They are all taken from the book of St. Jerome Contra Jovinianum, from which the “Wife of Bath” drew so many of her ancient instances. See note 1741. ↩
Wickedness. ↩
Suddenly leaped. ↩
Forcibly bereft. ↩
Caught, clasped. ↩
Pluck away by force. ↩
Same. ↩
Slay. ↩
Ravished. ↩
Panthea. Abradatas, King of Susa, was an ally of the Assyrians against Cyrus; and his wife was taken at the conquest of the Assyrian camp. Struck by the honourable treatment she received at the captors hands, Abradatas joined Cyrus, and fell in battle against his former alhes. His wife, inconsolable at his loss, slew herself immediately. ↩
Better. ↩
In circumstances of the same kind. ↩
Avenged, vindicated. ↩
Chose. ↩
Her husband. She begged the gods, after his death, that but three hours’ converse with him might be allowed her; the request was granted; and when her dead husband, at the expiry of the time, returned to the world of shades, she bore him company. ↩
The daughter of Cato of Utica, Porcia married Marcus Brutus, the friend and the assassin of Julius Caesar; when her husband died by his own hand after the battle of Philippi, she committed suicide, it is said, by swallowing live coals—all other means having been removed by her friends. ↩
Artemisia, Queen of Caria, who built to her husband Mausolus, the splendid monument which was accounted among the wonders of the world; and who mingled her husband’s ashes with her daily drink. “Barbarie” is used in the Greek sense, to designate the non-Hellenic peoples of Asia. ↩
Queen of Illyria, who, after her husband’s death, made war on and was conquered by the Romans, BC 228. ↩
At this point, in some manuscripts, occur the following two lines:—
“The same thing I say of Bilia,
Of Rhodegone and of Valeria.”
Die. ↩
Demeanour. ↩
Relate. ↩
Assuredly. ↩
If. ↩
Certainly. ↩
I had rather be slain. ↩
Readiest. ↩
Prepared; going. To “boun” or “bown” is a good old word, whence comes our word “bound,” in the sense of “on the way.” ↩
Promised. ↩
Pity. ↩
Rather. ↩
Rude outrage. ↩
Generosity. ↩
Rather. ↩
Pity. ↩
Sunder, split up. ↩
Surety. ↩
Reproach. ↩
Of no (breach of) promise. ↩
Doubt. ↩
Gone. ↩
Satisfied. ↩
Utterly lost. ↩
Promised. ↩
Purified, refined. ↩
Ruined, undone. ↩
Unless. ↩
Time to pay up. ↩
Gravely. ↩
Sighed. ↩
Rather. ↩
Also. ↩
Before. ↩
Such an ocular deception, or apparition—more properly, disappearance—as the removal of the rocks. ↩
Dear. ↩
Doubt. ↩
Labour, pains. ↩
Generous, liberal; the same question is stated a the end of Boccaccio’s version of the story in the Philocopo, where the queen determines in favour of Aviragus. The question is evidently one of those which it was the fashion to propose for debate in the medieval “courts of love.” ↩
Know, can tell. ↩
The authenticity of the prologue is questionable. It is found in one manuscript only; other manuscripts give other prologues, more plainly not Chaucer’s than this; and some manuscripts have merely a colophon to the effect that “Here endeth the ‘Franklin’s Tale’ and beginneth the ‘Physician’s Tale’ without a prologue.” The “Tale” itself is the well-known story of Virginia, with several departures from the text of Livy. Chaucer probably followed the “Romance of the Rose” and Gower’s Confessio Amantis, in both of which the story is found. ↩
Livy, Book III cap. 44, et seqq. ↩
Care. ↩
Ask. ↩
Glory. ↩
Beams, rays. ↩
Mind, spirit. ↩
Moderation. ↩
Utterance, speech; from Latin, facundia, eloquence. ↩
Diligent, eager. ↩
Other readings are “thought” and “youth.” ↩
Of old. ↩
Governesses, duennas. ↩
Wickedness; French, mechancete. ↩
Be slack, fail. ↩
Forsaken, left. ↩
Gluttony. ↩
Wicked, evil. ↩
Heed. ↩
Oversight. ↩
Pay for, suffer for. ↩
Goodness. ↩
Misfortune. ↩
This line seems to be a kind of aside thrown in by Chaucer himself. ↩
Observing. ↩
Bribe, reward. ↩
The various readings of this word are “churl,” or “cherl,” in the best manuscripts; “client” in the common editions, and “clerk” supported by two important manuscripts. “Client” would perhaps be the best reading, if it were not awkward for the metre; but between “churl” and “clerk” there can be little doubt that Mr. Wright chose
