Therwyth she was alway so trewe, For sothe ylyche they suffred thoo And thus we lyved ful many a yere, 'Sir!' quod I, where is she now? 'Now?' quod he, and stynte anoon.; Therewith he waxe as dede as stoon, And seyde, Allas, that I was bore! That was the losse! and herebefore I tolde the that I hadde lorne, Bethenke how I seyde here beforne, Thow wost ful lytel what thow menyst, I have loste more than thow wenyst." God wote, allas! ryghte that was she.' Allas! sir, how? what may that be?' 'She ys dede:"Nay?'—' Yis, be my trouthe!' 'Is that youre losse? be God, hyt ys routhe!' And with that worde, ryghte anoon They gan to strake forth; al was doon, For that tyme, the herte huntynge. With that me thoughte that this kynge, Gan homewarde for to ryde, Unto a place was ther besyde, Which was from us but a lyte, 100 here means one. 2 See ante, p. 422. 3 The Duchess Blanche died in the year 1369, leaving issue one son, Henry (afterwards Henry IV.), and two daughters, Philippa and Elizabeth.-BARNES.-Hist. of Edw. III. By seynt Johan, on a rych hille,' 2 Ryghte thus me mette, as I yow telle, I fonde hyt in myn honde ful evene. This was my swevene; now hit ys doon! EXPLICIT THE BOKE OF THE DUCHESSE. By this castle on a hill is meant Windsor, and by the Emperor Octavian, Edward III. Perhaps Chaucer, who held the office of clerk of the works, may have intended to compliment him on the taste and magnificence of his buildings, by comparing him to an Emperor who boasted that he had found Rome of brick and left it of marble. 'Ut jure sit gloriatus, marmoream se relinquere quam lateritiam accepisset.' -SUET. D. Augustus. 2 The verb to mete seems to mean, not exactly to dream, but to appear in a dream. Thus me mette would be correctly translated into modern English, It appeared to me in my dream.' The construction is the same as in the expression me thinks, it seems to me. 441 OF QUENE ANELYDA AND FALSE ARCYTE [THIS short poem is unfinished, as appears from the last stanza, in which the reader is promised a description of the Temple of Mars in Thrace, and of the particulars of Queen Anelyda's vow and sacrifice. The first few verses have so much the air of a weak imitation of the beginning of The Knightes Tale, that we should be disposed to doubt the authenticity of the piece, were it not that it is expressly ascribed to Chaucer by Lydgate in the following verses :— Of Anelyda and of fals Arcyte He made a compleynte, dolful and pitous. The similarity between this fragment and the opening of The Knightes Tale may perhaps be accounted for by supposing that Chaucer at first intended to make the loves of Anelyda and Arcyte the subject of a longer poem; that he afterwards changed his plan in favour of the story of Palamon and Arcite; and that in the latter he ultimately adopted as much of the opening of the former as suited his purpose. For his authorities he quotes Statius and Corinne. The early stanzas, relating to Theseus, are the only part taken from the Thebais; and the poems of Corinna, the cotemporary of Pindar, are now lost. The metre of the first part is the same as that of the Troylus and Cryseyde; but the Compleynte of Anelyda is written in a stanza of nine lines, of which the first, second, fourth, fifth, eighth, and ninth, fall into one rhyme, and the third, sixth, and seventh, into another. There are three stanzas which consist of eight lines only, and of which each verse is composed of four, instead of five, iambic feet, or their equivalents. This last deficiency Urry most unwarrantably ekes out with unmeaning expletives of his own. The MS. from which the present text has been taken is bound up with some of Lydgate's and Occleve's poems, in a volume numbered 372 in the Harleian collection. Though written on paper, and therefore of uncertain date, it is more correct than any of the printed texts. It supplies some words necessary to the sense, and preserves the grammatical inflections of Chaucer's time, which are essential to the correctness of the metre.] "THOU ferse God of armes, Marse the rede, 1 See vol. i. p. 152, note 1. 2 Polyhymnia, one of the Muses.-See OVID, Fasti, v. 9. 3 By Cirrea is probably meant Syria; and Chaucer perhaps took it for granted that Helicon was near Syria, because they were both in the East. 4 Statius. 5 What author is meant, I cannot say. One can hardly suppose that Chaucer had met with that poem of the ancient Corinna, the contemporary of Pindar, which was entitled 'ETTа eπɩ Onßais (Fragm. ex Apollonia Dyscolo, ap. MAITTAIR de Dialect., p. 429, l. 4), nor do I know that any fictitious work upon the war of Thebes has ever been set forth under her name. She is mentioned by Propertius (ii. El. iii. 21), and by Statius (Sylv. v. Carm. iii. 158), but neither of them takes notice of her having written on the affairs of Thebes.-T. Some poet of this name, however, appears to have been known in the middle ages, for she is mentioned by Skelton. Jamque domos patrias Scythia post aspera gentis, Whanne Theseus, with werres longe and grete, Ypolita' his wif, the hardy quene Of Cithea, that he conquerid hadde, With Emelye her younge suster sheene, Faire in a chare of goold he with hym ladde, That al the ground abought hir chare she spradde With his tryumphe, and laurere crowned thus, 1 This is taken from the Thebais of Statius, lib. xii. 519. 2 Ornamented with gold.-See vol. v. p. 99, note 1. 3 That is, To the houses of his country,' or to his home. |