For women to the brave an easy prey,
Still follow fortune where she leads the way.
[30] Dryden's Palamon and Arcite:
I pass their warlike pomp, their proud array.
[31] This line has no warrant from Chaucer.
[32] Here followed a bad couplet, which Pope afterwards omitted:
Expensive dainties load the plenteous boards,
The best luxurious Italy affords.
[33] Joab, the leader of the Israelites in battle, blew the trumpet, as is recorded in the Bible, to gather them together. Theodomas is thought by Tyrwhitt to be a character in some fictitious history which was popular in the days of Chaucer.
[34] Chaucer says that the bed was blessed by the priest, and the form used on these occasions may be seen in the old Latin service books.
[35] Dryden's Sigismonda and Guiscardo:
What thoughts he had beseems me not to say.