ll. 4772-3, we find:--

'Yn harpe, yn thabour, and _symphangle_, Wurschepe God, yn trumpes and sautre.'

Godefroy gives the O. F. spellings _cifonie_, _siphonie_, _chifonie_, _cinfonie_, _cymphonie_, &c.; all clearly derived from the Greek [Greek: sumphônia]; see Luke, xv. 25. Cf. Squyre of Lowe Degre, 1070-7.

2007. _al-so mote I thee_, as I may thrive; or, as I hope to thrive; a common expression. Cf. 'So mote y thee'; Sir Eglamour, ed. Halliwell, l. 430; Occleve, De Regimine Principum, st. 620. Chaucer also uses 'so thee ik,' i. e. so thrive I, in the Reves Prologue (A. 3864) and elsewhere.

2012. _Abyen it ful soure_, very bitterly shalt thou pay for it. There is a confusion between A. S. _súr_, sour, and A. S. _sár_, sore, in this and similar phrases; both were used once, but now we should use _sorely_, not _sourly_. In Layamon, l. 8158, we find 'þou salt it sore abugge,' thou shalt sorely pay for it; on the other hand, we find in P. Plowman, B. ii. 140:--

'It shal bisitte [gh]owre soules · ful _soure_ atte laste.'

So also in the C-text, though the A-text has _sore_. Note that in another passage, P. Plowman, B. xviii. 401, the phrase is--'Thow shalt abye it _bittre_.' For _abyen_, see the Glossary.

2015. _fully pryme._ See note to Nonne Prestes Tale, B. 4045. _Prime_ commonly means the period from 6 to 9 a.m. _Fully prime_ refers to the end of that period, or 9 a.m.; and even _prime_ alone may be used with the same explicit meaning, as in the Nonne Pres. Ta., B. 4387.

2019. _staf-slinge._ Tyrwhitt observes that Lydgate describes David as armed only 'with a _staffe-slynge_, voyde of plate and mayle.' It certainly means a kind of sling in which additional power was gained by fastening the lithe part of it on to the end of a stiff stick. _Staff-slyngeres_ are mentioned in the romance of Richard Coer de Lion, l. 4454, in Weber's Metrical Romances, ii. 177. In Col. Yule's edition of Marco Polo, ii. 122, is a detailed description of the artillery engines of the middle ages. They can all be reduced to two classes; those [193] which, like the trebuchet and mangonel, are enlarged staff-slings, and those which, like the arblast and springold, are great cross-bows. Conversely, we might describe a staff-sling as a hand-trebuchet.

2020. _child Thopas._ _Child_ is an appellation given to both knights and squires, in the early romances, at an age when they had long passed the period which we now call childhood. A good example is to be found in the Erle of Tolous, ed. Ritson, iii. 123:--

'He was a feyre chylde, and a bolde, _Twenty wyntur he was oolde_, In londe was none so free.'

Compare Romance of 'Horn Childe and Maiden Rimnild,' pr. in Ritson, iii. 282; the ballad of Childe Waters, &c. Byron, in his preface to Childe Harold, says--'It is almost superfluous to mention that the appellation "Childe," as "Childe Waters," "Childe Childers," &c., is used as more consonant with the old structure of versification which I have adopted.' He adopts, however, the late and artificial metre of Spenser.

2023. A palpable imitation. The first three lines of Sir Bevis of Hampton (MS. Camb. Univ. Lib. Ff. ii. 38, leaf 94, back) are--

'Lordynges, lystenyth, grete and smale, _Meryar then the nyghtyngale_ I wylle yow synge.

In a long passage in Todd's Illustrations to Chaucer, pp. 284-292, it is contended that _mery_ signifies sweet, pleasant, agreeable, without relation to mirth. Chaucer describes the Frere as wanton and _merry_, Prol. A. 208; he speaks of the _merry_ day, Kn. Ta. 641 (A. 1499); a _merry_ city, N. P. Ta. 251 (B. 4261); of Arcite being told by Mercury to be _merry_, i. e. of good cheer, Kn. Ta. 528 (A. 1386); in the Manciple's Tale (H. 138), the crow sings _merrily_, and makes a _sweet_ noise; Chanticleer's voice was _merrier_ than the _merry_ organ, N. P. Ta. 31 (B. 4041); the 'erbe yve' is said to be _merry_, i. e. pleasant, agreeable, id. 146 (B. 4156); the Pardoner (Prol. A. 714) sings _merrily_ and loud. We must remember, however, that the Host, being 'a _mery_ man,' began to speak of '_mirthe_'; Prol. A. 757, 759. A very early example of the use of the word occurs in the song attributed to Canute--'_Merie_ sungen the Muneches binnen Ely,' &c. See the phrase '_mery_ men' in l. 2029.

2028. The phrase _to come to toune_ seems to mean no more than simply _to return_. Cf. Specimens of E. Eng., ed. Morris and Skeat, p. 48--

'Lenten ys _come_ wiþ loue _to toune_'--

which merely means that spring, with its thoughts of love, has _returned_. See the note on that line.

2034. _for paramour_, for love; but the _par_, or else the _for_, is redundant. _Iolite_, amusement; used ironically in the Kn. Ta. 949 (A. 1807). Sir Thopas is going to fight the giant for the love and amusement of [194] one who shone full bright; i. e. a fair lady, of course. But Sir Thopas, in dropping this mysterious hint to his merry men, refrains from saying much about it, as he had not yet seen the Fairy Queen, and had only the giant's word for her place of abode. The use of the past tense _shone_ is artful; it implies that he wished them to think that he _had_ seen his lady-love; or else that her beauty was to be taken for granted. Observe, too, that it is _Sir Thopas_, not _Chaucer_, who assigns to the giant his _three_ heads.

2035. _Do come_, cause to come; go and call hither. Cf. House of Fame, l. 1197:--

'Of alle maner of _minstrales_, And _gestiours_, _that tellen tales_ Bothe of weping and of _game_.'

Tyrwhitt's note on _gestours_ is--'The proper business of a _gestour_ was to _recite tales_, or _gestes_; which was only _one_ of the branches of the Minstrel's profession. _Minstrels_ and _gestours_ are mentioned together in the following lines from William of Nassyngton's Translation of a religious treatise by John of Waldby; MS. Reg. 17 C. viii. p. 2:--

I warne you furst at the beginninge, That I will make no vain carpinge Of dedes of armys ne of amours, As dus _mynstrelles_ and _jestours_, That makys carpinge in many a place Of _Octoviane_ and _Isembrase_, And of many other _jestes_, And namely, whan they come to festes; Ne of the life of _Bevys of Hampton_, That was a knight of gret renoun, Ne of _Sir Gye of Warwyke_, All if it might sum men lyke, &c.

