Chapter 62

‘Whiche as he wot is puyson inne.’

872.hire, cp. 367.

894.which stod thanne upon believe, ‘which then was thought to be possible.’

938.homward, i.e. ‘goes towards home’; cp. iii. 1021, 2451.

940 ff. In Hegesippus the address is as follows: ‘Beata Paulina concubitu dei. Magnus deus Anubis cuius tu accepisti mysteria. Sed disce te sicut diis ita et hominibus non negare, quibus dii tribuant quod tu negaveras: quia nec formas suas dare nobis nec nomina dedignantur. Ecce ad sacra sua deus Anubis vocavit et Mundum, ut tibi iungeret. Quid tibi profuit duritia tua, nisi ut te xx milium quae obtuleram defraudaret compendio? Imitare deos indulgentiores, qui nobis sine pretio tribuunt quod abs te magno pretio impetrari nequitum est. Quod si te humana offendunt vocabula, Anubem me vocari placuit, et nominis huius gratia effectum iuvit.’ It must be allowed that our author has improved upon this offensive prolixity.

987.sche may ther noght, ‘she hath no power in the matter’: cp. 725, ‘there I lye noght.’

1006.Citezeine.Gower uses several of these feminine forms of substantives. Besides ‘citezeine’ we have cousine, ii. 1201, capiteine, v. 1972, enemie, v. 6753, anemie, viii. 1355 (all of which also occur in theMirour), and occasionally adjectives, as ‘veine’ (gloire), i. 2677 ff., (vertu) ‘sovereine,’ ii. 3507, ‘seinte’ (charite), iv. 964, ‘soleine,’ v. 1971, and probably ‘divine,’ ii. 3243, ‘gentile,’ viii. 2294.

1013 ff. ‘questioni subicit, confessos necat.’ Our author here expands his original.

1040.Whos cause, ‘for the sake of which.’

1051.put, pres. tense, ‘putteth.’

1067.menable, ‘fit to guide,’ the ship; cp. ii. 1123, ‘A wynd menable fro the londe.’ The word occurs several times in our author’s French, asMirour, 3676, 11882, 17392. The meaning in English is not always the same, the word being, like others of this form, sometimes active and sometimes passive: cp. ‘deceivable’ (ii. 1698, 2202). Here and in the passage quoted the meaning is ‘leading,’ ‘fit to guide’: elsewhere it stands for ‘easily led,’ ‘apt to be guided,’ as in iii. 390 and the French examples.

1068. ‘tobreken’ is the reading of JH₁XGL, SBΔ, W, and is evidently required by the sense.

1077 ff. Here Gower mainly follows Benoît de Sainte-More (Roman de Troie, 25620 ff.), but he was of course acquainted also with Guido (Historia Troiana, lib. 27: m 5, ed. Argent. 1494). The name Epius is from Benoît, for Guido has ‘Apius’: on the other hand, Guido and not Benoît describes the horse as made of brass. In speaking of the discussion about pulling down a portion of the walls, and of the walls themselves as built by Neptune, 1146, 1152 ff., our author is certainly drawing from Benoît. Some points of the story and many details are original.

Of hem that&c., ‘As regards those who have such deceit in their hearts,’ i.e. hypocrites: cp. 956, ‘O derke ypocrisie.’

1102. The MS. can hardly be right in punctuating after ‘Togedre.’

1129 f. So Lydgate, perhaps with this passage in his mind,

‘Makynge a colour of devocionThrough holynesse under ypocrisie.’Tale of Troye, bk. iv.

‘Makynge a colour of devocionThrough holynesse under ypocrisie.’

‘Makynge a colour of devocion

Through holynesse under ypocrisie.’

Tale of Troye, bk. iv.

1133.trapped.‘In quo construentur quedam clausure sic artificiose composite, quod’ &c.Hist. Troiana, m 4 vo. Gower does not say that men were contained within, though this is stated by his authorities, of whom Benoît places Sinon inside the horse, while Guido finds room there for a thousand armed men. The ‘twelve’ wheels seem to be due to Gower, as also the picturesque touch, ‘And goth glistrende ayein the Sunne.’

1146 ff. Cp.Roman de Troie, 25814 ff. (ed. Joly),

‘Et quant ço virent Troien,Conseil pristrent que des terralzAbatroient les granz muralz,Les biax, les granz, que NeptunusOt fet, M. anz aveit et plus,Et qu’ Apollo ot dedié.’

‘Et quant ço virent Troien,

Conseil pristrent que des terralz

Abatroient les granz muralz,

Les biax, les granz, que Neptunus

Ot fet, M. anz aveit et plus,

Et qu’ Apollo ot dedié.’

1165.crossen seil, ‘set their sails across (the mast).’

1172.Synon.The reading of F may be right, for ‘Simon’ is the form of the name given in many copies of Guido. Here however the whole of the second recension and the better copies of the first give ‘Synon,’ and a copyist’s alteration would be towards the more familiar name.

