THE HOUSE OF FAME. FIRST BOOK. Proem. GOD turne us every dreme to goode! And why this a revelacioun ; Why this a dreme, why that a swevene, The causes knoweth bet then I, Ne kan hem noght, ne never thinke ΤΟ 1 Professor Bernhard Ten Brink, in his Studien, pp. 89-94, points out the suggestions that Chaucer derived tor this poem from Dante, and I says that the general plot is imitated from the Divina Commedia. The coincidences are indicated in the notes. A number of lines also resemble passages in Virgil's Eneid and in Ovid's Metamorphoses • Holy Rood 3 Visions. 4 Belabor. To knowe of hir signifiaunce The gendres, neyther the distaunce For-why this is more then that cause is; 1 Make hem dreme of reflexiouns; Or ellis thus, as other sayne, For to grete feblenesse of her brayne, 2 Prisoun, stewe or grete distresse ; Or naturell acustumaunce, That somme man is to curiouse Or thus, so inly ful of drede, Of somme, and contemplacioun, Or yf that spiritis have the myght 2C 339 40 2 That is, confine $ Offer cure 1 Temperaments or dispositions of the body. ment in prison or small apartment (stewe, closet). Peculiar nature (sui generis) THE GOD OF SLEEP INVOKED. 3 That yt forwote 1 that ys to come, And that hyt warneth al and some Be avisions, or be figures, But that oure flessh ne hath no myght To understonde hyt aryght, 50 For hyt is warned to derkly; But why the cause is, noght wote I. Wel worth 2 of this thynge grete clerkys, Nyl as now make mensyoun; But oonly that the Holy Roode So wonderful a dreme as I, The tenthe day now of Decembre; The Invocation. But at my begynnynge, trusteth wele, I wol make invocacioun, With special devocioun 60 1 Foreknows. Good befall (O. E. weorthan, to be, become) Somnus. This description is taken from Ovid, Metamorphoses u. 592. Cf. Dethe of Blaunche, l. 137. That dwelleth in a cave of stoon, Upon a streme that cometh fro Lete, Besyde a folke men clepeth Cymerie ;1 My swevene for to telle aryght, 70 Yf every dreme stonde in his myght; 80 And he that mover ys of alle That is and was, and ever shalle, Of her loves, or in what place That hem were levest for to stonde, And shelde hem fro poverte and shonde,♦ And fro unhappe and eche disese, And send hem alle that may hem plese, That take hit wele and skorne hit noghte, Thorgh maliciouse entencioun. 1 Cvmmeria. Wont. This year. 4 Ruin, disgrace. 9c |