2150 f. This point is omitted in the English metrical version.
2157 f. The English metrical version is very similar, ‘We schulle the ymage so undersette, That we ne schal hit nothing lette.’
2168. That is, the timber having been set up.
2198 ff. This about Hannibal is introduced here as if taken from a different source, ‘For this I finde,’ &c.
2238f. Cp. Mirour, 10651, ‘Plus que gaigners son augst attent.’
2273 ff. The tale of the Two Coffers is essentially the same story as that which we have in Boccaccio Decam. x. i, and essentially different from that which is told in Vit. Barlaam et Josaphat, cap. vi, as a sequel to the story of the Trump of Death. The story which we have here and in Boccaccio is not at all connected with the idea of choosing by the outward appearance. The coffers are exactly alike, and the very point of the situation lies in the fact that the choice is a purely fortuitous one. The object was to show that they who complained were persons who had fortune against them, and that this was the cause of their having failed of reward, and not any neglect on the part of the king. I cannot say what the source was for Gower; certainly not Boccaccio, whose story is altogether different in its details.
2391 ff. With this story may be compared that in the Gesta Romanorum, 109, where by a choice between three pasties, one containing money, a decision is come to as to whether it is God’s will that a certain sum shall be restored to its owner, who is a miser.
2476. tall, i. e. comely, elegant.
2481. Cp. Chaucer, Cant. Tales, D 259.
2507. His thonkes, ‘of his own good will’: cp. Chaucer, Cant. Tales, A 1626, &c.