28.

Cithe, Scythia; see last note. See Kn. Tale, 9 (A 867).

24.

Cf. Kn. Tale, 169, 121 (A 1027, 979).

25.

Contre-houses, houses of his country, homes (used of Theseus and his army). It exactly reproduces the Lat. domos patrias. See Kn. Tale, 11 (A 869).

29-35.

Chaucer merely takes the general idea from Statius, and expands 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 currus, cumulataque fercula cristis.’

And, just below, is a brief mention of Hippolyta, who had been wedded to Theseus.

30, 1.

Cf. Kn. Tale, 117, 118 (A 975). See note above.

36, 7.

Cf. Kn. Tale, 23, 24 (A 881, 2); observe the order of words.

38.

Repeated in Kn. Tale, 114 (A 972); changing With to And.

Emelye is not mentioned in Statius. She is the Emilia of the Teseide; see lib. ii. st. 22 of that poem.

43-6.

Cf. Kn. Tale, 14, 15, 169 (A 872-3, 1027).

47.

Here we are told that the story is really to begin. Chaucer now returns from Statius (whom he has nearly done with) to the Teseide, and the next three stanzas, ll. 50-70, are more or less imitated from that poem, lib. ii. st. 10-12.

50-6.

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 lernei
  • Con furioso corso avie commossi
  • Sopro i Tebani, e miseri trofei
  • Donati avea de’ Principi percossi
  • Più volte già, e de’ greci plebei
  • Ritenuti tal volta, e tal riscossi
  • Con asta sanguinosa fieramente,
  • Trista avea fatta l’ una e l’ altra gente.’
57-63.

Imitated from Tes. ii. 11:—

  • ‘Perciò che dopo Anfiarao, Tideo
  • Stato era ucciso, e ’l buon Ippomedone,
  • E similmente il bel Partenopeo,
  • E più Teban, de’ qua’ non fo menzione,
  • Dinanzi e dopo al fiero Capaneo,
  • E dietro a tutti in doloroso agone,
  • Eteocle e Polinice, ed ispedito
  • Il solo Adrastro ad Argo era fuggito.’

See also Troilus, v. 1499-1510.

57.

Amphiorax; so in Troilus, ii. 105, v. 1500; Cant. Tales, 6323 (D 741); and in Lydgate’s Siege of Thebes. Amphiaraus is meant; he accompanied Polynices, and was swallowed up by the earth during the siege of Thebes; Statius, Thebais, lib. vii. (at the end); Dante, Inf. 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, Parthenopæus, son of Meleager and Atalanta; another of the seven chiefs. For the account of their deaths, see the Thebaid, lib. ix.

59.

Campaneus; spelt Cappaneus, Capaneus in Kn. Tale, 74 (A 932); Troil. v. 1504. Thynne, in his Animadversions on Speght’s Chaucer (ed. Furnivall, p. 43), defends the spelling Campaneus 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 Capaneus. 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. lib. x (at the end). Cf. Dante, Inf. xiv. 63. As to the form Campaneus, 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. 1507.

61.

Adrastus, 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
  • Vôto 1 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
  • Recò insieme il regno suo e l’ onore,
  • Per fiera crudeltà da lui usata,
  • Mai da null’ altro davanti pensata.

Cf. Knightes Tale, 80-4 (A 938).

1

Voto, ‘hollow, voide, empty’; Florio.

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 M. E. form.

78.

Of twenty yeer of elde, of twenty years of age; so in MSS. F., Tn., and Harl. 372. See note to l. 80.

80.

Behelde; 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, l. 288, the Trinity MS. has the infin. behealde, and the Lambeth MS. has bihelde. 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 holde in five MSS. out of seven, riming with welde ( wolde ); C. T., Group D, l. 272.

82.

Penelope and Lucretia are favourite examples of constancy; see C. T., Group B, 63, 75; Book Duch. 1081-2; Leg. Good Women, 252, 257. Read Penélop’, not Pénelóp’, as in B. D. 1081.

84.

Amended. Compare what is said of Zenobia; C. T., B 3444.

85.

I have supplied Arcite, which the MSS. strangely omit. It is necessary to name 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 Arcíte here, or Árcite in l. 92. See Kn. Tale, 173, 344, 361, c. on the one hand; and lines 1297, 1885 on the other. And see l. 140 below.

91.

Read trust, the contracted form of trusteth.

98.

‘As, indeed, it is needless for men to learn such craftiness.’

105.

A proverbial expression; see Squi. Tale, F 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 ll. 146, 150, 161-9 below.

119.

Cf. Squi. Tale, F 569.

128.

‘That all his will, it seemed to her,’ c. A common idiom. Koch would omit hit, for the sake of the metre; but it makes no difference at all, the e in thoghte being elided.

141.

New-fangelnesse; see p. 409, l. 1, and Squi. Tale, F 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.

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, F 644, and the note; and see l. 330 below; also p. 409, l. 7.

150.

Cf. Squi. Tale, F 550. I have elsewhere drawn attention to the resemblance between this poem and the Squieres Tale, in my note to l. 548 of that Tale. Cf. also Cant. Tales, 5636 (D 54). The reference is to Gen. iv. 19—‘And Lamech took unto him two wives.’ In l. 154, Chaucer curiously confounds him with Jabal, Lamech’s son, who was ‘the father of such as dwell in tents’; Gen. iv. 20.

155.

Arcít-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 pleyne to whyne, in C. T. 5968 (D 386). To pleyne or to whyne 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, F 537.

162.

Cf. Squi. Tale, F 462, 632.

166.

Cf. Squi. Tale, F 448.

169.

Cf. Squi. Tale, F 412, 417, 430, 631.

171.

Al crampissheth, she draws all together, contracts convulsively; 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 crampeshe at min herte.’

As this gives no sense, it is clear that crampeshe at is an error for crampisheth or crampished, which Lydgate probably adopted from the present passage.

Again, in Lydgate’s Life of St. Edmund, in MS. Harl. 2278, fol. 101 (ed. Horstmann, p. 430, l. 930), are the lines:—

  • ‘By pouert spoiled, which made hem sore smerte,
  • Which, as they thouhte, craumpysshed at here herte.’

Skelton has encraumpysshed, Garland of Laurell, 16; and Dyce’s note gives an example of craumpishing from Lydgate’s Wars of Troy, bk. iv. c. 33, sig. Xv. col. 4, 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 (A 2808), it is Arcite who says ‘ mercy!

176.

Read endur’th. Mate, exhausted.

177.

Read n’hath. Sustene, support herself; cf. C. T. 11173 (F 861).

178.

Forth is here equivalent to ‘continues’; is or dwelleth is understood. Read languísshing.

180.

Grene, fresh; probably with a reference to green as being the colour of inconstancy.

182.

Nearly repeated in Kn. Tale, 1539 (A 2397); cf. Comp. unto Pity, 110. Cf. Compl. to his Lady, 52.

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.

