1. For this method of commencing a poem with a dream, compare The Book of the Duchesse, Parl. of Foules, and The Romance of the Rose. For discourses on dreams, compare the Nonne Preestes Tale, and the remarks of Pandarus in Troilus, v. 358-385. Chaucer here propounds several problems; first, what causes dreams (a question answered at some length in the Nonne Preestes Tale, B 4116); why some come true and some do not (discussed in the same, B 4161); and what are the various sorts of dreams (see note to l. 7 below). There is another passage in Le Roman de la Rose, which bears some resemblance to the present passage. It begins at l. 18699:-- 'Ne ne revoil dire des songes, S'il sunt voirs, ou s'il sunt mençonges; Se l'en les doit du tout eslire, Ou s'il sunt du tout à despire: Porquoi li uns sunt plus orribles, Plus bel li autre et plus paisible, Selonc lor apparicions En diverses complexions, Et selonc lors divers corages Des meurs divers et des aages; Ou se Diex par tex visions Envoie revelacions, Ou li malignes esperiz, Por metre les gens en periz; De tout ce ne m'entremetrai.' 2. This long sentence ends at line 52. 7. This opens up the question as to the divers sorts of dreams. Chaucer here evidently follows Macrobius, who, in his Commentary on the Somnium Scipionis, lib. i. c. 3, distinguishes _five kinds_ of dreams, viz. _somnium_, _visio_, _oraculum_, _insomnium_, and _visum_. The fourth kind, _insomnium_, was also called _fantasma_; and this provided Chaucer with the word _fantome_ in l. 11. In the same line, _oracles_ answers to the Lat. _oracula_. Cf. Ten Brink, Studien, p. 101. 18. _The gendres_, the (various) kinds. This again refers to Macrobius, who subdivides the kind of dream which he calls _somnium_ into five species, viz. _proprium_, _alienum_, _commune_, _publicum_, and _generale_, according to the things to which they relate. _Distaunce of tymes_, i.e. whether the thing dreamt of will happen soon, or a long time afterwards. 20. 'Why this is a greater (more efficient) cause than that.' 21. This alludes to the four chief complexions of men; cf. Nonne Preestes Tale, B 4114. The four complexions were the sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholy, and choleric; and each complexion was likely to have certain sorts of dreams. Thus, in the Nonne Preestes Tale, B 4120, the _choleric_ man is said to dream of arrows, fire, fierce carnivorous beasts, strife, and dogs; whilst the _melancholy_ man will dream of bulls and bears and black devils. 22. _Reflexiouns_, the reflections or thoughts to which each man is most addicted; see Parl. of Foules, 99-105. 24. 'Because of too great feebleness of their brain (caused) by abstinence,' &c. 43. _Of propre kynde_, owing to its own nature. 48. The _y_ in _By_ is run on to the _a_ into _avísióuns_.