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Private Sector Environmental Information
and the Law

Current advancements in civil rights and environmental activism emphasise the

crucial importance of making environmental information widely available to the
public, regardless of whether it is in the hands of the government or of corpora­
tions, especially when the information is needed to understand and prevent risks
for human health and the environment. In the wake of a resurgence of environ­
mental and civil rights activism, conflicts flare between the right of the people to
know and the right of private actors to keep certain information hidden, mostly
for commercial reasons. This book offers a detailed comparative analysis of how
environmental information is being accessed in different countries and jurisdic­
tions, and how these issues are currently being handled by judges and govern­
ments. Focusing on the right of access to environmental information held and
produced by private actors and the legal issues that emerge when other values and
rights are compromised, this book offers an alternative framework to improve on
current legal systems, suggesting a more nuanced and balanced approach that
takes both set of interests duly into consideration. Providing an integrated
approach to public environmental law and private commercial law, the book
integrates the arguments from both sides to establish a common ground, defining
shared principles and models that provide a solid basis for a robust new system.
Reviewing access to private sector information at a truly international level,
this book will be relevant to students, academics and practitioners working in
these areas.

Juliana Zuluaga-Madrid holds a PhD in Law and an LLM in Energy and

Environmental Law. She has worked for companies in the mining sector, Oil
& Gas and is currently Legal Director at Ingema S.A, a company in the
energy sector. She combines her legal practice with academic engagements as
lecturer and research advisor for Universidad del Rosario (Bogotá).
Routledge Research in International Environmental Law

Enforcement of International Environmental Law

Challenges and Responses at the International Level
Martin Hedemann-Robinson

Marine Pollution, Shipping Waste and International Law

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Abdullah Al Arif]

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Sarah Louise Lothian

Nature Law and Policy in Europe

Edited by Andrew L.R. Jackson

Environmental Liability and the Interplay between EU Law and International

Law
Dr Emanuela Orlando

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Private Sector Environmental
Information and the Law

Juliana Zuluaga-Madrid
First published 2024
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2024 Juliana Zuluaga-Madrid
The right of Juliana Zuluaga-Madrid to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-032-30976-7 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-032-31014-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-30761-7 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003307617

Typeset in Times New Roman

by Taylor & Francis Books
To my brother, Hugo Alejandro
Contents

List of Tables viii

Acknowledgements ix
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations x

1 Introduction 1
2 Preliminary Notions of the Right to Know and the Private Sector 16
3 Characterisation of the Right to Access Environmental
Information 43
4 Scope of the Laws Providing Access to Information 64
5 Access to Private Sector Environmental Information 99
6 The Protection of Trade Secrets and ‘Confidential Business
Information’ 158
7 Problems of the System for Access to Information from the
Private Sector 203
8 Proposal to Reform Access to Environmental Information 250
9 Conclusions and Recommendations 272

Index 278
Tables

1.1 Indicators of the Normative Framework 13

3.1 Freedom of Expression in International Human Rights
Conventions 45
3.2 Legal Instruments Providing Access to Information 59
5.1 Public Authorities covered in Transparency Laws 123
5.2 Questions Used to Define What is a Public Authority 135
8.1 Matrix of Values 257
Acknowledgements

The thoughts in this academic work would have never seen the light without the
invaluable support of the Promoter of my PhD, Prof. Dr. Geert van Calster, and
without the inspiration and encouragement of my dear friend Prof. Dr. Leonie
Reins. Thank you for your trust and guidance during all these years.
Thank you, Stephen Marcinuk, for your patience and unconditional support
to push me through the finish line. When I had doubts, you were always there to
dissipate them and renew my efforts. Thanks to my family, Liana Madrid, Hugo
Zuluaga, Sara María Zuluaga, Hugo Alejandro Zuluaga and Alejandra Maya,
for sharing with me the hopes, difficulties, and rewards of this academic chal­
lenge, and to my dear friend Elsemiek Apers for her constant support and hos­
pitality. Thanks to Gustavo Zambrano, for believing in me from the start.
Thanks to my professors and colleagues at KU Leuven, Georgetown University
Law Faculty, Lewis and Clark University and Hebrew University for allowing me
to share the ideas of this research and for providing much needed feedback and
recommendations. Special thanks to Prof. Dr. Bernard Vanheusden, for always
having a moment to discuss my questions and his insightful comments.
Thanks to Gran Colombia Gold, particularly the CEO Lombardo Paredes
Arenas and Alejandro Ramírez for making it possible for me to pursue my PhD
whilst working at the company; the support and flexibility were a key driver for
the successful completion of this book. To my colleagues at the company during
my PhD years, Maria Camila Arango, Lucas Velasquez, Paulina Mejía and
Elkin Pinto, thank you for providing words of encouragement and an extra hand
at work when I needed it.
Finally, special thanks to the members of the Examination Committee, to my
supervisors and all the administrative and faculty staff at KU Leuven who were
involved in the different steps of the academic process leading to the completion
of this research. Thank you to the publishers of this book, for bringing it into
the light.
Acronyms and Abbreviations

ACCC Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee

APA Administrative Procedure Act
Art. Article
CBI Confidential Business Information
CJEU Court of Justice of the European Union
DTSA Defend Trade Secrets Act
EC European Commission
ECHA European Chemicals Agency
ECHR European Convention on Human Rights
ECLAC Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
ECtHR European Court of Human Rights
EIA Environmental Impact Assessment
EMAS Eco-Management and Audit Scheme
EPA Environmental Protection Agency
EU European Union
FOI Freedom of Information
FOIA Freedom of Information Act
FTA Free Trade Agreement
GMO Genetically Modified Organism
GRI Global Reporting Initiative
ICHR Inter-American Court of Human Rights
ICCPR International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
IPR Intellectual Property Rights
NEPA National Environmental Protection Act
NGO Non-Governmental Organisation
OAS Organisation of American States
OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
PRTR Pollution Releases and Transfers Register
REACH Regulation No 1907/2006/EC concerning the Registration,
Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals
SEC Securities and Exchange Commission
TEU Treaty on European Union
TFEU Treaty on Function of the European Union
 Acronyms and Abbreviations xi
TRIPS Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property
Rights
TSCA Toxic Substance Control Act
UN United Nations
UNECE United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
UNEP United Nations Environment Programme
US United States
UTSA Uniform Trade Secrets Act
1 Introduction

In recent times, the concept of transparency has been redefined from the per­
spective of public governance and legal practice as an instrument to address
power unbalances in society. Terms like ‘open government’, the ‘right-to-know’
and ‘public participation’ have thus become commonplace for legal theorists and
practitioners, and environmental law is one of the legal disciplines where these
ideas have had a stronger impact.
The transparency trend in the field of environmental law takes the form of a
generalised right of public access to environmental information, which is typically
embedded in a scheme for public participation which also includes a right to
participate in decision-making processes and a right of access to justice in envir­
onmental matters. The concept was first codified in international environmental
law in Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration1, which reads:

Environmental issues are best handled with the participation of all con­
cerned citizens, at the relevant level. At the national level, each individual
shall have appropriate access to information concerning the environment
that is held by public authorities, including information on hazardous
materials and activities in their communities, and the opportunity to
participate in decision-making processes. States shall facilitate and
encourage public awareness and participation by making information
widely available. Effective access to judicial and administrative proceed­
ings, including redress and remedy, shall be provided.

This principle was later developed into a structured legal model becoming inter­
nationally (regionally) binding through the adoption, in 1998, of the UNECE
Convention on public access to information, participation in decision-making and
access to justice in environmental matters [the Aarhus Convention].2

1 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development Rio de Janeiro,

Brazil (1993). Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, 3–14 June 1992,
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
2 Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making
and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, Aarhus, Denmark, 25 June 1998
(entry into force 30 October 2001) 2161 UNTS 447.
DOI: 10.4324/9781003307617-1
2 Introduction
Although the right of public access to environmental information in these
instruments appeared to affect public authorities only, there is no reason to
assume that private entities were per se exempted from a duty to provide
environmental information. This has become more evident as private com­
panies are increasingly faced with demands for access to information which
until quite recently was considered to fall under business (confidential) secrets
and out of bounds for public access. Legal instruments are now frequently
used to get access to ‘private’ environmental data, and information channels
between the private sector and the general public are emerging in the form of
sustainability reports, pollution registers as well as in the framework of
environmental impact assessments and registration and approval of chemical
substances and products, among others.
However, a consistent approach to regulate public access to privately held
environmental data needs further development, especially considering the
conflicts between the public right of access to environmental information and
the protection of legitimate private interests in confidentiality and intellectual
property rights.
Specific information such as known risks of products and projects that are
not marketed/carried out,3 the use of natural resources and efficiency indica­
tors,4 environmental trade-offs negotiated in agreements with public organi­
sations, the results of internal environmental audits and tests, and even
research about the environmental characteristics of a geographical zone,
could all very well be in the public interest, fall into the definition of ‘envir­
onmental information’, and still never see the public light because they are
held by private entities.
Other types of environmental information (publicly and privately held) are
routinely being excluded from disclosure requirements on business con­
fidentiality grounds, such as chemical substances identities, inert components
of products, tests results, risk assessments, public contracts for environmental
services and information about management of natural resources and envir­
onmental impacts; largely without clear guidelines that would help compa­
nies, government agencies and the public understand when the information
should be made available and when it should remain secret.
If private entities were brought into the scope of environmental transpar­
ency instruments in an explicit manner, at least in some cases, not only would
there be an increase in the public availability and accessibility of environ­
mental information, but it would contribute to open the debate and make
room for proposals about issues such as the prevalence of access rights over

3 E.g. a research report from Inside Climate News suggests that Exxon knew about
the effects of fossil fuels and GEI on climate change as early as 1977, ten years
before the alarms were set off by the international scientific community. See
Banerjee, N., Cushman, J.H. (Jr.), Hasemyer, D., & Song, L. (2015). Exxon: The
Road Not Taken. Inside Climate News.
4 This information is usually included in Sustainability Reports, but rigorous
environmental reporting remains largely voluntary.
 Introduction 3
the protection of business confidentiality and vice versa, the shifting role of
private entities in the provision of public services and the power dynamics
between corporations and members of the public in the contexts of envir­
onmental participation, access to justice and the protection of fundamental
rights.
The object of this book is therefore the right of public access to environ­
mental information held by the private sector taking into account the evolu­
tion of public participation instruments at the international, regional and
national level, and the tensions raised between the principles of transpar­
ency and public participation and the protection of the legitimate interests
of private actors, with the purpose of understanding the underlying
assumptions supporting the current legal structures, their shortcomings and
possible ways forward to better articulate the provisions establishing transpar­
ency duties upon private entities within legal regimes of access to environmental
information.
At the end, a model is formulated extracting the main lessons from the
comparative analysis addressing some of the identified shortcomings. The
model consists of an updated ‘matrix of values’ to be applied in the context of
public requests of access to environmental information from the private sector
and a proposed method of analysis integrating all the different factors that
should be considered in specific cases in order to ensure a more certain, pre­
dictable, reasoned and fair solution to the conflicts between environmental
transparency and business confidentiality.

