Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookel-doeck_, Tapistrie, or Hangings'; lit. stool-cloth. Cf. G. _Weberstuhl_, a loom; lit. weaver-stool. _Radevore_, a kind of serge; here, the material on which tapestry-work was executed. The only other example I have met with is in a poem beginning--'As ofte as syghes ben in herte trewe,' in the Tanner MS. 346, fol. 73. One stanza begins thus:-- 'As ofte tymes as Penelapye Renewed her werk in the _raduore_, To saue her-selfe onely in honeste Vnto Vlixes, that she louyd so sore.' (Another copy of these lines is in MS. Ff. 1. 6 in the Cambridge Univ. Library, fol. 11.) Here _raduore_ is clearly an error for _radeuore_ or _radevore_, as the scansion shews. Urry's Glossary gives the following explanation: '_Ras_ in French means any stuff [it means serge or satin], as _Ras de Chalons_, _Ras de Gennes_; _Ras de Vore_ or _Vaur_ may be a stuff made at such a place.' On which Tyrwhitt remarks--'There is a town in Languedoc called _La Vaur_; but I know not that it was ever famous for tapestry.' Cotgrave gives: '_Ras_, serge'; also '_Ras de Milain_, the finest kind of bare serge, or a silke serge.' Littré cites _ras de Châlons_ from Scarron, Virg. iv.; also 'bas de soye, _raz de Millan_ et d'estame.' _Ras_, in fact, is the same as the Tudor-English word _rash_. The loss of the _s_ in _ras de Vore_ is regular, because _s_ drops before _d_ in Anglo-French, though it is preserved in _ras_ when used alone. I find, on consulting the English Cyclopædia, that _La Vaur_, in the department of Tarn, produces silk and serge to this day; so that Urry is certainly right. The whole account in ll. 2350-72 is expanded from five lines in the Latin text, 576-580:-- 'Stamina barbarica suspendit candida tela: purpureasque notas filis intexuit albis'; &c. Observe that, in l. 2360, the stuff is called 'a _stamin_.' 2359. _By that_, by the time that. 2360. _A stamin large_, a large piece of stamine. _Stamin_ or _stamine_ is usually explained as a kind of woollen cloth. Cotgrave gives: '_Estamine_, the stuffe tamine.' Godefroy gives both _estamin_, masc. and _estamine_, fem. explained by 'tissu léger de laine ou de coton.' Palsgrave has:--'Stamell, fyne worstede, _estamine_'; and--'Stamyne, _estamine_.' The Prompt. Parv. has:--'Stamyn, clothe, _stamina_.' _Stamin_ was used as a material for shirts, and was worn by way of penance; Fosbrooke explains it as 'a shirt made of woollen and linen, used instead of a penitentiary hair-shirt.' '_Stamin_ habbe whoso wule,' whoso will may have a stamin; Ancren Riwle, p. 418. Chaucer uses it thus near the end of the Persones Tale (I 1052); 'Also in weringe of heyres or of _stamin_ or of haubergeons on hir naked flesh for Cristes sake, and swiche manere penances.' MSS. C. T. A. have _stamyn_, which seems the better form; the rest (like the printed editions) have _stames_, which may be an error for _stamel_, O.F. _estamel_, used in the same sense as O.F. _estamine_. Else it may answer to O.F. _estame_, 'laine peignée, tricot de laine' in Godefroy. The fact that Ovid's word is _stamina_ is in favour of the spelling _stamin_. (Bell remarks that 'the printed copies read _flames_, which is nonsense.' He seems to have misread _stames_ (with long _s_) as _flames_. The editions of 1532, 1550, and 1561 certainly have _stames_.) 2373-82. Abridged from Met. vi. 581-605. Ovid mentions the triennial festival to Bacchus. 2379. _Compleint_ is a much better reading than the _constreynte_ of the old editions. 