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
1590. _Iaconitos_, Iaconites. This is a clear proof that Chaucer follows
Guido. At p. 12* of the alliterative Troy-book, ed. Panton and Donaldson,
the following passage is quoted from Guido, lib. ii.: 'In insula igitur
Colcos erat tunc temporis quaedam ciuitas nomine _Iaconites_, caput regni
pro sua magnitudine constituta.' Further extracts from this Latin text are
given by Horstmann, in his edition entitled 'Barbours Legendensammlung,'
vol. ii. (Heilbronn, 1882), p. 221; where will also be found a parallel
passage in a fifteenth-century poem which has wrongly been ascribed to
Barbour. Hence Lydgate, in his Troy-book, bk. i. c. 5 (fol. C 3, back),
says of the chief city of Colchos:--'And Iaconites tho it bare the name.'
1594. Read _Preyíng_; and drop the final _e_ of _moste_.
1597. Compare the allit. Troy-book, ll. 388-391:--
'The kyng was full curtais, calt on a maiden,
Bede his doughter come downe, and his dere heire,
To sit by that semely, and solas to make.
This mayden full mylde Medea was callid.'
1605. 'And in his mien as royal as a lion.'
1606. _Famulere_, familiar, affable. See Ch. Prol. 215.
1609. 'And, as Fortune owed her an evil mishap.'
1617. Cf. the Troy-book, l. 544:--
'That causes me with counsell to caste for your helpe,
And put you in plite your purpos to wyn,
In sound for to saile home, and your sute all.'
1620. Cf. the same, l. 554:--
'Now louely and leell, for your lefe speche
I thanke you a thowsande tymes in my thro hert,
That ye kythe me suche kyndnes withouten cause why;
And here I put me full plainly in your pure wille,
To do with me, damsell, as your desyre thynke.'
1631. _Disioint_, perilous situation, peril. Cf. Kn. Ta., A 2962. 'But sith
I see I stonde in this _disioint_'; Shipman's Tale, B 1601.
1639. Cf. the Troy-book, 942; and 711:--
'Yow swiftly shall sweire vppon swete goddes,
This couenaunt to kepe and for no case chaunge.'
'And swiftly he sware on that swete[70] god,
All tho couenaundes to kepe, and for no cause let,
Whill hym lastes the lyffe; he laid on his hond.'
1653. _Unwist of_, unknown to. Cf. Troy-book, 987:--
'Then leuyt thai the lond, and no leue toke,
Stale from the styth king stylle by night;
With the maiden Medea and myche other goodes,
Thai turne into Tessaile with-outen tale more.'
Here Chaucer ceases to follow Guido, except in ll. 1662-6.
1661. Her name was Creusa; cf. Ovid, Met. vii. 391-6; Horace, Epod. v. 64.
1662. Cf. the Troy-book, l. 718:--
'And thou hedis not the harme of that hend lady,
Ne tentes not thy trouth that thou tynt has;
Soche a maiden to mar that the most louet,
That forsec hir fader and hir fre londe.'
1667. _Vassalage_, prowess; cf. Kn. Ta., A 3054. It is here used
ironically. Trench refers us to Lydgate's Minor Poems, ed. Halliwell, p.
176:--
'And Catoun seith, is noon so greet encress
Of wordly tresour, as for to live in pees,
Which among vertues hath the _vasselage_.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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