BOOK I.

PROLOGUE. 1. The initial letters of the chapters in Book I. form the words MARGARETE OF. See the Introduction.

3. _by queynt knitting coloures_, by curious fine phrases, that 'knit' or join the words or verses together. For _colours_ = fine phrases, cf. Ch., HF. 859; C. T., E 16, F 726.

7. _for_, because, seeing that; _boystous_, rough, plain, unadorned; cf. l. 12. The Glossary in vol. vi should be compared for further illustration of the more difficult words.

19. _for the first leudnesse_, on account of the former lack of skill.

21. _yeve sight_, enable men to see clearly.

30. _conne jumpere suche termes_, know how to jumble such terms together. _Jumpere_ should rather be spelt _jumpre_; cf. _jompre_ in the Gloss. to Chaucer. For such words, see the Glossary appended to the present volume.

_but as_, except as the jay chatters English; i.e. without understanding it; cf. Ch. Prol. 642.

43. _necessaries to cacche_, to lay hold of necessary ideas. Throughout this treatise, we frequently find the verb placed _after_ the substantive which it governs, or relegated to the end of the clause or sentence. This absurd affectation often greatly obscures the sense.

45. The insertion of the words _perfeccion is_ is absolutely necessary to the sense; cf. ll. 47, 50. For the general argument, cf. Ch. Boeth. iii. proses 10 and 11, where 'perfection' is represented by _suffisaunce_, as, e.g., in iii. pr. 11. l. 18.

50. Aristotle's Metaphysics begins with the words: [Greek: pantes anthrôpoi tou eidenai oregontai phusei], all men by nature are actuated by the desire of knowledge. The reference to this passage is explicitly given in the Romans of Partenay, ll. 78-87; and it was doubtless a much worn quotation. And see l. 64 below.

58. _sightful and knowing_, visible and capable of being known.

61. _David_. The whole of this sentence is so hopelessly corrupt that I can but give it up. Possibly there is a reference to Ps. cxxxix. 14. _me in makinge_ may be put for 'in makinge me.' _Tune_ is probably a misprint for _time_; _lent_ may be an error for _sent_; but the whole is hopelessly wrong.

64. Apparently derived from Aristotle, De Animalibus, bk. i. c. 5. The general sense is that created things like to know both their creator and the causes of natural things akin to them ([Greek: oikeia]).

67. _Considred_; i.e. the forms of natural things and their creation being considered, men should have a great natural love to the Workman that made them.

68. _me_ is frequently written for _men_, the unemphatic form of _man_, in the impersonal sense of 'one' or 'people'; thus, in King Horn, ed. Morris, 366, 'ne recche i what _me_ telle' means 'I care not what people may say.' Strict grammar requires the form _him_ for _hem_ in l. 69, as _me_ is properly singular; but the use of _hem_ is natural enough in this passage, as _me_ really signifies created beings in general. Cf. _me_ in ch. i. l. 18 below.

80. _Styx_ is not 'a pit,' but a river. The error is Chaucer's; cf. 'Stix, the put of helle,' in Troil. iv. 1540. Observe the expression--'Stygiamque paludem'; Vergil, Aen. vi. 323.

86. I. e. 'rend the sword out of the hands of Hercules, and set Hercules' pillars at Gades a mile further onward.' For the latter allusion, see Ch. vol. ii. p. lv; it may have been taken from Guido delle Colonne. And see Poem VIII (below), l. 349. _Gades_, now Cadiz.

89. _the spere_, the spear. There seems to be some confusion here. It was King Arthur who drew the magic sword out of the stone, after 150 knights had failed in the attempt: see Merlin, ed. Wheatley (E. E. T. S.), pp. 100-3. Alexander's task was to untie the Gordian knot.

90. _And that_; 'and who says that, surpassing all wonders, he will be master of France by might, whereas even King Edward III could not conquer all of it.' An interesting allusion.

96. _unconninge_, ignorance. There is an unpublished treatise called 'The Cloud of Unknowing'; but it is probably not here alluded to.

98. _gadered_, gathered. Thynne almost invariably commits the anachronism of spelling the words _gader_, _fader_, _moder_, _togider_, and the like, with _th_; and I have usually set him right, marking such corrections with a prefixed obelus (+). Cf. _weder_ in l. 123 below.

100. _rekes_, ricks. The idea is from Chaucer, L. G. W. 73-4.

