Betaken himself. ↩
Regarded with friendship. ↩
Misguided, misled. ↩
Went. ↩
Strike. ↩
Infamy. ↩
He knew no counsel; there was no other resource. ↩
Made merry, was amused by the sport. ↩
Renounce his religion; so, in the “Man of Law’s Tale,” the Sultaness promises her son that she will “reny her lay;” see here. ↩
Commandment. ↩
Notice. ↩
Barn. ↩
As the “tragedy” of Holofernes is founded on the book of Judith, so is that of Antiochus on the 2 Maccabees 9. ↩
By the insurgents under the leadership of Judas Maccabeus; 2 Macc. 8. ↩
Prepare his chariot. ↩
Immediately. ↩
Prevented. ↩
It so cut and gnawed in his entrails. ↩
Unendurable. ↩
Vengeance. ↩
Impious. ↩
Prepare. ↩
Chariot. ↩
Vengeance. ↩
Servants. ↩
Loathsome; from Anglo-Saxon, wiaetan, to loathe. ↩
Body. ↩
Died. ↩
Recompense. ↩
To sum up his career. ↩
Moreover. ↩
Tell. ↩
Noble. ↩
The highest cast on a dicing-cube; here representing the highest favour of fortune. ↩
Generosity. ↩
Government, dominion. ↩
Spirit. ↩
Blame. ↩
West. ↩
Afterwards. ↩
He had married his daughter Julia to Caesar; but she died six years before Pompey’s final overthrow. ↩
Slain; at the battle of Pharsalia, BC 48. ↩
End. ↩
Arranged. ↩
Daggers. ↩
Relate. ↩
Assailed. ↩
Unless. ↩
Dignified propriety. ↩
Pained him. ↩
Apparently a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon phrase, “ord and end,” meaning the whole, the beginning and the end. ↩
Afterwards. ↩
Ever be watchful against her. ↩
At the opening of the story of Croesus, Chaucer has copied from his own translation of Boethius; but the story is mainly taken from the “Romance of the Rose.” ↩
Led. ↩
Shed, poured. ↩
Refrain. ↩
Because. ↩
Dream. ↩
Dreamed. ↩
Glad. ↩
Rays. ↩
Kingdoms. “This reflection,” says Tyrwhttt, “seems to have been suggested by one which follows soon after the mention of Croesus in the passage just cited from Boethius. ‘What other thing bewail the cryings of tragedies but only the deeds of fortune, that with an awkward stroke, overturneth the realms of great nobley?’ ”—in some manuscripts the four “tragedies” that follow are placed between those of Zenobia and Nero; but although the general reflection with which the “tragedy” of Croesus closes might most appropriately wind up the whole series, the general chronological arrangement which is observed in the other cases recommends the order followed in the text. Besides, since, like several other tales, the Monk’s tragedies were cut short by the impatience of the auditors, it is more natural that the “Tale” should close abruptly, than by such a rhetorical finish as these lines afford. ↩
Pedro the Cruel, King of Aragon, against whom his brother Henry rebelled. He was by false pretences inveigled into his brother’s tent, and treacherously slain. Mr. Wright has remarked that “the cause of Pedro, though he was no better than a cruel and reckless tyrant, was popular in England from the very circumstance that Prince Edward (the Black Prince) had embarked in it.” ↩
Thy kingdom and revenues. ↩
Burning coal. ↩
Wickedness, villainy. ↩
Not the Oliver of Charlemagne—but a traitorous Oliver of Armorica, corrupted by a bribe. Ganilion was the betrayer of the Christian army at Roncevalles (see note 3738); and his name appears to have been for a long time used in France to denote a traitor. Duguesclin, who betrayed Pedro into his brother’s tent, seems to be intended by the term “Ganilion Oliver,” but if so, Chaucer has mistaken his name, which was Bertrand—perhaps confounding him, as Tyrwhttt suggests, with Oliver du Clisson, another illustrious Breton of those times, who was also Constable of France, after Duguesclin. The arms of the latter are supposed to be described a little above. ↩
Breach, ruin. ↩
Pierre de Lusignan, King of Cyprus, who captured Alexandria in 1363 (see note 14). He was assassinated in 1369. ↩
Guide. ↩
Reckon. ↩
Know not. ↩
Bernabo Visconti, Duke of Milan, was deposed and imprisoned by his nephew, and died a captive in 1385. His death is the latest historical fact mentioned in the tales; and thus it throws the date of their composition to about the sixtieth year of Chaucer’s age. ↩
Agony. ↩
With difficulty. ↩
Cause him to die. ↩
Made, born. ↩
Dearer. ↩
Lap. ↩
See. ↩
Blame, impute. ↩
Thought. ↩
Died. ↩
Cut off.
