Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookaturn, as here mentioned, are not the gods, but the planets; and each planet had (it was thought) its peculiar influence, which was stronger or weaker according to its position in the heavens at the time of birth of the person whom it affected. The influences of Venus and Jupiter were for good (see note to Troil. iii. 1417); whilst the influences of Mars and Saturn were evil. See further below. 2585. _With_ is explained by Corson to mean 'by'; and such a sense is, of course, usual and common. For all that, it may here mean 'with.' The sense seems to me to be--'For, though the influence of the planet Venus gave her great beauty, she was (also) so compounded with a share of Jupiter,' &c. It does not make much difference, and the reader can choose. 2588. _Thoughte her_, it seemed to her. 2589. _Rede Mars_, red Mars, because the planet is reddish; see note to l. 533. Cf. Kn. Ta., 1111 (A 1969). As to the bad influence of Mars, compare the following:-- 'Allas! thou _felle_ Mars!' Kn. Ta. 701 (A 1559). 'Noght was foryeten by the _infortune_ of Marte'; id. 1163 (A 2021). 'By _manasyng_ of Mars'; id. 1177 (A 2035). ... 'that no _wykkid_ planete, as Saturne or Mars' Treatise on the Astrolabe, ii. 4. 22 (p. 192, above). 2592. Venus was supposed to have much influence in repressing the evil influence of Mars, on account of their connection in mythology. See the Compleint of Mars. Moreover Mars is here said to be suppressed by 'the oppression of houses'; i.e. by the fact that he was in a 'house' or 'mansion,' which had such effect. The terms 'house' and 'mansion' are equivalent, and are names given to the signs of the zodiac. Every sign had a planet assigned to it, and was called the 'house' of that planet. When a planet was in its own house, its influence would be felt. The mansions of Mars were Aries and Scorpio. Besides this, each planet had a sign called its 'exaltation,' in which it had the greatest power of all. The 'exaltation' of Mars was Capricornus. Mars had also his positions of least influence; two of these, called his 'fall,' were the signs opposite to his mansions, viz. Libra and Taurus, and the third, called his 'depression,' was the sign opposite his exaltation, viz. Cancer. We may conclude that, at the period of taking Hypermnestra's horoscope, Mars was in Cancer, or else in Taurus or in Libra. Both Taurus and Libra were mansions of Venus; and, if Mars was in either of these, his evil influence would be kept under by her. 2594. Probably the whole of Chaucer's astrological talk was intended to shew _why_ Hypermnestra disliked handling a knife in malice. He has made much of the weak influence of Mars, precisely because those who were born under his influence were very ready with a knife. See the note to the Kn. Ta., 1163 (A 2021), where the Compost of Ptolemeus is quoted to shew that a man born under Mars is apt to be 'a maker of swordes and knyves, and a sheder of mannes blode, ... and good to be a barboure and a blode-letter, and to draw tethe, and is peryllous of his handes.' 2597. 'She had too evil aspects of Saturn, which caused her to die in prison.' All the MSS. have _To_ (= too, excessively), except T., which has _Ryght bad_. Thynne has _Two_, but there is no authority for this, nor does it give any sense. The evil influence of Saturn is spoken of at length in the Kn. Tale, 1596-1611 (A 2454-69). Note especially l. 1599, where Saturn says:-- 'Myn is the _prison_ in the derke cote, Myn is the strangling and hanging by the throte.' 2600. Here _Egiste_ (see l. 2570) is turned into _Egistes_. 2602. 'For, at that time, no lineage was spared'; i.e. no consanguinity was considered as being a bar to marriage. 2603. _Hem_ is in apposition with _Danao_ and _Egistes_; 'it pleased these two.' 2604. Note the shifted accentuation--Ypérmistrá. Chaucer (except in l. 2660) entirely drops all mention of Hypermnestra's 49 sisters, and of Lynceus' 49 brothers. This is extremely judicious, as it concentrates the interest on the heroine. 2610. Chaucer is here thinking of Ovid, Her. xiv. 25:-- 'Undique collucent praecinctae lampades auro. Dantur in inuitos impia tura focos. Uulgus "Hymen, Hymenaee" uocant.' 2624. 'He caused men to call his daughter'; he had his daughter called to him. 2629. 'Ever since the day when my shirt was first shaped for me.' The sense is--'ever since the day of my birth.' The _shirt_ here refers, as Tyrwhitt remarks, to the linen in which a new-born babe is wrapped. See Kn. Ta., 708 (A 1566); and cf. Troil. iii. 733:-- 'O fatal sustren, which, er any cloth Me shapen was, my destenee me sponne.' 2630. Supply _I_ before _had_. Cf. note to l. 2580. 2634. _After thy wyser_, according to the advice of thy superior in wisdom.' Cf. 'Thenne doth we as the wise'; O. English Miscellany, ed. Morris, p. 79, l. 228. 'And gif yow list nocht wirk eftir the wise'; G. Douglas, tr. of Vergil, Prol. to bk. vi. l. 15. 2637. Read _Ne I_ as _N'I_. 'Nor would I advise thee to thy harm.' 2640. 'And, at the same time, I make protestation in this manner, viz. that, unless thou do as I shall direct thee.' 2653. 'I will not have any reservation.' 2655. _Y-sene_, visible; an adj., not a pp. See l. 1394; and Prol. to Cant. Tales, 592. 2660. _Siker_, secure. The use of the word is precisely like that in the well-known anecdote of Kirkpatrick of Closeburn. Meeting Bruce at the door of the Greyfriars' Church in Dumfries, he asked what tidings. 'Bad tidings,' answered Bruce, 'I doubt I have slain Comyn.' 'Doubtest thou?' said Kirkpatrick; 'I make _sicker_.' With these words, he and Lindsay rushed into the church and despatched the wounded Comyn. See Note K to Scott's Lord of the Isles, c. 1. st. 27, c. 2. st. 13. 2661. _Biker_, quarrel, altercation; also a skirmish, encounter. 2662. 'By him that I have (already) sworn by.' See l. 2642. 2666. _Costrel_, a flask, a kind of bottle. '_Costred_, or _costrelle_, grete botelle, _Onopherum_, _aristophorum_'; Prompt. Parv.; see Way's note. 'A _Costrelle_, oneferum, &c., vbi a flakett'; Cath. Angl. p. 77; see Herrtage's note. See _costa_, _costarez_, _costarium_, _costrelli_, in Ducange; and _coste_, _costeret_, _costerel_, in Godefroy. In the Craven dialect, a _costril_ is the little wooden barrel carried by reapers. 2671. 'Lest that the time may seem long to him.' Ovid alludes to the narcotic drink; Her. xiv. 42:--'quaeque tibi dederam uina, soporis erant.' Cf. Kn. Tale, 614 (A 1472). 2676. The line is too short in most MSS. Unless _sone_ be supplied from MS. T., we shall have to scan the line by putting _This_ (with a strong accent) alone in the first foot. Cf. l. 2711, and slur over the _o_ in _Lino_ before _and_. 2680. Cf. Her. xiv. 44:--'Erigor, et capio tela tremente manu.' 2681. Accent _Zephírus_ on the _i_. From Her. xiv. 39:-- 'Utque leui Zephyro graciles uibrantur aristae, frigida populeas ut quatit aura comas.' 2682. From Her. xiv. 34:--'Securumque quies alta per Argos erat.' 2683. 'San |