NOTES

PROLOGUS

Latin Verses. i. 1 f. The author acknowledges his incapacity for higher themes, as at the beginning of the first book. The subject of the present work is a less exalted one than that of those which preceded it.

3 f. Qua tamen &c. The couplet may be translated, ‘Yet in that tongue of Hengist in which the island of Brut sings, I will utter English measures by the aid of Carmentis.’

5 f. Ossibus ergo carens &c. That is, ‘Let the evil tongue be far away.’ The reference is to Prov. xxv. 15, ‘A soft tongue breaketh the bone,’ taken here in a bad sense: cp. iii. 463 ff.

7. ‘Moved by the example of these wise men of old.’ For this use of ‘ensampled’ cp. Traitié, xv. l. 4,

‘Pour essampler les autres du present.’

13. Who that al &c. ‘If one writes of wisdom only’: a common form of expression in Gower’s French and English both; see note on Mirour, 1244. In English we have ‘who that,’ ‘who so (that)’ or ‘what man (that),’ sometimes with indic. and sometimes with subjunctive: cp. Prol. 460, 550, i. 383, 481, ii. 88, iii. 971, 2508, &c. See also note on l. 460.

writ, present tense, syncopated form.

16. if that ye rede, ‘if ye so counsel me,’ i.e. if you approve, equivalent to the ‘si bon vous sembleroit’ of the Mirour, l. 33.

24. The marginal note is wanting in F and S, and may perhaps have been added after the year 1397, when Henry became Duke of Hereford, cp. ‘tunc Derbie comiti,’ or even later, for in the Cron. Tripertita Gower calls him Earl of Derby at the time of his exile, using the same expression as here, ‘tunc Derbie comiti.’ Caxton, followed by Berthelet, gives the following: ‘Hic in primis declarat Ioannes Gower quam ob causam presentem libellum composuit et finaliter compleuit, An. regni regis Ric. secundi 16.’

31. That is, compared with what it was in former time: cp. l. 133.

41. write ... stode: subjunctive. For the subjunctive in indirect question cp. ii. 1243, 1943, iii. 708, 771, &c.

43. as who seith, i.e. ‘as one may say,’ a qualification of what follows, ‘a gret partie’: the phrase is a common one, e.g. i. 1381, ‘as who seith, everemo,’ 2794, ii. 696, ‘as who seith, ded for feere,’ &c.

46. schewen, used absolutely, ‘set forth their histories.’

52. a burel clerk, ‘a man of simple learning,’ esp. ‘a layman’; cp. Chaucer, Cant. Tales, B 3145, D 1872: ‘burel’ was a coarse cloth.

54. tok, ‘took place,’ ‘existed’: cp. Chaucer, Troilus, iv. 1562,

‘And if so be that pees herafter take.’

So ‘prendre’ in French, e.g. Mir. 831,

‘Le mariage devoit prendre.’

72. the god, so 198, ii. 594; cp. ‘the vertu,’ 116, ‘the manhode,’ 260, ‘the man,’ 546, 582, ‘The charite,’ 319, &c.

74. ended, ‘continued to the end.’

77 ff. Apparently a reference to the treatise on the duties of a ruler contained in the seventh book: ‘I shall make a discourse also with regard to those who are in power, marking the distinction between the virtues and the vices which belong to their office.’

81 ff. ‘But as my wit is too small to correct the faults of every one, I send this book unto my own lord Henry of Lancaster ... to be amended at his command.’ For ‘upon amendement to stonde’ cp. ii. 583. The suggestion of amendment at the hands of the author’s patron is of course a mere compliment, like that paid by Chaucer to Gower at the conclusion of Troilus, but it gives a modest appearance to the general censure.

It is not likely that the expression ‘upon amendement’ refers to the change made in this part of the text, to which the author would hardly have called attention thus. Also, unless we explain as above, the meaning would seem to be ‘as my wit is too small to admonish every one, I send my work as now revised to my own lord Henry of Lancaster,’ a much too pointed application of the coming admonitions.

It is hardly needful to add that ‘to tellen every man his tale’ is not a reference to the Canterbury Tales, as some have supposed.

24*-92*. For this variation see the Introduction. The text of B, which is here followed, is as good as any other, but none of the copies which give the passage are thoroughly good in spelling, and the text has in this respect been slightly normalized. A and E are here defective, and J, which is the best available MS., has eccentricities of spelling (‘Richardus,’ ‘wyche,’ ‘hyt,’ ‘hys,’ ‘aftur,’ ‘resonabul,’ ‘ȝef,’ ‘be heste,’ ‘be ginne,’ &c.), which make it rather unsuitable as a basis for the text. It will be found however that J and B mutually correct each other to a great extent, and we have also MGRCL as additional witnesses of a respectable character. Thus in regard to some of the variations in spelling from B we have as follows:—

34* ff. A very loosely constructed sentence. It means apparently, ‘I consider how it befell, as a thing destined then to come to pass, namely that as on Thames I came rowing by boat &c., I chanced to meet my liege lord.’ The disorder in which the clauses are thrown together is a feature which we shall notice elsewhere in our author’s style. ‘The toun of newe Troye’ is of course London, supposed to have been founded by Brut of Troy, whence was derived ‘Britain,’ the ‘insula Bruti’ of the opening lines.

52*. loke, ‘examine’: cp. ii. 733, vi. 1959.

65*. There is here a corruption which affects all the existing copies. The various readings are given in the critical notes, and evidently ‘outkrong’ is that which has most support. I conjecture that the author wrote ‘onwrong,’ i.e. ‘awrong,’ which being an unusual word suffered corruption at the hand of the first transcriber, the ‘w’ being mistaken, as it easily might be, for ‘tk’: cp. Chaucer, H. of Fame, ii. 403, where ‘tokne’ is apparently a corruption of ‘towne.’

66*. the hevene king, ‘the king of hevene.’ Gower regularly writes the final ‘e’ in ‘hevene,’ ‘evene,’ ‘evere,’ ‘nevere,’ &c. The preceding syllable is of course syncopated in pronunciation.

69*. what befalle, ‘whatsoever may befall’: cp. iii. 325, ‘what it were.’

75*. bit, i.e. ‘biddeth.’

85*. The true reading is probably ‘listen pleie,’ which is preferable both as regards form and construction: cp. iv. 3147, ‘whan the wommen listen pleie.’ The readings are as follows: ‘listen pleye’ J, ‘lusten pleie’ M, ‘luste pley’ B₂; the rest mostly ‘lust to pleye.’ The verb seems usually to be followed by a preposition when used impersonally, as i. 147, 1403, and otherwise more generally not, as i. 2741, iv. 3147, but there are exceptions both ways, e.g. iv. 907 and iii. 111, iv. 3187.

90*. Cp. 54 ff.

92*. for to newe. This is the reading of the better MSS., and ‘schewe’ is probably the correction of a copyist who did not understand it. The word ‘newe’ means here ‘produce,’ but in l. 59 ‘neweth’ is intransitive and means ‘comes into being.’

Latin Verses, ii. 2. vertit in orbe, ‘turns round,’ as upon her wheel.

4. Cp. 111 f.

11. ‘And thus those regions which were once the strongest fall into decay throughout the world, and have no centre of rest there.’ (The first ‘que’ is the relative, for ‘quae.’) It is possible however that ‘per orbem’ may refer again to Fortune’s wheel, cp. 138 ff., where the sense of this couplet seems to be expressed, and in that case the meaning is, ‘fall into decay as they turn upon the wheel.’

116. the vertu: for this French use of the article, which is often found in Gower, see note on l. 72.

122 ff. ‘And in witness of that I take the common voice of every land, which may not lie.’ This appeal to the common voice, the ‘commune dictum,’ is characteristic of our author, who repeats the proverb ‘Vox populi vox dei’ several times in various forms, e.g. Mirour, 12725. For the use of ‘that’ in such expressions cp. l. 907, and iv. 2040.

133. to loke &c., ‘when we look on all sides’: cp. 31, i. 1060, 2278, &c.

139. blinde fortune. ‘Fortune’ must here be taken as a proper name, and hence the definite form of adjective: cp. i. 3396, ‘wyse Peronelle,’ ii. 588, 2721, ‘of grete Rome,’ ii. 2304, ‘false Nessus,’ iii. 2100, ‘false Egiste,’ &c.

143. upon a weer, i.e. in doubt or distress: cp. iii. 1148, and Chaucer, House of Fame, 979,

‘Tho gan I wexen in a wer.’

144 ff. ‘And especially if the power of the rulers of the world be not kept upright by good counsel in such wise that’ &c.

152. heved, always a monosyllable in the metre: the word also appears as ‘hefd’ i. 199, and frequently as ‘hed.’

154. her trowthe allowe, ‘approve of their loyalty,’ i.e. accept it.

155. ‘And welcome them with all his heart.’ For the position of the conjunction cp. 521, 756, 759, 1014, i. 854, 863, &c., and note on Mirour, 415. Mr. Liddell points out to me that the same usage occurs frequently in the ME. Palladius.

156 (margin). The quotation is from Ecclus. xxxii. 24, ‘Fili, sine consilio nihil facias.’ This book is often cited as Solomon in the Mirour.

162. A truce with both France and Scotland was made for three years in 1389, but peace was not finally concluded till 1396.

166 f. Cp. Praise of Peace, 190.

172. at alle assaies, ‘in every way’: cp. ii. 2447.

Latin Verses. iii. 1. Iohannes: St. John the Evangelist, who is mentioned either as the teacher of brotherly love or because his Gospel contains the exhortations to St. Peter, ‘Feed my sheep,’ ‘Feed my lambs.’

2. ista, ‘this.’

3. bina virtute, perhaps charity and chastity, cp. 464 ff.

4. inculta, nominative in spite of metre, so auaricia in l. 8.

8. tepente, ‘being lukewarm,’ that is, held in a lukewarm manner.

196 (margin). Roberti Gibbonensis, Robert of Geneva, elected pope in opposition to Urban VI, under the title of Clement VII.

198. the god, see note on l. 72.

204. Simon, i.e. Simon Magus, whence simony has its name: cp. 442 ff., Mirour, 18451 ff., and Vox Clamantis, iii. 249, 1217, &c.

207 ff. The reference is to Lombard bankers employed as intermediaries in obtaining Church preferment. The ‘letter’ referred to is the papal provision, or perhaps the letter of request addressed to the pope in favour of a particular person: cp. Vox Clam. iii. 1375 f.,

‘Littera dum Regis papales supplicat aures,

Simon et est medius, vngat vt ipse manus.’

210. provende, equivalent to prebend, and in fact ‘prebende’ is a var. reading here. Littré quotes from Wace,

‘Cil me dona et Diez li rende

À Baiex une provende,’

and from Rutebeuf,

‘Qui argent porte a Rome, assés tot provende a.’

212. ‘The authority of the Church’ (symbolized by the key) ‘did not then lie at the mercy of armed bands or depend upon the issue of battle.’ For ‘brigantaille,’ meaning bands of irregular troops, cp. Mir. 18675.

218. defence, ‘prohibition’: cp. iv. 1026, v. 1710, and Chaucer, Troil. iii. 138, ‘if that I breke your defence.’

220. ‘was then no charge of theirs,’ i.e. did not come under their authority: ‘baillie’ means the charge or government of a thing, as Trait. xi. 19, ‘Le duc q’ot lors Ravenne en sa baillie,’ hence a thing placed in a person’s charge.

221. The vein honour: the definite form is rather less regularly used by Gower in adjectives taken from French than in others, e.g. iii. 889, ‘For with here fals compassement’; but on the other hand, i. 864, ‘the pleine cas,’ ii. 412, ‘And thurgh his false tunge endited,’ and 824, ‘This false knyht upon delay.’

246. is went: cp. iii. 878 and Chaucer, Cant. Tales, E 1013, F 567.

247. here lawe positif: the ‘lex positiva’ is that which is not morally binding in itself, but only so because imposed by (ecclesiastical) authority: cp. Vox Clam. iii. 227 ff. This is naturally the sphere within which Church dispensations of all kinds take effect.

248. Hath set. Apparently ‘set’ is intransitive, ‘Since their positive law hath set itself to make,’ &c. There is no good authority for reading ‘hire.’.

