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

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NOTES.

now-a-days." Tht epithet "plain" applied to the shaft seems to be spoken of
those used in war which were not pieced or ornamented, as frequently were those
which were used in practice. "Some use," says Ascham, "to piece their shafts in
the nock with brazil or holly to counterweigh with the head; and I have seen some,
for the same purpose, bore a hole a little beneath the nock, and put lead in it."
181, 182. The allusions to the olive as the emblem of peace, and to the palm as the
emblem of victory, are too well and widely known to need any thing more than
reference. The laurel, or bay-tree, was sacred to Apollo, the god of divination.
"The reader," says Bell, "will observe the life and spirit which the personification of the several trees gives to this catalogue. It is common in French, even
in prose; as, for instance, the weeping-willow is le saule pleureur, the weeper
willow."
183. From this line to line 294, the best commentary is the passage of Boccaccio,
Rossetti's translation of which will be found in the Introduction, p. 17 ff.
214. His doughtyr. The daughter of Cupid, unknown to classic mythology, is
Voluptas, or Pleasure, as is seen from the corresponding passage in Boccaccio.
228. Other thre. In Boccaccio the "other three" are Audacity, Glozing, and Pimps;
and they are, perhaps, the ones referred to by Chaucer. The objection to this, however, is, that the three have seemingly already been spoken' of by the poet under the
names of " Fool-hardynesse " and " Flaterye" and " Messagerye."
237. Davis. In ancient mythology, the birds sacred to Venus were the dove, the
sparrow, the swan, the swallow, and the wry-neck.
240. Dame Pes sat with a curtyn in hire hand. " Peace sits before the temple-gate,
because the quiet and leisure of a state of peace are favorable to the pursuits of gallantry. She holds a curtain in her hand, perhaps because refinement of manners, the
offspring of peace, draws a veil or curtain over what is gross and offensive " (Bell).
242. Pacience. See Introduction, p. 21.
253. Pria/pns. Priapus was the Roman god of fruitfulness. The story here referred
to can be found in the first book of the " Fasti" of Ovid, line 415 if. Chaucer must
have been familiar with the adventure as told by the Roman poet, as well as the
reference to it contained in Boccaccio.
26I. Venus. The MS. upon which this text is founded reads, for Venus, Febs.
What is meant by the word it is hard to determine. Mr. Furnivall suggests Phoebus.
It is only in this manuscript that this reading, which seems to be a blunder of the
scribe, is found.
26i. Venus and her forter Richesse. In the description of the Temple of Venus
in "The Knightes Tale," which should be compared with this, Idleness acts as the
porter; in this, Riches. Idleness is the porter of the garden in " The Romaunt of
the Rose," line 593 (line 584, Michel). Riches kept the way to the castle within the
garden, in which Free Welcoming was shut up (line 10805, Michel).
277. Cypride. The name of Cypride (Latin Cyfiris, Cyfiridis) was given to Venus
by the later Latin poets, because the Island of Cyprus was represented as one of her
favorite dwellings, and was widely celebrated for the worship paid to her. The
description of her as lying down between Ceres, the goddess of agriculture and fruit,
and Bacchus, or Liber, the god of wine, is an allusion to the well-known Latin proverbial expression, " Sine Cerere et Libero friget Venus; " that is, " Without food and
wine, love grows cold."
286. The list of persons mentioned in this and the following stanza as victims to