4701 ff. The sacrifice at which this portent occurred is here brought into connexion with the capture of Gabii, a construction which is not unnaturally suggested by Ovid’s abrupt transition, l. 711.
4718 ff.
‘Consulitur Phoebus. Sors est ita reddita: Matri
Qui dederit princeps oscula, victor erit.’ Fasti, ii. 713 f.
Ovid means that a message was sent to Delphi; but our author understands it differently.
4739 f. ‘Creditus offenso procubuisse pede’ (720).
4754 ff. This again is from Ovid, where it occurs as a continuation of the last story, Fasti, 721-852. Chaucer, who tells this story in the Legend of G. Women, 1680 ff., also follows Ovid, and more closely than Gower, e. g. 1761 ff., 1805 ff., 1830f.
4757. unskilfully, that is, ‘unjustly,’ without due ‘skile’ or reason.
4778 ff. ‘Non opus est verbis, credite rebus, ait’ (734).
4805 f. This is derived from a misunderstanding of Fasti, ii. 785,