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APPENDIX. - 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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APPENDIX.

[The following Poems are also probably genuine; but are placed here for lack of external evidence.]

XXI.

AGAINST WOMEN UNCONSTANT.

Title.None in Ct.; Balade in F.; ed. 1561 has—A Balade which Chaucer made agaynst woman unconstaunt.

The text is from Ct. (Cotton, Cleopatra D. 7); that in ed. 1561 is much the same, except in spelling. Another copy in F. (Fairfax 16). A third in Ha. (Harl. 7578); of less value.

  • Balade.
    • Madame, for your newe-fangelnesse,
    • Many a servaunt have ye put out of grace,
    • I take my leve of your unstedfastnesse,
    • For wel I wot , whyl ye havelyves space,
    • Ye can not love ful half yeer in a place;[ ]5
    • To newe thing your lust is ever kene ;
    • In stede of blew , thus may ye were al grene.[ ]

Explicit.

XXII.

AN AMOROUS COMPLEINT. (COMPLEINT DAMOURS.)

In MS. Harl. 7333, fol. 133 b and 134. Title—And next folowyng begynnith an amerowse compleynte made at wyndesore in the laste May tofore Novembre (sic). Also in F. (Fairfax) and B. (Bodley 638); entitled Complaynt Damours. N. B. Unmarked readings are from Harl.

Explicit.

XXIII.

A BALADE OF COMPLEYNT.

In MS. Addit. 16165, fol. 256, back; headed Balade of compleynte.

NOTES TO THE ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE.

The French text, a portion of which is given in the lower part of pp. 93-164, is reprinted from Le Roman de la Rose, ed. Méon, Paris, 1814.

NOTES TO THE MINOR POEMS.

I.

An A B C.

This poem is a rather free translation of a similar poem by Guillaume de Deguileville, as pointed out in the Preface, p. 60. The original is quoted beneath the English text.

Explanations of the harder words should, in general, be sought for in the Glossarial Index, though a few are discussed in the Notes.

The language of this translation is, for the most part, so simple, that but few passages call for remark. I notice, however, a few points.

Chaucer has not adhered to the complex metre of the original, but uses a stanza of eight lines of five accents in place of de Deguileville’s stanza of twelve lines of four accents.

II.

The Compleynte unto Pite.

Title. In MS. B., the poem is entitled, ‘The Complaynte vnto Pyte,’ which is right. In MS. Trin., there is a colophon—‘Here endeth the exclamacioun of the Deth of Pyte’; see p. 276. In MS. Sh. (in Shirley’s handwriting) the poem is introduced with the following words—‘And nowe here filowing [following] begynnethe a complaint of Pitee, made by Geffray Chaucier the aureat Poete that euer was fonde in oure vulgare to-fore hees [for thees?] dayes.’ The first stanza may be considered as forming a Proem; stanzas 2-8, the Story; and the rest, the Bill of Complaint. The title ‘A complaint of Pitee’ is not necessarily incorrect; for of may be taken in the sense of ‘concerning,’ precisely as in the case of ‘The Vision of Piers the Plowman.’ As to the connection of this poem with the Thebaid of Statius, see notes to ll. 57 and 92.

III.

The Book of the Duchesse.

I may remark here that the metre is sometimes difficult to follow; chiefly owing to the fact that the line sometimes begins with an accented syllable, just as, in Milton’s L’Allegro, we meet with lines like ‘Zéphyr, with Aurora playing.’ The accented syllables are sometimes indistinctly marked, and hence arises a difficulty in immediately detecting the right flow of a line. A clear instance of a line beginning with an accented syllable is seen in l. 23—‘Slép’, and thús meláncolýë.’

IV.

The Complaint of Mars.

For general remarks on this poem, see p. 64, above.

By consulting ll. 13 and 14, we see that the whole of this poem is supposed to be uttered by a bird on the 14th of February, before sunrise. Lines 1-28 form the proem; the rest give the story of Mars and Venus, followed by the Complaint of Mars at l. 155. The first 22 stanzas are in the ordinary 7-line stanza. The Complaint is very artificial, consisting of an Introductory Stanza, and five Terns, or sets of three stanzas, making sixteen stanzas of nine lines each, or 144 lines Thus the whole poem has 298 lines.

Each tern is occupied with a distinct subject, which I indicate by headings, viz. Devotion to his Love; Description of a Lady in an anxiety of fear and woe; the Instability of Happiness; the story of the Brooch of Thebes; and An Appeal for Sympathy. A correct appreciation of these various ‘movements’ of the Complaint makes the poem much more intelligible.

V.

The Parlement of Foules.

Title. Gg. has Here begynyth the parlement of Foulys; Harl. has The Parlament of Foules; Tn. has The Parlement of Briddis; Trin. has Here foloweth the parlement of Byrdes reducyd to loue, &c. We also find, at the end of the poem, such notes as these: Gg. Explicit parliamentum Auium in die sancti Valentini tentum secundum Galfridum Chaucer; Ff. Explicit parliamentum Auium; Tn. Explicit tractatus de Congregacione volucrum die Sancti Valentini; and in MS. Arch. Seld. B. 24—Here endis the parliament of foulis Quod Galfride Chaucere.

VI.

A Compleint to his Lady.

In the two MSS., this poem is written as if it were a continuation of the Compleint unto Pity. The printed edition of 1651 has this heading—‘These verses next folowing were compiled by Geffray Chauser, and in the writen copies foloweth at the ende of the complainte of petee.’ This implies that Stowe had seen more than one MS. containing these lines.

However, the poem has nothing to do with the Complaint of Pity; for which reason the lines are here numbered separately, and the title ‘A Compleint to his Lady’ is supplied, for want of a better.

The poem is so badly spelt in Shirley’s MS. (Harl. 78) as quite to obscure its diction, which is that of the fourteenth century. I have therefore re-spelt it throughout, so as to shew the right pronunciation. The Phillipps MS. is merely a copy of the other, but preserves the last stanza.

The printed copy resembles Shirley’s MS. so closely, that both seem to have been derived from a common source. But there is a strange and unaccountable variation in l. 100. The MS. here has—‘For I am sette on yowe in suche manere’; whilst ed. 1561 has—‘For I am set so hy vpon your whele.’ The latter reading does not suit the right order of the rimes; but it points to a lost MS.

The poem evidently consists of several fragments, all upon the same subject, of hopeless, but true love.

It should be compared with the Complaint of Pity, the first forty lines of the Book of the Duchess, the Parliament of Foules (ll. 416-441), and the Complaint of Anelida. Indeed, the last of these is more or less founded upon it, and some of the expressions (including one complete line) occur there again.

VII.

Anelida and Arcite.

This Poem consists of several distinct portions. It begins with a Proem, of three stanzas, followed by a part of the story, in twenty-seven stanzas, all in seven-line stanzas. Next follows the Complaint of Anelida, skilfully and artificially constructed; it consists of a Proem in a single stanza of nine lines; next, what may be called a Strophe, in six stanzas, of which the first four consist of nine lines, the fifth consists of sixteen lines (with only two rimes), and the sixth, of nine lines (with internal rimes). Next follows what may be called an Antistrophe, in six stanzas arranged precisely as before; wound up by a single concluding stanza corresponding to the Proem at the beginning of the Complaint. After this, the story begins again; but the poet had only written one stanza when he suddenly broke off, and left the poem unfinished; see note to l. 357.

The name of Arcite naturally reminds us of the Knightes Tale; but the ‘false Arcite’ of the present poem has nothing beyond the name in common with the ‘true Arcite’ of the Tale. However, there are other connecting links, to be pointed out in their due places, which tend to shew that this poem was written before the Knightes Tale, and was never finished; it is also probable that Chaucer actually wrote an earlier draught of the Knightes Tale, with the title of Palamon and Arcite, which he afterwards partially rejected; for he mentions ‘The Love of Palamon and Arcite’ in the prologue to the Legend of Good Women as if it were an independent work. However this may be, it is clear that, in constructing or rewriting the Knightes Tale, he did not lose sight of ‘Anelida,’ for he has used some of the lines over again; moreover, it is not a little remarkable that the very lines from Statius which are quoted at the beginning of the fourth stanza of Anelida are also quoted, in some of the MSS., at the beginning of the Knightes Tale.

But this is not all. For Dr. Koch has pointed out the close agreement between the opening stanzas of this poem, and those of Boccaccio’s Teseide, which is the very work from which Palamon and Arcite was, of course, derived, as it is the chief source of the Knightes Tale also. Besides this, there are several stanzas from the Teseide in the Parliament of Foules; and even three near the end of Troilus, viz. the seventh, eighth, and ninth from the end of the last book. Hence we should be inclined to suppose that Chaucer originally translated the Teseide rather closely, substituting a seven-line stanza for the ottava rima of the original; this formed the original Palamon and Arcite, a poem which he probably never finished (as his manner was). Not wishing, however, to abandon it altogether, he probably used some of the lines in this present poem, and introduced others into his Parliament of Foules. At a later period, he rewrote, in a complete form, the whole story in his own fashion, which has come down to us as The Knightes Tale. Whatever the right explanation may be, we are at any rate certain that the Teseide is the source of (1) sixteen stanzas in the Parliament of Foules; (2) of part of the first ten stanzas in the present poem; (3) of the original Palamon and Arcite; (4) of the Knightes Tale; and (5) of three stanzas near the end of Troilus, bk. v. 1807-27 (Tes. xi. 1-3).

VIII.

Chaucers Wordes unto Adam.

Only extant in MS. T., written by Shirley, and in Stowe’s edition of 1561. Dr. Koch says—‘It seems that Stowe has taken his text from Shirley, with a few modifications in spelling, and altered Shirley’s Scriveyn into scrivener, apparently because that word was out of use in his time. Scriveyn is O. Fr. escrivain, F. écrivain. Lines 3 and 4 are too long [in MS. T. and Stowe], but long and more are unnecessary for the sense, wherefore I have omitted them.’ Dr. Sweet omits long, but retains more, though it sadly clogs the line. Again, in l. 2, we find for to, where for is superfluous.

IX.

The Former Age.

‘The former Age’ is a title taken from l. 2 of the poem. In MS. Hh., at the end, are the words—‘Finit Etas prima: Chaucers.’

Both MSS. are poor, and omit a whole line (l. 56), which has to be supplied by conjecture; as we have no other authority. The spelling requires more emendation than usual.

The poem is partly a verse translation of Boethius, De Consolatione Philosophiæ, lib. ii. met. 5. We possess a prose translation by Chaucer of the entire work (see vol. II. p. 40). This therefore contains the same passage in prose; and the prose translation is, of course, a much closer rendering of the original. Indeed there is nothing in the original which corresponds to the last four stanzas of the present poem, excepting a hint for l. 62.

The work of Boethius, in Latin, consists of five books. Each book contains several sections, written in prose and verse alternately. Hence it is usual to refer to bk. ii. prose 5 (liber ii. prosa 5); bk. ii. metre 5 (liber ii. metrum 5); and the like. These divisions are very useful in finding one’s place.

Chaucer was also indebted to Ovid, Metam. i. 89-112, for part of this description of the Golden Age; of which see Dryden’s fine translation. See also Le Roman de la Rose, ll. 8395-8492: and compare the Complaint of Scotland, ed. Murray, p. 144; and Dante, Purg. xxii. 148. For further remarks, see the Introduction.

X.

Fortune.

This poem consists of three Ballads and an Envoy. Each Ballad contains three stanzas of eight lines, with the rimes a b a b b c b c, and the rimes of the second and third stanzas are precisely the same as those of the first. Thus the rime a recurs six times, the rime b twelve times, and the rime c likewise six times. Moreover, each stanza ends with the same line, recurring as a refrain. Hence the metrical difficulties are very great, and afford a convincing proof of Chaucer’s skill. The Envoy is of seven lines, rimed a b a b b a b.

The three ballads are called, collectively, Balades de visage sanz peinture, a title which is correctly given in MS. I., with the unlucky exception that visage has been turned into vilage. This curious blunder occurs in all the MSS. and old editions, and evidently arose from mistaking a long s (f) for an l. Vilage, of course, makes no sense; and we are enabled to correct it by help of Chaucer’s translation of Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 1; l. 39. ‘Right swich was she [Fortune] whan she flatered thee, and deceived thee with unleveful lykinges of fals welefulnesse. Thou hast now knowen and ataynt the doutous or double visage of thilke blinde goddesse Fortune. She, that yit covereth hir and wimpleth hir to other folk, hath shewed hir everydel to thee.’ Or the Ballads may refer to the unmasking of false friends: ‘Fortune hath departed and uncovered to thee bothe the certein visages and eek the doutous visages of thy felawes’; id. bk. ii. pr. 8; l. 25. The whole poem is more or less founded on the descriptions of Fortune in Boethius; and we thus see that the visage meant is the face of Fortune, or else the face of a supposed friend, which is clearly revealed to the man of experience, in the day of adversity, without any covering or wimpling, and even without any painting or false colouring.

In MS. T. we are told that ‘here filoweþe [followeth] a balade made by Chaucier of þe louer and of Dame Fortune.’ In MS. A. we are told that ‘here foloweþe nowe a compleynte of þe Pleintyff agenst fortune translated oute of Frenshe into Englisshe by þat famous Rethorissyen Geffrey Chaucier.’ This hint, that it is translated out of French, can scarcely be right, unless Shirley (whose note this is) means that it partially resembles passages in Le Roman de la Rose; for Chaucer’s work seems to contain some reminiscences of that poem as well as of the treatise of Boethius, though of course Le Roman is indebted to Boethius also.

Le Pleintif is the complainant, the man who brings a charge against Fortune, or rather, who exclaims against her as false, and defies her power. The first Ballad, then, consists of this complaint and defiance.

The close connection between this poem and Boethius is shewn by the fact that (like the preceding poem called The Former Age) it occurs in an excellent MS. of Chaucer’s translation of Boethius, viz. MS. I. (Ii. 3. 21, in the Cambridge University Library). I may also remark here, that there is a somewhat similar dialogue between Nobilitas and Fortuna in the Anticlaudianus of Alanus de Insulis, lib. viii. c. 2; see Anglo-Latin Satirists, ed. T. Wright, ii. 401.

In Morley’s English Writers, ii. 283, is the following description. ‘The argument of the first part [or Ballad] is: I have learnt by adversity to know who are my true friends; and he can defy Fortune who is master of himself. The argument of the next part [second Ballad], that Fortune speaks, is: Man makes his own wretchedness. What may come you know not; you were born under my rule of change; your anchor holds. Of the third part of the poem [third Ballad], in which the Poet and Fortune each speak, the sum of the argument is, that what blind men call fortune is the righteous will of God. Heaven is firm, this world is mutable. The piece closes with Fortune’s call upon the Princes to relieve this man of his pain, or pray his best friend “of his noblesse” that he may attain to some better estate.’

The real foundation of these three Ballads is (1) Boethius, bk. ii. proses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, and met. 1; and (2) a long passage in Le Roman de la Rose, ll. 4853-4994 (Eng. version, 5403-5584). More particular references are given below.

XI.

Merciless Beauty.

The title ‘Mercilesse Beaute’ is given in the Index to the Pepys MS. As it is a fitting title, and no other has been suggested, it is best to use it.

I think this Roundel was suggested by one written in French, in the thirteenth century, by Willamme d’Amiens, and printed in Bartsch, Chrestomathie de l’ancien Français. It begins—

  • ‘Jamais ne serai saous
  • D’esguarder les vairs ieus dous
  • Qui m’ont ocis’;—

i. e. I shall never be sated with gazing on the gray soft eyes which have slain me.

XII.

To Rosemounde.

This graceful Balade is a happy specimen of Chaucer’s skill in riming. The metre is precisely that of ‘Fortune,’ resembling that of the Monkes Tale with the addition of a refrain; only the same rimes are used throughout. The formula is a b a b b c b c.

XIII.

Truth.

The Titles are: Gg. Balade de bone conseyl; Lansd. 699, La bon Counseil de le Auttour; Caxton, The good counceyl of Chawcer; Harl. Moral balade of Chaucyre. Shirley calls it—Balade that Chaucier made on his deeth-bedde; a note that has been frequently repeated, and is probably no better than a bad guess.

XIV.

Gentilesse.

For remarks upon Scogan’s quotation of this Ballad in full, see the Introduction.

The titles are: Harl. Moral balade of Chaucier; T. Balade by Chaucier.

Caxton’s text is unusually good, and is often superior to that in the existing MSS.

The general idea of the poem is that Christ was the true pattern of ‘gentleness’ or gentility, i. e. of noble behaviour. Cf. Dekker’s noble line, in which he speaks of Christ as ‘The first true gentleman that ever breathed.’

But the finest poetical essay upon this subject is that by Chaucer himself, in the Wife of Bath’s Tale; C. T. 6691-6758 (D 1109); which see. And cf. Tale of Melibeus, B 2831-2.

Another passage on this subject occurs in the Eng. version of the Romance of the Rose, ll. 2188-2202, which, curiously enough, is in neither Michel’s nor Méon’s edition of the French Poem (in which l. 2184 of the E. version is immediately succeeded by l. 2203 of the same). Again, in Le Roman de la Rose, ll. 6603-6616, there is a definition of Gentillesce; but this passage is not in the Eng. version.

The original passage, to which both Chaucer and Jean de Meun were indebted, is one in Boethius, bk. iii. pr. 6; which Chaucer thus translates:—‘For yif the name of gentilesse be referred to renoun and cleernesse of linage, than is gentil name but a foreine thing, that is to seyn, to hem that glorifyen hem of hir linage. For it semeth that gentilesse be a maner preysinge that comth of deserte of ancestres . . yif thou ne have no gentilesse of thy-self—that is to seyn, preyse that comth of thy deserte—foreine gentilesse ne maketh thee nat gentil.’ And again, just below, in metre 6:—‘On allone is fader of thinges . . Thanne comen alle mortal folk of noble sede; why noisen ye or bosten of youre eldres?’ But we must not overlook a long passage near the end of Le Roman de la Rose, ll. 18807-19096, which Chaucer certainly also consulted. I quote some of these lines below.

XV.

Lak of Stedfastnesse.

In MS. Harl. 7333 is the following note, probably correct:—‘This balade made Geffrey Chauuciers the Laureall Poete of Albion, and sent it to his souerain lorde kynge Rycharde the secounde, thane being in his Castell of Windesore.’ In MS. T. is the heading:—‘Balade Royal made by oure laureal poete of Albyon in hees laste yeeres’; and above l. 22 is:—‘Lenvoye to Kyng Richard.’ In MS. F. it is simply headed ‘Balade.’ For another allusion to King Richard at Windsor, see note to Lenvoy to Scogan, l. 43.

The general idea is taken from Boethius, bk. ii. met. 8, which Chaucer thus translates:—‘That the world with stable feith varieth acordable chaunginges, that the contrarious qualitee of elements holden among hem-self aliaunce perdurable, . . . al this acordaunce of thinges is bounden with love, that governeth erthe and see, and hath also commaundements to the hevenes. And yif this love slakede the brydeles, alle thinges that now loven hem to-gederes wolden maken a bataile continuely, and stryven to fordoon the fasoun of this worlde, the whiche they now leden in acordable feith by faire moevinges . . . O weleful were mankinde, yif thilke love that governeth hevene governed youre corages!’

XVI.

Lenvoy a Scogan.

There are but three MSS., all much alike. As to Scogan, see the Introduction. MSS. F. and P. have the heading—‘Lenvoy de Chaucer a Scogan’; Gg. has—‘Litera directa de Scogon per G. C.’

XVII.

Lenvoy a Bukton.

XVIII.

Compleynt of Venus.

This poem has frequently been printed as if it formed a part of The Compleynt of Mars; but it is a separate poem, and belongs to a later period.

The Compleynt of Mars is an original poem; but the present poem is a translation, being partly adapted, and partly translated from three Balades by Sir Otes de Graunson (l. 82). The original Balades have been lately recovered by Dr. Piaget, and are printed below the text. See the Introduction.

It consists of three Ballads and an Envoy, and bears a strong resemblance, in metrical form, to the poem on Fortune, each Ballad having three stanzas of eight lines each, with a refrain. It differs from ‘Fortune’ only in the arrangement of the rimes, which occur in the order a b a b b c c b, instead of (as in Fortune) in the order a b a b b c b c. One rime (in -aunce) occurs in the second Ballad as well as in the first; but this is quite an accidental detail, of no importance. It must be remembered that the metre was not chosen by Chaucer, but by Graunson. The Envoy, which alone is original, consists of ten lines, rimed a a b a a b b a a b. This arrangement is very unusual. See further in the note to l. 82.

In the MSS. T. and A. we have notes of some importance, written by Shirley. T. has:—‘The Compleynt of Venus. And filowing begynnethe a balade translated out of frenshe in-to englisshe by Chaucier, Geffrey; the frenshe made sir Otes de Grauntsome, knight Savosyen.’ A. has:—‘Here begynnethe a balade made by that worthy Knight of Savoye in frenshe, calde sir Otes Graunson; translated by Chauciers.’ At the end of the copy in T. is:—‘Hit is sayde that Graunsome made this last balade for Venus, resembled to my lady of york; aunswering the complaynt of Mars.’ We certainly find that Chaucer has materially altered the first of the three Balades; so perhaps he wished to please his patron. But the title (probably not Chaucer’s) is a bad one. See the Introduction. Cf. note to l. 73.

XIX.

The Compleint to his empty Purse.

The date of the Envoy to this Poem can be determined almost to a day. Henry IV. was received as king by the parliament, Sept. 30, 1399. Chaucer received his answer, in the shape of an additional grant of forty marks yearly, on Oct. 3 of the same year. Consequently, the date of the Envoy is Sept. 30 or Oct. 1 or 2 in that year. It is obvious that the poem itself had been written (perhaps some time) beforehand; see note to l. 17. As far as we know, the Envoy is Chaucer’s last work.

A somewhat similar complaint was addressed to the French king John II. by G. de Machault in 1351-6; but it is in short rimed lines; see his works, ed. Tarbé, p. 78. But the real model which Chaucer had in view was, in my opinion, the Ballade by Eustache Deschamps, written in 1381, and printed in Tarbé’s edition, at p. 55.

This Ballade is of a similar character, having three stanzas of eight lines each, with a somewhat similar refrain, viz. ‘Mais de paier n’y sçay voie ne tour,’ i.e. but how to pay I know therein no way nor method. It was written on a similar occasion, viz. after the death of Charles V. of France, and the accession of Charles VI., who had promised Deschamps a pension, but had not paid it. Hence the opening lines:—

  • ‘Dieux absoille le bon Roy trespassé!
  • Et Dieux consault cellui qui est en vie!
  • Il me donna rente le temps passé
  • A mon vivant; laquelle je n’ay mie.’

The Envoy has but six lines, though the stanzas have eight; similarly, Chaucer’s Envoy has but five lines (rimed a a b b a), though the stanzas have seven. Chaucer’s Envoy is in a very unusual metre, which was copied by the author of the Cuckoo and the Nightingale.

The Title, in MS. F. is—‘The Complaynt of Chaucer to his Purse.’ In Caxton’s print, it is—‘The compleint of Chaucer vnto his empty purse.’ In MS. P.—‘La Compleint de Chaucer a sa Bourse voide.’ MS. Harl. has—‘A supplicacion to Kyng Richard by chaucier.’ The last of these, written by Shirley, is curious. If not a mere mistake, it seems to imply that the Complaint was first prepared before king Richard was deposed, though, by means of the Envoy, it was addressed to his successor. However, this copy of Shirley’s gives the Envoy; so it may have been a mere mistake. Line 23 is decisive; see note below.

I remark here, for completeness’ sake, that this poem has sometimes been ascribed to Hoccleve; but, apparently, without any reason.

XX.

Proverbs.

The titles in the MSS. are: Ad. Prouerbe; F. Proverbe of Chaucer; Ha. Prouerbe of Chaucers.

Each proverb takes the form of a question or objection, in two lines, followed by an answer in two lines more.

There is a fair copy of them (but not well spelt) in the black-letter edition of 1561, fol. cccxl. They there appear without the addition of fourteen unconnected lines (not by Chaucer) which have been recklessly appended to them in modern editions. The title in ed. 1561 is—‘A Prouerbe agaynst couitise and negligence.’

For the metre, compare the Envoy to a Ballad by Deschamps, ed. Tarbé, pp. 23, 24.

XXI.

Balade against Women unconstant.

XXII.

An Amorous Compleint (Compleint Damours).

There are three MS. copies of this poem, viz. in MSS. F., B., and Harl. 7333. See remarks upon these in the Introduction, p. 89.

XXIII.

A Balade of Compleynt.

printed in great britain at the university press, oxford by vivian ridler, printer to the university

[P. 123: l. 705.]It would be better to read ‘Withoute.’ The scansion then is:

Without | e fabl’ | I wol | descryve.

[P. 126: l. 793.]Delete the comma at the end of the line.

[P. 127: l. 806.]Delete the comma at the end of the line.

