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V.: THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES. - Geoffrey Chaucer, The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, vol. 1 (Romaunt of the Rose, Minor Poems) [1899]

Edition used:

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

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

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V.

THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES.

The authorities are: F. (Fairfax 16); Gg. (Gg. 4. 27, Cambridge Univ. Library); Trin. (Trinity Coll. Camb. R. 3. 19); Cx. (Caxton’s edition); Harl. (Harleian 7333); O. (St. John’s Coll. Oxford); Ff. (Ff. 1. 6, Cambridge Univ. Library); occasionally Tn. (Tanner 346); D. (Digby 181); and others. I follow F. mainly, corrected by Gg. (and others); and note all variations from F. of any consequence.

Title; Gg. has—Here begynyth the parlement of Foulys; D. The parlement of Fowlis.

  • The Proem.
    • For al be that I knowe not love in dede,[ ]
    • Ne wot how that he quyteth folk hir hyre,
    • Yet happeth me ful ofte in bokes rede10
    • Of his miracles, and his cruel yre;
    • Ther rede I wel he wol be lord and syre,
    • I dar not seyn, his strokes been so sore,
    • But God save swich a lord! I can no more.
    • Of usage, what for luste what for lore,[ ]15
    • On bokes rede I ofte, as I yow tolde.
    • But wherfor that I speke al this? not yore
    • Agon, hit happed me for to beholde
    • Upon a boke, was write with lettres olde;
    • And ther-upon, a certeyn thing to lerne,20
    • The longe day ful faste I radde and yerne.
    • For out of olde feldes, as men seith ,[ ]
    • Cometh al this newe corn fro yeer to yere;
    • And out of olde bokes, in good feith ,
    • Cometh al this newe science that men lere.25
    • But now to purpos as of this matere—
    • To rede forth hit gan me so delyte,
    • That al the day me thoughte but a lyte.
    • First telleth hit, whan Scipioun was come[ ]
    • InAfrik , how he mette Massinisse,
    • That him for Ioye in armes hath y nome.
    • Than telleth [hit] hir speche and al the blisse
    • That was betwix hem, til the day gan misse;40
    • And how his auncestre, African so dere,
    • Gan in his slepe that night to him appere.
    • Than asked he, if folk that heer be dede[ ]50
    • Have lyf and dwelling in another place;
    • And African seyde, ‘ye, withoute drede,’
    • And that our present worldes lyves space
    • Nis but a maner deth, what wey we trace,
    • And rightful folk shal go , after they dye,55
    • To heven; and shewed him the galaxye .[ ]
    • Than shewed he him the litel erthe, that heer is,[ ]
    • At regard of the hevenes quantite;
    • And after shewed he him the nyne speres,[ ]
    • And after that the melodye herde he60
    • That cometh of thilke speres thryes three,[ ]
    • That welle is of musyke and melodye
    • In this world heer, and cause of armonye.
    • Than prayde him Scipioun to telle him al[ ]
    • The wey to come un-to that hevene blisse;
    • And he seyde, ‘know thy-self first immortal ,
    • And loke ay besily thou werke and wisse
    • To comun profit, and thou shalt nat misse75
    • To comen swiftly to that place dere,
    • That ful of blisse is and of soules clere.
    • The day gan failen , and the derke night,[ ]85
    • That reveth bestes from hir besinesse,
    • Berafte me my book for lakke of light,
    • And to my bedde I gan me for to dresse,
    • Fulfild of thought and besy hevinesse;
    • For bothe I hadde thing which that I nolde,[ ]90
    • Aud eek I ne hadde that thing that I wolde.[ ]
    • But fynally my spirit, at the laste,
    • For-wery of my labour al the day,
    • Took rest, that made me to slepe faste,
    • And in my slepe I mette, as I lay,95
    • How African , right in that selfe aray
    • That Scipioun him saw before that tyde,
    • Was comen, and stood right at my beddes syde.
    • The wery hunter, slepinge in his bed,[ ]
    • To wode ayein his minde goth anoon;100
    • The Iuge dremeth how his plees ben sped;
    • The carter dremeth how his cartes goon;
    • The riche, of gold; the knight fight with his foon,
    • The seke met he drinketh of the tonne;
    • The lover met he hath his lady wonne.105
    • Can I nat seyn if that the cause were
    • For I had red of African beforn,
    • That made me to mete that he stood there;
    • But thus seyde he, ‘thou hast thee so wel born[ ]
    • In loking of myn olde book to-torn ,110
    • Of which Macrobie roghte nat a lyte,[ ]
    • That somdel of thy labour wolde I quyte!’—
    • Citherea! thou blisful lady swete,[ ]
    • That with thy fyr-brand dauntest whom thee lest,[ ]
    • And madest me this sweven for to mete,115
    • Be thou my help in this, for thou mayst best;
    • As wisly as I saw thee north-north-west,[ ]
    • When I began my sweven for to wryte,
    • So yif me might to ryme hit and endyte!
  • The Story.
    • This forseid African me hente anoon,[ ]120
    • And forth with him unto a gate broghte
    • Right of a parke, walled with grene stoon;[ ]
    • And over the gate, with lettres large y-wroghte,[ ]
    • Ther weren vers y-writen , as me thoghte,
    • On eyther halfe, of ful gret difference,[ ]125
    • Of which I shal yow sey the pleyn sentence.
    • ‘Thorgh me men goon in-to that blisful place[ ]
    • Of hertes hele and dedly woundes cure;
    • Thorgh me men goon unto the welle of Grace,
    • Ther grene and lusty May shal ever endure;130
    • This is the wey to al good aventure;
    • Be glad, thou reder, and thy sorwe of-caste,
    • Al open am I; passe in, and hy the faste!’[ ]
    • ‘Thorgh me men goon,’ than spak that other syde,
    • ‘Unto the mortal strokes of the spere,135
    • Of which Disdayn and Daunger is the gyde,
    • Ther tree shal neverfruyt ne leves bere.
    • This streem you ledeth to the sorwful were,
    • Ther as the fish in prison is al drye;
    • Theschewing is only the remedye.’[ ]140
    • Thise vers of gold and blak y-writen were,[ ]
    • The whiche I gan a stounde to beholde,[ ]
    • For with that oon encresed ay my fere,[ ]
    • And with that other gan myn herte bolde ;
    • That oon me hette, that other did me colde,145
    • No wit had I, for errour, for to chese,
    • To entre or flee, or me to save or lese.
    • Right as, betwixen adamauntes two[ ]
    • Of even might, a pece of iren y-set ,
    • That hath no might to meve to ne fro—150
    • For what that on may hale, that other let—
    • Ferde I, that nistewhether me was bet,
    • To entre or leve, til African my gyde
    • Me hente, and shoof in at the gates wyde,
    • And seyde, ‘hit stondeth writen in thy face,155
    • Thyn errour, though thou telle it not to me;[ ]
    • But dred thee nat to come in-to this place,
    • For this wryting is no-thing ment by thee,[ ]
    • Ne by noon, but he Loves servant be;[ ]
    • For thou of love hast lost thy tast , I gesse,160
    • As seek man hath of swete and bitternesse.
    • But natheles, al-though that thou be dulle,
    • Yit that thou canst not do, yit mayst thou see;[ ]
    • For many a man that may not stonde a pulle,
    • Yit lyketh him at the wrastling for to be,165
    • And demeth yit wher he do bet or he;
    • And if thou haddest cunning for tendyte ,
    • I shal thee shewen mater of to wryte.’
    • With that my hond in his he took anoon,[ ]
    • Of which I comfort caughte, and wente in faste;170
    • But lord! so I was glad and wel begoon![ ]
    • For over-al, wher that I myn eyen caste,
    • Were treës clad with leves that ay shal laste,
    • Eche in his kinde, of colour fresh and grene
    • As emeraude , that Ioye was to sene.175
    • The bilder ook, and eek the hardy asshe;[ ]
    • The piler elm, the cofre unto careyne;[ ]
    • The boxtree piper ; holm to whippes lasshe;[ ]
    • The sayling firr; the cipres, deth to pleyne;[ ]
    • The sheter ew , the asp for shaftes pleyne;[ ]180
    • The olyve of pees, and eek the drunken vyne,[ ]
    • The victor palm, the laurer to devyne.[ ]
    • A garden saw I, ful of blosmy bowes,[ ]
    • Upon a river, in a grene mede,
    • Ther as that swetnesse evermore y-now is,[ ]185
    • With floures whyte, blewe, yelowe, and rede;
    • And colde welle-stremes, no-thing dede,
    • That swommen ful of smale fisshes lighte,
    • With finnes rede and scales silver-brighte.
    • On every bough the briddes herde I singe,190
    • With voys of aungel in hir armonye,
    • Som besyed hem hir briddes forth to bringe;
    • The litel conyes to hir pley gunne hye,
    • And further al aboute I gan espye
    • The dredful roo, the buk, the hert and hinde,195
    • Squerels , and bestes smale of gentil kinde.
    • Of instruments ofstrenges in acord
    • Herde I so pleye a ravisshing swetnesse,
    • That god, that maker is of al and lord,
    • Ne herde never better, as I gesse;200
    • Therwith a wind, unnethe hit might be lesse,
    • Made in the leves grene a noise softe
    • Acordant to the foules songe on-lofte.
    • The air of that place so attempre was
    • That never was grevaunce of hoot ne cold;205
    • Ther wex eek every holsom spyce and gras,
    • Ne no man may ther wexe seek ne old;
    • Yet was ther Ioye more a thousand fold
    • Then man can telle; ne never wolde it nighte,
    • But ay cleer day to any mannes sighte.210
    • Under a tree, besyde a welle, I say
    • Cupyde our lord his arwes forge and fyle;
    • And at his fete his bowe al redy lay,
    • And wel his doghter tempred al the whyle[ ]
    • The hedes in the welle, and with hirwyle215
    • She couched hem after as they shulde serve,[ ]
    • Som for to slee, and som to wounde and kerve.[ ]
    • Tho was I war of Plesaunce anon-right,[ ]
    • And of Aray, and Lust, and Curtesye;
    • And of the Craft that can and hath the might220
    • To doon by force a wight to do folye—
    • Disfigurat was she, I nil not lye;
    • And by him-self, under an oke, I gesse,
    • Sawe I Delyt, that stood with Gentilnesse.
    • I saw Beautee, withouten any atyr,[ ]225
    • And Youthe, ful of game and Iolyte,[ ]
    • Fool-hardinesse, Flatery, and Desyr,
    • Messagerye, and Mede, and other three—[ ]
    • Hir names shul noght here be told for me—
    • And upon pilers grete of Iasper longe230
    • I saw a temple of brasy-founded stronge.[ ]
    • Before the temple-dore ful soberly
    • Dame Pees sat, with a curteyn in hir hond:240
    • And hir besyde , wonder discretly,
    • Dame Pacience sitting ther I fond
    • With face pale, upon an hille of sond;[ ]
    • And alder-next, within and eek with-oute,
    • Behest and Art, and of hir folke a route.[ ]245
    • Within the temple, of syghes hote as fyr[ ]
    • I herde a swogh that gan aboute renne;
    • Which syghes were engendred with desyr,
    • That maden every auter for to brenne
    • Of newe flaume ; and wel aspyed I thenne250
    • That al the cause of sorwes that they drye
    • Com of the bitter goddesse Ialousye.
    • The god Priapus saw I, as I wente,
    • Within the temple, in soverayn place stonde,
    • In swich aray as whan the asse him shente[ ]255
    • With crye by night, and with his ceptre in honde;
    • Ful besily men gunne assaye and fonde
    • Upon his hede to sette, of sondry hewe,
    • Garlondes ful of fresshe floures newe.
    • And in a privee corner, in disporte,260
    • Fond I Venus and hir porter Richesse,[ ]
    • That was ful noble and hauteyn of hir porte;
    • Derk was that place, but afterward lightnesse
    • I saw a lyte, unnethe hit might be lesse,
    • And on a bed of golde she lay to reste,265
    • Til that the hote sonne gan to weste.
    • Hir gilte heres with a golden threde[ ]
    • Y-bounden were, untressed as she lay,
    • And naked fro the breste unto the hede
    • Men might hir see; and, sothly for to say,270
    • The remenant wel kevered to my pay
    • Right with a subtilkerchef of Valence,[ ]
    • Ther wasno thikker cloth of no defence.
    • The place yaf a thousand savours swote,
    • And Bachus , god of wyn , sat hir besyde,[ ]275
    • And Ceres next, that doth of hunger bote;
    • And, as I seide, amiddes lay Cipryde ,[ ]
    • To whom on knees two yonge folkes cryde
    • To ben hir help; but thus I leet hir lye,
    • And ferther in the temple I gan espye280
    • That, in dispyte of Diane the chaste,[ ]
    • Ful many a bowe y-broke heng on the wal[ ]
    • Of maydens, suche as gunne hir tymes waste[ ]
    • In hir servyse; and peynted over al
    • Of many a story, of which I touche shal285
    • A fewe, as of Calixte and Athalaunte,[ ]
    • And many a mayde, of which the name I wante;[ ]
    • Semyramus , Candace, and Ercules,[ ]
    • Biblis, Dido, Tisbe and Piramus,
    • Tristram, Isoude, Paris, and Achilles,290
    • Eleyne, Cleopatre, and Troilus,
    • Silla, and eek the moder of Romulus—[ ]
    • Alle these were peynted on that other syde,
    • And al hir love, and in what plyte they dyde.
    • Whan I was come ayen into the place295
    • That I of spak, that was so swote and grene,[ ]
    • Forth welk I tho, my-selven to solace.
    • Tho was I war wher that ther sat a quene[ ]
    • That, as of light the somer-sonne shene
    • Passeth the sterre, right so over mesure300
    • She fairer was than any creature.
    • And in a launde, upon an hille of floures,
    • Was set this noble goddesse Nature ;
    • Of braunches were hir halles and hir boures,
    • Y-wrought after hir craft and hir mesure;305
    • Ne ther nas foul that cometh of engendrure,
    • That they ne were prest in hir presence,
    • To take hir doom and yeve hir audience.
    • For this was on seynt Valentynes day,[ ]
    • Whan every foul cometh ther to chese his make,310
    • Of every kinde, that men thenke may;
    • And that so huge a noyse gan they make,
    • That erthe and see , and tree, and every lake
    • So ful was, that unnethe was ther space
    • For me to stonde, so ful was al the place.315
    • And right as Aleyn , in the Pleynt of Kinde,[ ]
    • Devyseth Nature ofaray and face,
    • In swich aray men mighten hir ther finde.
    • This noble emperesse, ful of grace,
    • Bad every foul to take hisowne place,320
    • As they were wont alwey fro yeer to yere,
    • Seynt Valentynes day, to stonden there.
    • That is to sey, the foules of ravyne[ ]
    • Were hyest set; and than the foules smale,
    • That eten as hem nature wolde enclyne,325
    • As worm, or thing of whiche I telle no tale;
    • But water-foul sat lowest in the dale ;
    • And foul that liveth by seed sat on the grene,
    • And that so fele, that wonder was to sene.
    • Ther mighte men the royal egle finde,[ ]330
    • That with his sharpe look perceth the sonne;[ ]
    • And other egles of a lower kinde,[ ]
    • Of which that clerkes wel devysen conne.
    • Ther was the tyraunt with his fethres donne[ ]
    • And greye, I mene the goshauk, that doth pyne335
    • To briddes for his outrageous ravyne.
    • The gentil faucon, that with his feet distreyneth[ ]
    • The kinges hond; the hardy sperhauk eke ,
    • The quayles foo; the merlion that peyneth[ ]
    • Him-self ful ofte, the larke for to seke;340
    • Ther was the douve, with hir eyen meke;
    • The Ialous swan, ayens his deth that singeth;[ ]
    • The oule eek, that of dethe the bode bringeth;[ ]
    • The sparow, Venus sone; the nightingale,[ ]
    • That clepeth forth the fresshe leves newe;[ ]
    • The swalow, mordrer of the flyës smale[ ]
    • That maken hony of floures fresshe of hewe;
    • The wedded turtel, with hir herte trewe;[ ]355
    • The pecok, with his aungels fethres brighte;[ ]
    • The fesaunt, scorner of the cok by nighte;[ ]
    • What shulde I seyn? of foules every kinde365
    • That in this worlde han fethres and stature,
    • Men mighten in that place assembled finde
    • Before the noble goddesse Nature .
    • And everich of hem did his besy cure
    • Benignely to chese or for to take,370
    • By hir acord, his formel or his make.[ ]
    • But to the poynt—Nature held on hir honde
    • A formel egle, of shap the gentileste
    • That ever she among hir werkes fonde ,
    • The most benigne and the goodlieste;375
    • In hir was every vertu at his reste,
    • So ferforth, that Nature hir-self had blisse
    • To loke on hir, and ofte hir bek to kisse.
    • Nature, the vicaire of thalmyghty lorde,[ ]
    • That hoot, cold, hevy, light, [and] moist and dreye[ ]380
    • Hath knit by even noumbre of acorde,
    • In esy vois began to speke and seye,
    • ‘Foules, tak hede of my sentence, I preye,
    • And, for your ese , in furthering of your nede,
    • As faste as I may speke, I wol me spede.385
    • Ye know wel how , seynt Valentynes day,[ ]
    • By my statut and through my governaunce,
    • Ye come for to chese—and flee your way—[ ]
    • Your makes, as I prik yow with plesaunce.
    • But natheles, my rightful ordenaunce390
    • May I not lete , for al this world to winne,
    • That he that most is worthy shal beginne.
    • The tercel egle, as that ye knowen wel ,
    • The foul royal above yow in degree,
    • The wyse and worthy, secree, trewe as stel ,395
    • The which I formed have , as ye may see,
    • In every part as hit best lyketh me,
    • Hit nedeth noght his shap yow to devyse,
    • He shal first chese and speken in his gyse.
    • And after him, by order shul ye chese,400
    • After your kinde, everich as yow lyketh,
    • And, as your hap is, shul ye winne or lese;
    • But which of yow that love most entryketh,
    • God sende him hir that sorest for him syketh.’
    • And therwith-al the tercel gan she calle,405
    • And seyde, ‘my sone, the choys is to thee falle.
    • But natheles, in this condicioun
    • Mot be the choys of everich that is here,
    • That she agree to his eleccioun,
    • Who-so he be that shulde been hir fere;410
    • This is our usage alwey, fro yeer to yere ;[ ]
    • And who so may at this time have his grace,
    • In blisful tyme he com in-to this place.’[ ]
    • With hed enclyned and with ful humble chere
    • This royal tercel spak and taried nought;415
    • ‘Unto my sovereyn lady, and noght my fere,
    • I chese, and chese with wille and herte and thought,[ ]
    • The formel on your hond so wel y-wrought,
    • Whos I am al and ever wol hir serve,
    • Do what hir list, to do me live or sterve.420
    • Beseching hir of mercy and of grace,[ ]
    • As she that is my lady sovereyne;
    • Or let me dye present in this place.
    • For certes, long may I not live in peyne;
    • For in myn herte is corven every veyne;425
    • Having reward only to my trouthe,
    • My dere herte, have on my wo som routhe.
    • And if that I to hir be founde untrewe,
    • Disobeysaunt, or wilful negligent,
    • Avauntour, or in proces love a newe,430
    • I pray to you this be my Iugement,
    • That with these foules I be al to-rent,
    • That ilke day that ever she me finde
    • To hir untrewe, or in my gilte unkinde.
    • And sin that noon loveth hir so wel as I,[ ]435
    • Al be she never of love me behette,
    • Than oghte she be myn thourgh hir mercy,
    • For other bond can I noon on hir knette .
    • For never, for no wo, ne shal I lette
    • To serven hir, how fer so that she wende;440
    • Sey what yow list, my tale is at an ende.’
    • Right as the fresshe, rede rose newe
    • Ayen the somer-sonne coloured is,
    • Right so for shame al wexen gan the hewe
    • Of this formel, whan she herde al this;445
    • She neyther answerde ‘wel,’ ne seyde amis,
    • So sore abasshed was she, til that Nature
    • Seyde, ‘doghter, drede yow noght, I yow assure.’
    • Another tercel egle spak anoon
    • Of lower kinde, and seyde, ‘that shal not be;450
    • I love hir bet than ye do, by seynt Iohn,
    • Or atte leste I love hir as wel as ye;
    • And lenger have served hir, in my degree,
    • And if she shulde have loved for long loving,
    • To me allone had been the guerdoning.455
    • I dar eek seye, if she me finde fals,
    • Unkinde, Iangler, or rebel any wyse,
    • Or Ialous, do me hongen by the hals!
    • And but I bere me in hir servyse
    • As wel as that my wit can me suffyse,460
    • Fro poynt to poynt, hir honour for to save,
    • Tak she my lyf, and al the good I have.’
    • The thridde tercel egle answerde tho,
    • ‘Now, sirs, ye seen the litel leyser here;[ ]
    • For every foul cryeth out to been a-go465
    • Forth with his make, or with his lady dere;
    • And eek Nature hir-self ne wol nought here,
    • For tarying here, noght half that I wolde seye;
    • And but I speke, I mot for sorwe deye.
    • Of long servyse avaunte I me no-thing,470
    • But as possible is me to dye to-day[ ]
    • For wo, as he that hath ben languisshing
    • Thise twenty winter , and wel happen may
    • A man may serven bet and more to pay
    • In half a yere, al-though hit were no more,475
    • Than som man doth that hath served ful yore.[ ]
    • I ne say not this by me, for I ne can
    • Do no servyse that may my lady plese;
    • But I dar seyn , I am hir trewest man
    • As to my dome, and feynest wolde hir ese ;480
    • At shorte wordes, til that deth me sese,
    • I wol ben hires , whether I wake or winke,[ ]
    • And trewe in al that herte may bethinke.’
    • Of al my lyf, sin that day I was born,
    • So gentil plee in love or other thing[ ]485
    • Ne herde never no man me beforn,
    • Who-[so] that hadde leyser and cunning
    • For to reherse hir chere and hir speking;
    • And from the morwe gan this speche laste
    • Til dounward drow the sonne wonder faste.490
    • The noyse of foules for to ben delivered
    • So loude rong, ‘have doon and let us wende!’
    • That wel wende I the wode had al to-shivered.
    • ‘Come of!’ they cryde, ‘allas! ye wil us shende!
    • Whan shal your cursed pleding have an ende?495
    • How shulde a Iuge eyther party leve,
    • For yee or nay, with-outen any preve?’
    • The goos, the cokkow, and the doke also
    • So cryden ‘kek, kek!’ ‘kukkow!’ ‘quek, quek!’ hye,[ ]
    • That thorgh myn eres the noyse wente tho.500
    • The goos seyde , ‘al this nis not worth a flye!
    • But I can shape hereof a remedye,
    • And I wol sey my verdit faire and swythe
    • For water-foul, who-so be wrooth or blythe.’[ ]
    • ‘And I for worm-foul,’ seyde the fool cukkow,505
    • ‘For I wol, of myn owne auctoritè,
    • For comune spede, take the charge now ,[ ]
    • For to delivere us is gret charitè.’[ ]
    • ‘Ye may abyde a whyle yet, parde!’
    • Seide the turtel, ‘if hit be your wille[ ]510
    • A wight may speke, him were as good be stille.
    • I am a seed-foul, oon the unworthieste,
    • That wot I wel, and litel of kunninge;
    • But bet is that a wightes tonge reste
    • Than entremeten h

