Chapter 64

‘Quod facit auratum est et cuspide fulget acuta.’

(Merkel alters ‘auratum’ to ‘hamatum,’ but this is certainly wrong.)

1704. Note that the final syllable of ‘Daphne’ is subject to elision here and in 1716: so ‘Progne’ v. 5574, &c.

1718 ff. The suggestion is Gower’s own, as in other similar cases, e.g. i. 2355.

1743. ‘And it is to be desired that a man,’ &c.

1757 ff. This story is chiefly from Benoît,Roman de Troie, 28025 ff. Guido omits many details which are given by Gower. Note that in l. 28025, where Joly’s edition has ‘Samas,’ Guido and Gower both have ‘Athemas.’ Our author has treated his materials freely and tells the story at greater length. The speech which he assigns to Nestor is for the most part original.

1885 ff. The tale of Orestes is from Benoît de Sainte-More,Rom. de Troie, 27925-27990, 28155-28283, and 28339-28402. Guido omits the visit of Orestes to Athens to obtain help for his expedition, the portion of the oracle which bad him tear away his mother’s breasts, and the name of Menetius (or Menesteus), who defended Orestes, and Gower’s details are in general more in accordance with those of Benoît. A few exceptions may be found, however. For example, Gower says that Agamemnon was murdered as he lay in bed (1915), Guido, ‘dum suo soporatus dormiret in lecto,’ but Benoît only, ‘L’ont la premiere nuit ocis.’ Again, Guido calls Idomeneus ‘consanguineum eius,’ and Gower says, ‘So as he was of his lignage,’ of which Benoît says nothing. No doubt Gower was acquainted with both, and preferred the French because he perceived it to be better.

1911. ‘To set her love in place where it cannot be secure.’

2022 f.Cropheon ... Phoieus.The names are given as ‘Trofion’ and ‘Florentes’ by Benoît (Joly’s text), ‘Troiesem’ (‘Croeze’ MS.) and ‘Forensis’ by Guido. They are originally derived from a misunderstanding of a passage in Dictys,Bell. Troi.vi. 3, ‘armatus cum praedicta manu ad Strophium venit: is namque Phocensis, cuius filia,’ &c.

2055 ff. This speech is introduced by Gower.

2112 f.

‘Li un dient qu’il a fet dreit,Et li autre que non aveit.’Rom. de Troie, 28275.

‘Li un dient qu’il a fet dreit,Et li autre que non aveit.’

‘Li un dient qu’il a fet dreit,

Et li autre que non aveit.’

Rom. de Troie, 28275.

2145.Menesteüs.This is a more correct form of the name than the ‘Menetius,’ which we have in Joly’s text of Benoît.

2148.of the goddes bede.Here we perhaps have Guido rather than Benoît.

2173.Egiona.The name is properly Erigona, and so it is given by Benoît. The moralization on her fate, 2183 ff., is due to our author, and it is rather out of place, considering the circumstances of the story.

2346.the trew man.In F we have ‘trew,’ altered apparently from ‘trewe,’ which is the usual and the more correct form: ‘the trew man to the plowh’ means the labourer who truly serves the plough.

2358. This is simply a repetition of 2355, ‘thei stonde of on acord.’ ‘As of corage’ means as regards their feeling or inclination: for this use of ‘as’ cp. Prol. 492, i. 557, &c.

2363 ff. A very common story, found shortly in Augustine,Civ. Dei, iv. 4, and repeated in theGesta Romanorumand many other books. Gower has expanded it after his own fashion.

2424 f. ‘that men set their hearts to make gain by such wrong doing.’

2451.homward, i.e. ‘going homeward.’ The word included something of a verbal sense, as we see in i. 938, iii. 1021: so also ‘toward’ in l. 2643.

2458.the world mistimed.The verb ‘mistime’ means properly ‘to happen amiss,’ with the suggestion that it is by the fault of the person concerned. Gower uses it here transitively for ‘to manage amiss,’ while in vi. 4 ‘was mystymed’ means ‘came unhappily about.’

2508.what man ... rede: for the subjunctive see note on Prol. 460.

2536. ‘Hardly have any fear’: see note on ii. 2124.

2555. Acastus was king of Iolcos. He purified Peleus, as some say of the murder of Eurytion, but according to others of that of Phocus: cp. Bocc.Gen. Deorum, xii. 50, ‘ad Magnetas abiit, ubi ab Achasto fraterna caede purgatus est.’