[P. 135: l. 997.]For shall read shal

[P. 136: ll. 1015-6.]Improve the punctuation thus:—

As whyt as lilie or rose in rys

Hir face, gentil and tretys.

[P. 136: l. 1021.]Delete the comma after ‘yelowe’

[P. 141: l. 1154.]Delete the comma after ‘seide’

[P. 201: l. 4035.]For the comma substitute a semicolon.

[P. 301: l. 716.]The comma should perhaps be a semicolon or a full stop.

[592. ]G. answeride; Th. answerde.

[603. ]G. hidre be; Th. hyther be. Both fette.

[604. ]G. sette; Th. ysette.

[605. ]Both hight.

[606. ]Both sight.

[617. ]Th. therin; G. therynne.

[623. ]Th. playen in; G. pleyn ynne.

[631. ]Th. Than; G. Thanne.

[645, 653. ]Th. in; G. Inne.

[654. ]Both thought.

[655. ]Th. byrde; G. bridde; read brid.

[660. ]Both places (badly).

[661. ]Both might.

[668. ]Both That (for These).

[673. ]Th. whan; G. that. Th. herde; G. herd.

[676. ]Both myght.

[684. ]Both clepe.

[688. ]Th. But; G. For. Both om. hir.

[699. ]Th. gardyn; G. gardyne.

[700. ]G. inne; Th. in.

[701. ]G. hens-; wrought.

[702. ]Both thought.

[709. ]Both wrought.

[716. ]Th. her; G. their. Th. iargonyng; G. yarkonyng.

[718. ]Th. ispronge; G. spronge.

[720. ]Th. reuelrye; G. reuerye; see French.

[728. ]Both sight (wrongly).

[732. ]Th. faste; G. fast. Both without.

[739. ]Th. whence; G. whenne. Both might.

[741, 2. ]Both sight, bright.

[743. ]Th. These; G. This.

[745. ]Both hyght.

[746. ]Both blisfull. Th. and lyght; G. and the light; see 797.

[749. ]Both add couthe before make.

[760. ]I supply ther.

[761. ]Both made (for make).

[770. ]Th. saylours; G. saillouris.

[773. ]Both hente; I supply hem.

[776. ]G. damysels; Th. damosels.

[782. ]Both lieth.

[783. ]Both queyntly; see l. 569.

[791. ]Both bode; read bede; see note.

[798. ]Both pray to God.

[801. ]I supply neer.

[806. ]Both it to me liked.

[811. ]Both right blythe; om. right.

[812. ]Th. Than; G. Thanne.

[819. ]Th. appel; G. appille.

[834. ]Both first.

[836. ]Both samette.

[837. ]Both beten ful; om. ful.

[844. ]Both drury.

[845. ]Th. rosen; G. rosyn.

[848. ]Both gladnesse.

[859. ]G. seye; Th. sey (for sayn).

[860. ]G. pleye; Th. pley (for pleyn).

[861. ]Both Bent.

[863. ]Both laugheden.

[865. ]Both I wot not what of hir nose I shal descryve (eleven syllables).

[869. ]Th. orfrayes.

[870. ]Th. whiche; G. which. Th. sene; G. seyen.

[873. ]Th. samyte; G. samet.

[875, 6. ]Th. werde, ferde; G. werede, ferede. Both ins. hir bef. herte.

[877. ]Th. on; G. in.

[879. ]Both Love, and as hym likith it be.

[887. ]Th. prise; G. preyse.

[890. ]Th. ycladde: G. clad.

[891. ]G. and in; Th. om. in.

[893. ]Th. losenges; G. losynges.

[897. ]Th. Ypurtrayed; G. Portreied, Th. ywrought; G. wrought.

[900. ]Th. Yset; G. Sett.

[902. ]Th. moche; G. mych.

[903, 4. ]Both peruynke, thynke.

[906. ]G. -melled; Th. -medled; see l. 898.

[923. ]Both Turke bowes two, full wel deuysed had he (too long).

[928. ]Th. any; G. ony.

[929, 930. ]Th. plante, warante; G. plant, warant. Both Without.

[932. ]G. Treitys; Th. Trectes. Both ins. ful after of.

[933. ]G. twythen; Th. thwitten (printed twhitten).

[936. ]I supply ful.

[939. ]Th. helde; G. hilde

[942. ]Th. aryght; G. right.

[944. ]G. peynted (!).

[945. ]Th. sharpe; G. sharp. Th. wele; G. welle.

[946. ]Th. stele; G. steelle.

[948. ]Th. Out take; G. Outake.

[953. ]G. lasse; Th. lesse.

[958. ]Th. companye; G. compaigny.

[959. ]Both shoten; see l. 989.

[960. ]For right read nigh (K.).

[964. ]Both leest.

[969. ]Th. soner; G. sonner.

[970. ]Th. Hys; G. Hir. Th. ought be; G. ought to be.

[973. ]Both for to telle.

[984. ]Both on; read of (K.).

[991. ]Both And contrarye.

[998. ]Th. booke; G. book.

[1007. ]G. Th. And; read As was; F. Ainsinc cum.

[1010. ]I supply is.

[1015. ]For As read And (K.).

[1017. ]Both smale.

[1018. ]Both wyntred; see l. 1020.

[1026. ]Both thought; read thinketh (K.).

[1031. ]Both Sore (!); read Wys (?).

[1034. ]Both And hight (!).

[1037. ]Both in werk (!).

[1043. ]G. and the; Th. om. the.

[1045. ]Th. weren; G. were.

[1058. ]Th. But; G. And. Th. prill; G. prile; prob. error for prike, or prikke.

[1062. ]Th. and wyse; G. ywys.

[1063. ]G. haue do; Th. and ydon.

[1065. ]Th. And maketh; G. Haue maad.

[1066. ]G. om. as. Both ought.

[1068. ]Th. aryued; G. achyued.

[1071. ]G. purpur; Th. purple.

[1073. ]Th. it; G. hir.

[1080. ]Th. amyled; Speght, ameled; G. enameled.

[1082 ]G. shete; Th. shette.

[1089. ]Both durst (!); read thurte or thurfte.

[1092. ]Th. mannes; G. man.

[1098. ]G. om. of. Both tothe.

[1101. ]Th. thylke; G. thilk.

[1102. ]Both myght.

[1109. ]Both light.

[1111. ]Th. he; G. she.

[1112. ]Both deuyse.

[1116. ]Th. the; G. that.

[1117. ]Both ragounces (!).

[1125. ]Morris supplies tho.

[1132. ]G. mych.

[1134. ]Th. loued wel to haue; G. loued to haue well.

[1137. ]Th. an; G. ony.

[1139. ]Th. ben; G. be.

[1141. ]Th. Was; G. And.

[1142. ]Th. or defence; G. of diffense.

[1144. ]Th. dispences; G. dispence.

[1146. ]Th. for to spende; G. for to dispende; see 1157.

[1147. ]Th. lackynge; G. lakke.

[1150. ]Th. sette; G. settith.

[1162. ]G. om. wys.

[1166. ]Th. craftely; G. tristely.

[1172. ]Th. nygarde; G. nygart.

[1176. ]G. om. him.

[1178. ]Th. wyl; G. wille.

[1182. ]Th. adamant; G. adamaund.

[1187. ]Th. fresshe; G. fresh.

[1188. ]G. sarlynysh; Th. Sarlynyssche.

[1199. ]Both sibbe. Th. Arthour; G. Artour. Th. Breteigne; G. Britaigne.

[1200. ]Th. enseigne; G. ensaigne.

[1201. ]Both gousfaucoun.

[1205. ]Both newly.

[1206. ]Th. tourneyeng; G. tourneryng.

[1207. ]Th. There; G. The.

[1210. ]Both He caste.

[1214. ]Th. yfallen; G. falle.

[1219. ]Th. on; G. of.

[1221. ]Both durst.

[1227, 8. ]Both bistadde, adradde.

[1230. ]Th. taswage.

[1233. ]Th. hempe; G. hempe ne (for hempene).

[1235. ]G. ridled; Th. ryddeled.

[1236. ]G. om. nat. Both a; read oo.

[1238. ]Th. yclothed; G. clothed.

[1244. ]Both Bitokeneth.

[1247, 8. ]Both hight.

[1255. ]Th. om. right.

[1259. ]G. and of; Th. om. of.

[1261. ]G. om. 1st no.

[1263. ]G. wenaunt (!).

[1265. ]G. om. were.

[1274. ]Both fast.

[1275. ]Both without.

[1282. ]Both And she; read Youthe; see 1302.

[1288. ]Th. yonge; G. yong. Th. wel; G. wole.

[1303. ]Both that; read thus; see 1310.

[1307. ]Both faire; truly (truely).

[1308. ]Both were.

[1313. ]G. loreyes; Th. Laurelles.

[1315. ]Th. ended; G. eended (= y-ended?).

[1323. ]Both myght.

[1324. ]Both durst (for thurte).

[1326. ]Both As to haue.

[1332. ]Both she (for 2nd he).

[1334. ]Both hadde (for bad); bent; om. it.

[1335. ]I supply it. Both an (for on).

[1339. ]Both sittith.

[1340. ]Both he kepe me; (om. he).

[1341. ]G. hadde me shette; Th. had me shete.

[1342. ]G. mette; Th. mete.

[1343. ]Both had me greued.

[1348. ]Both hadde in all the gardyn be.

[1359. ]G. of gret; Th. om. of.

[1360. ]Th. nuttes.

[1363. ]Both almandres.

[1365. ]Th. weren; G. wexen.

[1366. ]Read Throughout the yerd?

[1369. ]Th. Gyngere; G. Gyngevre. Both Parys (!).

[1375. ]Th. plommes. Th. chesteynis; G. chesteyns.

[1376. ]G. Cherys; Th. Cheryse. G. which.

[1379. ]Th. laurer; G. lorey (!).

[1381. ]G. olyuers; Th. olyueris.

[1384. ]Both oke.

[1397, 8. ]Th. knytte, sytte; see Parl. Fo. 628.

[1399. ]Th. myght there noon.

[1400. ]I supply it.

[1403. ]Th. bowe; Speght, bough (twice).

[1404. ]Th. Connes.

[1405, 6. ]Th. clapers, maners.

[1411, 2. ]Th. wel, tel.

[1413, 4. ]Th. deuyse, condyse

[1423. ]Th. the erthe; see 1428.

[1424. ]Th. wel.

[1425. ]Th. Spronge; see l. 1419.

[1428. ]Th. suche.

[1429. ]Th. hath.

[1431. ]Th. vyolet.

[1440. ]Th. dilectable.

[1445, 6. ]Th. lefte.

[1447. ]Th. garden; read yerde in (K.); cf. 1366 (note).

[1448. ]Th. efters (!).

[1452. ]Th. beest.

[1453. ]Th. shoten; read shete.

[1453. ]Th. goodmesse; see 3462.

[1456. ]Th. Besydes.

[1474. ]Th. that hight; (om. that).

[1482. ]Th. feirs.

[1485. ]G. om. hir.

[1486. ]Th. hert.

[1488. ]Th. without.

[1489. ]Th. deyde; G. dide.

[1495. ]Both might to; I omit to.

[1496. ]Th. Than; G. And that. Th. shulde he; G. he shulde.

[1498. ]G. velaynesly; Th. vilaynously.

[1500. ]Th. ferme; G. forme.

[1503. ]G. resten; Th. rest. G. that; Th. the.

[1508. ]G. heet; Th. herte (for heete).

[1510. ]Both wel. Th. y-comen; G. comen.

[1515. ]G. he straught; Th. out-straught.

[1516. ]Both draught.

[1517, 8. ]G. seen, sheen; Th. sene, shene.

[1520. ]Th. had; G. was.

[1527. ]Both musede so.

[1528. ]Th. om. al.

[1534. ]Both comforte.

[1550. ]G. scathles; Th. scathlesse.

[1552. ]Th. abasshen; G. abaisshen.

[1561, 2. ]Both bright, hight.

[1573, 4. ]Both sight, bright.

[1581. ]Both foule.

[1583. ]Both you to; I omit to.

[1585. ]Both mirrour.

[1586. ]G. stondith; Th. stondeth.

[1591. ]Both entrees.

[1593, 4. ]Both ye (for he).

[1601, 1605. ]Both mirrour.

[1604. ]So Th.; G. swithe to ligge.

[1605. ]Th. loke; G. loketh.

[1608. ]Both laughyng (!); read loving.

[1609. ]G. om. a.

[1610 ]Th. Y-blent; G. Blent.

[1617. ]Th. sowen; G. sowne.

[1621, 2. ]Both panters, bachelers.

[1638. ]G. fast; Th. faste.

[1641. ]I supply have. Both sighed (for syked).

[1642, 9. ]Both mirrour.

[1644. ]Th. vertue; G. vertues. I supply the. Both strengthes; read strengthe.

[1646. ]Both had.

[1648. ]G. bitrisshed; Th. bytresshed.

[1649. ]Th. thylke; G. thilk.

[1652. ]Th. enclos; G. enclosid.

[1663. ]Th. G. me; read be (F. fusse).

[1666. ]So Th.; G. Me thankis. G. wole; Th. wol; read wolde.

[1671, 2. ]Both -thought, wrought.

[1673. ]Both ther were; both wone.

[1674. ]Th. ware; G. waxe; both Rone.

[1679. ]Th. faste; G. fast.

[1683. ]G. wille; Th. wyl. Th. fresshe; G. fresh.

[1687. ]Both myght haue.

[1688. ]G. lief; Th. lefe.

[1689. ]I supply a

[1694. ]G. it in; Th. om it.

[1695. ]G. enlomyned.

[1698. ]Both hath; om. wel?

[1700. ]Both roses.

[1701. ]Th. rysshe; G. rish.

[1705. ]Th. dyed (for dide; wrongly).

[2492. ]Both domme.

[2494, 2521. ]Th. faste; G. fast.

[2499. ]G. yitt; Th. yet (for yif).

[2532. ]I supply thy; F. ta raison. Th. durste; G. derst.

[2541. ]a] Th. o.

[2550. ]Th. batell; G. batelle.

[2563, 4. ]Th. a-brede, forwerede; G. abrode, forweriede; see 3251.

[2569. ]seme] Both se.

[2576. ]Th. slombrest.

[2578. ]G. om. a.

[2610. ]Th. Withouten; G. Without. Th. kesse; G. kysse.

[2617. ]Both I wote not; read I noot.

[2619. ]Both better.

[2621. ]Both on hir I caste.

[2622. ]Both That (for Than).

[2628. ]Both liggen.

[2649. ]Th. shalt; G. shalle.

[2650. ]Both whider (!).

[2655, 6. ]Th. aferde, vnsperde; G. afeerd, unspered.

[2660. ]Th. shore.

[2664. ]Th. thy; G. the.

[2668. ]Both without.

[2669. ]Both om. a.

[2675. ]Th. whan; G. whanne; read wham or whom; F. De qui tu ne pues avoir aise.

[2676. ]Corrupt; F. Au departir la porte baise. Th. awey; G. away.

[2683. ]Th. ins. any (G. only) bef. wene.

[2687. ]Th. selfe; G. silf.

[2688. ]Th. assayed; G. assaid.

[2690. ]Both for to (for to).

[2693. ]Th. ofte; G. of.

[2697. ]Th. dothe; G. doith.

[2700. ]I supply hir.

[2709, 2710. ]Both more, fore; read mare, fare. I supply thee.

[2712. ]Perhaps omit to.

[2729. ]Th. Aye; G. A-yee.

[2746. ]I supply may.

[2748. ]Th. great; G. greet.

[2752. ]For that read yet?

[2755, 6. ]Th. sete, ete; G. sett, ete.

[2760. ]Both yeue.

[2763. ]I supply his. Th. trust; G. trist.

[2774. ]Both aftirward.

[2775. ]I supply to.

[2777. ]Both yeue.

[2786. ]Both endure.

[2789, 90. ]Th. solace, lace. G. Doith.

[2791. ]Both first.

[2796. ]G. Thenkyng; Th. Thynkyng; see 2804.

[2798. ]Both and in peyne.

[2801. ]Both ins. to bef. have.

[2824. ]Both not ben; F. tu seroies.

[2831. ]Both myght.

[2833. ]Both me (for hem); see 2845.

[2845. ]I supply my; see 2833.

[2846. ]G. sittith; Th. sytteth.

[2854. ]Th. him; G. hem. Th. apayde; G. apaied; see l. 2891.

[2895. ]G. and of; Th. om. of.

[2897. ]G. which.

[2912. ]I supply yit.

[2916. ]I supply it. Th. conuoye G. conueye.

[2917. ]they] Both thou.

[2921, 2. ]Both sene, clene; supply he.

[2934. ]I supply that.

[2935. ]Both declared thee.

[2946. ]Th. sufferaunce; G. suffraunce.

[2950. ]Both yeue.

[2954. ]Th. vanysshed; G. vanyshide.

[2960, 2973. ]Both bothom; read botoun.

[2970. ]G. bisiede; Th. besyed.

[2971. ]Th. haye; G. hay.

[2981. ]Th. gladde; G. glad.

[2984. ]F. Bel-Acueil.

[2987. ]G. outter; Th. vtter.

[2990. ]Th. fresshe; G. fresh.

[2992. ]Both warrans; I supply I be; F. Ge vous i puis bien garantir.

[3000. ]Th. hertely; G. hertly.

[3001. ]I supply I.

[3009, 3013. ]Both bothom; read botoun.

[3010. ]Th. fresshe; G. fresh. Th. spronge; G. sprange.

[3012. ]Both myght.

[3020. ]Th. grasse; G. gras.

[3029. ]I insert no.

[3035. ]Both Brought; I supply On lyve (i. e. to life). Th. ylke; G. ilk.

[3038. ]Th. so vgly; G. so oughlye; om. so.

[3045. ]Both bothoms; read botouns. Th. las; G. lasse.

[3046. ]Th. sondrie; G. sondre.

[3047. ]Th. wyste; G. wist.

[3050, 3064. ]Both Bothoms.

[3052. ]Both Venus hath flemed.

[3058. ]G. om. is.

[3071, 6, 8. ]Both bothom.

[3079. ]I supply me; F. me fis.

[3083. ]G. waxe; Th. wext.

[3109. ]Both bothom.

[3115. ]Both arise; read ryse.

[3125. ]Both And late (lette) it growe.

[3127, 8. ]Both were, bere.

[3136. ]G. om. Th. His eyes reed sparclyng as the fyre-glowe (too long); F. S’ot les yex rouges comme feus. 3037. Both kirked.

[3150. ]I] G. it; Th. he; F. ge.

[3154. ]Th. agayne; G. ageyns.

[3164. ]Th. he; G. it.

[3179. ]I supply wot.

[3186. ]Th. brast; G. barste.

[3188. ]G. That was; Th. m. That. Th. through; G. thurgh.

[3191. ]Th. highe; G. high.

[3195. ]Both without.

[3201. ]on] G. in (!).

[3207. ]Both For nature; I omit For.

[3209. ]Both but if the.

[3213. ]Th. seignorie; G. seignurie.

[3219, 20. ]G. freende, sheende; Th. frende, shende.

[3221. ]Th. the; G. ye.

[3227. ]G. didest (!).

[3228. ]Th. had; G. hadde; read haddest.

[3230. ]I supply ward.

[3231, 2. ]Both wene, sene; I supply thee.

[3248. ]G. om. nat.

[3251. ]Th. werrey; G. werye.

[3264. ]Both seyne; feyne seems better.

[3266. ]I supply it.

[3274. ]Both he be a; I omit a.

[3279. ]G. om. of.

[3282. ]Th. moche; G. mych.

[3292. ]G. arrage (!).

[3301. ]After gete, Th. ins. the, and G. thee.

[3315. ]Th. counsayle; G. counsele.

[3320. ]Both thought; read taughte.

[3331. ]Both Who that; I omit that.

[3337. ]Both cherisaunce; F. chevissance.

[3340. ]Both myght.

[3344. ]Both fast.

[3350. ]Both witholde.

[3355. ]Th. whiche; G. which.

[3356. ]G. om. have. Th. meymed.

[3364. ]Th. fresshe; G. fresh. Both bothom.

[3372. ]Th. fiers.

[3379. ]Th. meke; G. make.

[3385. ]I supply him.

[3399. ]Th. forbode; G. fobede; read forbad.

[3406. ]I supply sir.

[3408. ]Both amenden.

[3414. ]G. om. I.

[3418. ]G. you shulde.

[3429. ]G. doon elles welle; Th. done al wel, F. Toutes vos autres volentes Ferai.

[3433. ]Th. suche; G. sichen; F. puisqu’il me siet.

[3447. ]Both where that the; I omit that.

[3448. ]I supply thou; F. tu.

[3454. ]Th. tale; G. talle.

[3455. ]Th. affayre; G. affere.

[3462. ]Both good mes (sic); F. en bon point; see l. 1453.

[3464. ]Both -come.

[3468. ]G. om. me.

[3473. ]Both bothom.

[3482. ]Morris supplies hard.

[3490. ]Both That he had.

[3491. ]G. Thanne; Th. Than; read That; F. Qu’Amors.

[3498. ]G. Thou; Th. Tho. Both and me (for and).

[3502. ]Both bothom.

[3508. ]I supply word.

[3510. ]Th. moche; G. mych.

[3522. ]Both ye (for he); F. Que il.

[3525. ]Both it is.

[3534. ]G. to beye; Th. to bey.

[3548. ]Both This; F. C’est; This = This is.

[3552. ]Th. he; G. ye.

[3554. ]Both Vpon (for On).

[3560. ]Read mis (for amis).

[3563. ]Th. moste; G. most.

[3590. ]G. lette; Th. let.

[3591. ]Th. hye; G. high.

[3599, 3600. ]Th. please, ease.

[3604. ]Th. dare (for thar), wrongly. Th. aferde.

[3615. ]Th. without.

[3619. ]Th. hadde.

[3620. ]Th. leaue.

[3622. ]Th. hel.

[3626. ]Th. eftres.

[3633. ]Th. spaunysshinge.

[3641. ]Th. without.

[3642. ]Th. sene.

[3643. ]Th. the god of blesse; F. Diex la beneie.

[3646. ]Th. marueyle.

[3656. ]Th. leysar.

[3660. ]Th. That so swetely.

[3663. ]Th. cosse.

[3667. ]Th. sayd.

[3670, 1. ]Th. dare.

[3674. ]Th. ywisse.

[3676. ]Th. lyfe; read live.

[3679. ]Th. best.

[3687. ]Th. first.

[3688. ]Th. fel downe.

[3690. ]Th. grapes be ripe; om. be.

[3694. ]Both Though.

[3697. ]Both rennyng (for rewing).

[3698. ]Both come (absurdly); see l. 3700; read to me.

[3699. ]Th. werryeth; G. werieth; F. guerroie.

[3707. ]Th. flame.

[3709. ]Both hette.

[3710. ]G. herte is; Th. hert is; read hertis = hertes. Both sette.

[3716. ]G. nelle; Th. nyl.

[3718. ]Both neithir (for nor).

[3723. ]G. pruyde.

[3730. ]Th. warne; G. worne.

[3742. ]G. outterly; Th. vtterly.

[3745. ]Both pleyne (playne).

[3746. ]Both -nysse.

[3748. ]G. thenkith.

[3749. ]Th. warne; G. worne.

[3751. ]Both ye helpe; read to helpe.

[3755. ]Th. with his hete.

[3756. ]Both ins. me after bad.

[3757. ]G. Grauntede; Th. Graunt.

[3761. ]Thar] Th. There nede.

[3763. ]Both Stroke.

[3774. ]G. it wille; Th. at wyl.

[3779. ]Th. selde; G. yelde.

[3790. ]G. strong; Th. stronge.

[3803, 3811. ]Both bare.

[3805. ]G. gret; Th. great.

[3807. ]Both myght.

[3808. ]G. report.

[3812. ]Both square.

[3832. ]Th. regarde.

[3834. ]Th. thus; G. this.

[3845. ]I supply not.

[3846. ]I supply to.

[3848. ]G. thenkith.

[3852. ]I supply Ne. Both verge; see 3234. G. hadde; Th. had.

[3862. ]Th. wende; G. wente.

[3877. ]Both first.

[3880. ]G. fals. Both lye.

[3885. ]G. such.

[3889. ]G. vylonye.

[3891. ]M. supplies for.

[3895. ]Both trechours.

[3897. ]I supply wel.

[3902. ]Both herte I crye.

[3907. ]Both lowe.

[3912. ]G. yhe; Th. eye.

[3915. ]I supply yit.

[3917. ]Th. werreyed; G. werried.

[3928. ]Th. Counsayle. Both must; read mot, and supply take.

[3942. ]Both Do; read To. Both fortresse; F. forteresce.

[3943. ]Both Thanne (Than) close; F. Qui les Roses clorra entor.

[3954. ]Th. blende; G. blynde.

[3955. ]I supply for.

[3967. ]I supply Til. Both last.

[3971. ]Both ferre.

[3973. ]I supply so.

[3974. ]I supply do.