101, 102. _his reson_, the reason of him. _hayne_, hatred.

110. _Boëce_, Boethius. No doubt the author simply consulted Chaucer's translation. See the Introduction.

115. _slye_, cunning; evidently alluding to the parable of the unjust steward.

117. _Aristotle_. The allusion appears to be to the Nicomachean Ethics, bk. i. c. 7: [Greek: doxeie d' an pantos einai proagagein, ... pantos gar prostheinai to elleipon].

122. _betiden_, happened to me; the _i_ is short. This sudden transition to the mention of the author's pilgrimage suggests that a portion of the Prologue is missing here.

CHAP. I. 1. Copied from Ch. Boeth. bk. i. met. 1. ll. 1, 2.

12. _thing_ seems to mean 'person'; the person that cannot now embrace me when I wish for comfort.

15. _prison_; probably not a material prison. The author, in imitation of Boethius, imagines himself to be imprisoned. At p. 144, l. 132, he is 'in good plite,' i.e. well off. Cf. note to ch. iii. 116.

16. _caitived_, kept as a captive; the correction of _caytisned_ (with s for _s_) to _caytifued_ (better spelt _caitived_) is obvious, and is given in the New E. Dict., s.v. _Caitive_.

17, 18. _Straunge_, a strange one, some stranger; _me_, one, really meaning 'myself'; _he shulde_, it ought to be.

21, 22. _bewent_, turned aside; see New E. Dict., s.v. _Bewend_. The reading _bewet_, i.e. profusely wetted, occurs (by misprinting) in later editions, and is adopted in the New E. Dict, s.v. _Bewet_. It is obviously wrong.

23. _of hem_, by them; these words, in the construction, follow _enlumined_. The very frequent inversion of phrases in this piece tends greatly to obscure the sense of it.

24. _Margarite precious_, a precious pearl. Gems were formerly credited with 'virtues'; thus Philip de Thaun, in his Bestiary (ed. Wright, l. 1503), says of the pearl--

'A mult choses pot valier, ki cestes peres pot aveir,' &c., or, in Wright's translation: 'For him who can have this stone, it will be of force against many things; there will never be any infirmity, except death, from which a person will not come to health, who will drink it with dew, if he has true faith.' See l. 133 below.

28. _twinkling in your disese_, a small matter tending to your discomfort. Here _disese_ = dis-ease, want of ease. Cf. l. 31 below.

42. 'It is so high,' &c. The implied subject to which _it_ refers is _paradise_, where the author's _Eve_ is supposed to be. Hence the sense is:--'paradise is so far away from the place where I am lying and from the common earth, that no cable (let down from it) can reach me.'

59. _ferdnes_ is obviously the right word, though misprinted _frendes_. It signifies 'fear,' and occurs again in ch. ii. ll. 9, 16; besides, it is again misprinted as _frendes_ in the same chapter, l. 13.

63. _weyved_ is an obvious correction for _veyned_; see the Glossary.

70. _mercy passeth right_, your mercy exceeds your justice. This was a proverbial phrase, or, as it is called in the next clause, a 'proposition.'

79. _flitte_, stir, be moved; 'not even the least bit.'

80. _souded_ (misprinted _sonded_ by Thynne), fixed; cf. Ch. C.T., B 1769. From O.F. _souder_, Lat. _solidare_.

83. _do_, cause; 'cause the lucky throw of comfort to fall upward'; alluding to dice-play.

96. _wolde conne_, would like to be able to.

99, 100. _me weninge_, when I was expecting. _ther-as_, whereas.

116. _no force_, it does not matter; no matter for that.

117-20. Evidently corrupt, even when we read _flowing_ for _folowing_, and _of al_ for _by al_. Perhaps _ther_ in l. 119 should be _they_; giving the sense:--'but they (thy virtues) are wonderful, I know not which (of them it is) that prevents the flood,' &c. Even so, a clause is lacking after _vertues_ in l. 118.

126. Thynne has _ioleynynge_ for _ioleyuynge_, i.e. _joleyving_, cheering, making joyous. The word is riot given in Stratmann or in Mätzner, but Godefroy has the corresponding O.F. verb _joliver_, to caress.

CHAP. II. 18. _a lady_; this is evidently copied from Boethius; see Ch. Boeth. bk. i. pr. 1. l. 3. The visitor to the prison of Boethius was named Philosophy; the visitor in the present case is Love, personified as a female; see l. 53 below.

