151. themperoures, the emperor's. Gower calls him Tiberius Constantine, who was Emperor (not of Rome, but) of the East, A. D. 578, and was succeeded, as in the story, by Maurice, A. D. 582. His capital was Constantinople, whither merchants from Syria could easily repair; but the greater fame of Rome caused the substitution of the Western for the Eastern capital.
156. God him see, God protect him. See note to C. 715.
161. al Europe. In the margin of MSS. E. Hn. Cp. Pt. Ln. is written the note 'Europa est tercia pars mundi.'
166. mirour, mirror. Such French words are frequently accented on the last syllable. Cf. minístr' in l. 168.
171. han doon fraught, have caused to be freighted. All the MSS. have fraught, not fraughte. In the Glossary to Specimens of English, I marked fraught as being the infinitive mood, as Dr. Stratmann
supposes, though he notes the lack of the final e. I have now no doubt that fraught is nothing but the past participle, as in William of Palerne, l. 2732—
'And feithliche fraught ful of fine wines,'
which is said of a ship. The use of this past participle after a perfect tense is a most remarkable idiom, but there is no doubt about its occurrence in the Clerkes Tale, Group E. 1098, where we find 'Hath doon yow kept,' where Tyrwhitt has altered kept to kepe. On the other hand, Tyrwhitt actually notes the occurrence of 'Hath don wroght' in Kn. Tale, 1055, (A. 1913), which he calls an irregularity. A better name for it is idiom. I find similar instances of it in another author of the same period,
'Thai strak his hed of, and syne it
Thai haf gert saltit in-til a kyt.'