Fee or shipe, fee or reward. The scarce word shipe being misunderstood, many MSS. give corrupt readings. But it occurs in the Persones Tale, Group I, 568, where Chaucer explains it by ‘hyre’; and in the Ayenbite of Inwit, p. 33. It is the A. S. scipe. Stipendium, scipe’; Wright’s Vocabularies, 114. 34.

194.

Sent, short for sendeth; cf. serveth above. Cf. Book of Duch. 1024.

202.

Also, as; ‘as may God save me.’

206.

Hir ne gat no geyn, she obtained for herself no advantage.

211.

The metre now becomes extremely artificial. The first stanza is introductory. Its nine lines are rimed a a b a a b b a b, with only two rimes. I set back lines 3, 6, 7, 9, to show the arrangement more clearly. The next four stanzas are in the same metre. The construction is obscure, but is cleared up by l. 350, which is its echo, and again by ll. 270-1. Swerd 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. The Compleint to his Lady, l. 55.

215.

Awhaped, amazed, stupified. To the examples in the New E. Dict. add—‘Sole by himself, awhaped and amate’; Compl. of the Black Knight, 168.

216.

Cf. the Compleint to his Lady, l. 123.

218.

That, who: relative to hir above.

220.

Observe how the stanza, which I here number as 1, is echoed by the stanza below, ll. 281-289; and so of the rest.

222.

Nearly repeated in the Compl. to his Lady, l. 35.

237.

Repeated from the Compl. to his Lady, l. 50.

241.

Founde, seek after; A. S. fundian. For founde, all the MSS. have be founde, but the be is merely copied in from be more in l. 240. If we retain be, then befounde must be a compound 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 l. 47 above. With l. 242 cf. Rom. Rose, 966 (p. 134).

247.

Cf. Compl. to his Lady, ll. 107, 108.

256-71.

This stanza is in the same metre as that marked 5 below, ll. 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 a a a b a a a b; in the last eight lines this order is precisely reversed, giving b b b a b b b a; so that the whole forms a virelay.

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 ll. 113-5 above.

267.

Read sav-e, mek-e; or the line will be too short.

270.

Refers to ll. 211-3 above.

272.

This stanza answers to that marked 6 below, ll. 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 a a b a a b b a b, as in the stanzas marked 1 to 4 above. Every line has an internal rime, viz. at the second and fourth accents. In ll. 274, 280, this internal rime is a feminine one, which leaves but one syllable (viz. nay, may ) to complete these lines.

The expression ‘swete fo’ occurs again in the Compleint to his Lady, l. 41 (cf. ll. 64, 65); also in Troil. v. 228.

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 womanhood?’ It is not for the woman to sue to the man. Compare l. 332.

301.

Nēd-e, with long close e, rimes with bēde, mēde, hēde.

302.

‘And if I 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.

Holde, keep back. The spelling Averyll (or Auerill ) occurs in MS. Harl. 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 or Aperil in Troil. i. 156.

313.

Who that, whosoever. Fast, trustworthy.

315.

Tame, properly tamed. From Rom. Rose, 9945:—

  • ‘N’est donc bien privée tel beste
  • Qui de foir est toute preste.’
320.

Chaunte-pleure. Godefroy says that there was a celebrated poem of the 13th century named Chantepleure or Pleurechante; 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 v x duravit per diem, sed longus dolor qui usque ad mortem, gallicè la chantepleure ’; J. de Aluet, Serm., Richel. l. 14961, fol. 195, verso. And again:—

  • ‘Car le juge de vérité
  • Pugnira nostre iniquité
  • Par la balance d’équité
  • Qui où val de la chantepleure
  • Nous boute en grant adversité
  • Sanz fin à perpétuité,
  • Et y parsevere et demeure.’
  • J. de Meung, Le Tresor, l. 1350; ed. Méon.

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 Chantepleure, now singing now weping.’ In MS. Harl. 4333 is a Ballad which turns upon this expression. It begins: ‘Moult vaut mieux pleure-chante que ne fait chante-pleure. ’ Clearly the last expression means, that short grief followed by long joy is better than brief joy followed by long grief. The fitness of the application 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 chaunte-pleure,
  • Beginning with ioy, ending in wretchednes.’

So also in Lydgate’s Siege of Troye, bk. ii. c. 11; ed. 1555, Fol. F 6, back, col. 2.

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; a furlong-wey is two minutes and a half; and the double of it is five minutes. But the strict sense need not be insisted on here.

330.

Asure, true blue; the colour of constancy; see l. 332.

  • ‘Her habyte was of manyfolde colours,
  • Watchet- blewe of fayned stedfastnesse,
  • Her golde allayed like son in watry showres,
  • Meynt with grene, for chaunge and doublenesse.
  • Lydgate’s Fall of Princes, bk. vi. c. 1. st. 7.

So in Troil. iii. 885—‘bereth him this blewe ring.’ And see Sect. XXI. I. 7 (p. 409), and the note.

332.

‘And to pray to me for mercy.’ Cf. ll. 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 pútten.

346.

See note to Parl. of Foules, 342.

350.

This line re-echoes l. 211.

357.

The reason why the Poem ends here is sufficiently obvious. Here must have followed the description of the temple of Mars, written in seven-line stanzas. But it was all rewritten in a new metre, and is preserved to us, for all time, in the famous passage in the Knightes Tale; ll. 1109-1192 (A 1967).

2.

Boece, Chaucer’s translation of Boethius. Troilus, Chaucer’s poem of Troilus and Creseyde; in 5 books, all in seven-line stanzas. See vol. II.

3.

‘Thou oughtest to have an attack of the scab under thy locks, unless thou write exactly in accordance with my composition.’

1.

‘Decaearchus . . . refert sub Saturno, id est, in aureo saeculo, cum omnia humus funderet, nullum comedisse carnes: sed uniuersos uixisse frugibus et pomis, quae sponte terra gignebat’; Hieron. c. Iouin. lib. ii.

2.

The former age; Lat. prior etas.

3.

Payed of, satisfied with; Lat. contenta.

4.

By usage, ordinarily; i. e. without being tilled.

5.

Forpampred, exceedingly pampered; Lat. perdita. With outrage, beyond all measure.

6.

Quern, a hand-mill for grinding corn. Melle, mill.

7.

Dr. Sweet reads hawes, mast instead of mast, hawes. This sounds better, but is not necessary. Haw-es is dissyllabic. Pounage, 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 Nomolexicon. Koch wrongly refers us to O. F. poün, poön, a sickle (Burguy), but mast and haws were never reaped. Cf. Dante, Purg. xxii. 149.

11.