1.1 Why Now?

Openness and public participation have come to be considered important means
for the realisation of sustainable development aims.5 Establishing effective
mechanisms for access to public information is now seen as a key factor to afford
the general public the right to scrutinise how public affairs are managed and
public resources invested. It is also an important tool to prevent corruption and
legitimise state decisions. Moreover, access to information is a precondition for the
exercise of other rights, such as participation in decision-making and political
rights.
When it comes to environmental matters, two of the aims of sustainable
development are prima facie served when states provide mechanisms for effective
access to environmental information: social inclusion and environmental pro­
tection. The challenge would seem to successfully include the third aim, namely
economic development, since the exceptions to disclosure of environmental
information based on business confidentiality and intellectual property rights

5 Mason, M. (2010). Information Disclosure and Environmental Rights: the

Aarhus Convention. Global Environmental Politics, 10(3), 10–31, asserting that
transparency, expressed as information access, is deemed to be a necessary
expression of, and condition for, democratic governance.
4 Introduction
may well hinder the effectiveness of public participation mechanisms,6 but trade
secret law and IPR are there to protect legitimate economic interests in the
service of a healthy competitive market as well as to incentivise research, scientific
development and innovation.
The process of recognising and implementing the public right of access to
environmental information regularly involves private entities to a lesser or
higher degree, through ‘passive’ mechanisms such as requirements directed to
environmental authorities and environmental audits which hold information
originated in the private sector, and ‘active’ mechanisms like environmental
public reporting (mostly voluntary) and eco-labelling by private companies
themselves. In recent times, the importance of including private companies as
responsible actors of environmental transparency has become more evident,
leading to these entities being addressed in transparency regulations more
frequently and causing, therefore, an increase in the conflicts emerging from
public requests of information that may be exempted on grounds of business
confidentiality or intellectual property rights protection.
In this scenario, it is important to analyse how policy and regulatory
measures can be implemented to provide more clarity on when and why
private environmental information should be made available to the general
public in order to guarantee the minimum tools and materials for effective
public participation in environmental decision-making, whilst maintaining a
reasonable degree of protection of private interests and expectations in
confidentiality.
The protection of trade secrets and IP rights are necessary, they serve a
legitimate interest of society and are worthy of protection, but they might still
be interfering with public access to environmental information and effective
public participation. This research is justified by the pressing need to ensure
that the application of IP laws will not unduly undermine the right of public
access to environmental information or vice versa. The thesis of this book
parts from the assumption that, given adequate guidelines, a satisfactory bal­
ance can be achieved between these clashing interests, in the benefit of legal
certainty for companies, authorities and the public; and contributing to the
materialisation of public participation rights.

1.2 Background and Scope

In most democratic states, the protection of business confidentiality in the
form of trade or industrial secrets, intellectual property and commercially
sensitive information is a recognised and legitimate legal right. This

6 D’Silva, J., & Van Calster, G. (2010). For Me to Know and You to Find Out?
Participatory Mechanisms, The Aarhus Convention and New Technologies. Stu­
dies in Ethics, Law, and Technology, 4(2), cite Aarhus’ negotiation process, where
these concerns (among others) were brought up by the NGO coalition and
Norway, who opposed to the commercial confidentiality exception as well as that
for intellectual property [Report on the eighth session: CEP/AC.3/16 (1997:3)].
 Introduction 5
recognition serves to protect a fair market, the defence of intellectual rights
and commercial transactions, which, ultimately, contributes to the gen­
eral wellbeing of the economy. The prerogative to withhold private
information is closely related to the right to private property, as well as
the protection of the economy and prevention of financial harm, which
could result from the disclosure of privileged commercial and business-related
information.
Nevertheless, the role of private corporations must be revaluated in the
light of current environmental concerns. Corporations are key agents in
environmental governance and transparency.7 Any attempt to exercise public
participation rights aiming for sustainable development and environmental
protection needs to consider the role of private corporations in the different
processes of environmental governance.8
Moreover, environmental information is the prime material of public par­
ticipation in environmental matters,9 and the most relevant information will
often come from industries and private companies, as they are likely to
engage in activities that may have a significant effect on the environment and
affect third parties’ interests. Furthermore, private entities are increasingly
engaging in the provision of public goods and services that used to be in
charge of the government, this ‘privatisation’ trend obstructs the exercise of
access rights to the extent that many transparency laws only apply to public
sector entities.
In this scenario, transparency instruments across jurisdictions are increas­
ingly extending disclosure obligations to private entities to report to govern­
ment agencies and, sometimes, directly to the public. The application of these
instruments brings about conflicts between public access, on the one hand,
and the protection of business confidentiality, on the other.
Current environmental and transparency instruments already acknowledge
this tension and address it. The Aarhus Convention provides exceptions for
the protection of the legitimate economic interests of private entities. These
exceptions would apply to the obligation to disclose any information when
such action were to adversely affect:

“…(d) The confidentiality of commercial and industrial information,

where such confidentiality is protected by law in order to protect a

7 For information on the preponderant role of corporations in environmental

global governance see Sukhdev, P. (2012). Corporation 2020: Transforming busi­
ness for tomorrow’s world. USA: Island Press.
8 United Nations Economic Commission for Europe – UNECE. (2014). The
Aarhus Convention: An Implementation Guide, 2nd ed., UN Doc. ECE/CEP/72/
Rev.1; Aarhus Convention, Recital 13.
9 Rowan-Robinson, J., Ross, A., & Walton, W. A. (1996). Public Access to Envir­
onmental Information: A means to what end? Journal of Environmental Law, 8
(1), 19–42; Gavouneli, M. (2000). Access to Environmental Information: Delimi­
tation of a Right. Tulane Environmental Law Journal, 13, 303–327.
6 Introduction
legitimate economic interest. Within this framework, information on
emissions which is relevant for the protection of the environment shall
be disclosed;
(e) Intellectual property rights;10

The working plan of the Rio Declaration, Agenda 21, stated that relevant
information should be provided to the public to the greatest possible extent,
but taking into account legitimate claims for confidentiality.11
Against this background, this book evaluates the current framework for
access to environmental information held by the private sector. This assess­
ment serves to identify if and how the application of business confidentiality
exceptions may be hindering public participation in environmental matters by
keeping relevant environmental information out of reach of the public con­
cerned and how this issue can be addressed through regulatory and policy
reform. The research aims to keep a balanced position to reconcile, to the
greatest possible extent, the necessity for wider access to relevant environ­
mental information with the preservation of legitimate private interests in
confidentiality.
The scope of the book includes a comparative legal analysis of the subject
in the international landscape, EU law and the domestic jurisdictions of
Colombia and the US as examples of the civil law and common law tradi­
tions. In each of these realms the following chapters explore how environ­
mental information is being provided and accessed via public authorities or
directly from private entities and what level of protection is afforded to trade
secrets and intellectual property under the current laws.
The comparative study includes the EU, in consideration to the position of
the region as a regulatory frontrunner in the matter of environmental public
participation and corporate transparency,12 but also as a first mover for topics
such as Corporate Social Responsibility and voluntary-based initiatives for
environmental disclosure.
At the national level, the review of the US legal regime includes the exam­
ination of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and how it is being
interpreted and applied to access private information; the Emergency Plan­
ning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), which established the

10 Aarhus Convention, Article 4(d) and 4 (e).

11 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil. (1993). Agenda 21: Programme of Action for Sustainable Development, 3–
14 June 1992, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. United Nations Dept. of Public Informa­
tion, 19.16: ‘Industry should provide data for substances produced that are
needed specifically for the assessment of potential risks to human health and the
environment. Such data should be made available to relevant national competent
authorities and international bodies and other interested parties involved in
hazard and risk assessment, and to the greatest possible extent to the public also,
taking into account legitimate claims of confidentiality’.
12 Gavouneli, Access to Environmental Information, 2000.
 Introduction 7
13
Toxic Release Inventory (TRI); the Pollution Prevention Act (PPA); and the
relevant provisions of the Code of Federal Regulations and related Executive
Orders.
The US is highly relevant for the proliferation of business-confidentiality
and transparency laws alike. As the world’s largest market, it has enacted
powerful measures for the protection of trade secrets, intellectual property
and commercially sensitive information specifically against disclosure on
environmental grounds.14 However, it also promotes new systems to provide
public access to environmental information held by the private sector, such as
a Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program administered by the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA). In the comparative study, the US is an important
point of reference from the common law system.
The study of domestic jurisdictions also includes Colombia, within the
specific South America legal background. Colombia’s national laws for access
to information and public participation follow the legal trends in other South
American countries, which share similar levels of development, customs and
values.15 They are also influenced by international initiatives such as the
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD),16 and
the emergence of free trade agreements (FTAs) with, in particular, the EU,17
which are often conditioned to the adoption of certain environmental and
social standards. Although transparency regulations are flourishing,18 the
country and the region have a history of sacrificing environmental interests
for economic development.

