The Siege of Thebes: Prima Pars

by: John Lydgate (Author) , Robert R. Edwards (Editor)

from: The Siege of Thebes  2001

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Prima Pars. "Sirs," quod I, "sith of your curtesye I entred am into your companye And admitted a tale for to telle By hym that hath power to compelle (I mene our hoste, governour, and guyde Of yow echon ridyng her beside), Thogh that my wit barayn be and dul, I wol reherce a story wonderful, Towchinge the siege and destruccioun Of worthy Thebees the myghty royal toun, Bylt and begonne of olde antiquité, Upon the tyme of worthy Josué, Be dyligence of kyng Amphioun, Chief cause first of his fundacioun, For which his fame which nevere shal away, In honure floureth yit unto this day, And in story remembred is and preised. But how the wallys weren on heghte reised, It is wonder and merveil forto here. But if ye list, I shal yow platly lere The maner hool shortly in sentence, Under support of youre pacience, As writ myn auctour and Bochas bothe two. Rede her bookes and ye shal fynde it so, How this kyng, thys prudent Amphyoun, With the swetnesse and melodious soun And armonye of his swete song The cyté bylt that whilom was so strong, Be vertue only of the werbles sharpe That he made in Mercuries harpe, Of which the strenges were not touched softe, Wherby the walles reised weren alofte, Withoute craft of eny mannys hond, Ful yoor agon myd of Grekes lond; Which is a thing of poetes told, Nevere yseyn neither of yong nor old. But as Bochas list to specifie, Cler expownyng this derke poysye, Seith Mercurye, god of eloquence, Gaf be the myght of hevenly influence Unto this kyng at his nativité Thorgh glade aspectes that he shulde be Most excellent be craft of rethorik, That in this world was non to hym lik; Which signyfieth to hem that ben prudent The musycal, the lusty instrument (I mene the harpe most melodious), Gove to this kynge be Mercurius; And his song, this auctour can yow teche, Was nothyng but the crafty speche Of this kyng ycalled Amphioun; Wherby he made the contrés envyroun To han such lust in his wordes swete That were so plesaunt, favourable, and mete In her eerys that shortly ther was noon Disobeysaunt with the kyng to goon, Whersoevere that hym list assigne. His cheer, his port was outward so benygne That thorgh his styring and exortacioun With hym they went to byld first this toun And forsook ecch man his contré Be on assent to make this cyté Royal and riche that lich was nowher noon. And thus the wallis made of lym and stoon Were reysed first be syngyng of this kyng, Lich as poetys feyne in her writyng, Passyng rich and royal of entaille. Her may ye see how myche may avaylle The goodlihed and lownesse of a kyng, And specealy in cher and in spekyng To his lyeges and to bern hym fayre In his apport and shewe hym debonayre And nat to bene to straunge ne soleyn In contenaunce outward be disdeyn; Which causeth ofte, who that can adverte, Grete hatred in the puples herte, And therupon prively wol rowne, Whan a prynce doth upon hem frowne, Shortly deme for al his excellence, Among hemsilf out of his presence, Everych conclude lich his fantasye. And thus ful ofte gendred is envye In folkes hertes of soleynté and pryde, For swich as list nat onys loke asyde To reward hem whan they lowe loute. And ageyn kynde it is, out of doute, That eny hed be recorde of the wyse Shuld the foot of disdeyn despyse Which bereth hym up, who so can take hede, And susteneth in his moste nede As his pyler and his sowpowayle. For fynaly ne wer the porayle Her berer up and supportacioun, Farwel lordshyp and domynacioun Thorghoute the world of every hegh estat! Wherfor me semeth mor is fortunat Of Mercurye the soote sugred harpe Than Mars swerd whetted kene and sharpe, Mor accepted with asspectis goode Than is this god with his lokes woode. For humble speche with glad contenaunce May a prynce sothly mor avaunce Among his puple hertes forto wynne Of inward love which that wol not twynne, Than gold, rychesse, pride, or tyranye, Oyther disdeyne, daunger, or surquedye. For of lordes - clerkes can reporte - But that love her crowne do supporte, The fyn ys nought in conclusioun. I take record of kyng Amphyoun That bylte Thebes be his elloquence Mor than of pride or of violence, Noble and riche that lik was nowher non, And thus the walles mad of lym and stoon Were reised first be syngyng of this kyng, Lich as poetes feyn in her wryting. But sothly yit some expositours, Groundyng hem upon olde auctours, Seyn that Cadmus the famous olde man Ful longe afor this cité first began, And the ground of the bieldyng sette, And the boundes be compas out he mette With thong outkorve of a boolys hyde, Whych envyroun strecche myghte wyde To get inne londe a ful large space Wherupon to byld a dwellyng place, And called was the soyle thus geten inne Whylom Boece of the bolys skynne. The name after into Thebes turned. But Cadmus ther hath longe not sojourned, Lik in story as it is compyled; For shortly he from thennys was exiled, Never after to dwelle in this toun, Be the knyghthode of this Amphioun, Which up parformeth riche for the noonys The cité Thebes of myghty squar stonys, As I yow tolde a litil heretoforn; And Cadmus thus hath his kyngdam lorn, Sceptre and crowne and his powere royal. Now have I told unto you ground of al, That ye wel knowe be informacioun Cleerly the pith and exposicioun Of this mater, as clerkes can you telle. It were but veyn lenger for to dwelle, To tary yow as in this matiere, Sith my tale which that ye shal here Upon oure waie wil lasten a longe while, The space as I suppose of seven myle. And now ye know first how Amphyoun Bylt and began this cité and this toun, Regnyng ther long aftere, as I rede. Of hym no more, for I wil procede To my purpoos that I first began, Not tellyng here how the lyne ran From kyng to kyng be successioun, Conveying doun the stok of Amphyoun Cereously be lyneal discent; But leve al this, pleynly of entent, To telle forth, in bookes as I rede, How Layus be processe gan succede To bere the croune in this myghty lond, Holdyng the sceptre of Thebes in his hond, Manly and wys duryng al his liff. And Jocasta called was his wyff, Ful wommanly the story seith certeyn, For a tyme thogh she were bareyn, Tyl Layus in ful humble wise To have a child did sacrifise Fyrst t'Apollo in his char so bright And Jubiter that hath so gret a myght, Besechyng hem with devout reverence To graunt only thorgh her influence That his request may excecuted be; And specially to goddesses thre He besoughte - Pallas and Juno And Dyane - forto helpe also That he be not defrauded of his bone. And his preyere accepted was ful sone, That fynaly thorgh his ryytys olde, Evene lik as his herte wolde, The queene Jocasta hath anon conceyved. Which, whan the kyng fully hath perceyved, He made in hast, hym lyst not to abide, Thorgh hys kyngdom massageres ryde Fro coost to coost the story can devyse, For dyvynoures and phylosophres wise, For such as weren famous physiciens And wel expert astronomyens To come in hast unto his presence To fynde out shortly in sentence, By craft only of calculacioun, The chyldes fate and disposicioun And therupon to geve a jugement, The root ytake at the ascendent, Trewly sought out be mynut and degré, The silfe houre of his natyvyté, Not forgete the hevenly mansiouns Clerly cerched be smale fracciouns, First be secoundes, tiers, and eke quartes On augrym stoones and on white caartes Ypreved out be diligent labour, In tables correcte devoyde of al errour, Justly soght and founde out bothe twoo, The yeeres collecte and expance also, Consydred ek be good inspeccioun Every hour and constellacioun And eche aspecte and lookes ek dyvers, Which were good and which also pervers, Wher they were toward or ellys at debat, Happy, welful, or infortunat. And fynaly, in conclusyoun, They founde Satourn in the Scorpioun, Hevy-chered, malencolik and loth, And woode Mars furious and wroth, Holdyng his sceptre in the Capricorn, The same hour whan this chyld was born, Venus dejecte and contrarious And depressed in Mercuryes hous; That the dome and jugement fynal Of thies clerkes, to speke in special, Be fatal sort which may not be withdrawe, That with his swerd his fader shal be slawe: Ther may no man helpe it nor excuse.    On whiche thyng the kyng gan sore muse, And cast he wolde on that other side Agayn her doom for hymsilf provide, Shape a way and remedy toforn, Biddyng the queene whan the chyld were born, Withoute mercy or moderly pyté, That he be ded: that may non other be. And in al hast lik as he hath sent, She obeyed his comaundement. With wooful herte and a pitous loke And face pale, her yonge sone she toke, Tendre and grene both of flessh and bonys, To certeyn men ordeyned for the noonys From poynt to poynt in al maner thing To execute the biddyng of the kyng. They durste not delay it nor abide, But to a forest that stood fer besyde, They took her wey and faste gan hem spede The kyngges wille to parforme in dede, Havyng therof passyng hevynesse. But whan that they beheelden the fairnesse Of the chyld and excellent beauté, In her herte they hadde grete pyté And pleynly cast - among hem was no stryf - That the child shulde han his lif. And anon ful hygh upon a tre, In a place that no man myght se, They henge hym up, the story kan reherce. But first his feet thorgh they gan to perce, And on bowes tendre, tough, and smale, They knet hym up shortly (this is no tale), Hym to preserve from bestys wild and rage, And after that token her viage Toward Thebes in alle the hast they may. But of fortune thilke same day With her houndes serchyng up and doun, The huntes went of kyng Poliboun Thorgh the forest game forto fynde, Some aforn and some cam behynde, And gan serch and seke wonder sore Among the hilles and the haltes hore. And as they reenge the trenchis by and by, They herde a noyse and a pitous cry Of thys chyld hangyng on the tre, And all at onys drowe forto se, And lefte not to they han hym founde, And toke hym doune and his fete unbounde, And bare hym hom unto Polyboun, Kyng of Archadye, the famous regioun. And whan that he first the chyld gan see, Of his woundes he hadde grete pyté To beholde his tender fete so blede, And called hym Edippus, as I rede, Which is to seyn (platly this no phage) Bored the feete, as in that langage. And first the kyng in his royal halle Made his men an norys forto calle, This yonge chylde to foster and to kepe With her milk that he nat ne wepe; And his leches he charged ek also, Til he were hool her dever forto do: Fully in purpoos, for the child was fair, After his day to maken hym his hayr For cause only, who so taketh hede, Sone hadde he noon be lyne to succede; And wher that he had a wif or noon, I fynde not and therfor lat it goon. But by processe of dayes and of yeeris, This Edyppus among his pleying feeris Was in his port passyng ful of pride, That non with hym myght in pees abide. In hert he was so inly surquydows, Malencolik, and contrarious, Ful of despyt and of hegh disdeyn, That no wight durst shortly hym withseyn; Til on a day he gan with oon debate To whoom he hadde specyaly grete hate, Which of rancour and of hasty tene, As he that myght his pride not sustene, Gan upon hym cruelly abrayde, And unto hym felly thus he saide. "Wherto," quod he, "artow so proude of port, Contrarie also ever in oure disport, Froward and felle lastyng evere in oon, As thow were lord of us everichon, And presumest fully in wyrchyng, Lik as thow were sone unto the kyng, And descended of his royal blood? But wher so be thow be wroth or wood, Thow art no thing, and thow list take hede, Appartenyng unto his kynrede But in a forest founden and unknowe, Whan thow were yonge. Therfor bere thee lowe! And uttrely remembre, yif thee lyst, Thy byrth and blood ar bothe two unwist. This the fyne shortly of my tale." Wherwith Edippus gan to wexe pale, And chaunge also cheer and contenaunce, And gan apoint in his remembraunce Word be word and feyned right nought, And felly mused in his owne thought, And cast he wold withoute more tarying The trouth enquere of Poliboun the kyng. And whan he saugh opportune space And the kyng in a sycré place, He hym bysoghte lowly on his kne To his request benignely to se, And that he wolde pleynly, and not spare, Of his byrth the trewe ground declare, And make hym sure of this thyng anon Yif he were his verrey sone or non. And Polyboun only of gentilles, Whan he beheeld the grete hevynesse Of Edippus and the wooful peyne, He gan dissimule and in manere feyne, Lik as he had be verrely his heyre. But mor and mor he falleth in dispeir And doune on knees oft ageyn gan falle, Hym conjuring be the goddes alle To telle trouth and nothyng to hide, Affermyng ek he wold nat abide Lenger with hym but ryden and enquere, Til tyme he may the verrey sothe lere In eny part of hap or of fortune. And for that he was so inportune In his desire, the kyng without abood Ceriously tolde how it stood, In a forest first how he was founde Upon a tre be the feet ybounde, And how he caste, in conclusioun, To make hym kyng of that regioun Aftere his day shortly forto telle. But Edippus wil no longer dwelle But took lieve and in hast gan ryde To a temple faste ther besyde Of Appollo, in storie as is tolde, Whos statue stood in a char of golde Of wheles four boornyd bright and shene; And within a spirit ful unclene, Be fraude only and fals collusioun, Answere gaf to every questioun, Bryngyng the puple in ful gret errour, Such as to hym dyden fals honour Be rytys used in the olde dawes Aftere custome of paganysmes lawes. And Edyppus with ful humble chere To Appollo maked his preiere, Besechyng hym on his knees lowe Be some signe that he myghte knowe, Thorg evidence shortly comprehendyd, Of what kynrede that he was discendyd. And whan Edyppus be gret devocioun Fynysshed hath fully his orysoun, The fend anon withinnen invisyble With a vois dredful and horrible Bad hym in hast taken his viage Toward Thebes wher of his lynage He heren shal and be certefied. And on his way anon he hath hym hyed, By hasty journé so his hors constreyned Day be day til he hath atteyned Unto a castel Pylotes ycalled, Rich and strong and wel aboute walled, Adjacent be syyt of the contré And perteynent to Thebes the cyté: Kyng Layus beyng ther present Forto holde a maner tornement With his knyghtes yong and coraious And other folkes that were desyrous To preve hemsilf, shortly forto telle, Who by force oyther myght excelle Or gete a name thorgh his hegh prouesse. Everich of hem dyd his bysynesse On horsbak and also ek en foote, Al be that some founde ful unsoote (Rather a pley of werre than of pees), Wher Edyppus put hymsilf in prees, As he that was ay redy to debat, Enforsyng hym to entren at the gate, Maugré all tho that hym wolde lette. And in the pres of aventure he mette Kyng Layus and cruelly hym slogh, Thow the story writ not the maner howh, Ne no wight can of alle the companye Be no signe verrely espye By whos hond that the kyng was slawe; For Edyppus in hast gan hym withdrawe And kept hym coy of entencioun. Gret was the noyse and the pitous soun In the castel for slaughter of the kyng, Dooel and compleynt, sorowe and wepyng. But for they segh hevynesse and thoght Ageynes deth vayleth lit or noght, They ordeyne with ryytys ful royal For the feste called funeral. And lik the custom of the dayes olde, The corps they brent into asshes colde, And in a vessel rounde, mad as a bal, They closed hem in gold and in metal. And after that did her bysy cure In Thebes to make a sepulture, And richely, hem list no longer lette, The asshen did they enclose and shette: Of this matere ther nys no mor to seyn. But to Edippus I wil retourne ageyn, Which hym enhasteth ay fro day to day Towardes Thebes in al that evere he may, Brennyng in herte hoot as eny fire The fyn to knowe of his fatal desire. But for that he failed of a guyde, Out of his way he wente fer beside Thorgh a wylde and a waast contré, By a mounteyn that stood upon the see, Wher that monstres of many dyvers kynde Were conversaunt, in story as I fynde; Amonges which sothly ther was on, So inly cruel that no man durst gon For drede of deth forby that passage. This monstre was so mortal in his rage, Which hadde also, be descripcioun, Body and feet of a fers lyoun; And lik a mayde in soth was hede and face, Fel of his look and cruel to manace, And odyous of countenaunce and sight; And as I rede, Spynx this monstre hight, Wors than tygre, dragon, or serpent. And I suppose by enchauntement He was ordeyned on the hyl t'abyde, To sleen all tho that passeden besyde And specially all that diden fayle To expowne his mysty dyvynaile, His problem ek in wordes pleyn and bare Withoute avys opynly declare, Or with the lif he myghte not eskape: This verray soth platly and no jape. And yif that he, be declaracioun, Gaf therupon cleer exposicioun, He shuld in hast - there was non other mene - Sleen this monstre for al his cruel tene: Ther may of mercy be non other graunte.    