13. Seynt Valentyne; Feb. 14. See note to Sect. V. l. 309.
21. Cf. 'And everich of us take his aventure'; Kn. Tale, 328 (A 1186).
25. See note to line 7 above; and cf. Troilus, iii. 1450-70:—'O cruel day,' &c.
29. In the Proem to Troilus, bk. iii. st. 1, Chaucer places Venus in the third heaven; that is, he begins to reckon from the earth outwards, the spheres being, successively, those of the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn; see the description of the planets in Gower's Confessio Amantis, bk. vii. So also, in Troilus, v. 1809, by the seventh sphere he means the outermost sphere of Saturn. But in
other poems he adopts the more common ancient mode, of reckoning the spheres in the reverse order, taking Saturn first; in which case Mars comes third. In this he follows Macrobius, who, in his Commentary on the Somnium Scipionis, lib. i. c. 19, has:—'A sphæra Saturni, quæ est prima de septem,' &c.; see further on this borrowing from Macrobius in the note to l. 69. The same mode of reckoning places Venus in the fifth sphere, as in Lenvoy to Scogan, l. 9. In the curious manual of astronomy called The Shepheards Kalendar (pr. in 1604) we find, in the account of Mars, the following: 'The planet of Mars is called the God of battel and of war, and he is the third planet, for he raigneth next vnder the gentle planet of Jupiter.... And Mars goeth about the twelue signes in two yeare.' The account of Venus has:—'Next after the Sun raigneth the gentle planet Venus, ... and she is lady ouer all louers: ... and her two signes is Taurus and Libra.... This planet Venus runneth in twelue months ouer the xii. signes.' Also:—'Next under Venus is the faire planet Mercury ... and his principall signes be these: Gemini is the first ... and the other signe is Virgo,' &c. See Furnivall's Trial Forewords, p. 121.
Hence the 'third heaven's lord' is Mars; and Chaucer tells us, that by virtue of his motion in his orbit (as well as by desert) he had won Venus. That is, Venus and Mars were seen in the sky very near each other. We may explain wonne by 'approached.'
36. At alle, in any and every case. There is a parallel passage to this stanza in Troilus, bk. iii. st. 4 of the Proem.
38. Talle, obedient, docile, obsequious. See the account of this difficult word in my Etym. Dictionary, s.v. tall.
42. Scourging, correction. Compare the phr. under your yerde; Parl. Foules, 640, and the note. I see no reason for suspecting the reading.
49. 'Unless it should be that his fault should sever their love.'