4406 ff. Numbers xxv.
4408. Amalech: Balak is meant.
4464 ff. This means apparently that the later time of life will be as a dark night which is not illuminated by any sunshine of dawn; but it is not very clearly expressed.
4469 ff. 1 Kings xi.
4515. That is, ‘Ahijah the Shilonite,’ called ‘Ahias Silonites’ in the Latin version.
4559 ff. (margin). The quotation is from the Secretum Secretorum: ‘O summe rex, studeas modis omnibus custodire et retinere calorem naturalem’ (ed. 1520, f. 25 vo).
4574 f. Caracalla, son of Severus, is here meant. His name was Aurelius Antoninus, and he is called Aurelius Antonius in the Pantheon (Mon. Germ. Hist. xxii. p. 166). Caracalla is called by Orosius ‘omnibus hominibus libidine intemperantior, qui etiam novercam suam Iuliam uxorem duxerit’ (Hist. vii. 18), and this character of him is repeated in the Pantheon.
4593 ff. This story is from Ovid, Fasti, ii. 687-720. Gower’s rendering of it is remarkable for ease and simplicity of style: see especially ll. 4667-4685, 4701-4717.
4598. Neither Aruns nor Sextus is mentioned by name in Ovid, who speaks only of ‘Tarquinius iuvenis.’ Gower gives to Aruns the place of Sextus throughout this and the following story.
4623. schette, intransitive, equivalent to ‘were shut’: cp. iii. 1453.