[3977. ]Th. haue.

[3979. ]Both shamed.

[3982. ]G. withoute; Th. without.

[3985, 6. ]G. om. he.

[3994. ]Th. vilanously; G. vilaynesly.

[4000. ]Both right. I supply bothe a-.

[4009, 4016. ]G. doist.

[4011. ]Both bothoms.

[4015. ]Both Stoute, porte.

[4021. ]G. an high; Th. an hye; read in hy.

[4026. ]Both To make.

[4036. ]Both sittith (-eth).

[4044. ]I supply not.

[4059. ]Th. sothe; G. sooth. G. knowe.

[4063. ]as] G. a.

[4065. ]G. om. he.

[4072. ]G. gardyne.

[4073. ]a-fere, i. e. on fire.

[4089. ]Both put it after I.

[4096. ]Both me (for men).

[4098. ]Both myght.

[4110. ]Th. quake; G. quoke.

[4111. ]Both bothom. I supply that.

[4114. ]Th. moche; G. mych.

[4120. ]Th. fresshe; G. fresh.

[4158. ]G. Aboute; Th. About.

[4159. ]G. fademe.

[4175. ]M. supplies ne.

[4177. ]Supply For (F. Car). Both temprure.

[4181. ]Both of; read as.

[4188. ]Both Roses; read Rosers; F. rosiers.

[4191. ]G. and bows; Th. bowes and.

[4194. ]whiche] Both who.

[4207. ]I supply eek.

[4208. ]G. om. kepte.

[4220. ]Th. lefte; G. lyft.

[4222. ]M. supplies hir.

[4142. ]Th. Ofter; G. Ofte.

[4246. ]G. wole.

[4254. ]M. supplies ne.

[4264. ]Th. eye; G. ighe.

[4269. ]Th. deserte; G. disseit.

[4272. ]Both walketh (!).

[4283. ]Both lyue.

[4285. ]Both Which (for Ther); giving no sense.

[4288. ]Th. whiche; G. which.

[4289. ]I supply muche.

[4291. ]Both except.

[4293. ]I supply loveres.

[4294. ]I supply the.

[4308. ]Both bothoms.

[4314. ]G. om. of.

[4322. ]Both wente aboute (a = have).

[4337. ]Both make.

[4339. ]G. tiliers; Th. tyllers.

[4344. ]Th. nyl; G. nel.

[4352. ]Both wente; aboven to haue.

[4355. ]Th. folke; G. folk.

[4356. ]G. glowmbe; Th. glombe.

[4357. ]M. supplies thou.

[4358. ]I supply in. Th. tourneth; G. tourne.

[4361. ]Th. areyse; G. arise.

[4363. ]Th. hyest. Both but; read al. Both lust.

[4364. ]Both trust.

[4365. ]am] Both is.

[4366. ]Both charge.

[4372. ]wal] G. wole; Th. wol.

[4394. ]Both maist.

[4401. ]I supply is.

[4403. ]Both ought.

[4404. ]I supply ther.

[4407. ]I supply man.

[4413. ]Both Owe.

[4414. ]Th. false; G. fals.

[4425. ]Both good.

[4432. ]Both falle.

[606. ]F. sorwynge.

[607. ]Tn. sekenes; F. sekeenesse (sic).

[609. ]Tn. liȝt; F. lyghte; Th. syght.

[610. ]Tn. wit; F. wytte. Th. Tn. nyght; F. nyghte.

[611. ]All slepe. Tn. waking; F. wakynge.

[612. ]Tn. fasting; F. fastynge.

[614. ]Tn. abaved (sic); Th. F. abawed. All where so.

[617. ]Tn. boldnes; Th. F. boldenesse. (Perhaps read y-turned.)

[618. ]F. pleyde; Th. played; Tn. pleied.

[619. ]F. Atte the (wrongly); Th. Tn. At the. Tn. ches; Th. F. chesse.

[621. ]Tn. halt; F. Th. halte (!).

[622. ]Tn. goth; Th. gothe; F. gethe (!). Th. halte; Tn. is halt; F. is halte.

[627. ]Th. wrien; rest varien (!).

[628. ]Th. Tn. monstres; F. Mowstres. Th. heed; F. Tn. hed.

[629. ]B. filth; rest fylthe. Th. Tn. ystrowed.

[630. ]F. worshippe. Th. Tn. floures; F. B. flourys; read flour is.

[632. ]Tn. feith; F. feythe.

[633. ]F. lawghynge.

[634. ]Tn. oon; Th. F. one. Th. eye; Tn. eiȝ; F. yghe; B. ye. F. wepynge.

[635. ]Th. set; F. sette.

[637. ]F. flateyrynge; Tn. flateryng.

[639. ]Th. Tn. amyd; F. amydde.

[640. ]Th. he; F. hyt; Tn. it.

[642. ]F. thenvyouse; Tn. thenvious; Th. the enuyous.

[644. ]Th. false; F. Tn. fals.

[645. ]F. no thynge.

[647. ]Th. Ful; rest For. F. thus she; Tn. Th. she thus.

[649. ]Th. nat; F. Tn. not.

[650. ]Th. false; F. Tn. fals. Th. F. thefe; Tn. knaue.

[651. ]F. oure lorde; the sey.

[652. ]All At the; Atte is better. Tn. ches; Th. F. chesse. F. pley.

[653. ]Th. Tn. false; F. fals.

[654. ]F. staale; toke. F. Tn. fers; Th. feers.

[655. ]F. sawgh. B. a-waye; rest away.

[656. ]B. pleye; Th. F. play; Tn. pley.

[657. ]All farewel (farewell); and in l. 658.

[660. ]All insert the after in (badly).

[661. ]F. povne; Tn. poun; Th. paune. Tn. erraunt; F. errante.

[663. ]Tn. Athalaus.

[664. ]Tn. ches; Th. F. chesse.

[667. ]Tn. Grek; F. Greke. Th. Pithagores; F. Tn. Pictagoras.

[668. ]Tn. pleyd; F. pleyde.

[670. ]Tn. though; Th. thoughe; F. thought (sic). F. trewly.

[671. ]F. holde; wysshe.

[675. ]All eke. B. las; F. lasse; Tn. lesse.

[676. ]F. -selfe.

[677. ]Th. had I ben; F. as I be (wrongly).

[678. ]F. oght.

[681. ]All she my fers; read my fers she (Koch). All kaught, read caughte; and draughte in ll. 682, 685.

[683. ]Tn. wis; F. wys.

[684. ]Th. she; F. Tn. B. he. F. tooke.

[685. ]F. through; draught; lorne.

[686. ]F. borne.

[689. ]F. doone.

[690. ]F. Be oure lorde; soone.

[691. ]F. -thynge. I supply ne.

[693. ]All For there (ther); but omit For.

[694. ]F. ayre.

[695. ]F. yifte.

[696. ]F. wepynge.

[699. ]Tn. lyth; F. lyeth. F. rekenynge.

[700. ]Th. Tn. In; F. Inne.

[701. ]F. levyth noe.

[702. ]B. Tn. glade; F. glad; read gladde.

[703. ]Th. lost; F. loste.

[710. ]Tn. telle; F. tel.

[711. ]Th. Tn. Thus; F. This.

[712. ]F. myght; duelle.

[713. ]Tn. dide, herte; F. dyd, hert.

[714. ]Th. good; F. goode.

[715. ]Tn. som; F. somme.

[721. ]All insert yis (or yes) before parde; which spoils both sense and metre.

[722. ]Th. say; rest om. F. trewly.

[723. ]Th. lost; F. loste.

[726. ]Th. good; F. goode.

[727. ]Tn. slowe; F. slowgh.

[728. ]All also; read als.

[729. ]F. Henge.

[732. ]All the quene; omit the. All eke.

[733. ]Tn. slow; F. slough. F. selfe.

[734. ]I supply former a. F. foole.

[735. ]All Ecquo.

[739. ]Tn. slow; F. slough. F. hym-selfe.

[740. ]All no man; but read noon.

[741. ]Perhaps read maken.

[743. ]F. woste; menyst.

[744. ]Th. lost; F. loste. F. thow wenyst.

[745. ]F. Tn. Loo she that may be; Th. Howe that may be; here she is an error for sir, and Howe that may be for how may that be; (ed. 1550 has Howe may that be).

[746. ]All sir. F. Tn. telle; Th. tel. F. hooly.

[749. ]F. come. Tn. sit; F. sytte.

[750. ]F. inserts hyt after telle; which Th. Tn. omit. Th. Tn. vpon a; F. vp a; but vp is right.

[751. ]All ins. shalt after thou; omit it (Koch). F. hooly. Tn. wit; Th. wyt; F. wytte.

[752. ]Tn. hit; F. hitte (!).

[754. ]F. Tn. here lo; Th. here to. Accent thér- and hér-.

[755. ]Perhaps right should be omitted.

[756. ]F. Hooly.

[758. ]B. half; F. halfe; (goddes = god’s).

[760. ]Tn. wit; F. wytte.

[761. ]F. vnderstondynge.

[763. ]Tn. wit; F. wytte.

[764. ]Tn. yit; F. yitte.

[765. ]Tn. youen; F. yive.

[766. ]F. hooly.

[767, 768. ]Th. thral, al; F. thralle, alle. Th. wyl; F. wille.

[771. ]All deuoutely. All insert I before prayde. Th. prayde; F. prayed.

[772. ]Th. Tn. herte; F. hert.

[773. ]F. plesance; see l. 767.

[774. ]F. worshippe.

[775, 6. ]All yere, owhere.

[778. ]Tn. cam; F. came.

[779. ]F. Perauenture; see l. 788. All insert moste before able.

[780. ]F. white walle.

[781. ]F. cachche.

[783. ]F. Tn. Whethir; Th. Whether; read Wher (contracted form). F. portrey or peynt; Tn. purtrey or paynte.

[784. ]Tn. queynte; F. queynt.

[785. ]All insert ryght before so.

[787. ]Th. Tn. conde (for coude); F. kende (for kenned).

[788. ]All arte.

[789. ]Tn. kam; F. came.

[790. ]All forgate.

[791. ]Th. chees; Tn. chese; F. ches. Tn. fyrste; F. first. All crafte (but it will not rime).

[792. ]All lafte (wrongly); read y-laft.

[793. ]All For-why; read For? All toke. All yonge.

[795. ]F. no thynge.

[796. ]F. Thorgh. Tn. knowlechynge; F. knowlachynge.

[799. ]Tn. firste; F. first.

[800. ]F. goode; Th. good.

[801. ]F. Tn. flyttynge.

[802. ]All ins. That tyme (see l. 797) bef. And. Tn. thoughten; rest thoght. F. Tn. varyinge.

[804. ]F. knewe; stoode.

[805. ]F. came. Perhaps on (or a) should be omitted.

[806. ]All ther that I; om. that.

[808. ]F. euere. F. Tn. ye; Th. eye.

[810. ]Tn. hap; F. happe.

[811. ]F. broght; Tn. broghte. All there.

[813. ]Tn. false; F. fals.

[816. ]Tn. telle; F. tel.

[817. ]F. Amonge these.

[818. ]I supply ther.

[819. ]All lyke (like). I supply al.

[821. ]Tn. bryght; F. bryghte.

[822. ]Th. lyght; F. lyghte.

[823. ]All any other planete in; see note. F. hevene.

[824. ]F. sevene.

[826. ]Th. Tn. Surmounted; F. Surmountede. Tn. B. alle; F. al.

[828. ]All ins. of after and. F. ins. so before wel; which Th. Tn. omit. Th. Tn. set; F. sette.

[829. ]Th. goodlyhede; F. godelyhede. All ins. and before so, probably caught from the line above. B. beseye; rest besey.

[830. ]Th. supplies more; F. Tn. omit. All sey.

[831. ]Th. Tn. his; F. omits.

[832. ]Tn. as; Th. F. al.

[833. ]Th. stedfast; F. stedfaste.

[835. ]F. Tn. had wel herd; om. wel.

[838. ]F. y-kaught; Th. I cought; Tn. I caughte.

[839. ]All toke.

[840. ]All counseyl; I propose reed. All loke.

[841. ]Th. And; F. Tn. But (caught from l. 840). Th. Tn. herte; F. hest (wrongly). All for why; read for?

[842. ]F. hert; Th. Tn. herte.

[843. ]F. ovne; read owne.

[844. ]F. beter; Th. better; Tn. bettyr; read bet.

[846. ]Tn. B. soth; F. Th. sothe.

[848. ]Tn. saw; F. sawgh. F. comelely; Th. comely; Tn. comly.

[850. ]F. Lawghe; pley.

[852. ]Th. goodly; F. goodely.

[854. ]Tn. seyn; F. seyne.

[855. ]All on; read upon.

[856. ]Tn. seyn; F. seyne. (For was probably read nas.)

[857. ]F. yelowe; broune.

[858. ]F. Tn. thoght. Th. F. lyke; Tn. likely. Th. golde; which F. Tn. absurdly omit.

[861. ]F. goode.

[862. ]F. looke.

[863. ]F. ouertwert; Tn. onyrthwerte; Th. ouertwhart (sic). Th. beset; Tn. biset; F. besette.

[864. ]F. Tn. drewh. F. tooke. All euerydele.

[865. ]Tn. B. Alle; F. Th. Al.

[867. ]F. foolys; B. folys.

[869. ]F. thynge.

[870. ]F. lokynge.

[873. ]Th. close; Tn. clos; F. cloos.

[874. ]F. lokynge. Th. folyche.

[876. ]Tn. thoghte; F. thoght.

[877. ]Th. By; F. Tn. Be.

[882. ]Th. trowe; F. Tn. trow.

[883. ]Th. herte; Tn. hyrte; F. hert.

[884. ]All sate. B. lyte; Tn. lite; F. litel. Th. Tn. herte; F. hert.

[885. ]Tn. knew; F. knowe (sic). F. no thynge.

[886. ]This line is in Th. only; Th. has knewe (twice).

[887. ]Tn. roghte; Th. F. rought.

[888. ]Tn. ner; F. nerre. F. was; Th. Tn. nas.

[889. ]Th. than; Tn. then; F. that.

[891. ]Tn. gode; Th. F. good. All folke.

[893. ]F. wounder.

[894. ]F. placis.

[895. ]All But which; omit But.

[898. ]Th. bothe; F. both.

[900. ]All eke. B. spyritz; F. spiritis.

[901. ]All grete a thynge.

[902. ]Th. wyt; Tn. F. witte.

[903. ]Th. F. comprehende; Tn. comprehend; read comprehenden.

[904. ]Tn. seyn; F. sayn.

[905. ]All insert white after Was, which spoils metre and story (see l. 948). F. fressh.

[908. ]Th. Tn. certes; F. certys.

[909. ]All faire or fayre.

[910, 911. ]B. chief; rest chefe. Th. Tn. patron; F. patrone.

[913. ]F. thynkyth.

[914. ]Tn. B. alle; Th. F. al (it is plural).

[916. ]I supply They; Th. Ne wolde haue; Tn. Ne sholde haue; F. Ne sholde ha. The right reading is They ne sholde have (They ne being read as They n’).

[919. ]Th. goodly; F. goodely.

[921. ]Th. frendly; F. frendely.

[922. ]F. B. Vp; Th. Tn. Vpon; see l. 750.

[923. ]Tn. B. alle; F. al. Tn. gode; F. goode.

[924. ]After swere all insert wel (needlessly). Tn. rode; F. roode.

[929. ]Th. Tn. pope; F. Pape.

[930. ]All ins. yet after never. Th. through; F. throgh.

[931. ]F. gretely.

[932. ]Th. Tn. her; F. hit (sic). I supply ther (cf. l. 930); perhaps omitted, because her also ended in her. All harme.

[933. ]F. flaterynge; word.

[937. ]All dele.

[938. ]All worlde; wele.

[939. ]All fairenesse (fayrenes).

[941. ]Th. Tn. B. sene; F. seen. Th. F. myssatte; Tn. missate.

[942. ]All badly insert pure (dissyllabic) before flat; but smothe has two syllables. Tn. flat; Th. F. flatte.

[943. ]All or; I read and.

[944. ]Th. by; rest be.

[946. ]All rounde. Th. tour; F. Tn. toure.

[947. ]Th. good; F. goode. F. gretenesse; grete.

[948. ]B. het; rest hete.

[949. ]Th. right; F. ryghte.

[950. ]All faire. Th. bright; F. bryghte.

[951. ]All had (but it is emphatic). All wronge.

[952. ]All longe.

[953. ]All had.

[954. ]Th. great; F. Tn. grete.

[957. ]Tn. bak; F. bakke.

[958. ]B. knyw; rest knewe. All noon other; perhaps read no maner. Tn. lak; F. lakke.

[959. ]All insert pure (dissyllabic) after nere; but limmes is dissyllabic.

[960. ]Tn. fer; F. ferre. F. knowynge.

[961. ]Th. playe; F. pley.

[962. ]Tn. liste; F. list. Th. saye; F. sey.

[963. ]All lyke.

[965. ]F. hathe.

[969. ]Tn. cacche; F. cachche. Th. Tn. if; F. yif (and in l. 970).

[971. ]All swere wel; read sweren (omitting the expletive wel).

[972. ]All thousande.

[973. ]F. lest.

[974. ]B. chieff; rest chefe. Th. Tn. myrrour; F. meroure. Th. Tn. feste; F. fest.

[975. ]Th. F. stonde; read stonden.

[976. ]Th. that; which Tn. F. omit.

[977. ]Tn. B. pleyd; F. pleyed.

[978. ]F. thoght. Th. felaushyp; Tn. feliship; F. felysshyppe.

[979. ]Tn. saw; F. sawgh.

[981. ]Th. F. Trewly; Tn. Truly. B. ye; Th. F. eye (note the rime).

[982. ]Th. Tn. soleyn; F. soleyne.

[983. ]Th. lyueth; F. levyth.

[984. ]Tn. knew; rest knowe.

[985. ]Th. goodnesse; F. godenesse.

[988. ]Th. Tn. if; F. yif.

[989. ]Tn. F. seyn; Th. sayne. F. alle.

[990. ]Tn. wit; F. wytte. Th. general; F. generalle.

[991. ]F. hoole.

[992. ]All wytte.

[994. ]All And thereto; but And is needless. F. sawgh.

[995. ]Th. Harmful; F. Harmeful.

[996. ]For ne had perhaps read nad.

[997. ]I transpose; all have What harme was (but harm is monosyllabic, and the line is then bad).

[998. ]Tn. F. coude. Th. thynketh; F. thenketh.

[1000. ]F. had hadde hyt hadde.

[1001. ]All dele.

[1002. ]All wele.

[1003. ]F. al and alle.

[1004. ]Th. principal; F. principalle.

[1007. ]F. stedefaste.

[1008. ]Th. Tn. B. attempre; F. atempry.

[1009. ]Tn. knew; F. knewe. Tn. yit; F. yitte.

[1010. ]Tn. wit; F. wytte.

[1011. ]F. vnderstoode.

[1012. ]F. goode.

[1016. ]All wronge.

[1019. ]Tn. luste; F. lust.

[1020. ]All wolde not; an error for nolde (Koch).

[1022. ]All halfe worde.

[1025. ]Th. F. pruyse; Tn. pruse; B. sprewse.

[1027. ]Th. bydde; F. bid.

[1028. ]Th. hoodlesse; F. hoodeles. All in-to; read to.

[1029. ]B. hom; rest home. Tn. Carrynare.

[1030. ]F. Tn. sey; Th. omits.

[1032. ]F. Worshyppe.

[1034. ]F. wherfore. Tn. telle; F. tel.

[1035. ]All seyde (sayde).

[1036. ]F. hooly. All leyde (layde).

[1037. ]All wyfe (wife).

[1038. ]All luste. All lyfe (life).

[1039. ]Tn. F. happe; Th. hope.

[1040. ]F. worldys. I substitute lisse for goddesse; see note.

[1041. ]F. hooly hires and; Th. Tn. holy hers and; B. hooly hyres.

[1042. ]F. oure.

[1043. ]Th. beset; F. besette; Tn. yset.

[1044. ]F. myght haue doo bette.

[1045. ]Th. Tn. Bet; F. Bette. F. wele.

[1046. ]F. hit wel sir; Th. Tn. om. hit wel.

[1047. ]F. sire.

[1048. ]All trewly.

[1049. ]Th. Tn. beste; F. best.

[1050. ]Tn. fayreste; F. fayrest.

[1051. ]All ins. her after loked.

[1052. ]Tn. B. alle; F. al.

[1053. ]All swore; read sworen.

[1054. ]Perhaps read nadde.

[1056. ]F. had hadde (better hadde had).

[1057. ]All Alcipyades.

[1060. ]Th. Tn. Alisaundre; F. Alisaunder. ? omit al or the.

[1064. ]Th. therto; F. Tn. to (see 1059). Th. Tn. al so; F. also as.

[1066. ]Tn. slow; F. slough.

[1067. ]Tn. therfor; F. ther fore.

[1069. ]Tn. slayn; F. slayne. Th. Tn. Antilegius; F. Antylegyus.

[1071. ]I supply hir.

[1074. ]Tn. moste; F. most.

[1075. ]All insert trewly after nay; we must omit it.

[1075, 6. ]F. nowe, howe.

[1077. ]Th. good; F. goode. F. hert.

[1078. ]All eke.

[1081. ]All ins. was after ever. Th. Penelope; F. Penelopee; Tn. penelapie; read Pénelóp’).

[1082. ]All wyfe (wife).

[1083. ]Th. beste; F. best.

[1084. ]Tn. romayn; F. Romayne.

[1088. ]All wherfore.

[1089. ]F. firste. Th. sey; F. say.

[1090. ]All yonge. I supply the.

[1091. ]F. grete nede.

[1093. ]F. grete.

[1094. ]All wytte. Tn. best; F. beste.

[1095. ]All yonge. F. childely wytte.

[1097. ]B. beste; rest best.

[1098. ]F. worshippe. Th. F. insert the before servyse; but Tn. omits.

[1099. ]All coude tho; read tho coude. Tn. by; F. be.

[1100. ]F. Feynynge.

[1101. ]Tn. fayn; F. feyne.

[1103. ]Tn. saw; F. sawgh.

[1104. ]Th. warysshed; F. Tn. warshed.

[1106. ]F. thoght.

[1108. ]Tn. sit; Th. syt; F. sytte. Th. Tn. in; F. om.

[1110. ]Th. out; Tn. F. oute.

[1111. ]All trewly.

[1114. ]All shrifte (shryfte).

[1117. ]Tn. certes; F. certis.

[1118. ]Tn. Achitofell; F. Achetofel.

[1120. ]Tn. traytour; F. traytore. Tn. F. B. betraysed; Th. betrayed.

[1121. ]Th. false; F. fals. All Genellon.

[1123. ]Tn. rowland; F. Rowlande.

[1124. ]All while (whyle).

[1126. ]F. good; Tn. gode. I supply right.

[1127. ]All tolde. B. her-; F. here-.

[1128. ]All nede. F. Th. Tn. insert to after need; B. omits it. Tn. hit; Th. it; F. om.

[1129. ]Tn. sawe; F. sawgh. Th. first; F. firste.

[1130. ]Tn. telle; F. tel.

[1131. ]Tn. her; F. hire. B. firste; rest first.

[1133. ]All knewe (subjunctive).

[1135. ]All eke.

[1136. ]Tn. her-; F. here-.

[1137. ]Tn. seyde he; F. he seyde. F. menyst.

[1138. ]F. wenyst.

[1139. ]Tn. los; F. losse. I supply sir.

[1141. ]F. doon; Tn. Th. done (read y-doon).

[1142. ]F. hathe lefte.

[1143. ]Th. tel; F. telle. Th. al; F. alle.

[1144. ]Th. shal; F. shalle.

[1145. ]All say. Tn. seyd; F. seyde.

[1146. ]Tn. leyd; F. leyde.

[1147. ]All needlessly insert not (or nat) after hit.

[1150. ]F. tel.

[1153. ]Tn. herte; F. hert.

[1154. ]Th. asterte; F. astert.

[1155. ]Omit But for? F. ins. so before fro; Tn. Th. omit.

[1158. ]All songe.

[1159. ]F. Th. Tn. ins. this (B. thus) before a. F. grete dele.

[1160. ]All wele.

[1161. ]Th. Tn. ne; B. to; F. the (!). F. knowe (infin.); Tn. know; Th. knewe (wrongly). All the arte; perhaps read that art.

[1162. ]Th. Lamekes; F. lamekys. Th. Tubal; F. Tuballe; Tn. B. Tuballe.

[1163. ]B. fonde; rest founde. Th. first; F. firste. All songe.

[1164. ]Tn. brothers; F. brothres.

[1165. ]Th. anuelt; Tn. anuelte; F. Anuelet. Tn. doun; F. doon.

[1166. ]F. tooke. B. fyrste; rest first. Tn. soune; F. soon.

[1167. ]Th. of Pithagoras.

[1168. ]Tn. fyrste; F. first.

[1169. ]All arte.