1225.lok.In l. 1703 we have ‘loke’ for the imperative, which must be regarded as more strictly correct.

Latin Verses.vi. 1 f.olle Fictilis ad cacabum, a proverb derived from Ecclus. xiii. 3, ‘Quid communicabit cacabus ad ollam? quando enim se colliserint confringetur.’

6. The elephant was supposed to have no joints.

1262 f.That I ... ne bowe more.For the form of expression see note on 718. Pauli makes the text here quite unintelligible by reproducing an error of Berthelet’s edition and adding to it another of his own.

1293. A proverbial expression like that in vi. 447, ‘For selden get a domb man lond.’

1328.retenue, ‘engagement of service’: cp.Bal.viii. 17,

‘Q’a vous servir j’ai fait ma retenue.’

1354.the decerte Of buxomnesse, i.e. ‘the service of obedience.’ For both the spelling and meaning of ‘decerte’ cp.Mir.10194,

‘Qe ja ne quiert ou gaign ou perteDu siecle avoir pour sa decerte.’

‘Qe ja ne quiert ou gaign ou perte

Du siecle avoir pour sa decerte.’

1407 ff. The ‘Tale of Florent’ is essentially the same as Chaucer’s ‘Wife of Bath’s Tale,’ but the details are in many ways different. According to Chaucer the hero of the adventure is a knight of Arthur’s court and the occasion of his trouble a much less creditable one than in the case of Florent. In Chaucer’s tale the knight sees a fairy dance of ladies in the forest before he meets his repulsive deliverer, and she gets from him a promise that he will grant her next request if it lies in his power, the demand of marriage being put off until after the question has been successfully solved by her assistance. The rather unseasonable lectures on gentilesse, poverty, and old age are not introduced by Gower. On the other hand, Chaucer’s alternative, ‘Will you have me old and ugly but a faithful wife, or young and fair with the attendant risks?’ is more pointed and satisfactory than the corresponding feature in Gower’s tale. Finally, Chaucer has nothing about the enchantment by which the lady had been transformed.

It is tolerably certain that neither borrowed the story from the other, though there are a few touches of minute resemblance which may suggest that one was acquainted with the other’s rendering of it: see ll. 1587, 1727.

We cannot point to the precise original of either; but a very similar story is found inThe Weddynge of Sir Gawene and Dame Ragnell, published in the collection of poems relating to Gawain edited by Sir F. Madden (Bannatyne Club, 1839) and contained in MS. Rawlinson C. 86. In this ballad Arthur’s life is spared by a strange knight who meets him unarmed in the forest, on condition of answering his question, ‘What do women love best,’ at the end of twelve months. He is assisted by Dame Ragnell, who demands in return to be married toSir Gawain. Sir Gawain accepts the proposal from loyalty to his lord, and the rest is much as in Gower’s version. It should be noted that the alternative of day or night appears in the ballad and was a feature of the original story, which Chaucer altered.

The Percy fragment ofThe Marriage of Sir Gawain, also printed in Sir F. Madden’s volume, is the same story as we have in the other ballad. The name Florent and that of the Emperor Claudius are probably due to Gower, who is apt to attach to his stories names of his own choosing: cp. Lucius and Dionys (Conf. Am.v. 7124*,Mir.7101).

Shakespeare refers to Gower’s story in the line,

‘Be she as foul as was Florentius’ love.’Tam. of the Shr.i. 2. 69.

‘Be she as foul as was Florentius’ love.’

Tam. of the Shr.i. 2. 69.

1427.his oghne hondes: cp. iii. 2011, 2142; v. 1884, 5455 (‘seide his oghne mouth’).

1509.schape unto the lere, ‘prepared for the loss’ (O. E. lyre).

1521.par aventure, or ‘per aventure’ as given by J. The former of the two words is as usual contracted in F.

1536.his horse heved, ‘his horse’s head’: cp. Prol. 1085, iv. 1357, &c. The word ‘heved,’ also written ‘hefd,’ ‘hed,’ is a monosyllable as regards the metre.

1541.Florent be thi name: cp. Chaucer,Cant. Tales, B 3982, ‘dan Piers be youre name.’

1556. ‘I ask for nothing better (to be imposed) as a task.’

1587.Have hier myn hond: so in Chaucer, ‘Have heer my trouthe,’ D 1013.

1662. This is one of the closest parallels with the ballad,

‘And she that told the nowe, sir Arthoure,I pray to god I maye se her bren on a fyre.’Weddynge of Syr Gawene, 475.

‘And she that told the nowe, sir Arthoure,I pray to god I maye se her bren on a fyre.’

‘And she that told the nowe, sir Arthoure,

I pray to god I maye se her bren on a fyre.’

Weddynge of Syr Gawene, 475.

1676.what: cp. the use of ‘quoy’ in French, e.g.Mir.1781.

1677.caste on his yhe, ‘cast his eye upon.’

