BOOK III.

1091-1109. Imitated from Dante, Parad. i. 13-27. Compare ll. 1106, 1107, with Cary's translation--

'If thou to me of thine impart so much, ... Thou shalt behold me of thy favour'd tree Come to the foot, and crown myself with leaves.'

And compare l. 1109 with--'Entra nel petto mio.'

1098. This shews that Chaucer occasionally, and intentionally, gives a syllable too little to the verse. In fact, he does so just below, in l. 1106; where Thou forms the first foot of the verse, instead of So thou, or And thou. This failure of the first syllable is common throughout the poem.

1099. And that, i.e. And though that; see l. 1098.

1109. Entreth is the imperative plural; see note to A. B. C. 17.

1114. MSS. cite, cyte (F. citee!); but site in Astrol. pt. ii. 17. 25 (p. 201).

1116. 'Fama tenet, summaque domum sibi legit in arce'; Ovid, Met. xii. 43. Cf. Dante, Purg. iii. 46-48; also Ovid, Met. ii. 1-5.

1131. 'And swoor hir ooth by Seint Thomas of Kent'; C. T., A 3291. It alludes to the celebrated shrine of Beket at Canterbury.

1136. Half, side; al the half, all the side of the hill which he was ascending, which we find was the south side (l. 1152).

1152. This suggests that Chaucer, in his travels, had observed a snow-clad mountain; the snow lies much lower on the north side than on the south side; see ll. 1160 (which means that it, i.e. the writing, was preserved by the shade of a castle), 1163, 1164.

1159. What hit made, what caused it, what was the cause of it.

1167-80. This passage somewhat resembles one in Dante, Par. i. 4-12.

1177. Craft, art; cast, plan. Craft, in the MSS., has slipt into l. 1178.

1183. Gyle, Giles; St. Ægidius. His day is Sept. 1; see note to Can. Yem. Tale, G 1185, where the phrase by seint Gyle recurs.

1189. Babewinnes is certainly meant; it is the pl. of babewin (O. Fr. babuin, Low Lat. babewynus, F. babouin), now spelt baboon. It was particularly used of a grotesque figure employed in architectural decoration, as in Early Eng. Allit. Poems, ed. Morris, B. 1411, where the pl. form is spelt baboynes, and in Lydgate, Chron. Troy, II. xi; both passages are given in Murray's Dict., s.v. Baboon. 'Babewyn, or babewen, detippus, ipos, figmentum, chimera'; Prompt. Parv. 'Babwyne, beest, baboyn'; Palsgrave. In Shak. Macb. iv. 1. 37--'Coole it with a báboones blood'--the accent on the a is preserved. The other spellings are inferior or false.

1192. Falle, pres. pl., fall; (or perhaps fallen, the past participle).

1194. Habitacles, niches; such as those which hold images of saints on the buttresses and pinnacles of our cathedrals. They are described as being al withoute, all on the outside.

1196. Ful the castel, the castle (being) full, on all sides. This line is parenthetical.

1197. Understand Somme, some, as nom. to stoden. 'In which stood ... (some) of every kind of minstrels.' So in l. 1239. As to minstrels, &c., see note to Sir Topas (B 2035).

1203. Orpheus, the celebrated minstrel, whose story is in Ovid, Met. x. 1-85; xi. 1-66. Chaucer again mentions him in C. T., E 1716; and in Troil. iv. 791.

1205. Orion; so in all the copies; put for Arion. His story is in Ovid, Fasti, ii. 79-118.

Spelt Arione in Gower, Conf. Amant. (end of prologue), ed. Pauli, i. 39. We might read Arion here; see l. 1005.

1206. Chiron; called Chiro in Gower, C. A. ii. 67 (bk. iv). Chiron, the centaur, was the tutor of Achilles; and Achilles, being the grandson of Æacus, was called Æacides; Ovid, Met. xii. 82; Fasti, v. 390. Hence Eacides is here in the genitive case; and Eacides Chiron means 'Achilles' Chiron,' i.e. Chiron, tutor of Achilles. In fact, the phrase is copied from Ovid's Æacidæ Chiron, Art of Love, i. 17. Another name for Chiron is Phillyrides; Ovid, Art of Love, i. 11; or Philyrides; Verg. Georg. iii. 550; cf. Ovid, Fasti, v. 391. In a similar way, Chaucer calls the paladin Oliver, friend of Charles the Great, by the name of Charles Olyuer; Monkes Tale, B 3577.

