2447. in a wayt: so given by the best copies, cp. 2999, but ‘upon await’ iii. 955, 1016.
2451 ff. In the MSS. the paragraph is marked as beginning with the next line, ‘At Troie how that,’ the line before being insignificant. As to the first story referred to in the text, Gower may have known it from Hyginus (Fab. cvi), or from Ovid, Her. Ep. iii. The example of Diomede and Troilus had been popularized by Chaucer, who had the name ‘Criseide’ from Boccaccio’s ‘Griseida.’ In Benoît and Guido the name is ‘Briseida,’ but Boccaccio was aware that Briseis was a different person (Gen. Deorum, xii. 52).
2459 ff. The name Geta was taken by Gower from the Geta of Vitalis Blesensis, a dramatic piece in Latin elegiacs founded on Plautus, in which Geta takes the place of Sosia: see Wright’s Early Mysteries, &c., pp. 79-90. It may be suspected that our author himself modified the story in order to make it more suitable for his purpose by substituting a mortal friend for Jupiter. We may note that he has also reversed the part played by Amphitryon.
2501 ff. I cannot indicate the source of this tale.
2537. As thei. The sense seems to require this reading, which is found however in only two MSS., so far as I know, and those not the best. It appears as a correction in Berthelet’s second edition.
2550. which that him beclipte. Either this means ‘who was encompassing him,’ that is pressing upon his borders, referring to the Caliph of Egypt, or ‘which encircled his territory,’ referring to what follows, ‘in a Marche costeiant.’ In the latter case we should have a very bold inversion of clauses for the sake of rhyme, but hardly more so than in 709 ff.
2558. unto Kaire. It is evident that the author conceives this as the capital not of Egypt but of Persia: cp. 2648.
2578. hair. The form of the word is accommodated to the rhyme: so iv. 1252.
2642. Upon hire oth &c., inverted order, ‘how it was a token that she should be his wife upon her oath,’ i.e. in accordance with her oath.
2670. The same line occurs also i. 2106, ii. 895.