533. Lat. 'eam semiuiuam cruentus carnifex dereliquit.'
534. is went, though only in the (excellent) Cambridge MS., is the right reading; the rest have he wente, sometimes misspelt he went. In the first place, is went is a common phrase in Chaucer; cf. German er ist gegangen, and Eng. he is gone. But secondly, the false rime detects the blunder at once; Chaucer does not rime the weak past tense wentë with a past participle like yhent. This was obvious to me at the first glance, but the matter was made sure by consulting Mr. Cromie's excellent 'Ryme-Index.' This at once gives the examples is went,
riming with pp. to-rent, E. 1012 (Clerkes Tale); is went, riming with instrument, F. 567 (Sq. Tale); is went, riming with innocent, B. 1730, and ben went, riming with pavement, B. 1869 (Prioresses Tale). Besides this, there are two more examples, viz. be they went, riming with sacrement, E. 1701; and that he be went, riming with sent, A. 3665. On the other hand, we find wente, sente, hente, and to-rente, all (weak) past tenses, and all riming together, in the Monkes Tale, B. 3446. The student should particularly observe an instance like this. The rules of rime in Chaucer are, on the whole, so carefully observed that, when once they are learnt, a false rime jars upon the ear with such discord as to be unpleasantly remarkable, and should be at once detected.
535-536. These two lines are not in the original.
539. 'She began to preach to them whom she had fostered,' i. e. converted. To foster is here to nurse, to bring up, to educate in the faith; see l. 122 above. The Latin text has—'omnes quos ad fidem conuerterat, Urbano episcopo commendauit.' Tyrwhitt makes nonsense of this line by placing the comma after hem instead of after fostred, and other editors have followed him. In MSS. E. and Hn. the metrical pause is rightly marked as occurring after fostred. The story here closely resembles the end of the Prioresses Tale, B. 1801-1855.
545. do werche, cause to be constructed.
549. Lat. 'inter episcopos sepeliuit.'
550. 'It is now a church in Rome, and gives a title to a cardinal'; note in Bell's edition. In a poem called the Stacyons of Rome, ed. Furnivall, l. 832, we are told that 100 years' pardon may be obtained by going to St. Cecilia's church. Mr. W. M. Rossetti, in a note on this line, says—'The Church of St. Cecilia, at the end of the Trastevere, near the Quay of Ripa Grande, was built on the site of the saint's own house in 230; rebuilt by pope Paschal I. in 821, and dedicated to God and Sts. Mary, Peter, Paul, and Cecilia; and altered to its present form in 1599 and 1725. In the former of these years, 1599, the body of the saint was found on the spot, with a contemporary inscription identifying her: the celebrated statue by Stefano Maderno, now in the church, represents her in the attitude she was discovered lying in.'
553. After this line the Latin adds—'Passa est autem circa annos domini CC et XXIII, tempore Alexandri imperatoris. Alibi autem legitur, quod passa sit tempore Marci Aurelii, qui imperauit circa annos domini XXCC.' The confusion of names here is easily explained. Marcus Aurelius died in 180; but Marcus Aurelius Alexander Severus (for such was his title in full) reigned from 222 to 235. The true date is generally considered to be 230, falling within his reign, as it should do.
The Canon's Yeoman's Prologue.