      Explicit tractatus de congregacione Volucrum die sancti Valentini.

      Colophon.So in F; Gg. has—Explicit parliamentum Auium in die sancti Valentini tentum, secundum Galfridum Chaucer; Ff. has—Explicit Parliamentum Auium; MS. Arch. Seld. B. 24 has—Here endis the parliament of foulis; Quod Galfride Chaucere; the Longleat MS. has—Here endith the Parlement of foules.

      [P. 338: l. 91.]For Aud read And

      [P. 340: l. 133.]For the read thee

      [2. ]So F. Harl. Tn.; some transpose hard and sharp.

      [3. ]Gg. and others dredful; F. slyder. Gg. O. slit; Cx. flit (for slit); Ff. slydeth (om. so); F. slyd; Trin. fleeth.

      [5. ]Gg. (and others) with his wondyrful; F. soo with a dredeful.

      [7. ]F. Tn. wake or wynke; rest flete or synke; see 482.

      [9. ]Gg. Trin. Harl. that; which the rest omit.

      [10. ]Gg. Trin. Cx. Harl. Ff. ful ofte in bokis; F. in bookes ofte to.

      [11. ]F. ins. of after and; Gg. om.

      [13. ]F. Dar I; Gg. and others I dar.

      [14. ]F. suche; Gg. swich.

      [17. ]F. Tn. D. why; rest wherfore (wherfor).

      [21. ]Gg. faste; F. fast. Harl. radde; F. rad; Gg. redde.

      [22. ]F. seyth; Gg. sey.

      [24. ]F. feythe; Gg. fey.

      [26. ]Gg. O. as of this; Trin. Cx. Harl. Ff. of this; F. of my firste.

