FOOTNOTES.
It is also mentioned as 'the book of Fame' at the end of the Persones Tale, I 1086. I accept this passage as genuine.
In Dante's Inferno, this invocation begins Canto II.; for Canto I. forms a general introduction to the whole.
Where Chaucer says 'leet the reynes goon' (l. 951), and Dante has 'abbandonò li freni' (Inf. xvii. 107), we find in Ovid 'equi ... colla iugo eripiunt, abruptaque lora relinquunt' (Met. ii. 315). Chaucer's words seem closer to Dante than to the Latin original.
On which Prof. Lounsbury remarks (Studies in Chaucer, ii. 243)—'More extreme indeed than that of any one else is the position of Professor Skeat. He asserts in all seriousness that the "House of Fame" is the translation to which reference is made by Lydgate, when he said that Chaucer wrote "Dante in English." Beyond this utterance it is hardly possible to go.' This is mere banter, and entirely misrepresents my view. Lydgate does not say that 'Dant in English' was a translation; this is a pure assumption, for a strategical purpose in argument. Lydgate was ignorant of Italian, and has used a stupid phrase, the correctness of which I by no means admit. But he certainly meant something; and the prominence which he gives to "Dant in English," when he comes to speak of Chaucer's Minor Poems, naturally suggests The House of Fame, which he otherwise omits! My challenge to 'some competent critic' to tell me what other poem is here referred to, remains unanswered.
When Chaucer consulted Dante, his thoughts were naturally directed to Vergil. We find, accordingly, that he begins by quoting (in ll. 143-8) the opening lines of the Æneid; and a large portion of Book I (ll. 143-467) is entirely taken up with a general sketch of the contents of that poem. It is clear that, at the time of writing, Vergil was, in the main, a new book to him, whilst Ovid was certainly an old acquaintance.
By this, I only mean that Lydgate seems to have been indebted to Chaucer for the general idea of his poem, and even for the title of it (cf. Ho. Fame, 120). For a full account of all its sources, see the admirable edition of Lydgate's Temple of Glas by Dr. J. Schick, p. cxv. (Early Eng. Text Society).
Misprinted 'bright,' as the final e has 'dropped out' at press; of course it should be the adverbial form, with final e. In l. 507, the form is 'brighte' again, where it is the plural adjective. And, owing to this repetition, MSS. F. and B. actually omit lines 504-7.
Morris has rabewyures, from MS. F.; but there is no such word in his Glossary. See the New E. Dictionary, s.v. Baboon.
Morris has Reues; but his Glossary has: 'Reues, or reyes, sb. a kind of dance.' Of course it is plural.
Morris has clywe; and his Glossary has 'Clywe, v. to turn or twist'; but no such verb is known. See Claw, v. § 3, in the New E. Dict.
Morris has frot; but it does not appear in the Glossary.
I do not here endorse all Ten Brink's dates. I give his scheme for what it is worth, as it is certainly deserving of consideration.
It is the stanza next following the last one quoted in vol. i. p. 23. I quote it from the Aldine edition of Chaucer, ed. Morris, i. 80.
Of course Lydgate knew the work was unfinished; so he offers a humorous excuse for its incompleteness. I may here note that Hoccleve refers to the Legend in his poem entitled the Letter of Cupid, where Cupid is made to speak of 'my Legende of Martres'; see Hoccleve's Works, ed. Furnivall, p. 85, l. 316.
In December, 1384, Richard II. 'held his Christmas' at Eltham (Fabyan).
I think lines 568, 569 (added in B.) are meant to refer directly to ll. 703, 704.
The Knightes Tale is a clear exception. The original Palamon and Arcite was too good to be wholly lost; but it was entirely recast in a new metre, and so became quite a new work.
It is amusing to see that Chaucer forgot, at the same time, to alter A. 422 (= B. 432), in which Alcestis actually tells her name. The oversight is obvious.
Line A. 277 reappears in the Canterbury Tales in the improved form—'And ever a thousand gode ageyn oon badde.' This is the 47th line in the Milleres Prologue, but is omitted in Tyrwhitt's edition, together with the line that follows it.
