Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookentes_ is equivalent to 'in certain positions of the heavens, at a given time,' such as the time of one's birth, or the time for making an _image_ (see last note). See p. 191 (above). 1271. _Medea_, the famous wife of Jason, who restored her father Æson to youth by her magical art; Ovid, Met. vii. 162. Gower tells the whole story, C. A. bk. v. ed. Pauli, ii. 259. 1272. _Circes_, Circe, the enchantress; Homer's Odyssey, bk. x; Ovid, Met. xiv. Ovid frequently has the form _Circes_, in the gen. case; Met. xiv. 10, 69, 71, 247, 294. Cf. Chaucer's Boethius, b. iv. met. 3. 24. _Calipsa_, Calypso, the nymph who detained Ulysses in an island; Odyssey, bk. i; Ovid, ex Ponto, iv. 10. 13. 1273. _Hermes_ is mentioned in the Can. Yeom. Tale, C. T., Group G, 1434, where the reference is to Hermes Trismegistus, fabled to have been the founder of alchemy, though none of the works ascribed to him are really his. The name _Balenus_ occurs, in company with the names of _Medea_ and _Circe_, in the following passage of the Rom. de la Rose, l. 14599:-- 'Que ja riens d'enchantement croie, Ne sorcerie, ne charroie, Ne _Balenus_, ne sa science, Ne magique, ne nigromance, ... Onques ne pot tenir _Medée_ Jason por nul enchantement; N'onc _Circe_ ne tint ensement Ulixes qu'il ne s'enfoïst,' &c. (_Charroie_ is the dance of witches on their sabbath.) _Hermes Ballenus_ is really a compound name, the true significance of which was pointed out to me by Prof. Cowell, and explained in my letter to The Academy, Apr. 27, 1889, p. 287. _Ballenus_ is 'the sage Belinous,' who discovered, beneath a statue of _Hermes_, a book containing all the secrets of the universe. Hence _Hermes' Ballenus_ (where _Hermes_ is an epithet) means 'Belinous, who adopted the philosophy of Hermes.' For an explanation of the whole matter, see the fourth volume of the Notices et Mémoires des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque du Roi, p. 107. In this there is an article by De Sacy, describing MS. Arabe de la Bibl. du Roi, no. 959, the title of which is 'Le Livre du Secret de la Creature, par le sage Belinous.' Belinous possessed the art of talismans, which he professed to have learnt from Hermes. There is some reason for identifying him with Apollonius of Tyana. 1274. _Lymote_, according to Warton, is Limotheus; but he omits to tell us where he found such a name; and the suggestion seems no better than his mistake of supposing _Calipsa_ (l. 1272) to mean the muse Calliope! Considering that he is mentioned in company with Simon Magus, or Simon the magician (Acts viii. 9), the suggestion of Prof. Hales seems probable, viz. that _Lymote_ or _Lymete_ (as in F.) means Elymas the sorcerer (Acts xiii. 8). 1275. 'I saw, and knew by name, those that,' &c. 1277. _Colle tregetour_, Colle the juggler; see l. 1260. _Colle_ is here a proper name, and distinct from the prefix _col-_ in _col-fox_, Non. Pr. Tale, B 4405. _Colle_ is the name of a dog; Non. Pr. Tale, B 4573. _Colyn_ and _Colle_ are names of grooms; Polit. Songs, p. 237. Tyrwhitt quotes a passage from The Testament of Love, bk. ii:--'Buserus [Busiris] slew his gestes, and he was slayne of Hercules his gest. Hugest betraished many menne, and of _Collo_ was he betraied'; ed. 1561, fol. 301, col. 2. With regard to _tregetour_, see the account of the performances of Eastern jugglers in Yule's edition of Marco Polo; vol. i. p. 342, and note 9 to Bk. i. c. 61. Col. Yule cites the O.F. forms _tregiteor_ and _entregetour_; also Ital. _tragettatore_, a juggler, and Prov. _trasjitar_, _trajitar_, to juggle. Bartsch, in his Chrestomathie Française, has examples of _trasgeter_, to mould, form, _tresgeteïs_, a work of mechanical art; and, in his Chrestomathie Provençale, col. 82, has the lines-- 'Non saps balar ni _tras-gitar_ a guiza de juglar guascon'; i.e. thou know'st not how to dance, nor how to juggle, after the manner of a Gascon juggler. A comparison of the forms leaves no doubt as to the etymology. The Prov. _trasgitar_ answers to a Low Lat. form _trans-iectare_ = _tra-iectare_, frequentative of Lat. _trans-icere_, _tra-icere_, to throw across, transfer, cause to pass. Thus, the orig. sense of _tregetour_ was one who causes rapid changes, by help of some mechanical contrivance. The F. _trajecter_, to ferry, transport, in Cotgrave, is the same word as the Prov. _trasgitar_, in a different (but allied) sense. 1292. 'As is the usual way with reports.' 1295. Accent _Which_ and _so_. 1297. 'And yet it was wrought by haphazard quite as often as by heed.' 1300. _To longe_, too long; not 'to dwell long.' The barbarous practice of inserting an adverb between _to_ and an infinitive, as in 'to ungrammatically talk,' is of later date, though less modern than we might perhaps imagine. Cf. l. 1354. 1302. Elide the former _Ne_; read _N'of_. 1303. Read--Ne hów they hátt' in másonéries; i.e. nor how they are named in masonry, as, for example, corbets full of imageries. _They hatte_, i.e. they are called, was turned into _hakking_, and the sense lost. 1304. _Corbets_, corbels. Florio's Ital. Dict. has, '_Corbella_, _Corbetta_, a little basket'; shewing the equivalence of such forms. The E. _corbel_ is the same word as O.F. _corbel_ (F. _corbeau_), apparently from the Lat. _coruus_. The spelling with _z_ (= _ts_) in MSS. F. and B. shews that the form is really _corbetts_ or _corbets_, not _corbelles_. Spenser has the simple form _corb_; F. Q. iv. 10. 6:-- 'It was a bridge ybuilt in goodly wise With curious _corbes_ and pendants graven faire.' 'A _Corbel_, _Corbet_, or _Corbill_ in masonrie, is a iutting out like a _bragget_ [bracket] as carpenters call it, or shouldering-peece in timber-work'; Minsheu's Dict. ed. 1627. Tyrwhitt explains _corbets_ by 'niches for statues'; but 'imageries' are not necessarily statues or _images_, but rather specimens of carved work. 1309. 'A bounty! a bounty! hold up (your hands) well (to catch it).' Sir W. Scott explains _largesse_ as 'the cry with which heralds and pursuivants were wont to acknowledge the bounty received from the knights'; note to Marmion, canto i. St. 11. The word is still in use amongst gleaners in East Anglia; see my note to P. Plowman, C. viii. 109. 1311. In Anglia, xiv. 236, Dr. Köppell points out some resemblances between the present poem and Boccaccio's Amorosa Visione. He compares this line with the A. V. vi. 75:--'Io son la Gloria del popol mondano.' 1316, 7. _Kinges_, i.e. kings-at-arms; _losenges_, lozenges (with _g_ as _j_). 1326. _Cote-armure_, surcoat; see Way's note in Prompt. Parv. 1329-35. Imitated from Rom. Rose, 6762-4. 1330. _Been aboute_, used like the old phrase _go about_. 1342-6. Cf. Boccaccio, Amorosa Visione, iv. 9:--'Ed in una gran sala ci trovammo; Chiara era e bella e risplendente d'oro.' 1346. _Wikke_, poor, much alloyed. 1352. _Lapidaire_, 'a treatise on precious stones, so entitled; probably a French translation of the Latin poem of Marbodus _De Gemmis_, which is frequently cite |