS.
F, but have carefully amended it where the other copies seemed
to give a better result. Lange gives a useful set of ' Konjec-
turen,' many of which I have adopted.
IV. The Compleynt of Mars.
Lydgate tells us that this poem is Chaucer's, referring to it
as containing the story of ' the broche which that Vulcanus At
Thebes wrought,' &c. Internal evidence clearly shews that it
was written by the author of the Treatise on the Astrolabie.
In MS. Harl. 7333, Shirley gives it the title 'The broche of
Thebes, as of the love of Mars and Venus.' Bale oddly refers
to this poem as De Vidcani vern, but broche is here an orna-
ment, not a spit. With the exception of two lines and a half
(11. 13-15), the whole poem is supposed to be sung by a bird,
and upon St. Valentine's day. It begins in the ordinary 7-line
stanza, rimed ababbcc; but the Complaint itself is in 9-line
stanzas, rimed aabaabbcc.
At the end of the copy of this poem in MS. T, Shirley
appends the following note : — ' Thus eondethe here this com-
plaint, whiche some men sayne was made by [i. e. with respect
to] my lady of York, doughter to the kyng of Spaygne, and
my lord huntingdon, some tyme Due of Excestre.' This tradi-
tion may be correct, but the intrigue between them was dis-
creditable enough, and would have been better passed over in
Ix IV. COMPLEYNT OF MARS.
silence than celebrated in a poem, in which Mars and Venus
fitly represent them. In the heading to the poem in the same
MS., Shirley tells us further, that it was written to please John
of Gaunt. The heading is : — ' Loo, yee louers, gladethe and
comfortethe you of thallyance etrayted ' bytwene the hardy and
fur)'ous Mars the god of armes and Venus the double [i.e.
fickle] goddesse of loue ; made by Geffrey Chaucier, at the
comandement of the reno;;;med and excellent Prj'nce my lord
the Due John of Lancastre.' The lady was John of Gaunt's
sister-in-law. John of Gaunt married, as his second wife, in
1372, Constance, elder daughter of Pedro, king of Castile ;
whilst his brother Edmund, afterwards duke of York, married
Isabel, her sister. In Dugdale's Baronage, ii. 154, we read that
this Isabel, ' having been somewhat wanton in her younger
years, at length became a hearty penitent ; and departing this
life in 1394, was buried in the Friers Preachers at Langele,' i.e.
King's Langley in Hertfordshire ; cf. Chauncy's Hertfordshire,
p. 455 ; Camden's A^tgltca, p. 350. It is highly probable that
Chaucer addressed his Envoy to the Complaint of Venus to the
same lady, as he calls her ' Princess ' ; see p. 209, 1. 73, and the
Notes to that Poem.
Mars is, accordingly, intended to represent John Holande,
half-brother to Richard II, Earl of Huntingdon, and afterwards
Duke of Exeter. He actually married John of Gaunt's daughter
Elizabeth, whose mother was the Blaunche celebrated in the
Book of the Duchess.
If this tradition be true, the date of the poem must be not
very many years after 1372, when the Princess Isabel came to
England. We may date it, conjecturally, about 1374. See
further in Furnivall's Trial Forewords, pp. 78-90.
The poem is remarkable for its astronomical allusions, which
are fully explained in the notes. The stor)' of Mars and Venus
was doubtless taken from Ovid, Metam. iv. 170-189. The
story of the brooch of Thebes is from Statius, ii. 265, &c. ; see
note to 1. 245, on p. 283.
I shall here add a guess of mine which possibly throws some
light on Chaucer's reason for referring to the brooch of
Thebes. It is somewhat curious that the Princess Isabel, in a
will made twelve years before her death, and dated Dec. 6,
' i. e. y-treted, treated.
V. rARLEMENT OF FOULES. Ixi
1382, left, amongst other legacies, ' to the Duke of Lancaster, a
Tablet of Jasper which the King of Annonie gave her'' \ see
Fumivall's Trial Foreiuords, p. 82. Here Armonie means, of
course, Armenia ; but it is also suggestive of Harvwnia, the
name of the first owner of the brooch of Thebes. It seems just
possible that the brooch of Thebes was intended to refer to this
tablet of jasper, which was doubtless of considerable value and
may have been talked about as being a curiosity.
V. The Parlement of Foules.
This poem is undoubtedly genuine ; both Chaucer and Lydgate
mention it. It is remarkable as being the first of the Minor
Poems which exhibits the influence upon Chaucer of Italian
literature, and was therefore probably v\rittcn somewhat later
than the Complaint of Mars. It is also the first of the Minor
Poems in which touches of true humour occur; see 11. 498-500,
508, 514-6, 563-575, 589-616. Dr. YvLxm\?ii\ {Trial Forewords,
p. 53) notes that the MSS. fall into two principal groups ; in the
first he places Gg., Trin., Cx., Harl., O., the former part of Ff.,
(part of) An, and the fragments in Hh. and Laud 416; in the
second he places F., Tn., D,, and the latter part of Ff. Lt. also
belongs to the second group. See further in Atiglia, vol. iv.
Anzeiger, p. 97. The whole poem, except the Roundel in
11. 680-692, is in Chaucer's favourite 7-line stanza, often called
the ballad-stanza, or simply balade in the MSS.
The poem itself may be roughly divided into four parts. The
first part, 11. 1-84, is mainly occupied with an epitome of the
general contents of Cicero's Somnium Scipionis. The second
part, 11. 85-175, shews several instances of the influence of Dante.
The third part, 11. 1 76-294, is almost wholly translated or
imitated from Boccaccio's Teseide. And the fourth part, 11. 295
to the end, is occupied with the real subject of the poem, the
main idea being taken, as Chaucer himself tells us, from Alanus
de Insulis. The passages relating to the Soinniuvi Scipionis
are duly pointed out in the notes ; and so are the references to
Dante. The history of the third and fourth parts requires further
explanation.
We have already seen that Chaucer himself tells us, in the
Prol. to the Legend, that he made — * al the love of Palamon and
Ixii v. PARLE ME NT OF FOULES.
Arcite Of Thebes, thogh the story ys knowen lyte \' Now, in
the note on Anclida and Atxite, p. 310, it is explained how this
story of Palamon and Arcite was necessarily translated, more or
less closely, from Boccaccio's Teseide, and was doubtless written
in the 7-line stanza ; also that fragments of it are preserved to
us (i) in sixteen stanzas of the Parliament of Foules, (2) in the
first ten stanzas of Anelida, and (3) in three stanzas of Troilus.
At a later period, the whole poem was re-written in a different
metre, and now forms the Knightes Tale. The sixteen stanzas
here referred to begin at 1. 183 (the previous stanza being also
imitated from a different part of the Teseide, bk. xi. st. 24), and
end at 1. 294. Chaucer has somewhat altered the order; see
note to 1. 183, on p. 293. I here quote, from Fumivall's Trial
Forewords, pp. 60-66, a translation by Mr. W. M. Rossetti, of
Boccaccio's Teseide, bk. vii. stanzas 5 1-66. This passage can be
compared with Chaucer's imitation of it at the reader's leisure.
Tes. vii. stanzas 51-60 ; cf. Pari. Foules, 11. 183-259.
' With whom^ going forward, she^ saw that [i.e. Mount Cithaeron]
In every view suave and charming ;
In guise of a garden bosky and beautiful,
And greenest, full of plants,
Of fresh grass, and every new flower ;
And therein rose fountains living and clear;
And, among the other plants it abounded in,
IVIyrtle seemed to her more than other.
' Here she heard amid the branches sweetly P. F. 190.
Birds singing of almost all kinds :
Upon which [branches] also in like wise
She saw them with delight making their nests.
Next among the fresh shadows quickly
She saw rabbits go hither and thither,
And timid deer and fawns,
And many other dearest little beasts.
' In like wise here every instrument P- F. 197.
She seemed to hear, and delightful chaunt:
' This does not mean that Chaucer" s version of the story was ' little
known,' but that Boccaccio speaks of the story as being little known—
' che Latino autor non par ne dica' ; see note to Anelida, 1. 8, p. 311.
•■^ IVhorn refers to Vaghezza, i. e. Grace, Allurement ; she is the prayer
of Palemo, personified.
F. PARLEMENT OF J-OULES. Ixiii
Wherefore passing with pace not slow,
And looking about, somewhat within herself suspended
At the lofty place and beautiful adornment,
She saw it replete in almost every corner
With spiritlings which, flying here and there,
Went to their bourne. Which she looking at,
'Among the bushes beside a fountain P. F. 211.
Saw Cupid forging arrows —
He having the bow set down by his feet ;
Which [arrows when] selected his daughter Voluptas
Tempered in the waves. And settled down
With them was Ease {Ozio, Otium] ; whom she saw
That he, with Memory, steeled his darts
With the steel that she [Voluptas] first tempered.
'And then she saw in that pass Grace \_Leggiadria], P. F. 218.
With Adorning \_Adornezza\ and Affability,
And the wholly estrayed Courtesy;
And she saw the Arts that have power
To make others perforce do folly.
In their aspect much disfigured.
The Vain Delight of our form
She saw standing alone with Gentilesse.
'Then she saw Beauty pass her by, P. F. 225.
W^ithout any ornament, gazing on herself;
And with her she saw Attraction [^Piacevolezza] go, —
She [the prayer] commending to herself both one and other.
With them she saw standing Youth,
Lively and adorned, making great feast :
And on the other side she saw madcap Audacity
Going along with Glozings and Pimps.
'In mid the place, on lofty columns, P. F. 232.
She saw a temple of copper ; round which
She saw youths dancing and women —
This one of them beautiful, and that one in fine raiment,
Ungirdled, barefoot, only in their hair and gowns,
Who spent the day in this alone.
Then over the temple she saw doves hover
And settle and coo.
' And near to the cntrj' of the temple P. F. 239.
She saw that there sat quietly
My lady Peace, who a curtain
Moved lightly before the door.
IxiV F. PARLEMENT OF FOULES.
Next her, verj' subdued in aspect,
Sat Patience discreetly.
Pallid in look ; and on all sides
Around her she saw artful Promises.
' Then, entering the temple, of Sighs P. F. 246.
She felt there an earthquake, which whirled
All fierj' with hot desires.
This lit up all the altars
With new flames bom of pangs ;
Each of which dripped with tears
Produced by a woman cruel and fell
\Miom she there saw, called Jealousy.
' And in that [temple] she saw Priapus hold P. F. 253.
The highest place — in habit just such' as
Whoever would at night see him
Could [do] when, braying, the animal
Dullest of all awoke Vesta, who to his mind
Was not a little — towards whom he in like guise
Went: and likewise throughout the great temple
She saw many garlands of diverse flowers.'
Tes. vii. 61, 62 ; cf. P. F. 281-294.
* Here many bows of the Chorus of Diana P. F. 281.
She saw hung up and broken ; among which was
That of Callisto, become the Arctic
Bear. The apples were there of haughty
Atalanta, who was sovereign in racing ;
And also the arms of that other proud one
Who brought forth Parthenopaeus,
Grandson to the Calydonian King Oeneus.
'She saw there histories painted all about; P. F. 288.
Among which with finer work
Of the spouse of Ninus she there
Saw all the doings distinguished; and at foot of the mnl-
beny-tree
PjTamus and Thisbe, and the mulberries already distained ;
And she saw among these the great Hercules
In the lap of lole, and woeful Biblis
Going piteous, soliciting Caunus.'
Tes. vii. 63-66 ; cf. P. F. 260-2S0.
' But, as she saw not Venus, it was told her P. F. 260.
(Nor knew she by whom) — " In secreter
Part of the temple stays she delighting.
r, PA RLE ME NT OF fOULES. Ixv
If thou wantest her, through that door quietly
Enter." Wherefore she, without further demur,
Meek of manner as she was,
Approached thither to enter within,
And do the embassy to her committed.
'But there she, at her first coming, P. F. 25i.
Found Riches guarding the portal —
Who seemed to her much to be reverenced :
And, being by her allowed to enter there.
The place was dark to her at first going.
But afterwards, by staying, a little light
She gained there ; and saw her lying naked
On a great bed very fair to see.
* But she had hair of gold, and shining P. F. 267.
Round her head without any tress.
Her face was such that most people
Flave in comparison no beauty at all.
The arms, breast, and outstanding apples.
Were all seen ; and every other part with a
Texture so thin was covered
That it shewed forth almost as [if] naked.
* The neck was fragrant with full a thousand odours. P. F. 2 74.
At one of her sides Bacchus was seated.
At the other Ceres with her savours.
And she in her hands held the apple.
Delighting herself, which, to her sisters
Preferred, she won in the Idean vale.
And, having seen all this, she [the prayer] made her request,
Which was conceded without denial.'
At 1. 298 we are introduced to a queen, who in 1. 303 is said
to be the noble goddess Nature. The general idea is taken from
t^eycisPleynt of Kynde (1. 316), i.e. from ihe Plancius Naturae
of Alanus de Insulis ; see note to 1. 298, on p. 297. I here quote
the most essential passage from the Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets,
cd. T. Wright, ii. 437. It describes the garment worn by the
goddess Nature, on which various birds were represented. The
phrase a7iiinaliu»i co7icilium probably suggested the name
given by Chaucer to our poem.
' Haec antem [vestis] nimis subtilizata, subterfugiens oculorum in-
daginem, ad tantam mateiiae tenuitatem advenerat, ut ejus aerisque
eandem crederes esse naturam, in qua, prout oculis pictura imagina-
batur, aiiimaliiim celebratur concilium. Illic aquita, primo juvenem,
e
Ixvi V. PARLEMENT OF FOVLES,
secundo sencm, induens, tertio iterum reciprocata priorem, in Adonidem
revertebatur a Nestore. lllic ancipiter {sic), civitatis praefectus aeriae,
violenta tyrannide a subditis ledditus exposcebat. lUic milvus, vena-
toris induens personam, venatione furtiva larvam gerebat ancipilris.
lllic falco in ardcam bellum excitabat civile, non tamen aequali lance
divisum. Non enim illud pugnae debet appcllatione censeri, ubi tu
pulsas, ego vapulo tantum. lllic struthio, vita seculari postposita,
vitam solitariam agens, quasi heremita factus, desertarum solitudines
incolebat. lllic olor, sui funeris praeco, mellitae citherizationis organo
vitae prophetabat apocopam. lllic in pavone tantum pulcritudinis
compluit Natura thesaurum, ut cam postea crederes mendicasse. lllic
phoe7iix, in se mortuus, redivivus in alio, quodam Naturae miraculo, se
sua morte a mortuis suscitabat. lUic avis concordiae {ciconia) pro-
lem decimando Naturae persolvebat tributum. lllic passcres in atomum
pygmeae humilitatis relegati degebant, grus ex opposito in giganteae
quantitatis evadebat excessum.
' \\\\cphasianus, natalis insulae perpessus angustias, principum futums
deliciae, nostros evolabat in orbes. lllic gallus, tanquam vulgaris
astrologus, suae vocis horologio horarum loquebatur discrimina. lllic
galhis silvcstris, privatioris galli deridens desidiam, peregre pro-
fisciscens, nemorales peragrabat provincias. lllic bubo, propheta
miseriae, psalmodias funereae lamentationis praecinebat. lllic noctiia
tantae deformitatis sterquilinio sordescebat, ut in ejus formatione
Naturam crederes fuisse somnolentam. lllic comix, ventura prognosti-
cans, nugatorio concitabattir garritu. V\\z pica, dubio picturata colore,
curam logices perennebat insomnem. lllic moncdida, latrocinio lauda-
bili reculas thesaurizans, innatae avaritiae argumenta monstrabat.
lllic coluniba, dulci malo inebriata Diones, laborabat Cypridis in
palaestra. lllic corvics, zelolypiae abhorrens dedecus, suos foetus non
sua esse pignora fatebatur, usque dum comperto nigri argumento
coloris, hoc quasi secum disputans comprobat. lllic perdix nunc aeriae
potestatis insultus, nunc venatorum sophismata, nunc canum latratus
propheticos abliorrebat. lllic anas cum ansere, sub eodem jure vivendi,
hiemabat in patria fluviali. lilic turtiir, suo vidnata consorte, amorem
epilogare dedignans, in altero bigamiae refutabat solatia, lllic psitta-
cus cum sui gutturis incude vocis monetam fabricabat humanae. lllic
coturnicem, figurae draconis ignorantem fallaciam, imaginariae vocis
decipiebant sophismata. lllic picus, propriae architectus domunculae,
sui rostri dolabro clausulam fabricabat in ilice. lllic ctirnica, nover-
cam exuens, matemo pietatis ubere alienam cuculi prolem adoptabat in
filium ; quae tamen capitali praemiata stipendio, privignum agnoscens,
filium ignorabat. lllic hirnndo, a sua peregrinatione reversa, sub trabe
nidi lutabat hospitium. lllic philomcna, deflorationis querelam
reintegrans, hannoniaca tympanizans dulcedine, puritatis dedecus
excusabat. lllic alauda, quasi nobilis citharista, non studii artificio, sed
Vr, MERCILES BEAUTE. ]xvii
Naturae magisterio, mnsicae praedocta scientiam, citharam praesentabat
in ore .... Hacc animalia, quamvis illic quasi allegorice viverent, ibi
tamen esse videbantur ad littcram.'
As to the date of this poem, Ten Brink {Studien, p. 127) shews
that it must have been written later than 1373; and further,
that it was probably written earlier than Troilus, which seems to
have been finished in 1383. It may therefore have been written
in 1 38 1, in which case it may very well refer to the betrothal of
King Richard II. to Queen Anne of Bohemia. Prof, \\ard, in
his Life of Chaucer, p. Z6, says :— ' Anne of Bohemia, daughter
of the great Emperor Charles IV., and sister of King Wenceslas,
had been successively betrothed to a Bavarian prince and to a
Margrave of Meissen, before — after negotiations which, accord-
ing to Froissart, lasted a year ^— her hand was given to young
King Richard II. of England. This sufficicndy explains the
general scope of the Assembly of Fowls, an allegorical poem
written on or about St. Valentine's Day, 1381 — eleven months or
nearly a year after which date the marriage took place '■'.'
I here note that Lydgate's Flour of Cicrtesie is a palpable
imitation of the Parliament of Foules.
VI. MERCILES BeAUTE.
The unique copy of this poem is in MS. PI It is the last
poem in the MS., and is in excellent company, as it immediately
follows several other of Chaucer's genuine poems. This is
probably why Bp. Percy attributed it to Chaucer, who himself
tells us that he wrote ' balades, roundels, virelayes.' It is sig-
nificant that Matzner, in his Allenglische Sprachproben, i. 347^
chose this poem alone as a specimen of the Minor Poems, ll is,
in fact, most happily expressed, and the internal evidence places
its authenticity beyond question. The three roundels express
^ See 1. 647. The royal tercel eagle is, then, Richard II. ; and thr
formel eagle is Queen Anne ; the other two tercel eagles were her other
two suitors. See Froissart, bk. ii. c. 86.
- It is quite impossible that the poem can refer, as some say, to the
marriage of John of Gaunt in 1359, or ^^'cn to that of de Coucy in 1364 ;
see Furnivall's Trial Forewords, p. 70. It is plainly much later tlian the
Book of the Duchess, as the internal evidence iiicontestably shews.
^ Todd gives the contents of this MS. in his Illustrations of Chaucer,
p. 116.
e 2
Ixviii VII. ANELIDA AND ARCITE.
three ' movements,' in the poet's usual manner ; and his mastery
of metre is shewn in the use of the same rime in -en-e in the
first and third roundels, requiring no less than ten different
words for the purpose ; whilst in the second roundel the corre-
sponding lines end in -cyii-c, producing much the same effect, if
(as is probable) the old sounds of e and ey were not very
different. We at once recognise the Chaucerian phrases / do
no fors (see Cant. Ta. 6816, 7094), and / coiutie him not a bene
(see Troil. v. 363).
Very characteristic is the use of the dissyllabic word sen-e
(1. 10), which is an adjective, and means ' manifest,' from the
A.S. gesene {gesyne), and not the past participle, which x'i y-seen.
Chaucer rimes it with clen-e (Prol. to C.T. 134), and w'lXSx gr en-e
(Kn. Tale, 1440). The phrase though he sterve for the peyne
(1. 23) reminds us oifor to deyen in the peyfie (Kn. Ta. 275).
But the most curious thing about this poem is the incidental
testimony of Lydgate, in his Ballade in commendacion of our
Ladie ; see poem no. 26 above, discussed at p. xxvii. I here
quote St. 22 in full, from ed. 1561, fol. 330 : —
* Where might I loue euer better beset
Then in this Lilie, likyng to beholde?
That lace of loue, the bonde so well thou knit,
That I maie see thee, or myne harte colde,
And or I passe out of my dales olde,
Tofore [thee] syngyng euermore vtterly —
Your iycn twoo wall slea tne sodainly.'
VII. Anelida and Arcite.
The genuineness of this poem is obvious enough, and is
vouched for both by Lydgate and Shirley, as shewn above. It
is discussed in the Notes, p. 310. I may add that Lydgate
incidentally refers to it in his Co)}iplaint of the Black Knight,
1. 379 : — ' Of Thebes eke the false Arcite.' Much later allusions
are the following : —
* There was also Annelida the queene,
Upon Arcite how sore she did complaine ' ;
Assembly of Ladies, 1. 465.
' and the weimenting
Of her AnneHda, true as turtle-dove
To Arcite fals.'
Court of Love, 1. 233.
VII. ANELIDA AND A R CITE. Ixix
The first three stanzas are from Boccaccio's Teseide, as shewn
in the Notes ; so also are stanzas 8, 9, and 10. Stanzas 4-7 are
partly from Statins. The origin of 11. 71-210 is at present
unknown. It is ditificult to date this poem, but it must be
placed after 1373, because of its quotations from the Teseide, or
rather from Chaucer's own Palainon and Arcite. The mention
of 'the quene of Ermony' in 1. 71 suggests that Chaucer's
thoughts may have been turned towards Armenia by the curious
fact that, in 1384, the King of Armenia came to England about
Christmas time, stayed two months, and was hospitably enter-
tained by King Richard at Eltham ; see Fabyan's Chronicles, ed.
Ellis, p. 532. At an earlier time, viz. in 1362, Walsingham says
that some knights of Armenia appeared at a tournament in
Smithfield. In the Transactions of the Cambridge Philological
Society, May 13, 1886, there is a short paper by Prof. Cowcll,
from which we learn that Mr. Bradshaw believed the name of
Andida to be identical ' with Andhita ('Ai/atVu), the ancient
goddess of Persia and Armenia. . . He supposed that Chaucer
got the name Anelida from a misreading of the name Anaetidetn
or Anaettda in some Latin MS., the t being mistaken for /.' We
must remember that Creseide represents a Greek acatsath>e
form XpvaT]i8a, of which the gen. Xpvarji^os occurs in Homer,
//. i. Ill ; also that the curious Chaucerian form Dalida (for
Dalilah) is probably due to association with Greek accusatives
in -iSa. The genitive Anactidos occurs in Pliny, xxxiii. 4 ; in
Holland's translation of Pliny, ii. 470, she appears as 'the
goddesse Diana symamed Anaitis.^ It may be as well to ex-
plain to those who are unaccustomed to MSS. of the fourteenth
century, that it was then usual to write e in place of ae or a, so
that the name would usually be written, in the accusative case,
Anetida. This suggests that Anelida should be spelt with but
one n ; and such is the practice of all the better MSS.
It remains to be added that one source of the part of the
poem called the Complaint (11. 211-350) is the poem printed in
this volume as no. XXI., at p. 213. That poem is, in fact, a kind
of exercise in metrical experiments, and exhibits specimens of
the ten-line stanza, in which the main part of the Complaint is
written. Chaucer seems to have elaborated this into a longer
Complaint, with additional varieties in the metre ; and then to
have written the preceding story by way of introduction. One
Ixx IX. THE nous OF FAME.
line (xxi. 50) is repeated without alteration (vii. 237) ; another
(xxi. 35) is only altered in the first and last words (vii. 222).
Other resemblances are pointed out in the Notes.
It is also worth while to notice how the character of the
speaking falcon in the second part of the Squire's Tale is pre-
cisely that of Anelida. The parallel lines are pointed out in the
Notes.
VIII. Chaucer's Wordes unto Adam.
This is evidently a genuine poem, written by the author of
the translation of Boethius and of the story of Troilus.
IX. The Hous of Fame.
It is needless to say that this poem is genuine, as Chaucer
himself claims it twice over; once in his Prologue to the Legend
of Good Women, I. 417, and again by the insertion in the poem
itself of the name Geffrey (1. 729). The influence of Dante is
here very marked ; hence Lydgate refers to it by the name of
' Dante in English.' This influence is thoroughly discussed by
Rambeau in Englische Sttidien, iii. 209, in an article which is
far too important to be neglected. I can only say here that the
author points out both general and particular likenesses between
the two poems. In general, both are visions ; both are in three
books ; in both the authors seek abstraction from surrounding
troubles by venturing into the realm of imagination ; as Dante
is led by Vergil, so Chaucer is upborne by the eagle. Dante
begins his third book, II Paradise, with an invocation to Apollo,
and Chaucer likewise begins his third book with the same ;
moreover, Chaucer's invocation is little more than a translation
of Dante's.
Among the particular resetnblances, we may notice the method
of commencing each division of the poem with an invocation '.
Again, both poets mark the exact date of commencing their
poems : Dante descended into the Inferno on Good Friday, 1300
{If}/, xxi. 112) ; Chaucer began his work on the 12th of December,
the year being, probably, 1383 (note to 1. ill).
' In Dante's Inferno, this invocation comes at the beginning of Canto
II. ; for Canto I. is a general introduction to the whole.
IX. THE nous GF FAME. Ix'xi
Chaucer sees the desert of Libya (1. 42S), corresponding to
similar waste spaces mentioned by Dante ; see note to 1. 4S2.
Chaucer's eagle is also Dante's eagle ; see note to 1. 500. Chaucer
gives an account of Phaeton (1. 942) and of Icarus (1. 920) muc!i
like those given by Dante (Inf. xvii. 107, 109) ; both accounts,
however, may have been taken from Ovid '. Chaucer's account
of the eagle's lecture to him (1. 729) is copied from Parad. i. 109-
1 1 7. Chaucer's steep rock of ice (1. 1 1 30) corresponds to Dante's
steep rock (Purg. iii. 47). If Chaucer cannot describe all the
beauty of the House of Fame (1. 1 168), Dante is equally unable
to describe Paradise (Par. i. 6). Chaucer cop'es from Dante his
description of Statins, and follows his mistake in saying that he
was born at Toulouse; see note to 1. 1460. The description of
the House of Rumour is also imitated from Dante ; see note to
1. 2034. Chaucer's error of making Marsyas a female arose from
his not understanding the Italian form Marsia ; see note to
I. 1229.
These arc but a few of the points discussed in Rambeau's
remarkable article ; it is impossible to give, in a summaiy, a just
idea of the careful way in which the resemblances between these
two great poets are pointed out. It is no longer possible to
question Chaucer's knowledge of Italian, and it is useless to
search for the original of this poem in Provengal literature, as
Warton vaguely suggests that we should do. I can see no help
to be obtained from a perusal of Petrarch's Tfionjo della Faina,
to which some refer us ; it is quite clear that the general notion
of a House of Fame was adopted from Ovid, Metam. xii. 39 63.
The proof of this is seen in the care with which Chaucer works in
all the details in that passage. He also keeps an eye on the
celebrated description of Fame in Vergil, Aen. iv. 173-189 ; even
to the unlucky rendering oi pernicibus a/is by ' partriches winges '
(1. 1392).
By way of further assistance, I here quote the whole of
Golding's translation of the above-mentioned passage from
Ovid:—
' I do not feci ?ure that the resemblances quite prove that Chaucer
followed Dante rather than Ovid. Thus, if Chaucer says lat the reyncs
goon ([. 951) where Dante says abhandoub It /rent (Inf. xvii. 107), we
have in Ovid eijui . . colla iugo eripitint, ahriiptaque lora rclinquuut
(Met. ii. 315). Still, Chaucer's words are closer to Dante than to the
original.
Ixxii IX. THE nous of fame.
' Amid the world twecne heauen and earlh, and sea, there is a place,
Set from the bounds of each of them indifferently in space,
From whence is scene what-euer thing is practizde any-where,
Although the Realme be neere so farre : and roundly to the eare
Commes whatsoeuer spoken is ; Fame hath his dwelling there.
Who in the top of all the house is lodged in a towre.
A thousand entries, glades, and holes are framed in this bowre.
There are no doores to shut. The doores stand open night and
day.
The house is all of sounding brasse, and roreth euery way.
Reporting double euery word it heareth people say.
There is no rest within, there is no silence any-where.
Yet is there not a yelling out : but humming, as it were
The sound of surges being heard farre off, or like the sound
That at the end of thunderclaps long after doth redound
When loue doth make the clouds to crack. Within the courts is
preace
Of common people, which to come and go do neuer ceace.
And millions both of troths and lies run gadding euer}--where,
And wordes confusclie flie in heapes. of which some fill the eare
That heard not of them erst, and some cole-cariers part do play,
To spread abroade the things they heard, and euer by the way
The thing that was inuented growes much greater than before.
And euery one that gets it by the end addes somewhat more.
Tight credit dwelleth there, there dwells rash error, there doth dwell
Vaine ioy : there dwelleth hartlesse feare, and brute that loues to
tell
Uncertaine newes vpon report, whereof he doth not knowe
The author, and sedition who fresh rumors loues to sowe.
This Fame beholdeth what is done in heauen, on sea, and land.
And what is wrought in all the world he layes to vnderstand.'
Compare with this H. F., 11. 711-724, 672-699, 1025-1041,
1951-1976, 2034-2077.
The chief imitations of Chaucer's poem are The Palice of
Honour, by Gawain Douglas, The Garlaiid of Latcrell, by
Skelton, and The Temple of Fame, by Pope. Pope's poem
should not be compared with Chaucer's ; it is very different in
character, and is best appreciated by forgetting its origin.
The authorities for the text are few and poor. There are but
three MSS., viz. F., B., and P. (the last being a fragment) ; and
two early printed editions, viz. Cx. and Th. F. and B. form a
first group, and P. and Cx. a second ; Th. partly follows Cx.,
and partly F. I have been much assisted by an excellent dis-
X THE FORMER AGE. Ixxiii
sertation on The House of Fame by Hans Willcrt of Berlin,
printed at iJerlin in 1S83. Since then, whilst engaged in writing
this preface, I have received the edition of The House of Famre
by the same author, with collation and notes, printed at Berlin
in 1880. 1 am sorry it has reached me too late to help me,
as it appears to be well and carefully done.
X. The Former Age.
First printed in 1S66, in Morris's Chaucer, from a transcript
made by Mr. Bradshaw, who pointed out its genuineness. It is
ascribed to Chaucer in both MSS., and belongs, in fact, to his
translation of Boethius, though probably written at a later date.
In MS. I., the poem is head.ed : — ' Chawci?r vp-on this fyfte
met7/r of the second book.' In MS. Hh., the colophon is :
Finit Etas prima : Chaucers.' Dr. Koch thinks that the five
poems here numbered X — XIV 'form a cyclus, as it were, being
free transcriptions of different passages in Boethius' Consolatio
Philosopliiae' There is, in fact, a probability that these were all
written at about the same period, and that rather a late one,
some years after the prose translation of Boethius had been
completed ; and a probable date for this completion is some-
where about 1380.
Both MSS. copies are from the same source, as both of them
omit the same line, viz. 1. 56 ; which I have had to supply by con-
jecture. Neither of the MSS. are well spelt, nor are they very
satisfactor)'. The mistake in riming 1. 47 with 1. 43 instead of
1. 45 may vciy well have been due to an oversight on the part of
the poet himself. But the poem is a beautiful one, and admirably
expressed ; and its inclusion among the Minor Poems is a con-
siderable gain.
Dr. Furnivall has printed the Latin text of Boethius, lib. ii.
met. 5, from MS. I., as well as Chaucer's prose version of the
same, for the sake of comparison with the text of the poem.
The likeness hardly extends beyond the first four stanzas. I
here transcribe, from Dr. Morris's edition, that part of the prose
version which is parallel to the poem, omitting a few sentences
which do not appear there at all : —
' Blysful was the first age of men. Thei helden hem apaied
with the metes that the trewe erthes broujten furthe. Thei ne
destroyede ne desceyvede not hem-self with outerage. They
IxxiV XII. TRUTH.
weren wont lyjtly to slaken her hunger at euene with acornes of
okes. \Stanza 2.] Thei ne couthe nat medle ^ the 5ift of Bacus
to the clere hony ; that is to scyn, thei couthe make no piment
of clarre. \^Stan::a 3.] ... thei couthe nat dien white flies "
of Sirien contre withe the blode of a manar shelfysshe that
men fynden in Tyrie, with whiche blode men deien purpur.
\Sta7iza 6.] Thei slepen holesum slepes vpon the gras, and
dronken of the rynnyng watres \cf. 1. 8] ; and laien vndir the
shadowe of the heyje pyne-trees. \^Stanza 3, coiiijiieed.^ Ne
no gest ne no straunger ne karf yit the heye see with oores or
with shippes ; ne thei ne hadden seyne yitte none newe strondes,
to leden merchaundyse in-to dyuerse contres. Tho weren the
cruel clariouns ful whist ^ and ful stille. . . [Stanza 4.] For
wherto or whiche woodenesse of enmys wolde first moeven armes,
whan thei seien cruel woundes, ne none medes * ben of blood
yshad ® ? . . Alias ! what was he that first dalf " up the gobets ' or
the weyjtys of gold covered undir erthe, and the precious stones
that wolden han ben hid ? He dalf up precious perils ; ... for the
preciousnesse of swyche hath many man ben in peril.'
XI. Fortune.
Attributed to Chaucer by Shirley in MSS. A. and T. ; also
marked as Chaucer's in MSS. F. and I. In MS. I., this poem
and the preceding are actually introduced into Chaucer's
translation of Boethius, between the fifth metre and the sixth
prose of the second book. For further remarks, see the Notes.
XII. Truth.
This famous poem is attributed to Chaucer in MS. F., also
(thrice) by Shirley, who in one of the copies in MS. T. (in which
it occurs twice) calls it a ' Balade that Chancier made on his
deeth-bedde ' ; which is probably a mere bad guess \ The
MSS. may be divided into two groups ; the four best are in the
first group, viz. At., E., Gg., Ct., and the rest (mostly) in the
' mix. * fleece. ^ hushed, silent.
■* rewards. ^ shed. * dug. '' lumps.
' A similar note was made in MS. Cotton, Otho. A. xviii., now
destroyed. Todd printed the poem from this MS. in his Illustrations of
Chaucer, p. 131 ; it belongs to the ' first group.'
XIII. GE.XTILESSE. ]xxv
second group. Those of the first group have the readings
Tempest (8), Ktto'-d.i thy coitrec (19), and Holdihe hyc ivcy (20) ;
whilst the rest have, in the same phices, Pcy7ic (8), Look tip on
hy (19), and Weyve thy lust (20). It is remarkable that the
Envoy occurs in MS, At. only. It may have been suppressed
owing to a misunderstanding of the word vache (cow), the true
sense of which is a little obscure. The reference is to Boethius,
bk. V. met. 5, where it is explained that quadrupeds took doivn
upon the earth, whilst man alone looks up towards heaven ; cf.
lok up in I. 19 of the poem. The sense is therefore, that we are
to cease to look down, and to learn to look up like true men ;
' onlyche the lynage of man,' says Chaucer, in his translation of
Boethius, ' heveth heyest his heyje heved ^ . . this figure amone-
steth - the, that axest the hevene with thi ryjte visage, and hast
areised thi forhede to bercn up on heye thi corage, so that thi
thou5t ne be nat y-hevied '' ne put lowe undir foot.'
XIII. Gentilesse.
It is curious that this Balade not only occurs as an indepen-
dent poem, as in MSS. T., Harl., Ct., and others, but is also
quoted bodily in a poem by Henr>' Scogan in MS. A. It is
attributed to Chaucer by Shirley in MSS. T. and Harl. ; and
still more satisfactory is the account given of it by Scogan.
The title of Scogan's poem is : — ' A moral balade made by
Henry Scogan squyer. Here folowethe nexst a moral balade
to my lorde the Prince, to my lord of Clarence, to my lord of
Bedford, and to my lorde of Gloucestre ; by Henry Scogan, at
a souper of feorthe merchande [sic) in the vyntre in London,
at the hous of Lowys lohan.' It is printed in all the old editions
of Chaucer ; see poem no. ■^■}>^ P- xx. Scogan tells us that he
was 'fader' i.e. tutor, to the four sons of Henry IV. above-
mentioned*. His ballad is in 21 84ine stanzas, and he inserts
Chaucer's Gentilesse, distinguished by being in 7-line stanzas,
* high head. "^ admonishes. ' weighed down.
* The poem must have been written not many years before 141 3, the
date of the accession of Henry V. In I-105, the ages of the princes
were 17, 16, 15, and 14 respectively. Shirley's title to the poem was
evidently written after 141 5, as John was not created Duke of
Clarence until that year.
Ixxvi XIIT. GEXTILESSE.
between the 13th and 14th stanzas of his own work. He
refers to Chaucer in the 9th stanza thus : —
' My maistre Chaucier, God his soule have,
That in his langage was so curyons,
He saide that the fader, nowe dede and grave,
Beqwathe no-thing his vertiie with his hous
Un-to his sone.'
This is a reference to 11. 16, 17 of Chaucer's poem. Again, in
his 13th stanza, he says : —
' By auncetrye thus may ye fio-thing clayme.
As that my maistre Chaucier dothe expresse,
But temporell thing, that man may hurte and mayme ;
Thane is gode stocke of vertuous noblesse ;
And, sithe that he is lord of blesscdnesse
That made us alle, and for mankynde that dyed,
Folowe his vertue with full besynesse ;
And of this thinge herke howe my maistre seyde.'
He here refers to lines 15-17, and lines 1-4 of Chaucer's poem ;
and then proceeds to quote it in full. Having done so, he
adds : —
'Loo, here this noble poete of Brettayne
Howe hyely he, m vertuouse sentence,
The lesse in youthe, of vertue can compleyne.'
Scogan's advice is all good, and, though he accuses himself of
having misspent his youth, this may very well mean no more
than such an expression means in the mouth of a good man.
He is doubtless the very person to whom Chaucer's ' Lenvoy
a Scogan' was addressed, and Chaucer (1. 21) there gives him
an excellent character for wisdom of speech. Accordingly, he
is not to be confused with the Thomas Scogan or Scogin to
whom is attributed an idle book called 'Scoggins lests,' which
were said to have been ' gathered ' by Andrew Boord or Borde,
author of the Introduction of Knowledge^. When Shakespeare,
in 2 Hen. IV. iii. 2. 33, says that Sir John Falstaff broke
Scogan's head, he was no doubt thinking of the supposed
' See Furnivall's edition of Borde's Introduction of Knowledge, E. E.
T.S., 1870. At p. 31 of the Forewords, the editor says there is no
evidence for attributing ' Scoggins Tests ' to Borde.
I
A'F. AGAINST WOMEN UNCONSTAUNT. Ixxvii
author of the jest-book, and may have been led, by observa-
tion of the name in a black-letter edition of Chaucer, to suppose
that he lived in the time of Henry IV. This was quite enough
for his purpose, though it is probable that the jester lived in the
time of Edward IV. ; see Tyrwhitt's note on the Envoy to
Scogan. On the other hand, we find Ben Jonson taking
his ideas about Scogan solely from Henr}' Scogan's poem and
Chaucer's Envoy, without any reference to the jester. See his
Masque of the Fortunate Isles, in which Scogan is first described
and afterwards introduced. The description tells us nothing
more than we know already.
As for Lewis John (p. Ixxv.), Tyrwhitt says he was a Welsh-
man, ' who was naturalised by Act of Parliament, 2 Hen. V.,
and who was concerned with Thomas Chaucer in the execution
of the office of chief butler ; Rot. Pari. 2 Hen. V. n. 18.'
Caxton's printed edition of this poem seems to follow a better
source than any of the MSS.
XIV. Lak of Stedfastnesse.
Attributed to Chaucer by Shirley in MSS. Harl. and T.,
and sent to King Richard at Windsor, according to the same
authority. The general idea of it is from Boethius ; see the
Notes. Shirley refers it to the last years of Richard II., say
1397-9. We find something very like it in Piers Plowman, C.
iv. 203 — 210, where Richard is told that bribery and wicked
connivance at extortion have almost brought it about —
' That no lond loveth the, and yut Icest thyn owene.'
In any case, the date can hardly vary between wider limits than
between 1393 and 1399. Richard held a tournament at Windsor
in I399\ which was but thinly attended ; ' the greater part of the
knights and squires of England were disgusted with the king.'
Of this poem, MS. Ct. seems to give the best text.
XV. Against Women Unconstaunt.
For the genuineness of this Balade, we have chiefly the in-
ternal evidence to trust to ; but this seems to me to be suffi-
"■ Froissart, bk. iv. c. 105 (Johnes' translation).
Ixxviii XVII. LENVOY A BUKTON.
ciently strong. The Baladc is perfect in construction, having
but three rimes {-csst\ -ace, -ene), and a refrain. The 'mood'
of it strongly resembles that of the preceding Balade ; the lines
run with perfect smoothness, and the rimes are all Chaucerian.
It is difficult to suppose that Lydgate, or even Hoccleve, who
was a better metrician, could have produced so good an imitation
of Chaucer's style. But we are not altogether without external
evidence ; for the general idea of the poem, and what is more
important, the whole of the refrain, are taken from Chaucer's
favourite author Machault (ed. Tarbe, p. 56) ; whose refrain is —
* En lieu de bleu, Dame, vous vestez vert.' Again, the poem is
only found in company with other poems by Chaucer. I have
said, at p. 199, that it occurs in MSS. F. and Ct. Now in MS.
Ct. we find, on the back of fol. 1S8 and on fol. 189, just four
poems in the same hand. These are (1) Gentilesse ; (2) Lak
of Stedfastnesse ; (3) Truth ; and (4) Against Women Uncon-
staunt. As three of these are admittedly genuine, there is
a chance that the fourth is the same. We may also notice
that, in this MS., the poems on Lak of Stedfastnesse and
Against Women Unconstaunt are not far apart. But, on lately
searching MS. Ha. (Harl. 7578), I again found three of these
poems in company, viz. (i) Gentilesse; (2) Lak of Stedfast-
nesse; and (3) Against Women Unconstaunt; the last being,
in my view, precisely in its right place. This copy of the poem
was previously unknown to me, and is not mentioned on p. 199.
On collation, I find that it affords no variation of any impor-
tance, and suggests no improvement. In 1. 4, it wrongly has
/ for yej in 1. 6, it agrees with Ct. in the inferior reading
ihi?iges J in 1. 12, it wrongly omits the word a; and, in the
same line, we find the spelling 'weiJurkoc.
XVI. Lenvoy a Scogan.
This piece is attributed to Chr.ucer in all three MSS., viz. F.,
P., and Gg. ; and is obviously genuine. The probable date of
it is towards the end of 1393 ; see the Notes.
For some account of Scogan, see above.
XVII. Lenvoy a Bukton.
This piece is certainly genuine. In MS. F., the title is —
' Lenvoy de Chaucer a Bukton.' In Julian Notary's edition it
XVIII. THE COMPLEYNT OF VEXL'S. Ixxix
is — ' Here foloweth the counceyll of Chaucer touching Maryag,
&.C. vvhiche was sente te {sic) Bucketon, &.c' In all the other
early printed editions it is inserted wl/hout any title immediately
after the Book of the Duchess.
The poem is one of Chaucer's latest productions, and may
safely be dated about the end of the year 1396. This appears
from the reference, in 1. 23, to the great misfortune it would be
to any Englishmen ' to be take in Fryse,' i.e. to be taken prisoner
in Friesland. There is but one occasion on which this reference
could have had any point, viz. during or just after the expedition
of William of Hainault to Friesland, as narrated by Froissart in
his Chronicles, bk. iv. capp. 78, 79. He tells that William of
Hainault applied to Richard II. for assistance, who sent him
' some men-at-arms and two hundred archers, under the com-
mand of three English lords \' The expedition set out in
August, 1396, and stayed in Friesland about five weeks, till the
beginning of October, when ' the weather began to be very cold
and to rain almost daily.' The great danger of being taken
prisoner in Friesland was because the Frieslanders fought so
desperately that they were seldom taken prisoners themselves.
Then ' the Frieslanders offered their prisoners in exchange, man
for man ; but, when their enemies had none to give in return,
they put them to death.' Besides this, the prisoners had to
endure all the miseries of a bad and cold season, in an inclement
climate. Hence the propriety of Chaucer's allusion fully appears.
From 1. 8, we learn that Chaucer was now a widower ; for the
word eft means 'again.' His wife is presumed to have died
in the latter part of 1387. We should also observe the allusion
to the Wife of Bath's Tale in 1. 29.
XVIII. The Compleynt of Venus.
This poem is usually printed as if it formed part of the Com-
plaint of Tvlars ; but it is really distinct. It is attributed to
Chaucer by Shirley both in MS. T. and in MS. A. It is not
original, but translated from the French, as appears from 1. 82.
Shirley tells us that the author of the French poem was Sir Otes
de Graunson, a worthy knight of Savoy. He is mentioned as
receiving from King Richard the grant of an annuity of 126/.
* See Jolines translation of Froissart, 1839; "• 612-7.
Ixxx XXI. A COMPLEINT TO HIS LADY.
\y. ^d. on 17 Nov. 1393; see Furnivall's Trial Forewords,
p. 123. The association of this poem with the Complaint of
]\Iars renders it probable that the Venus of this poem is the.
same as the Venus of the other, i.e. the Princess Isabel of
Spain, and Duchess of York. This fits well with the word
Princess at the beginning of the Envoy ; and as she died in
1394, whilst Chaucer, on the other hand, complains of his
advancing years, we must date the poem about 1393, i.e. just
about the time when Graunson received his annuity. Chaucer,
if bom about 1340, was not really more than 53, but we must
remember that, in those days, men often aged quickly. John
of Gaunt, who is represented by Shakespeare as a very old
man, only lived to the age of 59 ; and the Black Prince died
quite worn out, at the age of 46. Compare the notes to 11. y2)i
76, 79, and 82.
XIX. The Compleint to his Purse.
Attributed to Chaucer by Shirley, in MS, Harl. 7333 ; by
Caxton; by the scribes of MSS. F., P., and Ff. ; and by early
editors. I do not know on what grounds Speght removed
Chaucer's name, and substituted that of T. Occleve ; there
seems to be no authority for this change. I think it highly
probable that the poem itself is older than the Envoy ; see
note to 1. 17. In any case, the Envoy is almost certainly
Chaucer's latest extant composition.
XX. Proverbs.
Attributed to Chaucer in MSS. F. and Ha. ; see further in
the Notes. From the nature of the case, we cannot assign
any probable date to this composition. Yet it was, perhaps,
written after, rather than before, the Tale of Melibeus.
XXI. A Compleint to his Lady.
We may fairly say that this poem is attributed to Chaucer
by Shirley, since in MS. Harl. jS, it is copied out by him as
if it were a continuation of the Complaint to Pity, and the
pages are, throughout, headed with the words — 'The Balade
of Pytee. By Chauciers.' Stowe implies that he had seen more
than one MS. copy of this poem, and says that ' these verses
XXII. AN AMOROUS COMPLAINT. Ixxxi
were compiled by Geffray Chauser,' for which he may have
found authority in the MSS. However, the internal evidence
settles the matter. It is evident that we have here a succes-
sion of metrical experiments, the last of which exhibits the
ten-line stanza afterwards employed in his Complaint of Ane-
lida ; and, in fact, we here have that Complaint in a crude
form, which was afterwards elaborated ; see the references, in
the Notes, to the corresponding passages in that poem. But
a very great and unique interest is attached to lines i6 to 42.
For here we have the sole example, in English literature of
that period, of the use of terza riina, obviously copied from
Dante ; and Chaucer was the only writer vifho then had a real
acquaintance with that author. I know of no other example
of the use of tliis metre before the time of Lord Surrey and
Sir Thomas Wiat, when Englishmen once more sought ac-
quaintance with Italian poetry. Consequently, we have here
the pleasure of seeing how Chaucer handled Dante's metre ;
and the two fragments here preserved shew that he might have
handled it quite successfully if he had persevered in doing so.
It is to be regretted that Shirley's spelling is so indifferent ;
he was rather an amateur than a professional scribe. Some
of his peculiarities rnay be noticed, as they occur not only here,
but also in the two following pieces, nos. XXII. and XXII I.
He constantly adds a final e in the wrong place, producing such
forms -Asfallethe, howe, frame, and the like, and drops it where
it is necessar}', as in herl (for herte). He is fond of eo for ee
or long £■, as in beo, Jieodethe. He writes ellas for alias; also
e in place of the prefix y-, as in eknyite for y-knit. This last
peculiarity is extremely uncommon. I have removed the odd
effect which these vagaries produce, and adopt the ordinary
spelling of IVISS. that resemble in type the Ellesmere MS. of
the Canterbury Tales.
XXII. An Amorous Complaint.
Whilst searching through the various MSS. containing Minor
Poems by Chaucer in the British Museum, my attention was
arrested by this piece, which, as far as I know, has never before
been printed. It is in Shirley's handwriting, but he does not
claim it for Chaucer. However, the internal evidence seems
to me irresistible ; if he did not write it, we may well ask, who
f
Ixxxii x.\/r. A.v amorous complaint.
did ? It is far above the level of Cower, Hocclcve, or Lydgate ;
and Chaucer's peculiar touches appear in it over and over
again. There is, moreover, in the last stanza, a direct reference
to the Parliament of Foules \
I cannot explain the oracular notice of time in the heading ;
even if we alter May to day, it contradicts 1. 85, which mentions
' seint Valentines day.' The heading is — ' And next folowyng
begynnith an amerowse compleynte made at wyndesore in the
laste May tofore Nouembre ' {sic). The date is inexplicable ;
but the mention of locality is interesting. Chaucer became a
' valet of the king's chamber' in 1367, and must frequently have
been at Windsor, where the institution of the Order of the
Garter was annually celebrated on St. George's Day (April 23).
Some of the parallelisms in expression between the present
poem and other passages in Chaucer's Works are pointed out
in the Notes.
This Complaint should be compared with the complaint
uttered by Dorigen in the Cant. Tales, 11623-11637, which is
little else than the same thing in a compressed form. There is
also much resemblance to the ' complaints ' in Troilus ; see the
references in the Notes.
Since printing the text at p. 218, I have found that it is
precisely the same poem as one extant in MSS. F. and B.,
with the title ' Complaynt Damours.' I had noticed the latter
some time ago, and had made a note that it ought to be closely
examined ; but unfortunately I forgot to do so, or I should have
seen at once that it had strong claims to being considered
genuine. These claims are considerably strengthened by the
fact of the appearance of the poem in these two Chaucerian
MSS., the former of which contains no less than seventeen, and
the latter eight of the Minor Poems.
It is of some importance to give here the results of a collation
of the text with these MSS. In most places, their readings are
inferior to those in the text ; but in other places they suggest
corrections.
In MS. F. the fourth stanza is mutilated ; the latter half of
lines 24-28 is missing.
Results of collation of Harl. with F. and'Q. 2. F. lyvinge (i.e.
^ Unless, which is more probable, the Parliament of Foules repro-
duces, nearly, two lines from the present poem.
XXII. AN AMOROUS COMPLAINT. Ixxxiil
liviftg). 3. F. lest ; B. Icste [boih written with the long s). B.
rekeuerer. 4. Like Harl., F. needlessly inserts ryght (B. right).
8. F. Kan I noght doon to seyn that ; B. Kan I nought don to
seyn that. 9. F. B. Ne {like Harl.). 12. F. B. han (forha-uo).
F. B. thilke spitousc {/or that despitous). 13. F. B. o>n. ne.
14. F. B. om. best. 16. F. B. If that yt were a thing possible to
do. 17. F. B. Tacompte youre. 20. F. neucr; B. euyr. 22. F.
myshefe ; B. myschef {for my lyf). 24. F. sing ; B. singe (for
say). 25. B. that songe ys my confusyou/7. 26. B. my salua-
cyou« {/or deep afifeccioun). 27, 28. B. I sey for me I haue
noun (? neu^r) felte Alk thes diden me in despeire to melte {/alse
rime). 29. F. B. supply in be/ore dispayre. 30. F. B. om. i7id
nay. 31. F. thanne ; B. then {/or thus). F. B. om. to yow.
36. F. And sithen ; B. And sith. P\ B. sorwe. yj. F. B. sithen
(y^rsith that). 41. F. B. om. been. 43. F. B. So that algates
she is verray roote. 44. F. B. om. of. 45. F. B. a (/or oon).
47. F. B. om. why. 48. F. B. insert to a/ter wone {wrongly). 49. B.
seruaunte. 52, F. lyvyng; B. lyuynge. 54. F. B. i7is. that.
55. F. alle ; B. all {/or so). 57. F. B. om. al. 58. F. B. hem
{/or sore). 62. F. B. ins. hir. 64. F. Yet ; B. Yit {/or Ye).
65. F. B. meke. 66. F. B. o))i. now. F. sorwes ; B. sorwys {/or
shourcs). 67. F. B. that {/or and). 68. F. complcynt ; B. com-
playnt ; (Harl. complcynte). F. B. om. the. Y . B. ins. I be/ore
drede. 69. F. B. om. here and myn. F. vnku;/nynge ; B. vnkon-
nynge. 72. F. B. as {/or als). 75. F. shul ; B. shalk {/or
shulde). 76. F. B. on yow haue pleyned here. 81. F. ouer ;
B. ouyr {/or of). F. B. om. and clere. 82. F, B. Alwey in oon.
83. F. B. ins. this be/ore is. 86. F. B. om. then 87. F. B.
whos {miswritten was in Harl.) ; F. B. om. hool. 90. F. B. om.
for. 92. F. B. add Explicit.
In B., below the word Explicit, another and later hand has
scrawled ' be me Humfrey Flemy/zg.' Perhaps be (i. c. by) is to
be taken in the (common) sense of ' with reference to ' ; so that
Humfrey thought the poem applicable to his own case ' ; see
p. lix. 1. 5 from the bottom. It cannot mean that he cither wrote
out or composed the poem.
These readings do not help us much ; for the text, on the
whole, is better. They confirm my insertion of in (29) ; of that
' Or perhaps it merely means — ' this signature is mine' It is a mere
scribble, and docs not necessarily relate to the poem at all.
f 2
Ixxxiv XXI 11. BALADE OF COMPLEYNT.
(54) ; of Mr, (62) ; but they leave many lines imperfect. They
suggest the suppression of ne (13) ; of best (14); and of the
second 7iay (30) ; these words are not needed.
Lines 8, 16, 17, 31 are hardly any better. The best sugges-
tions are these ; in 1. 43 read — ' So that algates, she is verray
rote ' ; in 1. 64 read ' Yet vvolde I '; in 1. 65 read ' meke ' ; in 1.
76 read ' on ' for 'unto.' In 1. 87, I have already put ' whos ' for
' was ' in Harl.
In. 1. 25, so7ig must be kept. I now think 11. 24 and 25 should
run thus : —
I may wel singe, ' in sory tyme I spende
My lyf; that song is my confusioun.
There is probably a reference to some popular refrain, like
that in XI. 7.
It is not at all improbable that a better copy of this poem
may yet be found.
XXIII. Balade of Compleynt.
This poem, which has not been printed before, as far as I
am aware, occurs in Shirley's MS. Addit. 16165, at fol. 256,
back. It is merely headed ' Balade of compleynte,' without
any note of its being Chaucer's. But I had not read more than
four lines of it before I at once recognised the well-known
melodious flow which Chaucers imitators (except sometimes
Hoccleve) so seldom succeed in reproducing. And when I had
only finished reading the first stanza, I decided at once to copy
it out, not doubting that it would fulfil all the usual tests of
metre, rime, and language ; which it certainly does. It is far
more correct in wording than the preceding poem, and does
not require that we should either omit or supply a single word.
But in 1. 20 the last word should surely be dere rather than
here\ and the last word in 1. 11 is indistinct. I read it as
reewe, afterwards altered to newe ; and neiue makes very good
sense. I may notice that Shirley's «'s are very peculiar : the
first upstroke is very long, commencing below the line ; and
this peculiarity renders the reading tolerably certain. Some
lines resemble lines in no. XXI., as is pointed out in the Notes.
Altogether, it is a beautiful poem, and its recovery is a clear
gain.
I
CONCLUDING REMARKS. Ixxxv
Concluding Remarks.
I regret that this Introduction has run to so great a length ;
but it was incumbent on me to shew reasons for the rejection
or acceptance of the very large number of pieces which have
hitherto been included in editions of Chaucer's Works. I have
now only to add that I have, of course, been greatly indebted
to the works of others ; so much so indeed that I can hardly
particularise them. I must, however, mention very gratefully
the names of Dr. Furnivall, Professor Ten Erink, Dr. Koch,
Dr. Willert, Max Lange, Rambeau, and various contributors
to the pubhcations of the Chaucer Society ; and though I have
consulted for myself such books as Le Roman de la Rose, the
Teseide, the Thebaid of Statius, the poems of Machault, and
a great many more, and have inserted in the Notes a large
number of references which I discovered for myself, I beg leave
distinctly to disclaim any merit, not doubting that most of what
I have said may very likely have been said by others, and said
better. Want of leisure renders it impossible for me to give to
others their due meed of recognition in many instances ; for
I have often found it less troublesome to consult original au-
thorities for myself than to hunt up what others have said
relative to the passage under consideration.
I have a special object in making this explanation ; for I have
learnt, to my great regret, that, if I should lay claim to
originality of research, I may easily seem to borrow from others
without acknowledgment \ I therefore wish to say that I beg
' I find, in Ten Brink's Chancers Spraclic und Verskunst (1884),
p. 206, a reference to my edition of Chaucer's Prioresses Tale (first
published in 1874), p. xvi., with the following remark- — ' Beilaufig sei es
mir gcstattet, mit Beziehung auf die so-eben citirte Publication von
Skeat meiner Verwunderung dariiber Ausdruck zu geben, dass dieser
Gelehrte a. a.O.S. XVI ff. eine Reihe von Dingen, die ich in meine
Studien gesagt und ausfiihrlich begriindet hatte, nicht etwa als be-
kannte Thatsachen, sondem als neue von ihm ausgehende Entdeckung-
en vortragt.' It is quite true that Prof. Ten Brink's Studien appeared
in 1870, but I never saw a copy of it till 1887, when my attention was
drawn to it by observing the above remark. Hence my results were
obtained independently, being conclusions obtained from honest work
at the subject. I admit that I ought to have consulted a book so
important as the Studien, but I did not do so ; and the loss was mine.
Ixxxvi CONCLUDING REMARKS.
leave to assign the credit of anything that seems to be new in the
present volume to any one vkfho cares to claim it ; and I hope it
may be clearly understood that, wherever I differ from any
eminent critic, I am willing that he shall consider me to be in
the wrong (unless I can completely prove the contrary) ; and
wherever I agree with him, let him assume that the discovery
was his own. It is not always easy to ascertain what are the
most valuable things that each critic has ever said, though I
admit that each of us ought to do so as far as his limited
opportunities will allow him. On the other hand, I greatly fear
that I have missed sorhe remarks of value, and have failed to
reproduce some solutions of difficulties that have already been
given. To use the master's own words, in the introduction to
his Treatise on the Astrolabie—' I nam but a lewd compilatour
of the labour of [othere men] ; and with this swerd shal I slen
envie.'
The Glossary is almost wholly the work of Mr. C. Sapsvvorth,
Scholar of St. John's College, Cambridge ; and I am much
indebted to him for his help. In the matter of transcription, I
have also received help from my daughters, and from Miss F.
Whitehead.
I. AN A. B. C.
Incipit carmen secundum ordinem liter arum Alphaheti.
Almighty and al merciable quene,
To whom that al this world fleeth for socour,
To have relees of sinne, sorwe and tene,
Glorious virgine, of alle floures flour,
To thcc I flee, confounded in errour ! 5
Help and releve, thou mighty debonaire.
Have mercy on my perilous langour !
Venquisht me hath my cruel adversaire.
Bountee so fix hath in thyn herte his tente,
That wel I wot thou wolt my socour be, lo
Thou canst not warne him that, with good entente,
Axeth thyn help. Thyn herte is ay so free,
Thou art largesse of pleyn felicitee,
Haven of rcfut, of quicte and of reste.
Lo, how that theves seven chasen me! 15
Help, lady bright, er that my ship to-breste !
Comfort is noon, but in yow, lady dere,
For lo, my sinne and my confusioun.
Which oughten not in thy presence appere,
Han take on me a grevous accioun 20
The MSS. ttsed to form this text are : C. = MS. Ff. 5. 30 in the Camb.
Univ. Library ; Jo. = MS. G. 21, in St. John's College, Cambridge ; Gl.
= Glasgow MS. Q. 2. 25; L. = MS. Laud 740, in the Bodleian Library;
Gg. = MS. Gg. 4. 27 in the Camb. Univ. Library; F. = MS. Fairfax 16,
in the Bodleian Library. The text closely follows the first of these ; and
all variations from it are recorded {except sometimes \for y, and -^ for \).
i.'C. Almihty ; qucene. 3. L. sorwe; Jo. sorowe ; the rest
insert of before sorwe. 4. C. Gloriowse. 6. C. releeue ; mihti.
8. C. Venquisshed ; Jo. Venquist ; r^a^^ Venquisht. C. cruelle. 10.
C. bee. II. F. weme. 12. C. helpe. 14. C. Hauene ; refute.
15. C. Loo; theeves sevcne ; mcc. 16. C. briht. 17. C. ladi deere.
18. C. loo. 19. C. ouhten ; thi ; appcere. 20. C. greevous.
2 /. AN A. B. C.
Of verrey right and desperacioun ;
And, as by right, they mighten wel sustene
That I were worthy my dampnacioun,
>{gre mercy of you, blisful hevene quene.
Doute is ther noon, thou queen of misericorde, 25
That thou nart cause of grace and mercy here ;
God vouched sauf thursh thee with us tacorde.
For certes, Cristes bUsful moder dere.
Were now the bowe bent in swich manere,
As it was first, of Justice and of yre, 30
The rightful God nolde of no mercy here ;
But thurgh thee han we grace, as we desyre.
Evere hath myn hope of refut been in thee,
For heer-biforn ful ofte, in many a wyse.
Hast thou to misericorde receyved me. 35
But mercy, lady, at the grete assyse,
Whan we shul come bifore the hye lustyse !
So litel fruit shal thanne in me be founde,
That, but thou er that day me wel chastyse,
Of verrey right my werk me wol confounde. 40
Fleeing, I flee for socour to thy tente
Me for to hyde from tempest ful of drede,
Biseching you that ye you not absente,
Though I be wikke, O help yit at this nede !
Al have I been a beste in wille and dede, 45
Yit, lady, thou me clothe with thy grace.
21. C. riht. 22. C. riht J^ei mihten ; susteene. 23. C. wtirthi.
24. C. queene. 25. C. Dowte. 26. C. merci heere. 27. C. Gl.
Gg. saf ; Jo. saff ; L. F. saufe. C. thoruh ; L. F. |;urgh. Gl. F. tacorde;
C. L. to accorde. 28. C. crystes ; mooder deere. 29. C. maneere.
31. C. rihtful ; heere. 32. C. thonih ; Jo. L. F. thurgh. 33. C. refuit ;
Gl. refuyt ; Gg. refut ; the rest refute. 35. C. resceyued. 36. C.
merci ladi. 37. C. shule. 39. wel is supplied from the Sion MS. ;
nearly all the copies give this line corruptly ; see note. 40. C. riht ;
wole. 41. C. Fleeinge ; thi. 42. C.tempeste; dreede. 43. C.
Biseeching yow. 44. C. Thouh; neede. 45. C, ben. Jo. wille ;
C. wil. 46. C. thi.
/. AN A.B. C. 3
Thyn enemy and myn — lady, tak hede,
Un-to my deth in poynt is me to chace.
Glorious mayde and moder, which that never
Were bitter, neither in erthe nor in see, 50
But ful of swetnesse and of mercy ever,
Help that my fader be not wroth with me 1
Spek thou, for I ne dar not him y-see.
So have I doon in erthe, alias ther-whyle !
That certes, but if thou my socour be, 55
To stink eterne he wol my gost exyle.
He vouched sauf, tel him, as was his wille,
Bicome a man, to have our alliaunce,
And with his precious blood he wrot the bille
Up-on the crois, as general acquitaunce, 60
To every penitent in ful creaunce;
And therfore, lady bright, thou for us praye.
Than shalt thou bothe stinte al his grevaunce.
And make our foo to fallen of his praye.
I wot it wel, thou wolt ben our socour, 65
Thou art so ful of bountee, in certeyn.
For, whan a soule falleth in errour,
Thy pitee goth and haleth him ayeyn.
Than makest thou his pees with his sovereyn.
And bringest him out of the crooked strete. 70
Who-so thee loveth he shal not love in veyn,
That shal he fynde, as he the lyf shal lete.
Kalenderes enlumined ben they
That in this world ben lighted with thy name,
And who so goth to you the righte wey, 75
Him thar not drede in soule to be lame.
47. C. Thin ; ladi ; heede. 49. C. Gloriows ; raooder ; neuere.
50. C. eerthe. 51. C. euere. 54. C. eerthe. 55. C. bee. 56. C.
wole. 57. C. saaf; F. sauf ; L. saufe; Jo. saffc; Gl. Gg. saf. 58.
C. Eicomen ; oure. 61. C. criaunce; Gg. cryaunce ; ///t' r^".;/ creaunce.
62. C. ladi briht. 63. C. Thanne. 64, 65. C. oure. 66. C. bowntee.
69. C. Tiianne. 73. C. Kalendeeres enlumyned. 74. C. thi. 75.
C. yow; rihte.
B 2
4 /. AN A. B. C.
Now, queen of comfort, sith thou art that same
To whom I seche for my medicine,
Lat not my foo no more my wounde entame,
]\Iyn hele in-to thyn hand al I resigne. 80
Lady, thy sorwe can I not portreye
Under the cros, ne his grevous penaunce.
But, for your bothes peynes, I you preye,
Lat not oure alder foo make his bobaunce,
That he hath in his listes of mischaunce 85
Convict that ye have bothe bought so dere.
As I seide erst, thou ground of our substaunce.
Continue on us thy pitous eyen clere !
Moises, that saugh the bush with flaumes rede
Brenninge, of which ther never a stikke brende, 90
Was signe of thyn unwemmed maidenhede.
Thou art the bush on which ther gan descende
The Holy Cost, the which that Moises wende
Had ben a-fyr ; and this was in figure.
Now lady, from the fyr thou us defende 95
Which that in helle eternally shal dure.
Noble princesse, that never haddest pere,
Certes, if any comfort in us be,
That Cometh of thee, thou Cristes moder dere,
We han noon other melodye or glee 100
Us to reioyse in our adversitee,
Ne advocat noon that wol and dar so preye
For us, and that for litel hyre as ye.
That helpen for an Ave Marie or tweye.
77. C. sithe. 78. C. seeche ; medicyne. 79. C. vntame
{jvrongly) ; 7'est entame. 80. C. resyne ; Gl. resigne. 81. C. lean.
82. C. greevous. 85. C. lystes. 86. ^// bothe have. C. bouht.
87. C. oure. 88. C. thi ; cleere. 89. C. sauh ; F. saugh. C.
flawmes. 93. C. holigost. 94. C. a fyir. 95. C. fyir. C. deu-
fende (iic). 96. C. etemalli. 97. C. neuere ; peere. 98. C.
bee. 99. C. mooder deere. 100. C. oo])er. loi. C. oure.
102. C. wole. 103. C. yee.
/. AN A. B. C. 5
O vcrrey light of cyen that ben blynde, 105
O verrey lust of labour and distresse,
O tresorere of bountee to mankynde,
Thee whom God chees to moder for humblesse !
From his ancille he made thee maistresse
Of hevene and erthe, our bille up for to bede. no
This world awaiteth evere on thy goodnesse,
For thou ne failest never wight at nede.
Purpos I have sum tyme for tenquere,
Wherfore and why the Holy Gost thee soughte,
Whan Gabrielles vois cam to thyn ere. 1 1 5
He not to werre us swich a wonder wroughte,
But for to save us that he sithen boughte.
Than nedelh us no wepen us for to save,
But only ther we did not, as us oughte.
Do penitence, and mercy axe and have. 120
Queen of comfort, yit whan I me bithinke
That I agilt have bothe, him and thee.
And that my soule is worthy for to sinke.
Alias, I, caitif, whider may I flee?
Who shal un-to thy sone my mene be.? 125
Who, but thy-self, that art of pitee welle?
Thou hast more reuthe on our adversite
Than in this world mighte any tunge telle.
Redresse me, moder, and me chastyse,
For, certeynly, my fadres chastisinge 130
That dar I nought abyden in no wyse :
So hidous is his rightful rekeninge.
107. C. tresoreere. 108. F. chees ; C. ches. C. mooder. 109.
C. the. no. C. eerthe ; cure; beede. 11 1. C. thi. 112. C.
neuere; neede. 113. Gg. F. tenquere; C. to enquere. 114. C. whi ;
holi; souhte. 115. C. \'n-to ; the rest io. 116. C. wunder wrouhte.
117. C. bouhte. 118. C. Thanne necdeth; wepene. 119. C. oonly.
Jo. F. did; C. diden. C. ouhte. 120. C. Uoo ; merci. 123. C.
vvurthi. 125. C. thi; bee. 126. C. thi-. 12S. C. miht. 129.
C. mooder. 130. F. Fadres; C. faderes ; Jo. fader. 131. C. nouht.
J. ^2. Gg. F. is his ; the rest it is [wrongly). C. rihful {sic).
6 I. AN A. B. C.
Moder, of whom our mercy gan to springe,
Beth ye my luge and eek my soules leche ;
For evere in you is pitee haboundinge 135
To ech that wol of pitee you biseche.
Soth is, that God ne graunteth no pitee
With-oute thee ; for God, of his goodnesse,
Foryiveth noon, but it lyke un-to thee.
He hath thee maked vicaire and maistresse 140
Of al the world, and eek governeresse
Of hevene, and he represseth his lustyse
After thy wille, and therfore in witnesse
He hath thee crouned in so rial wyse.
Temple devout, ther god hath his woninge 145
Fro which these misbileved pryved been,
To you my soule penitent I bringe.
Receyve me ! I can no ferther fleen !
With thornes venimous, O hevene queen,
For which the erthe acursed was ful yore, 150
I am so wounded, as ye may wel seen,
That I am lost almost;— it smert so sore.
Virgine, that art so noble of apparaile.
And ledest us in-to the hye tour
Of Paradys, thou me wisse and counsaile, 155
How I may have thy grace and thy socour;
Al have I been in filthe and in errour.
Lady, un-to that court thou me aiourne
That cleped is thy bench, O fresshe flour!
Ther as that mercy ever shal soiourne. 160
133. C. Mooder; merci. 136. C. eche; wole ; biseeche. 137.
C. granteth; F. graunteth. 140. C. vicair; Gg. F. vicaire. 141. C.
gouf ;-nowresse ; Gl. Gg. gouemeresse. 143. C. thi wil. 144. L.
crowned; Gg. crouwnyd ; C. Jo. corowned. 146. C. misbileeued.
Jo. L. pryued; the rest Ae^rmtA. 148. C. ferjiere. 149. C. venym-
ous. 150. C. eerthe. 151. C. {alone) o?n. so. 156. C. thi
{twice'). 157. Gg. Al; C. All. C. ben. 158. C. Ladi. 159.
Sion MS. fresshe ; Gg. frosche {sic) ; the rest wrongly omit the final e.
160. C. merci; euere.
/. AiV A. B. C. 7
Xristus, thy sone, that in this world alighte,
Up-on the cros to suffre his passioun,
And eek, that Longius his herte pighte,
And made his herte blood to renne adoun ;
And al was this for my salvacioun ; 165
And I to him am fals and eek unkynde,
And yit he wol not my dampnacioun — •
This thanke I you, socour of al mankynde.
Ysaac was figure of his deth, certeyn,
That so fer-forth his fader wolde obeye 170
That him ne roughte no-thing to be slayn;
Right so thy sone list, as a lamb, to deye.
Now lady, ful of mercy, I you preye,
Sith he his mercy mesured so large,
Be ye not skant ; for alle we singe and seye 175
That ye ben from vengeaunce ay our targe.
Zacharie you clepeth the open welle
To wasshe sinful soule out of his gilt.
Therfore this lessoun oughte I wel to telle
That, nere thy tender herte, we weren spilt. iSo
Now lady, sith thou bothe canst and wilt
Ben to the seed of Adam merciable.
So bring us to that palais that is bilt
To penitents that ben to mercy able. Amen. 184
Explicit carmm.
161. C. Xpc ( = Gk. xps)- 163. All the MSS. insert suffrcd after
efik, caught from the lute above ; see noiz. 167. C. wole. 171. C.
rouhte. 172. C. Riht soo thi. C. lust; rest list, liste. 173. C.
ladi ; merci ; yow. 174. C. Sithe ; merci. 177. C. opene. 179.
C. ouht. iSo. C. thi. 181. C. ladi. C. Gg. sithe ; F. sith.
Harl. 2251 alone supplies bothe. 183. Sion MS. alone supplies So.
MS. Harl. 2251 has un-to ; the rest to. 184. Gl. penytentz ; C. peni-
tentes ; Jo. Penitence {for penitents). C. merci.
IT. THE COMPLEYNTE UNTO PITE.
PiTE, that I have sought so yore ago,
With herte sore, and ful of besy peyne,
That in this world was never wight so wo
With-oute dethe ; and, if I shal not feyne,
My purpos was, to Pite to compleyne 5
Upon the crueltee and tirannye
Of Love, that for my trouthe doth me dye.
And when that I, by lengthe of certeyn yeres,
Had ever in oon a tyme sought to speke.
To Pite ran I, al bespreynt with teres, 10
To prey en hir on Cruelte me awTeke.
But, er I might with any worde out-breke,
Or tellen any of my peynes smerte,
I fond hir deed, and buried in an herte.
Adoun I fel, when that I saugh the herse, 15
Deed as stoon, whyl that the swogh me laste;
But up I roos, with colour ful diverse,
And pitously on hir myn yen caste.
And ner the corps I gan to pressen faste,
And for the soule I shoop me for to preye ; 20
I nas but lorn ; ther nas no more to seye.
The MSS. are : Tn. (Tanner 346); F. (Fairfax 16) ; B. (Bodley 638).
Sh. (Shirley's MS., Harl. 78); Ff. (Ff. i. 6. in Camb. Univ. Library);
Trin. (Trin. Coll. Camb. R. 3. 19); also Harl. 7578. I follow F.
mainly, iioti7tg all vaiiations of importance.
Title; z« B. i. F. agoo. 2. F. hert. 3. F. worlde; woo.
5. F. purpose. 8. F. be ; B. Sh. Trin. by. F. certeyne. 9. Sh.
Harl. 7578 a tyme sought ; the rest sought a tyme {badly). 10. F.
bespreynte. 11. F. prayen. Sh. wreke ; the rest a^Nxeke. 14. F.
fonde ; dede. 15. F. Adovne. Harl. 7578 alone supplies that. 16.
F. Dede; while. 17. F. roose ; coloure. 18. B. yen ; F. eyen ;
after which all but Sh. and Harl. 7578 insert I. 19. Sh. to ; which
the rest omit. 20. Sh. shoope ; the rest sho^s. F. prey. 21. For
nas, the MSS. wrongly have was ; in both places. F. lorne ; sey.
//. THE COMPLEYNTE UNTO PITE. 9
Thus am I slayn, sith that Pite is deed;
Alias ! that day I that ever hit shulde falle !
What maner man dar now hokle up his heed?
To whom shal any sorwful herte calle ? 25
Now Ciuelte hath cast to sleen us alle,
In ydel hope, folk redelees of peyne —
Sith she is deed — to whom shul we compleyne?
But yet encreseth me this wonder newe,
That no wight wooc that she is deed, but I; 30
So many men as in her tyme hir knewe,
And yet she dyed not so sodeynly ;
For I have sought hir ever ful besily
Sith first I hadde wit, or mannes mynde;
But she was deed, er that I coude hir fynde. 35
Aboute hir herse ther stoden lustely,
Withouten any wo, as thoughte me^
Bountee parfit, wel armed and richely,
And fresshe Beautee, Lust, and lolitee.
Assured Maner, Youthe, and Honestee, 40
Wisdom, Estaat, [and] Drede, and Governaunce,
Confedred both by bonde and alliaunce.
A compleynt hadde I, writen, in my hond.
For to have put to Pite as a bille,
But whan I al this companye ther fond 45
That rather wolden al my cause spille
Than do me help, I held my pleynte stille ;
22. F. slayne ; dede. 23. Tn. shulde; F. shuld. 24. F. hedc.
25. All but Sh. and Harl. 7578 itis. now bef. any. F. eny. 26. F.
caste. Sh. sleen ; F. slee. 27. F. folke redelesse. 30. F. dede.
31. F. mony. 32. F. B. o?nit she ; the rest have it. Only^\\. andT.
retain so. 33. F. besely. For ever Ten Brink reads ay. 34. Only
Sh. gives this line correctly ; so Harl. 757S \hiit with any ybr mannes).
F. Sith I hadde firste witte or mynde. 35. F. dede. Sh. Harl. 7578
that ; which the rest omit. 37. F. woo. 38. F. Bounte. 39. F.
beaute ; iolyte. 40. F. honeste. 41. F. Wisdome. F.B. estaat;
the rest estate ; Ten Brink rightly supplies and after Estat (sic). 43.
Harl. 7578 hadde; Sh. hade; the rest had. F. myn honde. 44. Sh.
Harl. 7578 For ; rest omit. F. piltce. 45. F. when. F. fonde.
46. Sh. wolden; F. wolde. 47. F. hclpe. Sh. awt/ Harl. 7578
compleynt; the rest pleynte, except T. which has cause.
10 //. THE COMPLEYNTE UNTO PITE.
For to that folk, withouten any faile,
Withoute Pite may no bille availe.
Then leve I alle thees virtues, sauf Pite, 50
Keping the corps, as ye have herd me seyn,
Confedred alle by bonde of Crueltee,
And ben assented that I shal be sleyn.
And I have put my compleynt up ageyn ;
For to my foos my bille I dar not shewe, 55
Theffect of which seith thus, in wordes fewe : —
The Bilkj.
^ ' Humblest of herte, hyest of reverence,
Benigne flour, coroune of vertues alle,
Sheweth unto your rial excellence
Your servaunt, if I durste me so calle, 60
His mortal harm, in which he is [y]-falle.
And noght al only for his evel fare.
But for your renoun, as he shal declare.
' Hit stondeth thus : your contrair, Crueltee,
Allyed is ageynst your regalye 65
Under colour of womanly Beautee,
For men [ne] shuld not knowe hir tirannye,
With Bountee, Gentilesse, and Curtesye,
And hath depryved you now of your place
That hight "Beautee, apertenant to Grace." 70
48. F. folke. F. withoute ; B. without ; the rest withouten. 49.
F. pitee. Harl. 7578 may ; Sh. ne may ; ;rj^ ther may. 50. Sh.
])anne leve I alle jsees vertues sauf pitee ; F. B. Then leve we al vertues
saue oonly pite ; Tn. Ff. T. Then leue all vertues saue onely pite.
51. F. Kepynge; herde. 52. F. Cofedered (jzV). Sh. alle by bonde
of {correctly) ; F. Tn. B. Ff. by bonde and by ; T. by boimd and. 53.
Sh. that ; the rest when. 54. F. complaynt. 55. F. Foes ; Tn. foos.
57. F. highest. 59. F. youre rialle. 60. F. Youre ; durst. 61.
Sh. which he is Inne falle ; the rest in which he is falle {Imdly) ; read
y-falle. 62. F. oonly. 64. The Wii6. insert X}i\2X after 'Caui, except
Sh. and Harl. 7578, which omit it. Sh. contraire; the rest contrary.
65. Sh. ageynst ; F. ayenst. 66. F. beaute. 67. The MSS. omit
ne. F. shulde. 68. F. bounte. 69. Sh. nowe ; luhich the rest omit.
70. Sh. heghte {for highte'i ; Harl. 7578 hight ; Tn. is hye; F. B. Trin.
is hygh. F. beaute apertenent. The MSS. {except Sh. and Harl.
7578) insert your after to.
//. THE COMPLEYNTE UNTO PITE. II
' For kyndly, by your heritage right,
Ye been annexed ever unto Bountee ;
And verrayly ye oughte do your might
To helpe Trouthe in his adversitee.
Ye been also the coroune of Beautee ; 75
And certes, if ye wanten in thees tweyne,
The world is lore ; ther nis no more to seyne.
' % Eek what availeth Maner and Gentilesse
Withoute you, benigne creature ?
Shal Cruelte be your governeresse ? 80
Alias I what herte may hit longe endure ?
\^'herfor, but ye the rather take cure
To breke that perilous alliaunce,
Ye sleen hem that ben in your obeisaunce.
' And further over, if }-e suffre this, 85
Your renoun is fordo than in a throwe ;
Ther shal no man wite wel what Pite is.
Alias ! that your renoun shuld be so lowe !
Ye be than fro your heritage y-throwe
By Cruelte, that occupieth your place ; 90
And we despeired, that seken to your grace.
' Have mercy on me, thou Herenus quene,
That you have sought so tendrely and yore ;
Let som streem of your light on me be sene
71. F. kyndely. 72. MostW&'i. be; Harl. 7578 been; readhttw
(and tn\. -^s,). 73. F. verrely ; youre. 75. F. beaute. 76. Tn.
Ff. wante; t/ie rest want ; read wanten. F. these tweyn. 77. F.
worlde. For nis, i/ie MSS. /lave is. F. se>Ti. 78. F. Eke. 79. F.
yow. 82. F. Wherfore. 86. F. fordoo. Sh. than, 7u/iu/i the rest
omit. 87. F. wetewell; the rest oniitweW; Tn.wyte. 88. F. Tn.
B. Ff. T. huert euer after that, ~vhich Sh. rightly omits. Sh. shouldc
be ; the rest is falle. 89. Sh. thanne ; the rest also {perhaps read als .
90. F. youre. 91. Sh. sechen to ; B. sekyn to ; Tn. Ff. T. seken; F.
speken to {for seken to). 92. Tn. F. B. Ff herenus ; T. herem/M ;
Sh. vertuouse. 93. F. yow ; tcndirly. 94. B. som ; F. somwe.
F. streme. Sh. Harl. 7578 youre ; which the rest omit.
la //. THE COMPLEYNTE UNTO PITE.
That love and drede you. ay lenger the more. 95
For, sothly for to seyne, I here the sore,
And, though I be not cunning for to pleyne,
For goddes love, have mercy on my peyne !
' If My peyne is this, that what so I desire
That have I not, ne no-thing lyk therto; 100
And ever set Desire my herte on fire ;
Eek on that other syde, wher-so I go,
What maner thing that may encrese wo
That have I redy, unsoght, everywhere ;
Me [ne] lakketh but my deth, and than my bere. 105
' What nedeth to shewe parcel of my peyne .?
Sith every wo that herte may bethinke
I suffre, and yet I dar not to you pleyne;
For wel I woot, al-though I wake or winke,
Ye rekke not whether I flete or sinke. no
But natheles, my trouthe I shal sustene
Unto my deth, and that shal wel be sene.
' This is to seyne, I wol be youres ever ;
Though ye me slee by Crueltee, your fo,
Algate my spirit shal never dissever 115
Fro your servyse, for any peyne or wo.
Sith ye be deed — alias ! that hit is so ! —
Thus for your deth I may wel wepe and pleyne
With herte sore and ful of besy peyne.' 119
Here endeth the exclamacion of the Deth of Pyte.
95. Sh. ay ; rest euer. Sh. om. the. 96. F. sothely. Sh. the hevy
sore; Harleian 7578 the sore; rest so sore (which gives no sense).
97. F. kunnynge. 98. F. goddis. 100. F. lyke. loi. F. Sh.
setteth; Harl. 7578 set; the rest stiWih.; see note. F. myn hert. 102.
F. Eke. F. sydes; //z^ r^j-/ side, syde. F. where-so; goo. 103. Sh.
Harl. wo ; the rest insert my before wo. 104. F. vnsoghte. 105.
All omit ne; .f^f note. 107. F. woo. 109. F. wote. Sh. al-J)aughe ;
the rest though, thogh. uo. F. B. where; the rest whether. in.
All but Sh. and Harl. needlessly insert yet before my. 114. F. soo ;
the rest foo, fo. 115. F. spirite. 116. F. youre; eny. 117. B.
yet {sic') be ded ; F. Tn. Ff. T. ye be yet ded {which will not scan) ; Sh.
has a differetit line — Now pitee J)at I haue sought so yoore agoo.
III. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE.
The Proem.
I HAVE gret wonder, by this lighte,
How that I live, for day ne nighte
I may nat slepe wel nigh noght ;
I have so many an ydel thoght
Purely for defaute of slepe, 5
That, by my trouthe, I take kepe
Of no-thing, how hit cometh or goth,
- Ne me nis no-thing leef nor loth.
Al is yliche good to me —
loye or sorowe, wherso hit be — lo
For I have feling in no-thing,
But, as it were, a iiiased thing,
Alway in point to falle a-doun ;
For [swich] imaginacioun
Is alway hooUy in my mynde. ' 15
And wel ye wite, agaynes kynde
Hit were to liven in this wyse ;
For nature wolde nat suffyse
To noon erthely creature
Not Ibnge tyme to endure 20
Withoute slepe, and been in sorwe ;
And I ne may, ne night ne morwe
The MSS. are : F. (Fairfax 16) ; Tn. (Tanner 346) ; B. (Bodley 638) ;
the fourth authority is Th. (ThjTine's edition of 1532). I follow F.
mainly, and note all but very trifling variatiofis from it.
Title: in F. i. Tn. gret; F. grete. Th. by; F. Tn. be. 5. Tn.
Th. defaute ; F. defaulte. 6. All take no kepe. 8. Tn. Th. lefe
(readXeti); F. leve. 9. Tn. Th. good; F. goode. lo. Tn. loye;
F. Icy. 11,12. F. no thynge, thynge. 14. .<4// sonveful {badly) ;
r<?a</ swich. 15. F. hooly. 16. F. woote; Th. B. wote ; Tn. wotte ;
read w'lie. 19. ForTo perhaps read \Jnio. ¥. ertheily {niis'written).
21. All he. 22. Th. Tn. ne {2nd time) ; F. no.
14 ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUC HESSE.
Slepe ; and thus melancolye,
And dreed I have for to dye,
Defaute of slepe, and hevinesse 25
Hath sleyn my spirit of quiknesse,
That I have lost al lustihede.
Suche fantasies ben in myn hede
So I not what is best to do.
But men might axe me, why so 30
I may not slepe, and what me is ?
But natheles, who aske this
Leseth his asking trewely.
My-selven can not telle why
The soth ; but trewely, as I gesse, 35
I holde hit [moot] be a siknesse
That I have suflfred this eight yere,
And yet my bote is never the nere;
Ther is phisicien but oon,
That may me hele ; but that is doon. 40
Passe we over until eft ;
That wil not be, moot nede be left;
Our first matere is good to kepe.
So whan I saw I might not slepe.
Til now late, this other night, 45
Upon my bedde I sat upright,
And bad oon reche me a book,
A romaunce, and hit me took
To rede and dryve the night away ;
For me thoghte it better play 50
23. ^//this. 24. ^//drede. 2?. Th. Tn. Defaute ; F. Defaulte.
26. Th. slayne ; Tn. slain ; F. omits. 27. F. loste. Tn. omits 11. 31-96 ;
F. has them in a later hatid {the spelling of which I amende. 32. F.
nathles whoe. 33. F. trewly. 34. F. tell. 35 Th. sothe ; F.
southe (M F. trewly. 36. F. hold it ; sicknes. I insert Taoo\.\ it
seems to be required; cf. 1. 42. 38. F. boote. 39. All For ther.
F. one. 40. F. heale ; done. 41. F. vntill efte. 42. F. mote.
Th. nede ; F. nedes. F. lefte. 43. F. mater. 44. Th. So whan ;
F. Soe when. F. sawe. 45. Th. Tyl nowe late ; F. Til now late ;
but probably corrupt. 46. F. sate. 47. F. bade one. F. booke.
48. F. it ; Th. he it. F. toke. 50. F. thought ; beter.
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE. 15
Then playe either at chesse or tables.
And in this boke were writen fables
That clerkes hadde, in olde tyme,
And other poets, put in ryme
To rede, and for to be in mynde 55
Whyl men loved the lawe of kynde.
This book ne spak but of such thinges,
Of queues lyves, and of kinges,
And many other thinges smale.
Amonge al this I fond a tale 60
That me thoghte a wonder thing.
This was the tale: Ther was a king
That highte Seys, and hadde a wyf.
The beste that might here lyf;
And this quene highte Alcyone. 65
So hit befel, therafter sone,
This king wol wenden over see.
To tellen shortly, whan that he
Was in the see, thus in this wyse,
Soche a tempest gan to ryse 70
That brak her mast, and made it falle,
And clefte her ship, and dreinte hem alle,
That never was founden, as it telles,
Bord ne man, ne nothing elles.
Right thus this king Seys loste his lyf 75
To speke of Alcyone his wyf: —
This lady, that was left at home,
Hath wonder, that the king ne come
51. F. play. 52. F. written. 53. F. had. 56. F. ^Vhile.
Th. of; F. in copied from line above). 57. F. boke. Th. spake; F.
speake '^read spak). 58. F. kings. 59. Th. smale ; F. smalle.
60. Th. al; F. all. F. fonde. 61. F. thought. 62. F. There.
63. F. hight. Th. Seys; F. Seyes. F. had. F. wife. 64. Th.
beste ; F. best. F. beare lyfe. 65. F. hight. 66. F. Soe it befiU
thereafter soone. 67. F. well. 70. E'er/taps read ga.n aryse. 71.
F. brake. (her = /^t'/r). F. maste ; fal. 72. Th. her; F. ther (j^£
Hue above). F. dreint ; all. 73. Th. F. founde ^error/or foundenV
74. F. Borde. 75. Th. Seys; F. Seyes. F. life. 76. Th. F. Now
for to speke {which makes the line too long). F. wife.
1 6 ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE.
Hoom, for hit was a long terme.
Anon her herte gan to [erme], 80
And for that her thoghte evermo
Hit was not wel, her thoghte so,
She longed so after the king
That certes, hit were a pitous thing
To telle her hertely sorwful lyf 85
That she hadde [ay], this noble wyf;
For him she loved alderbest.
Anon she sente bothe eest and west
To seke him, but they founde nought.
' Alas ! ' quoth she, ' that I was wrought ! 90
And wher my lord, my love, be deed?
Certes, I nil never ete breed,
I make a-vowe to my god here,
But I mowe of my lorde here ! '
Such sorwe this lady to her took 95
That trewly I, which made this book.
Had swich pite and swich rowthe
To rede her sorwe, that, by my trowthe,
I ferde the worse al the morwe
After, to thenken on her sorwe. 100
So whan [she] coude here no word
That no man mighte fynde her lord,
Ful ofte she swouned, and seide ' alas ! '
For sorwe ful nigh wood she was,
Ne she coude no reed but oon; 105
But doun on knees she sat anoon,
79. Th. F. Home ; it. 80. Th. Anon ; F. Anone. Th. F. be-
gan {error for gan). Th. F. yeme {error for erme' ; see note. Si. F.
thought. 82. F. It; vvele; thought soe. 83. F. soe. 84. F. it.
85. F. tell. Th. hertely ; F. hartely. F. life. 86. Th. F. had. /
supply ay. F. wife. 87. Both Th. and F. lorongly insert alas after
him. 88. F. Anone; sent. 91. F. where. 92. Th. nyl; F. will.
F. eate breede. 94. Th. lorde; F. Lord. 95. F. toke. 96. F.
booke. Oi"]. Here the older hand recommences^inY. F. Had ; Tn.
I had. F. siiche (/wzV^). F. pittee. 100. F. And aftir ;/;?</ Th.
Tn. ow?V And. loi. y^// this lady (/^r she ; badly). 102. F.
myght ; lorde. 103. F. sayed. 104. F. woode. 105. F. rede.
106. Y. doune; sate.
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE. 1 7
And weep, that pite was to here. ^
' A ! mercy ! swete lady dere ! '
Quod she to luno, her goddesse ;
' Help me out of this distresse, no
And yeve me grace my lord to se
Sone, or wite wher-so he be,
Or how he fareth, or in what wyse,
And I shal make you sacrifyse,
And hoolly youres become I shal 115
With willc, body, herte, and al ;
And but thou wilt this, lady swete,
Send me grace to slepe, and mete
In my slepe som certeyn sweyen,
Wher-through that I may knowen even j.20
. .Whether my lord be quik or deed.'
With that word she heng doun the heed,
And fil a-swown as cold as ston ;
Her women caughte her up anon.
And broghten her in bed al naked, 125
And she, forweped and forwaked,
Was wery, and thus the deed slepe
Fil on her, or she took kepe,
Through luno, that had herd her bone,
That made her [for] to slepe sone; 130
For as she prayde, so was don,
In dede ; for luno, right anon,
Called thus her messagere
To do her erande, and he com nere.
107. F. Th. Tn. wepte (^f<^ rma? weep). F. pittee. 109. Th. to ;
-which F. Tn. omil. no. F. Helpe. 112. F. Scone. Tn. B. wite;
F. Th. wete. 114. F. yowe. 116. Th. Tn. B. good will; ¥■ good
wille {but I regard good as interpolated). 117. F. wilte. 1 18. Tn.
Send; Th. F. Sende. iiy. Tn. som ; F. somwc. 120. Th.
through; F. thorgh. F. knowe. 121. F. lorde; quyke; ded.
122. F. worde; henge; hed. 123. Th. Tn. fel; F. felle {sec 1. 128).
F. A swowne; Tn. a swowe {for a-swowen = a-swown); Th. in a
swowne. F. colde ; Tn. cold. 124. F. kaught; anoon. 127. Th.
deed; F. ded. 128. F. tooke. 129. Th. Through; F. Throgh.' F.
herde. 12,0. I supply ior. 131. Th. Tn. prayde; F. prayede ;
after which all luroitgly insert riglit {see next line). 134. F. come.
l8 ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE.
Whan he was come, she bad him thus, 135
' Go bet,' quod [she], ' to Morpheus,
Thou knowest him wel, the god of slepe ;
Now understond wel, and tak kepe.
Sey thus on my halfe, that he
Go faste into the grete see, 140
And bid him that, on alle thing.
He take up Seys body the king.
That lyth ful pale and no-thing rody.
Bid him crepe into the body.
And do it goon to Alcyone 145
The queue, ther she lyth alone,
And shewe her shortly, hit is no nay,
How hit was dreynt this other day ;
And do the body speke so
Right as hit woned was to do, 150
The whyles that hit was on lyve.
Go now faste, and hy thee blyve ! '
This messager took leve and wente
Upon his wey, and never stente
Til he com to the derke valeye 1:5
That stant bytwene roches tweye,
Ther never yet grew corn ne gras,
Ne tree, ne nothing that ought was,
Beste, ne man. ne nothing elles.
Save ther were a fewe welles 160
Came renning fro the cliffes adoun,
That made a dedly sleping soun,
And ronnen doun right by a cave
That was under a rokke y-grave
136. ^// luno (7^;- she). 13S. F. vnderstonde ; take. 141. Tn. B.
alk; F. al. 142. Th. He; F. Tn. That he. F. kynge. 144. Tn.
B. Bid; F. Bud. 145. Th. Alcyone; F. Tn. Alchione. 146. Th.
alone ; F. allone. 149. After speke all insert right {see next line).
150. ^// was woned. 151. Tn. on; F. a. 152. F. hye the.
153. F. toke ; went. 154. All insert ne after never. F. stent.
155. Tn. com; F. come. F. valey. 156. Th. bytwene; F. betvvex ;
Tn. betwix. F. twey. 157. F. come. 158,159. Allno^X^for
nothing). F. oughte. 162. F. dedely; Tn. dedli.
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE. 19
Amid the valey, wonder depe. ]f)5
Ther ihise goddes laye and slepe,
Morpheus, and Eclympasteyre,
That was the god of slepes heyre,
That slepe and did non other werk.
This cave was also as derk 170
As helle pit over-al aboute;
They had good leyser for to route
To envye, who might slepe beste ;
. Some henge her chin upon her breste
And slepe upright, her hed y-hed, 175
And some laye naked in her bed,
And slepe whyles the dayes laste.
This messager com flying faste,
And cryed, ' O ho ! awak anon ! '
Hit was for noght; ther herde him non. 180
' Awak ! ' quod he, ' who is lyth there ? '
And blew his horn right in her ere,
And cryed ' awaketh ! ' wonder hye.
This god of slepe, with his oon ye
Cast up, axed, 'who clepeth there?' 185
' Hit am I,' quod this messagere ;
' luno bad thou shuldest goon ' —
And tolde him what he shulde doon
As I have told yow here-tofore ;
Hit is no nede reherse liit more ; 190
And wente his wey, whan he had sayd.
Anon this god of slepe a-brayd
166. F. There these ; lay. 167. Th. F. B. Eclympaste}Te(aj'z«/'^jr/);
Tn. Etlympasteyrc (w?V/i ty^^r c). 168. Tn. heir^ ; F. eyre. 169.
170. F. werke, derke. 171. Tn. pit ; F. pitte. 173. F. To envye;
Tn. Th. vie. 175. Tn. slepte; F. slept. B. Tn. I-hid ; Th. yhed ;
F. yhedde. i']6. All \a.y {it is plural). F. Tn. bedde. 177. F.
slepe; Th. Tn. slepte. 178. F. com. Tn. flyyng; F. fleypge; Th.
rcnnyng. 179. F. Tn. O how; Th. ho ho. F. awake. 180. F.
there. iSi. F. Awake ; lythe. 182. F. home. Tn. B. ere ; F. here.
184. Tn. oon; F. on. F. ye; Th. eye; Tn. eije. 185. Th. Tn.
Cast; F. Caste. All ius. and after ^r^. 191. Th. wente; F. went.
F. sayede ; Tn. seide. 192. F. a-brayede; Tn. abraied.
C 2
20 III. THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE.
Out of his slepe, and gan to goon,
And did as he had bede him doon;
Took up the dreynt body sone « 195
And bar hit foitli to Alcione,
His wyf the quene, ther as she lay,
Right even a quarter before day,
And stood right at her beddes feet,
And called her, right as she heet, 200
By name, and seyde, ' my swete wyf,
Awak ! let be your sorwful lyf !
For in your sorwe ther lyth no reed ;
For certes, swete, I nam but deed;
Ye shul me never on lyve y-se. 205
But good swete herte, [look] that ye
Bury my body, swiche a tyde
Ye mowe hit fynde the see besyde ;
And far-wel, swete, my worldes blisse!
I praye god your sorwe lisse ; 210
To litel whyl our blisse lasteth ! '
With that her eyen up she casteth,
And saw noght ; ' [A] ! ' quod she for sorwe,
And deyed within the thridde morwe.
But what she sayde more in that swow 215
I may not telle yow as now.
Hit wer to longe for to dwelle;
My first matere I wil yow telle,
Wherfor I have told this thing
Of Alcione and Seys the king. 220
195. F. Tooke. Read Ax€vdX. 196. F. bare. Th. Alcione ; F.
Tn. Alchione. 197. F. wife. 199. Th. her; F. Tn. hys. F. fete.
200. All hete. 201. F. sayede ; wyfe. 202. F. Awake ; lyfe.
203. F. there ; rede. 204. I put nam ; all have am. F. dede.
206. I supply look, T^r the sake of sense atid metre ; read—'S>M.\. good
swet' hert-e, look that ye. 207. All ins. for after body. 210.
F. pray ; youre. 211. F. while oure. 213. ^// alias (yijr A).
214. F. deyede; Tn. deid. 215. F. sayede. Tn. swow; Th. E.
swowe ; F. sorowe(n. 216. F. nowe. 219. Tn. told ; F. tolde.
F. thynge. 220. Th. Alcione; F. Tn. Alchione. F. kynge.
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE. 21
For thus moche dar I saye wel,
I had be dolven everydel,
And deed, right through defaute of slepe,
If I nad red and taken kepe
Of this tale next before : 225
And I wol telle yow wherfore ;
For I ne might, for bote ne bale,
Slepe, or I had red this tale
Of this dreynt Seys the king,
And of the. goddes of sleping. 230
Whan I had red this tale wel,
And over-loked hit everydel,
]\Ie thoghte wonder if hit were so ;
For I had never herd speke, or tho,
Of no goddes that coude make 235
Men [for] to slepe, ne for to wake ;
For I knew never god but oon.
And in my game I sayde anoon —
And yet me list right evel to pleye —
' Rather then that I shulde deye [ 240
Through defaute of sloping thus,
I wolde yive thiike Morpheus,
Or his goddesse, dame luno.
Or som wight elles, I ne roghte who —
To make me slepe and have som reste — 245
I wil yive him the alder-beste
Yift that ever he abood his lyve,
And here on warde, right now, as blyve ;
221. All say. Tn. wel; F. welle. 222. Tn. eueridel ; F.
euerydelle. 223. F. thornjh. Tn. defante; F. defanlte. 224. Th.
F. ne had i^rcad nad) ; Tn. hade. Tn. red ; F. redde. All have take ;
rw(/ taken. 226. Y. otnits\(J>y mistake). 228. F. redde. 229.
F. dreynte. 230. Th. goddes; F. Tn. goddis. 231. Tn. red; F.
redde. 233. F. thoght. 234. Tn. herd ; Y. herde. 235. F.
goddis. 27,6. I supply the former ior. 237. yf// I ne knew. 23S.
F. sayede. 239. F. pley. 240. F. dey. 241. F. Thorgh defaulte.
Tn. sleping ; F. slepjTige. 244. Tn. sum ; F. somwe. F. ellis. F.
roght ; Th. Tn. rought. 245. Tn. som ; F. some. 247. F. Yifte.
F. abode. 248. 15. on warde ; rest onwarde.
22 ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUC HESSE.
If he wol make me slepe a lyte,
Of downe of pure dowves whyte 250
I wil yive him a felher-bed,
Rayed with golde, and right wel cled
la fyn blak satin doutremere,
And many a pilow, and every here
Of clothe of Reynes, to slepe softe; 255
Him thar not nede to turnen ofte.
And I wol yive him al that falles
To a chambre; and al his halles
I wol do peynte with pure golde.
And tapite hem ful many folde 260
Of 00 sute ; this shal he have,
If I wiste wher were his cave.
If he can make me slepe sone,
As did the goddesse Alcione.
And thus this ilke god, ]\Iorpheus, 265
I\Iay winne of me mo fees thus
Than ever he wan ; and to luno,
That is his goddesse, I shal so do,
I trow that she shal holde her payd.'
I hadde unneth that word y-sayd 270
Right thus as I have told hit yow,
That sodeynly, I niste how,
Swich a lust anoon me took
To slepe, that right upon my book
I fil aslepe, and therwith even 275
Me mette so inly swete a sweven,
So wonderful, that never yit
I trowe no man hadde the wit
251. F. yif (j-^f 1. 246). Tn. fethirbed; F. feder bedde. 252.
Tn. cled; F. cledde. 253. Tn. fyn ; F. fjTie. Th. doutremere;
Tn. dout^nnere ; F. de owter mere. 254. Tn. pilow; F. pelowe.
257, 8. F. fallys, hallys. 264. All ins. quene after goddesse. Th.
Alcione ; F. Tn. Alchione. 267. All wanne (!). 269. F. payede.
270. Tn. woord; F. worde. F. y-sayede. 271. Th. Tn. B. as ;
which Y. omits. Tn. told; F. tolde. 273. Tn. lust ; F. luste. F.
tooke. 274. F. booke. 275. F. evene. 276. F. swevene. 277.
Tn. 5it; F. yitte. 278. Th. trowe; F. trow; Tn. trov.
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUC HESSE. 2^
To conne wel my sweven rede ;
No, not Joseph, withoute drede, 2S0
Of Egipte, he that redde so
The kinges meting Pharao,
No more than coude the leste of us;
Ne nat scarsly Macrobeus,
He that wrot al thavision 2S5
That he mette, king Scipion,
The noble man, the Affrican —
Swiche mervayles fortuned than —
I trowe, a-rede my dremes even.
Lo, thus it was, this was my sweven. 290
The Dream.
ME thoghte thus : — that hit was May,
And in the dawning ther I lay,
Me mette thus, in my bed al naked : —
[I] loked forth, for I was waked
With smale foules a gret hepe, 295
That had affrayed me out of slepe.
Through noyse and swetnesse of her song,
And, as me mette, they sate among.
Upon my chambre-roof withoute.
Upon the tyles, al a-boute, 300
And songen, everich in his wyse,
The moste solempne servyse
By note, that ever man, I trowe.
Had herd; for som of hem song lowe,
281. Th. Tn. B. he ; F. ho. F. red ; Th. Tn. rad [but read redde or
radde). 282. F. metynge. 283. F. leste. 2^5. Tn. wrot; F.
wrote. 286. F. kynge. 288. Th. Suche meruayles fortuned than ;
F. Tn. B. omit this line. 291. F. thoght. 292. F. dawnynge.
Th. ther ; rest om. 294. All And {for I). 295. Tn. gret ; F.
grete. 296. All insert my before slepe; it is not wanted. 297.
F. Thorgh; swettenesse ; songe. 298. Th. as; Y. Tn. B. al {l>adly\
F. amonge. 299. F. roofe. 300. All ouer al ; but omit ouer.
301. ^// songe, song. 304. F. herde. Tn. B. som; F. sowme.
Tn. song ; F. songe i^it can be singular).
24 III- l^fiE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE.
Som hye, and al of oon acorde. 305
To telle shortly, at 00 worde,
Was never herd so swete a Steven,
But hit had be a thing of heven; —
So mery a soun, so swete entunes,
That certcs, for the toune of Tewnes, 310
I nolde but I had herd hem singe,
For al my chambre gan to ringe
Through singing of her armonye.
For instrument nor melodye
Was nowher herd yet half so swete, 315
Nor of acorde half so mete ;
For ther was noon of hem that feyned
To singe, for ech of hem him peyned
To fynde out mery crafty notes ;
They ne spared not her throtes, 320
And, soth to seyn, my chambre was
Ful wel depeynted, and with glas
Were al the windowes wel y-glased,
Ful clere, and nat an hole y-crased
That to beholde hit was grete loye. 325
For hooUy al the storie of Troye
Was in the glasing y-wroght thus,
Of Ector and king Priamus,
Of Achilles and Lamedon,
Of Medea and of lason, 330
Of Paris, Eleyne, and Lavyne.
And alle the walles with colours fyne
305. Tn. Som ; F. Somwe. F. high. 306. F. att. 307. F. harde.
308. F. thynge. 309. F. soune. Th. Th. entunes ; F. entewnes.
310. F. tewnes ; Th. Tewnes ; Tn. twnes. 311. F. herde. 313.
F. Thorgh syngynge. 315. F. nowhere herde ; halfe. 316. F.
halfe. 319. V . wrongly inserts ol after o\A. F. notys. 320. F.
throtys. 321. F. soothe. 323. F. y-glasyd. 324. F. hoole
y-crasyd. 326. Tn. hoolly ; F. holy. Tn. storie ; F. story. 327.
F. glasynge. 328. All and of king. 329. All repeat of king before
Lamedon ; the words were caught from 1. 328. 330. All insert And
eke (^<?/^/r Of Medea. 331. ^// and of (/c?' and). 332. Tn.
colours; F. colouris.
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE. 1^
Were peynted, bothe text and glose,
[Of] al the Romaunce of the Rose.
My windowes weren shet echon, 335
And through the glas the sunne shon
Upon my bed with brighte bemes,
With many glade gilden stremes;
And eek the welken was so fair,
Blew, bright, clere was the air, 340
And ful atenipre, for sothe, hit was ;
For nother cold nor hoot hit nas,
Ne in al the welken was a cloude.
And as I lay thus, wonder loude
]\Ie thoghte I herde an hunte blowe 345
Tassave his horn, and for to knowe
Whether hit were clere or hors of soune.
I herde [gon], bothe up and doune,
Men, hors, houndes. and other thing;
And al men speken of hunting, 350
How they wolde slee the hert with strengthe,
And how the hert had, upon lengthe.
So moche embosed, I not now what.
Anon-right, whan I herde that,
How that they wolde on hunting goon, 355
I was right glad, and up anoon ;
1 1] took my hors, and forth I wente
Out of my chambre ; I never stente
Til I com to the feld withoute.
Ther overtook I a gret route 360
334. All And ; read Of. 335. Th. weren ; F. were. Tn. shet ;
F. shette. 336. F. throgh. 337. F. bryght. 338. F. gilde ;
Th. B. gyldy ; Tn. gilli ; read gilden. 339. F. eke. F. welken ; Th.
Tn. welk)Ti. A U {aire. 340. F. ayre. 341. Th. atempre ; F. Tn.
attempre. ^^2. A // tfis. to def. cold. F. colde; hoote. Th. nas; F.
Tn. was. 343. F. welkene ; Th. welkyn ; Tn. walkyn. 345. F.
thoght. 346. F. Tassay ; home. 347. Tn. B. hors ; Th. F.
horse. 348. A// insert And at the begituiing of the line ; hut read I
herd-e. F. Th. goynge ; Tn. goyng; but read gon \for grammar and
metre). 350. F. Th. speke; Tn. spake ; but read sY>t^cn. 355.
F. hnntynge. 357. I supply \. F. Tooke; forthe ; went. 358.
F. stent. 359. F. come ; felde. 360. F. ouertoke ; grete.
26
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE.
Of huntes and eek of foresteres,
With many relayes and lymeres,
And hyed hem to the forest faste,
And I with hem ; — so at the laste
I asked oon, ladde a lymere : —
' Say, felow, who shal hunten here ? '
Quod I; and he answered ageyn,
* Sir, themperour Octovien,'
Quod he, ' and is heer faste by.'
'A goddes halfe, in good tyme,' quod I,
' Go we faste ! ' and gan to ryde.
Whan we came to the forest-syde,
Every man dide, right anoon,
As to hunting fil to doon.
The mayster-hunte anoon, fot-hoot,
With a gret home blew thre moot
At the uncoupling of his houndes.
Within a whyl the hert [y]-founde is,
I-halowed, and rechased faste
Long tyme; and so, at the laste.
This hert rused and stal away
Fro alle the houndes a prevy way.
The houndes had overshote hem alle.
And were on a defaute y-falle ;
Therwith the hunte wonder faste
Blew a forloyn at the laste.
I was go walked fro my tree,
And as I wente, ther cam by me
365
370
375
380
385
361. F. eke ; foresterys. 362. F. Ij-merys. 364. Th. I; zvhicJi
F. Tn. omit. Foi- at t}xe perhaps read atie. 366. F. felowe whoo.
y4// hunte [read hunten). 369. F. here fast. 370. J^ead goddes
as god's. 373. F. didde. 374. F. huntynge fille. 375. F.
fote hote. 376. F. blewe; mote. 377. F. vncoupyhiige ; Th.
vnconplynge. 378. F. \Vithynne ; while; herte. Th. F. founde ;
Tn. found ; read y-founde {/or hert /las one syllable. 3S1. F. Tn.
B. rused; Th. roused. F. staale. 383. Th. ouershot; F. ouer-
shette ; Tn. ouershet. Tn. hem ; F. hym (jvrofigly). 384. Tn. on ;
F. vpon. Tn. defaute ; F. defaulte. 3S6. F. Blewe. Th. Tn. forloyn ;
F. forleygne. Perhaps read atte for at the. , 388. F. went ; came.
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE. 27
A whelp, that fauned me as I stood,
That, hadde y-folo\ved, and coude no good. 390
Hit com and creep to me as lowe,
Right as hit hadde me y-knowe,
Hild doun his heed and loyned his arcs,
And leyde al smothe doun his heres.
I wolde han caught hit, and anoon 395
Hit fledde, and was fro me goon ;
And I him fohved, and hit forth wente .^
Doun by a floury grene wente
Ful thikke of gras, ful softe and sweet,
With floures fele, faire under feet, 400
And litel used, hit semed thus ;
For bothe Flora and Zephirus,
They two that make floures growe,
Had mad her dwelling ther, I trowe;
For hit was, on to beholde, 405
As thogh the erthe envye wolde
To be gayer than the heven,
To have mo floures, swiche seven
As in the welken sterres be.
Hit had forgete the povertee 410
That winter, through his colde morwes,
Had mad hit sufifren, and his sorwes ;
Al was forgeten, and that w'as sene.
For al the wode was waxen grene,
Swetnesse of dewe had mad it waxe. 415
Hit is no need eek for to axe
389. F. whelpe. Th. fawned ; F. Favned. F. stoode. 390. F.
goode. 391. F. come. All have crepte {wrongly^ ; read creep.
392. Tn. hade ; F. had. 393. B. Hild ; F. Hylde ; Tn. Held ; Th.
heed ; Tn. hed ; F. hede. F. er>s. 394. F. herys. 395. All
haue ; reoil han. 396. Tn. fledde ; F. fled. 397. F. forthe went.
398. F. went. 399. All swete {hut note the rime). 400. All fete ;
read feet. 402. Tn. bothe ; F. both. 404. All made ; read mad
or maad. F. dwellynge. 406. ¥. therthe ; Th. the erthe. 408. F.
moo ; swche {sic). 409. Th. welken ; F. walkene. F. sterris.
411. F. thorgh. 412. All aw&xQ. 414. F. woode. 415. All
made. 416. .<4// nede eke.
28 ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE.
Wher tlicr were many grene greves,
Or thikke of trees, so ful of leves;
And every tree stood by him-selve
Fro other wel ten foot or twelve. 420
So grete trees, so huge of strengthe,
Of fourty or fifty fadme lengthe,
Clene withoute bough or stikke.
With croppes brode, and eek as thikke —
They were nat an inche a-sonder — 425
That hit was shadwe over-al under ;
And many an hert and many an hynde
Was both before me and behynde.
Of founes, soures, bukkes, does
Was ful the wode, and many roes, 43°
And many squirelles, that sete
Ful hye upon the trees, and ete,
And in her maner made festes.
Shortly, hit was so ful of bestes,
That thogh Argus, the noble countour, 435
Sete to rekene in his countour,
And rekened with his figures ten —
For by tho figures movre al ken,
If they be crafty, rekene and noumbre,
And telle of every thing the noumbre — 44°
Yet shulde he fayle to rekene even
The wondres, me mette in my sweven.
417. F. Where there. 419. F. stoode. 420. Tn. ten; F. tene
Th. foote; F. fete; Tn. otn. Th. or; F. Tn. fro other {repeated)
422. Th. Tn. Of ; F. Or. i:\i. o\; rest oni. F. fedme; Th. fedome
Tn. fedim ; read fadme. 424. Th. brode ; F. Tn. bothe {lurongly.
F. eke. 426. Tn. B. shadwe ; F. shadewe. 427. Tn. hert ; F
herte. 429. Th. favvnes ; F. Tn. fovnes. F. Tn. sowres ; Th
sowers. 430. Tn. wode ; F. woode. 429, 430. B. doys, roys
431. Th. squyrrels; F. sqwirels ; Tn. squirels ; B. squyrellys {three
syllables). 432. F. high. 433- F. festys. 434- F- bestys. 435-
Th. Tn. countour ; F. counter {and so in 1. 436). 437- F- Tn. rekene ;
Th. reken {caught from above) ; read rekened. F. figuris. 438. F.
figuris. F. mowe ; B. mow; Th. Tn. newe {reading doubtful). All
have al ken ; see note. 440. B. tell^ ; rest tel. F. thinge. 441.
F. evene. 442. F. swevene.
///, THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE. 29
But foiUi they romed wonder faste
Doun the wode; so at the laste
I was war of a man in blak, 445
That sat and had y-turned his bak
To an oke, an huge tree,
' Lord,' thoghte I, ' who may that be ?
What aylelh him to sitten here ? '
Anoon-right I wcnte nere ; 450
Than fond I sitte even upright
A wonder wel-faringe knight —
By the maner me thoghte so —
Of good mochel, and yong therto,
Of the age of four and twenty yeer. 455
Upon his berde but htel heer,
And he was clothed al in blakke.
I stalked even unto his bakke,
And ther I stood as stille as ought,
That, soth to saye, he saw me nought, 460
For-why he heng his heed adoune.
And with a dedly sorwful soune
He made of ryme ten vers or twelve,
Of a compleynt to him-selve.
The moste pite, the moste rowthe, 465
That ever I herde; for, by my trowthe.
Hit was gret wonder that nature
Might suffren any creature
To have swich sorwe, and be not deed,
Ful pitous, pale, and nothing reed, 470
443. All ins. light bcf. wonder. 444. F. Donne ; woode. 446
Th. sate ; F. Tn. sete. Tn. Iturned ; F. turned. 447. F. ooke. 44S
Th. Tn. thought; F. thogh (,!). 450. F. went. 451. Tn. fond ; F
founde. 452 F. farynge. 454. All btitli. insert ry^i Iwfore yong
Tn. 5ung; F. Th. yonge. 455. All yeie; read yctr. 456. All
heere, here; read heer. 457. Th. blacke ; F. blake. 45S. Tn
bakke ; F. bake. 459. F. stoode. 460. F. sawe. 461. Tn. heng
F. henge. Th. heed; Tn. hed ; F. hede. 462. Tn. dedly; V. dedcly
463. Th. Tn. twelne ; ¥. twelfe. 464. Th. Tn. selue; F. selfe. 465
Tn. pite ; V. pitee. 468. All suffre ; read suffren. 469. F". suche
Th. deed ; F". Tn. ded. 470. Tn. pitous ; B. pitouse ; F. petuose
Tn. nothing ; F. no thynge. Th. reed ; F. Tn. red.
30 ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE.
He sayde a lay, a maner song,
Withoute note, withoute song,
And hit was this; for wel I can
Reherse it ; right thus it began. —
^ ' I have of sorwe so grete woon, 475
That loye gete I never noon,
Now that I see my lady bright,
Which I have loved with al my might,
Is fro me deed, and is a-goon. 479
^Allas, [the] deth ! what ayleth the, 481
That thou noldest have taken me,
Whan that thou toke my lady swete?
That was so fayr, so fresh, so fre,
So good, that men may w^el [y]-se 485
Of al goodnesse she had no mete ! ' —
Whan he had mad thus his complaynte,
His sorowful herte gan faste faynte,
And his spirites wexen dede ;
The blood was fled, for pure drede, 490
Doun to his herte, to make him warm —
For wel hit feled the herte had harm —
To wite eek why hit was a-drad
By kynde, and for to make hit glad ;
I For hit is membre principal 495
Of the body ; and that made al
His hewe chaunge and wexe grene
V^And pale, for no blood [was] sene
471. F. sayed ; Tn. said. 471, 2. Tn. song; F. songe. 473.
B. alo7ie stipplics it ( = hit) ; all insert ful before wel. 475. All wone ;
;r<2(/ woon (, = quantity). 476. F. Icy ; none. 477, 8. Ji^ra^ brighte,
mighte ? 479. Th. deed ; F. ded. After 1. 479 Thynne inserts
And thus in sorowe lefte me alone ; it is sptiriotis ; see note. [Hence
there is no 1. 480.] 481. I supply ih.^. Tn. deth ; F. dethe. 483.
Th. that; which F. Tn. omit. 484. F. faire. F. freshe; Tn. fressh.
485. All se; btit read y-se. 486. F. goodenesse. 487. All
made. Th. B. complaynte ; F. complaynt. 4S8. F. sorwful. Th.
herte ; F. hert. Th. B. faynte ; F. faynt. 489. F. spiritis. 490.
Tn. blood; F. bloode. 491. Th. herte ; F. hert. ^// warme. 492.
Th. herte ; F. hert. All harme. 493. B. wite ; F. wete. All eke.
498. All insert ther before no. F. noo bloode. All is ; btit read was.
///, THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE.
31
In no manor limme of his.
Anoon therwith whan I saw this,
He ferde thus evel ther he sect,
I wcnte and stood right at his feet,
And grette him, but he spak noght,
But argued with his owne thoght,
And in his witte disputed faste
Why and how his lyf might laste ;
Him thoughte his sorwes wer so smerte
And lay so colde upon his herte;
So, through his sorvve and hevy thoght,
Made him that he ne herde me noght;
For he had wel nigh lost his mynde,
Thogh Pan, that men clepe god of kynde,
Were for his sorwes never so wroth.
But at the laste, to sayn right soth,
He was war of me, how I stood
Before him, and dide of myn hood,
And had ygret him, as I coude.
Debonairly, and no-thing loude,
He sayde, ' I prey thee, be not wroth,
I herde thee not, to sayn the soth,
Ne I saw thee not, sir, trewely.'
' A ! goode sir, no fors,' quod I,
' I am right sory if I have oughte
Destroubled yow out of your thoughte ;
For-yive me if I have mis-take.'
' Yis, thamendes is light to make,'
;oo
■■sOz,
^10
;2o
s-^o
499. Th. lymme ; B. Tn. lyme ; F. hym (!). 500. B. saw ; F. sangh.
501. F. Th. there ; Tn. for. All sate {bid note the rime'). 502. F.
went; stoode; fete. 503. y^// spake {wrongly). 504. Th. Tn.
owne; F. ovne. 506. F. Th. lyfe; Tn. life. 507. F. thought.
509. F. throgh. B. sorwe ; Tn. sorov ; F. sorwes. 511. Tn. lost;
V. loste. 512. F. inserts the before god; Th. Tn. omit. 513. F.
wrothe. 514. Th. laste ; F. last. F. sothe. 515. F"". stoode.
516. ^// did. F. hoode. 517. All insert h&iX after \. 519. F.
wrothe. 520. F. sothe. 521. B. saw; F. sawgh. F. trewly.
522. Tn. goode ; F. good. 526. F. thamendys ; Th. thamendes.
32 ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE.
Quod he, ' for ther lyth noon ther-to ;
Ther is no-thing missayd nor do.'
Lo! how goodly spak this knight,
As it had ben another wight ; 530
He made it nouther tough ne queynte.
And I saw that, and gan me aqueynte
With him, and fond him so tretable,
Right wonder skilful and resonable,
As me thoghte, for al his bale. 635
Anoon-right I gan fynde a tale
To him, to loke wher I might oughte
Have more knowing of his thoughte.
' Sir,' quod I, ' this game is doon ;
I holde that this hert be goon; 54°
These huntes conne him nowher see.'
'I do no fors therof,' quod he,
' My thought is ther-on never a del'
'By our lord,' quod I, 'I trow yow wel,
Right so me thinketh by your chere. 545
But, sir, 00 thing wol ye here?
Me thinketh, in gret sorwe I yow see;
But certes, sir, [and] if that ye
Wolde ought discure me your wo,
I wolde, as wis god helpe me so, 55°
Amende hit, if I can or may ; ■
Ye mowe preve hit by assay.
For, by my trouthe, to make yow hool
I wol do al my power hool ;
And telleth me of your sorwes smerte, 555
Paraventure hit may ese your herte,
527. F. lyeth; Th. lythe ; Tn. lith. 528. F. There, ^//myssayde.
529. Th. goodly ; F. goodely. All spake (,!). Th. knyght ; F. knyghte.
530. B. ben; resth&. 531. F. tovvgh. 532. F. sawe; aqueynt.
533. F. fonde. 535. F. thoght. 538. F. knowynge. 541. F.
huntys konne. 543. F. there on ; dele (Tn. del). 544. Tn. Bi ;
Th. By ; F. Be. F. oure lorde ; wele (Tn. wel). 545. B. thinketh ;
F. lienketh. 547. F. grete. 548. / supply and. Th. Tn. if:
F- yif- 549- 1'h Tn. your; F. youre. 550. F. wys; Th. wyse ;
Tn. wisse. 554. Th. al; F. alle; Tn. ow. 556. B. ese; F. ease.
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE. ^^
That semeth ful seke under your syde.'
With that he loked on me asyde,
As who sayth, ' nay, that wol not be.'
' Graunt mercy, goode frend,' quod he, 560
' I thanke thee that thou woldest so,
But hit may never the rather be do.
No man may my sorwe glade,
That maketh my hewe to falle and fade,
And hath myn understonding lorn, 565
That me is wo that I was born !
May noght make my sorwes slyde,
Nought the remedies of Ovyde ;
Ne Orpheus, god of melodye,
Ne Dedalus, with playes slye ; 570
Ne hele mie may phisicien,
Noght Ypocras, ne Galien ;
Me is wo that I live houres twelve ;
But who so wol assaye him-selve
Whether his herte can have pite 755
Of any sorwe, lat him see me.
I wrecche, that deth hath mad al naked
Of alle blisse that was ever maked,
Y-worthe worste of alle wightes,
That hate my dayes and my nightes ; 5S0
My lyf, my lustes be me lothe.
For al welfare and I be wrothe.
The pure deth is so my fo,
[Thogh] I wolde deye, hit wolde not so ;
For whan I folwe hit, hit wol flee ; 585
I wolde have [hit], hit nil not me.
560. Tn. frend ; F. frende. 564. A// fal. 565. F. vnderstondynge
lorne. 566. F. borne. "568. F. Th. hts. al (Tn. of) k/orethe.
570. A// z'/is. his a/h->- -wkh. 571. All ins. no after va.2Cj. 573. Th.
Tn. houres; F. oiires. 574. All asia.y. 575. Th. herte; F. Tn. hert.
577. F. wrechch ; Tn. -wrecch ; Th. wretche {/or wrecche). All made.
578. F. al ; Th. Tn. al the ; B. alk (read al-le). 579. B. alk ; rest al.
581. ^//lyfe. F. loothe. 582. F. wroothe (7/' w //«;■«/)• 58.^.
All ins. ful af/er so. F. foo. 5S4. All That ; read Thogh. F.
SCO. 586. For the former hit, all have him ; btit see line above.
D
34 III- THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE.
This is my peyne -withoute reed,
Alway dying, and be not deed,
That Sesiphus, that lyth in helle.
May not of more sorwe telle. 590
And who so wiste al, by my trouthe,
My sorwe, but he hadde routhe
And pite of my sorwes smerte,
That man hath a feendly herte.
For who so seeth me first on morwe 595
May seyn, he hath [y]-met with sorwe,
For I am sorwe and sorwe is I.
' Alias ! and I wol telle the why ;
My [song] is turned to pleyning,
And al my laughter to weping, 600
My glade thoghtes to hevynesse,
In travaile is myn ydelnesse
And eek my reste ; my wele is wo,
My good is harm, and ever-mo
In wrathe is turned my pleying 605
And my delyt in-to sorwing.
Myn hele is turned into seeknesse,
In drede is al my sikernesse.
To derke is turned al my light,
My wit is foly, my day is night, 610
My love is hate, my sleep waking,
My mirthe and meles is fasting,
587. Th. reed; F. rede. 588. F. deynge. Th. dede ; F. deed.
5S9. F. B. Thesiphus ; Tn. Tesiphus; Th. Tesyphus. ( The two latter are
w/jTwrzV/ifwyor Cesiphus = Sesiphus). Tn. lithe ; F. Th. lyeth. 591.
Th. Tn. al ; F. alle. Th. by ; F. Tn. be. 592. Tn. hade ; F. had.
!^94. Tn. feenli {sic\ ; Th F. fendely. 596. Tn. met ; Th. F. mette (!) ;
read ^-vat\.. 598. B. telk ; rest tel. 599. For %ox\g, F. Th. have
sorowe, and Tn. has sorov, which are absurd ; the reading is obviously
song, the ng being altered to rowe by ijijluence of 1. 597, zvhich the
scribes glanced at. Tn. pleynywg ; F. pleynynge. 600. Tn. laughter ;
F. lawghtre. Tn. weping ; F. wcpynge. 601 . F. thoghtys. 603.
.///eke. 604. Th.Tn. good; F. goode. ^// harme. 605. Th.
playeng )f F. pleynge. 606. F. sorvvynge. 607. Tn. sekenes ; F.
sekeenesse {sic). 609. Tn. li;t ; F. lyghte ; Th. syght. 610. Tn.
wit; F. wytte. Th. Tn. nyght ; F. nyghte. 611. All slepe. Tn.
waking; F. wakrage. 612. Tn. fasting ; F. fastynge.
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCIIESSE. 35
]\Iy counienaunce is nycete,
And al abaved wher-so I be,
My pees, in pleding and in werre ; 615
Alias ! how might I fare werre ?
' My boldnesse is turned to shame,
For fals Fortune hath pleyd a game
Atte ches with me, alias ! the whyle I
The trayteresse fals and ful of gyle, 620
That al beheteth and no-thing halt,
She goth upryght and yet she halt,
That baggeth foule and loketh faire.
The dispitouse debonaire.
That scorneth many a creature ! 625
An ydole of fals portraiture
Is she, for she wil sone wryen ;
She is the monstres heed y-wryen,
As filth over y-strawed with floures ;
Her moste worship and her [flour is] 630
To lyen, for that is her nature ;
Withoute feyth, lawe, or mesure
She is fals; and ever laughing
With oon eye, and that other weping.
That is broght up, she set al doun. 635
I lykne her to the scorpioun,
That is a fals flatering beste ;
For with his hede he maketh feste,
But al amid his flateringe
With his tayle he wol stinge, 640
614. Tn. abaved (x/V) ; Th. F. abawed. ^// where so. 617. Tn.
boldnes ; Th. F. boldenesse. {Ferhaps read y-tumed.) 618. F.
pleyde ; Th. played; Tn. pleied. 619. ¥ . hiit \.ht {'urojtgly) ; Th.
Tn. At the. Tn. ches ; Th. F. chesse. 621. Tn. halt ; F. Th. halte (!)
622. Tn. goth ; Th. gothe; F. gcthe(!). Th. halte ; Tn. is halt ; F. is
halte. 627. Th. wrien ; 7-est \zr\en {\). 62S. '1 h. Tn. monstres ; F.
Mowstres. Th. heed ; F. Tn. hed. 629. B. filth ; rest fylthe. Th.
Tn. ystrowed. 630. F. worshippe. Th. Tn. floures ; F. li. flourys ;
read flour is. 632. Tn. feith ; F. feylhe. 633. F. lawghynge.
634. Tn. oon ; Th. F. one. Th. eye ; Tn. ei3 ; F. yghe. F. wepynge.
635. Th. set ; F. sette. 637. F. llateyrynge ; Tn. tlateryng. 639.
Th. Tn. amyd ; F. amydde. 640. 'I"h. he ; F. hyt ; Tn. it.
L) 2
3(5 ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUC HESSE.
And envenyme ; and so wol she.
She is thenvyous charite
That is ay fals, and semeth wele,
So turneth she her false whele
Aboute, for it is no-thing stable, 645
Now by the fyre, now at table ;
Ful many oon hath she yblent.
She is pley of enchauntement,
That semeth oon and is nat so,
The false theef! what hath she do, 650
Trowest thou? by our lord. I wol the seye.
Atte ches with me she gan to pleye;
With her false draughtes divers
She stal on me, and took my fers.
And whan I saw my fers aweye, 655
Alas ! I couthe no lenger pleye,
But seyde, " farwel, swete, y-wis.
And farwel al that ever ther is ! "
Therwith Fortune seyde " chek here ! "
And " mate ! " in mid pointe of the chekkere 660
With a poune erraunt, alias !
Ful craftier to pley she was
Than Athalus, that made the game
First of the ches : so was his name.
But god wolde I had ones or twyes 665
Y-koud and knowe the leupardyes
That coude the Grek Pithagores I
I shulde have pleyd the bet at ches,
642. F. thenvyouse ; Tn. thenvions ; Th. the enuyous. 644. Th.
false ; F. Tn. fals. 645. F. no thynge. 647. Th. Ful ; rest For.
All ins. thus after she. 649. Th. nat ; P\ Tn. not. 650. Th. false ;
F. Tn. fals. Th. F. thefe; Tn. knaue. 651. F. oure lorde ; sey.
652. All At the; Atte is better. Tn. ches; Th. F. chesse. F. pley.
653. Th. Tn. false; F. fals. 654. F. staale; toke. F. Tn. fers; Th.
feers. 655. F. savvgh. B. a-waye ; rest away. 656. B. pleye ;
Th. F. play; Tn. pley. 657. All farewel (farewell) ; atid in 1. 658.
660. All insert the after in {badly). 661. F. povne ; Tn. pouM ; Th.
paune. Tn. erraunt ; F. errante. 663. Tn. Athalaus. 664. Tn. ches ;
Th. F. chesse. 666. B. I-koude ; Th. Tn. Ikonde (!) ; F. y-konde (!) ;
see 1. 667. 667. Tn. Grek ; F. Greke. Th. Pithagores ; F. Tn. Pic-
tagoras. 668. Tn. pleyd ; F. pleyde.
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE. 37
And kept my fers the bet therby ;
And thogh wherto ? for trewely 670
I hold that wish nat worth a stree !
Hit had be never the bet for me.
For Fortune can so many a wyle,
Ther be but fewe can her begyle,
And eek she is the las to blame ; 675
I\Iy-self I wolde have do the same
Before god, had I ben as she ;
She oghte the more excused be.
For this I say yet more therto,
Had I be god and mighte have do 680
My wille, whan she my fers caughte,
I wolde have drawe the same drauQ:hte.
For, also wis god yive me reste,
I dar wel swere she took the beste !
' But through that draughte I have lorn 685
My blisse ; alias ! that I was born !
For evermore, I trow trewly,
For al my wille, my lust hoolly
Is turned ; but yet, what to done ?
By our lord, hit is to deye sone ; 690
For no-thing I [ne] leve it noght,
But live and deye right in this thoght.
Ther nis planete in firmament,
Ne in air, ne in erthe, noon element,
That they ne yive me a yift echoon 695
Of weping, whan I am aloon.
For whan that I avyse me wel,
And bethenke me every-del,
670. Tn. thogh; Th. thoughe ; F. thoght («V)- F. trewly. 671. F.
holde ; wysshe. 675. ^// eke. B. las ; F. lasse ; Tn. lesse. 676. F.
-selfe. 677. Th. had I ben; F. as I be {wrongly). 678. F. oght.
681. ^//kaught, caught; bttt ;Ya^ caughte; a«(/ draughte in 11. 682,685.
683. Tn. wis ; F. wys. 684. Th. she ; F. Tn. B. he. F. tooke.
685. F. throgh ; draught ; lonie. 6S6. F. borne. 689. F. doone.
690. F. Be oure lorde; soone. 691. F. -thyngc. / supply ne.
693. All Por there (ther) ; but omit For. 694. F. ayre. 695. F.
yit'te. 696. F. wepynge.
38 ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUC HESSE.
How that ther lyth in rekening,
In my sorwe, for no-thing ; 700
And how ther leveth no gladnesse
May gladde me of my distresse,
And how I have lost suffisance,
And therto I have no plesance,
Than may I say, I have right noght. 705
And whan al this falleth in my thoght,
Alias ! than am I overcome !
For that is doon is not to come !
I have more sorowe than Tantale.'
And whan I herde him telle this tale 710
Thus pitously, as I yow telle,
Unnethe mighte I lenger dwelle,
Hit dide myn herte so moche wo.
' A ! good sir ! ' quod I, ' say not so !
Have som pite on your nature 715
That formed yow to creature.
Remembre yow of Socrates,
For he ne counted nat thre strees
Of noght that Fortune coude do.'
' No,' quod he, ' I can not so.' 720
' Why so ? good sir 1 parde ! ' quod I ;
' Ne say noght so, for trewely,
Thogh ye had lost the ferses twelve,
And ye for sorwe mordred your-selve,
Ye sholde be dampned in this cas 725
By as good ryght as Medea was,
That slow her children for lason ;
And Phyllis als for Demophon
699. Tn. lyth ; F. lyeth. F. rekenynge. 700. Th. Tn. In ; F. Inne.
701. F. levyth noe. 702. B. Tn. glade ; F. glad; r^a*/ gladde. 703.
Th. lost; F. loste. 710. Tn. telle; F. tel. 711. Th. Tn. Thus;
F. This. 712. F. myght; duelle. 713. Tn. dide ; F. dyd. 714.
Th. good; F. goode. 715. Tn. som ; F. sowme. 721. All insert
yis {or yes) before parde ; which spoils hath sense and metre. 'J22.
Th. say; rest om. F. trewly. 723. Th. lost ; F. loste. 726. Th.
good ; F. goode. 727. Tn. slowe ; F. slowgh. 728. All aX^o ; read als.
III. THE BOOK OF THE DUCIIESSE. 39
Heng hcr-self, so weylaway !
For he had broke his terme-day 730
To come to her. Another rage
Had Dydo, quene eek of Cartage,
That slow her-self, for Eneas
Was fals ; [a !] whiche a fool she was !
And Ecquo dyed for Narcisus 735
Nolde nat love her; and right thus
Hath many another foly don.
And for Dalida dyed Sampson,
That slow him-self with a pilere.
But ther is [noon] a-lyve here 740
Wolde for a fers make this wo ! '
' Why so ? ' quod he ; ' hit is nat so ;
Thou wost ful litel what thou menest ;
I have lost more than thou wenest.
' Lo, [sir,] how may that be ? ' quod I ; 745
' Good sir, [telleth] me al hoolly
In what wyse, how, why, and wherfore
That ye have thus your blisse lore.'
' Blythly,' quod he, ' com sit adoun ;
I telle thee up condicioun 750
That thou shalt hoolly, with al thy wit,
Do thyn entent to herkene hit.'
' Yis, sir.' ' Swere thy trouthe ther-to.'
'Gladly.' 'Do than holde here, lo ! '
' I shal right blythly, so god me save, 755
729. F. Henge. 732. ^// the quene ; cw?V the. A /I eke. 733. Tn.
slow; F. slough. F. selfe. "j't,/^. I supply for?ner z.. F. foole. 735.
All Ecquo. 739. Tn. slow ; F. slough. F. hym-selfe. 740. All
no man ; Init read noon. 741. Fc7'haps read maken. 743. P'. woste ;
menyst. 744. Th. lost ; F. loste. F. thow wenyst. 745. F. Tn.
Loo she that may be ; Th. Howe that may be ; clearly she is au error
for sir, aW Howe that may he for h.o\v may that be; {ed. 1561 //«■,<■
Howe may that be). 746. F. Tn. telle; Th. tel ; but read X.e\\ei]\
{^plural) ; see 1. 748. F. hooly. 749. F. come. Tn. sit ; F. sytte.
750. F. inserts hyt after telle ; which Th. Tn. omit. Th. Tn. vpon a ;
F. vp a ; but v^ is riqht. 751. F. hooly. Tn. wit ; Th. wvt ; F.
wytte. 752. Tn. hit; F. h'itte (!). 754. F. Tn. lo; th. to.
755. Perhaps right should be omitted.
40 ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE.
Hoolly, with al the witte I have,
Here yow, as wel as I can.'
' A goddes half ! ' quod he, and began : —
* Sir,' quod he, ' silh first I couthe
Have any maner ■\vit fro youthe, 760
Or kyndely understonding
To comprehende, in any thing.
What love was, in myn owne wit,
Dredeles, I have ever yit
Be tributary, and yiven rente 765
To love hoolly with goode entente.
And through plesaunce become his thralle.
With wille, body, herte, and alle.
Al this I putte in his servage.
As to my lorde, and dide homage ; 770
And ful devoutly prayde him to.
He shulde besette myn herte so,
That it plesaunce to him were,
And worship to my lady dere.
'And this was longe, and many a yere 775
Or that myn herte was set owhere,
That I did thus, and niste why ;
I trowe hit cam me kyndely.
Paraunter I was therto able
As a whyt wal or a table ; 780
For hit is redy to cacche and take
Al that men wil therin make,
Wher-so men wol portreye or peynte,
Be the werkes never so queynte.
756. F. Hooly. 758. B. half ; F. halfe. 760. Tn. wit ; F. wj'tte. 761.
F. vnderstondynge. 763. Tn. wit ; F. w}'tte. 764. Tn. yit ; F. yitte.
765. Tn. youen ; F. yive. 766. F. hooly. 768. All insert good before
wille ; but wille has tivo syllables. 771. All denoutely. All needlessly
insert 1 bti/bre pia.yde. Th. prayde ; F. prayed. 772. Th. Tn. herte ;
F. hert. 773. F. plesance ; but see 1. 767. 774. F. worshippe.
778. Tn. cam ; F. came. 779. F. Perauenture; see 1. 788. All insert
moste before able. 780. F. white walle. 781. F. cachchf. 783.
F. Tn. Whethir; Th. Whether; read Wher {contracted form). F.
portrey or peynt ; Tn. purtrey or peynte. 784. Tn. queynte ; F. queynt.
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE. 4 1
' And thilke tyme I ferde so 785
I was able to have lerned the,
And to have coud as wcl or better,
Paraunter, other art or letter.
But for love crfhi first in my thought,
Therfore I forgat it nought. 790
I chees love to my firste craft,
Therfor hit is with me [y]-laft.