252. There is hardly another instance of ‘but’ for ‘bot’ in F, and the form ‘right’ for ‘riht’ in the preceding line is very unusual.

260. the manhode, i.e. human nature: see note on l. 72. For ‘thenkth’ see note on 461.

263. withholde, ‘retained as her servant.’

268. in the point &c., i.e. so soon as it is collected. The allusion is to the circumstances of the campaign of the Bishop of Norwich in 1385; cp. Vox Clam. iii. 373 (margin), and see Froissart (ed. Lettenhove), vol. x. p. 207.

278. That scholde be &c., i.e. the papacy, which by reason of the schism has become a cause of war and strife.

289. Gregoire. The reference is to such passages as Regula Pastoralis, i. cap. 8, 9. The quotation in the margin at l. 298 is loosely taken from the Homilies on the Gospel (Migne, Patrol. vol. 76. p. 1128), ‘Mercenarius quippe est qui locum quidem pastoris tenet, sed lucra animarum non quaerit: terrenis commodis inhiat, honore praelationis gaudet, temporalibus lucris pascitur, impensa sibi ab hominibus reverentia laetatur.’ The idea expressed by ‘non vt prosint sed vt presint’ often occurs in Gregory’s writings, e.g. Reg. Past. ii. cap. 6, ‘nec praeesse se hominibus gaudent sed prodesse.’

299. manie: the final ‘e’ counts as a syllable and the preceding vowel is absorbed; see note on 323: but ‘many’ is also used as the plural.

305. Cp. Vox Clam. iii. 1271, ‘In cathedram Moysi nunc ascendunt Pharisei,’ and see Rom. de la Rose, 11809 ff. (ed. Méon), English version, 6889 ff.

311. is noght foryete, an impersonal use, ‘there is no forgetting’: cp. 338.

323. Here ‘studie’ is reduced by elision to the value of a monosyllable: see note on Mirour, 296. The rule applies to substantives like ‘accidie,’ ‘Mercurie,’ ‘chirie,’ adjectives like ‘manie’ (l. 299), and verbs like ‘studie,’ ‘carie,’ ‘tarie.’

329. If Ethna brenne &c. What is meant is the fire of Envy, which is often compared to that of Etna, ii. 20, 2337, &c.

338 f. The verb is used impersonally, ‘there is cause for us all to be sorry.’

348. ‘it causeth this new sect to be brought in.’ The subject must be supplied from the previous clause.

366 f. That is, the various claimants to the papacy are supported in various lands by national partiality or interest.

380 f. ‘They use no other reasoning than this as to the peril of religion.’

383. his world, i.e. his fortune, cp. 1081, i. 178, &c.

388 f. That is, the right cause has no defence but in the rule of personal inclination and interest, the principle expressed by ‘Where I love, there I hold.’

407 ff. This is a charge against those who hold office in the Church of deliberately throwing temptation in the way of their people, in order to profit by the fines which may be imposed for breaches of morality and discipline. The meaning is fully illustrated by parallel passages in the Mirour de l’omme, 20161 ff., and the Vox Clamantis, iii. 195; cp. Chaucer, Pers. Tale, 721. The sentence here is a little disorderly and therefore obscure: ‘Men say that they drive forth their flock from the smooth meadow into the briars, because they wish to seize and by such ill-treatment take away the wool which shall remain upon the thorns, torn out by the briars,’ &c. The archdeacon’s court is chiefly referred to.

416. chalk for chese, cp. ii. 2346: it is a proverbial expression still current.

430. ‘We see the lot drawn amiss’: for ‘merel’ cp. Mir. 23496.

434. Hebr. v. 4.

452. in audience, ‘in public assembly’: cp. ii. 2556.

454. a chirie feire, taken as an emblem of delights which are transitory: cp. vi. 890 f.,

‘And that endureth bot a throwe,

Riht as it were a cherie feste.’

460. understode, past subj. with indefinite sense: cp. i. 383, ii. 88, iii. 971, iv. 2597, 2728, vi. 1474. ‘Whoso understood their words, to him it seems likely,’ &c., instead of ‘to him it would seem likely’; cp. l. 520.

461. The distinction between ‘thinke’ and ‘thenke’ is completely lost in Gower’s usage: ‘thenke’ is the regular form for both, but ‘thinke’ is admitted equally for both in rhyme, as v. 213, 254.

480. ‘For fear that (On the chance that) I may say wrong.’ The subject is a delicate one and the author shows similar caution when dealing with it in the Mirour.

492. as of, ‘as regards’: cp. i. 557, iii. 1479, &c.

Latin Verses. iv. 4. velle, used as a noun, ‘will’: so ‘de puro velle’ in the lines at the beginning of the second book.

509 f. ‘Which with great difficulty man shall restrain, if he shall restrain it ever.’

521. For the position of ‘and’ see note on 155.

525. stonde upon: cp. 214.

529. som men: ‘som’ is uninflected in this expression: on the other hand we have ‘somme clerkes,’ l. 355.

546. the man, so 582: see note on 72.

550 f. ‘If any one thinks otherwise, look at the people of Israel’: ‘Behold’ is 2nd sing. imperative. The unusual form ‘Irael’ is given by the best MSS. here and elsewhere, and we must suppose that it proceeds from the author.

558. stonde full: perhaps a reference to 503 ff., or a metaphor from the tides.

567 (margin). The quotation is from Cons. Phil. ii. Pr. 4: ‘Quam multis amaritudinibus humanae felicitatis dulcedo respersa est.’ The constant references to Fortune and her wheel may probably be suggested by Boethius, e.g. ii. Pr. 1.

578. i.e. till the end of all things.

585 ff. This vision of Nebuchadnezzar, which our author takes as his guide to universal history, is made the subject of illustration in those MSS. which have miniatures at or near the beginning of the Confessio Amantis.

618. Fel doun: cp. iii. 2492, ‘That have I herd the gospell seith.’

668. hol: see note on 683.

676. ‘And he kept himself in this condition undisturbed,’ the subject being supplied from l. 671, ‘Was in that kinges time tho.’ For omission of pronoun cp. Prol. 348, i. 1895, 2083, 2462, &c. However, the fall of the Empire took place not in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar but of Belshazzar (see l. 685).

683. Here and in 693 the best MSS. have ‘put’ for ‘putte,’ and this entire suppression of the inflexional syllable in cases where it is lost to the metre by elision is sufficiently well-attested to justify us in accepting it as an occasional practice of the author, both in the case of verbs and adjectives; cp. 668, 739, &c. It is especially common with this particular verb, e.g. i. 1578, 1807, 3213, ii. 93, 1021, &c., where ‘put’ is used for infinitive as well as for the preterite. Much more rarely in cases where there is no elision, as i. 732. On the other hand, we have ‘putte’ pret. before an elision, l. 1069, i. 2797, ‘pute’ inf. i. 462, iv. 1641.

702. In the marginal summary here F gives ‘Imparatoris,’ and sometimes in other places where the word is fully written, as i. 1417, ii. 593, 2506, 3201. However, ‘Imperator’ is also found in various places of the same MS., as vii. 2416, and the contracted form ‘Imꝑator’ has in this edition been written out so.

725. Of that honour which tok, i.e. ‘of such honour that he took.’

738. so vileins: a clear case of French plural of the adjective, used here for the sake of the rhyme.

739. fals: see notes on 221, 683.

745 ff. It is hardly necessary to point out that our author’s history is here incorrect. Charlemagne was not called in against the Emperor Leo, who died in the year before he was born, but against the Lombards by Adrian I, and then against the rebellious citizens of Rome by Leo III, on which latter occasion he received the imperial crown. The authority here followed is the Trésor of Brunetto Latini, pp. 84-88 (ed. 1863).

756. Of Rome and: cp. ll. 759, 766, and note on 155.

761. doth restore, i.e. ‘causeth to be restored.’

772 ff. Here again the story is historically inaccurate, but it is not worth while to set it straight.

786 ff. The meaning seems to be, ‘But this after all is what we might expect, for prosperity (they say) seldom endures.’

795. hath no felawe ‘hath no supporter or champion’: cp. Praise of Peace, 266, ‘And in this wise hath charite no brother.’

809. The punctuation follows F.

823. expondeth. This form occurs also in ll. 663, 873, as a reading of F. The French terminations ‘-on,’ ‘-oun,’ had the same sound and rhymed together, and the same is true of ‘-ance,’ ‘-aunce.’ Probably on the same principle therefore ‘expondeth’ may stand for ‘expoundeth,’ and rhyme with ‘foundeth’: cp. viii. 235 f. On the other hand, in i. 2867 we have expounde, founde. It maybe noted that ‘exponde’ is the form used in the French works, e.g. Mir. 22192, Trait. xi. 20, where it rhymes with Rosemonde, responde, immonde. As a rule in the Mirour this class of words is given without ‘u,’ but in one stanza we have ‘responde,’ ‘monde,’ ‘blounde’ in rhyme together, 8681 ff.

836. Cit: this is the true reading; the word occurs also Mir. 7197.

843. now with that beforn, ‘the present with the past,’ ‘now’ being used as a substantive.

850. the sothe seie: this is the reading of the third recension; the others have ‘the soth schal seie.’ Either text is admissible, for ‘soth’ is used as a substantive, but ‘the sothe’ is usually preferred, as in l. 834, and i. 981, iii. 765.

858. Cp. ii. 3490.

881. writ: syncopated present, ‘writeth.’ The reference is to 1 Cor. x. 11.

891. Statue: a dissyllable in Gower and Chaucer (equivalent to ‘statwe’), and here reduced to one syllable by elision: cp. Cant. Tales, A. 975. The longer form ‘stature’ occurs vi. 1524.

900. these clerkes: demonstrative for definite article, as in French; cp. i. 608, and see note on Mir. 301.

905. See l. 965. Perhaps here ‘cause of’ means ‘because of,’ as ‘whos cause’ for ‘because of which’ 1040; but I suspect rather an inversion of order, for ‘Man is cause of al this wo.’

907. that in tokne, cp. 122.

910 ff. This matter of the corruption of all creation through man’s fall is discussed at length both in the Mirour, 26605 ff., and in the Vox Clamantis, vii. 509 ff.

945 ff. This is one of Gower’s favourite citations: it occurs also Mir. 26869, Vox Clam. vii. 639. It is quoted here from Moralia, vi. 16 (Migne, Patr. vol. 75, p. 740): ‘Homo itaque, quia habet commune esse cum lapidibus, vivere cum arboribus, sentire cum animalibus, discernere cum angelis, recte nomine universitatis exprimitur.’ In the Mirour it is given as from the Homilies; see Hom. in Ev. xxix. 2. The passage is also quoted in the Roman de la Rose, 19246 ff. (ed. Méon),

‘Il a son estre avec les pierres,

Et vit avec les herbes drues,

Et sent avec les bestes mues,’ &c.

947. the lasse world, i.e. a microcosm: cp. Vox Clam. vii. 645,

‘Sic minor est mundus homo, qui fert singula solus.’

The saying is attributed to Aristotle in Mirour, 26929.

953. That is, the stones have existence and so hath he, this being the only point in common.

955. as telleth the clergie, ‘as learning informs us.’

975. The which, resumed by ‘He’ in 978: for, i.e. ‘since.’

979. That is, the opposite elements in his constitution (‘complexioun’) are so much at variance with one another.

985. ‘Without separation of parts.’

995. also, a repetition of ‘yit over this,’ 991.

1013. sende, pret., cp. i. 851, 992, 1452, &c. (but ‘sente’ in rhyme i. 3095, ii. 613, v. 1072), so ‘bende’ ii. 2235.

1047. That is, there can be no conciliation of the discord.

1055 ff. Cp. Ovid, Fasti, ii. 83 ff.

1066. commun: this form, as well as ‘commune,’ occurs in the Mirour.

1085. The horse side: cp. i. 1536, 2301, &c.

After 1088 the Sidney Coll. MS. (Δ) has the following lines,

‘So were it gode at þis tide

þat eueri man vpon his side

besowt and preied for þe pes

wiche is þe cause of al encres

of worschep and of werldis welþe

of hertis rest of soule helþe

withouten pes stant no þing gode

forthi to crist wiche sched his blode

for pes beseketh alle men

Amen amen amen amen.’

