[691]. Pronounce unreprovable, as unréprovábl'.
[694]. Sene, evident. Note that this is an adjective (A.S. gesýne), and not the past participle; cf. l. 2655, and note. See also ll. 340, 741, and my note to the Balade against Women Inconstaunt, l. 13.
[696]. Naked. It looks as if Chaucer took induta (note to l. 655) to mean 'not clothed.' Perhaps he read it as nudata.
[702]. Storial sooth, historical truth. The old editions actually put the comma after storial instead of after sooth; and modern editors have followed them. Surely the editors, in some passages, have never attempted to construe their own texts.
II. THE LEGEND OF THISBE.
Chaucer follows Ovid, Metamorph. iv. 55-166; and frequently very closely. The reader should compare the Latin text throughout. For example, Ovid begins thus:—
'Pyramus et Thisbe, iuuenum pulcherrimus alter,
altera, quas Oriens habuit, praelata puellis,
contiguas habuere domos, ubi dicitur altam
coctilibus muris cinxisse Semiramis urbem.'