13 The TRI program was established in 1986 and amended by the Pollution Pre­
vention Act in 1990, requiring EPA to collect and make available to the public
certain data regarding toxic releases from private industry. The data are collected
annually directly from the companies.
14 See e.g. Section 40 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 2, Subpart B, regarding the
confidentiality of business information in the framework of public information
administered by the EPA.
15 Several Supranational organizations have formed in South America based on
these similarities and shared interests, including the Andean Community, the
Pacific Alliance and the Mercosur. Colombia belongs to the Andean Community
and the Pacific Alliance.
16 On 15 April 2014, the OECD issued a first report of environmental recommen­
dations for Colombia, including the implementation of a Pollutant Release and
Transfer Register for chemicals and to provide for better access to environmental
information and transparency in decision-making. OECD. (2014). Environmental
Performance Reviews: Colombia (2014). Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/env/
country-reviews/ColombiaEPR_AssessmentRecommendations.pdf.
17 ECLAC. (2013). Access to Information, Participation and Justice in Environ­
mental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean: Situation, Outlook and
Examples of Good Practice. Santiago: United Nations.
18 ELLA-Evidence and Lessons from Latin America. (2012). Building the Legal
Framework to Support Transparency and Access to Information in Latin America.
Retrieved from http://ella.practicalaction.org/wp-content/uploads/files/120209_
GOV_TraAccInf_BRIEF3.pdf.
8 Introduction
This selection of states and jurisdictions aims to provide a fundamentally
diverse legal landscape and a wide-reaching scope, adequate for the subject-
matter of the study. The view from international to national and regional per­
spectives facilitates the observation of the most general principles and the most
specific provisions in a contextual way, helping to dissect how mostly universal
concepts are interpreted and applied in actual cases and how the particularities
of a legal system can affect their ultimate impact. The legal systems of Colom­
bia, the EU and the US differ in fundamental ways, yet they all have set provi­
sions aimed at granting a (limited) right of access to environmental information
to the general public and have established protective measures for confidential
business information. These commonalities constitute the basis of the compara­
tive study, which is made richer and more prolific by the examination of the
aspects that make them different. So, for example, whilst Colombia is a state
organised under a centralised government, with a rigid written constitution and
of roman civil law tradition, the US is none of these things. This legal diversity is
considered advantageous for the present study because it provides a broader view
of possible solutions which directly feed into the formulation of sensible recom­
mendations that can be adapted to different types of states and organisations.
From the comparative analysis, points of conflicts and key issues are identified
and described in detail, as well as the current tools and mechanisms being
employed to tackle these conflicts, in order to propose an alternative to the cur­
rent approach based on the most recent case-law and best practices aiming to
strike a balance between public access to information held by the private sector
and the protection of legitimate interests in privacy and confidentiality.

1.3 Normative Framework

The analysis of the right of access to environmental information and the
issues arising from the tensions between transparency and confidentiality in
the private sector is carried out within the general frame provided by the
Aarhus Convention due to its overarching and integrative nature, as well as
the wide availability of scholarly works analysing its concepts and case-law in
international and national jurisdictions regarding its provisions and imple­
mentation. Note that the Aarhus Convention was adopted in the framework
of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and
although it could be joined by outside states, its geographical scope is mostly
limited to the UNECE region.
More specifically, the normative framework employed for the research is
the process set up in the Aarhus Convention, meaning the core provisions of
the Convention as further specified by various follow-up in technical com­
mittees, namely the Almaty Guidelines,19 the works of the Task Force in

19 Almaty Guidelines on Promoting the Application of the Principles of the Aarhus

Convention in International Forums. Almaty, Kazakhstan, 25–27 May 2005, II
(15).
 Introduction 9
20 21
Public Participation in decision-making, the Bali Guidelines and the
implementation guide to the Aarhus Convention.22
When choosing the Aarhus Convention as the source of the normative
framework, consideration was given to its influence as an international-
regional legal instrument, its further development by case law of the Aarhus
Compliance Committee and other national and supranational courts, and the
fact that the Convention sets a floor, not a ceiling, on the matters it covers
(Aarhus Convention, 1998, Article 3(5)). Even with its flaws, the Convention
is still considered to reflect international best practice in the matters it
covers.23 It is the furthest any international instrument has come in the legal
development of an autonomous right of public access to environmental infor­
mation and has been widely taken as a frame of reference for the formulation of
specific provisions at national and regional levels. Its enforcement and support­
ing mechanisms such as the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee, the
possibility for the general public to submit complaints and the Work Forces set
up by the Committee of the Parties, have helped to consolidate the Aarhus
Convention as an authoritative source for any study related to the public right of
access to environmental information. It is important to note that the research
does not address directly any of the critiques raised against Aarhus, but it only
employs its general structure, definitions, rationale, principles and other useful
conceptual elements as a reference framework for a logical and comprehensive
analysis. Thus, the concepts, elements and indicators of the normative frame­
work are the result of the analysis of the core provisions of the Aarhus Conven­
tion setting standards on how access to environmental information should work,
particularly in the light of the public participation in decision-making processes,
for which access to information is crucial. The conceptual basis of the normative
framework also feeds from authoritative commentaries and complementary sour­
ces like the Bali Guidelines, the Implementation Guide to the Aarhus Convention
and the opinions of the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee. A com­
parative point of reference to the Aarhus Convention is the Regional Agreement
on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental
Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean (The Escazú Agreement),24 whose
provisions are also examined throughout the present study.

20 Task Force on Public Participation in Decision-making of the Aarhus Conven­

tion (established by the Meeting of the Parties through decision EMP.II/1).
21 United Nations Environment Programme – UNEP. The Bali Guidelines for
Development of National Legislation on Access to Information, Public Partici­
pation and Access to Justice in Environmental matters, 26 February 2010.
22 UNECE, Aarhus Implementation Guide, 2014.
23 Etemire, U. (2014). Public Access to Environmental Information: a Comparative
Analysis of Nigerian Legislation with International Best Practice. Transnational
Environmental Law, 3(1), 149–172.
24 United Nations, Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Partici­
pation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Car­
ibbean, 4 March 2018 (entered into force 22 April 2021), Escazú, Costa Rica.
10 Introduction
Generally, the more environmental data is made available to the general
public, the better and more effective public participation will be.25 It can
also be stated however that not all of the environmental information is
necessary on any particular matter to achieve effective public participation
in decision-making, as defined by the Aarhus Convention and complemented
by regulatory best practices identified in additional studies and official
reports.26 When there are other legitimate interests which are protected by
non-disclosure, a threshold must be established to determine which informa­
tion must be made available regardless of the conflicting interest at stake and
which must not.
Public access to environmental information is the first and most basic
‘pillar’ of public participation under the Aarhus Convention. Although
information should be given to the public as a matter of good environ­
mental governance and because it is in the public interest to do so, the
normative framework for this study examines public access to environmental
information as the necessary means for effective public participation in decision-
making processes. The Implementation Guide to the Bali Guidelines highlights
the instrumental capacity of the right of access to environmental information,
stating that ‘Information is essential to enable members of the public to par­
ticipate meaningfully in public affairs and to make informed decisions about
their lives’.27
Accordingly, in the analysis of the provisions and lessons from each
legal framework, the compass is fixed in what it takes to achieve effective
public participation in decision-making from the perspective of access to
information.
To this effect, the working concept of ‘effective public participation’
used throughout the analysis is built taking into consideration Aarhus’
standards and supporting sources such as the Bali Guidelines, as well as
based on the theory and research of scholars on the subject of how to
evaluate public participation to measure effectiveness.28 This definition is
used in the analysis of whether a certain scheme for access to environ­
mental information is able to provide the elements that are necessary for
effective public participation.

25 D’Silva & Van Calster, Participatory Mechanisms, 2010.

26 i.a. Almaty Guidelines and Task Force on Public Participation in Decision-
making of the Aarhus Convention (established by the Meeting of the Parties
through decision EMP.II/1 adopted at its second extraordinary session held at
Geneva, April 2010).
27 UNEP (2015). Putting Rio Principle 10: An Implementation Guide for the
UNEP Bali Guidelines for the Development of National Legislation on Access to
Information, Public Participation and Access to Justice in Environmental Mat­
ters. Nairobi, p. 22.
28 See Rowe and Frewer, L. J. (2000). Public Participation Methods: A Framework
for Evaluation. Science, Technology & Human Values, 25(1), 3–29.
 Introduction 11
The underlying assumption is that the Aarhus process is designed to ensure
that the public participation processes undertaken under its provisions are, in
theory, effective; and access to information is key for this purpose. Indeed, the
European Commission has recognised the relevance of the general right of
access to information for public participation in democratic processes29
and, regarding environmental information specifically, the Court of Justice
of the European Union suggested in a recent judgment that one of the
main purposes of access to environmental information in the framework
of the Aarhus Convention and EU legislation is to promote more effective
public participation, increasing the accountability of decision-making
processes.30
‘Public Participation’ has been defined as ‘the group of procedures designed to
consult, involve, and inform the public to allow those affected by the decision to
have an input into that decision’.31 In this definition the term ‘input’ is key, as it
will distinguish participation from simple communication.32
‘Effective public participation’ will thus be understood as the participation
process in which the public concerned is engaged and is able to issue an informed
opinion that is pertinent to the decision-making process, which is duly taken into
account by the public authority in charge of the decision, in the way the Aarhus
Convention conveys. The elements of this definition are:

1 The involvement of the public concerned.

2 An informed opinion of the public, delivered in the appropriate form and
in a timely manner.
3 The consideration that the authority taking the decision gives to the
public’s opinion.

The issuance of an informed opinion by the public concerned presupposes the

provision of all the relevant information to the public, for otherwise the opinion
may not be informed or pertinent for the decision-making process.

