Chaucer's Works, Volume 3 — The House of Fame; The Legend of Good Women; The Treatise on the Astrolabe; The Sources of the Canterbury Tales

by Geoffrey Chaucer

BOOK III.

[1091-1109]. Imitated from Dante, Parad. i. 13-27. Compare ll. 1106, 1107, with Cary's translation—

'If thou to me of thine impart so much, ...

Thou shalt behold me of thy favour'd tree

Come to the foot, and crown myself with leaves.'

And compare l. 1109 with—'Entra nel petto mio.'

[1098]. This shews that Chaucer occasionally, and intentionally, gives a syllable too little to the verse. In fact, he does so just below, in l. 1106; where Thou forms the first foot of the verse, instead of So thou, or And thou. This failure of the first syllable is common throughout the poem.

[1099]. And that, i.e. And though that; see l. 1098.

[1109]. Entreth is the imperative plural; see note to A. B. C. 17.

[1114]. MSS. cite, cyte (F. citee!); but site in Astrol. pt. ii. 17. 25 (p. 201).