non Hymenaeus adest illi, non Gratia lecto.
Eumenides tenuere faces de funere raptas:
Eumenides strauere torum: tectoque profanus
incubuit bubo, thalamique in culmine sedit.'—428.
[2253]. Wond, wound; aboute the balkes wond, kept winding (flying in circular wise) round about the balks (or transverse beams beneath the roof). Three good MSS. read wond, which is the past tense of winden, to wind. Bell and others read wonde, explained by 'dwelt'; but this is open to two objections, viz. (1) the pt. t. of wonien to dwell, is woned or wonede, not wonde; and (2) an owl cannot dwell about a balk, but only on it. The pt. pl. woneden (three syllables) occurs in the Kn. Ta. 2069 (A 2927); and we learn from the Clerkes Tale, E 339, that the pp. woned rimes with astoned. Ovid, indeed, has incubuit and sedit; but that does not prove much; for Chaucer expresses things in his own manner at will.
[2256]. This original line refers to the medieval wedding-feasts, which sometimes lasted even forty days. See Havelok, l. 2344; and the note.
[2259-68]. From Ovid, Met. vi. 438-442.
[2261]. Saw not longe, had not seen for a long time.
[2264]. Moste, might. Ones, for once; lit. once.
[2265]. And come anoon, and return again soon.