I.e. with the exception of the stanzas which were transferred from that work to the Man of Lawes Prologue and Tale; see the 'Account of the Sources,' &c. p. [407], and the last note on p. [307] of the present volume.
I omit 'Marcia Catoun'; like Esther, she is hardly to be ranked with the heroines of olden fables. Indeed, even Cleopatra comes in rather strangely.
See De Claris Mulieribus:—Cleopatra, cap. 86. Thisbe, cap. 12. Dido, cap. 40. Hypsipyle and Medea, capp. 15, 16. Lucretia, cap. 46. Hypermnestra cap. 13. And see Morley's English Writers, v. 241 (1890).
It will be seen below that Chaucer certainly made use of this work for the Legend of Hypermnestra; see p. [xl].
Court of Love (original edition, 1561), stanzas 15, 16. I substitute 'ninetene' for the 'xix' of the original.
'The Jesuit Rapin, in his Latin poem entitled "Horti" (Paris, 1666), tells how a Dalmatian virgin, persecuted by the amorous addresses of Vertumnus, prayed to the gods for protection, and was transformed into a tulip. In the same poem, he says that the Bellides (cf. bellis, a daisy), who were once nymphs, are now flowers. The story [here] quoted [from Henry Phillips] seems to have been fabricated out of these two passages.'—Athenæum, Sept. 28, 1889.
M. Tarbé shews that the cult of the daisy arose from the frequent occurrence of the name Marguérite in the royal family of France, from the time of St. Louis downward. The wife of St. Louis was Marguérite de Provence, and the same king (as well as Philip III., Philip IV., and Philip V.) had a daughter so named.
Chaucer nearly suffered the same fate himself; see Ho. Fame, 586.
Dr. Köppel notes that the name also occurs in Boccaccio's Amorosa Visione (V. 50) in company with that of Claudian: 'Claudiano, Persio, ed Agatone.'—Anglia, xiv. 237.
He should also have excepted Philomela.
These numbers refer to the lines of the B-text of the Prologue.
Cf. L. G. W. 2177, 2227.
Cf. L. G. W. 1952-8.
Gower is amusing when he turns Ovid's 'Ad uada Maeandri' (Her. vii. 2) into a reference to 'King Menander'!
The unfamiliar form Guido was read as Ouide, by changing G, o, into O, e.
Lounsbury (Studies in Chaucer, ii. 259) objects that many scholars suppose that Valerius Flaccus was unknown previously to 1416. But, if so, how did Chaucer know that the title of his poem was 'Argonauticon Libri,' and not 'Argonautae,' as in Dares?
In fact, St. Augustine tells the whole story; De Ciuitate Dei, lib. i. cap. xix. And it was copied from St. Augustine's version into the Gesta Romanorum, Tale 135.
For lines 1896-8, Bech refers us to Godfrey of Viterbo's Speculum Regum; see the extract from it in Pertz, Monumenta Germanica, vol. xxii. p. 38, l. 159; which tells us that the teaching of philosophy and of the seven sciences at Athens was introduced there by Jupiter; see further, at p. [lvi].
We must remember that, in olden times, writers often had to trust to their memory for details not always at hand. Hence such a mistake as this was easily made.
The reference seems to be to Paulus Orosius, Hist. i. 11; but Belus is not there mentioned. Yet Hyginus (Fab. 168) has: 'Danaus Beli filius ex pluribus coniugibus quinquaginta filias habuit.' See Anglia, v. 350.
People were soon called 'old' in those days. Dante, at 35, was in the 'middle' of life; after which, all was downhill. Hoccleve was miserably old at 53; Works, ed. Furnivall, p. 119. Jean de Meun, in his Testament, ed. Méon, iv. 9, even goes so far as to say that man flourishes up to the age of 30 or 40, after which he 'ne fait que langorir.' Premature age seems to have been rather common in medieval times. Moreover, Gower is speaking comparatively, as of one no longer 'in the floures of his youthe.'
Ten Brink, Chaucer's Sprache, &c., p. 174.
The heroic couplet was practically unknown to us till Chaucer introduced it. The rare examples of it before his time are almost accidental. A lyrical poem printed in Böddeker's Altenglische Dichtungen, p. 232, from MS. Harl. 2253, ends with a fair specimen, and is older than Chaucer. The last two lines are:—
'For loue of vs his wonges waxeþ þunne,
His herte-blod he ȝef for al mon-kunne.'
