Geoffrey Chaucer

“ Each 'Figure' had a 'Name,' belonged to an 'Element,' and possessed a 'Planet' and a Zodiacal 'Sign.' Cornelius Agrippa gives our three 'figures' as below.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Fig. 1 (Puella) . Fig. 2 (Rubeus) . Fig. 3 (Puer) . That is, Fig. 1 is 'Puella,' or 'Mundus facie'; element, water; planet, Venus; sign, Libra.
Fig. 2 is 'Rubeus' or 'Rufus'; element, fire; planet, Mars; sign, Gemini.
Fig. 3 is 'Puer,' or 'Flavus,' or 'Imberbis'; element, fire; planet, Mars; sign, Aries.
Chaucer (or some one else) seems to have confused figures 1 and 3, or Puer with Puella ”

“ Or, if the reader have still any doubt about this, let him observe the curious accumulation of evidence which is to follow.
'Palamon and Arcite meet, and a duel is arranged for an early hour on the day following. That is, they meet on Saturday, May 5. But, as Saturday is presided over by the inauspicious planet Saturn, it is no wonder that they are both unfortunate enough to have their duel interrupted by Theseus, and to find themselves threatened with death. Still, at the intercession of the queen and Emily, a day of assembly for a tournament is fixed for "this day fifty wykes" (l. 1850) . ”

“ Thus the Knightes Tale is not derived immediately from Boccaccio or from Statius, but through the medium of an older poem of Chaucer's own composition. Fragments of the same poem were used by the author in other compositions; and the result is, that the Teseide of Boccaccio is the source of (1) sixteen stanzas in the Parliament of Foules; (2) of part of the first ten stanzas in Anelida; (3) of three stanzas near the end of Troilus (Tes. xi. 1-3) ; as well as of the original Palamon and Arcite and of the Knightes Tale. ”

“ Speght explains this word by pilots (gubernaculum tenentes) ; Tyrwhitt, female dancers (Ital. ballatrice) . Others explain it hopposteres = opposteres = opposing, hostile, so that schippes hoppesteres = bellatrices carinae (Statius) . As, however, it is impossible to suppose that even opposteres without the h can ever have been formed from the verb to oppose, the most likely solution is that Chaucer mistook the word bellatrices in Statius (vii. 57) or the corresponding Ital. word bellatrici in the Teseide, vii. ”

“ Maior lex amor est sibi.'
Chaucer's translation (vol. ii. p. 92, l. 37) has—'But what is he that may yive a lawe to loveres? Love is a gretter lawe ... than any lawe that men may yeven.' And see Troil. ”

“ The thridde hour inequal. 'In the astrological system, the day, from sunrise to sunset, and the night, from sunset to sunrise, being each divided into twelve hours, it is plain that the hours of the day and night were never equal except just at the equinoxes. The hours attributed to the planets were of this unequal sort. See Kalendrier de Berg. loc. cit., and our author's treatise on the Astrolabe.'—Tyrwhitt.
2275-360. Cf. the Teseide, vii. ”

“ In cap. vii. (De Diana) of the same, there is a description of 'Diana, quae et Luna, Proserpina, Hecate nuncupatur.' Cf. l. 2313 below.
2045. 'The names of two figures in geomancy, representing two constellations in heaven. Puella signifieth Mars retrogade, and Rubeus Mars direct.'—Note in Speght's Chaucer. It is obvious that this explanation is wrong as regards 'Mars retrograde' and 'Mars direct,' because a constellation cannot represent a single planet. ”

“ In the Teseide, iv. 3, he takes the name of Penteo. Philostrato is the name of another work by Boccaccio, answering to Chaucer's Troilus. The Greek φιλόστρατος means, literally, 'army-lover'; but it is to be noted that Boccaccio did not so understand it. He actually connected it with the Lat. stratus, and explained it to mean 'vanquished or prostrated with love'; and this is how the name is here used.
1444. slyly, prudently, wisely. The M. E. sleigh, sly = wise, knowing: and sleight = wisdom, knowledge. ”

“ Tyrwhitt reads Beforne his hed in his celle fantastike. Elles. has Biforn his owene celle fantastik. 'The division of the brain into cells, according to the different sensitive faculties, is very ancient, and is found depicted in medieval manuscripts. The fantastic cell (fantasia) was in front of the head.'—Wright. Hence Biforen means 'in the front part of his head.'
'Madnesse is infection of the formost cel of the head, with priuation of imagination, lyke as melancholye is the infection of the middle cell of the head, with priuation of reason, as Constant. ”

