>44ARf^^*JtMORIAL UERARY Date Due \RY THE PILLARS OF HERCULES AND CHAUCER'S "TROPHEE" BY G. L. KITTREDGE From the Putnam Anniversary Volume CEDAR RAPIDS. IOWA THE TORCH PRESS 1909 E.V. to THE PILLARS OF HERCULES AND CHAUCER'S " TROPHEE " BY G. L. KiTTREDGE. IN a famous passage of The Monk's Tale, Chaucer cites "Tro- phee" as an authority on Hercules: At bothe the worldes endes, seith Trophee, In stede of boundes he a piler sette (B. 3307-8). In the Ellesmere and in the Hengwrt MS., Trophee is glossed "Ille vates Chaldeorum Tropheus". Ignoring the gloss for the present, we may ask ourselves where Chaucer got his informa- tion about the pillars of Hercules. Professor Skeat replies, "From Guido",' and quotes the first book of the Historia Tro- jana to support his answer. The pertinent passage in Guido delle Colonne runs as follows : Sed quod suorum [sc. Herculis] actuum longa narratio poetarum longa expectatione animos auditorum abstraxit, ista de eo sufficiant tetigisse, cum et rei Veritas in tantum de sua victoria acta per mundum miraculose diuulget quod vsque in hodiemum diem vsquequo victor apparuit columne herculis testentur ad gades. Ad has columnas magnus Macedonius Alexander, regis Philippi filius, qui et ipse de stirpe regum thesalie, que macedonia similiter dicitur, fuit produc- tus, subiugando sibi mundum in manu forti legitur peruenisse. Ultra quas non est locus habitabilis, cum ibi sit mare magnum, oceanus videlicet, quod angustum locum ibidem per medium gremium habitabilis terre nostre seipsum infundens mediterraneum nobis ipsum mare constituit per intrinsecas mundi partes • Oxford Chaucer, II, Iv. 546 PUTNAM ANNIVERSARY VOLUME a nobis nauigabile, vt videmus. Quod, licet ab ipso loco infusionem recipiat, effusum litoribus siriis clauditur, in quibus ciuitas aeon nostros potissime recipit nauigantes. Hunc locum angustum, a quo primum hoc mediterraneum mare dilabitur, nostri hodie nauigantes striatum sibile nominant. Et locus ille in quo predicte columne Herculis sunt affixe dicitur saracenica lingua saphis, a quo non sufficit vltra ire. ' Now the trouble with this passage is that it by no means explains Chaucer's words. In the first place, Guido does not speak of "bothe the worldes endes", but only of the western end.^ 1 Ed. 1489, sig. a 3, 1°. I have regulated the punctuation. The passage is pretty fully translated, though with amusing errors, by Lydgate, Troy Book, i, 595-616 (ed. Ber- gen, E. E. T. S., I, 29). See pp. 565-66, below. 2 Guido was led to mention the Pillars of Hercules here by a passage in the Roman de Troie, vv. 805-810 (ed. Constans; vv. 791-6, ed. Joly), where, however, Benoit refers not to the pillars at Gades but to those which Hercules set up in the Orient. Perhaps Guido was ignorant of the tradition about the Oriental pillars and therefore understood Benoit to mean those at the Straits of Gibraltar. Cf. Hamilton, The Indebtedness of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde to Guido delle Colonne's Historia Trojana, pp. 55-57. Perhaps Guido had a confused recollection of the passage in which Quintus Curtius de- clares that Alexander intended, after subduing the East, to make the circuit of the Medi- terranean and to carry his conquests as far as the Pillars of Hercules in Spain: "Ipse animo infinita complexus, statuerat, omni ad Orientem maritima regione perdomita, ex Syria petere Africam, Carthagini infensus; inde, Numidiae solitudinibus peragratis, cursum Gades dirigere (ih'i namque columnam Herculis esse fama vulgaverat) ; Hispanias deinde . . . adire; et praetervehi Alpes, Italiaeque oram, unde in Epirum brevis cursus est" (x, I, 17-18). Arrian makes Alexander tell his soldiers the same thing in an oration: Kal i'^ii imdeL^u MctKcS^iri re/col rofsfujU/uixois riv niv'IvSiKbv kSXttov ^ipfiom 6vTa rp Ilepa-iiciJJ, TTiv dk TpKaviav rt^ 'IvdiKi^, dirb d^ toO Ilepa-iKou eU Ai^injv TreptTrXcuc^Tjcrerat o-r6X(^ Tjp^T^piii ra (v, 26, 2). See also Arrian, vii, 1. Cf. Anspach, De Alexandri I\Iagni Expeditione Indica, 1903, pp. 79, 85, and note 271. According to an apocryphal story in the Pseudo- Callisthenes, Alexander, at the outset of his career, actually invaded Italy (i, 29, ed. Miiller, p. 30; see especially Version A, in the note, p. 31). This story is due, at least in part, as Miiller recognized, to confusion with the campaign of Alexander's maternal uncle, Alexander Molossus, the king of Epirus, against the Lucanians (B. C. 332). Julius Valerius (i, 22; Kuebler, p. 31) follows Pseudo-Callisthenes A, and the Epitome (ed. Zacher, p. 28) preserves all that is essential in the passage of Valerius. Vincent of Beau- vais quotes the passage from the Epitome, — "ex historia alexandri magni" {Speculum Historiale, iv, 24, Venice ed. of 1494, fol. 40 v"). See also the Historia de Preliis, caps. 22 and 30 (ed. Landgraf, pp. 50-51, with the note), and the later revision edited by Zingerle, cap. 22, p. 147; also the Middle English fVars of Alexander, w. 1024-46 (ed. Skeat, pp. 51-52; Lamprecht's Alexander, ed. Kinzel, pp. 80-81. Cf. Noldeke, Beitrdge zur THE PILLARS OF HERCULES 547 Professor Skeat tries to remove this difficulty by remarking that "the expression 'both ends of the world' refers to the extreme points of the continents of Europe and Africa, world standing here for continenf. "The story is", he adds, "that Hercules erected two pillars, Calpe and Abyla, on the two sides of the Strait of Gibraltar".^ This interpretation is forced, and, as we shall soon see, cannot be entertained. What Chaucer means is "at the Eastern and the Western end of the world" — the Oriental and Occidental limit. In the second place, the passage from Guido contains nothing whatever that accounts for Chaucer's "Trophee". The western pillars of Hercules were, of course, well known to Chaucer and everybody else.