Notes to the Canterbury Tales.

2790. Chincherye, miserliness, parsimony; from the adj. chinche, which occurs in 2793. Chinche, parsimonious, miserly, is the nasalised form of chiche; see Havelok, 1763, 2941; and see Chinch in the New E. Dictionary. To the examples there given add:—'A Chinche, tenax: Chinchery, tenacitas'; Catholicon Anglicum.

'But such an other chinche as he

Men wisten nought in all the londe.'

Gower, Conf. Amant. ii. 288.

'Utere quaesitis opibus; fuge nomen auari;

Quo tibi diuitias, si semper pauper abundas?'

'Utere quaesitis, sed ne uidearis abuti;

Qui sua consumunt, quum deest, aliena sequuntur.'

2796. Folily, foolishly. We find M. E. folliche, both adj. and adv., and follichely, folily as adv. It is spelt folily in Wycliffe, Num. xii. 11, and in the Troy-book, 573; also folili, Will. of Palerne, 4596; folyly, Rom. of the Rose, 5942 (see the footnote).

2811. 'Quamobrem nec ita claudenda est res familiaris, ut eam benignitas aperire non possit; nec ita reseranda, ut pateat omnibus'; Cicero, De Officiis, ii. 15.

2829. The reference seems to be to Prov. xxv. 10 in the Vulgate version (not in the A. V.):—'Gratia et amicitia liberant; quas tibi serua, ne exprobrabilis fias.'

2832. The reference is clearly to the following:—'Est enim indigni [al. digni] animi signum, famae diligere commodum'; Cassiodorus, Variarum lib. i. epist. 4. This is quoted by Albertano (p. 120), with the reading ingenui for indigni; hence Chaucer's 'gentil.' Mätzner refers us to the same, lib. v. epist. 12:—'quia pulchrum est commodum famae.'

2833. 'Duae res sunt conscientia et fama. Conscientia tibi, fama proximo tuo'; Augustini Opera, ed. Caillou, Paris, 1842, tom. xxi. p. 347.—Mr.

2841. Lat. text:—'nam dixit quidam philosophus, Nemo in guerra constitutus satis diues esse potest. Quantumcunque enim sit homo diues, oportet illum, si in guerra diu perseuerauerit, aut diuitias aut guerram perdere, aut forte utrumque simul et personam.'—p. 102.

2851. 'With the God of heaven it is all one, to deliver with a great multitude, or a small company: For the victory of battle standeth not in the multitude of an host; but strength cometh from heaven.' 1 Macc. iii. 18, 19.

2854. The gap is easily detected and filled up by comparison with the Fr. text, which Mätzner cites from Le Menagier de Paris, i. 226, thus:—'pour ce ... que nul n'est certain s'il est digne que Dieu lui doint victoire ne plus que il est certain se il est digne de l'amour de Dieu ou non.' We must also compare the text from Solomon, viz. Ecclesiastes, ix. 1, as it stands in the Vulgate version.

2858. The seconde book of Kinges, i. e. Liber secundus Regum, now called 'the second book of Samuel.' The reference is to 2 Sam. xi. 25, where the Vulgate has: 'uarius enim euentus est belli; nunc hunc et nunc illum consumit gladius.' The A. V. varies.

2860. In as muchel; Fr. text:—'tant comme il puet bonnement.' This accounts for goodly, i. e. meetly, fitly, creditably. Cotgrave has: 'Bonnement, well, fitly, aptly, handsomely, conveniently, orderly, to the purpose.'

2861. Salomon; rather Jesus son of Sirach. 'He that loveth danger shall perish therein'; Ecclus. iii. 26.

2866. Seint Iame is a curious error for Senek, Seneca. For the Fr. text has:—'Seneque dit en ses escrips,' according to Mätzner; and MS. Reg. 19 C. xi (leaf 63, col. 2) has 'Seneques.' There has clearly been confusion between Seneques and Seint iaques. Hence the use of the pl. epistles is correct. The reference is to Seneca, Epist. 94, § 46; but Seneca, after all, is merely quoting Sallust:—'Nam concordia paruae res crescunt, discordia maximae dilabuntur'; Sallust, Jugurtha, 10.

2872. Brige, strife, contention; F. brigue, Low Lat. briga. 'Brigue, s. f. ... debate, contention, altercation, litigious wrangling about any matter'; Cotgrave. See Brigue in the New E. Dict.

2876. Here Hl. has pryde and despysing for homlinesse and dispreysinge, thus spoiling the sense. The allusion is to our common saying—Familiarity breeds contempt.