But of al this Edyppus ignoraunte, This dredful hill stondyng on a roche, Er he was war, gan ful nygh approche, More perilous platly than he wende. And sodeynly the monster can descende To stoppen his way and letten his passage, Thus abraydyng with a fel corage: "I have in herte inly gret disport That fortune hath broght thee to my sort To make a preef yif thow mayst endure The fatal ende of this aventure, Set at a fyn sothly be daies olde." And by and by al the caas hym tolde, Charging hym to be wel war and wise, Gete the palme and bere away the pryse Touchyng this thyng sette atwene us tweyn, With lyf or deth which we shal dareyn. And this monstre with a despitous chere His problem gan thus, as ye shal here. "Ther is a beest merveilous to se, The which in soth at his nativyté Is of his myght so tender and so grene That he may hymsilve nat sustene Upon his fete, thogh he hadde it sworn, But yif that he be of his moder born. And afterwardes be processe of age, On foure fete he maketh his passage; After on thre, if I shal not feyne, And alderlast he goth upright on tweyne, Dyvers of port and wonderful of cherys, Til, be length of many sondry yeeres, Naturely he goth ageyn on thre, And sith on foure (it may non other be) And fynaly (this the trouthe pleyn) He retourneth kyndely ageyn To the matere which that he kam fro. Loo her is al my problem is ido. Muse herupon withoute werre or stryff It to declare or ellis lese thy lyff." And whan Edyppus gan this thing adverte, Wel assured in his manly herte, Gan in his wytt cerchen up and doun, And of prudence cast in his resoun Be grete avis what thyng this may be, Seyng also that he may not flee, And how ther was counsel noon ne rede, But telle trouth or ellys to be dede, And be ful good deliberacioun Thus he answerd in conclusioun. "Thowe Spynx," quod he, "fals and fraudulent, Thow vyle monstre, thow dragon, thow serpent, Which on this hyl lich as I conceyve, Lyst in awaite folkes to deceyve, But truste wel, for al thy sleghty wit, Thy fals fraude shal anon be qwyt. Me list not nowe whisper neither rowne, But thy problem I shal anon expowne So opynly thow shalt not go therfro. Loo, this it is - tak good hede therto. Thilke best thow spak of hertoforn, Is every man in this world yborn, Which may not gon (his lymes be so softe), Bot as his moder bereth hym alofte In her armes, whan he doth crye and wepe. And after that he gynneth forto crepe On foure feet in his tendre youth, B'experience as it is ofte kouth, Aforn yrekned his hondes bothe two. And by processe, thow mayst consider also With his two fete, for al thy felle tene, He hath a staf hymselven to sustene, And than he goth shortly upon thre. And altherlast, as it most nedes be, Voyding his staf, he walketh upon tweyn, Til it so he thorgh age he atteyn, That lust of youthe wasted be and spent; Than in his hond he taketh a potent, And on thre feet thus he goth ageyn - I dar afferme thow maist it not withseyn - And sone aftere thorgh his unweldy myght, By influence of Naturys right, B'experience as every man may knowe, Lich a child on foure he crepeth lowe. And for he may no whyl here sojourne, To erth ageyn he most in hast retourne, Which he kam fro - he may it not remewe. For in this world no man may eschewe (This verray soth shortly and no doute) Whan the wheel of kynde cometh aboute And naturely hath his cours yronne Be circuete, as doth the shene sonne, That man and chyld of hegh and lowe estat, It geyneth nat to make mor debat, His tyme sette that he moste fyne, Whan Antropos of malice doth untwyne His lyves thred by Cloto first compowned. Loo, her thy problem fully is expowned, At oure metynge as I took on honde, To the lawe that thow most nedes stonde And in al hast of myn hondes deye, But of reson thow can it ought withseye." And so this Spynx, awapyd and amaat, Stood disamayed and dysconsolaat With chier dounecast muet, pale, and ded. And Edippus anon smote of the hed Of this fende stynkyng and unswete, And the contré sette holy in quyete, Wherby he hath such a pris ywonne That his fame is every cost yronne Thorgh al the londe that he the monstre hath slawe.    And lyneright to Thebes he gan drawe, Wel receyved for his worthynesse, For his manhode and his grete prouesse. And for they segh he was a semly knyght, Wel favoured in every mannys sight, And sawh also Thebes the myghty toun, Not only they but al the regioun, Weren destitut of a governour, Ageynst her foon havyng no socour Hem to defend but the quene allon, Among hemself makyng ful gret mon, For heire was non, as bookes specifie, The sceptre or crowne forto occupie, For which the lordes all be on assent Withinne the toun set a parlement, Shortly concludyng, if it myghte ben, Prudently to trete with the quene, Namely they that helde hemsilf most sage, To condescende be way of mariage She to be joyned to this manly knyght, Passing prudent and famous ek of myght, Most likly man, as they can discerne, The worthy cyté to kepen and governe. And thorgh counsayl of the lordes alle To her desyre pleynly she is falle And accorded withoute mor tarying That of Thebes Edippus shal be kyng By ful assent - was non that seide nay. And tyme set ageyn a certeyn day Among hemsilf and finaly devysed, The weddyng was in Thebes solempnyzed Ful ryally, which nedes most unthryve, Only for he his moder toke to wyve, Unwist of both he was of her blode, And ignoraunt, shortly, how it stode That he toforn hadde his fadere slawe, For which this weddyng was ageyn the lawe. And tofor God is neither feire ne good Nor acceptable blood to touche blood, Which cause hath ben of gret confusioun In many londe and many regyoun, Grounde and roote of unhap and meschaunce, The fyn concludyng alway with vengeaunce, As men han seie by cleer experience. And holy writ recordeth in sentence How Herodes falsly in his lyff By violence toke his brother wyf, For she was faire and plesaunt to his sight, And kepte her stille be fors thorgh his myght, Al be to her he hadde title non; And for her sake the holy man Seynt John For his trouth in prison lost his hede. Therfor I rede every man take hede, Wherso he be prynce, lorde, or kyng, That he be war t'eschewe such weddyng, Er that the swerde of vengeaunce hym manace, Lest he lese hap, fortune, and grace, Takyng ensample in al manere thynge Of Edyppus in Thebes crowned kyng, Al be that he wroght of ignoraunce, Ful derk and blynde of his woful chaunce. And yif unwist he of innocence, As ye han herde, fil in such offence, For which he was punished and brought lowe, What ar they worthy that her errour knowe And fro the knotte list not to abstene Of such spousale, to God and man unclene? I can not seyn nor mor therof devise. Demeth yoursilf that prudent ben and wise And Edippus hath among in mynde, Of whom the weddyng, lik as ye may fynde, Unhappy was and passing odious, Infortuned and ungracious. I am wery mor therof to write; The hatful processe also to endyte I passe over, fully of entent. For Ymeneus was not ther present, Nor Lucyna list not ther to shyne, Ne ther was none of the Musys nyne By on accord to make melodye (For ther song not be hevenly armonye), Neither Clyo nor Calyopé, On of the sustren in nombre thries thre, As they dyde whan Philolegye Ascendid up hegh above the skye To be weddid, this lady vertuous, Unto hir lord the god Mercurius, As Marcian ynamed de Capelle In his book of weddyng can you telle, Ther concludyng in this mariage The poete that whilom was so sage That this lady, called Sapience, Iwedded was unto Eloquence, As it sat wel, by hevenly purveaunce, Hem to be joyned be knot of aliaunce. But bothe two, sothly, of entent At the weddyng in Thebes were absent, That caused after grete adversité. For fynal eende of that solempnyté Was sorowe and woo and destruccioun, Utter ruyne of this royal toun. Ther may no man helpe it nor socoure, For a tyme in joye thogh they floure.    But at this weddyng, platly forto telle, Was Cerberus, chief porter of helle; And Herebus, fader to hatrede, Was ther present with his hool kynrede, His wiff also with her browes blake, And her doghtren sorow forto make, Hydous-chered and uggely forto see, Megera and Thesiphonee, Allecto ek with Labour and Envie, Drede and Fraude and Fals Trecherie, Tresoun, Poverté, Indigence, and Nede, And cruel Deth in his rente wede, Wrechednesse, Compleynt, and eke Rage, Ferful pale Derknesse, croked Age, Cruel Mars as eny tygre wood, Brennyng ire of unkynde blood, Fraternal Hate depe sett the rote, Save only deth that ther nas no bote, Assuryd othes at the fyn untrewe: All thise folk weren at this weddyng newe, To make the towne desolat and bare, As the story after shal declare.    But ay in Thebes with his walles stronge Edyppus regneth many day and longe. And as myn autour writ in wordys pleyn, By Jocasta he had sones tweyn, Ethyocles and also Polymyte, And, in bokes as sondry clerkes write, Doghtres two ful goodly on to se, Of which the ton hight Antygone, And that other called was Ymeyne, Of her beauté inly sovereyn. Edyppus, ay devoyde of werre and strif, With Jocasta ladde a mery lyf Tyl fortune of her iniquyté Hadde envie of his prosperité. For whan he shon most riche in his renoun, From her wheel she plonged hym adoun Out of his joye into sodeyn wo, As she is wonte frowardly to do, And namely hem that setten her affiaunce Of erthly trust in her variaunce. For whan this kyng passing of gret myght, Sat with the quene upon a certeyn nyght, Casuelly whan his folk echon Out of chambre sodeynly wer gon, Or he was war Jocasta gan byholde The carectys of his woundes olde, Upon his fete enprented wonder depe, Turnyng her face brast out forto wepe So secrely he myght it not espie. And she anon fille into a fantasie, Ay on thys thyng musyng mor and more, And in her bed gan to sighe sore. And whan the kyng conceyveth her distresse, He gan enquere of her hevynesse Fully the cause and occasioun, For he wil wite, in conclusioun, What her eileth and why she ferde so. "My lorde," quod she, "withoute wordes mo, Parcel cause of this sodeyn rage Is for that I in my tender age Had a lorde inamed Layus, Kyng of this toune, a man right vertuus, Be whom I hadde a sone wonder fair, Likly tabene his successour and hair; But by cause his dyvynours tolde At his birthe sothly that he sholde, Yif he have lyf, be fatal destanyé Sleen his fader (it may non other be); For which the king his fate to eschewe Bad me in hast, as hym thoghte dewe, To sle the childe and have therof no routh. And I anon bad withoute slouth To certeyn men, up peyne of jugemente, To execute the comaundemente Of the king, as I gaf hem in charge. And forth they gon to a forest large Adjacent unto this contré, Percen his fete, and honge hym on a tre, Nat parfourmyng th'execucioun: (On hym they hadde such compassioun), Lefte hym ther, and hom resort ageyn, Beyng in doute and in non certeyn At theyre repeire, as they tolden alle, Of this childe what afterward is falle, Save they saide huntys han hym founde, Which lad hym forth and his feet unbounde But to what coost they coude not declare. Which parcel is of myn evel fare, Grounde and cause of myn hevy chere, Considred ek the woundes that appere Upon youre fete, and woot not what they mene. And on thyng ay is at myn herte grene, My lord, allas, but of newe date: Kyng Layus slayen was but late At a castel nygh by this contré, Upon youre comyng into this cité. Al this yweied and rekned into on Maketh myn herte hevy as a ston, So that I can counsel non nor rede." And with that word the kyng lift up his hede, And abrayd with sharpe sighes smerte, And al this thing be ordre gan adverte, Ceriously be good avisement, And by signes cleer and evident Conceyveth wel, and sore gan repente It was hymsilf that Jocasta mente. And whan the quene in manere segh hym pleyn, By her goddes she gan hym to constreyne To shewen out the cause of his affray, And it expowne, and make no delay, Crop and root shortly, why that he Entred first into that contré, Fro when he kam and fro what regioun. But he hir put in dilusioun, As he had done it for the nonys, Til at laste he brak out atonys Unto the queene and gan a processe make First how he was in the forest take, Wounded the feet and so forth everythyng, Of his chershing with Polyboun the kyng, And hool the cause why he hym forsoke, And in what wise he the weye toke Toward Thebes as Appollo bad, And of fortune how that he was lad Wher that Spynx kepte the mounteyn; And how that he slough also in certeyn Kyng Layus at the castel gate, Towardes nyght whan it was ful late; And how to Thebes that he gan hym spede To fynden oute the stok of his kynrede: Which unto hym gan to wexe couth; For by processe of his grene youth He fonde out wel, be reknyng of his lif, That she was both his moder and his wif. So that al nyght and suing on the morow Atwene hem two gan a newe sorowe, Which unto me were tedious to telle; For therupon, yif I shulde dwelle, A long space it wolde occupie. But ye may reden in a tragedye Of moral Senyk fully his endynge, His dool, his meschief, and his compleynyng, How with sorow and unweldy age This Edippus fille into dotage, Lost his wit and his worldly delit, And how his sones had hym in despit, And of disdeyn tok of hym no kepe, And bookes seyn his eyen out he wepe. And as myn auctour liketh to devise, As his sones rebuke hym and dispise, Upon a day in a certeyn place Out of his hede his eyen he gan race And cast at hem, he can non other bote; And of malice they trad hem under fote, Fully devoide both of love and drede.    And whan Edippus for meschief was thus dede, Withinne a pytte made in the erthe lowe Of cruelté his sones han hym throwe, Wers than serpent or eny tigre wood. Of cursid stok cometh unkynde blood, As in story ye may rede her toforn, Al be the roos grow out of a thorn. Thus of Edippus, whan he was blynd and old, The wrecched ende I ha you pleynly told. For which shortly to man and child I rede To be wel war and to taken hede Of kyndely right and of conscience To do honur and dieu reverence To fader and moder of what estat thei be, Or certeyn ellis they shul nevere the. For who that is not to hem debonayr In spech, in port for to trete hem fair, Hem to obeye in honesté and drede, And to cherissh of what they han nede, I dar afferme - exceptyng non astat - That he shall first be infortunat In alle his werk both on see and lond, And of what thyng that he take on hond Fortune froward to hym and contrayre, Wayst of his good, pleynly and appaire, Fynde plenté of contek, werre, and striff, Unhappy ende and shortnesse of liff, And gracelees of what he hath at do, Hatrede of God and of man also. Therfor no man be herof reklees, But make youre myrour of Ethiocles And his brother called Polymyte, Which in such thyng gretlich were to wite, As ye shal here of hem how it fil. And whan we ben descendid doune this hil And ypassed her the lowe vale, I shal begynne the remnant of my tale. Explicit Prima Pars istius codicilli. Incipit Secunda Pars Eiusdem.

