THE QUARE OF JELUSY: FOOTNOTES



1 That most have distressed my miserable heart

2 But go on suffering, as I have done up to now

3 Of beauty she lacked absolutely nothing

4 May sharp death pierce me through the heart

5 Lines 84-86: Neither for any desire, nor in order to be commended, / Do I say this, for here [there] is not any (none) but you, / Who knows the truth of this hidden thing

6 Lines 88-89: Then [out] of pity have compassion - and sympathy; / Cause my life to follow a different course

7 Lines 99-100: To behold her, there would be no noble heart / That would not have compassion about her pain

8 Lines 117-18: This lady's face (expression) and sorrowful lamentation / Has absorbed my spirit in sober (pensive) reflection

9 But that she should have full sufficiency thereof

10 For something possible, it seems to me, she should not complain

11 I do not count them, nor do I give them importance

12 [On] how ladies are many times maliciously mistreated (demeaned)

13 My [subject] matter passes over immoral women

14 Lines 236-37: This is what I have in mind: all are wicked men commonly / Who unjustly abuse (oppress) these ladies

15 And though he speak [i.e., to another woman], it harms (hinders) not his reputation

16 Lines 325-26: Which causes destructive humors to continue / [Such] as [a] sinful heart, or whoever chooses to practice (dwell morbidly on) it (jealousy)

17 Lines 359-62: Without charity thus evermore he lives, / Which Christ calls the wedding garment, / Without which every person turns away from (forgoes) heaven, / And of the bliss and of the feast is destitute

18 It has been [the] cause why many were ruined

19 To cut (carve) away the offending (slanderous) member

20 Lines 516-17: Who shall pity them in their weeping, evening and morning, / Those who see beforehand, yet afterwards hasten towards their sorrow (see note)

21 To say or do that [which] you must afterwards regret

22 And does not know where it is going, nor where it will come ashore

23 But since it is [that] you will not lack one [or another] of two [things]

24 To leave this fantasy that you have conceived


THE QUARE OF JELUSY: EXPLANATORY NOTES

Abbreviations: see Textual Notes.

1 lusty Maii. A common way to characterize spring and May in particular. Compare William Dunbar's Thistle and the Rose: "lusty May, that mvddir is of flouris" (poem 52, line 4). In the anonymous Lancelot of the Laik, it is April which is termed "lustee" (line 1). See also descriptions of May as "lusty" in Chaucer's PF (line 130) and The Knight's Tale (CT I[A]2484), as well as in Gower's CA, where Genius explains the properties of the astrological signs and the months that correspond to them. According to this schema, Genius explains, May belongs to Gemini:
His propre Monthe wel I wot
Assigned is the lusti Maii,
Whanne every brid upon his lay
Among the griene leves singeth. (ed. Macaulay, 7.1044-47)
1 ff. For the conventional opening in spring, see Clanvowe's BC, explanatory note to line 20. Compare especially the opening lines of Lancelot of the Laik. Lydgate's CLL, Gavin Douglas' Palis of Honoure, and Dunbar's Golden Targe (poem 59) and Merle and the Nightingale (poem 24), have similar openings.

3 oureclad. The Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue lists overclethe as to "clothe or cover over (with verdure)," but the MED does not include a similar meaning for the past participle of overclothen. Compare the use of "ourgilt" in Dunbar's The Golden Targe: "The purpur hevyn, ourscailit in silver sloppis, / Ourgilt the treis branchis, lef, and barkis" (poem 59, lines 26-27); and "overspred" in Douglas' Palis of Honoure: "The fragrant flouris, blomand in their seis, / Overspred the leves of Naturis tapestreis" (lines 19-20).

6 Agayn the stroke of winter, cold and smert. Possibly an echo of Chaucer's Squire's Tale, where the birds find protection in spring "[a]gayn the swerd of wynter, keene and coold" (CT V[F]57), or the Prologue to LGW: "Forgeten hadde the erthe his pore estat / Of wynter, that hym naked made and mat, / And with his swerd of cold so sore greved" (F.125-17; compare G.113-15). See also explanatory note to line 548.

7 sevynt ide. 9 May. The ides are the fifteenth of March, May, July, October, or the thirteenth of any other month. Thus, sevynt ide would be the seventh day before the ides (counting backwards from, and including the ides). In Lancelot of the Laik it is the "kalendis of May" (line 12) that is mentioned (i.e., 1 May).

8-13 Compare the description of the sun early in Lancelot of the Laik, lines 4-12.

13 unto Maii to done thair observance. Compare Chaucer's TC, where Pandarus says to Criseyde, "rys up, and lat us daunce, / And lat us don to May som observaunce" (2.111-12); and Chaucer's Knight's Tale, where Arcite goes out into the fields "for to doon his observaunce to May" (CT I[A]1500). Similarly, in Douglas' Palis of Honoure the narrator explains: "In May, I rays to do my observance" (line 6).

18 Tho was the ayer sobir and amene. Compare Dunbar's The Golden Targe: "The air attemperit, sobir and amene" (poem 59, line 249); and Lancelot of the Laik, where "the lusty aire" is rendered "soft, ameyne, and faire" by the coming of morning (lines 63-64).

19 ff. The narrator's walk alongside a river bank where he meditates on some source of private grief after which he spies a beautiful woman is a variant of the conventional opening to the medieval amatory complaint. Consider, for example, the openings of CLL and the prologue to Lancelot of the Laik. For more on the locus amoenus tradition, see explanatory note to lines 58-60 of BC.

