BOOK 5: NOTES
5 lady of the eyr. Juno is the wife and sister of Jupiter and queen of the pagan gods; she is traditionally associated with the moon. She is identified with the air by Augustine, De civitate Dei 7.16 and 10.21 (compare Sermo 197) and by Vatican Mythographer 2 (chs. 6 and 9).
11 any. Accepting Bergen's addition.
15 And. The conjunction is needed for rhythm and sense.
16 Fortune. Lydgate's description of Fortune, which he adds independently to the story, explains the downfall of the Greek victors as a Boethian tragedy.
26 and. MS: and of.
1788 and smothe. MS: now smothe.
1809 pleinly. Accepting Bergen's addition.
1826 Kyng Ydumee. King Idomeneus comes with King Merion from Crete, leading eighty ships. After Agamemnon's murder, he shelters and raises Orestes, and later arranges his marriage with Hermione.
1847 Mirma. In Odyssey 9, Odysseus comes to a land in Thrace; Guido (Book 33) calls it Mirna.
1862 Clanstafages. Lydgate's rendering of Guido's "Calastofagos." Griffin (p. 283) notes that Benoît and Guido have made Dictys's Lotophagos (Lotus eaters) into a port.
1875 pensif. Bergen emends to so pensif.
1882 In Guido the brother kings of Sicily are called Strigona and Ciclopa. Lydgate preserves the names of their sons but adds the detail that Polyphemus is a giant (5.1908), apparently to harmonize Guido's version with Ovid. In the Metamorphoses, Polyphemus uses a pine as a walking stick (13.782) and says that he is as large as Jupiter (13.842). Guido mentions Alphenor's love for Polyphemus's unnamed sister, but Lydgate embroiders the episode with the conventions of courtly love.
1895 thei. MS: ther.
1919 narwe. MS: nawe.
1920 upon. MS: on.
1921 alwey. Bergen emends to ay to avoid repetition.
1938 myght. Bergen emends to myghte.
1945 my. MS: me.
1958-75 like as writ Ovide. Telemus foretells the blinding of Polyphemus in Metamorphoses 13.770-75 and Achaemenides tells the story in Metamorphoses 14.167-222.
1987 wondirfully. Bergen emends to wonderly.
2000 abood. MS: bood.
2004-06 Mention of Telegonus here prepares for Ulysses's death at the end of the poem. Guido (Book 33) does not mention Telegonus's name.
2007 reherse. Bergen emends to wel reherse.
2009 secré. MS: socre.
2012 myght. Bergen emends to myghte, but the MS form gives an acceptable Lydgate line.
2048 Goddes myght. See the repeated phrase in Chaucer, "Goddes pryvytee."
2071 he. MS: thei.
2082 man. Bergen emends to a man.
2102 by southe and nat by est. In Guido (Book 33), Ulysses says only that he has circled the world and now come to this land.
2110 it doth to me. Bergen emends to to me it doth.
2120 also. MS: as.
2132 meyné. MS: money.
2140 desirous. The verb "was" is understood here.
2146 as. MS: a. an. Accepting Bergen's addition.
2152 yit grene. MS: grene yit.
2156 example of wommanhede. Penelope's wifely virtue is a conventional part of the defense of women that is included within the tradition of medieval misyogyny. See Dorigen's lament in Chaucer's The Franklin's Tale (V.1443) and the Balade in the The Legend of Good Women F 252 and G 206. Gower tells of Penelope's fidelity in Confessio Amantis 4.147-233, and makes several subsequent allusions to her steadfastness and wifely truth - 4.1822; 6.1461; 8.2621.
2160 auctours. The term encompasses both authors and the texts they write, the latter conceived as creations participating independently in a tradition.
2165 ay. Accepting Bergen's addition.
2174 inportable. Bergen reads importable.
2185 dremes. Bergen emends to a dreme.
2192 be. MS: he be.
2195 se. Bergen emends to yse.
2198 ben. MS: bem.
2232 thei. Accepting Bergen's addition.
2236 on. Bergen emends to of.
2240 had. Accepting Bergen's addition.
2250 lond. MS: hond.
