Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookguis abit; mentemque calor corpusque reliquit'; Her. xiv. 37. And, in the next line--'frigida facta.' 2686. 'Ter male sublato decidit ense manus'; 46. 2690. From Her. xiv. 55, &c.:-- 'Femina sum et uirgo, natura mitis et annis. Non faciunt molles ad fera tela manus.... Quid mihi cum ferro? Quo bellica tela puellae?' 2696. _And me beshende_, and bring myself to ruin, and perish. I know of only one other example of this rare word, viz. the example given by Murray from Cursor Mundi, l. 14838, where the Trinity MS. has: 'Allas! nu has he [gh]u _bischent_'; alas! now has he ruined you. But it is a perfectly legitimate compound from the M.E. _shenden_. All former editions give this line wrongly; they omit _me_, and read 'and be shende,' explained by 'and be destroyed.' Now, in the first place, this will not scan; and secondly, the idea of adding a final _e_ to the pp. _beshend_ (more correctly _beshent_) is a characteristic commentary on that ignorance of M.E. grammar which is only too common. Yet the final _e_ must needs be added, for _ende_ (in l. 2697) is essentially dissyllabic. Hence it follows, irresistibly, that _shende_ is not a past participle; and we are driven to see that _beshende_ is the infinitive mood of a compound verb. 2697. _Nedes cost_, by condition of necessity, i.e. necessarily; see Kn. Ta., 619 (A 1477), and the note. 2700. Supply _he_ before _hath_; cf. note to l. 2630. 2705. _Goter_, gutter, channel for water. This is an addition. The original merely has (ll. 77, 78):-- 'Quaerenti caussam, "Dum nox sinit, effuge," dixi; "dum nox atra sinit, tu fugis, ipsa moror."' 2708. _Roggeth_, shaketh. '_Roggyn_, or mevyn, or scogghyn, rokkyn. _Agito_'; Prompt. Parv. See P. Plowman, B. xvi. 78; and _ruggen_ in Stratmann. Cf. Icel. _rugga_, to rock a cradle. Prof. Napier tells me that the A.S. _roccan_, to rock, has been found in a gloss. Bell's edition has the singular and unauthorised reading _jeggeth_ (_sic_). 2709. The rest of the story seems to be Chaucer's addition. Ovid merely has (ll. 83, 84):-- 'Abstrahor a patriis pedibus; raptamque capillis (haec meruit pietas praemia) carcer habet.' 2710. _Doon him bote_, given him assistance. 2715. 'Her cruel father caused her to be seized,' lit. caused (men) to seize her. 2723. 'This tale is told for the following reason.' And here the MSS. break off, in the middle of the sentence. NOTES TO THE TREATISE ON THE ASTROLABE. The title 'Tractatus de Conclusionibus Astrolabii' is suggested by the wording of the colophon on p. 223. But a better title is, simply, 'Tractatus de Astrolabio,' or 'Treatise on the Astrolabe,' as the 'Conclusiones' only occupy the Second Part of the work; see p. 188. Indeed MS. F. has 'Tractatus Astrolabii'; see p. 233. MSS. B. and E. have the singular title--'Bred and mylk for childeren.' PROLOGUE, l. 1. _Lowis_ was at this time (1391) ten years old (see l. 18); he was therefore born in 1381, whence it is possible that his mother was the Cecilia de Chaumpaigne who, on May 1, 1380, released the poet from all liability _de raptu meo_. This is, of course, a mere conjecture. Probably Lowis died young, as nothing more is known concerning him. 5. _philosofre_; possibly Cicero. 'Haec igitur prima lex amicitiae sanciatur, ut ... amicorum causâ honesta faciamus'; Lælius, cap. xiii. 7. _suffisaunt_, sufficiently good. In the best instruments, the Almicanteras, or circles of altitude, were drawn at distances of one degree only; in less-carefully made instruments, they were drawn at distances of two degrees. The one given to his son by Chaucer was one of the latter; see Part I, sect. 18, l. 8. 10. _a certein_, i.e. a certain number; but the word _nombre_ need not be repeated; cf. _a certein holes_, Pt. I. sect. 13, l. 2, and see the very expression in the Milleres Tale, l. 7 (A 3193). 21. _suffyse_, let them suffice. 32. Repeated from Ho. Fame, 861-2, q.v. 62. 'Nicolaus de Lynna, i.e. of Lynn, in Norfolk, was a noted astrologer in the reign of Edward III., and was himself a writer of a treatise on the Astrolabe. See Bale--who mentions "Joannes Sombe" as the collaborateur of Nicolaus--"Istos ob eruditionem multiplicem, non vulgaribus in suo Astrolabio celebrat laudibus Galfridus Chaucer poeta lepidissimus;" BALE (edit. 1548), p. 152.'--Note by Mr. Brae, p. 21 of his edition of the Astrolabe. Warton says that 'John Some and Nicholas Lynne' were both Carmelite friars, and wrote calendars constructed for the meridian of Oxford. He adds that Nicholas Lynne is said to have made several voyages to the most northerly parts of the world, charts of which he presented to Edward III. These charts are, however, lost. See Hakluyt's Voyages, i. 121, ed. 1598; Warton, Hist. E. P. ii. 357; ed. 1871. Tyrwhitt, in his Glossary to Chaucer, s.v. _Somer_, has the following. 'The Kalendar of John Somer is extant in MS. Cotton, Vesp. E. vii. It is calculated for 140 years from 1367, the year of the birth of Richard II., and is said, in the introduction, to have been published in 1380, at the instance of Joan, mother to the king. The Kalendar of Nicholas Lenne, or Lynne, was calculated for 76 years from 1387. Tanner in v. _Nicolans Linensis_. The story there quoted from Hakluit of a voyage made by this Nicholas in 1360 _ad insulas septentrionales antehac Europæis incognitas_, and of a book written by him to describe these countries _a gradu .54. usque ad polum_, is a mere fable: as appears from the very authorities which Hakluit has produced in support of it.' It seems probable, therefore, that the 'charts' which Warton says are 'lost' were never in existence at all. The false spelling 'Some' no doubt arose from neglecting the curl of contraction in Som_er_e. PART I. § 5, l. 5. _the remenant_, &c. i.e. the rest of this line (drawn, as I said,) from the foresaid cross to the border. This appears awkward, and we should have expected 'fro the forseide _centre_,' as Mr. Brae suggests; but there is no authority for making the alteration. As the reading stands, we must put no comma after 'this lyne,' but read right on without a pause. 8. _principals._ It it not unusual to find adjectives of French origin retaining _s_ in the plural; only they commonly _follow_ their nouns when thus spelt. Cf. _lettres capitals_, i. 16. 8; _sterres fixes_, i. 21. 4. On the other hand, we find _principal cercles_, i. 17. 34. § 7. 4. _noumbres of augrim_; Arabic numerals. The degrees of the border are said to contain 4 minutes _of time_, whilst the degrees of the signs are divided into minutes and seconds of angular measurement, the degrees in each case being the same. There is no confusion in practice between these, because the former are used in measuring time, the latter in measuring angles. § 8. 9. _Alkabucius_; i.e. (says Warton, Hist. E. P. ii. 357, ed. 1871) Abdilazi Alchabitius, whose Introductiorium ad scientiam judicialem astronomæ was printed in 1473, and afterwards. Mr. Brae quotes the very passage to wh |