113. somer-sonne; imitated from the Book of the Duch. 821-4.
125. 'To speke of bountè or of gentilles,' &c.; T. G. 287.
140. 'To alle hir werkes virtu is hir gyde'; C. T., B 164.
158. Alluding to the proverb—'He that hews above his head, the chips fall in his eye'; which is a warning to men who attack their betters. See I. i. 9. 20, and the note (p. 462).
190-3. Policene, Polyxena; cf. note to VIII. 367. Helayne, Helen. Dorigene; see Frankleyns Tale, F 815.
195. Cleopatre; see the first legend in the Legend of Good Women. secree, secret, able to keep secrets; a praiseworthy attribute; cf. Parl. of Foules, 395; and Lydgate's Temple of Glas, 294-5:—
'and mirrour eke was she
Of secrenes, of trouth, of faythfulnes.'
It is obvious that the extraordinary word setrone (see the footnote) arose from a desire on the part of the scribe to secure a rime for the name in the next line, which he must have imagined to be An-ti-góne, in three syllables, with a mute final e! This turned secree into secrone, which Thynne probably misread as setrone, since c and t are alike in many MSS. But there are no such words as secrone or setrone; and secree must be restored, because An-ti-go-ne is a word of four syllables. We know whence Lydgate obtained his 'white Antigone'; it was from Troilus, ii. 887, where we find 'fresshe Antigone the whyte.' Antigone was Criseyde's niece, and was so 'secree' that Pandarus considered her to be the most fitting person to accompany Criseyde when she visited Troilus (Troil. ii. 1563), and again when she came to visit Pandarus himself (iii. 597).
197. Hester, Esther; see Book Duch. 987; but especially Legend of