Notes to The Man of Law's Tale

by Geoffrey Chaucer

　　1. This tale is believed by Tyrwhitt to have been taken, with no material change, from the "Confessio Amantis" of John Gower, who was contemporary with Chaucer, though somewhat his senior. In the prologue, the references to the stories of Canace, and of Apollonius Tyrius, seem to be an attack on Gower, who had given these tales in his book; whence Tyrwhitt concludes that the friendship between the two poets suffered some interruption in the latter part of their lives. Gower was not the inventor of the story, which he found in old French romances, and it is not improbable that Chaucer may have gone to the same source as Gower, though the latter undoubtedly led the way. (Transcriber's note: later commentators have identified the introduction describing the sorrows of poverty, along with the other moralising interludes in the tale, as translated from "De Contemptu Mundi" ("On the contempt of the world") by Pope Innocent.)

　　2. Transcriber' note: This refers to the game of hazard, a dice game like craps, in which two ("ambes ace") won, and eleven ("six-cinque") lost.

　　3. Purpose: discourse, tale: French "propos".

　　4. "Peace" rhymed with "lese" and "chese", the old forms of "lose" and "choose".

　　5. According to Middle Age writers there were two motions of the first heaven; one everything always from east to west above the stars; the other moving the stars against the first motion, from west to east, on two other poles.

　　6. Atyzar: the meaning of this word is not known; but "occifer", murderer, has been suggested instead by Urry, on the authority of a marginal reading on a manuscript. (Transcriber's note: later commentators explain it as derived from Arabic "al-ta'thir", influence - used here in an astrological sense)

　　7. "Thou knittest thee where thou art not receiv'd, Where thou wert well, from thennes art thou weiv'd" i.e. "Thou joinest thyself where thou art rejected, and art declined or departed from the place where thou wert well." The moon portends the fortunes of Constance.

　　8. Fand: endeavour; from Anglo-Saxon, "fandian," to try

　　9. Feng: take; Anglo-Saxon "fengian", German, "fangen".

　　10. Him and her on which thy limbes faithfully extend: those who in faith wear the crucifix.

　　11. The four spirits of tempest: the four angels who held the four winds of the earth and to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea (Rev. vii. 1, 2).

　　12. Thennes would it not in all a tide: thence would it not move for long, at all.

　　13. A manner Latin corrupt: a kind of bastard Latin.

　　14. Knave child: male child; German "Knabe".

　　15. Heried: honoured, praised; from Anglo-Saxon, "herian." Compare German, "herrlich," glorious, honourable.

　　16. Beknow: confess; German, "bekennen."

　　17. The poet here refers to Gower's version of the story.

　　18. Stound: short time; German, "stunde", hour.

　　19. Gestes: histories, exploits; Latin, "res gestae".