2261 on the. Bergen emends to the.
2275-2314 Lydgate's extravagant sentence is organized as an extended consecutive thought: "Yif . . . Yif . . . It were to long tariyng for my boke . . . [and] Men wolde deme me. . . ."
2286 ilyche. Bergen reads iliche.
2295 mediacioun. MS: meditacioun.
2299-2300 The final narrative of Troy Book shows how the survivors of the Trojan War establish alliances in the generation that follows them. See below for the reconciliations of Achilleidos and Lamedonte and of Telemachus and Telegonus. In this passage, the wedding of Nausia and Telemonus foreshadows the wedding of Henry and Katherine (5.3420-23), which likewise joins two realms and ends strife.
2301 knotte. The term refers as well to the main point of a story or argument; see Chaucer's use in The Squire's Tale (V.401, 407) and Romaunt, line 4698, and Lydgate's earlier use at 4.3213.
2314 untwyne. Bergen emends to to untwyne.
2937 On the fate of Ulysses compare Gower's Tale of Ulysses and Telegonus (Confessio Amantis 6.1391-1778). Gower bases his tale on Benoît, lines 28571-28666 and 29629-30092. Benoît includes some details not found in Guido.
2939 glad. Bergen emends to glade.
2947 Lyk. Bergen reads Lik.
2964 fairie. MS: faire.
2977-78 These lines are misplaced with lines 2979-80 in MS.
But. MS: And.
2978 she. Accepting Bergen's addition.
2979 And. MS: But. the more he gan to purswe. Bergen emends to the more that he gan purswe.
2985-3000 Lydgate's Ulysses uses an aureate, courtly diction that is not in Guido.
2994 my. Bergen reads myn.
3021 of. Accepting Bergen's addition.
3022 Ful of fysshes betyn. Gold or some other metal is hammered into images, and then they are sown onto the banner (Guido, Book 35). Benoît (lines 30021-24) seems to be the source for details in the passage. See 5.3208-09, where Telegonus glosses this image by describing his birth.
3026 parte. MS: parten.
3032 he sodeynly. MS: sodeynly he.
3033 fantasie. In scholastic psychology, fantasy refers to a faculty of imagination that allows apprehension or recollection of sense data and images. See 2.2817 and 3.4806.
3052 on. MS: oon.
3058-64 Lydgate describes the mechanism of Ulysses's downfall by means of Boethian tragedy. Ulysses misperceives the situation before him and acts in a seemingly rational way that ironically carries him further toward catastrophe.
3060 But wenyng he. "He" is the subject of the sentence, and "wenyng" takes "to have be prudent" as its complement.
3066 the speris. Accepting Bergen's addition to MS: speris.
3093 noon. Accepting Bergen's addition.
3102 for. Accepting Bergen's addition.
3140 Monday. Latin dies lunae ("day of the moon"), hence a symbol of mutability.
3142 The porter's abuse of Telegonus recalls the remote origin of the Trojan War, when Jason feels that Lamedon treats him discourteously.
3155 roof. Bergen emends to brast.
3158 lepen into flood. Bergen emends to lepe into the flood.
3175 Hent. MS: Rent. Emendation is consistent with Lydgate's usage immediately above at 5.3169.
3178 That. Accepting Bergen's addition.
3178 he. MS: that he. nedis. Accepting Bergen's addition.
3197 it with. Bergen emends to with.
darte. Bergen reads dart.
3205 Ulixes. MS: hym.
3242 aswowne. MS: aswone.
3248 I. "Cursid" is understood.
3252 begat. MS: gat.
3257 Circes. MS: Cures.
3261 inportable. Bergen reads importable.
3267 founde. Bergen emends to hath founde, but founde is in the preterite, parallel with saw, knewe, and hent.
3306 his. Bergen records this as an emendation, but the reading occurs in the MS.
3319 Thelagonyus. Bergen emends to this Thelagonyus.
3323-25 Lydgate follows Guido (Book 35) in having Telemachus reign seventy years and Telegonus sixty; in Benoît (line 30268), Telemachus reigns eighty years. There is no reference in Guido or Benoît to Telemachus and Telegonus's going to Jupiter. Lydgate's addition recalls Castor and Pollux, the ideal figures of brothers united in death.
