[381]. First stands alone in the first foot. Cf. ll. 490, 603, 811.
[385]. Yelt, short for yeldeth, yields.
[394]. writ, writeth. Lollius; Chaucer's reason for the use of this name is not known. Perhaps we may agree with Dr. Latham, who suggested (in a letter to the Athenæum, Oct. 3, 1868, p. 433), that Chaucer misread this line in Horace (Epist. i. 2. 1), viz. 'Troiani belli scriptorem, maxime Lolli'; and thence derived the notion that Lollius wrote on the Trojan war. This becomes the more likely if we suppose that he merely saw this line quoted apart from the context. Chaucer does not seem to have read Horace for himself. As a matter of fact, ll. 400-420 are translated from the 88th sonnet of Petrarch. See note to Ho. of Fame, 1468. The following is the text of Petrarch's sonnet:
'S'amor non è, che dunque è quel ch' i'sento?
Ma s'egli è amor, per Dio, che cosa e quale?
Se buona, ond' è l'effetto aspro mortale?
Se ria, ond' è si dolce ogni tormento?
S'a mia voglia ardo, ond' è 'l pianto e'l lamento?
S'a mal mia grado, il lamentar che vale?
O viva morte, o dilettoso male,