1 6 Prologue i-ii 



Here is a word which might be translated 'breath' — in one of its 

 meanings; here we have the warm Zephyr that recalls Virgil's 

 line; and here is nemus, which might be translated 'holt.' Let 

 us see what Chaucer makes of it in a prose translation : 



Whan the wode wexeth rody of rosene floures, in the first somer 

 sesoun, thorugh the brcthe of the winde Zephirus that wexeth warin.^* 



As the words for the breath of men or animals are such as 

 anima, halitus, spiritus, and as flatus is virtually never employed 

 with that meaning,^^ it is evident that here, at least, breeth must 

 mean 'blowing.' Then neither the 'Zephyri tepentibus auris' of 

 Virgil, nor the 'flatu Zephyri tepentis' of Boethius, if rendered by 

 Chaucer 'Zephirus .... with his swete breeth,' can be 

 said to warrant the interpretation of breeth as 'respired air,' 

 nor of sivete as 'fragrant'; the first might be rendered by 

 'breeze,' and the second by 'warm, mild, soft, genial, gentle, 

 balmy' — or even, with Pope {Diinciad 4. 422, 'Waves to the 

 tepid Zephyrs of the spring'), by 'tepid.' It would appear, then, 

 that Chaucer, though he coined szvete breeth in Rom. Rose 547 

 on the basis of the French douce alene,^^ employs it in the 

 Prologue in a quite different sense.^^ 



Inspired (6). Blown upon. Lowes (see above, p. 11) quotes 

 from Boccaccio, Filocolo 2. 239 : 'Come quando Zeffiro soave- 

 mente spira si sogliono le tenere sommita degli alberi movere per 

 li campi.' 



holt and heeth (6). Cf. T. and C. 3. 351-3: 



^^ The Old English prose translation runs : 'ponne smylte bla\vet5 siajjan- 

 westan wind, J^onne weaxaS swiSe hraSe feldes blosman.' In verse we 



have : 



ponne smolte bkewS suSan and westan 

 Wind under wolcnum, j^onne weaxaS hra?e 

 Feldes blostman, fsegen J^aet hi moton. 



^ A typical use of flatus is exemplified by Gcorg. 2. 339: 



Hibernis parcebant flatibus Euri. 

 ^ For another form of the phrase, see p. 27. 

 "Spenser has our line in mind in Prothalam'wn 2: 



Sweete-breathing Zephyrus did softly play. 



Thomson (Spring 32-3) thus renders Georg. 2. 330-1 : 

 Forth fly the tepid airs ; and unconfined. 

 Unbinding earth, the moving softness strays. 



