Chaucer's Works, Volume 3 — The House of Fame; The Legend of Good Women; The Treatise on the Astrolabe; The Sources of the Canterbury TalesChaucer, Geoffrey
General
Chaucer's Works, Volume 3 — The House of Fame; The Legend of Good Women; The Treatise on the Astrolabe; The Sources of the Canterbury Tales
Chaucer, Geoffrey
English poetry -- Middle English, 1100-1500
1386. Thynne remarks that _oundy_, i.e. wavy, is a term in heraldry; cf. E.
_ab-ound_, _red-ound_, _surr-ound_ (for _sur-ound_); all from Lat. _unda_.
Cf. Chaucer's use of _ounded_ in Troilus, iv. 736, and Le Roman de la Rose,
21399, 21400:--
'Et voit ses biaus crins blondoians
Comme undes ensemble ondoians.'
1390. 'And tongues, as (there are) hairs on animals.' 'Her feet are
furnished with partridge-wings to denote swiftness, as the partridge is
remarkable for running with great swiftness with outstretched wings. This
description is taken almost literally from the description of Fame in the
Æneid [iv. 176-183], except the allusion to the Apocalypse and the
partridge-wings'; note in Bell's Chaucer. But it is to be feared that
Chaucer simply blundered, and mistook Vergil's _pernicibus_ as having the
sense of _perdicibus_; cf. '_pedibus_ celerem et _pernicibus alis_'; Aen.
iv. 180.
1400. _Caliopee_, Calliope the muse; her eight sisters are the other Muses.
With ll. 1395-1405 cf. Dante, Par. xxiii. 97-111.
1411. Read--Bóth-e th'ármes. _Armes_, i.e. coats of arms. _Name_, name
engraved on a plate or written on a scroll.
1413. _Alexander_; see Monkes Tale, in C. T., B 3821. _Hercules_; see the
same; the story of the shirt is given in B 3309-3324. In Le Roman de la
Rose, l. 9238, it is called 'la venimeuse chemise.' Cf. Dante, Inf. xii.
68.
1431. _Lede_, lead, the metal of Saturn; _yren_, iron, the metal of Mars.
See note to Can. Yeom. Tale, G 820, and ll. 827, 828 of the same; also ll.
1446, 1448 below.
1433. Read--Th'Ebráyk Jósephús. In a note on Gower's Conf. Amantis, Warton
remarks--'Josephus, on account of his subject, had long been placed almost
on a level with the Bible. He is seated on the first pillar in Chaucer's
House of Fame. His Jewish History, translated into Latin by Rufinus in the
fourth century, had given rise to many old poems and romances; and his
Maccabaics, or History of the seven Maccabees, martyred with their father
Eleazar under the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, a separate work
translated also by Rufinus, produced the Judas Maccabee of Belleperche in
the year 1240, and at length enrolled the Maccabees among the most
illustrious heroes of romance.'--ed. Hazlitt, iii. 26.
1436. _Iewerye_, kingdom of the Jews; cf. Prior. Tale, B 1679.
1437. Who the other seven are, we can but guess; the reference seems to be
to Jewish historians. Perhaps we may include Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Isaiah,
Daniel, Nehemiah; and, in any case, Ezra. The number _seven_ was probably
taken at random. With l. 1447 cf. Troil. ii. 630.
1450. _Wheel_, orbit. The orbit of Saturn is the largest of the (old) seven
planets; see Kn. Tale, 1596 (A 2454). The reason why Josephus is placed
upon Saturn's metal, is because history records so many unhappy casualties,
such as Saturn's influence was supposed to cause. All this is fully
explained in the Kn. Tale, 1597-1611 (A 2455-69).
1457. _Yren_, the metal of Mars; see note to l. 1431.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account