Book Duch. 627. She is the monstres heed y-wryen, As _filth over y-strawed with floures_. Si di, par ma parole ovrir, Qui vodroit _un femier covrir_ De dras de soie ou _de floretes_; R. R. 8995. As the second of the above lines from the Book of the Duchesse is obviously taken from _Le Roman_, it is probable that the first is also; but it is a hard task to discover the particular word _monstre_ in this vast poem. However, I find it, in l. 4917, with reference to Fortune; and her _wheel_ is not far off, six lines above. B. D. 634, 642. Fortune's capriciousness is treated of by Jean de Meun at intolerable length, ll. 4863-8492; and elsewhere. As to her wheel, it is continually rolling through his verses; see ll. 4911, 5366, 5870, 5925, 6172, 6434, 6648, 6880, &c. B. D. 708. Cf. Et de fain avec _Tentalus_; R. R. 19482. B. D. 778. Not from Le Roman, nor from Boethius, but from Machault's _Remède de Fortune_, as pointed out by M. Sandras long ago; see my note. B. D. 1055-6. Cf. Car le cors Alcipiades Qui de biauté avoit adés ... _Ainsinc le raconte Boece_; R. R. 8981. See my note on the line; and note the spelling of _Alcipiades_ with a _p_, as in the English MSS. We thus see that all these passages (except l. 778) are really taken from Le Roman, not to mention many more, already pointed out by Dr. Köppel (_Anglia_, xiv. 238). And, this being so, we may safely conclude that they were _not_ taken from Boethius directly. Hence we may further infer that, in all probability, Chaucer, in 1369, was not very familiar with Boethius in the Latin original. And this accounts at once for the fact that he seldom quotes Boethius at first hand, perhaps not at all, in any of his earlier poems, such as the Complaint unto Pite, the Complaint of Mars, or Anelida and Arcite, or the Lyf of St. Cecilie. I see no reason for supposing that he had closely studied Boethius before (let us say) 1375; though it is extremely probable, as was said above, that Jean de Meun inspired him with the idea of reading it, to see whether it was really worth translating, as the French poet said it was.