# Chaucer's Works (ed. Skeat) Vol. II/Troilus Notes

NOTES TO TROILUS.
BOOK I.
I must refer the student to Mr. Rossetti's work (Chaucer Soc. 1875) for a detailed comparison of Chaucer's poem with the Filostrato of Boccaccio. The following table roughly indicates the portions of these works which are more or less similar, down to the end of Book I. Similar tables are prefixed to the Notes on the other books. It often happens that a stanza in Chaucer has a mere general resemblance to the corresponding one in Boccaccio. The lines in Chaucer not mentioned below are, in the main, original; e.g. 1-20, 31-56, &c.; and so are many others that cannot be here more exactly specified.
| Chaucer: Book I. | Filostrato. |
| ll. 21-30. | Bk. I. St. V, VI. |
| 57-213. | VII-XXV. |
| 267-329. | XXVI-XXXII. 6. |
| 354-392. | XXXII. 7-XXXVII. |
| 400-420. | [Petrarch: Sonnet 88.] |
| 421-546. | XXXVIII-LVII. |
| 547-553. | Bk. II. St. I. |
| 568-630. | II-X. |
| 645-7, 666-7, 675-6. | XI. 1, XIII. 7, 8, XI, 7, 8. |
| 680-686. | XII. |
| 701-3, 708-9, 722-3. | XIII, XV. 1. |
| 860-889. | XVI, XVII, XX-XXII. |
| 897-900. | XXIII. 1-3. |
| 967-1060. | XXIV-XXXIV. |
2. 'That was the son of King Priam of Troy.'
5. fro ye, from you; observe the rime. The form ye is not here the nom. case, but the unemphatic form of the acc. you; pronounced (yə), where (ə) is the indefinite vowel, like the a in China. So in Shak. Two Gent. iv. 1. 3, 4, we have about ye (unemphatic) in l. 3, and you twice in l. 4.
6. Thesiphone, Tisiphone, one of the Furies, invoked as being a 'goddess of torment.' Cf. 'furial pyne of helle,' Sq. Ta. F 448.
13. fere, companion; viz. Tisiphone.
​16. 'Nor dare pray to Love,' &c.
21. Cf. Boccaccio: 'Tuo sia l'onore, e mio si sia l'affanno,' Fil. I. st. 5. And see ll. 1042, 3 below.
57. Here begins the story; cf. Fil. I. st. 7. Bell remarks that 'a thousand shippes,' in l. 58, may have been suggested by 'mille carinae' in Verg. Æn. ii. 198; cf. 'anni decem' in the same line, with l. 60.
67. Read éxpert. Calkas is Homer's Calchas, Il. i. 69. He was a Greek, but Guido makes him a Trojan, putting him in the place of Homer's Chryses. See the allit. Troy-book, 7886.
70. Delphicus, of Delphi; cf. Ovid, Met. ii. 543.
77. Ye, yea. wolde who-so nolde, whoever wished it or did not wish it. This idiomatic phrase is thus expressed in the MSS. Bell's edition has wold who so or nolde, where the e in wolde is suppressed and the word or inserted without authority. I hesitate, as an editor, to alter an idiomatic phrase. Cf. will he, nill he, in which there is no or.
91. 'Deserve to be burnt, both skin and bones.'
99. Criseyde; Boccaccio has Griseida, answering to Homer's Χρυσηΐδα, Il. i. 143. It was common, in the Middle Ages, to adopt the accusative form as the standard one, especially in proper names. Her father was Chryses; see note to l. 67. But Benoît de Sainte-Maure calls her Briseida, and Chryseis and Briseis seem to have been confused. The allit. Troy-book has Bresaide; l. 8029.
119. 'While it well pleases you'; good is used adverbially. Ital. 'mentre t' aggrada.'
125. 'And would have done so oftener, if,' &c.
126. and hoom, and (went) home.
132, 133. This is a curious statement, and Chaucer's object in making it is not clear. Boccaccio says expressly that she had neither son nor daughter (st. 15); and Benoît (l. 12977) calls her 'la pucele.'
136. som day, one day; used quite generally.
138. 'And thus Fortune wheeled both of them up and down again.' Alluding to the wheel of Fortune; see the Ballade on Fortune, l. 46, and note.
145. Troyane gestes, Trojan history; cf. the title of Guido delle Colonne's book, viz. 'Historia Troiana,' which Chaucer certainly consulted, as shewn by several incidents in the poem.
146. Omer, Homer; whose account was considered untrustworthy by the medieval writers; see Ho. Fame, 1477, and note. Dares, Dares Phrygius; Dyte, Dictys Cretensis; see notes to Ho. Fame, 1467, 1468. These three authors really mean Guido delle Colonne, who professed to follow them.
153. Palladion, the Palladium or sacred image of Pallas, on the keeping of which the safety of Troy depended. It was stolen from Troy by Diomede and Ulysses; see Æneid, ii. 166. But Chaucer doubtless read the long account in Guido delle Colonne.
171. Hence Henrysoun, in his Testament of Criseyde, st. 12, calls her 'the flower and A-per-se Of Troy and Greece.' Cf. 'She was a ​woman A-per-se, alon'; Romance of Partenay, 1148. Boccaccio's image is much finer; he says that she surpassed other women as the rose does the violet. On the other hand, l. 175 is Chaucer's own.
172. makelees, matchless, peerless; cf. A.S. gemaca.
189. lakken, to blame; see P. Pl. B. v. 132.
192. bayten, feed, feast (metaphorically); E. bait.
205. Ascaunces, as if; in l. 292, the Ital. text has Quasi dicesse, as if she said. See Cant. Ta. D 1745, G 838. It is tautological, being formed from E. as and the O.F. quanses, as if (Godefroy); so that the literal force is 'as as if.'
210. 'And nevertheless [or, still] he (Cupid) can pluck as proud a peacock (as was Troilus).' Cf. Prol. A 652.
214-266. These lines are Chaucer's own.
217. falleth, happens; ne wenden, would not expect. In Ray's Proverbs, ed. 1737, p. 279, is a Scotch proverb—'All fails that fools thinks' (sic); which favours the alternative reading given in the footnote.
218. Bayard, a name for a bay horse; see Can. Yem. Ta. G 1413.
229. wex a-fere, became on fire. Fere is a common Southern form, as a variant of fyre, though a-fyre occurs in Ho. Fame, 1858. The A.S. vowel is ȳ, the A.S. form being fȳr.
239. 'Has proved (to be true), and still does so.'
257. 'The stick that will bend and ply is better than one that breaks.' Compare the fable of the Oak and the Reed; see bk. ii. 1387.
266. ther-to refere, revert thereto. Halliwell gives: 'Refeere, to revert; Hoccleve.' Chaucer here ends his own remarks, and goes back to the Filostrato.
292. Ascaunces, as if (she said); see note to l. 205.
316. awhaped, amazed, stupefied; see Anelida, 215; Leg. of Good Women, 132, 814, 2321; he was 'not utterly confounded,' but only dazed; cf. l. 322.
327. borneth, burnishes, polishes up; i.e. makes bright and cheerful. The rime shews that it is a variant spelling of burneth; cf. burned, burnished, Ho. Fame, 1387; Kn. Ta. A 1983.
MS. Harl. 3943 has vnournith, an error for anorneth, adorns; with a like sense.
333. Him tit, to him betideth; tit is for tydeth.
336. ordre, sect, brotherhood; a jesting allusion to the religious orders. So also ruled = under a religious rule.
337. noun-certeyn, uncertainty; cf. O.F. noncerteit, uncertainty (Godefroy); nounpower, want of power (P. Plowman); and F. nonchalance. Again spelt noun-certeyn, Compl. Venus, 46.
340. lay, law, ordinance; see Sq. Ta. F 18.
344. 'But observe this—that which ye lovers often avoid, or else do with a good intention, often will thy lady misconstrue it,' &c.
363. a temple, i.e. in the temple.
381. First stands alone in the first foot. Cf. ll. 490, 603, 811.
​385. Yelt, short for yeldeth, yields.
394. writ, writeth. Lollius; Chaucer's reason for the use of this name is not known. Perhaps we may agree with Dr. Latham, who suggested (in a letter to the Athenæum, Oct. 3, 1868, p. 433), that Chaucer misread this line in Horace (Epist. i. 2. 1), viz. 'Troiani belli scriptorem, maxime Lolli'; and thence derived the notion that Lollius wrote on the Trojan war. This becomes the more likely if we suppose that he merely saw this line quoted apart from the context. Chaucer does not seem to have read Horace for himself. As a matter of fact, ll. 400-420 are translated from the 88th sonnet of Petrarch. See note to Ho. of Fame, 1468. The following is the text of Petrarch's sonnet:
'S'amor non è, che dunque è quel ch' i'sento? Ma s'egli è amor, per Dio, che cosa e quale? Se buona, ond' è l'effetto aspro mortale? Se ria, ond' è si dolce ogni tormento? S'a mia voglia ardo, ond' è 'l pianto e'l lamento? S'a mal mia grado, il lamentar che vale? O viva morte, o dilettoso male, Come puoi tanto in me s'io nol consento? E s'io 'l consento, a gran torto mi doglio. Fra si contrari venti, in frale barca Mi trovo in alto mar, senza governo. Sì lieve di saver, d'error sì carca Ch' i' medesmo non so quel ch'io mi voglio, E tremo a mezza state, ardendo il verno.'
In l. 401, whiche means 'of what kind.'
425. Ital. text—'Non so s'io dico a donna, ovvero a dea'; Fil. I. 38. Cf. Æneid, i. 327. Hence the line in Kn. Ta. A 1101.
457. That; in modern E., we should use But, or else said not for seyde.
463. Fled-de is here a plural form, the pp. being treated as an adjective. Cf. sprad-de, iv. 1422; whet-te, v. 1760.
464. savacioun; Ital. 'salute.' Mr. Rossetti thinks that salute here means 'well-being' or 'health'; and perhaps savacioun is intended to mean the same, the literal sense being 'safety.'
465. fownes, fawns; see Book of the Duch. 429. It is here used, metaphorically, to mean 'young desires' or 'fresh yearnings.' This image is not in Boccaccio.
470. I take the right reading to be felle, as in Cm. Ed., with the sense 'destructive.' As it might also mean 'happened,' other MSS. turned it into fille, which makes a most awkward construction. The sense is: 'The sharp destructive assaults of the proof of arms [i.e. which afforded proof of skill in fighting], which Hector and his other brothers performed, not once made him move on that account only'; i.e. when he exerted himself, it was not for mere fighting's sake. Chaucer uses fel elsewhere; the pl. felle is in Troil. iv. 44; and see Cant. Ta. D 2002, B 2019. For preve, proof, see l. 690.
​473, 4. riden and abiden (with short i) rime with diden, and are past tenses plural. l. 474 is elliptical: 'found (to be) one of the best, and (one of those who) longest abode where peril was.'
483. the deeth, i.e. the pestilence, the plague.
488. title, a name; he said it was 'a fever.'
517. daunce, i.e. company of dancers. Cf. Ho. Fame, 639, 640.
530-2. 'For, by my hidden sorrow, (when it is) blased abroad, I shall be befooled more, a thousand times, than the fool of whose folly men write rimes.' No particular reference seems to be intended by l. 532; the Ital. text merely has 'più ch' altro,' more than any one.
557. attricioun, attrition. 'An imperfect sorrow for sin, as if a bruising which does not amount to utter crushing (contrition); horror of sin through fear of punishment ... while contrition has its motive in the love of God;' New E. Dict.
559. ley on presse, compress, diminish; cf. Prol. A 81.
560. holinesse, the leanness befitting a holy state.
626. 'That one, whom excess causes to fare very badly.'
631-679. Largely original; but, for l. 635, see note to Bk. III. 329.
638-644. There is a like passage in P. Pl. C. xxi. 209-217. Chaucer, however, here follows Le Roman de la Rose, 21819-40, q.v.
648. amayed, dismayed; O.F. esmaier. So in Bk. IV. l. 641.
654. Oënone seems to have four syllables. MS. H. has Oonone; MS. Cm. senome (over an erasure); MS. Harl. 3943, Tynome. Alluding to the letter of Œnone to Paris in Ovid, Heroid. v.
659-665. Not at all a literal translation, but it gives the general sense of Heroid. v. 149-152:
'Me miseram, quod amor non est medicabilis herbis! Deficior prudens artis ab arte mea. Ipse repertor opis uaccas pauisse Pheraeas Fertur, et a nostro saucius igne fuit.'
Ipse repertor opis means Phœbus, who 'first fond art of medicyne;' Pheraeas, i.e. of Pherae, refers to Pherae in Thessaly, the residence of king Admetus. Admetus gained Alcestis for his wife by the assistance of Apollo, who, according to some accounts, served Admetus out of attachment to him, or, according to other accounts, because he was condemned to serve a mortal for a year. Chaucer seems to adopt a theory that Apollo loved Admetus chiefly for his daughter's sake. The usual story about Apollo is his love for Daphne.
674. 'Even though I had to die by torture;' cf. Kn. Ta. A 1133.
686. 'Until it pleases him to desist.'
688. 'To mistrust every one, or to believe every one.'
694. The wyse, Solomon; see Eccles. iv. 10.
699. Niobe; 'lacrimas etiamnum marmora manant;' Ovid, Met. vi. 311.
705. 'That eke out (increase) their sorrows,' &c.
707. 'And care not to seek for themselves another cure.'
708. A proverb; see note to Can. Yem. Ta. G 746.
​713. harde grace, misfortune; cf. Cant. Ta. G 665, 1189. Tyrwhitt quotes Euripides, Herc. Furens, 1250: Γέμω κακῶν δή, κὀυκέτ' ἐσθ' ὅπου τεθῇ.
730, 731. From Boethius, Bk. I. Pr. 2. l. 14, and Pr. 4. l. 2.
739. 'On whose account he fared so.'
740. Compare: 'He makes a rod for his own breech'; Hazlitt's Proverbs.
745. 'For it (love) would sufficiently spring to light of itself.'
747. Cf. Rom. de la Rose, 7595-6.
763. 'But they do not care to seek a remedy.'
780. Pronounced ben'cite; see note to Cant. Ta. B 1170.
786. Ticius, Tityos. MS. H2. wrongly has Siciphus. 'The fowl that highte voltor, that eteth the stomak or the giser of Tityus, is so fulfild of his song that it nil eten ne tyren no more;' tr. of Boeth. Bk. III. Met. 12. 28. The original has:
'Vultur, dum satur est modis, Non traxit Tityi iecur.'
See also Verg. Æn. vi. 595; Ovid, Met. iv. 456.
811. First foot deficient, as in ll. 603, 1051, 1069, &c. winter, years. Perhaps imitated from Le Rom. de la Rose, 21145-9.
846, 847. See Boethius, Bk. ii. Pr. 3. 52-54.
848. From Boethius, Lib. II. Pr. 1: 'si manere incipit, fors esse desistit.' See p. 26 above, l. 83.
887. 'And, to augment all this the more.'
890-966. This is all Chaucer's own; so also 994-1008.
916. a blaunche fevere, a fever that turns men white; said jocosely. Lovers were supposed to be pale; Ovid, Art. Am. i. 729. Cotgrave is somewhat more precise. He gives: 'Fievres blanches, the agues wherewith maidens that have the green sickness are troubled; hence, Il a les fievres blanches, either he is in love, or sick of wantonness.' In the Cuckoo and the Nightingale, l. 41, we find: 'I am so shaken with the feveres white.'
932. beet; beat thy breast (to shew thy repentance). Cf. P. Plowm. B. v. 454.
956. A proverb. 'The more haste, the worse speed (success).' Cf. Bk. iii. 1567, and The Tale of Melibeus, B 2244.
964. Dr. Köppel says—cf. Albertano of Brescia, Liber de Amore Dei, 45b: 'Iam et Seneca dixit, Non conualescit planta, quae saepe transfertur.'
