2448. 'As Reynard the fox doth, so (doth) the fox's son.' The line is incomplete, but the sense is clear. 'Reynard, which with us is a duplicate for fox, while in the French _renard_ has quite excluded the older _volpils_, was originally not the name of a kind, but the proper name of the fox-hero, the vulpine Ulysses, in that famous beast-epic of the middle ages, _Reineke Fuchs_; the immense popularity of which we gather from many evidences, from none more clearly than this. _Chanticleer_ is in like manner the name of the cock, and _Bruin_ of the bear in the same poem.'--Trench, Eng. Past and Present. _Reynard_ is from M.H.G. _ragin-hart_, strong in counsel; from _ragin_, counsel, and _hart_, strong. 2454. _Agroted_, surfeited, cloyed. A rare word; used also by Lydgate. See the New E. Dict. 2456. This is a hint that Chaucer was already getting tired of his task. 2477. _In a month._ So in Ovid; see l. 2503. 2485. _With a corde_, i.e. by hanging. Cf. Ovid, Her. ii. 141:-- 'Colla quoque, infidis quae se nectenda lacertis praebuerant, laqueis implicuisse libet.' 2493. _Hir soules_, their souls; of Theseus and Demophoön. 2495. 'Although it be but a small part of the whole letter.' In fact, Chaucer gives us ll. 1-8 of Ovid's second Epistle (in the Heroides); and, from l. 2518 onward, sentences made up from ll. 26, 27, 43, 44, 49-52, 63-68, 73-78, and 134-137 of the same. 2496. Compare these lines with Ovid, Her. ii. 1-8:-- 'Hospita, Demophoon, tua te Rhodopeïa Phyllis ultra promissum tempus abesse queror. Cornua quum Lunae pleno semel orbe coissent, litoribus nostris ancora pacta tua est. Luna quater latuit, toto quater orbe recrevit, nec uehit Actæas Sithonis unda rates. Tempora si numeres, bene quae numeramus amantes, non uenit ante suum nostra querela diem.' _Hostess-e_ is trisyllabic; MS. C. has--'Ostess-e thyn.' 2502. _Highte_, promised. But Chaucer seems to have mistaken the sense of Ovid's fourth line (in the note to l. 2496). 2508. 'Sithonis unda'; see note to l. 2496. Here _Sithonis_ is an adj. (gen. _Sithonidis_), and means 'Sithonian,' i.e. Thracian; because Sithon or Sitho, her father, was king of Thrace. I substitute _Sitho_ for the MS. spellings. 2518. See note to l. 2495 for references. 2521. _For_, because: 'quid feci, nisi non sapienter amaui?' 2529. _May_ occupies the first foot of the line. 2534. She prays that the glory of having betrayed her will be the greatest glory he will ever attain to. 'Di faciant, laudis summa sit ista tuae!' (66). 2551. _Mote ye_, may ye. 'Ad tua me fluctus proiectam littora portent'; (135). 2556. _And knew_, i.e. and _she_ knew.