With regard to the title 'seintes legend of Cupide,' which in modern English would be 'Cupid's Saints' Legend,' or 'the Legend of Cupid's Saints,' Mr. Jephson remarks--'This name is one example of the way in which Chaucer entered into the spirit of the heathen pantheism, as a real form of religion. He considers these persons, who suffered for love, to have been saints and martyrs for Cupid, just as Peter and Paul and Cyprian were martyrs for Christ.' 63. Gower also tells the story of Tarquin and Lucrece, which he took, says Professor Morley (English Writers, iv. 230), from the Gesta Romanorum, which again had it from Augustine's De Civitate Dei. _Babilan_, Babylonian; elsewhere Chaucer has _Babiloine_ = Babylon, riming with _Macedoine_; Book of the Duchesse, l. 1061. 64. _swerd_, sword; put here for death by the sword. See Virgil's Aeneid, iv. 646; and Chaucer's Legend of Good Women, 1351. 65. _tree_, put here, most likely, for death by hanging; cf. last line. In Chaucer's Legend, 2485, we find-- 'She was her owne deeth right _with a corde_.' The word may also be taken literally, since Phyllis was metamorphosed after her death into a tree; Gower says she became a nut-tree, and [140] derives _filbert_ from Phyllis; Conf. Amant. bk. iv. Lydgate writes _filbert_ instead of Phyllis; Complaint of Black Knight, l. 68. 66. _The pleinte of Dianire_, the complaint of Deianira, referring to Ovid's letter 'Deianira Herculi'; so also that of _Hermion_ refers to the letter entitled 'Hermione Orestae'; that of _Adriane_, to the 'Ariadne Theseo'; and that of _Isiphilee_, to the 'Hypsipyle Iasoni.' 68. _bareyne yle_, barren island; of which I can find no correct explanation by a previous editor. It refers to Ariadne, mentioned in the previous line. The expression is taken from Ariadne's letter to Theseus, in Ovid's Heroides, Ep. x. 59, where we find 'uacat insula cultu'; and just below-- 'Omne latus terrae cingit mare; nauita nusquam, Nulla per ambiguas puppis itura uias.' Or, without referring to Ovid at all, the allusion might easily have been explained by observing Chaucer's Legend of Ariadne, l. 2163, where the island is described as solitary and desolate. It is said to have been the isle of Naxos. 69. Scan--The dreynt | e Lé | andér |. Here the pp. _dreynt_ is used adjectivally, and takes the final _e_ in the definite form. So in the Book of the Duchesse, 195, it is best to read _the dreynte_; and in the House of Fame, 1783, we must read _the sweynte_. 75. _Alceste._ The story of Alcestis--'that turned was into a dayesie'--is sketched by Chaucer in his Prologue to the Legend, l. 511, &c. No doubt he intended to include her amongst the Good Women, as the very queen of them all.