969. 'A bon port estes arrivés'; Rom. de la Rose, 12964.
977. Fil. ii. st. 27: 'Io credo certo, ch' ogni donna in voglia Viva amorosa.'
1000. post, pillar, support; as in Prol. A 214.
1002. Cf. 'The greater the sinner, the greater the saint.'
1011. Understand he. 'He became, as one may say, untormented of his wo.'
1024. cherl, man. 'You are afraid the man will fall out of the moon!' Alluding to the old notion that the spots on the moon's surface ​represent a man with a bundle of sticks. See the curious poem on this subject in Wright's Specimens of Lyric Poetry, p. 110; also printed in Ritson's Ancient Songs, i. 68, and in Böddeker's Altenglische Dichtungen, p. 176, where a fear is expressed that the man may fall out of the moon. Cf. Temp. ii. 2. 141; Mids. Nt. Dr. v. 1. 249; and see Alex. Neckam, ed. Wright, pp. xviii, 54.
1026. 'Why, meddle with that which really concerns you,' i.e. mind your own business. Some copies needlessly turn this into a question and insert ne before hast.
1038. 'And am I to be thy surety?'
1050. Scan: 'And yet m' athink'th ... m'asterte.' The sense is: 'And yet it repents me that this boast should escape me.'
1051. Deficient in the first foot: 'Now | Pandáre.' So in l. 1069.
1052. 'But thou, being wise, thou knowest,' &c. In this line, thou seems to be emphatic throughout.
1058. Read désiróus; as in Book ii. 1101, and Sq. Ta. F 23.
1070. Pandare is here trisyllabic; with unelided -e.
1078. The same line occurs in the Clerk. Ta. E 413.
1088. 'And is partly well eased of the aching of his wound, yet is none the more healed; and, like an easy patient (i.e. a patient not in pain), awaits (lit. abides) the prescription of him that tries to cure him; and thus he perseveres in his destiny.' Dryveth forth means 'goes on with,' or 'goes through with.' The reading dryeth, i.e. endures, is out of place here, as it implies suffering; whereas, at the present stage, Troilus is extremely hopeful.
BOOK II.
The chief correspondences are shewn in the following table.
| Chaucer: Book II. | Filostrato: Book II. |
| ll. 265-6, 274-308. | st. 35-37. |
| 316-322. | 46. |
| 391-419, 428-455. | 43, 54, 47-56. |
| 501-523, 540-1. | 55-57, 61. |
| 554-578. | 62-64. |
| 584-588. | 43. |
| 589-602. | 65, 66, 68. |
| 645-665. | 82-88, 71-78. |
| 733-5, 746-763. | 69, 70. |
| 768-784. | 73, 75-78. |
| 937-8, 966-981. | 79-81, 89. |
| 995-1010. | 90, 91. |
| 1044-1104. | 93-98, 100-109. |
| 1125-1232. | 109-128. |
| 1305-1351. | 128-131. |
Other passages are mainly original; as, e.g. ll. 1352-1757 at the end, and 1-264 at the beginning.
​1-3. These lines somewhat resemble Dante, Purgat. i. 1-3.
'Per correr miglior acqua alza le vele Omai la navicella del mio ingegno, Che lascia dietro a sè mar sì crudele;' &c.
7. calendes, the introduction to the beginning; see bk. v. l. 1634. Thus the 'kalends of January' precede that month, being the period from Dec. 14 to Dec. 31.
8. Cleo; so in most copies; H2. has Clyo; Clio, the muse of history.
14. Latin seems, in this case, to mean Italian, which was called Latino volgare.
21. 'A blind man cannot judge well of colours;' a proverb.
22. Doubtless from Horace's Ars Poetica, 71-3; probably borrowed at second-hand.
28. A proverb. In the Proverbs of Hendyng, l. 29, we have: 'Ase fele thede, ase fele thewes,' i.e. so many peoples, so many customs. See l. 42 below. Cf. Boethius, Bk. ii. Pr. 7. 49 (p. 47).
36. went, for wendeth; i.e. goes; pres. tense.
46. 'Yet all is told, or must be told.'
48. bitit, for bitydeth; i.e. betides, happens.
55. Bole, Bull, the sign Taurus. On the third of May, in Chaucer's time, the sun would be in about the 20th degree of Taurus. The epithet white is from Ovid, Met. ii. 852.
63. wente, sb., a turn; i.e. he tossed about.
64-68. forshapen, metamorphosed. Progne was changed into a swallow; Ovid, Met. vi. 668. Tereus carried off Progne's sister Philomela; see Leg. of Good Women (Philomela).
74. 'And knew that the moon was in a good plight (position) for him to take his journey.' That is, the moon's position was propitious; see note to Man of Lawes Tale, B 312.
77. 'Janus, god of (the) entry;' see Ovid, Fasti, i. 125.
81. 'And found (that) she and two other ladies were sitting.' Sete (A. S. sǣton) is the pt. t. pl., not the pp.
84. The celebrated story of the Siege of Thebes, known to Chaucer through the Thebais of Statius; see bk. v. 1484. And see l. 100.
87. Ey, eh! a note of exclamation, of frequent occurrence in the present poem.
103. lettres rede, i.e. the rubric describing the contents of the next section.
100-105. Œdipus unwittingly slew his father Laius; and the two sons of Œdipus contended for Thebes. For Amphiorax, see note to bk. v. 1500, and to Anelida, 57.
108. bokes twelve; the 12 Books of the Thebais. The death of Amphioraus is related at the end of Book vii.
110. barbe, 'part of a woman's dress, still sometimes worn by nuns, consisting of a piece of white plaited linen, passed over or under the chin, and reaching midway to the waist;' New E. Dict. She wore it ​because she was a widow; see the quotations in the New E. Dict., esp. 'wearing of barbes at funerals.' And see Barbuta in Ducange.
112. 'Let us perform some rite in honour of May;' see note to Kn. Ta. A 1500.
117. The right reading is necessarily sete, for A. S. sǣte, 3 p. s. pt. t. subj. of sitten; 'it would befit.' Cf. seten, they sat, 81, 1192.
134. 'And I am your surety,' i.e. you may depend upon me; see bk. i. 1038.
151. unkouth, unknown, strange; hence, very; Sc. unco'.
154. wal, wall, defence; yerde, rod, scourge, as in bk. i. 740.
167. From Le Rom. de la Rose, 5684-6:—
'Lucan redit, qui moult fu sages, C'onques vertu et grant pooir Ne pot nus ensemble veoir.'
Cf. Lucan, Phar. i. 92.
236. Withoute, excepting sweethearts; or, excepting by way of passionate love. The latter is the usual sense in Chaucer.
273. 'Therefore I will endeavour to humour her intelligence.'
294. so well bigoon, so well bestead, so fortunate. Cf. Parl. Foules, 171.
318. Which ... his, whose; cf. that ... his, Kn. Ta. A 2710.
328. 'Then you have fished to some purpose;' ironical. To fish fair is to catch many fish.
329. What mende ye, what do you gain, though we both lose?
344. Gems were supposed to have hidden virtues.
387. fele, find out, investigate.
391, 2. Cf. Ovid, Art. Amat. ii. 107: 'Ut ameris, amabilis esto.'
393. In the same, 113, we find: 'Forma bonum fragile est,' &c.
396. 'Go and love; for, when old, no one will have you.'
398. 'I am warned too late, when it has past away, quoth Beauty.'
400. The 'king's fool' got the hint from Ovid, Art. Amat. ii. 118: 'Iam uenient rugae,' &c.
403. crowes feet, crow's feet; wrinkles at the corners of the eyes; from the shape. So in Spenser, Shep. Kal. December, 136: 'And by myne eie the crow his clawe doth write.'
408. breste a wepe, burst out a-weeping.
413. Ret, for redeth, advises; cf. P. Plowman C. iv. 410, and note.
425. Pallas; perhaps invoked with reference to the Palladium of Troy; bk. I. l. 153. Moreover, Pallas was a virgin goddess.
434. 'Of me no consideration need be taken.'
477. 'Except that I will not give him encouragement;' see 1222.
483. 'But when the cause ceases, the disease ceases.'
507. gon, gone; 'not very long ago.'
525. mea culpa, by my fault; words used in confession: see P. Plowman, B. v. 77, and note.
527. Ledest the fyn, guidest the end; cf. Boeth. Bk. iv. Pr. 6. 149.
537. biwryen, used in place of biwreyen, to bewray. The same rather arbitrary form appears in Parl. Foules, 348.
​539. 'Because men cover them up,' &c.
586. were never, never would be; were is in the subjunctive mood.
611. Thascry, for The ascry, the alarm. Ascry occurs in Wyclif, Prov. vii. 6.
615. latis, lattice. The reading yates, gates, is wrong, as shewn by l. 617.
618. Dardanus, ancestor of Priam. Cf. Dardanidae, i. e. Trojans, Verg. Aen. i. 560, ii. 72, &c. Troy had six gates, according to Guido; the strongest of these was Dardanus; see the allit. Destruction of Troy, ed. Panton and Donaldson, l. 1557, Lydgate, Siege of Troy, b. ii. c. 11, and Shakespeare's Prologue to his Troilus.
ther open is the cheyne, where the chain is open, or unfastened. Alluding to the chains sometimes drawn across a street, to block it against horsemen. The sense is, 'he will come down this street, because the others are blocked.'
621. happy, fortunate. It was a lucky day for him.
627. a pas, at a foot-pace; see Prol. A 825, and l. 620 above.
637. an heven, a beautiful sight; cf. Sq. Ta. F 558.
639. tissew, lace, twisted band; from F. tistre, to weave.
642. The shield was covered with horn, sinews or nerf, and skin or rind.
651. 'Who has given me a love-potion?'
656. for pure ashamed, for being completely ashamed, i.e. for very shame. A curious idiom.
666. envýous, envious person; accented on y, as in l. 857.
677. Ma | de; two syllables. The first foot is imperfect.
681. The astrological term 'house' has two senses; it sometimes means a zodiacal sign, as when, e.g. Taurus is called the 'house' or mansion of Venus; and sometimes it has another sense, as, probably, in the present passage. See Chaucer's treatise on the Astrolabe, pt. ii. § 37, on 'the equations of houses.' In the latter case, the whole celestial sphere was divided into twelve equal parts, called 'houses,' by great circles passing through the north and south points of the horizon. The first of these, reckoning upwards from the eastern horizon, was called the first house, and the seventh house, being opposite to it, was reckoned downwards from the western horizon. The first and seventh houses were both considered very fortunate; and it is here said that Venus was in her seventh house, i.e. was just below the western horizon at the moment when Criseyde first saw him. The same planet was also 'well disposed,' i.e. in a favourable sign of the zodiac; and at the same time was 'pleased (or made propitious) by favourable aspects' of other planets, i.e. other planets were favourably situated as regards their angular distances from Venus. Moreover, Venus was no foe to Troilus in his nativity, i.e. she was also favourably situated at the moment of his birth.
716. Imitated from Le Rom. de la Rose, 5765-9, q.v.
746. 'I am one (who is) the fairest.' The -e in fairest-e is not elided; neither is the -e in wist-e in l. 745.
​750. I.e. 'I am my own mistress.'
752. lese, pasture; 'I stand, unfastened, in a pleasant pasture.' From A. S. lǣsu. Cf. Ho. Fame, 1768. It does not mean 'leash,' as usually said; Chaucer's form of 'leash' is lees, as in Cant. Ta. G 19.
754. chekmat, check-mate, as in chess; see Book Duch. 659. Bell sees a pun in it; 'check to my mate,' i.e. wife; but it remains to be shewn that the form mate (wife) was known to Chaucer, who spells it make (Cant. Ta. E 2080).
759. I.e. 'I am not a nun,' nor vowed to chastity.
767, 769. sprat, for spredeth, spreads, pres. t.; spradde, pt. t. Cf. Boethius, Bk. i. Met. 3. 9-12.
777. According to Bell, MS. Harl. 1239 also has why, i.e. wherefore, a reason why, cause.
784. Cf. 'S'il fait folie, si la boive;' Rom. Rose, 12844.
797. 'No one stumbles over it;' for it is too unsubstantial.
802. 'Yet all things seem to them to be harmful, wherein folks please their friends.'
807. 'Nothing venture, nothing have.'
830. hertes lust, heart's pleasure; to rente, by way of rent.
831. no wight, to no one; dat. case.
861. See Hazlitt's notes on the proverb—'Many talk of Robin Hood, that never shot in his bow,' &c.
866. 'Who cannot endure sorrow deserves no joy.'
867. 'And therefore let him, who has a glass head, beware of stones cast in battle.'
882. let, short for ledeth, leads (Stratmann).
884. The MSS. end the line with syke. It has been pointed out that syke is not a perfect rime to endyte, whyte, but only an assonance. It is difficult to believe Chaucer guilty of this oversight; and hence I would suggest, with all submission to the critics, that possibly Chaucer wrote syte. The M. E. syte means to be anxious, and occurs in the Cursor Mundi, 11675; where Joseph says to Mary:—'Bot I site for an other thing That we o water has nu wanting,' i.e. but I am anxious about another thing, that we lack water. The sb. site, grief, occurs in the Midland dialect as well as in Northumbrian; see site in Stratmann. As the word is unusual, it would naturally be altered by the scribes to the familiar syke, to sigh, with a cognate meaning.
920. 'And loude he song ageyn the sonne shene;' Kn. Ta. A 1509.
959. 'Unless lack of pursuit is the cause (of failure),' &c.; cf. 1075.
964. hameled, cut off, docked; cf. P. Pl. Crede, 300.
1001. 'Your ill hap is not owing to me.'
1017. Read And úpon mé, where me is emphatic.
1022. When people's ears glow, it is because they are being talked of; according to folk-lore. See Brand's Popular Antiquities, ed. Ellis, iii. 171.
1026. 'Sed lateant uires, nec sis in fronte disertus;' Ovid, Art. Am. i. 463.
​1027. 'Quascunque adspicies, lacrimae fecere lituras;' Ovid, Heroid. iii. 3.
1033. 'Or always harp one tune.'
1041. 'Humano capiti,' &c.; Horace, Ars Poet. 1-5. pyk, a pike (fish), as in the Balade to Rosemounde, 17.
1062. Accent Mínervá on the first and third syllables.
1075-7. it made, was the cause of it. ley, lied.
1107. hoppe, dance. 'I always dance in the rear.'
1108. to-laugh (H2, to lagh, Cm. to law), laughed exceedingly. I know of no other example. A better form is to-lough; see l. 1163, and Pard. Ta. C 476.
1119. spek-e, might speak, should say; pt. t. subjunctive.
1123. sent, i. e. sendeth, sends; the pt. t. is sent-e or send-e.
1177-8. Avysed, she took notice; pt. tense. So also fond, found, which Bell takes to be a pp.; but the pp. is founden. Coude good, knew what was becoming. So, in l. 1197, Can he means 'has he skill.'
1201, 1204. sowe, to sew the pieces of parchment together. Tyrwhitt remarks, s. v. sowe; 'It was usual, and indeed necessary, formerly to sew letters, when they were written upon parchment; but the practice continued long after the invention of paper.' plyte, to fold it up.
1229. 'A cushion, beaten with gold;' cf. Kn. Ta. A 979.
1238. A proverb: 'slight impressions soon fade.'
1249. Tyrwhitt, s. v. somme, boggles over this line, but it is quite right. Bell takes occasion to speak of the 'rugged lines' to be found in this poem; which is true enough of his own peculiar text. In Beowulf, l. 207, we have fiftēna sum, one of fifteen, where the cardinal number is used; and this is the usual idiom. But the ordinal number is used also. In St. Juliana, p. 79, we read that 'te sea sencte him on his thrituthe sum,' the sea drowned him and 'thirtieth some' of his men, which I understand to mean 'and twenty-nine of his men,' the master being the thirtieth; but Mr. Cockayne and Mr. Bradley make it mean 'him and thirty others.' So again, in Sir Tristrem, 817, we have: 'He busked and made him yare hi[s] fiftend som of knight,' he made ready for himself his 'fifteenth some' of knights, which I should explain to mean a band of fifteen knights, himself included, or, himself being the fifteenth. Some in such phrases has a collective force. However, the examples in Bosworth and Toller's A. S. Dict., s. v. sum, shew that this mode of expression is also sometimes used exclusively of the leader.