      [28. ]Gg. Ff. me thouȝte; Trin. Cx. Harl. me thought hit; F. thought me.

      [30. ]Gg. Cx. thus; F. Trin. Harl. there. Gg. and rest as I schal; F. I shal yow.

      [31. ]F. inserts the after dreme of; the rest omit. Trin. Harl. O. Scipioun; F. Cipioun; Gg. sothion (!).

      [32. ]F. hyt had vij; Gg. and the rest seuene It hadde.

      [33. ]Ff. therInne; F. and the rest theryn (wrongly).

      [34. ]Gg. it; O. of; the rest omit.

      [35. ]Gg. seyn; F. tel; the rest sey (say).

      [37. ]F. In-to; rest In. F. Aufryke; Gg. Affrik.

      [39. ]For hit all wrongly have he; see ll. 36, 43.

      [40. ]Harl. betwix; F. betwixt.

      [41. ]Gg. Affrican; F. Aufrikan.

      [42. ]F. on; rest in.

      [43. ]F. tolde he hym; Gg. Trin. Cx. Harl. tellith it; O. Ff. tellithe he.

      [44. ]Gg. Affrycan; F. Aufrikan. F. y-shewed; rest schewid, shewyd, &c.

      [46. ]Gg. other; Th. eyther; rest or.

      [49. ]Gg. There as Ioye is that last with outyn; F. There Ioy is that lasteth with-out.

      [50. ]F. inserts the after if; rest omit.

      [52. ]Gg. Affrican; F. Aufrikan.

      [53. ]Gg. Ff. that; Trin. Cx. Harl. how; F. om.

      [54. ]Cx. Nis; Gg. Nys; F. Trin. Harl. Ff. Meneth.

      [55. ]Gg. and rest after; F. whan. Gg. Ff. gon; Harl. O. gone.

      [56. ]Cx. galaxye; F. Ff. galoxye; O. galoxie. i. watlynstrete; Harl. galorye; Trin. galry (!); Gg. galylye (!).

      [58. ]Gg. and rest the; Harl. tho; F. om.

      [62. ]T. Cx. Harl. O. That welles of musyk be (ben).

      [64. ]Gg. Ff. Than bad he hym syn erthe was so lyte; F. Than bad he hym see the erthe that is so lite (wrongly).

      [65. ]Cx. Trin. Harl. O. ful of torment and; F. was somedel fulle; Gg. was sumdel disseyuable and ful (!).

      [69. ]Gg. and rest schulde (schuld, shuld); F. shal.

      [70. ]F. was; rest is.

      [71. ]F. O. he; rest him. Gg. and rest to; F. om.

      [72. ]Gg. Trin. Harl. O. into that; Cx. unto that: F. to (om. that).

      [73. ]Gg. inmortal; O. Th. immortalle; F. and rest mortalle (!).

      [75. ]Gg. and rest not (nat, noght); F. never.

      [76. ]Gg. comyn: Cx. comen; F. come. Gg. O. to; rest into, vnto.

      [77. ]Trin. Cx. Harl. Ff. retain of after and; F. Gg. O. omit.

      [78. ]F. ins. for before to (but lawe is dissyllabic); rest om.

      [80. ]Gg. wrongly puts there for therthe; Harl. O. Ff. place alwey before in peyne; the rest are bad.

      [82. ]F. ins. hem before alle. Gg. And that for-ȝeuyn is his weked dede (but dede is plural).

      [84. ]Gg. comyn; rest come, com. Cx. Harl. the sende his; O. sende the his; Gg. synde us; Ff. send vs; F. sende ech lover (!).

      [85. ]Harl. faylen; Cx. fayllen; F. faile; Gg. folwyn (!).

      [87. ]F. Berefte; rest Berafte, Beraft.

      [90. ]F. had; Gg. hadde.

      [91. ]Harl. O. give 1st that; Trin. Cx. the; F. Ff. Gg. om.

      [95. ]After as, Gg. Trin. Harl. O. insert that; it is hardly needed.

      [96. ]Gg. Affrican; F. Aufrikan.

      [102. ]Gg. Ff. carte is; O. cart is; rest cartes or cartis.

      [104, 5. ]Gg. Harl. O. met; F. Trin. Cx. meteth.

      [106. ]Gg. Cx. O. Ff. I nat; F. not I.

      [107. ]F. redde had; Gg. hadde red; rest had red (rad). Gg. affrican; F. Aufrican.

      [108. ]F. omits made; the rest have it.

      [110. ]to-torn] F. al to torne.

      [111. ]F. roght noght; Gg. roughte nat; Cx. roght not.

      [112. ]F. Cx. ins. the after I; rest omit.

      [114. ]Trin. Cx. fyrebronde; Gg. ferbrond; F. firy bronde.

      [119. ]Gg. ȝif; F. yeve. Trin. Cx. Harl. O. hit and; Ff. eke and; Gg. & ek; F. and to.

      [120. ]Gg. Affrican; F. Aufrikan.

      [122. ]F. and rest with; Gg. of.

      [124. ]Read weren; all were (weer). Gg. I-wrete; Th. ywritten; F. writen.

      [133. ]F. Ff. hye; the rest spede (sped).

      [135. ]F. stroke; rest strokes (strokis).

      [137. ]Cx. Harl. O. Ff. neuer tree shal. Cx. fruyt; Harl. O. fruyte; Trin. F. frute.

      [138. ]F. unto; rest to.

      [139. ]All is (ys).

      [140. ]O. Theschewing; Cx. Theschewyng; Harl. The eschuyng; F. Thescwynge (sic).

      [142. ]Trin. Cx. Harl. O. The; F. Gg. Of; Ff. On. F. Cx. a stounde (which I think is correct); Ff. astonde; (alt. to) Gg. a-stonyd; Trin. astonyed; Harl. O. astoned.

      [144. ]F. Cx. O. Ff. insert to before bolde (wrongly); Gg. Trin. Harl. om.

      [148. ]Gg. be-twixsyn; F. betwix.

      [149. ]F. y-sette; Gg. set.

      [150. ]F. That; Ff. om.; rest Ne (which would be elided). F. nor; rest ne (better).

      [152. ]Gg. and rest nyste; F. I ne wiste. Gg. and rest whether; F. wher that (perhaps rightly).

      [153. ]F. Affrikan.

      [156. ]Gg. Cx. O. to; rest omit.

      [158. ]Trin. Cx. by; Gg. bi; F. be.

      [159. ]Gg. Trin. Cx. by; F. be.

      [160. ]Gg. stat (!); for tast (taste).

      [162. ]F. Ff. om. that.

      [163. ]Gg. Harl. O. supply Yit; Cx. Yf; rest om. F. yet thou maist hyt; O. mayst thowe; rest yit mayst (may) thou.

      [165. ]F. Ff. om. for.

      [166. ]Gg. wher; rest whether.

      [167. ]Gg. Cx. tendite; F. Trin. to endite.

      [169. ]F. And with; rest om. And.

      [170. ]Gg. confort. Gg. that as; rest went in.

      [172. ]F. om. that (but over-al ov’r-al).

      [173. ]F. Weren; rest Were.

      [174. ]Gg. O. Ff. of; F. Cx. with (from line above).

      [175. ]F. Emerawde. Gg. sothe (for Ioye, wrongly).

      [177. ]Cx. O. piler; Gg. pilere; Trin. pylor; F. Harl. peler.

      [178. ]F. box pipe tre; Gg. and rest box tre pipere (or piper). Trin. the holyn; Cx. holin; Ff. holye; Gg. O. holm; F. Harl. holme.

      [180. ]Gg. Ew; rest ewe.

      [183. ]Harl. O. blosmy; Gg. blospemy (for blossemy); Cx. blossome; Trin. blossom; F. Ff. blossomed.

      [185. ]O. that; Gg. ther; rest omit. Gg. Ff. I-now; O. I-nowe; F. ynowh.

      [188. ]Ff. That swommen; Harl. That swommyn; Gg. That swemyn; Trin. That swymen; Cx. O. That swymmen; F. And swymmynge.

      [192. ]F. That; Gg. Ff. So (error for Som); rest Som, Some, Somme.

      [193. ]Gg. gunne; F. gunnen; rest gan, cane.

      [194. ]F. Trin. om. al.

      [196. ]Cx. Squerels; F. Squerel; rest Squyrelis (Squyrellis, Squerellis).

      [197. ]F. Cx. On; rest Of. Gg. Cx. O. strengis; Trin. stryngys; F. strynge. Gg. a-cord; rest accorde, acorde.

      [198. ]F. om. so. F. Gg. and (for a, wrongly); Ff. om.; rest a.

      [201. ]F. om. be; rest have it.

      [203. ]Gg. bryddis; rest foules.

      [205. ]F. ther of; rest of.

      [206. ]Gg. wex; Ff. waxed; F. growen; rest was (error for wex).

      [207. ]Trin. Cx. Harl. Ne; rest omit.

      [208. ]F. more Ioye; rest Ioye more.

      [209. ]F. No; rest Then (or Than). F. om. ne; rest (except Ff.) retain it. Trin. was (for wolde).

      [214. ]Gg. Th. wel; F. O. wille; Cx. Trin. wylle; Harl. whille; see note.

      [215. ]Gg. and rest hire (hir, hyr); F. harde. F. fyle; Trin. vyle (for fyle); Harl. wyel; rest wile.

      [216. ]F. shul; rest shuld, shulde.

      [217. ]F. om. for.

      [221. ]O. doon by force; Trin. Cx. do by force; Harl. done be force; Gg. don be fore (sic); F. goo before.

      [222. ]F. Ff. Disfigured. Gg. Harl. nyl; Cx. Trin. Ff. wil; O. wolle; F. shal.

      [225. ]Gg. saw; F. sawgh. Gg. with outyn; Cx. Ff. with outen; F. with oute.

      [228. ]F. Ff. Trin. omit 1st and.

      [229. ]F. Ff. Trin. omit here.

      [230. ]F. pelers; rest pilers (pileris, pylors).

      [231. ]F. sawgh. F. glas; rest (except Ff.) bras or brasse. Gg. Harl. O. I-founded; Trin. enfoundyd; F. founded.

      [232. ]Gg. daunsedyn; F. daunced.

      [233. ]F. O. om. ther.

      [234. ]F. om. were; rest retain.

      [236. ]Gg. ȝer be ȝeere; Trin. Cx. Harl. yere by yere; F. fro yere to yere.

      [237. ]Trin. O. of douys; Gg. of dowis; Cx. of duues; Harl. of dofes; Ff. of dowfs; F. saugh I (sic).

      [238. ]F. Of dowves white (sic); Ff. Saw I sitte; rest Saw I syttynge. Trin. Cx. Harl. O. thousand (for hundred).

      [240. ]F. om. with.

      [241. ]Gg. and rest by hire syde (for hir besyde).

      [244. ]F. om. eek; rest retain.

      [246. ]Gg. sykys.

      [248. ]Gg. sikis.

      [250. ]Trin. Cx. flame. F. om. wel; rest retain it.

      [252. ]Gg. Cam; O. Com; F. Come; Cx. Comen; Trin. Harl. Ff. Cometh. Gg. Trin. Cx. goddesse; Harl. goddes (i. e. goddess); F. O. goddys.

      [253. ]F. sawgh.

      [255. ]Gg. swich; F. suche.

      [256. ]Trin. Cx. Ff. by; rest be.

      [260. ]Gg. priue; F. prevy.

      [264. ]F. saugh.

      [267. ]Gg. goldene; Ff. golden; F. and rest golde or gold.

      [271. ]Cx. wel couerd; Harl. wel couered; Gg. was wel keuerede; Trin. was welle coueryd; F. keuered wel.

      [272. ]Harl. Trin. Ff. sotil. Trin. O. kerchyff; F. keuerchefe; Gg. couercheif; Cx. couerchef.

      [273. ]Gg. nas (for was). Gg. Harl. alone insert 2nd no (but it is wanted).

      [275. ]Trin. Cx. Bachus; rest Bacus. Gg. wyn; F. wyne.

      [277. ]F. Gg. Harl. Cipride (rightly); the rest Cupide (!); see l. 279.

      [278. ]Gg. Cx. O. two; Ff. to; F. the; Trin. Harl. om. Gg. O. Ff. folk ther (for folkes).

      [279. ]Gg. Trin. let; O. lat; Ff. lett; F. B. Cx. Harl. lete.

      [283. ]Gg. Harl. gunne; F. gonne; rest gan, can.

      [285. ]Gg. Cx. Ff. Ful (for Of).

      [288. ]Cx. O. Semiramis; Ff. Semiriamis; rest Semiramus (as in Leg. Good Women, Tisbe, l. 2). Gg. Hercules.

