Chaucer's Works, Volume 3 — The House of Fame; The Legend of Good Women; The Treatise on the Astrolabe; The Sources of the Canterbury Tales

2176. To his contre-ward, i.e. toward his country. Cf. 'To Thebes-ward'; Kn. Ta. 109 (A 967).

2177. A twenty devil way, in the way of twenty devils; i.e. in all sorts of evil ways or directions; cf. Can. Yem. Ta., G 782.

2178. His fader, king Ægeus (l. 1944). The story is that Theseus went to Crete in a ship with a black sail, in token of his unhappy fate. He had agreed to exchange this for a white sail, if his expedition was successful; but this he omitted to do. Hence Ægeus, 'seeing the black sail afar off, being out of all hope ever more to see his son again, took such a grief at his heart, that he threw himself headlong from the top of a cliff, and killed himself.'—Shak. Plutarch, p. 284.

2182. Atake, overtaken with sleep; cf. C. T. 6966 (D 1384).

2186. 'Perque torum moueo brachia; nullus erat'; Her. x. 12.

2189, 90.

2192. Suggested by Ovid; ll. 81-6.

2193. 'Reddebant nomen concaua saxa tuum'; id. 22. The Latin and English lines are alike beautiful.

2194. 'Luna fuit; specto, si quid, nisi littora, cernam'; id. 17.

2195-7. These three lines represent eight in Ovid; 25-32.

2198. This line answers to the first line in Ovid, Epist. x.

2200, 1. His meiny, its (complete) crew. Inne, within; A.S. innan.

2202.

2208-17. Paraphrased from Ovid; Her. x. 51-64.

2212. Answere of, answer for; 'redde duos.'

2214. Wher shal I become? Where shall I go to? the old idiom. We now say, 'what will become of me?' On this expression, see Bicome in my Gloss. to P. Plowman (Clar. Press Series).

2215. 'For even if a ship or boat were to come this way, I dare not go home to my country, for fear (of my father).'

The reading that bote none here come is nonsense, and expresses the converse of what is meant. The corresponding line in Ovid is—'Finge dari comitesque mihi, uentosque, ratemque'; 63.

2218. What, for what, why? See Cant. Ta., B 56, &c.

2220. Naso, Ouidius Naso. Her epistle, the epistle above quoted, the title of which is—'Ariadne Theseo.'

2223, 4. The story is that Bacchus took compassion on Ariadne, and finally placed her crown as a constellation in the heavens; see Ovid, Fasti, iii. 461-516; Met. viii. 178-182. This constellation is the Northern Crown, or Corona Borealis, which is just in the opposite side of the sky from Taurus. Ovid says—'qui medius nixique genu est anguemque tenentis,' Met. viii. 182. Here the holder of the snake is Ophiuchus; and Nixus genu or Engonasin (ἐν γόνασιν) was a name for Hercules; see Hyginus, Poet. Ast. lib. ii. c. 6; lib. iii. c. 5; Ausonius, Eclog. iii. 2. The Northern Crown comes to the meridian with the sign Scorpio, not Taurus. We can only bring the sense right by supposing that in the signe of Taurus means when the sun is in that sign, viz. in April. In the nights of April, in our latitude, the Northern Crown is very conspicuous.

2227. Quyte him his whyle, repay him for his time, i.e. for the way in which he had spent his time; cf. Man of Law's Ta., B 584.

VII. THE LEGEND OF PHILOMELA.

Chaucer's Prologue ends at l. 2243. The tale is from Ovid, Met. vi. 424-605, with some omissions, and ends at l. 2382. Gower has the same story; C. A. bk. v. ed. Pauli, ii. 313.

2228. The words 'Deus dator formarum' are written after the title in MS. B.; and part of the first line corresponds to this expression. In MS. F. it appears as 'Deus dator formatorum^[71],' which can hardly be right.

Corson has the following note:—'In these verses (2228-30) the Platonic doctrine of forms or ideas is expressed. For whatever knowledge Chaucer may have had of the philosophy of Plato, he was probably indebted to the Italian poets, with whom, especially Petrarch, Plato was a favourite.' Corson also quotes the following from Sir Wm. Hamilton:—'Plato agreed with the rest of the ancient philosophers in this—that all things consist of matter and form; and that matter of which all things were made, existed from eternity, without form; but he likewise believed that there are external forms of all possible things which exist, without matter; and to these eternal and immaterial forms he gave the name of ideas. In the Platonic sense, then, ideas were the patterns to which the Deity fashioned the phenomenal or ectypal world.' See also Spenser, Hymne in honour of Beautie, st. 5. And cf. l. 1582 above.