1208. Bret, Briton, one of the British. This form is quite correct, being the A.S. Bret, a Briton (see A.S. Chronicle, an. 491), commonly used in the pl. Brettas. This correct spelling occurs in MS. B. only; MS. P. turns it into Bretur, Th. and Cx. read Briton, whilst MS. F. turns Bret into gret, by altering the first letter. The forms gret and Bretur are clearly corruptions, whilst Briton spoils the scansion.

Glascurion; the same as Glasgerion, concerning whom see the Ballad in the Percy Folio MS., ed. Hales and Furnivall, i. 246. Of this 'a traditional version, under the name of Glenkindie, a various form of Glasgerion, is given in Jamieson's Popular Songs and Ballads, and in Alex. Laing's Thistle of Scotland (1823).' G. Douglas associates 'Glaskeriane' with Orpheus in his Palice of Honour, bk. i. (ed. Small, i. 21); this poem is a palpable imitation of Chaucer's House of Fame. The name is Celtic, as the epithet Bret implies. Cf. Irish and Welsh glas, pale.

1213. 'Or as art imitates nature.' Imitated from Le Rom. de la Rose, where Art asks Nature to teach her; l. 16233 is--

'E la contrefait comme singes.'

1218. There is a similar list of musical instruments in Le Rom. de la Rose, 21285-21308:--

'Puis chalemiaus, et chalemele Et tabor, et fléute, et timbre ... Puis prent sa muse, et se travaille As estives de Cornoaille.'

And in Le Remède de Fortune, by G. de Machault, 1849, p. 87, is a similar long list:--

'Cornemuses, flaios, chevrettes, Dousainnes, cimbales, clochettes, Timbre, la flahute brehaigne, Et le grant cornet d'Alemaigne, Flaiot de saus, fistule, pipe'; &c.

And a few lines below there is mention of the muse de blez (see note to l. 1224). Warton, Hist. E. Poet., ed. Hazlitt, iii. 177. quotes a similar passage from Lydgate's poem entitled Reason and Sensualite, ending with--

'There were trumpes, and trumpettes, Lowde shallys [shalmys?] and doucettes.'

Cf. also Spenser, F. Q. vi. 9, 5; Shep. Kal. Feb. 35-40. In the latter passage, the imitation of ll. 1224-6 is obvious. Cornemuse is a bagpipe; shalmye is a shawm, which was a wind-instrument, being derived from Lat. calamus, a reed; Chaucer classes both instruments under pipe. Willert (on the House of Fame, p. 36) suggests (and, I think, correctly) that doucet and rede are both adjectival. Thus doucet would refer to pipe; cf. 'Doucet, dulcet, pretty and sweet, or, a little sweet'; Cotgrave. Rede would also refer to pipe, and would mean 'made with a reed.' A reed-instrument is one 'in which the sound was produced by the vibration of a reed, as in the clarionet or hautboys'; note in Bell's Chaucer. There is no instrument properly called a doucet in Old French, but only dousainne (see above) and doucine (Godefroy).

1222. Brede, roast meat; A.S. br['æ]de, glossed by 'assura, vel assatura' in Ælfric's Glossary, ed. Wülcker, col. 127, l. 17. Cf. G. Braten. Not elsewhere in Chaucer, but found in other authors.

'To meit was greithed beef and motoun, Bredes, briddes, and venysoun.' Kyng Alisaunder, ed. Weber, 5248.

In the allit. Morte Arthure, it occurs no less than five times. Also in Havelok, l. 98, where the interpretation 'bread' is wrong. Also in Altenglische Dichtungen, ed. Böddeker, p. 146, l. 47--'Cud as Cradoc in court that carf the brede,' i.e. carved the roast meat; but the glossary does not explain it. The scribe of MS. F. turns brede into bride, regardless of the rime. I cannot agree with the wholly groundless conjecture of Willert, who reads rude in l. 1221, in order to force brude into the text. For minstrelsy at feasts, see C. T., A 2197.

1223. Cf. G. Douglas, tr. of Vergil, Æn. vii. 513, 4:--'And in ane bowand horne, at hir awyne will, A feindlych hellis voce scho lyltis schyll.'

