318. Dante has 'che noi siam vermi'; Purg. x. 124. 323. _Servaunt_ in Chaucer frequently means 'lover'; such is necessarily the case here. 329. Chaucer here certainly seems to imply that he translated the whole of the Romance of the Rose, or at any rate that part of it which is especially directed against women. The existing English version consists of three fragments, apparently by different authors, and I see little reason for connecting more than fragment A (ll. 1-1705) with Chaucer. None of the fragments contain such passages as the God of Love would most have objected to; but we find some of them practically reproduced in the Prologue to the Wyf of Bathes Tale. We also find numerous imitations of passages from that poem scattered up and down throughout Chaucer's works; and it is remarkable that such passages usually lie outside the contents of the English fragments. Where they do not, Chaucer frequently varies from the English version of the Romance. Thus where Chaucer (Book Duch. 419) has:-- 'And every tree stood by himselve Fro other wel ten foot or twelve. So grete trees, so huge of strengthe'-- the Eng. version of the Rom. of the Rose (1391) has:-- 'These trees were set, that I devyse, Oon from another, in assyse, Five fadome or sixe, I trowe so, But they were hye and grete also.' We may here note the variation between _ten foot or twelve_ and _five fadom or six_; the original has _cinq toises, ou de sis_. Other passages in the Book of the Duchesse which resemble the existing E. version of the Rom. of the Rose are these. (1) Book Duch. 424; cf. R. R. 1396. (2) Book Duch. 291; cf. R. R. 49. (3) Book Duch. 410; cf. R. R. 59. (4) Book Duch. 283; R. R. 7. (5) Book Duch. 340; R. R. 130. (6) Book Duch. 1152; R. R. 2084. For a fuller discussion of this question, see the Pref. to Ch. Minor Poems, in vol. i. p. 1. --A. 260. _Paramours_ seems to be an adverb here, meaning 'with a lover's affection.' So in the Kn. Tale, A 1155:-- 'For _par amour_ I loved hir first er thow.' And again, in A 2112:-- 'Ye knowen wel, that every lusty knight That loveth _paramours_, and hath his might.' So also in Troilus, v. 158, 332, and in Barbour's Bruce, xiii. 485--'he lufit his [Ross's] sistir _paramouris_.' Tyrwhitt quotes from Froissart, bk. i. c. 196--'Il aima adonc _par amours_, et depuis espousa, Madame Ysabelle de Juiliers.' The following phrase 'too hard and hot' merely intensifies the sense of _paramours_. 332. _Criseyde._ The allusion is to Chaucer's long poem entitled _Troilus and Criseyde_ (or _Creseyde_). The A-text is more outspoken here, as it alludes to the inconstancy of the heroine in direct terms. --A. 280. _Valerie_, Valerius; see note to A. 281 below. _Titus_; Titus Livius; see l. 1683, and the note. _Claudian_; Claudius Claudianus, who wrote, amongst other things, a poem De Raptu Proserpinae, to which Chaucer refers; see Ho. Fame, 449, 1509. He flourished about A.D. 400.