These were printed by Caxton, and after him by Berthelet, with some slight variations of spelling, and the reading ‘and soules helthe’ for ‘of soule helþe.’ No other MS. contains them, so far as I know, except Hatton 51, which is copied from Caxton’s edition. If we read ‘So were it good as at þis tide,’ and correct the spelling throughout, the lines will be such as Gower might have written, and I rather suspect that they may have been contained in the Stafford MS. (S), to which Δ is nearly allied. S has lost a leaf here, on which ample room for them could have been found, the number of lines missing being only 156, while the number for a full leaf is 184. The authority of S would be conclusive in their favour.

LIB. I.

After setting forth in the Prologue the evils of the existing state of society and tracing them for the most part to lack of love and concord between man and man, the author now deliberately renounces the task of setting right the balance of the world, an undertaking which he has not shrunk from in former years, but recognizes now as too great for his strength. He proposes to change the style of his writings and to deal with something which all may understand, with that emotion of love which Nature has implanted both in man and beast, which no one is able to keep within rule or measure, and which seems to be under the dominion of blind chance, like the gifts of fortune.

Latin Verses. i. 7 f. Cp. the lines ‘Est amor in glosa pax bellica, lis pietosa,’ &c., which follow the Traitié.

10. of thing is, i.e. ‘of thing which is’: cp. ii. 1393, ‘Withinne a Schip was stiereles,’ so iii. 219, v. 298 &c., and Mirour, 16956.

21. natheles: as in Prol. 36, this seems to mean here ‘moreover,’ or perhaps ‘in truth,’ rather than ‘nevertheless.’

37. That is, ‘Wheresoever it pleases him to set himself,’ ‘him’ serving a double function.

50. went: present tense, ‘goes.’

62. I am miselven &c. Note, however, that the author guards himself in the margin with ‘quasi in persona aliorum, quos amor alligat, fingens se auctor esse Amantem.’

88. jolif wo, cp. ‘le jolif mal sanz cure,’ Bal. xiii. 24.

98 ff. The construction is broken off, and then resumed in a new form: cp. i. 2948, iii. 1595, 2610, iv. 3201, v. 1043, 1339, &c.

116. other: this must be regarded as a legitimate plural form beside ‘othre’: cp. iv. 1183, and see Morsbach, Schriftsprache, p. 23. On the other hand, ‘othre’ is sometimes used as singular, e.g. l. 481, ii. 283.

178. Mi world, i.e. ‘my fortune’: cp. Prol. 383.

196. The idea of ‘Genius’ is taken from the Roman de la Rose, where Genius is the priest of Nature, ‘Qui célébroit en sa chapelle,’ and she confesses to him, 16487 ff. (ed. Méon).

205. Benedicite: the regular beginning of a confessor’s address to his penitent.

213. Cp. Rom. de la Rose, 16927 f. (of Nature confessing to Genius),

‘Qui dit par grant dévocion

En plorant sa confession.’

225. my schrifte oppose, ‘question me as to my confession,’ cp. the use of ‘opponere’ in the margin here and 299, 708, &c.

232. tome. This is Gower’s usual form of combination where the accent is to be thrown on the preposition. We have also ‘byme,’ ii. 2016, &c., tome, l. 294, ii. 3160, &c., ‘untome,’ iii. 99, ‘tothe,’ iv. 1875. In such cases, as is seen below, l. 294, the final syllable becomes weak and subject to elision.

279. remene, ‘bring back,’ from Fr. ‘remener’: cp. ‘demenen.’

299 ff. See note on Mir. 16597.

320. The punctuation is here determined by that of F, which has a stop after ‘love.’ Otherwise the meaning might be, ‘And doth great mischief to love,’ the conjunction being transposed, as often.

333 ff. The story is from Ovid, Metam. iii. 138 ff.

350. cam ride. For this use of the infin. see New Engl. Dict., ‘come,’ B. i. 3. f.: so ‘thei comen ryde,’ iv. 1307.

367. For the use of ‘hire’ as a dissyllable in the verse, cp. 872, 1667: on the other hand, 884, 887, 939, 1673, &c.

383. That is, if a man gave heed to the matter, he would see that it was, &c.: cp. Prol. 460.

389. Ovid, Metam. iv. 772 ff. This, however, is not Gower’s only authority, for he mentions details, as for example the names of Medusa’s sisters, which are not given by Ovid. The confusion which we find here between the Graeae and the Gorgons appears in Boccaccio, De Gen. Deorum, x. 10, which possibly our author may have seen; but I suspect he had some other authority. The names which Gower gives as Stellibon and Suriale are properly Stheno (Stennio in Boccaccio) and Euryale.

422. Mercurie: see note on Prol. 323. Mercury’s sword is not mentioned either by Ovid or Boccaccio.

431. gan enbrace, ‘placed on his arm’; see the quotations in New Engl. Dict. under ‘embrace v. 1,’ e.g. K. Alis. 6651, ‘His scheld enbraceth Antiocus.’

452. To tarie with, ‘with which to vex’: cp. i. 2172, ii. 283, 1081, v. 925, &c., and Cant. Tales, F 471, ‘To hele with youre hurtes hastily.’

463 ff. Cp. Mirour, 15253. The legend is founded upon Psalm lviii. 4 f. (Vulg. lvii. 5 f.), ‘Furor illis secundum similitudinem serpentis; sicut aspidis surdae et obturantis aures suas, quae non exaudiet vocem incantantium,’ &c. (Hence the genitive form ‘Aspidis’ in our author.) The moral application is connected with the Gospel precept, ‘Be ye wise as serpents,’ to which reference is made in the Mirour. The serpent’s method of stopping his ears was perhaps first suggested by Augustine, In Ps. lvii, who is followed by Isid. Etym. xii. 4, but there is nothing in these authorities about the carbuncle. The authority for this is perhaps the Trésor, p. 191.

481. an othre thing: for ‘othre’ cp. i. 1496, ii. 511.

who that recordeth, ‘if a man calls it to mind’: see note on Prol. 13.

483. tale of Troie, i.e. Guido di Colonna, Hist. Troiana, lib. 32 (o2, ed. Argent. 1494), which is here followed. Benoît mentions the Sirens, but does not describe their form nor state that Ulysses stopped his men’s ears.

492 ff. This manner of piling up consecutive clauses is observable in the author’s French style, and the use of relatives like ‘wherof,’ ‘which’ (l. 771) to introduce them is parallel to that of ‘Dont,’ ‘Par quoy,’ &c. in the French: e.g. Mir. 219 ff.,

‘Et tant luy fist plesant desport,

Dont il fuist tant enamouré,

Que sur sa fille,’ &c.

Cp. Mir. 681.

527. ‘plus quam mille ex eis interfecimus,’ Guido, Hist. Troi., lib. 32.

532. hiere, subjunctive: cp. ii. 252, iii. 665, &c.

574. othre thing: plural no doubt, but we have also ‘othre (other) thinges,’ i. 2464, iv. 1183.

Latin Verses. v. i. que Leone. This position of ‘que’ is quite common in our author’s Latin writings: see the lines after the Praise of Peace, ll. 10, 49, 50, &c.

8. sub latitante, ‘lurking underneath,’ ‘sub’ being an adverb. The best copies have the words separate.

577. applied, ‘assigned’; cp. iv. 2607, v. 913, vii. 1100.

585. seid, ‘named.’

595. feigneth conscience, that is, makes pretence as to his feeling, or state of mind, (‘As thogh it were al innocence’): cp. iii. 1504, ‘Mi conscience I woll noght hyde.’ The explanation suggested in the New Engl. Dict. that ‘conscience’ stands for ‘conscientiousness’ or ‘rightful dealing,’ will hardly do, and the word does not seem to be used early in this sense.

599. the vein astat: see note on Prol. 221.

608. these ordres, i.e. ‘the orders’ (of religion): so ‘these clerkes,’ Prol. 900.

where he duelleth, that is, the hypocrite, standing for Hypocrisy in general.

623. religioun, the members of the religious orders, as distinguished from the rest of the clergy.

626. It scheweth, ‘it appears’: cp. Prol. 834.

636. devolte apparantie: the words are pure French, and the French feminine form is as naturally used for the adjective, as in the ‘seinte apparantie’ of Mir. 1124. We cannot apply the English rule of the definite adjective to such combinations as this: cp. note on Prol. 221. However, ‘devoute’ in l. 669 seems to be the plural form.

637. set, present tense: so ll. 650, 707, &c.

648. these othre seculers, ‘the men of the world also.’

650. ‘He makes no reckoning in his account.’

695. As he which &c.; that is simply, ‘feigning to be sick,’ so iv. 1833, ‘As he who feigneth to be wod’; cp. vii. 3955. The expression ‘as he which,’ ‘as sche which,’ is very commonly used by Gower in this sense; cp. i. 925, 1640, &c., and Mir. 27942, ‘Comme cil q’est tout puissant,’ ‘being all-powerful.’

698. Cp. iv. 1180, ‘And thus mi contienance I pike.’ It means ‘he makes many a pretence.’

709. Entamed, ‘wounded’: used in a similar moral sense in Mir. 25161, ‘Car Covoitise les entame.’

713. As forto feigne, i.e. ‘as regards feigning’: so l. 723, ‘as to my ladi diere.’

718 ff. For the form of sentence, which is a favourite one with our author in all his three languages, but especially perhaps in Latin, cp. Mirour, 18589 ff.,

‘Unques le corps du sainte Heleine

Serchant la croix tant ne se peine,

Qe nous ovesque nostre Court,

Assetz n’y mettons plus du peine,’ &c.

Vox Clam. i. 263 ff.,

‘In Colchos tauri, quos vicit dextra Iasonis,

Non ita sulphureis ignibus ora fremunt,

Quin magis igne boues isti,’ &c.

So also Bal. vii. 23, xviii. 8, xxx. 10; Vox Clam. i. 355, 449, 499, &c.; Conf. Am. i. 1259, 1319, &c.

733. ‘For I shall not declare this in my defence, that’ &c.; a somewhat different use of the word from that which we find in the quotations given by the New Engl. Dict., ‘Excuse v.’ i. 1. d.

761 ff. The story of Mundus and Paulina is historical, related by Josephus, Ant. xviii. 66 ff., and after him by Hegesippus, ii. 4, from whom it was taken by Vincent of Beauvais, Spec. Hist. vii. 4, and also doubtless, directly or indirectly, by Gower. It is told in verse by Godfrey of Viterbo, Pantheon, xv, but it is certain that this was not Gower’s source.

771. Which: for this use of the relative in a consecutive clause, which is very common in our author’s style, see note on 492, and cp. 801.

773. thilke bore frele kinde. Human nature is described as frail from birth, and by its weakness causing blindness of the heart.

776 f. ‘And such were the fortunes of this tale of which I would speak,’ i.e. this was the passion which determined its course.

816. his thonk pourchace, ‘win their gratitude towards himself.’

833. ‘In which a false heart was concealed,’ an instance of inverted order, for which cp. ii. 565,

‘Whiche as he wot is puyson inne.’

872. hire, cp. 367.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1051. put, pres. tense, ‘putteth.’

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘Makynge a colour of devocion

Through holynesse under ypocrisie.’

Tale of Troye, bk. iv.

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

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

‘Et quant ço virent Troien,

Conseil pristrent que des terralz

Abatroient les granz muralz,

Les biax, les granz, que Neptunus

Ot fet, M. anz aveit et plus,

Et qu’ Apollo ot dedié.’

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

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

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

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

6. The elephant was supposed to have no joints.

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

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

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

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

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

‘Qe ja ne quiert ou gaign ou perte

Du siecle avoir pour sa decerte.’

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

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

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

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

Shakespeare refers to Gower’s story in the line,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘And she that told the nowe, sir Arthoure,

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

Weddynge of Syr Gawene, 475.

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

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

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

1722. ‘Placing her as he best could.’

1727. Bot as an oule &c. So in Chaucer,

‘And al day after hidde him as an owle,

So wo was hym, his wyf looked so foule.’

D 1081 f.