1224. Alluding to the simple pipes fashioned by rustics. The glossary to Machault's Works (1849) has: 'Muse de blez, chalumeau fait avec des brins de paille.' The O.F. estive, in the quotation in the note to l. 1218, has a like sense. Godefroy has: 'estive, espèce de flûte, de flageolet ou pipeau rustique, qui venait, ce semble, de Cornouaille.' Cf. the term corne-pipe, in the Complaint of Scotland, ed. Murray, p. 65, l. 22; also my note to R. Rose, 4250 (vol. i. p. 436).

1227-8. Nothing is known as to Atiteris (or Cytherus); nor as to Pseustis (or Proserus). The forms are doubtless corrupt; famous musicians or poets seem to have been intended. I shall venture, however, to record my guess, that Atiteris represents Tyrtaeus, and that Pseustis is meant for Thespis. Both are mentioned by Horace (Ars Poet. 276, 402); and Thespis was a native of Attica, whose plays were acted at Athens. Another guess is that Atiteris means Vergil's Tityrus; Athenæum, Apr. 13, 1889. Willert suggests that there is here an allusion to the so-called Ecloga Theoduli, a Latin poem of the seventh or eighth century, wherein the shepherd Pseustis and the shepherdess Alithia [who represent Falsehood and Truth] contend about heathendom and Christianity; and Pseustis adduces various myths and tales, from Ovid, Vergil, and Statius. He refers us to H. Dunger, Die Sage v. troj. Kriege in den Bearbeitungen des Mittelalters: Dresden, 1869, p. 76; cf. Leyser, Hist. Poet. Medii Aevi, p. 295. This only accounts for Pseustis; Atiteris can hardly be Alithia.

1229. This is a curious example of how names are corrupted. Marcia is Dante's Marsia, mentioned in the very passage which Chaucer partly imitates in ll. 1091-1109 above. Dante addresses Apollo in the words--

'Entra nel petto mio, e spira tue Si come quando Marsia traesti Della vagina delle membra sue.'

As Chaucer had here nothing to guide him to the gender of Marsia, he guessed the name to be feminine, from its termination; and Dante actually has Marzia (Inf. iv. 128), with reference to Marcia, wife of Cato. But Dante's Marsia represents the accus. case of Marsyas, or else the Lat. nom. Marsya, which also occurs. Ovid, Met. vi. 400, has 'Marsya nomen habet,' and tells the story. Apollo defeated the satyr Marsyas in a trial of musical skill, and afterwards flayed him alive; so that he 'lost his skin.'

1231. Envyën (accent on y), vie with, challenge (at a sport). So strong is the accent on the y, that the word has been reduced in E. to the clipped form 'vie; see Vie in my Etym. Dict. It represents Lat. inuitare, to challenge; and has nothing to do with E. envy. Florio's Ital. Dict. has: 'Inuito, a vie at play, a vie at any game; also an inuiting.'

1234. 'Pipers of every Dutch (German) tongue.'

1236. Reyes, round dances, dances in a ring. The term is Dutch. Hexham's Du. Dict. (1658), has: een Rey, or een Reye, a Daunce, or a round Daunce'; and 'reyen, to Daunce, or to lead a Daunce.' Cf. G. Reihen, a dance, Reihentanz, a circular dance; M.H.G. reie, reige; which does not seem to be connected, as might be thought, with G. Reihe, a row; see Kluge and Weigand. Perhaps the Du. word was borrowed from O.F. rei, roi, order, whence also the syllable -ray in E. ar-ray; and the G. word may have been borrowed from the Dutch; but this is a guess. 'I can daunce the raye'; Barclay's First Egloge, sig. A ii. ed. 1570; quoted in Dyce's Skelton, ii. 194.

1239. Understand Somme, some; see note to l. 1197. The expression blody soun recurs in Kn. Tale, A 2512, in connection with trumpe and clarioun. Our author explains his meaning here; ll. 1241-2.

1243. Missenus, Misenus, son of Æolus, trumpeter to Hector, and subsequently to Æneas; Verg. Æn. iii. 239; vi. 162-170.

1245. Joab and Theodomas are again mentioned together in a like passage in the Merch. Tale (C. T., E 1719). 'Joab blew a trumpet'; 2 Sam. ii. 28; xviii. 16; xx. 22. Theodomas is said by Chaucer (Merch. Tale) to have blown a trumpet 'At Thebes, when the citee was in doute.' He was therefore a trumpeter mentioned in some legendary history of Thebes. With this hint, it is easy to identify him with Thiodamas, mentioned in books viii. and x. of the Thebaid of Statius. He succeeded Amphiaraus as augur, and furiously excited the besiegers to attack Thebes. His invocation was succeeded by a great sound of trumpets (Theb. viii. 343), to which Chaucer here refers. But Statius does not expressly say that Thiodamas blew a trumpet himself.