The oldest single line of this form is at the end of Sawles Warde (ab. A.D. 1210); see Spec. of English, pt. i. p. 95:—
'That ich mot iesu crist mi sawle ȝelden.'
Not 1491, as Bell says; he has mistaken the line.
From geten to gayler; Dr. Furnivall has not got this quite right.
This excellent essay investigates Chaucer's sources, and is the best commentary upon the present poem. I had written most of my Notes independently, and had discovered most of his results for myself. This does not diminish my sense of the thoroughness of the essay, and I desire to express fully my acknowledgments to this careful student. I may remark here that Chaucer's obligations to Froissart were long ago pointed out by Tyrwhitt, and that the name Agatho was explained in Cary's Dante. There is very little else that Bech has missed. Perhaps I may put in some claim to the discovery of a sentence taken from Boethius; and to some other points of minor importance.
I.e. haste, rapidity. Cf. 'Rydynge ful rapely;' Piers the Plowman, B. xvii. 49.
See Part ii. sect. 1, l. 4; sect. 3, l. 11. 'Obviously, nobody putting a hypothetical case in that way to a child would go out of his way to name with a past verb [see the second case] a date still in the future.'—Morley's Eng. Writers, v. 270. Similarly, the expression 'I wolde knowe,' in the former case, precludes a date in the past; and hence we are driven to conclude that the date refers to time present. Curiously enough, there is an exactly parallel case. Blundevill's Description of Blagrave's Astralabe, printed at London by William Stansby, is undated. Turning to his Proposition VI, p. 615, we find—'As for example, I would know the Meridian Altitude of the Sun ye first of July, 1592.' The same date, 1592, is again mentioned, at pp. 619, 620, 621, 636, and 639, which renders it probable that the book was printed in that year.
'Neither his collect, ne his expans yeres,
Ne his rotes, ne his othere geres'; F 1275-6.
Not wishing to enforce this view upon every reader, and in order to save trouble in reference, I have numbered these sections 44 and 45. But if they belong, as I suppose, to Part iv., they should have been named 'Part iv. Canon 1,' and 'Part iv. Canon 2' respectively.
'A smal instrument portatif aboute'; Prol. l. 52 (p. [177]).
'The almikanteras in thyn Astrolabie been compouned by two and two.' Part ii. sect. 5, l. 1.
Mr. Bradshaw gave me the hint; I afterwards found this remark by Selden, in his Preface to Drayton's Polyolbion: 'his [Chaucer's] Treatise of the Astrolabe, which I dare swear was chiefly learned out of Messahalah.'
Macha-allah or Messahala, an Arabian astronomer, by religion a Jew, flourished towards the end of the eighth century. Latin translations of four of his works (not including the Treatise on the Astrolabe) have been printed, and were published at Nuremberg in 1549. A list of his works is given in Casiri (Bibl. Arab.-hisp. tom. 1er. pag. 434), and in the Biographie Universelle.
This splendid MS., of the thirteenth century, is dated 1276, and illustrated with beautifully executed coloured diagrams. It is a storehouse of information about the Astrolabe, and I have often consulted it.
It is printed in full in my edition of Chaucer's Astrolabe, published for the Early Eng. Text Society in 1872, at pp. 88-104.
In my edition of the 'Astrolabe' for the Early Eng. Text Society (1872), I have inserted a large number of examples of strange blunders in the printed editions.
There are two astrolabes in Merton College, besides a plate exhibiting astronomical tables. These are all described in a paper entitled 'Remarks on an Astrolabe belonging to F. A. Hyett, Esq.,' written by my friend Robert Taylor, M.A., and printed in the Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archæological Society, vol. xii. Mr. Taylor further describes two Astrolabes in the British Museum.
This word has several senses in Chaucer. It means (1) the discs of an astrolabe; (2) a set of tablets; (3) astronomical tables; and (4) the game of 'tables.'
'Pertuis: m. A hole. Pertuis de l'Araigne, the centre of an Astrolabe; the hole wherein all the tables thereof are, by a pin or naile, joined together.'—Cotgrave's French Dictionary.