1767. tok thanne chiere on honde, ‘began to be merry.’

1771. And profreth him ... to kisse, i.e. offers to kiss him: cp. v. 6923, ‘Anon he profreth him to love.’

1886. til it overthrowe, i.e. till it fall into calamity, ‘overthrowe’ being intransitive, as 1962.

1888. Hadde I wist: cp. ii. 473, iv. 305.

1895. And is, i.e. ‘And he is,’ the pronoun being frequently omitted: cp. Prol. 348, 676, i. 2083, 2462, ii. 258, 624, 2071, 2985, iii. 1063, &c.

1917 f. A proverbial expression: cp. Lydgate, Secrees of the Philosophres, 459, ‘Yit wer me loth ovir myn hed to hewe.’

1934. ne schal me noght asterte, ‘shall not escape me,’ in the sense of letting a fault be committed by negligence in repressing it: cp. i. 722.

1967. unbende, 1st sing. pret., ‘I unbent (my bow).’ For the form cp. ‘sende,’ Prol. 1013.

1980 ff. The example of Capaneus is probably from Statius. The medieval romances (e.g. the French Roman de Thèbes) do not represent Capaneus as slain by a lightning stroke. The impious speech alluded to here, ‘Primus in orbe deos fecit timor!’ is Statius, Theb. iii. 661, and the death of Capaneus, Theb. x. 827 ff.

2007. it proeveth, i.e. ‘it appears’: cp. Prol. 926.

2021 ff. This story was probably taken by Gower from the Vita Barlaam et Josaphat, cap. vi (Migne, Patrol. vol. 74. p. 462 f.). The incidents are the same, but amplified with details by Gower, who has also invented the title of the king. In the original he is only ‘magnus quidam et illustris rex.’ The story is found in several collections, as Gesta Romanorum, 143, Holkot, 70, see Gesta Romanorum, ed. Oesterley.

2030. ride amaied: cp. Chaucer, Cant. Tales, C 406, and Skeat’s note.

2049. par charite. Rather perhaps ‘per charite,’ following J. F and A both have the contracted form. So also ‘per chance,’ ‘per chaunce,’ in ll. 2225, 2290, 3203, and ‘per aventure,’ l. 2350.

2073. was the same ... which, cp. viii. 3062*.

2078. This line, which would more naturally follow the next, seems to be thrown in parenthetically here.

2106. So also ii. 895, 2670.

2172. to tendre with, ‘whereby to soften’: cp. i. 452, ‘To tarie with a mannes thoght,’ and ii. 283.

2176. sihe: the mixture of past with present tenses is common in Gower.

2214 ff. ‘O stulte ac demens, si fratris tui, cum quo idem tibi genus et par honos est, in quem nullius omnino sceleris tibi conscius es, praeconem ita extimuisti, quonam modo mihi reprehensionis notam idcirco inussisti, quod Dei mei praecones, qui mortem, ac Domini ,in quem me multa et gravia scelera perpetrasse scio, pertimescendum adventum mihi quavis tuba vocalius altiusque denuntiant, humiliter ac demisse salutarim?’ Barl. et Jos. cap. vi.

2225. See note on 2049.

2236. obeie, ‘do obeisance to’: cp. v. 1539.

2275 ff. The tale of Narcissus is no doubt from Ovid, Met. iii. 402 ff., but the account of his death is different from that which we find there. Ovid relates that he pined away gradually, and that his body was not found, but in place of it a flower.

2290. par chance: see note on 2049.

2316 f. Cp. Bocc. Gen. Deorum, vii. 59, ‘existimans fontis Nympham.’ By the margin we find that the nymph here meant is Echo, who is represented by Ovid as having wasted away for love of Narcissus and as giving an answer now to his cries.

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

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

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

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

‘Planxere sorores

Naides, et sectos fratri posuere capillos;

Planxerunt Dryades, plangentibus assonat Echo,’

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

2350. par aventure: see note on 2049.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘Ipse caput soceri, quem fecerat ense necari,

Arte scyphum fieri statuens auroque ligari,

Vina suae sponsae praecipit inde dari.

Femina nescisset quod testa paterna fuisset,

Vina nec hausisset, nisi diceret impius ipse,

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

Dum bibit immunda data vina gemens Rosimunda,

Pectora pessumdat, lacrymae vehementer inundant,

Occisique patris res fit amara satis.’

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

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

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

2548. The punctuation is that of the MSS.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2746. Wherof: cp. l. 498.

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

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

2787. Prol. 585 ff.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3203. par chaunce: see note on 2049.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LIB. II.

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

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

‘Ly mons Ethna, quele art toutdiz,

Nulle autre chose du paiis

Forsque soy mesmes poet ardoir;

Ensi q’ Envie tient ou pis

En sentira deinz soy le pis.’

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

‘Uror enim, laesusque exaestuat acrius ignis,

Cumque suis videor translatam viribus Aetnam

Pectore ferre meo.’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

xxii. ‘Iuppiter, ambiguas hominum praediscere mentes,

Ad terram Phoebum misit ab arce poli.

Tunc duo diversis poscebant numina votis,

Namque alter cupidus, invidus alter erat;

His sese medium Titan scrutatus utrumque

Obtulit et, “Precibus Iuppiter aecus,” ait,

“Praestandi facilis; nam quae speraverit unus,

Protinus haec alter congeminata feret.”

Sed cui longa iecur nequiit satiare cupido,

Distulit admotas in sua dona preces, 10

Spem sibi confidens alieno crescere voto,

Seque ratus solum munera ferre duo.

Ille ubi captantem socium sua praemia vidit,

Supplicium proprii corporis optat ovans;

Nam petit extincto iam lumine degat ut uno,

Alter ut hoc duplicans vivat utroque carens.

Tum sortem sapiens humanam risit Apollo,

Invidiaeque malum rettulit ipse Iovi,

Quae dum proventis aliorum gaudet iniquis,

Laetior infelix et sua damna cupit.’ 20

l. 6. Iuppiter aecus Lachmann vt peteretur codd.

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

317. That on, ‘The one.’

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

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

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

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

401 ff. Cp. Mirour, 3721 ff.

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

413 ff. Cp. Mirour, 2893 ff.,

‘La hupe toutdis fait son ny,

Et l’escarbud converse auci,

Entour l’ordure et la merdaille;

Mais de ces champs qui sont flori

N’ont garde: et par semblance ensi

Malvoise langue d’enviaille,’ &c.

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

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

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

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

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

583. ‘To be amended’: cp. Prol. 83.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

749 ff. In the MSS. the paragraph begins at ‘Constance loveth,’ l. 751.

752. ‘They speaking every day together alone,’ an absolute use: cp. 1723. For ‘betwen hem two’ cp. 653.

762. Punctuated after ‘hire’ in F.

771. Thou bysne man. The word ‘bysne’ is taken from the original story. Trivet says she spoke in the Saxon language and said, ‘Bisne man, en Ihesu name in rode yslawe haue þi siht’ (MS. Rawl. f. 34).

785. As he that. The reference is to the king, so that we should rather expect ‘As him that,’ but the phrase is a stereotyped one and does not always vary in accordance with grammatical construction: cp. 1623. We find however also ‘As him which,’ iii. 1276.

791. ‘The time being appointed moreover’: an absolute use of the participle.

831. ‘trencha la gowle Hermigild’: therefore the fact that Gower and Chaucer agree in saying that he cut her throat has no special significance.

833. The reading ‘that dier,’ or ‘that diere,’ was apparently a mistake of the original copyist. It appears in all the unrevised copies of the first recension and also in B. Λ however has the corrected reading.

857. After, ‘In accordance with.’

880 ff. Here Chaucer follows the original more closely than Gower, as also just above, ‘him smoot upon the nekke boon.’ The words of the miraculous voice are given in Latin by Trivet, ‘Aduersus filiam matris ecclesie ponebas scandalum: hoc fecisti et tacui’ (‘et non tacui’ Rawl. Stockh.). Chaucer has (B 674 ff.),

‘And seyde, “Thou hast desclaundred gilteles

The doughter of holy chirche in heigh presence:

Thus hastou doon and yet holde I my pees.”’

895. This line occurs several times, e.g. i. 2106, ii. 2670.

905. Lucie, apparently to be pronounced ‘Lucíe.’ Such names usually appear either in the Latin forms ‘Lucius,’ ‘Tiberius,’ ‘Claudius,’ ‘Virginius,’ or with accent on the antepenultimate syllable ‘Tibérie,’ ‘Mercúrie,’ the ‘i’ not being counted as a syllable.

947. What the right name really is we can hardly say for certain. The printed text of the French gives ‘Domulde’ or ‘Domilde,’ the Rawlinson MS. has ‘Downilde,’ and Chaucer makes it ‘Donegild.’

964. which is of faierie. In the French book the letter states that the queen has been transformed since the king’s departure into the likeness of another creature and is an evil spirit in woman’s form.

994 f. ‘comaunda qe sanz nul countredit feissent sa femme sauvement garder’ f. 34 vo.

1001. I punctuate after ‘Knaresburgh’ on the authority of F.

1010. The manuscript has a stop after ‘drunke’ and this seems best.

1020. Here we have apparently one of the original corruptions of the author’s text.

1046 ff. The original has only ‘grant duel et grant dolour demeneient.’

1081. To rocke with: cp. i. 452.

1110. if sche him daunger make, ‘if she resist his desire’: see note on i. 2443.

1123. menable: see note on i. 1067.

1132. er it be falle And hath &c.; that is, ‘until it be so come that it hath,’ &c.

1152. scholden: note the plural verb after ‘I forth with my litel Sone’: cp. 736.

1163. Trivet adds ‘qar issit l’apelerent les Sessoneis’ f. 35 vo.

1164. for noght he preide &c., ‘for none of his prayers to be told,’ &c.

1173. The stop after ‘Romeward’ is on the authority of F, with which A agrees. We can say either, ‘He was coming from Barbarie towards Rome, and was going home,’ or ‘He was coming from Barbarie, and was going home towards Rome’; but the latter perhaps is the more natural.

1191. made sche no chiere. This must mean here, ‘she gave no outward sign of her thought.’ Usually ‘to make cheer’ means to be cheerful.

1243. what child that were, subjunctive in indirect question: cp. 1943, iii. 708, 771, &c. See note on Prol. 41.

1259. alle well: ‘wel’ seems to be a substantive.

1275. as seith the bok. The ‘book’ only says ‘ia tut enflammé de ire.’

1285. I schal be venged: cp. v. 6766. The first and second recensions have ‘It schal.’

1300. was after sunge. The French book does not say this. It seems probable that Gower was acquainted with ballads on the subject, such as that of Emaré, printed in Ritson’s Metrical Romances, ii. 204 ff. It is to be noted that Emaré is taken from a Breton lay:

‘Thys ys of Brytayne layes,

That was used by olde dayes

Men callys playn the garye.’

1317. According to Trivet he came especially to get absolution for having killed his mother, and Chaucer follows him here.

1329. In help to ben his herbergour. This seems to mean that the question was asked with a view to helping to provide a lodging for the king. The expression is rather obscure however.

1351. seknesse of the See. This is absurd here, but not so in the original story. Constance attributes her weakness to the effects produced by her long wanderings at sea, ‘se acundut par feblesce de sa cervele que lui avint en la mere’ f. 36.

1369. sihe, subjunctive, ‘so that the king might see him.’

1381 f. Cp. viii. 1702 ff.

1393. ‘a ship which was,’ cp. i. 10.

1405 f. See note on 1163. Trivet speaks here only of the name of Moris.

1423 f. Gower’s more usual form would be, ‘Desireth not the heaven so much, that he ne longeth more,’ as i. 718, &c.

1464 ff. The connexion of this remark is clearer in the original story, which says that Constance told her husband, if the Emperor should refuse his prayer, to ask ‘pur l’amur q’il avoit al alme sa fille Constaunce’; because she knew that he denied no one who prayed in this form.

1586 ff. after that, ‘according as’: cp. Prol. 544, iii. 1074. The book says in fact with much apparent accuracy that Alla died nine months after his return, that Constance returned to Rome half a year after, ‘pur la novele qe ele oit de la maladie son pere,’ that on the thirteenth day after her arrival the Emperor died in the arms of his daughter, and she followed him in a year, the date being St. Clement’s day of the year 585. It is further stated that Elda, who had accompanied Constance to Rome, died at Tours on his way back to England.

