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The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, edited from numerous manuscripts by the Rev. Walter W. Skeat (2nd ed.) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1899). 7 vols.

Author: Geoffrey Chaucer
Editor: Walter W. Skeat

Part of: The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, 7 vols.

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III.

THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE.

The MSS. are: F. (Fairfax 16); Tn. (Tanner 346); B. (Bodley 638); the fourth authority is Th. (Thynne’s edition of 1532). I follow F. mainly, and note all but very trifling variations from it. B. usually agrees with F.

Title:in F.

The Proem.
- I havegret 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 thought
- 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 y-liche good to me—
- Ioye or sorowe, wherso hit be—10
- For I have feling in no-thing ,
- But, as it were, a mased thing ,
- Alway in point to falle a-doun;
- For [sory] imaginacioun^[ ]
- Is alway hoolly in my minde.^[ ]15
- And wel ye wite , agaynes kinde
- Hit were to liven in this wyse;
- For nature wolde nat suffyse
- To noon erthely creature
- Not longe tyme to endure20
- Withoute slepe, and been in sorwe;
- And I ne may, ne night ne morwe,
- Slepe; and thus melancolye,^[ ]
- And dreed I have for to dye,
- Defaute of slepe, and hevinesse25
- Hath sleyn my spirit of quiknesse,
- That I have lost al lustihede.
- Suche fantasyes ben in myn hede
- So I not what is best to do.
- But men mighte axe me, why so30
- I may not slepe, and what me is?^[ ]^[ ]
- But natheles, who aske this^[ ]
- Leseth his asking trewely .^[ ]
- My-selven can not telle why
- The sooth ; but trewely , as I gesse,35
- I holdë hit be a siknesse ^[ ]
- That I have suffred this eight yere,^[ ]
- And yet my bote is never the nere;
- For 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 he hit me took ^[ ]
- To rede aud dryve the night away;^[ ]^[ ]
- For me thoghte it better play50
- Then playen 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 minde55
- Whyl men loved the lawe of kinde.^[ ]
- This book ne spak but of such thinges,
- Of quenes lyves, and of kinges ,
- And many othere thinges smale .
- Amonge al this I fond a tale60
- That me thoughte a wonder thing.
- This was the tale: Ther was a king^[ ]
- That highte Seys , and hadde a wyf,
- The beste that mighte bere lyf;
- And this quene highte Alcyone.65
- So hit befel, therafter sone,^[ ]
- This king wolde wenden over see.^[ ]
- To tellen shortly, whan that he
- Was in the see, thus in this wyse,
- Soche a tempest gan to ryse70
- That brak hir mast , and made it falle ,
- And clefte hir 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
- Now for to speken of his wyf:—^[ ]
- This lady, that was left at home ,
- Hath wonder, that the king ne come^[ ]
- Hoom, for hit was a longe terme.
- Anon her herte gan to erme;^[ ]80
- And for that hir thoughte evermo
- Hit was not wel [he dwelte] so,
- She longed so after the king
- That certes, hit were a pitous thing
- To telle hir hertely sorwful lyf85
- That hadde , alas! 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 took95
- That trewely I, which made this book ,
- Had swich pite and swich rowthe^[ ]
- To rede hir 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 hir lord ,
- Ful oft 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,^[ ]
- And weep , that pite was to here.^[ ]
- ‘A! mercy! swete lady dere!’
- Quod she to Iuno, hir goddesse;
- ‘Help me out of this distresse,110
- And yeve me grace my lord to see
- 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 shal115
- With good wil , body, herte, and al;
- And but thou wilt this, lady swete,
- Send me grace to slepe, and mete
- In my slepe som certeyn sweven,
- Wher-through that I may knowen even^[ ]120
- Whether my lord be quik or deed .’
- With that word she heng doun the heed ,
- And fil a-swown as cold as ston;
- Hir women caughte her up anon ,
- And broghten hir in bed al naked,125
- And she, forweped and forwaked,^[ ]
- Was wery, and thus the dede sleep
- Fil on her, or she toke keep ,
- Through Iuno, that had herd hir bone,
- That made hir [for] to slepe sone;^[ ]130
- For as she prayde , so was don,
- In dede; for Iuno, right anon,
- Called thus her messagere
- To do her erande, and he com nere.
- Whan he was come, she bad him thus:135
- ‘Go bet,’ quod Iuno, ‘to Morpheus,^[ ]
- Thou knowest him wel, the god of sleep ;
- Now understond wel, and tak keep .
- 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,
- Aud do it goon to Alcyone ^[ ]145
- The quene, ther she lyth alone ,
- And shewe hir shortly, hit is no nay,
- How hit was dreynt this other day;
- And do the body speke so
- Right as hit was wont 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 ne stente ^[ ]
- Til he com to the derke valeye ^[ ]155
- 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 deedly sleping soun,
- And ronnen doun right by a cave
- That was under a rokke y-grave
- Amid the valey, wonder depe.165
- Ther thise 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 derk170
- As helle pit over-al aboute;
- They had good leyser for to route
- To envye , who might slepe beste;^[ ]
- Some henge hir chin upon hir breste
- And slepe upright, hir heed y-hed ,^[ ]175
- And some laye naked in hir 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 hir ere ,
- And cryed ‘awaketh!’ wonder hyë.^[ ]
- This god of slepe, with his oon yë ^[ ]
- Cast up, axed, ‘who clepeth there?’^[ ]185
- ‘Hit am I,’ quod this messagere;
- ‘Iuno bad thou shuldest goon’—
- And tolde him what he shulde doon
- As I have told yow here-tofore;
- Hit is no need reherse hit more;190
- And wente his wey, whan he had sayd .
- Anon this god of slepe a-brayd ^[ ]
- Out of his slepe, and gan to goon,
- And did as he had bede him doon;
- Took up the dreynte body sone,^[ ]195
- And bar hit forth to Alcyone ,
- His wyf the quene, ther-as she lay,
- Right even a quarter before day,
- And stood right at hir beddes fete ,^[ ]
- And called hir, right as she hete ,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-see.205
- But good swete herte, [look] that ye^[ ]
- Bury my body, [at whiche] a tyde
- Ye mowe hit finde 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 hir 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 swow215
- I may not telle yow as now ,
- Hit were 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
- For thus moche dar I saye wel ,
- I had be dolven everydel ,^[ ]
- And deed, right through defaute of sleep ,
- If I nad red and taken keep
- 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 dreynte Seys the king ,
- And of the goddes of sleping.230
- Whan I had red this tale wel,
- And over-loked hit everydel,
- Me thoughte wonder if hit were so;
- For I had never herd speke, or tho,
- Of no goddes that coude make235
- Men [for] to slepe, ne for to wake;
- For I ne 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 deye240
- Through defaute of sleping thus,
- I wolde yive thilke Morpheus,
- Or his goddesse, dame Iuno,
- 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;^[ ]
- If he wol make me slepe a lyte,
- Of downe of pure dowves whyte^[ ]250
- I wil yive him a fether-bed ,
- Rayed with golde, and right wel cled
- In fyn blak satin doutremere ,
- And many a pilow , and every bere
- 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 folde260
- Of oo 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, Morpheus,265
- May winne of me mo feës thus
- Than ever he wan ; and to Iuno,
- That is his goddesse, I shal so do,
- I trow that she shal holde her payd .’
- I hadde unneth that word y-sayd270
- 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 even275
- Me mette so inly swete a sweven ,
- So wonderful, that never yit
- I trowe no man hadde the wit
- To conne wel my sweven rede;^[ ]
- No, not Ioseph, withoute drede,280
- Of Egipte, he that redde so
- The kinges meting Pharao,^[ ]
- No more than coude the leste of us;
- Ne nat scarsly Macrobeus,^[ ]
- (He that wroot al thavisioun285
- That he mette, king Scipioun,^[ ]
- The noble man, the Affrican—
- Swiche mervayles fortuned than )^[ ]
- I trowe, a-rede my dremes even.
- Lo, thus hit was, this was my sweven.290

