22. The verses from Statius, preserved in the MSS., are the three lines following; from Thebais, xii. 519:—
'Jamque domos patrias Scythicæ post aspera gentis
Prælia laurigero subeuntem Thesea curru,
Lætifici plausus missusque ad sidera vulgi,' &c.
The first line and half the second appear also in the MSS. of the Canterbury Tales, at the head of the Knightes Tale, which commences, so to speak, at the same point (l. 765 in Lewis's translation of the Thebaid). Comparing these lines of Statius with the lines in Chaucer, we at once see how he came by the word aspre and the expression With laurer crouned. The whole of this stanza (ll. 22-28) is expanded from the three lines here quoted.
23. Cithe, Scythia; see last note. See Kn. Tale, 9 (A 867).
24. Cf. Kn. Tale, 169, 121 (A 1027, 979).
25. Contre-houses, houses of his country, homes (used of Theseus and his army). It exactly reproduces the Lat. domos patrias. See Kn. Tale, 11 (A 869).
29-35. Chaucer merely takes the general idea from Statius, and expands it in his own way. Lewis's translation of Statius has:—