And, in his Boethius, after saying that Nero ruled from East to West, he adds--'And eke þis Nero gouernede by Ceptre alle þe peoples þat ben vndir þe colde sterres þat hy[gh]ten þe seuene triones; þis is to seyn, he gouernede alle þe poeples þat ben vndir þe parties of þe norþe. And eke Nero gouerned alle þe poeples þat þe violent wynde Nothus scorchiþ, and bakiþ þe brennynge sandes by his drie hete; þat is to seyne, alle þe poeples in þe _souþe_'; ed. Morris, p. 55 (cf. vol. ii. p. 45). 3663. From Suetonius; cf. Lounsbury, Studies in Chaucer, ii. 285. 3665. This is from Suetonius, who says--'Piscatus est rete aurato, purpura coccoque funibus nexis'; cap. xxx. So also Orosius, vii. 7; Eutropius, vii. 9. 3669. This passage follows Boethius, bk. ii. met. 6, very closely, as is evident by comparing it with Chaucer's translation (see vol. ii. p. 44). 'He leet brenne the citee of Rome, and made sleen the senatoures. And he, cruel, whylom slew his brother. And he was maked [243] moist with the blood of his moder; that is to seyn, he leet sleen and slitten the body of his moder, to seen wher he was conceived; and he loked on every halve upon her colde dede body; ne no tere ne wette his face; but he was so hard-herted that he mighte ben domesman, or Iuge, of hir dede beautee.... Allas, it is a grevous fortune, as ofte as wikked swerd is ioigned to cruel venim; that is to seyn, venimous crueltee to lordshippe.' Thus Chaucer himself explains _domesman_ (l. 3680) by _Iuge_, i. e. judge. In the same line _ded-è_ is dissyllabic. 3685. _a maister_; i. e. Seneca, mentioned below by name. In the year 65, Nero, wishing to be rid of his old master, sent him an order to destroy himself. Seneca opened a vein, but the blood would not flow freely; whereupon, to expedite its flow, he entered into a warm bath, and thence was taken into a vapour stove, where he was suffocated. 'Nero constreynede Senek, his familier and his mayster, to chesen on what deeth he wolde deyen'; Chaucer's Boethius, lib. iii. pr. 5. 34 (vol. ii. 63). 3692. 'It was long before tyranny or any other vice durst attack him'; literally, 'durst let dogs loose against him.' To _uncouple_ is to release dogs from the leash that fastened them together; see P. Pl. B. pr. 206. Compare-- 'At the _uncoupling_ of his houndes.' Book of the Duchesse, l. 377. 'The laund on which they fought, th' appointed place In which th' _uncoupled_ hounds began the chace.' Dryden; Palamon and Arcite, bk. ii. l. 845. 3720. 'Where he expected to find some who would aid him.' Suetonius says--'ipse cum paucis hospitia singulorum adiit. Verum clausis omnium foribus, respondente nullo, in cubiculum rediit,' &c.; cap. xlvii. He afterwards escaped to the villa of his freedman Phaon, four miles from Rome, where he at length gave himself a mortal wound in the extremity of his despair. Cf. Rom. de la Rose, 6459-76.