v. 823-5:--
'Et senior Glauci _chorus_, Inousque Palaemon, _Tritones_que citi, Phoreique _exercitus omnis_. Laeua tenent _Thetis_ et Melite, Panopeaque uirgo.'
Here we find _Thetis_, _chorus_, _Triton_; whilst 'and they alle' answers to _exercitus omnis_. (So also Bech.) _Chorus_ is used for Caurus, the north-east wind, in Chaucer's Boethius, bk. iv. met. 5. 17; but this is not the purpose.
2423. _Lond_, i.e. Thrace. Phyllis, as said above, was the daughter of Sithon, king of Thrace; but both Chaucer and Gower make her father's name to be 'Ligurgus,' i.e. Lycurgus. This substitution may have been suggested by Ovid, Her. ii. 111--'quae tibi subieci latissima regna _Lycurgi_.' He is the same as the Lycurgus in Statius, Theb. iv. 386; in Ovid, Met. iv. 22, and in Homer, vi. 130; and was king of the Edoni, a people of _Thrace_. This accounts also for the introduction into the Knight's Tale of 'Ligurge himself, the grete king of Thrace'; l. 1271 (A 2129). Prof. Lounsbury (Studies in Chaucer, ii. 232) has usefully pointed out that the immediate authority for making Lycurgus the _father_ of Phyllis was Boccaccio's De Genealogia Deorum, lib. xi. c. 25, headed--'De Phyllidi Lycurgi filia.'
2425. _On to sene_, to look upon; cf. the parallel line, Kn. Ta., 177 (A 1035).
2427. _Is y-wonne_, is arrived. Cf. Æn. i. 173.
2434. _Chevisaunce_, borrowing; properly an agreement for borrowing money. See C. T. 13259, 13277, 13321 (B 1519, 1537, 1581); P. Plowman, B. 5. 249, and the note; and the Gloss. to Spenser.
2438. _Rodopeya_, the country near Rhodope, which was a mountain-range of Thrace, now a part of the Hæmus range. See l. 2498.
2448. 'As Reynard the fox doth, so (doth) the fox's son.' The line is incomplete, but the sense is clear. 'Reynard, which with us is a duplicate for fox, while in the French _renard_ has quite excluded the older _volpils_, was originally not the name of a kind, but the proper name of the fox-hero, the vulpine Ulysses, in that famous beast-epic of the middle ages, _Reineke Fuchs_; the immense popularity of which we gather from many evidences, from none more clearly than this. _Chanticleer_ is in like manner the name of the cock, and _Bruin_ of the bear in the same poem.'--Trench, Eng. Past and Present. _Reynard_ is from M.H.G. _ragin-hart_, strong in counsel; from _ragin_, counsel, and _hart_, strong.
2454. _Agroted_, surfeited, cloyed. A rare word; used also by Lydgate. See the New E. Dict.
2456. This is a hint that Chaucer was already getting tired of his task.
2477. _In a month._ So in Ovid; see l. 2503.
2485. _With a corde_, i.e. by hanging. Cf. Ovid, Her. ii. 141:--
'Colla quoque, infidis quae se nectenda lacertis praebuerant, laqueis implicuisse libet.'
2493. _Hir soules_, their souls; of Theseus and Demophoön.
2495. 'Although it be but a small part of the whole letter.' In fact, Chaucer gives us ll. 1-8 of Ovid's second Epistle (in the Heroides); and, from l. 2518 onward, sentences made up from ll. 26, 27, 43, 44, 49-52, 63-68, 73-78, and 134-137 of the same.
2496. Compare these lines with Ovid, Her. ii. 1-8:--
'Hospita, Demophoon, tua te Rhodopeïa Phyllis ultra promissum tempus abesse queror. Cornua quum Lunae pleno semel orbe coissent, litoribus nostris ancora pacta tua est. Luna quater latuit, toto quater orbe recrevit, nec uehit Actæas Sithonis unda rates. Tempora si numeres, bene quae numeramus amantes, non uenit ante suum nostra querela diem.'
_Hostess-e_ is trisyllabic; MS. C. has--'Ostess-e thyn.'