2563 f. Alcmaeon, son of Amphiaraus, was purified by Achelous, whom our author here takes for a priest.

2599 ff. This anecdote is told also in theMirour, 5029-5040, and there also it is ascribed to Solinus. I do not find it, however, in his book.

2608 ff. For the irregularity of this sentence cp. 1593 ff.

2639 ff. The story is taken from Benoît(Rom. de Troie, 6497-6590), as we may see at once from the name ‘Theucer,’ which Guido givesrather more correctly as ‘Theutran.’ Also ll. 2674-2680,Roman de Troie, 6545-6553, have nothing corresponding to them in Guido. Guido here certainly referred to a copy of the so-called Dares, where the name occurs in its classical form ‘Teuthras.’ He is particularly interested in the story on local grounds, being concerned to show that the ‘Messe’ which he found in Benoît might be connected with the name of his place of residence, Messina, and that the events related occurred actually in Sicily. Accordingly he speaks of certain columns popularly called ‘columns of Hercules,’ which existed in his own time in Sicily, ‘ex parte Barbarorum,’ i.e. on the south coast, and takes them as evidence of the connexion of Hercules with the island, and hence of the probability that this story (which in the original has to do with Hercules, though Gower has excluded him from it) had its scene in Sicily. Dares, he admits, says nothing of this, and his reference to Dares is here in more precise form than usual, ‘in suo codice’ according to the Bodleian MS., though the printed editions give ‘in suo opere’ (MS. Add. A. 365, f. 50 vo).

He says of the place where these columns are, ‘qui locus dicitur adhuc columpnarum,’ and adds that the emperor Frederic II has established a town there, and that the place is now called ‘terra nova.’ This is obviously identical with the modern Terranova, founded by Frederic II near the site of the ancient Gela. It seems probable that Guido may have been himself a native of this place or of its immediate neighbourhood, and that he chose to call himself after its former designation, ‘Columpna’ or ‘Columpnae,’ instead of by the new name which had come into use during his own lifetimeAN.

2643.His Sone.This is a mistake on the part of Gower. Both Benoît and Guido state quite clearly that Telephus was the son of Hercules, and that it was to Hercules that the obligation was due which is referred to in 2690 ff. Perhaps the copy of theRoman de Troiewhich Gower used had ‘Thelefus fu filz Achilles’ for ‘Thelefus fu filz Hercules,’ in l. 6506.

2756. We should rather have expected ‘That I fro you wol nothing hele.’

LIB. IV.

9. Cp.Mirour, 5606,

‘Lachesce dist, Demein, Demein.’

38.Thou schalt mowe: cp. ii. 1670, where we have ‘mow’ for ‘mowe.’

60.a fin.This is a French expression, which appears repeatedly in theMirouras ‘au fin.’

77 ff. The only definite indication of sources here is the reference (such as it is) to Ovid,Her. Ep.vii., contained in ll. 104-115.

92.as it be scholde, cp. iii. 1348.

104 ff. This picture seems to be constructed partly from a misreading or misunderstanding of Ovid,Her. Ep.vii. 1 f.,

‘Sic ubi fata vocant, udis abiectus in herbisAd vada Maeandri concinit albus olor.’

‘Sic ubi fata vocant, udis abiectus in herbis

Ad vada Maeandri concinit albus olor.’

It is difficult to see how our author translated these lines, but the result, which must have been chiefly due to his imagination, is rather creditable to him. Chaucer gives the true sense in theLegend of Good Women, 1355 ff.,

‘Ryght so,’ quod she, ‘as that the white swanAyenst his deth begynneth for to synge.Ryght so to yow I make my compleynynge.’

‘Ryght so,’ quod she, ‘as that the white swan

Ayenst his deth begynneth for to synge.

Ryght so to yow I make my compleynynge.’

128.such a lak of Slowthe, ‘such a fault of Sloth.’

137. That is, to put all the slothful in mind (of their duty).

147 ff. The general idea of this is taken from the letter of Penelope to Ulysses, Ovid,Her. Ep.i, but this is not closely followed in details, and it will be noticed that Gower represents the letter as sent while the siege of Troy still continued, and apparently he knows nothing of the great length of the wandering afterwards: cp. 226 ff.

