Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookeven books on the Seven Sciences; see Warton's Hist. E. Poetry, ed. 1871, iii. 77. 'Book viii (l. 857) gives a hint of the true system of astronomy. It is quoted by Copernicus'; Gilman. 986. _Anteclaudian._ The Anticlaudianus is a Latin poem by Alanus de Insulis, who also wrote the De Planctu Naturæ, alluded to in the Parl. of Foules, 316 (see note). This poem is printed in Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets, ed. Wright, pp. 268 428; see, in particular, Distinctio Quarta, capp. 5-8, and Distinctio Quinta, cap. 1; pp. 338-347. It is from this poem that Chaucer probably borrowed the curious word _citizein_ (l. 930) as applied to the _eyrish bestes_ (l. 932). Thus, at pp. 338, 360 of Wright's edition, we find-- 'Vestigans, videt intuitu meliore _vagantes Aerios cives_.' '_Hic cives habitant_ supremi regis in urbe; Civibus his servanda datur _respublica_ coeli.' So again, ll. 966-969 above may well have been suggested by these lines (on p. 340), and other similar lines:-- 'Aeris excurso spatio, quo nubila coeli Nocte sua texunt tenebras, quo pendula nubes In se cogit aquas, quo grandinis ingruit imber, Quo certant venti, quo fulminis ira tumescit, Æthera transgreditur Phronesis.' 1003. _Or him or here_, or him or her, hero or heroine; e.g. Hercules, Perseus, Cepheus, Orion; Andromeda, Callisto (the Great Bear), Cassiopeia. Cf. Man of Lawes Tale, B 460. 1004. _Raven_, the constellation _Corvus_; see Ovid, Fasti, ii. 243-266. _Either bere_; Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. 1005. _Ariones harpe_, Arion's harp, the constellation Lyra; Ovid's Fasti, i. 316; ii. 76. 1006. _Castor_, _Pollux_; Castor and Pollux; the constellation Gemini. _Delphyn_, Lat. Delphin; the constellation Delphin (Ovid, Fasti, i. 457) or Delphinus, the Dolphin. 'Astris Delphina recepit Iupiter, et Stellas iussit habere nouem.' Ovid's Fasti, ii. 117. 1007. _Atlante_ does not mean Atalanta, but represents _Atlante_, the ablative case of _Atlas_. Chaucer has mistaken the form, having taken the story of the Pleiades (the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione) from Ovid's Fasti, v. 83:-- 'Hinc sata _Pleïone_ cum coelifero _Atlante_ iungitur, ut fama est; _Pleïadas_que parit.' 1021. _Up the heed_, up with your head; look about you. 1022. 'St. Julian (to our speed); lo! (here is) a good hostelry.' The eagle invokes or praises St. Julian, because they have come to their journey's end, and the poet may hope for a good reception in the House of Fame. St. Julian was the patron saint of hospitality; see Chaucer's Prologue, 340. In Le Roman de la Rose, 8872, I find (cf. note to l. 118 above):-- 'Ainsinc m'aïst saint Juliens, Qui pelerins errans herberge.' In Bell's Chaucer, i. 92, is the following: '"Ce fut celluy Julien qui est requis de ceux qui cheminent pour avoir _bon hostel_"; Legende Dorée. Having by mischance slain his father and mother, as a penance he established a hospital near a dangerous ford, where he lodged and fed travellers gratuitously.' See Tale xviii. in the Gesta Romanorum, in Swan's Translation; Caxton's Golden Legende; and the Metrical Lives of Saints in MS. Bodley 1596, fol. 4, 'I pray God and St. Julian to send me a good lodging at night'; translation of Boccaccio, _Decam._ Second Day, nov. 2; quoted in Swan's tr. of Gesta Romanorum, p. 372. See Warton, Hist. Eng. Poet., ed. Hazlitt, i. 247; ii. 58. 1024. 'Canst thou not hear that which I hear?' 1034. _Peter!