since; (t-note) understanding; empty (t-note) Founded Joshua; (see note) aloft wish; openly teach whole author; Boccaccio; (see note) (see note) sound (t-note) once tunes Mercury's Long ago, in the middle of seen; (see note) Boccaccio wished; mention interpreting (see note); (t-note) Gave by in lively; (see note) Given; by author all around have; pleasure suitable their ears; (see note) direct countenance; demeanor; (see note); (t-note) By one (t-note) mortar by Just; portray Exceedingly; design Here; (see note) humility appearance; (see note) conduct himself comportment; gracious; (see note) too reserved nor sullen external appearance foresee people's [they] will whisper judge imagination hearts of haughtiness such; wish not once to look bow against nature evidence (see note) pillar; support were not the poor people Their sweet sharpened mad; (see note) (see note) pass away; (t-note) Or; resistance; pride (t-note) Unless; (t-note) end; nothing; (t-note) witness; (see note) Who mortar Just; describe truly; (see note) authors; (see note) Say before measured cut out; bull's around (see note) Long ago Boeotia because of; bull's afterwards gathered thence (see note) By completed purposely lost the basis substance (see note) Since (t-note) line of descent; (see note) by Transmitting; family Successively by the course of time did (see note) Very (see note) chariot who them disappointed; prayer rituals Just as (t-note) haste; did not wish; delay tell soothsayers haste; (t-note) significance astrology child's; location of astral influences; (see note); (t-note) (see note) base of calculation (see note); first astrological house one sixtieth of a degree very forgotten; astrological houses sought by; fractions thirds; also stones for calculation; treatises Computed by (t-note) (see note); (t-note) also by (t-note) astrological position (see note) favorable; in conflict; (see note) (see note) Saturn; house of Scorpio; (see note) Gloomy; hostile mad; angry (see note) without influence; adverse; (see note) powerless; (see note) So that; opinion [was] to; particular; (see note) fated destiny; avoided did; ponder plan; in response Against their prophecy beforehand motherly slain: it cannot be otherwise haste entrusted young for the occasion far hastened themselves exceeding their decided; disagreement have immediately relate through; pierce boughs tied; in short savage journey haste by chance that very their huntsmen; Polibon sought very eagerly grey woods go along; forest paths (see note) immediately approached until unbound carried Arcadia saw feet; to bleed Oedipus plainly; lie Pierced (t-note) nurse nourish physicians whole their duty intending; (t-note) on his death; heir Because by line of descent whether; (see note) playmates behavior exceedingly tranquility inwardly prideful Morose; contentious intense scorn no one dare; contradict argue Who; anger bear Did; shout fiercely Why; are you; manner Contentious; games; (see note) Perverse; cruel always As if; each one most presumptuous in your doings whether; angry; mad in no way, if; wish Belonging; family unknown conduct yourself humbly fully; if; wish; (t-note) unknown end grow face; appearance arrange; (t-note) eagerly pondered; (t-note) planned seek private; (t-note) humbly; entertain If; forbear (t-note) immediately If; true out of kindness sorrow dissemble; falsify As if; were truly; heir did beseeching by Declaring also; remain search out real truth discover by change because; persistent delay In sequence (t-note) by planned death (t-note) haste did close chariot With wheels; burnished; gleaming inside; foul; (see note) By gave people By rituals observed; days Following; (t-note) very prayer family prayer fiend immediately inside; (t-note) haste; journey lineage informed hastened urged onward reached (t-note) by location belonging; (t-note) tournament; (see note) courageous themselves either Each one; them; diligent endeavor Although; dreadful war the thick of the fight always; fight Striving Despite; those; hinder; (see note) throng by chance slew; (see note) Though; how person By; truly observe slain haste quiet on purpose pitiful sound Grief; lament Because; saw avails little or nothing prepare; rituals burned shaped enclosed applied themselves they did not wish to delay shut Who; hastens always as quickly as he can heart hot outcome because he lacked desolate; (see note) against; sea habitually dwelling truly; one dare go past terrible Who; (see note) fierce lion woman savage Sphinx; was called commanded slay; those who explain; obscure riddle consultation complete truth plainly; trick if in haste Slay; despite; hate allowance did; closely imagined did; (t-note) block Shouting; bitter amusement power test whether; (t-note) deadly outcome Established; truly circumstances Advising triumph; prize settle by combat pitiless look (see note) power Unless; carried feet Afterwards; lie last of all Differing; behavior; strange; manner by goes afterwards; otherwise naturally from done Ponder; war solve; else lose consider (see note) mind to search considered With much thought advice else by said (t-note) Who; understand Lies; ambush sly immediately be repaid I do not wish; nor speak quietly riddle; explain from that; (see note) The same; earlier born Who; walk Except creep known His two hands stretched out in front of him in time bitter hatred last of all Setting aside reaches vigor Then; staff contradict soon; impotent Nature's because haste escape; (t-note) avoid; (see note) complete; in short Nature bright sun struggle die Atropos (one of the Three Fates); unwind life's; Clotho (another Fate); formed riddle; solved undertook [According] to; condition; answer haste at my hands Unless; deny amazed; overwhelmed face; mute, livid; colorless off; head dreadful fully in tranquility glory won everywhere spread widely slain straightaway (t-note) because; saw; handsome their foes Them; queen themselves; complaint heir in agreement called negotiate wisest agree also suitable their; she accedes delay there was no one who appointed celebrated necessarily must fail because Unbeknownst to either of them; blood before; slain before misfortune source; ill luck end seen opinion Herod brother's force Although; right; (t-note) advise avoid; (t-note) Before lose chance Although he acted out of; (see note) if unknowing; innocently have overthrown; (t-note) deserving who their; (t-note) wish marriage Judge; who keep in mind without grace (see note) purposely Hymenaeus (god of marriage) Diana (as goddess of childbirth) wished one Clio (muse of history); Calliope (mother of Orpheus); (see note) One; sisters; three times three Philology Mercury Martianus Capella (see note) who once Wisdom Since it was proper Them; bond truly, with purposeful intention outcome plainly; (see note) gatekeeper Erebos, father whole family daughters Dreadful looking Tisiphone (t-note) torn clothes (t-note) mad Burning; unnatural deeply rooted; (see note) Except for; remedy; (see note) Sworn; end (see note) explain author two Eteocles; Polynices various the one was named Antigone; (t-note) Ismene plunged adversely them; their faith her mutability By chance; each one Before scar burst notice immediately; imagining Always; concentrating realized inquire know pains; feared said; in brief A portion; illness named powerful By; exceedingly to be; heir soothsayers truly avoid Commanded; appropriate pity delay on (t-note) gave them went Belonging carrying out such returned return happened huntsmen have Who conveyed region; say state of mind sad appearance appear do not know one; fresh recent recently close At weighed; taken together I know; advice cried out; bitter consider From beginning to end; deliberation Understood saw; lament urge disclose; consternation Branch and root (i.e., the whole thing) whence false impression for the occasion at once narration taken all slew (t-note) family began to be known the tale of following on until morning them; (t-note) if (see note) Seneca (see note to line 994) grief; sorrow; lamentation decrepit fell pleasure sons; contempt; (t-note) out of scorn; care tell how; eyes author; tell mistreat eyes; tear out them; knows; relief trod them; foot awe; (see note) (see note) Into; pit have mad; (t-note) unnatural Although; rose have advise (see note) natural; (see note) due; (t-note) father; mother; whatever social rank; (t-note) otherwise; thrive courteous; (see note) behavior Them; with decorum and reverence care for; (t-note) social rank undertake adverse; (t-note) Destruction; property; weakened dissension ill-fortuned blame happened passed (see note); (t-note)

Go To The Siege of Thebes, Secunda Pars

Footnotes
The marginal Latin glosses, identified by a capital L in the left margin next to the text, are transcribed and translated in the notes and can be accessed by clicking on (see note) at the corresponding line.

THE SIEGE OF THEBES: FOOTNOTE

1 Wearing a wimple each one and in dark-brown clothes

THE SIEGE OF THEBES: EXPLANATORY NOTES

Prologus

1-64 Latin marginalia: Phebus in Ariete. Lydgate's opening to The Siege of Thebes echoes the opening of the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales (I[A]1-18). The difference is that Chaucer's periodic sentence connects the renewal of nature and spirituality in a complex but controlled syntactic structure, while Lydgate's syntax collapses under the weight of successive clauses. Pearsall, John Lydgate, p. 153, suggests that Lydgate's effort at imitation reveals his confidence rather than diffidence, based on the achievement of Troy Book. Erdmann (2.95) argues that lines 18-19 ("The tyme in soth whan Canterbury talys / Complet and told at many sondry stage") characteristically omit the verb "to be"; they also mark a point at which Lydgate enters the literary time scheme of the spring convention and Chaucer's evidently popular text. In Troy Book, Lydgate tries and similarly fails to imitate Chaucer's opening; see 1.3907-43 for direct imitation and 3.1-36 for a reprise of the structural technique. Among the important early textual witnesses to The Siege of Thebes, Bodley MS 776 provides an indirect commentary on Lydgate's imitation; it lacks the opening eight lines and a portion from the middle of the passage yet still conveys the essential tone and fictional premise. Johnstone Parr, "Astronomical Dating for Some of Lydgate's Poems," PMLA 67 (1952), 253-56, interprets the astrological references to yield the date of 27 April 1421 for Lydgate's return pilgrimage. Hammond, p. 369, observes that Chaucer places the sun in Aries, while Lydgate indicates the pilgrims' later departure from Canterbury by saying that the sun had passed into Taurus, the next zodiacal sign.

3 Latin marginalia: Saturnus in Virgine. As in Chaucer, Saturn is both a god and a planet. In The Knight's Tale, Palamon claims that he is in prison because of Saturn (I[A]1328), and later it is Saturn who resolves the strife between Venus and Mars by imposing a violent outcome (I[A]2438-78) to the tale. In Statius (Thebaid 2.356-62), Polynices invokes Saturn as a figure of justice, as he contemplates his return to Thebes from his year of exile. It is Jupiter (Thebaid 1.196-247) who loses his patience with Theban and Greek transgressions and promises strife.

