Part 137

2927 ff. This is from Ovid, Metam. xi. 266-748, where the story is told at great length. Gower follows some parts of it, as the description of the House of Sleep and its surroundings, very closely.

Chaucer tells the story in the Book of the Duchess, but he has not been so successful in reproducing it as Gower. It is here introduced only as an illustration of the truth of dreams, but with its description of the House of Sleep it is very appropriate also in other respects to the subject of Somnolence, which is under discussion.

2928. Trocinie, from the adjective ‘Trachinia,’ in such expressions as ‘Trachinia tellus,’ Metam. xi. 269.

2973. The reading of all the best MSS. in this line is ‘he’: (S however is defective). We cannot doubt that the author meant to write ‘sche,’ for in what follows he regularly refers to Iris as female; but the mistake apparently escaped his notice, and we must regard the reading ‘she’ in the two copies in which I have found it as an unauthorized correction. Chaucer makes the messenger male, but does not name him.

2977-3055. This passage very happily follows Ovid, Met. xi. 589-645. Our author gives all the essential features, but rearranges them freely and adds details of his own.

2996. Metam. xi. 608,

‘Ianua, ne verso stridores cardine reddat, Nulla domo tota.’

3009 ff. Metam. xi. 602 ff.,

‘saxo tamen exit ab imo Rivus aquae Lethes, per quem cum murmure labens Invitat somnos crepitantibus unda lapillis.’

3015 ff. Metam. xi. 610 ff.,

‘At medio torus est ebeno sublimis in antro, Plumeus, unicolor, pullo velamine tectus, Quo cubat ipse deus membris languore solutis. Hunc circa passim varias imitantia formas Somnia vana iacent,’ &c.

3044. ‘Ithecus’ is a misreading of ‘Icelos,’ as ‘Panthasas’ in l. 3049 of ‘Phantasos.’

3061 ff. Here Gower has made a real improvement in the story by employing the two other ministers of Sleep, whose functions have been described, to represent the scene of the tempest and the wreck, while Morpheus plays the part of Ceyx in the same scene. Ovid introduces the characters of Icelos and Phantasos, but makes no use of them, sending Morpheus alone to relate what has taken place, instead of representing it in action, as it would more naturally appear in a dream.

3159. mi herte: more usually ‘min herte’ as 3139, and so generally before ‘h,’ whether aspirated or not, e.g. 3561; but ‘for mi housebondes were,’ vii. 4813, (with ‘myn housebonde’ below, 4829).

3187 ff. This seems to be for the most part original. A hint may have been given by the lines of Ovid in which it is suggested that Aurora might have used a somewhat similar prayer:

‘At si quem manibus Cephalum complexa teneres, Clamares, Lente currite, noctis equi.’

Amor. i. 13, 39.

3222. The sun enters Capricorn on Dec. 21.

3273. that he arise: so 3374, ‘Til it be dai that I arise,’ and v. 3422, ‘Til dai cam that sche moste arise.’

The verb seems here to be attracted into the subjunctive by the indefinite meaning of ‘Til.’ In the other passages the mood is uncertain.

3317 ff. Ovid, Metam. i. 588-723, much abbreviated. It was, however, Jupiter who turned Io into a cow.

3386. for thou thee schalt avise, ‘in order that thou mayest consider.’

3414. that I nere of this lif, ‘would that I were out of this life.’ For ‘that I nere’ cp. note on 1422. For ‘of this lif’ cp. vii. 2883, ‘whan he were of dawe.’

3438 f. ‘And yet he (Obstinacy) cannot support his own cause by any argument but by headstrong wilfulness.’

For the expression ‘of hed’ we may compare the Latin expression quoted by Du Cange ‘de testa esse,’ explained ‘esse obstinatum’ (Ital. ‘essere di testa’), and the French adjective ‘testu,’

‘Car fol estoient et testu,’ &c.

Froissart says of Pope Urban VI that after his election ‘il s’en outrecuida et enorguilli, et volt user de poissance et de teste,’ which is translated by Berners, ‘he waxed proude and worked all on heed.’ We find also the Latin adjective ‘capitosus’ used by Gower in the margin at the beginning of the Cronica Tripertita, and the adverb ‘capitose,’ meaning ‘in a headstrong manner,’ in Walsingham, Hist. Anglica, e.g. ‘Regem contra regni consuetudinem Cancellarium deposuisse capitose,’ vol. ii. p. 70 (Rolls Series).

The usual way of reading the sentence has been to punctuate after ‘skile’ and to take ‘bot of hed’ with the next line, ‘but he wastes away in his condition’ (‘hed’ from a supposed ‘hǣd’ akin to the suffix ‘-hed’ or ‘-hede’). This word perhaps occurs Conf. Am. ii. 2066, but it would give no very good sense here, and it is doubtful whether it would be rhymed with ‘ded.’ The suffix ‘-hed’ ‘-hede’ apparently has ‘ẹ’ in Gower’s rhymes. Again, if so marked a break in the middle of the line were intended, the Fairfax MS. would almost certainly have had a stop to indicate it, as in 3423, 3431, 3458, 3459, 3484, 3485, to quote instances only from the same page of the MS.