23 I past me furth remembring to and fro. Compare the narrator's walk in Lancelot of the Laik: "Thus in the feild I walkith to and froo" (line 43).

24 All on this warldis changeing and his wo. The narrator's concern for the world's inconstancy is conventional and recalls the Prologue to Gower's CA, where the narrator laments, "The world is changed overal, / And therof most in special / That love is falle into discord" (ed. Peck, Prol.119-21). See Curtius' discussion of the theme, "The World Upsidedown," pp. 94-98.

39-40 Of coloure was sche lik unto the rose, / Boith quhite and red ymeynt. White and red is a common way of describing medieval beauty. See Whiting R199, "As red as (a, any, the) rose," and L285, "As white as (any, a, the) lily-flower." Dunbar charac-terizes Margaret Tudor similarly in The Thistle and the Rose: "the fresche Ros of cullour reid and quhyt" (poem 52, line 142).

44 Dyane. Goddess of chastity and the hunt. Perhaps likening the woman to Diana serves to emphasize the unjustness and irrationality of "causeles Jelousye" (line 56). The narrator compares the woman to Diana while he hides himself, essentially spying on her (lines 45-46), recalling the story of Acteon, who saw Diana bathing naked in the woods and was killed by his own hounds once the goddess had turned him into a stag as punishment. For literary citations on Acteon, see explanatory note to lines 94-98 of CLL.

47-52 The description of the lady's tears, accompanied by her sorrowing, sighing, and complaining is a common portrait of one suffering from love-longing. Compare lines 95-98 (and see explanatory note).

50 The cristall teris falling from hir eyne clere. As with the comparison to Diana in line 44, the images of cristall and clere are perhaps used to emphasize the lady's purity. The image of cristall teris is not Chaucerian, but rather seems to be a somewhat popular descriptive phrase among Middle Scots poets, perhaps following Lydgate. Compare Venus' description of her own tears in The Kingis Quair: "of my cristall teris that bene schede / The hony flouris growen vp and sprede" (lines 816-17 [st. 117]); Aurora's (the dawn's) tears when she weeps at parting from Phebus (the sun) in Dunbar's Golden Targe: "Hir cristall teris I saw hyng on the flouris" (poem 59, line 17); and "the most [moist] schowris" in Lancelot of the Laik that "[a]s cristoll terys withhong [hung] upone the flouris" (lines 61-62). Aurora has "cristall ene" in Dunbar's Thistle and the Rose (poem 52, line 9); as does Cresseid in Robert Henryson's Testament of Cresseid (line 337).
   The ballade "As Ofte," sometimes attributed to Lydgate, makes use of the phrase in its opening lines: "As ofte as syghes ben in herte trewe, / And cristall teres on dolefull chekes trill" (lines 1-2; H. N. MacCracken, "Lydgatiana," Archiv 127 [1911], 323-27). Lydgate uses the image in Troy Book to describe the tears of Cassandra and other women of Troy, who cry upon sight of their lords' wounds: "Wher men may seen the cristal teris meynt / Of her wepinge in ther woundes grene" (4.6382-83). See also Lydgate's Life of Saint Alban and Saint Amphibal, where Alban weeps "bitter teeris from his eyen tweyn / Lik cristal wellis encresyng as a flood" (lines 1661-62; ed. J. E. Van Der Westhuizen [Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1974]).

55-56 sche cursit prevaly / The cruell vice of causeles Jelousye. Compare Criseyde's complaint to Troilus about his jealousy in Chaucer's TC: "noot I for-why ne how / That jalousie, allas, that wikked wyvere, / Thus causeles is cropen into yow" (3.1009- 11). See also Romaunt where Drede says to Shame: "Jelousie hath us blamed, / Of mystrust and suspecioun, / Causeles, withoute enchesoun" (lines 3980-82).

59-92 In her speech, the lady calls on pagan gods and goddesses to judge her and find her innocent. In this way she is similar to Henryson's Cresseid (in The Testament of Cresseid), who complains to the pantheon of gods that she has been mistreated by Cupid and Venus and demands the gods' judgment in the matter.

59 Goddesse Imeneus. Hymen is the god of marriage and is normally represented as male rather than female. See, for example, Chaucer's TC 3.1258-60. NS&P (p. 64n59 ff.) remark that the address to Hymen shows that the lady has only recently been married, since she has come under his purview "of newe" (line 60).

71-72 Pluto that is king, / Quhich the derk regioun hath in his governyng. The god Pluto is king of Hades, the underworld. Although the woman's speech here depicts Hades as a place of punishment only, where body and soul will "ay duell in torment and in wo" (line 76), Virgil describes Hades as containing places of both reward (Elysian Fields) and punishment (Tartarus). The phrase derk regioun (line 72) echoes Chaucer's description of Pluto's kingdom in The Knight's Tale: "Ther Pluto hath his derke regioun" (I[A]2082); and in The Franklin's Tale, where Aurelius wishes "to synken every rok adoun / Into hir owene dirke regioun / Under the ground, ther Pluto dwelleth inne" (V[F]1073-75).