2881. Lat. text (p. 107):—'scriptum est enim, Semper ab aliis dissensio incipiat, a te autem reconciliatio.' From Martinus Dumiensis, De Moribus, Sent. 49.

2883. The words 'as muchel as in thee is' are an addition, due to the Fr. text:—'tant comme tu pourras.'—Mr.

2884. The use of to after pursue is unusual; Mätzner compares biseke to, in 2940 below and 2306 above.

2891. Fr. text:—'Pour ce dit le philosophe, que les troubles ne sont pas bien cler voyans.' Cf. the Fr. proverb:—'À l'œil malade la lumière nuit, an eie distempered cannot brook the light; sick thoughts cannot indure the truth'; Cotgrave.

2897. This quotation is merely an expansion of the former part of Eccles. vii. 3, viz. 'sorrow is better than laughter'; the latter part of the same verse appears in 2900, immediately below.

2901. I shal not conne answere, I shall not be able to answer; Fr. text:—'ie ne sauroie respondre.'—Mr.

2925. Referring to Ps. xx. 4 (Vulgate)—'in benedictionibus dulcedinis'; A. V.—'with the blessings of goodness,' Ps. xxi. 3.

2930. From Ecclus. vi. 5:—'Verbum dulce multiplicat amicos, et mitigat inimicos.' The A. V. omits the latter clause, having only:—'Sweet language will multiply friends.'

2936. Hise amendes, i. e. amends to him. For hise or his, Cp. Ln. have him, which is a more usual construction. Cf. 'What shall be thy amends For thy neglect of truth?' Shak., Sonnet 101. 'If I have wronged thee, seek thy mends at the law'; Greene, Looking-Glass for London, ed. Dyce, 1883, p. 122.

2945. From Ecclus. xxxiii. 18, 19:—'Hear me, O ye great men of the people, and hearken with your ears, ye rulers of the congregation: Give not thy son and wife, thy brother and friend, power over thee while thou livest.'

2965. Not from Seneca, but from Martinus Dumiensis, De Moribus, S. 94 (Sundby). The Lat. text has:—'ubi est confessio, ibi est remissio.'

2967. Neither is this from Seneca, but from the same source as before. Lat. text has:—'Proximum ad innocentiam locum tenet uerecundia peccati et confessio.'

2973. Lat. text:—'Nihil enim tam naturale est, quam aliquid dissolui eo genere, quo colligatum est.' From the Digesta, lib. xvii. 35.

2984. Lat. text:—'Semper audiui dici, Quod bene potes facere, noli differre.' Fr. text:—'Le bien que tu peus faire au matin, n'attens pas le soir ne l'endemain.'

2986. Messages, messengers; Cp. messagers; Hl. messageres. See B. 144, 333. In 2992, 2995, we have the form messagers.

2997. Borwes, sureties; as in P. Plowman, C. v. 85. In 3018 it seems to mean 'pledges' rather than 'sureties.'

3032. Lat. text (p. 120):—'Scriptum est enim, Mallem perdidisse quam turpiter accepisse.' This is from Publilius Syrus, Sent. 479:—

'Perdidisse ad assem mallem, quam accepisse turpiter.'

'Laus noua nisi oritur, etiam uetus amittitur.'

3040. For 'it is writen,' the Fr. text has 'le droit dit.' This indicates the source. The Lat. text has:—'priuilegium meretur amittere, qui concessa sibi abutitur potestate.' This Sundby traces to the Decretalia Gregorii IX., iii. 31. 18.

3047. Lat. text:—'Remissius imperanti melius paretur'; from Seneca, De Clementia, i. 24. 1.

3049. 'Ait enim Seneca'; the Lat. text then quotes from Publilius Syrus, Sent. 64:—'Bis uincit, qui se uincit in uictoria.'

3050. Lat. text:—'Nihil est laudabilius, nihil magno et praeclaro uiro dignius, placabilitate atque clementia.' From Cicero, De Officiis, i. 25. 88.

3056. 'Male uincit iam quem poenitet uictoriae'; Publilius Syrus, Sent. 366. Attributed to Seneca in the Latin text.

3066. Unconninge, ignorance; cf. Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 131; Prick of Conscience, l. 169.

3079. The tale of Melibee (as told above) is about a certain Melibeus and his wife Prudence, who had a daughter called Sophie. One day, while Melibeus is absent, three of his enemies break into his house, beat his wife, and wound his daughter. On returning, he takes counsel as to what must be done. He is for planning a method of revenge, but his wife advises him to forgive the injuries, and in the end her counsels prevail.