1599. the wel meninge of love. In spite of the variations there can hardly be a doubt about the true reading here. The word is clearly ‘meninge’ both in F and S, and the change to ‘whel’ was suggested no doubt by the misreading ‘meuinge.’ For the expression cp. iii. 599, ‘To love and to his welwillinge.’

1613 ff. Gower apparently pieced together this story of Demetrius and Perseus from several sources, for it does not seem to occur in any single authority precisely as he gives it. The first part, which has to do with the false accusation brought against Demetrius and its consequences, agrees with the account given in Justin, Epitome, lib. xxxii. The story of the daughter of Paulus Emilius and her little dog is told by Valerius Maximus, Mem. i. 5. 3. Finally, the details of the defeat of Perseus seem to be taken from the account of a catastrophe which about the same time befell the Basternae, a Thracian tribe allied with Perseus, who according to Orosius (iv. 20), when crossing the Danube in winter with large numbers of men and horses, were almost annihilated by the breaking of the ice. The same author mentions that after the defeat and capture of Perseus his son exercised the craft of a brass-worker at Rome.

It is possible of course that Gower had before him some single account in which these elements were already combined. In Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Hist. v. 65 f., we find first the catastrophe of the Basternae, taken from Orosius, then the Macedonian war from Justin and Orosius, with the incident of the dog inserted from Valerius.

1631 (margin). testibus que iudicibus, ‘witnesses and judges,’ a common use of the conjunction in Gower’s Latin: cp. ‘Celsior est Aquila que Leone ferocior,’ Latin Verses after i. 574.

1633. dorst, so here in the best MSS. for ‘dorste.’

1711. apparant, for ‘heir apparant,’ which was the original reading of the first recension: cp. Mirour, 5580,

‘Car d’autre bien n’est apparant.’

1723. livende his father: for this absolute use cp. 752.

1757. upon depos, that is, having his power given to him as a temporary charge. See the examples in the New Engl. Dict.

1778. And he. ‘As he’ is an error which crept into the third recension. The interchange of ‘As’ with ‘And’ in Gower MSS. is very common.

1793 f. ‘For such an omen of an hound was most like to him,’ the words being transposed for the sake of the metre.

1799. do slain. This is apparently past participle by attraction for infinitive: cp. i. 3153, iv. 249, 816.

1817 ff. This incident is not related of the army of Perseus in any history, so far as I know: see note on 1613.

Latin Verses. iv. 7 f. As punctuated in F the couplet runs,

‘Quod patet esse fides in eo, fraus est que politi

Principium pacti, finis habere negat.’

This does not seem to give any sense. The text may be translated thus: ‘What appears to be faith in him is in fact fraud, and the end of the smooth covenant disowns the beginning’ (lit. ‘denies that it has the beginning’).

1921. it scheweth, ‘there appeareth’: cp. iii. 809.

1943. how it were: subjunctive of indirect question; cp. 1243.

1950. of love, and. The punctuation is that of F.

2016. byme: see note on i. 232.

2018. For this I weene, ‘the other cause is because I ween,’ &c.

2025. Forwhy and, ‘provided that’: the same line occurs again in v. 2563. Compare the use of ‘for why that’ in Le Morte Arth. 389 (Roxb.), ‘Thou shalt haue yiftis good, For why þat thou wilte dwelle wyth me,’ quoted in the New Engl. Dict.

2066. of his oghne hed. It may be questioned whether ‘hed’ is not here from an O.E. ‘*hǣd,’ a collateral form of ‘hád,’ like the termination ‘-hed’ for ‘-hod.’ See New Engl. Dict., ‘hede.’ In that case, ‘of his oghne hed’ would mean ‘about his own condition.’ The rhyme with ‘red’ is no guide to us.

2071. Bot hield, i.e. ‘But I held’; see note on i. 1895.

2098 ff. With this attack on the Lombards compare Mirour de l’omme, 25429 ff. It is the usual popular jealousy of foreign rivals in trade.

2122. Fa crere, ‘make-believe,’ the art by which they acquired credit in business. The form ‘crere’ is used in Gower’s French, e. g. Mirour, 4474.

2124. hem stant no doute, ‘they have no fear,’ ‘they are sure’: cp. iii. 1524, v. 7244. In v. 2118, ‘which stant of him no doute,’ we have a somewhat different form of the expression: cp. iii. 2536.

2157 ff. The story is mainly taken from Ovid, Metam. ix. 101 ff., but probably Gower was acquainted also with the epistle, Deianira Herculi, and he has (naturally enough) supposed that what is there said of Hercules and Omphale, the exchange of clothes &c., referred to the relations of Hercules and Iole: see 2268 ff. ‘The kinges dowhter of Eurice’ is no doubt derived from the expression ‘Eurytidosque Ioles’: cp. Traitié, vii. 2. Ovid’s account of the death of Hercules is very much shortened by our author, and not without good reason.

2160. That is, ‘it befell him to desire,’ &c.

2297. Ovid, Met. ix. 229 ff.

2299. al of: so the first and second recension copies generally, and also W. The sense seems to require it, rather than ‘of al,’ given by FH₃.

2341. his slyh compas: a clear case of the loss of inflexion in the adjective, notwithstanding that it is a native English stem. The same word occurs in the definite form in l. 2374 ‘with his slyhe cast.’

2346. chalk for chese: cp. Prol. 416.

2366. axeth no felawe, ‘requires none to share it.’

2392. The metre requires the form ‘bote,’ which is etymologically correct, and is given in the best MSS.

2403. Me roghte noght: pret. subjunctive, ‘I should not care.’

2423. I wolde: cp. iii. 78. We should expect the negative ‘I nolde,’ as in i. 2750 f.,

‘I wol noght say

That I nam glad on other side.’

The conditional clause thrown in has broken the thread of the sentence.

2430. tant ne quant: so Mirour de l’omme, 3654, 23358.

2437. A man to ben, cp. vi. 57.

2447. in a wayt: so given by the best copies, cp. 2999, but ‘upon await’ iii. 955, 1016.

2451 ff. In the MSS. the paragraph is marked as beginning with the next line, ‘At Troie how that,’ the line before being insignificant. As to the first story referred to in the text, Gower may have known it from Hyginus (Fab. cvi), or from Ovid, Her. Ep. iii. The example of Diomede and Troilus had been popularized by Chaucer, who had the name ‘Criseide’ from Boccaccio’s ‘Griseida.’ In Benoît and Guido the name is ‘Briseida,’ but Boccaccio was aware that Briseis was a different person (Gen. Deorum, xii. 52).

2459 ff. The name Geta was taken by Gower from the Geta of Vitalis Blesensis, a dramatic piece in Latin elegiacs founded on Plautus, in which Geta takes the place of Sosia: see Wright’s Early Mysteries, &c., pp. 79-90. It may be suspected that our author himself modified the story in order to make it more suitable for his purpose by substituting a mortal friend for Jupiter. We may note that he has also reversed the part played by Amphitryon.

2501 ff. I cannot indicate the source of this tale.

2537. As thei. The sense seems to require this reading, which is found however in only two MSS., so far as I know, and those not the best. It appears as a correction in Berthelet’s second edition.

2550. which that him beclipte. Either this means ‘who was encompassing him,’ that is pressing upon his borders, referring to the Caliph of Egypt, or ‘which encircled his territory,’ referring to what follows, ‘in a Marche costeiant.’ In the latter case we should have a very bold inversion of clauses for the sake of rhyme, but hardly more so than in 709 ff.

2558. unto Kaire. It is evident that the author conceives this as the capital not of Egypt but of Persia: cp. 2648.

2578. hair. The form of the word is accommodated to the rhyme: so iv. 1252.

2642. Upon hire oth &c., inverted order, ‘how it was a token that she should be his wife upon her oath,’ i.e. in accordance with her oath.

2670. The same line occurs also i. 2106, ii. 895.

2680. tome, i.e. ‘leisure,’ ‘opportunity,’ from the adjective ‘tom,’ empty. The reading ‘come’ is due probably to the misunderstanding of a rather unusual word, but the rhyme ‘Rome: come’ (past partic.) is not an admissible one (cp. K. Fahrenburg in Archiv für neuere Sprachen, vol. 89, p. 406, who of course is not aware of the corruption).

2803. The account of Boniface VIII which was most current in England is that which we find given in Rishanger’s Chronicle and repeated by Higden and Walsingham. It is as follows, under the year 1294:—

Papa cedit.

‘Coelestinus Papa se minus sufficientem ad regendam Ecclesiam sentiens, de consilio Benedicti Gaietani cessit Papatui, edita prius constitutione super cessione Pontificum Romanorum.

Supplantatio Papae.

‘In vigilia Natalis Domini apud Neapolim in Papam eligitur Benedictus Gaietanus.... De quo praedecessor eius Coelestinus, vir vitae anachoriticae, eo quod eum ad cedendum Papatui subdole induxisset, prophetavit in hunc modum, prout fertur: “Ascendisti ut vulpes, regnabis ut leo, morieris ut canis.” Et ita sane contigit; nam ipsum Papam ut Papatui cederet et ut Papa quilibet cedere posset, constitutionem edere fecit; quam quidem postmodum ipsemet Papa effectus revocavit. Deinde rigide regens generosos quosdam de Columpna Cardinales deposuit; Regi Francorum in multis non solum obstitit, sed eum totis viribus deponere insudavit. Igitur Senescallus Franciae, Willelmus de Longareto, vir quidem in agibilibus admodum circumspectus, et fratres de Columpna praedicti, foederatis viribus Bonifacium Papam comprehenderunt et in equum effrenem, versa facie ad caudam, sine freno posuerunt; quem sic discurrere ad novissimum halitum coegerunt, ac tandem fame necaverunt.’

It remains to be asked where Gower found the story of the speaking-trumpet by means of which Celestin was moved to his abdication, why he supposed that the capture of Boniface took place near Avignon, and whence came such additional details as we have in l. 3028.

As to the first, it was certainly a current story, because we find it repeated by later writers, as Paulus Langius, Chron. Citiz., ann. 1294, ‘Per fistulam etiam frequentius noctu in cubili per parietem missam, velut coelica vox esset, loquebatur ei: “Celestine, Celestine, renuncia papatui, quia aliter saluari non poteris, nam vires tuas excedit.”’

As to the death of Boniface, it was commonly reported that he had been starved in prison, the fact being that after the episode of his captivity he refused to take food, and the biting of his hands was observed as a symptom of extreme vexation, ‘saepe caput muro concussit et digitos momordit,’ ‘per plures dies ira feruidus manus sibi arrodere videbatur,’ &c. Ciacon. Vita Pont. p. 655.

2837 f. cp. Prol. 329.

2875. of such prolacioun,’with so prolonged a note.’

2889. hedde: cp. v. 1254.

2966. Lowyz. This of course is a mistake historically.

2985. And seiden. For omission of pronoun cp. i. 1895.

2995. de Langharet. We find this form of the name, or something equivalent, in the English Chronicles quoted, and also in Villani. The true name was apparently ‘de Nogaret.’

3001. at Avinoun. This is quite unhistorical, and the precise mention of ‘Pontsorge’ (or as our author first wrote it, ‘Poursorge’) seems to point to the use of some particular form of the story, which cannot at present be indicated.

3033 ff. This saying is sometimes given in the form of a prophecy, and attributed to the predecessor of Boniface, whose resignation he was said to have procured: see the passage quoted on l. 2803.

3037. to the houndes like, ‘after the likeness of the hound’: cp. i. 2791, ‘to his liche.’ The form ‘like’ would hardly be admissible here as an adjective for ‘lik.’

3056. This prophecy no doubt was current among the many attributed to the Abbot Joachim, but I do not find it exactly in the form here given. The quotation of it in the margin of F is in a different hand from that of the text and of the heading ‘Nota de prophecia’ &c. The omission of the Latin altogether in some manuscripts, as AdT, W, has no special significance for this passage.

3081 f. ‘He shall not be able to abstain from hindering him.’