I cite these lines to shew the species of tales related by the ancient Gestours, and how much they differed from what we now call _jests_.'

The word _geste_ here means a tale of the adventures of some hero, like those in the _Chansons de geste_. Cf. note to l. 2123 below. Sometimes the plural _gestes_ signifies passages of history. The famous collection called the Gesta Romanorum contains narratives of very various kinds.

2038. _royales_, royal; some MSS. spell the word _reales_, but the meaning is the same. In the romance of Ywain and Gawain (Ritson, vol. i.) a maiden is described as reading 'a _real_ romance.' Tyrwhitt thinks that the term originated with an Italian collection of romances relating to Charlemagne, which began with the words--'Qui se comenza la hystoria el _Real di Franza_,' &c.; edit. Mutinae, 1491, folio. It was reprinted in 1537, with a title beginning--'_I reali di Franza_,' &c. He refers to Quadrío, t. vi. p. 530. The word _roial_ (in some MSS. _real_) [195] occurs again in l. 2043. Kölbing remarks that the prose romance of Generides is called _a royal historie_, though it has nothing to do with Charlemagne.

2043. No comma is required at the end of this line; the articles mentioned in ll. 2044-6 all belong to _spicery_. Cf. additional note to Troilus, vol. ii. p. 506.

2047. _dide_, did on, put on. The arming of Lybeaus Disconus is thus described in Ritson's Met. Rom. ii. 10:--

'They caste on hym a scherte of selk, A gypell as whyte as melk, In that semely sale; And syght [_for_ sith] an hawberk bryght, That rychely was adyght Wyth mayles thykke and smale.'

2048. _lake_, linen; see Glossary. 'De panno de lake'; York Wills, iii. 4 (anno 1395).

2050. _aketoun_, a short sleeveless tunic. Cf. Liber Albus, p. 376.

'And Florentyn, with hys ax so broun, All thorgh he smoot Arm and mayle, and _akketoun_, Thorghout hyt bot [_bit_]'; Octouian, ed. Weber, iii. 205.

'For plate, ne for _acketton_, For hauberk, ne for campeson'; Richard Coer de Lion, ed. Weber, ii. 18.

The Glossary to the Percy Folio MS., ed. Hales and Furnivall, has--'_Acton_, a wadded or quilted tunic worn under the hauberk.--_Planché_, i. 108.' Thynne, in his Animadversions (Early Eng. Text Soc.), p. 24, says--'_Haketon_ is a slevelesse jackett of plate for the warre, couered withe anye other stuffe; at this day also called _a jackett of plate_.'

It is certain that the plates were a later addition. It is the mod. F. _hoqueton_, O. F. _auqueton_; and it is certain that the derivation is from Arab. _al-qoton_ or _al-qutun_, lit. 'the cotton'; so that it was originally made of quilted _cotton_. See _auqueton_ in Godefroy, _hoqueton_ in Devic's Supp. to Littré, and _Acton_ in the New E. Dict.

2051. _habergeoun_, coat of mail. See Prol. A. 76, and the note.

2052. _For percinge_, as a protection against the piercing. So in P. Plowman, B. vi. 62, Piers puts on his cuffs, 'for colde of his nailles,' i. e. as a protection against the cold. So too in the Rom. of the Rose, l. 4229.

2053. The hauberk is here put on as an upper coat of mail, of finer workmanship and doubtless more flexible.

'The _hauberk_ was al reed of rust, His platys thykke and swythe just'; Octouian, ed. Weber, iii. 200. [196]

'He was armed wonder weel, And al with plates off good steel, _And ther aboven, an hawberk_'; Richard Coer de Lion, ed. Weber, ii. 222.

2054. _Jewes werk_, Jew's work. Tyrwhitt imagined that _Jew_ here means a magician, but there is not the least foundation for the idea. Mr. Jephson is equally at fault in connecting _Jew_ with _jewel_, since the latter word is etymologically connected with _joy_. The phrase still remains unexplained. I suspect it means no more than wrought with rich or expensive work, such as Jews could best find the money for. It is notorious that they were the chief capitalists, and they must often have had to find money for paying armourers. Or, indeed, it may refer to damascened work; from the position of Damascus.

2055. _plate._ Probably the hauberk had a breastplate on the front of it. But on the subject of armour, I must refer the reader to Godwin's English Archaeologist's Handbook, pp. 252-268; Planché's History of British Costume, and Sir S. R. Meyrick's Observations on Body-armour, in the Archaeologia, vol. xix. pp. 120-145.

2056. The _cote-armour_ was not for defence, but a mere surcoat on which the knight's armorial bearings were usually depicted, in order to identify him in the combat or 'debate.' Hence the modern _coat-of-arms_.

2059. _reed_, red. In the Romances, _gold_ is always called _red_, and silver _white_. Hence it was not unusual to liken gold to blood, and this explains why Shakespeare speaks of armour being _gilt_ with blood (King John, ii. 1. 316), and makes Lady Macbeth talk of _gilding_ the groom's faces with blood (Macbeth, ii. 2. 56). See also Coriol. v. 1. 63, 64; and the expression 'blood bitokeneth gold'; Cant. Tales, D. 581.

2060. Cf. Libeaus Desconus, ed. Kaluza, 1657-8:--

'His scheld was asur fin, Thre bores heddes ther-inne.'

And see the editor's note, at p. 201.

2061. 'A carbuncle (Fr. _escarboucle_) was a common [armorial] bearing. See Guillim's Heraldry, p. 109.'--Tyrwhitt.

2062. Sir Thopas is made to swear by ale and bread, in ridiculous imitation of the vows made by the swan, the heron, the pheasant, or the peacock, on solemn occasions.

2065. _Iambeux_, armour worn in front of the shins, above the mail-armour that covered the legs; see Fairholt. He tells us that, in Roach Smith's Catalogue of London Antiquities, p. 132, is figured a pair of cuirbouilly jambeux, which are fastened by thongs. Spenser borrows the word, but spells it _giambeux_, F. Q. ii. 6. 29.

_quirboilly_, i. e. _cuir bouilli_, leather soaked in hot water to soften it that it might take any required shape, after which it was dried and became exceedingly stiff and hard. In Matthew Paris (anno 1243) it is [197] said of the Tartars--'De _coriis bullitis_ sibi arma leuia quidem, sed tamen impenetrabilia coaptarunt.' In Marco Polo, ed. Yule, ii. 49, it is said of the men of Carajan, that they wear armour of boiled leather (French text, _armes cuiracés de cuir bouilli_). Froissart (v. iv. cap. 19) says the Saracens covered their targes with '_cuir bouilli_ de Cappadoce, ou nul fer ne peut prendre n'attacher, si le cuir n'est trop échaufé.' When Bruce reviewed his troops on the morning of the battle of Bannockburn, he wore, according to Barbour, 'ane hat of _qwyrbolle_' on his 'basnet,' and 'ane hye croune' above that. Some remarks on _cuir bouilli_ will be found in Cutts, Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages, p. 344.