2502. _Highte_, promised. But Chaucer seems to have mistaken the sense of Ovid's fourth line (in the note to l. 2496).
2508. 'Sithonis unda'; see note to l. 2496. Here _Sithonis_ is an adj. (gen. _Sithonidis_), and means 'Sithonian,' i.e. Thracian; because Sithon or Sitho, her father, was king of Thrace. I substitute _Sitho_ for the MS. spellings.
2518. See note to l. 2495 for references.
2521. _For_, because: 'quid feci, nisi non sapienter amaui?'
2529. _May_ occupies the first foot of the line.
2534. She prays that the glory of having betrayed her will be the greatest glory he will ever attain to. 'Di faciant, laudis summa sit ista tuae!' (66).
2551. _Mote ye_, may ye. 'Ad tua me fluctus proiectam littora portent'; (135).
2556. _And knew_, i.e. and _she_ knew.
2558. Read--'Such sórw' hath shé,' &c. Bell altered the second _she_ in this line to _he_, without authority, and unnecessarily. The word _besette_ does not mean 'served' or 'treated,' as those who keep this reading have to assert, but 'bestowed' or 'gave up,' and _her_ means 'herself.' The sense is therefore--'Such sorrow hath she, because she so disposed of herself.' See _Beset_ in the New E. Dict. § 7. Caxton has: 'Orgarus thought his doughter shol wel be maryed, and wel _beset_ upon hym'; Chron. Eng. cxii.
2561. _Trusteth_, imp. pl. _As in love_, in the matter of love. This playful line is in the same spirit as l. 2393 above.
IX. THE LEGEND OF HYPERMNESTRA.
The story is told in Ovid, Her. xiv. But Chaucer has taken some of the details from Boccaccio, De Genealogia Deorum, lib. ii. c. 22. Cf. Hyginus, Fab. 168. See the Introduction.
2563. _Danao_, Danaus. Danaus and Ægyptus were twin brothers. Ægyptus had 50 sons, and Danaus 50 daughters. Danaus had reason to fear his nephews, and fled with his daughters to Argos. Thither he was followed by the sons of Ægyptus, who demanded his daughters in marriage, and promised faithful alliance. Danaus distributed his daughters amongst them, but to each of them gave a dagger, with which they were to kill their husbands on the bridal night. They all did so, except Hypermnestra, who saved her husband Lynceus. Thus the attempt of Danaus failed, and he was slain by Lynceus, in accordance with the destiny predicted for him.
It must be particularly noted that Chaucer makes Ægyptus and Danaus change places. According to him, Ægyptus was the father of the _daughters_, and consequently attempted the life of Lynceus; whilst Danaus was the father of the _sons_, and therefore of Lynceus.
2569. _Lino_; by which perverted name Lynceus is meant; Boccaccio has '_Lino_ seu _Linceo_' (dat. case).
2570. _Egiste_ represents Boccaccio's Ægistus, i.e. Ægyptus.
2574. 'And caused (men) to call her,' i.e. had her named.
2575. _Ypermistra_, i.e. Hypermestra, a corrupter form of Hypermnestra; see the account in the Introduction. Note that the first syllable _Y-_ forms the first foot in the line.
2576. _Of her nativitee_, by her horoscope; see l. 2584.
2577. _Thewes_, qualities. Craik has a long note on this word in his edition of Julius Cæsar. It merely comes to this, that _thew_ must have meant strength or some excellent _bodily_ quality in the first instance, and some excellent _mental_ quality afterwards. Nevertheless it is remarkable that (with one exception in Layamon, 6361) the usual _old_ sense is the latter; and the usual _modern_ sense (notably in Jul. Cæs. i. 3. 81, 2 Hen. IV. iii. 2. 276) is the former. The A.S. form is _þéaw_. Craik's notion that this word was confused with A.S. _þéoh_, the thigh, is entirely out of the question, and gives no help.
2580. _Wirdes_, Fates; Lat. Parcæ; Gk. Moiræ. Corson shews that G. Douglas translates the Lat. _fata_ by _werdes_ in Æn. i. 18, and _Parcæ_ by _werd sisteris_ in the same, iii. 379. He also quotes from Holinshed's Hist. of Scotland--'the _weird sisters_, that is, as ye would say, the goddesses of destinie'; reproduced by Shakespeare in Macb. iv. 1. 136.
