1. "Fals" often referred to counterfeit money
in
Chaucer's
day; see MED, F:390, br. 5(a). That "fals" or
"contrefete"
was used of persons and their behavior is amply demonstrated by
another of Chaucer's texts, which also, happily, confirms the
reciprocity between the two words. In LGW 4, "The
Legend of
Hypsipyle and Medea," Chaucer complains of Jason: " . .
with thy
contrefeted peyne and wo. / There othere falsen oon, thow falsest
two!" (lines 1376-77)--Jason "betrays" the two not
by falsifying
them, of course, but by being himself "fals" or
"contrefete," as is
Criseyde, eventually, too. Since, moreover, the two words are
reciprocal, Chaucer is free to use "fals" in Troilus
and
Criseyde, and not "contrefete," thus to insist on the
connection with Inferno 30, which invariably uses
"falso,"
"falsificando," "falsasti," etc. (see, e.g.,
Inf.30.41, 73,
115).
In further confirmation of Chaucer's strategy in suggesting that
Criseyde is a "fals" coin is the evidence in contemporary
Latin
sermon materials of the analogy between the human soul and a coin.
For example, in the "Distinctiones" of William de
Montibus
(thirteenth century) the compiler lists eight properties of a coin,
then argues that "ita etiam haec in iusto quolibet esse
debent"
("thus these should also be in any just entity
whatsoever") and
proceeds thence to enumerate the application of these properties to
the human soul. For example, a coin should possess
"integritas,"
and "de tertio, ait Apostolus: Sit integer spiritus vester in
vobis" (1 Thess. 5.23) ("concerning the third, the
Apostle says:
Let your spirit be whole within you"; MS Oxford Bodleian 419,
fol.
21v). While the entire entry is too long to transcribe here, this
example does suggest, I think, the kinds of associations and
responses Chaucer could have assumed in his audiences familiar with
Latin and/or vernacular sermons. Very similar evidence leading to
the same conclusion is found in the "Distinctiones" of
Odo of
Chateauroux (d. 1273) -- for example, in MS Troyes
Bibliothèque Municipale 1089, fols. 126v-127r, 127v-128r.
