Geoffrey Chaucer

“ It is not clear why Chaucer hit upon this day in particular. Kublai's birthday was in September, but perhaps Chaucer noted that the White Feast was on New Year's day, which he took to mean the vernal equinox, or some day near it. The day, however, is well defined. The 'last Idus' is the very day of the Ides, i. e. March 15. The sun entered Aries, according to Chaucer (Treatise on the Astrolabe, ii. 1. 4) on March 12, at the vernal equinox ”

“ The Golden Horde further invaded Russia, and made Alexander Newski grand-duke of it, A.D. 1252. (See Golden Horde in Haydn's Dictionary of Dates.)
Chaucer has here confused two accounts. There were two celebrated Khans, both grandsons of Gengis Khan, who were ruling about the same time. Batu Khan held his court at Sarai, and ruled over the S. E. of Russia; but the Great Khan, named Kublai, held his court at Cambaluc, the modern Pekin, in a still more magnificent manner. And it is easy to see that, although Chaucer names Sarai, his description really applies to Cambaluc. See vol. iii. pp. ”

“ Apulia was called Poille or Poile in Old French, and even in Middle English; the phrase 'king of Poile' occurs in the Seven Sages (ed. Weber) , l. 2019. It was celebrated for its horses. Tyrwhitt quotes from MS. James vi. 142 (Bodleian Library) , a passage in which Richard, archbishop of Armagh, in the fourteenth century, has the words—'nec mulus Hispaniae, nec dextrarius Apuliae, nec repedo Æthiopiae, nec elephantus Asiae, nec camelus Syriae.' Chaucer ascribes strength and size to the horses of Lombardy, and high breeding to those of Apulia.
200. goon, i. e. move, go about, have motion. ”

“ I believe them to be genuine; for they occur in MS. E. Hn. Cp. Pt., and others, and are not to be too lightly rejected. The Lansdowne MS. has eight lines here, which are certainly spurious. In MS. E., after l. 672, the rest of the page is blank. The lines are quite intelligible, if we add the words He entreth. We then have—'Apollo (the sun) whirls up his chariot so highly (continues his course in the zodiac) till he enters the mansion of the god Mercury, the cunning one'; the construction in the last line being similar to that in l. 209. The sun was described as in Aries, l. ”

“ These lines are transposed in Tyrwhitt's edition. Such a transposition makes the sense much clearer, beyond doubt. But I am not convinced that the confused construction in the text is not Chaucer's own. It is very like his manner. Cf. notes to ll. 376, 401.
667. Observe that Cambalo, if not inserted here in the MSS. by error, is quite a different person from the Cambalus in l. 656 (called Cambalo in l. 31) . He is Canace's lover, who is to fight in the lists against her brothers Cambalo and Algarsif, and win her. ”

“ A good epigram on this proverb is given in Camden's Remaines concerning Britaine, ed. 1657, sig. Gg.
'So many heads, so many wits—fie, fie!
Is't not a shame for Proverbs thus to lie?
My selfe, though my acquaintance be but small,
Know many heads that have no wit at all.'
207. the Pegasee, Pegasus. In the margin of MSS. E. Hn. Hl. is written 'i. equs Pegaseus,' meaning 'id est, equus Pegaseus'; shewing that Chaucer was thinking of the adjective Pegaseus rather than of the sb. Pegasus, the name of the celebrated winged horse of Bellerophon and of the Muses. Cf. ”

“ Chaucer again alludes to Sinon in the House of Fame, i. 152, and in the Legend of Good Women, Dido, 8; which shews that he took that legend partly from Vergil, Aen. ii. 195. But note that Chaucer here compares a horse of brass to the Trojan horse; this is because the latter was also said to have been of brass, not by Vergil, but by Guido delle Colonne; see note to l. 211. This is why Gower, in his Confess. Amant. bk. i., and Caxton, in his Recuyell of the Historyes of Troy, both speak of the Trojan horse as a 'horse of brass'; see Spec. of English, 1394-1579, ed. ”

“ Des Faucons; MS. Reg. 19 C. x. "La seconde lignie est faucons, qui hom apele pelerins, par ce que nus ne trove son ni; ains est pris autresi come en pelerinage, et est mult legiers a norrir, et mult cortois et vaillans, et de bone maniere" [i. e. the second kind is the falcon which is called the pilgrim (or peregrine) , because no one ever finds its nest; but it is otherwise taken, as it were on pilgrimage, and is very easily fed, and very tame and bold, and well-mannered] . Chaucer adds that this falcon was of fremde lond, i. e. from a foreign country.'—Tyrwhitt.
435. ledene, language ”

“ Chaucer clearly quotes this as a proverb; true man means honest man, according to Dogberry; Much Ado about Nothing, iii. 3. 54. The sense seems to be much the same as 'You cannot make a silk purse of a sow's ear,' or 'Once a knave, always a knave.' Compare the use of theef in Anelida, l. 161; also ”

“ In the Wyf of Bathes Prol. (D. 704) , Chaucer has the line—
'In Pisces, wher Venus is exaltat.'
'Who will not commend the wit of astrology? Venus, born out of the sea, hath her exaltation in Pisces'; Sir T. Browne, Works, ed. Wilkin, iv. 382.
287. Lancelot, the celebrated lover of queen Guinever in the Arthur romances. Cp. Dante, Inf. v. 128.
291. 'The steward bids (them) to be quick with the spices.' Cf. Joseph of Arimathea, ed. Skeat, note to l. 698. And see vol. ii. 506.
300. Hath is here used like the mod. F. il y a, for which O. F. often has a only. ”

“ Persons who cannot detect the trick ... ascribe the alleged facts to electricity.... Men love to cheat themselves with hard words, and indolence often accepts the name of a phenomenon as a substitute for the reason of it'; Origin and Progress of the English Language, Lect. ix. p. 427.
231. The magic mirror in Rome was said to have been set up there by Vergil, who was at one time reverenced, not as a poet, but as a great enchanter. The story occurs in the Seven Sages, in the Introduction to his edition of which Mr. Wright says, at p. ”

“ Compare ll. 153-155, which shew that Canace knew what herbs to choose.
644. Blue was the colour of truth and constancy; hence the expression 'true blue'; cf. Cler. Tale, E. 254. Green (l. 646) signified inconstancy. ”