‘Which they rubbed in their hands, and ate of sparingly.’ Gnodded is the pt. t. of gnodden or gnudden, to rub, examples of which are scarce. See Ancren Riwle, pp. 238, 260 (footnotes), and gnide in Halliwell’s Dictionary. But the right reading is obviously gniden or gnide (with short i ), the pt. t. pl. of the strong verb gniden, to rub. This restores the melody of the line. In the Ancren Riwle, p. 260, there is a reference to Luke vi. 1, saying that Jesus’ disciples ‘ gniden the cornes ut bitweonen hore honden’; where another MS. has gnuddeden. The Northern form gnade (2 p. sing.) occurs in the O. E. Psalter, Ps. lxxxviii. 45. Dr. Sweet reads gnodde, but the pt. t. of gnodden was gnodded. Nat half, not half of the crop; some was wasted.

16.

‘No one as yet ground spices in a mortar, to put into clarrè or galantine-sauce.’ As to clarre, see Knightes Tale, 613 (A 1471); R. Rose, 6027; 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 venegur er þou more do;
  • Drawȝe hit þurughe a streynour þenne,
  • And messe hit forth before good menne.’

Galendyne is a sauce for any kind of roast Fowl, made of Grated Bread, beaten 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. F. galatine, galantine, galentine, explained by ‘gelée, daube, sauce, ragoût fort épicé; en bas Latin, galatina. ’ Beyond doubt, Chaucer found the word in the Roman de la Rose, l. 21823—‘En friture et en galentine. ’ See Galantine in Littré, and see note to Sect. XII. l. 17. Cf. Rom. de la Rose, 8418:—

  • ‘Et de l’iaue 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 Rubia tinctoria, the roots of which yield a dye. I once fancied weld was an error for welled (i. e. flowed out); and Dr. Sweet explains welde by ‘strong.’ Both of these fancies are erroneous. Weld is the Reseda Luteola of Linnæus, 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 Wau (Du. wouw ), older spelling Waude. Its antiquity as a Teut. word is vouched for by the derivatives in the Romance languages, such as Span. gualda, Port. gualde, 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. gualdo, ‘a weede to die yellow with, called woald. ’ The true woad is the Isatis tinctoria, 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. Pliny mentions the dye from madder (Nat. Hist. xix. 3); and says the British women used glastum, i. e. woad (xxii. 1).

18.

Flees, fleece; Lat. ‘uellera.’

20.

‘No one had yet learnt how to distinguish false coins from true ones.’

27-9.

Cf. Ovid, Metam. i. 138-140.

30.

Ri-ver-es; three syllables. Dr. Sweet suggests putting after in place of first.

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. This is taken either from Jerome, in his Epistle against Jovinian, lib. ii. (Epist. Basil. 1524, ii. 73), or from John of Salisbury’s Policraticus, lib. viii. c. 6. Jerome has: ‘Diogenes tyrannos et subuersiones urbium, bellaque uel hostilia, uel ciuilia, non pro simplici uictu holerum pomorumque, sed pro carnibus et epularum deliciis asserit excitari.’ John of Salisbury copies this, with subuersores for subuersiones, which seems better. 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 nuit dormir voloient,
  • En leu de coites [ quilts ] aportoient
  • 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 asséurées,
  • De toutes cures escurées.’
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 walles; whereas the line should end with a word riming to shete, as, e. g. ‘Hir hertes knewen nat to counterfete.’

49.

Here again cf. Rom. de la Rose, 8483:—

  • ‘N’encor n’avoit fet roi ne prince
  • Meffais qui l’autrui tolt et pince.
  • Trestuit pareil estre soloient,
  • Ne riens propre avoir ne voloient.
55, 6.

‘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 immediately after the description of the golden, silver, brazen, and iron ages. At l. 568 of the same book begins the story of the love of Jupiter for Io.

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 kingdom was Babel.’ But the usual medieval account is that he built the tower. Thus, in the Cursor Mundi, l. 2223:—

  • ‘Nembrot than said on this wise, . . .
  • “I rede we bigin a laboure,
  • And do we wel and make a toure,” ’ c.

So also in Sir D. Lyndsay, Buke of the Monarché, bk. ii. l. 1625.

62-4.

These last lines are partly imitated from Boethius; lines 33-61 are independent of him.

1.

The beginning somewhat resembles Boethius, bk. ii. met. 1, l. 5:—‘She, cruel Fortune, casteth adoun kinges that whylom weren y-drad; and she, deceivable, enhaunseth up the humble chere of him that is discomfited.’ Cf. Rom. Rose (E. version), ll. 5479-83.

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 ); I. now poeer e and now honour; A. T. nowe poure and nowe honour; H. now poore and now honour. But the reading poure, poer, pore, i. e. poor, hardly serves, as a sb. is required. Pouerte seems to be the right word, but this requires us to omit the former now. Pouerte can be pronounced povért’; accented on the second syllable, and with the final e elided. For this pronunciation, see Prol. to Man of Lawes Tale, Group B, l. 99. Precisely because this pronunciation was not understood, the scribes did not know what to do. They inserted now before pouerte (which they thought was póverte ); 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,’ with the pronunciation noted above.

7.

In the Introduction to the Persones Tale (Group I, 248), we find: ‘wel may that man, that no good werke ne dooth, singe thilke newe Frenshe song, Iay tout perdu mon temps et mon labour. ’ In like manner, in the present case, this line of ‘a new French song’ is governed by the verb singen in l. 6; cf. Sect. XXII. l. 24. 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), 5551-2, 5671-78, 5579-81:—

  • ‘For Infortune makith anoon
  • To knowe thy freendis fro thy foon . . .
  • A wys man seide, as we may seen,
  • Is no man wrecched, but he it wene, . .
  • For he suffrith in pacience . . .
  • Richesse riche ne makith nought
  • Him that on tresour set his thought;
  • For richesse stont in suffisaunce; ’ 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, l. 98, which Chaucer translates: ‘Thanné, yif it so be that thou art mighty over thy-self, that is to seyn, by tranquillitee of thy sowle, than hast thou thing in thy power that thou noldest never lesen, ne Fortune ne may nat beneme it thee.’

17.

Socrates is mentioned in Boeth. bk. i. pr. 3, l. 39, but ll. 17-20 are from Le Rom. de la Rose, ll. 5871-4:—

  • ‘A Socrates seras semblables,
  • Qui tant fu fers et tant estables,
  • Qu’il n’ert liés en prospérités,
  • Ne tristes en aversités.’
20.

Chere, look. Savour, pleasantness, attraction; cf. Squi. Tale, F 404. All the MSS. have this reading; Caxton alters it to favour.

25.

This Second Ballad gives us Fortune’s response to the defiance of the complainant. In Arch. Seld. B. 10, it is headed—‘Fortuna ad paupertatem.’ See Boethius, bk. ii. prose 2, where Philosophy says—‘Certes, I wolde pleten with thee a fewe thinges, usinge the wordes of Fortune. ’ Cf. ‘nothing is wrecched but whan thou wenest it’; Boeth. ii. pr. 4, l. 79; and see Rom. Rose (E. version, 5467-5564).

28.

‘Who possessest thy (true) self (as being quite) beyond my control.’ A fine sentiment. Out of, beyond, independent of.

29.

