is meant to translate the Lat. pugio, a poniard. In Barbour's Bruce, i. 545, Caesar is said to have been slain with a weapon which in one edition is called a punsoun, in another a botkin, and in the Edinburgh MS. a pusoune, perhaps an error for punsoune, since Halliwell's Dictionary gives the form punchion. Hamlet uses bodkin for a dagger; Act iii. Sc. 1. 1. 76. In the margin of Stowe's Chronicle, ed. 1614, it is said that Caesar was slain with bodkins; Nares' Glossary. Nares also quotes-'The chief woorker of this murder was Brutus Cassius, with 260 of the senate, all having bodkins in their sleeves'; Serp. of division, prefixed to Gorboduc, 1590.

1. 3909. Recomende, commit. He means that he commits the full telling of the story to Lucan, &c. In other words, he refers the reader to those authors.

Lucan (born A.D. 39, died A.D. 65) was the author of the Pharsalia, an incomplete poem in ten books, narrating the struggle between Pompey and Caesar. There is an English translation of it by Rowe.

Suetonius Tranquillus (born about A.D. 70) wrote several works, the principal of which is The Lives of the Twelve Caesars.

Valerius. There were two authors of this name, (1) Valerius Flaccus, author of a poem on the Argonautic expedition, and (2) Valerius Maximus, author of De Factis Dictisque Memorabilibus Libri ix. Mr. Bell says that Valerius Flaccus is meant here, I know not why. Surely the reference is to Valerius Maximus, who has at least a passing reference to Caesar; lib. vii. cap. 6.

1. 3911. Ord and ende, beginning and end. Tyrwhitt notes that the suggested emendation of ord for word was proposed by Dr. Hickes, in his Anglo-Saxon Grammar, p. 70. Hickes would make the same emendation in Troil. and Cres. v. 1683;

'And of this broche he told him ord and ende,' where the editions have word. He also cites the expression ord and ende from Caedmon; see Thorpe's edition, p. 225, 1. 30. We also find from orde oð ende = from beginning to end, in the poem of Elene (Vercelli MS.) ed. Grein, 1. 590. Ord and ende occurs also at a later period, in the Ormulum, l. 6775; and still later, in Floriz and Blancheflur, 1. 47, ed. Lumby, in the phrase,

'Ord and ende he hap him told

Hu blauncheflur was parinne isold.'

Tyrwhitt argues that perhaps Chaucer may himself have mistaken the true spelling of the phrase; but perhaps we may put down the error to the scribes. If conjectural emendation be admissible in rare cases, this seems one where there need be little hesitation in restoring the true text. Orde and end explains our modern odds and ends; see Garnett's Essays, p. 37.

CROESUS.

1. 3917. Cresus; king of Lydia, B.C. 560-546, defeated by Cyrus at Sardis. Cyrus spared his life, and Croesus actually survived his benefactor. Chaucer, however, brings him to an untimely end. The story of Croesus is in Boccaccio, De Casibus Virorum, lib. iii. cap. 20. See also Herodotus, lib. 1; Plutarch's life of Solon, &c. But Boccaccio represents Croesus as surviving his disgraces. Tyrwhitt says that the story seems to have been taken from the Roman de la Rose, ll. 6312-6571 (ed. Méon); where the English Romaunt of the Rose is defective. In Chaucer's translation of Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 2, ed. Morris, p. 35, we find this sentence. "Wost [knowest] pou not how Cresus, king of lyndens (sic), of whiche kyng Cirus was ful sore agast a litel byforne, þat þis rewlyche [pitiable] Cresus was cau3t of [by] Cirus, and lad to þe fijr to be brent; but þat a reyne descendede doun from heuene, þat rescowede him?' In the House of Fame, bk. i. l. 104-6, we have an allusion to the 'avision' [vision, dream] of

'Cresus, that was king of Lide,

That high upon a gibbet dide.'

See also Nonne Pr. Ta. 1. 318. The tragic version of the fate of Croesus is given by Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Historiale, iii. 17; and I give a long extract, as it seems to be the account which is followed in the Roman de la Rose. It must be premised that Vincent makes Croesus to have been taken prisoner by Cyrus three times.

'Alii historiographi narrant, quod in secunda captione, iussit cum Cyrus rogo superponi et assari, et subito tanta pluuia facta est, vt eius immensitate ignis extingueretur, vnde occasionem repperit euadendi. Cumque postea hoc sibi prospere euenisse gloriaretur, et opum copia nimium se iactaret, dictum est ei a Solone quodam sapientissimo, non debere quemquam in diuitiis et prosperitate gloriari. Eadem nocte uidit in somnis quod Jupiter eum aqua perfunderet, et sol extergeret. Quod cum filiae suae mane indicasset, illa (vt res se habebat) prudenter absoluit, dicens: quod cruci esset affigendus et aqua perfundendus et sole siccandus. Quod ita demum contigit, nam postea a Cyro crucifixus est.' Compare the few following lines from the Roman de la Rose, with 11. 3934-8 and 1. 3948—

'Jupiter, ce dist, le lavoit,

Et Phebus la toaille avoit,

Et se penoit de l'essuier . .
Bien le dist Phanie sa fille,

Qui tant estoit sage et soutille,' &c.

