Opening the text

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

Name: 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
Author: Chaucer, Geoffrey

Chaucer, Geoffrey

English poetry -- Middle English, 1100-1500

2265. _And come anoon_, and return again soon.

2266. 'Or else, unless she might go to see her.'

2270. 'Caused his ships to be made ready.'

2270-8. From Ovid, Met. vi. 444-450. Chaucer next passes on to ll. 475,
483. Ll. 2288-2294 are abridged from ll. 451-471 of the Latin. Ll.
2295-2301 answer to ll. 495-501; ll. 2302-2307 to ll. 488, 489; but many
touches are Chaucer's own, and he is seldom literal.

2282. Read _lovede_ as _lov'de_; cf. _preyde_, 2294. This line is imitated
in Kn. Ta. 338 (A 1196)--'For in this world he lovede no man so.'

2290, 1. 'And that there was none like her in (royal) array'; Met. vi. 451.
_Two so riche_, twice as rich; cf. _ten so wood_, in l. 736.

2308. Cf. Ovid, Met. vi. 512.

2312, 3. 'If it might please her, or (even) if it might not please her.'

2318-22. Ovid has these images of the lamb (l. 527) and of the dove (529).

2335. This 'castle' answers to Ovid's 'custodia' (572).

2340. 'God avenge thee, and grant thee thy petition (for vengeance).'

2342-9. Cf. Ovid, Met. vi. 563-570.

2352. _Stole_, stool, frame for tapestry work. Hexham's Du. Dict. (1658)
gives: '_Stoel-doeck_, Tapistrie, or Hangings'; lit. stool-cloth. Cf. G.
_Weberstuhl_, a loom; lit. weaver-stool. _Radevore_, a kind of serge; here,
the material on which tapestry-work was executed. The only other example I
have met with is in a poem beginning--'As ofte as syghes ben in herte
trewe,' in the Tanner MS. 346, fol. 73. One stanza begins thus:--

 'As ofte tymes as Penelapye
  Renewed her werk in the _raduore_,
  To saue her-selfe onely in honeste
  Vnto Vlixes, that she louyd so sore.'

(Another copy of these lines is in MS. Ff. 1. 6 in the Cambridge Univ.
Library, fol. 11.)

Here _raduore_ is clearly an error for _radeuore_ or _radevore_, as the
scansion shews. Urry's Glossary gives the following explanation: '_Ras_ in
French means any stuff [it means serge or satin], as _Ras de Chalons_, _Ras
de Gennes_; _Ras de Vore_ or _Vaur_ may be a stuff made at such a place.'
On which Tyrwhitt remarks--'There is a town in Languedoc called _La Vaur_;
but I know not that it was ever famous for tapestry.' Cotgrave gives:
'_Ras_, serge'; also '_Ras de Milain_, the finest kind of bare serge, or a
silke serge.' Littré cites _ras de Châlons_ from Scarron, Virg. iv.; also
'bas de soye, _raz de Millan_ et d'estame.' _Ras_, in fact, is the same as
the Tudor-English word _rash_. The loss of the _s_ in _ras de Vore_ is
regular, because _s_ drops before _d_ in Anglo-French, though it is
preserved in _ras_ when used alone. I find, on consulting the English
Cyclopædia, that _La Vaur_, in the department of Tarn, produces silk and
serge to this day; so that Urry is certainly right. The whole account in
ll. 2350-72 is expanded from five lines in the Latin text, 576-580:--

 'Stamina barbarica suspendit candida tela:
  purpureasque notas filis intexuit albis'; &c.

Observe that, in l. 2360, the stuff is called 'a _stamin_.'

2359. _By that_, by the time that.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

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

2265. _And come anoon_, and return again soon.

2266. 'Or else, unless she might go to see her.'

2270. 'Caused his ships to be made ready.'

2270-8. From Ovid, Met. vi. 444-450. Chaucer next passes on to ll. 475,
483. Ll. 2288-2294 are abridged from ll. 451-471 of the Latin. Ll.
2295-2301 answer to ll. 495-501; ll. 2302-2307 to ll. 488, 489; but many
touches are Chaucer's own, and he is seldom literal.

2282. Read _lovede_ as _lov'de_; cf. _preyde_, 2294. This line is imitated
in Kn. Ta. 338 (A 1196)--'For in this world he lovede no man so.'

2290, 1. 'And that there was none like her in (royal) array'; Met. vi. 451.
_Two so riche_, twice as rich; cf. _ten so wood_, in l. 736.

2308. Cf. Ovid, Met. vi. 512.

2312, 3. 'If it might please her, or (even) if it might not please her.'

2318-22. Ovid has these images of the lamb (l. 527) and of the dove (529).

2335. This 'castle' answers to Ovid's 'custodia' (572).

2340. 'God avenge thee, and grant thee thy petition (for vengeance).'

2342-9. Cf. Ovid, Met. vi. 563-570.

2352. _Stole_, stool, frame for tapestry work. Hexham's Du. Dict. (1658)
gives: '_Stoel-doeck_, Tapistrie, or Hangings'; lit. stool-cloth. Cf. G.
_Weberstuhl_, a loom; lit. weaver-stool. _Radevore_, a kind of serge; here,
the material on which tapestry-work was executed. The only other example I
have met with is in a poem beginning--'As ofte as syghes ben in herte
trewe,' in the Tanner MS. 346, fol. 73. One stanza begins thus:--

 'As ofte tymes as Penelapye
  Renewed her werk in the _raduore_,
  To saue her-selfe onely in honeste
  Vnto Vlixes, that she louyd so sore.'

(Another copy of these lines is in MS. Ff. 1. 6 in the Cambridge Univ.
Library, fol. 11.)

Here _raduore_ is clearly an error for _radeuore_ or _radevore_, as the
scansion shews. Urry's Glossary gives the following explanation: '_Ras_ in
French means any stuff [it means serge or satin], as _Ras de Chalons_, _Ras
de Gennes_; _Ras de Vore_ or _Vaur_ may be a stuff made at such a place.'
On which Tyrwhitt remarks--'There is a town in Languedoc called _La Vaur_;
but I know not that it was ever famous for tapestry.' Cotgrave gives:
'_Ras_, serge'; also '_Ras de Milain_, the finest kind of bare serge, or a
silke serge.' Littré cites _ras de Châlons_ from Scarron, Virg. iv.; also
'bas de soye, _raz de Millan_ et d'estame.' _Ras_, in fact, is the same as
the Tudor-English word _rash_. The loss of the _s_ in _ras de Vore_ is
regular, because _s_ drops before _d_ in Anglo-French, though it is
preserved in _ras_ when used alone. I find, on consulting the English
Cyclopædia, that _La Vaur_, in the department of Tarn, produces silk and
serge to this day; so that Urry is certainly right. The whole account in
ll. 2350-72 is expanded from five lines in the Latin text, 576-580:--

 'Stamina barbarica suspendit candida tela:
  purpureasque notas filis intexuit albis'; &c.

Observe that, in l. 2360, the stuff is called 'a _stamin_.'

2359. _By that_, by the time that.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

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's Works, Volume 3 — The House of Fame; The Legend of Good Women; The Treatise on the Astrolabe; The Sources of the Canterbury Tales

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