1248. Cataloigne and Aragon, Catalonia and Arragon, in Spain, immediately to the S. of the Pyrenees. Warton remarks: 'The martial musicians of English tournaments, so celebrated in story, were a more natural and obvious allusion for an English poet'; Hist. E. P. ii. 331. The remark is, I think, entirely out of place. Chaucer is purposely taking a wide range; and, after mentioning even the pipers of the Dutch tongue, as well as Joab of Judæa and Thiodamas of Thebes, is quite consistent in mentioning the musicians of Spain.

1257. Repeated, at greater length, in C. T., Group B, ll. 19-28; see note to that passage.

1259. Iogelours, jugglers. See Squi. Tale, F 219.

1260. Tregetours; see C. T., F 1141, on which Tyrwhitt has a long note. A jogelour was one who amused people, either by playing, singing, dancing, or tricks requiring sleight of hand; a tregetour was one who brought about elaborate illusions, by the help of machinery or mechanical contrivance. Thus Chaucer tells us (in the Frank. Tale, as above) that tregetoures even caused to appear, in a dining-hall, a barge floating in water, or what seemed like a lion, or a vine with grapes upon it, or a castle built of lime and stone; which vanished at their pleasure. Sir John Maundeville, in his Travels, ch. 22, declares that the 'enchanters' of the Grand Khan could turn day into night, or cause visions of damsels dancing or carrying cups of gold, or of knights justing; 'and many other thinges thei don, be craft of hire Enchauntementes; that it is marveyle for to see.' See note to l. 1277 below. Gawain Douglas imitates this passage in his Palice of Honour; see his Works, ed. Small, i. 65.

1261. Phitonesses, pythonesses. The witch of Endor is called a phitonesse in the Freres Tale, C. T., D 1510; and in Gower, Conf. Amant. bk. iv, ed. Pauli, ii. 66; in Barbour's Bruce, ed. Skeat, iv. 753; and in Skelton's Phyllyp Sparowe, 1345. The Vulgate version has mulier pythonem habens, 1 Sam. xxviii. 7 (cf. Acts xvi. 16); but also the very word pythonissam in 1 Chron. x. 13, where the witch of Endor is again referred to. Ducange notices phitonissa as another spelling of pythonissa.

1266. Cf. Chaucer's Prologue, 417-420. There is a parallel passage in Dante, Inf. xx. 116-123, where the word imago occurs in the sense of 'waxen image.' This of course refers to the practice of sticking needles into a waxen image, with the supposed effect of injuring the person represented. See Ovid, Heroid. vi. 91, and Ben Jonson's Masque of Queens (3rd Charm). But this is only a particular case of a much more general principle. Images of men or animals (or even of the things representing the zodiacal signs) could be made of various substances, according to the effect intended; and by proper treatment were supposed to cause good or evil to the patient, as required. Much could be done, it was supposed, by choosing the right time for making them, or for subjecting them to celestial influences. To know the right time, it was necessary to observe the ascendent (see note to l. 1268). See much jargon on this subject in Cornelius Agrippa, De Occulta Philosophia, lib. ii. capp. 35-47.

1268. The ascendent is that point of the zodiacal circle which is seen to be just ascending above the horizon at a given moment. Chaucer defines it in his Treatise on the Astrolabe, and adds that astrologers, in calculating horoscopes, were in the habit of giving it a wider meaning; they further reckoned in 5 degrees of the zodiac above the horizon, and 25 degrees below the ascending point, so as to make the whole ascendent occupy 30 degrees, which was the length of a 'sign.' In calculating nativities, great importance was attached to this ascendent, the astrological concomitants of which determined the horoscope. The phrase to be 'in the ascendant' is still in use. Thus in certeyn ascendentes is equivalent to 'in certain positions of the heavens, at a given time,' such as the time of one's birth, or the time for making an image (see last note). See p. 191 (above).

1271. Medea, the famous wife of Jason, who restored her father Æson to youth by her magical art; Ovid, Met. vii. 162. Gower tells the whole story, C. A. bk. v. ed. Pauli, ii. 259.

