Chapter XXI: Part 21

1807. _ipocras_, the usual medieval spelling of Hippocrates; but the name is here given to a prepared drink. Halliwell (s. v. _Hippocras_) defines it as 'a beverage composed of wine, with spices and sugar, strained through a cloth. It is said to have taken its name from _Hippocrates' sleeve_, the term [which] apothecaries gave to a strainer.' Long and elaborate recipes for it exist, and may be found in the Babees Book, ed. Furnivall, pp. 125 and 267; and in Halliwell's Dictionary, s. v. _ipocras_. The shortest is that in Arnold's Chronicle:--'Take a quarte of red wyne, an ounce of synamon, and halfe an unce of gynger; a quarter of an ounce of greynes [i. e. cardamoms], and longe peper, and half a pounde of suger; and brose [bruise] all this, and than put them in a bage of wullen clothe, made therefore [i. e. for the purpose], with the wyne; and lete it hange over a vessel, tyll the wyne be rune thorowe.' All the recipes insist upon the straining, and some direct the use of as many as six straining-bags. See Our English Home, p. 83.

_clarree_, clarified wine; see note to A. 1471.

_vernage_, a sweet wine, sometimes red, but more often white; 'grown in Tuscany, and other parts of Italy, and [it] derived its name from the thick-skinned grape, _vernaccia_ (corresponding with the _vinaciola_ of the ancients), that was used in the preparation of it. The wine known as _vernaccia_ in Tuscany was always of a white or golden colour. See Bacci, Nat. Vinor. Hist., pp. 20, 62.'--Henderson, Hist. of Ancient and Modern Wines, 1824; quoted in the Babees Book, ed. Furnivall, p. 203. Florio's Ital. Dict. gives:--'_Vernaccia_, a kinde of strong wine like malmesie or muskadine, or bastard wine.' Chaucer speaks of it again, in conjunction with _malvesye_; see B. 1261. For other notices of it, see Babees Book, pp. 125, 267, and the Glossary; Halliwell, s. v. _Piment_; Gower, C. A., iii. 8; Squyer of Lowe Degree, l. 754. The derivation, sometimes given, of _vernage_ from _Verona_, is clearly wrong. [362]

1810. _dan_, i. e. _Dominus_, a common title; see note to B. 3119.

_Constantine._ 'Dan Constantine, according to Fabricius, Bibl. Med. Æt. t. i. p. 423, ed. Pat. 4to., wrote about the year 1080. His works, including the treatise mentioned in the text, were printed at Basil, 1536, fol.'--T. He has been mentioned before; see A. 433; and cf. Warton, Hist. E. Poetry, ed. 1871, ii. 368.

1812. _nas no-thing eschu_, was not at all remiss, or _shy_. Cm. Ln. read _was_; the rest _nas_; but the sense is the same. Tyrwhitt reads--_he wolde nothing eschue_. Wright says: 'the Harl. MS. reads _nas_, which seems not to furnish so good a grammatical construction'; accordingly, he reads--_he wold nothing eschieu_. Morris likewise reads _wolde_; and Bell reads _wold_. But the editors are all wrong; for the verb _eschew-e_ will not rime with _coitu_, and it is clear that they did not know that _eschu_ is here _an adjective_! Yet it occurs again in the Pers. Tale, Group I, 971; and I subjoin three more examples.

'She is escheue [_read_ eschu] of bothe two.'
Gower, Conf. Amant. ii. 286.

'Yit gooses dounge _eschew is_.'
Palladius on Husbandry, bk. i. l. 528.

In this passage it rimes with _mew-es_, pl. sb.

'Her taste is eke _eschewe_.'--id. bk. iv. l. 586.

Godefroy gives the O. F. adj. _eschif_, _eskif_, 'animé de sentiments hostiles, défavorables, mauvais, mécontent, de mauvaise volonté, rétif.' Amongst his examples, we find the spellings _eskius_, _eschius_, _eskieus_, _esqueus_, _eskieu_, _esquieu_, _esehieu_; where the _-s_ is a case-ending. The O. F. adj. is derived from the adj. which appears as M. H. G. _schiech_, cognate with E. _shy_. Chaucer's _eschu_ is, accordingly, just as good an adjective as the mod. E. _shy_.

1817. _travers_, curtain, drawn across to form a screen; as in Troil. iii. 674. Ill spelt _trauas_ in the Prompt. Parv., but explained by _transversum_, which is the Low Latin form. See Way's note; he quotes--"i. trauers du satin vermaille," so that they were sometimes made of crimson satin. In the Kingis Quair, st. 90, we find the form _trauerse_; in st. 82 it is spelt _travesse_, and is there applied to a screen which happened to be nearly transparent, as was not the case in our text. See vol. ii. pp. 478, 506.

1819. A note in Bell's Chaucer gives a translation of the form of blessing the nuptial bed to be found in old service-books.

1825. _houndfish_, dog-fish. I suppose this is the spotted dog-fish, _Scyllium catulus_, or _Scyllium canicula_. Randle Holme has: '_Dog fish_, or _Sea dog fish_. It is by the Dutch termed a _Flackhund_ and a _Hundfisch_; the skin is hard and redish, beset with hard and sharp scales, sharp, and rough and black; the Belly is more white and softer.' Bk. ii. ch. xiv. See Gloss. to the Babees Book; Lydgate, Minor Poems, p. 201.

[363] 1840. In the Pers. Tale, Chaucer says just the contrary; see I. 859.

1849. _shaketh._ Cf. 'The slake skin trembleth upon myn empted body'; Ch. tr. of Boethius, bk. i. met. 1. 12.

1862. From Le Rom. de la Rose, 19931-2.

1879. _a penner._ 'The penner was a case containing the pens, ink, and other apparatus of writing, which the clerk carried about with him, as the Eastern students do at the present day. As such articles belonged only to clergy and scholars, we understand why the squire Damyan was obliged to borrow one for his use. An early vocabulary entitled _Nominale_ mentions, among the _Nomina rerum pertinentium clerico_, 'Hoc pennare, _a pener_.'--Wright. See Wright-Wülcker, Vocab. 682. 15; also 601. 34.

1881. _compleynt._ See specimens in Chaucer's Compleints of Mars, of Venus, and of Anelida; also the Compleint to his Lady. And cf. F. 943-948.

1883. _heng_, i. e. which hung; the relative is omitted.

1887. _two of Taur_, the second degree of Taurus. Tyrwhitt unluckily altered _two_ to _ten_, on the plea that 'the time given (_four days complete_, l. 1893) is not sufficient for the moon to pass from the second degree of Taurus into Cancer.' And he then proceeds to shew this, taking the _mean_ daily motion of the moon as being 13 degrees, 10 minutes, and 35 seconds. But, as Mr. Brae has shewn, in his edition of Chaucer's Astrolabe, p. 93, footnote, it is a mistake to reckon here the moon's _mean_ motion; we must rather consider her _actual_ motion. The question is simply, can the moon move from the 2nd degree of Taurus to the 1st of Cancer (through 59 degrees) in four days? Mr. Brae says decidedly, that examples of such motion are to be seen 'in every almanac.'

