2458. the world mistimed. The verb ‘mistime’ means properly ‘to happen amiss,’ with the suggestion that it is by the fault of the person concerned. Gower uses it here transitively for ‘to manage amiss,’ while in vi. 4 ‘was mystymed’ means ‘came unhappily about.’
2508. what man ... rede: for the subjunctive see note on Prol. 460.
2536. ‘Hardly have any fear’: see note on ii. 2124.
2555. Acastus was king of Iolcos. He purified Peleus, as some say of the murder of Eurytion, but according to others of that of Phocus: cp. Bocc. Gen. Deorum, xii. 50, ‘ad Magnetas abiit, ubi ab Achasto fraterna caede purgatus est.’
2563 f. Alcmaeon, son of Amphiaraus, was purified by Achelous, whom our author here takes for a priest.
2599 ff. This anecdote is told also in the Mirour, 5029-5040, and there also it is ascribed to Solinus. I do not find it, however, in his book.
2608 ff. For the irregularity of this sentence cp. 1593 ff.
2639 ff. The story is taken from Benoît (Rom. de Troie, 6497-6590), as we may see at once from the name ‘Theucer,’ which Guido gives rather more correctly as ‘Theutran.’ Also ll. 2674-2680, Roman de Troie, 6545-6553, have nothing corresponding to them in Guido. Guido here certainly referred to a copy of the so-called Dares, where the name occurs in its classical form ‘Teuthras.’ He is particularly interested in the story on local grounds, being concerned to show that the ‘Messe’ which he found in Benoît might be connected with the name of his place of residence, Messina, and that the events related occurred actually in Sicily. Accordingly he speaks of certain columns popularly called ‘columns of Hercules,’ which existed in his own time in Sicily, ‘ex parte Barbarorum,’ i.e. on the south coast, and takes them as evidence of the connexion of Hercules with the island, and hence of the probability that this story (which in the original has to do with Hercules, though Gower has excluded him from it) had its scene in Sicily. Dares, he admits, says nothing of this, and his reference to Dares is here in more precise form than usual, ‘in suo codice’ according to the Bodleian MS., though the printed editions give ‘in suo opere’ (MS. Add. A. 365, f. 50 vo).
He says of the place where these columns are, ‘qui locus dicitur adhuc columpnarum,’ and adds that the emperor Frederic II has established a town there, and that the place is now called ‘terra nova.’ This is obviously identical with the modern Terranova, founded by Frederic II near the site of the ancient Gela. It seems probable that Guido may have been himself a native of this place or of its immediate neighbourhood, and that he chose to call himself after its former designation, ‘Columpna’ or ‘Columpnae,’ instead of by the new name which had come into use during his own lifetime[AN].
2643. His Sone. This is a mistake on the part of Gower. Both Benoît and Guido state quite clearly that Telephus was the son of Hercules, and that it was to Hercules that the obligation was due which is referred to in 2690 ff. Perhaps the copy of the Roman de Troie which Gower used had ‘Thelefus fu filz Achilles’ for ‘Thelefus fu filz Hercules,’ in l. 6506.