7-8 Latin marginalia: Jubiter in capite Cancri. The gloss occurs three lines early because of marginal decoration.

19 Complet and told. Koeppel proposed to emend to Complet are tolde in order to furnish a verb.

22-25 Lydgate's taxonomy of tales recalls the Host's intention of introducing "myrthe" and "disport" to the Canterbury Pilgrimage (General Prologue I[A]761-76).

28-30 Marginalia: The Cook, the Millere, and the Reve. Lydgate mistakenly has the Reeve drunk, along with the Cook and Miller; see Spearing, Medieval to Renaissance in English Poetry, p. 75.

32 Lydgate mistakenly ascribes the baldness of the Miller in The Reeve's Tale (I[A]3935) to the Pardoner.

33 Marginalia: Pardonere.

34 Lydgate mistakenly ascribes the Summoner's "cherubinnes face" (I[A]624) to the Pardoner. Recent scholarship associates such inaccuracies with Lydgate's oblique challenge to Chaucer's authority rather than mere accidents. See Pearsall, "Lydgate as Innovator" and "Chaucer and Lydgate"; Ebin, "Chaucer, Lydgate, and the 'Myrie Tale'," and John Lydgate; Bowers, "The Tale of Beryn and The Siege of Thebes: Alternative Ideas of the Canterbury Tales"; Allen; and Strohm, England's Empty Throne. Erdmann (2: 96) points out that Lydgate turns to The Knight's Tale with more precision at the end of the poem (lines 4463-540). Spearing, "Lydgate's Canterbury Tale," p. 337, counts some thirty allusions there to the opening, background story of The Knight's Tale.

35 In The Canterbury Tales, the conflict is between the Summoner and the Friar.

39-57 Marginalia: ¶ Chaucer. Lydgate's praise of Chaucer recalls similar passages in Troy Book 2.4677-719, 3.550-57, 3.4234-63, 5.3519-43. Lydgate does not actually name Chaucer until line 4501. Spearing, "Lydgate's Canterbury Tale," says of Chaucer's absence from the frametale of Lydgate's poem: "the implicit claim of the Siege is that in it Lydgate becomes the father whose place he usurps" (p. 338).

43 making. "Making" is formally correct poetic composition, as distinct from the creative activity associated with "poetry." Chaucer typically describes his craft as "making."

52 his sugrid mouth. In Troy Book, Lydgate invokes Orpheus "wyth thyn hony swete / Sugrest tongis of rethoricyens" (Prol.56-57), but quickly contrasts the "dillygence of cronycleris" (Prol.246) with Homer's "veyn fables" (Prol.263): "With sugred wordes under hony soote / His galle is hidde lowe by the rote" (Prol.277-78). Thereafter, in the narrative of Troy Book, "sugre" and "sugred wordis" denote treacherous, deceitful speech in the private and public spheres. Blake, "Caxton and Chaucer," pp. 32-33, notes that this passage is adapted by William Caxton in his praise of Chaucer in the prologue to his second edition (c. 1484) of The Canterbury Tales.

53-54 keping in substaunce / The sentence hool withoute variance. Lydgate's remark on Chaucer as a poet seeking to write true history echoes his praise of Guido delle Colonne (Prol.359-60) and his hope for his own poem at the end of Troy Book (5.3540-43).

55-56 the chaf . . . the trewe piked greyn. Compare the end of The Nun's Priest's Tale: "Taketh the fruyt, and lat the chaf be stille" (VII[B2]3443).

59-60 Marginalia: ¶ At the Tabarde in Suthwerk. The original departure point for the pilgrims in the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales (I[A]20).

65 Marginalia: ¶ The Hoste

73-74 Marginalia: ¶ Discryving of the Monk. a palfrey slender, long, and lene. In The Canterbury Tales, the Clerk's horse is described as lean (I[A]287).

75 With rusty brydel mad nat for the sale. Bowers glosses the latter part of the line to mean "not worth selling," which is certainly possible given the reference to his man's "voide male" ("empty purse") in line 76. But the sense of sale is more likely "hall," particularly of a palace, castle, or mansion (see MED sale, noun 1.a). Unlike Chaucer's Monk, who would dress well and prefers the King's feast (roasted swan), Lydgate's modest Monk, with his lean horse and rusty bridle, does not yearn for or affect the pretensions of court. The MED does not cite this specific line, but neither does it cite "for the sale" as an idiom for selling.

79 her governour. Lydgate uses the same term for the Host as Chaucer does in the General Prologue (I[A]813).

81-82 Marginalia: ¶ The wordes of the Host to the Monk.

82-83 Daun Pers, / Daun Domynyk, Dan Godfrey, or Clement. The Host addresses Lydgate in the same manner as he does the clerics among the Canterbury pilgrims; compare the address to the Monk: "Wher shal I calle yow my lord daun John, / or daun Thomas, or elles daun Albon" (VII[B2]1929-30) and later "Wherfore, sire Monk, daun Piers by youre name, / I pray yow hertely telle us somwhat elles" (VII[B2]2792-93). The Monk's Tale is a de casibus tragedy that begins with the fall of Lucifer and Adam, moves through ancient figures like Alexander and Julius Caesar, and ends with some of Chaucer's contemporaries; its theme and tone complement the story of Thebes.

85 ne belle. The bridle of Chaucer's Monk is adorned with bells that "Gynglen in a whistlynge wynd als cleere / And eke as loude as dooth the chapel belle" (I[A]170-71).

90 a wonder thredbar hood. Compare the description of the Clerk in the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales: "Ful thredbare was his overeste courtepy" (I[A]290).

92 Marginalia: ¶ Lydgate.

93 Marginalia: ¶ Monk of Bery.

96 Marginalia: ¶ The wordes of the Host.

101 franchemole. A dish consisting of a mixture of ingredients boiled or roasted in a sheep's stomach (MED). Other fifteenth-century sources gloss it as a pudding or lucanica (a smoked sausage).

tansey: a pudding or omelet with tansy (MED), a plant of the genus Tanacetum.

froyse: a kind of pancake containing chopped meat or fish (MED).

104 in a feynt pasture. Bowers (p. 21) cites the Host's chiding the monk for grazing in a "gentil pasture" (VII[B2]1933).

114 collik passioun. Bowers (p. 21) cites the passage on colica passio in John Trevisa's fourteenth-century translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus' De proprietatibus rerum.

116 ff. The Host's dietary advice sounds a bit like Pertelote's to the indulgent Chauntecleer in The Nun's Priest's Tale as she would govern what he puts in his "crop" (VII[B2]2961-67).

122 orloger. Compare Parliament of Fowls, line 350: "The kok, that orloge is of thorpes lyte," and The Nun's Priest's Tale, where Chauntecleer's crowing is said to be a more certain time piece than "an abbey orlogge" (VII[B2]2854). In Troy Book, the phrase "the cok, comoun astrologer" (1.2813) is a direct echo of Troilus and Criseyde 3.1415, the scene after the lovers' consummation.

126 by kokkis blood. An echo of the Host's oath "for cokkes bones" in The Canterbury Tales (IX[H]9 and X[I]29) and the Parson's reproof of swearing (X[I]591).

128-45 In bringing Lydgate under the "newe lawe" of the pilgrim "compenye" and having him set aside his monastic rule, the Host repeats the substance of the agreement that founds the temporary community and creates the dramatic frame of The Canterbury Tales (I[A]769-818).

143-44 Marginalia: ¶ How oure Host spak to Daun John.

164-66 Marginalia: ¶ How oure Host bad Daun John telle a tale.

165 jape. The term means both a trick and a joke. In the link introducing the Pardoner's Prologue, the Host asks the Pardoner, "Telle us som myrthe or japes right anon" (VI[C]319). Erdmann (2:100) also cites the Cook's Prologue (I[A]4343); compare the Pardoner: "a jape or a tale" (X[I]1024a). Both senses of the term converge in Nicholas' intent to "amenden al the jape" (I[A]3799) at the end of The Miller's Tale.

167 But preche not of non holynesse. Chaucer's Host, instructing the Clerk to recount "som myrie tale" (IV[E]9) and "som murie thyng of aventures" (IV[E]15), admonishes him: "But precheth nat, as freres doon in Lente" (IV[E]12).

168 some tale of myrth or of gladnesse. Erdmann (2:100) notes the Host's words to Chaucer at the beginning of Sir Thopas: "Telle us a tale of myrthe, and that anon" (VII[B2]706); compare VII(B2)964, VII(B2)3449, VIII(G)597, and X(I)46. Ebin, "Chaucer, Lydgate, and the 'Myrie Tale,'" p. 331, argues that Lydgate extended Chaucer's concept of a tale of "solaas" and "sentence" by adding the element of a mirror or moral speculum with practical as well as spiritual benefits; compare Ebin, John Lydgate, pp. 57-58.


Prima Pars

188 Upon the tyme of worthy Josué. Orosius' Historiarum adversum paganos libri vii is the model for a universal history aligning Biblical and classical events. Erdmann (2:100) cites Boccaccio, Genealogie deorum gentilium 2.63 on calculations about the founding of Thebes.

199-227 Erdmann (2:100) points out that the source Lydgate actually is referring to as myn auctour and Bochas bothe two is Boccaccio's Genealogie deorum gentilium 5.30. Boccaccio is the source for much of the mythology that Lydgate adds or amplifies. Koeppel (pp. 23-24) points out that Thomas Warton identified Boccaccio as Lydgate's source in his History of English Poetry (1774-81). Clogan, "Imagining the City of Thebes in Fifteenth-Century England" (p. 161), suggests the alternative that Lydgate's mention of Amphion's song could have come from Lactantius Placidus' commentary on the Thebaid (Boccaccio's source) or from a gloss to Statius.

200-03 Marginalia: How Kyng Amphyoun was the first that bilt the cyté of Thebes be the swetnesse of his soune. On Amphion's raising of the walls of Thebes by the sweet harmonies of the harp (lines 201-10), see also Chaucer's The Manciple's Tale, where Phebus' music is said to surpass that of Amphioun "That with his syngyng walled that citee" (IX[H]117). Chaucer also alludes to Amphioun in The Knight's Tale, when Arcite laments, "Allas, ybrought is to confusioun / The blood roial of Cadme and Amphioun" (I[A]1545-46).

212-15 Marginalia: ¶ The exposicioun of John Bochas upon this derk poysie. In the poetic treatise that comprises Books 14-15 of the Genealogie deorum gentilium, Boccaccio insists that one of the defining traits of poetry is its allegorical covering, which is designed to hide meaning from common readers.

215-16 Sense requires "He" as the subject of Seith or for Seith to be ignored and Gaf to be construed as the main verb.

222-24 Marginalia: ¶ The significacioun of the harpe of Mercure.

231-36 Marginalia: ¶ How Kyng Amphion be mediacioun of his soft spech wan the love and the hertes of the puple.

234-39 The power of Amphion's song, which is the crafty speche of prudence (line 226), recalls Priam's rebuilding of Troy and the corresponding political allegiance that he instills in the craftsmen who become its citizens (Troy Book 2.479-1066). Ebin, John Lydgate, p. 53, remarks that Lydgate goes past his source in Boccaccio's Genealogie deorum gentilium to sing with "crafty speech" to demonstrate the triumph of words over arms.

244-85 Lydgate's excursus on the duties of kingship is consistent with the advice John Gower gives in the Prologue and Book 7 of his Confessio Amantis and with precepts Lydgate sets out early, in Troy Book, and late in his career, in his translation of the Pseudo-Aristotelian Secreta Secretorum. Allen sees two of Lydgate's explicit themes as "the maintenance of cordial relations among those in positions of power and the mutual cooperation between monarch and populace, with the initiative borne by the monarch" (p. 124). Renoir, The Poetry of John Lydgate (p. 112), counts some 22 instances (555 lines) in The Siege of Thebes where Lydgate offers advice to royalty. On the danger and practical nature of such rhetoric, see Judith Ferster, Fictions of Advice: The Literature and Politics of Council in Late Medieval England (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996), and Richard Firth Green, Poets and Princepleasers: Literature and the English Court in the Late Middle Ages (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980).

246 Latin marginalia: ¶ Nota.

248-51 Marginalia: ¶ What availeth to a kyng or to a prince to ben goodly and benygne of his port to his puple.

265-68 Marginalia: ¶ How the poor puple supporten and beren up the estat of a kyng.

276 Latin marginalia: ¶ Nota.

277-80 Marginalia: ¶ What the goodlihede of a prince avaylleth to wynne the hertes of hys puple.

286-87 Marginalia: ¶ Ensample of Kyng Amphioun.

293-305 Erdmann (2:102) points out that Lydgate confuses the details of the white ox in Ovid's account of Cadmus (Metamorphoses 3.1-137) with the story of Dido's founding Carthage.

294-97 Marginalia: ¶ How aftere the opynyoun of some auctours Cadmus bilt first the cité of Thebes.

303-08 Marginalia: ¶ How the contré of Boece toke first his name of a bolys skyn after called Thebes.

309-13 Marginalia: ¶ How Kyng Cadmus was exiled out of Thebes be prowesse of Kynge Amphyoun.

319 clerkes. Erdmann (2:102) points out that the reference is to Boccaccio. In Troy Book (Prol.147-225), clerks preserve both the "pleyne trouthe" and the reputation of heroes against the corrosive power of time.