2068. _rewel-boon_, probably whale-ivory, or ivory made of whales' teeth. In the Turnament of Tottenham, as printed in Percy's reliques, we read that Tyb had 'a garland on her hed ful of _rounde_ bonys,' where another copy has (says Halliwell, s. v. _ruel_) the reading--'fulle of _ruelle_-bones.' Halliwell adds--'In the romaunce of Rembrun, p. 458, the coping of a wall is mentioned as made 'of fin _ruwal_, that schon swithe brighte.' And in MS. Camb. Univ. Lib. Ff. v. 48, fol. 119, is the passage--

'Hir sadill_e_ was of _reuylle-bone_, Semely was þ_a_t sight to se, Stifly sette w_i_t_h_ p_re_cious ston_e_, Compaste about w_i_t_h_ crapote [_toad-stone_].'

In Sir Degrevant, 1429, a roof is said to be--

'buskyd above With besauntus ful bryghth, All of _ruel-bon_,' &c.

Quite near the beginning of the Vie de Seint Auban, ed. Atkinson, we have--

'mes ne ert d'or adubbee, ne d'autre metal, de peres preciuses, de ivoire ne _roal_';

i. e. but it was not adorned with gold nor other metal, nor with precious stones, nor ivory, nor _rewel_. Du Cange gives a Low Lat. form _rohanlum_, and an O. Fr. _rochal_, but tells us that the MS. readings are _rohallum_ and _rohal_. The passage occurs in the Laws of Normandy about wreckage, and should run--'dux sibi retinet ... ebur, _rohallum_, lapides pretiosas'; or, in the French version, 'l'ivoire, et le _rohal_, et les pierres precieuses.' Ducange explains the word by 'rock-crystal,' but this is a pure guess, suggested by F. _roche_, a rock. It is clear that, when the word is spelt _rochal_, the _ch_ denotes the same sound as the Ger. _ch_, a guttural resembling _h_, and not the F. _ch_ at all. Collecting all the spellings, we find them to be, in French, _rohal_, _rochal_, _roal_; and, in English, _ruwal_, _rewel_, _ruel_, (_reuylle_, _ruelle_). The _h_ and _w_ might arise from a Teutonic _hw_, so that the latter part of the word was originally -_hwal_, i. e. whale; hence, perhaps, Godefroy explains F. _rochal_ as 'ivoire de morse,' ivory of the walrus (A. S. _hors-hwæl_). The [198] true origin seems rather to be some Norse form akin to Norweg. _röyrkval_ (E. _rorqual_). Some whales, as the _cachalot_, have teeth that afford a kind of ivory; and this is what seems to be alluded to. The expression 'white as _whale-bone_,' i. e. white as whale-ivory, was once common; see Weber's Met. Romances, iii. 350; and _whales-bone_ in Nares. Most of this ivory was derived, however, from the tusk of the walrus or the narwhal. Sir Thopas's saddle was ornamented with ivory.

2071. _cipress_, cypress-wood. In the Assembly of Foules, l. 179, we have--

'The sailing firr, the _cipres_, deth to pleyne'--

i. e. the cypress suitable for lamenting a death. Vergil calls the cypress 'atra,' Æn. iii. 64, and 'feralis,' vi. 216; and as it is so frequently a symbol of mourning, it may be said to _bode war_.

2078. In Sir Degrevant (ed. Halliwell, p. 191) we have just this expression--

'Here endyth the furst fit. Howe say ye? will ye any more of hit?'

2085. _love-drury_, courtship. All the six MSS. have this reading. According to Wright, the Harl. MS. has 'Of ladys loue and drewery,' which Tyrwhitt adopts; but it turns out that Wright's reading is _copied from Tyrwhitt_; the MS. really has--'And of ladys loue drewery,' like the rest.

2088. The romance or lay of Horn appears in two forms in English. In King Horn, ed. Lumby, Early Eng. Text Soc., 1866, printed also in Mätzner's Altenglische Sprachproben, i. 207, the form of the poem is in short rimed couplets. But Chaucer no doubt refers to the other form with the title _Horn Childe_ and Maiden Rimnild, _in a metre similar to Sir Thopas_, printed in Ritson's Metrical Romances, iii. 282. The Norman-French text was printed by F. Michel for the Bannatyne Club, with the English versions, in a volume entitled--Horn et Riemenhild; Recueil de ce qui reste des poëmes relatifs à leurs aventures, &c. Paris, 1845. See Mr. Lumby's preface and the remarks in Mätzner.

It is not quite clear why Chaucer should mention the romance of Sir Ypotis here, as it has little in common with the rest. There are four MS. copies of it in the British Museum, and three at Oxford. 'It professes to be a tale of holy writ, and the work of St. John the Evangelist. The scene is Rome. A child, named Ypotis, appears before the Emperor Adrian, saying that he is come to teach men God's law; whereupon the Emperor proceeds to interrogate him as to what is God's Law, and then of many other matters, not in any captious spirit, but with the utmost reverence and faith.... There is a little tract in prose on the same legend from the press of Wynkyn de Worde'; J. W. Hales, in Hazlitt's edition of Warton's Hist. of Eng. Poetry, ii. 183. It was printed in 1881, from the Vernon MS. at Oxford, in Horstmann's Altenglische Legenden, Neue Folge, pp. 341-8. It is hard to believe that, by Ypotys, Chaucer meant (as some say) Ypomadoun. [199]

The romance of Sir Bevis of Hampton (i. e. Southampton) was printed from the Auchinleck MS. for the Maitland Club in 1838, 4to. Another copy is in MS. Ff. 2. 38, in the Cambridge University Library. It has lately been edited, from six MS. copies and an old printed text, by Prof. Kölbing, for the Early Eng. Text Society. There is an allusion in it to the _Romans_, meaning the French original. It appears in prose also, in various forms. See Warton's Hist. of Eng. Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 142, where there is also an account of Sir Guy, in several forms; but a still fuller account of Sir Guy is given in the Percy Folio MS., ed. Hales and Furnivall, ii. 509. This Folio MS. itself contains three poems on the latter subject, viz. Guy and Amarant, Guy and Colbrande, and Guy and Phillis. 'Sir Guy of Warwick' has been edited for the Early Eng. Text Society by Prof. Zupitza.