However, Chaucer here follows Boethius, De Consolatione Philosophiae, lib. iii. met. 9:—

See Chaucer's version of the same, ll. 1-12. Cf. Le Rom. de la Rose, 16931-8, also copied from Boethius, who follows Plato.

2233. As for that fyn, with that particular object.

2236. Fro this world, i.e. from the centre of the universe; according to the old Ptolemaic system which made the earth the fixed centre of all things. The firste hevene, the first or outermost sphere, that of Saturn; see note to Complaint of Mars, 29.

2237. Understand al (everything) as the nom. case to corrumpeth; i.e. everything becomes corrupt, is infected.

2238. As to me, as for me, in my opinion.

2241. Yit last, still lasts, still endures.

2243. Read—The stóry of Térë-ús, &c.; the -y in story being rapidly slurred over.

2244. Here begins Ovid, Met. vi. 424:—'Threïcius Tereus.' Tereus was king of Thrace; and Ovid says he could trace his descent from Gradivus, i.e. Mars (l. 427).

Marte, Mars. Corson here notes that 'Marte is the ablative case of Mars, as Jove is of Jupiter.' It is worth while to say that this view is quite erroneous; for these forms did not arise in that way. Marte was formed from Martem, the accusative case, by dropping the final m; and, generally, the Romance languages formed most of their substantives from accusative cases, owing to the frequent use of that case, especially in the construction of the accus. with the infinitive, which in medieval Latin was very common. See Sir G. Cornewall Lewis' Essay on the Romance Languages, and Diez, Grammatik der Romanischen Sprachen, vol. ii. Thus the F. corps represents the Lat. acc. corpus, not the abl. corpore; as is sufficiently obvious.

2247. Read—Pán-di-ón-es. Pandion, a king of Athens, was father of Progne and Philomela. Cf. The Passionate Pilgrim, xxi. 395.

2249. The original Latin should be consulted, as Chaucer sometimes copies Ovid literally, and sometimes goes his own way.

2253. Wond, wound; aboute the balkes wond, kept winding (flying in circular wise) round about the balks (or transverse beams beneath the roof). Three good MSS. read wond, which is the past tense of winden, to wind. Bell and others read wonde, explained by 'dwelt'; but this is open to two objections, viz. (1) the pt. t. of wonien to dwell, is woned or wonede, not wonde; and (2) an owl cannot dwell about a balk, but only on it. The pt. pl. woneden (three syllables) occurs in the Kn. Ta. 2069 (A 2927); and we learn from the Clerkes Tale, E 339, that the pp. woned rimes with astoned. Ovid, indeed, has incubuit and sedit; but that does not prove much; for Chaucer expresses things in his own manner at will.

2256. This original line refers to the medieval wedding-feasts, which sometimes lasted even forty days. See Havelok, l. 2344; and the note.

2259-68. From Ovid, Met. vi. 438-442.

2261. Saw not longe, had not seen for a long time.

2264. Moste, might. Ones, for once; lit. once.

2265. And come anoon, and return again soon.

2266. 'Or else, unless she might go to see her.'

2270. 'Caused his ships to be made ready.'

2270-8. From Ovid, Met. vi. 444-450. Chaucer next passes on to ll. 475, 483. Ll. 2288-2294 are abridged from ll. 451-471 of the Latin. Ll. 2295-2301 answer to ll. 495-501; ll. 2302-2307 to ll. 488, 489; but many touches are Chaucer's own, and he is seldom literal.

2282. Read lovede as lov'de; cf. preyde, 2294. This line is imitated in Kn. Ta. 338 (A 1196)—'For in this world he lovede no man so.'

2290, 1. 'And that there was none like her in (royal) array'; Met. vi. 451. Two so riche, twice as rich; cf. ten so wood, in l. 736.

2308. Cf. Ovid, Met. vi. 512.

2312, 3. 'If it might please her, or (even) if it might not please her.'

2318-22. Ovid has these images of the lamb (l. 527) and of the dove (529).

