3878. _Pompeius._ Boccaccio gives his life at length, as an example of misfortune; De Casibus Virorum, lib. vi. cap. 9. He was killed Sept. 29, B.C. 48, soon after the battle of Pharsalia in Thessaly (l. 3869). 3881. _him_, for himself; but in the next line it means 'to him.'--M. 3885. Chaucer refers to this triumph in the Man of Lawes Tale, B. 400; but see the note. Cf. Shak. Henry V, v. prol. 28. [245] 3887. Chaucer is not alone in making Brutus and Cassius into _one_ person; see note to l. 3892. 3891. _cast_, contrived, appointed; pp., after _hath_. 3892. _boydekins_, lit. bodkins, but with the signification of daggers. It is meant to translate the Lat. _pugio_, a poniard. In Barbour's Bruce, i. 545, Caesar is said to have been slain with a weapon which in one edition is called _punsoun_, in another a _botkin_, and in the Edinburgh MS. a _pusoune_, perhaps an error for _punsoune_, since Halliwell's Dictionary gives the form _punchion_. Hamlet uses _bodkin_ for a dagger; Act iii. sc. 1. l. 76. In the margin of Stowe's Chronicle, ed. 1614, it is said that Caesar was slain with _bodkins_; Nares' Glossary. Nares also quotes--'The chief woorker of this murder was _Brutus Cassius_, with 260 of the senate, all having _bodkins_ in their sleeves'; Serp. of Division, prefixed to Gorboduc, 1590. 3906. _lay on deying_, lay a-dying. In l. 3907, _deed_ = mortally wounded. 3909. _recomende_, commit. He means that he commits the full telling of the story to Lucan, &c. In other words, he refers the reader to those authors. Cf. Lounsbury, Studies in Chaucer, ii. 254, 274. Lucan (born A.D. 39, died A.D. 65) was the author of the Pharsalia, an incomplete poem in ten books, narrating the struggle between Pompey and Caesar. There is an English translation of it by Rowe. Suetonius Tranquillus (born about A.D. 70) wrote several works, the principal of which is The Lives of the Twelve Caesars. Valerius. There were two authors of this name, (1) Valerius Flaccus, author of a poem on the Argonautic expedition, and (2) Valerius Maximus, author of De Factis Dictisque Memorabilibus Libri ix. Mr. Jephson says that Valerius Flaccus is meant here, I know not why. Surely the reference is to Valerius Maximus, who at least tells some anecdotes of Caesar; lib. iv. c. 5; lib. vii. cap. 6. 3911. _word and ende_, beginning and end; a substitution for the older formula _ord and ende_. Tyrwhitt notes that the suggested emendation of _ord_ for _word_ was proposed by Dr. Hickes, in his Anglo-Saxon Grammar, p. 70. Hickes would make the same emendation in Troil. and Cres. v. 1669; 'And of this broche he tolde him _ord and ende_,'