Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookin Corson--'_presence_ seems to mean here presentiment or suspicion'--is due to some mistake. 2051. Only MS. C. retains _now_; and it would be better before _is_ than after it. 2056. _Yif_, if; answering to _than_, then, in l. 2059. 2063. 'I pray Mars to do me such a favour.' 2064. _Shames deeth_, a death of shame; see l. 2072. 2065. _Póvert_ occurs as a dissyllable, in Cant. Ta., C 441. 2066. Pronounce _spirit_ nearly as _spir't_. _Go_, walk about, roam. He prays that he may be punished by being made to walk as a ghost after death. A reference to the supposed restlessness of the spirits of wicked men; see Parl. of Foules, 80. But good spirits also 'walked' sometimes; Wint. Tale, iii. 3. 17. 2069. _For which_, for which cause, on which account. _Go_, may walk; the subjunctive mood. 2070. _Other degree_, i.e. a higher degree than that of page. He professes not to aspire to this, _unless_ she vouchsafes to give it him. 2072. 'May I die by a death of shame.' The _of_ depends on _deye_; cf. Man of Lawes Tale, B 819. 2075. _A twenty_, about twenty. _A_ is here used as expressly an approximative result; as in '_an_ eight days,' Luke ix. 28; so '_a_ ten,' Squi. Tale, F 383. Only MS. C. retains _a_, but it is wanted for the metre. 2082. _God shilde hit_, God defend or forbid it. 2083. _Leve_, grant. We also find _lene_, to grant, give, but it is only used with a following _case_; whilst _leve_ is only used with a following _clause_. _Me_ is governed by _befalle_. 'And grant that such a case may never befall me,' i.e. for Theseus to be merely her page. 2086. _And leve_, and may He also grant. 2089. 'Yet it would be better'; followed by _Then_ (= than) in l. 2092. 2094. The latter syllable of _profit_ comes at the caesura, and is easily read quickly. We need not change _unto_ into _to_, as in MS. A. only. 2096. _To my_, as for my. 2099. _That_, (I propose) that. _Sone_, Hippolytus. Yet, in l. 2075, Theseus was only 23 years old! Perhaps she proposes, in banter, a purely whimsical condition; cf. ll. 2102, 2120, 2127. 2100. _Hoom-coming_, arrival at home; cf. Kn. Tale, 26 (A 884). 2101. _Fynal ende_, definite settlement. 2105. _To borwe_, as a pledge; cf. Squi. Ta., F 596. 2107. To draw blood on oneself was a frequent mode of attestation. Cf. Wright's note on K. Lear, ii. I. 34; and note how Faustus stabs his arm in Marlowe's play; Act ii. sc. 1. 2120. _Servant_, devoted lover; the usual phrase. This asseveration of Theseus shews that he thought Ariadne immeasurably credulous. 2122. _Of Athenes duchesse_, (whom I hail as) duchess of Athens. That is, he promises her marriage. In l. 2127 Ariadne grows pleasant on the subject. 2128. 'And assured to the royalties (or regal attributes) of Athens'; i.e. we are secure of our future royal rank. 2130. _And saved_, and we have saved. Chaucer has _be_ just above; so that he has changed the idiom. 2132. _Emforth hir might_, even-forth with her might, to the extent of her power; cf. Kn. Ta., 1377 (A 2235). 2134. 'It seems to me, no one ought to blame us for this; nor give us an evil name on this account.' 2145. _Geeth_, goeth, goes; A.S. _g['æ]ð_. For two more examples, see _geð_ in Gloss. to Spec. of English, Part I. 2150. _By_, by help of, with the help of. 2151. _Of_, with. _Gan hit charge_, did load it. 'And they say, that having killed this Minotaur, he returned back again the same way he went, bringing with him those other young children of Athens [whom Chaucer forgets to mention], whom with Ariadne also he carried afterwards away.'--Sh. Plutarch, p. 283. 2155. _Ennopye_, Oenopia, another name for Ægina; which was on their way from Crete to Athens. Chaucer got the name from Ovid, Met. vii. 472, 473, 490; and introduces it naturally enough, because Æacus, then dwelling there, was an old ally of the Athenians; id. 485; cf. l. 2156 in our poem. Gilman suggests that Enope (i.e. Gerenia in Messenia) is meant, which is merely a wild guess. 2161. _Woon_, number. Originally, a hope; also, a resource, a store, a quantity; and hence _gret woon_ = a great number. For examples, see _w[=a]n_ in Stratmann; and cf. note to Troil. iv. 1181. 2163. _Yle_, island; usually said to be Naxos, on the supposition that it is not much out of the way in sailing from Gnossus in Crete to Attica. Chaucer has inadvertently brought Theseus to Ægina already; but we need not trouble about the geographical conditions. The description of the island is from Ovid, Her. x. 59:--'Uacat insula cultu'; &c. 2167. _Lette_, tarried; pt. t. of the weak verb _letten_; quite distinct from _leet_ or _l[=e]t_ (pt. t. of _leten_), which would not rime with _set-te_. This latter part of the story is nearly all from Ovid, Her. x. Compare, e.g. ll. 4-6:-- 'unde tuam sine me uela tulere ratem; In quo me somnusque meus male prodidit, et tu, pro facinus! somnis insidiate meis.' 2176. _To his contre-ward_, i.e. toward his country. Cf. 'To Thebes-ward'; Kn. Ta. 109 (A 967). 2177. _A twenty devil way_, in the way of twenty devils; i.e. in all sorts of evil ways or directions; cf. Can. Yem. Ta., G 782. 2178. _His fader_, king Ægeus (l. 1944). The story is that Theseus went to Crete in a ship with a black sail, in token of his unhappy fate. He had agreed to exchange this for a white sail, if his expedition was successful; but this he omitted to do. Hence Ægeus, 'seeing the black sail afar off, being out of all hope ever more to see his son again, took such a grief at his heart, that he threw himself headlong from the top of a cliff, and killed himself.'--Shak. Plutarch, p. 284. 2182. _Atake_, overtaken with sleep; cf. C. T. 6966 (D 1384). 2186. 'Perque torum moueo brachia; nullus erat'; Her. x. 12. 2189, 90. 'Alta puellares tardat arena pedes. Interea toto clamanti littore, Theseu!' id. 20. 2192. Suggested by Ovid; ll. 81-6. 2193. 'Reddebant nomen concaua saxa tuum'; id. 22. The Latin and English lines are alike beautiful. 2194. 'Luna fuit; specto, si quid, nisi littora, cernam'; id. 17. 2195-7. These three lines represent eight in Ovid; 25-32. 2198. This line answers to the first line in Ovid, Epist. x. 2200, 1. _His meiny_, its (complete) crew. _Inne_, within; A.S. _innan_. 'Quo fugis, exclamo, scelerate? Reuertere, Theseu; flecte ratem; numerum non habet illa suum'; id. 35. 2202. 'Candidaque imposui longae uelamina uirgae, scilicet oblitos admonitura mei'; id. 41. 2208-17. Paraphrased from Ovid; Her. x. 51-64. 2212. _Answere of_, answer for; 'redde duos.' 2214. _Wher shal I become?_ Where shall I go to? the old idiom. We now say, 'what will become of me?' On this expression, see _Bicome_ in my Gloss. to P. Plowman (Clar. Press Series). 2215. 'For even if a ship or boat were to come this way, I dare not go home to my country, for fear (of my father).' The reading _that bote none here come_ is nonsense, and expresses the converse of what is meant. The corresponding line in Ovid is--'Finge dari comitesque mihi, uentosque, |