330-33 Marginalia: ¶ How the lyne of Amphioun be discent was conveied to Kyng Layus.

339-40 Marginalia: ¶ Kyng Layus and Jocasta hys wiff.

343-44 These lines are iambic tetrameter.

368 The chyldes fate and disposicioun. Astral determinism is a position that Christian writers from Augustine onwards rejected, though it remained a topic of speculation for poets like Bernardus Silvestris in his Cosmographia, Experimentarius, and Mathematicus (the last a story of fated patricide based on pseudo-Quintilian's Declamatio Maior 4). Laius' consultation with his diviners reflects the late-medieval interest in both the philosophical problems of the ancient world and its cultural practices; see Alastair Minnis, Chaucer and Pagan Antiquity (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1982), chapters 1-2.

369-73 Marginalia: ¶ How the astronomyens and phylisophres of Thebes calked out the fate of Edyppus.

370 The root ytake at the ascendent. The root (Latin radix) is the time from which the astrological tables were calculated for a particular location. The ascendent is the first and most powerful astrological house that the sun enters in its twenty-four hour circuit.

380 yeeres collecte. Anni collecti are astrological tables showing a planet's position in twenty-year cycles, as distinct from those for single years (anni expansi). See Chaucer's The Franklin's Tale V(F)1275, and his Treatise on the Astrolabe 2.44-45 (supplementary propositions) for the means of calculating positions according to degrees, minutes, seconds, and small fractions.

383 eche aspecte and lookes ek dyvers. Aspect is "the relative position, described in angular distance, of one planet or sign to another at a certain time" (MED), regarded as a good or evil influence; lookes is merely a repetition of aspecte.

385 Latin marginalia: ¶ Nota.

386-90 Marginalia: ¶ The cursed constellacioun and indisposicioun of the hevene in the nativyté of Edyppus. J. Parr, "The Horoscope of Edippus in Lydgate's Siege of Thebes" (p. 122), concludes that Lydgate does not present a technically exact horoscope for Oedipus but constructs instead an arrangement of planets - Saturn and Mars with Venus waning - that would convey the inevitability of patricide rhetorically.

388 Satourn. The Knight's Tale (I[A]2443-69) emphasizes Saturn's melancholic character; see also Raymond Klibansky, Erwin Panofsky, and Fritz Saxl, Saturn and Melancholy: Studies in the History of Natural Philosophy, Religion, and Art (New York: Basic Books, 1964), pp. 159-95.

392 The same hour. Compare phrasing at line 1057.

393 Latin marginalia: ¶ Nota.

394-98 Marginalia: ¶ How the fate of Edippus disposed that he shulde sleen his owne fadere.

396 The syntax requires "was" to be understood: "the clerks' judgment was that his father shall be slain."

442-47 Marginalia: ¶ How the huntys of Kyng Poliboun fonde the chyld in the forest and presented hym to the kynge.

465-66 Spearing, "Lydgate's Canterbury Tale," p. 351, notes that Lydgate's mention that Polyboun lacks an heir surprisingly echoes the narrator's remark about Criseyde: "But wheither that she children hadde or noon, / I rede it naught, therfore I late it goon" (Troilus and Criseyde 1.132-33).

482-83 The pairing of Contrarie and Froward recurs in lines 1033, 1340, 3178; compare 2895-97.

538-40 And within a spirit ful unclene, / Be fraude only and fals collusioun, / Answere gaf to every questioun. Compare Lydgate's excursus on idolatry in Troy Book 2.5472-74, as Agamemnon sends Achilles and Pirithous to consult the Delphic oracle: "And therin was, thorugh the devels sleighte, / A spirit unclene, be false illusioun, / That gaf answere to every question." Spearing, "Lydgate's Canterbury Tale," pp. 357-58, finds the attitude close to that in the Franklin's Tale: "swiche illusiouns and swiche meschaunces / As hethen folke useden in thilke dayes" (V[F]1292-93). On idolatry, see below, lines 4047-54.

566 a maner tornement. The tournament that Laius holds recalls Theseus' tournament in The Knight's Tale in its dual aim of proving chivalric worth and promoting reputation (I[A]2106-16).

579-81 Marginalia: ¶ How Edippus slogh his fader of ignoraunce at the castel.

581 cruelly hym slogh. Compare Troilus' death at the hands of Achilles: "Despitously hym slough the fierse Achille" (Troilus and Criseyde 5.1806).

611-15 Marginalia: ¶ How Edippus passed by the hyll wher the monstre lay that was called Spynx.

619-21 Marginalia: ¶ The descripcioun of the foule monstre.

660-62 Marginalia: ¶ Of the problem that Spynx putte to Edippus.

680 in his manly herte. The phrase is repeated later in the description of Tydeus at the ambush (line 2175).

697-700 Marginalia: ¶ How Egippus expounded the problem that Sphynx put to hym.

726-35 Erdmann (2:105) regards the sentence as a series of run-on clauses, but the syntax is elliptical rather than broken: no man may escape the truth that, when Fortune's wheel turns, it does no good for anyone to resist further when he sees his time end and Atropos cuts the life-thread that Clotho first wove. The sentence comes to a full stop here.

809-16 In conceding that Oedipus was ignorant when he married Jocasta yet suffered punishment and overthrow, Lydgate interprets the myth according to Boethian Fortune. In the Consolation of Philosophy, Boethius explains Fortune as the confluence of remote sources that the individual cannot foresee or adequately understand.

823 I am wery mor therof to write. Compare Chaucer's expression of exasperation in The Legend of Good Women: "I am agroted herebyforn / To wryte of hem that ben in love forsworn" (line 2454-55).

831 Clyo nor Calyopé. Chaucer calls upon these two muses in the proems to books 2 and 3 of Troilus and Criseyde, Clio, muse of history, to help him "storie" the courtship of Criseyde; and Calliope, muse of epic poetry, to help him recount the consumma-tion of their love. Lydgate's point here is that Oedipus' marriage will not be blessed by "hevenly armonye" (line 830), regardless of the telling.

837 Marcian ynamed de Capelle. Martianus Capella was the fifth-century North African writer who composed the De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, an encyclopedia of the Seven Liberal Arts prefaced by the allegorical story of the wedding of Philology and Mercury. Chaucer makes the wedding a point of satiric contrast for the marriage of January and May in The Merchant's Tale (IV[E]1732-41).

853-56 Marginalia: ¶ The infortunat folk that weren at the weddynge: Cerebus, Herebus, Nygh[t] and her thre doghtren, Drede, Fraude, Trecherie, Tresoun, Poverté, Indygence, Nede, Deth, Cruel Mars.

869 Fraternal Hate. Compare Statius, Thebaid 1.1: "Fraternas acies."

870-72 Marginalia: ¶ Alle thise folk weren at the wedding of Edyppus and Jocasta.

873 To make the towne desolat and bare. Repeated at line 4372. The image of the desolate city is taken from the opening of the Book of Lamentations traditionally ascribed to Jeremiah. Dante uses it to represent the death of Beatrice in the Vita Nuova (ch. xxviii). In the Filostrato, Boccaccio revises Dante's use of the figure in order to signify the absence of his fictitious lover and Criseida's empty house after she has left Troy and abandoned Troiolo. Chaucer employs Boccaccio's image to describe Criseyde's "paleys desolat" (5.540-53). Compare Anelida and Arcite lines 57-63 for the image in Chaucer's summary of the carnage of the Theban expedition (Simpson, p. 28).

994 Latin marginalia: ¶ Tragedia Senece de Edippo rege Thebarum. The Oedipus written by Lucius Annaeus Seneca follows the main lines of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex but adds spectacular scenes such as occult rituals and Jocasta's death on stage.

1009 devoide both of love and drede. Lydgate recalls the phrasing that describes the relation of the Lombard prince Walter to his nobles and people at the beginning of Chaucer's The Clerk's Tale: "Biloved and drad" (IV[E]69). Compare line 1205, where the phrasing is applied to Adrastus as a monarch who holds power by virtue and popular consent.

1010 whan Edippus for meschief was thus dede. Lydgate follows the narrative of the prose romances. In Statius, Oedipus is alive when Creon comes to power following the deaths of Etiocles and Polynices.

1020 Latin marginalia: ¶ Nota.

1021-26 Marginalia: ¶ How every man oght of dieuté to do reverence to fader and modere, or ellis ther wil folowe vengeaunce.

1025-38 This sentence has no control over syntax; from line 1033 onwards, it is a sequence of elliptical clauses.

1046b Latin marginalia: ¶ Secunda pars.


Secunda Pars

1047 Bowtoun on the Ble. In the frametale of The Canterbury Tales, the Second Nun's life of St. Cecilia has just ended when the Canon's Yeoman overtakes the pilgrims at Boghtoun under Blee (VIII[G]556), which is located about five miles from Canterbury. Lydgate imagines the pilgrims now returning to London as he tells his tale of Thebes. They have already passed the locations where the Manciple and Parson told their tales on their way to Becket's shrine.

1050 Of the clok that it drogh to nyne. The time-telling trope resonates with Chaucer's time-telling passages, one in the Introduction to The Man of Law's Tale, where Harry Bailly urges the pilgrims on because it is already 10 o'clock and time is slipping away, and another just outside Canterbury as the Parson is called on to tell his tale. Lydgate's pilgrims are off to a good start as it is only 9 o'clock and Lydgate has already finished the first part of his triptych tale.

1054-56 Zephyrus . . . hoolsom eir. Another allusion to The Canterbury Tales. Compare the opening lines of the General Prologue, particularly I(A)5-18.

1088-89 Marginalia: ¶ The controvercy of the bretheren.

1104-30 Simpson remarks that a "bureaucratic" and clerical wisdom is undone by the knightly interests of Eteocles and Polynices.

1121-22 Marginalia: ¶ The convencioun of the brotheren.

1161-70 Polynices' journey recapitulates Oedipus' earlier journey.

1190-92 Marginalia: ¶ How Polymytes cam into the lond of Arge.

1195 Chysoun. Adrastus was King of Sicyon.

1196 Chaloun. Adrastus is the son of Talaus: "senior Talaionides" (Thebaid 2.141); see also Hyginus, Fabulae 68A.1, 69, 69A.1, 70.

1211 Marginalia: ¶ Deyphylé.

1212 Marginalia: ¶ Adrastus.

1222-24 Marginalia: ¶ The drem of Kyng Adrastus of a bor and a lyoun.

1266 Tidyus. As Erdmann points out (2:108-09), Lydgate and his sources are uncertain about the details of Tydeus' exile. Tydeus' fratricide, mentioned in line 1271 but unemphasized in Lydgate's poem, ironically reinforces the theme of internecine conflict. His first meeting with Polynices leads to violence, but they reconcile as allies and brothers-in-law.

1270-81 Statius refers briefly to Tydeus' killing of his brother (Thebaid 2.402-03, 2.452-54).

1349 pompous and ellat. The phrase is applied later to another heroic knight, in a mythological excursus on Lycurgus (line 3530); compare Troy Book 1.3110, 4.250, 5.37.

1352-54 Marginalia: ¶ How Tydeus and Polymyte strif for her loggyng.

1374-86 Lydgate's equation of Adrastus with Theseus in Chaucer's The Knight's Tale is indicated by the repetition of the phrase Withoute juge (lines 1366, 1382; compare I[A]1712: "Withouten juge or oother officere").

1408-29 In the Thebaid 1.679-92, Polynices identifies himself by mentioning Cadmus, Thebes, and Jocasta. Adrastus tells him that the rest of the story is well known, adding that his house has its own sins and that posterity does not bear the blame of its ancestor.

1437 Cusshewes. A cuisse is a piece of armor that covers the thighs with plate armor front and back. Greaves are armor for the lower leg. Lydgate describes the inverse scene in Troy Book (3.50), where the knights arm themselves with the same pieces as mentioned here.

1460 Lucyfer. Lydgate seems to mean Lucifer as the sun, as Erdmann indicates in his gloss, but normal Middle English usage construes him as the morning star. Compare Chaucer's Boece 3.m1.9 and Troilus and Criseyde 3.1417.

1484 his arowes of gold and not of stiel. Cupid's arrows representing courtly virtues and vices are mentioned in the Roman de la rose. Compare Chaucer's Romaunt 946-47: "But iren was ther noon ne steell, / For al was gold."

1488 Depe yfiched the poynt of remembraunce. Compare Anelida's complaint in Anelida and Arcite, which laments Arcite's betrayal (lines 211, 350).

1499 spices pleynly and the wyn. Spices were taken with wine. Compare The Squire's Tale V(F)291-94 and The Legend of Good Women, line 1110.

1502-05 Touchyng her reste . . . Demeth ye lovers . . . in my boke. Lydgate's deferential trope originates in Chaucer. See, e.g., Troilus and Criseyde 3.1310-16. Lydgate picks up the phrase "the grete worthynesse" from Troilus and Criseyde 3.1316 in his line 1509.

1532 feeldys. The field is the surface of the shield on which a charge of heraldic device is displayed.

1541 lik as writ Bochas. Genealogie deorum gentilium 2.41.

1562-65 Lydgate uses the device of occupatio in a manner reminiscent of The Knight's Tale and alluding closely to The Squire's Tale (V[F]65-68), where the Squire in fact demonstrates his inability to control the figure rhetorically. Unlike Chaucer's narrators, Lydgate adheres to the ideal of brevity. A sotyltee is an ornamental device used at fine banquets, sometimes made of sugar and consumed, but sometimes also a table decoration that might establish the motif of the feast.