Cf. ‘thou hast had grace as he that hath used of foreine goodes; thou hast no right to pleyne thee’; Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 2, l. 17.

31.

Cf. ‘what eek yif my mutabilitee yiveth thee rightful cause of hope to han yit beter thinges?’ id. l. 58.

32.

Thy beste frend; possibly John of Gaunt, who died in 1399; but see note to l. 73 below. There is a curious resemblance here to Le Rom. de la Rose, 8056-60:—

  • ‘Et sachies, compains, que sitost
  • Comme Fortune m’ot ça mis,
  • Je perdi trestous mes amis,
  • Fors ung, ce croi ge vraiement,
  • Qui m’est remès tant solement.’
34.

Cf. ‘For-why this like Fortune hath departed and uncovered to thee bothe the certein visages and eek the doutous visages of thy felawes . . . thow hast founden the moste precious kinde of richesses, that is to seyn, thy verray freendes’; Boeth. bk. ii. pr. 8, l. 25.

Cf. Rom. Rose (E. version), l. 5486, and ll. 5547-50. The French version has (ll. 4967, 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 poïssent où monde avoir.’
35.

Vincent de Beauvais, Speculum Naturale, bk. 19, c. 62, headed De medicinis ex hyæna, cites the following from Hieronymus, Contra Iouinianum [lib. ii. Epist. Basileæ, 1524, ii. 74]:—‘Hyænæ fel oculorum claritatem restituit,’ the gall of a hyena restores the clearness of one’s eyes. So also Pliny, Nat. Hist. bk. xxviii. c. 8. This exactly explains the allusion. Compare the extract from Boethius already quoted above, at the top of p. 543.

38.

‘Still thine anchor holds.’ From Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 4, l. 40:—whan that thyn ancres cleven faste, that neither wolen suffren the counfort of this tyme present, ne the hope of tyme cominge, to passen ne to faylen.’

39.

‘Where Liberality carries the key of my riches.’

43.

On, referring to, or, that is binding on.

46.

Fortune says:—‘I torne the whirlinge wheel with the torning cercle’; Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 2, l. 37.

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.’ M. S. Arch. Seld. B. 10 has the heading ‘Paupertas ad Fortunam.’

50.

My frend, i. e. my true friend. In l. 51, thy frendes means ‘the friends I owed to thee,’ my false friends. From Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 8, l. 23:—‘this aspre and horrible Fortune hath discovered to thee the thoughtes of thy trewe freendes; . . . Whan she departed awey fro thee, she took awey hir freendes and lafte thee thyne freendes.’

51.

I thanke 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:—

  • ‘Ceste ruile est si généraus,
  • Qu’el ne puet defaillir vers aus.’
57.

Here Fortune replies. This stanza is nearly made up of extracts from Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 2, transposed and rearranged. For the sake of comparison, I give the nearest equivalents, transposing them to suit the order here adopted.

‘That maketh thee now inpacient ayeins me. . . I norisshede thee with my richesses. . . Now it lyketh me to with-drawen my hand . . . shal I than only ben defended to usen my right? . . . The see hath eek his right to ben somtyme calme . . . and somtyme to ben horrible with wawes. . . Certes, it is leveful to the hevene to make clere dayes. . . The yeer hath eek leve . . . to confounden hem [ the flowers ] somtyme with reynes . . . shal it [ men’s covetousness ] binde me to ben stedefast?’

Compare also the defence of Fortune by Pandarus, in Troilus, bk. i. 841-854.

65.

Above this stanza (ll. 65-72) all the MSS. insert a new heading, such as ‘Le pleintif,’ or ‘Le pleintif encountre Fortune,’ or ‘The pleyntyff ageinst Fortune,’ or ‘Paupertas ad Fortunam.’ But they are all wrong, for it is quite certain that this stanza belongs to Fortune. Otherwise, it makes no sense. Secondly, we know this by the original (in Boethius). 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 purviaunce is thilke divyne reson that is establisshed in the soverein prince of thinges; the whiche purviaunce disponeth alle thinges’; Boeth. bk. iv. pr. 6, l. 42.

68.

Ye blinde bestes, addressed to men; evidently by Fortune, not by the Pleintif. Compare the words forth, beste, in the Balade on Truth, Sect. XIII. l. 18.

71.

Here we have formal proof that the speaker is Fortune; for this is copied from Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 3, l. 60—‘natheles the laste day of a mannes lyf is a manere deeth to Fortune.’ Hence thy refers to man, and myn 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 interesse, though scarce, is right. It occurs in Lydgate’s Minor Poems, ed. Halliwell, p. 210; and in Spenser, F. Q. vii. 6. 33:—

  • ‘That not the worth of any living wight
  • May challenge ought in Heaven’s interesse.

And in Todd’s Johnson:—‘I thought, says his Majesty [K. Charles I.] I might happily have satisfied all interesses ’; Lord Halifax’s Miscell. p. 144. The sb. also occurs as Ital. interesse; thus Florio’s Ital. Dict. (1598) has:—‘ Interesse, Interesso, the interest or profite of money for lone. Also, what toucheth or concerneth a mans state or reputation.’ And Minsheu’s Spanish Dict. (1623) has:—‘ Interes, or Interesse, interest, profite, auaile.’ The E. vb. to interess was once common, and occurs in K. Lear, i. 1. 87 (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 l. 76 (found in MS. I. only), 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. l. 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. only, 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 himself. Moreover, we should expect the Envoy to form a stanza with the usual seven lines, so common in Chaucer, though the rime-arrangement differs.

77.

‘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 Fortune is a happy expedient. The poet thus escapes making a direct appeal in his own person.

1.

The MS. has Yowre 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. 1550, fol. 347 b, in the form—‘Your eyen two wol slee me sodainly.’ The same Ballad contains other imitations of Chaucer’s language. Cf. also Kn. Tale, 260 and 709 (A 1118, 1567).

3.

So woundeth hit . . . kene, so keenly it (your beauty) wounds (me). The MS. has wondeth, which is another M. E. spelling of woundeth. Percy miscopied it wendeth, which gives but poor sense; besides, Chaucer would probably have used the contracted form went, as his manner is. In l. 5, the scribe writes wound (better wounde ).

4.

And but, and unless. For word Percy printed words, quite forgetting that the M. E. plural is dissyllabic ( word-es ). The final d has a sort of curl to it, but a comparison with other words shews that it means nothing; it occurs, for instance, at the end of wound (l. 5), and escaped (l. 27).

Wounde (MS. wound ) is dissyllabic in Mid. English, like mod. G. Wunde. 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, l. 675. We cannot confine the first refrain to one line only, as there is no stop at the end of l. 14.

8.

Trouth-e is dissyllabic; see treouthe in Stratmann.

15.

Ne availeth; with elided e. MS. nauailleth; Percy prints n’availeth.

16.

Halt, i. e. holdeth; see Book of Duch. 621.

17.

MS. han ye me, correctly; Percy omits me, and so spoils both sense and metre.

27.