The Dream.
- ME thoughte 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 hir 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,^[ ]
- Som hye, and al of oon acorde.305
- To telle shortly, at oo worde,
- Was never y-herd so swete a steven,
- But hit had be a thing of heven;—
- So mery a soun , so swete entunes ,^[ ]
- That certes, for the toune of Tewnes ,^[ ]310
- I nolde but I had herd hem singe,
- For al my chambre gan to ringe
- Through singing of hir 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 finde out mery crafty notes ;
- They ne spared not hir throtes .320
- And, sooth 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 gret Ioye.325
- For hoolly 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 Iason,330
- Of Paris, Eleyne, and Lavyne.
- And alle the walles with colours fyne^[ ]
- 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 atempre , 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
- Me thoughte I herde an hunte blowe345
- Tassaye his horn , and for to knowe
- Whether hit were clere or hors of soune.^[ ]
- I herde goinge , 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;
- [I]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 route360
- 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:—^[ ]365
- ‘Say, felow, who shal hunten here
- Quod I; and he answerde ageyn,
- ‘Sir, themperour Octovien,’^[ ]
- Quod he, ‘and is heer faste by.’
- ‘A goddes halfe, in good tyme,’ quod I,^[ ]370
- ‘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 ,^[ ]375
- With a gret horne blew three moot ^[ ]
- At the uncoupling of his houndes.
- Within a whyl the hert [y]-founde is,
- Y-halowed, and rechased faste^[ ]
- Longe tyme; and at the laste,380
- 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 faste385
- Blew a forloyn at the laste.^[ ]
- I was go walked fro my tree,^[ ]
- And as I wente , ther cam by me
- A whelp , that fauned me as I stood ,
- That hadde y-folowed, 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 Ioyned his eres ,
- And leyde al smothe doun his heres .
- I wolde han caught hit, and anoon395
- Hit fledde , and was fro me goon;^[ ]
- And I him folwed, and hit forth wente
- Doun by a floury grene wente ^[ ]
- Ful thikke of gras, ful softe and swete ,
- With floures fele, faire under fete ,400
- And litel used, hit seemed thus;
- For bothe Flora and Zephirus,^[ ]
- They two that make floures growe,
- Had mad hir 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 suffren , and his sorwes;
- Al was forgeten, and that was sene.
- For al the wode was waxen grene,
- Swetnesse of dewe had mad it waxe.415
- Hit is no need eek for to axe
- Wher ther 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 hinde
- Was both before me and bihinde.
- Of founes , soures , bukkes, doës ^[ ]
- Was ful the wode , and many roës ,430
- And many squirelles , that sete
- Ful hye upon the trees, and ete,
- And in hir 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 mowe al ken ,^[ ]
- If they be crafty, rekene and noumbre,
- And telle of every thing the noumbre—440
- Yet shulde he fayle to rekene even
- The wondres, me mette in my sweven .^[ ]
- But forth 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 ayleth him to sitten here?’
- Anoon-right I wente nere;450
- Than fond I sitte even upright
- A wonder wel-faringe knight—^[ ]
- By the maner me thoughte so—
- Of good mochel, and yong therto,
- Of the age of four and twenty yeer .^[ ]455
- Upon his berde but litel heer ,
- And he was clothed al in blakke .
- I stalked even unto his bakke ,
- And ther I stood as stille as ought,
- That, sooth to saye, he saw me nought,460
- For-why he heng his heed adoune.
- And with a deedly 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
- He sayde a lay, a maner song ,
- Withoute note, withoute song,
- And hit was this; for wel I can
- Reherse hit; right thus hit began.—
- ¶ ‘I have of sorwe so gret woon ,^[ ]475
- That Ioye 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, [o]deeth ! what ayleth thee,^[ ]481
- That thou noldest have taken me,
- Whan that thou toke my lady swete?
- That was so fayr , so fresh , so free,
- So good, that men may wel [y]-see485
- 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 kinde, and for to make hit glad;
- For hit is membre principal495
- Of the body; and that made al
- His hewe chaunge and wexe grene
- And pale, for no blood [was] sene
- In no maner lime of his.
- Anoon therwith whan I saw this,500
- He ferde thus evel ther he sete ,^[ ]
- I wente and stood right at his fete,
- And grette him, but he spak noght,
- But argued with his owne thoght,
- And in his witte disputed faste505
- Why and how his lyf might laste;
- Him thoughte his sorwes were so smerte
- And lay so colde upon his herte;
- So, through his sorwe and hevy thoght,
- Made him that he ne herde me noght;^[ ]510
- For he had wel nigh lost his minde,
- Thogh Pan, that men clepe god of kinde,
- Were for his sorwes never so wrooth .
- But at the laste , to sayn right sooth ,
- He was war of me, how I stood515
- Before him, and dide of myn hood ,
- And [grette] him, as I best coude.
- Debonairly, and no-thing loude,
- He sayde, ‘I prey thee, be not wrooth ,
- I herde thee not, to sayn the sooth ,520
- Ne I saw thee not, sir, trewely .’^[ ]
- ‘A! goode sir, no fors,’ quod I,
- ‘I am right sory if I have ought
- Destroubled yow out of your thought ;
- For-yive me if I have mis-take.’525
- ‘Yis, thamendes is light to make,’^[ ]
- Quod he, ‘for ther lyth noon ther-to;
- Ther is no-thing missayd nor do.’
- Lo! how goodly spak this knight ,
- As it had been 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.535
- Anoon-right I gan finde a tale
- To him, to loke wher I might ought
- Have more knowing of his thought .
- ‘Sir,’ quod I, ‘this game is doon;
- I holde that this hert be goon;540
- Thise 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, oo thing wol ye here?
- Me thinketh, in gret sorwe I yow see;^[ ]
- But certes, [good] sir, yif that ye
- Wolde ought discure me your wo,
- I wolde, as wis god helpe me so,^[ ]550
- Amende hit, yif 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,^[ ]
- 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 me 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 pite575
- Of any sorwe, lat him see me.
- I wrecche , that deeth hath mad al naked
- Of alle blisse that was ever maked,
- Y-worthe worste of alle wightes,^[ ]
- That hate my dayes and my nightes;580
- My lyf , my lustes be me lothe ,
- For al welfare and I be wrothe .^[ ]
- The pure deeth 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.
- This is my peyne withoute reed ,
- Alway deying , 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 morwe595
- May seyn, he hath [y]-met with sorwe;
- For I am sorwe and sorwe is I.
- ‘Allas! and I wol telle the why;
- My [song] is turned to pleyning ,^[ ]
- And al my laughter to weping ,600
- My glade thoghtes to hevinesse,
- In travaile is myn
  Explicit the Boke of the Duchesse.
  
  [P. 278: l. 49.]For aud read and
  
  [P. 282: l. 145.]For Aud read And
  
  [1. ]Tn. gret; F. grete. Th. by; F. Tn. be.
  
  [5. ]Tn. Th. defaute; F. defaulte.
  
  [6. ]All take no kepe.
  
  [8. ]Tn. Th. lefe (read leef); F. leve.
  
  [9. ]Tn. Th. good; F. goode.
  
  [10. ]Tn. Ioye; F. Ioy.
  
  [11, 12. ]F. no thynge, thynge.
  
  [14. ]All sorwful (badly); read sory.
  
  [15. ]F. hooly.
  
  [16. ]F. woote; Th. B. wote; Tn. wotte; read wite.
  