For I took hit of so yong age,
That malyce had my corage
Nat that tyme turned to no-thing 795
Through to mochel knowleching.
For that tyme youthe, my maistresse.
Governed me in ydelnesse ;
For hit was in my firste youthe,
And tho ful litel good I couthe ; 800
For ai my werkes were flitting,
And al my thoghtes varying ;
Al were to me yliche good,
That I knew tho ; but thus hit stood.
' Hit happed that I cam on a day 805
Into a place, ther I say,
Trewly, the fayrest companye
Of ladies, that ever man with ye
Had seen togedres in 00 place.
Shal I clepe hit hap other grace Sio
That broghte me ther ? nay, but Fortune,
That is to lyen ful comune,
785. All inscr^a^^ before so. 787. Th. Tn. conde {for coude) ;
F. kende {whiclMmy pass). 788. All arte. 789. Tn. kam ; F. came.
790. All iorgam. 791. Th. chees; Tn. chese ; F. ches. Tn. fyrste ;
F. first. .'/// CTafte {but it ivill not rime). 792. All lafte {ivroiigly) ;
read y-laft. ' 793. All For-why ; read For. All toke. All yonge.
795. F. no tiynge. 796. F. Thorgh. Tn. knowlechynge ; F.
knowlachvE^. 799. Tn. firste ; F. first. Soo. F. goode ; Th.
good. ftoi. F. flyttynge. 802. All ins. That tyme {see 1. 797)
bef And. ^n. thoughtew ; rest thoght. F. varyinge. 804. F. kncwe ;
stoode. '* -^005. F. came. Perhaps on {or a) should be omitted. 806.
All ther that I ; om. that. 80S. F. euere. F. Tn. ye ; Th. eye.
810. Tn. hap; F. happe. 811. F. broght ; Tn. broghte. All there.
42 ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUC HESSE.
The false trayteresse, pervers,
God wolde I coude clepe her wers !
For now she worcheth me ful wo, 815
And I wol telle sone why so.
'Among thise ladies thus echoon,
Soth to seyn, I saw [ther] con
That was lyk noon of [al] the route,
For I dar swere, withoute doute, 820
That as the someres sonne bright
Is fairer, clerer, and hath more light
Than any planete, [is] in heven.
The mone, or the sterres seven,
For al the worlde, so had she 835
Surmounted hem alle of beaute,
Of maner and of comlinesse,
Of stature and wel set gladnesse.
Of goodlihede so wel beseye —
Shortly, what shal I more seye ? , 830
By god, and by his halwes twelve,
It was my swete, right as her-selve !
She had so stedfast countenaunce.
So noble port and meyntenaunce ;
And Love, that had herd my bone, 835
Had espyed me thus sone,
That she ful sone, in my thoght,
As helpe me god, so was y-caught
So sodenly, that I ne took
No maner counseyl but at her look 840
813. Tn. false; F. fals. S16. Tn. telk ; F. tel. S17. F. Among
these. 818. /«(■///>' ther. 819. ^// lyke (like). I sztpply ^\.
821. Tn. bryght; Y. bryghte. 822. Th. lyght ; F. lyghte. 823.
All any other planete in ; see note. F. hevene. 824. F. sevene.
826. Th. Tn. Surmounted; F. Surmountede. Tn. alk ; F. al. 828.
All ins, of after and. F. ins. so before wel ; which Th. Tn. omit. Th.
Tn. set ; F. sette. 829. Th. goodlyhede ; F. godlyhede. All ins.
and befo7-e so, probably caught from the line above. B. beseye ; rest
besey. S30. Th.. sitpplics more ; ¥. Tn. omit. All sev. 831. Th.
Tn. his; F.'omits. 832. Tn. as; Th. F. al. 833. th. stedfast ; F.
stedfaste. 835. F. Tn. had wel herd ; o/n. wel. 838. F.
y-kaught ; Th. I cought ; Tn. I caughte. 839. All toke. 840. Allloke.
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE. 43
And at myn herte; for her eyen
So gladly, I trow, myn herte seyen,
That purely tho myn owne thoght
Seyde hil were [bet] serve her for noght
Than with another to be wel. 845
And hit was soth, for, everydel,
I wil anoon-right telle thee why.
' I saw her daunce so comlily,
Carole and singe so swetly,
Laughe and pleye so womanly, 850
And loke so debonairly,
So goodly speke and so frendly,
That certes, I trow, that evermore
Nas seyn so blisful a tresore.
For every heer [up]on her hede, 855
Soth to seyn, hit was not rede,
Ne nouther yelow, ne broun it nas ;
]\Ie thoghte, most lyk gold it was.
And whiche eyen my lady hadde !
Debonair, goode, glade, and sadde, 860
Simple, of good mochel, noght to wydc ;
Therto her look nas not a-syde,
Ne overthwert, but beset so wel.
Hit drew and took up, everydel,
AUe that on her gan beholde, 865
Her eyen semed anoon she wolde
Have mercy ; fooles wenden so ;
841. Th. And ; F. Tn. But {caught from 1. 840^ Th. Tn. herte; F.
hest [luroiigly). All {ox why; read ior. 842. F. hert; Th. Tn. herte.
843. F. ovne ; read owne. 844. F. beter ; Th. better ; Tn. bettyr ;
read bet. 848. Tn. saw ; F. sawgh. F. comlely ; Th. comely ; Tn.
comly. 850. F. Lawghe ; pley. 852. Th. goodly; F. goodely.
854. Tn. se\-n ; F. seyne. 855. All on ; read upon. 856. Tn. seyn ;
F. seyne. {For yNa.sprol>al>ly read n&i.) 857. F. velowe ; broune.
858. F. Tn. thoght. Th. F. lyk ; Tn. likely. Th. golde ; «-///<// F.
'Yn. absurdly omit. 861. F. goode. 862. F. looke. 863. F.
ouertwert ; Tn. ouyrthwerte ; Th. ouertwhart {sic). Th. beset ; Tn.
biset ; F. besette. 864. F. Tn. drewh. F. tooke. All euerydele.
865. Tn. B. Alk ; F. Th. Al. 867. F. foolys ; B. folys.
44 lit' THE BOOK OF THE DUC HESSE.
But hit was never the rather do.
Hit nas no countrefeted thing,
It was her owne pure loking, 870
That the goddesse, dame Nature,
Had made hem opene by mesure.
And close ; for, were she never so glad,
Her loking was not foly sprad,
Ne wildely, thogh that she pleyde ; 875
But ever, me thoghte, her eyen seyde,
" By god, my wrathe is al for-yive ! "
' Therwith her liste so wel to live,
That dulnesse was of her a-drad.
She nas to sobre ne to glad ; 880
In alle thinges more mesure
Had never, I trowe, creature.
But many oon with her loke she herte,
And that sat her ful lyte at herte,
For she knew no-thing of her thoght ; 885
But whether she knew, or knew hit noght,
Algate she ne roghte of hem a stree !
To gete her love no ner nas he
That woned at home, than he in Inde ;
The formest was alway behynde. 890
But goode folk, over al other.
She loved as man may do his brother ;
Of whiche love she was wonder large,
In skilful places that here charge.
' Which a visage had she ther-to ! 895
Alias ! myn herte is wonder wo
869. F. thynge. 870. F. lokynge. 873. Th. close ; Tn. clos ;
F. cloos. 874. F. lokynge. 876. Tn. thoghte ; F. thoght. 877.
Th. By; F. Tn. Be. 882. Th. trowe; F. Tn. trow. 883. Th.
herte; Tn. hyrte ; F. hert. 884. All sate. B. lyte; Tn. lite; F.
litel. Th. Tn. herte ; F. hert. 885. Tn. knew ; F. knowe y^sic).
F. no thynge. 886. This lifie is i^i Th. only; Th. has knewe {twice).
887. Tn. roghte ; Th. F. rought. 888. Tn. ner ; F. nerre. 889.
Th. than; Tn. then ; F. that {sic). 891. Tn. gode ; Th. F. good.
All folke. 893. F. wounder ; see 1. 896. 894. F. placis. 895.
All But which ; omit But.
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE. 45
That I ne can discryven hit !
Me lakketh bothe English and wit
For to undo hit at the fulle;
And eek my spirits be so dulle 900
So gret a thing for to devyse.
I have no wit that can suffyse
To comprchenden her beaute ;
But thus moche dar I seyn, that she
Was rody, fresh, and lyvely hewed; 905
And every day her beaute newed.
And negh her face was alder-best,
For certes. Nature had swich lest
To make that fair, that trewly she
Was her cheef patron of beaute, 910
And cheef ensample of al her werke,
And moustre ; for, be hit never so derke,
Me thinketh I se her ever-mo.
And yet more-over, thogh alle tho
That ever lived were now a-lyve, 915
[They] ne sholde have founde to discryve
In al her face a wikked signe;
For hit was sad, simple, and benigne.
' And which a goodly softe speche
Had that swete, my lyves leche 1 920
So frendly, and so wel y-grounded,
Up al resoun so wel y-founded,
And so tretable to alle gode,
898. Th. bothe ; F. both. 900. All eke. B. spiritz ; F. spirites.
901. All grete. All thynge. 902. Th. wyt ; Tn. F. witte. 903.
Th. F. comprehende ; Tn. comprehend ; read comprchenden. 904.
Tn. seyn ; V. sayn. 905. All insert white after Was, wJiick spoils
metre and story ; see 1. 948. F. fressh. 908. Th. Tn. certes ; F.
certys. 909. All {aire or {ayre. 910,911. B. chief ; rest chek. Th.
Tn. patron; F. patrone. 913. F. thynkyth. 914. Tn. B. alb ;
Th. F. al {it is plural). 916. I supply They; Th. Ne wolde
haue ; Tn. Ne sholde haue ; F. Ne sholde ha. The right reading is
They ne sholde have (They ne bei7ig read as They n'). 919. Th.
goodly; F. fjoodely. 921. Th. frendly ; F. frendely. 922. F. B.
Vp ; Th. Tn. Vpon ; see 1. 750. 923. Tn. B. alk'; F. al. Tn. gode ;
F. goode.
46 ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE.
That I dar swere by the rode,
Of eloquence was never founde 925
So swete a sowninge facounde,
Ne trewer tonged, ne scorned lasse,
Ne bet coude hele ; that, by the masse
I durste swere, thogh the pope hit songe,
That ther was never through her tonge 930
Man ne woman gredy harmed ;
As for her, [ther] was al harm hid ;
Ne lasse flatering in her worde,
That purely, her simple recorde
Was founde as trewe as any bonde, 935
Or trouthe of any mannes honde.
Ne chyde she coude never a del,
That knoweth al the world ful wel.
' But swich a fairnesse of a nekke
Had that swete, that boon nor brekke 940
Nas ther non sene, that mis-sat.
Hit was whyt, smothe, streght, and flat,
Withouten hole; [and] canel-boon,
As by seming, had she noon.
Her throte, as I have now memoire, 945
Semed a round tour of yvoire,
Of good gretnesse, and noght to greet.
' And gode faire Whyte she heet,
That was my lady name right.
She was bothe fair and bright, 950
924. After swere all insert wel {tieedlessly). Tn. rode ; F. roode.
929. Th. Tn. pope ; F. Pape. 930. All ins. yet after never. Th.
through; F. throgh. 931. F. gretely. 932. Th. Tn. her; F. hit
\^sic). I sitpply ther {f. 1. 930) ; perhaps omitted, because her also
ended in her. All harme. 933. F. flaterynge ; word. 937. All
dele. 938. .-^/Z worlde; wele. 939. ^// fairenesse (fayrenes).
941. Th. To. B. sene; F. seen. Th. F. myssatte ; Tn. missate. 942.
All badly insert pure {dissyllabic) before flat ; but smothe has two
syllables. Tn. flat; Th. F. flatte. 943. All or; I read ^nA. 944.
Th. by ; rest be. 946. All rounde. Th. tour ; F. Tn. toure. 947.
Th. good ; F. goode. F. gretenesse ; grete. 948. B. het ; rest hete.
949. Th. right ; F. ryghte. 950. All faire. Th. bright ; F. bryghte.
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE. 47
She hadde not her name wrpng.
Right faire shuldres, and body long
She hadde, and armes, every Hth
Fattish, flesshy, not greet therwith ;
Right whyte handes, and nayles rede, 955
Rounde brestes ; and of good brede
Her hippes were, a streight flat bak.
I knew on her [no maner] lak
That al her limmes nere sewing,
In as fcr as I had knowing. 960
' Therto she coude so wel pleye,
Whan that her liste, that I dar seye.
That she was lyk to torche bright,
That every man may take of light
Ynogh, and hit hath never the lesse. 965
' Of maner and of comlinesse
Right so ferde my lady dere ;
For every wight of her manere
j\Iight cacche ynogh, if that he wolde,
If he had eyen her to bcholde. 970
For I dar sweren, if that she
Had among ten thousand be.
She wolde have be, at the leste,
A cheef mirour of al the fcste,
Thogh they had stonden in a rowe, 975
To mennes eyen that coude have knowe.
For wher-so men had pleyd or waked,
951. All \\z.iS.\but it is emphatic). ^// wronge. 952. ^// longc.
y.53. ^// had. 954. Th. great ; F. Tn. grete. g.^iy. Tn. bak ; F.
bakke. 958. B. knyw ; rt'j/ knevve. / r(?t2^/ no maner ; all have noon
other (!). Tn. lak ; F. lakke. 959. All insert \i\xre {dissyllabic , after
nere ; but limmes is dissyllabic. 960. Tn. fer ; F. ferre. F. know-
ynge. 961. Th. playe ; F. pley. 962. Tn. liste ; F. list. Th.
saye ; F. sey. 963. All lyke. 965. F. halhe. 969. Tn. cacche ;
F. cachche. Th. Tn. if; F. yif {and in 1. 970). 071. All swere wel ;
read ^WQxcn {omitting the expletive yftV). 972. /?// thousande. 973.
F. lest. 974. B. chieff ; ^6'j^ chefe. Th. Tn. myrrour ; F. meroure.
Th. Tn. feste ; F. fest. 975. Th. F. stonde; /■(.•«</ stonden. 976.
Th. that; which Tn. F. omit. (j'j'j. Tn. B. pleyd ; F. pleyed.
4S ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE.
Me thoghte the felawship as naked
Withouten her, that saw I ones,
As a coroune withoute stones. 980
Trewely she was, to myn ye,
The soleyn fenix of Arabye,
For ther liveth never but oon;
Ne swich as she ne knew I noon.
' To speke of goodnesse ; trewly she 985
Had as moche debonairte
As ever had Hester in the bible,
And more, if more were possible.
And, soth to seyne, therwith-al
^ She had a wit so general, 990
So hool enclyned to alle gode.
That al her wit was set, by the rode,
Withoute malyce, upon gladnesse ;
Therto I saw never yet a lesse
Harmful, than she was in doing. 995 ,
I sey nat that she ne had knowing
What was harm, or elles she
Had coud no good, so thinketh me.
'And trewly, for to speke of trouthe,
But she had had, hit had be routhe. 1000
Therof she had so moche her del —
And I dar seyn and swere hit wel —
That Trouthe him-self, over al and al,
Had chose his maner principal
978. F. thoght. Th. felaushyp ; Tn. feliship ; F. felysshyppe. 979.
Tn. saw; F. sawgh. 981. Th. F. Trewly; Tn. Truly. B. ye; Th.
F. eye i^note the rime). 982. Th. Tn. soleyn ; F. soleyne. 983. Th.
lyueth ; F. levyth. 984. Tn. knew ; rest knowe. 985. Th. good-
nesse ; F. godenesse. 988. Th. Tn. if; F. yif. 9S9. Tn. F. seyn ;
Th. sayne. F. alle. 990. Tn. wit ; F. wytte. Th. general ; F.
generalle. 991. F. hoole. 992. .^// wytte. 994. ^// And thereto ;
but And is needless. F. sawgh. 995. Th. Harmful ; F. Harmeful.
996. For ne \\.7A perhaps read nad. 997. I transpose ; all have What
harme was {hut harm is monosyllabic, and the line is then bad). 998.
Tn. F. coude. Th. thynketh ; F. thenketh. 1000. F. had hadde hyt
hadde. looi. ^// dele. 1002. ^// wele. 1003. F. al and alle.
1004. Th. principal; F. principalle.
I
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUC HESSE. 49
In her, that was his resting-place. 1005
Ther-to she hadde the moste grace,
To have stedfast perseveraunce,
And esy, atempre governaunce,
That ever I knew or wiste yit ;
So pure suffraunt was her wit. 10 10
And reson gladly she understood,
Hit folowed wel she coudc good.
She used gladly to do wel;
These were her maners every-del.
' Therwith she loved so wel right, 1015
She wrong do wolde to no wight ;
No wight might do her no shame,
She loved so wel her owne name.
Her luste to holde no wight in honde,
Ne, be thou siker, she wolde not fonde 1020
To holde no wight in balaunce,
By half word ne by countenaunce,
But-if men wolde upon her lye ;
Ne sende men in-to Walakye,
To Pruyse and in-to Tartarye, 1025
To Alisaundre, ne in-to Turkye,
And bidde him faste, anoon that he
Go hoodies to the drye se,
And come hoom by the Carrenare ;
And seye, " Sir, be now right ware 1030
That I may of yow here seyn
Worship, or that ye come ageyn ! "
She ne used no suche knakkes smale.
' But wherfor that I telle my tale .?
1007. F. stedefaste. 1008. Th. Tn. B. attempre ; F. atempry. 1009.
Tn. knew ; F. knevve. Tn. yit ; F. yitte. 1010. Tn. wit ; F. wytte.
loii. F. \-nclerstoode. 1012. F. goode. 1016. ^// wronge.
1019. Tn. luste; F.Inst. 1022. .^// halfe wordc. 1025. Th. F.
pruyse; Tn. pruse ; B. sprewse. 1027. Th. bydde ; F. bid. 1028.
Th. hoodlesse ; F. hodeles. All in-to; read Ko. 1029. B.'hom;
rest home. Tn. Carrynare. 1030. F. Tn. sey; 'Y\\..omits. 1032. F.
,^Vorshyppc. 1034. F. wherefore. Tu. telle ; F. tel.
50 ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE.
Right on this same, as I have seyd, 1035
Was hoolly al my love leyd;
For certes, she was, that swete wyf,
My suffisaunce, my lust, my lyf,
Myn hap, myn hele, and al my blisse,
My worldes welfare and my [lisse], 1040
And I hers hoolly, everydel.'
' By our lord,' quod I, ' I trowe vow wel !
Hardely, your love was wel beset,
I not how ye mighte have do bet.'
'Bet? ne no wight so well' quod he. 1045
' I trowe hit, sir,' quod I, ' parde ! '
' Nay, leve hit wel 1 ' ' Sir, so do I ;
I leve yow wel, that trewely
Yow thoghte, that she was the beste.
And to beholde the alderfaireste, 1050
Who so had loked with your eyen.'
'With myn? nay, alle that her seyen
Seyde, and sworen hit was so.
And thogh they ne hadde, I wolde tho
Have loved best my lady fre, 1055
Thogh I had hfvd al the beaute
That ever had Alcipyades,
And al the strengthe of Ercules,
And therto had the worthinesse
Of Alisaundre, and al the richesse 1060
That ever was in Babiloyne,
In Cartage, or in Macedoyne,
1035. ^^^ seyde (sayde). 1036. F. hooly. All leyde (layde).
1037. ^// wyfe (^wife). 1038. F. luste. ^// lyfe life). 1039. Tn. F.
happe ; Th. hope. 1040. F. worldys. / siihsiitnie lisse for god-
desse ; j^^ note. 1041. F. hooly hires and; Th. Tn. holy hers and;
B. hooly hyres. 1042. Y . onre. 1043. Th. beset; F. besette ; Tn. yset.
1044. F. myght haue doo bette. I045- Th. Tn. Bet ; F. Bette. F.
wele. 1046. F. hit wel sir; Th. Tn. cm. hit wel. I047- F. sire.
1048. .<4//trewly. 1049. Th. Tn. beste ; F. best. 1050. Tn. fayreste ;
F. fayrest. 1051. ^// /«j-. her a/?^r loked. 1052. Tn. all^ ; F. al.
1053. ^// swore; r^a^ sworen. 1054. Perhaps read na.dAt. 1056.
F. had hadde .better hadde had\ 1057. All Alcipyades. 1060.
Th. Tn. Alisaundre ; F. Alisaunder. ? o?nit al.
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE. 51
Or in Rome, or in Ninive;
And therto al-so hardy be
As was Ector, so have I loye, 1065
That Achilles slow at Troyc —
And therfor was he slayn also
In a temple, for bothe two
Were slayn, he and Antilegius,
And so seyth Dares Frigius, 1070
For love of [her] Polixena —
Or ben as wys as Minerva,
I wolde ever, withoute drede,
Have loved .her, for I moste nede !
" Nede ! " nay, I gabbe now, 1075
Noght "nede," and I wol telle how,
For of good wille myn herte hit wolde.
And eek to love her I was holde
As for the fairest and the beste.
' She was as good, so have I reste, 1080
As ever Penelope of Grece,
Or as the noble wyf Lucrece,
That was the beste — he telleth thus,
The Romain Tytus Livius —
She was as good, and no-thing lyke, 1085
Thogh her stories be autentyke ;
Algate she was as trewe as she.
But wherfor that I telle thee
Whan I first my lady sey?
I was right yong, [the] soth to sey, 1090
And ful gret need I hadde to lerne;
1064. Th. therto: F. Tn. to {see 1059). Th. Tn. al so ; F. also as.
1066. Tn. slow ; F. slough. 1067. Tn. therfor; F. therfore. 1069.
Tn. slayn ; F. slayne. Th. Tn. Antilegius ; F. Antylcgyus. 1071. /
.t«///j' her. 1074. Tn. moste ; F. most. 1075. All hisert UevrXy
after ti2iy ; ive must omit it. 1075, 6. F. nowe, howe. io77- Th.
good; F. goode. F. hert. 1078. ^// eke. 1081. All ins. was
after ever. Th. Penelope ; F. Penelopee; Tn. penelapie. 1082. All
■vryfe (wife). 1083. Th. besle ; F. best. 1084. Tn. romayn ; F.
Romayne. 1088. ^// wherfore. 10S9. F. firste. Th. sey; F. say.
1090. All yonge. I supply \.\\e. 1091. F. grete nede.
E 2
52 ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUC HESSE,
Whan my herte wolde yerne
To love, it was a gret empryse.
But as my wit coude best suffyse,
After my yonge childly wit, 1095
Withoute drede, I besette hit
To love her in my beste wyse,
To do her worship and servyse
That I tho coude, by my trouthe,
Withoute feyning outher slouthe ; 1 100
For wonder fayn I wolde her se.
So mochel hit amended me,
That, whan I saw her first a-morwe,
I was warished of al my sorwe
Of al day after, til hit were eve; 1105
Me thoghte no-thing mighte me greve,
Were my sorwes never so smerte.
And yit she sit so in myn herte,
That, by my trouthe, I nolde noght.
For al this worlde, out of my thoght mo
Leve my lady ; no, trewly ! '
'Now, by my trouthe, sir,' quod I,
' Me thinketh ye have such a chaunce
As shrift withoute repentaunce.'
' Repentaunce ! nay iy^ quod he; 1115
Shulde I now repente me
To love ? nay, certes, than were I wel
Wers than was Achitofel,
Or Anthenor, so have I loye.
The traytour that betraysed Troye, 11 20
1093. F. grete. 1094. All wytte. Tn. best; F. beste. 1095. v4//
yonge. F. childely wytte. 1097- B. beste; rest best. 1098. F.
worshippe. Th. F. insert the before servyse; but Tn. omits. 1099.
All coude tho ; read tho coude. Tn. by ; F. be. 1100. F. Feynynge.
iioi. Tn. fayn; F. feyne. 1103. Tn. saw; F. sawgh. 1104. Th.
warysshed; F. Tn. warshed. 1106. F. thoght. 1108. Tn. sit;
Th. syt ; F. sytte. Th. Tn. in ; F. o>n. mo. Th. out ; Tn. F. oute.
im. .<4// trewly. 1114. y^// shrifte (shryfte). 1117. Tn. certes ;
F. certis. mS. Tn. Achitofell ; F. Achetofel. 11 20. Tn. traytour ;
F. traytorf. Tn. F. B. betraysed ; Th. betrayed.
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE. ^^t
Or the false Genelon,
He that purchased the treson
Of Rowland and of Olivere.
Nay, whyl I am a-l}'ve here
I nil foryete her never-mo.' 1125
' Now, goode sir/ quod I [right] tho,
'Ye han wel told me her-before.
It is no need reherse hit more
How ye sawe her first, and where ;
But wolde ye telle me the manere, 1130
To her which was your firste speche —
Therof I wolde yow be-seche —
And how she knewe first your thoght,
Whether ye loved her or noght,
And telleth me eek what ye have lore ; 1 1 35
I herde yow telle her-before/
' Ye,' seyde he, ' thou nost what thou menest ;
I have lost more than thou wenest.'
' What los is that, [sir] ? ' quod I tho ;
'Nil she not love yow? is hit so? 1140
Or have ye oght doon amis,
That she hath left yow ? is hit this ?
For goddes love, tel me al'
' Before god,' quod he, ' and I shal.
I saye right as I have seyd, 1145
On her was al my love leyd ;
And yet she niste hit never a del
1 121. Th. false; F. fals. ^// Genellon. 1123. Tn. rowland ; F.
Rowlande. 1124. yi// while whyle). 1126. F. good ; Tn. gode.
/ JM///J/ right. 1 1 27. ^//tolde. B. her-; F. here-. 11 28. All
nede. F. Th. Tn. insert to after need ; B. omits it. Tn. hit ; Th. it ;
¥. om. 1 1 29. Tn. sawe; F. sawgh. Th. first ; F. firste. 1130.
Tn. telle; F. tel. ii3X- Tn. her; F. hire. B. firste; rest first.
1 1 33. All Vn^vic {subjunctive). 1135- All eke. 1136. Tn. her- ;
F. here-. 1137. Tn. seyde he ; F. he seyde. F. menyst. 1138.
F. wenyst. 1139. Tn. los; F. losse. / supply sir. 1142. F.
hathe lefte. 1143. Th. tel ; F. telle. Th. al ; F. alle. 1144. Th.
shal; F. shalle. 1145- All %z.y. Tn. seyd ; F. seyde. 1146. Tn.
leyd ; F. leyde. 1147. All needlessly insert not {or nat) after hit.
/
54 11^' THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE.
Noght longe tymc, leve hit wel.
For be right siker, I durste noght
For al this worlde telle her my thoght, 1150
Ne I wolde have wrathed her, trewly.
For wostow why? she was lady
Of the body ; she had the herte,
And who hath that, may not asterte.
i 'But, for to kepe me fro ydelnesse, 1155
Trewly I did my besinesse
To make songes, as I best coude,
And ofte tyme I song hem loude ;
And made songes a gret del,
Al-thogh I coude not make so wel 11 60
Songes, to knowe the art al,
As coude Lamekes sone Tubal,
That fond out first the art of songe ;
For, as his brothers hamers ronge
Upon his anvelt up and doun, 1165
Therof he took the firste soun ;
But Grekes seyn, Pictagoras,
That he the firste fynder was
Of the art; Aurora telleth so,
But therof no fors, of hem two. 11 70
Algates songes thus I made
Of my feling, myh herte to glade;
And lo ! this w-as [the] alther-firste,
I not wher hit were the werste. —
1150. F. tel. 1153. Tn. herte; F. hart. 1154. Tn. astarte ; F.
astert. ii55- F. inserts so before fro; which Tn. Th. well omit.
1 158. .^// songe. 1159- F. Th. Tn. itis. this (,B. thus) before a. F.
grete dele. 1160. ^//wele. 1161. B. to ; F. the (!) ; Th. Tn. ne.
F. knowe {gerund); Tn. know; Th. knewe (wr^«^/>'). All the arte;
perhaps 7-ead that SLit. 1162. Th. Lamekes; F. lamekys. Th. Tubal;
F. Tuballe; Tn. B. Tubalk. 1163. B. fonde ; rest founde. Th.
first; F. firste. All songe. 1164. Tn. brothers; F. brothres. 1165.
Tn. anuelte; F. Anuelet {wrongly). Tn. doun; F. doon. 1166. F.
tooke. B. fyrste; r^j-^ first. Tn. soune; F. soon. 1167. Th. of
Pithagoras. 1168. Tn. fyrste; F. first. 1169. All arte. 11 71.
F. Algatis. 1172. F. felynge ; hert. 1173. Th. this; F. Tn. thus.
/ supply the. Tn. firste ; F. first. 1 1 74. Th. werst ; Tn. F. repeat
first {^from 1. 1173).
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE. 55
H" Lord, hit makelh myn hcrto light, 11 75
Whan I thenke on that swete wight
That is so semely on to se ;
And wisshe to god hit might so be,
That she woldc hokle me for her knight.
My lady, that is so fair and bright!" — 1180
' Now have I told thee, soth to saye,
]My firste song. Upon a daye
I bethoghte me what wo
And sorwe that I suffred tho
For her, and yet she wiste hit noght, 11 85.
Ne telle her durste I nat my thoght.
" Alias ! " thoghte I, '• I can no reed ;
And, but I telle her, I nam but deed ;
And if I telle her, to seye soth,
I am a-dred she wol be wroth; 1190
Alias! what shal I thanne do?"
' In this debat I was so wo,
Me thoghte myn herte brast a-tweyn !
So atte laste, soth to seyn,
I me bethoghte that nature 1195
Ne formed never in creature
So moche beaute, trewely.
And bounte, withouten mercy.
' In hope of that, my tale I tolde
With sorwe, as that I never sholde, 1200
For nedes; and, maugre my heed,
1 175. ^// Lorde. Tn. herte ; F. hert. 117S. y^// myght might).
1180. .-^//faireCfayreV 1 181. ^// tolde. Tn. soth ; F. sothe. All
say. 1182. Tn. firste; F. first. All songe; all day. 1183. Tn.
bethoghte ; F. bethoght. 1185. F. wyst. 1186. Tn. tellt'; F. tel.
^// durst. 1 1 87. Tn. thoghte; F. thoght. F. rede. 1188..^//
am ; grammar requires ■Roxa.. F. dede. 1 189. Tn. if; F. yif. All
sey (say), after vjliich ryght is needlessly inserted ; I omit it. Tn.
soth; F. sothe. 1190. Tn. wroth ; F. wrothe. 1192. .^//debate.
1 193. Tn. thoghte; F. thoght. Tn. a tweyn; F. a twerae. 1194-
All at the; read atte. Tn. seyn; F. sayne. ii95- All bethoght
(bethought"! me. ii97- ^// trewly 0^ truly. 1198. F. wyth oute ;
r^Of/ withouten. 1201. F. nedys ; Mawgree. Th. heed ; F. hede.
^6 in. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE.
I moste have told her or be deed.
I not wel how that I began,
Ful evel rehersen hit I can;
And eek, as helpe me god with-alle, 1205
I trowe hit was in the dismalle,
That was the ten woundes of Egipte ;
For many a word I over-skipte
In my tale, for pure fere
Lest my wordes mis-set were. 1210
With sorweful herte, and woundes dede,
Softe and quaking for pure drede
And shame, and stinting in my tale
For ferde, and myn hewe al pale,
Ful ofte I wex bothe pale and reed; 12 15
Bowing to her, I heng the heed ;
I durste nat ones loke her on.
For wit, manere, and al was gon.
I seyde " mercy ! " and no more ;
Hit nas no game, hit sat me sore. 1220
' So atte laste, soth to seyn,
Whan that myn herte was come ageyn,
To telle shortly al my speche.
With hool herte I gan her beseche
That she wolde be my lady swete; 1225
And swor, and gan her hertely hete
Ever to be stedfast and trewe,
And love her alwey freshly newe,
And never other lady have,
And al her worship for to save 1230
1202. Tn. mo5te ; F. most. All tolde. Th. deed; F. dede. 1203.
Th. began; F. beganne (!"). 1204. ^// reherse (7r reherce ; but read
rehersen. 1205. All eke. 1208. All \\ or Ae. 1210. F. wordys.
Tn. mysset ; F. mys sette. 1212. F. quakynge. 1213. F. styntynge.
1 215. Tn. wex ; F. wexe. Th. reed ; F. rede. 1216. F. Bowynge.
Th. heed ; F. hede. 1218. Tn. wit; F. witte. All ma.ntr. 1220.
Allsa.te[V). 1221. ^// at the ; r^a^/ atte. Tn. soth ; F. sothe. Tn.
seyn; F. seyne. 1222. Tn. herte ; F. hert. Tn. agayn; F. ageyne.
1223. Th. shortly ; F. shortely. Th. al ; Tn. B. alk ; F. at (!). 1226.
y^// swore (!). 1228. F. fresshly. 1230. F. worshippe.
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE. 57
As I best coude ; I swor her this —
" For youres is al that ever ther is
For evermore, myn herte swete !
And never false yow, but I mete,
I nil, as \vis god helpe me so!" 1235
' And -whan I had my tale y-do,
God wot, she acounted nat a stree
Of al my tale, so thoghte me.
To telle shortly as hit is,
Trewly her answere, hit was this ; 1240
I can not now well counterfete
Her wordes, but this was the grete
Of her answere ; she sayde, * nay '
Al-outerly. Alias ! that day
The sorwe I suflfred, and the wo ! 1245
That trewly Cassandra, that so
Bewayled the destruccioun
Of Troye and of Ilioun,
Had never swich sorwe as I tho.
I durste no more say therto 1250
For pure fere, but stal away ;
And thus I lived ful many a day :
That trewely, I hadde no need
Ferther than my beddes heed
Never a day to seche sorwe; 1255
I fond hit redy every morwe,
For-why I loved her in no gere.
' So hit befel, another yere,
I thoughte ones I wolde fonde
To do her knowe and understonde 1260
IMy wo ; and she wel understood
1231. ^// swore ^r swere(!). 1232. Th. al; F. alle. 1234. All
ins. to before false. 1235. Tn. wisse ; F. wysse ; B. wys. 1237.
.^//\vote(!). 1238. Tn. thoghte; F. thoght. 1239. ^// ?V/^. ryght
before a.s. 1242. F. wordys. 1244. Th. Al ; F. Alle. 124S. Th.
Troye; F.Troy. 1250. Tn. durste ; F. durst. 1251. F. stale.
1253. ^//trewly. AllncAt. 1254. ^// hede. 1256. All ionde
or founde. 1261. F. vnderstode.
58 ///, THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE.
That I ne wilned thing but good,
And worship, and to kepe her name
Over al thing, and drede her shame,
And was so besy her to serve; — 1265
And pita were I shulde sterve,
Sith that I wilned noon harm, y-wis.
So whan my lady knew al this.
My lady yaf me al hoolly
The noble yift of her mercy, 1270
Saving her worship, by al weyes ;
Dredles, I mene noon other weyes.
And therwith she yaf me a ring;
I trowe hit was the firste thing ;
But if myn herte was y-waxe 1275
Glad, that is no need to axe !
As helpe me god, I was as blyve,
Reysed, as fro dethe to lyve,
Of alle happes the alder-beste.
The gladdest and the moste at reste. 12S0
For trewely, that swete wight.
Whan I had wrong and she the right.
She wolde alwey so goodely
For-yeve me so debonairly.
In alle my youthe, in alle chaunce, 1285
She took me in her governaunce.
* Therwith she was alway so trewe,
Our loye was ever y-liche newe ;
Our hertes wern so even a payre,
1262. Th. thyng ; F. Tn. B. no thynge ; but no is not required by
idiom or metre. ^// goode, gode. 1263. F. worshippe. 1264.
All al {or alle) thynges ; but al thing is the right idiom. Th. drede ;
Tn. to drede ; F. dred. 1267. yi//hanne. 1268. Tn. knew ; F.
knewe. 1269. F. hooly. 1270. F. yifte. 1271. F. Savynge hir
worshippe. 1273. ^// rynge (!) 1274. Tn. firste; F. first. Th.
thyng; F. thynge. 1275. Tn. if ; F. yif. Tn. herte ; F. hert. 1276.
Tn. Glad ; F. Gladde. ^// nede. 1279. Tn. alk ; F. al. 1281.
^//trewly (treuly). 1282. Th. Tn. B. the; which F. omits. 1284.
Th. debonairly; F. debonairely. 1285. Tn. B. alU' {first time); the
rest al. B. alk {second titne) ; rest al. 1286. F. tooke. 1289.
F. Oure. Th. F. werne : Tn. weren. Th. euen ; F. evene.
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE. 59
That never nas that oon contrayre 1290
To that other, for no wo.
For sothe, y-hche they suffred tho
00 blisse and eek 00 sorwe bothe ;
Y-liche they were bothe gladde and wrothe ;
Al was us oon, withoute were. 1295
And thus we lived ful many a yere
So w^el, I can nat telle how.'
' Sir,' quod I, ' wher is she now ? '
' Now ! ' quod he, and stinte anoon.
Therwith he wex as deed as stoon, 1300
And seyde, ' alias ! that I was bore !
That was the los, that her-before
1 tolde thee, that I had lorn.
Bethenk how I seyde her-beforn,
"Thou wost ful litel what thou menest; 1305
I have lost more than thou wenest " —
God wot, alias ! right that was she ! '
' Alias ! sir, how } what may that be ? '
' She is deed ! ' ' Nay ! ' ' Yis, by my trouthe ! '
'Is that your los? by god, hit is routhe!' 1310
And with that worde, right anoon,
They gan to strake forth ; al was doon,
For that tyme, the hert-hunting.
With that, me thoghte, that this king
Gan [quikly] hoomward for to ryde 131 5
Unto a place ther besyde,
Which was from us but a lyte,
A long castel with walks whyte,
1290. Th. Tn. contrayre ; F. contrarye. 1293. AU eke. 1294.^//
glad. 1300. Tn. B. wex; F. waxe ; Th. woxe. Th. deed; F. dede.
1302. Tn. los; F. losse. 1303. F. hadde ; rcsi had. All lorne (!).
1304. F. Bethenke. F. herebefome. 1305. F. menyst. 1306. F.
wenyst. 1307. F. wote. 1309. Th.deed; F. ded. Tn. bi ; F. be.
1310. F. youre. Tn. los; F. losse. Th. by; F. be. 1312. Read
rather They gonne forth straken {or striken). 131 3. Th. hart ; F. Tn.
herte (!). 1314. F. thoght ; kynge. 1315. / 5/c///)' quikly ; the
line is too short. 1316. All insert was after place. 1318. All
longe. F. wallys.
6o ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE.
By seynt lohan ! on a riche hil,
As me mette; but thus it fil. 1320
Right thus me mette, as I yow telle,
That in the castel was a belle,
As hit had smiten houres twelve. —
Therwith I awook my-selve.
And fond me lying in my bed; 1325
And the book that I had red.
Of Alcyone and Seys the king,
And of the goddes of sleping,
I fond it in myn honde ful even.
Thoghte I, 'this is so queynt a sweven, 1330
That I wol, by processe of tyme,
Fonde to putte this sweven in ryme
As I can best ' ; and that anoon, —
This was my sweven; now hit is doon. 1334
Explicit the Boke of the Duchesse.
1319. Th. Tn. By ; F. Be. Th. hyl ; F. Tn. hille. 1320. Th. fyl
F. Tn. fiUe (!). 1322. F. castell. All ins. ther before was. 1323
Th. smytte; F. Tn. smyte; read smiten (//.). Th. houres; F. oures
1324. F. awooke. 1325. ^// fonde (?r founde. F. lyinge. Tn. bed
F. bedde. 1326. F. booke. Tn. had red ; F. hadde redde. 1327
Th. Alcyone ; F. Alchione. F. kynge. 1328. F. goddys of slepynge
1329. Tn. euyn; F. evene. 1330. Tn. Thoghte; F. Thoght. Tn
svveuyn ; F. sweuene. 1331. Th. by; F. be. 1332. All put
Tn. sweuyn; F. sweuene. 1334. Tn. sweuyn; F. sweuene. Colo
PHON ; so in F. B.
Gl
IV. THE COI^rPLEYNT OF MARS.
The Proem.
* Gladeth, ye foules, of the morow gray,
Lo ! Venus risen among the rowes rede !
And floures fresshe, honouren ye this day ;
For when the sonne uprist, then wol ye sprede.
But ye lovers, that lye in any drede, 5
Fleeth, lest wikked tonges yow espye ;
Lol yond the sonne, the candel of lelosye!
With teres blewe, and with a wounded herte
Taketh your leve ; and, with seynt lohn to borow,
Apeseth somwhat of your sorowes smerte, lo
Tyme cometh eft, that cese shal your sorow ;
The glade night is worth an hevy morow ! ' —
(Seynt Valentyne ! a foul thus herde I singe
Upon thy day, er sonne gan up-springe). —
Yet sang this foul — ' I rede yow al a- wake, 15
And ye, that han not chosen in humble wyse,
Without repenting "cheseth yow your malce.
And ye, that han ful chosen as I devyse.
Yet at the leste renoveleth your servyse;
The authorities lure tised are: F. (Fairfax 16) ; Tn. (Tanner 346) ;
Ju. (Julian Notary's edition) ; Harl. (Harleian 7333) ; . T. (Trinity
College, Cambridtje, R. 3. 20) ; Ar. (Arch. Seld. B. 24, in the Bodleian
Library). I follow F. mainly ; and note variations f7-oin it.
I. Ar. fonies; Ju. fowles ; T. fooles (!) ; Harl. floures \see 1. 3); F.
Tn. lovers y'cvrongly). F. Harl. on ; Tn. in ; rest of. 2. Ar. the ;
F. Harl. yow; Tn. Ju. you; T. your {-wrongly; ed. 1621 turns you
into yon). 3. F. the (!^ ; rest ye. F. Tn. T. day ; Ju. Harl. Ar.
may J) 4. F. Harl. sunnc ; rest sonne. Ar. vp risith. Ju. T.
Ar. ye ; F. they (! 1 ; Tn. the (!"! ; Harl. he (!!). 5. Ar. any ; F. eny.
7. F. Loo yonde ; sunne ; lalosye. 8. F. blew ; hert. 9. F. sent ;
Ar. seynt. 10. F. sum-; smart. 11. Ar. eft; T. efft ; F. ofte. 12.
Tn. glade ; F. glad. 13. F. foule ; herd. 14. F. your ; Ar. the ;
rest \iiy. F. sunne. 15. F. sange; foule. i7-^9- in wrong order
in F. Tn. 17. T. you; Ar. 30W; Ju. ye; rest om. 19. F. this
fest ; rest the leste (lest, leest).
20
62 IV. THE COMPLEYNT OF MARS.
Confermeth it perpctuely to dure,
And paciently taketh your aventure.
And for the worship of this hye feste,
Yet wol I, in my briddes wyse, singe
The sentence of the compleynt, at the leste,
That woful Mars made atte departing 25
Fro fresshe Venus in a morwening,
Whan Phebus, with his fyry torches rede,
Ransaked hath every lover in his drede.
The Story.
IjWhylom the thridde hevenes lord above,
As wel by hevenish revolucioun 30
As by desert, hath wonne Venus his love,
And she hath take him in subieccioun,
And as a maistresse taught him his lessoun,
Comaunding him that never, in her servyse.
He nere so bold no lover to despyse. 35
For she forbad him lelosye at alle,
And cruelte, and bost, and tirannye ;
She made him at her lust so humble and talle,
That when her deyned caste on him her ye,
He tok in pacience to live or dye; 40
And thus she brydeleth him in her manere,
With no-thing but with scourging of her chere.
Who regneth now in blisse but Venus,
That hath this worthy knight in governaunce ?
Who singeth now but Mars, that serveth thus 45
The faire Venus, causer of plesaunce?
22. F. high^ ; Tn. high; rcst\i^Q. F. fest. 24. F. lest. 26. F.
morwnyng [^sce Kn. Tale, 204). 29. T. thridde ; F. thrid. 35. Ju.
Ar. nere ; F. T. ner. F. bolde ; dispise. 38. F. {only) om. him. F.
calle {for tailed ; Harl. talle ; Ju. Ar. tall ; T. tal. 39. F. to cast ;
Ju. T. rightly omit to. 40. F. toke. 41. F. maner. 42. Ju.
scourgyng ; T. skowrging^ ; Ar. scurgeing ; Tn. schouryng {sic^ ; F.
stering; ed. 1561 scorning \ probably a substitution). F. cher. 46. F. fair.
IV. THE COMPLEYNT OF MARS. 63
He bynt him to perpetual obeisaunce,
And she bynt her to loven him for ever,
But so be that his trespas hit dissever.
Thus be they knit, and rcgnen as in heven 50
By loking most ; til hit fil, on a tyde,
That by her bothe assent was set a''' Steven,
That Mars shal entre, as faste as he may glyde,
Into her nexte paleys, to abyde,
Walking his cours till she had him a-take. 55
And he preyde her to haste her for his sake.
Then seydc he thus — ' myn hertes lady swete,
Ye knowe wel my mischef in that place ;
For sikerly, til that I with yow mete,
My lyf stant ther in aventure and grace ; 60
But when I see the beaute of your face,
Ther is no dred of deth. may do me smerte,
For al your lust is ese to myn herte.'
She hath so gret compassion of her knight,
That dwelleth in solitude til she come, 65
For hit stood so, that ilke tyme, no wight
Counseyled him, ne seyde to him welcome,
That nigh her wit for wo was overcome ;
Wherfore she spedde her als faste in her vveye,
Almost in oon day, as he didc in tweye. 70
The grete loye that was betwix hem two,
Whan they be met, ther may no tunge telle,
[Now be they broght in gladnesse out of wo,]
48. T. Ar. loven ; rest loue. 49. Tn. trespas ; F. trespace. T.
Ar. disseuer; F. deseuer. 51. T. Ju. Tn. By; F. Be. 53. F.
fast. 54. Tn. nexte ; F. next. 55. Ar. our<r-take. 56. T. preyde ;
F. preiede. F. faste (!) ; Harl. hasten ; rest haste. 57. F. hertis ;
suete. 58. F. myschefe. 59. F. sikirly. 60. F. lyfe. 62. F. smert.
63. F. alle ; hert. 64. F. grete. F. on ; rest of. 66. F. stode. 68.
P". nyghe ; witte. F. sorowe ; Tn. sorow ; rest wo, woo. 69. T.
spedde ; F. sped. T. Ar. als ; rest as. F. fast ; wey. 70. F. did ;
twcy. 71. Ar. betuix ; F. betwex ; r^.f/ bytwene. 72. F. When;
mette; tel. 73. This line is altered.
64 /r. THE COMPLEYNT OF MARS.
And thus in loye and blisse I let hem dwelle ;
This worthy Mars, that is of knighthod welle, 75
The flour of fairnes lappeth in his amies,
And Venus kisseth Mars, the god of armes.
Soiourned hath this Mars, of which I rede,
In chambre amid the paleys prively
A certeyn tyme, til him fel a drede, 80
Through Phebus, that was comen hastely
Within the paleys-yates sturdely,
With torche in honde, of which the stremes brighte
On Venus chambre knokkeden ful lighte.
;-T-«At
'o'
The chambre, ther as lay this fresshe queue, 85
Depeynted was with whyte boles grete,'"^
And by the light she knew, that shoon so shene.
That Phebus cam to brenne hem with his hete ;
This sely Venus, nigh dreynt in teres wete,
Enbraceth Mars, and seyde, ' alas ! I dye 1 90
The torch is come, that al this world wol wrye.'^^^i^
Up sterte Mars, him liste not to slepe.
Whan he his lady herde so compleyne ;
But, for his nature was not for to wepe,
In stede of teres, fro his eyen tweyne 95
The fyry sparkes brosten out for peyne;
And hente his hauberk, that lay him besyde ;
Fie wolde he not, ne mighte him-selven hyde.
He throweth on his helm of huge wighte.
And girt him with his swerde; and in his honde 100
74. F. duel. 75. F. knyghthode wel. 76. F. feyrenesse. 81.
f . Throgh. 82. F. (alone) inscHs ful before sturdely. 83. F. bryght.
84. Ju. knockeden ; Harl. knokkidt' ; Tn. knokked ; F. knokken
[wrongly ; a copy in MS. Pepys 2006 rightly has knokkeden). 87.
F. shone. 88. Tn. T. brenne ; F. bren. 89. F. cely {for sely) ;
Tn. Ju. sely. lorn. nigh. 92. Tn. sterte; F. stert. Tn. liste;
F. lust. 95. Tn. stede; F. stid. F. twyne. 97. F. hent; hau-
berke ; ley. 98. F. wold ; myght. 99. Tn. Ju. T. throweth ; F.
thrwe {badly'). F. helme ; wyght.
IV. THE COMPLEYNT OF MARS. 65
His myghty spere, as he was wont to fighte,
He shaketh so that almost it to-wonde ; ^ ^^^' "-^
Ful hevy was he to walken over londe ;
He may not holde with Venus companye,
But bad her fleen, lest Phebus her espye. 105
O woful Mars ! alas I what maist thou seyn,
That in the paleys of thy disturbaunce
Art left behynde, in peril to be sleyn ?
And yet ther-to is double thy penaunce, /M^®*^
For she, that hath thyn herte in governaunce, no
Is passed halfe the stremes of thyn yen ;
That thou nere swift, wel maist thou wepe and cryen.
Now fleeth Venus in-to Cylenius tour,
With voide cours, for fere of Phebus light.
Alas! and ther so hath she no socour, 115
For she ne fond ne saw no maner wight ;
And eek as ther she had but litil might ;
Wher-for, her-selven for to hyde and save,
Within the e:ate she fledde into a cave.
o"-
U->
Derk was this cave, and smoking as the helle, 120
Not but two pas within the gate hit stood ;
A naturel day in derk I let her dwelle.
Now wol I speke of Mars, furious and wood ;
For sorow he wold have seen his herte blood;
Sith that he mighte her don no companye, 125
He ne roghte not a myte for to dye.
loi. F. fyght. 102. Ar. to-wound; Harl. to-wond; ;-^j/ to-wonde.
108. F. {alone) inserts thou after Art. no. F. hert. 112. Tn.
Ju. nere; F. ner. 113. Ju. Cylenius; Harl. Cylenyus ; Ar. Cilenius ;
T. Celenius ; Tn. cilinius ; F. cilinios. F. toure. 115. Ar. so ;
Harl. T. ne; rest om. 116. F. founde ; saugh. 117. F. eke. 119.
Harl. T. fledde; Tn. Ju. Ar. fled ; F. fel. 120. F. Derke: hel.
121. F. pales ; ^^rf pas (pace). F. stode. 122. F. duel. 12-1,. So all.
F. wode. 124. F. sene ; hert blode. 125. F. myght. Harl. done
hir ; Ju. doo her; T. Ar. do hir ; F. Tn. haue done her; 7-ead her don.
1 26. Tn. roghte ; Ju. Harl. Ar. rought ; F. thoght J).
66 IV. THE COMPLEYNT OF MARS.
So feble he wex, for hete and for his wo,
That nigh he swelt, he mighte unnethe endure ;
He passeth but oo steyre in dayes two,
But ner-the-les, for al his hevy armure, 130
He foloweth her that is his lyves cure;
For whos departing he took gretter yre
Thanne for al his brenning in the fyre.
After he walketh softely a pas,
Compleyning, that hit pite> was to here. 135
He seyde, ' O lady, bright Venus ! alas !
That ever so wyde a compas is my spere !
Alas ! whan shal I mete yow, herte dere.
This twelfte day of April I endure,
Through lelous Phebus, this misaventure.' 140
Now god helpe sely Venus allone !
But, as god wolde, hit happed for to be,
That, whyl that Venus weping made her mone,
Cylenius, ryding in his chevauche.
Fro ■ Venus valance mighte his paleys se, 145
And Venus he salueth, and maketh chere,
And her receyveth as his frend ful dere.
Mars dwelleth forth in his adversite,
Compleyning ever on her departinge ;
And what his compleynt was, remembreth me; 150
And therfore, in this lusty morweninge,
As I best can, I wol hit seyn and singe.
And after that I wol my leve take ; 7^
And God yeve every wight loye of his make !
128. F. myght. 129. Harl. o; T. oon; Ju. one; rest a. Tn. Ju.
Harl. steyre; T. stayre ; F. sterre ^!). 130. F. lesse. 132. F. toke.
133. Harl. T. Thanne; F. Then. 134. F. paas. 135. F. heree.
137. F. speree. 138. F. hert. 139. T. twelfft (^«/ /■^a' twelfte) ;
Ju. twelfth ; Harl. Ar. twelf iwro;/^/j') ; F. Tn. xij. F. dayes ; Tn. days;
rest day {rightly). - 140. F. Throgh lelouse. 143. F. while.
144. Ju. Cylenius ; F. Cilinius. Tn. Lt. cheuauche ; F. cheuache.
145. F. Ju. Fro; Ar. From; Tn. Harl. T. For. Ar. valance; Tn.
valauns ; F. Valaunses ; ed. 1561 Valanus {for Valauns ?) ; Ju. balance ;
Harl. T. balaunce. 147. F. frende. 151. F. morwnynge. 154.
Ju. yeue ; F. yif. F. loy.
IV. THE COMPLEYNT OF MARS. 67
The compleynt of Mars.
The Proem of the Compleynt.
HThe ordre of, compleynt requireth skilfully, 155
That if a wight shal pleyne pitously, ^ ^
There mot be cause wherfor that men pleyne;
Or men may deme he pleyneth folily
And causeles ; alas ! that am not I !
Wherfor the ground and cause of al my peyne, 160
So as my troubled wit may hit ateyne,
I wol reherse ; not for to have redresse,
But to declare my ground of hevinesse.
Devotion.
If The firste tyme, alas! that I was wroght,
And for certeyn effectes hider broght 165
By him that lordeth ech intelligence,
I yaf my trewe servise and my thoght.
For evermore — how dere I have hit boght ! —
To her, that is of so gret excellence,
That what wight that first sheweth his presence, 170
When she is wroth and taketh of him no cure,
He may not longe in 'loye of love endure.
This is no feyned mater that I telle ;
My lady is the verrey sours and welle
Of beaute, lust, fredom^ and gentilnesse, 175
Of riche aray — how dere men hit selle ! —
Of al disport in which men frendly dwelle,
Of love and pley, and of benigne humblesse,
Of soune of instruments of al swetnesse;
Title. In F. Ar. Ju. ; T. Complaint of mars. 156. F. pleyn. 157.
F. wherfore ; pleyn. 158. F. Other; rest Ox. Ju. Ar. folily ; F. folely.
160. F. grounde ; peyn. 161. F. witte ; ateyn. 163. F. grounde.
164. F. first. 166. Tn. By; F. Be. 167. F. trwe; Tn. trewe.
169. F. That [by mistake); rest To. F. excelence. 171. F. wrothe.
175. F. fredam. 179. F. Instrumentes.
F 2
68 IF. THE COMPLEYNT OF MARS.
And therto so wel fortuned and thewed, i8o
' That through the world her goodnesse is yshewed.
What wonder is then, thogh that I besette
My servise on suche oon, that may me knette,^-''^
To wele or wo, sith hit lyth in her might?
Therfor my herte for ever I to her hette ; / - /g>/ 185
Ne trewly, for my dethe, I shal not lette
To ben her trewest servaunt and her knight.
I flater noght, that may wite every wight ; '^^«X^^
For this day in her servise shal I dye ;
But grace be, I se her never with ye.^,^. 190
A Lady in fear and woe.
IfTo whom shal I than pleyne of my distresse ?
Who may me helpe, who may my harm redresse ?
Shal I compleyne unto my lady fre ? -"■ '
Nay, certes 1 for she hath such hevinesse,
For fere and eek for wo, that, as I gesse, 195
In litil tyme hit wol her bane be.
But were she sauf, hit wer no fors of me.
Alas ! that ever lovers mote endure,
For love, so many a perilous aventure!
For thogh so be that lovers be as trewe 200
As any metal that is forged newe,
In many a cas hem tydeth ofte sorowe.
Somtyme her ladies will not on hem rewe, ' ^-^ (/'-^
Somtyme, yif that lelosye hit knewe,
181. F. thoi-ow. 182. All hut Tn. oni. that. T. besette; F. beset.
183. T. oone; Tn. Ar. one ; F. on {t-oice). F. knet; Ar. knett; rest
knette. 184. F. lythe. 185. F. Therfore. F. hert. Ju. hette ; Ar.
het ; F. T. hight ; Tn. set ; (Longleat MS. has hette\ 186. F. truly ;
let. 187. F. triiest; Tu. Ar. trewest. 188. Tn. wite ; F. wete ;
T. wit; Ju. knowe. 191. T. thane (y^r than) ; rest omit. 192. F.
harme. 193. F. compleyn. 195. F. eke. 197. Ju. Ar. sauf; T.
sauff; F. Tn. safe. 200. Tn. thogh; F. tho. 201. Tn. any; F. eny.
202. Tn. many ; F. mony. T. Ar. cas ; F. case. 203. F. Somme ;
rf J-/ Somtyme. 204. Ar. gif ; restii,yi; read y\L
IV. THE COMPLEYNT OF MARS. 69
They mighten lightly Icye her heed to borowe ; 205
Somtyme envyous folke with tunges horowe- - -'^ '^
Departen hem ; alas ! whom may they plese ?
But he be fals, no lover hath his ese.
But what availeth suche a long sermoun
Of aventures of love up and doun ? 210
I wol returne and speken of my peyne ;
The point is this of my destruccioun,
I\Iy righte lady, my salvacioun,
Is in affray, and not to whom to pleyne.
O herte swete, O lady sovereyne 1 ^ . 215
For your disese, wel oghte I swoune and swelte,
Thogh I noon other harm ne drede felte.
Instability of Happiness.
UTo what fyn made the god that sit so hye,
Benethen him, love other companye. ^
And streyneth folk to love, malgre her hede ? 220
And then her loye, for oght I can espye,
Ne lasteth not the twinkeling of an ye,
And somme han never loye til they be dede.
What meneth this? what is this mistihedeP'^'y-^^
Wherto constreyneth he his folk so faste 225
Thing to desyre, but hit shulde laste?
And thogh he made a lover love a thing.
And maketh hit seme stedfast and during,
Yet putteth he in hit such misaventure,
205. F. ley ; hede. 209. F. longe. 210. F. dovne. 213. Tn.
righte; F. right. F. sauaciouM ; rest saluacioun. 214. F. pleyn.
215. F. hert suete; sonereyn. 216. F. I oght wel ; Tn. I oghte wel;
Ju. T. Ar. wel ought I. Ju. swowne ; Ar. suoun ; T. swoone : Tn.
swone ; F. so%vne. F. swell. 217. F. none ; iiarme ; felt. 21S. Ju.
fyn ; rest fyne. F. sitte ; T. sit. 219. T. Tn. Ju. him ; Ar. thame ;
F. om. F. other ( = or) ; Tn. othyr ( = or) ; Ju. T. or. 220. F. folke.
221. F. loy. 222. Tn. ye ; 7-csi eye. 223. F. loy. 225. F.
folke; fast. 226. F. shuld last. 228. F. stidfast. 229. Ju. put ;
Ar. puttis.
70 IV, THE COMPLEYNT OF MARS.
That reste nis ther noon m his yeving. 230
And that is wonder, that so lust a king
Doth such hardnesse to his creature.
Thus, whether love breke or elles dure,
Algates he that hath with love to done
Hath ofteri wo then changed is the mone. 235
It semeth he hath to lovers enmite.
And lyk a fissher, as men alday may se,
Baiteth his angle-hook with som plesaunce,
^ Til mony a fish is wood to that he be
*^ Sesed ther-with ; and then at /erst hath he 240
Al his desyre, and ther-with al mischaunce;
And thogh the lyne breke, he hath penauhce;
For with the hoke he wounded is so sore,
That he his wages hath for ever-more.
The Brooch of Thebes.
HThe broche of Thebes was of suche a kynde, 245
So ful of rubies and of stones of Ynde, -
That eyery wight, that sette on hit an ye,
He wende anon to worthe out of his mynde;
So sore the beaute wolde his herte bynde,
Til he hit hadde, him thoghte he moste dye ; 250
And whan that hit was his, than shulde he drye ^•^-^^^Z
Such wo for drede, ay whyl that he hit hadde,
That welnigh for the fere he shulde madde.
'O'
And whan hit was fro his possessioun.
Than had he double wo and passioun 255
230. Tn. T. reste ; F. rest. T. noon; Ar. non ; Ju. none ; F. om.
231. F. luste. 236. Tn. enmyte; F. enemyte. 237. F. lyke.
238. Tn. Ju. Bayteth; F. Bateth. Ju. hook; F. hoke. Tn. som;
F. summe. 239. F. fissch; wode. 244. F. hathe. 245. F.
such. 247. T. sette ; An sett ; rest set. 248. Tn. wende ; F.
wend. 249. F. wold; hert. 250. T. hade ; r^5/ had. F. thoght.
Tn. moste ; F. must. 251. F. {o7ily) om. his. F. shuld. 252.
Ju. T. hadde; F. had. 253. Ju. sholde madde ; F. shuld mad.
IV. THE COMPLEYNT OF MARS. 71
For he so fair a tresor had forgo ;
But yet this broche, as in conclusioun,
Was not the cause of this confusioun ;
But he that wroghte hit enfortuned hit so,
That every wight that had hit shuld have wo; 260
And therfor in the worcher was the vyce,
And in the covetour that was so nyce.
So fareth hit by lovers and by me;
For thogh my lady have so gret beaute,
That I was mad til I had gete her grace, 265
She was not cause of myn adversite,
But he that wroghte her, also mot I thee,
That putte suche a beaute in her face,
That made me to coveie and purchace
Myn owne .deth ; him wyte I that I dye.
And myn unwit, that ever I clomb so hye.
270
275
An Appeal for Sympathy.
HBut to yow, hardy knightes of renoun,
Sin'-' that ye be of my divisioun,
Al be I not worthy to so grete a name,
Yet, seyn these clerkes, I am your patroun;
Ther-for ye oghte have som compassioun
Of my disese, and take it noght agame.
The proudest of yow may be mad ful- tame ;
Wherfor I prey^'ow, of your gentilesse,
That ye compleyne for myn hevinesse. 280
256. F. feir. 259. F. wroght. Tn. enfortuned ; T. enfortnnd ; F.
enfortune {by mistake). 261. F. therfore. 267. F. wroght. Ju.
Ar. also ; T. als ; F. Tn. as. 268. F. Tn. Ju. Ar. put {for putte) ;
T. list to putte. Tn. Ju. a; F. T. Ar. om. 269. T. Ar. to;
rest om. F. coueten ; Tn. Ju. coueyten ; ij>iit to covete is better ..
270. F. ovne; Ju. T. Ar. owen. Y. dethe. 271. F. ovnewitte; Tn.
and rest vnwit. F. clombe. 273. F. deuisioun. 274. Perhaps
omit to {as T.). 276. F. Therefore; oght ; somme. 278. Tn.
proudest; F. pruddest. Ar. maid; rest made {for mad,//.). 279. F.
Wherfore. 280. F. Tn. compleyn ; Ju. Ar. compleyne ; T. comple}Tien.
IV. THE COMPLEYNT OF MARS.
And ye, my ladies, that ben trewe and stable,
By way of Kynde, ye oghten to be able
To have pite of folk that be in peyne;
^ Now have ye cause to clothe yow in sable ;
" Sith that your emperice, the honorable, - ^285
Is desolat, wel oghte ye to pleyne ;
Now shuld your holy teres falle and reyne.
Alas ! your honour and your emperice, / v /
Nigh ded for drede, ne can her not chevise. ^£t«<^
Compleyneth eek, ye lovers, al in-fere.
For her that, with unfeyned humble chere.
Was ever redy to do yow socour;
Compleyneth her that ever hath had yow dere ;
Compleyneth beaute, fredom, and manere ;
Compleyneth her that endeth your labour;
Compleyneth thilke ensample of al honour,
- That never dide but al gentilesse:
Kytheth therfor on her som kyndenesse/ 29S
290
295
281. Ar. trewe; F. true. 282. Ar. By; F. Be. 283. F. folke ;
peyn. 285. Tn. emperice; F. emperise (a??a' /« 1. 288). 286. Tn.
oghte; F. oght ; Ar. aughten. 289. F. Negh. 290. F. eke.
293. Tn. Compleyneth ; F. Complew [by mistake) ; see next line.
297. Tn. dide ; Ju. dyde ; rest did. T. al ; Ju. all ; Ar. alway ; F.
Tn. om. 298. Ar. sum ; F. summe.
7
V. THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES.
The Proem.
The lyf so short, the craft so long to Icrne,
Thassay so hard, so sharp the conquering,
The dredful loy, that ahvey slit so yerne,
Al this mene I by love, that my feling
Astonyeth with his wonderful worching 5
So sore ywis, that whan I on him thinke,
Nat wot I wel wher that I wake or winke.
For al be that I knowe not love in dede,
Ne wot how that he quyteth folk her hyre,
Yet happeth me ful ofte in bokes rede lo
Of his miracles, and his cruel yre;
Ther rede I wel he wol be lord and syre,
I dar not seyn, his strokes ben so sore.
But God save swich a lord ! I can no more.
Of usage, what for luste what for lore, 15
On bokes rede I ofte, as I yow tolde.
But wherfor that I speke al this ? not yore
Agon, hit happed me for to beholde
Upon a boke, was write with lettres olde,
T/ie at(thorities are: F. (Fairfax 16); Gg. (Gg. 4. 27, Cambridge
Univ. Library) ; Trin. (Trinity Coll. Camb. R. 3. 19') ; Cx. (Caxton's
edition); Harl. ;Harleian 7333); O. (St. John's Coll. Oxford); Ff.
(Ff. I. 6, Cambridge Univ. Libiary) ; occasionally Tn. (Tanner 346) ; D.
(Digby 181 ); and others. I follow F. mainly, corrected by Gg. {and
others) ; and note all variations from F. of any consequence.
Title ; Gg. has — Here begjnyth the parlement of Foulys ; D. The
parlement of Fowlis. 2. So F. Harl. Tn. ; some transpose hard and
sharp. 3. Gg. and others dredful ; F. slyder. Gg. O. slit ; Cx. flit
(/(7rslit); Ff. slydeth {om. so); F. slyd ; Trin. fleeth. 5. Gg. {and
others) with his wondyrful ; F. soo with a dredeful. 9. Gg. Trin.
Harl. that; which the rest omit. 10. Gg. Trin. Cx. Harl. Ff. ful
ofte in bokis; F. in bookes ofte to. 11. F. ins. of after antl ;
Gg. 07n. 13. F. Dar I; Gg. ami others I dar. 14. F. suche ; Gg.
swich. 17. Y. Tn. D. why ; rest wherfore (_whcrfor).
74
V. THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES.
And ther-upon a certeyn thing to lerne;
The longe day ful faste I radde and yerne.
For out of olde feldes, as men seith,
Cometh al this newe corn fro yeer to yere ;
And out of olde bokes, in good feith,
Cometh al this newe science that men lere.
But now to purpos as of this matere —
To rede forth hit gan me so delyte,
That al the day me thoughte but a lyte.
This book of which I make mencioun,
Entitled was al thus, as I shal telle,
'Tullius of the dreme of Scipioun';
Chapitres seven hit hadde, of hevene and helle,
And erthe, and soules that therinne dwelle,
Of whiche, as shortly as I can hit trete,
Of his sentence I wol you seyn the grete.
First telleth hit, whan Scipioun was come
In Afrik, how he mette Massinisse,
That him for loye in armes hath y-nome.
Than telleth [hit] her speche and al the blisse
That was betwix hem, til the day gan misse;
And how his auncestre, African so dere,
Gan in his slepe that night to him appere.
Than tellith hit that, fro a sterry place,
How African hath him Cartage shewed.
20
25
30
35
40
21. Gg. faste; F. fast. Harl. radde; F. rad ; Gg. redde. 22
F. seyth; Gg. sey. 24. F. feythe ; Gg. fey. 26. Gg. O. as of this
Trin. Cx. Harl. Ff. of this ; F. of myfirste. 28. Gg. Ff. me thoujte
Trin. Cx. Harl. me thought hit ; F. thought me. 30. Gg. Cx. thus
F. Trin. Harl. there. Gg. and rest as I schal ; F. I shal yow. 31
F. inserts the after dreme of; the rest omit. Trin. Harl. O. Scipiown ;
F. Cipio?<n ; Gg. sothion (!). 32. F. hyt had vij ; Gg. mid the rest
seuene It hadde. 33. Ff. therinne ; F. and the rest theryn {wi-ongly).
34. Gg. it ; O. of; the rest o?nit. 35. Gg. seyn ; F. tel ; the
rest sey (say). 37. F. In-to; rest In. F. Aufryke; Gg. Affrik.
39. For hit all wrongly have he ; see 11. 36, 43. 40. Harl. betwix ;
F. betwixt. 41. Gg. Affrican ; F. Aufrikan. 42. F. on; rest in.
43. F. tolde he hym ; Gg. Trin. Cx. Harl. tellith it ; O. Ff. tellithe he.
44. Gg. Affrican ; F. Aufrikan. F. y-shewed ; rest schewid, shewyd, &c.
V. THE PA RLE ME NT OF FOULES.
75
And warned him before of al his grace, 45
And seyde him, what man, lered other lewed,
That loveth comun profit, wel y-thewed,
He shal unto a blisful place wende,
Ther as loye is that last withouten ende.
Than asked he, if folk that heer be dede 5°
Have lyf and dwelling in another place ;
And African seyde, 'ye, wilhoute drede,'
And that our present worldcs lyves space
Nis but a maner deth, what wey we trace,
And rightful folk shal go, after they dye, 55
To heven; and shewed him the galaxye.
Than shewed he him the litel erthe, that hcer is,
At regard of the hevenes quantite;
And after shewed he him the nyne spercs,
And after that the melodye herde he 60
That Cometh of thilke speres thryes three,
That wclle is of musyke and melodye
In this world heer, and cause of armonye. .
Than bad he him, sin erthe was so l}te.
And ful of torment and of harde grace, 65
That he ne shulde him in the world delyte.
Than tolde he him, in certeyn yeres space.
That every sterre shulde come into his place
Ther hit was first ; and al shulde out of mynde
That in this worlde is don of al mankynde. 70
46. Gg. other; rest' ox. 49. Gg. There as loye is that last with
outyw ende ; F. There Icy is that lasteth with-out ende. 50. F.
inserts the after if; rest omit. 52. Gg. Affrican ; F. Aufrikan.
53- Gg. Ff. that ; Trin. Cx. Harl. how ; F. or/i. 54. Cx.
Nis ; Gg. Nys ; F. Trin. Harl. Ff. Meneth. 55. Gg. and rest
after; F. whan. 56. Cx. galaxye; F. Ff. galoxye ; O. galoxie. i.
watlynstrete ; Harl. galorye ; Trin. galry (!) ; Gg. galylye (!). 58.
Gg. ami rest the ; Harl. tho ; F. om. 64. Gg. Ff. Thaw bad he hyw
syn erthe was so lyte ; F. Than bad he hyni see the erthe that is so lite
{wrongly'). 65. Cx. Trin. Harl. O. ful of torment and ; F. was somcdel
fnlle; Gg. was su;«del disseyuable and ful 1^!). 69. Gg. aitd rest
schulde (schuld, shuld) ; F. shal. 70. F. was ; rest is.
76 V. THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES.
Than prayed him Scipioim to telle him al
The wey to come un-to that hevene blisse;
And he seyde, ' know thy-self first immortal,
And loke ay besily thou werke and wisse
To comun profit, and thou shalt nat misse 75
To comen swiftly to that place dere,
That ful of blisse is and of soules clere.
But brekers of the lawe, soth to seyne.
And lecherous folk, after that they be dede,
Shul alwey whirle aboute therthe in peyne, 80
Til many a world be passed, out of drede,
And than, for-yeven alle her wikked dede,
Than shul they come unto that blisful place,
To which to comen god thee sende his grace ! ' —
I The day gan fallen, and the derke night, 85
That reveth bestes from her besinesse,
Berafte me my book for lakke of light.
And to my bedde I gan me for to dresse,
Fulfild of thought and besy hevinesse;
For bothe I hadde thing which that I nolde, 90
And eek I ne hadde that thing that I wolde.
But fynally my spirit, at the lasle,
For-wery of my labour al the day,
Took rest, that made me to slepe faste,
71. F. O. he; resfWwa.. Gg. and resi to ; F. om. 72. Gg. Trin.
Harl. O. into that; Cx. Ff. unto that; F. to {om. that). 73. Gg.
inmortal ; O. immortalk ; F. a?id rest mortalle (!) 75. Gg. afid rest not
(nat, noght) ; F. never. 76. Gg. comyn ; Cx. comen ; F. come. Gg.
O. to ; rest into, vnto. 77. Trin. Cx. Harl. Ff. retain of rt/?6'r and;
F. Gg. O. omit. 78. F. i7is. for before to (but lawe is dissyllabic) ;
rest om. 80. Gg. wrotigly puts there for therthe ; the rest are bad.
82. F. ins. hem before alle. Gg. And that for-jeuy;? is his vveked dede
{but dede is plural). 84. Gg. comyw ; rest come, com. Cx. Harl.
the sende his ; O. sende the his ; Gg. synde ns ; Ff. send vs ;
F. sende ech lover (!). 85. Harl. faylen ; Cx. fayllen ; F. faile;
Gg. folwy«(!). 87. F. Berefte; rest Berafte, Beraft. 90. F. had ;
Gg. hadde. 91. Harl. O. give 1st that; Trin. Cx. the; F. Ff.
Gg. om.
y. THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES. 77
And in my slepe I mette, as I lay, 95
How African, right in that selfe aray
That Scipioun him saw before that tyde.
Was comen, and stood right at my beddes syde.
*■ The wery hunter, sleping in his bed,
To wode ayein his mynde goth anoon; 100
The luge dremeth how his plees ben sped;
The carter dremeth how his cartes goon ;
The riche, of gold; the knight fight with his
foon,
The seke met he drinketh of the tonne ;
The lover met he hath his lady wonne. 105
Can not I seyn if that the cause were
For I had red of African beforn.
That made me to mete that he stood there ;
But thus seyde he, ' thou hast the so wel born
In loking cjf myn old book al to-torn, no
Of which IMacrobie roghte nat a lyte,
That somdel of thy labour wolde I quyte ! ' —
V . . -■-■
Citherea ! thou blisful lady swete,
That with thy fyr-brand dauntest whom thee lest,
And madest me this sweven for to mete, 115
Be thou my help in this, for thou mayst best ;
As wisly as I saw thee north-north-west.
When I began my sweven for to wryte,
So yif me might to ryme and to endyte !
95. After as Gg. Trin. Hail. O. imert that ; it is hardly needed.
96. Gg. Affrican; F. Aufrikan. 102. Gg. Ff. carte is; O. cart is; rest
cartes <7r cartis. 104, 5. Gg. Harl. O. met; F. Trin. C.\. raeteth. 107.
F. redde had ; Gg. hadde red ; rest had red (rad % Gg. affrican ; F.
Aufrikan. 108. V . omits mdiAc ; the rest have it. in. F. roghl
noght ; Gg. roughte nat ; Cx. roght not. 112. F. Cx. itis. the after
I ; rest omit. 1 14. Trin. Cx. fyrebronde ; Gg. ferbrond ; F. firy
bronde. 119. Gg. jif; F. yeve.
78 V. THE PA ELEMENT OF FOULES.
The Story.
This forseid African me hente anoon, 120
And forth with him unto a gate broghte
Right of a parke, walled with grene stoon ;
And over the gate, with lettres large y-wroghte,
Ther weren vers y-writen, as me thoghte,
On eyther halfe, of ful gret difference, 125
Of which I shal yow sey the pleyn sentence.
' Thorgh me men goon in-to that blisful place
Of hertes hele and dedly woundes cure ;
Thorgh me men goon unto the welle of Grace,
Ther grene and lusty May shal ever endure; 130
This is the wey to al good aventure ;
Be glad, thou reder, and thy sorwe of-caste,
Al open am I ; passe in, and hy the faste ! '
'Thorgh me men goon,' than spak that other syde,
'Unto the mortal strokes of the spere, 135
Of which Disdayn and Daunger is the gyde,
Ther tree shal never fruyt ne leves here.
This streme you ledeth to the sorwful were,
Ther as the fish in prison is al drye;
Theschewing is only the remedye.' 140
Thise vers of gold and blak y-writen were,
The whiche I gan a stounde to beholde,
For with that oon encresed ay my fere.
And with that other gan myn herte bolde;
That oon me hette, that other did me colde, 145
120. Gg. Affrican ; F. Aufrikan. 122. Y . and rest vi\^}a. ; Gg. of.
124. Read vier&n ; a// were (weer). Gg. I-wrete ; F. writen. 133.
F. Ff. hye; ^/;<? r^j/ spede (sped). 135. F. stroke; r^.f/ strokes (strokis).
137. Cx. Harl. O. Ff. neuer tree shal. Cx. fruyt; Harl. O. fruyte;
Trin. F. frute. 138. F. unto ; rest to. 139. ^//is(ys\ 140. O.
Theschewing ; Cx. Theschewyng ; Harl. The eschuyng ; F. Thescwynge
[sic). 142. Trin. Cx. Harl. O. The; F. Gg. Of; Ff. On. F.
Cx. a stounde {which I think is correct) ; Ff. astonde ; {alt. to) Gg.
a-stonyd ; Trin. astonyed ; Harl. O. astoned. F. Cx. O. Ff. insert to
before bolde {-cvrotigly) ; Gg. Trin. Harl. om.
V. THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES. 79
No wit had I, for errour, for to chese,
To entre or flee, or me to save or lese.
Right as, betwixen adamauntes two
Of even might, a pece of iren y-set,
That hath no might to meve to ne fro — 150
For what that on may hale, that other let —
Ferde I, that niste whether me was bet,
To entre or leve, til African my gyde
INIe hSme, and shoof in at the gates wyde,
And seyde, 'hit stondeth writen in thy face, 155
Thyn erfoiii-, though thou telle it not to me;
But dred thee nat to come in-to this place,
For this wryting is no-thing ment by thee, y_
Ne by noon, but he Loves servant be;
For thou of love hast lost thy tast, I gesse, 160
As seek man hath of swete and bitternesse.
But natheles, al-though that thou be dulle,
Yit that thou canst not do, thou mayst hit se ;
For many a man that may not stonde a pulle,
Yit lyketh him at the wrastling for, to be, 165
And demeth yit wher he do bet or he ;
And if thou haddest cunning for teiKlyte,
I shal thee shewen mater of to wryte.'
With that my hond in his he took anoon,
Of which I com.fort caughte, and wente in faste; 170
But lord ! so I was glad and wel begoon !
For over-al, M^her that I myn eyen caste,
148. Gg. be-twixsyn ; F. betwix. 149. F. y-sette; Gg. set. 150.
Y . That ; Ff. om. ; rest Ne {which tvould be elided'^. F. nor ; rest ne
{better). 152. Gg. and rest nyste ; F. I ne wistc. Gg. and rest
whether; F. wher that [perhaps rightly). 153. F. Affrikan. 156.
Gg. Cx. O. to ; rest omit. 158. Trin. Cx. by ; Gg. bi ; F. be. 159- Gg.
Trin. Cx. by ; F. be. 160. Gg. stat (l^i ; for tast (taste). 162. F.
Ff. om. that. 163. Gg. Ilarl. O. supply Yit ; Cx. Yf ; rest om. F.
yet thou maist hyt ; O. mayst thowe ; rest yit mayst (may) thou.
165. F. om. for. 166. Gg. wher; rt'j/ whether. 167. Gg. Cx. tendite ;
F. O. to endite. 169. F. And with ; rest om. And. 170. Gg. confort.
Gg. that as; rest went in. 172. F. om. that [but over-al = ov'r-al).
8o V. THE PA RLE ME NT OF FOULES.
Were trees clad with leves that ay shal laste,
Eche in his kynde, of coloure fresh and grene
As emeraude, that loye was to sene. 175
t/ The bilder 00k, and eek the hardy asshe ;
The piler elrn, the cofre unto careyne ;
The boxtre piper ; holm to whippes lasshe ; ,
The sayling firr; the cipres, deth to pleyne; *^
The sheter ew, the asp for shaftes pleyne ; 180
The olive of pees, and eek the drunken vyne,
The victor palm, the laurer to devyne.
A garden saw I, ful of blosmy bowes,
Upon a river, in a grene mede,
Ther as that swetnesse evermore y-now is, 1S5
With floures white, blewe, yelowe, and rede;
And colde welle-stremes, no-thing dede.
That swommen ful of smale fisshes lighte.
With finnes rede and scales silver-brighte.
On every bough the briddes herde I singe, 190
With voys of aungel in her armonye,
Som besyed hem her briddes forth to bringe ; •
The litel conyes to her pley gunne hye,
And further al aboute I gan espye
The dredful roo, the buk, the hert and hynde, 195
Squerels, and bestes smale of gentil kynde.
173. F. Weren; rest Were. 174. Gg. O. F. of; F. Cx. with {from
line above). 175. F. Emerawde. Gg. sothe {for loye, wrotigly^.
177. Cx. O. piler; Gg. pilere; Trin. pylor; F. Harl. peler. 178. F.
box pipe tre ; Gg. aiid rest box tre pipere {or piper). Trin. holyn ;
Cx. holin ; Ff. holye ; Gg. O. holm; F. Harl. holme. 180. Gg.
Ew ; rest ewe. 183. Harl. O. blosmy; Gg. blospemy {for blossemy);
Cx. blossome; Trin. blossom; F. Ff. blossomed. 185. O. that; Gg.
ther; rest otnit. Gg. Ff. I-now ; O. I-nowe ; F. joiowh. 188. Ff.
That swommen ; Harl. That swommyn ; Gg. That swemyn ; Trin. That
swymen ; Cx. O. That sw)'mmen; F. And swymm}'nge. 192. F.
That ; Gg. Ff. So {error for Som) ; rest Som, Some, Somwe. 193.
Gg. gunne; F. gunnen ; rest gan, cane. 196. Cx. Squerels ; F.
Squerel ; rest Squyrelis (SquyrelbV, Squerellis).
V. THE PA RLE ME NT OF FOULES. 8l
Of instruments of strenges in acorde
Herde I so pleye a ravisshing swetnesse,
That god, that maker is of al and lord,
Ne herde never better, as I gesse ; ioo
Therwith a wind, unnethe hit might be lesse,
Made in the leves grene a noise softe ^
Acordant to the foules songe on-lofle.
The air of that place so attempre was
That never was grevaunce of hoot ne cold ; io\
Ther wex eek every holsom spyce and gras,
Ne no man may ther wexe seek ne old;
Yet was ther loye more a thousand fold
Then man can telle ; ne never wolde it nighte,
But ay cleer day to any mannes sighte. 210
Under a tree, besyde a welle, I say
Cupyde our lord his arwes forge and fyle;
And at his feet his bowe al redy lay,
And wel his doghter tempred al the whyle
The hedes in the welle, and with hir wyle 215
She couched hem after as they shuld serve,
Som for to slee, and som to wounde and kerve,
rr^l T r Til VijL/Jt'Af . ,
Iho was 1 war 01 rlesaunce anon-nght,
And of Aray, and Lust, and Curtesye ;
And of the Craft that can and hath the might 220
To doon by force a wight to do folye —
Disfigurat was she, I nil not lye ;
197. F. Cx. On; rest 0{. Gg. Cx. O. strengis ; Trin. stryngys; Y.
strynge wrongly^. 198. F. om. so ; rest have it. F. and {/or a,
wrongly) ; Ff. om. ; rest a. 201. F. om. be ; rest have it. 203.
(jg. bryddis; rest foules. 205. F. ther of; rest of. 206. Gg. wcx ;
Ff. waxed ; F. growen; rest \/3i.i{ error for v/ex). 207. Trin. Cx. Harl.
Ne ; rest otnit. 208. F. more loye ; r^j/ loye more. 209. F. No ;
rest Then {or Than". F. om. ne ; rest except Ff.~) retain it. Trin. was
(for \vo\de^. 214. Gg. wel ; F. O. willc ; Cx. Trin. wylle ; Harl.
whilk': Ff. whiele. 215. Gg. «;/</ rt'^/ hire hir, hyr' ; F. hardc. F.
fyle : Trin. vyle {for fyle) ; Harl. wyel ; rest wile. 216. F. sliul ; rest
shuld, shulde. 217. Y.om.ior. 221. O. doon by force ; Trin. Cx.
do by force ; Harl. done be force ; Gg. don be fore \sic^ ; F. goo before.
222. F. Disfigured. Gg. Harl. nyl; Cx. Trin. Ff wil ; O. wolk; F. shal.
8a V. THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES.
And by him-self, under an oke, I gesse,
Sawe I Delyt, that stood with Gentilnesse.
I saw Beaute, withouten any atyre, 225
And Youthe, ful of game and lolyte,
Fool-hardinesse, Flatery, and Desyre,
Messagerye, and Mede, and other three —
Her names shul noght here be told for me —
And upon pilers grete of lasper longe 230
I saw a temple of bras y-founded stronge.
Aboute the temple daunceden alway
Wommen y-now, of whiche somme ther were
Faire of hem-self, and somme of hem were gay ;
In kirtels, al disshevele, wente they there — 235
That \vas her office alwey, yeer by yere —
And on the temple, of doves whyte and faire
Saw I sittinge many a hundred paire.
Before the temple-dore ful soberly
Dame Pees sat, with a curteyn in her bond; J40
And her besyde, wonder discretly.
Dame Pacience sitting ther I fond
With face pale, upon an hille of sond;
And alder-next, within and eek with-oute.
Behest and Art, and of her folke a route. 245
Within the temple, of syghes bote' as fyre
I herde a swogh that gan aboute renne ;
Which syghes were engendred with desyre,
225. Gg. saw; F. sawgh. Gg. with outyn ; Cx. Ff. with outen ; F.
with oute. 228. F. Ff. Trin. omit 1st and. 229. F. Ff. Trin. omit
here. 230. F. pelers ; r^j/ pilers (pileris, pylors). 231. F. sawgh.
F. glas ; rest (except Ff.) bras or brasse. Gg. Harl. O. I-foundet ;
Trin. enfoundyd ; F. founded. 232. Gg. daunsedyw ; F. daunced.
233. F. O. o/n. ther. 234. F. om. were; rest retain. 236. Gg. jer
be 3eere; Trin. Cx. Harl. yere by yere; F. fro yere to yere. 237. Trin.
O. of douys ; Gg. of dowis ; Cx. of duues ; Harl. of dofes ; Ff. of dowfs ;
F. saugh I (sic). 238. F. Of dowves white (j-Zr' ; Ff. Saw I sitte ; rest
Saw I syttynge. Trin. Cx. Harl. O. thousand {for hundredi. 240. F.
o/n. Vfiih.. 241. Gg. and rest hy hire syA^Qor htv hesydt). 244.
F. om. eek; rest retain. 246. Gg. sykys. 248. Gg. sikis.
V. THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES. 83
That maden every auter for to brenne
Of newe flaume ; and wel aspyed I thenne 230
That al the cause of sorwes that they drye
Com of the bitter goddesse lalousye.
The god Priapus saw I, as I wente,
Within the temple, in soverayn place stonde,
In swich aray as whan the asse him shente 255
Wkh crye by night, and with his ceptre in honde ;
Ful besily men gunne assaye and fonde
Upon his hede to sette, of sondry hewe,
Garlondes ful of fresshe floures newe.
And in a prive corner, in disporte, " 260
Fond I Venus and her porter Richesse,
That was ful noble and hauteyn of her porte ;
Derk was that place, but afterward lightnesse
I saw a lyte, unnethe hit might be lesse,
And on a bed of golde she lay to reste, 265
Til that the bote sonne gan to weste.
Her gilte heres with a golden threde
Y-bounden were, untressed as she lay.
And naked fro the breste unto the hede
Men might her see ; and, sothly for to say, 270
The femenant wel kevered to my pay ^<-'- '^' •
Right with a subtil kerchef of Valence,
There was no thikker cloth of no defence.
2 -JO. Trin. Cx. flame. F. om. wel ; rest retain it. 252. Gg. Cam ;
O. Com; F. Come; Cx. Comen; Trin. Harl. Ff. Cometh. Gg. Trin.
Cx. goddesse; Harl. goddes {\. t. goddess) ; F. O. goddys. 253.
F. sawgh. 255. Gg. swich; F. suche. 256. Trin. Cx. by;
rest be. 260. Gg. priuc ; F. prevy. 264. F. saugh. 267.
^j?- goldene ; Ff. golden ; F. and rest golde or gold. 271. Cx. wel
couerd ; Harl. wel couercd ; Gg. was wel keuerede ; Trin. was welk'
coucryd ; F. keuercd wel. 272. Harl. Trin. Ff. sotil. Trin.
O. kerchyff; F. keuerchefe ; Gg. couerchief; Cx. couerchef. 273.
C;g. nas {for was). Gg. Harl. alone insert 2nd no {btit it is wanted).
G 2
84 y. THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES.
The place yaf a thousand savours swote,
And Bachus, god of wyn, sat her besyde, 275
And Ceres next, tliat doth of hunger bote;
And, as I seide, amiddes lay Cipryde,
To whom on knees two yonge folkes cryde
To ben her help; but thus I lete her lye,
And ferther in the temple I gan espye 280
That, in dispyte of Diane the chaste,
Ful many a bowe y-broke heng on the wal i/-
Of maydens, suche as gunne her tymes waste
In her servyse ; and peynted over al
Of many a story, of which I touche shal 285
A fewe, as of Calixte and Athalaunte,
And many a mayde, of which the name I wante ;
,Semyramus, Candace, and Ercules,
Biblis, Dido, Tisbe and Piramus,
_^ Tristram, Isoude, Paris, and Achilles, 290
Eleyne, .Cleopatre, and Troilus,
Silla, and eek the moder of Romulus —
Alle these were peynted on that other syde,
And al her love, and in what plyte they dyde.
Whan I was come ayen into the place 295
That I of spak, that was so swote and grene,
Forth welk I tho, my-selven to solace.
Tho was I war wher that ther sat a quene
That, as of liffht the somer-sonne shene
Passeth the sterre, right so ouer mesure 300
She fairer was than any creature. *
275. Trin. Cx. Bachus; rest Bacus. Gg. wyn; F. wyne. 277. Y
Gg. Harl. Cipride 'jightly) ; the rest Cupide , !i ; see 1. 279. 27S
Gg. Cx. O. two ; Ff. to ; F. the ; Trin. Harl. om. Gg. O. Ff. folk ther
\for folkes). 283. Gg. Harl. gunne; F. gonne ; rest gan, can
2S5. Gg. Cx. Ful {for Of . 28S. Cx. O. Semiramis; Ff Semiriarais
rest Semiramus \,as in Leg. Good Women, Tisbe, 1. 2 . Gg. Hercules
289. Trin. Harl. Tysbe ; F. Cx. Tesbe ; Gg. Thisbe. 295. F. Cx
comen; rest come. F. Ff. that; resl\}a.t. 29S. Gg. that; which rest
07nit {though zvanted).
V. THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES. S-'
And in a laundc, upon an hille of floures,
Was set this noble goddesse Nature ;
Of braunches were her halles and her boures,
Y-\vrought after her craft and her mesure ; 305
Ne ther nas foul that cometh of engendrure,
That they ne were prest in her presence, .
To take her dome and yeve her audience.
For this was on seynt Valentynes day,
Whan every, foul cometh ther to chese his make, 310
Of every kynde, that men thenke may;
And that so huge a noyse gan they make,
That erthe and see, and tree, and every lake
So ful was, that unnethe was ther space
For me to stonde, so ful was al the place. 315
And right as Aleyn, in the Pleynt of Kynde,
Devyseth Nature of aray and face.
In swich aray men mighten her ther fynde.
This noble emperesse, ful of grace.
Bad every foul to take his owne place, 320
As they were wont alwey fro yeer to yere,
Seynt ^"alentynes day, to stonden there.
That is to sey, the foules of ravyne
Were hyest set; and than the foules smale.
That eten as hem nature wolde enclync, 325
As worm, or thing of whiche I telle no tale ;
But water-foul sat lowest in. the dale;
303. F. O. wrongly insert oi before Nature. 307. Gg. Trin. Cx. Ff.
they; F. Harl. O. there. After were f dissyllabic) Gg. inserts al ; 7tced-
lessly. 310. Gg. bryd {for foul); Cx. birde. 311. F. On; rest Of.
Ff. thenke; rest thynke not so well). 313. Gg. Ff. eyr {for see'.
316. F. Ahiyne; Trin. Alen ; ;-rj/ Aleyn. 317. (^^.\n for o{\ All
but Gg. Ff. needlessly insert suche before aray '^caught from line bclcw).
318. Gg. swich; F. suche. MSS. myghte, myght; but read mighten.
320. Gg. Ff. his; rest her, hir "wrongly). Cx. owen ; Gg. owene ; rest
owne. 325. Gg. Cx. hem; Ff. them; rest \\\aX.. 327. Trin. vale
v/<?r dale).
86 F. THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES.
And foul that liveth by seed sat on the grene,
And that so fele, that wonder was to sene.
Ther mighte men the royal egle fynde, 3;^o
That with his sharpe look perceth the sonne ;
And other egles of a lower kynde,
Of which that clerkes wel devysen conne.
There was the tyraunt with his fethres donne
And greye, I mene the goshauk that doth pyne 335
To briddes for his outrageous ravyne.
^Vti--'
The gentil faucon, that with his feet distreyneth
The kinges hond; the hardy sperhauk eke,
The quayles foo ; the merlion that peyneth
Him-self ful ofte, the larke for to seke; 340
Ther was the douve, with her eyen meke;
The lalous swan, ayens his deth that singeth;
The oule eek, that of dethe the bode bringeth;
The crane the geaunt, with his trompes soune;
The theef, the chogh ; and eek the langling pye ; 345
The scorning lay ; the eles foo, the heroune ;
The false lapwing, ful of trecherye ;
The stare, that the counseyl can bewrye ;
The tame ruddok; and the coward kyte;
The cok, that orloge is of thorpes lyte ; 350
The sparow, Venus sone; the nightingale.
That clepeth forth the fresshe leves newe ;
The swalow, mordrer of the bees smale
330. Gg. ryal; Cx. Harl. O. rial. 338. F. i>w. hardy. All tka
{for eek) ; exceptionally. 343. Trin. bood ; Cx. bodword ; rest bode
{dissyllabic'^). 344. Gg. Ff. otn. the. 345. Trin. chowgh; F.
choghe ; Cx. choughe ; Harl. chowhe ; Gg. O. Ff. crow {wrongly .
346. Harl. Ff. eles; Gg. O. elis; Trin. elys; F. Cx. egles (!). Trin.
Harl. O. insert the before heroun ; rest omit. 347. Gg. false ; F.
fals. Trin. Cx. lapwynk ; O. lappewynk. 348. Gg. starlyng ; rest
stare. Gg. bewreye [but note the rime). 349. Gg. rodok. 350.
Gg. orloge ; F. orlogge. Gg. thorpis; F. thropes. 352. Gg. Cx.
Ff. grene {for fresshe). 353. bees must be right ; bta there is no
authority for it except that of the Hack-letter editions ; thus ed. 156 1
//a^ Bees. Most li\^?>. have io-alfs,; Trin. flyes; Ff. bryddis.
V. THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES. 87
That niaken hony of floures fresshe of hewc ;
The wedded turtel, with her herte trewe ; 355
I'he pecok, with his aungels fethers bright ;
The fesaunt, scorner of the cok by night;
The waker goos; the cukkow ever unkynde;
The popiniay, ful of deHcasye;
The drake, stroyer of his owne kynde ; 360
The stork, the wreker of avouterye ;
The hote conneraunt of glotonye;
The raven wys, the crow with voice of care ;
The throstcl okie ; the frosty feldefare.
What shulde I seyn? of foules every kynde 365
That in this worlde han fethers and stature,
IMen mighten in that place assembled fynde
Before the noble goddesse Nature.
And everich of hem did his besy cure
Benygnely to chese or for to take, 370
By her acorde, his formal or his make.
But to the poynt — Nature held on her honde
A formel egle, of shap the gentileste
That ever she among her werkes fondc.
The most benigne and the goodlieste ; 375
In her was every vertu at his reste,
So ferforth, that Nature her-self had blisse
To loke on her, and ofte her bek to kisse.
Nature, the vicaire of thalmyghty lorde,
That hoot, cold, hevy, light, [and] moist and dreye 380
355. F. his; <d.om.; r^^/ hire, hir, her. 356. Gg. clothis Cyi>;-
fethers). 357. F. be (yj^r by). 359. F. papiay; Gg. popvTiiay.
361. F. Cx. Ff. o»i. the. 363. Gg. The rauen wys, the crowe wit
voice of care; Ff. savie {omitting viy%\ ; F. and rest The rauenes and
the Crowes with her voys of care ibadly^. 367. Gg. myghtyn ; F
myghte. 368. F. that ; Ff. this ; Harl. om. ; rest the. All but Gg
Ff. ins. oi bef. Nature. 369. Gg. eueriche; F. eche baJly). 370
Gg. Benygnely ; F. Benyngly iV/c). 374. iond.(t is pt. t. subjunctive
375- (Jg. Gx. the {after and) ; Ff. moste; rest otn. 378. Gg. bek; F
beke. 379. Ff. vicairt ; F. vyker. 380. / /«jt';-/ and a/?tfr light.
Gg. Cx. dreye ; rest drye.
88 V. THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES.
Hath knit by even noumbrc of acorde,
In esy vois began to speke and seye,
' Foules, tak hede of my sentence, I preye,
And, for your ese, in furthering of your nede.
As faste as I may speke, I wol me spede. 385
Ye know wel how, seynt Valentynes day,
By my statute and through my gouernaunce,
Ye come for to chese — and flee your way —
Your makes, as I prik yow with plesaunce.
But natheles, my rightful ordenaunce 390
May I not lete, for al this world to winne,
That he that most is worthy shal beginne.
The tercel egle, as that ye knowen wel.
The foul royal above yow in degree,
The wyse and worthy, secre, trewe as stel, 395
The which I formed have, as ye may see,
In every part as hit best lyketh me,
Hit nedeth noght his shap yow to devyse, ^ ■ .-0
He shal first chese and speken in his gyse.
And after him, by order shul ye chese, 400
After your kynde, everich as yow lyketh,
And, as your hap is, shul ye winne or lese ;
But which of yow that love most entryketh,
God sende him her that sorest for him sykelh.'
And therewith-al the tercel gan she calle, 405
And seyde, 'my sone, the choys is to the falle.
But natheles, in this condicioun
]\Iot be the choys of everich that is here,
That she agree to his eleccioun,
*&'
3S1. Trin. Cx. by; F. be; Gg. with. 383. Cx. Ff. kepe \^for
hede). 384. Gg. ese ; F. ease. 385. Gg. \i. 5ow; Cx. you f^for
me). 386. F. Cx. Harl. insert that after how. 387. Gg. By ; F.
Be. 389. F. Trin. Cx. Harl. O. insert With before Your ; Gg. Ff.
rightly omit. 390. Gg. Cx. Ff. ordenaunce; rest gouernaunce [^see 1.
?>'^1)- 391- F- Irin- Harl. O. let (i. e. let go) ; Gg. breke ; Fl. suffre ;
Cx. lette. 393. Gg. terslet ^^for tercel. Gg. wel; F. wele. 394.
(ig. ryal. 395. Gg. stel ; F. stele. 396. .(^// have formed.
V. THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES. 89
Who-so he be that shulde ben her fere; 410
This is our usage alwey, fro yeer to yere ;
And who so may at this time have his grace,
In blisful tyme he com in-to tliis place.'
With hed enclyned and with ful humble chere
This royal tercel spak and taried nought; 415
' Unto my sovereyn lady, and noght my fere,
I chcsc, and chese with wille and herte and thought,
The formel on your bond so wel y-wrought,
Whos I am al and ever wol her serve,
Do what her list, to do me live or sterve. 4^0
Beseching her of mercy and of grace,
As she that is my lady sovereyne;
Or let me dye present in this place.
For certes, long may I not live in peyne ;
For in myn herte is corven every veyne; 425
Having reward only to my trouthe,
My dere herte, have on my wo som routhe.
And if that I to her be founde untrewe,
Disobeysaunt, or wilful negligent,
Avauntour, or in proces love a newe, 430
I pray to you this be my lugement.
That with these foules I be al to-rent,
That ilke day that ever she me fynde
To her untrewe, or in my gilte unkynde.
And sin that noon loveth her so wel as I, 435
Al be she never of love me behette.
Than oghte she be myn thourgh her mercy,
For other bond can I noon on her knette.
For never, for no wo, nc shal I lette
411. Cx. yere by yere {for fro yeer to yere). 413. Gg. cam. 414.
Gg. O. Ff. ^/«. ful ; rest retain. 415. Trin. Royalk ; F. real ; Gg.
ryal. 424. Gg. I m.ay. 426. Read z\-on\\'i 428. Gg. And if
that I to hyre be founde ; F. And yf I be founde to hir. 436. K.
As though ; rest Al be. 43S. F. knette ; Gg. areete ; rest knytte,
knyt. 439. Gg. Cx. O. Ne (for For).
90 F. THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES.
To serven her, how fer so that she wende ; 440
Sey what yow Hst, my tale is at an ende.'
Right as the fresshe, rede rose newe
Ayen the somer-sonne coloured is,
Right so for shame al wexen gan the hewe
Of this formal, whan she herde al this ; 445
She neyther answerde ' wel,' ne seyde amis,
So sore abasshed was she, til that Nature
Seyde, 'doghter, drede yow noght, I yow assure.'
Another tercel egle spak anoon
Of lower kynde, and seyde, ' that shal not be ; 450
I love her bet than ye do, by seynt lohn.
Or atte leste I love her as wel as ye ;
And lenger have served her, in my degre,
And if she shulde have loved for long loving,
To me allone had ben the guerdoning. 455
I dar eek seye, if she me fjnde fals,
Unkynde, Tangier, or rebel any wyse,
Or lalous, do me hongen by the hals !
And but I here me in her servyse
As wel as that my wit can me suffyse, 460
Fro poynt to poynt, her honour for to save,
Tak she my lyf, and al the good I have.'
The thridde tercel egle answerde tho,
' Now, sirs, ye seen the litel leyser here ;
For every foul cryeth out to ben a-go 465
Forth with his make, or with his lady dere ;
And eek Nature her-self ne wol nought here,
For tarying here, noght half that I wolde seye ;
And but I speke, I mot for sorwe deye.
445. So all. Read whan that she ? 446. Gg. She neythir ; Cx. O.
Ff. She neyther ; F. Trin. Neyther she. 450. Gg. O. Ff. shal ; rest
shnlde, shuld. 460. Gg. that ; rest omit. ^62. Gg. the; Trin.
Harl. ye; rest she. 463. Gg. thredde ; Trin. Ff. thryd ; F. thirdde.
V. THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES. 9 1
Of long servyse avaunte I me no-thing, 470
But as possible is me to dye to-day
For wo, as he that hath ben languisshing
Thise twenty winter, and wel happen may
A man may serven bet and more to pay
In half a yere, al-though it were no more, 475
Than som man doth that hath served ful yore.
I ne say not this by me, for I ne can
Do no servyse that may my lady plese ;
But I dar seyn, I am her trewest man
As to my dome, and faynest wolde her plese; 480
At shorte wordes, til that deth me sese,
I wol ben hires, whether I wake or winke.
And trewe in al that herte may bethinke.'
Of al my lyf, sin that day I was born,
So gentil plee in love or other thing 485
Ne herde never no man me beforn,
Who-so that hadde leyser and cunning
For to reherse her chere and her speking;
And from the morwe gan this speche laste
Til dounward drow the sonne wonder faste. 490
The noyse of foules for to ben delivered
So loude rong, ' have doon and let us wende ! '
That wel wende 1 the wode had al to-shivered.
'Come of!' they cryde, 'alias! ye wil us shende !
Whan shal your cursed pleding have an ende .'' 495
How shulde a luge eyther party leve,
For yee or nay, with-outen any preve .'' '
4/3- ^g- y^er and as .for winter and). 479. Gg. seyn ; F. say.
481. Gg. shorte; F. short. 482. Ff. hyres ; Gg. hcris ; Cx. heeris ;
Harl. hirres; F. hirse ( ! ) ; Trin. hyrs; O. hirs. 487. Gg. hadde ;
I' . had. 4S8. F. reherscn ; rest reherse (reherce). 490. Gg. drow ;
C.X. wente; rest want {baJly). 494. C.\. Harl. wil; F. wol. 495.
Gg. pletynge; Trin. Cx. Harl. pletyng.
9'2 V. THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES.
The goos, the cokkow, and the doke also
So cryden ' kek, kek ! ' ' kukkow ! ' ' quek, quek ! ' hye,
That thorgh myn eres the noyse wente tho. 500
The goos seyde, ' al this nis not worth a flye !
But I can shap hereof a remedye,
And I vvol sey my verdit faire and swythe
For water-foul, who-so be wroth or blythe.'
' And I for worm-foul,' seyde the fool cukkow, 505
' For I wol, of myn own auctorite.
For comune spede, take the charge now,
For to delivere us is gret charite.'
' Ye may abyde a whyle yet, parde ! '
Seide the turtel, ' if it be your wille 510
A wight may speke, him were as good be stille.
I am a seed-foul, oon the unworthieste.
That wot I wel, and litel of kunninge,
But bet is that a wightes longe reste
Than entremeten him of such doinge 515
Of which he neyther rede can nor singe.
And who-so doth, ful foule himself acloyeth.
For office uncommitted ofte anoyeth.'
Nature, which that alway had an ere
To murmour of the lewednesse behynde, 520
With facound voys seide, ' hold your tonges there !
And I shal sone, I hope, a counseyl fynde
You to delivere, and fro this noyse unbynde ;
498. So Gg. ; rest The goos, the duk, and the cukkowe also {wjvftgly :
see next line). 501. Y . seyde tho ; rest ot?iit tho. Gg. Ff. nys not ;
Trin. O. ys nat; Cx. is not; Y . omits not. 503. Gg. Cx. I; rest oni.
507. Gg. O. profit ; rest spede. Trin. For comon spede, take the
charge now. F. Cx. Harl. O. ins. on me bef. the ; Ff. iiis. vpon me.
Gg. tak on no \^.) for take the. 510. Trin. Seyde; Cx. Said; rest
Quod. 511. F. good ; Cx. better (y^^r as good) ; rest {■ivjr. 514.
Gg. bet; ;iej^ better. 515. Gg. entirmetyw ; F. entremete. 517.
All but Gg. Cx. ins. hyt (it, yt) bef. doth. 518. Ff. vnco;«maundet ;
O. vnconveyid ; Gg. onquit (!) ; rt'5/ vncommytted. 520. Qg. otn.
behynde; Trin. Harl. blynde ; Cx. by kpide ; ;t'j/ byhynde. 523.
F. O. Ff. for to i^for to). F. delyueren ; rest delynere (deliver). F.
Gg. Harl. from ; rest fro.
V. THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES. 93
I luge, of every folk men shal oon callc
To seyn the verdit for you foules alle.' 525
Assented were to this conclusion
The briddes alle; and foules of ravyne
Han chosen first, by pleyn eleccion,
The tercelet of the faucon, to diffyne
Al her sentence, and as liim list termyne ; 530
And to Nature him gonnen to presente,
And she accepteth him with glad entente.
The tercelet seide than in this manere :
' Ful harde were it to preve hit by resoun
Who loveth best this gentil formel here ; 535
For everich hath swich replicacioun,
That noon by skilles may be broght a-doun ;
I can not seen that arguments avayle;
Than semeth it ther moste be batayle.'
' Al redy!' quod these egles tercels tho. 540
•■ Nay, sirs ! ' quod he, ' if that I dorste it seye,
Ye doon me wrong, my tale is not y-do !
For sirs, ne taketh noght a-gref, I preye,
It may noght gon as ye wolde in this weye ;
Our is the voys that han the charge in honde, 545
And to the luges dome ye moten stonde ;
And therfor pees ! I seye, as to my wit,
Me wolde thinke how that the worthieste
Of knighthode, and lengest hath used it,
Moste of estat, of blode the gentileste, 550
Were sittingest for her, if that her leste ;
}^i\. Cx. charge {for luge). 527. Most MSS. insert the before
foules ; ■which Gg. and the Longleat MS. omit. 530. All but Cx. Ff.
ins . \.o after Xmi. 534. Trin. preue ; Gg. proue ; F. proven. 536.
( ig. swich ; Y. suche. 537. Gg. non by skillis ; Y . and rest by
skilles may non \badly). 540. Cx. terselis egles. 543. Gg. ne ;
rest omit. e^. F. om. gon. 545. Gg. Cx. Cure ; rest Oures, Ours.
549. Gg. O. hath ; ?v.f/ had. 551. Gg. sittyngcst ; /-t?i^/ siltynge.
94 ^- THE PA RLE ME NT OF FOULES.
And of these three she wot her-self, I trowe,
Which that he be, for hit is light to knowe.'
The water-foules han her hedes leyd
Togeder, and of short avysement, 555
Whan everich had his large golee seyde,
They seyden sothly, al by oon assent,
How that ' the goos, with her facounde gent,
That so desyreth to pronounce our nede,
Shal telle our tale,' and preyde ' god her spede.' 560
And for these water-foules tho began
The goos to speke, and in her cakelinge
She seyde, ' pees ! now tak kepe every man,
And herkeneth which a reson I shal bringe ;
My wit is sharp, I love no taryinge; 565
I seye, I rede him, though he were my brother,
But she wol love him, lat him love another ! '
'Lo here! a parfit reson of a goos!'
Quod the sperhauk ; ' never mot she thee !
Lo, swich it is to have a tonge loos! 570
Now parde, fool, yet were it bet for the
Have holde thy pees, than shewed thy nycete !
It lyth not in his wit nor in his wille.
But soth is seyd, "a fool can noght be stille.'"
The laughter aroos of gentil foules alle, 575
And right anoon the seed-foul chosen hadde
The turtel trewe, and gan her to hem calle,
And preyden her to seye the sothe sadde
Of this matere, and asked what she radde;
.r53. Cx. Harl. ethe f/7r light). 556. Gg. O. gole ; F. goler; Cx.
golye ; Ff. golee; Trin. Harl. wylk. 558. Gg. facounde so; Ff.
facounde ; Cx. faconde ; F. faucond. 560. F. Cx. Ff needlessly insert
to after preyd-e. 564. All bttt Gg. insert forth before hringe. 569.
For Quod read Seyde? 570. Gg. sich (^for swich); F. suche.
575. F. laughtre. 576. F. Harl. Ff foules; Trin. fowle; Cx. fowl;
b.Voule; Gg. ful (!).
V. rilE PA RLE ME NT OF FOULES. 95
And she answerde, that pleynly her entente 580
She wolde shewe, and soihly what she mente.
' Nay, god forbcde a lover shulde chaunge ! '
The lurtel seyde, and wex for shame al reed ;
'Thogh that his lady ever-more be straunge,
Yet let him serve her ever, til he be deed ; 5S5
For sothe, I preyse noght the gooses reed ;
For thogh she deyed, I wolde noon other make,
I wol ben hires, til that the deth me take.
' Wei bourded ! ' quod the doke, ' by my hat !
That men shulde ahvey loven, causeles, 590
Who can a reson fynde or wit in that?
Daunceth he mury that is myrtheles?
Who shulde recche of that is reccheles ?
Ye, quek ! ' yit quod the doke, ful wel and faire,
' There ben mo sterres, god wot, tlian a paire ! ' 595
* Now fy, cherl ! ' quod the gentil tercelet,
' Out of the dunghill com that word ful right,
Thou canst noght see which thing is wel be-set :
Thou farest by love as oules doon by light.
The day hem blent, ful wel they see by night ; 600
Thy kynd is of so lowe a wrechednesse,
That what love is, thou canst nat see ne gesse.'
Tho gan the cukkow putte him forth in prees
For foul that eteth worm, and seide blyve,^ '^
' So I,' quod he, ' may have my make in pees, 605
I recche not how longe that ye stryve;
Lat cch of hem be soleyn al her lyve.
This is my reed, sin they may not acordc;
This shorte lesson nedeth noght recorde.'
5S8. Harl. hires; Gg. hire; Cx. hers; rest hirs. Trin. Harl. om.
that {^perhaps rightly). 589. Gg. Cx. Ff. doke ; Y. duk. 590. F.
Ff. shulden. 592. F. Gg. murye; rest mery. 594. Gg. O. yit ;
Ff. yet ; rest om. 599. Gg. by ; Y. be {\st time). 602. Gg. nat ;
1*". neyther. 603. Y. put ; Gg. putte. 606. Cx. Ff. recche ; F. Gg.
1 larl. reche ; Trin. O. rek.
9<5 V. THE rARLEMENT OF FOULES.
' Ye ! have the glotoun fild ynogh his paunche, 610
Than are we wel ! ' seyde the merlioun ;
' Thou mordrer of the heysugge on the braunche
That broghte the forth, thou rewthelees glotoun !
Live thou soleyn, wormes corrupcioun !
For no fors is of lakke of thy nature; 615
Go, lewed be thou, whyl the world may dure ! '
' Novv pees,' quod Nature, ' I comaunde here ;
For I have herd al youre opinioun,
And in effect yet be we never the nere ;
But fynally, this is my conclusioun, 620
That she her-self shal han the eleccioun
Of whom her list, who-so be wroth or blythe.
Him that she cheest, he shal her have as swythe.
For sith hit may not here discussed be
Who loveth her best, as seide the tercelet, 6^5
Than wol I doon her this favour, that she
Shal have right him on whom her herte is set,
And he her that his herte hath on her knet.
This luge I, Nature, for I may not lye ;
To noon estat I have noon other ye. 630
But as for counseyl for to chase a make,
If hit were reson, certes, than wolde I
Counseyle yow the royal tercel take.
As seide the tercelet ful skilfully,
As for the gentilest and most worthy, 635
Which I have wroght so wel to my plesaunce ;
That to yow oghte to ben a suffisaunce.'
611. Gg. Merlioun; Trin. O. Merlyon ; Cx. merlion ; F. Ff. Emer-
Ivon. 612. F. <7W. 15/ the. Harl. heysugge ; O. heysugg; Cx. heysug;
"Ff. haysugge; F. haysogge; Gg. heysoge ; Trin. heysoke. 613. Gg.
reufulles (!), ^rr^^r^^r rewtheles ; r^.f/ rewful (!). 621. Gg. han ; rest
haue. Gg. Cx. the; rest hir, hyr. 623. F. cheest ; Gg. chesith ;
Trin. cheseth; Harl. chesithe. F. han hir; Gg. hire han ; Trin. hyr
hafe; Cx. Harl. Ff. her haue. 626. Gg. hire this fauour; Trin. Harl.
to hyr thys fauour ; F. and rest thys fauour to hir. 630. Ff. ye ;
Harl. yee; Trin. ey ; rest eye. 632. F. Gg. I (/^r hit). Gg. certis ;
rest omit. 637. All but Gg. Cx. insert hit {or it) after That or yow.
r. THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES. 97
With dredful vols the formel her answerde,
' My rightful lady, goddesse of Nature,
Solh is that I am ever under your yerde,' " 640
Lvk as is everiche other creature,
* And moot be youres whyl my lyf may dure ;
And therfor graunteth me my firste bone,
And myn entente I wol yow sey right sone.'
' I graunte it you,' quod she ; and right anoon 645
This formel egle spak in this degre,
' Almighty queue, unto this yeer be doon
I aske respit for to avysen me.
And after that to have my choys al fre ;
This al and som, that I wolde speke and seye ; 650
Ye gete no more, al-though ye do me deye.
I wol noght serven Venus ne Cupyde
For sothe as yet, by no manere wey.'
' Now sin it may non other wyse betyde,'
Quod tho Nature, ' here is no more to sey ; 655
Than wolde I that these foules were a-wey
Ech with his make, for tarying lenger here ' —
And seyde hem thus, as ye shul after here.
' To you speke I, ye tercelets,' quod Nature,
' Beth of good herte and serveth, alle thre ; 660
A yeer is not so longe to endure,
And ech of yow peyne him, in his degre,
For to do wel; for, God wot, quit is she
Fro yow this yeer ; what after so befalle.
This entremes is dressed for you alle.* 665
641. Gg. As is a-nothir lyuis creature. O. alojic ins. Like bef. As.
642. Gg. mot; rest moste (musteV 643. Gg. grauwtyth; rest
graunte, graunt {badly). 644. Trin. C.x. Harl. I wyll yow ; O. 1
woll 5ewe ; F. Ff. yow wol I. 652. F. Cipride; Harl. Cypride ;
Ff. Sypryde; rest Cupide ((/. 11. 212, 277). 654. F. other weyes ;
Cx. other wayes; O. othir wey {perhaps best); Gg. othirwise ; Fl".
other-wyse ; Trin. Harl. other {sic). 655. Gg. Harl. tho ; rest om.
659. F. terccletys: ?rar/ tercelets. 660. F. al ; Gg. alle. O65. F.
O. entremesse; Ff. entremeese; Gg. entyrmcs ; Harl. cntennes.
H
98 V. THE PARLE ME NT OF FOULES.
And whan this werk al broght was to an ende,
To every foule Nature yaf his make
By even acorde, and on her wey they wende.
A ! lord ! the bhsse and loye that they make !
For eche of hem gan other in winges take, 670
And with her nekkes ech gan other wynde,
Thanking alwey the noble goddesse of kynde.
But first were chosen foules for to singe,
As yeer by yere was alwey her usaunce
To singe a roundel at her departing^, 675
To do Nature honour and plesaunce.
The note, I trowe, maked was in Fraunce ;
The wordes wer swich as ye may heer fynde,
The nexte vers, as I now have in mynde.
Qui bicn ai?ne a tard oublie.
' Now welcom somer, with thy sonne softe, 6S0
That hast this wintres weders over-shake,
And driven awey the longe nightes blake !
Seynt Valentyn, that art ful hy on-lofte ; —
Thus singen smale foules for thy sake —
Now welcom somer, with thy sonne softe, 685
That hast this wintres weders over-shake.
Wei han they cause for to gladen ofte,
Sith ech of hem recovered hath his make ;
Ful blisful may they singen whan they wake :
666. F. wroght ; rest brought, broght, browte. 669. F. A ; Gg.
But; rest And. Gg. loye; F. Icy. 672. Gg. Thankynge ; F.
Thonkyng. Gg. queen ; rest goddesse, goddes. 678. Gg. sweche
{^for swiche) ; F. suche. Qui; miswritten Que in F. Cx. ; Qe in Trin. ;
the rest omit it. ai?iie\ F. ayme. tard; F. tarde. Lines 680-692 only
occur in Gg. and Digby 181 ; also lines 683, 684, 687-9 in O. L follotv
Digby 181 mainly. 680. Digb. Nowe welcome. 681. Gg. wintres
wedres ; Digb. wynter wedirs. 682. Gg. And; Digb. Hast. Digb.
(Irevyn ; Gg. dreuyne. Digb. nyghtis ; Gg. nyghtes. 684. Digb.
syngen; Fowlis. 687. Gg. O. Wele. 688. Gg. O. hem; Digb.
them. 6S9. Digb. Fulk blisfully they synge and endles ioy thei make
{wrongly') ; Gg. Ful blisseful mowe they ben when they wake ; O. Ful
blesfuU may they s}a:ge when they wake (^rightly).
y. THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES. 99
Now tvelcom somer, wiih thy sonne sofie, 690
That hast this wintres weders over-shake,
And driven atvey the longe nightes blake.'
And with the showting, whan her song was do,
That foules maden at her flight a-way,
I wook, and other bokes took me to 695
To rede upon, and yet I rede alway ;
I hope, y-wis, to rede so som day
That I shal mete som thyng for to fare
The bet; and thus to rede I nil not spare. 699
Explicit tractatus de congregacione Volucriim
die sancti Valentini.
693. F. showtjTige ; hir. 694. Gg. mady;; ; Ff. maden ; F. made.
698. Trin. fynde {for mete). 699. Ff. nyl ; Gg. nele ; F. O. wol ;
Trin. wylk ; Cx. wil.
Colophon. So in F; Gg. has — Explicit parliamentum Auium in
die sancti Valentini tentum, secimdum Galfiidum Chaucer; Ff. has —
Explicit Parliamentum Auium : MS. Arch. Seld. B. 24 has — Here
endis the parliament of foulis ; Quod (jalfride Chaucere; t/te Longleat
MS. has — Here endith the Parlement of foules.
H 2
VI. MERCILES BEAUTE : A TRIPLE ROUNDEL.
I. Captivity.
Your yen two avoI sle me sodenly,
I may the beaute of hem not sustene,
So woundeth hit through-out my herte kene.
And but your word wol helen hastily
My hertes wounde, whyl that hit is grene, 5
Your yen two cvol sle me sodenly ;
I juay the beaute of hern not sustene.
Upon my trouthe I sey 3'ow feithfully,
That ye ben of my lyf and deth the quene ;
For with my deth the trouthe shal be sene. 10
Your yen two wol sle me sodenly,
I may the beaute of hem not sustene,
So woundeth hit through-out 7ny herte kene.
II. Rejection.
So hath your beaute fro your herte chaced
Pitee, that me ne availeth not to pleyne; 15
P'or Daunger halt your mercy in his cheyne.
Giltles my deth thus han ye me pui-chaced ;
1 sey yow soth, me nedeth not to feyne ;
This excellent text is frojn P. (Pepys 2006, p. 390). / note all va-
riations from the MS.
I. P. Yowr^ two yen; but read Your yen two ; for in 11. 6, 11, the
MS. has Your yen, &c. P. vioWc. 2. P. them ; read hem. 3. P.
wondcth it thorowout (out written in the margin). 4. P. wilk.
5. P. Mi hertis wound while; it. 6, 7. P. Yo?/>- yen &c. 8. P.
trouth. 9. P. lifte. 10. P. trouth. 11-13. P. Yo«r yen, &c.
14. P. yowr^. 15. P. nauailleth ; ple}Ti. 16. P. danger. 18.
P. fayn.
VI. MER GILES BEAUTE. lOI
So hath your beaute fro your hcrie chaced
Pitee, that me ne availelh not to p/tyue, 20
Alias ! that nature hath in yow compassed '
So gret beaute, that no man may atteyne
To mercy, though he sterve for the peyne.
So hath your beaute fro your herte chaced
Pi tee, that me ne availeth not to pleyne ; j^
For daungcr halt your inercy in his cheyjie.
III. Escape.
Sin I fro love escaped am so fat,
I never thenk to ben in his prison lene ;
Sin I am fre, I counte him not a bene.
He may answere, and seye this or that ; . 30
I do no fors, I speke right as I mene.
Sin I fro love escaped am so fat,
I never thenk to ben in his prison lene.
Love hath my name y-strike out of his sclat,
And he is strike out of my bokes clene 35
For ever-mo ; [iher] is non other mene.
Sin I fro love escaped am so fat,
I never thenk to ben in his prison lene ;
Sin I am fre, I counte him not a bene. 39
Explicit.
19, 20. P. So hath yo«r, &c. 21. P. compased. 22. P.
grete ; atteyn. 23. P. peyn. 24-26. P. So hath yo«/- beaute, &c.
28. P. neu£.'/-e. 30. P. answers <& sey. 32, 33. P. Syn I fro lone,
&c. 34. P. Istrike. 36. P. this is \but read ther is). 37-39- f-
Syn I fro loue, &c.
VII. ANELIDA AND ARCITE.
The compleynt of feire Anelida and fals Arcite.
Proem.
Thou ferse god of armes, Mars the rede,
That in the frosty country called Trace,
Within thy grisly temple ful of drede -"^
Honoured art, as patroun of that place !
With thy Bellona, Pallas, ful of grace, 5
Be present, and my song continue and gye X '
At my beginning thus to thee I crye.
For hit ful depe is sonken in my mynde,
With pitous herte in English for tendyte
This olde storie, in Latin which I fynde, 10
Of queue Anelida and fals Arcite,
That elde, which that al can frete and byte,
As hit hath freten mony a noble storie,
Hath nio^h devoured out of our memorie.
'o'
Be favorable eek, thou Polymia, 15
On Parnaso that, with thy sustres glade,
By Elicon, not fer from Cirrea,
Singest with vols memorial in the shade.
Under the laurer which that may not fade,
The chief atithoritics are : Harl. (Harl. 7333'); F. (Fairfax 16); Tn.
(Tanner 346) ; D. (Digby iSi) ; Cx. (Caxton's edition 1 ; B. (Bodley
638) ; Lt. (Longleat MS.)- I follow F. mainly, correcting the spelling ;
and give selected variations. Title from F.; B. has hoke for compleynt.
I. Tn. ferse; F. fers. 3. Harl. D. Cx. temple; r^j-^ temples.
6. F. souge. F. contynew ; D. contynue. F. guye ; Tn. gye. 7.
F. I to the; Harl. Tn. D. to the I. 9. Cx. for tendyte ; Harl. for
to endyte ; r^j'^ to endyte. 11. F. Analida; Cx. Anelida; Tn. D.
Annelida. 12. Harl. that; rest om. 15. F. eke. Harl. Polymea ;
rest Folytnya., Polymia. 16. Harl. Cx. with ; rest ha.th {\). 17.
F. B. Cx. Cirrea ; D. Cirea ; Tn. Circa {wrongly).
VII. ANELIDA AND A R CITE. « 103
And do that I my ship to haven winne ; 20
First folow 1 Stace, and after him Corinne.
The Story,
lamqiie domos patrias, &=€.; Statii Thebais, xii. 519.
Whan Theseus, with werres longe and grete,
The aspre folke of Cithe had over-come,
With laurer crouned, in his char gold-bete,
Hoom to his contre-houses is y-come; — 25
For which the peple blisful, al and somme.
So cryden, that unto the sterres hit wente.
And him to honouren dide al her entente ; —
Before this duk, in signe of hy victorie.
The trompes come, and in his baner large 30
The image of Mars ; and, in token of glorie,
Men mighten seen of tresor many a charge,
Many a bright helm, and many a spere and targe,
Many a fresh knight, and many a blisful route,
On hors, on fote, in al the felde aboute. 35
Ipolita his wyf, the hardy queue
Of Cithia, that he conquered hadde, ^^
With Emelye, her yonge suster shene,
Faire in a char of golde he with him ladde,
That al the ground aboute her char she spradde 40
With brightnesse of the beaute in her face,
Fulfild of largesse and of alle grace.
20. Tn. ship; F. shippe. After 1. 21, 3 Latin lines are quoted from
Statins (see note). 23. Cx. Cithye. 24. Harl. D. Cx. Lt. With ;
F. The {caught from 1. 23). D. crowned ; F. corovned. 25. All
Home. Tn. ycom.e ; F. he come. 27. Cx. cryeden ; but rest cryden,
criden. Harl. unto ; rest to. Tn. wente ; F. went. 28. Tn. entente ; F.
entent. 29. F. Beforne ; Tn. D. B. Lt. Before. Harl. duk ; F. duke.
Harl. inserts hie ( = hy) ; which the rest wrongly omit ; accent o in vic-
torie. 32. F. sene; Harl. seen. 33. Tn. manv; F. monv (5 times).
36. Tn. Ypolita. F. wife. 37. Harl. D. Cithea. D. 'hadde;Lt.
hade ; rest had. -39. F. chare. D. ladde ; Lt. lade ; rest lad.
40. Harl. ground; F. grounde. D. spradde; rtv/ sprad. 41. Harl.
Cx. the; rest omit. 42. F. Fulfilled; al.
104 ^I^- ANELIDA AND A R CITE.
With his triumphe and laurer-crouned thus,
In al the floure of fortunes yevinge,
Lete I this noble prince Theseus 45
Toward Athenes in his wey rydinge, " ^^^„^ — -—
And founde I wol in shortly for to bringe Jy e-^'^ —
The slye wey of that I gan to wryte,
Of queue Anelida and fals Arcite.
^ Mars, which that through his furious course of yre,
The olde wrath of luno to fulfiUe, 51
Hath set the peples hertes bothe on fyre
Of Thebes and Grece, and everich other to kille
With blody speres, ne rested never stille.
But throng now her, now ther, among hem bothe, 55
That everich other slough, so wer they wrothe.
For whan Amphiorax and Tydeus,
Ipomedon, Parthonopee also
Were dede, and slayn [was] proud Campaneus,
And whan the wrecches Thebans, bretheren two, 60
Were slayn, and king Adrastus hoom a-go,
So desolat stood Thebes and so bare.
That no wight coude remedie of his care.
'O'
And whan the olde Creon gan espye
How that the blood roial was broght adoun, 65
He held the cite by his tirannye.
And did the gentils of that regioun
To ben his frendes, and dwellen in the toun.
43. D. Cx. Lt. crowned ; rest corouned. 44. F. yevyng ; Tn.
ifeynge. 45. F. B. Let ; rest Lete. 46. F. ryding ; Tn. ridinge.
47. F. bring; Tn. brynge. 48. D. slye {rightly) ; Tn. sly; P". sley.
50. F. thro. Harl. Tn. D. furious; F. furiouse. 51. Harl. Tn.
wrath; F. wrath. 52. F. hertis. 53. F. eueriche. 55. D.
among ; F. amonge. D. bothe ; F. both {but wrothe in 1. 56). 56.
F. eueriche. 58. Harl. Parthonopee ; Cx. Parthonope ; D. Par-
tonope; Tn. Partinope ; ¥. B. Pruthonolope (I). 59. Harl. Tn.
dede ; F. ded. / supply was, which both sense and metre require. F.
proude. 60. So F. Tn. B. Lt. ; Harl. T). put wrechid (wiecchid)yi7;-
wrecches.' 61. Cx. horn ; r^j/" home. 62. F. stode. 66. F. helde.
&
VII. ANELIDA AND A R CITE. 105
So what for love of him, and what for awe,
The noble folk w-er to the toune ydrawe. 70
Among al these, Anelida the quene
Of Ermony was in that toun dwellinge.
That fairer was then is the sonne shene ;
Through-out the world so gan her name springe.
That her to seen had every wight lykinge ; 75
For, as of troulhe, is ther noon her liche,
Of al the women in this worlde riche.
Yong was this quene, of twenty yeer of elde,
Of midel stature, and of swich fairnesse,
That nature had a loye her to bchelde; 80
And for to speken of her stedfastnesse,
She passed hath Penelope and Lucresse,
And shortly, if she shal be comprehended.
In her ne mighte no-thing been amended.
This Theban knight [Arcite] eek, soth to seyn, 85
Was yong, and ther-with-al a lusty knight,
But he was double in love and no-thing pleyn,
And subtil in that crafte over any wight.
And with his cunning wan this lady bright ;
For so ferforth he gan her trouthe assure, 90
That she him trusted over any creature.
What shuld I seyn ? she loved Arcite so,
That, whan that he was absent any throwe,
70. F. folke. 72. Til. dwellynge ; F. duellyng. 73. F. sunne ;
Harl. Tn. D. Cx. sonne. 74. D. Through ; F. Thorogh. Tn.
sprynge; F. spring. 75. Tn. likynge ; F. likyng. 77. Harl. Tn.
D. Cx. the ; F. thes. 78. twenty is zaritten xxti tn the \LSS. I), yeer
olde ; Cx. yere olde; Lt. ofolde; ;w^ of elde. 79. Tn. mydellf; F.
mydil. F. suche. 80. F. loy. 81. 1). stedfastnesse ; F. stidfast-
nesse. 82. F. B. both ; resthaXh.. Harl. penelope: ¥. ami others
penolope. 84. Harl. ne; rest oin. Tn. myghte; F. myght. 85. /
supply Arcite. which all the MSS. omit, leaving the line too short.
F. seyne. 86. Harl. yong ; F. yonge. Harl. there with all<f (j-^ I).
Cx. Lt.) ; F. therto with al. 87. F. pkyne. 88. Harl. any ;
F. eny. 89. D. Lt. Cx. wan ; F. whan (!). 90. F. ferfurthe. F.
can; rfj/ gan. 91. D. any; F. eny. 93. F. eny throw.
io6
VII. ANELIDA AND ARCITE.
Anon her thoghte her herte brast a-two ;
For in her sight to her he bar him lowe, 9.^
So that she wende have al his herte y-kno\ve ;
But he was fals ; it nas but feyned chere,
As nedeth not to men such craft to lere.
But never-the-les ful mikel besynesse
Had he, er that he mighte his lady winne, • 100
And swoor he wolde dyen for distresse,
Or from his wit he seyde he wolde twinne.
Alas, the whyle ! for hit was routhe and sinne,
That she upon his sorowes wolde rewe,
But no-thing thenketh the fals as doth the trewe, 105
Her fredom fond Arcite in swich manere,
That al was his that she hath, moche or lyte,
Ne to no creature made she chere
Ferther than that it lyked to Arcite ;
Ther was no lak with which he mighte her wyte, no
She was so ferforth yeven him to plese,
That al that Ivked him, hit did her ese.
Ther nas to her no maner lettre ysent
That touched love, from any maner wight,
That she ne shewed hit him, er it was brent; 115
So pleyn she was, and did her fulle might,
That she nil hyden nothing from her knight,
Lest he of any untrouthe her upbreyde ;
Withouten bode his heste she obeyde.
\ And eek he made him lelous over here 120
That, what that any man had to her seyd,
94. F. thoght; hert. 95. F. bare. 96. F. hert. loi. Harl.
Tn. D. B. swore <yfor swoor) ; Cx. sware ; F. sworne. 105. Tn.
thenketh ; F. thinketh. 106. F. fonde. 107. F. B. 7i<rongly insert
both before moche ; rest omit. F. B. and ; rest or. 109. Harl. Cx. that :
rest omit. no. F. wiche ; myght. in. Tn. yeuen ; F. yevin.
112. F. dyd her hert an ese; Harl. Cx. otnit hert an; others vary.
114, 118. D. any ; F. eny. 116. Tn. D. B. fulk ; ?w/ ful. 119.
Harl. Cx. heste ((//j^j/Z/a/'/c) ; ;-trj/ herte, hert. 120. F. eke. Tn.
lelous; F. lelouse. D. Cx. here {Jor the rime); F. her. 121.
Harl. any; F. eny. F. seyde.
Vir. ANELIDA AND A R CITE. I07
Anoon he wolde preyen her to swere
What was that word, or make him evel apayd ;
Then wande she out of her wit have brayd ;
I But al this nas but sleight and flaterye, 1 25
I Withouten love he feyned lelosye.
And al this took she so debonerly,
That al his wille her thoghte hit skilful thing, -
And ever the lenger she loved him tenderly.
And did him honour as he wer a king, 130
Her herte was wedded to him with a ring ;
So ferforth upon trouthe is her entente,
That wher he goth, her herte with him wente.
Whan she shal ete, on him is so her thoght,
That wel unnethe of mete took she keep ; 1 .^^
And whan that she w^as to her reste broght, •
On him she thoghte alwey til that she sleep ;
Whan he was absent, prevely she weep;
Thus liveth fair Anelida the quene
For fals Arcite, that did her al this tcne, 140
This fals Arcite, of his new-fangelnesse,
For she to him so lowly was and trewe,
Took lesse deynte for her stedfastnesse,
And saw another lady, proud and newe,
And right anon he cladde him in her hewe — 145
Wot I not whether in whyte, rede, or grene —
And falsed fair Anelida the quene.
123. F. worde. Harl. Tn. apayde; F. apaied ; r^a*/ apayd. 124.
F. wend. Cx. brayd; Tn. breyde ; V. breyed. IJ5. Harl. Cx.
nas; rt-j/ was. D. sleight; Cx. sleyght; F. sleght. 126. Harl.
Withouten; F. With out. 127. F. toke. F. B, as ; r^j^ so. 12S.
Harl. Tn. wille ; F. wil. F. thoght. 131. F. ringe. 132. Harl.
Cx. So ; rest For so. Harl. Tn. entente ; F. entent. 133. Tn. herle ;
F. hert. Harl. Tn. wente ; F. went. 135. F. toke; kepe. 136.
Harl. Cx. that; 7-cst omit. Harl. D. Cx. reste; F. rest. 137.
Tn. thoghte ; F, thoght. Harl. Tn. Cx. alwey ; F, ay. F. slepe.
138. F. wepe. 139. Cx. fayr; F. feire. 141. D. newfangilnesse ;
Tn. newfangulnes ; F. new fanglesse. 143. F, Toke. D. sted-; F.
stid-. 144. F. proude, 145. Harl. D. cladde ; F. clad. 146.
F. whethir.
Io8 Vn. ANELIDA AND ARCITE.
But never-the-les, gret wonder was hit noon
Thogh he wer fals, for it is kynd of man,
Sith Lamek was, that is so longe agoon, 150
To ben in love as fals as ever he can ;
He was the firste fader that began
To loven two, and was in bigamye;
And he found tentes first, but if men lye.
•
This fals Arcite sumwhat moste he feyne, 155
Whan he wex fals, to cover his traitorye,
Right as an hors, that can both byte and pleyne;
For he bar her on honde of trecherye.
And swoor he coude her doublenesse espye,
And al was falsnes that she to him mente ; 160
Thus swoor this theef, and forth his way he wente.
Alas ! what herte might enduren hit,
For routhe or wo, her sorow for to telle ?
Or what man hath the cunning or the wit?
Or what man might with-in the chambre dwelle, 165
If I to him rehersen shal the helle,
That suffreth fair Anelida the quene
For fals Arcite, that did her al this tene ?
She wepeth, waileth, swowneth pitously.
To grounde deed she falleth as a stoon ; 170
Al crampissheth here Kmes crokedly,
She speketh as her wit were al agoon ;
Other colour then asshen hath she noon,
148. F. lesse grete. 149. Harl. Cx. omit the, zvhich F. and others
insert after \s. 152. Harl. firste ; F. first. 154. F. founde. 156.
Harl. Tn. D. couer ; F. coueren. 157. Harl. pleyne; F. ple)Ti.
159, 161. All swore. 160. Harl. Tn. mente; F. ment. 161.
D. Cx. theef; F. thefe. Harl. Tn. wente; F. went. 162. Tn.
herte; F. hert. Cx. enduren; ;-«/ endure. 167. F. feir. 169.
Cx. swowneth; D. sowneth ; F. svvoneth. 170. Harl. Tn. U.
grounde; F. ground. F. dede ; ston. 171. Harl. Al; rest out. Cx.
Crampissheth ; Lt. Crampuissheth ; Tn. Crampicheth ; F. cravmpyssh^.
172. F. agon.
VII. ANELIDA AND A K CITE. TO9
Noon other word she speketh moche or lyte,
But, 'mercy, cruel herte myn, Arcite!' 175
And thus endureth, til that she was so mate
That she ne hath foot on which she may sustene ;
But forth languisshing ever in this estate,
Of which Arcite hath nother routhe ne tene;
His herte was elles-where, newe and grene. 180
That on her wo ne deyneth him not to thinke,
Him rekketh never wher she llete or sinke.
His newe lady holdeth him so narowe
Up by the brydel, at the staves ende,
That every word, he dred hit as an arowe ; 185
Her daunger made him bothe bowe and bendc,
And as her liste, made him turne or wende ;
For she ne graunted him in her livinge
No grace, why thai he hath lust to singe ;
But drof him forth, unnethe liste her knowe 190
That he was servaunt [to] her ladyshippe,
But lest that he wer proude, she held him lowe ;
Thus servetli he, withouten mete or sippe,
She sent him now to londe, now to shippe ;
And for she yaf him daunger al his fille, 195
Therfor she had him at her owne wille.
Ensample of this, ye thrifty wimmcn alle.
Take here Anelida and fals Arcite,
1 74. Harl. Noon ; Cx. None ; the rest insert Ne before Noon. For
she speketh, all the MSS. ^az'^ speketh she. 175. F. mercie; hert.
178. F. B. for; rest forth. 179. Tn. D. nothir ; F. nouther. iSo.
V. wher : rest where. 1S3. All but Harl. insert up before so ; but see
next line. 1S4. ¥ . bridil. 185. F. worde. Harl. Cx. drad. 187.
Tn. Cx. liste ; Harl. lyste; F. lust. 190. Harl. Cx. vnnethe ; F.
vnneth. F. list. 191. Allnn-\.o; readto. 192. Cx. proud; F.
proude. Hail. Cx. held ; F. lielde. 193. Harl. withouten ; F. with
out. Harl. Cx. mete; rest {ee {7aron^l)'). Cx. sype (, for s\ppe) ; ed.
1621 sip; F. B. Lt. shippe {eaught from 1. 194); D. ship^; Harl.
shepe(!); Tn. shep(!). 195. D. yaf; F. yafe. 196. Harl. o\vne ;
F. ovne. 197. Harl. Tn. D. thrifty; F. thrifte. 198. B. here;
F. her (i. e. lure) ; Tn. D. here of; Cx. Lt. hede of.
no VII. ANELIDA AND A R CITE.
That for her liste him ' dere herte ' calle,
And was so meek, therfor he loved her lyte ; 200
The kynd of mannes herte is to delyte
In thing that straunge is, also god me save !
For what he may not gete, that wolde he have.