1. 3951. The passage here following is repeated from the Monkes Prologue, and copied, as has been said, from Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 2. It is to be particularly noted that the passage quoted from Boethius in the note to 1. 3917 almost immediately precedes the passage quoted in the note to l. 3163.

1. 3956. See note to 1. 3972 below.

NOTES TO THE NONNE PRESTES PROLOGUE.

1. 3957. The knight. See the description of him, Prol. 1. 43.

1. 3961. For me, for myself, for my part. Cp. the phrase 'as for me.'-M. 1. 3970. By the bell of Saint Paul's church (in London).'

1. 3972. The host alludes to the concluding lines of the Monkes Tale, 1. 3956, then repeats the words no remedie from 1. 3183, and cites the word biwaille from 1. 3952. Compare all these passages.

1. 3982. Piers. We must suppose that the host had by this time learnt the monk's name. In 1. 3120 above, he did not know it.

1. 3984. Where it not for the ringing of your bells'; lit. were there not a clinking of your bells (all the while). Anciently no person seems to have been gallantly equipped on horseback, unless the horse's bridle or some other part of the furniture was stuck full of small bells. Vincent of Beauvais, who wrote about 1264, censures this piece of pride in the knights-templars; Hist. Spec. lib. xxx. c. 85'; &c.-Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry (ed. Hazlitt), ii. 160; i. 264. See also note to Prol. 1. 170.

1. 3990. Ubi auditus non est, non effundas sermonem'; Ecclus. xxxii. 6. (Vulgate); the A. V. is different. The common proverb, Keep your breath to cool your broth,' nearly expresses what Chaucer here intends. 1. 3993. Substance is explained by Tyrwhitt to mean 'the material part of a thing.' Chaucer's meaning seems not very different from Shakespeare's

in Love's La. Lost, v. 2. 871

'A jest's prosperity lies in the ear

Of him that hears it; never in the tongue

Of him that makes it.'

1. 3995. For the propriety of this remark, see note to Prol. 1. 166'; Tyrwhitt.

1. 4000. Sir; 'The title of Sir was usually given, by courtesy, to priests, both secular and regular'; Tyrwhitt. Tyrwhitt also remarks that, 'in the principal modern languages, John, or its equivalent, is a name of contempt or at least of slight. So the Italians use Gianni, from whence Zani [Eng. zany]; the Spaniards Juan, as Bobo Juan, a foolish John; the French Jean, with various additions.' The reason (which Tyrwhitt failed to see) is simply that John is one of the commonest of common names. For example, twenty-three popes took that name; and cf. our phrase John Bull, which answers to the French Jean Crapaud, and the Russian Ivan Ivanovitch, 'the embodiment of the peculiarities of the Russian people'; Wheeler's Noted Names of Fiction. Ivan Ivanovitch would be John Johnson in English and Evan Evans in Welsh.

1. 4004. Serue is two syllables. Rek, in the Harl. MS., is more correct than rekke of the other MS. The 2nd pers. imper. sing. exhibits the stem of a verb, without addition. A bene, the value of a bean; in the Milleres Tale

a kers (i. e. a blade of grass) occurs in a similar manner; which has been corrupted into 'not caring a curse'!

1. 4006. Ye, yea, is a mild form of assent; yis is a stronger form, generally followed, as here, by some form of asseveration. See note to l. 1900 above. 1. 4008. Attamed, commenced, begun. The Lat. attaminare and Low Lat. intaminare are equivalent to contaminare, to contaminate, soil, spoil. From Low Lat. intaminare comes the French entamer, to cut into, attack, enter upon, begin. From attaminare comes the O. E. attame or atame, with a similar sense. The notion of beginning is taken from that of cutting into a joint of meat or of broaching or opening a cask. This is well shown by the use of the word in Piers the Plowman, B. xvii. 68, where it is said of the Good Samaritan in the parable that he 'breyde to his boteles, and bothe he atamede'; i. e. he went hastily to his two bottles, of wine and oil, and broached or opened them both. So here, the priest broached, opened, or began his tale.

NOTES TO THE CLERKES PROLOGUE.

1. 1. Clerk. See the description of him, Prol. I. 285.

1. 3. Were newe spoused, who should be (i. e. is) newly wedded.

1. 6. See Eccles. iii. I;

To every thing there is a season,' &c.