Lovers should be lean; see Romaunt of the Rose (E. version), 2684. The F. version has (l. 2561):—

  • ‘Car bien saches qu’ Amors ne lesse
  • Sor fins amans color ne gresse.’
28.

MS. neu er e; Percy prints nere; but the syllables in 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. AS. þencan. With l. 29 cf. Troil. v. 363.

31.

I do no fors, I don’t care; as in Cant. Ta. 6816 (D 1234).

2.

‘As far as the map of the world extends.’ Mappemounde is the F. mappemonde, Lat. mappa mundi; it is used also by Gower, Conf. Amant. iii. 102.

9.

tyne, a large tub; O. F. tine. The whole phrase occurs in the Chevalier au Cigne, as given in Bartsch, Chrest. Française, 350. 23:—‘Le jour i ot plore de larmes plaine tine.’ Cotgrave has:—‘ Tine, a Stand, open Tub, or Soe, most in use during the time of vintage, and holding about four or five pailfuls, and commonly borne, by a Stang, between two.’ We picture to ourselves the brawny porters, staggering beneath the ‘ stang, ’ on which is slung the ‘tine’ containing the ‘four or five pailfuls’ of the poet’s tears.

10.

The poet, in all his despair, is sustained and refreshed by regarding the lady’s beauty.

11.

seemly, excellent, pleasing; this is evidently meant by the semy of the MS.

smal, fine in tone, delicate; perhaps treble. A good example occurs in the Flower and the Leaf, 180:—

  • ‘With voices sweet entuned, and so smalle,
  • That it me thoughte the swetest melodye,’ c.

Cf. ‘his vois gentil and smal ’; Cant. Tales, A 3360. The reading fynall (put for finall ) is due to mistaking the long ſ ( s ) for f, and m for in.

out-twyne, twist out, force out; an unusual word.

17.

‘Never was pike so involved in galantine-sauce as I am completely involved in love.’ This is a humorous allusion to a manner of serving up pikes which is well illustrated in the Fifteenth-Century Cookery-books, ed. Austin, p. 101, where a recipe for ‘pike in Galentyne’ directs that the cook should ‘cast the sauce under him and aboue him, that he be al y-hidde in the sauce. ’ At p. 108 of the same we are told that the way to make ‘sauce galentyne’ is to steep crusts of brown bread in vinegar, adding powdered cinnamon till it is brown; after which the vinegar is to be strained twice or thrice through a strainer, and some pepper and salt is to be added. Thus ‘sauce galentine’ was a seasoned pickle. See further in the note to l. 16 of Sect. IX.

20.

‘True Tristram the second.’ For Tristram, see note to Sect. V. l. 290. Tristram was a famous example of ‘truth’ or constancy, as his love was inspired by having drunk a magical love-potion, from the effects of which he never recovered. The MS. has Tristam.

21.

refreyd, cooled down; lit. ‘refrigerated.’ This rare word occurs twice in Troilus; see bk. ii. 1343, v. 507; cf. Pers. Ta. I 341. Dr. Murray tells me that no writer but Chaucer is known to have used this form of the word, though Caxton has refroid, from continental French, whereas refreid is from Anglo-French.

afounde, sink, be submerged. See O. F. afonder, to plunge under water, also, to sink, in Godefroy; and affonder in Cotgrave. Chaucer found this rare word in Le Roman de la Rose, 19914. (I once thought it was the pp. of afinden, and meant ‘nor be explored’; but it is better to take it as infin. after may not ). See Afounder in the New E. Dict.

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 l. 17.

The former passage in Boethius is thus translated by Chaucer: ‘Who-so that seketh sooth by a deep thoght, and coveiteth nat to ben deceived by no mis-weyes, lat him rollen and trenden [ revolve ] withinne himself the light of his inward sighte; and lat him gadere ayein, enclyninge in-to a compas, the longe moevinges of his thoughtes; and lat him techen his corage that he hath enclosed and hid in his tresors, al that he compaseth or seketh 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 for 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. Dr. Sweet has the reading: Suffise thin owene thing, c., 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; seven have Suffice unto thy good; one has Suffice unto thi lyuynge (where lyuynge is a gloss upon good ); and F. has the capital reading Suffice the (= thee ) 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 unto thy good is much the same as the proverb—‘cut your coat according to your cloth.’ Chaucer elsewhere has worldly suffisaunce for ‘wealth’; Cler. Tale, E 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 l. 5 below is at least as extraordinary.

Cf. Chaucer’s tr. of Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 5, l. 54:—‘And if thou wolt fulfille thy nede after that it suffiseth to nature, than is it no nede that thou seke after the superfluitee of fortune.’

3.

Cf. ‘for avarice maketh alwey mokereres [ hoarders ] to ben hated’; Boeth. ii. pr. 5, l. 11.

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 Dr. 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 liberabit uos’; John viii. 32. This is a general truth, and there is no need for the insertion of thee after shal, as in the inferior MSS., in consequence of the gradual loss of the final e in trouthe, which in Chaucer is properly dissyllabic. The scribes who turned trouthe into trouthe thee forgot that this makes up trou-thè thee.

8.

Tempest thee noght, do not violently trouble or harass thyself, do not be in a state of agitation. Agitation will not redress everything that is crooked. So also:—‘ Tempest thee nat thus with al thy fortune’; Boeth. bk. ii. pr. 4, l. 50. Chaucer (as Koch says) obtained this curious verb from the third line of section F (l. 63 of the whole poem) of the French poem from which he translated his A B C. This section begins (see p. 263 above):—

  • ‘Fuiant m’en viens a ta tente
  • Moy mucier pour la tormente
  • Qui ou monde me tempeste ’;

i. e. I come fleeing to thy tent, to hide myself from the storm which harasses me in the world. Goldsmith speaks of a mind being ‘tempested up’; Cit. of the World, let. 47.

9.

‘Trusting to the vicissitudes of fortune.’ There are several references to the wheel of Fortune in Boethius. Thus in bk. ii. pr. 2 of Chaucer’s translation:—‘I torne the whirlinge wheel with the torning cercle,’ quoted above, in the note to X. 46.

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 has ‘to kike ayens the pricke.’

In MS. Cotton, Otho A. xviii, we find the reading a nall, the n being transferred from an to the sb. Tusser has nall for ‘awl’ in his Husbandry, § 17, st. 4, l. 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 Æsop about the earthern 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 behoveth thee to suffren with evene wille in pacience al that is don . . in this world’; Boeth. bk. ii. pr. 1, l. 66.

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 contree thou art born, it nis nat governed by emperours . . . but oo lord and oo king, and that is god’; bk. i. pr. 5, l. 11. This is copied (as being taken from ‘Boece’) in Le Roman de la Rose, l. 5049 (Eng. version, l. 5659).

18.

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 treacherous man is a fox, c.; 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 upwards to heaven. Cf. the expression ‘thy contree’ at the end of bk. iv. pr. 1 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 amonesteth thee, that axest the hevene with thy righte visage’; l. 14. See Ovid, Met. i. 85.

