The complete works of John Gower, volume 1 : $b The French works

VII. Margin damaged in the Trentham MS., as above mentioned. For the story cp. Conf. Am. ii. 2145 ff. and iv. 2045 ff.

1. El grant desert, &c. Cp. Chaucer, Monkes Tale, l. 128.

5. Achelons: so in Conf. Am. iv. 2068. Chaucer has ‘Achiloyns,’ wrongly given ‘Achiloyus’ in some editions.

9. Eolen: this is the form of the name used in the Conf. Am. v. 6808 ff.

11. d’Eurice: ‘Euricie’ in the Latin margin; cp. ‘The kinges dowhter of Eurice,’ Conf. Am. ii. 2267. It is taken as the name of a country, but no doubt this results from a misunderstanding of some such expression as Ovid’s ‘Eurytidosque Ioles,’ ‘of Iole the daughter of Eurytus,’ taken to mean ‘Eurytian Iole.’

Herculem: cp. ‘Medeam’ in viii. l. 12.

17. l’auctour: probably Ovid, Met. ix.

VIII. Cp. Mir. 3725 ff. and Conf. Am. v. 3247 ff.

13. Creusa, a dissyllable, as in Conf. Am. v. 4196 ff.

IX. Cp. Conf. Am. iii. 1885 ff.

X. 8. Cp. Conf. Am. vii. 4757 ff.

15. Cp. Conf. Am. i. 761 ff.

18. enbastiront tout le plai, ‘contrived the whole matter.’ The word ‘plait’ or ‘plee’ means properly a process at law, hence a process or design of any kind: ‘bastir un plait’ is the same thing as ‘faire un plait,’ used of designing or proposing a thing. See Burguy, Gram. ii. under ‘plait’ in the Glossary.

XI. Cp. Conf. Am. i. 2459 ff.

3. com cil qui: see note on Mir. 27942.

XII. Cp. Conf. Am. v. 5551 ff.

19. hupe: the Conf. Am. v. 6041 says, ‘A lappewincke mad he was.’ The two birds might easily be confused because both are marked by the crest which in this case (according to the Confessio Amantis) determined the transformation. A similar confusion appears in Mirour 8869, where the bird that misleads people as to the place of its nest is no doubt meant for a lapwing.

XIII. 10. This punctuation is more in the manner of the author and also gives a better balance to the sentence than if we made the pause after ‘avoir’: so ‘du roi mais’ in the next line: see note on Bal. xx. l. 2.

13. dont, consecutive, answering to ‘tiele’: see note on Mir. 217.

XIV. 7. qui, ‘whom.’

10. Maisqu’il chaoit: cp. Bal. xvii. l. 27. ‘He had not power to keep his body from falling into the pains of love.’

13. a l’omicide esguarde, ‘looks towards murder.’

XV. 1-10. The losses at the beginnings of these lines in the Fairfax MS. are as follows: Comun | De Lan | Enqore ma | Pour essamp | Cil q’est gu | Droitz est | Car be | To | U que | Deu |

7. Car beal oisel, &c., cp. Mir. 7969.

10. Cp. Conf. Am. vi. 330 ff.

13. Parentre deux: cp. Bal. xxvii. l. 24, Mir. 1178.

XVI. Cp. Mir. 17089 ff., Conf. Am. v. 6393 ff.

XVII. 2. ‘This the faith pledged with the right hand requires.’ For ‘plevie au destre main’ cp. Bal. xxiii. l. 5.

9. ert, ‘there shall be,’ cp. Mir. 17689. Both future and conditional are used to express command or obligation.

13. This is the traditional character of Gawain ‘the Courteous’:

XVIII. 22. This Envoy, though it may be taken to have reference to the whole series of balades composing the Traitié, belongs in form to the concluding balade and speaks of it specially, ‘ceste Balade envoie.’ It is addressed to the world generally, ‘Al université de tout le monde,’ and, as was the wont of Englishmen who wrote in French, the author asks pardon for his deficiencies of language.

The Latin lines ‘Quis sit vel qualis’ follow the Traitié, so far as I know, in every existing copy, and must be taken in connexion with it. In all except one of the MSS. these first nine lines are followed, as in the text given, by the short Carmen de variis in amore passionibus beginning ‘Est amor in glosa,’ and this is followed by the eight lines beginning ‘Lex docet auctorum.’ In the Trentham copy, however, the intervening Carmen is omitted and these last eight lines are given as if they formed one piece with the first nine.

‘Quis sit vel qualis,’ &c.

2. mentalis sit amor, &c. I take this to mean, ‘so that there may be such spiritual love (as I have described) in the order’; but it is not very clear, and it must be noted that F punctuates after ‘mentalis.’

3 f. ‘We may fear what is to come by the example of what is past; to-morrow as yesterday the flesh may be lightly stirred.’

Carmen de variis, &c.

With this compare Bal. xlviii., and Rom. de la Rose, 4320 ff.,

1. in glosa, ‘by interpretation.’

‘Lex docet auctorum,’ &c.

1. quod iter, &c., ‘that the fleshly pilgrimage is more secure for those who have the bands of wedlock upon them.’

5. quasi regula: apparently comparing marriage to a monastic rule, into which men are gathered for their salvation.

7. Hinc vetus annorum. The comment on this concluding couplet is to be found in the record of the poet’s marriage, in the year 1397-8, to Agnes Groundolf.