chastised (or reproved) by means of the dog.' The explanation of this passage was a complete riddle to me till I fortunately discovered the proverb alluded to. It appears in George Herbert's Jacula Prudentum (Herbert's Works, ed. Willmott, 1859, p. 328) in the form 'Beat the dog before the lion,' where before means in the sight of. This is cleared up by Cotgrave, who, in his French Dictionary, s. v. Batre, has the proverb― Batre le chien devant le Lion, to punish a mean person in the presence, and to the terror of, a great one.' It is even better explained by Shakespeare, Othello, ii. 3. 272 — What, man! there are ways to recover the general again: you are but now cast in his mood, a punishment more in policy than in malice; even so as one would beat his offenceless dog to affright an imperious lion.'

499. Ther, where. The numerous expressions in this narrative certainly shew that the falcon was really a princess (cf. l. 559) who had been changed into a falcon for a time, as is so common in the Arabian Tales. Thus, in 1. 500, the roche or rock may be taken to signify a palace of gray marble, and the tercelet (1. 504) to be a prince. This gives the whole story a human interest.

505, 506. Welle, well, fountain. Al were he, although he was.

511. Coloures, colours; and, in a secondary sense, pretences, which meaning is also intended; cf. 1. 560. On dyeing in grain, i. e. of a fast colour, see note to Sir Thopas, B. 1917.

512. Hit him, hideth himself. See Preface, p. li. The allusion is to the well-known lines-Qui legitis flores . fugite hinc, latet anguis

in herba ;' Verg. Bucol. iii. 92. Cf. Macbeth, i. 5. 66.

517. Sowneth into, tend to, are consonant with; see Prol. 307. 518. Cf. P. Plowm. B. xv. 109. Both passages are from Matt.

xxiii. 27.

537. Chaucer clearly quotes this as a proverb; true man means honest man, according to Dogberry; Much Ado about Nothing, iii. 3. 54. The sense seems to be much the same as 'You cannot make a silk purse of a sow's ear,' or 'Once a knave, always a knave.' Compare—

'Alas! I see a serpent or a theef

That many a trewe man hath do mescheef';

Knightes Tale, 1. 467. 548. The reading Troilus must be a mistake, because he was not guilty of transferring his love to another; it was Cressida who did that, so that the falcon would take care not to refer to that story. Paris deserted Oenone for Helen, and Jason deserted Medea for Glauce. Lamech was the first to have two wives, viz. Adah and Zillah, Gen. iv. 23. The whole of this passage is a recast of Chaucer's earlier poem on Queen Annelida, where Lamech is introduced just in the same way.

555. Imitated, but not with good taste, from Mark i. 7.

579. 'Whether it was a grief to me, does not admit of doubt.' 583. Such grief I felt because he could not stay.'

593. Chaucer has this expression again, Kn. Ta. 2184; Troilus, iv. 1586. It was a common proverb. Shakespeare has it frequently; Two G. of Ver. iv. I. 62; Rich. II, i. 3. 278; King Lear, iii. 2. 70.

596. To borwe, for a security; borwe being a sb., not a verb. Cf. Kn. Ta. 360, 764. Hence it means, 'Saint John being for a security,' i.e. Saint John being my security; as in The Complaint of Mars, 1. 9. She pledges herself by Saint John, the apostle of truth; see 1 John iii. 19, iv. 20. Lydgate has 'seint John to borowe' in his Complaint of the Black Knight, st. 2.

601. 'When he has well said everything, he has done (all he means to do).'

602. This is a common proverb; cf. Com. of Errors, iv. 3. 64; Tempest, ii. 2. 103; Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iii. 4.

607. From Boethius, De Cons. Phil. lib. iii. met. 2—

'Repetunt proprios quaeque recursus

Redituque suo singula gaudent.'

Chaucer translates this (ed. Morris, p. 69)—' Alle pinges seken azein into hir propre cours; and alle pinges reioisen hem of hir retournynge azein to hir nature.' A few lines above is a passage answering to 11. 611-620, which in the original runs thus:—

This Chaucer translates- And pe Iangland brid þat syngiþ on þe heye braunches, pis is to sein, in þe wode, and after is inclosed in a streit cage; alþou; þat þe pleiyng besines of men zeuep hem honiede drinkes and large metes wiþ swete studie; zit naþeles yif þilke brid skippynge oute of hir streite cage seep þe agreable shadewes of pe wodes, she defouleb wip hir fete hir metes yshad, and sekep mournyng oonly be wode, and twitrip, desirynge pe wode, wip hir swete voys.' And Chaucer repeats the example yet a third time, in the Manciple's Tale,

618. Newefangel, of four syllables, as in 1. 89 of the Manciple's Tale. The word newefangelnesse will be found in the poem of Annelida, and in Leg. of Good Wom. Prol. 154.

624. Kyte. Mr. Jephson notes that the kite is a cowardly species of hawk, quite unfit for falconry, and was therefore the emblem of everything base.'