3082. corpus Madrian, body of Madrian: which has been interpreted in two ways. Urry guessed it to refer to St. Materne, bishop of Treves, variously commemorated on the 14th, 19th, or 25th of September, the days of his translations being July 18 and October 23. Mr. Steevens suggested, in a note printed in Tyrwhitt's Glossary, that the 'precious body' was that of St. Mathurin, priest and confessor, commemorated on Nov. 1 or Nov. 9. The latter is more likely, since in his story in the Golden Legende, edit. 1527, leaf 151 back, the expressions 'the precious body' and 'the holy body' occur, and the story explains that his body would not stay in the earth till it was carried back to France, where he had given directions that it should be buried.

3083. 'Rather than have a barrel of ale, would I that my dear good wife had heard this story.' Cf. morsel breed, B. 3624.

lief is not a proper name, as has been suggested, I believe, by some one ignorant of early English idiom. Cf. 'Dear my lord,' Jul. Caesar, ii. 1. 255; and other instances in Abbott's Shakesp. Grammar, sect. 13.

3116. Rouchester. The MSS. have Rouchester, (Hl. Rowchestre), shewing that Lo stands alone in the first foot of the line. Tyrwhitt changed stant into stondeth, but all our seven MSS. have stant.

According to the arrangement of the tales in Tyrwhitt's edition, the pilgrims reach Rochester after coming to Sittingborne (mentioned in the Wife of Bath's Prologue), though the latter is some eleven miles nearer Canterbury. The present arrangement of the Groups remedies this. See note to B. 1165, at p. 165.

3119. Wher, whether. dan, for Dominus, a title of respect commonly used in addressing monks. But Chaucer even uses it of Arcite, in the Knightes Tale, and of Cupid, Ho. Fame, 137.

3124. Cf. 'He was not pale as a for-pyned goost'; Prol. A. 205. Jean de Meun says, in his Testament, l. 1073, that the friars have good pastures (il ont bonnes pastures).

3130. Scan the line—Bút a góvernoúr wylý and wýs. The Petworth MS. inserts 'boþ' before 'wyly': but this requires the very unlikely accentuation 'govérnour' and an emphasis on a. The line would scan better if we might insert art, or lyk, after But, but there is no authority for this.

3132. Read—A wél-faríng persónë, after which comes the pause, as marked in E. and Hn.

3139. The monk's semi-cope, which seems to have been an ample one, is mentioned in the Prologue, A. 262. In Jack Upland, § 4, a friar is asked what is signified by his 'wide cope.'

3145. borel men, lay-men. Borel means 'rude, unlearned, ignorant,' and seems to have arisen from a peculiar use of borel or burel, sb., a coarse cloth; so that its original sense, as an adj., was 'in coarse clothing,' or 'rudely clad.' See borrel and burel in the New Eng. Dictionary.

3146. wrecched impes, poor grafts, weakly shoots. Cf. A. S. impian, to graft, imp, a graft; borrowed from Low Lat. impotus, a graft, from Gk. ἔμφυτος, engrafted.

3152. lussheburghes, light coins. In P. Plowman, B. xv. 342, we are told that 'in Lussheborwes is a lyther alay (bad alloy), and yet loketh he lyke a sterlynge.' They were spurious coins imported into England from Luxembourg, whence the name. See Liber Albus, ed. Riley, 1841, p. 495; and Blount's Nomolexicon. Luxembourg is called Lusscheburghe in the Allit. Morte Arthure, l. 2388. The importation of this false money was frequently forbidden, viz. in 1347, 1348, and 1351.

3157. souneth into, tends to, is consistent with; see Prol. A. 307, and Sq. Ta., F. 517. The following extracts from Palsgrave's French Dictionary are to the point. 'I sownde, I appartayne or belong, Ie tens. Thys thyng sowndeth to a good purpose, Ceste chose tent a bonne fin.' Also, 'I sownde, as a tale or a report sowndeth to ones honesty or dyshonesty, Ie redonde. I promise you that this matter sowndeth moche to your dishonoure, Ie vous promets que ceste matyere redonde fort a votre deshonneur.'

3160. Seint Edward. There are two of the name, viz. Edward, king and martyr, commemorated on March 16, 18, or 19, and the second King Edward, best known as Edward the Confessor, commemorated on Jan. 5. In Piers the Plowman, B. xv. 217, we have—

'Edmonde and Edwarde · eyther were kynges,

And seyntes ysette · tyl charite hem folwed.'