As far as I can ascertain.
Here insert—[they mene]—which CP omit.
The words from euene to climat are added at the bottom of the page in the MS.
Really ten; for rout-e is dissyllabic.
Misprinted wo; cf. two, l. 2093.
Imitated from Parl. of Foules, 693.
Cf. Book Duch. 1332.
From Parl. of Foules, 696.
There are such accounts; but they are probably copied from Chaucer, who seems to have invented this transformation himself. See Notes and Queries, 7 Ser. vi. 186, 309, 372.
Not twentieth; for Legend IV contains two heroines.
The MS. has shete, an obvious error for swete, the alliteration being on sw. But the editors print shene.
Not 'formator,' as in Bell's note; a contraction for 'um' is added.
This is doubtless quoted from some gloss upon Ptolemy, not from the work itself. The reference is right, for the 'motus celi' are discussed in the Almagest, lib. i. c. 8.
This star (α Arietis) was on the supposed horn of the Ram, and hence its name; since El-nâtih signifies 'the butter,' and 'El-nath' is 'butting' or 'pushing.' See Ideler, Die Bedeutung der Sternnamen, p. 135.
Well expressed by Dante, Parad, xxx. 38—
'Noi semo usciti fuore
Del maggior corpo al ciel ch'é pura luce.'
Dante, like Chaucer, makes the eighth sphere that of fixed stars, and the ninth the primum mobile or swiftest heaven (ciel velocissimo); Parad, xxvii. 99.
Here follows a table, shewing that, in Aries, the value of Saturn is 5, of Jupiter 5, &c.; with the values of the planets in all the other signs. The value 5, of Saturn, is obtained by adding a triplicite (value 3) to a terme (value 2), these being the 'witnesses' of Saturne in Aries; and so on throughout.
So on p. 12 of another tract (D) in the same MS., we find—
'Aries calidum & sucum; bonum.
Nill capiti noceas, Aries cum luna refulget,
De vena minuas & balnea tutius intres,
Non tangas Aures, nec barbam radere debes.'
Each of the signs is described in similar triplets, from the grammar of which I conclude that Aries is here put for in Ariete, in the first hexameter.
1385 is also the date of the latest allusion in the Canterbury Tales; see note to B 3589.
King John of France travelled from Canterbury to Dover (16 miles) on Sunday, July 5, 1360; but he heard mass in the cathedral before starting.—Temporary Pref. to the Six-text Edition, p. 131.
Tyrwhitt says 'at least one Tale'; but see Prol. 792. The fact is that Chaucer himself tacitly modified his plan afterwards, and altered the two tales to one; see the Parson's Prologue, I 16-29.
Warton wrongly adds, or the Host. But the Host was the umpire, not a tale-teller himself.
The term 'link,' and such terms as 'head-link,' 'end-link,' and the like, are to be found in the Six-text edition published by the Chaucer Society, whence I have copied them.
In 1749, the coach from Edinburgh to Glasgow, forty-four miles, took two days for the journey. Twenty miles a day was fast. We may allow the pilgrims about fifteen miles a day. See Chambers' Book of Days, ii. 228. Once more, it is absurd to suppose Chaucer capable of proposing to crowd about sixty tales or so into a single day! A day of ten hours would, with interruptions, leave each speaker less than ten minutes apiece. See also Temporary Pref. to the Six-text, p. 119, shewing that Queen Isabella, in 1358, arrived at Canterbury from London in three or four days; stopping at Dartford, Rochester, and Ospringe. From the same, p. 129, we find that King John of France went from London to Eltham, June 30, 1360 (Tuesday); to Dartford (Wednesday); to Rochester (Thursday); to Ospringe (Friday); and to Canterbury (Saturday). Cf. Notes and Queries, 8th S. i. 474, 522.
By 'B 5' I mean Group B, l. 5, as numbered in the Chaucer Society's Six-text edition; the arrangement of which I have adopted throughout.
See note to l. 8 of the Prologue.
Except as regards convenience of reference. It was Dr. Furnivall who placed C more forward; nothing is gained by it, and it complicates references. I heartily wish this had never been done.
