226. Cf. 'Jest and youthful Jollity'; L'Allegro, 26.
228. Messagerye and Mede represents the sending of messages and giving of bribes. For this sense of Mede, see P. Plowman, C. iv. (or B. iii.). The other three are Audacity (too forward Boldness), Glozings (Flatteries), and Pimps; all of bad reputation, and therefore not named. Boccaccio's words are—'il folle Ardire Con Lusinghe e Ruffiani.'
231. Bras, brass. Boccaccio has rame, i. e. copper, the metal which symbolised Venus; see Can. Yeom. Tale, G 829. In fact, this temple is the very temple of Venus which Chaucer again describes in the Knightes Tale, ll. 1060-1108 (A 1918); which see.
234. Faire, beautiful by nature; gay, adorned by art.
236. Office, duty; viz. to dance round.
237. These are the dowves flikeringe in Kn. Tale, 1104 (A 1962).
243. Sonde, sand. 'Her [Patience's] chief virtue is quiet endurance in the most insecure and unhopeful circumstances'; Bell.
245. Answering to Boccaccio's 'Promesse ad arte,' i. e. 'artful Promises.'
246. Cf. Kn. Tale, 1062-1066, 1070 (A 1920-4, 1928).
255. 'The allusion is to the adventure of Priapus, related by Ovid in the Fasti, lib. i. 415'; Bell. The ass, by braying, put Priapus to confusion.