1272. Circes, Circe, the enchantress; Homer's Odyssey, bk. x; Ovid, Met. xiv. Ovid frequently has the form Circes, in the gen. case; Met. xiv. 10, 69, 71, 247, 294. Cf. Chaucer's Boethius, b. iv. met. 3. 24.

Calipsa, Calypso, the nymph who detained Ulysses in an island; Odyssey, bk. i; Ovid, ex Ponto, iv. 10. 13.

1273. Hermes is mentioned in the Can. Yeom. Tale, C. T., Group G, 1434, where the reference is to Hermes Trismegistus, fabled to have been the founder of alchemy, though none of the works ascribed to him are really his. The name Balenus occurs, in company with the names of Medea and Circe, in the following passage of the Rom. de la Rose, l. 14599:--

'Que ja riens d'enchantement croie, Ne sorcerie, ne charroie, Ne Balenus, ne sa science, Ne magique, ne nigromance, ... Onques ne pot tenir Medée Jason por nul enchantement; N'onc Circe ne tint ensement Ulixes qu'il ne s'enfoïst,' &c.

(Charroie is the dance of witches on their sabbath.) Hermes Ballenus is really a compound name, the true significance of which was pointed out to me by Prof. Cowell, and explained in my letter to The Academy, Apr. 27, 1889, p. 287. Ballenus is 'the sage Belinous,' who discovered, beneath a statue of Hermes, a book containing all the secrets of the universe. Hence Hermes' Ballenus (where Hermes is an epithet) means 'Belinous, who adopted the philosophy of Hermes.' For an explanation of the whole matter, see the fourth volume of the Notices et Mémoires des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque du Roi, p. 107. In this there is an article by De Sacy, describing MS. Arabe de la Bibl. du Roi, no. 959, the title of which is 'Le Livre du Secret de la Creature, par le sage Belinous.' Belinous possessed the art of talismans, which he professed to have learnt from Hermes. There is some reason for identifying him with Apollonius of Tyana.

1274. Lymote, according to Warton, is Limotheus; but he omits to tell us where he found such a name; and the suggestion seems no better than his mistake of supposing Calipsa (l. 1272) to mean the muse Calliope! Considering that he is mentioned in company with Simon Magus, or Simon the magician (Acts viii. 9), the suggestion of Prof. Hales seems probable, viz. that Lymote or Lymete (as in F.) means Elymas the sorcerer (Acts xiii. 8).

1275. 'I saw, and knew by name, those that,' &c.

1277. Colle tregetour, Colle the juggler; see l. 1260. Colle is here a proper name, and distinct from the prefix col- in col-fox, Non. Pr. Tale, B 4405. Colle is the name of a dog; Non. Pr. Tale, B 4573. Colyn and Colle are names of grooms; Polit. Songs, p. 237. Tyrwhitt quotes a passage from The Testament of Love, bk. ii:--'Buserus [Busiris] slew his gestes, and he was slayne of Hercules his gest. Hugest betraished many menne, and of Collo was he betraied'; ed. 1561, fol. 301, col. 2. With regard to tregetour, see the account of the performances of Eastern jugglers in Yule's edition of Marco Polo; vol. i. p. 342, and note 9 to Bk. i. c. 61. Col. Yule cites the O.F. forms tregiteor and entregetour; also Ital. tragettatore, a juggler, and Prov. trasjitar, trajitar, to juggle. Bartsch, in his Chrestomathie Française, has examples of trasgeter, to mould, form, tresgeteïs, a work of mechanical art; and, in his Chrestomathie Provençale, col. 82, has the lines--

'Non saps balar ni tras-gitar a guiza de juglar guascon';

i.e. thou know'st not how to dance, nor how to juggle, after the manner of a Gascon juggler. A comparison of the forms leaves no doubt as to the etymology. The Prov. trasgitar answers to a Low Lat. form trans-iectare = tra-iectare, frequentative of Lat. trans-icere, tra-icere, to throw across, transfer, cause to pass. Thus, the orig. sense of tregetour was one who causes rapid changes, by help of some mechanical contrivance. The F. trajecter, to ferry, transport, in Cotgrave, is the same word as the Prov. trasgitar, in a different (but allied) sense.

1292. 'As is the usual way with reports.'

1295. Accent Which and so.

1297. 'And yet it was wrought by haphazard quite as often as by heed.'

1300. To longe, too long; not 'to dwell long.' The barbarous practice of inserting an adverb between to and an infinitive, as in 'to ungrammatically talk,' is of later date, though less modern than we might perhaps imagine. Cf. l. 1354.