Tyrwhitt suggests the same thing, in a note to his Introductory Discourse.
In the Proem, the Nun calls herself an 'unworthy son of Eve'; G 62.
See the extracts from Chaucer's Book of the Duchess as compared with some from Machault's Remède de Fortune in Furnivall's Trial Forewords, p. 47, where he quotes from Étude sur G. Chaucer, by M. Sandras, p. 290. Or consult the Notes, in vol. i., to the Book of the Duchesse, ll. 155, 250, 634, 779, 805, 919, 950, 1037.
Observe particularly this rime of complain with plein. This shews whence Chaucer derived such rimes as seke, seke; Prol. 17, 18. There is a poem of 92 lines called Le Dit de la Harpe, printed in Bartsch's Crestomathie Française, p. 408, in which more than half the rimes are of this character.
It is none too clear who are meant by 'the parson and his companion.' Perhaps it means the Parson and the Ploughman (his brother).
Observe this substitution of one Tale for two, tacitly accepted by Chaucer's readers as better suiting the circumstances.
This statement, that the Frere was 'a grey frere,' is of some interest.
See Morley's English Writers, vi. 115-8, where an analysis of the Tale is given.
I.e. thorpe, village; I quote from the edition of 1561. Broughton is an error for Boughton.
Ed. 'as ye'; which gives no sense.
For a good account of the Tabard Inn and a discussion of the pilgrims, see Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, by J. Saunders, ed. 1889.
Compare the articles by Koch and Kölbing, in Englische Studien, i. 249, ii. 528, and in Essays on Chaucer, p. 357.
'In describing the commencement of this amour, which is to be the subject of the remainder of the poem, Chaucer has entirely departed from his author in three principal circumstances, and, I think, in each with very good reason, (1) By supposing Emilia to be seen first by Palamon, he gives him an advantage over his rival which makes the catastrophe more consonant to poetical justice. (2) The picture which Boccaccio has exhibited of two young princes violently enamoured of the same object, without jealousy or rivalship, if not absolutely unnatural, is certainly very insipid and unpoetical. (3) As no consequence is to follow from their being seen by Emilia at this time, it is better, I think, to suppose, as Chaucer has done, that they are not seen by her.'—Tyrwhitt.
The same story has been imitated in the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles, and in the Berceau of Lafontaine (Morley).
I.e. Abington, seven miles to the S.E. of Cambridge, and nearly as far from Trumpington. In one way, it suits better; Trumpington is too near Cambridge for the clerks to have been benighted there.
For an analysis of the Tale, see Morley, Eng. Writers, v. 321.
Se-ïnt seems to have been occasionally dissyllabic, as in Chaucer's Prologue, A 697.
This may be true of some of the traditions embodied in the story; but as we have it, the date is much later.
Or of the fourteenth century; they did not much vary.
Reprinted in Chalmers' English Poets, i. 607 (1810).
The objection is made that all people 'speak in prose'; but I think Chaucer refers to something more rhetorical than ordinary conversation.
All adapted from his early work, Of the Wretched Engendering of Mankinde; see p. 407. The four stanzas are: B 421-7, 771-7, 925-31, and 1135-41.
Chaucer is, in fact, alluding to Trivet.
In Anglia, xiv. 77-122, 147-185.
I sometimes copy Mr. Brock's very words.
The Dominican friars were also called Friars Preachers.
Reprinted for the Early Eng. Text Soc., ed. S. J. Herrtage, 1879; see pp. 311, 493 of this edition.
Warton gives the reference, viz. to his Speculum Historiale, lib. vii. c. 90, fol. 86 a.
I.e. it is the sole authority for placing both the Shipman's Prologue and his Tale precisely here. At the same time, at least seventeen other MSS. make the Shipman's Prologue follow the Man of Law's Tale; only they turn it into a Prologue for the Sompnour or Squire.
The Monk's cell is mentioned in the Prologue, l. 172; Chaucer's was his 'celle fantastyk'; Kn. Ta. 518 (A 1376).
I put (e) not (b), in order to show the chronological order, which is that of the letters, a, b, c, d, e, f.
The group (f) has nothing to do with (e); as will appear.
