122. Grene stone, mossy or moss-covered stone; an expression copied by Lydgate, Complaint of the Black Knight, l. 42.
Prof. Hales, in the Gent. Magazine, April, 1882, has an interesting article on 'Chaucer at Woodstock.' He shews that there was a park there, surrounded by a stone wall; and that Edward III. often resided at Woodstock, where the Black Prince was born. It is possible that Chaucer was thinking of Woodstock when writing the present passage. See the account of Woodstock Palace in Abbeys, Castles, &c. by J. Timbs; vol. ii. But Dr. Köppel has shewn (Anglia, xiv. 234) that Chaucer here partly follows Boccaccio's poem, Amorosa Visione, ii. 1-35, where we find 'un muro antico.' So also the Roman de la Rose has an allusion to Scipio's dream, and the following lines (129-131, p. [99], above):—
'Quant j'oi ung poi avant alé
Si vi ung vergier grant et lé,
Tot clos d'ung haut mur bataillié;' &c.
123. Y-wroght-e; the final -e here denotes the plural form.
125. On eyther halfe, on either side; to right and left.
127. Imitated from Dante, Inf. iii. 1; Cary's translation has—
'Through me you pass into the city of woe:...
Such characters in colour dim, I mark'd