Part 136

2501. The seven forms are those enumerated in 2513 ff., viz. distillation, congelation, solution, descension, sublimation, calcination, fixation.

2522. Cp. Chaucer, Cant. Tales, G 862 f.

2533. Thre Stones. According to some authors, as Hortulanus (MS. Ashmole 1478, iv.), there was but one stone, the Elixir, which had vegetable, animal and mineral qualities or functions; but in Lydgate, Secrees of the Philosophres, l. 530 (E.E.T.S.), we have,

‘And of stones, specially of three, Oon mineral, another vegetatyff,’ &c.;

and the editor quotes from Rosarium Philosophorum, ‘Tres sunt lapides et tres sales sunt, ex quibus totum magisterium consistit, scilicet mineralis, plantalis et animalis.’ In the Secreta Secretorum, however, the stone seems to be one only, see the chapter ‘De lapide animali vegetabili.’

2597. who that it knewe: cp. ii. 88, and see note on Prol. 460.

2606. Hermes, i.e. Hermes Trismegistus, to whom the invention of the science was attributed.

on the ferste, ‘the very first,’ cp. vi. 1481. It may be questioned, however, whether the theory put forward by C. Stoffel in Englische Studien, xxvii. 253 ff., is the correct explanation of this expression, which survived to Elizabethan times (Shaksp., Cymb. i. 6. 165, ‘he is one the truest mannered’). He takes ‘on’ in the sense of the Latin ‘unus’ in ‘iustissimus unus,’ to mean ‘alone,’ ‘above all.’ It is perhaps more likely that the usual explanation, which regards it as an elliptical expression for ‘one who was the first,’ is correct, especially in view of such expressions as ‘two the first,’ ‘three the noblest,’ &c., which also occur in the fourteenth century. The use of ‘on’ (‘oon’) for ‘a person’ is common enough, as in the expressions ‘so good on,’ ‘so worthi on,’ ii. 1217, 1240, and ‘Oon Theloüs,’ ii. 1092. We find a similar expression in Gower’s French, e.g. Mirour, 2462.

2608. A work by Geber, ‘Super Artem Alkemie,’ in six books, translated from Arabic into Latin, may be found in MS. Ashmole 1384. It seems to treat in a practical and systematic manner of the method of transmutation of metals into gold.

2609. ‘Ortolan’ is the Englishman John Garland, called Hortulanus, for which name see the note in MS. Ashmole 1471 iv. prefixed to an English translation of his ‘Commentary on the Smaragdine Table of Hermes.’

Morien is said to have been a hermit in the mountains near Jerusalem. The two ‘books of Morien’ in the form of dialogues between him and Kalid the son of Gesid may be read in Latin (translated from Arabic) in MS. Digby 162.

2610. A short treatise of Avicen on Alchemy may be found in MS. Ashm. 1420.

2624. the parfite medicine. The inflexion is perhaps in imitation of the definite form of the English adjective, as in vii. 2168, 4994, while in l. 2522, where the accent is thrown back, we have ‘the parfit Elixir.’ It is possible, however, that this is a case of the French feminine form such as we have in i. 2677, ii. 3507, iv. 964, cp. i. 636. So perhaps ii. 3243, ‘O thou divine pourveance,’ and viii. 23, ‘O thou gentile Venus.’

2637. Carmente: cp. Godf. Vit., Panth. vi. (p. 135).

2641. Dindymus here means the grammarian Didymus, a follower of the school of Aristarchus and a very voluminous writer on Greek language and literature. Our author here classes Aristarchus and Didymus with Donatus, and supposes them all to be concerned with the Latin tongue.

2648. Tullius with Cithero. It is apparent from this passage, which has been differently given without any authority in the printed editions, that Gower supposed Tullius and Cicero to be two different persons. There would have been reason to suspect this from the passage in the seventh book where he refers to the debate on the death sentence of the Catiline conspirators, speaking of Tullius as his authority for the rules of rhetoric there illustrated, and ‘Cithero’ as the consul, without any hint that they are the same person (vii. 1588 ff.). In Gower’s French works Tullius (Tulles) is the only name used. The form Cithero (or Scithero) is used also by Chaucer, Cant. Tales, F 722.

2738 ff. Cp. Mirour, 5185 ff.

2749. beere, past tense subjunctive, cp. 1323.

2756 ff. Gower seems to be exceptionally well informed on the subject of the Fates and their separate functions.

2792. This casting with the dice would not be for ordinary gambling, but for divining characters and telling fortunes in matters of love. Each combination produced by the three dice thrown would have a certain meaning determined beforehand, as we see by the piece called The Chaunces of the Dyse in the Bodleian MSS. Fairfax 16 and Bodl. 638. For example, the throw of six, four and ace is there explained by the following stanza:

‘O mekenesse of vertu principal, That may be founde in eny creature! In this persone of kunnynge ordinal Is ful assembled, I yow dar assure, The lorde of vertu and al vices cure, Perfit beaute grounded without envye, Assured trust withoute gelousye.’

And similarly there is a stanza, complimentary or otherwise, for each possible throw.

2813. Hire daunger: see note on i. 2443.

2855. whi ne were it, ‘would it were’: cp. the expression ‘that he ne were,’ vii. 3747, &c.

2895 f. Apparently he means that his dreams were of no such harmless things as sheep and their wool, or perhaps not of business matters, alluding to wool as the staple of English commerce.

2901 ff. Cp. Roman de la Rose, 2449-2479.

2905. I ne bede nevere awake: cp. Romaunt of the Rose, 791, ‘Ne bode I never thennes go.’ It means apparently ‘I should desire never to awake’ (‘I should not pray ever to awake’).

2924. in my wrytinges. The author forgets here that he is speaking in the person of the Confessor.