1615-21 Adrastus' plan to divide his kingdom between Polynices and Tydeus so that he can pursue the lust of my desyris (line 1617) and myn ese (line 1621) recalls Walter's governance before his marriage to Griselda in The Clerk's Tale as much as King Lear's disastrous division of his realm in Shakespeare's play. Allen, p. 125, suggests that Lydgate may be drawing on the ironic lesson of Troilus and Criseyde that human plans can be thwarted by the malice of others.

1629 verray gentyl knyght. Compare Chaucer's phrasing in his idealizing portrait of the Knight in the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales: "He was a veray, parfit gentil knyght" (I[A]72). Lydgate idealizes Tydeus, suppressing the details of his cannibalism as he dies on the battlefield; see below lines 4235-37.

1663-73 Another Chaucerian example of occupatio. See note to lines 1562-65.

1669-70 th'amerous lookes . . . leyd doun lyne and hokes. The notion that lines with hooks stream from the eyes of lovers to ensnare others lies at the heart of courtly love traditions. See Andreas Capellanus, De amore, 1.3. Relying on Isidore of Seville's Etymologiae 10.1.5, Andreas traces the origin of the word "love" (amor) to the word for "hook" (hamus): Nam qui amat captus est cupidinis vinculis aliumque desiderat suo capere hamo [for the lover is caught in bonds of desire and longs to catch another on his hook (hamo)]. See also Chaucer's "Merciles Beaute" where "Your yën two wol slee me sodenly" (line 1); or "The Complaint of Mars," where the lover is troubled by "the stremes of thin yën" (line 111).

1721-22 Marginalia: ¶ Comendacioun of Trouthe. See note to lines 1728-32 below.

1724 as a centre stable. Compare the description of Cambyuskan in Chaucer's The Squire's Tale (V[F]22): "Of his corage as any centre stable."

1727 Latin marginalia: ¶ Nota.

1728-32 Marginalia: ¶ How trouth is preferred in the book of Esdre aforn kyngges, wymmen, and wyn. The reference is to 3 Esdras 3-4.43, where wisemen demonstrate through debate that Truth is stronger than the king, wine, or women. The story is a great favorite among late fourteenth-century English poets. See Gower, Confessio Amantis 7.1783-1984, where Truth, which is stronger than all contenders, is identified as a primary point of virtue. Chaucer's Prudence gives an amusing variation on the story, where jasper is declared stronger than gold, wisdom stronger than jasper, and women strongest of all (The Tale of Melibee VII[B2]1106-08). 3 Esdras may be found in the appendix to Weber's Stuttgart edition of the Vulgate (1986), 2.1910-30. An interesting translation may be found in The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments with the Apocryphal Books, trans. from the Latin Vulgate by John Wycliffe and his Followers, ed. Josiah Forsball and Sir Frederic Madden (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1850; 1982), vol. 2.542-75.

1732 ben ek set asyde. The syntax of this clause is confusing. The general sense is that kings, wine, and women have little value and power in comparison to truth. Erdmann (2: 66) observes that the syntax of the line confused a number of scribes.

1736-41 The story of the rebuilding of the wall is alluded to in 2 Esdras 2:1-8, but the account is greatly expanded in 3 Esdras 2 and 4, as the king is convinced that the keeping of his word to rebuild the wall is most important of all. See note to lines 1728-32.

1743-45 Marginalia: ¶ Trouth and mercye preserven a kyng from al adversyté. Proverbs 20:28. "Misericordia et veritas custodiunt regem et roboratur clementia thronus eius" ("Mercy and truth preserve a king, and his throne is upheld by mercy"); compare Proverbs 16:12.

1748-50 Marginalia: ¶ Chaunge nor doublenesse shuld not be in a kyng.

1766 Interlinear gloss: trouth. Added to explain grammatical referent of it: truth wol clerly shyne.

1785-86 Marginalia: ¶ The counsayl of flatareres.

1790 blowen in an horn. Compare Theseus' remark about the loser of the contest to win Emily: "He moot go pipen in an yvy leef" (I[A]1838); and the luckless priest in The Miller's Tale (I[A]3387): "Absolon may blowe the bukkes horn."

1801-03 Marginalia: ¶ How the yeer was come out that Ethiocles regnyd.

1814-60 Lydgate and his sources omit the portion of the story in which Argeia pleads that Polynices not return to Thebes to claim the throne. It is subsequent to this scene that Polynices seeks counsel with Adrastus and Tydeus volunteers to undertake the mission. In Lydgate, Tydeus' refusal to hear any objection recalls Hector's refusal in Troy Book to heed Andromache's and Priam's protests against his taking the field against the Greeks.

1846-49 Marginalia: ¶ Tydeus took upon hym to doun the massage of Polymyne.

1867-70 Marginalia: ¶ The sorowe of Deyphilé whan Tideus went toward Thebes.

1889-90 The sense requires "was sittyng."

1901-04 Marginalia: ¶ How wisly and how knyghtly Tideus did his massage.

1932-35 Marginalia: ¶ The request that Tideus mad in the name of Polymyt under the title of the convencioun.

1963-64 Marginalia: ¶ The answer of Ethiocles.

1983 A four-beat line.

2047-49 Marginalia: ¶ The knyghtly answere ageyne of Tydeus.

2116-18 Marginalia: ¶ How manly Tydeus departed from the kyng.

2147-51 Marginalia: ¶ How falsly Ethyocles leyde a busshment in the way to have slayn Tydeus.

2157-58 The ambush of Tydeus repeats Oedipus' encounter with the Sphinx.

2173-75 Marginalia: ¶ How Tydeus outrayed fifty knyghtes that lay in a wayt for hym.

2197 rampaunt. Lydgate uses the adjective both in the sense of "threatening, fierce" and in the heraldic sense of a lion or griffon "standing in profile on the left hind leg" (MED).

2197-200 Erdmann (2:117) notes that the images here recall the battle of Palamon and Arcite in The Knight's Tale (I[A]1655-58).

2204 Now her, now ther. Tydeus' slaughter of his enemies echoes Pandarus' account to Criseyde of Troilus' prowess on the battlefield: "Now here, now ther, he hunted hem so faste, / Ther nas but Grekes blood - and Troilus" (Troilus and Criseyde 2.197-98).

2239-42 Marginalia: ¶ Hou trouth with lityl multitude hath evere in the fyn victory of falshede.

2244 chanpartye. Chaucer (The Knight's Tale I[A]1949) and Lydgate (Troy Book 2.5357, 2.5681, 3.2923) use the term in a number of contexts to mean "dispute" or "contend."

2269-71 Marginalia: ¶ How Tydeus al forwounded cam unto Ligurgus lond.

2274-75 As Erdmann (2:118) points out, the garden Tydeus enters recalls the one in which Palamon and Arcite first see Emily in The Knight's Tale (I[A]1056-61). The reference is interesting for what does not occur in Lydgate's poem: when he is healed of his wounds, Tydeus thanks Lygurgus' daughter for her assistance and returns to Argos.

2306-09 Marginalia: ¶ How Barurgus [Ligurgus] doghter fond Tydeus sleping in the herber al forwounded.

2355-58 Marginalia: ¶ How wommanly the lady acquyt hir to Tydeus in his desese.

2377-79 Marginalia: ¶ Hou Tydeus was refresshed in the castel of the lady.

2424-25 Marginalia: ¶ Hou Tydeus repeyred hym to Arge al forwoundyd.

2484-88 Marginalia: ¶ How Ethiocles was asstonyed whan he herd the deth of his knyghtes.


Tercia Pars

2553-67 Erdmann (2:120) cites Chaucer's Anelida and Arcite, lines 50-53, as a source, and Spearing, "Lydgate's Canterbury Tale," p. 362n33, suggests a formal resemblance to "O crueel goddes" (The Knight's Tale I[A]1303). But compare the apostrophes to Mars in Troy Book Prol.1-37 and 4.4440-537.

2586-88 Marginalia: ¶ The gret purveaunce of Kyng Adrastus touard Thebes.

2602 Cylmythenes. The passage from the Roman de Edipus printed by Erdmann (2:120) makes it clear that the proper name is an error for the title King of Mycenae: "La vint Parthonolopeus qui estoit filz du roy Archade et cil de Michenes et le Roy ypomedon . . . ." In the Thebaid, Parthonopeus is the last of the heroes named in Statius' list.

2613-15 Marginalia: ¶ The kyngges and princes that cam with Adrastus.

2661-63 As Erdmann (2:121) notes, these lines recall the passages in The Knight's Tale where the knights gather (I[A]2095-127) and later begin the tournament (I[A]2491-512). Lydgate's phrasing is close but not exact: uncouth devyses (line 2662) reformulates Chaucer's "devisynge of harneys / So unkouth and so riche" (I[A]2496-97) and Every man after his fantasye (line 2663) makes a significant change in "Everych after his opinioun" (I[A]2127). These verbal approximations belie the profound difference between Adrastus' preparations for war and Theseus' efforts to contain violence through ceremony and game.

2682-85 Marginalia: ¶ What vayleth a kyng to payen his puple trewly her sowde.

2713-14 Marginalia: ¶ Hou love vayleth mor a kyng than gold or gret richesse.

2750-53 Marginalia: ¶ How Ethiocles made hym strong ageyn the commyng of the Grekes.

2759 gonnys. Compare line 4315 and Chaucer's The Legend of Good Women, line 637, which has guns at Antony and Cleopatra's defeat at Actium (Erdmann 2:121). Cannons are mentioned in English and Italian documents from the early fourteenth century onwards.

2801-04 Marginalia: ¶ How the Bysshope Amphiorax was sent for to come to the Grekes. Renoir, The Poetry of John Lydgate, p. 123, argues that Lydgate presents a more positive view of Amphiarus than the closest French source, the Roman de Edipus, and makes him a source of wisdom.

2823-24 Marginalia: ¶ The proph[e]cie of Amphiorax.

2832 ther was non other geyn. Lydgate's characteristic expression of necessity; compare Troy Book 1.3490, 2.7370, 3.5244, 3.5299, 4.618, 4.1400, 4.3111, 5.1947.

2841-72 Lydgate's casual misogyny here and at lines 4449-62 plays against his more complex treatment of women in Troy Book 3.4343-448, where he seems to reprove Guido delle Colonne's antifeminism but ends by affirming part of it.

2853-57 Marginalia: ¶ How the wif of Amphiorax of conscience to save her hath discured her husbond.

2946-48 Marginalia: ¶ How age and youth ben of diverse opynyons.

2958 Joye at the gynnyng; the ende is wrechednesse. Compare the definitions of tragedy in Dante's Letter to Can Grande della Scala and the Prologue to Chaucer's The Monk's Tale (VII[B2]1971-81).

2969-72 Marginalia: ¶ How that wysdam withoute supportacioun avayleth lit or noght.

3007-09 Marginalia: ¶ The gret meschief that Grekes hadde for watere.

3034 "This Ligurgus seems to be another person than the king of the same name mentioned 2308, 2353, and the country as well as the garden are apparently quite unfamiliar to Tydeus" (Erdmann 2:123). Chaucer confuses Lycurgus of Nemea (mentioned in Teseida 6.14) with Lycurgus of Thrace (mentioned in Thebaid 4.386 and 7.180); see The Riverside Chaucer, p. 837, the note for The Knight's Tale I(A)2129.

3040-43 Marginalia: ¶ How Tydeus compleyned to the lady in the herber for water.

3069-71 Marginalia: ¶ How the ladye taught Tydeus to the welle.

3154-92 The story of Hypsipyle told here, Erdmann (2:123) points out, combines Lydgate's prose sources with Boccaccio's Genealogie deorum gentilium 5.29, his De claris mulieribus 15, and Chaucer's The Legend of Good Women, 3155-87. In Statius, the story is told at length (Thebaid 5.28-498).

3188 Marginalia: ¶ Jason.

some bookis telle. Chaucer's The Legend of Good Women recounts the collusion of Jason and Hercules to seduce and betray Hypsipyle in the paired stories of Medea and Hypsipyle (1368-679). See also Gower's telling of the story of Jason, Medea, and the golden fleece in Confessio Amantis 5.3247-4361.

3192 Marginalia: ¶ Hercules.

3193 Marginalia: ¶ Ysyphylé.

3195 Hir fadres name of which also I wante. Hypsipyle's father is named Thoas; see Statius, Thebaid 5.239 and Chaucer, The Legend of Good Women, line 1468.

3204 fayre Jane. Giovanna (Joanna), daughter of Robert of Anjou, king of Naples, where Boccaccio lived between 1327-41. Giovanna is the last figure mentioned in Boccaccio's De claris mulieribus. Though originally intended for Giovanna, the work, begun in 1361 and revised until 1375, is dedicated to Countess Andrea Acciaiuoli.

3207 conpiled. A compilatio is a collection of narratives with some organizing principle, as opposed to a collectio, which merely gathers the materials without an organizing scheme. Chaucer and Gower describe their authorial role as that of a compilator, someone who writes the materials of others and augments them but adds nothing of his own.

3217-18 Marginalia: ¶ How the child was slayn with the serpent.

3313-16 Marginalia: ¶ Hou Adrastus and all th' estatus of Grekis praiden Lygurgus for the lif of Ysyphilé.

3326 herberiours. A harbinger is a servant who rides ahead to arrange his master's lodging.

3379 The rage gan myne. Erdmann (2:126) proposes a source in Criseyde's inclination toward Troilus: "And after that, his manhod and his pyne / Made love withinne hire for to myne" (Troilus and Criseyde 2.676-77).

3379-83 Marginalia: ¶ The sorow that the Kyng Ligurgus made for the deth of his child and the lamentacioun of the quene.

