932. Eyrish bestes, aerial animals; alluding to the signs of the zodiac, such as the Ram, Bull, Lion, Goat, Crab, Scorpion, &c.; and to other constellations, such as the Great Bear, Eagle, Swan, Pegasus, &c. Chaucer himself explains that the zodiak is cleped the cercle of the signes, or the cercle of the bestes; for zodia in langage of Greek sowneth bestes in Latin tonge'; Astrolabe, Part I, § 21, 1. 37. Cf. 'beasts' in Rev. iv. 6. The phrase recurs in l. 965 below; see also Il. 1003-7. 934. Goon, march along, walk on, like the Ram or Bull; flee, Aly like the Eagle or Swan. He alludes to the apparent revolution of the heavens round the earth. 936. Galaxye, galaxy, or milky way, formed by streaks of closely crowded stars; already mentioned in the Parl. of Foules, 56; see note to the same, 1. 50. Cary, in a note to Dante, Parad. xxv. 18, says that Dante, in the Convito, p. 74, speaks of la galassia-the galaxy, that is, the white circle which the common people call the way of St. James'; on which Biscioni remarks:-'The common people formerly considered the milky way as a sign by night to pilgrims, who were going to St. James of Galicia; and this perhaps arose from the resemblance of the word galaxy to Galicia; [which may be doubted]. I have often,' he adds, 'heard women and peasants call it the Roman road, la strada di Roma! The fact is simply, that the Milky Way looks like a sort of road or street; hence the Lat. name uia lactea, as in Ovid, Metam. i. 168. Hence also the Roman peasants called it strada di Roma; the pilgrims to Spain called it the road to Santiago (Quarterly Review, Oct. 1873, p. 464); and the English called it the Walsingham way, owing to this being a route much frequented by pilgrims, or else Watling-street, which was a famous old road, and probably ran (not as usually said, from Kent to Cardigan Bay, but) from Kent to the Frith of Forth; see Annals of England, p. 6. The name of Vatlant Streit (Watling Street) is given to the milky way in the Complaint of Scotland, ed. Murray, p. 58; and G. Douglas calls it Watling Streit in his translation of Vergil, Æn. iii. 516, though there is no mention of it in the original; see Small's edition of the Works of G. Douglas, vol. ii. p. 151. And again, it is called Wadlyng Strete in Henrysoun's Traite of Orpheus; see Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary. So also: 'Galaxia, that is Watling-Strete'; Batman on Bartholome, lib. viii. c. 33. See my note to P. Plowman, C. i. 52; Florence of Worcester, sub anno 1013; Laws of Edward the Confessor, cap. 12; Towneley Myst., p. 308; Cutts, Scenes, &c. of the Middle Ages, p. 178; Grimm's Mythology, tr. by Stallybras, i. 357. 942. Gower also relates this story (Conf. Amant. ii. 34), calling the sun Phebus, and his son Pheton, and using carte in the sense of chariot,' as Chaucer does. Both copy from Ovid, Metam. ii. 32-328. 944. Cart-hors, chariot-horses (plural). There were four horses, named Pyroeïs, Eous, Aethon, and Phlegon; Met. ii. 153. Hence gonne and beren are in the plural form; cf. l. 952. 948. Scorpioun, the well-known zodiacal constellation and sign; called Scorpius in Ovid, Met. ii. 196. 972. Boece, Boethius. He refers to the passage which he himself thus translates: 'I have, forsothe, swifte fetheres that surmounten the heighte of the hevene. Whan the swifte thought hath clothed it-self in tho fetheres, it dispyseth the hateful erthes, and surmounteth the roundnesse of the greet ayr; and it seeth the cloudes behinde his bak'; bk. iv. met. 1. Hence, in l. 973, Ten Brink (Studien, p. 186) proposes to read-'That wryteth, Thought may flee so hye.' 981, 2. Imitated from 2 Cor. xii. 2. 985. Marcian. Cf. C. T., E 1732 (March. Tale) : 'Hold thou thy pees, thou poete Marcian, That wrytest us that ilke wedding murie Martianus Minneus Felix Capella was a satirist of the fifth century, 'Vestigans, videt intuitu meliore vagantes Hic cives habitant supremi regis in urbe; Civibus his servanda datur respublica coeli.' So again, 11. 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 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 Maior 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 Pleione cum coelifero Atlante iungitur, ut fama est; Pleïadasque 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 1. 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. 6 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 1. 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 ; 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. 1063. Lyves body, a person alive; 1066. Seynte; see note to l. 573. Saint Clare, whose day is Aug. 12. St. Francis, and died A. D. 1253. So also Inf. xxxi. 83. BOOK III. 1091-1109. Imitated from Dante, Parad. i. 13-27. Compare 11. 1106, 1107, with Cary's translation 'If thou to me of thine impart so much, ... Thou shalt behold me of thy favour'd tree And compare 1. 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 1. 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 1. 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 (1. 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 1. 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 (0. 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. I. 37'Coole it with a báboones blood'—the accent on the a is preserved. The other spellings are inferior or false. 1192. Falle, pres. pl., fall; (or perhaps fallen, the past participle). 1194. Habitacles, niches; such as those which hold images of saints on the buttresses and pinnacles of our cathedrals. They are described as being al withoute, all on the outside. 1196. Ful the castel, the castle (being) full, on all sides. This line is parenthetical. 1197. Understand Somme, some, as nom. to stoden. 'In which stood... (some) of every kind of minstrels.' So in l. 1239. As to minstrels, &c., see note to Sir Topas (B 2035). 1203. Orpheus, the celebrated minstrel, whose story is in Ovid, Met. x. 1-85; xi. 1-66. Chaucer again mentions him in C. T., E 1716; and in Troil. iv. 791. 1205. Orion; so in all the copies; put for Arion. His story is in Ovid, Fasti, ii. 79-118. Spelt Arione in Gower, Conf. Amant. (end of prologue), ed. Pauli, i. 39. We might read Arion here; see 1. 1005. 1206. Chiron; called Chiro in Gower, C. A. ii. 67 (bk. iv). Chiron, the centaur, was the tutor of Achilles; and Achilles, being the grandson of Æacus, was called Æacides; Ovid, Met. xii. 82; Fasti, v. 390. Hence Eacides is here in the genitive case; and Eacides Chiron means 'Achilles' Chiron,' i. e. Chiron, tutor of Achilles. In fact, the phrase is copied from Ovid's Eacida Chiron, Art of Love, i. 17. Another name for Chiron is Phillyrides; Ovid, Art of Love, i. 11; or Philyrides; Verg. Georg. iii. 550; cf. Ovid, Fasti, v. 391. In a similar way, Chaucer calls the paladin Oliver, friend of Charles the Great, by the name of Charles Olyuer; Monkes Tale, B 3577. 1208. Bret, Briton, one of the British. This form is quite correct, being the A. S. Bret, a Briton (see A. S. Chronicle, an. 491), commonly used in the pl. Brettas. This correct spelling occurs in MS. B. only; MS. P. turns it into Bretur, Th. and Cx. read Briton, whilst MS. F. turns Bret into gret, by altering the first letter. The forms gret and Bretur are clearly corruptions, whilst Briton spoils the scansion. Glascurion; the same as Glasgerion, concerning whom see the Ballad in the Percy Folio MS., ed. Hales and Furnivall, i. 246. Of |