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I.: THE LEGEND OF CLEOPATRA. - Geoffrey Chaucer, The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, vol. 3 (House of Fame, Legend of Good Women, Treatise on Astrolabe, Sources of Canterbury Tales) [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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I.

THE LEGEND OF CLEOPATRA.

Incipit Legenda Cleopatrie, Martiris, Egipti regine.

N.B.—Readings not marked with any letter are from F. (Fairfax MS.)

    • After the deeth of Tholomee the king,580
    • That al Egipte hadde in his governing,[ ]
    • Regned his quene Cleopataras;
    • Til on a tyme befel ther swiche a cas,
    • That out of Rome was sent a senatour,
    • For to conqueren regnes and honour585
    • Unto the toun of Rome, as was usaunce,
    • To have the world unto her obeisaunce;
    • And, sooth to seye, Antonius was his name.
    • So fil hit, as Fortune him oghte a shame(10)
    • Whan he was fallen in prosperitee,590
    • Rebel unto the toun of Rome is he.[ ]
    • And over al this, the suster of Cesar,[ ]
    • He lafte hir falsly, er that she was war,
    • And wolde algates han another wyf;
    • For whiche he took with Rome and Cesar stryf.595
    • Natheles, for-sooth, this ilke senatour
    • Was a ful worthy gentil werreyour,[ ]
    • And of his deeth hit was ful greet damage.
    • But love had broght this man in swiche a rage,(20)
    • And him so narwe bounden in his las ,600
    • Al for the love of Cleopataras,
    • That al the world he sette at no value.
    • Him thoughte, nas to him no thing so due
    • As Cleopatras for to love and serve;
    • Him roghte nat in armes for to sterve605
    • In the defence of hir, and of hir right.
    • This noble quene eek lovede so this knight,
    • Through his desert , and for his chivalrye;
    • As certeinly, but-if that bokes lye,(30)
    • He was, of persone and of gentilesse,610
    • And of discrecioun and hardinesse,
    • Worthy to any wight that liven may.
    • And she was fair as is the rose in May.
    • And, for to maken shortly is the beste,
    • She wex his wyf, and hadde him as hir leste.615
    • The wedding and the feste to devyse,
    • To me, that have y-take swiche empryse
    • Of so many a storie for to make,
    • Hit were to long, lest that I sholde slake(40)
    • Of thing that bereth more effect and charge;620
    • For men may overlade a ship or barge;
    • And forthy to theffect than wol I skippe,
    • And al the remenant , I wol lete hit slippe.
    • Octovian , that wood was of this dede,
    • Shoop him an ost on Antony to lede625
    • Al-outerly for his destruccioun,
    • With stoute Romains, cruel as leoun ;
    • To ship they wente, and thus I let hem saile.
    • Fleeth eek the queen, with al her purpre sail ,
    • For strokes, which that wente as thikke as hail ;655[ ]
    • No wonder was, she mighte hit nat endure.
    • And whan that Antony saw that aventure,
    • ‘Allas!’ quod he, ‘the day that I was born !
    • My worshipe in this day thus have I lorn !’(80)
    • And for dispeyr out of his witte he sterte,660
    • And roof him-self anoon through-out the herte
    • Er that he ferther wente out of the place.[ ]
    • His wyf, that coude of Cesar have no grace,
    • To Egipte is fled, for drede and for distresse;
    • But herkneth , ye that speke of kindenesse.665
    • Ye men, that falsly sweren many an ooth
    • That ye wol dye, if that your love be wrooth ,
    • Heer may ye seen of women whiche a trouthe!
    • This woful Cleopatre hath mad swich routhe(90)
    • That ther nis tonge noon that may hit telle.670
    • But on the morwe she wol no lenger dwelle,
    • But made hir subtil werkmen make a shryne
    • Of alle the rubies and the stones fyne
    • In al Egipte that she coude espye;
    • And putte ful the shryne of spycerye,675
    • And leet the cors embaume; and forth she fette
    • This dedecors , and in the shryne hit shette.
    • And next the shryne a pit than doth she grave;[ ]
    • And alle the serpents that she mighte have,[ ](100)
    • She putte hem in that grave, and thus she seyde :680
    • ‘Now love, to whom my sorweful herte obeyde[ ]
    • So ferforthly that, fro that blisful houre
    • That I yow swor to been al frely youre,
    • I mene yow, Antonius my knight!
    • That never waking, in the day or night,685
    • Ye nere out of myn hertes remembraunce
    • For wele or wo , for carole or for daunce;
    • And in my-self this covenant made I tho ,
    • That, right swich as ye felten, wele or wo,(110)
    • As ferforth as hit in my power lay,690
    • Unreprovable unto my wyfhood ay,
    • The same wolde I felen, lyf or deeth.[ ]
    • And thilke covenant, whyl me lasteth breeth,
    • I wol fulfille, and that shal wel be sene ;[ ]
    • Was never unto hir love a trewer quene.’695
    • And with that word , naked , with ful good herte,
    • Among the serpents in the pit she sterte,
    • And ther she chees to han hir buryinge.
    • Anoon the neddres gonne hir for to stinge,(120)
    • And she hir deeth receyveth , with good chere,700
    • For love of Antony, that was hir so dere:—
    • And this is storial sooth , hit is no fable.
    • Now, er I finde a man thus trewe and stable,
    • And wol for love his deeth so freely take,
    • I pray god lat our hedes never ake!705