By _Libeux_ is meant Lybeaus Disconus, printed by Ritson in his Metrical Romances, vol. ii. from the Cotton MS. Caligula A. 2. A later copy, with the title Libius Disconius, is in the Percy Folio MS. ii. 404, where a good account of the romance may be found. The best edition is that by Dr. Max Kulaza, entitled Libeaus Desconus; Leipzig, 1890. The French original was discovered in 1855, in a MS. belonging to the Duc d'Aumale. Its title is Li Biaus Desconneus, which signifies The Fair Unknown.

_Pleyndamour_ evidently means _plein d'amour_, full of love, and we may suspect that the original romance was in French; but there is now no trace of any romance of that name, though a Sir Playne de Amours is mentioned in Sir T. Malory's Morte Darthur, bk. ix. c. 7. Spenser probably borrowed hence his _Sir Blandamour_, F. Q. iv. 1. 32.

2092. After examining carefully the rimes in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Mr. Bradshaw finds that this is the _sole_ instance in which a word which ought etymologically to end in -_yë_ is rimed with a word ending in -_y_ without a following final e. A reason for the exception is easily found; for Chaucer has here adopted the swing of the ballad metre, and hence ventures to deprive _chiualryë_ of its final _e_, and to call it _chivalry'_ so that it may rime with _Gy_, after the manner of the ballad-writers; cf. Squyre of Lowe Degre, 79, 80. So again _chivalryë_, _druryë_ become _chivalry_, _drury_; ll. 2084, 2085. We even find _plas_ for _plac-e_, 1971; and _gras_ for _grac-e_, 2021.

2094. _glood_, glided. So in all the MSS. except E., which has the poor reading _rood_, rode. For the expression in l. 2095, compare--

'But whenne he was horsede on a stede, He sprange als any sparke one [_read_ of] glede'; Sir Isumbras, ed. Halliwell, p. 107.

'Lybeaus was redy boun, And lepte out of the arsoun [_bow of the saddle_] As sperk thogh out of glede'; Lybeaus Disconus, in Ritson, ii. 27. [200]

'Then sir Lybius with ffierce hart, Out of his saddle swythe he start As sparcle doth out of fyer'; Percy Folio MS. ii. 440.

2106. The first few lines of the romance of Sir Perceval of Galles (ed. Halliwell, p. 1) will at once explain Chaucer's allusion. It begins--

'Lef, lythes to me Two wordes or thre Of one that was faire and fre And felle in his fighte; His right name was _Percyvelle_, He was fostered in the felle, _He dranke water of the welle_, And [gh]itt was he wyghte!'

Both Sir Thopas and Sir Perceval were water-drinkers, but it did not impair their vigour.

In the same romance, p. 84, we find--

'Of mete ne drynke he ne roghte, So fulle he was of care! Tille the nynte daye byfelle _That he come to a welle,_ _Ther he was wonte for to duelle_ _And drynk take hym thare_.'

These quotations set aside Mr. Jephson's interpretation, and solve Tyrwhitt's difficulty. Tyrwhitt says that 'The Romance of Perceval le Galois, or de Galis, was composed in octosyllable French verse by Chrestien de Troyes, one of the oldest and best French romancers, before the year 1191; Fauchet, l. ii. c. x. It consisted of above 60,000 verses (Bibl. des Rom. t. ii. p. 250) so that it would be some trouble to find the fact which is, probably, here alluded to. The romance, under the same title, in French prose, printed at Paris, 1530, fol., can be an abridgement, I suppose, of the original poem.'

2107. _worthy under wede_, well-looking in his armour. The phrase is very common. Tyrwhitt says it occurs repeatedly in the romance of Emare, and refers to folios 70, 71 b, 73 a, and 74 b of the MS.; but the reader may now find the romance in print; see Ritson's Metrical Romances, ii. pp. 214, 229, 235, 245. The phrase is used of ladies also, and must then mean of handsome appearance when well-dressed. See Amis and Amiloun, ed. Weber, ii. pp. 370, 375. Cf. l. 1979.

2108. The story is here broken off by the host's interruption. MSS. Pt. and Hl. omit this line, and MSS. Cp. and Ln. omit ll. 2105-7 as well. [201]

PROLOGUE TO MELIBEUS.

2111. _of_, by. _lewednesse_, ignorance; here, foolish talk.

2112. _also_, &c.; as verily as (I hope) God will render my soul happy. See Kn. Ta. A. 1863, 2234.

2113. _drasty_, filthy. Tyrwhitt and Bell print _drafty_, explained by full of draff or refuse. But there is no such word; the adjective (were there one) would take the form _draffy_. See _drestys_, i. e. dregs, lees of wine, in the Prompt. Parv., and Way's note, which gives the spelling _drastus_ (a plural form) as occurring in MS. Harl. 1002. The Lat. _feces_ is glossed by _drastys_ in Wright's Vocab., ed. Wülcker, p. 625, l. 16. And the Lat. _feculentus_ is glossed by the A. S. _dræstig_ in the same, col. 238, l. 20.

2123. _in geste_, in the form of a regular story of adventure of some well-known hero; cf. House of Fame, 1434, 1515. The _gestes_ generally pretended to have some sort of historical foundation; from Low Lat. _gesta_, doings. Sir Thopas was in this form, but the Host would not admit it, and wanted to hear about some one who was more renowned. 'Tell us,' he says, 'a tale like those in the _chansons de geste_, or at least something in prose that is either pleasant or profitable.'

2131. 'Although it is sometimes told in different ways by different people.'

2137. 'And all agree in their general meaning.' _sentence_, sense; see ll. 2142, 2151.

2148. Read it--_Tenforcë with_, &c.

THE TALE OF MELIBEUS.

For the sources of the Tale of Melibeus, see vol. iii. p. 426. It may suffice to say here that Chaucer's Tale is translated from the French version entitled _Le Livre de Mellibee et Prudence_, ascribed by M. Paul Meyer to Jean de Meung. Of this text there are two MS. copies in the British Museum, viz. MS. Reg. 19 C. vii. and MS. Reg. 19 C. xi, both of the fifteenth century; the former is said by Mr. T. Wright to be the more correct. It is also printed, as forming part of _Le Menagier de Paris_, the author of which embodied it in his book, written about 1393; the title of the printed book being--'Le Menagier de Paris; publié pour la première fois par la Société des Bibliophiles François; a Paris M.D. CCC. XLVI'; (tome i. p. 186); ed. J. Pichon. In the following notes, this is alluded to as _the French text_.

This French version was, in its turn, translated from the _Liber Consolationis et Consilii_ of Albertano of Brescia, excellently edited for the Chaucer Society in 1873 by Thor Sundby, with the title 'Albertani Brixiensis Liber Consolationis et Consilii.' This is alluded to, in the following notes, as _the Latin text_. Thor Sundby's edition is most helpful, as the editor has taken great pains to trace the sources of the [202] very numerous quotations with which the Tale abounds; and I am thus enabled to give the references in most cases. I warn the reader that Albertano's quotations are frequently _inexact_.

