The following scheme gives some notion of the relationship of the contents of this book to the Filostrato, but Chaucer constantly expands and adds to the original, and not unfrequently transposes the order of the text.

Troilus: Book IV.	Filostrato.
1-10.	Bk. III. st. 94.
29-35.	Bk. IV. st. 1.
47-110.	" 2-10.
127-166.	" 12-16.
211-217.	" 17.
218-385.	" 22, 23, 26-46.
393-406.	" 47, 48.
414-451.	" 49, 50.
459-497.	" 52, 54, 56-58.
501-787.	" 60-89, 92, 93, 88-91.
799-821.	" 95, 96.
848-925, 939-946.	" 98-109 (l. 1).
1089-1095, 1108-1260.	" 109 (l. 4)-127.
1310-1400.	" 131-136.
1422-1446.	" 137-140.
1464-1542, 1555-1694.	" 141-167.

1. In the Proem, ll. 1-3 correspond to Fil. iii. st. 94, ll. 1-3; and ll. 8 and 10 to the same stanza, ll. 4 and 7. The rest is original.

3. Cf. Boethius, lib. ii. Pr. 1: 'Intelligo ... illius [Fortunae] ... cum his, quos eludere nititur, blandissimam familiaritatem.'

5. hent and blent, for hendeth and blendeth, catches and blinds.

6, 7. Cf. Boethius, lib. ii. Met. 2: 'Ultroque gemitus, dura quos fecit [Fortuna], ridet.' Whence, in Le Roman de la Rose, 8076-9, the passage which Chaucer here imitates; the mowe = F. la moe.

22. Herines i.e. Furies; used as the pl. of Erynis or Erinnys; see note to Compl. to Pite, 92. Their names (see l. 24) were Megaera, Alecto, and Tisiphone. Bell's remark, that Chaucer found these names in Boccaccio, does not seem to be founded on fact. He more likely found them in Vergil, who has Erinnys, Æn. ii. 336, 573; vii. 447, 570; Alecto, id. vii. 324, 341, 405, 415, 445, 476; MegÆra, id. xii. 846; Tisiphone, vi. 571, x. 761. But I suppose that, even in Chaucer's time, MS. note-books existed, containing such information as the names of the Furies. Chaucer even knew that some (as Æschylus) considered them to be the daughters of Night.

25. Quiryne, Quirinus. Ovid, Fasti, ii. 476, tells us that Quirinus was Romulus; and just above, ii. 419, that Romulus and Remus were sons of Mars.

29. Ligginge ... The Grekes, while the Greeks lay.

32. Hercules Lyoun, Hercules' lion, the lion of Hercules; alluding to the lion's skin which Hercules wore. Valerius Flaccus, Argonauticon, lib. i. 263, has 'Herculeo ... leoni;' and Chaucer seems to have read this author, or at any rate his first book; see Leg. of Good Women, l. 1457, and the note. However, Chaucer shews his knowledge of the story clearly enough in his tr. of Boethius, Bk. iv. Met. 7. The reference is, simply, to the sign Leo. The sun was in this sign during the latter part of July and the former part of August; but we are further told that he was in the 'breast' of Leo, and therefore near the very bright star Regulus, called in Arabic Kalbalased, or the Lion's Heart, which was situated almost on the zodiac, and (at that time) near the 20th degree of the sign. This gives the date as being the first week in August.

41. in the berd, in the beard, i.e. face to face.

47. shour, assault, attack; see note to Bk. iii. 1064.

50-4. From Boccaccio. The right names are Antenor, Polydamas, Menestheus or Mnestheus, Xanthippus, Sarpedon, Polymnestor, Polites, Riphaeus, all mentioned by Boccaccio, who probably took them from Guido delle Colonne. But Boccaccio omits 'Phebuseo,' and I do not know who is meant. Several of these names may be found in the allit. Destruction of Troy, ed. Panton and Donaldson; as Antenor and his son Polydamas, at ll. 3947, 3954; Xanthippus, king of Phrygia, l. 6107; Sarpedon, prince of Lycia, l. 5448; and in Lydgate's Siege of Troy, Bk. ii. capp. 16, 20. Polymestor, or Polymnestor, was king of the Thracian Chersonese, and an ally of the Trojans. Polites was a son of Priam (Æneid. ii. 526). Mnestheus is repeatedly mentioned in Vergil (Æn. v. 116, &c.), and is also called Menestheus (id. x. 129); he is a different person from Menestheus, king of Athens, who fought on the other side. For Riphaeus, see Verg. Aen. ii. 339. The Ital. forms are Antenorre, Polidamas, Monesteo, Santippo, Serpedon, Polinestorre, Polite, Rifeo. Observe that MonostÉo, RiphÉo, PhebusÉo rime together, with an accent on the penultimate.

