Chaucer's Works, Volume 2 — Boethius and Troilus

by Geoffrey Chaucer

Prose 4. [2]. ne I ne see nat: 'nec iniuria dici uideo uitiosos, tametsi humani corporis speciem seruent, in belluas tamen animorum qualitate mutari.' Chaucer's 'as by right' should rather be 'as by wrong.' It means 'I do not see that it is wrongly said.'

[4, 5]. But I nolde, but I would rather that it were not so with regard to evil men: 'eis licere noluissem.'

[18]. to mowen don, to be able to do: 'potuisse.'

[22]. three, i. e. the triple misfortune of wishing to do evil, of being able to do it, and of doing it.

[26]. thilke unselinesse: 'hoc infortunio'; i. e. the ability to sin.

[28]. So shullen: 'Carebunt, inquit, ocius, quàm uel tu forsitan uelis, uel illi sese existiment esse carituros.'

[30]. For ther: 'Neque enim est aliquid in tam breuibus uitae metis ita serum, quod exspectare longum immortalis praesertim animus putet.'

[39]. by the outtereste: 'eorum malitiam ... mors extrema finiret.'

[42]. ben perdurable, i. e. to exist eternally: 'infinitam liquet esse miseriam, quam constat esse aeternam.'

[51]. ther is not why, there is no reason why.