316-29. These two stanzas are wholly original. Hoccleve, remembering that the examples of Medea and Dido both occur in Chaucer's Legend of Good Women, here takes occasion to make an express reference to that work, which he here calls 'my Legende of Martres.' My refers to Cupid; Legend, to Chaucer's title; and Martres, to the Latin titles to some of the Legends. Thus the Legend of Hypsipyle and Medea is entitled—'Incipit Legenda Ysiphile et Medee, Martirum.' Instead of Martres, Thynne has the ridiculous reading Natures, which the editions carefully retain.
357. 'And, had it not been for the devil,' &c.
360. her, the serpent. There was a legend that the serpent had the face of a beautiful virgin. See Ch. C. T., B 360, and note; P. Plowman, B. xviii. 335, and note.
379-434. These eight stanzas are all Hoccleve's own.
393. happy to, fortunate for; because it brought about Christ's incarnation. The allusion is to the oft-quoted sentence—'O felix culpa, O necessarium peccatum Ade,' from the Sarum missal. See note to P. Plowman, C. viii. 126. Cf. l. 396.
421. The day of St. Margaret, Virgin and Martyr, was July 20, in the Latin Church. See the edition of Seinte Marherete, by O. Cockayne, E. E. T. S., 1866.
428. I, i.e. Cupid. This stanza is spoken by Cupid, in his own character; cf. l. 431. In l. 464, he assumes the royal style of we. It is, moreover, obvious that this stanza would hardly have been approved of by Christine.
473-6. Imitated from the closing lines of Christine's poem:—
'Donné en l'air, en nostre grant palais,