1302. Elide the former Ne; read N'of.

1303. Read--Ne hów they hátt' in másonéries; i.e. nor how they are named in masonry, as, for example, corbets full of imageries. They hatte, i.e. they are called, was turned into hakking, and the sense lost.

1304. Corbets, corbels. Florio's Ital. Dict. has, 'Corbella, Corbetta, a little basket'; shewing the equivalence of such forms. The E. corbel is the same word as O.F. corbel (F. corbeau), apparently from the Lat. coruus. The spelling with z (= ts) in MSS. F. and B. shews that the form is really corbetts or corbets, not corbelles. Spenser has the simple form corb; F. Q. iv. 10. 6:--

'It was a bridge ybuilt in goodly wise With curious corbes and pendants graven faire.'

'A Corbel, Corbet, or Corbill in masonrie, is a iutting out like a bragget [bracket] as carpenters call it, or shouldering-peece in timber-work'; Minsheu's Dict. ed. 1627. Tyrwhitt explains corbets by 'niches for statues'; but 'imageries' are not necessarily statues or images, but rather specimens of carved work.

1309. 'A bounty! a bounty! hold up (your hands) well (to catch it).' Sir W. Scott explains largesse as 'the cry with which heralds and pursuivants were wont to acknowledge the bounty received from the knights'; note to Marmion, canto i. St. 11. The word is still in use amongst gleaners in East Anglia; see my note to P. Plowman, C. viii. 109.

1311. In Anglia, xiv. 236, Dr. Köppell points out some resemblances between the present poem and Boccaccio's Amorosa Visione. He compares this line with the A. V. vi. 75:--'Io son la Gloria del popol mondano.'

1316, 7. Kinges, i.e. kings-at-arms; losenges, lozenges (with g as j).

1326. Cote-armure, surcoat; see Way's note in Prompt. Parv.

1329-35. Imitated from Rom. Rose, 6762-4.

1330. Been aboute, used like the old phrase go about.

1342-6. Cf. Boccaccio, Amorosa Visione, iv. 9:--'Ed in una gran sala ci trovammo; Chiara era e bella e risplendente d'oro.'

1346. Wikke, poor, much alloyed.

1352. Lapidaire, 'a treatise on precious stones, so entitled; probably a French translation of the Latin poem of Marbodus De Gemmis, which is frequently cited by the name of Lapidarius; Fabricius, Bibl. Med. Æt., in v. Marbodus'; Tyrwhitt's Glossary. The Lapidarium of Abbot Marbodus (Marboeuf), composed about 1070-80, is chiefly taken from Pliny and Solinus. A translation in English verse is given in King's Antique Gems. See note to l. 1363 below. There is some account of several precious stones in Philip de Thaun's Bestiary, printed in Wright's Popular Treatises on Science; at p. 127 he refers to the Lapidaire. Vincent of Beauvais refers to it repeatedly, in book viii. of his Speculum Naturale. There is a note about this in Warton, Hist. E. P. ed. 1871, ii. 324. And see note to l. 1363.

1360. Dees, daïs; see the note to Prol. 370, in vol. v. Lines 1360-7 may be compared with various passages in Boccaccio's Amorosa Visione, which describe a lady in a rich vesture, seated on a royal throne:--

'Tutti li soprastava veramente Di ricche pietre coronata e d'oro' ... 'Il suo vestire a guisa imperiale Era, e teneva nella man sinestra Un pomo d'oro; e'n trono alla reale Vidi sedeva' ... 'Odi: che mai natura con sua arte Forma non diede a si bella figura' ... 'Donna pareva li leggiadra e pura'....

See Am. Vis. vi. 49, 58, 43, 48. See note to l. 1311 above.

1361. The reading Sit would mean 'sitteth' or 'sits'; the reading Sat would mean 'sat.' Both are wrong; the construction is sitte I saugh = I saugh sitte, I saw sit; so that sitte is the infin. mood.

1363. Carbuncle. Vincent of Beauvais, Spec. Nat bk. viii. c. 51, has: 'Carbunculus, qui et Græcè anthrax dicitur, vulgariter rubith.' An account of the Carbunculus is given in King's Natural History of Precious Stones and Gems. He remarks that the ruby 'must also be included among the numerous species of the carbunculus described by Pliny, although he gives the first rank to the Carbunculi amethystizontes, our Almandines or Garnets of Siam.' See also his Antique Gems, where he translates sect. 23 of the Lapidarium of Marbodus thus:--

'The Carbuncle eclipses by its blaze All shining gems, and casts its fiery rays Like to the burning coal; whence comes its name, Among the Greeks as Anthrax known to fame. Not e'en by darkness quenched, its vigour tires; Still at the gazer's eye it darts its fires; A numerous race; within the Lybian ground Twelve kinds by mining Troglydytes are found.'

