Walter William Skeat

“ The first foot is imperfect.
681. The astrological term 'house' has two senses; it sometimes means a zodiacal sign, as when, e.g. Taurus is called the 'house' or mansion of Venus; and sometimes it has another sense, as, probably, in the present passage. See Chaucer's treatise on the Astrolabe, pt. ii. § 37, on 'the equations of houses.' In the latter case, the whole celestial sphere was divided into twelve equal parts, called 'houses,' by great circles passing through the north and south points of the horizon. ”

“ Ipse repertor opis means Phœbus, who 'first fond art of medicyne;' Pheraeas, i.e. of Pherae, refers to Pherae in Thessaly, the residence of king Admetus. Admetus gained Alcestis for his wife by the assistance of Apollo, who, according to some accounts, served Admetus out of attachment to him, or, according to other accounts, because he was condemned to serve a mortal for a year. Chaucer seems to adopt a theory that Apollo loved Admetus chiefly for his daughter's sake. The usual story about Apollo is his love for Daphne. ”

“ As fieldfares come here in the winter months, people are glad to see them go, as a sign of approaching summer. In the present case, the sense appears to be that, when an opportunity is missed, the harm is done; and people will cry, 'farewell, fieldfare!' by way of derision. ”

“ Palladion, the Palladium or sacred image of Pallas, on the keeping of which the safety of Troy depended. It was stolen from Troy by Diomede and Ulysses; see Æneid, ii. 166. But Chaucer doubtless read the long account in Guido delle Colonne.
171. Hence Henrysoun, in his Testament of Criseyde, st. 12, calls her 'the flower and A-per-se Of Troy and Greece.' Cf. 'She was a woman A-per-se, alon'; Romance of Partenay, 1148. Boccaccio's image is much finer; he says that she surpassed other women as the rose does the violet. On the other hand, l. 175 is Chaucer's own. ”

“ Deiphebus (= Dé'phĕbús) is always trisyllabic.
1410. He means that he would do more for him than for any one, 'except for him whom he loves most,' i. e. Troilus.
1427. 'With spur and whip,' i. e. with all expedition.
1495. word and ende, beginning and end; cf. iii. 702, v. 1669. The right phrase is ord and ende, where ord is 'beginning;' but it would seem that, by Chaucer's time, word had been corruptly substituted for the obsolescent ord. See Monk. Ta. ”

“ Yow is the dat. case, governed by the impers. verb. The reading yow durste turns yow (an accusative) into an imaginary nominative; but the nom. form is ye, which the scribes did not venture to substitute.
584. goosish, goose-like, silly. This delicious epithet was turned into gofysshe by Thynne, and modern editions perpetuate the blunder. Tyrwhitt derived gofish from F. goffe, a word which is much later than Chaucer, and was probably merely adapted from Ital. goffo, stupid. The Century Dict. goes a step further, inserting a second f, and producing a form goffish, against all authority. ”

“ IV. The seven chiefs set out against Thebes. The army suffers from thirst, but Hypsipyle, a Lemnian princess, appears, and shews them a river (1495) .
V. Hypsipyle relates the story of 'the furies of Lemnos,' i. e. of the Lemnian women who killed all the men in the island except Thoas, her father, whom she saved. (See Leg. of Good Women, 1467, and note.) While she is speaking, a snake, sent by Jupiter, kills her infant, named Archemorus. ”

“ Sarpedon, prince of Lycia, l. 5448; and in Lydgate's Siege of Troy, Bk. ii. capp. 16, 20. Polymestor, or Polymnestor, was king of the Thracian Chersonese, and an ally of the Trojans. Polites was a son of Priam (Æneid. ii. 526) . Mnestheus is repeatedly mentioned in Vergil (Æn. v. 116, &c.) , and is also called Menestheus (id. x. 129) ; he is a different person from Menestheus, king of Athens, who fought on the other side. ”

“ A proverb. In the Proverbs of Hendyng, l. 29, we have: 'Ase fele thede, ase fele thewes,' i.e. so many peoples, so many customs. See l. 42 below. Cf. Boethius, Bk. ii. Pr. 7. 49 (p. 47) .
36. went, for wendeth; i.e. goes; pres. tense.
46. 'Yet all is told, or must be told.'
48. bitit, for bitydeth; i.e. betides, happens.
55. Bole, Bull, the sign Taurus. On the third of May, in Chaucer's time, the sun would be in about the 20th degree of Taurus. The epithet white is from Ovid, Met. ii. 852. ”

“ Arge is the town of Argos, ruled over by Diomede; Homer, Il. ii. 559. Calidoine is Calydon, in Ætolia, of which city Tydeus, father of Diomede, was king; see l. 934, and ll. 1513-5 below.
806. This description seems to be mainly Chaucer's own. It occurs again, much amplified, in Lydgate's Siege of Troy, Bk. ii. ch. 15, where it precedes the description of Priam. Boccaccio says that she had 'lucent eyes and an angelic face' (Fil. i. st. 28) , with which cf. l. 816. ”