E.g. in the Nautical Almanac, in June, 1886, the moon's longitude at noon was 30° 22' on the 9th, and 90° 17' on the 13th; i. e. the moon was in the _first_ of Taurus on the former day, and in the _first_ of Cancer on the latter day, at the same hour; which gives (very nearly) a degree more of change of longitude than we here require. The MSS. all have _two_ or _tuo_, and they are quite right. The motion of the moon is so variable that the mean motion affords no safe guide.

1887-8. The _i_ in _gliden_, _biden_ (as in M. E. _riden_, E. _ridden_) is short.

1921. _At-after_, immediately after; a compound preposition; see F. 302.

1924. _a gentil man_, a man of rank, as squires usually were, although in service, and therefore a _hewe_ (1785). Cf. l. 1907, and note to D. 2243.

1932. This proceeding was quite in accordance with ancient custom. See the tale of Eglamore, in the Percy Folio MS., st. 11; and the Ballad of Sir Cauline, st. 9.

1943-4. Misarranged and corrupt in MS. Hl.

1962. _precious_, over-nice, scrupulous, prim; as in D. 148.

1966. _evensong._ Only Cp. Ln. have _euesong_. Perhaps _even_ was [364] pronounced as _e'en_ (een); cf. _yest're'en_, _Hallowe'en_. But _eve_ for _even_ is very common.

1971. For _Was_, only Hn. Hl. have _As_. The latter seems to afford an easier construction, and is adopted by the editors. But we are bound to take the reading _Was_, as in most MSS., and explain it. I take it thus:--'Whether it were ... that the heavens stood in such a condition, that it was a fortunate time.' This is quite exact, though one dependent clause on the top of another is not felicitous. The reference is, of course, to the old astrological belief about fortunate positions of the planets; cf. A. 417. See Boeth. bk. iv. pr. 6, 62-71.

1986. Chaucer's favourite line; see note to F. 479.

1991. _lete_, allowed; A. S. _l[=æ]ten_. MS. Harl. omits _him_.

2002. _visit-è_; trisyllabic. See the footnote.

2013. _lowe_ means 'tractable, docile, obedient'; cf. note to D. 1369. 'And after that he had with lacke of vitailles brought those pratlers as _lowe as dogge to the bowe_'; Udall, tr. of Erasmus' Apophthegmes; Antigonus, § 27. This shews how the dogs were tamed.

2018. _lady_, lady's. See note to A. 88.

2021. 'Alluding to the Epicurean philosophy.'--Bell. See A. 335-8.

2026. _honestly_, honourably, worthily; cf. l. 2028.

2032. _he_, viz. Guillaume de Lorris. There were _two_ authors of Le Roman de la Rose, but the reference is here to the earlier portion of it; see ll. 130-146, 480-512, 645-688 of the English version, where the description of the garden occurs; and for the description of the well mentioned in l. 2036, see ll. 1462-1634 of the same.

2034. 'Hortorum decus et tutela Priapus'; Ovid, Fast. i. 415.

2038. _Pluto._ In his Introductory Discourse, Tyrwhitt remarks:--'The machinery of the Fairies, which Chaucer has used so happily, was probably added by himself; and indeed, I cannot help thinking that his _Pluto_ and _Proserpine_ were the true progenitors of _Oberon_ and _Titania_.... This observation is not meant to extend further than _the King and Queen_ of Faery; in whose characters I think it is plain that Shakespeare, in imitation of Chaucer, has dignified our Gothic Elves with the manners and language of the classical Gods and Goddesses. In the rest of his Faery system, Shakespeare seems to have followed the popular superstition of his own time.'

This remark is important; I doubt if the influence of Chaucer upon Shakespeare in this matter has been sufficiently recognised. In both works, the Fairy king and queen have a dispute in hand, which is settled by the assistance of mortals.

Not only here, but in the Hous of Fame, 1509-1511, Chaucer refers us to Claudian as his authority for Pluto and Proserpine; see note to l. 2232 below.

2046. The insertion of _smal_ is necessary; the rime _wiket, cliket_, being a feminine one.

_cliket_, (1) a latch, (2) a latch-key; here used in the latter sense. In Shropshire, the word is used of a particular kind of fastening for a gate, [365] which Miss Jackson thus describes. 'An iron link is attached to the gate by means of a staple; this link is terminated by a short hasp-like bolt. On the gate-post is an iron plate, having in it a kind of key-hole, into which the before-mentioned bolt fits, much after the manner of the fastening of a trunk, thus securing the gate.'

2058. _scorpion_, scorpion; see notes to B. 360, 404; cf. H. 271, and see Chaucer's description of the scorpion in the Book of the Duchesse, ll. 636-641. Vincent of Beauvais, in his Speculum Naturale, bk. xx. c. 160, quotes from the Liber de Naturis Rerum--'Scorpio blandum et quasi virgineum dicitur vultum habere, sed habet in cauda nodosa venenatum aculeum, quo pungit et inficit proximantem.' And see Boeth. bk. ii. pr. 1. 10-14; Ayenb. of Inwyt, p. 62, l. 13.

2080. _Soul_, sole; cf. the law-phrase _femme sole_. See P. de Thaun, Bestiary, 1250; Morris, O. E. Misc. p. 22; Ayenb. of Inwyt, p. 226.

2093. _Damian_, here to be read as _Dam-yan_, nearly in two syllables. _Benignely_, favourably; altered by Tyrwhitt to _brenningly_, without authority; pronounced _benign-e-ly_, in four syllables.

2107. 'What might it avail thee if thou couldst see to the very horizon?'

2109. 'For it is just as good to be deceived when blind.'

2111. See note to A. 1390.

2115. Cf. 'Of sufferance cometh ease'; in Heywood's Proverbs.

2117. To scan the line, we must read _warm-e_, and _émprentèd_. _Emprented hath_ would run much better. The scribes who wrote _warm_ probably pronounced the last word as _clikét_; but the rime is feminine. And see l. 2121, 2123.

2125. The reference is to the story of Pyramus in Ovid, Met. iv. 55; especially (in l. 2126) to the line--'Quid non sentit amor?'

2127. _he_, i. e. the lover; used generally. This line answers to l. 742 of the Legend of Good Women:--'But what is that, that _love_ can nat espye'; where _love_ means a lover.