Now turne we to Anelida ageyn,
That pyneth day by day in languisshing ; 205
But whan she saw that her ne gat no geyn,
Upon a day, ful sorowfully weping,
She caste her for to make a compleyning,
And with her owne honde she gan hit wryte;
And sente hit to her Theban knyght Arcite. 210
The compleynt of Anelida the quene upon fals Arcite.
Proem.
So thirleth with the poynt of remembraunce, -a^c < .%^'>
The swerd of sorowe, y-whet with fals plesaunce,
Myn herte, bare of blis and blak of hewe,
That turned is to quaking al my daunce,
My surete in a-whaped countenaunce ; v->^v.x,'». -a^^2i5
Sith hit availeth not for to ben trewe ;
For who-so trewest is, hit shal her rewe,
That serveth love and doth her observaunce
Alwey to oon, and chaungeth for no newe.
199. Tn. Cx. liste {pt. /.) ; F. list. Harl. Cx. dere herte ; F. lier der
hert. 200. Al/meke. 201. y^// kyude (kinde). F. hert. 203.
Harl. Cx. he {twice) ; F. and others wrongly have they the 2nd time.
206. F. sawe. 208. Harl. Tn. caste; F. cast. 209. Harl. owne;
F. ovne. 210. F. sent. F. B. omit hit ; rest retain.
Title. So in F. {btit misspelt Analida); B. The complaynt of feyre
Anelida on fals Arcyte ; D. Litera Annelide Regine. 211. Harl.
thirllethe ; Cx. thirleth; F. D. thirled (^!). 212. B. swerd ; F. suerde.
F. y-whet ; B. I-whet ; rw;^ whet. 213. Tn. herte; F. hert. Harl.
Tn. D. blak; F. blake. 215. Tn. B. Lt. surete; F. suerte. F. B. in
to; rest in. D. Cx. a whaped ; Harl. a whaaped ; F. a waped. 216.
Harl. for ; rest om. 217. Harl. trewest ; t. truest. Harl. hir ; Cx.
her; F. and others him {h2(t see 1. 2i8\ 218. F. dothe.
VII. ANELIDA AND A P. CITE. I I f
{Strophe^i
1. I wot my-self as wel as any wight ; 220 ^t-
For I loved oon with al my herte and might '^
More then my-self, an hundred thousand sythe, •»
And cleped him my hertes lyf, my knight, '--
And' was al his, as for as it was right; '"
And whan that he was glad, than was I blythe, 225 b
And his disese was my deeth as swythe ; b
And he ayein his trouthe me had plight <^
For ever-more, his lady me to kythe. -- ^
2. Alas ! now hath he left me, causeles.
And of my wo he is so routheles, % 230
That with a worde him list not ones deyne
To bring ayen my sorowful herte in pees,
For he is caught up in a-nother lees.
Right as him list, he laugheth at my peyne.
And I ne can myn herte not restreyne, 235
That I ne love him alwey, never-the-les ;
And of al this I not to whom me pleyne.
3. And shal I pleyne — alas ! the harde stounde — "^
Un-to my fop that yaf my herte a wounde.
And yet desyreth that myn harm be more ? 240
Nay, certes ! ferther wol I never founde
Non other help, my sores for to sounde.
My desteny hath shapen it ful yore ;
I wil non other medecyne ne lore; U'--*. '•
I wil ben ay ther I was ones bounde, 245
That I have seid, be seid for ever-more !
220. Harl. any ; F. eny. 221. F. hert. 223. F, hertis life. 227.
Harl. D. Cx. plit;ht; F. I-plyght. 229. So F. B. ; Tn. Harl. Cx. 1).
Now is he fals alas and causeles. 232. Tn. herte, pees ; F. hert, pes.
233. Tn. caughte ; F. caght. Tn. lees; F. les. 234. F. B. me (!) ;
r^.f/ him. 235. F. hert. 238. F. pleyn. Harl. Tn. harde ; F.
hard. 239. F. yafe; hert. 240. F. harme. 241. F. ccrtis.
All be founde ; but be is copied in from the line above ; see 1. 47. 242.
F. helpe. 243. Tn. desteny ; F. destany. Y. B. oni. ful. 246. F.
seide {twice).
112 VII. ANELIDA AND ARCITE.
- 4. Alas ! wher is become your gentilesse ?
li Your wordes ful of plesaunce and humblesse ?
if. Your observaunces in so low manere,
And your away ting and your besinesse 250
Upon me, that ye calden your maistresse,
Your sovereyn lady in this worlde here ?
Alas ! and is ther nother word ne chere
Ye vouchesauf upon myn hevinesse ?
Alas ! your love, I bye hit al to dere. 255
5. Now certes, swete, thogh that ye c^
Thus causeles the cause be «^
Of my dedly adversite, «v
Your manly reson oghte it to respyte \)
To slee your frend, and namely me, .v 260
That never yet in no degre t-
Offended yow, as wisly he, «.
That al wot, out of wo my soule quyte ! \>
^But for I shewed yow, Arcite, b
Al that men wolde to me wryte, *> 265
And was so besy, yow to delyte — ^
My honour save — meke, kynd, and fre, ^
Therfor ye putte on me the wyte, \1<^/t^^ ^
And of me recche not a myte, b
Thogh that the swerd of sorow byte b 270
My woful herte through your cruelte. <v
6. My swete foo, why do ye so, for shame ?
And thenke ye that furthered be your name,
To love a newe, and be untrewe ? nay !
252. F. soueieigne. 253. I stipply and/;w« Cx. ; Harl. has And
is there nowe neyther. 254. Lt. vouchesauf; Cx. vouchen sauf ; P".
vouchesafe. 256. F. certis. 257. F. B. causer {for caus-e) ; rest
cause. 258. F. dedely. 259. F. oght. 260. Harl. slee; Tn. D.
Cx. sle; F. slene. F. frende. 263. Harl. wot; F. wote. 264,
365. Harl. Cx. But for I was so pleyne. Arcite, In alk my werkes,
much and lyte ; and omit was in 1. 266. 267. F. honor. Tn.
saue ; F. D. safe. F. kynde. 268. F. put. 269. Flarl. Tn.
recche; F. rek. ■270. F. B. cm. that. F. suerde. 271. Tn. herte;
F. hert. F. thro. 272. F. suete. 274. Harl. Tn. vntrewe F. vntrew.
VII. ANELIDA AND A R CITE. II3
And puttc yow in sclaunder now and blame, 275
And do to me adversile and grame,
That love yow most, God, wel thou wost !
alway ?
Yet turn ayeyn, and be al plcyn som day.
And than shal this that now is mis be game,
And al for-yive, whyl ihat I live may. 280
(Antistrophe.)
1. Lo ! herte myn, al this is for to seyne,
As whether shal I preye or elles pleyne ?
Whiche is the wey to doon yow to be trcwe ?
For either mot I have yow in my cheyne,
Or with the dethe ye mot departe us tweyne ; 285
Ther ben non other mene weyes newe ;
For god so wisly on my soule rewe,
As verily ye sleen me with the peyne ;
That may ye se unfeyned of myn hewe.
2. For thus ferforth have I my deth [y]-soght, 290
I\Iy-self I mordre with my prevy thoght ;
For sorowe and routhe of your unkyndenesse
I wepe, I wake, I faste ; al helpeth noght ;
I weyve loy that is to speke of oght,
I voyde companye, I fle gladnesse ; 295
Who may avaunte her bet of hevinesse
Then I .? and to this plyte have ye me broght,
Withoute gilt ; me nedeth no witnesse.
275. Harl. putte ; F. put. 278. Tn. D. Ff. Lt. tume ; rest come
279. Tn. Harl. Cx. D. Lt. And then shall this that now is mis ben
I be); F. B. And tume al this that hath be mys to. 2S0. F. foryeve
Tn. foryife ; Harl. 372 foryiue rightly^. 281. F. hert. Harl
seyne {gerund) ; F. seyn. 282. F. wheder; prey ; pleyn. 284, 5, 8
F. cheyn, tweyn, peyn. 2S7. D. Cx. on; Harl. of; F. Tn. vpon
288. D. verily ; F. verrely. 290. Harl. Cx. omii this stanza. F. dethe
{wrottgl}'\ ; rest Acth. y?// soght, sought; read y-%o^i. 291. D. B
mordre; F. mo/<;dre. 292. F. vnkyndnesse. 293. Tn. D. faste;
F. fast. 296. F. avaunt. Tn. B. Lt. bet ; F. httcr. 298. Tn. Lt.
With oute ; F. NVith out.
I
114 VII. ANEUDA AND ARCITE.
3. And shal I preye, and weyve womanhede? ^
Nay ! rather deth then do so foul a dede, 300
And axe mercy gilteles ! what nede ?
And if I pleyne what lyf that I lede,
Yow rekketh not ; that know I, out of drede ;
And if I unto yow myn othes bede
For myn excuse, a scorn shal be my mede ; 305
Your chere floureth, but hit wol not sede ;
Ful longe agoon I oghte have take hede.
4. For thogh I hadde yow to-morow ageyn,
I might as wel holde Averill fro reyn,
As holde yow, to make yow be stedfast. 310
Almighty God, of trouthe sovereyn,
Wher is the trouthe of man ? who hath hit sleyn ?
Who that hem loveth shal hem fynde as fast
As in a tempest is a roten mast.
Is that a tame best that is ay feyn 315
To renne away, when he is leest agast?
5. Now mercy, swete, if I misseye,
Have I seyd oght amis, I preye ?
I not ; my wit is al aweye.
I fare as doth the song of Chaunte-pleure. 320
For now I pleyne, and now I pleye,
I am so mased that I deye,
Arcite hath born awey the keye
Of al my worlde, and my good aventure !
299. Some of the final rimes in this stanza are forced ones. F. prey.
300. F. dethe; foule. 301. F. mercie. Tn. gilteles ; F. giJtles.
302. Harl. pleyne ; F. pleyn. F. lyfe. Harl. Cx. ins. that ; F. and
others omit. 304. Tn. D. unto ; F. to. 305. F. skorne. 306.
F. om. hit. 307. F. atid others insert to he/ore have ; Tn. D. Cx.
omit. 308. D. hadde; F. had. 309. F. Apprile ; Harl. Aueryll.
310. F. stidfast. 311. F. souereigne. 312. F. slayn. 313. F. B.
insert she before shal; rest on. 316. F. lest. 317. F. mercif.
F. missey {omitting e in -eye throughotit , wrongly) ; Harl. myssaye,
&c. 318. F. seyde. 320. F. dothe ; songe. F. chaiint plure ; Harl.
Chaunte pleiire. 321. F. pleyn. 323. F. borne.
VH. ANELIDA AND ARCITE. II5
^For in this worlde nis creature 335
Wakinge, in more discomfiture
Then I, ne more sorow endure ;
And if I slepe a furlong wey or tweye,
Than thinketh me, that your figure
Before me stant, clad in asure, 330
To swere yet eft a newe assure
For to be trewe, and mercy me to preye.
6. The longe night this wonder sight I drye,
And on the day for this afray I dye, 334
And of al this right noght, y-wis, ye recchr.
Ne never mo myn yen two be drye,
And to your routhe and to your trouthe I crye.
But welawey ! to fer be they to fecche ;
Thus holdeth me my destine a wrecche.
But me to rede out of this drede or gye 340
Ne may my wit, so weyk is hit, not strecche.
Co7icliision.
Than ende I thus, sith I may do no more,
I yeve hit up for now and ever-more ;
For I shal never eft putten in balaunce
My sekernes, ne lerne of love the lore. 345
But as the -swan, I have herd seyd ful yore,
Ayeins his deth shal singe in his penaunce,
So singe I here my destiny or chaunce,
How that Arcite Anelida so sore
Hath thirled with the poynt of remembraunce ! 350
321;. Harl. Cx. nys ; F. 13. ther is no ; Tn. D. ther nis no ( too many
syllables). 328. F. furlon<je. F. B. other {for or) ; rcsl or. 329. F.
thenketh; Tn. thynketh. 330. Tn. slant; F. stont. 331. Tn. D. Cx.
I.t. assure; F. asure. 332. F. trew ; mercie. 335. F. reche ; Tn. D.
recche ; and so wil/t feche, Sec. 339. F. destany ; Tn. destyne (/<?;■
the rime). 341. F. weyke. 343. Ilarl. D. Cx. yeve ; F. yf; Tn.
gife. 344. F. efte. Tn. Cx. putten ; F'. put. 347. Tn. deth ; F.
dethe. Tn. D. Lt. Ff. insert in ; rest om. 348. Harl. Tn. destenye ;
D. destynye ; F. destany. 349. F. Analida. F. B. to ; rest so.
I 2
Il6 VII. ANELIDA AND A R CITE.
The story coniinued.
Whan that Anelida this woful quene
Hath of her hande writen in this wyse,
With face deed, betwixe pale and grene,
She fel a-swowe ; and sith she gan to ryse,
And unto Mars avoweth sacrifyse 355
With-in the temple, with a sorowful chere,
That shapen was as ye shal after here. 357
{Unfinished^
351. This stanza only occnjs in Tn. D. Lt. Ff. I follow Tn. mainly.
Tn. Annelida; wofull. 352. Tn. Lt Ff. of; D. with. 353. D.
deed; rt;^-/ dede. D. betwixe; Ff. bitwixte ; Tn. Lt. betwix. 354.
Tn. felle. Ff. a swowe ; Tn. a swow. 355. Lt. avoweth ; D.
avowith ; Tn. avoyth. 356. Tn. With-Inne ; rest With-in. Tn.
sorofullt'. 357. Tn. shapyn ; aftyr.
VIII. CHAUCERS WORDES UNTO ADAM, HIS
OWNE SCRIVEYN.
Adam scriveyn, if ever it thee bifalle
Boece or Troilus to wryten newe,
Under thy lokkes thou most have the scalle,
But after my making thou wryte trewe.
So ofte a daye I mot thy werk renewe, 5
Hit to correcte and eek to rubbe and scrape ;
And al is through thy negligence and rape.
From T. ( = MS. R. 3. 20 in Trin. Coll. Library, Cambridge). //
also occurs in Stowe's edition (1561).
Title ; T. ]icls — Chauciers vvordes .a. Geffrey vn-to Adame his owen
scryveyne ; Stowe hcis — Chaucers woordes vnto his ovvne .Scriiiener.
1. T. scrj'vejTie; byfalle. 1. T. Troylus for to ; nuwc. 3. T. thy
long lokkes {see note) ; thowe. 4. T. affler ; makjiig thowe wryte
more truwe i^see note). 5. T. offt ; renuwe. 6. T. It ; cored ;
Stowe has correcte. T. eke. 7. T. thorugh ; neclygence.
IX. THE HOUS OF FAME.
Book I.
God turne us every dreem to gode !
For hit is wonder, by the rode,
To my wit, what causeth swevenes
Either on morwes, or on evenes ;
And why theffect folweth of somme, 5
And of somme hit shal never come ;
Why that is an avisioun.
Why this, a revelacioun,
Why this a dreem, why that a sweven.
And nat to every man liche even ; 10
Why this a fantome, these oracles,
I noot : but who-so of these miracles
The causes knoweth bet than I,
Devyne he ; for I certeynly
Ne can hem noght, ne never thinke 15
To besily my wit to swinke,
To knowe of her signifiaunce
The gendres, neither the distaunce
Of tymes of hem, ne the causes
For-why this more then that cause is ; 20
As if folkes complexiouns
Make hem dreme of reflexiouns ;
Or elles thus, as others sayn,
The authorities are F. (Fairfax 16) ; B. (Bodley 638) ; P. (Pepys
3006); Cx. (Caxton's ed.) ; Th. (Thynne's ed. 1532). I follow F.
iiiaittly, co7-recting the spelling.
I. P. drem; rest dreme. 8. All the copies have And why, to the
injury of the tnetre. 9, 10. F. swevene, evene ; Cx. Th. swenen,
euen. 11. Th. B. a fantome ; Cx. a fanton ; F. aflfaintome ; after
which all needlessly insert -why. 12. F. Th. B. not; Cx. note ( = noot).
? omit so. 20. All wrongly insert is before more.
IX. TITE I/O US OP FAME. BOOK I. II9
For to great feblesse of her brayn,
By abstinence, or by seknesse, 25
Prison, stewe, or gret distresse ;
Or elles by disordinaunce
Of naturel acustomaunce,
That som man is to curious
In studie, or melancolious, 3,0
Or thus, so inly ful of drede
Tliat no man may him bote bede ;
Or elles, that devocioun
Of somme, and contemplacioun
Causeth swiche dremes ofie ; 35
Or that the cruel lyf unsofte
Which these ilke lovers leden
That hopen over muche or dredcn,
That purely her impressiouns
Causeth hem avisiouns ; 40
Or if that spirits have the might
To make folk to dreme anight ;
Or if the soule, of propre kynde.
Be so parfit, as men fynde,
That hit forwot that is to come, 45
And that hit warneth alio and somme
Of everiche of her aventures
By avisiouns, or by figures,
But that our flesch ne hath no might
To understonden hit aright, 50
For hit is warned to derkly ;
But why the cause is, noght wot I.
Wei worthe, of this thing, grete clerkes,
That tretc of this and other werkes ;
For I of noon opinioun 55
Nil as now make mencioun,
24. All feblenesse or feblenes. ' 26. F. B. stewe ; P. stoe ; Cx.
stryt ; Th. stryfe. 35. P. sweche ; rest suche, such. 45. F. B.
forwote ; rest wote. 50. F. vnderstonde, following by a metrical
mark, indicating a pause ; but add n.
1 20
IX. THE nous OF FAME. BOOK I.
But only that the holy rode
Turne us every dreem to gode !
For never, sith that I was born,
Ne no man elles, me byforn,
Mette, I trowe stedfastly.
So wonderful a dreem as I,
The tenthe day dide of Decembre,
The which, as I can now remembre,
I wol yow tellen every del.
60
6^
The Invocation.
But at my ginning, trusteth wel,
I wol make invocacioun,
With special devocioun,
Unto the god of slepe anoon,
That dwelleth in a cave of stoon
Upon a streem that comth fro Lete,
That is a flood of helle unswete;
Besyde a folk men clepe Cimerie,
Ther slepeth ay this god unmerie
With his slepy thousand sones
That alway for to slepe her wone is-
And to this god, that I of rede,
Preye I that he wolde me spede
My sweven for to telle aright,
If every dreem stonde in his might.
And he, that mover is of al
That is and was, and ever shal,
So yive hem loye that hit here
Of alle that they dreme to-yere,
And for to stonden alle in grace
75
80
85
58, 62. MSS. dreme ( = dreem). 63. See note. 64. B. P. now ;
F. yow; rest om. 71. P. strem ; r^j/ streme ( = streem); soY. drem
{I'est dreme) in 1. 80. MSS. cometh (=com'th). 73. Cx. Th. clepe;
r. clepeth. 77. F. That; rest And. 8,^. F. B. stonde; Cx. Th.
stande ; P. stond. Cx. alle ; F. Th. al {wrongly^.
IX. THE nous OF FAME. BOOK I. 121
Of her loves, or in what place
. That hem wer levest for to stonde,
And shelde hem fro poverte and shonde,
And fro unhappe and eche disese,
And sende hem al that may hem plese, 90
That take hit wel, and scorne hit noghl,
Ne hit misdeme in her thoght
Through malicious enlencioun.
And who-so, through presumpcioun,
Or hate or scorne, or through envye 95
Dispite, or lape, or vilanye,
Misdeme hit, preye I lesus god
That (dreme he barefoot, dreme he shod),
That every harm that any man "^
Hath had, sith [that] the world began, 100
Befalle him therof, or he sterve,
And graunte he mote hit ful deserve,
Lo ! with swich conclusioun
As had of his avisioun
Cresus, that was king of Lyde, 105
That high upon a gebet dyde !
This prayer shal he have of me ;
I am no bet in charite !
Now herkneth, as I have you seyd,
What that I mette, or I abreyd. no
The Dream.
Of Decembre the tenthe day,
Whan hit was night, to slepe I lay
Right ther as I was wont to done.
And fil on slepe wonder sone,
As he that wery was for-go 115
On pilgrimage myles two
100. I supply that. 103. P. suche ; F. Cx. Th. B. suche a. 109,
no. Cx. seyd, abreyd; the rest seyde (saydc, abreyde (abrayde .
Granif/tar requires seyd, abreyde ; the rime is false.
122 IX. THE HOUS OF FAME. BOOK I.
To the corseynt Leonard,
To make lylhe of that was hard.
But as I sleep, me mette I was
Within a temple y-mad of glas; 120
In whiche ther were mo images
Of gold, stondinge in sondry stages,
And mo riche tabernacles,
And with perre mo pinacles,
And mo curious portreytures, 135
And queynte maner of figures
Of olde werke, then I saw ever.
For certeynly I niste never
Wher that I was, but wel wiste I,
Hit was of Venus redely, 130
This temple; for, in portreyture,
I saw anoon-right hir figure
Naked fletinge in a see.
And also on hir heed, parde,
Hir rose-garlond whyte and reed, 135
And hir comb to kembe hir heed,
Hir dowves, and dan Cupido,
Hir blinde sone, and Vulcano,
That in his face was ful broun.
But as I romed up and doun, 140
I fond that on a wal ther was
Thus writen, on a table of bras :
* I wol now singe, if that I can,
The armes, and al-so the man.
That first cam, through his destinee, 145
Fugitif of Troy contree,
117, 118. Cx. P. leonard, hard; F. Th. B. leonarde, harde. 119
MSS. slept, slepte ; r^ar/ sleep. 122. F. Th. golde; Cx. P. gold:
B. goold. 126. ^// queynt. 127, 132. F. sawgh. 134. Th
heed; B. hed ; F. Cx. hede. Cx. Th. parde ; F. partee (!). 135. B
red; F. Th. rede; Cx. Rose garlondes smellynge as a mede. 137
MSS. combe. B. hed; rest hede. 139. Cx. P. brown; F. broune
140. Cx. down; F. dovne. 141. P. fond; F. Cx. B. fonde ; Th
founde. Cx. Th. wal ; B. wall ; F. walle. 143. F. B. say ; rest
synge. F. B. 07n. that.
IX. THE HOUS OF FAME. BOOK I. 1 23
In Itaile, with ful moche pyne,
Unto the strondes of Lavyne.'
And tho began the story anoon,
As I shal telle yow echoon. i,:;o
First saw I the destruccioun
Of Troye. through the Grek Synoun,
With his false forsweringe,
And his chere and his lesinge
Made the hors broght into Troye, ].:;5
Thorgh which Troyens loste al her loye.
And after this was grave, alias !
How Ilioun assailed was
And wonne, and king Priam y-slayn,
And Polites his sone, certayn, 160
Dispitously of dan Pirrus.
And next that saw I how Venus,
Whan that she saw the castel brende,
Doun fro the heven gan descende.
And bad hir sone Eneas flee ; 165
And how he fled, and how that he
Escaped was from al the pres.
And took his fader, Anchises,
And bar him on his bakke away,
Cryinge, ' Alias, and welaway ! ' 1 70
The whiche Anchises in his honde
Bar the goddes of the londe,
Thilke that unbrenned were.
And I saw next, in alle his fere.
How Creusa, dan Eneas wyf, 175
Which that he loved as his lyf.
And hir yonge sone lulo
And eek Ascanius also,
148. Cx. Th. P. Lauync ; F. B. Labyne. 152. Cx. Th. P. Troye ;
F. B. Troy; see 1. 155. 153. F. B. P. fals ; Cx. fals vntrewe ; Th.
false vntrewe. 1 59. Cx. Th. kyng ; F. B. kynge. F. Th. y-slayne ;
Cx. slayn. 160. Th. Polytes ; F. B. Polite. From this point I make
710 further note of obvious corrections in spelling. 172. Cx. P. Th.
goddes ; F. B. goddesse [wrongly). 173. F. B. -brende; rest -brenned.
124 I^' THE HOUS OF FAME. BOOK I.
Fledden eek with drery chere,
That hit was pitee for to here; i8o
And in a forest, as they wente,
At a turninge of a wente,
How Creusa was y-lost, alias !
That deed, [but] not I how, she was;
How he hir sough te, and how hir gost 185
Bad him to flee the Grekes ost.
And seyde, he moste unto Itaile,
As was his destiny, sauns faille ;
That hit was pitee for to here,
Whan hir spirit gan appere, 190
The wordes that she to him seyde.
And for to kepe hir sone him preyde.
Ther saw I graven eek how he.
His fader eek, and his meynee,
With his shippes gan to sayle 195
Towardes the contree of Itaile,
As streight as that they mighte go.
Ther saw I thee, cruel luno.
That art dan lupiteres wyf,
That hast y-hated, al thy lyf, 200
Al the Troyanisshe blood,
Renne and crye, as thou were wood.
On Eolus, the god of wyndes,
To blowen out, of alle kyndes,
So loude, that he shulde drenche 205
Lord and lady, grome and wenche
Of al the Troyan nacioun,
Withoute any savacioun.
Ther saw I swich tempeste aryse.
That every herte mighte agryse, 210
184. F. P. That dede not I how she was ; B. That ded not I how she
was ; Cx. That rede note I how it was ; Th. That rede nat I howe that it
was. AVflfl'deed, and insert but. 193. Cx. Th. grauen ; P. graven;
F. grave; B. graue. 199. P. lubiter ; r^fj^ lupiters ; rm^/ lupiteres.
204. F. blowe; P. Cx. Th. blowen. 210. Th. herte; 7-cst hert.
IX. THE HOUS OF FAME. BOOK 1. 125
To see hit peynted on the walle.
Ther saw I graven eek withalle,
Venus, how ye, my lady dere,
Wepinge with ful woful chere,
Prayen lupiter an hye 215
To save and kepe that navye
Of the Troyan Eneas,
Sith that he hir sone was.
Ther saw I loves Venus kisse,
And graunted of the tempest Hsse. 220
Ther saw I how the tempest stente,
And how with alle pyne he wente,
And prevely took arrivage
In the contree of Cartage ;
And on the morwe, how that he 225
And a knight, hight Achate,
IVIetten with Venus that day,
Goinge in a queynt array,
As she had ben an hunteresse,
With wynd blowinge upon hir tresse ; 230
How Eneas gan him to pleyne.
Whan that he knew hir, of his peyne ;
And how his shippes dreynte were.
Or elles lost, he niste where ;
How she gan him comforte tho, 235
And bad him to Cartage go,
And ther he shulde his folk fynde,
That in the see were left behynde.
And, shortly of this thing to pace.
She made Eneas so in grace 240
Of Dido, quene of that contree,
That, shortly for to tellen, she
220. F. omits from lisse to tempest in next line ; the rest are right.
221, 222. F. stent, went; Cx. Th. stente, wente. 227. P. Cx. Th.
Mcttcn ; F. B. Mette. 235. F. P. comfort ; r^j-/ comforte. 237.
P. folk ; r«/ folke ; but shwldc is he7-e dissyllabic. 242. F. tel ; B.
telk; P. Cx. Th. tellen.
1 26 IX. THE nous OF FAME. ROOK I,
Becam his love, and leet him do
That that wedding longeth to.
What shulde I speke more queynte, 345
Or peyne me my wordes peynte,
To speke of love ? hit wol not be ;
I can not of that faculte.
And eek to telle the manere
How they aqueynteden in fere, 250
Hit were a long processe to telle,
And over long for yow to dwelle.
Ther saw I grave, how Eneas
Tolde Dido every cas,
That him was tid upon the see. 255
And after grave was, how she
Made of him, shortly, at 00 word,
Hir lyf, hir love, hir lust, hir lord ;
And did him al the reverence.
And leyde on him al the dispence, 360
That any woman mighte do,
Weninge hit had al be so.
As he hir swoor ; and her-by demed
That he was good, for he swich semed.
Alias ! what harm doth apparence, J65
Whan hit is fals in existence !
For he to hir a traitour was ;
Wherfor she slow hir-self, alias !
Lo, how a woman doth amis.
To love him that unknowen is! 270
For, by Crist, lo ! thus hit fareth ;
' Hit is not al gold, that glareth.'
For, al-so brouke I wel myn heed,
Ther may be under goodliheed
Kevered many a shrewed vyce ; i;g
Therfor be no wight so nyce,
To take a love oonly for chere,
357,8. ^// worde, lorde. 260. Th. the ; rest omit. 270. F.
ynknowe; rest vnknowen.
TX. THE HOUS OF FAME. BOOK I. I 27
For speche, or for frcndly manere ;
[For tliis shal every woman fynde
That som man, of his pure kynde, iSo
Wol shewen outward the faireste,
Til he have caught that what him leste ;
And thanne wol he causes fynde,]
And swere how that she is unkynde,
Or fals, or prevy, or double was. 285
Al this seye I by Eneas
And Dido, and her nyce lest.
That lovede al to sone a gest ;
Therfor I wol seye a proverbe,
That ' he that fully knoweth therbe 290
May saufly leye hit to his ye';
Withoute dreed, this is no lye.
But let us speke of Eneas,
How he betrayed hir, alias !
And lefte hir ful unkyndely. ■'95
So whan she saw al-utterly,
That he wolde hir of trouthe faile,
And wende fro hir to Itaile,
She gan to wringe hir hondes two.
' Alias ! ' quod she, ' what me is wo ! 300
Alias ! is every man thus trewe,
That every yere wolde have a newe,
If hit so longe tyme dure,
Or elles three, peraventure ?
As thus : of oon he wolde have fame 305
In magnifying of his name;
Another for frendship, seith he ;
And yet ther shal the thridde be,
That shal be taken for delyte,
Lo, or for singular profyte.' 310
J 78. Th. Or speche; rest Or (F. Of!) for speche; read For speche.
Lines 280-283 are in Th. only, which reads some; fayrest ; lest; than.
285. C.X. Th. \ird^ or; F. B. P. om. 290. F. V.. therbe ( = the hcrbc ;
r. Cx. Th. the'hcrbe. 305. Cx. Th. one; P. on ; F. B. love.
128 IX. THE HOUS OF FAME. BOOK I.
In swiche wordes gan to pleyne
Dido of hir grete peyne,
As me mette redely ;
Non other auctour alegge I.
'Alias!' quod she, 'my swete herte, 315
Have pitee on my sorwes smerte,
And slee me not ! go noght away !
O woful Dido, wel away ! '
Quod she to hir-selve tho.
*0 Eneas! what wil ye do? 320
O, that your love, ne your bonde,
That ye han sworn with your right honde,
Ne my cruel deth,' quod she,
IMay holde yow still heer with me !
O, haveth of my deth pitee ! 325
Ywis, my dere herte, ye
Knowen ful wel that never }it.
As fer-forth as I hadde wit,
Agilte [I] yow in thoght ne deed.
O, have ye men swich goodliheed 330
In speche, and never a deel of trouthe ?
Alias, that ever hadde routhe
Any woman on any man !
Now see I wel, and telle can,
We wrecched wimmen conne non art ; 335
For certeyn, for the more part,
Thus we be served everichone.
How sore that ye men conne grone,
Anoon as we have yow- receyved !
Certeinly we ben deceyved ; 340
For, though your love laste a sesoun,
Wayte upon the conclusioun,
313. /£>;- mette, Cx. Th. have mette dremjTigf!') 314. F. auttour
= auctour. 315. F. he; the rest she. 320. F. Th. wol ; P. wilk ;
Cx. wyl. 322. F. ha ; P. B. haue; rest om. 328. All\\.2i.^. 329.
I insert I; which all omit. 332. P. hadde ; rest ha.d. 334. Cx.
telle ; P. tellen ; F. tel. 341. F. omits this line ; the rest have it.
IX. THE J/0 US OF FAME. BOOK I. 129
And eek how that ye determynen,
And for the more part diffynen.
' O, welawey that I was born ! 345
For through yow is my name lorn,
And alle myn actes red and songe
Over al this lond, on every tonge.
O wikke Fame ! for ther nis
Nothing so swift, lo, as she is ! 350
O, soth is, every thing is wist,
Though hit be kevered with the mist.
Eek, thogh I mighte duren ever,
That 1 have doon, rekever I never.
That I ne shal be seyd, alias, 355
Y-shamed be through Eneas,
And that I shal thus luged be —
"Lo, right as she hath doon, now she
*Wol do eftsones, hardily ; "
Thus seyth the peple prevely.' — 360
But that is doon, nis not to done ;
Al hir compleynt ne al hir mone,
Certeyn, availeth hir not a stre.
And whan she wiste sothly he
Was forth unto his shippes goon, 365
She in hir chambre wente anoon.
And called on hir suster Anne,
And gan her to compleyne thanne ;
And seyde, that she cause was
That she first lovede [Eneas], 37°
And thus counseilled hir therto.
But what ! when this was seyd and do,
She roof hir-selve to the herte,
And deyde through the wounde smerte.
347. F. B. al youre ; Cx. Th. P. myn {om. al). 352. F. B. om. be.
353. Th. duren ; F. dure. 358. Th. done; rest omit. 362. All insert
iUit before Al. 363. Cx. Th. P. Certeyn ; F. B. Ccrteynly. 365.
Cx. goon ; P. gon"; F. agoon ; B. agon. 366. All in to (for in\
370. All Alias (alas) ; read Eneas. 371. F. B. As ; the rest And.
K
130 IX. THE HOUS OF FAME. BOOK I.
But al the maner how she deyde, 375
And al the wordes that she seyde,
Who-so to knowe hit hath purpos,
Reed Virgile in Eneidos
Or the Epistle of Ovyde,
What that she wroot or that she dyde; 380
And nere hit to long to endyte,
By God, I wolde hit here wryte.
But, welaway! the harm, the routhe,
That hath betid for swich untrouthe,
As men may ofte in bokes rede, 385
And al day seen hit yet in dede.
That for to thinken hit, a tene is.
Lo, Demophon, duk of Athenis,
How he forswor him ful falsly,
And trayed Phillis wikkedly, 390
That kinges doghter was of Trace,
And falsly gan his terme pace ;
And when she wiste that he was fals.
She heng hir-self right by the hals,
For he had do hir swich untrouthe ; 395
Lo ! was not this a wo and routhe ?
Eek lo ! how fals and reccheles
Was to Briseida Achilles,
And Paris to Enone ;
And lason to Isiphile ; 400
And eft lason to Medea ;
And Ercules to Dyanira ;
For he lefte hir for lole.
That made him cacche his deeth, parde.
How fals eek was he, Theseus; 405
That, as the story telleth us,
375. Cx. Th. P. But; F. B. And. 381. F. And nor hyt were to;
Cx. And nere it were to ; Th. And nere it to ; B. P. And ner it were to.
Th. B. to endyte; F. Cx. tendyte. 387. F. B. thynke; Cx. Th.
thynken. 391. F. B. om. was. 402. Cx. Th. P. And ; Y. B. omit.
IX, THE nous OF FAME, BOOK I. 131
How he betrayed Adriane ;
The devel be his soules bane !
For had he laughed, had he loured,
He nioste have be al devoured, 410
If Adriane ne had y-be !
And, for she had of him pite,
She made him fro the dethe escape,
And he made hir a ful fals lape ;
For after this, within a whyle 415
He lefte hir slepinge in an yle,
Deserte alone, right in the se,
And stal away, and leet hir be ;
And took hir suster Phedra tho
With him, and gan to shippe go. 4-0
And }'et he had y-sworn to here,
On al that ever he mighte swere,
That, so she saved him his lyf,
He wolde have take hir to his w)'f;
For she desired nothing elles, 4-'5
In certeyn, as the book us telles.
But to excuscn Eneas
Fulliche of al his greet trespas,
The book seyth [how] Mercure, sauns faile,
Bad him go into Itaile, 4.1O
And leva Auffrykes regioun,
And Dido and hir faire toun.
Tho saw I grave, how to Itaile
Dan Eneas is go to saile ;
And how the tempest al began, 4.^5
And how he loste his steresman,
Which that the stere, or he took keep,
Smot over-bord, lo ! as he sleep.
And also saw I how Sibyle
410. Th. al ; Cx. all ; V. alle ; Y. B. om. 426. F. B. om. as mid us.
428. F. B. i;;«. greet. 429. I supply \iO\s. 433. F. B. how that ; rest
how. 434. Cx. P. to saylle j Th. for to sayle ; F. B. for to assayle.
K 2
132 IX. THE nous 0^ FAME. BOOK I.
And Eneas, besyde an yie, 44°
To helle wente, for to see
His fader, Anchises the free.
How he ther fond PaHnurus,
And Dido, and eek Deiphebus ;
And every tourment eek in helle 445
Saw he, which long is for to telle.
Which who-so willeih for to knowe,
He moste rede many a rowe
On Virgile or on Claudian,
Or Daunte, that hit telle can. 450
Tho saw I grave al tharivaile
That Eneas had in Itaile;
And with king Latine his tretee,
And alle the batailles that he
Was at him-self, and eek his knightes, 455
Or he had al y-wonne his rightes ;
And how he Turnus refte his lyf,
And wan Lavyna to his wyf ; «
And al the mervelous signals
Of the goddes celestials ; 460
How, maugre luno, Eneas,
For al hir sleight and hir compas,
Acheved al his aventure ;
For lupiter took of him cure
At the prayer of Venus; 465
The whiche I preye alway save us,
And us ay of our sorwes lighte !
Whan I had seen al this sighte
In this noble temple thus,
' A, Lord ! ' thoughte I, ' that madest us, . 470
Yet saw I never swich noblesse
Of ymages, ne swich richesse,
44^). Th. longe is for ; F. B. is longe. Cx. P. wliycht- no tonge can
telle. 451. For tharivaile, F. 15. Th. have the aryvaj'le ; Cx. the av-
ryuaylle ; F. the arevaille. 45S. Y. labina ; rest Lanyna.
IX. THE nous OF FAME. BOOK I. 133
As I saw graven in this chirche ;
But not woot I who dide hem wirche,
Ne wher I am, ne in what contree. 475
But now wol I go out and see,
Right at the wiket, if I can
See o-wher stering any man,
That may me telle wher I am.'
When I out at the dores cam, 480
I faste aboute me beheld.
Then saw I but a large feld,
As fer as that I mighte see,
Withouten toun, or hous, or tree,
Or bush, or gras, or ered lond; 485
For al the feld nas but of sond
As smal as man may se yet lye
In the desert of Libye;
Ne I no maner creature,
That is y-formed by nature, 490
Ne saw, me [for] to rede or wisse.
'■ O Crist,' thoughte I, ' that art in blisse,
Fro fantom and illusioun
Me save ! ' and with devocioun
Myn yen to the heven I caste. 495
Tho was I war, lo ! at the lastc,
That faste by the sonne, as hye
As kenne might I with myn ye.
Me thoughte I saw an egle sore.
But that hit semed moche more 500
Then I had any egle seyn.
But this, as soth as deth, certeyn.
Hit was of golde, and shoon so bright;
That never saw men such a sight.
475. F. B. omit in. 47S. Th. sten-nge any; the rest any stirj-nt;
(ster>-nge). 486. Cx. Th. P. was but of sonde (sande) ; F, B. nas
but sonde. 491. / insert for. Cx. Th. insert I after saw ; but it is
in 1. 489. 496. F. P omit lo. 504. F. B. omit lines 504-507.
134 ^^^'- THE HO us OF FAME. BOOK I.
]5ut-if the heven hadde ywonne 505
Al newe of golde another sonne;
So shoon the egles fethres brighte,
And somwhat dounward gan hit lighte. 50S
Explicit liber primus.
IX. THE HOUS OF FAINIK. BOOK II.
Incipit liber secundiis.
Proem.
Now herkneth, every maner man
That English understonde can, 510
And listeth of mv dreem to lerc :
For now at erste shul ye here
So sely an avisioun,
That Isaye, ne Scipioun,
Ne king Nabugodonosor, • 515
Pharo, Turnus, ne Eleanor,
Ne mette swich a dreem as this !
Now faire blisful, O Cipris,
So be my favour at this tyme !
And ye, me to endyte and ryme
Helpeth, that on Parnaso dwelle
By Elicon the clere welle.
O Thought, that wroot al that I mette,
And in the tresorie hit shctle
Of my brayn ! now shal men se 525
If any vertu in thee be,
To tellen al my dreem aright ;
Now kythe thyn engyne and might ! (20)
The Dream.
This egle. of which I have yow told,
That shoon with fethres as of gold, 53°
Which that so hye gan to sore,
I gan beholde more and more,
(10)
t20
Title. So in Cx. ; the rest omit it.
511. P. listeth; Th. lysleth ; F. Cx. listeneth ; B. lystneth. 514.
Vi. Th. Scipion ; F. P. Cipion ; B. Cypyon. 516. Th. Alcanorc.
136 IX, THE nous OF FAME. BOOK II .
To se her bcaute and the wonder;
But never was ther dint of thonder,
Ne that thing that men calle foudre, 535
That smit somtyme a tour to poudre,
And in his swifte coming brende,
That so swythe gan descende, (30)
As this foul, whan hit behelde
That I a-roume was in the felde ; 540
And with his grimme pawes stronge,
Within his sharpe nayles longe,
Me, fleinge, at a swappe he hente,
And with his sours agayn up wente,
\ Me caryinge in his clawes starke 54-;
As Hghtly as I were a larke,
How high, I can not telle yow,
For I cam up, I niste how. (40)
For so astonied and a-sweved
Was every vertu in my heved, 550
What with his sours and with my drede,
That al my fehng gan to dede;
For-why hit was to greet affray.
Thus I longe in his clawes lay,
Til at the laste he to me spak 555
In mannes vois, and seyde, ' Awak !
And be not so a-gast, for shame ! '
And called me tho by my name. (50)
And, for I sholde the bet abreyde —
Me mette — 'Awak,' to me he seyde, 560
Right in the same vois and stevene
That useth oon I coude nevene ;
And with that vois, soth for to sayn,
533. Cx. Th. P. her ; F. B. the. 535. F. B. kynge {by mistake for
thing). 536. Cx. Th. P. smyte ; F. B. smole. Cx. Th. P. to ; F.
1^- of- 537- Cx. Th. P. brende ; F. beende ; B. bende. 543. Cx.
Th. P. at ; F. B. in. 1^45. F. crj'inge (!). 548. Cx. P. cam ; F.
came. 552. P. Cx. Th. That ; F. B. And. F. felynge. 557. Cx. Th.
P. agast so {Imt read so agast) ; F. B. omit so. 558. Cx. Th. tho ;
which F. B. P. 07nit.
IX. THE HOUS OF FAME. BOOK 11. 1 ^J
My mynde cam to me agayn ;
For hit was goodly scyd to me, ,^65
So nas hit never wont to be.
And herwithal I gan to stere,
And he me in his feet to here, (60)
Til that he felte that I had hcte,
And felte eek tho myn herte bete. 570
And tho gan he me to disporte,
And with wordes to comforte,
And sayde twyes, ' Seynte Marie !
Thou art noyous for to carie,
And nothing nedith hit, parde ! 57-;
For al-so wis God helpe me
As thou noon harm shalt have of this ;
And this cas, that betid thee is, (70)
Is for thy lore and for thy prow ; —
Let see ! darst thou yet loke now ? 580
Be ful assured, boldely,
I am thy frend.' And therwilh I
Gan for to wondren in my mynde.
' O God,' thoughte I, ' that madest kynde,
Shal I noon other weyes dye .-' 585
Wher loves wol me stellifye,
Or what thing may this signifye ?
I neither am Enok, ne Elye, (80)
Ne Romulus, ne Ganymede
That was y-bore up, as men rede, 590
To heven with dan lupiter,
And mad the goddes boteler.'
Lo ! this was tho my fantasye !
But he that bar me gan espye
That I so thoghte, and seyde this : — 595
' Thou demest of thy-sclf amis ;
For loves is not ther-aboute —
566. B. nas; F. was. 570. F. that; the rest ih.o. 573. MSS.
seynt. 575. F. B. omit hit. 592. MSS. made.
338 IX. THE HOUS OF FAME. BOOKIE
I dar wel put thee out of doute — (90)
To make of thee as yet a sterre.
But er I bere thee moche ferre, 600
I wol thee telle what I am,
And whider thou shalt, and why I cam
[For] to do this, so that thou take
Good herte, and not for fere quake.'
' Gladly,' quod I. ' Now wel,' quod he : — 605
' First I, that in my feet have thee,
Of which thou hast a fere and wonder,
Am dwelling with the god of thonder, (10°)
Which that men callen lupiter,
That doth me flee ful ofte fer 610
To do al his comaundement.
And for this cause he hath me sent
To thee : now herke, by thy trouthe !
^ Certeyn, he hath of thee routhe,
\That thou so longe trewely 615
Hast served so ententifly
His blynde nevew Cupido,
And fair Venus [goddesse] also, (iio)
Withoute guerdoun ever yit,
And nevertheles hast set thy wit — 620
Although that in thy hede ful lyte is —
To make bokes, songes, dytees.
In ryme, or elles in cadence,
As thou best canst, in reverence
Of Love, and of his servants eke, 625
That have his servise soght, and seke ;
And peynest thee to preyse his art,
Althogh thou haddest never part; (120)
Wherfor, al-so God me blesse,
loves halt hit greet humblesse 630
603. I supply For. 618. goddesse is not in the MSS. The line is
obviously too short. 621. Y . Th. lytel ; Cx. lytyl ; B. litell ; P. litil
(all wrong); readXyie. 622. Cx. P. bookes songes or ditees ; Th.
bokes songes and ditees ; F. B. songes dytees bookys.
\
0
IX. THE HOUS OF FAME. BOOK II. 1 39
And vcrtu eck, that thou wok make
A-night ful ofte thyn heed to ake.
In thy studie so thou wrytest,
And cver-mo of 1 ve cndytcst,
In honour of him and in preysingcs, 635
And in his folkes furthcringes,
And in hir matere al devysest,
And noght him nor his folk despysest, (^3°) /
Although thou mayst go in the daunce
Of hem that him list not avaunce. 640
Wherfor, as I seyde, y-wis,
lupiter considereth this,
And also, beau sir, other thinges ;
That is, that thou hast no tydinges
Of Loves folk, if they be glade, 645
Ne of noght elles that God made ;
And noght only fro fer contree
That ther no tyding comth to thee, (140)
But of thy verray neyghebores,
That dwellen almost at thy dores, 650
Thou herest neither that ne this ;
For whan thy labour don al is.
And hast mad al thy rekeninges.
In stede of reste and newe thinges,
Thou gost hoom to thy hous anoon ; 655
And, also domb as any stoon.
Thou sittest at another boke,
Til fully daswed is thy loke, (15°)
And livest thus as an hermyte.
Although thyn abstinence is lyte. 660
'And therfor loves, through his grace,
Wol that I bere thee to a place,
Which that hight the House of Fame,
647. F. frerre {by mistake^. 651. F. ner ; B. nor; Cx. Th. P. ne.
653. Cx. made alle thy; Th. made al thy; V. I-made alle thy; F.
ymade ; B. I-made. 658. Cx. P. daswed ; F. B. dasewyd ; Th. dased.
140 IX. THE HO US OF FAME. BOOK H.
To do the som disport and game,
In som recompensacioun 665
Of labour and devocioun
That thou hast had, lo ! causeles.
To Cupido, the reccheles ! (160)
And thus this god, thorgh his meryte,
Wol with som maner thing thee quyte, 670
So that thou wolt be of good chere.
For truste wel, that thou shalt here,
When we be comen ther I seye,
Mo wonder thinges, dar I leye,
Of Loves folke mo tydinges, 675
Both sothe sawes and lesinges ;
And mo loves new begonne.
And longe y-served loves wonne, (17°)
And mo loves casuelly
That ben betid, no man woot why, 680
But as a blind man stert an hare;
And more lolytee and fare,
Whyl that they fynde love of stele.
As thinketh hem, and overal wele ;
Mo discords, and mo lelousyes, 685
Mo murmurs, and mo novelryes,
And mo dissimulaciouns.
And feyned reparaciouns ; , (180)
And mo berdes in two houres
Withoute rasour or sisoures 690
Y-mad, then greynes be of sondes ;
And eke mo holdinge in hondes,
And also mo renovelaunces
Of olde forleten aqueyntaunces ;
Mo love-dayes and acordes, 695
Then on instruments ben cordes ;
And eke of loves mo eschaunges
673. Cx. Th. comen ; F. come. 680. Cx. Th. ben; P. been ; F.
B. omit. 682. Cx. Th. P. welfare. 696. F. B. acordes (!)
IX. THE HOUS OF FAME. BOOK 11. 14 1
Than ever cornes were in g^raunges; ('9°)
Unethe maistow trowen this ? ' —
Quod he. ' No, helpe me God so wis ! ' — 700
Quod I. ' No ? why ? ' quod he. ' For hit
Were impossible, to my wit,
Though that Fame hadde al the pyes
In al a realme, and al the spyes,
How that yet he shulde here al this, 70.^
Or they espye hit.' ' O yis, yis ! '
Quod he to me, ' that can I preve
By resoun, worthy for to levc, (200)
So that thou yeve thyn advertence
To understonde my sentence. 710
' First shalt thou heren wher she dwelleth,
And so thyn owne book hit telleth;
Hir paleys stant, as I shal seye,
Right even in middes of the weye y *
Betwixen hevene, erthe, and see; L/ 715
That, what-so-ever in al these three
Is spoken, in prive or aperte,
The air therto is so overte, (•^10)
And stant eek in so luste a place.
That every soun mot to hit pace, 720
Or what so comth fro any tonge,
Be hit rouned, red, or songe,
Or spoke in surete or in drede,
Certein, hit moste thider nede.
' Now herkne wel ; for-why I wille 725
Tellen thee a propre skille.
And worthy demonstracioun
In myn imagynacioun. (220)
' Geffrey, thou wost right wel this,
That every kyndly thing that is, 730
711. P. heren; ?w/ here. 715. F". and crthc ; rest omit ^x\<\. 717.
Cx. Th. P. in ; F. B. either. 718. F. B. aire ; P. wey; C.x. Th. way.
727. Cx. Th. a worthy ; P. a wurthy ; F. worthe a ; B. worth a ; hut a
seems needless.
I
142 IX. THE nous OF FAME. BOOK II.
Hath a kyndly stcd ther he
May best in hit conserved be ;
Unto which place every thing,
Through his kyndly enclyning,
Moveth for to come to, 735
Whan that hit is awey therfro ;
As thus ; lo, thou mayst al day se
That any thing that hevy be, (230)
As stoon or leed, or thing of wight,
And ber hit never so hye on hight, 740
Lat go thyn hand, hit falleth doun.
' Right so sey I by fyre or soun,
Or smoke, or other thinges lighte,
Alwey they seke upward on highte ;
Whyl ech of hem is at his large, 745
Light thing up, and dounward charge.
' And for this cause mayst thou see,
That every river to the see (240)
Enclyned is to go, by kynde.
And by these skilles, as I fynde, 750
Hath fish dwelling in floode and see,
And trees eek in erthe be.
Thus every thing by this resoun
Hath his propre mansioun,
To which hit seketh to repaire, 755
As ther hit shulde not apaire.
Lo, this sentence is knowen couthe
Of every philosophres mouthe, (250)
As Aristotile and dan Platon,
And other clerkes many oon ; 760
And to confirme my resoun,
Thou wost wel this, that speche is soun,
Or elles no man mighte hit here ;
Now herkne what I wol thee lere.
746. Cx. Th. vp; F. B. P. vpwarde. Cx. Th. P. transpose 745, 746.
755. B. it ; F. oni.; Cx. Th. P. he. 764. All herke ; see 1. 725.
IX. THE nous OF FAME. BOOK IT. 1 43
' Soun is noght but air }-broken, 765
And every speche that is spoken,
Loud or prive, foul or fair,
In his substaunce is but air ; (260)
For as flaumbe is but lighted smoke,
Right so soun is air v-broke. 7-0
But this may be in many wyse,
Of which I wil thee two devyse,
As soun that comth of pype or harpe.
For whan a pype is blowen sharpe,
The air is twist with violence, 775
And rent ; lo, this is my sentence ;
Eek, W'han men harpe-stringes smyte,
Whether hit be moche or lyte, (-7°)
Lo, with the strook the air to-breketh ;
Right so hit breketh whan men speketh. 7S0
Thus wost thou wel what thing is speche.
' Now hennesforth I wol thee teche,
How every speche, or noise, or soun,
Through his multiplicacioun,
Thogh hit were pyped of a mouse, 785
Moot nede come to Fames House.
I preve hit thus — tak hede now —
By experience ; for if that thou (280)
Throwe on water now a stoon,
Wel wost thou, hit wol make anoon 7yo
A litel roundel as a cercle,
Paraventure brood as a covercle ;
And right anoon thou shalt see weel,
That wheel wol cause another wheel,
And that the thridde, and so forth, brother, 71;;;
Every cercle causing other,
766. Cx. Th. spoken ; P. poken (!) ; F. B. yspoken. 773. Cx. Th. 1'.
As; F. B. Of (copied from 1. 772). 7S0. Cx. Th. P. And n-ght so
lirckyth it ; F. B. omit this line. 789. F. Thorwe ; B. P. Throw ;
Cx. Th. Threwe. 794. F. Th. B. whele sercle {/or u/ wheel"; Cx.
P. omit the line. (Sercle is a gloss upon wheel).
0
144 I^' THE HOUS OF FAME. BOOK 11.
Wyder than himselve was;
And this fro roundel to compas, (290)
Ech aboute other goinge,
Caused of othres steringe, 800
And multiplying ever-mo,
Til that hit be so far y-go
That hit at bothe brinkes be.
Al-thogh thou mowe hit not y-see
Above, hit goth yet alway under, So
Although thou thenke hit a gret wonder.
And who-so seith of trouthe I varie,
Bid him proven the contrarie. (300)
And right thus every word, ywis,
That loude or prive y-spoken is, 810
Moveth first an air aboute,
And of this moving, out of doute,
Another air anoon is meved,
As I have of the water preved.
That every cercle causeth other. Si.n
Right so of air, my leve brother ;
Everich air in other stereth
More and more, and speche up bereth, (31°)
Or vois, or noise, or word, or soun,
Ay through multiplicacioun, 820
Til hit be atte House of Fame ; —
Take hit in ernest or in game.
'Now have I told, if thou have mynde.
How speche or soun, of pure kynde,
Enclyned is upward to meve ; 825
This mayst thou fele wel, I preve.
And that [the mansioun], y-wis,
That every thing enclyned to is, (320)
798. F. B. om. to. 803. F. Tyl ; rest That. 804. F. om. thogh.
805. F. B. om. alway. 817. F. B. om. in. 821. Cx. Th. P. at the.
823. Cx. Th. P. thou haue ; F. B. ye hane in. 827. F. And that
sum place stide ; B. And that som styde ; Th. And that some stede ;
Cx. V.'omit the line ; read KxiH that the mansioun [^sce 11. 754, 831).
IX. THE HOUS OF FAME. BOOK H. 1 45
Hath his kyndeliche stede :
That sheweth hit, withouten dredc, 830
That kyndely the mansioun
Of every speche, of every soun,
Be hit either foul or fair,
Hath his kynde place in air.
And sin that every thing, that is 835
Out of his kynde place, y-\vis,
Moveth thider for to go,
If hit a-\veye be therfro, (33°)
As I before have preved thee,
Hit seweth, every soun, parde, 840
Moveth kyndely to pace
Al up into his kyndely place.
And this place of which I telle,
Ther as Fame list to dwelle,
Is set amiddes of these three, 845
Heven, erthe, and eek the see,
As most conservatif the soun.
Than is this the conclusioun, (34°)
That every speche of every man,
As 1 thee telle first began, 850
Moveth up on high to pace
Kyndely to Fames place.
' Telle me this feithfully,
Have I not preved thus simj)l}-,
Withouten any subtilte 855
Of speche, or gret prolixite
Of termes of philosophye.
Of figures of poetrye, (350)
Or coloures, or rethoryke ?
Parde, hit oghte thee to lyke ; 860
For hard langage and hard matere
Is encombrous for to here
At ones; wost thou not wel this.-'
838. MSS. a wey, away. 839. Y. Th. B. hauc before ; Cx. P. omit
the line. 853. th. B. this ; F. thus. 860. All ought.
L
146 IX. THE HOUS OF FAME. BOOK IT.
And 1 answerde, and seyde, 'Yis.'
'A ha ! ' quod he, ' lo, so I can, 865
Lewedly to a lewed man
Speke, and shewe him swiche skilles,
That he may shake hem by the billes, (360)
So palpable they shulden be.
But telle me this, now pray I thee, 870
How thinkth thee my conclusioun ? '
[Quod he]. 'A good persuasioun,'
Quod I, ' hit is ; and lyk to be
Right so as thou hast preved me.'
* By God,' quod he, ' and as I leve, 875
Thou shalt have yit, or hit be eve,
Of every word of this sentence
A preve, by experience ; (370)
And with thyn eres heren wel
Top and tail, and everydel, 880
That every word that spoken is
Comth into Fames Hous, y-wis.
As I have seyd ; what wilt thou more ? '
And with this word upper to sore
He gan, and seyde, ' By Seynt lame ! 885
Now wil we speken al of game.' —
' How farest thou ? ' quod he to me.
' Wel,' quod I. ' Now see,' quod he, (s^o)
' By thy trouthe, yond adoun,
Wher that thou knowest any toun, 890
Or hous, or any other thing.
And whan thou hast of ought knowing,
Loke that thou warne me,
And I anoon shal telle thee
How fer that thou art now therfro.' 89,^
And I adoun gan loken tho,
And beheld feldes and plaines,
866. P. to a lewde ; Cx. Th. vnto a lewde ; F. trt'alwed (!) ; B.
talwyd (!\ S72. All omit Quod he; cf. 11. 700, 701. 873. P. Cx.
Th. I ; F. B. he. F. B. me i^for be). 896. Cx. Th. gan to ; rest to (!).
IX. THE nous OF FAME. BOOK //. 147
And now hillcs, and now mountaines, (390)
Now valeys, and now forestes,
And now, unethes, grete bestes; 900
Now riveres, now citees,
Now tonnes, and now grete trees,
Now shippes sailinge in the see.
But thus sone in a whyle he
Was flowen fro the grounde so hye, 905
That al the world, as to myn ye,
No more semed than a prikke ;
Or elles was the air so thikke (400)
That I ne mighte not discerne.
With that he spak to me as yerne, 910
And seyde : ' Seestow any [toun]
Or ought thou knowest yonder doun ? '
I seyde, ' Nay.' ' No wonder nis/
Quod he, ' for half so high as this
Nas Alexander Macedo ; 915
Ne the king, dan Scipio,
That saw in dreme, at point devys,
Helle and erthe, and paradys ; (410)
Ne eek the wrecche Dedalus,
Ne his child, nice Icarus, 920
That fleigh so highe that the hete
His winges malt, and he fel wete
In-mid the see, and ther he dreynte.
For whom was maked moch compleynte.
' Now turn upward,' quod he, ' thy face, 925
And behold this large place,
This air; but loke thou ne be
Adrad of hem that thou shalt se ; (420)
For in this regioun, certein,
899. F. B. P. om. nntl. 911. F. B. omit this line, y^r Seestow Cx.
Th. P. have Seest thou. For toun, all have token; sec 1. 890. 912.
From P. ; F. B. omit this line. Cx. Or ought that in the world is of
spoken ; Th. Or aught that in this worlde is of spoken ; see I. 889.
913. F. B. om. I seyde.
L 2
148 IX. THE HOUS OF FAME. BOOK II.
Dwelleth many a citezein, 93°
Of which that speketh dan Plato.
These ben eyrisshe bastes, lo ! '
And so saw I al that meynee
Bothe goon and also flee.
' Now,' quod he tho, * cast up thyn ye ; 935
Se yonder, lo, the Galaxye,
Which men clepeth the Milky Wey,
For hit is whyt : and somme, parfey, {430)
Callen hit Watlinge Strete :
That ones was y-brent with hete, 94°
Whan the sonnes sone, the rede,
That highte Pheton, wolde lede
Algate his fader cart, and gye.
The cart-hors gonne wel espye
That he ne coude no governaunce, 945
And gonne for to lepe and launce,
And beren him now up, now doun,
Til that he saw the Scorpioun, (440)
Which that in heven a signe is yit.
And he, for ferde, lost his wit, 950
Of that, and lat the reynes goon
Of his hors ; and they anoon
Gonne up to mounte, and doun descende
Til bothe the air and erthe brende ;
Til lupiter, lo, atte laste, 955
Him slow, and fro the carte caste.
Lo, is it not a greet mischaunce.
To lete a fole han governaunce (450)
Of thing that he can not demeine ? '
And with this word, soth for to seyne, 960
He gan alway upper to sore,
And gladded me ay more and more,
956. F. B. fer fro ; P. Cx. Th. om. fer. 957. Cx. P. grete ; Th. great ;
F. mochil ; B. mochill. 961. Cx. Th. P. alway vpper; F. B. vpper
alway for. Cf. 1. 8S4.
IX. TlfE nous OF FAME. BOOK 11. 149
So feilhfully to me spak he.
Tho gan I loken under me,
And beheld the eyrisshe bestes, 965
Cloudes, mistes, and tempestes,
Snowes, hailes, reines, windes,
And thengendring in her kyndes, (460)
Al the way through whiche I cam ;
' O God,' quod I, ' that made Adam, 970
iNIoche is thy might and thy noblesse ! '
And tho thoughte I upon Boece,
That writ, ' a thought may flee so hye,
With fetheres of Philosophye,
To passen everich element; 975
And whan he hath so fer ywent,
Than may be seen, behynd his bak,
Cloud, and al that I of spak.' (470)
Tho gan I wexen in a were,
And seyde, * 1 M'oot w-el I am here ; 980
But wher in body or in gost
I noot, y-wis ; but God, thou wost ! '
For more clere entendement
Nadde he me never yit y-sent.
And than thoughte I on Marcian, 985
And eek on Anteclaudian,
That sooth was her descripcioun
Of al the hevenes regioun, (480)
As fer as that I saw the preve ;
Therfor I can hem now beleve. 990
With that this egle gan to crye :
* Lat be,' quod he, ' thy fantasye ;
Wilt thou lere of sterres aught ? '
' Nay, certeinly,' quod I, ' right naught ;
And why? for I am now to old.' 995
'Elles I wolde thee have told,'
964. F. Th. B. ins. to bef. loken. 973. Cx. Th. wryteth; F. writ.
K. B. of {for a). 978. So P. Cx. ; rest ins. and erthe bcf. and.
984. F. B. Nas {ptn. he me) ; Th. Nas me; Cx. P. Nadde he me.
150 IX. THE IIOUS OF FAME. BOOK II.
Quod he, ' the sterres names, lo,
And al the hevenes signes ther-to, (490)
And which they ben.' ' No fors,' quod 1.
' Yis, parde,' quod he ; ' wostow why ? 1000
For whan thou redest poetrye,
How goddes gonne stellifye
Brid, fish, beste, or him or here,
As the Raven, or either Bere,
Or Ariones harpe fyne, 1005
Castor, Polux, or Delphyne,
Or Athalantes doughtres sevene.
How alle these arn set in hevene ; (500)
For though thou have hem ofte on honde,
Yet nostow not wher that thev stonde.' loio
'No fors,' quod I, 'hit is no nede ;
I leve as wel, so God me spede,
Hem that wryte of this matere,
As though I knew her places here ;
And eek they shynen here so brighte, 1015
:^ Hit shulde shenden al my sighte,
To loke on hem.' ' That may wel be,'
Quod he. And so forth bar he me (510)
A whyl, and than he gan to crye,
That never herde I thing so hye, 1020
' Now up the heed ; for al is wel ;
Seynt lulyan, lo, bon hostel !
Se here the House of Fame, lo !
JMaistow not heren that I do?'
' What ? ' quod I. ' The grete soun,' 1025
Quod he, 'that rumbleth up and doun
In Fames Hous, ful of tydinges,
Bothe of fair speche and chydinges, (520)
And of fals and soth compouned.
999. F. B. insert and before No. 1003. F. B. Briddes ; P. Brid ; Cx.
Byrd; Th. Byrde. 1014. Cx. Th. P. As; F. Alle; B. Al. 1015.
Cx. P. they sh>Tien ; F. Th. B. thy seliien (^!). 1029. F. inserts that
before soth.
IX. THE HOUS OF FAME. BOOK II. 151
Herkne wel ; hit is not rouned. 1030
Herestow not the grete swogh ? '
' Yis, parde,' quod I, ' wel ynogh.'
' And what soun is it lyk ? ' quod he.
' Peter ! lyk beting of the see,'
Quod I, 'again the roches holowe, 1035
Whan tempest doth the shippes swalowe ;
And lat a man stonde, out of doute,
A mj'le thens, and here hit route ; (530)
Or elles lyk the last humblinge
After a clappe of 00 thundringe, 1040
When loves hath the air y-bete ;
But hit doth me for fere swete.'
' Nay, dred thee not therof,' quod he,
' Hit is nothing wil beten thee ;
Thou shall non harm have trewely,' 1045
And with this word bothe he and I
As nigh the place arryved were
As men may casten with a spere, (540)
1 niste how, but in a street
He sette me faire on my feet, 1050
And seyde, 'Walkc forth a pas,
And tak thyn aventure or cas,
That thou shalt fynde in Fames place.'
' Now,' quod I, ' whyl we han space
To speke, or that I go fro thee, 1055
For the love of God, [now] telle me,
In sooth, that I wol of the lere,
If this noise that I here (5.=^°)
Be, as I have herd thee tcUen,
Of folk that doun in erthe dwellen, 1060
And comth here in the same wyse
As I thee herde or this devyse ;
And that ther lyves body nis
1030. Cx. Herkne ; P. B. Herken ; F. Ilerke. 1034. F. B. P. cm.
lyk. 1044. F. P. beten ; Th. B. byten ; Cx. ^reuc. 1056. / supply now.
1057. Cx. Th. P. I wyl; F. B. wil I. 1063. F. B. om. And.
152 IX. THE HO US OF FAME. BOOK II.
In al that hous that yonder is,
That maketh al this loude fare ? ' 1065
' No,' quod he, ' by Seynte Clare,
And also wis God rede me !
But o thinge I wil warne thee (560)
Of the which thou wolt have wonder.
Lo, to the House of Fame yonder 1070
Thou wost how cometh every speche,
Hit nedeth noght thee eft to teche.
But understond now right wel this ;
Whan any speche y-comen is
Up to the paleys, anon-right 1075
Hit wexeth lyk the same wight,
Which that the word in erthe spak,
Be hit clothed reed or blak; (570)
And hath so verray his lyknesse
That spak the word, that thou wilt gesse loSo
That hit the same body be,
Man or woman, he or she.
And is not this a wonder thing .? '
' Yis,' quod I tho, ' by hevene king ! '
And with this worde, ' Farwel,' quod he, 1085
' And here I wol abyden thee ;
And God of hevene sende thee grace,
Som good to lernen in this place.' (580)
And I of him tok leve anoon,
And gan forth to the paleys goon. 1090
Explicit liber seciindus.
1071. F. B. in^. now bef. how. 1072. Th. the efte; Cx. the more ;
P. B. eft the. 1079. Cx. Th. hath so very; P. hath so verrey ; F.
B. so were (!). 1080. Cx. P. That ; F. B. Th. And (!). 1088. F.
Cx. Th. leme ; read lernen.
Colophon. — Fi-otn Cx. Th.
IX. THE HOUS OF FAME. BOOK III.
Incipit liber tercius.
htvocalioti.
0 God of science and of light,
Apollo, through thy grete might,
This litel laste book thou gye !
Nat that I wilne, for maistrye,
Here art poetical be shewed ; 1095
But, for the rym is light and lewed,
Yit make hit sumwhat agreable,
Though som vers faile in a Billable ;
And that I do no diligence
To shewe craft, but o sentence. (10) iioo
And if, divyne vertu, thou
Wilt helpe me to shewe now
That in myn hede y-marked is —
Lo, that is for to menen this,
The Hous of Fame for to descryve — 1105
Thou shalt se me go, as blyve,
Unto the nexte laure I see.
And kisse hit, for hit is thy tree;
Now entreth in my breste anoon ! —
The Dream.
Whan I was fro this egle goon, (20) mo
1 gan beholde upon this place.
And certein, or I ferther pace,
I wol yow al the shap devyse
Of hous and citee; and al the wyse
iioi. Cx. Th. tliou ; P. thow; F. nowe; B. now. 1102. Cx. P.
now; Th. nowe; F. yowe ; B. yow. 1106. F. B. men; rest me.
1 113. F. B this ; rest the.
154 i^' t^ie: ho us of fame, book hi.
How I gan to this place aproche 1115
That stood upon so high a roche,
Hyer stant then noon in Spaine.
But up I clomb with alle paine,
And though to clymbe hit greved me,
Yit I ententif was to see, (30) 11 20
And for to pouren wonder lowe,
If I coude any weyes knowe
What maner stoon this roche was ;
For hit was lyk a thing of glas,
But that hit shoon ful more clere; 11 25
But of what congeled matere
Hit was, I niste redely.
But at the laste espied I,
And found that hit was, every del,
A roche of yse, and not of steel. (40) 1130
Thoughte I, ' By Seynt Thomas of Kent I
This were a feble foundement
To bilden on a place hye ;
He oughte him litel glorify e
That her-on bilt, God so me save!' 11 35
Tho saw I al the half y-grave
With famous folkes names fele,
That had y-ben in mochel wele,
And her fames wyde y-blowe.
But wel unethes coude I knowe (50) 11 40
Any lettres for to rede
Her names by; for, out of drede,
They were almost of-thowed so,
That of the lettres oon or two
Were molte away of every name, 1145
So unfamous was wexe hir fame ;
But men seyn, ' What may ever laste ? '
Tho gan I in myn herte caste,
1115. F.hysOrthis). 1119. Cx. P. it ; B. yt ; Y.T\i.o>n. 1127.
Th. I nyste ; Cx. I ne wyst ; P. I nust ; F. B. nyste I neuer. 1132.
F. B. fundament; rest foundement. 11 36. F. B. om. al; cf. 1. 1151.
IX. THE nous OF FAME. BOOK ///. 1 55
That they were molte awey wilh hete,
And not awey with stormes bete. (60) 1150
For on that other syde I sey
Of this hille, thai northward lay,
How hit was writcn ful of names
Of folk that hadden grete fames
Of olde tyme, and yit they were 1155
As fresshe as men had Writen hem there
The selve day right, or that houre
That I upon hem gan to poure.
But wel I wiste what hit made ;
Hit was conserved with the shade. (70) 1160
Al this wryting that I sy
Of a castel stood on hy;
And stood eek on so colde a place,
That hete mighte hit not deface.
The gan I up the hille to goon, 1165
And fond upon the coppe a woon,
That alle the men that ben on lyve
Ne han the cunning to descryve
The beaute of that ilke place,
Ne coude casten no compace (80) 1170
Swich another for to make,
That mighte of beaute be his make,
Ne [be] so wonderliche y-wrought ;
That hit astonieth yit my thought.
And makcth al my wit to swinke 1175
On this castel to bethinke.
So that the grete beaute,
The cast, the curiosite
Ne can I not to yow devyse.
My wit ne may me not suffyse. (90) iiSo
But nalheles al the substance
I have yit in my remembrance;
1 1 54. F. B. folkes; rest folk. 1155. F. tymes; rest tyme. K.
there; ;vj-^ they. 1156. Cx. Th. P. there ; F. B. here. 11 73. /
supply be. 1178. F. To; the rest The.
156 IX. THE nous OF FAME. BOOK III.
For-why me thoughte, by Seynt Gyle !
/ Al was of stone of beryle,
Bothe the castel and the tour, 11S5
And eek the halle, and every bour,
Withouten peces or loininges.
But many subtil compassinges,
Babewinnes and pinacles,
Ymageries and tabernacles, (100) 1190
I saw ; and ful eek of windowes,
As flakes falle in grete snowes.
And eek in ech of the pinacles
Weren sondry habitacles, "\
In whiche stoden, al withoute, "95
(Ful the castel, al aboute),
Of alle maner of minstrales,
And gestiours, that tellen tales
Bothe of weping and of game,
Of al that longeth unto Fame. (no) 1200
Ther herde I pleyen on an harpe
That souned bothe wel and sharpe,
Orpheus ful craftely.
And on the syde faste by
Sat the harper Orion, 1205
And Eacides Chiron,
And other harpers many oon,
And the Bret Glascurion ;
And smale harpers with her glees
Saten under hem in sees, (120) j2io
And gonne on hem upward to gape,
And countrefete hem as an ape,
Or as craft countrefeteth kynde,
Tho saugh I stonden hem behynde,
1 185. F. B. om. the before castel. 1189. F. Rabewyures or Rabe-
wynres ; B. Rabevvynnes ; Cx. As babeuwryes ; Th. As babeuries ; P.
Babeweuries. 1195. F. B. ow. stoden. 1197. F. ow. of. 1201.
F. B. vpon ; rest on. 1202. F. B. sowneth ; rest so\viied. 1206.
F. P. Eaycidis ; Cx. Th. Gacides. 1208. B. bret; Th. Briton ;
Cx. Bryton; P. Bret?/r; F. gret. 1210, i, 2, 4. F. hym 'Jor hem).
1 21 1. Cx. Th. P. gape ; F. iape ; B. yape.
IX. THE HOUS OF FAME. BOOK HI. 1 57
A-fer fro hem, al by hemselve, 1215
Many thousand tymes twelve,
That maden loude menstralcyes
In cornemuse, and shalmyes,
And many other maner pype,
That craftely begunne pype (13°) 1220
Bothc in doucet and in rede,
That ben at festes with the brede ;
And many floute and lilting-horne,
And pypes made of grene corne,
As han thise Htel herde-gromes, 1J25
That kepen bestes in the bromes.
Ther saugh I than Atiteris,
And of Athenes dan Pseustis,
And Marcia that lost her skin,
Bothe in face, body, and chin, (14°) 1230
For that she wolde envyen, lo !
To pypen bet then Apollo.
Ther saugh I fames, olde and yonge,
Pypers of al the Duche tonge,
To lerne love-daunces, springes, 1235
Reyes, and these straunge thinges.
Tho saugh I in another place
Stonden in a large space,
Of hem that maken blody soun
In trumpe, beme, and clarioun ; (150) '^4°
For in fight and blode-sheding
Is used gladly clarioning.
Ther herde I trumpen Messenus,
Of whom that speketh VirgiHus.
Ther herde I trumpe loab also, 1243
1 320. F. Cx. Th. B. to pipe ; P. om. to. 1221. F. B. riede ; rest
rede. 1222. Cx. Th. P. brede; B. Bryede ; F. bride. 1227. F.
Atiteris ; B. Aty-terys ; Cx. Th. dan Cytherus ; P. an Citherns. F. B.
transpose lines 1227 and 1228. 1228. F. Pseustis; B. Pseustys ; Cx.
Th. Proserus ; P. presentus. 1234. F. om. the. 1236. Cx. Th.
Reyes; P. KeyJ)s; F. B. Reus. 1241. F. seight(!) ; /^r fight.
158 IX. THE nous OF FAME. BOOK III.
Theodomas, and other mo;
And al that used clarion
In Cataloigne and Aragon,
That in her tyme famous were
To lerne, saugh I trumpe there. (^6°) 1250
Ther saugh I sitte in other sees,
Pleyinge upon sondry glees,
Whiche that I cannot nevene,
Mo then sterres ben in hevene,
Of whiche I nil as now not ryme, 1255
Forese of yow, and losse of lyme :
For tyme y-lost, this knowen ye,
By no way may recovered be.
Ther saugh I pleyen logelours,
Magiciens, and tregetours, (170) 1260
And phitonesses, charmeresses,
Olde wicches, sorceresses,
That use exorsisaciouns,
And eek thise fumigaciouns ;
And clerkes eek, which conne wel 1265
Al this magyke naturel,
That craftely don her ententes,
To make, in certeyn ascendentes,
Images, lo, through which magyke,
To make a man ben hool or syke. (180) '270
Ther saugh I the queen Medea,
And Circes eke, and Calipsa ;
Ther saugh I Hermes Ballenus,
Lymote, and eek Simon IMagus.
Ther saugh I, and knew hem by name, 1275
That by such art don men han fame.
Ther saua;h I Colle tregetour
1 255. Cx. Th. P. as now not ; F. B. not now. 1259. Th. pleyeng :
r^'j-/ pley ; r^ar/ pleyen. 1262. F. wrecches (a'rOT?°'/j') ; _/br wicches.
1272. Cx. Th. P. Circes; F. Artes; B. Artys. 1273. .S"^ in all.
1274. Cx. Th. Lymote; F. Limete ; B. Lumete ; P. Llymote. 1275,6,
Irom B. ; F. om. both lines. P. hem ; B. 07n.
IX. THE IIOVS OF FAME. BOOK III. 159
Upon a table of sicamour
Pleye an uncouthe thing to telle ;
I saugh him carien a wind-melle ('9°) '^80
Under a walshe-note shale.
What shuld I make longer tale
Of al the peple that I say,
Fro hennes in-to domesday?
Whan I had al this folk beholde, 1285
And fond me lous, and noght y-holde,
And eft y-mused longe whyle
Upon these walles of beryle,
That shoon ful lighter than a glas,
And made wel more than hit was (200) 1290
To semen, every thing, y-wis,
As kynde thing of fames is ;
I gan forth romen til I fond
The castel-yate on my right hond,
Which that so wel corven was 1 295
That never swich another nas ;
And yit hit was by aventiire
Y-wroiight, as often as by cure.
Hit nedeth noght yow for to tellen,
To make yow to longe dwellen, (210) J 300
Of these yates florisshinges,
Ne of compasses, ne of kervinges,
Ne [of] the hacking in masoneries,
As corbettes and ymageries.
But, Lord ! so fair hit was to shewe, 1 305
For hit was al with gold bchewe.
But in I wente, and that anon ;
1278. Th. Svcamour ; F. B. Svgamour; Cx. Sycomoiir; P. Cicomour.
r283. F. B. y Iher; rest that I.' 1285. F. B. folkys. 12S6. B.
I-holde ; Cx. Th. P. holde ; F. y-colde. 12S7. Cx. P. eft ; F. oft ;
B. all; Th. oni. F. B. P. I mused. 1293. F. B. to; rest forth.
1299. Cx. P. for; rest more. 1303. F. how they hat ; B. how they
hate ; Cx. how the hackyng ; P. Th. how the hackyngc. But tcc- mu.<tt
read oi for liow. 1304. .S"^ in Cx. Th. P.; B. As corbettz, full of
ymageryes; V . K.i <:.Qi\i€i.z, followed by a blank space.
l6o IX. THE HOUS OF FAME. BOOK TIL
Ther mette I crying many on, —
* A larges, larges, hold up wel !
God save the lady of this pel,'^' (220) 1310
Our owne gentil lady Fame,
And hem that wilnen to have name
Of us ! ' Thus herde I cryen alle,
And faste comen out of halle,
And shoken nobles and sterlinges. 131 5
And somme crouned were as kinges,
With crounes wroght ful of losinges ;
And many riban, and many fringes
Were on her clothes trewely.
Tho atte laste aspyed I (230) 1320
That pursevauntes and heraudes,
That cryen riche folkes laudes,
Hit weren alle ; and every man
Of hem, as I yow tellen can.
Had on him throwen a vesture, 1325
Which that men clepe a cote-armure,
Enbrowded wonderliche riche,
Al-though they nere nought yliche.
But noght nil I, so mote I thryve,
Ben aboute to discryve (-240) 1330
Al these armes that ther weren.
That they thus on her cotes beren.
For hit to me were impossible ;
Men mighte make of hem a bible
Twenty foot thikke, as I trowe. 1335
For certeyn, who-so coude y-knowe
Mighte ther alle the armes seen,
Of famous folk that han y-been
In Auffrike, Europe, and Asye,
Sith first began the chevalrye. (250) 1340
1309. F. hald; ;rj-/ hold (holde). 1315- Cx. Th. P. shoke ; F.
shoon ; B. shone. 1316. F. B. As (y^r And . 1321. F. herauldes.
1326. F. crepen (!\ 1327. P. wonderliche ; M^r ptj/ wonderlv. 1328.
Cx. P. Alle though ; F. Th. B. As though. 1332. Cx. Th' P. cotes ;
F. B. cote. 1335- F. B. om. as.
IX. THE nous OF FAME. BOOK I IF. l6l
Lo ! how shulde I* now telle al this?
Ne of the halle eek what nede is
To tellen yow, that every wal
Of hit, and floor, and roof and al
Was plated half a fote thikke 17,45
Of gold, and that nas no-thing wikke,
But, for to prove in- alle wyse.
As fyn as ducat in Venyse,
Of whiche to lyte al in my pouche is? ^
And they wer set as thik of nouchis (260) 1350
Fulle of the fynest stones faire,
That men rede in the Lapidaire,
As greses growen in a mede ;
But hit were al to longe to rede
The names; and therfore I pace. 1355
But in this riche lusty place,
That Fames halle called was,
Ful moche prees of folk ther nas,
Ne crouding, for to mochil prees.
But al on hye, above a dees, (-7°) ^3^^
Sittc in a see imperial,
That maad was of a rubee al.
Which that a carbuncle is y- called,
I saugh, perpetually y-stalled,
A feminyne creature; 1365
That never formed by nature
Nas swich another thing y-seye.
For altherfirst, soth for to seye.
Me thoughte that she was so lyte,
That the lengthe of a cubyte (280) 1370
Was lenger than she semed be ;
But thus sone, in a whyle, she
1349. ^- ^- litel ; rest lyte. I35i- T- t^"x. Full; rest Fync.
1353. P. As ; Cx. Th. Or as ; F. B. Of. 1356. P. Cx. riche lusty :
rest lusty and riche. 1361. Y. Sit; B. Syt; Cx. Sat; Th. Satie ;
;r<7r/Sitte. 1369. F. B oni. that. I37i- ^' ■ K. omit semed be.
1372. So Cx. Th. P.; F. B. read — This was gret marvaylle to me.
M
l62 IX. THE JIOUS OF FAME. BOOK III.
Hir tho so wonderliche streighte,
That \\\\X\ hir feet she erthe reighte,
And with hir heed she touched hevene, J375
Ther as shvnen sterres sevene.
And therto eek, as to my wit,
I saugh a gretter wonder yit,
Upon her eyen to beholde;
But certeyn I hem never tolde; (-90) 1380
For as fele eyen hadde she
As fetheres upon foules be,
Or weren on the bestes foure,
That Goddes trone gunne honoure,
As lohn writ in thapocalips. 1385
Hir here, that oundy was and crips,
>
As burned gold hit shoon to see.
And soth to tellen, also she
Had also fele up-stondyng eres
And tonges, as on bestes heres; (30°) i3y°
And on hir feet wexen, saugh I,
Partriches winges redely.
But, Lord ! the perrie and the richesse
I saugh sitting on this goddesse !
And, Lord ! the hevenish melodye 1 395
Of songes, ful of armonye,
I herde aboute her trone y-songe,
That al the paleys-walles ronge!
So song the mighty Muse, she
That cleped is Caliope, (s'o) 1400
And hir eighte sustren eke.
That in her face semen meke;
And evermo, eternally,
They songe of Fame, as tho herd I : —
' Heried be thou and thy name, 1405
Goddesse of renoun or of fame ! '
Tho was I war, lo, atte laste,
1373- --^/Z wonderly ; cf. 1. 1327. 1377- F. B. oin. to. i4°4-
F. synge ; rest songe.
IX. THE nous OF FAME. BOOK III. 163
As I m\n eycn gan up caste,
That this ilke noble quene
On her shuldres gan sustene (320) 1410
Bothe tharmes, and the name
Of tho that hadde large fame ;
Alexander, and Hercules
That with a sherte his lyf lees !
Thus fond I sitting this goddesse, 1415
In nobley, honour, and richesse ;
Of which I stinte a whyle now;
Other thing to trllen yow.
Tho saugh I stonde on either syde,
Streight doun to the dores wyde, (33°) M-^o
Fro the dees, many a pilere
Of metal, that shoon not ful clere.
But though they nere of no richesse.
Yet they were mad for greet noblesse,
And in hem greet [and hy] sentence. 1425
And folk of digne reverence,
Of whiche I wol yow telle fonde,
Upon the piler saugh I stonde.
Alderfirst, lo, ther I sigli.
Upon a piler stonde on high, (340) i4r,o
That was of lede and yren fyne,
Him of secte Saturnyne,
The Ebrayk losephus, the olde.
That of lewes gestes tolde ;
And bar upon his shuldres hye 1435
The fame up of the lewerye.
And by him stoden other sevene,
Wyse and worthy for to nevene.
To helpen him bere up the charge,
141 1. Th. the amies; rest armes ; read tharmes (i.e. th' armes).
1415. All And thus. 1416. Cx. P. iiobley ; F. Th. B. noble
(=noblee^. 1421. F. pcler ; B. pyleie. 1425. I supply z.r\A\iy.
1432. Cx. Ilym that wrote thaclcs dyuyne ; V.oin. M35- ^^- ^^ •
bare vpon ; F. Th. B. he bare on. 1436- F. B. ont. up. 1437-
F. stondea ; rest stoden.
M 1
164 IX. THE nous OF FAME. BOOK III.
Hit was so hevy and so large. (35°) M4°
And for they writen of batailes,
As wel as other olde mervailes,
Therfor was, lo, this pilere,
Of which that I yow telle here,
Of lede and yren bothe, y-wis. 1445
For yren Martes metal is,
Which that god is of bataile.
And the leed, withouten faile,
Is, lo, the metal of Saturne,
That hath a ful large wheel to turne. (360) 1450
Tho stoden forth, on every rowe,
Of hem which that I coude knowe,
Thogh I hem noght by ordre telle,
To make yow to long to dwelle.
These, of whiche I ginne rede, 1455
Ther saugh I stonden, out of drede ;
Upon an yren piler strong,
That peynted was, al endelong,
With tygres blode in every place,
The Tholosan that highte Stace, (37°) 1460
That bar of Thebes up the fame
Upon his shuldres, and the name
Also of cruel Achilles.
And by him stood, withouten lees,
Ful wonder hye on a pilere 1465
Of yren, he, the gret Omere ;
And with him Dares and Tytus
Before, and eek he, Lollius,
And Guido eek de Columpnis,
And English Gaufride eek, y-wis. (380) 1470
And ech of these, as have I loye,
Was besy for to here up Troye.
So hevy ther-of was the fame,
That for to here hit was no game.
1460. F. B. Tholausan ; Th. Tholason ; P. Tolofan ; Cx. tholophan.
IX. THE HO US OF FAME. BOOK III. 165
But yit I gan ful wel espye, 1475
Betwix hem was a litel envye.
Oon seyde that Omere made lyes,
Feyninge in his poetryes,
And was to Grekes favorable ;
Therfor held he hit but fable. (390) 1480
Tho saugh I stonde on a pilere,
That was of tinned yren clere,
That Latin poete [dan] Virgyle,
That bore hath up a longe whyle
The fame of Pius Eneas. 14S5
And next him on a piler was,
Of coper, Venus clerk, Ovyde,
That hath y-sowen wonder wyde
The grete god of loves name.
And ther he bar up wel his fame, (400) 1490
Upon this piler, also hye
As I hit mighte see with ye :
For-why this halle, of whiche I rede
Was woxe on high, the lengthe and brede,
Wel more, by a thousand del, 1495
Than hit was erst, that saugh I wel.
Tho saugh I, on a piler by, ■
Of yren wroght ful sternely,
The grete poete, dan Lucan,
And on his shuldres bar up than, (410) 1500
As high as that I mighte see.
The fame of lulius and Pompe.
And by him stoden alle these clerkes,
That writcn of Romes mighty werkes,
That, if I wolde her names telle, 1505
Al to longe moste I dwelle.
And next him on a piler stood,
1477. So Cx. Th. P. ; F. B. seyde Omere was. M^.^- I supply
dan ; sec 1. 1499. 14S4. F. B. ondt a. 1492. F- And ; rest As.
.-/// with myn {for with) ; not the usual idiom. 149S. F. sturinely.
1507. F. om. a.
1 66 IX. THE nous OF FAME. BOOK III.
Of soulfre, lyk as he were wood,
Dan Claudian, the soth to telle,
That bar up al the fame of helle, (420) 15 10
Of Pluto, and of Proserpyne,
That quene is of the derke pyne.
What shulde I more telle of this?
The halle was al ful, y-wis,
Of hem that writen olde gestes, 151.:;
As ben on trees rokes nestes ;
But hit a ful confus matere
Were al the gestes for to here,
That they of write, and how they highte.
But whyl that I beheld this sighte, (430) 1520
I herde a noise aprochen blyve,
That ferde as been don in an hyve,
Agen her tyme of outfleyinge ;
Right swiche a maner murmuringe,
For al the world, hit semed me. 1525
Tho gan I loke aboute and see,
That ther com entring in the halle,
A right gret company withalle,
And that of sondry regiouns.
Of alles kinnes condiciouns, (440) 1530
That dwelle in erthe under the mone,
Pore and ryche. And also sone
As they were come into the halle,
They gonne doun on knees falle
Before this ilke noble quene, 15,^5
And seyde, ' Graunt us, lady shene,
Ech of us, of thy grace, a bone ! '
And somme of hem she graunted sone,
And somme she werned wel and faire ;
And somme she graunted the contraire (45°) 154°
Of her axin^g utterly.
1510. F. B. om. al. ^t>'^^- F. inserts al of the before olde; B. ?;/-
serfs ol'i\i&. is^T- AUm-\.o Kfor vix). 1530- F. alle skynnes ;
Cx. alle kyns.
AV. THE nous OF FAME. BOOKIH. 1 6;
But thus I sey yow trcwely, ^
What her cause was, I niste.
For this folk, ful wel I wiste,
They hadde good fame cch deserved, • 1545
Althogh they were diversly served ;
Right as her sustcr, dame Fortune,
Is wont to serven in comunc.
Now herkne how she gan to pave
That gonne her of her grace praye ; (460) 1550
And yit, lo, al this companye
Seyden sooth, and noght a lye,
' Madame,' seyden they, ' we be
Folk that here besechen thee,
That thou graiinte us now good fame, 1555
And let our werkes han that name ;
In ful recompensacioun
Of good, \verk, give us good renoun.'
'I \vti^he yow hit,' quod she anon,
' Ye gete of me good fame non, (470) 156°
By God I and therfor go your wey/
'Alas,' quod they, 'and welaway !
Telle us what may your cause be ? '
' For me list hit noght,' quod she ;
'No wight shal speke of yow, y-wis, 1565
Good ne harm, ne that ne this.'
And with that word she gan to calle
Her messanger, that was in halle,
And bad that he shulde faste gon,
Up peyne to be blynd anon, (4'^°) 157°
For Eolus, the god of winde ; —
' In Trace ther ye shul him finde,
And bid him bringe his clarioun,
That is ful dyvers of his soun,
1543. Cx. Th. grace {for cause). 1546- F. B. om. this line.
1549. F. V,. herke. 1551. Cx. Th. P. yet ; F. B. right. 155.^-
Cx. Th. P. sayd ; 1*". quod ; B. quoth. 1570- F. B. Vpon the peyn to
1)6 blynde, (7/«/V/?«^l. 1572; Cx. 'V\\.om. the. Read N\>,tlic usual iJioni.
l68 IX. THE nous OF FAME. BOOK III.
And hit is cleped Clere Laude, 1575
With which he wont is to heraude
Hem that me list y-preised be :
And also bid him how that he
Biinge his other clarioun,
That highte Sclaundre in every toun, (490) 1580
With which he wont is to dififame
Hem that me list, and do hem shame.'
This messanger gan faste goon,
And found wher, in a cave of stoon,
In a contree that highte Trace, 1585
This Eolus, with harde grace,
Held the windes in distresse,
And gan hem under him to presse,
That they gonne as beres rore,
He bond and pressed hem so sore. (500) 1590
This messanger gan faste crye,
' Rys up,' quod he, ' and faste hye.
Til that thou at my lady be;
And tak thy clarions eek with thee
And speed thee forth.' And he anon 1595
Tok to a man, that hight Triton,
His clarions to here tho,
And leet a certeyn wind to go,
That blew so hidously and hye.
That hit ne lefte not a skye (510) 1600
In al the welken longe and brood.
This Eolus no-wher abood
Til he was come at Fames feet.
And eek the man that Triton heet ;
And ther he stood, as still as stoon. 1605
And her-withal ther com anoon
Another huge- companye
Of gode folk, and gunne crye,
1585. F. B. om. that. 1594. F. B. clarioun ; see 1. 1597. 1599.
F. B. And {for That). '-603. Cx. P. at ; rest to.
/.v. THE nous OF FAME. BOOK IIT. 169
' Lady, graunle us now good fame,
And lat our werkes han that name (0^0) '^'o
Now, in honour of gentilesse,
And also God your soule blGsse !
For wo han wel deserved hit,
Therfor is right that we be quit.'
'As thryve I,' quod she, 'ye shal faile, 1615
Good werkes shal yow noght availe
To have of me good fame as now.
But wite ye what } I graunte yow,
That ye shal have a shrewed fame
And wikked loos, and worse name, (53°) ^<J^o
Though ye good loos have wel deserved.
Now go your wey, for ye be served ;
And thou, dan Eolus, let see !
Tak forth thy trumpe anon,' quod she,
* That is y-cleped Sclaunder light, 16^5
And blow her loos, that every wight
Speke of hem harm and shrewednesse,
In stede of good and worthinesse.
For thou shalt trumpe al the contraire
Of that they han don wel or faire,' (540) 1630
' Alas,' thoughte I, ' what aventures
Han these sory creatures !
For they, amonges al the pres,
Shul thus be shamed gilteles !
But what ! hit moste nedcs be.' 1635
What did this Eolus, but he
Tok out his blakke trumpe of bras,
That fouler than the devil was.
And gan this trumpe for to blowe,
As al the world shuld overthrowe ; (550) 1640
That throughout every regioun
1609. F. B. oni. now. 161 4. F. B. insert wel after be. 16 18.
F. B. wete ; rest wote ; read wile. 162 1. F. B. oin. wel. 1623.
Cx. Th. P. And ihou dan; F. B. Haue doon.
i;o IX. THE nous OF FA ATE. BOOK HI.
Wente this foule trumpes soun,
As swift as pelet out of gonne,
Whan fyr is in the poudre ronne.
And swiche a smoke gan out-wende 1645
Out of his foule trumpes ende,
Blak, bio, grenissh, swartish reed,
As doth wher that men melte leed,
Lo, al on high fro the tuel ! P't'*-
And therto 00 thing saugh I wel (560) 1650
That, the ferther that hit ran,
The gretter wexen hit began,
As doth the river from a welle.
And hit stank as the pit of helle.
Alas, thus was her shame y-ronge, 1655
And gilteles, on every tonge.
Tho com the thridde companye.
And gan up to the dees to hye,
And doun on knees they fille anon,
And seyde, ' We ben everichon (57°) i^^o
Folk that han ful trewely
Deserved fame rightfully,
And praye yow, hit mot be knowe,
Right as hit is, and forth y-blowe.'
' I graunte,' quod she, ' for me list 1665
That now your gode werkes be wist ;
And yit ye shul han better loos,
Right in dispyte of alle your foos.
Than worthy is ; and that anon :
Lat now,' quod she, ' thy trumpe gon, (580) 1670
Thou Eolus, that is so blak;
And out thyn other trumpe tak
That highte Laude, and blow hit so
That through the world her fame go
1647. Cx. Th. P. swartysh ; F. B. swart, swarte. 1661. F. ben ;
rest han. 1666. Th. That your good workes shal be wyst {perhaps
better). 1668. F. B. om. Right.
IX. THE nous OF FAME. BOOK III. 171
Al esel}', and not to faste, 1675
That hit be knowen atte laste.'
' Ful gladly, lady myn,' he seyde ;
And out his trumpe of golde he brayde
Anon, and sette hit to his mouthe,
And blew hit est, and west, and souihe, {590) 1680
And north, as loude as any thunder,
That every wight hath of hit wonder,
So brode hit ran, or than hit stente.
And, certes, al the breth that wente
Out of his trumpes mouthe smelde 16S5
As men a pot-ful of bawme helde
Among a basket ful of roses ;
This favour dide he til her loses.
And right with this I gan aspye,
Ther com the ferthe companye — (600) 1690
But certeyn they were wonder fewe^
And gonne stonden in a rewe,
And seyden, ' Certes, lady brighte,
We han don wel with al our mighte ;
But we ne kepen have no fame. 1695
Hyd our werkes and our name,
For Goddys love ! for certes we
Han certeyn don hit for bounte,
And for no maner other thing.'
'I graunte yow al your asking,' (610) 170°
Quod she ; ' let your werkes be deed.'
With that aboute I clew mvn heed,
And saugh anon the fifte route
That to this lady gonne loute,
And doun on knees anon to falle ; 1 705
And to hir tho besoughten alle.
To hyde her gode werkes eek,
And seyde, they yeven noght a leek
1675. F. B. oni. Al. 1702. V,. clew ; F. clvwe; Cx. Th. P. tomed,
turned. 1707. Cx. P. To hyde; Th. To hyd'en ; F. B. And hidden.
i'jZ IX. THE HOUS OF FAME. BOOK III.
For no fame, ne swich renoun ;
For they, for contemplacioun (620) 1710
And Goddes love, hadde y-wrought ;
Ne of fame wolde they nought.
' What ? ' quod she, ' and be ye wood ?
And wene ye for to do good,
And for to have of that no fame? 1715
Have ye dispite to have my name ?
Nay, ye shul [liven] everichon !
Blow thy trumpe and that anon,'
Quod she, 'thou Eolus, I hote,
And ring this folkes werkes by note, (630) 1720
That al the world may of hit here.'
And he gan blowe hir loos so clere
In his golden clarioun,
That through the world wente the soun.
So kenely, and eek so softe, 1725
But atte laste hit was on lofte.
Thoo com the sexte companye,
And gonne faste on Fame crye.
Right verraly, in this manere
They seyden: 'Mercy, lady dere ! (64°) ^73°
To telle certein as hit is.
We han don neither that ne this.
But ydel al our lyf y-be.
But, natheles, yit preye we,
That we mowe han so good a fame, 1735
And greet renoun and knowen name,
As they that han don noble gestes,
And acheved alle her lestes, ^jIUao^ju-^
As wel of love as other thing ;
Al was us never broche ne ring, (650) 1740
Ne elles nought, from wimmen sent,
1709. Cx. Th. P. ne ; F. B. for. 171 7. F. B. Th. lyen (for lyuen) ;
P. Be; Cx. o/n. 1725. F. B. Al so ; rest And so ; read So. 1726.
So F. B. ; Cx. Th. That theyr fame was blowe a lofte. 1735. Cx. P.
so good a ; Th. as good a ; F. B. as good.
2X. THE nous OF FAME. BOOK 11/. 1 73
Ne ones in her herte y-ment
To make us only frcndly chere,
But mighte ten>en us on here ;
Yit lat us to the peple seme 1745
Swiche as the world may of us deme,
That wimnien loven us for wood.
Hit shal don us as moche good,
And to our herte as moche availe
To countrepeise ese and travaile, (660) 1750
As we had wonne hit with labour;
For that is dere boght honour
At regard of our grete ese.
And yit thou most us more plese ;
Let us be holden eek, therto, 1755
Worthy, wyse, and gode also,
And riche, and happy unto love.
For Goddes love, that sit above,
Though we may not the body have
Of wimmen, yet, so God yow save! (^7°) '^1^°
Let men glewe on us the name ;
Suffyceth that we han the fame.'
' I graunte,' quod she, ' by, my trouthe !
Now, Eolus, with-outen slouthe,
Tak out thy trumpe of gold,' quod she, 1765
'And blow as they han axed me.
That everv man wene hem at ese,
Though they gon in fill badde lese.'
This Eolus gan hit so blowe.
That through the world hit was y-knowe. (680) 1770
Tho com the seventh route anon,
And fel on knees evcrichon,
And seyde, ' Lady, graunte us sone
The same thing, the same bone,
That this nexte folk han don.' 1775
i'742. Th. Cx. P. in her herte ; F. in hem ; V>. in her. 1744- Th.
on; n'^/ upon. I74-;- F. IJ. (7w. the. '748, 1749- F. a; rest a.s.
]7;0. P, Cx. To ; rest The.
J 74 ^'^'- THE nous OF FAME. BOOK III.
' Fy on yow,' quod she, ' everichon !
Ye masty swyn, ye ydel wrecches,
Ful of roten slowe tecches !
What ? false theves ! wher ye wolde
Be famous good, and nothing nolde (690) 1780
Deserve why, ne never ne roughte ?
Men rather yow to-hangen oughte !
For ye be lyk the sweynt cat,
That wolde have fish ; but wostow what ?
He wolde no-thing wete his clowes. 1785
Yvel thrift come on your lowes,
And eek on myn, if I hit graunte,
Or do yow favour, yow to avaunte !
Thou Eolus, thou king of Trace !
Go, blow this folk a sory grace,' (700) 1790
Quod she, ' anoon ; and wostow how ?
As I shal telle thee right now ;
Sey, " These ben they that wolde honour
{/ Have, and do noskinnes labour,
Ne do no' good, and yit han laude ; 1 795
And that men wende that bele Isaude
Ne coude hem noght of love werne ;
And yit she that grint at a querne
Is al to good to ese her herte." '
This Eolus anon up sterte, {71°) ^Soo
And with his blakke clarioun
He gan to blasen out a soun.
As loude as belweth wind in helle.
And eek therwith, [the] soth to telle,
This soun was [al] so ful of lapes, -W^o 1805
As ever mowes were in apes. 0
And that wente al the w^orld aboute,
1779. P. wher ; Cx. Th. where; F. B. or. 1782. F. B. oiii. to-.
1783. F. swynt ; B. sweynte; Cx. Th. P. slepy. 1786. Cx. P. on ;
the rest to. I7'^7- Cx. Th. P. on; F. B. to. 1792. F. B.om. ttiee.
1703- F. B. oin. they. 1804. I supply the. 1805. al is not in the
MSS. ; but P. has as ( = al-so).
IX. THE nous OF FAME. BOOK III. 175
That every wight gan on hem shoute,
And for to laugh as they were wode;
Such game fonde ihey in her hode. (720) i8io
Tho com another companye,
That had y-don the trailerye,
The harm, the grete wikkcdnesse,
That any herte coulhe gesse ;
And preyed her to han good fame, 1S15
And that she nolde hem don no shame,
But yeve hem loos and good renoun,
And do hit blowe in clarioun.
' Nay, wis ! ' quod she, ' hit were a vice ;
Al be ther in me no Justice, (73°) 1820
Me liste not to do hit now,
Ne this nil I not graunte you.'
Tho come ther lepinge in a route,
And gonne choppen al aboute
Every man upon the croune, 1825
That al the halle gan to soune.
And seyden, ' Lady, lefe and dere,
We ben swiche folkes as ye mowe here.
To tellen al the tale aright,
We ben shrewes, every wight, (74°) 1S30
And han delyte in wikkednes.
As gode folk had in goodnes;
And loye to be knowen shrewes.
And fulle of vice and wikked thewes;
Wherfor we preyen yow, a-rowe, 1835
That our fame be swiche y-knowe
In alle thing right as hit is.'
' I graunte hit vow,' quod she, ' y-wis.
But what art thou that seyst this tale,
1816. MSS. doon (don, do": hem. 1S18. F. B. in a ; P. Cx. Th. in.
1S21. F. B. P. om. to ; Cx. Th. insert it. 1822. P. not; -uhich F. B.
Cx. Th. omit. 1824. F. choppen ; B. choppyn ; Th. cla]ipen ; Cx.
1'. clappe. 1834. P. vice; Cx. Th. vyce; F. B. vices. 183O. F. B.
suche be ; Cx. Th. P. be suche.
176 IX. THE nous OF FAME. BOOK HI.
That werest on thy hose a pale, {750) 1840
And on thy tipet suche a belle ? '
' Madame,' quod he, ' soth to telle,
I am that ilke shrewe, y-wis,
That brende the temple of Isidis
In Athenes, lo, that citee.' 1845
' And wherfor didest thou so ? ' quod she.
' By my thrift,' quod he, ' madame,
I wolde fayn han had a fame,
As other folk hadde in the toune,
Al-thogh they were of greet renoune (760) 1850
For her vertu and for her thewes ;
Thoughte I, as greet a fame han shrevves,
Thogh hit be for shrewednesse.
As gode folk han for goodnesse ;
And sith I may not have that on, 1855
That other nil I noght for-gon.
And for to gette of fames hyre,
The temple sette I al a-fyre.
Now do our loos be blowen swythe.
As wisly be thou ever blythe.' (77°) ^860
* Gladly,' quod she ; ' thou Eolus,
Herestow not what they preyen us ? '
' Madame, yis, ful wel,' quod he,
' And I will trumpen hit, parde ! '
And tok his blakke trumpe faste, 1865
And gan to puffen and to blaste.
Til hit was at the worldes ende.
With that I gan aboute wende ;
For oon that stood right at my bak.
Me thoughte, goodly to me spak, (780) 1870
And seyde, ' Frend, what is thy name ?
Artow come hider to han fame ? '
' Nay, forsothe, frend ! ' quod I ;
' I cam noght hider, graunt mercy !
1843. Hc^e P. ends. 1853. F. Th. be noght for. 1862. Cx. Th.
they ; F. B. this folke.
IX. THE nous of fame, book in. 177
For no swich cause, by my heed ! 1875
Suflycelh me, as I were deed,
Thai no \vight liave my name in honde.
I woot my-self best how I stonde ;
For what I drye or what I thinke,
I wol my-selven al hit drinke, (79°) ^880
Certeyn, for the more part,
As ferforth as I can myn art.'
' But what dost thou here than ? ' quod he.
Quod I, ' that wol I tellen thee.
The cause why I stonde here : — 1885
Som newe tydings for to lore : —
Som newe thinges, I not what,
Tydings, other this or that,
Of love, or swiche thinges glade.
For certeynly, he that me made (800) 1S90
To comen hider, seyde me,
I shulde bothe here and see.
In this place, wonder thinges ;
But these be no swiche tydinges
As I mene of.' 'No?' quod he. 1895
And I answerde, ' No, parde !
For wel I wiste, ever yit,
Sith that first I hadde wit,
That som folk han desyred fame
Dyversly, and loos, and name; (^lo) '9°°
But certeynl}-, I nistc how
Ne wher that Fame dwelte, er now ;
And eek of her descripcioun,
Ne also her condicioun,
Ne the ordre of her dome, 1905
Unto the tyme I hider come.'
1S80. F. selfe; r^ra^/ selven. 1S83. Th. than ; Cx. thennc; F. K.
om. 1887. .4// thing, thinge; rfa</ thinges. Cf. 1. 18S9. 1S91.
All coxnc. 1897. ^// wote (/£)r wiste) ; je^r 1. 1 901. 1898. /^// had.
1902. ^// dwelled o;- dwellyth. 1906. B. the; Y.om. B. hidyT ;
Th. hyder; Cx. hether ; F. thiddcr.
N
J 78 IX. THE nous OF FAME. BOOK IN.
' Why than be, lo, these tydinges,
That thou now [thus] hider bringes, .
That thou hast herd ? ' quod he to me ;
'But now, no fors; for wel I se (820) 1910
What thou desyrest for to lere.
-^ Com forth, and stond no lenger here,
And I wol thee, with-outen drede,
In swich another place lede,
Ther thou shalt here many oon.' 1915
Tho gan I forth with him to goon
Out of the castel, soth to seye.
Tho saugh I stonde in a valeye,
Under the castel, faste by,
An hous, that domus Dedali, (^30) 1920
That Laborintiis cleped is,
Nas maad so wonderhiche, y-wis,
Ne half so queynteliche y-wrought.
And evermo, so swift as thought,
This queynte hous aboute wente, 1925
That never-mo stille hit [ne] stente.
And ther-out com so greet a noise.
That, had hit stonden upon Oise,
Men mighte hit han herd esely
To Rome, I trowe sikerly. (840) 1930
And the noyse which that I herde,
For al the world right so hit ferde,
As doth the routing of the stoon,
That from theng}'ne is leten goon.
And al this hous of whiche I rede 1935
Was made of twigges, falwe-rede
And grene eek, and som weren whyte,
Swiche as men to these cages thwyte,
Or maken of these paniers.
Or elles hottes or dossers; (850) 1940
1908. I sufply Xhus. 1926. I supply-at.. 1931- Th. B. that
I ; F. I haue ; Cx. I had. 1938. F. B. Whiche; Cx. Th. Suche.
1940. F. Cx. B. hattes; Th, hutches, j^^o^/ hottes.
IX. THE HOUS OF FAME. BOOK HI. 1 79
That, for the swough and for the twigges,
This hous was also ful of gigges,
And also ful eek of chirkinges,
And of many other werkingcs,
And eek this hous hath of entrees 1945
As fele as leves ben on trees
In somer, whan they grene been,
And on the rove men may yit seen
A thousand holes, and wel mo,
To leten wel the soun out go. (860) 1950
And by day, in every tyde,
Ben al the dores open wyde,
And by night, echon, unshette ;
Ne porter ther is non to lette
No maner tydings in to pace; 1955
Ne never rest is in that place,
That hit nis fild ful of tydinges,
Other loude, or of whispringes ;
And, over alle the houses angles.
Is ful of rouninges and of langles, (870) i960
Of werres, of pees, of mariages,
Of restes, of labour of viages.
Of abood, of deeth, of lyfe,
Of love, of hate, acorde, of stryfe.
Of loos, of lore, and of winninges, 1965
Of hele, of sekenesse, of bildinges,
Of faire windes, of tempestes.
Of qualme of folk, and eek of bestes ;
Of dyvers transmutaciouns
Of estates, and eek of regiouns ; (S8o) 1970
Of trust, of drede, of lelousye,
Of wit, of winninge, of folye ;
1941. F. twj'nges (!); B. twigys. I944- From Cx. Th. ; B. omits
the line ; F. has only As ful this lo. 1946. Cx. Th. as ; F. of ; B.
as of. Th. on; F. B. in; Cx. of. 1952. Cx. Th. open ; F. opened ;
B. I-opened. 1955- Cx. out {for\vi). 1957- ^- silde ; B. fylde ;
Cx. Th. fylled. 1962. Cx. of labour ; F. Th. B. and of labour. 1967.
All insert and eek before of; see 1. 1968.
N 2
1 80 IX. THE IIOUS OF FAME. BOOK III.
Of plente, and of greet famyne,
Of chepe, of deith, and of ruyne ;
Of good or mis governement, 1975
Of fyr, of dyvers accident.
And lo, this hous, of whiche I wryte,
Siker be ye, hit nas not lyte;
V For hit was sixty myle of lengthe,
Al was the timber of no strengthe ; (890) 1980
Yet hit is founded to endure
Whyl that hit list to Aventure,
That is the moder of tydinges,
As the see of welles and springes, —
1 And hit was shapen lyk a cage. 1985
' Certes,' quod I, ' in al myn age,
Ne saugh I sv/ich a hous as this.'
And as I wondred me, y-wis,
Upon this hous, tho war was I
How that myn egle, faste by, (900) 1990
Was perched hye upon a stoon ;
And I gan streghte to him goon,
And seyde thus : ' I preye thee
That thou a whyl abyde me
For goddes love, and let me seen 1995
What wondres in this place been ;
For yit paraventure, I may lere
Som good theron, or sumwhat here
That leef me were, or that I wente.'
'Peter! that is myn entente,' (91°) 2000
Quod he to me ; ' therfor I dwelle ;
But certein, oon thing I thee telle,
That, but I bringe thee ther-inne, ^(ivi/r )
Ne shalt thou never 'cunne ginne ■
To come in-to hit, out of doute, 2005
So faste hit whirleth, lo, aboute.
1975. All write mis governement as oiie word. 1976. All and of ;
sw?'/ and. 1984. F. B. andof; Cx. Th (7w. of. I997- Th. paraiinter.
IX. THE nous OF FAME. BOOK III. l8l
But sith that loves, of his gracCj
As I have seyd, \\o\ thee solace
Fynally with [swiche] thinges,
Uncouthe sightes and tydinges, (920) joio
To passe with thyn hevinesse,
Suche routhe hath he of thy distresse,
That thou suffrest debonairly,
And wost thy-selven utterly
Disesperat of alle blis, 2015
Sith that Fortune hath maad a-mis
[Theffcct] of al thyn hertes reste
Languisshe and eek in point to breste —
That he, through his mighty meryte,
Wol do thee ese, al be hit lyte, (93°) -°^°
And yaf expres commaundement.
To whiche I am obedient,
To further thee with al my might,
And wisse and teche thee aright
Wher thou maist most tydings here ; 2025
Shaltow here many oon lere.'
With this worde he, right anoon,
Hente me up bitwene his toon,
And at a windowe in me broghte,
That in this hous was, as me thoghte — (940) 2030
And ther-withal, me thoghte hit stente,
And no-thing hit aboute wenle —
And me sette in the flore adoun.
But which a congregacioun
Of folk, as I saugh rome aboute, 2035
Some within and some withoute,
Nas never seen, ne shal ben eft,
2009. I siibstiiute syi\cht for thtst. 2010. Th. syghtcs ; r^j/ syght.
2017. V. The frot ; B. The foot ; Cx. Th. The svvote. Kead Theffcct.
2018. Cx. Th. Languysshe ; F. B. Laugh. 2020. Th. B. the {for
thee) ; Cx. the an ; F. than (/>cr/iaps = the an). 2021. A// insert in
afUr y&i. 2026. F. B. insert a.'aoon anon^ afterhtre. Perhaps read
— Shaltow many oon now lere. 202S. F. B. omit this line. 2036.
Y . B. omit this line.
J 82 IX. THE nous of fame, book in.
That, certcs, in the world nis left
So many formed by Nature,
Ne deed so many a creature, (95°) 2040
That wel unethe, in that place,
Hadde I oon foot-brede of space ;
And every wight that I saugh there
Rouned ech in otheres ere
A newe tyding prevely, 2045
Or elles tolde al openly
Right thus, and seyde, ' Nost not thou
That is betid, lo, late or now ? '
' No,' quod he, ' telle me what ; ' —
And than he tolde him this and that, (960) 2050
And swor therto that hit was soth —
' Thus hath he seyd ' — and ' Thus he doth ' —
' Thus shal hit be ' — ' Thus herde I seye ' —
' That shal be found ' — ' That dar I leye : ' —
That al the folk that is a-lyve 2055
Ne han the cunning to discryve
The thinges that I herde there,
What aloude, and what in ere.
But al the wonder-most was this : —
Whan oon had herd a thing, y-wis, (970) 2060
He com forth-right to another wight,
And gan him tellen, anoon-right.
The same [thing] that him was told,
» Or hit a furlong-way was old,
But gan somwhat for to eche 3065
To this tyding in this speche
More than hit ever was.
And nat so sone departed nas
2042. Cx. one ; F. Th. B. a. 2044. F. Rovned in ; B. Rownyd
in ; Cx. Th. Rowned eveiych in. 2048. F. has only — That ys betydde ;
B. That is betyd late or now ; Cx. Th. That ys betyd lo ryght now.
2053. All insert And {tzvice) before thus ; but compare the next line.
2059. ^// wonder most (moste). 2063. I supply ihing. 2066. F.
Tho ; rest To.
IX. THE nous OF FAME. BOOK III. 183
Tliat he fro him, tlio he nc mette
With the thriddc; and, or he lette (980) 2070
Any stound, he tolde him als ;
Were the tyding soth or fals,
Yit wolde he telle hit nathelees,
And evermo with more encrees
Than hit was erst. Thus north and southe 2075
Went every [word] fro moulhe to mouthe,
And that encresing evermo,
As fyr is wont to quikke and go
From a sparke spronge amis,
Til al a citee brent up is. (990) 2080
And, whan that was ful y-spronge,
And woxen more on every tonge .^ ..
Than ever hit was, [hit] wente anoon
Up to a windowe, out to goon ;
Or, but hit mighte out ther pace, 2085
Hit gan out crepe at som crevace,
And fleigh forth faste for the nones.
And somtyme saugh I tho, at ones,
A lesing and a sad soth sawe,
That gonne of aventure drawe (1000) 2090
Out at a windowe for to pace ;
And, W'hen they metten in that place,
They were a-chekked boihe two.
And neither of hem moste out go ;
For other so they gonne croude, 2095
Til eche of hem gan cryen loude,
' Lat me go first ! ' ' Nay, but lat me !
And, here I wol ensuren thee
With the nones that thou wolt do so,
That I shal never fro thee go, (loio) 2100
2076. F. B. Went every mouthe {0/ course wrongly') ; Cx. Th. Wente
euery tvdyng ; read waxii.. 2081. Cx. Th. vp spronfje. 20S3. All a.\\A
{for 2nd hit). 2087. F. flygh ; B. fligh ; Cx. Th. flewe. 2088. F.
oni. I. 2090. Cx. Th. drawe; F. B. thniwe. 2091. Cx. Th. at;
F. B. to. 2093. F. B. a chekcd ; Cx. Th. a chekked.
184 IX. THE HOUS OF FAME. BOOK III.
But be thyn owne sworen brother!
Wc wil medic us ech with other,
That no man, be he never so wrothe,
Shal han that oon [of] two, but bothe
At ones, al beside his leve, 2105
Come we a-morwe or on eve,
Be we cryed or stille y-rouned.'
Thus saugh I fals and soth compouned
Togeder flee for 00 tydinge.
Thus out at holes gonne wringe (1020) 2110
Every tyding streght to Fame;
And she gan yeven eche his name,
After hir disposicioun.
And yaf hem eek duracioun,
Some to wexe and wane sone, 21 15
As doth the faire whyte mone.
And leet hem gon. Ther mighte I seen
j Wenged wondres faste fleen,
Twenty thousand in a route,
As Eolus hem blew aboute. (1030) 2120
And, Lord ! this hous, in alle tymes,
Was ful of shipmen and pilgrymes,
With scrippes bret-ful of lesinges,
Entremedled with tydinges.
And eek alone by hem-selve. 2125
O, many a thousand tymes twelve
Saugh I eek of these pardoneres,
Currours, and eek messangeres.
With boistes crammed ful of lyes
As ever vessel was with lyes. (1040) 2130
And as I alther-fastest wente
2103. Th. he; F. B. they; Cx. omits lines 2095-2158. 2104. F.
han on two (j-zV) ; B. haue that oon {oni. of two) ; Th. haue one two.
I supply thatyro/« B. ; and also of. 2106. Th. amorowe ; F. B.
morwe. 2112. All ytue. 2115. Th. wane ; F. B. wynne(!).
2123. Th. scrippes; F. B. shrippes. 2129. F. boystes ; Th. boxes:
B. bowgys.
IX. THE nous OF FAME. BOOK III. 1 85
Aboute, and dide al myn entente
]\Ie for to pleyen and for to lere,
And eek a tyding for to here,
That I had herd of som contree 2135
That shal not now be told for me ; —
For hit no nede is, redely ;
Folk can singe hit bet than I ;
For al mote out, other late or rathe,
Alle the sheves in the lathe: — (1050)2140
I herde a gret noise withalle
In a corner of the halle,
Ther men of love tydings tolde,
And I gan thiderward beholde ;
For 1 saugh renninge every wight, 2145
As faste as that they hadden might ;
And everich cryed, ' What thing is that ? '
And som seyde, ' I not never what.'
And whan they were alle on an hepe,
Tho behynde gonne up lepe, (1060) 2150
And clamben up on other faste,
And up the nose and eyen caste,
And troden faste on otheres heles.
And stampe, as men don after eles.
Atte laste I saugh a man, 2155
Whiche that I [nevene] noght ne kan ;
]kit he semed for to be
A man of greet auctorite (io6S) 2158
(Unfinished^
2150. Th. gonne ; B. bigonne; F. bcgunne. 2152. F. noyse an
highen ! ; Th. noyse on hyghen v-'} ; B. nose and yen. 2153. F. B.
other; Th. others. 2154. F. B. stampen ; Th. stampe. 2156. /
stifply nevene. Th. naught ; F. B. nat. 2158. Here F. and B. end,
incomplete. \_He/e the original poem ceases ; the rest, as in Cx. and
'J"h., is spt<rious.'\
X. THE FORMER AGE.
A BLisFUL lyf, a paisible and a swete
Ledden the peples in the former age ;
They helde hem payed of fruites, that they ete,
Which that the feldes yave hem by usage ;
They ne were nat forpampred with outrage; 5
Unknowen was the quern and eek the melle ;
They eten mast, hawes, and swich pounage.
And dronken water of the colde welle.
Yit nas the ground nat wounded with the plough,
But corn up-sprong, unsowe of mannes hond, 10
The which they gnodded, and eete nat half y-nough.
No man yit knew the forwes of his lond ;
No man the fyr out of the flint yit fond ;
Un-korven and un-grobbed lay the vyne ;
No man yit in the morter spyces grond 15
To clarre, ne to sause of galantyne.
No mader, welde, or wood no litestere
Ne knew ; the flees was of his former hewe ;
No flesh ne wiste offence of eggt or spere ;
No coyn ne knew man which was fals or trewe ; 20
From MS. I ( = Ii. 3. 21, Camb. Univ. Library^ ; a/so in Hh ( = Hh.
4. 12, Camb. Univ. Library.) I note every variation from I.
I. I. Blysful ; paysyble. 2. I. poeples ; Hh. peplis. 3. I. paied
of the; Hh. paied with the {but omit the^ I. fructes ; Hh. frutes.
4. I. Whiche. 5. I. weere ; Hh. were. I. Hh. owtrage. 6. I.
Onknowyn. I. quyerne ; Hh. qwerne. I. ek. 7. I. swych pownage.
9. I. grownd ; wownded ; plowh. 11. I. gnodded; Hh. knoddyd.
I. I-nowh. 12. I. knewe ; Hh. knew. 13. I. owt ; flynt ; fonde.
15. I. spices. 16. I. sawse ; Hh. sause. I. galentxne ; Hh. galantine.
17. I. madyr ; Hh. madder. Hh. wellyd {ivrongly). I. wod; Hh. woode.
18. I. knewh. I. fles; Hh. flese (/or flees\ I. is {for his) ; Hh. hys.
19. I. flessh ; wyste. 20. I. knewh. Hh. was; I. is.
X THE FORMER AGE. 187
No >hip }it karf the wawes grene and blewe ;
No marchaunt yit ne fette outlandish ware ;
No trompes for the werres folk ne knewe,
No toures heye, and walles rounde or square.
What sholde it han avayled to werreye ? 25
Ther lay no profit, ther was no richesse.
But cursed was the tyme, I dar wel seye,
That men first dide hir swety bysinesse
To grobbe up metal, lurkinge in derknesse,
And in the riveres first gemmes soghte. 30
Alias ! than sprong up al the cursednesse
Of covetyse, that first our sorwe broghte !
Thise tyraunts put hem gladly nat in pres,
No wildnesse, ne no busslies for to winne
Ther poverte is, as seith Diogenes, 35
Ther as vitaile is eek so skars and thinne
That noght but mast or apples is ther-inne.
But, ther as bagges ben and fat vitaile,
Ther wol they gon, and spare for no sinne
With al hir ost the cite for tassaile. 40
Yit were no paleis-chaumbres, ne non hallcs ;
In caves and [in] wodes softe and swete
Slepten this blissed folk with-oule walles,
On gras or leves in parfit quiete.
No doun of fetheres, ne no bleched shete 45
Was kid to hem, but in seurtee they slepte ;
22. I. owt-. 23. I. ?«5^r/j batails (Hh. batayllys) a/?^r Xo. 24. I.
towres ; rownde. 26. I. profyt; rychesse. 27. I. corsed ; Hh.
cursyd. 28. I. fyrst ; Hh. first. I. bysynesse. 29. I. lurkynge.
Hh. derknesse ; I. dirkenesse. 30. I. Ryuerys fyrst gemmys sowhle.
31. I. cursydnesse. 32. Hh. couetyse ; I. coueytyse. I. fyrst owr ;
browhte. 33. I. Thyse tyrau«tz. 34. I. inserts places (Hh. place
of) after No. I. wynne. 36. I. vitayle ; ek. 37. I. nat \for
noght) ; Hh. nowt. 39. I. synne. 40. I. Cyte. I. forto asayle ;
Hh. for to asayle. 41. Hh. were; I. was. 42. I. kaues. I. Ilh. om.
2nd in ; which I supply. 43. I. Sleptin ; blyssed ; withowte.
44. I. parfyt loye restc and quiete 1,!' ; Hh. parfite loy and quiete 1^!).
45. I. down. 46. I. kyd. I. surte ; Hh. surt.
1 88 X. THE FORMER AGE.
Hir hertes were al oon, with-oute galles,
Everich of hem his feith to other kepte.
Unforged was the hauberk and the plate;
The lambish peple, voyd of alle vyce, 50
Hadden no fantasye to debate,
But ech of hem wolde other wel cheryce ;
No pryde, non envye, non avaryce,
No lord, no taylage by no tyrannye.
Humblesse and pees, good feith, the emperice, 55
[Fulfilled erthe of olde curtesye.]
Yit was not lupiter the likerous,
That first was fader of delicacye,
Come in this world; ne Nembrot, desirous
To reynen, had nat maad his toures hye. 60
. Alias, alias ! now may men wepe and crye !
For in our dayes nis but covetyse
[And] doublenesse, and tresoun and envye,
Poysoun, manslauhtre, and mordre in sondry wyse. 64
Finit Etas prima. Chaucers.
47. I. weere ; on ; -owte. 48. I. Euerych ; oother. 49. I. hawberke.
50. I. lambyssh. I. poeple ; Hh. pepyl. Hh. voyd ; I. voyded. Hh.
vice; I. vyse. 51. I. fantesye. 52. I. eche; oother. 53. I. pride.
54. I. tyranye. 55. Hh. Humblesse ; I. Vmblesse. I. pes. 56.
Not in the MSS. ; / supply it. Koch suggests — Yit hadden in this
worlde the maistrye. 57. I. luppiter ; Hh. lupiter. I. lykerous.
58. I. fyrst ; fadyr ; delicasie. 59. I. desyrous. 60. I. regne ; towres.
61. Hh. men ; which I. omits. 62. I. owre. 63. I. Hh. omit first
And, which I supply. I. Hh. Dowblenesse. 64. I. Poyson and man-
slawtre ; Hh. Poysonne manslawtyr. Fi/iit, ^c. ; in Hh. only.
/^9
XL FORTUNE.
Balades de visage satiz peinhire.
I. Le Pleintif countre Fortune.
This wrecched worldes transmutacioun,
As wele or wo, now povre and now honour,
With-outen ordre or wys discrecioun
Governed is by Fortunes errour,
But natheles, the lak of hir favour 5
Ne may nat don me singen, though 1 dye,
'lay tout perdu mon temps et 7non labour :'
For fynally, Fortune, I thee defye !
Yit is me left the hght of my resoun,
To knowen frend fro fo in thy mirour. lo
So muche hath yit thy whirling up and doun
Y-tau2:ht me for lo knowen in an hour.
But trewely, no force of thy reddour
To him that over him-self hath the maystrye !
My suffisaunce shal be my socour : 15
For fynally, Fortune, I thee defye !
O Socrates, thou stedfast champioun,
She never mighte be thy tormentour;
Thou never drcddest hir oppressioun,
Ne in hir chere founde thou no savour. 20
The spelling is conformed to that of the preceding poems ; the
alterations though numerons are slight ; as j/ for i, an for au>, Sec. The
text mainly follows MS. I. (-=Ii. 3. 21, Camb. Univ. Library). Other
MSS. are A. i Ash mole 59) ; T. (Trin. Coll. Camb.); F. v Fairfax 16);
B. (Bodley 638); H. (Harl. 2251). 2. F. pouerte ; resi poure
(poore, pore, poeereV S, 16. I. fynaly; deffye. 11. I. mochel ;
t/ie rest muche, moche. 13. T. fors ; thi reddowr. 17. I. stidfasl
chaimipyoun. iS. I. myht; thi tormenlowr. 20. I. fownde thow.
190 XI. FORTUNE.
Thou knewe wel the deceit of hir colour,
And that hir moste worshipe is to lye.
I knowe hir eek a fals dissimulour :
For fynally, Fortune, I thee defye !
II. La respounse de Fortune au Pleintif.
No man is wrecched, but him-self hit wene, 35
And he that hath him-self hath sufifisaunce.
Why seystou thanne I am to the so kene,
That hast thy-self out of my governaunce ?
Sey thus : ' Graunt mercy of thyn haboundaunce
That thou hast lent or this.' Why wolt thou stryve? 30
What wostou yit, how I thee wol avaunce ?
And eek thou hast thy beste frend alyve !
I have thee taught divisioun bi-twene
Frend of effect, and frend of countenaunce ;
Thee nedeth nat the galle of noon hyene, 35
That cureth eyen derked for penaunce ;
Now sestou cler, that were in ignoraunce.
Yit halt thyn ancre, and yit thou mayst arryve
Ther bountee berth the keye of my substaunce :
And eek thou hast thy beste frend alyve. 40
How many have I refused to sustene,
Sin I thee fostred have in thy plesaunce !
Woltou than make a statut on thy queue
That I shal been ay at thyn ordinaunce }
Thou born art in my regne of variaunce, 46
Aboute the wheel with other most thou dryve.
My lore is bet than wikke is thy grevaunce,
And eek thou hast thy beste frend alyve.
21. I. deseyte. 22. I. most. 23. I. knew; rest knowe. I. ek.
24. I. fynaly ; the deffye. 27. I. om. to ; the rest have it. 31. I.
woost thow ; B. wostow ; A. T. wostowe. 37- A. T. seestowe ; I.
partly erased. 43. I. Wolthow ; B. Woltow. 46. I. most thow ;
H. thow must ; the rest maystow, maisthow, maistow.
XT. FORTUNE. 191
III. La respounse du Pleintif countre Fortune.
Thy lore I dampnc, hit is adversitee.
My frend maystou nat reven, blind goddesse ! 50
That I thy frendes knowe, I thanke hit thee.
Tak hem agayn, lat hem go lye on presse !
The nigardye in keping hir richesse
Prenostik is thou wolt hir tour assayle ;
Wikke appetyt comth ay before seknesse : 55
In general, this reule may nat fayle.
La respounse de Fortune countre le Pleintif.
Thou pinchest at my mutabilitee,
P^or I thee lente a drope of my richesse,
And now me lyketh to with-drawe me.
Why sholdestou my realtee oppresse? 60
The see may ebbe and flowen more or lesse ;
The wclkne hath might to shyne, reyne, or hayle ;
Right so mot I kylhen my brotelnesse.
In general, this reule may nat fayle.
Lo, thexecucion of the magestee 65
That al purveyeth of his rightwisnesse,
That same thing ' Fortune ' clepen ye,
Ye blinde bestes, ful of lewednesse !
The hevene hath proprete of sikernesse,
This world hath ever resteles travayle ; 70
Thy laste day is ende of myn intresse :
In general, this reule may nat fayle.
49. I. flempne ; F. B. H. dampne. 50. I. maysthow ; B. maistou ;
H. maystow. 51. I. thanke to ; F. thanke yt ; B. thanke it ; H.
thank it nat : (Lanstlowne and Pepys also have thank it\ 62. I.
welkne ; A. B. H. welkin; F. welkene ; T. sky. 63. I. brutelnesse ;
T. brntilnesse ; F. B. H. brotelnesse ; A. brittelnesse. 65. A. F.
Jiexecucion ; B. thexecncyon ; I. excussyoun. I. maieste ; ^w/ magestee
(mageste). 71. I. intersse {sic); (Lansd. a;;<y Pepys intresse); T. F.
B. interesse ; A. H. encresse.
192 XL FORTUNE.
Lenvoy de Fortune.
Princes, I prey you of your gentilesse,
Lat nat this man on me thus crye and pleyne,
And I shal quyte you your bysinesse 75
At my requeste, as thre of you or tweyne ;
And, but you list releve him of his peyne,
Preyeth his beste frend, of his noblesse,
That to som beter estat he may atteyne. 79
Explicit.
73. I. gentilesses ; the rest gentilesse. 76. In I. only ; the rest omit
this litte. 77. A. F. B. H. And ; I. T. That. I. lest ; rest list
(liste'i. ^/ <'«(/— B. Explicit.
XII. TRUTH.
Balade de bon conseyl.
Fle fro the prees, and dwelle with sothfastnesse,
Suffyce unto thy good, though hit be smal;
For hord hath hate, and clymbing tikelnesse,
Frees hath envye, and wele blent overal ;
Savour no more than thee bihove shal ; 5
Werk wel thy-self, that other folk canst rede ;
And trouthe shal delivere, hit is no drede.
Tempest thee noght al croked to redresse,
In trust of hir that turneth as a bal :
Gret reste stant in litel besinesse. 10
And eek be war to sporne ageyn an al;
Strive noght. as doth the crokke with the wal.
Daunte thy-self, that dauntest otheres dede ;
And trouthe shal delivere, hit is no drede.
That thee is sent, receyve in buxumnesse, 15
The wrastling for this worlde axeth a fal.
Title. Gg. has — Balade de bone conseyl ; F. has — Balade.
The MSS. afc At. (Addit. 10340, Brit. Museum); Gg. (Camb. Univ
Library, Gg. 4. 27) ; E. (Ellcsmcre MS.) ; Ct. (Cotton, Clcop. D. 7)
T. (Trin. Coll. Camb. R. 3. 20) ; and others. The text is foimded on E.
2. E. Suffise. E. good ; T. goode ; At. Ct. thing ; Gg. Jjyng. 4
At. blent ; T. blentet'e ; Gg. bl^mdyj) ; E. blyndeth ; Ct. blindeth ; see
note. 5. E. the. 7. T. inserts thee before shal. 9. E. trist
the rest trust. 10. Gg. Grct reste ; T. Gret rest ; H For gret reste
Ct. For greet rest ; At. Mych wele. E. bisynesse ; rest besynesse
II. E. ek ; agajTi. 13. E. Ct. Daunt; the rest Daunte. 14. T
inserts iki^Q before ^■x\. 15. E. the ; boxomnesse.
194 ^11- TRUTH.
Her nis non horn, her nis but wildernesse :
Forth, pilgrim, forth ! Forth, beste, out of thy stal !
Know thy contree, lok up, thank God of al;
Hold the hye wey, and lat thy gost thee lede : 20
And trouthe shal delivere, hit is no drede.
Envoy.
Therfore, thou vache, leve thyn old wrecchednesse
Unto the worlde ; leve now to be thral ;
Crye him mercy, that of his hy goodnesse
Made thee of noght, and in especial 25
Draw unto him, and pray in general
For thee, and eek for other, hevenlich mede ;
And trouthe shal delivere, hit is no drede. 28
Explicit Le bon counseill de G. Chaucer.
19. E. lok ; the rest loke, looke. 20. E. the {for thee). For Hold
the hye wey, Harl. F. ajid others have Weyve thy lust. 21. T. m-
serts \!a.t& before ■^'aS.. 22-28. This stanza is iti Kt. only. 22. At.
J)ine olde wrechedenesse. 23. At. world. 24. At. Crie hym ; hys
hie. 25. At. J)e ; noujt. 26. At. Drawe ; hym. 27. At. })e; eke;
heuenelyche. 28. At. schal del3aiere. Colophon : so in F.
XIII. GENTILESSE.
Moral Balade of Chaucer.
The firste stok, fader of gentilesse —
What man that claymeth gentil for to be,
Must folowe his trace, and alle his wittes dresse
Vertu to sewe, and wees for to fie.
For unto vertu longeth dignitee, 5
And noght the revers, saufly dar I deme,
Al were he mytre, croune, or diademe.
This firste stok was ful of rightwisnesse,
Trewe of his word, sobre, pitous, and free,
Clene of his goste, and loved besinesse, 10
Ageinst the vyce of slouthe, in honestee ;
And, but his heir love vertu, as did he.
He is noght gentil, thogh he riche seme,
Al were he mytre, croune, or diademe.
Vyce may wel be heir to old richesse ; 15
Rut ther may no man, as men may wel se,
Title : so in Harl., Init spelt Chaucier ; T. has — Balade by Chaucier.
The MSS. are A. (Ashmole 59) ; T. (Trin. Coll. R. 3. 20^ ; Harl.
(Harl. 7333); Ct. (Cotton, Cleopatra D. 7); Ha. (Harl. 7578); Add.
(Additional 22139, Brit. Museum). Also Cx. (Caxton's printed edition")
I follo'v chiefly the last of these, and note variatiotis.
I. Cx. first; Harl. fifirste ; Ct. firste. 3. Cx. 07ii. alle; the rest have
it. 4. A. T. suwe ; Harl. shew {for sewe) ; Cx. folowe (/y mistake).
5. Cx. vertue ; dignyte. 6. Cx. not; //^f ;rj^ noujt, nought, nojte.
7. Cx. mytor ; A. T. Harl. Add. mytre. Cx. prowne ; dyademe. 8.
Cx. rightwisnes. 9. A. Ct. Ha. pitous; Cx. pyetous. 10. Cx.
besjTies. 11. A. Ageinst ; T. Ageynst ; Cx. Agayn. Cx. om. Xht;
the rest have it. Cx. honeste. 12. Cx. eyer ; the rest heire, heyre.
13. Cx. not; Ct. H. nought. Cx. though; Add. thogh. 14. Cx.
mytor; crowne. 15. Cx. omits hm. Cx. holde; the rest ol^c; but
read old. 16. Cx. al ; the rest as.
O 2
1 96 XIII. GENTILESSE.
Bequethe his heir his vertuous noblesse ;
That is appropred unto no degree,
But to the firste fader in magestee,
That maketh him his heir, that wol him queme, 20
Al were he mytre, croune, or dyademe.
17. Cx. eyer. 18. Cx. degre. 19. Cx. first ; mageste. 20. Ct.
That maketh his heires hem that hym queme {otnitting wol) ; A.
That mal)e his heyre him that wol him qweme ; T. That make}-e heos
heyres hem Jiat wol him qweeme ; Add. That maketh his eires hem
that can him queme ; Cx. That makes hem eyres that can hem queme ;
unth other variations. I follow A., hut put maketh _/^r mape, and
place him after it; see note. 21. Cx. crowne my tor.
XIV. LAK OF STEDFASTNESSE.
Balade.
SoM tyme this world was so sledfast and stable,
That mannes word was obligacioun,
And now hit is so fals and deceivable,
That word and deed, as in conclusioun,
Ben no-thing lyk, for turned up so doun 3
Is al this world for mede and wilfulnesse,
That al is lost for lak of stedfastnesse.
What maketh this world to be so variable,
But lust that folk have in dissensioun ?
Among us now a man is holde unable, 10
But-if he can, by som conclusioun,
Don his neighbour wrong or oppressioun.
What causeth this, but wilful wrccchednesse,
That al is lost, for lak of stedfastnesse?
Trouthe is put doun, resoun is holden fable; 15
Vertu hath now no dominacioun,
Pitee exyled, no man is merciable.
Through covetyse is blent discrecioun;
The world hath mad a permutacioun
Fro right to wrong, fro trouthe to fikelnesse, jo
That al is lost, for lak of stedfastnesse.
The MSS. are : Harl. (Harl. 7333) ; T. (Trin. Coll. R. 3. 20) ; Ct.
(Cotton, Cleop. D. 7); F. (Fairfax 16); Add. (Addit. 22139); and
others. I follow Ct. chiefly. The title Balade is in F.
I. Ct. Sumtyme. Ct. F. the ; //^d: ri.-j'/ this. Ct. worlde. 2. Ct.
worde. 3. Ct. noweit; false; deseiuable. 4. Ct. worde ; dede. 5.
H. T. Beon ; Ad. Ar ; Ct. Is ; F. Ys. Ct. lyke. 6. Ct. all ; worlde.
8. Ct. worlde; veriable. 9. Ct. folke; discension. 10. 77/^ MSS.
have For among vs now, or For nowe a dayes ; only the Barinatyne MS.
omits Vox, which is not wanted. 12. Ct. Do ; neyghburgh. 15.
Ct. putte. 17. Ct. Pite. 18. Ct. Thonigh. 19. Ct. worlde.
Ct. om. a, which occurs in T. F, Add. 20. Ct. trought ; F". trouthe.
198 X/V. LAK OF STEDFASTNESSE.
Lenvoy to King Richard.
O prince, desyre to be honourable,
Cherish thy folk and hate extorcioun !
Suffre no thing, that may be reprevable
To thyn estat, don in thy regioun. 25
Shew forth thy swerd of castigacioun,
Dred God, do law, love trouthe and worthinesse,
And wed thy folk agein to stedfastnesse. 28
22. Ct. honurable. 23. Ct. Cherice thi. 25. Ct. thine estaat
doen ; thi. 26. Ct. Shewe; swerde. 27. Ct. Drede; truthe.
28. Ct. thi ; ayen.
XV. AGAINST WOMEN UNCONSTANT.
Balade.
Madame, for your newe-fangelnesse,
INIany a servaunt have ye put out of grace,
I take my leve of your unstedfastncsse,
For wel I wot, whyl ye have lyves space,
Ye can not love ful half yeer in a place ; 5
To newe thing your lust is euer kene;
In stede of blew, thus may ye were al grene.
Right as a mirour nothing may enpresse,
But, lightly as it cometh, so mot it pace.