But Edward the Confessor is certainly meant; and there is a remarkable story about him that he was 'warned of hys death certain dayes before hee dyed, by a ring that was brought to him by certain pilgrims coming from Hierusalem, which ring hee hadde secretly given to a poore man that askyd hys charitie in the name of God and sainte Johan the Evangelist.' See Mr. Wright's description of Ludlow Church, where are some remains of a stained glass window representing this story, in the eastern wall of the chapel of St. John. See also Chambers, Book of Days, i. 53, 54, where we read—'The sculptures upon the frieze of the present shrine (in Westminster Abbey) represent fourteen scenes in the life of Edward the Confessor.... He was canonized by Pope Alexander about a century after his death.... He was esteemed the patron-saint of England until superseded in the thirteenth century by St. George.' These fourteen scenes are fully described in Brayley's Hist. of Westminster Abbey, in an account which is chiefly taken from a life of St. Edward written by Ailred of Rievaulx in 1163. Three 'Lives of Edward the Confessor' were edited, for the Master of the Rolls, by Mr. Luard in 1858. See Morley's Eng. Writers, 1888, ii. 375.

3162. celle, cell. The monk calls it his cell because he was 'the keper' of it; Prol. 172.

3163. Tragédie; the final ie might be slurred over before is, in which case we might read for to for to (see footnote); but it is needless. The definition of 'tragedy' here given is repeated from Chaucer's own translation of Boethius, which contains the remark—'Glose. Tragedie is to seyn, a ditee [ditty] of a prosperitee for a tyme, that endeth in wrecchednesse'; bk. ii. pr. 2. 51. This remark is Chaucer's own, as the word Glose marks his addition to, or gloss upon, his original. His remark refers to a passage in Boethius immediately preceding, viz. 'Quid tragoediarum clamor aliud deflet, nisi indiscreto ictu fortunam felicia regna uertentem?' De Consolatione Philosophiae, lib. ii. prosa 2. See also the last stanza of 'Cresus' in the Monkes Tale (vol. i. p. 268).

3169. exametron, hexameter. Chaucer is speaking of Latin, not of English verse; and refers to the common Latin hexameter used in heroic verse; he would especially be thinking of the Thebaid of Statius, the Metamorphoseon Liber of Ovid, the Aeneid of Vergil, and Lucan's Pharsalia. This we could easily have guessed, but Chaucer has himself told us what was in his thoughts. For near the conclusion of his Troilus and Criseyde, which he calls a tragedie, he says—

'And kis the steppes wheras thou seest pace

Virgile, Ovyde, Omer, Lucan, and Stace.'

3170. In prose. For example, Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum and De Claris Mulieribus contain 'tragedies' in Latin prose. Cf. ll. 3655, 3910.

3171. in metre. For example, the tragedies of Seneca are in various metres, chiefly iambic. See also note to l. 3285.

3177. After hir ages, according to their periods; in chronological order. The probable allusion is to Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum, which begins with Adam and Nimrod, and keeps tolerably to the right order. For further remarks on this, shewing how Chaucer altered the order of these Tragedies in the course of revision, see vol. iii. p. 428.

3181. Tragédie; accented on the second syllable, and riming with remédie; cf. B. 3163. Very near the end of Troilus and Criseyde, we find Chaucer riming it with comédie. That poem he also calls a tragedie (v. 1786)—

'Go, litel book, go, litel myn tragédie,' &c.

3183. fillen, fell. nas no, for ne was no, a double negative. Cf. Ch. tr. of Boethius—'the olde age of tyme passed, and eek of present tyme now, is ful of ensaumples how that kinges ben chaunged in-to wrecchednesse out of hir welefulnesse'; bk. iii. pr. 5. 3.

3186. The Harl. MS. has—'Ther may no man the cours of hir whiel holde,' which Mr. Wright prefers. But the reading of the Six-text is well enough here; for in the preceding line Chaucer is speaking of Fortune under the image of a person fleeing away, to which he adds, that no one can stay her course. Fortune is also sometimes represented as stationary, and holding an ever-turning wheel, as in the Book of the Duchesse, 643; but that is another picture.

3189. Lucifer, a Latin name signifying light-bringer, and properly applied to the morning-star. In Isaiah xiv. 12 the Vulgate has—'Quomodo cecidisti de caelo, Lucifer, qui mane oriebaris? corruisti in terram, qui uulnerabas gentes?' &c. St. Jerome, Tertullian, St. Gregory, and other fathers, supposed this passage to apply to the fall of Satan. It became a favourite topic for writers both in prose and verse, and the allusions to it are innumerable. See note to Piers the Plowman, B. i. 105 (Clar. Press Series). Gower begins his eighth book of the Confessio Amantis with the examples of Lucifer and Adam.

Sandras, in his Étude sur Chaucer, p. 248, quotes some French lines from a 'Volucraire,' which closely agree with this first stanza. But it is a common theme.

