Part 115

773. thilke bore frele kinde. Human nature is described as frail from birth, and by its weakness causing blindness of the heart.

776 f. ‘And such were the fortunes of this tale of which I would speak,’ i.e. this was the passion which determined its course.

816. his thonk pourchace, ‘win their gratitude towards himself.’

833. ‘In which a false heart was concealed,’ an instance of inverted order, for which cp. ii. 565,

‘Whiche as he wot is puyson inne.’

872. hire, cp. 367.

894. which stod thanne upon believe, ‘which then was thought to be possible.’

938. homward, i.e. ‘goes towards home’; cp. iii. 1021, 2451.

940 ff. In Hegesippus the address is as follows: ‘Beata Paulina concubitu dei. Magnus deus Anubis cuius tu accepisti mysteria. Sed disce te sicut diis ita et hominibus non negare, quibus dii tribuant quod tu negaveras: quia nec formas suas dare nobis nec nomina dedignantur. Ecce ad sacra sua deus Anubis vocavit et Mundum, ut tibi iungeret. Quid tibi profuit duritia tua, nisi ut te xx milium quae obtuleram defraudaret compendio? Imitare deos indulgentiores, qui nobis sine pretio tribuunt quod abs te magno pretio impetrari nequitum est. Quod si te humana offendunt vocabula, Anubem me vocari placuit, et nominis huius gratia effectum iuvit.’ It must be allowed that our author has improved upon this offensive prolixity.

987. sche may ther noght, ‘she hath no power in the matter’: cp. 725, ‘there I lye noght.’

1006. Citezeine. Gower uses several of these feminine forms of substantives. Besides ‘citezeine’ we have cousine, ii. 1201, capiteine, v. 1972, enemie, v. 6753, anemie, viii. 1355 (all of which also occur in the Mirour), and occasionally adjectives, as ‘veine’ (gloire), i. 2677 ff., (vertu) ‘sovereine,’ ii. 3507, ‘seinte’ (charite), iv. 964, ‘soleine,’ v. 1971, and probably ‘divine,’ ii. 3243, ‘gentile,’ viii. 2294.

1013 ff. ‘questioni subicit, confessos necat.’ Our author here expands his original.

1040. Whos cause, ‘for the sake of which.’

1051. put, pres. tense, ‘putteth.’

1067. menable, ‘fit to guide,’ the ship; cp. ii. 1123, ‘A wynd menable fro the londe.’ The word occurs several times in our author’s French, as Mirour, 3676, 11882, 17392. The meaning in English is not always the same, the word being, like others of this form, sometimes active and sometimes passive: cp. ‘deceivable’ (ii. 1698, 2202). Here and in the passage quoted the meaning is ‘leading,’ ‘fit to guide’: elsewhere it stands for ‘easily led,’ ‘apt to be guided,’ as in iii. 390 and the French examples.

1068. ‘tobreken’ is the reading of JH₁XGL, SBΔ, W, and is evidently required by the sense.

1077 ff. Here Gower mainly follows Benoît de Sainte-More (Roman de Troie, 25620 ff.), but he was of course acquainted also with Guido (Historia Troiana, lib. 27: m 5, ed. Argent. 1494). The name Epius is from Benoît, for Guido has ‘Apius’: on the other hand, Guido and not Benoît describes the horse as made of brass. In speaking of the discussion about pulling down a portion of the walls, and of the walls themselves as built by Neptune, 1146, 1152 ff., our author is certainly drawing from Benoît. Some points of the story and many details are original.

Of hem that &c., ‘As regards those who have such deceit in their hearts,’ i.e. hypocrites: cp. 956, ‘O derke ypocrisie.’

1102. The MS. can hardly be right in punctuating after ‘Togedre.’

1129 f. So Lydgate, perhaps with this passage in his mind,

‘Makynge a colour of devocion Through holynesse under ypocrisie.’

Tale of Troye, bk. iv.

1133. trapped. ‘In quo construentur quedam clausure sic artificiose composite, quod’ &c. Hist. Troiana, m 4 v^o. Gower does not say that men were contained within, though this is stated by his authorities, of whom Benoît places Sinon inside the horse, while Guido finds room there for a thousand armed men. The ‘twelve’ wheels seem to be due to Gower, as also the picturesque touch, ‘And goth glistrende ayein the Sunne.’

1146 ff. Cp. Roman de Troie, 25814 ff. (ed. Joly),

‘Et quant ço virent Troien, Conseil pristrent que des terralz Abatroient les granz muralz, Les biax, les granz, que Neptunus Ot fet, M. anz aveit et plus, Et qu’ Apollo ot dedié.’

1165. crossen seil, ‘set their sails across (the mast).’

1172. Synon. The reading of F may be right, for ‘Simon’ is the form of the name given in many copies of Guido. Here however the whole of the second recension and the better copies of the first give ‘Synon,’ and a copyist’s alteration would be towards the more familiar name.

1225. lok. In l. 1703 we have ‘loke’ for the imperative, which must be regarded as more strictly correct.