44. Citole: a kind of dulcimer.
45. The picke-purse: The plunderers that followed armies, and
gave to war a horror all their own.
46. Shepen: stable; Anglo-Saxon, "scypen;" the word
"sheppon" still survives in provincial parlance.
47. This line, perhaps, refers to the deed of Jael.
48. The shippes hoppesteres: The meaning is dubious. We may
understand "the dancing ships," "the ships that hop" on the
waves; "steres" being taken as the feminine adjectival
termination: or we may, perhaps, read, with one of the
manuscripts, "the ships upon the steres" -- that is, even as they
are being steered, or on the open sea -- a more picturesque
notion.
49. Freting: devouring; the Germans use "Fressen" to mean
eating by animals, "essen" by men.
50. Julius: i.e. Julius Caesar
51. Puella and Rubeus were two figures in geomancy,
representing two constellations-the one signifying Mars
retrograde, the other Mars direct.
52. Calistope: or Callisto, daughter of Lycaon, seduced by
Jupiter, turned into a bear by Diana, and placed afterwards, with
her son, as the Great Bear among the stars.
53. Dane: Daphne, daughter of the river-god Peneus, in
Thessaly; she was beloved by Apollo, but to avoid his pursuit,
she was, at her own prayer, changed into a laurel-tree.
54. As the goddess of Light, or the goddess who brings to light,
Diana -- as well as Juno -- was invoked by women in childbirth:
so Horace, Odes iii. 22, says:--
"Montium custos nemorumque, Virgo,
Quae laborantes utero puellas
Ter vocata audis adimisque leto,
Diva triformis."
("Virgin custodian of hills and groves, three-formed goddess
who hears and saves from death young women who call upon
her thrice when in childbirth")
55. Every deal: in every part; "deal" corresponds to the
German "Theil" a portion.
56. Sikerly: surely; German, "sicher;" Scotch, "sikkar," certain.
When Robert Bruce had escaped from England to assume the
Scottish crown, he stabbed Comyn before the altar at Dumfries;
and, emerging from the church, was asked by his friend
Kirkpatrick if he had slain the traitor. "I doubt it," said Bruce.
"Doubt," cried Kirkpatrick. "I'll mak sikkar;" and he rushed
into the church, and despatched Comyn with repeated thrusts of
his dagger.
57. Kemped: combed; the word survives in "unkempt."
58. Alauns: greyhounds, mastiffs; from the Spanish word
"Alano," signifying a mastiff.
59. Y-ment: mixed; German, "mengen," to mix.
60. Prime: The time of early prayers, between six and nine in
the morning.
61. On the dais: see note 32 to the Prologue.
62. In her hour: in the hour of the day (two hours before
daybreak) which after the astrological system that divided the
twenty-four among the seven ruling planets, was under the
influence of Venus.
63. Adon: Adonis, a beautiful youth beloved of Venus, whose
death by the tusk of a boar she deeply mourned.
64. The third hour unequal: In the third planetary hour;
Palamon had gone forth in the hour of Venus, two hours before
daybreak; the hour of Mercury intervened; the third hour was
that of Luna, or Diana. "Unequal" refers to the astrological
division of day and night, whatever their duration, into twelve
parts, which of necessity varied in length with the season.
65. Smoking: draping; hence the word "smock;" "smokless," in
Chaucer, means naked.
66. Cerrial: of the species of oak which Pliny, in his "Natural
History," calls "cerrus."
67. Stace of Thebes: Statius, the Roman who embodied in the
twelve books of his "Thebaid" the ancient legends connected
with the war of the seven against Thebes.
68. Diana was Luna in heaven, Diana on earth, and Hecate in
hell; hence the direction of the eyes of her statue to "Pluto's
dark region." Her statue was set up where three ways met, so
that with a different face she looked down each of the three;
from which she was called Trivia. See the quotation from
Horace, note 54.
69. Las: net; the invisible toils in which Hephaestus caught Ares
and the faithless Aphrodite, and exposed them to the
"inextinguishable laughter" of Olympus.
70. Saturnus the cold: Here, as in "Mars the Red" we have the
person of the deity endowed with the supposed quality of the
planet called after his name.
71. The astrologers ascribed great power to Saturn, and
predicted "much debate" under his ascendancy; hence it was
"against his kind" to compose the heavenly strife.
72. Ayel: grandfather; French "Aieul".
73. Testers: Helmets; from the French "teste", "tete", head.
74. Parements: ornamental garb, French "parer" to deck.
75. Gniding: Rubbing, polishing; Anglo-Saxon "gnidan", to rub.
76. Nakeres: Drums, used in the cavalry; Boccaccio's word is
"nachere".
77. Made an O: Ho! Ho! to command attention; like "oyez", the
call for silence in law-courts or before proclamations.
78. Sarge: serge, a coarse woollen cloth
79. Heart-spoon: The concave part of the breast, where the
lower ribs join the cartilago ensiformis.
80. To-hewen and to-shred: "to" before a verb implies
extraordinary violence in the action denoted.
81. He through the thickest of the throng etc.. "He" in this
passage refers impersonally to any of the combatants.
82. Galaphay: Galapha, in Mauritania.
83. Belmarie is supposed to have been a Moorish state in
Africa; but "Palmyrie" has been suggested as the correct
reading.
84. As I came never I cannot telle where: Where it went I
cannot tell you, as I was not there. Tyrwhitt thinks that
Chaucer is sneering at Boccacio's pompous account of the
passage of Arcite's soul to heaven. Up to this point, the
description of the death-scene is taken literally from the
"Theseida."
85. With sluttery beard, and ruggy ashy hairs: With neglected
beard, and rough hair strewn with ashes. "Flotery" is the general
reading; but "sluttery" seems to be more in keeping with the
picture of abandonment to grief.
86. Master street: main street; so Froissart speaks of "le
souverain carrefour."
87. Y-wrie: covered, hid; Anglo-Saxon, "wrigan," to veil.
88. Emily applied the funeral torch. The "guise" was, among the
ancients, for the nearest relative of the deceased to do this, with
averted face.
89. It was the custom for soldiers to march thrice around the
funeral pile of an emperor or general; "on the left hand" is
added, in reference to the belief that the left hand was
propitious -- the Roman augur turning his face southward, and
so placing on his left hand the east, whence good omens came.
With the Greeks, however, their augurs facing the north, it was
just the contrary. The confusion, frequent in classical writers, is
complicated here by the fact that Chaucer's description of the
funeral of Arcite is taken from Statius' "Thebaid" -- from a
Roman's account of a Greek solemnity.
90. Lyke-wake: watching by the remains of the dead; from
Anglo-Saxon, "lice," a corpse; German, "Leichnam."
91. Chaucer here borrows from Boethius, who says:
"Hanc rerum seriem ligat,
Terras ac pelagus regens,
Et coelo imperitans, amor."
(Love ties these things together: the earth, and the ruling sea,
and the imperial heavens)
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