1714. ‘He must, whom fate compels.’ The words ‘schal,’ ‘scholde’ are regularly used by Gower to express the idea of destiny, e.g. iii. 1348, iv. 92, 377.

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.

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

‘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 FrenchRoman 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 theVita 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, asGesta Romanorum, 143, Holkot, 70, seeGesta 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.

2317.as tho was faie, ‘as then was endued with (magic) power,’ ‘faie’ being an adjective, as in ii. 1019, v. 3769.

2320.of his sotie, to be taken with what follows.

2340 ff. I know of no authority for this manner of his death.

2343-2358. This pretty passage is a late addition, appearing only in the third recension MSS. and one other copy, so far as I know. According to Ovid, the nymphs of the fountains and of the woods mourned for Narcissus,

‘Planxere sororesNaides, et sectos fratri posuere capillos;Planxerunt Dryades, plangentibus assonat Echo,’

‘Planxere sorores

Naides, et sectos fratri posuere capillos;

Planxerunt Dryades, plangentibus assonat Echo,’

but when they desired to celebrate his obsequies, they found nothing there but a flower.

2350.par aventure: see note on 2049.

2355 ff. This application of the story, founded on the fact that the narcissus blooms in early spring, seems to be due to our author: cp. ii. 196, iii. 1717.

2377.a place, equivalent to ‘aplace,’ which we find in l. 1888, i.e. ‘on place,’ ‘into place.’ We might read ‘aplace’ here also, for though the words were at first written separately in F, there seems to have been an intention of joining them afterwards. However, such separations are often found elsewhere, as ‘a doun,’ iv. 2710, v. 385; ‘a ferr’; i. 2335; ‘a game,’ viii. 2319; and most MSS. have ‘a place’ here.

2398. The reading of F, ‘Which elles scholde haue his wille,’ is a possible one, but the preservation of final ‘e’ before ‘have’ used unemphatically, as here, would be rather unusual. Instances such as l. 2465, ‘a werre hadde,’ are not to the point, and in l. 2542, where there is a better example, ‘Of such werk as it scholde have,’ the word ‘have’ is made more emphatic by standing in rhyme.

Latin Verses.ix. 2.cilens.Such forms of spelling are not uncommon in Gower’s Latin: cp. ‘cenatore,’ v. 4944 (margin).

2410.wynd.The curious corruption ‘hunt,’ which appears in one form or another in all the copies of the unrevised first recension, must have been one of the mistakes of the original copyist. The critical note here should be, ‘hunt(e) H₁YX ... C hante L haunt B₂,’ and the actual reading in L is, ‘Haþ þilke errour hante in his office,’ which seems due to a marginal note having been incorporated in the text.

2411.Which, for ‘that’ in consecutive sense, answering to ‘thilke,’ see note on l. 492. In this case it does not even stand as the subject of the verb, for we have ‘he overthroweth.’

2421.tok.This is second person singular, and we might rather expect ‘toke,’ which in fact is the reading of some good copies: cp. ii. 234, iii. 2629, viii. 2076.

2443.daunger.See note onBalades, xii. 8. The name represents the influences which are unfavourable to the lover’s suit, and chiefly the feelings in the lady’s own mind which tend towards prudence or prompt her to disdain. The personification in theRoman de la Roseis well known. There Danger is the chief guardian of the rose-bush, and has for his helpers Malebouche, who spreads unfavourable reports of the lover, with Honte and Paour, who represent the feelings in the lady’s mind which lead her to resist his advances: seeRoman de la Rose, 2837 ff., Chaucer,Leg. of G. Women, B 160,Troilus, ii. 1376. Danger, however, also stands without personification for scornfulness or reluctance in love, and so the adjective ‘dangereus’Rom. de la Rose, 479 (Eng. ‘dangerous,’Cant. Tales, D 1090, ‘Is every knight of his so dangerous?’).

In theConfessio Amantisthe principal passages relating to Danger as a person are iii. 1537 ff. and v. 6613 ff. Such expressions also frequently occur as ‘hire daunger,’ iv. 2813; ‘thi Daunger,’ iv. 3589; ‘make daunger,’ ii. 1110; ‘withoute danger,’ iv. 1149: cp. Chaucer,Troilus, ii. 384.

For the references to Danger in Lydgate see Dr. Schick’s note onTemple of Glas, 156 (E. E. T. S.).

