[664]. Pheton, Phaethon; alluding to Ovid, Met. ii. 34, 47, &c.
[744]. Prudence is here represented with three eyes, to behold present, past, and future; but Creseyde had but two eyes, and failed to see what was to come. Cf. 'rerum fato Prudentia maior;' Georg. i. 416.
[763]. 'I call it felicity when I have what satisfies me;' cf. the parallel passage in Prol. A 338; and Boeth. Bk. iii. Pr. 2. 6-8.
[769]. knotteles; 'like a thread in which there is no knot.'
[784]. 'Nothing venture, nothing have.'
[805]. In Lydgate's Siege of Troye, we are told that Diomede brought 80 ships with him 'fro Calidonye and Arge;' Bk. ii. ch. 16, in the catalogue of the ships. The English alliterative Romance omits this passage. Arge is the town of Argos, ruled over by Diomede; Homer, Il. ii. 559. Calidoine is Calydon, in Ætolia, of which city Tydeus, father of Diomede, was king; see l. 934, and ll. 1513-5 below.
[806]. This description seems to be mainly Chaucer's own. It occurs again, much amplified, in Lydgate's Siege of Troy, Bk. ii. ch. 15, where it precedes the description of Priam. Boccaccio says that she had 'lucent eyes and an angelic face' (Fil. i. st. 28), with which cf. l. 816. He also describes her as 'Accorta, savia, onesta, e costumata,' which Rossetti translates by 'Discerning, wise, honourable, and high-bred' (Fil. i. 11); cf. ll. 820, 821.
[827]. Troilus is described by Guido delle Colonne; see the translations, in the alliterative Destruction of Troy, ed. Panton and Donaldson, l. 3922, and in Lydgate's Siege of Troye, Bk. ii. ch. 16.
[836]. Troilus was second to Hector in prowess (Bk. ii. 158, 644), but not in courage (Bk. i. 474).
[837]. durring don, daring to do, courage; where durring is a sb. formed from durren, to dare. So in l. 840, to durre don is 'to dare to do.' It is quite a mistake to regard durring don as a compound word, as is usually done by such as are ignorant of Middle English grammar. Spenser borrowed the phrase, but may have misunderstood it. In the Globe edition of Spenser, derring-doe occurs with a hyphen, in Shep. Kal. Oct. l. 65, but as two words, in F. Q. ii. 4. 42, vi. 5. 37. In F. Q. ii. 7. 10, we find 'in der-doing armes,' which I leave to be explained by the omniscient critic.