The Canterbury Tales, and Other Poems
7. The same is said of Griselda, in The Clerk’s Tale; though she
was of tender years, “yet in the breast of her virginity there was
inclos’d a sad and ripe corage”
8. The confusion which Chaucer makes between Cithaeron and
Cythera, has already been remarked. See note 41 to the
Knight’s Tale.
9. Balais: Bastard rubies; said to be so called from Balassa, the
Asian country where they were found. Turkeis: turquoise
stones.
10. Spenser, in his description of the House of Busirane, speaks
of the sad distress into which Phoebus was plunged by Cupid, in
revenge for the betrayal of “his mother’s wantonness, when she
with Mars was meint [mingled] in joyfulness”
11. Alcestis, daughter of Pelias, was won to wife by Admetus,
King of Pherae, who complied with her father’s demand that he
should come to claim her in a chariot drawn by lions and boars.
By the aid of Apollo — who tended the flocks of Admetus
during his banishment from heaven — the suitor fulfilled the
condition; and Apollo further induced the Moirae or Fates to
grant that Admetus should never die, if his father, mother, or
wife would die for him. Alcestis devoted herself in his stead;
and, since each had made great efforts or sacrifices for love, the
pair are fitly placed as king and queen in the Court of Love.
12. In the prologue to the “Legend of Good Women,” Chaucer
says that behind the God of Love, upon the green, he “saw
coming in ladies nineteen;” but the stories of only nine good
women are there told. In the prologue to The Man of Law’s
Tale, sixteen ladies are named as having their stories written in
the “Saints’ Legend of Cupid” — now known as the “Legend of
Good Women” — (see note 5 to the Prologue to the Man of
Law’s Tale); and in the “Retractation,” at the end of the Parson’s
Tale, the “Book of the Twenty-five Ladies” is enumerated
among the works of which the poet repents — but there “xxv” is
supposed to have been by some copyist written for “xix.”
13. fele: many; German, “viele.”
14. Arras: tapestry of silk, made at Arras, in France.
15. Danger, in the Provencal Courts of Love, was the
allegorical personification of the husband; and Disdain suitably
represents the lover’s corresponding difficulty from the side of
the lady.
16. In The Knight’s Tale, Emily’s yellow hair is braided in a
tress, or plait, that hung a yard long behind her back; so that,
both as regards colour and fashion, a singular resemblance
seems to have existed between the female taste of 1369 and that
of 1869.
17. In an old monkish story — reproduced by Boccaccio, and
from him by La Fontaine in the Tale called “Les Oies de Frere
Philippe” — a young man is brought up without sight or
knowledge of women, and, when he sees them on a visit to the
city, he is told that they are geese.
18. Tabernacle: A shrine or canopy of stone, supported by
pillars.
19. Mister folk: handicraftsmen, or tradesmen, who have
learned “mysteries.”
20. The loves “Of Queen Annelida and False Arcite” formed the
subject of a short unfinished poem by Chaucer, which was
afterwards worked up into The Knight’s Tale.
21. Blue was the colour of truth. See note 36 to the Squire’s
Tale.
22. Blife: quickly, eagerly; for “blive” or “belive.”
23. It will be seen afterwards that Philogenet does not relish it,
and pleads for its relaxation.
24. Feat: dainty, neat, handsome; the same as “fetis,” oftener
used in Chaucer; the adverb “featly” is still used, as applied to
dancing, &c.
25. Solomon was beguiled by his heathenish wives to forsake
the worship of the true God; Samson fell a victim to the wiles of
Delilah.
26. Compare the speech of Proserpine to Pluto, in The
Merchant’s Tale.
27. See note 91 to the Knight’s Tale for a parallel.
28. Flaw: yellow; Latin, “flavus,” French, “fauve.”
29. Bass: kiss; French, “baiser;” and hence the more vulgar
“buss.”
30. Maximian: Cornelius Maximianus Gallus flourished in the
time of the Emperor Anastasius; in one of his elegies, he
professed a preference for flaming and somewhat swelling lips,
which, when he tasted them, would give him full kisses.
31. Dwale: sleeping potion, narcotic. See note 19 to the Reeve’s
Tale.
32. Environ: around; French, “a l’environ.”
33. Cast off thine heart: i.e. from confidence in her.
34. Nesh: soft, delicate; Anglo-Saxon, “nese.”
35. Perfection: Perfectly holy life, in the performance of vows
of poverty, chastity, obedience, and other modes of mortifying
the flesh.
36. All the sin must on our friendes be: who made us take the
vows before they knew our own dispositions, or ability, to keep
them.
37. Cope: The large vestment worn in singing the service in the
choir. In Chaucer’s time it seems to have been a distinctively
clerical piece of dress; so, in the prologue to The Monk’s Tale,
the Host, lamenting that so stalwart a man as the Monk should
have gone into religion, exclaims, “Alas! why wearest thou so
wide a cope?”
38. The three of fatal destiny: The three Fates.
39. Cythere: Cytherea — Venus, so called from the name of
the island, Cythera, into which her worship was first introduced
from Phoenicia.
40. Avaunter: Boaster; Philobone calls him out.
41. The statute: i.e. the 16th.
42. “Metamorphoses” Lib. ii. 768 et seqq., where a general
description of Envy is given.
43. Golden Love and Leaden Love represent successful and
unsuccessful love; the first kindled by Cupid’s golden darts, the
second by his leaden arrows.
44. “Domine, labia mea aperies — et os meam annunciabit
laudem tuam” (“Lord, open my lips — and my mouth will
announce your praise”) Psalms li. 15, was the verse with which
Matins began. The stanzas which follow contain a paraphrase of
the matins for Trinity Sunday, allegorically setting forth the
doctrine that love is the all-controlling influence in the
government of the
universe.
