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

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VII.: THE LEGEND OF PHILOMELA. - 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]

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

Author: Geoffrey Chaucer
Editor: Walter W. Skeat

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

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VII.

THE LEGEND OF PHILOMELA.

Title.FromF.After which,F.has Deus dator formatorum; B.has Deus dator formarum.

Incipit Legenda Philomene.

Deus dator formarum.

- Thou yiver of the formes, that hast wroght[ ]
- The faire world, and bare hit in thy thoght
- Eternally, or thou thy werk began,2230
- Why madest thou, unto the slaundre of man,
- Or—al be that hit was not thy doing,
- As for that fyn to make swiche a thing—
- Why suffrest thou that Tereus was bore,
- That is in love so fals and so forswore,2235
- That, fro this world up to the firste hevene,
- Corrumpeth, whan that folk his name nevene?(10)[ ]
- And, as to me , so grisly was his dede,
- That, whan that I his foule story rede,
- Myn eyen wexen foule and sore also;2240
- Yit last the venim of so longe ago,
- That hit enfecteth him that wol beholde
- The story of Tereus , of which I tolde.[ ]
- Of Trace was he lord, and kin to Marte,[ ]
- The cruel god that stant with blody darte;2245
- And wedded had he, with a blisful chere,
- King Pandiones faire doghter dere,(20)[ ]
- That highte Progne, flour of her contree,
- Thogh Iuno list nat at the feste be,[ ]
- Ne Ymeneus, that god of wedding is;2250
- But at the feste redy been, y-wis,
- The furies three, with alle hir mortel brond.
- The owle al night aboute the balkes wond ,[ ]
- That prophet is of wo and of mischaunce.
- This revel, ful of songe and ful of daunce,2255
- Lasteth a fourtenight, or litel lasse.[ ]
- But, shortly of this story for to passe,(30)
- For I am wery of him for to telle,
- Five yeer his wyf and he togeder dwelle,[ ]
- Til on a day she gan so sore longe2260
- To seen her suster, that she saw nat longe ,
- That for desyr she niste what to seye.
- But to her husband gan she for to preye,
- For goddes love, that she moste ones goon
- Her suster for to seen, and come anoon ,2265
- Or elles , but she moste to her wende,
- She preyde him, that he wolde after her sende;(40)
- And this was, day by day, al her prayere
- With al humblesse of wyfhood, word, and chere.
- This Tereus let make his shippes yare,[ ]2270
- And into Grece him-self is forth y-fare
- Unto his fader in lawe, and gan him preye
- To vouche-sauf that, for a month or tweye,
- That Philomene, his wyves suster, mighte
- On Progne his wyf but ones have a sighte—2275
- ‘And she shal come to yow again anoon.
- Myself with her wol bothe come and goon,(50)
- And as myn hertes lyf I wol her kepe.’
- This olde Pandion, this king, gan wepe
- For tendernesse of herte, for to leve2280
- His doghter goon, and for to yive her leve;
- Of al this world he lovede no-thing so;[ ]
- But at the laste leve hath she to go.
- For Philomene, with salte teres eke,
- Gan of her fader grace to beseke2285
- To seen her suster, that her longeth so ;
- And him embraceth with her armes two.(60)
- And therwith-al so yong and fair was she[ ]
- That, whan that Terëus saw her beautee,
- And of array that ther was noon her liche,2290
- And yit of bountee was she two so riche,
- He caste his fyry herte upon her so
- That he wol have her, how so that hit go,
- And with his wyles kneled and so preyde ,
- Til at the laste Pandion thus seyde:—2295
- ‘Now, sone,’ quod he, ‘that art to me so dere,
- I thee betake my yonge doghter here ,(70)
- That bereth the key of al my hertes lyf.
- And grete wel my doghter and thy wyf,
- And yive her leve somtyme for to pleye,2300
- That she may seen me ones er I deye.’
- And soothly, he hath mad him riche feste,
- And to his folk, the moste and eek the leste,
