_Kn. Tale._ | _Teseide._ | 865-883 | I. and II. 893-1027 | II. 2-5, 25-95. 1030-1274 | III. 1-11, 14-20, 47, 51-54, 75. 1361-1448 | IV. 26-29, 59. 1451-1479 | V. 1-3, 24-27, 33. 1545-1565 | IV. 13, 14, 31, 85, 84, 17, 82. 1638-1641 | VII. 106, 119. 1668-1739 | V. 77-91. 1812-1860 | V. 92-98. 1887-2022 | VII. 108-110, 50-64, 29-37. 2102-2206 | VI. 71, 14-22, 65-70, 8. 2222-2593 | VII. 43-49, 68-93, 23-41, 67, 95-99, | 7-13, 131, 132, 14, | 100-102, 113-118, 19. 2600-2683 | VIII. 2-131. 2684-2734 | IX. 4-61. 2735-2739 | XII. 80, 83. 2743-2808 | X. 12-112. 2809-2962 | XI. 1-67. 2967-3102 | XII. 3-19, 69-83. The MSS. quote a line and a half from Statius, Thebaid, xii. 519, 520, because Chaucer is referring to that passage in his introductory lines to this tale; see particularly ll. 866, 869, 870. There is yet another reason for quoting this scrap of Latin, viz. that it is also quoted in the Poem of Anelida and Arcite, at l. 22, where the 'Story' of that poem begins; and ll. 22-25 of Anelida give a fairly close translation of it. From this and other indications, it appears that Chaucer first of all imitated Boccaccio's Teseide (more or less closely) in the poem which he himself calls 'Palamon and Arcite,' of which but scanty traces exist in the original form; and this poem was in 7-line stanzas. He afterwards recast the whole, at the same time changing the metre; and the result was the Knightes Tale, as we here have it. Thus the Knightes Tale is not derived _immediately_ from Boccaccio or from Statius, but _through the medium_ of an older poem [61] of Chaucer's own composition. Fragments of the same poem were used by the author in other compositions; and the result is, that the Teseide of Boccaccio is the source of (1) sixteen stanzas in the Parliament of Foules; (2) of part of the first ten stanzas in Anelida; (3) of three stanzas near the end of Troilus (Tes. xi. 1-3); as well as of the original Palamon and Arcite and of the Knightes Tale. Hence it is that ll. 859-874 and ll. 964-981 should be compared with Chaucer's Anelida, ll. 22-46, as printed in vol. i. p. 366. Lines 882 and 972 are borrowed from that poem with but slight alteration. 859. The lines from Statius, Theb. xii. 519-22, to which reference is made in the heading, relate to the return of Theseus to Athens after his conquest of Hippolyta, and are as follows:-- Iamque domos patrias, Scythicae post aspera gentis Proelia, laurigero subeuntem Thesea curru Laetifici plausus, missusque ad sidera uulgi Clamor, et emeritis hilaris tuba nuntiat armis.'