3384 Erdmann (2:126) cites Criseyde's isolation in the Greek camp: "Hire nedede no teris for to borwe" (Troilus and Criseyde 5.726).

3398 pité which is in gentyl blood. The phrase "pitee renneth soone in gentil herte" recurs throughout Chaucer's poetry (The Knight's Tale I[A]1761, The Man of Law's Tale II[B1]660, The Merchant's Tale IV[E]1986, The Squire's Tale V[F]479, The Legend of Good Women F 503). Guido Guinizelli's doctrinal canzone "Al cor gentil rempaira sempre amore" ("Love returns always to the gentle heart") gives one of the most important medieval expressions to the idea; see also Dante, Convivio 4.16.3-5. In Statius, the corresponding virtue is clementia, which has political significance (mercy that can supersede the mechanisms of justice) rather than aristocratic and moral meaning.

3417-18 Marginalia: ¶ Ageynes deth may be no recur.

3418-19 And our lif her, who tak hed therto, / Is but an exile and a pilgrymage. Compare Egeus' speech of consolation to Palamon immediately after Arcite's death in The Knight's Tale: "This world nys but a thurghfare ful of wo, / And we been pilgrymes, passynge to and fro" (I[A]2847-48). Adrastus' speech of consolation to Lycurgus (lines 3409-49) also recalls Theseus' speech on providence at the end of The Knight's Tale and the practical wisdom of Agamemnon's speech to Menelaus after the loss of Helen (Troy Book 2.4337-427).

3430 fraunchyse. The term refers broadly to freedom and nobility of character and specifically to special rights and privileges, including right of sanctuary and freedom from arrest in certain places (MED); see also Erdmann 2:177.

3432 supersedyas. Writ to stay legal proceedings or to suspend the powers of an officer (MED and Erdmann 2:199). Erdmann 2:126-27 and Schirmer, p. 64, relate the reference to the murder of Duke John of Burgundy (10 September 1419) and cite Troy Book 5.3553-56 as a parallel.

3468-70 Marginalia: ¶ How the quen wil algate han the serpente dede.

3487-89 Marginalia: ¶ How Parthonolope saugh the serpent.

3510 Boccaccio, Genealogie deorum gentilium 3.29

3521-22 Latin marginalia: ¶ Nota de Ligurgo rege Traccee.

3522-35 In The Knight's Tale, Lycurgus is the champion who accompanies Palamon against Arcite (I[A]2128-29); compare Teseida 6.14. Like Chaucer, Lydgate confuses Lycurgus, the father of the slain infant Opheltes, with Lycurgus, the king of Thrace who repudiated Bacchus (Thebaid 4.386); see above, line 3034.

3528 Latin marginalia: ¶ Bachus de vini.

3537-40 Latin marginalia: ¶ Nota de xii arboribus in libro Bochacii de Genealogia Deorum. Boccaccio sets out the genealogical scheme in the first proem to the Genealogie deorum gentilium.

3541 Certaldo. Boccaccio was born in the village of Certaldo, not far from Florence. He returned there after retirement from public life and called himself "John of Certaldo."

3589-92 Marginalia: ¶ The forey that the Grekis made in the contré about Thebes.

3620-22 Marginalia: ¶ The variaunce in Thebes among hemsilf.

3647-50 Marginalia: ¶ Nota The word of the Qwene Jocasta to Ethiocles.

3655 lat us shape another mene. Chaucer uses the phrase to describe Fate's plan for killing Hector (Troilus and Criseyde 5.1551), and Lydgate uses the phrase through-out Troy Book to express practical deliberation in political matters.

3661-70 Ebin, John Lydgate, pp. 54-55, remarks that Lydgate amplifies the climax of Jocasta's speech by reiterating the example of Amphion's elevation of words over arms.

3663-65 Marginalia: ¶ How perilous it is to be governyd any querel.

3687 dryve so narowe to the stake. Erdmann (2:129) notes similar phrasing in The Knight's Tale: "be broght unto the stake" (I[A]2552), "ydrawen to the stake" (I[A]2642), and "broght to the stake" (I[A]2648).

3766-67 Marginalia: ¶ The answer of Tydeus.

3822-932 The episode of the tiger is amplified in details from Statius by Lydgate's sources, and Lydgate uses it to make the same point as in Troy Book - disastrous consequences follow from remote and oblique causes.

3904-05 Marginalia: ¶ The manhod of Tydeus.

4011 thus I lete him dwelle. A favorite transitional device in Chaucer; see The Knight's Tale I(A)1661, The Man of Law's Tale II(B1)410 and 1119, The Franklin's Tale V(F)1099, The Shipman's Tale VII(B2)306, Troilus and Criseyde 5.195, The Legend of Good Women, lines 2348 and 2383, and "Complaint of Mars" lines 74, 122.

4029-30 Marginalia: ¶ How Amphiorax fil doune into hell.

4041-44 Spearing, "Lydgate's Canterbury Tale," p. 340, finds the model for Amphiarus' descent to hell in Aurelius' address to Apollo in The Franklin's Tale (V[F]1073-75).

4047-54 Lydgate's style echoes Chaucer's ambiguous anaphora on pagan rites and poetry at the end of Troilus and Criseyde 5.1849-55. On idolatry, see above, lines 538-40. See also the note to lines 4620-30 below.

4167-69 Marginalia: ¶ How Grekes chose hem a new dyvynour in stede of Amphiorax.

4205 That as the deth fro his swerd they fledde. The description of Tydeus parallels that of Troilus in his effort to secure Criseyde's admiration through deeds of arms: "Fro day to day in armes so he spedde / That the Grekes as the deth him dredde" (Troilus and Criseyde 1.482-83).

4212-15 The plot to ambush Tydeus resembles the plots that Achilles organizes in Troy Book to kill first Hector and then Troilus.

4218-19 Marginalia: ¶ How pitously Tydeus was slayn with a quarell.

4235-37 Boccaccio, Genealogie deorum gentilium 9.21 in fact records the full details of the scene in Statius, where Tydeus gnaws on the head of Menalippus; compare Dante's version of the scene with Ugolino (Inferno 33.1-90), to which Chaucer directs the curious reader in The Monk's Tale (VII[B2]2458-62).

4239-41 Marginalia: ¶ He that slogh Tydeus was callyd Menolippus.

4240-54 Lydgate's treatment of the rest of the Argive heroes is in marked contrast to that of Statius, who sets the rhythm of his poem around the successive deaths of the kings who join Adrastus to move against Thebes.

4277-80 Marginalia: ¶ How everich of the Theban bretheren slogh other toforn the cyté.

4281 compassioun. Schlauch, p. 19, emphasizes that the combat between the brothers is presented "in the spirit of the Roman de Thèbes," where the equivalent term is pitié (9630). Lydgate's use of compassioun in this scene is the culmination of an ambiguous pattern: the term applies earlier to the decision not to kill the infant Oedipus, to Lycurgus' daughter's healing of Tydeus after the ambush, to Hypsipyle's response to the desperate situation of the Greek army, and to Adrastus' sympathy for Lycurgus as the king holds the body of his infant son.

4315 See above, line 2759.

4341-44 Marginalia: ¶ How al the gentyl blood of Grece and Thebes was distroyed on o day.

4345-48 In Statius, Adrastus is the only hero to survive the assault on Thebes. Lydgate follows his prose source in having both Adrastus and Campaneus survive (Erdmann 2:134). In the Roman de Thèbes, Campaneus is struck down by Jupiter's thunderbolt.

4372 the cité bar and destitut. See above, line 872.

4384 Creon is chosen governor of the city in the French tradition of the story, while he seizes power in Statius. Compare Anelida and Arcite, lines 64-68.

4386-88 Marginalia: ¶ How Creaunt the old tyraunt was chosen kyng of Thebes.

4412-15 Erdmann (2:133) cites the references to queens and duchesses in The Knight's Tale (I[A]922-23), but Lydgate amplifies the number of titles and makes explicit the social standing of the women.

4416-18 Marginalia: ¶ How alle the ladyes of Gr[e]ce arayde hem toward Thebes.

4448-62 See above, lines 2841-72. Erdmann (2:134) finds a tinge of satire in the passage.

4489-92 Marginalia: ¶ How Creon wil not suffre the bodies nowther to be buryed nor brent.

4501 And as my mayster Chaucer list endite. The ending portions of Lydgate's poem are linked with the opening of Chaucer's The Knight's Tale both at a narrative level and at the level of specific textual detail. Later (line 4531), Lydgate directs attention to the text itself in a summary of the tale.

4523 Wel rehersyd at Depforth in the vale. The reference is to The Reeve's Tale, not The Knight's Tale.

4525-28 Marginalia: ¶ How the fynal destruccioun of Thebes is compendeously rehersyd in the Knyghtes Tale.

4541-53 The alternative narrative that Lydgate notes - "as some auctours make mencioun" (line 4541) - is the narrative that Statius recounts at the end of the Thebaid.

4563-66 Marginalia: ¶ How Duk Theseus delyvered to the ladies the bodyes of her lordys.

4565-607 Lydgate's occupatio echoes The Knight's Tale (I[A]2919-66), the description of Arcite's funeral, and the longest sentence in Chaucer. Lydgate had used it earlier in Troy Book 4.3251-61.

4603-06 Marginalia: ¶ Kyng Adrastus with the ladyes repeyred hom ageyn to Arge.

4610 ye gete no more of me. A repeated formula in Chaucer: The Merchant's Tale (IV[E]1945), The Squire's Tale (V[F]343), The Franklin's Tale (V[F]1556), The Manciple's Prologue (IX[H]102), House of Fame, line 1560, Parliament of Fowls, line 651, The Legend of Good Women, line 1557; compare The Monk's Tale (VII[B2]2292) and Parson's Prologue (X[I]31).

4623-26 Marginalia: ¶ CCCC yere tofore the fundacioun of Rome was Thebes destroyed.

4628-30 Lydgate's repetition in these lines recalls the ending of Troilus and Criseyde where the narrator repudiates antiquity, its cultural practices, and poetic topics.

4634-39 Marginalia: ¶ The worthy blood of Grece was distroyed at the siege and the cyté fynaly brouht to nought. Renoir, The Poetry of John Lydgate, p. 125, points out that Lydgate's repudiation of war echoes Amphiarus' earlier warning to the Greeks about the outcome of war (lines 2887-910).

4649-50 Marginalia: ¶ Belliona is goddesse of bataill.

4661-64 Marginalia: ¶ How that werre byganne in hevene by the pride and surquedye of Lucyfer. Erdmann (2:135-36) cites Isaiah 14:12 and 17:1 and Revelations 20:1-3 and 12:7, 9. Kurose, p. 22, notes parallels in Troy Book 2.5845-83 and examines the implications in Lydgate's treatise The Serpent of Division. He wrongly equates division with mutability, confusing cause and effect (pp. 24-25).

4668 Marginalia: ¶ Lollium.

4697 Latin marginalia: ¶ Surget gens contra gentem lucc xxi?. Luke 21:10: "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom."

4703 Pees and quyet, concord and unyté. Lydgate echoes the terms of the Treaty of Troyes, reached in 1420. At the end of Troy Book, he refers to the same convencioun (5.3398) and sees in Henry V's marriage to Katherine of Valois the promise of "Pes and quiete" (5.3435). Pearsall, John Lydgate, suggests that the peace Henry negotiated was "the fulfilment of the whole historical teaching of the Thebes-story" (p. 156) and that Lydgate turned consciously to the ending in Troy Book. Lawton, pp. 778-79, argues that Lydgate developed the theme of the waste of war out of Troy Book and expressed his deeply-held convictions in this passage. Ayers, p. 468 n26, is skeptical about using 31 August 1422 as a terminus ante quem for dating The Siege of Thebes, since he finds the poem's optimistic ending and the echo of the Treaty of Troyes "conventionally Christian in character." Simpson (p. 15) also places the poem after Henry's death, in the struggle between Bedford and Gloucester.

4704 Here Lydgate echoes the last stanza of Troilus and Criseyde, where Chaucer, borrowing from Dante's prayer for virtuous warriors in Paradiso 14.28-30, lays his hero and his poem to rest.

THE SIEGE OF THEBES: TEXTUAL NOTES

43 trouthe. MS: trouth. In a number of instances I have added a final -e to restore the meter. See the following: spare (line 112), bothe (lines 151, 199, 707, 844, 1416, 1575, 1638, 2092, 2626, 2721, 3023, 3093, 3151, 3241, 4226), shulde (lines 218, 424,1516,1722,1918, 2812, 2830, 2858, 3404), moste (lines 266, 733), myghte (line 300), silfe (line 372), woode (lines 390, 2374, 2523, 3438), wexe (lines 496, 985), wolde (lines 579, 1393, 1833, 3097, 3162, 3401), hymsilve (line 662), trouthe (lines 673, 1722, 1725, 1762, 2649, 2786, 2963), Thilke/thilke (lines 699, 1240, 1841, 3616, 3862, 3920, 3983, 4240, 4255), foure (lines 705, 3526), seide (line 777), dyde/dide (lines 833, 3531, 3652, 3851, 3854), erthe (lines 1011, 4148), hoole (line 1057), berthe (1079), groche (line 1139), heghe (lines 1154, 2273, 2300, 2757, 2817), herte (line 1169), silfe (line 1249), grene (lines 1276, 2288, 2290, 2304, 3564), hadde (line 1289), thikke (lines 1365, 2145), tolde (line 1368), torche (line 1370), derke (line 1383), Tweyne (line 1439), whiche (lines 1547, 3903), laste (line 1575), fulle (line 1630), Sore/Soore/soore (lines 1687, 3393, 4367), betwixe (line 1719), alle (lines 1721, 2720), croune (line 1840), blake (lines 1869, 3596, 4042), olde (lines 1914, 4031, 4566), avayle (line 2021), while (lines 2040, 2314), slouthe (line 2108), moone (line 2272), pleyne (line 2360), made (lines 2394, 2449), highe (line 2485), wirke (line 2795), wiste (line 2819), hoore (line 2879), dirke (lines 2909, 4073), gonne (line 2929), Conveye (line 3081), allone (line 3186), fayre (line 3204), taile (line 3219), remedye (line 3261), mighte (line 3304), newe (line 3369), herde (lines 3372, 4104), sighe (line 3380), aboute (line 3397), sharpe (lines 3406, 3900), sheede (line 3477), lieve (line 3547), larke (line 3552), broughte (line 3591), thynke (line 3601), strengthe (line 3777), helpe (line 4103), drede (line 4156), Atwene (line 4337), dede (line 4495), looke (line 4532), waye (line 4596), atwixe (lines 4684, 4702).

