860. _Theseus_, the great legendary hero of Attica, is the subject of Boccaccio's poem named after him the Teseide. He is also the hero of the Legend of Ariadne, as told in Chaucer's Legend of Good Women. After deserting Ariadne, he succeeded his father Aegeus as king of Athens, and conducted an expedition against the Amazons, from which he returned in triumph, having carried off their queen Antiope, here named Hippolyta. 861. _governour._ It should be observed that Chaucer continually accents words of Anglo-French origin in the original manner, viz. on the _last_ or on the _penultimate_ syllable. Thus we have here _governóur_ and _conqueróur_; in l. 865, _chivalrý-e_; in l. 869, _contrée_; in l. 876, _manére_, &c. The most remarkable examples are when the words end in _-oun_ (ll. 893, 935). 864. _cóntree_ is here accented on the _first_ syllable; in l. 869, on the _last_. This is a good example of the unsettled state of the accents of such words in Chaucer's time, which afforded him an opportunity of licence, which he freely uses. In fact, _cóntree_ shows the _English_, and _contrée_, the _French_ accent. 865. _chivalrye_, knightly exploits. In l. 878, _chivalrye_ means 'knights'; mod. E. _chivalry_. So also in l. 982. 866. _regne of Femenye_, the kingdom (Lat. _regnum_) of the Amazons. _Femenye_ is from Lat. _femina_, a woman. Cf. Statius, Theb. xii. 578. 'Amazonia, womens land, is a Country, parte in Asia and parte in Europa, and is nigh Albania; and hath that name of Amazonia of women that were the wives of the men that were called Goths, the which men went out of the nether Scithia, as Isidore seith, li. 9.'--Batman upon Bartholomè, lib. xv. c. 12. Cf. Higden's Polychronicon, lib. i. cap. xviii; and Gower, Conf. Amant., ii. 73:-- 'Pentasilee, Which was the quene of Feminee.' [62] 867. _Scithea_, Scythia. Cf. _Scythicae_ in the quotation from Statius in note to l. 859. 868. _Ipolita_, Shakespeare's _Hippolyta_, in Mids. Night's Dream. The name is in Statius, Theb. xii. 534, spelt _Hippolyte_. 880. In this line, _Athenes_ seems to mean 'Athenians,' though elsewhere it means 'Athens.' _Athénès_ is trisyllabic. 884. _tempest._ As there is no mention of a tempest in Boccaccio, Tyrwhitt proposed to alter the reading to _temple_, as there is some mention of Theseus offering in the temple of Pallas. But it is very unlikely that this would be alluded to by the mere word _temple_; and we must accept the reading _tempest_, as in all the seven MSS. and in the old editions. I think the solution is to be found by referring to Statius. Chaucer seems to have remembered that a tempest is there described (Theb. xii. 650-5), but to have forgotten that it is merely introduced by way of _simile_. In fact, when Theseus determines to attack Creon (see l. 960), the advance of his host is likened by Statius to the effect of a tempest. The lines are:--