Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookssus uestigia uidit in alto puluere certa ferae, totoque expalluit ore Pyramus'; 105. 830. _Agroos_, shuddered; and again in l. 2314; and in Troil. ii. 930. The infin. _agryse_ is in the Man of Law's Tale, B 614. 834. 'Una duos, inquit, nox perdet amantes'; 108. 835. This line is Chaucer's own. 842. _What_, whatsoever; 'quicunque ... leones'; 114. 847-9. 'Accipe nunc, inquit, nostri quoque sanguinis haustus'; 118. 851-2. 'Cruor emicat alte non aliter quam quum uitiato fistula plumbo scinditur, et tenues stridente foramine longe eiaculatur aquas, atque ictibus aera rumpit'; 121. With much good taste, Chaucer omits the next three lines, just as he has omitted to tell us that the trysting-tree was 'a faire high Mulberie with fruite _as white as snow_,' as Golding says. The blood of Pyramus turned this fruit _black_, and so it remains to this day! Gower likewise suppresses the mulberry-tree, but Shakespeare mentions it; see Mid. Nt. Dr. v. 1. 149. 853-61. Admirably expanded out of three lines:-- 'Ecce metu nondum posito, ne fallat amantem, illa redit; iuuenemque oculis animoque requirit; quantaque uitarit narrare pericula gestit'; 128. 859. The first syllable of _Bothe_ forms a foot by itself. So also in ll. 863, 901, 911, &c. 862-8. 'Dum dubitat, tremebunda uidet pulsare cruentum membra solum; retroque pedem tulit; oraque buxo pallidiora gerens, exhorruit aequoris instar, quod fremit, exigua quum summum stringitur aura'; 133. 869-82. Fourteen lines where Ovid has eight. Chaucer has greatly improved l. 882, where Ovid makes Thisbe _ask_ Pyramus to lift up his head:--'uultusque attolle iacentes'; 144. 887. This line is original. _Bost_, noise, outcry; such is the original sense of the word now spelt _boast_, which see in the New E. Dict. Cf. 'Now ariseth cry and _boost_'; King Alisaunder, 5290; and see P. Plowman, C. xvii. 89. Whitaker, writing in 1813, remarks that _boost_, in the sense of noise, is 'a provincial word still familiar in the Midland counties.' 894. 'Persequar extinctum; letique miserrima dicar caussa comesque tui'; 151. 905-12. Admirably substituted for Thisbe's address to the mulberry-tree, requesting it to keep its berries always black thenceforth. 913, 14. 'Dixit; et aptato pectus mucrone sub imum incubuit ferro, quod adhuc a caede tepebat'; 162. 916-23. These lines are original. With l. 917 cf. Le Rom. de la Rose, 14345:--'Mes moult est poi de tex amans.' III. THE LEGEND OF DIDO. This Legend purports to be taken from Vergil and Ovid; see l. 928. There is very little of it from Ovid, viz. only the last 16 lines, which depend on Ovid's Heroides, vii. 1-8, and ll. 1312-6, which owe something to the same epistle. The rest is from the Æneid, bks. i-iv, as will be pointed out. Note that Chaucer had already given the story of Dido at some length in his Hous of Fame, 151-382, which should be compared. He mentions Ovid there also; l. 379. 924. _Mantuan_, born near Mantua. Publius Vergilius [not Virgilius] Maro was born on the 15th Oct., B.C. 70, at Andes, now Pietola, a small village near Mantua in Cisalpine Gaul; and died Sept. 22, B.C. 19. It is said that an inscription was placed on his tomb, beginning 'Mantua me genuit.' 926. Cf. 'chi vi fu lucerna?' Dante, Purg. i. 43. 927. _Eneas_, Æneas, hero of the Æneid. 