  [19. ]For To perhaps read Unto. F. ertherly (miswritten).
  
  [21. ]All be.
  
  [22. ]Th. Tn. B. ne (2nd time); F. no.
  
  [23. ]All this.
  
  [24. ]All drede.
  
  [25. ]Th. Tn. Defaute; F. Defaulte.
  
  [26. ]Th. slayne; Tn. slain; F. omits.
  
  [27. ]F. loste. Tn. omits ll. 31-96; F. has them in a later hand (the spelling of which I amend).
  
  [32. ]F. nathles whoe.
  
  [33. ]F. trewly.
  
  [34. ]F. tell.
  
  [35. ]Th. sothe; F. southe (!) F. trewly.
  
  [36. ]F. hold it; Th. holde it; read hold-ë hit. F. sicknes.
  
  [38. ]F. boote.
  
  [39. ]Th. F. For ther. (phisicien = fízishén). 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.
  
  [51. ]F. play; Ten Brink reads playen.
  
  [52. ]F. written.
  
  [53. ]F. had.
  
  [56. ]F. While. 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. might beare lyfe.
  
  [65. ]F. hight.
  
  [66. ]F. Soe it befill thereafter.
  
  [67. ]F. woll; Th. wol.
  
  [70. ]Perhaps read gan aryse.
  
  [71. ]F. brake. (hir = their). F. maste; fal.
  
  [72. ]Th. her; F. ther (see line above). F. dreint; all.
  
  [73. ]Th. F. founde (error for founden).
  
  [74. ]F. Borde.
  
  [75. ]Th. Seys; F. Seyes. F. life.
  
  [76. ]Th. F. Now for to speke of Alcyone his wyfe; read: Now for to speken of his wyf. F. wife.
  
  [79. ]Th. F. Home; it.
  
  [80. ]Th. Anon; F. Anone. Th. F. began (error for gan). Th. F. yerne (error for erme); see note.
  
  [81. ]F. thought.
  
  [82. ]F. It; wele; thought soe. Both her thought so, caught from l. 81; read he dwelte (delayed).
  
  [83. ]F. soe.
  
  [84. ]F. it.
  
  [85. ]F. tell. Th. hertely; F. hartely. F. life.
  
  [86. ]Th. F. she had; I omit she, and supply alas from l. 87.
  
  [87. ]Th. and F. 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. trewly; booke.
  
  [97. ]The older hand recommences in F. F. had; Tn. I Had. F. suche (twice). F. pittee.
  
  [100. ]F. And aftir; but Th. Tn. B. omit And.
  
  [101. ]All this lady (for she; badly).
  
  [102. ]F. myght; lorde.
  
  [103. ]F. ofte; sayed.
  
  [104. ]F. woode.
  
  [105. ]F. rede.
  
  [106. ]F. doune; sate.
  
  [107. ]All wepte (read weep). F. pittee.
  
  [109. ]Th. to; which F. Tn. omit.
  
  [110. ]F. Helpe; B. Help.
  
  [112. ]F. Soone. Tn. B. wite; F. Th. wete.
  
  [114. ]F. yowe.
  
  [116. ]Th. Tn. B. good wyl; F. good wille (wil is here a monosyllable).
  
  [117. ]F. wilte.
  
  [118. ]Tn. Send; Th. F. Sende.
  
  [119. ]Th. som; F. somme.
  
  [120. ]Th. through; F. thorgh. F. knowe.
  
  [121. ]F. lorde; quyke; ded.
  
  [122. ]F. worde; henge; hed.
  
  [123. ]Th. Tn. fel; F. felle (see l. 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. ]Tn. dede; F. ded. All slepe.
  
  [128. ]F. tooke. All kepe.
  
  [129. ]Th. Through; F. Through. F. herde.
  
  [130. ]I supply for.
  
  [131. ]Th. Tn. prayde; F. prayede; after which all insert right (but see next line).
  
  [134. ]F. come.
  
  [137, 138. ]All slepe, kepe. F. vnder-stonde; take.
  
  [141. ]Tn. B. alle; 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. ]All woned.
  
  [151. ]Tn. on; F. a.
  
  [152. ]F. hye the.
  
  [153. ]F. toke; went.
  
  [154. ]Th. he (for ne). F. stent.
  
  [155. ]Tn. com; F. come. F. valey.
  
  [156. ]Th. bytwene; F. betwex; Tn. betwix. F. twey.
  
  [157. ]F. corne.
  
  [158, 159. ]All noght (for nothing). F. oughte.
  
  [162. ]F. dedely; Th. deedly; Tn. dedli.
  
  [166. ]F. There these; lay.
  
  [167. ]Th. F. B. Eclympasteyre (as in text); Tn. Etlympasteyre (with t for c).
  
  [168. ]Tn. heire; F. eyre.
  
  [169, 170. ]F. werke, derke.
  
  [171. ]Tn. pit; F. pitte.
  
  [173. ]F. To envye; Tn. Th. vie.
  
  [175. ]Tn. slepte; F. slept; see 177. Th. heed; F. hed. B. Tn. I-hid; Th. yhed; F. yhedde.
  
  [176. ]All lay. F. Tn. bedde.
  
  [177. ]F. slepe; Th. Tn. slepte.
  
  [178. ]F. com. Tn. flyyng; F. fleynge; Th. rennyng.
  
  [179. ]F. Tn. O how; Th. ho ho. F. awake.
  
  [180. ]F. there.
  
  [181. ]F. Awake; lythe.
  
  [182. ]F. horne. Tn. B. ere; F. heere.
  
  [184. ]Tn. oon; F. on. F. ye; Th. eye; Tn. eiȝe.
  
  [185. ]Th. Tn. Cast; F. Caste. All ins. and after up.
  
  [191. ]Th. wente; F. went. F. sayede; Tn. seide.
  
  [192. ]F. a-brayede; Tn. abraied.
  
  [195. ]F. Tooke; dreynt; see Cant. Ta. B. 69.
  
  [196. ]F. bare. Th. Alcione; F. Tn. Alchione.
  
  [197. ]F. wife.
  
  [199. ]Th. her; F. Tn. hys. F. fete; see note.
  
  [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, for the sake of sense and metre; read—But good swet’ hert-ë, look that ye.
  
  [207. ]All for suche; read at whiche.
  
  [210. ]F. pray; youre.
  
  [211. ]F. while oure.
  
  [213. ]All allas (for A).
  
  [214. ]F. deyede; Tn. deid.
  
  [215. ]F. sayede. Tn. swow; Th. B. swowe; F. sorowe (!).
  
  [216. ]F. nowe.
  
  [219. ]Tn. told; F. tolde. F. thynge.
  
  [220. ]Th. Alcione; F. Tn. Alchione. F. kynge.
  
  [221. ]All say. Tn. wel; F. welle.
  
  [222. ]Tn. eueridel; F. euerydelle.
  
  [223. ]F. thorgh. Tn. defaute; F. defaulte. All slepe.
  
  [224. ]Th. F. ne had (read nad); Tn. hade. Tn. red; F. redde. All take kepe.
  
  [226. ]F. omits I (by mistake).
  
  [228. ]F. redde.
  
  [229. ]F. kynge.
  
  [230. ]Th. goddes; F. Tn. goddis.
  
  [231. ]Tn. red; F. redde.
  
  [233. ]F. thoght.
  
  [234. ]Tn. herd; F. herde.
  
  [235. ]F. goddis.
  
  [236. ]I supply the former for.
  
  [237. ]I ne = I n’.
  
  [238. ]F. sayede.
  
  [239. ]F. pley.
  
  [240. ]F. dey.
  
  [241. ]F. Thorgh defaulte. Tn. sleping; F. slepynge.
  
