A Literary History of the English People Part 36

[494] "Hous of Fame," ll. 469, 473, 492.

[495]

Thorgh me men goon in-to that blisful place ...

Thorgh me men goon unto the welle of Grace, &c.

These lines were "over the gate with lettres large y-wroghte," ll. 124, 127.

[496]

S'amor non e, che dunque e quel ch'i sento?

which becomes in Chaucer the "Cantus Troili":

If no love is, O G.o.d, what fele I so?

(Book i. stanza 58.)

[497] l. 449.

[498]

In sogno mi parea veder sospesa Un' aquila nel ciel con penne d'oro Con l'ali aperte, ed a calare intesa....

Poi mi parea, che piu rotata un poco, Terribil come folgor discendesse, E me rap.i.s.se suso infino al foco.

("Purgatorio," canto ix.)

In Chaucer:

Me thoughte I saw an egle sore ...

Hit was of golde and shoon so bright That never saw men such a sighte ...

Me, fleinge, at a swappe he hente, And with his sours agayn up wente, Me caryinge in his clawes starke.

(ll. 449, 503, 542.)

[499]

I wol now singe, if that I can The armes, and al-so the man, &c.

(l. 142.)

Hereupon follows a complete but abbreviated account of the events in the aeneid, Dido's story being the only part treated at some length.

[500] "Complete Works," vol. iii. The poem was left unfinished; it is written in octosyllabic couplets, with four accents or beats.

[501] Compare, for example, the beginning of "Hous of Fame," and No. 487 of _The Spectator_ (Sept. 18, 1712):

G.o.d turne us every dreem to G.o.de!

For hit is wonder, by the rode, To my wit what causeth swevenes Either on morwes or on evenes; And why the effect folweth of somme, And of somme hit shal never come; Why this is an avisioun, And this a revelacioun ...

Why this a fantom, these oracles.

Addison writes: "Tho' there are many authors who have written on Dreams, they have generally considered them only as revelations of what has already happened in distant parts of the world, or as presages of what is to happen in future periods of time," &c.

[502] l. 1191.

[503] l. 1242.

[504] l. 1830.

[505] l. 2047.

[506] l. 2078. _Cf._ La Fontaine's "Les Femmes et le Secret."

[507] "Parlement of Foules," l. 186.

[508] Boccaccio's story is told in stanzas of eight lines, and has for its t.i.tle "Il Filostrato" (love's victim: such was at least the sense Boccaccio attributed to the word). Text in "Le Opere volgari di Giov.

Boccaccio," Florence, 1831, 8vo, vol. xiii.

[509] Text in "Complete Works," vol. iii. It is divided into five books and written in stanzas of seven lines, rhyming _a b a b b c c_. See the different texts of this poem published by the Chaucer Society; also Kitredge, "Chaucer's Language in his Troilus," Chaucer Society, 1891.

For a comparison between the English and the Italian texts see Rossetti "Troylus and Cressida, compared with Boccaccio's Filostrato," Chaucer Society, 1875. About one-third of Chaucer's poem is derived from Boccaccio. It is dedicated to Gower and to "philosophical Strode" (see above, p. 290), both friends of the poet.

[510] Book i. st. 28.

[511] And, as the nurse, gets out of breath, so that he cannot speak:

... O veray G.o.d, so have I ronne!

Lo, nece myn, see ye nought how I swete?

Book ii. st. 210. Says the Nurse:

Jesu, what haste! can you not stay awhile?

Do you not see that I am out of breath?

[512] Turned later into English verse by Lydgate, to be read as a supplementary Tale of Canterbury: "Here begynneth the sege of Thebes, ful lamentably told by Johnn Lidgate monke of Bury, annexynge it to ye tallys of Canterbury," MS. Royal 18 D ii. in the British Museum. The exquisite miniatures of this MS. represent Thebes besieged with great guns, fol. 158; Creon's coronation by two bishops wearing mitres and gold copes, fol. 160, see below, p. 499.

[513] Book ii. st. 46.

[514] Book ii. st. 100 ff.

[515] Book ii. st. 182.

[516] Book iii. st. 163 and 170.

[517] Book iii. st 173. Boccaccio's Griselda has nothing to be compared to those degrees in feeling and tenderness. She laughs at the newly wedded ones, and ignores blushes as well as doubts ("Filostrato," iii.

st. 29 ff.).

[518] Book iii. st. 188.