1004. wel the more lete by, ‘much the more esteemed’: cp. Piers Plowman, A vi. 105, ‘to lete wel by thyselve,’ and xi. 29: also with ‘of,’ v. 5840; cp. Piers Plowm. iv. 160, ‘Love let of hire lighte and lewte yit lasse,’ Orm. 7523, ‘uss birrth ... lætenn wel off othre menn.’
1009. Nonarcigne. The name is taken no doubt from the adjective ‘Nonacrinus’ (from Nonacris), used as in Ovid, Met. i. 690, where it occurs in the story of Pan and Syrinx, told by Mercury to lull Argus to sleep: cp. Conf. Am. iv. 3345 ff.
1040. Cp. Prol. 118.
1043 ff. The sentence is interrupted and then begun again at l. 1051: see note on i. 98.
1063. That he, i.e. ‘In that he.’ Gower has here mistaken his authority, which says ‘post autem eum propter Tyndarei Lacedaemonii filium a Jove fulmine percussum interiisse narrant.’ Vita Barl. et Jos. xxvii.
1071. Delphi and Delos are very naturally confused in the medieval Tale of Troy and elsewhere; but Delos is mentioned correctly enough below, 1256.
1097. no reason inne: cp. i. 3209.
1163. Philerem, presumably Philyra, but there is no authority for making her the mother of Jupiter.
1249. that: cp. 899. Apparently it means, ‘that Diane of whom I am to speak.’ The necessities of rhyme are responsible for these forms of speech.
1276. ‘Which may not attain to reason.’