2059, 2061. 'Cf. Ovid's Fasti, ii. 153-192; especially 189, 190,
"Signa propinqua micant. Prior est, quam dicimus Arcton,
Arctophylax formam terga sequentis habet."
The nymph Callisto was changed into Arctos or the Great Bear; hence "Vrsa Maior" is written in the margin of E. Hn. Cp. Ln. This was sometimes confused with the other Arctos or Lesser Bear, in which was situate the lodestar or Polestar. Chaucer has followed this error. Callisto's son, Arcas, was changed into Arctophylax or Boötes: here again Chaucer says a sterre, when he means a whole constellation; as, perhaps, he does in other passages.'—Chaucer's Astrolabe, ed. Skeat (E. E. T. S.), pp. xlviii, xlix.
2062, 2064. Dane = Daphne, a girl beloved by Apollo, and changed into a laurel. See Ovid's Metamorph. i. 450; Gower, Conf. Amantis, ed. Pauli, i. 336; Troilus, iii. 726.
2065. Attheon = Actaeon. See Ovid's Metamorph. iii. 138.
2070. Atthalante = Atalanta. See Ovid's Metamorph. x. 560; and Troilus, v. 1471.
2074. nat drawen to memorie = not draw to memory, not call to mind.
2079. Cf. 'gawdy greene. subviridis'; Prompt. Parv. This gaudè has nothing whatever to do with the E. sb. gaud, but answers to F. gaudé, the pp. of the verb gauder, to dye with weld; from the F. sb. gaude, weld. As to weld, see my note to The Former Age, 17; in
vol. i. p. 540. Littré has an excellent example of the word: 'Les bleus teints en indigo doivent être gaudés, et ils deviennent verts.'