2459 ff. The story of Alboin and Rosemund is related by Paulus Diaconus,Gest. Langob.ii. 28, and after him by many others. This historian declares that he has himself seen the cup made of a skull from which the queen was invited to drink. According to him, Helmichis, the king’s foster-brother and shield-bearer, plotted with Rosemunda against the king and induced her to gain the support of one Peredeus by the device of substituting herself for her waiting-maid. In some versions of the story this Peredeus was omitted. For example, in thePantheonof Godfrey of Viterbo (xvii), where the story is related first in prose and then in verse, he is only slightly mentioned in the prose account and not at all in the verse, Helmegis being substituted for him in both as the object of the queen’s artifice. It seems probable that Gower followed this author, with whose book we know he was acquainted (viii. 271). The name of the waiting-maid, Glodeside, seems to have been supplied by our author, who took it no doubt from ‘Glodosinda,’ the name of Alboin’s former wife. Helmege the king’s ‘boteler’ is the ‘Helmegis pincerna regis’ of thePantheon, and some expressions correspond closely, as 2474 (margin), ‘ciphum ex ea gemmis et auro circumligatum ... fabricari constituit,’ with the line ‘Arte scyphum fieri statuens auroque ligari.’

The tale is well told by Gower, but he alters the final catastrophe, soas not to lengthen the story unnecessarily and divert attention from his principal object, which has to do with Alboin’s punishment for boasting and not with the fate of the adulterous pair. He is responsible for most of the details: in thePantheonthe story occupies only sixty lines of Latin verse and is rather meagre in style. Compare, for example, the following with the account given by Gower of the holding of the banquet, the cruel boast of Alboin, and the feelings of the queen (2495-2569),

‘Ipse caput soceri, quem fecerat ense necari,Arte scyphum fieri statuens auroque ligari,Vina suae sponsae praecipit inde dari.Femina nescisset quod testa paterna fuisset,Vina nec hausisset, nisi diceret impius ipse,“Testa tui patris est, cum patre, nata, bibe.”Dum bibit immunda data vina gemens Rosimunda,Pectora pessumdat, lacrymae vehementer inundant,Occisique patris res fit amara satis.’

‘Ipse caput soceri, quem fecerat ense necari,

Arte scyphum fieri statuens auroque ligari,

Vina suae sponsae praecipit inde dari.

Femina nescisset quod testa paterna fuisset,

Vina nec hausisset, nisi diceret impius ipse,

“Testa tui patris est, cum patre, nata, bibe.”

Dum bibit immunda data vina gemens Rosimunda,

Pectora pessumdat, lacrymae vehementer inundant,

Occisique patris res fit amara satis.’

2485 (margin).Bibe cum patre tuo: these are the exact words of the prose account in thePantheon.

2504. There is a stop after ‘ordeine’ in F, therefore ‘sende’ should be taken as a past tense rather than as infinitive dependent on ‘let.’

2533. ‘And took a pride within his heart.’

2548. The punctuation is that of the MSS.

2569.had mad.The use of ‘had’ for ‘hadde’ in a position like this, where it is followed by a consonant (or of ‘hadde’ with the value of a monosyllable in such a position), is most unusual in Gower’s verse. If there were a little more authority for it, we might read ‘hath,’ as given by J: cp. iv. 170, where many of the best copies read ‘Had mad’ for ‘Hath mad.’ It is possible that the author meant here ‘hath had mad’ (‘had’ being past participle), but I cannot quote any clear example of this form of speech at so early a date.

2642 ff. Here Gower departs from the authorities and winds up the story abruptly. According to the original story, Longinus the prefect of Ravenna conspired with Rosemunda to poison Helmichis; and he, having received drink from her hand and feeling himself poisoned, compelled her to drink also of the same cup.

2677.veine gloire.The adjective here adopts the Frenchfeminine form, as we have it in this very combination in theMirour, e.g. l. 1219. On the other hand, where the words are separated, as l. 2720, the uninflected form is used. See note on l. 1006.

Latin Verses.x. 5.strigilare fauellum, ‘to curry favel.’

2684. ‘Heaven seems no gain to him.’ The forms ‘þinken’ and ‘þenken’ are identified by Gower under ‘þenken’; but ‘þinke’ is sometimes used in rhyme, and indifferently for either, e.g. v. 213, 254.

2701.unavised, adv., ‘in a foolish fashion.’

2703 ff. Cp.Mir.27337 ff., where the author pleads guilty to these crimes, as the lover also does below.

2705 (margin). Ecclus. xix. 27, ‘Amictus corporis et risus dentium et ingressus hominis enunciant de illo.’

2706 f.the newe guise of lusti folk, i.e. the latest fashion for men of pleasure.

2713 f. This is one of the cases in which the third recension reading has been introduced over erasure into the text of F: cp. Prol. 336, iv. 1321, 1361, vii.Lat. Versesafter ll. 1640 and 1984.

The original lines are given in the foot-note in accordance with S. They were altered perhaps to avoid repetition of 2681 f.

2745.songe, so here in F and A, elsewhere ‘song.’

2746.Wherof: cp. l. 498.

2764.hire good astat.For the loss of inflexion cp. ii. 2341, ‘his slyh compas.’

2769.whiche: often treated as a monosyllable in the verse, as ii. 604, iv. 1498, &c., but cp. l. 2825.

2787. Prol. 585 ff.

2795.bere: pret., as shown both by sense and rhyme.

