Part 2 — VII. THE LEGEND OF PHILOMELA.

Chaucer's Prologue ends at l. 2243. The tale is from Ovid, Met. vi. 424-605, with some omissions, and ends at l. 2382. Gower has the same story; C. A. bk. v. ed. Pauli, ii. 313.

2228. The words 'Deus dator formarum' are written after the title in MS. B.; and part of the first line corresponds to this expression. In MS. F. it appears as 'Deus dator formatorum^[71],' which can hardly be right.

Corson has the following note:—'In these verses (2228-30) the Platonic doctrine of forms or ideas is expressed. For whatever knowledge Chaucer may have had of the philosophy of Plato, he was probably indebted to the Italian poets, with whom, especially Petrarch, Plato was a favourite.' Corson also quotes the following from Sir Wm. Hamilton:—'Plato agreed with the rest of the ancient philosophers in this—that all things consist of matter and form; and that matter of which all things were made, existed from eternity, without form; but he likewise believed that there are external forms of all possible things which exist, without matter; and to these eternal and immaterial forms he gave the name of ideas. In the Platonic sense, then, ideas were the patterns to which the Deity fashioned the phenomenal or ectypal world.' See also Spenser, Hymne in honour of Beautie, st. 5. And cf. l. 1582 above.

However, Chaucer here follows Boethius, De Consolatione Philosophiae, lib. iii. met. 9:—

See Chaucer's version of the same, ll. 1-12. Cf. Le Rom. de la Rose, 16931-8, also copied from Boethius, who follows Plato.

2233. As for that fyn, with that particular object.

2236. Fro this world, i.e. from the centre of the universe; according to the old Ptolemaic system which made the earth the fixed centre of all things. The firste hevene, the first or outermost sphere, that of Saturn; see note to Complaint of Mars, 29.

2237. Understand al (everything) as the nom. case to corrumpeth; i.e. everything becomes corrupt, is infected.

2238. As to me, as for me, in my opinion.

2241. Yit last, still lasts, still endures.

2243. Read—The stóry of Térë-ús, &c.; the -y in story being rapidly slurred over.

2244. Here begins Ovid, Met. vi. 424:—'Threïcius Tereus.' Tereus was king of Thrace; and Ovid says he could trace his descent from Gradivus, i.e. Mars (l. 427).

Marte, Mars. Corson here notes that 'Marte is the ablative case of Mars, as Jove is of Jupiter.' It is worth while to say that this view is quite erroneous; for these forms did not arise in that way. Marte was formed from Martem, the accusative case, by dropping the final m; and, generally, the Romance languages formed most of their substantives from accusative cases, owing to the frequent use of that case, especially in the construction of the accus. with the infinitive, which in medieval Latin was very common. See Sir G. Cornewall Lewis' Essay on the Romance Languages, and Diez, Grammatik der Romanischen Sprachen, vol. ii. Thus the F. corps represents the Lat. acc. corpus, not the abl. corpore; as is sufficiently obvious.

2247. Read—Pán-di-ón-es. Pandion, a king of Athens, was father of Progne and Philomela. Cf. The Passionate Pilgrim, xxi. 395.

2249. The original Latin should be consulted, as Chaucer sometimes copies Ovid literally, and sometimes goes his own way.

2253. Wond, wound; aboute the balkes wond, kept winding (flying in circular wise) round about the balks (or transverse beams beneath the roof). Three good MSS. read wond, which is the past tense of winden, to wind. Bell and others read wonde, explained by 'dwelt'; but this is open to two objections, viz. (1) the pt. t. of wonien to dwell, is woned or wonede, not wonde; and (2) an owl cannot dwell about a balk, but only on it. The pt. pl. woneden (three syllables) occurs in the Kn. Ta. 2069 (A 2927); and we learn from the Clerkes Tale, E 339, that the pp. woned rimes with astoned. Ovid, indeed, has incubuit and sedit; but that does not prove much; for Chaucer expresses things in his own manner at will.

2256. This original line refers to the medieval wedding-feasts, which sometimes lasted even forty days. See Havelok, l. 2344; and the note.

2259-68. From Ovid, Met. vi. 438-442.

2261. Saw not longe, had not seen for a long time.

2264. Moste, might. Ones, for once; lit. once.

2265. And come anoon, and return again soon.

2266. 'Or else, unless she might go to see her.'

2270. 'Caused his ships to be made ready.'

2270-8. From Ovid, Met. vi. 444-450. Chaucer next passes on to ll. 475, 483. Ll. 2288-2294 are abridged from ll. 451-471 of the Latin. Ll. 2295-2301 answer to ll. 495-501; ll. 2302-2307 to ll. 488, 489; but many touches are Chaucer's own, and he is seldom literal.