Explicit Legenda Cleopatrie, martiris.

[580. ]deth.

[582. ]queene.

[583. ]swich.

[586. ]tovne.

[587. ]worlde. C. vn-to; T. vnder; rest at.

[589. ]oght.

[591. ]tovne.

[594. ]wold.

[595. ]which.

[597. ]fulle.

[598. ]F. (only) this; rest his. gret.

[599. ]swich.

[600. ]laas.

[601. ]F. Alle; C. Tn. Al.

[602. ]worlde; noo.

[603. ]C. there nas to hym no thyng so dewe; rest there was no thing to him so due (all too long).

[604. ]F. Tn. B. Cleopataras; rest Cleopatras.

[607. ]ek. C. lovede; F. loved.

[608. ]Thurgh; decert.

[609. ]bookes.

[611. ]All but T. A. Add. insert of after and; I omit it.

[612. ]C. lyuyn; F. leven.

[613. ]faire.

[614. ]F. (only) om. for.

[615. ]MSS. wax, wox; read wex.

[616. ]C. Tn. feste; F. fest.

[617. ]swich.

[619. ]T. A. P. Add. long; rest longe. C. T. A. lest; F. lyst.

[621. ]shippe.

[622. ]A. Add. theffect; C. thefeect (sic); F. effect.

[623. ]remenaunt.

[624. ]woode.

[625. ]oost.

[627. ]Romaynes crewel. T. leoun; F. lyoun.

[628. ]shippe.

[630. ]Romaynes.

[631. ]eke; rede; booth.

[632. ]oost forthe went (C. wentyn).

[633. ]stent; C. stente.

[635. ]gooth.

[637. ]sovne; gooth.

[638. ]C. Tn. heterly; A. hatirly; F. hertely. hurtelen; attones.

[639. ]dovne.

[640. ]gooth.

[641. ]C. Among; F. Amonge.

[642. ]preseth.

[643. ]By-hynde; maste begyneth.

[646. ]sayle.

[647. ]F. A. Add. him; rest hem.

[648. ]slidre.

[649. ]to-gedre.

[651. ]C. Tn. laste; F. last.

[652. ]flyght.

[653. ]folke to-goo; goo myght.

[654. ]ek; queene; sayle.

[655. ]went; thik; hayle.

[656. ]myght.

[657. ]C. saw; F. saugh.

[658. ]borne.

[659. ]worshippe; lorne.

[660. ]dispeyre.

[661. ]thurgh-.

[662. ]went.

[665. ]herkeneth. T. speke; rest speken.