2582. The scansion suggests that _Pitous-e_, _sad-de_, are treated like French adjectives, the final _e_ denoting the feminine gender. This is natural in the case of _pitous-e_, fem. of _pitous_, just as we have _dispitous-e_, Book of the Duch. 624; but the distinction is not often made in M.E. Sweet's A.S. grammar gives _til-u_ as an occasional fem. form of the nom. of the indef. adjective; so that _sæd-u_ might have been used. _Wys-e_ is likewise dissyllabic, though the A.S. form was _wís_ even in the feminine. But the _definite_ forms of the M.E. adj. were _sad-de_, _wys-e_; and there may have been consequent confusion. In fact, Prof. Child gives a list of adjectives of this kind, being monosyllabic in A.S., but dissyllabic in Chaucer. He includes _wise_, but not _sad_, his examples being taken from the Canterbury Tales only, and thence only in clear cases. _Dispitous-e_ occurs as a vocative case, in Troil. ii. 435.
2584. Here comes in the old belief in astrology. Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn, as here mentioned, are not the gods, but the planets; and each planet had (it was thought) its peculiar influence, which was stronger or weaker according to its position in the heavens at the time of birth of the person whom it affected. The influences of Venus and Jupiter were for good (see note to Troil. iii. 1417); whilst the influences of Mars and Saturn were evil. See further below.
2585. _With_ is explained by Corson to mean 'by'; and such a sense is, of course, usual and common. For all that, it may here mean 'with.' The sense seems to me to be--'For, though the influence of the planet Venus gave her great beauty, she was (also) so compounded with a share of Jupiter,' &c. It does not make much difference, and the reader can choose.
2588. _Thoughte her_, it seemed to her.
2589. _Rede Mars_, red Mars, because the planet is reddish; see note to l. 533. Cf. Kn. Ta., 1111 (A 1969). As to the bad influence of Mars, compare the following:--
'Allas! thou _felle_ Mars!' Kn. Ta. 701 (A 1559). 'Noght was foryeten by the _infortune_ of Marte'; id. 1163 (A 2021). 'By _manasyng_ of Mars'; id. 1177 (A 2035). ... 'that no _wykkid_ planete, as Saturne or Mars' Treatise on the Astrolabe, ii. 4. 22 (p. 192, above).
2592. Venus was supposed to have much influence in repressing the evil influence of Mars, on account of their connection in mythology. See the Compleint of Mars. Moreover Mars is here said to be suppressed by 'the oppression of houses'; i.e. by the fact that he was in a 'house' or 'mansion,' which had such effect. The terms 'house' and 'mansion' are equivalent, and are names given to the signs of the zodiac. Every sign had a planet assigned to it, and was called the 'house' of that planet. When a planet was in its own house, its influence would be felt. The mansions of Mars were Aries and Scorpio. Besides this, each planet had a sign called its 'exaltation,' in which it had the greatest power of all. The 'exaltation' of Mars was Capricornus. Mars had also his positions of least influence; two of these, called his 'fall,' were the signs opposite to his mansions, viz. Libra and Taurus, and the third, called his 'depression,' was the sign opposite his exaltation, viz. Cancer. We may conclude that, at the period of taking Hypermnestra's horoscope, Mars was in Cancer, or else in Taurus or in Libra. Both Taurus and Libra were mansions of Venus; and, if Mars was in either of these, his evil influence would be kept under by her.
2594. Probably the whole of Chaucer's astrological talk was intended to shew _why_ Hypermnestra disliked handling a knife in malice. He has made much of the weak influence of Mars, precisely because those who were born under his influence were very ready with a knife. See the note to the Kn. Ta., 1163 (A 2021), where the Compost of Ptolemeus is quoted to shew that a man born under Mars is apt to be 'a maker of swordes and knyves, and a sheder of mannes blode, ... and good to be a barboure and a blode-letter, and to draw tethe, and is peryllous of his handes.'