170. The reading ‘Had’ for ‘Hath’ is given by many MSS., including F. We find ‘Hath’ in the following, H₁C, SAdTΔ, W, and it must certainly be the true reading.

196 ff. Ovid,Her. Ep.i. 2, ‘Nil mihi rescribas, attamen ipse veni.’

234. Robert Grosteste’s reputation for learning in the sciences earned for him, as for his contemporary Roger Bacon, the character of a student of magic. In the metrical life of Grosteste by Robert of Bardney (Wharton,Anglia Sacra, i. 333) one chapter is ‘De aeneo capite quod Oxoniae fecit Grosthede ad dubia quaeque determinanda.’ This author says only that by some accident the head fell and was broken, and that its inventor thereupon abandoned the study of forbidden sciences.

Naudé in hisApologie pour les grands hommes soupçonnez de Magieclasses ‘Robert de Lincolne’ and Albertus Magnus together as supposed makers of speaking images, but the former only on the authority of Gower, with whom he had been made acquainted by Selden.

242 f. That is, he lost all that he had done from the time when he first began to work; an inversion of clauses for the sake of the rhyme: cp. ii. 709 ff.

249.kept: more properly ‘kepe,’ but the infinitive is attracted into the form of the participle ‘wold,’ much as the participle of the mood auxiliary in modern German takes the form of the infinitive: see note on ii. 1799.

305.hadde I wist, cp. i. 1888, ii. 473. It is the exclamation of those who fall into evil by neglect of proper precaution. The same sentiment is expressed more fully in l. 899,

‘Ha, wolde god I hadde knowe!’

345.dar.This form stands as plural here and l. 350.

371 ff. The story of Pygmalion is from Ovid,Metam.x. 243-297.

377. ‘Being destined to the labours of love’; cp. note on iii. 143 (end).

415.how it were, i.e. ‘how so ever it were’: cp. l. 1848.

448.a solein tale, ‘a strange tale.’ This word ‘solein’ (or ‘soulein’), which English etymologists in search for the origin of ‘sullen’ report as hardly to be found in French, occurs repeatedly in theMirour de l’ommein the sense of ‘alone,’ ‘lonely.’ For the meaning here assigned to it we may compare the modern use of the word ‘singular,’ which in Gower’s French meant ‘lonely.’ There is no authority for Pauli’s reading ‘solempne,’ and it gives neither sense nor metre.

451 ff. The tale of Iphis is from Ovid,Metam.ix. 666-797, abbreviated and altered with advantage.

453 ff. The authority of the MSS. is strongly in favour of ‘grete: lete’ in these lines, and this reading is certainly right. We must take ‘lete’ as the past participle of the strong verb ‘leten’ (from ‘lǣtan’), meaning ‘leave,’ ‘omit,’ and ‘grete’ as accommodated to the rhyme. The negative construction following rather suggests ‘let,’ meaning ‘hindered’ as ii. 128 ff., but the rhyme ‘let: gret’ would be an impossible one. See note on i. 3365 and cp. l. 1153.

585.And stonde, i.e. ‘And I stonde’: cp. i. 1895, &c., and below, l. 697.

624.on miself along, so below l. 952, ‘It is noght on mi will along,’ and Chaucer,Troilus, ii. 1001,

‘On me is nought along thyn yvel fare.’

The use of ‘on’ for ‘of’ in this phrase is still known in some dialects.

647 ff. For the Ring of Forgetfulness here spoken of see Petrus Comestor,Exodusvi., where it is related that Moses in command of the Egyptians captured the chief city of the Ethiopians by the help of Tarbis, daughter of their king, and married her in recompense of her services. Then, wishing to return to Egypt and being detained by his wife, ‘tanquam vir peritus astrorum duas imagines sculpsit in gemmis huius efficaciae, ut altera memoriam, altera oblivionem conferret. Cumque paribus anulis eas inseruisset, alterum, scilicet oblivionis anulum, uxori praebuit, alterum ipse tulit; ut sic pari amore sic paribus anulis insignirentur. Coepit ergo mulier amoris viri oblivisci, et tandem libere in Aegyptum regressus est’ (Migne,Patrol.vol. 198, p. 1144). Cp. Godfr. Viterb.,Pantheon, v. (p. 115).

