As Chaucer had here nothing to guide him to the gender of _Marsia_, he guessed the name to be feminine, from its termination; and Dante actually has _Marzia_ (Inf. iv. 128), with reference to _Marcia_, wife of Cato. But Dante's _Marsia_ represents the accus. case of Marsyas, or else the Lat. nom. _Marsya_, which also occurs. Ovid, Met. vi. 400, has '_Marsya_ nomen habet,' and tells the story. Apollo defeated the satyr Marsyas in a trial of musical skill, and afterwards flayed him alive; so that he 'lost his skin.' 1231. _Envyën_ (accent on _y_), vie with, challenge (at a sport). So strong is the accent on the _y_, that the word has been reduced in E. to the clipped form '_vie_; see _Vie_ in my Etym. Dict. It represents Lat. _inuitare_, to challenge; and has nothing to do with E. _envy_. Florio's Ital. Dict. has: '_Inuito_, a vie at play, a vie at any game; also an inuiting.' 1234. 'Pipers of every Dutch (German) tongue.' 1236. _Reyes_, round dances, dances in a ring. The term is Dutch. Hexham's Du. Dict. (1658), has: _een Rey_, or _een Reye_, a Daunce, or a round Daunce'; and '_reyen_, to Daunce, or to lead a Daunce.' Cf. G. _Reihen_, a dance, _Reihentanz_, a circular dance; M.H.G. _reie_, _reige_; which does not seem to be connected, as might be thought, with G. _Reihe_, a row; see Kluge and Weigand. Perhaps the Du. word was borrowed from O.F. _rei_, _roi_, order, whence also the syllable _-ray_ in E. _ar-ray_; and the G. word may have been borrowed from the Dutch; but this is a guess. 'I can daunce the raye'; Barclay's First Egloge, sig. A ii. ed. 1570; quoted in Dyce's Skelton, ii. 194. 1239. Understand _Somme_, some; see note to l. 1197. The expression _blody soun_ recurs in Kn. Tale, A 2512, in connection with _trumpe_ and _clarioun_. Our author explains his meaning here; ll. 1241-2. 1243. _Missenus_, Misenus, son of Æolus, trumpeter to Hector, and subsequently to Æneas; Verg. Æn. iii. 239; vi. 162-170. 1245. _Joab_ and _Theodomas_ are again mentioned together in a like passage in the Merch. Tale (C. T., E 1719). 'Joab blew a trumpet'; 2 Sam. ii. 28; xviii. 16; xx. 22. Theodomas is said by Chaucer (Merch. Tale) to have blown a trumpet 'At Thebes, when the citee was in doute.' He was therefore a trumpeter mentioned in some legendary history of Thebes. With this hint, it is easy to identify him with Thiodamas, mentioned in books viii. and x. of the Thebaid of Statius. He succeeded Amphiaraus as augur, and furiously excited the besiegers to attack Thebes. His invocation was succeeded by a great sound of trumpets (Theb. viii. 343), to which Chaucer here refers. But Statius does not expressly say that Thiodamas blew a trumpet himself.