2801.good.The original reading was ‘godd,’ which perhaps may be thought better, but the alteration may have been made by the author to avoid a repetition of the same word that he had used in l. 2796. The meaning is, ‘he did not remember that there was anything else of worth except himself.’

2830.And fedden hem, i.e. ‘And that they fed themselves,’ &c.; cp. 2833, ‘and seide.’

2883.sein: so ii. 170, iii. 757, in rhyme always.

2890. Written in F ‘vnder the þe kinges,’ as if to make a distinction, but ‘þee’ in the next line.

2939. The punctuation after ‘godd’ is on the authority of F: otherwise it would be better to take ‘with godd and stonde in good acord’ together.

2951.He let it passe&c. The preceding sentence is broken off, and a new one begins which takes no account of the negative: see note on i. 98. This seems better than to make ‘it’ refer to his pride, for ‘mynde’ can hardly mean anything here but memory.

3032. ‘He found the same gentleness in his God.’

3050.can no love assise, ‘can adapt no love to his liking.’

3067 ff. The tale of the Three Questions is one of which I cannot trace the origin, notwithstanding the details of name and place which are given at the end, viz. that the king was of Spain and was called Alphonso, that the knight’s name was Pedro and his daughter’s Petronilla. A reference to the second and third questions occurs in theMirour de l’omme, 12601 ff.

3153.herd you seid: so v. 1623, 7609, ‘herd me told.’ This form of expression, for ‘herd you seie,’ ‘herd me telle,’ may have sprung from such a use of the participle as we have in v. 3376, ‘Sche hadde herdspoke of his name’: cp. the use of participle for infinitive with ‘do’ in ii. 1799 and Chaucer,Cant. Tales, A 1913, ‘Hath Theseüs doon wroght,’ E 1098, ‘Hath doon yow kept.’

3203.par chaunce: see note on 2049.

3246.ansuerde.This seems to be a plural form of the participle, used here for the rhyme: so iv. 1810, v. 6789.

3296.leste: elsewhere ‘lest’; cp. 3106, 3313. Here we have ‘leste’ A, F, ‘lest’ JC, B. The form ‘moste’ is undoubtedly used for ‘most’ (adv.) i. 307.

3308.reprise, ‘trouble,’ as we have ‘paine et reprise’ inMirour, 3968.

3365 f.lete That I ne scholde be: cp. iv. 454. In both cases ‘lete’ is the past participle of ‘leten’ (lǣtan), and not from ‘letten,’ meaning ‘hinder.’ In these expressions ‘lete’ means ‘left’ in the sense of ‘omitted’ (like ‘lete Of wrong to don,’ vii. 2726), and in this usage is naturally followed by a negative: cp. v. 4465, ‘I wol noght lete, What so befalle of mi beyete, That I ne schal hire yive and lene.’ The same phrase occurs with the past participle ‘let’ (meaning ‘hindered’) in ii. 128, and the sense is nearly the same.

3369 ff. Several corrections have been made by the author in this passage, either to make the verse run more smoothly, as 3369 ‘it mot ben holde’ for ‘mot nede be holde,’ 3374 ‘mad a Pier’ for ‘an Erl hier,’ 3412 ‘vice be received’ for ‘vice schal be received,’ or to improve the sense and expression, as 3381 ‘maide’ for ‘place,’ 3396 ‘wyse Peronelle’ for ‘name Peronelle,’ 3414 ‘worth, and no reprise’ for ‘worthy, and no prise,’ 3416 ‘If eny thing stond in contraire’ for ‘And it is alway debonaire,’ an awkward parenthesis. It should be noted that Λ (the Wollaton copy of the second recension) here goes with the unrevised first recension, whereas B agrees with the revised form, except in ll. 3369, 3381.

3381.the maide asterte, ‘escape the influence of the maiden.’

3442 f. The hellish nature of Envy consists in the fact that it wrongs both itself and others without cause, that is without having any further object to gain. It rejoices in evil for the sake of the evil itself and not for any advantage to be won from it. Cp. ii. 3132 ff.

LIB. II.

11.if it be so, equivalent to ‘is it so,’ from the form ‘I ask if it be so.’

20.Ethna: cp.Mirour, 3805 ff.,

‘Ly mons Ethna, quele art toutdiz,Nulle autre chose du paiisForsque soy mesmes poet ardoir;Ensi q’ Envie tient ou pisEn sentira deinz soy le pis.’

‘Ly mons Ethna, quele art toutdiz,

Nulle autre chose du paiis

Forsque soy mesmes poet ardoir;

Ensi q’ Envie tient ou pis

En sentira deinz soy le pis.’

The idea is that Envy, like Mount Etna, burns within itself continually, but is never consumed: cp. Ovid,Met.xiii. 867 (in the tale which follows below of Acis and Galatea),

‘Uror enim, laesusque exaestuat acrius ignis,Cumque suis videor translatam viribus AetnamPectore ferre meo.’

‘Uror enim, laesusque exaestuat acrius ignis,

Cumque suis videor translatam viribus Aetnam

Pectore ferre meo.’

