Dido, 8; which shews that he took that legend partly rfom Virgil, Aen. ii. 195. But note that Chaucer here compares a horse of brass to the Trojan horse; this is because the latter was also said to have been of brass, not by Virgil, but by Guido de Colonna; see note to l. 211. This is why Gower, in his Confess. Amant. bk. i, and Caxton, in his Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, both speak of the Trojan horse as a 'horse of brass.'

1. 211. Olde gestes, old accounts. The account of the taking of Troy most valued in the middle ages was not that by Virgil or Homer, but the Latin prose story written in 1287 by Guido de Colonna, who obtained a great reputation very cheaply, since he borrowed his work almost entirely from an old French Roman de Troie, written by Benoit de Sainte-Maure. See the preface to The Gest Hystoriale of the Destruction of Troy, ed. Panton and Donaldson (Early English Text Society).

1. 219. Jogelours, jugglers. See the quotation from Marco Polo i. 340 in the Preface; and Tyrwhitt's note to Cant. Tales, 1. 11453.

1. 224. They are very prone to put down things to the worst cause.' 1. 226. Maister tour, principal tower, the donjon or keep-tower. So also maistre strete, principal street, Kn. Ta. 2044; maister temple, Leg. of Good Women, 1. 1014.

1. 230. For slye, MS. Hl. has heigh, an inferior reading. Mr. Marsh observes upon this line-This reasoning reminds one of the popular explanation of table-turning and other kindred mysteries. Persons who cannot detect the trick . . . ascribe the alleged facts to electricity. Men love to cheat themselves with hard words, and indolence often accepts the name of a phenomenon as a substitute for the reason of it'; Origin and Progress of the English Language, lect. ix. p. 427.

1. 231. The magic mirror in Rome was said to have been set up there by Virgil, who was at one time reverenced, not as a poet, but as a great enchanter. The story occurs in the Seven Sages, in the Introduction to his edition of which Mr. Wright says, at p. lix.-The story of Virgil's tower, which was called salvatio Romæ, holds rather a conspicuous place in the legendary history of the magician. Such a tower is first mentioned, but without the name of Virgil, in a Latin MS. of the eighth century, in a passage published by Docen and republished by Keller, in his introduction to the Sept Sages. Vincent of Beauvais, in the thirteenth century . . . describes Virgil's tower; and it is the subject of a chapter in the legendary history of Virgilius.' See also the other version of the Seven Sages edited by Weber, and reprinted in Mätzner's Sprachproben, i. 254. We there find that besides the tower,

'Amiddeward the cite, on a stage,
Virgil made another ymage,

That held a mirour in his hond,
And oversegh al that lond.'

Gower tells the story of this mirror in his Confessio Amantis, bk. v. It

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occurs also in the Chronicle of Helinand, and in the Otia Imperialia of Gervase of Tilbury; Morley's Eng. Writers, ii. 126. Warton notes that the same fiction is in Caxton's Troybook, bk. ii. ch. 22. See the Preface.

1. 232. Alhazeni et Vitellonis Opticae are extant, printed at Basil, 1572. The first is supposed by his editor to have lived about A. D. 1100, and the second to A. D. 1270.--Tyrwhitt. Hole's Brief Biographical Dictionary has the notices' Alhazel or Alhazen, Arabian Astronomer and Optician; died A. D. 1038'; and 'Vitello or Vitellio, Polish Mathematician; floruit circa 1254.

1. 233. Aristotle, the famous Grecian philosopher, born B.C. 384, died 322. Writen in hir lyues, wrote in their life-time. Observe that writen is here the past tense. The pres. pl. is wryten; pt. s. wrat, wrot, or wroot; pt. pl. writen; pp. writen.

1. 238. Thelophus. Telephus, king of Mysia, in opposing the landing of the Greeks in the expedition against Troy, was wounded by the spear of Achilles. But as an oracle declared that the Greeks would require his aid, he was healed by means of the rust taken from the same spear. Chaucer may easily have learnt this story from his favourite Ovid, who says

And again—

Telephus aeterna consumptus tabe perisset
Si non quae nocuit dextra tulisset opem.

Tristium lib. v. El. 2. 15.

Uulnus Achilleo quae quondam fecerat hosti,
Uulneris auxilium Pelias hasta tulit.

Remed. Amor. 47.

See also Met. xii. 112; xiii. 171; Ex Ponto ii. 2. 26. 1. 247. Canaceës; four syllables, as in 1. 631.

1. 250. Great skill in magic was attributed in the middle ages to Moses and Solomon, especially by the Arabs. Moses was supposed to have learnt magic from the Egyptians; cf. Acts vii. 22; Exod. vii. II. See the story

of the Fisherman and the Genie in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, where the genie invokes the name of Solomon.

