Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookld not be described as red. _Greves_ is properly 'groves or bushes,' but must here mean sprays or small boughs. 231. _For hevinesse_, to save him from the heaviness and weight of gold. The peculiar use of _for_ in the sense of 'against,' or 'to prevent,' should be noticed. See the note to Sir Thopas, B 2052. 242. _Corouned_ is pronounced as _Coróun'd_. --A. 179. Notice this mention of Alcestis in the A-text. This is altered in the later version, so that the poet does not know who the queen is till l. 511, though she actually announces herself in l. 432. See note to l. 255 (B.) below. 249. _Absolon_, Absalom; remarkable for the beauty of his hair; see 2 Sam. xiv. 26. Cf. 'Absalom o ses treces soves'; Rom. de la Rose, 14074. I have little doubt that the general idea of this Ballade is taken from one quoted from MS. du Roi, à Paris (fonds de Saint-Victor, no. 275, fol. 45, recto, col. 2), by M. Michel, in his edition of Tristan, i. lxxxviii. It begins as follows:-- '_Hester_, Judith, _Penelope_, _Helaine_, Sarre, _Tisbe_, Rebeque, et Sairy, _Lucresse_, _Yseult_, Genèvre, chastelaine La très loial nommée de Vergy, Rachel, et la dame de Fayel _Onc ne furent si precieulx jouel_ D'onneur, bonté, senz, beauté et valour _Con est ma très doulce dame d'onnour_. Se d'_Absalon_ la grant beauté humaine,' &c. The refrain being, as before, 'Con est ma très doulce dame d'onnour.' 250. _Ester_, Esther; cited as an example of 'debonairte' in the Book of the Duch. 986; see also C. T., E 1371, 1744 (Merch. Tale); and the Tale of Melibeus, B 2291. 251. _Ionathas_, Jonathan; remarkable for his 'friendliness' towards David; 1 Sam. xix. 2. 252. _Penalopee_, Penelope, wife of Ulysses; see the note to Book of the Duch. 1081; and Ovid, Her. i. _Marcia Catoun_, formerly said to be Marcia, wife of M. Cato Uticensis [not Cato the Censor, as Bell says]. Bell notes that 'her complaisance, apparently, in consenting to be lent to Cato's friend, Hortensius, is the ground of her praise in this place.' Gilman refers us to Clough's tr. of Plutarch, iv. 394, where the story is given. This, however, is not the right solution. Prof. Lounsbury (Studies in Chaucer, ii. 294) points out that the reference is clearly to Marcia, _daughter_ of the same Cato, because Chaucer got the story from Hieronymus contra Iovinianum (i. 46), where we find:--'Marcia Catonis filia minor, quum quæreretur ab ea, cur post amissum maritum, denuo non nuberet, respondit, non se inuenire uirum, qui se magis vellet quam sua.' A much better example would have been her sister Porcia, the devoted wife of Marcus Brutus (Jul. Cæsar, ii. 1). 254. _Isoude_, the heroine of the romance of Sir Tristram; see Parl. of Foules, 288 (and the note on the line); also Ho. Fame, 1796. _Eleyne_, Helen, heroine of the Trojan war. 255. Note how the original refrain of this Balade, beginning 'Alceste is here,' is altered to 'My lady cometh'; in order to prevent the premature mention of Alcestis' name. See note to A. 179 above, following the note to l. 242. _Disteyne_, bedim; viz. by outshining them. 257. _Lavyne_, Lavinia, the heroine of the latter part of the Æneid; cf. Book of the Duch. 331; Ho. Fame, 458. _Lucresse_, Lucretia of Rome, whose 'Legend' is related at length below; l. 1680. Cf. Cant. Tales, F 1405. 