1274. on to pyke, for her to pick upon, or pick at; i. e. for her to pull out; see l. 1273. See examples in Halliwell, s. v. pike, of 'to pyke out thornes,' to pick out thorns.
1276. Cf. 'to strike while the iron is hot;' see Melibeus, B 2226.
1289. 'But therein he had much to heave at and to do.'
1291. 'And why? for fear of shame.' Cm. has for speche, i. e. for fear of talk or scandal.
1315. accesse, attack, as of fever. See New E. Dict.
​1343. refreyde, grow cool; cf. Balade to Rosemounde, l. 21.
1349. after his gestes, according to his deeds, or adventures.
1390. forbyse, to give (thee) instances. Hardly a correct form; it should rather be forbysne, short for forbysnen, as the verb is formed from the sb. forbysne, A. S. forebȳsen, an example, instance. The word was obsolescent.
1398. Deiphebus (= Dé'phĕbús) is always trisyllabic.
1410. He means that he would do more for him than for any one, 'except for him whom he loves most,' i. e. Troilus.
1427. 'With spur and whip,' i. e. with all expedition.
1495. word and ende, beginning and end; cf. iii. 702, v. 1669. The right phrase is ord and ende, where ord is 'beginning;' but it would seem that, by Chaucer's time, word had been corruptly substituted for the obsolescent ord. See Monk. Ta. B 3911, and the note.
1534. triste, station for a huntsman to shoot from. See Tristre in Stratmann.
1554. renne, to run, like an excited madman.
1564. 'Bon fait prolixite foïr;' Rom. de la Rose, 18498.
1581. 'Although it does not please her to recommend (a remedy).'
1594. To mowen, to have it in her power; A. S. mugan.
1650. for my bettre arm, not even to save my right arm.
1661. him thar nought, 'him needeth not,' he need not do.
1735. An obscure allusion. 'Perhaps it means, in regard for the king and queen, his parents;' Bell. My own guess is different. I think it quite possible that Chaucer is referring to the two 'crowns' or garlands, one of roses and one of lilies, about which so much is said in his early work entitled the Lyf of Seint Cecile, afterwards called the Second Nonnes Tale (see G 270). Thus Pandarus, with his usual impudence, conjures Criseyde to pity Troilus by two solemn adjurations, viz. for the sake of Him who gave us all our souls, and by the virtue of the two heavenly crowns which an angel once brought to a chaste couple. He thus boldly insinuates that the proposed meeting is of the most innocent character. This I take to be the whole point of the allusion.
1737. 'Fie on the devil!' I. e. despise detraction.
1738. com of, come off; we now say 'come on!' See ll. 1742, 1750.
1751. 'But now (I appeal) to you.'
1752. cankedort, a state of suspense, uncertainty, or anxiety; as appears from the context. The word occurs nowhere else. Only one MS. (H2) has the spelling kankerdort, usually adopted in modern editions; Thynne has cankedorte, but it needs no final e. The etymology is unknown nor do we even know how to divide it. There is a verb kanka, to shake, be unsteady, &c., in Swedish dialects (Rietz), and the Swed. ort is a place, quarter; if there is any relationship, kanked-ort might mean 'shaky place,' or ticklish position. Another theory is that canker relates to canker, a cancer, disease, and that dort is related to Lowl. Sc. dort, sulkiness. But this is assuming ​that the right spelling is canker-dort, a theory which the MSS. do not favour. Neither does the sense of 'ill-humour' seem very suitable. As I am bound, in this difficult case, to suggest what I can, I must add that it is also possible to suppose that cankedort is of French origin, answering to an O. F. quant que dort, lit. 'whenever he is asleep (?),' or 'although he is asleep(?);' and hence (conceivably) meaning 'in a sleepy state.' The phrase quant que, also spelt kan ke (and in many other ways) is illustrated by a column of examples in Godefroy's Dictionary; but its usual sense is 'as well as,' or 'whatever'; thus kan ke poet = as well as he can. Or can we make it = com ki dort, like one who sleeps?
BOOK III.
The following scheme gives a general idea of the relationship of this Book to the original.
| Chaucer: Book III. | Filostrato: Book III. |
| ll. 1-38. | st. 74-79. |
| 239-287. | 5-10. |
| 344-441. | 11-20. |
| 813-833. | [Boethius, II. Pr. 4. 86-120.] |
| 1310-1426. | 31-43. |
| 1443-1451. | 44. |
| 1471-1492. | 44-48. |
| 1513-1555. | 50-56. |
| 1588-1624. | 56-60. |
| 1625-1629. | [Boethius, II. Pr. 4. 4-10.] |
| 1639-1680. | 61-65. |
| 1695-1743. | 70-73. |
| 1744-1768. | [Boethius, II. Met. 8.] |
| 1772-1806. | 90-93. |
| 1807-1813. | Bk. I, st. 3. 1. |
1-38. This is an exceptionally difficult passage, and some of the editions make great nonsense of it, especially of ll. 15-21. It is, however, imitated from stanzas 74-79 of the Filostrato, Book III; where the invocation is put into the mouth of Troilus.
The key to it is that it is an address to Venus, both the planet and the goddess.
2. The planet Venus was considered to be in 'the third heaven.' The 'heavens' or spheres were named, respectively, after the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the 'fixed stars;' beyond which was the Primum Mobile, the earth being in the centre of all, and immoveable. Sometimes the spheres of the seven planets were reckoned backwards from Saturn, Venus being then in the fifth heaven; see Lenvoy a Scogan, 9, and the note.
​3. 'O favourite of the Sun, O dear daughter of Jove!' Venus was considered a fortunate planet. Perhaps it is best to quote the Italian text here:—
'O luce eterna, il cui lieto splendore 585 Fa bello il terzo ciel, dal qual ne piove Piacer, vaghezza, pietade ed amore; Del sole amica, e figliuola di Giove, Benigna donna d'ogni gentil core, Certa cagion del valor che mi muove 590 A' sospir dolci della mia salute, Sempre lodata sia la tua virtute.
Il ciel, la terra, lo mare e l'inferno Ciascuno in sè la tua potenzia sente, O chiara luce; e s'io il ver discerno, 595 Le piante, i semi, e l'erbe puramente, Gli uccei, le fiere, i pesci con eterno Vapor ti senton nel tempo piacente, E gli uomini e gli dei, nè creatura Senza di te nel mondo vale o dura. 600
Tu Giove prima agli alti affetti lieto, Pe' qua' vivono e son tutte le cose, Movesti, o bella dea; e mansueto Sovente il rendi all' opere noiose Di noi mortali; e il meritato fleto 605 In liete feste volgi e dilettose; E in mille forme già quaggiù il mandasti, Quand' ora d'una ed or d'altra il pregasti.
11. vapour, influence; Ital. Vapor (l. 598).
15. The readings in this stanza are settled by the Ital. text. Thus, in ll. 17, 19, 20, read him, not hem. Comeveden, didst move or instigate; agreeing with ye, for which Mod. E. uses thou. 'Thou didst first instigate Jove to those glad effects (influences), through which all things live and exist; and didst make him amorous of mortal things; and, at thy pleasure, didst ever give him, in love, success or trouble; and, in a thousand forms, didst send him down to (gain) love on earth; and he caught those whom it pleased you (he should catch).'
In l. 17 we find Comeveden sometimes turned into Comenden, or even Commodious! The Italian text has Movesti (l. 603).
22. Venus was supposed to appease the angry planet Mars; see Compl. of Mars, 36-42.
27. 'According as a man wishes.'
29. 'Tu in unità le case e li cittadi, Li regni, ... Tien.'
31-34.
'Tu sola le nascosi qualitadi Delle cose conosci, onde 'l costrutto Vi metti tal, che fai maravigliare Chi tua potenza non sa riguardare.'
​I. e. 'Thou only knowest the hidden qualities of things, whence thou formest such a construction, that thou makest to marvel any one who knows not how to estimate thy power.' Chaucer seems to have used construe because suggested by costrutto, but he really uses it as answering to sa (in the fourth line), and omits the words 'l costrutto vi metti tal altogether. Hence ll. 33-35 mean: 'when they cannot explain how it may come to pass that she loves him, or why he loves her; (so as to shew) why this fish, and not that one, comes to the weir.'
Io (= jo), come to pass. This word is not in the dictionaries, and has been coolly altered into go (!) in various editions. But it answers to O. F. joer (F. jouer), to play, hence, to play a game, to make a move (as in a game); here, to come about, come to pass.
35. were, weir, pool where fish are caught; see Parl. Foules, 138, and note.
36. 'You have imposed a law on folks in this universe;' Ital. 'Tu legge, o dea, poni all' universo.'
44, 45. Inhelde, pour in. Caliope, Calliope, muse of epic poetry; similarly invoked by Dante, Purg. i. 9.
87. 'Though he was not pert, nor made difficulties; nor was he too bold, (as if about) to sing a mass for a fool.' The last expression was probably proverbial; it seems to mean to speak without hesitation or a feeling of respect.
115. to watre wolde, would turn to water; cf. Squi. Ta. F 496.
120. 'I? what?' i. e. 'I? what (am I to do)?' In l. 122, Pandarus repeats her words, mockingly: 'You say I? what? why, of course you should pity him.'
136-138. 'And I (am) to have comfort, as it pleases you, (being at the same time) under your correction, (so as to have what is) equal to my offence, as (for instance) death.' See Cant. Ta. B 1287.
150. 'By the feast of Jupiter, who presides over nativities.' The reason for the use of natal is not obvious. Cf. 'Scit Genius, natale comes qui temperat astrum;' Horat. Ep. ii. 2. 187.
188. 'I seem to hear the town-bells ringing for this miracle, though no hand pulls the ropes.'
193, 194. and oon, And two, 'both the one of you and the other.'
198. bere the belle, take the former place, take precedence; like the bell-wether that heads the flock. See the New E. Dict.
228. 'Straight as a line,' i. e. directly, at once.
294. See Manc. Ta. H 333, and note.
299. 'Thou understandest and knowest enough proverbs against the vice of gossiping, even if men spoke truth as often as they lie.'
308. 'No boaster is to be believed, in the natural course of things.'
328, 329. drat, dreadeth. Cf. 'Felix, quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum.' But Chaucer took it from Le Rom. de la Rose, 8041-2: 'Moult a benéurée vie Cil qui par autrui se chastie.'
340. 'And a day is appointed for making up the charters' (which will particularise what she has granted you); metaphorical.
​349. richesse, abundance; not a happy word, but suggested by the Ital. text: 'I sospir ch'egli aveva a gran dovizia;' Fil. iii. 11. Dovizia (Lat. diuitiae) is precisely 'richesse.' Bell has rehetyng, i. e. comforting (from O. F. rehaiter, reheiter), which gives no sense; and explains it by 'reheating!'
354. lusty, lusty person; cf. Cant. Ta. A 165, 208.
377. 'Or durst (do so), or should know (how).'
380. stokked, fastened in the stocks; cf. Acts xvi. 24.
404. Departe it so, make this distinction.
410. frape, company, troop. Marked by Tyrwhitt as not understood. Other examples occur. 'With hem a god gret frape;' Adam Davy, &c., ed. Furnivall, p. 60, col. 1, text 3, l. 390; and see Allit. Morte Arthure, ed. Brock, 2163, 2804, 3548. Godefroy gives O. F. frap, a multitude, and frapaille, rabble.
445. 'And wished to be seised of that which he lacked.'
497. 'Or to enumerate all the looks and words of one that is in such uncertainty.'
502. as seith; but it does not appear that Boccaccio says anything of the kind. The same remark applies to l. 575.
510. Fulfelle is a Kentish form, the e answering to A. S. y. Similar forms occur in Gower. See note to Book Duch. 438.
526. Scan: Dréd | elées | it cleer,' &c. The sense is: 'it was clear, in the direction of the wind, from every magpie and every spoil-sport.' I. e. no one could detect them; they kept (like hunters) well to leeward, and there were no magpies or telltale birds to windward, to give an alarm.
529. Scan: In this matér-e, both-e frem'd. fremed, strange, wild.
542. holy, i. e. sacred to Apollo. From Ovid, Met. i. 566: 'laurea .. uisa est agitasse cacumen.'
545. 'And therefore let no one hinder him.'
572. The readings all shew various corruptions of thurfte, which none of the scribes understood; see thurfen, tharf, in Stratmann. This is not the only place where thurfte has been ousted from the text. Cf. thar (for tharf) in the Reves Ta. A 4320, &c. Yow thurfte have, you would need (to) have. Yow is the dat. case, governed by the impers. verb. The reading yow durste turns yow (an accusative) into an imaginary nominative; but the nom. form is ye, which the scribes did not venture to substitute.
584. goosish, goose-like, silly. This delicious epithet was turned into gofysshe by Thynne, and modern editions perpetuate the blunder. Tyrwhitt derived gofish from F. goffe, a word which is much later than Chaucer, and was probably merely adapted from Ital. goffo, stupid. The Century Dict. goes a step further, inserting a second f, and producing a form goffish, against all authority. Cf. Parl. Foules, 568, 586.
601. stewe, small chamber, closet; cf. G. Stube.
602. 'Where he was shut in, as in a coop.'
​609. 'There was no dainty to be fetched'; they were all there.
614. Wade; this is the hero mentioned in the Merch. Tale, E 1424; see note.
617-620. Cf. Boethius, Bk. iv. Pr. 6. 60-68.
622. 'Without her leave, at the will of the gods.'
624. bente, i. e. curved, crescent; see l. 549. Cf. Boeth. Bk. I. Met. 5. 6, 7.
625. The Moon, Saturn, and Jupiter were all in conjunction in Cancer, which was the mansion of the moon. We are to understand that this caused the great rain.
640. ron, rained; so also in l. 677. The usual pt. t. is reinede, but we also find roon, ron, as in P. Plowm. B. xiv. 66 (C. xvi. 270), and in Trevisa, tr. of Higden, ii. 239. The pt. t. of A. S. rignan, rīnan, is usually rīnde; but the strong pt. rān occurs in the Blickling Glosses.
648. a game, in game; a = an, on; Cm. has on.
671. The wyn anon, the wine (shall come) at once; alluding to the wine drunk just before going to bed. See Prol. A 819, 820.
674. 'The voidè being drunk, and the cross-curtain drawn immediately afterwards.' The best reading is voyde or voydee. This seems to be here used as a name for the 'loving-cup' or 'grace-cup,' which was drunk after the table had been cleared or voided. Properly, it was a slight dessert of 'spices' and wine; where spices meant sweetmeats, dried fruits, &c. See Notes and Queries, 2 S. xi. 508. The traverse was a screen or curtain drawn across the room; cf. Cant. Ta. E 1817; King's Quair, st. 90. See Additional Note, p. 506.
690. This refers to the attendants. They were no longer allowed to skip about (run on errands) or to tramp about noisily, but were packed off to bed, with a malediction on those who stirred about. Traunceth, tramps about, is used of a bull by Gower, C. A. ii. 72. In Beaumont and Fletcher, Fair Maid of the Inn, v. 2, we find—'but, traunce the world over, you shall never,' &c. For traunce, Thynne reads praunce, which has a similar sense. Morris explains traunce here as a sb., which seems impossible.
695. The olde daunce, the old game; see Prol. A 476.
696. sey, saw; perhaps read seye, subj., might perceive. If so, read al, i. e. every.
702. 'Beginning and end;' see note to bk. II. 1495.