2133. This has to be taken in connexion with ll. 2222-4 below, in which the date is said to be _a little before June 12_; see note to the line. Consequently, the 'eight days' mentioned in l. 2132 must be _the first eight days of June_. Again, if we refer to l. 2049, we see that January used to go to the garden 'in the summer season,' which would seem to be intended to begin with June. Accordingly, the month of June is here expressed, in a mere parenthesis, by the phrase 'ere the month of July.' Hence the sense really is--'ere that eight days (of the summer season) were passed, (of the month) before that of July.' And the whole passage merely means--'before the 8th of June was over,' or simply, 'on June 8.' This date precisely agrees with that given, by quite a different method, in ll. 2222-4.

As the month meant is here certainly that of _June_, as shewn by Mr. Brae in 1851 (see his edition of Chaucer's Astrolabe, pp. 67, 83), Mr. Brae proposed to read _Juin_ for _Juil_. But this was because he followed Tyrwhitt's text, which has _of_ for _er_, and therefore reads-- [366]

'er that daies eighte
Were passed _of_ the month of Juil, befill,' &c.

And it is the fact, that, with the reading _of_, we also should have to accept the reading _Juin_. But we must set against this the fact that no MS. (at least of any authority) reads either _Juin_ or _of_! Tyrwhitt has made this alteration _silently_, and Wright and Bell have _silently_ adopted it. Morris also makes the alteration, but prints _of_ in italics to shew that it is not the reading of his MS. These _silent_ conjectural emendations are very troublesome, as they are copied by one editor after another without any enquiry as to the sense of the context.

The Harl. MS., supposed to be followed by Wright, actually has _a stop_ before 'er'; the reading being--'were passid . er the moneth of Iuyl bifille.' The reading _bifille_ (might befal) is probably due to taking _Iuyl_ as the nominative to this verb, whereas _bifil_ is meant to be impersonal, with the sense--'it happened.'

2138-2148. This passage is almost entirely composed of fragments of Solomon's Song. We may compare ll. 2138-2140 with ch. ii. vv. 10, 11, 12; l. 2141 with ch. i. v. 15; l. 2142 with ch. iv. v. 10; l. 2143 with ch. iv. vv. 12, 16; ll. 2144, 2145 with ch. iv. vv. 9, 10; l. 2146 with ch. iv. v. 7.

2194. The first foot is defective (in all seven MSS.). To fill out the line, Tyrwhitt inserts _owen_ before _lord_; a 'correction' which Wright and Bell _silently_ adopt. There is no hint as to the source of this _owen_. Thynne's edition (as frequently elsewhere) agrees with the seven MSS.

2200. This drowning in a sack is quite oriental. Cf. 'There yawns the sack, and yonder rolls the sea'; Byron, The Corsair, iii. 8.

2202. _wenche._ For this word, cf. H. 220, and Ho. of Fame, 206.

2222. _in Geminis_, in the sign of Gemini. We are also told that he was near his 'declination of Cancer,' i. e. his _maximum_ northern declination, which he obtains when entering Cancer, at the summer solstice. In Chaucer's time, the sun entered Cancer about June 12, and therefore just before that day was in Gemini. Taking this statement in conjunction with the 'eight days' of the summer season mentioned in l. 2132, we may feel sure that the date meant is June 8, just four days before the sun left Gemini, and attained his maximum declination. See my edition of Chaucer's Astrolabe (E. E. T. S.), p. lv., which requires partial correction, as shewn in the note to l. 2132 above.

2224. The 'exaltation' of a planet was the sign in which it was (quite arbitrarily) supposed to exercise its greatest power. The exaltation of Jupiter was Cancer, as Chaucer correctly says.

2227. This notion of identifying Pluto with the king of Fairyland occurs again in the Romance of Sir Orpheo; see Ritson, Met. Rom. ii. 259. Sir Orpheo is the Greek Orpheus, who redeemed Eurydice from 'the kyng of fayrè,' i. e. from Pluto. See the remarks on this poem in Warton, Hist. E. Poet. ed. 1871, i. 31, 32.

The construction of this sentence is awkward. Lines 2231-3 are [367] parenthetical; _Pluto_ is in apposition with _This king_ in l. 2234, and agrees with the verb _sette_ in the same.

2229-30. Tyrwhitt prints these lines differently, thus:--

Folwing his wif, the quene Proserpina,
Which that he ravisshed out of Ethna.

This reading is from MS. Harl. 7335; and T. adds--'In some other MSS. _Ethna_, by a manifest error of the copyist, has been changed into _Proserpina_ [as in Cp. Pt. Ln.]. The passage being thus made nonsense, other transcribers left out the [second] line, and substituted in its stead--

Eche after other, right as any lyne.'

But it would appear that the line just quoted, which Tyrwhitt pronounces to be a substitution, is really the original reading, and we must not hastily reject it. It is found in E. Cm. and Hl., whilst in Hn. the line has been erased or omitted, and then filled in (in a spurious form) by a later hand.

Wright and Bell have followed Tyrwhitt's lead, and altered the passage accordingly. Morris silently changes the _preserpine_ of the Harl. MS. to _Preserpina_, and gives the next line in the objectionable form--'Whiche that he ravysched out of _Cecilia_' (Sicily).

It seems very much better to restore the original reading, especially when we notice that _Próserpýne_ (not Prosérpiná) is the undoubted reading in the House of Fame, 1511, and that _quen-e_ is constantly dissyllabic (see B. 161, 1671, G. 1089), In l. 2264, we again have _Próserpýne _. The old black-letter editions are not of much value; still they give line 2230 as in my text, except that they wrongly change _any_ into a.

2232. _Claudian_; Claudius Claudianus, at the close of the fourth century, wrote an epic poem in three books _De raptu Proserpinae_, which he left unfinished, besides several other works. He is mentioned again in the Ho. of Fame, 449, 1509. The story of Proserpine is also in Ovid, Fasti, iv. 427; and in Gower, C. A., ii. 170.

2240. The line is plainly imperfect, both in sense and rhythm, yet is the same in all seven MSS. and in ed. 1550. They agree in reading:--

Ten hundred thousand telle(n) I can.

Tyrwhitt reads:--

Ten hundred thousand _stories_ tell I can.

He does not tell us where he found the word _stories_. Wright and Bell silently adopt _stories_; Morris inserts it between square brackets. It occurs, however, in a parallel line, F. 1412, as well as in a similar passage in the Leg. of Good Women, Prol. A. 274.

2247. From Eccles. vii. 28. Cf. B. 2247, where Chaucer quotes the same passage.

2250. I. e. the author of Ecclesiasticus. This book contains both praise and dispraise of women; see Ecclus. xxiii. 22-26; xxv. 17-26; [368] xxvi. 1-3, 7-16, 22-27; xxxvi. 21-24; xl. 19, 23; xlii. 9-14. The dispraise predominates.

2252. _wilde fyr_; see A. 4172, and the note.

