[931]. 'By the craft of the Greeks, and especially by Sinon.' Sinon allowed himself to be taken prisoner by the Trojans, and persuaded them to take in a wooden horse through the walls, which he said had been made as an atonement to Minerva for the Palladium carried away by the Greeks. In the dead of night Sinon let out the armed men concealed within the horse, and thus Troy was taken by a stratagem. See Æn. ii. 57-267; and cf. Ho. Fame, 152-6.
[934]. The ghost of Hector appeared to Æneas, and advised him to flee; Æn. ii. 268-298.
[935]. The verb agreeing with fyr is appered. 'And there appeared also so mad a fire that it could not be controlled.' See Æn. ii. 311.
[936]. Ilioun, the usual M.E. form of Ilium; Æn. i. 68, ii. 241, 325, 625. Ilium is only another name for Troy, but the medieval writers invented the explanation here adopted by Chaucer, viz. that it was the palace of Priam, and the castle of Troy in particular. Perhaps they interpreted the word domus in too narrow a sense in the passage—'O patria, O Divum domus Ilium'; Æn. ii. 241. This use of the word is invariable in Guido delle Colonne, author of the Historia Destructionis Troie, a work which was considered of the highest authority in the middle ages, though it was shamelessly copied from the French Roman de Troie by Benoit de Sainte-Maure. In fact, a long description of Priam's palace, called Ilion, is given in the alliterative Troy-book, l. 1629, which is translated from Guido; and in Lydgate's Troy-book, ed. 1555, fol. F 6, back, and R 5, back. See the notes to Book Duch. 1070, Ho. Fame, 158, 1467, 1469, 1477.
[939]. For the death of Priam, killed by Pyrrhus, see Æn. ii. 531-558. Fordoon, slain. Noght, nothing; this alludes to Vergil's 'sine nomine corpus'; Æn. ii. 558.
[940]. Venus appears to her son Æneas; Æn. ii. 591. Cf. Ho. Fame, 162.
[942]. Cf. 'dextrae se paruus Iülus [Ascanius] Implicuit'; Æn. ii. 724. See note to Ho. Fame, 177.
[945]. Lees, lost; 'erepta Creüsa'; Æn. ii. 738; Ho. Fame, 183.
[947]. Felawshippe, company, companions; 'ingentem comitum numerum'; Æn. ii. 796.
[949]. Stounde, hour, time; usually dissyllabic in M.E.