711. I. e. or else upset everything; cf. the phrase, 'all the fat is in the fire.'
716. Mars and Saturn both had an evil influence.
717. combust, quenched, viz. by being too near the sun; see Astrolabe, pt. ii. § 4. Venus and Mercury, when thus 'combust,' lost their influence. let, hindered.
721. Adoon, Adonis; see Ovid, Met. x. 715.
722. Europe, Europa; see Leg. of Good Women, 113, and note.
725. Cipris, Venus; see Ho. Fame, 518.
726. Dane, Daphne; see Kn. Ta. A 2062.
​729. Mercúrie, Mercury; Herse, daughter of Cecrops, beloved by Mercury. Her sister, Aglauros, had displeased Minerva (Pallas); whereupon Minerva made Aglauros envious of Herse. Mercury turned Aglauros into stone because she hindered his suit. See Ovid, Met. ii. 708-832.
733. 'Fatal sisters;' i.e. the Fates, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. 'Which spun my destiny, before any cloth (infant's covering) was made for me.' See Kn. Ta. A 1566; Leg. G. Wom. 2629.
764. Let sleeping dogs lie; a proverb.
773. 'To hold in hand' is to feed with false hopes, to delude by pretended love.
775. Lit. 'and make him a hood above a cap.' A calle (caul) was a close-fitting cap, a skull-cap. To put on a hood over this evidently means to cover up the eyes, to cajole, to hoodwink.
791, 797. shal, owe to. sholde love, i.e. are reported to love.
813-836. Founded on Boethius, lib. II. Pr. 4. 'Quàm multis amaritudinibus humanae felicitatis dulcedo respersa est!... Anxia enim res est humanorum conditio bonorum, et quae uel numquam tota proueniat, uel numquam perpetua subsistat.... Ad haec, quem caduca ista felicitas uehit, uel scit eam, uel nescit esse mutabilem. Si nescit, quaenam beata sors esse potest ignorantiae caecitate? Si scit, metuat necesse est, ne amittat, quod amitti potest non dubitat; quare continuus timor non sinit esse felicem.... quonam modo praesens uita facere beatos potest?' See the E. version, ll. 86, 56, 109.
839. 'Why hast thou made Troilus distrust me?'
853, 854. 'Danger is drawn nearer by delay.' We say, 'Delays are dangerous.' Cf. Havelok, l. 1352. abodes, abidings, tarryings.
855. Néc', with elided e, forms the first foot. 'Every thing has its time;' cf. Eccl. iii. 1.
861. farewel feldefare, (and people will say) farewell, fieldfare! Cf. Rom. Rose, 5510. In the Rom. Rose, it refers to false friends, who, when fortune frowns, say 'Go! farewell fieldfare,' i.e. Begone, we have done with you. As fieldfares come here in the winter months, people are glad to see them go, as a sign of approaching summer. In the present case, the sense appears to be that, when an opportunity is missed, the harm is done; and people will cry, 'farewell, fieldfare!' by way of derision. We might paraphrase the line by saying: 'the harm is done, and nobody cares.'
885. blewe, blue; the colour of constancy.
890. 'Hazle-bushes shake.' This is a truism known to every one, and no news at all; in like manner, your ring will tell him nothing, and is useless.
901. feffe him, enfeoff him, bestow on him. whyte, fair.
919. at pryme face, at the first glance; primâ facie.
931. At dulcarnon, at a non-plus, in extreme perplexity. Dulcarnon, as pointed out by Selden, in his Pref. to Drayton's Polyolbion, represents the Pers. and Arab. dū’lkarnayn, lit. two-horned; from Pers. dū, ​two, and karn, horn. It was a common medieval epithet of Alexander the Great, who was so called because he claimed descent from Jupiter Ammon, whose image was provided with horns like a ram. Speght rightly says that Dulcarnon was also a name for the 47th prop. of Euclid, Book I, but gives a false reason and etymology. The real reason is plain enough, viz. that the two smaller squares in the diagram stick up like two horns. And, as this proposition is somewhat difficult for beginners, it here takes the sense of 'puzzle;' hence Criseyde was at Dulcarnon, because she was in perplexity. Speght refers to Alex. Neckam, De Naturis Rerum; see Wright's edition, p. 295.
But this is not all. In l. 933, Pandarus explains that Dulcarnon is called 'fleming of wrecches.' There is a slight error here: 'fleming of wrecches,' i.e. banishment of the miserable, is a translation of Fuga miserorum, which is written opposite this line in MS. Harl. 1239; and further, Fuga miserorum is a sort of Latin translation of Eleëfuga or Eleufuga, from ἔλεος pity, and φυγή, flight. The error lies in confusing Dulcarnon, the 47th proposition, with Eleufuga, a name for the 5th proposition; a confusion due to the fact that both propositions were considered difficult. Roger Bacon, Opus Tertium, cap. 6, says: 'Quinta propositio geometricae Euclidis dicitur Elefuga, id est, fuga miserorum.' Ducange, s. v. Eleufuga, quotes from Alanus, Anticlaudiani lib. iii. cap. 6—'Huius tirones curantis [read cur artis] Eleufuga terret,' &c. The word also occurs in Richard of Bury's Philobiblon, cap. xiii, somewhat oddly translated by J.B. Inglis in 1832. 'How many scholars has the Helleflight of Euclid repelled!'
This explanation, partly due to the Rev. W.G. Clark (joint-editor of the Globe Shakespeare), was first given in the Athenæum, Sept. 23, 1871, p. 393, in an article written by myself.
934. It, i.e. Dulcarnon, or Euclid's proposition. 'It seems hard, because the wretched pupils will not learn it, owing to their very sloth or other wilful defects.'
936. This = this is; as elsewhere. fecches, vetches.
947. Understand be; 'where (I hope) good thrift may be.' Cf. 966.
978. fere, fire; as in Bk. i. 229. Usually fyre.
979. fond his contenaunce, lit. found his demeanour, i.e. composed himself as if to read.
1010. wivere, viper; O. F. wivre (F. givre), from Lat. uipera. The heraldic wiver or wyvern became a wondrous winged dragon, with two legs; wholly unlike the original viper. See Thynne's Animadversions, &c., ed. Furnivall, p. 41.
1013. 'Alas! that he, either entirely, or a slice of him.'
1021. 'That sufferest undeserved jealousy (to exist).'
1029. after that, accordingly; his, its.
1035. See note to Bk. ii. 784.
1046. ordal, ordeal, trial by ordeal, i.e. by fire or water. See Thynne's Animadversions, ed. Furnivall, p. 66.
1056. wreigh, covered; A. S. wrāh; see wrīhen in Stratmann.
​1064. shoures, assaults. Bell actually substitutes stouris, as being 'clearly the true reading.' But editors have no right to reject real words which they fail to understand. Shour sometimes means a shower of arrows or darts, an assault, &c.; cf. A.S. hildescūr, a flight of missiles. In fact, it recurs in this sense in Bk. iv. 47, where Bell again turns it into stoure, against authority.
1067. 'For it seemed to him not like (mere) strokes with a rod ... but he felt the very cramp of death.'
1106. al forgeve, all is forgiven. stint, stopped.
1154. bar him on honde, assured him.
1177. 'For a crime, there is mercy (to be had).'
1194. sucre be or soot, may be like sugar or like soot, i.e. pleasant or the reverse. We must read soot (not sote, sweet, as in Bell) because it rimes with moot. Moreover, soot was once proverbially bitter. 'Bittrore then the sote' occurs in Altenglische Dichtungen, ed. Boddeker, p. 121; and in Rutebuef's Vie Sainte Marie l'Egiptianne, ed. Jubinal, 280, we find 'plus amer que suie;' cf. Rom. Rose, 10670: 'amer Plus que n'est suie.'
1215. Cf. 'Bitter pills may have sweet effects;' Hazlitt's Proverbs.
1231. Bitrent, for bitrendeth, winds round; cf. iv. 870. wryth, for wrytheth, writhes.
1235. 'When she hears any shepherd speak.'
1249. 'And often invoked good luck upon her snowy throat.'
1257. welwilly, full of good will, propitious.
1258. Imeneus, Hymenæus, Hymen; cf. Ovid, Her. xiv. 27.
1261-4. Imitated from Dante, Parad. xxxiii. 14:—
'Che qual vuol grazie, e a te non ricorre, Sua disianza vuol volar senz' ali. La tua benignità non pur soccorre,' &c.
1282. 'Mercy prevails over (lit. surpasses) justice.'
1344. 'Or else do I dream it?'
1357. sooth, for sooth is, i.e. it is true.
1369. Bell takes scripture to mean the mottos or posies on the rings. Perhaps this is right.
1374. holt, holds; 'that holds it in despite.'
1375. 'Of the money, that he can heap up and lay hold of.' For mokren, cf. Chaucer's Boethius, Bk. ii. Pr. 5. 11. Pens, pence, is a translation of Ital. denari, money, in the Filostrato, Book iii. st. 38.
1384. the whyte, silver coins; the rede, gold coins.
1389. Myda, Midas; see Wyf of Bathes Tale, D 951.
1391. Crassus; wantonly altered to Cresus in Bell's edition, on the ground that the story is told of Croesus. But Chaucer knew better. M. Crassus, surnamed Dives (the Rich), was slain in battle against the Parthians, B. C. 53. Orodes, king of Parthia, caused molten gold to be poured into the mouth of his dead enemy, saying, 'Sate thyself now with that metal of which, in life, thou wast so greedy;' Cicero, Att. vi. 1. 14; Florus, iii. 11. 4.
​1407. 'And to counterbalance with joy their former woe'.
1415. The cock is called a common astrologer (i. e. astronomer), because he announces to all the time of day; cf. Non. Pr. Ta. B 4043; Parl. Foules, 350. Translated from 'vulgaris astrologus;' Alanus.
1417, 9. Lucifer, the morning-star, the planet Venus. Fortuna maior, the planet Jupiter. Mars and Saturn were supposed to have an evil influence; the Sun, Mercury, and Moon, had no great influence either way; whilst Jupiter and Venus had a good influence, and were therefore called, respectively, Fortuna maior and Fortuna minor. See G. Douglas, ed. Small, ii. 288. The MSS. have that anoon, (it happened) that anon; but this requires us to suppose so awkward an ellipsis that it is better to read than, answering to whan.
1428. Almena, Alcmena; a note in MS. H. has: 'Almena mater Herculis.' Alcmena was the mother of Hercules by Jupiter. Jupiter lengthened the night beyond its usual limit. Plautus has a play on the subject, called Amphitruo, as Jupiter personated Amphitryon.
1437-9. ther, wherefore; 'wherefore (I pray that) God, creator of nature, may bind thee so fast to our hemisphere,' &c. A similar construction occurs in l. 1456.
1453. bore, aperture, chink; 'for every chink lets in one of thy bright rays.' See New E. Dict.
1462. Engravers of small seals require a good light.
1464. Tytan, Titan, frequently used as synonymous with the sun; as in Ovid, Met. i. 10. Chaucer has confused him with Tithonus, the husband of Aurora, whom he denotes by dawing in l. 1466, and by morwe in l. 1469.
'Iamque, fugatura Tithoni coniuge noctem, Praeuius Aurorae Lucifer ortus erat.' Ovid, Heroid. xviii. 111.
1490. Read wer-e, in two syllables. these worldes tweyne seems to mean 'two worlds such as this.'
1495. This somewhat resembles Verg. Ecl. i. 60-4.
1502. 'Even if I had to die by torture;' as in Bk. i. 674.
1514. mo, others; see note to Cler. Ta. E 1039.
1546. 'Desire burnt him afresh, and pleasure began to arise more than at first.' Cf. the parallel line in Leg. Good Wom. 1156: 'Of which ther gan to breden swich a fyr.' Yet Bell rejects this reading as being 'not at all in Chaucer's manner,' and prefers nonsense.
1577. 'Christ forgave those who crucified him.'
1600. Cf. Æneid. vi. 550:—
'Quae rapidus flammis ambit torrentibus amnis Tartareus Phlegethon.'
1625. From Boethius, lib. ii. Pr. 4: 'Sed hoc est, quod recolentem uehementius coquit. Nam in omni aduersitate fortunae infelicissimum genus est infortunii, fuisse felicem.' Cf. Dante, Inf. v. 121; Tennyson, Locksley Hall—'That a sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering happier things.'
​1634. Cf. Rom. de la Rose, 8301-4; from Ovid, Art. Amat. ii. 13.
1642. Ne I, read N'I. rakle, behave rashly; it is plainly a verb, formed from the adj. rakel. Morris inserts ben after rakel, to the ruin of the scansion. Cf. Norweg. rakla, to ramble, totter, be unsteady (Aasen); Swed. dial. rakkla, to rove (Rietz); Icel. reka, to drive.
1649. I shal, I owe; A. S. ic sceal.
1687. comprende, comprehend; F. comprendre. This is clearly the right form. In the Sq. Ta. F 223, though the MSS. have comprehende, it is obvious that comprende is the real reading.
1703. Pirous, i. e. Pyroeis, one of the four horses that drew the chariot of the sun. The other three were Eöus, Æthon, and Phlegon; see Ovid, Met. ii. 153.
1705. 'Have taken some short cut, to spite me.'
1732. 'To the extent of a single knot.' It would not be necessary to explain this, if it were not for Bell's explanation of knot as 'gnat.'
1734. y-masked, enmeshed; cf. A. S. masc, a mesh.
1744-68. Paraphrased from Boethius, lib. ii. Met. 8; but note that the lines italicised are transposed, and represent ll. 1744-1750:
'Quòd mundus stabili fide Concordes uariat uices, Quòd pugnantia semina Foedus perpetuum tenent, Quòd Phoebus roseum diem Curru prouehit aureo, Ut quas duxerit Hesperus Phoebe noctibus imperet, Ut fluctus auidum mare Certo fine coërceat, Ne terris liceat uagis Latos tendere terminos. Hanc rerum seriem ligat, Terras ac pelagus regens, Et caelo imperitans Amor. Hic si fraena remiserit, Quidquid nunc amat inuicem, Bellum continuò geret: Et quam nunc socia fide Pulcris motibus incitant, Certent soluere machinam. Hic sancto populos quoque Iunctos foedere continet: Hic et coniugii sacrum Castis nectit amoribus: Hic fidis etiam sua Dictat iura sodalibus. O felix hominum genus, Si uestros animos Amor Quo caelum regitur, regat!'
1764. halt to-hepe, holds together, preserves in concord. Bell and Morris have the corrupt reading to kepe. To hepe, to a heap, became the adv. to-hepe, together. It occurs again in Ch. Astrolabe, Part I. § 14, and in Boethius, Bk. iv. Pr. 6. 182. Cf. 'gaderen tresor to-hepe,' Polit. Songs, ed. Wright, p. 325; 'han brought it to-hepe,' P. Ploughman's Crede, l. 727.
1766. 'That Love, by means of his power, would be pleased,' &c.
1779. In tyme of trewe, in time of truce; as in Boccaccio, Fil. iii. st. 91. Bell wrongly has Out of Troy. Morris alters trewe to trewes; but see Bk. iv. l. 1312.
1805. These are four of the seven deadly sins; see Pers. Tale.
1807. lady, i. e. Venus, called Dionaea as being daughter of Dione; Æneid. iii. 19. Cf. Homer, Il. v. 370.
​1809. The nine Muses. Helicon was a long way from Mount Parnassus; but see notes to Anelida, 15, and Ho. Fame, 521.
1817. 'As it pleases my author to relate.'
BOOK IV.
