And wold algates han another wyf,

For which he took with Rome and Cesar stryf.
Natheles, forsooth this ilke senatour,

595

Was a ful worthy gentil werreyour,

And of his deeth it was ful gret damage.

But Love had brought this man in swich a rage,

And him so narwe bounden in his laas,

600

Alle for the love of Cleopataras,

That al the worlde he sette at noo value;

Hym thoghte ther was nothing to him so due

As Cleopataras for to love and serve;

Hym roghte nat in armes for to sterve
In the defence of hir and of hir ryghte.

605

594. algates: gait or gate, from A. S. gan, to go, signified a way; "Go thi gate." Piers Ploughman, 11460. "Good gentleman, go your gait." King Lear, A. 4, S. 6. "Whom nought regarding, they kept on their gate." Faerie Queene, 2, 12, 17. Hence the primary meaning of algates was, in all ways, under all circum

stances:

"He then arose, inflamd with fell despight,

And called for his armes; for he would algates fight."
Faerie Queene, 2, 5, 37.

597. werreyour, warrior.

600. laas, a snare, a trap.

603. Hym thoghte, it seemed to him; see note on hem thoghte, v. 134.

605. Hym roghte nat, he recked or cared not; roghte, past tense of recche or rekke, to care, to reck, used here impersonally;―sterve, to die. "Starve. The Anglo-Saxon 'steorfan,' the German 'sterben,' to die, it is only by comparatively modern use restricted to perishing by cold or by hunger; in this restriction of use, resembling somewhat the French 'noyer,' to kill by drowning, while 'necare,' from which it descends, is to kill by any manner of death. But innumerable words are thus like rivers, which once pouring their waters through many channels, have now left dry land and abandoned them all, save one, or as in the present instance it happens, save two."-Trench's Select Glossary.

"But Crist, that starf for our redempcioun,

So geve me grace his hestes to fulfille."-C. T. 4703. See also Faerie Queene, 2, 6, 34; 4, 1, 4; 4, 1, 26.

This noble queene ek loved so this knyghte,
Thurgh his desert and for his chivalrye,
As certeynly, but yf that bookes lye,
He was of persone, and of gentilesse,
And of discrecion, and of hardynesse,
Worthy to any wight that liven may;
And she was faire, as is the rose in May.

610

And to maken shortly is the beste,

She wax his wif, and hadde him as hir leste.
The weddyng and the feste to devyse,

615

To me that have ytake swich emprise,

Of so many a storye for to make,

Yt were to longe, lest that I sholde slake

Of thing that beryth more effect and charge;
For men may overlade a shippe or barge.
And forthy, to effect than wol I skyppe,
And al the remenaunt I wol let yt slyppe.
Octavyan, that woode was of this dede,

609. but yf, unless.

615. wax, became; as hir leste, as it pleased her. 616. devuse, to relate.

617. swich emprise, such an undertaking.

620

622. forthy, therefore; effect, substance, the main matter in hand. 624. Octavyan, i. e., the Emperor Augustus; his original name was C. Octavius, and, after his adoption by his great uncle, C. Julius Cæsar Octavianus;-woode, A. S. wod; mad, enraged, furious. This is a very common word in early English, and its use was frequent as late as the time of Elizabeth. It is especially common in La Mort d' Arthure, where wooder and woodest, woodly, and wood wroth, also frequently occur. Shakspeare plays on the word in his Midsummer Night's Dream, II. 2 :—

"Thou told'st me they were stol'n into this wood,
And here am I, and wood within this wood,
Because I cannot meet with Hermia."

Ruddiman, in his Glossary to Douglas's Virgil, derives from this word the name of the old German god Woden, "i. e., the furious God Mars, and not Mercury, as is commonly thought: whence Wednesday has its name."

Shoop him an ooste on Antony to lede,

Al outerly for his distruccion,

With stoute Romaynes, crewel as lyon;

625

To shippe they wente, and thus I let them sayle.
Antonius, that was war, and wol nat fayle
To meten with thise Romaynes, yf he may,
Took eke his rede, and booth upon a day
His wyf and he and al hys oost forthe went
To shippe anoon, no longer they ne stent,
And in the see hit happed hem to mete.

630

Up gooth the trumpe, and for to shoute and shete, 635 And paynen hem to sette on with the sonne;

With grisly soun out gooth the grete gonne,

And hertely they hurtelen al attones,

And fro the toppe doune cometh the grete stones.

