Chaucer did not English Boethius second-hand, through any early French
version, as some have supposed, but made his
translation
with the Latin
original before him.
Chaucer - Boethius
110, 111.
AEtas Prima is of course a metrical version of lib. ii. met. 5.
Hampole speaks of the wonderful sight of the Lynx; perhaps he was
indebted to Boethius for the hint. --(See _Boethius_, book 3, pr. 8,
p. 81.)
I have seen the following elsewhere:
(1) Value not beauty, for it may be destroyed by a three days'
fever.
(See _Chaucer's Boethius_, p. 81.)
(2) There is no greater plague than the enmity of thy familiar
friend.
(See _Chaucer's_ translation, p. 77.
)
* * * * *
Chaucer did not English Boethius second-hand, through any early French
version, as some have supposed, but made his
translation
with the Latin
original before him.
Jean de Meung's version, the only early French translation, perhaps,
accessible to Chaucer, is not always literal, while the present
translation is seldom free or periphrastic, but conforms closely to the
Latin, and is at times awkwardly literal. A few passages, taken
haphazard, will make this sufficiently clear.
_Et dolor aetatem jussit inesse suam._ And sorou ha? comaunded his
age to be in me (p. 4).
Et ma douleur {com}ma{n}da a vieillesse
Entrer en moy / ains quen fust hors ieunesse.
_Mors hominum felix, quae se nec dulcibus annis
Inserit, et maestis saepe vocata venit._
?ilke dee? of men is welful ?at ne come? not in ?eres ?at ben
swete (i.