1. 7. As beth, pray be. The word as, nearly equivalent to ‘I pray,' is sometimes used thus with the imperative mood. Since as is short for al-so, it means literally even so, just so. Cp. as keep, Kn. Ta. 1444; as sende, id. 1459; as doth, Sq. Ta. 458; 'as beth not wroth with me'; Troil. and Cress. v. 145; as go we seene,' i. e. pray let us go to see, id. 523; see also Cant. Ta. 1. 3775 (ed. Tyrwhitt). See Mätzner, Engl. Gram. ii. 2. 505. 1. 18. Hy style, lofty, learned, somewhat pedantic style; see l. 41.

1. 22. Yerde, control, governance; lit. yard, rod; so we say 'under the rod.' This expression occurs also in the Shipman's Tale.

1. 27. Padowe, Padua, in the N. E. of Italy. Petrarch resided at Arqua, two miles from Padua. He died July 18, 1374. See note m, p. x, of Dr. Morris's edition of the Prologue, &c. I cannot see the slightest reason for supposing Chaucer to have told a deliberate and unnecessary falsehood. Supposing that Petrarch did not write out his Latin version of the story till June 1373, we may still take Chaucer's words literally, that he first learnt or heard the story from Petrarch himself, and not long afterwards translated it from a MS. copy. See Preface, p. xxix.

1. 33. Of poetrye, with his poetry. Of is similarly used in l. 34.

1. 34. Linian; the canonist Giovanni di Lignano, once illustrious, now forgotten, though several works of his remain. He was made Professor of Canon Law at Bologna in 1363, and died at Bologna in 1383'; Morley's English Writers, ii. 322. Tyrwhitt first pointed out the person here alluded to, and says—there is some account of him in Panzirolus, de Cl. Leg.

Interpret. l. iii. c. xxv. Joannes, a Lignano, agri Mediolanensis vico oriundus, et ob id Lignanus dictus, &c. One of his works, entitled Tractatus de Bello, is extant in MS. Reg. 13 B. ix [Brit. Mus.]. He composed it at Bologna in the year 1360. He was not however a mere lawyer. Chaucer speaks of him as excelling in philosophy, and so does his epitaph in Panzirolus. The only specimen of his philosophy that I have met with is in MS. Harl. 1006. It is an astrological work, entitled Conclusiones Judicii composite per Domnum Johannem de Lyniano super coronacione Domni Urbani Pape VI. A. D. 1378,' &c. Lignano is here said to be near Milan, and to have been the lawyer's birthplace. In 1. 38, Chaucer speaks of his death, shewing that Chaucer wrote this prologue later than 1383.

1. 43. Proheme, proem, introduction. Petrarch's treatise (taken from Boccaccio's Decamerone, Day x, Novel 10) is entitled 'De obedientia ac fide uxoria Mythologia.' It is preceded by a letter to Boccaccio, but this is not here alluded to. What Chaucer means is the first section of the tale itself, which begins thus:-'Est ad Italiae latus occiduum Vesulus, ex Apennini iugis mons unus altissimus... Padi oratu nobilissimus, qui eius a latere fonte lapsus exiguo orientem contra solem fertur, mirisque mox tumidus incrementis... Liguriam gurgite uiolentus intersecat; dehinc Aemiliam, atque Flaminiam, Venetiamque discriminans. . . in Adriaticum mare descendit.' Pemond, Piedmont. Saluces, Saluzzo, S. of Turin. Vesulus, Monte Viso. See the description of the route from Mont Dauphin to Saluzzo, by the Col de Viso, in Murray's Guide to Switzerland and Piedmont.

1. 51. To Emelward, towards Aemilia. Tyrwhitt says-One of the regions of Italy was called Aemilia, from the via Aemilia, which crossed it from Placentia [Piacenza] to Rimini. Placentia stood upon the Po. Pitiscus, Lex. Ant. Rom. in v. Via Aemilia. Petrarch's description. . . is a little different.' See note above. Ferrare, Ferrara, on the Po, not far from its mouth. Venyse, rather the Venetian territory than Venice itself.

1. 54. It seems to me a thing irrelevant, excepting that he wishes to introduce his story'; or it may mean, 'impart his information.'

NOTES TO THE CLERKES TALE,

1. 57. In many places this story is translated from Petrarch almost word for word; and as Tyrwhitt remarks, it would be endless to cite illustrative passages from the original Latin. The first stanza is praised by Professor Lowell, in his Study Windows, p. 208, where he says 'What a sweep of vision is here!' Chaucer is not quite so close a translator here as usual; the passage in Petrarch being-'Inter caetera ad radicem Vesuli, terra Salutiarum, uicis et castellis satis frequens, Marchionum arbitrio nobilium quorundum regitur uirorum.'

1. 82. Leet he slyde, he allowed to pass unattended to, neglected. So we find 'Let the world slide'; Induction to Taming of the Shrew, 1. 5. See