[1171. ]F. Algatis.

[1172. ]F. felynge; hert.

[1173. ]Th. this; F. Tn. thus. I supply the. Tn. firste; F. first.

[1174. ]Th. werst; Tn. F. repeat first. I supply that.

[1175. ]All Lorde. Tn. herte; F. hert.

[1178. ]All myght (might).

[1180. ]All faire (fayre).

[1181. ]All tolde. Tn. soth; F. sothe. All say.

[1182. ]Tn. firste; F. first. All songe; all day.

[1183. ]Tn. bethoghte; F. bethoght.

[1185. ]F. wyst.

[1186. ]Tn. telle; F. tel. All durst.

[1187. ]Tn. thoghte; F. thoght. F. rede.

[1188. ]All am; grammar requires nam. F. dede.

[1189. ]Tn. if; F. yif. All sey (say), after which ryght is needlessly inserted; I omit it. Tn. soth; F. sothe.

[1190. ]Tn. wroth; F. wrothe.

[1192. ]All debate.

[1193. ]Tn. thoghte; F. thoght. F. brast; Th. Tn. braste (subj.). Tn. a tweyn; F. a tweyne.

[1194. ]All at the; read atte. Tn. seyn; F. sayne.

[1195. ]All bethoght (bethought) me

[1197. ]All trewly or truly.

[1198. ]F. wyth oute; read withouten.

[1201. ]F. nedys; Mawgree. Th. heed; F. hede.

[1202. ]Tn. moste; F. most. All tolde. Th. deed; F. dede.

[1203. ]Th. began; F. beganne (!).

[1204. ]All reherse or reherce; but read rehersen.

[1205, 6. ]All eke. Th. -al, dismal; F. Tn. -alle, dismalle.

[1208. ]All worde.

[1210. ]F. wordys. Tn. mysset; F. mys sette.

[1212. ]F. quakynge.

[1213. ]F. styntynge.

[1215. ]Tn. wex; F. wexe. Th. reed; F. rede.

[1216. ]F. Bowynge. Th. heed; F. hede.

[1218. ]Tn. wit; F. witte. All maner.

[1220. ]All sate (!).

[1221. ]All at the; read atte. Tn. soth; F. sothe. Tn. seyn; F. seyne.

[1222. ]Tn. herte; F. hert. Tn. agayn; F. ageyne.

[1223. ]Th. shortly; F. shortely. Th. al; Tn. B. alle; F. at (!).

[1226. ]All swore (!).

[1228. ]F. fresshly.

[1230. ]F. worshippe.

[1231. ]All swore or swere (!).

[1232. ]Th. al; F. alle.

[1234. ]All ins. to before false.

[1235. ]Tn. wisse; F. wysse; B. wys.

[1237. ]All wote (!).

[1238. ]Tn. thoghte; F. thoght.

[1239. ]All ins. ryght before as.

[1242. ]F. wordys.

[1244. ]Th. Al; F. Alle.

[1248. ]Th. Troye; F. Troy.

[1250. ]Tn. durste; F. durst.

[1251. ]F. stale.

[1253. ]All trewly. All nede.

[1254. ]All hede.

[1256. ]All fonde or founde.

[1261. ]F. vnderstode.

[1262. ]Th. thyng; F. Tn. B. no thynge; but no is not required by idiom or metre. All goode, gode.

[1263. ]F. worshippe.

[1264. ]All al (or alle) thynges; but al thing is the right idiom. Th. drede; Tn. to drede; F. dred.

[1266. ]For And read That (Lange).

[1267. ]All harme.

[1268. ]Tn. knew; F. knewe.

[1269. ]F. hooly.

[1270. ]F. yifte.

[1271. ]F. Savynge hir worshippe.

[1273. ]All rynge (!).

[1274. ]Tn. firste; F. first. Th. thyng; F. thynge.

[1275. ]Tn. if; F. yif. Tn. herte; F. hert.

[1276. ]Tn. Glad; F. Gladde. All nede.

[1279. ]Tn. alle; F. al.

[1281. ]All trewly (treuly).

[1282. ]Th. Tn. B. the; which F. omits.

[1284. ]Th. debonairly; F. debonairely.

[1285. ]Tn. B. alle (first time); the rest al. B. alle (second time); rest al.

[1286. ]F. tooke.

[1289. ]F. Oure. Th. F. werne; Tn. weren. Th. euen; F. evene.

[1290. ]Th. Tn. contrayre; F. contrarye.

[1293. ]All eke.

[1294. ]All glad.

[1300. ]Tn. B. wex; F. waxe; Th. woxe. Th. deed; F. dede.

[1302. ]Tn. los; F. losse.

[1303. ]F. hadde; rest had. All lorne (!).

[1304. ]F. Bethenke. F. herebeforne.

[1305. ]F. menyst.

[1306. ]F. wenyst.

[1307. ]F. wote.

[1309. ]Th. deed; F. ded. Tn. bi; F. be.

[1310. ]F. youre. Tn. los; F. losse. Th. by; F. be.

[1312. ]Read rather They gonne forth straken (or striken).

[1313. ]Th. hart; F. Tn. herte (!).

[1314. ]F. thoght; kynge.

[1315. ]I supply quikly; the line is too short.

[1316. ]All insert was after place.

[1318. ]All longe. F. wallys.

[1319. ]Th. Tn. By; F. Be. Th. hyl; F. Tn. hille.

[1320. ]Th. fyl; F. Tn. fille (!).

[1322. ]F. castell. All ins. ther before was.

[1323. ]Th. smytte; F. Tn. smyte; read smiten (pp.). Th. houres; F. oures.

[1324. ]F. awooke.

[1325. ]All fonde or founde. F. lyinge. Tn. bed; F. bedde.

[1326. ]F. booke. Tn. had red; F. hadde redde.

[1327. ]Th. Alcyone; F. Alchione. F. kynge.

[1328. ]F. goddys of slepynge.

[1329. ]Tn. euyn; F. evene.

[1330. ]Tn. Thoghte; F. Thoght. Tn. sweuyn; F. sweuene.

[1331. ]Th. by; F. be.

[1332. ]All put. Tn. sweuyn; F. sweuene.

[1334. ]Tn. sweuyn; F. sweuene. Colophon;so in F. B.

[524. ]Cx. charge (for Iuge).

[527. ]Most MSS. insert the before foules; which Gg. Th. and Longleat MS. omit.

[530. ]All but Cx. Ff. ins. to after list.

[534. ]Trin. Th. preue; Gg. proue; F. preven.

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

[537. ]Gg. non by skillis; F. and rest by skilles may non (badly).

[540. ]Cx. terselis egles.

[543. ]Gg. ne; rest omit.

[544. ]F. om. gon.

[545. ]Gg. Cx. Oure; rest Oures, Ours.

[549. ]Gg. O. hath; rest had.

[551. ]Gg. sittyngest; rest sittynge.

[553. ]Cx. Harl. ethe (for light).

[556. ]Gg. O. gole; Ff. goler; Cx. golye; Ff. golee; Trin. Harl. wylle.

[558. ]Gg. facounde so; Ff. facounde; Cx. faconde; F. faucond.

[560. ]F. Cx. Ff. needlessly insert to after preyd-e.

[564. ]All but Gg. insert forth before bringe.

[569. ]For Quod read Seyde?

[570. ]Gg. sich (for swich); F. suche.

[575. ]F. laughtre.

[576. ]F. Harl. Ff. foules; Trin. fowle; Cx. fowl; O. foule; Gg. ful (!).

[577. ]Gg. gunne; Ff. gonne; rest gan.

[588. ]Harl. hires; Gg. hire; Cx. hers; rest hirs. Trin. Harl. om. that (perhaps rightly).

[589. ]Gg. Cx. Ff. doke; F. duk.

[590. ]F. Ff. shulden.

[592. ]F. Gg. murye; rest mery.

[594. ]Gg. O. yit; Ff. yet; rest om.

[599. ]Gg. by; F. be (1st time).

[602. ]Gg. Th. nat; F. neyther.

[603. ]F. put; Gg. putte.

[606. ]Cx. Ff. recche; F. Gg. Harl. reche; Trin. O. rek.

[611. ]Gg. Merlioun; Trin. O. Merlyon; Cx. merlion; F. Ff. Emerlyon.

[612. ]F. om. 1st the. Harl. heysugge; O. heysugg; Cx. heysug; Ff. haysugge; F. haysogge; Gg. heysoge; Trin. heysoke.

[613. ]Gg. reufulles (!); Pepys rowthfull; rest rewful (!).

[621. ]Gg. han; rest haue. Gg. Cx. the; rest hir, hyr.

[623. ]F. cheest; Gg. chesith; Trin. cheseth; Harl. chesithe. F. han hir; Gg. hire han; Trin. hyr hafe; Cx. Harl. Ff. her haue.

[626. ]Gg. hire this fauour; Trin. Harl. to hyr thys fauour; F. and rest thys fauour to hir.

[630. ]Ff. ye; Harl. yee; Trin. ey; rest eye.

[632. ]F. Gg. I (for hit). Gg. certis; rest omit.

[637. ]All but Gg. Cx. insert hit (or it) after That or yow. Th. ben; Cx. haue ben; rest to ben (be).

[641. ]Gg. As is a-nothir lyuis creature. O. alone ins. Like bef. As.

[642. ]Gg. mot; rest moste (muste).

[643. ]Gg. grauntyth; rest graunte, graunt (badly).

[644. ]Trin. Cx. Harl. I wyll yow; O. I woll ȝewe; F. Ff. yow wol I.

[652. ]F. Cipride; Harl. Cypride; Ff. Sypryde; rest Cupide (cf. ll. 212, 277).

[654. ]F. other weyes; Cx. other wayes; O. othir wey (perhaps best); Gg. othirwise; Ff. other-wyse; Trin. Harl. other (sic).

[655. ]Gg. Harl. tho; rest om.

[659. ]F. terceletys; Th. tercelets.

[660. ]F. al; Gg. alle.

[665. ]F. O. entremesse; Ff. entremeese; Th. entremes; Gg. entyrmes; Harl. entermes.

[666. ]F. wroght; rest brought, broght.

[669. ]F. A; Gg. But; rest And. Gg. Ioye; F. Ioy.

[672. ]Gg. Thankynge; F. Thonkyng. Gg. queen; rest goddesse, goddes.

[678. ]Gg. sweche (for swiche); F. suche. Th. Qui; miswritten Que in F. Cx.; Qe in Trin.; rest omit. aime; F. ayme. tard; F. tarde. Lines 680-692 only occur in Gg. Th. and Digby 181; lines 683, 684, 687-9 in O. I follow Digby 181 mainly.

[680. ]Digb. Nowe welcome.

[681. ]Gg. wintres wedres; Digb. wynter wedirs.

[682. ]Gg. And; Digb. Hast. Digb. drevyn; Gg. dreuyne. Digb. nyghtis; Gg. nyghtes.

[684. ]Digb. syngen; Fowlis.

[687. ]Gg. O. Wele.

[688. ]Gg. O. hem; Digb. them.

[689. ]Digb. Fulle blisfully they synge and endles ioy thei make (wrongly); Gg. Ful blisseful mowe they ben when they wake; O. Th. Ful blesfull may they synge when they wake (Th. awake).

[693. ]F. showtynge.

[694. ]Gg. madyn; Ff. maden; F. made.

[698. ]Trin. fynde (for mete).

[699. ]Ff. nyl; Gg. nele; F. O. wol; Trin. wylle; Cx. wil.

[2. ]Ct. Manie; F. many. Ct. F. of youre; Ha. om. youre.

[4. ]Ct. wote while. F. have lyves; Ct. to lyve haue.

[5. ]Ct. kunnought; F. Ha. kan not.

[6. ]F. thing; Ct. Ha. thinges. Ct. inserts so before kene; ed. (1561) omits so; F. has ay so.

[7. ]Ct. sted; F. stede. Ct. Blue; F. blew.

[8. ]Ct. Mirrour; ed. mirour. Ct. Ha. ed. ins. that bef. nothing; F. om.

[11. ]Ct. F. hert; Ha. ed. herte.

[12. ]Ha. om. a. Ha. wethirkoc.

[14. ]Ct. om. al; F. Ha. ed. retain it.

[15. ]Ct. om. your; F. Ha. ed. retain it.

[16 ]Ct. Bettir; F. Ha. ed. Better; read Bet. F. Dalyda; Ct. Dalide. Ct. Cresside; F. Creseyde.

[17. ]Ct. Changeng; F. chaungyng. All stondeth; read stant.

[18. ]F. tache; Ct. tacche; ed. tatche. F. Ha. herte; Ct. ed. hert.

[19. ]Ct. Ha. lese; F. ed. lose. Ct. kunne; F. kan; ed. can; Ha. kanne. Ct. ed. tweine; F. tweyn.

[20. ]Ct. All; ed. Al. Ct. F. wote; Ha. woote; ed. wot; cf. Cant. Ta. A 740, 829.

[21. ]Ct. om. al; F. ed. retain it. Ct. adds Explicit.

[1. ]sorowfullest.

[2. ]worlde; leving (F. lyvinge).

[3. ]F. lest; Harl. B. leste. B. rekeuerer.

[4. ]Begynne right thus; so F. B.; I omit right.

[5. ]lyff; dethe.

[6. ]Whiche hathe; rought (for rewthe).

[7. ]beste; sleethe.

[8. ]F. Kan I noght doon to seyn; B. Kan I nought don to seyn; Harl. Cane I nought ne saye.

[9. ]All Ne; read For.

[10. ]Youre.

[11. ]frome.

[12. ]Yee. F. B. han; Harl. haue. caste. F. B. thilke; Harl. that. All spitouse.

[13. ]Harl. ne (after lyve); F. B. om.

[14. ]beste (after you); F. B. om.

[15. ]Soothe; weele.

[16. ]F. B. that; Harl. om. F. B. a thing; Harl. om. a. thinge; doo.

[17. ]F. B. Tacompte youre; Harl. For to acounte your.

[18. ]noo wondre; yee; woo.

[19. ]Sithe; goo.

[20. ]F. neuer; B. euyr; Harl. euer. hie.

[21. ]wondir; doo; noo.

[22. ]Ellas; Eonde. F. myshefe; B. myschef (for my lyf).

[23. ]dethe; conclucioun.

[24. ]wele. F. sing; B. singe; Harl. say. Harl. sorye.

[25. ]B. ys my (for may have). Confucioun.

[26. ]B. my saluacioun (for deep affeccioun).

[27, 28. ]B. I sey for me I haue noun [neuer?] felte Alle thes diden me in despeire to melte.

[27. ]fo (? for for).

[28. ]Alle this; yowe deere.

[29. ]Harl. om. 2nd in.

[30. ]F. B. nay; Harl. nay nay.

[31. ]I supply to; yowe; dethe for-geve.

[32. ]dothe.

[33. ]certe (!); sheo.

[34. ]Hathe; Al-thoughe sheo.

[35. ]nought (for nat).

[36. ]Thane sithe.

[37. ]sitthe; rede.

[38. ]seyne.

[39. ]noo; womanhede.

[40. ]Thaugh suche; dede.

[41. ]Yette; I supply And; twoo; doone.

[42. ]seyne; beaute; eye.

[43. ]Harl. om. that. F. B. om. the. verraye Roote.

[44. ]diseese; alsoo.

[45. ]worde sheo myght; boote.

[46. ]sheo wovched saufe; soo.

[47. ]I supply why; woo.

[48. ]wonne; all ins. to after wonne.

[49. ]seon; sarvauntes; B. seruaunte.

[50. ]thanne; alle; wondering.

[51. ]sheo.

[53. ]eke.

[54. ]Hathe; shalle; Harl. om. that; worlde.

[55. ]Whi; sheo lefe pitte; byhinde. Harl. so; F. alle; B. all.

[56. ]ewisse; grete.

[57. ]Yitte; noo. F. B. om. al.

[58. ]Harl. ins. hem before soore (sic); F. B. hem (but om. sore).

[59. ]thowe (for though); sheo; pette.

[60. ]sheo doothe.

[61. ]ought.

[62. ]Harl. om. hir; pleye; lawhe when that men sikith.

[63. ]liste; likethe.

[64. ]B. Yit; F. Yet; Harl. Yeo (sic); see 57. dare; sorowfull.

[65. ]F. B. meke; Harl. mekly.

[66. ]F. sorwes; B. sorwys; Harl. shoures.

[67. ]Harl. and; F. B. that. yee; onys.

[68. ]compleynte (for pleynte); which I Fulle.

[69. ]saide; thorowe. B. vnkonnynge; F. vnkunnynge; Harl. vnknowynge. F. B. om. here and myn.

[70. ]yowre.

[71. ]Loothest; loothe.

[72. ]als; sowle safe.

[73. ]seyne; thorughe; yee; wrothe.

[74. ]leyde.

[75. ]sarvaunt ne shulde yee. F. shul; B. shall; Harl. shulde.

[76. ]thaughe. F. B. on yow haue pleyned; Harl. haue playned vnto yow.

[77. ]For-gyvethe yt me, myne oune lady so dere.

[78. ]howe.

[79. ]youre.

[80. ]Yee ben; gynnynge.

[81. ]Harl. of; F. ouer; B. ovyr. F. B. om. and clere. Sterre so bright; huwe.

[82. ]Harl. And I ay oon; F. B. Alwey in oon. fresshely.

[84. ]wolle.

[85. ]Conpleynte; valantines.

[86. ]foughel cheesen shall; I supply ther from Parl. Foules, 310.

[87. ]was (F. B. whos); hole; shall.

[88. ]wofulle songe; conplaynte.

[90. ]wolle; I supply for.

[91. ]alle-thowhe sheo. F. B. Explicit; Harl. om.

[1. ]koude; hert.

[2. ]turment.

[3 ]Thaughe; shoulde; youre.

[4. ]wissely.

[5. ]beaute liste.

[6. ]youre; bade; in-feere.

[7. ]beo.

[8. ]wissely.

[9. ]yowe sadde; truwe.

[10. ]lyff; gode.

[11. ]dethe; whane; reewe, altered by the scribe to newe.

[12. ]whome; suwe.

[13. ]hole; souffisaunce.

[14. ]sette.

[15. ]yowe; moste.

[16. ]Taccept; worthe; pore.

[17. ]not despice.

[18. ]eke; not.

[19. ]longe; suffre.

[20. ]here (error for dere; see XXII. 77).

[21. ]yowe; yere by yere.

[593.]

This is ‘the porter Ydlenesse’ of the Knightes Tale; A 1940.

[602.]

Alexandryn, of Alexandria; for of may well be omitted. It means that many trees have been imported from the east by way of Alexandria. Many MSS. of the Fr. text read ‘de la terre Alexandrins.’ The damson, for example, came from Damascus.

[603.]

I put be hider for hider be; but be, after all, is better omitted. Made hider fet is a correct idiom; see note to Cant. Ta. E 1098.

[610.]

The images and pictures on the outside of the wall were made repellent, to keep strangers aloof.

[624.]

oon, one; i. e. a place. intil Inde, as far as India.

[656.]

The rime is only a single one, in -ing.

[658.]

Alpes, bullfinches; also called an awp, or, corruptly, a nope. ‘Alp, or Nope, a bulfinch. I first took notice of this word in Suffolk, but find since that it is used in other counties, almost generally all over England’; Ray’s Collection of South and E. Country Words (1691).

wodewales, witwalls. In the Prompt. Parvulorum, the wodewale is identified with the wodehake, woodpecker; whilst Hexham explains Du. Weduwael as ‘a kinde of a yellow bird.’ There is often great confusion in such names. The true witwall is the Green Woodpecker (Gecinus viridis). We may omit and, and even were in l. 657.

[662.]

laverokkes, larks. The A. S. lāwerce, lāferce, became laverk; then the final k was exchanged for the diminutive suffix -ok.

[663.]

Chalaundres; see note to l. 81 above.

[664.]

wery, weary (F. lassees); nigh forsongen, nearly tired out with singing.

[665.]

thrustles, throstles, thrushes; see Parl. Foules, 364.

terins; F. tarin, which, Littré says, is the Fringilla spinus. Cotgrave has: ‘Tarin, a little singing bird, having a yellowish body, and an ash-coloured head’; by which (says Prof. Newton) he means the siskin, otherwise called the aberdevine.

mavys, mavises, song-thrushes. If we take the mavis to be the song-thrush, Turdus musicus, then the throstle may be distinguished as the missel-thrush, Turdus viscivorus. But the mavis is also called throstle. In Cambridge, the name is pronounced mavish (romic mei·vish).

[672.]

‘As spiritual angels do.’

[676.]

‘Of man liable to death’; by mortal man.

[684.]

sereyns, i. e. Sirens. Cotgrave has: ‘Sereine, f. a Mermaid.’ Chaucer takes no notice of G. de Lorris’ notable etymology, by which he derives Seraines from the adj. seri. Cotgrave gives (marked as obsolete): ‘Seri, m. ie, f. Quiet, mild, calm, still; fair, clear.’

[693.]

wel bigo, the opposite of ‘woe begone’; as in l. 580. Cf. ‘glad and wel begoon’; Parl. Foules, 171.

[700.]

leten, pp. of leten, to let; ‘and had let me in.’

[705.]

Morris reads Withoute, which improves the line:—‘Without-e fabl’ I wol descryve.’

[714.]

sete, sat; A. S. sǣton, pt. t. pl. (The correct form).

[716.]

Iargoning, chattering; cf. E. jargon.

[720.]

Read reverdye (see footnote). It means ‘rejoicing’; from the renewal of green things in spring.

[731.]

mentes, mints; Th. has myntes.

[735.]

‘Where he abode, to amuse himself.’

[744.]

carole, a dance; orig. a dance in a ring, accompanied with song. Hence, in l. 745, the verb carolen, to sing, in accompaniment to a dance of this character. In Rob. of Brunne’s Handlyng Synne, 9138, there is a description of a company carolling ‘hand in hand.’ And see below, ll. 759-765, 781; Book Duch. 849.

[746.]

I insert the (as Urry does) before blisful; cf. l. 797.

[749.]

The line—‘And couthe make in song swich refreininge’ is obviously too long. The word couthe is needlessly repeated from l. 747, and must be omitted. The Fr. text shews that refreininge means the singing of a refrain at the end of each verse.

[768.]

in this contree. This is an adaptation; the original Fr. says ‘in any country.’ Warton calmly observes: ‘there is not a syllable of these songs and singers of Lorraine in the French.’ But he consulted a defective copy.

[769.]timbestere, a female player on a timbrel. Tyrwhitt confuses the matter by quoting Lye, who mixed up this word with tombestere, a female tumbler; for which see Cant. Ta. C 477. They are quite unconnected, but are formed with the same fem. suffix, viz. that which appears also in the mod. E. spin-ster, and in the old words webb-estere, bak-estere, whence the surnames Webster, Baxter. In l. 772, timbres simply mean timbrels, and tambourine-players may still be performing the easy trick of throwing up a tambourine and catching it, spinning, on a finger-point. There is therefore no reason for explaining timbre as a basin. Nevertheless, such a mistake arose, and Junius quotes (s. v. Timbestere) some lines from an edition of Le Roman de la Rose, printed in 1529, in which the following lines here occur:—

  • ‘Apres y eut farces joyeuses,
  • Et batelleurs et batelleuses,
  • Qui de passe passe jouoyent,
  • Et en l’air ung bassin ruoyent,
  • Puis le scavoyent bien recueillir
  • Sur ung doy, sans point y faillir.’

It is tolerably certain that this is a corrupt form of the passage, and only makes the matter darker. All it proves is, that timbre was, by some, supposed to mean a basin! No doubt it had that sense (see Cotgrave), but not here.

Timbestere is a mere English form of the O. F. tymberesse, a player on a timbre. Diez, in his Dictionary, cites a passage from a commentary on the Psalms, given in Roquefort, Poés. franç. p. 127, to this effect:—‘li tymbres est uns estrumenz de musique qui est couverz d’un cuir sec de bestes’; i. e. it is the Lat. tympanum. So also, in Wright’s Vocab. col. 616, l. 28, we have:—‘Timpanum, a taber, or a tymbre.’ In Allit. Poems, ed. Morris, ii. 1414, we read of the sound of ‘tymbres and tabornes,’ and of ‘symbales,’ i. e. cymbals. In King Alisaunder, ed. Weber, 191, we again have tymbres meaning ‘timbrels.’ Wyclif, in his tr. of Isaiah, v. 12, has ‘tymbre and trumpe,’ to translate ‘tympanum et tibia’; and the word is well preserved in the mod. E. dimin. timbr-el.

[770.]

saylours, dancers; from O. F. saillir, Lat. salere; cf. ‘Salyyn, salio’; Prompt. Parv. The M. E. sailen, to dance, occurs in P. Plowman, C xvi. 208 (see my note); and in Rob. of Glouc. l. 5633 (or p. 278, ed. Hearne).

[791.]

