Chaucer's Works, Volume 3 — The House of Fame; The Legend of Good Women; The Treatise on the Astrolabe; The Sources of the Canterbury Tales

by Geoffrey Chaucer

9. is L; miswritten bys M.

§ 43a, 1. nat] not R; nott L; M omits; see the footnote. In the rubric, M has versam; but L has the rubric—Vmbra Recta.

§ 42b, 5. as] so in LR; miswritten & M.

6. 4 is supplied from LR; M omits.

NOTES TO THE HOUSE OF FAME.

BOOK I.

Written in three Books; but I number the lines consecutively throughout, for convenience; at the same time giving the separate numbering (of Books II. and III.) within marks of parenthesis. The title of the poem is expressly given at l. 663. The author gives his name as Geffrey; l. 729.

Lydgate's Temple of Glass is partly imitated from the House of Fame; Warton, Hist. E. Poetry, 1871, iii. 61. The same is true of the Palice of Honour, by Gawain Douglas. For further remarks, see the Introduction.

As the poem is not quite easy to follow, I here subjoin a brief Argument of its contents.

Book I. A discussion on dreams. I will tell you my dream on the 10th of December. But first let me invoke Morpheus. May those who gladly hear me have joy; but may those who dislike my words have as evil a fate as Crœsus, King of Lydia! (1-110).