The following scheme gives some notion of the relationship of the contents of this book to the Filostrato, but Chaucer constantly expands and adds to the original, and not unfrequently transposes the order of the text.
| Troilus: Book IV. | Filostrato. |
| 1-10. | Bk. III. st. 94. |
| 29-35. | Bk. IV. st. 1. |
| 47-110. | " 2-10. |
| 127-166. | " 12-16. |
| 211-217. | " 17. |
| 218-385. | " 22, 23, 26-46. |
| 393-406. | " 47, 48. |
| 414-451. | " 49, 50. |
| 459-497. | " 52, 54, 56-58. |
| 501-787. | " 60-89, 92, 93, 88-91. |
| 799-821. | " 95, 96. |
| 848-925, 939-946. | " 98-109 (l. 1). |
| 1089-1095, 1108-1260. | " 109 (l. 4)-127. |
| 1310-1400. | " 131-136. |
| 1422-1446. | " 137-140. |
| 1464-1542, 1555-1694. | " 141-167. |
1. In the Proem, ll. 1-3 correspond to Fil. iii. st. 94, ll. 1-3; and ll. 8 and 10 to the same stanza, ll. 4 and 7. The rest is original.
3. Cf. Boethius, lib. ii. Pr. 1: 'Intelligo ... illius [Fortunae] ... cum his, quos eludere nititur, blandissimam familiaritatem.'
5. hent and blent, for hendeth and blendeth, catches and blinds.
6, 7. Cf. Boethius, lib. ii. Met. 2: 'Ultroque gemitus, dura quos fecit [Fortuna], ridet.' Whence, in Le Roman de la Rose, 8076-9, the passage which Chaucer here imitates; the mowe = F. la moe.
22. Herines i. e. Furies; used as the pl. of Erynis or Erinnys; see note to Compl. to Pite, 92. Their names (see l. 24) were Megaera, Alecto, and Tisiphone. Bell's remark, that Chaucer found these names in Boccaccio, does not seem to be founded on fact. He more likely found them in Vergil, who has Erinnys, Æn. ii. 336, 573; vii. 447, 570; Alecto, id. vii. 324, 341, 405, 415, 445, 476; Megæra, id. xii. 846; Tisiphone, vi. 571, x. 761. But I suppose that, even in Chaucer's time, MS. note-books existed, containing such information as the names of the Furies. Chaucer even knew that some (as Æschylus) considered them to be the daughters of Night.
​25. Quiryne, Quirinus. Ovid, Fasti, ii. 476, tells us that Quirinus was Romulus; and just above, ii. 419, that Romulus and Remus were sons of Mars.
29. Ligginge ... The Grekes, while the Greeks lay.
32. Hercules Lyoun, Hercules' lion, the lion of Hercules; alluding to the lion's skin which Hercules wore. Valerius Flaccus, Argonauticon, lib. i. 263, has 'Herculeo ... leoni;' and Chaucer seems to have read this author, or at any rate his first book; see Leg. of Good Women, l. 1457, and the note. However, Chaucer shews his knowledge of the story clearly enough in his tr. of Boethius, Bk. iv. Met. 7. The reference is, simply, to the sign Leo. The sun was in this sign during the latter part of July and the former part of August; but we are further told that he was in the 'breast' of Leo, and therefore near the very bright star Regulus, called in Arabic Kalbalased, or the Lion's Heart, which was situated almost on the zodiac, and (at that time) near the 20th degree of the sign. This gives the date as being the first week in August.
41. in the berd, in the beard, i. e. face to face.
47. shour, assault, attack; see note to Bk. iii. 1064.
50-4. From Boccaccio. The right names are Antenor, Polydamas, Menestheus or Mnestheus, Xanthippus, Sarpedon, Polymnestor, Polites, Riphaeus, all mentioned by Boccaccio, who probably took them from Guido delle Colonne. But Boccaccio omits 'Phebuseo,' and I do not know who is meant. Several of these names may be found in the allit. Destruction of Troy, ed. Panton and Donaldson; as Antenor and his son Polydamas, at ll. 3947, 3954; Xanthippus, king of Phrygia, l. 6107; Sarpedon, prince of Lycia, l. 5448; and in Lydgate's Siege of Troy, Bk. ii. capp. 16, 20. Polymestor, or Polymnestor, was king of the Thracian Chersonese, and an ally of the Trojans. Polites was a son of Priam (Æneid. ii. 526). Mnestheus is repeatedly mentioned in Vergil (Æn. v. 116, &c.), and is also called Menestheus (id. x. 129); he is a different person from Menestheus, king of Athens, who fought on the other side. For Riphaeus, see Verg. Aen. ii. 339. The Ital. forms are Antenorre, Polidamas, Monesteo, Santippo, Serpedon, Polinestorre, Polite, Rifeo. Observe that Monostéo, Riphéo, Phebuséo rime together, with an accent on the penultimate.
62. thassege, for the assege, the siege; Barbour has assege, siege, in his Bruce, xvii. 270, xx. 8; pl. assegis, xx. 12. MS. H. wrongly has thessage. See l. 1480 below.
64. Calkas, Calchas; see Bk. i. 66, 71.
79. This town to shende, i. e. (it will be best for you) to despoil this town.
86. resport, regard. This strange word is certified by its reappearance in l. 850, where it rimes to discomfórt. It is given in Roquefort, but only in a technical sense. It was, doubtless, formed from O. F. esport, deportment, demeanour, regard (Godefroy), by prefixing re-; and means 'demeanour towards,' or (here) simply 'regard,' as also in ​l. 850. The etymology is from Lat. re-, ex, and portare. Cf. F. rapport, from re-, ad, and portare.
96. in hir sherte, in her smock only; i.e. without much rich clothing; 'as she was.'
99. 'For because I saw no opportunity.'
112. as yerne, as briskly as possible, very soon; so in l. 201.
120-4. Laomedon, father of Priam, founded Troy. Apollo and Poseidon (Neptune) had been condemned for a while to serve him for wages. But Laomedon refused them payment, and incurred their displeasure.
133. Antenor had been taken prisoner by the Greeks; see Lydgate, Siege of Troye, Bk. iii. ch. 24. Lydgate's version is that Antenor was to be exchanged for Thoas, king of Calydon; and, at the request of Chalcas, it was arranged that Antenor should be exchanged for both Thoas and Criseyde (see l. 138); to which Priam consented.
withoute more, without further ado; cf. l. 376.
143. parlement; here Boccaccio has parlamento, i.e. a parley. Chaucer gives it the English sense.
168. 'The love of you both, where it was before unknown.'
197. From Juvenal, Sat. x. ll. 2-4:—
'pauci dignoscere possunt Vera bona atque illis multum diuersa, remota Erroris nebula.'
Cf. Dryden's translation and Dr. Johnson's poem on the Vanity of Human Wishes.
198, 9. what is to yerne, what is desirable. offence, disappointment.
203. mischaunce; because Antenor contrived the removal from Troy of the Palladium, on which the safety of the city depended. Cf. Lydgate, Siege of Troye, Bk. iv. ch. 34; or the account by Caxton, quoted in Specimens of English from 1394-1579, ed. Skeat, p. 89.
210. here and howne. The sense of this phrase is not known; but, judging by the context, it seems to mean—'thus said every one, such was the common rumour.' It has been explained as 'thus said hare and hound,' i.e. people of all sorts; but the M. E. form of hare is hare (A. S. hara), and the M. E. form of 'hound' never appears as howne, which, by the way, is evidently dissyllabic. In the absence of further evidence, guesswork is hardly profitable; but I should like to suggest that the phrase may mean 'gentle and savage.' The M. E. here, gentle, occurs in Layamon, 25867; and in Amis and Amiloun, 16 (Stratmann); from A. S. hēore. Houne answers, phonetically, to an A. S. Hūna, which may mean a Hun, a savage; cf. Ger. Hüne.
225. From Dante, Inf. iii. 112:—
'Come d'autunno si levan le foglie L'una appresso dell' altra infin che 'l ramo Rende alla terra tutte le sue spoglie.'
​239. This stanza follows Boccaccio closely; but Boccaccio, in his turn, here imitates a passage in Dante, Inf. xii. 22:—
'Qual è quel toro che si slaccia in quella C'ha ricevuto già 'l colpo mortale, Che gir non sa, ma qua e là saltella.'
251, 2. Almost repeated in the Clerk Ta. E 902, 3; see note to the latter line, and cf. Gower, Conf. Amant. ii. 14—'Right as a lives creature She semeth,' &c.
263. In MS. H., thus is glossed by 'sine causa.'
272. Accent misérie on e; 'Nella miseria;' Inf. v. 123.
279. combre-world, encumbrance of the world, a compound epithet. It is used by Hoccleve, in his lament for Chaucer, De Regim. Principum, st. 299. 'A cumber-world, yet in the world am left;' Drayton, Pastorals, Ecl. ii. 25.
286. gerful, changeable; see note to Kn. Ta. A 1536.
300. Edippe, Œdipus, king of Thebes, who put out his own eyes on finding that he had slain his father Laius and married his mother Jocasta; Statius, Theb. i. 46.
302. Rossetti thus translates Fil. iv. st. 34: 'O soul, wretched and astray, Why fliest thou not out of the most ill-fortuned body that lives? O soul brought low, part from the body, and follow Chryseis.'
305. unneste, glossed in H. by 'go out of thi nest;' correctly.
318. Read my, not the or thy; Rossetti thus translates Fil. iv. st. 36: 'O my Chryseis, O sweet bliss of the sorrowing soul which calls on thee! Who will any more give comfort to my pains?'
330. unholsom; Boccaccio has insano, Fil. iv. st. 38. 'I think it pretty clear that B. means insane in our ordinary sense for that word; but Chaucer's unholsom is no doubt founded on B.'s epithet, and is highly picturesque.'—Rossetti.
356, 7. Nearly repeated in Man of Lawes Ta. B 608, 9. See l. 882.
381. 'As certainly do I wish it were false, as I know it is true.'
392. propretee, his own indefeasible possession; see Boethius, Bk. ii. Pr. 2. 9 (p. 27), 61 (p. 28).
407. Pandarus took his morality from Ovid; cf. Amorum lib. ii. 4. 10-44: 'Centum sunt causae, cur ego semper amem;' &c.
413. heroner, a large falcon for herons; faucon for rivere, a goshawk for waterfowl. See note to Sir Thopas, B 1927.
414, 5. From Boccaccio, who does not, however, give the name of the author of the saying. The remark 'as Zanzis writeth' is Chaucer's own. It is quite clear that Zanzis in this passage is the same as the Zanzis in the Physiciens Tale, C 16; and he is no other than Zeuxis the painter. I do not suppose that Chaucer had any special reason for assigning to him the saying, but his name was as useful as that of any one else, and the medieval method of reference is frequently so casual and light-hearted that there is nothing to wonder at. Besides, we are distinctly told (l. 428) that Pandarus was speaking for the nonce, ​i.e. quite at random. The real author is Ovid: 'Successore nouo uincitur omnis amor;' Remed. Amor. 462.
460. pleyen raket, play at rackets, knocking the ball forwards and backwards; alluding to the rebound of the ball after striking the wall.
461. Netle in, dokke out means, as Chaucer says, first one thing and then another. The words are taken from a charm for curing the sting of a nettle, repeated whilst the patient rubs in the juice from a dock-leaf. The usual formula is simply, 'in dock, out nettle,' for which see Brockett's Glossary of North-Country Words, s. v. dockon (dock); but Chaucer is doubtless correct. He refers to a fuller form of words, given in Notes and Queries, 1st Ser. iii. 368:—
'Nettle in, dock out—Dock in, nettle out; Nettle in, dock out—Dock rub nettle out.'
Akermann's Glossary of Wiltshire Words gives a third formula, as follows:—
'Out 'ettle, in dock—Dock shall ha' a new smock; 'Ettle zhan't ha' narrun.'
i.e. nettle shan't have ne'er one. See also N. and Q. 1st Ser. iii. 205, 368; xi. 92; Athenæum, Sept. 12, 1846; Brand, Pop. Antiq. iii. 315.
In the Testament of Love, Bk. i., the present passage is quoted in the following form: 'Ye wete wel, lady, eke (quod I) that I haue not playde racket, nettyl in, docke out, and with the wethercocke waued;' ed. 1550, fol. cccv. col. 2. This shews that the text is correct.
462. 'Now ill luck befall her, that may care for thy wo.'
481-3. gabbestow, liest thou. Ll. 482, 3 are a reproduction of Pandarus' own saying, in Bk. iii. 1625-8.
493. Deficient in the first foot; read—'I | that liv'd' | &c.
497. formely; Cm. formaly; for formelly, i.e. formally.
503. From Boethius, Bk. i. Met. 1. 13, 14 (p. 1).
506. Troilus speaks as if dead already. 'Well wot I, whilst I lived in peace, before thou (death) didst slay me, I would have given (thee) hire;' i.e. a bribe, not to attack me.
520. alambyk, alembic; i.e. a retort, or vessel used in distilling; in Cant. Ta. G 794, MS. E. has the pl. alambikes, and most other MSS. have alembikes. The word was afterwards split up into a lembick or a limbeck; see Macb. i. 7. 67. Chaucer took this from Le Rom. de la Rose, 6406-7:—
'Je vois maintes fois que tu plores Cum alambic sus alutel.'
556. 'Then think I, this would injure her reputation.'
583. 'But if I had so ardent a love, and had thy rank.'
588. Cf. the phrase 'a nine days' wonder.' Lat. nouendiale sacrum; Livy, i. 31.
600. 'Audentes Fortuna iuuat;' Æneid. x. 284; 'Fortes Fortuna adiuuat'; Terence, Phormio, i. 4. 26.
602. 'Unhardy is unsely;' Reves Ta. A 4210.
​603. For litel, MS. H. and Thynne have lite. It makes no difference, either to the sense or the scansion.
607. for ferd, for fear (H2. for drede; Thynne, for feare). Properly for ferde, as in Ho. Fame, 950; but often shortened to for ferd. Ferde or ferd is tolerably common as a sb., but some scribes hardly understood it. Hence MSS. Cl. and H. have of-fered, i.e. greatly frightened.
618. Cf. Kn. Ta. A 1163-8; and the notes.
622. 'Boldly stake the world on casts of the dice.' Cf. Cant. Tales, B 125, C 653, and the notes.
627. Nearly repeated in Kn. Tale, A 1010.
630. 'The devil help him that cares about it.'
659-61. From Boccaccio, Fil. iv. st. 78; cf. Æneid. iv. 188.
683. 'And expected to please her.' For pitous Ioye represents 'pietosa allegrezza,' Fil. iv. st. 80.
684. 'Dear enough at a mite;' cf. note to L. G. Wom. 741.
692. on every syde; 'd'ogni partito;' Fil. iv. 81. I suppose it means, literally, 'on every side;' Troy being subject to attacks at various points.
708-14. Certainly genuine; found also in Fil. iv. 84.
716. Deficient in the first foot.
735. Dr. Furnivall says that MSS. Cl., H., and others have here misplaced a stanza, meaning that ll. 750-6 should have come next, as shewn by Boccaccio's text. But only MS. Cm. has such an order, and it is quite certain that the other MSS. are right. The order in Boccaccio's text furnishes no real guide, as Chaucer often transposes such order; and it is odd that only this one instance should have been noted. It is better to consider the order in MS. Cm. as wrong, and to say that it transposes the text by placing ll. 750-6 after l. 735, and gives a somewhat different version of ll. 750-2.
736. ounded, waved, wavy; see Ho. Fame, 1386, and note. Cf. 'Tear my bright hair,' &c.; Shak. Troilus, iv. 2. 112.
750. Cf. note to l. 735. MS. Cm., which inserts this stanza after l. 735, begins thus:—
'The salte teris from hyre eyȝyn tweyn Out ran, as schour of Aprille ful swythe; Hyre white brest sche bet, and for the peyne,' &c.
762. This line, giving the name of Criseyde's mother, is not in Boccaccio (Fil. iv. stt. 89-93). I do not know where Chaucer found the form Argyve; in Statius, Theb. ii. 297, Argia is the name of the wife of Polynices, and Ch. calls her Argyve; see Bk. v. l. 1509 below.
769, 70. by-word, proverb: 'plants without a root soon die.'