45 memoyré. For the rhyme with gloyré (line 46), compare lines 2239-40.

46 whom. MS: who.

58 deden. MS: ded. In a number of instances I have supplied a medial vowel or ending

inflection where the meter and syntax require it. See the following: franchemole (line 101), benignely/Benygnely, (lines 506, 3060), Amonges (lines 615, 2802), diden (line 629), slayen/Islayen/yslayen (lines 948, 2224, 2525, 3873, 3877, 3910, 4196, 4241, 4342, 4361), hymsilven (line 1119), humblely (line 1388), withouten (lines 1412, 1725), officeres (line 1430), aboven (lines 1721, 2720), therageynes (line 2010), Ageynes (lines 2078, 2237, 2245, 3137, 4102), stoundemele (lines 2304, 3387), rasoures (line 3169), wildely (line 3866), wichecraft (line 4101), lechecraft (line 4228), hennes (line 4715).

67 logged. MS: louged.

109 with. MS omits.

110 to. MS omits.

114 collik. MS: collis. Erdmann (2:99) notes Latin "collica passio" but emends to "Collikes passioun."

163 It. MS omits.

165 a. MS omits.

176b Incipit Pars Prima. MS: Incipit Pars Prima. Per &c.

177 curtesye. MS: curteseye.

185 and. MS: of.

203-04 Lines transposed in MS.

215 Seith. MS: Seth.

234 outward. MS: after.

239-42 Lines repeated with minor variation in 289-92, but evidently not cancelled in this passage.

280 which that. MS: which.

283 clerkes can reporte. I have retained the MS reading against other early witnesses, which Erdmann uses to emend to as clerkes can reporte. Parenthetical clauses are characteristic of both Chaucer's and Lydgate's style. The error in the next line shows the scribe construing the parenthetical clause as the main clause.

284 But that. MS: That but.

285 nought. MS: nat.

324 space. MS: space in soth. MS reading hypermetric. Erdmann proposes (2:93) that this error originates with the first copyist of the poem.

seven. MS: vii.

358 perceyved. MS: conceyved.

365 come. MS: corve.

368 fate. MS: face.

379 soght. MS: foght.

founde out bothe. MS: founde out of both.

380 collecte. MS: correcte. See also Explanatory Notes.

382 hour. MS: tour.

455 halle. MS: alle.

461 purpoos. MS: propoos.

493 uttrely. MS: uutrely.

498 his. MS: her.

500 mused. MS: musen.

504 a. MS omits.

508 ground. MS: trouthe.

527 he. MS: it.

532 Edippus. MS: Egippus.

544 paganysmes. MS: paganysme.

553 fend. MS: fond.

561 Unto a. MS: Unta.

564 perteynent. MS: perceynent.

644 monster. MS: moyster.

649 preef. MS: preest.

690 vyle. Other MSS: foule; see Erdmann 2:105 for arguments for either reading.

725 remewe. MS: renewe.

752 grete. MS: right.

799 her. MS: hur.

804 be. MS omits.

813 punished. MS: punshed.

814 ar. MS: er.

863 Indigence. MS: Iindigence.

865 Compleynt. MS: compleyn.

882 Of which. MS: Of the which.

928 To execute. MS: Execute. Erdmann (2:93) regards the confusion of lines 927-28 as an error deriving from the common exemplar of all the extant witnesses. I have preserved the MS reading "To certeyn men" (line 927), which Erdmann takes as a scribal mistake for To execute (line 928) because of its attestation in all MSS and its metrical regularity.

982 ful. MS: fal.

990 hem. MS: ham.

1000 sones. MS: sonnes. Compare line 1445.

1013 Wers. MS: Werre.

1022 honur. MS: nur.

1023 and. MS omits.

1028 cherissh. MS: cherssh.

1033 contrayre. MS: contrarye. See below line 3988.

1046b Incipit Secunda Pars Eiusdem. MS: Incipit Secunda Pars Eiusdem. Secunda pars.

1051 And. MS: An.

1052 peerlys. MS: perelys.

1053 eire. MS: heire.

1056 eir. MS: heir.

1070 devoyded. MS: devoyden.

1078 forbern. MS: forborn.

1098 But. MS omits.

1112 thorgh. MS: thorg.

1116 regnen. MS: regne.

1132 ascendeth. MS: descendeth.

1203 To. MS: Be.

1216 and. MS omits.

1221 mariage. MS: marige (corr. mariage)

1222 yet. MS: right.

1256 without. MS: with.

1271 his. MS: is.

1280 banished. MS: banshed.

1300 entered. MS: entred.

1309 tydinges. The alternative reading in some MSS - Tydeus - makes sense as well.

1346 yarmed. MS: armed.

1351 on. MS: or.

1357 And. MS omits. Erdmann (2:109) regards this error as deriving from the exemplar common to all extant witnesses.

1358 Kyng. MS: And kyng.

1375 gentil. MS: getil.

1384 myght. MS: mygh.

1392 tarying. MS: taryng.

1393 light. MS: ligh.

1400 He axed. MS: I-axed.

1442 ermyn. MS: hermyn.

1445 sonne. MS: sone. Compare line 1000.

1448 for to. MS: to.

1465 Contenaunce. MS: Contenaunces.

1467 frecchnesse. MS: frocchnesse.

1484 arowes. MS: harowes.

1540 lokys. MS: hokys. Other MSS: crokes.

1565 it. MS omits.

1583 To. MS: The.

and. MS: of. Erdmann's emendation, retained here, offers an aristocratic perspective rather than the more worldly view of the MS: The grete estat of habundaunce of good.

1591 Atwixe. MS: Atwixt.

1631 thanked he. MS: thanked. Following Eilert Ekwall's suggestion 2:111.

1646 And. MS: An.

1695 oth. MS: both.

1721 aboven alle. This line and the following one are metrically deficient in MS: above al; compare line 2720 for similar MS forms.

1738 Be the. MS: The. Erdmann (2:113) regards this error as characteristic of the exemplar common to all extant witnesses.

1749 mutabilité. MS: mutablite.

1750 unstabileté. MS: unstablete.

1755 fro. MS: for.

Whel. MS: wel.

1766 at. MS: a.

1776 And. MS: I.

walles. MS: wal.

1784 flaterye. MS: flatrye.

1790 blowen. MS: blowe.

1802 The. MS: Th.

1803 rekenyng. MS: reknyng.

1815 falshed. MS: falsed.

1861 hem. MS: hym.

1892 his. MS: this.

1896 to. MS omits.

1901 Sir. MS omits.

1909 to. MS omits.

1941 That. MS: Tha.

1957 in maner. MS: in a maner.

1966 which. MS: woch.

1981 than. MS: that.

1988 high. MS: gret.

2006 of. MS omits.

2010 al. MS: of.

2022 tyding. MS: dyding.

2029 walles. MS: wall.

2045 best. MS: lest.

2073 rightwisnesse. MS: righwisnesse.

2078 in feeld to hold batayle. MS: to hold no batayle.

2081 next of his alye. MS: his next alye. Erdmann (2:116) cites Troy Book 1.2882 ("And alle the lordis eke of hir allye") in support of the emendation for meter.

2084 ye. MS: the.

her. MS: ther.

2097 a rowe. MS: arawe.

2109 justly. MS: justyly.

2130 dispitous. MS: dispititous.

2140 or. MS: ar.

2220 was. MS omits. Erdmann (2:117-18) argues the omission occurs in the exemplarcommon to all extant witnesses.

hem. MS: ham.

2224 lay. MS omits.

2239 which. MS: woch.

2251 late. MS: layt.

2297 ayr. MS: hayr.

2307 eyre. MS: heyre (corr. eyre).

2368 so. MS: omits so.

2374 at. MS: al.

2433 wherfor. Other MSS and Erdmann: wherto.

2475 sheding. MS: the sheding.

2487 oyther. MS: oythe.

2491 That. MS: Tha.

2494 no thing. MS: not.

2574 massageres. MS: massagers.

2583 saude. MS corr. from saide; Erdmann emends to sende. Compare Troy Book 5.1354: "And sowden up every manly man."

2613 Pyrrus. MS: of Pyrrus.

2618 yarmed. MS: armed.

2633 ful. MS: shal.

2645 oth. MS: hoth.

2717 love. MS: gold.

2720 aboven alle. MS: above al; compare line 1721.

2739 Which in. MS: With inne.

2833 no. MS: to.

2848 han. MS: hath.

2856 oth. MS: hoth. See also line 2860.

2864 hem. MS: hym.

2900 Ther. MS: The.

2920 Thei. MS: The.

2944 by. MS omits.

lorn. MS: born.

3007 nor. MS: no.

3026 floures and of herbes. MS: herbes and of flours.

3027 ayr. MS: hayr.

3051 ly logged. Other MSS: be (be loggyng).

3064 knowe. MS: knewe.

3086 yet. MS: that. MS reading is plausible: "But for your sake, I shall risk that - my life, my death - for true affection, in order to provide for your rescue." Other witnesses read: now.

3099 to a. MS: ta.

3108 rood. MS: abood (corr. bood)

3168 husbond. MS: husbondys.

3195 wante. MS: wente.

3197 hym. MS: hem.

3211 To. MS: Til.

til. MS: to.

3219 Hyr. MS: hy.

3230 O. MS: I.

3232 her. MS: ther.

3251 quene. MS: king.

3292 thys. MS: thy.

3299 al at onys. MS: altonys.

3315 Cosyn. MS: Cosy.

3323 In. MS: An.

3346 our. MS: your.

yif that. MS: that. See Erdmann 2:125-26.

3364 kynges. MS: kyng.

3376 rent. I have retained the MS reading against Erdmann and other MSS: hente.

3383 the. MS omits.

3384 nedeth. MS: nede.

3385 ny. MS: by.

3436 But. MS: That.

3447 yif that. MS: that. MS reading is plausible: loos of thyng that ye list to see. Alter-native readings are if and that if.

3477 blood for. MS: bloood for.

3488 for to. MS: to.

3496 Hent. MS: Rent.

3504 avoided. MS: avoiden.

3518 hir. MS: hur.

3565 the Thebans. MS: Thebans.

3566 han. MS: an.

3577 to. MS: ta.

3595 hynde. MS: ynde.

3597 tusshy. MS: trusshy. Other MSS: tussky, tuskyd.

3603 occisiones. MS: occasions. Major substantive error for Erdmann (2:128); compare line 4204.

3611 to. MS omits.

3628 were. MS: that were.

3665 put our mater. MS: puter.

3684 on. MS omits.

3712 a pes. MS: pes.

3787 remewe. MS: remowe.

3831 The whiche. MS: which.

3845 ytake. MS: take.

3850 to. MS omits.

3852 good. MS: gret.

3903 espieth. MS: espeth.

3942 gete. MS: getys.

3950 Prothonolopé. MS: Protholonope.

3965 drow. MS: droweth.

3988 contrayre. Erdmann emends to contrarie; see above note to line 1033.

4008 And. MS: Ant.

4011 lete him. MS: lote hem.

4043 Pluto. MS: Plyto.

4045 his. MS: is.

4095 socour. MS: her socour.

4180 in. MS omits.

4187 They. MS omits.

him. MS: hem.

4204 occisioun. MS: occasioun. Compare line 3603.

4228 but that. MS: that.

4249-50 Lines transposed in MS.

4256 passyd was. MS: was passyd.

4286 out. MS omits.

4294 yslawe. MS: yslowe.

4298 loud. MS: land.

4306 ronne. MS: room.

4322 hem. MS: ham.

4326 Thorgh. MS: Torgh.

amyng. MS: hamyng.

4362 and. MS: an.

4373 nor. Erdmann emends to ne.

4374 and. MS: an.

4378 that. MS omits. Understood sense "unless" ("but that").

4389 Althogh. MS: Al they.

4390 by. MS omits.

choys. MS: ioys.

4447 hevynesse. MS: hevnesse.

4467 mervaylyd. MS: amervaylyd.

4471 Campaneus. MS: Companeus.

4490 Wisshing. MS: Whisshing.

4491 bothen. MS: both. Compare line 2801 for bothen.

4518 preiden. MS: preide.

4549 That. MS: Tha.

4571 ayre. MS: hayre.

4600 departe. MS: parte.

4626 departyden. MS: partyd.

4639 wyldernesse. MS: wydernesse.

4679 Luk. MS: bok. Compare rubric citing Luke 21:10: "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom" (from the signs of the end of the world). Other MSS read bok or the boke, referring to the Bible in general.

4696 mor. Erdmann emends to more.

whettyd. MS: whtyd.

4714 amendement. MS: amedement.