29 European Commission. (2007). Public Access to Documents held by institutions

of the European Community (Green Paper), COM (2007)185, p. 11: ‘The main
purpose of laws on freedom of information is to enable citizens to participate
more closely in democratic decision-making’.
30 Case C-673/13 Commission v Stichting Greenpeace Nederland and PAN Europe
(2016) ECLI:EU:C:2016:889, para 80: ‘It is apparent, in essence, from recital 2 of
Regulation No 1367/2006 that the purpose of access to environmental informa­
tion provided by that regulation is, inter alia, to promote more effective public
participation in the decision-making process, thereby increasing, on the part of
the competent bodies, the accountability of decision-making and contributing to
public awareness and support for the decisions taken.’ See also Peeters, M.
(2018). About Silent Objects and Barking Watchdogs: The Role and Account­
ability of Environmental NGOs. European Public Law, 28(3), 449–472.
31 Smith, L. G. (1983). Impact assessment and sustainable resource management;
Longman, quoted in Rowe and Frewer (2000), p. 6.
32 Rowe & Frewer, Public Participation Methods, 2000, p. 6.
12 Introduction
Thus, for the purposes of the present study, a working definition of ‘rele­
vant environmental information’ is formulated, based on the concept and
elements of effective public participation and the provisions of the Aarhus
Convention.33 ‘Relevant Environmental Information’, in the context of effective
participation in specific projects or activities comprises:

a Facts: relate to the context, precedents, description of the project/programme/

measure to be taken.
b Impacts: expected consequences of the proposed measure, positive and
negative, on the identified problem and, additionally, on the environ­
mental and social aspects.
c Risks: events with negative connotation that have a probability of hap­
pening as a result of the adoption of the proposed measure. If known, the
probability of occurrence should also be shared.
d Remedies: the proposed actions to be undertaken in order to prevent
the materialisation of risks and mitigate or compensate negative
impacts.
e Alternatives: other measures or activities that could achieve the purposes
of the proposed measure.
f Costs: the price of adopting the proposed measure, as well as the esti­
mated cost of the alternatives. The analysis of costs must include the
long-term benefit.

To facilitate the comparative study, the concept of ‘effective public parti­

cipation’ was disintegrated into its core elements in the categories of aims,
beneficiaries, procedures, contents, timing and technology; identifying
indicators to assess the situation of the right of public access to environ­
mental information in each of the jurisdictions in the comparative study
(Table 1.1).

33 Aarhus Convention, Article 6(6):

The relevant information shall include at least, and without prejudice to the
provisions of article 4:
(a) A description of the site and the physical and technical characteristics of
the proposed activity, including an estimate of the expected residues and
emissions;
(b) A description of the significant effects of the proposed activity on the
environment;
(c) A description of the measures envisaged to prevent and/or reduce the effects,
including emissions;
(d) A non-technical summary of the above;
(e) An outline of the main alternatives studied by the applicant; and
(f) In accordance with national legislation, the main reports and advice issued
to the public authority at the time when the public concerned shall be informed in
accordance with paragraph 2 above.
 Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
2640. Again from Publilius Syrus, Sent. 189 (ed. Dietrich):—'Fortuna
uitrea est; tum quum splendet frangitur.'

2642. Seur (E. sure) and siker are mere variants of the same word;
the former is O. F. seur, from Lat. acc. secūrum; the latter is from
Lat. sécŭrus, with a different accentuation and a shortening of the
second vowel. We also have a third form, viz. secure.

2645. Again from Publ. Syrus, Sent. 173:—'Fortuna nimium quem

fouet, stultum facit.'

2650. From Rom. xii. 19; cf. Deut. xxxii. 35, Ps. xciv. 1.

2653. From Publ. Syrus, Sent. 645:—'Veterem ferendo iniuriam

inuites nouam.'

2655. Holden over lowe, esteemed too low, too lightly.

2656. From Publ. Syrus, Sent. 487:—'Patiendo multa [al. inulta]

eueniunt [al. ueniunt] quae nequeas pati.' Mowe suffre, be able to
endure. For mowe, Wright wrongly prints nowe; MS. Hl. has mowe,
correctly.

2663. From Caecilii Balbi Sententiae, ed. Friedrich, 1870, no. 162:
—'Qui non corripit peccantem gnatum, peccare imperat.'

2664. 'And the judges and sovereign lords might, each in his own
land, so largely tolerate wicked men and evil-doers,' &c. Lat. text:
—'si multa maleficia patiuntur fieri.'

2667. Let us now putte, let us suppose; Fr. text—'posons.' A more

usual phrase is 'putte cas,' put the case; cf. note to 2681.

2668. As now, at present; see 2670.

2671. From Seneca, De Ira, ii. 34, § 1:—'Cum pare contendere,

anceps est; cum superiore, furiosum; cum inferiore, sordidum.'
2675. From Prov. xx. 3.

2678. From Publilius Syrus, Sent. 483:—'Potenti irasci sibi periclum

est quaerere.'

2679. From Dion. Cato, Dist. iv. 39:—

'Cede locum laesus Fortunae, cede potenti;

Laedere qui potuit, aliquando prodesse ualebit.'

2681. Yet sette I caas, but I will suppose; Fr. text—'posons,' as in

2667 above.

2684. First and foreward; Fr. text—'premierement.' See note to 2431

above.

2685. The poete; Fr. text, 'le poete.' Not in the Latin text, and the
source of the quotation is unknown. Cf. Luke, xxiii. 41.

2687. Seint Gregorie. Not in the Lat. text; source unknown.

2692. From 1 Pet. ii. 21.

2700. Referring to 2 Cor. iv. 17.

2702. From Prov. xix. 11, where the Vulgate has:—'Doctrina uiri per
patientiam noscitur.'

2703. From Prov. xiv. 29, where the Vulgate has:—'Qui patiens est
multa gubernatur prudentia.'

2704. From Prov. xv. 18.

2705. From Prov. xvi. 32.

2707. From James, i. 4:—'Patientia autem opus perfectum habet.'

2713. Corage, desire, inclination; cf. E. 1254.

2715. The Fr. text is fuller: 'et si ie fais un grant exces, car on dit que
exces n'est corrige que par exces, c'est a dire que oultrage ne se
corrige fors que par oultrage.'—Mr. Perhaps part of the clause has
been accidentally omitted, owing to repetition of 'exces.'

2718. 'Quid enim discrepat a peccante, qui se per excessum nititur

uindicare?'—Cassiodorus, Variarum lib. i. epist. 30.

2721. Lat. text:—'ait enim Seneca, Nunquam scelus scelere

uindicandum.' Not from Seneca; Sundby refers us to Martinus
Dumiensis, De Moribus, S. 139.

2723. Withouten intervalle ... delay; the Fr. text merely has 'sans
intervalle.' Chaucer explains the word intervalle.

2729. 'Qui impatiens est sustinebit damnum'; Prov. xix. 19.

2730. Of that that, in a matter that.

2731. Lat. text (p. 95):—'Culpa est immiscere se rei ad se non

pertinenti.' Sundby refers us to the Digesta, l. xvii. 36.

2732. From Prov. xxvi. 17.

2733. Outherwhyle, sometimes, occasionally; cf. 2857. So in Ch. tr.

of Boethius, bk. iii. pr. 12. 119 (vol. ii. p. 89); P. Plowman, C. vi. 50,
vii. 160, xxii. 103, &c.

2740. From Ecclesiastes, x. 19:—'pecuniae oboediunt omnia.'

2741. All the copies have power; but, as Mätzner remarks, we

should read poverte; the Fr. text has povrete.

2743. Richesses ben goode; the Lat. text here quotes 1 Tim. iv. 4.

2744. 'Homo sine pecunia est quasi corpus sine anima' is written on
a fly-leaf of a MS.; see my Pref. to P. Plowman, C-text, p. xx.
2746. All the MSS. have Pamphilles instead of Pamphilus. The
allusion is to Pamphilus Maurilianus, who wrote a poem, well-known
in the fourteenth century, entitled Liber de Amore, which is extant in
MSS. (e.g. in MS. Bodley 3703) and has been frequently printed.
Tyrwhitt cites the lines here alluded to from the Bodley MS.

'Dummodo sit diues cuiusdam nata bubulci,

Eligit e mille, quem libet, illa uirum.'

Sundby quotes the same (with ipsa for illa) from the Paris edition of
1510, fol. a iiii, recto. Chaucer again refers to Pamphilus in F. 1110,
on which see the note.

2748. This quotation is not in the Latin text, and is certainly not from
Pamphilus; but closely follows Ovid's lines in his Tristia, i. 9. 5:—

'Donec eris felix, multos numerabis amicos;

Tempora si fuerint nubila, solus eris.'

See notes to B. 120 and B. 3436.

2751. Neither is this from Pamphilus, but from some author quoted
by Petrus Alfonsi, Discip. Cler. vi. 4, who says:—'ait quidam
uersificator, Clarificant [al. Glorificant] gazae priuatos nobilitate.'

2752. We know, from the Lat. text, that there is here an allusion to
Horace, Epist. i. 6. 37:—

'Et genus et formam regina pecunia donat.'

2754. The Lat. text has mater criminum, and the Fr. text, mere des
crimes. It is clear that Chaucer has misread ruines for crimes, or his
MS. was corrupt; and he has attempted an explanation by subjoining
a gloss of his own—'that is to seyn ... overthrowinge or fallinge
doun.' The reference is to Cassiodorus, Variarum lib. ix. epist. 13:
—'Ut dum mater criminum necessitas tollitur, peccandi ambitus
auferatur.'
2756. 'Est una de aduersitatibus huius saeculi grauioribus libero
homini, quod necessitate cogitur, ut sibi subueniat, requirere
inimicum'; Petrus Alfonsi, Disciplina Clericalis, iv. 4.

2758. Lat. text:—'O miserabilis mendicantis conditio! Nam, si petit,

pudore confunditur; et si non petit, egestate consumitur; sed ut
mendicet necessitate compellitur'; Innocentius III (Papa), De
Contemptu Mundi, lib. i. c. 16. See note to B. 99, at p. 142.

