[2594]. Probably the whole of Chaucer's astrological talk was intended to shew why Hypermnestra disliked handling a knife in malice. He has made much of the weak influence of Mars, precisely because those who were born under his influence were very ready with a knife. See the note to the Kn. Ta., 1163 (A 2021), where the Compost of Ptolemeus is quoted to shew that a man born under Mars is apt to be 'a maker of swordes and knyves, and a sheder of mannes blode, ... and good to be a barboure and a blode-letter, and to draw tethe, and is peryllous of his handes.'
[2597]. 'She had too evil aspects of Saturn, which caused her to die in prison.' All the MSS. have To (= too, excessively), except T., which has Ryght bad. Thynne has Two, but there is no authority for this, nor does it give any sense. The evil influence of Saturn is spoken of at length in the Kn. Tale, 1596-1611 (A 2454-69). Note especially l. 1599, where Saturn says:—
'Myn is the prison in the derke cote,
Myn is the strangling and hanging by the throte.'
[2600]. Here Egiste (see l. 2570) is turned into Egistes.
[2602]. 'For, at that time, no lineage was spared'; i.e. no consanguinity was considered as being a bar to marriage.
[2603]. Hem is in apposition with Danao and Egistes; 'it pleased these two.'
[2604]. Note the shifted accentuation—Ypérmistrá. Chaucer (except in l. 2660) entirely drops all mention of Hypermnestra's 49 sisters, and of Lynceus' 49 brothers. This is extremely judicious, as it concentrates the interest on the heroine.
[2610]. Chaucer is here thinking of Ovid, Her. xiv. 25:—
'Undique collucent praecinctae lampades auro.