62. thassege, for the assege, the siege; Barbour has assege, siege, in his Bruce, xvii. 270, xx. 8; pl. assegis, xx. 12. MS. H. wrongly has thessage. See l. 1480 below.

64. Calkas, Calchas; see Bk. i. 66, 71.

79. This town to shende, i.e. (it will be best for you) to despoil this town.

86. resport, regard. This strange word is certified by its reappearance in l. 850, where it rimes to discomfÓrt. It is given in Roquefort, but only in a technical sense. It was, doubtless, formed from O. F. esport, deportment, demeanour, regard (Godefroy), by prefixing re-; and means 'demeanour towards,' or (here) simply 'regard,' as also in l. 850. The etymology is from Lat. re-, ex, and portare. Cf. F. rapport, from re-, ad, and portare.

96. in hir sherte, in her smock only; i.e. without much rich clothing; 'as she was.'

99. 'For because I saw no opportunity.'

112. as yerne, as briskly as possible, very soon; so in l. 201.

120-4. Laomedon, father of Priam, founded Troy. Apollo and Poseidon (Neptune) had been condemned for a while to serve him for wages. But Laomedon refused them payment, and incurred their displeasure.

133. Antenor had been taken prisoner by the Greeks; see Lydgate, Siege of Troye, Bk. iii. ch. 24. Lydgate's version is that Antenor was to be exchanged for Thoas, king of Calydon; and, at the request of Chalcas, it was arranged that Antenor should be exchanged for both Thoas and Criseyde (see l. 138); to which Priam consented.

withoute more, without further ado; cf. l. 376.

143. parlement; here Boccaccio has parlamento, i.e. a parley. Chaucer gives it the English sense.

168. 'The love of you both, where it was before unknown.'

197. From Juvenal, Sat. x. ll. 2-4:—

Cf. Dryden's translation and Dr. Johnson's poem on the Vanity of Human Wishes.

198, 9. what is to yerne, what is desirable. offence, disappointment.

203. mischaunce; because Antenor contrived the removal from Troy of the Palladium, on which the safety of the city depended. Cf. Lydgate, Siege of Troye, Bk. iv. ch. 34; or the account by Caxton, quoted in Specimens of English from 1394-1579, ed. Skeat, p. 89.

210. here and howne. The sense of this phrase is not known; but, judging by the context, it seems to mean—'thus said every one, such was the common rumour.' It has been explained as 'thus said hare and hound,' i.e. people of all sorts; but the M. E. form of hare is hare (A. S. hara), and the M. E. form of 'hound' never appears as howne, which, by the way, is evidently dissyllabic. In the absence of further evidence, guesswork is hardly profitable; but I should like to suggest that the phrase may mean 'gentle and savage.' The M. E. here, gentle, occurs in Layamon, 25867; and in Amis and Amiloun, 16 (Stratmann); from A. S. heore. Houne answers, phonetically, to an A. S. Huna, which may mean a Hun, a savage; cf. Ger. HÜne.

225. From Dante, Inf. iii. 112:—

239. This stanza follows Boccaccio closely; but Boccaccio, in his turn, here imitates a passage in Dante, Inf. xii. 22:—

251, 2. Almost repeated in the Clerk Ta. E 902, 3; see note to the latter line, and cf. Gower, Conf. Amant. ii. 14—'Right as a lives creature She semeth,' &c.

263. In MS. H., thus is glossed by 'sine causa.'

272. Accent misÉrie on e; 'Nella miseria;' Inf. v. 123.

279. combre-world, encumbrance of the world, a compound epithet. It is used by Hoccleve, in his lament for Chaucer, De Regim. Principum, st. 299. 'A cumber-world, yet in the world am left;' Drayton, Pastorals, Ecl. ii. 25.