2761. 'Melius est enim mori quam indigere'; Ecclus. xl. 29; cf. A. V.,
Ecclus. xl. 28. See note to B. 114, at p. 142.

2762. 'Melior est mors quam uita amara'; Ecclus. xxx. 17. The Fr.
text has:—'Mieulx vault la mort amere que telle vie'; where, as in
Chaucer, the adjective is shifted.

2765. How ye shul have yow, how you ought to behave yourself. In
fact, behave is merely a compound of be- and have.

2766. Sokingly, gradually. In the Prompt. Parv. we find 'Esyly, or

sokyngly, Sensim, paulatim.' And compare the following:—'Domitius
Corbulo vsed muche to saie, that a mannes enemies in battaill are to
be ouercomed (sic) with a carpenters squaring-axe, that is to saie,
sokingly, one pece after another. A common axe cutteth through at
the first choppe; a squaring-axe, by a little and a little, werketh the
same effecte.'—Udall, tr. of Erasmus' Apophthegmes, Julius Caesar, §
32.

2768. From Prov. xxviii. 20.

2769. From Prov. xiii. 11.

2773. Not in the Latin text.

2775. 'Detrahere igitur alteri aliquid, et hominem hominis

incommodo suum augere commodum, magis est contra naturam,
quam mors, quam paupertas, quam dolor, quam cetera, quae
possunt aut corpori accidere aut rebus externis'; Cicero, De Officiis,
iii. 5.

2779. 'For idleness teacheth much evil'; Ecclus. xxxiii. 27.

2780. From Prov. xxviii. 19; cf. xii. 11.

2783. Cf. Prov. xx. 4.

2784. From Dionysius Cato, Distich. i. 2:—

'Plus uigila semper, nec somno deditus esto;

Nam diuturna quies uitiis alimenta ministrat.'

2785. Quoted again in G. 6, 7; see note to G. 7.

2789. Fool-large, foolishly liberal; Fr. text, 'fol larges.' Cf. 2810.

2790. Chincherye, miserliness, parsimony; from the adj. chinche,

which occurs in 2793. Chinche, parsimonious, miserly, is the
nasalised form of chiche; see Havelok, 1763, 2941; and see Chinch
in the New E. Dictionary. To the examples there given add:—'A
Chinche, tenax: Chinchery, tenacitas'; Catholicon Anglicum.

'But such an other chinche as he

Men wisten nought in all the londe.'
Gower, Conf. Amant. ii. 288.

2792. From Dionysius Cato, Distich. iv. 16:—

'Utere quaesitis opibus; fuge nomen auari;

Quo tibi diuitias, si semper pauper abundas?'

2795. From Dionysius Cato, Distich. iii. 22:—

'Utere quaesitis, sed ne uidearis abuti;

Qui sua consumunt, quum deest, aliena sequuntur.'
2796. Folily, foolishly. We find M. E. folliche, both adj. and adv., and
follichely, folily as adv. It is spelt folily in Wycliffe, Num. xii. 11, and
in the Troy-book, 573; also folili, Will. of Palerne, 4596; folyly, Rom.
of the Rose, 5942 (see the footnote).

2800. Weeldinge (so in E., other MSS. weldinge), wielding, i. e.

power.

2802. Not in the Latin text.

2807. Compare Prov. xxvii. 20.

2811. 'Quamobrem nec ita claudenda est res familiaris, ut eam

benignitas aperire non possit; nec ita reseranda, ut pateat omnibus';
Cicero, De Officiis, ii. 15.

2818. See Prov. xv. 16; xvi. 8.

2820. The prophete, i. e. David; see Ps. xxxvii. 16.

2824. See 2 Cor. i. 12.

2825. 'Riches are good unto him that hath no sin'; Ecclus. xiii. 24.

2828. From Prov. xxii. 1.

2829. The reference seems to be to Prov. xxv. 10 in the Vulgate

version (not in the A. V.):—'Gratia et amicitia liberant; quas tibi
serua, ne exprobrabilis fias.'

2832. The reference is clearly to the following:—'Est enim indigni [al.

digni] animi signum, famae diligere commodum'; Cassiodorus,
Variarum lib. i. epist. 4. This is quoted by Albertano (p. 120), with
the reading ingenui for indigni; hence Chaucer's 'gentil.' Mätzner
refers us to the same, lib. v. epist. 12:—'quia pulchrum est
commodum famae.'
2833. 'Duae res sunt conscientia et fama. Conscientia tibi, fama
proximo tuo'; Augustini Opera, ed. Caillou, Paris, 1842, tom. xxi. p.
347.—Mr.

2837. Fr. text:—'il est cruel et villain.'—Mr.

2841. Lat. text:—'nam dixit quidam philosophus, Nemo in guerra

constitutus satis diues esse potest. Quantumcunque enim sit homo
diues, oportet illum, si in guerra diu perseuerauerit, aut diuitias aut
guerram perdere, aut forte utrumque simul et personam.'—p. 102.

2843. See Ecclesiastes, v. 11.

2851. 'With the God of heaven it is all one, to deliver with a great
multitude, or a small company: For the victory of battle standeth not
in the multitude of an host; but strength cometh from heaven.' 1
Macc. iii. 18, 19.

2854. The gap is easily detected and filled up by comparison with

the Fr. text, which Mätzner cites from Le Menagier de Paris, i. 226,
thus:—'pour ce ... que nul n'est certain s'il est digne que Dieu lui
doint victoire ne plus que il est certain se il est digne de l'amour de
Dieu ou non.' We must also compare the text from Solomon, viz.
Ecclesiastes, ix. 1, as it stands in the Vulgate version.

2857. Outher-whyle, sometimes; see note to 2733.

2858. The seconde book of Kinges, i. e. Liber secundus Regum, now

called 'the second book of Samuel.' The reference is to 2 Sam. xi.
25, where the Vulgate has: 'uarius enim euentus est belli; nunc hunc
et nunc illum consumit gladius.' The A. V. varies.

2860. In as muchel; Fr. text:—'tant comme il puet bonnement.' This

accounts for goodly, i. e. meetly, fitly, creditably. Cotgrave has:
'Bonnement, well, fitly, aptly, handsomely, conveniently, orderly, to
the purpose.'
2861. Salomon; rather Jesus son of Sirach. 'He that loveth danger
shall perish therein'; Ecclus. iii. 26.

2863. The werre ... nothing, 'war does not please you at all.'

2866. Seint Iame is a curious error for Senek, Seneca. For the Fr.
text has:—'Seneque dit en ses escrips,' according to Mätzner; and
MS. Reg. 19 C. xi (leaf 63, col. 2) has 'Seneques.' There has clearly
been confusion between Seneques and Seint iaques. Hence the use
of the pl. epistles is correct. The reference is to Seneca, Epist. 94, §
46; but Seneca, after all, is merely quoting Sallust:—'Nam concordia
paruae res crescunt, discordia maximae dilabuntur'; Sallust,
Jugurtha, 10.

2870. From Matt. v. 9.

2872. Brige, strife, contention; F. brigue, Low Lat. briga. 'Brigue, s. f.

... debate, contention, altercation, litigious wrangling about any
matter'; Cotgrave. See Brigue in the New E. Dict.

2876. Here Hl. has pryde and despysing for homlinesse and
dispreysinge, thus spoiling the sense. The allusion is to our common
saying—Familiarity breeds contempt.

2879. Syen, saw; Cm. seyen; Ln. sawe; Cp. saugh.

2881. Lat. text (p. 107):—'scriptum est enim, Semper ab aliis

dissensio incipiat, a te autem reconciliatio.' From Martinus
Dumiensis, De Moribus, Sent. 49.

2882. The prophete, i. e. David; Ps. xxxiv. 14.

2883. The words 'as muchel as in thee is' are an addition, due to the
Fr. text:—'tant comme tu pourras.'—Mr.

2884. The use of to after pursue is unusual; Mätzner compares

biseke to, in 2940 below and 2306 above.
2886. From Prov. xxviii. 14.

2891. Fr. text:—'Pour ce dit le philosophe, que les troubles ne sont

pas bien cler voyans.' Cf. the Fr. proverb:—'À l'œil malade la lumière
nuit, an eie distempered cannot brook the light; sick thoughts
cannot indure the truth'; Cotgrave.

2895. From Prov. xxviii. 23.

2897. This quotation is merely an expansion of the former part of

Eccles. vii. 3, viz. 'sorrow is better than laughter'; the latter part of
the same verse appears in 2900, immediately below.

2901. I shal not conne answere, I shall not be able to answer; Fr.
text:—'ie ne sauroie respondre.'—Mr.

2909. From Prov. xvi. 7.

2915. Fr. text:—'ie met tout mon fait en vostre disposition.'—Mr.

2925. Referring to Ps. xx. 4 (Vulgate)—'in benedictionibus

dulcedinis'; A. V.—'with the blessings of goodness,' Ps. xxi. 3.

2930. From Ecclus. vi. 5:—'Verbum dulce multiplicat amicos, et

mitigat inimicos.' The A. V. omits the latter clause, having only:
—'Sweet language will multiply friends.'

2931. Fr. text:—'nous mettons nostre fait en vostre bonne

voulente.'—Mr.

2936. Hise amendes, i. e. amends to him. For hise or his, Cp. Ln.
have him, which is a more usual construction. Cf. 'What shall be thy
amends For thy neglect of truth?' Shak., Sonnet 101. 'If I have
wronged thee, seek thy mends at the law'; Greene, Looking-Glass
for London, ed. Dyce, 1883, p. 122.

2940. Biseke to; so in 2306; see note to 2884.

2945. From Ecclus. xxxiii. 18, 19:—'Hear me, O ye great men of the
people, and hearken with your ears, ye rulers of the congregation:
Give not thy son and wife, thy brother and friend, power over thee
while thou livest.'

