This seems to say that _Trophe_ was the Italian name of a Book (or otherwise, the name of a book in Italian), whence Chaucer drew his story of Troilus. But the notion must be due to some mistake, since that work was taken from the 'Filostrato' of Boccaccio. The only trace of the name of _Trophaeus_ as an author is in a marginal note--possibly Chaucer's own--which appears in both the Ellesmere and Hengwrt MSS., viz. 'Ille vates Chaldeorum Tropheus.' See, however, vol. ii. p. lv, where I shew that, in _this_ passage at any rate, _Trophee_ really refers to Guido delle Colonne, who treats of the deeds of Hercules in the first book of his Historia Troiana, and makes particular mention of the famous columns (as to which Ovid and Boethius are alike silent). 3311. _thise clerkes_, meaning probably Ovid and Boccaccio. See Ovid's Heroides, epist. ix., entitled Deianira Herculi, and Metamorph. lib. ix.; Boccaccio, De Casibus Virorum Illustrium, lib. i. cap. xviii., and De Mulieribus Claris, cap. xxii. See also the Trachineae of Sophocles, which Chaucer of course never read. 3315. _wered_, worn; so in A. 75, and B. 3320, _wered_ is the form of the past tense. Instances of verbs with weak preterites in Chaucer, but strong ones in modern English, are rare indeed; but there are several instances of the contrary, e.g. _wep_, _slep_, _wesh_, _wex_, now _wept_, _slept_, _washed_, _waxed_. _Wore_ is due to analogy with _bore_; cf. _could_ for _coud_. 3317. Both Ovid and Boccaccio represent Deianira as ignorant of the fatal effects which the shirt would produce. See Ovid, Metam. [234] ix. 133. Had Chaucer written later, he might have included Gower among the clerks, as the latter gives the story of Hercules and Deianira in his Conf. Amantis, lib. ii. (ed. Pauli, i. 236), following Ovid. Thus he says-- 'With wepend eye and woful herte She tok out thilke vnhappy sherte, _As she that wende wel to do_.' 3326. For long upbraidings of Fortune, see The Boke of the Duchesse, 617; Rom. Rose, 5407; Boethius, bk. i. met. 5; &c. NABUGODONOSOR. 3335. _Nabugodonosor_; generally spelt _Nabuchodonosor_ in copies of the Vulgate, of which this other spelling is a mere variation. Gower has the same spelling as Chaucer, and relates the story near the end of book i. of the Conf. Amantis (ed. Pauli, i. 136). Both no doubt took it directly from Daniel i-iv. 3338. _The vessel_ is here an imitation of the French idiom; F. _vaisselle_ means _the plate_, as Mr. Jephson well observes. Cf. l. 3494. 3349. In the word _statue_ the second syllable is rapidly slurred over, like that in _glorie_ in l. 3340. See the same effect in the Kn. Tale, ll. 117, 1097 (A. 975, 1955). 3356. _tweye_, two; a strange error for _three_, whose names are familiar; viz. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. BALTHASAR.