      [289. ]Trin. Harl. Tysbe; F. Cx. Tesbe; Gg. Thisbe.

      [295. ]F. Cx. comen; rest come. F. Ff. that; rest the.

      [298. ]Gg. that; which rest omit (though wanted).

      [303. ]F. O. wrongly insert of before Nature.

      [307. ]Gg. Trin. Cx. Ff. they; F. Harl. O. there. After were (dissyllabic) Gg. inserts al; needlessly.

      [308. ]Gg. dom; rest dome.

      [310. ]Gg. bryd (for foul); Cx. birde.

      [311. ]F. On; rest Of. Ff. thenke; rest thynke (not so well).

      [313. ]Gg. Ff. eyr (for see).

      [316. ]F. Alayne; Trin. Alen; rest Aleyn.

      [317. ]Gg. in (for of). All but Gg. Ff. needlessly insert suche before aray (caught from line below).

      [318. ]Gg. swich; F. suche. MSS. myghte, myght; but read mighten.

      [320. ]Gg. Ff. his; rest her, hir (wrongly). Cx. owen; Gg. owene; F. ovne; rest owne.

      [325. ]Gg. Cx. hem; Ff. them; O. om.; rest that.

      [327. ]Trin. vale (for dale).

      [330. ]Gg. ryal; Cx. Harl. O. rial.

      [338. ]F. om. hardy. All eke (for eek); exceptionally.

      [343. ]Trin. bood; Cx. bodword; rest bode (dissyllabic).

      [344. ]Gg. Ff. om. the.

      [345. ]Trin. chowgh; F. choghe; Cx. choughe; Harl. chowhe; Gg. O. Ff. crow (wrongly).

      [346. ]Harl. Ff. eles; Gg. O. elis; Trin. elys; F. Cx. egles (!). Trin. Harl. O. insert the before heroun; rest omit.

      [347. ]Gg. false; F. fals. Trin. Cx. lapwynk; O. lappewynk.

      [348. ]Gg. starlyng; rest stare. Gg. bewreye (but note the rime).

      [349. ]Gg. rodok.

      [350. ]Gg. orloge; F. orlogge. Gg. thorpis; F. thropes.

      [352. ]Gg. Cx. Ff. grene (for fresshe).

      [353. ]Trin. Th. flyes; Ff. bryddis; Gg. O. foulis; rest foules (fowles). But flyes is right; see Cant. Ta. I. 468, Boeth. iii. met. 7.

      [355. ]F. his; O. om.; rest hire, hir, her.

      [356. ]Gg. clothis (for fethers).

      [357. ]F. be (for by).

      [359. ]F. papiay; Gg. popyniay.

      [361. ]F. Cx. Ff. om. the.

      [363. ]Gg. The rauen wys, the crowe wit voice of care; Ff. same (omitting wys); F. and rest The rauenes and the crowes with her voys of care (badly).

      [367. ]Gg. myghtyn; F. myghte.

      [368. ]F. that; Ff. this; Harl. om.; rest the. All but Gg. Ff. ins. of bef. Nature.

      [369. ]Gg. eueriche; O. Ff. euery; F. eche (badly).

      [370. ]Gg. Benygnely; F. Benyngly (sic).

      [374. ]fonde is pt. t. subjunctive.

      [375. ]Gg. Cx. the (after and); Ff. moste; rest om.

      [378. ]Gg. bek; F. beke.

      [379. ]Ff. Cx. vicaire; F. vyker.

      [380. ]I insert and after light. Gg. Cx. dreye; rest drye.

      [381. ]Trin. Cx. by; F. be; Gg. with.

      [383. ]Cx. Ff. kepe (for hede).

      [384. ]Gg. ese; F. ease.

      [385. ]Gg. Ff. ȝow; Cx. you (for me).

      [386. ]F. Cx. Harl. insert that after how.

      [387. ]Gg. By; F. Be.

      [389. ]F. Trin. Cx. Harl. O. insert With before Your; Gg. Ff. rightly omit.

      [390. ]Gg. Cx. Ff. ordenaunce; rest gouernaunce (see l. 387).

      [391. ]F. Trin. Harl. O. let (i. e. let go); Gg. breke; Ff. suffre; Cx. lette.

      [393. ]Gg. terslet (for tercel). Gg. ful wel; F. wele.

      [394. ]Gg. ryal.

      [395. ]Gg. stel; F. stele.

      [396. ]All have formed.

      [411. ]Cx. yere by yere (for fro yeer to yere).

      [413. ]Gg. cam.

      [414. ]Gg. O. Ff. om. ful; rest retain.

      [415. ]Trin. Ff. Royalle; F. real; Gg. ryal.

      [424. ]Gg. I may.

      [426. ]Read al-only?

      [428. ]Gg. And if that I to hyre be founde; F. And yf I be founde to hir.

      [436. ]F. As though; rest Al be.

      [438. ]F. knette; Gg. areete; rest knytte, knyt.

      [439. ]Gg. Cx. O. Ne (for For).

      [445. ]So all. Read whan that she?

      [446. ]Gg. She neythir; Cx. Harl. O. Ff. She neyther; F. Trin. Neyther she.

      [450. ]Gg. O. Ff. shal; rest shulde, shuld.

      [460. ]Gg. that; rest omit.

      [462. ]Gg. the; Trin. Harl. ye; rest she.

      [463. ]Gg. thredde; Trin. Ff. thryd; F. thirdde.

      [467. ]F. om. Nature.

      [473. ]Gg. yeer and as (for winter and).

      [476. ]F. om. ful.

      [479. ]Gg. seyn; F. say.

      [480. ]Gg. Ff. ese; rest plese.

      [481. ]Gg. shorte; F. short.

      [482. ]Ff. hyres; F. hirse (!).

      [487. ]I supply so. Gg. hadde; F. had.

      [488. ]F. rehersen; rest reherse (reherce).

      [490. ]Gg. drow; Cx. wente; rest went (badly).

      [494. ]Cx. Harl. wil; F. wol.

      [495. ]Gg. pletynge; Trin. Cx. Harl. pletyng.

      [498. ]So Gg.; rest The goos, the duk, and the cukkowe also (wrongly; see next line).

      [501. ]F. seyde tho; rest omit tho. Gg. Ff. nys not; Trin. O. ys nat; Cx. is not; F. Harl. om. not.

      [503. ]Gg. Cx. I; rest om.

      [507. ]Gg. O. profit; rest spede. Trin. For comon spede, take the chargë now. F. Cx. Harl. O. ins. on me bef. the; Ff. ins. vpon me. Gg. tak on no (!) for take the.

      [510. ]Trin. Seyde; Cx. Said; rest Quod.

      [511. ]F. good; Cx. better (for as good); rest fayr.

      [514. ]Gg. bet; rest better.

      [515. ]Gg. entirmetyn; F. entremete.

      [517. ]All but Gg. Cx. ins. hyt (it, yt) bef. doth.

      [518. ]Ff. vncommaundet; O. vnconveyid; Gg. onquit (!); rest vncommytted.

      [520. ]Gg. om. behynde; Trin. Harl. blynde; Cx. by kynde; rest behynde.

      [523. ]F. O. Ff. for to (for to). F. delyueren; rest delyuere (deliver). F. Gg. Harl. from; rest fro.

      [1.]Part of the first aphorism of Hippocrates is—Ὁ βίσς βραχύς, ἡ δὲ τέχνη μακρή. This is often quoted in the Latin form—Ars Ionga, uita brevis. Longfellow, in his Psalm of Life, well renders it by—‘Art is long, but life is fleeting.’

      [2.]Several MSS. transpose hard and sharp; it is of small consequence.

      [3.]Slit, the contracted form of slideth, i. e. passes away; cf. ‘it slit awey so faste,’ Can. Yeom. Tale; C. T., Group G, l. 682. The false reading flit arose from mistaking a long s for f.

      [4.]By, with respect to. In l. 7, wher = whether.

      [8.]Evidently this disclaimer is a pretended one; the preceding stanza and ll. 13, 14 contradict it. So does l. 160. In this stanza we have an early example of Chaucer’s humour, of which there are several instances below, as e. g. in ll. 567-570, 589, 599, 610, &c. Cf. Troilus, i. 15, where Chaucer again says he is no lover himself, but only serves Love’s servants.

      [15.]Cf. Prol. to Legend of Good Women, 29-39.

      [22.]Men is here a weakened form of man, and is used as a singular sb., with the same force as the F. on or the G. man. Hence the vb. seith is in the singular. This construction is extremely common in Middle English. In ll. 23 and 25 com’th is monosyllabic.

      [31.]Tullius, i. e. M. Tullius Cicero, who wrote a piece entitled Somnium Scipionis, which originally formed part of the sixth book of the De Republica. Warton (Hist. Eng. Poetry, ed. Hazlitt. iii. 65) remarks:—‘Had this composition descended to posterity among Tully’s six books De Republica, to the last of which it originally belonged, perhaps it would have been overlooked and neglected. But being preserved and illustrated with a prolix commentary by Macrobius, it quickly attracted the attention of readers who were fond of the marvellous, and with whom Macrobius was a more admired classic than Tully. It was printed [at Venice] subjoined to Tully’s Offices, in [1470]. It was translated into Greek by Maximus Planudes, and is frequently [i. e. four times] quoted by Chaucer . . . Nor is it improbable that not only the form, but the first idea, of Dante’s Inferno was suggested by this apologue.’ The other allusions to it in Chaucer are in the Nonnes Prestes Tale, B 4314; Book of the Duchesse, 284; Ho. of Fame, 514. See also l. 111 below, where Macrobie is expressly mentioned. In the E. version of the Romance of the Rose, l. 7, he is called Macrobes.

      Aurelius Theodosius Macrobius, about a. d.] 400, not only preserved for us Cicero’s Somnium Scipionis, but wrote a long commentary on it in two books, and a work called Saturnalia in seven books. The commentary is not very helpful, and discusses collateral questions rather than the dream itself.

      [32.]Chaucer’s MS. copy was, it appears, divided into seven chapters. A printed copy now before me is divided into nine chapters. As given in an edition of Macrobius printed in 1670, it is undivided. The treatise speaks, as Chaucer says, of heaven, hell, and earth, and men’s souls. It recalls the tale of Er, in Plato’s Republic, bk. x.

      [35.]The grete, the substance. Accordingly, in the next seven stanzas, we have a fair summary of the general contents of the Somnium Scipionis. I quote below such passages as approach most closely to Chaucer’s text.

      [36.]Scipioun, i. e. P. Cornelius Scipio Æmilianus Africanus Minor, the hero of the third Punic War. He went to Africa in b.c.] 150 to meet Masinissa, King of Numidia, who had received many favours from Scipio Africanus Major in return for his fidelity to the Romans. Hence Masinissa received the younger Africanus joyfully, and so much was said about the elder Africanus that the younger one dreamt about him after the protracted conversation was over, and all had retired to rest. The younger Africanus was the grandson, by adoption, of the elder.

      ‘Cum in Africam venissem, . . nihil mihi potius fuit, quam ut Masinissam convenirem . . Ad quem ut veni, complexus me senex collacrymavit. . . multisque verbis . . habitis, ille nobis consumptus est dies . . . me . . somnus complexus est . . mihi . . Africanus se ostendit’; &c.

      [43.]‘Ostendebat autem Carthaginem de excelso, et pleno stellarum . . loco . . . tu eris unus, in quo nitatur civitatis salus, &c. . . Omnibus qui patriam conservârint, adiuverint, auxerint, certum esse in cælo definitum locum, ubi beati ævo sempiterno fruantur.’

      [50.]‘Quæsivi tamen, viveretne ipse et Paullus pater et alii, quos nos exstinctos arbitraremur. Immo vero, inquit, ii vivunt . . . vestra vero. quæ dicitur vita, mors est . . . . . corpore laxati illum incolunt locum, quem vides. Erat autem is splendissimo candore inter flammas circus elucens, quem vos, ut a Graiis accepistis, orbem lacteum nuncupatis.’

      [56.]Galaxye, milky way; see note to Ho. Fame, 936.

      [57.]‘Stellarum autem globi terræ magnitudinem facile vincebant. Iam ipsa terra ita mihi parva visa est, &c. . . Novem tibi orbibus, vel potius globis, connexa sunt omnia . . . Hic, inquam, quis est, qui complet aures meas, tantus et tam dulcis sonus? . . . impulsu et motu ipsorum orbium conficitur.’

      [59.]The ‘nine spheres’ are the spheres of the seven planets (Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn), that of the fixed stars, and the primum mobile; see notes to the Treatise on the Astrolabe, part 1, § 17, in vol. iii.