  [244. ]Tn. sum; F. somme. F. ellis. F. roght; Th. Tn. rought.
  
  [245. ]Tn. som; F. some.
  
  [247. ]F. Yifte. F. abode.
  
  [248. ]B. on warde; rest onwarde.
  
  [251. ]F. yif (see l. 246). Tn. fethirbed; F. feder bedde.
  
  [252. ]Tn. cled; F. cledde.
  
  [253. ]Tn. fyn; F. fyne. Th. doutremere; Tn. doutermere; 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 F. omits. Tn. told; F. tolde.
  
  [273. ]Tn. lust; F. luste. F. tooke.
  
  [274. ]F. booke.
  
  [275. ]F. evene.
  
  [276. ]F. swevene.
  
  [277. ]Tn. ȝit; F. yitte.
  
  [278. ]Th. trowe; F. trow; Tn. trov.
  
  [281. ]Th. Tn. B. he; F. ho. F. red; Th. Tn. rad (but read redde or radde).
  
  [282. ]F. metynge.
  
  [283. ]B. leste; F. lest.
  
  [285. ]Tn. wrot; F. wrote.
  
  [286. ]F. kynge.
  
  [288. ]Th. Suche meruayles fortuned than; F. Tn. B. omit this line.
  
  [291. ]F. thought.
  
  [292. ]F. dawnynge. Th. there; 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; F. Tn. B. al (badly). F. amonge.
  
  [299. ]F. roofe.
  
  [300. ]All ouer al; but omit ouer.
  
  [301. ]All songe, song.
  
  [304. ]F. herde. Tn. B. som; F. somme. Tn. song; F. songe (it can be singular).
  
  [305. ]Tn. Som; F. Somme. F. high.
  
  [306. ]F. att.
  
  [307. ]F. harde; Tn. I-herd.
  
  [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.
  
  [318. ]Tn. ich; rest eche.
  
  [319. ]F. wrongly inserts of after out. 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 l. 328.
  
  [330. ]All insert And eke before Of Medea.
  
  [331. ]All and of (for and).
  
  [332. ]Tn. colours; F. colouris.
  
  [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. gilti; read gilden.
  
  [339. ]F. eke. F. welken; Th. Tn. welkyn. All faire.
  
  [340. ]F. ayre.
  
  [341. ]Th. atempre; F. Tn. attempre.
  
  [342. ]All ins. to bef. cold. F. colde; hoote. Th. nas; F. Tn. was.
  
  [343. ]F. welkene; Th. welkyn; Tn. walkyn.
  
  [345. ]F. thoght.
  
  [346. ]F. Tassay; horne.
  
  [347. ]Tn. B. hors; Th. F. horse.
  
  [348. ]All insert And at the beginning of the line; but read I herd-e. F. Th. goynge; Tn. goyng; after which all insert bothe (which is not wanted).
  
  [350. ]F. Th. speke; Tn. spake; but read speken.
  
  [355. ]F. huntynge.
  
  [357. ]I supply I. F. Tooke; forthe; went.
  
  [358. ]F. stent.
  
  [359. ]F. come; felde.
  
  [360. ]F. ouertoke; grete.
  
  [361. ]F. eke; foresterys.
  
  [362. ]F. lymerys.
  
  [364. ]Th. I; which F. Tn. omit. For at the perhaps read atte.
  
  [366. ]F. felowe whoo. All hunte (read hunten).
  
  [367. ]All answered (-id).
  
  [369. ]F. here fast.
  
  [370. ]Read goddes as god’s.
  
  [373. ]F. didde.
  
  [374. ]F. huntynge fille.
  
  [375. ]F. fote hote.
  
  [376. ]F. blewe; mote.
  
  [377. ]F. vncoupylynge; Th. vncouplynge.
  
  [378. ]F. Withynne; while; herte. Th. F. founde; Tn. found; read y-founde.
  
  [380. ]All and so; om. so.
  
  [381. ]F. Tn. B. rused; Th. roused. F. staale.
  
  [383. ]Th. ouer-shot; F. ouershette; Tn. ouershet. Tn. hem; F. hym (wrongly).
  
  [384. ]Tn. on; F. vpon. Tn. defaute; F. defaulte.
  
  [386. ]F. Blewe. Th. Tn. forloyn; F. forleygne. Perhaps read atte for at the.
  
  [388. ]F. went; came.
  
  [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. erys.
  
  [394. ]F. herys.
  
  [395. ]All haue; read han.
  
  [396. ]Tn. fledde; F. fled.
  
  [397. ]F. forthe went.
  
  [398. ]F. went.
  
  [399. ]All swete (correctly).
  
  [400. ]All fete; see 199.
  
  [402. ]Tn. bothe; F. both.
  
  [404. ]All made; read mad or maad. F. dwellynge.
  
  [406. ]F. therthe; Th. the erthe.
  
  [408. ]F. moo; swche (sic).
  
  [409. ]Th. welken; F. walkene. F. sterris.
  
  [411. ]F. thorgh.
  
  [412. ]All suffre.
  
  [414. ]F. woode.
  
  [415. ]All made.
  
  [416. ]All nede eke.
  
  [417. ]F. Where there.
  
  [419. ]F. stoode.
  
  [420. ]Tn. ten; F. tene. Th. foote; F. fete; Tn. om. Th. or; F. Tn. fro other (repeated).
  
  [422. ]Th. Tn. B. Of; F. Or. Th. or; rest om. F. fedme; Th. fedome; Tn. fedim; read fadme.
  
  [424. ]Th. brode; F. Tn. bothe (wrongly). F. eke.
  
  [426. ]Tn. B. shadwe; F. shadewe.
  
  [427. ]Tn. hert; F. herte.
  
  [429. ]Th. fawnes; F. Tn. fovnes. F. Tn. sowres; Th. sowers.
  
  [429, 430. ]B. doys, roys.
  
  [430. ]Tn. wode; F. woode.
  
  [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 l. 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. telle; rest tel. F. thinge.
  
  [441. ]F. evene.
  
  [442. ]F. swevene.
  
  [443. ]All ins. right bef. wonder.
  
  [444. ]F. Doune; woode.
  
  [446. ]Th. sate; F. Tn. sete. Tn. Iturned; F. turned.
  
  [447. ]F. ooke.
  
  [448. ]Th. Tn. thought; F. thogh (!).
  
  [450. ]F. went.
  
  [451. ]Tn. fond; F. founde.
  
  [452. ]F. farynge.
  
  [454. ]All but B. insert ryght before yong. Tn. ȝung; F. Th. yonge.
  
  [455. ]All yere; read yeer.
  
  [456. ]All heere, here; read heer.
  
  [457. ]Th. blacke; F. blake.
  
  [458. ]Tn. bakke; F. bake.
  
  [459. ]F. stoode.
  
  [460. ]F. sawe.
  
  [461. ]Tn. heng; F. henge. Th. heed; Tn. hed; F. hede.
  
  [462. ]Tn. dedly; F. dedely.
  
  [463. ]Th. Tn. twelue; F. twelfe.
  
  [464. ]Th. Tn. selue; F. selfe.
  
  [465. ]Tn. pite; F. 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.
  
  [471. ]F. sayed; Tn. said.
  
  [471, 2. ]Tn. song; F. songe.
  
  [473. ]B. alone supplies it (= hit); all insert ful before wel.
  
  [475. ]F. grete; Tn. gret. All wone; read woon.
  
  [476. ]F. Ioy; none.
  
  [477, 8. ]Read brighte, mighte?
  
  [479. ]Th. deed; F. ded. After l. 479 Thynne inserts And thus in sorowe lefte me alone; it is spurious; see note. [Hence there is no l. 480.]
  