2264. 'So you shall, if you so wish.'

2265. 'I swear by the soul of my mother's sire'; i. e. by Saturn (Ovid, Fasti, vi. 285). The wisdom of Saturn is referred to in A. 2444. Tyrwhitt altered _sires_ into _Ceres_, for which I find no authority. Wright notes that Hl. has _sires_, and Ln. _sire_; and adds--'Ceres is of course the word intended.' I see no evidence for it; and I do not admit that an editor should alter all that he fails to understand.

2273. _visage_, pronounced (vizaa·j), the _e_ being elided. We still say 'to _face_ a thing out.' 'Suffolk doth not flatter, _face_, or feign'; 1 Hen. VI. v. 3. 142; and see Com. Errors, iii. 1. 6; Tam. Shrew, ii. 291; Tw. Nt. iv. 2. 201; &c.

2279-2281. Repeated from B. 2266, 7; so also ll. 2286-2290 is taken from B. 2268, 9.

2283. Cf. The Second Nonnes Tale, G. 512.

2284. Here 'the Romayn gestes' simply means Roman history. The Gesta Romanorum also contains a story of a devoted wife, in ch. vi; the story of Lucretia, ch. cxxxv; and of the faithful wife of Guido, ch. clxxii. But there are other stories of a very different character.

2300. Referring to 1 Kings, xi. 12.

2304. _ye_, i. e. ye men. So in all the seven MSS. Tyrwhitt alters it to--That _he_ of women _wrote_. But why? Cf. D. 688-696.

2308. 'As ever I desire to keep my tresses whole.' See _Brouke_ in the Glossary.

2310. 'That would wish (to do) us a disgrace.'

2321-2. Cf. Rom. de la Rose, 10131-2:--

'Cerchant prés et jardins et gaus,
Plus envoisiés que papegaus.'

See also above, B. 1559, 1957.

2335. _plyt_, condition. 'An allusion to the well-known vulgar error about the longings of pregnant women.'--Bell.

2355. By confusion with l. 2357, MS. Harl. alters _agayn his sighte_ to _his sight agayn_, and then misses ll. 2356, 7.

2365. From Ovid; see B. 2167, and the note.

2367. _store_, bold, rude, audacious, impudent; lit. 'great.' A. S. _st[=o]r_, great; Icel. _stórr_, great, rough, strong, proud. _Stronge_ must here have a similar sense:--'O bold rude lady.' _Strong-e_ and _stor-e_ both have final _e_, as being vocatives.

2410. 'He who misapprehends comes to a false conclusion.'

EPILOGUE TO THE MERCHANT'S TALE.

2420. _swich a wyf_, such a wife as that described in the Merchant's Tale.

2422. _bees_, bees. Elsewhere, the pl. is _been_; see B. 4582, F. 204. [369]

2431. _in conseil_, in (secret) counsel, between ourselves. For this use of _conseil_, see C. 819, and the note; also G. 145, 192.

2435. The phrase _cause why_ is now considered vulgar; it is common in London. _Caus-e_ is dissyllabic.

2436. _of somme_, by some, by some one. So _of whom_ = by whom; in the next line. He says, he need not say _by whom_ it would be told; for women are sure to utter such things, as is expressly said in D. 950. This alludes, of course, to the ladies in the company, and, in particular, to the Wife of Bath, who was not the person to keep such things to herself. _outen_, to utter; a rare word; it occurs again in G. 834, and in D. 521. Also in The Tale of Beryn, 2408.

* * * * *

[370]

NOTES TO GROUP F.

THE SQUIERES TALE.

1. There is nothing to link this tale with the preceding one; hence it begins a new Group. In many MSS. (including E.) it follows the preceding Epilogue without any break. In other MSS. it follows the Man of Law's Tale; but that is the wrong place for it. See note to B. 1165; also vol. iii. p. 462.

2. An allusion to Prol. l. 97, unless (which is quite as probable) the passage in the Prologue was written afterwards.

9. _Sarray_, Sarai. This place has been identified, past all doubt, by Colonel Yule in his edition of Marco Polo's Travels, vol. i. p. 5, and vol. ii. p. 424. The modern name is Tzarev, near Sarepta. Sarepta is easily found on any good map of Russia by following the course of the Volga from its mouth _upwards_. At first this backward course runs N. W. till we have crossed the province of Astrakhan, when it makes a sudden bend, at Sarepta and Tsaritzin. Tsarev is now a place of no importance, but the ancient Sarai was so well known, that the Caspian Sea was sometimes named from it; thus it is called 'the sea of Sarain' in Marco Polo, ed. Yule, ii. 424; 'the sea of Sarra' in the Catalan map of 1375; and Mare Seruanicum, or the Sea of Shirwan, by Vincent of Beauvais. Thynne, in his Animadversions on Speight's Chaucer, speaks to the same effect, and says of 'Sara' that it is 'a place yet well knowen, and bordering vppon the lake Mare Caspium.' Sarai was the place where Batu Khan, the grandson of Gengis Khan, held his court. Batu, with his Mongolian followers known as the _Golden Horde_, had established an empire in Kaptchak, or Kibzak, now S. E. Russia, about A. D. 1224. The Golden Horde further invaded Russia, and made Alexander Newski grand-duke of it, A. D. 1252. (See _Golden Horde_ in Haydn's Dictionary of Dates.)

Chaucer has here confused two accounts. There were two celebrated Khans, both grandsons of Gengis Khan, who were ruling about the same time. Batu Khan held his court at Sarai, and ruled over the S. E. of Russia; but the Great Khan, named Kublai, held his court at Cambaluc, the modern Pekin, in a still more magnificent manner. And it is easy to see that, although Chaucer _names_ Sarai, his description really _applies to_ Cambaluc. See vol. iii. pp. 471-2. [371]

10. _Russye_, Russia; invaded by the Golden Horde, as just explained. The end of the Tartar influence in Russia was in the year 1481, when Svenigorod, general of Ivan III., defeated them at the battle of Bielawisch. In the following year Ivan assumed the title of czar.

12. _Cambinskan_; so in all seven MSS. (Six-text and Harleian), except that in the Ellesmere MS. it more resembles _Cambyuskan_. Yet Tyrwhitt prints _Cambuscan_, probably in deference to Milton, who, however, certainly accents the word wrongly, viz. on the second syllable; Il Penseroso, l. 110. Thynne, in his Animadversions on Speight's Chaucer, speaking of the year 1240, says--'whiche must be in the tyme of the fyrst Tartariane emperor called _Caius canne_, beinge, I suppose, he whome Chaucer namethe _Cambiuscan_, for so ys [it in] the written copies, such affynytye is there betwene those two names.' Now, although the celebrated Gengis Khan died probably in 1227, the allusion to the 'fyrst Tartariane emperor' is clear; so that Thynne makes the forms _Cambius_, _Caius_ (perhaps miswritten for C[=a]ius, i. e. Ca_m_ius) and _Gengis_ all equivalent. But this is the very result for which Colonel Yule has found authority, as explained in vol. iii. p. 471; to which the reader is referred. It is there explained that Chaucer has again confused two accounts; for, whilst he _names_ Gengis Khan (the first 'Grand Khan'), his description really _applies_ to Kublai Khan, his grandson, the celebrated 'Grand Khan' described by Marco Polo.

