The parlament of foules, by Geoffrey Chaucer. Ed., with introduction, notes, and glossary, by T. R. Lounsbury.

NOTES.
[THE notes with the name of " Bell "attached are taken from Robert Bell's edition
of Chaucer's Poetical Works, published at London in i862.]
I. This first line is simply a variation of the phrase, " Life is short, art is long,"
which has come down to us from Greek and Roman writers.
13, I4. The phrase, " But God save swich a lord," is the object of "seyn." The
modern construction would omit the negative "nat;" and the passage would read,
"I can but say, God save such a lord."
3. The Drem of Scizaion. For an account and translation of this, see Introduction, p. I ff.
As Macrobius preserved it, or, at least, as it is now printed, this episode has
nine chapters, instead of seven; but the first two are introductory, and were, possibly,
not considered by Chaucer as bearing upon the subject of the present and the future
life.
62. That welle is. Most of the MSS. have, for welle and is, welles and ben. In
such a case, the antecedent of that is speris, instead of melodye. Either reading
makes good sense.
68. The Platonic year, in which every star or constellation returns to its former
position as respects the equinoxes, embraces about twenty-six thousand years.
73. Imanzortal. All of the MSS., except A and E, read mortal; but the Latin
shows immortal to be correct. Chaucer had read his author, if the copyists of the
MSS. had not.
All allusions from the fifth to the twelfth verses inclusive can be understood by
consulting the translation of "The Dream of Scipio" in the Introduction.
85. The three lines which begin with line 85 were pointed out in Notes and
Queries, ist Series, Vol. vii., No. 187, by a correspondent, J. M. B. of Tunbridge
Wells, as being taken from Dante: -
"Lo giorno se n'andava, e i'aer bruno
Toglieva gli animal che sono in terra
Dalle fatiche loro." -Inferno, ii. I.
Translated by Longfellow as follows: -
"Day was departing, and the imbrowned air
Released the animals that are on earth
From their fatigues."
87