782. ordre, order. She will pass her life in mourning and abstinence, as if she had entered a religious order.
790. Elysos, Elysium. It looks as if Chaucer was thinking of Vergil's 'Elysios ... campos;' Georg. i. 38; for the story of Orpheus and Eurydice occurs in Georg. iv. 453-527. Cf. Ovid, Met. x. 1-85.
​829. cause causinge, the primary cause. 'Causa causans, a primary or original cause; causa causata, a secondary or intermediate cause;' New E. Dict., s. v. Causa.
831. Wher, short for whether; as in Cant. Ta. B 3119, &c.
836. 'Extrema gaudii luctus occupat;' Prov. xiv. 13. See note to Man of Lawes Ta. B 421.
842. The first foot is deficient: 'Peyn | e tor | ment,' &c.
843. 'There is no misery that is not within my body.'
850. resport, regard; see note to l. 86 above.
865. Compare the similar lines in Kn. Ta. A 1400, 1.
866. men, weakened form of man, takes a sing. verb.
870. Bi-trent, winds round; see note to iii. 1231.
884. into litel, within a little, very nearly.
887. fawe, gladly; cf. Cant. Ta. D 220.
907. bane, destruction; see Kn. Ta. A 1097, 1681.
927. 'Be to him rather a cause of the flat than of the edge,' i.e. of healing rather than of harming. A curious allusion which is fully explained by reference to the Squieres Tale, F 156-165. See also note to the same, F 238.
947-1085. This passage is not in Boccaccio, but some of it is in Boethius; see below.
963-1078. A considerable portion of this passage is copied, more or less closely, from Boethius, lib. v. Pr. 2 and Pr. 3. The correspondences are all pointed out below. Chaucer's own prose translation should be compared. For example, the word wrythen (l. 986) appears in that also (Bk. v. Pr. 3. 15).
963-6. 'Quae tamen ille, ab aeterno cuncta prospiciens, prouidentiae cernit intuitus, et suis quaeque meritis praedestinata disponit;' Boeth. v. Pr. 2 (end).
968. grete clerkes; such as Boethius, Saint Augustine, and bishop Bradwardine; see Non. Pr. Ta. B 4431, 2.
974-80. 'Nam si cuncta prospicit Deus, neque falli ullo modo potest, euenire necesse est, quod prouidentia futurum esse praeuiderit. Quare si ab aeterno non facta hominum modo, sed etiam consilia uoluntatesque praenoscit, nulla erit arbitrii libertas;' Boeth. v. Pr. 3. 981-7 (continued): 'neque enim uel factum aliud ullum, uel quaelibet existere poterit uoluntas, nisi quam nescia falli prouidentia diuina praesenserit. Nam si res aliorsum, quam prouisae sunt, detorqueri ualent, non iam erit futuri firma praescientia.' 988-994 (continued): 'sed opinio potius incerta: quod de Deo credere nefas iudico.'
996. I.e. who have received the tonsure.
997-1001. 'Aiunt enim, non ideo quid esse euenturum, quoniam id prouidentia futurum esse prospexerit: sed è contrario potius, quoniam quid futurum est, id diuinam prouidentiam latere non posse;' Boeth. v. Pr. 3. 1002-1008 (continued): 'eoque modo necessarium hoc in contrariam relabi partem. Neque enim necesse est contingere, quae prouidentur; sed necesse esse, quae futura sunt, prouideri.' 1009-1015 ​(continued): 'Quasi uero, quae cuiusque rei caussa sit, praescientiane futurorum necessitatis, an futurorum necessitas prouidentiae, laboretur.' 1016-1022 (continued): 'At nos illud demonstrare nitamur, quoquo modo sese habeat ordo caussarum, necessarium esse euentum praescitarum rerum, etiam si praescientia futuris rebus eueniendi necessitatem non uideatur inferre.'
(The negative in l. 1016 is remarkable, but Chaucer's prose rendering presents the same form. Surely he has taken nitamur as if it were uitamus.)
1023-9. (continued): 'Etenim si quispiam sedeat, opinionem quae eum sedere coniectat ueram esse necesse est: atque è conuerso rursus, (1030-6) si de quopiam uera sit opinio, quoniam sedet, eum sedere necesse est. In utroque igitur necessitas inest: in hoc quidem sedendi, at uerò in altero ueritatis.' 1037-1047 (continued): 'Sed non idcirco quisque sedet, quoniam uera est opinio; sed haec potius uera est, quoniam quempiam sedere praecessit. Ita cùm caussa ueritatis ex altera parte procedat, inest tamen communis in utraque necessitas. Similia de prouidentia futurisque rebus ratiocinari patet.' 1051-78 (continued): 'Nam etiam si idcirco, quoniam futura sunt, prouidentur; non uero ideo, quoniam prouidentur eueniunt: nihilo minus tamen à Deo uel uentura prouideri, uel prouisa euenire necesse est: quod ad perimendam arbitrii libertatem solùm satis est. Iam uero quam praeposterum est, ut aeternae praescientiae temporalium rerum euentus caussa esse dicatur? Quid est autem aliud arbitrari, ideo Deum futura, quoniam sunt euentura, prouidere, quam putare quae olim acciderunt, caussam summae illius esse prouidentiae? Ad haec, sicuti cum quid esse scio, id ipsum esse necesse est: ita cum quid futurum noui, id ipsum futurum necesse est. Sic fit igitur, ut euentus praescitae rei nequeat euitari.'
1094. ferd, fared; not the pp. of faren (l. 1087), but of the weak verb feren (A. S. fēran). The correct pp. of faren is faren. See Stratmann.
1105. 'A man may offer his neck soon enough when it (i. e. his head) must come off.'
1136. 'Beyond the nature of tears.'
1139. Myrrha, daughter of Cinyras, king of Cyprus, who was changed into a myrrh-tree; Ovid, Met. x. 298. The tree wept tears of myrrh; id. x. 500.
1146. hir-e (MS. Cl. here), their, is here dissyllabic. unswelle, cease to swell, as in Bk. v. 214.
1147. 'All hoarse, and exhausted with shrieking.' forshright is the pp. of forshriken, to shriek excessively. Bell wrongly has for shright; but shright is not a noun. The Ital. has 'con rotta voce,' with broken voice; Fil. iv. st. 116.
1153. 'Being always on the point of departing.'
1162. 'Whether it was sad for him.'
1174. Cf. 'And bisily gan,' &c.; Prol. A 301.
​1179. preignant (F. preignant, pregnant, Cotgrave), catching hold of tightly, hence, forcible; pres. part. of prendre, to seize. Quite distinct from pregnant when representing Lat. praegnans.
1181. woon, hope, resource. This answers to Early E. wān (see Stratmann), and is allied to Icel. ván, hope, expectation; cf. Icel. væna, to hope for, to ween. The word is monosyllabic, and the long o is 'open,' as shewn by its riming with noon, goon, from A. S. nān, gān. Bell quite fails to explain it, and Morris suggests 'remedy,' without assigning any reason. It is common in Rob. of Gloucester, with similar rimes, and does not mean 'custom' or 'habit' or 'manner,' as suggested in Mr. Wright's Glossary, nor has it any connection with M. E. wone, custom, which was dissyllabic, and had a short vowel in the former syllable; but it means, as here, 'hope' or 'resource.' For example: 'tho he ne sey other won' = when he saw nothing else to be done; Rob. Glouc. ed. Hearne, p. 12; ed. Wright, l. 275. 'And flowe in-to hor castles, vor hii nadde other won,' i. e. no other resource; id. p. 19, ed. Hearne, l. 442. This is one of the rather numerous words in Chaucer that have not been rightly understood.
1185. twighte, plucked; pt. t. of twicchen.
1188. 'Where the doom of Minos would assign it a place.' Boccaccio here uses the word inferno (Fil. iv. 120) to denote the place where Troilus' soul would dwell; which Rossetti explains to mean simply Hades. Chaucer's meaning is the same; he is referring to Æneid. vi. 431-3.
1208. Atropos is the Fate who cuts the thread of life; see note to v. 7.
1237. a forlong wey, two minutes and a half, to speak exactly; see note to C. T., A 3637.
1241. Either slayn is here expanded into slayen, or the pause after this word does duty for a syllable, in the scansion.
1242. ho, stop, cease; see Kn. Ta. A 1706.
1244. ther-e is here made into a dissyllable.
1245. morter, mortar. The Century Dict. quotes from Dugdale's Hist. of St. Paul's (ed. Ellis), p. 27: 'A mortar was a wide bowl of iron or metal; it rested upon a stand or branch, and was filled either with fine oil or wax, which was kept burning by means of a broad wick [at funerals or on tombs].' It was named from its similarity in shape to the mortar in which things were pounded. I remember the word in common use; it came to denote what is now called a night-light, and the word night-light seems to have nearly displaced it. In this modern contrivance, the old 'mortar' is sometimes represented by a paper casing. The term was frequently applied, not merely to the saucer which held the grease, but to the light itself, which sometimes took the shape of a short candle. Cotgrave explains F. mortier as 'a kind of small chamber-lamp.' Instead of morter, MS. Cm. has percher, which meant a kind of wax candle placed upon a branch or bar called a perche (perch).
1295. 'About that (there) is no question.' Cf. l. 1694.
​1374. wether, sheep. I. e. it is advisable to give the wolf a limb of a sheep, in order to save the rest.
1377. grave, incise, make an impression upon.
1380. moble (H., H2. moeble), movable property; cf. F. meubles.
1404. 'Whilst he is making his divination; and I will make him believe.' Ll. 1401-14 are due to a passage in Guido; see allit. Destruction of Troy, 8101-40.
1406. amphibologyes, ambiguities. A more correct form is amphiboly, from Gk. ἀμφιβολία; see New E. Dict. The ambiguous character of the old oracular responses is well known.
1411. 'When he started away from Delphi for fear.' Cf. l. 607.
1422. See note to Book i. 463.
1425. the selve wit, the same opinion.
1435. clere, clear of woe, free, light. MS. H. has chere.
1453. 'The bear has one opinion, and his leader another.'
1456. Repeated in Kn. Ta. A 2449; see note.
1459. 'With eyes like Argus;' i. e. seeing everywhere. Argus had a hundred eyes; Ovid, Met. i. 625.
1483. fere, frighten, terrify; as in Bk. ii. 124.
1505. 'To lose the substance, for the sake of something accidentally representing it;' as when the dog dropped the piece of meat, in his anxiety to get the shadow (or reflected image) of it. As to the famous words substance and accident, see note to Pard. Ta. C 539.
1525. go we, let us go; also written gowe, P. Plowm. B. Pr. 226.
1538-40. Juno caused Athamas, the husband of Ino, to run mad. As Ovid tells the story, Juno descended into hell, and crossed the Styx, in order to persuade the fury Tisiphone to haunt Athamas. Hence the mention of the Styx was readily suggested. See Ovid, Met. iv. 416-561, esp. l. 434. Styx was not, as Chaucer says, 'the pit of hell,' but a river that flowed through it.
1544. Satiry and Fauny, Satyri and Fauni, Satyrs and Fauns. Chaucer was probably thinking of Ovid, Met. vi. 392-4, where the Fauni, Satyri, and Nymphae are described as 'ruricolae, siluarum numina.' For halve goddes, we now say demigods.
1548. Simois, a river of Troas; Æneid. i. 100.
1560. laye, would lie; subj. The e is elided.
1562. take, take place, be made. Thynne has be take, but be clogs the line, and is not in the MSS.
1584. 'Vincit qui patitur;' see Frank. Ta. F 773.
1585. 'He who will have what he wants must give up what he likes.' Such seems to be the sense intended. Leef means 'dear.' One of Heywood's proverbs is—'Nought lay down, nought take up;' and very similar to this is—'Nothing venture, nothing have.' For the second leef, MS. H. has lyfe, a reading adopted by Bell and Morris. This takes all point out of the saying, and does not seem applicable to the case. Ll. 1587 and 1588 repeat the saying in another form, and confirm the reading in the text. Cf. Boeth. Bk. ii. Pr. 4. 98.
​1591, 2. Lucina, i. e. Diana, or the moon; cf. Kn. Ta. A 2085. 'Before the moon pass out of the sign of Aries beyond that of Leo.' In order to this, the moon would have to pass wholly through Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, and Leo, thus traversing a distance represented by about 4 signs, or a third part of the whole zodiac: this would take up about the third part of 28 days, or more than 9 days. This brings us, as Criseyde says, to the 10th day (l. 1595). Such a method of counting is natural enough to those that watch the moon's course; and lovers are generally credited with taking a special interest in that luminary; cf. l. 1608. In the sequel, a good deal turns upon this 'tenth day.' Cf. ll. 1320, 1328, 1685; V. 239, 642, 681, 1103, 1206.
1608. Cynthia, i. e. Diana, the moon; Ovid, Met. ii. 465.
1612. 'To lose one opportunity, in order to gain another.'
1620. pure, very; as in Kn. Ta. A 1279.
1628. 'Who can hold a thing that tries to get away?'
'An eel and woman, A learned poet says, unless by th' tail And with thy teeth thou hold, will either fail.' The Two Noble Kinsmen, A. iii. sc. 5. l. 49.
1645. 'Res est solliciti plena timoris amor;' Ovid, Her. i. 12.
1667-73. In Boccaccio, a stanza of a similar character is assigned to Troilus, not to Criseyde.
1677. poeplish; Boccaccio (Fil. iv. st. 165) has popolesco, which Rossetti translates by 'low-bred.' Florio's Ital. Dict. has: 'popolesco, popular, of the common people.'
1682. fórtun-è is trisyllabic.
BOOK V.
The following sketch gives a general notion of the relation of this Book to the Filostrato, though Chaucer often amplifies and transposes the material in a way that it would be tedious to particularise more minutely.
| Troilus: Book V. | Filostrato. |
| ll. 1-7. | [Teseide, Bk. ix. st. 1.] |
| 8-14. | [Teseide, Bk. ii. st. 1.] |
| 15-91. | [Teseide, Bk. v. st. 1-13. |
| 190-266. | Teseide, Bk."v. 14-21, 24-28. |
| 280-295. | Teseide, Bk."v. 22. |
| 323-336, 351-372. | Teseide, Bk."v. 29-32. |
| 386-686. | Teseide, Bk."v. 33-38, 40-62, 67-71. |
| 687-693. | [Teseide, Bk. vi. 1 (ll. 1-3), 6. |
| 708-777. | Teseide, Bk."vi. 1 (l. 4)-8. |
| ​785-798, 820. | Teseide, Bk."vi. 10, 11. |
| 799-805, 817. | Teseide, Bk."vi. 33; Bk. i. 28 (l. 8). |
| 841-1001. | Teseide, Bk."vi. 9, 11-31. |
| 1100-1274. | [Teseide, Bk. vii. 1-33. |
| 1275-1309. | Teseide, Bk. "ii. 37, 40-43, 48-50. |
| 1310-1327. | Teseide, Bk. "ii. 51, 52. |
| 1335, 1336. | Teseide, Bk. "ii. 74 (ll. 7, 8). |
| 1338-1421. | Teseide, Bk. "ii. 53-75. |
| 1422-1444. | Teseide, Bk. "ii. 76, 105, 77, 76. |
| 1450-1456. | Teseide, Bk. "ii. 84, 26. |
| 1513-1521. | Teseide, Bk. "ii. 27, 90. |
| 1523-1554. | Teseide, Bk. "ii. 100-102, 104, 106. |
| 1555-1589. | [Teseide, Bk. viii. 1-5. |
| 1632-1701. | Teseide, Bk. "iii. 6-15. |
| 1702-1768. | Teseide, Bk. "iii. 21, 17, 19-26. |
| 1800-1806. | Teseide, Bk. "iii. 27. |
| 1807-1827. | [Teseide, Bk. xi. 1-3.] |
| 1828-1841. | Teseide, Bk. "i. 28, 29. |
| 1863-1865. | [Dante, Par. xiv. 28-30.] |
3. Parcas, Fates; the accusative case, as usual.
7. Lachesis, the Fate that apportions the thread of life; often represented with the spindle, though this is properly the attribute of Clotho alone. Clotho spins, Lachesis apportions, and Atropos cuts, the thread of life. Atropos has been mentioned above; Bk. iv. 1208, 1546. Statius mentions all three in lib. iii. of his Thebaid; Clotho at l. 556, Lachesis (Lachesim putri uacuantem saecula penso) at l. 642, and Atropos at l. 68.
