487. 'As fine [said of the sand] as one may see still lying.' Jephson says _yet_ must be a mistake, and would read _yt_. But it makes perfect sense. Cx. Th. read _at eye_ (put for _at yë_) instead of _yet lye_, which is perhaps better. _At yë_ means 'as presented to the sight'; see Kn. Ta., A 3016. 498. _Kenne_, discern. The offing at sea has been called the _kenning_; and see _Kenning_ in Halliwell. 500. _More_, greater. Imitated from Dante, Purgat. ix. 19, which Cary translates thus:-- 'Then, in a vision, did I seem to view A golden-feather'd eagle in the sky, With open wings, and hovering for descent.' Cf. also the descent of the angel in Purg. ii. 17-24. 504-7. The omission of these lines in F. and B. is simply due to the scribe slipping from _bright_ in l. 503 to _brighte_ in l. 507. Cf. note to l. 280. BOOK II. 511. _Listeth_, pleases, is pleased; the alteration (in MS. F.) to _listeneth_ is clearly wrong, and due to confusion with _herkneth_ above. (I do not think _listeth_ is the imp. pl. here.) 514. _Isaye_, Isaiah; actually altered, in various editions, to _I saye_, as if it meant 'I say.' The reference is to 'the vision of Isaiah'; Isa. i. 1; vi. 1. _Scipioun_, Scipio; see note to Parl. Foules, 31, and cf. Book of the Duch. 284. 515. _Nabugodonosor_, Nebuchadnezzar. The same spelling occurs in the Monkes Tale (Group B, 3335), and is a mere variant of the form _Nabuchodonosor_ in the Vulgate version, Dan. i-iv. Gower has the same spelling; Conf. Amant. bk. i., near the end. 516. _Pharo_; spelt _Pharao_ in the Vulgate, Gen. xli. 1-7. See Book of the Duchesse, 280-3. _Turnus_; alluding to his vision of Iris, the messenger of Juno; Æneid ix. 6. _Elcanor_; this name somewhat resembles _Elkanah_ (in the Vulgate, _Elcana_), 1 Sam. i. 1; but I do not know where to find any account of his vision, nor do I at all understand who is meant. The name _Alcanor_ occurs in Vergil, but does not help us. 518. _Cipris_, Venus, goddess of Cyprus; called _Cipryde_ in Parl. Foules, 277. Dante has _Ciprigna_; Par. viii. 2. 519. _Favour_, favourer, helper, aid; not used in the ordinary sense of Lat. _fauor_, but as if it were formed from O.F. _faver_, Lat. _fauere_, to be favourable to. Godefroy gives an example of the O.F. verb _faver_ in this sense. 521. _Parnaso_; the spelling is imitated from the Ital. _Parnaso_, i.e. Parnassus, in Dante, Par. i. 16. So also _Elicon_ is Dante's _Elicona_, i.e. Helicon, Purg. xxix. 40. But the passage in Dante which Chaucer here especially imitates is that in Inf. ii. 7-9:-- 'O Muse, o alto ingegno, or m' aiutate; O mente, che scrivesti ciò ch' io vidi, Qui si parrà la tua nobilitate.' This Cary thus translates:-- 'O Muses! O high genius, now vouchsafe Your aid. O mind, that all I saw hast kept Safe in a written record, here thy worth And eminent endowments come to proof.'