731 ff. Partly from Ovid,Her. Ep.ii. andRem. Am.591-604; but there was probably some other source, for our author would not find anything in Ovid about the transformation into a tree. Many of the details seem to be of his own invention, and he is probably responsible for the variation which makes the visit of Demophon to Thrace take place on the way to Troy instead of on the return. Chaucer’s form of the story in theLegend of Good Womenis quite different.

733. F is here followed in punctuation.

776.a Monthe day: Ovid,Her. Ep.ii. 3 f.,

‘Cornua cum lunae pleno semel orbe coissent,Litoribus nostris ancora pacta tua est.’

‘Cornua cum lunae pleno semel orbe coissent,

Litoribus nostris ancora pacta tua est.’

782. Cp. Ovid,Ars Am.ii. 354,

‘Exarsit velis acrius illa datis.’

787 ff. Except the idea of a letter being sent, Gower takes little here from Ovid.

816 ff. This passage seems mostly of Gower’s invention, partly perhaps on the suggestion of the story of Hero and Leander in Ovid,Her. Ep.xix. 33 ff. See Bech inAnglia, v. 347.

do set up.Apparently ‘set’ is the participle, cp. ii. 1799.

833.al hire one.This idea is emphasized by Ovid,Rem. Am.591 f.

869. This piece of etymology is perhaps due to our author, who usually adds something of his own to the stories of transformation which he relates; see note on i. 2355. Lydgate says that Phyllis hanged herself upon a filbert-tree, but he perhaps took the notion from Gower:

‘Upon the walles depeint men myght seHou she was honged upon a filbert tre.’Temple of Glas, 88.

‘Upon the walles depeint men myght seHou she was honged upon a filbert tre.’

‘Upon the walles depeint men myght se

Hou she was honged upon a filbert tre.’

Temple of Glas, 88.

See the note in Dr. Schick’s edition, E.E.T.S. 1891.

893. Cp.Mirour, 5436,

‘Lors est il sage apres la mein,’

of which this line is an exact reproduction.

904.pleith an aftercast.This looks like a metaphor from casting dice, but it is difficult to see the exact application. It means of course here that he is always too late in what he says and does.

914.come at thin above, i.e. attain to success: cp.Mirour, 25350,

‘Car lors est Triche a son dessus.’

964. See note on i. 2677.

979 ff. The story may probably enough be taken from Ovid,Metam.ii. 1-324, but if so it is much abbreviated.

which is the Sonne hote, ‘which is called the Sun’; cp. ii. 131 f. Possibly, however, ‘hote’ may be the adjective, with definite termination for the sake of the rhyme. There would be no objection to rhyming with it the adverb of the same form.

1030 ff. The moral drawn by Gower from the story of Phaeton is against going too low, that is abandoning the higher concerns of love owing to slothful negligence. The next story is against aiming too high and neglecting the due claims of service.

1035 ff. Ovid,Metam.viii. 183-235.

1090 f. Cp.Mirour, 5389 ff.

1096.who as evere take: so ‘what man’ is very commonly used with subjunctive, iii. 2508 &c., but the uncertainty of the construction is shown by ‘And thinkth’ in the next line. See notes on Prol. 13, 460.

1108 ff. Cp.Mirour, 5395 ff.

1131. A superfluous syllable, such as we have at the pause in this line, is very unusual in Gower’s verse; but cp. v. 447.

1153.lete I ne mai, ‘I may not neglect’: see note on i. 3365.

1180. Cp. i. 698, ‘And many a contenance he piketh.’ It means here perhaps ‘thus I keep up a pretence (for staying).’

1245 ff. A somewhat similar story to this is to be found in Andreas Capellanus,De Amore, to which my attention was first called by Mr. Archer. This book (written about 1220) gives imaginary colloquies between different kinds of persons, to illustrate the ways of courtship, ‘Plebeius loquitur plebeiae,’ ‘Plebeius nobili,’ ‘Nobilis plebeiae,’ ‘Nobilis nobili.’ In this last occurs the story of a squire who saw the god of love leading a great company of ladies in three bands, the first well mounted and well attended, the second well mounted but attended by so many that it was a hindrance rather than a help, and the third in wretched array with lame horses and no attendance. The meaning of the sight is explained to the squire by one of these last, and he is taken to see the appropriate rewards and punishments of each band. He relates what he has seen to his mistress in order to make her more ready to accept his suit (pp. 91-108, ed. Trojel, 1892).