      [61.]This is an allusion to the so-called ‘harmony of the spheres.’ Chaucer makes a mistake in attributing this harmony to all of the nine spheres. Cicero plainly excludes the primum mobile, and says that, of the remaining eight spheres, two sound alike, so that there are but seven tones made by their revolution. ‘Ille autem octo cursus, in quibus eadem vis est duorum, septem efficiunt distinctos intervallis sonos.’ He proceeds to notice the peculiar excellence of the number seven. By the two that sounded alike, the spheres of Saturn and the fixed stars must be meant; in fact, it is usual to ignore the sphere of fixed stars, and consider only those of the seven planets. Macrobius, in his Commentary, lib. ii. c. 4, quite misses this point, and clumsily gives the same note to Venus and Mercury. Each planetary sphere, in its revolution, gives out a different note of the gamut, so that all the notes of the gamut are sounded; and the result is, that the ‘music of the spheres’ cannot be heard at all, just as the dwellers by the cataract on the Nile fail to hear the sound of its fall. ‘Hoc sonitu oppletæ aures hominum obsurduerunt; nec est ullus hebetior sonus in vobis; sicut ubi Nilus ad illa, quæ Catadupa [κατάδουποι] nominantur, præcipitat ex altissimis montibus, ea gens, quæ illum locum accolit, propter magnitudinem sonitus, sensu audiendi caret.’ Macrobius tries to explain it all in his Commentary, lib. ii. c. 1-4. The fable arose from a supposed necessary connection between the number of the planets and the number of musical notes in the scale. It breaks down when we know that the number of the planets is more than seven. Moreover, modern astronomy has exploded the singular notion of revolving hollow concentric spheres, to the surface of which each planet was immoveably nailed. These ‘spheres’ have disappeared, and their music with them, except in poetry.

      Shakespeare so extends the old fable as to give a voice to every star. See Merch. of Venice, v. 60:—

      • ‘There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st,
      • But in his motion like an angel sings,’ &c.

      The notion of the music of the spheres was attributed to Pythagoras. It is denied by Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Naturale, lib. xv. c. 32—Falsa opinio de concentu cæli. Vincent puts the old idea clearly—‘Feruntur septem planetæ, et hi septem orbes (vt dicitur) cum dulcissima harmonia mouentur, ac suauissimi concentus eorum circumitione efficiuntur. Qui sonus ad aures nostras ideo non peruenit, quia vltra ærem fit’:—a sufficient reason. He attributes the notion to the Pythagoreans and the Jews, and notes the use of the phrase ‘concentum cæli’ in Job xxxviii. 37, where our version has ‘the bottles of heaven,’ which the Revised Version retains. Cf. also—‘Cum me laudarent simul astra matutina’; Job xxxviii. 7.

      Near the end of Chaucer’s Troilus, v. 1811, we have the singular passage:—

      • ‘And ther he saugh with ful avysement
      • The erratik sterres, herkening armonye
      • With sounes fulle of hevenish melodye’; &c.

      This passage, by the way, is a translation from Boccaccio, Teseide, xi. 1. Cf. Rom. de la Rose, 17151-5.

      See also Longfellow’s poem on the Occultation of Orion, where the poet (heretically but sensibly) gives the lowest note to Saturn, and the highest to the Moon; whereas Macrobius says the contrary; lib. ii. c. 4.

      A. Neckam (De Naturis Rerum, lib. i. c. 15) seems to say that the sound of an eighth sphere is required to make up the octave.

      [64.]‘Sentio, inquit, te sedem etiam nunc hominum ac domum contemplari: quæ si tibi parva, ut est, ita videtur, hæc cælestia semper spectato; illa humana contemnito . . . Cum autem ad idem, unde semel profecta sunt, cuncta astra redierint, eandemque totius anni descriptionem longis intervallis retulerint, tum ille vere vertens annus appellari potest . . . Sermo autem omnis ille . . obruitur hominum interitu, et oblivione posteritatis exstinguitur.’

      The great or mundane year, according to Macrobius, Comment. lib. 2. c. 11, contained 15,000 common years. In the Roman de la Rose, l. 17,018, Jeun de Meun makes it 36,000 years long; and in the Complaint of Scotland, ed. Murray, p. 33, it is said, on the authority of Socrates, to extend to 37,000 years. It is not worth discussion.

      [71.]‘Ego vero, inquam, o Africane, siquidem bene meritis de patria quasi limes ad cæli aditum patet,’ &c. ‘Et ille, Tu vero enitere, et sic habeto, non esse te mortalem, sed corpus hoc . . . Hanc [naturam] tu exerce in optimis rebus; sunt autem optimæ curæ de salute patriæ: quibus agitatus et exercitatus animus velocius in hanc sedem et domum suam pervolabit.’

      [78.]‘Nam eorum animi, qui se corporis voluptatibus dediderunt, . . . corporibus elapsi circum terram ipsam volutantur; nec hunc in locum, nisi multis exagitati sæculis, revertuntur.’ We have here the idea of purgatory; compare Vergil, Æn. vi.

      [80.]Whirle aboute, copied from volutantur in Cicero; see last note. It is remarkable that Dante has copied the same passage, and has the word voltando; Inf. v. 31-8. Cf. ‘blown with restless violence round about The pendent world’; Meas. for Meas. iii. 1. 125; and ‘The sport of winds’; Milton, P. L. iii. 493.

      [85.]Imitated from Dante, Inf. ii. 1-3 (with which cf. Æneid, ix. 224). Cary’s translation has—

      • ‘Now was the day departing, and the air,
      • Imbrowned with shadows, from their toils released
      • All animals on earth.’

      [90.]‘I had what I did not want,’ i. e. care and heaviness. ‘And I had not what I wanted,’ i. e. my desires. Not a personal reference, but borrowed from Boethius, bk. iii. pr. 3; see vol. ii. p. 57, l. 24. Moreover, the same idea is repeated, but in clearer language, in the Complaint to his Lady, ll. 47-49 (p. 361); and again, in the Complaint to Pity, ll. 99-104 (p. 276).

      [99.]Chaucer discusses dreams elsewhere; see Ho. of Fame, 1-52; Nonne Prestes Tale, 76-336; Troil. v. 358. Macrobius, Comment. in Somn. Scipionis, lib. i. c. 3, distinguishes five kinds of dreams, giving the name ἐνύπνιον to the kind of which Chaucer here speaks. ‘Est enim ἐνύπνιον quotiens oppressi animi corporisve sive fortunæ, qualis vigilantem fatigaverat, talem se ingerit dormienti: animi, si amator deliciis suis aut fruentem se videat aut carentem: . . corporis, si . . esuriens cibum aut potum sitiens desiderare, quærere, vel etiam invenisse videatur,’ &c. But the real original of this stanza (as shewn by Prof. Lounsbury) is to be found in Claudian, In Sextum Consulatum Honorii Augusti Præfatio, ll. 3-10.

      • ‘Venator defessa toro cum membra reponit,
      • Mens tamen ad silvas et sua lustra redit.
      • Iudicibus lites, aurigæ somnia currus,
      • Vanaque nocturnis meta cavetur equis.
      • Furto gaudet amans; permutat navita merces;
      • Et vigil elapsas quærit avarus opes.
      • Blandaque largitur frustra sitientibus ægris
      • Irriguus gelido pocula fonte sopor.’

      Cf. Vincent of Beauvais, lib. xxvi. c. 62 and c. 63; Batman upon Bartholome, lib. vi. c. 27, ed. 1582, fol. 84. And see the famous passage in Romeo and Juliet, i. 4. 53; especially ll. 70-88. The Roman de la Rose begins with remarks concerning dreams; and again, at l. 18564, there is a second passage on the same subject, with a reference to Scipio, and a remark about dreaming of things that occupy the mind (l. 18601).

      [109.]Compare Dante, Inf. i. 83; which Cary translates—

      • ‘May it avail me, that I long with zeal
      • Have sought thy volume, and with love immense
      • Have conn’d it o’er. My master thou, and guide!’

      [111.]‘Of which Macrobius recked (thought) not a little.’ In fact, Macrobius concludes his commentary with the words—‘Vere igitur pronunciandum est nihil hoc opere perfectius, quo universa philosophiæ continetur integritas.’

      [113.]Cithérea, Cytherea, i. e. Venus; see Kn. Tale, 1357 (A 2215).

      [114.]In the Roman de la Rose, 15980, Venus speaks of her bow (F. arc) and her firebrand or torch (brandon). Cf. Merch. Tale, E 1777.

      [117.]‘As surely as I saw thee in the north-north-west.’ He here refers to the planet Venus. As this planet is never more than 47° from the sun, the sun must have been visible to the north of the west point at sunset; i. e. the poem must have been written in the summer-time. The same seems to be indicated by l. 21 (the longe day), and still more clearly by ll. 85-88; Chaucer would hardly have gone to bed at sunset in the winter-time. It is true that he dreams about Saint Valentine’s day, but that is quite another matter. Curiously enough, the landscape seen in his dream is quite a summer landscape; see ll. 172, 184-210.

      [120.]African, Africanus; as above.

      [122.]Grene stone, mossy or moss-covered stone; an expression copied by Lydgate, Complaint of the Black Knight, l. 42.

      Prof. Hales, in the Gent. Magazine, April, 1882, has an interesting article on ‘Chaucer at Woodstock.’ He shews that there was a park there, surrounded by a stone wall; and that Edward III. often resided at Woodstock, where the Black Prince was born. It is possible that Chaucer was thinking of Woodstock when writing the present passage. See the account of Woodstock Palace in Abbeys, Castles, &c. by J. Timbs; vol. ii. But Dr. Köppel has shewn (Anglia, xiv. 234) that Chaucer here partly follows Boccaccio’s poem, Amorosa Visione, ii. 1-35, where we find ‘un muro antico.’ So also the Roman de la Rose has an allusion to Scipio’s dream, and the following lines (129-131, p. 99, above):—

      • ‘Quant j’oi ung poi avant alé
      • Si vi ung vergier grant et lé,
      • Tot clos d’ung haut mur bataillié;’ &c.

      [123.]Y-wroght-e; the final -e here denotes the plural form.

      [125.]On eyther halfe, on either side; to right and left.

      [127.]Imitated from Dante, Inf. iii. 1; Cary’s translation has—

      • ‘Through me you pass into the city of woe: . . .
      • Such characters in colour dim, I mark’d
      • Over a portal’s lofty arch inscribed.’

      See also l. 134. The gate is the entrance into Love, which is to some a blessing, and to some a curse; see ll. 158, 159. Thus men gon is, practically, equivalent to ‘some men go’; and so in l. 134. The idea is utterly different from that of the two gates in Vergil, Æn. vi. 893. The successful lover finds ‘the well of Favour,’ l. 129. The unsuccessful one encounters the deadly wounds caused by the spear (or dart) guided to his heart by Disdain and Power-to-harm (Daunger); for him, the opened garden bears no fruit, and the alluring stream leads him only to a fatal weir, wherein imprisoned fish are left lying dry. Cf. ‘As why this fish, and nought that, comth to were’; Troil. iii. 35. ]

      [140.]‘Avoiding it is the only remedy.’ This is only another form of a proverb which also occurs as ‘Well fights he who well flies.’ See Proverbs of Hending (in Spec. of English), l. 77; Owl and Nightingale, l. 176. Sir T. Wiat has—‘The first eschue is remedy alone’; Spec. of Eng. Part III. p. 235. Probably from the Roman de la Rose, l. 16818—‘Sol foïr en est medicine.’ (O. F. foir = Lat. fugere.)

      [141.]The alluring message (ll. 127-133) was written in gold; the forbidding one (ll. 134-140) in black; see Anglia, xiv. 235.

      [142.]A stounde, for a while (rightly); the reading astonied is to be rejected. The attitude is one of deliberation.

      [143.]That oon, the one, the latter. In l. 145, it means the former.

      [148.]An adamant was, originally, a diamond; then the name was transferred to the loadstone; lastly, the diamond was credited with the properties of the loadstone. Hence we find, at the end of ch. 14 of Mandeville’s Travels, this remarkable experiment:—‘Men taken the Ademand, that is the Schipmannes Ston, that drawethe the Nedle to him, and men leyn the Dyamand upon the Ademand, and leyn the Nedle before the Ademand; and yif the Dyamand be good and vertuous, the Ademand drawethe not the Nedle to him, whils the Dyamand is there present.’ Cf. A. Neckam, De Naturis Rerum, lib. ii. c. 98, where the story is told of an iron statue of Mahomet, which, being surrounded by adamants (lapides adamantini), hangs suspended in the air. The modern simile is that of a donkey between two bundles of hay. For adamaunt, see Rom. of the Rose, 1182 (p. 142).