83.Write in Civile.‘Civile’ is certainly the Civil Law, for so we find it inMirour, 15217, 16092, &c., and also personified inPiers Plowman. The reference here has puzzled me rather, but the following, I believe, is the explanation of it, strange as it may seem at first sight.

In the Institutions of Justinian, i. 7, ‘De lege Furia Caninia sublata,’ we read that this law, which restricted the power of owners of slaves to manumit them by will, was repealed ‘quasi libertatibus impedientem et quodammodo invidam.’ It seems that medieval commentators upon this, reading ‘canina’ for Caninia in the title of the law, explained the supposed epithet by reference to the adjective ‘invidam’ used in the description of it, and conceived the law to have been called ‘canina’ because it compelled men to imitate the dog in the manger by withholding liberty from those for whom they no longer had any use as slaves. In Bromyard’sSumma Predicantiumwe find the following under the head of ‘Invidia’: ‘Omnes isti sunt de professione legis Fusie canine. Ille enim Fusius inventor fuit legis cuius exemplum seu casus est iste. Quidam habet fontem quo non potest proprium ortum irrigare ... posset tamen alteri valere sine illius nocumento; ipse tamen impedit ne alteri prosit quod sibi prodesse non potest, ad modum canis, sicut predictum est: a cuius condicione lex canina vocata est inter leges duodecim tabularum, que quia iniqua fuit, in aliis legibus correcta est, sicut patet Institut. lib. i. de lege Fusia canina tollenda.’

It seems likely then that Gower took the fable from some comment on this passage of the Institutions.

88.who that understode, ‘if a man understood,’ subjunctive: see notes on Prol. 13, 460.

104 ff. From Ovid,Met.xiii. 750 ff., where it is told at greater length. The circumstance, however, of Polyphemus running round Etna and roaring with rage and jealousy before he killed Acis, is added by Gower, possibly from a misunderstanding of l. 872. It is certainly an improvement.

128.it myhte noght be let&c. See note on i. 3365.

196.as he whilom&c. This suggestion is due to our author: cp. i. 2355 ff.

252.who overthrowe, Ne who that stonde.The verbs are probably singular and subjunctive: cp. iii. 665.

258.And am: cp. note on i. 1895.

261. Cp. Chaucer,Cant. Tales, G 746 ff., where the Ellesmere MS. has in the margin ‘Solacium miseriorum’ &c. The quotation does not seem to be really from Boethius.

265 f. ‘When I see another man labour where I cannot achieve success.’ For this use of ‘to’ cp. Prol. 133, &c.

283.to hindre with, ‘whereby to hinder’: cp. i. 452, 2172.

291 ff. This story, as Prof. Morley points out, is to be found among the fables of Avian, which were widely known. Gower has amplified it considerably. The fable is as follows:

xxii. ‘Iuppiter, ambiguas hominum praediscere mentes,Ad terram Phoebum misit ab arce poli.Tunc duo diversis poscebant numina votis,Namque alter cupidus, invidus alter erat;His sese medium Titan scrutatus utrumqueObtulit et, “Precibus Iuppiter aecus,” ait,“Praestandi facilis; nam quae speraverit unus,Protinus haec alter congeminata feret.”Sed cui longa iecur nequiit satiare cupido,Distulit admotas in sua dona preces,10Spem sibi confidens alieno crescere voto,Seque ratus solum munera ferre duo.Ille ubi captantem socium sua praemia vidit,Supplicium proprii corporis optat ovans;Nam petit extincto iam lumine degat ut uno,Alter ut hoc duplicans vivat utroque carens.Tum sortem sapiens humanam risit Apollo,Invidiaeque malum rettulit ipse Iovi,Quae dum proventis aliorum gaudet iniquis,Laetior infelix et sua damna cupit.’20

xxii. ‘Iuppiter, ambiguas hominum praediscere mentes,

Ad terram Phoebum misit ab arce poli.

Tunc duo diversis poscebant numina votis,

Namque alter cupidus, invidus alter erat;

His sese medium Titan scrutatus utrumque

Obtulit et, “Precibus Iuppiter aecus,” ait,

“Praestandi facilis; nam quae speraverit unus,

Protinus haec alter congeminata feret.”

Sed cui longa iecur nequiit satiare cupido,

Distulit admotas in sua dona preces,10

Spem sibi confidens alieno crescere voto,

Seque ratus solum munera ferre duo.

Ille ubi captantem socium sua praemia vidit,

Supplicium proprii corporis optat ovans;

Nam petit extincto iam lumine degat ut uno,

Alter ut hoc duplicans vivat utroque carens.

Tum sortem sapiens humanam risit Apollo,

Invidiaeque malum rettulit ipse Iovi,

Quae dum proventis aliorum gaudet iniquis,

Laetior infelix et sua damna cupit.’20

l. 6. Iuppiter aecusLachmannvt petereturcodd.

