[89]. aperceived, made known. the king, i.e. Theodoric, king of Italy for 33 years, A.D. 493-526. His reign was, on the whole, good and glorious, but he committed the great crime of putting to death both Boethius and his aged father-in-law Symmachus, for which he afterwards expressed his deep repentance. See Gibbon's Roman Empire. The chief record of his reign is in the collection of twelve books of public epistles composed in his name by Cassiodorus. The seat of his government was Ravenna, as mentioned below.
[93]. lykned; rather, added; Lat. 'posse adstrui uidetur.'
[95-194]. See a translation into modern English of the whole of this passage, in H. F. Stewart's Essay, pp. 37-41.
[101]. axestow in somme, if you ask particularly; 'summam quaeris?'
[106, 107]. forsake, deny. have wold, have willed, did wish.
[109]. and that I confesse. Here Chaucer's version seems to be quite at fault. 'At uolui, nec unquam uelle desistam. Fatebimur? [MS. C. Et fatebimur.] Sed impediendi delatoris opera cessabit.'
[113]. by me, with regard to me; 'de me.'
[117]. Socrates; in Plato's Republic, Book VI: τὴν ἀψεύδειαν ... μισεῖν, τὴν δ' ἀλήθειαν στέργειν (485 C).
[120]. preisen, appraise, judge of: 'aestimandum.'
[131]. Canius, better Canus, i.e. 'Julius Canus, whose philosophic death is described by Seneca, De Tranquillitate Animi, cap. xiv.'—Gibbon. He has already been mentioned above, Prose iii. l. 40.