3095. This saying, which is here attributed to Seneca, and which appears also in the Mirour de l’omme in a slightly different form, 3831 ff., may be based really upon the well-known passage of Dante, Inf. xiii. 64.

Latin Verses. vi. 4. Dumque, for ‘Dum,’ as sometimes in the Vox Clamantis.

ethnica flamma: see note on l. 20.

3122 ff. Cp. Mirour, 3819 ff.

3160. See note on i. 232.

3187. The Latin books referred to are the current lives of Saint Silvester, the substance of which is reproduced in the Legenda Aurea. Gower tells the story in considerably better style than we have it there, with amplifications of his own, especially as regards the reflections of Constantine, 3243 ff., and the preaching of Silvester to the Emperor, 3383 ff. There are some variations in detail from the current account which may or may not point to a special source. For example, in the Life of Silvester we are told that the Emperor met the lamenting mothers as he was riding up to the Capitol to take his bath of blood, and in all forms of the legend that I have seen the mountain where Silvester lay in hiding was Soracte (or Saraptis) and not Celion. The name may however have been altered by Gower for metrical reasons, as was sometimes his habit; see note on i. 1407 (end).

3210. of Accidence. ‘Accidentia’ in its medical sense is explained as ‘affectus praeter naturam’: cp. v. 763.

3243 ff. These reflections, continued to l. 3300, are an expanded and improved form of the rather tasteless string of maxims given in the legend, the most pointed of which is that with which our author concludes, ‘Omnium se esse dominum comprobat, qui servum se monstraverit pietatis.’

3260. his oghne wone. This appears to mean ‘according to his own habits,’ like ‘his oghne hondes’ (i. 1427), ‘his oghne mouth’ (v. 5455), for ‘with his own hands,’ &c.

3507. vertu sovereine: a clear case of the French feminine inflexion, which must have been a very natural variation in such expressions as this; cp. i. 2677. In French as in English our author would feel at liberty to adapt the form to the rhyme or metre: so we have ‘sa joye soverein’ Mir. 4810, but ‘ma sovereine joie’ Bal. ix. 7.

3517. betwen ous tweie, i.e. ‘together’; cp. l. 653.

LIB. III.

4. ther nis on. Note the repetition of the negative from the clause above.

71. the leng the ferre, i.e. ‘the lengere the ferre.’

78. mihte I, for ‘ne mihte I’: cp. ii. 2423.

83. redy to wraththe: cp. ii. 3444, ‘redi to the feith.’

143 ff. The story is from Ovid, Her. Ep. xi. It is that which is referred to by Chaucer, Cant. Tales, B 77,

‘But certeinly no word ne writeth he

Of thilke wikke ensample of Canacee,

That loved hir owene brother synfully.’

(Note that the name ‘Canace’ is used by Gower so as to rhyme with ‘place.’)

In spite of the character of the subject, it must be allowed that Gower tells the story in a very touching manner, and he shows good taste in omitting some of Ovid’s details, as for example those in Ep. 39-44. The appeal of Canace to her father as given by Gower is original, and so for the most part is the letter to her brother and the picturesque and pathetic scene of her death. On the whole this must be regarded as a case in which our author has greatly improved upon his authority. Lydgate obviously has Gower’s story before him when he introduces the tale (quite needlessly) into his Fall of Princes. It may be noted that in Ovid also the catastrophe is given as a consequence of ungoverned anger:

‘Imperat, heu! ventis, tumidae non imperat irae.’

172. lawe positif: see note on Prol. 247. Gower’s view is that there is nothing naturally immoral about an incestuous marriage, but that it is made wrong by the ‘lex positiva’ of the Church. This position he makes clear at the beginning of the eighth book, by showing that in the first ages of the world such marriages must have been sanctioned by divine authority, and that the idea of kinship as a bar to marriage had grown up gradually, cousins being allowed to marry among the Jews, though brother and sister might not, and that finally the Church had ordered,

‘That non schal wedden of his ken

Ne the seconde ne the thridde.’ viii. 147 f.

If attacked by Chaucer with regard to the subject of this story, he would no doubt defend himself by arguing that the vice with which it dealt was not against nature, and that the erring brother and sister were in truth far more deserving of sympathy than the father who took such cruel vengeance. Notwithstanding his general strictness in matters of morality, Gower was something of a fatalist, cp. the recurring phrases of 1222, 1348, 1677, iv. 1524, &c., and he repeatedly emphasizes the irresistible character of the impulses of nature in love; cp. i. 17 ff., 1051 ff., 2621, vi. 1261 ff., and here l. 161 (margin), ‘intollerabilem iuuentutis concupiscenciam.’

219. ‘the child which was,’ cp. i. 10.

253 f. Ovid, Her. Ep. xi. 96,

‘Et iubet ex merito scire quid iste velit.’

279 ff. This letter is for the most part original. That which we have in Ovid is mainly narrative.

292. If that &c. The point of this as it occurs in Ovid depends upon the fact that her child has already been exposed and, as she conceives, torn by wild beasts, and she entreats her brother if possible to collect his remains and lay them by her,—a very natural and pathetic request. Gower has chosen for the sake of picturesque effect in this scene to make the exposure of the child come after the death of the mother, and he should therefore perhaps have omitted the reference to the child’s burial.

300 f. Ovid, Her. Ep. xi. 3, 4,

‘Dextra tenet calamum, strictum tenet altera ferrum,

Et iacet in gremio charta soluta meo.’

315. The word ‘baskleth’ is perhaps a genuine alternative reading.

331. ‘Of such a thing done as that was.’ We must not be tempted by the correction ‘tho’ for ‘that.’

352. A fatalistic maxim which is often repeated, e.g. i. 1714, ‘nede he mot that nede schal.’

355. The revision of this line for the third recension may indicate a preference for throwing back the accent of ‘nature’ in the English fashion: so ii. 1376, but ‘natúre’ ll. 175, 350.

361 ff. This is from Ovid, Met. iii. 324 ff. Gower has chosen to omit the sequel of the story, which was that after seven years Tiresias saw the same snakes again, and by striking them a second time recovered his former sex. This being so, he is obliged to make a separate story (736 ff.) of the dispute between Jupiter and Juno, which gave Ovid occasion for mentioning the incident of the snakes.

382. Wherof,’ In regard to which.’

390. menable, ‘apt to be led’; see note on i. 1067. For the variations of reading cp. ii. 1599, and below, 519.

417. ‘Cheste’ is that form of contention which expresses itself in angry words. Gower seems to have taken it to be connected with the verb ‘chide,’ see 443, 492, 534, 552 ff.

431. Cp. Mirour, 4146 ff.,

‘ly sage auci

Ce dist, que deinz le cuer de luy

Folie buylle tresparmy,

Comme du fontaine la liquour.’

The reference is to Proverbs xv. 2, ‘os fatuorum ebullit stultitiam.’

436. oppose, ‘inquire.’

463 ff. See note on the Latin verses at the beginning of the Prologue, 5 f.

479. That is, rather than sing such a creed, I would choose to be unlearned and know no creed at all.

487. Upon hirself, i.e. upon her authority.

515. balketh. A ‘balk’ is a ridge left unploughed, and ‘to balk’ in ploughing is to leave a ridge either between two furrows or in the furrow itself, the plough being permitted to pass over a piece of ground without breaking it. Here it is referred to as an accident arising either from not ploughing straight or not keeping the ploughshare regularly at the proper depth. From this idea of leaving out something come most of the other meanings of the verb: see New Engl. Dict.

544. Hire oghte noght be. For this impersonal use with the simple infinitive cp. 704.

545. For I, i.e. ‘For that I’: cp. 820, &c.

585. This expression, which Pauli for some reason calls an ‘obscene proverb,’ seems to be nearly equivalent to the saying about the bird that fouls his own nest (cp. Mirour, 23413), and refers apparently to recriminations between the owl and the stock upon which he sits, on the matter of cleanliness. The application is to the case of the man who quarrels with his own performances, and naturally has the worst of it himself.

626. ‘World’ seems to be the true reading here, though ‘word’ stood in the earlier form of text. The meaning is ‘that state of things shall never be permitted by me.’ The use of ‘world’ is like that which we have in i. 178, where ‘mi world’ means ‘my condition’: cp. Prol. 383, 1081. The verb ‘asterte’ is used in the sense of escaping notice and so being allowed to pass or to happen: cp. i. 1934,

‘Bot that ne schal me noght asterte,

To wene forto be worthi,’ &c.

Cp. i. 722.

The expression ‘that word schal me nevere asterte’ is a more ordinary one (and therefore more likely to have been introduced by a copyist), but it gives no satisfactory sense here.

641 ff. The story was a hackneyed one, and occurs in many places. It is shortly told by Jerome, Adv. Jovin. i. 48.

665. what labour that sche toke. The verb is subjunctive, either because the form of speech is indirect, cp. 708, or because the expression is indefinite.

699. Cp. Mirour, 4185 ff., where after telling the same story the author roundly declares that he shall not follow the example.

704. Him oghte ... bere: cp. 544, 1666.

708. how that it stode: subjunctive of indirect speech, under rhyme influence: cp. ii. 1243 and l. 771 below, and see note on Prol. 41.

736. Met. iii. 316 ff. We have here the rest of the story which was referred to above, 361 ff. The point of the incident as told by Ovid is (perhaps purposely) missed by Gower, who does not mention the reason why Tiresias was selected as judge.

737. That is, according to the religious belief which then prevailed.

762. ‘And yet the other state would have pleased him better, to have had’ &c.

771. what he mene: for the subjunctive cp. 708.

782. of olde ensample: for ‘olde’ in this expression cp. 1683; but ‘of old time,’ i. 1072, ‘an old ensample,’ iv. 75.

783. This is from Ovid, Met. ii. 542 ff. The Cornide of Gower’s story is Coronis. The story is told at greater length by Chaucer as the Manciple’s Tale.

818 ff. From Ovid, Fasti, ii. 585 ff.

889. fals: see note on Prol. 221.

918. F alone gives ‘overmor,’ but it is probably what the author intended, though his first editions had the common variation ‘evermor.’ S is here defective.

957. sleth, ‘strikes.’

971. who so rede: subjunctive because indefinite; cp. 2508 and note on Prol. 460.

973 ff. This story may be found in Benoît’s Roman de Troie, 27551 ff. and in Guido, lib. 32 (n 3 vo, ed. Argent.). We must note however that for the classical Nauplius we find in Gower ‘Namplus,’ whereas in Benoît and Guido both it is ‘Naulus’: therefore it would seem that our author had before him also some other form of the story, where he found the name ‘Nauplius’ or ‘Nauplus,’ which he read ‘Nanplus’ or ‘Namplus.’ Perhaps this may have been Hyginus, Fab. cxvi. Elsewhere Gower usually follows Benoît rather than Guido, but here several expressions occur which seem to be suggested by Guido’s form of the story: see notes on 1030 and 1063. Also Gower says nothing of the incident of rocks being hurled down on the Greeks (Rom. de Troie, 27795 ff.), which is also omitted by Guido.

1002. The name which appears here and in the Latin margin as ‘Namplus,’ with no important variation of reading, is quite clearly ‘Nauplus’ in iv. 1816 ff.

1021. Homward, i.e. going towards home: cp. 2451.

1030 f. Hist. Troiana, n 4, ‘qui necesse habebant per confinia regni sui transire.’

1036. it sihe, ‘might see it.’

1049. ten or twelve. Guido says two hundred. Benoît does not specify the number of ships, but says that ten thousand men were lost. Gower has judiciously reduced the number.

1063. Cp. Hist. Troiana, n 4 vo, ‘fugiunt et se immittunt in pelagus spaciosum.’

1065. ‘what’ for ‘war,’ which appears in the unrevised form of the first recension, must be an error of the original scribe: on the other hand, ‘tyme’ for ‘dai’ proceeded no doubt originally from the author and was altered in order to make the verse run more smoothly.

Latin Verses. iv. 1. et sit spiritus eius Naribus: a reference to Isaiah ii. 22, ‘Quiescite ergo ab homine, cuius spiritus in naribus eius est.’ The same passage is quoted in Mirour, 4754, and it is evident there that the ‘breath in the nostrils’ was understood by our author to stand for fury of anger.