Besides this, the Tale of Melibeus has been admirably edited, as a specimen of English prose, in Mätzner's Altenglische Sprachproben, ii. 375, with numerous notes, of which I here make considerable use. Owing to the great care taken by Sundby and Mätzner, the task of explaining the difficulties in this Tale has been made easy. The more important notes from Mätzner are marked 'Mr.'

The first line or clause (numbered 2157) ends with the word 'Sophie,' as shewn by the slanting stroke. The whole Tale is thus divided into clauses, for the purpose of ready reference, precisely as in the Six-text edition; I refer to these _clauses_ as if they were _lines_. The 'paragraphs' are the same as in Tyrwhitt's edition.

2157. _Melibeus._ The meaning of the name is given below (note to l. 2600).

_Prudence._ 'It is from a passage of Cassiodorus, quoted by Albertano in cap. vi., that he [Albertano] has taken the name of his heroine, if we may call her so, and the general idea of her character:--"Superauit cuncta infatigabilis et expedita _prudentia_"; Cass. Variarum lib. ii. epist. 15.'--Sundby.

_Sophie_, i. e. wisdom, [Greek: sophia]. Neither the Latin nor the French text gives the daughter's name.

2159. _Inwith_, within; a common form in Chaucer; see note to B. 1794. _Y-shette_, pl. of _y-shet_, shut; as in B. 560.

2160. _Thre_; Lat. text, _tres_; Fr. text, _trois_. Tyrwhitt has _foure_, as in MSS. Cp. Ln.; yet in l. 2562, he prints 'thin enemies ben three,' and in l. 2615, he again prints 'thy three enemies.' Again, in l. 2612, it is explained that these three enemies signify, allegorically, the flesh, the world, and the devil.

2164. _As ferforth_, as far; as in B. 19, 1099, &c. Mätzner also quotes from Troilus, ii. 1106--'How ferforth be ye put in loves daunce.'

2165. Mätzner would read--'ever _the_ lenger the more'; but see E. 687, F. 404.

2166. _Ovide_, Ovid. The passage referred to is--

'Quis matrem, nisi mentis inops, in funere nati Flere uetet? non hoc illa monenda loco. Cum dederit lacrimas, animumque expleuerit aegrum, Ille dolor uerbis emoderandus erit.' Remedia Amoris, 127-130.

2172. _Warisshe_, recover; Cp. Ln. Hl. _be warisshed_, be cured. Chaucer uses this verb elsewhere both transitively and intransitively, so that either reading will serve. For the transitive use, see below, ll. 2207, 2466, 2476, 2480; also F. 856, 1138, 1162; Book of Duch. 1104. For the intransitive use, observe that, in F. 856, Cp. Pt. Ln. have--'then wolde myn herte Al _waryssche_ of this bitter peynes [203] smerte'; and cf. Morte Arthure, 2186--'I am wathely woundide, _waresche_ mon I neuer!'--M.

Lat. text--'Filia tua, dante Domino, bene liberabitur.'

2174. _Senek_, Seneca. 'Non affligitur sapiens liberorum amissione, non amicorum; eodem animo enim fert illorum mortem quo suam expectat'; Epist. 74, § 29.

2177. _Lazarus_; see John, xi. 35.

2178. _Attempree_, moderate; Lat. text, 'temperatus fletus.' Hl. _attemperel_, which Mätzner illustrates. Cf. D. 2053, where Hl. has _attemperelly_; and E. 1679, where Hl. has _attemperely_. Cf. ll. 2570, 2728 below.

_Nothing defended_, not at all forbidden.

2179. See Rom. xii. 15.

2181. 'According to the doctrine that Seneca teaches us.' Cf. 'Non sicci sint oculi, amisso amico, nec fluant; lacrimandum est, non plorandum'; Epist. 63, § 1.

2183. This is also, practically, from Seneca: 'Quem amabis extulisti, quaere quem ames; satius est amicum reparare, quam flere'; Epist. 63, § 9.

2185. _Iesus Syrak_, Jesus the son of Sirach. 'Ecclesiasticus is the title given in the Latin version to the book which is called in the Septuagint The Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach'; Smith, Dict. of the Bible. Compare the title 'A prayer of Jesus the son of Sirach' to Ecclus. ch. li. But the present quotation is really from Prov. xvii. 22. It is the _next_ quotation, in l. 2186, that is from Ecclus. xxx. 25 (Vulgate), i. e. xxx. 23 in the English version. The mistake is due to misreading the original Lat. text, which quotes the passages _in the reverse order_, as being from 'Jesus Sirac' and 'alibi.'

2187. From Prov. xxv. 20; but the clause is omitted in the modern Eng. version, though Wycliffe has it. The Vulgate has:--'Sicut tinea uestimento, et uermis ligno: ita tristitia uiri nocet cordi.' The words _in the shepes flees_ (in the sheep's fleece) are added by Chaucer, apparently by way of explanation. But the fact is that, according to Mätzner, the Fr. version here has 'la tigne, ou lartuison, nuit a la robe,' where _artuison_ is the Mod. F. _artison_, explained by Cotgrave as 'a kind of moth'; and I strongly suspect that 'in the shepes flees' is due to this 'ou lartuison,' which Chaucer may have misread as _en la toison_. It looks very like it. I point other similar mistakes further on.

_Anoyeth_, harms; F. _nuit_, L. _nocet_. The use of _to_ here is well illustrated by Mätzner, who compares Wycliffe's version of this very passage; 'As a moghe to the cloth, and a werm to the tree, so sorewe of a man _noyeth to_ the herte'; whereas Purvey's later version thrice omits the _to_. In the Persones Tale, Group I. 847, _anoyeth_ occurs both with _to_ and without it.

2188. _Us oghte_, it would become us; _oghte_ is in the subjunctive mood. Cf. _hem oughte_, it became them, in l. 2458; _thee oughte_, it became thee, in l. 2603.--Mr. The pres. indic. form is _us oweth_. [204]

_Goodes temporels_; F. text, _biens temporels_. Chaucer uses the F. pl. in _-es_ or _-s_ for the adjective in other places, and the adj. then usually follows the sb. Cf. _lettres capitals_, capital letters, Astrolabe, i. 16. 8; _weyes espirituels_, spiritual ways, Pers. Tale, I. 79; _goodes espirituels_, id. 312; _goodes temporeles_, id. 685; _thinges espirituels_, id. 784.--Mr.