^ He did not need to get infor- mation about them from Guido. The question that confronts us is rather that of the Pillars of Hercules in the Orient, which Guido says nothing about, and which were not, like those at the Geschichte des Alexanderromans, p. 4 (Vienna Academy Denkschriften, Philos.-hist. Classe, XXXVIII, No. V, 1890) ; Miller, Zacher's Zeitschrift, X, 10-12 ; Ausfeld, Der grie- chische Alexanderroman, 1907, pp. 44-45, 134-6, 221. Justin (xii, 13, i) informs us that when Alexander was returning to Babylon, after his Indian expedition, he got word, "legationes Carthaglniensiura ceterarumque Africae civita- tium, sed et Hispaniarum, Siciliae, Galliae, Sardiniae, nonnuUas quoque ex Italia eius adven- tum Babyloniae opperiri." This passage is quoted by Vincent of Beauvais (Speculum His- toriale, iv, 63, Venice ed. of 1494, fol. 44) and by Orosius, iii, 20, 2 (ed. Zangeraeister, p. 182). • Notes on Canterbury Tales, B. 3307 [Oxford Chaucer, V, 233). 2 On the Western Pillars of Hercules see Pomponius Mela, De Situ Orbis, i, 5, 3 (cf. ii, 6, 8), with the authors cited by Tzschuck in his edition, III, i, 132-6. Pomponius is quoted in full by Boccaccio, De Genealogia Decorum, xiii, i (ed. 1511, fol. 95 v"). A typical passage with regard to the Western Pillars may be seen in Orosius, i, 2, 7 (ed. Zangemeister, p. 10) : "Europae in Hispania occidentalis oceanus termino est, maxime ubi apud Gades insulas Herculis columnae visuntur et Tyrrheni maris faucibus oceani aestus immittitur" ("Par scyt se Wendel-sae up of Paera garsecge Paer Ercoles syla standaP" King Alfred. Cf. Alfred's translation of i, 2, 94, ed. Zangemeister, p. 35). "The Isles of Gades ('Insi Gaid') and the Pillars of Hercules ('Colomna Ercoil') are mentioned in the Irish saga of Bricrius's Feast {Fled Bricrend, 93, ed. Henderson, p. 118; Windisch, Irische Texte, I, 302). 548 PUTNAM ANNIVERSARY VOLUME entrance to the Mediterranean, familiar to every merchant and traveller of the fourteenth century. Yet evidence about these Eastern Pillars is not hard to find. Gower mentions them twice in plain terms: El grant desert d' Ynde superiour Cil qui d' arein les deux pilers fichoit, Danz Hercules. — Traitie, vii, i. ^ This kniht the tuo pilers of bras, The whiche yit a man mai finde, Sette up in the desert of Ynde; That was the worthi Hercules. — Confessio Amantis, iv, 2054 fl.^ And there is an illuminating record in the Roman de Troie of Benoit de Sainte More, an author with whom both Chaucer and Gower were very well acquainted : Hercules, Cil qui sostint maint pesant fais E maint grant merveille fist E maint felon jaiant ocist E les bones [bornes] iluec ficha Ou Alixandre les trova (iv, 805-10).^ It seems quite clear that Benoit got his information about the Oriental Pillars from some form of the Alexander legend. In the Res Gestae Alexandri of Julius Valerius, written probably in the third or fourth century of our era, there is a long extract from what purports to be a letter from Alexander to his mother, Olympias, in which the conqueror gives an account of 1 Macaulay, I, 383. 2 Pauli, II, 70; Macaulay, II, 356. 3 Ed. Constans (vv. 791-6, ed. Joly). See p. 546, note z, above, with the reference to Hamilton there cited. On the Eastern Pillars, cf. also Engine Talbot, Essai sur la Legende d'Alexandre-le-Grand, 1850, pp. 167-8; Berger de Xivrey, Traditions Teratolo- giques, 1836, pp. 53-54, 401, 428. THE PILLARS OF HERCULES 549 his visit to the "Herculis stelae", about ninety-five days' march beyond Babylon: Profectus ergo a Babylone una cum his, quos magis strenuos in exercitu habebam, ... in ulteriora regionum animum intendi pervenique usque ad Herculis stelas non minus itinere dierum ferme nonaginta quinque, fama de Hercule sic loquente, quod hasce metas peregrinationis suae fixerit deus ille, qui et duas stelas, id est titulos sui quosdam, ibidem dereliquit, quorum unus ex auro, alter vero argenteus habebatur. Sed enim altitude eorum est titulorum cubitis ferme quindecim, crassitudo vero in cubitis duobus. Alexander could hardly believe that such masses of precious metal were solid. He stayed there some days to refresh his soldiers, and amused himself by boring a hole in the golden stela : Sacrificatusque deo Herculi titulum ilium aureum, qua potui, rimatus sum foramine per omnem crassitudinem elaborato, neque claudicare fidem crassitudinis eius inveni. Sed cum cavernam illam replere religiosum mihi videretur, ad suppl4mentum eius quingentis auri talentis opus fuit. ^ This information was of course derived by Julius Valerius from the so-called Pseudo-Callisthenes, though the anecdote is found in but one version of the Greek text of that writer: 'HX^oi/ cjTi ran 'HpaxXeovs or^Xos iv ij^epais kc'. ((jm.(Tav yap tov HpaicXea opous noirjcrai iv ri; X<"P?, ^^ V ^'"'op^v^TO ^ a-r^Xas jS", rrjv fiiv )(pv(rrjv tyjv Si apyvprjv^ to piv vij/os ■n~q-)(uiv ly , to 8e irXaros Trr]X'i>v ^ . 'E/aoC ^ prj Tna-TCviravTos « ela-i v ipdvr] Se ;u.ot 6\6)(pv(roi, 'Eyci/tTO 8e' /not traXiv a.vairXr]pui(rai to Tpvir-qpa^ KoX evpeOr]crav ■)(pva'oi fl^ avaXiaBrivai J^ • Julius Valerius, iii, 49, ed. Kuebler (iii, 81, ed. Mai). 2 Pseudo-Callisthenes, iii, 27, Version A. (ed. Muller, p. 139, note). The passage is not found in Versions B and C (Miiller, ibid.) ; cf. Zacher, Pseudo-Callisthenes, 1867, p. 168; Meusel, Jahrbiicher f. Class. P/iilol., Supplementband V, 784; Ausfeld, Der greichische Alexanderroman, 1907, pp. 105, 195-6. It occurs, however, in the Armenian translation (Raabe, 'laropia 'We^dvSpov Die armenische Ubersetzung . . . auf ihre mutmassliche Grundlage zuriickefUhrt, 1896, p. 95), and, with various corruptions, more or less amusing, in the Syriac (Budge, p. 131) and the Ethiopic (Budge, pp. 332-3). Cf. H. Becker, Zur Alexandersage, 1906, p. 21 ; F. Kampers, Alexander der Grosse und die Idee des Weltim- periums in Prophetic und Sage, 1901, pp. 126 if. Version C of Pseudo-Callisthenes, in another place (ii, 34, Muller, p. 87), mentions 550 PUTNAM ANNIVERSARY VOLUME The work of Julius Valerius was, as is well known, super- seded in general circulation, from the ninth century on, by an Epitome, of which there are a great many manuscripts extant, both in England and on the Continent. In the ordinary text of. the Epitome the anecdote just referred to does not appear.