861. It is remarkable that Chaucer, some years later, repeated almost the same thing in the Prologue to his Treatise on the Astrolabe, in somewhat different words, viz. 'curious endyting and hard sentence is full hevy atones for swich a child to lerne'; l. 32. 866. _Lewedly_, in unlearned fashion; in his Astrolabe, l. 43, Chaucer says he is 'but a _lewd_ compilatour of the labour of olde Astrologiens.' 868. The eagle characteristically says that his reasons are so 'palpable,' that they can be shaken by the _bills_, as men shake others by the hand. It is perhaps worth adding that the word _bill_ was too vulgar and familiar to be applied to a hawk, which had only a _beak_ (the French term, whereas _bill_ is the A.S. _bile_). 'Ye shall say, this hauke has a large _beke_, or a shortt beke; and call it not _bille_'; Book of St. Alban's, fol. a 6, back. The eagle purposely employs the more familiar term. 873. Chaucer meekly allows that the eagle's explanation is a _likely_ one. He was not in a comfortable position for contradiction in argument, and so took a wiser course. The eagle resents this mild admission, and says he will soon find out the truth, 'top, and tail, and every bit.' He then eases his mind by soaring 'upper,' resumes his good temper, and proposes to speak 'all of game.' 888. Cf. Dante, Par. xxii. 128, which Cary thus translates: 'Look downward, and contemplate, what a world Already stretch'd under our feet there lies.' 900. _Unethes_, with difficulty; because large animals could only just be discerned. The graphic touches here are excellent. 901. _Rivér-es_, with accent on the former _e_ (pronounced as _a_ in _bare_). Cf. Ital. _riviera_. 907. _Prikke_, a point. 'Al the environinge of the erthe aboute ne halt nat but the resoun of a _prikke_ at regard of the greetnesse of hevene'; tr. of Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 7. 17. 'And doun fro thennes faste he gan avyse This litel spot of erthe, that with the see Enbraced is'; Troilus, bk. v. ll. 1814-6. 'Vidi questo globo Tal, ch' io sorriso del suo vil sembiante.' Dante, Parad. xxii. 134. See also Parl. Foules, 57, 58; and note that the above passage from Troilus is copied from the Teseide (xi. 2). 915. The note in Gilman's Chaucer as to Alexander's _dreams_ is entirely beside the mark. The word _dreme_ (l. 917) refers to Scipio only. The reference is to the wonderful mode in which Alexander contrived to soar in the air in a car upborne by four gigantic griffins. 'Now is he won þur[gh]e þar wingis vp to the wale cloudis; So hi[gh]e to heuen þai him hale in a hand-quile, Midil-erth bot as a mylnestane, na mare, to him semed.' Wars of Alexander, ed. Skeat (E.E.T.S.), 5523. _Macedo_, the Macedonian. 916. _King_, kingly hero; not king in the strict sense. _Dan Scipio_, lord Scipio. See notes to Parl. Foules, 29; Book of the Duch. 284; Ho. Fame, 514.