Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Book2. Translated from Æn. i. 321-4. 982. _Y-tukked up_, with robe tucked up; 'Succinctam.' This settles the meaning of _tukked_ in Ch. Prol. 621. 983-93. Shortened from Æn. i. 325-340. 986. 'Phoebus' sister'; Vergil has 'Phoebi soror'; 329. 994-1001. Alluding to Æn. i. 341-410. 997. _Hit nere but_, it would only be; _nere_ = _ne were_. 998. _Al and som_, the whole matter; wholly and in particulars. 1005. _Sitheo_, so in all the copies. Nothing is commoner than a confusion between _c_ and _t_ in old MSS.; hence _Sitheo_ is for _Sichco_, i.e. Sichaeus. Sichaeus (Æn. i. 343) is Vergil's name for Acerbas, a wealthy Tyrian priest, who married Elissa (Vergil's Dido) sister of Pygmalion. Pygmalion murdered Acerbas, hoping to appropriate his treasure; but Elissa fled from Tyre, taking the treasure with her, and founded Carthage. Dante has the form _Sicheo_; Inf. v. 62. 1010. _Fredom_, liberality; the old sense of _free_ being 'liberal.' _Of_ here means 'for'; in l. 1012 it means 'by.' 1016. _Maister-temple_, chief temple; cf. _maistre-strete_, chief street (Kn. Ta., A 2902), and _maistre-tour_, chief tower (Squi. Tale, F 226). It was the temple of Juno; Æn. i. 446. 1022. 'So the book says'; Vergil says that Venus shrouded Æneas and Achates with a cloud (i. 412, 516). 1024. The first syllable of _Hadden_ forms a foot by itself; cf. l. 1030. _Ov'r al_ forms the last foot. 1025. 'Uidet Iliacas ex ordine pugnas'; i. 456. 1028. 'Bellaque iam fama totum uulgata per orbem'; i. 457. 1032. _Kepe_, care; usually with a negative; see Kn. Ta., A 2238, 2960. 1035. See Æn. i. 496, &c. Vergil likens Dido to Diana. In l. 1039 Chaucer uses _god_ in the heathen sense, meaning Jupiter. 1044-6. These lines are original. _Fremd_, strange; A.S. _fremede_. In the Squi. Tale, F 429, it means 'foreign.' 'To frende ne to _fremmed_,' to friend nor to stranger; P. Plowm. B. xv. 137. Misspelt _frenne_ (riming with _glenne_) in Spenser, Shep. Kal. April, 28, with the sense of 'stranger'; unless he means it for _foreign_. 1047-60. Epitomised from Æn. i. 509-612. 1048. _Wende han loren_, he supposed to have lost, he supposed that he had lost. 1050. _For which_, on which account, wherefore. 1059. _Meynee_, attendants, followers, lit. household; O.F. _meisnee_, _mesnee_, _meinee_. Very common in Chaucer. The derived adj. _menial_ is still in use. See l. 1089. 1061-5. From Æn. i. 613, 614. Ll. 1066-1074 are from the same, 588-591. 1075. 'Non ignara mali, miseris succurrere disco'; id. 630. 1076. The first syllable of _Lyked_ forms a foot by itself. _God do bote_, may God give (us) help! A parenthetical explanation. All former editions (except my own) omit the necessary comma after _as_. 1077-85. Chaucer here gives a general outline of the state of the case, without following Vergil's words. 1086-90. This answers to Æn. i. 615-630. 1091-1102. From Æn. i 631-642. 1099. _His lyve_, in his life, during his life. 1103-27. This passage is, practically, original. Chaucer here tells the story in his own language, and gives it a wholly medieval cast. 1104. The M.E. _swolow_ usually means 'a whirlpool' or 'gulf,' and such is Tyrwhitt's explanation. See the Catholicon Anglicum, p. 373, note 1, for examples. Thus, in Wyclif's Works, ed. Matthew, p. 97, we find--'_Swolwis_ of the see and _helle_, that resceyuen al that thei may and [gh]elden not a[gh]en.' Very rarely, it is used of an open mouth; thus in Allit. Poems, ed. Morris, iii. 250, it is said that the whale 'opened his _swol[gh]_' to engulf Jonah. Hence, probably, arose the suggestion in Bell's note, that the reference is to the open mouth of hell, as represented in medieval drawings. Nevertheless, I believe Tyrwhitt is right; though either sense will serve. It is the mod. E. _swallow_, used as a sb. Cf. Dante, Inf. xxxiv. 