Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. xxxix. See the whole chapter.

Philosophy personified; see Book i, Prose 1, l. 3.

See Book ii, Prose 1.

See Book ii, Proses 5, 6.

See Book iii, Prose 9.

See Book iv, Metre 1.

See Book iv, Prose 6.

See Book v.

See the Romaunt of the Rose (in vol. i.), ll. 5659-5666; and the note to l. 5661. It is also tolerably obvious, that Chaucer selected Metre 5 of Book ii. of Boethius for poetical treatment in his 'Former Age,' because Jean de Meun had selected for similar treatment the very same passage; see Rom. de la Rose, ll. 8395-8406.

There is a copy of this in the British Museum, MS. Addit. 10341.

MS. Harl. 44 (Wülker); not MS. Harl. 43, as in Warton, who has confused this MS. with that next mentioned.

MS. Harl. 43 (Wülker); not MS. Harl. 44, as in Warton.

There is a better copy than either of the above in MS. Royal 18 A. xiii. The B. M. Catalogue of the Royal MSS., by Casley, erroneously attributes this translation to Lydgate. And there is yet a fourth copy, in MS. Sloane 554. The Royal MS. begins, more correctly:—'In suffisaunce of cunnyng and of wyt.'

MS. i. 53.

MS. B. 5. There is yet another MS. in the library of Trinity College, Oxford, no. 75; and others in the Bodleian Library (MS. Rawlinson 151), in the Cambridge University Library (Gg. iv. 18), and in the Phillipps collection (as in note 5 below).

'The Boke of Comfort, translated into Englesse tonge. Enprented in the exempt Monastery of Tavestok in Denshyre, by me, Dan Thomas Rychard, Monke; 1525. 4to.'—Lowndes.

The MS. is now in the collection of Sir Thomas Phillipps; no. 1099.

He here implies that Chaucer's translation was by no means the only one then in existence; a remarkable statement.

MS. inserts full, needlessly.

Perhaps read In.

MS. neye.

MS. hymself.

MS. theym self.

Printed feldes by Mr. Stewart.

Observe that this line is due to Chaucer's gloss, not to his text.

MS. Thisee (!).

MS. hem self.

Printed thise by Mr. Stewart.

MS. This (giving no sense).

Mr. Stewart omits thus.

MS. parelous (!). This shews that Walton's text can be corrected by Chaucer's.

Yet we must remember that 'The Former Age' only reproduces a part of this Metre; and that it also introduces a passage from Jerome, besides reminiscences of Ovid and of Le Roman de la Rose; as shewn in the notes.

Mr. Stewart adds another instance, from Bk. iii. met. 5. 5:—

I hope this was unintentional, for they are poor verses. It is higher praise to say that, especially in the Metres, Chaucer's prose often flows well, with a certain melody of its own. Mr. Stewart also gives some instances in which he supposes that Chaucer 'actually reproduces the original Latin metre;' but they are imperfect and unintended.

Mr. Stewart quotes this as: 'a long unagreable dwellynges;' but 'draweth a-long' is a fair translation of 'protrahit.'

365 is the number of the line; see p. 164 below. I refer to Boethius by the letter 'B.', meaning the text as printed in the present volume, giving the line of the text as well as the number of the Prose or Metre, so that every passage can easily be found.

The prefixed asterisk marks a doubtful or wrong instance.

I omit the comparison of Bk. iii. ll. 8-14 with Boethius; for the whole stanza is copied from the Filostrato, Bk. iii. st. 75. Also, that of l. 373 with B. iii. met. 9. 1; for l. 373 is copied from the Filostrato, Bk. iii. st. 15.

I omit mention of l. 2839 (compared with B. ii. met. 3. 14); for it is taken from the Teseide, Bk. ix, 10, 11.

The three points are: (1) Avarice is insatiable, l. 2321, which answers to 'finem quaerendi non inuenit,' quoted as from Seneca, but really from Palladius; see Albertani Brixiensis Liber Consolationis, ed. T. Sundby, p. 37: (2) Good and evil are two contraries, l. 2479; compare the same, p. 96: (3) Fortune the nurse, l. 2635, translated from 'fortuna usque nunc me fouit'; see the same, p. 89.

I have noted a few inaccuracies, chiefly due to confusion of c and t (which are written alike), and to abbreviations. At p. 2, l. 13, for 'procede' read 'percede.' At p. 9, l. 28, for 'basilicis' read 'basilius.' At p. 11, l. 32, read 'auauntede.' At p. 12, l. 10, read 'conuict'; &c. Cf. note to Bk. v. pr. 6. 82.

Here recte is miswritten for recta, clearly because the scribe was still thinking of the latter syllable of the preceding sponte. But observe that Ch. has 'the rightes,' a translation of recta. This proves at once that Chaucer did not use this particular copy as his original; and of course the peculiar mode in which it is written precludes such a supposition. But I believe it to be copied from Chaucer's copy, all the same.

This shews how entirely wrong an editor would be who should change the forms into Atrides and Agamemnon; unless, indeed, he were to give due notice. For it destroys the evidence. Note also, that Agamenon is the usual M. E. form. It appears as Agamenoun in Troil. iii. 382.

Hence it is easy to see that when Chaucer's glosses agree, as they sometimes do, with those in Notker's Old High German version or in any other version, the agreement is due to the fact that both translators had similar Latin glosses before them.

My text has thonder-light, as in the MSS.; but leyte or leyt is better; see note to the line (p. 422), and see above, p. xlii, l. 8.

There is a later edition by Peiper, said to be the best; but it is out of print, and I failed to obtain a copy. But I have also collated the Latin text in the Delphin edition, ed. Valpy, 1823, and the edition by Renatus Vallinus, 1656; both of these contain useful notes.

Mr. Rossetti has a note, shewing that Prof. Morley's figures are incorrect. He himself reckons Troilus as containing 8246 lines, because the number of stanzas in Book V. of Dr. Furnivall's print of MS. Harl. 3943 is wrongly given as 268 instead of 267.

For a fuller comparison with this poem, see § 21 below; p. lxv.

Lydgate accepts Chaucer's view without question. He says—'And of this syege wrote eke Lollius'; Siege of Troye, ed. 1555, fol. B 2, back.

Usually called Guido de Colonna, probably because he was supposed to belong to a famous family named Colonna; but his name seems to have been taken from the name of a place (see note 1 on p. lvi). My quotations from Guido are from MS. Mm. 5. 14, in the Cambridge University Library.

He refers to the story of Troy as existing 'in the Latyn and the Frenshe'; Siege of Troye, fol. B 1, back; and explains 'the Latyn' as 'Guido.'

In an Italian work entitled 'Testi Inediti di Storia Trojana,' by E. Gorra, Turin, 1887, a passage is quoted at p. 137, from Book XIII of Guido, which says that Terranova, on the S. coast of Sicily, was also called 'columpne Herculis,' and Gorra suggests that this was the place whence Guido derived his name 'delle Colonne.' At any rate, Guido was much interested in these 'columns'; see Lydgate, Siege of Troye, fol. M 4. I think Tropæus, from Gk. τροπαῖα, may refer to these columnæ; or Guido may have been connected with Tropea, on the W. coast of Calabria, less than fifty miles from Messina, where he was a judge.

'Homerus ... fingens multa que non fuerunt, et que fuerunt aliter transformando'; Prologus. See the E. translation in the Gest Hystoriale, or alliterative Troy-book, ll. 38-47; Lydgate, Siege of Troye, fol. B 2.

See allit. Troy-book, ll. 60-79.

See allit. Troy-book, ll. 3922-34; Lydgate, Siege of Troye, fol. F 3, back.

MS. penatos.

The mention of Escaphilo, i.e. Ascalaphus, in Book V. 319, was perhaps suggested by the mention of Ascalaphus by Guido (after Dictys, i. 13, Homer, Il. ii. 512) as being one of the Grecian leaders; see allit. Troy-book, l. 4067.

I. e. glove; from Gk. χείρ, hand, and θήκη, case.

Put for xenium (ξένιον), a gift, present.

Cf. 'And save hir browes ioyneden y-fere'; Troil. v. 813.

Talke is not in the Glossary. As lk is a common way of writing kk (as shewn in my paper on 'Ghost-words' for the Phil. Soc.), the word is really takke, a variant of take; and the sense is 'let him take.'

Lydgate began his Troy-book on Oct. 31, 1412, and finished it in 1420; see this shewn in my letter to the Academy, May 7, 1892.

Hence it was not written by Sir Hugh Eglintoun, if he died either in 1376 or 1381; see Pref. to allit. Troy-book, pp. xvii, xxv.

MS. to disport; but to is needless.

MS. I for; I is needless.

Two false rimes; ye and aweye; dispyt and bright (correctly, bright e).

Not clene, as in the St. John's MS. and in the Phillipps MS.; for Chaucer never rimes clene (with open e) with such words as grene, quene (with close e); see, on this point, the remarks on my Rime-Index to Troilus, published for the Chaucer Society. MS. Harl. 2392 likewise has sheene, a word in which the long e is of 'variable' quality.

Some guess that it means 'Tres gentil Chaucer.' But this seems to me very improbable, if not stupid.