      [156.]Errour, doubt; see l. 146 above.

      [158.]‘This writing is not at all meant to apply to thee.’

      [159.]Servant was, so to speak, the old technical term for a lover; cf. serveth, Kn. Tale, 2220, 2228 (A 3078, 3086); and servant in the same, 956 (A 1814); and in Two Gent. of Verona, ii. 1. 106, 114, 140, &c.

      [163.]I. e. ‘at any rate you can come and look on.’

      [169.]Imitated from Dante, Inf. iii. 19. Cary has—

      • ‘And when his hand he had stretch’d forth
      • To mine, with pleasant looks, whence I was cheer’d,
      • Into that secret place he led me on.’

      [171.]Cf. ‘So Iolyf, nor so wel bigo’; Rom. Rose, 693.

      [176.]Imitated by Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 8, 9. Chaucer’s list of trees was suggested by a passage in the Teseide, xi. 22-24; but he extended his list by help of one in the Roman de la Rose, 1338-1368; especially ll. 1363-8, as follows (see p. 151, above)—

      • ‘Et d’oliviers et de cipres,
      • Dont il n’a gaires ici pres;
      • Ormes y ot branchus et gros,
      • Et avec ce charmes et fos,
      • Codres droites, trembles et chesnes,
      • Erables haus, sapins et fresnes.’

      Here ormes are elms; charmes, horn-beams; fos, beeches; codres, hasels; trembles, aspens; chesnes, oaks; erables, maples; sapins, firs; fresnes, ashes. Hence this list contains seven kinds of trees out of Chaucer’s thirteen. See also the list of 21 trees in Kn. Tale, A 2921. Spenser has—

      ‘The builder oake, sole king of forrests all.’ ]This tree-list is, in fact, a great curiosity. It was started by Ovid, Metam. x. 90; after whom, it appears in Seneca, Œdipus, 532; in Lucan, Phars. iii. 440; in Statius, Thebaid, vi. 98; and in Claudian, De Raptu Proserpinae, ii. 107. Statius was followed by Boccaccio, Tes. xi. 22-24; Rom. de la Rose, 1361; Chaucer (twice); Tasso, Gier. Lib. iii. 73; and Spenser. Cf. Vergil, Æn. vi. 179.

      I here quote several notes from Bell’s Chaucer, marked ‘Bell.’

      ‘The reader will observe the life and spirit which the personification of the several trees gives to this catalogue. It is common in French, even in prose; as, for instance, the weeping willow is le saule pleureur, the weeper willow. The oak is called builder, because no other wood was used in building in this country in the middle ages, as may be seen in our old churches and farm-houses, in which the stairs are often made of solid blocks of the finest oak.’—Bell.

      [177.]‘The elm is called piler, perhaps because it is planted as a pillar of support to the vine [cf. Spenser’s ‘vine-prop elme’]; and cofre unto careyne because coffins for carrion or corpses were [and are] usually made of elm.’—Bell. In fact, Ovid has ‘amictae uitibus ulmi,’ Met. x. 100; Claudian has ‘pampinus induit ulmos’; and Boccaccio—‘E l’olmo, che di viti s’innamora’; Tes. xi. 24.

      [178.]Piper, suitable for pipes or horns. ‘The box, being a hard, fine-grained wood, was used for making pipes or horns, as in the Nonne Prestes Tale, B 4588—“Of bras they broghten bemes [trumpets] and of box.” ’—Bell. Boxwood is still used for flutes and flageolets.

      Holm to whippes lasshe; ‘the holm used for making handles for whip-lashes.’—Bell. Spenser calls it ‘The carver holm,’ i. e. the holm suitable for carving. It is the holly (A. S. holegn), not the holm-oak.

      [179.]The sayling firr; this ‘alludes to the ship’s masts and spars being made of fir.’—Bell. ‘Apta fretis abies’; Claudian, De Raptu Proserpinae, ii. 107. Spenser substitutes for it ‘The sailing pine.’ The cipres; ‘tumulos tectura cupressus,’ in Claudian.

      [180.]The sheter ew. ‘The material of our [ancient] national weapon, the bow, was yew. It is said that the old yews which are found in country churchyards were planted in order to supply the yeomanry with bows.’—Bell. Spenser has—‘The eugh, obedient to the benders will.’

      ‘The asp is the aspen, or black poplar, of which shafts or arrows were made.’—Bell. Spenser has—‘The aspine good for staves’; and ‘The birch for shaftes.’ See Ascham’s Toxophilus, ed. Arber, p. 126.

      [181.]The olive is the emblem of peace; and the palm, of victory. Boccaccio has—‘e d’ ogni vincitore Premio la palma’; Tes. xi. 24; from Ovid—‘uictoris praemia palmae’; Met. x. 102.

      [182.]‘The laurel (used) for divination,’ or ‘to divine with.’ ‘Venturi praescia laurus’; Claudian, de Raptu Proserpinae, ii. 109. It was ‘sacred to Apollo; and its branches were the decoration of poets, and of the flamens. The leaves, when eaten, were said to impart the power of prophesying; Tibull. 2. 5. 63; Juvenal, 7. 19.’—Lewis and Short’s Lat. Dict., s. v. laurus.

      [183.]In a note to Cant. Tales, l. 1920, Tyrwhitt says—‘Chaucer has [here] taken very little from Boccace, as he had already inserted a very close imitation of this part of the Teseide in his Assemblee of Foules, from verse 183 to verse 287.’ In fact, eleven stanzas (183-259) correspond to Boccaccio’s Teseide, Canto vii. st. 51-60; the next three stanzas (260-280) to the same, st. 63-66; and the next two (281-294) to the same, st. 61, 62. See the whole extract from Boccaccio, given and translated in the Introduction; see p. 68, above.

      On the other hand, this passage in Chaucer is imitated in the Kingis Quair, st. 31-33, 152, 153; and ll. 680-9 are imitated in the same, st. 34.

      The phrase ‘blosmy bowes’ occurs again in Troilus, ii. 821.

      [185.]‘There where is always sufficient sweetness.’

      [214.]According to Boccaccio, the name of Cupid’s daughter was Voluttade (Pleasure). In the Roman de la Rose, ll. 913, 927 (Eng. version, 923, 939), Cupid has two bows and ten arrows.

      [216.]Read: ‘aft’r ás they shúld-e.’ So Koch. Or read ‘couch’d.’

      [217.]See Ovid, Metam. i. 468-471.

      [218.]This company answer to Boccaccio’s Grace, Adornment, Affability, Courtesy, Arts (plural), Vain Delight, and Gentleness. Instead of Craft, Boccaccio speaks of ‘the Arts that have power to make others perforce do folly, in their aspect much disfigured.’ Hypocritical Cajolery seems to be intended. Cf. ‘Charmes and Force’; Kn. Tale, 1069 (A 1927).

      [225.]Ed. 1561 has with a nice atire, but wrongly; for compare Boccaccio. Cf. Kn. Tale, 1067-9 (A 1925-7).

      [226.]Cf. ‘Jest and youthful Jollity’; L’Allegro, 26.

      [228.]Messagerye and Mede represents the sending of messages and giving of bribes. For this sense of Mede, see P. Plowman, C. iv. (or B. iii.). The other three are Audacity (too forward Boldness), Glozings (Flatteries), and Pimps; all of bad reputation, and therefore not named. Boccaccio’s words are—‘il folle Ardire Con Lusinghe e Ruffiani.’

      [231.]Bras, brass. Boccaccio has rame, i. e. copper, the metal which symbolised Venus; see Can. Yeom. Tale, G 829. In fact, this temple is the very temple of Venus which Chaucer again describes in the Knightes Tale, ll. 1060-1108 (A 1918); which see.

      [234.]Faire, beautiful by nature; gay, adorned by art.

      [236.]Office, duty; viz. to dance round.

      [237.]These are the dowves flikeringe in Kn. Tale, 1104 (A 1962).

      [243.]Sonde, sand. ‘Her [Patience’s] chief virtue is quiet endurance in the most insecure and unhopeful circumstances’; Bell.

      [245.]Answering to Boccaccio’s ‘Promesse ad arte,’ i.e. ‘artful Promises.’

      [246.]Cf. Kn. Tale, 1062-1066, 1070 (A 1920-4, 1928).

      [255.]‘The allusion is to the adventure of Priapus, related by Ovid in the Fasti, lib. i. 415’; Bell. The ass, by braying, put Priapus to confusion.

      [261.]But in Kn. Tale, 1082 (A 1940), the porter of Venus is Idleness, as in the Rom. de la Rose, 636 (E. version, 643, at p. 120, above).

      [267.]Gilte; cf. Leg. of Good Women, 230, 249, 1315.

      [272.]Valence, explained by Urry as Valentia in Spain. But perhaps it may refer to Valence, near Lyons, in France; as Lyons is especially famous for the manufacture of silks, and there is a considerable trade in silks at Valence also. Probably ‘thin silk’ is here meant. Boccaccio merely speaks of ‘texture so thin,’ or, in the original ‘Testa, tanto sottil,’ which accounts for Chaucer’s ‘subtil.’ Coles’s Dict. (1684) gives: ‘Valence,-tia, a town in Spain, France, and Milan.’ In the Unton Inventories, for the years 1596 and 1620, ed. J. G. Nichols, I find: ‘one covering for a fielde bedde of green and valens,’ p. 4; ‘one standinge bedsteed with black velvett testern, black vallance fringed and laced,’ p. 21; ‘one standinge bed with yellow damaske testern and vallence,’ p. 21; ‘vallance frindged and laced,’ p. 22; ‘one bedsteed and testern, and valance of black velvett,’ p. 22; ‘one bedsteed . . with vallance imbroydered with ash couler,’ p. 23; ‘one bedsteed, with . . vallance of silke,’ p. 29. It is the mod. E. valance, and became a general term for part of the hangings of a bed; Shakespeare has ‘Valance of Venice gold,’ spelt Vallens in old editions, Tam. Shrew, ii. 1. 356. Spenser imitates this passage, F. Q. ii. 12. 77.

      [275.]Compare the well-known proverb—‘sine Cerere et Libero friget Venus’; Terence, Eun. 2. 3. 4.

      [277.]Read Cipryde, not Cupide; for in l. 279 we have hir twice, once in the sense of ‘their,’ but secondly in the sense of ‘her.’ Boccaccio also here speaks of Venus, and refers to the apple which she won from Paris. Cipride is regularly formed from the accus. of Cypris (gen. Cypridis), an epithet of Venus due to her worship in Cyprus. Chaucer found the genitive Cypridis in Alanus de Planctu Naturæ (ed. Wright, p. 438); see note to l. 298. Cf. ‘He curseth Ceres, Bacus, and Cipryde’; Troilus, v. 208.

      [281.]The best way of scansion is perhaps to read despyt-e with final e, preserved by ‘cæsura, and to pronounce Diane as Dián’. So in Kn. Tale, 1193 (A 2051), which runs parallel with it.

      [282.]‘Trophies of the conquest of Venus’; Bell.

      [283.]Maydens; of these Callisto was one (so says Boccaccio); and this is Chaucer’s Calixte (l. 286), and his Calístopee in the Kn. Tale, l. 1198 (A 2056). She was the daughter of the Arcadian king Lycaon, and mother of Arcas by Jupiter; changed by Juno, on account of jealousy, into a she-bear, and then raised to the heavens by Jupiter in the form of the constellation Helice or Ursa Major; see Ovid, Fasti, ii. 156; Metamorph. ii. 401; &c. (Lewis and Short).

      [286.]Athalaunte, Atalanta. There were two of this name; the one here meant (see Boccaccio) was the one who was conquered in a footrace by the lover who married her; see Ovid, Metam. x. 565. The other, who was beloved by Meleager, and hunted the Calydonian boar, is the one mentioned in the Kn. Tale, A 2070; see Ovid, Metam. viii. 318. It is clear that Chaucer thought, at the time, that they were one and the same.

      [287.]I wante, I lack; i. e. I do not know. Boccaccio here mentions the mother of Parthenopæus, whose name Chaucer did not know. She was the other Atalanta, the wife of Meleager; and Boccaccio did not name her, because he says ‘that other proud one,’ meaning the other proud one of the same name. See the story in Dryden; tr. of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, bk. viii. Cf. Troilus, v. 1473.