137-9. 1106. _Parements_, ornaments; probably hangings. Cf. 'chambre of parementz' in Squi. Ta., F 269, and Tyrwhitt's note, quoted in my note to the line. In the Kn. Ta., A 2501, _paramentz_ means 'rich clothes.' See Æn. i. 637-9. 1107. For _ornaments_, which is preserved in MSS. C. and T. only, the other MSS. and all the old editions have the odd reading _pavements_, which is strangely out of place. I think it clear that this arose from a repetition of the word _parements_, which was afterwards turned into _pavements_ by way of desperate emendation. The letters _v_ and _r_ are often somewhat alike, and have been mistaken for one another, as shewn in my paper on 'ghost-words' in the Phil. Soc. Transactions, 1886. 1109. The MSS. (except T.) and the black-letter editions have _he_. Morris's, Bell's, and Corson's editions have _she_, which gives no sense, and will not suit l. 1111. I do not undertake to notice all the vagaries of the various editions, as the readings of the MSS. are so much more satisfactory. In the present case, I suppose that _she_ is a mere misprint in Bell, preserved in the editions that follow him. _Sete_ is short for _seten_, the usual M.E. pp. of _sitten_, to sit; see Kn. Ta., A 1452. It answers to the A.S. pp. _seten_, with short _e_. The _e_ in _mete_ was also short in A.S.; hence the rime is perfect. 1110. Cf. Squi. Ta., F 294--'The spyces and the wyn is come anon.' This refers to the custom of serving wine mixed with spices to the guests before going to rest; see a long note in Warton, Hist. E. Poetry, ed. 1840, i. 178 (on the word _piment_); Weber's note on King Alisaunder, 4178; and Our English Home, p. 85. 1114. The first syllable _Ther_ probably constitutes the first foot of the line. I believe Chaucer accents _courser_ on the former syllable; see Kn. Ta., A 1502, 1704; Squi. Ta., F 195, 310. 1117. _Fretted_, adorned; not 'fraught,' as in Corson's note. 1119. _Shynedè_; trisyllabic; in MS. C. only; rest, _shyned_, _shyneth_, which will not scan. Cf. _lakkedè_, Prol. 756; _knokkeden_, Compl. Mars, 84. Line 2194 has _shinèd_, and l. 1428 has _shoon_. _Shynede_ occurs in _both_ the Wycliffite versions of Luke ii. 9; and is therefore an old form. We still have _shined_ as a pt. t. in Ezek. xliii. 2, Acts ix. 3, xii. 7. 1120. 'Nor gentle high-flying falcon for striking herons.' Chaucer has _gentil faucon_ in his Parl. of Foules, 337. Cotgrave, s.v. _haultain_, has:--'_Faulcon haultain_, a high-flying hawke.' _Heronere_ means 'used for flying at herons'; only the best hawks would serve for this. 1122. _Y-bete_, in the Knight's Ta., A 979, means 'ornamented with beaten gold,' or with gold flattened out by the hammer (F. _or batu_). It might mean 'ornamented by means of the hammer'; but as 'new florins' can hardly be said to be used for decorating cups, it seems best to take _with_ in the sense of 'as well as'; in which case _florins newe y-bete_ means 'florins newly struck.' The allusion to _florins_ is curious; see note to P. Plowman, B. iii. 45. Cf. Æn, i. 640--'Ingens argentum mensis, caelataque in auro Fortia facta patrum.' 1128-35. From Æn. i. 643-656. 1135. _Take_, |