309.Now lowde wordes&c., i.e. Now with loud words, &c.; cp. vii. 170.

317.That on, ‘The one.’

323 (margin).maculauit.Du Cange has, ‘Maculare, Vulnerare, vel vulnerando deformare.’

389.Malebouche, cp.Roman de la Rose, 2847 ff.,Mirour de l’omme, 2677 ff.

390.pyl ne crouche, ‘pile nor cross,’ cross and pile being thetwo sides of a coin, head and tail.

399 f. The meaning of ‘heraldie’ is rather uncertain here. Probably it stands for ‘office of herald,’ and the passage means, ‘Holding the place of herald in the court of liars’; but theNew Engl. Dict.apparently takes it in the sense of ‘livery,’ comparing the French ‘heraudie,’ a cassock, and an eighteenth-century example in English. In this case we must understand the lines to mean ‘wearing the livery of those who lie,’ that is, being in their service.

401 ff. Cp.Mirour, 3721 ff.

404.fals, see note on Prol. 221. Just below (l. 412) we have ‘his false tunge.’

413 ff. Cp.Mirour, 2893 ff.,

‘La hupe toutdis fait son ny,Et l’escarbud converse auci,Entour l’ordure et la merdaille;Mais de ces champs qui sont floriN’ont garde: et par semblance ensiMalvoise langue d’enviaille,’ &c.

‘La hupe toutdis fait son ny,

Et l’escarbud converse auci,

Entour l’ordure et la merdaille;

Mais de ces champs qui sont flori

N’ont garde: et par semblance ensi

Malvoise langue d’enviaille,’ &c.

447. ‘That many envious tale is stered,’ ‘many’ being a monosyllable for the metre before the vowel, as frequently in the expression ‘many a,’ and ‘envious’ accented on the penultimate syllable. For the use of ‘many’ by itself in the singular cp. ii. 89, iv. 1619, &c.

473. That is, she is on her guard against doing that of which she might afterwards repent. For ‘hadde I wist’ cp. i. 1888.

510 f.I myhte noght To soffre&c. A very unusual construction.

547 ff. ‘I cannot find that I have spoken anything amiss by reason of envy,’ &c.

565. ‘In which he knows that there is poison’: for the arrangement of words cp. i. 833.

583. ‘To be amended’: cp. Prol. 83.

587 ff. The tale of Constance is Chaucer’sMan of Law’s Tale, and the story was derived by the two authors from the same source, Nicholas Trivet’s Anglo-Norman chronicle. The story as told by him has been printed for the Chaucer Society from MS. Arundel 56, with collation of a Stockholm copy (Originals and Analogues, 1872). The quotations in these Notes, however, are from the Bodleian MS., Rawlinson B. 178.

Gower has followed the original more closely than Chaucer, but he diverges from it in a good many points, as will be seen from the following enumeration:

(1) Gower says nothing of the proficiency of Constance in sciences and languages, on which Trivet lays much stress. (2) He abridges the negotiations for marriage with the Souldan (620 ff.). (3) He does not mention the seven hundred Saracens with whom the Souldan’s mother conspired. (4) He brings Constance to land in Northumberland in the summer instead of on Christmas day (732). (5) He omits the talk between Constance and Hermyngeld which leads to the conversion of the latter (cp. 752 ff.). (6) According to Trivet the blind man who received his sight was one of the British Christians who had remained after the Saxon conquest, and he went to Wales to bring the bishop Lucius. (7) The knight who solicited Constance had been left, according to Trivet, in charge during Elda’s absence, and planned his accusation against her for fear she should report his behaviour to Elda on his return (cp. 792 ff.). (8) The words spoken when the felon knight was smitten are not the same. Gower moreover makes him confess his crime and then die, whereas in the French book he is put to death by the king (cp. 879 ff.). (9) The reasons for Domilde’shatred of Constance are omitted by Gower.(10)Trivet says that Domilde gave the messenger a drugged potion on each occasion (cp. 952 ff., 1008 ff.). (11) The communication to Constance of the supposed letter from the king, and her acceptance of her fate, are omitted by Gower. (12) The prayers of Constance for herself and her child upon the sea and her nursing of the child are additions made by Gower (1055-1083). (13) According to Trivet, Constance landed at the heathen admiral’s castle and was entertained there, going back to her ship for the night. Then in the night Thelous came to her, and professing to repent of having denied his faith, prayed that he might go with her and return to a Christian country. So they put out at sea, and he, moved by the devil, tempted her to sin. She persuaded him to look out for land, with a promise of yielding to his desires on reaching the shore, and while he is intent on this occupation, she pushes him overboard (cp. 1084-1125). (14) The vengeance of king Alle on his mother is related by Trivet immediately after this, by Gower later. According to Trivet he hewed her to pieces (cp. 1226-1301). In the ballad ofEmaréthe mother is condemned to be burnt, but her sentence is changed to exile. (15) Gower omits the entry of king Alle into Rome and the incident of his being seen by Constance as he passed through the streets. (16) Trivet says that when Morice took the message to the Emperor, the latter was struck by his resemblance to his lost daughter. (17) Gower adds the incident of Constance riding forward to meet her father (1500 ff.). (18) According to Trivet, Constance returned to Rome because of the illness of her father (cp. 1580 ff.).