286. gerful, changeable; see note to Kn. Ta. A 1536.

300. Edippe, Œdipus, king of Thebes, who put out his own eyes on finding that he had slain his father Laius and married his mother Jocasta; Statius, Theb. i. 46.

302. Rossetti thus translates Fil. iv. st. 34: 'O soul, wretched and astray, Why fliest thou not out of the most ill-fortuned body that lives? O soul brought low, part from the body, and follow Chryseis.'

305. unneste, glossed in H. by 'go out of thi nest;' correctly.

318. Read my, not the or thy; Rossetti thus translates Fil. iv. st. 36: 'O my Chryseis, O sweet bliss of the sorrowing soul which calls on thee! Who will any more give comfort to my pains?'

330. unholsom; Boccaccio has insano, Fil. iv. st. 38. 'I think it pretty clear that B. means insane in our ordinary sense for that word; but Chaucer's unholsom is no doubt founded on B.'s epithet, and is highly picturesque.'—Rossetti.

356, 7. Nearly repeated in Man of Lawes Ta. B 608, 9. See l. 882.

381. 'As certainly do I wish it were false, as I know it is true.'

392. propretee, his own indefeasible possession; see Boethius, Bk. ii. Pr. 2. 9 (p. 27), 61 (p. 28).

407. Pandarus took his morality from Ovid; cf. Amorum lib. ii. 4. 10-44: 'Centum sunt causae, cur ego semper amem;' &c.

413. heroner, a large falcon for herons; faucon for rivere, a goshawk for waterfowl. See note to Sir Thopas, B 1927.

414, 5. From Boccaccio, who does not, however, give the name of the author of the saying. The remark 'as Zanzis writeth' is Chaucer's own. It is quite clear that Zanzis in this passage is the same as the Zanzis in the Physiciens Tale, C 16; and he is no other than Zeuxis the painter. I do not suppose that Chaucer had any special reason for assigning to him the saying, but his name was as useful as that of any one else, and the medieval method of reference is frequently so casual and light-hearted that there is nothing to wonder at. Besides, we are distinctly told (l. 428) that Pandarus was speaking for the nonce, i.e. quite at random. The real author is Ovid: 'Successore nouo uincitur omnis amor;' Remed. Amor. 462.

460. pleyen raket, play at rackets, knocking the ball forwards and backwards; alluding to the rebound of the ball after striking the wall.

461. Netle in, dokke out means, as Chaucer says, first one thing and then another. The words are taken from a charm for curing the sting of a nettle, repeated whilst the patient rubs in the juice from a dock-leaf. The usual formula is simply, 'in dock, out nettle,' for which see Brockett's Glossary of North-Country Words, s. v. dockon (dock); but Chaucer is doubtless correct. He refers to a fuller form of words, given in Notes and Queries, 1st Ser. iii. 368:—

Akermann's Glossary of Wiltshire Words gives a third formula, as follows:—

i.e. nettle shan't have ne'er one. See also N. and Q. 1st Ser. iii. 205, 368; xi. 92; AthenÆum, Sept. 12, 1846; Brand, Pop. Antiq. iii. 315.

In the Testament of Love, Bk. i., the present passage is quoted in the following form: 'Ye wete wel, lady, eke (quod I) that I haue not playde racket, nettyl in, docke out, and with the wethercocke waued;' ed. 1550, fol. cccv. col. 2. This shews that the text is correct.

462. 'Now ill luck befall her, that may care for thy wo.'

481-3. gabbestow, liest thou. Ll. 482, 3 are a reproduction of Pandarus' own saying, in Bk. iii. 1625-8.

493. Deficient in the first foot; read—'I " that liv'd' " &c.

497. formely; Cm. formaly; for formelly, i.e. formally.

503. From Boethius, Bk. i. Met. 1. 13, 14 (p. 1).

506. Troilus speaks as if dead already. 'Well wot I, whilst I lived in peace, before thou (death) didst slay me, I would have given (thee) hire;' i.e. a bribe, not to attack me.