2597. 'She had too evil aspects of Saturn, which caused her to die in prison.' All the MSS. have _To_ (= too, excessively), except T., which has _Ryght bad_. Thynne has _Two_, but there is no authority for this, nor does it give any sense. The evil influence of Saturn is spoken of at length in the Kn. Tale, 1596-1611 (A 2454-69). Note especially l. 1599, where Saturn says:--
'Myn is the _prison_ in the derke cote, Myn is the strangling and hanging by the throte.'
2600. Here _Egiste_ (see l. 2570) is turned into _Egistes_.
2602. 'For, at that time, no lineage was spared'; i.e. no consanguinity was considered as being a bar to marriage.
2603. _Hem_ is in apposition with _Danao_ and _Egistes_; 'it pleased these two.'
2604. Note the shifted accentuation--Ypérmistrá. Chaucer (except in l. 2660) entirely drops all mention of Hypermnestra's 49 sisters, and of Lynceus' 49 brothers. This is extremely judicious, as it concentrates the interest on the heroine.
2610. Chaucer is here thinking of Ovid, Her. xiv. 25:--
'Undique collucent praecinctae lampades auro. Dantur in inuitos impia tura focos. Uulgus "Hymen, Hymenaee" uocant.'
2624. 'He caused men to call his daughter'; he had his daughter called to him.
2629. 'Ever since the day when my shirt was first shaped for me.' The sense is--'ever since the day of my birth.' The _shirt_ here refers, as Tyrwhitt remarks, to the linen in which a new-born babe is wrapped. See Kn. Ta., 708 (A 1566); and cf. Troil. iii. 733:--
'O fatal sustren, which, er any cloth Me shapen was, my destenee me sponne.'
2630. Supply _I_ before _had_. Cf. note to l. 2580.
2634. _After thy wyser_, according to the advice of thy superior in wisdom.' Cf. 'Thenne doth we as the wise'; O. English Miscellany, ed. Morris, p. 79, l. 228. 'And gif yow list nocht wirk eftir the wise'; G. Douglas, tr. of Vergil, Prol. to bk. vi. l. 15.
2637. Read _Ne I_ as _N'I_. 'Nor would I advise thee to thy harm.'
2640. 'And, at the same time, I make protestation in this manner, viz. that, unless thou do as I shall direct thee.'
2653. 'I will not have any reservation.'
2655. _Y-sene_, visible; an adj., not a pp. See l. 1394; and Prol. to Cant. Tales, 592.
2660. _Siker_, secure. The use of the word is precisely like that in the well-known anecdote of Kirkpatrick of Closeburn. Meeting Bruce at the door of the Greyfriars' Church in Dumfries, he asked what tidings. 'Bad tidings,' answered Bruce, 'I doubt I have slain Comyn.' 'Doubtest thou?' said Kirkpatrick; 'I make _sicker_.' With these words, he and Lindsay rushed into the church and despatched the wounded Comyn. See Note K to Scott's Lord of the Isles, c. 1. st. 27, c. 2. st. 13.
2661. _Biker_, quarrel, altercation; also a skirmish, encounter.
2662. 'By him that I have (already) sworn by.' See l. 2642.
2666. _Costrel_, a flask, a kind of bottle. '_Costred_, or _costrelle_, grete botelle, _Onopherum_, _aristophorum_'; Prompt. Parv.; see Way's note. 'A _Costrelle_, oneferum, &c., vbi a flakett'; Cath. Angl. p. 77; see Herrtage's note. See _costa_, _costarez_, _costarium_, _costrelli_, in Ducange; and _coste_, _costeret_, _costerel_, in Godefroy. In the Craven dialect, a _costril_ is the little wooden barrel carried by reapers.
2671. 'Lest that the time may seem long to him.' Ovid alludes to the narcotic drink; Her. xiv. 42:--'quaeque tibi dederam uina, soporis erant.' Cf. Kn. Tale, 614 (A 1472).
2676. The line is too short in most MSS. Unless _sone_ be supplied from MS. T., we shall have to scan the line by putting _This_ (with a strong accent) alone in the first foot. Cf. l. 2711, and slur over the _o_ in _Lino_ before _and_.
2680. Cf. Her. xiv. 44:--'Erigor, et capio tela tremente manu.'
2681. Accent _Zephírus_ on the _i_. From Her. xiv. 39:--
'Utque leui Zephyro graciles uibrantur aristae, frigida populeas ut quatit aura comas.'
