Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History BookThe Project Gutenberg eBook of Chaucer's Works, Volume 3 - The House of Fame; The Legend of Good Women; The Treatise on the Astrolabe; The Sources of the Canterbury Tales This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title: Chaucer's Works, Volume 3 - The House of Fame; The Legend of Good Women; The Treatise on the Astrolabe; The Sources of the Canterbury Tales Author: Geoffrey Chaucer Editor: Walter W. Skeat Release date: February 27, 2014 [eBook #45027] Most recently updated: October 24, 2024 Language: English Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45027 Credits: Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Keith Edkins and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAUCER'S WORKS, VOLUME 3 - THE HOUSE OF FAME; THE LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN; THE TREATISE ON THE ASTROLABE; THE SOURCES OF THE CANTERBURY TALES *** Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). [=a] signifies "a with macron"; [)a] "a with breve"; and so forth. [gh] represents yogh, [*e] the schwa. A carat character is used to denote superscription: a single character following the carat is superscripted (example: XIII^e). In this edition the two versions of the Prologue to the Legend are each assembled for continuous reading. Skeat's commentary on the Astrolabe (mentioned in the text as "Footnotes") has been similarly separated from Chaucer's text. Project Gutenberg has Volume VI of Skeat's edition, which contains a Glossary covering the texts in this volume. See: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43097 * * * * * [Illustration: MS. FAIRFAX 16. LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN, 414-450 _Frontispiece***_] THE COMPLETE WORKS OF GEOFFREY CHAUCER _EDITED, FROM NUMEROUS MANUSCRIPTS_ BY THE REV. WALTER W. SKEAT, M.A. LITT.D., LL.D., D.C.L., PH.D. ELRINGTON AND BOSWORTH PROFESSOR OF ANGLO-SAXON AND FELLOW OF CHRIST'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE * * * THE HOUSE OF FAME: THE LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN THE TREATISE ON THE ASTROLABE WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE SOURCES OF THE CANTERBURY TALES 'He made the book that hight the Hous of Fame.' _Legend of Good Women_; 417. 'Who-so that wol his large volume seke Cleped the Seintes Legende of Cupyde.' _Canterbury Tales_; B 60. 'His Astrelabie, longinge for his art.' _Canterbury Tales_; A 3209. SECOND EDITION Oxford AT THE CLARENDON PRESS M DCCCC * * * * * * Oxford PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS BY HORACE HART, M.A. PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY * * * * * * CONTENTS. PAGE INTRODUCTION TO THE HOUSE OF FAME.--§ 1. Authorship. § 2. Influence of Dante. § 3. Testimony of Lydgate. § 4. Influence of Ovid. § 5. Date of the Poem. § 6. Metre. § 7. Imitations. § 8. Authorities. § 9. Some Emendations vii INTRODUCTION TO THE LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN.--§ 1. Date of the Poem. § 2. The Two Forms of the Prologue. § 3. Comparison of these. § 4. The Subject of the Legend. § 5. The Daisy. § 6. Agaton. § 7. Chief Sources of the Legend. § 8. The Prologue; Legends of (1) Cleopatra; (2) Thisbe; (3) Dido; (4) Hypsipyle and Medea; (5) Lucretia; (6) Ariadne; (7) Philomela; (8) Phyllis; (9) Hypermnestra. § 9. Gower's Confessio Amantis. § 10. Metre. § 11. 'Clipped' Lines. § 12. Description of the MSS. § 13. Description of the Printed Editions. § 14. Some Improvements in my Edition of 1889. § 15. Conclusion xvi INTRODUCTION TO A TREATISE ON THE ASTROLABE.--§ 1. Description of the MSS. §§ 2-16. MSS. A., B., C., D., E., F., G., H., I., K., L., M., N., O., P. § 17. MSS. Q., R., S., T., U., W., X. § 18. Thynne's Edition. § 19. The two Classes of MSS. § 20. The last five Sections (spurious). § 21. Gap between Sections 40 and 41. § 22. Gap between Sections 43 and 44. § 23. Conclusion 40. § 24. Extant portion of the Treatise. § 25. Sources. § 26. Various Editions. § 27. Works on the Subject. § 28. Description of the Astrolabe Planisphere. § 29. Uses of the Astrolabe Planisphere. § 30. Stars marked on the Rete. § 31. Astrological Notes. § 32. Description of the Plates lvii PLATES ILLUSTRATING THE DESCRIPTION OF THE ASTROLABE lxxxi THE HOUS OF FAME: BOOK I. 1 THE HOUS OF FAME: BOOK II. 16 THE HOUS OF FAME: BOOK III. 33 THE LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN: THE PROLOGUE 65 I. THE LEGEND OF CLEOPATRA 106 II. THE LEGEND OF THISBE 110 III. THE LEGEND OF DIDO 117 IV. THE LEGEND OF HYPSIPYLE AND MEDEA 131 V. THE LEGEND OF LUCRETIA 140 VI. THE LEGEND OF ARIADNE 147 VII. THE LEGEND OF PHILOMELA 158 VIII. THE LEGEND OF PHYLLIS 164 IX. THE LEGEND OF HYPERMNESTRA 169 A TREATISE ON THE ASTROLABE 175 CRITICAL NOTES TO A TREATISE ON THE ASTROLABE 233 NOTES TO THE HOUSE OF FAME 243 NOTES TO THE LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN 288 NOTES TO A TREATISE ON THE ASTROLABE 352 AN ACCOUNT OF THE SOURCES OF THE CANTERBURY TALES 370 INTRODUCTION TO THE HOUSE OF FAME § 1. It is needless to say that this Poem is genuine, as Chaucer himself claims it twice over; once in his Prologue to the Legend of Good Women, l. 417, and again by the insertion in the poem itself of the name _Geffrey_ (l. 729)[1]. § 2. INFLUENCE OF DANTE. The influence of Dante is here very marked, and has been thoroughly discussed by Rambeau in Englische Studien, iii. 209, in an article far too important to be neglected. I can only say here that the author points out both general and particular likenesses between the two poems. In general, both are visions; both are in three books; in both, the authors seek abstraction from surrounding troubles by venturing into the realm of imagination. As Dante is led by Vergil, so Chaucer is upborne by an eagle. Dante begins his third book, Il Paradiso, with an invocation to Apollo, and Chaucer likewise begins his third book with the same; moreover, Chaucer's invocation is little more than a translation of Dante's. Among the particular resemblances, we may notice the method of commencing each division of the Poem with an invocation[2]. Again, both poets mark the exact date of commencing their poems; Dante descended into the Inferno on Good Friday, 1300 (Inf. xxi. 112); Chaucer began his work on the 10th of December, the year being, probably, 1383 (see note to l. 111). Chaucer sees the desert of Lybia (l. 488), corresponding to similar waste spaces mentioned by Dante; see note to l. 482. Chaucer's eagle is also Dante's eagle; see note to l. 500. Chaucer gives an account of Phaethon (l. 942) and of Icarus (l. 920), much like those given by Dante (Inf. xvii. 107, 109); both accounts, however, may have been taken from Ovid[3]. Chaucer's account of the eagle's lecture to |