Metre 8. 5. ginnes, snares: 'laqueos.'

7. Tyrene; 'Tyrrhena ... uada'; see Vergil, Aen. i. 67.

14. echines: 'uel asperis Praestent echinis litora.'

Prose 9. 10. thorugh a litel clifte: 'rimulâ.'

14. misledeth it and transporteth: 'traducit.'

16. Wenest thou: 'An tu arbitraris, quod nihilo indigeat, egere potentia?'

38. Consider: 'Considera uero, ne, quod nihilo indigere, quod potentissimum, quod honore dignissimum esse concessum est, egere claritudine, quam sibi praestare non possit, atque ob id aliqua ex parte uideatur abiectius.'

53. This is a consequence: 'Consequitur.'

69. they ne geten hem: 'nec portionem, quae nulla est, nec ipsam, quam minimè affectat, assequitur.'

77. that power forleteth: 'ei, quem ualentia deserit, quem molestia pungit, quem uilitas abicit, quem recondit obscuritas.' Hence that means 'whom,' and refers to the man.

95. that shal he not finde. This is turned into the affirmative instead of the interrogative form: 'sed num in his eam reperiet, quae demonstrauimus, id quod pollicentur, non posse conferre?'

119. norie, pupil; Lat. 'alumne.'

136. that lyen: 'quae autem beatitudinem mentiantur.'

142. in Timeo; 'uti in Timaeo Platoni.' Here Chaucer keeps the words in Timaeo without alteration, as if they formed the title of Plato's work. The passage is: ἀλλ' ὦ Σώκρατες, τοῦτό γε δὴ πάντες ὅσοι καὶ κατὰ βραχύ σωφροσύνης μετέχουσιν ἐπὶ πάσῃ ὁρμῇ καὶ σμικροῦ καὶ μεγάλου πράγματος θεὸν ἀεί που καλοῦσιν (27 C).

Metre 9. 3. from sin that age hadde biginninge, since the world began: 'ab aeuo.' thou that dwellest: cf. Kn. Tale, A 3004.

5. necesseden, compelled, as by necessity: 'pepulerunt.'

6. floteringe matere: 'materiae fluitantis'; see below, Pr. xi. 156.

8. beringe, &c.; see Leg. of Good Women, 2229, and note.

13. Thou bindest: 'Tu numeris elementa ligas.'

14. colde. Alluding to the old doctrine of the four elements, with their qualities. Thus the nature of fire was thought to be hot and dry, that of water cold and moist, that of air cold and dry, that of earth hot and moist. Cf. Ovid, Met. i. 19:—

Sometimes the four elements are represented as lying in four layers; the earth at the bottom, and above it the water, the air, and the fire, in due order. This arrangement is here alluded to. Cf. Kn. Ta. A 2992.

18. Thou knittest, &c.

24. cartes, vehicles; the bodies which contain the souls.

34. berer: 'uector, dux, semita, terminus idem.'

Prose 10. 8. for that veyn, in order that vain, &c.

11. ne is, exists. We should now drop the negative after 'deny.' nis right as, is precisely as.

12. is proeved: 'id imminutione perfecti imperfectum esse perhibetur.'

14. in every thing general: 'in quolibet genere.'

21. descendeth: 'in haec extrema atque effeta dilabitur.' Cf. Kn. Ta. 3003-10.

31, 2. that nothing nis bettre, i.e. than whom nothing is better. So below (l. 70) we have—'that nothing nis more worth.'

32. nis good, is good. The ne is due to the preceding 'douted.'

39. for as moche: 'ne in infinitum ratio procedat.'

51. this prince; Caxton and Thynne have the fader; Lat. 'patrem.'

62. feigne: 'fingat qui potest.'

88. thanne ne may: 'quare neutrum poterit esse perfectum, cum alterutri alterum deest.' Thus we must read may (sing.), not mowen (pl.).

98. Upon thise thinges, besides this: 'Super haec.'

100. porismes: 'πορίσματα'; corollaries, or deductions from a foregoing demonstration.