^ It is found, however, in part, in the Oxford Epitome.'^ The Iti?ierariiiin Alexandri draws directly from Julius Valerius in its account of this incident: Electo denique sibi ad ejusmodi patientiam comitatu, ad Herculis stelas famae jactantia persecutus est diebus nonaginta continuis emensa via. DIgnam quidem illam rem pretio tanti laboris, si quis aurem ad fidem dicentis inclinet. li quippe tituli alter auro pingui, alter argento proceritudinis erant XII cubito- rum, crassi vero per quadrum cubitis binis ; adeo inmenso pondere, ut ejus peri- culum ipse rex fecerit terebrata crassitudine auri ejus, cujus dampnum mille quingentis mox aurels inferciverit. ^ two golden iTT-^Xai, one of a man and the other of a woman, which Alexander found in the Orient, and which he said were the a-TrjKai oi Hercules and SemiramistE^s^T^pai' /carAa/Se yriv, ivda aTTJXat elffT-^Kenrav 56(o xpvo'(i^,IJ'^(^ l^v &.vSphs,r) dk^T^payvvaLKds- aU wepLTVXfj^v^AX^^avdpo^ £07;' 'Hpa/cX^ws crrijXai ainu Kal Se/iipd/iews (cf. Zacher, Pseudo-Callisthenes, p. 138; Ber- ger de Xivrey, Traditions Teraiologiques, pp. 338-40). This is in neither version A nor version B (see Miiller, /. c.\ Meusel, p. 761). C then makes Alexander find the royal city of Semiramis, as to which see Versions A, B, C, iii, 17, 57; 18, i (Miiller, p. 125; Meusel, p. 776; Ausfeld, Der griechische Alexanderroman, p. 96); Julius Valerius, iii, 18, 28; Zacher, Pseiido-Callisthenes, pp. 161-2. For altars of Semiramis, see the passage from Pliny quoted on p. 554, below. 1 See Zacher, Julii Valerii Epitome, 1867, pp. xii-xiii, 61. For the probable reason why it was omitted see p. 558, note i, below. 2 Corpus Christi College Ms. 82. See G. G. Cillie, De Julii Valerii Epitoma Oxonien- si, 1905, p. 50. The Oxford Epitome follows Valerius pretty closely to the end of the de- scription of the stelae, but omits the account of Alexander's experiment. On the relation of the Oxford Epitome to the full text of Valerius and to the ordinary Epitome, Cillie, pp. ix ff., does not agree with Paul Meyer, Alexandre le Grand dans la Litterature fran^aise du Moyen Age, II, 24-26. 3 Cap. 119 f, ed. Mai, 1817 (pp. 77-78), ed. Muller (in his Pseudo-Callisthenes, p. 167); cap. 54, p. 29, ed. Volkmann (1871). Cf. Karl Kluge, De Itinerario Alexandri, p. 28 ; Zacher, Pseudo-Callisthenes, pp. 80-82. THE PILLARS OF HERCULES 551 In the Historia de Preliis of the Archipresbyter Leo of Naples, a tenth-century excerpt of the Greek romance, the inci- dent appears in the following shape: Venimus ad columnas Eraclii. Invenimus columnas duas, unam auream et aliam argenteam, habentem in longitudine cubita duodecim et in latitudine cubita duo. Perforantes eas invenimus eas ex auro. Paenituit me, quod perforavi eas et clausi foramen illarum et posui ibi aurum pensante solidos mille quingenti. ' Here the form of a letter to Olympias is preserved. In the enlarged and improved rifacimento of the Historia de Preliis, which probably dates from the eleventh century, and which was immensely popular, the material of the letter is worked into the narrative at an appropriate place,^ and the "columns" become "statues": Alio namque die amoto exercitu pervenit ad locum ubi erant statue due, quas ibi posuerat Hercules, una aurea et alia argentea, habentes in longitudine cubitos duodecim et in latitudine cubitos duos, vidensque eas Alexander precepit perforare illas, ut videret si essent fusiles, cumque eas perforassent et invenissent 1 Ed. Landgraf, 1885, p. 130. This is the oldest version of the Historia (preserved in a Bamberg MS.). For the different forms of the work, see Landgraf, pp. 7 ff. ; Kinzel, Zwei Recensionen der Vita Alexandri Magni interprete Leone Archifresbytero Neapolitano, 1884; Kinzel's edition of Lamprecht's Alexander, 1884, pp. xvii ff. ; P. Meyer, Alexandre le Grand dans la Litterature Fran^aise du Moyen Age, II (i866), pp. 34 ff., 390 f . ; 0. Zingerle, Die Quellen xum Alexander des Rudolf von Ems, 1885 ; Kuebler, Romanische Studien, VI, 203 ff. The most recent (and apparently the best) classification is that of Ausfeld (see p. 552, note i, below) ; but the last word has not yet been said. 2 Cf. Kinzel, Zwei Recensionen der Vita Alexandri Magni interprete Leone Archi- presbytero Neapolitano, 1884, pp. 24-30; Kinzel's edition of Lamprecht's Alexander, pp. xxv-vi, 291; Skeat, Wars of Alexander, E. E. T. S., p. 310, note on v. 4068. The difference between the versions in the point that here concerns us may be seen by comparing Landgraf's edition, pp. 129-30, with Zingerle's, pp. 216, 256. In the ex- cerpt in Ekkehard's Chronicon Universale we have: "Coadunato autem populo suo, exiit et venit ad columnas Heraclii, unam auream, alteram argenteam, habentes in longitudine cubitos duodecim, in latitudine duos" (ed. Waitz, Mon. Germ. Hist., Scriptores, VI, 70, 41-42) ; cf. the Bamberg Version of the Historia, and see Ausfeld, Zacher's Zeit- schrift, XVIII, 402. 