I say 'recollections' advisedly; see note to B 3293. The mistake of confusing 'Busirus' with Diomedes, king of Thrace, suggests that Chaucer had not as yet written out his translation of Boethius, but had read it hastily. In other words, part of the Monkes Tale must be earlier than 1380.
Printed 'Chauncer' in the old edition which I here follow.
Ed. 1532, alther; Edd. 1550, 1561, all ther; Morris corrects to a lither.
Compare C 1.
C 164.
C 165-170; 178-189.
C 154.
C 142.
C. 192-9.
C 203-206.
C 254-276.
A remarkable coincidence with the language of St. Paul in 1 Tim. vi. 10.
But this passage still more resembles Jerome against Jovinian; see note to the line.
Cf. Lounsbury, Studies in Chaucer, ii. 292.
I.e. the first edition of Gower's poem certainly preceded the Wife's Tale, though the second edition did not appear till 1393.
Lat. 'nepos'; but later on, Claudius is called his eme, i.e. uncle.
To which it is not unusual to object, by insisting that it was not Chaucer himself who met Petrarch, but the Clerk who tells the tale. I doubt if this amounts to more than a quibble. There is nothing out of place in Chaucer's reference to an incident in his own life, inasmuch as he was a clerk himself, in the sense of being a student. Otherwise, we have to explain how the poor clerk raised the money to pay for this long journey; how it came to pass that he met Petrarch, and when; and how he acquired a copy of Petrarch's tale.
See E 27, 40.
See E 1147—'Petrark wryteth.' And yet Warton could imagine that Chaucer did not use a copy of Petrarch's version, but only wrote from recollection of what he had heard! If we enquire, how did Chaucer obtain this version, no answer is so likely as the supposition that Petrarch gave it him at parting. It is difficult to see how he could have got it otherwise.
The words 'He is now deed,' in E 29, suggest that Petrarch was still living when Chaucer first wrote the Tale.
'There was also Grisildis innocence,
And al hir mekenes and hir pacience.'
Lydgate, Temple of Glas, ed. Schick, l. 75.
It occurs also in the black-letter editions, and in MSS. Harl. 1758 and 7333, Barlow 20, and Royal 18 C. ii; as well as in E., Hn., Cm., and Dd. Several MSS. follow it up by various scraps, taken from E. 2419-40 and F 1-8, with the false substitution of Sire Frankeleyn for Squier in F 1, which makes the line too long. See Part I of the Six-text edition, pp. xvii*-xx*.
Chaucer und Albertanus Brixiensis; in Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen; vol. 86, p. 29.
To which are appended fables by Avian (leaf 106); by Alfonce (leaf 120, back); and by Poge the Florentyn (leaf 134).
The 'reasons' are not recondite; for fifteen MSS., at the least, have this arrangement.
Tyrwhitt is quite right; he is alluding to the true Shipman's Prologue; B 1163-90.
Only a few hours after writing this sentence, I found that Mr. Keightley, in his Tales and Popular Fictions, published in 1834, at p. 76, distinctly derives Chaucer's Tale from the travels of Marco Polo. I let the sentence stand, however, as an example of undesigned coincidence.
So in Mr. Hazlitt's edition; Warton originally wrote—'to believe this story to be one of the many fables which the Arabians imported into Europe.'
'All things can be known by Perspective, because all operations of things take place according to the multiplication of forms and forces, by means of this world's agents, upon yielding materials.'—Opus Minus (see Warton).
'That sword, wrought with such art, that it cuts through enchantment and every charm.' I correct the errors in these quotations.
'Enchantment avails not, where it inflicts a cut.'
'O splendid falsehood, when is truth so beautiful that one can prefer her to thee?' In Warton's book, the Italian quotations abound in misprints, not all of which are removed in Hazlitt's edition. I cannot construe 'al vero,' as there printed.
I would ask the reader to observe that the seven best MSS. all have the spelling Cambynskan or Kambynskan. The form Cambuscan (in Milton, Il Pens. 110) is found in the old black-letter editions. It is strange that Milton should accent the wrong syllable. Cambynskan arose from reading Camiuscan as Caminskan.
I find that Mr. Keightley has already suggested this.