2965. Not from Seneca, but from Martinus Dumiensis, De Moribus,

S. 94 (Sundby). The Lat. text has:—'ubi est confessio, ibi est
remissio.'

2967. Neither is this from Seneca, but from the same source as
before. Lat. text has:—'Proximum ad innocentiam locum tenet
uerecundia peccati et confessio.'

2973. Lat. text:—'Nihil enim tam naturale est, quam aliquid dissolui
eo genere, quo colligatum est.' From the Digesta, lib. xvii. 35.

2984. Lat. text:—'Semper audiui dici, Quod bene potes facere, noli
differre.' Fr. text:—'Le bien que tu peus faire au matin, n'attens pas
le soir ne l'endemain.'

2986. Messages, messengers; Cp. messagers; Hl. messageres. See

B. 144, 333. In 2992, 2995, we have the form messagers.

2997. Borwes, sureties; as in P. Plowman, C. v. 85. In 3018 it seems

to mean 'pledges' rather than 'sureties.'

3028. A coveitous name, a reputation for covetousness.

3030. From 1 Tim. vi. 10. See C. 334.

3032. Lat. text (p. 120):—'Scriptum est enim, Mallem perdidisse

quam turpiter accepisse.' This is from Publilius Syrus, Sent. 479:—

'Perdidisse ad assem mallem, quam accepisse turpiter.'

3036. Also from P. Syrus, Sent. 293:—

'Laus noua nisi oritur, etiam uetus amittitur.'

3040. For 'it is writen,' the Fr. text has 'le droit dit.' This indicates the
source. The Lat. text has:—'priuilegium meretur amittere, qui
concessa sibi abutitur potestate.' This Sundby traces to the
Decretalia Gregorii IX., iii. 31. 18.

3042. Which I trowe ... do; Lat. 'quod non concedo.'

3045. Ye moste ... curteisly; Lat. 'remissius imperare oportet.'

3047. Lat. text:—'Remissius imperanti melius paretur'; from Seneca,

De Clementia, i. 24. 1.

3049. 'Ait enim Seneca'; the Lat. text then quotes from Publilius
Syrus, Sent. 64:—'Bis uincit, qui se uincit in uictoria.'

3050. Lat. text:—'Nihil est laudabilius, nihil magno et praeclaro uiro

dignius, placabilitate atque clementia.' From Cicero, De Officiis, i. 25.
88.

3054. Of mercy, i. e. on account of your mercy.

3056. 'Male uincit iam quem poenitet uictoriae'; Publilius Syrus, Sent.
366. Attributed to Seneca in the Latin text.

3059. From James, ii. 13.

3066. Unconninge, ignorance; cf. Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 131; Prick of

Conscience, l. 169.

3067. Misborn, borne amiss, misconducted. See Life of Beket, l.

1248.

The Monk's Prologue.

3079. The tale of Melibee (as told above) is about a certain Melibeus
and his wife Prudence, who had a daughter called Sophie. One day,
while Melibeus is absent, three of his enemies break into his house,
beat his wife, and wound his daughter. On returning, he takes
counsel as to what must be done. He is for planning a method of
revenge, but his wife advises him to forgive the injuries, and in the
end her counsels prevail.

3082. corpus Madrian, body of Madrian: which has been interpreted

in two ways. Urry guessed it to refer to St. Materne, bishop of
Treves, variously commemorated on the 14th, 19th, or 25th of
September, the days of his translations being July 18 and October
23. Mr. Steevens suggested, in a note printed in Tyrwhitt's Glossary,
that the 'precious body' was that of St. Mathurin, priest and
confessor, commemorated on Nov. 1 or Nov. 9. The latter is more
likely, since in his story in the Golden Legende, edit. 1527, leaf 151
back, the expressions 'the precious body' and 'the holy body' occur,
and the story explains that his body would not stay in the earth till it
was carried back to France, where he had given directions that it
should be buried.

3083. 'Rather than have a barrel of ale, would I that my dear good
wife had heard this story.' Cf. morsel breed, B. 3624.

lief is not a proper name, as has been suggested, I believe, by some

one ignorant of early English idiom. Cf. 'Dear my lord,' Jul. Caesar, ii.
1. 255; and other instances in Abbott's Shakesp. Grammar, sect. 13.

3101. 'Who is willing (or who suffers himself) to be overborne by

everybody.'

3108. neighëbor, three syllables; thannè, two syllables.

3112. Observe the curious use of seith for misseith.

3114. Monk. See him described in the Prologue, A. 165.

3116. Rouchester. The MSS. have Rouchester, (Hl. Rowchestre),

shewing that Lo stands alone in the first foot of the line. Tyrwhitt
changed stant into stondeth, but all our seven MSS. have stant.
According to the arrangement of the tales in Tyrwhitt's edition, the
pilgrims reach Rochester after coming to Sittingborne (mentioned in
the Wife of Bath's Prologue), though the latter is some eleven miles
nearer Canterbury. The present arrangement of the Groups remedies
this. See note to B. 1165, at p. 165.

3117. Ryd forth, ride forward, draw near us.

3119. Wher, whether. dan, for Dominus, a title of respect commonly

used in addressing monks. But Chaucer even uses it of Arcite, in the
Knightes Tale, and of Cupid, Ho. Fame, 137.

3120. The monk's name was Piers. See B. 3982, and the note.

3124. Cf. 'He was not pale as a for-pyned goost'; Prol. A. 205. Jean
de Meun says, in his Testament, l. 1073, that the friars have good
pastures (il ont bonnes pastures).

3127. as to my doom, in my judgment.

3130. Scan the line—Bút a góvernoúr wylý and wýs. The Petworth
MS. inserts 'boþ' before 'wyly': but this requires the very unlikely
accentuation 'govérnour' and an emphasis on a. The line would scan
better if we might insert art, or lyk, after But, but there is no
authority for this.

3132. Read—A wél-faríng persónë, after which comes the pause, as

marked in E. and Hn.

3139. The monk's semi-cope, which seems to have been an ample

one, is mentioned in the Prologue, A. 262. In Jack Upland, § 4, a
friar is asked what is signified by his 'wide cope.'

3142. 'Shaven very high on his crown'; alluding to the tonsure.

3144. the corn, i. e. the chief part or share.

3145. borel men, lay-men. Borel means 'rude, unlearned, ignorant,'
and seems to have arisen from a peculiar use of borel or burel, sb., a
coarse cloth; so that its original sense, as an adj., was 'in coarse
clothing,' or 'rudely clad.' See borrel and burel in the New Eng.
Dictionary.

shrimpes, diminutive or poor creatures.

3146. wrecched impes, poor grafts, weakly shoots. Cf. A. S. impian,

to graft, imp, a graft; borrowed from Low Lat. impotus, a graft, from
Gk. ἔμφυτος, engrafted.

3152. lussheburghes, light coins. In P. Plowman, B. xv. 342, we are

told that 'in Lussheborwes is a lyther alay (bad alloy), and yet loketh
he lyke a sterlynge.' They were spurious coins imported into England
from Luxembourg, whence the name. See Liber Albus, ed. Riley,
1841, p. 495; and Blount's Nomolexicon. Luxembourg is called
Lusscheburghe in the Allit. Morte Arthure, l. 2388. The importation
of this false money was frequently forbidden, viz. in 1347, 1348, and
1351.

3157. souneth into, tends to, is consistent with; see Prol. A. 307, and
Sq. Ta., F. 517. The following extracts from Palsgrave's French
Dictionary are to the point. 'I sownde, I appartayne or belong, Ie
tens. Thys thyng sowndeth to a good purpose, Ceste chose tent a
bonne fin.' Also, 'I sownde, as a tale or a report sowndeth to ones
honesty or dyshonesty, Ie redonde. I promise you that this matter
sowndeth moche to your dishonoure, Ie vous promets que ceste
matyere redonde fort a votre deshonneur.'

3160. Seint Edward. There are two of the name, viz. Edward, king
and martyr, commemorated on March 16, 18, or 19, and the second
King Edward, best known as Edward the Confessor, commemorated
on Jan. 5. In Piers the Plowman, B. xv. 217, we have—

'Edmonde and Edwarde · eyther were kynges,

And seyntes ysette · tyl charite hem folwed.'
But Edward the Confessor is certainly meant; and there is a
remarkable story about him that he was 'warned of hys death
certain dayes before hee dyed, by a ring that was brought to him by
certain pilgrims coming from Hierusalem, which ring hee hadde
secretly given to a poore man that askyd hys charitie in the name of
God and sainte Johan the Evangelist.' See Mr. Wright's description of
Ludlow Church, where are some remains of a stained glass window
representing this story, in the eastern wall of the chapel of St. John.
See also Chambers, Book of Days, i. 53, 54, where we read—'The
sculptures upon the frieze of the present shrine (in Westminster
Abbey) represent fourteen scenes in the life of Edward the
Confessor.... He was canonized by Pope Alexander about a century
after his death.... He was esteemed the patron-saint of England until
superseded in the thirteenth century by St. George.' These fourteen
scenes are fully described in Brayley's Hist. of Westminster Abbey, in
an account which is chiefly taken from a life of St. Edward written by
Ailred of Rievaulx in 1163. Three 'Lives of Edward the Confessor'
were edited, for the Master of the Rolls, by Mr. Luard in 1858. See
Morley's Eng. Writers, 1888, ii. 375.

3162. celle, cell. The monk calls it his cell because he was 'the keper'
of it; Prol. 172.

