[239]. This stanza follows Boccaccio closely; but Boccaccio, in his turn, here imitates a passage in Dante, Inf. xii. 22:—
'Qual è quel toro che si slaccia in quella
C'ha ricevuto già 'l colpo mortale,
Che gir non sa, ma qua e là saltella.'
[251, 2]. Almost repeated in the Clerk Ta. E 902, 3; see note to the latter line, and cf. Gower, Conf. Amant. ii. 14—'Right as a lives creature She semeth,' &c.
[263]. In MS. H., thus is glossed by 'sine causa.'
[272]. Accent misérie on e; 'Nella miseria;' Inf. v. 123.
[279]. combre-world, encumbrance of the world, a compound epithet. It is used by Hoccleve, in his lament for Chaucer, De Regim. Principum, st. 299. 'A cumber-world, yet in the world am left;' Drayton, Pastorals, Ecl. ii. 25.
[286]. gerful, changeable; see note to Kn. Ta. A 1536.
[300]. Edippe, Œdipus, king of Thebes, who put out his own eyes on finding that he had slain his father Laius and married his mother Jocasta; Statius, Theb. i. 46.