Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookymede (l. 23). 592. _Boteler_, butler. No burlesque is here intended. 'The idea of Ganymede being _butler_ to the gods appears ludicrous to us, who are accustomed to see the office performed by menial servants. But it was not so in the middle ages. Young gentlemen of high rank carved the dishes and poured out the wine at the tables of the nobility, and grace in the performance of these duties was highly prized. One of the oldest of our noble families derives its surname from the fact that its founder was _butler_ to the king'; Bell. So also, the royal name of _Stuart_ is merely _steward_. 597. _Therabout_, busy about, having it in intention. 600-4. Cf. Vergil's words of reassurance to Dante; Inf. ii. 49. 608. The eagle says he is Jupiter's eagle; 'Iouis ales,' Æn. i. 394. 614-40. A long sentence of 27 lines. 618. I supply _goddesse_, to complete the line. Cf. 'In worship of Venús, goddésse of love'; Kn. Tale, A 1904; and again, 'goddésse,' id. A 1101, 2. 621. The necessity for correcting _lytel_ to _lyte_ is obvious from the rime, since _lyte is_ rimes with _dytees_. Chaucer seems to make _lyte_ dissyllabic; it rimes with _Arcite_, Kn. Ta., A 1334, 2627; and with _hermyte_ in l. 659 below. In the present case, the _e_ is elided--_lyt'is_. For similar rimes, cf. _nones_, _noon is_, C. T. Prol. 523; _beryis_, _mery is_, Non. Pr. Ta., B 4155; _swevenis_, _swevene is_, id. B 4111. 623. In a note to Cant. Ta. 17354 (I 43), Tyrwhitt says that perhaps _cadence_ means 'a species of poetical composition distinct from riming verses.' But it is difficult to shew that Chaucer ever composed anything of the kind, unless it can be said that his translation of Boethius or his Tale of Melibeus is in a sort of rhythmical prose. It seems to me just possible that by _rime_ may here be meant the ordinary riming of two lines together, as in the Book of the Duchess and the House of Fame, whilst by _cadence_ may be meant lines disposed in stanzas, as in the Parliament of Foules. There is nothing to shew that Chaucer had, at this period, employed the 'heroic verse' of the Legend of Good Women. However, we find the following quotation from Jullien in Littré's Dictionary, s.v. _Cadence_:--'Dans la prose, dans les vers, la cadence n'est pas autre chose que le rhythme ou le nombre: seulement on y joint ordinairement l'idée d'une certaine douceur dans le style, d'un certain art dans l'arrangement des phrases ou dans le choix des mots que le rhythme proprement dit ne suppose pas du tout.' This is somewhat oracular, as it is difficult to see why _rhythm_ should not mean much the same thing. 637. 'And describest everything that relates to them.' (Here _hir_ = their), with reference to lovers. 639-40. 'Although thou mayst accompany those whom he is not pleased to assist.' Nearly repeated in Troilus, i. 517, 518. 652. In a note upon the concluding passage of the Cant. Tales, Tyrwhitt says of the House of Fame:--'Chaucer mentions this among his works in the Leg. Good Women, verse 417. He wrote it while he was Comptroller of the Custom of Wools, &c. (see Bk. ii. l. 144-8 [the present passage]), and consequently after the year 1374.' See Ward's Chaucer, pp. 76, 77, with its happy reference to Charles Lamb and his 'works'; and compare a similar passage in the Prol. to Legend of Good Women, 30-6. 662. Cf. Dante, Inf. i. 113, which Cary thus translates:-- --'and I, thy guide, Will lead thee hence through an eternal space.' 678. _Long y-served_, faithfully served for a long time, i.e. after a long period of devotion; alluding to the word _servant_ in the sense of lover. 681. Alluding to sudden fallings in love, especially 'at first sight.' Such take place at haphazard; as if a blind man should accidentally frighten a hare, without in the least intending it. We find in Hazlitt's collection of Proverbs--'The hare starts when a man least expects it'; p. 373. 682. _Iolytee and fare_, happiness and good speed. The very same words are employed, but ironically, by Theseus in the Knight's Tale, A 1807, 1809. The _hare_ also accompanies them; id. A 1810. 683. 'As long as they find love to be as true as steel.' Cf. Troilus, iv. 325:--'God leve that ye finde ay love of steel.' 689. 'And more beards made in two hours,' &c. 'Yet can a miller make a clerkes berd'; (Reves Tale), C. T., A 4096. 'Yet coude I make his berd'; C. T., D 361. Tyrwhitt's note on the former passage is: '_make a clerkes berd_,' i.e. cheat him. _Faire la barbe_ is to _shave_, or _trim_ the beard; but Chaucer translates the phrase literally, at least when he uses it in its metaphorical sense. Boccace has the same metaphor, Decamerone, viii. 10. Speaking of some exorbitant cheats, he says that they applied themselves 'non a radere, ma a scorticare huomini' [not to shave men, but to scarify them]; and a little lower--'si a soavemente _la barbiera_ saputo menare il rasoio' [so agreeably did the she-barber know how to handle the razor]. _Barbiera_ has a second and a bad sense; see Florio's Dictionary. 'Myght I thaym have spyde, I had _made thaym a berd_.' Towneley Mysteries, p. 144. 692. _Holding in hond_ means keeping in hand, attaching to oneself by feigned favours; just as _to bear in hand_ used to mean to make one believe a thing; see my note to Man of Lawes Tale, B 620. 695. _Lovedayes_, appointed days of reconciliation; see note in vol. v. to Chaucer's Prol. 258, and my note to P. Plowman, B. iii. 157. 'What, quod she, maked I not a _louedaie_ bitwene God and mankind, and chese a maide to be nompere [umpire], to put the quarell at ende?' Test. of Love, bk. i. ed. 1561, fol. 287. 696. _Cordes_, chords. Apparently short for _acordes_, i.e. musical chords, as Willert suggests. It is rather a forced simile, like _cornes_ in l. 698. 698. _Cornes_, grains of corn; see note to Monkes Tale (Group B, 3225). 700. _Wis_, certainly; cf. _y-wis_. The _i_ is short. 702. _Impossíble_, (accent on _i_); cf. Clerkes Tale, E 713. 703. _Pyes_, mag-pies, chattering birds; Squi. Ta., F 650. 708. _Worthy for to leve_, worthy to believe, worthy of belief. 712. _Thyn owne book_, i.e. the book you are so fond of, viz. Ovid's Metamorphoses, which Chaucer quotes so continually. Libraries in those days were very small (Cant. Ta. Prol. 294); but we may be almost certain that Chaucer had a copy of the Metamorphoses of his own. The reference here is to Ovid's description of the House of Fame, Metam. xii. 39-63. See Golding's translation of this passage in the Introduction. 730. This passage is founded on one in Boethius; cf. Chaucer's translation, bk. iii. pr. 11, ll. 98-110. Imitated also in Le Rom. de la Rose, 16963-9. Cf. Dante, Par. i. 109, which Cary thus translates:-- 'All natures lean, In this their order, diversely,' &c. 738. _That_ practically goes with _hit falleth doun_, in l. 741. The sentence is ill-constructed, and not consistent with grammar, but we see what is meant. 742. _By_, with reference to (as usual in M. E). Cf. D |