Part 112

945 ff. This is one of Gower’s favourite citations: it occurs also Mir. 26869, Vox Clam. vii. 639. It is quoted here from Moralia, vi. 16 (Migne, Patr. vol. 75, p. 740): ‘Homo itaque, quia habet commune esse cum lapidibus, vivere cum arboribus, sentire cum animalibus, discernere cum angelis, recte nomine universitatis exprimitur.’ In the Mirour it is given as from the Homilies; see Hom. in Ev. xxix. 2. The passage is also quoted in the Roman de la Rose, 19246 ff. (ed. Méon),

‘Il a son estre avec les pierres, Et vit avec les herbes drues, Et sent avec les bestes mues,’ &c.

947. the lasse world, i.e. a microcosm: cp. Vox Clam. vii. 645,

‘Sic minor est mundus homo, qui fert singula solus.’

The saying is attributed to Aristotle in Mirour, 26929.

953. That is, the stones have existence and so hath he, this being the only point in common.

955. as telleth the clergie, ‘as learning informs us.’

975. The which, resumed by ‘He’ in 978: for, i.e. ‘since.’

979. That is, the opposite elements in his constitution (‘complexioun’) are so much at variance with one another.

985. ‘Without separation of parts.’

995. also, a repetition of ‘yit over this,’ 991.

1013. sende, pret., cp. i. 851, 992, 1452, &c. (but ‘sente’ in rhyme i. 3095, ii. 613, v. 1072), so ‘bende’ ii. 2235.

1047. That is, there can be no conciliation of the discord.

1055 ff. Cp. Ovid, Fasti, ii. 83 ff.

1066. commun: this form, as well as ‘commune,’ occurs in the Mirour.

1085. The horse side: cp. i. 1536, 2301, &c.

After 1088 the Sidney Coll. MS. (Δ) has the following lines,

‘So were it gode at þis tide þat eueri man vpon his side besowt and preied for þe pes wiche is þe cause of al encres of worschep and of werldis welþe of hertis rest of soule helþe withouten pes stant no þing gode forthi to crist wiche sched his blode for pes beseketh alle men Amen amen amen amen.’

These were printed by Caxton, and after him by Berthelet, with some slight variations of spelling, and the reading ‘and soules helthe’ for ‘of soule helþe.’ No other MS. contains them, so far as I know, except Hatton 51, which is copied from Caxton’s edition. If we read ‘So were it good as at þis tide,’ and correct the spelling throughout, the lines will be such as Gower might have written, and I rather suspect that they may have been contained in the Stafford MS. (S), to which Δ is nearly allied. S has lost a leaf here, on which ample room for them could have been found, the number of lines missing being only 156, while the number for a full leaf is 184. The authority of S would be conclusive in their favour.

LIB. I.

After setting forth in the Prologue the evils of the existing state of society and tracing them for the most part to lack of love and concord between man and man, the author now deliberately renounces the task of setting right the balance of the world, an undertaking which he has not shrunk from in former years, but recognizes now as too great for his strength. He proposes to change the style of his writings and to deal with something which all may understand, with that emotion of love which Nature has implanted both in man and beast, which no one is able to keep within rule or measure, and which seems to be under the dominion of blind chance, like the gifts of fortune.

Latin Verses. i. 7 f. Cp. the lines ‘Est amor in glosa pax bellica, lis pietosa,’ &c., which follow the Traitié.

10. of thing is, i.e. ‘of thing which is’: cp. ii. 1393, ‘Withinne a Schip was stiereles,’ so iii. 219, v. 298 &c., and Mirour, 16956.

21. natheles: as in Prol. 36, this seems to mean here ‘moreover,’ or perhaps ‘in truth,’ rather than ‘nevertheless.’

37. That is, ‘Wheresoever it pleases him to set himself,’ ‘him’ serving a double function.

50. went: present tense, ‘goes.’

62. I am miselven &c. Note, however, that the author guards himself in the margin with ‘quasi in persona aliorum, quos amor alligat, fingens se auctor esse Amantem.’

88. jolif wo, cp. ‘le jolif mal sanz cure,’ Bal. xiii. 24.