Ne bede I. The Fr. text means—‘I would never seek to go away.’ As e and o are constantly confused, I change bode (which gives no sense) into bede; i. e. ‘I would never pray.’ Bede is the pt. t. subj. of bidden, to pray. Gower uses ne bede in the same sense; ‘That I ne bede never awake’; Conf. Am. ii. 99.

[826.]

girdilstede, the stead or place of the girdle, i. e. the waist.

[836.]

samyt, samite, a very rich silk; see Halliwell and my Etym. Dict.

[840.]

to-slitered, very much ‘slashed’ with small cuts. It is well known that slashed or snipped sleeves, shewing the colour of the lining beneath them, were common in the Tudor period; and it here appears that they were in vogue much earlier. Sliteren is the frequentative form of sliten, to slit.

[843.]

decoped, cut, slashed. The shoes were slashed like the dress; the Fr. text has here decopes, which, only just above, is translated by to-slitered. Cf. the expression ‘galoches y-couped’ in P. Plowman, C. xxi. 12, and see my note on that passage. Halliwell is quite wrong in confusing decoped with coppid, i. e. peaked. See note to Mill. Ta. A 3318.

[860.]

The readings pleye, pley are evidently false; the scribe has omitted the stroke for n above the vowel. The right reading is obviously playn, i. e. plain, smooth; it translates F. poli, just as frounceles translates sans fronce, without a wrinkle.

[865.]

If the reader prefers to keep eleven (or twelve) syllables in this line, I am sorry for him.

[869.]

orfrays, gold embroidery; see note to l. 562. In this case, the gold seems to have been embroidered on silk; see l. 872.

[886.]quistroun, a kitchen-boy, scullion. Godefroy gives the forms coistron, coitron, coisteron, quistron, coestron, with the sense ‘marmiton.’ His examples include the expressions ‘coitron de la cuisine,’ and ‘un quistroun de sa quisyne.’ The addition of de la (sa) cuisine shew that the word meant no more than ‘boy’ or ‘lad’; such a lad as was often employed in the kitchen.

  • ‘Ther nas knave, ne quystron,
  • That he ne hadde god waryson’;
  • King Alisaunder, ed. Weber, 2511.

[892.]

amorettes, (probably) love-knots. Such seems also to be the meaning in the passage in the Kingis Quair, st. 47, which was probably imitated from the present one. But both passages are sufficiently obscure. The word occurs again, below, in l. 4755, where the meaning is different, viz. young girls, sweethearts; but we must remember that it is there employed by a different translator. In the present passage, the Fr. text is obscure, and it is possible that par fines amoretes means ‘by beautiful girls.’ The note in Bell’s Chaucer says accordingly:—‘these flowers were painted by amorous young ladies;’ and adds that ‘with here means by.’ But this will hardly serve. We have no proof that Chaucer so understood the French; and if ‘with means by’ here, it must have the same sense in l. 894, which would mean that birds, leopards, and lions all lent a hand in painting. On the whole, the sense ‘love-knots’ seems the safest.

[893.]

losenges and scochouns, lozenges (or diamond-shaped figures) and escutcheons.

[911.]

felden, caused to fall, knocked off.

[914.]

chalaundre; see note to l. 81. wodewale; see note to l. 658.

[915.]

archaungel, supposed to mean ‘a titmouse,’ answering to F. mesange. But no other example of this use is known.

[923.]

This line is too long; I omit ful wel devysed, which is not in the original.

[933.]

thwiten, cut, shaped; pp. of thwyten, to cut (see Hous of Fame, 1938); cf. thwitel in the Reves Ta. A 3933, and E. whittle.

[938.]

gadeling, vagabond; see Gamelyn, 102, 106.

[971.]

The idea of the two sets of arrows is taken from Ovid, Met. i. 468-471.

[998.]

William de Lorris did not live to fulfil this promise.

[1008.]

I. e. Beauty was also the name of an arrow; see l. 952. The allegory is rather of a mixed kind.

[1014.]

byrde, i. e. bride (though the words are different); Fr. espousee. bour, bower; the usual name for a lady’s chamber.

[1018.]

I alter the wintred of the old copies to windned, to make the form agree with that in l. 1020. To windre is evidently a form suggested by the Fr. guignier. There are two verbs of this form; the more common is guigner, to wink (see Cotgrave); the other is given by Godefroy as guignier, guigner, guingnier, guinier, gignier, with the senses ‘parer, farder,’ i. e. to trick out. Note the original line: ‘Ne fu fardee ne guignie’; and again in l. 2180: ‘Mais ne te farde ne guigne.’ The sense, in the present passage, is evidently ‘to trim,’ with reference to the eyebrows. ‘Her eyebrows were not artificially embellished.’

Poppen, in l. 1019, has much the same sense, and is evidently allied to F. popin, ‘spruce, neat, briske, trimme, fine,’ in Cotgrave.

[1031.]

I read Wys for want of a better word; it answers to one sense of Lat. sapidus, whence the F. sade is derived. However, Cotgrave explains sade by ‘pretty, neat, spruce, fine, compt, minion, quaint.’ Perhap Queint or Fine would do better.

[1049.]

in hir daungere, under her control; see Prol. A 663, and the note. And see l. 1470.

[1050.]

losengere, deceiver, flatterer; see Non. Pr. Ta. B 4516; Legend of Good Women, 352. Cf. ll. 1056, 1064 below.

[1057.]

‘And thus anoint the world with (oily) words.’

[1058.]

I cannot find that there is any such word as prill (as in Th.) or prile (as in G.) in any suitable sense; the word required is clearly prikke. As it was usual to write kk like lk, the word probably looked, to the eye, like prilke, out of which prille may have been evolved. Numerous mistakes have thus arisen, such as rolke for rokke (a rock) in Gawain Douglas, and many more of the same kind. M. Michel here quotes an O. F. proverb—‘Poignez vilain, il vous oindra: Oignez vilain, il vous poindra.’

[1068.]

Read aryved, for the Fr. text has arives; cf. Ho. Fame, 1047.

[1079.]

bend, band, strip; as used in heraldry.

[1080.]

Read améled, as in Speght; of which enameled is a lengthened form, with the prefix en-. It signifies ‘enamelled.’ Palsgrave gives a good example. ‘I ammell, as a goldesmyth dothe his worke, Iesmaille. Your broche is very well amelled: vostre deuise est fort bien esmaillee.’ See Ameled in the New Eng. Dict. See also the long note in Warton (sect. xiii, where this passage is quoted) on enamelling in the middle ages. He cites the Latin forms amelitam and amelita in the sense ‘enamelled,’ and shews that the art flourished, in particular, at Limoges in France.

[1081.]

of gentil entaile, of a fine shape, referring to her neck, apparently; or it may refer to the collar. Halliwell quotes from MS. Douce 291 ‘the hors of gode entaile,’ i. e. of a good shape. Cf. entaile, to shape, in l. 609 above; and see l. 3711.

[1082.]

shet, shut, i. e. clasped, fastened. Chevesaile, a collar; properly, the neckband of the robe, as explained in the New E. Dict. Though it does not here occur in the Fr. text, it occurs below in a passage which Chaucer does not exactly translate, though it answers to the ‘colere’ of l. 1190, q. v. There seems to be no sufficient reason for explaining it by ‘necklace’ or ‘gorget,’ as if it were a separable article of attire. It answers to a Lat. type capitiale, from capitium, the opening in a tunic through which the head passed; which explains how the word arose.

[1089.]

The right word is thurte, which the scribe, not understanding, has turned into durst; both here, and in l. 1324 below. Thurte him means ‘he needed,’ the exact sense required. The use of the dative him is a clear trace of the use of this phrase.

The idea that a gem would repel venom was common; see P. Plowman, B. ii. 14, and my note.

[1093.]

and Fryse, and Friesland. Not in the original, and merely added for the rime.

[1094.]

mourdaunt, mordant, chape, tag. Halliwell explains it ‘the tongue of a buckle,’ which is probably a guess; it is often mentioned as if it were quite distinct from it. It was probably ‘the metal chape or tag fixed to the end of a girdle or strap,’ viz. to the end remote from the buckle; see Fairholt’s ‘Costume.’ Godefroy explains it in the same way; it terminated the dependent end of the girdle; and this explains how it could be made of a stone. Warton, in a note on this passage (sect. xiii.), quotes from a wardrobe roll, in which there is mention of one hundred garters ‘cum boucles, barris, et pendentibus de argento.’

[1103.]

barres, bars; fixed transversely to the satin tissue of the girdle, and perforated to receive the tongue of the buckle. See note to Prol. A 329.

[1106.]

‘In each bar was a bezant-weight of gold.’ A bezant was a gold coin, originally struck at Byzantium, whence the name. It ‘varied in weight between the English sovereign and half-sovereign, or less’; New E. Dict.

[1117.]

The false reading ragounces is easily corrected by the original. In Lydgate’s Chorle and Bird, st. 34, we find:—‘There is a stone which called is iagounce.’ Warton rather hastily identifies it with the jacinth. Godefroy says that some make it to be a jacinth, but others, a garnet. Warnke explains iagunce (in Marie de France, Le Fraisne, 130) by ‘ruby.’

[1120.]

carboucle, carbuncle; see notes to Ho. Fame, 1352, 1363.

[1137.]

That is, he would have expected to be accused of a crime equal to theft or murder, if he had kept in his stable such a horse as a hackney. The F. text has roucin, whence Chaucer’s rouncy, in Prol. A 390.

[1148.]

I. e. as if his wealth had been poured into a garner, like so much wheat. daungere here means ‘parsimony.’

[1152.]

I. e. Alexander was noted for his liberality.

[1163.]

to hir baundon, (so as to be) at her disposal.

[1182.]

adamaunt, lodestone; leyd therby, laid beside it.

[1188.]

The form sarlynysh (in G.) evidently arose from the common mistake of reading a long s (f) as an l. The right reading is, of course, Sarsinesshe, i. e., Saracenic, or coloured by an Eastern dye. Compare the mod. E. sarsnet, a derivative from the same source.

[1190.]

Her neck-band was thrown open, because she had given away the brooch, with which she used to fasten it.

[1201.]

The reading gousfaucoun is a queer mistake; the scribe seems to have thought that it meant a goshawk! But the sense is ‘war-banner.’ See Gonfanon in my Etym. Dict.

[1215.]

at poynt devys, with great exactness, with great regularity; cf. l. 830. The same expression occurs in the Ho. of Fame, 917.

[1216.]

tretys, long and well-shaped; hence this epithet, as applied to the nose of the Prioress; see Prol. A 152. See ll. 932, 1016.

[1227.]

bistad, bestead; i. e. hard beset.

[1232.]

sukkenye, an E. adaptation of the O. F. sorquanie. Cotgrave has: ‘Souquenie, f. a canvas Jacket, frock, or Gaberdine; such a one as our Porters wear.’ Mod. F. souquenille, a smock-frock. It was therefore a loose frock, probably made, in this case, of fine linen. For a note in the glossary to Méon’s edition says that linen was sometimes the material used for it; and we are expressly told, in the text, that it was not made of hempen hards. Cf. Russ. sukno, cloth.

[1235.]

rideled, ‘gathered,’ or pleated; F. coillie. Not ‘pierced like a riddle,’ as suggested in Bell’s Chaucer, but gathered in folds like a curtain or a modern surplice; from O. F. ridel (F. rideau), a curtain. Cf. ‘filettis, and wymplis, and rydelid gownes and rokettis, colers, lacis,’ &c.; Reliquiæ Antiquæ, i. 41. Hence, in ll. 1236, 7, the statement that every point was in its right place; because it was so evenly gathered.

[1240.]

‘A roket, or rochet, is a loose linen frock synonymous with sukkenye. The name is now appropriated to the short surplice worn by bishops over their cassocks.’—Bell.

[1249, 50.]

Al hadde he be, even if he had been. As the French copy consulted by Warton here omitted two lines of the original, Warton made the singular mistake of supposing that, in l. 1250, Chaucer intended ‘a compliment to some of his patrons.’ But William de Lorris died in 1260, so that the seignor de Gundesores was ‘Henry of Windsor,’ as he was sometimes termed1 , i. e. no other than Henry III; and the reference was probably suggested by the birth of prince Edward in 1239, unless these two lines were added somewhat later.

[1263.]

avenant, comely, graceful; see the New E. Dict.

[1282.]

The absolutely necessary correction in this line was suggested by Ten Brink, in his Chaucer Studien, p. 30.

[1284.]

volage, flighty, giddy; see Manc. Ta. H 239.

[1294.]

I should like to read—‘They ne made force of privetee’; pronounced They n’ mad-e, &c. But no fors is usual.

[1321.]

his thankes, willingly; see Kn. Ta. A 1626, 2107.

[1324.]

durst is an error for thurte; see note to l. 1089.

[1334.]

For hadde (which gives no sense), read bad; confusion of b and h is not uncommon. And for bent, read bende it; see l. 1336.

[1341.]

Some mending of the text is absolutely necessary, because shette is altogether a false form; the pp. of sheten, to shoot, is shoten. The suggested emendation satisfies the conditions, and makes better sense. So, in l. 1343, read wol me greven.

[1348.]

In ll. 1461, 1582, the F. vergier is translated by yerde. So here, and in l. 1447 (as Dr. Kaluza suggests) we must read yerde in, to make sense. The scribe easily turned yerde in into gardin, but ruined the sense by it. So in l. 1366, yerde would be better than gardin.

[1359.]

greet foisoun, a great abundance (of them).

[1361.]

notemygge is the form given in the Prompt. Parv. In Sir Topas, 1953, notemuge occurs in all the seven MSS. See note to the same, B 1950, which explains clow-gelofre, i. e. clove, and setewale, i. e., zedoary.

[1363.]

The form alemandres is justified by the Fr. text, which has Alemandiers. The O. F. for ‘almond’ was at first alemande, before it was shortened to almande; see Almond in the New E. Dict. The sense is ‘almond-trees.’

[1369.]

parys or paris is a stupid blunder for paradys, as the Fr. text shews. It was a well-known term. Cotgrave has ‘Graine de paradis, the spice called Grains.’ Philips explains Paradisi grana as ‘cardamum-seed.’ Compare the quotation from Langham in the New E. Dict., s. v. Cardamom. Canelle (in l. 1370) is ‘cinnamon.’

[1374.]

coyn is the word which has been twisted into quin; and the pl. quins has become the sing. quince.

[1377.]

aleys. ‘Aley [adapted from O. Fr. alie, alye (also alis), mod. Fr. alise, alize, from O. H. G. eliza, mod. G. else(beere); the suppression of the s in the O. Fr. is anomalous.] The fruit of the Wild-Service tree’; New E. Dict. No other example of the word is known in English. bolas, bullace; the rime is only a single one.

[1379.]

lorer, laurel; miswritten lorey in G.; cf. l. 1313 above, where loreres is miswritten loreyes.

[1384.]

Compare the tree-lists in Parl. Foules, 176, and in the Kn. Ta. A 2921.

[1385.]

I should read Pyn, ew, instead of Fyn ew; only we have had pyn already, in l. 1379.

[1391.]

Imitated in the Book Duch. 419; again, l. 1401 is imitated in the same, 429.

[1397, 8.]

The rimed words must needs be knet, set, as in the Parl. Foules, 627, 628.

[1405.]

claperes, burrows. ‘Clapier, m. A clapper of conies, a heap of stones, &c., whereinto they retire themselves’; Cotgrave. See Clapper in the New E. Dict.

[1414.]

condys, conduits; Fr. text, conduis. Godefroy gives numerous examples of conduis as the pl. of O. F. conduit, in the sense of safe-conduct, &c. So, in the Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 91, we find:—‘Thise uif wytes byeth ase uif condwys,’ i. e. these five wits (senses) are as five channels. by devys, by contrivances (l. 1413).

[1420.]

vel-u-et is here a trisyllabic word; and the u is a vowel, as in A. F. veluet. The mod. E. velvet arose from misreading the u as a v. The Prompt. Parv. has also the form velwet. So in Lydgate, Compl. of the Black Knight, l. 80: ‘And soft as vel-u-et,’ &c.

[1426.]

as mister was, as was need, as was necessary.

[1447.]

As garden makes no sense here, Kaluza reads yerde in; see note to l. 1348.

[1448.]

estres (F. text, l’estre), inner parts; see Rev. Ta. A 4295, and the note.

[1453.]

at good mes, to advantage, from a favourable position; Fr. enbel leu. In l. 3462, the phrase translates F. en bon point. Mes (Lat. missum) is an old Anglo-French hunting-term, answering (nearly) to mod. E. shot. Thus, in Marie de France, Guigemar, 87:—‘Traire voleit, si mes ëust,’ he wished to shoot, if he could get a good shot. See Ducange, ed. 1887, ix. 270, for two more examples.

[1458.]

Pepyn; the F. text says ‘Charles, the son of Pepin.’ Charles the Great, who died in 814, was the son of Pepin Le Bref, king of the Franks, who died in 768.

[1469.]

This story of Narcissus is from Ovid, Met. iii. 346.

[1470.]

in his daungere, within his control; in l. 1492, daungerous means ‘disdainful.’ See note to l. 1049.

[1498.]

The right spelling is vilaynsly; it occurs in the Pers. Tale, I 279; and the adj. vilayns in the same, I 627, 715, 854.

[1517, 18.]

The right spellings are sene, adj., visible, and shene, adj., showy, bright.

[1525.]

bere, bore; but it is in the subjunctive mood; A. S. bǣre.

[1537.]

warisoun, reward; F. guerredon. But this is not the usual sense; it commonly means healing, cure, or remedy; see Guarison in Cotgrave. However, it also means provision, store, assistance; whence it is no great step to the sense of ‘reward.’ To ‘winne a warisun’ is to obtain a reward; Will. of Palerne, 2253, 2259. Cf. note to l. 886.

[1550.]

scatheles, without harm. There is actually a touch of humour here; the poet ran no risk of falling in love with such a face as his own.

[1561.]

welmeth up, boils up, bubbles up; from A. S. wylm, a spring.

[1564.]

For moiste, because it was moist, because of its moisture. The adj. has almost the force of a sb. Cf. note to l. 276.

[1591.]

entrees is, of course, a blunder for estres, as the F. text shews. See l. 1448 above, where estres rightly occurs, to represent F. l’estre. accuseth, reveals, shews; see the New Eng. Dict.

[1604.]

‘That made him afterwards lie on his back,’ i. e. lie dead (F. mors). The alteration of lye to ligge in MS. G. is a clear example of the substitution of a Northern form.

[1608.]

Here laughyng is a very queer travesty of loving, owing to a similarity in the sound. But the F. text has d’amer, which settles it.

[1621.]

panteres, nets; see Leg. of Good Women, 131, and the note.

[1624.]

lacche, trap. The usual sense is ‘the latch of a door’; but the sense here given is clearly caught from the related verb lacchen, which sometimes meant to catch birds. Thus in P. Plowman, B. v. 355, we find ‘forto lacche foules,’ i. e. to catch birds. We must not confuse lacche, as here used, with lace, a snare.

[1641.]

We must read syked, not sighede, in order to rime with entryked. Observe that syketh rimes with entryketh in the Parl. of Foules, 404. Further, as the rime is a double one, the word have must be inserted, to fill up the line. It is in the Fr. text, ‘tant en ai puis souspire.’

[1652.]

enclos, enclosed; a French form, used for the rime. Cf. clos, in the same sense; The Pearl, l. 2.

[1663.]

Speght made the obvious correction of be, for me.

[1666.]

My thankes, with my goodwill; cf. his thankes, l. 1321.

[1673.]

gret woon, a great quantity.

[1674.]

roon (in place of Rone); F. text, sous ciaus, ‘under the skies.’ Bell suggests that there is a reference to the river Rhone, and to the roses of Provence. But the prep. in must mean ‘in’ or ‘upon’; and as roses do not grow on a river, but upon bushes, perhaps roon answers to Lowland Scotch rone, a bush; see Jamieson. Thus Henrysoun, Prol. to Moral Fables, l. 15, has:—‘The roisis reid arrayit on rone and ryce’; and G. Douglas has ronnis, bushes. In Roon might mean ‘in Rouen’; spelt Roon in Shakespeare.

[1677.]

moysoun, size; Cotgrave has: ‘Moyson, size, bignesse, quantity’; from Lat. mensionem, a measuring. See P. Plowman, C. xii. 120, and my note. Not connected with moisson, harvest, as suggested in Bell.

[1701.]

‘The stalk was as upright as a rush.’

[1705.]Here ends Chaucer’s portion of the translation, in the middle of an incomplete sentence, without any verb. It may have been continued thus (where dide fulfild = caused to be filled):—

  • The swote smelle sprong so wyde,
  • That it dide al the place aboute
  • Fulfild of baume, withouten doute.

We can easily understand that the original MS. ended here suddenly, the rest being torn away or lost. An attempt was made to join on another version, without observing the incompleteness of the sentence. Moreover, the rime is a false one, since swote and aboute have different vowel-sounds. Hence the point of junction becomes visible enough.

Dr. Max Kaluza was the first to observe the change of authorship at this point, though he made Chaucer’s portion end at l. 1704. He remarked, very acutely, that Chaucer translates the F. bouton by the word knoppe; see ll. 1675, 1683, 1685, 1691, 1702, whereas the other translator merely keeps the word botoun; see ll. 1721, 1761, 1770.

It is easily seen that ll. 1706-5810 are by a second and less skilful hand. This portion abounds with non-Chaucerian rimes, as explained in the Introduction, and is not by any means remarkable for accuracy. Some of the false rimes are noted below.

As the remaining portion is of less interest and value, I only draw attention, in the notes, to the most important points. I here denote the second portion (ll. 1706-5810) by the name of Section B.

[2522.]

‘To conceal (it) closely’; F. de soi celer.

[2561.]

‘Now groveling on your face, and now on your back.’

[2564.]

‘Like a man that should be defeated in war.’ To get a rime to abrede or abreed, abroad, read forwerreyd; see l. 3251.

[2573.]

‘Thou shalt imagine delightful visions.’ The ‘castles in Spain’ are romantic fictions. Cf. Gower, Conf. Am. ii. 99.

[2617, 2624.]

In both lines, wher is short for ‘whether.’

[2628.]

To liggen, to lie, is a Northern form; I alter liggen to ly, which occurs in the next line.

[2641.]

contene, contain (thyself). But the F. text has te contendras, which perhaps means ‘shalt struggle.’

[2650.]

What whider gives no sense; read What weder, i. e. whatever weather it be; see next line.

[2660.]

score, (perhaps) cut, i. e. crack; F. text, fendéure.

[2669.]

I supply a, i. e. by; or we may supply al.

[2676.]There is something wrong here; the F. text has:—

  • ‘Si te dirai que tu dois faire
  • Por l’amour de la debonnaire [or, du haut seintueire]
  • De qui tu ne pues avoir aise;
  • Au departir la porte baise.’

The lover is here directed to kiss the door!

[2684-6.]

From Ovid, Ars Amat. i. 729, 733.

[2695.]

All from Ovid, Ars Amat. ii. 251-260.

[2710.]

Read fare, short for faren, gone; cf. Ovid, Ars Am. ii. 357-8. A note in Bell says—‘fore means absent, from the Lat. foris, abroad.’ This is a cool invention.

[2775.]

Hope, do thou hope; imperative mood.

[2824.]The reading not ben ruins sense and metre.

  • ‘Et se tu l’autre refusoies,
  • Qui n’est mie mains doucereus,
  • Tu seroies moult dangereus.’

[2883.]

Such was the duty of sworn brethren; See Kn. Ta. A 1132.

[2888.]

The trilled r in darst perhaps constitutes a syllable.

[2951.]

‘When the God of Love had all day taught me.’

[2971.]

hay(e), hedge; F. haie. Perhaps not hay-e; see l. 2987.

[2984.]

Bial-Acoil, another spelling of Bel-Acueil, i. e. ‘a graceful address’; which would be useful in propitiating the lady.

[3105.]

doth me drye, makes me suffer; Scotch ‘gars me dree.’

[3132.]

chere, face; kid, manifested, displayed.

[3137.]

kirked, probably ‘crooked,’ as Morris suggests. It may be a mere dialectal form of ‘crooked,’ or it may be miswritten for kroked, the usual old spelling. Halliwell gives, ‘kirked, turning upwards,’ on the authority of Skinner; but a reference to Skinner shows that his reason for giving the word this sense was solely owing to a notion of deriving it from A. S. cerran, to turn, which is out of the question. On the strength of this Wright, in his Provincial Dictionary, makes up the verb: ‘Kirk, to turn upwards.’ This is how glossaries are frequently written. The F. text merely has: ‘Le nes froncié.’

[3144.]

maugree, disfavour, ill will.

[3185.]

with the anger, against the pain.

[3231.]

trasshed, betrayed; F. traï. Trasshen is from the stem traiss-.

[3234.]

verger, orchard; F. vergier; Lat. uiridiarium; so in ll. 3618, 3831.

[3249.]to garisoun, to protection, to safety; here, to your cure.

  • ‘Je ne voi mie ta santé,
  • Ne ta garison autrement.’