3163. Tragédie; the final ie might be slurred over before is, in which
case we might read for to for to (see footnote); but it is needless.
The definition of 'tragedy' here given is repeated from Chaucer's own
translation of Boethius, which contains the remark—'Glose. Tragedie
is to seyn, a ditee [ditty] of a prosperitee for a tyme, that endeth in
wrecchednesse'; bk. ii. pr. 2. 51. This remark is Chaucer's own, as
the word Glose marks his addition to, or gloss upon, his original. His
remark refers to a passage in Boethius immediately preceding, viz.
'Quid tragoediarum clamor aliud deflet, nisi indiscreto ictu fortunam
felicia regna uertentem?' De Consolatione Philosophiae, lib. ii. prosa
2. See also the last stanza of 'Cresus' in the Monkes Tale (vol. i. p.
268).
3169. exametron, hexameter. Chaucer is speaking of Latin, not of
English verse; and refers to the common Latin hexameter used in
heroic verse; he would especially be thinking of the Thebaid of
Statius, the Metamorphoseon Liber of Ovid, the Aeneid of Vergil, and
Lucan's Pharsalia. This we could easily have guessed, but Chaucer
has himself told us what was in his thoughts. For near the conclusion
of his Troilus and Criseyde, which he calls a tragedie, he says—

'And kis the steppes wheras thou seest pace

Virgile, Ovyde, Omer, Lucan, and Stace.'

Lucan is expressly cited in B. 401, 3909.

3170. In prose. For example, Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum and De

Claris Mulieribus contain 'tragedies' in Latin prose. Cf. ll. 3655, 3910.

3171. in metre. For example, the tragedies of Seneca are in various

metres, chiefly iambic. See also note to l. 3285.

3177. After hir ages, according to their periods; in chronological

order. The probable allusion is to Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum,
which begins with Adam and Nimrod, and keeps tolerably to the
right order. For further remarks on this, shewing how Chaucer
altered the order of these Tragedies in the course of revision, see
vol. iii. p. 428.

The Monkes Tale.

For some account of this Tale, see vol. iii. p. 427.

3181. Tragédie; accented on the second syllable, and riming with

remédie; cf. B. 3163. Very near the end of Troilus and Criseyde, we
find Chaucer riming it with comédie. That poem he also calls a
tragedie (v. 1786)—

'Go, litel book, go, litel myn tragédie,' &c.

3183. fillen, fell. nas no, for ne was no, a double negative. Cf. Ch. tr.
of Boethius—'the olde age of tyme passed, and eek of present tyme
now, is ful of ensaumples how that kinges ben chaunged in-to
wrecchednesse out of hir welefulnesse'; bk. iii. pr. 5. 3.

3186. The Harl. MS. has—'Ther may no man the cours of hir whiel
holde,' which Mr. Wright prefers. But the reading of the Six-text is
well enough here; for in the preceding line Chaucer is speaking of
Fortune under the image of a person fleeing away, to which he adds,
that no one can stay her course. Fortune is also sometimes
represented as stationary, and holding an ever-turning wheel, as in
the Book of the Duchesse, 643; but that is another picture.

3188. Be war by, take warning from.

Lucifer.

3189. Lucifer, a Latin name signifying light-bringer, and properly

applied to the morning-star. In Isaiah xiv. 12 the Vulgate has
—'Quomodo cecidisti de caelo, Lucifer, qui mane oriebaris? corruisti
in terram, qui uulnerabas gentes?' &c. St. Jerome, Tertullian, St.
Gregory, and other fathers, supposed this passage to apply to the
fall of Satan. It became a favourite topic for writers both in prose
and verse, and the allusions to it are innumerable. See note to Piers
the Plowman, B. i. 105 (Clar. Press Series). Gower begins his eighth
book of the Confessio Amantis with the examples of Lucifer and
Adam.

Sandras, in his Étude sur Chaucer, p. 248, quotes some French lines
from a 'Volucraire,' which closely agree with this first stanza. But it is
a common theme.

3192. sinne, the sin of pride, as in all the accounts; probably from 1
Tim. iii. 6. Thus Gower, Conf. Amant. lib. i. (ed. Pauli, i. 153):—

'For Lucifer, with them that felle,

Bar pride with him into helle.
Ther was pride of to grete cost,
Whan he for pride hath heven lost.'

3195. artow, art thou. Sathanas, Satan. The Hebrew sâtân means
simply an adversary, as in 1 Sam. xxix. 4; 2 Sam. xix. 22; &c. A
remarkable application of it to the evil spirit is in Luke x. 18. Milton
also indentifies Lucifer with Satan; Par. Lost, vii. 131; x. 425; but
they are sometimes distinguished, and made the names of two
different spirits. See, for example, Piers Plowman, B. xviii. 270-283.

3196. Read misérie, after which follows the metrical pause.

Adam.

3197. Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum Illustrium begins with a

chapter 'De Adam et Eua.' It contains the passage—'Et ex agro, qui
postea Damascenus,... ductus in Paradisum deliciarum.' Lydgate, in
his Fall of Princes (fol. a 5), has—

'Of slyme of the erthe, in damascene the feelde,

God made theym aboue eche creature.'

The notion of the creation of Adam in a field whereupon afterwards

stood Damascus, occurs in Peter Comestor's Historia Scholastica,
where we find (ed. 1526, fol. vii)—'Quasi quereret aliquis, Remansit
homo in loco vbi factus est, in agro scilicet damasceno? Non. Vbi
ergo translatus est? In paradisum.' See also Maundeville's Travels,
cap. xv; Genesis and Exodus, ed. Morris, l. 207; and note in
Mätzner's Altenglische Sprachproben, ii. 185.

3199. Cf. 'Formatus est homo ... de spurcissimo spermate'; Innocent

III., De Miseria Conditionis Humanae, i. 1 (Köppel).

3200. So Boccaccio—'O caeca rerum cupiditas! Hii, quibus rerum

omnium, dante Deo, erat imperium,' &c. Cf. Gen. i. 29; ii. 16.

Sampson.
3205. The story of Sampson is also in Boccaccio, lib. i. c. 17 (not 19,
as Tyrwhitt says). But Chaucer seems mostly to have followed the
account in Judges, xiii-xvi. The word annunciat, referring to the
announcement of Samson's birth by the angel (Judges xiii. 3), may
have been suggested by Boccaccio, whose account begins
—'Praenunciante per angelum Deo, ex Manue Israhelita quodam et
pulcherrima eius vxore Sanson progenitus est.' thangel in l.
3206=the angel.

3207. consecrat, consecrated. A good example of the use of the

ending -at; cf. situate for situated.—M. Shakespeare has consecrate;
Com. of. Err. ii. 2. 134.

3208. whyl he mighte see, as long as he preserved his eyesight.

3210. To speke of strengthe, with regard to strength; to speke of is

a kind of preposition.—M. Cf. Milton's Samson Agonistes, 126-150.

3211. wyves. Samson told the secret of his riddle to his wife, Judges
xiv. 17; and of his strength to Delilah, id. xvi. 17.

3215. al to-rente, completely rent in twain. The prefix to- has two
powers in Old English. Sometimes it is the preposition to in
composition, as in towards, or M. E. to-flight (G. zuflucht), a refuge.
But more commonly it is a prefix signifying in twain, spelt zer- in
German, and dis- in Mœso-Gothic and Latin. Thus to-rente = rent in
twain; to-brast = burst in twain, &c. The intensive adverb al, utterly,
was used not merely (as is commonly supposed) before verbs
beginning with to-, but in other cases also. Thus, in William of
Palerne, l. 872, we find—'He was al a-wondred,' where al precedes
the intensive prefix a- = A. S. of. Again, in the same poem, l. 661,
we have—'al bi-weped for wo,' where al now precedes the prefix bi-.
In Barbour's Bruce, ed. Skeat, x. 596, is the expression—

'For, hapnyt ony to slyde or fall,

He suld be soyne to-fruschit al.'
Where al to-fruschit means utterly broken in pieces. Perhaps the
clearest example of the complete separability of al from to is seen in
l. 3884 of William of Palerne;—

'Al to-tare his atir · þat he to-tere miȝt';

i. e. he entirely tore apart his attire, as much of it as he could tear

apart. But at a later period of English, when the prefix to- was less
understood, a new and mistaken notion arose of regarding al to as a
separable prefix, with the sense of all to pieces. I have observed no
instance of this use earlier than the reign of Henry VIII. Thus Surrey,
Sonnet 9, has 'al-to shaken' for shaken to pieces. Latimer has—'they
love and al-to love (i. e. entirely love) him'; Serm. p. 289. For other
examples, see Al-to in the Bible Word-book; and my notes in Notes
and Queries, 3 Ser. xii. 464, 535; also All, § C. 15, in the New E.
Dict.

3220. Samson's wife was given to a friend; Judges, xiv. 20. She was
afterwards burnt by her own people; Judges, xv. 6.

3224. on every tayl; one brand being fastened to the tails of two
foxes; Judg. xv. 4.

3225. cornes. The Vulgate has segetes and fruges; also utneas for
vynes, and oliueta for oliveres. The plural form cornes is not
uncommon in Early English. Cf. 'Quen thair corns war in don,' i. e.
when their harvests were gathered in; Spec. of Eng. pt. ii. ed. Morris
and Skeat, p. 70, l. 39. And again, 'alle men-sleeris and brenneris of
houses and cornes [misprinted corves] ben cursed opynly in parische
chirches'; Wyclif's Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 329.

3234. wang-toth, molar tooth. This expression is taken from the

Vulgate, which has—'Aperuit itaque Dominus molarem dentem in
maxilla asini'; where the A. V. has only—'an hollow place that was in
the jaw'; Judg. xv. 19.
3236. Judicum, i. e. Liber Judicum, the Book of Judges. Cf. note to
B. 93, at p. 141.

3237. Gazan, a corruption of Gazam, the acc. case, in Judg. xvi. 1,

Vulgate version.

3244. ne hadde been, there would not have been. Since hadde is
here the subjunctive mood, it is dissyllabic. Read—worldë n' haddë.

3245. sicer, from the Lat. sicera, Greek σίκερα, strong drink, is the
word which we now spell cider; see Wyclif's Works, ed. Arnold, i.
363, note. It is used here because found in the Vulgate version of
Judges xiii. 7; 'caue ne uinum bibas, nec siceram.' I slightly amend
the spelling of the MSS., which have ciser, siser, sythir, cyder. Wyclif
has sither, cyther, sidir, sydur.