2335. This 'castle' answers to Ovid's 'custodia' (572).

2340. 'God avenge thee, and grant thee thy petition (for vengeance).'

2342-9. Cf. Ovid, Met. vi. 563-570.

2352. Stole, stool, frame for tapestry work. Hexham's Du. Dict. (1658) gives: 'Stoel-doeck, Tapistrie, or Hangings'; lit. stool-cloth. Cf. G. Weberstuhl, a loom; lit. weaver-stool. Radevore, a kind of serge; here, the material on which tapestry-work was executed. The only other example I have met with is in a poem beginning—'As ofte as syghes ben in herte trewe,' in the Tanner MS. 346, fol. 73. One stanza begins thus:—

(Another copy of these lines is in MS. Ff. 1. 6 in the Cambridge Univ. Library, fol. 11.)

Here raduore is clearly an error for radeuore or radevore, as the scansion shews. Urry's Glossary gives the following explanation: 'Ras in French means any stuff [it means serge or satin], as Ras de Chalons, Ras de Gennes; Ras de Vore or Vaur may be a stuff made at such a place.' On which Tyrwhitt remarks—'There is a town in Languedoc called La Vaur; but I know not that it was ever famous for tapestry.' Cotgrave gives: 'Ras, serge'; also 'Ras de Milain, the finest kind of bare serge, or a silke serge.' Littré cites ras de Châlons from Scarron, Virg. iv.; also 'bas de soye, raz de Millan et d'estame.' Ras, in fact, is the same as the Tudor-English word rash. The loss of the s in ras de Vore is regular, because s drops before d in Anglo-French, though it is preserved in ras when used alone. I find, on consulting the English Cyclopædia, that La Vaur, in the department of Tarn, produces silk and serge to this day; so that Urry is certainly right. The whole account in ll. 2350-72 is expanded from five lines in the Latin text, 576-580:—

Observe that, in l. 2360, the stuff is called 'a stamin.'

2359. By that, by the time that.

2360. A stamin large, a large piece of stamine. Stamin or stamine is usually explained as a kind of woollen cloth. Cotgrave gives: 'Estamine, the stuffe tamine.' Godefroy gives both estamin, masc. and estamine, fem. explained by 'tissu léger de laine ou de coton.' Palsgrave has:—'Stamell, fyne worstede, estamine'; and—'Stamyne, estamine.' The Prompt. Parv. has:—'Stamyn, clothe, stamina.' Stamin was used as a material for shirts, and was worn by way of penance; Fosbrooke explains it as 'a shirt made of woollen and linen, used instead of a penitentiary hair-shirt.' 'Stamin habbe whoso wule,' whoso will may have a stamin; Ancren Riwle, p. 418. Chaucer uses it thus near the end of the Persones Tale (I 1052); 'Also in weringe of heyres or of stamin or of haubergeons on hir naked flesh for Cristes sake, and swiche manere penances.'

MSS. C. T. A. have stamyn, which seems the better form; the rest (like the printed editions) have stames, which may be an error for stamel, O.F. estamel, used in the same sense as O.F. estamine. Else it may answer to O.F. estame, 'laine peignée, tricot de laine' in Godefroy. The fact that Ovid's word is stamina is in favour of the spelling stamin. (Bell remarks that 'the printed copies read flames, which is nonsense.' He seems to have misread stames (with long s) as flames. The editions of 1532, 1550, and 1561 certainly have stames.)

2373-82. Abridged from Met. vi. 581-605. Ovid mentions the triennial festival to Bacchus.

2379. Compleint is a much better reading than the constreynte of the old editions.

2383. No charge, of no consequence; Squi. Ta., F 359.

2383-93. All Chaucer's own. The last line is characteristic: 'unless it happens to be the case that he cannot get another,' i.e. a new love. For non other, old editions have another!

2385. Here deserved is the usual Chaucerian form of the pt. tense. Prof. Lounsbury (Studies in Chaucer, i. 403) calls this a false form. But cf. wyped, lipsed (in -ed, not -ede); Prol. to C. T., 133, 264.

VIII. THE LEGEND OF PHYLLIS.

Gower tells the same story in his Confessio Amantis, bk. iv. (ed. Pauli, ii. 26); and it is likely that he and Chaucer derived it from the same source, whatever that may have been. A portion of the latter part, from l. 2496, is taken from Ovid, Heroides, Ep. ii. And see note to l. 2423.