These differences, besides others of detail, show that Gower treated the story with some degree of freedom.

Before Trivet was known as the common source for Chaucer and Gower, Tyrrwhitt suggested that Chaucer’s tale was taken from Gower. Chaucer in fact criticizes and rejects one feature of the tale which occurs in Gower’s version of it, namely the sending of ‘the child Maurice’ to invite the Emperor. This incident however comes from Trivet, and it is probably to him that Chaucer refers.

It has been argued however in recent times from certain minute resemblances in detail and forms of expression between Chaucer’s tale and Gower’s, that Chaucer was acquainted with Gower’s rendering of the story as well as with Trivet’s (E. Lücke inAnglia, vol. xiv); and the same line of reasoning has been employed by others, e.g. Dr. Skeat in his edition of Chaucer, to prove that Gower borrowed to some extent from Chaucer. It seems probable that Chaucer’s tale of Constance was written earlier than Gower’s, and it is likely enough that Gower was acquainted with his friend’s work and may have conveyed some expressions from it into his own. Lücke adduces twenty-seven instances, more than half of them trivial or unconvincing, but amounting on the whole to a tolerably strong proof that one of the two poets was acquainted with the other’s story. The mostconvincing of the parallels are the following: Gower, ‘Let take anon this Constantine’ 706, Chaucer, ‘And Custance have they take anon’Cant. Tales, B 438; Gower, ‘lich hir oghne lif Constance loveth’ 750, Chaucer, ‘loved hire right as hir lif’ B 535; Gower, ‘yif me my sihte’ 765, Chaucer, ‘yif me my sighte again’ B 560, Trivet, ‘qe tu me facetz le signe de la croiz sur mes eux enveugles’ f. 34; Gower, ‘The king with many another mo Hath christned’ 907, Chaucer, ‘The kyng and many another in that place converted was’ B 685; Gower, ‘to kepe his wif’ 925, Chaucer, ‘his wyf to kepe’ B 717; Gower, ‘goth to seke Ayein the Scottes for to fonde The werre’ 928 ff.; Chaucer, ‘whan he is gon To Scotlondward, his fomen for to seke’ B 717 f.; Gower, ‘The time set of kinde is come, This lady hath hir chambre nome’ 931 f. Chaucer, ‘She halt hire chambre abiding Cristes wille. The tyme is come’ B 721 f. These resemblances of phrase are such as we might expect to find if Gower had read Chaucer’s story before writing his own. In all essentials he is independent, and it is surely not necessary to suppose, as Dr. Skeat does, that a quarrel between them was caused by such a matter as this.

590. Tiberius Constantinus was Emperor (at Constantinople) for four years only, 578-582; his wife’s name was Anastasia. He selected Maurice of Cappadocia to succeed him, and gave him his daughter in marriage. The romance related by Trivet seems to have no historical foundation, but it was during the reign of Maurice that the mission went from Rome for the conversion of the English, and this may have had something to do with the story that Maurice himself was partly of English origin. Trivet himself mentions the historical form of the story, but pretends that he finds a different account in the old Saxon chronicles, ‘les aunciens croniques des Sessouns,’ or ‘l’estoire de Sessons.’

594.the god: cp. Prol. 72. We find both ‘god’ and ‘godd’ as forms of spelling, so ‘rod’ and ‘rodd,’ ‘bed’ and ‘bedd.’ Here ‘godd’ has been altered in F by erasure.

613. Both Chaucer and Gower make the Souldan send for the merchants, whereas in Trivet they are brought before him on accusation: but in fact here Gower agrees in essentials with Trivet, while Chaucer invents a quite different occasion for the interview.

653.Betwen hem two, ‘by themselves together’: cp. 752, 3517, iii. 1466.

684.Hire clos Envie: see note on Prol. 221. The metaphor here may be from spreading a net, or perhaps it means simply she displayed her secret envy.

693 f. Compare Chaucer’s development of the idea with examples,Cant. Tales, B 470 ff.

709.withoute stiere: Chaucer says ‘a ship al steereles’ where Trivet has ‘sanz sigle et sanz naviroun,’ or ‘sanz viron’ (MS. Rawl.): but either ‘viron’ or ‘naviron’ might stand for the oar with which the ship was steered.

709 ff. Note the free transposition of clauses for the sake of the rhymes. The logical order would be 709, 711, 710, 713, 712.

711.for yeres fyve.Trivet says ‘pur treis aunz,’ but he keeps her at sea nevertheless for nearly five.

736.gon, plural, ‘he and his wife go’: cp. 1152.

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.),

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