8. For golden tressed, MS. Harl. 3943 has Auricomus tressed (!). Cf. 'Sol auricomus, cingentibus Horis;' Valerius Flaccus, Argonaut. iv. 92.
12, 13. sone of Hecuba, Troilus; hir, Criseyde.
15-9. Note that ll. 15, 17 rime on -éde, with close e, but ll. 16, 18, 19 rime on -ède, with open e. Cf. Anelida, 299-307.
22-6. Lines 22, 24 rime on -ōre, with long close o; ll. 23, 25, 26 on -ŏre, with (original) short open o.
25. crop, shoot, upper part of a tree. more, root, still in use in Hants; A. S. more, moru; see P. Plowman, B. xvi. 5, C. xviii. 21.
53. 'Upon the report of such behaviour of his.'
65. So in Boccaccio: 'Con un falcone in pugno;' Fil. v. st. 10.
67. A mistranslation. Boccaccio's word is not valle, a valley, but vallo, a rampart. The first foot lacks a syllable.
71. Antenor was the Trojan, captured by the Greeks, who was restored to Troy in exchange for Thoas and Criseyde.
88. sone of Tydeus, i. e. Diomede, often called Tydides; as in Æneid. i. 97, 471, &c.
89. To know one's creed is very elementary knowledge.
90. by the reyne hir hente; Rossetti thinks Chaucer misunderstood ​di colei si piglia (Fil. v. 13), which might mean 'takes hold of her,' but really means 'takes a fancy to her.'
98. This resembles 'to take care of No. 1.'
101. make it tough, raise a difficulty, viz. by disparaging Troilus.
106. coude his good, knew what was good for him, knew what he was about. Bell says—'understood good manners.'
128. helply; we now say 'helpful,' i.e. serviceable. to my might, to the best of my power.
143. O god of love, one and the same god of love.
151. this, contracted form of this is. enseled, sealed up.
158. As paramours, as by way of love. Cf. l. 332.
180. See below (l. 530), and Man of Lawes Ta. B 697. We can read either brast (burst), or braste (would burst).
182. sye, to sink down; A. S. sīgan; see siȝen in Stratmann.
194. mewet, mute; as in the Court of Love, 148. Mewet, muwet, or muet is from the O. F. muët, orig. dissyllabic, and answering to a Low Lat. diminutive type *mutettum. The E. word is now obsolete, being displaced by the simple form mute, borrowed directly from Lat. mutus, which in O. F. became mu. Mute is common in Shakespeare. Lydgate has: 'And also clos and muët as a stone;' Siege of Thebes, pt. iii. § 8. In Merlin, ed. Wheatley, p. 172, we find 'stille and mewet as though thei hadde be dombe.'
The -e in mild-e is not elided; the A. S. milde is dissyllabic.
208. Cipryde, i.e. Cypris, or Venus; see note to Parl. Foules, 277.
212. The -ie in furie is rapidly slurred over. Ixion is accented on the first syllable. Ixion was bound, in hell, to an ever-revolving wheel; Georg. iii. 38; Æn. vi. 601.
249. as mete, as (for instance) dream; see l. 251.
283. 'Although he had sworn (to do so) on forfeit of his head.'
304. pálestrál, i.e. games consisting of wrestling-matches and similar contests; from Lat. palaestra; see Verg. Æn. iii. 280, 281; and G. Douglas, ed. Small, vol. iii. p. 52, l. 24. There is a description of such games, held at a funeral, in Statius, Theb. vi., which is imitated by Chaucer in the Knightes Tale; see note to A 2863. Vigile (l. 305) is the same as Chaucer's liche-wake; see note to A 2958.
306. He means that his steed, sword, and helm are to be offered up to Mars, and his shield to Pallas, at his funeral; cf. Kn. Ta. A 2889-2894.
319. Ascaphilo, a transposed form of Ascalaphus, whom Proserpine changed into an owl; Ovid, Met. v. 539. So also Adriane for Ariadne. Bell's note, that the form of Ascaphilo is Italian, and helps to prove that Chaucer here follows Boccaccio is misleading; for Boccaccio does not mention Ascalaphus.
321. Mercury was supposed to convey men's souls to Hades. See l. 1827 below, and note.
332. paramours, passionately; an adverb, as usual; cf. l. 158.
345. By freendes might, by constraint of their relatives.
​350. hurt, for hurteth, hurts; present tense.
360. On dreams, cf. Non. Pr. Ta. B 4113-4129, 4280-4.
365-8. From Le Rom. de la Rose, 18709-12, q. v.
379. Lit. 'Well is it, concerning dreams, to these old wives;' i.e. these old women set a value on dreams.
387. Boccaccio has: 'a te stesso perdona,' i.e. spare thyself; Chaucer takes it literally—'forgive thyself.'
403. Sarpedon had been taken prisoner by the Greeks (iv. 52). Neither Boccaccio nor Chaucer explains how he had got back to Troy. See l. 431.
409. iouken, slumber; cf. P. Plowman, C. xix. 126. It was chiefly used as a term in falconry, and applied to hawks. In the Boke of St. Albans, fol. a 6, we are told that it is proper to say that 'your hauke Ioukith, and not slepith.' From O. F. joquier, jouquier; see Godefroy.
421. of fyne force, by very necessity.
451. I read 'piëtous,' as in MS. H., not 'pitous,' for the sake of the metre, as in Bk. iii. 1444; cf. pietee, id. 1033. Perhaps Chaucer was thinking of the Ital. pietoso. We also find the spelling pitevous, for which form there is sufficient authority; see Wyclif, 2 Tim. iii. 12, Titus ii. 12; Rob. of Glouc. ed. Wright, 5884 (footnote); cf. Mod. E. piteous. Chaucer's usual word is pitous, as in Cant. Ta. B 449, 1059, C 298, &c.
460. For, because; as frequently.
469. 'Fortune intended to glaze his hood still better.' To 'glaze one's hood' was to furnish a man with a glass hood, a jocular phrase for to mock or expose to attack; because a glass hood would be no defence at all. Chaucer himself admirably illustrates this saying in a passage which has already occurred above; see Bk. ii. 867.
478. her-e is dissyllabic; as in Ho. Fame, 980, 1014, 1885, 1912, &c.
479. congeyen us, bid us take leave, dismiss us.
484. 'Did we come here to fetch light for a fire, and run home again?' A man who borrows a light must hurry back before it goes out.
505. Hasel-wode, hazel-wood; an allusion to a popular saying, expressive of incredulity. See note to l. 1174 below. Not the same proverb as that in Bk. iii. 890.
541. 'O house, formerly called the best of houses.' Bell and Morris place the comma after houses.
552. As to kissing the door, see note to Rom. Rose, 2676.
601. Referring, probably, to Statius, Theb. i. 12—'Quod saeuae Iunonis opus.' But this refers to the wrath of Juno against Athamas rather than against Thebes.
642. 'Wherefore, if, on the tenth night, I fail (to have) the guiding of thy bright beams for a single hour,' &c.
655. Here Thynne's reading, Lucina, is obviously correct; see Bk. iv. 1591. By the common mistake of writing t for c, it became Lutina, and was then changed into Latona. But Latona was Lucina's mother.
664. Pheton, Phaethon; alluding to Ovid, Met. ii. 34, 47, &c.
​744. Prudence is here represented with three eyes, to behold present, past, and future; but Creseyde had but two eyes, and failed to see what was to come. Cf. 'rerum fato Prudentia maior;' Georg. i. 416.
763. 'I call it felicity when I have what satisfies me;' cf. the parallel passage in Prol. A 338; and Boeth. Bk. iii. Pr. 2. 6-8.
769. knotteles; 'like a thread in which there is no knot.'
784. 'Nothing venture, nothing have.'
805. In Lydgate's Siege of Troye, we are told that Diomede brought 80 ships with him 'fro Calidonye and Arge;' Bk. ii. ch. 16, in the catalogue of the ships. The English alliterative Romance omits this passage. Arge is the town of Argos, ruled over by Diomede; Homer, Il. ii. 559. Calidoine is Calydon, in Ætolia, of which city Tydeus, father of Diomede, was king; see l. 934, and ll. 1513-5 below.
806. This description seems to be mainly Chaucer's own. It occurs again, much amplified, in Lydgate's Siege of Troy, Bk. ii. ch. 15, where it precedes the description of Priam. Boccaccio says that she had 'lucent eyes and an angelic face' (Fil. i. st. 28), with which cf. l. 816. He also describes her as 'Accorta, savia, onesta, e costumata,' which Rossetti translates by 'Discerning, wise, honourable, and high-bred' (Fil. i. 11); cf. ll. 820, 821.
827. Troilus is described by Guido delle Colonne; see the translations, in the alliterative Destruction of Troy, ed. Panton and Donaldson, l. 3922, and in Lydgate's Siege of Troye, Bk. ii. ch. 16.
836. Troilus was second to Hector in prowess (Bk. ii. 158, 644), but not in courage (Bk. i. 474).
837. durring don, daring to do, courage; where durring is a sb. formed from durren, to dare. So in l. 840, to durre don is 'to dare to do.' It is quite a mistake to regard durring don as a compound word, as is usually done by such as are ignorant of Middle English grammar. Spenser borrowed the phrase, but may have misunderstood it. In the Globe edition of Spenser, derring-doe occurs with a hyphen, in Shep. Kal. Oct. l. 65, but as two words, in F. Q. ii. 4. 42, vi. 5. 37. In F. Q. ii. 7. 10, we find 'in der-doing armes,' which I leave to be explained by the omniscient critic.
852. See the parallel line, Squi. Ta. F 294; cf. Bk. iii. 674.
883. as who seyth, so to speak.
892. Manes, the departed spirits or shades of the dead. He means that even these will dread the Greeks. The idea that they are the 'gods of pain' is taken from Vergil, Æn. vi. 743; cf. Statius, Theb. viii. 84. Boccaccio merely has 'tra' morti in inferno'; Fil. vi. st. 16.
897. ambages, ambiguities; adapted from Boccaccio's 'ambage' (Fil. vi. st. 17), which Ch. has to explain.
911-938. These lines are fairly close to the original.
934. See note above, to l. 805. B. has: 'Di Calidonia e d' Argo;' Fil. vi. st. 24.
937. Tydeus, father of Diomede, is one of the chief heroes in the Thebaid of Statius, which describes the struggle between Eteocles and ​Polynices (called Polymites in l. 938) for the possession of Thebes. Tydeus and Polynices married sisters, the daughters of Adrastus, king of Argos; hence their alliance. For the death of Tydeus in battle, see the conclusion of Book viii of the Thebaid. See ll. 1480-1501 below.
971. Orcades, the Orkney islands, very remote from Rome; Juvenal, Sat. ii. 161. Inde, India, remote from Rome in the other direction; Vergil, Æn. vi. 794. Here the point of view is transferred from Rome to Troy.
975. She was a widow; Bk. i. 97. In l. 977, she lies boldly.
992. 'When I see what I have never seen yet (viz. Troy taken), perhaps I will do what I have never yet done (i. e. think of a second husband).'
1013. This incident is not in Boccaccio; but it occurs in Guido delle Colonne, which Chaucer must therefore have consulted. The alliterative Destruction of Troy duly records the circumstance, ll. 8092-4:—
'A gloue of that gay gate he belyue, Drogh hit full dernly the damsell fro; None seond but hir-selfe, that suffert full well.'
1016. I. e. Venus was seen as 'the evening-star.'
1018, 9. Cynthea, i. e. the moon; Bk. iv. 1608. In Bk. iv. l. 1591, Criseyde had promised to return before the moon passed out of the sign Leo. This was now on the point of happening; the moon was leaving Leo, to pass into Virgo.
1020. Signifer, the 'sign-bearer,' the zodiac. 'This forseide hevenish zodiak is cleped the cercle of the signes;' Astrolabe, pt. i. § 21. The zodiac extended, north and south, to the breadth of 6 degrees on both sides of the ecliptic line, thus forming a belt 12 degrees wide. This included numerous bright stars, such as Regulus (α Leonis) and Spica Virginis (α Virginis), here called 'candles.' Chaucer may have found the word Signifer in Claudian, In Rufinum, i. 365.
1039. he wan, he took in battle. Thynne reads she; but he is right. Diomede got possession of Troilus' horse, and sent it to Criseyde; whereupon she said that Diomede might keep it for himself. Note that Chaucer refers us to 'the story' for this incident; by which he means the Historia Troiana of Guido. But Guido only goes as far as to say that Diomed sent Troilus' horse to Criseyde; the rest is Chaucer's addition. See the allit. Destruction of Troy, ll. 8296-8317; and Lydgate's Siege of Troye, Bk. iii. ch. 26, ed. 1557, fol. R 4, back. Cf. Shak. Troilus, v. 5. 1: 'Dio. Go, go, my servant, take thou Troilus' horse, Present the fair steed to my lady Cressid.' The incidents of the 'broche' and 'pensel' are Chaucer's own; see Bk. iii. 1370-2.
1043. pencel, short for penoncel, a little pennon or banner; here it means that Diomede wore a sleeve of hers as a streamer on his helmet or arm. This was a common custom; cf. Shak. Troil. v. 2. 69, 169. 'Pensell, a lytel baner;' Palsgrave; and see P. Plowm. C. xix. 189.
​1044. the stories elles-wher, i.e. in another part of Guido's Historia, viz. in Book xxv; see the allit. Destruct. of Troy, ll. 9942-9959, and Lydgate's Siege of Troye, Bk. iv. ch. 30, ed. 1557, fol. U 4.
1051. I cannot find this in Guido.
1062. 'My bell shall be rung;' my story shall be told.
1104. I.e. 'on the morrow of which.'
1107. Cf. 'laurigero ... Phoebo'; Ovid, Art. Am. iii. 389.
1110. 'Nisus' daughter,' i.e. Scylla, changed into the bird ciris, which some explain as a lark; see Leg. Good Wom. 1908, and note; Ovid, Met. viii. 9-151; Vergil, Georg. i. 404-9.
1114. noon, noon, mid-day; the time for dinner (see l. 1129, and Cant. Ta. E 1893). See my note to Piers Plowm. C. ix. 146.
1133. cape, gape; see Miller's Tale, A 3444, 3841 (footnotes).
1140, 1. yate, i.e. port-cullis. As nought ne were, as if there were no special reason for it. I.e. I will make them do it, without telling them why.
1151. Deficient in the first foot; hardly a good line.
1155. 'Think it not tedious to (have to) wait.'
1162. fare-cart, cart for provisions; cf. our phrase 'to enjoy good fare.' It might mean 'travelling-car,' but that is inapplicable. B. has simply 'carro;' Fil. vii. 8.
1163-9. Cf. Romeo's speech in Rom. v. 1. 1-11.
1174. 'The happiness which you expect will come out of the wood,' i.e. if it comes at all. A jocular form of expressing unlikelihood. There is evidently a reference to some popular song or saying; compare the Jeu de Robin in Toynbee's Specimens of Old French, p. 224. In the Rom. of the Rose, 7455, we have an allusion to a 'ioly Robin,' who was a gay dancer and a minstrel, and the exact opposite of a Jacobin friar. Shakespeare's clown in Twelfth Night (iv. 2. 78) sings of a 'jolly Robin' whose lady 'loves another.' And Ophelia sang 'bonny sweet Robin is all my joy;' Haml. iv. 5. 187.
