345. Cf. Ps. x. 7, xii. 3, lii. 2, lxiv. 3-8, cxx. 3, &c. The reference to Seneca is, probably, to his treatise De Ira, from which two stories in the Sompnours Tale are taken; or it may be to the Sentences of Publilius Syrus, which are frequently quoted in the Tale of Melibeus under the name of 'Senek.'
350. Evidently an allusion to some Flemish proverb, equivalent to our 'least said, soonest mended,' which Hazlitt gives in the form—'Little said, soon amended.' In Bell's edition, the suggested form of the proverb is—'of little meddling comes great ease,' which comes nearer to the text. Chaucer has already given us a Flemish proverb in A. 4357.
355. 'Et semel emissum fugit irreuocabile uerbum'; Horace, Epist. I. xviii. 71. Chaucer found this line of Horace in Albertano's treatise (p. xcviii); or in Le Roman, 16746-8.
357. Cf. Albertano's treatise, p. cvi:—'Consilium vel secretum tuum absconditum quasi in carcere tuo est reclusum; revelatum vero te in carcere suo tenet ligatum.'
359. This is clearly, as Tyrwhitt suggests, from Dionysius Cato, Distich. lib. i. dist. 12:—'Rumores fuge, ne incipias novus auctor haberi.'
NOTES TO GROUP I.
The Parson's Prologue.
1. maunciple, manciple; see the last Tale. But there is no real connexion between this Group and Group H. It is most likely that the word maunciple was only inserted provisionally.