1311 ff. This is not in accordance with the Latin prose story. He is there represented as telling Strangulio that he does not care, now that he has lost his wife, either to accept the offered kingdom or to return to his father-in-law, but intends to lead the life of a merchant. Here the expression is ‘ignotas et longinquas petens Egypti regiones.’ On the other hand the Pantheon makes him proceed to his kingdom, apparently Antioch.
1337. Philotenne: the name in the Laud MS. is ‘Philothemia,’ but it is not distinguishable in writing from Philothenna. There is much variation as to this name in other copies.
1349 ff. Much is made in the original story of the death of this nurse and of the revelation which she made to Tharsia of her real parentage. Up to this time she had supposed herself to be the daughter of Strangulio. The nurse suspected some evil, and advised Tharsia, if her supposed parents dealt ill with her, to go and take hold of the statue of her father in the market-place and appeal to the citizens for help. After her death Tharsia visited her tomb by the sea-shore every day, ‘et ibi manes parentum suorum inuocabat.’ Here Theophilus lay in wait for her by order of Dionysiades.
1374. cherles. This is the reading of the best copies of each recension: cp. ‘lyves’ for ‘livissh’ i. e. living, ‘worldes’ for ‘worldly,’ ‘dethes’ for ‘dedly,’ iii. 2657, iv. 382, &c.
1376. what sche scholde, that is, what should become of her.
1391. Scomerfare. The first part of this word must be the French ‘escumerie,’ meaning piracy: see Du Cange under ‘escumator,’ e. g. ‘des compaignons du pays de Bretaigne, qui étaient venuz d’Escumerie.’
1393. and he to go, that is, ‘and he proceeded to go,’ a kind of historic infinitive: cp. Chaucer, Troilus, ii. 1108, ‘And she to laughe,’ Leg. of Good Women, 653 ‘And al his folk to go.’ (In Piers Plowman, A. Prol. 33, ‘And somme murthes to make,’ quoted by Mätzner, it is more probable that ‘to make’ is dependent on ‘chosen.’) In addition to these instances we have the repeated use of ‘to ga’ in Barbour’s Bruce, e. g. viii. 251, ix. 263, which is much more probably to be explained in this way than as a compound verb. Cp. Skeat’s Chaucer, vol. vi. p. 403, with C. Stoffel’s note on Troilus, ii. 1108, which is there quoted.
1410. The Laud MS. has ‘leno leoninus nomine,’ but many copies give no name.
1420. Lei doun, ‘let him lay down’: cp. l. 1128.
1423. There is an interesting touch in the original here which would not be intelligible to Gower. When Tharsia is led into the house, the character of which she does not know, she is bidden to do reverence to a statue of Priapus which stands in the entrance hall. She asks her master whether he is a native of Lampsacus, and he explains to her that his interest in this matter is not local but professional.