944. Blue was the colour of truth and constancy; hence the expression 'true blue,' as in Butler's Hudibras, pt. i. c. i. 1. 191; cf. Cler. Tale, 254. Green (1. 646) signified inconstancy. Lydgate, in his Fall of Princes, fol. e 7, speaking of Dalilah, says—

In stede of blewe, which stedefast is and clene,
She louyd chaungys of many diuers grene.'

Tyrwhitt draws attention to a Ballade upon an inconstant lady, among
Stowe's additions to Chaucer's works, the burden of which is—

Instede of blew thus may ye were al grene.'

648. Tidifs. The tidif is mentioned as an inconstant bird in Prol. to Leg. G. W. 1. 154—

And tho that hadde don unkyndenesse

As doth the tidif, for newfangelnesse,' &c. Drayton uses tydy as the name of a small bird (see Nares); perhaps the titmouse.

649, 650. These lines are transposed in all the MSS. and editions, according to Tyrwhitt. He rightly says that no sense is to be got out of the passage except by putting them in the order in which they stand here. All the later editors accept his emendation.

667. Observe that Cambalo, if not inserted here in the MSS. by error, is quite a different person from the Cambalus in 1. 656 (called Cambalo in 1. 31). He is Canace's lover, who is to fight in the lists against her brothers Cambalo and Algarsif, and win her. Spenser (F. Q. iv. 3) introduces three brethren as suitors for Canace, who have to fight against Cambello her brother; this is certainly not what Chaucer intended, nor is it very satisfactory.

671, 672. Some suppose these two lines to be spurious. I do not feel sure about that; for they occur in MS. E. Hn. Cp. Pt., and others, and are not to be too lightly rejected. The Lansdowne MS. has eight lines here, which are certainly spurious. In MS. E., after 1. 672, the rest of the page is blank. The lines are quite intelligible, if we add the words He entreth. We then have 'Apollo (the sun) whirls up his chariot so highly (continues his course in the zodiac) till he enters the mansion of the god Mercury, the cunning one'; the construction in the last line being similar to that in 1. 209. The sun was described as in Aries, 1. 51. By continuing his upward course, i.e. his Northward

course, by which he approached the zenith daily, he would soon come

to the sign Gemini, which was the mansion of Mercury. It is a truly Chaucerian way of saying that two months had elapsed. I cannot believe these lines to be spurious. It may be added that they are imitated at the beginning of the poem called The Flower and the Leaf, and in Skelton, Garland of Laurel, 1. 1471.

NOTES TO THE SQUIRE END-LINK.

675. Youthe is a dissyllable; observe the rime with allow the, i. e. commend thee, which is written as one word (allowthe) in several MSS. 677. As to my doom, in my opinion.

683. Pound, i.e. pounds worth of land. See the Glossary. 688. And yet shal, and shall still do so.

GLOSSARIAL INDEX.

B=Group B. E=Group E. F= Group F.

The following are the principal contractions

used :—

M.E. Middle English (A.D. 12501485).

M.H.G. Middle High German.

=

Moso-Goth.

Gothic.

or

O.F. Old French.

Goth. Mœso

O.H.G. = Old High German.

Prompt.Parv. = Promptorium Parvulorum, ed. Way, Camden Society, 1865.

Sp. = Spanish.

Sw. = Swedish.

W. = Welsh.

The Dictionaries used for these languages are mentioned at the end of the Preface. Note also, that v. a verb in the infinitive mood; pr. s. or pt. s. means the third person singular of the present or past tense, except when I p. or 2 p. (first person or second person) is added; pr. pl. or pt. pl. means, likewise, the third person plural of the present or past tense; imp. s. means the second person singular of the imperative mood. Other contractions, as s. for substantive, pp. for past participle, will be readily understood. In the references, when the letter is absent before a number, supply the letter last mentioned; thus, under Abayst, all the references refer to Group E.

The contraction 'Mor. Gloss.' signifies Dr. Morris's Glossary to the Prologue, Knightes Tale, &c. in the Clarendon Press Series.

A, art. a; al a= the whole of a, E
1165. A. S. án, G. ein. Of the
indef. article, an is the original, a
the abbreviated form.

A ha, interj. Aha! B 1629.
A, prep. on, upon, in, by; a nyghte,

by night, B 3758; now a dayes,
now in these days, E 1164. A. S.
on, E.E. an, a.

Abak, adv. backwards, B 2017. A. S. onbæc, on the back, behind, backwards.

VOL. II.

A.

Abayst, pp. abashed, disconcerted, E 317, 1011; amazed, 1108. O. Fr. esbahir, to frighten, from bahir, to express astonishment. Abbay, s. abbey, B 1814. Low Lat. abbatia, an abbey, from Lat. abbas, father; from Syriac abba, father. Abhominaciouns, s. pl. abominations, horrible occurrences, B 88. Lat. abominor, to deprecate an omen, from ab, and omen.