There are some expressions which resemble those which Gower uses, as ‘quarum quaelibet in equopinguissimoet formoso etsuavissime ambulantesedebat’ (p. 92), cp. 1309 f.,

‘On faire amblende hors thei seteThat were al whyte, fatte and grete.’

‘On faire amblende hors thei sete

That were al whyte, fatte and grete.’

And again, ‘domina quaedam ... habens equum macerrimum et turpem et tribus pedibus claudicantem,’ cp. 1343 ff. The story, however, is different in many ways from that of Gower. For other similar stories see the article inRomaniafor January 1900 on the ‘Purgatory of Cruel Beauties’ by W. A. Neilson.

The tale of Rosiphelee is well told by Gower, and in more than one passage it bears marks of having been carefully revised by the author. The alteration of 1321 f. is peculiarly happy, and gives us one of the best couplets in theConfessio Amantis.

1285.the Sonne Ariste: cp. iii. 1224. The capital letter was perhaps intended to mark ‘Ariste’ as a substantive.

1307.comen ryde: cp. i. 350.

1309. ‘hors’ is evidently plural here: so i. 2036 and often.

1320.long and smal, i.e. tall and slender. Adjectives used predicatively with a plural subject take the plural inflection or not according to convenience. Thus in Prol. 81 we have ‘Bot for my wittes ben to smale’ in rhyme with ‘tale.’

1323.beere.This is pret. plur., as 1376: the same form for pret. subj. 2749.

1330.For pure abaissht: cp. Chaucer,Troilus, ii. 656, ‘And with that thought for pure ashamed she Gan in hir hed to pulle.’The parallel, to which my attention was called by Prof. McCormick, suggests the idea that ‘abaissht’ is a participle rather than a noun, and the use of the past participle with ‘for’ in this manner occurs several times in Lydgate, e.g. ‘for unknowe,’ ‘meaning from ignorance,’Temple of Glas, 632, ‘for astonied,’ 934, 1366, and so with an adjective, ‘for pure wood’ in the EnglishRom. of the Rose, 276. See Dr. Schick’s note on Lydgate,Temple of Glas, 632.

1422.That I ne hadde, ‘I would that I had’: cp. v. 3747,

‘Ha lord, that he ne were alonde!’

‘to late war’ is in a kind of loose apposition to the subject.

1429.swiche.Rather perhaps ‘swich,’ as ii. 566 f., v. 377. Most MSS. have ‘such.’

1432 ff.warneth ... bidd.The singular of the imperative seems to be freely interchanged with the plural in this form of address.

1454 (margin). The author dissociates himself personally from the extreme doctrines enunciated in the text, as at first he took care to remind his readers that the character of a lover was for him only an assumed one (i. 63 ff. margin).

1490.and longe er that sche changeth&c. This is a puzzling sentence, and we are not helped by the punctuation of the MSS., which for the most part have a stop after ‘herte.’ I can only suppose that it means ‘and is long before she changes her heart in her youth to marriage.’ We can hardly make ‘longe’ a verb, ‘and may be eager until she changes,’ because of the lines which follow.

1505 ff. Judges xi. Our author has expanded the story so far as regards the mourning for the virginity of Jephthah’s daughter, that being the point with which he was particularly concerned here.

1516. ‘Whether it be of man or woman.’

1537 ff. In the original this is different, ‘Heu me, filia mea, decepisti me et ipsa decepta es: aperui enim os meum ad Dominum, et aliud facere non potero.’ Gower deals freely here as elsewhere with the narrative, especially in the matter of speeches.

1563.fourty daies: in the original ‘duobus mensibus.’

1632 ff. Cp.Mirour, 11694.

1649.as me thenketh ... That, equivalent to ‘me thinketh ... That,’ either ‘as’ or ‘That’ being redundant.

1659. The best MSS. give ‘heþen’ here, not ‘heþene.’

1693 ff.Roman de Troie, 18385 ff. In the medieval Tale of Troy it is the love of Polyxena which serves as motive for the withdrawal of Achilles from the war.

1723.which I travaile fore.We have here rather a remarkable instance of emphasis thrown on the preposition, with a modification of form for the sake of the rhyme: cp. ii. 565.

1741.On whether bord, i.e. on which tack: technical terms of the sea occur several times in theConfessio Amantis, e.g. v. 3119, 7048, viii. 1983.

