5778. ‘nec scit quid tradat in illis,’ Metam. vi. 580.
5793. ‘Non est lacrimis hic, inquit, agendum, Sed ferro,’ Metam. vi. 611.
5802 ff. According to Ovid this was done under cover of a Bacchic festival (587 ff.).
5816-5860. This is all original.
5840. to lytel of me let: see note on l. 1004.
5891 ff. Gower does well in omitting the circumstances of this which Ovid gives (619-646), and in partially covering the horror of it by the excuse of madness, but there is one touch which ought to have been brought in, ‘Ah, quam Es similis patri!’ (621).
5910 ff. Ovid says that Philomela threw the gory head into the father’s face, and that Tereus endeavoured to vomit up that which he had eaten. Our author has shown good taste in not following him.
5915 ff. This speech is not in Ovid.
5943-6029. Nearly all this is Gower’s own. Ovid only says, ‘Quarum petit altera silvas: Altera tecta subit’ (668 f.). We have already observed upon our author’s tendency to make additions of this symbolical kind to the stories which he takes from Ovid: see note on i. 2355.
6020. The reading ‘here’ is given both by S and F, but ‘hire’ (‘hir’), supported by AJMXGCB₂, BT, W, seems to be required by the sense. She informs them of the falseness of her husband, that they also may learn to beware of them, that is of husbands. The combination of ‘here’ with the singular ‘housebonde,’ meaning ‘their husbands,’ would be very harsh.