Notes.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF CHAUCER, NO. VIII.
(Vol. iii., pp. 388. 420.)

The Armorican Word "Menez."

I have been induced, in consequence of the scene of one of the Canterbury Tales being

"In Armorike that called is Bretaigne,"

to re-examine that tale (the Frankleine's) in the expectation that in it, if anywhere, some light might be thrown upon this newly discovered Chaucerian word "menez"; and I think I have succeeded in detecting its use in the sense of points or summits of rocks emerging from the surface of the water.

But in weighing the probability of this being the true sense in which it is used in the present instance by Chaucer, the wide applicability of the word "means" in its usual acceptation of instrument to an end, must not be lost sight of. There is scarcely the name of any one thing for which "means" may not be made a plausible substitution; so much so, that if a man were to ask for a hat to cover his head, his demand would be quite intelligible if expressed by "a means" to cover his head.

I make this proviso as an answer to the probable objection, that "menes," in its usual acceptation, gives sufficiently good sense to the passage in question; it may do so, and still not be the sense intended by the author.

The footing on which I wish to place the inquiry is this:

1st. We have an Armorican word which it is desirable to prove was known to, and used by, Chaucer.

2dly. We find this identical word in a tale written by him, of which the scene is Armorica.

3dly. It bears, however, a close resemblance to another word of different meaning, which different meaning happens also to afford a plausible sense to the same passage.

The question then is, in case this latter meaning should not appear to be better, nor even so good, as that afforded by the word of which we are in search, shall we not give that word the preference, and thereby render it doubly blessed, giving and receiving light?

In coming to a decision, it is necessary to take in the whole context. Arviragus and Dorigene live in wedded happiness, until the former, leaving his wife, takes shipping

—— "to gon and dwelle a yere or twaine

In Englelond, that cleped was eke Bretaigne."

Dorigene, inconsolable at his loss, sits upon the sea-shore, and views with horror the "grisly, fendly, rockes," with which the coast is studded, in every one of which she sees certain destruction to her husband in his return. She accuses the gods of injustice in forming these rocks for the sole apparent purpose of destroying man, so favoured in other respects, and she concludes her apostrophe in these words,—

"Than, semeth it, ye had a gret chertee

Toward mankind; but how then may it be

That ye such menēs make, it to destroyen,

Which menēs don no good but ever anoyen?"

Undoubtedly, in the third of these lines, "menes" seems to have a perfectly good meaning in the sense of instrument, or means to destroy. But, in the last line, the same sense is not so obvious—"means to destroy" must necessarily be destructive, and Chaucer would never be guilty of the unmeaning truism of repeating—"means which do no good but ever annoy."

Moreover, I am not aware that the accent is ever thrown upon the silent e where the signification of "mene" is an instrument—

"She may be Goddēs mene and Goddēs whippe"—

but in the lines under discussion the last syllable in both cases is accented, agreeing in that respect with the Armorican sound—"menez."

Let us now examine whether the Armorican sense is capable of giving a perfect meaning to both lines? That sense is, a rocky ridge or emerging summit. Let us substitute the word rockēs for menēz, and then try what meaning the passage receives.

"If, quoth Dorigene, ye love mankind so well ——

—— —— —— how then may it be

That ye such rockēs make, it to destroyen,

Which rockēs don no good but ever anoyen?"

Here the sense is perfect in both lines—a sense, too, that is in exact keeping with Dorigene's previous complaint of THE USELESSNESS of these rocks—

"That semen rather a foule confusion

Of werk, than any faire creation

Of swiche a parfit wisē God and stable;

Why have ye wrought this work unreasonable?

For by this werk, north, south, ne west, ne est,

There n'is yfostred man, ne brid, ne best;

It doth no good, to my wit, but anoyeth."

I therefore propose the following as the true reading of the passage in question: viz.,

—— "Ye had a great chertee

Toward mankind; but how then may it be

That ye swiche menez make, it to destroyen,

Which menez don no good, but ever anoyen?"

And if I have succeeded in making good this position we no longer stand in need of a precedent for the same reading in the case of—"In menez libra."

A. E. B.

Leeds, May 31. 1851.

P.S. I have been favoured, through the publisher of "NOTES AND QUERIES," with an obliging note from S.S.S. (2), communicating some authorities, of which the most germane to this subject are—

1. From Archæologia Britannica (Edward Lhuyd. Oxford, 1707): "Armoric, Men, a stone; menez, a mountain."

2. From Walter's Welsh Dictionary: "Welsh, Maen, a stone; maen terfyn, a boundary stone; maen mawr, a large stone."