1257. For the description of Envy, see Rom. Rose, 247. But the author (in l. 1259) refers us to Ovid, Met. ii. 775-82, q. v.
1259. Methamorphosose; this terrible word is meant for Metamorphoseos, the form used by Chaucer, C. T., B 93. But the true ending is -eōn, gen. pl. The scribe has altered the suffix to -ees, thus carelessly destroying the rime.
1268. Prevy Thought is taken from Doux-Pensers in the Rom. de la Rose, 2633, called Swete-Thought in the E. Version, 2799; see the passage.
1288. Cf. 'Hir person he shal afore him sette'; R. R. 2808.
1290. Cf. 'This comfort wol I that thou take'; R. R. 2821.
1295. Cf. 'Awey his anger for to dryve'; R. R. 2800.
1315. Schick refers us, for this fiction, to the Rom. Rose, 939-82, where Cupid has two sets of arrows, one set of gold, and the other set black. Gower, Conf. Amantis (ed. Pauli, i. 336), says that Cupid shot Phœbus with a dart of gold, but Daphne with a dart of lead. In the Kingis Quair, stanzas 94-5, Cupid has three arrows, one of gold, one of silver, and one of steel. But the fact is, that our author, like Gower, simply followed Ovid, Met. i. 470-1. Let Dryden explain it:—
'One shaft is pointed with refulgent gold
To bribe the love, and make the lover bold;