258. _Polixene_, Polyxena, daughter of Priam, who, like Lucretia, bought love too dearly; for she was sacrificed on the tomb of Achilles, according to Ovid, Met. xiii. 448. But according to Guido delle Colonne, whom Chaucer probably regarded as a better authority, she was slain by Pyrrhus. Cf. Book of the Duch. 1071. Note also:--'Alas, your love, I bye hit al to dere'; Anelida, 255. 259. _Cleopatre_, Cleopatra; whose Legend is the first of the series below: l. 580. 261. _Tisbe_, Thisbe; whose Legend follows that of Cleopatra; l. 706. 263. _Herro_, Hero of Sestos, beloved by Leander; see Ovid, Her. xviii, xix. Spelt _Erro_, Pref. to Man of Law, B 69; whence we learn that the Legend of Hero was intended to be one of the set. _Dido_; whose Legend occurs below; l. 924. _Laudomia_, Laodamia, wife of Protesilaus; see Ovid, Her. xiii. Spelt _Ladomea_, and accented (as here) on the _o_; Pref. to Man of Law, B 71. And see Cant. Tales, F 1445. 264. _Phyllis_; whose Legend occurs at l. 2394. 265. _Canace_, daughter of Æolus, beloved by Macareus; see Ovid, Her. xi. See Pref. to Man of Law, B 78; whence we learn that Chaucer had _no_ intention of including her Legend in the set, but expressly rejected it. _Chere_, sad countenance. 266. _Ysiphile_, Hypsipyle; whose Legend occurs at l. 1368. 268. _Ypermistre_, Hypermnestra; whose Legend occurs at l. 2562. _Adriane_, Ariadne; whose Legend occurs at l. 1886. For further remarks, see my long note to the Man of Law's Tale, B 61. 270. Bell remarks that the above beautiful Balade has been often imitated; and cites a poem by Surrey with the title 'A Praise of his Love, wherein he reproveth them that compare their ladies with his,' and beginning--'Geue place, ye louers, here before That spent your bostes and bragges in vaine.' See Tottell's Miscellany, ed. Arber, p. 20. Another such poem occurs in the same collection, at p. 163; beginning--'Geue place, you Ladies, and begon'; this, it appears, was written by John Heywood; Warton, Hist. E. Poet. (1840), iii. 56 (note). With respect to Surrey's verses, Warton (Hist. E. P. 1840, iii. 33) remarks that 'the leading compliment, which has been used by later writers, is in the spirit of Italian fiction.' But it is probable that we here see Surrey's original before us. Among the beautiful songs on this theme, we should not neglect 'You meaner beauties of the night,' by Sir Henry Wotton. Cf. ll. 274, 275 below. 271. _By_, with respect to. _My lady_ is the queen Alcestis, whose name Chaucer is supposed not to know as yet. See l. 432. 277. See note to l. 186 above. 278. _Nadde_ = _ne hadde_. 'For, had not the comfort of her presence existed.' We should now say, 'Had it not been for the comfort.' Cf. Spec. Eng. Literature, pt. iii. note to § xv (_b_). l. 96. 295. _For the nones_, for the once, for this special occasion. See the note to Chaucer's Prologue, l. 379. The phrase was first explained, carefully and fully, by Price, in a note to Warton's Hist. Eng. Poet. ed. 1840, ii. 74, 75. 298. 'That bears away the prize from us all in external beauty or figure.' _Our alder_, of us all; where _our_ = A.S. _úre_, gen. pl. of the first personal pronoun, and _alder_ is a more emphatic form of _aller_ (A.S. _ealra_), gen. pl. of _all_. See Chaucer's Prol. 586, 710, 799, 823. Hence _alderliefest_, dearest of all, in 2 Hen. VI. i. 1. 28; probably borrowed from _alderlevest_ in Chaucer's Troilus, v. 576 (in vol. ii.). Prof. Corson cites _altherbeste_, best of all, from Gower, C. A. ed. Pauli, i. 106; _althermest_, most of all, from the same, i. 147; _althertrewest_, id. i. 176; _altherwerst_, id. i. 53. In Chaucer's Minor Poems the reader will f |