3192. sinne, the sin of pride, as in all the accounts; probably from 1 Tim. iii. 6. Thus Gower, Conf. Amant. lib. i. (ed. Pauli, i. 153):—

'For Lucifer, with them that felle,

Bar pride with him into helle.

Ther was pride of to grete cost,

Whan he for pride hath heven lost.'

3195. artow, art thou. Sathanas, Satan. The Hebrew sâtân means simply an adversary, as in 1 Sam. xxix. 4; 2 Sam. xix. 22; &c. A remarkable application of it to the evil spirit is in Luke x. 18. Milton also indentifies Lucifer with Satan; Par. Lost, vii. 131; x. 425; but they are sometimes distinguished, and made the names of two different spirits. See, for example, Piers Plowman, B. xviii. 270-283.

3197. Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum Illustrium begins with a chapter 'De Adam et Eua.' It contains the passage—'Et ex agro, qui postea Damascenus,... ductus in Paradisum deliciarum.' Lydgate, in his Fall of Princes (fol. a 5), has—

'Of slyme of the erthe, in damascene the feelde,

God made theym aboue eche creature.'

The notion of the creation of Adam in a field whereupon afterwards stood Damascus, occurs in Peter Comestor's Historia Scholastica, where we find (ed. 1526, fol. vii)—'Quasi quereret aliquis, Remansit homo in loco vbi factus est, in agro scilicet damasceno? Non. Vbi ergo translatus est? In paradisum.' See also Maundeville's Travels, cap. xv; Genesis and Exodus, ed. Morris, l. 207; and note in Mätzner's Altenglische Sprachproben, ii. 185.

3199. Cf. 'Formatus est homo ... de spurcissimo spermate'; Innocent III., De Miseria Conditionis Humanae, i. 1 (Köppel).

3200. So Boccaccio—'O caeca rerum cupiditas! Hii, quibus rerum omnium, dante Deo, erat imperium,' &c. Cf. Gen. i. 29; ii. 16.

3205. The story of Sampson is also in Boccaccio, lib. i. c. 17 (not 19, as Tyrwhitt says). But Chaucer seems mostly to have followed the account in Judges, xiii-xvi. The word annunciat, referring to the announcement of Samson's birth by the angel (Judges xiii. 3), may have been suggested by Boccaccio, whose account begins—'Praenunciante per angelum Deo, ex Manue Israhelita quodam et pulcherrima eius vxore Sanson progenitus est.' thangel in l. 3206=the angel.

3207. consecrat, consecrated. A good example of the use of the ending -at; cf. situate for situated.—M. Shakespeare has consecrate; Com. of. Err. ii. 2. 134.

3210. To speke of strengthe, with regard to strength; to speke of is a kind of preposition.—M. Cf. Milton's Samson Agonistes, 126-150.

3211. wyves. Samson told the secret of his riddle to his wife, Judges xiv. 17; and of his strength to Delilah, id. xvi. 17.

3215. al to-rente, completely rent in twain. The prefix to- has two powers in Old English. Sometimes it is the preposition to in composition, as in towards, or M. E. to-flight (G. zuflucht), a refuge. But more commonly it is a prefix signifying in twain, spelt zer- in German, and dis- in Mœso-Gothic and Latin. Thus to-rente = rent in twain; to-brast = burst in twain, &c. The intensive adverb al, utterly, was used not merely (as is commonly supposed) before verbs beginning with to-, but in other cases also. Thus, in William of Palerne, l. 872, we find—'He was al a-wondred,' where al precedes the intensive prefix a- = A. S. of. Again, in the same poem, l. 661, we have—'al bi-weped for wo,' where al now precedes the prefix bi-. In Barbour's Bruce, ed. Skeat, x. 596, is the expression—

'For, hapnyt ony to slyde or fall,

He suld be soyne to-fruschit al.'

Where al to-fruschit means utterly broken in pieces. Perhaps the clearest example of the complete separability of al from to is seen in l. 3884 of William of Palerne;—

'Al to-tare his atir · þat he to-tere miȝt';

i. e. he entirely tore apart his attire, as much of it as he could tear apart. But at a later period of English, when the prefix to- was less understood, a new and mistaken notion arose of regarding al to as a separable prefix, with the sense of all to pieces. I have observed no instance of this use earlier than the reign of Henry VIII. Thus Surrey, Sonnet 9, has 'al-to shaken' for shaken to pieces. Latimer has—'they love and al-to love (i. e. entirely love) him'; Serm. p. 289. For other examples, see Al-to in the Bible Word-book; and my notes in Notes and Queries, 3 Ser. xii. 464, 535; also All, § C. 15, in the New E. Dict.