[666. ]C. Tn. oth; F. oothe.

[667. ]C. Tn. wroth; F. wroothe.

[668. ]which.

[669. ]C. Tn. Cleopatre; F. Cleopatrie. made.

[671. ]C. morwe; F. morowe.

[672. ]werknen (!).

[673. ]Tn. rubies; F. rubees.

[675. ]C. Tn. putte; F. put.

[676. ]Tn. leet; C. F. let. C. cors; F. corps (and in l. 677).

[678. ]C. pet; Tn. pyt; F. pitte. dooth.

[679. ]C. alle; F. al. C. myghte; F. myght.

[680. ]C. Tn. putte; F. put. sayde.

[682. ]ferforthely.

[683. ]ben.

[687. ]woo.

[688. ]couenaunt; thoo.

[689. ]T. A. Th. wele; C. F. Tn. wel.

[690. ]C. power; F. powere.

[692. ]life; deethe.

[693. ]couenaunt while.

[694. ]seene.

[696. ]C. word; F. worde.

[700. ]C. receyuyth; F. receveth.

[704. ]F. (only) wolde.

[705. ]oure; neuere. F. take (!); rest ake.

[581.]Ptolemy XI., or Ptolemy Auletes, king of Egypt, died 51, leaving two sons, both called Ptolemy, and two daughters, Cleopatra and Arsinoe. Cleopatra was then 17 years of age, and was appointed queen of Egypt in conjunction with her brother, the elder Ptolemy, whom she was to marry; but she was expelled from the throne by Ptolemy’s guardians. In 47 she was replaced upon it by Julius Cæsar, but still in conjunction with her brother. This led to the Alexandrine war, in the course of which this elder Ptolemy perished. After this, she reigned, nominally, in conjunction with the younger Ptolemy, to whom also she was nominally married; but he was still quite a child, and was murdered by her orders in less than four years, after which she was sole queen, in name as well as in reality.

We thus see that the Ptolemy here mentioned may be either of Cleopatra’s brothers of that name; but it is more likely that Chaucer refers to the elder of them. Shakespeare also uses the expression ‘queen of Ptolemy’; Ant. i. 4. 6.

[583.]On a tyme; viz. not long after the battle of Philippi, which took place in 42. ‘Antonius, going to make war with the Parthians, sent to command Cleopatra to appear personally before him when he came into Cilicia, to answer unto such accusations as were laid against her, being this: that she had aided Cassius and Brutus in their war against him . . . Cleopatra on the other side . . . guessing by the former access and credit she had with Julius Cæsar and C. Pompey (the son of Pompey the Great) only for her beauty, she began to have good hope that she might more easily win Antonius. For Cæsar and Pompey knew her when she was but a young thing, and knew not then what the world meant; but now she went to Antonius at the age when a woman’s beauty is at the prime, and she also of best judgment.’—Sh. Plut. p. 174. Almost immediately after this passage follows the celebrated description of Cleopatra in her barge upon the Cydnus, familiar to all in the words of Shakespeare; Ant. and Cleop. ii. 2. 196.

[591.]‘Octavius Cæsar reporting all these things unto the Senate, and oftentimes accusing him to the whole people and assembly in Rome, he thereby stirred up all the Romans against him.’—Sh. Plut. p. 202.

[592.]After the death of his first wife, Fulvia, Antony had married Octavia, sister of Octavianus (better known to us as Augustus). But in a few years he deserted her, and surrendered himself wholly to the charms of Cleopatra. Cf. Ant. and Cleop. iii. 6.

[597.]Cf. Sh. Plut. p. 192; Ant. and Cleop. i. 4. 55.

[605.]Sterve, to die. See Starve, in Trench, Sel. Glossary.

[624.]Octovian, Octavianus. ‘Now for Cæsar, he had 250 ships of war, 80,000 footmen, and well near as many horsemen as his enemy Antonius’; Sh. Plut. p. 207.

