5022. blessed, i. e. crossed himself. This ceremony plays a considerable part in the story of Vitalis, for by it he is preserved from the wild beasts while in the pit.
5025. Betwen him and his Asse, that is, he and his ass together: cp. l. 5381. The expression is imitated from the French, cp. Roman de Troie, 5837.
5093. There is a stop after ‘Purs,’ no doubt rightly, in F. On the other hand the stop after ‘wif’ in l. 5096 must be wrong.
5123 f. Cp. 4597 ff.
5215. standt. For this spelling cp. ‘bidt,’ iv. 1162.
5231 ff. The outline of this story might have been got from Ovid and from Hyginus, Fab. 40-43, but several points of detail suggest a different source. These are, for example, the idea that the son of Minos went to Athens to study philosophy, the statement of the number of persons sent as a tribute to Minos, the incident of the ball of pitch given by Ariadne to Theseus to be used against the Minotaur, and the name of the island where Ariadne was deserted. In the first and third of these Gower agrees with Chaucer, Legend of Good Women, 1894 ff., but his story is apparently quite independent, so that in regard to, these matters we must assume a common source: cp. L. Bech in Anglia, v. 337 ff.
as telleth the Poete. The authority referred to here must be Ovid (cp. i. 386, ii. 121, v. 6713, 6804, &c.). He slightly mentions the death of Androgeus, Metam. vii. 458, and relates the war of Minos against Megara at some length (Metam. viii. 1 ff), very briefly summarising the remainder of the story. Chaucer follows Ovid more fully here, telling the story of Nisus, to which Gower does not think it necessary to refer.
5248. dighte. This is the form of spelling here in S as well as F: so also in l. 5352.
5264 f. Hyginus says seven persons each year: Chaucer seems to conceive it as one every third year. The usual account is seven youths and seven maidens either every year or once in nine years.
5302. many on. Perhaps we should read ‘manye on’ with S and F, as vii. 2191, ‘manye an other.’