2282. Read lovede as lov'de; cf. preyde, 2294. This line is imitated in Kn. Ta. 338 (A 1196)—'For in this world he lovede no man so.'

2290, 1. 'And that there was none like her in (royal) array'; Met. vi. 451. Two so riche, twice as rich; cf. ten so wood, in l. 736.

2308. Cf. Ovid, Met. vi. 512.

2312, 3. 'If it might please her, or (even) if it might not please her.'

2318-22. Ovid has these images of the lamb (l. 527) and of the dove (529).

2335. This 'castle' answers to Ovid's 'custodia' (572).

2340. 'God avenge thee, and grant thee thy petition (for vengeance).'

2342-9. Cf. Ovid, Met. vi. 563-570.

2352. Stole, stool, frame for tapestry work. Hexham's Du. Dict. (1658) gives: 'Stoel-doeck, Tapistrie, or Hangings'; lit. stool-cloth. Cf. G. Weberstuhl, a loom; lit. weaver-stool. Radevore, a kind of serge; here, the material on which tapestry-work was executed. The only other example I have met with is in a poem beginning—'As ofte as syghes ben in herte trewe,' in the Tanner MS. 346, fol. 73. One stanza begins thus:—

(Another copy of these lines is in MS. Ff. 1. 6 in the Cambridge Univ. Library, fol. 11.)

Here raduore is clearly an error for radeuore or radevore, as the scansion shews. Urry's Glossary gives the following explanation: 'Ras in French means any stuff [it means serge or satin], as Ras de Chalons, Ras de Gennes; Ras de Vore or Vaur may be a stuff made at such a place.' On which Tyrwhitt remarks—'There is a town in Languedoc called La Vaur; but I know not that it was ever famous for tapestry.' Cotgrave gives: 'Ras, serge'; also 'Ras de Milain, the finest kind of bare serge, or a silke serge.' Littré cites ras de Châlons from Scarron, Virg. iv.; also 'bas de soye, raz de Millan et d'estame.' Ras, in fact, is the same as the Tudor-English word rash. The loss of the s in ras de Vore is regular, because s drops before d in Anglo-French, though it is preserved in ras when used alone. I find, on consulting the English Cyclopædia, that La Vaur, in the department of Tarn, produces silk and serge to this day; so that Urry is certainly right. The whole account in ll. 2350-72 is expanded from five lines in the Latin text, 576-580:—

Observe that, in l. 2360, the stuff is called 'a stamin.'

2359. By that, by the time that.

2360. A stamin large, a large piece of stamine. Stamin or stamine is usually explained as a kind of woollen cloth. Cotgrave gives: 'Estamine, the stuffe tamine.' Godefroy gives both estamin, masc. and estamine, fem. explained by 'tissu léger de laine ou de coton.' Palsgrave has:—'Stamell, fyne worstede, estamine'; and—'Stamyne, estamine.' The Prompt. Parv. has:—'Stamyn, clothe, stamina.' Stamin was used as a material for shirts, and was worn by way of penance; Fosbrooke explains it as 'a shirt made of woollen and linen, used instead of a penitentiary hair-shirt.' 'Stamin habbe whoso wule,' whoso will may have a stamin; Ancren Riwle, p. 418. Chaucer uses it thus near the end of the Persones Tale (I 1052); 'Also in weringe of heyres or of stamin or of haubergeons on hir naked flesh for Cristes sake, and swiche manere penances.'

MSS. C. T. A. have stamyn, which seems the better form; the rest (like the printed editions) have stames, which may be an error for stamel, O.F. estamel, used in the same sense as O.F. estamine. Else it may answer to O.F. estame, 'laine peignée, tricot de laine' in Godefroy. The fact that Ovid's word is stamina is in favour of the spelling stamin. (Bell remarks that 'the printed copies read flames, which is nonsense.' He seems to have misread stames (with long s) as flames. The editions of 1532, 1550, and 1561 certainly have stames.)

2373-82. Abridged from Met. vi. 581-605. Ovid mentions the triennial festival to Bacchus.

2379. Compleint is a much better reading than the constreynte of the old editions.

2383. No charge, of no consequence; Squi. Ta., F 359.

2383-93. All Chaucer's own. The last line is characteristic: 'unless it happens to be the case that he cannot get another,' i.e. a new love. For non other, old editions have another!

2385. Here deserved is the usual Chaucerian form of the pt. tense. Prof. Lounsbury (Studies in Chaucer, i. 403) calls this a false form. But cf. wyped, lipsed (in -ed, not -ede); Prol. to C. T., 133, 264.