18. _lay_, religious profession or belief. 'King Darie swor by his _lay_': King Alisaunder, ed. Weber, l. 1325. From A. F. _lei_, law. See _lei_ in Stratmann.

20. This line scans ill as it stands in most MSS. Tyrwhitt and Wright insert _and_, which gives _two_ accented 'ands'--

And pí | tous ánd | just ánd | alwéy | ylíche.

The Hengwrt MS. has--

Pietous and Iust, and euere-moore yliche,

which, otherwise spelt, becomes--

Pitous and Iust, and ever-more y-liche--

and this is the reading which I have adopted in the text. However, I have since observed that Chaucer twice makes _pi-e-tous_ trisyllabic, viz. in Troil. iii. 1444, v. 451; and the Hengwrt MS. has the same spelling here. The common reading, with this alteration, becomes quite right. That is, we may read--

And piëtous and Iust, alwey y-liche.

22. _centre_; often used in the sense of a fulcrum or pivot, or point of extreme stability. Cf. Milton, Par. Reg. iv. 533--

'Proof against all temptation, as a rock
Of adamant, _and, as a centre, firm_.'

The old astronomy supposed the centre of the earth to be the _fixed_ centre of the universe.

30. Tyrwhitt inserts _sone_ after _eldeste_; fortunately, it is not in the [372] MSS. _Whichë_ is a dissyllable, the _e_ denoting the plural form. The words _th' eldest'_ form but two syllables, the _e_'s being elided; but we may fairly preserve the _e_ in _highte_ (cf. l. 33) from elision, for the greater emphasis, by a short pause; and we then have a perfect line--

Of which | e th' el | dest' high | te--Al | garsyf.

31. _Cambalo._ I have no doubt that this name was suggested by the _Cambaluc_ of Marco Polo. See vol. iii. p. 472.

39. _longing for_, belonging to. Cf. _longen_, Kn. Ta. 1420 (A. 2278).

44. _I deme_, I suppose. This looks as if Chaucer had read some account of a festival made by the Grand Khan on _one_ of his birthdays, from which he inferred that he _always_ held such a feast every year; as, indeed, was the case. See vol. iii. p. 473.

45. _He leet don cryen_, he caused (men) to have the feast cried. The use of both _leet_ and _don_ is remarkable; cf. E. 523. He gave his orders to his officers, and they took care that the proclamation was made.

47. It is not clear _why_ Chaucer hit upon this day in particular. Kublai's birthday was in September, but perhaps Chaucer noted that the White Feast was on New Year's day, which he took to mean the vernal equinox, or some day near it. The day, however, is well defined. The 'last Idus' is the very day of the Ides, i. e. March 15. The sun entered Aries, according to Chaucer (Treatise on the Astrolabe, ii. 1. 4) on March 12, at the vernal equinox; and, as a degree answers to a day very nearly, would be in the _first_ degree of Aries on the 12th, in the _second_ on the 13th, in the _third_ on the 14th, in the _fourth_ on the 15th, and in the _fifth_ (or at the end of the _fourth_) on the 16th, as Chaucer most expressly says below; see note to l. 386. The sign Aries was said, in astrology, to be the _exaltation_ of the Sun, or that sign in which the Sun had most influence for good or ill. In particular, the 19th degree of Aries, for some mysterious reason, was selected as the Sun's exaltation, when most exactly reckoned. Chaucer says, then, that the Sun was in the sign of Aries, in the fourth degree of that sign, and therefore nigh (and approaching to) the 19th degree, or his special degree of exaltation. Besides this, the poet says the sun was in the 'face' of Mars, and in the mansion of Mars; for '_his_ mansioun' in l. 50 means _Mars's_ mansion. This is exactly in accordance with the astrology of the period. Each sign, such as Aries, was said to contain 30 degrees, or 3 _faces_; a _face_ being 10 degrees. The first face of Aries (degrees 1-10) was called the face of Mars, the second (11-20) the face of the Sun, the third (21-30) that of Venus. Hence the sun, being in the fourth degree, was in Mars's _face_. Again, every planet had its (so-called) _mansion_ or _house_; whence Aries was called the mansion of Mars, Taurus that of Venus, Gemini that of Mercury, &c. See Chaucer's Astrolabe, in vol. iii. p. lxxviii; or Johannis Hispalensis Isagoge in Astrologiam, which gives all the technical terms.

50. _Martes_ is a genitive from the nom. _Mart._ or _Marte_ (A. 2021), which is itself formed, as usual, from the Latin acc. _Martem_. [373]

51. In the old astrology, different qualities are ascribed to the different signs. Thus Aries is described as _choleric and fiery_ in MS. Trin. Coll. Cam. R. 15. 18, tract 3, p. 11. So, too, Tyrwhitt quotes from the Calendrier des Bergers that Aries is 'chault et sec,' i. e. hot and dry.

53. _agayn_, against, opposite to. So also in Kn. Ta. 651 (A. 1509).

54. _What for_; cf. Mod. Eng. _what with_. See Kn. Tale, 595 (A. 1453).

59. _deys_, raised platform, as at English feasts. But this is in Marco Polo too; see vol. iii. p. 473. Cf. Kn. Tale, l. 1342 (A. 2200); and note to Prol. l. 370.

63. In a similar indirect manner, Chaucer describes feasts, &c. elsewhere: see Kn. Ta. 1339 (A. 2197); Man of Lawes Tale, B. 701-707. And Spenser imitates him; F. Q. i. 12. 14; v. 3. 3.

67. _sewes_, seasoned broths. '_Sewes_ and potages'; Babees Book, ed. Furnivall, p. 151, l. 523; cf. p. 149, l. 509.

