Part 138

For the use of ‘avowe’ in this sense, cp. v. 124.

3515 ff. The story is based upon Ovid, Metam. xiv. 698-761. Our author, however, has reversed the position of the lover and his mistress. In Ovid Anaxarete is a high-born maid of the race of Teucer, while Iphis is ‘humili de stirpe creatus.’ Moreover, the story is considerably developed by Gower, to whom belong the speech of Iphis, the whole account of the grief and self-condemnation of Araxarathen, the details of the funeral and the tomb, and finally the very successful epitaph. Ovid says that she saw from a window the body of Iphis being carried by for burial, and was forthwith turned into stone, and that as witness of the truth of his tale a statue may still be seen at Salamis. There is nothing said about remorse on her part, rather the opposite is implied.

3516. Our author supposes this to be the same as the person mentioned in iii. 2645 ff. (who is really Teuthras king of Mysia). This is Teucer son of Telamon, founder of Salamis in Cyprus.

3520 f. These lines are transposed for the sake of the rhyme. It means ‘on a maid of low estate compared with his’: cp. ii. 709, and below, l. 3616.

3542. Punctuated in accordance with F.

3589. Thi Daunger, ‘thy unwillingness to love’: see note on i. 2443.

3658 f. Naturally the expression of Ovid,

‘Veneris quoque nomine templum Prospicientis habet,’

was not understood.

LIB. V.

18. it cam to londe, wherof, ‘the occasion arose, whence,’ &c.

22. him supposeth: the verb is used impersonally, like ‘him thenketh.’ Probably the confusion between ‘thinke’ and ‘thenke’ gave rise to this expression.

29 ff. So below, 348 ff.: cp. Mirour, 7585 ff.

47 f. This seems, as it stands at present, to be an application of the instances to the case of the avaricious man, ‘Thus he so possesses his wealth that he in truth possesses nothing,’ (‘that’ for ‘so that’). The original couplet however, as read by all the unrevised class of manuscripts, applies to the case of the sheep, and we may take it so also in its revised form (‘Thus’ being answered by ‘that’).

49 ff. Cp. Mirour, 7645 ff.,

‘L’en dist, mais c’est inproprement, Qe l’averous ad grant argent; Mais voir est que l’argent luy a: En servitude ensi le prent,’ &c.

65. nevere hier. Note that there is no elision before ‘hier.’

81 f. ‘And yet, though I held her fast (as a miser his hoard), my life would be a perpetual feast, even on Fridays.’ If he possessed the treasure, his avarice would not allow him to let it go, and yet he would not keep it unused, as a miser does his gold. So later, 93, ‘Though I should hold it fast, I should so be doing that which I were bound to do.’

95. pipe, ‘be content’: perhaps from the idea of a bird-catcher piping or whistling for birds, but failing to snare them.

127-136. Note the repetition of the word ‘gold’ in an emphatic position.

141 ff. Ovid, Metam. xi. 85-147, freely treated as usual. The debate of Midas as to which of three things he should prefer (ll. 180-245) is all due to our author. In Ovid he chooses without hesitation.

143. Cillenus, i.e. Silenus.

154 f. Gower attributes the action of the king to pure courtesy, Ovid to the fact that Midas recognized in Silenus a fellow-mystic.

249 ff. Cp. Mirour, 7603 ff.

272 ff. Ovid, Metam. xi. 106,

‘Laetus abit gaudetque malo Berecyntius heros: Pollicitique fidem tangendo singula temptat. Ilice detraxit virgam, virga aurea facta est: Tollit humo saxum, saxum quoque palluit auro’: &c.

298. See note on i. 10.

315-332. This is an expansion of Metam. xi. 146 f.,