--A. 307. _Vincent_ is Vincent of Beauvais, who compiled an encyclopædia of universal knowledge in the 13th century. One portion of this great work, treating of universal history, is called _Speculum Historiale_, which Chaucer has here turned into _Storial Mirour_. See Lounsbury's Studies in Chaucer, ii. 375. 338. As Chaucer is pleased to call his poem by the name of 'seintes legende of Cupyde' in the Introd. to Man of Law, B 61, he here turns Venus into a saint, to keep up the analogy between his present undertaking and the Legenda Sanctorum. But John de Meun had previously said much the same thing. In Le Rom. de la Rose, 10863, Cupid is made to swear 'par _sainte_ Venus ma mere.' See the Eng. version, l. 5953. (Perhaps read _seynte_ in Text B.) 343. In accordance with the proverb--'Audi alteram partem.' See A. 325. Cf. Seneca, _Medea_, 195. 348. 'And even if you were not an omniscient god.' 352. From the Rom. of the Rose; the E. version has (ll. 1050, 1):-- 'Hir court hath many a losengere, And many a traytour envious.' Again repeated in Cant. Tales, B 4515-8. 353. _Totelere_ (C. _totulour_), tattling; properly a sb., meaning 'tattler,' but here used in apposition, and, practically, as an adjective. Tyrwhitt explains it by 'whisperer.' Halliwell quotes 'Be no _totiler_' from MS. Bibl. Reg. 17 B. xvii. fol. 141. It clearly means a gossiping tattler, or tale-bearer. The word is scarce, but we find a helpful passage in P. Plowman, B. xx. 297:-- 'Of alle taletellers and _tyterers_ in ydel.' Here _tyterers_ means gossipers, or retailers of tittle-tattle; and various readings give the forms _titeleris_ (as printed by Wright) and _tutelers_ (as printed by Crowley). The last form _tuteler_ is clearly identical with Chaucer's _totelere_, spelt _tutelere_ in MS. Arch. Selden B. 24. 357. 'These are the causes why, if I am not to lie'; &c. See note to l. 217. 358. _Lavender_, laundress, washerwoman; (Bell's interpretation of 'gutter' is utter nonsense). See _Laundress_ in my Etym. Dict., where I refer to the present passage. _Laundress_ is formed by adding _-ess_ to _launder_ or _laundre_, the contracted form of _lavender_ as here used. In Barbour's Bruce, ed. Skeat, xvi. 273, 292, the word for 'washerwoman' is spelt _lauender_, _laynder_, and _landar_. Palsgrave's Eng. and Fr. Dict. gives--'_Laundre_, that wassheth clothes; _lauendiere_'; and Cotgrave explains the Fr. _lauandiere_ by the Eng. _launderesse_. Chaucer's presentation to us of Envy as the person who washes all the dirty linen in the court, is particularly happy. As a matter of fact, he is here quoting Dante, but he has substituted _lavender_ (perhaps in an ill sense, though I do not feel sure of this) for the _meretrice_ of the original. The passage referred to is in the Inferno, xiii. 64:-- 'La meretrice, che mai dall' ospizio Di Cesare non torse gli occhi putti, Morte comune, e delle corti vizio, Infiammò contre me gli animi tutti.' Cary's translation has:--