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?'
'An eel and woman, A learned poet says, unless by th' tail And with thy teeth thou hold, will either fail.' The Two Noble Kinsmen, A. iii. sc. 5. l. 49.
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.
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