Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookratemque'; 63. 2218. _What_, for what, why? See Cant. Ta., B 56, &c. 2220. _Naso_, Ouidius Naso. _Her epistle_, the epistle above quoted, the title of which is--'Ariadne Theseo.' 2223, 4. The story is that Bacchus took compassion on Ariadne, and finally placed her crown as a constellation in the heavens; see Ovid, Fasti, iii. 461-516; Met. viii. 178-182. This constellation is the Northern Crown, or Corona Borealis, which is just in the opposite side of the sky from Taurus. Ovid says--'qui medius nixique genu est anguemque tenentis,' Met. viii. 182. Here the holder of the snake is Ophiuchus; and _Nixus genu_ or _Engonasin_ ([Greek: en gonasin]) was a name for Hercules; see Hyginus, Poet. Ast. lib. ii. c. 6; lib. iii. c. 5; Ausonius, Eclog. iii. 2. The Northern Crown comes to the meridian with the sign Scorpio, not Taurus. We can only bring the sense right by supposing that _in the signe of Taurus_ means when the _sun_ is in that sign, viz. in April. In the nights of April, in our latitude, the Northern Crown is very conspicuous. 2227. _Quyte him his whyle_, repay him for his time, i.e. for the way in which he had spent his time; cf. Man of Law's Ta., B 584. VII. THE LEGEND OF PHILOMELA. Chaucer's Prologue ends at l. 2243. The tale is from Ovid, Met. vi. 424-605, with some omissions, and ends at l. 2382. Gower has the same story; C. A. bk. v. ed. Pauli, ii. 313. 2228. The words 'Deus dator formar_um_' are written after the title in MS. B.; and part of the first line corresponds to this expression. In MS. F. it appears as 'Deus dator formator_um_[71],' which can hardly be right. Corson has the following note:--'In these verses (2228-30) the Platonic doctrine of forms or ideas is expressed. For whatever knowledge Chaucer may have had of the philosophy of Plato, he was probably indebted to the Italian poets, with whom, especially Petrarch, Plato was a favourite.' Corson also quotes the following from Sir Wm. Hamilton:--'Plato agreed with the rest of the ancient philosophers in this--that all things consist of matter and form; and that matter of which all things were made, existed from eternity, without form; but he likewise believed that there are external _forms_ of all possible things which exist, without matter; and to these eternal and immaterial forms he gave the name of ideas. In the Platonic sense, then, ideas were the patterns to which the Deity fashioned the phenomenal or ectypal world.' See also Spenser, Hymne in honour of Beautie, st. 5. And cf. l. 1582 above. However, Chaucer here follows Boethius, De Consolatione Philosophiae, lib. iii. met. 9:-- ... 'Tu cuncta superno ducis ab exemplo, pulcrum pulcerrimus ipse mundum mente gerens, similique in imagine formans.' See Chaucer's version of the same, ll. 1-12. Cf. Le Rom. de la Rose, 16931-8, also copied from Boethius, who follows Plato. 2233. _As for that fyn_, with that particular object. 2236. _Fro this world_, i.e. from the centre of the universe; according to the old Ptolemaic system which made the earth the fixed centre of all things. _The firste hevene_, the first or outermost sphere, that of Saturn; see note to Complaint of Mars, 29. 2237. Understand _al_ (everything) as the nom. case to _corrumpeth_; i.e. everything becomes corrupt, is infected. 2238. _As to me_, as for me, in my opinion. 2241. _Yit last_, still lasts, still endures. 2243. Read--The stóry of Térë-ús, &c.; the _-y_ in _story_ being rapidly slurred over. 2244. Here begins Ovid, Met. vi. 424:--'Threïcius Tereus.' Tereus was king of Thrace; and Ovid says he could trace his descent from Gradivus, i.e. Mars (l. 427). _Marte_, Mars. Corson here notes that '_Marte_ is the ablative case of Mars, as _Jove_ is of Jupiter.' It is worth while to say that this view is quite erroneous; for these forms did not arise in that way. _Marte_ was formed from _Martem_, the accusative case, by dropping the final _m_; and, generally, the Romance languages formed most of their substantives from _accusative_ cases, owing to the frequent use of that case, especially in the construction of the accus. with the infinitive, which in medieval Latin was very common. See Sir G. Cornewall Lewis' Essay on the Romance Languages, and Diez, Grammatik der Romanischen Sprachen, vol. ii. Thus the F. _corps_ represents the Lat. acc. _corpus_, not the abl. _corpore_; as is sufficiently obvious. 2247. Read--_Pán-di-ón-es_. Pandion, a king of Athens, was father of Progne and Philomela. Cf. The Passionate Pilgrim, xxi. 395. 2249. The original Latin should be consulted, as Chaucer sometimes copies Ovid literally, and sometimes goes his own way. 'Non pronuba Iuno, non Hymenaeus adest illi, non Gratia lecto. Eumenides tenuere faces de funere raptas: Eumenides strauere torum: tectoque profanus incubuit bubo, thalamique in culmine sedit.'--428. 2253. _Wond_, wound; _aboute the balkes wond_, kept winding (flying in circular wise) round about the balks (or transverse beams beneath the roof). Three good MSS. read _wond_, which is the past tense of _winden_, to wind. Bell and others read _wonde_, explained by 'dwelt'; but this is open to two objections, viz. (1) the pt. t. of _wonien_ to dwell, is _woned_ or _wonede_, not _wonde_; and (2) an owl cannot dwell _about_ a balk, but only _on_ it. The pt. pl. _woneden_ (three syllables) occurs in the Kn. Ta. 2069 (A 2927); and we learn from the Clerkes Tale, E 339, that the pp. _woned_ rimes with _astoned_. Ovid, indeed, has _incubuit_ and _sedit_; but that does not prove much; for Chaucer expresses things in his own manner at will. 2256. This original line refers to the medieval wedding-feasts, which sometimes lasted even forty days. See Havelok, l. 2344; and the note. 2259-68. From Ovid, Met. vi. 438-442. 2261. _Saw not longe_, had not seen for a long time. 2264. _Moste_, might. _Ones_, for once; lit. once. 2265. _And come anoon_, and return again soon. 2266. 'Or else, unless she might go to see her.' 2270. 'Caused his ships to be made ready.' 2270-8. From Ovid, Met. vi. 444-450. Chaucer next passes on to ll. 475, 483. Ll. 2288-2294 are abridged from ll. 451-471 of the Latin. Ll. 2295-2301 answer to ll. 495-501; ll. 2302-2307 to ll. 488, 489; but many touches are Chaucer's own, and he is seldom literal. 2282. Read _lovede_ as _lov'de_; cf. _preyde_, 2294. This line is imitated in Kn. Ta. 338 (A 1196)--'For in this world he lovede no man so.' 2290, 1. 'And that there was none like her in (royal) array'; Met. vi. 451. _Two so riche_, twice as rich; cf. _ten so wood_, in l. 736. 2308. Cf. Ovid, Met. vi. 512. 2312, 3. 'If it might please her, or (even) if it might not please her.' 2318-22. Ovid has these images of the lamb (l. 527) and of the dove (529). 2335. This 'castle' answers to Ovid's 'custodia' (572). 2340. 'God avenge thee, and grant thee thy petition (for vengeance).' 2342-9. Cf. Ovid, Met. vi. 563-570. 2352. _Stole_, stool, frame for tapestry work. Hexham's Du. Dict. (1658) gives: '_Sto |