Your aureate tongis 1 both bene 2 all too lyte 3 For to compile that paradise complete. [The next stanza, which we omit, names many personages that the poet saw: Nature, dame Venus queen, fresh Aurora, Lady Flora sheen, Juno, Diana, and other mighty queens.'] There saw I May, of mirthful monthis queen, Within the garden walking up and down, 85 Of There saw I Nature prèsent her a gown Full lustily these ladies all in fere 5 8 Where that I lay o'er-helit with leavis rank. Syne 14 to dame Flora, on the samyn wise,15 As they that had love in their heartis green; Tongues. 2 Are. 8 Little. Quickly, at once. 5 Company. 6 Pleasure. 7 Covered over, concealed. & Close and high. Countenance, manner. 10 Saluted. 11 In their (own) manner or way. 12 Bright and fair. 13 For nourishing them nobly. 14 Then. 15 In the same manner. 16 Times over (or repeated). 17 Fashion. 16 Pleasant to tell or relate. 19 Resown't (two syllables), resounded. [The poet next sees another court, a court of gods: Cupid the king, Mars, Saturn, Mercurius, &c.] And every one of these, in green arrayit, Their observance right heavenly was to hear; All through a look, which I have bought full dear. 130 [The Queen of Love espies him, and sends her 'archers keen' to arrest him. He is not very greatly alarmed, however, the party was so pleasing for to see.' 'Then came Reason, with Shield of Gold' (THE GOLDEN TARGE) in plate and mail, as Mars armipotent,' to defend him. The fair archers shower their arrows upon him in vain, till a picked company' with all the choice of Venus' chivalry' come up: then the shower of arrows rappit* on as rain.']' Thick was the shot of grounden 3 dartis keen; The awful stour 5 he manly did sustene 6 While Presence cast a powder in his ene,10 And then as drunken man he all forwayit : 11 200 When he was blind the fool with him they playit, 205 And banished him among the boughis green; That sorry sight me suddenly affrayit. [The poet, as he had feared, is now wounded 'to the death well near,' and becomes a woeful prisoner to Lady Beauty.' Several of the fair archers smile or speak comfort to him; at last he is delivered 'unto Heaviness.' Presently 'the Lord of Winds, god Eolus,' blows his bugle 'with wodenes' (madness, fury), and all take to ship. As they sail off, they fire guns 'with powder violent,' causing the poet to spring to his feet.] 1 Mayed, celebrated May. 2Orig. crap. Orig. grundyn, sharpened by grinding. 4 Warded off. 5 The thick shot' pouring on. 6 Sustain. 7 Till. 8 Beauty. Orig. pulder (cf. note to 23). 10 Eyes (cf. old eyen). 11 Wandered, went hither and thither. *Struck, knocked. And as I did awake of my sueving 1 For mirth of Phoebus' tender beamës sheen; In white and red was all the field beseen 6 O reverend Chaucer, rose of rhetors all, 4 245 250 That raise in Britain ever, who reads right, 255 This matter could illuminit have full bright: As far as Mayës morrow does midnight? O moral Gower, and Lydgate laureate, Our rude language has clear illuminate, And fair o'er-gilt our speech, that imperfyte 10 Stood ere 11 your golden pennis schupe 12 to write; This Isle before was bare and desolate Thou little Quair,14 be ever obedient, 260 265 270 Humble, subject, and simple of entent,15 1 From my dreaming. 2 Morning. 3Orig. halesum. delightful (Lat. amænus). 6 Covered, decked out. 275 4 Young. 5 Pleasant, *Tongues. 10 Imperfect. 11 Orig. or. 12 Shaped, prepared. 13 Writing (espe cially in verse). 14 Or Quhair, book. knowing, well-instructed. 15 Unpretending. D 16 Orig. connyng, Is none in to thy garland set on height: 1 Eschame thereof, and draw thee out of sight! Rude is thy weed,2 disteynit,3 bare, and rent, Well ought thou be aférit of the light. NOTES. 1. Star. In original, 'stern:' cf. Ger. stern, and mod. Scotch starn.Began. Orig. 'begouth;' 'begoude,' mod. Scotch, also occurs elsewhere in the poem. 2. Vesper, the evening star; name for Venus, when she appears after sunset. Lat. vesper, Gr. hesperos (evening). -Lucine, Lucína, goddess of light (Lat. lux, genit. lucis), the Moon. 4. Candle. Cf. Fight of Brunanburh, 30, 'Godes candel beorht,' for the bright sun. 6. Fowlis, called (10) 'birdis,' birds. Like es (as in 5, 'beames'), is is plur. ending. 7. Ere, orig. 