3249. twenty winter, twenty years; Judg. xvi. 31. The English used
to reckon formerly by winters instead of years; as may be seen in a
great many passages in the A. S. Chronicle.

3253. Dalida; from Gk. Δαλιδά, in the Septuagint. The Vulgate has
Dalila; but Chaucer (or his scribes) naturally adopted a form which
seemed to have a nearer resemblance to an accusative case, such
being, at that time, the usual practice; cf. Briseide (from Briseida),
Criseyde and Anelida. Lydgate also uses the form Dalida.

3259. in this array, in this (defenceless) condition.

3264. querne, hand-mill. The Vulgate has—'et clausum in carcere

molere fecerunt'; Judg. xvi. 21. But Boccaccio says—'ad molas
manuarias coegere.' The word occurs in the House of Fame, 1798;
and in Wyclif's Bible, Exod. xi. 5; Mat. xxiv. 41. In the Ayenbite of
Inwyt, ed. Morris, p. 181, the story of Samson is alluded to, and it is
said of him that he 'uil [fell] into þe honden of his yuo [foes], þet
him deden grinde ate querne ssamuolliche,' i. e. who made him
grind at the mill shamefully (in a shameful manner). Lydgate copies
Chaucer rather closely, in his Fall of Princes, fol. e 7:—
'And of despite, after as I fynde,
At their quernes made hym for to grinde.'

3269. Thende, the end. Caytif means (1) a captive, (2) a wretch. It
is therefore used here very justly.

3274. two pilers, better than the reading the pilers of MS. E.;
because two are expressly mentioned; Judg. xvi. 29.

3282. So Boccaccio—'Sic aduersa credulitas, sic amantis pietas, sic

mulieris egit inclyta fides. Vt quem non poterant homines, non
uincula, non ferrum uincere, a mulieribus latrunculis uinceretur.'
Lydgate has the expressions—

'Beware by Sampson your counseyll well to kepe,

Though [misprinted That] Dalida compleyne, crye, and wepe';

and again:—

'Suffre no nightworm within your counseyll crepe,

Though Dalida compleyne, crye, and wepe.'

Hercules.

3285. There is little about Hercules in Boccaccio; but Chaucer's

favourite author, Ovid, has his story in the Metamorphoses, book ix,
and Heroides, epist. 9. Tyrwhitt, however, has shewn that Chaucer
more immediately copies a passage in Boethius, de Cons. Phil. lib. iv.
met. 7, which is as follows:—

'Herculem duri celebrant labores;

Ille Centauros domuit superbos;
Abstulit saeuo spolium leoni;
Fixit et certis uolucres sagittis;
Poma cernenti rapuit draconi,
Aureo laeuam grauior metallo;
Cerberum traxit triplici catena.
Victor immitem posuisse fertur
Pabulum saeuis dominum quadrigis.
Hydra combusto periit ueneno;
Fronte turpatus Achelous amnis
Ora demersit pudibunda ripis.
Strauit Antaeum Libycis arenis,
Cacus Euandri satiauit iras,
Quosque pressurus foret altus orbis
Setiger spumis humeros notauit.
Ultimus caelum labor irreflexo
Sustulit collo, pretiumque rursus
Ultimi caelum meruit laboris.'

But it is still more interesting to see Chaucer's own version of this

passage, which is as follows (ed. Morris, p. 147; cf. vol. ii. p. 125):—

'Hercules is celebrable for his harde trauaile; he dawntede þe proude

Centauris, half hors, half man; and he rafte þe despoylynge fro þe
cruel lyoun; þat is to seyne, he slouȝ þe lyoun and rafte hym hys
skyn. He smot þe birds þat hyȝten arpijs in þe palude of lyrne wiþ
certeyne arwes. He rauyssede applis fro þe wakyng dragoun, & hys
hand was þe more heuy for þe goldene metal. He drouȝ Cerberus þe
hound of helle by his treble cheyne; he, ouer-comer, as it is seid,
haþ put an vnmeke lorde fodre to his cruel hors; þis is to sein, þat
hercules slouȝ diomedes and made his hors to etyn hym. And he,
hercules, slouȝ Idra þe serpent & brende þe venym; and achelaus þe
flode, defoulede in his forhede, dreinte his shamefast visage in his
strondes; þis is to seyn, þat achelaus couþe transfigure hymself into
dyuerse lykenesse, & as he fauȝt wiþ ercules, at þe laste he turnide
hym in-to a bole [bull]; and hercules brak of oon of hys hornes, &
achelaus for shame hidde hym in hys ryuer. And he, hercules, caste
adoun Antheus þe geaunt in þe strondes of libye; & kacus apaisede
þe wraþþes of euander; þis is to sein, þat hercules slouȝ þe monstre
kacus & apaisede wiþ þat deeþ þe wraþþe of euander. And þe
bristlede boor markede wiþ scomes [scums, foam] þe sholdres of
hercules, þe whiche sholdres þe heye cercle of heuene sholde þreste
[was to rest upon]. And þe laste of his labours was, þat he
sustenede þe heuene upon his nekke unbowed; & he deseruede
eftsones þe heuene, to ben þe pris of his laste trauayle.'

And in his House of Fame, book iii. (l. 1413), he mentions—

'Alexander, and Hercules,

That with a sherte his lyf lees.'

3288. Hercules' first labour was the slaying of the Nemean lion,
whose skin he often afterwards wore.

3289. Centauros; this is the very form used by Boethius, else we

might have expected Centaurus or Centaures. After the destruction
of the Erymanthian boar, Hercules slew Pholus the centaur; and (by
accident) Chiron. His slaughter of the centaur Nessus ultimately
brought about his own death; cf. l. 3318.

3290. Arpies, harpies. The sixth labour was the destruction of the
Stymphalian birds, who ate human flesh.

3291. The eleventh labour was the fetching of the golden apples,
guarded by the dragon Ladon, from the garden of the Hesperides.

3292. The twelfth labour was the bringing of Cerberus from the
lower world.

3293. Busirus. Here Chaucer has confused two stories. One is, that
Busiris, a king of Egypt, used to sacrifice all foreigners who came to
Egypt, till the arrival of Hercules, who slew him. The other is 'the
eighth labour,' when Hercules killed Diomedes, a king in Thrace, who
fed his mares with human flesh, till Hercules slew him and gave his
body to be eaten by the mares, as Chaucer himself says in his
translation. The confusion was easy, because the story of Busiris is
mentioned elsewhere by Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 6, in a passage which
Chaucer thus translates (see vol. ii. p. 43):—'I have herd told of
Busirides, þat was wont to sleen his gestes [guests] þat
herberweden [lodged] in his hous; and he was sleyn him-self of
Ercules þat was his gest.' Lydgate tells the story of Busiris correctly.

3295. serpent, i. e. the Lernean hydra, whom Chaucer, in the

passage from Boethius, calls 'Idra [or Ydra] the serpent.'

3296. Achelois, seems to be used here as a genitive form from a

nominative Achelo; in his translation of Boethius we find Achelous
and Achelaus. The spelling of names by old authors is often vague.
The line means—he broke one of the two horns of Achelous. The
river-god Achelous, in his fight with Hercules, took the form of a
bull, whereupon the hero broke off one of his horns.

3297. The adventures with Cacus and Antaeus are well known.

3299. The fourth labour was the destruction of the Erymanthian

boar.

3300. longe, for a long time; in the margin of MS. Camb. Univ. Lib.
Dd. 4. 24, is written the gloss diu.

3307. The allusion is to the 'pillars' of Hercules. The expression 'both

ends of the world' refers to the extreme points of the continents of
Europe and Africa, world standing here for continent. The story is
that Hercules erected two pillars, Calpe and Abyla, on the two sides
of the Strait of Gibraltar. The words 'seith Trophee' seem to refer to
an author named Trophaeus. In Lydgate's prologue to his Fall of
Princes, st. 41, he says of Chaucer that—

'In youth he made a translacion

Of a boke whiche called is Trophe
In Lumbarde tonge, as men may rede and se;
And in our vulgar, long er that he deyde,
Gave it the name of Troylus and Creseyde.'

This seems to say that Trophe was the Italian name of a Book (or
otherwise, the name of a book in Italian), whence Chaucer drew his
story of Troilus. But the notion must be due to some mistake, since
that work was taken from the 'Filostrato' of Boccaccio. The only trace
of the name of Trophaeus as an author is in a marginal note—
possibly Chaucer's own—which appears in both the Ellesmere and
Hengwrt MSS., viz. 'Ille vates Chaldeorum Tropheus.' See, however,
vol. ii. p. lv, where I shew that, in this passage at any rate, Trophee
really refers to Guido delle Colonne, who treats of the deeds of
Hercules in the first book of his Historia Troiana, and makes
particular mention of the famous columns (as to which Ovid and
Boethius are alike silent).

3311. thise clerkes, meaning probably Ovid and Boccaccio. See

Ovid's Heroides, epist. ix., entitled Deianira Herculi, and Metamorph.
lib. ix.; Boccaccio, De Casibus Virorum Illustrium, lib. i. cap. xviii.,
and De Mulieribus Claris, cap. xxii. See also the Trachineae of
Sophocles, which Chaucer of course never read.

3315. wered, worn; so in A. 75, and B. 3320, wered is the form of

the past tense. Instances of verbs with weak preterites in Chaucer,
but strong ones in modern English, are rare indeed; but there are
several instances of the contrary, e.g. wep, slep, wesh, wex, now
wept, slept, washed, waxed. Wore is due to analogy with bore; cf.
could for coud.

3317. Both Ovid and Boccaccio represent Deianira as ignorant of the

fatal effects which the shirt would produce. See Ovid, Metam. ix.
133. Had Chaucer written later, he might have included Gower
among the clerks, as the latter gives the story of Hercules and
Deianira in his Conf. Amantis, lib. ii. (ed. Pauli, i. 236), following
Ovid. Thus he says—
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