520. alambyk, alembic; i.e. a retort, or vessel used in distilling; in Cant. Ta. G 794, MS. E. has the pl. alambikes, and most other MSS. have alembikes. The word was afterwards split up into a lembick or a limbeck; see Macb. i. 7. 67. Chaucer took this from Le Rom. de la Rose, 6406-7:—

556. 'Then think I, this would injure her reputation.'

583. 'But if I had so ardent a love, and had thy rank.'

588. Cf. the phrase 'a nine days' wonder.' Lat. nouendiale sacrum; Livy, i. 31.

600. 'Audentes Fortuna iuuat;' Æneid. x. 284; 'Fortes Fortuna adiuuat'; Terence, Phormio, i. 4. 26.

602. 'Unhardy is unsely;' Reves Ta. A 4210.

603. For litel, MS. H. and Thynne have lite. It makes no difference, either to the sense or the scansion.

607. for ferd, for fear (H2. for drede; Thynne, for feare). Properly for ferde, as in Ho. Fame, 950; but often shortened to for ferd. Ferde or ferd is tolerably common as a sb., but some scribes hardly understood it. Hence MSS. Cl. and H. have of-fered, i.e. greatly frightened.

618. Cf. Kn. Ta. A 1163-8; and the notes.

622. 'Boldly stake the world on casts of the dice.' Cf. Cant. Tales, B 125, C 653, and the notes.

627. Nearly repeated in Kn. Tale, A 1010.

630. 'The devil help him that cares about it.'

659-61. From Boccaccio, Fil. iv. st. 78; cf. Æneid. iv. 188.

683. 'And expected to please her.' For pitous Ioye represents 'pietosa allegrezza,' Fil. iv. st. 80.

684. 'Dear enough at a mite;' cf. note to L. G. Wom. 741.

692. on every syde; 'd'ogni partito;' Fil. iv. 81. I suppose it means, literally, 'on every side;' Troy being subject to attacks at various points.

708-14. Certainly genuine; found also in Fil. iv. 84.

716. Deficient in the first foot.

735. Dr. Furnivall says that MSS. Cl., H., and others have here misplaced a stanza, meaning that ll. 750-6 should have come next, as shewn by Boccaccio's text. But only MS. Cm. has such an order, and it is quite certain that the other MSS. are right. The order in Boccaccio's text furnishes no real guide, as Chaucer often transposes such order; and it is odd that only this one instance should have been noted. It is better to consider the order in MS. Cm. as wrong, and to say that it transposes the text by placing ll. 750-6 after l. 735, and gives a somewhat different version of ll. 750-2.

736. ounded, waved, wavy; see Ho. Fame, 1386, and note. Cf. 'Tear my bright hair,' &c.; Shak. Troilus, iv. 2. 112.

750. Cf. note to l. 735. MS. Cm., which inserts this stanza after l. 735, begins thus:—

762. This line, giving the name of Criseyde's mother, is not in Boccaccio (Fil. iv. stt. 89-93). I do not know where Chaucer found the form Argyve; in Statius, Theb. ii. 297, Argia is the name of the wife of Polynices, and Ch. calls her Argyve; see Bk. v. l. 1509 below.

769, 70. by-word, proverb: 'plants without a root soon die.'

782. ordre, order. She will pass her life in mourning and abstinence, as if she had entered a religious order.

790. Elysos, Elysium. It looks as if Chaucer was thinking of Vergil's 'Elysios ... campos;' Georg. i. 38; for the story of Orpheus and Eurydice occurs in Georg. iv. 453-527. Cf. Ovid, Met. x. 1-85.

829. cause causinge, the primary cause. 'Causa causans, a primary or original cause; causa causata, a secondary or intermediate cause;' New E. Dict., s. v. Causa.

831. Wher, short for whether; as in Cant. Ta. B 3119, &c.

836. 'Extrema gaudii luctus occupat;' Prov. xiv. 13. See note to Man of Lawes Ta. B 421.

842. The first foot is deficient: 'Peyn " e tor " ment,' &c.

843. 'There is no misery that is not within my body.'

850. resport, regard; see note to l. 86 above.

865. Compare the similar lines in Kn. Ta. A 1400, 1.

866. men, weakened form of man, takes a sing. verb.

870. Bi-trent, winds round; see note to iii. 1231.

884. into litel, within a little, very nearly.

