16. Lavine: Lavinia, the heroine of the Aeneid, who became the wife of Aeneas.
17. Polyxena, daughter of Priam, king of Troy, fell in love with Achilles, and, when he was killed, she fled to the Greek camp, and slew herself on the tomb of her hero-lover.
18. Mountance: extent, duration. See note 84 to “The House of Fame”.
19. Relic: emblem; or cherished treasure; like the relics at the shrines of saints.
20. Losengeour: deceiver. See note 31 to the Nun’s Priest’s Tale.
21. “Toteler” is an old form of the word “tatler,” from the Anglo-Saxon, “totaelan,” to talk much, to tattle.
22. Envy is lavender of the court alway: a “lavender” is a washerwoman or laundress; the word represents “meretrice”in Dante’s original — meaning a courtezan; but we can well understand that Chaucer thought it prudent, and at the same time more true to the moral state of the English Court, to change the character assigned to Envy. He means that Envy is perpetually at Court, like some garrulous, bitter old woman employed there in the most servile offices, who remains at her post through all the changes among the courtiers. The passage cited from Dante will be found in the “Inferno,” canto xiii. 64 — 69.
23. Chaucer says that the usurping lords who seized on the government of the free Lombard cities, had no regard for any rule of government save sheer tyranny — but a natural lord, and no usurper, ought not to be a tyrant.
24. Farmer: one who merely farms power or revenue for his own purposes and his own gain.
25. This was the first version of the Knight’s tale. See the introductory note, above