101. as a corollarie: 'ueluti corollarium.' Corollary is derived from corolla, dimin. of corona, a garland. It meant money paid for a garland of flowers; hence, a gift, present, gratuity; and finally, an additional inference from a proposition. Chaucer gives the explanation mede of coroune, i.e. gift of a garland.

106. they ben maked iust: these four words must be added to make sense; it is plain that they were lost by the inadvertence of the scribes. Lat. text: 'Sed uti iustitiae adeptione iusti, sapientiae sapientes fiunt, ita diuinitatem adeptos, Deos fieri simili ratione necesse est.'

165. the soverein fyn; Lat. text: 'ut summa, cardo, atque caussa.' Chaucer seems to have taken summa to be the superl. adjective; and fyn, i.e. end, is meant to represent cardo.

Metre 10. 8. Tagus; the well-known river flowing by Toledo and Lisbon, once celebrated for its golden sands; see Ovid, Am. i. 15. 34; Met. ii. 251, &c.

10. Hermus, an auriferous river of Lydia, into which flowed the still more celebrated Pactolus. 'Auro turbidus Hermus;' Verg. Georg. ii. 137.

rede brinke: 'rutilante ripa.'

Indus; now the Sind, in N. W. India.

11. that medleth: 'candidis miscens uirides lapillos'; which Chaucer explains as mingling smaragdes (emeralds) with margaretes (pearls); see footnote on p. 80.

17. that eschueth: 'Vitat obscuras animae ruinas.'

Prose 11. 3. How mochel; i.e. at what price will you appraise it: 'quanti aestimabis.'

24. The thinges thanne: 'Quae igitur, cùm discrepant, minimè bona sunt; cùm uero unum esse coeperint, bona fiunt: nonne haec ut bona sint, unitatis fieri adeptione contingit?'

55. non other; i.e. no other conclusion: 'minimè aliud uidetur.'

63. travaileth him, endeavours: 'tueri salutem laborat.'

71. thar thee nat doute, thou needst not doubt.

81. What woltow: 'Quid, quod omnes, uelut in terras ore demerso trahunt alimenta radicibus, ac per medullas robur corticemque diffundunt?' (maryes, marrows.)

91. renovelen and puplisshen hem: 'propagentur.'

92. that they ne ben, that they are; the superfluous ne is due to the ne preceding.

110. But fyr: 'Ignis uero omnem refugit sectionem.'

112. wilful: 'de uoluntariis animae cognoscentis motibus.'

123. som-tyme: 'gignendi opus ... interdum coërcet uoluntas.'

128. And thus: 'Adeò haec sui caritas.'

142. for yif that that oon: 'hoc enim sublato, nec esse quidem cuiquam permanebit.'

156. floteren, fluctuate, waver; 'fluitabunt'; see above, Met. ix. 6.

161. for thou hast: 'ipsam enim mediae ueritatis notam mente fixisti.'

163. in that, in that thing which: 'in hoc ... quod.'

Metre 11. 2. mis-weyes, by-paths: 'nullis ... deuiis.'

rollen and trenden: 'reuoluat.' Chaucer here uses the causal verb trenden, to revolve, answering to an A.S. form *trendan, causal of a lost verb *trindan. The E. trund-le is from the same strong verb (pp. *getrunden).

7. Cf. Troilus, iv. 200.

8. lighten, i.e. shine: 'Lucebit.'

10. Glosa. This gloss is an alternative paraphrase of all that precedes, from the beginning of the Metre.

32. Plato. From Plato's Phaedo, where Socrates says: ὅτι ἡμῖν ἡ μάθησις ὀυκ ἄλλο τι ἢ ἀνάμνησις τυγχάνει οὖσα (72 E).

Prose 12. 18. Wendest, didst ween: 'Mundum, inquit, hunc â Deo regi paullo antè minimè dubitandum putabas.' Surely Chaucer has quite mistaken the construction. He should rather have said: 'Thou wendest, quod she, a litel her-biforn that men ne sholden nat doute,' &c.

19. nis governed, is governed; the same construction as before. So also but-yif there nere = unless there were (l. 25).

28. yif ther ne were: 'nisi unus esset, qui quod nexuit contineret.'

30. bringe forth, bring about, dispose, arrange: 'disponeret.'

so ordenee: 'tam dispositos motus.'