3220. Samson's wife was given to a friend; Judges, xiv. 20. She was afterwards burnt by her own people; Judges, xv. 6.

3224. on every tayl; one brand being fastened to the tails of two foxes; Judg. xv. 4.

3225. cornes. The Vulgate has segetes and fruges; also utneas for vynes, and oliueta for oliveres. The plural form cornes is not uncommon in Early English. Cf. 'Quen thair corns war in don,' i. e. when their harvests were gathered in; Spec. of Eng. pt. ii. ed. Morris and Skeat, p. 70, l. 39. And again, 'alle men-sleeris and brenneris of houses and cornes [misprinted corves] ben cursed opynly in parische chirches'; Wyclif's Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 329.

3234. wang-toth, molar tooth. This expression is taken from the Vulgate, which has—'Aperuit itaque Dominus molarem dentem in maxilla asini'; where the A. V. has only—'an hollow place that was in the jaw'; Judg. xv. 19.

3236. Judicum, i. e. Liber Judicum, the Book of Judges. Cf. note to B. 93, at p. 141.

3237. Gazan, a corruption of Gazam, the acc. case, in Judg. xvi. 1, Vulgate version.

3244. ne hadde been, there would not have been. Since hadde is here the subjunctive mood, it is dissyllabic. Read—worldë n' haddë.

3245. sicer, from the Lat. sicera, Greek σίκερα, strong drink, is the word which we now spell cider; see Wyclif's Works, ed. Arnold, i. 363, note. It is used here because found in the Vulgate version of Judges xiii. 7; 'caue ne uinum bibas, nec siceram.' I slightly amend the spelling of the MSS., which have ciser, siser, sythir, cyder. Wyclif has sither, cyther, sidir, sydur.

3249. twenty winter, twenty years; Judg. xvi. 31. The English used to reckon formerly by winters instead of years; as may be seen in a great many passages in the A. S. Chronicle.

3253. Dalida; from Gk. Δαλιδά, in the Septuagint. The Vulgate has Dalila; but Chaucer (or his scribes) naturally adopted a form which seemed to have a nearer resemblance to an accusative case, such being, at that time, the usual practice; cf. Briseide (from Briseida), Criseyde and Anelida. Lydgate also uses the form Dalida.

3264. querne, hand-mill. The Vulgate has—'et clausum in carcere molere fecerunt'; Judg. xvi. 21. But Boccaccio says—'ad molas manuarias coegere.' The word occurs in the House of Fame, 1798; and in Wyclif's Bible, Exod. xi. 5; Mat. xxiv. 41. In the Ayenbite of Inwyt, ed. Morris, p. 181, the story of Samson is alluded to, and it is said of him that he 'uil [fell] into þe honden of his yuo [foes], þet him deden grinde ate querne ssamuolliche,' i. e. who made him grind at the mill shamefully (in a shameful manner). Lydgate copies Chaucer rather closely, in his Fall of Princes, fol. e 7:—

'And of despite, after as I fynde,

At their quernes made hym for to grinde.'

3269. Thende, the end. Caytif means (1) a captive, (2) a wretch. It is therefore used here very justly.

3274. two pilers, better than the reading the pilers of MS. E.; because two are expressly mentioned; Judg. xvi. 29.

3282. So Boccaccio—'Sic aduersa credulitas, sic amantis pietas, sic mulieris egit inclyta fides. Vt quem non poterant homines, non uincula, non ferrum uincere, a mulieribus latrunculis uinceretur.' Lydgate has the expressions—

'Beware by Sampson your counseyll well to kepe,

Though [misprinted That] Dalida compleyne, crye, and wepe';

'Suffre no nightworm within your counseyll crepe,

Though Dalida compleyne, crye, and wepe.'

3285. There is little about Hercules in Boccaccio; but Chaucer's favourite author, Ovid, has his story in the Metamorphoses, book ix, and Heroides, epist. 9. Tyrwhitt, however, has shewn that Chaucer more immediately copies a passage in Boethius, de Cons. Phil. lib. iv. met. 7, which is as follows:—

'Herculem duri celebrant labores;

Ille Centauros domuit superbos;

Abstulit saeuo spolium leoni;

Fixit et certis uolucres sagittis;

Poma cernenti rapuit draconi,

Aureo laeuam grauior metallo;

Cerberum traxit triplici catena.

Victor immitem posuisse fertur

Pabulum saeuis dominum quadrigis.

Hydra combusto periit ueneno;

Fronte turpatus Achelous amnis

Ora demersit pudibunda ripis.