1810.made: cp. Prol. 300.

1815 ff. Gower seems to have dealt rather freely with this story. The usual form of it gives Palamedes, not Nauplius, as the person who came to fetch Ulysses, and makes Ulysses yoke a horse and an ox together in a plough as a sign of madness: see Hyginus,Fab.xcv. As to the name of Nauplus, see notes on iii. 973, 1002.

1833. That is, ‘feigning to be mad,’ not ‘like one who feigns to be mad’: see note on i. 695.

1847 ff. ‘He thought to try if he were mad or no, however it might please Ulysses,’ that is, whether it pleased him or not. ‘Hou’ seems to be for ‘How so evere’: cp. l. 415.

1875.tothe, written so when the emphasis falls on the preposition, see note on i. 232.

1901 ff. Ovid,Her. Ep.xiii.

1927. F has a stop after ‘londeth,’ thus throwing the clause, ‘and was the ferste there Which londeth,’ into a parenthesis.

1935 ff. 1 Sam. xxviii., where the witch is called ‘mulier pythonem habens.’

1968 ff. The story of the education of Achilles by Chiron, as we have it here, is apparently taken, directly or indirectly, from Statius,Achill.ii. 121 (407) ff.,

‘Nunquam ille imbelles Ossaea per avia damasSectari, aut timidas passus me cuspide lyncasSternere, sed tristes turbare cubilibus ursosFulmineosque sues, et sicubi maxima tigrisAut seducta iugis fetae spelunca leaenae.Ipse sedens vasto facta exspectabat in antro,Si sparsus magno remearem sanguine; nec meAnte nisi inspectis admisit ad oscula telis.’

‘Nunquam ille imbelles Ossaea per avia damas

Sectari, aut timidas passus me cuspide lyncas

Sternere, sed tristes turbare cubilibus ursos

Fulmineosque sues, et sicubi maxima tigris

Aut seducta iugis fetae spelunca leaenae.

Ipse sedens vasto facta exspectabat in antro,

Si sparsus magno remearem sanguine; nec me

Ante nisi inspectis admisit ad oscula telis.’

2014 ff. The argument is to the effect that Prowess, which is acknowledged to be the virtue opposed to Sloth, seeMirour, 10136 &c., must show itself partly in the spirit of warlike boldness, ‘the corage of hardiesce,’ leading to such undertakings as those of which the Lover had disputed the necessity.

2040.And that, i.e. ‘And as to that’: cp. Prol. 122.

2045 ff. The fight between Hercules and Achelous is related in detail by Ovid,Metam.ix. 31-88. Some parts of this seem to be reproduced by Gower, but the details are not very exactly copied. For the story generally he had some other authority, whence he got for example the names ‘Oënes’ and ‘Calidoyne.’

It is to be noted that Gower gives ‘Achelons’ instead of Achelous, as he does also in theTraitié, vii. 5, where the story is shortly told in the same way as here, and there we find ‘Achelontis’ in the margin as the genitive case. He ought to have been preserved from the mistake by the occurrence of the name in Ovid’s verse.

2054. For these two pillars cp. Chaucer,Cant. Tales, B 3307 f., but Gower supposes them to have been both set up in the ‘desert of India,’‘El grant desert d’Ynde superiour’ as he has it inTraitié, vii. 1, whereas according to Chaucer one was set up in the East and the other in the West, to mark the extreme bounds of the world.

2123 f. Such forms of spelling as ‘sleighte,’ ‘heighte’ are unusual with our author, but cp. vii. 1121, 1227 f.

2135. For the stories of ‘Pantasilee’ and Philemenis we may refer to theRoman de Troie, 23283 ff. and 25663-25704.

2200 ff. From this question arises the inevitable discussion of the nature of ‘gentilesse’ and how far it depends upon birth, riches or personal merit. Gower accepts only the last qualification, and argues for it after the fashion of John Ball, though he was neither a Lollard nor a social revolutionist: cp.Mirour, 23389 ff. For the general subject cp. Dante,Convito, iv. 10,Roman de la Rose, 18807 ff. (ed. Méon), Chaucer,Cant. Tales, D 1109, ff.

To Gower we must grant the merit of clearness and conciseness in handling the well-worn theme.

2208 f. Cp. Dante,Convito, iv. 3.