887. fawe, gladly; cf. Cant. Ta. D 220.

907. bane, destruction; see Kn. Ta. A 1097, 1681.

927. 'Be to him rather a cause of the flat than of the edge,' i.e. of healing rather than of harming. A curious allusion which is fully explained by reference to the Squieres Tale, F 156-165. See also note to the same, F 238.

947-1085. This passage is not in Boccaccio, but some of it is in Boethius; see below.

963-1078. A considerable portion of this passage is copied, more or less closely, from Boethius, lib. v. Pr. 2 and Pr. 3. The correspondences are all pointed out below. Chaucer's own prose translation should be compared. For example, the word wrythen (l. 986) appears in that also (Bk. v. Pr. 3. 15).

963-6. 'Quae tamen ille, ab aeterno cuncta prospiciens, prouidentiae cernit intuitus, et suis quaeque meritis praedestinata disponit;' Boeth. v. Pr. 2 (end).

968. grete clerkes; such as Boethius, Saint Augustine, and bishop Bradwardine; see Non. Pr. Ta. B 4431, 2.

974-80. 'Nam si cuncta prospicit Deus, neque falli ullo modo potest, euenire necesse est, quod prouidentia futurum esse praeuiderit. Quare si ab aeterno non facta hominum modo, sed etiam consilia uoluntatesque praenoscit, nulla erit arbitrii libertas;' Boeth. v. Pr. 3. 981-7 (continued): 'neque enim uel factum aliud ullum, uel quaelibet existere poterit uoluntas, nisi quam nescia falli prouidentia diuina praesenserit. Nam si res aliorsum, quam prouisae sunt, detorqueri ualent, non iam erit futuri firma praescientia.' 988-994 (continued): 'sed opinio potius incerta: quod de Deo credere nefas iudico.'

996. I.e. who have received the tonsure.

997-1001. 'Aiunt enim, non ideo quid esse euenturum, quoniam id prouidentia futurum esse prospexerit: sed È contrario potius, quoniam quid futurum est, id diuinam prouidentiam latere non posse;' Boeth. v. Pr. 3. 1002-1008 (continued): 'eoque modo necessarium hoc in contrariam relabi partem. Neque enim necesse est contingere, quae prouidentur; sed necesse esse, quae futura sunt, prouideri.' 1009-1015 (continued): 'Quasi uero, quae cuiusque rei caussa sit, praescientiane futurorum necessitatis, an futurorum necessitas prouidentiae, laboretur.' 1016-1022 (continued): 'At nos illud demonstrare nitamur, quoquo modo sese habeat ordo caussarum, necessarium esse euentum praescitarum rerum, etiam si praescientia futuris rebus eueniendi necessitatem non uideatur inferre.'

(The negative in l. 1016 is remarkable, but Chaucer's prose rendering presents the same form. Surely he has taken nitamur as if it were uitamus.)

1023-9. (continued): 'Etenim si quispiam sedeat, opinionem quae eum sedere coniectat ueram esse necesse est: atque È conuerso rursus, (1030-6) si de quopiam uera sit opinio, quoniam sedet, eum sedere necesse est. In utroque igitur necessitas inest: in hoc quidem sedendi, at uerÒ in altero ueritatis.' 1037-1047 (continued): 'Sed non idcirco quisque sedet, quoniam uera est opinio; sed haec potius uera est, quoniam quempiam sedere praecessit. Ita cÙm caussa ueritatis ex altera parte procedat, inest tamen communis in utraque necessitas. Similia de prouidentia futurisque rebus ratiocinari patet.' 1051-78 (continued): 'Nam etiam si idcirco, quoniam futura sunt, prouidentur; non uero ideo, quoniam prouidentur eueniunt: nihilo minus tamen À Deo uel uentura prouideri, uel prouisa euenire necesse est: quod ad perimendam arbitrii libertatem solÙm satis est. Iam uero quam praeposterum est, ut aeternae praescientiae temporalium rerum euentus caussa esse dicatur? Quid est autem aliud arbitrari, ideo Deum futura, quoniam sunt euentura, prouidere, quam putare quae olim acciderunt, caussam summae illius esse prouidentiae? Ad haec, sicuti cum quid esse scio, id ipsum esse necesse est: ita cum quid futurum noui, id ipsum futurum necesse est. Sic fit igitur, ut euentus praescitae rei nequeat euitari.'

