'Praeiacet in stellis series, quam longior aetas Explicet et spatiis temporis ordo suis, _Sceptra Phoronei, fratrum discordia Thebis,_ _Flamma Phaethontis Deucalionis aque_. In stellis Codri paupertas, copia Croesi, Incestus Paridis, Hippolytique pudor. _In stellis Priami species, audacia Turni,_ _Sensus Ulixeus, Herculeusque uigor._ In stellis pugil est Pollux et nauita Typhis, Et Cicero rhetor et geometra Thales. In stellis lepidum dictat Maro, Milo figurat, Fulgurat in Latia nobilitate Nero. Astra notat Persis, Ægyptus parturit artes, Graecia docta legit, praelia Roma gerit.' See Bernardi Sylvestris Megacosmos, ed. C.S. Barach and J. Wrobel, Innsbruck, 1876, p. 16. The names _Ector_ (Hector), &c., are too well known to require comment. The death of Turnus is told at the end of Vergil's Æneid. 207, 208. Here _have_, forming part of the phrase _mighte have grace_, is unemphatic, whilst _han_ (for _haven_) is emphatic, and signifies possession. See _han_ again in l. 241. 211. Compare Squieres Tale, F. 202, 203, and the note thereon. 224. _Mahoun_, Mahomet. The French version does not mention Mahomet. This is an anachronism on Chaucer's part; the Emperor Tiberius II. died A. D. 582, when Mahomet was but twelve years old. 228. _I prey yow holde_, I pray you to hold. Here _holde_ is the infinitive mood. The imperative plural would be _holdeth_; see _saveth_, next line. [148] 236. _Maumettrye_, idolatry; from the Mid. E. _maumet_, an idol, corrupted from Mahomet. The confusion introduced by using the word _Mahomet_ for an idol may partly account for the anachronism in l. 224. The Mahometans were falsely supposed by our forefathers to be idolaters. 242. _noot_, equivalent to _ne woot_, know not. 248. _gret-è_ forms the fourth foot in the line. If we read _gret_, the line is left imperfect at the cæsura; and we should have to scan it with a medial pause, as thus:-- That thém | peróur || --óf | his grét | noblésse || Line 621 below may be read in a similar manner:-- But ná | thelées || --thér | was gréet | moorning || 253. 'So, when Ethelbert married Bertha, daughter of the Christian King Charibert, she brought with her, to the court of her husband, a Gallican bishop named Leudhard, who was permitted to celebrate mass in the ancient British Church of St. Martin, at Canterbury.'--Note in Bell's Chaucer. 255. _ynowe_, being plural, takes a final _e_; we then read _th'ende_, as explained in note to l. 145. The pl. _ino[gh]he_ occurs in the Ormulum. 263. _alle and some_, collectively and individually; one and all. See Cler. Tale, E. 941, &c. 273-87. Not in the original; perhaps added in revision.