73-76 Mote me into his fyry cart do ta, / As quhilom did he to Proserpina . . . ay duell in torment and in wo. Proserpina is the daughter of Ceres, goddess of the harvest. Having fallen in love with Proserpina, Pluto abducts her and brings her to the underworld to be his bride. Once in Hades, Proserpina makes the mistake of eating pomegranate seeds, enabling Pluto to keep her in Hades for part of the year, while she continues to dwell with her mother for the remainder. Winter thus represents Ceres' grief at the loss of her daughter while Proserpina lives with Pluto; spring and summer occur during the time Proserpina spends with Ceres, who celebrates her daughter's return each year with the bounty of the earth. The story is recorded in Vat. Myth. I (7), Ovid, Fasti 4.417 ff., and Hyginus, Hyg. Fab. 146. Chaucer alludes to Pluto's rape of Proserpina in The Merchant's Tale (CT IV[E]2229 ff.). In Book 4 of TC, Troilus uses the image of spending eternity with Proserpina as a way to emphasize his faithfulness to Criseyde (4.472-76).

77-81 O Dyane! . . . wele my part. The woman calls upon Diana as goddess of chastity to vouchsafe her innocence. Compare Chaucer's Knight's Tale, where Emelye prays to Diana to keep her chaste (CT I[A]2304-11). See also explanatory note to line 44.

82-83 Jupiter . . . me defende. Jupiter is king of the gods. Chaucer's Criseyde also calls on Jupiter (Jove) to defend her from jealousy when she tells Troilus, "Jove hym [i.e., jealousy] sone out of youre herte arace!" (3.1015). However, Jupiter himself is depicted as a womanizer and adulterer in Gower's CA:
For Jupiter was the secounde,
Which Juno hadde unto his wif;
And yit a lechour al his lif
He was, and in avouterie
He wroghte many a tricherie;
And for he was so full of vices,
Thei cleped him god of delices. (ed. Macaulay, 5.870-76)
Among other affairs, Jupiter begat Cupid on his sister Venus (mentioned in CA 5.1404-05).

87-88 The syntax of line 88 emphasizes its final word, reuth. The same construction and rhyme are repeated in lines 179-80, with the phrase compassioun have and reuth of line 88 repeated in line 180 and at the beginning of line 211 ("compassioun have - and reuth"). Reuth ("pity/compassion") comes up frequently in the poem as a defining quality for both those who are noble and the true (faithful) lover. Jealousy lacks this quality completely, which suggests that nobility or true love and jealousy are mutually exclusive qualities. The connection with the Christian virtue of compassion becomes explicit later in the poem in the section called "the trety in the reprefe of Jelousye" (after line 316). The poet's rhyme of treuth (line 87) with reuth (line 88) echoes lines 1309-10 at the end of BD: "'She ys ded!' 'Nay!' 'Yis, be my trouthe!' / 'Is that youre los? Be God, hyt ys routhe!'"

89-92 My life to gone mak . . . sodaynly to sterve. In Book 3 of TC, Criseyde expresses a similar sentiment to that of the lady here: "if that I be giltif, do me deye!" (3.1049).

95-98 With that sche sichit . . . pale and grene. As in lines 49-52, the lady's sighing, pleynyng, and changing of color are a typical depiction of the lovesick sufferer. See the description of the lovesick knight in BD, whose "hewe chaunge and wexe grene / And pale" (lines 497-98). For more on lovesickness, see BC, explanatory note to lines 31-32.

102 glettering teris, als thik as ony haile. Compare Dunbar's description of the Dawn's tears (dew) as "cristall haile" in A Ballat of the Abbot of Tungland (poem 4, line 1).

107 Allace, hir chere! Allace, hir countenance! Compare lines 202 and 227. See also Chaucer's Knight's Tale, CT I(A) 2771 and I(A)2773-75, for similar rhetorical flourishes.

121 Quhat may this mene? Quhat may this signifye? L points out that this line is the same as line 160 of Lancelot of the Laik (p. 150n121). Compare also the phrase "quhat may this be?" repeated in lines 78, 249, and 253 (st. 12, 36, 37) of The Kingis Quair. See also Chaucer's Complaint of Mars, line 224, and CLL, line 302.

135 Bot tho it fell into my fantasy. The narrator's use of fantasy and imagination recurs throughout the poem. See the Introduction for further discussion, pp. 155-56. The two other uses of the word "fantasy" occur with negative overtones in reference to the jealous lover's imagined slights; in line 276 it is the jealous lover (represented as Jealousy personified) who "evill . . . demith in his fantasy," imagining unjustly that his lady has been unfaithful; in lines 575-76 the narrator urges the jealous one: "This fantasy to leve quhich thou hath tone [conceived] / And furth among gud falouschip thou gone." Here, "fantasy" refers to the lover's jealous imagination that keeps him from "gud falouschip" and love. These images of Jealousy echo Gower's depiction of lovers in CA, who "thurgh here oghne fantasie . . . fallen into Jelousie" (ed. Macaulay, 5.441-42). See also explanatory note to lines 168-69.

160-62 Thame to displese . . . lak of connyng and of eloquence. Compare lines 185 ff. The narrator's modesty is conventional. For more on this trope, see CLL, explanatory note to lines 190 ff.

168-69 wickit ymaginacioun, / Quhich by his name is clepit Jelousye. This negative view of Jealousy also goes hand in hand with imagination elsewhere in the poem; see, for example, lines 240-42. (For more on wicked jealousy, see explanatory note to lines 240-41.) For jealousy's association with imagination or fantasy, see, for example, Lydgate's Banner of St. Edmund 2.548; Chaucer's Prologue to LGW, where the narrator tells Alceste that her court is full of liars who "tabouren in youre eres many a thyng / For hate, or for jelous ymagynyng" (G.330-31; compare F.354-55, which reads somewhat differently); and Gower's CA, where Genius informs Amans,
Riht so this fieverous maladie,
Which caused is of fantasie,
Makth the Jelous in fieble plit
To lese of love his appetit
Thurgh feigned enformacion
Of his ymaginacion. (ed. Macaulay, 5.589-94)
For further discussion of the poem's treatment of "fantasy" see explanatory note to line 135.

