679. Shakespeare follows closely the account in Plutarch, except that he makes mention of _two_ asps, whereas Plutarch mentions but one, called by Sir Thos. North 'an aspick'; Sh. Plut. p. 227. However, Florus uses the plural _serpentibus_. Cf. Cower, C. A., iii. 361. 681. Cf. Cleopatra's lament in Sh. Plut. p. 226; Ant. and Cleop. iv. 15. 59; v. 2. 283. 691. Pronounce _unreprovable_, as _unréprovábl'_. 694. _Sene_, evident. Note that this is an adjective (A.S. _gesýne_), and not the past participle; cf. l. 2655, and note. See also ll. 340, 741, and my note to the Balade against Women Inconstaunt, l. 13. 696. _Naked._ It looks as if Chaucer took _induta_ (note to l. 655) to mean 'not clothed.' Perhaps he read it as _nudata_. 702. _Storial sooth_, historical truth. The old editions actually put the comma after _storial_ instead of after _sooth_; and modern editors have followed them. Surely the editors, in some passages, have never attempted to construe their own texts. II. THE LEGEND OF THISBE. Chaucer follows Ovid, Metamorph. iv. 55-166; and frequently very closely. The reader should compare the Latin text throughout. For example, Ovid begins thus:-- 'Pyramus et Thisbe, iuuenum pulcherrimus alter, altera, quas Oriens habuit, praelata puellis, contiguas habuere domos, ubi dicitur altam coctilibus muris cinxisse Semiramis urbem.' In Golding's translation, fol. 43, back, thus:-- 'Within the town (of whose huge walles so monstrous high and thicke, The fame is giuen Semiramis for making them of bricke) Dwelt hard together two young folke in houses ioynde so nere, That under all one roofe well nie both twaine conuayed were. The name of him was Pyramus, and Thisbe call'd was she; So faire a man in all the East was none aliue as he. Nor nere a woman, mayde, nor wife in beautie like to her.' This at once explains the allusion to Semiramis, the celebrated but mythical queen who was said to have surrounded Babylon with walls of fabulous strength, having a deep ditch outside them. See Orosius, as translated by King Alfred, in Sweet's A.S. Reader, fourth ed. pp. 28, 29. Gower tells the same story, and likewise follows Ovid; C. A. i. 324. 718. _Estward_; evidently from Ovid's 'Oriens'; see above. 722. The first foot consists of the single syllable _Mai-_. 725. _Naso_, i.e. Ovid; really named Publius Ouidius Naso. 726. _Réport_; accented on the _e_. _Y-shove_, pushed (into notice); cf. l. 1381. 727. 'Tempore creuit amor'; Met. iv. 60. 730. 'Sed uetuere patres'; id. 61. 735. 'As (to quote the proverb) cover up the glowing coal, and the hotter the fire becomes.' Ovid has--'Quoque magis tegitur, tanto magis aestuat ignis'; 64. _Wry_ is in the imperative mood, singular. Cf. Troilus, ii. 538-9.