_ By St. Peter; a common exclamation, which Warton amazingly misunderstood, asserting that Chaucer is here addressed by the name of Peter (Hist. E. P., ed. Hazlitt, ii. 331, note 6); whereas it is _Chaucer himself_ who uses the exclamation. The Wyf of Bathe uses it also, C. T., D 446; so does the Sumpnour, C. T., D 1332; and the wife in the Shipman's Tale, C. T., B 1404; and see l. 2000 below. See also my note to l. 665 of the Canon's Yeoman's Tale. But Warton well compares the present passage with Ovid, Met. xii. 49-52:-- 'Nec tamen est clamor, sed paruae murmura uocis; qualia de pelagi, si quis procul audiat, undis esse solent: qualemve sonum, quum Iupiter atras increpuit nubes, extrema tonitrua reddunt.' 1044. _Beten_, beat, occurs in MSS. F. and B. But the other reading _byten_ (bite) seems better. Cf. Troil. iii. 737, and the common saying 'It won't bite you.' 1048. Cf. Dante, Purg. iii. 67-69. So also Inf. xxxi. 83. 1063. _Lyves body_, a person alive; _lyves_ is properly an adverb. 1066. _Seynte_; see note to l. 573. _Seynte Clare_, Saint Clara, usually Saint Clare, whose day is Aug. 12. She was an abbess, a disciple of St. Francis, and died A.D. 1253. BOOK III. 1091-1109. Imitated from Dante, Parad. i. 13-27. Compare ll. 1106, 1107, with Cary's translation-- 'If thou to me of thine impart so much, ... Thou shalt behold me of thy favour'd tree Come to the foot, and crown myself with leaves.' And compare l. 1109 with--'Entra nel petto mio.' 1098. This shews that Chaucer occasionally, and intentionally, gives a syllable too little to the verse. In fact, he does so just below, in l. 1106; where _Thou_ forms the first foot of the verse, instead of _So thou_, or _And thou_. This failure of the first syllable is common throughout the poem. 1099. _And that_, i.e. And though that; see l. 1098. 1109. _Entreth_ is the imperative plural; see note to A. B. C. 17. 1114. MSS. _cite_, _cyte_ (F. _citee_!); but _site_ in Astrol. pt. ii. 17. 25 (p. 201). 1116. 'Fama tenet, summaque domum sibi legit in arce'; Ovid, Met. xii. 43. Cf. Dante, Purg. iii. 46-48; also Ovid, Met. ii. 1-5. 1131. 'And swoor hir ooth by Seint Thomas of Kent'; C. T., A 3291. It alludes to the celebrated shrine of Beket at Canterbury. 1136. _Half_, side; _al the half_, all the side of the hill which he was ascending, which we find was the _south_ side (l. 1152). 1152. This suggests that Chaucer, in his travels, had observed a snow-clad mountain; the snow lies much lower on the north side than on the south side; see ll. 1160 (which means that it, i.e. the writing, was preserved by the shade of a castle), 1163, 1164. 1159. _What hit made_, what caused it, what was the cause of it. 1167-80. This passage somewhat resembles one in Dante, Par. i. 4-12. 1177. _Craft_, art; _cast_, plan. _Craft_, in the MSS., has slipt into l. 1178. 1183. _Gyle_, Giles; St. Ægidius. His day is Sept. 1; see note to Can. Yem. Tale, G 1185, where the phrase _by seint Gyle_ recurs. 1189. _Babewinnes_ is certainly meant; it is the pl. of _babewin_ (O. Fr. _babuin_, Low Lat. _babewynus_, F. _babouin_), now spelt _baboon_. It was particularly used of a grotesque figure employed in architectural decoration, as in Early Eng. Allit. Poems, ed. Morris, B. 1411, where the pl. form is spelt _baboynes_, and in Lydgate, Chron. Troy, II. xi; both passages are given in Murray's Dict., s.v. _Baboon_. 'Babewyn, or babewen, _detippus_, _ipos_, _figmentum_, _chimera_'; Prompt. Parv. 'Babwyne, beest, _baboyn_'; Palsgrave. In Shak. _Macb._ iv. 1. 37--'Coole it with a bá |