  • But, man, as thou wittlees were,
  • Thou lokist euere dounwarde as a beest.’
  • Polit. and Love Poems, ed. Furnivall, p. 185, l. 273.

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 nowe dye.’ Mätzner (Gram. ii. 2. 307) quotes from the Towneley Mysteries, p. 128:—‘Mekyll thanke of youre good wille’; and again (Gram. ii. 1. 238) from King Alisaunder, l. 7576:—‘And thankid him of his socour.’ Henrysoun, in his Abbay Walk, l. 8, has:—‘Obey, and thank thy God of al’; but he is probably copying this very passage. Cf. also—‘of help I him praye’; Lydgate, London Lyckpeny, st. 6; ‘beseech you of your pardon’; Oth. 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.’ Cf. Cant. Tales, B 1113.

‘Lyft wp thyne Ene [ not orne], and thank thi god of al.’

Ratis Raving, ed. Lumby, p. 10.
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 one 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 stall’ in l. 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 Monkes Tale; Group B, 3361.

1.

With this first stanza compare R. Rose, 18881:—

  • ‘Quiconques tent à gentillece
  • D’orguel se gart et de parece;
  • Aille as armes, ou à l’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 gentylesse.’ This is wrong, and probably due to the dropping of the final e in the definite adjective firste. We must keep the phrase firste stok, because it is expressly repeated in l. 8.

The first line means—‘With regard to, or As 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.

3.

The former his refers to fader, but the latter to man.

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 sewe.

  • ‘Sen throu vertew encressis dignite,
  • And vertew flour and rut [ root ] 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.

5.

‘Dignitees apertienen . . . to vertu’; Boeth. iii. pr. 4, l. 25.

7.

Al were he, albeit he may wear; i. e. although he may be a bishop, king, or emperor.

8.

This firste stok, i. e. Christ. In l. 12, his heir means mankind in general.

Compare Le Rom. de la Rose, 18819:—

  • ‘Noblece vient de bon corage,
  • Car gentillece de lignage
  • N’est pas gentillece qui vaille,
  • Por quoi bonté de cuer i faille,
  • Por quoi doit estre en li 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 lessierent as hoirs l’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.’

And cf. Dante, Purg. vii. 121-3, to which Ch. refers in his Wife of Bath’s Tale (D 1128).

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;
  • Il ne dient pas voir, ains mentent,
  • Et le non [ name ] de gentillece emblent,
  • Quant lor bons parens ne resemblent;’ c.
16.

In MS. A. is this side-note, in a later hand:—

  • ‘Nam genus et proauos et quæ non fecimus ipsi
  • Vix ea nostra voco.’
20.

This is a difficult line to obtain from the MSS. It is necessary to keep heir in the singular, because of he in l. 21. In MS. A., ma þ e clearly stands for make þ e, i. e. maketh, as in nearly all the MSS. This gives us—That maketh his heir him that wol [ or can] 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.

4.

Word and deed; or read Word and werk, as in Harl. 7333 and T.

5.

Lyk, alike; or read oon, one, as in Harl. and T. Up so doun is the old phrase, and common. Modern English has ‘improved’ it into upside down, where side has to mean ‘top.’

10.

Unable, not able, wanting in ability or strength.

21.

Here the Bannatyne MS. inserts a spurious fourth stanza. It runs thus:—

  • ‘Falsheid, that sowld bene abhominable,
  • Now is regeing, but reformatioun,
  • Quha now gifis lergly ar maist dissavable,
  • For vycis are the grund of sustentatioun;
  • All wit is turnit to cavillatioun,
  • Lawtie expellit, and al gentilnes,
  • That all is loist for laik of steidfastnes.’

This is very poor stuff.

24, 25.

Suffre . . don, suffer (to be) done; correct as being an old idiom. See my note to the Clerkes Tale, E 1098.

28.

For wed, two MSS. have drive; a reading which one is glad to reject. It would be difficult to think of a more unfitting word.

1, 2.

These two lines are quite Dantesque. Cf. Purg. i. 47, 76; Inf. iii. 8:—‘Son le leggi . . . cosi rotte’; ‘gli editti eterni . . . guasti’; ‘io eterno duro.’

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 controlled; 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 corne near to Tolleworke, and in the Towne it brent terribly. Such abundance of water fell in October, that at Bury 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 l. 19, shewing that the poem was written towards the close of the year.

7.

Errour; among the senses given by Cotgrave for F. erreur we find ‘ignorance, false opinion.’ Owing to his ignorance, 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, l. 29. This fifth sphere is that of Venus.

14.

This 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; cf. note to IV. 96. Chaucer seems to imply that the bad weather may cause another plague.

15.

Goddes, goddess, Venus; here spoken of as the goddess of love.

16.

Rakelnesse, rashness. The MSS. have rekelnesse, reklesnesse, rechelesnesse; the first is nearly right. Rakelnesse is Chaucer’s word, Cant. Tales, 17232 (H 283); five lines above, Phœbus blames his rakel hond, because he had slain his wife.

17.

Forbode is; rather a forced rime to goddes; see p. 488 (note).

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 witness. 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 l. 31.

28.

Him, i. e. Cupid. The Pepys MS. has hem, them, i. e. the arrows. Koch reads hem, and remarks that it makes the best sense. But it comes to much the same thing. Cf. Parl. 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, F 240, and the note. Perhaps, in some cases, the arrow of Cupid may be supposed to cure likewise; but it is simpler to ascribe the cure to Cupid himself. Observe the use of he in ll. 24 and 26, and of his in ll. 25 and 26. Thynne has hym.

29.

I 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.

35.

‘See, the old gray-haired man is pleased to rime and amuse himself.’ For ryme (as in the three MSS.), the old editions have 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. grisel properly means a gray horse, as shewn in Godefroy’s O. F. Dict.

36.

Mexcuse, for me excuse, excuse myself. Cf. mawreke, Compleint to Pite, 11.

43.

For stremes, Gg. has wellis; but the whole expression stremes heed is equivalent to well, and we have which streme in l. 45 (Koch).

In the MSS., the words stremes heed are explained by Windesore (Windsor), and ende of whiche streme in l. 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 Cæcinam. For myself, I think he alludes to his De Amicitia; see note to Rom. Rose, 5286.

1.

Bukton. 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 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 Lancaster after his loss of Blanch. ” From the reference to the Wife of Bathe, l. 29, I should suppose this to have been one of our author’s later compositions, and I find that there was a Peter de Buketon, 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. hēht ).

8.

Eft, again, a second time. This seems to assert that Chaucer was at this time a widower. Cf. C. T. 9103 (E 1227).

9.

‘Mariage est maus liens,’ marriage is an evil tie; Rom. de la Rose, 8871. And again, with respect to marriage—‘Quel forsenerie [ witlessness ] te maine A cest torment, a ceste paine?’ R. Rose, 8783; with much more to the same effect. Cf. Cant. Tales, Marchauntes Prologue (throughout); and Barbour’s Bruce, i. 267.

