§ 10. Before answering this question, it will be best to consider the famous _crux_, as to the meaning of the word _Trophee_.
When Lydgate is speaking of his master's Troilus, viz. in his Prologue to the Falls of Princes, st. 3, he says that Chaucer
'made a translacion Of a boke which called is _Trophe_ In Lumbarde tong,' &c.
No book or author is now known by that name; and, as Chaucer was in this case much indebted to Boccaccio, critics have jumped to the conclusion that _Trophee_ means either Boccaccio or the Filostrato; and this conclusion has been supported by arguments so hopeless as to need no repetition. But it is most likely that Lydgate, who does not seem to have known any Italian[50], spoke somewhat casually; and, as Chaucer was to some extent indebted to Guido, he may possibly have meant Guido.
So far, I have merely stated a supposition which is, in itself, possible; but I shall now adduce what I believe to be reasonable and solid proof of it.
We have yet another mention of _Trophee_, viz. in Chaucer himself! In the Monkes Tale, B 3307, he says of Hercules--
'At bothe the worldes endes, _seith Trophee_, In stede of boundes, he a piler sette.'
Whence, we may ask, is this taken? My answer is, _from Guido_.
§ 11. If we examine the sources of the story of Hercules in the Monkes Tale, we see that all the supposed facts _except_ the one mentioned in the two lines above quoted are taken from Boethius and Ovid (see the Notes). Now the next most obvious source of information was Guido's work, since the very first Book has a good deal about Hercules, and the Legend of Hypsipyle clearly shews us that Chaucer was aware of this. And, although neither Ovid (in Met. ix.) nor Boethius has any allusion to the Pillars of Hercules, they are expressly mentioned by Guido. In the English translation called the Gest Historiale of the Destruction of Troy, ed. Panton and Donaldson (which I call, for brevity, the alliterative Troy-book), l. 308, we read:--
'But the wonders that he wroght in this world here In yche cuntré ben knowen under Criste evyn. Tow pyllers he pight in a place lowe Vppon Gades groundes, that he gotton had.'
And again, further on, the Latin text has:--'Locus ille, in quo predicte _Herculis columpne_ sunt affixe, dicitur Saracenica lingua Saphy.' To which is added, that Alexander afterwards came to the same spot.