A. E. B.
Leeds.
[2] [Our correspondent of course alludes to King James's translation. Upon reference to Sir Frederic Madden's admirable edition of Wickliffe's Bible, we find A. E. B.'s position directly corroborated: "The erthe that thou askist is worth foure hundryd sicles of silver."—Genesis, xxiii. 15. And in Exodus, xxx. 13., "A sicle that is a nounce hath twenti half scripples;" or, as in the second edition, "A sicle hath twenti halpens."—ED.]
A FEW MORE WORDS ABOUT "DULCARNON."
(Vol. i., p. 254.; Vol. v., pp. 252-3.)
By the aid of Dr. Adam Littleton and your correspondent A. N., all future editors of Chaucer and glossarists are helped over this pons asinorum: the word being evidently nothing more than the adoption of the Arabic DHU 'LKARNEIN, i.e. two-horned; and hence, as the reputed son of Jupiter Ammon, Alexander's oriental name, Iscander Dhu 'lkarnein, i.e. Bicornis.
The legend of the building of the wall, in the fabulous Eastern lives of Alexander, is to be found in the 18th chapter of the Koran; and it is related with variations and amplification by Sir John Mandeville. The metrical as well as prose romances on the subject of Alexander also contain it; and those who wish for more information will find it in the third volume of Weber's Metrical Romances, p. 331.
I cannot say that I am quite convinced of the truth of the ingenious supposition of your correspondent, that "Sending to Dulcarnein is merely an ellipsis of the person for his place, i.e. for the rampart of Dulcarnein." It appears to me more probable, that as, according to St. Jerome and other writers of the Middle Ages, the Dilemma was also called Syllogismum Cornutum, its Arabic name was Dhu 'lkarnein; and we know how much in science and literature the darker ages were indebted to the Arabian writers. Wyttenbach, in his Logic, says "Dilemma etiam Cornutus est; quod utrimque veluti Cornibus pugnat." At any rate it is clear that the enclosure had another name:
"En Ynde si naist uns grans mons
Qui est une grans regions
C'on apiele Mont Capien.