38. that thou: 'ut felicitatis compos, patriam sospes reuisas.'

55. a keye and a stere: 'ueluti quidam clauus atque gubernaculum.' Here Chaucer unluckily translates clauus as if it were clauis.

63. ne sheweth: 'non minùs ad contuendum patet'; i.e. is equally plain to be seen.

67. by the keye: 'bonitatis clauo'; see note to l. 55.

73. It mot nedes be so: 'Ita, inquam, necesse est; nec beatum regimen esse uideretur, si quidem detrectantium iugum foret, non obtemperantium salus.' The translation has here gone wrong.

87. softely, gently, pleasurably: 'suauiter.'

91. so at the laste: 'ut tandem aliquando stultitiam magna lacerantem sui pudeat.' Another common reading is latrantem, but this was evidently not the reading in Chaucer's copy; MS. C. has lacerantem.

97. the poetes. See Ovid, Met. i. 151-162; Vergil, Georg. i. 277-283.

116. Scornest thou me: 'Ludisne, inquam, me, inextricabilem labyrinthum rationibus texens, quae nunc quidem, qua egrediaris, introeas; nunc uerò qua introieris, egrediare; an mirabilem quemdam diuinae simplicitatis orbem complicas?'

117. the hous of Dedalus; used to translate 'labyrinthum.' See Vergil, Aen. vi. 24-30, v. 588. No doubt Boethius borrowed the word inextricabilis from Aen. vi. 27.

125. for which: 'ex quo neminem beatum fore, nisi qui pariter Deus esset, quasi munusculum dabas.' Here munusculum refers to corollarium, which Chaucer translates by 'a mede of coroune'; see above, Pr. x. 101.

132. by the governements: 'bonitatis gubernaculis.'

135. by proeves in cercles and hoomlich knowen: 'atque haec nullis extrinsecus sumptis, sed altero ex altero fidem trahente insitis domesticisque probationibus.' Chaucer inserts in cercles and, by way of reference to arguments drawn from circles; but the chief argument of this character really occurs later, viz. in Bk. iv. Pr. vi. 81.

143. Parmenides, a Greek philosopher who, according to Plato, accompanied Zeno to Athens, where he became acquainted with Socrates, who was then but a young man. Plato, in his Sophistes, quotes the line of Parmenides which is here referred to: πάντοθεν ἐυκύκλου σφαίρας ἐναλίγκιον ὄγκῳ. This the MSS. explain to mean: 'rerum orbem mobilem rotat, dum se immobilem ipsa conseruat.' The Greek quotation is corruptly given in the MSS., but is restored by consulting Plato's text (244 E); hence we do not know what reading Boethius adopted. It can hardly have been the one here given, which signifies that God is 'like the mass of a sphere that is well-rounded on all sides.' Perhaps he took the idea of God's immobility from the next two verses:—

i.e. 'equidistant from the centre in all directions; for there is nothing greater (than Him), and nothing more immoveable.'

152. Plato. From Plato's Timaeus, 29 B: ὡς ἄρα τοὺς λόγους ὧνπερ ἐισὶν ἐξηγηταί, τούτων ἀυτῶν καὶ συγγενεῖς ὄντας. Chaucer quotes this saying twice; see Cant. Tales, A 741-2, H 207-210.

Metre 12. 3. Orpheus. This well-known story is well told in Vergil, Georg. iv. 454-527; and in Ovid, Met. x. 1-85.

Trace, Thrace; as in Cant. Ta. A 1972.

4. weeply, tearful, sorrowful: 'flebilibus.'

5. moevable should precede riveres; 'Silvas currere, mobiles Amnes stare coegerat.' Chaucer took these two lines separately.

12. hevene goddes, gods of heaven: 'superos.'

16. laved out, drawn up (as from a well). The M. E. laven, to draw up water, to pour out, is from the A. S. lafian, to pour; for which see Cockayne's A. S. Leechdoms, ii. 124, ii. 74, iii. 48. It is further illustrated in my Etym. Dict., s. v. Lavish, its derivative. No doubt it was frequently confused with F. laver, to wash; but it is an independent Teutonic word, allied to G. laben. In E. Friesic we find lafen sük or laven sük, to refresh oneself. It is curious that it appears even in so late an author as Dryden, who translates Lat. egerit (Ovid, Met. xi. 488) by laves, i.e. bales out. And see laven in Mätzner.