172 Herculese, quhen he himselven brent. See explanatory note to line 357 of CLL for details of the story and literary references. The narrator continues his extended metaphor of Jealousy "ay birnyng into hate" from line 151. The comparison to Hercules' self-immolation foreshadows the narrator's later claim in lines 559-62 that the jealous lover consumes himself with his jealousy. The image of Jealousy burning forever in a hell of its own making also contrasts with the lady's claim of innocence in lines 71-76, where she imagines herself abducted into Hades by Pluto should she "say false" (line 71).

173-74 cursit Nero, quhen he his perile sawe, / Of his own hond ymurderit and yslawe. Chaucer tells the story of Nero in The Monk's Tale, CT VII(B2)2463-2550. It also appears in Boece (2.m.6). Gower discusses Nero in CA 6.1151 ff., but without mentioning the story of his death.

176 saile all in the Devillis barge. NS&P observe, "The extended allegory of Envy's barge in [CA] (II.1882-1909) points to a well-known convention. Invidia's barge never reaches port but sails on ceaselessly with attending tempests. Our poet is thinking precisely of this allegory in lines 549-53 in the ship similitude there - where the jealous person's mind is so compared" (p. 66n176).

177 quhethir thay flete or into hell synk. Chaucer frequently uses a variant of this phrase (always omitting into hell). See, for example, The Knight's Tale, CT I(A)2397; The Complaint unto Pity, line 110; Anel., line 182; and PF, line 7.

185 ff. Compare lines 160-62. For more on the convention of modesty, see explanatory note to lines 190 ff. of CLL.

187 at Lovis hie reverence. Compare Chaucer's TC 3.1328: "at Loves reverence."

191-93 O tendir youth . . . (Wommen I mene). The narrator's evident desire to defend all women from the charges brought against them by Jealousy seems antithetical to the frequent stereotypes of women in medieval literature as inconstant, willful, and manipulative. See, for example, Chaucer's Merchant's Tale, Miller's Tale, Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale, etc. For a more consistently cynical view, see Dunbar's The Tretis of the Tua Marriit Wemen and the Wedo (poem 3). Compare this stanza and the next (through line 208) to the narrator's declamation on William Wallace in The Wallace 2.207-15.

191 ff. The nine-line decasyllabic stanza rhyming aabaabbab beginning here and employed through line 416 is used in Chaucer's Anel. and was popular among the Middle Scots poets; see, for example, Dunbar's The Golden Targe (poem 59), and sections of Henryson's Testament of Cresseid (lines 407-69); Douglas' Palis of Honoure (Prologue, Parts 1 and 2); and The Wallace (2.171-359).

200 Under thraldome and mannis subjectioun. This line echoes Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale, where Custance proclaims, "Wommen are born to thraldom and penance, / And to been under mannes governance" (II[B1]286-87). See also the argument the Sultan's mother puts forth against converting to Christianity: "What sholde us tyden of this newe lawe / But thraldom to oure bodies and penance" (II[B1]337-38). The word thraldom also recurs throughout The Parson's Tale; for example: "sith so is that synne was first cause of thraldom, thanne is it thus: that thilke tyme that al this world was in synne, thanne was al this world in thraldom and subjeccioun" (X[I]770). The narrator of The Kingis Quair uses this same word to describe his imprisonment (line 191 [st. 28]).

202 Allace, the wo! Allace, the sad grevance! See also lines 107 and 227. Compare The Knight's Tale, CT I(A)2771: "Allas, the wo! Allas, the peynes stronge" and I(A) 2773-75.

203 men of evill condicioun. Compare the narrator's description of Jealousy in line 150 as "[o]fe evill condicioun evirmore."

209 ff. Loveris compleyne. Compare the narrator's request in The Wallace that "sanctis," "lordys," and "yhe ladyis brycht" complain on behalf of William Wallace (2.216- 33).

222 All vertuouse womman Salamon holdith dere. An allusion to Proverbs 31:10.

227 Allace, the wo. See explanatory note to line 202.

239 thair varyit tyrannyis. The narrator's portrayal of jealous men as tyrants is in keeping with what NS&P call "a growing mood of indignation and anger in the writer" which they characterize as "obsessional," adding "[n]o modest moral ur-banity of Chaucer here" (p. 7). However, compare Chaucer's comment at the end of The Legend of Lucrece in LGW:
For wel I wot that Crist himselve telleth
That in Israel, as wyd as is the lond,
That so gret feyth in al that he ne fond
As in a woman; and this is no lye.
And as of men, loke ye which tirannye
They doon alday; assay hem whoso lyste,
The trewest ys ful brotel for to triste. (lines 1879-85)
240-41 the wikkitnes that lyis / In Jelousy. Compare TC, where Criseyde exclaims: "O thou wikked serpent jalousie" (3.837); or when Troilus suspects Criseyde's unfaithfulness in Book 5 and "the wikked spirit . . . / Which that men clepeth woode jalousie, / Gan in hym crepe, in al this hevynesse" (5.1212-14).

