2236. _Fro this world_, i.e. from the centre of the universe; according to the old Ptolemaic system which made the earth the fixed centre of all things. _The firste hevene_, the first or outermost sphere, that of Saturn; see note to Complaint of Mars, 29. 2237. Understand _al_ (everything) as the nom. case to _corrumpeth_; i.e. everything becomes corrupt, is infected. 2238. _As to me_, as for me, in my opinion. 2241. _Yit last_, still lasts, still endures. 2243. Read--The stóry of Térë-ús, &c.; the _-y_ in _story_ being rapidly slurred over. 2244. Here begins Ovid, Met. vi. 424:--'Threïcius Tereus.' Tereus was king of Thrace; and Ovid says he could trace his descent from Gradivus, i.e. Mars (l. 427). _Marte_, Mars. Corson here notes that '_Marte_ is the ablative case of Mars, as _Jove_ is of Jupiter.' It is worth while to say that this view is quite erroneous; for these forms did not arise in that way. _Marte_ was formed from _Martem_, the accusative case, by dropping the final _m_; and, generally, the Romance languages formed most of their substantives from _accusative_ cases, owing to the frequent use of that case, especially in the construction of the accus. with the infinitive, which in medieval Latin was very common. See Sir G. Cornewall Lewis' Essay on the Romance Languages, and Diez, Grammatik der Romanischen Sprachen, vol. ii. Thus the F. _corps_ represents the Lat. acc. _corpus_, not the abl. _corpore_; as is sufficiently obvious. 2247. Read--_Pán-di-ón-es_. Pandion, a king of Athens, was father of Progne and Philomela. Cf. The Passionate Pilgrim, xxi. 395. 2249. The original Latin should be consulted, as Chaucer sometimes copies Ovid literally, and sometimes goes his own way. 'Non pronuba Iuno, non Hymenaeus adest illi, non Gratia lecto. Eumenides tenuere faces de funere raptas: Eumenides strauere torum: tectoque profanus incubuit bubo, thalamique in culmine sedit.'--428. 2253. _Wond_, wound; _aboute the balkes wond_, kept winding (flying in circular wise) round about the balks (or transverse beams beneath the roof). Three good MSS. read _wond_, which is the past tense of _winden_, to wind. Bell and others read _wonde_, explained by 'dwelt'; but this is open to two objections, viz. (1) the pt. t. of _wonien_ to dwell, is _woned_ or _wonede_, not _wonde_; and (2) an owl cannot dwell _about_ a balk, but only _on_ it. The pt. pl. _woneden_ (three syllables) occurs in the Kn. Ta. 2069 (A 2927); and we learn from the Clerkes Tale, E 339, that the pp. _woned_ rimes with _astoned_. Ovid, indeed, has _incubuit_ and _sedit_; but that does not prove much; for Chaucer expresses things in his own manner at will. 2256. This original line refers to the medieval wedding-feasts, which sometimes lasted even forty days. See Havelok, l. 2344; and the note. 2259-68. From Ovid, Met. vi. 438-442. 2261. _Saw not longe_, had not seen for a long time. 2264. _Moste_, might. _Ones_, for once; lit. once.