'or,' the ancient ær. Cf. line 268. Cf. also Sir J. Fortescue, Monarchy, chap. v.: 'which (assignment) shall peraventure cost him right much or he can get his payment;' Psalm xc. 2: or ever thou hadst formed the earth,' where the common metrical version has 'ere;' Shakspeare, Macb. iv. 3: 'Dying, or e'er they sicken.' Coleridge affects the archaic in The Ancient Mariner (244-7): 'I looked to heaven, and tried to pray; But or ever a prayer had gusht, A wicked whisper came, and made My heart as dry as dust.' -Phoebus, the sun. In Homer, an epithet of Apollo, the bright, pure, radiant one; probably from Gr. phaos (phos), light. Later, Apollo is the sun-god, regarded as influenc ing man and nature; hence Phoebus the sun. Cape, loose frock or gown without sleeves, commonly worn by ecclesiastics. ro. Hours, matins, morning prayers; from the Hore of the Rom. Cath. Missal. Cf. Milton, Par. Lost, v. 7, 8: "The shrill matin song Of birds on every bough.' 9-12. Compare the precisely similar description in The Thistle and the Rose, lines 4-6: 'And lusty May, that mother is of flowers, Had made the birdis to begin their hours Amang the tender odours red and white.' 12. Apparellit. The ending it is equivalent to ed. It need not be a separate syllable any more than 'ed.' 16. Aurora, the goddess of dawn, of the red flush of morning. 17. Hang; orig. 'hing' gives better melody. 21. Venus, goddess of Love.Clerks, priests. The songsters are represented as chanting in worship of the goddess. 23. Powderit, besprinkled as with powder or fine dust. From Fr. poudre, Old Fr. pouldre, Lat. pulvěrem, dust. —Beryl, orig. ‘beriall,' shining brilliantly as beryl stones. The beryl is a precious stone of deep rich green colour. 1 Be ashamed. 2 Dress. Stained. Afeard, afraid. 26. O'erscalit &c. The silver colour begins to supplant the purple; and the poet disposes of the purple by pouring it in streams, through what seem to be breaches in the silver space, down upon the trees. There is a conception somewhat similar in the general outline in Coleridge's Ancient Mariner (322-6): 'The thick black cloud was cleft, and still The Moon was at its side; Like waters shot from some high crag, The lightning fell with never a jag, A river steep and wide.' 28-30. Notice the alliteration here, and find many other instances in the poem. 40. Garth, yard, garden, inclosure. Cf. Old English geard. 42. Flora, the queen of flowers. 46-48. Dunbar often employs the device of seeing things in dreams : he saw the Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins as he lay intill a trance.' This was the way also of the author of Piers the Plowman; as Prol. 5-11: 'On a May morning on Malvern hills Me befell a ferly* of fairy, methought; I was very forwandered, † and went me to rest Under a broad bank by a burn's side, And as I lay and leaned and looked in the waters, I slumbered in a sleeping, it sweyned so merry. Then gan I to meten a marvellous sweuene.'? In Passus V., at the beginning, Langley falls asleep over his prayers, and sees the vision of the Seven Deadly Sins. 52. Merse, mast. In those days ships were gorgeously adorned. • Froissart, speaking of the French fleet in 1387, prepared for the invasion of England under Richard II., says the ships were painted with the arms of the commanders, and gilt, with banners, pennons, and standards of silk; and that the masts were painted from top to bottom, glittering with gold.. ... At his second expedition into France in 1417, King Henry V. was in a ship whose sails were of purple silk, most richly embroidered with gold' (Warton, quoted by D. Laing). 57. Lands: apparently singular form of verb with plur. subject, 'ladies.' So 'spreads' (59), 'has' (266). But really the form is a genuine plur. inflection (Northern dialect). 59. As... as: orig. als... as.' So 'als fair as' (67), 'alls fer as' (261). In early Scotch (Northern English), the first 'as' is given in the fuller form. 'As' is for 'als,' 'alse,' shortened from older 'ealswa,' lit. all)-so, altogether (entirely, quite) So. 'Also' is the same word, better preserved, and turned to another use. 67. Homer, the great epic poet of Greece. 69. Tullius, Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.), the greatest of Roman orators. 85. Whom of, of whom. From, because of, on account of whom. The inversion of prep. and relative is common.-Gladdit, gladded, were glad, rejoiced; here intrans. In 6, 'gladding' is trans., = = gladdening. 93. Ourhelit: see Beowulf, 2733, note. -Rank, orig. 'ronk.' So 'bonk,' 'donk,' 'thonk,' rhyming with it. See Beowulf, 2719, note. 101. Syse, or 'syis,' times; the O Eng. sith, journey, road, turn; hence time, in a succession; as ten *Wonder. Tired out with wandering. Sounded. ? Dream. |