245-53 Quho schall me help, allace, for to endite . . . full nere ybrocht adoun. Compare the narrator's appeal to Niobe for help in writing his complaint in CLL, lines 176-82.

267 the anker in the stone. A recluse in her cell. For a detailed discussion of anchor-esses, see the introduction to Ancrene Wisse, ed. Robert Hasenfratz (Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 2000). NS&P (p. 67n267) suggest that this is "a partial memory of" Romaunt, line 6348: "Now lyk an anker in an hous," but in fact this must have been a common enough reference; in addition to the passage that L (p. 151n267) quotes from Charles d'Orleans' English Balade 97 ("O sely Ankir that in thi selle / Iclosed art with stoon and gost not out"), the same image occurs in The Legend or Life of Saint Alexis (Laud MS. 622) when Alexis' wife complains "I am boşe maiden & wijf, / I noot to whom telle my strijf, / I lyue as ankre in stone" (lines 418-20).

276 See explanatory notes to line 135 and 168-69.

297-98 And thouch he speke . . . harmith hir allway. In other words, there is a double standard operating, where men can speak to anyone they like, but if a woman even looks at another man, she is condemned.

303 verreis. L claims that "[t]he form of this word would indicate the meaning 'wars,' or 'makes war,' but the context seems to demand 'wearies'" (p. 151n303). I follow NS&P in glossing this word as "hesitates," which they suggest is a rare sense for the verb "vary" (p. 68n303).

304-06 For Salamoun saith. NS&P (p. 68n304 ff.) suggest that this is based on Ecclesias-ticus 10:1, but if so, the relationship is obscure. Perhaps Proverbs 31:11 is the basis for the quotation.

311 Thou Ecco, quhich of chiding is perfyte. See Lenvoy de Chaucer at the end of The Clerk's Tale, which exhorts wives: "Folweth Ekko, that holdeth no silence, / But evere answereth at the countretaille" (CT IV[E]1189-90). See explanatory note to lines 87-88 of CLL, for the story of Echo and Narcissus.

313 Thesiphone, thou lord of wo and care. One of the three Furies. Compare Chaucer's TC 1.6-9, where the narrator asks Tisiphone for help in composing his story, and Lydgate's Temple of Glass, lines 958 ff.

317 ff. The stanzas here through line 456 are in rhyme royal (seven-line stanzas rhyming ababbcc), so called because it is the stanza form used in The Kingis Quair, attributed in the MS to James I of Scotland. Henryson also uses it in The Testament of Cresseid, and Chaucer employs the stanza in TC, PF, portions of Anel., and in a number of tales in CT.

317-18 The passing clerk, the grete philosophoure / Sydrake. A supposed philosopher in a thirteenth-century work, Sidrac, "an Old French prose book of knowledge, cast in question and answer form, enclosed within a framing adventure story" (Sidrak and Bokkus, p. xxi). Sidrac (Sidrak in the Middle English versions) answers a vast number of questions put to him by Boctus, the "Bokas King" of line 320. NS&P (p. 69n318) suggest that the poem reflects a knowledge of Gower's CA more than of the Old French text which recounts the dialogue between the title characters, but see explanatory note to lines 324-30. See also L's note (p. 151n318-23) for an exten-sive summary of the Middle English translation of the French narrative.

322 Bokas King. The heathen king converted by Sidrac (Sidrak and Bokkus, p. xxii). See explanatory notes to lines 317-18 and 324-30.

324-30 Although NS&P claim that "[n]early all of [the poet's] observations may be traced to his close reading of Gower's Confessio Amantis" (p. 8), in these lines the poet seems to be paraphrasing a portion of Sidrak's discussion in response to Bokkus' question on jealousy, here presented as question 87 in the Middle English Sidrak and Bokkus:
3it is şere a gelosye
Şat comith of fowle herte and folye
And of wykked humours also
That the herte geders vnto:
That gelosye is not of woman goode
For hit is full brennyng and wykked mode.
The herte hit brenneth full of wykked şought;
Rest in şe body may hit nought;
Mete and drynke he doşe forsake
And all his ioye is from hym take.
(Laud; lines 3397-3405)
 3it şer is a ielousie
Şat comeş of foule herte and folie
And of wicked humours also
Şat the herte gadren to:
Şat ielousie is of a womman şikke
And şat is foule brenning and wicke.
Şe herte brenneş so of wicked şoght
Şat in the body may it rest noght;
Mete and drinke şei forgoon as tite
And al ioye and al delite.
(Lansdowne; lines 4299-4308)
As the EETS editors point out in their introduction to Sidrak and Bokkus, "in spite of the claim by Norton-Smith and Pravda that the author of QJ makes 'little use' of Sidrac (p. 69), a comparison . . . shows that in this instance at least there is a genuine debt" (p. xxxv).

330 With this hote fevir that is cotidiane. In Gower's CA, Genius describes jealousy as "[a] Fievere . . . cotidian, / Which every day wol come aboute" (ed. Macaulay, 5.464-65), an "unsely maladie" (5.459) and a "fieverous maladie" (5.589). Other medieval writers also characterize jealousy as a sickness; for example, in The Kingis Quair, the narrator asks the nightingale, "Or artow seke, or smyt with ielousye?" (line 401 [st. 58]).

334-35 Of Herubus, the quhich that of Invye / The fader is. L (p. 153n334-35) points out that this genealogy (of Envy from Erebus) ultimately comes from Cicero's De Natura Deorum (3.17).