[634.]See the account of the battle of Actium, 31; in Sh. Plut. p. 210. The vivid description here given by Chaucer resembles the parallel passage in the Kn. Tale, A 2600-20, which should be compared. ‘The soldiers fought with their pikes, halbards and darts, and threw halbards and darts with fire. Antonius’ ships, on the other side, bestowed among them, with their crossbows and engines of battery, great store of shot from their high towers of wood that were set upon their ships.’—Sh. Plut. p. 211. There is some description of the hostile fleets and of the battle in Florus (see note to l. 655), who tells us that, whilst Octavius had 400 ships against the 200 ships of Antony, the latter were nearly double the size of the former; so that the fleets were thus of equal strength.

[637.]Bell says this is ‘a ludicrous anachronism’; but it is nothing of the kind. The word gonne is here used in the sense of ‘shot’ or ‘missile’; and the line means—‘with terrible sound out rushes the huge missile,’ being hurled from one of the ‘engines of battery’ mentioned in the last note. It is the missile, not the engine, that ‘out goth’; as a moment’s reflection would have informed the commentator, whose remark was needless. The use of gonne in the sense of ‘missile’ is curious, but not unexampled; for, in the Avowynge of Arthur, st. 65, we read that ‘there come fliand a gunne,’ i. e. there came flying along a missile. I believe it is also used in the sense of missile in Sir Ferumbras, 5176, though the passage is not decisive.

Even if this were not the case, there is no ‘anachronism’; for gonne was originally used in the sense of ‘catapult,’ as may be seen by consulting the Prompt. Parvulorum, where the Latin for it is petraria, and mangonale. The grisly soun alludes to the whizzing of the ponderous missile through the air; Barbour says of a great stone, hurled from a catapult, that ‘It flaw out, quhedirand, with a rout,’ i. e. it flew out, whirring, with a great noise. See The Bruce, xvii. 684.

On the other hand, in Ho. Fame, 1643, Chaucer certainly uses gonne in the sense of ‘cannon’; but that does not affect the sense of the present passage.

[638.]Hurtlen, push, dash, ram one against the other; cf. Kn. Ta., A 2616. ‘Somtyme they hurtled to-gyder that they felle grovelyng on the ground’; Morte Arthure; by Sir T. Malory, bk. vii. c. 12. Heterly, vehemently, fiercely, occurs frequently in the Wars of Alexander, ed. Skeat (E. E. T. S.) Compare Vergil’s description of the battle, in Æn. viii. 689, &c.: ‘Una omnes ruere.’

[640.]In goth, in there go. Goth is singular in form, because of its position in the sentence; but it has two nominatives, viz. ‘grapnel’ and ‘shearing-hooks.’ The former was a contrivance for clutching the ropes, and the latter for severing them.

[642.]This is wonderfully graphic. A boarder bursts in with a poleaxe; a sailor, on the defence, flees behind the mast, then dashes forward again, and drives the assailant overboard.

[646.]Rent, rendeth; the present tense.

[648.]By pouring hard peas upon the hatches, they became so slippery that the boarders could not stand.

[649.]Some carried pots full of quicklime, which they threw into the eyes of their enemies. See Notes and Queries, 5 S. x. 188. The English did this very thing, when attacking a French fleet, in the time of Henry III. Strutt (Manners and Customs, 1774, ii. 11) quotes from Matthew Paris to this effect:—‘Calcem quoque vivam et in pulverem subtilem reductam, in altum projicientes, vento illam ferente, Francorum oculos excaecaverunt.’ Cf. Æn. viii. 694.

[652.]Put, short for putteth, puts; pres. tense.

[653.]To-go, disperse themselves; pres. tense. The prefix to has the same force as the Lat. dis-, i. e. ‘in different directions.’ We even find to-ga used as a past tense in Barbour’s Bruce (viii. 351, ix. 263, 269, xvii. 104, 575), with the sense ‘fled in different directions,’ or ‘fled away.’ Cf. ‘the wlcne to-gað,’ the clouds part asunder; Morris, Spec. of Eng. pt. 1. p. 7, l. 169. And again, ‘thagh the fourme of brede to-go,’ though the form of bread disappear; Shoreham’s Poems, p. 29.