552 PUTNAM ANNIVERSARY VOLUME eas fusiles, precepit claudere foramen illarum mittensque ibi aureos mille quin- gentos. ^ The rather close translation in the Middle English Wars of Alexander runs thus: pe secund day with vp son, he with his sowme nezes, Quare jjire Immages ere }Jat Arculious, had in an He rerid. pe tane was all athill gold, of siluir J?e tothire, Twelfe cubettis fra }?e topp doun. & twa was Jje brede. He made his pepill J^aim to perse, to proue )?am with-in, Quethire J^ai ware hologhe or hale. & hale he J?am fyndis, Saze fiaim thike }»urze-out. & aithire thrill stoppis, And fillis J^am [with] florentis. a fyftene hundreth. ^ The fiction or tradition which represents Alexander as dis- covering Pillars of Hercules in the East is certainly no invention of the authors whom we have been considering. It undoubtedly goes back, in some form, to the time of Alexander himself. The conqueror and his warriors took considerable satisfaction in following, as they supposed, in the footsteps of Hercules and Dionysus, with whom they of course identified various Oriental gods and heroes with whose relics or ceremonies they came in 1 Cap. 91, ed. Zingerle [Die Quellen zum Alexander des Rudolf von Ems, 1885, p. 216). This is the version called "Ji" by Ausfeld (Der griechische Alexanderroman, p. 22). Another version "J2," made from "Ji" under the special influence of Orosius, has "due statue auree," and omits "quas . . . argentea," thus dissociating Hercules from the statues (see Zingerle's note). Ausfeld is inclined to think that this dissociation was due to Orosius, i, 2, 7 (see p. 547, note 2, above), the reviser thinking it an error to locate the Pillars of Hercules in the East {Die Orosius-Recension der Historia Alexandri Magni de Preliis, in Festschrift der badischen Gymnasien, 1886, p. 105). 2 Vv. 4067 £F. (ed. Skeat, E. E. T. 8., p. 225). Of. Ulrich von Eschenbach's Alexander, W. 21733 ff. (ed. Toischer, pp. 578-9; see also Toischer, Ueber die Alexandreis Ulrichs von Eschenbach, Vienna Academy, Sitzungsberickte, Philos.-hist. Classe, 1880, XCVn, 324, 372). See also the Italian version of the Historia de Preliis published by Grion, I Nobili Fatti di Alessandro Magna, 1872, p. 125 (cf. P. Meyer, Alexandre le Grand, I, xiii). THE PILLARS OF HERCULES 553 contact.' On this point the evidence is conclusive and undis- puted. Arrian tells us that Alexander felt that he was a rival of Hercules,^ and he expressly mentions the story that Hercules had vainly attempted to storm the Indian rock Aornus as one of the reasons that led the Macedonian king to attack it.^ The same authority informs us that Alexander gladly credited the legend that the Indian city of Nysa was founded by Dionysus, feeling pleased to think that he had come as far as Dionysus had and was about to go still farther.'' Quintus Curtius makes Alex- ander promise his soldiers that they shall "pass the bounds of Hercules and Father Liber" and subdue the whole world; ^ and again he represents him as beseeching them not to break in his hands the palm of victory "qua", says Alexander, "Herculem Liberumque, si invidia abfuerit, aequabo." ^ Once more, when his soldiers are murmuring he tells them that the ocean is near at hand, — "iam perflare ad ipsos auram maris: ne inviderent sibi laudem quam peteret. Herculis et Liberi patris terminos transituros illos, regi suo parvo impendio immortalitatem I On the supposed Indian campaign of Dionysus and its relations to Alexander's con- quests, see the references given by Voigt in Roscher, Ausfiihrl. Lexicon der griech. u. r'om. Myihologie, I, i, 1087-9, 3nd by Kaerst in Pauly-Wissowa, I, 1429. As to Hercules in India, see, for example, Diodorus Siculus, ii, 39. Cf. also Sainte-Croix, Examen Critique des anciens Historiens d'Alexandre-le-Grand, 1804, 2d ed., pp. 389 ff. ' iii. 3. 2- 3 iv, 28, 1-4. With his usual sobriety, Arrian refuses to express a positive opinion whether Hercules (6 B-ri^alos i) 6 Tipios fl 6 AlyiirTws) ever vfent to India; but he asserts positively that Alexander heard the story and was influenced by it Cf. Anspach, De Alexan- dri Magni Expeditione Indica, 1903, pp. 27 ff. (especially notes 80 and 84). As to Aornus see also Arrian, iv, 30, 4; v, 26, 5; Indica, 5; Quintus Curtius, viii, u, 2. 4 iv, 30; v, i; cf. V, 2, s; v, 26, 5; Indica, 1, 4-5; 5, 9; Quintus Curtius, viii, 10, 11. See Anspach, pp. 20-21. 5 "Illos terrarura orbis liberatores, emensosque olim Herculis et Liberi patris terminos, non Persis modo, sed etiara omnibus gentibus imposituros iugum" (iii, 10, 5). 6 ix, 2, 29. 554 PUTNAM ANNIVERSARY VOLUME famae daturos." ^ There are many other pertinent passages,^ but the point is too thoroughly established to require discussion. Actual boundary-stones of Bacchus are mentioned by Quintus Curtius (vii, 9, 15) : Transierant [sc. Macedones] iam Liberi patris terminos, quorum monu- menta lapides erant crebrls intervallis dispositi arboresque procerae, quarum sti- pites hedera contexerat. Sed Macedonas ira longius provexit. The place referred to is identified by Franz v. Schwarz with a pass on the Mogul-tau, the natural boundary between Sogdiana and the Scythian desert.^ For stones, the author of the Metz Epitome substitutes a column: "Eos Macedones per noctem sequentes usque ad Liberi Patris columnam peruenisse dicuntur".'' Pliny, speaking of the same place, says that altars erected by Hercules and Liber are to be found there: Ultra [i. e. beyond the River Ochus] Sogdiani, oppidum Panda, et in ultimis eorum finibus Alexandria, ab Alexandre Magno conditum. Arae ibi sunt ab Hercule ac Libero patre constitutae, item Cyro et Samiramide atque Alexandre. ^ Dionysius Periegetes, whose geographical poem, written in the time of Hadrian, became extremely popular and was trans- lated by Rufus Avienus and by Priscian, mentions Pillars of Hercules at the entrance to the Mediterranean ^ and pillars of 1 ix, 4, 21. 2 See, for instance, Arrian, v, 3, 4; vi, 3, 4-5; vi, 14, 2; Quintus Curtius, viii, 5, 8 and II ; viii, 10, i ; ix, 8, 5; ix, 10, 24. 3 Alexander des Grossen Feldziige in Turkestan, 1893, pp. 60-61. Cf. H. Becker, Zur Alexandersage, 1894, p. 15, note i. 4 § 12, ed. Wagner {Jahrbiicher fur classische Philologie, Supflementband XXVI, 99)- 5 Nat. Hist., vi, 16 (18), 49. On tliese altars Harduin notes that they marked the limits of the world in that direction, "ut cum columnis, quae sunt apud Gades, simile quiddam habere videantur." See F. v. Schwartz, Alexander des Grossen Feldziige in Turkestan, p. 60; Anspach, De Alexandri Magni Expediiione Indira, p. 81, note 263. 