Strauit Antaeum Libycis arenis,

Cacus Euandri satiauit iras,

Quosque pressurus foret altus orbis

Setiger spumis humeros notauit.

Ultimus caelum labor irreflexo

Sustulit collo, pretiumque rursus

Ultimi caelum meruit laboris.'

But it is still more interesting to see Chaucer's own version of this passage, which is as follows (ed. Morris, p. 147; cf. vol. ii. p. 125):—

'Hercules is celebrable for his harde trauaile; he dawntede þe proude Centauris, half hors, half man; and he rafte þe despoylynge fro þe cruel lyoun; þat is to seyne, he slouȝ þe lyoun and rafte hym hys skyn. He smot þe birds þat hyȝten arpijs in þe palude of lyrne wiþ certeyne arwes. He rauyssede applis fro þe wakyng dragoun, & hys hand was þe more heuy for þe goldene metal. He drouȝ Cerberus þe hound of helle by his treble cheyne; he, ouer-comer, as it is seid, haþ put an vnmeke lorde fodre to his cruel hors; þis is to sein, þat hercules slouȝ diomedes and made his hors to etyn hym. And he, hercules, slouȝ Idra þe serpent & brende þe venym; and achelaus þe flode, defoulede in his forhede, dreinte his shamefast visage in his strondes; þis is to seyn, þat achelaus couþe transfigure hymself into dyuerse lykenesse, & as he fauȝt wiþ ercules, at þe laste he turnide hym in-to a bole [bull]; and hercules brak of oon of hys hornes, & achelaus for shame hidde hym in hys ryuer. And he, hercules, caste adoun Antheus þe geaunt in þe strondes of libye; & kacus apaisede þe wraþþes of euander; þis is to sein, þat hercules slouȝ þe monstre kacus & apaisede wiþ þat deeþ þe wraþþe of euander. And þe bristlede boor markede wiþ scomes [scums, foam] þe sholdres of hercules, þe whiche sholdres þe heye cercle of heuene sholde þreste [was to rest upon]. And þe laste of his labours was, þat he sustenede þe heuene upon his nekke unbowed; & he deseruede eftsones þe heuene, to ben þe pris of his laste trauayle.'

'Alexander, and Hercules,

That with a sherte his lyf lees.'

3288. Hercules' first labour was the slaying of the Nemean lion, whose skin he often afterwards wore.

3289. Centauros; this is the very form used by Boethius, else we might have expected Centaurus or Centaures. After the destruction of the Erymanthian boar, Hercules slew Pholus the centaur; and (by accident) Chiron. His slaughter of the centaur Nessus ultimately brought about his own death; cf. l. 3318.

3290. Arpies, harpies. The sixth labour was the destruction of the Stymphalian birds, who ate human flesh.

3291. The eleventh labour was the fetching of the golden apples, guarded by the dragon Ladon, from the garden of the Hesperides.

3293. Busirus. Here Chaucer has confused two stories. One is, that Busiris, a king of Egypt, used to sacrifice all foreigners who came to Egypt, till the arrival of Hercules, who slew him. The other is 'the eighth labour,' when Hercules killed Diomedes, a king in Thrace, who fed his mares with human flesh, till Hercules slew him and gave his body to be eaten by the mares, as Chaucer himself says in his translation. The confusion was easy, because the story of Busiris is mentioned elsewhere by Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 6, in a passage which Chaucer thus translates (see vol. ii. p. 43):—'I have herd told of Busirides, þat was wont to sleen his gestes [guests] þat herberweden [lodged] in his hous; and he was sleyn him-self of Ercules þat was his gest.' Lydgate tells the story of Busiris correctly.

3295. serpent, i. e. the Lernean hydra, whom Chaucer, in the passage from Boethius, calls 'Idra [or Ydra] the serpent.'

3296. Achelois, seems to be used here as a genitive form from a nominative Achelo; in his translation of Boethius we find Achelous and Achelaus. The spelling of names by old authors is often vague. The line means—he broke one of the two horns of Achelous. The river-god Achelous, in his fight with Hercules, took the form of a bull, whereupon the hero broke off one of his horns.

3300. longe, for a long time; in the margin of MS. Camb. Univ. Lib. Dd. 4. 24, is written the gloss diu.

3307. The allusion is to the 'pillars' of Hercules. The expression 'both ends of the world' refers to the extreme points of the continents of Europe and Africa, world standing here for continent. The story is that Hercules erected two pillars, Calpe and Abyla, on the two sides of the Strait of Gibraltar. The words 'seith Trophee' seem to refer to an author named Trophaeus. In Lydgate's prologue to his Fall of Princes, st. 41, he says of Chaucer that—

'In youth he made a translacion

Of a boke whiche called is Trophe

In Lumbarde tonge, as men may rede and se;

And in our vulgar, long er that he deyde,

Gave it the name of Troylus and Creseyde.'