That best go mighte, each in the way he could best go; each made the best of his way to a safe place. ‘Sauve qui peut.’

[655.]‘Suddenly they saw the threescore ships of Cleopatra busily about their yard-masts, and hoising sail to fly’; Sh. Plut. p. 212. Cf. Ant. and Cleop. iii. 10. 10; Vergil, Æn. viii. 707-8. The remark about Cleopatra’s ‘purple sails’ may remind us of Plutarch’s description of Cleopatra on the Cydnus, already referred to above (note to l. 583):—‘the poop [of her barge] was of gold, the sails of purple’; Sh. Plut. p. 174; Ant. and Cleop. ii. 2. 198.

The truth is, however, that (as Bech points out) Chaucer has borrowed this and a few other incidents from L. Annaeus Florus, who wrote an Epitome Rerum Romanarum in the second century. In relating the battle of Actium, he says:—‘Prima dux fugae regina, cum aurea puppe ueloque purpureo, in altum dedit. Mox secutus Antonius: sed instare uestigiis Caesar. Itaque nec praeparata in Oceanum fuga, nec munita praesidiis utraque Ægypti cornua, Paraetonium atque Pelusium, profuere: prope manu tenebantur. Prior ferrum occupauit Antonius. Regina ad pedes Caesaris prouoluta tentauit oculos ducis: frustra. Nam pulchritudo intra pudicitiam principis fuit. Nec illa de uita, quae offerebatur, sed de parte regni, laborabat. Quod ubi desperauit a principe, seruarique se triumpho uidit, incautiorem nacta custodiam, in Mausoleum se (sepulcra regum sic uocant) recipit: ibi maximos, ut solebat, induta cultus, in differto odoribus solio, iuxta suum se collocauit Antonium: admotisque ad uenas serpentibus, sic morte quasi somno, soluta est.’—Florus, Epit. Rerum Romanarum, lib. iv. c. 11.

[662.]Chaucer (following Florus) has hastened the catastrophe. Antony stabbed himself at Alexandria, in the following year, 30. See Sh. Plut. 221; Ant. and Cleop. iv. 14. 102.

[672.]Shryne; for ‘solio’ in Florus; cf. l. 675. Plutarch says only that Cleopatra ‘Hid sumptuously and royally bury him with her own hands’; Sh. Plut. p. 224. Afterwards, however, she ‘crowned the tomb with garlands and sundry nosegays, and marvellous lovingly embraced the same’; Sh. Plut. p. 227. But see the account by Florus, in the note to l. 655.

[677.]Dede cors, dead body; as in l. 876. Chaucer uses cors of the living body, as, e. g. in Sir Thopas, B 2098.

[678.]Chaucer seems to think that Florus meant, ‘in sepulcrum [suum] se recipit . . iuxta Antonium.’

[679.]Shakespeare follows closely the account in Plutarch, except that he makes mention of two asps, whereas Plutarch mentions but one, called by Sir Thos. North ‘an aspick’; Sh. Plut. p. 227. However, Florus uses the plural serpentibus. Cf. Gower, C. A., iii. 361.

[681.]Cf. Cleopatra’s lament in Sh. Plut. p. 226; Ant. and Cleop. iv. 15. 59; v. 2. 283.

[691.]Pronounce unreprovable, as unréprovábl’.

[694.]Sene, evident. Note that this is an adjective (A. S. gesýne), and not the past participle; cf. l. 2655, and note. See also ll. 340, 741, and my note to the Balade against Women Inconstaunt, l. 13.

[696.]Naked. It looks as if Chaucer took induta (note to l. 655) to mean ‘not clothed.’ Perhaps he read it as nudata.

[702.]Storial sooth, historical truth. The old editions actually put the comma after storial instead of after sooth; and modern editors have followed them. Surely the editors, in some passages, have never attempted to construe their own texts.