HKB
'Forberne he scholde, and we also, yif we with him were.' [410]
Cecile. This is one of the clearest instances to shew that Chaucer followed the Latin and not the French version. Lat. 'Cui Caecilia'; Fr. 'et Valerien dist.' Mr. Furnivall has noted this and other instances, and there is no doubt about the matter.
skilfully, reasonably; the usual meaning at this date. See l. 327.
325-332. Not in the South-E. Legendary.
'And all that has been created by a reasonable Intelligence.'
Hath sowled, hath endued with a soul, hath quickened; Lat. 'animauit.'
o god, one God. We must suppose this teaching to be included in the mention of Christ in l. 295; otherwise there is no allusion to it in the words of Cecilia. The doctrine had been taught to Valerian however; see ll. 207, 208.
There are continual allusions, in the Lives of the Saints, to the difficulty of this doctrine.
Chaucer is not quite exact. The Latin says that three things reside in a man's wisdom, the said wisdom being but one. 'Sicut in una hominis sapientia tria sunt, ingenium, memoria et intellectus.' The notion resembles that in a favourite passage from Isidore quoted in Piers Plowman, B. xv. 39, to the effect that the soul (anima) has different names according to its functions. Compare the curious illustrations of the doctrine of the Trinity in the same, B. xvi. 220-224, xvii. 137-249. The illustration in the text is, as Mr. Jephson points out, by no means a good one.
The word Three stands alone in the first foot. See note to l. 353.
come, coming, i. e. incarnation; Lat. 'aduentu.' Tyrwhitt reads sonde, i. e. sending, message; but incorrectly.
withholde, detained, constrained to dwell; Lat. 'tentus'; Fr. 'tenu.'
Hitherto Chaucer's translation is, on the whole, very close. Here he omits a whole sentence, and begins to abbreviate the story and alter it to suit himself. See his hint in l. 360.
Here begins, practically, the second part of the story, in which the second Latin text is more freely consulted; see vol. iii. p. 488.
That, who. In MS. E. the word is glossed by--'qui, scilicet Vrbanus.' It is remarkable that the relative who (as a simple relative, without so suffixed) is hardly to be found in English of this date, in the nominative case. The A. S. hw[=a] is only used interrogatively. See March, Anglo-Saxon Grammar, p. 179.
goddes knight, God's servant, or rather, God's soldier; see l. 383, and the note. In the A. S. version of the Gospels, Christ's disciples are called 'leorning-cnihtas.' In the Ormulum and in Wyclif cniht or kni[gh]t sometimes means a servant, but more commonly a soldier. Priests are called 'goddes knyghtes' in Piers Plowman, B. xi. 304. In scanning this line, either lerninge is of three syllables (which I doubt) or else the first syllable in Parfit forms a foot by itself; see note to l. 341 above. [411]
In the South-E. Legendary, their crime is specified; they had buried two Christian martyrs.
Almache; Lat. 'Almachius praefectus.' The reigning emperor was Alexander Severus (A.D. 222-235).
apposed, questioned, examined; written opposed in most MSS., but corrected by Tyrwhitt. Ed. 1532 also has aposed. A similar confusion occurs in the Freres Tale, D. 1597, where only two MSS., viz. Pt. and Ln., have the spelling appose, as against five others which read opposen. In MSS. of Piers the Plowman, we find appose, to question, B. iii. 5; apposed, i. 47; apposeden, vii. 138. See Appose in the New E. Dict.; where it is shewn that appose was, at first, a mere variant of oppose, but came to be regarded as a correct form with a special sense; though, strictly speaking, it was a corruption.
sacrifyse, sacrifice to the idol. This was the usual test to which Christians were subjected; see note to l. 395. Compare Dan. iii. 14, 18. So in the Virgin Martyr, iv. 2:--