Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Book'; Ho. Fame, 373. 1352. Here Chaucer, having done with Vergil, takes up Ovid, who is intended by the words _myn autour_. 1354. _A lettre_, i.e. the 7th Epistle in Ovid's Heroides. See l. 1367. 1355-65. From the first 8 lines in the above Epistle. 'Sic, ubi fata uocant, udis abiectus in herbis, ad uada Maeandri concinit albus olor. Nec, quia te nostra sperem prece posse moueri, alloquor. Aduerso mouimus ista deo. Sed merita et famam, corpusque animumque pudicum quum male perdiderim, perdere uerba leue est. Certus es ire tamen, miseramque relinquere Dido; atque îdem uenti uela fidemque ferent.' IV. (PART I.) THE LEGEND OF HYPSIPYLE. The chief sources of this fourth Legend are Guido delle Colonne's Historia Troiana, Ovid's Metamorphoses, bk. vii, and Heroides, letters vi. and xii. The story of Hypsipyle is also in Statius' Thebaid, bk. v, and in l. 1437 (see note) there is a reference to the Argonauticon of Valerius Flaccus. See further in the Preface; and see the notes to ll. 1396, 1467. 1368-95. This is a Prologue to the Legend, and is original. 1371. _Reclaiming_, enticement, power to subdue; lit. a calling back. Halliwell has: 'To _reclaim_ a hawk, to make her gentle and familiar, to bring her to the wrist by a certain call. It is often used metaphorically, to tame.' Cf. 'since this same wayward girl is so _reclaimed_'; Romeo, iv. 2. 47. 1373. _Of_, by means of. _Farced_, stuffed; as in Prol. to C. T., 233. 1377. 'Where others betray one, thou betrayest two.' 1381. _Shove_, pushed forward, brought into notice; cf. l. 726. 1383. _Have at thee!_ let me attack (or pursue) thee. _Thyn horn is blowe_, the horn is blown that summons all to pursue thee; a metaphor taken from the chase. 1387. _Aboght_, bought; pp. of _abye_, which was corrupted into _abide_; whence 'thou shalt dearly _abide_ it.' 1388. _Box_, blow, buffet; now only used of 'a box on the ear.' 1389. _Et_, eateth; pres. tense. So in the Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 135, l. 10, and in Ælfric's Grammar, ed. Zupitza, p. 200. 1391. Prof. Lounsbury would read 'the goodë man that ther-for payede,' and remarks that this gives a false rime, because the preterite form _payede_ will not rime with the pp. _betrayed_. He adds--'in order to follow the reading of the one MS. that makes _payed_ a participial form, the adj. _goode_, of the definite declension, has to be shorn of its final _e_ in pronunciation.'--Studies in Chaucer, i. 405. I take _good-man_ to be, practically, one word, as in the A. V., Matt. xx. 11, so that the def. form of the adj. is not really required. And I prefer the reading _hath payed_, though it rests on the authority of one (the best) MS. only. If, however, we adopt the proposed reading, it makes no difference at all to the rime. For the pt. t. of verbs of F. origin, as _payen_, _serven_, is usually _payed_, _served_, the full ending _-ede_ (with both syllables sounded) being extremely rare in Chaucer; cf. note to l. 1119. We even have _shined_, not _shinede_, in l. 2194, in a word of E. origin. Hence there is really no fault to be found, whichever reading be taken; and the cricitism, which is quite superfluous, comes to nothing. 1394, 5. _On_, in the case of. _Y-sene_, evident; as in l. 2655. _By_, with reference to. 1396. The reading _Guido_ (in MSS. C., T., A.) where the other MSS. and the editions have _Ouyde_, is important; especially as it is correct, and gives us a new clue. The Historia Troiana of Guido delle Colonne begins with the story of Jason, and it is evident that Chaucer follows him, at least as far as l. 1461. This can easily be seen by comparing the present passage with the beginning of Book I. of the alliterative Troy-book, ed. Panton and Donaldson, otherwise called the Gest Historiale of the Destruction of Troy, which is closely translated from Guido; or else with Lydgate's Troy-book, bk. i. capp. 1-3. Gower also tells the story of Jason (C. A. ii. 236), and says that the tale 'is in the boke of Troie write.' 1397. _Pelleus_; so spelt in the allit. Troy-book, l. 104; Gower has _Peleus_. Medieval names are strangely confused. The right form is not _Peleus_, but _Pelias_. He was king of Thessaly, half-brother of Æson, and guardian of Jason. The reading _king_ gives him his title in anticipation, but is right. So also, in the allit. Troy-book, l. 103: 'There was a _kyng_ in that coste,' &c.; and Guido has 'rex' here. 1398. _Eson_ (as in Gower); Æson, the aged father of Jason. 1420. _Al made he_, although he made. 1425. _Colcos_, properly Colchis, now Mingrelia; between the Caucasus and the Eastern shore of the Black Sea. In the allit. Troy-book, it is called _Colchos_, l. 152; and so in Gower. It is not really an island, but Chaucer follows the Latin text, which has 'insula'; see note to l. 1590. 1430. _Kept_, guarded; _with_, by. Compare the Troy-book, l. 164:-- 'Thus coyntly it kept was, all with clene art, By too oxen, oribull on for to loke, And a derfe dragon, drede to behold.' 1438. _Oëtes_ (as in Guido); properly _Aeëtes_, Ovid, Her. xii. 51. He was king of Colchis, and father of Medea. 1447. 'Then should I be bound to requite thy toil.' 1453. _Argus_, the builder of the ship Argo, in which Jason undertook the voyage. The name is given by Guido (see the E. Troy-book, l. 273), by Valerius Flaccus, in his Argonauticon, lib. i. 314, and in the Argonautics of Apollonius Rhodius. 1457. As Bech points out, Chaucer here copies the remark in Dares:--'Demonstrare cos qui cum Iasone profecti sunt non uidetur nostrum esse: sed qui uolunt eos cognoscere, Argonautas legant.'--De excidio Troiae historia, ed. Meister, 1873; cap. 1. The reference is to the Argonauticon of Valerius Flaccus, lib. i., where the list of the Argonauts may be found. It also occurs in bk. i. of the Argonautics of Apollonius Rhodius. It is a dreary catalogue; or, as Chaucer says, a sufficiently long tale. There is a shorter list in Statius, Thebaid, bk. v. All the lists make much of Hercules (see l. 1454). 1459. _Philotetes_ (so spelt by Guido, see the Eng. version, p. 12, ll. 6 and 10, where the passage from Guido is quoted) was the name of the pilot to the expedition. Valerius Flaccus identifies him with Philoctetes, son of Poeas or Pæas; as he introduces him by the name of Poeantius; Argon, i. 391. 1463. _Lemnoun_, Lemnos; it is very common to quote proper names in forms resembling the accusative case. This, as Chaucer says, is not in Guido, but in Ovid; see Ovid's Heroid. vi. 50, 117, 136. At the same time it would be interesting to know _what version_ of Guido Chaucer followed; for it is a very singular fact, that whilst the story of Hypsipyle is neither in the alliterative Eng. version, nor in Lydgate, it _does_ occur, at this point, in a _Spanish_ version, printed at Medina in 1587. There the heading of bk. ii. c. x. is--'Como Iason aporto co_n_ tormenta a la Isla de Lemos, y caso con la infanta Hisifile.' 1467. _Isiphilee_, Hypsipyle, daughter of Thoas, and queen o |