337 As Ethena, he birnyth in the fyre. This is not a comparison Chaucer makes much use of, as it appears only in Boece (2.m.5 and elsewhere). The association is one inherited from classical tradition (see Ovid, Metam. 8.867 ff.), where the burning fires of Etna represent the Cyclops Polyphemus' jealous rage over Galatea's preference of Acis, a story also told in Gower's CA (2.97-200; see also 2.20 and 2.2837 ff.). See also Lydgate's Reson and Sensuallyte, where Diana warns against jealousy:
Yif Venus Marke the [you] with hir bronde,
Which that she holdeth in hir honde;
The fire of whom, who kan take hede,
Ys of perel more to drede
Than is the fire, I dar wel seyn,
Of smoky Ethna, the mounteyn. (lines 4117-22)
Mount Etna is identified by Claudian in his unfinished poem De Raptu Proserpina ("The Rape of Proserpina") as the place where Proserpina was abducted into the underworld by Pluto (see explanatory note to lines 73-76). Chaucer alludes to this version of the story in The Merchant's Tale (CT IV[E]2229 ff.), as do Gower (CA, 5.1277 ff.) and Osbern Bokenham (in the Life of Saint Anne from Legendys of Hooly Wummen, ed. Mary S. Serjeantson, EETS o.s. 206 [London: Oxford Uni-versity Press, 1938], lines 1456-57). For further mention in Chaucer of Claudian as the source of the story, see also HF, lines 1507-12. Trevisa describes Etna in De monte Ethna (4.10).

351 the prophete Daniele. See Daniel 1:11-16.

355-56 This tygir with his false ymagynyng / Lith as a devill into this erth lyving. Compare The Kingis Quare: "There sawe I dresse him new[e] out of haunt / The fery tiger full of felonye" (lines 1086-87 [st. 156]; brackets in original). See also Chaucer's Squire's Tale, where the tiger is an image of deceit ("this tigre, ful of doublenesse" - V[F]543), and Dunbar's Done is a battel on the dragon blak, which describes Lucifer as a "deidly dragon," "crewall serpent with the mortall stang," and "[t]he auld kene tegir, with his teith on char, / Quhilk in a wait hes lyne for ws so lang, / Thinking to grip ws in his clowis strang" (poem 10, lines 9, 10, 11-13). Trevisa describes the tiger in De tigride (8.104), where he explains that it is possible to steal the tiger's cubs despite the fierceness of the beast, because the male does not care about the them, while the female can be tricked by a mirror, for when she sees her own reflection she thinks it is that of her offspring and delays long enough for the hunter to get away (see p. 1255/4-12).

359-60 But cheritee . . . Quhich Crist of wedding clepith the habyte. Matthew 22:1-14.

363-72 Paule thus to the Corinthies doth writ . . . all it availit nocht. Paraphrased from 1 Corinthians 13.

382-86 And als that in this tyme present . . . for his wickit gelousy. Apparently an allusion to a contemporary event. In his note to these lines, L states, "This fifteenth-century Scottish criminal is not named in any of the older histories" (p. 153n382-86).

394-96 Compare CLL: "And Male-Bouche gan first the tale telle / To sclaundre Trouthe of indignacion, / And Fals-Report so loude ronge the belle" (lines 260-62).

397-400 Paraphrased from Matthew 18:7-9.

404-06 Derived from Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 25:23 (in Douay-Rheims; 25:16 in more recent translations): "And there is no anger above the anger of a woman. It will be more agreeable to abide with a lion and a dragon, than to dwell with a wicked woman." Note that the narrator has removed any mention of women in his paraphrase. See The Wife of Bath's Prologue (CT III[D]775 ff.).

422-23 one emperoure . . . Henry. Henry II, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 1002-24. See explanatory notes to lines 427 and 433, for details of the story.

427 his lufe. Cunegunda, Henry II's wife. According to Jacobus de Voragine's Legenda Aurea, the couple had a chaste marriage, but when Henry suspected Cunegunda of adultery with one of his knights he forced her to "walk barefoot a distance of fifteen feet over plowshares reddened in the fire," but, having prayed for God's help, Cunegunda was able to cross the obstacle safely (Jacobus de Voragine, trans. Ryan, 2.69). The Scottish version of the Legenda makes explicit Henry's jealousy:
şe feynd, şat ay wil besy be
to tempt, şat şame twa had Inwy,
& gert hyme fal In Ialusy,
venand his wyf had mysdone
vith a 3unge knycht. (lines 696-700)
For the Scottish legend, see Legends of the Saints in the Scottish Dialect of the Fourteenth Century, ed. W. M. Metcalfe, 5 vols. STS first ser. 13, 18, 23, 35, 37 (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1896), vol. 1, lines 691-770 of XXII, the legend of "Laurentius."

433 Laurence the blisfull marter. The Legenda Aurea reports that Henry was saved from hell, despite his false suspicion, because of a chalice he had donated in honor of St. Laurence to a church in Eichstätt (Jacobus de Voragine, trans. Ryan, 2.69). See explanatory notes to lines 427 and 422-23.

437 That of hote lufe ay cummith Jelousye. The equivalency of jealousy with love occurs in Chaucer's TC, "al my wo is this, that folk now usen / To seyn right thus, 'Ye, jalousie is love!'" (3.1023-24), and elsewhere. Proverbial; see Whiting J22.

457 ff. Thir jelousyis full diverse ar of kynd. Similarly, in Chaucer's TC 3.1030, Criseyde briefly discusses different types of jealousy, some more excusable than others.