      [288.]Boccaccio only mentions ‘the spouse of Ninus,’ i. e. Semiramis, the great queen of Assyria, Thisbe and Pyramus, ‘Hercules in the lap of Iole,’ and Byblis. The rest Chaucer has added. Compare his lists in Prol. to Leg. of Good Women, 250, and in Cant. Tales, Group B, 63; see the note. See the Legend for the stories of Dido, Thisbe and Pyramus, and Cleopatra. Paris, Achilles, Troilus, and Helen are all mentioned in his Troilus; and Hercules in Cant. Ta., B 3285.

      Candace is mentioned again at p. 410, above, l. 16. There was a Candace, queen of Meroë, mentioned by Pliny, vi. 29; and there is the Candace in the Acts of the Apostles, viii. 27. But the Candace of fiction was an Indian queen, who contrived to get into her power no less a person than the world’s conqueror, Alexander the Great. See King Alisaunder, ed. Weber, l. 7646, and the Wars of Alexander, ed. Skeat, l. 5314. It is probable that Candace was sometimes confused with the Canace of Ovid’s Heroides, Epist. xi. (wholly translated by Dryden). In fact, we have sufficient proof of this confusion; for one MS. reads Candace in the Legend of Good Women, 265, where five other MSS. have Canace or Canacee. Biblis is Byblis, who fell in love with Caunus, and, being repulsed, was changed into a fountain; Ovid, Metam. ix. 452.

      Tristram and Isoude are the Tristran (or Tristan) and Ysolde (or Ysolt) of French medieval romance; cf. Ho. Fame, 1796, and Balade to Rosemounde, l. 20. Gower, in his Conf. Amantis, bk. 8 (ed. Pauli, iii. 359) includes Tristram and Bele Isolde in his long list of lovers, and gives an outline of the story in the same, bk. 6 (iii. 17). Ysolde was the wife of King Mark of Cornwall, and the mistress of her nephew Sir Tristram, of whom she became passionately enamoured from having drunk a philter by mistake; see Wheeler, Noted Names of Fiction, s. v. Isolde. The Romance of Sir Tristram was edited by Sir W. Scott, and has been re-edited by Kölbing, and by G. P. McNeill (for the Scottish Text Society). The name Ysoude is constantly misprinted Ysonde, even by the editors. Chaucer mentions her again; see Leg. G. Women, 254; Ho. of Fame, 1796.

      [292.]Silla, Scylla; daughter of Nisus, of Megara, who, for love of Minos, cut off her father’s hair, upon which his life depended, and was transformed in consequence into the bird Ciris; see Ovid, Metam. viii. 8. Another Scylla was changed by Circe into a sea-monster; Ovid, Metam. xiv. 52. Their stories shew that the former is meant; see Leg. of Good Women, 1910, and the note.

      Moder of Romulus, Ilia (also called Rhæa Silvia), daughter of Numitor, dedicated to Vesta, and buried alive for breaking her vows; see Livy, bk. 1; Verg. Æn. i. 274.

      The quotation from Boccaccio ends here.

      [296.]Of spak, spake of; see l. 174.

      [298.]This quene is the goddess Nature (l. 303). We now come to a part of the poem where Chaucer makes considerable use of the work which he mentions in l. 316, viz. the Planctus Naturæ (Complaint of Nature) by Alanus de Insulis, or Alein Delille, a poet and divine of the 12th century. This work is printed in vol. ii. of T. Wright’s edition of the Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets (Record Series), which also contains the poem called Anticlaudianus, by the same author. The description of the goddess is given at great length (pp. 431-456), and at last she declares her name to be Natura (p. 456). This long description of Nature and of her vesture is a very singular one; indeed, all the fowls of the air are supposed to be depicted upon her wonderful garments (p. 437). Chaucer substitutes a brief description of his own, and represents the birds as real live ones, gathering around her; which is much more sensible. For the extracts from Alanus, see the Introduction, p. 74. As Prof. Morley says (Eng. Writers, v. 162)—‘Alain describes Nature’s changing robe as being in one of its forms so ethereal that it is like air, and the pictures on it seem to the eye a Council of Animals (Animalium Concilium). Upon which, beginning, as Chaucer does, with the Eagle and the Falcon, Alain proceeds with a long list of the birds painted on her transparent robe, that surround Nature as in a council, and attaches to each bird the most remarkable point in its character.’ Professor Hales, in The Academy, Nov. 19, 1881, quoted the passages from Alanus which are here more or less imitated, and drew attention to the remarkable passage in Spenser’s F. Q. bk. vii. c. 7. st. 5-10, where that poet quotes and copies Chaucer. Dunbar imitates Chaucer in his Thrissill and Rois, and describes Dame Nature as surrounded by beasts, birds, and flowers; see stanzas 10, 11, 18, 26, 27 of that poem.

      The phrase ‘Nature la déesse’ occurs in Le Roman de la Rose, l. 16480.

      [309.]Birds were supposed to choose their mates on St. Valentine’s day (Feb. 14); and lovers thought they must follow their example, and then ‘choose their loves.’ Mr. Douce thinks the custom of choosing valentines was a survival from the Roman feast of the Lupercalia. See the articles in Brand, Pop. Antiq. i. 53; Chambers, Book of Days, i. 255; Alban Butler, Lives of Saints, Feb. 14; &c. The custom is alluded to by Lydgate, Shakespeare, Herrick, Pepys, and Gay; and in the Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner, iii. 169, is a letter written in Feb. 1477, where we find: ‘And, cosyn, uppon Fryday is Sent Volentynes Day, and every brydde chesyth hym a make.’ See also the Cuckoo and Nyghtingale, l. 80.

      [316.]Aleyn, Alanus de Insulis; Pleynt of Kynde, Complaint of Nature, Lat. Planctus Naturæ; see note to l. 298. Chaucer refers us to Aleyn’s description on account of its unmerciful length; it was hopeless to attempt even an epitome of it. Lydgate copies this passage; see Political, Religious and Love Poems, ed. Furnivall, p. 45, l. 17; or his Minor Poems, ed. Halliwell, p. 47.

      [323.]Foules of ravyne, birds of prey. Chaucer’s division of birds into birds of prey, birds that eat worms and insects, water-fowl, and birds that eat seeds, can hardly be his own. In Vincent of Beauvais, lib. xvi. c. 14, Aristotle is cited as to the food of birds:—‘quædam comedunt carnem, quædam grana, quædam utrumque; . . . quædam vero comedunt vermes, vt passer. . . . Vivunt et ex fructu quædam aues, vt palumbi, et turtures. Quædam viuunt in ripis aquarum lacuum, et cibantur ex eis.’

      [330.]Royal; because he is often called the king of birds, as in Dunbar’s Thrissill and Rois, st. 18. Vincent of Beauvais, Spec. Nat., lib. xvi. c. 32, quotes from Iorath (sic):—‘Aquila est auis magna regalis.’ And Philip de Thaun, Bestiary, 991 (in Wright’s Pop. Treatises, p. 109) says:—‘Egle est rei de oisel. . En Latine raisun clerveant le apellum, Ke le solail verat quant il plus cler serat.’

      [331.]See the last note, where we learn that the eagle is called in Latin ‘clear-seeing,’ because ‘he will look at the sun when it will be brightest.’ This is explained at once by the remarkable etymology given by Isidore (cited by Vincent, as above), viz.:—‘Aqu-ila ab ac-umine oculorum vocata est.’

      [332.]Pliny, Nat. Hist. bk. x. c. 3, enumerates six kinds of eagles, which Chaucer leaves us to find out; viz. Melænaetos, Pygargus, Morphnos, which Homer (Il. xxiv. 316) calls perknos, Percnopterus, Gnesios (the true or royal eagle), and Haliæetos (osprey). This explains the allusion in l. 333.

      [334.]Tyraunt. This epithet was probably suggested by the original text in Alanus, viz.—‘Illic ancipiter [accipiter], civitatis præfectus aeriæ, violenta tyrannide a subditis redditus exposcebat.’ Sir Thopas had a ‘grey goshauk’; C. T., Group B, 1928.

      [337.]See note on the faucon peregrin, Squi. Tale, 420 (F 428). ‘Beautifully described as “distreining” the king’s hand with its foot, because carried by persons of the highest rank’; Bell. Read, ‘with ’s feet.’

      [339.]Merlion, merlin. ‘The merlin is the smallest of the long-winged hawks, and was generally carried by ladies’; Bell.

      [342.]From Alanus (see p. 74):—‘Illic olor, sui funeris præco, mellitæ citherizationis organo vitæ prophetabat apocopam.’ The same idea is mentioned by Vincent of Beauvais, Spec. Nat. lib. xvi. c. 50; Pliny says he believes the story to be false, Nat. Hist. lib. x. c. 23. See Compl. of Anelida, l. 346. ‘The wild swan’s death-hymn’; Tennyson, The Dying Swan. Cf. Ovid, Heroid. vii. 2.

      [343.]From Alanus:—‘Illic bubo, propheta miseriæ, psalmodias funereæ lamentationis præcinebat.’ So in the Rom. de la Rose, 5999:—

      • ‘Li chahuan . . .
      • Prophetes de male aventure,
      • Hideus messagier de dolor.’

      Cf. Vergil, Æn. iv. 462; Ovid, Metam. v. 550, whence Chaucer’s allusion in Troilus, v. 319; Shakespeare, Mid. Nt. D. v. 385.

      [344.]Geaunt, giant. Alanus has:—‘grus . . . in giganteæ quantitatis evadebat excessum.’ Vincent (lib. xvi. c. 91) quotes from Isidore:—‘Grues nomen de propria voce sumpserunt, tali enim sono susurrant.’

      [345.]‘The chough, who is a thief.’ From Alanus, who has:—‘Illic monedula, latrocinio laudabili reculas thesaurizans, innatæ avaritiæ argumenta monstrabat.’ ‘It was an old belief in Cornwall, according to Camden (Britannia, tr. by Holland, 1610, p. 189) that the chough was an incendiary, “and thievish besides; for oftentimes it secretly conveieth fire-sticks, setting their houses a-fire, and as closely filcheth and hideth little pieces of money.” ’—Prov. Names of Brit. Birds, by C. Swainson, p. 75. So also in Pliny, lib. x. c. 29, choughs are called thieves. Vincent of Beauvais quotes one of Isidore’s delicious etymologies:—‘Monedula dicitur quasi mone-tula, quæ cum aurum inuenit aufert et occultat’; i. e. from monetam tollere. ‘The Jackdaw tribe is notoriously given to pilfering’; Stanley, Hist. of Birds, ed. 1880, p. 203.

      Iangling, talkative; so Alanus:—‘Illic pica . . curam logices perennabat insomnem.’ So in Vincent—‘pica loquax’—‘pica garrula,’ &c.; and in Pliny, lib. x. c. 42.

      [346.]Scorning, ‘applied to the jay, probably, because it follows and seems to mock at the owl, whenever the latter is so unfortunate as to be caught abroad in the daylight; for this reason, a trap for jays is always baited with a live owl’; Bell.

      ‘The heron will stand for hours in the shallow water watching for eels’; Bell. Vincent quotes from Isidore:—‘Ciconeæ . . . serpentium hostes.’ So also A. Neckam, De Naturis Rerum, lib. i. c. 64:—‘Ranarum et locustarum et serpentum hostis est.’

      [347.]Trecherye, trickery, deceit. ‘During the season of incubation, the cock-bird tries to draw pursuers from the nest by wheeling round them, crying and screaming, to divert their attention . . . while the female sits close on the nest till disturbed, when she runs off, feigning lameness, or flaps about near the ground, as if she had a broken wing; cf. Com. Errors, iv. 2. 27; Much Ado, iii. 1. 24;’ Prov. Names of Brit. Birds, by C. Swainson, p. 185. And cf. ‘to seem the lapwing and to jest, Tongue far from heart’; Meas. for Meas. i. 4. 32.

      [348.]Stare, starling. As the starling can speak, there is probably ‘an allusion to some popular story like the Manciple’s Tale, in which a talking starling betrays a secret’; Bell. The same story is in Ovid, Metam. bk. ii. 535; and in Gower, Conf. Amant. bk. iii. ‘Germanicus and Drusus had one stare, and sundry nightingales, taught to parle Greeke and Latine’; Holland’s Pliny, bk. x. c. 42. In the Seven Sages, ed. Weber, p. 86, the bird who ‘bewrays counsel’ is a magpie.

      [349.]Coward kyte. See Squi. Tale, F 624; and note. ‘Miluus . . fugatur a niso, quamuis in triplo sit maior illo’; Vincent of Beauvais, lib. xvi. c. 108. ‘A kite is . . . . a coward, and fearefull among great birds’; Batman on Bartholomè, lib. xii. c. 26.