“ E. uses thou. 'Thou didst first instigate Jove to those glad effects (influences) , through which all things live and exist; and didst make him amorous of mortal things; and, at thy pleasure, didst ever give him, in love, success or trouble; and, in a thousand forms, didst send him down to (gain) love on earth; and he caught those whom it pleased you (he should catch) .'
In l. 17 we find Comeveden sometimes turned into Comenden, or even Commodious! The Italian text has Movesti (l. 603) .
22. Venus was supposed to appease the angry planet Mars; see Compl. of Mars, 36-42. ”

“ This is one of the rather numerous words in Chaucer that have not been rightly understood.
1185. twighte, plucked; pt. t. of twicchen.
1188. 'Where the doom of Minos would assign it a place.' Boccaccio here uses the word inferno (Fil. iv. 120) to denote the place where Troilus' soul would dwell; which Rossetti explains to mean simply Hades. Chaucer's meaning is the same; he is referring to Æneid. vi. 431-3.
1208. Atropos is the Fate who cuts the thread of life; see note to v. 7. ”

“ See Hazlitt's notes on the proverb—'Many talk of Robin Hood, that never shot in his bow,' &c.
866. 'Who cannot endure sorrow deserves no joy.'
867. 'And therefore let him, who has a glass head, beware of stones cast in battle.'
882. let, short for ledeth, leads (Stratmann) .
884. The MSS. end the line with syke. It has been pointed out that syke is not a perfect rime to endyte, whyte, but only an assonance. It is difficult to believe Chaucer guilty of this oversight; and hence I would suggest, with all submission to the critics, that possibly Chaucer wrote syte. ”

“ Ll. 1587 and 1588 repeat the saying in another form, and confirm the reading in the text. Cf. Boeth. Bk. ii. Pr. 4. 98.
1591, 2. Lucina, i. e. Diana, or the moon; cf. Kn. Ta. A 2085. 'Before the moon pass out of the sign of Aries beyond that of Leo.' In order to this, the moon would have to pass wholly through Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, and Leo, thus traversing a distance represented by about 4 signs, or a third part of the whole zodiac: this would take up about the third part of 28 days, or more than 9 days. This brings us, as Criseyde says, to the 10th day (l. 1595) . ”

“ For traunce, Thynne reads praunce, which has a similar sense. Morris explains traunce here as a sb., which seems impossible.
695. The olde daunce, the old game; see Prol. A 476.
696. sey, saw; perhaps read seye, subj., might perceive. If so, read al, i. e. every.
702. 'Beginning and end;' see note to bk. II. 1495.
711. I. e. or else upset everything; cf. the phrase, 'all the fat is in the fire.'
716. Mars and Saturn both had an evil influence.
717. combust, quenched, viz. by being too near the sun; see Astrolabe, pt. ii. § 4. Venus and Mercury, when thus 'combust,' lost their influence. ”

“ Rossetti's work (Chaucer Soc. 1875) for a detailed comparison of Chaucer's poem with the Filostrato of Boccaccio. The following table roughly indicates the portions of these works which are more or less similar, down to the end of Book I. Similar tables are prefixed to the Notes on the other books. It often happens that a stanza in Chaucer has a mere general resemblance to the corresponding one in Boccaccio. The lines in Chaucer not mentioned below are, in the main, original; e.g. 1-20, 31-56, &c.; and so are many others that cannot be here more exactly specified. ”

“ But this is assuming that the right spelling is canker-dort, a theory which the MSS. do not favour. Neither does the sense of 'ill-humour' seem very suitable. As I am bound, in this difficult case, to suggest what I can, I must add that it is also possible to suppose that cankedort is of French origin, answering to an O. F. quant que dort, lit. 'whenever he is asleep (?) ”

“ The King never taketh a voyd [read voydè] of comfites and other spices, but standing.' At p. 121: 'as for the voide on twelfth day at night, the King and Queene ought to take it in the halle.' At the Coronation of Queen Anne Boleyn, there was a voidè 'of spice-plates and wine' ”

“ XII. Creon forbids the burial of the slain invaders. The wives of the six chieftains seek assistance from Theseus, king of Athens (see Knightes Tale) . Argia, wife of Polynices, finds and burns her husband's body. Theseus slays Creon, and the Thebans open their gates to him (1509-10) .
1485-1491. From the Thebaid, Bk. i (see above) . ”

“ Speght refers to Alex. Neckam, De Naturis Rerum; see Wright's edition, p. 295.
But this is not all. In l. 933, Pandarus explains that Dulcarnon is called 'fleming of wrecches.' There is a slight error here: 'fleming of wrecches,' i.e. banishment of the miserable, is a translation of Fuga miserorum, which is written opposite this line in MS. Harl. 1239; and further, Fuga miserorum is a sort of Latin translation of Eleëfuga or Eleufuga, from ἔλεος pity, and φυγή, flight. The error lies in confusing Dulcarnon, the 47th proposition, with Eleufuga, a name for the 5th proposition ”