16. Calliope. Orpheus was son of Oeagrus, king of Thrace, and of Calliope, chief of the Muses; cf. Ovid, Ibis, 484.

17. and he song. This does not very well translate the Latin text; see note to l. 12.

21. of relesinge: 'ueniam'; i.e. for the release (of Eurydice).

22. Cerberus, the three-headed dog; cf. Verg. Georg. iv. 483; Aen. vi. 417; Ovid, Met. iv. 449.

23. Furies; the Eumenides; cf. Verg. Georg. iv. 483; Ovid, Met. x. 46.

26. Ixion, who was fastened to an ever-revolving wheel; see Georg. iv. 484; iii. 38; Ovid, Met. iv. 460.

overthrowinge, turning over: 'Non Ixionium caput Velox praecipitat rota.'

27. Tantalus, tormented by perpetual thirst; Ovid, Met. x. 41; iv. 457.

29. Tityus: 'Vultur dum satur est modis Non traxit Tityi iecur.' Cf. Verg. Aen. vi. 595-600; Ovid, Met. iv. 456. And see Troilus, i. 786-8.

34. But we wol: 'Sed lex dona coërceat.'

37. But what; quoted in Kn. Tale, A 1164.

42. and was deed: 'occidit.' The common story does not involve the immediate death of Orpheus.

49. loketh, beholds: 'uidet inferos.' The story of Orpheus is excellently told in King Alfred's translation of Boethius, cap. xxxv. §6.

BOOK IV.

Prose 1. 5. forbrak, broke off, interrupted: 'abrupi.'

14. so as, seeing that, since: 'cùm.'

25. alle thinges may, is omnipotent: 'potentis omnia.'

27. an enbasshinge ... ende: 'infiniti stuporis.'

30. right ordenee, well ordered: 'dispositissima domo.'

32. heried, praised. This resembles the language of St. Paul; 2 Tim. ii. 20.

41. cesen, cause to cease: 'sopitis querelis.'

45. alle thinges, all things being treated of: 'decursis omnibus.'

47. fetheres, wings; 'pennas.' The A. S. pl. fethera sometimes means wings.

50. sledes, sleds, i. e. sledges: 'uehiculis.' The Vulgate version of 1 Chron. xx. 3 has: 'et fecit super eos tribulas, et trahas, et ferrata carpenta transire.' Wycliffe translates trahas by sledis (later version, sleddis).

Metre 1. 2-5. Quoted in Ho. Fame, 973-8.

5. fyr, fire. In the old astronomy, the region of air was supposed to be surrounded by a region of fire, which Boethius here says was caused by the swift motion of the ether: 'Quique agili motu calet aetheris Transcendit ignis uerticem.' Beyond this region were the planetary spheres, viz. those of the moon, Mercury, Venus, the sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. This explains the allusion to the passage of Thought (Imagination) through 'the houses that bear the stars' (i. e. planets), in Latin astriferas domos, and so, past the sun, to the seventh sphere of Saturn. After this, Thought soars to the eighth sphere, called the Sphere of the Fixed Stars (denoted below by 'the circle of the stars' or 'the firmament'); and after 'wending on the back of it,' i. e. getting beyond it, reaches the primum mobile, where 'the lord of kings holds the sceptre of his might.'

9. Saturnus, the planet Saturn; which Chaucer rightly gives as the sense of 'senis.'

and he y-maked, i.e. and he (Thought) becomes a knight. I hesitate to insert is after he, because all the authorities omit it; in fact, the phrase and he y-maked seems to be equivalent to 'he being made.' I do not understand what is meant by 'Miles corusci sideris,' unless it means that Boethius imagines Thought to become a companion of Mars, and thus to be made a soldier, in the service of that bright planet.

15. images of sterres, i.e. constellations, which were fancifully supposed to represent various objects.