So fareth your love, your werkes bereth witnesse. 10
Ther is no feith that may your herte enbrace;
But, as a wedercok, that turneth his face
With every wind, ye fare, and that is sene;
In stede of blew, thus may ye were al grene.
Ye might be shryned, for your brotelnesse, 15
Bet than Dalyda, Creseide or Candace;
For ever in chaunging stant your sikernesse,
Title. A'one in Ct. ; Balade in F. ; ed. 1561 has — A balade which
Chaucer made agaynst woman unconstaunt.
The text is from Ct. (Cotton, Cleopatra D. 7); that in ed. 1561 is
much the satne, except in spelling. Another copy in F.
2. Ct. Manie; F. Many. Ct. F. of youre ; omit yonxQ. 4. Ct. wole
while. F. have l>'ves ; Ct. to lyve haue. 5. Ct. kminought ; F. kan
not. 6. F. thing; Ct. thinges. Ct. inserts so be/ore 'kene; ed. (1561)
omits so ; F. has ay so. 7. Ct. sted ; F. stede. Ct. Bine ; F. blew.
8. Ct. Mirro;/r; ed. mirour. Ct. ed. ins. that bef. nothing; Y.om.
II. Ct. F. hert; ed. herte. 14. Ct. om. al ; F. retains it. 15.
Ct. om. your ; F. ed. retain it. 16. Ct. Bettir; F. ed. Better ; read
Bet. F. Dalyda; Ct. Dalide. Ct. Cresside ; F. Creseyde. 17. Ct.
Changeng; F. chaungyng. Ct. F. cd. stondeth ; rt'odf stant.
200 AT. AGAINST WOMEN UNCONSTANT.
I'hat tache may no wight fro your herte arace ;
If ye lese oon, ye can wel tweyn purchace ;
Al light for somer, ye wite wel what I mene, 20
In stede of blew, thus may ye were al grene.
Explicit.
18. F. tache; Ct. tacche ; ed. tatche. F. herte; Ct. ed. hert. 19.
Ct. lese ; F. ed. lose. Ct. kunne ; F. lean ; ed. can. Ct. ed. tweine ;
F. tweyn. 20. Ct. All ; ed. Al. Ct. F. wote ; ed. wot ; read wite.
21. Ct. ovi. al ; F. ed. retain it. Ct, adds Explicit.
XVI. LENVOY DE CHAUCER A SCOGAN.
To-broken been the statuls hye in hevene
That creat were eternally to dure,
Sith that I see the brighte goddes sevene
Mow wepe and wayle, and passioun endure,
As may in erthe a mortal creature. 5
Alias, fro whennes may this thing procede.-'
Of whiche errour I deye almost for drede.
By worde eterne whylom was hit shape
I'hat fro the fifte cercle, in no manere,
Ne mighte a drope of teres doun escape. 10
But now so wepeth Venus in hir spere,
That with hir teres she wol drenche us here.
Alias, Scogan ! this is for thyn offence !
Thou causest this deluge of pesdlence.
Hast thou not seyd, in blaspheme of this goddes, 15
Through pryde, or through thy grete rakelnesse,
vSwich thing as in the lawe of love forbode is ?
That, for thy lady saw nat thy distresse,
Therfor thou yave hir up at jNIichelmesse 1
Title : so in F. andV. ; Gg. has — Litera dirccta de Scogon perG. C.
The MSS. are: Gg. (Camb. Uuiv. Library, Gg. 4. 27); p". (Fairfax
16) ; P. (Pepys 2006). I follow F. mainly.
I. F. statutez. 2. F. weren eternaly. 3. F. biyght goddis. 4
F. Mowe. 5. F. mortale. 6. F. thys thinge. S. F. whilome. F
yshape ; Gg. itschape; P. it shape. 9. F. fyftcsercle; maner. 10. F
inyght; teeres ; eschape. 11. F. wepitli. 12. F. teerts. 14. F
cawscst; diluge. 15. Gg. Hast ])u ; F. Hauesthow. F. this goddis ;
Gg. the goddis; P. the goddes. 16. F. Thurgh; thrugh. F. they
{wrongly); Gg. J)yn; P. thi. F. rekehiesse ; P. rel<:lcsnesse ; Gg.
rechelesnesse ; Jt-c note. 17. F. forbede ; Gg. forboden. iS. Gg.
saw ; F. sawgh. 19. F. Therfore ihow. Gg. Mychel- , F. Mighel-.
202 XVI. LENVOY A SCOGAN.
Alias, Scogan ! of olde folk ne yonge 20
Was nevere erst Scogan blamed for his tonge 1
Thou drowe in scorn Cupyde eek to record
Of thilke rebel word that thou hast spoken,
For which he wol no lenger be thy lord.
And, Scogan, thogh his bowe be nat broken, 25
He wol nat with his arwes been y-wroken
On thee, ne me, ne noon of our figure,
We shul of him have neither hurt ne cure.
Now certes, frend, I drede of thyn unhappe,
Lest for thy gilt the wreche of Love precede 30
On alle hem that ben hore and rounde of shape.
That ben so lykly folk in love to spede.
Than shul we for our labour han no mede;
But wel I wot, thou wilt answere and seye :
'Lo! olde Grisel list to ryme and pleye!' 35
Nay, Scogan, sey not so, for I mexcuse,
God help me so ! in no rym, doutelees,
Ne thinke I never of sleep to wak my muse.
That rusteth in my shethe stille in pees.
Whyl I was yong, I putte hir forth in prees, 40
But al shal passe that men prose or ryme;
Take every man his turn, as for his tyme.
Envoy.
Scogan, that knelest at the stremes heed
Of grace, of alle honour and worthinesse,
20. F. folke. 22. F. scome; eke; recorde. 23. F. worde ;
thow. 24. F. lorde. 25. F. thow {for thogh). F. thy {for his,
■wrongly); Gg. P. his. 27. F. the. Gg. oure ; P. owre; F. youre.
28. Y. hurte. Gg. P. ne ; F. nor. 29. F. dreed. 30. F. gilte.
31. Gg. P. hore; F. hoor. F. shappe; P. shape; Gg. schap. 32.
F. folke. 33. P. shull ; F. Gg. shal. Gg. P. han ; F. haue. F. noo.
34. F. thow. F. wolt ; Gg. wilt. 35. Gg. P. Lo olde ; F. Loo
tholde. F. lyste. 36. F. say ; Gg. P. sey. !< . soo. 37. P. help ;
Gg. F. helpe. F. soo. F. ryme dowteles. 38. F. thynke ; slepe ;
wake. 40. F. While ; yonge. Gg. putte ; F. put. P. her ; F. hyt ;
Gg. it. 41. F. alle. 42. F. hys tume. 43. F. hede; Gg. bed.
XVI. LENVOY A SCO G AN. 203
In thende of which streme I am dul as deed, 45
Forgete in solitarie wildernesse ;
Yet, Scogan, thenke on Tullius kyndenesse,
Minne thy frend, thcr it may fructifye !
Far-wel, and lok thou never eft Love defye ! 49
45. F. dede; Gg. P. ded. 4S. F. Mynne; there. 49. F. loke
thow ; dyffye.
Note : All contain the following notes, viz. — .i. a Windcsore
opposite 1. 43 ; and — .i. a Grenewich opposite 1. 45.
XVII. LENVOY DE CHAUCER A BUKTON.
The counseil of Chaucer touching Mariage, which
was sent to Bukton.
My maister Bukton, whan of Criste our kinge
Was axed, what is trouthe or sothfastnesse,
He nat a word answerde to that axinge,
As who saith : ' no man is al trew,' I gesse.
And therfor, thogh I highte to expresse 5
The sorwe and wo that is in mariage,
I dar not wryte of hit no wikkednesse,
Lest I my-self falle eft in swich dotage.
I wol nat seyn, how that hit is the cheyne
Of Sathanas, on which he gnaweth ever, 10
But I dar seyn, were he out of his peyne,
As by his wille, he wolde be bounde never.
But thiike doted fool that eft hath lever
Y-cheyned be than out of prisoun crepe,
God lete him never fro his wo dissever, ' 15
Ne no man him bewayle, though he wepe.
But yit, lest thou do worse, tak a wyf;
Bet is to wedde, than brenne in worse wyse.
But thou shalt have sorwe on thy flesh, thy lyf,
And been thy wyves thral, as seyn these wyse, 20
Title : so in MS. Fairfax 16. Second 'Y\\\q from Ju.
The authorities are: F. (Fairfax 16) ; Th. (Thynne's edition, 1532) ;
and a printed copy by Julian Notary (Ju.). I follow F. mainly.
2. F. ys ; sothefastnesse. 3. F. worde. 4. F. noo. 5. F. ther-
fore tliougii ; hight. 6. F. woo. 7. F. writen ; hyt. 8. Ju.
Lest; F. Leste. 9. F. hyt. 10. F. euere. 11. F. oute. 12.
F. neuere. 13. F. foole. Th. efte ; F. ofte ; Ju. oft. F. leuere.
15. F. woo disseuere. 16. F. noo. 17. F. thow doo ; take; wyfe.
19. F. thow; flessh; lyfe. 20. F. wifes ; Ju. Th. wyues.
XVII. I.ENVOY A BUKTON. 205
And if that holy vrit may nat sufiyse,
Experience shal thee teche, so may happe,
That thee were lever to be take in Fryse
Than eft to falle of wedding in the trappe.
Envoy.
This htel writ, proverbes, or figure 25
I sende you, tak kepe of hit, I rede:
Unwys is he that can no wele endure.
If thou be siker, put thee nat in drede.
The Myf of Bathe I pray you that ye rede
Of this matere that we have on honde. 30
God grauntc you your lyf frely to lede
In fredom ; for ful hard is to be bonde. 32
Explicit.
21. F. yf; hooly writte. 22. F. the. 23. F. the. 24. F. Jii.
cm. to; which Th. inserts. 25. F. writte; Th. writ; Ju. wryt.
26. F. yow take; hyt. 27. F. Vnwise; lean noo. 28. F. thow ;
the. 29. F. wyfe ; yow. 31. F. yow; lyfe. 32. F. fredam.
F. harde it is ; Ju. hard is ; Th. foule is. All add Explicit.
XVIII. THE COxMPLEYNT OF VENUS.
I. {The Lover's worthiness)
Ther nis so hy comfort to my plesaunce,
Whan that I am in any hevinesse,
As for to have leyser of remembraunce
Upon the manhod and the worthinesse,
Upon the trouthe, and on the stedfastnesse ■ 5
Of him whos I am al, whyl I may dure;
Ther oghte blame me no creature,
For every wight preiseth his gentilesse.
In him is bountee, wisdom, gouernaunce
Wei more then any mannes wit can gesse; 10
For grace hath wold so ferforth him avaunce
That of knighthode he is parfit richesse.
Honour honoureth him for his noblesse ;
Therto so wel hath formed him Nature,
That I am his for ever, I him assure, 15
For every wight preiseth his gentilesse.
And not- withstanding al his suffisaunce,
His gentil herte is of so greet humblesse
To me in worde, in werke, in contenaunce,
And me to serve is al his besinesse, 20
That I am set in verrey sikernesse.
Title : so in F. Ff. Ar. ; see Notes.
The MSS. are : T. (Trin. Coll. Cambridge, R. 3. 20) ; A. (Ashmole
59) ; Tn. (MS. Tanner 346); F. (Fairfax 16^; Ff. (MS. Ff. i. 6, Camb.
Univ. Library) ; P. (Pepys 2006^ ; etc. I follow F. mainly.
I. F. high; T. A. hye (hy is better). 2. F. When ; eny. 4. F.
manhod ; the rest havefincil e. 5. F. stidfastnesse. 6. F. whiles ;
A. whilest ; rest while. 7. F. oght ; Tn. oghte to. 9. F. ys bounte.
F. T. A. insert and after wisdom ; but the rest o?)iit it. 10. F. eny
manes witte. 11. F. wolde {wrongly); Ff. wold. F. ferforthe.
12. F. parfite. 14. F. well. 16. F. preysith. iS. F. heit:
grete. 19. F. werk. 21. F. sikimesse.
XVIII. THE COMPLEYNT OF VENUS. 207
Thus oghte I blesse wel myn aventure,
Sith that him list me serven and honoure ;
For every wight preiseth his gcntilesse.
II. {Disquietude caused by Jealousy^
Now certes, Love, hit is right covenable 25
That men ful dere bye the noble thing,
As wake a-bedde, and fasten at the table,
Weping to laughe, and singe in compleyning,
And doun to caste visage and loking,
Often to chaungen hewe and contenaunce, 30
Pleye in sleping, and dremen at the daunce,
Al the revers of any glad feling.
Thogh lelosye wer hanged by a cable,
She wolde al knowe through her espying;
Ther doth no wight no-thing so resonable, 35
That al nis harm in her imagening.
Thus dere abought is love in yeving,
Which ofte he yiveth with-outen ordinauncc,
As sorow ynogh, and litel of plesaunce,
Al the revers of any glad feling. 40
A litel tymc his yift is agreable.
But ful encomberous is the using ;
For sotel lelosye, the deceyvable,
Ful often-tyme causeth destourbing.
f Thus be we ever in drede and suffering, 45
22. F. oght. 25. F. certis. 27. F. a-bed ; T. A. a-bedde.
28. F. Wepinge ; laugh ; sing ; compleynpige. 29. F. cast ; the rest
caste. F. lokynge. 30. F. chaunge visage {wrongly) ; change
hewe in MS. Arch. Selden, B. 24 ; T. A. chaunge huwe. 31. F
Pley. F. dreme ; T. Tn. Ff. dremen. 32. F. reuersc ; eny. 33
T. {)aughe lalousye wer ; the rest wrongly omit Thaughc (Thogh), and
turn wer into be. T. Tn. by ; F. be ; Ff. with. 34. F. wold ; thro
espyinge. 35. F. dothe. 36. F. nys harme ; ymagenynge. 37
F. yevynge. 38. F. yifelh. Ff. withouten ; the rest withoute. 40
F. reuerse. 42. T. Ff. encomberous ; F. encombrousc. F. vsynge
43. Tn. S(Hell ; F. subtil. 44. T. destourbing ; A. destourbinge ; F
(lerturbyuge (i/f). 45. F. suffrynge ; P. sufferyng; T. souffering.
20 8 XVI 11. THE COMPLEYNT OF VENUS.
In nouncerteyn we languishe in penaunce,
And han ful often many an hard meschaunce,
^ Al the ravers of an}- glad feling.
III. {Satisfach'oti in Cojisiancy?)
But certes, Love, I sey nat in such wyse
That for tescape out of your lace I mente ; 50
For I so longe have been in your servyse
That for to lete of wol I never assente;
No force thogh lelosye me tormente ;
Suffyceth me to see him whan I may,
And therfore certes, to myn ending-day 55
_To love him best ne shal I never repente.
And certes, Love, whan I me wel avyse
On any estat that man may represente,
Than have ye maked me, through your franchyse,
Chese the best that ever on erthe wente. 60
Now love wel, herte, and lok thou never stente;
And let the lelous putte hit in assay
That, for no peyne wol I nat sey nay ;
To love him best ne shal I never repente.
Herte, to thee hit oghte y-nogh suffj'se 65
That Love so hy a grace to thee sente,
To chese the worthiest in alle wyse
46. F. Ff. noun-certeyn ; T. noun-certaine ; A. nouncerteine. F. lan-
gvisshen. 47. F. harde. F. wrongly repeats penaunce ; T. A.
meschaunce. 48. F. reuerse ; ony ; felynge. 49. F. certys ; not.
fo. F. youre ; ment. 51. F. be; t/ie rest ben or been. 52. F. wil ;
T. A. Ff. wol. F. assent. 53. F. fors ; turment. 55. F. certys.
56. F. oiii. ne, 'which T. A. P. insert; Ar. has that. Tn. inserts me
hef ore ntYer. 57. F. certis ; when. 58. F. eny estate ; represent.
59. F. Tn. Then ; rest Than, Thanne, Thane. T. Ff. P. maked ;
r^j^ made. F. thro. 60. F. went. 61. F. hert ; loke ; stent.
62. P. lelous; A. lalous ; T. lalouse ; F. lelousie. A. putte; F. put.
63. F. peyn wille I not. 64. F. yow {for him) ; T. A. Tn. Ar. him
[seel. ^6). 65. F. Hert; the; ought ynogh. 66. F. highe ; T. A.
hye. T. A. Ff Ar. thee ; F. yow; Tn. you. F. sent. 67, F. al.
XVIIL THE COMPLEYNT OF VENUS. 209
And most agreable unto myn entente.
Seche no ferther, neyther wey ne wente,
Siih I have suffisaunce unto my pay. 70
Thus Avol I ende this compleynt or lay ;
To love him best ne shal I never repente.
Lenvoy.
Princess, receyveth this compleynt in gre,
Unto your excellent benignitee
Direct after my litel suffisaunce. 75
For eld, that in my spirit dulleth me,
Hath of endyting al the soteltee
Wei ny bereft out of my remembraunce ;
And eek to me hit is a greet pcnaunce,
Sith rym in English hath swich scarsitee, 80
To folowe word by word the curiositee
Of Graunson, flour of hem that make in Fraunce.
68. F. entent. 69. F. went. 70. F. Sithe. F. Tn. ye {for V ;
rest I. 71. All but Ju. (Julian Notary's edition"; repeat this before
lay. 72. See 1. 56. 73. T. A. Pryncesse ; rest Princes.
F. resseyueth. 74. F. e.xcelent benignite. 75. F. Uirecte aftir.
76. F. elde. 77. Tn. soteltee; F. snbtilite. 78. F. nyghe.
79. F. eke; grete. 80. F. rj'me; englissli hat (jzV) such skarsete.
Si. F. worde by worde ; curiosite. 82. F. floure ; maken.
XIX. THE COMPLEINT OF CHAUCER TO HIS
EMPTY PURSE.
To you, my purse, and to non other wight
Compleyne I, for ye be my lady dere !
I am so sory, now that ye be light;
For certes, but ye make me hevy chere,
INIe were as leef be leyd up-on my bere ; 5
For whiche un-to your mercy thus I crye :
Beth hevy ageyn, or elles mot I dye !
Now voucheth sauf this day, or hit be night,
That I of you the blisful soun may here,
Or see your colour lyk the sonne bright, 10
That [as] of yelownesse hadde never pere.
Ye be my lyf, ye be myn hertes stere,
Quene of comfort and of good companye :
Beth hevy ageyn, or elles mot I dye !
Now purs, that be to me my lyves light, 15
And saveour, as doun in this worlde here,
Out of this toune help me through your might,
Sin that ye wole nat ben my tresorere ;
For I am shave as nye as any frere.
But yit I pray un-to your curtesye: 20
Beth hevy ageyn, or elles mot I dye!
The MSS. are : F. (Fairfax 16) ; Harl. (Had. 7333) ; Ff. (Camb.
Univ. Library, Ff. i. 6) ; P. (Pepys 2006); Add. (Addit. 22139); also
Cx. (Caxton's edition). I follow F. mainly.
Title. So in Cx. {but with Un-to for to) ; F. om. empty ; P. La
compleint de Ch.-iucer a sa Bourse Voide.
I. F. yow. 2. F. Complayn ; Harl. P. Compleyne. 3. Harl.
be ; F. been. 4. Add. That ; P. But ; rest For. P. Add. but ye ;
F. H. but yf ye ; Ff. but yif ye; Cx. ye now. 5. Add. leyd; F.
layde. 7. F. Beeth ; ageyne ; mote. 8. F. hyt ; nyght. 9. F.
yow; sovne. 10. F. lyke ; bryght. 11. I supply as. 12. F.
lyfe ; hertys. 14. F. ageyne; moote. 15. P. Cx. purs; F. Add.
purse. F. ben. 17. F. Oute ; helpe ; thurgh. t8. F. bene.
19. Harl. P. any; Add. eny ; Cx. ony; F. is a. 21. F. Bethe; ayen ;
moote.
XIX. COMPLEINT TO HTS PURSE. 211
Lenvoy de Chaucer.
O conquerour of Brutes Albioun !
Which that by lyne and free cleccioun
Ben verray king, this song to you I sende;
And ye, that mowen al myn harm amende, 25
Have mynde up-on my supplicacioun !
F. Lenvoy de Chaucer ; Harl. P. Lenvoye ; Cx. Thenuoye of Chaucer
vnto the kynge. 23. F. Whiche. F. lygne ; Harl. Cx. Ff. P. lyne.
24. F. Been ; kjTige ; yow. 25. F. alle m}Ti harme ; Ff. alk cure
harmes ; Harl. all oure harmous ; P. Cx. alk harmes.
r 2
XX. PROVERBS.
I.
What shul thees clothes many-fold,
Lo ! this hote somers day ? —
After greet heet cometh cold;
No man caste his pilche away.
II.
Of al this world the wyde compas
Hit wol not in myn armes tweyne. —
Who-so mochel wol embrace
Litel therof he shal distreyne. 8
The MSS. are : F. (Fairfax i6) ; Ha. (Harl. 7578) ; Ad. (Addit.
16165). I follow F. mainly.
I. Ad. J'ees ; F. Ha. these. All needlessly insert thus after clothes.
F. many-folde. ■2. F. Loo ; hoote. 3. F. grete hete ; Ha. greet bete ;
Ad. heet. F. colde. 4. Ha. pilche ; F. pilch. 5. F. all ; worlde.
Ad. wyde ; F. Ha. large. Ad. Ha. compas ; F. compace. 6. Ad.
Hit; F. Yt. Ad. wol; F. Ha. wil. Ad. myn; F. Ha. my.
7. F. Whoo-so.
APPENDIX.
XXI. A COMPLEINT TO HIS LADY.
1. (/« sevc7i-line s'a7tzas.)
The longe night, whan every creature
Shulde have hir rest in somwhat, as by kynde,
Or elles ne may hir lyf nat long endure,
Hit falleth most in-to my woful mynde
How I so fer have broght my-self behynde, 5
That, sauf the deeth, ther may no-thing me lisse,
So desespaired I am from alle blisse.
This same thoght me lasteth til the morwe,
And from the morwe forth til hit be eve;
Ther nedeth me no care for to borwe, 10
For bothe I have good leyser and good leve ;
Ther is no wight that wol me wo bereve
To wepe y-nogh and wailen al my fille;
The sore spark of peyne doth me spille.
II. [In Terza Rima ; imperfect^
[The sore spark of peyne doth me spille;]
This Love hath [eek] me set in swich a place
It
Of these fragments there is but one MS. copy, in MS. Ilarl. 7S, in
•which [as in ed. 1561') it is written in continuation of the Complaint
nnto Pity. The spelling is bad, and I alter it throughout.
I. MS. nyghtes; see\.^. 2,3. hir; MS. theyre. 7. ed. (1561)
rlispaired. 12. MS. me; ed. my. 14. Both insert now before doth.
15. // seems necessary to repeat this line in order to start the series of
rimes. 16. MS. This loue that hathe me set ; I omit that, and supply
eek.
214 XXI. COMPLEINT TO HIS LADY.
That my desyr [he] never wol fulfille ;
For neither pitee, mercy, neither grace
Can I nat fynde ; yit [from] my sorwful herte,
For to be deed, I can hit nat arace.
The more I love, the more she doth me smerte ;
Through which I see, with-oute remedye.
That from the deeth I may no wyse asterte;
[For this day in her servise shal I dye].
III. {In Terza Rima ; z'mper/ecf.)
[Thus am I slain, with sorvves ful dyverse; 25
Ful long agoon I mighte have taken hede].
Now sothly, what she hight I wol reherse;
Her name is Bountee, set in womanhede,
Sadnesse in youthe, and beautee prydelees,
And plesaunce, under governaunce and drede ; 30
Her surname eek is Faire Rewthelees,
The Wyse, y-knit un-to good Aventure,
That, for I love her, sleeth me giltelees.
Her love I best, and shal whyl I may dure,
Bet than my-self an hundred thousand deel, 35
Than al this worldes richesse or creature.
Now hath nat Love me bestowed weel
To love, ther I never shal have part?
Alias ! right thus is turned me the wheel.
Thus am I slayn with loves fyry dart. 40
I can but love her best, my swete fo;
Love hath me taught no more of his art
But serve alwey, and stinte for no wo.
17. I supply he (i.e. Love). 19. MS. and yit my; I omit and,
and supply from. 24. Supplied to complete the rime front Compl.
Mars, 189. 25. Supplied from Compl. Pite, 22, 17. 26.
Supplied from Annelida, 307. 31. MS. is eek. 32. MS. The
wyse eknytte {corrupt ?). 33. MS. hir she ; / omit she. 36.
Corrupt^ Perhaps read nche QxtaXMiQ. 40. MS. fury. 42. Read
ofalle his?
XXI. COMPLEINT TO HIS LADY. 21 S
IV. (In ten-line slanzas.)
[With-in] my trewe careful herte ther is
So moche wo, and [eek] so litel blis, 45
That wo is me that ever I was bore ;
For al that thing which I desyre I mis,
And al that ever I wolde nat, I-wis,
That fynde I redy to me evermore ;
And of al this I not to whom me pleyne. 50
For she that mighte me out of this bringe
Ne reccheth nat whether I wepe or singe ;
So lite! rewthe hath she upon my peyne.
Alias ! whan sleping-tyme is, than I wake.
Whan I shulde daunce, for fere than I quake, 55
This hevy lyf I lede for your sake,
Thogh ye ther-of in no wyse hede take,
• •••••
My hertes lady, and hool my lyves quene ! 60
For trewly dorste I seye, as that I fele.
Me semeth that your swete herte of stele
Is whetted now ageynes me to kene.
My dere herte, and best beloved fo,
Why lyketh yow to do me al this wo, 65
What have I doon that greveth yow, or sayd.
But for I serve and love yow and no mo?
And whylst I live, I wol do ever so;
And therfor, swete, ne beth nat evil apayd.
For so good and so fair as [that] ye be, 70
Hit wer [a] right gret wonder but ye hadde
Of alle servants, bothe goode and badde ;
And, leest worthy of alle hem, I am he.
44. MS. In; I read V^'iXh-'m. 45. I sitpply &ek. 50. So in
Annelida, 237. 54. MS. ins. lo after is. 55. MS. ins. lo after
fere. ^6, c^c). Missing, ^'j. US. ins. lo after \ede. 68. MS. euer do.
70. I siifply ihvA. 71. I supply Sl. 72. MS. 2«J. of a//(?r bothe.
iS
31 6 XXI. COMPLEINT TO HIS LADY.
•
But never-the-les, my righte lady swete,
Thogh that I be unconning and unmete
To serve as I best coude ay your hynesse,
Yit is ther fayner noon, that wolde I hete,
Than I to do yow ese, or elles bete
What-so I wiste were to [yow distresse].
And had I might as good as I have wille, 80
Than shulde ye fele wher it wer so or noon ;
For in this worlde living is ther noon
That fayner wolde your hertes [wish] fulfille.
For bothe I love, and eek dreed yow so sore,
And algates moot, and have doon yow, ful yore, 85
That bet loved is noon, ne never shal ;
And yit I wolde beseche yow of no more
But leveth wel, and be nat wroth ther-fore,
And lat me serve yow forth ; lo 1 this is a!.
For I am nat so hardy ne so wood 90
For to desyre that ye shulde love me;
For wel I wot, alias 1 that may nat be ;
I am so litel worthy, and ye so good.
For ye be oon the worthiest on-lyve,
And I the most unlykly for to thryve; 95
Yit, for al this, [now] witeth ye right wele,
That ye ne shul me fro your service dryve
That I nil ay, with alle my wittes fyve,
Serve yow trewly, what wo so that I fele.
For I am set on yow in swich manere 100
That, thogh ye never wil upon me rewe,
I moste yow love, and ever been as trewe
As any can or may on-lyve [here].
76. MS. koude best. 77. MS. noon fayner. 78. MS. youre ;
read yow. 79. MS. wist that were ; om. that. MS. your hyenesse
{repeated from \. l(i \ wrongly); r^a^/ yow distresse. 82. VLS. ins.
t>ane befo7-e is. 83. MS. wille {badly) ; read wish. 86. MS. better,
96. I stipply nov/. 98. MS. ne wil (/or nil) 100. ed. {jc^(>i)has
set so hy vpon your whele. 102. MS. beon euer. 103. MS. man
can ; / omit man. / supply here ; the line is imperfect.
XXI. COMPLEINT TO HIS LADY. 21'/
The more that I love yow, goodly fre,
The lasse fynde I that ye loven me ; 105
Alias ! whan shal that harde wit amende ?
Wher is now al your womnianly pitee,
Your gentilesse and your debonairtee,
Wil ye no-thing ther-of upon me spende ?
And so hool, swete, as I am youres al, no
And so gret wille as I have yow to serve,
Now, certes, and ye lete me thus sterve,
Yit have ye wonne ther-on but a smal.
For, at my knowing, I do no-thing why,
And this I wol beseche yow hertely, 115
That, ther ever ye fynde, whyl }-e live,
A trewer servant to yow than am I,
Leveth [me] thanne, and sleeth me hardely,
And I my deeth to you wol al forgive.
And if ye fynde no trewer [man than me], 120
[Why] will ye suffre than that I thus spille.
And for no maner gilt but my good wille ?
As good w'er thanne untrewe as trewe to be.
104. MS. But the ; lomitBvLi. 114. MS. nought ; read no -thing.
T16. MS. whyles. 118. I supply me. 120. MS. no trewer so
verrayly ; ed. no trewer verely {false rime). 121. I supply Why.
XXIL AN AMOROUS COMPLEINT.
An amorous Compleint, made at Windesor.
I, WHICH that am the sorwefulleste man
That in this world was ever yit levinge,
And leest recoverer of him-selven can,
Beginne thus my deedly compleyninge
On hir, that may to lyf and deeth me bringe, 5
Which hath on me no mercy ne no rewthe
That love hir best, but sleeth me for my trewthe.
[Ne] can I seyen nought that may yow lyke,
[For] certes, now, alias ! alias ! the whyle !
Your plesaunce is to laughen whan I syke, 10
And thus ye me from al my blisse exyle.
Ye have me cast in that despitous yle
Ther never man on lyve ne might asterte;
This have I for I love yow best, swete herte !
Soth is, that wel I wot, by lyklinesse, 15
If it wer thing possible [for] to do
For to acounte your beutee and goodnesse,
I have no wonder though ye do me wo;
Sith I, thunworthiest that may ryde or go,
Durste ever thinken in so hy a place, 20
What wonder is, though ye do me no grace?
In MS. Harl. 7333, fol. 133 b and 134. The title is — And next
folowyng begynnith an amerowse compleynte made at wyndesore in
the laste May tofore Nouembre {sic').
I. Harl. sorowfuUest. 2. worlde ; laving. 3. leste recouuerer.
4. Be-gynne right thus. 5. lyff; dethe. 6. Whiche hathe ; rought
{sic). 7. beste ; sleethe. 8. Harl. cm. Ne, but inserts it at be-
gintiingofl. 9; Cane I nought ne saye {badly). 9. Ne {for For) ;
novve ellas ellas. 10. Youre. 11. frome. 12. Yee; caste;
spitouse (y2?r despitous). 14. beste. 15. Soothe; weele ; woot.
16. thinge; om.foi; doo. t8. noo wondre ; yee; woo. 19. Sithe;
goo. 20. hie. 21. wondir; doo; noo.
XXII. AN AMOROUS COMPLEINT. 21 9
Alias ! thus is my lyf brought to an ende.
My deeth, I see, is my conclusioun ;
I may wel say, in sory tyme I spende
jVIy lyf, that so may have confusioun 25
For mercy, pitee, and deep affeccioun.
I sey for me, for al my deedly chere,
Alle thise diden, in that, me love yow dere.
And in this wyse and [in] dispayre I live
In love; nay, nay, but in dispayre I dye! 30
But shal I thus [to] yow my deeth for-give,
That causeles doth me this sorow drye?
Ye, certes, I ! For she of my folye
Hath nought to done, although she do me sterve;
Hit is nat with hir wille that I hir serve ! 35
Than sith I am of my sorowe the cause
And sith that I have this, withoute hir reed,
Than may I seyn, right shortly in a clause.
It is no blame unto hir womanheed
Though swich a wrecche as I be for hir deed; 40
Yet ahvey [been] two thinges, doon me dye,
That is to seyn, hir beutee and myn ye.
So algates, she is [than] the verray rote
Of my disese, and of my dethe also ;
For with oon word she mighte be my bote, 45
If that she vouched sauf for to do so.
But [why] than is hir gladnesse at my wo ?
22. Ellas; Eonde. 23. dethe; concluciouw. 24. wele; sorye.
25. song (!yj7r so) ; Confuciouw. 27. io(\for{ox^. 28. Alk'this;
deere. 29. I supply m. 31. I supply io; yowc ; dethe for-geve.
32. dothe. 33. certe(I"); sheo. 34. Ilathe ; Al-thoughe sheo.
35. nought (/or nat). 36. Thane sithe. 37 sitthe; rede. 38.
seyne. 39. noo ; womanhede. 40. Thaugh suche ; dede.
41. Yelte; I supply httn ; twoo; doone. 42. seyne; beaute; eye.
43. sheo ; / supply than ; verraye Roote. 44. diseese ; alsoo. 45.
worde sheo myght ; boote. 46. sheo wovched saufc ; soo. 47.
/ supply why ; woo.
220 XXII. AN AMOROUS COMFLEINT.
It is hir wone plesaunce for to take,
To seen hir servaunts dyen for hir sake!
But certes, than is al my wonderinge, 50
Sithen she is the fayrest creature
As to my dome, that ever was levinge,
The benignest and beste eek that nature
Hath wrought or shal, whyl [that] the world may dure,
Why that she lefte pite so bihynde ? 55
It was, y-wis, a greet defaute in kynde.
Yit is al this no lak to hir, pardee.
But God or nature sore wolde I blame ;
For, though she shewe no pite unto me,
Sithen that she doth othere men the same, 60
I ne oughte to despyse my ladies game ;
It is [hir] pley to laughen whan men syketh,
And I assente, al that hir list and lyketh 1
Ye ! wolde I, as I dar, with sorweful herte
Biseche un-to your mekly womanhede 65
That I now dorste my sharpe shoures smerte
Shewe by worde, and ye wolde ones rede
The pleynte of me, the which ful sore drede
That I have seid here, through myn unknowinge,
In any worde to your displesinge. ;o
Lothest of anything that ever was loth
Were me, als wisly god my soule save !
To seyn a thing through which ye might be wroth ;
48. wonne ; Harl. i)ts. to after wonne. 49. seon ; san-atintes.
50. thanne; alk ; wondering 51. sheo. 53. eke. 54. Hatha;
shalk; I stipply Xii2.\.; worlde. 55. Whi ; sheo lefe pitte ; byhinde.
56. ewisse; grete. 57. Yitte; noo. 58. Harl. itis- htm before
score {sic). 59. thowe (for thougXv ; sheo; pette. 60. sheo doothe.
61. ought. 62. I sitfply h\i \ pleye ; lawhe when that men sikith.
63. liste; likethe. 64. Yeo ; dare; sorowfull. 67. yee ; onys.
68. comple}Tite {for) pleynte; ; which I ¥vl\e. 69. saide ; thorowe.
70. yowre. 71. Loothest ; loothe. 72. sowle safe. 73. seyne;
thorughe ; yee ; wrothe.
XXII. AN AMOROUS COMPLEINT. 221
And, to that day that I be leyd in grave,
A trewer servaunt shulde ye never have ; 75
And, though that I have pleyned unto yow here,
Forgiveth it me, myn owne lady dere !
Ever have I been, and shal, how-so I wende,
Outher to live or dye, your humble trewe ;
Ye been to me my ginning and myn ende, 80
Sonne of the sterre bright and clere of hewe,
And I ay oon; to love yow freshly newe,
By God and by my trouthe, is myn entente,
To live or dye ; I wol it never repente !
This compleynt on seint Valentynes day, 85
Whan every foul [ther] chesen shal his make,
To hir, whos I am hool, and shal alwey,
This woful song and this compleynt I make,
That never yit wolde me to mercy take ;
And yit wol I [for] evermore her serve 90
And love hir best, although she do me sterve.
74. leyde. 75. sarvaunt ne shulde yee. 76. thaughe ; plajTied.
77. For-gyvethe yt me, Ti\yx\Q oune lady so dere. 78. howe. 79.
youre. 80. Yee ben ; gynnynge. 81. Sterre so bright ; huwe. 82.
fresshely. 83. wolle. 85. Con])leynte ; valantines. 86. fonghel
cheesen shall; I supply "Cn^x from Pari. Foules, 310. 87. was (}.for
whos) ; hole ; shall. 88. wofulk songe ; conplaynte. 90. wolle ;
I supply for. 91. alk-thowhe sheo.
XXIII. A BALADE OF COiVtPLEYNT.
CoMPLEYNE ne coude, ne might myn herte never
]\Iy peynes halve, ne what torment I have,
Though that I sholde in your presence ben ever,
My hertes lady, as wisly he me save
That bountee made, and beutee list to grave 5
In your persone, and bad hem bothe in-fere
Ever tawayte, and ay be wher ye were.
As wisly he gye alle my loyes here
As I am youres, and to yow sad and trewe,
And ye, my lyf and cause of my good chere, 10
And deeth also, whan ye my peynes newe.
My worldes loye, whom I wol serve and sewe,
My heven hool, and al my suflBsaunce,
Whom for to serve is set al my plesaunce.
Beseching yow in my most humble wyse 15
Taccepte in worth this litel povre dyte,
And for my trouthe my service nat despyse,
Myn observaunce eek have nat in despyte,
Ne yit to long to suffre in this plyte,
I yow beseche, myn hertes lady dere, 20
Sith I yow serve, and so wil yeer by yere.
In MS. Addit. 16165, fol. 256, back; /ica(/^(/ Balade of compleynte.
I. konde ; )xeri. 2. turment. 3. Thaughe ; shoulde ; youre.
4. wissely. 5. beante liste. 6. yonre; bade; in-feere. 7- tieo.
8. 'Wissely. 9. yovve sadde ; truwe. 10. lyff; gode. 11.
dethe; whane; reev/e, altered by the scribe to ne^Q. 12. whome;
suwe. 13. hole; souffisaunce. 14. sette. 15. yowe; moste.
16. Taccept; worthe ; pore. 17. not despice. 18. eke; not.
19. longe. 20. \iQrQ {error for dtxQ; see'KXll. 77)- 21. yowe.
yere by yere.
NOTES.
I. An A B C
This poem is a rather free translation of a similar poem by
Guillaume de Dcguileville, as pointed out in the Preface, where
the whole of the original is quoted in full.
Explanations of the harder words should, in general, be sought
for in the Glossarial Index, though a few are discussed in the
Notes.
The language of this translation is, for the most part, so
simple, that but few passages call for remark. I notice, however,
a few points.
Chaucer has not adhered to the complex metre of the original,
but uses a stanza of eight lines of five accents in place of de
Deguileville's stanza of twelve lines of four accents.
3. Dr. Koch calls attention to the insertion of a second of, in
most of the MSS., before sorwe. Many little words are often
thus wrongly inserted into the texts of nearly all the Minor
Poems, simply because, when the final e ceased to be sounded,
the scribes regarded some lines as imperfect. Here, for exam-
ple, if sinne be regarded as monosyllabic, a word seems required
after it ; but when we know that Chaucer regarded it as a
dissyllabic word, we at once see that MSS. Gg. and Jo. (which
omit this second of) are quite correct. We know that sinnc is
properly a dissyllabic word in Chaucer, because he rimes it with
the infinitives biginne (Cant. Ta. C. 941) and winne (same, D.
1421), and never with such monosyllables as ki)t or tin. This is
easily tested by consulting Mr. Cromie's very useful Rime-index
to the Canterbury Tales. The above remark is important, on
account of its wide application. The needless insertions of little
words in many of the 15th-century MSS. are easily detected.
4. Scan the line by reading — Gl6rious virgin ', 6f all ' fl6ur-es
fl6ur. Cf. 1. 49.
6. Dcboftaire, gracious lady ; used as a sb. Compare the
original, 1. 11.
8. Answers to 1. 6 of the original — ' Vaincu m'a mon aversaire.'
The word Venquisht is here the right form ; similarly, in the
224 /• AN ABC.
Squieres Tale, 1. 342, the word vanisshed is to be read as
vanisKd, with the accent on the second syllable, and with
elision oi e. See Ten Brink, Chancers Sprache, § 257.
11. Wariie, reject, refuse to hear. So in P. Plowman,
C. xxiii. 12, ' vvhanne men hym werneth' means 'when men
refuse to give him what he asks for.'
12. Free, liberal, bounteous. So in Shak. Troilus, iv. 5. 100 —
' His heart and hand both open and both frec.^ It may be
remarked, once for all, that readers frequently entirely mis-
understand passages in our older authors, merely because they
forget what great changes may take place in the sense of words
in the course of centuries.
13. Largesse, i.e. the personification of liberality; ' thou be-
■ stowest perfect happiness.'
14. Cf. original, 1. 1 5 — ' Quer [for] tu es de salu porte.' Scan
by reading — Hav'n of reflJt. But in 1. 32, we have refut.
15. Theves seven, seven robbers, viz. the seven deadly sins.
We could easily guess that this is the meaning, but it is
needless ; for the original has — ' Par sept larrons, pechies
mortez,' 1. 17 ; and a note in the Sion Coll. MS. has — 'i. seven
dedly synnes.' The theme of the Seven Deadly Sins is one of
the commonest in our old authors ; it is treated of at great
length in Chaucer's Persones Tale, and in Piers Plowman.
16. 'Ere my ship go to pieces ;' this graphic touch is not in
the original.
17. Yow, you. In addressing a superior, it was customary to
use the words _y^ and you, as a mark of respect ; but, in prayer,
the words thou and thee were usual. Hence, Chaucer has
mixed the two usages in a very remarkable way, and alternates
them suddenly. Thus, we have thee in 1. 5, thou in 1. 6, &c.,
\i\x\ yozv in 1. 17, thy in 1. ig, you in 1. 24; and so on. We
even find the plural verbs helpen, 1. 104; Beth, 1. 134; and
Ben, 1. 176.
20. Ji.cdoiin, action, is here used in the legal sense ; 'my sin
and confusion have brought an action (i. e. plead) against me.'
It is too close a copy of the original, 1. 25—' Contre moy font
une accion.'
21. I.e. 'founded upon rigid justice and a sense of the
desperate nature of my condition.' Cf. ' Rayson et desperacion
Contre moy veulent maintenir ; ' orig. 1. 29. Maintenir, to
maintain an action, is a legal term. So, in 1. 22, sustene means
' sustain the plea.'
24. ' If it were not for the mercy (to be obtained) from you.'
/. AN ABC. 225
25. Literally — * There is no doubt that thou art not the cause ;
meaning, ' Without doubt, thou art the cause.' Misericorde is
adopted from the original. According to the usual rule, viz.
that the syllable er is usually slurred over in Chaucer when a
vowel follows, the word is to be read as viis'ricord-e. So also
sov'reyn, 1. 69.
27. Vouched sai/f, vouchsafed. Tacordc, to accord ; cf.
talyghte, tamende, &c. in Gloss, to Ch. II. (i.e. Chaucer's
Prioresses Tale, &c., in the Clarendon Press Series)
29. Cf. ' S'encore fust Tare encorde ; ' orig. 1. 47 ; and ' Tare
de justice,' 1. 42. The French expression is probably borrowed
(as suggested in Bell's Chaucer) from Ps. vii. 13 — 'arcum suum
tetendit.' Hence the phrase of Justice and of yre refers to the
bowe.
30. First, at first, before the Incarnation.
36. For examples of the use of great assize, or last assize, to
signify the Last Judgment, see Murray's Diet., s. v. Assize.
39. Most MSS. read here— 'That but thou er \or or] that
day correcte me ; ' this cannot be right, because it destroys the
rime. However, the Bedford MS., instead of correcte me, has
Me chastice ; and in MS. C. vie chastyse is written over an
erasure (doubtless of the words correcte vie). Even thus, the
line is imperfect, but is completed by help of the Sion MS.,
which reads me iveel chastyce.
40. Ofverrey right, in strict justice ; not quite as in 1. 21.
41. Rather close to the original — ' Fuiant m'en viens a ta
tente Moy mucicr pour la tormente Qui ou monde me tempeste,'
(Sic. Mucier means ' to hide,' and ou means ' in the,' F. au.
45. Al have I, although I have. So in 1. 157.
49. MS. Gg. has Gracyouse; but the French has Glorieuse.
50. Bitter ; Fr. text ' amere.' The allusion is to the name
Maria, Gk. Mapi'a, Mapid/ii, the same as Miriam, which is
explained to mean ' bitterness,' as being connected with MaraJi,
i. e. bitterness ; see Exod. xv. 23 (Gescnius). Scan the line by
reading : tietth'r in crth-'c nor.
55. But if, except, unless (common).
56. Stink is oddly altered to sinke in some editions.
57. 58. Closely copied from the French, 11. 85-87. But the
rest of the stanza is nearly all Chaucer's own. Cf. Col. ii. 14.
67. The French means, literally — 'For, when any one goes
out of his way, thou, out of pity, becomest his guide, in order
that he may soon regain his way.'
70. The French means — 'And thou bringest him back into
226 /. AN ABC.
the right road.' This Chaucer turns into — * bringest him out of the
wrong road ; ' which is all that is meant by the crooked strete.
71. In the ending -eth of the third pers. sing, present, the c is
commonly suppressed. Read lov'th. So also coin'th in 1. 99.
T"^. The French means — ' Calendars are illumined, and other
books are confirmed (or authenticated), when thy name illumines
them.' Chaucer has ' Illuminated calendars, in this world, are
those that are brightened by thy name.' 'An allusion to the
custom of writing the high festivals of the Church in the Calendar
with red, or illuminated, letters ; ' note in Bell's Chaucer. The
name of Mary appears several times in old calendars ; thus the
Purification of Mary is on Feb. 2 ; the Annunciation, on Mar.
25 ; the Visitation, on July 2 ; the Assumption, on Aug. 15 ; the
Nativity, on Sept. 8 ; the Presentation, on Nov. 21 ; the Concep-
tion, on Dec. 8. Our books of Common Prayer retain all of
these except the Assumption and the Presentation. Kalenderes
has four syllables ; and so has enlutnined.
76. Him thar, i. e. it needs not for him to dread, he need not
dread. It occurs again in the Cant. Tales (ed. Tyrwhitt), 11.
4318, 591 1, 5918,6947, 17301.
80. Resigne goes back to 1. 1 1 2 of the original, where resine
{=restgne') occurs.
81. Here the French (1. 121) has douceur \ Koch says it is
clear that Chaucer's copy had douleur. It refers to the Mater
dolorosa.
86. This line runs badly in the MSS., but is the same in
nearly all. I have ventured to change bothe have into have
bothe, where bothe is dissyllabic; see 11. 63, 122. It then flows
evenly. The sense of 11. 84-6 seems to be^=-'Let not the foe
of us all boast that he has, by his wiles {listes), unluckily convicted
(of guilt) that (soul) which ye both,' &c.
88. Slur over the last syllable of Continue, and accent tis.
89. The French text refers to Exod. iii. 2. Cf. The Prioresses
Tale, C. T. Group B, 1. 1658 ; in Ch. II.
97. Koch points out that per-e is here dissyllabic ; as in the
Compleint to His Purse, 1. 11. The French has per, 1. 146.
Read — N6ble princesse, &c.
100. Melodye or glee ; here Koch remarks that Chaucer
' evidently mistook tirelire for turelure.^ The Fr. tirelire means
a money-box, and the sense of 1. 1 50 of the original is — ' We have
no other place in which to secure what we possess.' See 1. 107
of Chaucer's translation, below. But Chaucer's mistake was
easily made j he was thinking, not of the mod. Fr. turelure
7. AN- ABC. 22y
(which, after all, does not mean a ' melody,' but the refrain of a
song, like the Eng. tooral looral), but of the O. F. tirelire. This
word (as Cotgrave explains) not only meant *a box having a cleft
on the lid for mony to enter it,' but 'also the warble, or song of
a lark.' Hence Shakespeare speaks of ' the lark, that tirra-ly7-a
chants,' Wint. Tale, iv. 3. 9.
102. Read N'advocat noon. That the M. E. advocat was
sometimes accented on the o, is proved by the fact that it
was sometimes cut down to vdcat ; see P. Plowman, 13. ii. 60 ;
C. iii. 61.
109. Cf. Luke i. 38 — ' Ecce anciira Domini.'
1 10. Oiire bille, &c., i. e, ' to bring forward (or offer) a petition
on our behalf.' For the old expression 'to put up (or forth)
a bill,' see my note to P. Plowman, C. v. 45. Compare also
Compleynte unto Pite, 1. 44.
1 13. Read tyni-e. Tetiqucre, for io enquere j cf. note to 1. 27.
Cf the French d'enquerre, I. 169.
116. T'lj'Zfc'^rr^; F. 'pour guerre,' 1. 173; i.e. 'by way of attack.'
Us may be taken with tufoi/g/iic, i. e. ' wrought for us such a
wonder.' Wcrre is not a verb ; the verb is tuerreyefi, as in Squi.
Ta. 1. 10.
119. Titer, where, inasmuch as. 'We had no salvation, inas-
much as we did not repent ; if we repent, we shall receive it.'
But the sentence is awkward. Cf. iNIark i. 4 ; Matt. vii. 7.
122. Pause after both-e\ the e is not elided.
125. Mene, mediator ; lit. mean (intermediate) person. So in
P. Plowman, B. vii. 196 — 'And Marie his moder be owre mcne
bitwene.'
132. Koch thinks that the false reading it in some MSS.
arose from a reading hit ( = hitteth) as a translation of Y.Jlert,
1. 196. Anyway, the reading is seems best.
136. Of pitee^ for pity ; the usual idiom.
140. Vicaire, deputed ruler ; not in the original. See note to
Parliament of Foules, 1. 379.
141. Covenicresse ; copied from the French text, 1. 214.
This rare word occurs, as the last word, in a poem beginning
* Mother of norture,' printed in the Aldine Edition of Chaucer's
Poems, vi. 275. Chaucer himself uses it again in the Complaint
to Pity, 1. So.
144. Compare the expressions Regina Celi, Vent coronaberis,
' Hcil crowned queene,' and the like ; Polit. Religious, and Love
Poems, ed. Furnivall, p. 147; Hymns to the Virgin, ed. Furnivall,
pp. I, 4. Suggested by Rev. xii. i.
Q 2
228 /. AN ABC.
150. The reference is, obviously, to Gen. iii. 18; but thorns
here mean sins. Cf. ' Des espines d'iniquite ; ' F. text, 1. 224.
158. Copied from the French, 1. 239 — 'Ou tu a la court
m'ajournes.' It means 'fix a day for me to appear at thy
court,' cite me to thy court.
159. Not in the original. Chaucer was thinking of the courts
of the Common Bench and King's Bench, as mentioned, for
exam.ple, in Wyclif's Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 215.
161. The word Xrisiiis, i. e. Chrisius, is written Xpc (with
a mark of contraction) in MSS. C, Gl., Gg., and Xpils in F.
Xpc is copied from the French ; but it is very common, being the
usual contracted form of the Gk. Xpto-ros', or, in capital letters,
XPiCTOC, obtained by taking the two first and the last letters.
The old Greek siguia was written C ; as above. De Deguile-
ville could think of no French word beginning with X ; so he
substituted for it the Greek cJii, which resembled it in form.
163, 164. These lines answer to 11. 243, 247 of the French ;
' For me He had his side pierced ; for me His blood was shed.'
Observe that the word Cliristus has no verb following it ; it is
practically an objective case, governed by tha)ike in 1. 168. ' I
thank thee because of Christ and for what He has done for me.'
In 1. 163, the word siiffrexs understood from the line above, and
need not. be repeated. Unfortunately, all the scribes have
repeated it, to the ruin of the metre ; for the line then contains
two syllables too many. However, it is better omitted. Lojigius
is trisyllabic, and herte (as in the next line) is dissyllabic. The
sense is — 'to suffer His passion on the cross, and also (to
suffer) that Longius should pierce His heart, and make,' &c.
Pig/Ue, made, are in the subjunctive. The difficulty really
resides in the word that in 1. 161. If Chaucer had written eek
instead of it, the whole could be parsed.
The story of Longius is very common ; hence Chaucer readily
introduced an allusion to it, though his original has no hint of
it. The name is spelt Longeus in Piers Plowman, C. xxi. 82
(and is also spelt Lo7iginiis). My note on that passage says —
' This story is from the Legenda Aurea, cap. xlvii. Longinus
was a bhnd centurion, who pierced the side of Christ ; when
drops of the Sacred Blood cured his infirmity. The day of
St. Longinus is Mar. 15; see Chambers, Book of Days. The
name Longinus is most likely derived from Aoyx'?) ^ lance, the
word used in John xix. 34 ; and the legend was easily developed
from St. John's narrative. The name Longinus first appears in
the Apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus.' See also the Chester
//. THE COMPLEYNTE UNTO PITE. 229
Plays, ed. Wright ; Cursor Mundi, p. 962 ; Coventry IMysteries,
ed. Halliwell, p. 334 ; York Mystery Plays, p. 36S ; Lamentation
of Mary Magdalen, st. 26 ; &c.
164. Hcrte is the true M.E. genitive, from the A.S. g&n.heorian.
Herte blood occurs again in the Pardoneres Tale, 1. 902.
169-171. Close to the French, 11. 253-5 ; and 1. 174 is close to
1. 264 of the same. Cf. Heb. xi. 19 ; Jo. i. 29; Isaiah, liii. 7.
176. This line can best be scanned by taking 77;a/ as standing
alofze, in the first foot. Sec note to Compl. to Pite, 1. 16.
177. The words of Zechariah (xiii. i) ai'c usually applied to
the blood of Christ, as in Rev. i. 5.
180. 'That, were it not (for) thy tender heart, we should be
destroyed.'
184. To mercy able, fit to obtain mercy ; cf. Cant. Ta. Prol. 167.
II. The Compleynte unto Pite.
Title. In MS. B., the poem is entitled, 'The Complaynte
vnto Pyte,' which is right. In MS. Trin., there is a colophon —
' Here endeth the exclamacioun of the Deth of Pyte ; ' see p. 12.
In MS. Sh. (in Shirley's handwriting) the poem is introduced
with the following words — 'And nowe here filovving \Jollo'wing'\
begynnethe a complaint of Pitee. made by Geffray Chaucier
the aureat Poete that euer was fonde in oure vulgare to-fore hees
\for thees ?] dayes.' The first stanza may be considered as
forming a Proem ; stanzas 2-7, the Story ; and the rest, the Bill
of Complaint. The title ' A complaint of Pitee ' is not neces-
sarily incorrect ; for ^may be taken in the sense of ' concerning,'
precisely as in the case of ' the Vision of Piers the Plowman.'
As to the connection of this poem with the Thebaid of Statius,
see notes to 11. 57 and 92.
I. I do not follow Ten Brink in putting a comma after so.
He says — 'That so refers to the verb {sougJit^^ and not to yore
ago, is evident from 1. 3. Compare the somewhat different 1. 93.'
I hope it shews no disrespect to a great critic if I say that I am
not at all confident that the above criticism is correct ; 1. 93
rather tells against it. Observe the reading of 1. 117 in MS. Sh.
(in the footnotes).
4. With-oute dethe, i. e. without actually dying.
S/uil not, am not to.
7. Doth me dye, makes me die.
9. Euer in oon, continually, constantly, Always in the same
way; cf. Cant. Tales, E. 602, 677, F. 417 (Glos. to Prioresses
Tale, s. v, Oon).
230 //. THE COMPLEYNTE UNTO PITE.
II. Me awreke. 'The e of me is elided;' Ten Brink. He
compares also Cant. Ta. Prol. 148 ; (the correct reading of
which is, probably —
' But sore weep sche if oon of hem were deed ; '
the e oi sche being slurred over before z in if). He also refers
to the Prioresses Tale (B 1660), where thalyghte = the alyghte ;
and to the Second Nonnes Tale (G 32) where do me endyte is
to be read as do mendyfe.
14. The notion of Pity being ^ buried in a heart' is awkward,
and introduces an element of confusion. If Pity could have
been buried out of the heart, and thus separated from it, the
whole would have been a great deal clearer. This caution is
worth paying heed to ; for it will really be found, further on,
that the language becomes confused in consequence of this very
thing. In the very next line, for example, the hearse of Pity
appears, and in 1. 19 the corpse of Pity ; in fact. Pity is never
fairly buried out of sight throughout the poem.
15. //(?rj^, hearse ; cf. 1. 36 below. It should be remembered
that the old herse was a very different thing from the modern
hearse. What Chaucer refers to is what we should now call ' a
lying in state ; ' with especial reference to the array of lighted
torches which illuminated the bier. See the whole of Way's
note in Prompt. Parvulorum, pp. 236, 237, part of which is
quoted in my Etym. Diet., s. v. hearse. The word hearse
(F. herce) originally denoted a harrow; next, a frame with
spikes for holding lights in a church service ; thirdly, a frame 1
for lights at a funeral pageant or ' lying in state ; ' fourthly, the |
funeral pageant itself; fifthly, a frame on which a body was
laid ; and so on. ' Chaucer,' says Way, ' appears to use the
term herse to denote the decorated bier, or funeral pageant, and
not exclusively the illumination, which was a part thereof; and,
towards the sixteenth century, it had such a general signification
alone.' In II. 36-42, Chaucer describes a company of persons
who stood round about the hearse. Cf. Brand's Popular Anti-
quities, ed. Ellis, ii. 236-7.
16. Here Deed stands alone in the first foot. Scan — Deed [
as stoon | whyl that | the swogh | me laste. Cf. ABC, I.
176, and the note. See remarks in the Preface as to this
peculiarity.
27. Cf. Deth of Blaunche, 1. 587 — 'This is my peyne with-
oute reed ; ' Ten Brink.
2)Z- Ten Brink reads ay for evcr^ on the ground that ever and
//. THE COMPLEYNTE UNTO PITE. 23 1
fiever, when followed by a consonant, are dissyllabic in Chaucer.
But see Book of the Duchesse, 1. 73.
34. Hadde, dissyllabic ; it occasionally is so ; mostly when it
is used by itself, as here. Cf. Sect. iii. 1. 951.
37. ' Without displaying any sorrow.' He now practically
identifies Pity with the fair one in whose heart it was said (in 1.
14) to be buried. This fair one was attended by Bounty, Beauty,
and all the rest ; they are called a. folk in 1. 48.
41. Insert and after Esiaat or Estate for this word has no
final -e in Chaucer; see Prol. 522 ; Squi. Tale, 26 ; &c.
44. ' To have offered to Pity, as a petition ; ' see note to
ABC, no.
47. ' I kept my complaint quiet,' i. e. withheld it ; see 1. 54.
50. MS. Sh. is right. The scribe of the original of MSS.
Tn. Ff. T. left out / and these, and then put in 07ily ; then
another scribe, seeing that a pronoun was wanted, put in ive, as
shewn by MSS. F. B. (Ten Brink). Here, and in 1. 52, the e of
alle is either very lightly sounded after the caesural pause, or
(more likely) is dropped altogether, as elsewhere.
53. Ajid been assented, and (who) are all agreed.
54. Put up, put by. Cf. ^io put up that letter ;' K. Lear, i. 2.
28 ; &c.
57. He here addresses his fair one's Pity, whom he personifies,
and addresses as a mistress.
By comparison of this passage with 1. 92, it becomes clear
that Chaucer took his notion of personifying Pity from Statius,
who personifies Pictas in his Thebaid, xi. 457-496. I explained
this at length in a letter to The Acade?ny, Jan. 7, 1888, p. 9. In
the present line, we find a hint of the original ; for Statius
describes Pietas in the words ' pudibundaque longe Ora
reducentem ' (1. 493), which expresses her Jiuniility ; whilst the
reverence due to her is expressed by reuerentia (1. 467).
59. Sheiveth . . . Vour seruaunt. Your servant sheweth.
Sheweth is the word used in petitions, and servant commonly
means ' lover.'
63. Accented re'noun, as in the Ho. of Fame, 1406. Cf. 1. 86.
64. Crueltee, Cruelty, here corresponds to the Fury Tisiphone,
who is introduced by Statius ( Theb. xi. 483) to suppress the peace-
ful feelings excited by Pietas, who had been created by Jupiter
to control the passions even of the gods (1. 465). At the siege
of Thebes, Pietas was for once overruled by Tisiphone : and
Chaucer complains here that she is again being controlled ; see
11. 80, 89-91. Very similar is the character of Daungere or
232 //. THE COMPLEYNTE UNTO PITE.
Danger (F. Daiigzcr) in the Romaunt of the Rose ; in 1. 3549
of the English version (1. 3301 of the original), we find Pity
saying —
' Wherefore I pray you, Sir Daungere,
For to mayntene no lenger heere
Such cruel werre agayn youre man.'.
We may also compare Machault's poem entitled Le Dit du
Vergier, where we find such lines as —
' Einssi encontre Cruaute
Deffent I'amant douce Pite.'
66. Under colour, beneath the outward appearance.
67. ' In order that people should not observe her tyranny.'
70. Hzght, is (rightly) named. The final -e, though required
by grammar, is suppressed ; the word being conformed to other
examples of the third person singular of the /r^w;// tense, whilst
hight-e is commonly used as the past tense. Pity's right name
is here said to be 'Beauty, such as belongs to Favour.' The
poet is really thinking of his mistress rather than his per-
sonified Pity. It is very difficult to keep up the allegory.
71. ^Heritage, of course, stands in the gen. case;' Ten
Brink.
76. Wanteji, are lacking, are missing, are not found in, fall
short. 'If you, Pity, are missing from Bounty and Beauty.'
There are several similar examples of this use of want in
Shakespeare ; e.g. 'there wants no junkets at the feast ;' Tam.
Shrew, iii. 2. 250.
^^. This Bilk, or Petition, may be divided into three sets of
'terns,' or groups of three stanzas. I mark this by inserting a
paragraph-mark (IT) at the beginning of each tern. They are
inarked off by the rimes ; the first tern ends with seyne, 1. 77 ;
the next with the riming word peyne, 1. 98 ; and again with pe^yne,
1. 119.
Z'i)- Perilous is here accented on the /.
87. Ten Brink omits wel, with most of the MSS. ; but the ^
in wite seems to be suppressed. It will hardly bear a strong
accent. Mr. Sweet retains wel, as I do.
91. Pronounce the third word as despeir'd. 'Compare i Kings
X. 24 : And all the earth sought to Solomon ;' Ten Brink.
92. Herenus has not hitherto been explained. It occurs in four '
MSS., Tn. F. B. Ff.; a fifth (T.) has 'heremz^.y;' the Longleat
MS. has 'heremus' or 'herenius;' Sh. substitutes 'vertuouse,'
and MS. Harl. 7578 has ' Vertoues ;' but it is highly improbable
//. THE COMPLEYNTE UNTO PITE. 233
that vertuoiisc is original, for no one would ever have altered it
so unintelligibly. Ten Brink and Mr. Sweet adopt this reading
veriuotisi', which they make four syllables, as being a vocative
case ; and of course this is an easy way of evadifig the diffi-
culty. Dr. P'urnivall once suggested hcvciius, which I presume
is meant for 'heaven's;' but this word could not possibly be
accented as heveniis. The strange forms which proper names
assume in Chaucer are notorious ; and the fact is, that Heretius
is a mere error for Herincs or Herynes. Heryncs (accented
on _y), occurs in St. 4 of Bk. iv of Troilus and Criseide, and is used
as the plural of Erinnys, being applied to the three Furies : —
' O ye Heryncs, nightes doughtren thre.' Pity may be said to be
the queen of the Furies, in the sense that pity (or mercy) can alone
control the vindictiveness of vengeance. Shakespeare tells us
that mercy 'is mightiest in the mightiest,' and is 'above this
sceptred sway;' IMerch. Ven. iv. 1. 188.
Chaucer found this name precisely where he found his
personification of Pity, viz. in Statins, who has the sing.
Erinnys (Theb. xi. 383), and the pi. EriJtnyas (345).
In a poem called The Remedy of Love, in Chaucer's \\'orks,
ed. 1 561, fol. 322, back, the twelfth stanza begins with — 'Come
hither, thou Hermes, and ye furies all,' &c., where it is plain
that ' thou Hermes,' is a substitution for ' Herines.'
95. The sense is — ' the longer I love and dread you, the more
I do so.' If we read ever instead oiay, then the e in the m\is\. be
suppressed. ' In ev^r lenger the moore, never the moore, never
the /esse, Chaucer not unfrequently drops the e in the, pronoun-
cing lengerth, neverth ;' cf. Clerkes Tale, E. 687 ; Man of Lawcs
Tale, B. 982 ; Ten Brink.
96. Most MSS. read so sore, giving no sense. Ten Brink has
— 'For sooth to seyne, I here the hevy soore ;' following AIS,
Sh. It is simpler to correct so to the, as suggested by Harl.
7578, which has — 'For soith [error /or sothly] for to saye I bere
the sore.'
loi. Set, short for sctteth, like bit for biddetli, Cant. Tales,
Prol. 187, 6I;c. Ten Brink quotes from the Sompnoures Tale
(C. T. 7564) — ' With which the devel set your herte on fire,'
where set = sets, present tense.
105. Ten Brink inserts ne, though it is not in the MSS. His
note is: '• Ne is a necessary complement to iJ«/="only," as but
properly means " except " ; and a collation of the best MSS. of
the Cant. Tales shows that Chaucer never omitted the negative in
this case. (The same observation was made already by Prof.
234 11^' THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE.
Child in his excellent paper on the language of Chaucer and
Gower; see Ellis, Early Eng. Profiiinciation, p. 374). Mene
forms but one syllable, pronounced mceit [i.e. as mod. E. main\.
In the same manner / 7ie=un [pron. as mod. E. eeti] occurs,
Cant. Tales, Prol. 764 (from MS. Harl, 7334)—
"/ ne sangh this yeer so mery a companye;"
and in the Man of Lawes Tale (Group B, 1 139) —
" / ne sey but for this ende this sentence."
Compare Middle High German in { — ich ne), e.g. in kan dir
nicht, Walter v. d. Vogehveide, ed. Lachmann, loi, ■})'h- ^^^
early French and Provengal inc, ie, se, Sec, when preceded by
a vowel, often became ;;;, /, s, &c. ; in Italian we have cen for
ce ne, &c.' Cf. They n^ wer-e in Sect. x. 1. 5 ; and Sect. iii. 244
(note).
119. Observe that this last line is a repetition of 1. 2.
Ill, The Book of the Duchesse.
I may remark here that the metre is sometimes difficult to
follow ; chiefly owing to the fact that the line sometimes begins
with an accented syllable, just as, in Milton's L'Allegro, we meet
with lines like 'Zephyr, with Aurora playing.' The accented
syllables are sometimes indistinctly marked, and hence arises a
difficulty in immediately detecting the right flow of a line. A
clear instance of a line beginning with an accented syllable is
seen in 1. 23 — ' Slep', and thus meMncolye.*
I. The opening lines of this poem were subsequently copied
in 1 384) by Froissart, in his Paradis d'Amour —
' Je sui de moi en grant merveille
Comment je vifs, quant tant je veille,
Et on ne porrait en veillant
Trouver de moi plus travaillant :
Car bien sacies que pour veiller
Me viennent souvent travailler
Pensees et melancolies,' etc.
Fumivall ; Trial Forewords, p. 51.
Chaucer frequently makes words like have (1. i), live (1. 2),
especially in the present indicative, mere monosyllables. As
examples of the fully sounded final e, we may potice the dative
light-e (1. i), the dative (or adverbial) 7iight-e (1. 2), the infinitive
slep-e (3), the adverb ylich-e (9), the dative mynd-e (15), &c.
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE. 235
On the other hand, hav-e is dissyllabic in 1. 24. The e is elided
before a following vowel in dcfaute (5), irouthe {6), falle (13),
wtie (16), &c. We may also notice that co/n'th is a monosyllable
(7), whereas ircwcly (33) has three syllables, though in 1. 35 it
makes but two. It is clear that Chaucer chose to make some
words of variable length ; and he does this to a much greater
extent in the present poem and in the House of Fame than in
more finished productions, such as the Canterbury Tales. But
it must be observed, on the other hand, that the number of these
variable words is limited \ in a far larger number of words, the
number of syllables never varies at all, except by regular elision
before a vowel.
14. The reading For sorwful ymaginacioiin (in F., Tn., Th.)
cannot be right. Lange proposes to omit For, which hardly
helps us. It is clearly the word sorwful that is wrong. I
propose to read simply swich, i. e. such.
15. Observe how frequently, in this poem and in the House
of Fame, Chaucer concludes a sentence with \k\& foriner of two
lines of a couplet. Other examples occur at 11. 29, 43, 51, 59,
67? 75) 79, 87, 89 ; i. e. at least ten times in the course of the first
hundred lines. The same arrangement occasionally occurs in
the existing translation of the Romaunt of the Rose, but with
such less frequency as, in itself, to form a presumption against
Chaucer's having written it.
Similar examples in Milton, though he was an admirer of
Chaucer, are remarkably rare ; compare, however, Comus, 97,
101, 127, 133, 137. The metrical effect of this pause is very
good.
23. The texts read this. Ten Brink suggests tJius (Ch.
Sprache, § 320) ; which I adopt.
31. What me is, what is the matter with me. Me is here in
the dative case. This throws some light on the common use of
me in Shakespeare in such cases as ' Heat Jiie these irons hot,'
K. John iv. i. i ; &c.
31-96. These lines are omitted in the Tanner MS. 346; also
in MS. Bodley 638 (which even omits 11. 24-30). In the Fairfax
MS. they are added in a much later hand. Consequently,
Thynne's edition is here our only satisfactory' authority;
though the late copy in the Fairfax MS. is worth consulting.
32. Aske, may ask ; subjunctive mood.
33. Tre7vely is here three syllables, which is the normal
fomi ; cf. Prologue, 761 ; Kn. Tale, 409. In !. 35, the second e
is hardly sounded.
c>
336 ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE.
36. I insert moot, to complete the sense and metre.
37. ' The most obvious interpretation of these lines seems to
be that they contain the confession of a hopeless passion, which
has lasted for eight years — a confession which certainly seems to
come more appropriately and more naturally from an unmarried
than a married man. 'For eight years,' — he says — 'I have
loved, and loved in vain — and yet my cure is never the nearer.
There is but one physician that can heal me — but all that is
ended and done with. Let us pass on into fresh fields ; what
cannot be obtained must needs be left ; ' Ward, Life of Chaucer,
p, 53. Dr. Fumivall supposes that the relentless fair one was
the one to whom his Complaint unto Pite was addressed ; and
chronology would require that Chaucer fell in love with her in
1361. There is no proof that Chaucer was married before 1374,
though he may have been married not long after his first passion
was ' done.'
43. * It is good to regard our first subject ; ' and therefore to
return to it. This first subject was his sleeplessness.
45. Til noiv late follows / sat zipryght, as regards construction.
The reading Now of late, in some printed editions, is no better.
48. This ' Romaunce' turns out to have been a copy of Ovid's
Metamorphoses, a book of which Chaucer was so fond that he
calls it his 'own book ; ' Ho. of Fame, 712. Probably he really
had a copy of his own, as he constantly quotes it. Private
libraries were very small indeed.
49. Dryve away, pass away ; the usual phrase. Cf. ' And
dryuen forth the longe day ; ' P. Plowman, B. prol. 224.
56. ' As long as men should love the law of nature,' i.e. should
continue to be swayed by the natural promptings of passion ; in
other words, for ever. Certainly, Ovid's book has lasted well.
In 1. 57, such thinges means ' such love-stories.'
62. ' Alcyone, or Halcyone : A daughter of ^olus and
Enarete or ^Egiale. She was married to Ceyx, and lived so
happy with him, that they v/ere presumptuous enough to call
each other Zeus and Hera, for which Zeus metamorphosed them
into birds, alkiion (a king-fisher) and kcflks (a greedy sea-bird,
Liddell and Scott ; a kind of sea-gull ; Appollod. i. 7. § 3, &c. ;
Hygin. Fab. 65). Hyginus relates that Ceyx perished in a ship-
wreck, that Alcyone for grief threw herself into the sea, and that
the gods, out of compassion, changed the two into birds. It was
fabled that, during the seven days before, and as many after the
shortest day of the year, while the bird alkiton was breeding,
there always prevailed calms at sea. An embellished form of
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE. 23;
the story is given by Ovid, Metavi. xi. 410, (Sec. ; compare
Virgil, Ceorg. i. 399.' — Smith's Dictionary. Hence the ex-
pression ' halcyon days ; ' see Holland's Pliny, b. x. c. 32,
quoted in my Etym. Diet. s. v. Halcyo7i.
M. Sandras asserts that the history of Cey'x and Alcyone is
borrowed from the Dit de la Fontaine A7noureuse^ by Machault,
whereas it is evident that Chaucer took care to consult his
favourite Ovid, though he also copied several expressions from
Machault's poem. Consult Max Lange, as well as Furnivall's
Trial Forewords to Chaucer's Minor Poems, p. 43. Surely,
Chaucerhimself may be permitted to know ; his description of the
book, viz. in 11. 57-59, applies to Ovid, rather than to Machault's
Poems. But the fact is that we have further evidence ; Chaucer
himself, elsewhere, plainly names Ovid as his authority. See
Cant. Tales, Group B, 1. 53 (in my edition of the Prioresses
Tale, p. 3), where he says —
' For he [Chaucer] hath told of loucres \'p and duon
Moo than Ovide made of mencioun
In his Epistolis, that ben ful olde.
What sholde I tellen hem sin they ben tolde.
In youthe he made of Leys and Alcioun ; ' etc.
It is true that Chaucer here mentions Ovid's Keroides rather
than the Metamorphoses ; but that is only because he goes on
to speak of other stories, which he took from the Heroides ; see
the whole context. It is plain that he wishes us to know that he
took the present story chiefly from Ovid ; yet there are some
expressions which he owes to Machault, as will be shown
below. It is worth notice, that the whole story is also in
Gower's Confessio Amantis, bk. iv. (ed. Pauli, ii. 100) ; where it
is plainly copied from Ovid throughout.
Ten Brink {Studicn, p. 10) points out one very clear indi-
cation of Chaucer's having consulted Ovid. In 1. 68, he uses
the expression to tellen sho7-tly, and then proceeds to allude to
the shipwreck of Ceyx, which is told in Ovid at great length
{Met. xi. 472-572). Of this shipwreck Machault says never a
word ; he merely says that Ceyx died in the sea.
There is a chapter De Alcione in Vincent of Beauvais,
Speculum Naturale, bk. xvi. c. 26 ; made up from Ambrosius,
Aristotle, Pliny (bk. 10), and the Liber de Natura Rerum.
66. Instead of quoting Ovid, I shall quote from Golding's
translation of his Metamorphoses, as being more interesting to
the English reader. The whole story is also told by Dr>'den,
238 ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE.
whose version is easily accessible. As the story is told at great
length, I quote only a few of the lines that most closely correspond
to Chaucer. Compare —
'But fully bent
lie \Ceyx\ seemed, neither for to leaue the iourney which he ment
To take by sea, nor yet to giue Alcyone leaue as tho
Companion of his perlous course by water for to go ... .
When toward night the wallowing waues began to waxen white,
And eke the heady eastern wind did blow with greater might . . .
And all the heauen with clouds as blacke as pitch was ouercast.
That neuer night was halfe so darke. There came a flaw \^giist\
at last,
That with his violence brake the Maste, and strake the Sterne
away ....
Behold, euen full upon the waue a flake of water blacke
Did breake, and vndemeathe the sea the head of Ceyx stracke.'
fol. 137-9.
See further in the note to 1. 136.
78. Come is probably in the subjunctive mood, and may
therefore be dissyllabic.
80. Of the restoration of this line, I should have had some
reason to be proud ; but I find that Ten Brink (who seems to
miss nothing) has anticipated me ; see his Chancers Sprache,
§§ 48, 329. We have here, as our guides, only the edition of
Thynne (1532), and the late insertion in MS. Fairfax 16. Both
of these read — ' Anon her herte began to yerne ; ' whereas it of
course ought to be — 'Anon her herte gan to erme.' The
substitution of begaii for gan arose from forgetting that herte
(A.S. heorte) is dissyllabic in Chaucer, in countless places. The
substitution oi yerne for erme arose from the fact that the old
word ermen, to grieve, was turned into earn in the sixteenth
century, and was afterwards again changed into yearn. All this
I have already shewn at such length in my note to the Pardoner's
Prologue (Cant. Ta. C. 312), in my edition of the Man of Lawes
Tale, pp. 39, 142, and yet again in my Etym. Diet., s.v. Yearn
(2), that it is needless to repeat it all over again. Chaucer was
quite incapable of such a hideously false rime as that of terme
with yerne ; in fact, it is precisely the word terme that is rimed
with erme in his Pardoner's Prologue. Mr. Cromie's index
shews that, in the Cant. Tales, the rime erme^ terme, occurs only
once, and there is no third word riming with either. There is,
however, a rime of affermed with co7tfermed, so that he might
have rimed erine, terme, with afferme, C07iferme. There is, in
///, THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE. 239
Chaucer, vlo fifth riming word in -erme at all, and none in either
-irme or -yrfne.
Both in the present passage and in the Pardoner's Prologue
the verb to ernic is used with the same sb., viz. herte ; which
clinches the matter. By way of example, compare : — ' The
bysschop weop for ermyn^\ ' King Alisaunder, ed. Weber,
1. 1525.
86, 87. In 1. 86 I supply ay (which seems wanted) ; and in
1. 87 I delete alas after Mm, which makes the line a whole foot
too long, and is not required.
91. Wher, short for whether (very common),
93. Avoiae is all one word, though its component parts were
often written apart. Thus, in P. Plowman, B. v. 457, we find
And 7iiade avoiue, where the other texts have a-vou, a-vowe ;
see Avow in Murray's Diet. I have already explained this
fully in my note to C. T. Group C, 695 (JNIan of Lawes Tale,
<S;c., p. 161).
97. Here the gap in the MSS. ceases, and we again have their
authority for the text. For Had we should, perhaps, read
Hadde.
106. This phrase is not uncommon. 'And on knes she sat
adoun;' Lay le Freine, 1. 159; in Weber's Met Romances,
i. 363. Cf. 'This Troylus ful soone on knowes hym sette;'
Troilus, iii. 904 (ed. Morris, iv. 264).
107. Weep (not wepte) is Chaucer's word ; see Glossaries to
Prior. Tale and Man of Lawes Tale.
120. For kiiowe (as in F. Tn. Th.) read knowen, to avoid
hiatus.
126. 'And she, exhausted with weeping and watching.'
Gower (Conf. Amant. ed. Pauli, i. 160) speaks of a ship that is
fo7-storincd and fordlowe, i. e. excessively driven about by storm
and wind.
136. Go bet, go quickly, hasten, lit. go better, i.e. faster. See
note to Group C, 667 (Man of Lawes Tale, &c. ; p. 161). Cf.
Co now/aste, 1. 152.
I here add another illustration from Golding's Ovid, fol, 139.
'Alcyone of so great 'mischaunce not knowing ought as yit.
Did keepe a reckoning of the nighls that in the while did flit,
And basted garments both for him and for her selfe likewise
To weare at his homecomming which she vainely did surmize.
To all the Gods deuoutly she did offer frankincense :
But most aboue them all the Church of luno she did sence.
And lor her husband (who as then was none) she kneeld before
240 ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUC HESSE.
The Altar, wishing health and soone arriuall at the shore.
And that none other woman might before her be preferd,
Of all her prayers this one peece effectually was herd.
For luno could not finde in heart entreated for to bee
For him that was already dead. But to th'intent that shee
From Dame Alcyons deadly hands might keepe her Altars free
She sayd : most faithfull messenger of my commandements, O
Thou Rainebow to the sluggish house of slumber swiftly go,
And bid him send a dreame in shape of Ceyx to his wife
Alcyone, for to shew her plaine the loosing of his life.
Dame Iris takes her pall wherein a thousand colours were
And bowing like a stringed bow vpon the cloudie sphere,
Immediately descended to the drowzye house of Sleepe,
Whose court the cloudes continually do closely ouerdreepe.
Among the darke Cimmerians is a holow mountaiqe found
And in the hill a Caue that farre doth run within the ground,
The C[h]amber and the dwelling place where slouthfull sleepe doth
couch.
The light of Phoebus golden beames this place can never touch . . .
No boughs are stird with blasts of winde, no noise of tatling toong
Of man or woman euer yet within that bower roong.
Dumbe quiet dwelleth there. Yet from the rockes foote doth go
The riuer of forgetfulnesse, which runneth trickling so
Upon the litle peeble stones which in the channell ly.
That vnto sleepe a great deale more it doth prouoke thereby . . .
Amid the Caue of Ebonye a bedsted standeth hie.
And on the same a bed of downe with couering blacke doth lie :
In which the drowzie God of sleepe his lither limbes doth rest.
About him forging sundry shapes as many dreames lie prest
As eares of come do stand in fields in haruest time, or leaues
Doe grow on trees, or sea to shoore of sandie cinder heaues.
Assoone as Iris came within this house, and with her hand
Had put aside the dazeling dreames that in her way did stand,
The brightnesse of her robe through all the sacred house did
shine.
The God of sleepe scarce able for to raise his heauie eine,
A three or foure times at the least did fall againe to rest,
And with his nodding head did knock his chinne against his brest.
At length he waking of himselfe, vpon his elbowe leande.
And though he knew for what she came : he askt her what she
meand : ' etc.
139. The first accent falls on Scy ; the e in halfe seems to be
suppressed.
154. His wey. Chaucer substitutes a male messenger for
Iris; see 11, 134, 155, 180-2.
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE. 24I
155. Imitated from Machault's Dit dc la Fojitame : —
' Qtie venue est en nne grant valee,
De deus gratis mons entour environnce^
Et d'un russcl qui par my la contree,' etc.
See Ten Brink, Stiidiefi, p. 200 ; FurnivaU, Trial Forewords,
p. 44.
It is worth notice that the visit of Iris to Somnus is also fully
described by Statius, Tlieb. x. 81-136 ; but Chaucer does not
seem to have copied him.
159, 160. Two bad lines in the MSS. Both can be mended by
changing nought into nothing, as suggested by Ten Brink,
Chancers Sprache, § 299.
160. See a very similar passage in Spenser, F. Q. i. i. 39, 40,
41, 42, 43. And cf. Ho. of Fame, 70.
167. Eclympasteyre. ' 1 hold this to be a name of Chaucer's
own invention. In Ovid occurs a son of Morpheus who has two
different names : " Hunc Icelon superi, mortale Phobetora vulgus
Nominat ; " Met. xi. 640. Phobetora, may have been altered
into Pasiora : Icehm-pastora (the two names linked together)
would give Eclympasteyre.^ — Ten Brink, Studien, p. 11, as
quoted in Fumivall's Trial Forewords, p. 116. At any rate, we
may feel sure that Eclym- is precisely Ovid's Jcelon. And
Y)G.rh?LY)S Phobetora comes nearer to -pasteyre lha.n does Phantasos,
the name of another son of Morpheus, whom Ovid mentions
immediately below. Gower (ed. Pauli, ii. 103) calls them Ithccus
and Panthasas ; and the fact that he here actually turns Icelon into
Itheciis is a striking example of the strange corruption of proper
names in medieval times. Prof. Hales suggests that Eclym-
pasteyre represents Icelon plastora, where plastora is the ace. of
Gk. TrXaoTcop, i.e. moulder or modeller, a suitable epithet for a
god of dreams ; compare the expressions used by Ovid in 11. 626
and 634 of this passage. Icelofi is the ace. of Gk. 'iKikm, or
€«€Xor, like, resembling. For my own part, I would rather take
the form plastera, ace. of n'Kaa-Tj^p, a form actually given by
Liddell and Scott, and also nearer to the form in Chaucer.
Perhaps Chaucer had seen a MS. of Ovid in which Icelon was
explained by plastora or plastera, written beside or over it as a
gloss, or by way of explanation. This would explain the whole
matter. Mr. Fleay thinks the original reading was Morpheus^
Ecelon, Phatitastere ; but this is impossible, because Morpheus
had but ojie heir (see next line).
Froissart has the word Encliinpostair as the name of a son
K
24^ ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE.
of the god of sleep, in his poem called Paradis d'Amour, But
as he is merely copying this precise passage, it does not at all
help us.
For the remarks by Prof. Hales, see the Athencrian, 1882,
i. 444 ; for those by Mr. Fleay, see the same, p. 568. Other
suggestions have been made, but are not worth recording.
173. To ejivye; to be read as Tenvy-e. The phrase is
merely an adaptation of the F. a Venvi, or of the vb. e7ivier.
Cotgrave gives : ' a Venvy Vvn de Fautre, one to despight the
other, or in emulation one of the other ; ' also ' envier (au ieu\
•to vie.' Hence E. vie\ see Vie in my Etym. Diet. It is
etymologically connected with Lat. inuiiare, not with Lat.
inuidia. See 1. 406, below.
175. Read slepe, as in 11. 169, 177; A.S. slapon, pt. t. pi.
181. Who is, i. e. who is it that.
183. A-iVaketh is here repeated in the plural form.
184. Oon ye, one eye. This is from Machault, who has :
'ouvri Puii de ses yeux.' Ovid has the pi. oculos.
185. Cast is the pp., as pointed out by Ten Brink, who
corrects the line ; Chancers Sprache, § 320.
192. Abrayd, and not abrayde, is the right form; for it is a
strong verb (A.S. dbregdan, pt. t. dbrcegd). So also in the Ho. of
Fame, no.
195. Dre-int is made dissyllabic, like se-int, which seems to be
the correct reading in Chaucer's Prologue, 11. 509, 697. See
remarks in Ellis, Early Eng. Pronunciation, p. 686 (note). Cf.
also Ho. of Fame, 1783.
206. The word look must be supplied. MS. B. even omits
herte; which would give— ' But good-e swet-e, [look] that ye;'
where good-e and swet-e are vocatives.
213. I adopt Ten Brink's suggestion (Chancers Sprache, § 300),
viz. to change alias into A.
218. My first matere, my first subject; i.e. sleeplessness;
just as in 1. 43.
219. Whh-for seems to be accented on the former syllable.
IVIS. B. inserts/^?;! after told; perhaps it is not wanted. If it is,
it had better come before told rather than after it.
222. / had be, I should have been. Deed and dolven, dead
and buried ; as in Cursor Mundi, 5494. Chaucer's dolven and
deed is odd.
244. / ne roghte who, to be read In ' roght-e who ; i. e. I
should not care who ; see note to Compl. to Pite, 105. Roghte is
subjunctive.
f
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE. 243
247. His lyve, during his life.
248. The readings are here ottwarde, Th. F. ; here onward,
Tn. ; here on ivarde, B. I do not think here onward can be
meant, nor yet her eon-ward; I know of no examples of such
meaningless expressions. I read here ofi warde, and explain it :
* I will give him the very best gift that he ever expected (to get)
in his life; and (I will give it) here, in his custody, even now,
as soon as possible,' «S:c. Ward = custody, occurs in the dat.
warde in William of Palerne, 376 — ' How that child from here
warde vizs, went for evermore.'
250. Here Chaucer again takes a hint from Machault's Dit
de la Fontaine, where we find the poet promising the god a hat
and a soft bed of gerfalcon's feathers. See Ten Brink, Siudien,
p. 204.
*Et por ce au dieu qui moult sout (?) et moult vault
Por mielx dormir un chapeau de jiavaut
Et un mol lit de plume de gcrfaut
Promes et doing.'
255. Reynes, i.e. Rennes, in Brittany; spelt Raynes in the
Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner, iii. 3 58. Linen is still made there ;
and by ' clothe of Reynes ' some kind of linen, rather than of
woollen cloth, is meant. It is here to be used for pillow-cases.
It was also used for sheets. 'Your shetes shall be of clothe
of Rayne\* Squyr of Lowe Degre, 1. 842 (in Ritson, Met.
Rom. iii. 180). 'A peyre schetes of Rcyttcs, with the heued
shete [head-sheet] of the same ;' Earliest Eng. Wills, ed.
Furnivall, p. 4, 1. 16. 'A towaile of Raynes;' Babees Book,
p. 130, 1. 213 ; and see note on p. 20S of the same. 'It [the
head-sheet] w^as more frequently made of the fine white linen
of Reynes;' Our Eng. Home, p. log. ' Hede-shetes of Rennes '
are noticed among the effects of Hen. V ; see Rot. Pari., iv. p.
228 ; footnote on the same page. The mention of this feather-
bed may have been suggested to Machault by 0\id's line about
the couch of Morpheus (Metam. xi. 611) — ' Plumeus, unicolor,
pullo velamine tectus.'
264. We must delete queue.
279. ' To be well able to interpret my dream.'
2S2. The modern construction is — ' The dream of King
Pharaoh.' See this idiom explained in the Prioresses Tale, note
to Group F, 1. 209 ; p. 213. Cf. Gen. xli. 25.
284. As to Macrobius, see note to the Pari, of Foules, 29.
And cf. Ho. of P'ame, 513-7. ^^ e must never forget how
R 2
244 11^' THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE.
frequent are Chaucer's imitations of Le Roman de la Rose.
Here, for example, he is thinking of 11. 7-10 of that poem : —
' Ung acteiir qui ot non Macrobes ....
Ancois escrist la vision
Qui avint au roi Cipion.'
After Macrobeus understand coiide (from 1. 283), which governs
the infin. m-ede in 1. 289.
286. Mett-e occupies the second foot in the line. In 1. 288
Tta.d forhmed.
288. This line, found in Thynne only, is perhaps not genuine,
but interpolated.
\ 292. Cf. Rom. de la Rose, 45-47 : —
'Avis m'iere qu'il estoit mains ....
En Mai estoie, ce songoie.'
And again, cf. 11. 295, &c. with the same, 11. 67-74.
301. Read songen, not so?ige, to avoid the hiatus.
304. Chaucer uses soin as a singular in such cases as the
present. A clear case occurs in : ' Som in his bed ; ' Kn. Tale,
2173. Hence so7tg is the sing. verb.
309. Enttmes, tunes. Cf. ejituned, pp.; C. T. Prol. 123.
310. Teivnes, Tunis ; vaguely put for some distant and wealthy
town ; see 11. 106 1-4, below. Its name was probably suggested
by the preceding word entimes, which required a rime. Gower
. mentions Kaire (Cairo) just as vaguely : —
' That me were lever her love winne
Than Kaire and al that is therinne;' Conf. Amant., ed. Pauli,
ii- 57-
The sense is — ' that certainly, even to gain Tunis, I would not
have (done other) than heard them sing.' Lange thinks these
lines corrupt ; but I believe the idiom is correct.
323. As stained glass windows were then rare and expensive,
it is worth while observing that these gorgeous windows were
not real ones, but only seen in a dream. This passage is
imitated in the late poem called the Court of Love, st. 33, where
we are told that ' The temple shone with windows al of glasse,'
and that in the glass were portrayed the stories of Dido and
Annelida. These windows, it may be observed, were equally
imaginary.
328. The caesural pause comes after Ector, which might allow
the intrusion of the word ^before king. But Mr. Sweet omits
of, and I follow him. The words of king are again inserted
before Lamedon in 1. 329, being caught from 1. 328 above.
I
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE. 245
Lmncdon is Laomcdon, father of King Priam of Troy. Ector
is Chaucer's spcHing of Hector; Man of Lawes Tale, 198.
He here cites the usual examples of love-stories, such as those
of Medea and Jason, and Paris and Helen. Lavyne is Lavinia,
the second wife of vEneas ; Vergil, /En. bk. vii ; cf. Ho. of Fame,
458. Observe his pronunciation of MMea, as in the Ho. of
Fame, 401 ; Cant. Ta., B. 72 (see Prioresses Tale, <S:c. p. 3).
332. ' There is reason to believe that Chaucer copied these
imageries from the romance of Gtiigonar, one of the Lays of
Marie de France ; in which the walls of a chamber are painted
with Venus and the Art of Love from Ovid. Perhaps Chaucer
might not look further than the temples of Boccaccio's Theseid
for these ornaments;' Warton, Hist. E. Poetry, 1871, iii. 63.
Cf. Rom. of the Rose (E. version), 11. 139-146.
333. Bothe text a7id glose, i. e. both in the principal panels
and in the margin. He likens the walls to the page of a book,
in which the glose, or commentary, was often written in the
margin. Mr. Sweet inserts with before text, and changes And
into Of in the next line ; I do not think the former change is
necessar)', but I adopt the latter.
334. It had all sorts of scenes from the Romance of the Rose
on it. Chaucer again mentions this Romance by name in his
Merchant's Tale ; C. T, 9906; and he tells us that he himself
translated it ; Prol. to Legend, 329. The celebrated Roman de
la Rose was begun by Guillaume de Lorris, who wrote 11. 1-4070,
and died in 1260 or 1262, and completed (in a very different and
much more satirical style) by Jean de Meung (or Mcun), sur-
named Clopinel, from a defect in one of his legs, who wrote
11. 4071-22074 ; it was finished about the year 1305. The story
is that of a young man who succeeded in plucking a rose in
a walled garden, after overcoming extraordinary difficulties ;
allegorically, it means that he succeeded in obtaining the object
of his love.
The existing English translation is imperfect, and bears
internal evidence of not being the one which was made by
Chaucer. Lines 1-4432 answer to 11. 1-4070 of the French text,
by G. de Lorris. Lines 4433-5813 answer to 11. 4071-5 170 of
the original, by J. de Meun ; after which there is a great gap.
Lines 5814-7698 answer to 11. 10717-12564 of the original, and
break off nearly 10,000 lines from the end.
The E. version is invariably called the Romaunt of the Rose,
and we find the title Romviant de la Rose in the original,
1. 20082 ; cf. our ro»iant-ic. But Burguy explains that romant
246 ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE.
is a false form, due to confusion with words rightly ending in
-ant. The right O. F. form is romaiis, originally an adverb ;
from the phrase parler roDians, i. e. loqui Romanice. In the
Six-text edition of the Cant. Tales, E. 2032, four MSS. have
romance, one has roninns, and one romaims.
For examples of walls or ceilings being painted with various
subjects, see Warton's Hist, of E. Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 131,
275; iii. 63.
340. The first accent is on Blew, not on bright. Cf. Rom.
de la Rose, 124, 125 : —
'Clere et serie et bele estoit
La matinee, et atrempee.'
343. Ne 171 is to be read as Nin ; we find it written niii in the
Squieres Tale, 35. See 1. 694.
347. Whether is to be read as Wher ; it is often so spelt.
348. The line, as it stands in the authorities, viz. 'And I
herde goyng, bothe vp and doune' — cannot be right. Mr. Sweet
omits bothe. I prefer to omit Atid, while altering goyng to gon.
Perhaps even speke i^^SXi^x speken) is an infinitive in 1. 350. The
line, as I give it, is idiomatic and metrical. However, spekett
may also be the pt. t. plural (A.S. spracon) ; and it is more
convenient to take it so.
352. Upon lengthe, after a great length of course, after a long
run.
M. Sandras points out some very slight resemblances between
this passage and some lines in a French poem in the Collection
Mouchet, vol. ii. fol. 106 ; see the passage cited in Furnivall's
Trial Forewords to the Minor Poems, p. 51. Most likely
Chaucer wrote independently of this French poem, as even
M. Sandras seems inclined to admit.
353. Enibosed, embossed. This is a technical term, famous
for its use by Shakespeare, Tam. Shrew, Induct, i. 17 ; Ant.
and Cleop. iv. 13. 3. It properly means, covered with foam at
the mouth in consequence of hard hunting, or covered with
foam generally. (Quite a distinct word from einbossed in All's
Well, iii. 6. 107.)
In the play of Albumazar, Act v. sc. 2, Cricca says —
' I am emboss' d
With trotting all the streets to find Pandolfo.'
Hazlitt's note is — 'Gascoigne, in his book of hunting, 1575, P-
242, enumerates embossed among "other generall termes of the
hart and his properties. When he [the hart] is foamy at the mouth
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUC HESSE. 347
\ve saye that he is embost." So in The Shoemaker's HoHday,
or The Gentle Craft, 1610, sig. C 3 —
'Besides, the miller's boy told me even now
He saw him take soile, and he hallowed him,
Affirming him so embost
That long he could not hold.'
See also the Book of St. Alban's, fol. f i, back, about the
hart dropping white foam when sore pressed.
362. A relay was a fresh set of dogs ; see Relay in my Etym.
Diet.
'When the howndys are set an hert for to mete.
And other hym chasen and folowyn to take,
Then all the Relais thow may vppon hem make.'
Book of St. Alban's, fol. e 8, back.
A lymere was a dog held in a leash, to be let loose when
required. In the Book of St. Alban's, fol. e 4, we are told that
the beasts which should be ' reride with the lymer^ i. e. roused
and pursued by the dog so called, are ' the hert and the bucke
and the boore.'
365. Oon, laddc, i. e. one who led. This omission of the
relative is common.
368. ' The emperor Octovien ' is the emperor seen by Chaucer
in his dream. In 1. 131 4, he is called this king, by whom
Edward III. is plainly intended. He was 'a favourite character
of Carolingian legend, and pleasantly revived under this aspect
by the modern romanticist Ludwig Tieck — probably [here] a
flattering allegory for the King ; ' Ward's Life of Chaucer, p. 69.
The English romance of Octouian Imperator is to be found in
Weber's Metrical Romances, iii. 157; it extends to 1962 lines.
He was an emperor of Rome, and married Floraunce, daughter
of Dagabers [Dagobert], king of France. The adventures of
Floraunce somewhat resemble those of Constance in the Man
of Lawes Tale.
370. The exclamation 'A goddes halfe' was pronounced like
'A god's half; ' see 1. 758. See note to 1. 544.
374. Fil to doon, fell to do, i. e. was fitting to do.
375. Fot-hoof, foot-hot, immediately ; see my note to Man of
Lawes Tale, 438.
376. Moot, notes upon a horn, here used as a plural. See
Glossary. 'How shall we blowe whan ye han sen the hert?
I shal blowe after one fnofi', ij motes [i. e. 3 motes . in all] ;
and if myn howndcs come not hastily to me as I \volde, I shall
248 ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE.
blowe iiij. motes ;' Venery de Twety, in Reliquiae Antiquas,
i. 152.
Cf. a passage in the Chacc du Cerf, quoted from the Collection
Mouchet, i. 166, in Furnivall's Trial Forewords, p. 51 (though
Chaucer probably wrote his account quite independently of
it):-
' Et puis si corneras apel
.iij. Ions tnots, pour les chiens avoir.'
379. Rechased, headed back. Men were posted at certain
places, to keep the hart within certain bounds. See next note.
386. A forloyn, a recall (as I suppose; for it was blown when
the hounds wefe all a long way off their object of pursuit). It
is thus explained in the Book of St. Alban's, fol. f 1 : —
' Yit mayster, wolde I fayn thus at yow leere,
What is a forloyng, for that is goode to here.
That shall I say the, quod he, the soth at lest.
^Yhen thy houndes in the wode sechyn any beest.
And the beest is stoU away owt of the fryth,
Or the houndes that thou hast meten therwith.
And any other houndes before than may with hem mete
Thees oder houndes are then forloyjicd, I the hete.
For the beste and the houndes am so fer before,
And the houndes behynde be weer[i]e and soore.
So that they may not at the best cum at ther will,
The houndes before forloyne [distance] hem, and that is
the skyll.
They be ay so fere before, to me iff thou will trust ;
And thys is the forloyne ; lere hit, iff thou lust.'
The ' chace of the forloyne ' is explained (very obscurely) in the
Venery de Twety; see ReHquias Antiquas, i, 152. But the
following passage from the same gives some light upon rechased :
' Another chace ther is whan a man hath set up archerys and
greyhoundes, and the best be founde, and passe out the boundys,
and myne houndes after ; then shall y blowe on this maner a
mote, and aftirward the rec/iaee upon my houndys that be past
the boundys.'
387. Co, gone. The sense is — ' I had gone (away having)
■"valked from my tree.' The idiom is curious. Afy f?-ee, the
tree at which I had been posted. Chaucer dreamt that he was
one of the men posted to watch which way the hart went, and
to keep the bounds.
396. The final e \xv fied-de is not elided, owing to the pause
after it. See note to L 685.
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE. 249
398. Wente, path. Chaucer often rimes words that are pro-
nounced ahke, if their meanings be different. See 11. 439, 440;
and cf. 11. 627-630. The very same pair of rimes occurs again
in the Ho. of Fame, 181, 182 ; and in Troil. iii. 788.
402. Read— />r both-e Flor-a, &c. The -a in Flora comes at
the caesural pause; cf. 11. 413, 414. Once more, this is from Le
Roman de la Rose, 11. 8449-51 : —
' Zephiius et Flora, sa fame,
Qui des flors est deesse et dame,
Cil dui font les floretes nestre.'
Cf. also 11. 5962-5 : —
' Les floretes i fait parair,
E aim cstoiles flamboier,
Et les herbetes verdoier
Zcphirus, quant sur mer chevauche.'
405. The first accent is on For \ not happily.
408. ' To have more flowers than the heaven (has stars, so as
even to rival) seven such planets as there are in the sky.'
Rather involved, and probably all suggested by the necessity for
a rime to heven. See 1. 824. Moreover, it is copied from Le
Roman de la Rose, 8465-8 : —
'Qu'il vous fust avis que la terre
Vosist emprendre cstrif et guerre
Au ciel d'estre miex estelee,
Tant iert par ses flors revelee.'
410-412. From Le Roman de la Rose, 55-58 :^
' La terre ....
Et oblie la poverte
Ou ele a tot I'yver este.'
419. Imitated from Le Roman de la Rose, 1 373-1 391 ; in
particular : —
' Li ung \arhre\ fu loing de I'autre assis
Plus de cinq toises, ou de sis,' etc.
Chaucer has treated a toise as if it were equal to two feet ; it
was really about six.
429. According to the Book of St. Albans, fol. e 4, the buck
was called a faiime in his first year, a prcket in the second,
a sowrcll in the third, a sowrc in the fourth, a biicke of ihc fyrst
hede in the fifth, and a bucke (simply) in the sixth year. Also
a roo is the female of the roobiicke.
435. Argus is put for Algus, the old French name for the
inventor of the Arabic numerals; it occurs in 1. 16373 of the
250 ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE.
Roman de la Rose, which mentions him in company with Euclid
and Ptolemy —
* Algus, Euclides, Tholomees.'
This name was obviously confused with that of the hundred-
eyed Argus.
This name Algus was evolved out of the O. F. algorisme,
which, as Dr. Murray says, is a French adaptation 'from the Arab.
al-KJiowdrasmi, the native of Khivarazm {Khhia), surname of
the Arab mathematician Abu Ja'far Mohammed Ben Musa, who
flourished early in the 9th century, and through the translation
of whose work on Algebra, the Arabic numerals became gener-
ally known in Europe. Cf. Euclid = plane geometry.' He was
truly ' a noble countour,' to whom we all owe a debt of gratitude.
That Algus was sometimes called Argus, also appears from the
Roman de la Rose, 11. 12994, tSic, which is clearly the very
passage which Chaucer here copies : —
'Se mestre Argiis li bien contens
I vosist bien metre ses cures,
E venist 0 ses dix figures,
Par quoi tout certefie et nombre,
Si ne peust-il pas le nombre
Des grans contens certefier,
Tant seust bien mouteplier.' '
Here 0 means 'with;' so that Chaucer has copied the very
phrase ' with his figures ten.' But still more curiously, Jean de
Meun here rimes jtonibre, pres. sing, indie, with Jiombre, sb.;
and Chaucer rimes nounibre, infin., with Jtouinbre, sb. likewise.
Countour in 1. 435 means 'arithmetician;' in the next line it
means an abacus or counting-board, for assisting arithmetical
operations.
437. His figures ten ; the ten Arabic numerals, i. e. from 1 to 9,
and the cipher o.
438. Al ken, all kin, i.e. mankind, all men. This substitution
of ke7i for ki)i (A. S. cyn) seems to have been due to the
exigencies of rime, as Chaucer uses kin elsewhere. However,
Gower has the same form — 'And of what ken that she was
come;' Conf. Am. b. viii ; ed. Pauli, iii. 332. So also in Will,
of Palerne, 722 — 'Miself knowe ich nou5t mi ken ; ' and five times
at least in the Ayenbite of Inwyt, as it is a Kentish form.
442. The strong accent on vie is very forced.
^ M. Meon prints monieplier. It is clearly mouteplier, to multiply.
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE. 25 1
445. A man in blak j John of Gaunt, in mourning for the loss
of his wife Blaunche. Imitated by Lydgate, in his Complaint
of the Black Knight, 1. 130, and by Spenser, in his Daph-
naida : —
' I did espie
WTiere towards me a sory wight did cost
Clad all in black, that mourning did bewray.'
452. Wd-faring-c ; four syllables.
455. John of Gaunt, born in June, 1340, was 29 years old in
1369. I do not know why a poet is iiever to make a mistake ;
nor why critics should lay down such a singular law. But
if we are to lay the error on the scribes, Mr. Brock's sugges-
tion is excellent. He remarks that ni7ie a7id iwetity was
usually written .xxviiij. ; and if the t were omitted, it would
appear as .xxiiij., i. e. four and twenty. The existing MSS.
write ' foure and twenty ' at length ; but such is not the usual
practice of earlier scribes. It may also be added that .xxiiij.
was at that time always read as four and twenty, never as
twenty four ; so that no ambiguity could arise as to its meaning.
See Richard the Redeless, iii. 260.
There is a precisely similar confusion in Cant. Ta. Group
B, 1. 5 (see my Prioresses Tale, p. i, footnote 2) ; where
eightetcthe is denoted by 'xviijthe' in the Hengwrt MS., whilst
the Harl. MS. omits the v, and reads thrcitenthe, and again the
Kllesmere MS. inserts an x, and gives us eight e and twentithe.
The presumption is, that Chaucer knew his patron's age, and
that we ought to read ni}ie ior four; but even if he inadvertently
wrote four, there is no crime in it.
475. The knight's lay falls into two stanzas, one of five, and
one of six lines, as marked. In order to make them more alike,
Thynne inserted an additional line — And thus in sorowe lefte me
alone — after 1. 479. This additional line is numbered 480 in the
editions ; so I omit 1. 480 in the numbering. The line is
probably spurious. It is not grammatical ; grammar would
require that /las (not is, as in 1. 479) should be understood before
the pp. /eft; or if we take left-e as a past tense, then the line
will not scan. But it is also unmetrical, as the arrangement of
lines should be the same as in 11. 481-6, if the two stanzas are
to be made alike. Chaucer says the lay consisted of ' ten
verses or twelve ' in 1. 463, which is a sufficiently close descrip-
tion of a lay of eleven lines. Had he said twchie without any
mention of ten, the case would have been different.
481. If we must needs complete the line, we must read
353 ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE.
'Alias! o deth!' inserting o; or 'Alias! the deth,' inserting
the. The latter is proposed by Ten Brink, Sprache, &c. § 346.
490. Pure, very; cf. 'pure fettres,' Kn. Tale, 421. And see
1. 583, below,
491. Cf. 'Why does my blood thus muster to my heart?'
Meas. for Meas. ii. 4. 20.
501. Seet, sat; a false form for saf (A. S. serf); due to the
plural form scet-e or set-e (A. S. s&t-on). The very same error
recurs in Kn. Tale, 1217 ; cf. same, 2035.
510. Made, i.e. they made ; idiomatic.
521. Ne /, nor I ; to be read N'l \ cf. note to 1. 343,
526. ' Yes ; the amends is (are) easily made.'
532. Me acqiieynte = m' acqueynt-e, acquaint myself.
544. By our lord, to be read as by V lord. Cf, by V lakin,
Temp. iii. 3. i. So again, in 11. 651, 690, 1042.
547. Me thiiiketh {^me thi)ikth), it seems to me.
550, Wis, certainly: 'As certainly (as I hope that) God may
help me.' So in Nonne Prestes Tale, 587 ; and cf. Kn. Tale,
1928, So also : 'As wisly helpe me gret god ;' Squ. Ta. 469,
&c. And see 1. 683, below.
556. Paraventure, pronounced as Paratmter; Thynne so
has it.
Compare this passage with the long dialogue between
Troilus and Pandarus in the latter part of the first book
of Troilus.
568. Alluding to Ovid's Retnedia Arnoris. Accent remedies
on the second syllable.
569. The story of Orpheus is in Ovid's Metamorphoses, bk. x.
The allusion is to the harp of Orpheus, at the sound of which
the tortured had rest. Cf. Ho. of Fame, 1202.
* To tyre on Titius growing hart the gredy Grype forbeares :
The shunning water Tantalus endeuereth not to drink ;
And Danaus daughters ceast to fill their tubs that haue no brink.
Ixions wheel stood still : and downe sate Sisyphus vpon
His rolling stone.' — Golding's Ovid, fol. 120.
570. Cf. Ho. of Fame, 919. Dsdalus represents the mecha-
nician. No mechanical contrivances can help the mourner.
572. Cf.
'Par Hipocras, ne Galien,
Tant fussent boa phisicien.'
Roman de la Rose, 16161.
Hippocrates and Galen are meant ; see note to C. T. Group C,
306, in my Man of Lawes Tale, p. 141.
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE. 2^3
579. Y-wortJie, (who am) become ; pp. of worthen.
582. 'For all good fortune and I are foes,' lit. angry (with
each other).
589. S and C were so constantly interchanged before e that
Sesiphiis could be written Ccsiphus ; and C and Twere so often
mistaken that Cesiphus easily became Tesiplius, the form in the
Tanner MS. Further, initial 7" was sometimes replaced by Th\
and this would give the Thcsiphiis of MS. F.
Sesiphiis, i. e. Sisyphus, is of course intended ; it was in the
author's mind in connection with the story of Orpheus just
above ; see note to 1. 569. In the Roman dc la Rose, we have
the usual allusions to Yxion (1. 19479), Teiitalus, i.e. Tantalus
(1. 19482), Ticiics, i.e. Tityus (1. 19506), and Sisifus (1. 19499)-
But whilst I thus hold that Chaucer probably wrote Scsiphus,
I have no doubt that he really meant Tityus, as is shewn by the
expression lyth, i.e. lies extended. See Troil. i. 786, where
Bell's edition has Siciphus, but the Campsall MS. has Ticyus ;
whilst in ed. 1 561 we find Tesiphus.
599. With this string of contrarieties compare the Eng. version
of the Roman de la Rose, 4706-4753.
614. Abaved, confounded, disconcerted. See Glossary.
• 618. Imitated from the Roman de la Rose, from 1. 6644.
onwards.
' Vez cum fortune le servi ....
N'est ce done chose bien provable
Que sa roe n'est pas tenable ?'....
Jean de Meun goes on to say that Charles of Anjou killed Man-
fred, king of Sicily, in the first battle with him [a.D. 1266]—
' En la premeraine bataille
L'assailli por li desconfire,
Eschcc et mat li ala dire
Desus son destrier auferrant
Du trait d'un paonnet errant
Ou milieu de son eschiquier.'
He next speaks of Conradin, whose death was likewise caused
by Charles in 1268, so that these two (Manfred and Conradin)
lost all their pieces at chess —
'Cil dui, comme folz gar9onnes,
Roz et fierges et paonnes,
Et chevaliers as gieus perdircnt,
Et hors de I'eschiquicr saillirent.'
And further, of the inventor of chess (1. 6715) —
254 I^^- THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE.
' Car ainsi le dist Athalus
Qui des eschez controva I'us,
Quant il traitoit d'arismetique.'
He talks of the queen being taken (at chess), 1. 6735 —
' Car la fierche avoit este prise
Au gieu de la premiere assise.'
He cannot recount all Fortune's tricks (1. 6879) —
'De fortune la semilleuse
Et de sa roe perilleuse
Tous les tors conter ne porroie.'
629. Cf. ' whited sepulchres ; ' Matt, xxiii. 27.
630. The MSS. and Thynne have floures, fiourys. This
gives no sense ; we must therefore xo-sA flour is. For a similar
rime see that of no?ies, noon is, in the Prologue, 523, 524.
Strictly, grammar requires ben rather than is ; but when two
nominatives express much the same sense, the singular verb
may be used, as in Lenvoy to Bukton, 6. The sense is — ' her
chief glory and her prime vigour is (i. e. consists in) lying.'
634. The parallel passage is one in the Remede de Fortune,
by G. de Machault : —
' Uun ail rit, de r autre leniie ;
C'est rorgueilleuse humilite,
C'est renvieitse charite [1. 642]. . .
La peinture d'une vipere
Qu'est mortable ;
* En riens a li ne se compere.'
See Furnivall's Trial Forewords, p. 47 ; and compare the
remarkable and elaborate description of Fortune in the Anti-
claudian of Alanus de Insulis (Distinctio 8, cap. l), in Wright's
Anglo-Latin Satirists, vol. ii. pp. 399, 400.
636. Chaucer seems to have rewritten the whole passage at
a later period : —
' O soden hap, o thou fortune unstable,
Like to the scorpioun so deceivable.
That flatrest with thy hed whan thou wolt sting;
Thy tail is deth, thurgh thyn enveniming.
O brotel loye, o swete poyson queinte,
O monstre, that so sotilly canst peinte,
Thy giftes under hue of stedfastnesse
That thou deceivest bothe more and lesse,' etc.
Cant. Tales, fj<ji\{.Merch. Tale).
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE. 255
Compare also Man of Lawes Tale, 361, 404. 'The scorpiun
is ones cunnes wurm that haueth neb, ase me seith, sumdel
iliche ase wummon, and is neddre bihinden ; maketh feir
scmbJaunt and fiketh mit te heaucd, and stingcth mid tc teile ; '
Ancren Riwle, p. 206. Vincent of Beauvais, in his Speculum
Naturale, bk. xx. c. 160, quotes from the Liber dc Naturis
Rerum — ' Scorpio blandum et quasi virgineum dicitur vultum
habere, sed habet in cauda nodosa venenatum aculeum, quo
pungit et inficit proximantem.'
642. A translated line ; sec note to 1. 634.
651. Read — Troiifst thou? bfr lord \ see note to 1. 544.
653. Draught is a move at chess ; see 11. 682, 685. Thus in
Caxton's Game of the Chesse — ' the alphyn [bishop] goeth in vj.
draughtes al the tablier [board] rounde about.' So in The Tale
of Ber^m, 1779, 1812. It translates the F. trait; see note to
1. 618 (second quotation).
654. ^ Fers, the piece at chess next to the king, which we and
other European nations call the queen ; though very' improperly,
as Hyde has observed. Phers, or Pher2a?i, which is the Persian
name for the same piece, signifies the King's Chief Counsellor,
or General. — Hist. Shahilud.[.f//c7//z-/7/rt'/V, chess-play], pp. 88,
89.'— Tyrwhitt's Glossary. Chaucer follows Rom. Rose, where
the word appears Tusjierge, 1. 6688, VLXid Jierche, 1. 6735 > see note
to 1. 618 above. (For another use of fers, see note to 1. 723
below.) Godefroy gives the O. F. s'p&Wmgs fierce, Jierche, Jicfge,
firge, and quotes two lines which give the O. F. names of all
the pieces at chess : —
' Roy, roc, chevalier, et alphin,
Fierge, et peon.' —
Caxton calls them kyng, quene, alphyn, kftyght, rook, pawti.
Richardson's Pers. Diet, p. loSo, gives the Pers. name of the
queen as farzi or farzin, and explains farztn by ' the queen at
chess, a learned man ;' compare Tyrwhitt's remark above. In
fact, the orig. Skt. name for this piece was mantri, i. e. the
adviser or counsellor. He also gives the Pers. farz, learned ;
farz or Jirz, the queen at chess. I suppose it is a mere chance
that the somewhat similar Arab, faras means ' a horse, and the
knight at chess ; ' Richardson (as above). Oddly enough, the
latter word has also some connection with Chaucer, as it is the
Arabic name of the * wedge ' of an astrolabe ; see Chaucer's
Astrolabe, ed. Skeat, Part i. § 14 (footnote).
655. When a chess-player, by an oversight, loses his queen
25<5 ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE.
for nothing, he may, in general, as well give up the game.
Beryn was ' in hevy plyjte, ' when he only lost a rook for
nothing; Tale of Beryn, 1812.
660. The word the before mid must of course be omitted.
The lines are to be scanned thus : —
' Therwith [ fortim | e seid | e chek | here
And mate | in mid | pointe of | the chek | kere.'
The rime is a feminine one. Lines 660 and 661 are copied from
the Rom. Rose ; see note to 1. 618, above. To be checkmated
by an ' errant ' pawn in the very middle of the board is a most
ignominious way of losing the game. Cf. check-mate in Troil.
ii. 754.
663. Athalus ; see note to 1. 618, above. Jean de Meun
follows John of Sahsbury (bishop of Chartres, died 1180) in
attributing the invention of chess to Attains. ' Attains Asiaticus,
si Gentilium creditur historiis, banc ludendi lasciuiam dicitur
inuenisse ab exercitio numerorum, paululum deflexa materia ; '
Joan. Saresburiensis Policraticus, lib. i. c. 5. Warton (Hist.
E. Poet. 1871,111.91) says the person meant is Attalus Philometor,
king of Pergamus; who is mentioned by Pliny, Nat. Hist, xviii.
3, xxviii. 2. It is needless to explain here how chess was
developed out of the old Indian game for four persons called
chatur-ahga, i. e. consisting of four members or parts (Benfey's
Skt. Diet. p. 6). I must refer the reader to Forbes's History
of Chess, or the article on Chess in the English Cyclopaedia.
See also the E. version of the Gesta Romanorum, ed. Herrtage,
p. 70; A. Neckam, De Naturis Rerum, ed. Wright, p. 324; and
Sir F. Madden's article in the Archceologui, xxiv. 203.
666. leupardies, hazards, critical positions, problems ; see
note on C. T. Group G, 743, in my Man of Lawes Tale, p. 187.
667. Pithagores, put for Pythagoras ; for the rime. Pythagoras
of Samos, born about B.C. 570, considered that all things were
founded upon numerical relations ; various discoveries in
mathematics, music, and astronomy, were attributed to him.
682. ' I would have made the same move ; ' i. e. had I had
the power, I would have taken her fers from her, just as she
took mine.
684. She^ i.e. Fortune ; so in Thynne. The MSS. have He,
i. e. God, which can hardly be meant.
685. The Ccesural pause preserves e in draiighte from elision.
It rimes with caughte (1. 682). Similar examples of 'hiatus' are
not common : Ten Brink {Sprache, § 270) instances C. T.
Group C, 599, 772, (Pard. Tale).
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCIIESSE. 257
694. Nc in is to be read as nin (twice) ; see 1. 343.
700. ' There lies in reckoning (i. e. is debited to me in the
account), as regards sorrow, for no amount at all.' In his
account with Sorrow, he is owed nothing, having received pay-
ment in full. There is no real difficulty here.
705. ' I have nothing ;' for (i) Sorrow has paid in full, and so
owes me nothing ; (2) I have no gladness left ; (3) I have lost
my true wealth ; (4) and I have no pleasure.
708. ' What is past is not yet to come.'
709. Taniale, Tantalus. He has already referred to Sisyphus;
see note to 1. 589. In the Roman de la Rose, we find Yxio>i,
1. 19479; Tcntalus, 1. 19482; and Sisifiis, 1. 19499; as I have
already remarked.
717. Again from the Rom. de la Rose, 1. 5869 —
*Et ne priseras une prune
Toute la roe de fortune.
A Socrates seras semblables,
Qui tant fu fers et tant estables,
Qu'il n'ert lies en prosperites,
Ne tristes en aversites.'
Chaucer's ihre strces is Jean de IMeun's prime.
723. By the ferses twelve I understand all the pieces except
the king, which could not be taken. The gness in Bell's
Chaucer says 'all the pieces except the pawns ; ' but as a player
only has seveti pieces at most beside the pawns and king, I fail to
see how seven can be called twelve. My own reckoning is thus :
pawns, eight; queen, bishop, rook, Vrnght, four; total, twelve.
The fact that each player has two of three of these, viz. of the
bishop, rook, and knight, arose from the conversion of chatur-
ahga, in which each of four persons had a king, bishop, knight,
rook [to keep to modern names] and four pawns, into chess, in
which each of two persons had two kings (afterwards king and
queen), two bishops, knights, and rooks, and eight pawns.
The bishop, knight, and rook, were thus duplicated, and so
count but once apiece. The case of the pawns was different,
for each pawn had an individuality of its own, no two being
made alike (except in inferior sets). Caxton's Game of the
Chesse shews this clearly ; he describes each of the eight pawns
separately, and gives a different figure to each. According to
him, the pawns were (beginning from the King's Rook'3 Pawn)
the Labourer, Smyth, Clcrke (or Notary), Marchaunt, Physicien,
Tauerner, Garde, and Ribauld. They denoted 'all sorts and
S
258 ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE.
conditions of men ; ' and this is why our common saying of
' tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, gentleman, apothecary, ploughboy,
thief enumerates eight conditions \
As the word fers originally meant counsellor or monitor of
the king, it could be applied to any of the pieces. There was
a special reason for its application to each of the pawns ; for
a pawn, on arriving at its last square, could not be exchanged
(as now) for any piece at pleasure, but only for a queen, i.e. the
i^x?, par excellence. For, as Caxton says again, 'he [the pawn]
may not goo on neyther side till he hath been in the fardest
ligne of theschequer, & that he hath taken the nature of the
draughtes of the quene, & than he is a fiers., and than may he
goo on al sides cornerwyse fro poynt to poynt onely as the
quene ; ' &c.
726. These stock examples all come together in the Rom. de
la Rose; viz. Jason and Medee, at 1. 13433; PJiilis and
De77iophon, at 1. 13415; ''Dido., roine de Cartage,' at 1. 13379.
The story of Echo and Narcissus is told fully, in an earlier
passage, at 1. 1447; see II. 1469-1545 of the English version ;
also that of ' Dalida ' and ' Sanson ' in a later passage, at
1. 16879. See also the Legends of Dido, Medea, and Phillis in
the Legend of Good Women ; and the story of Sampson in the
Monkes Tale, C. T. Group B, 3205, in my edition of the
Prioresses Tale. Cf. also —
'Ne Narcissus, the fayre,' &c. ; Kn. Tale, 1083.
' And deye he moste, he sayde, as did Ecco
For Narcissus;' C. T. 11 263 (Frank. Tale).
779. M. Sandras points out the resemblance to a passage in
G. de Machault's Remede de Fortune : —
' Car le droit estat d'innocence
Ressemblent (?) proprement la table
Blanche, polie, qui est able
A recevoir, sans nul contraire,
Ce qu'on y veut peindre ou portraire.'
The rime of table and able settles the point. Mr. Brock points
out a parallel passage in Boethius, which Chaucer thus trans-
lates : — 'the soule hadde be naked of it-self, as a mirour or a
clene parchemyn . . . Ry3t as we ben wont some time by a swift
poyntel to ficchen lettres emprented in the smothenesse or in the
' The thief is the Ribauld ; the ploughboy, the Labourer; tlie
apothecary, the Physicien ; the soldier, the Garde ; the tailor, the
Marchaunt; the tinker, the .Smyth. Only two are changed.
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE. 2.59
plainesse of the table of wex, or in parchemyn that nc hath no
figure ne note in it;' ed. Morris, p. 166 (bk. v. met. 4). But I
doubt if Chaucer knew much of Boethius in 1369; and in the
present passage he clearly refers to a prepared white surface,
not to a tablet of wax. 'Youth and white paper take any
impression;' Ray's Proverbs.
791. An allusion to the old proverb which is given in Hending
in the form — ' Whose yong Icrneth, olt [old] he ne leseth ; '
Mending's Prov. 1. 45. Kemble gives the medieval Latin — ' Quod
puer adsuescit, leviter dimittcre nescit ;' Gartner, Dictcria, p. 24
b. Cf. Horace, Epist. i. 2. 69; also Rom. de la Rose, 13094.
799. John of Gaunt married Blaunche at the age of nineteen.
S05. Imitated from Machault's Dit du Vergier and Fontaine
Amoureuse.
' Car il m'est vis que je veoie,
Au joli prael ou j'estoie,
La plus tres belle compaignie
Qti'oncques fust veue ne oie : '
Dil du Vcrgicr, ed. Tarbe, p. 14.
' Tant qu'il avint, qu'en une compagnie
Oil il avait mainte dame jolie
Juene, gentil, joieuse et cnvoisie
Vis, par Fortune,
(Qui de mentir a tous est trop commune),
Entre les autrcs I'ttnc
Qui, tout aussi com li solaus la lune
Veint de clarte,
Avait-elle les autrcs sortnonte
De pris, d^onneur, de grace, de biauti ;' Ss'c.
Fontaine Ajnoureuse (in Trial Forewords, p. 47).
These are, no doubt, the lines to which Tyrwhitt refers in his
remarks on the present passage in a note to the last paragraph
of the Persones Tale. Observe also how closely the fifth line of
the latter passage answers to 1. 812.
823. Is, which is ; as usual. I propose this reading. That of
the MSS. is very bad, viz. 'Than any other planete in hevcn.'
824. * The seven stars ' generally mean the planets ; but, as
the sun and moon and planets have just been mentioned, the
reference may be to the well-known seven stars in Ursa ^Lajor
commonly called Charles's Wain. In later English, the seven
stars sometimes mean the Pleiades ; see Pleiade in Cotgrave's
French Dictionary, and G. Douglas, ed. Small, iii. 147. 15. The
phrase is, in fact, ambiguous ; see note to P. Plowman, C.
xviii. 98.
S 2
26o ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE.
831. Referring to Christ and His twelve apostles.
835-7. Resembles Le Roman de la Rose, 1689-91 —
' Li Diex d' Amors, qui, Tare tendu,
Avoit tonte jor atendu
A moi porsivre et espier.'
849. Carole, dance round, accompanying the dance with a
song. The word occurs in the Rom. de la Rose several times ;
thus at 1. 747, we have : —
'Lors veissies carolc aler,
Et gens mignotement baler' —
where the E. version has (1. 759) —
'Tho mightist thou karoles sene,
And folk*; daunce and mery bene.'
So in the same, 1. 810—
' I wolde have haroled right fayn.
As man that was to daunce right blithe.'
Dante uses the pi. carole (Parad. xxiv. 16) to express swift
circular movements ; and Gary quotes a comment upon it to the
effect that '■carola dicuntur tripudium quoddam quod fit saliendo,
ut Napolitani faciunt et dicunt.' He also quotes the expression
'grans danses et grans karoUes from Froissart, ed. 1559, vol. i.
cap. 219. That it meant singing as well as dancing appears from
the Rom. de la Rose, 1. 731, where we have : —
' Ceste gent dont je vous parole
S'estoient pris a la carolc,
Et une dame lor chantoit;^
where the Eng. version has (1. 743) : —
* This folk, of which I telle you soo,
Upon a karole wenten thoo.
A lady karolede hem ; ' &c.
858. Chaucer gives Virginia golden hair; Doct. Tale, C. T.
11971. Compare the whole description of the maiden in the E.
version of the Rom. of the Rose, 11. 539-561.
861. Of good mochel, of an excellent size; mochel = size,
occurs in P. Plowman, B. xvi. 182. Scan the line —
' Simpl' of I good moch | el noght | to w}'de.'
894. ' In reasonable cases, that involve responsibility.'
908. Somewhat similar are 11. 9-18 of the Doctoures Tale.
916. Scan by reading — They n' shold' hav' foiind-e, &c.
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE. 26 1
917. A wikked signe, a sign, or mark, of wickedness.
919. Imitated from Machault's Remcde de Fortune (see Trial
Forewords, p. 48) : —
' Et sa gracieuse parole,
Qui n'estoit diverse ne folle,
Etrange, ne mal ordenee,
Hautaine, mes bien affrenee,
Cueillie a point et de saison,
Fondee sur toute raison,
Tant plaisant et douce ci oir.
Que chascun faisoit resjoir ; ' &c.
Line 922 is taken from this word for word.
927. ' Nor that scorned less, nor that could better heal,' &c.
948. Here Whyte, representing the lady's name, is plainly a
translation of Blaimche. The insertion of whyte in 1. 905, in
the existing authorities, is surely a blunder, and I therefore
have omitted it. It anticipates the climax of the description,
besides ruining the scansion of the line.
950. There is here some resemblance to some lines in G.
Machault's Remede de Fortune (see Trial Forewords, p. 49) : —
— ' ma Dame, qui est clamee
De tous, sur toutes belle et bonne,
Chascu7i por droit ce noiii li donned
957. For hi'ppes, Bell prints lippes ; a comic reading.
958. The old reading means — ' I knew in her no other defect ;'
which, as fto defect has been mentioned, is absurd. Read no
maner lak, i. e. no ' sort of defect in her (to cause) that all her
limbs should not be proportionate.'
964. A common illustration. See Rom. de la Rose, 7448;
Alexander and Dindimus, 11. 233-5. Duke Francesco Maria had,
for one of his badges, a lighted candle by which others are
lighted; with the motto Non degener addam, i.e. I will give
without loss; see Mrs. Palliser's Historic Devices, p. 263.
973. The accents seem to fall on Sh^ and have, ihte in wold-e
being elided.
982. Liddell and Scott explain Gk. 0(uVi^ as 'the fabulous
Egyptian bird phoenix, first in Hesiod, Fragment 50. 4 ; then in
Herodotus, ii. 73.' Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Naturale,
bk. 16. c. 74, refers us to Isidore, Ambrosius (lib. 5), Solinus,
Pliny (lib. 10), and Liber de Naturis Rerum ; see Solinus, Poly-
histor. c. 33. 1 1 ; A. Neckam, De Naturis Rerum, c. 34. Philip
de Thaun describes it in his Bestiaire, 1. 1089 ; see Popular
262 III. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE.
Treatises on Science, eel. Wright, p. 1 13. ' The Phoenix of Arabia
passes all others. Howbeit, I cannot tell what to make of him ;
and first of all, whether it be a tale or no, that there is neuer
but one of them in all the world, and the same not commonly
seen ; ' Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. 10. c. 2.
'Tons jors est-il ang seul Penis;' 8cc.
Rom. de la Rose, 161 79.
' Una est, quje reparet, seque ipsa reseminet, ales-;
Assyrii phcenica uocant.' — Ovid, 3fei. xv. 392.
987. Chaucer refers to Esther again ; e. g. in his Merchant's
Tale (C. T. 9245, 9618) ; Leg. of G. Women, prol. 250; and in
the Tale of Melibee.
997. Cf. Vergil, ^n. i. 630 : ' Haud ignara mali.'
1 02 1. /// balaunce, i. e. in a state of suspense. F. en balance ;
Rom. de la Rose, 13 871, 16770.
1024. This sending of lovers on expeditions, by way of proving
them, was in accordance with the manners of the time. Gower
explains the whole matter, in his Conf. Amant. lib. 4 (ed. Pauli,
ii. 56) :—
' Forthy who secheth loves grace.
Where that these worthy women are,
He may nought than him-selve spare
Upon his travail for to serve,
Wherof that he may thank deserve, . . .
So that by londe and ek by ship
He mot travaile for worship
And make many hastif rodes,
Somtime in Pritse, somtime in Rodes,
And somtime into Tartaric,
So that these heralds on him crie
" Vailant ! vailant ! lo, where he goth ! " ' &c.
Chaucer's Knight (in the Prologue) sought for renown in Pruce,
Alisau7idre, and Tiirkye.
There is a similar passage in Le Rom. de la Rose, 18499-
18526. The first part of Machault's Dit du Lion (doubtless the
Book of the Lion of which Chaucer's translation is now lost) is
likewise taken up with the account of lovers who undertook
feats, in order that the news of their deeds might reach their
ladies. Among the places to which they used to go are men-
tioned Alexandres, Alemaigne, Osteriche, Behaigne, Honguerie,
Danemarche, /';7^i'.y<?, Poulaine, Cracoe, Tarlane,&Lc. Some even
went 'jusqu'k I'Arbre sec, Ou li oisel pendent au bee' This
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE. 263
alludes to the famous Arbrc sec or Dry Tree, to reach whicli
was a feat indeed; see Yule's edition of Marco Polo, i. 119;
Maundeville, ed. Halliwell, p. 68 ; Matzner, Sprachproben, ii.
185.
As a specimen of the modes of expression then prevalent,
VVarton draws attention to a passage in Froissart, c. 81, where
Sir Walter Manny prefaces a gallant charge upon the enemy
with the words — ' May I never be embraced by my mistress
and dear friend, if I enter castle or fortress before I have
unhorsed one of these gallopers.'
1028. Go hoodies, travel without even the protection of a
hood ; by way of bravado. Warton, Hist. Eng. Poet. § 18 (ed.
Hazlitt, iii. 4), says of a society called the Fraternity of the
Penitents of Love — 'Their object was to prove the excess of
their love, by shewing with an invincible fortitude and con-
sistency of conduct . . . that they could bear extremes of heat
and cold . . It was a crime to wear fur on a day of the most
piercing cold ; or to appear with a hood, cloak, gloves
or mufif.'
What is meant by the drye se (dry sea) is disputed ; but it
matters little, for the general idea is clear. Mr. Brae, in the
Appendix to his edition of Chaucer's Astrolabe (p. loi), has a
long note on the present passage. Relying on the above
quotation from Warton, he supposes hoodlcss to have reference
to a practice of going unprotected in winter, and says that ' dry
sea' may refer to any frozen sea. But it may equally refer
to going unprotected in summer, in which case he offers us
an alternative suggestion, that ' any arid sandy desert might
be metaphorically called a dry sea.' The latter is almost
a sufficient explanation ; but if we must be particular, Mr. Brae
has yet more to tell us. He says that, at p. 1044 (Basle edition)
of Sebastian Munster's Cosmographie, there is a description of
a large lake which was dry in summer. ' It is said that there is
a lake near the city of Labac, adjoining the plain of Zircknitz
[Czirknitz], which in winter-time becomes of great extent. . . But
in summer the water drains away, the fish expire, the bed of the
lake is ploughed up, corn grows to maturity, and, after the
harvest is over, the waters return, &c. The Augspourg mer-
chants have assured me of this, and it has been since confirmed
to me by Vergier, the bishop of Cappodistria' [Capo d' Istria].
The lake still exists, and is no fable. It is the variable lake of
Czirhiitz, which sometimes covers sixty-three square miles,
and is sometimes dry. It is situate in the province of Krain, or
264 ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE.
Carniola ; Labac is the modern Laybach or Laibach, N.E. of
Trieste. See the articles Krain, Czirknitz in the Engl.
Cyclopcedia, and the account of the lake in The Student,
Sept. 1869.
That Chaucer really referred to this very lake becomes almost
certain, if we are to accept Mr. Brae's explanation of the next
line. See the next note.
1029. Carrcnaj-e. Mr. Brae suggests that the reference is to
the 'gulf of the Carnaro or Quarnaro in the Adriatic,' to which
Dante alludes in the Inferno, ix. 113, as being noted foj its
perils. Gary's translation runs thus : —
' As where Rhone stagnates on the plains of Aries,
Or as at Pola, near Qiiarnard s gulf,
That closes Italy and laves her bounds.
The place is all thick spj-ead with sepulchres'
It is called in Black's Atlas the Channel of Ouarnerolo, and is
the gulf which separates Istria from Croatia. The head of the
gulf runs up towards the province of Carniola, and approaches
within forty miles (at the outside) of t.he lake of Czirknitz (see
note above). I suppose that Quarnaro may be connected with
Carn-iola and the Carjt-t'c Alps, but popular etymology inter-
preted it to mean ' charnel-house,' from its evil reputation. This
appears from the quotations cited by Mr. Brae ; he says that
the Abbe Fortis quotes a Paduan writer, Palladio Negro, as
saying — ' E regione I striae, sinu Palatico, quern nautas carnarium
vocitant ; ' and again, Sebastian Munster, in his Cosmographie,
p. 1044 (Basle edition) quotes a description by Vergier, Bishop
of Capo d' Istria — 'par de^a le gouffre enrage lequel on appelle
vulgairement Carnarte, d'autantque le plus souvent on le voit
agite de tempestes horribles ; et la s'engloutissent beaucoup de
navires et se perdent plusieurs hommes.' In other words, the
true name Quarnaro or Carnaro was turned by the sailors into
Carttario, which means in Italian ' the shambles ; ' see Florio's
Diet., ed. 1598. This Carnario might become Carcynaire or
Carenare in Chaucer's English, by association with the M. E.
careyne or caroigne, carrion. This word is used by Chaucer in
the Kn. Tale, 1155 (Six-text, A. 2013^ where the Ellesmere
IMS. has carey?ie, and the Cambridge and Petworth MSS.
have careyn.
For myself, I am well satisfied with the above explanation. It
is probable, and it suffices ; and stories about this dry sea may
easily have been spread by Venetian sailors. I may add that
Maundeville mentions ' a gravely see ' in the land of Prestre
///, THE BOOK- OF THE DUCHESSE. 265
John, ' that is alle gravele and sonde, with-outen any drope
of watre ; and it ebbethe and flowethe in grete wawes, as other
sees don : ' ed. HalHwell, p. 272. This curious passage was
pointed out by Prof. Hales, in a letter in the Academy, Jan. 28,
1882, p. 65.
We certainly ought to reject the explanation given with great
assurance in the Saturday Review, July, 1870, p. 143, col. i, that
the allusion is to the chain of mountains called the Carena or
Charenal, a continuation of the Atlas Mountains in Africa.
The writer says — ' Leonardo Dati (a. d. 1470), speaking of
Africa, mentions a chain of mountains in continuation of the
Atlas, 300 miles long, " commonly called Charenal." In the fine
chart of Africa by Juan de la Coxa (1500), this chain is made to
stretch as far as Egypt, and bears the name of Carena. La
Salle, who was born in 1398, lays down the same chain, which
corresponds, says Santarem [Histoire de la Cosmog/aphie, \\\.
456), to the Kn/jiji'r; of Ptolemy. These allusions place it beyond
doubt [?] that the drie see of Chaucer was the Great Sahara, the
return from whence \sic\ homewards would be by the chain of
the Atlas or \sic\ Carena.' On the writer's own shewing, the
Carena was 7wt the Atlas, but a chain stretching thence towards
Egypt ; not an obvious way of returning home ! Whereas, if
the ' dry sea ' were the lake of Czirknitz, the obvious way of
getting away from it would be to take ship in the neighbouring
gulf of Quarnaro. And how could Chaucer come to hear of this
remote chain of mountains ?
1034. 'But why do I tell you my story?' L e. let me go on
with it, and tell you the result.
1037. Again imitated from iSIachault's Remade de Fortune : —
' Car c'est mes cuers, cest ma creance,
C'est 7nes dcsirs, c'est mesperaunce,
C'est ma sante ....
C'est totite ma bonne eiirte,
C'est ce qui me soustient en vie,' &c.
Line 1039 is closely translated. See Furnivall's Trial Fore-
words, p. 48.
1040. I here substitute lisse {or goddesse, as in the authorities.
The blunder is obvious ; goddesse clogs the line with an extra
syllable, and gives a false rime such as Chaucer never makes.
He rimes blisse with kisse, lisse, inisse, and wisse. Thus in the
Frankelein's Tale (Group F, 1. 1237) —
* What for his labour and his hope of blisse,
His woful herte of penauiice had a lisse.'
266 ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE.
Lisse is alleviation, solace, comfort ; and 1. 1040, as emended,
fairly corresponds to Machault's ' C'est ce qui me soustient
en vie,' i. e. it is she who sustains my life. The word goddesse
was probably substituted for lisse, because the latter was ob-
solescent.
1041. I change hoolly heis into hers hooHy, and omit the
following (Vtd. In the next line we have — By'r lord ; as before
(11. 544,651, 690).
1047. Leve (i. e. believe) is here much stronger than trowe,
which merely expresses general assent.
1050. Read — 'And to | behold | e th'alder | fayrest | e.' After
beholde comes the cresural pause, so that the final e in heholde
does not count.
1057. The spelling Alcipiades occurs in the Roman de la Rose,
8981, where he is mentioned as a type of beauty — 'qui de biaute
avoit ades' — on the authority of ' Boece.' The ultimate reference
is to Boethius, Cons, Phil. b. iii. pr. 8 ; ed. Morris, 1. 2237—' the
body of Alcibiades that was ful fayr.'
1058. Hercules is also mentioned in Le Rom. de la Rose,
9223, 9240. See also Ho. Fame, 141 3.
1061. See note to 1. 310.
1067. He, i. e. Achilles himself ; see next note.
1069. A7ttilegius, a corruption of Afiiilochus; and again,
AjitilocJms is a mistake for Archilochiis, owing to the usual
medieval confusion of proper names. For the story, see next
note.
1070. Dares Frigius, i. e. Dares Phrygius, or Dares of
Phrygia. Chaucer again refers to him near the end of Troilus,
and in Ho. Fame, 1467 (on which see the note). The works
of Dares and Dictys are probably spurious. The reference
is really to the very singular, yet popular, medieval version of the
story of the Trojan war which was written by Guido of Colonna,
and is entitled ' Historia destructionis Troie, per iudicem Guid-
onem de Columpna Messaniensem.' Guido's work was derived
from the Roman de Troie, written by Benoit de Sainte-Maure ;
of which romance there is a late edition by M. Joly. In Mr.