18.

Cf. 1 Cor. vii. 9, 28. And see Wife of Bath’s Prol. D 154-160.

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 Froissart, Chron. bk. iv. cc. 77, 78. He tells us that the Frieslanders would not ransom the prisoners taken by their enemies; consequently, 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 proverbe.

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 suffre, and fortune abyde,
  • Than 1 hastely to clymbe, and sodeynly to slyde.’

The same occurs (says Hazlitt) at the end of Caxton’s edition of Lydgate’s Stans Puer ad Mensam; but does not belong to that poem.

1

The MS. has And for Than (wrongly).

29.

The reference is to the Wife of Bathes Prologue, which curiously enough, is again referred to by Chaucer in the Marchauntes Tale, C.T. 9559 (E 1685). 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 Wife of Bathes Tale. Unquestionably, he took a great deal of pains about it.

1.

We must suppose Venus, i. e. the lady, 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 Compleint of Venus for Mars.’ But Mars is merely to 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:—(1) 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.

The lady 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, B 162-8.

11.

Wold, willed. The later E. would 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 wolde [better wold ] hym-selue.’ See also Leg. Good Women, 1209, and note.

22.

Aventure, luck; in this case, good luck.

23.

Here is certainly a false rime; Chaucer nowhere else rimes - oure with - ure. But the conditions under which the poem was written were quite exceptional (see note to l. 79); so that this is no proof that the poem is spurious. There is a false rime in Sir Topas, Group B, l. 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 ll. 25, 49, and 57.

The lady 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. on.

31.

The French text shews that we must read Pleyne, not Pleye; besides, it makes better sense. This correction is due to Mr. Paget Toynbee; see his Specimens of Old French, p. 492.

33.

‘May Jealousy be hanged, for she is so inquisitive that she would like to know everything. She suspects everything, however innocent.’ Such is the general sense.

37.

The final e in lov-e is sounded, being preserved from elision by the cæsura. The sense is—‘so dearly is love purchased in (return for) what he gives; he often gives inordinately, but bestows more sorrow than pleasure.’

46.

Nouncerteyn, uncertainty; as in Troilus, i. 337. A parallel formation to nounpower, impotence, which occurs in Chaucer’s tr. of Boethius, bk. iii. pr. 5, l. 14.

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 of love, and the lace of Venus; Kn. Tale, 959, 1093 (A 1817, 1951).

52.

To lete of, to leave off, desist.

56.

All the MSS. read never; 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 ye, for I, is out of the question; for herte is addressed as thou. So in l. 66, we must needs read thee, not you.

73.

Princess. As the MSS. vary between Princesse 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 Fortune, not by the author. Moreover, the MSS. of Fortune have only the readings Princes and Princis; not one 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 of 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 benignity seems to be used here much as we say your grace, your highness, your majesty. The plural would (if this be so) be your benignitees; cf. Troil. v. 1859. There is no hint at all of the plural number.

But if the right reading be princess, we see that Shirley’s statement (see p. 560, l. 6) should rather have referred to Chaucer, who may have produced this adaptation at the request of ‘my lady of York.’ Princesses are usually scarce, but ‘my lady of York’ had the best of claims to the title, 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, to translate somewhat closely, and yet to adapt the poem in a way acceptable to the ‘princess,’ all at once. See further in the Introduction.

Chaucer’s translation of the A B C should be compared; for there, in every 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 - ure, -able, -yse, and - ay, and 12 in - aunce, -esse, -ing, and - ente. In the Envoy, Chaucer purposely limits himself to 2 endings, viz. - ee and - aunce, as a proof of his skill.

81.

Curiositee, i. e. intricacy of metre. The line is too long. I would read To folwe in word the curiositee; and thus get rid of the puzzling phrase word by word, which looks like a gloss.

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, which is correct. Sir Oto de Graunson received an annuity of £126 13 s. 4 d. from Richard II., in November, 1393, for services rendered; see the mention of him in the Patent Rolls, 17 Rich. II., p. 1, 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. See the article by Dr. Piaget referred to in the Introduction.

4.

Koch remarks, that the Additional MS. 22139, which 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 connexion with l. 17; see note to that line.

10.

Colour; with reference to golden coins. So also in the Phisiciens Tale (C. T. 11971, or C 37), the golden colour of Virginia’s hair is expressed by—

  • ‘And Phebus dyed hath hir 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 very well be right. If so, the scansion is:—That of yél|ownés|se hád|de név|er pere. MS. Harl. 2251 has That of yowre Ielownesse, but the yowre is merely copied in from l. 10.

12.

Stere, rudder; see Man of Lawes Tale, B 448, 833.

17.

Out of this toune. This seems to mean—‘help me to retire from London to some cheaper place.’ At any rate, toune seems to refer to some large town, where prices were high. From the tone of this line, and that of l. 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. (I find that Ten Brink says the same.) Compare Thackeray’s Carmen Lilliense.

19.

‘That is, I am as bare of money as the tonsure of a friar is of hair’; Bell.

22.

Brutes Albioun, 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, l. 1243; Higden’s Polychronicon, bk. i. c. 39; Fabyan’s Chronicle, ed. Ellis, pp. 1, 2, 7. According to the same accounts, Albion was first reigned over by Brutus, in English spelling Brute, a descendant of Æneas 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. See Brute (2) in the New E. Dict.

23.

This line makes it certain that the king meant is Henry IV.; and indeed, the title conquerour in l. 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.

7.

At the head of a Ballad by Deschamps, ed. Tarbé, i. 132, is the French proverb—‘Qui trop embrasse, mal étreint.’ Cotgrave, s. v. embrasser, has: ‘ Trop embrasser, et peu 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, 2405—‘For the proverbe seith, he that to muche embraceth, distreyneth litel.’ It is also quoted by Lydgate, in his description of the Merchant in the Dance of Machabre.

7.

Embrace must be read as embrac ’, for the rime. Similarly, Chaucer puts gras for grac-e in Sir Thopas (Group B, l. 2021).

5.

In a place, in one place. In the New E. Dictionary, the following is quoted from Caxton’s print of Geoffroi de la Tour, leaf 4, back:—‘They satte att dyner in a hall and the quene in another.’

7.

From Machault, ed. Tarbé, p. 56 (see p. 88 above):—‘Qu’en lieu de bleu, Damë, vous vestez vert’; on which M. Tarbé has the following note:—‘ Bleu. Couleur exprimant la sincérité, la pureté, la constance; le vert, au contraire, exprimait les nouvelles amours, le changement, l’infidélité; au lieu de bleu se vétir de vert, c’était avouer que l’on changeait d’ami.’ Blue was the colour of constancy, and green of inconstancy; see Notes to Anelida, l. 330; and my note to the Squire’s Tale, F 644.

