Chaucer's Works, Volume 5 — Notes to the Canterbury Tales

by Geoffrey Chaucer

670. This example somewhat resembles a story in Seneca, De Ira, lib. i. c. 15:—'Socrates seruo ait: Caederem te, nisi irascerer'; &c.

De Accidia.

677. The description of Sloth answers to the description in the Fr. text chiefly as regards the general outline. The particular points of contact are few. Cf. Ayenb. of Inwyt, pp. 31-34.

678. This remark, from Augustine, properly applies to the sin of Envy; see note to 484 above; p. 461.

679. Salomon; with reference to Eccl. ix. 10.

680. See Jer. xlviii. 10; for 'necligently,' the Vulg. has 'fraudulenter'; A. V. 'deceitfully.'

687. Referring, probably, to Rev. iii. 16.

688. Cf. Prov. xx. 4; xxi. 25.

693. wanhope, despair; as in the parallel passage in the Ayenb. p. 34, l. 12. Cf. P. Plowman, C. viii. 59, 81, and note.