'His complexion was like lead.' Lead was Saturn's metal; see C. T., G 828, and the note.
164. That gyte is the correct reading, is obvious from ll. 178, 260, where Thynne has preserved it. It is a Chaucerian word; see the Glossary in vol. vi. It seems to mean 'mantle.' The Edinburgh printer altered it to gyis, which is too general a term, at least in l. 260.
182. 'To ward off from us the wrath of his father (Saturn).'
198. Compare Ch. C. T., F 1031—'god and governour Of every plaunte, herbe, tree, and flour.'
205. Alluding to Phaethon's misguidance of the chariot of the sun;
'And that his faders cart amis he dryve'; Troil. v. 665. Laing prints unricht; but omits to say that E. has upricht.
211. soyr, sorrel-coloured, reddish-brown; see Sorrel in my Etym. Dict.
212-6. The names of the four horses are curiously corrupted from the names given in Ovid, Met. ii. 153, viz. Eöus, Æthon, Pyröeis, and Phlegon. As Eous means 'belonging to the dawn,' we may consider the words into the Orient, i.e. in the East, as explanatory of the name Eoy; 'called Eoy, (which signifies) in the East.' As to the name of the last horse, it was obviously meant to take the form Philegoney, in order to rime with sey (sea), and I have therefore restored this form. The two authorities, E. and Th., give it in the amazing form Philologie (Philologee), which can only mean 'philology'!
231. lauch and weip are infinitives, but appear to be meant for past tenses. If so, the former should be leuch; weip may answer to the strong pt. t. weep in Chaucer (A.S. wēop).
246. He seems to be thinking of Chaucer's Doctor of Phisyk; cf. Ch. Prol. A 425-6, 439.