In a poem called Le Remède de Fortune, Machault explains that pers, i. e. blue, means loyalty; red, ardent love; black, grief; white, joy; green, fickleness; yellow, falsehood.

8.

Cf. James i. 23, 24; and see The Marchantes Tale (Group E, ll. 1582-5).

9.

It, i. e. the transient image; relative to the word thing, which is implied in no-thing in l. 8.

10.

Read far’th, ber’th; as usual in Chaucer. So turn’th in l. 12.

12.

Cf. ‘chaunging as a vane’; Clerkes Tale, E 996.

13.

Sene, evident; A. S. ge-séne, ge-sýne, 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. 11308 (Frank. Tale, F 996); sene, Compl. of Pite, 112; Merciless Beauty, 10.

15.

Brotelnesse, fickleness. Cf. ‘On brotel ground they bilde, and brotelnesse They finde, whan they wene sikernesse, ’ with precisely the same rime, Merch. Tale, 35 (E 1279).

16.

Dalýda, Delilah. It is Dálida in the Monkes Tale, Group B, 3253; but see Book of the Duchesse, 738.

Creseide, the heroine of Chaucer’s Troilus.

Candáce, hardly for Canace; see note to Parl. of Foules, 288. Rather, it is the queen Candace who tricked Alexander; see Wars of Alexander, ed. Skeat, p. 264; Gower, Conf. Amant. ii. 180.

18.

Tache, defect; cf. P. Plowman, B. ix. 146. This is the word which best expresses the sense of touch (which Schmidt explains by trait ) in the famous passage—‘One touch of nature makes the whole world kin’; Shak. Troil. iii. 3. 175. I do not assert that touch is an error for tache, 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.

Arace, eradicate; precisely as in VI. 20, q. v.

19.

Compare the modern proverb—‘She has two strings to her bow.’

20.

Al light for somer; this phrase begins l. 15 of the Canon’s Yeoman’s Prologue, Group G, 568; and the phrase wot what I mene occurs again in C. T., Group B, 93. This allusion to the wearing of light summer garments seems here to imply wantonness or fickleness. Canacee in the Squi. Tale was arrayed lightly (F 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 favourite colour for summer garments.

1.

In Troil. iv. 516, the parallel line is—‘Of me, that am the wofulleste wight’; where wofullest-e has four syllables. Chaucer constantly employs sorwe or sorw so as to occupy the time of a monosyllable; hence the right reading in this case is sorw’fullest-e, with final - e. See also Troil. ii. 450—‘So as she was the ferfulleste wight.’ And ‘Bicomen is the sorwefulleste man’; Cant. Tales, E 2098.

3.

Recoverer, recovery, cure; answering to O. F. recovrier, sb. succour, aid, cure, recovery; see examples in La Langue et la Littérature Française, 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, l. 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. Sect. VI. l. 53:—‘So litel rewthe hath she upon my peyne.’

7.

Cf. Sect. VI. l. 33:—‘That, for I love hir, sleeth me giltelees.’ So also Frank. Ta. F 1322:—‘Er ye me sleen bycause that I yow love.’

12.

Spitous, hateful. The word in Chaucer is usually despitous; see Prol. 516, Cant. Ta. A 1596, D 761, Troil. ii. 435, v. 199; but spitously occurs in the Cant. Tales, D 223. Trevisa translates ignominiosa seruitute by ‘in a dispitous 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, 2163.

14.

This have I, such is my reward. For, because.

16.

Another reading is—‘If that it were a thing possible to do.’ In that case, we must read possíbl ’, with the accent on i.

17.

Cf. Sect. VI. l. 94:—‘For ye be oon the worthiest on-lyve.’

19.

Cf. Sect. VI. l. 93:—‘I am so litel worthy.’

24, 25.

Cf. X. 7, and the note (p. 544).

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 to is justified by the parallel line—‘And I my deeth to yow wol al forgive’; VI. 119.

36, 37.

Perhaps read—‘And sithen I am of my sorwe the cause, And sithen I have this,’ c.; as in MSS. F. and B.

43.

Perhaps read—‘So that, algates, she is verray rote’; as in F. B.

45.

Cf. C. T. 11287 (F 975):—‘For with a word ye may me sleen or save.’

52.

As to my dome, in my judgment, as in V. 480; and see Troil. iv. 386, 387.

54.

Cf. ‘whyl the world may dure’; V. 616.

55.

Bihynde, in the rear, far away; cf. VI. 5.

57.

The idea is the same as in the Compl. of Mars, ll. 264-270.

62.

See l. 10 above.

70, 71.

Cf. C. T. 11625 (F 1313)—‘And lothest wer of al this world displese.’

72.

Compare the description of Dorigen, C. T. 11255-66 (F 943-54). We have similar expressions in Troil. iii. 1501:—‘As wisly verray God my soule save’; and in Legend of Good Women, 1806:—‘As wisly Iupiter my soule save.’ And see XXIII. 4.

76.

Chaucer has both pleyne unto and pleyne on; see C. T., Cler. Tale, Group E, 97; and Pard. Tale, Group C, 512.

77.

Cf. Troil. iii. 1183, and v. 1344:—‘Foryeve it me, myn owne swete herte.’

79.

Cf. Troil. iii. 141—‘And I to ben your verray 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 over for of; this will not scan, but it suggests the sense intended.

82.

In oon, in one state, ever constant; C. T., E 602. Cf. also Troil. iii. 143:—‘And ever-mo desire freshly newe To serven.’

83.

So in Troil. iii. 1512:—‘For I am thyn, by god and by my trouthe’; cf. Troil. iii. 120.

85.

See Parl. of Foules, 309, 310, whence I supply the word ther. These lines in the Parl. of Foules may have been borrowed from the present passage, i. e. if the ‘Amorous Compleint’ is the older poem of the two, as is probable. In any case, the connexion is obvious. Cf. also Parl. Foules, 386.

87.

Cf. Parl. Foules, 419:—‘Whos I am al, and ever wol her serve.’

Shal, shall be; as in l. 78 above, and in Troil. iii. 103; cf. Kn. Tale, 286 (A 1144), and note to VI. 86.

90, 91.

Cf. Kn. Tale, 285, 286 (A 1143, 1144); Parl. Foules, 419, 420. All three passages are much alike.

1.

Cf. Troil. iii. 104:—‘And though I dar ne can unto yow pleyne.’

4.

See note to XXII. 72, and l. 8 below.

13, 14.

Cf. VI. 110, 111.

16.

Dyt-e, ditty (dissyllabic); see Ho. of Fame, 622. It here rimes with despyte and plyte. In the Cant. Tales the usual forms are despyt and plyt-e respectively, but despyt-e may here be taken as a dative case.

20.

Hertes lady; see VI. 60. Dere is the best reading, being thus commonly used by Chaucer as a vocative. If we retain the MS. reading here, we must insert a comma after lady, and explain I yow beseche . . here by ‘I beseech you to hear.’

asterisks For Errata and Addenda, see p. lxiv.