2395. An allusion to Matt. vii. 16, and to Legend VI, above.

2398. Demophon, usually Demophoön, son of Theseus and Phædra, who, on his return from Troy, gained the love of Phyllis, daughter of Sithon, king of Thrace. Observe that Gower says that Demophoön was on his way towards Troy.

2400. 'Unless it were.'

2401. Observe that grac-e is dissyllabic, as in l. 2433.

2403. 'Now I turn to the effect (the pith) of what I have to say.'

2413. Him seems to stand alone in the first foot; for were, in this phrase, is usually monosyllabic; cf. Mancip. Prol., H 23. But it also occurs as a dissyllable, in which case the line is normal. Or else the -er in lever is dwelt on.

2416. 'And his rudder was broken by a wave.'

2420. For wood, as (if) mad, 'like mad.' For is not a prefix, but a separate word; as shewn by 'for pure wood,' Rom. Rose, 276; and see Ho. Fame, 1747. Posseth, pusheth, tosseth. Bech observes that ll. 2411-21 are from Vergil, Æn. i. 85-90, 102, 142.

2422. Chorus; so in Thynne's edition; the MSS. have Thorus (except T., which has Thora). Both Chorus and Thorus are unknown as sea-divinities; but I think I can guess Chaucer's authority, viz. Verg. Æn. v. 823-5:—

Here we find Thetis, chorus, Triton; whilst 'and they alle' answers to exercitus omnis. (So also Bech.) Chorus is used for Caurus, the north-east wind, in Chaucer's Boethius, bk. iv. met. 5. 17; but this is not the purpose.

2423. Lond, i.e. Thrace. Phyllis, as said above, was the daughter of Sithon, king of Thrace; but both Chaucer and Gower make her father's name to be 'Ligurgus,' i.e. Lycurgus. This substitution may have been suggested by Ovid, Her. ii. 111—'quae tibi subieci latissima regna Lycurgi.' He is the same as the Lycurgus in Statius, Theb. iv. 386; in Ovid, Met. iv. 22, and in Homer, vi. 130; and was king of the Edoni, a people of Thrace. This accounts also for the introduction into the Knight's Tale of 'Ligurge himself, the grete king of Thrace'; l. 1271 (A 2129). Prof. Lounsbury (Studies in Chaucer, ii. 232) has usefully pointed out that the immediate authority for making Lycurgus the father of Phyllis was Boccaccio's De Genealogia Deorum, lib. xi. c. 25, headed—'De Phyllidi Lycurgi filia.'

2425. On to sene, to look upon; cf. the parallel line, Kn. Ta., 177 (A 1035).

2427. Is y-wonne, is arrived. Cf. Æn. i. 173.

2434. Chevisaunce, borrowing; properly an agreement for borrowing money. See C. T. 13259, 13277, 13321 (B 1519, 1537, 1581); P. Plowman, B. 5. 249, and the note; and the Gloss. to Spenser.

2438. Rodopeya, the country near Rhodope, which was a mountain-range of Thrace, now a part of the Hæmus range. See l. 2498.

2448. 'As Reynard the fox doth, so (doth) the fox's son.' The line is incomplete, but the sense is clear. 'Reynard, which with us is a duplicate for fox, while in the French renard has quite excluded the older volpils, was originally not the name of a kind, but the proper name of the fox-hero, the vulpine Ulysses, in that famous beast-epic of the middle ages, Reineke Fuchs; the immense popularity of which we gather from many evidences, from none more clearly than this. Chanticleer is in like manner the name of the cock, and Bruin of the bear in the same poem.'—Trench, Eng. Past and Present. Reynard is from M.H.G. ragin-hart, strong in counsel; from ragin, counsel, and hart, strong.

2454. Agroted, surfeited, cloyed. A rare word; used also by Lydgate. See the New E. Dict.

2456. This is a hint that Chaucer was already getting tired of his task.

2477. In a month. So in Ovid; see l. 2503.

2485. With a corde, i.e. by hanging. Cf. Ovid, Her. ii. 141:—

2493. Hir soules, their souls; of Theseus and Demophoön.

2495. 'Although it be but a small part of the whole letter.' In fact, Chaucer gives us ll. 1-8 of Ovid's second Epistle (in the Heroides); and, from l. 2518 onward, sentences made up from ll. 26, 27, 43, 44, 49-52, 63-68, 73-78, and 134-137 of the same.