1094. ferd, fared; not the pp. of faren (l. 1087), but of the weak verb feren (A. S. feran). The correct pp. of faren is faren. See Stratmann.

1105. 'A man may offer his neck soon enough when it (i.e. his head) must come off.'

1136. 'Beyond the nature of tears.'

1139. Myrrha, daughter of Cinyras, king of Cyprus, who was changed into a myrrh-tree; Ovid, Met. x. 298. The tree wept tears of myrrh; id. x. 500.

1146. hir-e (MS. Cl. here), their, is here dissyllabic. unswelle, cease to swell, as in Bk. v. 214.

1147. 'All hoarse, and exhausted with shrieking.' forshright is the pp. of forshriken, to shriek excessively. Bell wrongly has for shright; but shright is not a noun. The Ital. has 'con rotta voce,' with broken voice; Fil. iv. st. 116.

1153. 'Being always on the point of departing.'

1162. 'Whether it was sad for him.'

1174. Cf. 'And bisily gan,' &c.; Prol. A 301.

1179. preignant (F. preignant, pregnant, Cotgrave), catching hold of tightly, hence, forcible; pres. part. of prendre, to seize. Quite distinct from pregnant when representing Lat. praegnans.

1181. woon, hope, resource. This answers to Early E. wan (see Stratmann), and is allied to Icel. vÁn, hope, expectation; cf. Icel. vÆna, to hope for, to ween. The word is monosyllabic, and the long o is 'open,' as shewn by its riming with noon, goon, from A. S. nan, gan. Bell quite fails to explain it, and Morris suggests 'remedy,' without assigning any reason. It is common in Rob. of Gloucester, with similar rimes, and does not mean 'custom' or 'habit' or 'manner,' as suggested in Mr. Wright's Glossary, nor has it any connection with M. E. wone, custom, which was dissyllabic, and had a short vowel in the former syllable; but it means, as here, 'hope' or 'resource.' For example: 'tho he ne sey other won' = when he saw nothing else to be done; Rob. Glouc. ed. Hearne, p. 12; ed. Wright, l. 275. 'And flowe in-to hor castles, vor hii nadde other won,' i.e. no other resource; id. p. 19, ed. Hearne, l. 442. This is one of the rather numerous words in Chaucer that have not been rightly understood.

1185. twighte, plucked; pt. t. of twicchen.

1188. 'Where the doom of Minos would assign it a place.' Boccaccio here uses the word inferno (Fil. iv. 120) to denote the place where Troilus' soul would dwell; which Rossetti explains to mean simply Hades. Chaucer's meaning is the same; he is referring to Æneid. vi. 431-3.

1208. Atropos is the Fate who cuts the thread of life; see note to v. 7.

1237. a forlong wey, two minutes and a half, to speak exactly; see note to C. T., A 3637.

1241. Either slayn is here expanded into slayen, or the pause after this word does duty for a syllable, in the scansion.

1242. ho, stop, cease; see Kn. Ta. A 1706.

1244. ther-e is here made into a dissyllable.

1245. morter, mortar. The Century Dict. quotes from Dugdale's Hist. of St. Paul's (ed. Ellis), p. 27: 'A mortar was a wide bowl of iron or metal; it rested upon a stand or branch, and was filled either with fine oil or wax, which was kept burning by means of a broad wick [at funerals or on tombs].' It was named from its similarity in shape to the mortar in which things were pounded. I remember the word in common use; it came to denote what is now called a night-light, and the word night-light seems to have nearly displaced it. In this modern contrivance, the old 'mortar' is sometimes represented by a paper casing. The term was frequently applied, not merely to the saucer which held the grease, but to the light itself, which sometimes took the shape of a short candle. Cotgrave explains F. mortier as 'a kind of small chamber-lamp.' Instead of morter, MS. Cm. has percher, which meant a kind of wax candle placed upon a branch or bar called a perche (perch).

1295. 'About that (there) is no question.' Cf. l. 1694.

1374. wether, sheep. I.e. it is advisable to give the wolf a limb of a sheep, in order to save the rest.