“ There is yet another description of the temple of Venus in the House of Fame, 119-139, where we have the very line 'Naked fletinge in a see' (cf. l. 1956 below) , and a mention of the 'rose garlond' (cf. l. 1961) , and of 'Hir dowves and daun Cupido' (cf. ll. 1962-3) .
1929. golde, a marigold; Calendula. 'Goolde, herbe: Solsequium, quia sequitur solem, elitropium, calendula'; Prompt. Parv. The corn-marigold in the North is called goulans, guilde, or goles, and in the South, golds (Way) . ”

“ Adv. of Learning, ii. proem. § 15—'It is not granted to man to love and to be wise'; ed. Wright, p. 84. So also in Bacon's 10th Essay. The reading here given is correct. Fool is used with great emphasis; the sense is:—'Who can be a (complete) fool, unless he is in love?' The old printed editions have the same reading. The Harl. MS. alone has if that for but-if, giving the sense: 'Who can be fool, if he is in love?' As this is absurd, Mr. Wright silently inserted not after may, and is followed by Bell and Morris ”

“ Ipolita, Shakespeare's Hippolyta, in Mids. Night's Dream. The name is in Statius, Theb. xii. 534, spelt Hippolyte.
880. In this line, Athenes seems to mean 'Athenians,' though elsewhere it means 'Athens.' Athénès is trisyllabic.
884. tempest. As there is no mention of a tempest in Boccaccio, Tyrwhitt proposed to alter the reading to temple, as there is some mention of Theseus offering in the temple of Pallas. But it is very unlikely that this would be alluded to by the mere word temple; and we must accept the reading tempest, as in all the seven MSS. and in the old editions. ”

“ The following extract from the Compost of Ptolemeus gives some of the supposed effects of Mars:—"Under Mars is borne theves and robbers that kepe hye wayes, and do hurte to true men, and nyght-walkers, and quarell-pykers, bosters, mockers, and skoffers, and these men of Mars causeth warre and murther, and batayle; they wyll be gladly smythes or workers of yron, lyght-fyngred, and lyers, gret swerers of othes in vengeable wyse, and a great surmyler and crafty. ”

“ To love par amour is an old phrase for to love excessively. Cf. Bruce, xiii. 485; and see A. 2112, below; Troil. v. 158, 332.
1158. affeccioun of holinesse, a sacred affection, or aspiration after.
1162. I pose, I put the case, I will suppose.
1163. 'Knowest thou not well the old writer's saying?' The olde clerk is Boethius, from whose book, De Consolatione Philosophiae, Chaucer has borrowed largely in many places. The passage alluded to is in lib. iii. met. 12:—
'Quis legem det amantibus? ”

“ What follows is taken from Boethius, lib. iv. pr. 6: 'þe engendrynge of alle þinges, quod she, and alle þe progressiouns of muuable nature, and alle þat moeueþ in any manere, takiþ hys causes, hys ordre, and hys formes, of þe stablenesse of þe deuyne þouȝt; [and thilke deuyne thowht] þat is yset and put in þe toure, þat is to seyne in þe heyȝt of þe simplicite of god, stablisiþ many manere gyses to þinges þat ben to don.'—Chaucer's Boethius, ed. ”

“ For one may out-ride the old man
Better than out-wit.'
The Proverbs of Alfred, ed. Morris, in an Old Eng. Miscellany, p. 136. And see Solomon and Saturn, ed. Kemble, p. 253.
2451. agayn his kynde. According to the Compost of Ptolemeus, Saturn was influential in producing strife: 'And the children of the sayd Saturne shall be great jangeleres and chyders ... and they will never forgyve tyll they be revenged of theyr quarell.'—Wright.
2454. My cours. The course of the planet Saturn. This refers to the orbit of Saturn, supposed to be the largest of all, until Uranus and Neptune were discovered. ”

“ Chaucer again is indebted to Boethius, lib. iii. pr. 10, for what follows: 'For al þing þat is cleped inperfit, is proued inperfit by þe amenusynge of perfeccioun, or of þing þat is perfit; and her-of comeþ it, þat in euery þing general, yif þat þat men seen any þing þat is inperfit, certys in þilke general þer mot ben somme þing þat is perfit. For yif so be þat perfeccioun is don awey, men may nat þinke nor seye fro whennes þilke þing is þat is cleped inperfit. ”

“ Then we find it in Statius, vi. 98-106. After which, it reappears in Boccaccio, Teseide, xi. 22; in Chaucer, Parl. of Foules, 176; in the present passage; in Tasso, Gier. Lib. iii. 75; and in Spenser, F.Q. i. 1. 8. There is also a list in Le Roman de la Rose, 1338-1368. Again, we may just compare ll. 2951-2955 with the following lines in Lewis's translation of Statius:—
'Around the pile an hundred horsemen ride,
With arms reversed, and compass every side;
They faced the left (for so the rites require) ;
Bent with the dust, the flames no more aspire. ”

