3244. _ne hadde been_, there would not have been. Since _hadde_ is here the subjunctive mood, it is dissyllabic. Read--_worldë n' haddë_. 3245. _sicer_, from the Lat. _sicera_, Greek [Greek: sikera], strong drink, is the word which we now spell _cider_; see Wyclif's Works, ed. Arnold, i. 363, note. It is used here because found in the Vulgate version of Judges xiii. 7; 'caue ne uinum bibas, nec _siceram_.' I slightly amend the spelling of the MSS., which have _ciser_, _siser_, _sythir_, _cyder_. Wyclif has _sither_, _cyther_, _sidir_, _sydur_. 3249. _twenty winter_, twenty years; Judg. xvi. 31. The English used to reckon formerly by _winters_ instead of _years_; as may be seen in a great many passages in the A. S. Chronicle. 3253. _Dalida_; from Gk. [Greek: Dalida], in the Septuagint. The Vulgate has _Dalila_; but Chaucer (or his scribes) naturally adopted a form which seemed to have a nearer resemblance to an accusative case, such being, at that time, the usual practice; cf. _Briseide_ (from _Briseida_), _Criseyde_ and _Anelida_. Lydgate also uses the form _Dalida_. 3259. _in this array_, in this (defenceless) condition. 3264. _querne_, hand-mill. The Vulgate has--'et clausum in carcere molere fecerunt'; Judg. xvi. 21. But Boccaccio says--'ad _molas manuarias_ coegere.' The word occurs in the House of Fame, 1798; and in Wyclif's Bible, Exod. xi. 5; Mat. xxiv. 41. In the Ayenbite of Inwyt, ed. Morris, p. 181, the story of Samson is alluded to, and it is said of him that he 'uil [_fell_] into þe honden of his yuo [_foes_], þet him deden grinde _ate querne_ ssamuolliche,' i. e. who made him grind at the mill shamefully (in a shameful manner). Lydgate copies Chaucer rather closely, in his Fall of Princes, fol. e 7:-- 'And of despite, after as I fynde, At their _quernes_ made hym for to grinde.' 3269. _Thende_, the end. _Caytif_ means (1) a captive, (2) a wretch. It is therefore used here very justly. 3274. _two pilers_, better than the reading _the pilers_ of MS. E.; because _two_ are expressly mentioned; Judg. xvi. 29. [231] 3282. So Boccaccio--'Sic aduersa credulitas, sic amantis pietas, sic mulieris egit inclyta fides. Vt quem non poterant homines, non uincula, non ferrum uincere, a mulieribus latrunculis uinceretur.' Lydgate has the expressions-- 'Beware by Sampson your counseyll well to kepe, Though [_misprinted_ That] Dalida compleyne, crye, and wepe'; and again:-- 'Suffre no nightworm within your counseyll crepe, Though Dalida compleyne, crye, and wepe.' HERCULES. 3285. There is little about Hercules in Boccaccio; but Chaucer's favourite author, Ovid, has his story in the Metamorphoses, book ix, and Heroides, epist. 9. Tyrwhitt, however, has shewn that Chaucer more immediately copies a passage in Boethius, de Cons. Phil. lib. iv. met. 7, which is as follows:--