Chaucer's Works, Volume 5 — Notes to the Canterbury TalesChaucer, Geoffrey
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Chaucer's Works, Volume 5 — Notes to the Canterbury Tales
Chaucer, Geoffrey
Chaucer, Geoffrey, -1400. Canterbury tales -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
2355. From Cicero, De Senectute, vi. 17:--'Non uiribus aut uelocitatibus
aut celeritate corporum res magnae geruntur, sed consilio, auctoritate,
sententia; quibus non modo non orbari, sed etiam augeri senectus solet.'
2357. From Ecclus. vi. 6.
2361. From Prov. xi. 14; cf. xv. 22.
2363. From Ecclus. viii. 17.
2364. Lat. text:--'Scriptum est enim, Proprium est stultitiae aliena uitia
cernere, suorum autem obliuisci.' From Cicero, Disput. Tusc. iii. 30. 73.
2366. 'Sic habendum est, nullam in amicitia pestem esse maiorem quam
adulationem, blanditiam, assentationem'; Cicero, Laelius, xxvi. 97 [_or_
xxv.]
2367. Lat. text:--'In consiliis itaque et in aliis rebus non acerba uerba,
sed blanda timebis.' The last six words are from Martinus Dumiensis, De
Quatuor Virtutibus Cardinalibus, cap. iii. Cf. Prov. xxviii. 23. [210]
2368. From Prov. xxix. 5. The words in the next clause (2369) seem to be
merely another rendering of the same passage.
2370. 'Cauendum est, ne assentatoribus patefaciamus aures neue adulari nos
sinamus'; Cicero, De Officiis, i. 26.
2371. From Dionysius Cato, Distich. iii. 6:--'Sermones blandos blaesosque
cauere memento.'
2373. 'Cum inimico nemo in gratiam tuto [_al._ tute] redit'; Publilius
Syrus, Sent. 91.
2374. Lat. text:--'Quare Ysopus dixit:
Ne confidatis secreta nec his detegatis,
Cum quibus egistis pugnae discrimina tristis.'
2375. Not from Seneca, but from Publilius Syrus, Sent. 389:--'Nunquam ubi
diu fuit ignis deficit uapor'; but the MSS. differ in their readings.
'There is no fire without some smoke'; Heywood's Proverbs.
2376. From Ecclus. xii. 10.
2379. The passage alluded to is the following:--'Ne te associaueris cum
inimicis tuis, cum alios possis repperire socios; quae enim mala egeris
notabunt, quae uero bona fuerint deuitabunt [Lat. text, deuiabunt]'; cf.
Petrus Alfonsi, Disciplina Clericalis, iv. 4. The words 'they wol perverten
it' seem to be due to the reading _deuiabunt_, taken to mean 'they will
turn aside,' in a transitive sense.
2381. Lat. text (pp. 50, 51); 'ut quidam philosophus dixit, Nemo ei satis
fidus est, quem metuit.'
2382. Inexactly quoted from the Latin text, taken from Cicero, De Officiis,
ii. 7:--'Malus custos diuturnitatis est metus, contraque beniuolentia
fidelis uel ad perpetuitatem.... Nulla uis imperii tanta est, quae premente
metu possit esse diuturna.'
2384. From Prov. xxxi. 4, where the Vulgate has: 'Noli regibus, o Lamuel,
noli regibus dare uinum; quia nullum secretum est ubi regnat ebrietas.' Cf.
C. 561 (and note), 585, 587.
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