6 Vv. 64-68 (Bernhardy, p. 12) ; cf. the commentary of Eustathius (id., pp. 96-97) and the Scholia (p. 328). See also Avienus, Descriptio Orbis Terrae, vv. 98-100 (p. 431) ; Priscian, Periegesis, -vv. 72-78 (p. 463). THE PILLARS OF HERCULES 555 Dionysus by the ocean in the remotest mountains of India. ^ Priscian, it should be noted, translates Dionysius's a-TrjXai. by statuae. The commentary of Eustathius on Dionysius is import- ant for our present investigation. The geographer having re- ferred to the Indian Nyssa (Nysa) in connection with the Pillars of Dionysus, Eustathius ^ quotes Arrian's account of Alexander's visit to the precinct of Dionysus on Mount Merus hard-by.^ He also has much to say of the supposed expedition of Hercules to India, utilizing Arrian'' in his discussion of this subject also, and remarking that according to one story Hercules must have gone to both boundaries of the earth. ^ Pillars of Dionysus in India are also mentioned by Apollo- dorus, but in a passage which is regarded as an interpolation.* Servius, in a note on "Protei columnas" {Aeneid, xi, 262), re- marks: "Columnas Herculis legimus et in Ponto et in His- pania". In a letter to the Rhodians, given in the Metz Epitome, Alexander is made to mention an Eastern Column of Hercules: "Nos ultra columnam Herculis patrii nostri. . . ." ' The belief that Hercules and Dionysus set up pillars or other monuments in the East was adverted to by Strabo, about the beginning of the Christian era, in his genuinely scientific dis- cussion of the Pillars of Hercules at the entrance to the Mediter- ranean. Some think, he says, that the points of the strait are the 1 Vv. 623-5, 1161-5 (Bernhardy, pp. 37, 62) ; Eustathius, pp. 224, 313-314; Scholia, p. 358; Avienus, vv. 824-6, 1377-84 (pp. 448, 160) ; Priscian, vv. 616-18, 1057-8 (pp. 475, 485). 2 Bernhardy, pp. 313-15. 3 Arrian, v, 2. 4 V, 3. s'Sicrre To&r({) T ip\6yii> i' iKar^povs T^pfwvas yrjs 4\6(ti' t6v ''HpaK'K4a.{BeTnhaTdy, p. 314). 6 Ai.e\8(!iv di Qp^nv, [k"-^ ''■')'' 'I>'5ikt)I' S,Ta(Tav, crTiriXas iK€i i7rT}(7as,] iJKev is O^jSas {Bibliotheca, iii, 2, i). See Hercher's edition, 1874. 7 § 107, ed. Wagner, p. 114. 5S6 PUTNAM ANNIVERSARY VOLUME Pillars (ra aKpa Tov vopBixov Ta.% tT-qXai dvai); othcrs identify the Pillars with TCI Ta^upa (i. e. Gades, Cadiz) ; others suppose that they lie outside of to. Va^tipa-, others identify them with Mt. Calpe in Spain and Mt. Abilyca in Africa; others with certain small islands near these mountains; others with two bronze columns preserved in a temple of Hercules at Gadeira, — and so on. The inquiry, he continues, is not unreasonable.^ It is likely enough that Hercules set up something of the sort as the limits of the inhabited world or of his expedition. For it seems to have been a custom in old times to erect memorials of this kind. And he proceeds to give examples. "Alexander", for instance "erected altars as the limits of his Indian campaign at the easternmost place which he reached in India, imitating Hercules and Diony- sus." ^ Strabo argues, therefore, that there may once have been real Pillars of Hercules at the entrance to the Mediterranean, and that, these having perished, the name may have been applied to the places where they stood. The Macedonians, he says, ap- parently did not see any actual pillars (o-r^Aai) of Hercules or of Dionysus in India. Yet, since certain places were shown to them which bore that name, they identified with the pillars those places in which they found evidence to substantiate what was told of Dionysus or of Hercules.^ 1 'AXXd ^t)reiv iirl twv Kovplojs Xeyo/j^voJV tmyXcji/ rotjs r^s otKov/UvTjs fipous ^ ttjs arpareias ttjs 'HpaKXiovs €X« l^v TLva vodv {\\\, 5, 5). 2 ' AX^^avSpos 5^ TTJs IvSlktjs trrpareias Upta ^oipLods '^Oero iv toTs rtmois els ois mrdrovs &ip.ivos rhv "UpaKhia Kal riv Aidmjov fiv p.iv Si} rb eBos toOto (iii, 5, s). On the altars erected by Alexander see Pliny, Nat. Hist., vi, 17 (21), 62; Arrian, v, 29, i; Q. Curtius, ix, 3, 19; Diodorus Siculus, xvii, 95, i; Plutarch, Alexander, 62; Philostratus, Fita Apollonii, ii, 43; Metz Epitome, 69 (ed. Wagner, p. 107). Cf. Anspach, pp. 81-82, notes 266, 267. 3 OiSi ivTyivSiK^ o-TiJXas (paalv opadijmi Kei/iims o6S^'lipaK\hvs oSre Aiomaov, KalXeyopi^poii' IxivToi Kal SeLKvviUvuv (rue) Tbttav ti.vu>v ol JiaKcdSves iTtiaTCVov Toijovi iivai (TTifKat, iv ofs n cn)neiov eljpL(TKQy ^ TuJf irepi rdv At6vvA^V, Latin tropaeum {tropheum) . It is Chaucer's use of "Trophee" as the name of a person that causes all the difficulty. And that use, as all are agreed, is the result of a misunderstanding, whether on the poet's own part or on the part of some authority whom he is following. What we need, then, is a passage — accessible to Chaucer or his prede- « "Axp' Toirtov 'HpoKXijs Kal Ai6i'i;(ros &4iIkovto. 2 Vera Historia, i, 6-7. 