Panton's introduction to his edition of the Gest Historiale of the
Destruction of Troy (Early Eng. Text Society), p. ix., we read —
' From the exhaustive reasonings and proofs of Mons. Joly as to
the person and age and country of his author, it is sufficiently
manifest that the Roman de Troie appeared between the years
1 175 and 1 185. The translation, or version, of the Roman by
Guido de Colonna was finished, as he tells us at the end of his
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE. 267
Historia Troiana, in 12S7. From one or other, or both, of these
works, the various Histories, Chronicles, Romances, Gestes, and
Plays of The Destruction of Troy, The Proivess and Death of
Hector, The Treason of the Greeks, &c., were translated, adapted,
or amplified, in almost every language of Europe.'
The fact is, that the western nations of Europe claimed con-
nexion, through -(Eneas and his followers, with the Trojans, and
repudiated Homer as favouring the Greeks. They therefore re-
wrote the story of the Trojan war after a manner of their own ;
and, in order to give it authority, pretended that it was derived
from two authors named Dares Phrygius (or Dares of Phiygia)
and Dictys Cretensis (or Dictys of Crete). Dares and Dictys
were real names, as they were cited in the time of /Elian (a.d.
230) ; and it was said that Dares was a Trojan who was killed
by Ulysses. See further in Mr. Panton's introduction, as above ;
Morley's English Writers, ii. 432 ; and Warton, Hist. Eng.
Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 127 (sect. 3). But Warton does not seem
to have known that Guido mainly followed Benoit de Sainte-
Maure.
The story about the death of Achilles is taken, accordingly, not
from Homer but from Guido de Colonna and his predecessor
Benoit. It may be found in the alliterative Geste Hystoriale,
above referred to (ed. Panton and Donaldson, p. 342). Hecuba
invites Achilles and Archilochus to meet her in the temple of
Apollo. When they arrive, they are attacked by Paris and a
band of men and soon killed, though Achilles first slays seven
of his foes with his own hand.
'There kyld was the kyng, and the hiight bothe,
And by treason in the temple tirnyt to dethe.'
Here ' the kyng ' is Achilles, and ' the knyght ' is Archilochus.
It may be added that Achilles was lured to the temple by the
expectation that he would there meet Polyxena, and be wedded
to her ; as Chaucer says in the next line. Polyxena was a
daughter of Priam and Hecuba ; she is alluded to in Shake-
speare's Troilus, iii. 3. 208. According to Ovid, Metam. xiii.
448, she was sacrificed on the tomb of Achilles.
1075. Trewely is properly (though not always) trisyllabic. It
was inserted after nay, because 7icde and gabbe were thought to
be monosyllables. Even so, the ' amended ' line is bad. It is all
right \{ trewly be omitted ; and I omit it accordingly.
1081. Penelope is accented on the first c and on o, as in French.
Chaucer copies this form from the Roman de la Rose, 1. S694,
268 ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE.
as appears from his coupling it with Lticrece, whilst at the same
time he borrows a pair of rimes. The French has : —
*Si n'est-il mes nule Lucrece,
Ne Penelope nule en Grece^
In the same passage, the story of Lucretia is told in full, on the
authority of Livy, as here. The French has : 'ce dit Titus
Livius ;' 1. 8654. In the prologue to the Legend of Good
Women, Chaucer alludes again to Penelope (1. 252), Lucrece of
Rome (1. 257), and PoHxene (1. 258) ; and he gives the Legend
of Lucrece in full. He again alludes to Lucrece and Penelope
in the lines preceding the Man of Lawes Prologue (Group B. 63,
7S) ; and in the Frankelein's Tale (Cant. Tales, 11717, 11755).
1085. This seems to mean — ' she (Blaunche) was as good (as
they), and (there was) nothing like (her), though their stories are
authentic (enough).' But the expression ' nothing lyke ' is
extremely awkward, and seems wrong. Nothing also means
'not at all ;' but this does not help us. In 1. 1086, stories should
perhaps be storie ; then her storie would be the story of
Lucrece ; cf. 1. 1087.
1087. 'Any way, she (Blaunche) was as true as she (Lucrece).'
1090. Yofig is properly monosyllabic. We should therefore
read—' I was right yong, the soth to sey.' In 1. 1095 yong-e is
the definite form.
1096. Accent beset te {— besett') on the prefix.
1 108. K//, still. 5"//, sitteth ; pres. tense.
1 1 13. I.e. you are like one who confesses, but does not repent.
1 1 18. Achitofel, Ahitophel ; see 2 Sam. xvii.
1 1 1 9. According to the Historia Troiana of Guido (see note
to 1. 1070) it was Antenor (also written Anthenor) who took
away the Palladium and sent it to Ulysses, thus betraying Troy.
See the Geste Hystoriale, p. 379 ; or see the extract from Caxton
in my Specimens of English from 1394 to 1579, p. 89. Or see
Chaucer's Troilus, bk. iv ; not far from the beginning.
1 121. Genelon ; also Genylon, as in The Monkes Tale, Group
Bl., 3579 (see my Prioresses Tale, p. 45). He is mentioned
again in the Nonne Preestes Tale (C. T. 15233) and in the
Shipmannes Tale (C. T. 13124), where he is called 'Genelon
of France.' Tyrwhitt's note on Genelon in his Glossary
is as follows : ' One of Charlemaigne's officers, who, by his
treachery, was the cause of the defeat at Roncevaux, the
death of Roland, &c., for which he was torn to pieces by horses.
This at least is the account of the author who calls himself
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE. 269
Archbishop Turpin, and of the Romancers who followed him ;
upon whose credit the name of Genelon or Canelo/i was for
several centuries a synonymous expression for the -worst of
traitors^ See the Chanson de Roland, ed. Gautier ; Dante, Inf.
xxxii. 122, where he is called Ganellone ; and Wheelers Noted
Names of Fiction. Cf. also the Roman de la Rose, 1. 7902-4 : —
' Qu'onques Karles n'ot por Rolant,
Quant en Ronceval mort re9ut
Par Gucnelon qui les decut.'
1 123. Rowland and Olivere, the two most celebrated of
Charlemagne's Twelve Peers of France ; see Roland in
Wheeler's Noted Names of Fiction, and Ellis's Specimens
of Early Eng. Metrical Romances, especially the account of
the Romance of Sir Otuel.
1 1 26. I supply right. We find right tho in C. T. 6398,
8420.
1 133. Knew-e (dissyllabic), might know ; subjunctive mood.
1 1 37. Accent thou. This and the next line are repeated,
nearly, from 11. 743, 744. See also 11. 1305-6.
1 1 39. I here insert the word sir, as in all the other places
where the poet addresses the stranger.
1 1 52-3. Cf. Rom. de la Rose, 2006-7 '■ —
* II est asses sires du cars
Qui a le cticr en sa commande.'
1 1 59. For this, B. has thtts. Neither this nor thus seems
wanted ; I therefore pay no regard to them.
The squire Dorigen, in the Frankelein's Tale, consoled him-
self in the same way (C. T. 1 1259) : —
'Of swicli matere made he many layes,
Songes, complclntes, roundels, virelayes.'
1162. Tubal; an error ior J ubal\ see Gen. iv. 21. But the
error is Chaucer's own, and is common. See Higden's Poly-
chronicon, lib. iii. c. II, ed. Lumby, iii. 202; Higdcn cites the
following from Isidorus, lib. ii. c. 24 : — ' Ouamvis Tubal de
stirpe Cayn ante diluvium legatur fuisse musics: inventor, . .
tamen apud Graecos Pythagoras Icgitur ex malleorum sonitu et
chordarum extensione musicam reperisse.' In Genesis, it is
Jubal who ' was the father of all such as handle the harp and
organ ; ' and Tubal-cain who was 'an instructor of every artificer
in brass and iron.' The notion of the discovery of music by the
former from the observation of the sounds struck upon the anvil
270 ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE.
of the latter is borrowed from the usual fable about Pythagoras.
This fable is also given by Higden, who copies it from Macrobius.
It will be found in the Commentary by Macrobius on the Som-
nium Scipionis, lib. ii. c. i ; and is to the effect that Pythagoras,
observing some smiths at work, found that the tones struck
upon their anvils varied according to the weights of the hammers
used by them ; and, by weighing these hammers, he discovered
the relations to each other of the various notes in the gamut.
The story is open to the objection that the facts are not so ;
the sound varies according to variations in the anvil or the thing
struck, not according to the variation in the striking implement.
However, Pythagoras is further said to have made experiments
with stretched strings of varying length ; which would have
given him right results. See Mrs. Somerville's Connection of
the Physical Sciences, sect. 16 and 17.
1 169. Aurora. The note in Tyrwhitt's Glossary, s. v. Aurora.,
runs thus : — ' The title of a Latin metrical version of several
parts of the Bible by Pctrus de Riga, Canon of Rheims, in the
twelfth century. Leyser, in his Hist. Poet. Med. ALvi, pp.
692-736, has given large extracts from this work, and among
others the passage which Chaucer seems to have had in his eye
(p. 728) :-
'Aure Jubal varies ferramenti notat ictus.
Pondera librat in his. Consona quaeque facit.
Hoc inventa modo prius est ars mnsica, quamvis
Pythagoram dicant hanc docuisse prius.'
Warton speaks of ' Petrus de Riga, canon of Rheims, whose
Aurora, or the History of the Bible allegorised, in Latin verses
. . was never printed entire.' — Hist. E. Poet. 1871, iii. 136.
1 175. A song in six lines ; compare the eleven-line song above,
at 1. 475. Lines 1175-6 rime w4th lines 1179-80.
1200. 'With (tones of) sorrow and by compulsion, yet as
though I never ought to have done so.'
1206. Disniallc. See the article on Dismal in my Etym.
Diet., and in the Supplement to it. Whatever be the etymology
of this difficult word, it is tolerably certain that in this particular
passage the phrase ifi the dismalle means ' on an unlucky day,'
with reference to an etymology which connected dismal with
the Latin dies mains. It has precisely the same sense in the
Pystyll of Swete Susan, ed. Laing, 1. 305. I still hold that we
cannot derive dismal immediately from the Lat. dies mains, but
it is possible that there may have been an O. F. phrase dis mal
( = Lat. dies mali, plural), though I cannot find it. The usual
///. THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE. 271
O. F. form for 'day' — is di (= Lat. diem), still preserved in
F. Mar-di, O. F. di-mars (Godefroy) ; the form dis is scarce
(except in the plural), but we find 'fu clcrs li dis,' i. e. the day
was clear ; sec Di in Godefroy, and dis in Bartsch, Chrcstomathie
Fran^aise.
We can now see the connection with the next line. The
whole sentence means : ' 1 think it must have been in the evil
days (i. e. on an unlucky day), such as were the days of the ten
plagues of Eg>'pt ; ' and the allusion is clearly to the so-called
dies JEgypiiaci, or unlucV:y days ; and 'u.'oimdcs is merely a
rather too literal translation of Lat. plaga, which we generally
translate hy plague. In Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Naturale,
lib. XV. c. 83, we find : — ' In quolibet mense sunt duo dies, qui
dicuntur ^'Egyptiaci, quorum unus est a principio mensis, alter
a fine.' He goes on to shew how they are calculated, and says
that, in January, the Egyptian days are the ist, and the 7th
from the end, i.e. the 25th ; and he expressly refers the name
ALgyptiaci to the plagues of Egypt, which (as some said) took
place on Eg>-ptian days ; for it was asserted that there were
minor plagues besides the ten. See also Brand's Pop. Anti-
quities, ed. Ellis, from which I extract the following. Barnabe
(iooge thus translates the remarks of Naogeorgus on this subject
[of days] : —
' But some of them Egj'ptiaii are, and full of jeopardee,
And some again, beside the rest, both good and luckie bee.'
Brand (as above), ii. 45.
'The Christian faith is violated when, so like a pagan and
apostate, any man doth observe those days which are called
yEgyptiaci^ Sec. — Melton's Astrologaster, p. 56 ; in Brand,
ii. 47. ' If his Journey began unawares o?i ilie dismal day, he
feares a mischiefe; ' Bp. Hall, Characters of Virtues and Vices;
in Brand, ii. 48. ' AUe that take hede to dysmal dayes, or use
nyce observaunces in the newe moone,' (S:c. ; Dialogue of Dives
and Pauper (1493); in Brand, i. 9. Compare also the following: —
' Her disetnalc dates, and her fatal houres ; '
Lydgate, Storie of Thebes, pt. iii (ed. 15O1, fol. 570).
In the Pistil of Swete Susan (Laing's Anc. Pop. Poetry of
Scotland), 1. 305, Daniel reproves one of the elders in these
terms :—
' Thou hast i-be presedcnt, the people to steere,
Thou dotest now on thin olde tos, in the dismale?
In Langtoft's Chronicle, 1. 477 (in Wright's Polit. Songs, p. 303),
272 ///. THE BOOK OF THE DUG HESSE.
John Baliol is attacked in some derisive verses, which conclude
with : — ' Rede him at ride z« the dismale ; ' i. e. advise him to
ride on an unlucky day. Many more illustrations might be
given.
The consequence of 'proposing' on an unlucky day was a
refusal; see 1. 1243.
1208. A priest who missed words in chanting a service was
called an overskipper, overleper, forskipper, or overhipper ; see
my note to P. Plowman, C. xiv. 123.
1 2 19. Similarly, Troilus was reduced to saying—
' Mercy, mercy, O my swete herte ! ' — Troil. iii. 98.
1234. 'Unless I am dreaming,' i.e. unintentionally.
1246. Cassand?'a. The prophetic lamentation of Cassandra
over the impending fate of Troy is given in the alliterative Geste
Hystoriale (E. E. T. S.), p. 88 ; from Guido de Colonna ; cf.
Vergil, A^n. ii. 246.
1248. Chaucer treats Ilton as if it were different from Troye;
cf. Nonne Prestes Tale, 535 (C. T. 15360). He merely follows
Guido de Colonna and others, who made Ilton the name of the
citadel of Troy ; see further in note to Ho. of Fame, 1. 158.
1305-6. Repeated from 11. 743, 744. Cf. 11. 1 137-8.
1309. Imitated in Spenser's Daphnaida, 184. The Duchess
Blaunche died Sept. 12, 1369. The third great pestilence lasted
from July to September in that year.
1314. Kijig, i.e. Edward III ; see note to 1. 368.
1318. Possibly the long castel here meant is Windsor Castle ;
this seems likely when we remember that it was in Windsor
Castle that Edward III. instituted the order of the Garter, April
23, 1349 ; and that he often resided there. A riche Ml in the
next line appears to have no special significance. The sugges-
tion, in Bell's Chaucer, that it refers to Richmond (which, after
all, is not Windsor) is quite out of the question, because that
town was then called Sheen, and did not receive the name of
Richmond till the reign of Henry VII., who re-named it after
Richmond in Yorkshire, whence his own title of Earl of Richmond
had been derived.
1322. Belle, \.e. bell of a clock, which rang out the hour.
This bell, half heard in the dream, seems to be meant to be real.
If so, it struck midnight ; and Chaucer's chamber must have>
been within reach of its sound.
IF. THE COMPLAINT OF MARS. 273
IV. The Complaint of Mars.
For general remarks on this poem, see the Preface.
By consulting 11. 13 and 14, we see that the whole of this
poem is supposed to be uttered by a bird on the 14th of
February, before sunrise. Lines 1-28 form the poem ; the rest
give the story of Mars and Venus, followed by the Complaint of
INIars at 1. 155. The first 22 stanzas are in the ordinary
7-line stanza. The Complaint is very artificial, consisting of an
Introductory Stanza, and five Terns, or sets of three stanzas,
making sixteen stanzas of nine lines each, or 144 lines. Thus
the whole poem has 298 lines.
Each tern is occupied with a distinct subject, which 1 indicate
by headings, viz. Devotion to his Love ; Description of a Lady
in an anxiety of fear and woe; the Instability of Happiness;
the story of the Brooch of Thebes ; and An Appeal for Sympathy.
A correct appreciation of these various 'movements' of the
Complaint makes the poem much more intelligible.
1. Foides. The false reading lovers was caught from 1. 5
below. But the poem opens with a call from a bird to all other
birds, bidding them rejoice at the return of Saint Valentine's
day. There is an obvious allusion in this line to the common
proverb — 'As fain as fowl of a fair morrow,' which is quoted in
the Kn. Tale, 1579, in P. Plowman, B. x. 153, and is again
alluded to in the Can. Yeom. Tale, Group G, 1. 1342 ; see notes
to my edition of the Man of Lawes Tale, p. 199. In 1. 3, the
bird addresses \^^c flowers, and finally, in 1. 5, the lovers.
2. Venus, the planet, supposed to appear as a morning-star,
as it sometimes does.
RoTves, streaks or rays of light, lit. rows. In the Complaint
of the Black Knight, 1. 596, Lydgate uses the word of the streaks
of light at eventide — ' And while the twilight and the roiacs
rede Of Phebus light', &c. Also in Lydgate's Troy-Book,
quoted by Warton, Hist. E. Poetry, 1871, iii. 84 : — 'Whan that
the rowes and the rayes rede Estward to us full early gonnen
sprede.' Hence the verb rowen, to dawn ; P. Plowm. C. ii. 114,
xxi. 28 ; see my Notes to P. Plowman. Tyrwhitt's Glossary
ignores the word.
3. For day, Bell's edition has May ! The month is February.
4. Uprist, upriseth. But in Kn. Tale, 193, uprist-e (with
final e) is the dat. case of a sb.
7. The final e in sonn-e occurs at the cjEsural pause ; candle
is pronounced nearly as catidP. The sun is here called the
T
274 ^^^- ^^^^ COMPLAINT OF MARS.
catidle of Iclosye, i.e. torch or light that discloses cause for
jealousy, in allusion to the famous tale which is the foundation
of the whole poem, viz. how Phoebus (the Sun) discovered the
amour between Mars and Venus, and informed Vulcan of it,
rousing him to jealousy ; which Chaucer doubtless obtained
from his favourite author Ovid (Metam. bk. iv). See the
description of ' Phebus,' with his ' torche in honde ' in 11. 27,
8 1-84 below. Gower also, who quotes Ovid expressly, has the
whole story ; Conf. Amant. ed. Pauli, ii. 149. The story first
occurs in Homer, Odys. viii. And cf. Statius, Theb. iii.
263-316 ; Chaucer's Kn. Tale, 1525, &.c.
8. Bleuje ; ' there seems no propriety in this epithet ; it is
probably a corruption ; ' Bell. But it is quite right ; in M. E.,
the word is often applied to the colour of a wale or stripe caused
by a blow, as in the phrase ' beat black and blue ; ' also to the
gray colour of burnt out ashes, as in P. Plowman, B. iii. 97 ;
also to the colour of lead ; ' as bio as led,' Miracle-Plays, ed.
IMarriott, p. 148. 'Ashen-gray' or 'lead-coloured' is not a very
bad epithet for tears : —
' And round about her tear-distained eye
Blue circles streamed.' Shak. Lucrece, 1586.
9. Taketh, take ye. With seynt lohn, with St. John for a
surety ; borive being in the dat. case ; see note to Squi. Tale,
596, in my edition of the Prioresses Tale, p. 222. It occurs
also in the Kingis Quair, st. 23 ; Blind Harry's Wallace, p. 224 ;
&c.
,13. Seyiit Valetityne ; Feb. 14. See note to Sect. V. 1. 309.
21. Cf. 'And everiche of us take his aventure ; ' Kn. Taie,
328.
25. See note to line 7 above ; and cf. Troilus, iii. 1450-70 :—
* O cruel day,' &c.
29. In the Proem to Troilus, bk. iii, st. i, Chaucer places
Venus in the third heaven ; that is, he begins to reckon from the
earth outwards, the spheres being, successively, those of the
Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn ; see
the description of the planets in Gower's Confessio Amantis, bk.
vii. So also, in Troilus, v. 1821, by the seventh sphere he
means the outermost sphere of Saturn. But in other poems he
adopts the more common ancient mode, of reckoning the spheres
in the reverse order, taking Saturn first ; in which case Mars
comes third. In this he follows Macrobius, who, in his Com-
mentary on the Somnium Scipionis, lib. i. c. 19, has: — 'A
IV. THE COMPLAINT OF MARS. 275
sphaera Saturni, quae est /irt'ma de scptem,' S:c. ; see further on
this borrowing from Macrobius in the note to 1. 69. The same
mode of reckoning places Venus in \.\ve, fifth sphere, as in Lenvoy
to Scogan, 1. 9. In the curious manual of astronomy called The
Shepheards Kalcndar (pr. in 1604) we find, in the account of
Mars, the following : * The planet of Mars is called the God of
battel and of war, and he is the third planet, for he raigneth
next vnder the gentle planet of Jupiter . . . And Mars goeth
about the twelue signes in two yeare.' The account of Venus
has : — ' Next after the Sun raigneth the gentle planet Venus, . .
and she is lady ouer all louers : . . and her two signes is Taurus
and Libra . . . This planet Venus runneth z« twelue months
ouer the xii. signes.' Also : — ' Next under Venus is the faire
planet Mercury . . and his principall signes be these : Gemini is
the first . . and the other signe is Virgo^ &.c. See Furnivall's
Trial Forewords, p. 121.
Hence the ' third heaven's lord ' is Afars ; and Chaucer tells us,
that by virtue of his motion in his orbit (as well as by desert) he
had won Venus. That is, Venus and Mars were seen in the sky
very near each other. We may explain wotine by ' approached.'
36. At alle, in any and every case. There is a parallel
passage to this stanza in Troilus, bk. iii. st. 4 of the Proem.
38. Talle, obedient, docile, obsequious. See the account of
this difficult word in my Etym. Dictionary, s. v. tall.
42. Scot(rging, correction. Compare the phr. under your
yerde; Pari. Foules, 640, and the note. I see no reason for
suspecting the reading.
49. * Unless it should be that his fault should sever their
love.'
51. Loking, aspect J a translation of the Latin astrological
term aspectus. They regard each other with a favourable
aspect.
54. Her nexte paleys, the next palace (or mansion), which
belonged to Venus. In astrology, each planet was said to have
two mansions, except the sun and moon, which had but one
apiece. A mansion, or house, ox palace, is that Zodiacal sign in
which, for some imaginary reason, a planet was supposed to be
peculiarly at home. (The whole system is fanciful and arbitrary.)
The mansions of Venus were said to be Taurus and Libra ;
those of Mars, Aries and Scorpio ; and those of Mercury,
Gemini and Virgo. See the whole scheme in my edition of
Chaucer's Astrolabe, p. Ixvi. The sign here meant is Taurus
(cf. 1. 86) ; and the arrangement was that Mars should 'glide'
T 2
276 IV. THE COMPLAINT OF MARS.
or pass out of the sign of Aries into that of Taurus, which came
next, and belonged specially to Venus.
55. A-take^ overtaken ; because the apparent motion of Venus
is swifter than that of Mars. This shews that Mars was, at first,
further advanced than Venus along the Zodiac.
61. Actually repeated in the Nonne Prestes Tale, 1. 340 : —
' For whan I see the beaute of your face.' Compare also 1. 62
with the same, 1. 342; and 1. 63 with the same, 1. 350.
69. That is, the apparent motion of Venus was twice as great
as that of Mars. Chaucer here follows Macrobius, Comment, in
Somnium Scipionis, lib. i. ch. 19, who says : — ' Rursus tantum a
love sphJEra Martis recedit, ut eundem cursum biemiio peragat.
Venus autem tanto est regione Martis inferior, ut ei annus satis
sit ad zodiacum peragrandum ; ' that is, Mars performs his orbit
in two years, but Venus in 07ie\ accordingly, she moves as much
in one day as Mars does in two days. IVIars really performs his
orbit in rather less than two years (about 687 days), and Venus
in less than one (about 225 days), but Chaucer's statement is
sufficiently near to facts, the apparent motion of the planets
being variable.
71. This line resembles one in the Man of Lawes Tale, Group
B, 1075 : — 'And swich a blisse is ther bitwix hem two ;' and 11.
71, 72 also resemble the same, 11. 1 114, 1 1 15 : —
' Who can the pitous loye tellen al
Bitwix hem thre, sin they ben thus ymette ? '
73. I here substitute a line, made up out of half-lines from
Troilus.
81. Phebus here passes the palace-gates ; in other words, the
sun enters the sign of Taurus, and so comes into Venus'
chamber, within her palace. Cf. note to 1. 54.
In Chaucer's time, the sun entered Taurus on the twelfth of
April ; see Fig. i in my edition of Chaucer's Astrolabe. This is
actually mentioned below, in 1. 139.
84. Knokkeden, knocked at the door, i. e. demanded ad-
mission.
86. That is, both Mars and Venus are now in Taurus. The
entry of Venus is noticed in 1. 72.
89. The latter syllable of Venus comes at the c£Esural pause.
But the scansion would be mended by omitting nigh.
96. In the Shepheards Kalendar, Mars is said to be 'hot and
dry;' andVenus tobe 'moistandcolde.' Thus Mars was supposed
to cause heat, and Venus to bring rain. The power of Venus in
causing rain is fully alluded to in Lenvoy to Scogan, st. 2.
IF. THE COMPLAINT OF MARS. 277
100. Girt, short iax girdcth; not girie, pt. t.
104. Nearly repeated in Kn. Tale, 1091: — 'Ne may with
Venus holde champartye.'
105. Bad her Jlecn, bade her flee; because her motion in her
orbit was faster than his. Cf. 1. 112.
107. * In the palace (Taurus) in which thou wast disturbed.'
III. Stremes, beams, rays; for the eyes of Mars emitted
streams of fire (1. 95). Venus is already half past the distance
to which Mars's beams extend. Obscure and fanciful.
113. Cylemus, Cyllenius, i.e. Mercur)^, who was born on
Mount Cyllene in Arcadia; Vergil, ^«.viii. 139. Z'c;z/r, tower ;
another word for mansion. The tower of Cyllenius, or mansion
of Mercury, is the sign Gemini ; sec note to 1. 29. Venus passes
out of Taurus into the next sign Gemini. ' The sign Gemini is
also doiniis Mercurii, so that when Venus fled into " the tour " of
Cyllenius, she simply slipped into the next door to her own house
of Taurus, leaving poor Mars behind to halt after her as he best
might; ' A. E. Brae, in Notes and Queries, ist Series, iii. 235.
114. Voide, solitary ; Mars is left behind in Taurus. Besides
(according to 1. 116) there was no other planet in Gemini at
that time.
117. But litil myght. A planet was supposed to exercise its
greatest influence in the sign which was called its exaltation ;
and its least influence in that which was called its depression.
The exaltation of Venus was in Pisces ; h&v depressioft, in Virgo.
She was now in Gemini, and therefore halfway from her exalta-
tion to her depression. So her influence was slight, and waning.
119. A cave. In I. 122 we are told that it stood only two
paces within the gate, viz. of Gemini. The gate or entrance into
Gemini is the point where the sign begins, liy paces we must
understand degrees ; for the F. word pas evidently repre-
sents the Lat. gradus. Venus had therefore advanced to a
point which stood only two degrees within (or from the be-
ginning of) the sign. In plain words, she was now in the
second degree of Gemini, and there fell into a cave, in which
she remained for a natural day, that is (taking her year to be
of nearly the same length as the earth's year) for the term during
which she remained within that second degree. Venus remained
in the cave as long as she was in that second degree of the sign ;
from the moment of entering it to the moment of leaving it.
A natural day means a period of twenty-four hours, as dis-
tinguished from the artificial day, which was the old technical
name for the time from sunrise to sunset. This Chaucer says
278 IV. THE COMPLAINT OF MARS.
plainly, in his Treatise on the Astrolabe, pt. ii. § 7, I. 12 — 'the
day natural, that is to seyn 24 houris.'
We thus see that the cave here mentioned is a name for the
second degree of the sign Gemini.
This being so, I have no doubt at all, that cave is here merely
a translation of the Latin technical astrological t&xro. puteus . In
Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Naturale, lib. xv. c. 42, I find : —
' Et ill signis sunt quidam gradus, qui dicuntur p-iitei ; cum
fuerit planeta in aliquo istorum, dicitur esse in pi/teo, vt 6
gradus Arietis, et 11, etc' There are certain degrees in the
signs called ptitei ; and when a planet is in one of these, it is
said to be in puteo ; such degrees, in Aries, are the 6th,
nth, &c. Here, unfortunately, Vincent's information ceases;
he refers us, however, to Alcabitius.
Alcabitius (usually Alchabitius), who should rather be called
Abd-el-Aziz, was an Arabian astrologer who lived towards the
middle of the loth century. His treatise on judicial astrology
was translated into Latin by Johannes Hispalensis in the thir-
teenth century. This translation was printed at Venice, in
quarto, in 1481, 1482, and 1502; see Didot, Nouv. Biograph.
Universelle.
I found a copy of the edition of 1482 in the Cambridge
University Library, entitled Libellus ysagogicz^i- addilazi .i.
serui gloriosi dei. q/« dzV/'/z/r alchabitiz^j' ad magisteriuwz iudici-
oxwn astrorz/w : i^zterpretatz/j' a ioa^^ne hispale^si. At sign, a 7,
back, I found the passage quoted above from Vincent, and 3. full
list of the putei. Theptttei in the sign of Gemini are the degrees
numbered 2, 12, 17, 26, 2i°- After this striking confirmation of
my conjecture, I think no more need be said.
But I may add, that Chaucer expressly mentions ' Alkabucius'
by name, and refers to him ; Treat, on Astrolabe, i. 8. 9.
The passage which he there quotes occurs in the same treatise,
sign, a I, back^.
120. Derk, dark. I think it is sufficient to suppose that this
word is used, in a purely astrological sense, to mean inau-
spicious; and the same is true of 1. 122, where Venus remains
under this sinister influence as long as she remained in the ill-
omened second degree of Gemini. There is no need to suppose
that the planet's light was really obscured.
' The words are : ' nnumquodqne istorum signomm diniditur in 30
partes equales, que gradus uocantur. Et gradus diuiditur in 60 minuta ;
et minutum in 60 secunda ; et secundum in 60 tertia. Similiteique
sequuntur quarta, scilicet et quinta, ascendendo usque ad infinita.'
//'. THE COMPLAINT OF MARS. 279
129. The Fairfax MS. and some editions have the false
reading sier}-e. As Mars was supposed to complete his orbit
(360 degrees) in /wo years (see note to 1. 69), he would pass
over one degree of it in about two ii/ij's. Hence Mr. Brae's
note upon this line, as printed in Furnivall's Trial Forewords,
p. 121 : — ' The mention of c/iijes two is so specific that it cannot
but have a special meaning. Wherefore, either sfcrre is a meto-
nym for degree ; or which is more probable, Chaucer's word
was originally steppe {gradus), and was miscopied sterrc by early
scribes.' Here Mr. Brae was exceedingly near the right
solution ; we now see that sterre was miswritten (not for
steppe, but) for steyre, by the mere alteration of one letter.
If the scribe was writing from dictation, the mistake was still
more easily made, since steyre and sterre would sound very
nearly alike, with the old pronunciation. As to steyre, it is the
exact literal translation of Lat. gradus, which meant a degree
or stair. Thus Minsheu's Diet, has : — 'a Staire, hat. gradus.'
This difficulty, in fact, is entirely cleared up by accepting the
reading of the majority of the MSS.
131. He foloweth her, i.e. the motions cf ISIars and Venus
were in the same direction ; neither of them had a ' retrograde'
motion, but advanced along the signs in the direction of the
sun's apparent motion.
133. Brefinyfig, burning in the fire of the sun's heat.
137. 'Alas ; that my orbit has so wide a compass;* because
the orbit of Mars is so very much larger than that of Venus.
Still larger was the orbit of Saturn ; Kn. Tale, 1 596. Spe?'e is
sphere, orbit.
139. Twclfte, twelfth. The false reading twelve arose from
misreading the symbol ' .xij.,' which was used as an abbreviation
both for twelfte and for twelve. See Furnivall, Trial Forewords,
p. 88. As a fact, it was on the \2th day 0/ April that the sun
entered Taurus ; see note to 1. 81.
144. Cylefiius, Mercury; as in 1. 113. Chevauche, equestrian
journey, ride. Used ludicrously to mean a feat of horsemanship
in 1. 50 of the Manciple's Prologue. The closely related word
chivachie, in Prologue to C. T. 85, means a military (equestrian)
expedition. In the present case it simply means ' swift course,'
with reference to the rapid movement of Mercury, which com-
pletes its orbit in about 88 days. Thus the line means — ' Mer-
cury, advancing in his swift course.'
145. Fro Venus valance. This is the most difficult expression
in the poem, but I explain it by reading fallance, wliich of
28o IK THE COMPLAINT OF 3IARS.
course is only a guess. I must now give my reasons, as every
preceding commentator has given up the passage as hopeless.
The readings of the MSS. all point back to a form valance
(as in Ar.) or valaims (as in Tn.) ; whence the other readings,
such as Valaunses, vala?tt(s (for valaujis), balance, balatcnce, are
all deduced, by easy corruptions. But, as no assignable sense
has been found for valance, I can only suppose that it is an error
for falance or fallance. 1 know of no instance of its use in
EngUsh, but Godefroy gives examples oi fallance 3.nd faletice
in O. French, though the usual spelling is /alliance. The
change from faillance or fallance to vallance or valance would
easily be made by scribes, from the alliterative influence of the
initial letter of the preceding word Venus. Moreover, we have
7J for f in E. vixen (for fixen), and in Southern English
generally. Even in a Chaucer MS., the curious spelling vigour
or vigur for figure occurs over and over again ; see my edition
of Chaucer's Astrolabe, pp. viii, 62.
The sense oi fallance or faillance is failure, defection. Cotgrave
gives us : ' Faillance, f. a defection, failing, decaying.' The
numerous examples in Godefroy shew that it was once a common
word. It represents a Lat. fem. * fallentia.
I hold it to be the exact literal translation into French of the
Lat. technical (astrological) term detrimentum. In my edition
of Chaucer's Astrolabe, p. Ixvii., I have already explained that
every planet had either one or two nia7isio7ts, and one or two
detriinenta. The detrimentum is the sign of the Zodiac opposite
to the planet's mansion. The mansions of Venus were Taurus
and Libra (see note to 1. 54) ; and her detriinenta were Scorpio
and Aries. The latter is here intended ; so that, after all, this
apparently mysterious term * Venus valance ' is nothing but
another name for t/ie sign Aries, -which, from other co7isiderations,
must necessarily be here intended.
If the correction of valance to fallance be disallowed, I should
still plead that valance might be short for avalance (mod. E.
avalanche, literally descent), just as every reader of our old
literature knows that vale is a common form instead of avale, to
descend or lower, being the verb from which avalance is derived.
This valance { = avalance) is a fair translation of the Lat. occasus,
which was an alternative name for the sign called detrimejitum ;
see my edition of the Astrolabe, as above. The result would
then be just the same as before, and would bring us back to the
sign of Aries again.
But we know that Aries is meant, from purely astronomical
IV. THE COMPLAINT OF MARS. 281
considerations. For the planet Mercury is always so near the
sun that it can never have a greater elongation, or angular
distance, from it than 29", which is just a little less than the
length of a sign, v/hich was 30°. But, the sun being (as said) in
the ist degree of Taurus on the 12th of April, it is quite certain
that Mercury was either in Taurus or in Aries. Again, as there
was no mention of Mercury being in Taurus when Mars and
Venus were there and were undisturbed (see note to 1. 1 14), we
can only infer that Mercury was then in Aries.
^Moreover, he continued his swift course, always approaching
and tending to overtake the slower bodies that preceded him,
viz. the Sun, Mars, and Venus. At last, he got so near that he
Avas able to ' see ' or get a glimpse of his mansion Gemini, which
was not so very far ahead of him. This I take to mean that he
was swiftly approaching the end of Aries.
We can now tell the exact position of all the bodies on the
14th of April, two days after the sun had burst into Taurus,
where he had found Mars and Venus at no great distance apart.
By that time, Venus was in the second degree of Gemini, Mars
was left behind in Taurus, the sun was in the third degree
of Taurus, and Mercury near the end of Aries, sufficiently near
to Venus to salute and cheer her with a kindly and favourable
aspect.
I will add that whilst the whole of the sign of Aries was called
the occasus or detrimctituni of Venus, it is somewhat curious
that the last ten degrees of Aries (degrees 20 to 30) were called
the face of Venus. Chaucer uses this astrological term face
elsewhere with reference to the frsi ten degrees of Aries, which
was 'the face of Mars' (see my note to Squieres Tale, 1. 47).
Hence another possible reading is Fro Venus face mighte, &c.
In any case, I think we are quite sufficiently near to Chaucer's
meaning ; especially as he is, after all, only speaking in allegorj',
and there is no need to strain his words to suit rigid astronomical
calculations.
I only give this as a guess, for what it is worth ; I should not
care to defend it.
150. Remenibreth me, comes to 'my memory; t'nc nom. case
being the preceding part of the sentence. Me, by the way,
refers to the extraordinary bird who is made responsible for the
whole poem, with the sole exception of lines 13 and 14, and half
of 1. 15. The bird tells us he will say and sing the Complaint
of Mars, and afterwards take his leave.
155. Wc now come to the part of the poem which exhibits
283 IV. THE COMPLAIXT OF MARS.
great metrical skill. In order to shew the riming more clearly,
I have 'set back' the 3rd, 6th, and 7th lines of each stanza.
Each stanza exhibits the order of rimes aabaabbcc; i.e. the
first rime belongs to lines i, 2, 4, 5 ; the second rime to lines 3,
6, 7 ; and the last rime to lines 8 and 9. The first stanza forms
an Introduction or Proem. The rest form five Terns, or sets of
three stanzas, as has been already said. Each Tern has its
own subject, quite separate from the rest.
The first line can only be scanned by reading TJie onij'e as
TKordy (monosyllable).
164. The first Tern expresses his Devotion to his love's
service. I gave my love, he says, to her for ever ; She is the
very source of all beauty ; and now I will never leave her, but
will die in her service.
170. That is — who ever approaches her, but obtains from her
no favour, loses all joy in love, and only feels its bitterness.
176. Men, people; men hit sclle = \\. is sold. This paren-
thetical ejaculation is an echo to that in 1. 168.
185. Hette, promised (incorrectly). The M. E. haten, to
promise, is a complicated verb ; see the excellent examples in
Matzner's Dictionary, and in Grein's A. S. Diet., s. v. hdtan.
It had two past tenses ; the first heet, a strong form, meaning
'promised, commanded,' answering to A. S. heht and Goth.
haihait ; and the second hette, hatte, a weak form, meaning ' I
was named,' answering to A. S. hatte (used both as a present
and a past tense without change of form) and to the Goth,
present passive haitada. Chaucer has here used the intransitive
weak past tense with the sense of the transitive strong one ;
just as he uses lertien with the sense of ' teach.' The confusion
was easy and common.
190. But g7-ace be, unless favour be shewn me. Se, shall see ;
present as future.
191. Tern 2. Shall I complain to my lady ? Not so ; for she
is in distress herself. Lovers may be as true as new metal, and
yet suffer. To return : my lady is in distress, and I ought to
mourn for her, even though I knew no other sorrow.
197. 'But \i she were safe, it would not matter about vie^
205. ' They might readily leave their head as a pledge,' i. e.
might devote themselves to death.
206. Horowe, foul, unclean, filthy, scandalous ; pi. of horow,
an adj. formed from the A. S. sb. horu fgen. horwes), filth ;
cf. A. S. horweht, filthy, from the same stem horw-. The M. E.
adj. also takes the form hori, hojy, from A. S. horig, an adj.
IV. THE COMPLAINT OF MARS. 283
formed from the closely related A. S. sb. hor/t, Jtorg, filth.
As the M. E. adj. is not common, I give some examples (from
Matzner). ' Hit nis bote- a horz felle,' 'it is only a dirty skin ; '
Early Eng. Poems, ed. Furnivall, p. 19, 1. 13. 'Thy saule . .
thoriigh fulthe of synne Sone is mad wel hory wythinne,' thy
soul, by filth of sin, is soon made very foul within ; Reliquias
Antiqua;, ii. 243. 'Eny uncleene, whos touchynge is hoory,'
any unclean person, whose touch is defiling; Wyclif, Levit.
xxii. 5. ' Still used in Devon, pronounced horry;' Halliwell.
218. Tern 3. Why did the Creator institute love .^ The
bliss of lovers is so unstable, that in every case lovers have
more woes than the moon has changes. Many a fish is mad
after the bait ; but when he is hooked, he finds his penance,
even though the line should break.
219. Loz'e other co)npa7tye, love or companionship.
229. Read putfth ; as a monosyllable.
245. Tern 4. The brooch of Thebes had this property, that
ever}^ one who saw it desired to possess it ; when he possessed
it, he was haunted with constant dread ; and when he lost it, he
had a double sorrow in thinking that it was gone. This was
due, however, not to the brooch itself, but to the cunning of the
maker, who had contrived that all who possessed it should
suflTer. In the same way, my lady was as the brooch ; yet it
was not she who caused me wo, but it was He who endowed
her with beauty.
The story referred to occurs in the account of the war
between Eteoclcs and Polynices for the possession of Thebes,
as related in the Thebaid of Statius.
In the second book of that poem, the story relates the marriage
of Polynices and Tydeus to the two daughters of Adrastus, king
of Argos. The marriage ceremony was marred by inauspicious
omens, which was attributed to the fact that Argia, who was
wedded to Polynices, wore at the wedding a magic bracelet
(here called a brooch) which had belonged to Harmonia, a
daughter of Mars and Ve;ms, and wife of Cadmus. This
ornament had been made by Vulcan, in order to bring an evil
fate upon Harmonia, to whom it was first given, and upon all
women who coveted it or wore it. See the whole storj' in
Statius, Thebais, ii. 265 ; or in Lewis's translation of Statius, ii.
313-
246. It must be remembered that great and magical virtues
were attributed to precious stones and gems. See further in
the note to Ho. of Fame, 1. 1352.
384 y. THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES.
259. Enfoiiiined hit so, endued it with such virtues. ' He
that wrought it ' was Vulcan ; see note to 1. 245.
262. Covetour, the one who coveted it. Nyce, foolish.
270. ' For my death I blame Him, and my own folly for
being so ambitious.'
272. Tern 5. I appeal for sympathy, first to the knights who
say that I, Mars, am their patron ; secondly, to the ladies who
should compassionate Venus their empress ; lastly, to all lovers
who should sympathise with Venus, who was always so ready
to aid them.
273. Of my divisionn, born under my influence. The same
word is used in the same way in Kn. Tale, 1 166. Of course
Mars was the special patron of martial knights.
280. ' That ye lament for my sorrow.'
293. CompleytietJi her, lament for her.
298. ' Therefore display, on her behalf, some kindly feeling.'
The Complaint of Venus, which formerly used to be printed
as a part of this poem, is really a distinct piece. See Sect.
xvni.
V. The Parlement of Foules.
Title. Gg. has Here begynyth the pi^Hement of Foulys ;
Had. has The Parlament of Foules ; Tn. has The Parlement
of Briddis ; Trin. has Here foloweth the parlement of Byrdes
reducyd to loue, &c. We also find, at the end of the poem,
such notes as these : Gg. Explicit parliamentum Auium in die
sancti Valentini tentum secundum Galfridum Chaucer ; Ff.
Explicit parliamentum Auium ; Tn. Explicit tractatus de Con-
gregacione volucrum die Sancti Valentini; and in MS. Arch.
Seld. B. 24 — Here endis the parliament of foulis Quod Galfride
Chaucere.
1. Tart of the first aphorism of Hippocrates is — 'o ^I'oy ^paxvs,
f] 8e rex^vr] fiaKpr], This is often quoted in the Latin form — Ars
longa, uita brevis. Longfellow, in his Psalm of Life, well
renders it by — ' Art is long, but life is fleeting.'
2. Several MSS. transpose hard and sharp; it is of small
consequence.
3. Slit, the contracted form of slideth, i. e. passes away ; cf.
* it slit awey so faste,' Can. Yeom. Tale ; C. T., Group G, 1. 682.
The false reading _/2;7 arose from mistaking a long s lox f.
4. By, with respect to. In 1. 7, wJier = whether.
8. Evidendy this disclaimer is a pretended one ; the preceding
V. THE PARLEMEiXT OF FOULES. 285
stanza and 11, 13, 14 contradict it. So does 1. 160. In this
stanza we have an early example of Chaucer's humour, of which
there are several instances below, as e. g. in 11. 567-570, 589, 599,
610, &c. Cf. Troilus, i. 15, where Chaucer again says he is no
lover himself, but only serves Love's servants.
15. Cf. Prol. to Legend of Good Women, 29-39.
22. Men is here a weakened form of man, and is used as
a singular sb., with the same force as the F. on or the G. man.
Hence the vb. seitJi is in the singular. This construction is
extremely common in Middle English. In 11. 23 and 25 com'th
is monosyllabic.
31. Tiillhis, i. e. M. Tullius Cicero, who wrote a piece
entitled Somnium Scipionis, which originally formed part of
the sixth book of the De Republica. Warton (Hist. Eng.
Poetry, ed. Hazlitt. iii. 65) remarks : — ' Had this composition
descended to posterity among Tully's six books De Republica,
to the last of which it originally belonged, perhaps it would
have been overlooked and neglected. But being preserved
and illustrated with a prolix commentary by iMacrobius, it
quickly attracted the attention of readers who were fond of the
marvellous, arid with whom JMacrobius was a more admired
classic than Tully. It was printed [at Venice] subjoined to
Tully's Offices, in [1470]. It was translated into Greek by
Maximus Planudes, and is frequently [i.e. four times] quoted
by Chaucer . . . Nor is it improbable that not only the form,
but the first idea, of Dante's Inferno was suggested by this
apologue.' The other allusions to it in Chaucer are in the
Nonnes Prestes Tale, 1. 303 ; Book of the Duchesse, 2S4 ; Ho.
of Fame, 514. See also 1. in below, where Macrobie is
expressly mentioned. In the E. version of the Romance of
the Rose, 1. 7, he is called Macrobes.
Aurelius Theodosius Macrobius, about A. D. 400, not only
preserved for us Cicero's Somnium Scipionis, but wrote a- long
commentary on it in two books, and a work called Saturnalia
in seven books. The commentary is not very helpful, and
discusses collateral cjuestions rather than the dream itself.
32. Chaucer's MS. copy was, it appears, divided into seven
chapters. A printed copy now before me is divided into nine
chapters. As given in an edition of Macrobius printed in 1670,
it is undivided. The treatise speaks, as Chaucer says, of heaven,
hell, and earth, and men's souls.
35. 77/<: ^'■;r/t', the substance. Accordingly, in the next seven
stanzas, we have a fair summary of the general contents of the
286 V. THE PA RLE ME NT OF FOULES.
S omnium Scipionis. I quote below such passages as approach
most closely to Chaucer's text.
36. Sdpiojin, i. e. P. Cornelius Scipio yEmilianus Africanus
Minor, the hero of the third Punic War. He went to Africa in
B.C. 150 to meet Masinissa, King of Numidia, who had received
many favours from Scipio Africanus Major in return for his
fidelity to the Romans. Hence Masinissa received the younger
Africanus joyfully, and so much was said about the elder
Africanus that the younger one dreamt about him after the
protracted conversation was over, and all had retired to rest.
The younger Africanus w^as the grandson, by adoption, of the
elder.
' Cum in Africam venissem, . . nihil mihi potius fuit, quam ut
Masinissam convenirem . . Ad quem ut veni, complexus me
senex collacrymavit. . . multisque verbis . . habitis, ille nobis
consumptus est dies . . . me . . somnus complexus est . . mihi . .
Africanus se ostendit ; ' &.c.
43. ' Ostendebat autem Carthaginem de excelso, et pleno
stellarum , . loco . . . tu eris unus, in quo nitatur civitatis salus,
&c. . . Omnibus qui patriam conservarint, adjuverint, auxerint,
certum esse in caelo definitum locum, ubi beati jevo sempitemo
fruantur.'
50. * Oua^sivi tamen, viveretne ipse et Paullus pater et alii,
quos nos exstinctos arbitraremur. Immo vero, inquit, ii vivunt
. . . vestra vero, qu£e dicitur vita, mors est corpore laxati
ilium incolunt locum, quem vides. Erat autem is splendissimo
candore inter flammas circus elucens, quem vos, ut a Graiis
accepistis, orbeni lactewn nuncupatis.'
56. Galaxye, milky way ; see note to Ho. Fame, 936.
57. 'Stellarum autem globi terrce magnitudinem facile vince-
bant. Jam ipsa terra ita mihi parva visa est, Sec. . . Novem
tibi orbibus, vel potius globis, connexa sunt omnia . . . Hie,
inquam, quis est, qui complet aures meas, -tantus et tam dulcis
sonus ? . . . impulsu et motu ipsorum orbium conficitur.'
59. The ' nine spheres ' are the spheres of the seven planets
(Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn), that of the
fixed stars, and the primum tnobile ; see Chaucer's Astrolabe,
ed. Skeat, Plate V, fig. 10.
61. This is an allusion to the so-called 'harmony of the
spheres.' Chaucer makes a mistake in attributing this harmony
to all of the nine spheres. Cicero plainly excludes the pri/num
mobile, and says that, of the remaining eight spheres, two sound
alike, so that there are but seven tones made by their revolution.
V. THE rARLEMENT OF FOULES. 287
' Ule autem octo cursus, in quibus cadcin vis est dtiorum, septcni
efficiunt distinctos intervallis sonos.' He proceeds to notice
the peculiar excellence of the number seven. By the two that
sounded alike, the spheres of Saturn and the fixed stars must
be meant ; in fact, it is usual to ignore the sphere of fixed stars,
and consider only those of the seven planets. Macrobius, in
his Commentary, lib. ii. c. 4, quite misses this point, and clumsily
gives the same note to Venus and Mercury. Each planetary
sphere, in its revolution, gives out a different note of the
gamut, so that all the notes of the gamut are sounded ; and the
result is, that the ' music of the spheres ' cannot be heard at
all, just as the dwellers by the cataract on the Nile fail to hear
tlie sound of its fall. ' Hoc sonitu opplcta; aures hominum
obsurduerunt ; nee est uUus hebetior sonus in vobis ; sicut
ubi Nilus ad ilia, qua: Catadupa [K«raSou7rot] nominantur,
prajcipitat ex altissimis montibus, ea gens, quiE ilium
locum accolit, propter inagnitudinevi sonitus^ sensu audiendi
caret.' INIacrobius tries to explain it all in his Commentary, lib.
ii. c. 1-4. The fable arose from a supposed necessary con-
nection between the number of the planets and the number of
musical notes in the scale. It breaks down when we know that
the number of the planets is more than seven. Moreover,
modern astronomy has exploded the singular notion of revolving
hollow concentric spheres, to the surface of which each planet
was immoveably nailed. These ' spheres ' have disappeared,
and their music with them, except in poetry.
Shakespeare so extends the old fable as to give a voice to
every star. See Merch. of Venice, v. 60: —
* There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st,
Rut in his motion like an angel sings,' &c.
The notion of the music of the spheres was attributed to Pytha-
goras. It is denied by Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Naturale,
lib. XV. c. 32— Falsa opinio de conccntu c^li. Vincent puts the old
idea clearly — 'Feruntur septem planetce, et hi septem orbes (vt
dicitur) cum dulcissima harmonia mouentur, ac suauissimi con-
centus eorum circumitione efficiuntur. Qui sonus ad aures
nostras ideo non peruenit, quia vltra aerem fit : ' — a sufficient
reason. He attributes the notion to the Pythagoreans and the
Jews, and notes the use of the phrase 'concentum ca:Ii' in Job
xxxviii. 37, where our version has 'the bottles of heaven,' which
the Revised Version retains. Cf. also — ' Cum me laudarent
simul astra matutina ; ' Job xxxviii. 7.
388 V. THE PARLE ME NT OF FOULES.
Near the end of Chaucer's Troilus, we have the singular
passage : —
•And ther he saw with ful avisement
The erratick sterres, herkening armonie
"With sounes fulle of hevenes melodic ; ' &c.
This passage, by the way, is a translation from Boccaccio,
Teseide, xi. i.
See also Longfellow's poem on the Occultation of Orion, where
the poet (heretically but sensibly) gives the hnvest note to Saturn,
and the higJiest to the Moon ; whereas Macrobius says the
contrary ; lib. ii. c. 4.
A. Neckam (De Naturis Rerum, lib. i. c. 15) seems to say that
the sound of an eighth sphere is required to make up the octave.
64. ' Sentio, inquit, te sedem etiam nunc hominum ac domum
contemplari : quse si tibi parva, ut est, ita videtur, ha^c caslestia
semper spectato ; ilia humana contemnito . . . Cum autem ad
idem, unde semel profecta sunt, cuncta astra redierint, ean-
demque totius anni descriptionem longis intervallis retulerint,
tum ille vere vertens antucs appellari potest . . . Sermo autem
omnis ille . . obruitur hominum interitu, et oblivione posteritatis
exstinguitur.'
The great or mundane year, according to Macrobius, Com-
ment, lib. 2. c. II, contained 15000 common years. In the
Roman de la Rose, I. 17018, Jeun de Meun makes it 36,000 years
long ; and in the Complaint of Scotland, ed. Murray, p. 33, it is
said, on-the authority of Socrates, to extend to 37^000 years. It
is not worth discussion.
71. ' Ego vero, inquam, o Africane, siquidem bene mentis de
patria quasi limes ad csli aditum patet,' &c. ' Et ille, Tu vero
enitere, et sic habeto, non esse te mortalem, sed corpus hoc . . ,
Hanc [naturam] tu exerce in optimis rebus ; sunt autem optimae
curee de salute patrice : quibus agitatus et exercitatus animus
velocius in hanc sedem et domum suam pervolabit.'
78. ' Nam eorum animi, qui se corporis voluptatibus dedide-
runt, . . . corporibus elapsi circum terram ipsam volutantur ;
nee hunc in locum, nisi multis exagitati sascuhs, revertentur.'
We have here the idea of purgatory ; compare Vergil, Mn. vi.
80. Whirle aboute, copied from 7iolntaniiir in Cicero ; see
last note. It is remarkable that Dante has copied the same
passage, and has the word voltando ; Inf. v. 31-S. Cf. 'blown
with restless violence round about The pendent world ;' Meas.
for Meas. iii. i. 125 ; and 'The sport of winds;' Milton, P. L.
iii. 493.
V. THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES. 289
S5. Imitated from Dante, Inf. ii. 1-3. Gary's translation has —
* Now was the day departing, and the air,
Imbrowned with shadows, from their toils released
All animals on earth.'
90. ' I had what I did not want,' i. e. care and heaviness.
'And I had not what I wanted,' i. e. my desires. I do not think
there is any particular personal reference, of which anything can
be made. At the same time, the same idea is repeated, but in
clearer language, in the 'Complaint to his Lady' (see Appendix,
p. 215, 11. 47-49) ; and again, in the Complaint to Pity, 11.
99-104.
99. Chaucer discusses dreams elsewhere ; see Ho. of Fame,
1-52; Nonne Prestes Tale, 76-336; Troil. v. 358. Macrobius,
Comment, in Somn. Scipionis, lib. i. c. 3, distinguishes five kinds
of dreams, giving the name ivvtiviov to the kind of which Chaucer
here speaks. * Est enim fvvnvinv quoticns oppressi animi
corporisve sive fortunai, qualis vigilantem faiigaverat, talem se
ingerit dormienti : animi, si aviator deliciis suis aut fruefitem se
videat aut carentem : . . corporis, si . . esuriens cibum aut potuni
siiiens desiderare, quterere, vel etiam inve7iisse videatur :
fortunae, cum se quis a^stimat vel potentia vel magistratu aut
augeri pro desiderio, aut exui pro timore.' This seems to be the
passage of which Chaucer was thinking; if so, he has greatly
improved upon it. Cf. Vincent of Beauvais, lib. xxvi. c. 62 and
c. 63. And see the famous passage in Romeo and Juliet, i. 4. 53 ;
especially 11. 70-88. The Roman de la Rose begins with remarks
concerning dreams; and again, at 1. 1S564, there is a second
passage on the same subject, with a reference to Scipio, and a
remark about dreaming of things that occupy the mind (1. 1S601).
Similarly we find : — ' Praeterea dicit Auicenna quod magis som-
niat homo de his circa qua? sollicitus et attentus est magis;'
Vincent of Beauvais, Spec. Nat. lib. xxvi. c. 46. And again :—
* The fearfull dream, that they flye daunger ; the couetous,
that they imbrace riches ; .... the wrathfuU, that they arc
fighting, killing, robbing and brauling ; the carelesse, that they
are piping, singing, whisteling, hawking, hunting, dauncing
and such like.' — Batman upon Bartholome, ed. 1582, fol. 84.
109. Compare Dante, Inf. i. 83 ; which Cary translates —
' May it avail me, that I long with zeal
Have sought thy volume, and with love immense
Have conn'd it o'er. My master thou, and guide!'
III. 'Of which Macrobius recked (thought) not a little.' In
fact, Macrobius concludes his commentaiy with the words —
290 V. THE PARLEMEiYT OF FOULES.
*Vere igUur pronunciandum est nihil hoc opere perfectius, quo
universa philosophije continetur integritas,'
113. Citherea, Cytherea, i. e. Venus ; see Kn. Tale, 1.357, 8.
114. In the Roman de la Rose, 15980, Venus speaks of her
bow (F. arc) and her firebrand or torch {brandon).
117. 'As surely as I saw thee in the north-north-west.' Ho
here refers to the planet Venus. As this planet is never more
than 47° from the sun, the sun must have been visible to the
north of the west point at sunset ; i. e. the poem must have been
written in the summer-time. The same seems to be indicated
by 1. 21 [the loiige day), and still more clearly by 11. 85-S8 ;
Chaucer would hardly have gone to bed at sunset in the winter-
time. It is true that he dreams about saint Valentine's day, but
that is quite another matter. Curiously enough, the landscape
seen in his dream is quite a summer landscape ; see 11. 172,
184-210.
120. African, Africanus ; as above.
122. Grene stone, mossy or moss-covered stone ; an expression
copied by Lydgate, Complaint of the Black Knight, 1. 42.
Prof. Hales, in the Gent. Magazine, April, 1882, has an
interesting article on ' Chaucer at Woodstock.' He shews that
there was a park there, surrounded by a stone wall ; and that
Edward III. often resided at Woodstock, where the Black Prince
was born. It is possible that Chaucer was thinking of Wood-
stock when writing the present passage. See the account of
Woodstock Palace in Abbeys, Castles, &c. by J. Timbs ; vol. ii.
But I suspect that, after 1. 120, we are introduced to sights that
existed only in dreamland ; just as in the Roman de la Rose,
where we find, near the beginning, an allusion to Scipio's dream,
and the following lines (i 29-131) : —
' Quant j'oi ung poi avant ale
Si vi ung vergier grant et le,
Tot clos d'ung haut niur bataillie ; ' &c.
125. Oft eytJier Jialfe, on either side ; to right and left.
127. Imitated from Dante, Inf. iii, i ; Cary's translation
has —
' Through me you pass into the city of woe : . . .
Such characters, in colour dim, I mark'd
Over a portal's lofty arch inscribed.'
See also 1. 134. The gate is the entrance into Love, which is
to some a blessing, and to some a curse ; see 11. 158, 159. Thus
men gon is, practically, equivalent to ' some men go ; ' and so in
1. 134. The idea is utterly different from that of the t-wo gates
r. THE PA RLE ME XT OF FOULES. 29 1
in Ver^i], ^n. vi. 893. The successful lover finds ' the well of
Favour,' 1. 129. The unsuccessful one encounters the deadly
wounds caused by the spear (or dart) guided to his heart by
Disdain and Power-to-harm (Daunger) ; for him, the opened
garden bears no fruit, and the alluring stream leads him only
to a fatal weir, wherein imprisoned fish are left lying dry.
Cf. ' As why this fish, and nat that comth to were ; '
Troil. iii. 35.
140. 'Avoiding it is the only remedy.' This is only another
form of a proverb which also occurs as ' Well fights he who well
flies.' See Proverbs of Rending (in Spec, of English), 1. -]■] ;
Owl and Nightingale, 1. 176. Sir T. Wiat has— 'The first
eschue is remedy alone ; ' Spec, of Eng. Part III. p. 235. It is
probable that Chaucer took it from the Roman de la Rose,
1. 1 68 1 8, where it appears in the form— 'Sol foir en est medicine.'
(O. Y.foir = \jaX. fugere).
141. All the MSS. have blak or Make; ed. 1561 has
Asure. The capitals were of gold ; the rest of the letters were /» ^0.
black. _ '
142. A stoundc, for a while (rightly) ; the reading astonied is
to be rejected. The attitude is one of deliberation.
143. That oon, the one, the latter. But, in 1. 145, that oon
means the former. '
148. An adamant was, originally, a diamond ; then the name
was transferred to the loadstone; lastly, the diamond was
credited with the properties of the loadstone. Hence we find,
at the end of ch. 14 of Mandeville's Travels, this remarkable
experiment :—' Men taken the Ademand, that is the Schip-
mannes Ston, that drawethe the Nedle to him, and men leyn
the Dyamand upon the Ademand, and leyn the Nedle before
the Ademand ; and yif the Dyamand be good and vertuous,
the Ademand drawethe not the Nedle to him, whils the Dyamand
is there present.' Cf. A. Neckam, De Naturis Rerum, lib. ii.
c. 98, where the story is told of an iron statue of Mahomet, which,
being surrounded by adamants {lapides adamaiitini)^ hangs
suspended in the air. The modern simile is that of a donkey
between two bundles of hay.
156. Errour, doubt; see 1. 146 above.
158. ' This writing is not at all meant to apply to thee.'
159. Servant was, so to speak, the old technical term for a
lover ; cf. serveth, Kn. Tale, 2220, 2228 ; and ser^iant in Two
C.ent. of Verona, ii. i. 106, 114, 140, &c.
163. I.e. ' at any rate you can come and look on.'
U 2
392 V. THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES.
169. Imitated from Dante, Inf. iii. 19. Cary has — •
' And when his hand he had stretch'd forth
To mine, with pleasant looks, whence I was cheer'd.
Into that secret place he led me on.'
176. Imitated by Spenser, F. Q. i. i. 8, 9. Chaucer's list of
trees was suggested by a passage in the Teseide, xi. 22-24 ; but
he extended his Hst by help of one in the Roman de la Rose,
1338-1368; especially 11. 1361-8, as follows —
'Et A'olivic7-s et de cipres,
Dout 11 n'a gaires ici pres ;
Ormes y ot branchus et gros,
Et avec ce charmes et fos,
Codres droites, trembles et chesncs,
Erables haus, sapins et fresnes^
Here ormes are elms ; charmes, horn-beams ; fos, beeches ;
codres, hasels ; trembles, aspens ; chesttes, oaks ; erables, maples ;
sapifis, firs ; fresnes, ashes. Hence this list contains seven
kinds of trees out of Chaucer's thirteen. See also the list of 21
trees in Kn. Tale, 2063-5. Spenser has —
* The builder oake, sole king of forrests all.'
This tree-list is, in fact, a great curiosity. It was started by
Statius, Thebaid, vi. 98 ; who was followed by Boccaccio, Tes. xi,
22-24; Rom. de la Rose, 1361 ; Chaucer (twice); Tasso, Gier,
Lib. iii. 75 ; and Spenser. Cf. Vergil, J?^i\.. vi. 179.
I here quote several notes from Bell's Chaucer, marked
' Bell.'—
' The reader will observe the life and spirit which the per-
sonification of the several trees gives to this catalogue. It is
common in French, even in prose ; as, for instance, the weeping
willow is le saule pleureur, the weeper willow. The oak is
called builder, because no other wood was used in building in
this country in the middle ages, as may be seen in our old
churches and farm-houses, in which the stairs are often made
of solid blocks of the finest oak.' — Bell.
177. ' The elm is called piler, perhaps because it is planted
as a pillar or support to the vine [cf. Spenser's 'vine-prop
elme '] ; and cofre unto careyne, because coffins for carrion or
corpses were [and are] usually made of elm.' — Bell. In fact,
Boccaccio has — ' E /' olmo, che di viti s' innamora ;' Tes. xi. 24.
178. Piper, suitable for pipes or horns. 'The box, being a
hard, fine-grained wood, was used for making pipes or horns,
as in the Nonne Prestes Tale, 1. 577^-" Of bras they broughten
r. THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES. 293
hemes [trumpets] and of box." ' — Bell. Boxwood is still used
for flutes and flageolets.
Holm to whippcs lasshe ; ' the holm used for making handles
for whip-lashes.'— Bell. Spenser calls it ' The carver holm,'
j. e. the holm suitable for carving.
179. The saylingfirr; this 'alludes to the ship's masts and
spars being made of fir.' — Bell. Spenser substitutes for it ' The
sailing pine.' He also has ' the cypress funeral!.'
180. The sheter ew. ' The material of our [ancient] national
weapon, the bow, was yew. It is said that the old yews which
are found in country churchyards were planted in order to
supply the yeomanry with bows.' — Bell. Spenser has — 'The
eugh, obedient to the benders will.'
' The asp is the aspen, or black poplar, of which shafts or
arrows were made.' — Bell. Spenser has — ' The aspine good for
staves ; ' and ' The birch for shaftes.'
181. The olive is the emblem of peace ; and the palm, of
victory. Boccaccio has — ' e d' ogni vincitore Premio la palma ; '
Tes. xi. 24.
182. 'The laurel (used) for divination,' or 'to divine with.'
It was 'sacred to Apollo ; and its branches were the decorations
of poets, and of the flamens. The leaves, when eaten, were
said to impart the power of prophesying ; Tibull. 2. 5. 63 ;
Juvenal, 7. 19.' — Lewis and Short's Lat. Diet., s. v. laiirus.
183. In a note to Cant. Tales, 1. 1920, Tyrwhitt says —
' Chaucer has [here] taken very little from Boccace, as he had
already inserted a very close imitation of this part of the
Teseide in his Assemblee of Foules, from verse 183 to verse
287.' In fact, eleven stanzas (183-259) correspond to Boc-
caccio's Teseide, Canto vii. st. 51-60; the next three stanzas
(260-280) to the same, st. 63-66 ; and the next two (281-294) to
the same, st. 61, 62. See the whole extract from Boccaccio, as
translated in the Preface.
On the other hand, this passage in Chaucer is imitated in the
Kingis Quair, st. 31-33, 152, 153 ; and 11. 680-9 are imitated in
the same, st. 34.
The phrase ' blosmy bowes ' occurs again in Troilus, ii. 821.
185. 'There where is always sufficient sweetness.'
214. According to Boccaccio, the name of Cupid's daughter
was Voluttade (Pleasure). In the Roman de la Rose, 11. 913, 927
(Eng. version, 923, 939), Cupid has two bows and ten arrows.
218. This company answer to Boccaccio's Grace, Adornment,
Affability, Courtesy, Arts (plural), Vain Delight, and Gentleness.
294 ^- ^-^^ PAVEMENT OF FOULES.
Instead of Craft, Boccaccio speaks of 'the Arts that have power
to make others perforce do folly, in their aspect much disfigured.
Hypocritical Cajolery seems to be intended. Cf. ' Charmes and
Force;' Kn. Tale, 1069.
225. Ed. 1 561 has with a nice atire, but wrongly; for com-
pare Boccaccio. Cf. Kn. Tale, 1067-9.
226. Cf. 'Jest and youthful Jollity ; ' L'Allegro, 26.
228. Messagerye and Mede represent the sending of messages
and giving of bribes. For this sense of Mede, see P. Plowman,
C. iv. (or B. iii.). The other three are Audacity (too forward
Boldness), Glozings (Flatteries), and Pimps ; all of bad repu-
tation, and therefore not named. Boccaccio's words are — ' il
foUe Ardire Con Lusinghe e Ruffiani.'
231. Bras, brass. Boccaccio has rame, i. e. copper, the metal
which symbolised Venus ; see Can. Yeom. Tale, 829. In fact,
this temple is the very temple of Venus which Chaucer again
describes in the Knightes Tale, 11. 1060-1108 ; which see.
234^ Faire, beautiful by nature ; gay, adorned by art.
236. Office, duty ; viz. to dance round.
237. These are the dowves flikeritig in Kn. Tale, 1104.
243, Sonde, sand. ' Her [Patience's] chief virtue is quiet
endurance in the most insecure and unhopeful circumstances ; '
Bell.
245. Answering to Boccaccio's ' Promesse ad arte,' i.e. ' artful
Promises.'
246. Cf Kn. Tale, 1062-1066 ; 1070. .
255. 'The allusion is to the adventure of Priapus, related by
Ovid in the Fasti, lib. i. 415 ;' Bell. The ass, by braying, put
Priapus to confusion.
261. But in Kn. Tale, 1082, the porter of Venus is Idleness,
as in the Rom. de la Rose, 636 (E. version, 643).
272. Valence, explained by Urry as Valentia in Spain. But
perhaps it may refer to Valence, near Lyons, in France ; as
Lyons is especially famous for the manufacture of silks, and
there is a considerable trade in silks at Valence also. Probably
'thin silk' is here meant. Boccaccio merely speaks of 'texture
so thin,' or, in the original ' Testa, tanto sottil,' which accounts for
Chaucer's 'subtil.' Coles's Diet. (i684)gives: ' VaIence,-tia,B.\.ovm
in Spain, France, and Milan.' In the Unton Inventories, for the
years 1596 and 1620, ed. J. G. Nichols, I find : 'one covering
for a fielde bedde of green and valens^ p. 4 ; ' one standinge
bedsteed with black velvett testern, black vallance fringed and
laced,' p. 21 ; 'one standinge bed with yellow damaske testern
r. THE PARLE ME NT OF FOULES. 295
and vallcnce^ P- 21 ; '■^lallance frindged and laced,' p. 22 ; 'one
bedsteed and testem, and valance of black velvett,' p. 22 ; 'one
bedsteed . . with valiatice imbroydered with ash couler,' p. 23 ;
' one bedsteed, with . . vallance of silke,' p. 29. It is the mod. E.
valance, and became a general term for part of the hangings of
a bed ; Shakespeare has ' V^alance of Venice gold,' spelt Vallens
in old editions, Tarn. Shrew, ii. i. 356. Spenser imitates this
passage, F. O. ii. 12. "j"].
275. Compare the well-known proverb — ' sine Cererc et
Libero friget Venus ; ' Terence, Eun. 2. 3. 4.
277. Read Cipryde, not Citpide ; for in 1. 279 we have her
twice, once in the sense of ' their,' but secondly in the sense of
* her.' Boccaccio also here speaks of Venus, and refers to the
apple which she won from Paris. Cipride is regularly formed
from the accus. of Cypris (gen. Cypridis), an epithet of Venus due
to her worship in Cyprus. Chaucer found the genitive Cypridis
in Alanus de Planctu Naturae (ed. Wright, p. 438 ) ; see note to 1. 298.
Cf. ' He curseth Bacus, Ceres, and Cipride ; ' Troilus, v. 208.
281. The best way of scansion is perhaps to read dcspyt-e
with final e, preserved by caesura, and to pronounce Diatie as
Did?i\ So in Kn. Tale, 1193, which runs parallel with it.
282. 'Trophies of the conquest of Venus ;' Bell.
283. Maydcns; of these Callisto was one (so says Boccaccio) ;
and this is Chaucer's Calixte (1. 286), and his Calystope in the
Kn. Tale (1. 1197). She was the daughter of the Arcadian
king Lycaon, and mother of Areas by Jupiter ; changed by Juno,
on account of jealousy, into a she-bear, and then raised to the
heavens by Jupiter in the form of the constellation Helice or
Ursa Major; see Ovid, Fasti, ii. 156; Metamorph. ii. 401 ; &c.
(Lewis and Short).
286. Athalaiinte, Atalanta. There were two of this name ;
the one here meant (see Boccaccio) was the one who was
conquered in a footrace by the lover who married her ; see
Ovid, Metam. x. 565. The other, who was beloved by Meleager,
and hunted the Calydonian boar, is the one mentioned in the
Kn. Tale, I2I2 ; see Ovid, Metam. viii. 31S. It is clear that
Chaucer thought they were one and the same.
287. Iiuante, I lack; i. e. I do not know. Boccaccio here
mentions the mother of Parthenopicus, whose name Chaucer did
not know. She was the other Atalanta, the wife of Meleager ;
and Boccaccio did not name her, because he says ' that other
proud one,' meaning the other proud one of the same name. See
the story in Dryden ; tr. of Ovid's Metamorphoses, bk. viii.
296 J\ THE PA RLE ME NT OF FOULES.
28S. Boccaccio only mentions ' the spouse of Ninus,' i. c.
Semiramis, the great queen of Assyria, Thisbe and Pyramus,
' Hercules in the lap of lole,' and Byblis. The rest Chaucer has
added. Compare his lists in Prol. to Leg. of Good Women, 250,
and in C. T., Group B, 63 ; see the note in my edition of the
Prioresses Tale, p. 135. See the Legend for the stories of Dido,
Thisbe and Pyramus, and Cleopatra. Paris, Achilles, Troilus,
and Helen are all mentioned in his Troilus.
Candace is mentioned again in the Legend of Good Women,
Prol. 1. 265, and in the Ballade on Newefangelnesse, 1. 16.
There was a Candace, queen of Meroe, mentioned by Pliny, vi.
29 ; and there is the Candace in the Acts of the Apostles, viii. 27.
I think it obvious that Chaucer (or else the scribe) has confused
the familiar name in the Acts with that of Canacee, and really
intends the latter. In writing the Cant. Tales (Group B, 78) he
corrected this mistake. The lady meant is the Canace of Ovid's
Heroides, epist. xi., wholly translated by Dryden. In fact, we
have sufficient proof of this confusion ; for one MS. actually
reads Candace in the Legend of Good Women, where five other
MSS. have Canace or Canacee. Biblis is Byblis, who fell in
love with Caunus, and, being repulsed, was changed into a
fountain ; Ovid, Metam. ix. 452.
Tristram and Isoude are the Tristran (or Tristan) and Ysolde
(or Ysolt) of French medieval romance; cf. Ho. Fame, 1796.
Gower, in his Conf. Amantis, bk. 8 (ed. PauH, iii. 359)
includes Tristram and Bele Isolde in his long list of lovers, and
gives an outline of the story in the same, bk. 6 (iii. 17). Ysolde
was the wife of King Mark of Cornwall, and the mistress of her
nephew Sir Tristram, of whom she became passionately
enamoured from having drunk a philter by mistake ; see
Wheeler, Noted Names of Fiction, s. v. Isolde. The Romance
of Sir Tristram was edited by Sir W. Scott, and has been
re-edited by Kolbing, and by G. P. McNeill (for the Scottish
Text Society). The name Ysoude is constantly misprinted
Ysonde, even by the editors. Chaucer mentions her again ; see
Leg. G. Women, 254 ; Ho. of Fame, 1796.
292. Silla, Scylla; daughter of Nisus, of Megara, who, for
love of Minos, cut off" her father's hair, upon which his life
depended, and was transformed in consequence into the bird
Ciris ; see Ovid, Metam. viii. 8. Another Scylla was changed
by Circe into a sea-monster; Ovid, Metam. xiv. 52. Their
stories shew that the former is meant.
Moder of Romulus, Ilia (also called Rhasa Silvia), daughter of
F. THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES. 297
Numitor, dedicated to Vesta, and buried alive for breaking her
vows ; see Livy, bk. i ; Verg. yEn. i. 274.
The quotation from Boccaccio ends here.
296. Of spak, spake of; see 1. 174.
298. This quene is the goddess Nature (1. 303). We now-
come to a part of the poem where Chaucer makes considerable
use of the work which he mentions in 1. 316, viz. the Planctus
Naturse (Complaint of Nature) by Alanus de Insulis, or Alein
Delille, a poet and divine of the 12th century. This work
is printed in vol. ii. of T. Wright's edition of the Anglo-Latin
Satirical Poets (Record Series), which also contains the poem
called Anticlaudianus by the same author. The description of
the goddess is given at great length (pp. 431-456), and at last
she declares her name to be Nattcra (p. 456). This long
description of Nature and of her vesture is a very singular one ;
indeed, all the fowls of the air are supposed to be depicted upon
her wonderful garments (p. 437). Chaucer substitutes a brief
description of his own, and represents the birds as real live ones,
gathering around her ; which is much more sensible. As
Prof. Morley says (Eng. Writers, ii. 200) — 'Alain describes
Nature's changing robe as being in one of its forms so ethereal
that it is like air, and the pictures on it seem to the eye a
Council of Animals {Ammalium Co7iciliuni). Upon which,
beginning, as Chaucer does, with the Eagle and the Falcon,
Alain proceeds with a long list of the birds painted on her
transparent robe that surround Nature as in a council, and
attaches to each bird the most remarkable point in its character.'
Professor Hales, in the Academy, Nov. 19, 1881, quoted the
passages from Alanus which are here more or less imitated, and
drew attention to the remarkable passage in Spenser's F. Q.
bk. vii.c. 7. St. 5-10, where that poet quotes and copies Chaucer.
Dunbar imitates Chaucer in his Thrissill and Rois, and de-
scribes Dame Nature as surrounded by beasts, birds, and
flowers; see stanzas 10, 11, 18, 26, 27 of that poem.
The phrase ' Nature la decsse ' occurs in Le Roman de la
Rose, 1. 16480.
309. Birds were supposed to choose their mates on St.
Valentine's day (Feb. 14 1 ; and lovers thought they must follow
their example, and then ' choose their loves.' Mr. Douce thinks
the custom of choosing valentines was a survival from the
Roman feast of the Lupercalia. See the articles in Brand.
I'opw Antiq. i. 53 ; Chambers, Book of Days, i. 255 ; Alban
Butler, Lives of Saints, Feb. 14 ; &c. The custom is alluded to
29B^' V. THE PAR L EM E NT OF FOULES.
by Lydgate, Shakespeare, Herrick, Pepys, and Gay ; and in the
Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner, iii, 169, is a letter written in Feb.
1477, where we find: 'And, cosyn, uppon Fryday is Sent
Volentynes Day, and every brydde chesyth hym a make.' See
also the Cuckoo and Nyghtingale, 1. 80.
316. Aleyn, Alanus de Insulis ; Pleynt of Kynde, Complaint
of Nature, Lat. Planctus Naturae ; see note to 1. 298. Chaucer
refers us to Aleyn's description on account of its unmerciful
length ; it was hopeless to attempt even an epitome of it.
323. Foules of ravyne, birds of prey. Chaucer's division of
birds into birds of prey, birds that eat worms and insects, water-
fowl, and birds that eat seeds, can hardly be his own. In Vincent
of Beauvais, lib. xvi. c. 14, Aristotle is cited as to the food of
birds: — 'quaedam comedunt carnem, o^'s^diZ.m. grana, quaedam
utrumque ; . . . quaedam vero comedunt vermes, vt passer. . . .
Vivunt et ex fnidn quaedam aues, vt palumbi, et turtures.
Quaedam viuunt in ripis aquarum lactmni, et cibantur ex eis.'
330. Royal J because he is often called the king of birds, as in
Dunbar's Thrissill and Rois, st. 18. Vincent of Beauvais, Spec.
Nat., lib. xvi. c. 32, quotes from lorath {sic) : — ' Aquila est auis
magna regalis^ And Philip de Thaun, Bestiary, 991 (in Wright's
Pop. Treatises, p. 109) says : — ' Egle est rei de oisel. . . En
Latine raisun cler-veant le apellum, Ke le solail verat quant il
plus cler serat.'
331. See the last note, where we learn that the eagle is called
in Latin ' clear-seeing,' because ' he will look at the sun when it
will be brightest.' This is explained at once by the remarkable
etymology given by Isidore (cited by Vincent, as above), viz. : —
' Aqt(-\\a. ab ^jr-umine oculorum vocata est.'
332. Pliny, Nat. Hist. bk. x. c. 3, enumerates six kinds of
eagles, which Chaucer leaves us to find out ; viz. Melaenaetos,
Pygargus, Morphnos, which Homer (II. xxiv. 316) calls per/cnos,
Percnopterus, Gnesios (the true or royal eagle), and Haliaeetos
(osprey). This explains the allusion in 1. 233-
334. Tyraunt. This epithet was probably suggested by the
original text in Alanus, viz. — ' lUic ancipiter [accipiter], civitatis
praefectus aeri^, violenta tyrannide a subditis redditus expo-
scebat.' Sir Thopas had a ' grey goshauk ; ' C. T. Group B,
1928.
2)3']. See note on the. faucon peregrin, Squi. Tale, 428, in my
edition of the Prioresses Tale, p. 220. ' Beautifully described as
" distreining" the king's hand with its foot, because carried by
persons of the highest rank ; ' Bell.
V. Tim PARLEMENT OF FOULES. 299
339. Mcrlion, merlin. ' The merlin is the smallest of the
long-winged hawks, and was generally carried by ladies ; '
Bell.
342. From Alanus, as above: — 'Illic olor, sui funeris pra^co,
mellitit citherizationis organo vitte prophetabat apocopam.'
The same idea is mentioned by Vincent of Beauvais, Spec. Nat. 1 /
lib. xvi. c. 50 ; Pliny says he believes the story to be false, Nat.
Hist. lib. X. c. 23. See Compl. of Anelida, 1. 346. 'The wild
swan's death-hymn ; ' Tennyson, Tlie Dyittg Swan. Cf. Ovid,
Heroid. vii. 2.
343. From Alanus : — ' Illic bubo, prophcta miserias, psalmo-
dias funereit; lamentationis pntcinebat.' So in the Rom. de la
Rose, 5999 :^
'Li chahuan ...
Prophetes de male avcnturo,
Hideus messagier de dolor.'
Cf. Vergil, y^n. iv. 462 ; Ovid, Metam. v. 550; Shakespeare,
Mid. Nt. D. v. 385. And see Chaucer's Troilus, v. 319.
344. Geaunt, giant. Alanus has : — 'grus ... in gigantecF
quantitatis evadebat excessum.' Vincent (Hb. xvi. c. 91) quotes
from Isidore : — ' Grues nomen de propria voce sumpserunt, tali
enim sono susurrant.'
345. ' The chough, who is a thief.' From Alanus, who has : —
' Illic monedula, lairocinio laudabili reculas thesaurizans, innatas
avaritise argumenta monstrabat.' ' It was an old belief in Corn- /
wall, according to Camden (Britannia, tr. by Holland, 1610, p.
189) that the chough was an incendiary, "and thievish besides ;
for oftentimes it secretly convcicth fire-sticks, setting their
houses a-fire, and as closely filcheth and hideth little pieces of
money."' — Prov. Names of Brit. P>irds, by C. Swainson, p. 75.
So also in Pliny, lib. x. c. 29, choughs are called thieves. Vincent
of Beauvais quotes one of Isidore's delicious etymologies : —
* Monedula dicitur quasi mone-tula, quae cum aurum inuenit
aufert et occultat ; ' i. e. from monetam tollere. 'The Jackdaw
tribe is notoriously given to pilfering ; ' Stanley, Hist, of Birds,
ed. 1880, p. 203.
Jangling, talkative ; so Alanus :— ' Illic pica . . curam logices
perennabat insomnem.' So in Vincent — 'pica loquax' — 'pica '
garrula,' &c. ; and in Pliny, lib. x. c. 42.
346. Scorning^ ' applied to the jay, probably, because it follows
and seems to mock at the owl, whenever the latter is so unfortu-
nate as to be caught abroad in the daylight ; for this reason,
a trap for jays is always baited with a live owl ; ' Bell.
3C0 r. THE PA RLE ME NT OF FOULES.
' The heron will stand for hours in the shallow water watching
for eels ; ' Bell. Vincent quotes from Isidore : — ' Ciconese . . .
serpentium hostes.' So also A. Neckam, De Naturis Rerum,
lib. i. c. 64 : — ' Ranarum et locustarum et serpentum hostis est.'
347. Trecherye, trickery, deceit. ' During the season of
incubation, the cock-bird tries to draw pursuers from the nest
by wheeling round them, crying and screaming, to divert their
attention . . . while the female sits close on the nest till disturbed,
when she runs off, feigning lameness, or flaps about near the
ground, as if she had a broken wing ; cf. Com. Errors, iv. 2. 27 ;
Much Ado, iii. i. 24;' Prov. Names of Brit. Birds, by C.
Swainson, p. 185. And cf. 'to seem the lapunng and to jest.
Tongue far from heart ; ' Meas. for Meas. i. 4. 32.
348. Stare, starling. As the starling can speak, there is
probably ' an allusion to some popular story like the Manciple's
Tale, in which a talking starling betrays a secret ; ' Bell. The
same story is in Ovid, Metam. bk. ii. 535 ; and in Gower, Conf.
Amant. bk. iii. ' Germanicus and Drusus had one stare, and
sundry nightingales, taught to parle Greeke and Latine ; '
Holland's Pliny, bk. x. c. 42. In the Seven Sages, ed. Weber,
p. 86, the bird who 'bewrays counsel ' is a magpie.
349. Coward kyte. See Squi. Tale, 624 ; and note. ' Miluus
. . fugatur a niso, quamuis in triplo sit maior illo ; ' Vincent of
Beauvais, lib. xvi. c. 108.
350. Alanus has : — ' Illic gallus, tanquam vulgaris astrologus,
suee vocis horologio horarum loquebatur discrimina.' Cf. Nonne
Prestes Tale, 1. 33. We also see whence Chaucer derived his
epithet of the cock— 'common astrologer' — in Troilus, iii. 1415.
Tusser, in his Husbandry, ed. Payne, § 74, says the cock crows —
'At midnight, at three, and an hower ere day.' Hence the
expressions 'first cock' in K. Lear, iii. 4. 121, and 'second
cock ' in Macbeth, ii. 3. 27.
351. The sparrow was sacred to Venus, from its amatory
disposition (Meas. for Meas. iii. 2. 185). In the well-known
song from Lyly's Alexander and Campaspe, Cupid 'stakes his
quiver, bow, and arrows, His Mother's doves, and team of
sparrows ; ' Songs from the Dramatists, ed. R. Bell, p. 50.
352. Cf. Holland's Pliny, bk. x. c. 29 — 'The nightingale . . .
chaunteth continually, namely, at that time as the trees begin to
put out their leaues thicke.'
353. ' Nocet autem apibus sola inter animalia carnem habentia
et carnem comedentia ; ' Vincent of Beauvais, De hyrundine ;
Spec. Nat. lib. xvi. c. 17. ' Culicum et muscarum et apecularum
V. THE PARLE ME N'T OF FOULES. 3OI
infestatrix ;' A. Neckam, De Naturis Rerum (De Hirundine),
lib. i. c. 52. Cf. Vergil, Georg. iv. 15.
' The swallow stopt as he hunted the bee ; '
Tennyson, The Poet's Song.
355. Alanus has : — ' Illic turtur, suo viduata consorte, amorem
epilogare dedignans, in altcro bigamia; rc^utabat solatia.' ' Etiam
vulgo est notum turturem et amoris veri prasrogativa nobilitari
et castitatis titulis donari;* A. Neckam, i. 59. Cf. An Old
Eng. Miscellany, ed. Morris, p. 22.
356. ' In many medieval paintings, the feathers of angels'
wings are represented as those of peacocks ; ' Bell.
357. Perhaps Chaucer mixed up the description of the
pheasant in Alanus with that of the 'gallus silvestris, pri-
vatioris galli deridens desidiam,' which occurs almost imme-
diately below. Vincent (lib. .xvi. c. 72) says : — ' Fasianus est
gallus syluaticus.' Or he may allude to the fact, vouched for
in Stanley's Hist, of Birds, ed. 18S0, p. 279, that the Pheasant
will breed with the common Hen.
358. ' The Goose likewise is very vigilant and watchfull :
witnesse the Capitoll of Rome, which by the means of Geese
was defended and saued ; ' Holland's Pliny, bk. x. c. 22.
' There is no noise at all
Of waking dog, nor gaggling goose more waker then the hound.'
Golding, tr. of Ovid's Metam. bk. xi. fol. 139, back.
Unkynde, unnatural ; because of its behaviour to the hedge-
sparrow ; K. Lear, i. 4. 235.
359. Deitcasye, wantonness. 'Auis est luxuriosa nimium,
bibitque vinum ; ' Vincent (quoting from Liber de Naturis
Rerum), lib. xvi. c. 135, De Psitiaco\ and again (quoting
from Physiologus) — 'cum vino inebriatur.' So in Holland's
Phny, bk. x. c. 42 — ' She loueth wine well, and when shee
hath drunk freely, is very pleasant, plaifull, and wanton.'
360. 'The farmers' wives find the drake or mallard the
greatest enemy of their young ducks, whole broods of which
he will destroy unless removed.' Chaucer perhaps follows the
Liber de Naturis Rerum, as quoted in Vincent, lib. xvi. c. 27
(De Afia/e) : — ' Mares aliquando cum plures fuerint simul, tanta
libidinis insania feruntur, vt fojminam solam . . occidant.'
361. From A. Neckam, Liber de Naturis Rerum (ed. Wright,
lib. i. c. 64) ; cited in Vincent, lib. xvi. c. 48. The story is, that
a male stork, having discovered that the female was unfaithful
to him, went away ; and presently returning with a great many
302 V. THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES.
other storks, the avengers tore the criminal to pieces. Another
very' different story may also be cited. ' The stork is the
Embleme of a grateful Man. In which respect yElian writeth
of a storke, which bred on the house of one who had a very
beautiful wife, which in her husband's absence used to commit
adultry with one of her base servants : which the storke
observing, in gratitude to him who freely gave him house-
roome, flying in the villaines face, strucke out both his eyes.'
Guillim ; Display of Heraldry, sect. iii. c. 19.
In Thynne's Animadversions on Speght's Chaucer, ed. Fur-
nivall, p. 68 (Chau. Soc), we find: — 'for Aristotle sayethe, and
Bartholomeus de proprietatibus rerum, li. 12. c. 8, with manye
other auctors, that yf the storke by any meanes perceve that
his female hath brooked spousehedde, he will no moore dwell
with her, but strykethe and so cruelly beateth her, that he will
not surcease vntill he hathe killed her yf he maye, to wreake
and reuenge that adulterye.' Cf. Batman vppon Bartholome,
ed. 1582, leaf 181, col. 2 ; Stanley, Hist, of Birds, 6th ed. p. 322 ;
and story no. 82 in Swan's translation of the Gesta Romanorum.
362. ' The voracity of the cormorant has become so proverbial,
that a greedy and voracious eater is often compared to this
bird;' Swainson, Prov. Names of British Birds, p. 143. See
Rich. II. ii. I. 38.
363. Wys ; because it could predict ; it was therefore con-
secrated to Apollo ; see Lewis and Short, s. v. corvus. Care,
anxiety ; hence, ill luck. ' In folk-lore the crow always appears
as a bird of the worst and most sinister character, representing
either death, or night, or winter ; ' Prov. Names of British Birds,
by C. Swainson, p. 84 ; which see.
364. Olde, I do not understand this epithet ; it is usually
the crow who is credited with a long life. Frosty; i.e. that is
seen in England in the winter-time ; called in Shropshire the
snow-bird ; Swainson's Prov. Names of Brit. Birds, p. 6. The
explanation of the phrase ' farewell feldefare,' occurring in Troil.
iii. 863 and in Rom. Rose, 5510, and marked by Tyrwhitt as
not understood, is easy enough. It simply means — 'good bye,
and we are well rid of you ; ' when the fieldfare goes, the warm
weather comes.
371. Formel, perhaps 'regular' or 'suitable' companion; as
F. formel answers to Lat. fornialis. T)Twhitt's Gloss, says :
^formel is put for the. female of any fowl, more especially for a
female eagle (11. 445, 535 below).' It has, however, no connection
with female (as he seems to suppose), but answers rather, in
r. THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES. 303
sense, to make, i.e. match, fit companion. Godefroy cites the
expression ^ iavxcon formel ' from L'Aviculaire des Oiseaux de
proie (MS. Lyon 697, fol. 221 a). He explains it by 'qui a
d'amples formes,' meaning (as I suppose) simply 'large ;' which
docs not seem to be right ; though the icne/ or male hawk was
so called because he was a third less than the female. We want
)nore quotations from Old French texts to settle this.
379. Vtcatre, deputy. This term is taken from Alanus, Dc
rianctu Naturae, as above, where it occurs at least thrice. Thus,
at p. 469 of Wright's edition, Nature says : — ' Me igitur tanquam
sui [Dei] vi'sariatn;' at p. 511 — ' Natura, Dei gratia mundana?
civitatis vicaria procuratrix ; ' and at p. 516, Nature is addressed
as — ' O supracajlestis Principis fidelis vicarza ! ' M. Sandras
supposes that Chaucer took the term from the Rom. de la Rose,
but it is more likely that Chaucer and Jean de Meun alike took
it from Alanus.
'Cis Diex meismes, par sa grace, . . .
Tant m'ennora, tant me tint chiere,
Qu'il m'establi sa chamberiere . . .
Por chamberiere! certes vaiie,
For connestable, et por vicaire^ Sec.
Rom. de la Rose, 16970, &c.
Here Nature is supposed to be the speaker. Chaucer again
uses vicaire of Nature, Doct. Tale, 1. 20, which see; and he
applies it to the Virgin Mary in his A B C, 1. 140. See also
Lydgate, Compl. of Black Knight, 1. 491.
380. That 1. 379 is copied from Alanus is clear from the fact
that 11. 380-1 are from the same source. At p. 451 of Wright's
edition, we find Nature speaking of the concordant discord of
the four elements — 'quatuor elementorum concors discordia' —
which unites the buildings of the palace of this world — ' mun-
dialis regii^ structuras conciliat.' Similarly, she says, the four
humours are united in the human body : — ' quae qualitates inter
elementa mediatrices conveniunt, ha; eaedem inter quatuor
humores pacis sanciunt firmitatem ; ' &c.
Compare also Boethius, bk. iii. met. 9, in Chaucer's translation
(ed. Morris, p. 87). ' Thou byndest the elementz by noumbres
proporcionables, that the colde thinges mowen acorde with the
bote thinges, and the drye thinges with the moist thinges ; that
the fire that is purest ne fleye nat ouer heye, ne that the heuy-
nesse ne drawe nat adoun ouer lowe the erthes that ben plounged
in the watres. Thou knyttest togidre the mene soule of treble
kynde moeuyng alle thinges ; ' &c.
304 y. THE PA RLE ME NT OF FOULES.
' Et froit, et chaut, et sec, et moiste ; '
Rom. Rose, 17163.
' For hot, cold, moist, and dry, four champions fierce,
Strive here for mastery.' Milton, P. L. ii. 898.
386. Seynt, &c. ; i.e. on St. Valentine's day.
388. ' Ye come to choose your mates, and (then) to flee (on)
your way.'
411. I believe it will be found that Chaucer sometimes actually
crushes the two words ihis is into the time of one word only
(something like the modern it's for it is). Hence I scan the line
thus : —
This 's our | usag' | alwey, | &c.
So again, in the Knight's Tale, 233 : —
We mot' I endiir' | it this 's | the short \ and pleyn.
And again, in the same, 885 : —
And seid | e this 's | a short | conclii | sioun.
And frequently elsewhere. In the present case, both t/iis and
is are unaccented, which is much harsher than when t/iis bears
an accent.
I find that Ten Brink has also noted this peculiarity, in his
Chancers Sprache^ § 271. He observes that, in C. T. Group
E, 56, the Ellesmere and Hengwrt MSS. actually substitute this
for tliis is; see my Prioresses Tale, &c., p. 61, footnote; and
hence note that the correct reading is — ' But this is his tale,
which,' Sec. See this in Schmidt, Shak. Lexicon.
413. Com, came. The o is long ; A. S. c(?m = Goth. kwani.
417. 'I choose the formel to be my sovereign lady, not my
mate.'
421. ' Beseeching hery&r mercy,' <S:c.
435. Read lov'th ; monosyllabic, as frequently.
464. ' Ye see what little leisure we have here.'
471. Read /^jj-/^/', just as in French.
476. Soin ; quite indefinite. ' Than another man.'
482. Hir-es, h^rs; dissyllabic. Whether ='whe'r.
485. 'The dispute is here called 2. plee, or plea, or pleading;
and in the next stanza the terms of law, adopted into the Courts
of Love, are still more pointedly applied ; ' Bell.
499. Hye, loudly. Kek kek represents the goose's cackle ; and
quek is mod. E. quack.
504. For, on behalf of; see next line.
507. For connme specie, for the common benefit.
508. ' For it is a great charity to set us free.'
V. THE PARLE ME NT OF FOULES. 305
511. ' If it be your wish for any one to speak, it would be as
good for him to be silent ; it were better to be silent than to
talk as you do.' That is, the cuckoo only want to listen to those
who will talk nonsense. A mild rebuke. He explains (1. 514)
that it is better to be silent than to meddle with things which one
does not understand.
518. Lit. 'A duty assumed without direction often gives offence.'
A proverb which appears in other forms. In the Canon's
Yeoman's Tale, 1. 1066, it takes the form — ' Profred seruyse
stinketh ;' see note on the line, in my edition of the Man of
Lawes Tale. Uticomniitted is not delegated, not entrusted to
one. Cotgrave has : ' Couiynis, assigned, appointed, delegated.'
524. / Itige, I decide, my judgment is. Folk, kind of birds ;
see note to I. 323.
545. Ozir, ours ; it is the business of us who are the chosen
spokesmen. The lu^s^^e is Nature.
556. Golcr in the Fairfax MS. is doubtless merely miswritten
for golce, as in Ff. ; Caxton turns it into golye, to keep it
dissyllabic ; the reading gole (in O. and Gg.) also=^^/^^.
Godefroy has : ' Go/ee, goulee, goidlee, gulee, geulee, s. f. cri,
parole ; ' and gives several examples. Cotgrave has : ' Coulee,
f. a throatfull, or mouthful of, &c.' One of the Godefroy's ex-
amples gives the phrase—' Et si dirai ge ma goulec^ and so I
shall say my say. Chaucer uses the word sarcastically : his large
golee=his tedious gabble. Allied to E. gullett, gully.
564. Which a reson, what sort of a reason.
568. Cf. Cant. Tales, 5851, 5852.
572. 'To have held thy peace, than (to have) shewed.'
574. A common proverb. In the Rom. do la Rose, 1. 4750
(E. version, 1. 5268), it appears as : ' Nus fox ne scet sa langue
taire,' i.e. No fool knows how to hold his tongue. In the Pro-
verbs of Hendyng, it is : ' Sottes bolt is sone shote,' 1. 85. In
later English, 'A fool's bolt is soon shot;' cf. Henry V. iii. 7.
132, and As You Like It, v. 4. 67. Kemble quotes from MS.
Harl. fol. 4 — ' Ut dicunt multi, cito transit lancea stulti.'
578. 77/1? sothe sadile, the sober truth.
595. Another proverb. We now say — 'There's as good fish
in the sea as ever came out of it ; ' or, ' as ever was caught.'
. 603. 'Pushed himself forward in the crowd.'
610. Said sarcastically — ' Yes ! when the glutton has filled his
paunch sufficiently, the rest of us are sure to be satisfied ! '
Compare the following. ' Certain persones . . . saiyng thai
Demades had now given over to bee suche an haine [niggardly
X
\
306 V. THE PA RLE ME NT OF FOVLES.
■wretch] as he had been in tymes past — " Yea, marie, quoth
Demosthenes, for now ye see him full paunched, as lyons are."
For Demades was covetous and gredie of money, and indeed
the lyons are more gentle when their bealyes are well filled.' —
Udall, tr. of Apothegmes of Erasmus ; Anecdotes of De-
mosthenes. The merlin then addresses the cuvjicoo directly.
612. Heystigge, hedge-sparrow ; see note to 1. 358.
614. 'Live thou unmated, thou destruction (i.e. destroyer) of
worms.'
615. ' For it is no matter as to the lack of thy kind,' i.e. it
would not matter, even if the result was the loss of your entire
race.
616. ' Go ! and remain ignorant for ever.'
621. Read t]Celeccioun ; i.e. the choice.
623. Cheest, chooseth ; spelt chyest, Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 126 ;
spelt chest (with long e) in Shoreham's Poems, ed. Wright,
p. 109, where it rimes with lest=ieseih, i.e. loseth ; A. S. cist,
Deut. xxviii. 9.
626. Acc&nt favour on the second syllable ; as in C. T., Group
B, 3881 (Monkes Tale).
630. ' I have no other (i.e. no wrongful) regard to any rank,' I
am no respecter of persons.
633. ' I would counsel you to take ; ' two infinitives.
640. ' Under your rod,' subject to your correction. So in the
Schipmannes Tale, C. T. 13028.
641. The first accent is on As.
653. Mane'r-e is trisyllabic.
657. For tarymg, to prevent tarrying ; see note to C. T. Group
B, 2052 ; in my edition of the Prioresse Tale, p. 165.
664, 5. 'Whatever may happen afterwards, this intervening
course is ready prepared for all of you.'
670. They embraced each other with their wings and by inter-
twining their necks.
675. Gower, Conf. Amant. bk. i. (ed. Pauli, i. 134) speaks of
' Roundel, balade, and virelay.' Johnson, following the Diet, de
Trevoux, gives a fair definition of the roundel ; but I prefer to
translate that given by Littre, s. v. rondeau. ' i. A short poem,
also called triolet, in which the first line or lines recur in the
middle and at the end of the piece. Such poems, by Froissart
and Charles d'Orleans, are still extant. 2. Another short poem
peculiar to French poetry, composed of thirteen lines broken
by a pause after the fifth and eighth lines, eight having one
rime and five another. The first word or words are repeated
V. THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES. 307
after the eighth line and after the last, without forming part of
the verse ; it will readily be seen that this rondeau is a modi-
fication of the foregoing ; instead of repeating the whole line,
only the first words are repeated, often with a different sense.'
The word is here used in the former sense ; and the remark
in Morley's Eng. Writers (ii. 283), that the Roundel consists
of thirteen lines, eight having one rime, and five another, is
not to the point here, as it relates to the later French rondeau
only. An examination of Old French roundels shews us
that Littrd's definition of the triolet is quite correct, and is
purposely left somewhat indefinite ; but we can apply a some-
what more exact description to the form of the roundel as used
by Machault, Deschamps, and Chaucer.
The form adopted by these authors is the following. First
come three lines, rimed abb ; next two more, rimed ab, and then
the first refrain ; then three more lines, rimed abb, followed by
the second refrain. Now the first refrain consists of either one,
or two, or three lines, being the first line of the poem, or the first
two, or the first three ; and the second refrain likewise consists
of either one, or two, or three lines, being the same lines as
before, but not necessarily the same number of them. Thus the
whole poem consists of eight unlike lines, three on one rime,
and five on another, with refrains of from two to six lines.
Sometimes one of the refrains is actually omitted, but this may
be the scribe's fault. However, the least possible number of lines
is thus reduced to nine ; and the greatest number is fourteen.
For example, Deschamps (ed. Tarbe) has roundels of nine lines
• — second refrain omitted — (p. 125) ; of ten lines (p. 36) ; of
eleven lines (p. 38) ; of twelve lines (p. 3) ; and of fourteen lines
(pp. 39, 43). But the prettiest example is that by Machault (ed.
Tarbe, p. 52), which has thirteen lines, the first refrain being of
two, and the second of three lines. And, as thirteen lines came
to be considered as the normal length, I here follow this as a
model ; merely warning the reader that he may make either of
his refrains of a different length, if he pleases.
There is a slight art in writing a roundel, viz. in distributing
the pauses. There must be a full stop at the end of the third
and fifth lines; but the skilful poet takes care that complete
sense can be made by the first line taken alone, and also by the
first two lines taken alone. Chaucer has done this.
Todd, in his Illustrations of Chaucer, p. 372, gives a capital
example of a roundel by Occleve ; this is oi full length, both
refrains being of three lines, so that the whole poem is of
X 2
3o8 VI. MERCILESS BEAUTY.
fourteen lines. This is quite sufficient to shew that the defini-
tion of a roundel in Johnson's Dictionary (which is copied from
the Diet, de Trevoux, and relates to the later 7-07ideau of
thirteen lines) is quite useless as applied to roundels written in
Middle English.
677. The Jiote, i. e. the tune. Chaucer adapts his words to a
known French tune. The words Qtn bieti atme, a tard^ oublie
(he who loves well is slow to forget) probably refer to this tune ;
though it is not quite clear to me how lines of five accents
(normally) go to a tune beginning with a line of four accents.
In Furnivall's Trial Forewords, p. 55, we find: — 'Of the
rondeau of which the first line is cited in the Fairfax MS., &c.,
M. Sandras found the music and the words in a MS. of
Machault in the National Library, no. 7612, leaf 187. The
verses form the opening lines of one of two pieces entitled Le
Lay de plour : —
' Qui bieii aime, a tart oublie,
Et cuers, qui oublie a tart,
Kessemble le feu qui art,' &c.
M. Sandras also says {Etude, p. 72) that Eustache Deschamps
composed, on this burden slightly modified, a pretty ballad,
inedited till M. Sandras printed it at p. 287 of his Etude; and
that, a long time before Machault, Moniot de Paris began, by
this same line, a hymn to the Virgin that one can read in the
Arsenal Library at Paris, in the copy of a Vatican MS., B. L.
no. 63, fol. 283 : —
' Ki bien aime a tart oublie ;
Mais ne le puis oublier,
La douce vierge Marie.'
683. See note above, to 1. 309.
693. This last stanza is imitated at the end of the Court of
Love, and of Dunbar's Thrissill and Rois.
VL Merciless Beauty.
The title ' Mercilesse Beaute' is given in the Index to the
Pepys MS. As it is a fitting title, and no other has been
suggested, it is as well to use it.
I think this Roundel was suggested by one written in French,
in the thirteenth centur}% by Willamme d'Amiens, and printed
in Bartsch, Chrestomathie de I'ancien Frangais. It begins —
' In old French, a tard means ' slowly, late ; ' later French drops a,
and uses tard only.
VI. MERCILESS BEAUTY, 309
' Jamais ne serai saous
D'esguarder les vairs ieus dous
Qui m'ont ocis ' ; —
i.e. I shall never be sated with gazing on the gray soft eyes
which have slain me.
I. The MS. has Yowr two yen ; but the scribe lets us see
that this ill-sounding arrangement of the words is not the
author's own ; for in writing the refrain he writes ' Your yen,
&c.' But we have further evidence : for the whole line is
quoted in Lydgate's Ballade of our Ladie, printed in Chaucer's
Works, ed. 1561, fol. 330, in the form — 'Your iyen twoo woll
slea me sodainly.' The same Ballad contains other imitations
of Chaucer's language. Cf. also Kn. Tale, 260.
3. So woundeih hit . . . ke7ie, so keenly it (your beauty)
wounds (me). The MS. has luondeth, which is another M. E.
spelling of 'wowidcth. Percy miscopied it wendeth, which gives
but poor sense ; besides, Chaucer w-ould probably have used
the contracted form went, as his manner is. In 1. 5, the scribe
writes wound (better wounde),
4. A)id but, and unless. For word Percy printed words,
quite forgetting that the M. E. plural is dissyllabic [word-es).
The final rt'has a sort of curl to it, but a comparison wuth other
words shews that it means nothing ; it occurs, for instance, at
the end oi wound (1. 5), and escaped (I. 27).
Wounde (MS. wound) is dissyllabic in Mid. English, like
mod. G. Wmtde. See wunde in Stratmann.
6. I give two lines to the first refrain, and three to the second.
The reader may give three lines to both, if he pleases ; see note
to sect. V, 1. 675. We cannot confine the first refrain to one
line only, as there is no stop at the end of 1. 14.
8. Trouth-e is dissyllabic ; see treouthe in Stratmann.
15. Ne availeth; with elided e. MS. nauailleth; Percy
prints riavaileth.
16. Halt, i. e. holdeth ; see Book of Duch. 621.
17. MS. han ye me, correctly ; Percy omits )nc, and so spoils
both sense and metre.
28. MS. neui?re ; Percy prints nere ; but the syllables ut his
occupy the time of one syllable. I suspect that the correct
reading is thenke ben ; to is not wanted, and thenke is better
with a final e, though it is sometimes dropped in the pres.
indicative. Percy prints thinke, but the MS. has thenk ; cf.
A.S. \encan. With 1. 29 cf. Troil. v. 363.
31. I do no/ors, I don't care; as in Cant. Ta. 6S16.
3IO VII. ANELIDA AND ARCITE.
VII. ANELIDA AND ARCITE.
This Poem consists of several distinct portions. It begins
with a Proem, of three stanzas, followed by a part of the story,
in twenty-seven stanzas, all in seven-line stanzas. Next follows
the Complaint of Anelida, skilfully and artificially constructed ;
it consists of a Proem in a single stanza of nine lines ; next,
what may be called a Strophe, in six stanzas, of which the first
four consist of nine lines, the fifth consists of sixteen lines (with
only two rimes),, and the sixth, of nine lines (with internal
rimes). Next follows what may be called an Antistrophe, in six
stanzas arranged precisely as before ; wound up by a single
concluding stanza corresponding to the Proem at the beginning
of the Complaint. After this, the story begins again ; but the
poet had only written one stanza when he suddenly broke off,
and left the poem unfinished ; see note to 1. 357.
The name of Arcite naturally reminds us of the Knightes
Tale ; but the ' false Arcite ' of the present poem has nothing
beyond the name in common with the 'true Arcite' of the Tale.
However, there are other connecting links, to be pointed out in
their due places, which tend to shew that this poem was wTitten
before the Knightes Tale, and was never finished ; it is also
probable that Chaucer actually wrote an earlier draught of the
Knightes Tale, with the title of Pala7non and Arcite, which he
afterwards partially rejected ; for he mentions ' The Love of
Palamon and Arcite ' in the prologue to the Legend of Good
Women as if it were an independent work. However this may
be, it is clear that, in constructing or rewriting the Knightes
Tale, he did not lose sight of ' Anelida,' for he has used some of
the lines over again ; moreover, it is not a little remarkable that
the very lines from Statins which are quoted at the beginning of
the fourth stanza of Anelida are also quoted, in some of the
MSS., at the beginning of the Knightes Tale.
But this is not all. For Dr. Koch has pointed out the close
agreement between the opening stanzas of this poem, and those
of Boccaccio's Teseide, which is the very work from which
Palamo7i and Arcite was, of course, derived, as it is the chief
source of the Knightes Tale also. Besides this, there are
several stanzas from the Teseide in the Parliament of Foules ;
and even three near the end of Troilus, viz. the seventh, eighth,
and ninth from the end of the last book. Hence we should be
inclined to suppose that Chaucer originally translated the Teseide
Vir. ANELIDA AND A R CITE. 31!
rather closely, substituting a seven-line stanza for the ottava
riina of the original ; this formed the original Palatnon and
Arcite, a poem which he probably never finished (as his manner
was). Not wishing, however, to abandon it altogether, Ire
probably used some of the lines in this present poem, and
introduced others into his Parliament of Foules. At a later
period, he rewrote, in a complete form, the whole story in his
own fashion, which has come down to us as The Knightes
Tale. Whatever the right explanation may be, we are at any
rate certain that the Teseide is the source of (l) sixteen stanzas
in the Parliament of Foules ; (2) of part of the first ten stanzas
in the present poem ; (3) of the original Palamon and Arcite;
(4) of the Knightes Tale ; and (5) of three stanzas near the end
of Troilus [Tes. xi. 1-3).
1. In comparing the first three stanzas with the Teseide, we
must reverse the order of the stanzas in the latter poem. Stanza
I of Annelida answers to st. 3 of the Italian ; stanza 2, to st. 2 ;
and stanza 3 to st. i. The first two lines of lib. I. st. 3 (of the
Italian) are : —
' Siate presetiti, O Marte rubiconJo,
Nelle tue arme rigido e feroce^
I. e. Be present, O Mars the red, strong ^ccvA. fierce in thy arms
(battle-array). For the words Be present, see 1. 6.
2. Trace, Thrace. Cf. Kn. Tale, 11 14-6. Chaucer was here
thinking of Statins, Theb. lib. vii. 40, where there is a description
of the temple of Mars on Mount Hsmus, in Thrace, described
as having a frosty climate. In bk. ii, 1. 719, Pallas is invoked
as being superior to Bellona.
6, 7. Partly imitated from Tes. i. 3 : — •
'E sostenete la mano e la voce
Di me, che intendo i vostri etTecti dire.'
8-10. Imitated from Tes. i. 2 : —
' Che m' e venuta voglia con pietosa
Rima di scriver una storia atitica,
Tanto negli anni riposta e nascosa, ,
Che latino autor non par ne dica,
Per quel ch' io senta, in libro alcuna cosa.'
Thus it appears that, when speaking of his finding an old story
in Latin, he is actually translating from an Italian poem which
treats of something else ! That is, his words give no indication
whatever of the source of his poem ; but are merely used in
312 VII. ANELIDA AND ARCITE.
a purely conventional manner. The ' old story ' is really that
of the siege of Thebes ; and the Latin is the Thebais of Statius.
And neither of them speak of Anelida !
15. 'Kta.d favour db I' . Imitated from Tes. i. i ; —
' O sorelle Castalie, che nel monte
Elicona contente dimorate
D' intorno al sacro gorgoneo fonte,
Sottesso T onibra dellc frondi amate
Da Febo, delle quali ancor la fronte
I' spero omarmi sol che '1 concediate
Gli santi orecchi a' miei prieghi porgete,
E quegli udite come vol volete.'
Polymia, Polyhymnia, also spelt Polymnia, Gk. noXv/nj/ia ; one
of the nine Muses. Chaucer invokes the muse Cho in Troil.
bk. ii, and Calliope in bk. iii. Cf. Ho. of Fame, 520-2. Parnaso,
Parnassus, a mountain in Phocis sacred to Apollo and the Muses,
at whose foot was Delphi and the Castalian spring. Elicon, mount
HeHcon in Bceotia ; Chaucer seems to have been thinking
rather of the Castalian spring, as he uses the prep, by, and
supposes EH con to be n&a.i: Parnaso. See the Italian, as quoted
above ; and note that, in the Ho. of Fame, 522, he says that
Helicon is a well.
A similar confusion occurs in Troilus, iii. 1809: —
' Ye sustren nine eek, that by Helicone
In hill Pernaso, listen for tabide.'
17. Cirrea, Cirra. Chaucer was thinking of the adj. Cirrcstes.
Cirra was an ancient town near Delphi, under Parriassus.
Dante mentions Cirra, Parad. i. 36 ; and Parnaso just above,
1. 16. Perhaps Chaucer took it from him.
20. A common simile. So Spenser, F. 0. i. 12. I, 42 ; and at
the end of the Thebaid and the Teseide both.
21. Stace, Statius; i.e. the Thebaid; whence some of the
next stanzas are more or less borrowed. Chaucer epitomises the
general contents of the Thebaid in his Troilus ; v. 1478, &c.
Corinne, not Corinna (as some have thought, for she has
nothing to do with the matter), but Corinnus. Corinnus was a
disciple of Palam.edes, and is said to have written an account of
the Trojan War, and of the war of the Trojan king Dardanus
against the Paphlagonians, in the Dorian dialect. Suidas asserts
that Homer made some use of his writings. See Zedler, Uni-
versal Lexicon ; and Biog. Universelle. How Chaucer met
with this name, is not known. Possibly, however, Chaucer was
VII. ANELIDA AND ARCITE. 313
thinking of Colotina, i.e. Guido di Colonna, author of the
medieval BelUim Trojanum. But this does not help us, and it
is at least as likely that the name Corinne was merely intro-
duced by way of flourish ; for no source has been discovered for
the latter part of the poem, which may have been entirely of his
own invention. Cf. note to 1. 8 above.
22. The verses from Statius, preserved in the MSS., are the
three lines following ; from Thebais, xii. 519 : —
' Jamque domos patrias Scythicoe post aspera gentis
Pra'lia laurigero subeuntein Thtsea curru,
Lsetifici plausus missusque ad sidera vulgi,' &c.
The first line and half the second appear also in the MSS. of
the Canterbury Tales, at the head of the Knightes Tale, which
commences, so to speak, at the same point (1. 765 in Lewis's
translation of the Thebaid). Comparing these Hnes of Statius
with the lines in Chaucer, we at once see how he came by the
word aspre and the expression With laicrer croiuicd. The
whole of this stanza (11. 22-28) is expanded from the three lines
here quoted.
23. Cziht', Scythia; see last note. See Kn. Tale, 9.
24. Cf Kn. Tale, 169, 121.
25. Contre-houses, houses of his country, homes (used of
Theseus and his army). It exactly reproduces the Lat. dotnos
patrias. See Kn. Tale, 11.
29-35. Chaucer merely takes the general idea from Statius,
and e.xpands it in his own way. Lewis's translation of Statius
has : —
' To swell the pomp, before the chief are borne
The spoils and trophies from the vanquish'd torn ; '
but the Lat. text has —
'Ante ducem spolia et duri Mauortis imago,
Uirginei currtis, cumulataque fercula cristis.'
And, just below, is a brief mention of Hippolyta, who had been
wedded to Theseus.
\ 30, 31. Cf. Kn. Tale, 117, 118. See note above.
I 36, 37. Cf. Kn. Tale, 23, 24 ; observe the order of words.
38. Repeated in Kn. Tale, 114 ; changing With to And.
Eine/ye is not mentioned in Statius. She is the Emilia of the
Teseide ; see lib. ii. st. 22 of that poem.
43-46. Cf. Kn. Tale, 14, 15, 169.
47. Here we are told that the story is really to begin.
Chaucer now returns from Statius (whom he has nearly done
314 ^'^^- ANELIDA AND ARCITE.
with) to the Teseide, and the next three stanzas, II. 50-70, are
more or less imitated from that poem, lib. ii. st. 10-12.
50-56. Boccaccio is giving a sort of summary of the result of
the war described in the Thebaid. His words are : —
' Fra tanto Marte i popoli lemei
Con furioso corso avie commossi
Sopro i Tebani, e miseri trofei
Donati avea de' Principi percossi
Piu volte gia, e de' greci plebei
Ritenuti tal volta, e tal riscossi
Con asta sanguinosa fieramente,
Tiista avea fatta 1' una e 1' altra gente.'
57-63. Imitated from Tes. ii. 1 1 : —
' Percio che dopo Anfiarao, Tideo
Stato era ucciso, e '1 buon Ippomedone,
E similmente il bel Partenopeo,
E piu Teban, de' qua' non fo menzione,
Dinanzi e dopo al fiero Capaneo,
E dietro a tutti in doloroso agone,
Eteocle e Polinice, ed ispedito
II solo Adrastro ad Argo era fuggito.'
See also Troilus, v. 151 1-7,
57. Amphiorax\ so in Troilus, ii. 105, v. 15 12; Cant. Tales,
6323 ; and in Lydgate's Siege of Thebes. Amphioraus is meant ;
he accompanied Polynices, and was swallowed up by the earth
during the siege of Thebes ; Statius, Thcbais, lib. vii. (at the
end) ; Dante, hi/, xx. 34. Tydeus and Polynices married the
two daughters of Adrastus. The heroic acts of Tydeus are
recorded in the Thebaid. See Lydgate, Siege of Thebes ; or
the extract from it in my Specimens of English.
58. Ipomedon, Hippomedon ; one of the seven chiefs who
engaged in the war against Thebes. Parthonopee, Partheno-
pasus, son of Meleager and Atalanta ; another of the seven
chiefs. For the account of their deaths, see the Thebaid, lib. ix,
59. Canipa7ieus ; spelt Cappa/teiis, Capaneus in Kn. Tale, 74 ;
Troil. V. 1 5 16. Thynne, in his Animadversions on Speght's
Chaucer (ed. Furnivall, p. 43), defends the spelling Cavipancus
on the ground that it was the usual medieval spelling ; and
refers us to Gower and Lydgate. In Pauli's edition of Gower, i.
108, it is Capajzcus. Lydgate has Campaneus ; Siege of Thebes,
pt. iii. near the beginning. Capaneus is the right Latin form ;
he was one of the seven chiefs, and was struck with lightning
by Jupiter whilst scaling the walls of Thebes ; Statius, Theb.
VII. ANELIDA AND ARCITE. 315
lib. X (at the end). Cf. Dante, Inf. xiv. 63. As to the form
Campaiieiis, cf. Ital. Campidoglio with Lat. Capitolium.
60. ' The Theban wretches, the two brothers ; ' i. e. Eteocles
and Polynices, who caused the war. Cf. Troil. v. 15 18.
61. Admstus, king of Argos, who assisted his son-in-law
Polynices, and survived the war ; Theb. lib. xi. 441.
63. ' That no man knew of any remedy for his (own) misery.'
Care, anxiety, misery. At this line Chaucer begins upon st. 12
of the second book of the Teseide, which runs thus : —
' Onde il misero gente era rimaso
Voto^ di gente, e pien d' ogni dolore;
Ma a picciol tempo da Creonte invaso
Fu, che di quello si fe' re e signore.
Con tristo augurio, in doloroso caso
Rec6 insieme il regno suo e 1' onore.
Per fiera crudelta da lui usata,
Mai da null' altro davanti pensata.'
Cf. Knightes Tale, 80-4.
71. From this point onward, Chaucer's work is, as far as we
know at present, original. He seems to be intending to draw a
portrait of a queen of Armenia who is neglected by her lover,
in distinct contrast to Emilia, sister of the queen of Scythia,
who had a pair of lovers devoted to her service.
72. Ermony, Armenia ; the usual IM. E. form.
78. Of twenty yeer of elde, of twenty years of age ; so in
MSS. F., Tn., and Harl. 372. See note to 1. 80.
80. Bchclde; so in MSS. Harl., F. ; and Harl. 372 has
beheelde. I should hesitate to accept this form instead of the
usual beholde, but for its occurrence in Gower, Conf. Amant., ed.
Pauli, iii. 147 : —
' The wine can make a creple sterte
And a deliver man unwelde ;
It maketh a blind man to behelde^
So also in the Moral Ode, 1. 288, the Trinity MS. has the infin.
behealde, and the Lambeth MS. has bihclde. It appears to be
a Southern form, adopted here for the rime, like ken for kin in
Book of the Duch. 438.
There is further authority ; for we actually find helde for Iwlde
in five MSS. out of six, riming with ivelde {wolde) ; C. T., Group
D, 1. 272.
82. Penelope and Lucretia are favourite examples of con-
* Voio, ' hollow, voide, empty ' ; Florio.
?
3l6 VII. ANELIDA AND ARCITE.
stancy ; see C. T., Group B, 63, 75 (in my edit, of Prioresses
Tale) ; Book Duch. 1081-2 ; Leg. Good Women, 252, 257.
84. Ame7tded. Compare what is said of Zenobia ; C. T., B.
3444-
85. I have supplied Arcite, which the MSS. strangely omit.
It is necessary to naine him here, to introduce him ; and the
line is else too short. Chaucer frequently shifts the accent
upon this name, so that there is nothing wrong about either
Arcite here, or Arcite in I. 92. See Kn. Tale, 173, 344, 361, &c.
on the one hand ; and lines 1297, 1885 on the other. And see
1. 140 below.
98. 'As, indeed, it is needless for men to learn such craftiness.'
105. A proverbial expression ; see Squi. Tale, 537. The
character of Arcite is precisely that of the false tercelet in
Part II. of the Squieres Tale ; and Anelida is like the falcon in
the same. Both here and in the Squieres Tale we find the
allusions to Lamech, and to blue as the colour of constancy; see
notes to 11. 146, 150, 161-9 below.
119. Cf. Squi. Tale, 569.
141. New-fangelnesse \ see p. 199, 1. I, and Squi. Tale, 610.
145. In her hewe, in her colours : he wore the colours which
she affected. This was a common method of shewing devotion
to a lady's service.
146. Observe the satire in this line. Arcite is supposed to
have worn white, red, or green ; but he did not wear blue, for
that was the colour of constancy. Cf. Squi. Tale, 644, and the
note ; and see 1. 330 below ; also p. 199, 1. 7.
150. Cf. Squi. Tale, 550. I have already drawn attention to
the resemblance between this poem and the Squieres Tale, in
my note to 1. 548 of that Tale. Cf. also Cant. Tales, 5636.
The reference is to Gen. iv. 19 — 'And Lamech took unto him
two wives.' In 1. 154, Chaucer curiously confounds him with
Jabal, Lamech's son, who was 'the father of such as dwell in
tents ' ; Gen. iv. 20.
155. Arcit-e ; trisyllabic, as frequently in Kn. Tale.
157. 'Like a wicked horse, which generally shrieks when it
bites ; ' Bell. This explanation is clearly wrong. The line is
repeated, with the slight change of pleytie to whine, in C. T.
5968. To pleyne or to whine means to utter a plaintive cry, or
to whinny ; and the sense is—' Like a horse, (of doubtful temper),
which can either bite or whinny (as if wanting a caress).
161. Theef, false wretch ; cf. Squi. Tale, 537.
162. Cf. Squi. Tale, 462, 632.
VII. ANELIDA AND ARCITE. 317
166. Cf. Squi. Tale, 448.
169. Cf. Squi. Tale, 412, 417, 430, 631.
171. Al craiHpissheth, she draws all together, contracts con-
vulsively ; formed from cramp. I know of but four other
examples of the use of this word.
In Lydgate's Flour of Curtesie, st. 7. printed in Chaucer's
Works, ed. 1561, fol. 248, we have the lines : —
' I gan complayne min inwarde deedly smert
That aye so sore crainpeshe at min heite.'
As this gives no sense, it is clear that crainpeshe at is an error
for crampisheih, which Lydgate probably adopted from the
present passage.
Again, I have a note that, in Lydgate's Life of St. Edmund,
in MS. Harl. 2278, fol. loi, are the lines : —
'By pouert spoiled, which made hem sore smerte,
Which, as they thouhte, crampysshcd at her herte.'
Skelton has encrau7?tpysshed, Garland of Laurell, 16 ; and Dyce's
note gives an example of craumpishing from Lydgate's Wars of
Troy, bk. iv. sig. Xv. ed. 1555.
Once more, Lydgate, in his Fall of Princes, bk. i. c. 9 (pr. by
Wayland, leaf 18, col. 2), has the line^
' Deth crampishing into their hert gan crepe.'
175. In Kn. Tale, 1950, it is Arcite who says ' mercy f^
176. Read endur'th. Mate, exhausted.
177. Read 71' hath. Sustene, support herself; cf. C. T. 1 1 173.
178. Forth is here equivalent to 'continues'; is or dwellcth
is understood. Read laiiguisshing.
180. Grene, fresh; probably with a reference to green as
being the colour of inconstancy.
182. Nearly repeated in Kn. Tale, 1539.
183. If up is to be retained before so, change holdeth into
halt. ' His new lady reins him in by the bridle so tightly
(harnessed as he is) at the end of the shaft (of her car), that
he fears every word like an arrow.' The image is that of a
horse, tightly fastened to the ends of the shafts of a car, and
then so hardly reined in that he fears every word of the driver ;
he expects a cut with the whip, and he cannot get away.
193. Mete or sippe, meat or drink ; we now say * bite or sup.'
This is decidedly the correct reading. The MSS. mostly have
fee or shippe, or fee or shepe, which are absurd. In the Harl.
MS. 372, which has fee or sheep, a (late) marginal note has
tneate or supp.
3l8 VII. ANELIDA AND A R CITE.
194. Sent, short for sendcth ; cf. serve/h above. Cf. Book of
Duch. 1024.
202. Also, as ; 'as may God save me.'
206. Her ne gat no geyn, she obtained for herself no ad-
vantage.
211. The metre now becomes extremely artificial. The first
stanza is introductory. Its nine lines are rimed aabaabbab,
with only two rimes. I set back lines 3, 6, 7, 9, to shew the
arrangement more clearly. The next four stanzas are in the
same metre. The construction is obscure, but is cleared up by
1. 350, which is its echo, and again by 11. 270-1. Siverd is the
nom. case, and thirleth is its verb ; ' the sword of sorrow,
whetted with false complaisance, so pierces my heart, (now)
bare of bliss and black in hue, with the (keen) point of (tender)
recollection.' Chaucer's ' with . . . remembrance ' is precisely
Dante's ' Per la puntura della rimembranza ' ; Purg. xii. 20.
214. Cf. p. 215, 1. 55.
215. Awhaped, amazed, stupified. To the examples in
Murray's Diet, add — 'Sole by himself, awhaped and amate';
Compl. of the Black Knight, 168. See the Glossary.
216. Cf. p. 217, 1. 123.
218. That, who : relative to her above.
220. Observe how the stanza, which I here number as I, is
echoed by the stanza below, 11. 281-289 ; and so of the rest.
222. Nearly repeated below, p. 214, 1. 35.
241. Founde, seek after; A. S. fundia?i. Y or founde, all the
MSS. have be founde, but the be is merely copied in from be
more in 1. 240. If we retain be, then befounde must be a com-
pound verb, with the same sense as before; but there is no
known example of this verb, though the related strong verb
befinden is not uncommon. But see 1. 47 above.
247. Cf. p. 217, 11. 107, 108.
256-271. This stanza is in the same metre as that marked 5
below, 11. 317-332. It is very complex, consisting of 16 lines of
varying length. The lines which I have set back have but
four accents ; the rest have five. The rimes in the first eight
lines are arranged in the order aaabaaab; in the last eight
lines this order is precisely reversed, giving! bbbabbba. There
are but two rimes throughout. The difficulty of it is considerable^
260. Namely, especially, in particular.
262. 'Offended you, as surely as (I hope that) He who knows
everything may free my soul from woe.'
265. This refers to 11. 113-5 above.
Vn. ANELIDA AND ARCITE. 319
267. Read sav-e, mek-e ; or the line will be too short.
270. Refers to 11. 21 1-3 above.
272. This stanza answers to that marked 6 below, 11. 333-341.
It is the most complex of all, as the lines contain internal rimes.
The lines are of the normal length, and arranged with the end-
rimes aabaabbab, as in the stanzas marked I to 4 above.
Every line has an internal rime, viz. at the second and fourth
accents. In 11. 274, 280, this internal rime is a feminine one,
which leaves but 07ie syllable (viz. Jiay, may) to complete these
lines.
The expression 'swete fo' occurs again at p. 214, 1. 41 ; also
in Troil. v. 228. And cf. p. 215, 11. 64, 65.
279. 'And then shall this, which is now wrong, (turn) into a
jest ; and all (shall be) forgiven, whilst I may live.'
281. The stanza here marked i answers to the stanza so
marked above ; and so of the rest. The metre has already
been explained.
286. ' There are no other fresh intermediate ways.'
299. ' And must I pray (to you), and so cast aside woman-
hood ?' It is not for the woman to sue to the man. Compare
1. 332.
302. ' And if 1 lament as to what life I lead.'
306. ' Your demeanour may be said to flower, but it bears no
seed.' There is much promise, but no performance.
309. Ilolde, keep back. The spelling Averyll (or Auenll)
occurs in MS. Had. 7333, MS. Addit. 16165, and MSS. T. and
P. It is much better than the Aprill or Aprille in the rest. I
would also read Averill in Troil. i. 156.
313. Who iJiaf, whosoever. Fast, trustworthy.
315. If an animal is easily startled, it shews that it has not
been properly tamed.
320. Chaunte-plcure. Godefroy says that there was a cele-
brated poem of the 13th century named Chantepletire or Plcure-
cJumic ; and that it was addressed to those who sing in this
world and will weep in the next. Hence also the word was
particularly used to signify any complaint or lament, or a chant
at the burial-service. One of his quotations is : — ' Heu brevis
honor qui vix duravit per diem, sed longus dolor qui usque ad
mortem, gallice la chantepletire^ ; J. de Aluet, Serm.^ Richel.
1. 14961, fol. 195, verso. And again : —
'Car le juge de verite
Pugnira nostre iniquite
Par la balance d'equite
320 VII. ANELIDA AND A R CITE.
Qui ou val de la chanteplcure
Nons boute en grant adversite
Sanz fin a perpetuite,
Et y parsevere et demeure.'
J. de Meung, Le Tresor, I. 1350; ed. Meon.
Tyrwhitt says : — ' A sort of proverbial expression for singing
and weeping successively [rather, little singing followed by
much weeping]. See Lydgate, Trag. [i. e. Fall of Princes\
St. the last ; where he says that his book is ' Lyke ChantcpleuT-e,
now singing now weping.' In MS. Harl. 4333 is a Ballad which
turns upon this expression. It begins : ' Moult vaut mieux
pleure-chatite que ne fait chante-pleure. ' Clearly the last ex-
pression means, that short grief followed by long joy is better
than brief joy followed by long grief. The fitness of the appli-
cation in the present instance is obvious.
Another example occurs in Lydgate's Fall of Princes, bk. i.
c. 7, lenvoy : —
' It is like to the chauitte-plcure,
Beginning with ioy, ending in wretchednes.'
328. A furlong-wey meant the time during which one can
walk a furlong, at three miles an hour. A mile-way is twenty
minutes; 2i. fondong-wey is two minutes and a half; and the
double of it is five minutes. Such is the strict sense ; which is,
of course, not to be insisted on here.
330. Astire, true blue ; the colour of constancy ; see I. 332.
' Her habyte was of manyfolde colours,
Watchet-^/^Tfv of fayned stedfastnesse,
' Her golde allayed like son in watry showres,
Meynt with grene, for chaunge and dotiblenesse.'
Lydgate's Fall of Princes, bk. vi. c. I. st. 7.
So in Troil. iii. 885 — ' bere to him this blewe ring.' And see
p. 199, 1. 7, and the note.
332. ' And to pray to me for mercy.' Cf. 11. 299, 300.
338. They, i. e. your ruth and your truth.
341. ' My wit cannot reach, it is so weak.'
342. Here follows the concluding stanza of the Complaint.
344. Read — For I shal ne'er (or nev'r) eft ptctten.
346. See note to Pari, of Foules, 342.
350. This line re-echoes 1. 211.
357. The reason why the Poem ends here is sufificiently
obvious. Here must have followed the description of the temple
of Mars, written in sevetz-line stanzas. But it was all rewritten
TX. HOUSE OF FAME : BOOK T. 32 1
in a new metre, and is preserved to us, for all time, in the
famous passage in the Knightes Tale ; 11. 1109-1192. We have
nothing to regret.
VIII. Chaucers Wordes unto Adam.
Only extant in MS. T., written by Shirley, and in Stowe's
edition of 1561. Dr. Koch says — 'It seems that Stowe has
taken his text from Shirley, with a few modifications in spelling,
and altered Shirley's Scriveyji into scrivener, apparently because
that word was out of use in his time. Scri7'ey>i is O. Fr.
escrizuun, F. I'crivain. Lines 3 and 4 are too long [in MS. T.
and Stowe], but long and more are unnecessary for the sense,
wherfore I have omitted them.' Mr. Sweet omits long, but
retains 7nore, though it sadly clogs the line. Again, in 1. 2, we
find for to, where for is superfluous.
2. Boece, Chaucer's translation of Boethius, an excellent
edition of which has been published by Dr. Morris; it also
occurs in the old editions of Chaucer's works. The treatise by
Boethius is entitled De Co7tsolatione PhilosophicE. Troilus,
Chaucer's poem of Troilus and Creseyde ; in 5 books, all in
seven-line stanzas. It is partly taken from an Italian poem in
eight-line stanzas called Filostrato, written by Boccaccio ; but
with many variations and large additions.
3. ' Thou oughtest to have an attack of the scab under thy
locks, unless thou write exactly in accordance with my com-
position.' •
IX. House of Fame: Book I.
Written in three Books ; but I number the lines consecutively
throughout, for convenience ; at the same time giving the separate
numbering within marks of parenthesis. The title of the poem
is expressly given at 1, 663. The author gives his name as
Geffrey, 1. 729.
Lydgate's Teviple of Glass is partly imitated from the House
of Fame ; Warton, Hist. E. Poet, 1871, iii. 61.
For further remarks see the Preface.
Argument: Book I. A discussion on dreams. I will tell
you my dream on the loth of December. But let me first invoke
Morpheus. May those who gladly hear me have joy ; but may
those who dislike my words have as evil a fate as Croesus, king
of Lydia ! (i-iio).
322 IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK I.
I slept, and dreamt I was in a temple of glass, dedicated to
Venus. On a tablet of brass I found the opening words of
Vergil's ^neid, after which I saw the destruction of Troy, the
death of Priam, the flight of ^neas, the loss of Creusa, the
^•oyage of yEneas to Italy, the storm at sea sent by Juno,
the arrival of ^neas at Carthage, how kindly Dido received
him, how ^neas betrayed and left her, causing Dido's lament and
suicide. Similar falsehood was seen in Demophon, Achilles,
Paris, Jason, Hercules, and Theseus. Next ^neas sailed to
Italy, and lost Palinurus ; he visited the lower regions, and there
saw Anchises, Palinurus, Dido, and Deiphobus. Afterwards
he warred in Italy, slew Turnus, and won Lavinia (111-467).
After this I went out of the temple, and found a large plain.
Looking up, I saw an eagle above me, of enormous size and
with golden feathers (468-508).
Book II. Such a strange vision as mine was never seen by
Scipio, Nebuchadnezzar, Pharaoh, or Turnus. O Venus and
Muses, help me to tell it ! The great eagle swooped down upon
me, seized me, and bore me aloft, and told me (in a man's voice)
not to be afraid. I thought I was being borne up to the stars,
like Enoch or Ganymede. The eagle then addressed me, and
told me some events of my own life, and said that he would bear
me to the House of Fame, where I should hear many wonderful
things (509-710).
The House stood in the midst, between heaven, earth, and sea,
and all sounds travelled thither. ' Geoffrey,' said he, ' you
know how all things tend to seek their own proper place ; a
stone sinks down, whilst smokes flies up. Sound is merely
broken air, and if you would know how all sounds come to
Fame's House, observe how, when a stone is thrown into water,
the rings made by the ripples extend from the spot where it fell
till they reach the shore. Just so all earthly sounds travel till
they reach Fame's House.' He then bade me look downwards,
and asked me what I saw. I saw fields, hills, rivers, towns, and
sea ; but soon, he had soared so high that the whole earth
dwindled to a point. I told him I was higher up than ever was
Alexander, Scipio, Dsedalus, or Icarus. He then bade me look
upward ; and I saw the zodiac and the milky way, and clouds,
mist, snows, rains, and winds gathered beneath me. Then I
thought of Boethius and Marcian, and their descriptions of
heaven. The eagle would have taught me the names of the
stars, but I cared not to leam. He then asked me if I could
now hear the sounds that murmured in the House of Fame. I
IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK I. 323
said they sounded like the beating of the sea on rocks
(711-1045).
Then he set me down upon my feet in a way that led to the
House, and bade me go forward ; observing that I should find
that the words that flew about in Fame's House assumed the out-
ward forms of the tneii upon earth who uttered them (1046-90).
Book HI. Apollo, aid me to write this last book ! My rime is
artless; I aim at expressing my thoughts only (iogi-1109).
The House of Fame stood high upon a lofty rock, which I
climbed laboriously. The rock was formed of ice. On the
southern side it was covered with names, many of the letters
of which were melted away. On the northern side, it was
likewise covered with names, which remained unmcltcd and
legible. On the top of the mountain I found a beautiful House,
which I cannot describe though I remember it. It was all of
beryl, and full of windows. In niches roundabout were harpers
and minstrels, such as Orpheus, Arion, Chiron, 4nd Glasgerion.
Far from these, by themselves, was a vast crowd of musicians.
There were Marsyas, Misenus, Joab, and others. In other
seats were jugglers, sorcerers, and magicians ; Medea, Circe,
Hermes, and Coll Tregetour. I next beheld the golden gates.
Then I heard the cries of those that were heralds to the goddess
Fame. How shall I describe the great hall, that was plated
v/ith gold, and set with gems? High on a throne of ruby sat
the goddess, who at first seemed but a dwarf, but presently
grew so that she reached from earth to heaven. Her hair was
golden, and she was covered with innumerable ears and tongues.
Her shoulders sustained the names of famous men, such as Alex-
ander and Hercules. On either side of the hall were huge pillars
of metal. On the first of these, composed of lead and iron, was
the Jew Joscphus ; the iron was the metal of Mercury, and the
lead, of Saturn. Next, on an iron pillar, was Statius ; and on
other iron pillars were Homer, Dares, Dictys, Guido, and the
English Geoffrey, who upbore the fame of Troy. On a pillar
of iron, but covered over with tin, was Vergil ; and beside him
Ovid and Lucan. On a pillar of sulphur stood Claudian
(1110-1512).
Next I saw a vast company, all worshipping Fame. These
she rejected, but would say of them neither good nor bad. She
then sent a messenger to fetch /Eolus, the god of wind, who
should bring with him two trumpets, namely of Praise and
Slander. TEolus, with his man Triton, came to Fame. Then,
as many undeserving suppliants approached her, she bade
Y 2
324 /A'. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK I.
tEoIus blow his black trump of Slander. He did so, and from
it there issued a stinking smoke ; and so this second company
got renown, but it was evil. A third company sued to her, and
she bade ^olus blow his golden trump of Praise. Straightway
he did so, and the blast had a perfume like that of balm and
roses. A fourth company, a very small one, asked for no fame
at all, and their request was granted. A fifth company modestly
asked for no fame, though they had done great things ; but
Fame bade ^olus blow his golden trumpet, till their praise
resounded everywhere. A sixth company of idle men, who had
done no good, asked for fame ; and their request was granted.