45. “Venite, exultemus,” (“Come, let us rejoice”) are the first
words of Psalm xcv. called the “Invitatory.”
46. “Domine Dominus noster:” The opening words of Psalm
viii.; “O Lord our Lord.”
47. “Coeli enarrant:” Psalm xix. 1; “The heavens declare (thy
glory).”
48. “Domini est terra”: Psalm xxiv. I; “The earth is the Lord’s
and the fulness thereof.” The first “nocturn” is now over, and
the lessons from Scripture follow.
49. “Jube, Domine:” “Command, O Lord;” from Matthew xiv.
28, where Peter, seeing Christ walking on the water, says
“Lord, if it be thou, bid me come to thee on the water.”
50: “Tu autem:” the formula recited by the reader at the end of
each lesson; “Tu autem, Domine, miserere nobis.” (“But do
thou, O Lord, have pity on us!”)
51. “Te Deum Amoris:” “Thee, God of Love (we praise).”
52. Not Tubal, who was the worker in metals; but Jubal, his
brother, “who was the father of all such as handle the harp and
organ” (Genesis iv. 21).
53. “Dominus regnavit:” Psalm xciii. 1, “The Lord reigneth.”
With this began the “Laudes,” or morning service of praise.
54. “Jubilate:” Psalm c. 1, “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord.”
55. “Benedicite:” “Bless ye the Lord;” the opening of the Song
of the Three Children
56. “Laudate:” Psalm cxlvii.; “Praise ye the Lord.”
57. “O admirabile:” Psalm viii 1; “O Lord our God, how
excellent is thy name.”
58. “Benedictus”: The first word of the Song of Zacharias
(Luke i. 68); “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel”
59. In The Knight’s Tale we have exemplifications of the
custom of gathering and wearing flowers and branches on May
Day; where Emily, “doing observance to May,” goes into the
garden at sunrise and gathers flowers, “party white and red, to
make a sotel garland for her head”; and again, where Arcite
rides to the fields “to make him a garland of the greves; were it
of woodbine, or of hawthorn leaves”
THE CUCKOO AND THE NIGHTINGALE.
[THE noble vindication of true love, as an exalting, purifying,
and honour-conferring power, which Chaucer has made in “The
Court of Love,” is repeated in “The Cuckoo and the
Nightingale.” At the same time, the close of the poem leads up
to “The Assembly of Fowls;” for, on the appeal of the
Nightingale, the dispute between her and the Cuckoo, on the
merits and blessings of love, is referred to a parliament of birds,
to be held on the morrow after Saint Valentine’s Day. True, the
assembly of the feathered tribes described by Chaucer, though
held on Saint Valentine’s Day, and engaged in the discussion of
a controversy regarding love, is not occupied with the particular
cause which in the present poem the Nightingale appeals to the
parliament. But “The Cuckoo and the Nightingale” none the less
serves as a link between the two poems; indicating as it does the
nature of those controversies, in matters subject to the supreme
control of the King and Queen of Love, which in the subsequent
poem we find the courtiers, under the guise of birds, debating in
full conclave and under legal forms. Exceedingly simple in
conception, and written in a metre full of musical irregularity
and forcible freedom, “The Cuckoo and the Nightingale” yields
in vividness, delicacy, and grace to none of Chaucer’s minor
poems. We are told that the poet, on the third night of May, is
sleepless, and rises early in the morning, to try if he may hear
the Nightingale sing. Wandering by a brook-side, he sits down
on the flowery lawn, and ere long, lulled by the sweet melody of
many birds and the well-according music of the stream, he falls
into a kind of doze — “not all asleep, nor fully waking.” Then
(an evil omen) he hears the Cuckoo sing before the Nightingale;
but soon he hears the Nightingale request the Cuckoo to
remove far away, and leave the place to birds that can sing. The
Cuckoo enters into a defence of her song, which becomes a
railing accusation against Love and a recital of the miseries
which Love’s servants endure; the Nightingale vindicates Love
in a lofty and tender strain, but is at last overcome with sorrow
by the bitter words of the Cuckoo, and calls on the God of
Love for help. On this the poet starts up, and, snatching a stone
from the brook, throws it at the Cuckoo, who flies away full
fast. The grateful Nightingale promises that, for this service, she
will be her champion’s singer all that May; she warns him
against believing the Cuckoo, the foe of Love; and then, having
sung him one of her new songs, she flies away to all the other
birds that are in that dale, assembles them, and demands that
they should do her right upon the Cuckoo. By one assent it is
agreed that a parliament shall be held, “the morrow after Saint
Valentine’s Day,” under a maple before the window of Queen
Philippa at Woodstock, when judgment shall be passed upon
the Cuckoo; then the Nightingale flies into a hawthorn, and
sings a lay of love so loud that the poet awakes. The five-line
stanza, of which the first, second, and fifth lines agree in one
rhyme, the third and fourth in another, is peculiar to this poem;
and while the prevailing measure is the decasyllabic line used in
the “Canterbury Tales,” many of the lines have one or two
syllables less. The poem is given here without abridgement.]
(Transcriber’s note: Modern scholars believe that Chaucer was
not the author of this poem)
THE God of Love, ah! benedicite,
How mighty and how great a lord is he! <1>
For he can make of lowe heartes high,
And of high low, and like for to die,
And harde heartes he can make free.
He can make, within a little stound,* *moment
Of sicke folke whole, and fresh, and sound,
And of the whole he can make sick;
He can bind, and unbinden eke,
What he will have bounden or unbound.
To tell his might my wit may not suffice;
For he can make of wise folk full nice,* — *foolish
For he may do all that he will devise, —