[3251.]

thee to werrey, to war against thee; F. guerroicr.

[3256.]

musarde, sluggard; one who delays; F. musarde; see l. 4034.

[3264.]

G. has seyne; Th. sayne. I prefer feyne. Not in the F. text.

[3277.]

passioun, suffering, trouble; F. poine pain.

[3284.]

but in happe, only in chance, i. e. a matter of chance.

[3292.]

a rage, as in Th.; G. arrage. Cf. l. 3400.

[3303.]

leve, believe; for the F. text has croit.

[3326.]

in the peine, under torture; see Kn. Ta. A 1133.

[3337.]

chevisaunce, resource, remedy. Both G. and Th., and all old editions, have cherisaunce, explained by Speght to mean ‘comfort,’ though the word is fictitious. Hence Kersey, by a misprint, gives ‘cherisaunei, comfort’; which Chatterton adopted.

[3346.]

The F. text has ‘Amis ot non’; so that ‘Freend’ is here a proper name.

[3356.]

meygned, maimed. This word takes numerous forms both in M. E. and in Anglo-French.

[3462.]

at good mes, at a favourable time (en bon point); see note to l. 1453.

[3501.]

‘And Pity, (coming) with her, filled the Rosebud with gracious favour.’ of = with.

[3508.]

Supply word; F. La parole a premiere prise.

[3539.]

Cf. ‘Regia, crede mihi, res est succurrere lapsis’; Ovid, Ex Ponto, Ep. lib. ii. ix. 11.

[3548.]

This, put for This is; as in Parl. Foules, 411.

[3579.]

moneste, short for amoneste, i. e. admonish.

[3604.]

‘You need be no more afraid.’ Here Thynne has turned thar into dare; see l. 3761, and note to l. 1089.

[3633.]

to spanisshing, to its (full) expansion. F. text, espanie, expanded, pp. fem. of espanir, which Cotgrave explains by ‘To grow or spread, as a blooming rose.’

[3645, 6.]

vermayle, ruddy, lit. vermilion. abawed, dismayed; variant of abaved, Book Duch. 614; cf. l. 4041 below.

[3699.]

werreyeth, makes war upon; cf. Knight Ta. A 2235, 6. The corrections here made in the text are necessary to the sense.

[3715.]

I. e. she did not belong to a religious order.

[3718.]

attour; better atour; F. text ator; array, dress.

[3740.]

chasteleyne, mistress of a castle; F. chastelaine.

[3751.]The reading is easily put right, by help of the French:—

  • ‘Car tant cum vous plus atendrez,
  • Tant plus, sachies, de tens perdrez.’

[3774.]

Read it nil, it will not; F. Qu’el ne soit troble (l. 3505).

[3811.]

The F. text has une vielle irese, and M. Méon explains irese by angry, or full of ire. Hence, a note in Bell suggests that irish here means ‘full of ire.’ But I think M. Méon is wrong; for the O. F. for ‘full of ire’ is irous, whence M. E. irous; and M. Michel prints Irese with a capital letter, and explains it by ‘Irlandaise.’ Besides, there is no point in speaking of ‘an old angry woman’; whereas G. de Lorris clearly meant something disrespectful in speaking of ‘an old Irish-woman.’ M. Michel explains, in a note, that the Irish character was formerly much detested in France. I therefore believe that Irish has here its usual sense.

[3826.]

Where Amyas is, is of no consequence; for the name is wrongly given. The F. text has ‘a Estampes ou a Miaus,’ i. e. at Étampes or at Meaux. Neither place is very far from Paris. Reynes means Rennes in Brittany; see note to Book Duch. 255.

[3827.]

foot-hoot, foot-hot, immediately; see note to Cant. Ta. B 438.

[3832.]

reward, regard; as in Parl. Foules, 426.

[3845.]

Insert not, because the F. text has ‘Si ne s’est mie.’

[3855.]

We should probably insert him after hid.

[3856.]

took, i. e. caught; see l. 3858.

[3880.]

Read leye, lay; both for rime and sense.

[3882.]

loigne, leash for a hawk. Cotgrave gives: ‘Longe, . . . a hawks lune or leash.’ This is the mod. F. longe, a tether, quite a different word from longe, the loin. Longe, a tether, was sometimes spelt loigne in O. F. (see Godefroy), which accounts for the form here used. It answers to Low Lat. longia, a tether, a derivative of longus, long. Perhaps lune is only a variant of the same word. The expression ‘to have a long loigne’ means ‘to have too much liberty.’

[3895.]

Read trecherous, i. e. treacherous people, for the sake of the metre and the rime. Trechours means ‘traitors.’

[3907.]

Read loude; for loude and stille is an old phrase; see Barbour’s Bruce, iii. 745. It means, ‘whether loudly or silently,’ i. e. under all circumstances.

[3912.]

blered is myn ye, I am made a fool of; see Cant. Ta. G 730.

[3917.]

Read werreyed, warred against; see note to l. 3699.

[3928.]

I. e. ‘I must (have) fresh counsel.’

[3938.]

‘And come to watch how to cause me shame.’

[3940-3.]The F. text has:—

  • ‘Il ne me sera ja peresce
  • Que ne face une forteresce
  • Qui les Roses clorra entor.’

[3954.]

‘And to blind him with their imposture.’

[3962.]

Perhaps read he durste.

[3987.]

purpryse, enclosure; F. porprise, fem. Cotgrave has pourpris, m., in the same sense. See l. 4171.

[4021.]

Read in hy, in haste, a common phrase; see l. 3591.

[4032.]

‘No man, by taming it, can make a sparrow-hawk of a buzzard.’ A buzzard was useless for falconry, but a sparrow-hawk was excellent. The F. text gives this as a proverb. Two similar proverbs are given in Cotgrave, s. v. Esparvier.

[4034.]

musarde, a sluggish, and hence a useless person; see l. 3256.

[4038.]

recreaundyse, recreant conduct; F. recreantise.

[4073.]

goth afere, goes on fire, is inflamed.

[4096.]

me sometimes occurs in M. E. as a shorter form of men, in the sense of ‘one’; but it is better to read men at once, as it receives the accent. If written ‘mē,’ it might easily be copied as ‘me.’

[4126.]

‘Unless Love consent, at another time.’

[4149.]

querrour, a quarrier, stone-cutter; see quarrieur in Cotgrave.

[4176.]

ginne, war-engine. skaffaut, scaffold; a wooden shed on wheels, to protect besiegers. See the description of one, called ‘a sow,’ employed at the siege of Berwick in 1319, in Barbour’s Bruce, xvii. 597-600; together with other sundry ‘scaffatis’ in the same, l. 601.

[4191.]

Springoldes (F. perrieres, from Lat. petrariae), engines for casting-stones; spelt spryngaldis in Barbour’s Bruce, xvii. 247. From O. F. espringale, a catapult; from G. springen, to spring.

[4195.]

kernels, battlements; F. text, creniaus. Cf. P. Plowm. C. viii. 235; B. v. 597.

[4196.]

arblasters (answering to Lat. arcuballistra), a variant form of arblasts or arbalests (answering to Lat. arcuballista), huge cross-bows, for discharging missiles. See Arbalest in the New E. Dict.

[4229.]

for stelinge, i. e. to prevent stealing.

[4248.]

distoned, made different in tone, out of tune. Cotgrave gives: ‘Destonner, to change or alter a tune, to take it higher or lower.’

[4249.]

Controve, compose or invent tunes. foule fayle, fail miserably.

[4250.]

horn-pypes, pipes made of horn; but the F. text has estives, pipes made of straw. Cornewayle is doubtful; some take it to mean Cornwall; but it was more probably the name of a place in Brittany. A note in Méon’s edition of Le Roman de la Rose, iii. 300, suggests ‘la ville de Cornouaille, aujourd’hui Quimper-Corentin, qui est en basse Bretagne.’ The F. text has Cornoaille.

[4286.]

vekke, an old woman; as in l. 4495. Cf. Ital. vecchia, the same; but it is difficult to see how we came by the Ital. form.

[4291.]

Some late editions read expert, which is clearly right; except gives no sense. Expt, with a stroke through the p, may have been misread as except.

[4300.]

F. ‘Qu’el scet toute la vielle dance’; see Prol. A 476.

[4322.]

The old reading gives no sense; the corrected reading is due to Dr. Kaluza. It means ‘I weened to have bought it very knowingly’; F. Ges cuidoie avoir achetés, I weened to have bought them. Ges = Ge les, i. e. les biens, the property. See note to l. 4352.

[4333.]

For also perhaps read als, or so.

[4352.]

wend, for wende, weened, supposed; F. cuidoie.

[4372.]

For wol read wal; F. ‘Qui est entre les murs enclose.’

[4389.]

M. Méon here quotes a Latin proverb:—‘Qui plus castigat, plus amore ligat.’

[4432.]G. de Lorris here ended his portion of the poem (containing 4070 lines), which he did not live to complete. His last line is:—

  • ‘A poi que ne m’en desespoir.’

When Jean de Meun, more than forty years later, began his continuation, he caught up the last word, commencing thus:—

  • ‘Desespoir, las! ge non ferai,
  • Jà ne m’en desespererai.’

[614.]Abaved, confounded, disconcerted. See Glossary.

[618.]Imitated from the Roman de la Rose, from l. 6644 onwards—

  • ‘Vez cum fortune le servi . . . .
  • N’est ce donc chose bien provable
  • Que sa roë n’est pas tenable?’ . . . .

Jean de Meun goes on to say that Charles of Anjou killed Manfred, king of Sicily, in the first battle with him [a.d.] 1266]—

  • ‘En la premeraine bataille
  • L’assailli por li desconfire,
  • Eschec et mat li ala dire
  • Desus son destrier auferrant,
  • Du trait d’un paonnet errant
  • Ou milieu de son eschiquier.’

He next speaks of Conradin, whose death was likewise caused by Charles in 1268, so that these two (Manfred and Conradin) lost all their pieces at chess—

  • ‘Cil dui, comme folz garçonnés,
  • Roz et fierges et paonnés,
  • Et chevaliers as gieus perdirent,
  • Et hors de l’eschiquier saillirent.’

And further, of the inventor of chess (l. 6715)—

  • ‘Car ainsinc le dist Athalus
  • Qui des eschez controva l’us,
  • Quant il traitoit d’arismetique.’

He talks of the queen being taken (at chess), l. 6735—

  • ‘Car la fierche avoit este prise
  • Au gieu de la premiere assise.’

He cannot recount all Fortune’s tricks (l. 6879)—

  • ‘De fortune la semilleuse
  • Et de sa roë perilleuse
  • Tous les tors conter ne porroie.’

[629.]Cf. ‘whited sepulchres’; Matt. xxiii. 27; Rom. de la Rose, 8946.

[630.]The MSS. and Thynne have floures, flourys. This gives no sense; we must therefore read flour is. For a similar rime see that of nones, noon is, in the Prologue, 523, 524. Strictly, grammar requires ben rather than is; but when two nominatives express much the same sense, the singular verb may be used, as in Lenvoy to Bukton, 6. The sense is—‘her chief glory and her prime vigour is (i. e. consists in) lying.’

[634.]The parallel passage is one in the Remède de Fortune, by G. de Machault:—

  • ‘D’un æil rit, de l’autre lerme;
  • C’est l’orgueilleuse humilité,
  • C’est l’envieuse charité [l. 642]. . .
  • La peinture d’une vipère
  • Qu’est mortable;
  • En riens à li ne se compère.’

See Furnivall’s Trial Forewords, p. 47; and compare the remarkable and elaborate description of Fortune in the Anticlaudian of Alanus de Insulis (Distinctio 8, cap. 1), in Wright’s Anglo-Latin Satirists, vol. ii. pp. 399, 400.

[636.]Chaucer seems to have rewritten the whole passage at a later period:—

  • ‘O sodeyn hap, o thou fortune instable,
  • Lyk to the scorpioun so deceivable,
  • That flaterest with thyn heed when thou wolt stinge;
  • Thy tayl is deeth, thurgh thyn enveniminge.
  • O brotil Ioye, o swete venim queynte,
  • O monstre, that so subtilly canst peynte
  • Thy giftes under hewe of stedfastnesse,
  • That thou deceyvest bothe more and lesse,’ &c.
  • Cant. Tales, 9931 (E 2057).

Compare also Man of Lawes Tale, B 361, 404. ‘The scorpiun is ones cunnes wurm thet haueth neb, ase me seith, sumdel iliche ase wummon, and is neddre bihinden; maketh feir semblaunt and fiketh mit te heaued, and stingeth mid te teile’; Ancren Riwle, p. 206. Vincent of Beauvais, in his Speculum Naturale, bk. xx. c. 160, quotes from the Liber de Naturis Rerum—‘Scorpio blandum et quasi virgineum dicitur vultum habere, sed habet in cauda nodosa venenatum aculeum, quo pungit et inficit proximantem.’

[642.]A translated line; see note to l. 634.

[651.]Read—Trow’st thou? by’r lord; see note to l. 544.

[653.]Draught is a move at chess; see ll. 682, 685. Thus in Caxton’s Game of the Chesse—‘the alphyn [bishop] goeth in vj. draughtes al the tablier [board] rounde about.’ So in The Tale of Beryn, 1779, 1812. It translates the F. trait; see note to l. 618 (second quotation).

[654.]‘Fers, the piece at chess next to the king, which we and other European nations call the queen; though very improperly, as Hyde has observed. Pherz, or Pherzan, which is the Persian name for the same piece, signifies the King’s Chief Counsellor, or General—Hist. Shahilud. [shahi-ludii, chess-play], pp. 88, 89.’—Tyrwhitt’s Glossary. Chaucer follows Rom. Rose, where the word appears as fierge, l. 6688, and fierche, l. 6735; see note to l. 618 above. (For another use of fers, see note to l. 723 below.) Godefroy gives the O. F. spellings fierce, fierche, fierge, firge, and quotes two lines, which give the O. F. names of all the pieces at chess:—

  • ‘Roy, roc, chevalier, et alphin,
  • Fierge, et peon.’—

Caxton calls them kyng, quene, alphyn, knyght, rook, pawn. Richardson’s Pers. Dict. p. 1080, gives the Pers. name of the queen as farzī or farzīn, and explains farzīn by ‘the queen at chess, a learned man’; compare Tyrwhitt’s remark above. In fact, the orig. Skt. name for this piece was manirí, i. e. the adviser or counsellor. He also gives the Pers. fars, learned; fars or firz, the queen at chess. I suppose it is a mere chance that the somewhat similar Arab. faras means ‘a horse, and the knight at chess’; Richardson (as above). Oddly enough, the latter word has also some connection with Chaucer, as it is the Arabic name of the ‘wedge’ of an astrolabe; see Chaucer’s Astrolabe, Part i. § 14 (footnote), in vol. iii.

[655.]When a chess-player, by an oversight, loses his queen for nothing, he may, in general, as well as give up the game. Beryn was ‘in hevy plyghte,’ when he only lost a rook for nothing; Tale of Beryn, 1812.

[660.]The word the before mid must of course be omitted. The lines are to be scanned thus:—

  • ‘Therwith | fortun | e seid | e chek | here
  • And mate | in mid | pointe of | the chek | kere.’

The rime is a feminine one. Lines 660 and 661 are copied from the Rom. Rose; see note to l. 618, above. To be checkmated by an ‘errant’ pawn in the very middle of the board is a most ignominious way of losing the game. Cf. check-mate in Troil. ii. 754.

[663.]Athalus; see note to l. 618, above. Jean de Meun follows John of Salisbury (bishop of Chartres, died 1180) in attributing the invention of chess to Attalus. ‘Attalus Asiaticus, si Gentilium creditur historiis, hanc ludendi lasciuiam dicitur inuenisse ab exercitio numerorum, paululum deflexa materia;’ Joan. Saresburiensis Policraticus, lib. i. c. 5. Warton (Hist. E. Poet. 1871, iii. 91) says the person meant is Attalus Philometor, king of Pergamus; who is mentioned by Pliny, Nat. Hist. xviii. 3, xxviii. 2. It is needless to explain here how chess was developed out of the old Indian game for four persons called chaturanga, i. e. consisting of four members or parts (Benfey’s Skt. Dict. p. 6). I must refer the reader to Forbes’s History of Chess, or the article on Chess in the English Cyclopædia. See also the E. version of the Gesta Romanorum, ed. Herrtage, p. 70; A. Neckam, De Naturis Rerum, ed. Wright, p. 324; and Sir F. Madden’s article in the Archæologia, xxiv. 203.

[666.]Ieupardyes, hazards, critical positions, problems; see note on Cant. Tales, Group G, 743.

[667.]Pithagores, put for Pythagoras; for the rime. Pythagoras of Samos, born about b.c.] 570, considered that all things were founded upon numerical relations; various discoveries in mathematics, music, and astronomy, were attributed to him.

[682.]‘I would have made the same move’; i. e. had I had the power, I would have taken her fers from her, just as she took mine.

[684.]She, i. e. Fortune; so in Thynne. The MSS. have He, i. e. God, which can hardly be meant.

[685.]The cæsural pause preserves e in draughte from elision. It rimes with caughte (l. 682). Similar examples of ‘hiatus’ are not common: Ten Brink (Sprache, § 270) instances Cant. Tales, Group C, 599, 772 (Pard. Tale).

[694.]Ne in is to be read as nin (twice); see note to l. 343.

[700.]‘There lies in reckoning (i. e. is debited to me in the account), as regards sorrow, for no amount at all.’ In his account with Sorrow he is owed nothing, having received payment in full. There is no real difficulty here.

[705.]‘I have nothing’; for (1) Sorrow has paid in full, and so owes me nothing; (2) I have no gladness left; (3) I have lost my true wealth; (4) and I have no pleasure.

[708.]‘What is past is not yet to come.’

[709.]Tantale, Tantalus. He has already referred to Sisyphus; see note to l. 589. In the Roman de la Rose, we find Yxion, l. 19479; Tentalus, l. 19482; and Sisifus, l. 19499; as I have already remarked.

[717.]Again from the Rom. de la Rose, l. 5869—

  • ‘Et ne priseras une prune
  • Toute la roë de fortune.
  • A Socrates seras semblables,
  • Qui tant fu fers et tant estables,
  • Qu’il n’ert liés en prospérités,
  • Ne tristes en aversités.’

Chaucer’s three strees (i. e. straws) is Jean de Meun’s prune.

[723.]By the ferses twelve I understand all the pieces except the king, which could not be taken. The guess in Bell’s Chaucer says ‘all the pieces except the pawns’; but as a player only has seven pieces beside the pawns and king, we must then say that the knight exaggerates. My own reckoning is thus: pawns, eight; queen, bishop, rook, knight, four; total, twelve. The fact that each player has two of three of these, viz. of the bishop, rook, and knight, arose from the conversion of chaturanga, in which each of four persons had a king, bishop, knight, rook [to keep to modern names] and four pawns, into chess, in which each of two persons had two kings (afterwards king and queen), two bishops, knights, and rooks, and eight pawns. The bishop, knight, and rook, were thus duplicated, and so count but one apiece, which makes three (sorts of) pieces; and the queen is a fourth, for the king cannot be taken. The case of the pawns was different, for each pawn had an individuality of its own, no two being made alike (except in inferior sets). Caxton’s Game of the Chesse shews this clearly; he describes each of the eight pawns separately, and gives a different figure to each. According to him, the pawns were (beginning from the King’s Rook’s Pawn) the Labourer, Smyth, Clerke (or Notary), Marchaunt, Physicien, Tauerner, Garde, and Ribauld. They denoted ‘all sorts and conditions of men’; and this is why our common saying of ‘tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, gentleman, apothecary, ploughboy, thief’ enumerates eight conditions1 .

As the word fers originally meant counsellor or monitor of the king, it could be applied to any of the pieces. There was a special reason for its application to each of the pawns; for a pawn, on arriving at its last square, could not be exchanged (as now) for any piece at pleasure, but only for a queen, i. e. the fers par excellence. For, as Caxton says again, ‘he [the pawn] may not goo on neyther side till he hath been in the fardest ligne of theschequer, & that he hath taken the nature of the draughtes of the quene, & than he is a fiers, and than may he goo on al sides cornerwyse fro poynt to poynt onely as the quene’; &c.

[726.]These stock examples all come together in the Rom. de la Rose; viz. Jason and Medee, at l. 13433; Philis and Demophon, at l. 13415; ‘Dido, roine de Cartage,’ at l. 13379. The story of Echo and Narcissus is told fully, in an earlier passage (see ll. 1469-1545 of the English version, at p. 154); also that of ‘Dalida’ and ‘Sanson’ in a later passage, at l. 16879. See also the Legends of Dido, Medea, and Phillis in the Legend of Good Women; and the story of Sampson in the Monkes Tale, B 3205:—

  • ‘Ne Narcissus, the faire,’ &c.; Kn. Tale, 1083 (A 1941).
  • ‘And dye he moste, he seyde, as dide Ekko
  • For Narcisus’; C. T. 11263 (Frank. Tale, F 951).

[779.]M. Sandras points out the resemblance to a passage in G. de Machault’s Remède de Fortune:—

  • ‘Car le droit estat d’innocence
  • Ressemblent (?) proprement la table
  • Blanche, polie, qui est able
  • A recevoir, sans nul contraire,
  • Ce qu’on y veut peindre ou portraire.1

The rime of table and able settles the point. Mr. Brock points out a parallel passage in Boethius, which Chaucer thus translates:—‘the soule hadde ben naked of it-self, as a mirour or a clene parchemin . . . Right as we ben wont som tyme by a swifte pointed to ficchen lettres emprented in the smothenesse or in the pleinnesse of the table of wex, or in parchemin that ne hath no figure ne note in it’; bk. v. met. 4. But I doubt if Chaucer knew much of Boethius in 1369; and in the present passage he clearly refers to a prepared white surface, not to a tablet of wax. ‘Youth and white paper take any impression’; Ray’s Proverbs.

[791.]An allusion to the old proverb which is given in Hending in the form—‘Whose young lerneth, olt [old] he ne leseth’; Hending’s Prov. l. 45. Kemble gives the medieval Latin—‘Quod puer adsuescit, leviter dimittere nescit’; Gartner, Dicteria, p. 24 b. Cf. Horace, Epist. i. 2. 69; also Rom. de la Rose, 13094.

[799.]John of Gaunt married Blaunche at the age of nineteen.

[805.]Imitated from Machault’s Dit du Vergier and Fontaine Amoureuse.

  • ‘Car il m’est vis que je veoie,
  • Au joli prael ou j’estoie,
  • La plus tres belle compaignie
  • Qu’oncques fust veue ne oïe:’
  • Dit du Vergier, ed. Tarbé, p. 14.
  • ‘Tant qu’il avint, qu’en une compagnie
  • Où il avait mainte dame jolie
  • Juene, gentil, joïeuse et envoisie
  • Vis, par Fortune,
  • (Qui de mentir à tous est trop commune),
  • Entre les autres l’une
  • Qui, tout aussi com li solaus la lune
  • Veint de clarté,
  • Avait-elle les autres sormonté
  • De pris, d’onneur, de grace, de biauté;’ &c.
  • Fontaine Amoureuse (in Trial Forewords, p. 47).

These are, no doubt, the lines to which Tyrwhitt refers in his remarks on the present passage in a note to the last paragraph of the Persones Tale. Observe also how closely the fifth line of the latter passage answers to l. 812.

[823.]Is, which is; as usual. I propose this reading. That of the MSS. is very bad, viz. ‘Than any other planete in heven.’

[824.]‘The seven stars’ generally mean the planets; but, as the sun and moon and planets have just been mentioned, the reference may be to the well-known seven stars in Ursa Major commonly called Charles’s Wain. In later English, the seven stars sometimes mean the Pleiades; see Pleiade in Cotgrave’s French Dictionary, and G. Douglas, ed. Small, i. 69. 23, iii. 147. 15. The phrase is, in fact, ambiguous; see note to P. Plowman, C. xviii. 98.

[831.]Referring to Christ and His twelve apostles.

[835-7.]Resembles Le Roman de la Rose, 1689-91 (see p. 164)—

  • ‘Li Diex d’Amors, qui, l’arc tendu,
  • Avoit toute jor atendu
  • A moi porsivre et espier.’

[840.]Koch proposes to omit maner, and read—‘No counseyl, but at hir loke.’ It is more likely that counseyl has slipped in, as a gloss upon reed, and was afterwards substituted for it.

[849.]Carole, dance round, accompanying the dance with a song. The word occurs in the Rom. de la Rose several times; thus at l. 747, we have:—

  • ‘Lors veissies carole aler,
  • Et gens mignotement baler.’
  • (See p. 125, above.)

Cf. Chaucer’s version, ll. 759, 810; also 744. Dante uses the pl. carole (Parad. xxiv. 16) to express swift circular movements; and Cary quotes a comment upon it to the effect that ‘carolæ dicuntur tripudium quoddam quod fit saliendo, ut Napolitani faciunt et dicunt.’ He also quotes the expression ‘grans danses et grans karolles’ from Froissart, ed. 1559, vol. i. cap. 219. That it meant singing as well as dancing appears from the Rom. de la Rose, l. 731.