2496. Compare these lines with Ovid, Her. ii. 1-8:—

Hostess-e is trisyllabic; MS. C. has—'Ostess-e thyn.'

2502. Highte, promised. But Chaucer seems to have mistaken the sense of Ovid's fourth line (in the note to l. 2496).

2508. 'Sithonis unda'; see note to l. 2496. Here Sithonis is an adj. (gen. Sithonidis), and means 'Sithonian,' i.e. Thracian; because Sithon or Sitho, her father, was king of Thrace. I substitute Sitho for the MS. spellings.

2518. See note to l. 2495 for references.

2521. For, because: 'quid feci, nisi non sapienter amaui?'

2529. May occupies the first foot of the line.

2534. She prays that the glory of having betrayed her will be the greatest glory he will ever attain to. 'Di faciant, laudis summa sit ista tuae!' (66).

2551. Mote ye, may ye. 'Ad tua me fluctus proiectam littora portent'; (135).

2556. And knew, i.e. and she knew.

2558. Read—'Such sórw' hath shé,' &c. Bell altered the second she in this line to he, without authority, and unnecessarily. The word besette does not mean 'served' or 'treated,' as those who keep this reading have to assert, but 'bestowed' or 'gave up,' and her means 'herself.' The sense is therefore—'Such sorrow hath she, because she so disposed of herself.' See Beset in the New E. Dict. § 7. Caxton has: 'Orgarus thought his doughter shol wel be maryed, and wel beset upon hym'; Chron. Eng. cxii.

2561. Trusteth, imp. pl. As in love, in the matter of love. This playful line is in the same spirit as l. 2393 above.

IX. THE LEGEND OF HYPERMNESTRA.

The story is told in Ovid, Her. xiv. But Chaucer has taken some of the details from Boccaccio, De Genealogia Deorum, lib. ii. c. 22. Cf. Hyginus, Fab. 168. See the Introduction.

2563. Danao, Danaus. Danaus and Ægyptus were twin brothers. Ægyptus had 50 sons, and Danaus 50 daughters. Danaus had reason to fear his nephews, and fled with his daughters to Argos. Thither he was followed by the sons of Ægyptus, who demanded his daughters in marriage, and promised faithful alliance. Danaus distributed his daughters amongst them, but to each of them gave a dagger, with which they were to kill their husbands on the bridal night. They all did so, except Hypermnestra, who saved her husband Lynceus. Thus the attempt of Danaus failed, and he was slain by Lynceus, in accordance with the destiny predicted for him.

It must be particularly noted that Chaucer makes Ægyptus and Danaus change places. According to him, Ægyptus was the father of the daughters, and consequently attempted the life of Lynceus; whilst Danaus was the father of the sons, and therefore of Lynceus.

2569. Lino; by which perverted name Lynceus is meant; Boccaccio has 'Lino seu Linceo' (dat. case).

2570. Egiste represents Boccaccio's Ægistus, i.e. Ægyptus.

2574. 'And caused (men) to call her,' i.e. had her named.

2575. Ypermistra, i.e. Hypermestra, a corrupter form of Hypermnestra; see the account in the Introduction. Note that the first syllable Y- forms the first foot in the line.

2576. Of her nativitee, by her horoscope; see l. 2584.

2577. Thewes, qualities. Craik has a long note on this word in his edition of Julius Cæsar. It merely comes to this, that thew must have meant strength or some excellent bodily quality in the first instance, and some excellent mental quality afterwards. Nevertheless it is remarkable that (with one exception in Layamon, 6361) the usual old sense is the latter; and the usual modern sense (notably in Jul. Cæs. i. 3. 81, 2 Hen. IV. iii. 2. 276) is the former. The A.S. form is þéaw. Craik's notion that this word was confused with A.S. þéoh, the thigh, is entirely out of the question, and gives no help.

2580. Wirdes, Fates; Lat. Parcæ; Gk. Moiræ. Corson shews that G. Douglas translates the Lat. fata by werdes in Æn. i. 18, and Parcæ by werd sisteris in the same, iii. 379. He also quotes from Holinshed's Hist. of Scotland—'the weird sisters, that is, as ye would say, the goddesses of destinie'; reproduced by Shakespeare in Macb. iv. 1. 136.