1176. Another proverbial saying, ferne yere, last year; see fern, fürn, in Stratmann, and cf. A. S. fyrngēarum frōd, wise with the experience of past years, Phœnix, 219. Last year's snow will not be seen again.
1190. He persuades himself that the moon is to pass well beyond the end of the sign Leo; thus allowing another day.
1222. by potente, with a stick, or staff with a spiked end and crutch-like top; cf. Somp. Ta. D 1776. A potent, in heraldry, is a figure resembling the top of a crutch, consisting of a rectangle laid horizontally above a small square. See Rom. of the Rose, 368.
1274. 'Whereas I daily destroy myself by living.'
1313. rolleth, revolves; see Pard. Ta. C 838; Somn. Ta. D 2217.
1335. 'And for that which is defaced, ye may blame the tears.'
1354. 'I sigh with sorrowful sighs.' MS. Cm. has sikis I sike.
1368. 'I can only say that, being a receptacle for every sorrow, I was still alive.' cheste, box; like that of Pandora.
1372. 'Until I see the contents of your reply.'
​1431. 'Bottomless promises;' i. e. that held nothing.
1433. See the parallel line, Kn. Ta. A 1838, and note.
1450. Sibille, the Sibyl, the prophetess; not here a proper name, but an epithet of Cassandra. Cf. Æneid. vi. 98.
1464. (Ll. 1457-1512 are not in Boccaccio.) The story of Meleager and the Calydonian boar-hunt is told at length in Ovid, Met. viii. 271, &c.; whence Chaucer doubtless took it; cf. l. 1469 with Met. viii. 282. The 'mayde,' in l. 1473, was Atalanta.
1480. Chaucer seems to be mistaken here. Tydeus, according to one account, was Meleager's brother; and, according to another, his half-brother. He does not tell us to what 'olde bokes' he refers.
1483. moder; his mother Althaea; see Ovid, Met. viii. 445.
Latin Lines: Argument of the 12 books of the Thebaid of Statius. These lines are placed, in the MSS., after l. 1498, interrupting the connection. I therefore insert them after l. 1484, which is certainly their proper place. Ll. 1485-1510 give a loose rendering of them. I subjoin an epitome, in a more intelligible form; but suppress many details not mentioned in Chaucer.
Book I. Polynices and Tydeus meet, and become allies.
II. Tydeus sets out on an embassy to Eteocles at Thebes, and escapes an ambush by the way (ll. 1485-1491). He spares Mæon, one of his 50 assailants, and sends him to Thebes with the news, whilst he himself returns to Argos instead of proceeding to Thebes (1492-3).
III. Maeon (also called Haemonides, as being the son of Haemon, Bk. iii. l. 42) returns to Thebes, and relates how Tydeus had slain 49 men out of 50. At Argos, Amphiaraus, the augur, had concealed himself, hoping to delay the war against Thebes, which he prophesied would be disastrous; but Capaneus forces him from his retirement, and war is resolved upon (1494).
IV. The seven chiefs set out against Thebes. The army suffers from thirst, but Hypsipyle, a Lemnian princess, appears, and shews them a river (1495).
V. Hypsipyle relates the story of 'the furies of Lemnos,' i. e. of the Lemnian women who killed all the men in the island except Thoas, her father, whom she saved. (See Leg. of Good Women, 1467, and note.) While she is speaking, a snake, sent by Jupiter, kills her infant, named Archemorus. The snake is killed by Capaneus (1497, 8).
VI. Description of the obsequies of Archemorus, and of the funeral games (1499).
VII. Description of the temple of Mars (see Knightes Tale). The allies arrive before Thebes, and the city is attacked. Amphiaraus is swallowed up by an earthquake (1500).
VIII. Tydeus is slain, after a great slaughter of his enemies (1501).
IX. Hippomedon, after great deeds of valour, is drowned in the river. Death of Parthenopaeus (1502, 3).
X. Capaneus is killed by lightning whilst scaling the walls of Thebes (1504, 5).
​XI. Single combat between Eteocles and Polynices; both are slain (1506-8).
XII. Creon forbids the burial of the slain invaders. The wives of the six chieftains seek assistance from Theseus, king of Athens (see Knightes Tale). Argia, wife of Polynices, finds and burns her husband's body. Theseus slays Creon, and the Thebans open their gates to him (1509-10).
1485-1491. From the Thebaid, Bk. i (see above). felawe, comrade, brother-in-law. Polymites, Polynices. Ethyocles, Eteocles.
1492-8. From the same, Books ii-v. Hemonides, Haemonides, i. e. Maeon, son of Haemon. asterte, escaped. fifty; but he only slew 49, though attacked by 50. sevene; the seven chieftains, who went to besiege Thebes. holy serpent, the snake sent by Jupiter. welle, (apparently) the stream Langia, which refreshed the army (end of Bk. iv). The furies, the furious women of Lemnos, who killed all the males (but one) in the island.
1499-1505. From the same, Bks. vi-x. Archimoris, Archemorus, infant son of Hypsipyle; honoured by funeral games. Amphiorax, Amphiaraus; see Bk. ii. 105, and note to Anelida, 57. Argeyes, Argives, people of Argos. Ypomedon, Hippomedon; Parthonope, Parthenopaeus; see note to Anelida, 58. Cappaneus, Capaneus; see note to Anelida, 59.
1506-1512. From the same, Bks. xi, xii. Argyve, Argia, wife of Polynices; cf. Bk. iv. l. 762, above. brent, burnt; see Kn. Ta. A 990; but Statius says that the Thebans opened their gates to Theseus, who entered in triumph. I find nothing about any harm done to the city on this occasion.
1514. But Tydeus was Meleager's brother; see note to l. 1480.
1518. leef, leave it alone. Usually leve.
1523. seestow, seest thou; a general observation, not addressed to Cassandra in particular, but to every one at large.
1527. Alceste, Alcestis; see Leg. of Good Women, 432.
1528. but, except, unless. Yet Bell misunderstands it.
1530. housbonde; Admetus, king of Pherae, in Thessaly.
1545. smitted, smutted, disgraced; cf. l. 1546.
1548. fyn of the paródie, end of the period. Chaucer, not being a Greek scholar, has somewhat mistaken the form of the word; but, in MS. H., parodie is duly glossed by 'duracion,' shewing the sense intended. It is from the O. F. fem. sb. perióde, or peryóde, of which Littré gives an example in the 14th century: 'Peryode est le temps et la mesure de la duracion d'une chose;' Oresme, Thèse de Meunier. Chaucer, being more familiar with the prefix per- than with the Greek περι-, has dropped the i; and the confusion between per- and par- is extremely common, because both prefixes were denoted, in contracted writing, by the same symbol. We may give up the old attempts at explaining the word otherwise, as we know that the glosses are usually due to the author. 'The end of the period of Hector's life was nigh at hand.'
​Lydgate uses the word in the same sense, having caught it up from the present passage:—
'When the paródye of this worthy knyght [Hector] Aproche shall, without[e] wordes mo, Into the fyelde playnly if he go.' Siege of Troye, Bk. iii. ch. 27; ed. 1557, fol. R 6.
'And how that he [Ulysses] might[e] not escape The párodýe that was for hym shape; For Parchas haue his last[e] terme set,' &c. Id., Bk. v. ch. 38; fol. Dd 3.
Observe that parodye is here equated to terme.
1558. From Guido; according to whose account Hector, having taken a prisoner, was conveying him through the throng, when Achilles thrust him through with a spear in a cowardly manner, stealing up to him unperceived. See allit. Dest. of Troy, ll. 8649-8660; Lydgate, Siege of Troy, Bk. iii. ch. 27, fol. S 2, back; Shak. Troil. v. 6. 27, 8. 1.
1634. kalendes, an introduction to the beginning; see note to Bk. ii. 7.
1653. Lollius; this incident is in the Filostrato, viii. st. 8; I do not find it in Guido.
1669. word and ende, beginning and end; see note to Monk. Ta. B 3911; and note to Bk. ii. 1495.
1689. 'To present your new love with.'
1760. See note to Book i. 463.
1764. Here the story practically ends. Beyond this point, the lines taken from Boccaccio are less than twenty.
1771. Dares, i. e. Guido, who professes to follow Dares; see note to Book Duch. 1070.
1778. I. e. Chaucer was beginning to think of his Legend of Good Women.
1786. Here begins the Envoy (interrupted by ll. 1800-1827). Compare the last three lines of the Filostrato (ix. 8):—
'Or va'; ch' io prego Apollo che ti presti Tanto di grazia ch' ascoltata sii, E con lieta risposa a me t'invii.'
1787. 'Whereas may God send power to him that wrote thee to take part in composing some "comedy," before he die.'
1789. 'Do not envy any (other) poetry, but be humble.'
1791. Imitated from the concluding lines of the Thebaid, xii. 816:—
'nec tu diuinam Æneida tenta, Sed longe sequere, et uestigia semper adora.'
The sense is—'And kiss their footsteps, wherever you see Vergil, &c. pass along.' The reading space is ridiculous; and, in l. 1792, the names Virgíle, &c., are accented on the second syllable. Steppes means 'foot-prints,' Lat. uestigia; see Leg. Good Women, 2209.
1792. An important line. Chaucer, in this poem, has made use of Statius (see l. 1485), Ovid (in many places), Vergil (occasionally), and ​Homer (not at first hand). Lucan seems to be mentioned only out of respect; but see note to Bk. ii. 167. He is mentioned again in Boethius, Bk. iv. Pr. 6. 159.
1796. mismetre, scan wrongly. This shews that Chaucer was conscious of his somewhat archaic style, and that there was a danger that some of the syllables might be dropped.
1797. red, read (by a single person), songe, read aloud, recited in an intoned voice.
1802. thousandes is to be taken in the literal sense. On one occasion, according to Guido, Troilus slew a thousand men at once. See the allit. Destruction of Troy, 9878; Lydgate, Siege of Troy, fol. U 3, back, l. 7.
1806. So in Guido; see allit. Destr. of Troy, 10302-11; Lydgate, Siege of Troye, Bk. iv. ch. 31. Cf. l. 1558, and the note.
1807-1827. These three stanzas are from Boccaccio's Teseide, xi. 1-3, where, however, they refer to Arcita:—
'Finito Arcita colei nominando La qual nel mondo più che altro amava, L'anima lieve se ne gì volando Vêr la concavità del cielo ottava: Degli elementi i conuessi lasciando, Quivi le stelle erratiche ammirava ... Suoni ascoltando pieni di dolcezza.
Quindi si volse in giù a rimirare Le cose abbandonate, e vide il poco Globo terreno, a cui d'intorno il mare Girava ... Ed ogni cosa da nulla stimare A respetto del ciel; e in fine al loco Là dove aveva il corpo suo lasciato Gli occhi fermò alquanto rivoltato.
E fece risa de' pianti dolenti Della turba lernea; la vanitate Forte dannando delle umane genti, Le qua' da tenebrosa cechitate Mattamente oscurate nelle menti Seguon del Mondo la falsa beltate: Lasciando il cielo, quindi se ne gio Nel loco a cui Mercurio la sortio.'
holownesse translates 'concavità.' For seventh, B. has 'ottava,' eighth. The seventh sphere is that of Saturn, from which he might be supposed to observe the motion of Saturn and of all the inferior planets. But surely eighth is more correct; else there is no special sense in 'holownesse.' The eighth sphere is that of the fixed stars; and by taking up a position on the inner or concave surface of this ​sphere, he would see all the planetary spheres revolving within it. (The 'spheres' were supposed to be concentric shells, like the coats of an onion.) The 'erratic stars,' or wandering stars, are the seven planets. As to the music of their spheres, see notes to Parl. Foules, ll. 59 and 61.
1810. in convers leting, leaving behind, on the other side. When, for example, he approached the sphere of Mars, it was concave to him; after passing beyond it, it appeared convex. Some modern editions of the Teseide read connessi (connected parts), but the right reading is conuessi (convex surfaces), for which Chaucer substitutes convers. See converse in the New E. Dictionary.
1815. Cf. Parl. Foules, 57. Boccaccio had in mind Cicero's Somnium Scipionis.
1825. sholden, and we ought; we is understood.
1827. sorted, allotted; Ital. 'sortio.'
1828-1837. Chiefly from Il Filostrato, viii. 28, 29.
1838-1862. These lines are Chaucer's own, and assume a higher strain.
1840. 'This lyf, my sone, is but a chery-feyre.' Hoccleve, De Regim. Princ. ed. Wright, p. 47.
See four more similar comparisons in Halliwell's Dict., s. v. Cherry-fair.
1856. moral Gower. This epithet of Gower has stuck to him ever since; he moralises somewhat too much.
1857. Strode. Concerning this personage, Leland discovered the following note in an old catalogue of the worthies of Merton College, Oxford: 'Radulphus Strode, nobilis poeta fuit et versificavit librum elegiacum vocatum Phantasma Radulphi.' In the introduction to his edition of 'Pearl,' p. l., Mr. Gollancz says: 'This Ralph Strode is identical with the famous philosopher of that name whose philosophical works hold an important place in the history of medieval logic. He was also famous in his time as a controversialist with Wiclif, and from Wiclif MSS., still unprinted, it is possible to gain some insight into Strode's religious views.' He was, perhaps, related to the philosopher N. Strode, who is mentioned at the end of pt. ii. § 40 of the Treatise on the Astrolabe as being the tutor, at Oxford, of Chaucer's son Lewis.
1863-5. From Dante, Paradiso, xiv. 28-30:—
'Quell' uno e due e tre che sempre vive, E regna sempre in tre e due e uno, Non circonscritto, e tutto circonscrive.'
ADDITIONAL NOTE TO BOOK III. 674.
As the curious word voidee has been suppressed in all previous editions, I add some more examples of it, for some of which I am indebted to Dr. Murray. It occurs, e.g., in the extremely interesting account of the death of James I of Scotland.
'Within an owre the Kyng askid the voidee, and drank, the travers yn the chambure edraw [= y-drawe, drawn], and every man depairtid and went to rist': (1400) Jn. Shirley, Dethe of James Stewarde, Kyng of Scotys, p. 13, ed. 1818.
Hence, no doubt, Mr. Rossetti, in his poem of The King's Tragedy, drew the line:—'Then he called for the voidee-cup.'
'A voidy of spices': (1548) Hall's Chron. 14 Hen. VIII.
'A voidee of spices': (1577-87) Holinshed's Chron. vol. iii. p. 849.
In A Collection of Ordinances and Regulations for the Royal Household, London, 1790, there are several examples of it.
'The Archbishoppe to stand on the Kinges right hand, and the King to make him a becke when hee shall take spice and wine. And when the voide is donne, then the King to goe into his chamber; and all other estates to goe into their chambers, or where it shall please them,' &c.: p. 111; in Articles ordained by King Henry VII.
At p. 113, there are minute directions as to the voidè. The chamberlain and others fetch a towel, the cups, and the spice-plates; the king and the bishop take 'spice and wine,' and afterwards the lords and people are served 'largely' with spice and wine also; after which the cups are removed. At p. 36, we read: 'the bourde avoyded [cleared] when wafyrs come with ypocras, or with other swete wynes. The King never taketh a voyd [read voydè] of comfites and other spices, but standing.' At p. 121: 'as for the voide on twelfth day at night, the King and Queene ought to take it in the halle.' At the Coronation of Queen Anne Boleyn, there was a voidè 'of spice-plates and wine'; English Garner, ed. Arber, ii. 50.
The voidee was, in fact, a sort of dessert. The word spices included many things besides what it now implies. In the Ordinances above-mentioned, there is a list of spices, at p. 103. It includes pepper, saffron, ginger, cloves, maces, cinnamon, nutmegs, dates, prunes, quinces, comfits, raisins, currants, figs, and even rice. In the North of England, even at the present day, it includes sweetmeats, gingerbread, cakes, and dried fruits.