1173. jeupartie, ‘discord,’ one side being matched against the other. The first reading was ‘champartie,’ which may have proceeded from the author. It is clear that this word was used by Lydgate in the sense of ‘rivalry’ or ‘contest’ in the phrase ‘holde champartie,’ and this may either have come from the idea of partnership, implying division of power and so rivalry, as in Chaucer, Cant. Tales, A 1949, or from the legal sense, with which Gower and Lydgate would doubtless be acquainted, meaning partnership for a contentious purpose. There seems no sufficient reason for supposing (with the New Engl. Dict.) that Lydgate’s use was founded on a misunderstanding of Chaucer.
1183. and til. Caxton and Berthelet both have ‘tyl that’ for ‘and til,’ and one is tempted to suggest that ‘and til’ was meant to stand for ‘until.’
1201 ff. The story of the visit of Alexander to Diogenes was a common one enough, and it is hardly worth while to investigate its source for Gower. He probably here combined various materials into one narrative, for the usual form of the story as given by Vincent of Beauvais, Spec. Hist. iii. 68 f., and in the Gesta Romanorum, does not include the conversation about the Reason and the Will. This may have been derived from Walter Burley, De Vita Philosophorum, cap. l., ‘Dum Alexander rex coram Diogene transiret, Diogenes tanquam illum spernens non respexit; cui dixit Alexander, “Quid est Diogenes quod me non respicis, quasi mei non indigeas?” Cui ille, “Ad quid necesse habeo servi servorum meorum?” Et Alexander, “Numquid servorum tuorum servus sum?” Ait, “Ego prevaleo cupiditatibus meis refrenans illas et subiciens mihi illas ut serviant: tibi autem cupiditates prevalent, et servus earum efficeris, earum obtemperans iussioni: servus igitur es servorum meorum.”’ Burley gives the other part of the conversation separately.
The incident of the messenger sent to inquire and of the answer which he brought back is no doubt due to Gower, as also the idea of the ‘tun’ being set on an axle and adapted for astronomical observations.
1212. The ‘dolium’ was of course popularly regarded as a wooden cask.
1222. ‘As fate would have it’: see note on 172 (end), and cp. 1442.
1224. the Sonne ariste, i.e. the rising of the sun: so iv. 1285, ‘and that was er the Sonne Ariste.’
1310. to schifte, ‘to dispose of.’ In Burley, ‘rogo ne auferas quod dare non potes.’
1331 ff. The tale of Pyramus and Thisbe is from Ovid, Met. iv. 55-166. Chaucer has taken it from the same source in the Legend of Good Women. When we compare the results, we find that in this instance it is Chaucer who has followed his authority closely, while Gower gives a paraphrase in his own language and with several variations of detail. He says, for example, that the lovers themselves made the hole in the wall through which they conversed; he omits Ninus’ tomb; he speaks of a lion, not a lioness; he says that Thisbe hid herself in a bush (not a cave), and that then the lion slew and devoured a beast before drinking at the spring; he cuts short the speech of Pyramus before killing himself; he represents that Pyramus was slain at once instead of living until Thisbe came; he invents an entirely new speech for Thisbe; and he judiciously omits, as Chaucer does also, the mention of the mulberry-tree and its transformation.
In short, Gower writes apparently from a general recollection of the story, while Chaucer evidently has his Ovid before him and endeavours to translate almost every phrase, showing thereby his good taste, for Ovid tells the story well.