“ Antenor had been taken prisoner by the Greeks; see Lydgate, Siege of Troye, Bk. iii. ch. 24. Lydgate's version is that Antenor was to be exchanged for Thoas, king of Calydon; and, at the request of Chalcas, it was arranged that Antenor should be exchanged for both Thoas and Criseyde (see l. 138) ; to which Priam consented.
withoute more, without further ado; cf. l. 376.
143. parlement; here Boccaccio has parlamento, i.e. a parley. Chaucer gives it the English sense. ”

“ Vigile (l. 305) is the same as Chaucer's liche-wake; see note to A 2958.
306. He means that his steed, sword, and helm are to be offered up to Mars, and his shield to Pallas, at his funeral; cf. Kn. Ta. A 2889-2894.
319. Ascaphilo, a transposed form of Ascalaphus, whom Proserpine changed into an owl; Ovid, Met. v. 539. So also Adriane for Ariadne. Bell's note, that the form of Ascaphilo is Italian, and helps to prove that Chaucer here follows Boccaccio is misleading; for Boccaccio does not mention Ascalaphus.
321. Mercury was supposed to convey men's souls to Hades. See l. ”

“ See Cant. Ta. D 1745, G 838. It is tautological, being formed from E. as and the O.F. quanses, as if (Godefroy) ; so that the literal force is 'as as if.'
210. 'And nevertheless [or, still] he (Cupid) can pluck as proud a peacock (as was Troilus) .' Cf. Prol. A 652.
214-266. These lines are Chaucer's own.
217. falleth, happens; ne wenden, would not expect. In Ray's Proverbs, ed. 1737, p. 279, is a Scotch proverb—'All fails that fools thinks' (sic) ; which favours the alternative reading given in the footnote. ”

“ Boccaccio merely has 'tra' morti in inferno'; Fil. vi. st. 16.
897. ambages, ambiguities; adapted from Boccaccio's 'ambage' (Fil. vi. st. 17) , which Ch. has to explain.
911-938. These lines are fairly close to the original.
934. See note above, to l. 805. B. has: 'Di Calidonia e d' Argo;' Fil. vi. st. 24.
937. Tydeus, father of Diomede, is one of the chief heroes in the Thebaid of Statius, which describes the struggle between Eteocles and Polynices (called Polymites in l. 938) for the possession of Thebes. Tydeus and Polynices married sisters, the daughters of Adrastus, king of Argos ”

“ The following sketch gives a general notion of the relation of this Book to the Filostrato, though Chaucer often amplifies and transposes the material in a way that it would be tedious to particularise more minutely.
3. Parcas, Fates; the accusative case, as usual.
7. Lachesis, the Fate that apportions the thread of life; often represented with the spindle, though this is properly the attribute of Clotho alone. Clotho spins, Lachesis apportions, and Atropos cuts, the thread of life. Atropos has been mentioned above; Bk. iv. 1208, 1546. Statius mentions all three in lib. iii. of his Thebaid ”

“ Referring, probably, to Statius, Theb. i. 12—'Quod saeuae Iunonis opus.' But this refers to the wrath of Juno against Athamas rather than against Thebes.
642. 'Wherefore, if, on the tenth night, I fail (to have) the guiding of thy bright beams for a single hour,' &c.
655. Here Thynne's reading, Lucina, is obviously correct; see Bk. iv. 1591. By the common mistake of writing t for c, it became Lutina, and was then changed into Latona. But Latona was Lucina's mother.
664. Pheton, Phaethon; alluding to Ovid, Met. ii. ”

“ This line, giving the name of Criseyde's mother, is not in Boccaccio (Fil. iv. stt. 89-93) . I do not know where Chaucer found the form Argyve; in Statius, Theb. ii. 297, Argia is the name of the wife of Polynices, and Ch. calls her Argyve; see Bk. v. l. 1509 below.
769, 70. by-word, proverb: 'plants without a root soon die.'
782. ordre, order. She will pass her life in mourning and abstinence, as if she had entered a religious order.
790. Elysos, Elysium. It looks as if Chaucer was thinking of Vergil's 'Elysios ... campos;' Georg. i. 38; for the story of Orpheus and Eurydice occurs in Georg. ”

“ Chaucer himself admirably illustrates this saying in a passage which has already occurred above; see Bk. ii. 867.
478. her-e is dissyllabic; as in Ho. Fame, 980, 1014, 1885, 1912, &c.
479. congeyen us, bid us take leave, dismiss us.
484. 'Did we come here to fetch light for a fire, and run home again?' A man who borrows a light must hurry back before it goes out.
505. Hasel-wode, hazel-wood; an allusion to a popular saying, expressive of incredulity. See note to l. 1174 below. Not the same proverb as that in Bk. iii. 890. ”

“ Thynne reads she; but he is right. Diomede got possession of Troilus' horse, and sent it to Criseyde; whereupon she said that Diomede might keep it for himself. Note that Chaucer refers us to 'the story' for this incident; by which he means the Historia Troiana of Guido. But Guido only goes as far as to say that Diomed sent Troilus' horse to Criseyde; the rest is Chaucer's addition. See the allit. Destruction of Troy, ll. 8296-8317; and Lydgate's Siege of Troye, Bk. iii. ch. 26, ed. 1557, fol. R 4, back. Cf. Shak. Troilus, v. 5. 1: 'Dio. ”