The poem itself may be roughly divided into four parts. The first part, ll. 1-84, is mainly occupied with an epitome of the general contents of Cicero's Somnium Scipionis. The second part, ll. 85-175, shews several instances of the influence of Dante, though the stanza containing ll. 99-105 is translated from Claudian. The third part, ll. 176-294, is almost wholly translated or imitated from Boccaccio's Teseide. And the fourth part, ll. 295 to the end, is occupied with the real subject of the poem, the main idea being taken, as Chaucer himself tells us, from Alanus de Insulis. The passages relating to the _Somnium Scipionis_ are duly pointed out in the notes; and so are the references to Dante and Claudian. The history of the third and fourth parts requires further explanation. We have already seen that Chaucer himself tells us, in the Prol. to the Legend, 420, that he made--'al the love of Palamon and Arcyte Of Thebes, thogh the story is knowen lyte.' (N.B. This does not mean that _Chaucer's_ version of the story was 'little known,' but that _Boccaccio_ speaks of the story as being little known--'che Latino autor non par ne dica'; see note to Anelida, l. 8.) Now, in the first note on _Anelida and Arcite_, it is explained how this story of Palamon and Arcite was necessarily translated, more or less closely, from Boccaccio's Teseide, and was doubtless written in the 7-line stanza; also that fragments of it are preserved to us (1) in sixteen stanzas of the Parliament of Foules, (2) in the first ten stanzas of Anelida, and (3) in three stanzas of Troilus. At a later period, the whole poem was re-written in a different metre, and now forms the Knightes Tale. The sixteen stanzas here referred to begin at l. 183 (the previous stanza being also imitated from a different part of the _Teseide_, bk. xi. st. 24), and end at l. 294. Chaucer has somewhat altered the order; see note to l. 183. I here quote, from Furnivall's _Trial Forewords_, pp. 60-66, a translation by Mr. W. M. Rossetti, of Boccaccio's _Teseide_, bk. vii. stanzas 51-66; and I give, beneath it, the Italian text, from an edition published at Milan in 1819. This passage can be compared with Chaucer's imitation of it at the reader's leisure. I note, beforehand, that, in the first line of this translation, the word _whom_ refers to _Vaghezza_, i. e. Grace, Allurement; whilst _she_ is the prayer of Palemo, personified. _Tes._ vii. stanzas 51-60; cf. _Parl. Foules_, ll. 183-259.