2383. _No charge_, of no consequence; Squi. Ta., F 359. 2383-93. All Chaucer's own. The last line is characteristic: 'unless it happens to be the case that he cannot get another,' i.e. a new love. For _non other_, old editions have _another_! 2385. Here _deserved_ is the usual Chaucerian form of the pt. tense. Prof. Lounsbury (Studies in Chaucer, i. 403) calls this a false form. But cf. _wyped_, _lipsed_ (in _-ed_, not _-ede_); Prol. to C. T., 133, 264. VIII. THE LEGEND OF PHYLLIS. Gower tells the same story in his Confessio Amantis, bk. iv. (ed. Pauli, ii. 26); and it is likely that he and Chaucer derived it from the same source, whatever that may have been. A portion of the latter part, from l. 2496, is taken from Ovid, Heroides, Ep. ii. And see note to l. 2423. 2395. An allusion to Matt. vii. 16, and to Legend VI, above. 2398. _Demophon_, usually Demophoön, son of Theseus and Phædra, who, on his return from Troy, gained the love of Phyllis, daughter of Sithon, king of Thrace. Observe that Gower says that Demophoön was on his way _towards_ Troy. 2400. 'Unless it were.' 2401. Observe that _grac-e_ is dissyllabic, as in l. 2433. 2403. 'Now I turn to the effect (the pith) of what I have to say.' 2413. _Him_ seems to stand alone in the first foot; for _were_, in this phrase, is usually monosyllabic; cf. Mancip. Prol., H 23. But it also occurs as a dissyllable, in which case the line is normal. Or else the _-er_ in _lever_ is dwelt on. 2416. 'And his rudder was broken by a wave.' 2420. _For wood_, as (if) mad, 'like mad.' _For_ is not a prefix, but a separate word; as shewn by 'for pure wood,' Rom. Rose, 276; and see Ho. Fame, 1747. _Posseth_, pusheth, tosseth. Bech observes that ll. 2411-21 are from Vergil, Æn. i. 85-90, 102, 142. 2422. _Chorus_; so in Thynne's edition; the MSS. have _Thorus_ (except T., which has _Thora_). Both _Chorus_ and _Thorus_ are unknown as sea-divinities; but I think I can guess Chaucer's authority, viz. Verg. Æn. v. 823-5:-- 'Et senior Glauci _chorus_, Inousque Palaemon, _Tritones_que citi, Phoreique _exercitus omnis_. Laeua tenent _Thetis_ et Melite, Panopeaque uirgo.' Here we find _Thetis_, _chorus_, _Triton_; whilst 'and they alle' answers to _exercitus omnis_. (So also Bech.) _Chorus_ is used for Caurus, the north-east wind, in Chaucer's Boethius, bk. iv. met. 5. 17; but this is not the purpose. 2423. _Lond_, i.e. Thrace. Phyllis, as said above, was the daughter of Sithon, king of Thrace; but both Chaucer and Gower make her father's name to be 'Ligurgus,' i.e. Lycurgus. This substitution may have been suggested by Ovid, Her. ii. 111--'quae tibi subieci latissima regna _Lycurgi_.' He is the same as the Lycurgus in Statius, Theb. iv. 386; in Ovid, Met. iv. 22, and in Homer, vi. 130; and was king of the Edoni, a people of _Thrace_. This accounts also for the introduction into the Knight's Tale of 'Ligurge himself, the grete king of Thrace'; l. 1271 (A 2129). Prof. Lounsbury (Studies in Chaucer, ii. 232) has usefully pointed out that the immediate authority for making Lycurgus the _father_ of Phyllis was Boccaccio's De Genealogia Deorum, lib. xi. c. 25, headed--'De Phyllidi Lycurgi filia.' 2425. _On to sene_, to look upon; cf. the parallel line, Kn. Ta., 177 (A 1035). 2427. _Is y-wonne_, is arrived. Cf. Æn. i. 173. 2434. _Chevisaunce_, borrowing; properly an agreement for borrowing money. See C. T. 13259, 13277, 13321 (B 1519, 1537, 1581); P. Plowman, B. 5. 249, and the note; and the Gloss. to Spenser. 2 |