Part 117

1722. ‘Placing her as he best could.’

1727. Bot as an oule &c. So in Chaucer,

‘And al day after hidde him as an owle, So wo was hym, his wyf looked so foule.’

D 1081 f.

1767. tok thanne chiere on honde, ‘began to be merry.’

1771. And profreth him ... to kisse, i.e. offers to kiss him: cp. v. 6923, ‘Anon he profreth him to love.’

1886. til it overthrowe, i.e. till it fall into calamity, ‘overthrowe’ being intransitive, as 1962.

1888. Hadde I wist: cp. ii. 473, iv. 305.

1895. And is, i.e. ‘And he is,’ the pronoun being frequently omitted: cp. Prol. 348, 676, i. 2083, 2462, ii. 258, 624, 2071, 2985, iii. 1063, &c.

1917 f. A proverbial expression: cp. Lydgate, Secrees of the Philosophres, 459, ‘Yit wer me loth ovir myn hed to hewe.’

1934. ne schal me noght asterte, ‘shall not escape me,’ in the sense of letting a fault be committed by negligence in repressing it: cp. i. 722.

1967. unbende, 1st sing. pret., ‘I unbent (my bow).’ For the form cp. ‘sende,’ Prol. 1013.

1980 ff. The example of Capaneus is probably from Statius. The medieval romances (e.g. the French Roman de Thèbes) do not represent Capaneus as slain by a lightning stroke. The impious speech alluded to here, ‘Primus in orbe deos fecit timor!’ is Statius, Theb. iii. 661, and the death of Capaneus, Theb. x. 827 ff.

2007. it proeveth, i.e. ‘it appears’: cp. Prol. 926.

2021 ff. This story was probably taken by Gower from the Vita Barlaam et Josaphat, cap. vi (Migne, Patrol. vol. 74. p. 462 f.). The incidents are the same, but amplified with details by Gower, who has also invented the title of the king. In the original he is only ‘magnus quidam et illustris rex.’ The story is found in several collections, as Gesta Romanorum, 143, Holkot, 70, see Gesta Romanorum, ed. Oesterley.

2030. ride amaied: cp. Chaucer, Cant. Tales, C 406, and Skeat’s note.

2049. par charite. Rather perhaps ‘per charite,’ following J. F and A both have the contracted form. So also ‘per chance,’ ‘per chaunce,’ in ll. 2225, 2290, 3203, and ‘per aventure,’ l. 2350.

2073. was the same ... which, cp. viii. 3062*.

2078. This line, which would more naturally follow the next, seems to be thrown in parenthetically here.

2106. So also ii. 895, 2670.

2172. to tendre with, ‘whereby to soften’: cp. i. 452, ‘To tarie with a mannes thoght,’ and ii. 283.

2176. sihe: the mixture of past with present tenses is common in Gower.

2214 ff. ‘O stulte ac demens, si fratris tui, cum quo idem tibi genus et par honos est, in quem nullius omnino sceleris tibi conscius es, praeconem ita extimuisti, quonam modo mihi reprehensionis notam idcirco inussisti, quod Dei mei praecones, qui mortem, ac Domini, in quem me multa et gravia scelera perpetrasse scio, pertimescendum adventum mihi quavis tuba vocalius altiusque denuntiant, humiliter ac demisse salutarim?’ Barl. et Jos. cap. vi.

2225. See note on 2049.

2236. obeie, ‘do obeisance to’: cp. v. 1539.

2275 ff. The tale of Narcissus is no doubt from Ovid, Met. iii. 402 ff., but the account of his death is different from that which we find there. Ovid relates that he pined away gradually, and that his body was not found, but in place of it a flower.

2290. par chance: see note on 2049.

2316 f. Cp. Bocc. Gen. Deorum, vii. 59, ‘existimans fontis Nympham.’ By the margin we find that the nymph here meant is Echo, who is represented by Ovid as having wasted away for love of Narcissus and as giving an answer now to his cries.