Glass contains two
For the latter, the

1. 253. Some said it was a wonderful thing to make glass from fernashes, since glass does not resemble fern-ashes at all.' principal ingredients, sand and some kind of alkali. calcined ashes of seaweed, called kelp, were sometimes used; or, according to Chaucer, the ashes of ferns. Modern chemistry has developed many greater wonders.

1. 256. But, because men have known it (the art of glass-making) so long, their talking and wonder about it ceases.' The art is of very high antiquity, having been known even to the Egyptians. So fern, so long ago; Chaucer sometimes rimes words which are spelt exactly alike, but only when their meanings differ. See Prol. 1. 17, where seke, to seek,

rimes with seke, sick. Other examples are seen in the Kn. Tale, see being repeated in l. 1097, 1098; caste in 11. 1313, 1314; caas in l. 1499, 1500; and fare in l. 1577, 1578. Imperfect rimes like disport, port, Prol. 137, 138, are common; see Prol. 241, 433, 519, 579, 599, 613, 811; Kn. Ta. 379, 381, &c. For examples of fern, cf. ferne halwes, olden saints, Prol. 14, and the following.

'Ye, farwell all the snow of ferne yere,'

i.e. good bye to all last year's snow; Troil. and Cres. v. 1177 (ed. Tyrwhitt). So also fernyere, long ago, in P. Pl. B. v. 440; spelt uernyere, in Ayenbite of Inwyt, ed. Morris, p. 92. Adverbs commonly terminate in -e, but the scribes are right in writing fern here; see A. S. gospels, Matt. xi. 21, for the forms gefyrn, gefern, meaning long ago. Occleve, in a poem on himself, uses the expression fern ago, i. e. long ago; Morley, Eng. Writers, ii. 435.

1. 263. For a full explanation of this difficult passage, I must be content to refer the reader to Mr. Brae's edition of Chaucer's Astrolabe, pp. 77 and 86, and my own edition of the same, p. lvi. The chief points that now seem tolerably certain are these.

(1) The Angle Meridional was an astrological term. The heavens were divided into twelve equal parts called 'mansions,' and four of these mansions were technically called 'angles'; the angle meridional was the same as the tenth mansion, which was bounded on the one edge by the meridian, and on the other by a semi-circle passing through the N. and S. points of the horizon, and lying 30° to the E. of the meridian; so that, at the equinoxes, at any place situate on the equator, the sun would cross this portion of the sky between 10 a.m. and the hour of noon.

(2) Since this angle' corresponds to the end of the forenoon, the sun leaves the said angle at the moment of noon, and I. 263 means no more than 'it was now past noon.'

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(3) The royal beast' means the king of beasts, the lion, and (here in particular) the sign of the zodiac named Leo. This sign, on the 15th of March, in Chaucer's time, and in the latitude of London, began to 'ascend,' or rise above the horizon, just about noon. An additional reason for calling Leo 'royal' is because the principal star in the constellation is called Regulus in Latin, Baoλíoxos in Greek, and Melikhi in Arabic, all epithets signifying kingly or royal.

(4) But, before the Tartar king rose from the feast, the time past noon had so increased that the star called Aldiran, situate in Leo, was now rising above the horizon. In other words it was very nearly two o'clock. It may be added, that, by the time the whole of the sign had ascended, it would be about a quarter to three. Hence Chaucer speaks of the sign as yet (i. e. still) ascending.

The chief remaining point is to fix the star Aldiran.

Most MSS. read Aldrian, owing to the frequent shifting of r in a word; just as brid, for instance, is the old spelling of bird. But the Hengwrt MS.

is right. The name Aldiran, Aldurin, or Aldiraan, occurs in the old
Parisian star-lists as the name of a star in the constellation Leo, and is
described in them as being in fronte Leonis.' The word means 'the two
fore-paws,' and the notes of the star's position are such that I am persuaded
it is the star now called Hydræ, situate near the Lion's forepaws, as
commonly drawn. The only objection to this explanation arises from the
comparative insignificance of the star, but any who will take the trouble to
examine the old lists will see that certain stars were chosen quite as much
for the sake of position as of brightness. When it was desired to mark
particular points in the sky, bright stars were chosen if they were conveniently
placed; but, failing that, any would serve the purpose that were fairly
distinct. This why, in a star-list of only 49 stars in MS. Camb. Univ.
Lib. Ii. 3. 3, such stars as 8 Capricorni, & Aquarii, & Ophiuchi, &c., find a
place. The star Aldiran (0 Hydræ) was remarkable for rising, in the
latitude of Paris, just before the splendid star a Leonis of the first magnitude,
whose coming it thus heralded. That star is also found in the same star-
lists, with the name Calbalased, or the lion's heart'; in Latin, Cor Leonis;
another name for it is Regulus, as stated above.