1377. grave, incise, make an impression upon.

1380. moble (H., H2. moeble), movable property; cf. F. meubles.

1404. 'Whilst he is making his divination; and I will make him believe.' Ll. 1401-14 are due to a passage in Guido; see allit. Destruction of Troy, 8101-40.

1406. amphibologyes, ambiguities. A more correct form is amphiboly, from Gk. ?f????a; see New E. Dict. The ambiguous character of the old oracular responses is well known.

1411. 'When he started away from Delphi for fear.' Cf. l. 607.

1422. See note to Book i. 463.

1425. the selve wit, the same opinion.

1435. clere, clear of woe, free, light. MS. H. has chere.

1453. 'The bear has one opinion, and his leader another.'

1456. Repeated in Kn. Ta. A 2449; see note.

1459. 'With eyes like Argus;' i.e. seeing everywhere. Argus had a hundred eyes; Ovid, Met. i. 625.

1483. fere, frighten, terrify; as in Bk. ii. 124.

1505. 'To lose the substance, for the sake of something accidentally representing it;' as when the dog dropped the piece of meat, in his anxiety to get the shadow (or reflected image) of it. As to the famous words substance and accident, see note to Pard. Ta. C 539.

1525. go we, let us go; also written gowe, P. Plowm. B. Pr. 226.

1538-40. Juno caused Athamas, the husband of Ino, to run mad. As Ovid tells the story, Juno descended into hell, and crossed the Styx, in order to persuade the fury Tisiphone to haunt Athamas. Hence the mention of the Styx was readily suggested. See Ovid, Met. iv. 416-561, esp. l. 434. Styx was not, as Chaucer says, 'the pit of hell,' but a river that flowed through it.

1544. Satiry and Fauny, Satyri and Fauni, Satyrs and Fauns. Chaucer was probably thinking of Ovid, Met. vi. 392-4, where the Fauni, Satyri, and Nymphae are described as 'ruricolae, siluarum numina.' For halve goddes, we now say demigods.

1548. Simois, a river of Troas; Æneid. i. 100.

1560. laye, would lie; subj. The e is elided.

1562. take, take place, be made. Thynne has be take, but be clogs the line, and is not in the MSS.

1584. 'Vincit qui patitur;' see Frank. Ta. F 773.

1585. 'He who will have what he wants must give up what he likes.' Such seems to be the sense intended. Leef means 'dear.' One of Heywood's proverbs is—'Nought lay down, nought take up;' and very similar to this is—'Nothing venture, nothing have.' For the second leef, MS. H. has lyfe, a reading adopted by Bell and Morris. This takes all point out of the saying, and does not seem applicable to the case. Ll. 1587 and 1588 repeat the saying in another form, and confirm the reading in the text. Cf. Boeth. Bk. ii. Pr. 4. 98.

1591, 2. Lucina, i.e. Diana, or the moon; cf. Kn. Ta. A 2085. 'Before the moon pass out of the sign of Aries beyond that of Leo.' In order to this, the moon would have to pass wholly through Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, and Leo, thus traversing a distance represented by about 4 signs, or a third part of the whole zodiac: this would take up about the third part of 28 days, or more than 9 days. This brings us, as Criseyde says, to the 10th day (l. 1595). Such a method of counting is natural enough to those that watch the moon's course; and lovers are generally credited with taking a special interest in that luminary; cf. l. 1608. In the sequel, a good deal turns upon this 'tenth day.' Cf. ll. 1320, 1328, 1685; V. 239, 642, 681, 1103, 1206.

1608. Cynthia, i.e. Diana, the moon; Ovid, Met. ii. 465.

1612. 'To lose one opportunity, in order to gain another.'

1620. pure, very; as in Kn. Ta. A 1279.

1628. 'Who can hold a thing that tries to get away?'

1645. 'Res est solliciti plena timoris amor;' Ovid, Her. i. 12.

1667-73. In Boccaccio, a stanza of a similar character is assigned to Troilus, not to Criseyde.

1677. poeplish; Boccaccio (Fil. iv. st. 165) has popolesco, which Rossetti translates by 'low-bred.' Florio's Ital. Dict. has: 'popolesco, popular, of the common people.'

1682. fÓrtun-È is trisyllabic.