      [350.]Alanus has:—‘Illic gallus, tanquam vulgaris astrologus, suæ vocis horologio horarum loquebatur discrimina.’ Cf. Nonne Prestes Tale, B 4044. We also see whence Chaucer derived his epithet of the cock—‘common astrologer’—in Troilus, iii. 1415. Tusser, in his Husbandry, ed. Payne, § 74, says the cock crows—‘At midnight, at three, and an hower ere day.’ Hence the expressions ‘first cock’ in K. Lear, iii. 4. 121, and ‘second cock’ in Macbeth, ii. 3. 27.

      [351.]The sparrow was sacred to Venus, from its amatory disposition (Meas. for Meas. iii. 2. 185). In the well-known song from Lyly’s Alexander and Campaspe, Cupid ‘stakes his quiver, bow, and arrows, His Mother’s doves, and team of sparrows;’ Songs from the Dramatists, ed. R. Bell, p. 50.

      [352.]Cf. Holland’s Pliny, bk. x. c. 29—‘The nightingale . . . chaunteth continually, namely, at that time as the trees begin to put out their leaues thicke.’

      [353.]‘Nocet autem apibus sola inter animalia carnem habentia et carnem comedentia’; Vincent of Beauvais, De hyrundine; Spec. Nat. lib. xvi. c. 17. ‘Culicum et muscarum et apecularum infestatrix’; A. Neckam, De Naturis Rerum (De Hirundine), lib. i. c. 52. ‘Swallowes make foule worke among them,’ &c.; Holland’s Pliny, bk. xi. c. 18. Cf. Vergil, Georg. iv. 15; and Tennyson, The Poet’s Song, l. 9.

      Flyes, i. e. bees. This, the right reading (see footnote), occurs in two MSS. only; the scribes altered it to foules or briddes!

      [355.]Alanus has:—‘Illic turtur, suo viduata consorte, amorem epilogare dedignans, in altero bigamiæ refutabat solatia.’ ‘Etiam vulgo est notum turturem et amoris veri prærogativa nobilitari et castitatis titulis donari’; A. Neckam, i. 59. Cf. An Old Eng. Miscellany, ed. Morris, p. 22.

      [356.]‘In many medieval paintings, the feathers of angels’ wings are represented as those of peacocks’; Bell. Cf. Dunbar, ed. Small, 174. 14: ‘Qhois angell fedderis as the pacok schone.’

      [357.]Perhaps Chaucer mixed up the description of the pheasant in Alanus with that of the ‘gallus silvestris, privatioris galli deridens desidiam,’ which occurs almost immediately below. Vincent (lib. xvi. c. 72) says:—‘Fasianus est gallus syluaticus.’ Or he may allude to the fact, vouched for in Stanley’s Hist. of Birds, ed. 1880, p. 279, that the Pheasant will breed with the common Hen.

      [358.]‘The Goose likewise is very vigilant and watchfull: witnesse the Capitoll of Rome, which by the means of Geese was defended and saued’; Holland’s Pliny, bk. x. c. 22.

      • ‘There is no noise at all
      • Of waking dog, nor gaggling goose more waker then the hound.’
      • Golding, tr. of Ovid’s Metam. bk. xi. fol. 139, back.

      Unkinde, unnatural; because of its behaviour to the hedge-sparrow; K. Lear, i. 4. 235.

      [359.]Delicasye, wantonness. ‘Auis est luxuriosa nimium, bibitque vinum’; Vincent (quoting from Liber de Naturis Rerum), lib. xvi. c. 135, De Psittaco; and again (quoting from Physiologus)—‘cum vino inebriatur.’ So in Holland’s Pliny, bk. x. c. 42—‘She loueth wine well, and when shee hath drunk freely, is very pleasant, plaifull, and wanton.’

      [360.]‘The farmers’ wives find the drake or mallard the greatest enemy of their young ducks, whole broods of which he will destroy unless removed.’—Bell. Chaucer perhaps follows the Liber de Naturis Rerum, as quoted in Vincent, lib. xvi. c. 27 (De Anate):—‘Mares aliquando cum plures fuerint simul, tanta libidinis insania feruntur, vt fœminam solam . . occidant.’

      [361.]From A. Neckam, Liber de Naturis Rerum (ed. Wright, lib. i. c. 64); cited in Vincent, lib. xvi. c. 48. The story is, that a male stork, having discovered that the female was unfaithful to him, went away; and presently returning with a great many other storks, the avengers tore the criminal to pieces. Another very different story may also be cited. ‘The stork is the Embleme of a grateful Man. In which respect Ælian writeth of a storke, which bred on the house of one who had a very beautiful wife, which in her husband’s absence used to commit adultry with one of her base servants: which the storke observing, in gratitude to him who freely gave him house-roome, flying in the villaines face, strucke out both his eyes.’—Guillim, Display of Heraldry, sect. iii. c. 19.

      In Thynne’s Animadversions on Speght’s Chaucer, ed. Furnivall, p. 68 (Chau. Soc.), we find:—‘for Aristotle sayethe, and Bartholomeus de proprietatibus rerum, li. 12. c. 8, with manye other auctors, that yf the storke by any meanes perceve that his female hath brooked spousehedde, he will no moore dwell with her, but strykethe and so cruelly beateth her, that he will not surcease vntill he hathe killed her yf he maye, to wreake and reuenge that adulterye.’ Cf. Batman vppon Bartholome, ed. 1582, leaf 181, col. 2; Stanley, Hist. of Birds, 6th ed. p. 322; and story no. 82 in Swan’s translation of the Gesta Romanorum. Many other references are given in Oesterley’s notes to the Gesta; and see the Exempla of Jacques de Vitry, ed. Crane (Folklore Soc.), 1890, p. 230. Cf. Skelton’s Phyllyp Sparowe, 469-477.

      [362.]‘The voracity of the cormorant has become so proverbial, that a greedy and voracious eater is often compared to this bird’; Swainson, Prov. Names of British Birds, p. 143. See Rich. II, ii. 1. 38.

      [363.]Wys; because it could predict; it was therefore consecrated to Apollo; see Lewis and Short, s. v. corvus. Care, anxiety; hence, ill luck. ‘In folk-lore the crow always appears as a bird of the worst and most sinister character, representing either death, or night, or winter’; Prov. Names of British Birds, by C. Swainson, p. 84; which see.

      Chaucer here mistranslates Vergil precisely as Batman does (l. xii. c. 9). ‘Nunc plena cornix pluuiam uocat improba uoce’; Georg. i. 388. ‘That is to vnderstande, Nowe the Crowe calleth rayne with an eleinge voyce’; Batman vppon Bartholome, as above.

      [364.]Olde. I do not understand this epithet; it is usually the crow who is credited with a long life. Frosty; i. e. that is seen in England in the winter-time; called in Shropshire the snow-bird; Swainson’s Prov. Names of Brit. Birds, p. 6. The explanation of the phrase ‘farewell feldefare,’ occurring in Troil. iii. 861 and in Rom. Rose, 5510, and marked by Tyrwhitt as not understood, is easy enough. It simply means—‘good bye, and we are well rid of you’; when the fieldfare goes, the warm weather comes.

      [371.]Formel, perhaps ‘regular’ or ‘suitable’ companion; as F. formel answers to Lat. formalis. Tyrwhitt’s Gloss. says: ‘formel is put for the female of any fowl, more especially for a female eagle (ll. 445, 535 below).’ It has, however, no connection with female (as he seems to suppose), but answers rather, in sense, to make, i. e. match, fit companion. Godefroy cites the expression ‘faucon formel’ from L’Aviculaire des Oiseaux de proie (MS. Lyon 697, fol. 221 a). He explains it by ‘qui a d’amples formes,’ meaning (as I suppose) simply ‘large’; which does not seem to be right; though the tercel or male hawk was so called because he was a third less than the female. Ducange gives formelus, and thinks it means ‘well trained.’

      [379.]Vicaire, deputy. This term is taken from Alanus, De Planctu Naturæ, as above, where it occurs at least thrice. Thus, at p. 469 of Wright’s edition, Nature says:—‘Me igitur tanquam sui [Dei] vicariam’; at p. 511—‘Natura, Dei gratia mundanæ civitatis vicaria procuratrix’; and at p. 516, Nature is addressed as—‘O supracælestis Principis fidelis vicaria!’ M. Sandras supposes that Chaucer took the term from the Rom. de la Rose, but it is more likely that Chaucer and Jean de Meun alike took it from Alanus.

      • ‘Cis Diex meismes, par sa grace, . . .
      • Tant m’ennora, tant me tint chiere,
      • Qu’il m’establi sa chamberiere . . .
      • Por chamberiere! certes vaire,
      • Por connestable, et por vicaire,’ &c.
      • Rom. de la Rose, 16970, &c.

      Here Nature is supposed to be the speaker. Chaucer again uses vicaire of Nature, Phis. Tale, D 20, which see; and he applies it to the Virgin Mary in his A B C, l. 140. See also Lydgate, Compl. of Black Knight, l. 491.

      [380.]That l. 379 is copied from Alanus is clear from the fact that ll. 380-1 are from the same source. At p. 451 of Wright’s edition, we find Nature speaking of the concordant discord of the four elements—‘quatuor elementorum concors discordia’—which unites the buildings of the palace of this world—‘mundialis regiæ structuras conciliat.’ Similarly, she says, the four humours are united in the human body: ‘quæ qualitates inter elementa mediatrices conveniunt, hæ eædem inter quatuor humores pacis sanciunt firmitatem’; &c.

      Compare also Boethius, bk. iii. met. 9. 13, in Chaucer’s translation. ‘Thou bindest the elements by noumbres proporcionables, that the colde thinges mowen acorden with the hote thinges, and the drye thinges with the moiste thinges; that the fyr, that is purest, ne flee nat over hye, ne that the hevinesse ne drawe nat adoun over-lowe the erthes that ben plounged in the wateres. Thou knittest togider the mene sowle of treble kinde, moeving alle thinges’; &c.

      • ‘Et froit, et chaut, et sec, et moiste’;
      • Rom. Rose, 17163.
      • ‘For hot, cold, moist, and dry, four champions fierce,
      • Strive here for mastery.’ Milton, P. L. ii. 898.

      [386.]Seynt, &c.; i. e. on St. Valentine’s day; as in l. 322.

      [388.]‘Ye come to choose your mates, and (then) to flee (on) your way.’

      [411.]It appears that Chaucer and others frequently crush the two words this is into the time of one word only (something like the modern it’s for it is). Hence I scan the line thus:—

      This ’s oúr | uság’ | alwéy, | &c. ]So again, in the Knight’s Tale, 233 (A 1091):—

      We mót | endúr’ | it thís ’s | the shórt | and pleýn. And again, in the same, 885 (A 1743):—

      And seíd | e thís ’s | a shórt | conclú | sioun. And frequently elsewhere. In the present case, both this and is are unaccented, which is much harsher than when this bears an accent.

      I find that Ten Brink has also noted this peculiarity, in his Chaucers Sprache, § 271. He observes that, in C. T. Group E, 56, the Ellesmere and Hengwrt MSS. actually substitute this for this is; see footnote; and hence note that the correct reading is—‘But this his tale, which,’ &c. See This in Schmidt, Shak. Lexicon. Cf. l. 620.

      [413.]Com, came. The o is long; A. S. cóm, Goth. kwam.

      [417.]‘I choose the formel to be my sovereign lady, not my mate.’

      [421.]‘Beseeching her for mercy,’ &c.

      [435.]Read lov’th; monosyllabic, as frequently.

      [464.]‘Ye see what little leisure we have here.’

      [471.]Read possíbl’, just as in French.

      [476.]Som; quite indefinite. ‘Than another man.’

      [482.]Hir-ës, hers; dissyllabic. Whether = whe’r. Cf. l. 7.

      [485.]‘The dispute is here called a plee, or plea, or pleading; and in the next stanza the terms of law, adopted into the Courts of Love, are still more pointedly applied’; Bell.

      [499.]Hye, loudly. Kek kek represents the goose’s cackle; and quek is mod. E. quack.

      [504.]For, on behalf of; see next line.

      [507.]For comune spede, for the common benefit.

      [508.]‘For it is a great charity to set us free.’

      [510.]‘If it be your wish for any one to speak, it would be as good for him to be silent; it were better to be silent than to talk as you do.’ That is, the cuckoo only wants to listen to those who will talk nonsense. A mild rebuke. The turtle explains (l. 514) that it is better to be silent than to meddle with things which one does not understand.

      [518.]Lit. ‘A duty assumed without direction often gives offence.’ A proverb which appears in other forms. In the Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale, G 1066, it takes the form—‘Profred servyse stinketh’; see note on the line. Uncommitted is not delegated, not entrusted to one. Cotgrave has: ‘Commis, assigned, appointed, delegated.’