2190. See Job, i. 21. _Hath wold_, hath willed (it); see 2615.

2193. Quotations from Solomon and from Ecclesiasticus are frequently confused, both throughout this Tale, and elsewhere. The reference is to Ecclus. xxxii. 24, in the Vulgate (cf. A. V. xxxii. 19); here Wycliffe has:--'Sone, withoute counseil no-thing do thou; and after thi deede thou shalt not othynke' (i. e. _of-thinke_, repent).

_Thou shalt never repente_; here Hl. has--'the thar neuer rewe,' i. e. it needeth never for thee to rue it.

2202. _With-holde_, retained. Cf. A. 511; Havelok, 2362.--Mr.

2204. _Parties_, &c.; Fr. text: _supporter partie_.--Mr.

2205. _Hool and sound_; a common phrase. Cf. Rob. of Glouc. pp. 163, 402, ed. Hearne (ll. 3417, 8301, ed. Wright); King Horn, l. 1365 (in Morris's Specimens of English); also l. 2300 below.--Mr.

2207. 'Heal, put a stop to, war by taking vengeance; a literal and very happy translation from the French--_aussi doit on guerir guerre par vengence_.'--Bell. Tyrwhitt omits the words _by vengeaunce_, and Lounsbury (Studies in Chaucer, i. 320) defends him, arguing that 'the physicians are represented as agreeing with the surgeons'; whereas Chaucer expressly says that 'they seyden a fewe wordes more.' The words 'by vengeaunce' are in all the seven MSS. and in the French original. Admittedly, they make nonsense, but the nonsense is expressly laid bare and exposed afterwards, when it appears that the physicians did _not really_ add this clause, but Melibeus dreamt that they did (2465-2480). The fact is, however, that the words _par vengence_ were wrongly interpolated in the French text. Chaucer _should_ have omitted them, but the evidence shews that he _did not_. I decline to falsify the text in order to set the author right. We should then have to set the French text right also!

2209. 'Made this matter much worse, and aggravated it.'

2210. _Outrely_, utterly, entirely, i. e. without reserve; Fr. text _tout oultre_. Not from A. S. _[=u]tor_, outer, utter, but from F. _oultre_, _outre_, moreover; of which one sense, in Godefroy, is 'excessivement.' See E. 335, 639, 768, 953; C. 849; &c.

2216. Fr. text--'en telle maniere que tu soies bien pourveu d'espies et guettes.'--Mr.

2218. _To moeve_; Fr. text, _de mouvoir guerre_; cf. the Lat. phrase _mouere bellum_.--Mr.

2220. The Lat. text has here _three_ phrases for Chaucer's 'common proverb.' It has: 'non enim subito uel celeriter est iudicandum, "omnia enim subita probantur incauta," et "in iudicando criminosa est celeritas," et "ad poenitendum properat qui cito iudicat."' Of these, the first is from Cassiodorus, Variarum lib. i. c. 17; and the second and [205] third from Publilius Syrus, Sententiae, 254 and 32 (ed. Friedrich, Berolini, 1880). For _iudicando_, as in some MSS., Friedrich has the variant _vindicando_. Cf. the Proverbs of Hending, l. 256: 'Ofte rap reweth,' haste often rues. See note to 2244.

2221. _Men seyn_; this does not necessarily mean that Chaucer is referring to a proverb. He is merely translating. The Lat. text has; 'quare _dici consueuit_, Optimum iudicem existimem, qui cito intelligit et tarde iudicat.' It also quotes two sentences (nos. 311 and 128) from Publilius Syrus: 'Mora omnis odio est, sed facit sapientiam'; and--'Deliberare utilia mora est tutissima.' Mätzner points out that there are two other sentences (nos. 659 and 32) in Publilius, which come very near the expression in the text, viz. 'Velox consilium sequitur poenitentia'; and--'Ad poenitendum properat, qui cito iudicat.'

2223. See John, viii. 3-8. For _he wroot_, Hl. has 'he_m_ wrot,' which is obviously wrong.

2227. _Made contenaunce_, made a sign, made a gesture. Among the senses of F. _contenance_, Cotgrave gives: 'gesture, posture, behaviour, carriage.'

2228. Fr. text--'qui ne scevent que guerre se monte.'--Mr.

2229. 'The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water'; Prov. xvii. 14.

2231. 'The chylde may rue that is vnborn'; Chevy Chase, l. 9.

2235. 'A tale out of season is as music in mourning'; Ecclus. xxii. 6.

2237. Not from 'Solomon,' but from 'Jesus, son of Sirach,' as before. The Lat. text agrees with the Vulgate version of Ecclus. xxxii. 6: 'ubi auditus non est, ne effundas sermonem'; the E. version (verse 4) is somewhat different, viz. 'Pour not out words where there is a musician, and shew not forth wisdom out of time.' Chaucer gives us the same saying again _in verse_; see B. 3991.

2238. Lat. text: 'semper consilium tunc deest, quando maxime opus est'; from Publilius Syrus, Sent. 594. (_Read_ cum opus est maxime.)

2242. Cf. F. text--'Sire, dist elle, je vous prie que vous ne vous hastez, et que vous pour tous dons me donnez espace.'--Wright.

2243. _Piers Alfonce_, Petrus Alfonsi. 'Peter Alfonsus, or Alfonsi, was a converted Spanish Jew, who flourished in the twelfth century, and is well known for his _Disciplina Clericalis_, a collection of stories and moralisations in Latin prose, which was translated afterwards into French verse, under the title of the _Chastoiement d'un pere a son fils_. It was a book much in vogue among the preachers from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century.'--Wright. Tyrwhitt has a long note here; he says that a copy of this work is in MS. Bibl. Reg. 10 B. xii in the British Museum, and that there is also a copy of another work by the same author, entitled _Dialogus contra Judaeos_, in MS. Harl. 3861. He also remarks that the manner and style of the _Disciplina Clericalis_ 'show many marks of an Eastern original; and one of his stories _Of a trick put upon a thief_ is entirely taken from the Calilah a Damnah, a celebrated collection of Oriental apologues.' All the best fables of Alfonsus [206] were afterwards incorporated (says Tyrwhitt) into the Gesta Romanorum. He was born at Huesca, in Arragon, in 1062, and converted to Christianity in 1106.

The words here referred to are the following: 'Ne properes ulli reddere mutuum boni uel mali, quia diutius expectabit te amicus, et diutius timebit te inimicus'; Disc. Cler. xxv. 15; ed. F. W. V. Schmidt, Berlin, 1827, 4to., p. 71.

2244. _The proverbe_, &c.; not in either the Latin or the French texts. Cf. the proverb of Hending--'ofte rap reweth,' often haste rues it. Heywood has--'The more haste, the worse speed'; on which Ray notes--'Come s'ha fretta non si fa mai niente che stia bene'; _Ital._ Qui trop se hâte en cheminant, en beau chemin se fourvoye souvent; _Fr._ Qui nimis properè minus prosperè; et nimium properans serius absoluit.

'Tarry a little, that we may make an end the sooner, was a saying of Sir Amias Paulet. Presto e bene non si conviene; _Ital._' See 2325 below, and observe that Chaucer has _the same form of words_ in Troil. i. 956.

2247. From Ecclesiastes, vii. 28. Cf. A. 3154.

2249. From Ecclus. xxv. 30 (Vulgate): 'Mulier, si primatum habeat, contraria est uiro suo.' Not in the A. V.; cf. v. 22 of that version.

2250. From Ecclus. xxxiii. 20-22 (Vulgate); 19-21 (A. V.).

2251. After _noght be_, ed. 1550 adds--'if I shuld be cou_n_sayled by the'; but this is redundant. See next note.

2252-3. These clauses are omitted in the MSS. and black-letter editions, but are absolutely necessary to the sense. The French text has--'car il est escript: la jenglerie des femmes ne puet riens celer fors ce qu'elle ne scet. Apres, le philosophe dit: en mauvais conseil les femmes vainquent les hommes. Pour ces raisons, je ne doy point user de ton conseil.' It is easy to turn this into Chaucerian English, by referring to ll. 2274, 2280 below, where the missing passage is quoted with but slight alteration.

The former clause is quoted from Marcus Annaeus Seneca, father of Seneca the philosopher, Controversiarum Lib. ii. 13. 12:--'Garrulitas mulierum id solum nouit celare, quod nescit.' Cf. P. Plowman, B. v. 168; xix. 157; and see the Wyf of Bathes Tale, D. 950. The second clause is from Publilius Syrus, Sent. 324:--'Malo in consilio feminae uincunt uiros.'

2257. 'Non est turpe cum re mutare consilium'; Seneca, De Beneficiis, iv. 38, § 1.

_Maketh no lesing_, telleth no lie; compare the use of _lyer_ just above.

_Turneth his corage_, changes his mind. Mätzner quotes a similar phrase from Halliwell's Dict., s. v. _Torne_:--

'But thogh a man himself be good, And he _torne_ so _his mood_ That he haunte fooles companye, It shal him torne to grete folie.'

MS. Lansdowne 793, fol. 68. [207]

2258. _Thar ye nat_, it needs not that ye; i. e. you are not obliged. _But yow lyke_, unless you please (lit. unless it please you).

2259. _Ther_, where. _What that him lyketh_, whatever he likes.

2260. _Save your grace_, with the same sense as the commoner phrase 'save your reverence.' The Lat. text has 'salua reuerentia tua'; which shews the original form of the phrase.

_As seith the book._ Here 'the book' probably means no more than the Latin text, which has 'nam qui omnes despicit, omnibus displicet'; without any reference.

2261. _Senek._ Mätzner says this is not to be found in Seneca; in fact, the Latin text refers us to 'Seneca, De Formula Honestae Vitae'; but Sundby has found it in Martinus Dumiensis, Formula Honestae Vitae, cap. iii. This shews that it was attributed to Seneca erroneously. Moreover, the original is more fully expressed, and runs thus--'Nullius imprudentiam despicias; rari sermonis ipse, sed loquentium patiens auditor; seuerus non saeuus, hilares neque aspernans; sapientiae cupidus et docilis; quae scieris, sine arrogantia postulanti imperties; quae nescieris, sine occultatione ignorantiae tibi benigne postula impertiri.' Cf. Horace, Epist. vi. 67, 68.

2265. _Rather_, sooner. See Mark, xvi. 9. The weakness of this argument for the _goodness_ of woman appears by comparison with P. Plowman, C. viii. 138: 'A synful Marye the seyh er seynt Marie thy moder,' i. e. Christ was seen by St. Mary the sinner earlier than by St. Mary His mother, after His resurrection.

2266-9. This reappears in verse in the March. Tale, E. 2277-2290.

2269. Alluding to Matt. xix. 17; Luke xviii. 19.

2273. _Or noon_, or not. So elsewhere; see B. 2407, F. 778, I. 962, 963, 964.

2276. Cf. P. Plowman, C. xx. 297, on which my note is as follows. 'Perhaps the original form of this commonly quoted proverb is this:--"Tria sunt enim quae non sinunt hominem in domo permanere; fumus, stillicidium, et mala uxor"; Innocens Papa, de Contemptu Mundi, i. 18. It is a mere compilation from Prov. x. 26, xix. 13, and xxvii. 15. Chaucer refers to it in his Tale of Melibeus, Prologue to Wife of Bathes Tale (D. 278), and Persones Tale (I. 631); see also Kemble's Solomon and Saturn, pp. 43, 53, 63; Walter Mapes, ed. Wright, p. 83.' Cf. Wright's Bibliographia Britannica, Anglo-Norman Period, pp. 333, 334; Hazlitt's Proverbs, pp. 114, 339; Ida von Düringsfeld, Sprichwörter, vol. i. sect. 303; Peter Cantor, ed. Migne, col. 331; &c. A medieval proverbial line expresses the same thus:--

'Sunt tria dampna domus, imber, mala femina, fumus.'

2277. From Prov. xxi. 9; cf. Prov. xxv. 24. See D. 775.

2286. The Lat. text has: 'uulgo dici consueuit, Consilium feminile nimis carum aut nimis uile.' Cf. B. 4446, and the note. [208]

2288. The examples of Jacob, Judith, Abigail, and Esther are again quoted, in the same order, in the March. Tale, E. 1362-74. See Gen. xxvii; Judith, xi-xiii; 1 Sam. xxv. 14; Esther, vii.

2293. _Forme-fader_, first father. Here _forme_ represents the A. S. _forma_, first, cognate with Goth. _fruma_, Lat. _primus_. Cf. 'Adam ure _forme fader_'; O. E. Homilies, ed. Morris, ii. 101; so also in Hampole, Pr. Cons. 483; Legends of the Holy Rood, ed. Morris, p. 62; Allit. Poems, A. 639.

2294. _To been a man allone_, for a man to be alone; for this idiom, cf. I. 456, 469, 666, 849, 935.--Mr. See Gen. ii. 18.

2296. _Confusioun_; see B. 4354, and the note.

2297. Lat. text:--'quare per uersus dici consueuit:

Quid melius auro? Iaspis. Quid iaspide? Sensus. Quid sensu? Mulier. Quid muliere? Nihil.'

Sundby quotes from Ebrardi Bituniensis Graecismus, cum comm. Vincentii Metulini, fol. C. 1, back--

Quid melius auro? Iaspis. Quid iaspide? Sensus. Quid sensu? Ratio. Quid ratione? Deus.