467 O cruell serpent aye lying in awayte! Criseyde characterizes jealousy similarly in Chaucer's TC: "O thou wikked serpent, jalousye" (3.837).

468 O sclanderouse tong. Jealousy is commonly associated with lies and slander in medieval thought. Compare Gower's treatment of it in CA 5.429-746.

469-70 Quhare that thou lovith thou feynyth . . . / gevith the wyte. Compare Chaucer's Anel., where Arcite pretends to love Anelida: "Withoute love he feyned jelousye" (line 126).

486 That hath no suerd bot suffrance and pacience. See explanatory note to line 548.

492 Lesse settith of hir deth than hir gud name. A theme the narrator expands on in lines 493-96 and reiterates in lines 525-26. For discussion of this subject in relation to Chaucer's LGW, see the Introduction, pp. 158-59. The idea is proverbial: "better to die with honor than live in shame"; see Whiting D239, for extensive citations. Compare also line 160 in BC and lines 546-48 in Roos' BDSM.

512-14 And every othir lady . . . or thair ese. At first glance, the passage seems to suggest that ladies "taking example" from this case would continue to risk their honor and pleasure under the hand of jealous, domineering men. The context seems to require reading Ensample tak to adventure evirmo (line 513) to mean something like "be warned against risking ever again."

516-17 Quho schall thame mene of weping, eve and morowe, / Quhich seith tofore, syn rynnyth on thair sorowe? A difficult passage, which L translates in his note: "Who shall bewail in their weeping, evening and morning, those who see beforehand, but who yet afterwards run to their own sorrow" (p. 154n516-17). Understanding mene as "pity" (see MED, menen v. [2], 4 [a]) makes more sense in the context, however, since it suggests that no one would feel sorry for someone who chooses suffering that could be avoided: "Who shall pity them in their weeping, evening and morning, / Those who see beforehand, yet afterwards hasten towards their sorrow." It is tempting to read rynnyth on with a second meaning of "impale [themselves] on," in line with other attested meanings in the MED (see rennen v., 25 [b]).

525-26 A lady rather schuld hir deth ytak / Than suich a wrech till have onto hir mak. This reiterates the theme of death before dishonor. See explanatory note to line 492, above, and the Introduction, pp. 158-59.

541 Thy ladyis dangere. For a discussion of the concept of dangere, see explanatory note to line 13 of CLL. Although in many cases dangere might mean simply standoffishness, the context here suggests not only that the lady will forever be on her guard against him, but also that she will offer active resistance.

548 suerd of cruell syte. See also explanatory note to line 6. Compare Chaucer's Anel., where the phrase "swerd of sorowe" occurs twice (lines 212, 270). Such metaphorical uses of "sword" were fairly common, as for example the "swerd of castigacioun" in Chaucer's Lak of Stedfastnesse (line 26). L (p. 155n548) also notes Lancelot of the Laik: "The dredful suerd of lovis [love's] hot dissire" (line 29). Syte (from Old Norse) is chiefly a northern word.

549-53 Compare line 176 and see explanatory note.

575-76 See explanatory note to line 135.

582 ff. The address to lovers is a conventional envoy. Compare, for example, the apos-trophes to lovers at the ends of CLL, lines 653 ff., and BDSM, 813-20; and to ladies in the latter, lines 821-28.

584 ff. Excusith it. The narrator's request for understanding on the part of the reader for his simple and crudely executed poetry is conventional. See also the explanatory note to lines 160-62. Compare such disclaimers at the ends of BDSM (lines 829 ff.), The Kingis Quair (lines 1352 ff. [st.194-97]), and many of Chaucer's poems.

598-99 Above the erth, the watir, or the aire, / Or on the fire. A reference to the "four elements." In ancient and medieval thought all material bodies were thought to be comprised of earth, water, air, and fire, which were connected to the four humors that were thought to regulate temperament and health. Compare Chaucer's Knight's Tale: "ther nys erthe, water, fir, ne eir, / Ne creature that of hem maked is, / That may me helpe or doon confort in this" (CT I[A]1246-48). Genius explains the four elements at length to Amans in Book 7 of Gower's CA. See also Lydgate's Secreta Secretorum: "Al the wyse Philosofers in oone accorde sayne that iiije elementes bene in the worlde, Wherof euery corruptabill thynge is makyd; that Is to witte, Erthe, Watyr, Eeyre, and fyre: And euery of thes hath two Propyrteis; The Erthe is colde and dry; The watyr is colde and moiste; The eeire hote and moyste; The fyre hote and dry. In the body of euery man ben iiije humorus, answarynge to the iiije elementes: and like propyrteis therof they haue. Malencoly, colde and dry; Fleme, colde and moysty; Sangyne, hote and moyste; Colerike, hote and dry" (Three Prose Versions of the Secreta Secretorum, ed. Robert Steele, EETS e.s. 74 [London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner and Co, 1898], pp. 236-37).


THE QUARE OF JELUSY: TEXTUAL NOTES

Abbreviations: B = J. T. T. Brown; Ban = the Bannatyne Club edition; L = Alexander Lawson; MS = Bodleian Library MS. Arch. Selden. B. 24 , fols. 138v-141v; NS&P = J. Norton-Smith and I. Pravda.

title Here beginnith the quare of Jelusy / Avise ye gudely folkis and see. This rubric is a later insertion in an early sixteenth-century hand (NS&P, p. 62). (The rubric after line 316 is original.)

58 voce. MS: woce.