2682. From Her. xiv. 34:--'Securumque quies alta per Argos erat.'
2683. 'Sanguis abit; mentemque calor corpusque reliquit'; Her. xiv. 37. And, in the next line--'frigida facta.'
2686. 'Ter male sublato decidit ense manus'; 46.
2690. From Her. xiv. 55, &c.:--
'Femina sum et uirgo, natura mitis et annis. Non faciunt molles ad fera tela manus.... Quid mihi cum ferro? Quo bellica tela puellae?'
2696. _And me beshende_, and bring myself to ruin, and perish. I know of only one other example of this rare word, viz. the example given by Murray from Cursor Mundi, l. 14838, where the Trinity MS. has: 'Allas! nu has he [gh]u _bischent_'; alas! now has he ruined you. But it is a perfectly legitimate compound from the M.E. _shenden_. All former editions give this line wrongly; they omit _me_, and read 'and be shende,' explained by 'and be destroyed.' Now, in the first place, this will not scan; and secondly, the idea of adding a final _e_ to the pp. _beshend_ (more correctly _beshent_) is a characteristic commentary on that ignorance of M.E. grammar which is only too common. Yet the final _e_ must needs be added, for _ende_ (in l. 2697) is essentially dissyllabic. Hence it follows, irresistibly, that _shende_ is not a past participle; and we are driven to see that _beshende_ is the infinitive mood of a compound verb.
2697. _Nedes cost_, by condition of necessity, i.e. necessarily; see Kn. Ta., 619 (A 1477), and the note.
2700. Supply _he_ before _hath_; cf. note to l. 2630.
2705. _Goter_, gutter, channel for water. This is an addition. The original merely has (ll. 77, 78):--
'Quaerenti caussam, "Dum nox sinit, effuge," dixi; "dum nox atra sinit, tu fugis, ipsa moror."'
2708. _Roggeth_, shaketh. '_Roggyn_, or mevyn, or scogghyn, rokkyn. _Agito_'; Prompt. Parv. See P. Plowman, B. xvi. 78; and _ruggen_ in Stratmann. Cf. Icel. _rugga_, to rock a cradle. Prof. Napier tells me that the A.S. _roccan_, to rock, has been found in a gloss. Bell's edition has the singular and unauthorised reading _jeggeth_ (_sic_).
2709. The rest of the story seems to be Chaucer's addition. Ovid merely has (ll. 83, 84):--
'Abstrahor a patriis pedibus; raptamque capillis (haec meruit pietas praemia) carcer habet.'
2710. _Doon him bote_, given him assistance.
2715. 'Her cruel father caused her to be seized,' lit. caused (men) to seize her.
2723. 'This tale is told for the following reason.' And here the MSS. break off, in the middle of the sentence.
NOTES TO THE TREATISE ON THE ASTROLABE.
The title 'Tractatus de Conclusionibus Astrolabii' is suggested by the wording of the colophon on p. 223. But a better title is, simply, 'Tractatus de Astrolabio,' or 'Treatise on the Astrolabe,' as the 'Conclusiones' only occupy the Second Part of the work; see p. 188. Indeed MS. F. has 'Tractatus Astrolabii'; see p. 233. MSS. B. and E. have the singular title--'Bred and mylk for childeren.'
PROLOGUE, l. 1. _Lowis_ was at this time (1391) ten years old (see l. 18); he was therefore born in 1381, whence it is possible that his mother was the Cecilia de Chaumpaigne who, on May 1, 1380, released the poet from all liability _de raptu meo_. This is, of course, a mere conjecture. Probably Lowis died young, as nothing more is known concerning him.
5. _philosofre_; possibly Cicero. 'Haec igitur prima lex amicitiae sanciatur, ut ... amicorum causâ honesta faciamus'; Lælius, cap. xiii.
7. _suffisaunt_, sufficiently good. In the best instruments, the Almicanteras, or circles of altitude, were drawn at distances of one degree only; in less-carefully made instruments, they were drawn at distances of two degrees. The one given to his son by Chaucer was one of the latter; see