2305 ff. ‘And love is of profit also as regards women, so that they may be the better “affaited.”’

2314.make it queinte, ‘behave gently’: cp. ‘make it tough,’ Chaucer,Troilus, v. 101. For the meaning of ‘queinte’ see the quotations in Godefroy’s Dictionary under ‘cointe.’

2325. 1 John iii. 14.

2342. This is from Job v. 7.

2396 ff. Many of these names are unknown to me, and Warton’s conjectures on the subject are very wild, but some points may be illustrated from Godfrey of Viterbo. For example, as regards the first we find,

‘Septem quas legimus Cham primus scripserat artes.’Pantheon, iii. (p. 88).

‘Septem quas legimus Cham primus scripserat artes.’

Pantheon, iii. (p. 88).

2401. Godf. Vit.,Pantheon, vi. (p. 133), ‘Tunc Cadmus Graecas literas sedecim fecit.’

2410.Termegis.The word is a dissyllable for the metre. Probably this name stands for Termegistus (i.e. Trismegistus), and in that case we must throw the accent upon the final syllable and pass lightly over the preceding one.

2418 ff. I suspect that ‘Poulins’ means Apollo or Apollinis: cp.Pantheon, vi. (p. 133), ‘Apollo etiam citharam condidit et artem medicinalem invenit.’

2421.Zenzis, i.e. Zeuxis, who is referred to in theRom. de la Rose(for example) as the chief of painters, 16387 ff. (ed. Méon).

2422. Cp. Godf. Vit,Panth.v. (p. 121),

‘Tunc et Prometheus, qui filius est AtlantisDat statuas hominis humano more meantes.’

‘Tunc et Prometheus, qui filius est Atlantis

Dat statuas hominis humano more meantes.’

2427. ‘Jadahel’ is the Jabal (or Jebal) of the Bible (Gen. iv. 20). Godfrey of Viterbo calls him by the same name and makes the same statement about his hunting and fishing:

‘In mundo Iadahel posuit tentoria primus,Venator prior ipse fuit feritate ferinus,Primus et invalidis retia mersit aquis.’Panth.ii. (p. 77).

‘In mundo Iadahel posuit tentoria primus,Venator prior ipse fuit feritate ferinus,Primus et invalidis retia mersit aquis.’

‘In mundo Iadahel posuit tentoria primus,

Venator prior ipse fuit feritate ferinus,

Primus et invalidis retia mersit aquis.’

Panth.ii. (p. 77).

2439 ff. Godf. Vit.,Panth.iv. (p. 98),

‘Saturnus statuit super aequora vela moueri,Denarios posuit commercia rite mereri.......Aedificans Sutrium dum vivit ibi dominatur,Triticeum semen primus in urbe serens.’

‘Saturnus statuit super aequora vela moueri,

Denarios posuit commercia rite mereri.

......

Aedificans Sutrium dum vivit ibi dominatur,

Triticeum semen primus in urbe serens.’

2462 ff. For the seven bodies and four spirits of Alchemy cp. Chaucer,Cant. Tales, G 818 ff. Mercury, it will be noticed, is reckoned both as a body and as a spirit, but some authorities called this a spirit only and reckoned six metallic bodies.

2476.after the bok it calleth, ‘according as the book calls it.’

2488 ff. Cp. 2565 ff.

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 of stones, specially of three,

Oon mineral, another vegetatyff,’ &c.;

and the editor quotes fromRosarium Philosophorum, ‘Tres sunt lapides et tres sales sunt, ex quibus totum magisterium consistit, scilicet mineralis, plantalis et animalis.’ In theSecreta 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 theferste, ‘the very first,’ cp. vi. 1481. It may be questioned, however, whether the theory put forward by C. Stoffel inEnglische 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 piececalledThe Chaunces of the Dysein 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 ordinalIs ful assembled, I yow dar assure,The lorde of vertu and al vices cure,Perfit beaute grounded without envye,Assured trust withoute gelousye.’

‘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.

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 theBook 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.’

‘Ianua, ne verso stridores cardine reddat,

Nulla domo tota.’

3009 ff.Metam.xi. 602 ff.,

‘saxo tamen exit ab imoRivus aquae Lethes, per quem cum murmure labensInvitat somnos crepitantibus unda lapillis.’

‘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 formasSomnia vana iacent,’ &c.

‘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:

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