A seventh company made the same request ; but Fame reviled
them ; ^olus blew his black trump, and all men laughed at
them. An eighth company, of wicked men, prayed for good
fame ; but their request was refused. A ninth company, also of
wicked men, prayed for a famous but evil name, and their
request was granted. Among them was the wretch who set on
fire the temple at Athens (15 13-1867).
Then some man perceived me, and began to question me.
I explained that I had come to learn strange things, and
not to gain fame. He led me out of the castle and into a
valley, where stood the house of Daedalus (i. e. the house of
Rumour). This strange house was made of basket-work, and
was full of holes, and all the doors stood wide open. All sorts
of rumours entered there, and it was sixty miles long. On a
rock beside it I saw my eagle perched, who again seized me, and
bore me into it through a window. It swarmed with people, all
of whom were engaged in telling news ; and often their stories
would fly out of a window. Sometimes a truth and a lie would
try to fly out together, and became commingled before they
could get away. Every piece of news then flew to Fame,
who did as she pleased with each. The house of Dcedalus was
thronged with pilgrims, pardoners, couriers, and messengers,
and I heard strange things. In one corner men were telling
stories about love, and there was a crush of men running to hear
them. At last I saw a man whom I knew not ; but he seemed
to be one who had great authority — {here the poem ends, being
incomplete) \ 11. 186S-2158).
The general idea of the poem was plainly suggested by the
description of Fame in Vergil, the house of Fame as described
near the beginning of the twelfth book of Ovid's Metamorphosis,
and various hints in Dante's Divina Commedia. For a close
and searching comparison between the House of Fame and
IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK I. 325
Dante's great poem, sec the article by A. Rambeau in Engl.
Stiidien, iii. 209.
I. For this method of commencing a poem with a dream,
compare The Book of the Duchesse, Pari, of Foules, and The
Romance of the Rose.
For discourses on dreams, compare the Nonne Preestes Tale,
and the remarks of Pandarus in the fifth book of Troiius.
Chaucer here propounds several problems ; first, what causes
dreams (a question answered at some length in the Nonnti
Preestes Tale, 103-118) ; why some come true and some do not
(discussed in the same, 151-336); and what are the various
sorts of dreams (see note to 1. 7 below).
There is another passage in Le Roman de la Rose, which
bears some resemblance to the present passage. It begins at
1. 18699 :—
' Ne ne revoil dire des songes,
S'il sunt voirs, ou s'il sunt menjonges;
Se Ten les doit du tout eslire,
Ou s'il sunt du tout a despire :
Porquoi 11 uns sunt plus orribles.
Plus bel li autre et plus paisible,
Selonc lor apparicions
En diverses complexions,
Et selonc lors divers corages .
Des naeurs divers et des aages:
Ou se Diex par tex visions
Envoie revelacions,
Ou li malignes esperiz,
Por metre les gens en periz ;
De tout ce ne m'entremetrai.'
2. This long sentence ends at line 52.
7. This opens up the question as to the divers sorts of dreams.
Chaucer here evidently follows Macrobius, who, in his Com-
mentary on the Somnium Scipionis, lib. i. c. 3, distinguishes
Jiiie kinds of dreams, viz. soiiiniuni, visio, Ofacuhi/n, i/isoinniuiii,
and visum. The fourth kind, ifisoiiiniui/i, was also called
fantasma ; and this provided Chaucer with the word fantotne
in 1. II. In the same line, oracles answers to the Lat. oraciila.
Cf. Ten Brink, Stiidieti, p. loi.
18. The gendres, the (various kinds). This again refers to
Macrobius, who subdivides the kind of dream which he calls
somnium into five species, viz. proprinm, alicnum, comfnune,
publicum, and gencrale, according to the things to which they
326 IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK T.
relate. Distmince of tynies, i. e. whether the thing dreamt of
will happen soon, or a long time afterwards.
20. ' Why this is a greater (more efficient) cause than that.'
21. This alludes to the four chief complexions of men; cf.
Nonne Prestes Tale, 104. The four complexions were the
sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholy, and choleric ; and each com-
plexion was likely to have certain sorts of dreams. Thus, in
the Nonne Preestes Tale, 108, the choleric man is said to dream
of arrows, fire, fierce carnivorous beasts, strife, and dogs ;
whilst the vielancholy man will dream of bulls and bears and
black devils.
22. Reflexioi(7ts, the reflections or thoughts to which each
man is most addicted ; see Pari, of Foules, 99-105.
24. * Because of too great feebleness of their brain (caused) by
abstinence,' &:c.
43. O/propf-e kyndc, owing to its own nature.
48. The,^ in By is run on to the a into avisiouns.
53. 'As respects this matter, may good befal the great clerks
that treat of it.' Of these great clerks, Macrobius was one, and
Jean de Meun another. Vincent of Beauvais has plenty to say
about dreams in his Speculum Naturale, lib. xxvi. ; and he
refers us to Aristotle, Gregory (Moralia, lib. viii.), Johannes de
Rupella, Priscianus (ad Cosdroe regem Persarum), Augustinus
(in Libro de diuinatione dasmonum), Hieronimus (super Ma-
theum, lib. ii.), Thomas de Aquino, Albertus, &c.
58. Repeated (nearly) from 1. I.
63. I here give the text as restored by Willert, who shows how
the corruptions in 11. 62 and 63 arose. First of all dide was
shifted into 1. 62, giving as dide I ; as in Caxton's print. Next,
an additional now was put in place of dide in 1. 63 ; as in P., B.,
F., and Th., and dide was dropped altogether. After this, F.
turned the now of 1. 64 into yow, and Cx. omitted it. See also
note to 1. III.
64. ' Which, as I can (best) now remember.'
68. Pronounced fully : — With spe-ci-al de-v6-ci-6un.
69. Morpheus ; see Book of Duch. 137. From Ovid, Met.
xi. 592 — 612 ; esp. 11. 602, 3 : —
'Saxo taraen exit ab imo
Rivus aquse Lethes.'
73. * Est prope Cimmerios,' &c. ; Met. xi. 592.
75. See Ovid, Met. xi. 613-5 ; 633.
76. That . . her is equivalent to whose \ cf. Kn. Tale, 1852.
IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK f. 327
81. Cf. ' Colui, che tutto move,' i. e. He who moves all ; Parad.
i. I.
88. Read/^7vV/'; cf. Clerkes Tale, 816.
92. Read inisdcm-c\ final e not elided.
93. Read mdlicioiis.
98. ' That, whether he dream when bare-footed or when shod';
whether in bed by night or in a chair by day ; i. e. in every case.
The that is idiomatically repeated in 1. 99.
105. The dream of Croesus, king of Lydia, and his death vpon
a gallows, form the subject of the last story in the Monkes Tale.
Chaucer got it from the Rom. de la Rose, which accounts for
the form Lyde. The passage occurs at 1. 6513 : —
' Cresus . . .
Qui refa roi de toute Lydc, . . .
Quel vous vuet faire au gilief pendre.'
109, 1 10. The rime is correct, because abreyd is a stj-ong
verb. Chaucer does not rime a pp. with a locnk pt. tense,
which should have a final e. It is a point as to which he is very
particular. According to Mr. Cromie's Rime-Index, there is just
one exception, viz. in the Kn. Tale, 525, 526, where the pt. t.
seyde is rimed with the 'pp. leyde.' But Mr. Cromie happens
to have overlooked the fact that leydc is here not the pp.,
but the past tense ! In other words, there is really no excep-
tion to Chaucer's usual practice in the whole of the Cant. Tales.
Cf. Book of the Duchess, 192. In 1. 109, he refers to 1. 65.
III. Here again, as in 1. 63, is a mention of Dec. 10. Ten
Brink (Studien, p. 151) suggests that it may have been a T/mrs-
day ; cf. the mention of Jupiter in 11. 608, 642, 661. If so, the
year was 1383.
115. 'Like one that was weary with having overwalked
himself by going two miles on pilgrimage.' The difficulty was
not in the walking two miles, but in doing so under difficulties,
such as going barefoot for penance.
117. Corseyni; O.F. cors scint, lit. holy body ; hence a saint
or sainted person, or the shrine where a saint was laid. See
Robert of Brunne, Handlyng Synne, 8739 : —
' And hys ymage ful fe}Te depeynte,
Ry3t as he were a cors seyrit.^
See also P. Plowman, B. v. 539; Mortc Arthure, 1 164; and
(the spurious) Chaucer's Dream, 942.
118. 'To make that soft (or easy) which was formerly hard.'
The allusion is humorous enough ; viz. to the bonds of
328 IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK I.
matrimony. Here again Chaucer follows Jean de Meun, Rom.
de la Rose, S871 : —
' Mariages est maus liens,
Ainsinc m'a'ist saint Juliens
Qui pelerins errans herberge,
Et saint Lienart qui defferge
Les prisonniers bien repentans,
Quant les voit a soi demenlans ; '
i. e. ' Marriage is an evil bond — so may St. Julian aid me, who
harbours wandering pilgrims ; and St. Leonard, who frees from
their fetters (lit. un-irons) such prisoners as are very repentant,
when he sees them giving themselves the lie (or recalling their
word).' The ' prisoners ' are married people, who have repented,
and would recal their plighted vow.
St. Leonard was the patron-saint of captives, and it was
charitably hoped that he would extend his protection to the
wretched people who had unadvisedly entered into wedlock,
and soon prayed to get out of it again. They would thus ex-
change the hard bond for the soft condition of freedom. * St.
Julian is the patron of pilgrims ; St. Leonard and St. Barbara
protect captives'; Brand, Pop. Antiquities, i. 359. And, at
p. 363 of the same. Brand quotes from Barnabee Googe : —
' But Leonard of the prisoners doth the bandes asunder pull,
And breaks the prison-doores and chaines, wherewith his church is
full.'
St. Leonard's day is Nov. 6.
119. The MSS. have slept-e, which is dissyllabic. Read
sleep, as in C. T. Prol. 397.
120. Hence the title of one of Lydgate's poems, the Temple of
Glass, which is an imitation of the present poem.
130. Cf. the description of Venus' temple (Kn. Tale, 1060),
which is imitated from that in Boccaccio's Teseide.
133. Cf. 'naked fletyng in the large see . . . And on hire heed,
ful semely for to see, A rose garland fresh and wel smellyng ' ;
Kn. Tale, 1098.
137. 'Hirdowves'; Kn. Tale, 1104. ' Cupido ' ; id. 1105.
138. Vtilcano, Vulcan ; note the Italian forms of these names.
Boccaccio's Teseide has Ctipido (vii. 54), and Vulcano (vii. 43).
His face was brown with working at the forge.
143. A large portion of the rest of this First Book is taken up
with a summary of the earlier part of Vergil's Aeneid. We have
here a translation of the well-known opening lines : —
IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK I. 329
' Arma uirumque cano, Troia; qui primus ab oris
" Italiam, fato profugus, Lauinia uenit
Littora.'
152. Synouii, Sinon ; Aen. ii. 195.
153. With, i.e. who with ; ivJio is understood.
155. Made the hors broght, caused the horse to be brought.
On this idiom, see my note to Man of Lawes Tale, 171.
158. Ilioiin, Ilium. Iliuvi is only a poetical name for Troy ;
but the medieval writers often use it in the restricted sense of
the citadel of Troy, where was the temple of Apollo and the
palace of Priam. Thus, in the alliterative Troy-book, 1 1958,
ylion certainly has this sense ; and Caxton speaks of ' the
palays of ylyon ' ; see Spec, of English, ed. Skeat, p. 94. See
also the parallel passage in the Nonne Preestes Tale, 535. Still
more clearly, in the Leg. Good Women (Dido, 13), Chaucer
says, of 'the tour Ilioun,' that it 'of the citee was the cheef
dungeoun.'
160. Polite^ Polites ; Aen. ii. 526. Also spelt Polite in Troil.
iv. 53-
163. Brende, was on fire; used intransitively, as in 1. 537.
164-173. See Aen. ii. 5S9-733.
174. His refers to Aeneas ; Aen. ii. 736.
177. lulus and Ascanius were one and the same person ; see
JEn. i. 267. On the other hand, Brutus was ftottho. same person
as Cassius ; see Menkes Tale, B. 3S87.
182. IVente, foot-path ; Aen. ii. 737. Cf. Book Duch. 398.
184. 'So that she was dead, but I know not how.' Vergil
does not say JiotiJ she died.
185. Cost, ghost; see Aen. ii. 772.
198. Here Chaucer returns to the first book of the JEntid,
which he follows down to 1. 256.
204. ' To blow forth, (with winds) of all kinds ' ; cf. JEn. i. 85.
219. loves, Jove, Jupiter. This curious form occurs again,
11. 5S6, 597, 630 ; see note to 1. 586. It is an O. F. nominative,
with the usual suffixed j- which marks that case. Boccaccio has
Giove.
226. Achate (trisyllabic), Achates, /En. i. 312; where the
abl. form Achate occurs.
239. The story of Dido is told at length in Le Rom. de la
Rose, 13378 ; in The Legend of Good Women ; and in Gower,
Conf. Amantis, bk. iv., ed. Pauli, ii. 4. Chaucer now passes on
to the fourth book of the ^neid, till he comes to 1. 268 below.
272. ' It is not all gold that glistens.' A proverb which
33© IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK I.
Chaucer took from Alanus de Insulis ; see my note to Can.
Yeoman's Tale, 962.
273. ' For, as sure as I hope to have good use of my head.'
Brouke is, practically, in the optative mood. Cf. ' So mot I
brouke wel myn eye tweye'; Nonne Freest. Tale, 479. The
phrase occurs several times in the Tale of Gamelyn ; see note to
1. 334 of that poem in my edition.
280-283. These four lines occur in Thynne's edition only, but
are probably quite genuine. It is easy to see why they dropped
out ; viz. owing to the repetition of the word fynde at the end
of 11. 279 and 283. This is a very common cause of such
omissions. See note to 1. 504.
286. By, with reference to.
288. (J^j/, guest ; 'L^X. aduena, Mnx.'w. ^f^\.
290. ' He that fully knows the herb may safely lay it to his
eye.' So in Cotgrave's Diet., s. v. Herbe, we find; *■ Lherbe
qu^on cognoist^ on la doit Her ct son doigt ; Prov. Those, or
that, which a man knowes best, he must use most.'
305. In the margin of MSS. F. and B. is here written : —
' Cauete uos, -innocentes mulieres.'
315. Swete Jierte ; hence E. sweetheart \ cf. 1. 326.
329. I have no hesitation in inserting / after Agilte, as it is
absolutely required to complete the sense. Read — Agilf I yoiv,
&c.
343. Pronounce determinen (z as ee in beet).
350. * Fama, malum quo non aliud uelocius ullum,' ^n. iv.
174; quoted in the margin of MSS. F. and B.
351. ' Nichil occultum quod non reueletur ' ; Matt. x. 26:
quoted in the margin of MSS. F. and B.
355. Seyd y-shamed be, said to be put to shame.
359. Eft-sones, hereafter again. In the margin of MSS. F.
and B. we here find : — ' Cras poterunt turpia fieri sicut heri.'
By reading fieri turpia, this becomes a pentameter ; but it is
not in Ovid, nor (I suppose) in classical Latin.
361. Doojt, already done. 7!? done, yet to be done.
366. I read in for into (as in the MSS.). For similar instances,
where the scribes write into for in, see Einenkel, Streifziige
durch die Mittelengl. Syntax, p. 145.
367. In the margin of MSS. F. and B. is an incorrect
quotation of /En. iv. 548-9 : — 'tu prima furentem His, gennana,
malis oneras.'
378. Eneidos; because the books are headed ^neidos liber
primus, &c.
I
IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK I. 33 1
379. See Ovid, Heroides, Epist. vii— Dido JE.neis.
380. Or that, ere that, before.
381. Only Th. has the right reading, viz. Afid nej'c it to longe
to C7idytc (where lojrge is an error for long). The expressions
Atid 7ior hyt vjere and And ncre it were are both ungram-
matical. Nere = ne were, were it not.
388. In the margin of F. and V,. we find :— ' Nota : of many
vntrcwe louers. Hospita, Demaphoon, tua teR[h]odopeia Phyllis
Vltra promissum tempus abesse queror.' These are the first two
lines of Epistola ii. in Ovid's Heroides, addressed by Phyllis to
Demophoon. All the examples here given are taken from the
same work. Epist. iii. is headed Briseis, Achilli; Epist. v.,
Oenotie Paridi; Epist. vi., Hypsipyle lasoni ; Epist. xii., Medea
lasoni; Epist. ix., Deianira Herculi; Epist. x., Ariadne
Theseo. These were evidently suggested by the reference above
to the same work, 1. 379. See the long note to Group B, 1. 61,
in my edition of the Prioresses Tale.
Demophoon, son of Theseus, was the lover of Phyllis,
daughter of king Sithon in Thrace ; she was changed into an
almond-tree.
392. His teritie face, pass beyond or stay behind his
appointed time. He said he would return in a month, but did
not do so. See the story in The Legend of Good Women.
Gower (ed. Pauli, iii. 361) alludes to her story, in a passage
much like the present one.
397. In the margin of F. and B. — ' Ouidius. Ouam legis a rapta
Briseide litera venit ' ; Heroid. Ep. iii. i.
401. In the same: — ' Ut \miswriticn Vbi] tibi Colc[h]orum
memini regina uacaui ' ; Heroid. Ep. xii. i .
402. In the margin of F. ind B. : — ' Gratulor Oechaliam ' ;
Heroid. Ep. ix. i ; but Oechaliam is vc\\?,\\x\\Xc\\ yotholia.
405. Gower also tells this story ; ed. Pauli, ii. 306.
407. In F. and B. is quoted the first line of Ovid, Heroid. x. i.
Adriane, Ariadne ; just as in C. T., Group B, 1. 67. Gower has
Adriagne.
409. ' For, whether he had laughed, or whether he had
frowned ' ; i. e. in any case. Cf. 1. 98.
411. ' If it had not been for Ariadne.' We have altered the
form of this idiom.
416. Yle, isle of Naxos ; see note to C. T. Group B, I. 68, in
my edition of the Prioresses Tale.
429. The book, i.e. Vergil ; yEn. iv. 252.
434. Go, gone, set out ; correctly used. Chaucer passes on to
332 IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK I.
j'Eneid, bk. v. The tempest is that mentioned in ^n. v. lo ; the
steersman is Palinurus, who fell overboard ; ALr\. v. 860.
439. See JEn. bk. vi. The isle intended is Crete, ^En. vi.
14, 23; which was not at all near (or ' besyde ') Cumas, but a
long way from it. /Eneas then descends to hell ; sees Anchises
(vi. 679); Palinurus (337); Dido (450;) Deiphobus, son of
Priam (495) ; and the tormented souls (580).
447. Which refers to the various sights in hell.
449. Claudia}!, Claudius Claudianus, who wrote De raptu
Proscrpinae about A.D. 400. Daiinte is Dante, with reference to
his Inferno.
451. Chaucer goes on to yEn. vii-xii, of which he says but
little.
458. Lavyna\%'L.2iM\vi\2L\ the form Lavina occurs in Dante,
Purg. xvii. 37.
468. Accent Whan ; compare the next line.
474. ' But I do not know who caused them to be made.'
475. Read ne in as nin ; as in Squi. Tale, 35.
482. This waste space corresponds to Dante's 'gran diserto,'
Inf. i. 64 ; or, still better, to his 'landa-" (Inf. xiv. 8), which was
too sterile to support plants. So again, 1. 486 corresponds to
Dante's 'arena arida e spessa,' which has reference to the
desert of Libya; Inf. xiv. 13.
487. ' As fine [said of the sand] as one may see still lying.'
Jephson saysjc/ must be a mistake, and would read yt. But it
makes perfect sense. Cx. Th. read at eye (put for at ye) instead
oi yet lye, which is perhaps better. At ye mea.ns 'as presented
to the sight.'
498. Kenne, discern. The offing at sea has been called the
Jcetming ; and see Kenning in Halliwell.
500. More, greater. Imitated from Dante, Purgat, ix. 19,
which Cary translates thus : —
'Then, in a vision, did I seem to view
A golden-feather'd eagle in the sky,
With open wings, and hovering for descent.'
Cf. also the descent of the angel in Ptirg. ii. 17-24.
504-7. The omission of these lines in F. and B. is simply due
to the scribe slipping from bright in 1. 503 to briglite in 1. 507.
Cf. note to 1. 280.
IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK IF. '>^'>)?>
House of Fame: Book II.
511. Listcth, pleases, is pleased ; the alteration (in MS. F.) to
listeneth is clearly wrong, and due to confusion with herknelh
above.
514. Isaye, Isaiah; actually altered, in various editions, to
I saye, as if I meant ' I say.' The reference is to ' the vision of
Isaiah'; Isa. i. i; vi. I. Scipioun, Scipio ; see note to Pari.
Foules, 31, and cf. Book of the Duch. 284.
515. NabugodoJtosor, Nebuchadnezzar. The same spelling
occurs in the Monkes Tale (Group B, 3335), and is a mere
variant of the form Nabuchodofiosor in the Vulgate version,
Dan. i-iv. Gower has the same spelling ; Conf. Amant. bk. i.,
near the end.
516. rharo ; spelt Pharao in the Vulgate, Gen. xli. 1-7. See
Book of the Duchesse, 280-3.
Tur?tus ; alluding to his vision of Iris, the messenger of Juno ;
yEneid ix. 6. Eleanor; this somewhat resembles Elkanah (in
the Vulgate, ElcaJia), I Sam. i. I ; but 1 do not know where to
find any account of his vision, nor do I at all understand who is
meant.
518. Czf>ris, Venus, goddess of Cyprus; called Ciprydc in
Pari. Foules, 277. Dante has Ciprigna ; Par. viii. 2.
519. Favour, favourer, helper, aid ; not used in the ordinary
sense of Lat./a«^r, but as if it were formed from O. F. faver,
'LzX. fa7tere, to be favourable to. Godefroy gives an example of
the O. F. v&rh /aver in this sense.
521. Parnaso ; the spelling is imitated from the Ital. Parnaso,
i. e. Parnassus, in Dante, Par. i. 16. So also Elieon is Dante's
EHcona, i. e. Helicon, Purg. xxix. 40. But the passage in
Dante, which Chaucer here especially imitates is that in Inf. ii.
7-9:—
' O Muse, o alto ingegno, or m' aiutate ;
O mente, che scrivesti cio ch' io vidi.
Qui si parra la tua nobilitate.'
This Cary thus translates : —
* O Muses ! O high genius, now vouchsafe
Your aid. O mind, that all I saw hast kept
Safe in a written record, here thy worth
And eminent endowments come to proof.'
Hence yc in I. 520 answers to Dante's Miise, the Muses ; and
\
334 IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK II.
Thought in 1. 523 answers to Dante's mente. CfalsoParad.
xviii. 82-87. And see the parallel passage in Anelida, 15-19.
The reason why Chaucer took Helicon to be a well rather than
a mountain is because Dante's allusion to it is dubiously worded ;
see Purg. xxix. 40.
528. 'Engyne is accented on the latter syllable, as in Troil. ii.
565, iii. 274.
529. Egle, the eagle in 1. 499 ; cf. 11. 503-7.
534. Partly imitated from Dante, Purg, ix. 28-30 : —
'Poi mi parea che, piu rotata un poco,
Terribil come fulgor discendesse,
E me rapisse suso infino al foco.'
Gary's translation is : —
' A little wheeling in his aery tour.
Terrible as the lightning, nished he down,
And snatch'd me upward even to the fire.'
But Chaucer follows still more closely, and verbally, a passage
in Machault's Jugement du Roi de Navarre, ed. Tarbe, 1849,
p. 72, which has the words —
' la foudre
Que mainte ville mist en poudre ' ;
i.e. literally, ^Xh^ foudre (thunder-bolt) which reduces many
a town to powder.'
Curiously enough, almost the same words occur in Boethius,
bk. i. met. 4, where Chaucer's translation has : — ' ne |)e wey of
jjonder-lyjt, ])at is wont to smyte hey3e toures.' It hence
appears that Chaucer copies Machault, and Machault translates
Boethius. There are some curious M. E. verses on the effects
of thunder in Popular Treatises on Science, ed. Wright, p.
136.
Foudre represents the Lat. fulgur. One of the queer ety-
mologies of medieval times is, \h?it fulgur is derived aferiendo\
Vincent of Beauvais, Spec. Nat. iv. 59. It was held to be
quite sufficient, that \iQ'Ca. fulgur a.r\6.ferire begin withy!!
537. Bre?ide, burnt, was set on fire. The idea is that of
a falHng thunderbolt, which seems to have been conceived of as
being a material mass, set on fire by the rapidity of its passage
through the air ; thus confusing the flash of lightning with the
fall of a meteoric stone. See Mr. Aldis Wright's note on
thicnder-stone, Jul. Cjes. i. 3. 49.
543. Hente, caught. We find a similar use of the word in an
IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK 11. ^T,^
old translation of Map's Apocalypsis Golia^, printed in Morley's
Shorter Eng. Poems, p. 13 : —
' And by and by I fell into a sudden trance,
And all along the air was marvellously heni.'
544. Sours, sudden ascent, a springing aloft. It is well
illustrated by a passage in the Somp. Tale (C. T. 7520) :—
'Therfor right as an hauk upon a sours
Up springeth into the aire, right so praieres
Of charitable and chast besy freres
Maken hir sours to Goddes eres two.'
It is precisely the same word as AI . E. sours, mod. E. soiirce, i. e.
rise, spring (of a river). Etymologically, it is the feminine of
O. F. sors, pp. oisordre, to rise (Lat. siirgere). At a later period,
the r was dropped, and the word was strangely confused in
sound with the verb souse, to pickle. Moreover, the original
sense of 'sudden ascent' was confused with that of 'sudden
descent,' for which the correct term was (I suppose) siuoop.
Hence the old verb to souse, in the sense * to swoop down,' or
'to pounce upon,' or 'to strike,' as in Shak. K. John, v. 2. 150;
Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 8 ; iii. 4. 16 ; iv. 3. 19, 25 ; iv. 4. 30 ; iv. 5.
36 ; iv. 7. 9. The sense of ' downward swoop ' is particularly
clear in Spenser, F. O. ii. 11. 36: —
'Eft fierce retourning, as a faulcon fayre,
That once hath failed of her souse full neare,
Remounts againe into the open ayre,
And unto better fortune doth her-selfe prepayre.'
Such is the simple solution of the etymology of mod. E. souse, as
used by Pope (Epilogue to Satires, Dial. ii. 15)— 'Spread thy
broad wing, and souse on all the kind.'
557. Cf. Dante, Inf. ii. 122: — 'Perche tanta vilta nel core
allette ? ' Also Purg. ix. 46 : — ' Non aver tema.'
562. ' One that I could name.' This personal allusion can
hardly refer to any one but Chaucer's wife. The familiar tone
recalls him to himself; yet the eagle's voice sounded kindly,
whereas the poet sadly tells us that his wife's voice sounded
far otherwise: 'So was it never wont to be.' See Ward's
Chaucer, pp. 84, 85 ; and cf. 1. 2015 below.
573. It would appear that, in Chaucer, siytit is sometimes
dissyllabic ; but it may be better here to use the feminine form
seynt-e, as in 1. ic66. Observe the rime oS. Marie with carie.
576. ' For so certainly may God help me, as thou shalt have
no harm.'
33^ IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK If.
586. loves, Jove, Jupiter; cf. 1. 597. This remarkable form
occurs again in Troil. ii. 1607, where we find the expression
' loves let him never thrive ' ; and again in Troil. iii. 3 — ' O loves
doghter dere'; and in Troil. iii. 15, where loves is in the
vocative case. The form is that of an O.F. nominative ; cf.
Charles, Jacques, Jules.
Stellijyc, make into a constellation ; 'whether will Jupiter turn
me into a constellation.' This alludes, of course, to the numer-
ous cases in which it was supposed that such heroes as Hercules
and Perseus, or such heroines as Andromeda and Callisto were
changed into constellations; see Kn. Tale, 1198. Cf. 'No
wonder is thogh love hir stellifie ' ; Leg. Good Women, prol.
525-
5S8. Perhaps imitated from Dante, Inf. ii. 32, where Dante
says that he is neither /Eneas nor Paul. Chaucer here refers to
various men who were borne up to heaven, viz. Enoch (Gen. v.
24), Elijah (2 Kings ii. 11), Romulus, and Ganymede. Romulus
was carried up to heaven by Mars ; Ovid, JMctam. xiv. 824.
Ganymede was carried up to heaven by Jupiter in the form of an
eagle ; see Ovid, Metam. x. 160, where Ovid adds: —
'qui nunc quoque pocula miscet,
invitaque lovi nectar lunone ministrat.*
In the passage in Dante (Purg. ix. 19-30) already alluded
to above (note to 1. 534), there is a reference to Ganymede
(1. 23).
592. Boteler, butler. No burlesque is here intended. 'The
idea of Ganymede being butler to the gods appears ludicrous to
us, who are accustomed to see the ofifice performed by menial
servants. But it was not so in the middle ages. Young
gentlemen of high rank carved the dishes and poured out the
wine at the tables of the nobility, and grace in the performance
of these duties was highly prized. One of the oldest of our noble
families derives its surname from the fact that its founder was
butler to the king ' ; Bell. So also, the royal name of Stuart is
merely steward.
. 597. Tlierabout, busy about, having it in intention.
600-4. Imitated from Vergil's words of reassurance to Dante ;
Inf. ii. 49.
608. The eagle says he is Jupiter's eagle ; ' louis ales,'
/En. i. 394.
614-640. A long sentence of 27 lines.
618. I ^\:i^^\y goddesse, to complete the line, Cf. ' In worship
IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK 11. 'i^o^'J
of Veni'is, goddesse of love'; Kn. Tale, 1046; and again,
'goddesse,' id. 243, 299.
621. The necessity for correcting lytel to lyte is obvious from
the rime, since lyte is rimes with dytees. Chaucer seems to
make lyte dissyllabic ; it rimes with Arctte, Kn. Ta. 476, 1769,
1816 ; and with hermyte in 1. 659 below. In the present case,
the e is elided — lyfis. For similar rimes, cf. nones, non is,
C. T. Prol. 523 ; beryis, niery is, Non. Pr. Ta. 145 ; swevenis,
swevene is, id. loi.
623. In a note to Cant. Ta. 17354, Tyrwhitt says that perhaps
cadence means 'a species of poetical composition distinct from
riming verses.' But it is difficult to shew that Chaucer ever
composed anything of the kind, unless it can be said that his
translation of Boethius or his Tale of Melibeus is in a sort of
rhythmical prose. It seems to me just possible that by li/ne
may here be meant the ordinary riming of two lines together, as
in the Book of the Duchess and the House of Fame, whilst by
cadence may be meant lines disposed in stanzas, as in the
Parliament of Foules. There is nothing to shew that Chaucer
had, at this period, employed the ' heroic verse ' of the Legend
of Good Women. However, we find the following quotation
from Jullien in Littrd's Dictionary, s. v. Cadeftce. ' Dans la
pr-ose, dans les vers, la cadence n'cst pas autre chose que le
rhythme ou le nombre : seulement on y joint ordinairement I'idee
d'une certaine douceur dans le style, d'un certain art dans
I'arrangement des phrases ou dans le choix des mots que le
rhythme proprement dit ne suppose pas du tout.' This is
somewhat oracular, as it is difficult to sec why rhythm should not
mean much the same thing.
639, 640. Cf. Troilus, i. 517, 518.
652. In a note upon the concluding passage of the Cant. Tales,
Tyrwhitt says of the House of Fame : — ' Chaucer mentions this
among his works in the Leg. Good Women, verse 417. He
wrote it while he was Comptroller of the Custom of Wools, &c. (see
Bk. ii. 1. 144-8 [the present passage]), and consequently after the
year 1374.' See Ward's Chaucer, pp. 76, 77, with its happy
reference to Charles Lamb and his ' works ' ; and compare a
similar passage in the Prol. to Legend of Good Women, 30-6.
662. Cf. Dante, Inf. i. 113, which Gary thus translates : —
— 'and I, thy guide,
Will lead thee hence through an eternal space.'
678. Long y-served, faithfully served for a long time, i.e. after
z
338 IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK //.
a long period of devotion ; alluding to the word scrva7ii in the
sense of lover.
681. Alluding to sudden fallings in love, especially 'at first
sight.' Such take place at hap-hazard ; as if a blind man
should accidentally frighten a hare, without in the least in-
tending it. We find in Hazlitt's collection of Proverbs—' The
hare starts when a man least expects it ' ; p. 373.
6£2. lolytee and fare., happiness and good speed. The very
same words are employed, but ironically, by Theseus in the
Knight's Tale ; 11. 949, 95 1. The hare also accompanies them ;
id. 952.
683. ' As long as they find love to be as true as steel.' Cf.
Troilus, iv. 325 : — ' God leve that ye fynde ay love of stele.'
689. ' And more beards made in two hours,' iScc. ' Yet can a
miller make a clerkes herd ' ; (Reves Tale), C. T. 4094. ' Yet
coude I make his berd ' : C. T. 5943. Tyrwhitt's note on the
former passage is : ' make a clerkes berd,' i. e. cheat him. Faire
la barbe is to shave, or trim the beard ; but Chaucer translates
the phrase literally, at least when he uses it in its metaphorical
sense. Boccace has the same metaphor, Decamerone, viii. 10.
Speaking of some exorbitant cheats, he says that they applied
themselves 'non a radere, ma a scorticare huomini' [not to
shave men, but to scarify them] ; and a little lower—' si a
soavemente la barbiera saputo menare il rasoio ' [so agreeably
did the she-barber know how to handle the razor]. Barbiera
has a second and a bad sense ; see Florio's Dictionary.
'Myght I thaym have spyde,
I had made thaym a bcni^
Towneley Mysteries, p. 144.
692. Holding in hond means keeping in hand, attaching to
oneself by feigned favours ; just as io bear in hand used to
mean to make one believe a thing ; see my note to Man of
Lawes Tale, 620.
695. Ztf2/^^/(y«, appointed days of reconcihation ; see Morris's
note to Chaucer's Prol. 258, and my note to P. Plowman, B. iii.
157. 'What, quod she, maked I not a louedaie, bitwene God
and mankind, and chese a maide to be nompere [umpire], to
put the quarell at ende?' Test, of Love, bk. i. ed. 1561, fol.
287.
698. Cornes, grains of corn ; see note to Menkes Tale (Group
B, 3225), in my edition of the Prioresses Tale, <S:c.
700. Wis, certainly ; cf. i-ivis. The z is short.
IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK H. ^t^i^
702. Impossible (accent on i) ; cf. Clcrkes Tale, 713.
703. Pycs, mag-pies, clmttcring birds ; Squi. Ta. 649.
708. Worthy /or to leve, worthy to believe, worthy of belief.
712. Thy 71 owne book, i.e. the book you are so fond of, viz.
Ovid's Metamorphoses, which Chaucer quotes so continually.
Libraries in those days were verj^ small (Cant. Ta. Prol. 294) ;
but we may be almost certain that Chaucer had a copy of the
ISIetamorphoses of his own. The reference here is to Ovid's
description of the House of Fame, Me/am. xii. 39-63. See
Golding's translation of this passage in the Preflice.
y^)^. Cf. Dante, Par. i. 109, which Cary thus translates : —
'All natures lean,
In this their order, diversely,' &c.
738. Thai practically goes with hit falleth doiin, in 1. 741.
The sentence is ill-constructed, and not consistent with grammar,
but we see what is meant.
742. By, with reference to (as usual in M. E.). Cf. Dante,
Pnrg. xviii. 28, which Cary thus translates : —
' Then, as the fire points up, and mounting seeks
His birth-place and his lasting seat/ &c.
745. At his large, unrestrained, free to move.
746. Charge, a heavy weight, opposed to light thijig. The
verb seke is understood from 1. 744. ' A light thing (seeks to go)
up, and a weight (tends) downwards.' In Tyrwhitt's glossary,
the word charge, in this passage, is described as being a verb,
with the sense ' to weigh, to incline on account of weight.'
How this can be made to suit the context, I cannot understand.
Charge occurs as a sb. several times in Chaucer, but chiefly
with the secondary sense of ' importance ' ; see Kn. Tale, 426,
1429, and the Glossaries to the Prioresses Tale and Man of
Lawes Tale. In the Clerkes Tale, 163, it means ' weight,'
nearly as here.
750. Skilles, reasons. The above ' reasons ' prove nothing
whatever as regards the fish in the sea, or the trees in the earth ;
but the eagle's mode of reasoning must not be too closely en-
quired into. The fault is not Chaucer's, but arises from the
extremely imperfect state of science in the middle ages. Chaucer
had to accept the usual account of the four elements, disposed,
according to their weight, in four layers ; earth being at the
bottom, then water, then air, and lastly fire above the air. See
the whole scheme in Gower, Conf. Amant. bk. vii. ; ed. Pauli,
ii. 104 : or Popular Treatises on Science, ed. Wright, p. 134.
z 2
340 /A'. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK //.
765. So also in Cant. Tales, 7814 : —
'every soun
Nis but of eir reverberacioun,
And ever it wasteth lite and lite aweye.'
The theory of sound is treated of in Vincent of Beauvais,
Speculum Naturale, lib. iv. c. 14. The ancients seem to have
understood that sound is due to the vibration of the air ; see
11. 775, 779. Thus, in the treatise by Boethius, De Musica (to
which Chaucer expressly refers in Non. Prest. Tale, 1. 472),
lib. i. c. 3, I find : — ' Sonus vero praeter quendam pulsum per-
cussionemque non redditur . . . Idcirco definitur sonus, aeris
percussio indissoluta usque ad auditum.'
788. Experience, i. e. experiment. The illustration is a good
one ; I have no doubt that it is obtained, directly or at second-
hand, from Boethius. Vincent of Beauvais, Spec. Nat. hb. xxv.
c. 58, says : — ' Ad quod demonstrandum inducit idem Boetius
tale exemplum : Lapis proiectus in medio stagni facit breuissi-
mum circulum, et ille alium, et hoc fit donee vel ad ripas
peruenerit vel impetus defecerit.' This merely gives the sub-
stance of vv'hat he says ; it vi^ill be of interest to quote the
original passage, from the treatise De Musica, lib. i. c. 14,
which chapter I quote in full : —
'Nunc quis modus sit audiendi disseramus. Tale enim
quiddam fieri consuevit in uocibus, quale cum paludibus uel
quietis aquis iactum eminus mergitur saxum. Prius enim in
paruissimum orbem undam coUigit, deinde maioribus orbibus,
undarum globos spargit, atque eo usque dum fatigatus motus
ab eliciendis fluctibus conquiescat. Semperque posterior et
maior undula pulsu debiliori diffunditur. Quod si quid sit,
quod crescentes undulas possit offendere, statim motus ille
reuertitur, et quasi ad centrum, unde profectus fuerat, eisdem
undulis rotundatur. Ita igitur cum aer pulsus fecerit sonum,
pellit alium proximum, et quodammodo rotundum fluctum aeris
ciet. Itaque diffunditur et omnium circunstantium {sic) simul
ferit auditum, atque illi est obscurior uox, qui longius steterit,
quoniam ad eum debilior pulsi aeris unda peruenit.'
792. Covercle, a pot-lid. Cotgrave cites the proverb — ' Tel
pot tel coiivercle, Such pot, such potlid, like master, like man.'
794. Wheel must have been glossed by cercle (circle) in an
early copy; hence MSS. F. and B. have the reading — 'That
whele sercle wol cause another whele,' where the gloss has crept
into the text.
/X HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK 11. 341
798. Roundel, a very small circle ; coiupas, a very large circle.
Roundel is still a general term for a small circular charge in
heraldry ; if or (golden), it is called a bezant j if argent (white),
it is called a plate j and so on. In the Sec. Non. Tale, 45,
compos includes the whole world.
801. Multiplying, increasing in size.
805. 'Where you do not observe the motion above, it is still
going on underneath.' This seems to allude to the depression
between each undulation.
808. This is an easy way of getting over a difficulty. It is no
easy task to prove the contrary of every false theory !
811. An air aboute^ i. e. a surrounding layer, or hollow
sphere, of air.
822. I would rather ' take it in game ' ; and so I accept it.
826. Fele, experience, understand by experiment.
827. I here take the considerable liberty of reading the
mansiotai, by comparison with 1. 831. Those who prefer to read
sum place slide, or som styde, or some stede, can do so ! The
sense intended is, obviously — 'And that the dwelling-place, to
which each thing is inclined to resort, has its own natural stead,'
i. e. position. Fishes, for example, naturally exist in -water; the
trees, upon the earth; and sounds, in the air; water, earth, air,
and fire being the four ' elements.' Cf. the phrase — ' to be in
his eleinent^
836. Out of, i. e. not in ; answering to 1. 838.
846. Referring to Ovid's description, Met. xii. 39. 40.
' Orbe locus medio est inter terrasqne fretnmque
Coelestesque plagas, triplicis confinia mundi.'
I suspect that Ovid's triplicis confinia mundi is the origin of
Chaucer's phrase tryjie compas, in Sec. Non. Tale, 45.
857. The ' terms of philosophy ' are all fully and remorselessly
given by Gower, Conf. Amant. bk. vii.
861. It is remarkable that Chaucer, some years later, repeated
almost the same thing in the introduction to his treatise on the
Astrolabe, in somewhat different words, \\z. 'curious enditing
and hard sentence is full heuy atones for swich a child to
leme ' ; 1. 32.
866. Lcwedly, in unlearned fashion ; in his Astrolabe, 1. 42,
Chaucer says he is ' but a leivd compilatour of the labour of olde
Astrologiens.'
868. The eagle characteristically says that his reasons are so
' palpable,' that they can be shaken by the bills, as men shake
342 IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK If.
others by the hand. It is perhaps worth adding that the word
bill was too vulgar and familiar to be applied to a hawk, which
had only a beak (the French term, whereas bill is the A. S. bile).
' Ye shall say, this hauke has a large beke, or a shortt beke ; and
call it not bille ; ' Book of St. Alban's, fol. a 6, back. The eagle
purposely employs the more familiar term.
873. Chaucer meekly allows that the eagle's explanation is a
likely one. He was not in a comfortable position for con-
tradiction in argument, and so took a wiser course. The eagle
resents this mild admission, and says he will soon find out the
truth, 'top, and tail, and every bit.' He then eases his mind by
soaring ' upper,' resumes his good temper, and proposes to
speak 'all of game.'
888. Cf. Dante, Par. xxii. 128, which Cary thus translates :
' Look downward, and contemplate, what a world
Already stretch'd under our feet there lies.'
900. Unethes, with difficulty ; because large animals could
only just be discerned. The graphic touches here are ex-
cellent.
901. Rivc'r-es, with accent on the fonner e (pronounced as a
in bare). Cf. Ital. riviera.
907. Prikke, a point. ' Al |)e envyronynge of ))e er|je aboute
ne halt but J)e resoun of a prykke at regard of the gretnesse of
heuene ' ; tr. of Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 7.
' And doun fro thennes faste he gan avyse
This litel spot of erthe, that with the see
Enbraced is ; ' Troilus, bk. v. near the end.
* Vidi questo globo
Tal, ch' io sorriso del sue vil sembiante.'
Dante, Farad, xxii. 134.
See also Pari. Foules, 57, 58 ; and note that the above passage
from Troilus is copied from the Teseide (xi. 2).
915. The note in Oilman's Chaucer as to Alexander's dreajiis,
is entirely beside the mark. The word dreme (1. 917) refers to
Scipio only. The reference is to the wonderful mode in which
Alexander contrived to soar in the air in a car upborne by four
gigantic griffins.
' Now is he won })ur5e \zx wingis vp to the wale cloudis ;
So hije to heuen Jiai him hale in a hand-quile,
Midil-erth hot as a mylnestane, na mare, to him semed.'
Wars of Alexander, ed. Skeat (E. E. T. S.), 5523.
Macedo, the Macedonian.
IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK' II. 343
916. Kifig; kingly hero; not king in the strict sense. Dan
Scipzo, lord Scipio. See notes to Pari. Foules, 29 ; Book of the
Duch. 284; Ho. Fame, 514.
919. Dedalus (i. e. Daedalus) and Yearns (Icarus) are men-
tioned in the Rom. de la Rose, 5242 ; and cf. Gower, Conf.
Amant. bk. iv., ed. Pauli, ii. 36 ; and Dante, Inf. xvii. 109. All
take the story from Ovid, Mctain. viii. 183. Daedalus con-
structed wings for himself and his son Icarus, and flew away
from Crete. The latter flew too high, and the sun melted the
wax with which some of the feathers were fastened, so that he
fell into the sea and was drowned. Hence Daedalus is here
called wrecche, i. e. miserable, because he lost his son ; and
Icarus nice, i. e. foolish, because he disobeyed his father's advice,
not to fly too high.
922. Malt, melted. Gower has the same word in the same
story ; ed. Pauli, ii. 2)7-
925. Cf. Dante, Par. xxii. 19, which Cary thus translates :
' But elsewhere now I bid thee turn thy view.'
930. See note to 1. 986 below, where the original passage is
given.
931. This line seems to have been suggested by (and to refer
solely to) the word citizcm in 1. 930. The note in Bell's Chaucer
says : ' This appears to be an allusion to Plato's Republic' If
this be not right, I know of no better explanation.
932. Eyrisshe besies, aerial animals ; alluding to the signs of
the zodiac, such as the Ram, Bull, Lion, Goat, Crab, Scorpion,
&c. ; and to other constellations, such as the Great Bear, Eagle,
Swan, Pegasus, &c. Chaucer himself explains that the ' zodiak
is cleped the cercle of the signes, or the cercle of the bcstcs ;
for zodia in langage of Grek sownyih hestcs in Latyn tongc ' ;
Astrolabe, part i, § 21, 1. 35. Cf. 'beasts' in Rev. iv. 6. The
phrase recurs in 1. 965 below ; see also 11. 1003-7.
934. Gflofi, march along, walk on, like the Ram or Bull ; Jlee,
fly, like the Eagle or Swan. He alludes to the apparent revo-
lution of the heavens round the earth.
936. Galaxye, galaxy, or milky way, formed by streaks of
closely crowded stars ; already mentioned in the Pari, of Foules,
56. Cary, in a note to Dante, Parad. xxv. 18, says that
Dante, in the Convito, p. 74, speaks oi la galassia — 'the galaxy,
that is, the white circle which the common people call the way
of St. James'; on which Biscioni remarks: — 'The common
people formerly considered the milky way as a sign by night to
344 ^'^'- I to USE OF FAME: BOOK II.
pilgrims, who were going to St. James of Galacia ; and this
perhaps arose from the resemblance of the word galaxy to
Galicia ; [which may be doubted]. I have often,' he adds,
* heard women and peasants call it the Roman road, la strada
di RomaJ
The fact is simply, that the Milky Way looks like a sort of road
or street ; hence the Lat. name ttia lactea, as in Ovid, Mefajn. i.
168. Hence also the Roman peasants called it strada di Roma ;
the pilgrims to Spain called it the road to Santiago (Quarterly
Review, Oct. 1873, p. 464) ; and the EngHsh called it the IVal-
singham luay, owing to this being a route much frequented by pil-
grims, or else Watling-street, which was a famous old road, and
probably ran (not as usually said, from Kent to Cardigan Bay,
but) from Kent to the Frith of Forth, see Annals of England, p.
6. The name of Vatlant Streit (Watling Street) is given to the
milky waj' in the Complaint of Scotland, ed. Murray, p. 58 ; and
G. Douglas calls it Watlijig Streit in his translation of Vergil,
^'En. iii. 516, though there is no mention of it in the original ; see
Small's edition of the Works of G. Douglas, vol. ii. p. 151.
And again, it is called Wadlyng Strete in Henrysoun's Traitis
of Orpheus \ see Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary. See my note
to P. Plowman, C. i. 52 ; Florence of W^orcester, sub anno 1013 ;
and Laws of Edward the Confessor, cap. 12.
942. Gower also relates this story (Conf. Amant. ii. 34), calling
the sun Phebus, and his son Pheton, and usmg carte in the sense
of ' chariot,' as Chaucer does. Both copy from Ovid, Meiam. ii.
32-328.
944. Cari-hors, chariot-horses (plural). There were four
horses, named Pyroeis, Eous, Aethon, and Phlegon ; Met. ii.
153. Hence gonne and beren are in the plural form ; cf. 1. 952.
948. Scorpioun, the well-known zodiacal constellation and
sign ; called Scorpius in Ovid, Met. ii. 196.
972. Boece, Eoethius. He refers to the passage which he himself
thus translates : ' I have for sothe swifte fetheres that surmounten
the heyght of the heuene ; whan the swifte thought hath clothed
it-self in tho fetheres, it dispiseth the hateful erthes, and sur-
mounteth the heyghenesse of the greet eyir ; and it seith the
cloudes by-hynde hir bak ' ; bk. iv. met. i.
985. Marcian. Cf. C. T. 9606 (March. Tale) : — .
' Hold thou thy pees, thou poet Marcian,
That wrytest us that ilke wedding murie
Of hir, Philologie, and him, Mercuric.'
Martianus Minneus Felix Capella was a satirist of the fifth
IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK II. 345
centur}', and wrote the Nuptials of Philology and Mercury, De
Niiptiis riiilologia; et Mercurn, above referred to. It consists
of two books, followed by seven books on the Seven Sciences ;
see Warton's Hist. E. Poetry, ed. 1871, iii. 77. 'Book viii
(1- 857) gives a hint of the true system of astronomy. It is
quoted by Copernicus ; ' Oilman.
986. AnteclatuUan. The Anticlatidiamis is a Latin poem by
Alanus de Insulis, who also wrote the De Plandii AkiturcT,
alluded to in the Pari, of Foulcs, 316 (see note). This poem is
printed in Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets, ed. Wright, pp. 268-428 ;
see, in particular, Distinctio Quarta, capp. 5-8, and Distinctio
Ouinta, cap. i ; pp. 338-347. It is from this poem that Chaucer
probably borrowed the curious word ciiizeifi (1. 930) as applied
to the eyrisshe testes (1. 932). Thus, at p. '^,■^'6 of Wright's
edition, we find —
* Acris occultos aditus, secreta, latebras
Altius inquirit Phronesis, sensuque profundo
Vestigans, videt intuitu meliore vagantes
Aerios cives^
So again, 11. 966-969 above may well have been suggested by
these lines (on p. 340), and other similar lines : —
' Aeris excurso spatio, quo nubila coeli
Nocte sua texunt tenebras, quo pendula nubes
In se cogit aquas, quo grandinis ingruit imber.
Quo certant venti, quo fulminis ira tumescit,
^^•Ithera transgreditur Phronesis.'
1003. Or him or here, or him or her, hero or heroine ; e.g.
Hercules, Perseus, Cepheus, Orion ; Andromeda, Callisto (the
Great Bear), Cassiopeia. Cf. Man of Lawes Tale, 460.
IC04. Raven, the constellation Corvus ; see Ovid, Fasti, ii.
243-266. Either here; Ursa Maior and Ursa Minor.
1005. Ariones harpe, Arion's harp, the constellation Lyra ;
Ovid's Fasti, i. 316 ; ii. 76.
1006. Castor, Polux ; Castor and Pollux ; the consteHation
Gemini. Delphyne, Lat. Dolphin ; the constellation Delphin
(Ovid, Fasti, i. 457) or Delphinus, the Dolphin.
'Astris Delphina recepit
Tupiter, et Stellas iussit habere nouem.'
Ovid's Fasti, ii. 1 17.
1007. Athalante does not mean Atalanta, but represents
Atlante, the ablative case of Atlas. Chaucer has mistaken the
346 IX. HOUSE OF FAME : BOOK IT.
form, having taken the story' of the Pleiades (the seven daughters
of Atlas and Pleione) from Ovid's Fasti, v. 83 : —
' Hinc sata Fle'iotie cum coelifero Atlante
iungitur, nt fama est ; Fleiadasqne parit.'
102 1. Up the heed, up with your head ; look about you.
1022. 'St. Julian (to our speed) ; lo I (here is) a good hostelry.'
The eagle invokes or praises St. Julian, because they have come
to their journey's end, and the poet may hope for a good re-
ception in the House of Fame. St. Julian was the patron saint
of hospitality ; see Chaucer's Prologue, 340. In Le Roman de
la Rose, 8872, I find : —
' Ainsinc m'aist saint Juliens,
Qui pelerins errans herberge.'
In Bell's Chaucer, i. 92, is the following: *"Ce fut celluy Julien
qui est requis de ceux qui cheminent pour avoir bo7i hostel" ;
Legende Doree. Having by mischance slain his father and
mother, as a penance, he established a hospital near a dangerous
ford, where he lodged and fed travellers gratuitously.'
See Tale xviii. in the Gesta Romanorum, in Swan's Trans-
lation ; Caxton's Golden Legende ; and the Metrical Lives of
Saints in MS. Bodley, 1596, fol. 4. ' I pray God and St. Julian
to send me a good lodging at night ' ; translation of Boccaccio,
Decani. Second Day, nov. 2 ; quoted in Swan's tr. of Gesta
Romanorum, p. 372. See Warton, Hist. Eng. Poet., ed. Hazhtt,
i. 247 ; ii. 58.
1024. ' Canst thou not hear that which I hear ? '
1034. Peter ! By St. Peter ; a common exclamation, which
Warton amazingly misunderstood, asserting that Chaucer is
here addressed by the name of Peter (Hist. E. P., ed. Hazlitt, ii.
331, note 6) ; whereas it is Chaucer hitnself ^\xo uses the ex-
clamation. The Wyf of Bathe uses it also, C. T. 6028 ; so does
the Sumpnour, C. T. 6914; and the wife in the Shipman's Tale,
C.T. 13144 ; and see 1. 2000 below. See also my note to 1. 665
of the Canon's Yeoman's Tale. But Warton well compares the
present passage with Ovid, Met. xii. 49-52 : —
'Nee tamen est clamor, sed paruse murmura uocis;
qualia de pelagi, si quis procul audiat, undis
esse solent : qiialemve sonum, qiium lupiter atras
increpuit niibes, extrema tonitrua reddunt.'
1044. Beteji, beat. But the other reading byte7t (bite) seems
better. Cf. Troil. iii. 72)7^ ^^id the common saying — ' It won't
bite you.'
1048. Cf Dante, Piirg. iii. 67-69. So also Inf. xxxi. 83.
IX. HOUSE OF FAME : BOOK IH. 347
1063. Lyves body, a person aiivc ; lyvcs is properly an adverlj.
1066. Seynie ; see note to 1. 573. Seynte Clare, Saint Clara,
usually Saint Clare, whose day is Aug. 12. She was an abbess,
a disciple of St. Francis, and died a.d. 1253.
House of Fame: Book III.
1091-1109. Imitated from Dante, Parad. i. 13-27. Compare
11. 1 106, 1 107, with Gary's translation —
' If thou to me of thine impart so much, . . .
Thon shalt behold me of thy favour'd tree
Come to the foot, and crown myself with leaves.'
And compare 1. 1109 with — 'Entra nel petto mio.'
1098. This shews that Chaucer occasionally, and intentionally,
gives a syllable too little to the verse. In fact, he does so just
below, in 1. 1 106 ; where Thou forms the first foot of the verse,
instead of So thou, or And thoti. This failure of the first
syllable is common throughout the poem.
1 109. Entreth is the imperative plural ; see note to A. B. C. 17.
1 1 16. ' Fama tenet, summaquc domum sibi legit in arce';
Ovid, Met. xii. 43. Cf. Dante, Purg. iii. 46-48 ; also Ovid,
Met. ii. 1-5.
1 131. 'And swoor hir ooth by Seint Thomas of Kent' ; C. T.
3291. It alludes to the celebrated shrine of Beket at Canter-
bury.
1 136. Half, side ; al the half, all the side of the hill which he
was ascending, which we find was the south side (1. 11 52).
1 1 52. This suggests that Chaucer, in his travels, had observed
a snow-clad mountain ; the snow lies much lower on the north
side than on the south side ; see 11. 1160, 11 63, 11 64.
1 159. What hit >nade, what caused it, what was the cause of it.
1167-80. This passage somewhat resembles one in Dante,
Par. i. 4-12.
1 177. Accent So, and slightly accent the; gret-e is dissyllabic.
The line is not very pleasing.
1 183. (Ty/ii?, Giles ; St. yEgidius. His day is Sept. I ; see note
to Can. Yem. Tale, 1185, where the phrase by seint Gyle recurs.
1 189. Babewinnes is certainly meant ; it is the pi. of babe^i'in
(O. Fr. babuin. Low Lat. bahcwynus, F. babouin], now spelt
baboon. It was particularly used of a grotesque figure employed
348 /A'. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK III.
in architectural decoration, as in Early Eng. Allit. Poems, ed.
Morris, B. 141 1, where the pi. form is spelt baboynes, and in
Lydgate, Chron. Troy, 11. xi ; both passages are given in
Murray's Diet., s.v. Baboon. ' Babewyn, or babewen, ddippus.,
ipos, Jiginentiun, chimera ' ; Prompt. Parv. ' Babwyne, beest,
haboyn^ ; Palsgrave. In Shak. Macb. iv. i. yj — ' Coole it with
a baboones blood ' — the accent on the a is preserved. The other
spellings are inferior or false.
1 192. Falle, pres. pi., fall; (or perhaps fallen, the past par-
ticiple).
1 194. Habitacles, niches; such as those which hold images
of saints on the buttresses and pinnacles of our cathedrals. They
are described as being al luithoute, all on the outside.
1 196. Fid the castel, the castle (being) full, on all sides.
This line is parenthetical.
1 197. Understand Soiiime, some, as nom. to stodeti. 'In
which stood . . (some) of every kind of minstrels.' So in 1.
1239. As to minstrels, &c., see my note to Sir Topas (B. 2035).
1203. Orpheus, the celebrated minstrel, whose story is in
Ovid, Met. x. 1-85 ; xi. 1-66. Chaucer again mentions him in
C. T. 9590 ; and in Troil. iv. 791.
1205. Orion; so in all the copies ; ^\xtior ArioJi. His story
is in Ovid, Fasti, ii. 79-118.
Spelt Arione in Gower, Conf. Amant. (end of prologue), ed.
Pauli, i. 39. We might read Arion here ; see 1. 1005.
1206. Chiron; called Chiro in Gower, C. A. ii. 67 (bk. iv).
Chiron, the centaur, was the tutor of Achilles ; and Achilles,
being the grandson of ^acus, was called ^Eacides ; Ovid, Met.
xii. 82 ; Fasti, v. 390. Hence Eacides is here in the genitive
case ; and Eacides Chiron means ' Achilles' Chiron,' i. e. Chiron,
tutor of Achilles. In fact, the phrase is copied from Ovid's
yEacidcE Chiron, Art of Love, i. 17. Another name for
Chiron is Phillyj-ides ; Ovid, Art of Love, i. 11 ; or Philyrides ;
Verg. Georg. iii. 550; cf. Ovid, Fasti, v. 391. In a similar way,
Chaucer calls the paladin Oliver, friend of Charles the Great,
by the name of Charles Olyucr ; Monkes Tale, B. 3577.
1208. Bret, Briton, one of the British. This form is quite
correct, being the A.S. Bret, a Briton (see A.S. Chronicle, an.
491), commonly used in the pi. Brettas. This correct spelling
occurs in MS. B. only ; MS. P. turns it into Bretur, Th. and Cx.
read Britott, whilst MS. F. turns Bret into gret, by altering the
first letter. The forms gret and Bretur are clearly corruptions,
whilst Briton spoils the scansion.
IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK III. 349
Glascurion ; the same as Glasgerion, concerning whom sec
the Ballad in the Percy Folio MS., ed. Hales and Furnivall,
i. 246. Of this ' a traditional version, under the name of
Glenkindte, a various form of Glasgerion, is given in Jamicson's
Popular Songs and Ballads, and in Alex. Laing's Thistle of
Scotland (1823).' G. Douglas associates * Glaskeriane ' with
Orpheus in his Palicc of Honour, bk. i (ed. Small, i. 21) ; this
poem is a palpable imitation of Chaucer's House of Fame. The
name is Celtic, as the epithet Bret implies. Cf. Irish and
Welsh glas, pale.
1 2 13. 'Or as art imitates nature.' Imitated from Le Rom. de
la Rose, where Art asks Nature to teach her; 1. 16233 is —
' E la contrefait comvie singes'
1218. There is a similar list of musical instruments in Le Rom.
de la Rose, 2 1285-2 1308 :—
' Puis chalemiatis, et chalemele
Et tabor, &t Jlctitc, et timbre . . .
Puis prent sa muse, et se travalUe
As estives de Comoaille.'
And in Le Remcde de Fortune, by G. de Machault, 1S49,
p. Zl, is a similar long list : —
' Cornemuscs, flaios, chevrettes,
Dousainnes, cimbales, clochettes,
Timbre, \3. JlaJnite brehaigne,
Et le grant comet d'Alemaigne,
Flaiot de saus, fistula, J>ipe ' ; &c.
And a few lines below there is mention of the muse de blez (see
note to 1. 1224). Warton, Hist. E. Poet., ed. Hazlitt, iii. 177,
quotes a similar passage from Lydgate's poem entitled Reason
and Sensualite, ending with —
' There were trumpes, and trumpettes,
Lowde shallys [shalmys ?] and doticettes^
Cornemuse is a bagpipe ; shalmye is a shawm, which was
a wind-instrument, being derived from Lat. calamus, a reed ;
Chaucer classes both instruments under pipe. Willert (on
the House of Fame, p. 36) suggests (and, I think, correctly)
that doticet and rede are both adjectival. Thus doiicct would
refer to pipe ; cf. ' Doucct, dulcet, pretty and sweet, or, a little
sweet ' ; Cotgrave. Rede would also refer to pipe, and would
mean ' made with a reed.' A reed-instrument is one ' in which
the sound was produced by the vibration of a reed, as in the
clarionet or hautboys ' ; note in Bell's Chaucer. There is no
350 IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK III.
instrument properly called a doticet in Old French, but only
dousainne (see above) and doucine (Godefroy).
1222. Brede, roast meat ; A. S. br&de, glossed by ^ assi(fa,\t[
assatura' in ^Ifric's Glossary, ed. Wiilcker, col. 127, 1. 17.
Cf. G. Braten. Not elsewhere in Chaucer, but found in other
authors.
' To meit was greithed beef and motonn,
Brcdes, briddes, and venysoun.'
Kyng Alisaunder, ed. Weber, 5248.
In the allit. Morte Arthure, it occurs no less than five times.
Also in Havelok, 1. 98, where the interpretation ' bread ' is
wrong. Also in Altenghscher Dichtungen, ed. Boddeker, p.
146, 1. 47 — -^ Cud as Cradoc in court that carf the brede, ^ i. e.
carved the roast meat ; but the glossary does not explain it.
The scribe of MS. F. turns brede into bride, regardless of the
rime.
1224. Alluding to the simple pipes fashioned by rustics. The
glossary to Machault's Works (1849) has : 'Muse de blez, chalu-
meau fait avec des brins de paille.' The O. F. estive, in the
quotation in the note to 1. 1218, has a like sense. Godefroy has :
"■ csiive, espece de flute, de flageolet ou pipeau rustique, qui
venait, ce semble, de Cornouaille.' Cf the term corne-pipe, in
the Complaint of Scotland, ed. IMurray, p. 65, 1. 22.
1227, 1228. Nothing is known as to Atiteris (or Cytherus) ; nor
as to Pseustis (or Proserus). The forms are doubtless corrupt ;
famous musicians or poets seem to have been intended. 1 shall
venture, however, to record my guess, that A Uteris represents
Tyrtaeics, and that Pseustis is meant for Thespis. Both are
mentioned by Horace {Ars Poet. 276, 402) ; and Thespis was a
native of Attica, whose plays were acted at Athens.
1229. This is a curious example of how names are corrupted.
Marcia is Dante's Marsia, mentioned in the very passage
which Chaucer partly imitates in 11. 1091-1109 above. Dante
addresses Apollo in the words —
* Entra nel petto mio, e spira tue
Si come quando Marsia traesti
Delia vagina delle membra sue.'
As Chaucer had here nothing to guide him to the gender of
Marsia, he guessed the name to be feminine, from its termina-
tion ; and Dante actually has Marzia (Inf. iv. 128), with
reference to Marcia, wife of Cato. But Dante's Marsia
represents the accus. case of Marsyas, or else the Lat. nom.
IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK II T. 35 1
Marsya, which also occurs. Ovid. Met. vi. 400, has : ' Marsya
nomen habet,' and tells the story. Apollo defeated the satyr
Marsyas in a trial of musical skill, and afterwards flayed him
alive ; so that he ' lost his skin.'
1231. Envycn (accent on _y), vie with, challenge (at a sport).
So strong is the accent on the_y, that the word has been reduced
in E. to the clipped form 'vie ; see Vie in my Etym. Diet. It
represents Lat. inidtare, to challenge ; and has nothing to do
with E. e7ivy. Florio's Ital. Diet, has: ' Inuito, a vie at play, a
vie at any game ; also an inuiting.'
1234. 'Pipers of every Dutch (German) tongue.'
1236. Reyes, round dances, dances in a ring. The term is
Dutch. Hexham's Du. Diet. (1658), has : een Rey, or een Reye,
a Daunce, or a round Daunce' ; and ^ rey en, to Daunce, or to
lead a Daunce.' Cf. G. Reihett, a dance, Reikefitans, a circular
dance ; J\I. H. G. reie, reige ; which does not seem to be con-
nected, as might be thought, with G. Reihe, a row ; see Kluge
and Weigand. Perhaps the Du. word was borrowed from O. F.
rei, roi, order, whence also the syllable -ray in E. ar-ray ; and
the G. word may have been borrowed from the Dutch. ' I can
daunce the raye ' ; Barclay's First Egloge, sig. A ii. ed. 1570 ;
quoted in Dyce's Skelton, ii. 194.
1239. Understand Soinine, some; see note to 1. 1197. The
expression blody soiin recurs in Kn. Tale, 1653, in connection
with trionpe and clarioun. Our author explains his meaning
here ; 11. 1241-2.
1243. Misseniis, Misenus, son of yEolus, trumpeter to Hector,
and subsequently to ^Eneas ; Verg. j^Eji. iii. 239; vi. 162-170.
1245. Joab and Theodojnas are again mentioned together in
a like passage in the Jvlerch. Tale (C. T. 9593). 'Joab blew
a trumpet'; 2 Sam. ii. 28; xviii. 16; xx. 22. Theodomas is
said by Chaucer (Merch. Tale) to have blown a trumpet ' At
Thebes, when the cite was in doute.' He was therefore a
trumpeter mentioned in some legendary history of Thebes.
With this hint, it is easy to identify him with Thiodamas,
mentioned in books viii. and x. of the Thebaid of Statius. He
succeeded Amphiaraus as augur, and furiously excited the
besiegers to attack Thebes. His invocation was succeeded
by a great sound of trumpets {Theb. viii. 343), to which Chaucer
here refers. But Statius does not expressly say that Thiodamas
blew a trumpet himself.
1248. Cataloigne and Aragon, Catalonia and Arragon, in
Spain, immediately to the S. of the Pyrenees. Warton remarks:
353 IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK III.
' The martial musicians of English tournaments, so celebrated
in story, were a more natural and obvious allusion for an
English poet'; Hist. E. P. ii. 331. The remark is, I think,
entirely out of place. Chaucer is purposely taking a wide range ;
and, after mentioning even the pipers of the Dutch tongue, as
well as Joab of Judzea and Thiodamas of Thebes, is quite
consistent in mentioning the musicians of Spain.
1257. Repeated, at greater length, in C. T., Group B, 11.
19-28 ; see my edition of the Prioresses Tale, p. 2.
1259. logclours, jugglers. See Squi. Tale, 219.
1260. Tregetours; see C. T. 11453, on which Tyrwhitt has
a long note. A jogelour was one who amused people, either by
playing, singing, dancing, or tricks requiring sleight of hand;
a iregctour was one who brought about elaborate illusions, by
the help of machinery or mechanical contrivance. Thus Chaucer
tells us (in the Frank. Tale, as above) that tregetotires even caused
to appear, in a dining-hall, a barge floating in water, or what
seemed like a lion, or a vine with grapes upon it, or a castle
built of lime and stone ; which vanished at their pleasure. Sir
John Maundeville, in his Travels, ch. 22, declares that the 'en-
chanters' of the Grand Khan could turn day into night, or cause
visions of damsels dancing or carrying cups of gold, or of
knights justing ; ' and many other thinges thei don, be craft
of hire Enchauntementes ; that it is marveyle for to see.' See
note to 1. 1277 below. Gawain Douglas imitates this passage
in his Palice of Honour ; see his Works, ed. Small, i. 65.
1 26 1. Phitonesses, pythonesses. The witch of Endor is
called a phitonesse in the Freres Tale, C. T. 7092 ; and in
Gower, Conf. Amant. bk. iv, ed. PauH, ii. 66 ; and in Barbour's
Bruce, ed. Skeat, iv. 753. The Vulgate version has mulier
-bythonejn habetts, i Sam. xxviii. 7 (cf. Acts xvi. 16) ; but also the
very word pytJwiiissatn in i Chron. x. 13, where the witch of
Endor is again referred to." Ducange notices p]iitonissa as
another spelling oi pytlioiiissa.
1266. Cf. Chaucer's Prologue, 417-420. There is a parallel
passage in Dante, Inf. xx. 1 16-123, where the word imago
occurs in the sense of ' waxen image.' This of course refers to
the practice of sticking needles into a waxen image,vvith the
supposed effect of injuring the person represented. See Ovid,
Hcj-oid. vi. 91, and Ben Jonson's Masque of Queens {"^rd Charni).
But this is only a particular case of a much more general
principle. Images of men or animals (or even of the things
representing the zodiacal signs) could be made of various
/A'. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK III. o^r-^-i^
substances, according to the effect intended ; and by proper
treatment were supposed to cause good or evil to the patient, as
required. Much could be done, it was supposed, by choosing
the right time for making them, or for subjecting them to
celestial influences. To know the right time, it was necessary
to observe the ascendent (see note to 1. 1268). See much jargon
on this subject in Cornelius Agrippa, Dc Occulta Philosophia,
lib. ii. capp. 35-47.
' 1268. The ascendent is that point of the zodiacal circle which
is seen to be just ascending above the horizon at a given
moment. Chaucer defines it in his Treatise on the Astrolabe,
and adds that astrologers, in calculating horoscopes, were in
the habit of giving it a wider meaning ; they further reckoned
in 5 degrees of the zodiac above the horizon, and 25 degrees
below the ascending point, so as to make the whole ascendent
occupy 30 degrees, which was the length of a 'sign.' In calcu-
lating nativities, great importance was attached to this ascendent,
the astrological concomitants of which determined the horoscope.
The phrase to be ' in the ascendant ' is still in use. Thus in
cefteyn ascendentes is equivalent to ' in certain positions of the
heavens, at a given time,' such as the time of one's birth, or the
time for making an image (see last note).
1 27 1. Medea, the famous wife of Jason, who restored her
father yEson to youth by her magical art ; Ovid, Met. vii. 162.
Gower tells the whole stor>', C. A. bk. v. ed. Pauli, ii. 259.
1272. Circes, Circe, the enchantress ; Homer's Odyssey, bk.
X ; Ovid, Met. xiv. Ovid frequently has the form Circes, in the
gen. case ; Met. xiv. 10, 69, 71, 247, 294.
Calipsa, Calypso, the nymph who detained Ulysses in an
island, Odyssey, bk. i ; Ovid, ex Ponto, iv. 10. 13.
1273. Hermes is mentioned in the Can. Yeom. Talc, C. T.,
Group G, 1434, where the reference is to Hermes Trismegistus,
fabled to have been the founder of alchemy, though none of the
works ascribed to him are really his. He is here called
Hermes Ballenus, for no apparent reason ; unless Hermes
and Ballenus are two different persons. The name Balejiiis
occurs, in company with the names of Medea and Circe, in the
following passage of the Rom. de la Rose, 1. 14599 : —
' Que ja riens d'enchantement croie,
Ne sorcerie, ne charroie,
Ne Bakmis, ne sa science,
Ne magique, ne nigromance, . . .
Onques ne pot tenir Medec
A a
354 ^'^'- HOUSE OF fame: book in.
Jason por mil enchantement,
N'onc Circe ne tint ensement
Ulixes qu'il ne s'enfoist,' &c.
{Charroie is the dance of witches on their sabbath). Some
suggest that Balenus stands for Helejuis {JEn. iii. 295, 329).
1274. Lymoie, according to Warton, is Limotheus ; but he
omits to tell us where he found such a name ; and the suggestion
seems no better than his mistake of supposing Calipsa (1. 1272)
to mean the muse Calliope ! Considering that he is mentioned in
company with Simon Magus, or Simon the magician (Acts viii.
9), the suggestion of Prof. Hales seems probable, viz. that
Lymote means Elymas the sorcerer (Acts xiii. 8j. The change
from Elyvtas to Lymote is not impossible.
1277. Colle tregetour, Colle the juggier ; see 1. 1260. Colle is
here a proper name, and distinct from the prefix col- in col-fox^
Non. Pr. Tale, 394. Colic is the name of a dog ; Non. Pr. Tale,
563. Colyn and Colle are names of grooms ; Polit. Songs, p.
237. Tyrwhitt quotes a passage from The Testament of
Love, bk. ii : — ' Buserus [Busiris] slew his gestes, and he was
slayne of Hercules his gest. Hugest betraished many menne,
and of Collo was he betraied'; ed. 1561, fol. 301, col. 2. With
regard to tregetour, see the account of the performances of
Eastern jugglers in Yule's edition of Marco Polo ; vol. i. p. 342,
and note 9 to Bk. i. c. 61. Col. Yule cites the O. F. forms
tregiteor and entregeto^tr ; also Ital. irageiiatore, a juggler, and
Prov. trasjita}', trajitar, to juggle. Bartsch, in his Chresto-
mathie Fran^aise, has examples of trasgeter, to mould, form,
tresgctci's, a work of mechanical art ; and, in his Chrestomathie
Provengale, col. 82, has the lines —
•Non saps balar ni tras-gitar
a guiza de juglar guascon ' ;
i. e. thou know'st not how to dance, nor how to juggle, after the
manner of a Gascon juggler. A comparison of the forms leaves
no doubt as to the etymology. The Prov. trasgitar answers to
a Low Lat. form traiis-ieciare = ira-iectare, frequentative of
Lat. trafts-t'cere, tra-tcere, to throw across, transfer, cause to
pass. Thus, the orig. sense of tregetoiir was one who causes
rapid changes, by help of some mechanical contrivance. The
F. trajecier, to ferry, transport, in Cotgrave, is the same word
as the Prov. trasgitar, in a different (but allied) sense.
1292. 'As is the usual way with reports.'
1295. Accent Which and so.
IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK IH. 'if^^
1297. 'And yet it was wrought by hap-hazard quite as often
as by heed.'
1300. To longe, too long ; not ' to dwell long.' The barl^arous
practice of inserting an adverb between io and an infinitive, as
in 'to ungrammatically talk,' is very modem. Cf. 1. 1354.
1302. Elide the former Ne ; read AT of.
1303. Read — Ne 6i th'hacking' in mdsoneries ; i.e. nor about
the cutting out in the masonry, as, for example, into corbets,
full of carved work. The line, though easy, was somehow mis-
understood, and how was substituted for the 0/ which the
parallel phrases require. Then the phrase was turned into how
iJicy hat, i.e. how they are called (though hat is hardly correct
as a plural form, and no sense is thus obtained).
1304. Corbcttes, corheXs. Florio's Ital. Diet, has: ^Cordelia
Corbctta, a little basket ' ; shewing the equivalence of the forms.
The E. corbel is the same word as O. F. corbel (F. corbeau),
which is the masc. form corresponding to Ital. corbella ; all
from the Lat. corbis. The spelling with z { = ts) in MSS. F.
and B. shews that the form is really corbettes, not corbelles.
Spenser has the simple form corb ; F. Q. iv. 10. 6 : —
' It was a bridge ybuilt in goodly wise
With curious corbes and pendants graven faire.'
' A Corbel, Corbet, or Corbill in masonrie, is a iutting out like a
braggct [bracket] as carpenters call it, or shouldering-peece in
timber-work';' jNlinsheu's Diet. ed. 1627. Tyrwhitt wrongly
explains corbettes by ' niches for statues ' ; probably because
he followed the reading in MS. 'Q—full of ymageries. Blit
'imageries' are not statues or images, but only specimens ot
carved work. Scan the line — As corbettes and imageries.
1309. 'A bounty! a bounty! hold up (your hands) well (to
catch it).' Sir W. Scott e.xplains largesse as 'the cry with
which heralds and pursuivants were wont to acknowledge the
bounty received from the knights ' ; note to Marmion, canto i.
St. II. The word is still in use amongst gleaners in East
Anglia ; see my note to P. Plowman, C. viii. 109.
1316,1317. Kinges, i.e. kings-at-arms ; losingcs, lozenges
(with^ as/).
1326. Cote-armure, surcoat ; see Gloss, to Knight's Tale, ed.
Morris.
1330. Ben aboute, used like the old phrase o-^? about.
1346. Wikke, poor, much alloyed.
1352. Lapidaire, 'a treatise on precious stones, so entitled;
A a 2
^^6 IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK III.
probably a French translation of the Latin poem of Marbodus
De Geimnis, which is frequently cited by the name of Lapi-
dariics; Fabricius, Bibl. Med. JE.t., in v. Marbodus^ \ Tyrwhitt's
Glossary. The Lapidarium of Abbot Marbodus (MarbcEuf),
composed about 1070-80, is chiefly taken from Pliny and
Solinus. A translation in English verse is given in King's
Antique Gems. See note to 1. 1363 below. There is some
account of several precious stones in Philip de Thaun's Bes-
tiary, printed in Wright's Popular Treatises on Science ; at
p. 127 he refers to the Lapidaire. Vincent of Beauvais refers
to it repeatedly, in book viii. of his Speculum Naturale. There
is a note about this in Warton, Hist. E. P. ed. 1871, ii. 324.
1360. Dees, dais ; see Morris's note to Prol. 370.
1361. The reading Sit would mean ' sitteth ' or 'sits'; the
reading Sat would mean ' sat.' Both are wrong ; the con-
struction is sitte I smtgh = I saugh sitte, I saw sit ; so that
sitle is the infin. mood.
1363. Carbuncle. Vincent of Beauvais, Spec. Nat. bk. viii.
c. 51, has: ' Carbiaiculus, qui et Greece a?tthrax dicitur, vul-
gariter riibith.' An account of the Carbuncuhes is given in
King's Natural History of Precious Stones and Gems. He
remarks that the ruby 'must also be included among the
numerous species of the ca7'bunculus described by Pliny, al-
though he gives the first rank to the Carbunculi atnethystizontes,
our Almandines or Garnets of Siam.' See also his Antique
Gems, where he translates sect. 23 of the Lapidarium of
Marbodus thus : —
' The Carbuncle eclipses by its blaze
All shining gems, and casts its fiery rays
Like to the burning coal ; whence comes its name,
Among the Greeks as Anthrax known to fame.
Not e'en by darkness quenched, its vigour tires;
Still at the gazer's eye it darts its fires ;
A numerous race ; within the Lybian ground
Twelve kinds by mining Troglydytes are found.'
1376. Sterres sevene, the seven planets.
1380. Tolde, counted; observe this sense.
1383. Bestes foiire, four beasts ; Rev. iv. 6. Cf. Dante, Purg.
xxix. 92.
1386. Thynne remarks that otindy, i. e. wavy, is a term in
heraldry ; cf E. ab-ound, red-ound, surr-oiind (for sur-ound) ;
all from Lat. unda.
1390. 'And tongues, as (there are) hairs on animals.' 'Her
IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK III. 357
feet are furnished with partridge-wings to denote swiftness,
us the partridge is remarkable for running with great swiftness
with outstretched wings. This description is taken ahnost
literally from the description of Fame in the yEneid [iv. 176-183],
except the allusion to the Apocalypse and the partridge-wings ' ;
note in Bell's Chaucer. But it is to be feared that Chaucer
simply blundered, and mistook Vergil's pernicibus as having the
sense of perdicibus ; cf. ^ pedibies celerem et pernicibus alls ' ;
Aen. iv. 180.
1400. Caliope, Calliope the muse; her eight sisters are the
other Muses. With 11. 1395-1405 cf. Dante, Par. xxiii. 97-1 11.
141 1. Read — B6th-e th'drmes. ^^rw^j-, i. e. coats of arms.
141 3. Alexander \ see Monkes Tale, in my edition of Prior-
esses Tale, p. 51. Hercules ; see the same, p. 35 ; the story of
the shirt is on p. 36 (C. T., Croup B, 3309-3324). In Le Roman
de la Rose, 1. 9238, it is called 'la venimeuse chemise.' Cf.
Dante, Inf. xii. 68.
1 43 1. Lede^ lead, the metal of Saturn ; yren, iron, the metal
of Mars. See note to 1. 820 of Can. Yeom. Tale (in my edition
of the Man of Lawes Tale) ; and II. 827, 828 of the same ; also
11. 1446, 1448 below.
1433. Read— Th'Ebrdyk Josephus. In a note on Gower's
Conf. Amantis, Warton remarks — ' Josephus, on account of his
subject, had long been placed almost on a level with the Bible.
He is seated on the first pillar in Chaucer's House of Faine.
His Jewish History, translated into Latin by Rufinus in the
fourth centur>f, had given rise to many old poems and romances ;
and his Maccabaics, or History of the seven Maccabees,
martyred with their father Eleazar under the persecution of
Antiochus Epiphanes, a separate work translated also by
Rufinus, produced the Judas Maccabee of Bclleperche in the
year 1240, and at length enrolled the Maccabees among the
most illustrious heroes of romance ' — ed. Hazlitt, iii. 26.
1436. leiverye, kingdom of the Jews ; cf. Prior. Tale, B. 1679.
1437. WTio the other seven are, we can but guess ; the
reference seems to be to Jewish historians. Perhaps we may
include Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Isaiah, Daniel, Nehemiah ;
and, in any case, Ezra. The number seven was probably taken
at random. With 1. 1447 cf. Troil. ii. 630.
1450. Wheel, orbit. The orbit of Saturn is the largest of the
(old) seven planets ; see Kn. Tale, 1 596. The reason why
Josephus is placed upon Saturn's metal, is because history
records so many unhappy casualties, such as Saturn's influence
^^S IX. HOUSE OF FA ATE: BOOK III.
was supposed to cause. All this is fully explained in the Kn.
Tale, 1597-1611.
1457. Yren, the metal of Mars ; see note to 1. 1431.
1459. This allusion to 'tiger's blood' is curious; but is fully
accounted for by the account of the two tigers in bk. vii. of the
Thebaid. A peace had nearly been made up between the
Thebans and the other Greeks, when two tigers, sacred to
Bacchus, broke loose, and killed three men. They are then
wounded by Aconteus, whereupon ' They fly, and flying, draw
upon the plain A bloody line ' ; according to Lewis's translation.
They fall and die, but are avenged ; and so the whole war was
renewed. Lydgate reduces the two tigers to one; see his
chapter ' Of a tame Tigre dwelling in Thebes ' ; in part 3 of his
Sege of Thebes.
1460. Stace (as in Troil. bk. v, near the end, and Kn. Tale,
1436) is Publius Papinius Statius, who died A.D. 96, author of the
Thebais and Achilleis (see 1. 1463), the latter being left incom-
plete. Tholosan means Toulousan, or inhabitant of Tholouse ;
and he is here so called because by some (including Dante,
Avhom Chaucer follows) he was incorrectly supposed to have
been a native of Toulouse. He was born at Naples, A.D. 61.
Dante calls him Tolosano in Purg. xxi. 89, on which Gary
remarks : — ' Dante, as many others have done, confounds
Statius the poet, who was a Neapolitan, with a rhetorician of
the same name, who was of Tolosa or Thoulouse. Thus
Chaucer ; and Boccaccio, as cited by Lombard! : " E Stazio di
Tolosa ancora cora " ; Amoros. Vis. cant. 5.'
1463. 'Cantai di Tebe, e poi del grande Archille'; Dante,
Purg. xxi. 92.
1466. Oinere., Homer; see 11. 1477-1480 below.
1467. In Chaucer's Troil. i. 146, is the line — ' In Omere, or
in Dares, or in Dyte.' Dares means Dares Phr>'gius; and Tytiis
is doubtless intended for the same person as Dyte, \. e. Dictys
Cretensis. See the account in Warton, Hist. E. Poet., ed.
Hazlitt, ii. 127, beginning: — 'But the Trojan story was still
kept alive in two Latin pieces, which passed under the names
of Dares Phrygius and Dictys Cretensis,' &c. ; and further in
vol. iii. p. 81. The chief source of the romantic histories of
Troy in the middle ages is the Roman dc Troie by Benoit de
Sainte-Maure, which appeared between 1175 ^i^d 1185, and has
lately been edited by M. Joly. This was copied by Guido de
Colonna (see note to I: 1469 below), who pretended, nevertheless,
to follow Dares and Dictys.
IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK Til. 359
1468. LolliHs\ evidently supposed by Chaucer to be a writei
on the Trojan war. See Tyrvvhitt's note on the words the boke
of Troihis, as occurring at the end of the Persones Tale.
Chaucer twice quotes Lollius in Troilus, viz. in bk. i. 394 and
bk. V. 1652. At the beginning of sect, xiv of his Hist, of Eng.
Poetry, Warton shews that there was a Lollius Urbicus among
the Historici Lathii profani of the third century ; ' but this
could not be Chaucer's Lollius ; . . . none of his works remain.'
The difficulty has never been cleared up; we know, however,
that the Troilus is chiefly taken from lioccaccio's Filostrato,
just as his Knight's Tale is chiefly taken from Boccaccio's
Tcseide. My idea of the matter is that, in the usual mode of
appealing to old authorities, Chaucer refers us (not to Boccaccio,
whom he does not mention, but) to the authorities whom he
supposed Boccaccio must have followed. Accordingly, in his
Troilus, he mentions Homer, Dares, Dictys, and Lollius, though
he probably knew next to nothing of any one of these authors.
Accordingly, the suggestion made by Dr. Latham {Athenceum,
Oct. 3, 1 868, p. 433) seems quite reasonable, viz. that he (oi-
some 07ie else) got the idea that Lollius wrote on the Trojan war
by misunderstanding the lines of Horace, Epist. i. 2 : —
' Troiani belli scriptorem, maxime Lolli,
Dum tu declamas Romse, Prseneste relegi.'
See Ten Brink, Studien, p. 87.
1469. Guido de Colonna, or Guido delle Colonne, or Guido
de Columnis, finished his translation or version of Benoit de
Sainte-Maure's Roman de Troie in the year 1287. His work is
called Historia Troiana. The ' Geste Hystoriale ' of the Destruc-
tion of Troy, edited by Panton and Donaldson for the Early
English Text Society, is a translation of Guide's Historia into
Middle English alliterative verse. See Warton, Hist. E. P., ed.
Hazhtt, iii. Si.
1470. Ganfride, Geoffrey, viz. Geofirey of Monmouth, who
died A.D. 1 1 54, and wrote a History of the Britons in Latin, full
of extravagant but lively fictions, which was completed in 1147;
see Morley's Hist. E. Writers, i. 496. He is righdy mentioned
among the writers who ' bore up Troy,' because he makes the
Britons the descendants of .'Eneas. See note below.
1477. Oon seyde, one (of them) said. Guido was one of those
who said this ; this appears from the Gest Hystoriale above
mentioned, which was translated from Guido ; see 11. 4i-47> ^'id
10312-10329 of Panton and Donaldson's edition. Guido asserts,
360 IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK III.
for example, that Achilles slew Hector by treachery, and not, as
Homer says, in fair fight ; and Chaucer asserts the same, Troil.
V. 1570. The fact is, that the Latin races declined to accept an
account which did not sufficiently praise the Trojans, whom
they regarded as their ancestors. Geoffrey of Monrnouth
ingeniously followed up this notion, by making the Trojans also
the ancestors of the ancient Britons. Hence English writers
followed on the same side ; Lydgate, as well as Chaucer, exclaims
against Homer. See Warton, ed. Hazlitt, iii. 82. But Dante
exalts Homer above Horace, Ovid, and Lucan : Inf. iv. 88.
1482. 'Homer's iron is admirably represented as having been
by Virgil covered over with tin ' ; note in Bell's Chaucer.
1487. Ovide, Ovid ; from whom perhaps Chaucer borrows
more than from any other Latin writer. He stands on a pillar
of copper, the metal sacred to Venus. See note to 1. 820 of Can.
Yeom. Tale, in my edition of the Man of Lawes Tale.
1494. High the (as in F.) is an error for highihe, height ; Cx.
Th. have heyght.
1499. Lucan; alluding to Lucan's Pharsalia, which narrates
the war between Cassar and Pompey. See Man of Lawes Tale,
401 ; Monkes Tale, C. T., Group B, 3909 (and note), and a
fourth mention of him near the end of Troilus. There is an
English translation by Rowe.
1509. Claudius Claudianus, in the fourth century, wrote
a poem Dc Rapiii Proserpincs, alluded to here and in the
Merchant's Tale (C. T. 10106), and several other pieces.
1 5 12. Imitated from Dante, I/if. ix. 44 — 'Delia regina dell'
eterno pianto.'
1 5 19. TFr/Zt?, wrote ; pt. t. pi. ///>// /£", were named.
1521. Again from Dante, Inf. xvi. i, which Cary translates : —
'Now came I where the water's din was heard, . . .
Resounding like the hum of swarming bees.
When forth together issued from a troop,' &c.
1527. Cf. Ovid, Met. xii, 53— 'Atria turba tenent ; ueniunt
leue uulgus, euntque.'
1530. AHes kznncs is in the gen. sing., and Of governs
condiciouns ; thus the line is equivalent to — ' Of conditions of
every kind ' ; whereas modern English uses — ' Of ever>' kind Of
condition.' This peculiar idiom was formerly common; and
precisely similar to it is the phrase noskinnes, for which see note
to 1. 1794. Observe that the phrase is oddly written alle
skynnes in MS. F., by a misdivision of the words. So in Piers
IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK III. 36 1
Plowman. A. ii. 175, we have the phrase _/tfr oiy ku7incs yiftus,
for gifts of any kind, where one MS. has any skynes. In my note
to P. Plowman, C. xi. 128, I give numerous examples, with
references, of phrases such as none kynncs richc, many kyntjcs
niancrcs, sunintcs kiinncs wise, what kyns schape, &c.
1550. 'Those that did pray her for her favour.'
1564. ' Because it does not please me.'
1570. I here alter Vpon pcyne to ]p pcyne, as the former will
not scan, and the latter is the usual idiom. See tip peyne in Kn.
Tale, 849, 1685 ; Man of Lawes Tale, 795, 884. Cf. vp the toft,
upon the toft, P. Plowman, B. i. 12; vp erthe, upon earth, id.
B. ix. 99.
1571. Cf. Rom. Rose, 18206 — 'Car Eolus, li diex des vens.'
From Vergil, ^Ett. i. 52 ; cf. Ovid, Met. xiv. 223, where .(tolus is
said to reign over the Tuscan sea. The connection of yEolus
with Thrace is not obvious; cf 1. 1585. But it may have been
suggested by Ovid's 'Threicio Borea ' ; Art. Am. ii. 431.
1596. Tok to, delivered to. Triton, Triton ; imitated from
Ovid, Met. i. 333, where Neptune calls Triton, and bids him
sound his ' shell,' the sound of which resounded everywhere.
161S. IVite is badly spelt wete or wote in the MS. copies ;
but the very phrase wite ye what occurs in C. T., Group E, 2431,
in my edition of the Prioresses Tale, p. 102.
1643. A pelet was a stone ball, such as used to be fired from
the earliest kind of cannon, of which this is a very early mention.
See my glossary to P. Plowman (Clar. Press).
1670. Lat gon, let go, lay aside.
1702. The word turned, which is dissyllabic, has evidently
been substituted here in the printed editions and in MS. P. for
the older and rare word clew, which does not occur elsewhere in
Chaucer. The line means — 'With that (therupon) I rubbed
my head all round ' ; which is a rustic way of expressing
perplexity. The verb clawen, to scratch, stroke, is not uncom-
mon, but the usual pt. t. is clawed. We find, however, at least
one other example of the strong form of the past tense in the
Seven Sages, ed. Weber, 1. 925 — ' He cleiv the bor on the rigge,'
he stroked the boar on the back, and made him go to sleep ; cf.
' thi maister the clawes,' i. e. your master strokes you, to flatter
you, in 1. 937 of the same. Chaucer has : 'to clawe [rub] him
on his hele ' [heel], Troil. iv. 728 ; ' he clauied him on the bak,'
he stroked him on the back, to encourage him, Cook's Prol.
2 fwhere clew would serve equally well). See claw in Jamieson's
Scot. Diet.
363 IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK III.
1708. * They would not give a leek.' Cf. 'dere ynough a leke';
Can. Yeoni. Tale, Group G, 795.
1740. 'Although no brooch or ring was ever sent us.'
1742-4. ' Nor was it once intended in their heart to make us
even friendly cheer, but they might (i. e. were ready to)
bring us to our bier ' ; i.e. so far from caring to please us, they
would be satisfied to see us dead.
The M.E. /d'wtv/, to produce, to bring, is the same word as mod.
E. teem, to produce. To te/nen on here is parallel to the old
phrase to bringe)t on here ; cf. Gavv. Douglas, tr. of ^neid, bk. x.
ch. 10, 1. 138, (ed. Small, iii. 326), where broclit on beyr means
' brought to their grave.' See Bier in Murray's Dictionary.
1747. For wood, as (if) mad, 'like mad.' The same phrase
recurs in Leg. Good Women, Phyllis, 1. 27 ; cf. as it were wood,
Kn. Tale, 2092.
1761. The name, the name of it, the credit of it.
1777. Masty (miswritten maisty in F., but niasty in the rest)
means fat, fattened up, and hence unwieldy, sluggish. Bell
alters it to viaisly, and Moxon's edition to nasiie ; both being
wrong. Palsgrave has : ' Masty, fatte, as swyne be, gras.'
The Promp. Parv. has : ' Mast-hog or swyne, [or] mastid swyne,
Maialis ' ; and : ' Mastyn beestys, sagino, inipiiiguo' Way
rightly explains masty as ' glutted with acorns or berries ' ; cf.
' Acorne, mast for swyne, gland,' in Palsgrave. See The Former
Age, 1. 37.
1 779. Wher, whether, ' is it the case that ? '
1782. As the word oiighte is never followed by to with a
following gerund, it is certain that to-hatigen is all one word, the
prefix to- being intensive. MSS. F. andB. omit to, but the rest
have it, and the syllable is wanted. I know of no other example
o{ to-hangcn, to hang thoroughly, but this is of little moment.
The prefix to- was freely added to all sorts of verbs expressing
strong action ; Stratmann gives more than a hzmdred examples.
1783. We must read sweynt, the form preserved in MS. B,
though an idle final e is added to it. The reading swynt is false,
being an error for sweynt. The reading slepy is a mere gloss
upon this rare word, but fairly expresses the meaning. Bell's
Chaucer has swynt, which the editor supposes to be put for
swinkt = swinked, pp. of swinken, to toil, as in Milton's ' swinkd
hedger'; Comus, 293. He is, however, entirely wrong, for
Milton's swink'd is quite a late form ; in Chaucer's time the verb
swinken was strong, and the pp. was swunken ! Chaucer has
queynt a.% the pp. of quenchen, Kn. Tale, 1463; and dreynt as
IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK III. 363
the pp. o{ drcnchcn, Non. Prest. Tale, 262. Similarly sivcynt is
the pp. of sivcfichen, to cause to toil, to fatigue, tire out, the
causal verb formed from the aforesaid strong intransitive verb
swifi/ccn, to toil. For examples, see swencJioi in Stratmann ; I
may instance : ' Euwer feond cou ne seal . . swenchen^ your
enemies shall not harass you, Old Eng. Homilies, ed. Morris, i.
13; and 'hi swencten svvi^e heom-seolfe,' they sore afflicted
themselves, id. loi. Moreover, siueyfit is here treated as if it
were dissyllabic, as seyn( (saint) is in some passages. Hence,
'the sweynt cat' means the over-toiled or tired out cat; or,
secondarily, a cat that will take no trouble, a slothful or sleepy
cat, as the gloss says. Compare Gower, Conf. Amant. ed. Pauli,
ii. 39, where the same cat is brought forward as an example
of the deadly sin of Sloth : —
' For he [a knight] ne wol no travail take
To ride for his ladies sake,
But liveth al upon his wisshes,
And — as a cat wolde ete fisshes
Withoute weting of his clees —
So wolde he do, but netheles
He faileth ofte of that he wolde.'
The ' adage ' is referred to in Macbeth, i. 7. 45. It occurs in MS.
Harl. 2321, fol. 146, printed in Reliq. Antiquic, i. 207, in the
form : ' The cat doth love the fishe, but she will not wett her
foote.' In Heywood's Proverbs, 1562 (p. 28, ed. Spenser Soc.) :
' The cat would eate fyshe, and would not wet her fecte.' So
also in Camden's Remains., 1614, p. 312. Hazlitt gives a rimed
version : —
' Fain would the cat fish eat,
But she's loth to wet her feet.'
In iPiers the Plowman's Crede, 405, is the allusion : —
'Thou woldest not weten thy fote, and woldest fich cacchen.'
In a medieval Latin verse, it appears as : ' Catus amat piscem,
sed non vult tingcre plantam ' ; see Proverbialia Dicteria . . per
A. Gartnerum, 1574, 8vo. Ray quotes the French : ' Le chat
aime le poisson, mais il n'aime pas ^ mouiller la patte.' The
German form is — ' Die Katze hiitt' der Fische gem ; aber sie
will die Fiisse nit nass machen ' ; N. and Q. 4 S. ix. 266.
1794. Noskinnes; miswritten no skynnes in MSS. F. and B. ;
Th. and Cx. no kyns. Nos-kinties is short for noneskinnes, of no
kind ; tioskinncs labour is ' work of no kind' ; in mod. E. ' no
kind of work.' It also occurs without the former s\ as in 7to kyne
364 IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK III.
<r<^/^/, property of no kind, P. Plowm. C. xi. 250; none kynnes
riche, rich men of no kind, id. B. xi. 185. Cf. also offoure kunne
ihinges, of things of four kinds, of four kinds of things, where
one MS. has offoure skynnes ihinges ; P. Plowm. A. x. 2. And
see note to 1. 1530 above.
1796. Bele Isaude^ Isaude (or Isoude, or Isolde) the fair ; here
a type of a high form of female beauty. See Pari. Foules, 290 ;
and the note.
1798. ' She that grinds at a hand-mill ' ; a poor slave.
1810. Her (their) refers to the 'seventh company.' 'Such
amusement they found in their hoods ' ; a phrase meaning ' so
much did they laugh at them'; see Troil. ii. 11 10. Cf. the
phrase ' to put an ape in a man's hood,' i. e. to make him look
like an ape, or look foolish ; see note to C. T., Group B, 1630, in
my edition of the Prioresses Tale.
1823. ' Then a company came running in.'
1824. C//f7//^«, strike downwards. They began hitting people
on the head, regardless of consequences. The same expression
occurs in Richard the Redeless, iii. 230 — 'And ich man
i-charchid to schoppe at his croune ' ; where i-charchid =
i-charged, i. e. was charged, was commanded, and schoppe =
choppe.
1840. Pale, a perpendicular stripe ; chiefly used as an heraldic
term. The object of the conspicuous stripe upon the hose was to
draw men's attention to him ; for the same reason, he wore a
bell on his tippet, and, in fact, his dress resembled that of the
professional fool. Paled or striped hose were sometimes worn
by one in the height of the fashion.
'iBuskins he wore of costliest cordwayne,
Pinckt upon gold, and paled part per part,
As then the guize was for each gentle swayne.'
Spenser, F. Q. vi. 2. 6.
I. e. his buskins were adorned with golden dots or eyelets, and
regularly intersected with stripes arranged perpendicularly.
1844. Iszdis, Isis ; Jsidis being a form of the genitive case.
Chaucer doubtless refers to Herostratus, the wretch who set fire
to the temple of Diana at Ephesus, in order to immortalise his
name. Why Diana here appears as Isis, and Ephesus as
Athens, I cannot explain. Perhaps it was due to a defect of
memory ; we are apt to forget how very largely medieval authors
had to trust to their memories for names and facts. It is almost
impossible for us moderns, with our facilities for reference, to
IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOCK III. 365
imagine what were the difficulties of learned men in the olden
time. Perhaps Chaucer was thinking of Ovid's line (ex Ponto,
i. I. 51) — ' Uidi ego linigerae numcn uiolasse fatentem Isidis.'
' See, Eiostratus the second
Fires again Diana's fane.'
Rejected Addresses; Drurys Dirge, st. 5.
T853. Thynne prints — '(Though it be naught) for shreudness' ;
but this is very forced. MS. B. and Caxton both omit tioght,
rightly.
1S57. 'And, in order to get (some) of the meed of fame.
1880. An allusion to the old proverb — 'As I brew, so must
1 needs drink ' ; in Camden's Remains. Gower has it, Conf.
Amant. bk. iii, ed. Pauli, ii. 334 : —
' And who so wicked ale breweth,
Ful ofte he mot the werse drinke.*
1920. The description of 'the house of Daedalus' is in Ovid,
Met. viii. 159 ; and the word labyrinthus, used with reference to
it, is in Vergil, AUn. v. 588. Chaucer again refers to it in the
Leg. of Good Women (Ariadne), 2010; and it is mentioned in
his translation of Boethius, bk. iii. pr. 12; ed. Morris, p. 105.
And see Gower, Conf. Amant. ed. Pauli, ii. 304.
1926. This somewhat resembles Dante, Inf. iii. 53, which Cary
translates : —
' Which whirlinr; ran about so rapidly
That it no pause obtain'd.'
1928. Oise, a river which flows into the Seine, from the north,
not far below Paris. Chaucer says the sound might have been
heard from there to Rome. From this vague statement, Warton
would wish us to infer that the whole poem was founded on
some foreign production now (and probably always) unknown.
There is no need to draw any such conclusion. The English
were fairly familiar with the north of France in days when a
good deal of French soil belonged more or less to the king ot
England. The Oise, being a northern affluent of the Seine,
must have been a well-known river. I think the allusion proves
just nothing at all.
1933- This is an excellent and picturesque allusion, but in
these days can no longer be appreciated. Compare Barbour's
Bruce, xvii, 681 : —
'The engynour than deliuerly
Gert bend the gyne in full gret hy,
And the stane smcrtly swappit out.
It flaw out, quhedirand, with a rout^
c^66 TX. JIOrSE OF FAME: BOOK III.
1940. Though the authorities read Jiatfes (Th. hutches), I
alter this word to hottes without hesitation. We do not make hats
with twigs or osiers. Chaucer says that some of the twigs were
white, such as men use to make cages with, or panniers (i. e.
baskets), or hottes, or dossers. Now Cotgrave explains F.
Punier by ' a Pannier, or Dosser ; also, a Pedlers Pack ; also,
a fashion of trunke made of wicker' ; and he explains F. Hotte
by 'a Scuttle, Dosser, Basket to carry on the back; the right
hotte is wide at the top, and narrow at the bottom.' Dr. Murray
kindly refers me to Cursor Mundi, 1. 5524 : —
' Apon \tx ncckes sal J)ai here
Hott wit Stan and wit morter.'
He also tells me that in Caxton's Golden Legend (14S3), fol.
cix. col. 2, is the sentence — 'And bare on his sholdres vij. Jiotiis
or baskettis fulle of erthe.' In a Glossary of North of England
Words, printed as Gloss. B. i, by the Eng. Dial. Society, I
find : ' Hots, s. pi. a sort of panniers to carry turf or slate in ' ;
and Halliwell gives it as a Cumberland word. Dickinson's
Cumberland Glossary has : ' Muck-hots, panniers for conveying
manure on horseback.' Brockett's Gloss, of Northern Words
has : ' Hot, a sort of square basket, formerly used for taking
manure into fields of steep ascent ; the bottom opened by two
wooden pins to let out the contents.' Thus the existence of
the word in English is fully proved ; and the fitness of it is
evident.
1943. 'Al ful of chirking was that sory place'; Kn. Tale,
1 146.
1946. Again from Ovid, Met. xii. 44-47.
1970. Perhaps cei should be omitted ; we should then read —
' Of estat-es and of regions.' Or read — ' estdts.'
1975. A/is is here an adjective, meaning 'bad' or 'wrong';
cf. — ' But to correcten that is nn's I mente ' ; Can. Yeom. Tale,
G. 999.
1980. 'Although the timber,' &c.
1982. 'As long as it pleases Chance, who is the mother of
news, just as the sea (is mother) of wells and springs.'
1997. Fardventure ; also spelt parauiiter, shewing how
rapidly the third syllable could be slurred over.
2000. Peter \ by St. Peter; see note to 1. 1034.
2009. I substitute the dissyllabic swich-e for the monosyllabic
these, to preserve the melody.
201 1. ' To drive away thy heaviness with.'
IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK III. 'ifi']
2017. MS. Y. ha.s fro/, which has no meaning, but may be
a misspelling oifroit, which is another form oi fruit. I propose
to read Theffcct^ i. e. the result (which is clearly intended) ;
otherwise we must read The fruit, which will also serve, if
we remember that Chaucer uses fruit in the peculiar sense of
'upshot ' or 'result.'
'And for it is no fruit but los of tyme'; Sqni. Ta. 74.
'The/;7/j'/ of this mateie is that I telle'; Man of Lawes Ta. 411.
In the present case, it would be used in a double sense ; (i) of
result, (2) of a fruit that withers and is ready to burst open.
As to the spelling froit, we find froyie in the Petworth MS.
in the latter of the above quotations, where other MSS. have
fruyt or fruite. The swote (Cx. Th.) means ' the sweetness.'
2021. I suppress /;/ after jrt/, because it is not wanted for the
sense, and spoils the metre.
2034-2040. Suggested by Dante, I?if iii. 55-57, just as 11.
1924-6 above are by the two preceding lines in Dante; see
note to I. 1926. Gary has : —
'and following came
Such a long train of spirits, I should ne'er
Have thought that death so many had despoil'd.'
2044. I substitute ech for cuerych (in Caxton). The two
MSS. (F. and B.) have merely Rouned in others ere, which
is of course defective.
2048. I here follow B. (except that it wrongly omits to).
2059. Wondermost ; super], of ivondcr, which is very common
as an adjective.
2076. As the reading of the MSS. is obviously wrong (the
word 7nouth being repeated three times), whilst the reading of
the printed editions ( Went every tydyng) cannot be right on
account of the scansion, I put ivord for the first of the three
mouth's. This gives the right sense, and probably Chaucer
actually wrote it.
2089. Again from Ovid, Met. xii. 54, 55.
2101. See Kn. Tale, 273, 274.
2105. Beside, without ; without asking his leave.
21 19. CT. Cant. Tales, 7277 (Group D, 1695)— ' Twenty
thousand freres on a route,' where Tyrwhitt prints A twenty.
But the MSS. (at least the seven best ones) all omit the A. Just
as the present line wants its first syllable, and is to be scanned
— ' Twenty thousand in a roi'ite ' ; so the line in the Cant. Tales
wants its first syllabic, and is to be scanned— Twenty thousand
;^68 IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK III.
fr^res on a route. For having called attention to this fact, my
name (misspelt) has been once mentioned in ho-weWs My Study
Wmdo-cL's, in his article on Chaucer. ' His (Chaucer's) ear
would never have tolerated the verses of nine ^ syllables with a
strong accent on the first, attributed to him by Mr. Skeate and
Mr. Morris. Such verses seem to me simply impossible in the
pentameter iambic as Chaucer wrote it.' Surely this is as-
sumption, not proof I have only to say that the examples are
rather numerous, and nine-syllable lines are not impossible to a
poet with a good ear ; for there are twelve consecutive lines of
this character in Tennyson's Vision of Sin. It may suffice to
quote one of them : —
' Panted hand in hand with faces pale.'
I will merely add here, that similar lines abound in Lydgate's
' Sege of Thebes.'
2123. Cf. P. Plowman ; B. prol. 46-52. Bretful, brim-ful,
occurs in P. PI. C. i. 42 ; also in Chaucer, Prol. 687 ; Kn.
Tale, 1306.
2130. Lyes; Y.lies,'E.Iecs. ' Z^V, f. the lees, dregs, grounds ' ;
Cotgrave.
2140. Sooner or later, every sheaf in the bam has to come
out to be thrashed.
2152. 'And cast up their noses and eyes.' This is very
graphic ; each man is trying to peer beyond the rest. The
right reading is retained in MS. B. only ; the other two
authorities turn 7tose and cyen into noise on hyghen ; but the
form hyghen was obsolete at this date, and the sense thus
obtained is poor.
2154. 'And stamp, as a man would stamp on a live eel, to try
to secure it.' Already in Plautus, Pseudoius, 2. 4. 56, we have
the proverb anguiHa est, elabitiir, he is an eel, he slips away
from you ; said of a sly or sHppery fellow. In the Ror^. de la
Rose, 9941, we are told that it is as hard to be sure of a woman's
constancy as it is to hold a live eel by the tail. ' To have an
eel by the tail ' was an old English proverb ; see Eel in Nares '
Glossary, ed. Halliwell and Wright.
2158. The poem ends here, in the middle of a sentence. It
seems as if Chaucer did not quite know how to conclude, and
put off finishing the poem till that more 'convenient season'
which never comes. Practically, nothing is lost.
The copy printed by Caxton broke off still earlier, viz. at
* Really ten ; for rout-e is dissyllabic
IX. HOUSE OF FAME: BOOK III. 369
1. 2094. In order to make a sort of ending to it, Caxton added
twelve lines of his own, with his name — Caxton — at the side of
the first of them ; and subjoined a note in prose ; as follows : —
And wyth the noyse of them [t]wo^
I Sodeynly awoke anon tho^
And remembryd what I had seen
And how hye and ferre I had been
In my ghoost | and had grete wonder
Of that the god of thonder
Had lete me knowen | and began to wryte^
Lyke as ye haue herd me endyte
Wherfor to studye and rede alway *
I purpose to doo day by day
Thus in dremyng and in game
Endeth thys lytyl book of Fame.
I fynde nomore of this werke to-fore sayd. For as fer as I can
vnderstonde | This noble man Gefferey Chaucer fynysshed at
the sayd conclusion of the metyng of lesyng and sothsawe |
where as yet they ben chekked and maye not departe | whyche
werke as me semeth is craftyly made ; ' &c. (The rest is in
praise of Chaucer.)
But, although Caxton's copy ended at 1. 2094, lines 2095-2158
appear in the two AISS., and are obviously genuine. Thynne
also printed them, and must have found them in the MS. which
he followed. After 1. 2158, Thynne subjoins Caxton's ending,
with an alteration in the first three lines, because they were not
quite suitable to follow 1. 2158, having been adapted by Caxton
to follow 1. 2094. Hence Thynne prints them as follows : —
And therwithal I abrayde
Out of my slepe halfe a frayde
Remembri[n]g wel what I had sene ; &c.
We thus see that it was never pretended that the lines succeed-
ing 1. 2158 were Chaucer's. They are admittedly Caxton's or
Thynne's. If we had not been told this, we could easily have
detected it by the immediate and obvious inferiority in the style.
Caxton's second line will not scan at all comfortably ; neither
will the third, nor the fourth ; and Thynne's lines are scarcely
better.
' Misprinted wo ; but it refers to the word two in 1. 2093.
* Imitated from Pari, of Foules, 693. ' Cf Book Duch. 1332.
* From Pari, of Foules, 696.
B b
370 X. THE FORMER AGE.
X. The Former Age.
' The former Age ' is a title taken from 1. 2 of the poem. In
MS. Hh., at the end, are the words — ' Finit Etas prima :
Chancers.'
Both MSS. are poor, and omit a whole line (1. 56), which has
to be supplied by conjecture ; as we have no other authority.
The spelling requires more emendation than usual.
The poem is partly a verse translation of Boethius, De Con-
solatione Philosophice, lib. ii. met. 5. We possess a prose trans-
lation by Chaucer of the entire work, edited by Dr. Morris in
1858. This therefore contains the same passage in prose ; and
the prose translation is, of course, a much closer rendering of the
original. Indeed there is nothing in the original which corres-
ponds to the last four stanzas of the present poem, excepting a
hint for 1. 62.
The work of Boethius, in Latin, consists of five books. Each
book contains several sections, written in prose and verse
alternately. Hence we may find references to bk. ii. prose 5
(liber ii. prosa 5) ; bk.^ii. metre 5 (liber ii. metrum 5) ; and the
like. These divisions are very useful in finding one's place.
Anicius Manlius Torquatus Severinus Boetius (or Boethius)
was a Roman senator, who was born about the year 470, and
was put to death by Theodoric, A. D. 525. See the masterly
account of him in Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire, c. 39. 'While Boethius,' says Gibbon, ' oppressed with
fetters, expected each moment the sentence or the stroke of
death, he composed, in the tower of Pavia, the * Consolation of
Philosophy ; ' a golden volume, not unworthy of the leisure of
Plato or TuUy, but which claims incomparable merit from the
barbarism of the times and the situation of the author.' This
great work was translated, before Chaucer, by King Alfred ; and,
after Chaucer, at least eight times. Lowndes recommends a
translation by the Rev. P. Ridpath, printed at London in 1785.
Chaucer was also indebted to Ovid, Metam. i. 89-112, for part
of this description of the Golden Age ; of which see Dryden's
fine translation. See also Le Roman de la Rose, 11. 8395-
8492 ; and compare the Complaint of Scotland, ed. Murray, p.
144. For further remarks, see the Preface.
2. The former age; Lat. prior etas.
3. Payed of, satisfied with ; Lat. contenta.
5. Forparnpred, exceedingly pampered ; Lat. perdita.
X. T/fE FORMER AGE. 37]
6. Quern, a hand-mill for grinding corn. Melle, mill.
7. Mr. Sweet reads hawes, mast instead of mast, hawes. This
sounds better, but is not necessary. Haw-es is dissyllabic.
Pflimage, mod. E. pannage, mast, or food given to swine in the
woods ; see the Glossary. Better spelt pannage or paunage
(Manwood has pawnage, as cited in Blount's Nomolcxicon.
Koch wrongly refers us to O. F. poiin, poon, a sickle (Burguy),
but mast and haws were never reaped. Cf. Dante, Purg. xxii.
148.
1 1. ' Which they rubbed in their hands, and ate of sparingly.'
Gnodded is the pt. t. o{ gnoddc7i or gnuddcn, to rub, examples of
which are scarce. See Ancren Riwle, pp. 238, 260 (footnotes),
andi gntde m llalliwell's Dictionary. But the right reading is
db\-\ons\y gnode, the pt. t. pi. of the strong verb gniden, to rub,
as Koch well suggests. This restores the melody of the line.
The Northern iorm gnade occurs in the O. E. Psalter, Ps. Ixviii.
45. Mr. Sweet reads gnodde, bdt the pt. t. of gnodden was
gtiodded.
16. 'No one as yet ground spices in a mortar, to put into
clarre or galantine-sauce.' As to clarre, see Glos. to Knightes
Tale ; and the Babees Book, ed. Furnivall, p. 204, and Index.
In the Liber Cure Cocorum, ed. Morris, p. 30, is the following
recipe for Galentyne : —
' Take crust of brede and grynde hit smalle,
Take powder of galingale, and temper with-alle;
Powder of gyngere and salt also ;
Tempre hit with vencgur er l^ou more do ;
Drawje hit Jjurughe a streynour ))enne,
And messe hit forth before good menne.'
* Galcndync is a sauce for any kind of roast Fowl, made of
Grated Bread, be^iten Cinnamon and Ginger, Sugar, Claret-wine,
and Vinegar, made as thick as Grewell;' Randell Holme, bk. iii.
ch. iii. p. 82, col. 2 (quoted in Babees Book, ed. Furnivall,
p. 216). Roquefort gives O.7. galatine, galantine, galentinc,
explained by ' gelee, daube, sauce, ragout fort epice ; en bas
Latin, galatina^ Beyond doubt, Chaucer found the word in the
Roman de la Rose, 1. 21823 — ' En friture et en galcntitie^ See
Galantine in Littrd, Cf. Rom. de la Rose, 8418 : —
' Et de Tiaue simple bevoient
Sans querre piment ne clare,' &c.
17. 'No dyer knew anything about madder, weld, or woad.'
All three are plants used in dyeing. Madder is Riibia titiciofia,
B b 2
372 X. THE FORMER AGE.
the roots of which yield a dye. I once fancied weld was an
error for welled (i. e. flowed out) ; and Mr. Sweet explains ivelde
by ' strong.' Both of these fancies are erroneous. Weld is the
Reseda Luieola of Linnseus, and grows wild in waste places ; I
have seen it growing near Beachey Head. It is better known as
Dyer's Rocket. In Johns' Flowers of the Field, we duly
find — ''Reseda Luteola, Dyer's Rocket, Yellow-weed, or Weld.'
Also called Ash of Jerusalem, Dyer's Weed, &c. ; see Eng.
Plant names, by Britten and Holland. It appears in mod. G. as
Wail (Du. woiiw), older spelling Waude. Its antiquity as a
Teut. word is vouched for by the derivatives in the Romance
languages, such as Span, gnalda, Port, giealde, F. gaude ; see
Gualda in Diez. Weld is a totally distinct word from woad, but
most dictionaries confound them. Florio, most impartially,
coins a new form by mixing the two words together (after the
fashion adopted in Alice through the Looking-glass). He gives
us Ital. giialdo, 'a weede to die yellow with, called woald^
The true woad is the Isatis ti7ictoria, used for dyeing blue
before indigo was known ; the name is sometimes given to
Genista tinctoria, but the dye from this is of a yellow colour.
Phny mentions the dye from madder (Nat. Hist. xix. 3) ; and
says the British women used glastiun^ i.e. woad (xxii. i).
18. Flees, fleece ; Lat. uellera. Dr. Koch prints flex, with
a reference to C. T. Prol. 676 ; \)\x\.flex means flax.
27-29. Cf. Ovid, Metam. i. 138-140.
30. Ri-ver-es ; three syllables. Mr. Sweet suggests putting
after in place oi first.
i 33- ' These tyrants did not gladly venture into battle to win
/ a wilderness or a few bushes where poverty (alone) dwells — as
Diogenes says — or where victuals are so scarce and poor that
only mast or apples are found there ; but, wherever there are
money-bags,' &c. I do not quite follow this reference to
Diogenes, though his praises of poverty are well known.
Higden, in his Polychronicon, lib. iii. c. 20, gives several of the
usual anecdotes about him, and remarks, with regard to him
and Alexander — ' tunc victus est Alexander quando invenit
hominem cui nil potuit dare nee auferre.' Gower relates how
Diogenes reproved Alexander for his lust of conquest ; Conf.
Amantis, ed. Pauli, i. 322.
41. This stanza seems more or less imitated from Le Rom.
de la Rose, 8437 : —
' Et quant par nnit dormir voloient.
En leu de coites S^quilts^ aportoient
X. THE FORMER AGE. 373
En lor casiaus monceaus de gerbes,
De foilles, ou de mousse, ou d'erbes ; . . .
Sor tex couches cum ge devise,
Sans rapine et sans convoitise,
S'entr'acoloient et baisoient . . .
Les simples gens asseurees,
De toutes cures escurees.'
47. ' Their hearts were all united, without the gall (of envy).'
Curiously enough, Chaucer has here made an oversight. He
ends the line with galles, riming with halles and zoalles ;
whereas the line should end with a word riming to s/ieie.
49, Here again cf. Rom. de la Rose, 8483 : —
'N'encor n'avoit fet roi ne prince
Meffais qui I'autrui tolt et pince.
Trestuit pareil estre soloienl,
Ne riens propre avoir ne voloient.'
55, 56. ' Humility and peace, (and) good faith (who is) the
empress (of all), filled the earth full of ancient courtesy.' Line
56 I have supplied ; Dr. Koch supplies the line — ' Yit hadden
in this worlde the maistrie.' Either of these suggestions fills up
the sense intended.
57. Jupiter is mentioned in Ovid's Metamorphoses imme-
diately after the description of the golden, silver, brazen, and
iron ages. At 1. 568 of the same book begins the story of the
love of Jupiter for lo.
59. Nembrot, Nimrod; so that his toures hye refers to the
tower of Babel. In Gen. x, xi, the sole connection of Nimrod
with Babel is in ch. x. 10 — ' And the beginning of his king-
dom was Babel.' But the usual medieval account is that he
built the tower. Thus, in the Cursor Mundi, 1. 2223 : —
* Nembrot than said on this wise, . . .
"I rede we bigin a labonre,
And do we wel and make a toure," ' &c.
So also in Sir D. Lyndsay, Buke of the Monarch^, bk. ii.
1. 1625.
62-64. These last lines are partly imitated from Boethius ;
lines 33-61 are independent of him.
374 ^I' FORTUNE.
XI. Fortune.
This poem consists of three Ballads and an Envoy. Each
Ballad contains three stanzas of eight lines, with the rimes
ababbcbc, and the rimes of the second and third stanzas are
precisely the same as those of the first. Thus the rime a recurs
six times, the rime b twelve times, and the rime c likewise six
times. Moreover, each stanza ends with the same line, re-
curring as a refrain. Hence the metrical difficulties are very
great, and afford a convincing proof of Chaucer's skill. The
Envoy is of seven lines, rimed ab abbab.
The three ballads are called, collectively, Balades de visage
sanz -pehiture, a title which is correctly given in MS. I., with
the unlucky exception that visage has been turned into vilage.
This curious blunder occurs in all the MSS. and old editions,
and evidently arose from mistaking a long s (f) for an /.
Vilage, of course, makes no sense ; and we are enabled to
correct it by help of Chaucer's translation of Boethius, ed.
Morris, bk. ii. pr. I ; 1. 773. ' Ry5t swyche was she [Fortune]
whan she flatered \& and desseiued })e wi}) vnleueful lykynges
of false welefulnesse ; }>ou hast now knowen and ataynt ]je
doutous or double visage of |)ilke blynde goddesse foriune.
She ))at 5it couere\ hir and 'ijiiymple\ hir to o\<tr folk, haj>
shewed her euerydel to J)e.' Or the Ballads may refer to the
unmasking of false friends : ' Fortune hath departyd and vn-
coueryd to the bothe the certeyn visages and ek the dowtos
visages of thy felawes ; ' id. bk. ii. pr. 8 ; 1. 1668. The whole
poem is more or less founded on the descriptions of Fortune in
Boethius ; and we thus see that the visage meant is the face of
Fortune, or else the face of a supposed friend, which is clearly
revealed to the man of experience, in the day of adversity,
without any covering or wimpling, and even without any
painting or false colouring.
In MS. T. we are told that ' here filowe))e [foUowetJil a balade
made by Chaucier of \& louer and of Dame Fortune.' In MS. A.
we are told that ' here folowejje nowe a compleynte of \& Pleint)'ff
agenst fortune translated oute of Frenshe into Englisshe by ))at
famous Rethorissyen Geffrey Chaucier.' This hint, that it is
translated out of French, can scarcely be right, unless Shirley
(whose note this is) means that it partially resembles pas-
sages in Le Roman de la Rose ; for Chaucer's work seems to
contain some reminiscences of that poem as well as of the
Xr. FORTUNE. 375
treatise of Boethius, though of course Le Roman is indebted to
Boethius also.
Le Pleifitif is the complainant, the man who brings a charge
against Fortune, or rather, who exclaims against her as false,
and defies her power. The first Ballad, then, consists of this
complaint and defiance.
The close connection between this poem and Boethius is
shewn by the fact that (like the preceding poem called The
Former Age) it occurs in an excellent MS. of Chaucei-'s trans-
lation of Boethius, viz. MS. I. (li. 3. 21, in the Cambridge
University Library). I may also remark here, that there is a
somewhat similar dialogue between Nobilitas and Fortuna in
the Anticlmidiaftiis of Alanus de Insulis, lib. viii. c. 2 ; see
Anglo-Latin Satirists, ed. T. Wright, ii. 401.
In Morlcy's English Writers, ii. 283, is the following descrip-
tion. ' The argument of the first part [or Ballad] is : I ha\e
learnt by adversity to know who are my true friends; and he
can defy Fortune who is master of himself. The argument of
the next part [second Ballad], that Fortune speaks, is : Man
makes his own wretchedness. What may come you know not ;
you were born under my rule of change; your anchor holds.
Of the third part of the poem [third Ballad], in which the Poet
and Fortune each speak, the sum of the argument is, that what
blind men call fortune is the righteous will of God. Heaven is
firm, this world is mutable. The piece closes with Fortune's
call upon the Princes to relieve this man of his pain or pray his
best friend " of his noblesse " that he may attain to some better
estate.'
The real foundation of these three Ballads is (i) Boethius,
bk. ii. proses i, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, and met. i ; and (2) a long passage
in Le Roman de la Rose, 11. 4853-4994 (Eng. version, 5406-5587).
More particular references are given below.
1. The beginning somewhat resembles Boethius, bk. ii. met.
I : — ' She, cruel Fortune, kasteth adoune kyngcs that somtyme
weren ydred ; and she, dcceiuablc, enhaunscth vp the humble
chere of hym that .is discomfited.' Cf. Rom. Rose (E. version),
11. 54S2-6.
2. The latter part of this line is badly given in the MSS. The
readings are : F. now pouerte and now riche honour {much too
long) ; L now poeer^ and now honour ; A. T. nowe poure and
nowe honour ; H. now poore and now honour. But the reading
poure, pocr, pore, i. e. poor, hardly serves, as a sb. is required.
Pouerte seems to be the right word, but this requires us to omit
376 XI. FORTUNE.
the former now. Pouerte can be pronounced ^£>z/(?r/' ; accented
on the second syllable, and with the final e elided. For this
pronunciation, see Prol. to Man of Lawes Tale, Group B, 1. 99,
in my edition of Prioresses Tale, p. 4. Precisely because this
pronunciation was not understood, the scribes did not know
what to do. They inserted 7io'w before pouerte (which they
thought was poverte) ; and then, as the line was too long, cut it
down to poure, poore, to the detriment of the sense. I would
therefore rather read — As wele or wo, poverte and now honour.
7. In the Introduction to the Persones Tale, we find: 'wel
may that man, that no good werk ne doth, singe thilke newe
Frenshe song, lay tout perdu mon temps et inott labour' In like
manner, in the present case, this line of ' a new French song ' is
governed by the verb stjigen in 1. 6. The sense is — ' the lack of
Fortune's favour shall never (though I die) make me sing — " I
have wholly lost my time and my labour." ' In other words, ' I
will not own myself defeated.'
9. With this stanza cf. Rom. de la Rose (E. version), 5554-5,
5675-81, 5582-5 :—
' For infortune makith anoon
To knowe thi frendis fro thy foon . . .
A wise man seide, as we may seen,
Is no man wrecched, but he it wene, . .
For he suffrith in pacience . . .
Richesse riche ne makith nought
Hym that on tresour set his thought ;
For richesse stent in suffisatue ; ' &c.
13. No force of, it does not matter for ; i.e.' thy rigour is.of no
consequence to him who has the mastery over himself.' From
Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 4 (ed. Morris, 1. 11 14), which Chaucer
translates: 'Than, if it so be J>at Jjou art my^ty ouer })i-self, ))at
is to seyn, by tranquillitee of \\ soule, ]>an hast ])ou ))ing in \\
power \zX ]iou noldest neuer lesen, ne Fortune may nat by-nyme
it \&:
17. Socrates is mentioned in Boeth. bk. i. pr. 3, but 11. 17-20
are from Le Rom. de la Rose, 11. 5871-4 : —
'A Socrates seras semblables,
Qui tant fu fers et tant estables,
Qu'il n'ert lies en prosperites,
Ne tristes en aversites.'
20. Chere, look. Savour, pleasantness, attraction ; cf Squi.
Tale, 404. All the MSS. have this reading ; Caxton alters it to
favour.
Xr. FORTUNE. ^'J'J
25. This Second Ballad gives us Fortune's response to the
defiance of the complainant. It should be compared with
Boethius, bk. 2, prose 2, where Philosophy says — ' Ccrtis, I
wolde plcte wif) J)ee a fewe f)inges, vsynge \e ivordcs of FortteneJ
Also with Rom. Rose (E. version, 5470-5567).
28. ' Who possessest thy (true) self (as being quite) beyond niy
control.' A fine sentiment. Out of, beyond, independent of.
29. Cf. ' thou hast had grace as he J)at haj) vsed of foreyne
goodes ; J)ou hast no ryjt to plcyne |je ; ' Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 2 ;
1. 850.
31. Cf. 'what eke, yif my mutabilitee 5iueJ) \& ry^\.in\ cause of
hope to han 5it better ))inges ;' id. 1. S95.
32. Thy teste frettdj possibly John of Gaunt, who died in
1399 ; but see note to 1. j^i below. There is a curious re-
semblance here to Le Rom. de la Rose, 8056-60 : —
' Et sachies, compains, que sitost
Comme Fortune m'ot 9a mis,
fe pcfdi trcstous mcs amis,
Fors wig, ce croi ge vraiement.
Qui m'est remes tant solement.'
34. Cf. ' for-why this ilke Fortune hath departyd and vn-
coueryd to the bothe the certeyn vysages and ek the dowtos
visages of thy felawes . . . thow hast fowndyn the moste presyos
kynde of Rychesses, ])at is to seyn, thy verray frendes ; ' id.
bk. ii. pr. 8, 1. 1668.
Cf. Rom. Rose (E. version), 1. 5489, and 11. 5550-3. The
French version has (11. 4967, (S:c.) :—
' Si lor fait par son mescheoir
Tretout si clerement veoir,
Que lor fait lor amis trover,
Et par experiment prover
Qu'il valent miex que nul avoir
Qu'il poissent ou monde avoir.'
35. Vincent de Beauvais, Speculum Naturale, bk. 19, c. 62,
headed De medicinis ex hyccna, cites the following from Hiero-
nymus, contra lotiinianum : — ■' Hyasna; fel oculorum claritatem
restituit,' the gall of a hyena restores the clearness of one's eyes.
This exactly explains the allusion. Compare the extract from
Boethius (ed. Morris, 1. 773) already quoted above.
38. 'Still thine anchor holds.' From Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 4,
1. 1050:^' whan \>a\. ]>\n ancres cliuc faste, |)at nei|)er wole suffre
J)e comfort of ))is tyme present, ne })c hope of tyme comynge to
passen ne to fallen.'
1
:./
8 XI. FORTUNE.
39. ' Where Liberality carries the key of my riches.'
43. On, referring to, or, that is binding on.
46. Fortune says : — ' I tourne )je whirlyng whele wij) J)e
tournyng cercle ; ' Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 2, 1. 871.
47. ' My teaching is better, in a higher degree, than your
affliction is, in its degree, evil ; ' i. e. my teaching betters you
more than your affliction makes you suffer.
49. In this third Ballad, the stanzas are distributed between the
Complainant and Fortune, one being assigned to the former,
and two to the latter. The former says : — ' I condemn thy
teaching ; it is (mere) adversity.'
50. Aly fretid, i. e. my true friend. In 1. 52, thy frendes
means 'the friends I owed to thee,' my false friends. From
Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 8, 1. 1667 : — 'this aspre and horrible Fortune
hath discoueryd to the the thowhtes of thy trewe frendes ; . . . whan
she departyd awey fro the, she took awey hyr frendes and lafte
the thyne frendes.'
51. I thank e hit thee, I owe thanks to thee for it. But very
likely hit has been inserted to fill up, and the right reading is,
probably, I thank-e thee; as Koch suggests.
52. On presse, in a throng, in company, all together.
53. ' Their niggardliness, in keeping their riches to themselves,
foreshews that thou wilt attack their stronghold ; just as an
unnatural appetite precedes illness.'
56. Cf Rom. de la Rose, 19179 :—
* Geste mile est si generaus,
Qu'el ne puet defaillier vers aus.'
57. Here Fortune replies. This stanza is nearly made up of
extracts from Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 2, 11. 845-S69, transposed and
rearranged. For the sake of comparison, I give the nearest
equivalents, transposing them to suit the order here adopted.
' pat make]j J)e now inpacient a^eins me. . . I norysshed ])e wij)
my rychesse. . . Now it lyke|j me to wi])-drawe myne hande . . .
shal I J)an only be defended to vse my ry5t ? . . . pe see ha]) eke
hys ryjt to be somtyme calme . . . and somtyme to be horrible
wi)j wawes. . . Certis it is leueful to J)e heuene to make clere
dayes. . . pe erj)e haj) eke leue ... to confounde hem [the
/lowers] somtyme wi|) raynes . . . shal it [tnen's coveious7iess\
bynde me to be stedfast ? '
Compare also the defence of Fortune by Pandarus, in Troilus,
bk. i. 841-854.
55. Above this stanza (11. 65-72) all the MSS. insert a new
XL FORTUNE. 379
heading, such as ' Lc plcintif,' or ' Le pleintif encountre Fortune,'
or ' The pleyntyff ageinst Fortune.' But they are all wrong, for
it is quite certain that this stanza belongs to Fortune. Other-
wise, it makes no sense. Secondly, we know this by the original
(in Bocthius). And thirdly, Fortune cannot well have the ' envoy '
unless she has the stanza preceding it. Dr. Morris, in his
edition, rightly omits the heading ; and so in Bell's edition.
66. Compare : — ' For purucaunce is ))ilke deuyne resoun j^at
is establissed in ))e souereyne prince of |)inges ; \e. whiche
purueaunce disponi)) alle ))inges ;' Boeth. bk. iv. pr. 6; 1.
386S.
68. Ye blinde testes, addressed to men ; evidently by Fortu7ie,
not by the Pleintif. Compare the words fortli, beste, in Truth,
p. 194, 1. 18.
71. Here we have formal proof that the speaker is Fortune;
for this is copied from Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 3, I. 984 — ' na))cles \g.
laste day of a mannis lijf is a manere dee]) to fortune.' Hence
thy refers to nian^ and vty7i refers to Fortune ; and the sense
is — ' Thy last day (O man) is the end of my interest (in thee) ; '
or 'dealings (with thee).' The word intercsse, though scarce, is
right. It is used in Spenser, F. O. vii. 6. 33 : —
' That not the worth of any living wight
May challenge ought in Heaven's interesse^
And in Todd's Johnson:— 'I thoug'nt, says his majesty [K.
Charles I.] 1 might happily have satisfied all interesscs ;'' Lord
Halifax's Misceil. p. 144. The sb. also occurs as \X.?l\. interesse \
thus Florio's Ital. Diet. (1598) has: — ^ Intorsse, Interesso, the
interest or profite of money for lone. Also, what toucheth or
concerneth a mans state or reputation.' And Minsheu's Spanish
Diet. (1623) has : — ' Iniercs, or Intcresse, interest, profite, auaile.'
The E. vb. to interess was once common, and occurs in K.
Lear, i, i. ?,j (unless Dr. Schmidt is right in condemning the
reading of that line).
73. Princes. Who these princes were, it is hard to say ;
according to 1. 76, there were three of them. If the reference is
to the Dukes of Lancaster, York, and Gloucester, then the 'beste
frend ' must be the king himself. Cf. 1. 33.
75, 76. ' And I (Fortune) will requite you for your trouble
(undertaken) at my request, whether there be three of you, or two
of you (that heed my words).' Line 76 occurs in MS. I, on/y, yet
it is difficult to reject it, as it is not a likely sort of line to be
thrust in, unless this were done, in revision, by the author
380 XII. TRUTH.
himself. Moreover, we should expect the Envoy to form a
stanza with the usual seven lines, so common in Chaucer.
TT. 'And, unless it pleases you to relieve him of his pain
(yourselves), pray his best friend, for the honour of his nobility,
that he may attain to some better estate.'
The assigning of this petition to Fortime is a happy expedient.
The poet thus escapes making a direct appeal in his own
person.
XII. Truth.
The Titles are : Gg. Balade de bone conseyl ; Lansd. 699, La
bon Counseil de le Auttour ; Caxton, The good counceyl of
Chawcer ; Harl. Moral balade of Chaucyre. Shirley calls it —
Balade that Chancier made on his deeth-bedde ; a note that has
been frequently repeated, and is probably no better than a bad
guess.
1. Koch considers that the source of the poem is a passage in
Boethius, lib. iii. met. 11, at the beginning, but the resemblance
is very slight. It contains no more than a mere hint for it.
However, part of st. 3 is certainly from the same, bk. i. pr. 5, as
will appear ; see note to 1. 17.
The former passage in Boethius is thus translated by Chaucer ;
' Who-so that sekith soth by a deep thoght and coveyteth nat
to ben deseyued by no mys-weyes, lat hym rollen and trenden
\revolve\ with-inne hymself the lyht of his inward syhte. And
lat hym gadere ayein, enclynynge in-to a compas, the longe
moeuynges of hys thowhtes ; and lat hym techen his corage that
he hath enclosed and hyd in his tresors al that he compaseth or
sekith fro with-oute.' See also bk. ii. pr. 5 of the same, which
seems to me more like the present poem than is the above
passage.
2. Koch reads thing ior good, as in some MSS. He explains
the line : — ' Devote thyself entirely to one thing, even if it is not
very important in itself (instead of hunting after a phantom).'
This I cannot accept ; it certainly means nothing of the kind.
Mr. Sweet has the reading : Suffise thin owetie thing, Sec, which
is the reading of one MS. only, but it gives the right idea. The
line would then mean : ' let your own property, though small,
suffice for your wants.' I think we are bound to follow the MSS.
generally ; of these, two have Suffice unto thi thing ; five have
Suffice unto thy good ; one has Suffice unto thi lyuynge (where
lyuynge is a gloss upon good) ; and F. has the capital reading
XIT. TRUTH, 381
Suffice the thy good. It seems best to follow the majority,
especially as they allow suffice to be followed by a vowel, thus
eliding the final e. The sense is simply : ' Be content with thy
property, though it be small ; ' and the next line gives the
reason why — 'for hoarding only causes hatred, and ambition
creates insecurity ; the crowd is full of envy, and wealth blinds
one in every respect.' Suffice unfo thi good is much the same
as the proverb — 'cut your coat according to your cloth.'
Chaucer elsewhere has worldly suffisattce for 'wealth ;' Cler.
Tale, 759. Of course this use of suffice unto (be content with)
is peculiar; but I do not see why it is not legitimate. The use
of Savour in 1. 5 below is at least as extraordinary.
Cf. Chaucer's tr. of Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 5, 1. 1231 : — 'And if
thou wilt fulfille thi nede after that it suffiseth to nature, than is
it no nede that thou seke after the superfluite of fortune.'
3. Cf. 'for auarice maketh alwey mokeres [Jioarders'\ to be
hated; ' Boeth. ii. pr. 5, 1. 1182.
5. Savour, taste with relish, have an appetite for. ' Have a
relish for no more than it may behove you (to taste).'
6. Most MSS. read Werk or Do ; only two have Reule,
which Mr. Sweet adopts. Any one of these three readings
makes sense. ' Thou who canst advise others, work well thyself,'
or ' act well thyself,' or ' rule thyself.' To quote from Hamlet,
i. 3- 47 :—
' Do not, as some ungracious pastors do.
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven ;
Whiles, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own rede.'
It is like the Jewish proverb — ' Physician, heal thyself.'
7. Trouthe shal delivere, truth shall give deliverance. 'The
truth shall make you free,' Lat. ' ueritas libcrabit uos ; ' John
viii. 32. This is a general truth, and there is no need for the
insertion oithce after shal, as in the inferior MSS., in consequence
of the gradual loss of the final e in trotithe, which in Chaucer is
properly dissyllabic. The scribes who turned trouthe into
trouthe thee forgot that this makes up trou-tJil! thee.
8. Tetnpcst thee noght, do not violently trouble or harass thy-
self, do not be in a state of agitation. Agitation will not redress
ever^'thing that is crooked. So also : — ' Tempest nat the thus with
al the fortune ; ' Boeth. bk. ii. pr. 4, 1. 1060. Chaucer (as Koch
says) obtained this curious verb from the third line of section F
382 XII . TRUTH.
(1. 63 of the whole poem) of the French poem from which he
translated his ABC. This section begins : —
' Fuiant m'en viens a ta tente
Moy mucier pour la tormente
Qui ou monde me tcinpcstc ; '
i. e. I come fleeing to thy tent, to hide myself from the storm
which harasses me in the world.
9. ' Trusting to the vicissitudes of fortune.' There are
several references to the wheel of Fortune in Boethius. Thus in
bk. ii. pr. 2 (ed. Morris, 1. 871) of Chaucer's translation : — ' I
tourne the whirling whele with the tournyng cercle.'
10. ' Much repose consists in abstinence from fussiness.'
11. 'To spurn against an awl,' i.e. against a prick, is the
English equivalent of the Gk. phrase which our bibles render by
* to kick against the pricks,' Acts ix. 5. Wyclif renders it by ' to
kike ayens the pricke.'