3360 Latyn. Bergen emends to of latyn.
3367 just. Bergen emends to juste.
3368-69 Bergen (4:2n) suggests that Lydgate's poem was completed late in 1420.
3370 manhede. MS: maidenhede.
3372 maide. Bergen emends to a maide.
3373 The eyghte yere. Henry V was crowned 9 April 1412.
3380 passeth. MS: passed.
3383 to withseyn. MS: withseyn.
3392 he is made regent. In July 1414, Henry sent an embassy to Paris to demand the cession of Normandy, Touraine, Maine, Anjou and Aquitaine. In 1415, he rejected efforts by a French embassy to stave off the English invasion. In these actions, he renewed the English claim to the French throne, initiated by Edward III who argued his claim by descent from his mother, Isabella of France. Henry's military campaign in Normandy began in August 1415 with the siege of Harfleur. Most of the Normandy campaign was carried out in 1417-19, and it led to the Treaty of Troyes in 1420, which made Henry regent of France and heir to the French throne after the death of Charles VI. These are the terms of the convencioun (5.3398). As part of the treaty, Henry married Charles's daughter Katherine of Valois on 2 June 1420. The father referred to at 5.3393 is Charles.
3400 the olde worlde called aureat. The literary commonplace of a Golden Age of original harmony originates with Hesiod's Works and Days, lines 109-20; for the Middle Ages, Ovid's Metamorphoses 1.89-112 and the Roman de la Rose, lines 8357-8458 are important expressions of the idea.
3411 ff. See note to 5.3392. Lydgate writes in the future tense about the union of England and France, though he may be expressing a hope rather than referring to an impending event following Henry's marriage. Lydgate's call for peace is doubtless genuine, but it is also a commonplace in the literature of princely advice. How far he advocates a specific policy, as distinct from offering good advice, is not certain. But his role as a de facto royal propagandist limits the extent to which he can put forth personal views. Henry, as Pearsall (1994, p. 386) remarks in the case of Thomas Hoccleve, Lydgate's nearest competitor as a court poet, was more interested in being seen to take advice than in actually following it.
3424 Kateryne. In the Legenda aurea, Jacobus de Voragine etymologizes Saint Catherine's name as "total ruin," meaning her humility destroyed the edifice of pride, and as a "small chain," which signifies the good works by which she climbed to heaven.
3466 boistous and rual. See the Franklin's description of himself as "a burel man" (V.716).
3481 her. MS: his.
3482 correcte. The common literary pose of the medieval poet is to be "under correccioun"; see Chaucer's use of the convention at the end of Troilus and Criseyde 5.1858. See also note to Pro.63-75 where Lydgate first introduces the idea.
3490 set behynde. MED records two relevant senses of the term: "given up" and "downgraded, treated as unimportant."
3493 that. Accepting Bergen's addition.
3499 lak. Bergen emends to a lak.
3506 Baiard. See above, 2.4731.
3520 Chaucer's poem to his scribe, Adam, belies Lydgate's claim that Chaucer cheerfully ignored blemishes in the texts of his works.
3549-62 Lydgate's list recalls the roster of felonies that Arcite sees depicted on the walls of the temple of Mars in The Knight's Tale (I.1995-2040).
3551 plounget. Bergen emends to plounged.
3570 The metaphor of life's pilgrimage is a medieval commonplace. Guillaume de Deguilleville's Le pelerinaige de vie humaine is one of the most important late medieval allegories. Dante's Divine Comedy incorporates the metaphor as the basis of its narrative.
3579 to Hym that starf uppon the Rode. Lydgate's phrasing invokes the ending of Troilus and Criseyde: "that sothfast Crist, that starf on rode" (5.1860).
3586 With a fewe ageyn gret multitude. Henry's victory at Agincourt in 1415 was against a vastly larger French force.
3602 after that. Bergen emends to afterward. nynthe spere. See above, 3.4382. Here Lydgate simply means heaven.
3604 God. MS: good.