Evidently Shangtu, Coleridge's Xanadu. See his well-known lines—'In Xanadu did Kubla Khan,' &c.
This is Chaucer's 'Sarra'; see note to F 9.
Mr. Keightley shews, in his Tales and Popular Fictions, p. 75, that Cervantes has confused two stories, (1) that of a prince carrying off a princess on a wooden horse; and (2) that of Peter of Provence running away with the fair Magalona.
See Arber's reprint, p. 85, where 'the hors of tree' [i.e. wood], ridden by 'Cleomedes the kynges sone,' is expressly mentioned, and is said to be 'torned' by 'a pynne that stode on his brest.'
This magic ring is likewise referred to in chap. 32 of Caxton's Reynard the Fox. It had 'thre hebrews names therin,' and it contained 'a stone of thre maner colours.' The same chapter mentions the magic mirror.
A friend of Milton's father; see Masson, Life of Milton, i. 42.
Printed at Brussels, 1865; ed. A. van Hasselt.
I take the liberty of abridging the story by omitting several details.
It had previously appeared in the fifth book of his Philocopo, a juvenile work.
But Dr. Köppel argues that the date must be several years later. See his article in Anglia, xiv. 227; and observe Chaucer's use of Dante, Par. xxxiii. 1-21, in ll. 36-56, which may, however, be due to the insertion of ll. 36-56 at a later time. His argument that the Lyf of Seint Cecyle was written after Troilus, because it contains neither forthy nor forwhy, seems to me entirely valueless. The whole Tale only contains 553 lines, whereas we find in Troilus 777 consecutive lines in which neither word occurs, viz. in V. 351-1127.
In l. 32, we have 'Thou comfort of us wrecches,' and in l. 58, 'Me flemed wrecche.' I suspect that these lines were, in the original draught, not far apart. l. 57 would follow l. 35 very suitably.
Compare the section in the Acta Sanctorum, April 14, p. 209, headed: 'Nova corporum inventio sub Clemente VIII, A.D. MDXCIX.'
See my note to l. 134 of the Tale.
Tyrwhitt further explains that a poem in Ashmole's volume, called Hermes Bird, and by him attributed to Raymund Lully, is really a poem of Lydgate's, printed by Caxton with the title The Chorle and the Bird.
It is a totally different work from the Latin collection of alchemical works, also called Theatrum Chemicum, so often cited in my notes.
At p. 470, Ashmole gives a brief account of Chaucer, made up from Speght, Bale, Pits, and others, of no particular value. At p. 226, he gives an engraving of the marble monument erected to Chaucer's memory in Westminster Abbey, by Nicholas Brigham, A.D. 1556.
This is somewhat amusing. Charnock describes his numerous misadventures, and it is not clear that he preserved his faith in alchemy unshaken.
Thomson's Hist. Chemistry, i. 25.
'Sir To. What shall we do else? Were we not born under Taurus? Sir And. Taurus! that's sides and heart. Sir To. No, sir; it's legs and thighs.' Both are wrong, of course, as Shakespeare knew. Chaucer says—'Aries hath thin heved [head], and Taurus thy nekke and thy throte;' Astrolabe, pt. i. sec. 21. l. 52.
See Browning's drama entitled 'Paracelsus.'
It is useless to try and discover an etymology for this word. It was invented wittingly. The most that can be said was that Van Helmont may have been thinking of the Dutch geest, a spirit; E. ghost.
This seems to us a strange selection; red, green, and violet would have been better. But this scale of colours is due to Aristotle, De Sensu, ii.; cf. Bartholomeus, De Proprietatibus Rerum, bk. xix. c. 7.
The Indian god Siva, was actually worshipped under the form of quicksilver. Professor Cowell refers me to Marco Polo, ed. Yule, ii. 300, and to his own edition of Colebrooke's Essays, i. 433; also to the semi-mythic life of Sankara Áchárya, the great reformer of the eighth century.
This explains why the alchemists, in seeking gold, sometimes supposed that they had obtained silver.
Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen, ed. L. Herrig; vol. 86, p. 44.
MS. Douce 162 has a copy of the treatise in Provençal.
Urry, the worst of editors, originated it.
Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen, ed. L. Herrig, vol. 87, p. 33.