68. Mr. Wright's note on the line is--'It is hardly necessary to observe that _swans_ were formerly eaten at table, and considered among the choicest ornaments of the festive board. Tyrwhitt informs us that at the intronization of Archbp. Nevil, 6 Edward iv, there were "Heronshawes iiijc." [i. e. 400]; Leland's Collectanea, vi. 2: and that at another feast in 1530 we read of "16 _Heronsews_, every one 12_d_"; Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, ii. 12.' _Heronsew_ is derived from A. F. _heronceau_, variant of _heroncel_. Godefroy gives _herouncel_, from the Liber Custumarum, i. 304 (14 Edw. II.), and the pl. _heroncaulx_ in an account dated 1330. Cotgrave only has 'Haironneau, a young heron,' and 'Hairon, a heron, herne, _herneshaw_.' Halliwell quotes 'Ardeola, an _hearnesew_' from Elyot's Dict. 1559, and the form _herunsew_ from Reliquiae Antiquae, i. 88. Certainly _heronsewe_ is the name of a bird, not of a dish, as some have guessed, by comparing the _sewes_ in l. 67. In fact, the word _heronsew_ (for heron) is still used in Swaledale, Yorkshire. And in Hazlitt's old Plays (The Disobedient Child), vol. ii. p. 282, we have--

'There must be also pheasant and swan;
There must be _heronsew_, partridge, and quail.'

See the quotations in Nares; also Notes and Queries, 1st Ser. iii. 450, 507; iv. 76; vii. 13; Babees Book, ed. Furnivall, p. 152, l. 539. Cf. _handsaw_, for _hernshaw_, in Hamlet, ii. 2. _Heroncel_, or _-ceu_, or _-ceau_, is simply the diminutive form; so also, _lioncel_, or _lionçeau_, as a diminutive of _lion_.

70. _som mete_; viz. 'horses, dogs, and Pharaoh's rats.' See vol. iii. p. 474.

73. _pryme_; the word _prime_ seems to mean, in Chaucer, the first quarter of the day, reckoned from 6 A.M. to 6 P.M.; and more particularly, the _end_ of that period, i. e. 9 A.M. In the Nonne Prestes Tale, B. 4387, the cock crew at _prime_, or 9 A.M. So here, the Squire says it is 9 o'clock, and he must proceed quickly with his story. The word is used in different senses by different writers. [374]

75. _firste_, first design or purpose. I believe this reading is right. MS. Harl. has _purpos_, which will not scan: unless _my_ be omitted, as in Tyrwhitt, though that MS. retains _my_. MSS. Cp. Ln. insert _purpos_ as well as _firste_, making the line too long: whilst Hn. Cm. Pt. agree with the text here given, from MS. E.

76. The second syllable in _after_ is rapidly pronounced, and _thridde_ is a dissyllable.

78. _thinges_, pieces of music. Minstrelsy at feasts was common; cf. Man of Lawes Tale, B. 705; March. Tale, E. 1715.

80. The incident of a man _riding_ into the hall is nothing uncommon. Thus we have, in the Percy Folio MS. ii. 486, the line--

'The one came _ryding into the hall_.'

Warton observes--'See a fine romantic story of a Comte de Macon who, while revelling in his hall with many knights, is suddenly alarmed by the entrance of a gigantic figure of a black man, mounted on a black steed. This terrible stranger, without receiving any obstruction from guards or gates, rides directly forward to the high table, and, with an imperious tone, orders the count to follow him--Nic. Gillos. Chron. ann. 1120.' Alexander rode into a hall up to the high table, according to the romance, ed. Weber, l. 1083. See also Warton's Obs. on the Fairy Queen, p. 202; the Ballad of King Estmere; and Stowe's Survey of London, p. 387, ed. 1599. In Scott's Rokeby, Bertram _rides_ into a church.

81. _stede of bras_, &c. See note to I. 209, and vol. iii. pp. 465, 475.

95. Sir Gawain, nephew to king Arthur, according to the British History which goes by the name of Geoffrey of Monmouth, is always upheld as a model of courtesy in the French romances and the English translations of them. He is often contrasted with Sir Kay, who was equally celebrated for churlishness. See the Percy Folio MS.; Sir Gawain, ed. by Sir F. Madden; Sir Gawain and the Grene Knight, ed. by Dr. Morris; the Morte D'Arthur, &c. Cf. Rom. Rose, 2205-12.

103. _Accordant_, according. The change from the Fr. _-ant_ to the common Eng. _-ing_ should be noted.--M.

106. _style_, stile. Such puns are not common in Chaucer; cf. E. 1148.--M.

116. _day naturel._ In his Treatise on the Astrolabe, pt. ii. c. 7 (see vol. iii. p. 194), Chaucer explains that the day _artificial_ is the time from sunrise to sunset, which varies; to which he adds--'but the _day natural_, that is to seyn 24 houres, is the revolucioun of the equinoxial with as moche partie of the zodiak as the sonne of his propre moevinge passeth in the mene whyle.' See note to B. 2.

122. _the air_, pronounced _th'air_, as usual with Chaucer; see D. 1939.

129. _wayted_, watched; alluding to the care with which the maker watched for the moment when the stars were in a propitious position, according to the old belief in astrology.

131. _seel_, seal. Mr. Wright notes that 'the making and arrangement [375] of seals was one of the important operations of medieval magic, and treatises on this subject are found in MSS.' He refers to MS. Arundel, no. 295, fol. 265. _Solomon's seal_ is still commemorated in the name of a flower.

132. _mirour._ For some account of this, see vol. iii. p. 476, and note to l. 231.

137. _over al this_, besides all this. Elsewhere _over-al_ is a compound word, meaning _everywhere_; as in Prol. 216.--M.

150. Compare Tale xv (The Ravens) in the Seven Sages, ed. Weber, about the child who understood the language of all birds.

154. _and whom_, &c., and to whom it will do good, or operate as a remedy; alluding to the virtues attributed to many herbs. So Spenser, F. Q. i. 2. 10--

'O who can tell
The hidden power of herbes, and might of magicke spell!'

162. _with the platte_, with the flat side of it; see l. 164. Cf. Troil. iv. 927.

171. _Stant_, stands; contracted from _standeth_; so also in l. 182. Cf. _sit_ for _sitteth_ in l. 179, _hit_ for _hideth_ in l. 512, and note to E. 1151.

184. 'By means of any machine furnished with a windlass or a pulley.' The modern _windlass_ looks like a compound of _wind_ and _lace_, but really stands for _windel-as_, variant of the form _windas_ here used. The confusion would be facilitated by the fact that there was another form _windlas_ (probably from _wind_ and _lace_) with a different meaning, viz. that of a circuitous way or path; see note to Hamlet, ii. 1. 65 (Clar. Press). In the Promptorium Parvulorum, our word is spelt both _wyndlas_ and _wyndas_; p. 529. The Mid. E. _windas_ may have been derived from the Low-German directly, or more probably from the Old French, which has both _guindas_ and _windas_. The meaning and derivation are clearly shewn by the Du. _windas_, which means a winding-axle or capstan, from the sb. _as_, an axle; so, too, the Icel. _vindâss_. In Falconer's Shipwreck, canto 1, note 3, the word _windlass_ is used in the sense of capstan.