928. The late editions, for some mysterious reason, put a full stop after _Eneid_ and insert _of_ before _Naso_. The sense is--'I will take the general tenour (of the story as I find it) in thine Æneid and in Naso,' i.e. in Ovid; 'and I will versify the chief circumstances.' Roughly speaking, ll. 930-949 are from the Æneid, bk. ii; ll. 950-957 from bk. iii; ll. 958-1155 from bk. i; and ll. 1156-1351 from bk. iv. 931. 'By the craft of the Greeks, and especially by Sinon.' Sinon allowed himself to be taken prisoner by the Trojans, and persuaded them to take in a wooden horse through the walls, which he said had been made as an atonement to Minerva for the Palladium carried away by the Greeks. In the dead of night Sinon let out the armed men concealed within the horse, and thus Troy was taken by a stratagem. See Æn. ii. 57-267; and cf. Ho. Fame, 152-6. 934. The ghost of Hector appeared to Æneas, and advised him to flee; Æn. ii. 268-298. 935. The verb agreeing with _fyr_ is _appered_. 'And there appeared also so mad a fire that it could not be controlled.' See Æn. ii. 311. 936. _Ilioun_, the usual M.E. form of _Ilium_; Æn. i. 68, ii. 241, 325, 625. Ilium is only another name for Troy, but the medieval writers invented the explanation here adopted by Chaucer, viz. that it was the palace of Priam, and the _castle_ of Troy in particular. Perhaps they interpreted the word _domus_ in too narrow a sense in the passage--'O patria, O Divum domus Ilium'; Æn. ii. 241. This use of the word is invariable in Guido delle Colonne, author of the Historia Destructionis Troie, a work which was considered of the highest authority in the middle ages, though it was shamelessly copied from the French Roman de Troie by Benoit de Sainte-Maure. In fact, a long description of Priam's palace, called _Ilion_, is given in the alliterative Troy-book, l. 1629, which is translated from Guido; and in Lydgate's Troy-book, ed. 1555, fol. F 6, back, and R 5, back. See the notes to Book Duch. 1070, Ho. Fame, 158, 1467, 1469, 1477. 939. For the death of Priam, killed by Pyrrhus, see Æn. ii. 531-558. _Fordoon_, slain. _Noght_, nothing; this alludes to Vergil's 'sine nomine corpus'; Æn. ii. 558. 940. Venus appears to her son Æneas; Æn. ii. 591. Cf. Ho. Fame, 162. 942. Cf. 'dextrae se paruus Iülus [Ascanius] Implicuit'; Æn. ii. 724. See note to Ho. Fame, 177. 945. _Lees_, lost; 'erepta Creüsa'; Æn. ii. 738; Ho. Fame, 183. 947. _Felawshippe_, company, companions; 'ingentem comitum numerum'; Æn. ii. 796. 949. _Stounde_, hour, time; usually dissyllabic in M.E. 953. For these adventures, see Æn. bk. iii; which Chaucer passes over. But see Ho. Fame, 198-221. 959. _Libye_, Libya, on the N. coast of Africa; Æn. i. 158. For the seven ships saved, see the same, i. 170. 960, 1. These two lines are in no previous edition, (except my own), being preserved only in MSS. C. and P. But they are obviously genuine and necessary; otherwise, the word _So_ (l. 962) is meaningless. 962. _Al to-shake_, all shaken to pieces, sorely distressed. Cf. l. 820. 964. Æneas and Achates sally forth, Æn. i. 312; Ho. Fame, 226. 971. _Hunteresse_, huntress; i.e. Venus so disguised; id. i. 319. 'As she had been an _hunteresse_'; Ho. Fame, 229. 973. _Cutted_, cut short; 'nuda genu'; id. i. 320. The same expression occurs as 'cutted to the kne' in P. Ploughman's Crede, 296. Compare also l. 434 of the same poem:-- 'His wyf walked him with, with a longe gode [goad], In a _cutted_ cote, _cutted_ full hey[gh]e.' The editions have _knytte_, which is an erroneous spelling either of _knyt_ or of _knytted_; neither of which readings can be right. 978-8 |