  [481. ]Koch supplies o. Tn. deth; F. dethe.
  
  [483. ]Tn. that; which F. Tn. omit.
  
  [484. ]F. faire. F. freshe; Tn. fressh.
  
  [485. ]All se; but read y-see.
  
  [486. ]F. goodenesse.
  
  [487. ]All made. Th. B. complaynte; F. complaynt.
  
  [488. ]F. sorwful. Th. herte; F. hert. Th. B. faynte; F. faynt.
  
  [489. ]F. spiritis.
  
  [490. ]Tn. blood; F. bloode.
  
  [491. ]Th. herte; F. hert. All 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; but read was.
  
  [499. ]Th. lymme; B. Tn. lyme; F. hym (!).
  
  [500. ]B. saw; F. saugh.
  
  [501. ]F. Th. there; Tn. for. All sete (fete is dat. pl.).
  
  [502. ]F. went; stoode.
  
  [503. ]All 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; F. loste.
  
  [512. ]F. inserts the before god; Th. Tn. omit.
  
  [513. ]F. wrothe.
  
  [514. ]Th. laste; F. last. F. sothe.
  
  [515. ]F. stoode.
  
  [516. ]All did. F. hoode.
  
  [517. ]All had ygret; Lange proposes grette (e unelided).
  
  [519. ]F. wrothe.
  
  [520. ]F. sothe.
  
  [521. ]B. saw; F. sawgh. F. trewly.
  
  [522. ]Tn. goode; F. good.
  
  [523, 4. ]F. oughte, thoughte.
  
  [526. ]F. thamendys.
  
  [527. ]F. lyeth; Tn. lith.
  
  [528. ]F. There. All myssayde.
  
  [529. ]Th. goodly; F. goodely. All spake (!). Th. knyght; F. knyghte.
  
  [530. ]B. ben; rest be.
  
  [531. ]F. towgh.
  
  [532. ]F. sawe; aqueynt.
  
  [533. ]F. fonde.
  
  [535. ]F. thoght.
  
  [537. ]F. oughte.
  
  [538. ]F. knowynge; thoughte.
  
  [541. ]F. These 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. thenketh.
  
  [547. ]F. grete.
  
  [548. ]Ins. good; see 714, 721. Th. Tn. if; F. yif.
  
  [550. ]F. wys; Th. wyse; Tn. wisse.
  
  [554. ]Th. al; F. alle; Tn. om.
  
  [556. ]B. ese; F. ease.
  
  [560. ]Tn. frend; F. frende.
  
  [564. ]All fal.
  
  [565. ]F. vnderstondynge lorne.
  
  [566. ]F. borne.
  
  [568. ]F. Th. ins. al (Tn. of) before the.
  
  [570. ]All ins. his after with.
  
  [571. ]All ins. no after may.
  
  [573. ]Th. Tn. houres; F. oures.
  
  [574. ]All assay.
  
  [575. ]B. Th. herte; F. Tn. hert.
  
  [577. ]F. wrechch; Tn. wrecch; Tn. wretche (for wrecche). All made.
  
  [578. ]F. al; Th. Tn. al the; B. alle (read al-le).
  
  [579. ]B. alle; rest al.
  
  [581. ]All lyfe. F. loothe.
  
  [582. ]F. wroothe (it is plural).
  
  [583. ]All ins. ful after so. F. foo.
  
  [584. ]All That; read Thogh. F. soo.
  
  [586. ]For the former hit, all have him; but see line above.
  
  [587. ]Th. reed; F. rede.
  
  [588. ]F. deynge. Th. deed; F. dede.
  
  [589. ]F. B. Thesiphus; Tn. Tesiphus; Th. Tesyphus. (The two latter are miswritten for Cesiphus = Sesiphus). Tn. lithe; F. Th. lyeth.
  
  [591. ]Th. Tn. al; F. alle. Th. by; F. Tn. be.
  
  [592. ]Tn. hade; F. had.
  
  [594. ]Tn. feenli (sic); Th. F. fendely.
  
  [596. ]Tn. met; Th. F. mette (!); read y-met.
  
  [598. ]B. telle; rest tel.
  
  [599. ]For song, F. Th. have sorowe, and Tn. has sorov, which are absurd; the reading is obviously song, the ng being altered to rowe by influence of l. 597, which the scribes glanced at. Tn. pleynyng; F. pleynynge.
  
  [600. ]Tn. laughter; F. lawghtre. Tn. weping; F. wepynge.
  
  [601. ]F. thoghtys.
  
  [603. ]All eke.
  
  [604. ]Th. Tn. good; F. goode. All harme.
  
  [605. ]Th. playeng; F. pleynge.
  
  [666. ]B. I-koude; Th. Tn. Iconde (!); F. y-konde (!); see l. 667.
  
  [1.]The opening lines of this poem were subsequently copied (in 1384) 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.
  - Furnivall; Trial Forewords, p. 51.
  Chaucer frequently makes words like have (l. 1), live (l. 2), especially in the present indicative, mere monosyllables. As examples of the fully sounded final e, we may notice the dative light-e (l. 1), the dative (or adverbial) night-e (l. 2), the infinitive slep-e (3), the adverb ylich-e (9), the dative mind-e (15), &c. On the other hand, hav-e is dissyllabic in l. 24. The e is elided before a following vowel in defaute (5), trouthe (6), falle (13), wite (16), &c. We may also notice that com’th is a monosyllable (7), whereas trewely (33) has three syllables, though in l. 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 ymaginacioun (in F., Tn., Th.) cannot be right. Lange proposes to omit For, which hardly helps us. It is clearly sorwful that is wrong. I propose to replace it by sory. Koch remarks that sorwful has only two syllables (l. 85); but the line only admits of one, or of one and a very light syllable.
  
  [15.]Observe how frequently, in this poem and in the House of Fame, Chaucer concludes a sentence with the former of two lines of a couplet. Other examples occur at ll. 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 the whole of 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 thus (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 me these irons hot,’ K. John, iv. 1. 1; &c.
  
  [31-96.]These lines are omitted in the Tanner MS. 346; also in MS. Bodley 638 (which even omits ll. 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.]Trewely is here three syllables, which is the normal form; cf. Prologue, 761; Kn. Ta. A 1267. In l. 35, the second e is hardly sounded.
  
  [36.]We must here read ‘hold-e,’ without elision of final e, which is preserved by the cæsura.
  
  [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. Furnivall 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 now late follows I sat upryght, 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 l. 57, such thinges means ‘such love-stories.’
  
  [62.]‘Alcyone, or Halcyone: A daughter of Æolus and Enarete or Ægiale. She was married to Ceyx, and lived so happy with him, that they were presumptuous enough to call each other Zeus and Hera, for which Zeus metamorphosed them into birds, alkuōn (a king-fisher) and kēūks (a greedy sea-bird, Liddell and Scott; a kind of sea-gull; Apollod. i. 7. § 3, &c.; Hygin. Fab. 65). Hyginus relates that Ceyx perished in a shipwreck, 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 alkuōn was breeding, there always prevailed calms at sea. An embellished form of the story is given by Ovid, Met. xi. 410, &c.; compare Virgil, Georg. i. 399.’—Smith’s Dictionary. Hence the expression ‘halcyon days’; see Holland’s Pliny, b. x. c. 32, quoted in my Etym. Dict. s. v. Halcyon.
  