- That with him com; and yaf him yiftes grete,
- And him conveyeth through the maister-strete2305
- Of Athenes, and to the see him broghte,
- And turneth hoom; no malice he ne thoghte.(80)
- The ores pulleth forth the vessel faste,[ ]
- And into Trace arriveth at the laste,
- And up into a forest he her ledde,2310
- And to a cave privily him spedde;
- And, in this derke cave, yif her leste,[ ]
- Or leste noght, he bad her for to reste;
- Of whiche her herte agroos , and seyde thus,
- ‘Wher is my suster, brother Tereus?’2315
- And therwith-al she wepte tenderly,
- And quook for fere, pale and pitously,(90)
- Right as the lamb that of the wolf is biten;
- Or as the colver, that of the egle is smiten,
- And is out of his clawes forth escaped,2320
- Yet hit is afered and awhaped
- Lest hit be hent eft-sones, so sat she.
- But utterly hit may non other be.
- By force hath he , this traitour, doon that dede,
- That he hath reft her of her maydenhede,2325
- Maugree her heed, by strengthe and by his might.
- Lo! here a dede of men, and that a right!(100)
- She cryeth ‘suster!’ with ful loude stevene,
- And ‘fader dere!’ and ‘help me, god in hevene!’
- Al helpeth nat; and yet this false theef2330
- Hath doon this lady yet a more mischeef,
- For fere lest she sholde his shame crye,
- And doon him openly a vilanye,
- And with his swerd her tong of kerveth he,
- And in a castel made her for to be2335
- Ful privily in prison evermore,
- And kepte her to his usage and his store,(110)
- So that she mighte him nevermore asterte.
- O sely Philomene! wo is thyn herte;
- God wreke thee, and sende thee thy bone!2340
- Now is hit tyme I make an ende sone.
- This Tereus is to his wyf y-come,[ ]
- And in his armes hath his wyf y-nome,
- And pitously he weep, and shook his heed,
- And swor her that he fond her suster deed;2345
- For which this sely Progne hath swich wo,
- That ny her sorweful herte brak a-two;(120)
- And thus in teres lete I Progne dwelle,
- And of her suster forth I wol yow telle.
- This woful lady lerned had in youthe2350
- So that she werken and enbrouden couthe,
- And weven in her stole the radevore
- As hit of women hath be woned yore .
- And, shortly for to seyn, she hath her fille
- Of mete and drink, and clothing at her wille,2355
- And coude eek rede, and wel y-nogh endyte,
- But with a penne coude she nat wryte;(130)
- But lettres can she weven to and fro,
- So that , by that the yeer was al a-go,
- She had y-woven in a stamin large2360
- How she was brought from Athenes in a barge,
- And in a cave how that she was brought;
- And al the thing that Tereus hath wroght,
- She waf hit wel, and wroot the story above,
- How she was served for her suster love;2365
- And to a knave a ring she yaf anoon,
- And prayed him, by signes, for to goon(140)
- Unto the quene, and beren her that clooth,
- And by signes swor him many an ooth,
- She sholde him yeve what she geten mighte.2370
- This knave anoon unto the quene him dighte,
- And took hit her, and al the maner tolde.
- And, whan that Progne hath this thing beholde,[ ]
- No word she spak, for sorwe and eek for rage;
- But feyned her to goon on pilgrimage2375
- To Bachus temple; and, in a litel stounde,
- Her dombe suster sitting hath she founde,(150)
- Weping in the castel her aloon.
- Allas! the wo, the compleint , and the moon[ ]
- That Progne upon her dombe suster maketh![ ]2380
- In armes everich of hem other taketh,
- And thus I lete hem in hir sorwe dwelle.
- The remenant is no charge for to telle,[ ]
- For this is al and som, thus was she served,
- That never harm a-gilte ne deserved2385
- Unto this cruel man, that she of wiste.
- Ye may be war of men, yif that yow liste.(160)
- For, al be that he wol nat, for his shame,
- Doon so as Tereus, to lese his name,
- Ne serve yow as a mordrour or a knave,2390
- Ful litel whyle shul ye trewe him have,
- That wol I seyn, al were he now my brother,
- But hit so be that he may have non other .(166)

