[Greek: Monou gar autou kai theos sterisketai] [Greek: Agenêta poiein hass' an ê pepragmena.] Agatho is mentioned by Xenophon in his Symposium, by Plato in the Protagoras, and in the Banquet, a favourite book with our author [Dante], and by Aristotle in his Art of Poetry, where the following remarkable passage occurs concerning him, from which I will leave it to the reader to decide whether it is possible that the allusion in Chaucer might have arisen: [Greek: en eniais men hen ê duo tôn gnôrimôn estin onomatôn, ta de alla pepoiêmena; en eniais de outhen; hoion en tô Agathônos Anthei. homoiôs gar en toutô ta te pragmata kai ta onomata pepoiêtai, kai ouden hêtton euphrainei]. Edit. 1794, p. 33. "There are, however, some tragedies, in which one or two of the names are historical, and the rest feigned; there are even some, in which none of the names are historical; such is Agatho's tragedy called 'The Flower'; for in that all is invention, both incidents and names; and yet it pleases." Aristotle's Treatise on Poetry, by Thos. Twining, 8vo. edit. 1812, vol. i. p. 128.' The peculiar spelling _Agaton_ renders it highly probable that Chaucer took the name from Dante (Purg. xxii. 106), but this does not wholly suffice[28]. Accordingly, Bech suggests that he may also have noticed the name in the Saturnalia of Macrobius, an author whose Somnium Scipionis Chaucer certainly consulted (Book Duch. 284; Parl. Foules, 111). In this work Macrobius mentions, incidentally, both Alcestis (lib. v. c. 19) and Agatho (lib. ii. c. 1), and Chaucer may have observed the names there, though he obtained no particular information about them. Froissart (as Bech bids us remark), in his poem on the Daisy, has the lines:-- 'Mercurius, _ce dist li escripture_, trouva premier la belle flour que j'ainc oultre mesure,' &c. The remark--'ce dist li escripture,' 'as the book says'--may well have suggested to Chaucer that he ought to give _some authority_ for his story, and the name of Agatho (of whom he probably knew _nothing more_ than the name) served his turn as well as another. His easy way of citing authors is probably, at times, humorously assumed; and such may be the explanation of his famous 'Lollius.' It is quite useless to make any further search. I may add that this Agatho, or Agathon ([Greek: Agathon]), was an Athenian tragic poet, and a friend of Euripides and Plato. He was born about B.C. 447, and died about B.C. 400. Lounsbury (Studies in Chaucer, ii. 402) rejects this explanation; but it is not likely that we shall ever meet with a better one.