[858.]Chaucer gives Virginia golden hair; Doct. Tale, C 38. Compare the whole description of the maiden in the E. version of the Rom. of the Rose, ll. 539-561 (p. 116, above).

[861.]Of good mochel, of an excellent size; mochel = size, occurs in P. Plowman, B. xvi. 182. Scan the line— ‘Simpl’ of | good moch | el noght | to wyde.’ ]

[894.]‘In reasonable cases, that involve responsibility.’

[908.]Somewhat similar are ll. 9-18 of the Doctoures Tale.

[916.]Scan by reading—They n’ shóld’ hav’ foúnd-e, &c.

[917.]A wikked signe, a sign, or mark, of wickedness.

[919.]Imitated from Machault’s Remède de Fortune (see Trial Forewords, p. 48):—

  • ‘Et sa gracieuse parole,
  • Qui n’estoit diverse ne folle,
  • Etrange, ne mal ordenée,
  • Hautaine, mès bien affrenèe,
  • Cueillie à point et de saison,
  • Fondée sur toute raison,
  • Tant plaisant et douce à oïr,
  • Que chascun faisoit resjoir’; &c.

Line 922 is taken from this word for word.

[927-8.]‘Nor that scorned less, nor that could better heal,’ &c.

[943.]Canel-boon, collar-bone; lit. channel-bone, i. e. bone with a channel behind it. See Three Metrical Romances (Camden Soc.), p. 19; Gloss. to Babees Book, ed. Furnivall; and the Percy Folio MS., i. 387. I put and for or; the sense requires a conjunction.

[948.]Here Whyte, representing the lady’s name, is plainly a translation of Blaunche. The insertion of whyte in l. 905, in the existing authorities, is surely a blunder, and I therefore have omitted it. It anticipates the climax of the description, besides ruining the scansion of the line.

[950.]There is here some resemblance to some lines in G. Machault’s Remède de Fortune (see Trial Forewords, p. 49):—

  • —‘ma Dame, qui est clamée
  • De tous, sur toutes belle et bonne,
  • Chascun por droit ce nom li donne.’

[957.]For hippes, Bell prints lippes; a comic reading.

[958.]This reading means—‘I knew in her no other defect’; which, as no defect has been mentioned, seems inconsistent. Perhaps we should read no maner lak, i. e. no ‘sort of defect in her (to cause) that all her limbs should not be proportionate.’

[964.]A common illustration. See Rom. de la Rose, 7448; Alexander and Dindimus, ll. 233-5. Duke Francesco Maria had, for one of his badges, a lighted candle by which others are lighted; with the motto Non degener addam, i. e. I will give without loss; see Mrs. Palliser’s Historic Devices, p. 263. And cf. Cant. Ta. D 333-5.

[973.]The accents seem to fall on She and have, the e in wold-e being elided. Otherwise, read: She wóld-e háv’ be.

[982.]Liddell and Scott explain Gk. ϕοίνιξ as ‘the fabulous Egyptian bird phœnix, first in Hesiod, Fragment 50. 4; then in Herodotus, ii. 73.’ Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Naturale, bk. 16. c. 74, refers us to Isidore, Ambrosius (lib. 5), Solinus, Pliny (lib. 10), and Liber de Naturis Rerum; see Solinus, Polyhistor. c. 33. 11; A. Neckam, De Naturis Rerum, c. 34. Philip de Thaun describes it in his Bestiaire, l. 1089; see Popular Treatises on Science, ed. Wright, p. 113. ‘The Phœnix of Arabia passes all others. Howbeit, I cannot tell what to make of him; and first of all, whether it be a tale or no, that there is neuer but one of them in all the world, and the same not commonly seen’; Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. 10. c. 2.

  • ‘Tous jors est-il ung seul Fenis’; &c.
  • Rom. de la Rose, 16179.
  • ‘Una est, quæ reparet, seque ipsa reseminet, ales;
  • Assyrii phœnica uocant.’
  • —Ovid, Met. xv. 392.

Scan: Th’ soléyn | feníx | of A | rabye ∥. Cf. ‘Com la fenix souleine est au sejour En Arabie’: Gower, Balade 35.

[987.]Chaucer refers to Esther again; e. g. in his Merchant’s Tale (E 1371, 1744); Leg. of G. Women, prol. 250; and in the Tale of Melibee (B 2291).

[997.]Cf. Vergil, Æn. i. 630: ‘Haud ignara mali.’

[1021.]In balaunce, i. e. in a state of suspense. F. en balance; Rom. de la Rose, 13871, 16770.

[1024.]This sending of lovers on expeditions, by way of proving them, was in accordance with the manners of the time. Gower explains the whole matter, in his Conf. Amant, lib. 4 (ed. Pauli, ii. 56):—

  • ‘Forthy who secheth loves grace,
  • Where that these worthy women are,
  • He may nought than him-selve spare
  • Upon his travail for to serve,
  • Whereof that he may thank deserve, . . .
  • So that by londe and ek by ship
  • He mot travaile for worship
  • And make many hastif rodes,
  • Somtime in Pruse, somtime in Rodes,
  • And somtime into Tartarie,
  • So that these heralds on him crie
  • “Vailant! vailant! lo, where he goth!” ’ &c.

Chaucer’s Knight (in the Prologue) sought for renown in Pruce, Alisaundre, and Turkye.

There is a similar passage in Le Rom. de la Rose, 18499-18526. The first part of Machault’s Dit du Lion (doubtless the Book of the Lion of which Chaucer’s translation is now lost) is likewise taken up with the account of lovers who undertook feats, in order that the news of their deeds might reach their ladies. Among the places to which they used to go are mentioned Alexandres, Alemaigne, Osteriche, Behaigne, Honguerie, Danemarche, Prusse, Poulaine, Cracoe, Tartarie, &c. Some even went ‘jusqu’à l’Arbre sec, Ou li oisel pendent au bec.’ This alludes to the famous Arbre sec or Dry Tree, to reach which was a feat indeed; see Yule’s edition of Marco Polo, i. 119; Maundeville, ed. Halliwell, p. 68; Mätzner, Sprachproben, ii. 185.

As a specimen of the modes of expression then prevalent, Warton draws attention to a passage in Froissart, c. 81, where Sir Walter Manny prefaces a gallant charge upon the enemy with the words—‘May I never be embraced by my mistress and dear friend, if I enter castle or fortress before I have unhorsed one of these gallopers.’

[1028.]Go hoodles, travel without even the protection of a hood; by way of bravado. Warton, Hist. Eng. Poet. § 18 (ed. Hazlitt, iii. 4), says of a society called the Fraternity of the Penitents of Love—‘Their object was to prove the excess of their love, by shewing with an invincible fortitude and consistency of conduct . . . that they could bear extremes of heat and cold. . . . It was a crime to wear fur on a day of the most piercing cold; or to appear with a hood, cloak, gloves or muff.’ See the long account of this in the Knight de la Tour Landry, ed. Wright, p. 169; and cf. The Squyer of Low Degree, 171-200.

What is meant by the drye se (dry sea) is disputed; but it matters little, for the general idea is clear. Mr. Brae, in the Appendix to his edition of Chaucer’s Astrolabe (p. 101), has a long note on the present passage. Relying on the above quotation from Warton, he supposes hoodless to have reference to a practice of going unprotected in winter, and says that ‘dry sea’ may refer to any frozen sea. But it may equally refer to going unprotected in summer, in which case he offers us an alternative suggestion, that ‘any arid sandy desert might be metaphorically called a dry sea.’ The latter is almost a sufficient explanation; but if we must be particular, Mr. Brae has yet more to tell us. He says that, at p. 1044 (Basle edition) of Sebastian Munster’s Cosmographie, there is a description of a large lake which was dry in summer. ‘It is said that there is a lake near the city of Labac, adjoining the plain of Zircknitz [Czirknitz], which in winter-time becomes of great extent. . . . But in summer the water drains away, the fish expire, the bed of the lake is ploughed up, corn grows to maturity, and, after the harvest is over, the waters return, &c. The Augspourg merchants have assured me of this, and it has been since confirmed to me by Vergier, the bishop of Cappodistria’ [Capo d’Istria]. The lake still exists, and is no fable. It is the variable lake of Czirknitz, which sometimes covers sixty-three square miles, and is sometimes dry. It is situate in the province of Krain, or Carniola; Labac is the modern Laybach or Laibach, N.E. of Trieste. See the articles Krain, Czirknitz in the Engl. Cyclopædia, and the account of the lake in The Student, Sept. 1869.

That Chaucer really referred to this very lake becomes almost certain, if we are to accept Mr. Brae’s explanation of the next line. See the next note.

[1029.]Carrenare. Mr. Brae suggests that the reference is to the ‘gulf of the Carnaro or Quarnaro in the Adriatic,’ to which Dante alludes in the Inferno, ix. 113, as being noted for its perils. Cary’s translation runs thus:—

  • ‘As where Rhone stagnates on the plains of Arles,
  • Or as at Pola, near Quarnaro’s gulf,
  • That closes Italy and laves her bounds,
  • The place is all thick spread with sepulchres.’

It is called in Black’s Atlas the Channel of Quarnerolo, and is the gulf which separates Istria from Croatia. The head of the gulf runs up towards the province of Carniola, and approaches within forty miles (at the outside) of the lake of Czirknitz (see note above). I suppose that Quarnaro may be connected with Carn-iola and the Carn-ic Alps, but popular etymology interpreted it to mean ‘charnel-house,’ from its evil reputation. This appears from the quotations cited by Mr. Brae; he says that the Abbé Fortis quotes a Paduan writer, Palladio Negro, as saying—‘E regione Istriæ, sinu Palatico, quem nautæ carnarium vocitant’; and again, Sebastian Munster, in his Cosmographie, p. 1044 (Basle edition) quotes a description by Vergier, Bishop of Capo d’Istria—‘par deça le gouffre enragé lequel on appelle vulgairement Carnarie d’autantque le plus souvent on le voit agité de tempestes horribles; et là s’engloutissent beaucoup de navires et se perdent plusieurs hommes.’ In other words, the true name Quarnaro or Carnaro was turned by the sailors into Carnario, which means in Italian ‘the shambles’; see Florio’s Dict., ed. 1598. This Carnario might become Careynaire or Carenare in Chaucer’s English, by association with the M. E. careyne or caroigne, carrion. This word is used by Chaucer in the Kn. Tale, 1155 (Six-text, A 2013), where the Ellesmere MS. has careyne, and the Cambridge and Petworth MSS. have careyn.

For myself, I am well satisfied with the above explanation. It is probable, and it suffices; and stories about this dry sea may easily have been spread by Venetian sailors. I may add that Maundeville mentions ‘a gravely see’ in the land of Prestre John, ‘that is alle gravele and sonde, with-outen any drope of watre; and it ebbethe and flowethe in grete wawes, as other sees don’: ed. Halliwell, p. 272. This curious passage was pointed out by Prof. Hales, in a letter in the Academy, Jan. 28, 1882, p. 65.

We certainly ought to reject the explanation given with great assurance in the Saturday Review, July, 1870, p. 143, col. 1, that the allusion is to the chain of mountains called the Carena or Charenal, a continuation of the Atlas Mountains in Africa. The writer says—‘Leonardo Dati (a. d.] 1470), speaking of Africa, mentions a chain of mountains in continuation of the Atlas, 300 miles long, “commonly called Charenal.” In the fine chart of Africa by Juan de la Coxa (1500), this chain is made to stretch as far as Egypt, and bears the name of Carena. La Salle, who was born in 1398, lays down the same chain, which corresponds, says Santarem (Histoire de la Cosmographie, iii. 456), to the Καρήνη of Ptolemy. These allusions place it beyond doubt [?] that the drie see of Chaucer was the Great Sahara, the return from whence [sic] homewards would be by the chain of the Atlas or [sic] Carena.’ On the writer’s own shewing, the Carena was not the Atlas, but a chain stretching thence towards Egypt; not an obvious way of returning home! Whereas, if the ‘dry sea’ were the lake of Czirknitz, the obvious way of getting away from it would be to take ship in the neighbouring gulf of Quarnaro. And how could Chaucer come to hear of this remote chain of mountains?

[1034.]‘But why do I tell you my story?’ I. e. let me go on with it, and tell you the result.

[1037.]Again imitated from Machault’s Remède de Fortune:—

  • ‘Car c’est mes cuers, c’est ma creance,
  • C’est mes desirs, c’est m’esperaunce,
  • C’est ma santé . . . .
  • C’est toute ma bonne éürté,
  • C’est ce qui me soustient en vie,’ &c.

Line 1039 is closely translated. See Furnivall’s Trial Forewords, p. 48.

[1040.]I here substitute lisse for goddesse, as in the authorities. The blunder is obvious; goddesse clogs the line with an extra syllable, and gives a false rime such as Chaucer never makes1 . He rimes blisse with kisse, lisse, misse, and wisse. Thus in the Frankelein’s Tale, F 1237—

  • ‘What for his labour and his hope of blisse,
  • His woful herte of penaunce hadde a lisse.’

Lisse is alleviation, solace, comfort; and l. 1040 as emended, fairly corresponds to Machault’s ‘C’est ce qui me soustient en vie,’ i. e. it is she who sustains my life. The word goddesse was probably substituted for lisse, because the latter was obsolescent.

[1041.]I change hoolly hirs into hirs hoolly, and omit the following and. In the next line we have—By’r lord; as before (ll. 544, 651, 690).

[1047.]Leve (i. e. believe) is here much stronger than trowe, which merely expresses general assent.

[1050.]Read—‘And to | behold | e th’alder | fayrest | e.’ After beholde comes the cæsural pause, so that the final e in beholde does not count. Koch proposes to omit alder-. But how came it there?

[1057.]The spelling Alcipiades occurs in the Roman de la Rose, 8981, where he is mentioned as a type of beauty—‘qui de biauté avoit adès’—on the authority of ‘Boece.’ The ultimate reference is to Boethius, Cons. Phil. b. iii. pr. 8. l. 32—‘the body of Alcibiades that was ful fayr.’

[1058.]Hercules is also mentioned in Le Rom. de la Rose, 9223, 9240. See also Ho. Fame, 1413.

[1060.]Koch proposes to omit al; I would rather omit the. But we may read al th.’

[1061.]See note to l. 310.

[1067.]He, i. e. Achilles himself; see next note.

[1069.]Antilegius, a corruption of Antilochus; and again, Antilochus is a mistake for Archilochus, owing to the usual medieval confusion in the forms of proper names. For the story, see next note.

[1070.]Dares Frigius, i. e. Dares Phrygius, or Dares of Phrygia. Chaucer again refers to him near the end of Troilus, and in Ho. Fame, 1467 (on which see the note). The works of Dares and Dictys are probably spurious. The reference is really to the very singular, yet popular, medieval version of the story of the Trojan war which was written by Guido of Colonna, and is entitled ‘Historia destructionis Troie, per iudicem Guidonem de Columpna Messaniensem.’ Guido’s work was derived from the Roman de Troie, written by Benoit de Sainte-Maure; of which romance there is a late edition by M. Joly. In Mr. Panton’s introduction to his edition of the Gest Historiale of the Destruction of Troy (Early Eng. Text Society), p. ix., we read—‘From the exhaustive reasonings and proofs of Mons. Joly as to the person and age and country of his author, it is sufficiently manifest that the Roman du Troie appeared between the years 1175 and 1185. The translation, or version, of the Roman by Guido de Colonna was finished, as he tells us at the end of his Historia Trioana, in 1287. From one or other, or both, of these works, the various Histories, Chronicles, Romances, Gestes, and Plays of The Destruction of Troy, TheProwess and Death of Hector, The Treason of the Greeks, &c., were translated, adapted, or amplified, in almost every language of Europe.’

The fact is, that the western nations of Europe claimed connexion, through Æneas and his followers, with the Trojans, and repudiated Homer as favouring the Greeks. They therefore rewrote the story of the Trojan war after a manner of their own; and, in order to give it authority, pretended that it was derived from two authors named Dares Phrygius (or Dares of Phrygia) and Dictys Cretensis (or Dictys of Crete). Dares and Dictys were real names, as they were cited in the time of Ælian (a. d.] 230); and it was said that Dares was a Trojan who was killed by Ulysses. See further in Mr. Panton’s introduction, as above; Morley’s English Writers, vi. 118; and Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 127 (sect. 3). But Warton does not seem to have known that Guido mainly followed Benoit de Sainte-Maure.

The story about the death of Achilles is taken, accordingly, not from Homer but from Guido de Colonna and his predecessor Benoit. It may be found in the alliterative Geste Hystoriale, above referred to (ed. Panton and Donaldson, p. 342); or in Lydgate’s Siege of Troye, bk. iv. c. 32. Hecuba invites Achilles and Archilochus to meet her in the temple of Apollo. When they arrive, they are attacked by Paris and a band of men and soon killed, though Achilles first slays seven of his foes with his own hand.

  • ‘There kyld was the kyng, and the knight bothe,
  • And by treason in the temple tirnyt to dethe.’

Here ‘the kyng’ is Achilles, and ‘the knyght’ is Archilochus. It may be added that Achilles was lured to the temple by the expectation that he would there meet Polyxena, and be wedded to her; as Chaucer says in the next line. Polyxena was a daughter of Priam and Hecuba; she is alluded to in Shakespeare’s Troilus, iii. 3. 208. According to Ovid, Metam. xiii. 448, she was sacrificed on the tomb of Achilles.

Lydgate employs the forms Archylogus and Anthylogus.

[1071.]I supply hir; Koch would supply queen. I do not find that she was a queen.

[1075.]Trewely is properly (though not always) trisyllabic. It was inserted after nay, because nede and gabbe were thought to be monosyllables. Even so, the ‘amended’ line is bad. It is all right if trewly be omitted; and I omit it accordingly.

[1081.]Penelope is accented on the first e and on o, as in French. Chaucer copies this form from the Roman de la Rose, l. 8694, as appears from his coupling it with Lucrece, whilst at the same time he borrows a pair of rimes. The French has:—

  • ‘Si n’est-il mès nule Lucrece,
  • Ne Penelope nule en Grece.’

In the same passage, the story of Lucretia is told in full, on the authority of Livy, as here. The French has: ‘ce dit Titus Livius’; l. 8654. In the prologue to the Legend of Good Women, Chaucer alludes again to Penelope (l. 252), Lucrece of Rome (l. 257), and Polixene (l. 258); and he gives the Legend of Lucrece in full. He again alludes to Lucrece and Penelope in the lines preceding the Man of Lawes Prologue (B 63, 75); and in the Frankelein’s Tale (F 1405, 1443).

[1085.]This seems to mean—‘she (Blaunche) was as good (as they), and (there was) nothing like (her), though their stories are authentic (enough).’ But the expression ‘nothing lyke’ is extremely awkward, and seems wrong. Nothing also means ‘not at all’; but this does not help us. In l. 1086, stories should perhaps be storie; then her storie would be the story of Lucrece; cf. l. 1087.

[1087.]‘Any way, she (Blaunche) was as true as she (Lucrece).’

[1089, 1090.]Read seyë, subjunctive, and seyë, gerund. Cf. knewë, subj., 1133.

Yong is properly monosyllabic. Read—‘I was right yong, the sooth to sey.’ In. l. 1095, yong-e is the definite form.

[1096.]Accent besette (= besett’) on the prefix. Else, we must read Without’ and besettë. We should expect Without-e, as in 1100. Without is rare; but see IV. 17.

[1108.]Yit, still. Sit, sitteth; pres. tense.

[1113.]I. e. you are like one who confesses, but does not repent.

[1118.]Achitofel, Ahitophel; see 2 Sam. xvii.

[1119.]According to the Historia Troiana of Guido (see note to l. 1070) it was Antenor (also written Anthenor) who took away the Palladium and sent it to Ulysses, thus betraying Troy. See the Geste Hystoriale, p. 379; or see the extract from Caxton in my Specimens of English from 1394 to 1579, p. 89. Or see Chaucer’s Troilus, bk. iv. l. 204.

[1121.]Genelon; also Genilon, as in the Monkes Tale, B 3579. He is mentioned again in the Nonne Preestes Tale, B 4417 (C. T. 15233), and in the Shipmannes Tale, B 1384 (C. T. 13124), where he is called ‘Geniloun of France.’ Tyrwhitt’s note on Genelon in his Glossary is as follows: ‘One of Charlemaigne’s officers, who, by his treachery, was the cause of the defeat at Roncevaux, the death of Roland, &c., for which he was torn to pieces by horses. This at least is the account of the author who calls himself Archbishop Turpin, and of the Romancers who followed him; upon whose credit the name of Genelon or Ganelon was for several centuries a synonymous expression for the worst of traitors.’ See the Chanson de Roland, ed. Gautier; Dante, Inf. xxxii. 122, where he is called Ganellone; and Wheeler’s Noted Names of Fiction. Cf. also the Roman de la Rose, l. 7902-4:—

  • ‘Qu’onques Karles n’ot por Rolant,
  • Quant en Ronceval mort reçut
  • Par Guenelon qui les deçut.’

[1123.]Rowland and Olivere, the two most celebrated of Charlemagne’s Twelve Peers of France; see Roland in Wheeler’s Noted Names of Fiction, and Ellis’s Specimens of Early Eng. Metrical Romances, especially the account of the Romance of Sir Otuel.

[1126.]I supply right. We find right tho in C. T. 6398, 8420 (D 816, E 544).

[1133.]Knew-e, might know; subjunctive mood. See note to l. 1089.

[1137.]Accent thou. This and the next line are repeated, nearly, from ll. 743, 744. See also ll. 1305-6.

[1139.]I here insert the word sir, as in most of the other places where the poet addresses the stranger.

[1152-3.]Cf. Rom. de la Rose, 2006-7:—

  • ‘Il est asses sires du cors
  • Qui a le cuer en sa commande.’

[1159.]For this, B. has thus. Neither this nor thus seems wanted; I therefore pay no regard to them.

The squire Dorigen, in the Frankelein’s Tale, consoled himself in the same way (F 947):—

  • ‘Of swich matere made he manye layes,
  • Songes, compleintes, roundels, virelayes.’

[1162.]Tubal; an error for Jubal; see Gen. iv. 21. But the error is Chaucer’s own, and is common. See Higden’s Polychronicon, lib. iii. c. 11, ed. Lumby, iii. 202; Higden cites the following from Isidorus, lib. ii. c. 24:—‘Quamvis Tubal de stirpe Cayn ante diluvium legatur fuisse musicæ inventor, . . tamen apud Græcos Pythagoras legitur ex malleorum sonitu et chordarum extensione musicam reperisse.’ In Genesis, it is Jubal who ‘was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ’; and Tubal-cain who was ‘an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron.’ The notion of the discovery of music by the former from the observation of the sounds struck upon the anvil of the latter is borrowed from the usual fable about Pythagoras. This fable is also given by Higden, who copies it from Macrobius. It will be found in the Commentary by Macrobius on the Somnium Scipionis, lib. ii. c. 1; and is to the effect that Pythagoras, observing some smiths at work, found that the tones struck upon their anvils varied according to the weights of the hammers used by them; and, by weighing these hammers, he discovered the relations to each other of the various notes in the gamut. The story is open to the objection that the facts are not so; the sound varies according to variations in the anvil or the thing struck, not according to the variation in the striking implement. However, Pythagoras is further said to have made experiments with stretched strings of varying length; which would have given him right results. See Mrs. Somerville’s Connection of the Physical Sciences, sect. 16 and 17.

[1169.]Aurora. The note in Tyrwhitt’s Glossary, s. v. Aurora, runs thus:—‘The title of a Latin metrical version of several parts of the Bible by Petrus de Riga, Canon of Rheims, in the twelfth century. Leyser, in his Hist. Poet. Med. Ævi, pp. 692-736, has given large extracts from this work, and among others the passage which Chaucer seems to have had in his eye (p. 728):—

  • ‘Aure Jubal varios ferramenti notat ictus.
  • Pondera librat in his. Consona quæque facit.
  • Hoc inventa modo prius est ars musica, quamvis
  • Pythagoram dicant hanc docuisse prius.’

Warton speaks of ‘Petrus de Riga, canon of Rheims, whose Aurora, or the History of the Bible allegorised, in Latin verses . . was never printed entire.’—Hist. E. Poet. 1871, iii. 136.

[1175.]A song in six lines; compare the eleven-line song above, at l. 475. Lines 1175-6 rime with lines 1179-80.

[1198.]Koch scans: Ánd | bounté | withoút’ | mercý∥. This is no better than the reading in the text.

[1200.]‘With (tones of) sorrow and by compulsion, yet as though I never ought to have done so.’ Perhaps read wolde, wished (to do).