558 PUTNAM ANNIVERSARY VOLUME cessors — in which the term tropaea is applied to either the Occidental or the Oriental Pillars of Hercules or to both. Such a passage is not hard to find. It occurs in a text that was very familiar to mediaeval writers, — the apocryphal Epi- stola Alexandri Macedonis ad Aristotelem IMagistrinn suum de Itinere suo et de Situ Indiae} In this letter, Alexander, after an account of his vanquishing Porus and receiving him into favor, tells how Porus guided him to the farthest shores of the East: Ast et ad Herculis Liberique trophaea me deduxit in orientis ultimis oris; aurea utraque deorum constituerat simulacra. Quae an solida essent, ego scire cupiens omnia iussi perforari, et id ipsum cum vidissem solida esse, simili metallo complevi et Herculem Liberumque deiectis simulacris victimis complacavi. ^ The passage is quoted by Vincent of Beauvais in his Spe- culum Historiale, as follows: Ex epistola alexandri. Peruenit autem ad herculis liberique trophea in 1 The best edition is that of Kuebler and Schlee, appended to Kuebler's Julius J'ale- rius (Leipzig, 1888, pp. 190-221). There is a later version in the Bamberg MS. E. Ill, 14, probably made independently from the Greek in the tenth century (edited by Kuebler, Romanische Forschungen, VI, 224-37). The Epistola is not to be confused with the letter to Aristotle in Julius Valerius, iii, 17, 14-27 (ed. Kuebler, pp. 123-35; ed. Mai, 1817, iii, 23-431 PP- 157-77)) which is from Pseudo-Callisthenes (version A, iii, 17, ed. Mviller, pp. 120-5). The Epitome of Valerius's work omits the letter just referred to (see Zacher's edition, iii, 17, p. 55), but, in compensation, the separate Epistola Alexandri de Situ Indiae is very often annexed to the Epitome in manuscripts (see, for example. Ward, Catalogue of Romances, I, 109-19). Indeed, it seems to have been the intention of the epitomator that it should be thus annexed, for he expressly refers his readers to the "epistola quam [Alexander] Aristoteli praeceptori suo misit," meaning, we may be sure, not the letter which he omits but the separate Epistola (cf. Zacher, Pseudo-Callisthenes, p. io6). On the relation of the Epistola to the Alexander material, see especially H. Becker, Ztir Alex- andersage, 1894 {Alexanders Uriel Hber die Wunder Indiens) ; Ausfeld, Zur Kritik des griechischen Atexanderromans, 1894, pp. 8 ff. ; H. Becker, Zur Alexandersage, 1906 (Der Brief Uber die Wunder Indiens in der Historia de Preliis) ; Ausfeld, Der griechische Alex- anderroman, 1907, pp. 27-28, 177 ff. An Anglo-Saxon translation of the Epistola has been edited by Cocka}'ne (N arratiunculae Anglice Conscriptae, 1861, pp. i ff.) and by Baskervill {Anglia, IV, 139 ff., and separately, 1881). 2 Kuebler and Schlee's text, at the end of Kuebler's edition of Julius Valerius (i888), p. 204. THE PILLARS OF HERCULES 559 vltimis finibus orientis posita: vbi vterque deus auri solidum habebat simula- chrum : quod alexander explorare cupiens fecit ea perforari : et item simili metallo repleri. ' Here we have the same story that we have already seen in Julius Valerius and in the Historia de Preliis,^ but the monu- ments are called trophaea, not stelae (as in Valerius) or co- lumnae or statuae (as in the Historia). The Epistola Alexandri is evidently one of the sources of the following observations on Hercules, in which the unknown compiler of a sixth-century Wonder-Book associates the Western Pillars and the Eastern trophaea: Quis Herculis fortitudinem et arma non miraretur, qui in occiduis Thyr- reni maris faucibis columnas mire magnitudinis ad humani generis spectaculum erexit, quique bellorum suorum tropea in Oriente juxta Oceanum indicum ad posteritatis memoriam construxit ? ^ 1 venture to suggest that this same passage of the Epistola Alexandri is, in some way, the starting-point for Chaucer's "Tro- phee". No doubt if Chaucer had had an accurate text of the ' iv, 55 (Venice, 1494, fol. 43 v°). It is interesting to observe the way in which the Old French romance of Alexandre by Lambert li Tort and Alexandre de Paris has treated this incident (see Michelant's edition, p. 316, 11. 24-27; p. 317, 11. 4-8; p. 318, 1. 37-p. 319, I. 3). The romance speaks of the "homes Arcu" or "Ercu" (Hercules), and Liber has be- come Libis. Cf. P. Meyer, Alexandre le Grand, II, 170 ff. For the "bones Arcu," see also Michelant, p. 3, 11. 29-31; p. 300, 11. 15-17. 2 See pp. 549, 551, above. 3 De Monsiris, etc., i 14 (Ulysse Robert, Les Fables de Phedre, edition paleographique publiee d'apres le Manuscrit Rosanbo, 1893, p. 154; Berger de Xivrey, Traditions Teratologiques, 1836, p. 53). The treatise is assigned to the sixth century by Berger de Xivrey (p. xxxiv), and Robert (p. xli) assents. The manuscript which contains it is the celebrated Pithou (later the Rosanbo) MS. of Phaedrus. The Fables are in an early ninth- century hand (Robert, p. xiii), the Wonder-Book is in a hand that is only a trifle later (pp. xii, xli ff.). The same treatise is contained in the Codex Wisseburgensis of Phaedrus (Wolfenbiittel, "Gud. 148"): see Haupt, in his Zeitschrift, V, 10; Miillenhoff, Haupt's Zeitschrift, XII, 287; Hervieux, Les Fabulistes Latins, I (1884), 245 ff. ; Robert, p. xliv. 56o PUTNAM ANNIVERSARY VOLUME Epistola ^ before him when he wrote The Monk's Tale, or everi an accurate copy of the extracts that are made by Vincent of Beauvais, he would not have transmogrified trophea into a per- son. But, although he may have read the Epistola once upon a time, and although we are certain that he knew Vincent (or at least that he refers to him),^ we are not to suppose that he had either of these authorities at hand for steady and repeated con sultation. No one who is acquainted with the possibilities of confusion which beset mediaeval scribes and readers, or who has even a faint conception of the blunders of which he himself {pace tanti viri dixerim!) might be capable if he were depend- ent on his memory alone for quotations and references, will be surprised that out of the passage concerning the "Herculis Liberique trophea" there should have grown up — by a series of corruptions, mistranslations, and mnemonic lapses — the no- I The Epistola goes on to tell hoiv Alexander proceeded to the ocean. "Quern quo- niam tenebrosum vadosumque mihi locorum incolae affirmahant et quod Herculi et Libero \iltra visum non esset accedere, praestantissimis diis, tanto maiorem me ipsis videri dicebant, quanto patientiam immortalium et sacra praeterirem vestigia" (Kuebler, pp. 204-5). In the course of his further adventures, Alexander speaks of the fear felt by his men that he had incurred the wrath of the gods "quod homo Herculis Liberique vestigia transgredi conatus essera" (p. 208). He also savy the "antrum Liberi" (Anglo-Saxon "Jpaet scrasf Libri baes godes," Baskervill, p. 24, 1. 