653. _To-go_, disperse themselves; pres. tense. The prefix _to_ has the same force as the Lat. _dis-_, i.e. 'in different directions.' We even find _to-ga_ used as a past tense in Barbour's Bruce (viii. 351, ix. 263, 269, xvii. 104, 575), with the sense 'fled in different directions,' or 'fled away.' Cf. 'the wlcne _to-gað_,' the clouds part asunder; Morris; Spec. of Eng. pt. I. p. 7, l. 169. And again, 'thagh the fourme of brede _to-go_,' though the form of bread disappear; Shoreham's Poems, p. 29. _That best go mighte_, each in the way he could best go; each made the best of his way to a safe place. 'Sauve qui peut.' 655. 'Suddenly they saw the threescore ships of Cleopatra busily about their yard-masts, and hoising sail to fly'; Sh. Plut. p. 212. Cf. Ant. and Cleop. iii. 10. 10; Vergil, Æn. viii. 707-8. The remark about Cleopatra's 'purple sails' may remind us of Plutarch's description of Cleopatra on the Cydnus, already referred to above (note to l. 583):--'the poop [of her barge] was of gold, _the sails of purple_'; Sh. Plut. p. 174; Ant. and Cleop. ii. 2. 198. The truth is, however, that (as Bech points out) Chaucer has borrowed this and a few other incidents from L. Annaeus Florus, who wrote an Epitome Rerum Romanarum in the second century. In relating the battle of Actium, he says:--'Prima dux fugae regina, cum aurea puppe _ueloque purpureo_, in altum dedit. Mox secutus Antonius: sed instare uestigiis Caesar. Itaque nec praeparata in Oceanum fuga, nec munita praesidiis utraque Ægypti cornua, Paraetonium atque Pelusium, profuere: prope manu tenebantur. Prior ferrum occupauit Antonius. Regina ad pedes Caesaris prouoluta tentauit oculos ducis: frustra. Nam pulchritudo intra pudicitiam principis fuit. Nec illa de uita, quae offerebatur, sed de parte regni, laborabat. Quod ubi desperauit a principe, seruarique se triumpho uidit, incautiorem nacta custodiam, in Mausoleum se (sepulcra regum sic uocant) recipit: ibi maximos, ut solebat, induta cultus, in differto odoribus solio, iuxta suum se collocauit Antonium: admotisque ad uenas serpentibus, sic morte quasi somno, soluta est.'--Florus, Epit. Rerum Romanarum, lib. iv. c. 11. 662. Chaucer (following Florus) has hastened the catastrophe. Antony stabbed himself at Alexandria, in the following year, B.C. 30. See Sh. Plut. 221; Ant. and Cleop. iv. 14. 102. 672. _Shryne_; for 'solio' in Florus; cf. l. 675. Plutarch says only that Cleopatra 'did sumptuously and royally bury him with her own hands'; Sh. Plut. p. 224. Afterwards, however, she 'crowned the tomb with garlands and sundry nosegays, and marvellous lovingly embraced the same'; Sh. Plut. p. 227. But see the account by Florus, in the note to l. 655. 677. _Dede cors_, dead body; as in l. 876. Chaucer uses _cors_ of the living body, as, e.g. in Sir Thopas, B 2098. 678. Chaucer seems to think that Florus meant, 'in sepulcrum [suum] se recipit ... iuxta Antonium.'