[1206.]Dismal. In this particular passage the phrase in the dismal means ‘on an unlucky day,’ with reference to an etymology which connected dismal with the Latin dies malus. Though we cannot derive dismal immediately from the Lat. dies malus, it is now known that there was an Anglo-French phrase dis mal (= Lat. dies mali, plural); whence the M. E. phrase in the dismal, ‘in the evil days,’ or (more loosely), ‘on an evil day.’ When the exact sense was lost, the suffix -al seemed to be adjectival, and the word dismal became at last an adjective. The A. F. form dismal, explained as les mal jours (evil days), was discovered by M. Paul Meyer in a Glasgow MS. (marked Q. 9. 13, fol. 100, back), in a poem dated 1256; which settles the question. Dr. Chance notes that Chaucer probably took dis-mal to be derived from O. F. dis mal, i. e. ‘ten evils’; see l. 1207.

We can now see the connexion with the next line. The whole sentence means: ‘I think it must have been in the evil days (i. e. on an unlucky day), such as were the days of the ten plagues of Egypt’; and the allusion is clearly to the so-called dies Ægyptiaci, or unlucky days; and woundes is merely a rather too literal translation of Lat. plaga, which we generally translate by plague. In Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Naturale, lib. xv. c. 83, we find:—‘In quolibet mense sunt duo dies, qui dicuntur Ægyptiaci, quorum unus est a principio mensis, alter a fine.’ He goes on to shew how they are calculated, and says that, in January, the Egyptian days are the 1st, and the 7th from the end, i. e. the 25th; and he expressly refers the name Ægyptiaci to the plagues of Egypt, which (as some said) took place on Egyptian days; for it was asserted that there were minor plagues besides the ten. See also Brand’s Pop. Antiquities, ed. Ellis, from which I extract the following. Barnabe Googe thus translates the remarks of Naogeorgus on this subject [of days]:—

  • ‘But some of them Egyptian are, and full of jeopardee,
  • And some again, beside the rest, both good and luckie bee.’
  • Brand (as above), ii. 45.

‘The Christian faith is violated when, so like a pagan and apostate, any man doth observe those days which are called Ægyptiaci,’ &c.—Melton’s Astrologaster, p. 56; in Brand, ii. 47. ‘If his Journey began unawares on the dismal day, he feares a mischiefe’; Bp. Hall, Characters of Virtues and Vices; in Brand, ii. 48. ‘Alle that take hede to dysmal dayes, or use nyce observaunces in the newe moone,’ &c.; Dialogue of Dives and Pauper (1493); in Brand, i. 9. ‘A dismol day’; Tale of Beryn, 650. Compare also the following:—

  • ‘Her disemale daies, and her fatal houres’;
  • Lydgate, Storie of Thebes, pt. iii.
  • (ed. 1561, fol. 370).

In the Pistil of Swete Susan (Laing’s Anc. Pop. Poetry of Scotland), l. 305, Daniel reproves one of the elders in these terms:—

  • ‘Thou hast i-be presedent, the people to steere,
  • Thou dotest now on thin olde tos, in the dismale.’

In Langtoft’s Chronicle, l. 477 (in Wright’s Polit. Songs, p. 303), John Baliol is attacked in some derisive verses, which conclude with:—‘Rede him at ride in the dismale’; i. e. advise him to ride on an unlucky day. Cf. The Academy, Nov. 28, 1891, p. 482; &c.

The consequence of ‘proposing’ on an unlucky day was a refusal; see l. 1243.

[1208.]A priest who missed words in chanting a service was called an overskipper; see my note to P. Plowman, C. xiv. 123.

[1219.]Similarly, Troilus was reduced to saying— ‘Mercy, mercy, swete herte!’—Troil. iii. 98. ]

[1234.]‘Unless I am dreaming,’ i. e. unintentionally.

[1246.]Cassandra. The prophetic lamentation of Cassandra over the impending fate of Troy is given in the alliterative Geste Hystoriale (E. E. T. S.), p. 88, and in Lydgate’s Siege of Troye, bk. ii. c. 12, from Guido de Colonna; cf. Vergil, Æn. ii. 246.

[1248.]Chaucer treats Ilion as if it were different from Troye; cf. Nonne Prestes Tale, B 4546 (C. T. 15362). He merely follows Guido de Colonna and others, who made Ilion the name of the citadel of Troy; see further in note to Ho. of Fame, l. 158.

[1288.]M. Sandras (Étude sur Chaucer, p. 95) says this is from Machault’s Jugement du Bon Roi de Behaigne—

  • ‘De nos deux cuers estoit si juste paire
  • Qu’onques ne fu l’un à l’autre contraire.
  • Tuit d’un accord, une pensee avoient.
  • De volenté, de desir se sambloient.
  • Un bien, un mal, une joie sentoient
  • Conjointement.
  • N’onques ne fu entre eux deux autrement.’

[1305-6.]Repeated from ll. 743, 744. Cf. ll. 1137-8.

[1309.]Imitated in Spenser’s Daphnaida, 184. The Duchess Blaunche died Sept. 12, 1369. The third great pestilence lasted from July to September in that year.

[1314.]King, i. e. Edward III; see note to l. 368.

[1318.]Possibly the long castel here meant is Windsor Castle; this seems likely when we remember that it was in Windsor Castle that Edward III. instituted the order of the Garter, April 23, 1349; and that he often resided there. A riche hil in the next line appears to have no special significance. The suggestion, in Bell’s Chaucer, that it refers to Richmond (which, after all, is not Windsor) is quite out of the question, because that town was then called Sheen, and did not receive the name of Richmond till the reign of Henry VII., who renamed it after Richmond in Yorkshire, whence his own title of Earl of Richmond had been derived.

[1322.]Belle, i. e. bell of a clock, which rang out the hour. This bell, half heard in the dream, seems to be meant to be real. If so, it struck midnight; and Chaucer’s chamber must have been within reach of its sound.

[524.]I Iuge, I decide. Folk, kind of birds; see note to l. 323.

[545.]Oure, ours; it is the business of us who are the chosen spokesmen. The Iuge is Nature.

[556.]Goler in the Fairfax MS. is doubtless merely miswritten for golee, as in Ff.; Caxton turns it into golye, to keep it dissyllabic; the reading gole (in O. and Gg.) also = golee. Godefroy has: ‘Golee, goulee, goullee, gulee, geulee, s. f. cri, parole’; and gives several examples. Cotgrave has: ‘Goulée, f. a throatfull, or mouthful of, &c.’ One of Godefroy’s examples gives the phrase—‘Et si dirai ge ma goulee,’ and so I shall say my say. Chaucer uses the word sarcastically: his large golee = his tedious gabble. Allied to E. gullett, gully.

[564.]Which a reson, what sort of a reason.

[568.]Cf. Cant. Tales, 5851, 5852 (D 269, 270). Lydgate copies this line in his Hors, Shepe, and Goos, l. 155.

[572.]‘To have held thy peace, than (to have) shewed.’

[574.]A common proverb. In the Rom. de la Rose, l. 4750 (E. version, l. 5265), it appears as: ‘Nus fox ne scet sa langue taire,’ i. e. No fool knows how to hold his tongue. In the Proverbs of Hendyng, it is: ‘Sottes bolt is sone shote,’ l. 85. In later English, ‘A fool’s bolt is soon shot’; cf. Henry V, iii. 7. 132, and As You Like It, v. 4. 67. Kemble quotes from MS. Harl. fol. 4—‘Ut dicunt multi, cito transit lancea stulti.’

[578.]The sothe sadde, the sober truth.

[595.]Another proverb. We now say—‘There’s as good fish in the sea as ever came out of it’; or, ‘as ever was caught.’

[599.]See Chaucer’s tr. of Boethius, bk. iv. pr. 4. l. 132.

[603.]‘Pushed himself forward in the crowd.’

[610.]Said sarcastically—‘Yes! when the glutton has filled his paunch sufficiently, the rest of us are sure to be satisfied!’

Compare the following. ‘Certain persones . . . saiyng that Demades had now given over to bee suche an haine [niggardly wretch] as he had been in tymes past—“Yea, marie, quoth Demosthenes, for now ye see him full paunched, as lyons are.” For Demades was covetous and gredie of money, and indeed the lyons are more gentle when their bealyes are well filled.’—Udall, tr. of Apothegmes of Erasmus; Anecdotes of Demosthenes. The merlin then addresses the cuckoo directly.

[612.]Heysugge, hedge-sparrow; see note to l. 358.

[613.]Read rewtheles (reufulles in Gg); cf. Cant. Ta., B 863; and see p. 361, l. 31. Rewtheles became reufulles, and then rewful.

[614.]‘Live thou unmated, thou destruction (destroyer) of worms.’

[615.]‘For it is no matter as to the lack of thy kind,’ i. e. it would not matter, even if the result was the loss of your entire race.

[616.]‘Go! and remain ignorant for ever.’

[620, 1.]Cf. note to l. 411. Read th’eleccioun; i. e. the choice.

[623.]Cheest, chooseth; spelt chyest, Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 126; spelt chest (with long e) in Shoreham’s Poems, ed. Wright, p. 109, where it rimes with lest = leseth, i. e. loseth; A. S. císt, Deut. xxviii. 9.

[626.]Accent favour on the second syllable; as in C. T., Group B, 3881 (Monkes Tale). So (perhaps) colóur-ed in l. 443.

[630.]‘I have no other (i. e. no wrongful) regard to any rank,’ I am no respecter of persons.

[633.]‘I would counsel you to take’; two infinitives.

[640.]‘Under your rod,’ subject to your correction. So in the Schipmannes Tale, C. T. 13027 (B 1287).

[641.]The first accent is on As.

[653.]Manér-e is trisyllabic; and of is understood after it.

[657.]For tarying, to prevent tarrying; see note to C. T. Group B, 2052.

[664, 5.]‘Whatever may happen afterwards, this intervening course is ready prepared for all of you.’

[670.]They embraced each other with their wings and by intertwining their necks.

[675.]Gower, Conf. Amant. bk. i. (ed. Pauli, i. 134) speaks of ‘Roundel, balade, and virelay.’ Johnson, following the Dict. de Trevoux, gives a fair definition of the roundel; but I prefer to translate that given by Littré, s. v. rondeau. ‘1. A short poem, also called triolet, in which the first line or lines recur in the middle and at the end of the piece. Such poems, by Froissart and Charles d’Orleans, are still extant. 2. Another short poem peculiar to French poetry, composed of thirteen lines broken by a pause after the fifth and eighth lines, eight having one rime and five another. The first word or words are repeated after the eighth line and after the last, without forming part of the verse; it will readily be seen that this rondeau is a modification of the foregoing; instead of repeating the whole line, only the first words are repeated, often with a different sense.’ The word is here used in the former sense; and the remark in Morley’s Eng. Writers (v. 271), that the Roundel consists of thirteen lines, eight having one rime, and five another, is not to the point here, as it relates to the later French rondeau only. An examination of Old French roundels shews us that Littré’s definition of the triolet is quite correct, and is purposely left somewhat indefinite; but we can apply a somewhat more exact description to the form of the roundel as used by Machault, Deschamps, and Chaucer.

The form adopted by these authors is the following. First come three lines, rimed abb; next two more, rimed ab, and then the first refrain; then three more lines, rimed abb, followed by the second refrain. Now the first refrain consists of either one, or two, or three lines, being the first line of the poem, or the first two, or the first three; and the second refrain likewise consists of either one, or two, or three lines, being the same lines as before, but not necessarily the same number of them. Thus the whole poem consists of eight unlike lines, three on one rime, and five on another, with refrains of from two to six lines. Sometimes one of the refrains is actually omitted, but this may be the scribe’s fault. However, the least possible number of lines is thus reduced to nine; and the greatest number is fourteen. For example, Deschamps (ed. Tarbé) has roundels of nine lines—second refrain omitted—(p. 125); of ten lines (p. 36); of eleven lines (p. 38); of twelve lines (p. 3); and of fourteen lines (pp. 39, 43). But the prettiest example is that by Machault (ed. Tarbé, p. 52), which has thirteen lines, the first refrain being of two, and the second of three lines. And, as thirteen lines came to be considered as the normal length, I here follow this as a model, both here and in ‘Merciless Beaute’; merely warning the reader that he may make either of his refrains of a different length, if he pleases.

There is a slight art in writing a roundel, viz. in distributing the pauses. There must be a full stop at the end of the third and fifth lines; but the skilful poet takes care that complete sense can be made by the first line taken alone, and also by the first two lines taken alone. Chaucer has done this.

Todd, in his Illustrations of Chaucer, p. 372, gives a capital example of a roundel by Occleve; this is of full length, both refrains being of three lines, so that the whole poem is of fourteen lines. This is quite sufficient to shew that the definition of a roundel in Johnson’s Dictionary (which is copied from the Dict. de Trevoux, and relates to the latter rondeau of thirteen lines) is quite useless as applied to roundels written in Middle English.

[677.]The note, i. e. the tune. Chaucer adapts his words to a known French tune. The words Qui bien aime, a tard1oublie (he who loves well is slow to forget) probably refer to this tune; though it is not quite clear to me how lines of five accents (normally) go to a tune beginning with a line of four accents. In Furnivall’s Trial Forewords, p. 55, we find:—‘Of the rondeau of which the first line is cited in the Fairfax MS., &c., M. Sandras found the music and the words in a MS. of Machault in the National Library, no. 7612, leaf 187. The verses form the opening lines of one of two pieces entitled Le Lay de plour:—

  • ‘Qui bieu aime, a tart oublie,
  • Et cuers, qui oublie a tart,
  • Ressemble le feu qui art,’ &c.

M. Sandras also says (Étude, p. 72) that Eustache Deschamps composed, on this burden slightly modified, a pretty ballad, inedited till M. Sandras printed it at p. 287 of his Étude; and that, a long time before Machault, Moniot de Paris began, by this same line, a hymn to the Virgin that one can read in the Arsenal Library at Paris, in the copy of a Vatican MS., B. L. no. 63, fol. 283:—

  • ‘Ki bien aime a tart oublie;
  • Mais ne le puis oublier
  • La douce vierge Marie.’

In MS. Gg. 4. 27 (Cambridge), there is a poem in 15 8-line stanzas. The latter half of st. 14 ends with:—‘Qui bien ayme, tard oublye.’

In fact, the phrase seems to have been a common proverb; see Le Roux de Lincy, ii. 383, 496. It occurs again in Tristan, ed. Michel, ii. 123, l. 700; in Gower, Balade 25 (ed. Stengel, p. 10); in MS. Digby 53, fol. 15, back; MS. Corp. Chr. Camb. 450, p. 258, &c.

[683.]See note above, to l. 309.

[693.]This last stanza is imitated at the end of the Court of Love, and of Dunbar’s Thrissill and Rois.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[13.]Sene, evident; A. S. ge-séne, ge-sýne, adj., evident, quite distinct from the pp. of the verb, which appears in Chaucer as seen or yseen. Other examples of the use of this adjective occur in ysene, C. T. Prol. 592; C. T. 11308 (Frank. Tale, F 996); sene, Compl. of Pite, 112; Merciless Beauty, 10.

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

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

Creseide, the heroine of Chaucer’s Troilus.

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

[18.]Tache, defect; cf. P. Plowman, B. ix. 146. This is the word which best expresses the sense of touch (which Schmidt explains by trait) in the famous passage—‘One touch of nature makes the whole world kin’; Shak. Troil. iii. 3. 175. I do not assert that touch is an error for tache, though even that is likely; but I say that the context shews that it is used in just the sense of tache. The same context also entirely condemns the forced sense of the passage, as commonly misapplied. It is somewhat curious that touchwood is corrupted from a different tache, which had the sense of dried fuel or tinder.

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

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

[20.]Al light for somer; this phrase begins l. 15 of the Canon’s Yeoman’s Prologue, Group G, 568; and the phrase wot what I mene occurs again in C. T., Group B, 93. This allusion to the wearing of light summer garments seems here to imply wantonness or fickleness. Canacee in the Squi. Tale was arrayed lightly (F 389, 390); but she was taking a walk in her own park, attended by her ladies. Skelton has, ‘he wente so all for somer lyghte’; Bowge of Courte, 355; and again, in Philip Sparowe, 719, he tells us that Pandarus won nothing by his help of Troilus but ‘lyght-for-somer grene.’ It would seem that green was a favourite colour for summer garments.

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

[3.]Recoverer, recovery, cure; answering to O. F. recovrier, sb. succour, aid, cure, recovery; see examples in La Langue et la Littérature Française, by Bartsch and Horning, 1887. Gower uses recoverir in a like sense; ed. Pauli, i. 265. In Specimens of English, ed. Morris and Skeat, pt. ii. p. 156, l. 394, recouerer may likewise mean ‘succour’: and the whole line may mean, ‘they each of them cried for succour (to be obtained) from the Creator.’

[6.]Cf. Sect. VI. l. 53:—‘So litel rewthe hath she upon my peyne.’

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

[12.]Spitous, hateful. The word in Chaucer is usually despitous; see Prol. 516, Cant. Ta. A 1596, D 761, Troil. ii. 435, v. 199; but spitously occurs in the Cant. Tales, D 223. Trevisa translates ignominiosa seruitute by ‘in a dispitous bondage’; Higden’s Polychron. v. 87. The sense is—‘You have banished me to that hateful island whence no man may escape alive.’ The allusion is to the isle of Naxos, here used as a synonym for a state of hopeless despair. It was the island in which Ariadne was left, when deserted by Theseus; and Chaucer alludes to it at least thrice in a similar way: see C. T. Group B, 68, Ho. of Fame, 416, Legend of Good Women, 2163.

[14.]This have I, such is my reward. For, because.

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

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

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

[24, 25.]Cf. X. 7, and the note (p. 544).

[28.]Perhaps corrupt; it seems to mean—‘All these things caused me, in that (very state of despair), to love you dearly.’

[31.]The insertion of to is justified by the parallel line—‘And I my deeth to yow wol al forgive’; VI. 119.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[62.]See l. 10 above.

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

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

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

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

[79.]Cf. Troil. iii. 141—‘And I to ben your verray humble trewe.’

[81.]‘Sun of the bright and clear star’; i. e. source of light to the planet Venus. The ‘star’ can hardly be other than this bright planet, which was supposed to be auspicious to lovers. Cf. Troil. v. 638:—‘O sterre, of which I lost have al the light.’ Observe that MSS. F. and B. read over for of; this will not scan, but it suggests the sense intended.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[4.]See note to XXII. 72, and l. 8 below.

[13, 14.]Cf. VI. 110, 111.

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

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

*∗* For Errata and Addenda, see p. lxiv.

[1249, 50.]

Al hadde he be, even if he had been. As the French copy consulted by Warton here omitted two lines of the original, Warton made the singular mistake of supposing that, in l. 1250, Chaucer intended ‘a compliment to some of his patrons.’ But William de Lorris died in 1260, so that the seignor de Gundesores was ‘Henry of Windsor,’ as he was sometimes termed1 , i. e. no other than Henry III; and the reference was probably suggested by the birth of prince Edward in 1239, unless these two lines were added somewhat later.

[723.]By the ferses twelve I understand all the pieces except the king, which could not be taken. The guess in Bell’s Chaucer says ‘all the pieces except the pawns’; but as a player only has seven pieces beside the pawns and king, we must then say that the knight exaggerates. My own reckoning is thus: pawns, eight; queen, bishop, rook, knight, four; total, twelve. The fact that each player has two of three of these, viz. of the bishop, rook, and knight, arose from the conversion of chaturanga, in which each of four persons had a king, bishop, knight, rook [to keep to modern names] and four pawns, into chess, in which each of two persons had two kings (afterwards king and queen), two bishops, knights, and rooks, and eight pawns. The bishop, knight, and rook, were thus duplicated, and so count but one apiece, which makes three (sorts of) pieces; and the queen is a fourth, for the king cannot be taken. The case of the pawns was different, for each pawn had an individuality of its own, no two being made alike (except in inferior sets). Caxton’s Game of the Chesse shews this clearly; he describes each of the eight pawns separately, and gives a different figure to each. According to him, the pawns were (beginning from the King’s Rook’s Pawn) the Labourer, Smyth, Clerke (or Notary), Marchaunt, Physicien, Tauerner, Garde, and Ribauld. They denoted ‘all sorts and conditions of men’; and this is why our common saying of ‘tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, gentleman, apothecary, ploughboy, thief’ enumerates eight conditions1 .

As the word fers originally meant counsellor or monitor of the king, it could be applied to any of the pieces. There was a special reason for its application to each of the pawns; for a pawn, on arriving at its last square, could not be exchanged (as now) for any piece at pleasure, but only for a queen, i. e. the fers par excellence. For, as Caxton says again, ‘he [the pawn] may not goo on neyther side till he hath been in the fardest ligne of theschequer, & that he hath taken the nature of the draughtes of the quene, & than he is a fiers, and than may he goo on al sides cornerwyse fro poynt to poynt onely as the quene’; &c.

[779.]M. Sandras points out the resemblance to a passage in G. de Machault’s Remède de Fortune:—

  • ‘Car le droit estat d’innocence
  • Ressemblent (?) proprement la table
  • Blanche, polie, qui est able
  • A recevoir, sans nul contraire,
  • Ce qu’on y veut peindre ou portraire.1

The rime of table and able settles the point. Mr. Brock points out a parallel passage in Boethius, which Chaucer thus translates:—‘the soule hadde ben naked of it-self, as a mirour or a clene parchemin . . . Right as we ben wont som tyme by a swifte pointed to ficchen lettres emprented in the smothenesse or in the pleinnesse of the table of wex, or in parchemin that ne hath no figure ne note in it’; bk. v. met. 4. But I doubt if Chaucer knew much of Boethius in 1369; and in the present passage he clearly refers to a prepared white surface, not to a tablet of wax. ‘Youth and white paper take any impression’; Ray’s Proverbs.

[1040.]I here substitute lisse for goddesse, as in the authorities. The blunder is obvious; goddesse clogs the line with an extra syllable, and gives a false rime such as Chaucer never makes1 . He rimes blisse with kisse, lisse, misse, and wisse. Thus in the Frankelein’s Tale, F 1237—

  • ‘What for his labour and his hope of blisse,
  • His woful herte of penaunce hadde a lisse.’

Lisse is alleviation, solace, comfort; and l. 1040 as emended, fairly corresponds to Machault’s ‘C’est ce qui me soustient en vie,’ i. e. it is she who sustains my life. The word goddesse was probably substituted for lisse, because the latter was obsolescent.

[677.]The note, i. e. the tune. Chaucer adapts his words to a known French tune. The words Qui bien aime, a tard1oublie (he who loves well is slow to forget) probably refer to this tune; though it is not quite clear to me how lines of five accents (normally) go to a tune beginning with a line of four accents. In Furnivall’s Trial Forewords, p. 55, we find:—‘Of the rondeau of which the first line is cited in the Fairfax MS., &c., M. Sandras found the music and the words in a MS. of Machault in the National Library, no. 7612, leaf 187. The verses form the opening lines of one of two pieces entitled Le Lay de plour:—

  • ‘Qui bieu aime, a tart oublie,
  • Et cuers, qui oublie a tart,
  • Ressemble le feu qui art,’ &c.

M. Sandras also says (Étude, p. 72) that Eustache Deschamps composed, on this burden slightly modified, a pretty ballad, inedited till M. Sandras printed it at p. 287 of his Étude; and that, a long time before Machault, Moniot de Paris began, by this same line, a hymn to the Virgin that one can read in the Arsenal Library at Paris, in the copy of a Vatican MS., B. L. no. 63, fol. 283:—

  • ‘Ki bien aime a tart oublie;
  • Mais ne le puis oublier
  • La douce vierge Marie.’

In MS. Gg. 4. 27 (Cambridge), there is a poem in 15 8-line stanzas. The latter half of st. 14 ends with:—‘Qui bien ayme, tard oublye.’

In fact, the phrase seems to have been a common proverb; see Le Roux de Lincy, ii. 383, 496. It occurs again in Tristan, ed. Michel, ii. 123, l. 700; in Gower, Balade 25 (ed. Stengel, p. 10); in MS. Digby 53, fol. 15, back; MS. Corp. Chr. Camb. 450, p. 258, &c.

[1 ]As, e. g. in the curious satirical ballad ‘Against the King of Almaigne,’ printed in Percy’s Ballads, Series II. Book I, and in Wright’s ‘Political Songs,’ p. 69. Henry was also called Henry of Winchester, from the place of his birth.

[1 ]The thief is the Ribauld; the ploughboy, the Labourer; the apothecary, the Physicien; the soldier, the Garde; the tailor, the Marchaunt; the tinker, the Smyth. Only two are changed.

[1 ]The thief is the Ribauld; the ploughboy, the Labourer; the apothecary, the Physicien; the soldier, the Garde; the tailor, the Marchaunt; the tinker, the Smyth. Only two are changed.

[1 ]Koch instances góddes in the Envoy to Scogan, 15, which he assumes was góddis. Not at all; it is like Chaucer’s rime of clérkes, derk is; the -es being unaccented. This could never produce goddís, and still less goddísse.

[1 ]In old French, a tard means ‘slowly, late’; later French drops a, and uses tard only.