In gooth the grapenel so ful of crokes,
Amonge the ropes, and the sheryng hokes;
In with the polax preseth he and he;
Byhynde the maste begynneth he to fle,

"Amyd the feild stude Mars that felloun syre,

In place of melle wod brym as ony fyre."
Douglas's Virgil, p. 269, v. 8.

Sævit medio in certamine Mavors."

Eneid, viii. 700.

640

625. shoop, past tense of shape or schape, shaped, formed, pre

pared ;-ooste, a host, a great army.

626. outerly, utterly.

631. rede, counsel, advice.

633. stent, delayed, tarried.

635. shete, to shoot.

637. With grisly soun out gooth the grete gonne: this is a very bold and amusing anachronism.

638. hurtelen, rush together; a common word in the descriptions of the knightly encounters in La Mort d'Arthure.-attones, at once. 639. This verse is an Alexandrine.

640. grapenel, a small anchor with a number of flukes, or a grappling iron.

641. sheryng, cutting.-polax, pole-axe, or halberd; it combined an axe, a pike, and serrated hammer, and was used for both cutting and thrusting.

And out agayne, and dryveth hym over borde;
He styngeth hym upon hys speres orde;
He rent the sayle with hokes lyke a sithe;
He bryngeth the cuppe, and biddeth hem be blithe;
He poureth pesen upon the hacches slidre,
With pottes ful of lyme, they goon togedre.
And thus the longe day in fight they spende;
Til at the last, as every thing hath ende,
Antony is shent, and put ys to the flyght,
And al hys folke to-goo, that best goo myght.
Fleeth ek the quene with al hir purpre sayle,
For strokes which that went as thik as hayle;
No wonder was, she myght it nat endure.
And whan that Antony saugh that aventure,
'Alas,' quod he, 'the day that I was borne!
My worshippe in this day thus have I lorne!'
And for dispeyre out of hys wytte he sterte,
And roof hymselfe anoon thurghout the herte,
Er that he ferther went out of the place.

645. orde, point.

645

650

655

660

646. rent, a contraction of rendeth, 3d pers. sing. pres. tense of rende.

648. pesen, pease; slidre, slippery.

649. lyme; probably quick-lime, to set fire to the vessel.

652. shent, past part. of schende or shende, ruined, disgraced. 653. to-goo; to- prefixed in composition to verbs of A. S. origin, is intensive, and usually imparts the idea of destruction; in to-goo, there seems to be implied in its use, that in their flight they were driven and scattered in every direction; that best goo myght: that had the best opportunities for escape.

657. aventure, issue of affairs.

659. worshippe, honour ;-lorne, past part. of lese, lost. 661. roof, past tense of ryve or rive, rived.

662. Er that he ferther went out of the place: the poet here departs from history. After the battle of Actium, Antony fled with Cleopatra to Alexandria, where he put an end to his own life in the following year (30 B. C.), when Octavianus appeared before the city.

Hys wyf, that koude of Cesar have no grace,
To Egipte is fled, for drede and for distresse.
But herkeneth ye that speken of kyndenesse.

Ye men that falsly sweren many an oothe,
That ye wol dye yf that your love be wroothe,
Here may ye seene of women which a trouthe.
This woful Cleopatra had made swich routhe,
That ther nys tonge noon that may yt telle.
But on the morwe she wol no lenger dwelle,
But made hir subtil werkmen make a shryne
Of alle the rubees and the stones fyne
In al Egipte that she koude espye;
And put ful the shryne of spicerye,

665

670

675

And let the corps embawme; and forth she fette

This dede corps, and in the shryne yt shette.

And next the shryne a pitte than dooth she grave,

And all the serpentes that she myghte have,

She put hem in that grave, and thus she seyde:- 680 'Now, love, to whom my sorweful herte obeyde,

So ferforthely, that fro that blysful houre

That I yow swor to ben al frely youre ;

(I mene yow, Antonius, my knyght,)

670. nys, ne ys, is not.

672. subtil, skilful.

676. let the corps embawme, caused the body to be embalmed ;— fette, past tense of fecche, fetched, brought.

677. dede corps: this expression would now be pleonastic, but in Chaucer's time, and much later, corpse was used for both the living and the dead body.

"where-ever that thou dost behold
A comely corpse, with beautie faire endewed,
Know this for certaine, that the same doth hold
A beauteous soule with fair conditions thewed,
Fit to receive the seede of virtue strewed."

shette, shut.

Spenser's Hymne in Honour of Beautie, v. 135.

678. dooth she grave, she causes to be dug. 680. grave, pit.

682. ferforthely, far forth, such an extent.