“ Littré has an excellent example of the word: 'Les bleus teints en indigo doivent être gaudés, et ils deviennent verts.'
2086. thou mayst best, art best able to help, thou hast most power. Lucina was a title both of Juno and Diana; see Vergil, Ecl. iv. 10.
2112. Here paramours is used adverbially, like paramour in l. 1155. From Le Roman de la Rose, 20984:—'Jamès par amors n'ameroit.'
2115. benedicite is here pronounced as a trisyllable, viz. ben'cite. It usually is so, though five syllables in l. 1785. Cf. benste in Towneley Myst. p. 85. Cf. 'What, liveth nat thy lady, benedicite!' Troil. i. ”

“ The following scheme will explain many things hitherto unnoticed.
'On Friday, May 4, before 1 A.M., Palamon breaks out of prison. For (l. 1463) it was during the "third night of May, but (l. 1467) a little after midnight." That it was Friday is evident also, from observing that Palamon hides himself at day's approach, whilst Arcite rises "for to doon his observance to May, remembring on the poynt of his desyr." To do this best, he would go into the fields at sunrise (l. 1491) , during the hour dedicated to Venus, i. e. during the hour after sunrise on a Friday. ”

“ Ritson, Ancient Songs, i. 70 (Man in the Moon, l. 31) . 'And I will pledge Tom Tosspot, till I be drunk as a mouse-a'; Old Plays, ed. Hazlitt, iii. 339. See also Skelton, Colin Clout, 803; and D. 246.
1262. This is from Boethius, De Consolatione, lib. iii. pr. 2: 'But I retorne ayein to the studies of men, of whiche men the corage alwey reherseth and seketh the sovereyn good, al be it so that it be with a derked memorie; but he not by whiche path, right as a dronken man not nat by whiche path he may retorne him to his hous.'—Chaucer's Translation of Boethius; vol. ii. p. ”

“ See Compl. of Anelida, 182; cf. Compl. to his Lady, 52.
2405. do, bring it about, cause it to come to pass.
2422-34. From Tes. vii. 39, 40; there are several verbal resemblances here.—Kölbing.
2437. 'As joyful as the bird is of the bright sun.' So in Piers Pl., B. x. 153. It was a common proverb.
2438-41. Cf. the Teseide, vii. 67.
2443. Cf. 'the olde colde Saturnus'; tr. of Boethius, bk. iv. met. 1.
2447-8. From Le Rom. de la Rose, 13022, q. v.
2449. 'Men may outrun old age, but not outwit (surpass its counsel) .' Cf. 'Men may the wyse at-renne, but not at-rede.'—Troilus, iv. 1456. ”

“ Gower, ed. Pauli, i. 33, has:—'The thing so open is at theye,' i. e. is so open at the eye, is so obvious. 'Now is the tyme sen at eye,' i. e. clearly seen; Coventry Myst. p. 122.
3017-68. Cf. the Teseide, xii. 7-10, 6, 11, 13, 9, 12-17, 19.
3042. So in Troilus, iv. 1586: 'Thus maketh vertu of necessite'; and in Squire's Tale, pt. ii. l. 247 (Group F, l. 593) : 'That I made vertu of necessite.' It is from Le Roman de la Rose, 14217:—
'S'il ne fait de necessité
Vertu.'
So in Matt. Paris, ed. Luard, i. 20. Cf. Horace, Carm. i. 24:—
'Durum! ”

“ Mars the rede. Boccaccio uses the same epithet in the opening of his Teseide, i. 3: 'O Marte rubicondo.' Rede refers to the colour of the planet; cf. Anelida, 1.
1761. This line occurs again three times; March. Tale E. 1986; Squieres Tale, F. 479; Legend of Good Women, 503.
1780. can no divisoun, knows no distinction. ”

“ Moreover, Statius imitates the whole from Vergil, Æn. xi. 185-196. And Lydgate copies it all from Chaucer in his Sege of Thebes, part 3 (near the end) .
2864. Funeral he myghte al accomplice (Elles.) ; Funeral he mighte hem all complise (Corp., Pet.) . The line is defective in the first foot. Funeral is an adjective. Tyrwhitt and Wright insert Of before it, without authority of any kind; see l. 2942.
2874. White gloves were used as mourning at the funeral of an unmarried person; see Brand, Pop. Antiq. ed. Ellis, ii. 283.
2885. 'And surpassing others in weeping came Emily.'
2891. ”