Theofraste, Theophrastus, i. e. the treatise mentioned above; see note to l. 221. It is frequently quoted above; see notes to ll. 221, 235, 257, 271, 282, 285, 293, 303. He is called Theofrates in Le Roman, l. 8599.
676. Tertulan, Tertullian. I do not quite understand why Tyrwhitt (see note to l. 671) singled out his treatise De Pallio, which is a treatise recommending the wearing of the Greek pallium in preference to the Roman toga. Quite as much to the present purpose are his treatises De Exhortatione Castitatis, dissuading a friend from marrying a second time; and De Monogamia and De Pudicitia, much to the same purport.
677. Crisippus, Chrysippus. There were at least two of this name: (1) the Stoic philosopher, born B.C. 280, died 207, praised by Cicero (Academics) and Horace. Also (2) the physician of Cnidos, in the time of Alexander the Great, frequently mentioned by Pliny. It is highly probable that neither the Wife of Bath nor Chaucer knew much about him. The poet certainly caught the name from Jerome's treatise against Jovinian, near the end of bk. i.; Epist. i. 52. We there find:—'Ridicule Chrysippus ducendam uxorem sapienti praecipit, ne Iouem Gamelium et Genethlium uiolet.'
Helowys, Heloise, niece of Fulbert, a canon in the cathedral of Paris, was secretly married to the celebrated Abelard, a proficient in scholastic learning. She afterwards became a nun in the convent of Argenteuil, of which she was, in course of time, elected the prioress. Thence she removed, with her nuns, to the oratory of the Paraclete, near Troyes, where the last twenty years of her life were spent. She died in 1164, and was buried in Abelard's tomb. I have no doubt at all that Chaucer derived his knowledge of her from the short sketch of her life given in Le Roman de la Rose, ll. 8799-8870, where the title of 'abbess' (F. abéesse) is conferred upon her. Only a few lines above, we find the name of Valerius, who (it is there said, at l. 8727) declared that a modest woman was rarer than a phœnix; and again, at l. 8759, we find: 'Si cum Valerius raconte'; and, at l. 8767:—
'Valerius qui se doloit
De ce que Rufin se voloit
Marier,' &c.
This identifies Valerius as being the very one, whose name Walter Mapes assumed; as is explained above (note to l. 671).
As to Trotula, I may here observe, in addition to what is said in the note to l. 671, that Warton mentions a MS. in Merton College, with the title 'Trottula Mulier Salerniterna de passionibus mulierum'; another copy (which I have seen) is in the Camb. Univ. Library. He adds—'there is also extant, "Trottula, seu potius Erotis medici muliebrium liber"; Basil. 1586; 4to.' See Warton, Hist. E. Poet. 1840, ii. 188, note.