This seems to say that Trophe was the Italian name of a Book (or otherwise, the name of a book in Italian), whence Chaucer drew his story of Troilus. But the notion must be due to some mistake, since that work was taken from the 'Filostrato' of Boccaccio. The only trace of the name of Trophaeus as an author is in a marginal note—possibly Chaucer's own—which appears in both the Ellesmere and Hengwrt MSS., viz. 'Ille vates Chaldeorum Tropheus.' See, however, vol. ii. p. lv, where I shew that, in this passage at any rate, Trophee really refers to Guido delle Colonne, who treats of the deeds of Hercules in the first book of his Historia Troiana, and makes particular mention of the famous columns (as to which Ovid and Boethius are alike silent).

3311. thise clerkes, meaning probably Ovid and Boccaccio. See Ovid's Heroides, epist. ix., entitled Deianira Herculi, and Metamorph. lib. ix.; Boccaccio, De Casibus Virorum Illustrium, lib. i. cap. xviii., and De Mulieribus Claris, cap. xxii. See also the Trachineae of Sophocles, which Chaucer of course never read.

3315. wered, worn; so in A. 75, and B. 3320, wered is the form of the past tense. Instances of verbs with weak preterites in Chaucer, but strong ones in modern English, are rare indeed; but there are several instances of the contrary, e.g. wep, slep, wesh, wex, now wept, slept, washed, waxed. Wore is due to analogy with bore; cf. could for coud.

3317. Both Ovid and Boccaccio represent Deianira as ignorant of the fatal effects which the shirt would produce. See Ovid, Metam. ix. 133. Had Chaucer written later, he might have included Gower among the clerks, as the latter gives the story of Hercules and Deianira in his Conf. Amantis, lib. ii. (ed. Pauli, i. 236), following Ovid. Thus he says—

'With wepend eye and woful herte

She tok out thilke vnhappy sherte,

As she that wende wel to do.'

3326. For long upbraidings of Fortune, see The Boke of the Duchesse, 617; Rom. Rose, 5407; Boethius, bk. i. met. 5; &c.

3335. Nabugodonosor; generally spelt Nabuchodonosor in copies of the Vulgate, of which this other spelling is a mere variation. Gower has the same spelling as Chaucer, and relates the story near the end of book i. of the Conf. Amantis (ed. Pauli, i. 136). Both no doubt took it directly from Daniel i-iv.

3338. The vessel is here an imitation of the French idiom; F. vaisselle means the plate, as Mr. Jephson well observes. Cf. l. 3494.

3349. In the word statue the second syllable is rapidly slurred over, like that in glorie in l. 3340. See the same effect in the Kn. Tale, ll. 117, 1097 (A. 975, 1955).

3356. tweye, two; a strange error for three, whose names are familiar; viz. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

3373. Balthasar; so spelt by Boccaccio, who relates the story very briefly, De Cas. Virorum Illust., lib. ii. cap. 19. So also, by Peter Comestor, in his Historia Scholastica; and by Gower, Conf. Amant., lib. v (ed. Pauli, ii. 365). The Vulgate generally has Baltassar; Daniel, cap. v.

3384. The word tho is supplied for the metre. The scribes have considered vesselles (sic) as a trisyllable; but see ll. 3391, 3416, 3418.

3388. Of, for. Cf. 'thank God of al,' i. e. for all; in Chaucer's Balade of Truth.—M. See note in vol. i. pp. 552-3.

3422. Tyrwhitt has trusteth, in the plural, but thou is used throughout. Elsewhere Chaucer also has 'on whom we truste,' Prol. A. 501; 'truste on fortune,' B. 3326; cf. 'syker on to trosten,' P. Pl. Crede, l. 350.

3436. proverbe. The allusion is, in the first place, to Boethius, de Cons. Phil., bk. iii. pr. 5—'Sed quem felicitas amicum fecit, infortunium faciet inimicum'; which Chaucer translates—'Certes, swiche folk as weleful fortune maketh freendes, contrarious fortune maketh hem enemys'; see vol. ii. p. 63. Cf. Prov. xix. 4—'Wealth maketh many friends; but the poor is separated from his neighbour,' &c. So also—'If thou be brought low, he [i. e. thy friend] will be against thee, and will hide himself from thy face'; Ecclus. vi. 12. In Hazlitt's Collection of English Proverbs, p. 235, we find—