  M. Sandras asserts that the history of Ceyx and Alcyone is borrowed from the Dit de la Fontaine Amoureuse, 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, Chaucer himself may be permitted to know; his description of the book, viz. in ll. 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, l. 53 (as printed in vol. v.), where he says—
  - ‘For he [Chaucer] hath told of loveres up and doun
  - Mo than Ovyde made of mencioun
  - In his Epistelles, that been ful olde.
  - What sholde I tellen hem, sin they ben tolde?
  - In youthe he made of Ceys and Alcion;’ &c.
  It is true that Chaucer here mentions Ovid’s Heroides 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 (Studien, p. 10) points out one very clear indication of Chaucer’s having consulted Ovid. In l. 68, he uses the expression to tellen shortly, 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 Dryden, whose version is easily accessible.) As the tale is told at great length, I quote only a few of the lines that most closely correspond to Chaucer. Compare—
  - ‘But fully bent
  - He [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 [gust] at last,
  - That with his violence brake the Maste, and strake the Sterne away . . . .
  - Behold, euen full vpon the waue a flake of water blacke
  - Did breake, and vnderneathe the sea the head of Ceyx stracke.’
  - fol. 137-9.
  See further in the note to l. 136.
  
  [67.]Koch would read wolde for wol; I adopt his suggestion.
  
  [76.]Alcyone (in the MSS.) was introduced as a gloss.
  
  [78.]Come (dissyllabic) is meant to be in the pt. t. subjunctive.
  
  [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 Chaucers 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 began for gan arose from forgetting that herte (A.S. heorte) is dissyllabic in Chaucer, in countless places. The substitution of yerne for erme arose from the fact that the old word ermen, to grieve, was supplanted by earn, to desire, to grieve, in the sixteenth century, and afterwards by the form yearn. 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. Dict., s. v. Yearn (2), that it is needless to repeat it all over again. Chaucer was quite incapable of such a mere assonance 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 conferme with ferme, Troil. ii. 1525, and with afferme in the same, 1588. There is, in Chaucer, no sixth riming word in -erme at all, and none in either -irme or -yrme.
  
  Both in the present passage and in the Pardoner’s Prologue the verb to erme is used with the same sb., viz. herte; which clinches the matter. By way of example, compare ‘The bysschop weop for ermyng’; King Alisaunder, ed. Weber, l. 1525.
  
  [86, 87.]L. 86 is too short. In l. 87 I delete alas after him, which makes the line a whole foot too long, and is not required. Koch ingeniously suggests, for l. 86: ‘That hadde, alas! this noble wyf.’ This transference of alas mends both lines at once.
  
  [91.]Wher, short for whether (very common).
  
  [93.]Avowe is all one word, though its component parts were often written apart. Thus, in P. Plowman, B. v. 457, we find And made avowe, where the other texts have a-vou, a-vowe; see Avow in the New E. Dict. See my note to Cant. Tales, Group C, 695.
  
  [97.]Here the gap in the MSS. ceases, and we again have their authority for the text. For Had we should, perhaps, read Hadde.
  
  [105.]Doubtless, we ought to read:—‘Ne coude she.’
  
  [106.]This phrase is not uncommon. ‘And on knes she sat adoun’; Lay le Freine, l. 159; in Weber’s Met. Romances, i. 363. Cf. ‘This Troilus ful sone on knees him sette’; Troilus, iii. 953.
  
  [107.]Weep (not wepte) is Chaucer’s word; see Cant. Tales, B 606, 1052, 3852, E 545, F 496, G 371.
  
  [120.]For knowe (as in F. Tn. Th.) read knowen, to avoid hiatus.
  
  [126.]‘And she, exhausted with weeping and watching.’ Gower (Confes. Amantis, ed. Pauli, i. 160) speaks of a ship that is forstormed and forblowe, i. e. excessively driven about by storm and wind.
  
  [130.]Or read: ‘That madë her to slepe sone’; without elision of e in made (Koch).
  
  [136.]Go bet, go quickly, hasten, lit. go better, i. e. faster. See note to Group C, 667. Cf. Go now faste, l. 152.
  
  Morpheus is dissyllabic, i. e. Morph’ús; cf. Mórph’us in l. 167.
  
  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 nights that in the while did flit,
  - And hasted 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 Iuno she did sence.
  - And for her husband (who as then was none) she kneeld before
  - 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 Iuno 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 says: 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 mountaine 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 Phœbus 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 dreams lie prest
  - As eares of corne 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 sacret 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’: &c.
  [139.]The first accent falls on Sey; the e in halfe seems to be suppressed.
  
  [154.]His wey. Chaucer substitutes a male messenger for Iris; see ll. 134, 155, 180-2.
  
  [155.]Imitated from Machault’s Dit de la Fontaine:—
  - ‘Que venue est en une grant valee,
  - De deus grans mons entour environnee,
  - Et d’un russel qui par my la contree,’ &c.
  See Ten Brink, Studien, p. 200; Furnivall, Trial Forewords, p. 44.
  
  It is worth notice that the visit of Iris to Somnus is also fully described by Statius, Theb. x. 81-136; but Chaucer does not seem to have copied him.
  
  [158, 159.]Two bad lines in the MSS. Both can be mended by changing nought into nothing, as suggested by Ten Brink, Chaucers Sprache, § 299.
  
  [160.]See a very similar passage in Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 39, 40, 41, 42, 43. And cf. Ho. of Fame, 70.
  
  [167.]Eclympasteyre. ‘I 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 Pastora: Icelon-pastora (the two names linked together) would give Eclympasteyre.’—Ten Brink, Studien, p. 11, as quoted in Furnivall’s Trial Forewords, p. 116. At any rate, we may feel sure that Eclym- is precisely Ovid’s Icelon. And perhaps Phobetora comes nearer to -pasteyre than does Phantasos, the name of another son of Morpheus, whom Ovid mentions immediately below. Gower (ed. Pauli, ii. 103) calls them Ithecus and Panthasas; and the fact that he here actually turns Icelon into Ithecus is a striking example of the strange corruption of proper names in medieval times. Prof. Hales suggests that Eclympasteyre represents Icelon plastora, where plastora is the acc. of Gk. πλαστώρ, i. e. moulder or modeller, a suitable epithet for a god of dreams; compare the expressions used by Ovid in ll. 626 and 634 of this passage. Icelon is the acc. of Gk. ἴκελος, or εἴκελος, like, resembling. For my own part, I would rather take the form plastera, acc. of πλαστήρ, 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, Phantastere; but this is impossible, because Morpheus had but one heir (l. 168).
  
  Froissart has the word Enclimpostair as the name of a son 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 Athenæum, 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 envye; to be read as Tenvý-e. The phrase is merely an adaptation of the F. à l’envi, or of the vb. envier. Cotgrave gives: ‘à l’envy l’vn de l’autre, 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. Dict. It is etymologically connected with Lat. inuitare, not with Lat. inuidia. See l. 406, below.
  
  [175.]Read slepe, as in ll. 169, 177; A.S. slǽpon, pt. t. pl.
  
  Upright, i. e. on their backs; see The Babees Book, p. 245.
  
  [181.]Who is, i. e. who is it that.
  
  [183.]Awaketh is here repeated in the plural form.
  
  [184.]Oon ye, one eye. This is from Machault, who has: ‘ouvri l’un de ses yeux.’ Ovid has the pl. oculos.
  
  [185.]Cast is the pp., as pointed out by Ten Brink, who corrects the line; Chaucers Sprache, § 320.
  
  [192.]Abrayd, and not abrayde, is the right form; for it is a strong verb (A. S. ábregdan, pt. t. ábrægd). So also in the Ho. of Fame, 110 However, brayde (as if weak) also occurs; Ho. of Fame, 1678.
  
  [195.]Dreynt-e is here used as an adj., with the weak declension in -e. So also in Cant. Tales, B 69. Cf. also Ho. of Fame, 1783.
  
  [199.]Fet-e is dat. pl.; see l. 400, and Cant. Ta., B 1104.
  