190. _gauren_, gaze, stare. Used again by Chaucer, A. 3827, B. 3559, and in Troil. and Cres. ii. 1157 (vol. ii. p. 225). In the Clerkes Tale (E. 1003), he has _gazed_. Mr. Wedgwood is perhaps right in considering _gaze_ and _gaure_ (also spelt _gare_) as mere variations of the same word. Cf. the adj. _garish_, i. e. staring, in Milton, Il Pens. 141. For the occasional change of _s_ to _r_, see my Principles of Eng. Etymology, i. 379.

_gauring_, i. e. stupor, occurs in Batman upon Bartholomè, lib. vii. c. 7.

193. _Lumbardye_, Lombardy, formerly celebrated for horses. Tyrwhitt quotes from a patent in Rymer, 2 Edw. II--'De dextrariis in _Lumbardiâ_ emendis,' i. e. of horses to be bought in Lombardy.

195. _Poileys_, Apulian. Apulia was called _Poille_ or _Poile_ in Old French, and even in Middle English; the phrase 'king of _Poile_' occurs in the Seven Sages (ed. Weber), l. 2019. It was celebrated for [376] its horses. Tyrwhitt quotes from MS. James vi. 142 (Bodleian Library), a passage in which Richard, archbishop of Armagh, in the fourteenth century, has the words--'nec mulus Hispaniae, nec _dextrarius Apuliae_, nec repedo Æthiopiae, nec elephantus Asiae, nec camelus Syriae.' Chaucer ascribes strength and size to the horses of Lombardy, and high breeding to those of Apulia.

200. _goon_, i. e. move, go about, have motion.

201. _of Fairye_, of fairy origin, magical. I do not subscribe to Warton's opinion (Obs. on Faerie Queene, p. 86) that this necessarily means that it was 'the work of the devil.' Cf. the same expression in Piers Pl. B. prol. 6.

203. Compare the Latin proverb--'quot homines, tot sententiae.' See Hazlitt's Eng. Proverbs, pp. 340, 437. A good epigram on this proverb is given in Camden's Remaines concerning Britaine, ed. 1657, sig. Gg.

'So many heads, so many wits--fie, fie!
Is't not a shame for Proverbs thus to lie?
My selfe, though my acquaintance be but small,
Know many heads that have _no wit at all_.'

207. _the Pegasee_, Pegasus. In the margin of MSS. E. Hn. Hl. is written 'i. equs Pegaseus,' meaning 'id est, equus Pegaseus'; shewing that Chaucer was thinking of the adjective _Pegaseus_ rather than of the sb. _Pegasus_, the name of the celebrated winged horse of Bellerophon and of the Muses. Cf. Lydgate's Complaint of the Black Knight, l. 92.

209. 'Or else it was the horse of the Greek named Sinon.' This very singular-looking construction is really common in Middle English; yet the scribe of the Harleian MS. actually writes 'the Grekissch hors Synon,' which makes Sinon the _name of the horse_; and this odd blunder is retained in the editions by Wright, Bell, and Morris. The best way of clearing up the difficulty is by noting similar examples; a few of which are here appended:--

'The kinges meting Pharao';

i. e. the dream of King Pharaoh; Book of the Duchesse, l. 282.

'The erles wif Alein';

i. e. the wife of earl Alein; Rob. of Gloucester, in Spec. of Eng., ed. Morris and Skeat, p. 11, l. 303.

'Themperours moder william,'

i. e. the mother of the Emperor named William; Will. of Palerne, l. 5437.

'Pieres pardon þe plowman';

i. e. the pardon of Piers the Plowman; P. Pl. B. xix. 182.

'In Piers berne þe plowman';

i. e. in the barn of Piers the Plowman; id. xix. 354.

'For Piers loue þe plowman';

i. e. for love of Piers the Plowman; id. xx. 76. Chaucer again alludes [377] to Sinon in the House of Fame, i. 152, and in the Legend of Good Women, Dido, 8; which shews that he took that legend partly from Vergil, Aen. ii. 195. But note that Chaucer here compares a horse of _brass_ to the Trojan horse; this is because the latter was also said to have been of brass, not by Vergil, but by Guido delle Colonne; see note to l. 211. This is why Gower, in his Confess. Amant. bk. i., and Caxton, in his Recuyell of the Historyes of Troy, both speak of the Trojan horse as a 'horse of brass'; see Spec. of English, 1394-1579, ed. Skeat, p. 91, l. 67.

211. _olde gestes_, old accounts. The account of the taking of Troy most valued in the middle ages was not that by Vergil or Homer, but the Latin prose story written in 1287 by Guido delle Colonne, who obtained a great reputation very cheaply, since he borrowed his work almost entirely from an old French _Roman de Troie_, written by Benoit de Sainte-Maure. See the preface to The Gest Hystoriale of the Destruction of Troy, ed. Panton and Donaldson (Early English Text Society). And see vol. ii. p. lxi.

219. _Iogelours_, jugglers. See the quotation from Marco Polo, i. 340, in vol. iii. p. 473; and cf. The Franklin's Tale, F. 1140-1151, and the notes.

223. _comprehende_; so in the MSS. But read _comprende_; see Troil. iii. 1687; and pronounce _lew-ed-nes_ fully.

224. 'They are very prone to put down things to the worst cause.'

226. _maister-tour_, principal tower, the donjon or keep-tower. So also _maistre strete_, principal street, Kn. Ta. 2044 (A. 2902); _maister temple_, Leg. of Good Women, l. 1016.

230. For _slye_, MS. Hl. has _heigh_, an inferior reading. Mr. Marsh observes upon this line--'This reasoning reminds one of the popular explanation of table-turning and kindred mysteries. Persons who cannot detect the trick ... ascribe the alleged facts to _electricity_.... Men love to cheat themselves with hard words, and indolence often accepts the _name_ of a phenomenon as a substitute for the reason of it'; Origin and Progress of the English Language, Lect. ix. p. 427.

231. The magic mirror in Rome was said to have been set up there by Vergil, who was at one time reverenced, not as a poet, but as a great enchanter. The story occurs in the Seven Sages, in the Introduction to his edition of which Mr. Wright says, at p. lix., 'The story of Virgil's tower, which was called _salvatio Romae_, holds rather a conspicuous place in the legendary history of the magician. Such a tower is first mentioned, but without the name of Virgil, in a Latin MS. of the eighth century, in a passage published by Docen and republished by Keller, in his introduction to the _Sept Sages_. Vincent of Beauvais, in the thirteenth century ... describes Virgil's tower; and it is the subject of a chapter in the legendary history of Virgilius.' See also the other version of the Seven Sages edited by Weber, and reprinted in Mätzner's Sprachproben, i. 254; where the _mirror_ is mentioned. [378] Gower tells the story of this mirror in his Confessio Amantis, bk. v. It occurs also in the Chronicle of Helinand, and in the Otia Imperialia of Gervase of Tilbury; Morley's Eng. Writers, iv. 225. Warton notes that the same fiction is in Caxton's Troybook, bk. ii. ch. 22. It also occurs in Higden, Polychronicon, bk. i. c. 24.

