BOOK II

.

ll. 265-6, 274-308. st. 35-37. 316-322. 46. 391-419, 428-455. 43, 54, 47-56. 501-523, 540-1. 55-57, 61. 554-578. 62-64. 584-588. 43. 589-602. 65, 66, 68. 645-665. 82-88, 71-78. 733-5, 746-763. 69, 70. 768-784. 73, 75-78. 937-8, 966-981. 79-81, 89. 995-1010. 90, 91. 1044-1104. 93-98, 100-109. 1125-1232. 109-128. 1305-1351. 128-131.

Other passages are mainly original; as, e.g. ll. 1352-1757 at the end, and 1-264 at the beginning.

1-3. These lines somewhat resemble Dante, Purgat. i. 1-3.

'Per correr miglior acqua alza le vele Omai la navicella del mio ingegno, Che lascia dietro a sè mar sì crudele;' &c.

7. _calendes_, the introduction to the beginning; see bk. v. l. 1634. Thus the 'kalends of January' precede that month, being the period from Dec. 14 to Dec. 31.

8. _Cleo_; so in most copies; H2. has _Clyo_; Clio, the muse of history.

14. _Latin_ seems, in this case, to mean Italian, which was called _Latino volgare_.

21. 'A blind man cannot judge well of colours;' a proverb.

22. Doubtless from Horace's Ars Poetica, 71-3; probably borrowed at second-hand.

28. A proverb. In the Proverbs of Hendyng, l. 29, we have: 'Ase fele thede, ase fele thewes,' i.e. so many peoples, so many customs. See l. 42 below. Cf. Boethius, Bk. ii. Pr. 7. 49 (p. 47).

36. _went_, for _wendeth_; i.e. goes; pres. tense.

46. 'Yet all is told, or must be told.'

48. _bitit_, for _bitydeth_; i.e. betides, happens.

55. _Bole_, Bull, the sign Taurus. On the third of May, in Chaucer's time, the sun would be in about the 20th degree of Taurus. The epithet _white_ is from Ovid, Met. ii. 852.

63. _wente_, sb., a turn; i.e. he tossed about.

64-68. _forshapen_, metamorphosed. Progne was changed into a swallow; Ovid, Met. vi. 668. Tereus carried off Progne's sister Philomela; see Leg. of Good Women (Philomela).

74. 'And knew that the moon was in a good plight (position) for him to take his journey.' That is, the moon's position was propitious; see note to Man of Lawes Tale, B 312.

77. '_Janus_, god of (the) entry;' see Ovid, Fasti, i. 125.

81. 'And found (that) she and two other ladies were sitting.' _Sete_ (A. S. _s[=æ]ton_) is the pt. t. pl., not the pp.

84. The celebrated story of the Siege of Thebes, known to Chaucer through the Thebais of Statius; see bk. v. 1484. And see l. 100.

87. _Ey_, eh! a note of exclamation, of frequent occurrence in the present poem.

103. _lettres rede_, i.e. the rubric describing the contents of the next section.

100-105. Oedipus unwittingly slew his father Laius; and the two sons of Oedipus contended for Thebes. For _Amphiorax_, see note to bk. v. 1500, and to Anelida, 57.

108. _bokes twelve_; the 12 Books of the Thebais. The death of Amphioraus is related at the end of