  [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 (Chaucers Sprache, § 300), viz. to change allas into A. Lange omits quod she; but see l. 215.
  
  [218.]My first matere, my first subject; i. e. sleeplessness, as in l. 43.
  
  [219.]Whérfor seems to be accented on the former syllable. MS. B. inserts you after told; perhaps it is not wanted. If it is, it had better come before told rather than after it.
  
  [222.]I 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.]I 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.
  
  [247.]His lyve, during his life.
  
  [248.]The readings are here onwarde, Th. F.; here onward, Tn.; here on warde, B. I do not think here onward can be meant, nor yet hereon-ward; I know of no examples of such meaningless expressions. I read here on 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,’ &c. Ward = custody, occurs in the dat. warde in William of Palerne, 376—‘How that child from here warde was 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, Studien, p. 204.
  - ‘Et por ce au dieu qui moult sout (?) et moult vault
  - Por mielx dormir un chapeau de pavaut
  - Et un mol lit de plume de gerfaut
  - Promes et doing.’
  See also Our English Home, p. 106.
  
  [255.]Reynes, i. e. Rennes, in Brittany; spelt Raynes in the Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner, iii. 358. 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, l. 842 (in Ritson, Met. Rom. iii. 180). ‘A peyre schetes of Reynes, with the heued shete [head-sheet] of the same’; Earliest Eng. Wills, ed. Furnivall, p. 4, l. 16. ‘A towaile of Raynes’; Babees Book, p. 130, l. 213; and see note on p. 208 of the same. ‘It [the head-sheet] was more frequently made of the fine white linen of Reynes’; Our Eng. Home, p. 109. ‘Hede-shetes of Rennes’ are noticed among the effects of Hen. V; see Rot. Parl. iv. p. 228; footnote on the same page. Skelton mentions rochets ‘of fyne Raynes’; Colin Clout, 316. The mention of this feather-bed may have been suggested to Machault by Ovid’s line about the couch of Morpheus (Metam. xi. 611)—‘Plumeus, unicolor, pullo velamine tectus.’
  
  [264.]We must delete quene; it is only an explanatory gloss.
  
  [279.]‘To be well able to interpret my dream.’
  
  [282.]The modern construction is—‘The dream of King Pharaoh.’ See this idiom explained in my note to the Prioresses Tale, Group F, l. 209. Cf. Gen. xli. 25.
  
  [284.]As to Macrobius, see note to the Parl. of Foules, 31. And cf. Ho. of Fame, 513-7. We must never forget how frequent are Chaucer’s imitations of Le Roman de la Rose. Here, for example, he is thinking of ll. 7-10 of that poem:—
  - ‘Ung acteur qui ot non Macrobes . . . .
  - Ancois escrist la vision
  - Qui avint au roi Cipion.’
  After Macrobeus understand coude (from l. 283), which governs the infin. arede in l. 289.
  
  [286.]Métt-e occupies the second foot in the line. Koch proposes him for he; but it is needless; see Cant. Tales, B 3930. In l. 288, read fortúned.
  
  [288.]This line, found in Thynne only, is perhaps not genuine, but interpolated. Perhaps Whiche is better than Swiche.
  
  [292.]Cf. Rom. de la Rose, 45-47:—
  - ‘Avis m’iere qu’il estoit mains . . . .
  - En Mai estoie, ce songoie.’
  And again, cf. ll. 295, &c. with the same, ll. 67-74. See pp. 95, 96.
  
  [301.]Read songen, not songe, to avoid the hiatus.
  
  [304.]Chaucer uses som as a singular in such cases as the present. A clear case occurs in ‘Som in his bed’; Kn. Tale, 2173. (C. T A 3031.) Hence song is the sing. verb.
  
  [309.]Entunes, tunes. Cf. entuned, pp.; C. T. Prol. 123.
  
  [310.]Tewnes, Tunis; vaguely put for some distant and wealthy town; see ll. 1061-4, below. Its name was probably suggested by the preceding word entunes, 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 of before king. But Mr. Sweet omits of, and I follow him. The words of king are again inserted before Lamedon in l. 329, being caught from l. 328 above.
  
  Lamedon is Laomedon, father of King Priam of Troy. Ector is Chaucer’s spelling of Hector; Man of Lawes Tale, B 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 Æneas; Vergil, Æn. bk. vii; Rom. Rose, 21087; cf. Ho. of Fame, 458. Observe his pronunciation of Médea, as in Ho. of Fame, 401; Cant. Ta., B 72.
  
  [332.]‘There is reason to believe that Chaucer copied these imageries from the romance of Guigemar, 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, ll. 139-146; see p. 99.
  
  [333.]Bothe text and 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 necessary, 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., E 2032; 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 ll. 1-4070, and completed about forty years afterwards (in a very different and much more satirical style) by Jean de Meung (or Meun), surnamed (like his father) Clopinel, i. e. the Cripple, who wrote ll. 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. See further above, pp. 16-19.
  
  The E. version is invariably called the Romaunt of the Rose, and we find the title Rommant de la Rose in the original, l. 20082; cf. our romant-ic. But Burguy explains that romant is a false form, due to confusion with words rightly ending in -ant. The right O. F. form is romans, originally an adverb; from the phrase parler romans, i. e. loqui Romanice. In the Six-text edition of the Cant. Tales, E 2032, four MSS. have romance, one has romans, and one romauns.
  
  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 (see p. 98, above):—
  - ‘Clere et serie et bele estoit
  - La matinee, et atrempee.’
  [343.]Ne in is to be read as Nin; we find it written nin in the Squieres Tale, F 35. See l. 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, which throws the accent upon I, and reduces herde to herd’ (unaccented!). To remedy this, I also omit And. Perhaps speke (better speken) is an infinitive in l. 350, but it may also be the pt. t. plural (A. S. sprǽcon); 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.]Embosed, embossed. This is a technical term, used in various senses, for which see the New Eng. Dict. Here it means ‘so far plunged into the thicket’; from O. F. bos (F. bois), a wood. In later authors, it came to mean ‘driven to extremity, like a hunted animal’; then ‘exhausted by running,’ and lastly, ‘foaming at the mouth,’ as a result of exhaustion.
  
  [362.]A relay was a fresh set of dogs; see Relay in my Etym. Dict.
  - ‘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 liam, lime, or leash, to be let loose when required; from O. F. liem (F. lien, Lat. ligamen), a leash. 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, ladde, 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 l. 1314, 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. ‘The Romance of the Emperor Octavian’ was also edited by Halliwell for the Percy Society, in 1844. The name originally referred to the emperor Augustus.
  
  [370.]The exclamation ‘A goddes halfe’ was pronounced like ‘A god’s half’; see l. 758. See note to l. 544.
  
  [374.]Fil to doon, fell to do, i. e. was fitting to do.
  
  [375.]Fot-hoot, foot-hot, immediately; see my note to Man of Lawes Tale, B 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 mote, ij motes [i. e. 3 motes in all]; and if myn howndes come not hastily to me as I wolde, I shall blowe iiij. motes’; Venery de Twety, in Reliquiæ Antiquæ, i. 152.
  
  Cf. a passage in the Chace 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. lons mots, 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 were 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.
  - When thy houndes in the wode sechyn any beest,
  - And the beest is stoll 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 forloyned, I the hete.
  - For the beste and the houndes arn 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 Reliquiæ Antiquæ, 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 rechace upon my houndys that be past the boundys.’
  
  [387.]Go, gone. The sense is—‘I had gone (away having) walked from my tree.’ The idiom is curious. My tree, 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 in fled-de is not elided, owing to the pause after it. See note to l. 685.
  
