78. _Canacee_; not the Canace of the Squieres Tale, whom Chaucer describes as so kind and good as well as beautiful, but Ovid's Canace. The story is told by Gower, Confess. Amantis, book iii. It is difficult to resist the conclusion that Chaucer is here making a direct attack upon Gower, his former friend; probably because Gower had, in some places, imitated the earlier edition of Chaucer's Man of Lawes Tale. This difficult question is fully discussed in vol. iii. pp. 413-7. 81. 'Or else the story of Apollonius of Tyre.' The form _Tyro_ represents the Lat. ablative in 'Apollonius de Tyro.' This story, like that of Canacee (note to l. 78), is told by Gower, Conf. Amant. bk. viii., ed. Pauli, iii. 284; and here again Chaucer seems to reflect upon Gower. The story occurs in the Gesta Romanorum, in which it appears as Tale cliii., being the longest story in the whole collection. It is remarkable as being the only really romantic story extant in an Anglo-Saxon version; see Thorpe's edition of it, London, 1834. It is therefore much older than 1190, the earliest date assigned by Warton. Compare the play of Pericles, Prince of Tyre. 89. _if that I may_, as far as lies in my power (to do as I please); a common expletive phrase, of no great force. 90. _of_, as to, with regard to. _doon_, accomplish it. 92. _Pierides_; Tyrwhitt rightly says--'He rather means, I think, the [141] daughters of Pierus, that contended with the Muses, and were changed into pies; Ovid, Metam. bk. v.' Yet the expression is not wrong; it signifies--'I do not wish to be likened to those _would-be_ Muses, the Pierides'; in other words, I do not set myself up as worthy to be considered a poet. 93. _Metamorphoseos._ It was common to cite books thus, by a title in the _genitive case_, since the word _Liber_ was understood. There is, however, a slight error in this substitution of the singular for the plural; the true title being P. Ovidii Nasonis Metamorphoseon Libri Quindecim. See the use of _Eneydos_ in the Nonne Prestes Tale, B. 4549; and of _Judicum_ in Monk. Ta. B. 3236. 94. 'But, nevertheless, I care not a bean.' Cf. l. 4004 below.