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