Part 2 / Book 3 — II. THE LEGEND OF THISBE.
Reading edition
Chaucer follows Ovid, Metamorph. iv. 55-166; and frequently very closely. The reader should compare the Latin text throughout. For example, Ovid begins thus:—
'Pyramus et Thisbe, iuuenum pulcherrimus alter, altera, quas Oriens habuit, praelata puellis, contiguas habuere domos, ubi dicitur altam coctilibus muris cinxisse Semiramis urbem.'
In Golding's translation, fol. 43, back, thus:—
'Within the town (of whose huge walles so monstrous high and thicke, The fame is giuen Semiramis for making them of bricke) Dwelt hard together two young folke in houses ioynde so nere, That under all one roofe well nie both twaine conuayed were. The name of him was Pyramus, and Thisbe call'd was she; So faire a man in all the East was none aliue as he. Nor nere a woman, mayde, nor wife in beautie like to her.'
This at once explains the allusion to Semiramis, the celebrated but mythical queen who was said to have surrounded Babylon with walls of fabulous strength, having a deep ditch outside them. See Orosius, as translated by King Alfred, in Sweet's A.S. Reader, fourth ed. pp. 28, 29. Gower tells the same story, and likewise follows Ovid; C. A. i. 324.
718. Estward; evidently from Ovid's 'Oriens'; see above.
722. The first foot consists of the single syllable Mai-.
725. Naso, i.e. Ovid; really named Publius Ouidius Naso.
726. Réport; accented on the e. Y-shove, pushed (into notice); cf. l. 1381.
727. 'Tempore creuit amor'; Met. iv. 60.
730. 'Sed uetuere patres'; id. 61.
735. 'As (to quote the proverb) cover up the glowing coal, and the hotter the fire becomes.' Ovid has—'Quoque magis tegitur, tanto magis aestuat ignis'; 64. Wry is in the imperative mood, singular. Cf. Troilus, ii. 538-9.
741. Sene, visible; see note to l. 694. Dere y-nogh a myte, even in a slight degree; lit. '(to an extent) dear enough at a mite.' A singular use of the phrase. Cf. 'dere ynogh a leek'; Can. Yem. Ta., G 795; 'not worth a myte'; id., G 633.
742. 'Quid non sentit amor?' Met. iv. 68.
745. 'In a tone as low as if uttering a confession.' A curious medieval touch. Ovid says, 'murmure ... minimo'; 70.
756. 'Inuide, dicebant, paries, quid amantibus obstas?' 73.
763. Holde, beholden. 'Nec sumus ingrati'; 76.
773. Chaucer practically transposes the offices of Phoebus and Aurora.
'Postera nocturnos Aurora remouerat ignes, solque pruinosas radiis siccauerat herbas'; 82.
782. And for, and because, &c.
783. For stands alone in the first foot. Cf. l. 797.
784. 'Conueniant ad busta Nini, lateantque sub umbra Arboris'; 88. Ll. 786, 787 are explanatory, and added by Chaucer. Ninus, the supposed founder of Nineveh, was the husband of Semiramis. Cf. Shak. Mid. Nt. Dr. v. 1. 139.
786. Lounsbury (Studies in Chaucer, i. 403) says that the pt. t. of herien is heried-e, with final e. But the form is right; héried-e is hardly pronounceable, and the final e is naturally dropped when the accent is thrown so far back. The forms of the past tenses of weak verbs are variable; whether they take a final e or not often depends on the form of the stem. See Ten Brink, Chaucer's Sprache, § 194.
797. Y-wimpled, covered with a wimple, or cloth covering the neck and fitting close round the face, chiefly worn by nuns. Another medieval touch. Ovid has 'adopertaque uultum'; 94. See note to l. 813.
798-801. These four lines are mainly original, and quite in Chaucer's own manner. Ovid has merely 'fallitque suos.'
803. 'Audacem faciebat amor'; 96.
804. She gan her dresse, she settled herself, lit. directed herself. Lat. 'sedit.'
810. Rist, riseth; pres. tense, as in l. 887. So arist, Man of Law's Tale, B 265.
811. With dredful foot; so again in Kn. Ta., A 1479. 'Timido pede fugit in antrum'; 100. See Dreadful in Trench, Select Glossary; and cf. ll. 109, 404 above.
813. 'Dumque fugit, tergo uelamina lapsa reliquit'; 101. 'For fere, and let her wimple falle.'—Gower, Conf. Amant. i. 326.
814-6. These three lines are original. Sit, sitteth. Darketh, lies close. 'The child than darked in his den'; Will. of Palerne, 17; 'drawe [drew] him into his den, and darked ther stille'; id. 44. And again in the same poem, ll. 1834, 2851.
823-31. Considerably expanded from the Latin:—
'Serius egressus uestigia uidit in alto puluere certa ferae, totoque expalluit ore Pyramus'; 105.
830. Agroos, shuddered; and again in l. 2314; and in Troil. ii. 930. The infin. agryse is in the Man of Law's Tale, B 614.
834. 'Una duos, inquit, nox perdet amantes'; 108.
835. This line is Chaucer's own.
842. What, whatsoever; 'quicunque ... leones'; 114.
847-9. 'Accipe nunc, inquit, nostri quoque sanguinis haustus'; 118.
851-2.
'Cruor emicat alte non aliter quam quum uitiato fistula plumbo scinditur, et tenues stridente foramine longe eiaculatur aquas, atque ictibus aera rumpit'; 121.
With much good taste, Chaucer omits the next three lines, just as he has omitted to tell us that the trysting-tree was 'a faire high Mulberie with fruite as white as snow,' as Golding says. The blood of Pyramus turned this fruit black, and so it remains to this day! Gower likewise suppresses the mulberry-tree, but Shakespeare mentions it; see Mid. Nt. Dr. v. 1. 149.
853-61. Admirably expanded out of three lines:—
'Ecce metu nondum posito, ne fallat amantem, illa redit; iuuenemque oculis animoque requirit; quantaque uitarit narrare pericula gestit'; 128.
859. The first syllable of Bothe forms a foot by itself. So also in ll. 863, 901, 911, &c.
862-8.
'Dum dubitat, tremebunda uidet pulsare cruentum membra solum; retroque pedem tulit; oraque buxo pallidiora gerens, exhorruit aequoris instar, quod fremit, exigua quum summum stringitur aura'; 133.
869-82. Fourteen lines where Ovid has eight. Chaucer has greatly improved l. 882, where Ovid makes Thisbe ask Pyramus to lift up his head:—'uultusque attolle iacentes'; 144.
887. This line is original. Bost, noise, outcry; such is the original sense of the word now spelt boast, which see in the New E. Dict. Cf. 'Now ariseth cry and boost'; King Alisaunder, 5290; and see P. Plowman, C. xvii. 89. Whitaker, writing in 1813, remarks that boost, in the sense of noise, is 'a provincial word still familiar in the Midland counties.'
894.
'Persequar extinctum; letique miserrima dicar caussa comesque tui'; 151.
905-12. Admirably substituted for Thisbe's address to the mulberry-tree, requesting it to keep its berries always black thenceforth.
913, 14.
'Dixit; et aptato pectus mucrone sub imum incubuit ferro, quod adhuc a caede tepebat'; 162.
916-23. These lines are original. With l. 917 cf. Le Rom. de la Rose, 14345:—'Mes moult est poi de tex amans.'