232. '_Alhazeni et Vitellonis Opticae_ are extant, printed at Basil, 1572. The first is supposed by his editor to have lived about A.D. 1100, and the second to A.D. 1270.'--Tyrwhitt. Hole's Brief Biographical Dictionary has the notices--'Alhazel or Alhazen, Arabian Astronomer and Optician; died A.D. 1038'; and--'Vitello or Vitellio, Polish Mathematician; floruit circa 1254.' See also the remarks in Warton (Hist. Eng. Poetry), on the Clerk's Tale. _Alhacen (sic)_ is mentioned in Le Rom. de la Rose, l. 18234. In l. 18376 of the same, we find the very phrase: 'Par composicions diverses'; and again, in l. 18387: 'Par les diversités des angles.' Mirrors are there described at length. R. Scot, in his Discoverie of Witchcraft, bk. xiii. c. 19, declares that 'the wonderous deuises and miraculous sights and conceipts made and conteined in glasse, doo farre exceed all other.'

233. Aristotle, the famous Grecian philosopher, born B.C. 384, died 322. _writen in hir lyves_, wrote in their lifetime. Observe that _writen_ is here the past tense. The pres. pl. is _wryten_; pt. s. _wrat_, _wrot_, or _wroot_; pt. pl. _writen_; pp. _writen_.

238. _Thelophus._ Telephus, king of Mysia, in opposing the landing of the Greeks in the expedition against Troy, was wounded by the spear of Achilles. But as an oracle declared that the Greeks would require his aid, he was healed by means of the rust taken from the same spear. Chaucer may easily have learnt this story from his favourite Ovid, who says--

'Telephus aeterna consumptus tabe perisset
Si non quae nocuit dextra tulisset opem.
Tristium, lib. v. El. 2. 15.

And again--

'Vulnus Achilleo quae quondam fecerat hosti,
Vulneris auxilium Pelias hasta tulit.'
Remed. Amor. 47.

See also Met. xii. 112; xiii. 171; Ex Ponto, ii. 2. 26; Propertius, Eleg. ii. 1. 65 (_or_ 63). Or he may have taken it from Dante, Inferno, xxxi. 5; or from Hyginus, Fab. 101. Cf. Shak. 2 Hen. VI., v. i. 100.

247. _Canaceës_; four syllables, as in l. 631.

250. Great skill in magic was attributed in the middle ages to Moses and Solomon, especially by the Arabs. Moses was supposed to have learnt magic from the Egyptians; cf. Acts vii. 22; Exod. vii. 11. See the story of the Fisherman and Genie in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, where the genie invokes the name of Solomon.

253. 'Some said it was a wonderful thing to make glass from fern-ashes, since glass does not resemble fern-ashes at all.' Glass contains two principal ingredients, sand and some kind of alkali. For the latter, [379] the calcined ashes of seaweed, called _kelp_, were sometimes used; or, according to Chaucer, the ashes of ferns. Modern chemistry has developed many greater wonders.

256. 'But, because men have known it (the art of glass-making) so long, their talking and wonder about it ceases.' The art is of very high antiquity, having been known even to the Egyptians. _so fern_, so long ago; Chaucer sometimes rimes words which are spelt exactly alike, but only when their meanings differ. See Prol. l. 17, where _seke_, to seek, rimes with _seke_, sick. Other examples are seen in the Kn. Tale, _see_ being repeated in A. 1955-6; _caste_ in A. 2171-2; _caas_ in A. 2357-8; and _fare_ in A. 2435-6. Imperfect rimes like _disport_, _port_, Prol. 137, 138, are common; see Prol. 241, 433, 519, 579, 599, 613, 811; Kn. Ta. 379, 381 (A. 1237, 1239), &c. For examples of _fern_ compare--

'Ye, farewel al the snow of _ferne_ yere,'

i. e. good bye to all last year's snow; Troil. and Cres. v. 1176 (see vol. ii. p. 394). So also _fernyere_, long ago, in P. Pl. B. v. 440; spelt _uernyere_, in Ayenbite of Inwyt, ed. Morris, p. 92. Adverbs commonly terminate in _-e_, but the scribes are right in writing _fern_ here; see A. S. Gospels, Matt. xi. 21, for the forms _gefyrn_, _gefern_, meaning _long ago_. Occleve, in La Male Regle, 196, uses the expression _fern ago_, i. e. long ago; Poems, ed. Furnivall, p. 31. And in Levins's Manipulus Vocabulorum, ed. Wheatley, we find--'Old farne years, _anni praeteriti, seculum prius_.'

With these examples in view, we might interpret _ferne halwes_ in Chaucer's Prologue, l. 14, by 'olden' rather than by 'distant' saints; yet the latter is decisively authenticated by a passage in his translation of Boethius, bk. ii. met. 7, where the expression 'renoun ysprad to _ferne poeples_, goth by dyverse tonges,' can only mean 'distant' peoples. _Fern_, in the sense of _old_, is explained at once by the Gothic _fairnis_, old; but, in the sense of _distant_, would seem to be corruptly and incorrectly formed, since the A. S. _feorran_, meaning _far_, is strictly an adverb, from the adjective _feorr_. But in course of time this adverb came to be declined as an adjective; see the examples in Stratmann, s. v. _feorren_.

258. Cf. 'What is the cause of thunder'; K. Lear, iii. 4. 160. The opinions of various ancient philosophers as to the cause of thunder are given in Plutarch's treatise, De Placitis Philosophorum ([Greek: peri tôn areskontôn tois philosophois]), lib. iii. c. 3. It was usually believed to result from the collision of clouds. 'Fulmina autem collisa nubila faciunt'; Isidore, Originum lib. xiii. c. 9. Cf. A. S. Leechdoms, iii. 281.

263. For a full explanation of this difficult passage, I must be content to refer the reader to Mr. Brae's edition of Chaucer's Astrolabe, pp. 77 and 86, and my own edition of the same (E. E. T. S.), p. lvi. The chief points that now seem tolerably certain are these.

(1) The Angle Meridional was an astrological term. The heavens were divided into twelve equal parts called 'mansions,' and four of [380] these mansions were technically called 'angles'; the _angle meridional_ was the same as the _tenth mansion_, which was bounded on the one edge by the meridian, and on the other by a semi-circle passing through the N. and S. points of the horizon, and lying 30° to the E. of the meridian; so that, at the equinoxes, at any place situate on the equator, the sun would cross this portion of the sky between 10 A. M. and the hour of noon.

(2) Since this 'angle' corresponds to the end of the forenoon, the sun leaves the said angle at the moment of noon, and l. 263 means no more than 'it was now past noon.'