1113. war hem wel, ‘let them beware.’

1158. The contest in the heart between Wit and Reason on the one hand and Will and Hope on the other is quite in the style of the Roman de la Rose, where Reason and the Lover have an endless controversy (2983 ff.). Though the agencies are clearly personified here, the author has not assigned capital letters to their names.

1166. out of retenue, ‘out of my service.’

1173. jeupartie, ‘discord,’ one side being matched against the other. The first reading was ‘champartie,’ which may have proceeded from the author. It is clear that this word was used by Lydgate in the sense of ‘rivalry’ or ‘contest’ in the phrase ‘holde champartie,’ and this may either have come from the idea of partnership, implying division of power and so rivalry, as in Chaucer, Cant. Tales, A 1949, or from the legal sense, with which Gower and Lydgate would doubtless be acquainted, meaning partnership for a contentious purpose. There seems no sufficient reason for supposing (with the New Engl. Dict.) that Lydgate’s use was founded on a misunderstanding of Chaucer.

1183. and til. Caxton and Berthelet both have ‘tyl that’ for ‘and til,’ and one is tempted to suggest that ‘and til’ was meant to stand for ‘until.’

1201 ff. The story of the visit of Alexander to Diogenes was a common one enough, and it is hardly worth while to investigate its source for Gower. He probably here combined various materials into one narrative, for the usual form of the story as given by Vincent of Beauvais, Spec. Hist. iii. 68 f., and in the Gesta Romanorum, does not include the conversation about the Reason and the Will. This may have been derived from Walter Burley, De Vita Philosophorum, cap. l., ‘Dum Alexander rex coram Diogene transiret, Diogenes tanquam illum spernens non respexit; cui dixit Alexander, “Quid est Diogenes quod me non respicis, quasi mei non indigeas?” Cui ille, “Ad quid necesse habeo servi servorum meorum?” Et Alexander, “Numquid servorum tuorum servus sum?” Ait, “Ego prevaleo cupiditatibus meis refrenans illas et subiciens mihi illas ut serviant: tibi autem cupiditates prevalent, et servus earum efficeris, earum obtemperans iussioni: servus igitur es servorum meorum.”’ Burley gives the other part of the conversation separately.

The incident of the messenger sent to inquire and of the answer which he brought back is no doubt due to Gower, as also the idea of the ‘tun’ being set on an axle and adapted for astronomical observations.

1212. The ‘dolium’ was of course popularly regarded as a wooden cask.

1222. ‘As fate would have it’: see note on 172 (end), and cp. 1442.

1224. the Sonne ariste, i.e. the rising of the sun: so iv. 1285, ‘and that was er the Sonne Ariste.’

1310. to schifte, ‘to dispose of.’ In Burley, ‘rogo ne auferas quod dare non potes.’

1331 ff. The tale of Pyramus and Thisbe is from Ovid, Met. iv. 55-166. Chaucer has taken it from the same source in the Legend of Good Women. When we compare the results, we find that in this instance it is Chaucer who has followed his authority closely, while Gower gives a paraphrase in his own language and with several variations of detail. He says, for example, that the lovers themselves made the hole in the wall through which they conversed; he omits Ninus’ tomb; he speaks of a lion, not a lioness; he says that Thisbe hid herself in a bush (not a cave), and that then the lion slew and devoured a beast before drinking at the spring; he cuts short the speech of Pyramus before killing himself; he represents that Pyramus was slain at once instead of living until Thisbe came; he invents an entirely new speech for Thisbe; and he judiciously omits, as Chaucer does also, the mention of the mulberry-tree and its transformation.

In short, Gower writes apparently from a general recollection of the story, while Chaucer evidently has his Ovid before him and endeavours to translate almost every phrase, showing thereby his good taste, for Ovid tells the story well.

The following points in Ovid (among others) are reproduced by Chaucer and not by Gower: l. 56, ‘quas Oriens habuit’; 58, ‘Coctilibus muris’; 59, ‘Notitiam primosque gradus vicinia fecit’ (which Chaucer misunderstands, however); 62, ‘Ex aequo captis ’ &c.; 64, ‘Quoque magis tegitur, tectus magis aestuat ignis’; 65, ‘Fissus erat tenui rima,’ &c.; 68, ‘Quid non sentit amor?’; 73-77, the speeches of the lovers to the wall; 81 f., ‘Postera nocturnos aurora’ &c.; 85, ‘Fallere custodes’; 87, ‘Neve sit errandum’ &c.; 94, ‘adopertaque vultum’; 97, ‘leaena’; 99, ‘ad lunae radios’; 100, ‘in antrum’; 105, ‘vestigia vidit in alto Pulvere’ &c.; 108, ‘Una duos nox, inquit, perdet amantes,’ and the rest of this speech; 117 f., ‘Utque dedit notae lacrimas,’ &c.; 122, ‘Non aliter quam cum vitiato fistula plumbo Scinditur’; 130, ‘Quantaque vitarit narrare pericula gestit’; 133, ‘tremebunda videt pulsare cruentum Membra solum’; 134 f., ‘oraque buxo’ &c.; 140, ‘Vulnera supplevit’ &c.; 145, ‘oculos iam morte gravatos’; 148 ff., the speech of Thisbe, except the reference to the mulberry-tree.

Gower’s rendering of the story is inferior to that of Chaucer, as might be expected, but nevertheless it is simple and pathetic. It has even some points of superiority, as 1386 f., the passage of Thisbe through the town at night; 1400, ‘with his blodi snoute’; 1411, the terror of Thisbe when concealed in the bush; and finally 1486 ff., where instead of deliberately resolving on death and inflicting it with calm resolution, she is more naturally represented as overcome by a sudden impulse in the midst of her mourning and killing herself almost without consciousness of what she did.

1348. as it scholde be: cp. 1222, ‘As thing which scholde so betyde.’

1356. All the best copies have ‘miht’ or ‘might’ here: cp. 1440. The distinction, however, between ‘miht’ (= mayest) and ‘mihte’ is usually well preserved by our author.

1394. In haste and: so ll. 1396, 1415. On the other hand, in 1430 we have a stop after ‘folhaste’ (in F), while 1447 remains doubtful.

1442. as it schal betide, cp. 1222.

1448. For sche, a reference to the ‘folhaste’ of the previous line. It was his haste that destroyed him, for if he had waited but a little he would have seen her come.

1466 f. ‘If it be only by this mishap which has befallen my love and me together.’ For the use of ‘betwen’ see note on ii. 653. The position of ‘Only’ is affected by metrical requirements: see note on ii. 709.

1473. oure herte bothe, ‘the hearts of us both.’ The singular ‘herte’ is given by the best copies of each recension.

1496. Bewar: thus written several times in F, e.g. 1738. Here A also has ‘Bewar.’

1524. him stant of me no fere: cp. ii. 2124.

1537. Daunger: see note on i. 2443.

1593 ff. The construction of the sentence is interrupted, but the sense is clear: ‘For if I, who have given all my will and wit to her service, should in reward thereof be suffered to die, it would be pity.’ For this kind of irregularity cp. i. 98, 2948, &c.

1605. The reading ‘in such,’ though given by both S and F, must be wrong.

1630. overthrewe. The verb no doubt is intransitive, as often, e.g. i. 1886, 1962, and below, l. 1638.

1666. him oghte have be: cp. 704.

1685 ff. Ovid, Met. i. 453-567. Gower cuts the story short.

1701. Ovid, Met. i. 470,

‘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.

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 the Gesta Romanorum and 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 the Mirour, 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 gives rather 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 lifetime[AN].

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 the Roman de Troie which 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 the Mirour as ‘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 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 the Legend of Good Women, 1355 ff.,

‘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 his Apologie pour les grands hommes soupçonnez de Magie classes ‘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 the Mirour de l’omme in 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, Exodus vi., 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. and Rem. 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 the Legend of Good Women is 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.’

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 in Anglia, 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 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 equo pinguissimo et formoso et suavissime ambulante sedebat’ (p. 92), cp. 1309 f.,

‘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 in Romania for 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 the Confessio 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 English Rom. 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 the Confessio 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 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, see Mirour, 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 the Traitié, 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 in Traitié, 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 the Roman 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).

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 the Rom. 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 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).

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.’

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 the editor quotes from Rosarium Philosophorum, ‘Tres sunt lapides et tres sales sunt, ex quibus totum magisterium consistit, scilicet mineralis, plantalis et animalis.’ In the Secreta 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 the ferste, ‘the very first,’ cp. vi. 1481. It may be questioned, however, whether the theory put forward by C. Stoffel in Englische 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 piece called The Chaunces of the Dyse in 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 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 the Book 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.’

3009 ff. Metam. xi. 602 ff.,

‘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 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:

‘At si quem manibus Cephalum complexa teneres,

Clamares, Lente currite, noctis equi.’

Amor. i. 13, 39.

3222. The sun enters Capricorn on Dec. 21.

3273. that he arise: so 3374, ‘Til it be dai that I arise,’ and v. 3422, ‘Til dai cam that sche moste arise.’

The verb seems here to be attracted into the subjunctive by the indefinite meaning of ‘Til.’ In the other passages the mood is uncertain.

3317 ff. Ovid, Metam. i. 588-723, much abbreviated. It was, however, Jupiter who turned Io into a cow.

3386. for thou thee schalt avise, ‘in order that thou mayest consider.’

3414. that I nere of this lif, ‘would that I were out of this life.’ For ‘that I nere’ cp. note on 1422. For ‘of this lif’ cp. vii. 2883, ‘whan he were of dawe.’

3438 f. ‘And yet he (Obstinacy) cannot support his own cause by any argument but by headstrong wilfulness.’

For the expression ‘of hed’ we may compare the Latin expression quoted by Du Cange ‘de testa esse,’ explained ‘esse obstinatum’ (Ital. ‘essere di testa’), and the French adjective ‘testu,’

‘Car fol estoient et testu,’ &c.

Froissart says of Pope Urban VI that after his election ‘il s’en outrecuida et enorguilli, et volt user de poissance et de teste,’ which is translated by Berners, ‘he waxed proude and worked all on heed.’ We find also the Latin adjective ‘capitosus’ used by Gower in the margin at the beginning of the Cronica Tripertita, and the adverb ‘capitose,’ meaning ‘in a headstrong manner,’ in Walsingham, Hist. Anglica, e.g. ‘Regem contra regni consuetudinem Cancellarium deposuisse capitose,’ vol. ii. p. 70 (Rolls Series).

The usual way of reading the sentence has been to punctuate after ‘skile’ and to take ‘bot of hed’ with the next line, ‘but he wastes away in his condition’ (‘hed’ from a supposed ‘hǣd’ akin to the suffix ‘-hed’ or ‘-hede’). This word perhaps occurs Conf. Am. ii. 2066, but it would give no very good sense here, and it is doubtful whether it would be rhymed with ‘ded.’ The suffix ‘-hed’ ‘-hede’ apparently has ‘ẹ’ in Gower’s rhymes. Again, if so marked a break in the middle of the line were intended, the Fairfax MS. would almost certainly have had a stop to indicate it, as in 3423, 3431, 3458, 3459, 3484, 3485, to quote instances only from the same page of the MS.

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

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

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

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

3542. Punctuated in accordance with F.

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

3658 f. Naturally the expression of Ovid,

‘Veneris quoque nomine templum

Prospicientis habet,’

was not understood.

LIB. V.

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

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

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

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

49 ff. Cp. Mirour, 7645 ff.,

‘L’en dist, mais c’est inproprement,

Qe l’averous ad grant argent;

Mais voir est que l’argent luy a:

En servitude ensi le prent,’ &c.

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

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

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

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

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

143. Cillenus, i.e. Silenus.

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

249 ff. Cp. Mirour, 7603 ff.

272 ff. Ovid, Metam. xi. 106,

‘Laetus abit gaudetque malo Berecyntius heros:

Pollicitique fidem tangendo singula temptat.

Ilice detraxit virgam, virga aurea facta est:

Tollit humo saxum, saxum quoque palluit auro’: &c.