20. _blustringe_, glance. But the word is not known in this sense, and there is evidently some mistake here. I have no doubt that the right word is _blushinge_; for the M.E. _blusshen_ was often used in the sense of 'to cast a glance, give a look, glance with the eye'; as duly noted in the New E. Dict, s.v. _Blush_. The word was probably written _bluschinge_ in Thynne's MS., with a _c_ exactly (as often) like a _t_. If he misread it as _blusthinge_, he may easily have altered it to _blustringe_.

32. _neighe_, approach; governing _me_.

37. _O my nory_, O my pupil! Copied from Ch. Boeth. bk. i. pr. 3. l. 10; cf. the same, bk. iii. pr. 11. l. 160. In l. 51 below, we have _my disciple_.

60. _by thyn owne vyse_, by thine own resolve; i.e. of thine own accord; see _Advice_ in the New E. Dict. § 6. _Vyse_ is put for _avyse_, the syllable _a_ being dropped. Halliwell notes that _vice_, with the sense of 'advice,' is still in use.

64. 'Because it comforts me to think on past gladness, it (also) vexes me again to be doing so.' Clumsily expressed; and borrowed from Ch. Boeth. bk. ii. pr. 4. ll. 4-7.

74-84. From Matt. xviii. 12; Luke, xv. 4; John, x. 11.

92. Love was kind to Paris, because he succeeded in gaining Helen. Jason was false to Love, because he deserted Hypsipyle and Medea. It is probable that _false_ is misprinted for _faire_ in l. 93; otherwise there is no contrast, as is implied by _for_.

93. _Sesars sonke_ (_sic_) should probably be _Cesars swink_, i.e. Caesar's toil. I adopt this reading to make sense; but it is not at all clear why Caesar should have been selected as the type of a successful lover.

95. _loveday_, a day of reconciliation; see note to Ch. C. T., A 258.

96. 'And chose a maid to be umpire between God and man'; alluding to the Virgin Mary.

114-5. _cause, causing_, the primary cause, originating these things and many others besides. See note to Troil. iv. 829.

123-4. _wo is him_; Lat. ve soli, Eccl. iv. 10; quoted in Troil. i. 694.

125. Cf. 'weep with them that weep'; Rom. xii. 15.

138. Here the author bemoans his losses and heavy expenses.

143. For _wolde endeynous_ I here read _wolde ben deynous_, i.e. would be disdainful; see _Deynous_ in the Gloss. to Chaucer. The New E. Dict. adopts the reading _wolde [be] endeynous_, with the same sense; but no other example of the adj. _endeynous_ is known, and it is an awkward formation. However, there are five examples of the verb _endeign_, meaning 'to be indignant'; see Wyclif, Gen. xviii. 30; Ex. xxxii. 22; Is. lvii. 6; Job, xxxii. 2; Wisd. xii. 27.

166. Copied from Troil. iv. 460-1:--

'But canstow playen raket, to and fro, Netle in, dokke out, now this, now that, Pandare?'

See the note on the latter line.

_Wethercocke_ is a late spelling; the proper M.E. spelling is _wedercokke_, from a nom. _wedercok_, which appears in the poem Against Women Unconstant, l. 12.

173. _a_, an unemphatic form of _have_; 'thou wouldest have made me.'

180. _voyde_, do away with. _webbes_; the _web_, also called _the pin and web_, or _the web and pin_, is a disease of the eyes, now known as cataract. See Nares, s.v. _Pin_; Florio's Ital. Dict., s.v. _Cateratta_; the New E. Dict., s.v. _Cataract_; King Lear, iii. 4. 122; Winter's Tale, i. 2. 291.

191, 192. _truste on Mars_, trust to Mars, i.e. be ready with wager of battle; alluding to the common practice of appealing to arms when a speaker's truthfulness was called in question. See ch. vii. 10 below (p. 31).

CHAP. III. 14. _Come of_, lit. come off; but it is remarkable that this phrase is used in M.E. where we should now say rather 'come on!' See note to Troil. ii. 1738.

21. _mayst thou_, canst thou do (or act)?

25-7. 'I never yet set any one to serve anywhere who did not succeed in his service.'

32. 'the nut in every nook.' Perhaps _on_ should be _in_.

37-8. There is some corruption here. I insert _Tho gan I_ to help out the sense, but it remains partially obscure. Perhaps the sense is:--'Often one does what one does not wish to do, being stirred to do so by the opinion of others, who wanted me to stay at home; whereupon I suddenly began to wish to travel.' He would rather have stayed at home; but when he found that others wanted him to do so, he perversely began to wish to travel.

39. _the wynding of the erthe_; an obscure expression; perhaps 'the envelopment of the earth in snow.'

40. 'I walked through woods in which were broad ways, and (then) by small paths which the swine had made, being lanes with by-paths for seeking (there) their beech-mast.'

42. _ladels_, by-paths (?). No other example of the word appears. I guess it to be a diminutive of M.E. _lade_, a path, road, which occurs in the Ormulum; see Stratmann. Perhaps it is a mere misprint for _lades_.

44, 45. _gonne to wilde_, began to grow wild; cf. _ginne ayen waxe ramage_, in l. 48, with the like sense. I know of no other example of the verb _to wilde_.

52. _shippe_, ship; not, however, a real ship, but an allegorical one named Travail, i.e. Danger; see ll. 55, 75 below. _many_ is here used in place of _meynee_, referring to the ship's company; some of whom had the allegorical names of Sight, Lust, Thought, and Will. The 'ship' is a common symbol of this present life, in which we are surrounded by perils; compare the parable of 'the wagging boat' in P. Plowm. C. xi. 32, and the long note to that line.

58. _old hate_; probably borrowed from Ch. Pers. Tale, I 562; see the note.

64. _avowing_, vowing; because persons in peril used to vow to perform pilgrimages.

75. _my ship was out of mynde_, i.e. I forgot all about my previous danger.

84. _the man_, the merchant-man in Matt. xiii. 45.

105. _enmoysed_, comforted. _Enmoise_ or _emmoise_ is a variant of M.E. _amese_, _ameise_, from O.F. _amaiser_, _amaisier_, to pacify, appease, render gentle (Godefroy); answering to the Low Lat. type _*ad-mitiare_ from _mitis_, gentle. See _Amese_ in the New E. Dict. No other example of the form _enmoyse_ is known.

111. _of nothing now may serve_, is now of no use (to you).

116. _prison_; the author has forgotten all about his adventure in the ship, and is now back in prison, as in ch. i.

118. _renyant forjuged_, a denier (of his guilt) who has been wrongfully condemned.

121. _suche grace and non hap_, such favour and no mere luck.

124. _let-games_; probably from Troil. iii. 527; spoilers of sport or happiness. _wayters_, watchers, watch-men, guards.

131. _nothing as ye shulde_, not at all as you ought to do.

148. _feld_, felled, put down, done away with.

153-4. _For he ... suffer_, a perfect alliterative line; imitated from P. Plowm. C. xxi. 212:--'For wot no wight what wele is, that never wo suffrede.' Clearly quoted from memory; cf. notes to bk. ii. ch. 9. 178, and ch. 13. 86.

157. _happy hevinesse_, fortunate grief; a parallel expression to _lyking tene_, i.e. pleasing vexation, in l. 158. These contradictory phrases were much affected by way of rhetorical flourish. For a long passage of this character, cf. Rom. Rose, 4703-50.

158. _harse_ is almost certainly a misprint for _harme_; then _goodly_ _harme_ means much the same as _lyking tene_ (see note above). So, in Rom. Rose, 4710, 4733, 4743, we find mention of 'a sweet peril,' 'a joyous pain,' and 'a sweet hell.'

CHAP. IV. 2. _semed they boren_, they seemed to bore; _boren_ being in the infin. mood.

18. For _or_ read _for_, to make sense; _for of disese_, for out of such distress come gladness and joy, so poured out by means of a full vessel, that such gladness quenches the feeling of former sorrows. Here _gladnesse and joy_ is spoken of as being all one thing, governing the singular verb _is_, and being alluded to as _it_.

25. _commensal_, table-companion; from F. _commensal_, given in Cotgrave. See the New E. Dict.

27. _soukinges_, suckings, draughts of milk; cf. Ch. Boeth. bk. i. pr. 2. l. 4.

36. _clothe_, cloth. This circumstance is copied from Ch. Boeth. bk. i. pr. 2. l. 19.

42. This reference to Love, as controlling the universe, is borrowed from Boeth. bk. ii. met. 8.

47. Read _werne_ (refuse) and _wol_ (will); 'yet all things desire that you should refuse help to no one who is willing to do as you direct him.'

56. _every thing in coming_, every future thing. _contingent_, of uncertain occurrence; the earliest known quotation for this use of the word in English.

61-2. _many let-games_; repeated from above, ch. iii. ll. 124-8. _thy moeble_; from the same, ll. 131-2.

64. _by the first_, with reference to your first question; so also _by that other_, with reference to your second question, in l. 71.

CHAP. V. 8. Acrisius shut his daughter Danaë up in a tower, to keep her safe; nevertheless she became the mother of Perseus, who afterwards killed Acrisius accidentally.

14. _entremellen_, intermingle hearts after merely seeing each other.

16. _beestes_, animals, beings; not used contemptuously; equivalent to _living people_ in ll. 17, 18.

20. _esployte_, success, achievement; see _Exploit_ in the New E. Dict.

29. Supply _don_; 'and I will cause him to come to bliss, as being one of my own servants.'

35. _and in-to water_, and jumps into the water and immediately comes up to breathe; like an unsuccessful diver.

37. _A tree_, &c.; a common illustration; cf. Troil. i. 964.

43. _this countrè_; a common saying; cf. Troil. ii. 28 (and note), 42. And see l. 47 below.

45. 'the salve that he healed his heel with.' From HF. 290.

71. _jangelers_; referring to l. 19 above. _lokers_; referring to _overlokers_; in ch. iii. l. 128.

72. _wayters_; referring to ch. iii. l. 128.

77. 'It is sometimes wise to feign flight.' Cf. P. Plowman, C. xxii. 103.

85. _cornes_, grains of corn. I supply _bare_, i.e. empty.

86-7. _Who_, &c.; a proverb; from Troil. v. 784.

87-8. _After grete stormes_; see note to P. Plowman, C. xxi. 454.

92. _grobbed_, grubbed; i.e. dug about. Cf. Isaiah, v. 2.

95. _a_, have (as before). _Lya_, Leah; Lat. _Lia_, in Gen. xxix. 17 (Vulgate).

103. _eighteth_, eighth; an extraordinary perversion of the notion of the sabbatical year. So below, in l. 104, we are informed that the number of workdays is _seven_; and that, in Christian countries, the day of rest is the eighth day in the week! _kinrest_, rest for the _kin_ or people; a general day of rest. I know of no other example of this somewhat clumsy compound.

110. _sothed_, verified; referring to Luke, xiv. 29.

113. _conisance_, badge. Badges for retainers were very common at this date. See Notes to Richard the Redeless, ii. 2.

117-9. Copied from P. Plowman, C. vii. 24, 25:--

'Lauhynge al aloude, for lewede men sholde _Wene_ that ich were _witty_, and _wyser than anothere_; _Scorner_ and unskilful to hem that _skil_ shewed.'

As these lines are not found in the earlier versions, it follows that the author was acquainted with the _latest_ version.

124. _a bridge_; i.e. to serve by way of retreat for such as trust them. _wolves_, destroyers; here meant as a complimentary epithet.

127. This idea, of Jupiter's promotion, from being a bull, to being the mate of Europa, is extremely odd; still more so is that of the promotion of Aeneas from being in hell (l. 129). Cf. _Europe_ in Troil. iii. 722.

128. _lowest degrè_; not true, as Caesar's father was praetor, and his aunt married Marius. But cf. C. T., B 3862.

CHAP. VI. 3. _enfame_, infamy, obloquy; from Lat. _infamia_. Godefroy gives _enfamer_, to dishonour. The word only occurs in the present treatise; see ll. 6, 7, 15.

12. From Prov. xxvii. 6: 'Meliora sunt vulnera diligentis quam fraudulenta oscula odientis.'

17. Cf. Ch. Boeth. bk. iii. pr. 6. ll. 5-13.

23. Cf. the same; bk. iv. pr. 7. ll. 34-42.

27. Cf. the same; bk. ii. pr. 5. ll. 121, 122.

30. Cf. the same; bk. iv. pr. 6. ll. 184-191.

48. _Zedeoreys_ (or _[gh]edeoreys_). I can find nothing resembling this strange name, nor any trace of its owner's dealings with Hannibal.

53. The (possibly imaginary) autobiographical details here supplied have been strangely handled for the purpose of insertion into the life of Chaucer, with which they have nothing to do. See Morris's Chaucer, vol. i. p. 32 (Aldine edition). The author tells us very little, except that tumults took place in London, of which he was a native, and that he had knowledge of some secret which he was pressed to betray, and did so in order to serve his own purposes.

77-8. From Chaucer, Troil. v. 6, 7:--

--'shal dwelle in pyne Til Lachesis his threed no lenger twyne.'

107. Referring to John, xiv. 27.

114. _Athenes_; Athene was the goddess who maintained the authority of law and order, and in this sense was 'a god of peace.' But she was certainly also a goddess of battles.

139. _mighty senatoures_. It has been conjectured that the reference is to John of Gaunt. In the Annals of England, under the date 1384, it is noted that 'John of Northampton, a vehement partisan of the duke, is tried and sentenced to imprisonment and forfeiture. An attempt is also made to put the duke on his trial.' John of Northampton had been mayor of London in 1382, when there was a dispute between the court and the citizens regarding his election; perhaps the words _comen eleccion_ (common election), in l. 125 above, may refer to this trouble; so also _free eleccion_ in l. 140. In l. 143 we must read _fate_, not _face_; the confusion between _c_ and _t_ is endless. Perhaps _governours_ in l. 144 should be _governour_, as in l. 147. Note that the author seems to condemn the disturbers of the peace.

157. _coarted by payninge dures_, constrained by painful duress (or torture).

165. _sacrament_, my oath of allegiance. Note that the author takes credit for giving evidence _against_ the riotous people; for which the populace condemned him as a liar (l. 171).

178. _passed_, surpassed (every one), in giving me an infamous character.

181. _reply_, i.e. to subvert, entirely alter, recall; lit. to fold or bend back.

189. Here the author says, more plainly, that he became unpopular for revealing a conspiracy.

193. _out of denwere_, out of doubt, without doubt. Such is clearly the sense; but the word _denwere_ is rejected from the New E. Dict., as it is not otherwise known, and its form is suspicious. It is also omitted in Webster and in the Century Dictionary. Bailey has '_denwere_, doubt,' taken from Speght's Chaucer, and derived from this very passage. Hence Chatterton obtained the word, which he was glad to employ. It occurs, for instance, in his poem of Goddwyn, ed. Skeat, vol. ii. p. 100:--

--'No _denwere_ in my breast I of them feel.'

The right phrase is simply _out of were_; cf. 'withoute were' in the Book of the Duchess, 1295. I think the letters _den_ may have been prefixed accidentally. The line, as printed in Thynne, stands thus: 'denwere al the sothe knowe of these thinges.' I suggest that _den_ is an error for _don_, and the word _don_ ought to come at the _end_ of the line (after _thinges_) instead of at the beginning. This would give the readings 'out of were' and 'these thinges don in acte'; both of which are improvements.

194. _but as_, only as, exactly as.

198. _clerkes_, i.e. Chaucer, HF. 350; Vergil, Aen. iv. 174.

200. _of mene_, make mention of. Cf. 'hit is a schep[h]erde _that I of mene_'; Ancient Metrical Tales, ed. Hartshorne, p. 74.

CHAP. VII. 10. _profered_, offered wager of battle; hence the mention of _Mars_ in l. 11. Cf. note to ch. ii. 191 above, p. 455.

23. _he_, i.e. thine adversary shall bring dishonour upon you in no way.

34. _Indifferent_, impartial. _who_, whoever.

38. _discovered_, betrayed; so that the author admits that he betrayed his mistress.

46. _that sacrament_, that the oath to which you swore, viz. when you were charged upon your oath to tell the truth. That is, his oath in the court of justice made him break his private oath.

49. _trewe_ is certainly an error for _trewthe_; the statement is copied from Jer. iv. 2:--' Et iurabis ... in veritate, et in iudicio, et in justitia.' So in l. 58 below, we have: 'in jugement, _in trouthe_, and rightwisenesse'; and in l. 53--'for a man to say truth, unless judgement and righteousness accompany it, he is forsworn.'

54. _serment_, oath; as in l. 52: referring to Matt. xiv. 7.

56. 'Moreover, it is sometimes forbidden to say truth rightfully--except in a trial--because all truths are not to be disclosed.'

60. _that worde_: 'melius mori quam male vivere'; for which see P. Plowman, C. xviii. 40. Somewhat altered from Tobit, iii. 6:--'expedit mihi mori magis quam vivere.'

61, 62. _al_, although, _enfame_, dishonour; as in vi. 3 (see note, p. 458).

63. _whan_, yet when.

73. _legen_, short for _alegen_; 'allege against others.'

75. Here misprinted; _read_:--'may it be sayd, "in that thinge this man thou demest,"' &c. From Rom. ii. 1; 'in quo enim iudicas alterum, teipsum condemnas.'

83. _shrewe_, wicked man, i.e. Ham; Gen. ix. 22.

101. _emprisonned_; so in Thynne; better, _emprisouned_.

104. _brige_, contention, struggle, trouble; see note to Ch. C. T., B 2872.

105. _after thyne helpes_, for your aid; i.e. to receive assistance from you.

108. _Selande_, Zealand, Zeeland. The port of Middleburg, in the isle of Walcheren, was familiar to the English; cf. note to C. T., Prol. 277. The reference must be to some companions of the author who had fled to Zealand to be out of the way of prosecution. _rydinge_, expedition on horseback, journey.

109, 110. _for thy chambre_, to pay the rent of your room. _renter_, landlord; 'unknown to the landlord.'

112. _helpe of unkyndnesse_, relieve from unkind treatment.

115-6. _fleddest_, didst avoid. _privitè to counsayle_, knowledge of a secret.

120-1. Cf. Ch. Boeth. bk. ii. pr. 8. ll. 31-3.

CHAP. VIII. 1. _Eft_, again. Thynne prints _Ofte_, which does not give the sense required. Fortunately, we know that the first letter _must_ be E, in order that the initial letters of the Prologue and chapters I. to VIII. may give the word MARGARETE. The reading _Ofte_ would turn this into MARGARETO.

4, 5. From Ch. Troil. iv. 3; Boeth. bk. ii. pr. 8. ll. 19-21.

13. _and thou_, if thou. Cf. Matt. xviii. 12.

27. _in their mouthes_, into their mouths; Matt. xii. 34.

31. _leve for no wight_, cease not on any one's account.

32. _use Jacobs wordes_. The allusion seems to be to the conciliatory conduct of Jacob towards Esau; Gen. xxxiii. 8, 10, 11. Similarly the author is to be patient, and to say--'I will endure my lady's wrath, which I have deserved,' &c.

41. _sowe hem_, to sew them together again. _at his worshippe_, in honour of him; but I can find no antecedent to _his_. Perhaps for _his_ we should read _her_.

44. The text has _forgoing al errour distroyeng causeth_; but _distroyeng_ (which may have been a gloss upon _forgoing_) is superfluous, and _al_ should be _of_. But _forgoing_ means rather 'abandonment.'

55. _passest_, surpassest.

59. _by_, with reference to.

61. Hector, according to Guido delle Colonne, gave counsel against going to war with the Greeks, but was overborne by Paris. See the alliterative Destruction of Troy, ed. Panton and Donaldson (E. E. T. S.), Book VI; or Lydgate's Siege of Troye, ch. xii.

65. _leveth_, neglects to oppose what is wrong.

66. The modern proverb is: 'silence gives consent.' Ray gives, as the Latin equivalent, 'qui tacet consentire videtur (inquiunt iuris consulti).' This is the exact form which is here translated.

73. Alluding to the canticle 'Exultet' sung upon Easter Eve, in the Sarum Missal:--'O certe necessarium Ade peccatum.' See note to P. Plowman, C. viii. 126 (or B. v. 491).

80. _lurken_, creep into lurking-holes, slink away.

95. _centre_, central point; from Ch. Boeth. bk. ii. pr. 7. ll. 18-20. The whole passage (ll. 94-105) is imitated from the same 'prose' of Boethius.

103. _London_ is substituted for 'Rome' in Chaucer's Boethius. Chaucer has--'may thanne the glorie of a singuler Romaine strecchen thider as the fame of the name of Rome may nat climben or passen?' See the last note.

112-6. From Ch. Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 7. 58-62.

116-25. From the same, ll. 65-79. Thus, in l. 123, the word _ofte_ (in Thynne) is a misprint for _of the_; for Chaucer has--'For of thinges that han ende may be maked comparisoun.' The whole passage shews that the author consulted Chaucer's translation of Boethius rather than the Latin text.

127. _and thou canst nothing don aright_; literally from Chaucer: 'Ye men, certes, _ne conne don nothing aright_'; Boeth. bk. ii. pr. 7. 79. _but thou desyre the rumour therof be heled and in every wightes ere_; corresponds to Chaucer's--'but-yif it be for the audience of the people and for ydel rumours'; Boeth. bk. ii. pr. 7. 80. Hence _heled_ (lit. hidden) is quite inadmissible; the right reading is probably _deled_, i.e. dealt round.

134. The words supplied are necessary; they dropped out owing to the repetition of _vertue_.

135-6. Again copied from Ch. Boeth. bk. ii. pr. 7. 106: 'the sowle ... unbounden fro the prison of the erthe.'

CHAP. IX. 13. _than leveth there_, then it remains.

15. _for thy moebles_, because thy goods.

20. This proverb is given by Hazlitt in the form--

'Who-so heweth over-high, The chips will fall in his eye.'

Cf. 'one looketh high as one that feareth no chips'; Lyly's Euphues, ed. Arber, p. 467. And see IX. 158 (p. 270).

34. From Chaucer, Boeth. bk. i. pr. 4. 186. The saying is attributed to Pythagoras; see the passage in Chaucer, and the note upon it.

39. _a this halfe god_, on this side of God, i.e. here below; a strange expression. So again in bk. ii. ch. 13. 23.

46. _the foure elementes_, earth, air, fire, and water; see notes to Ch. C. T., A 420, 1247, G 1460. _Al universitee_, the whole universe; hence man was called the microcosm, or the universe in little; see Coriolanus, ii. 1. 68.

64. _I sette now_, I will now suppose the most difficult case; suppose that thou shouldst die in my service.

71. _in this persone_; read _on this persone_; or else, perhaps, _in this prisoune_.

86. _til deth hem departe_; according to the phrase 'till death us depart' in the Marriage Service, now ingeniously altered to 'till death us _do part_.'

96. 'and although they both break the agreement.'

98, 99. _accord_, betrothal. _the rose_, i.e. of virginity; as in the Romance of the Rose, when interpreted.

99, 100. _Marye his spouse_. But the Vulgate has; 'Surge, et accipe puerum et _matrem eius_'; Matt. ii. 13. The author must have been thinking of Matt. i. 18: 'Cum esset _desponsata_ mater eius Maria Ioseph.'

113. _al being thinges_, all things that exist.

118. _prophete_; David, in Ps. xcvi. 5: (xcv. 5 in the Vulgate): 'omnes dii gentium daemonia.'

129. This refers back to ch. iv. 71-2, ch. ix. 14, 20, 56.

CHAP. X. 5. _last objeccion_; i.e. his poverty, see ch. iii. 131, iv. 73, ix. 14.

12-8. Imitated from Ch. Boeth. bk. i. pr. 4. 200-17.

18. _sayd_, i.e. it is said of him.

19. _aver_, property, wealth; 'lo! how the false man, for the sake of his wealth, is accounted true!'

20. _dignitees_; cf. Ch. Boeth. bk. ii. pr. 6.

21. _were he out_, if he were not in office; cf. l. 23.

26-37. Cf. Ch. Boeth. bk. i. met. 5. 22-39. Thus, _slydinge chaunges_ in l. 31 answers to Chaucer's _slydinge fortune_ (l. 24); and _that arn a fayr parcel of the erthe_, in l. 32, to _a fayr party of so grete a werk_ (l. 38); and yet again, _thou that knittest_, in l. 35, to _what so ever thou be that knittest_ (l. 36).

37-40. From Ch. Boeth. bk. i. met 5. 27-30.

64-7. From the same; bk. ii. pr. 2. 7-12.

71-6. From the same; bk. ii. pr. 2. 23-5.

76-80. Cf. the argument in the same; bk. iii. pr. 3.

85-120. From Ch. Boeth. bk. ii. pr. 8. For literal imitations, compare _the other haleth him to vertue by the hookes of thoughtes_ (l. 104-5) with Chaucer's 'the contrarious Fortune ... haleth hem ayein as with an hooke' (l. 21); and _Is nat a greet good ... for to knowe the hertes of thy sothfast frendes_ (ll. 107-9) with Chaucer's 'wenest thou thanne that thou oughtest to leten this a litel thing, that this ... Fortune hath discovered to thee the thoughtes of thy trewe frendes' (l. 22). Also ll. 114-6 with Chaucer (ll. 28-31).

126. _let us singen_; in imitation of the Metres in Boethius, which break the prose part of the treatise at frequent intervals. Cf. 'and bigan anon to singen right thus'; Boeth. bk. iii. pr. 9. 149.