'Cur mihi plus aequo flaui placuere capilli,
et decor, et linguae gratia ficta tuae?...
Quantum perfidiae tecum, scelerate, perîsset!'
[1672]. Why lyked me, why did it please me? But, in l. 1674, lyked is a personal verb.
V. THE LEGEND OF LUCRETIA.
Chaucer cites Ovid and Livy, and in l. 1873 again appeals to Livy as the authority. The story is in Livy, bk. i. c. 57-59; and in Ovid, Fasti, ii. 721-852. Chaucer doubtless appeals to Livy as being a professed historian, but the reader will find that, as a matter of fact, he follows mainly the account in Ovid from beginning to end, and sometimes almost word for word. Livy and Ovid were contemporary; the former was born B.C. 59, and died A.D. 17; the latter was born B.C. 43, and died A.D. 18. Gower also tells this story, and likewise follows Ovid and (near the end) Livy; C. A. iii. 251.
[1680]. Ovid tells the story of Lucretia under the date Feb. 22 (viii Kal. Martii), which was commemorated as 'Fuga Tarquinii Superbi,' and begins his account in the Fasti, ii. 685. Chaucer here borrows from Ovid's first line, viz.:—'Nunc mihi dicenda est regis fuga.'
Ll. 1680-1693 form Chaucer's own Prologue to the story.
[1682]. The 'last king' of Rome was Tarquinius Superbus, father of the Tarquinius Sextus whom Chaucer calls in l. 1698 'Tarquinius the yonge.' The word And, at the beginning of the line, though absolutely necessary to the sense, is preserved only in MS. Addit. 12524, a bad copy from a good type. It reads:—'And specially off the last king Tarquinius'; but no other MS. retains specially, and of course it makes the line too long.
[1684]. 'I do not tell the story for the sake of Tarquin's exile.'