Book viii of the Thebaid. See ll. 1480-1501 below.

971. _Orcades_, the Orkney islands, very remote from Rome; Juvenal, Sat. ii. 161. _Inde_, India, remote from Rome in the other direction; Vergil, Æn. vi. 794. Here the point of view is transferred from Rome to Troy.

975. She was a widow; Bk. i. 97. In l. 977, she lies boldly.

992. 'When I see what I have never seen yet (viz. Troy taken), perhaps I will do what I have never yet done (i. e. think of a second husband).'

1013. This incident is not in Boccaccio; but it occurs in Guido delle Colonne, which Chaucer must therefore have consulted. The alliterative Destruction of Troy duly records the circumstance, ll. 8092-4:--

'A gloue of that gay gate he belyue, Drogh hit full dernly the damsell fro; None seond but hir-selfe, that suffert full well.'

1016. I. e. Venus was seen as 'the evening-star.'

1018, 9. _Cynthea_, i. e. the moon; Bk. iv. 1608. In Bk. iv. l. 1591, Criseyde had promised to return before the moon passed out of the sign Leo. This was now on the point of happening; the moon was leaving Leo, to pass into Virgo.

1020. _Signifer_, the 'sign-bearer,' the zodiac. 'This forseide hevenish zodiak is cleped the cercle of the signes;' Astrolabe, pt. i. § 21. The zodiac extended, north and south, to the breadth of 6 degrees on both sides of the ecliptic line, thus forming a belt 12 degrees wide. This included numerous bright stars, such as Regulus ([alpha] Leonis) and Spica Virginis ([alpha] Virginis), here called 'candles.' Chaucer may have found the word _Signifer_ in Claudian, In Rufinum, i. 365.

1039. _he wan_, he took in battle. Thynne reads _she_; but _he_ is right. Diomede got possession of Troilus' horse, and sent it to Criseyde; whereupon she said that Diomede might keep it for himself. Note that Chaucer refers us to 'the story' for this incident; by which he means the _Historia Troiana_ of Guido. But Guido only goes as far as to say that Diomed sent Troilus' horse to Criseyde; the rest is Chaucer's addition. See the allit. Destruction of Troy, ll. 8296-8317; and Lydgate's Siege of Troye, Bk. iii. ch. 26, ed. 1557, fol. R 4, back. Cf. Shak. Troilus, v. 5. 1: '_Dio._ Go, go, my servant, take thou Troilus' horse, Present the fair steed to my lady Cressid.' The incidents of the 'broche' and 'pensel' are Chaucer's own; see Bk. iii. 1370-2.

1043. _pencel_, short for _penoncel_, a little pennon or banner; here it means that Diomede wore a sleeve of hers as a streamer on his helmet or arm. This was a common custom; cf. Shak. Troil. v. 2. 69, 169. '_Pensell_, a lytel baner;' Palsgrave; and see P. Plowm. C. xix. 189.

1044. _the stories elles-wher_, i.e. in another part of Guido's _Historia_, viz. in Book xxv; see the allit. Destruct. of Troy, ll. 9942-9959, and Lydgate's Siege of Troye, Bk. iv. ch. 30, ed. 1557, fol. U 4.

1051. I cannot find this in Guido.

1062. 'My bell shall be rung;' my story shall be told.

1104. I.e. 'on the morrow of which.'

1107. Cf. 'laurigero ... Phoebo'; Ovid, Art. Am. iii. 389.

1110. 'Nisus' daughter,' i.e. Scylla, changed into the bird _ciris_, which some explain as a lark; see Leg. Good Wom. 1908, and note; Ovid, Met. viii. 9-151; Vergil, Georg. i. 404-9.

1114. _noon_, noon, mid-day; the time for dinner (see l. 1129, and Cant. Ta. E 1893). See my note to Piers Plowm. C. ix. 146.

1133. _cape_, gape; see Miller's Tale, A 3444, 3841 (footnotes).

1140, 1. _yate_, i.e. port-cullis. _As nought ne were_, as if there were no special reason for it. I.e. I will make them do it, without telling them why.

1151. Deficient in the first foot; hardly a good line.

1155. 'Think it not tedious to (have to) wait.'

1162. _fare-cart_, cart for provisions; cf. our phrase 'to enjoy good _fare_.' It might mean 'travelling-car,' but that is inapplicable. B. has simply 'carro;' Fil. vii. 8.

1163-9. Cf. Romeo's speech in Rom. v. 1. 1-11.

1174. 'The happiness which you expect will come out of the wood,' i.e. if it comes at all. A jocular form of expressing unlikelihood. There is evidently a reference to some popular song or saying; compare the Jeu de Robin in Toynbee's Specimens of Old French, p. 224. In the Rom. of the Rose, 7455, we have an allusion to a 'ioly Robin,' who was a gay dancer and a minstrel, and the exact opposite of a Jacobin friar. Shakespeare's clown in Twelfth Night (iv. 2. 78) sings of a 'jolly Robin' whose lady 'loves another.' And Ophelia sang 'bonny sweet Robin is all my joy;' Haml. iv. 5. 187.

1176. Another proverbial saying, _ferne yere_, last year; see _fern, fürn_, in Stratmann, and cf. A. S. _fyrng[=e]arum fr[=o]d_, wise with the experience of past years, Phoenix, 219. Last year's snow will not be seen again.

1190. He persuades himself that the moon is to pass well beyond the end of the sign Leo; thus allowing another day.

1222. _by potente_, with a stick, or staff with a spiked end and crutch-like top; cf. Somp. Ta. D 1776. A _potent_, in heraldry, is a figure resembling the top of a crutch, consisting of a rectangle laid horizontally above a small square. See Rom. of the Rose, 368.

1274. 'Whereas I daily destroy myself by living.'

1313. _rolleth_, revolves; see Pard. Ta. C 838; Somn. Ta. D 2217.

1335. 'And for that which is defaced, ye may blame the tears.'

1354. 'I sigh with sorrowful sighs.' MS. Cm. has _sikis I sike_.

1368. 'I can only say that, being a receptacle for every sorrow, I was still alive.' _cheste_, box; like that of Pandora.

1372. 'Until I see the contents of your reply.'

1431. 'Bottomless promises;' i. e. that held nothing.

1433. See the parallel line, Kn. Ta. A 1838, and note.

1450. _Sibille_, the Sibyl, the prophetess; not here a proper name, but an epithet of Cassandra. Cf. Æneid. vi. 98.

1464. (Ll. 1457-1512 are not in Boccaccio.) The story of Meleager and the Calydonian boar-hunt is told at length in Ovid, Met. viii. 271, &c.; whence Chaucer doubtless took it; cf. l. 1469 with Met. viii. 282. The 'mayde,' in l. 1473, was Atalanta.

1480. Chaucer seems to be mistaken here. Tydeus, according to one account, was Meleager's brother; and, according to another, his half-brother. He does not tell us to what 'olde bokes' he refers.

1483. _moder_; his mother Althaea; see Ovid, Met. viii. 445.

LATIN LINES: Argument of the 12 books of the Thebaid of Statius. These lines are placed, in the MSS., after l. 1498, interrupting the connection. I therefore insert them after l. 1484, which is certainly their proper place. Ll. 1485-1510 give a loose rendering of them. I subjoin an epitome, in a more intelligible form; but suppress many details not mentioned in Chaucer.