1368-76. Cf. Boethius, in Chaucer's translation; bk. i. pr. 1, ll. 8-13 (vol. ii. p. 2).

1376. Sterres sevene, the seven planets.

1380. Tolde, counted; observe this sense.

1383. Bestes foure, four beasts; Rev. iv. 6. Cf. Dante, Purg. xxix. 92.

1386. Thynne remarks that oundy, i.e. wavy, is a term in heraldry; cf. E. ab-ound, red-ound, surr-ound (for sur-ound); all from Lat. unda. Cf. Chaucer's use of ounded in Troilus, iv. 736, and Le Roman de la Rose, 21399, 21400:--

'Et voit ses biaus crins blondoians Comme undes ensemble ondoians.'

1390. 'And tongues, as (there are) hairs on animals.' 'Her feet are furnished with partridge-wings to denote swiftness, as the partridge is remarkable for running with great swiftness with outstretched wings. This description is taken almost literally from the description of Fame in the Æneid [iv. 176-183], except the allusion to the Apocalypse and the partridge-wings'; note in Bell's Chaucer. But it is to be feared that Chaucer simply blundered, and mistook Vergil's pernicibus as having the sense of perdicibus; cf. 'pedibus celerem et pernicibus alis'; Aen. iv. 180.

1400. Caliopee, Calliope the muse; her eight sisters are the other Muses. With ll. 1395-1405 cf. Dante, Par. xxiii. 97-111.

1411. Read--Bóth-e th'ármes. Armes, i.e. coats of arms. Name, name engraved on a plate or written on a scroll.

1413. Alexander; see Monkes Tale, in C. T., B 3821. Hercules; see the same; the story of the shirt is given in B 3309-3324. In Le Roman de la Rose, l. 9238, it is called 'la venimeuse chemise.' Cf. Dante, Inf. xii. 68.

1431. Lede, lead, the metal of Saturn; yren, iron, the metal of Mars. See note to Can. Yeom. Tale, G 820, and ll. 827, 828 of the same; also ll. 1446, 1448 below.

1433. Read--Th'Ebráyk Jósephús. In a note on Gower's Conf. Amantis, Warton remarks--'Josephus, on account of his subject, had long been placed almost on a level with the Bible. He is seated on the first pillar in Chaucer's House of Fame. His Jewish History, translated into Latin by Rufinus in the fourth century, had given rise to many old poems and romances; and his Maccabaics, or History of the seven Maccabees, martyred with their father Eleazar under the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, a separate work translated also by Rufinus, produced the Judas Maccabee of Belleperche in the year 1240, and at length enrolled the Maccabees among the most illustrious heroes of romance.'--ed. Hazlitt, iii. 26.

1436. Iewerye, kingdom of the Jews; cf. Prior. Tale, B 1679.

1437. Who the other seven are, we can but guess; the reference seems to be to Jewish historians. Perhaps we may include Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Isaiah, Daniel, Nehemiah; and, in any case, Ezra. The number seven was probably taken at random. With l. 1447 cf. Troil. ii. 630.

1450. Wheel, orbit. The orbit of Saturn is the largest of the (old) seven planets; see Kn. Tale, 1596 (A 2454). The reason why Josephus is placed upon Saturn's metal, is because history records so many unhappy casualties, such as Saturn's influence was supposed to cause. All this is fully explained in the Kn. Tale, 1597-1611 (A 2455-69).

1457. Yren, the metal of Mars; see note to l. 1431.

1459. This allusion to 'tiger's blood' is curious; but is fully accounted for by the account of the two tigers in bk. vii. of the Thebaid. A peace had nearly been made up between the Thebans and the other Greeks, when two tigers, sacred to Bacchus, broke loose, and killed three men. They were soon wounded by Aconteus, whereupon 'They fly, and flying, draw upon the plain A bloody line'; according to Lewis's translation. They fall and die, but are avenged; and so the whole war was renewed. Lydgate reduces the two tigers to one; see his chapter 'Of a tame Tigre dwelling in Thebes'; in