[1368]. 'I can only say that, being a receptacle for every sorrow, I was still alive.' cheste, box; like that of Pandora.
[1372]. 'Until I see the contents of your reply.'
[1431]. 'Bottomless promises;' i. e. that held nothing.
[1433]. See the parallel line, Kn. Ta. A 1838, and note.
[1450]. Sibille, the Sibyl, the prophetess; not here a proper name, but an epithet of Cassandra. Cf. Æneid. vi. 98.
[1464]. (Ll. 1457-1512 are not in Boccaccio.) The story of Meleager and the Calydonian boar-hunt is told at length in Ovid, Met. viii. 271, &c.; whence Chaucer doubtless took it; cf. l. 1469 with Met. viii. 282. The 'mayde,' in l. 1473, was Atalanta.
[1480]. Chaucer seems to be mistaken here. Tydeus, according to one account, was Meleager's brother; and, according to another, his half-brother. He does not tell us to what 'olde bokes' he refers.
[1483]. moder; his mother Althaea; see Ovid, Met. viii. 445.
Latin Lines: Argument of the 12 books of the Thebaid of Statius. These lines are placed, in the MSS., after l. 1498, interrupting the connection. I therefore insert them after l. 1484, which is certainly their proper place. Ll. 1485-1510 give a loose rendering of them. I subjoin an epitome, in a more intelligible form; but suppress many details not mentioned in Chaucer.
Book I. Polynices and Tydeus meet, and become allies.