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Chaucer's Works, Volume 5 — Notes to the Canterbury Tales

Geoffrey Chaucer; ed. Walter W. Skeat · 1900

passage 339 of 421 · Book of the Duchesse, l. 377. > chapter; see notes to ll. 642, 647. (89/99)

  1. encense, offer incense to; see note to l. 395.

  2. they. Over this word is written in MS. E.--'scilicet Ministres.' The Latin original says that Cecilia converted as many as 400 persons upon this occasion. Hence the expression o voys (one voice) in l. 420.

  3. withouten difference, i. e. without difference in might, majesty, or glory.

  4. lewedly, ignorantly. The 'two answers' relate to her rank and her religion, subjects which had no real connexion.

  5. Lat. 'de conscientia bona et fide non ficta'; cf. 1 Tim. i. 5.

  6. to drede, to be feared; the gerund, and right according to the old idiom. We still say--'he is to blame,' 'this house to let.' March in his Anglo-Saxon Grammar, p. 198, says--'The gerund after the copula expresses what must, may, or should be done. Ex. Mannes sunu is t[=o] syllanne, the Son of Man must be delivered up, Matt. xvii. 22'; &c.

'For it nis bote a bladre i-blowe ful of a wreche wynde; Be it with a litel prikke i-priked, a-wey it shrinketh al';-- South-E. Legendary, l. 194.

[413]

  1. bigonne, didst begin; the right form, for which Tyrwhitt has begonnest. For the Mid. Eng. biginnen we commonly find onginnan in Anglo-Saxon, and the past tense runs thus--ongann, ongunne, ongann; pl. ongunnon. The form in Middle English is--bigan, bigunne (or bigonne), bigan; pl. bigunnen (or bigonne). The very form here used occurs in the Ayenbite of Inwyt, ed. Morris, p. 71. The suffix -st does not appear in strong verbs; cf. Thou sawe, B. 848; thou bar, G. 48.

The whole of ll. 443-467 varies considerably from the original, the corresponding passage of which is as follows: 'Cui Almachius: "ab iniuriis caepisti, et in iniuriis perseueras." Caecilia respondit: "iniuria non dicitur quod uerbis fallentibus irrogatur; unde aut iniuriam doce, si falsa locuta sum, aut te ipsum corripe calumniam inferentem, sed nos scientes sanctum Dei nomen omnino negare non possumus; melius est enim feliciter mori quam infeliciter uiuere." Cui Almachius: "ad quid cum tanta superbia loqueris?" Et illa: "non est superbia, sed constantia." Cui Almachius: "infelix, ignoras,"' &c. (l. 468). However, Chaucer has adopted an idea from this in ll. 473, 475.

  1. To scan this, remember that Iuge has two syllables; and accent confus on the first syllable.

  2. Lat. 'es igitur minister mortis, non uitae.'

  3. Do wey, do away with; Lat. 'depone.' The phrase occurs again in the Milleres Tale, A. 3287.

489-497. These lines are wholly Chaucer's own.

  1. To scan the line, elide e in suffre, and read phílosóphre.

  2. spekest; to be read as spek'st.

  3. utter yen, outer eyes, bodily eyes. In MS. E. it is glossed by 'exterioribus oculis.' The Latin has--'nescio ubi oculos amiseris; nam quos tu Deos dicis, omnes nos saxa esse uidemus; mitte igitur manum et tangendo disce, quod oculis non uales uidere.'

  4. taste, test, try; Lat. 'tangendo disce.' The word is now restricted to one of the five senses; it could once have been used also of the sense of feeling, at the least. Bottom even ventures on the strange expression--'I trust to taste of truest Thisbe's sight'; Mid. Nt. Dream, v. 1. 280; such is the reading in the first folio.

505-511. This stanza is all Chaucer's own.

  1. bath of flambes rede; Lat. 'in bulliente balneo.'

516-522. The Latin merely has--'Quae quasi in loco frigido permansit, nec modicum saltem sudoris persensit.'

  1. Lat. 'eam semiuiuam cruentus carnifex dereliquit.'
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Chaucer's Works, Volume 5 — Notes to the Canterbury Tales · Geoffrey Chaucer; ed. Walter W. Skeat · 1900