562), and lost several men vfho entered it (p. 209). "Supplex orabam numina, ut me regem totius orbis terrarum cum sublimibus trophaeis triumphantem in Macedoniam Olympiadi matri meae remitterent" (p. 209). Finally he returi.ed to Phasiace. "Ibique legato meo praecepi, quem praesidio praeposueram nomine Alticonem, ut poneret Persarumque et Babyloniorum pilas solidas aureas duas pedum vicenum quinum et in his omnia facta scriberet faceretque eadem in ultima India ultra Liberi et Herculis trophaea, quorum centum erant; quae et ego quinque mea aeque aurea eis altiora denis pedibus statui et in eis victorias atque itinera nostra describere imperavi" (p. 220). The passage about the wrath of the gods (p. 208) is quoted by Vincent as follows: "Dicebant milites iram esse deorum eo quod alexander ausus esset transgredi herculis et liberi metas'' {Spec. Hist., iv, 55, Venice, 1494, fol. 43 v°). Vincent also quotes a part of the passage in which Alexander gives Altico his instructions, including the words "vltra trophea liberi et herculis quorum centum erant" (iv. 60, fol. 44 r°). 2 "Vincent, in his Storial Mirour'' (Legend of Good Jf'omen, Prologue A, 307). Cf. Miss Hammond's Chaucer. A Bibliographical Manual, p. 105. THE PILLARS OF HERCULES 561 tion that there was an author called "Tropheus" or "Trophee," and that to this author Chaucer should have credited the state- ment that Hercules set up a pillar as a boundary "at bothe the worldes endes". That the word tropaea gave trouble is shown in striking fashion by several of the translations made of the Epistola Alex- andri ad Aristotelem. The Anglo-Saxon version omits the word and otherwise changes the passage.^ The Icelandic version also dodges trophaea? The old Italian version absurdly renders trophaea by trionfo.^ The gloss "lUe vates Chaldeorum Tropheus", in the margin of the Ellesmere and the Hengwrt MS. of the Canterbury Tales may or may not be Chaucer's own. It seems most likely, on the whole, that it is a reference jotted down by the poet himself. • "And Herculis gelicnisse and Libri Paera twegea goda he [sc. Porus] buta of golde gegeat and geworhte and hie butu asette in Jjaem eastdaele middangeardes (ed. Baskervill, p. 20; Cockayne, Narratiunculae Anglice Conscriptae, p. 19). This is a kind of amalgama- tion of the two sentences of the original: "Ast ad Herculis Liberique trophaea me deduxit in orientis ultimi oris aurea utraque deorum constituerat simulacra." Kuebler (in his edition of Julius Valerius, 1888, p. 204) puts a semicolon after oris, but the Anglo-Saxon translator construed "in orientis ultimi oris" with "constituerat." The Anglo-Saxon trans- lator also dodges the word "trophies" later in the Epistola. Where the Latin has "Orabam numina, ut me regem totius orbis terrarum cum sublimibus trophaeis triumphantem in Macedoniam Olympiad! matri raeae remitterent" (Kuebler, p. 209), he renders: "Ond ic . . . baed ]pa godmaegen Jjst hie mec ealles middangeardes kyning and hlaford mid hean sigum geweorjjeden, ond in Macedoniam ic eft gelaeded waere to Olimphiade minre meder" (ed. Baskervill, p. 24, 11. 569 fl.) The passage near the end (p. 220), which mentions the "Liberi et Herculis tropaea" again, does not appear in the Anglo-Saxon. ^ This version is considerably abbreviated and shows a very imperfect comprehension of the original: "Ok sealfr hann for med mer i austanvert riki sitt. Pagat sem fremzt hafdi koihiz Hercules, ok Liber. Par liet ek [s'tc'\ gora likneski eptir Jjeira or brendu gulli sem adr hofdu verit skurdgod" (ed. Unger, in the Anhang to Alexanders Saga, Christiana, 1848, p. 170). Note that the Icelandic translator says nothing about Alexander's boring into one of the images. 3 "Venendo al trionfo d'Hercole e di Bacco, a' quali Dei egli [xf. Poro] haveva posto nell' ultima contrade di Levante alcune statue d'oro" (/ Nobili Fatti di Alessandro Magna, ed. Grion, Bologna, 1872, p. 251). 562 PUTNAM ANNIVERSARY VOLUME But, however that may be, we can hardly doubt that it repre- sents substantially the shape in which information about "Tro- phee" lay in Chaucer's mind. He had seen somewhere, in all probability, a statement ascribed to "ille vates Chaldeorum Tro- pheus" to the effect that Hercules set up pillars in the Orient, and this ascription, we may conjecture, was the last result of a series of blunders of which the mention of "Herculis Liberique trophea" in the Epistola had been the point of departure.^ Per- haps a confusion between Liber, "Bacchus", and liber, "book", was operative at some stage of this process. That "Tropheus" is called a "vates Chaldeorum" is a welcome indication that we are on the right track. For seers, Chaldean and other, play a considerable part in the history and the legend of Alexander.^ It is not impossible that an excessively curious place in Julius Valerius has got mixed up in some fashion in the imbro- glio which we are considering. In the letter to Olympias — the same in which we have already found an account of the "Her- culis stelae" which Alexander examined ^ — ■ Alexander describes 1 Manifestly the original misunderstander of the passage in the Epistola did not owe his knowledge of the Eastern Pillars of Hercules to that work, for it does not use the word calumnas. He was doubtless already familiar with the passage in the Historia de Prcliis (derived from Julius Velerius) in which the columnae are mentioned (see p. 551, above), and, coming upon the same anecdote in a corrupt text of the Epistola (or in a corrupt quotation from it), recognized the identity of the incident, but supposed trophea (or whatever he read instead of it) to be the name of an author. This error he may have made at the time, or, very possibly, years afterward, when he was writing from memory. Or, still more probably, we are concerned with a case of progressive misunder- standing, in which several persons were implicated. Crescit eundo! 