Explicit Legenda Philomene.

[2233. ]C. T. A. fyn; rest fende.

[2239. ]C. A. his; F. Tn. B. this. T. that sorrowfull story.

[2241. ]F. B. laste (error for last); Tn. A. laft (!); C. lestyth; T. Th. lasteth.

[2242. ]C. T. A. it; rest om. C. wele; T. wyll; Add. (12524) woll; rest wolde.

[2243. ]B. Th. Tereus; A. Tireus; C. Therius; T. Thereus; F. Teseus; Tn. Theseus (!). [Of which I tolde = whom I mentioned (l. 2234).] See next line.

[2246. ]C. T. A. a; rest om.

[2249. ]C. T. A. lyst; Th. lyste; F. Tn. B. baste (!).

[2252, 2253. ]C. Tn. A. brond, wond; rest bronde, wonde.

[2256. ]A. Lestith; rest Laste (Last).

[2277. ]All but C. T. badly insert I after her.

[2282. ]T. C. loueth.

[2285. ]F. B. Tn. for; rest of.

[2286. ]So F. Tn. Th. B.; C. T. she loueth so; A. sche loued so.

[2287-92. ]T. omits.

[2291. ]B. bounte; F. bounde (error for bounte); rest beaute (but see l. 2289). A. twys; Th. to; rest two (twoo); see 736.

[2294. ]C. wilis he so fayre hire preyede.

[2297. ]C. T. A. here; rest repeat dere.

[2301. ]C. Tn. T. er; rest or.

[2311. ]F. T. in-to; rest to.

[2314. ]Tn. a-groos; A. agros; Th. agrose; F. agrosse; T. agrysyd; C. aros (!).

[2316. ]C. Tn. Th. B. wepte; F. wepe; T. wepyd.

[2319. ]F. Tn. Or of; B. Or; rest Or as.

[2320. ]F. Tn. B. om. his.

[2324. ]C. he; rest om.

[2325. ]F. Tn. B. om. of her.

[2328. ]F. B. longe; rest loude.

[2329. ]C. A. and; rest om.

[2332. ]F. B. Tn. ferde; A. fered; rest fere.

[2334. ]A. C. kerveth; T. kutteth; rest kerf (kerfe).

[2338. ]So C. T. A.; Th. she ne might (om. him). F. Tn. B. omit this line, and have a spurious line after 2339.

[2339. ]C. T. A. is; F. Tn. Th. B. is in.

[2345. ]C. say (for fond).

[2346. ]F. B. the (for this).

[2350. ]C. T. A. lerned; rest y-lerned.

[2352. ]F. Tn. Th. B. om. her. F. Tn. T. Th. B. radeuore (or radenore); C. radynore (or radynore); A. raduor.

[2353. ]F. wore (error for yore); rest yore.

[2355. ]C. T. A. and; rest of.

[2356. ]C. A. coude; rest kouthe (couthe, couth). P. Tn. Th. B. put and after y-nogh.

[2357. ]C. A. coude she; T. couthe she; rest she kouthe (couth, coulde).

[2359. ]All but T. A. om. 2nd that. F. (only) om. al.

[2360. ]A. C. ywouen; rest wouen (woued). C. T. A. stamyn; rest stames.

[2364. ]C. waf; Tn. B. wafe; rest waue (wave).

[2369. ]F. Tn. Th. B. signe; rest signes. C. swor hym; T. sware she; A. suore; Th. swore; F. B. sworne (!); Tn. sworen (!).

[2375. ]C. Th. on; T. A. in; F. Tn. B. a.

[2378. ]Tn. her; C. here (for her); A. all hir; F. T. Th. B. hir self.

[2379. ]So A.; so T. (omitting 3rd the); C. Allas the compleynt the wo & the mone; F. Th. Allas the wo constreynt (!) and the mone.

[2380.]So all.

[2388. ]C. his; rest om.

[2389. ]C. so; rest om.

[2390. ]B. mordrer; F. morderere; Th. murtherer; C. T. A. morderour; Tn. mordroure.

[2393. ]C. T. A. non othir; rest a-nother (!).

[7.]planete; miswritten that A, but corrected to planete in the margin; C has planete, correctly. The figure 6 is omitted in C; so are all the other figures further on. him] hir C.

[8.]I tok] Than toke I C. 8, 16. 2 degrees A; 3 degrees B.

[10.]Than tok I] Than toke I C; for tok AB wrongly have stykke, after wards altered to stokke in A. second the] supplied from C, which has þe; AB omit.

[2228.]The words ‘Deus dator formarum’ are written after the title in MS. B.; and part of the first line corresponds to this expression. In MS. F. it appears as ‘Deus dator formatorum1 ,’ which can hardly be right.

Corson has the following note:—‘In these verses (2228-30) the Platonic doctrine of forms or ideas is expressed. For whatever knowledge Chaucer may have had of the philosophy of Plato, he was probably indebted to the Italian poets, with whom, especially Petrarch, Plato was a favourite.’ Corson also quotes the following from Sir Wm. Hamilton:—‘Plato agreed with the rest of the ancient philosophers in this—that all things consist of matter and form; and that matter of which all things were made, existed from eternity, without form; but he likewise believed that there are external forms of all possible things which exist, without matter; and to these eternal and immaterial forms he gave the name of ideas. In the Platonic sense, then, ideas were the patterns to which the Deity fashioned the phenomenal or ectypal world.’ See also Spenser, Hymne in honour of Beautie, st. 5. And cf. l. 1582 above.