On the whole, we fairly suppose Chaucer's meaning to be that, before the
feast concluded, it was not only past noon, but nearly two hours past noon.
1. 269. Chambre of parements. Tyrwhitt's note is- Chambre de pare-
ment is translated by Cotgrave, the presence-chambre, and lit de parement, a
bed of state. Parements originally signified all sorts of ornamental furniture
or clothes, from Fr. parer, to adorn. See Kn. Ta. 1643, and Legend of
Good Women; Dido, l. 181.' He adds that the Italians use camera de'
paramenti in the same sense.

1. 272. Venus children, the worshippers or subjects of Venus. It merely
means the knights and ladies at the feast, whose thoughts then turned upon
love, because the season was astrologically favourable for it; cf. Kn. Tale,
1628, 1629. The reason is given in 1. 273, viz. that 'her lady,' i, e. their
lady or goddess, as represented by the planet Venus, was then situate in
the sign Pisces. This sign, in astrology, is called the 'exaltation' of
Venus, or the sign in which she exerts most power. Hence the expression
ful hye, and the statement that Venus regarded her servants with a friendly
aspect. In the Wyf of Bathes Prol., Chaucer has the line-

In Pisces, wher Venus is exaltat.'

1. 287. Lancelot, the celebrated lover of queen Guinever in the Arthur
romances. Cp. Dante, Inf. v. 128.

1. 316. You must twirl round a pin (which) stands in his ear.'

1. 318. You must also tell him to what place or country you wish to
ride.'

1. 340. The bridle is here said to have been put away with the jewels. So
also, when Richard I, in a crusade, took Cyprus, among the treasures in the
castles are mentioned precious stones, golden cups, &c, together with golden

saddles, bridles, and spurs; Geoffrey of Vinsauf, Iter Hierosol. c. xli. p. 328; in Vet. Script. Angl. tom. ii.

1. 346. Tyrwhitt inserts that after Til, to fill up the line. It is not necessarily required; see the note in the Preface upon lines in which the first syllable is lacking; p. lxiii.

1. 347. 'Sleep, digestion's nurse, winked upon them, and bade them take notice, that much drink and exercise must require repose.' Tyrwhitt supposes 1. 349 to be corrupt, but it may perhaps stand.

1. 352. By the old physicians, blood was supposed to be in domination, or chief power, for seven hours, from the ninth hour of the night (beginning at 8 p.m.) to the third hour of the day. Tyrwhitt quotes from a book De Natura, ascribed to Galen, tom. p. v. 327— Sanguis dominatur horis septem, ab hora noctis nona ad horam diei tertiam.'

1. 358. Fumositee, fumes arising from wine-drinking. See C. T. 12501; and concerning dreams, see the Nonne Prestes Tale, 103-149.

1. 359. No charge, no weight; to which no weight, or no significance, can be attached.

1. 360. Pryme large; probably the same as fully pryme, Sir Thop. 2015, which see. It must then mean the time when the period of prime was quite ended; i. e. 9 a.m. This would be a very late hour for rising, but the occasion was exceptional.

1. 365. Appalled, enfeebled, languid; not pallid, as Tyrwhitt explains it. See the Glossary; and cf. Kn. Ta. 2195; and Shipm. Tale, C. T. 13030-2:

"Nece," quod he, "it oughte ynough suffise
Fiue houres for to slepe upon a nyght,

But it were for an old appalled wyght,"' &c.

1. 373. Before the sun began to rise '; i. e. before 6 a.m., as it was near the equinox.

1. 374. Maistresse, governess; as appears from the Doctoures Tale.

11. 376, 377. Though the sense is clear, the grammar is incurably wrong. Chaucer says 'These old women, that would fain seem wise, just as did her governess, answered her at once.' What he means is- This governess, that would fain seem wise, as such old women often do, answered her,' &c. The second part of this tale seems to have been hastily composed, left unfinished, and never revised. In 1. 376, old is a misprint for olde.

1. 383. Wel a ten, i. e. about ten.

Cf. Prol. 1. 24.

1. 386. Four. The Harl. MS. has ten. There is no doubt about it, because on the 15th of March, the day before, the sun was in the third degree of the sign; on the 16th, he was in the fourth degree.

1. 387. It means— and, moreover, the sun had risen but four degrees above the horizon'; i. e. it was not yet a quarter past six.

1. 396. Her hertes, their hearts. Lyghte, to feel light, to feel happy; an VOL. II.

P