115. 'Like one that was weary with having overwalked himself by going two miles on pilgrimage.' The difficulty was not in the walking two miles, but in doing so under difficulties, such as going barefoot for penance. 117. _Corseynt_; O.F. _cors seint_, lit. holy body; hence a saint or sainted person, or the shrine where a saint was laid. See Robert of Brunne, Handlyng Synne, 8739:-- 'And hys ymage ful feyre depeynte, Ry[gh]t as he were a _cors seynt_.' See also P. Plowman, B. v. 539; Morte Arthure, 1164; and (the spurious) Chaucer's Dream, 942. 118. 'To make that soft (or easy) which was formerly hard.' The allusion is humorous enough; viz. to the bonds of matrimony. Here again Chaucer follows Jean de Meun, Rom. de la Rose, 8871:-- 'Mariages est maus liens, Ainsinc m'aïst saint Juliens Qui pelerins errans herberge, Et saint Lienart qui defferge Les prisonniers bien repentans, Quant les voit à soi démentans'; i.e. 'Marriage is an evil bond--so may St. Julian aid me, who harbours wandering pilgrims; and St. Leonard, who frees from their fetters (lit. un-irons) such prisoners as are very repentant, when he sees them giving themselves the lie (or recalling their word).' The 'prisoners' are married people, who have repented, and would recall their plighted vow. St. Leonard was the patron-saint of captives, and it was charitably hoped that he would extend his protection to the wretched people who had unadvisedly entered into wedlock, and soon prayed to get out of it again. They would thus exchange the _hard_ bond for the _soft_ condition of freedom. 'St. Julian is the patron of pilgrims; St. Leonard and St. Barbara protect captives'; Brand, Pop. Antiquities, i. 359. And, at p. 363 of the same, Brand quotes from Barnabee Googe:-- 'But Leonerd of the prisoners doth the bandes asunder pull, And breaks the prison-doores and chaines, wherewith his church is full.' St. Leonard's day is Nov. 6. 119. The MSS. have _slept-e_, which is dissyllabic. Read _sleep_, as in C. T. Prol. 397. 120. Hence the title of one of Lydgate's poems, The Temple of Glass, which is an imitation of the present poem. 130. Cf. the description of Venus' temple (Cant. Tales, A 1918), which is imitated from that in Boccaccio's Teseide. 133. Cf. 'naked fleting in the large see.... And on hir heed, ful semely for to see, A rose garland, fresh and wel smellinge'; Cant. Tales, A 1956. 137. 'Hir dowves'; C. T., A 1962. 'Cupido'; id. 1963. 138. _Vulcano_, Vulcan; note the Italian forms of these names. Boccaccio's Teseide has _Cupido_ (vii. 54), and _Vulcano_ (vii. 43). His face was brown with working at the forge. 141, 2. Cf. Dante, Inf. iii. 10, 11. 143. A large portion of the rest of this First Book is taken up with a summary of the earlier part of Vergil's Aeneid. We have here a translation of the well-known opening lines:-- 'Arma uirumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris Italiam, fato profugus, Lauinia uenit Littora.'