18. worshipful light. MS. A has dredefulle clerenesse. Both are translations of 'uerendi luminis.'

22. swifte cart: 'uolucrem currum.' Cart is sometimes used for car or chariot.

25. but now, &c. These words are supposed to be spoken by Boethius, when he remembers all the truth. 'Haec dices, memini, patria est mihi.'

26. heer wol I fastne my degree: 'hic sistam gradum.' The sense is rather, 'here will I [or, let me] fix my step,' or 'plant my foot'; i.e. remain. Cf. 'Siste gradum,' i. e. stop; Verg. Aen. vi. 465.

27. But yif:

Prose 2. 1. owh, an exclamation; 'Papae.'

13. fey, the faith, the certainty: 'fides.' sentence, opinion.

31. And in that: 'Quod uero quisque potest.' may, can do.

38. lad, led; studies, desires: 'quae diuersis studiis agitur.'

71. Yif that: 'Etsi coniecto, inquam, quid uelis.'

84. knit forth: 'Contexe, inquam, cetera.'

93. shewinge, evident; is open and shewinge: 'patet.'

97. Iugement. Evidently meant to translate iudicium. But Chaucer misread his text, which has indicium. 'Idque, ut medici sperare solent, indicium est erectae iam resistentisque naturae.'

103. ledeth hem, i. e. leads them to: 'qui ne ad hoc quidem peruenire queunt, ad quod eos naturalis ducit, ac pene compellit, intentio.'

104. And what: 'Et quid? si hoc tam magno ac pene inuicto praeeuntis naturae desererentur auxilio?'

112. Ne shrewes: 'Neque enim leuia aut ludicra praemia petunt, quae consequi atque obtinere non possunt.'

120. laye, might lie (subjunctive): 'quo nihil ulterius peruium iaceret incessui.'

137. for to ben, even to exist. So below, ben frequently means 'to exist,' as appears from the argument.

151. mowen, have power to act: 'possunt.'

161. understonde, mayest understand: 'ut intelligas.'

187. Plato, viz. in the Gorgias and Alcibiades I, where many of the arguments here used may be found.

Metre 2. The subject of this metre is from Plato, De Republica, x. Chaucer's translation begins with the 7th line of the Latin.

12. tyrannyes. This reading (in C ed.) gives the sense better than the reading tyrauntis (in A); although the latter is quite literal.

Prose 3. 7. stadie, race-course: 'in stadio'; which Chaucer explains by 'furlong.'

10. purposed, equivalent to proposed; 'praemium commune propositum.'

14. For which thing: 'quare probos mores sua praemia non relinquunt.'

25, 26. so as, whereas. for men, because men.

27. part-les, without his share of: 'praemii ... expertem.'

35. no day: 'quod nullus deterat dies.'

39. undepartable, inseparable: 'inseparabili poena.'

49. may it semen: 'possuntne sibi supplicii expertes uideri, quos omnium malorum extrema nequitia non afficit modò, verumetiam uehementer inficit?'

70. under, beneath, below: 'infra hominis meritum.'

Metre 3. 1. aryvede, cause to arrive, drove: 'appulit.'

the sailes: 'Vela Neritii ducis;' Chaucer inserts Ulixes, i. e. Ulysses. The phrase is from Ovid: 'Dux quoque Neritius,' i. e. Ulysses; Fasti, iv. 69. Neritos was a mountain of Ithaca, the island of Ulysses. MS. C. reads Naricii, which accounts for the form Narice.

3. Circes, Circe, as in Ho. Fame, 1272; inserted by Chaucer.

7. that oon of hem: 'Hunc apri facies tegit.'—'One of them, his face is covered,' &c.

9. Marmorike: 'Marmaricus leo.' This refers to the country of Barca, on the N. African coast, to the W. of Egypt.

13. But al-be-it: 'Sed licet uariis modis Numen Arcadis alitis Obsitum miserans ducens Peste soluerit hospitis.' Arcas ales, the winged Arcadian, i. e. Mercury, because born on the Arcadian mountain Cyllene.

16. algates, at any rate; by this, already.

19. akornes of okes; this is not tautology, for an acorn was, originally, any fruit of the field, as the etymology (from acre) shews.