  [398.]Wente, path. Chaucer often rimes words that are pronounced alike, if their meanings be different. See ll. 439, 440; and cf. ll. 627-630. The very same pair of rimes occurs again in the Ho. of Fame, 181, 182; and in Troil. ii. 62, 813; iii. 785, v. 603, 1192.
  
  [402.]Read—For both-e Flor-a, &c. The -a in Flora comes at the cæsural pause; cf. ll. 413, 414. Once more, this is from Le Roman de la Rose, ll. 8449-51:—
  - ‘Zephirus et Flora, sa fame,
  - Qui des flors est déesse et dame,
  - Cil dui font les floretes nestre.’
  Cf. also ll. 5962-5:—
  - ‘Les floretes i fait parair,
  - E cum estoiles flamboier,
  - Et les herbetes verdoier
  - Zephirus, 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 l. 824. Moreover, it is copied from Le Roman de la Rose, 8465-8:—
  - ‘Qu’il vous fust avis que la terre
  - Vosist emprendre estrif et guerre
  - Au ciel d’estre miex estelée,
  - Tant iert par ses flors revelée.’
  [410-412.]From Le Roman de la Rose, 55-58 (see p. 95, above):—
  - ‘La terre . . . .
  - Et oblie la poverte
  - Ou ele a tot l’yver este.’
  [419.]Imitated from Le Roman de la Rose, 1373-1391; in particular:—
  - ‘Li ung [arbre] fu loing de l’autre assis
  - Plus de cinq toises, ou de sis,’ &c.
  Chaucer has treated a toise as if it were equal to two feet; it was really about six. In his own translation of the Romaunt, l. 1393, he translates toise by fadome. See p. 151 (above).
  
  [429.]According to the Book of St. Albans, fol. e 4, the buck was called a fawne in his first year, a preket in the second, a sowrell in the third, a sowre in the fourth, a bucke of the fyrst hede in the fifth, and a bucke (simply) in the sixth year. Also a roo is the female of the roobucke.
  
  [435.]Argus is put for Algus, the old French name for the inventor of the Arabic numerals; it occurs in l. 16373 of the 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-Khowārazmī, the native of Khwārazm (Khiva), 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 generally 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, ll. 12994, &c., which is clearly the very passage which Chaucer here copies:—
  - ‘Se mestre Argus li bien contens
  - I vosist bien metre ses cures,
  - E venist o ses dix figures,
  - Par quoi tout certefie et nombre,
  - Si ne péust-il pas le nombre
  - Des grans contens certefier,
  - Tant seust bien monteplier.’
  Here o means ‘with’; so that Chaucer has copied the very phrase ‘with his figures ten.’ But still more curiously, Jean de Meun here rimes nombre, pres. sing. indic., with nombre, sb.; and Chaucer rimes noumbre, infin., with noumbre, sb. likewise. Countour in l. 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 0.
  
  [438.]Al ken, all kin, i. e. mankind, all men. This substitution of ken for kin (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 nouȝt mi ken’; and five times at least in the Ayenbite of Inwyt, as it is a Kentish form. It was, doubtless, a permissible variant.
  
  [442.]The strong accent on me is very forced.
  
  [445.]A man in blak; John of Gaunt, in mourning for the loss of his wife Blaunche. Imitated by Lydgate, in his Complaint of the Black Knight, l. 130, and by Spenser, in his Daphnaida:—
  - ‘I did espie
  - Where towards me a sory wight did cost
  - Clad all in black, that mourning did bewray.’
  [452.]Wel-faring-e; four syllables.
  
  [455.]John of Gaunt, born in June, 1340, was 29 years old in 1369. I do not know why a poet is never 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 suggestion is excellent. He remarks that nine and twenty was usually written xxviiij.; and if the v 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 the mode of reading it. See Richard the Redeless, iii. 260.
  
  There is a precisely similiar confusion in Cant. Ta. Group B, l. 5, where eightetethe is denoted by ‘xviijthe’ in the Hengwrt MS., whilst the Harl. MS. omits the v, and reads threttenthe, and again the Ellesmere MS. inserts an x, and gives us eighte and twentithe. The presumption is, that Chaucer knew his patron’s age, and that we ought to read nine for 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 l. 479. This additional line is numbered 480 in the editions; so I omit l. 480 in the numbering. The line is probably spurious. It is not grammatical; grammar would require that has (not is, as in l. 479) should be understood before the pp. left; 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 ll. 481-6, if the two stanzas are to be made alike. Chaucer says the lay consisted of ‘ten verses or twelve’ in l. 463, which is a sufficiently close description of a lay of eleven lines. Had he said twelve without any mention of ten, the case would have been different.
  
  [479.]Lange proposes: ‘Is deed, and is fro me agoon.’ F. Tn. Th. agree as to the reading given; I see nothing against it.
  
  [481.]If we must needs complete the line, we must read ‘Allas! o deth!’ inserting o; or ‘Allas! the deth,’ inserting the. The latter is proposed by Ten Brink, Sprache, &c. § 346.
  
  [490.]Pure, very; cf. ‘pure fettres,’ Kn. Tale, A 1279. And see l. 583, below.
  
  [491.]Cf. ‘Why does my blood thus muster to my heart?’ Meas. for Meas. ii. 4. 20.
  
  [501.]The MSS. have seet, sat, a false form for sat (A. S. sæt); due to the plural form seet-e or sēt-e (A. S. sǽt-on). We certainly find seet for sat in the Kn. Tale, A 2075. Read sete, as the pt. t. subj. (A. S. sǣte); and fete as dative pl. form, as in Cant. Ta. B 1104.
  
  [510.]Made, i. e. they made; idiomatic.
  
  [521.]Ne I, nor I; to be read N’I; cf. note to l. 343.
  
  [526.]‘Yes; the amends is (are) easily made.’
  
  [532.]Me acqueynte = m’acqueynt-e, acquaint myself.
  
  [544.]By our Lord, to be read as by’r Lord. Cf. by’r lakin, Temp. iii. 3. 1. So again, in ll. 651, 690, 1042.
  
  [547.]Me thinketh (= me think’th), it seems to me.
  
  [550.]Wis, certainly: ‘As certainly (as I hope that) God may help me.’ So in Nonne Prestes Tale, 587 (B 4598); and cf. Kn. Tale, 1928 (B 2786); Squ. Ta. F 469, &c. And see l. 683, below.
  
  [556.]Paraventure, pronounced as Paraunter; 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 Remedia Amoris. Accent remédies 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 fil 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; Rom. Rose, 21633. Dædalus represents the mechanician. No mechanical contrivances can help the mourner.
  
  [572.]Cf.
  - ‘Par Hipocras, ne Galien,
  - Tant fussent bon phisicien.’
  - Roman de la Rose, 16161.
  Hippocrates and Galen are meant; see note to Cant. Tales, C 306.
  
  [579.]Y-worthe, (who am) become; pp. of worthen.
  
  [582.]‘For all good fortune and I are foes,’ lit. angry (with each other). Hence wroth-e is a plural form.
  
  [589.]S and C were so constantly interchanged before e that Sesiphus could be written Cesiphus; and C and T were so often mistaken that Cesiphus easily became Tesiphus, the form in the Tanner MS. Further, initial T was sometimes replaced by Th; and this would give the Thesiphus of MS. F.
  
  Sesiphus, 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 l. 569. In the Roman de la Rose, we have the usual allusions to Yxion (l. 19479), Tentalus, i. e. Tantalus (l. 19482), Ticius, i. e. Tityus (l. 19506), and Sisifus (l. 19499).
  
  But whilst I thus hold that Chaucer probably wrote Sesiphus, 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. 1532 we find Tesiphus.
  
  [599.]With this string of contrarieties compare the Eng. version of the Roman de la Rose, 4706-4753. See p. 212, above.

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