In MS. Cotton, Otho A. xviii, we find the reading a nail, the
n being transferred from a7i to the sb. Tusser has ttall for ' awl '
in his Husbandry, § 17, st. 4, 1. 3. This MS., by the way, has
been burnt, but a copy of it (too much corrected) is given in
Todd's Illustrations of Chaucer, p. 131.
12. An allusion to the fable in yEsop about the earthen and
brazen pots being dashed together. An earthen pot would have
still less chance of escape if dashed against a wall. In MS. T.,
the word crocke is glossed by ' water-potte.'
13. ' Thou that subduest the deeds of another, subdue thyself.'
15. Cf. ' it behoueth the to suffren with euene wille in patience
al that is don . . in this worlde ; ' Boeth. bk. ii. pr. i ; 1. 799.
16. Axeth, requires ; i.e. will surely cause.
17. When Boethius complains of being exiled, Philosophy
directs him to a heavenly home. ' Yif thou remembre of what
contre thou art born, it nis not gouerned by emperoures . . . but
o lorde and o king, and that is god ; ' bk. i. pr. 5 ; 1. 561. This
is copied (as being taken from ' Boece ') in Le Roman de la
Rose, 1. 5049 (Eng. version, 1. 5660).
1 8. The word beste probably refers to the passage in Boethius
where wicked men are likened to various animals, as when the
extortioner is a wolf, a noisy abusive man is a hound, a treach-
erous man is a fox, (Sec. ; bk. iv. pr. 3. The story of Ulysses and
Circe follows ; bk. iv. met. 3.
19. ' Recognise heaven as thy true country'.' Lok up, gaze up-
wards to heaven. Cf. the expression ' thi contre ' at the end of
XIII. GENTILESSE. 383
bk. iv. pr. I of his translation of Boethius. There is also a
special reference here to Boeth. bk. v. met. 5, where it is said
that quadrupeds look down, but man is upright ; ' this figure
amoncsteth the, that axest the heuenc with thi ryghte visage.'
Thank god of al, thank God for all things. In like manner,
in the Lamentation of Mary Magdalen, st. 53, we find : ' I thanke
God of al, if I now:e dye.' Matzner (Gram. ii. 2. 307) quotes
from the Towneley Mysteries, p. 128 : — ' Alekyll thanke of youxe^
good wille ;' and again (Gram. ii. i, 238) from King Alisaunder,
1. 7576: — 'And thankid him of h.\s socour.' Henrysoun, in his
Abbay Walk, 1. 8, has :— ' Obey, and thank thy God of al ; ' but
he is probably copying this very passage. Cf. also — 'of help I
him praye;' hydgaXe, London Lyckpeny, st. 6; 'beseech you
of your pardon ;' 0th. iii. 3, 212. In Lydgate's Minor Poems,
ed. Halliwell, p. 225, is a poem in which every stanza ends with
' thonk God of alle.'
20. Hold the hye wey, keep to the high road. Instead of
Hold the hye wey, some MSS. have Weyve thy lust, i. e. put
aside thy desire, give up thine own will.
22. This last stanza forms an Envoy. It exists in «7«^ copy only
(MS. Addit. 10340) ; but there is no reason at all for considering
it spurious. Vache, cow ; with reference to the ' beast in the
stair in 1. 18. This animal was probably chosen as being less
offensive than those mentioned by Boethius, viz. the wolf, hound,
fox, lion, hart, ass, and sow. Possibly, also, there is a reference
to the story of Nebuchadnezzar, as related by Chaucer in the
Menkes Tale; Group B, 3361.
XIII. GENTILESSE.
For remarks upon Scogan's quotation of this Ballad in full,
see the Preface.
The titles are : Harl. Moral balade of Chaucier, T. Balade
by Chaucier.
Caxton's text is unusually good, and is often superior to that
in the existing MSS.
The general idea of the poem is that Christ was the true
pattern of 'gentleness' or gentility, i.e. of noble behaviour.
Cf. Dekker's noble line, in which he speaks of Christ as ' The
first true gentleman that ever breathed.'
But the finest poetical essay upon this subject is that by
Chaucer himself, in the Wife of Bath's Tale ; C. T. 6691-6758 ;
which see.
384 XIIL GENTILESSE.
In the tale of Melibeus we read : ' And certes, he shulde not
be called a Gentleman, that after God and good conscience, alle
thinges left, ne doth his diligence and besinesse to kepen his
good name. And Cassiodore sayth, that it is a signe of a gentil
herte, whan a man loveth and desireth to have a good name.'
Another passage on this subject occurs in the Eng. version of
the Romance of the Rose, 11. 2188-2202, which, curiously enough,
is not in Moon's edition of the French poem (in which 1. 2184
of the E. version is immediately succeeded by 1. 2203 of the
same). Again, in Le Roman de la Rose, 11. 6603-6616, there is
a definition of Gentillesce ; but this passage is not in the Eng.
version.
The original passage, to which both Chaucer and Jean de
Meun were indebted, is one in Boethius, bk. iii. pr. 6 ; which
Chaucer thus translates : — ' For if the name of gentilesse be
referred to renoun and clernesse of linage, than is gentil name
but a foreine thing, J)at is to sein, to hem that glorifien hem of
hir linage. For it semeth that gentilesse be a maner preysynge
that Cometh of decert of auncestres . . . yif thou ne haue no
gentilesse of thi-self — that is to sein, pris that cometh of thi
deserte — foreine gentilesse ne maketh the nat gentil.' And
again, just below, in metre 6 : — ' On alone is fadir of thinges . . .
thanne comen alle mortal folk of noble seed ; whi noysen ye or
bosten of youre eldris?' But we must not overlook a long
passage near the end of Le Roman de la Rose, 11. 18807-19096,
which Chaucer certainly also consulted. I quote some of these
lines below.
I. With this first stanza compare R. Rose, 18881 ; —
' Quiconques tent a gentillece
D'orguel se gart et de parece ;
Aille as armes, oxi a I'estuide,
Et de vilenie se vuide ;
Humble cuer ait, cortois et gent
En tretous leus, vers toute gent.'
Two MSS., both written out by Shirley, and MS. Harl. 7333,
all read : — ' The first fader, and foundour {or fynder) of gen-
tylesse.' This is wrong, and probably due to the dropping of
the final e in the definite adjective firste. We must keep the
phrase yfrj/<? stok^ because it is expressly repeated in 1. 8.
The first line means — 'With regard to, or K?, to the first stock
(or source), who was the father of gentilesse.^ The substantives
stok and fader have no verb to them, but are mentioned as
being the subject of the sentence.
XIII. GENTILESSE. 385
3. The former his refers \.o fader, but the latter to vian. .
4. Sewe, follow. In a Ballad by King James the First of
Scotland, printed at p. 54 of my edition of the Kingis Quair,
the first five lines are a fairly close imitation of the opening
lines of the present poem, and prove that King James followed
a MS. which had the reading sew. His poem begins ; —
' Sen throu vertew encressis dignite,
And vertew flour and rut \j-oot\ is of noblay,
Of ony Weill or quhat estat thou be,
His steppis sew, and dreid thee non effray :
Exil al vice, and folow trewth alway.'
Observe how his first, third, and fourth lines answer to Chaucer's
fifth, second, and fourth lines respectively.
7. Al were he, albeit he may wear; i.e. although he may be
a bishop, king, or emperor.
8. This Jirste stok, i.e. Christ. In 1. 12, his heir means
mankind in general.
Compare Le Rom. de la Rose, 18819 : —
' Noblece vicnt de bon corage,
Car gentillece de lignaije
N'est pas gentillece qui vaille,
Por quoi bonte de cuer i faille,
For quoi doit estre en U parans \apparent\
La proece de ses parens
Qui la gentillece conquistrent
Par les travaux que grans i mistrent.
Et quant du siecle trespasserent,
Toutes lor vertus emporterent,
Et Icssierent as heirs I'avoir;
Que plus ne porent d'aus avoir.
L'avoir ont, plus riens n'i a lor,
Ne gentillece, ne valor,
Se tant ne font que gentil soient
Par sens ou par vertu qu'il aient.'
15. Vyc-e is dissyllabic; hence two MSS. turn it into Vices,
and one even has Vicesse!
With this stanza compare part of the French quotation above,
and compare Rom. Rose, 19064, &c. : — ■
* Mes il sunt mauvais, vilain nastre,
Et d'autrui noblece se vantent ;
II ne dient pas voir, ains mentent,
Et le non \namc\ de gentillece emblent,
Quant lor bons parens ne resemblent ; ' &c.
c c
386 XIV. LAK OF STEDFASTXESSE.
16. In MS. A. is this side-note, in a later hand : —
' Nam genus et proauos et c[Uk non fecimus ipsi
Vix ea nostra voco.'
20. This is a difficult hne to obtain from the MSS. It is
necessary to keep heir in the singular, because of he in 1. 21.
In MS. A., ma\e clearly stands for make^e, i.e. makeih, as in
nearly all the MSS. This gives us— That maketh his heir him
that wol him queme. The change from his heir him to the
more natural order him his heir is such a gain to the metre
that it is worth while to make it.
XIV. Lak of Stedfastnesse.
In MS. Harl. 7333, is the following note, probably correct : —
' This balade made Geffrey Chauuciers the Laureall Poete of
Albion, and sent it to his souerain lorde kynge Rycharde the
secounde, thane being in his Castell of Windesore.' In MS. T.
is the heading : — ' Balade Royal made by oure laureal poete of
Albyon in hees laste yeeres ; ' and above 1. 22 is : — ' Lenvoye to
Kyng Richard.' In MS. F. it is simply headed ' Balade.' For
another allusion to king Richard at Windsor, see note to Lenvoy
to Scogan, 1. 43.
The general idea is taken from Boethius, bk. ii. met. 8, which
Chaucer thus translates : — ' That the world with stable feith
varieth acordable chaungynges, that the contraryos qualite of
elementz holden among hem-self aliaunce perdurable, . . . Al
this acordaunce of thinges is bownden with loue, that gouerneth
erthe and see, and hath also commaundementz to the heuenes ;
and yif this loue slakede the brydelis, alie thinges that now
louen hem to-gederes wolden maken a batayle contynuely, and
stryuen to fordoon the fasoun of this worlde, the which they now
leden in acordable feith by fayre moeuynges . . . O weleful weere
mankynde, yif thilke loue that gouerneth heuene gouernede
yowre corages.'
4. Word and deed; or read Word and werk, as in Harl.
7333 and T.
5. Lyk, alike ; or read oo7i^ one, as in Harl. and T. Up
so doun is the old phrase, and common. Modem English
has ' improved ' it into upside do2un, where side has to mean
'top.'
10. Unable, not able, wanting in ability or strength.
XK BALADE AGAINST WOMEN UNCONSTANT. 387
21. Here the Bannatyne MS. inserts a s^rnxows fourth stanza.
It runs thus : —
' Falsheid, that sowld bene abhominable,
Now is regeing, but reformatioun,
Quha now gifis lergly ar maist dissavable,
For vycis ar the grund of sustentatioun ;
All wit is tumit to cavillatioun,
Lavvtie expellit, and all gentilnes,
That all is. loist for laik of stefdfastnes.'
This is very poor stuff.
24, 25. Siiffre . . . don, suffer (to be) done ; correct as being an
old idiom. See my note to the Clerkcs Tale, 1. 1098.
28. For 'U'ed, two MSS. have drive; a reading which one is
glad to reject.
XV. Balade against Women unconstant.
5. hi a place, in one place. In Murray's Dictionary, the
following is quoted from Caxton's print of Geoffroi dc la Tour,
leaf 4, back : — ' They satte att dyner in a hall and the quene in
another.'
7. From Machault, ed. Tarb^, p. 56 (see Preface) :— ' Qu'en
lieu de bleu, Dame, vous vestez vert ;' on which ]\I. Tarbe has
the following note. — ' Bleu. Couleur exprimant la sincerite, la
puretd, la constance ; le vert, au contraire, exprimait les
nouvelles amours, le changement, I'infidelite ; au lieu de bleu se
vetir de vert, c'etait a\ouer que Ton changcait d'ami.' Blue was
the colour of constancy, and green of inconstancy ; see Notes
to Anelida, 1. 330 ; and my note to the Squire's Tale, 1. 644.
In a poem called Le Reinede de Fortune, Machault explains
that pers, i. e. blue, means loyalty ; red, ardent love ; dlaclc,
grief ; ivhite, joy ; green, fickleness ; yellow, falsehood.
8. Cf. James i. 23, 24.
9. //, i. e. the transient image ; relative to the word thing,
which is implied in no-thing in 1. 8.
10. Read far'th, ber'th ; as usual in Chaucer. So turn'th in
1. 12.
12. Cf. ' chaunging as a vane ; ' Clerkes Tale, 996.
13. Sene, evident; A. S. ge-sene, ge-syne, adj., evident, quite
distinct from the pp. of the verb, which appears in Chaucer as
seen or yseen. Other examples of the use of this adjective
occur in ysene, C. T. Prol. 592; C. T. 1 1308 (Frank. Tale);
sene, Compl. of Pite, 112; Roundels, 10.
C C 2
388 XVI. LENVOY TO SCO CAN.
1 5. Brotelnesse, fickleness. Cf. ' On brotel ground they bilde,
and brotelnesse They finden, whan they wenen sikernesse,' with
precisely the same rime, Merch. Tale, 35.
16. Dalyda, Delilah. It is Ddlida in the Menkes Tale, Group
B> 3253 ; but see Book of the Uuchesse, 738.
Creseide, the heroine of Chaucer's Troilus.
Candace, perhaps for Canace ; see note to Pari, of Foules, 288.
Or else it is the queen Candace who tricked Alexander ; see
Wars of Alexander, ed. Skeat, p. 264.
18. Tache, defect ; cf. P. Plowman, B. ix. 146. This is the
word which best expresses the sense of tojich (which Schmidt
explains by trait) in the famous passage — ' One totcch of nature
makes the whole world kin ; ' Shak. Troil. iii. 3. 175. I do not
assert that touch is an error for tacJie, though even that is likely ;
but I say that the context shews that it is used in just the sense
of tache. The same context also entirely condemns the forced
sense of the passage, as commonly misapplied. It is somewhat
curious that touchwood is corrupted from a different tache,
which had the sense of dried fuel or tinder.
19. According to the modern proverb— 'She has two strings
to her bow.'
20. Al light for somer; this phrase begins 1. 15 of the Canon's
Yeoman's Prologue, Group G, 568 ; and the phrase wot what I
niene occurs again in C. T., Group B, 93. This allusion to the
wearing of light summer garments seems here to imply wanton-
ness or fickleness. Canacee in the Squi. Tale was arrayed
lightly (11. 389, 390) ; but she was taking a walk in her own
park, attended by her ladies. Skelton has : ' he wente so all
for somer lyghte ; ' Bowge of Courte, 355; and again, in
Philip Sparowe, 719, he tells us that Pandarus won nothing by
his help of Troilus but ' lyght-for-somer grene.' It would seem
that green was a favorite colour for summer garments.
XVI. Lenvoy to Scogan.
There are but three MSS., all much alike. For remarks upon
Scogan, see the Preface. MSS. F. and P. have the heading
' Lenvoy de Chaucer a Scogan ; ' Gg. has : — ' Litera directa de
Scogon per G. C
1, 2. These first two lines are quite Dantesque. Cf. Purg. i.
46, 76 ; Inf. iii. 8. — ' Son le leggi . . . cosi rotte ; ' ' gli editti
etemi . . . guasti ; ' ' io eterno duro.'
XV T, LENVOY TO SCO CAN. 389
3. The 'seven bright gods' are the seven planets. The
allusion is to some great floods of rain that had fallen. Chaucer
says it is because the heavenly influences are no longer con-
trolled ; the seven planets are allowed to weep upon the earth.
The year was probably 1393, with respect to which we find in
Stowe's Annales, ed. 1605, p. 495: — 'In September, lightnings
and thunders, in many places of England did much hurt, but
esp[e]cially in Cambridge-shire the same brent houses and come
near to Tolleworke, and in the Towne it brent terribly. Such
abundance of water fell in October, that at Burj' in Suffolke the
church was full of water, and at Newmarket it bare downe
walles of houses, so that men and women hardly escaped
drowning.' Note the mention of Michaelmas in 1. 19, shewing
that the poem was written towards the close of the year.
7. Errour; among the senses given by Cotgrave for F.
erreiir we find ' ignorance, false opinion.' Owing to his ignor-
ance, Chaucer is almost dead for fear ; i. e. he wants to know
the reason for it all.
9. Fifte cercle, fifth circle or sphere of the planets, reckoning
from without ; see note to Mars, 1. 29. This fifth sphere is that
of Vcmis.
14. T/ns deluge of pestilence, this late pestilential flood.
There were several great pestilences in the fourteenth century,
notably in 1348-9, 1361-2, 1369, and 1375-6. Chaucer seems
to imply that the bad weather may cause another plague of this
character.
15. Goddes, goddess, Venus ; here spoken of as the goddess
of love.
16. Rakehtesse, rashness. The MSS. have rekelnesse, rekles-
nesse, rechelesnesse ; the first is nearly right. Rakelnesse is
Chaucer's word. Cant. Tales, 17232 ; five lines above, Phoebus
blames his rakel hond, because he had slain his wife.
17. Forbode Is; rather a forced rime \.o goddes.
21. Erst, before. I accept Chaucer's clear evidence that his
friend Scogan (probably Henry Scogan) was not the same
person as the John (or Thomas) Scogan to whom various silly
jests were afterwards attributed.
22. To record, by way of record. Record, as Koch remarks,
is here a sb., riming with lord ; not the gerund record-e.
27. Of our figure, of our (portly) shape; see 1. 31.
28. Him, i. e. Cupid. The Pepys MS. has he77i, them, i. e. the
arrows. Koch reads hem, and remarks that it makes the
best sense. I'ut it conres to much the same thing. Cf. Pari.
390 XVII. LENVOY A B UK TON.
of Foules, 217, where some of Cupid's arrows are said to
slay, and some to wound. It was the spear of Achilles that
could both wound and cure ; see Squi. Tale, 240, and the note.
Perhaps, in some cases, the arrow of Cupid may be supposed
to cure hkewise ; but it is simpler to ascribe the cure to Cupid
himself. Observe the use of he in 11. 24 and 26, and of his in
11. 25 and 26.
29. / drede of, I fear for thy misfortune.
30. Wreche, vengeance ; distinct from wrecche.
31. 'Gray-headed and round of shape;' i.e. like ourselves.
Cf. what Chaucer says of his own shape; C.T. Group B, 1890.
See my edition of the Prioress's Tale, p. 17.
35. ' See, the old gray-haired man is pleas.ed to rime and
amuse himself.' For ryme (as in the 3 MSB.), ed. 1561 (fol. 336,
back) has renne. This would mean, ' See, the old gray horse is
pleased to run about and play.' And possibly this is right ; for
the O. F. g-risel properly means a gray horse, as shewn in
Godefroy's O. F. Diet.
36. Mexcuse, for me excuse, excuse myself. Cf. viawreke,
Compleint to Pite, 11.
43. For stremes, Gg. has wellis ; but the whole expression
stremes heed is equivalent to well, and we have which stretne in
1. 45 (Koch).
In the MSS., the words stremes heed are explained by Winde-
sore (Windsor), and ende o/whiche stretne in 1. 45 by Grenewich
(Greenwich) ; explanations which are probably correct. Thus
the stream is the Thames ; Chaucer was living, in a solitary
way, at Greenwich, whilst Scogan was with the court at Windsor,
much nearer to the source of favour.
47. Tullius. Perhaps, says Koch, there is an allusion to
Cicero's Epist. vi ad Cascinam.
XVII. Lenvoy a Bukton.
I. Buxton. Most old editions have the queer reading : — ' My
mayster. &c. whan of Christ our kyng.' Tyrwhitt was the
first to correct this, and added : — ' It has always been printed at
the end of the Book of the Duchesse, with an (S:c. in the first
line instead of the name of Bukton ; and in Mr. Urry's edition
the following most unaccountable note is prefixed to it — " This
seems an Envoy to the Duke of Laticaster after his loss of
BlanchP From the reference to the Wife of Bathe, 1. 29, I
XVII. LENVOY A BURTON. 39 1
should suppose this to have been one of our author's later
compositions, and I find that there was a Peter de Bukeion, the
King's Escheator for the County of York, in 1397 (Pat. 20 R.
II. p. 2, m. 3, ap. Rymer) to whom this poem, from the familiar
style of it, is much more likely to have been addressed than to
the Duke of Lancaster.' Julian Notary's edition is the only one
that retains Bukton's name.
My maister Bukton is in the vocative case.
2. ' What is truth ? ' See John xviii. 38.
5. Highte, promised ; by confusion with heet (A.S. heht).
8. E/f, again, a second time. This seems to assert that
Chaucer was at this time a widower. Cf. C. T. 9103.
9. ' Mariage est maus liens,' marriage is an evil tie ; Rom. de
la Rose, 8871. And again, with respect to marriage — 'Quel
forsenerie ['wttless?tess] te maine A cest torment, a ceste paine ? '
R. Rose, 8783 ; with much more to the same effect. Cf. Cant.
Tales, Marchauntes Prologue (throughout).
18. Cf. I Cor. vii. 9, 28.
23. 'That it would be more pleasant for you to be taken
prisoner in Friesland.' This seems to point to a period when
such a mishap was not uncommon. In fact, some Englishmen
were present in an expedition against Friesland which took
place in the autumn of 1396. See the whole account in Frois-
sart, Chron. bk. iv. cc. 77, J?,. He tells us that the Frieslanders
would not ransom the prisoners taken by their enemies ; conse-
quently, they could not exchange prisoners, and at last they put
their prisoners to death. Thus the peculiar peril of being taken
prisoner in Friesland is fully explained.
25. Proverbes, set of proverbs. Koch remarks — ' Proverbes is
rather curious, referring to a singular, but seems to be right, as
proverbe would lose its last syllable, standing before a vowel.'
Perhaps we should read or proi'crbe.
27. This answers to the modern proverb — ' Let well alone.'
28. I.e. learn to know when you are well off. ' Half a loaf is
better than no bread.' 'Better sit still than rise and fall'
( Heywood). ' Better some of a pudding than none of pie ' (Ray).
In the Fairfax MS., the following rimed proverb is quoted at the
end of the poem : —
' Better is to snffre, and fortune abyde,
Than* hastely to clymbe, and sodeynly to slyde.'
The same occurs (says Hazlitt) at the end of Caxton's edition of
* The MS. has And for Than (wrongly).
392 XVI n. COMPLEYNT TO VENUS.
Lydgate's Stans Puer ad Mensam ; but does not belong to that
poem.
29. The reference is to the Wife of Bathes Prologue, which
curiously enough, is again referred to by Chaucer in the Mar-
chauntes Tale, C. T. 9559. This reference shews that the present
poem was written quite late in life, as the whole tone of it shews ;
and the same remark applies to the Marchauntes Tale also.
We may suspect that Chaucer was rather proud of his Prologue
to the \\'ife of Bathes Tale. Unquestionably, he took a great
deal of pains about it.
XVIII. COMPLEYNT TO VENUS,
This poem has frequently been printed as if it formed a part
of The Compleynt of Mars ; but it is a separate poem, and
belongs to a later period.
The Compleynt of Mars is an original poem ; but the present
poem is a translation, being translated, as we are told, with
considerable fidelity from a French poem by one Graunson
(1. 82). Unfortunately, the original is not now known ; perhaps
it may one day be recovered.
It consists of three Ballads and an Envoy, and bears a strong
resemblance, in metrical form, to the poem on Fortune, each
Ballad having three stanzas of eight lines each, with a refrain. It
differs from ' Fortune ' only in the arrangement of the rimes,
which occur in the order ab abb ccb, instead of (as in Fortune) in
the order ababbcb c. One rime (in -aunce) occurs in the second
Ballad as well as in the first ; but this is quite an accidental
detail, of no importance. It must be remembered that the
metre was not chosen by Chaucer, but by Graunson. The
Envoy, which alone is original, consists of ten lines, rimed
aabaabbaab. This arrangement is very unusual. See further
in the note to 1. 82.
In. the MSS. T. and A. we have notes of some importance,
written by Shirley. T. has : — ' The Compleynt of Venus. And
filowing begynnethe a balade translated out of frenshe in-to
englisshe by Chancier, Geffrey ; the frenshe made sir Otes de
Grauntsome, knight Savosyen.' A. has : — ' Here begynnethe a
balade made by that worthy Knight of Savoye in frenshe, calde
sir Otes Graunson ; translated by Chauciers.' At the end of the
copy in T. is : — ' Hit is sayde that Graunsome made this last
balade for Venus, resembled to my lady of york ; aunswering the
XVIII. COMPLEYNT TO VENUS. 393
complaynt of Mars.' If so, Graunson must have read Chaucer's
Compleynt of Mars, and attempted a reply to it, which Chaucer
was asked to turn into English. Cf. note to 1. 73.
I. We must suppose Venus to be the speaker. Hence the
subject of the first Ballad is the worthiness of the lover of
Venus, in another word, of Mars ; indeed, in Julian Notary's
edition, the poem is headed 'The Complaint of Venus for Mars.'
But Mars may be taken as a general type of true knighthood.
I have written the general subject of each Ballad at the head
of each, merely for convenience. The subjects are: — (i) The
Lover's worthiness ; (2) Disquietude caused by Jealousy ; (3)
Satisfaction in Constancy. We thus have three movements,
expressive of Admiration, Passing Doubt, and Reassurance.
Venus here expresses, when in a pensive mood, the comfort
she finds in the feeling that her lover is worthy ; for every one
praises his excellence.
9. This portrait of a worthy knight should be placed side by
side with that of a worthy lady, viz. Constance. See Man of
Law's Tale, 162-8.
II. Wold, willed. The later E. luould is dead, as a past
participle, and only survives as a past tense. It is scarce even
in Middle English, but occurs in P. Plowman, B. xv. 258 — 'if
God hadde ivolde [better ivold\ hym-selue.'
22. Avetiture, luck ; in this case, good luck.
23, Here is certainly a false rime ; Chaucer nowhere else
rimes -oiire with -u7-e. But the conditions under which the
poem was written were quite exceptional (see note to 1. 79) ; so
that this is no proof that the poem is spurious. There is a
false rime in Sir Topas, Group B, 1. 2092 (see my note).
25. In this second Ballad or Movement, an element of
disturbance is introduced ; jealous suspicions arise, but are put
aside. Like the third Ballad, it is addressed to Love, which
occurs, in the vocative case, in 11. 25, 49, and 57.
Venus says it is but suitable that lovers should have to pay
dearly for 'the noble thing,' i.e. for the valuable treasure of
having a worthy lover. They pay for it by various feelings and.
expressions of disquietude.
26. Men, one ; the impersonal pronoun ; quite as applicable
to a woman as to a man. Cf. F. 071.
33. ' Were Jealousy hanged, she would come to life again, and
be as inquisitive as ever. She suspects everything, however
innocent.' Such is the general sense.
yj. The final e in lov-c is sounded, being preserved from
394 XVIII. COMPLEYNT TO VENUS.
elision by the caesura. The sense is — 'so dearly is love purchased
in (return for) his giving ; he often gives inordinately, but
bestows more sorrow than pleasure.'
46. Nounccrtcyn, uncertainty. A parallel formation to notin-
power, importance, which occurs in Chaucer's tr. of Boethius,
bk. iii. pr. 5, 1. 2074.
49. In this third Ballad, Venus says she is glad to continue in
her love, and contemns jealousy. She is thankful for her good
fortune, and will never repent her choice.
50. Lace, snare, entanglement, Chaucer speaks of the lace oj
love, and the lace of Venus ; Kn. Tale, 959, 1093.
52. To lete of, to leave off, desist.
56. All the MSS. read 7iever\ yet I believe it should be nat
(not).
62. ' Let the jealous (i. e. Jealousy) put it to the test, (and so
prove) that I will never, for any woe, change my mind.'
69. Wey, highroad. Wente, footpath.
70. The reading/^, for /, is out of the question ; for hcrtd is
addressed as tlioii. So in 1. 66, we must needs read thee, not.
you.
73. Princess. As the AISS. vary between P7'incesse and
Princes, it is difficult to know whether the Envoy is addressed
to a. princess or to princes. It is true that Fortune seems to be
addressed to three princes collectively, but this is unusual, and
due to the peculiar form of that Envoy, which is supposed to be
spoken by Fortu7ie, not by the author. Moreover, the MSS. of
Fortune have only the readings Princes and Princis ; none of
them has Princesse.
The present case seems different. Chaucer would naturally
address his Envoy, in the usual manner, to a single person.
The use oi your and ye is merely the complimentary way of
addressing a person of rank. The singular number seems
implied by the use of the word benignitee; 'receive this
complaint, addressed to your benignity in accordance with my
small skill.' Your beJiigniiy seems to be used here much as we
%z.y your grace, your highness, your majesty. The plural would
(if this be so) \>& yoiir benignitees. There is no hint at all of the
plural number.
But if the right reading \>& princess, this goes far to prove that
Shirley's statement is correct, viz. that Graunson wrote this
poem for 'my lady of York,' for whose benefit also Chaucer
translated it, by request. Princesses are always somewhat
scarce, but ' my lady of York ' had the best of claims to the title,
XVIII. COMPLEYNT TO VENUS. 395
as she was daughter to no less a person than Pedro, king of
Spain. She died in 1394 (Dugdale's Baronage, ii. 154; Stowe's
Annales, 1605, p. 496) ; and this Envoy may have been written
in 1393-
76. Eld^ old age. See a similar allusion in Lenvoy to Scogan,
35, 38.
79. Penaunce, great trouble. The great trouble was caused,
not by Chaucer's having any difficulty in finding rimes (witness
his other Ballads), but in having to find rimes a7id translate word
by word at the same time. Had he been writing an original
poem, he would have enjoyed it ; but it is quite another matter
when it has to be done on a given pattern, and with a limited
choice of words. This is the simple explanation of the whole
matter.
Chaucer's translation of the ABC goes far to prove this; for,
in ever)'- stanza, he begins by translating rather closely, but ends
by deviating widely from the original in many instances, merely
because he wanted to find rimes to words which he had already
selected.
Moreover, the difficulty was much increased by the great
number of lines ending with the same rime. There are but 8
different endings in the 72 lines of the poem, viz. 6 lines ending
in -rire, -able, -yse, and -ay, and 12 in -ainice, -esse, -tng, and
-ente. In the Envoy, Chaucer purposely limits himself to 2
endings, viz. -ee and -auJtce, as a proof of his skill.
81. Curiositee, i.e. intricacy of metre.
82. Graunson. He is here called the flower of the poets of
France. He was, accordingly, not an Englishman. According
to Shirley, he was a knight of Savoy. This exactly agrees with
the fact that Sir Oto de Graunson received an annuity of
^126 135-. 4</. from Richard H, in November, 1393, for services
rendered ; see the mention of him in the Patent Rolls, 17 Rich,
n, p. I, no. 339, sixth skin; printed in Furnivall's Trial
Forewords, p. 123. It is there expressly said that his sovereign
seigneur was the Count of Savoy, but he had taken an oath of
allegiance to the king of England. The same Graunson
received a payment from Richard in 1372, and at other times.
Perhaps Graunson wrote the Complaint of Venus long after
Chaucer's Complaint of Mars, from which it differs in tone so
widely, and Chaucer Englished it, by request, soon afterwards.
396 XIX. THE COMPLEINT TO IITS EMPTY PURSE.
XIX. The Compleint to his empty Purse.
The date of the Envoy to this Poem can be determined
almost to a day. Henry IV was received as king by the
parliament, Sept. 30, 1399. Chaucer received his answer, in
the shape of an additional grant of forty marks yearly, on Oct.
3 of the same year. Consequently, the date of the Envoy is
Sept. 30 or Oct. i or 2 in that year. It is obvious that the poem
itself had been written beforehand ; see note to 1. 17. We may
date it 1399. As far as we know, it is Chaucer's last work.
A somewhat similar complaint was addressed to the French
king John II by G. de Machault in 1351-6; but it is in short
rimed lines ; see his works, ed. Tarbd, p. 78. But the real
model which Chaucer had in view was, in my opinion, the
Ballade by Eustache Deschamps, written in 1 381, and printed
in Tarbe's edition, at p. 55.
This Ballade is of a similar character, having three stanzas
of eight lines each, with a somewhat similar refrain, viz. —
' Mais de paler n'y sgay voie ne tour,' i.e. but how to pay I know
therein no way nor method. It was written on a similar occasion,
viz. after the death of Charles V of France, and the accession of
Charles VI, who had promised Deschamps a pension, but had
not paid it. Hence the opening lines : —
' Dieux absoille le bon Roy trespasse !
Et Dieux consault cellui qui est en vie !
II me donna rente le temps passe
A mon vivant ; laquelle je n'ay mie.'
The Envoy has but six lines, though the stanzas have eight ;
similarly, Chaucer's Envoy has but five lines (rim-ed aabba),
though the stanzas have seven. Chaucer's Envoy is in a ve7y
unusual metre, which was copied by the author of the Cuckoo
and the Nightingale.
The Title, in MS. F. is— 'The Complaynt of Chaucer to his
Purse.' In Caxton's print, it is — ' The compleint of Chaucer
vnto his empty purse.' In MS. P. — 'La Compleint de Chaucer
a sa Bourse voide.' MS. Harl. has — 'A supplicacion to Kyng
Richard by chancier.' The last of these, written by Shirley, is
curious. If not a mere mistake, it seems to imply that the
Complaint was first prepared before king Richard was deposed,
though, by means of the Envoy, it was addressed to his
successor. However, this copy of Shirley's gives the Envoy ; so
XIX. THE COMPLEIXT TO HIS EMPTY PURSE. 397
it may have been a mere mistake. Line 23 is decisive ; see note
below.
4. Koch remarks, that the Additional MS. 22139, vvhich alone
has That, is here superior to the rest ; and he may be right.
Still, the reading For is quite intelligible.
8. This day. This hints at impatience ; the poet did not
contemplate having long to wait. But we must take it in
connection with 1. 17 ; sec note to that line.
10. Colour \ with reference to golden coins. So also in the
Doctours Tale (C. T. 11971) the golden colour of Virginia's
hair is expressed by —
' And Phebus dyed hath her tresses grete
Lyk to the stremes of his burned hete.'
11. Four MSS., as well as the printed copies, read That of
yelownesse, &c. ; and this may ver)- well be right. If so, the word
That stands alone in the first foot ; and as need not be supplied.
j\IS. Harl. 2251 has That ofyowre lelcwfiasse, but Xheyowre is
merely copied in from 1. 10.
12. Store, rudder ; see Man of Lawes Tale, 448, 833.
17. Otit of this toufie. This seems to mean — 'help me to
retire from London to some cheaper place.' At any rate, ton7ie
seems to refer to some large town, where prices were high.
From the tone of this line, and that of 1. 8, I should conclude
that the poem was written on some occasion of special temporary
difficulty, irrespectively of general poverty ; and that the Envoy
was hastily added afterwards, without revision of the poem
itself.
19. 'That is, I am as bare of money as the tonsure of a friar
is of hair ; ' Bell.
22. Brutes Albioim, the Albion of Brutus. Albion is the old
name for England or Britain in the histories which follow
Geoffrey of Monmouth and profess to give the ancient history
of Britain before the coming of the Romans. See Layamon's
Brut, 1. 1243; Higden's Polychronicon, bk. i. c. 39; Fabyan's
Chronicle, ed. Ellis, pp. i, 2, 7. According to the same
accounts, Albion was first reigned over by Brutus, in English
spelling Bride, a descendant of ^Eneas of Troy, who arrived in
Albion (says Fabyan) in the eighteenth year of Eli, judge of
Israel. Layamon's poem is a translation from a poem by Wace,
entitled Brut ; and Wace borrowed from Geoffrey of Monmouth.
The Welsh word brut simply means * a chronicle ; ' and it is
not unlikely that the name Brutus was evolved from it.
398 XX. PROVERBS.
23. This line makes it certain that the king meant is Henry
IV ; and indeed, the title conqueroto' in 1. 21 proves the same
thing sufficiently. ' In Henry IV's proclamation to the people
of England he founds his title on conquest, hereditary right, and
election ; and from this inconsistent and absurd document
Chaucer no doubt took his cue ; ' Bell.
XX. Proverbs.
The titles in the MSS. are: Ad. Prouerbe; F. Proverbe of
Chaucer ; Ha. Prouerbe of Chaucers.
Each proverb takes the form of a question or objection, in two
lines, followed by an answer in two lines more.
There is a fair copy of them (but not well spelt) in the
black-letter edition of 1561, fol. cccxl. They there appear with-
out the addition of fourteen unconnected lines (not by Chaucer)
which have been recklessly appended to them in modern
editions. The title in ed. 1561 is— 'A Prouerbe agaynst
couitise and negligence.'
For the metre, compare the Envoy to a Ballad by Deschamps,
ed. Tarbe, pp. 23, 24.
7. At the head of a Ballad by Deschamps, ed. Tarbe, i. 132,
is the French proverb — ' Qui trop embrasse, mal etreint.' Cot-
grave, s. V. embrasser, has : ' Trop embrasser, ct pen estraigner,
to meddle with more business then he can wield ; to have too
many irons in the fire ; to lose all by coveting all.'
But the most interesting point is the use of this proverb by
Chaucer elsewhere, viz. in the Tale of Melibeus, Group B, 1.
2405 — ' For the prouerbe seith, he that to muche embraceth,
distreyneth litel.' See the context.
It is also quoted by Lydgate, in his description of the
Merchant in the Dance of Alachabre.
XXI. A COMPLEINT TO HIS LADY.
I HAVE already said, at p. 213 (footnote), that I only know of
one MS. copy of this poem, viz. that in MS. Harl. 78, in Shirley's
hand-writing, where it i^ written as a continuation of the Com-
plaint to Pity. It was printed' by Dr. Furnivall in his Odd-texts
of Chaucer's Poems, Part I., p. ii., and the lines are numbered in
continuation of those in the Complaint to Pity. In Chaucer's
Works, ed. 1 561, it is printed as a separate poem, with the
,V.\7. A COMPLEINT TO HIS LADY. 399
heading — 'These verses next folowing were compiled by Geffray
Chauser, and in the writen copies foloweth at the ende of the
complainte of petee.' This imphes that Stowe had seen more
than one MS. containing these lines.
However, the poem has nothing to do with the Comphiint
of Pity ; for which reason the Hnes are here numbered
separately, and the title ' A Compleint to his Lady ' is supplied,
for want of a better.
The poem is so badly spelt in Shirley's MS. as quite to
obscure its diction, which is that of the fourteenth centur)^
I have therefore re-spelt it throughout, so as to shew the right
pronunciation.
The printed copy resembles Shirley's MS. so closely, that
both seem to have been derived from a comrnon source. But
there is a strange and unaccountable variation in 1. 100. The
MS. here has — ' For I am sette on yov,e in suche manere ; '
whilst ed. 1561 has — 'For I am set so hy vpon your whele.'
The latter reading does not suit the right order of the rimes.
The poem evidently consists of several fragments, all upon the
same subject, of hopeless, but true love.
It should be compared with the Complaint of Pity, the first
forty lines of the Book of the Duchess, the Parliament of Foulcs
(11. 416-441), and the Complaint of Anelida. Indeed, the last
nf these is more or less founded upon it, and some of the
expressions (including one complete line) occur there again.
I. MS. night es. This will not scan, nor does it make good
sense. Read 7t7ght\ cf. 1. 8, and Book of the Duchess, 1. 22.
3. Cf. Compl. Pite, 81 — 'Alias! what herte may hit longe
endure ? '
7. Desespeired, full of despair. This, and not dispaircd (as in
ed. 1 561), is the right form. Cf. dcsesperatmce, in Troil. ii. 530,
1307 (ed. Morris).
8, 9. Cf. Anelida, 333, 334.
14, 15. I repeat this line, because we require a rime to
fuJJillc, 1. 17 ; whilst at the same time 1. 14 evidently ends a
stanza.
16. I omit that, and insert eek, in order to make sense.
17. I supply he, meaning Love. Love is masculine in 1. 42,
precisely as in the Pari, of Foules, 1. 5.
19. I alter and yit to yti from, to make sense; the verb to
arace absolutely requires from or f-o ; see Clerkes Tale, 1 103,
and particularly I. 18 of sect. XV. (p. 200), where we find the
\ cry phrase ' fro your herte arace.'
400 XXI. A COMPLEINT TO HIS lADY.
24. I supply this line from Compl. Mars. 189, to rime with
1. 22.
If Fragments II and III were ever joined together, we must
suppose that at least yf'zv^ lines have been lost, as I have already
shewn in the note to Dr. Furnivall's Trial Forewords, p. 96.
Thus, after, 1. 23, ending in asterie, we should require lines
ending in -yc, -erse, -ye, -crse, and -ede respectively, to fill the
gap. However, I have kept fragments II and III apart, and it
is then sufficient to supply three lines. Lines 25 and 26 are
from the Compl. of Pite, 22, 17, and from AneHda, 307.
32. I suspect some corruption ; the MS. has The ivyse
eknytte, and ed. 1561 has The Wise, eknit. As it stands, it
means — ' Her surname moreover is the Fair Ruthless one, (or)
the Wise one, united with Good Fortune.' Fair Ruthless is a
translation of the French phrase La Belle Daiiie sans JMerci,
which occurs as the title of a poem once attributed to Chaucer.
The Wise one, &c., means that she is wise and fortunate, and
will not impair her good fortune by bestowing any thought upon
her lover. Shirley often writes e for initial j/-.
35. Almost identical with Anelida, 222 — ' More then myself,
an hundred thousand sythe.'
36. Obviously corrupt ; neither sound nor sense is right.
Read : — ' Than al this worldes richest [or riche) creature.'
Creature may mean ' created thing.'
39. Cf. Kn. Tale, 1. 380 — ' Wei hath Fortune y-turned thee
the dys.'
41. My swete fo. So in Anehda, 1. 272 ; and cf. 1. 64 below.
42, 43. Cf. Pari, of Foules, 11. 439, 440.
44. Ed. 1 56 1 also reads In. Moreover, it omits eek in 1. 45,
which I supply.
47-49. This remarkable statement re-appears twice else-
where ; see Pari. Foules, 90, 91 ; and Compl. of Pite, 11. 99-104.
50. Repeated in Anelida, 237.
51,52. Cf. Anelida, 181, 182; Compl. Pite, no; Pari.
Foules, 7.
55. Cf. Anehda, 214 — 'That turned is to quaking al my
daunce.'
56. Here a line is missing, as again at 1. 59. This appears
from the form of the stanza, in which the rimes are arranged in
the order aab aab cd d c.
63. Cf. the use oi y-whet in Anelida, 212.
64, 65. Cf. Anelida, 272 — ' My swete fo, why do ye so for
shame ? '
XXII. AN AMOROUS COMPLEINT. 4OI
"]},. For leest, ed. 156 1 has best !
79. The MS. has — ' What so I wist that were to youre
hyenesse ' ; where _ytf«r5 hyenesse is absurdly repeated from 1. 76.
Ed. 1 561 has the same error. It is obvious that the right final
word is distrcsse, to be preceded by yoiv or your ; of which
I prefer ^<?w.
83. The MS. ends the line with iville fulfill e. As luille is
dissyllabic, this is impossible, and the repetition of -il-le is
distressing. I therefore substitute wish.
86. Shal^ i.e. shall be. Cf. shal=^-aX\. (do so), in Gloss, to
Prioresses Tale. See also p. 221, 11. 78, 87 ; and note on p. 404,
1.87.
88. Leveth "wel, believe me wholly. Ed. 1561 wrongly has
l-oueih.
98. I read «//, as being simpler. The MS. has ne wil, which
would be read — ' That I n' wil ay ' ; which comes to much the
same thing.
100. Set, fixed, bound. Ed. 1561 has — 'For I am set so hy
vpon your whele,' which disturbs the rimes.
102. MS. beon euer als irwwe; ed. 1561 \\7i.%—bene euer as
trewe.
103. MS. ' As any man can er may on lyue ; ' ed. 1561 has — As
any man can or maye on Hue. It is clear that some final word
(almost certainly here) has been dropped, because the scribe
thought the line ought to rime wnih/yve above. After this, man
was inserted to fill up. Here rimes with manere in the Miller's
Prologue, and elsewhere. Moreover, Chaucer employs here at
the end of a line more than thirty times ; cf. Kn. Tale, 402, 812,
853, 961, &c.
107, 108. Cf. Anelida, 247, 248.
123. Cf. Anelida, 216. Ed. 1561 subjoins the word Explicit.
XXII. An Amorous Compleint.
There are two other MS. copies of this poem, viz. in MSS. F.
and B. See remarks upon these in the Preface, at p. Ixxxii.
I. In Troil. iv. 516, the parallel line is : — ' Of me, that am the
wofulleste wight' ; where wc;/////^^/-^ has four syllables. Chaucer
constantly employs sorive or sorzu so as to occupy the time of a
monosyllable ; hence the right reading in this case is sorw'ful-
lest-e, with final -e. See also Troil. ii. 450 — ' So as she was the
ferfulleste wight.'
Dd
403 ' XXII. AN AMOROUS COMPLEINT.
3. Recoverer, recovery, cure ; answering to O. F. recovrier,
sb. succour, aid, cure, recovery ; see examples in La Langue et
la Litterature Fran^aise, by Bartsch and Horning, 1887. Gower
uses recoverir in a like sense; ed. Pauli, i. 265. In Specimens
of English, ed. Morris and Skeat, pt. ii., p. 156, 1. 394, recouerer
may likewise mean 'succour'; and the whole line may mean,
* they each of them cried for succour (to be obtained) from the
Creator.'
6. Cf. p. 215, 1. 53: — 'So litel rewthe hath she upon my
peyne.'
7. Cf. p. 214, 1. 33: — 'That, for I love her, sleeth me giltelees.'
12. Despitous, hateful. The word is common in Chaucer ;
see Prol. 516, Kn. Ta. 738, C. T. 6343, Troil. ii. 435, v. 199.
Trevisa translates ignominiosa seriiitiite by 'in a dispitoiis
bondage'; Higden's Polychron. v. 87. The sense is— 'You
have banished me to that hateful island whence no man may
escape alive.' The allusion is to the isle of Naxos, here used
as a synonym for a state of hopeless despair. It was the island
in which Ariadne was left, when deserted by Theseus ; and
Chaucer alludes to it at least thrice in a similar way: see
C. T. Group B. 68, Ho. of Fame, 416, Legend of Good Women,
2159. Another reading is — 'Yehan me cast in thilke spitous
yle ' ; see p. Ixxxii,
13. Perhaps we should drop ne, as in MSB. F. and B. (see p.
Ixxxii.), and read lyv-e as a dissyllable. This is certainly better.
14. This have /, such is my reward. For, because. Perhaps
we should drop best, as in F. and B. (see p. Ixxxii.), and read
lov-e as a dissyllable.
16. Another reading is — ' If that it were a thing possible to
do ' ; see p. Ixxxii. In that case, we must T:Qa.6. possibl' , with the
accent on i.
17. Cf. p. 216, 1. 94 : — ' For ye be oon the worthiest on-Iyve.'
19. Cf. p. 216, 1. 93 : — ' I am so litel worthy.'
24, 25. Perhaps (see p. Ixxxii.) we should read — •
I may wel singe, ' in sory tyme I spende
My lyf ' ; that song is my confusiovm.
Cf. XI. 7, and the note (p. 376).
28. Perhaps corrupt ; it seems to mean — ' All these things
caused me, in that (very state of despair), to love you
dearly.'
31. The insertion of/*? is justified by the parallel line — 'And
I my deeth to yow wol al forgive'; XXI. 119 (p. 217;.
XXII. AN AMOROUS COMPLEINT. 403
36, 37. Perhaps read — ' And sithen I am of my sorwe the
cause, And sithen I have this ' ; &c. See p. Ixxxii.
43. Perhaps read — ' So that, algates, she is verray rote.'
45. Cf. C. T. 1 1287 : — 'For with o word ye may me sleen or
save.'
52. As to 7iiy dome, in my judgment; as in V. 480, and in
Troil. iv. 387.
54. Cf. ' whyl the world may dure ' ; V. 616.
55. Bihynde, in the rear, far away; cf. XXI. 5.
57. The idea is the same as in the Compl. of Mars, 11. 264-
270,
62. See I. 10 above.
64. Yor ye re-Adyct ; see p. Ixxxii.
65. For Diek/y read tneke ; see p. Ixxxii.
70, 71. Cf. C. T. 11625— ' And lothest wer of al this world dis-
plese.'
72. Compare the description of Dorigen, C. T. 11255-66.
We have similar expressions in Troil. iii. 1501:— 'As wisly
verray God my soule save ' ; and in Legend of Good Women,
1802 : — 'As wisly Jupiter my soule save.' And see XXIII. 4.
75. For shulde, perhaps a better reading is s/iul ] see p. kxxii.
76. For unio, perhaps a better reading is on ; see p. Ixxxii.
Chaucer has both pleyne utito and pleyne on ; see C. T., Cler.
Tale (Group E), 97 ; and Pard. Tale (Group C), 512.
77. Cf. Troih iii. 1183, and v. 1344 :—' Forgive it me, myn
owne swete herte.'
79. Cf. Troil. iii. 141 — 'And I to ben your very humble trewe.'
81. ' Sun of the bright and clear star' ; i. e. source of light to
the planet Venus. The 'star' can hardly be other than this
bright planet, which was supposed to be auspicious to lovers.
Cf. Troil. V. 638 : — ' O sterre, of which I lost have al the light.'
Observe that MSS. F. and B. read overiox of\ this will not scan,
but it suggests the sense intended.
82. Oon, one and the same, ever constant ; as in III. 649. Cf.
also Troih iii. 143:— 'And ever to desiren freshly jtciue To
scrven.' Another reading is — 'Alwey in oon.' This refers to
Sonne, i. e. to the constancy and endurance of the sun as the
source of light.
82,. So in Troil. v. 15 12 :— ' For I am thyn, by God and by
my trouthe ' ; and in Troil. iii. 120.
85. See Pari, of Foules, 309, 310, whence I supply the word
l/ier. These lines in the Pari, of Foules may have been borrowed
D d 2
404 XXIII. A BALADE OF COMPLEYNT.
from the present passage, i. e. if the ' Amorous Compleint ' is the
older poem of the two, as is probable. In any case, the con-
nection is obvious. Cf. also Pari. Foules, 386.
87. Cf. Pari. Foules, 419 : — ' Whos I am al, and ever wol her
serve.' The correction of was (Harl.) to whos is confirmed by
MSS. F. and B. ; see p. Ixxxii.
Shal, shall be ; as in Troil. iii. 103 ; cf. Kn. Tale, 286, and
note to 1. 86, on p. 401.
91. Cf. Kn. Tale, 285, 286; Pari. P'oules, 419, 420. All three
passages are much alike.
XXIII. A Balade of Compleynt.
I. Cf. Troil. iii. 104:— 'And thogh I dar ne can unto yow
pleyne.'
4. See note to XXII. 72, and 1, 8 below.
13, 14. Cf. XXI. Ill, 112 (p. 217).
16. Dyt-e, ditty (dissyllabic) ; see IX. 622. It here rimes
with despyte and//)//^. The two latter rime together in Troil.
iii. 1037, though in the Cant. Tales the usual forms are despyt
and plyt-e respectively.
20. Hertes lady ; see XXI. 60 (p. 215).
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
The following are the principal contractions used : —
A.S. = Anglo-Saxon. Lat. = Latin.
" " M.E. = Middle English.
F. = French.
Icel. = Icelandic.
O.F. = 01d French.
Also the following: — i/. =verb in the infinitive mood ; pr. s. (and/)/, s.)
mean the /AiVc? person singular of the present (and past) tense, except when I
or 2 (first person or second person) is prefixed; pr. pi. (and pt. pi.) mean,
likewise, the third person plural of the present (and past) tense ; ivip. s. —
second person singular of the imperative mood ; and imp. pi. = second person
plural of the same. Other contractions, such as s.= substantive, and />/>.=
past participle, will be readily understood.
Further information as to the etymologies of the words is given in
Mayhew and Skeat's Middle-English Dictionary, and in Skeat's Concise
Etymological Dictionary.
The references are to the number of the piece and to the line. Thus
'3. 213 ' means Poem No. 3 (Book of the Duchesse), line 213.
A.
A ! int. Ah! 3. 213.
A, prep, on, for, 3. 370, 758.
A, adj. one and the same, 15. 5.
Abasshed, pp. abashed, confused,
5- 447-
Abaved, pp. confounded, discon-
certed, 3. 614. Answering to an
O.F. * abavir, due to O.F. es-
bahir, to astonish ; with v in place
of lost h ; see Brachet's Etym. F.
Diet. s. V. corvee.
Able, adj. capable of receiving, fit
fo""' 3- 779 ; prepared, deemed
deserving, i. 184.
Abood, pt. s. abode, stopped, 9.
1602 ; expected, 3. 247.
Abought, />/). purchased, 18. 37.
Aboute, adv. around, here and there,
5- 247-
Abreyde, v. awake, come to my
senses, 9. 559 ; Abreyd, I pt. s.
started from sleep, 9. no; Abrayd,
pt. s. started up, 3. 192. A. S.
dbregdan, strong verb ; pt. t.
(ibrcEgd.
Abyden, v. wait for, 9. 1086 ;
await, I. 131.
Acciotin, s. action, i. e. accusation,
I. 20.
A-chekked, pp. checked, hindered,
9. 2093.
Acloyeth, pr. s. overburdens, 5.
517. See Accloy in Murray, N.E.
Diet.
Acordant to, in harmony with,
5- 203.
Acorde, s. harmony, agreement,
concord, 5. 3S1, 668 ; in acorde,
in tune, 5. 192 ; al of oon accorde,
in tune, 3. 305.
Acounte, ger. to reckon up, 22.
iS; Acounted,/'/'. s. valued, cared,
?,■ 1237.
Acquitaunce, s. acquittance, re-
lease, I. 60.
Acursed, />/>. accursed, i. 150.
Acustoinauiice,s. system of habits,
habitual method of life, 9. 28.
Adamavintes, pi. loadstones, 5. 148.
Adoun, adv. adown, down, 2. 15 ;
down below, 9. 889.
A-dred, pp. afraid, frightened, 3.
1 190; A-drad, 3. 493, 879; 9.
928.
Adversairo, s. adversary, i. 8.
Advocat, s. advocate, i. 102.
4o6
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
A-fer, adv. afar, 9. 1215.
Affray, s. affright, fright, 4. 214;
9- 553 ; Afray, dread, 7. 334.
Affrayed,/)/). frightened, roused, 3.
296.
After, prep, according to, 1. 143 ;
3- 1095; 5. 305; 18. 75 ; in
accordance with, 8. 4 ; After as,
according as, 5. 216.
A-fyr, on fire, i. 94; A-f3're, 9.
i8.s8.
Agarne, adv. in play, in jest, in
mockery, 4. 277.
Agast, pp. terrified, 7. 316 ; 9.
557-
Agaynes, ^re/i. against, 3. 16.
Agilte, I pt. s. did wrong to,
wronged, 9. 329 ; Agilt, pp.
offended, I. 122.
A-go, pp. gone away, 7- 61 ; to ben
ago, to be off, 5. 465 ; Agoon,
past away, dead, 3. 479 ; 7- 150.
A-gref, adv. grievously, amiss, 5.
543. Lit. ' in grief.'
Agryse, v. feel terror, 9. 210. A.S.
dgrisan.
Aioume, imp. s. adjourn, summon
on another day, I. 158.
Ake, ger. to ache, 9. 632.
Al, adv. quite, 5. IIO, 540; al-
though, 1. 45, 157; for all that,
4. 274; albeit, 12. 7; Al and
somme, each and all, all, the
whole, 7- 26 ; Al and som, 5.
650 ; Al be, although, 5. 436 ;
Al be that, 5.8; Al by oon assent,
quite with one accord, 5. 557 ;
Al day, all the day, 3. II05 ; Al
thus, exactly thus, 5. 30.
Al, s. awl, 12. II.
Alday, every day, at any time, 4.
237-
Alder, gen. pi. of all ; or/re alder,
of us all, 1.84. A.S. ea/ra, of all.
Alderbest, adv. best of all, 3. 87,
907.
Alder-beste, adj. best of all, very
best, 3. 246, 1279.
Alderfaireste, adj. fern, fairest of
all, 3. 1050.
Alderfirst, adv. first of all, 9. 1429.
Alder-next, nearest of all, next, 5.
244.
Alegge, I pr. s. allege, adduce, 9.
314-
Algaite, adv. any way, at any rate,
3. 887, 1087 ; nevertheless, 2.
115 ; at all hazards, 9. 943.
Algates, adv. at any rate, 3. 1 1 7 1 ;
4. 234; 21. 85 ; 22.43.
Alighte, />/. s. descended, i. 161.
Alle, dat. ; at alle, in any and every
case, 4. 37 ; on alle thing, in any
case, 3. 141.
Alliaunce, s. alliance, kindred, i.
58.
Allone, alone, 4. 141 ; 5. 455.
Al-outerly, adv. quite utterly, quite
absolutely, 3. 1244. See Al-
utterly.
Als, adv. as, 4. 69 ; also, 3. 72S ; 9.
2071 ; Al-so, as, 3. 1064 ; 4. 267 ;
(_in expressing a wish), 7. 202 ; 22.
72 ; as sure as, 9. 273.
Alther-fastest, adv. sup. as fast as
possible, 9. 2131.
Altherfirst, adv. first of all, at
first, 9. 1368.
Alther-firste, adj. first of all, 3.
1173-
Al-utterly, adv. quite absolutely,
beyond all doubt, 9. 296. See
Al-outerly.
A-lyve, adv. alive, 3. 915.
Amended, pt. s. improved, did
good, 3. 1 102.
Amiddes, adv.'mXhe midst, 5. 277.
Amis, adv. amiss, 3. H41 ; seyde
amis, gave an unwelcome answer,
5. 446.
A-morwe, in the morning, 3. 1 104 ;
9. 2106.
An hye, on high, 9. 215.
Aneille, s. handmaiden, i. 109.
Ancre, s. anchor, 11. 38.
And, conj. if, 21. II2; and if , if,
3- 548.
Angle-hook, s. fish-hook, 4. 23S.
Anoon, adv. immediately, 3. 1299,
1333 ; 5- 169 ; 9. 339.
Anon-right, adv. immediately, 3.
354, 450, 847; 5. 218; Anoon-
right, 9. 132.
Anoyeth, pr. s. gives offence, 5.
5 1 8.
Anvelt, 5. anvil, 3. 1165.
G LOSS ARIA L INDEX.
407
Apaire, v. deteriorate, grow worse,
9. 7-;6. See Apeyren in M.E.D.
Apayd, pp. pleased ; evel apayd,
ill-pleased, 7. 123; 21. 69.
Ape, 5. 9. 12 12; Apes, />/. 9. 1806.
Aperte, adv. openly, 9. 717.
Apertenant, adj. belonging to,
such as belongs to, 2. 70-
Apeseth, imp. pi. appease, miti-
gate, 4. 10.
Apparaile,s. apparel, attire,!. 153.
(The F. text has atour.)
Apparence,s. appearance, seeming,
9. 265.
Appropred,/)/. appropriated, made
the property of, 13. 18.
Aqueynte, v. ; me aqueynte, make
myself acquainted, 3. 532 ; Aqiieyii-
teden, pt. pi. became acquainted,
9. 250.
Arace, v. eradicate, tear away, 15.
iS ; 21. 20.
Aray, s. array, dre?s, 4. 176 ; 5.
318; Dress, 5. 219.
A-rede, v. read, interpret, 3. 2S9.
Armonye, s. harmony, 3. 313 ; 5.
63, 191 ; 9- 1396-
Armure, s. armour, 4. 130.
Am, /r. pi. are, 9. 1008.
A-rowe, adv. in a row, 9. 1835.
A-roume, adv. at large, in an open
space, 9. 540.
Arrivage, s. coming to shore, 9.
223.
Art, .s. cunning, 5. 245.
Artcw, for art thow, art thou, 9.
1S72.
Arwes, pi. arrows, 5. 212.
As, as if, 3. 1323 ; As, in assevera-
rions, 3, 838, 1235; As of, as
concerning, 5. 26 ; As swytlie, at
once, 7, 226 ; As that, as though,
3. 1 200 : As ther, in that place,
there, 4. 117; As to my wit, ac-
cording to my understanding, 5.
547-
Ascendentes, pi. 9. 126S. The
ascendertt is (properly) that point
of the zodiacal circle which is seen
to be just ascending above the
horizon at a given moment. See
note,
Aske, pr. s. si/bj. may ask, 3, 32.
Asp, s. aspen, 5. 180.
Aspre, adj. fierce, hanly, 7, 23,
Assay, s. trial, 3. 552.
Assaye, v. try, 3. 574,
Asse, s. ass, 5. 255.
Assented, pp. agreed, 2. 53.
Asshe, s. ash-tree, 5. 176.
Asshen, pi. ashes, 7. 173.
AssuTG, s. assurance, protestation,
Assure, i pr. s. comfort, give con-
fidence to, 5. 448,
Assured, adj. settled, self-reliant, 2.
40.
Assyse, s. judgment, i. 36.
Asterte, v. start away, get away,
withdraw, 3. 1 1 54; escape, 21,
23; 22. 13.
Astonyeth, pr. s. astonishes, 5, 5,
Asure, adj. a-i s. blue, 7. 330.
A-sweved, pp. dazed, put to sleep,
9, 549. A.S. nswebhan ( = dswe-
jiati), to put to sleep.
A-s'WO'WTi, pp. as adv. in a swoon,
3. 123; A-swowe, 7. 354. Cf.
A.S. ge-f^wogen; see Swoon in my
Etym. Diet,
At, prep, as to, 21. 114; At erste,
adv. first of all, 9. 512 ; At shorte
wordes, briefly, in a word, 5. 48 1.
A-take, pp. overtaken, 4. 55.
Atempre, adj. temperate, mild, 3.
341, 1008; Attempre, 5. 204.
Ateyne, v. attain, succeed in, 4.
161,
Atte, /or at the, 3. 619, 652; 4.
25 ; Atte leste, at least, 5, 452.
A-tweyn, adv. in two, 3. 1193.
Atyre, s. attire, dress, 5. 225.
Auctorite, s. authority, 5. 506 ; 9.
2158.
Auctour, s, author, 9, 314.
Audience, s. audience, attention,
hearing, 5. 308.
Auncestre, s. ancestor, e,'. 41.
Aungel, s. angel, 5. 191 ; Aungtls,
gen. angel's, 5. 356.
Autentyke, adj. authentic, 3. 1086.
Auter, y. altar, 5. 249.
Availeth, pr. s. impers. it avails, 6.
Avaunce, v. aid, cause to prosper,
9. 640 ; help, 11. 31.
4o8
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
Avaunte, ger. to extol, 9. 1788 ; i
pr. s. boast, 5. 470 ; Avaunte her,
V. boast herself, 7. 296.
Avauntour, s. boaster, 5. 430.
A venture, s. luck, chance, 4. 21 ;
Chance, g. 1982; hard hap, 4.
199 ; good aventtire, good for-
tune, 5. 131 ; 7. 324; inaventnre
and grace, on luck and favour, 4.
60; of aventure, by chance, 9.
2090.
Avisioun, s. vision, 9. 7, 104, 513 ;
Avisiouns, pi. 9. 40.
Avouterye, s. adultery, 5. 361.
A-vowe, s. vow, avowal, 3. 93.
Avyse, i pr. s. ; avyse me, reflect,
3. 697 ; Avysen me, ger. to re-
flect, consider, 5. 648.
Avysement, s. deliberation ; of
short avysement, after a brief de-
liberation, 5. 555.
Awak, imp. s. awake! 3. 179;
Awaketh, imp. pi. awake ye, 3.
183; Awook, 1 pt. s. awoke,
aroused, 3. 1324.
Awayting, s. attending, 7. 250.
Aweye, adv. away, gone, 7. 319;
A-wey, 5. 656.
A-whaped, pp. amazed, stupefied,
7, 215. Cf. Goth, af-kwapjan,
to choke.
Awreke, v. avenge, 2. il.
Axe, V. ask, i. 120; ger. 3. 416,
1276; Axeth, pr. s. I. 12; re-
quires, 12. 16; Axed, pt. s. 3.
185 ; Axed, pp. 9. 1766.
Axing, s. asking, request, 9. 1 54 1 ;
Axinge, questioning, 17. 3.
Ay, adv. ever, always, 2. 95 ; 5.
210; Ay whil that, all the time
that, 4. 252.
Ayein, adv. again, back, 5. 100;
Ayeyn, l. 68; Ayen, 5. 295.
Ayeins, prep, towards, at the ap-
proach of, 5. 342 ; 7. 347.
Ayen, prep, against, when meeting,
5- 443-
Babewinnes, pi. (lit. baboons),
grotesque figures in architecture,
9. 1 1 89. See note.
Baggeth, pr. s. looks askant, 3.
623.
Balaunce, s. balance, i.e. suspense;
w balaunce, in suspense, 3. 102 1 ;
in uncertainty, 7- 344-
Bale, 5. bale, sorrow, 3. 535 ; for
bote ne hale, for good nor for ill,
3. 227.
Bane, s. destruction, ruin, death, 9.
408 ; cause of death, 4. 196.
Bar, pt. s. bore, carried, 3. 196 ;
Bar her on honde, brought against
her a charge which he feigned to
believe, 7. 158.
Barefoot, ad}, with nothing on his
feet, 9. 98.
Basket, s. basket, 9. 1687.
Batayle, s. battle, 5. 539.
Bawme, 5. balm, 9. 1686.
Beau, adj. fair ; heati sir, fair sir,
9. 643.
Beautee, s. Beauty, 2. 39.
Be, 1 pr. s. am, 3. 588; i pr.pl.
are, 3. 5S2 ; pr. pi. 3. 581 ; 4.
50; Be, subj. pr. s. it should be,
4. 49; pp. 3. 972 ; I had be, I
should have been, 3. 222.
Beddes, gen. bed's, 3. 1254.
Bede, v. offer, 9. 32 ; ger. to pre-
sent, I. no; I pr. s. proffer, 7.
304-
Bede, pp. bidden, 3. 194.
Bees, pi. bees, 5. 353; Been, 9.
1522.
Beforn, adv. before, previously, 5.
107, 486.
Begoon, pp. ; wel begoon, joyous,
5- 171-
Begyle, v. beguile, deceive, 3. 674.
Behelde, v. behold, 7- 80. See
note.
Behest, s. Promise, 5. 245.
Behe'we,/'/'. hewn, carved, 9. 1306.
Behoteth, pr. s. promises, 3. 621 ;
Behette,/)/. s. 5. 436.
Bek, s. beak, 5. 37S.
Bele, adj. f em. fair, 9. 1796.
Belle, s. bell (of a clock), 3. 1322.
Belweth, pr. s. belloweth, roars, 9.
1S03.
Beme, 5. trumpet, 9. 1240. O. Merc.
benie.
Ben, V. be, i. 182 ; 2 pr.pl. are.
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
409
19. 24; pr. pi. are, 5. loi ; pp.
been, 3. 530.
Bench, s. bench (law-court), i.
159. See note.
Bene, s. bean, 6. 29.
Benethen, /re/), below, 4. 219.
Berafte,/!/. s. robbed of, 5. 87. See
Bereve.
Bsrde, s. dat. beard, 3. 456 ;
Berdes, pi. 9. 689.
Bere, s. the constellations Ursa
Major and Ursa Minor, 9. 1004 ;
Beres, />/. bears, 9. 1589,
Bere, s. bier, 2. 105 ; 9.1744; 19.
5-
Bere, s. head-sheet, pillow-case, 3.
254. Cf. pilwebere in Ch. Pro-
logue.
Bere, pr. pi. bear, 3. 894.
Bereve, v. rob of; me wo bereve,
rob me of woe, 21. 12. See Be-
rafte.
Beryle, s. beryl, 9. 1184.
Beseche, 11. beseech, ask, 3. 1132.
Besette, v. bestow, 3. 772; i pr.
s. bestow, 4. 182 ; I //. 5. em-
ployed, 3. 1096; Beset, pp. be-
stowed, 3. 863, 1043 ; set, em-
ployed, 5. 598.
Beseye, pp. beseen ; wel beseye,
well beseen, well provided, 3. 829.
Besily, adv. busily, industriously,
well, 5. 74.
Besinesse, s. business, task, work,
3. 1156 ; labour, 5. 86.
Bespreynt, />/>. sprinkled, bedewed,
2. 10.
Beste, s. animal, 3. 637 ; beast, i.
45 ; Bestes, pi. animals, 5. 86.
Beste, adj. best, 3. 6S4.
Bestowed me weel, given me
good fortune, 21. 37.
Besy, adj. anxious, 5. 89.
Besyde, beside ; ther he^yde, beside
that place, 3. 1316.
Besyed hem, pt. pi. busied, occu-
pied themselves, 5. 192.
Bet, adj. comp. better, 9. loS ; 11.
47-
Bet, adv. better, 3. 668, 669, 672,
928, 1044; 5. 152, 166, 451,
474> 5 Hi 699; quickly, 3. 136.
Bete, V. amend, 21. 78. A.S. bitan.
Beten, i;. beat, strike, 9. 1044 ;
Bete, /)/>. 9. 1 1 50.
Beth, imp.pl. be, i. 134; 5. 660;
19. 7.
Bethenke, i pr. s. ; bethenke me,
bethink myself, consider, 3. 698 ;
Bethinke, v. think of, imagine, 5.
483 ; Bethenk, hnp. s. reflect, 3.
1304 ; Bethoghte me, I pf. s. refl.
bethought me, 3. 11S3, 1195.
Betid, pp. happened, 9. 384, 578.
Betraysed, pt. $. betrayed, 3. 1 1 20.
P'rom traiss-, trakiss-, lengthened
stem of F. trahir, to betray.
Betwixen, /re/, between, 5. 148 ;
Betwix, 5. 40.
Beutee, 5. beauty, 22. 17 ; 23. 5.
Bewrye, v. betray, 5. 348. A
variant form of bewreye.
Bible, s. book, 9. 1334.
Bifalle, pr. s. subj. impers. shall
befall, 8. I.
Bigamye, .f. bigamy, 7. 153.
Bilden, ger. to build, 9. 1133;
Bilt, //. s. built, 9. 1 135; pp.
buih, I. 183.
Bilder, s. as adj. builder, used for
building, 5. 176.
Bille, s. bill, petition, I. 59, no;
2.44.
Billes, pi. bills (of birds), 9. 868.
Bithinke, i pr. s. bethink, i. 121.
Blake, adj. pi. black, 5. 682.
Blasen, v. blow, 9. 1802.
Blaspheme, s. blasphemy, 16. 15.
Blaste, V. blow a trumpet, 9. 1866.
Bleched, />/. bleached, 10. 45.
Blent, pr. s. blinds, 5. 600 ; 12.4;
pp. blinded, 14. 18.
Blew, adj. blue, 3. 340; Blewe,
adj. pi. blue, livid, pale ; with
teres blewe, blue (sec note) with
weeping, 4. 8 ; Blew, adj. as s.
blue, blue clothing, 15. 7, See
note. And see Bio.
Blisful, adv. joyously, 5. 6S9.
Bio, adj. blue, ash-colound, smoke-
coloured, 9. 1647. Icel. bldr.
See Blew.
Blosmy, adj. blossomy, covered
with blossoms, 5. 183.
Blyve, adv. quickly, 3. 152 ; 5.
604 ; as blyve, as quickly as may
4IO
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
be, as soon as possible, 3. 24S,
1277 ; 9. 1106.
Bobaunce, s. boast, i. 84. O. F.
bobance, arrogance. See Diez.
Bode, s. foreboding, token, omen,
5. 343. A. S. bod, gebod.
Bode, s. abiding, delay, 7. 119.
Short for abode.
Boght, pp. bought, 4. 168.
Boistes, pi. boxes, 9. 2129, O. F.
boiste (F. boite).
Bolde, V. grow bold, 5. 144.
Boles, pi. bulls, 4. 86.
Bon, adj. good, 9. 1022.
Bond, /)/. s. bound, 9. 1590; Bonde,
pp. bound, in slavery, 17. 32.
Bonde, s. dat. bond, 9. 321.
Bone, s. prayer, request, 3. 129,
S35; 5-643; 9- 1537-
Boon, s. bone, 3. 940.
Bord, s. board, plank, 3. 74.
Bore, pp. born, 3. 1301 ; 21. 46;
born the, behaved thyself, 5.
T09.
Borowe, s. dat. pledge ; to borowe,
in pledge, for surety, 4. 205 ; to
borow, 4. 9.
Borwe, ger. to borrow, 21. 10.
Bost, s. boasting, 4. 37.
Bote, s. remedy, 3. 38 ; 9. 32 ;
cure, 22. 45 ; doth bole, gives the
remedy for, 5. 276; for bote ne
bale, for good, nor for ill, 3. 227.
A. S. bot.
Boteler, s. butler, 9. 592.
Bottie, adj. pi. both, 3. 1068 ; your
bothes, of both of you, I. 83.
Bounte, s. bounty, 2. 38; 9.
1698 ; goodness, 23. 5.
Bourded, //(.jested, 5. 589. O.F.
botirder.
Boures, s. pi. bowers, 5. 304.
Bowe, s. bow, i. 29 ; 5. 213.
Bowes, pi. boughs, 5. 183.
Boxtre, s. box- tree, 5. 178.
Brak, pt. s. broke, 3. 71. Pt. t. of
breken.
BrB.st, pt. s. burst, broke, 3. 1 193.
Pt. t. of bresten.
Brayde, pt. s. took hastily, 9. 1678
(better brayd, A.S. brcegd, strong
verb) ; Brayd, pp. started, gone
suddenly, 7. 124.
Brede, s. roast meat, 9. 1222. See
note.
Erede, s. breadth, 3. 956. A.S.
brddti.
Breke, pr. s. stibj. break, 4. 242 ;
pt. s. Brak, 3. 71.
Brekers, s. //. breakers, trans-
gressors, 5. 78.
Brekke, s. break, flaw, defect, 3.
940.
Brenne, v. burn, 5. 249; 17. 18 ;
ger. 4. 88 ; Brende, />/. s. burnt, I.
90 ; 9. 1844 ; was burnt, 9. 163 ;
was set on fire, 9. 537 ; Brende,
pt. pi. caught fire, 9. 954; Brent,
pp. burnt, 7. 115; 9. 2080;
Brenninge,/)res./)/. burning, I. 90.
Brenning, s. burning, 4. 133.
Breste, ger. to burst, 9. 2018;
pt. s. Brast, broke, 3. 1193.
Bret-ful, adj. brimful, 9. 2123-
Cf. Swed. braddfid, full to the
brim ; Swed. brddd, A.S. brerd,
the brim.
Briddes, gen. of a bird, 4. 23 ;
Briddes, /)/. birds, 5. 190; young
of birds, 5. 192.
Brinkes, pi. sides, banks, 9. S03.
Broche, s. any precious small orna-
ment, here used of a bracelet, 4.
245-
Erode, adv. far and wide, 9. 1683.
Broght, pp. brought, 9. 155.
Bromes, pi. broom (bushes so
called), 9. 1226.
Brosten, pt. pi. burst, 4. 96. See
Breste, Brast.
Brotelnesse, s. fickleness, 11. 63;
15. 15. From base of A.S. brot-
en, pp. of brcotan, to break.
Brouke, 1 pr. s. sttbj. (optative),
may I have the use of, 9. 263.
A.S. briican.
Brydel, s. bridle, 7. 184.
Brydeleth, pr. s. bridles, 4. 41.
Buk, s. buck, 5. 195 ; Bukkes, /■?.
3- 429-
Burned, pp. burnished, polished, 9.
1387-
But, conj. unless, 2. 82 ; 3. 117.
592, 1000, 1188, 1234; 4. 49,
208,490; 5. 1 59, 459,-567 16.4.
But-if, conj. unless, 3. 1023 ; 14. 1 1.
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
411
Buxumnesse, s. yielding, submis-
sion, 12. 15.
By, prep, in the case of, with ref>.r-
ence to, 4. 263 ; with, reference to,
6. 4, 158, 477; 9. 286; con-
cerning, 9. 742.
Bye, pr. pi. subj. buy, 18. 26.
Byforn, prep, before, 9. 60.
Bjmde, v. bind, enthral, 4. 249 ;
Bynt him, pr. s. bindeth himself,
4. 47 ; Bynt her, 4. 48.
C.
Cable, s. cord, iS. 33.
Cacche, ger. to catch, 3. 781.
Cadence, s. 9. 623. See note.
Caitif, .■«. wretch, i. 124.
Cakelinge, s. cackling, 5. 562,
Calden, 2 pt. pi. called, 7. 251.
Can, I pr. s. know, am able to say,
5. 14; know, 9. 248; pr. s.
knows, 3. 673.
Candel, s. torch, light, 4. 7.
Canel-boon, s. collar-bone (lit.
channel-bone, with reference to
the depression in the neck behind
the collar-bone), 3. 943.
Carbuncle, s. carbuncle-stone, 9.
1363-
Care, s. care, ill-luck, s. 363.
Careful, adj. full of care, full of
trouble, 21. 44.
Careyne, .";. carrion, dead body,
5. 177. Of. O.F. caroigne.
Carole, v. dance round singing, 3.
849.
Cart, s. chariot, 9. 943.
Carter, s. carter, 5. 102.
Cart-hors, pi. chariot-horses, 9. 944.
Cas, s. chance, 9. 1052.
Cast, s. plan, 9. 11 78.
Caste, I pt. s. cast, 5. 172; pr. s.
subj. let (him) cast, 20. 4; Cast,
pp. cunningly devised, 2. 26.
Castel, s. castle, 3. 1318, 1322.
Casuelly, adv. by chance, 9. 679.
Causeles, adv. without reason, 22.
32.
Cave, s. used to translate astrological
term ' puteus,' 4. 1 1 9. See note.
Celestials, adj. pi. of heaven,
heavenly, 9. 460.
Ceptre, s. sceptre, 5. 256.
Cercle, .<;. circle, 9. 791; sphere,
16. 9.
Certes, adv. certainly, i 28, 55 ;
3- ^53, III/ ; 22- 33-
Certeyn, adv. certainly, I. 169.
Cese, V. put an end to, 4. 11.
Chaced, pp. chased, driven away,
6. 14.
Chapitres, pi. chapters, 5. 32.
Char, s. car, chariot, 7. 24, 39, 40.
Charge, s. load, burden, 7. 32 ; 9.
1439 ; a heavy thing, 9. 74O ;
importance, 3. 894; responsibility,
5- 507-
Charite, 5. charity, 3. 642.
Charmeresses, fern. pi. workers
with charms, 9. I 26 1.
Chastisinge, y. chastening, i. 129.
Chastyse, v. chasten, i . 39 ; imp. s.
I. 129.
Chaunce, s. chance, incident, 3.
12S5 ; hap, destiny, 3. 11 13.
Chaunte-pleure, title of a song
upon grief following joy, 7. 320.
See note. Of. ' It is like to the
chante-pleure Beginning with ioy,
ending in wretchedness;' Lyd-
gate. Fall of Princes, bk. i. c. 7-
Cheef, adj. chief, 3. 910, 911.
Chees, i pt. s. chose, 3. 791 ; pi.s.
I. 108; Cheest, pr. s. chooseth,
5. 623. See Chese.
Chek, s. as int. check (at chess), 3.
659.
Chekkere, s. chess-board, 3. 660.
Chepe, s. a time of cheapness, 9.
1974.
Chere, s, cheer, look, manner, 3.
545; 4. 42; 5. 488; 7. 253; 9.
277; kindly greeting, 4. 146.
Cheryce, v. cherish, 10. 52.
Ches, s. chess, 3. 619, 652, 664;
Chesse, 3- 51.
Chese, v. choose, 5. 399, 400 ; 18.
60, 67; ger. 5. 146, 310, 3S8;
i/ir. s. 5. 417 ; Chesen,!/. 22. 86 ;
Chesetlj, imp. pi. 4. 17.
Chevalrye, s. chivalry, knighthood,
9. 1340.
Chevauche, s. swift course (li*. a
ride), 4. 144.
Chevise, v. refl. accomplish licr
desire, 4. 289.
413
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
Cheyne, s. chain, 6. 16.
Chirkinges, />/. shriekings, cries, 9.
1943. See note.
Chogh, s. chough, 5. 345.
Choppen, v. strike downwards,
knock, 9. 1824.
Chose, pp. chosen, 3. 1004.
Choys, s. choice, 5. 406, 408.
Cipres, s. cypress, 5. 179.
Citezein, s. citizen, 9. 930.
Clamben, />/;. ^/. climbed, 9. 2151.
Clappe, 5. thunderclap, 9. 1040.
Clarioning, s. the music of the
clarion, 9. 1242.
Clarioun, 5. clarion, 9. 1240.
Clarre, s. wine mixed with honey
and spices, and afterwards strained
till it was clear, 10. 16.
Cled, />/>. clad, furnished, 3. 252.
Clene, adv. entirely, 3. 423.
Clepe, V. call, name, 3. 810, 814;
Clepeth, pr. s. I. 177; 3. 185 ;
5. 352; Cleped, pp. I. 159; 9.
1400.
Clere, adj. clear, noble, pure, g.
1575 ; pi. noble, 5. 77.
Clerkes, 5. pi. learned men, 4. 275.
Clew, I pt. s. rubbed, 9. 1702. Pt.
t. of clawen. Of. Low. Sc. clow,
to rub, scratch.
Clififes, s. pi. cliffs, rocks, 3. 161.
Clomb, I pt. s. climbed, 4. 271 ; 9.
1 1 18; Clamben, /)/. />/. 9. 2151.
Close, V. close, 3. 873.
Clowes,/)/, claws, 9. 1785.
Cofre, s, coffer, coffin, 5. 177-
Cok, s. cock, 5. 350.
Cokkow, s. cuckoo, 5. 498.
Colde, V. grow cold, 5. 145.
Colour, s. colour, outward appear-
ance, 2. 66.
Comen, ger. to come, 5. 76; Com,
pt. s. came, 3. 134; 5. 252,413;
Cometh, pr. s. as fid. shall come,
4. II ; Come, pr. s. snhj. 3. 78 ;
4. 65 ; Come, i pt. s. sribj. might
come, came, 9. 1906 ; Comen, pp.
come, 5. 98 ; Come, pp. 3. 135 ;
5- 36.
Commaundement, s. command,
9. 2021.
Comlinesse, s. comeliness, beauty,
3. 966.
Companye, s. companionship, 4.
219.
Compas, s. compass, circuit, 4.
137; a very large circle, 9. 798 ;
craft, contriving, 9. 462 ; Corn-
pace, plan, 9. II 70.
Compassed, pp. enclosed, 6. 21.
Complexiouns, pi. the (four) tem-
peraments, 9. 21. See note.
Compleyne, v. complain, lament,
4. 93 ; 2 pr. pi. siihj. 4. 280 ;
Compleyneth, imp. pi. lament ye,
4. 290.
Compleynt, s. complaint, a poem
so called, 2. 43 ; 3. 464 ; 4. 24,
150.
Compouned, pp. compounded,
composed, 9. 1029 ; mingled, 9.
2108.
Comprehended, pp. expressed in
a brief saying, summed up, 7- 83.
Comune, adj. accustomed to, 3.
812; Comun profit, the good of
the country, 5. 47, 75.
Conclusioun, s. plan, 14. 11 ; as
in conclusioun, after all, 4. 257.
Condicioun, s. condition, stipula-
tion ; in this condicioun, upon this
condition, 5. 407.
Confedred, pp. rendered confede-
rates, conjoined, 2. 42, 52.
Confermeth, imp. pi. confirm,
strengthen, 4. 20.
Confoiinde, v. destroy, i. 40.
Confus, adj. confused, 9. 1517-
Congeled, pp. congealed, frozen, 9.
1126.
Conne, ger. to be able, 3. 279 ;
pr. pi. are able, 5. 333 ; can, 3.
541 ; know, 9. 1265 ; i pr. pi.
know, 9. 335 ; Conne, pr. pi.
subj. may be able to, 9. 335.
Conservatif, adj. preserving ; Con-
servatif the soun, preserving the
sound, 9. 847.
Conserved, pp. preserved, 9. 732,
1 160.
Contraire, s. the contrary, 9. 1540 ;
Contrair, adversary, 2. 64.
Contrayre, adj. contrary, 3. 1290.
Contre-houses, pi. houses of his
country, homes, 7. 25. Lat.
dotnos patrias ; see note.
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
413
Convict, pp. convicted (of evil),
overcome, I. 86.
Conyes, />/. rabbits, conies, 5. 193.
Coper, s. copper, 9. 1487.
Coppe, s. hill-top, 9. 1 166.
Corage, s. mind, 3. 794.
Corbettes, />/. corbels, 9. 1304.
Cormeraunt, s. cormorant, 5. 362.
Comemuse, s. bagpipe, 9. 12 18.
F. comemuse.
Comes, pi. grains of corn, 9. 698.
Coroune, s. crcwn, 2. 58, 75 ; 3.
9S0.
Corps, s. dead body, 2. 19, 51.
Corseynt, s. a saint (Jit. holy Isody) ;
esp. a shrine, 9. 117. O.F. con
seint.
Corven, pp. cut, 5. 425 ; carved,
9. 1295.
Cote-armure, s. surcoat, 9. 1326.
Couched, pt. s. laid down, laid in
order, 5. 2 16. F. coucher, from
Lat. collocare.
Coude, pt. s. knew, 3. 667, 1012 ;
7. 63 ; coude no good, knew
nothing that was good, was un-
trained, 3. 390 ; pt. pi. knew, 3.
235 ; Coud, pp. known, 3. 787,
998. See Couthe.
Counsaile, imp. s. counsel, i. 155.
Counseyl, s. secret, 5. 34S.
Countenaunce, s. appearance,
show, II. 34; looks, appearance,
3. 613 ; shewing favour, 3. 1022.
Counterfete, v. render exactly,
repeat, 3. 1 241. See Coimtre-
fete.
Countour, s. arithmetician, 3. 435.
Countour, s. abacus, counting-
bciard, 3. 436.
Countrefete, v. counterfeit, copy,
9. 1 21 2; Countrefeted,/>/>. feigned,
3. 869. See Counterfete.
Countrepeise, v. cause to balance
each other, render equivalent, 9.
i7.=;o.
Cours, s. course, 4. 55, 114.
Couthe, I pt. s. knew, 3. 800;
could, 3. 759. See Coude.
Couthe, adv. in a known way,
manifestly, 9. 757.
Covenable, adj. fit, proper, 18.
Covercle, s. pot-lid, 9. 792. See
note.
Covetour, s. one who covets, 4.
262.
Covetyse, s. covetousness, 10. 32 ;
14. 18.
Coyn, s. coin, 10. 20.
Craft, s. art, 5. i.
Crafty, s. skilful, sensible, 3. 439.
Crampissheth, pr. s. draws con-
vulsively together, 7. 171. See
note. Cf. ' Deth crampishing
in-to their hert gan crepe ; ' Lyd-
gate. Fall of Princes, bk. i. c. 9.
Crane, s. crane, 5. 344.
Creat, adj. created, 16. 2.
Creature, s. creature, 3. 625.
Creaunce, s. credence, belief, i. 6t.
Creep, pt. s. crept, 3. 391.
Crevace, s. crevice, crack, 9. 2086.
Crips, adj. crisp, curly, 9. 13S6.
Crois, s. cross, I. 60. See Cros.
Crokke, 5. earthenware pot, 12. 12.
Croppes, s. pi. tops, 3. 424. A.S.
crop.
Cros, s. cross, i. 82. See Crois.
Croude, v. crowd, push, 9. 2095.
Croune, s. crown, head, 9. 1825.
Crouned, pp. crowned, i. 144.
Crow, s. crow, 5. 363.
Cubyte, s. cubit, 9. 1370.
Cukkow, s. cuckoo, 5. 35S, 603.
Cunne, v. be able, 9. 2004.
Cunning, s. skill, 5. 167, 487.
Cure, s. heed, care, 2. 82 ; 4. 171 ;
9. 464, 1298; remedy, cure, 5.
1 28 ; did his befy cure, was busily
employed, 5. 369 ; his lyves cure,
the object of his thoughts always,
4. 131.
Curiositee, s. intricacy, 18. 81.
Currours, pi. runners, couriers, 9.
2128.
Curtesye, s. Courtesy, 2. 68.
Curteyn, s. curtain, 5. 240.
D.
Dale, s. the dale, 5. 327.
Dampnacioun,s. damnation, i. 23.
Dampne, i pr. s. condemn, 11.
49 ; Dampned, pp. condemned, 3.
725-
414
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
Dan, s. as epithet of persons, Sir, 9.
137, 161, 175.
Dar, I pr. s. I dare, i. 53 ; 3.
904.
Daswed, pp. dazed, confused, 9.
658. Cf. E. daze.
Daunce, s. dance, set, 9. 639.
Daunceden, pt. pi. danced, 5. 232.
Daunger, s. Danger, Power to
Harm (personitied), 5. 136; 6.
16.
Daunte thyself, imp. s. subdue
thyself, 12. 13 ; Dauntest, 2 j!)r. s.
tamest, 5. 1 14.
Debat, s. struggle, mental conflict,
3. 1192.
Debonaire, adj. gracious, i. 6 ;
Debonair, 3. S60 ; Debonaire, as
s. kind person, 3. 624.
Debonairly,atfz». graciously, kindly,
3. 851, 1284; courteously, 3.
518; Debonerly, with kindness,
7. 127.
Debonairtee, s. graciousness, 21.
108 ; Debonairte, 3. 986.
Deceivable, adj. capable of de-
ceiving, full of deceit, 14. 3; De-
ceyvable, 18. 43.
Dede, s. dat. deed, i. 45 ; pi. deeds,
5.82.
Dede, ger. s. to grow dead, become
stupefied, 9. 552.
Deed, adj. dead, 2. 14; 3. 469,
588, 1 188, 1300; 5. 585 ; 9.
184; 16. 45; Dede, sluggish, 5.
187; Dede, pi. 4. 223; 5. 50;
ivith woundes dede, 3. 121 1.
Deel, s. share, part, bit, 9. 331 ; pi.
times, 21. 35. See Del.
Dees, s. dais, 9. 1360, 1658.
Defaute, s. lack, want, 3. 5, 25,
223 ; defect, 22. 56 ; fault (hunt-
ing term), were on a defaute
y-falle, had a check, 3. 384.
Defence, s. concealment, covering,
5- 273.
Del, s. part, bit, whit, 3. 937 ; share,
3. looi ; pi. times, 9, 1495 ; a
gret del, a great deal, very often,
3. 1159 ; never a del, not a whit,
3. 543. See Deel.
Delicacye, s. luxury, wantonness,
10. 58; Delicasye, 5. 359.
Delivere, ger. to let go away, set
free (after a legal decision has been
passed), 5. 508 ; Delivered, pp. ;
to ben delivered, to be let go (after
the sentence has been passed), 5.
491.
Delphyne, s. the constellation Del-
phin, or the Dolphin, 9. 1006.
Delyt, s. delight, 3. 606 ; Delight,
6- 224.
Delyte, v. delight, please, 5. 27 ;
refl. take pleasure, 5. 66 ; Delyte,
ger. to please, 7. 266.
Deme, v. judge, 13. 6; Demeth,
pr. s. passes an opinion, 5. 166.
Demeine, v. manage, 9. 959. O.F.
demener, to carry on, make.
Departe, v. part, separate, 7. 285 ;
Departen, /ir. /)/. sever, 4. 207.
Departinge, s. parting, separation,
departure, 5. 675.
Depeynted, pp. covered with paint-
ings, 3. 322; 4. 86.
Dere, adj. dear, 4. 147, 293 ; adv.
dearly, I. 86.
Derk, adj. dark, 3. 1 70 ; Derke, 3.
155 ; 5- 85 ; Derk, inauspicious,
4. 120; as sh. inauspicious posi-
tion, 4. 122. See note.
Derke, s. darkness, gloom, 3. 609.
Derked, />/). grown dim, 11. 36.
Descryve, v. describe, 9. 1 105.
Deserte, aJ;'. desert, lonely, 9.417.
Besespaired, pp. out of hope, m
despair, 21. 7.
Desolat, adj. desolate, 4. 286.
Despeired, pp. put in despair, 2.
91.
Desperacioun, 5. despair, i. 21.
Despitous, adj. hateful, 22. 12.
Despyte, s. disdain, 23. 18.
Destourbing,s.disturbance,trouble,
18. 44.
Destroubled, /)/>. disturbed, 3.524.
Determynen, 2 pr. pi. end, 9.
347-
Devyne, ger. to divine, to prophesy
(by), 5. 182 ; pr. s. subj. let (him)
guess, 9. 14.
Devys, adj. exact ; at point devys,
with great exactitude, 9. 917.
Devyse, ger. to tell, describe, 5.
3^8; Devyse, v. tell, 3. 901;
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
415
Devysen, 5. 333 ; Devyse, i /r. s.
say, 4. 18 ; Devyseth, />r. s. tells,
describes, 5. 317.
Deye, v. Jie, 5. 469, 5S4, 651 ;
Ker. I. 172 ; 3. 690.
Deyneth, impen.pr. s. ; ne deynetk
him, he deigns not, troubles not,
7. 181; her deyned, pt. s. she
deigned, 4. 39-
Deynte, s. value ; took lesse deynte
for, set less value on, 7. 143.
Diademe, s. diadem, crown of an
emperor, 13. 7.
Did, pt. s. made, caused, 5. 145 ; 7-
67 ; Dide, did, 3. 373 ; Dide of,
took off, 3. 516.
DiflFame, ger. to defame, rob of
fame, 9. 158 1.
DifFyne, ger. define, state clearly,
5. 529 ; Diffynen, 2 pr. pi. con-
clude, 9. 344.
Direct, adj. directed, addressed, iS.
Discomfiture, s. discomfort, grief,
7. 326.
Discryve, ger. to describe, 3. 916 ;
Discryven, v. 3. 897.
DiscTire, v. reveal, discover, 3.
549-
Disese, s. discomfort, misery, 4.
216, 277.
Disesperat, adj. hopeless, without
hope, 9. 2015.
Disflgurat, adj. disguised, 5. 222.
Dismalle, s. unlucky day, 3. 1206.
See note.
Disobeysaunt, adj. disobedient, 5.
429.
Disordinaunce, s. irregularity, vio-
lation of rules, 9. 27.
Dispence, s. favour, 9. 260.
Dispitouse, adj. fern, despiteful,
cruel, 3. 624. See Despitous.
Dispitously, adv. despitefully,
cruelly, 9. 161.
Disport, s. amusement, pastime,
sport, 4. 177; Disporte, 5. 260.
Disporte, ger. to cheer, amuse, 9.
571.
Dissever, pr. s. suhj. sever, 4.
49.
Disshevele, adj. pi. with hair
flowing down, 5. 235.
Dissimulacions, pi. dissimulations,
9. 687.
Dissiinulour, s. dissembler, 11. 23.
Distreyne, v. get into his grasp,
clutch, 20. 8 ; Distreyneth, pr. s.
grasps, clutches, 5. 337.
Disturbatince, 4. disturbance ; thy
di^turbaunce, the disturbance thou
hadst to endure, 4. 107.
Divers, adj. diverse, various, 3.
653-
Divisioim, s. ; of my dividoiin,
under my influence, 4. 273.
Do, V. make, 3. 145, 149 ; ger. 3.
1260; 5.420; 2 /T. />/. cause, 5.
651 ; hnp. s. 5. 458; pp. done,
3. 528, 562, 676, 680, 868;
ended, 5. 693. See Don.
Does, s. pi. does, 3. 429.
Doke, s. duck, 5. 498, 589.
Dolven, /)/>. buried, 3. 222.
Domb, adj. dumb, 9. 656.
Dome, «. sentence, decision ; her
dome, the decision passed on them,
5. 308 ; itonde to the dotne, abide
by the decision, 5. 546 ; opinion,
5. 480 ; 22. 52.
Domus Dedali, the labyrinth of
Daedalus, 9. 1920.
Don, V. do ; don her companye,
accompany her, 4. 125 ; pp. done,
5. 70 ; Done, ger. to do, to have
business with, 4. 234; what to
done, what is to be done, 3. 689.
See Do, Doon.
Donne, adj. dun-coloured, 5. 334.
Doon, ger. to make, cause, 7. 283 ;
to do, 3. 374; to force, 5. 221 ;
V. do, 3. 194 ; Doon, 2 pr. pi. do,
5. 542 ; Doth, pr. s. causes, 21.
21 ; makes, 2. 7; Doon, pp.
done, I. 54; past, ended, 3. 40,
708. See Do, Don.
Dorste, i pt. s. durst, might venture
to, 5- 541-
Dossers, pi. baskets to carry on the
back, 9. 1940. See note. From
F. dos, back.
Dotage, s. folly, 1 7. 8.
Doted, pp. as adj. doating, stupid,
17. 13. See Gloss, to P. PI.
Double, adj. two-faced, deceitful, 7.
87; 9.285.
4i5
GLOSS ARIAL INDEX.
Doucet, adj. dulcet, i. e. dulcet
(pipe), sweet-sounding (pipe), 9.
1 22 1. See note.
Doun, s. down, soft feathers, 10.
45 ; dat. Downe, 3. 250.
Doute, s. doubt, i. 25.
Doutremere, adj. from beyond the
seas, foreign, imported, 3. 253.
Douve, s. dove, 5. 341 ; Dowves,
pi. 3. 250 ; 9. 137 ; Doves, 5. 237.
Drake, s. drake, mallard, 5. 360.
Draughts, s. move at chess, 3.
682, 6S5 ; Draughtes, pi. 3. 653.
Drawe, pp. drawn, moved, 3. 682.
Drede, 5. dread, terror, fear, i. 42 ;
4. 28 ; fear of wrong-doing, 21.
30; uncertainty, 17. 28; doubt,
5- 52; 7- 303; 12. 7; withoute
drede, without doubt, 3. 1073,
1096 ; Dreed, doubt, 9. 292.
Drede, v. dread, fear, i. 76; 3.
1264; Dred, pr. s. fears, 7. 185 ;
Dred thee, imp. s. fear, 5. 157.
Dredful, adj. full of dread, timid,
5. 195, 638.
Dredles, adv. of course, without
doubt, 3. 1272 ; Dredeles, 3. 764.
Drenche, v. drown, 9. 205 ; 16.
12 ; Dreinte, pt. s. drowned, 3.
72 ; Dreynte, was drowned, 9.
923 ; Dreynt, pp. drowned, 3.
148 ; 4. 89 ; (pronounced rfr6->'n/,
in two syllables), 3. 195; Dreynte,
pp. pi. drowned, 9. 233.
Dress me, ger. address myself,
prepare, 5. 89 ; Dressed, pp. pre-
pared, 5. 665.
Dreye, adj. as s. dry, 5. 380.
Drof, pt. s. drove, 7. 190.
Dtow, pt. s. drew, moved (of the
sun), 5. 490; Drowe, 2 pt. s.
drewest ; drowe to record, didst
bring to witness, i6. 22.
Drunken, adj. causing drunkenness,
5. 181.
Drye, v. suffer, endure, 4. 251 ; 22.
32; 1 pr. s. 7. 333; 9. 1879;
pr. pi. 5. 251. A.S. dreogan.
Drye, adj. dry, 3. 1028 ; pi. dry,
without water (of the fish caught
at the mouths of rivers in weirs
which are covered with water from
half-flood to half-ebb, and are left
dry as the tide ebbs further), 5.
139-
"Dryve, v. drive ; dryve away, pass
away, 3. 49. See Drof.
Ducat, s. ducat, 9. 1348.
DuUe, adj. dull, without emotion,
5. 162 ; pi. dull, 3. 900.
Dure, V. last, i. 96; 5. 616; 22.
54 ; ger. 4. 20.
During, adj. enduring, lasting, 4.
228.
Durste, i pt. s. durst, 3. 929.
Dwells, ger. to tarry, delay, 9. 252 ;
V. remain, 4. 74.
Dye, V. die, 2. 7 ; Dyde, />/. s. died,
9. 106, 380 ; pt. pi. 5. 294.
Dyte, s. ditty, 23. 16 ; Dytees, pi.
9. 622.
E.
Ebbe, V. ebb, 11. 61.
Ech, adj. each, I. 136.
Eche, ger. to eke out, enlarge, add
to, 9. 2065.
Echoon, each one, 3. 695, 817 ;
Echon, 3. 335.
Eek, adv. eke, also, 2. 102.
Eest, adv. east, eastward, 3. 88.
Eete, 3 pl.pt. eat, 10. 11. See Ete.
Effect, s. deed, reality, il. 34 ;
Effectes, results to be brought
about, 4. 165.
Eft, adv. again, 4. 11 ; 7. 331 ; 9.
2037; ^7- ^j ^3! another time,
3-4I-
Eftsones, adv. hereafter again, 9.
359-
Egge, s, edge, sword, 10. 19.
Egle, s. eagle, 5. 330 ; 9. 499.
Elde, s. old age, long lapse of time,
7. 12; Eld, old age, 18. 76.
Eleccioun, s. choice, 5. 409,621.
Element, s. element, 3. 694.
Eles, pi. eels, 9. 2154; gen. pi.
eels', 5. 346.
EUes, adv. else, otherwise, 3. 997 ;
9. 23, 996.
Elm, s. elm, 5. 177.
Embosed,/i/>. become covered with
foam at the mouth, 3. 353. See
note.
Emeraude, s. emerald, 5. 175.
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
417
Emperesse, s. empress, 5. 319;
Emperice, 4. 285 ; 10. 55.
Enipryse,s. enterprise, undertaking,
3- 1093.
Enbrace, v. embrace, hold firmly,
15. II ; Enbraceth, /T. s. 4. 90.
Enbrowded, pp. embroidered, 9.
1327-
Enchauntement, s. enchantment,
witchcraft, 3. 648.
Enclyne, v. induce to do, 5. 325.
Encomberoiis, ndj. cumbersome,
oppressive, burdensome, 18. 42 ;
Eiicumbrous, 9. 862.
Encrese, v. increase, 2. 103 ; En-
cresed, pt. s. 5. 143.
Endelong, adv. along, 9. 1458.
Ending-day, s. death-day, 18. 55.
Endyte, ger. to compose, relate, 5.
119.
Endyting, ^ composing, 18. 77.
Enfortuned, pt. s. endowed with
powers, 4. 259.
Engendrure, i:. engendering, be-
getting, 5. 306.
Engyne, s. skill, craft, 9. 528.
Enlumined, pp, illuminated, i. 73.
Enmite, .«. enmity, 4. 236.
Enpresse, v. make an impression
on, 15. 8.
Eusample, s. example, pattern, 3.
911; 4. 296.
Entame, v. re-open (lit. cut into),
I. 79. O. F. e?itamer.
Entendemeut, s. perception, 9.
Entente, s. intent, intention, i. 11 ;
feeling. 5. 532, 5S0; do thyii in-
tent, give hied, 3. 752 ; Ententes,
pi. intended spells, 9. 1267.
Ententif, adj, intent upon, eager
10, 9. 1120.
Ententifly, adv. attentively, zeal-
ously, 9. 616.
Entitled, pp. named, 5. 30.
Entre, v. enter, 4. 53 : ger. 5. 147;
Entreth, imp.pl. 9. 1109.
Entrees, fl. entrances, 9. 1945.
Entremedled, pp. intermingled, 9.
2124.
Entremes, s. intervening course, 5.
665. ' Entremets, certaine choice
dishes served in between the course
of a feast;' Cotgrave. And see
Mess in my Etym. Diet.
Entremeten him, v. refl. interfere
in, middle with, 5 515. ^ S'en-
tremeUre de, to meddle, or deal
with ' ; Cotgrave.
Entryketh, pr. s. holds fast in its
subile grasp, ensnares, 5. 403.
* Intriqiier, to intricate, perplex,
pester, insnare, involve ' ; Cot-
grave.
Entunes, s. //. tunes, 3. 309.
Eavenyme, v. poison, 3. 641.
Envye, v. vie, strive, 3. 406 ; En-
vycn, vie (with), 9. 1231.
Envye, s. ; to envye, in rivalry, 3.
173. See note.
Er, prep, before, I. 39; conj. ere,
before, I. 16; 4. 14; Er that,
before, 2. 35.
Erande, s. errand, message, busi-
ness, 3. 134.
Ere, s. ear, 1. 115 ; Eres, //. 5.
500; 9. 13S9.
Ered, P'p. ploughed, 9. 485. A.S.
erian.
Erme, v. feel sad, grieve, 3. 80.
A. S. earmian.
Erraunt, adj. errant, stray (because
near the middle of the chess-
board), 3. 661.
Errour, s. doubt, uncertainty, 5.
146, 156; perplexity, 16. 7.
Erst, adv., first, at first, I. 87 ; be-
fore, 9. 1496; At erst, for the
first tinie, 4. 240.
Erthe, s. earth, i. 50; 5. 57.
Esehaunges, pi. exchanges, inter-
changings, 9. 697.
Ese, s. e.ise, solace, delight, 4. 63 ; do
you ese, give you pleasure, 21.
78.
Espye, V. espy, note, 7. 64 ; pr. s.
si,bj. see, 4. 105.
Estat, s. estate, position, rank, 5.
550; 18.58; Estaat, stateliness,
state, 2. 41 ; Estates, pi. ranks,
9. 1970.
Esy, adj. easy, 3. 1008 ; pleasant,
gentle, 5. 382.
Eten, pr. pi. eat, 5. 325 ; Ete, pt.
pl- ate, 3. 432; 10. 3; Eete, lo.
1 1 ; Eten, 10. 7.
E e
4i8
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
Eterne, adj. eternal, i. 56 ; 16. 8.
Evel, adv. ill, 3. 501.
Even, adv. evenly, aright, exactly,
3- 441 > 451 ; M even, actually, 3.
1329.
Ever in oon, constantly, con-
tinually, 2. 9.
Everich., each one, 5. 401.
Everichone, each one, 9. 337.
Evermo, adv. evermore, always,
continually, 3. 81, 604; 6. 36.
Everydel, adv. entirely, wholly,
every bit, 3. 222, 232, 698, 864,
880 ; exactly, 3. 1014.
Ew, s. yew, 5. 180.
Existence, s. reality, 9. 266.
Exorsisaciouns, pi, exorcisms,
spells to raise spirits, 9. 1263.
Experience, s. experiment, 9. 788.
Extorcioun, s. extortion, 14. 23.
Eyen, /)/. eyes, i. 88; 3. 841.
Eyrisshe, adj. of the air, aerial, 9.
932, 965-
Eyther, ad], either, 5. 125.
P.
Facound, adj. eloquent, fluent, 5.
521.
Facounde, 5. eloquence, fluency,
3.926; 5. 558.
Faculte, s. faculty, branch of study,
9. 248.
Fader, s. father, 1.52; Fadres, gen.
I. 130.
Fadme, s. pi. fathom(s), 3. 422.
A.S. fcedm ; the gen. pi. fcetima
was used in expressing length.
Fallen, v. fail, grow dim, 5. 85.
Faille, s. fail ; sauns faille, without
fail, 9. 188.
Faire Rewthelees, Fair Unpity-
ing One, La Belle Dame sans
Merci, 21. 31.
Faire, adv. fairly, well, 5. 503.
Fairnes, s. fairness, beauty, 4. 76.
Fal, s. fall in wrestling, 12. 16.
Falle, V. happen, 2. 23 ; Falles, /r.
s. belongs, 3. 257; Falle, pp.
fallen, 5. 406.
False, V. deceive, be untrue to, 3.
1234; Falsed, pt. s. betrayed, 7.
147.
Falwe-rede, adj. pi. yellowish
red, 9. 1936. A.S. fealo, pale
yellow.
Fames,/)/, famous people, 9. 1233.
Fantasye, s. imagining, 9. 992 ;
fancy, 9. 593 ; Fantasies, pi. fan-
cies, 3. 28.
Fantome, s. phantasm, kind of
dream, illusion, 9. 11 ; Fantom,
9- 493-
Fare, s. good speed, 9. 682; pro-
ceeding, stir, 9. 1065 ; evel /are,
ill hap, 2. 62.
Fare, ger. to fare, prosper, 5. 698 ;
X pr. s. I fare, it is with me (thus),
7. 320; Fareth, pr.s. happens, 9.
271 ; fares, is, 4. 263. See
Ferde.
Faste, adv. fast, 2. 19; close, near,
3. 369; 9. 497; hard, soundly,
.S- 94-
Fat, adj. fat, 6. 27.
Fattish, adj. plump, 3. 954.
Faucon, s. falcon, 5. 337.
Fanned, pi. s. fawned on, 3, 389,
Fayn, adv. gladly, 3. iioi.
Feblesse, s. feebleness, 9. •24,
Feendly, adj. fiendly, of a fiend, 3.
594-
Fees, s. pi. fees, contributions, pay-
ments, 3. 266.
FelawsMp, s. company, 3. 978.
Feld, s. field, 3. 3/^9.
Feldefare, s. fieldfare, 5. 364.
Fele, adj. many, 3. 400 ; 5. 329 ;
9-II37. 1381, 1946-
Fele, v. understand by experiment,
9. 826; Felte, 1 pi. s. felt, 4.
217; Feled, pi. s. 3. 492.
Felicitee, s. happiness, i. 13.
Feling, s. sentiment, hence love,
3. 1172.
Fenix, s. phoenix, 3. 982.
Fer, adv. far, 7. 338 ; koiv jer so,
however far, 5. 440.
Ferde, s. dat. (after/or) fear, terror,
3. 1214; 9.950.
Ferde, pt. s. fared, was, seemed, 3.
501, 967 ; 9. 1932 ; went on, 9.
1521; I pi. s. fared, felt, 3.99,
785; was placed, 5. 152. See
Fare.
Fere, s. fear, 3. 1209 ; 5. 143.
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
419
Fere, s. companion, mate, 5. 410,
416.
Ferforth, adv. far, 7. 90, 11 1, 132,
290; 9. 328, 1S82; 18. II; S.0
ferforth, to such an extent, I.
170; 5- 377-
Ferre, adv. comp. further, 9. 600.
See Fer.
Fers, s. queen (at chess), 3. 654,
655, 669,681, 741 ; Ferses, }'/.
the pieces at chess, 3. 723. See
notes to 3. 654, 723.
Ferse, adj. voc. fierce, 7. i.
Ferthe, ord. fourth, 9. 1690.
Ferther, adv. further, 5. 2S0.
Fesaunt, s. pheasant, 5. 357.
Feste, 5. feast, festival, 3. 974;
Maketh feste, pays court, flatters,
3. 638; Festes, pi. feasts, 3.
433-
Fether-bed, s. feather-bed, bed of
feathers, 3. 251.
"Fethxes, pi. feathers, 5. 334.
Feyn, adj. glad, 7. 315.
Feyne, v. feign, speak falsely, 2.4.
Feyned, adj. feigned, 4. 173.
Feyth, s. faith, 3. 632.
Fifte, ord. fifth, 16. 9.
Fight, pr. s. fighteth, 5. 103.
Figxire, s. shape, 16. 27.
Fikelnesse, s. fickleness, 14. 20.
Fil, //. i. fell, 3. 123 ; pt. s. inipers.
befell, 3. 1320; 4. 51; was fit-
t'"g. 3- 374; Fille, /)/./>/. fell, 9.
1659.
Fild, />/). filled, 5. 610.
Fille, s. fill, 21. 13.
Finnes, pi. fins, 5. 189.
Firr, s. fir, 5. 179.
Fix, pp. fixed, i. 9.
Flakes, fl. flakes, 9. 1192.
Flater, i pr. s. flatter, 4. 1S8.
Flatering, adj. flattering, 3. 637.
Flateringe, s. flattery, 3. 639.
Flaume, s. flame, 5. 250; Flaumbe,
9. 769; Flaunies, /^ I. 89.
Fie, V. flee, 4. 98 ; Fleen, i. 148 ;
4. 105 ; Fledde, pt. s. fled, 4.
119 ; Fleeth, imp. pi. flee, 4. 6.
Flees, i. fleece, lo. 18.
Fleigh, pt. s. flew, 9. 921, 2087;
Fleinge, pres. pt. flying, 9. 543.
Flete, I pr. s. float, 2. no; pr. s.
suhj. 7. 1S2 ; Fletinge, pres. p. 9.
133-
Flitting, adj. fleeting, unimportant,
3. 801.
Flour, s. flower; of alle floures
flour, flower of all flowers, I, 4;
flower, prime vigour, 3. 630.
Floureth, pr. s. comes forth into
flower, 7. 306.
Floute, A. flute, 9. 1223.
Flowen, pp. flown, 9. 905.
Flye, s. fly, 5. 501.
Folily, adv. foolishly, 4. 158.
Folk, s. sort, company, 5. 524;
Folkes, pi. companies of people, 5.
278.
Folwe, I pr. s. follow, 3. 585 ;
Folowed wel, followed as a matter
of course, 3. 1012.
Foly, s. folly, 3. 610, 737.
Foly, adv. foolishly, 3. 874.
Fond, pt. s. found, 2. 14, 45; 3.
1163 ; 4, 116; 7. 106; I pt. s.
3-451. 1325; 5-242; Fonde,/)/.
s. subj. could find, 5. 374.
Fonde, v. try, endeavour, 3. 1020,
1257, 1332; 5- 257- A."s./K«rf-
ian, confused with A. S.fandian.
More correctly founde ; see
Fovmde.
Foo, s. foe, 5. 339; Foos, pi. 2.
55 ; Foon, pi. 5. 103.
Fool, adj. foolish, 5. 505.
Fool - hardinesse, s. Foolish
daring, 5. 227.
Foot-brede, s. foot-breadth, 9.
2042.
For, prep, in respect of, 5. 336 ; in
spite of, notwithstanding, 3. 535,
688 ; For fear of, to prevent, 5,
468, 657 : For my dethe, were I
to die for it, for fear of my death,
4. 186 ; For to, with infill, to, 4.
94, et passim.
For, conj. because, 3. 735, 789 ; 4.
93; II. 5S; 22. 14.
Forbede, pr. s. subj. may forbid,
5. 582 ; Forbode, pp. forbidden,
16. 17.
Force ; no force, no matter, 18. 53.
See Fors.
Fordo, pp. destroyed, 2. 86.
Foresteres, s. pi. foresters, 3. 361.
E e 2
420
GLOSS ARIAL INDEX.
Forge, V. forge, fabricate, 5. 212.
Forgete,/)/). forgotten, 3. 410; 16.
46; Forgeten, 3. 413.
For-go, pp. overwalked, exhausted
with walking, 9. 1 15; lost, 4.
256.
Forloyn, s. note on a horn for
recall (see note), 3. 386.
Formel, s. companion (said of
birds), 5. 371, 373, 4i8> 445.
638. See note on 5. 371.
Formest, adj. sup. foremost, 3.
890.
Forpampred,/)/>. exceedingly pam-
pered, spoilt by pampering, 10. 5.
Fors, 5. matter, consequence, 5.
615; tio fors, no matter, never
mind, 3. 522 ; 9. 999; no fors of
me, no matter about me, 4. 197 ;
therof 710 fors, no matter for that,
never mind that, 3. 1170; I do
no fors, I don't care, 6. 31 ; I do
no fors therof, it is no matter to
me, 3. 542. And see Force.
Forsweringe, s. forswearing,
swearing falsely, 9. 153.
Forswor lam, pt. s. forswore him-
self, was forsworn, 9. 389.
Forth, adv. on, 5. 27 ; out, 5.
352-
Forth-right, adv. straight, directly,
9. 2061.
Fortuned, pt. pi. happened,
chanced, 3. 288; pp. endowed
by fortune, 4. 180.
For-waked, pp. weary through
w.Uching, exhausted for want of
sleep, 3. 126.
Forweped, pp. weary, exhausted
through weeping, 3. 126.
For-wery, adj. worn out with
weariness, very tired, 5. 93.
Forwes, /)/. furrows, 10. 12.
Forwhy, conj. because, 3. 461,
1257; 9- 553-
Forwot, pr. s. hath foreknowledge
of, 9. 45.
Foryete, v. forget, 3. 11 25.
For-yeve, v. forgive, 3. 1284;
Forgiveth, /)r. s. forgives, I. 139;
For-yive, imp. s. forgive, 3. 525 ;
For-yive, pp. forgiven, 7, 280 ;
given up, 3. 877 ; For-yeven, pp.
used absolutely, being forgiven, 5.
82.
Fot-hoot,flrfv. hastily, immediately,
3- 375-
Foudre, s. thunderbolt, 9. 535.
'■ Foudre, sXio foiddre, a thunder-
bolt' ; Cotgrave. From Lat.
fulgur.
Foul, s. bird, 4. 13; 5. 306;
Fouhs, pi. 4. I ; 5. 323; gen. pi.
of birds, 3. 295.
Foule, adv. foully, 3. 623; 5.
517-
Founde, v. seek after, 7. 241 ; i
p/r. s. try, endeavour, 7. 47. A.S.
fundian. See Fonde.
Foundement, s. foundation, 9.
1132.
Founden, pp. found, 3. 73.
Founes, s. pi. fawns, 3. 429. See
note.
Franchyse, 5. liberality, 18. 59.
O. F. franchise.
Fre, adj. noble, good, bounteous,
liberal, 3. 4S4 ; 4. 193 ; gracious,
3. 1055 ; as sb. noble one, 21.
104; Free, bountiful, i. 12.
Fredom, s. liberality, 4. 175, 294.
Frere, s. friar, 19. 19.
Frete, v. devour, swallow up, 7.
12 ; Freten, pp. devoured, 7. 13.
Fringes, pi. fringes, borderings, 9.
1318.
Fro, prep, from, 2. 116; 3.420;
4. 26; out of, 4. 254.
Frosty, adj. which accompanies
frost, 5. 364.
Fructifye, i'. produce fruit, 16. 48
Fugitif, adj. fleeing from, 9. 146.
FvlI, adv. very, quite, I. 150; 2
33; 4. 18; 5. 125.
Fulfild, pp. filled full, quite full, 5
89; 7. 42.
Fulle ; at the fulle, completely, 3
899. •
Fumigaciouns, pi. fumigations, 9
1264.
Furlong, s. furlong, hence time of
walking a furlong, one-eighth
part of twenty minutes, two
minutes and a half, "j. 328; Fur-
long-way, 9. 2064.
Further, v. help, 9. 2023.
GLOSS A RIAL INDEX.
42T
Furthering, s. helping, 5. .■',84 ;
Furtheringcs, />/. help, 9. 636.
Fy ! inter'], fie! 3. II I .v
Fyle, V. file, sinoothe by filing, 5.
212.
Fyn, s. end, 4. 218.
Fynde, pr. s. subj. can find, 5.
456.
Fyr-brand, s. firebrand, torch, 5.
114.
Fyre, s. fire, 3. 646.
Fyry, adj. fiery, 4. 27.
G.
Gabbe, i pr. s. speak idly, lie, 3.
1075-
Galantyne, s. a kind of sauce, 10.
16.
Galaxye, s. the galaxy, milky
way, 5. 56 ; 9. 936.
Galle, i. gall, 11. 35 ; Galles, pi.
feelings of envy, 10. 47.
Game, s. a jest, mere sport, 7.
279 ; sport, 22. 61.
Gan, pt. s. began, i. 133; 2. 19;
3. 70; 5- 144; ^"' cntnmonly
used as a mere auxiliary, did, 1.
93 ; 3. 865 ; 5. 247, &c. See
Gonnen, Gunne.
Garlondes, pi. garlands, 5. 259.
Gat, pt. 5. got, obtained, 7. 206.
Geaunt, s. giant, 5. 344.
Gebet, s. gibbet, gallows. 9. 106.
Gendres, /)/. kinds, 9. r8.
General, adj. with wide sympathies,
liberal, 3. 990.
Gent, adj. refined, exquisite, noble,
5. 55S. Short for gentil.
Gentil, adj. gentle, 5. 196; Gen-
tils, pi. s. people of gentle birth,
'the noble folk,' 7. 67.
Gentilesse, s. nobility of nature
and behaviour, courtesy, 2. 68 ;
4. 279; 18. 8.
Gentileste, adj. sup. most beau-
tiful, most delicate, 5. 373.
Gere, s. changeable manner, 3.
1257. Cf. gery, gerful, in the
Knightes Tale.
Gesse, i pr. s. suppose, 4. 195 ; 5.
160, 223.
Gest {g hard), s. guest, 9. 288.
Gestes (§• as j), pi. doings, deeds,
9. 1434, 151 5.
Gestiours {g as/), pi. story-tellers.
9. 1 1 98. Mod. 'E. jester.
Gete, 2 pr. pi. as fut. will get, 5.
651 ; Gete, pp. obtained, 4. 265.
A. S. gitan, pp. geten.
Gigges {g as j), pi. rapid move-
mtnts, 9. 1942. Cf. Mod. E. jig.
Gilden, adj. of gold, golden, 3.
338. A. S. gylden, gilden.
Gilt, s. guilt, I. 178.
Gilte, adj.pl. of gold, 5. 267.
Ginne, v. begin, attempt, 9. 2004.
Ginning, .■!. beginning 22. 80.
Girt, pr. s. girdeth, 4. 1 00. Short
for girdetk.
Glade, adj.pl. glad, 3. 601.
Glade, v. gladden, cheer, 3. 563 ;
ger. 3. 1 1 72; Gladen, ger. to re-
joice, 5. 687 ; Gladde, v. cheer,
relieve, 3. 702 ; Gladeth, imp.
pi. rejoice, 4. I.
Glareth, />r. s. glistens, 9. 272.
Glasing, s. glazing, 3. 327.
Glee, .V. glee, singing, joy, i. 100.
Glewe, V. fasten, glue, 9. 1761.
Glorifye him, v. boast himself, 9.
II34-
Glose, s. commentary ; and then
margin (see note\ 3. 333.
Glotonye, s. gluttony, 5. 362.
Glotoun, s. glutton, 5. 610, 613.
Glyde. v. glide, 4. 53.
Gnodded, pt. pi. rubbed, 10. 11.
See note.
Go, pp. gone, 3. 387. See Goon.
Goddes, /)/. gods, 3. 1328.
Gode, adj. fern. s. good, 3. 948.
Gold-bete, adorned with beaten
gold, gilt, 7. 24.
Golee, s. gabble, lit. mouthful, 5.
556. See note.
Gonne, s. gun, cannon, 9. 1643.
Gonnen, pt. pi. began, 5. 531 ; as
aux. did, 9. 944, 21 lO. See Gan.
Goodely, adv. kindly, 3. 1283.
Goodlihede, s. goodliness, 3. S29;
Goodliheed, goodly seeming, 9.
330; a goodly outside, 9. 274.
Goon, V. go, 3. 145 ; pr.pl. 5. 102.
Goos, s. goose, 5. 358 ; Gooses,
gen. goose's, 5. 586.
423
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
Goshauk, s. goshawk, 5. 335.
Gost, s. spirit, soul, i. 56 ; 1 2. 20 ;
Spirit, I. 93 ; dat. Goste, 13. 10.
Goth, /T. s. goes, I. 68.
Governaunce, s. control, 4. 44,
110; 5. 3S7 ; care, 3. 1286;
self-control, 2. 41 ; 3. looS ; 18.
9; 21. 30.
Governeresse, s. fern, governor,
ruler, mistress, I. 141 ; 2. 80.
Grace, s. grace, honour, distinction,
5. 45 ; harde grace, hard favour,
displeasure, severity, 5. 65 ; 9.
1586.
Grame, s. grief, sorrow, 7. 276.
A. S. grama, anger.
Graunges, pi. granges, barns, gra-
naries, 9. 698.
Graunt mercy, many thanks, 3.
560; 9. 1874. E. gramercy.
Graunteth, imp. pi. grant, 5. 643.
Grave, ger. to engrave, 23. 5 ;
Graven, pp. engraved, gaven, 9.
193; Grave, 9. 157, 253, 256.
Gre, s. good will, 18. 73. F. gre.
Greet, adj. great, 3. 947, 954. See
Grete.
Grene, adj. green, fresh, 6. 5 ;
moss-covered, 5. 122 ; as s. gretn
clothing (the colour of incon-
stancy), 15. 7.
Grreses, pi. grasses, 9. 1353-
Grete, adj. as s. ; The grete, the
chief part, essential part, sub-
stance, 3. 1242; 5. 35. See
Greet.
Grette, i //. s. greeted, 3. 503.
Grevaunce, s. grievance, complaint
(against us), I. 63; discomfort,
5. 205; affliction, II. 47.
Greves, s.pl. groves, 3. 417.
Grevous, adj. grievous, i. 20.
Grint, pr. s. grindeth, 9. 1 798-
Short for grindeth.
Grisel, s. name given to an old
man, whose hair is gray (lit. old
horse), 16. 35. O.F. gris, gray.
Godefroy gives O. F. grisel, gray;
also, a gray horse.
Grisly, adj. terrible, awful, 7. 3.
Grobbe, v. dig, grub up, 10. 29.
Grome, s. man ; grome and wenche ,
man and woman, 9. 2o5.
Grond, pt. s. ground, 10. 15.
Guerdoning, s. reward-giving, re-
ward, 5. 455.
Guerdoun, 5. reward, 9. 619.
Gunne, /)/./)/. anx. did, 5. 193, 257,
283. See Gan.
Gyde, s. guide, wielder, 5. 136,
Gye, V. guide, 7. 340 ; imp. s. •j.6;
9. 1092. O. F. guier.
Gyle, s. guile, 3. 620.
Gyse, s. guise, manner, 5. 339.
H.
Habitacles, />/. niches, 9. 1194.
Haboundance, s. plenty, 11. 29.
Haboundinge,/>res.//. abounding,
I-I35-
Hacking, 5. cutting out, 9. 1304.
Hale, V. draw, attract, 5. 151 ;
Haleth,/ir. s. draws back, I. 68.
Half, 5. side, 9. 11 36; Halfe, dat.
5. 125 ; on my halfe. from me, 3.
139; a goddes halfe, for God's
sake, 3. 370, 758.
Hals, s.neck, 5. 458 ; 9. 394. A. S.
heals.
Halt, pr. s. holdeth, holds, 6. 16;
performs, 3. 621 ; considers, 9.
630 ; remains firm, 11. 38.
Halt./r. s. halts, goes lame, 3. 622.
Halve, adj. pi. half, 23. 2.
Halwes, s. pi. saints (apostles), 3.
831.
Hamers, //. hammers, 3. 11 64.
Han, V. have, 3. 395 ; i pr. pi. i.
32; 2 pr. pi. 3. 1127; 4. 16;
pr. pi. I. 20; 4. 223.
Hap, s. chance, luck, 5. 402 ; for-
tune, good fortune, 3. 1039 ; hap
other grace, a mere chance or a
special favour, 3. 810; Happes,
pi. occurrences, 3. 1279-
Happeth. me, impers. pr. s. it
happens to me, 5. 10; Happed,
pt. s. chanced, befell, 4. 142.
Hardily, adv. surely, certainly, 9.
359; Hardely, unhesitatingly, 21.
118; certainly, 3. 1 043.
Harpe, 5. harp, 9. 773.
Harpe-stringes, pi. harp-strings,
9- 777-
Haste her, ger. hasten, 4. 56.
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
433
Hat. 5. hat, 5. 589.
Hauberk, s. coat of mail, 4. 97 ;
10. 49.
Hauteyn, adj. proud, stately, 5.
262. Hence E. haughty.
Haven, s. haven, 7. 20.
Haveth, imp. pi. have, 9. 325 ;
Have doon, make an end, 5. 492.
Ha'wes, //. hips and haws, 10. 7-
He — he, this one — that one, 5.
166.
Heed, s. head, 2. 24 ; 3. 628 ; 4.
205; 9. 1021 ; source, 16. 43;
Hede, head, 4. 220 ; Hedes, pi. 5.
215. See Heved.
Heer, 5. hair, 3. 456, 855.
Heer, adv. here, 5. 57> ^3-
Heer-biforn, adv. herebefore, be-
fore now, I. 34.
Heet, pt. s. was named, 3. 200,
948 ; 9. 1604. See notes to 4.
185; 17- 5- ■
Hele, s. health, healing, recovery,
well-being, I. 80; 3. 1039; 5. 128.
Helen, f. heal, 6. 4; Hele, 3. 571.
Helle, s. gen. of hell, 3. 1 71.
Helpe, pr. s. subj. may help, 3.
550; 4. 141.
Hem, f>roH. them, 3. 11 70; 4.
202; Hem-self, themselves, 5. 234.
Heng, pt. s. hung, 3. 122, 461,
729; 5. 282; 9. 394; ipt.s. 3.
1 216; Henge, pt.pl. 3. 174.
Hennesforth, adv. henceforth, 9.
782.
Hente, pt. s. caught, took, 4. 97 ;
5. 120, 154 ; 9. 2028.
Hepe, s. heap, number, 3. 295.
Her, her, 5. 304, 305, 371; dat.
to her, 3. 1226 ; 4- 39 ; for her,
4. 293. See Here.
Her, pron. poss. their, 3. 174, 175,
176, 404, 1086; 4. 205, 220,
221 ; 5. 9, 82, 191, 294, 308,
48S, 530, 668.
Her bothe, gen. pi. of both of
them, 4. 52.
Heraude, ger. to herald, proclaim
as a herald does, 9. 1576.
Heraudes, />/. heralds, 9. 1321.
Her-before, adv. previously, 3.
1302; a while ago, 3. 1 136; Her-
beforn, 3. 1304.
Her-by, adv. hence, 9. 263.
Herde,/)/. s. heard, 3. 180 ; 5. 200;
Herd, pp. 3. 129.
Herde-gromes, pi. servants who
look after the herds, herdsmen, 9.
1225, -
Here, v. hear, i. 31; 3. 94; 5.
467; 9. 1828; Herestow, for
Herest thow, hearest thou, 9. 1031,
1862.
Here, adv. here, in this place, on /
this spot, 3. 93. See Heer.
Here, pron. her, 7. 120. See Her.
Heres, pi. hairs, hair, 3. 394 ; 5.
267 ; 9. 1390. See Heer.
Herkene. v. hearken, 3. 752.
Heried, pp. praised, 9. 1405. A.S.
heriari.
Heritage, s. inheritance, 2. 89 ;
gen. of (your) inheritance, 2. 71-
Herkneth, imp. pi. hearken, hear,
5. 564; 9. 109.
Hermyte, s. hermit, 9. 659.
Heroune, s. heron, 5. 346.
Herse, s. hearse, 2. 15, 36. See
note.
Herselven, ace. herself, 4. 11 8.
Hert, s. hart, 3. 351 ; 5. 195.
Herte, s. heart, i. 12 ; courage, 3.
1222; gen. 1 . 1 64 ; 4. I 24 ; myn
hertes, of my heart, 4. 57. A.S.
heorta, gen. heortan.
Herte, pt. s. hurt, 3. 883 .
Hertely, adv. heartily, earnestly,
3. 1226; truly, 3. 85.
Heste, s. behest, command, 7. 119.
Hete, s. heat, 4. 88; passion, 4. 127.
Hete, V. promise, vow, 3. 1226;
21. 77; Hette, /^ s. promised, 4.
185 (see note).
Hette, pt. s. heated, inflamed, 5.
145-
Heved, 5. head, 9. 550. See Heed.
Hevene, s. gen. heaven's, of heaven,
1. 24, 5. 72 ; Hevenes, 4. 29.
Hevenish, adj. of the heavens, of
the spheres, 4. 30; heavenly, 9.
Hevinesse, s. sadness, 3. 601 ; 4.
163.
Hevy, adj. sad, 4. 12.
Hewe, s. hue, colour, complexion,
3. 497 ; 5. 258 ; 7. 145,
424
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
Hewed, />/. coloured, of hue, 3.
905-
Heyre, s. heir, 3. 168.
Heysugge, s. hedge-sparrow, 5.
612. k.'S,. hegei-^ugze {yoz^.
Hider, adv. hither, 4. 165.
Hidous, adj. dreadful, i. 132.
Hight, pr. 5. is called, is named, 2.
70 (see note), g. 663; 21. 27;
Highfe, pt. s. was called, 3. 63,
65; Hight, />/>. 9. 226.
Highte, 1 pt. s. promised, 17. 5.
Eild, pt. s. bent, inclined, 3. 393.
A. S. heldan, to incline ; pt. t.
helde. Apparently contused with
A. S. healdan, to hold, pt. t. heold.
Him-selven, ace. himself, 4. 98.
Hires, hers, 5. 482, 588.
His, its, I. 178.
Hit, pron. it, 2. J17; 3. 30S, &c.
Hode, s. dat. hood, 9. 1810.
Hoke, 5. hook, 4. 243.
Holde, V. keep to ; do than holde
here, keep to it then, 3. 754 ;
Holde,/!/). held, esteemed, 14. 10;
forced, 3. 1078 ; bet for the have
holde, better for thee to have held,
5- 572-
Hole, s. hole, 3. 943.
Holm, 5. holm, evergreen oak, 5.
178.
Holsom, adj. wholesome, healing,
5. 206.
Honde, s. dat. hand ; to holde in
hande, delude with false hopes, .:;.
1019 ; oath (lit. hand), 936 ;
Honde, s. dat. hand, 3. 936. ' The
Americans are still among the
" savage nations " who " imply a
solemn assent to an oath " by
holding up the hand ' ; Lowell's
Mv Study Windows (Library of
Old Authors).
Hongen, v. hang, be hung, 5. 458.
See Heng.
Honour, s. one who is an honour
to others, 4. 288.
Honoure, v. honour, 18. 23;
Honouren, imp. pi. 4. 3.
Hoodless, adj. without a hood, 3.
1028.
Hool. adj. whole, restored to health,
3- 553 ; whole, all, ejitire, 3.
554. 1224; 23. 13; adv. wholly,
3. 991 ; 21. 60 ; 22. 87.
Hoolly,a(fy.wholly,3. 15, 115,688.
Hoom, adv, home, 3. 1029.
Hoot, adj. as s. hot, 5. 380. A.S.
htlt. See Hote.
Herd, s. hoarding, 12. 3.
Here, adj. hoary, grav-headed, 16.
31-
Horowe, adj. pi. foul, scandalous,
4. 206. See note.
Hots. s. pi. horses, 3. 349 ; 9. 952.
A. S. hors, pi.
Hors, adj. hoarse, 3. 347.
Plostel, s. hostelry, 9. 1022.
Hote, adj. def. voracious (lit. hot),
5. 362 ; pi. hot, 5. 246. See
Hoot.
Hote, I pr. s. command, 9. 1 719.
A. S. hdtan.
Hottes, pi. baskets carried on the
back, 9. 1940. See note.
Htimblesse, s. humility, meekness,
I. loS ; 4. 178; 7. 2'48.
Humbling, s. low growl (lit. slight
humming), 9. 1039.
Hunte, .<;. hunter, 3. 345 ; Huntes,
^'• 3-361, 541.
Hunteresse, s. fern, huntress, 9.
229.
Hye, ger. to hasten, 9. 1658;
Hyed hem, refl.pt.pl. hastened,
3. 363 ; Hy thee, imp. s. hasten,
3- 152; 5- 133-
Hye, adj. high, i. 37; 4. 22;
Hyer, comp. 9. 1 1 1 7 ; H3-est,
snperl. 5. 324.
Hye, adv. high, 4. 218; loudly, 3.
183; 5.499.
Hyene, s. hyaena, 11. 35.
Hynde, s. hind, 3. 427 ; 5. 195.
Hynesse, s. Highness (as a title),
21. 76.
Hyre, .<;. hire, reward, i. 103; 5. 9.
Hyve, s. hive, 9. 1522.
lalous, adj. jealous, 5. 342, 458.
See lelous.
lalousye, 5. Jealousy, 5. 252. See
lelosye.
langler, s. prater, babbler, 5. 457.
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
425
langles, />/. prating;, babblings, 9.
i960,
langling, adj. jangling, prating, 5.
lape, s. jest, mock, or laughing-
stock, 9. 414; lapes, />/. jests, 9.
1S05.
lasper, s. jasper, 5. 230.
lay, s. jay, 5. 346.
lelpsye, j. jealousy, 4. 7. See
lalousye.
lelous, adj. jealous, suspicious, 4.
1 40. See lalous.
leupardies, s. pi. problems (at
chess), 3. 666. Lit. ' jeopardies.'
I-halowed, />/>. view-hailooed, (of
the hart), 3. 379.
like, ad], same, 4. 66 ; 5. 433.
In, frep. into, 20. 6.
In-fere, adv. together, 4. 290 ; 9.
250 ; 23. 6.
Inly, adv. inwardly, greatly, 9. 31 ;
wholly, exquisitely, 3. 276.
In-mid, prep, into, amid, 9. 923.
Intresse, s. interest, 11. 71. See
note. Cf. ' The soyle enbrouded
ful of somer-floures There wedes
wycke hnd none interesse ' ; Lyd-
gate, Fall of Princes, bk. i. c. I.
Invocacioun, .<;. invocation, 9. 67.
logelours, pi. jugglers, 9. 1259.
lolytee, s. jollity, merriment, hap-
piness, 9. 6S2; lolyte, 5. 226;
lolitee, Joviality, 2. 39.
lO'wes, pi. cheeks, hence heads, 9.
1786. '■ loue, the cheek, the
jowle ' ; Cotgrave.
loye, s. joy, 4. 223.
loyued, pt. s. joined, let (his ears)
touch one another, 3. 393.
luge, 5. judge, 1. 134; 5. loi.
luge, I pr. s. judge, decide, 5. 524 ;
luged, /./). 9. 357.
lustyse, s. justice, judge, 1. 37 ;
judgment, condemnation, 1. 142.
I-wis, adv. certainly, truly, 21. 48.
A.S. gewis, adv.
Kalenderes, «. //. calendars, 1 .
Karf. pt. s. cut, 10. 21. A. S. cearf,
pt. t. of ceorfan. See Kerve.
Keep, 5. heed, care, 7. 135.
Kek ! int. (represents the cackle of
a goose), 5. 499.
Kembe.^er. to comb, 9. 136. A. S.
cemhan.
Ken, s. kin, kindred, men, 3. 438.
See note.
Kene, adj. keen, eager, 15. 6.
Kene, adv. keenly, 6. 3 ; 21. 63.
Kenne, v. perceive, discern, 9. 498.
Kepe, s. heed, care, note, 3. 6, 128.
See Keep.
Kepen, i pr. pi. care, 9. 1695.
Kerchief, s. kerchief, finely woven
loose covering to throw over one,
5. 272.
Kerve, ger. to cut, 5. 217 ; Karf,
pt. s. 10. 21. A.S. ceorfan.
Kervings, />/. carvings, 9. 1302.
Kevered, />/). covered, 5. 271; 9.
275, 3:2.
Keye, .'. key, 7. 323.
Kid, pp. known, 10. 46. Pp. of
kythen, A. S. cySan.
Kinges, .";. gen. of the king, 3.
282.
Kinnes, s. gen. kind's ; alle.<i hinnes,
of every kind, 9. 1530.
Kirtels, //. kirtles, 5. 235. Kirtle,
'jacket with petticoat attached to
it '; Schmidt, Shakspeare Lexicon.
Knakkes, .<:. pi. knick knacks, con-
temptible trifles, 3. 103^.
Knelest, 2 pr. f. kneelest, 16. 43.
Knette, v. knit, join, 4. 183 ; 5.
438 ; Knet, pp. knitted, fixed, 5.
628; Knit, joined in love, 4. 50.
Knokkeden, p)t. pi. beat, knocked
for admission, 4. 84.
Knowen, v. know, 3. 1 20 ; Knewe,
pt. s. subj. mig it know, 3. 1 133 ;
were to know it, 4. 204 ; //. n)ay
have known, 2. 31 ; Knowe, pp.
known, discerned, 3. 666, 976;
Knowen, 9. 1736.
Knowing, .<;. knowledge, 3. 960.
Knowleching, s. knowing, know-
lei'ge, 3. 796.
Kukko'w ! itit. cuckoo ! 5. 499.
Kunninge, 5. skill, 5. 513.
Kynd,s. nature, natural disposition,
7. 149 ; Kynde, nature, 3. 16 ; the
natural world, 9. 5S4; Kyndc,
4z6
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
dat. nature, 4. 282 ; 5. 672 ; 21.
2; kind, species, 5. 174, 311,
360; 5.450; natural disposition,
9. 43 ; natural ordinance, 3. 494,
512; Kyndes, />/. sort?, 9. 204.
Kyndly, adj. natural, 9. 730 ;
Kyndely, 3. 761 ; Kyndeliche, 9.
829.
Kyndly, adv. in accordance with
what is natural, naturally, 2, 71;
Kyndely, by nature, 3. 778.
Kyte, s. kite (bird), 5. 349.
Kythe, v. make known, declare to
be, 7. 22S ; Kythen, shew, 1 1. 63 ;
Kythe, imp. s. display, make
known, 9. 528; Kytheth, inzp./i/.
display, 4. 298. A. S. cy'San.
Lace, s. snare, entanglement, 18.
50. Cf. ' Ge qui estoie pris ou
laz Oh Amors les amans enlace ' ;
Rom. de la Rose, 15310.