(A better reading is _Auro quid melius_.)

In MS. Harl. 3362, fol. 67, as printed in Reliquiae Antiquae, i. 91, we find:--

Vento quid leuius? fulgur. Quid fulgure? flamma. Flamma quid? mulier. Quid muliere? nichil.

And these lines are immediately followed by the second quotation above, with the variations 'Auro quid melius,' 'Sensu quid,' and 'nichil' for 'Deus.'

2303. From Prov. xvi. 24.

2306. For the use of _to_ with _biseken_, cf. 2940 below.--Mr.

2308. From Tobit, iv. 20 (Vulgate); iv. 19 (A. V.). _Dresse_, direct; Lat. 'ut uias tuas _dirigat_.'

2309. From James, i. 5. At this point the Fr. text is much shortened, pp. 20-30 of the Latin text being omitted.

2311. Lat. text (p. 33):--'a te atque consiliariis tuis remoueas illa tria, quae maxime sunt consilio contraria, scilicet iram, uoluptatem siue cupiditatem atque festinantiam.'

2315. Lat. text:--'iratus semper plus putat posse facere, quam possit.'

2317. The Lat. text shews that the quotation is not from Seneca's De Ira, but from Publilius Syrus, Sent. 281:--'Iratus nil non criminis loquitur loco.' Cf. D. 2005, I. 537.

2320. From 1 Tim. vi. 10. See C. 334, I. 739.

2325. Lat. 'Ad poenitendum properat, qui cito iudicat'; from Publil. Syrus, Sent. 32. (_Read_ cito qui.) See l. 2244 above, and the note.

2331. From Ecclus. xix. 8, 9 (A. V.).

2333. Lat. text (p. 40):--'Et alius dixit: Vix existimes ab uno posse celari secretum.' [209]

2334. _The book._ Lat. text:--'Consilium absconditum quasi in carcere tuo est retrusum, reuelatum uero te in carcere suo tenet ligatum.' Compare Petrus Alfonsi, Disciplina Clericalis, iv. 3. Cf. Ecclus. viii. 22 (Vulgate); viii. 19 (A. V.).

2337. Lat. text:--'Ait enim Seneca: Si tibi ipse non imperasti, ut taceres, quomodo ab alio silentium quaeris?' This, however, is not from Seneca, but from Martinus Dumiensis, De Moribus, Sent. 16. Sundby further quotes from Plutarch (Opera, ed. Hutten. Tubingae, 1814, vol. xiv. p. 395):--[Greek: Hoper an siôpasthai boulêi, mêdeni eipêis; ê pôs para tinos apaitêseis to piston tês siôpês, ho mê paresches seautôi?]

2338. _Plyt_, plight, condition. It rimes with _appetyt_, E. 2336, and _wyte_, G. 953. It occurs again in the Complaint of Anelida, 297, and Parl. of Foules, 294; and in Troilus, ii. 712, 1738, iii. 1039. The modern spelling is wrong, as it is quite a different word from the verb to _plight_. See it discussed in my Etym. Dict., Errata and Addenda, p. 822.

2342. _Men seyn._ This does not appear to be a quotation, but a sort of proverb. The Lat. text merely says:--'Et _haec est ratio_ quare magnates atque potentes, si per se nesciunt, consilium bonum uix aut nunquam capere possunt.'

2348. From Prov. xxvii. 9.

2349. From Ecclus. vi. 15:--'Amico fideli non est comparatio; et non est digna ponderatio auri et argenti contra bonitatem fidei illius.' L. 2350 is a sort of paraphrase of the latter clause.

2351. From Ecclus. vi. 14:--'Amicus fidelis, protectio fortis; qui autem inuenit illum, inuenit thesaurum.' 'He [Socrates] was wonte to saie, that there is no possession or treasure more precious then a true and an assured good frende.'--N. Udall, tr. of Erasmus' Apophthegmes, Socrates, § 13.

2352. Cf. Prov. xxii. 17; Ecclus. ix. 14.

2354. Cf. Job xii. 12.

2355. From Cicero, De Senectute, vi. 17:--'Non uiribus aut uelocitatibus aut celeritate corporum res magnae geruntur, sed consilio, auctoritate, sententia; quibus non modo non orbari, sed etiam augeri senectus solet.'

2357. From Ecclus. vi. 6.

2361. From Prov. xi. 14; cf. xv. 22.

2363. From Ecclus. viii. 17.

2364. Lat. text:--'Scriptum est enim, Proprium est stultitiae aliena uitia cernere, suorum autem obliuisci.' From Cicero, Disput. Tusc. iii. 30. 73.

2366. 'Sic habendum est, nullam in amicitia pestem esse maiorem quam adulationem, blanditiam, assentationem'; Cicero, Laelius, xxvi. 97 [_or_ xxv.]

2367. Lat. text:--'In consiliis itaque et in aliis rebus non acerba uerba, sed blanda timebis.' The last six words are from Martinus Dumiensis, De Quatuor Virtutibus Cardinalibus, cap. iii. Cf. Prov. xxviii. 23. [210]

2368. From Prov. xxix. 5. The words in the next clause (2369) seem to be merely another rendering of the same passage.

2370. 'Cauendum est, ne assentatoribus patefaciamus aures neue adulari nos sinamus'; Cicero, De Officiis, i. 26.

2371. From Dionysius Cato, Distich. iii. 6:--'Sermones blandos blaesosque cauere memento.'

2373. 'Cum inimico nemo in gratiam tuto [_al._ tute] redit'; Publilius Syrus, Sent. 91.

2374. Lat. text:--'Quare Ysopus dixit:

Ne confidatis secreta nec his detegatis, Cum quibus egistis pugnae discrimina tristis.'

2375. Not from Seneca, but from Publilius Syrus, Sent. 389:--'Nunquam ubi diu fuit ignis deficit uapor'; but the MSS. differ in their readings. 'There is no fire without some smoke'; Heywood's Proverbs.

2376. From Ecclus. xii. 10.

2379. The passage alluded to is the following:--'Ne te associaueris cum inimicis tuis, cum alios possis repperire socios; quae enim mala egeris notabunt, quae uero bona fuerint deuitabunt [Lat. text, deuiabunt]'; cf. Petrus Alfonsi, Disciplina Clericalis, iv. 4. The words 'they wol perverten it' seem to be due to the reading _deuiabunt_, taken to mean 'they will turn aside,' in a transitive sense.

2381. Lat. text (pp. 50, 51); 'ut quidam philosophus dixit, Nemo ei satis fidus est, quem metuit.'

2382. Inexactly quoted from the Latin text, taken from Cicero, De Officiis,