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4. Zalquaquine

4.ZALQUAQUINE: FOOTNOTES

1 Ho, who; wol, will.

2 her, their.

3 bene, been.

4 her, their.

6 displesaunte, unpleasant.

8 teche, teach.

10 merveile, marvel; mete, food; noyeth, annoys.

13 wele, well.

4. ZALQUAQUINE: EXPLANATORY NOTES

ABBREVIATIONS: B = Dicts and Sayings of the Philosophers, ed. Bühler (1941); CA = Gower's Confessio Amantis; CT = Chaucer's Canterbury Tales; G = Pierpont Morgan Library MS G.66; MED = Middle English Dictionary; OED = Oxford English Dictionary; S = Scrope, Dicts and Sayings of the Philosophers, ed. Schofield (1936).

These explanatory notes cannot hope to provide a complete accounting for the source of every proverbial statement in Dicts and Sayings. That task would be a separate book in its own right. Instead, I have attempted to contextualize this rather heterogeneous body of lore by identifying the people and places named in the text, as well as noting points that may be of interest to students and general readers. Those interested in tracing the source of particular quotations should begin by consulting Whiting's Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases From English Writings Mainly Before 1500. Readers are also invited to consult the thorough notes to Knust's Bocados de Oro, the Spanish translation of the original Arabic ancestor of Dicts and Sayings.

1 Zalquaquine. Schofield identifies Zalquaquine with Aesculapius, son of Apollo and tutored by the centaur Chiron (S, p. 207n17). In the Homeric tradition he is a great physician slain by Zeus, who fears that man would become immortal under Aesculapius' care. By Roman times Aesculapius was revered as a deity himself.

4. ZALQUAQUINE: TEXTUAL NOTES

7 And. G: nd preceded by a blank space for a capital A.

 
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[fol. 8r] Zalquaquine seith: "Ho that knowith the daye, he wol aryse more erly." And
seith that men resceyven their goodis that thei have in erthe of her Creatour nat-
withstonding that thei do synne, yet bene thei bounden to thanke God of the
goodes that He hath sente hem and to aske forgevenes of her evell dedis. And
seith: "Many thingis semyn goode and ben moche preysed that aftir be moche
blamed, and many thingis ben displesaunte at the begynnynge whiche afitrwarde
bene gretly desired." And seith: "It is bettir to thee to have grete nede thanne for
to borow at him whiche thu haste no truste inne." And seith: "Yf thu woldeste teche
a foole, thu shalt make him more fool thanne he was before." And seith: "I have
grete merveile of hem that done abstynence of mete, whiche that noyeth the body,
and absteyneth nat hemself fro synne, whiche noyeth the soule." And seith: "Lete
scilence be multiplied in you, for it shal put awey periles, and use trouth, whiche
is the lernyng of talis." And seith: "Ho that wole kepe wele the lawe shulde leeve
of his good to his frende, and to be gracious to him that he knowith that wil nat
denye justice to his enemye, and to kepe from alle thingis that touchith his dis-
honour."


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