However, Chaucer here follows Boethius, De Consolatione Philosophiae, lib. iii. met. 9:—

. . . ‘Tu cuncta superno
ducis ab exemplo, pulcrum pulcerrimus ipse
mundum mente gerens, similique in imagine formans.’

See Chaucer’s version of the same, ll. 1-12. Cf. Le Rom. de la Rose, 16931-8, also copied from Boethius, who follows Plato.

[2233.]As for that fyn, with that particular object.

[2236.]Fro this world, i. e. from the centre of the universe; according to the old Ptolemaic system which made the earth the fixed centre of all things. The firste hevene, the first or outermost sphere, that of Saturn; see note to Complaint of Mars, 29.

[2237.]Understand al (everything) as the nom. case to corrumpeth; i. e. everything becomes corrupt, is infected.

[2238.]As to me, as for me, in my opinion.

[2241.]Yit last, still lasts, still endures.

[2243.]Read—The stóry of Térë-ús, &c.; the -y in story being rapidly slurred over.

[2244.]Here begins Ovid, Met. vi. 424:—‘Threïcius Tereus.’ Tereus was king of Thrace; and Ovid says he could trace his descent from Gradivus, i. e. Mars (l. 427).

Marte, Mars. Corson here notes that ‘Marte is the ablative case of Mars, as Jove is of Jupiter.’ It is worth while to say that this view is quite erroneous; for these forms did not arise in that way. Marte was formed from Martem, the accusative case, by dropping the final m; and, generally, the Romance languages formed most of their substantives from accusative cases, owing to the frequent use of that case, especially in the construction of the accus. with the infinitive, which in medieval Latin was very common. See Sir G. Cornewall Lewis’ Essay on the Romance Languages, and Diez, Grammatik der Romanischen Sprachen, vol. ii. Thus the F. corps represents the Lat. acc. corpus, not the abl. corpore; as is sufficiently obvious.

[2247.]Read—Pán-di-ón-es. Pandion, a king of Athens, was father of Progne and Philomela. Cf. The Passionate Pilgrim, xxi. 395.

[2249.]The original Latin should be consulted, as Chaucer sometimes copies Ovid literally, and sometimes goes his own way.

‘Non pronuba Iuno,
non Hymenaeus adest illi, non Gratia lecto.
Eumenides tenuere faces de funere raptas:
Eumenides strauere torum: tectoque profanus
incubuit bubo, thalamique in culmine sedit.’—428.

[2253.]Wond, wound; aboute the balkes wond, kept winding (flying in circular wise) round about the balks (or transverse beams beneath the roof). Three good MSS. read wond, which is the past tense of winden, to wind. Bell and others read wonde, explained by ‘dwelt’; but this is open to two objections, viz. (1) the pt. t. of wonien to dwell, is woned or wonede, not wonde; and (2) an owl cannot dwell about a balk, but only on it. The pt. pl. woneden (three syllables) occurs in the Kn. Ta. 2069 (A 2927); and we learn from the Clerkes Tale, E 339, that the pp. woned rimes with astoned. Ovid, indeed, has incubuit and sedit; but that does not prove much; for Chaucer expresses things in his own manner at will.

[2256.]This original line refers to the medieval wedding-feasts, which sometimes lasted even forty days. See Havelok, l. 2344; and the note.

[2259-68.]From Ovid, Met. vi. 438-442.

[2261.]Saw not longe, had not seen for a long time.

[2264.]Moste, might. Ones, for once; lit. once.

[2265.]And come anoon, and return again soon.

[2266.]‘Or else, unless she might go to see her.’

[2270.]‘Caused his ships to be made ready.’

[2270-8.]From Ovid, Met. vi. 444-450. Chaucer next passes on to ll. 475, 483. Ll. 2288-2294 are abridged from ll. 451-471 of the Latin. Ll. 2295-2301 answer to ll. 495-501; ll. 2302-2307 to ll. 488, 489; but many touches are Chaucer’s own, and he is seldom literal.

[2282.]Read lovede as lov’de; cf. preyde, 2294. This line is imitated in Kn. Ta. 338 (A 1196)—‘For in this world he lovede no man so.’

[2290, 1.]‘And that there was none like her in (royal) array’; Met. vi. 451. Two so riche, twice as rich; cf. ten so wood, in l. 736.

[2308.]Cf. Ovid, Met. vi. 512.

[2312, 3.]‘If it might please her, or (even) if it might not please her.’

[2318-22.]Ovid has these images of the lamb (l. 527) and of the dove (529).

[2335.]This ‘castle’ answers to Ovid’s ‘custodia’ (572).