2582. The scansion suggests that Pitous-e, sad-de, are treated like French adjectives, the final e denoting the feminine gender. This is natural in the case of pitous-e, fem. of pitous, just as we have dispitous-e, Book of the Duch. 624; but the distinction is not often made in M.E. Sweet's A.S. grammar gives til-u as an occasional fem. form of the nom. of the indef. adjective; so that sæd-u might have been used. Wys-e is likewise dissyllabic, though the A.S. form was wís even in the feminine. But the definite forms of the M.E. adj. were sad-de, wys-e; and there may have been consequent confusion. In fact, Prof. Child gives a list of adjectives of this kind, being monosyllabic in A.S., but dissyllabic in Chaucer. He includes wise, but not sad, his examples being taken from the Canterbury Tales only, and thence only in clear cases. Dispitous-e occurs as a vocative case, in Troil. ii. 435.

2584. Here comes in the old belief in astrology. Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn, as here mentioned, are not the gods, but the planets; and each planet had (it was thought) its peculiar influence, which was stronger or weaker according to its position in the heavens at the time of birth of the person whom it affected. The influences of Venus and Jupiter were for good (see note to Troil. iii. 1417); whilst the influences of Mars and Saturn were evil. See further below.

2585. With is explained by Corson to mean 'by'; and such a sense is, of course, usual and common. For all that, it may here mean 'with.' The sense seems to me to be—'For, though the influence of the planet Venus gave her great beauty, she was (also) so compounded with a share of Jupiter,' &c. It does not make much difference, and the reader can choose.

2588. Thoughte her, it seemed to her.

2589. Rede Mars, red Mars, because the planet is reddish; see note to l. 533. Cf. Kn. Ta., 1111 (A 1969). As to the bad influence of Mars, compare the following:—

2592. Venus was supposed to have much influence in repressing the evil influence of Mars, on account of their connection in mythology. See the Compleint of Mars. Moreover Mars is here said to be suppressed by 'the oppression of houses'; i.e. by the fact that he was in a 'house' or 'mansion,' which had such effect. The terms 'house' and 'mansion' are equivalent, and are names given to the signs of the zodiac. Every sign had a planet assigned to it, and was called the 'house' of that planet. When a planet was in its own house, its influence would be felt. The mansions of Mars were Aries and Scorpio. Besides this, each planet had a sign called its 'exaltation,' in which it had the greatest power of all. The 'exaltation' of Mars was Capricornus. Mars had also his positions of least influence; two of these, called his 'fall,' were the signs opposite to his mansions, viz. Libra and Taurus, and the third, called his 'depression,' was the sign opposite his exaltation, viz. Cancer. We may conclude that, at the period of taking Hypermnestra's horoscope, Mars was in Cancer, or else in Taurus or in Libra. Both Taurus and Libra were mansions of Venus; and, if Mars was in either of these, his evil influence would be kept under by her.

2594. Probably the whole of Chaucer's astrological talk was intended to shew why Hypermnestra disliked handling a knife in malice. He has made much of the weak influence of Mars, precisely because those who were born under his influence were very ready with a knife. See the note to the Kn. Ta., 1163 (A 2021), where the Compost of Ptolemeus is quoted to shew that a man born under Mars is apt to be 'a maker of swordes and knyves, and a sheder of mannes blode, ... and good to be a barboure and a blode-letter, and to draw tethe, and is peryllous of his handes.'

2597. 'She had too evil aspects of Saturn, which caused her to die in prison.' All the MSS. have To (= too, excessively), except T., which has Ryght bad. Thynne has Two, but there is no authority for this, nor does it give any sense. The evil influence of Saturn is spoken of at length in the Kn. Tale, 1596-1611 (A 2454-69). Note especially l. 1599, where Saturn says:—

2600. Here Egiste (see l. 2570) is turned into Egistes.

2602. 'For, at that time, no lineage was spared'; i.e. no consanguinity was considered as being a bar to marriage.

2603. Hem is in apposition with Danao and Egistes; 'it pleased these two.'

2604. Note the shifted accentuation—Ypérmistrá. Chaucer (except in l. 2660) entirely drops all mention of Hypermnestra's 49 sisters, and of Lynceus' 49 brothers. This is extremely judicious, as it concentrates the interest on the heroine.

2610. Chaucer is here thinking of Ovid, Her. xiv. 25:—