The following phrase 'too hard and hot' merely intensifies the sense of paramours.
[332]. Criseyde. The allusion is to Chaucer's long poem entitled Troilus and Criseyde (or Creseyde). The [A-text] is more outspoken here, as it alludes to the inconstancy of the heroine in direct terms.
—A. [280]. Valerie, Valerius; see note to A. 281 below.
Titus; Titus Livius; see l. 1683, and the note. Claudian; Claudius Claudianus, who wrote, amongst other things, a poem De Raptu Proserpinae, to which Chaucer refers; see Ho. Fame, 449, 1509. He flourished about A.D. 400.
—A. [281]. Ierome; Hieronymus, usually known as St. Jerome, a celebrated father of the Latin Church; died Sept. 30, 420. In the Wyf of Bathes Prologue (C. T. 6251, Group D, l. 669) we find:—
'He hadde a book, that gladly, night and day,
For his desport he wolde rede alway;
He cleped it Valerie and Theofraste,
At whiche book he lough alwey ful faste.
And eek ther was somtyme a clerk at Rome,