Ladde, pt. s. led, 3. 365 ; brought,
7- 39-
Lady, s. gen. of (my) lady, 3. 949.
Lak,s. lack, defect, 3. 958; 7. no;
blame, 22. 57; Lakke, dat. 5.
87, 615.
Lakketh, pr. s. impers. lacks ; me
lakketh, I lack, 3. 898.
Lambish, adj. gentle as lambs, 10.
Lapidaire, a treatise on precious
stones, 9. 1352. See note.
Lappeth, pr. s. enfolds, embraces,
4. 76. (_For wlappeth).
Lapwing, s. lapwing, peewit, 5. 347.
Large, adj. liberal, free, 3. 893 ; at
his large, free to move, 9. 745.
Large, adv. liberally, i. 174.
Largesse, 5. liberalitj', generosity
of heart, 7. 42 ; liberal bestower,
I- 13 ; Larges, largesse, 9. 1309.
Lasse, adv. less, 3. 927 ; 21. 105 ;
Las, 3. 675.
Lasshe, 5. lash, 5. 178.
Laste, V. endure, 4. 226; Last, pr.
s. lasteth, 5. 49 ; Laste, pt. s.
lasted {the swogh me laste = my
swoon lasted), 2. 16 ; pi. pi. 3.
177.
Laste ; at the laste, at last, 3.
364-
Lat, imp. s. let, i. 79, 84; lat he,
give up, 9. 992.
Lathe, s. barn, 9. 2140. Icel.
hla^a.
Laude, s. praise, 9. 1575, 1673;
Laudes, pi. 9. 1322.
Launce, v. fling themselves about,
rear, 9. 946.
Launde, 5. a grassy clearing (called
dale in 1. 327), 5. 302.
Laure, s. laurel, 9. 1107. Lat.
laiirus.
Laurer, s. laurel, 5. 182 ; 7. 19, 24.
O. F. laurier, lorier, as if from
Lat. * laurariiim.
Laurer-crouned,/)/). crowned with
laurel, 7. 43.
Lay, s. song, lay, 3. 471 ; 18. 71.
Leche, s. leech, healer, i, 134;
physician, 3. 920.
Lecherous folk, carnal sinners,
answering to Dante's ' i peccator
carnali,' 5. 79.
Leed, s. lead (metal), 9. 739, 1448,
1648; dat. Lede, 9. 1431.
Leef, adj. dear, 3. 8 ; pleasant ;
that leef me were, which I should
like, 9. 1999.
Leek, s. leek, 9. 1708.
Lees,//, lies, 9. 1464.
Lees, s. leash, snare, 7. 233. O. f.
laisse, Lat. laxa, a loose rope.
Lees, pt. s. lost, 9. 1414. A. S
leas, pt. t. of leosan.
Leet, pt. s. let, allowed, 9. 243.
A. S. let, pt. t. of l(£tan.
Lefe, adj. fern. voc. dear, 9. 1827.
Lene, adj. lean, 6. 28.
Lenger, adv. comp. longer, 2. 95
(see note) ; 5. 453, 657.
Lengest, adv. sup. longest, 5.
549-
Lengthe, s. length ; upon lengthe,
after a long run, 3. 352.
Leping, pres. p. running. 9. 1823.
Lere, v. (i) teach, 9. 764; pr. pi.
teach, 5. 25; (2) learn, 9. 1997,
2026 ; ger. 9. 511. A. S. iSran,
to teach.
Lered, adj. learned, 5. 46. A. S.
Ickred.
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
427
Lese, V. lose, 5. 402 ; les,e vie, lose
myself, be lost, 5. 147 ; Leseth,
pr. s. loses, 3. 33 ; 2 fr. pi. lose,
15. 19. See Lees.
Lese, s. pasture, 9. 1768. See
Specimens of English, Part II.
(Glossary). A. S. Icesu.
Lesing, s. lie, 9. 2089 ; Lesinge,
lying, 9. 1 54 ; Lesinges, pi. lies,
9. 676; lying reports, 9. 2123.
A. S. h'aiung.
Lessoun, 5. lesson, 4. 33.
Lest, s. pleasure, 3. 908 ; inclina-
tion, 9. 287.
Lest, pr. s. hnpers. ; Thee lest, it
pleases tliee, 5. 1 14 ; Leste, pt. s.
subj. might please, 9. 282 ; Her
leste, it should please her, 5. 551.
Leste, adj. svperl. as s. least, the
least one, 3. 283 ; At the leste, at
least, 4. 19, 24.
Lete, V. leave, quit, i. 72 ; omit,
depart from, 5. 391 ; Lete of,
ger. to leave off, 18. 52 ; Lete,
I pr. s. leave, 5. 279; 7. 45;
Let,/r. s. lets go, repels, 5. 151 ;
Leten (goon),^ pp. let (go), 9.
1934. A.S. latan.
Lette, ger. to hinder, 9. 1954 ; v.
cease, 4. 186 ; 5.439; Lette.//.
s. stopped, waited, 9. 2070. A. S.
letlan.
Letter, s. letter, reading, 3. 788.
Leve, V. believe, 5. 496 ; ger. to be
believed, 9. 70S ; I pr. s. 3. 691 ;
imp. s. 3. 1047, 1 148; Leveth,
imp.pl. believe, 21. 88.
Leve, V. leave, let go, 3. nil ; go
away, 5. 1 53 ; I pr. s. leave, 2.
50; Leveth, imp. pi. leave, 21.
118.
Leve, s. leave, 4. 9, 153.
Leve, adj. voc. dear, 9. Si 6.
Lever, adv. comp. rather, 17. 1 3.
Leves, pi. leaves, 5. 202.
Levest, sup. dearest, most desirable,
9.87.
Leveth, pr. s. remains, 3. 701.
Levinge, pr. pi. living, 22. 2.
LeAwed, adj. ignorant, 5. 46, 616.
Lewednesse, s. ignorance, ignorant
behaviour, 5. 520 ; II. 68.
Leye, v. lay, 4. 205 ; Lcyde, pt. s.
laid, 3- 394; 9- 260; Leyd, pp.
fixed, 3. 1146; set, 3. 1036.
Leyser, s. leisure, 3. 172 ; 5. 464,
4S7.
Liche, adj. like, similar, 7. 76.
Light, adj. easy, 5. 554.
Lighte, V. descend, 9. 508.
Lighted, pp. lighted up, brightened,
1.74.
Lightly, adv. readily, 4. 205.
Likerous, adj. lecherous, 10. 57.
Lilting-horne, s. horn to be played
for a lilt, 9. 1223.
Limme, s. dat. limb, 3. 499.
Lisse, V. soothe, 21.6; pr. s. subj.
may alleviate, 3. 210.
Lisse, s. cessation, assuaging, 9.
220; alleviation, solace, 3. 1040.
A. S. liss.
List, pr. s. it pleases, i. 172; ■;.
44I ; 7- 231 ; is pleased, likes to,
16. 35 ; me list right evel, I was
in no mind to, 3. 239 ; you list, it
pleases you, II. 77 ; Listeth,/>r. s.
pleases, is pleased, 9. 5x1 ; her
lisle, it pleased her, she cared, 3.
878, 962 ; 7. 190 ; him liste, he
wanted, 4. 92.
Listes, pi. wiles ; in his listes, by
means of his wiles, I. 85.
Litel of, small in, deficient in, 5.
513-
Litestere, s. dyer, 10. 1 7. From
Icel. litr, colour, dye.
Lith, s. limb, 3. 953. A. S. US.
Lofte, s. dat. air ; on lofte, in the
air, 9. 17-^7-
Loking, s. manner of looking, gaze,
3. 870; examining, 5. no;
aspect (astrological), 4. 51.
Longe, adv. long, 4. 172.
Longe, pi. adj. long, high, 5. 230.
Longeth, />r. s. belongs. 13. 5.
Loos, s. praise, 9. 1621, 1626,
1722, 1817, 1900.
Loos, adj. loose, 5. 570.
Lordeth, /r. s. rules over, 4. 166.
Lore, 5. dat. lore, learning, profit,
5- 15-
Lore,/'/, lost, 2. 77 ; 3. 748, 1135 ;
Lorn, 2. 21 ; 3. 565, 685. A.S.
loren, pp. of liofan.
Los, s. loss, 3. 1302.
428
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
Loses, pi. praises ; til her lose?, for
their praises, in praise of them, 9.
168S. See Loos.
Losinges, pi. lozenges, 9. 1317.
Loth, adj. loath, 3. 8 ; loathsome,
22. 71 ; Lothe, pi. 3. 5S1.
Loude, adv. loud!}', 3. 344.
Loured, pp. frowned, 9. 409.
Lous, adj. loose, free, 9. 1286.
See Loos.
Loute, V. bow, bend, 9. 1704. A. S.
lutati.
Love-dayes, pi. appointed days of
reconciHatioa, 9. 695. See Ch.
Prologue.
Loven, ger. to love, 4. 48.
Lust, s. pleasure, joy, delight, I.
106 ; 2. 39 ; 3. 68S, 1038 ; 4.
38; 14. 9; desire, 3. 273; 15.
6 ; will, 4. 63 ; Luste, dat.
pleasure, 5. 15 ; Lustes, pi. plea-
sures, things which ordinarily give
me pleasure, 3. 581.
Luste, impers. pt. s. it pleased (her),
3. 1019.
Lustely, adv. cheerfully, merrily,
2. 36.
Lustihede, s. cheerfulness, 3. 27.
Lusty, adj. chterful, glad, pleasant,
4-151; 5- 130.
Lye, 2 pr. pi. lie, recline, 4. 5.
Lye, 5. lie, 9. 292 ; Lyes, pi. 9.
2129.
Lyen, v. tell lies, 3. 631 ; ger. 3.
812.
Lyes, pi. lies, 9. 1477.
Lyes,//, lees, dreg-, 9. 2130. F.
lie, ' the lees, dregs ' ; Cotgrave.
Lsrf, s. life, I. 72.
Lyk, adj. like, 4. 237.
Lyke, ger. to please, 9. 860 ; pr. s.
subj. may please, may be pleas-
ing, I. 139; Lyked, impers. pi.
.s. it liked, pleased, 7. 109, II 2;
Lyketh yow, pr. s. impers. it
pleases you, 5. 401 fcf. 22. 63).
Lykinge, s. a liking, wish, delight,
7- 75-
Lyklinesse, s. probability, 22. 15.
Lykne, i pr. s. liken, compare,
3- 636.
Lymere, hound held in leash, 3.
365 ; Lymeres, pi. 3. 362.
Lyte, adj. little, 5. 64 ; 7. 107 ; as
s. a little, 3. 249 ; 5. 28 ; 9. 621 ;
/)/. 5. 350. K.S.lyt.
Lyte, adv. little, 3. 884 ; 7. 200.
Lyth, pr. s. lieth, lies, 3. 181, 589 ;
4- 184; 5. 573 ; lyeth ther-to,
belongs here, is needed, 3. 527.
Lythe, adj. easy, soft, 9. 118.
A. S, liSe.
Lyve, dat. life, 3. 1278 ; his lyve,
during his life, 3. 247 ; on lyve,
alive, 3. 151, 205.
Lyves, s. gen. of my life, 3. 920;
our present worldes lyves space,
the space of our life in the present
world, 5. 53.
Lyves, adv. living, alive, 9. 1063.
M.
Madde, v. go mad, 4. 253.
Made, /)^ pi. made, 3. 510; pi. s.
subj. may have made, 4. 227 ;
Mad, pp. made, 3. 415; 4. 278.
See Make.
Mader, s. madder, 10. 17.
Magestee, s. majesty, 13. 19.
Magiciens, />/. magicians, 9. 1260.
Magyke, s. magic, 9. 1266.
Maidenhede, s. maidenhood, vir-
ginity, I. 91.
Maist, 2 pr. s. mayest, 4. 106.
MaistoTiv, for Maist thow, mayst
thou, 9. 699.
Maistresse, 5. mistress, I. 109,
140; 3- 797; 4- 33-
Maistrye, s. specimen of skill, 9.
1094. See Maystrye.
Make, y. companion, love, mate, 4.
I7> 154; 5- 310, 37i> 466, 587,
631, 657 ; 22. 86 ; match, equal,
9. 1172; Makes,//. 5. 389. A.S.
gemaca.
Make, pr. pi. compose poetry, 18.
82; Maked, pp. made, 3. 578;
composed, 5. 677. See Made.
Malgre, prep, in spite of, 4. 220.
Malt, pt. s. melted, 9. 922. A. S.
mealt. See Molte.
Malyce, s. malice, spite, 3. 794-
Maner, s. manor, place to dwell in,
3- 1004-
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
429
Manere, s. manner, i. 29 ; ease
of behaviour, 3. 1218; goodly
courtesy of manner, 4. 294 ;
Maner, kind (of), 3. 471, 840;
4. 116; 7. 114; what maner
man, what kind of man, whatever
man, 2. 24; what maner thing,
whatever thii:g, 2. 103.
Manhod, s. manhood, 18. 4.
Manslavilitre, s. manslaughter, 10.
64.
Mased, adj. bewildered, 3. 12;
stunned with grief, 7. 322.
Masoneries, pi. masonry, 9. 1303.
Masse, s. mass, 3. 928.
Mast, s. mast, 7. 314.
Mast, s. mast, i. e. the fruit of forest-
trees, acorns, and beech-nuts, 10.
7> 37-
Masty, adj. fattened, sluggish, 9.
1777. Lit. 'fattened on mast';
see above.
Mate, iiiterj. checkmate ! 3. 660 ;
adj. exhausted, 7. 176. O. F.
mat, Arab, mat, dead (in chess).
Matere, s. matter, subject, 3. 43 ;
theme, 5. 26.
Maugre, /Tf/i. in spite of ; maugre
viy heed, in spite of my head, not-
withstanding all I could do, 3.
1201.
Mayster-hunte, s. chief huntsman,
the huntsman, 3. 375.
Maystrye, s. mastery, 11. 14. See
Maistrye.
Mede, s. dat. mead, meadow, 5.
184; 9- 1353-
Mede, s. reward, 12. 27; bribery,
5. 228 ; 14. 6.
Medicine, s. remedy, healing, 1. 78.
Medle, v. mingle, 9. 2102.
Meke, adj. pi. meek, 5. 341.
Melancolious, adj. melancholy, 9.
30.
Melancolye, s. melancholy, 3, 23.
Meles, s. pi. meals, 3. 612.
Melle, s. mill, 10. 6.
Melodye, s. melody, 5. 60, 62.
Memoire, s. recollection, 3. 945 ;
iVIcniorie, memory, 7- 14-
Memorial, adj. which serves to
record events, 7. 18.
Men, sing, one, people, 5. 22 (see
note); iS. 26; Mennes, gen. pi.
of men, 3. 9; 6.
Mencioun, s. mention, 5. 29.
Mene, adj. pi. intermediate, 7. 286.
Mene, s. mean, way of settling a
dilTicuity, 6. 36 ; mediator, I. 125
(see note).
Meustralcies, //. minstrelsies, 9.
1217.
Mente, pt. s. thought, 5. 581 ; de-
clared, 7. 160 ; Ment, pp. in-
tended, 5. 1 58.
Merciable, adj. merciful, i. i,
182 ; 19. 17.
Mercy, s. thanks ; graunt mercy,
many thanks, 10. 29.
Merlion, s. merlin, small hawk, 5.
339.611.
Mervayles, s. pi. marvels, 3. 388.
Meschaunce, s. mischance, mis-
fortune, 18. 47.
Messagere, s. messenger, 3. 133;
Messangcr, 9. 1568.
Messagerye, the Sending of mes-
sages (personified), 5. 228.
Mesure, s. measure, plan, 5. 305 ;
moderation, 3. 881 ; by mesure,
not too much, 3. 872 ; over
mes7ire, immeasurably, 5. 300;
ivithoute meiure, beyond measure,
3- 632.
Mete, adj. meet, befitting, 3. 316.
Mete, 5. equal, 3. 486.
Mete, V. meet, find, 5. 69S ; i pr. s.
meet, 4. 59 ; Mette, pt. s. met, 5.
37; 9. 2069; Metten, pt. pi. 9.
227.
Mete, ger. to dream; 3. 118; 5.
108; I pr. s. am dreaming, 3.
1234 ; Met, pr. s. dreams, 5. 104,
107 ; Mette, pt. s. dreamt, 3.
286 ; 9. 61 ; I pt. s. 5. 95 ; 9.
no; impers. pt. s. 3. 276, 442,
1320. A. S. m<£tan.
Meting, s. dream, 3. 2 8 2.
Meve, ger. to move, 5. 1 50 ;
Meved,//). 9. 813.
Mexcuse, for Me excuse, excuse
myself, 16. 36.
Meynee, 5. following, retinue, 9.
194; assembly, 9. 933.
Meyntenaunce, s. demeanour, 3.
834-
43°
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
Mid, ad}, middle, 3. 660.
Mighten, pt. pi. might, 5. 318.
Minne, imp. s. remember, mention,
16. 48. A. S. gemynnan.
Mirour, s. mirror, 3. 974; ii-
10; 15. 8.
Mis, adj. bad, 9. 1 975.
Mis, I pr. s. lack, have not, 21.
47. See Misse.
Misaventure, s. misfortune, un-
happiness, 4. 229.
Misbileved, pp. misbelieving ones,
infidels, I. 146.
Mischaunce, s. mishap, ill luck, i.
85. See note.
Misch.ef, s. misfortune, danger, 4. 58.
Misdeme, v. misjudge, despise, 9.
92 ; pr. s. subj. 9. 97.
Misericorde, s. pity, i. 25, 35.
Missat, pt. s. was not where it
should be, 3. 941.
Missayd, pp. said amiss ; tnissayd
or do, said or done wrong, 3.
528.
Misse, V. fail, 5. 75 ; draw to an
end, 5. 40. See Mis.
Mis-set, pp. ill-timed, misplaced,
3. 12 10.
Mis-take, pp. mistaken, made a
mistake, committed an error, 3.
Mistihede, s. mystery, 4. 224.
M. E. misty, mystical, from F.
mystique, 'mysticall'; Cotgrave.
Mo,a<i/. pi. comp. more (in number),
3. 266, 408 ; 5. 595. A. S. nut.
Moche, adj. great, 3. 904 ; 9- 971.
Mochel, adv. much, 3. 1102.
Mochel, s. size, 3. 454, 861.
Moder, s. mother, i. 28; 5. 292.
Molte, pp. melted, 9. 1145, 1149.
A. S. mol/en. See Malt.
Mone, s. moon,3. 824 ; 4.235; 9.
2116.
Mone, s. moan, 4. 143.
Monstres, s. gen. of a monster, 3.
628.
Moot, I pr. s. must, shall, 5. 642 ;
21.85.
Moot, s. pi. notes on a horn, 3.
376. See note.
Mordre, s. murder, 10. 64.
Mordre, ipr. s. murder, kill, 7. 291 ;
Mordred, 2 pi. pi. subj. were to
murder, 3. 724.
Mordrer, s. murderer, 5. 353.
More, adj. comp. greater, 7. 240 ;
9. 1495, 2067.
Morow, s. morning, 4. I ; Morwe,
3. 22: dat. 3. 595; Morwes, pi.
mornings, 3. 411; 9. 4.
Mortal, adj. deadly, 5. 135.
Morter, s. mortar, 10. 15.
Morweninge, s. morning, 4. 151 ;
Morwening, dawning, 4. 26.
Moste, adj. sup. greatest, 3. 1006;
5. 550; chief, 3. 630.
Mot, pr. s. must, 4. 157 ; 1 pr. s.
may, 4. 267 ; must, 5. 469 ;
Moten, 2 pr. pi. must, 5. 546 ;
Mote, pr. pi. must, 4. 198 ; s.
subj. may, 9. 102 ; Moste, pi. s.
must, 4. 250; must (go), 9. 187.
Moustre, 5. pattern, 3. 912.
Mow, pr. pi. may, can, 16. 4;
Mowe, are able, 3. 438 ; Mowe,
2 pr. pi. may, 3. 208 ; can, 3.
552 ; I pr. s. subj. may, 3. 94.
Mowes, pi. grimaces, 9. 1806.
Murmour, s. murmur, 5. 520.
Muse, s. Muse, 9. 1399.
Myn, pass, mine, 5. 437.
MyTide, s. mind, recollection, 5.
69; reason, 3. 511; have mynde
upon, remember, I9. 26.
Myrtheles, adj. without mirth, sad,
5- 592.
My-selven, pron. I myself, 3. 34.
Myte, 5. mite, 4. 126.
Mytre, s. mitre, 12. 7.
wr,
TTad, /or Ne had, had not, 3. 224.
Naked, adj. bare, 3. 978.
Nam, for Ne am ; nam but deed,
I am only a dead man, 3. 204.
Namely, adv. especially, 7. 260.
Nart, /or Ne art, art not, I. 26.
Nas, /or Ne was, was not, 3. 854,
8S0, 888 ; 7. 97 ; / nas but, I was
simply, 2. 21.
Nat, adv. not, 3. 425, 1 1S6 ; 5.7.
Nathelees, adv. nevertheless, 9.
2073; Natheles, 2. ill; 5. 390,
407.
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
431
Nature, s. kind, race, 5. 615.
Naturel, adj. natural, 4. 122. See
note.
Navye, s. fleet, 9, 216.
Nay, adv. nay, no, 3. I 243; surely
not ! 3. 1309 ; ns s. nay, untruth,
3- 147-
Ne, adv. not, i. 53; 5. 91; conj.
nor, 3. 2, 74; Ne — thing, nothing,
3. I2f)2; Ne — never, never, 3.
1 196 {et passim).
Nede, s. dal. need, i. 44; as adv.
of necessity, 3. 1074; 9. 724;
Nedes, gen. as adv. of necessity,
3. 1 20 1, 1635.
Negh, adv. near, almost, 3. 907.
Nekkes,//. necks, 5. 671.
Ubt, adv. comp. nearer, 2. 19; 3.
888; Nere, 3.38, 134,450; Ner
the les, nevertheless, 4. 130.
Nere, /or Ne were, 2 pt. s. wast not,
4. 112 ; pt. s. were not, 3. 956 ;
pt. s. subj. should not be, 4. 35 ;
were it not (for), I. 24, 180.
Nestes, //. nests, 9. 1516.
Nevene, v. name, 9. 562, 1253;
ger. 9. T438. Icel. nefna.
Never dide but, never did any-
thing that was not, 4. 297.
Never-mo, adv. never more, never,
3. 1125.
Never-the-les, adv. nevertheless,
21.74.
Nevew, s. grandson, 9. 617.
Anglo-F. tievu.
Newe, adj. fern, o? ,<;. ; a newe, a
new (love), 9. 302.
Newe, 2 pr. pi. renew, 23. 11 ;
Newed, pt. s. became new, had
something new in it, 3. 906.
New-fangelnesse, s. fondness for
novelty, 7. 141 ; New-fangelnesse,
15. I.
Nexte, adj. contp. nearest, next
preceding, last, 9. 1775 ", nearest,
3- 54-
Neyghebores, pi. neighbours, 9.
649.
Nice, adj. foolish, 9. 920. See
Nyce.
Nigardye, s. niggardliness, li. 53.
Nighte, v. become night, 5. 209.
Nightingale, s. nightingale, 5. 351.
Nil, for Ne wil, I will not, 3. 92,
"25, 1235; 5. 222,699; pr.s.
will not (have), 3. 5S6 ; will (she)
not, 3. 1 1 40.
Nis, /or Ne is, is not, 2.77; 3- 8 ;
.S- 54-
Niste, for Ne wiste, i pt. s. (I)
knew not, 5. 152; 9. 1901 ; pt.s.
3. 272 ; 9. 128.
Nobles, pi. nobles (the coin), 9.
I3i.=;-
Nobley, 5. nobility, splendour, 9.
1416. Anglo-F. nohlei.
Noght, s. nothing, 3. 566 ; adv.
"ot, 3. 572; 4. 277.
Nolde, for Ne wolde, (I) would not,
3. 311, II09; did not want, 5.
90; pt. s. would not, I. 31 ;
Noldest, for Ne woldest, wouldst
not, 3. 482.
Nones ; with the nones, on the con-
dition, 9. 2099. For with then
ones ; where then = A.S. ham,
dat. of def. article, and ones =
once.
Noon, adj. none, i. 25; 5. 129;
Non, 3. 941 ; 9. 335.
Noskinnes, for Nones kinnes, of
no kind, 9. 1794.
Nost, /or Ne wost, knowest not, 3.
1137; 9. 2047; Nostow, for
Ne wost thou, 9. loio.
Not, not; not hut, only, 4. 121.
Not, /or Ne wot, know not, 3. 29,
1044; 7. 237; 21. 50; (she)
knows not, 4. 214.
Note, s. musical note, peal, 9. 1720;
tune, 5. 677.
No-thing, adv. not at all, in no
way, I. 171; 5. 158; 7. 105; 9.
2032.
Nouchis, pi. ornaments (containing
jewels), settings (for jewels), 9.
1350. O.F. noitche, nosche, O. H.G.
nuscha, a jewelled clasp, buckle,
&c. ; E. ouch.
Nought, adv. not, 3. 566.
Noumbre, s. number, 5. 381.
Nounibre, v. number, 3. 439.
Nouncerteyn, s. uncertainty, 18.
46. Similarly we have noun-
power ='<f/^n\ of power (P. Plow-
man).
432
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
Tfovelryes, pi. novelties, 9. 686.
Noyous, adj. troublesome, hard, 9.
574. Cf. M.E. noyen, to grieve,
annoy.
Ny, adv. nigh, nearly, 18. 78.
Nyce, adj. foolish, 4. 262 ; 9. 276.
See Nice.
Nycete, s. foolishness, 3. 613 ;
folly, 5-572. .
O.
O, adj. one, one continuous and uni-
form, 9, 1 100. See Oo.
Obeisaunce, s. obedience, 4. 47 ;
in yottr o., in obedience to you, 2.
84.
Observaunce, s. reverential atten-
tion, homage, 7- 21S ; 23. 18 ;
Observaunces, pi. respectful atten-
tions, 7. 249.
Of, prep, as to, in respect of, 5. 317 !
for, 1. 136; 5. 421 ; 10. 29;
from, 3. 964; with reference to,
in, 5. 299; as to, 3. 966 ; as the
result of, upon, 5. 555 ; of al my
Uf, in all my life, 5. 4S4 ; fulfild
of, filled with, 7. 42.
Of, adv. off, away, 5. 494,
Of-easte, imp. s. cast off, 5. 132.
Office, s. duty, 5. 236 ; a duty, 5.
518.
Ofte tyrae, often, 3. 11 58.
Of-thowed, pp. thawed away, 9.
1143-
Oght, adv. ought, in any way, at
all, 3. 1141; 7. 294.
Oghte, 1 p.s. ought, 4. 216; pt. s.
3. 67S ; Oghten, 2 pt. pi. 4. 282.
Oke, s. oak, 5. 223 ; dat. 3. 447.
See Ook.
Olde, adj. pi. old, 5. 19, 22, 24.
Olive, s. olive-tree, 5. 181.
On, prep, in behalf of, 4. 298 ; bind-
ing on, II. 43 ; her on, upon her,
3. 1217.
Ones, adv. once, 3. 665, 979.
On-lofte, adv. aloft, up in the air,
in the sky, 5. 202, 683.
On-lyve, adv. alive, 21.94.
Oo, ?iiim. one, 3. 261, 546. See
O, Oon.
Ook, s. oak, 5. 176. See Oke.
Oon, num. one, 3. 39; 5. 512;
always the same, 3. 649 ; 22. 82 ;
the same, i.e. of small consequence,
3. 1295. See O, Oo.
Oppresse, v. interfere with, sup-
press, II. 60.
Or, C071J. before, 3. 128, 228, 1032 ;
9. 101 ; prep. 3. 234.
Ordenaunee, s. ordinance, regula-
tion, 5. 390 ; Ordmaunce, com-
mand, II. 44.
Ordre, s. order, law, 4. 155.
Orloge, s. clock, 5. 350. F. hor-
loge.
Ost, s. host, army, 9. 186 ; 10. 40.
Other, pi. others, 3. 891 ; 5. 228.
Other, conj. or, 3. 810; 4. 219.
Ought,s. anything, 3. 459 ; Oughte,
adv. at all, 3. 537.
Oughte, pt. s. ivLpers. it behoved
(us), I. 119.
Oule, s. owl, 5. 343 ; Gules, pi. 5.
599.
Oundy, adj. wavy, 9. 1386. F.
ondc, ' waved ' ; Cotgrave.
Our, ours, 5. 545. A.S. «re.
Out-breke, v. break out, break
silence, 2. 12.
Outfleyinge, s. flying out, 9. 1523.
Outher, conj. or, 3. iioo.
Outlandish, adj. foreign, 10. 22.
Outrage, s. excess, 10. 5.
Outrageous, nf/;. excessive, 5.336.
Ovev, prep, beyond, above, 3. 891.
Over-al, ac?i'. everywhere, 3. 171,
426; 5. 172, 284; 12. 4; Over
al and al, beyond every other, 3.
1003.
Over-bord, adv. overboard, 9. 438.
Over-loked, p>p. looked over, pe-
rused, 3. 232.
Over-shake, pp. caused to pass
away, shaken off, 5. 6S1.
Overshote, pp. ; had overskote kern,
had over-run the line, 3. 383.
Over-skipte, i pt. s. skipped over,
omitted, 3. 1208.
Overte, adj. open, yielding easy
passage, 9. 718-
Overthrowe, v. be overturned, be
ruined, 9. 1640.
Overthwert, adv. across, 3. 863.
See Kn. Tale.
GLOSS ARIAL INDEX.
433
Owhere, adv. anywhere, 3. 776.
A. S. uhwdr.
Pace, V. pass beyond, overstep, 9.
392; go away, 15. 9 ; ger. to
pass, 9. 841 ; 0/ this thing to pace,
to pass over tin's in review, 9.
2.^9.
Pacience, s. ; toh in patience, was
perfectly willing, 4. 40.
Paisible, adj. peaceable, 10. i.
Palais, s. palace, 1. 1S3.
Pale, s. perpendicular stripe, 9.
1840. Still used in heraldry. See
note.
Paleys, s. palace, mansion (in as-
trology), 4. 54, 145.
Paleys - yates, pi. gates of the
palace, 4. 82.
Palm, s. palm-tree, 5. 182.
Paniers, pi. panniers, baskets for
bread, 9. 1939-
Paradys, s. paradise, heaven, 9.
918.
Paraunter, adv. peradventiire, per-
haps, 5. 779, 7S8 ; Paraventure,
3- 5.56.
Parcel, s. (small) part, 2. 106.
Parde! interj. answering to F. par
dieu, 3. 721 ; 5. 509, 571.
Parfey, adv. in faith, 9. 938.
Parfit, adj. perfect, 2. 38 ; 5. 56S ;
9- 44-
Partriches, pi. gen. partridges', 9.
1392.
Pas, s. grade, degree, 4. 134; pi.
degrees, 4. 121.
Passioun, s. suffering, 4. 255.
Patroun, s. patron, 4. 275; pro-
tector, 7. 4; Patron, pattern, 3.
910. F. patron, ' a patron, . . .
also a pattern '; Cotgrave.
Paunche, s. paunch, belly, 5. 610.
Pay, s- pleasure, 5. 271; iS. 70;
more to pay, so as to give more
satisfaction, 5. 474.
Payed, pp. pleased, satisfied, 10. 3 ;
holde her payd, think herself satis-
fied, 3. 269.
Payre, s. pair, 3. 1289.
Pecok, s. peacock, 5. 356.
Pees, s. peace, i. 69; 3. 615.
Pel, s. peel, small castie, 9. 1310.
Lowland Sc. peil ; from Lat. p'da.
Pelet, s. pellet, stone cannon-bail, 9.
1643. See Gloss, to P. Plowman.
Penaunce, s. suffering, torment, i.
82 ; trouble, 18. 79.
Peraventure, adv. perhaps, 9. 304.
Perceth, /r. s. pierces with his
gaze, 5. 331.
Perched,//, perched, 9. 1991.
Pere, s. peer, equal, i. 97 ; 19. 11.
Permutaciotin, 5. change, 14. 19.
Perpetuely, adv. perpetually, 4.
20.
Perre, s. jewelr}', precious stones,
9. 124; Perrie, 9. 1393. O. F.
pierrerie.
Pervers, adj. perverse, self-willed,
.3-SI3-
Peyne, s. pain, grief, distress, tor- .
ment, 3. 587; 4. 96; 6. 23.
Peyne me, v. put myself to trouble,
9. 246 ; Peyneth himself, 5. 339.
Peynte, v. paint, 3. 7S3 ; colour
highly, 9. 246; do peynte. cause
to be painted, 3. 259 ; Peynted,
pp. 5. 284.
Phisieien, s. physician, doctor, 3,
?.9-
Phitonesses, //. pythonesses,
witches, 9. 1 261. See note.
Pighte, //. s. suhj. should pierce,
should stab, 1. 163. Pt. t. of
picchsn.
Pilche, s. a warm furred outer gar-
ment, 20. 4. A. S. pylce; from
Lat. pellicea, made of fur.
Pilere, s. pillar, 3. 739; 9. 1421 ;
Pill r, fis adj. serving as a prop, 5.
177; Pilers, pi. 5. 230.
Pilow, s. pillow, 3. 254.
Pinacles, pi. pinnacles, 9. 124,
I1S9.
Piper, s. as adj. suitable for pipes
or horns, 5. 178.
Pite, s.- pity ; Pile were, it would be
a pity if, 3. 1266.
Pitous, adj. piteous, sad, 3. 84,
470; pitiful, I. 88; sorrowful, 7.
0.
Pitovisly, adv. piteously, 3. 71 1 ;
full of pity, 2, 18.
434
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
Planete, s. planet, 3. 693, S23.
Plate, s. plate-armour, 10. 49.
Plated, -pp. plated, covered with
metal in plates, 9. 1345.
Play, s. play, amusement, 3. 50 ;
Playes,/)/. contrivances (see note),
3. 570. See Pley.
Pleding, s. pleading, 3. 615; 5.
495-
Plea, s. plea, pleadmg, 5. 485 ;
Plees, /)/. suits, 5. loi.
Plesance, s. pleasure, delight, 3.
704 ; Plesaunce, 3. 767 ; 4. 46 ;
5. 676; 21. 30; 23. 14; com-
plaisance, 7. 212; Pleasure (per-
sonified), 5. 218; pleasant thing,
3- 773; 4-238-
Plese, V. please, 5. 480.
Pley, s. play, dalliance, 4. 178 ; de-
lusion, 3. 648. See Play.
Pleye, v. play, 5. I93 ; Pleyen me,
amuse myself, 9. 2132 ; Pleyde,
pt. s. played, was in play, 3. 875.
Pleyn, cifj. fiill, J. 13; 5.126. F.
plein.
Pleyn, adj. open, honest, 5. 528 ;
7. 87 ; Pleyne, smooth, 5. 180.
F. plain.
Pleyne, v. complain, lament, 2.
108 ; 4. 156 ; 6. 15; refl. 7.
237; g^''- 4-286; 5. 179; V. to
utter a plaintive cry, to whinny
(said of a horse), 7. 157 ; Pleyned,
pp. 22. 76. Cf. ' For as a hors, I
coude byte and wkyne' ; Cant. Ta.
5968.
Pleyning, s. complaining, lament-
ing. 3- 599-
Pleynte, s. plaint, complaint, 2.
47 ; 22. 68.
Plight, pp. plighted, 7. 227.
Plyte, s. plight, wretched situation,
7. 297; 23. 19; mishap, 5. 294.
See plight in Supplement to my
Etym. Diet.
Poetryes, pi. poetical works,
poems, 9. 1478.
Point, s. point ; Pointe, dat. point,
place, 3. 660; in point, on the
point of, about to, 3. 13; 9.
2018 ; at point devys, with great
exactitude, very clearly, 9. 917.
Popiniay, s. parrot, 5. 359.
Port, s. bearing, carriage, 3. 834;
Porte, 5. 262.
Portraiture, 5. portraiture, 3. 626;
Portreyture, drawing, -picturing,
9. 131 ; Portreytures,^/. pictures,
9.125.
Portreye, v. pourtray, i. 81 ;
draw, sketch, 3. 783.
Possible, adj. possible ; possible is
me, is possible for me, 5. 471.
Pot-fiil, s. pot-ful, 9. 1686.
Pouche, s. pocket, pouch, 9. 1349.
Poudre, s. gunpowder, 9. 1644.
Pounage, s. pannage, swine's food,
10. 7. Cf. F. panage, ' pawnage,
mastage for swyne ' ; Cotgrave.
Poune, s. pawn at chess, 3. 661.
O. F. peon (Burguy) ; Late Lat.
pedonem, foot-soldier.
Pouren, ger. to pore, 9. 11 21,
1 158.
Poverte,s. poverty, 9. 88; Povertee,
3. 410.
Povre, adj. poor, 23. 16; as s.
poor, A««ce poverty, 1 1. 2. Seenote.
Poynt, s. point ; in poynt is, is on
the point, is ready, I. 48 ; //-o
poynt to poynt, in every point, 5.
461. See Point.
Praye, s. prey, i. 64.
Prees, s. press, thronging, 9. 1358 ;
the throng of courtiers, 12. 4;
crowd, 16. 40; Pres, press ot
battle, 10. 33 ; Presse, dat. throng,
company, II. 52.
Prenostik, s. prognostic, prog-
nostication, II. 54.
Present, adv. immediately, 5. 424.
Pressen, v. to press, hasten, 2.
19.
Prest, adj. ready, prepared, 5. 307.
O. F. prest.
Preve, v. prove, 3. 552 ; 9. 707 ;
I pr. s. 9. 826 ; Preved, pp. 9.
814.
Preve, s. proof, 5. 497 ; 9. 878,
989.
Prevy, adj. privy, secret, un-
observed, 3. 381 ; close; not con-
fidential, 9. 285.
Prik, I pr. s. spur, rouse, 5. 389.
Prikke, s. point, 9. 907.
Processe,s. process, 3. 1331 ; story.
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
435
9. 251 ; Proces, process of time, 5
Prolixite, s. prolixity, 9. 856.
Proprete, s. property, peculiarity
II. 69.
Prow, s. profit, advantage, 9. 579
O. F. prou, pru (Bartsch).
Prydelees, ^c//. without pride, 21
29.
Pryved, pp. deprived, exiled, i
146.
Puffen, V. puff, blow hard, 9
1S66.
Pulle, s. a bout at wrestling, a
throw, 5. 164.
Purchace. v. get, obtain, win, 15.
19 ; Purchased, pt. s. compassed,
contrived, procured, 3. 1 122;
Purchaced, pp. procured, brought
about, 6. 17.
Pure, adj. simple, mere, 9. 280 ;
very, 3. 490; utter, 3. I 209; the
pure deth, death itself, 3. 5S3 ;
iidv. purely, 3. lOio.
Purely, adv. actually, simply, only,
3. 5, S43, 934.
Purpos, A-. purpose ; to pitrpos, to
the subject, 5. 26.
Pursevaiintes, pi. pursuivants, 9.
1321.
Purveyeth, pr. s. provides, fore-
sees, fore-ordains, II. 66.
Putte, ger. to put, 3. 1332 ; pt. s.
3. 769 ; 4. 268.
Pye, s. magpie, 5. 345 ; Pyes, pi.
9- 703-
Pyne, s. pain, hurt, 5. 335 ; place
of torment, 9. 151 2.
Pype, s. pipe, a musical instrument,
9- 773. 1219-
Pype, V. to pipe, to play music, 9.
1220; Pyped, /)p. faintly uttered,
9. 785.
Qualme, .«. pestilence, 9. 196S.
A. S. cweahn.
Quantite, s. quantity, vastness, 5.
58.
Quayles, gen. pi. quails', 5. 339.
Quek ! int. quack ! 5. 499, 594,
Queme, v. please, 13 20. A. S.
cwetnan.
Queue, s. queen, i. 1.
Quern, s. hand-mill, 10. 6 ; Queme,
dat. 9. 1798. A. S. cweorn.
Queynt, adj. curious, well devised,
3. 1330: 9. 228; Queynte, skil-
fully contrived, 9. 126; curious,
hard to understand, 3. 531 ;
Queynte, pi. curious, skilfully
strange, 3. 784 ; adv. artfully, 9.
24.=i-
Queynteliche, adv. curiously, cun-
ningly, 9. 1923.
Quik, adj. alive, 3. 121.
Quikke, v. quicken, take life, burst
forth, 9. 2078.
Quiknesse, s. liveliness, life, 3.
26.
Quit, />/>. rewarded, 9. 1614; adj.
free, quit, 5. 663,
Quod, I pt. s. quoth, said, 3. 370,
1 1 1 2 ; pr. s. or pt. s. quoth, says,
said, 3. 109; Quoth, 3. 90.
Quyte, V. requite, recompense, 5.
112 ; 9. 670; II. 75 ; ger. to
remove, free, 7- 263 ; Quyteth,
Pir. s. rcquiteth, payeth, 5. 9.
K.
Eadde, pt. s. advised, 5. 579; i.
pt. s. read, 5. 21. Pt. t. of
reden ; see Rede.
Eakelnesse, s. rashness, 16. 16.
Icel. reikidl, wandering.
Hansaked, pp. ransacked, come
searching out, 4. 28.
Kape, s. haste, 8. 7. Icel. hrap, a
falling down.
Rasour, s. razor, 9. 690.
Eathe, adv. early, soon, 9. 2139;
Rather, comp. sooner, 3. 868 ; 4.
562.
Eaven, .';. raven, 5. 363 ; the con-
s'ellation Corvus, 9. 1004.
Eavisshing, adj. enchanting, 5.
203.
Eavyne, 5. ravine, prey, 5. 323;
preying, ravening, 5. 336. Anglo-
F. ravine, Lat. rapina.
Eayed, pp. arrayed, adorned, 3.
252. Short for arrayed.
F f 2
43^
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
Kealte, 5. royalty, sovereign power,
II. 60.
Rebel, adj. rebellious, 5. 457.
Recche, v. care, reck, 5. 593 ;
I pr. s. 5. 606; 2 pr. pi. 7. 269 ;
Reccheth, pr. s. 21. 52. See
Kekke.
Reccheles, adj. reckless, careless,
indifferent, 5. 593 ; 9. 397 ; re-
gardless, 9. 668.
Rechased, pp. headed back, 3.
.^79-
Reche, v. reach, give, 3. 47.
Recompensacioun, s. recompense,
9. 665.
Recorde, s. testimony, 3. 934.
Recorde, v. {Xo) record, recording,
5. 609.
Recovered, pp. gained, won, got,
5. 688.
Recoverer, s. succour, 22. 3 (see
note).
Reddour, s. rigour, 11. 13. O. F.
rador, later roideur.
Rede, get: to read, 3. 98 ; 5. 696 ;
V. interpret, 3. 279; advise, 12.
6 ; Rede, (l pr. s. counsel, advise,
4- 15; 5-^66; Redde,/)/. s. read,
interpreted, 3. 281 ; Red, pp.
read, 3. 224, 1326; 5. 107; 9.
347-
Rede, adj. pi. red. See Reed.
Rede, adj. made of reed ; referring
to a musical instrument in which
the sound was produced by the
vibration of a reed, 9. 1 221.
Redelees, adj. without reed or
counsel ; not knowing which way
to turn, 2. 27.
Redely, adv. soon, 9. 1392.
Reder, s. reader, 5. 132.
Redresse, imp. s. direct anew, re-
form, I. 129.
Reed, s. advice, counsel, plan, 3. 105 ;
5. 586, 60S ; 22. 37 ; profit, help,
3. 203 ; withoute reed, for which
nothing can be done, 3. 587 ; /
can no reed, I know not what to
do, 3. 1187.
Reed, adj. red, 5. 583 ; (of the
complexion), 3. 470 ; Rede, def.
5.442; 7.1 ; Rede,^/. i. 89; 3.
955 ; 4- 2, 27-
Reflexiouns, pi. ideas due to
previous impressions, 9. 2 2.
Refte, pt. s. took violently ; how he
Tiirniis refte his lyf, how he robbed
Turnus of his life, 9. 457-
Refut, s. refuge, I. 14 ; safety, I. 33.
Regalye, 5. rule, authority, 2. 65.
Regard, s. relation ; at regard of,
in comparison wilh, 5. 58.
Regioun, s. rule, dominion, realm,
14. 25.
Regneth, pr. s. reigns, 4. 43 ;
Reg\ien, pr. pi. 4. 50.
Reherse, v. rehearse, repeat, tell, 3.
474 ; Rehersen, 3. I 204.
Reighte, pt. s. reached, touched, 9.
1374. Vt. t. oi rcche?i.
Reioyse, v. rejoice, make to re-
joice, I. lOI.
Rekening, s. reckoning, account,
3. 699; Rekeninge, judgment, li
132; Rekeninges, ^/. accounts, 9.
653-
Rekever, i pr. s. (for future),
(I) shall retrieve, do away, 9.
354-
Rekke, 2 pr. pi. care, reck, 2. no ;
Rekketh, impers. pr. s. it recks
(him\ he cares, 7. 182. See
Recelie, Roghte, Roughte.
Relayes, s. //. fresh sets of hounds,
reserve packs, 3. 362.
Relees, s. release, I. 3.
Remedies, s. pi: Ovid's Remedia
Amoris, 3. 568.
Remembreth, pr. s. recurs to the
mind, 4. 150; Remembre yow,
imp. pi. remember, 3. 717-
Remenant, s. remainder, 5. 271.
Renne, ger. to run, i. 164; v. 5.
247 ; 9. 202 ; Renninge, pres. pt.
9. 2145; Renning, flowing, 3.
161.
Renoun, s. renown, 2. 63 ; 9.
1406.
Renovelaunces, pi. renewals, 9.
693-
Renoveleth., imp.pl. renew, 4. 19.
F. renouveler, to renew (Cot-
grave).
Rente, s. rent, 3. 765.
Reparaciouns, pi, reparations,
making up, 9. 688.
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
437
Hepenting, s. ; without repenting,
so as to exclude any after-repent-
ance, any after-regret, 4. 17.
Keplicacioun, s. answer, ready
reply, repartee, 5. 536.
Reprevable (to), ndj. likely to
cast a slur on, 14. 24.
Resonable, adj. talkative, 3. 534.
Respit, s. respite, 5. 64S.
Respyte, ger. to refuse to do, turn
nway from, despise, 7- 259.
Reste, s. ; at his reste, as in its
iionie, 5. 376.
Rethoryke, s. rhetoric, 9. 859.
Reule, s. rule, 11. 56.
Reuthe, s. rulh, i. 127. See
Routhe, Rowthe.
Reven, v. take away, 11. 50;
Revcth, pr. s. forces away, 5, 86.
Revers, s. reverse, 18. 32.
Revolucioun, s. revolution, revolv-
ing course, 4. 30.
Reward, s. regard ; having reward
to, considering, 5. 426.
Rewe, V. have pity, 4. 203; 21.
loi.
Rewe, s. row, line, 9. 1692, See
Rowe.
Rewthelees, adj. ruthless, unpity-
i"g' 5-6i3-
Reyes, pi. round dances, 9. 1236.
See note.
Reyne, v. rain, 4. 287.
Reynes, /)/. reins, 9. 951.
Reysed, //). raised, 3. 1278.
Rial, adj. royal, i. 144; 2. 59.
Riban, s. ribbon, used as pi. ribbons,
9. 131S.
Richesse, s. riches, wealth ; of
knigkthode he is par/it richesse,
18. 12 ; Wealth (personified), 5.
261.
Right that, that very thing, 3.
1.^07.
Rightful, adj. righteous, well-doing,
5- 55-
Roche, s. rock, 9. in6; Roches,
pi. 3. 156. See Rokke.
Rode, s. dat. rood, cross ; by the
rode, 3. 924, 992 ; 9. 2.
Rody, adj. ruddy, red, 3. 143, 905.
Roes, s. pi. roes, 3. 430. See Roo.
Roghte, //. s. cared, recked, 4.
1 26 ; 5. II I ; I pt. s. subj. should
(not) care, 3. 244. See Rekke.
Rokes, gen. pi. rooks', 9. 1516.
Rokke, s. rock, 3. 164.
Romaunce. s. romance, 3. 48.
See note.
Rome, V. roam, 9. 2035.
Rong, pt. s. rang, 5. 492 ; Ronge,
pt. pi. rung, 3, 1 164.
Ronnen, pt. pi. ran, 3. 163. See
Renne.
Roo, s. roe, 5. 195. See Roes.
A. S. rd.
Roof, pt. s. rived, pierced, 9. 373.
Pt. t. of ryven.
Rose-garlond, 5. garland of roses,
9- 135-
Roten, adj. rotten, 7. 314,
Roughte, pt. s. impers. it recked
(him), i.e. he recked, I, 171.
See Roghte.
Roundel, s. roundel (poem), 5.
675 (see note) ; a small circle, 9.
791, 798.
Rouned, pt. s. whispered, 9. 2044 ;
pp. 9. 722. A.S. runian.
Rouninges, pi. whisperings, 9.
1960. See above.
Route, s. rout, crowd, company,
band, 3. 360; 5. 245; 7. 34; 9.
2119.
Route, V. rumble, roar, murmur, 9.
103S; ger. to snore, 3. 172.
A. S. hrdtan, to snore.
Routhe, s. ruth, compassion, pity,
3- 592 ; 7- 337 ; a P'ty, 3- looo,
1310. See Reuthe.
Routheles, adj. unpitying, 7.
230.
Routing, s. whizzing noise, 9. 1933.
See Route, v.
Rove, 5. dat. roof, 9. 194S. Dat.
of roof.
Rowe, s. line, 9. 448 ; Rowes, pi.
rays or beams of light, 4. 2. See
Rewe.
Rowthe, s. ruth, pity, 3. 465. See
Reuthe, Rewthe.
Rubbe, t'. rub out, 8. 6.
Rubee, s. ruby, 9. 1362.
Ruddok, s. redbreast, robin, 5.
349-
Rumbleth, pr. s. moves to and fro
438
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
with an indistinct murmuring noise,
9. 1026.
Hused, pt. s. roused herself, rushed
away, 3. 381. See Rouse in my
Etym. Diet.
Rym, s. rhyme {better rime), 16.
37; 18. 80; Ryme, dat. 3. 54,
463, 1332. A. S. rim.
Ryme, ger. to make verses, 9. 1 255 ;
16.35.
S.
Sable, s. sable, black, 4. 284.
Sad, adj. serious, grave, 3. 918;
Sadde, 5. 578; Sadde, //. serious,
sober, staid, steady, 3. 860 ; stead-
fast, constant, 23. 9.
Sadnesse, s. soberness, staidness,
21. 29.
Salueth, j:)r. s. saluteth, 4. 146,
Salvacioun, s. salvation, 4. 213.
Sat, pt. s. sat ; sat on knees, knelt,
3. 106 ; hit sat me sore, it was
very painful for me, 3. 1 2 20.
Satin, s. satin, 3. 253.
Sauf, adj. safe, in safety, 4. IQ7;
safe, I. 27, 57 (see Vouched) ;
prep, save, except, 2. 50.
Saufly, adv. safely, with safety, 9.
291 ; 13. 6.
Saugli, pt. s. saw, 1. 89 ; Sawe, 2.
pi. pi. 3. 1 1 29.
Sauns, prep, without, 9. 188 ;
saiinsfaile, without fail, certainly,
9. 429.
Savacioun, .";. saving from death ;
withoute any savacioun, without
saving any, 9. 208.
Save, prep, excepting, 7. 267. See
Saiif.
Saveour, s. saviour, 19. 16.
Savour, s. pleasant taste, liking,
pleasure, II. 20; Savours, pi.
odours, 5. 274.
Savour, irnp. s. have relish for, 1 2. 5.
Sawe, s. saying, 9. 2089 ; Sawes,
pi. tales, 9. 676.
Say, I pt. s. saw, 3. 806 ; 5. 211.
Scales,/)/, scales offish, 5. 189.
Scalle, s. scab, 8. 3.
Sclat, s. slate, 6. 34.
Sclaundre, s. slander, 9. 1580;
ill fame, 7. 275.
Scorneth, pr. s. scorns, 3. 625 ;
Scorned,/)/, s. 3. 927.
Scorpioun, s. scorpion, 3. 636;
sign of the Scorpion, 9. 948.
Scourging, s. correction, 4. 42.
Scrape, v. scrape, 8. 6.
Scriveyn, s. scribe, 8. i.
Se, s. sea, 3. 1028. See See.
Se, ger. to see, look on ; on to se,
to look upon, 3. 1 1 77; I pr. s.
3. 913 ; as f tit. shall see, 4. 190.
Seche, ger. to seek, 3. 1255.
Secre, adj. secret, trusty, 5. 395.
Secte, s. sect, company, 9. 1432.
Sede, v. bear seed, 7. 306.
See, s. sea, i. 50; Se, 3. 1028.
Seed-foul, s. birds living on seeds,
5- 512.
Seek, adj. sick, 5. 161, 207 ; Seke,
3. 557 ; def. as s. sick man, man
in a fever, 5. 104.
Seen, v. see, 5. 538; Seestow,
seest thou, 9. 911.
Sees, pi. seats, 9. 1210, 1251.
Seet, pt. s. sat (a false form), 3.
501. Cf. A. S. S(Bt-on, pi., they
sat. See Sete.
Seith, pr. s. says, 5. 23.
Seke, adj. sick. See Seek,
Seken to, i pr. pi. come seeking
for, press towards, 2. 91.
Sekernes, s. security, 7. 345.
Selfe, adj. self, same, 5. 96 ; Selve,
very, 9. 1157.
Sely, adj. blessed, delightful, 9.
513 ; kind, 4. 89 ; poor, innocent,
4. 141. A. S. sdlig.
Seme, pr. s. subj. seem, 13. 13.
Semely, adj. seemly, comely, 3.
1177.
Seming, .'. appearance, 3. 944.
Sene, ger. to see, 5. 329. A. S.
seonne.
Sene, adj. visible, evident, manifest,
2. 94, 112; 3.413, 498; 6. 10;
15. 13. A.S. gesyne, gesene,zd].
Sentence, s. opinion, decision, 5.
530; sense, meaning, tenour,
theme, 4. 24; 5. 126; 9. iioo;
decision, speech, 5. 383.
Servage, 5. service, 3. 769.
Servants,/)/, lovers, 21. 72.
Serveth, imp.pl. serve, 5. 660.
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
439
Servyse, s. service, musical per-
formance, 3. 302.
Sese, pr. s. >»/6/'. seize, 5. 4S1 ;
Sesed,/!/). caught, 4. 240.
Sestou, /or Seest thou, seest thou,
"• 37-
Set, pr. s. setteth, 2. loi ; putteth,
3- 635 ; PP- appointed, 4. 52 ; wel
set, seemly, 3. 828.
Sete, pt. pi. sat, 3. 431 ; p/. s. svbj.
were to sit, 3. 436. A. S. schtoii,
pt. pi. ; scEte. pt. s. siibj.
Seurtee, s. security, 10. 46.
Sewe, ger. to follow, 13. 4; v. 23.
12; Seweth, pr. s. follows as a
consequence, 9. 840.
Sewing, aJj. conformable, in pro-
portion, similar, 3. 959. Lit.
'following'; cf. Prov. E. suant,
sewant.
Seyn, v. say, 2. 51 ; 3. 1031 ; 5.
35; Sey, V. tell, 5. 126 : ger. to
say, 3. 1090; 5. 323; To seye,
to be said, 2. 21 ; To seyne, 2.
77! 5- 7^ J Seystou, for Seyst
thou, sayest thou, 11. 27; Sey,
I pr. s. 3. 996 ; Seyn, pr. pi. 3.
1167; 4. 275.
Sey, I pt. s. saw, 3. T089 ; 9. i if i ;
Seven, pt. pi. 3. S42, 1052 ; Seyn,
pp. 3. 854.
Seynt, s. saint, 3. 1319.
Shadwe, .'^. shadow, shat^e, 3. 426.
Shaftes, />/. shafts, arrows, 5. 180.
Shal, I pr. s. must, am to b;-, 2.
53 ; pr. s. is to be, 9. 82 ; Shal-
tow, thou shalt, 9. 1026. See
Shul.
Shals, 5. shtll, 9. 1281.
Shalmyes, pi. shawms, 9. i?iS.
O. K. chalemie, ' a little pipe made
of a reed ' ; Cotgrave.
Shap, s. shape, form, 5. 373, 398.
Shap, V. make, devise, 5. 502 ;
Shapen, pj). built, 7. 357; Shape,
ordained, 16. 8.
Shave, pp. shaven, bare of money,
19. 19.
Shelde, pr. s. subj. may he shield,
9. 88.
Shende, v. ruin, 5. 494 ; destroy,
9. ioi6; Shente, pt. s. put to
confusion, 5. 255. A. S. scendan.
Shene, adj. bright, beautiful, 5.
299 ; 7- 3?, 73 ; odv. brightly, 4.
87. A. S. scene.
Sherte, s. shirt, 9. 1414.
Slieter, .1;. as adj. shoottr, useful for
shooting, 5. 180.
Shethe, s. sheath, 16. 39.
Shette, pt. s. shut, 9. 524 ; Shet,
PP- 3- 335-
Sheves, //. sheaves, 9. 2140.
Shewen, v. shew, 5. 168 ; Shewed,
pp. (havcy shewed, 5. 572.
Shod, pp. with something on his
feet, 9. 98.
Sholde, 1 pt. s. ought (to have
done so), 3. 1200; Sholdestow,
shouldst thou, II. 60.
Shonde, 5. shame, disgrace, 9. 88.
A. S. scond, scand.
Shoof, pt. s. pushed, 5. 1 54. Pt. t.
of shove?i.
Shoon, pf. s. shone, 4. 87. Pt. t.
of shynen.
Shoop, pt. s. shaped ; shoop me,
shaped, addressed myself, 2. 20.
Pt. t. of shapen : see Shap.
Shortly, adv. to be brief, in short,
3- 8.30.
Shoures, //. storms, hardships, 22.
66.
Showting, s. shouting, 5. 693.
Shrewed, adv. evil, wicked, 9.
275, 1619.
Shrewednesse, s. wickedness, 9.
i8.f.3.
Shrewes, pi. wicked people, 9. 1 830.
Shrift, 5. confession, 3. 1 1 14.
Shryned, pp. enshrined, canonised
{ironically), 15. 15.
Shul, pr. pi. shall, 5. 658 ; must, 5.
80; Shiilde, pt. s. had to, 4. 251,
253. See Shal.
Shuldres, s. pi. shoulders, 3. 952.
Sicaraour, s. sycamore, 9. 1278.
Siker, adj. in security, 17. 28;
sure, 3. 1020, 1 149; 9- 1978-
Sikerly, adv. surely, truly, 4. 59 ;
certainly, 9. I930.
Sikernesse, s. security, confidence,
3. 60S ; II. 69.
Siilable, 5. syllable, 9. 109S.
Sin, conj. since, 4. 273; 5. 64,
435, 654. Short tor taken.
440
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
Singular, adj. ; for singular pro-
fyte, for special advantage, 9. 310.
Sippe, 5. drink, snp, 7. 193.
Sisoures, pi. scissors, 9. 690.
Sith, conj. since, I. 77 ; 2. 34; 3
759:4. 184; 7.342; because, 4
125 ; iith that, since, 2. 22 ; adv.
afterwards, then, 7. 354.
Sithen, adv. afterwards, I. 117
since, 22, 51, 60.
Sitte, V. to sit, 3. 451 ; Sitten, ger.
3. 449 ; Sit. pr. s. sitteth, sits, 3
iioS ; 4. 218.
Sittingest, snp. adj. most fitting,
5- 551-
Skant, adj. scanty, sparing, nig-
gardly, i_. 175.
Skars, adj. scarce, 10. 36.
Skilful, adj. reasonable, 3. S94 ; 7.
128.
Skilfully, adv. carefully, particu-
larly, 4. 155.
Skilles, pi. reasons, arguments, 5.
i?>l ■' 9- 75°-
Skye, s. cloud, 9. 1600.
Slee, V. slay, 3. 351 ; Sle, 6. i;
. Slee, ger. 2. 26; 5. 217 ; Sleeth,
pr. s. slays, 21. 33 ; Slee, 2 pr.pl.
slay, 2. 114; Sleen, 2. 84; Slee,
imp. s. slay, 9. 317 ; Sleeth, iynp.
//.slay, 2 1. 1 18; Sleyn./)/>. 4. 108.
Slepe, ger. to sleep, f . 94 ; Sleep,
pt. s. slept, went to sletp. 7. 137 ;
I pt. s. 9. 119 ; Slepe, p/. pi. 3.
166, 177.
Slit, p)-. s. slideth, passes away, 5.
3. Short for slideth. See Slyde.
Slow, pt. s. slew, 3. 727, 733; 9.
26.S, 956; Slough, 7. 56. See
Slee.
Slyde, V. pas?, go awav, 3. 567.
See Slit.
Slye, adj. cunning, crafty, 7. 48 ;
//. skilful, 3. 570.
Smal, adj. small ; a smal, a little,
21. 113.
Smelde, pt. s. smelt, 9. 16^5.
Smert, pr. s. smarts, pains (me), i.
Is 2.
Short for smerteik.
Smerte, s. smart, pain, pang, 2. 13;
3. 593; 4- 10; 9. 316, 374.
Smerte, adj. pi. hard, bitter, pain-
ful; 3- 507. 1 107.
Smit,/r. s.smiteth, 9. 536 ; Smiten,
pp. struck, 3. 1323.
Smothe, adj. smooth, 3. 942.
So as, as far as, as well as, 4. 161 ;
f.o have I loye, as I hope to have
bliss, 3. 1065, 1 1 19.
Sobre, adj. soler, staid, 13. 9.
Socour, s. succour, i. 2, 10,41,55 ;
do yow s., help you, 4. 292.
Sodeynly, adv. suddenly, 2. 32 ;
3. 272.
Softe, adv. timidly, 3. 1212.
Soiourne, v. sojourn, dwell, i. 160;
Soiourned, //). remaii ed, 4. 78.
Solace, V. comfort, cheer, amuse,
5. 297.
Solempne, adj. festive, 3. 302.
' Solempne,/e.';/j/!/s'; Pr. Parv.
Soleyn, adj. sole, solitary, 3. 982 ;
unmated, 5. 607, 614. Mod. E.
&7dlen.
Som, indef. pron. s. one, 3. 305 ;
another, 5. 476.
Somdel, adv. somewhat, a little, 5.
112.
Someres, 5. gen. summer's, 3. S21.
Somer-sonne, 5. the summer sun,
5. 299.
Sond, .«. sand, 5. 243.
Sone, s. son, 3. 1162.
Sone, adv. soon, 3. 112, 627.
Song, I p. s. sarg, 3. 1 1 58;
Songen, p(. pi. sang, 3. 30 r ;
Songe, pt. s. subj. were to sing,
3. 929 ; Sopge, pp. sung, 9. 347.
Sonken, pp. sunk, 7. 8.
Sonne, s. sun, 3. 821 ; 4. 4.
Sorceresses,//, sorceresses, 9. 1 26 1.
Sore, v. soar, 9. 499 ; ger. 9. 531.
Sorwe, s. sorrow, i. 81; Sorwes,
//. 3. 412.
Sorwful, adj. sorrowful, 2. 25.
Sorwing, s. sorrowing, sorrow, 3.
606.
Sotel, adj. subtle, cunning, 18. 43.
Soteltee, s. subtlety, skill, iS. 77.
Soth, adj. true, I. 137 ; 5. 640.
Soth, s. truth, 3. 3;, 1090 ; Sothe,
5. .= 78-
Soulfre, s. sulphur, 9. 1508.
Soun, s. sound, musical sound, 3.
162, 1166 ; 9. 720 J Soune, dat.
4-179; 5- 344-
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
441
Sounde, ger. to heal, make sound,
7. 242.
Souned, />/. s. sounded, 9. 1202.
Soures, s. />/. sorrels, bucks ot" tl;e
tliird year, 3. 429. See note.
The O. F. sore, golden, yellow,
blonde, was applied to denote the
colour of hair. Cf. ' ses treces
iores,^ his (or her) yellow tresses ;
Rom. de la Rose, 11. 1093, 14074.
Sours, s. source, 4. 174; sudden
ascent, a springing aloft, 9. 544,
551. See note to 9. 544.
Soverayn, adj. chief, 5. 254 ;
Sovertyn, s. sovereign lord, I. 69.
Sowiiinge, pres. p. sounding, 3.
926.
Spak, pt. s. spoke, 3. 503.
Sparow, s. sparrow, 5. 351.
Spede me, hasten, be quick, 5.
3^5 ; Sped, />/). terminated, turned
out, 5. lOI.
Spede, s. advantage ; jor comiine
specie, for the good of all, 5. 507.
Speke, V. speak, 3. 852 ; Speken,
pt. pi. spoke, 3. 350.
Speking, s. speech-making, oratory,
5. 48S.
Spere, s. spear, 5. 135 ; ns >iigh as
men may casten with a spere, a
spear's cast, 9. 1048.
Spere, 5. sphere, orbit, 4. 137 ;
sphere, 16. II ; Spares,/)/, spheres,
5- .=;')•
SperhaukjS. sparrow-hawk, 5.338,
569.
Spille, V. destroy, ruin, 2. 46 ;
perish, 2 1. 121; doik me spille,
causes me to die, 21. 16; Spilt,
pp. lost, X. 180.
Sporne, v. spurn, kick, 12. 11.
Sprede, v. spread, open, 4. 4 ;
Spradde, pt. s. covered, 7. 40 ;
Sprad,/)/>. spread, opened, 3. 874.
Springes, pi. springs, merry danccs,
9. 1235.
Spronge, />/>. sprung; spronge amis,
iilii;ht( d in a wrong place, 9. 2079.
Squirelles, s.pl. squirrels, 3. 431 ;
Squertls, 5. I96.
Stable, adj. firm, motionless, 3.
645.
Stal, pt. s. stole, came cunningly, 3.
f)54 ; 9. .^18 ; i pt. s. went softly,
3. 1 25 1.
Stalked, i pt. s. stalked, crept
quietly, 3. 458.
Stant, pr. s. standeth, 3. 156 ; 4.
60; 7. 330; 9. 713; consists,
12.8.
Stare, s. starling, 5. 348.
Starke, adj.pl. strong, 9. 545.
Stature, x. being, existence, 5. 366.
Statut, 5. statute, ordinance, 11. 43.
Staves, _^e72. of the shaft of a car,
7. 184.
Stad, s. place, 9. 731 ; in stede of,
instead of, 4. 95.
Stel, s. steel, 5. 395?; Stele, dat. 9.
683.
Stellifye, v. make into a constella-
tion, 9. 5S6.
Stente, pt. s. stinted, stopped, 3.
154; I pt. s. 3. 358; pt. s. 9.
221, 1683, 1926. 2031. Pt. t. of
stin'.en. See Stinte.
Store,!/, stir, move, 9.567; Stereth,
/)r.s. stirs, 9.817; Slering, /;r./>^
moving, 9. 478.
Stere, s. rudder, guide, 9. 437 ; 19.
12.
Steresman, .s. steersman, q. 436.
Steringe, s. stirring, motion, 9.
800.
Sterlinges, pi. sterling coins, 9.
1315-
Sterre, x. star, 5. 68, 300 ; Sterres,
pi. 3. '824 ; 5. 595.
Sterry, adj. starry, full of stars, 5.
43.
Stert, pr. s. startelh, rouses, 9.
681 ; Sterle, /)/. s. started, 4. 92.
Sterve, v. die, 3. 1266; 5. 420;
21. 112 ; 22. 91 ; pr. s. suhj. 6.
23; 9. Id.
Steven, s. voice, sound, 3. 307 ;
appointment, meeting by appoint-
ment, 4. 52 ; Stevene, dat. voice,
9. 561. A. S. stefn.
Stewe, 5. brothel, 9. 26.
Steyre, s. degree (translation of
gradus), .^. 129. See note.
Stikke, X. stick, twig, 1. 90.
Stinte, V. stay, stop, cause to cf asc,
I. 63 ; leave off, 31, 43 ; I pr. s.
leave off telling, 9, 1417 ; Stinte,
442
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
pt. s. stopped, was silent, 3. 1299 ;
Stinting, pres. pt. stopping, 3.
1 2 13. See Stente.
Stok, s. stock, source, 13. i.
Stonde, v. stand, 5. 254 ; Stondeth,
pr. s. 2. 64 ; Stonde, pr. s. snbj.
9. 80 ; Stoden, pt. pi. stood, 2.
36 ; Stonden, pp. stood, 3. 975 ;
9. 1928.
Stoon, s. stone, 2. 16; 3. 1300;
Stones,^/, precious stones, 3. 980.
Stork, s. stork, 5. 361.
Stound, s. space of time, 9. 2071 ;
a short time, 5. 142 ; time, hour,
7. 238. A. S. stund.
Strake, v. move, proceed, 3. 1312.
Cf. ' they over lond strakeih,' they
run over the land ; P. Plowni.
Crede, 1. 82.
Straunge, adj. distant, unbending,
5. 584.
Streceh.e, v. reach, 7- 34i- See
Streighte.
Stree, s. straw, 3. 671, 887, 1237 ;
Stre, 9. 363; Strees, /)/. 3. 718.
Streghte, adv. straight, 9. 1992.
Streighte, pt.s. stretched, 9. 1373-
Pt. t. oi strecchen.
Stremes, pi. streams, rays, beams,
3. 338; 4. S3, III.
Strenges, s. pi. strings, 5. 192.
Strete, s. street, road, way, 1. 70.
See note.
Streyneth, pr. s. constrains, 4. 220.
Strike, pp. struck, 6. 35.
Strondes, /)/. shores, 9. 148.
Stroyer, s. destroyer, 5. 360.
Subieccioun, s. subjection, service,
submission, 4. 32.
Subtil, adj. finely woven, 5. 272.
Subtilte, s. subtlety , specious reason-
ing, 9- 855-
Suffisaunce, s. sufficiency, what is
sufficient, enough, a competence,
3. 1038; 5. 637; II. 15, 26;
treasure, 23. 13 ; Suffisance,
wealth, 3. 703.
Sviffraunt, adj. patient, tolerant, 3.
lOIO.
Suffren, v. suffer, 3. 41 2.
Suffyse, V. suffice, 3. 1094.
Surete, s. careless confidence, 7-
215-
Surmounted, pp. surpassed ; sur-
moimled of, surpassed in, 3.
826.
Sustene, v. sustain, maintain, i.
22 ; endure, 6. 2.
Suster, «. sister, 7. 38; 9. 1547;
Sustren, pi. 9. 1401 ; Sustres, 7.
16.
Sute, s. suit, set, 3. 261.
Swalow, s. swallow, 5. 353.
Swan, s. swan, 5. 342.
Swappe, 5. a swoop, the striking of
a bird of prey, 9. 543-
Swartish, adj. as adv. darkish,
dark, 9. 1647.
Swelte, V. die, 4. 216 ; Swelt,/>r. s.
dies, 4. 128. A. S. sweltan.
Swerde, s. dat. sword, 4. 100.
Swety, adj. sweaty, 10. 28.
Sweven, s. dream, 3. 119, 276,
279>i33o; 5-115; Swevenes,/./.
9. 3. A. S. swefen.
Sweynt, pp. tired out, sl'ithful, 9,
17S3. See note. Pp. ofswewcAe/;.
Swich, arf;. such, 1. 116 ; 3.1249;
5. 14; such a thing, 5. 570; pi.
3. 408.
Swinke, ger. to labour, 9. Ii75'
A. S. swincan.
Swogh, s. soughing noise, murmur,
5. 247; 9. 1031 ; swoon, 2. 16;
Swough, whizzing noise, 9. 1 941 ;
Swow, swoon, hence deep sorrow,
3- 215-
Swommen, pt. pi. swam, were
filled with swimming things, 5.
1 88.
SvfoOT, pf. s. swore, 7. loi.
Swote, adj. sweet, 5. 296 ; pi. 5.
274.
Swoune, v. swoon, faint, 4. 210 ;
Swowneth, pr. s. 7- 169.
Swough, Swow. See Swogh.
Swythe, adv. quickly, 5. 503 ; 9.
538 ; as swythe, as quickly as pos-
sible, 5. 623.
Syde, s. side, 3. 557.
Syghes, pi. sighs, 5. 246.
Syke, I pr. s. sigh, 22. 10; Syketh,
pr. s. 5. 404; pr. pi. 22. 62.
Syre, s. sire, master, 5. 12.
Ssrthe, pi. times, 7. 222. A. S.
sid.
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
443
Tabernacles, pi. tabernacles,
shriiK's, 9. 123, iigo.
Tables, s. />/. draughts, 3. 51.
Taccepte, i. e. to accept, 23. 16.
Tache, s. defect, 15. 18. O. F.
tache, teche. See Tecches.
Tacorde, for To acorde, to agree,
I. 27.
Tak, imp. s. take; /ai kepe, take
heed, 5. 563; 17.26; Tak (she),
let (her) take, 5. 462 ; Taketh,
imp. pi. take, 4. 9, 21 ; 5. 543;
Take,/-/., taken, 4. 32 ; 17. 23;
brought, I. 20.
Tale, s. tale ; / gan fynde a tale to
him, I thought of something to
say to him, 3. 536.
Talle, adj. docile, obsequious, 4.
38. See note.
Tapite, v. cover with tapestry, 3.
260.
Targe, s. target, shield, defence, 1.
176; shield, 7. 33.
Tassaile, for To assaile, ger. to
assail, 10. 40.
Tassaye, for To assay e, to try, 3.
Tast, s. taste, relish for, 5. 160.
Tawayte, i. e. to wait, 23. 7.
Taylage, s. taxation, 10. 54. Lit.
'taking by tally.'
Tecches, pi. characteristics, 9.
1778. See Tache.
Telle, V. tell, compute, 3. 440 ; i
pr. s. Telle (no tale), account
(nothing), reckon (of no import-
ance), 5. 326 ; Telleth, imp. pi.
tell, 3. 555, 113.:;.
Temen, v. bring ; temen us on here,
bring us on our bier, let us die, 9.
1744. A. S. teman, tyman, to
bring forward (Schmid).
Tempest thee, imp. s. violently
distress thvi^clf, I 2. 8.
Tempred, />/. .«. tempered, 5. 214.
Tendyte, /or To endyte, to com-
pose, write, 5. 167; 7. 9.
Tene, s. sorrow, grief, 7. 140, 168 ,-
9. 3S7 ; vexation, I. 3.
Tenquere, /or To tnquere, to ask,
I. 113-
Tente, s. tent, i. 9, 41.
Tercel, adj. male (of an eagle),
5. 393, 449 ; as s. male eai'le, 5.
405, 415; Tercels, pi. male, 5.
540. See note to 5. 371.
Tercelet, s. male falcon, 5. 529,
533; Terceiets, pi. male birds of
prey, 5. 659.
Teres,/)/, tears, 2. 10 ; 4. 8.
Terme, s. period, space of time,
3. 79 ; appointed time, 9. .H92.
Terme-day, s. appointed day, 3.
730-
Termyne, v. express in ' good set
terms,' 5. 530.
Tescape, /or To escape, iS. 50.
Thalmighty, for The Almighty,
5- 379-
Thameudes, /or The amendes, the
amends, 3. 526.
Thanne, adv. then, 3. 1 191 ; Than,
I. 118 ; 2. 86; 3. 754; 5. 82 ;
next, 5. 324.
Thapocalips, for The Apocalypse,
9- J3S5-
Thar, pr. s. impers. need ; him thar,
it is needful for him, 1 . 76 ; 3. 256.
\.S. />urfan ; pt. t. (as i>T.)fiearf.
Tharivaile. for The arivaile, the
arrival, the landing, 9. 451.
Tharnies,/or The amies, the arms,
armorial bearings, 9. 141 1.
Thassay, for The assay, the en-
deavour, 5. 2.
That, rel. that which, 3. 635, 708 ;
which, 3. 979 ; conj. so that, 3.
566; 4. 135 ; as that, 3. 959;
That other, the other. 3. 634 ;
That oon, — that other, the one, the
other, 3. 1290; 5. 143.
Thavision, for The avision, the
vision, 3. 285.
The, as in The bet, by so much the
better, 3. f.68 ; The las, by so
much the less, 3. 675.
The, pron. thee, 3. 598, 651.
Thee, v. prosper, thrive, 4. 267 ; 5.
569. A.S. /icon.
Theef, s. false wretch, 7. 161 ;
Theves, //. robbers, I. 15.
Theflfect, for The efTcct, the con-
sequence, result, 9. 5, 2017; the
matter, contents, 2. 56.
444
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
Thempsrour, for The emperour,
the emperor, 3. 368.
Then, con], than, 4. 235 ; 7. 297.
Thende, /or The ende, the end, 16.
45-
Thengendring, for The engen-
dring, the process of production,
9. 96S.
Thengyne, for The engyne, the
(warlike) engirie, 9. 1934.
Thenken, ger. to think, 3. 100;
Thenkcth, pr. &. 7. 105. A. S.
pencan.
Thenvyotis, /or The envyous, the
spiteful, malicious, 3. 642.
Ther, adv. where, 1. 145 ; 3. 501 ;
whereas, 1. II9 ; Ther as, where,
3. 197; 4. 85; Ther so, even
there, 4. 115.
Ther-aboute, adv. concerned with
that matter, 9. 597.
Therbe, /or The erbe, the herb, 9.
290.
Therof, concerning that, 3. 1132 ;
from that, 3. 1 166.
Therthe, /or The erthe, the earth,
5. 80.
Therto, adv. besides, moreover, 3.
704, 1006 ; 9. 998.
Ther-whyls, adv. for that time, 1.
54-
Therwith, adv. withal, for all that,
3- 954-
Ther'witli-al, adv. at that, there-
with, 5. 405.
Thesehewing, /or The eschewing,
the avoiding (of anything), 5.
140.
Theves, s.pl. robbers (lit. thieves),
I. 15. See Theef.
Thexeeucion, for The execucion,
the execution, II. 65.
Thewed, pp. ; luel theived, of good
thews, or habits, of good dis-
{)osition, 4. I So.
Thewes,^.'. habits, morals ; 9. 1834.
A. '&.J>eaw.
Thilke, adj. that, 3. 785 ; 16. 23.
Thing, s. pi. things, 3. 349.
Thinketh, pr. s. inipers. ; me
thinketh, it seems to me, 3. 547,
998. A. S. fiyncan.
Thirleth, pr. s. pierces, 7. 211 ;
Thirled, pp. 7. 350. A. S./yrlian,
pirlian.
This, /or this is, 5. 650; Thise,/»/.
thtse, 3. 817.
Tho, adv. then, 3. 234; 5. 298;
still, 3. 1054. A. S./rt.
Tho, /■/. those. 3. 914. A. S./d.
Thogh, adv. though, 4. 200 ; yet,
3. 670.
Thoghte, I pt. s. thought, 3. 448.
Thorgh, /rffp. through, 5. 127, 129.
Thorpes, /V. villages, 5. 350.
Thoughte, pt. sTlmpers. seemed, 2.
37 ; Thoghte, 3. 535, 1049. A. S.
pnhte.
Threde, s. thread, 5. 267.
Thridde, or J. third, 3. 214 ; 9.308.
Throng, pt. s. pressed, forced his
way, 7. 55. Pt. t. oi thringen.
Throstel, s. throstle, song-thrush,
5- 364-
Throte, 5. throat, 3. 945 ; Throtes,
pi. 3. 320.
Throwe, s. a short space of time, a
little while, 2. 86; 7. 93. A. S.
prdg.
Thryes, thrice, 5. 61.
Thundringe, s. thundering, thun-
der, 9. lo^o.
Thunworthiest, the unworthiest,
22. 19.
lYiMTgh., prep, through, i. 27, 32.
Thwyte, pr.pl. whittle, cut up tor,
9. I93S. A. S.fiwitan.
Tid, pp. happened, 9. 255. Pp. of
tyden ; see Tydeth.
Tikelnesse, s. lack of steadiness,
instability, 12. 3.
Til, conj. until, till, 4. 59.
Tinned, pp. covered with tin, 9.
1482.
Tipefc, s. tippet, 9. 1841.
Tirannye, s. tyranny, 7. 66.
To, prep, for, i. 1 84; him to, for
him, 3. 771 ; adv. too, 3. 796,
861 ; To that, until, 4. 239.
To-breketh, pr. s. is violently-
broken, 9. 779 ; To-broken, pp.
broken through, destroyed, 16. I.
To-breste, pr. s. snbj. may be
broken in twain, I. 16.
Togedres, adv. together, 3. 809.
To-hangen, v. hang thoroughly.
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
445
put to death by hanging, 9. 17S2.
See note.
Tok, pt. s. took, 4. 40 ; Toke, 2 pt.
s. tookcst, 3. 4S3.
Tolde, I pt. s. counted, 9. 13S0.
Pt. t. of telleii.
Tonge, s. tongue. 3. 930 ; Tonges,
pi. 4. 6. See Tunge.
Tonged, pp. tongued, 3. 927.
Tonne, s. tun, cask, wine-cask, 5.
104.
Took, pi. s. handed over, gave, 3.
48. Sec Tok.
Toon, pi. toes, claws, 9. 2028.
Top and tail, beginning and end,
9. 880.
Torche, s. torch, 3. 963.
To-rent, pp. torn in pieces, 5.
To-shivered, pp. broken to pieces,
been destroyed, 5. 493.
To-torn, pp. torn to pieces, 5.
no.
Touche, I pr. s. touch on, slightly
indicate, 5. 2S5.
Tough, adj. hard, harsh, 3. 531.
Totir, s. tower, I. 154; 3. 946;
mansion (in astrology), 4. 113.
To-wonde, pt. s. gave way, became
broken, 4. 182. ' Hit al to-wonde
to scifren,' it all went to shivers ;
Layamon, 1. 4537. Cf. A. S. wan-
dian. to Mench.
To-yere, adv. this year, 9. 84.
Trace, i pr. s. trace out, follow,
go. f. 54.
Traiterie, s. treachery, 9. 181 2.
Traitour, 5. traitor, 9. 267 ; Tray-
tour, 3. 1120.
Transmutacioun, s. change, n.
I ; Traiifmutaciouns, pi. 9. 1969.
Trappe, s. trap, snare, 17. 24.
Travaile, s. ' labour and sorrow,'
3. 602 ; work, motion, 11. 70.
Trayed, pt. s. betrayed, 9. 390.
Trayteresse, s. fein. traitress, 3.
620, 813.
Trecherye, s. treachery, trickery,
5- 347-
Tregetour, 5. a juggler who used
mechanical conirivances. 9. 1277 ;
Tregetours, /■/. 9. 1260. See
note to 9. 1260.
Treson, s. treason, betrayal, 3.
1 122.
Tresor, .<;. treasure, wealth, 4. 256,
732 ; Tresore, 3. 854.
Tresorere, ,s. treasurer, i. 107 ;
19. 18.
Tresorie, s. treasury, 9. 524.
Trespas, s. trespass, fauh, 4. 49.
Tretable, adj. tractable, inclinable,
3. 923 ; inclined to talk, 3. 533.
Trete, v. treat of, tell, 5. 34.
Tretee, s. treaty, 9. 453.
Trewe, adj. true, 3. 1287.
Trewely, adv. truly, certainly, 3.
I?,- ?,':>■
Tributary, adj. tributary, subject,
3- 765-
Trompes, gen. s. trumpet's, 5.
.344
Trompes, pi. trumpeters, 7. 30.
Trone, .<:. throne, 9. 1384, 1397.
Trouthe, s. truth, 2. 74.
Trow, I pr. s. believe, think, sup-
pose, 3. 269, 544; Trowe, 3.
1042 ; 5. 677 ; Trowest, 2 pr. s.
3- ^>5i-
Trumpen, v. blow the trumpet, 9.
1243 ; Trumpe, 9. 1629.
Trusteth, imp. pi. trui.t, believe, 9.
66.
Tuel, s. pipe, slender chimney, 9.
1649. O.K. ttiel ; Ciitgrave has
tiiyan, a pipe. Of Teut. origin ;
cf. Dan. t7id, a spout.
Tunge, s. tongue, i. 128; 4. 72;
Tunges, //. 4. 206. See Tonge.
A. S. tunge.
Turned, pp. turned, at an end, 3.
689.
Turtel, s. turtle-dove, 5. 355, 510.
Twelfte, ac(/. twelfth, 4. 139". A. S.
twelfta.
Tweye, 7unn. two, i. 104 ; 3. 156 ;
4. 70 ; Twc\'ne, dat. 2. 76 ; 4.
95. A. S. twe^en.
Twigges, pi. twigs, 9. 1936, 1941.
Twinkeling, s. twinkling, opening
and shutting (of the eye), 4. 222.
Twinne, v. jart ; twinne from his
wit. lose his mind, 7. 102.
Twist. /i/i. twisted, 9. 775.
Tyde, s. time, 5. 97 ; on a tyde,
upon a time, 4. 51.
446
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
Tydeth, pr. s. betides, happens, 4.
202.
Tygres, pi. gen. tigers', 9. 1459.
Tyles, s. pi. tiles, 3. 300.
Tymes, pi. times, 5. 283.
Tyraunt, s. tyrant, 5. 334.
U.
Unable, adj. wanting in ability, 14.
10.
TTnbrenned, //). unburnt, 9. 173.
TJncommitted., */). not entrusted to
one, 5. 518.
Unconning, adj. unskilful, 21.
75-
Undo, ger. unfold, reveal, 3. 899.
Unethe, adv. scarcely ; wel unethe,
scarcely at all, 9. 2041 ; Unethes,
with difficulty, 9. 900. A. S. un-,
not ; e'aS, easy. See Unnethe.
Unfamons, adj. lost to fame, for-
gotten by fame, 9. 1146.
Un-grobbed,/'/'. not digged round,
10. 14.
Unbappe, s. misfortune, 9. 89 ; 16.
29.
Un-korven, pp. uncut, untrimmed,
10. 14.
Unkynde, adj. unnatural, 5. 35S,
457-
Unkyndely, adv. unkindly, 9. 295.
Unkyndenesse, s. unkindness, 7.
292.
Unmerie, adj. sad, 9. 74.
Unmete, adj. unfit, 21. 75.
Unnethe, adv. scarcely, 3. 712 ; 4.
128; 5. 201, 264, 314; 7. 135 ;
Unneth, 3. 270. Better Wiethe ;
see Unethe.
Unshette, //>. not shut, 9. 1953.
Unswete, adj. bitter, dreadful, 9.
72.
Unto, conj. until, 5. 647.
Untressed, pp. with hair not done
up into tresses, 5. 268.
Un'wemmed, pp. unspotted, spot-
less, I. 91. A. S. wemmati, to
stain.
Unwit, s. folly, 4. 271.
Unwys, adj. unwise, foolish, 17.
27.
Up, prep, upon, 3. 750. 922 ; 9.
1 570 ; up with, 9. 102 1 ; Up and
down, here and there, 4. 210 ; Up
so down, topsy-turvy, 14. 5.
Upbreyde, v. upbraid, reproach, 7.
118.
Upon, p}-ep. concerning ; vpon her
lye, tell lies about her, 3. 1023.
Upper, adv. coinp. higher, 9. 884,
961.
Uprist, pr. s. upriseth, 4. 4.
Upryght, adv. upright, 3. 622.
Usage, 5. custom, habit, 5. 15.
Usaunce, s. custom, 5. 674.
V.
Vache, s. cow, beast, 12. 22. The
reference is to a quadruped who
looks down to the earth ; see note
to 12. 19.
Valance, 5. (possibly) sign of the
zodiac opposite the mansion of a.
planet, 4. 145. See note.
Valey, s. valley, 3. 165 ; Valeye,
dat. 3. 155; 9. 1918; Vi\eys,pl.
9. 899.
Venimous, adj. poisonous, i.
149.
Venquisht, //). vanquished, i. 8.
Verdit, s. verdict, 5. 503, 525.
O. F. verdit.
Verrayly, adv. verily, truly, 2. 73.
Verray,fl(f/'. exact, 9. 1079 ; Verrey,
very, true, I. 21, 40, 105, 106.
Vers, s. verse, line, 5. 679 ; 9.
1098 ; //.lines, 3. 463 ; 5. 124.
Vertu, s. mental faculty, 9. 550.
Veyn, adj. vain, i. 71.
Viages, />/. travels, 9. 1962.
Vicaire, 5. deputy, deputed ruler, I.
140; 5- 379-
Victor, s. as adj. of victory, 5.
182.
Vilanye, s. vileness, 9. 96.
Visage, s. face, 3. 895.
Vitaile, s. victuals, 10. 38.
Voide, adj. solitary, 4. 114.
Vois, s. voice, I. II5.
Vouched, pt. s. vouched ; vouched
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
447
&auf, vouched (as) safe, vouch-
safed, I. 27, 57 ; 22. 47 ; Vouche-
sauf, 2pr. p/. deign to give, 7. 254 ;
Voucheth sauf, imp. pi. vouch-
safe, 19. 8.
Vyce, s. vice, fault, 4. 261.
Vyne, s. vine, 5. 181.
Wages, pi. pay, recompense, 4.
244.
Wake, V. be awake. He awake. iS.
27 ; Wake, pr.pl. 5. 689 ; Waked,
pp. kept wake, caroused, 3. 977.
AVaker, adj. vigilant, 5. 358. See
note.
Waking, s. watching, being awake,
3. 611.
Wal, y. wall, 9. 1343 ; 12. 12.
Walked, pp. having walked, 3.
387. See note.
Walshe-note, gen. walnut's, 9.
1 281. (Or perhajis a compound
sb., viz. ■walihenole-fhale.)
Wan, pt. s. won, 3. 267.
Wante, i pr. s. lack, have not, 5.
287; Wanten, 2 pr. pi. ire lack-
ing, 2. 76.
War, adj. aware ; was I war. I
noticed, saw, 5. 218, 298 ; I was
war, 3. 445.
Warde, s. dal. ; on warde, into his
keeping. 3. 248.
Warished, pp. cured, 3. 1104.
O.K. warir (F. gucrir).
Warne, v. reject, i. 11; 2 pr. s.
sitbj. give notice to, 9. 893.
Water-foul, s. //. water-fowl, 5.
,=527. 504 ; Water-foules, 5. 554.
Waxe, V. grow, 3. 415 ; Waxen,
pp. become, 3. 414.
Wawes, pi. waves, 10. 21.
Wayte, imp. s. look out for, await,
9- 34^-
Wedercok, s. weathercock, 15. 12.
"Weders, />/. storms, 5. 681.
Weep, pt. s. wept, 3. 107; 7.
138.
Wei, adv. certainly, 3. T 1 1 7 ; to be
ivel, to be well otT, 3. 845.
Welawey ! int. wellaway ! alas ! 7.
338; 9-318.
Welde, s. weld, the name of a
plant, 10. 17. See note.
Wele, s. weal, good, well-being, 3.
603 ; 4. 184.
Wele, adv. well, 3. 643.
Wel-faringe, pres. pt. good-look-
'"g. 3- 452-
Welk. 1 pt. s. walked, 5. 297.
Welken, s. heaven, sky, 3. 339,
343. 409 ; 9- 1601 ; Welkne, n.
62.
Welle,.';, well, source, i. 126; 4.
Welle-stremes, pi. fountain -
streams, well-springs, 5. 187.
Welnigh, adv. well nigh, 4. 253.
Wenche, s. wench, woman, 9.
206.
Wende, v. go, 3. 67 ; 5. 48, 492 ;
pt. s. was going, 9. 298 ; pr. s.
siibj. may go, t;. 440.
Wenest, 2 pr. s. thinkest, sup-
poses!, 3. 744, 1 138. 1.^06;
Wende, I pt. s. I thought, 5. 493 ;
Wende, pt. s. weened, supposed, I.
93 ; 4; 248 ; 7. 96 ; Wenden, pt.
pi. 3. S67 ; Weninge, pres. pt. 9.
262.
Wenged, adj. winged, 9. 2 118.
Wente, pt. s. went, 3. 397. See
Wende.
Wente, s. footpath, 1 8. 69 ; dat.
3. 398; 9. 182.
Wepen, s. weapon, i. 118.
Weping, s. weeping, 3. 600.
Were, 2 pt. s. wast, i. 50 ; li. 37;
pt. s. S7ibj. would be, should be, 1.
180; 5. 511 ; Wer, 21. 81 ;
Wern, pt. pi. were, 3. 1289;
Weren, i pt. pi. siibj. should be, 1 .
180.
Were. pr. s.' subj. he may wear,
12. 7.
Were, s. doubt, 3. 1293; 9. 979.
Lowl. Sc. weir.
Were, 5. weir, 5. 13S.
Werkes, s. />/.~ deeds, actions, 3.
801.
Werne, v. deny, refuse, 9. 1797 ; 1
pr. s. 9. 15.59 ; Werned, pt. s. 9.
1539. A. S. wyrnan (Grein).
Werre, 5. war, 3. 615; to werre,
in enmity, I. 116. See note.
448
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
Werre, adv. worse, 3. 616. Icel.
verri.
"Werreye, v. carry on war, fight,
10. 25. O. F. werreier.
"Wers, adj. comp. worse, 3. 1118;
adv. 3. 814 ; Werste, superl.
worst, 3. 1 1 74.
Wery, adj. weary, 3. 127.
Weste, ger. to draw near the west,
5. 266.
"Wete, adj. pi. wet, 4. 89.
Wexe, V. grow, become, 3. 497 ; 5.
207,444; grow,9. 1391 ; Wexeth,
pr. s, 9. 1076 ; Wex, pt. s. 3.
1300; 4. 127; 5. 206; Wexen,
pt. pi. grew, became, 3. 489
Wey, s. way, i. 75 ; Weyes, //. 3.
1272 ; by al weyes, in all things,
3. 1271.
"Weyk, adj. weak, 7. 341. Icel.
veihr.
"Weylaway ! iiilerj. wellaway ! 3.
729.
"Weyve, v. relinquish, waive, cast
aside, 7. 299 ; 1 pr. s. 7. 294.
"WTian, conj. when, 3. 1236.
"What, whatever, 4. 170; 5. 664;
What . . . what, partly . . . partly,
5. 15 ; 9. 2058; What so, what-
ever, 2. 99.
"WTieel, 5. orbit, 9. 1450 ; circle, 9.
794 ; Whele, wheel, 3. 644.
"Whelp, s. whelp, 3. 389.
"Whennes, adv. wlence, 16. 6.
"Wher, conj^ whether, 3. 91, 417,
1174; 5- 7, 166; 7. 1S2 ; 9.
586; 21. 81.
"Wherfor that, wherefore is it that,
why, 3, 10.^4, 1088 ; 5. 17.
"Wher-so, adv. where-soever, 3. 10,
112, 783; whithersoever, 2.102;
Wher that, wherever, 5. 172.
"Wher-through, adv. by means of
which, ?. 120,
■Wherto, adv. for what purpose ? 3.
670.
"Which a, what kind of a, what a,
3- 734> S95. 919; 9- 2034;
Wbiche, what sort of, what fine,
3- 8.59-
"Whider, adv. whither, 1. 124.
"Whippes, gen. whip's, 5. 17S.
"Whirle, v. turn, spin round, 5. 80.
"Who, pron. indef. one who, 3.
.S59; VVhos, o-e«. whose, 4. 132.
"Whyl, conj. whilst, 3. 11 ■24.
Whyles, gen. s. as, adv. while,
time; fhe whyles, whilst, 3. 151.
"Whylom, adv. formerly, once, 4.
29.
"Whyte, adj. pi. white, 3. 131 8.
"Wight, s. man, person, I. 112 ; 2.
3; 3- y:>°\ 4- "6; 5. 511 ; 7.
88 ; Wightes, pi. beings, people,
men, 3. 579.
"Wight, s. weight, 9. 739 ; Wighte,
dat. 4. 99.
"Wikst, s. wicket-gate, 9. 477.
"Wikke, nc^'. wicked, bad, I. 44 ; 9.
349 ; II. 47 ; poor, much alloyed,
9. 1346.
"Wil, I pr. s. desire, wish for, 7.
244.
"Wildnesse, s. wilderness, 10. 34.
"Wille, s. will, I. 45, 57.
"Wilne, I pr. s. desire, 9. 1094 ;
Wilnen, pr. pi. 9. 1312 ; Wilned,
1 pt. s. 3. 1262. A.S. wihdan.
"Wind-melle, s. wind-mill, 9. 12S0.
"Winges, pi. wings, 5. 670.
"Winke, v. shut the eyes and so
sleep, fall asleep, 2. 109 ; I pr. s.
sleep, 5. 4S2.
"Winter, pi. years, 5. 473.
"Wirehe, v. inf. in passive sense, to
be made, 9. 474.
"Wis, adv. surely, certainly, 3. 550,
683; 9. 576, 1067, 1S19. A.S.
geivis.
"Wisly, adv. surely, 5. 117 ; 7- 262,
287 ; 9. i860; 22. 72; 23. 4,8.
"Wisse, gcr. to teach, instruct, 9.
491, 2024 ; imp. s. direct, guide,
I. 155 ; 2 pr. s.subj. teach, 5. 74.
A. S. wiisian. *
"Wiste,/)/. s. knew, 3. 591; Wist,
pp. known, 9. 351, 1666.
"Wit, s. wisdom, 3. 898 ; mind, 3.
990, 992; feeling, 21. 106;
Wittes, pi. senses, 21. 98.
"Wite, ger. to know, 2. 87 ; 3.
493; 2 pr. pi. 3. 16; 15. 20;
Witeth, imp. pi. 21. 96.
"With, prep, by, 5. 248, 432.
"With-alle, adv. withal, 3. 1205.
"Withouten, prep, without, 3. 943.
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
449
Wo, s. woe, sorrow ; me is wo, I am
sorry, 3. 566, 573.
Wo, ciJj. sad, grieved, 3. 896, 1 192 ;
wretched, 2. 3.
Wode, 4. wood, 3. 414 ; 5. 100.
Wode, ai!j. pi. mad, 9. 1 809. See
Wood.
Wol, pr. s. desires, wills I- 167;
will, 3. 559 ; Wolt, 2 pr. s. wilt,
I. 10 ; Wold, pt. s. would gladly,
wished to, 4. 124; god wolde,
would God ! 3. 665 ; Woldest, 2
pt. s. wouldst, 3. 561 ; Wold, pp.
willed, 18. II.
Womanhede, 5. womanhood, 7.
299; 22. 65.
Wonder, s. as adj. a wonder,
strange, 3. 233 ; wonderful, won-
drous, 3. 61; 9. 674; as adv.
wondrously, 3. 344; 5. 24I.
Wonder -most, adj. sup. most
wonderful, 9. 2059.
Wone, s. habit, custom, 9. 76 ; 22.
48. See Woon.
Woned, pf. s. dwelt, 3. 889 ; pp.
accustomed, 3. 150.
Woninge,s. dwelling, abode, 1. 145.
Wonne, pp. won, 5. 105 ; gained,
i. e. approacl ed, 4. 31.
Wood, adj. mad, 3. 104 ; 4. 123;
9.202; 2T. 90. A.S.tvod.
Wood, s. woad, 10. 17. A. S. wad.
Wook, I pi. s. awoke, 5. 695.
Woon, s. dwelling, house, 9. I166.
Cf. vjoanes, dwellings, Ancren
Riwle, p. 416; Woon, a building,
P. PI. Crede, 1 7 2. [Read goone,
■woone ?]
Woon, s. quantity, abundance, 3.
475. See Concise M. E. Diet.
Woot, pr. s. knows, 2. 30. See
Wost.
Worcher. s. worker, maker, 4. 261.
Worcheth, />r. s. works, 3. 815.
Worching, s. working, influence,
Worde. dat. word, saying, 3. 1311.
Worldes, gen. of the world, 5. 53.
Worm-foul, «. birds which eat
worms, 5. 505.
Worship, s. praise, honour, 3.
1032. 1230, 1263; 4. 22; glory,
3- 630.
G
Worthe, ger. to become, 4. 248 ;
luel worthe, may good befall, 9. 53.
Wost, 2 pr. s. knowest, 3. 743 ; 9.
7J9; Wostow, for Wost thou,
knowcst thou, 3. 1152 ; 9. 1000 ;
Wot, I pr. s. know, I. 10.
Wounde, s. wound, i. 79; gen.
wound's, 9. 374; Woundes of
Egipte, pi. plagues of Egypt ; un-
lucky days so-called, 3. 1207. Sec
note.
Woundeth, pr. s. wounds, 6. 3.
Woxen, pp. grown, 9. 2082 ;
Woxe, become, 9. 1494.
Wrastling, 5. wrestling, 5. 165.
Wrathed, />/). made angry , 3. 1 1 5 1 .
Wrecche, s. unhappy being, 3.
577 ; Wrecches,/>/. wretches, 7.60.
Wreche, s. vengeance, 16. 30.
Wreker, s. avenger, 5. 361.
Wringe, v. squeeze, force a way,
9. 21 10.
Writ, pr. s. writeth, writes, 9. 973,
1385 ; Wrot, pt. s. wrote, I. 59 ;
Writen./)/. pi. 9. 1 504 ; pp. written,
2. 43 ; Write, 5. 19.
Wroghte, pt. s. wrought, fashioned,
4. 259 ; Wrought, pp. made, born,
3- 90-
Wrong, s. ; had wrong, was wrong,
3. 1282.
Wrot. pt. s. wrote, i . 59.
Wroth, a^/- angry, 5. 504; Wrothe,
pi. at variance, 3. 582.
Wrye, v. {better Wreye>, betray, 4.
91. [Read Je^-e, wreye, as in Ar.
and Ju.]
Wryen, v. turn aside, 3. 627.
Wyde, adj. pi. wide, 5. 154.
Wyf, s. woman, 3. 1037 J ^^'f*^' 3-
1082.
Wyle, s. wile, guile, 5. 215.
Wynde, v. wind, intertwine, 5.
671.
Wyse, s. wise, way, i. 34; 3. 301,
1097.
Wyse, adj. wise, 21. 32 ; pi. as s.
wise people, I 7- 20.
Wyte, V. blame, reproach, 7. 1 10;
I pr. i. blame, 4. 270. A. S.
ivitan.
Wyte, s. blame, reproach, 7. 268.
A.S. wite.
45°
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
Taf, pt. s. gave, 3. 1269, 1273 ; 5.
274; 7- 195; I p(- s. 4. 167;
Yave, 2 />/. 5. gavest, 16. 19.
Tates, /)/. ^^n. gates', 9. 1301.
T-be, /)/.. been, 9. 41 1, 1733.
Y-bete, />/>. beaten, 9. 1041.
Y-blent, pp. blinded, deceived, 3.
647.
Y-blowe, pp. blown, 9. 1664;
bruited by fame, 9. 1 139.
Y-bore, pp. borne, 9. 590.
Y-bounden, pp. bound, 5. 268.
Y-brent, pp. burned, 9. 940.
Y-broke, pp. broken, 5. 282 ; 9.
770; Y-broken, 9. 765.
Y-caught, pp. caught ; she was
y-caught, the contagion of her
charms made itself felt (in me), 3.
838.
Y-ch.eyned, pp. chained, 17. 14.
Y-come, />/>. come, 7. 25 ; Y-comen,
9. 1074.
Y-crased, pp. cracked, broken, 3.
324-
Ydelnesse, s. idleness, 3. 602.
Y-do, pp. done, 3. 1236; finished, 5.
542-
Ydole, s. idol, 3. 626.
Ydrawe, pp. drawn, 7. 70.
Ye, s. eye, 3. 184, 808, 981 ; 4.
39; 9. 291 ; regard, 5. 630
Yen, pi. 2. 18; 4. Ill ; 6. I.
Ye, adv. yea, 5. 52.
Yelowe, adj. yellow, 5. 186
Yelow, 3. 857.
Yelownesse, s. yellowness, 19. 11
Yerde, s. rod, kence correction, 5
640.
Yere, dat. year, 5. 23; Yeres, pi.
gen. years', 5. 67.
Yerne, v. yearn, 3. 1092.
Yerne, adv. eagerly, with interest,
5. 21 ; quickly, 5. 3 ; as y.. very
eagerly, 9. 910.
Yeve, V. give, 5. 308 ; Yeven, 9.
1112 ; Yeve,pr.s. subj. may give,
4. 154; Yeven, pt. pi. siibj. wou\d
give, 9. 1708; Yeve, imp. s. 3.
Ill ; Yeven, pp. devoted, 7. 11 1.
Yeving, s. giving, what one gives,
4. 230 ; Yevinge, bounty, 7. 44.
Y-falle, />/). fallen, 2. 61 ; 3. 384.
Y-folowed, pp. followed, 3. 390.
Y-formed, pp. formed, created, 9.
490.
Y-founde, /)/). found, 3. 378.
Y-founded, pp. founded, set on a
. foundation, 5. 231 ; based, 3.
922.
Y-glased, pp. glazed, 3. 323.
Y-grave, pp. dug, dug out, 3. 164 ;
graven, 9. 11 36.
Y-gret, pp. greeted, 3. 517.
Y-grounded,/>/). grounded, 3. 921.
Y-hated, pp. hated, 9. 200.
Y-holde, pp. held, restrained, q.
1286.
Yif, imp. s. give, 5. 119.
Yift, s. gift, 3. 247, 695.
Yis, adv. yes, 3. 526 ; 9. 706; (in
answer to a negative), 3. 1 309.
Yit, adv. yet, notwithstanding, i.
46 ; 5. 165, 166.
Yive, V. give, 3. 242 ; pr. pi. 3.
695 ; Yive, pr. s. subj. may (he)
give, 3. 683 ; 9. 83 ; Yiven, pp.
3. 765. See Yeve.
Y-knit, /)/>. joined, 21. 32.
Y-knowe, v. know, recognise, 9.
1336; pp. known, 3. 392 ; 7.
96.
Y-koud, pp. been able to know,
known well, 3. 666.
Y-laft, pp. left, 3. 792.
Yle, s. island, 9. 416, 440 ; 22. 12.
Yliche, adj. like, similar, 9. 1328.
Yliche, adv. alike, equally, 3. 9,
803, 1288.
Y-lost, pp. lost, 9. 183.
Y-mad, pp. made, 9. 120.
Ymageries, pi. carved work, 9.
1 190, 1304.
Y-marked, pp. set down, marked
out, planned, 9. 1 103.
Y-ment, pp. intended, 9. 1742.
Y-met, pp. met, 3. 596.
Y-mused, pp. mused, reflected, 9.
1287.
Y-nogh, adj. enough, sufficient, 3.
965 ; 5- 185 ; adv. enough, suffi-
ciently, 18. 65 ; 21. 13 ; Y-now,
adj.pl. 5. 233.
Y-nome, pp. taken, 5. 38. Pp. of
nimen.
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
451
Yond, adv. yonder, 4. 7 ; 9. 8S9.
Yore, adv. long ago, long, i. 150 ;
2. 1 ; 5. 476 ; yore agon, long
ago, 5- 17-
Youres, pron. poss. yours, 2. 113 ;
3- 1232.
Yow, dat. to you, 3. 1321; for
yourselves, 4. 17.
Y-preised, pp. praised, 9. 1577-
Yre, s. ire, anger, vexation, i. 30 ;
4. 132; 5. 11 ; 7. 50.
Y-ronge, pp. rung, told loudly, 9.
1655.
Y-rouned, /)/>. whispered, 9. 2107.
Y-sayd, /)/). said, 3. 270.
Yse, s. ice, 9. 11 30.
Y-see, V. see, I. 53 ; 9. 804 ; Y-se,
3. 205, 485 ; Y-seye, pp. 9. 1367-
Y-sent, pp. sent, 7. 113 ; 9. 984.
Y-served, pp. served, 9. 678.
Y-set, pp. set, placed, 5. 149.
Y-shewed, pp. shewn, made mani-
fest, 4. iSi.
Y-songe, pp. sung, 9. 1397.
Y-sowen, pp. sown, 9. 1488.
■y-spronge, pp. sprung, divulged,
9. 2081.
Y-stalled, pp. set in a seat, in-
stalled, 9. 1364.
Y-strawed,/-/). strewn, bestrewn, 3.
629.
Y-strike, pp. struck, 6. 34.
Y-taught, /)/>. taught, 11. 12.
Y-thewed, pp. ; wel y-thewed, of
good thews or customs, 5. 47.
Y-throwe, pp. thrown, cast out, 2.
89.
Y-turned, pp. turned, 3. 446.
Yvoire, s. ivory, 3. 946.
Y-waxe, pp. grown, become, 3.
1275-
Y-went, pp. gone, 9. 976.
Y-whet, /!/>. whetted, 7. 212.
Ywis, adv. certainly, truly, 3. 657 ;
5-6; 9. 326.
Y-wonne, pp. won, 9. 456, 505.
Y-worthe, pp. become, 3. 579.
Y-writen, pp. written, 5. 124.
Y-wToken, pp. avenged, 16. 26.
Pp. of wreken.
Y-wrought, pp. made, constructed,
5. 305 ; shaped, 5. 418; wrought,
9. I2g8; Y-wroght, depicted, 3.
327; Y-wrogh!e,/>p./i/. fashioned,
5- 123-
Y-wryen, /)/>. covered over, 3. 62S.
A, S. vjrikan.
\
Gg
INDEX OF PROPER NAMES, &c.
N.B. — Some of the names are commented on in the Notes.
Achate, Achates, 9. 226.
Achilles, 3. 329, 1066; 5. 290;
9. 398, 1463.
Achitofel, Ahitophel, 3. 11 18.
Adam, 9. 970.
Adrastus, king of Argos, 7. 61.
Adriane, Ariadne, 9. 407.
African, Scipio Africanus Major, 5.
41. 44. 52, 96, 107, 120, 153;
Aftrican, 3. 287.
Afrik, Africa, 5. 37.
Albioun, Albion, 19. 22.
Alcipyades, Alcibiades, 3. 1057.
Alcyone, Alcyone (or, in a worse
form, Halcyone), 3. 65, 76, 145,
1327; Alcione, 3. 196, 220, 264.
Alexander, 9. 915, 1413; Ali-
saundre, 3. 1060.
Aleyn, Alanus de Insulis, Alein
Delille, 5. 316.
Alisaundre, Alexandria, 3. 1026.
Amphiorax, Amphiaraus, 7. 57.
Anchises, 9. 168, 171, 442.
Anelida, 7. 11, 49, 198, 204,
349-
Anteclaudian, the ' Anticlaudi-
anu*,' a Latin poem of Alanus de
Insulis, 9. 986.
Anthenor, Antenor, 3. 11 19.
Antilegius, Antilochus, mistaken
for Archilochus, 3. 1069.
April, 4. 139. See Averill.
Arabye, Arabia, 3. 982.
Aragon, Arragon, 9. 1248.
Arcite, 7. 11, 49, 349.
Argus, Algus 3. 435. See note.
Ariones harpe, the constellation
Lyra, 9. 1005. See Orion.
■Aristotile, Aristotle, 9. 759.
Ascanius, 9. 178.
Asye, Asia, 9. 1339.
Athalantes doughtres, the con-
stellation of the Pleiades, 9. 1007.
See note.
Athalaunte, Atalanta, 5. 286.
Athalus, Attalus, fabled inventor
of chess, 3. 663. See note.
Athenes, Athens, 9. 1845 ; Athenis,
9. 388.
Atiteris {possibly Tyrtaeus), 9.
1227.
Auffrike, Africa, 9. 1339 ; Auf-
frykes, gen. 9. 431.
Aurora, name of an 'allegorised
History of the Bible,' by Petrus
de Riga, of Rheims, 3. 1 1 69. See
note.
Ave Marie, Ave Maria, short
prayer to the Virgin, I. 104.
Averill, April, 7. 309. See April.
Bab.iloyne, Babylonia, Babylon, 3.
1061.
Bachus, Bacchus, 5. 275.
Ballenus, 9. 1273. See note.
Bathe, wyf of, wife of Bath, i.e.
Chaucer's Prologue to the Wife of
Batli's Tale, 17. 29.
Bellona, 7. 5.
Biblis, Byblis, 5. 289.
Boece, Boethius, 8. 2 ; 9. 972.
Bret, Briton, Welshman, 9. 1208.
See note.
Briseida, Briseis, 9. 398.
Brutes, gen. of Brut, of Brutus, 19.
22. See note.
Bukton, 17. I.
INDEX OF PROPER NAMES.
45.3
Caliope, Calliope, 9. 1400.
Calipsa, Ca!3'pso, 9. 1272.
Calixte, Callisto, 5. 286.
Campaneus, Cajiaiicus, 7. 59.
Candace, Canace (of Ovid, He-
roiiit's 1 1.), or else queen Candace,
5. 288; 15. 16. See notes.
Carrenare, gulf of the Carnaro, or
Quarnaro, in the Adriatic, 3.
1029.
Cartage, Carthage, 3. 732, 1062 ;
5. 44; 9. 224, 236.
Cassandra, 3. 1246.
Castor, Polux, the constellation
Gemini, 9. 1006.
Cataloigne, Catalonia, 9. 1248.
Ceres, 5. 276.
Chiron, 9. i 206.
Cimerie, Cinimerii, 9. 73.
Cipris, Cypris, Venus, 9. 518;
Cipryde, 5. 277.
Circes, Circe, 9. 1272.
Cirrea, Cirra, near Delphi, 7. 17.
Cithe, Scythia, 7. 23; Cithia, 7.
37-
Citherea, Cytherea, 5. 113.
Clare, St. Clara or Clare, 9. ic66.
Claudian, Claudius Claudianus, 9.
449, 1509.
Cleopatra, Cleopatra, 5. 291.
Colle, proper name of a juggler, 9.
1277.
Corinne, Corinnus, 7. 21. See
note.
Creon, Creon, 7. 64.
Creseide, Cressida, 15. 16.
Cresus, Croesus, 9. 105.
Creusa, 9. 175, 183.
Crist, Christ, 9. 271, 492.
Cupido, Cupid, 9. 137, 618, 668 ;
Cupyde, 5. 652 ; 16. 22.
Cylenius, Cyllenius, Mercury, 4.
144; gen- 4- "3-
Dalida, Delilah, 3. 738; 15. 16.
Dares Frigius, Dares Phrygius,
3. 1070; Dares, 9. 1467.
Daunte, Dante, 9. 450.
Decembre, December, 9. 63, iii.
Dedalus, Daedalus, 3. 570 ; 9. 919;
Dedali, gen. 9. 1920.
Deiphebus, Deiphobus, 9. 444.
Demophon, Deniophoon, 3. 728;
9. 388.
Diane, Diana, 5. 281.
Dido, 5. 289; 9. 241, 254, 287,
444. See Dydo.
Diogenes, 10. 35.
Duche, adj. German, 9. 1234.
Dyanira, Deianira, 9. 402.
Dydo, Dido, 3. 732. See Dido.
Eacides, gen. of Aeacides, Achilles
(grandson of Aeacus), 9. 1206.
Ebrayk, Hebrew, 9. 1433.
Eclympastere, 3. 167. See note.
Ecquo, Echo, 3. 735.
Ector, Hector, 3. 328, 1 165.
Egipte, Egypt, 3. 281, 1207.
Eleanor, 9. 516. See note.
Eleyne, Helen, 3. 331 ; 5. 29T,
Elicon, Helicon, 7. 17 ; 9. 522.
Elye, Elijah, 9. 588.
Emelye, Ennly, 7. 38.
Eneas, Aeneas, 3. 733; 9.165, 175,
217, 286, 293, 427, 434, 440,
452, 461.
Eneidos (i.e. Aeneidos liber),
Atneid, 9. 378.
English, the English tongue, 7. 9 ;
18. 80 ; Aence command of words,
3. 898.
Enok, Enoch, 9. 588.
Enone, Oenone, 9. 399.
Eolus, Aeolus, 9. 203, 1.S71, 1586,
1602, 1719, 1764, 1769, 1789,
1800, 2120.
Ercules, Hercules, 3. 1058 ; 5.
288; 9. 402. See Hercule^
Ermony, Armenia, 7. 72.
Europe, 9. 1339.
Flora, 3. 402.
Fraunce, France, 5. 677 ; i8. 82.
Fryse, Friesland, 17. 23.
Gabrielles, gen. Gabriel's, i. 115.
Galien, Gakn, 3. 572.
Ganymede, 9. 589.
Gaufride, Geoffrey of Monmouth,
9. 1470.
454
INDEX OF PROPER NAMES.
QteSrej, Geoffrey, the poet's name,
9- 7^9-
Genelon, Ganelon, 3. 11 21.
Glascurion, Glasgerion, 9. 1208.
Graunson, 18. 82. See note.
Grece, Greece, 3. 1081 ; 7. 53.
Grek, Greek, 3. 667 ; 9. 152 ;
Grekes, /)/. 3. 1 167; 9. I479 ;
gen. -pi. 9. 186.
Guido de Columpnis, Guido
delle Colonne, 9. 1469.
Gyle, St. Aegidius, Giles, 9. 1183.
Hercules, 9. 141 3. See Ercules.
Herenus, gen. pi. of the Furies, 2.
92. See note.
Hermes, Hermes Trismegistus, 9.
1273-
Hester, Esther, 3. 987.
lame, St. James, 9. 885.
lason, Jason, 3. 330, 727; 9.400,
401.
Icarus, 9. 920.
lewerye, kingdom of the Jews, 9.
1436.
Tewesj pi. gen. Jews', 9. 1434.
Ilioun, Ilioii (citadel of Troy), 3.
1248; 9. 158. See note to 9, 158.
Inde, India, 3. 889.
loab, Joab, 9. 1245.
lohan, St. John, 3. 1319 ; John, 5.
451 ; 9. 1385.
Idle, lole, 9. 403.
loseph, Joseph, 3. 280.
losephus, Josephus, 9. 1433.
loves, Jove, Jupiter, 9. 219, 586,
597, 630, 661, 1041, 2007.
Ipolita, Hippolyta, 7. 36.
Ipomedon, Hippomedon, 7. 58.
Isaye, Isaiah, 9. 514.
Isidls, Isis, 9. 1844.
Isiphile, Hypsipyle, 9. 400.
Isoude, Isolt, Ysolt, 5. 290 ; Isaude,
9. 1796. See note to 5. 288.
Itaile, Italy, 9. 147, 1S7, 196, 298,
430, 433' 452.
lulius, Julius Caesar, 9. 1502.
lulo, (Ascanius) lulus, 9. 177. See
note.
lulyan, St. Julian, 9. 1022.
luno, Juno, 3. 109, 129, 132, 187,
243; 7- 51 ; 9- 198,461.
lupiter, Jupiter, 9. 215, 464, 591,
609, 642, 955 ; 10. 67 ; lupiteres,
gen. 9. 199.
Kent, 9. 1 131.
Laborintus, the labyrinth of Dae-
dalus, 9. 1921.
Lamedon, Laomedon, 3. 329.
Lamek, Lamech, 7. 150; La-
mekes, gen. 3. 1 162.
Latin, adj. Latin, 9. 1483 ; the
Latin tongue, 7. 10.
Latine, Latinus, 9. 453.
Lavyne, Lavinia, 3. 331 ; Lavyna.
9. 458.
Lavyne, Lavinium, 9. 148.
Leonard, St. Leonard, 9. 117.
Lete, Lethe, 9. 71.
Libye, Libya, 9. 488.
Lollius, 9. 1468. See note.
Longius, I. 163. See note.
Lucan, 9. 1499.
Lucresse, Lucretia, 7. 82 ; Lucrece,
3. 1082.
Lyde, Lydia, 9. 105.
Lymote, Elymas (_?), 9. 1274. See
note.
Macedo, the Macedonian, 9. 915.
Macedoyne, Macedonia, 3. 1062.
Macrobeus, Macrobius, 3. 284 ;
Macrobie, 5. ill.
Marcia {wrongly made /em.), Mar-
syas, 9. 1229.
Marcian, Martianus Minneiis Felix
Capella, satirist of the fifth cen-
tury, 9. 985.
Marie, Mary, the Virgin, 9. 573.
Mars, 4. 25, 75, 77, 78, 90, 92,
123, 148; 7. 1,31,355; Martes,
gen. 9. 1446.
Massinisse, Masinissa, 5. 37.
May, May, 3. 291.
Medea, 3. 330, 726 ; 9. 401, 1271.
Mercure, Mercury, 9. 429.
Messenus, Mistnus, 9. 1243.
Michelnesse, Michaelmas, 16. 19,
INDEX OF PROPER NAMES.
455
Minerva, 3. 1072.
Moises, Moses, i. 89, 93.
Morpheus, Morpheus, 3. 136, 167,
242, 2O5.
N"abugodonosor,Nebuchadnezzar,
9- .Sir-
Narcisus, Narcissus, 3. 735.
Nembrot, Ninirod, 10. 59.
Ninive, Nineveh, 3. 1063.
Octovien, Octavian, 3. 368. See
note.
Oise, the river Oise, 9. 1928.
Olivere, Oliver, 3. 11 23.
Omere, Homer, 9. I466, 1477.
Orion, Arion, 9. 1205.
Orpheus, 3. 569; 9. 1203.
Ovyde, Ovid, 3. 568; 9. 379,
1487 ; his Epistle {Her. vii.), 9.
379-
Palinurus, 9. 443.
Pallas, 7. 5.
Pan, the silvan deity, 3. 512.
Paris, son of Priam, 3. 331 ; 5.
290 ; 9- 399-
Parnaso, Parnassus, 7. 16 ; 9. 521.
Parthonopee,Parthenopaeus, 7. 58.
Penelope, 3. 108 1 ; 7. 82.
Peter, by saint Peter ! 9. 1034,
2000.
Pharo, Pharaoh, 9. 516 ; gen. 3.
282.
Phebus, Phoebus, 4. 27, 81, 88,
140; gen. 4. 114.
Phedra, Phac'ra, 9. 419.
Pheton, Phaethoii, 9. 942.
Phillis, Phyllis, 9. 390 ; Phyllis, 3.
728.
Pictagoras, Pythagoras, 3. 1 167;
Pithagores, 3. 667.
Piramus, Pyramus, 5. 289.
Pirrus, Pyrrlius, 9. 161.
Pius Eneas, pius Aeneas, 9. 1485.
Platon, Plato, 9. 759 ; Plato, 9.
931-
Pleynt of Kynde, Alanus de In-
sulis' book, ' Planctus Naturae,' 5.
316.
Pluto, 9. 15 1 1.
Polites, son of Priam, 9. 160.
Polixena, Polyxena, 3. 1071.
Polymia, Polyhymnia, 7. 15.
Pompe, Ponipcy, 9. 1502.
Priamus, Priam, 3. 328 ; Priam,
9- 159-
Priapus, 5. 253.
Proserpyne, Proserpine, 9. 1511.
Pruyse, Prussia, 3. 1025.
Pseustis, {possibly) Thespis, 9.
1228.
Beynes, Rennes in Brittany, 3. 255.
Komain, s. Roman, 3. 1084.
Komaunce of the Rose, Romance
of the Rose, 3. 334.
Rome, 3. 1063 ; 9. 1930.
Romulus, 5. 292 ; 9. 589.
Rowland, Roland, 3. 1123.
Sampson, Samson, 3. 738.
Sathanas, Satan, 17. 10.
Saturne, Saturn, 9. 1449.
Saturnyne, adj. belonging to Sa-
turn, 9. 1432.
Scipioun, Scipio Africanus Minor
5. 31, 36, 71, 97; 9. 514;
Scipion, 3. 286 ; Scipio, 9. 916.
Scogan, 16. 13, 20, 25, 36, 43. 47.
Semyramus, Scmiramis, 5. 288.
Sesiphus, Sisyphus (but meant for
Tityus), 3. 589. See note.
Seys, Ceyx, 3. 63, 75, 220, 229,
1327 ; gen. 3. 142.
Sibyle, (the Cumuean) Sibyl, 9.
439-
Silla, Scylla, 5. 292. See note.
Simon Magus, 9. 1274.
Socrates, 3. 717 ; 11. 17.
Spaine, Spain, 9. 11 17.
Stace, Statins, 7. 21 ; 9. 1460.
Synoun, Sinon, 9. 152.
Tantale, Tantalus, 3. 709.
Tartarye, Tartary, 3. 1025.
Tewnes, Tunis, 3. 210.
Theban, adj. s. Thtbaii, 7. 85.
Thcbaiis, adj. pi. 7. 60.
Thebes, 4. 245 ; 7. 53 ; 9. 1461.
45^
I AW EX OF PROPER NAMES.
Theodomas, Thiodomas {Stalius,
bk. viii.), 9. 1245.
Theseus, 7. 22, 45; 9. 405.
Tholosan, of Toulouse (applied
wrongly to Statius), 9. 1460.
Thomas, St. Thomas a Beket, 9.
1131.
Tisbe, Thisbe, 5. 289.
Trace, Thrace, 7. 2 ; 9. 391, 1572,
1585, 1789.
Tristram, Tristan, 5. 290.
Triton, 9. 1596, 1604.
Troilus, 5. 291 ; 8. 2.
Troyan, adj. Trojan, 9. 207.
Troyanisshe, adj. Trojan, 9. 201.
Troye, Troy, 3. 1066, 11 20, 1248;
9- 152, 155, 326, 1472 ; Troy, 9.
1 46.
Troyens, /)/. Trojans, 9. 156.
Tubal, Tubal (Chaucer's error for
Jubal), 3. 1 162.
Tullius, Tuliy, M. TuUius Cicero,
5. 31 ; gen. 16. 47.
Turkye, Turkey, 3. 1026.
Turnus, 9. 457, 516.
Tydeus, 7. 57.
Tytus Livius, Titus Livius, Livy,
3. 1084.
Tytus, for Dite, i. e. Dictys Cre-
tensis, 9. 1467.
Valence, probably Valence, near
Lyons, France, 5. 272.
Valentyn, St. Valentine, 5. 683 ;
Valentyne, 4. 1 3 ; Valentynes, gen.
5. 309, 322, 386.,
Venus, 4. 26, 31, 43, 46, 77, 89,
113, 136, 141,143, 146; 5- 261 ;
9. 162, 219, 465, 618; gen. 4.
84. 145; 5- 351; 9- 1487; the
planet, 4. 2.
Venyse, Venice, 9. 1348.
Virgile, Vergil, 9. 378, 449, 1483;
Virgilius, 9. 1244.
Vulcano, Vulcan, 9. 138.
"Walakye, Wallachia, 3. 1024.
"Watlinge Strete, name of the
Milky Way, 9. 939. See note.
Whyte, White, i. e. Blaunche, 3.
948.
Xristus, for Christus, Christ, i.
161.
Tnde, India, 4. 246.
Ypocras, Hippocrates, 3. 572.
Ysaac, Isaac, 1. 169.
Zacharie, Zechariah, i. 177.
Zephirus, Zephyrus, Zephyr, 3.
402.
INDEX OF THE PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS
EXPLAINED IN THE NOTES.
The more difficult words are explained in the Glossary; but some are
further commented on in the Notes. Such words are entered in the
ioUowing Index, and are printed in italics. The Index to the Proper
Names should also be consulted. In the present Index the numbers refer
to the pages.
a (one), 387.
able, 229.
abrayd, 242 ; abreyd, 327.
accioun, 224.
Adamant, 291.
advocat, 227.
Alanus de lusulis, 254, 297, 29S,
299. 3oo> 301, 303, 345. 375-
Albion, 397.
Alcabitius, 278.
Alcyone, 236, 237.
Alexander's flight, 342.
Anticlaudinnus, 345, 375.
Archilochusj 266.
Argus, Algus, 249, 250.
Arion, 348.
ascendent, 353.
assyse, grete, 225.
Astrolabe, Chaucer's, 278, 280,
341-
atake, 276.
Atalanta, 295.
Athalus, 256.
Atlas, 345.
Aurora, 270.
avowe, 239.
awhaped, 318.
axeth, 382.
beste, 382.
bet, go, 239.
bihynde, 403.
biles, 341, 342.
bille, 227, 232.
Blaunche, 259, 261, 272.
bleive, 274.
Blue (for constancy), 316, 387.
Boccaccio, 292, 293, 294, 296,
310, 311, 312, 314, 315, 321,
328, 338, 346.
Boethius, 258, 259, 266, 303, 321,
334. 340. 342, 344. 365. 370.
37.3. 374. 375. 376, 377. 378.
379- 380, 3S1, 3S2, 383, 384,
3.S6.
bonxie, to, 274.
boteler, 336.
brede, 350.
Brei, 348.
brotelnesse, 388.
brouke, 330.
Brutus, 397.
Biick, names of the, 249.
Bukton, 391.
but if, 225.
h, 339-
by'r {by our), 252, 255.
babewinnes, 347-
Ballenus, 353.
Barbour, 365.
Beard, tu make a, 338.
behelde, infin., 315.
belle, 272
cadence, 337-
Calendars, 226.
Callisto, 295.
Candace, 296, 388.
carbuncle, 356.
carole, 260.
458
INDEX OF SUBJECTS EXPLAINED.
Carrenare, 264.
castel, long, 272.
cave, 277, 278.
Caxton, 369.
Ceyx, 236, 239.
charge, sb., 339.
Chaucer, his early passion, 236 ; his
occupations, 337 ; his wife, 335.
Chaunte-pleure , 319.
cheest, 306.
Chess, 254, 255, 256, 257.
chevauche, 279.
Chiron, 348.
choppen, 364.
Chough, 299.
Christus, written ' Xpc,' 228.
Cicero, 285, 390.
Cipris, 333 ; Cipride, 295.
citizein, 343, 345.
Clare, St., 347.
clarre, 371-
Claudian, 332, 360.
clow, 361.
Cock, 300.
CoUe, 354.
colour, under, 232.
Colours, meaning of, 387.
cotn, 304 ; cotne, subj., 238.
compas, 341.
Complexions, four, 326.
Constellations, 345.
corbettes, 355.
Corinne, 312.
comes, 338.
corseynt, 327.
covercle, 340.
crampisske/h, 317-
ereature, 400.
erocke, 382.
Croesus, dream of, 327.
Crow, 302.
Cyllenius, 277, 279.
Dalida, 388.
Dante, 260, 288, 289, 290, 292,
312, 318, 324, 327, 332-336,
337, 339. 342, 343, 346, 347,
350, 352, 357, 358, 360, 365,
367, 388.
Dares, 266, 358, 359.
day, natural, 277.
Deadly Sins, Seven, 224.
debonair e, 223.
deed and dolven, 242.
Deguileville, De, 223.
Depression, 277.
derk, 278.
Deschamps, 396, 398.
desespeired, 399.
despitous, 402.
Dictys, 358, 359.
dismal, 270.
divisioun, 284.
dome, as to my, 403.
doth me dye, 229.
doucet, 349.
Drake, 301.
draught, 255.
Dreams, 289, 325.
dreint, 242.
Dryden, 237.
drye se, 263.
dryve away, 236.
dyte, 404.
Eagle, 298.
Eclympasteyre, 241.
Egyptian days, 271.
Eleanor, 333.
eld, 395-
Elements, four, 339.
Elijah, 336.
embosed, 246.
Enoch, 336.
envye, to, 242.
envyen, 351.
Erinnyes, 233.
erme, 238, 239.
erro2ir, 291, 389.
estaat, 231.
ever in oon, 229.
Exaltation, 277.
eyrisshe, 343.
Fable ; crock and the wall, 382.
face, 281.
fare, sb., 338.
faucon, 298.
favour, 333.
fers, 255, 257, 258.
Fieldfare, 302.
flees, 372.
for, 306.
forloyn, 248.
formel, 302.
forpampred, 370.
INDEX OF SUBJECTS EXPLAINED.
459
fori, no, 309, 376.
fot-haot, 247.
foudre, 334.
founde, 318.
free, 224.
French song, 376.
Friesland, 391.
Froissart, 234, 241.
froit, 367.
galantine, 371.
galaxye, 343.
Ganymede, 336.
Gaunt, John of, 251, 259.
geaunl, 299.
Gemini, 277, 278.
getidres, 325.
Genelon, 268.
gentilesse, 3S4.
Geoffrey of Monmouth, 359.
Giles, St., 347.
girt, 277.
Glasgerion, 349.
gnodded, 371.
go walked, 248.
Golding's Ovid, 237, 238, 239,
240, 252,
golee, 305.
Goose, 301.
governeresse, 227.
Gower, 237, 239, 241, 244, 250,
262, 274, 306, 314, 315. 329>
331, 341, 343, 344. 3'53, 365-
Graunson, 395.
Green Jor inconstancy), 317.
grete, the, 285.
Grisel, 390.
Guido de Colonna, 266, 358,
359> 360.
habit acles, 348.
hadde, 231.
half, 347.
halt (holdeth), 309.
hand, to hold in, 338.
Harmonia, 283.
Helicon, 333, 334.
I'ente, 334, 335.
Herenus, Herines, 232, 233.
heritage, 232.
Hermes, 353.
Heron, 300.
Herostratus, 364.
herse, 230.
herle, 229 ; hertes, 404.
hette, 282.
Higden, 269, 270.
flight, 232.
Hippocrates, 284.
Homer, 358-360.
hoodies, 263.
' hoods, game in their,' 364.
horowe, 282.
hottes, 366.
Hous of Fame, argument of,
321-4-
Jangling, 299.
Jay, 299.
ieupardies, 256.
Ilioun, 329.
in (into), 330.
interesse, 379.
Joab, 351.
logelours, 352.
lolytee, 338.
Josephus, 357.
loves, 329, 336.
Isis, temple of, 364.
Isolde, 296, 364.
Julian, St., 346.
ken, 250.
Kingis Quair, 293.
kinnes, alles, 360.
Kite, 300.
lace, 394.
Lamech, 316.
Lapidaire, 355, 356.
Lapwing, 300.
largesse, 224, 355.
Legend of Good Women, 26S,
285, 296, 329, 331, 336, 365.
Leonard, St., 328.
light for somer, 388.
lisse, 265.
lisietk, 333.
lokijig, 275.
Lollius, 359.
Longius or Longinus, story of,
228.
lovedayes, 338.
Lucan, 360.
Lydgate, 251, 271, 273,317,318,
320, 321, 328, 349, 360, 398.
460
INDEX OF SUBJECTS EXPLAINED.
lyes, 368.
lymere, 247.
Ljrmote, 354.
b^e, 337.
m' (for me), 230, 252, 390.
Maehault, 232, 237, 241, 242,
243, 254, 25S, 259, 261, 262,
265. 334. 349, 387, 396-
Macrobius, 241, 244, 274, 275,
285, 287^ 288, 289, 325, 326.
Mandeville, 291.
manere, 306.
Mansions (in astrology), 275.
Maria, meaning of, 225.
Marie de Prance, 245.
Mars (planet), 274-277, 279, 358.
Marsyas, 350.
Martianus, 344.
Mary crowned, 227 ; days sacred
to, 226.
masty, 362.
me (dative), 235.
jnelodye, 226.
vien, 282, 2S5, 393.
mene, sb., 227.
Mercury (planet), 277, 279, 281.
merlion, 299.
mete or sippe, 317.
Meun, Jean de, 326.
Minstrels, 348.
7nis, 366.
Misenus, 351.
7nisericorde, 225.
mochel, 260.
moot, 247.
Nabugodonosor, 333.
ne (pronounced n), 233, 234, 242,
260.
Neckam, 288, 291, 300, 301.
Nembrot, 373.
new/angel nesie, 316.
nin {= ne in), 246, 257,
n'l (= «e 7), 252.
noskinnes, 363.
nouncerteyn, 394.
Oetovien, 247.
Oise, river, 365.
oon, 403.
oundy, 356.
Ovid, 236, 237, 241, 252, 274,
295, 296, 299, 324, 326, 331,
336, 339. 341, 343-347, 351,
352, 360, 361, 365, 366, 367,
370, 372, 373-
pale, 364.
paraventure, 366.
Parnassus, 333,
payed of, 370.
Peacock, 301.
pelet, 361,
penaunce, 395.
Penelope, 267.
pere (dissyllabic), 226.
perilous., 232.
Pestilences, 389.
Peter ! 346, 366.
peyne, up, 361.
Pheasant, 301.
phiionesses, 352.
Phoenix, 261.
Pity personified, 231.
plee, 304.
Pleiades, 346.
pleyne, 316.
PUny, 298, 300, 301.
pomiage, 371.
poverte, 376.
prililee, 342.
Princes, the, 379,
Princess, 394.
Proverb, 'a fool's bolt is soon shot,'
305 ; ' as a blind man starts a hare,'
338; 'as fain as fowl of a fair day,'
273; 'as good fish,' etc., 305; 'as
I brew,' etc. 365 ; ' avoidance the
only remedy,' 291 ; 'eel by the tail,'
368 ; ' he that knows the herb,'
etc., 330 ; ' it is not all gold,' etc.,
329 ; ' let well alone,' 391 ;
' proffered service stinks,' 305 ;
'the cat loves fish,' 363; 'the
false thinks not like the true,'
316 (1. 105) ; ' to spurn against
an awl,' 382 ; other proverbs,
259. 398-
pure, 252.
put up, 231.
Pythagoras, 269, 270.
quern, 371.
qui bien aime, 308.
INDEX OF SUBJECTS EXPLAINED.
461
rakelnesse, 389.
rechased, 248.
record, 389.
recover er, 402.
rede, 349.
re/ui, 224.
'■^'a^, 247-
Kennes, 243.
renoun, 231.
redgne, 226.
'•«>'««. 351-
Eime, exceptional, 393 ; feminine
rimes, 337 ; remarks on rime,
249, 254.
Roland and Oliver, 269.
Homaunt of the Hose, 232, 244,
245, 249, 250. 252, 253, 256-
258, 260-262, 266, 267, 269,
289, 290, 292, 297, 303, 304,
325. 327-329. 349' 353. 357.
361, 370-372. 374-378, 384.
385. 391-
Romulus, 336.
Roundel, 306, 307, 308.
roundel, 341.
rowes, 273.
Saturn, 357.
savour, s., 376; v., 381.
Scansion, remarks on, 234, 235.
Seipio, 343 ; his dream, 286, 2S7.
Scogan, 3^9.
scorning, 299.
scourging, 275.
scriveyn, 32 1.
Scylla, 296.
Sea, the Dry, 263.
seek to, 232.
seet (for sat), 252.
sene, 387.
sent, 318.
servaunt, 231, 291.
set ( = settcth), 233.
Seven stars, 259.
sewe, 385.
seynt (di^syilabic), 335.
shal, 401, 404 ; shal not, 229.
sheweth, 231.
Sisyphus, 253.
5(V ( = siiteth), 268.
sitien on /i-nes, 239.
slit {slideth), 284-
som, 244.
Sound, theory of, 340.
sours, 335.
sowse, to (etymology o[), 335.
Sparrow, 300.
Spenser, 272, 292, 293, 295, 312,
335. 364-
Spheres, seven, 274, 3S9 ; nine,
286; harmony of the, 286.
Starling, 300.
Statius, 231, 241, 274, 283, 292,
.^11 314. 351, 358-
stellifye, 336.
stere, 397.
steyre, 279.
Stork, 302.
stremes, 277*
sujffice, 381.
sustene, 224, 317-
swete fo, 400-
sweynt, 362.
Syllable, first, lacking, 367.
tacke, 388.
tacorde {to acorde), 225.
talle, 275.
Tasso, 292.
Taurus (sign). 276, 277.
temen upon here, 362.
tempest, v., 381.
tenquere {to enquere), 227.
tkar (verb), 226.
thou (use of\ 224.
Thebes, brooch of, 283.
theef, 316 ; theves, 224.
ther, 227.
thing, 380.
Thiodamas, 351.
this {this is), 304.
Thomas, St., 347.
Thynne's lines, 369.
tirelire (Vreuch), 226.
Tisiphone, 231.
Tityus, 253.
to-hangen, 362.
Trees, list of, 292.
tregetnur<, 352, 354.
treively, 235, 267.
Tristram, 296.
Triton, 361.
Trpilus, 321.
trot/the, 309, 381.
Troy, Romance of, 266, 268,277,
329) 358,359. 360.
46 a
INDEX OF SUBJECTS EXPLAINED.
Tubal, 269, 270.
Tunis, 244.
Turnus, 333.
tvjelfte, 279.
tyraunt, 298,
vprist, 273.
vache, 383.
valance, 279, 280.
Valence, 294.
Valentine's day, 297.
venquisht, 223.
Venus (planet), 273, 274, 275,
276, 277, 279, 290.
Vergil, 237, 262, 291, 292, 297,
299. 301. 324, 328-332, 336,
. 357-
vicaire, 2i'j, 303.
Vincent of Beauvais, 237, 287,
289, 298-301, 326, 340, 356,
377-
vouched safe, 225.
wanten, 232.
warde, on, 243.
warne, 224.
"Watling Street, 344.
weep, pt. t., 239.
weld, 372.
wente, 249.
werre, to, 227.
wheel, 340, 357,
wher (whether), 239, 246.
■Willamme d' Amiens, 308.
"Windows, stained glass, 244.
wis, adv., 338.
7visly, 403.
wold, 393.
wood, for, 362.
wreche, 390.
_yow(use of), 224.
y-worthe, 253.
THE END.
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1853
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cop, 2
Chaucer, Geoffrey
The minor poems
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