100 ne. MS: he.

116 I. Added above line in MS.

132 think. MS: thing.

137 thoucht. MS: thouch.

143 be cummyn. MS: cummyn. I follow Jeffrey's suggestion (p. 500) in adding be to emend the idiom to its standard construction. NS&P emend to cummyn[g].

146 harme do to hir. MS: harme to do to hir; in both cases to is inserted above the line; to1 has then been canceled.

194 ibene. MS: I bene. NS&P: ibene. L, B: I bene.

196 benig. The word in the MS could be read as either benig or being, since the minims render ni indistinguishable from in. I follow NS&P in reading benig. B reads being, which he emends to bening. L: bening.

220 worldis. MS: the l is written above the r. NS&P read wordis but emend to wor[l]dis. B: warldis. L: wordis.

350 wele. No longer legible in MS. I follow previous editors here.

398 Wo. The MS is damaged at this point, so only a small portion of the W is visible.

408 is pes. MS: ha I . . . pes. The s in is is now illegible. L: In pes. NS&P point out the presence of ha before is, noting that ha has been stricken; this seems likely, though the line through the word is so faint that it is difficult to tell for certain. Probably the scribe mistakenly began to copy"hath" from line 409 of his exemplar. NS&P say that the p in pes is illegible, but it is visible in the facsimile now that the MS has been restored.

413 slepe. MS: the middle letters ep are no longer legible. I follow previous editions.

441 ground. MS: only grou is legible. I follow previous editions.

446 thair nede. The final -r in thair and all of nede are now illegible. I follow previous editions.

467 lying. MS: leving. Emended for sense.

470 In the MS there is a stanza break after this line. I follow NS&P and L in moving the break to after line 472, as the poem moves at this point from seven- to nine-line stanzas. This is probably a scribal error, since the MS division yields a seven-line stanza followed by one of eleven lines instead of two stanzas of nine lines each. B resolves the problem by leaving the break after 470 and also adding one after 472, so that 471-72 stand alone as a couplet.

475 ff. After this point in the MS, the edges of the pages along the binding have disintegrated to the point where many letters or words are missing at the beginnings of lines on the recto side of folios and at the end of lines on the verso side. There seems to be considerably more damage than when L edited the poem in 1910, as he does not note any lacunae before line 554. L relies on Ban for missing letters but tends to emend these readings heavily; I follow NS&P, who agree with Ban in most cases.

476 Rather. MS: only th legible here.

477 Than. MS: T illegible.

478 That. MS: T no longer legible.

479 Or do. MS: Or now illegible; the ascender is the only clear stroke left of d.

480 For his. MS: or h no longer legible.

481 Hir. No longer legible in MS.

482 And. MS: A illegible.

484 Harmith. MS: ar no longer legible.

490 That. MS: T no longer legible.

506 wrocht. MS: r illegible.

516 morowe. MS: rowe now illegible.

517 sorowe. MS: second o no longer legible.

519 nevirmare. MS: a and part of m illegible.

522 contrare. MS: re no longer legible.

523 destitud. There may have been a stroke indicating a final -e in MS, but if so it is no longer legible.

526 mak. So B. The MS is damaged here, so part of m is missing, but this looks like the best reading of the MS; NS&P emend to and L reads make.

532 rewe. Nearly illegible in MS.

544 With. MS: i and part of W no longer legible.

546 Thou. MS: T . . . ou. L: Throuch, with uch as an expanded abbreviation. I follow NS&P, B.

548 rycht. MS: only ry is visible, but I presume a missing superscript t.

554 For. Now missing from MS. L suggests 3it. Fol. 228 has sustained the most damage, with the inside edge crumbled away on the bottom half of the folio. For this reason, lines 554-73 have lost initial words or portions of words.

555 That. Now missing from MS.

556 So. Now missing from MS.

557 And. Now missing from MS.

558 Quho. MS: only ho is visible.

559 Bot in. Now missing from MS. L: And of.

560 Leving. MS: only ing is visible.

561 Thyne. MS: only yne is visible.

562 And both. MS: only h is legible.

563 Bot. MS: only t is legible.

564 That. Now missing from MS.

565 Ay to. Now missing from MS, although NS&P could apparently read both the initial A and to. Laing (in Ban) conjectured Still instead of Ay.

566 Eternaly. MS: only ly is visible.

567 And wele accordith. MS: only a cordith is legible.

568 Quho. Now missing from MS.

569 And quhens. MS: only uhens is visible.

570 Quhois love. Quhoi now missing from MS. L reads luve, but the word, although very faint now, looks to be love in the post-conservation photograph in the facsimile volume. NS&P also reconstruct luve.

571 For thi desert. Now missing from MS.

572 Thus may. MS: only ay is legible.

573 In Jelousy. MS: only sy is legible.

604 engrewe. MS: engrew and part of a final letter legible, which I read as e, following previous editors.

605 mischewe. MS: only mische and part of w are legible.

colophon au . . . Besides these two letters, only the top of a nearby ascender is still legible. Laing recorded the first six letters as auchin, and L, B read auch, which they interpreted as the beginning of the name Auchinleck, following Laing's conjecture. While agreeing that au is clearly visible, NS&P make a detailed argument against the chin reading, claiming that, the paper being "worn to a thin transparency," these letters are the reverse images of letters from the recto side of the folio (p. 15; for NS&P's full discussion, see pp. 15-16). As the leaf is now missing the edge in question, it is not possible to draw a firm conclusion.