Part 122

749 ff. In the MSS. the paragraph begins at ‘Constance loveth,’ l. 751.

752. ‘They speaking every day together alone,’ an absolute use: cp. 1723. For ‘betwen hem two’ cp. 653.

762. Punctuated after ‘hire’ in F.

771. Thou bysne man. The word ‘bysne’ is taken from the original story. Trivet says she spoke in the Saxon language and said, ‘Bisne man, en Ihesu name in rode yslawe haue þi siht’ (MS. Rawl. f. 34).

785. As he that. The reference is to the king, so that we should rather expect ‘As him that,’ but the phrase is a stereotyped one and does not always vary in accordance with grammatical construction: cp. 1623. We find however also ‘As him which,’ iii. 1276.

791. ‘The time being appointed moreover’: an absolute use of the participle.

831. ‘trencha la gowle Hermigild’: therefore the fact that Gower and Chaucer agree in saying that he cut her throat has no special significance.

833. The reading ‘that dier,’ or ‘that diere,’ was apparently a mistake of the original copyist. It appears in all the unrevised copies of the first recension and also in B. Λ however has the corrected reading.

857. After, ‘In accordance with.’

880 ff. Here Chaucer follows the original more closely than Gower, as also just above, ‘him smoot upon the nekke boon.’ The words of the miraculous voice are given in Latin by Trivet, ‘Aduersus filiam matris ecclesie ponebas scandalum: hoc fecisti et tacui’ (‘et non tacui’ Rawl. Stockh.). Chaucer has (B 674 ff.),

‘And seyde, “Thou hast desclaundred gilteles The doughter of holy chirche in heigh presence: Thus hastou doon and yet holde I my pees.”’

895. This line occurs several times, e.g. i. 2106, ii. 2670.

905. Lucie, apparently to be pronounced ‘Lucíe.’ Such names usually appear either in the Latin forms ‘Lucius,’ ‘Tiberius,’ ‘Claudius,’ ‘Virginius,’ or with accent on the antepenultimate syllable ‘Tibérie,’ ‘Mercúrie,’ the ‘i’ not being counted as a syllable.

947. What the right name really is we can hardly say for certain. The printed text of the French gives ‘Domulde’ or ‘Domilde,’ the Rawlinson MS. has ‘Downilde,’ and Chaucer makes it ‘Donegild.’

964. which is of faierie. In the French book the letter states that the queen has been transformed since the king’s departure into the likeness of another creature and is an evil spirit in woman’s form.

994 f. ‘comaunda qe sanz nul countredit feissent sa femme sauvement garder’ f. 34 v^o.

1001. I punctuate after ‘Knaresburgh’ on the authority of F.

1010. The manuscript has a stop after ‘drunke’ and this seems best.

1020. Here we have apparently one of the original corruptions of the author’s text.

1046 ff. The original has only ‘grant duel et grant dolour demeneient.’

1081. To rocke with: cp. i. 452.

1110. if sche him daunger make, ‘if she resist his desire’: see note on i. 2443.

1123. menable: see note on i. 1067.

1132. er it be falle And hath &c.; that is, ‘until it be so come that it hath,’ &c.

1152. scholden: note the plural verb after ‘I forth with my litel Sone’: cp. 736.

1163. Trivet adds ‘qar issit l’apelerent les Sessoneis’ f. 35 v^o.

1164. for noght he preide &c., ‘for none of his prayers to be told,’ &c.

1173. The stop after ‘Romeward’ is on the authority of F, with which A agrees. We can say either, ‘He was coming from Barbarie towards Rome, and was going home,’ or ‘He was coming from Barbarie, and was going home towards Rome’; but the latter perhaps is the more natural.