2»'»S. V. 118,,April3. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



271 



THE DIFFICULTIES OP CHAUCER. — NO. VIII. | 



Cost. — I 



" That nedes cost he most himselven hide." 



Cant. Tales, 1479. 



W. Thomas, in his Glossary to Ui-ry, for "nedes 

 cost " suggests " nedes cast ; " be must needs cast, 

 or contrive, to hide himself. As the MSS., how- 

 ever, read cost, let us see whether we cannot find 

 a meaning as the text stands. 



" Nedes cost," or " nedis cost " (the reading of 

 the " First Edition " and of Urry), looks very 

 like the Italian " ne discosto " (nee procul). 



Now " ne discosto " would in old French be 

 " ne discoste." " Discoste " is a word no longer 

 •used in French ; but it formerly signified, like the 

 Italian discosto, " distant, farre, farre off" (Cot- 

 grave). Ne also, for lior, has well nigh passed 

 out of the French language, being superseded by 

 ni ; it is used, however, in the sense of nor, by 

 Moliere — " ne plus ne nioins." 



By " nedes cost," then, or " nedis cost," X would 

 understand " ne discoste " : — 



" The night was short, and faste by the day, 

 That, 7ie discoste, he most himselven hide." 



That is. The night was short, and the day was 

 close at hand, (" faste by,") so that Palamon most 

 hide himself, nee procul, nor far off, ne discosto. 

 Having broken prison, he was under the necessity 

 of taking to the nearest cover, or soon the daylight 

 would have betrayed his whereabouts. 



Ne, for 7ior, is often used by Chaucer ; — " Ne 

 nere Athenes," Cant. Tales, 970. "iVe iiere," nor 

 near. So ne discoste (or ne discosto), nor far off. 



This view of " nedis cost " will be found on 

 ■ examination to fall in readily enough with the 

 sense of the entire passage. Palamon escapes by 

 night from durance : — 



" And thus he fleeth as faste as ever he may. 

 The night was short, and faste by the day. 

 That, ne discoste, he most himselven hide ; 

 And to a grove faste ther beside, 

 With dredful foot, there stalketh Palamon." 



1477—81. 



In other words. The d^y being about to bteak 

 he must conceal himself, and in tlie nearest retreaj; 

 too (ne discosto, nee procul). He therefore walks 

 off to a gro\e faste ther beside, or hard by. 



It is well known that in the " Knightes Tale," 

 which contains the passage under consideration, 

 Chaucer reproduces, with variations, the " The- 

 seide " of Boccaccio. Now the proximity of the 

 grove is a feature in Boccaccio's narrative, as 

 well as in Chaucer's : — 



" E a sua posta longamente e poco; 

 E nan era lontan dala citate." 



Theseide, B. iv. ed. 1475. 



It is doubtless the " non lontan " of these lines 

 (not far off, nee procul), which suggested 'to 

 Ciiaucer, when describing the same scene, the 



kindred expression " ne discosto " or " ne dis- 

 coste." This successive " emendators " have gone 

 on " correcting," till they have transmuted it into 

 " nedes cast ! " 



Dryden appears to have caught the very idea 

 that was in Chaucer's mind : — 



" Short was the night, and careful Palamon 

 Sought the next covert ere the rising sun. 

 A thick-spread forest 7iear the city lay, 

 To this, with lengthen'd strides, he took his way, 

 Forfar he could not flee, and feared the day." 



In the other instance where " nedis cost " oc- 

 curs, the idea of 7ie discosto passes from space to 

 time : — 



" Or, nedis coste, this thing mote have an end." 



Legende of good women, 2686. 



" Nedis coste," i. e., ne discoste or ne discosto, 

 not long first, ere long. Thomas Bots. 



MACABOHIC POETRY. 



M. Delepierre, in his notice of Macaronic 

 Poetry (Macaroneana, ou Melanges de Litterature 

 Macaronique des differents Peuples de TEwope, 

 8vo., Gancia, 1852) has given, at p. 221,, some 

 account of the Spanish Macaronic writers, stating 



" Le Journal ' El Corresponsal del Censor,' a public en 

 1794, un Pofeme macaronique enrichi de notes dans le 

 meme genre, sousletitre: 'Metrificatioinvectivalis, contra 

 studia modernorum, cum notis critico-scholasticis ; ' and 

 adds, ' L'Auteur s'est cache sous le nom de Dr. Matthias 

 de Retiro, et I'Editeur signe; El licenciado Duron de 

 Testa.' " 



As M. Delepierre does not appear to have seen 

 these lines, or to be acquainted with the author, 

 I will give a few notes, hoping they may be of use 

 to him and to such of your readers as may be in- 

 terested in such matters. 



The author was D. Tomas de Yriarte; the lines 

 were printed in his Works, vol. ii. pp. 154 — 170., 

 Madrid, 1787. 



The title is too long to give at full ; it com- 

 mences 



" Metrificatio Invectivalis contra Studio Modernorum ab 

 egregiissimo D. D. D. Mathia de Retiro crispa Latinitate 

 et Hexametrata Cadentia composita," &c. &c. 



It was preceded by the following notice : 



"Versos Macarronicos que, acompanados de la sigui- 

 ente Carta, se enviaron al Corresponsal del Censor, y que 

 este imprimid en su Carta V., publicada en 6 de Julio, 

 1786." 



The letter which follows notices the learned 

 complaint of the fallen state of Latinity in Spain, 

 and adduces the verses in disproof of the accu- 

 sation. He cites them also as offering at the same 

 time an useful lesson to those who, quitting the 

 studies " que dan honra damente de Comer ! " oc- 

 cupy themselves with the barren study of the 

 exact ^sciences, and other futile pursuits recom- 