[2340.]‘God avenge thee, and grant thee thy petition (for vengeance).’

[2342-9.]Cf. Ovid, Met. vi. 563-570.

[2352.]Stole, stool, frame for tapestry work. Hexham’s Du. Dict. (1658) gives: ‘Stoel-doeck, Tapistrie, or Hangings’; lit. stool-cloth. Cf. G. Weberstuhl, a loom; lit. weaver-stool. Radevore, a kind of serge; here, the material on which tapestry-work was executed. The only other example I have met with is in a poem beginning—‘As ofte as syghes ben in herte trewe,’ in the Tanner MS. 346, fol. 73. One stanza begins thus:—

‘As ofte tymes as Penelapye
Renewed her werk in the raduore,
To saue her-selfe onely in honeste
Vnto Vlixes, that she louyd so sore.’

(Another copy of these lines is in MS. Ff. 1. 6 in the Cambridge Univ. Library, fol. 11.)

Here raduore is clearly an error for radeuore or radevore, as the scansion shews. Urry’s Glossary gives the following explanation: ‘Ras in French means any stuff [it means serge or satin], as Ras de Chalons, Ras de Gennes; Ras de Vore or Vaur may be a stuff made at such a place.’ On which Tyrwhitt remarks—‘There is a town in Languedoc called La Vaur; but I know not that it was ever famous for tapestry.’ Cotgrave gives: ‘Ras, serge’; also ‘Ras de Milain, the finest kind of bare serge, or a silke serge.’ Littré cites ras de Châlons from Scarron, Virg. iv.; also ‘bas de soye, raz de Millan et d’estame.’ Ras, in fact, is the same as the Tudor-English word rash. The loss of the s in ras de Vore is regular, because s drops before d in Anglo-French, though it is preserved in ras when used alone. I find, on consulting the English Cyclopædia, that La Vaur, in the department of Tarn, produces silk and serge to this day; so that Urry is certainly right. The whole account in ll. 2350-72 is expanded from five lines in the Latin text, 576-580:—

‘Stamina barbarica suspendit candida tela:
purpureasque notas filis intexuit albis’; &c.

Observe that, in l. 2360, the stuff is called ‘a stamin.’

[2359.]By that, by the time that.

[2360.]A stamin large, a large piece of stamine. Stamin or stamine is usually explained as a kind of woollen cloth. Cotgrave gives: ‘Estamine, the stuffe tamine.’ Godefroy gives both estamin, masc. and estamine, fem. explained by ‘tissu léger de laine ou de coton.’ Palsgrave has:—‘Stamell, fyne worstede, estamine’; and—‘Stamyne, estamine.’ The Prompt. Parv. has:—‘Stamyn, clothe, stamina.’ Stamin was used as a material for shirts, and was worn by way of penance; Fosbrooke explains it as ‘a shirt made of woollen and linen, used instead of a penitentiary hair-shirt.’ ‘Stamin habbe whoso wule,’ whoso will may have a stamin; Ancren Riwle, p. 418. Chaucer uses it thus near the end of the Persones Tale (I 1052); ‘Also in weringe of heyres or of stamin or of haubergeons on hir naked flesh for Cristes sake, and swiche manere penances.’

MSS. C. T. A. have stamyn, which seems the better form; the rest (like the printed editions) have stames, which may be an error for stamel, O. F. estamel, used in the same sense as O. F. estamine. Else it may answer to O. F. estame, ‘laine peignée, tricot de laine’ in Godefroy. The fact that Ovid’s word is stamina is in favour of the spelling stamin. (Bell remarks that ‘the printed copies read flames, which is nonsense.’ He seems to have misread stames (with long s) as flames. The editions of 1532, 1550, and 1561 certainly have stames.)

[2373-82.]Abridged from Met. vi. 581-605. Ovid mentions the triennial festival to Bacchus.

[2379.]Compleint is a much better reading than the constreynte of the old editions.

[2383.]No charge, of no consequence; Squi. Ta., F 359.

[2383-93.]All Chaucer’s own. The last line is characteristic: ‘unless it happens to be the case that he cannot get another,’ i. e. a new love. For non other, old editions have another!

[2385.]Here deserved is the usual Chaucerian form of the pt. tense. Prof. Lounsbury (Studies in Chaucer, i. 403) calls this a false form. But cf. wyped, lipsed (in -ed, not -ede); Prol. to C. T., 133, 264.

. . . ‘Tu cuncta superno
ducis ab exemplo, pulcrum pulcerrimus ipse
mundum mente gerens, similique in imagine formans.’