2 See, for example, Arrian, iii, 16; 5; iv, 13, 5; vii, 11, 8; vii, i6, 5; vii, 17; vii, 22, i; Quinlus Curtius, iii, 3; iv, 10, 4; v, i, 22; vii, 7, 8; ix, 4, 27; Diodorus 5iculu^, xvii, 112 (cf. 116); Pseudo-Callisthenes, iii, 30 (ed. Muller, p. 144); Julius Valerius, i, 50 (63) (ed. Kuebler, p. 60); iii, 57 (92) (p. 165). Cf. R. Geier, Alexander und Aristoteles in ihren gegenseitigen Beziehungen, 1856, pp. 205 fl. 3 See page 549 above. THE PILLARS OF HERCULES 563 a temple in which Xerxes used to give oracular replies to in- quirers : Nam et aedem quandam ad speciem Graeci operis illic magnificentissimam viseres inque ea aede etiam responsa dare memoratum regem sciscitantibus cele- brant. Et situm ibidem in templo viseres varium opus, tropheum aureum dependens aedificii de culmine, adhaerebatque Hit tropheo orbis quidam ad modum vertiginis caelitis, superque orbem simulacrum columbae sessitabat, quod ubi responsa rex diceret, humanis vocibus sciscitanti loqui ferretur. Id tropheum cum auferre indidem mihi cupiditas foret, ut ad vos et ad nostram Graeciam mitteretur, idem qui aderant, contenderunt rem sacram esse neque contemnendo periculo invadari a quopiam posse. ^ Tropheum here means a "bird cage",^ but the word is ex- cessively rare, and certainly was not always understood by the scribes. The tropheum was not, to be sure, a vates^ but it was closely associated with the vaticination, and it may well have given rise to various errors in the mediaeval mind. The point need not be pressed, but is worth a moment's notice. We cannot expect to retrace the devious paths of miscopy- ing, mistranslation, and misapprehension which led from the "Herculis Liberique trophea" to Chaucer's "seith Trophee." But the history of literature is crowded with examples of similar errors. Two or three may be selected from the Alexander tradi- tion itself. 1 Julius Valerius, iii, 52 (85), ed. Kuebler, p. 160 (cf. Mai, ed. 1817, iii, 85, p. 218). See Pseudo-Callisthenes, iii, 28 (ed. Muller, pp. 141-2; Meusel, p. 786) ; Armenian, Raabe, p. 96; Syriac, Budge, p. 133; Ethiopic, Budge, p. 337; Historia de Preliis (Landgraf, p. 125; Zingerle, § 122, p. 256); IVars of Alexander, vv. 5S99-5610 (ed. Skeat, p. 274); Italian, ed. Grion, p. 164. Cf. Zacher, Pseudo-Callisthenes, pp. 169-172; Ausfeld, Der griechische Alexanderroman, pp. 107, 198; Cillie, De lulii Valertii Epilorra Oxonlensi, p. 52. The passage is not found in the Epitome of Julius Valerius. The cage is men- tioned in Valerius (tropheum) and Pseudo-Callisthenes (dpTvyorpoipeLov) only. 2 rpo't'uov {Pseudo-Callisthenes, iii, 28, dpTv-jfoTpoipeiov}. 564 PUTNAM ANNIVERSARY VOLUME The superscription of the letter of Darius to his satraps beyond the Taurus is as follows in Pseudo-Callisthenes : Bao-iXevs Aapeios Tois iiriKuva tov Tavpow crTpaTrjyoti x'^tpav.! Out of this bv some process, the Ethiopic translator has made: "From Darius, the king of kings, to the subjects of Tiberius Caesar the Greek." ^ It is submitted that an epistle from Darius to the sub- jects of a Greek Tiberius Caesar, bidding them arrest Alexander of Macedon, is quite as great a curiosity as a testimonium as to the Pillars of Hercules derived from an author named Tropheus. Julius Valerius informs us that Alexander, shortly before his death, received a letter from his mother concerning the quar- rels of Antipater and Divinopater ("super Antipatri et Divino- patris simultatibus"), and urging him to return to Epirus.^ Of course there never was any such person as Divinopater, and it is highly probable "^ that this strange name arose from a mis- reading of the Greek participle BavoTraOova-ri's ("feeling indigna- tion"), which occurs at this point in Version A of the Pseudo- Callisthenes.^ Yet Divinopater passed into the Epitome of Va- lerius,* and thence (as Divinuspater, governor of Tyre) into the French romance of Lambert li Tort the Alixandre de Paris. The romance even professes to give the actual conversation be- tween him and Antipater as they discuss their aflfairs and plot the 1 i, 39 (Muller, p. 44). 2 Budge, p. 59. 3 iii, 31, 56 (89), p. 163. 4 According to the admirable suggestion of Zacher, Pseudo-Callisthenes, p. 12. 5 See Muller's ed., note on iii, 31, p. 144: Tijs Sk /iriTpbs airoC 'OXu/tiiridSos irXeow£/cts ■ypa(poi(7Tts irepi toO ' AvmrdTpov KalSeiyoviiOoia-Tjs[\nseTi is](rKii(3aXifeTOi/i^Tr;/)oi5cro iv6pei named ben of alle, Of Hercules, for he hym silf hem sette. As for markys alle other for to lette 1 I give the passage as printed by Paul Meyer, Rumania, XI, 224. See Michelant's edition, p. 504, II. 19-27; cf. P. Meyer, Alexandre le Grand, II, 188, 202-3. 2 Ed. 1489, sig. a 3, ro. 566 PUTNAM ANNIVERSARY VOLUME Ferther to passe, as Guydo maketh mynde ; And ]>e place is callyd, as I fynde, Syracenyca, as fyn of his labour, Or Longa Saphi, recorde of myn auctour. i It may also be worth noting that Lydgate refers to Ovid as an authority on the pillars at Gades,^ though Ovid does not mention them. To Ovid also he refers for the Labors of Her- cules, but the list which he gives is not taken from that poet.^ In this list, by the way, we find the fire-breathing monster Cacus transmogrified into a cat, — "The fyry cat he slouz without[e] more" ! "* Obviously Lydgate read catus. This observation with regard to the methods of the amiable Don John will probably be held to excuse one from appending any new theory as to what he says of Chaucer's Troilus and the "book which called is Trophe in Lumbard tong."^ Cambridge^ Massachusetts 1 Troy Book, i, 609-16 (ed. Bergen, E. E. T. S., I, 29). 2 i, 597-600- 3 The list (i, 573-594) is, as Bergen (p. xvii) notes, not in Guide. 4 i, 591. 5 See Skeat's Oxford Chaucer, II, liv. Cornell University Library PR 1868.M73K62 The '■'"K^