515. Alcestis 'was afterwards brought back from the lower world by Hercules, and restored to her husband'; Lewis and Short, Lat. Dict. s.v. _Alcestis_. And see the Introduction. 522. _Bountee_, goodness. See Clerk. Ta., E 157, 415; and Trench, Sel. Glossary. 526. _Agaton_, Agathon or Agatho; Dante's _Agatone_ (Purg. xxii. 107). An Athenian poet (B.C. 447-400); who wrote a tragedy called 'the Flower.' See the Introduction. 531. _Cibella_, Cybela, or more commonly Cybele, a Phrygian goddess, later worshipped at Rome as Ops or Mater Magna. She was the goddess of the earth, and especially represented its fertility; hence she is naturally said to produce flowers. She here answers to the 'Ceres' of Froissart; see the Introduction. 533. The reference is to the red tips on the white petals of the daisy, the 'wee, modest, crimson-tippèd flower.' This is said to be the gift of Mars, as he was associated with that colour. He is called 'Mars the rede'; see l. 2589 below; Anelida, l. 1; Kn. Ta., A 1969. The colour of the planet Mars is reddish. In the present passage _reed_ is a sb.; 'And Mars gave redness to her crown.' 539. Referring to the Balade at l. 249. In the A-text, Alcestis was actually mentioned in the refrain; but Chaucer rewrote it so as to exclude her name. He now writes (in l. 540) as if he had forgotten to put it in. Of course ll. 539-541 are peculiar to the B-text, as marked. 542. _Kalender._ 'A kalendar is an almanac by which persons are guided in their computation of time; hence it is used, as here, for a guide or example generally'; Bell. The New E. Dict. quotes this passage, and explains the word by 'a guide, directory; an example, model'; and cites Hamlet, v. 2. 114--'He is the card or _calendar_ of gentry.' Nevertheless, I doubt whether this sense arose from the mere _usefulness_ of the calendar. I believe that Chaucer regarded it in quite another aspect, viz. as containing the _record_ or _list_ of the saints whose lives are worthy of imitation. Hence Schmidt explains the word in Hamlet as 'note-book' or 'record'; as is certainly the case in All's Well, i. 3. 4, which Murray duly quotes with the sense of 'record.' So in the present case _kalender_ does not mean 'example' merely, but _a whole list_ or _complete record of examples_, which gives the word a much greater force. Compare Chaucer's ABC, under the letter _K_, and the note (l. 73). 549. We hence learn that Chaucer's nineteenth[69] and last Legend was to have been the Legend of Alcestis; but he never wrote more than the former _half_ of the work. Cf. A-text, 532.