298. See note on i. 10.

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

‘Ille perosus opes silvas et rura colebat,

Panaque montanis habitantem semper in antris.’

363 ff. The punishment referred to is certainly more appropriate for avarice than for the offence committed by Tantalus: cp. Hor. Sat. i. 1. 68. The story of Tantalus is alluded to several times in Ovid, as Metam. iv. 458, and told by Hyginus, Fab. lxxxii. Perhaps our author rather followed Fulgentius, Mythol. ii. 18, who quotes from Petronius,

‘Divitis haec magni facies erit, omnia late

Qui tenet, et sicco concoquit ore famem.’

Cp. Mirour, 7621 ff.,

‘Dame Avarice est dite auci

Semblable au paine Tantali,’ &c.

370. This seems to mean that it serves for the punishment of the avaricious; but from what follows in 391 ff. we gather that the pains of avarice in this life also are to be compared with this particular pain of hell, and so the application is made in the Mirour, 7621-7632.

388. which a wreche, ‘what a punishment.’

418. suie: cp. Prol. 460.

447. For the superfluous syllable at the pause in the middle of this line cp. iv. 1131.

496. berth an hond: equivalent to ‘berth on hond,’ l. 546.

519. Count ‘evel’ as a monosyllable for the verse; so regularly, e. g. iii. 1272, vii. 2773.

526. janglere. The final ‘-e’ is not pronounced here.

558 f. the gold ... The which was leid upon the bok. The gold in question is that which is laid upon the service-book in payment of the marriage fees: ‘and the Man shall give unto the Woman a Ring, laying the same upon the book with the accustomed duty to the Priest and Clerk.’ Marriage Service.

564. ‘though he will not praise it,’ i.e. he gives her no credit for it: cp. Prol. 154.

635 ff. Ovid, Ars Am. ii. 561-592, but the original is not very closely followed.

665. Cp. iii. 1362 ff.

729 ff. From this arises the very ill-advised digression of ll. 747-1970 about the various forms of Religion. There is no more reason why this should come in here than anywhere else, indeed if the question of false gods was to be raised at all, it ought to have come in as an explanation of the appearance of Venus and Cupid in the first book. Many stories have been told, for example those of Acteon, of the Gorgons, of Tiresias, of Phoebus and Daphne, of Phaeton, of Ceix, of Argus, and of Midas, which required the explanation quite as much as this one, and the awkwardness of putting it all info the mouth of the priest of Venus is inexcusable.

The main authority followed in this account of the religions of Chaldea, Egypt, and Greece is the Vita Barlaam et Josaphat, cap. xxvii. (Migne, Patrol. vol. 73, p. 548 ff.), but Gower adds much to it, especially as regards the gods and goddesses of Greece.

763. of Accidence: cp. ii. 3210.

774. hevenly: so Prol. 918, but ‘hevenely’ i. 834, 3136, the second syllable in that case being syncopated, as regularly in ‘hevene.’ So also in the case of ‘evermore’ and ‘everemore’ as compared with ‘evere.’

782. les, that is, ‘falsehood.’

798. Isirus, i.e. Osiris.

811. thegipcienes. This must be the true reading for the sake of the metre, both here and in l. 821, though the best copies fail to give it. A similar case occurs in l. 1119, but there the authority for ‘Jupiteres’ is made much stronger by the accession of S.

897. Mynitor, i.e. Numitor.

899 f. that Remus and Romulus. For the position of ‘that’ cp. 1166, 1249.

925. To gete him with: cp. i. 452.

1004. wel the more lete by, ‘much the more esteemed’: cp. Piers Plowman, A vi. 105, ‘to lete wel by thyselve,’ and xi. 29: also with ‘of,’ v. 5840; cp. Piers Plowm. iv. 160, ‘Love let of hire lighte and lewte yit lasse,’ Orm. 7523, ‘uss birrth ... lætenn wel off othre menn.’

1009. Nonarcigne. The name is taken no doubt from the adjective ‘Nonacrinus’ (from Nonacris), used as in Ovid, Met. i. 690, where it occurs in the story of Pan and Syrinx, told by Mercury to lull Argus to sleep: cp. Conf. Am. iv. 3345 ff.

1040. Cp. Prol. 118.

1043 ff. The sentence is interrupted and then begun again at l. 1051: see note on i. 98.

1063. That he, i.e. ‘In that he.’ Gower has here mistaken his authority, which says ‘post autem eum propter Tyndarei Lacedaemonii filium a Jove fulmine percussum interiisse narrant.’ Vita Barl. et Jos. xxvii.

1071. Delphi and Delos are very naturally confused in the medieval Tale of Troy and elsewhere; but Delos is mentioned correctly enough below, 1256.

1097. no reason inne: cp. i. 3209.

1163. Philerem, presumably Philyra, but there is no authority for making her the mother of Jupiter.

1249. that: cp. 899. Apparently it means, ‘that Diane of whom I am to speak.’ The necessities of rhyme are responsible for these forms of speech.

1276. ‘Which may not attain to reason.’

1323. The paragraph is made to begin here in the MSS. with what is, strictly speaking, its second line, because it is marked by a proper name which indicates its subject, the first line being a mere formal introduction. So also below, 1453: cp. ii. 2451.

1337. The name ‘Dorus’ seems to have been suggested by that of Doris, mother of the Nereids.

1389. alle danger, that is, all reluctance or coyness.

1397. Armene, i.e. Harmonia.

1398. Andragene Androgynus or Hermaphroditus.

1428. noght forsake To ben, i.e. ‘not refuse to be.’

1449. ‘whether it was of weal or wo’; ‘wher’ for ‘whether.’

1453. See note on 1323.

As for the letters said to have been exchanged between Alexander and the king of the Bragmans (or Brahmins), we find them at length in the Historia Alexandri Magni de Preliis, which was the source of most of the current stories about Alexander. The passage referred to is as follows: ‘Tot deos colis quot in tuo corpore membra portas. Nam hominem dicis paruum mundum, et sicut corpus hominis habet multa membra, ita et in celo dicis multos deos existere. Iunonem credis esse deum cordis, eo quod iracundia nimia mouebatur. Martem vero deum pectoris esse dicis, eo quod princeps extitit preliorum. Mercurium deum lingue vocas, ex eo quod plurimum loquebatur. Herculem deum credis brachiorum, eo quod duodecim virtutes exercuit preliando. Bachum deum gutturis esse putas, eo quod ebrietatem primus inuenit. Cupidinem esse deam dicis, eo quod fornicatrix extitit; tenere dicis facem ardentem, cum qua libidinem excitat et accendit, et ipsam deam iecoris etiam existimas. Cererem deam ventris esse dicis, et Venerem, eo quod fuit mater luxurie, deam genitalium membrorum esse profers’ (e 2, ed. Argent. 1489).

Cp. the English alliterative Wars of Alexander, E.E.T.S., 1886, ll. 4494 ff. There is no mention of Minerva in either of these.

1520 ff. The usual account is to the effect that Ninus set up the first idol: see below, 1541. What we have here seems to be taken from Fulgentius, Mythol. ii. 9, where the authorities here cited, Nicagoras and Petronius, are quoted. The passage is apparently corrupt, and our author obviously did not quite understand it: ‘Et quamvis Nicagoras in Disthemithea libro quem scripsit, primum illum formasse idolum referat, et quod vulturi iecur praebeat livoris quasi pingat imaginem: unde et Petronius Arbiter ait,

“Qui vultur iecor intimum pererrat”’ &c.

From the same author, Mythol. i. 1, he got the story about Syrophanes, who set up an image of his dead son, to which offerings were made by those who wished to gain his favour.

1541. Cp. Godfr. Vit., Panth. iv. (p. 102), whose account agrees very nearly with what we have here, though he represents this image as the first example of an idol, under the heading, ‘Quare primum idolum in mundo et quo tempore fuit.’ Cp. Guido, Hist. Troiana, lib. x (e 5, ed. Argent. 1494).

1559. Godf. Vit, Panth. iv. (p. 112): ‘His temporibus apud Egyptios constructum est idolum magnum in honorem Apis, Regis Argivorum; quidam tamen dicunt in honorem Ioseph, qui liberavit eos a fame; quod idolum Serapis vocabatur, quasi idolum Apis.’

1571 ff. Hist. Alexandri, f 1 vo, ed. Argent. 1489: ‘Exiens inde Alexander cum Candeolo profecti sunt iter diei vnius, et venerunt ad quandam speluncam magnam et hospitati sunt ibi. Dixitque Candeolus, “Omnes dii concilium in ista spelunca concelebrant.” Cum hoc audisset Alexander, statim fecit victimas diis suis, et ingressus in speluncam solus vidit ibi caligines maximasque nubes stellasque lucentes, et inter ipsas stellas quendam deum maximum,’ &c.

Cp. the English alliterative Wars of Alexander, ll. 5387 ff.

1624. herd me seid: see note on i. 3153.

1636. There is a stop after ‘Forbad’ in F. The meaning is that he gave a prohibition commanding them not to bow to an image.

1677. Riht as who sette: the verb apparently is subjunctive.

1746 ff. What purports to be the original passage is quoted in the margin of the second recension.

1747. For the form of expression cp. vi. 56 f.,

‘O which a sorwe

It is a man be drinkeles!’

1756 ff. The substance of this is to be found in Gregory, In i. Reg. viii. 7f. (Migne, Patrol. vol. 79. p. 222): ‘Et quidem, nisi Adam peccaret, Redemptorem nostrum carnem suscipere nostram non oporteret.... Si ergo pro peccatoribus venit, si peccata deessent, eum venire non oporteret.... Magna quippe sunt mala quae per primae culpae meritum patimur, sed quis electus nollet peiora perpeti, quam tantum Redemptorem non habere?’

1781 ff. Note that here twelve lines are replaced in the second recension by ten, one of the couplets (or the substance of it) having been inserted earlier, after l. 1742.

1826. ‘So that his word explained his deed’: ‘arawhte’ from ‘arechen’ (āreccan).

1831 ff. Roman de Troie, 25504-25559.

1848-1959. With this compare Prol. 193-498.

1865. ‘And they do every man what he pleases,’ the verb being plural.

1879. Pseudo: cp. Mirour, 21625 ff.,

‘Il estoit dit grant temps y a

Q’un fals prophete a nous vendra,

Q’ad noun Pseudo le decevant;

Sicomme aignel se vestira,

Et cuer du loup il portera.

O comme les freres maintenant

A Pseudo sont bien resemblant!’

So also Vox Clam. iv. 787 f.,

‘Nomine sunt plures, pauci tamen ordine fratres;

Vt dicunt aliqui, Pseudo prophetat ibi.’

It seems that the word ‘pseudopropheta,’ used Rev. xix. 20 and elsewhere, was read ‘Pseudo propheta,’ and ‘Pseudo’ was taken as a proper name. This was combined with the idea of the wolf in sheep’s clothing suggested by Matt. vii. 15, ‘Attendite a falsis prophetis,’ &c., and the application was made especially to the friars.

1888. ‘And this I am brought to believe by the argument that where those above neglect their duty, the people are ignorant of the truth, (as they now are).’

1900 ff. Cp. Mirour, 20065 ff., and Vox Clamantis, iii. 903. The reference is to Gregory, Hom. in Evang. xvii. (Migne, Patrol. vol. 76, p. 1148): ‘Ibi Petrus cum Iudaea conversa, quam post se traxit, apparebit: ibi Paulus conversum, ut ita dixerim, mundum ducens. Ibi Andreas post se Achaiam, ibi Iohannes Asiam, Thomas Indiam in conspectum sui regis conversam ducet.... Cum igitur tot pastores cum gregibus suis ante aeterni pastoris oculos venerint, nos miseri quid dicturi sumus, qui ad Dominum nostrum post negotium vacui redimus?’

1919. Cp. Mirour, 16662, ‘U q’il ert mesmes auditour.’ The metaphor from rendering accounts in the Exchequer is especially appropriate here for the prelates.

1930. his lordes besant hedde: Matt. xxv. 18.

1944. every Prelat holde, ‘let every Prelate hold.’

1952 ff. Coloss. iii. 5, ‘avaritiam, quae est simulacrorum servitus.’

END OF VOL. II

OXFORD
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PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY