Neglect of this medieval habit has hindered the interpretation of _Pearl_. See the study of it by Sister M. Madaleva, New York, 1925. [22] The passage refers specifically, though not in the usual medieval terms, to Vergil’s diction. So do I. ii. 67, “la tua parola ornata”; and II. vii. 16, “O gloria de’ Latin ... per cui mostrò ciò che potea la lingua nostra.” There are many references and allusions to specific passages; e.g., to the fourth Eclogue, often interpreted symbolically in the middle age, in II. xxii. 70; to Dido’s “Agnosco veteris vestigia flammæ” (_Æn._ IV. 23), in II. xxx. 48. Justinian’s vision of Rome in III. vi may be said to carry out the idea of the _Æneid_ in having the same Romanism. [23] See above, page 271. The sculptured reliefs in II. x, though doubtless reminiscent, as many a medieval ecphrasis, of the wall-pictures in Dido’s palace, are _exempla_, not decoration. [24] See note 21 above. I owe to this book the interpretation of Dante’s intention as the progressive freeing of the will. [25] _Chaucer and his poetry_, Cambridge, 1915, page 58. [26] A similar touch is added in the English _Ywain and Gawain_. He bad his lyoun go to rest; And he laid him sone onane Doun byfore tham everilkane. Bitwene his legges he layd his tail, And so biheld to the batayl. 2592-2596. [27] Lecoy de la Marche quotes from a versified morality on the Blessed Virgin a passage exemplifying simple use of linking refrain. Ne trova pas l’angeles vostre cuer vain ne vole, Quand il semma an vos la saintisme parole; Ne li fiz Deu meismes ne vos tint pas a fole, Quant il sor totes femmes vos retint a s’escole. A sor vos retint li verais gloriox ... _La chaire française au moyen âge_, 284. Thus it is used in the stanzaic _Morte Arthur_. ... Lancelot sayd: “yiff I sayd nay, I were wele worthy to be brent. Brent to bene worthy I were” ... 3696-3698. [28] _De planctu naturæ_, translated by D. M. Moffat, New York, 1908 (Yale Studies in English). [29] “We have already here some of that variety of tone, that dramatic briskness, that air of gaiety mingled with romance.” Legouis, _Chaucer_, 85. [30] “From Italy, and primarily I think from Dante, came the inspiration to tell the story of Troilus in the _bel stilo alto_, to write in the vernacular with the dignity and elevation which mark the great ancients.” Root, _The book of Troilus and Criseyde ..._ Princeton University Press, 1926, page xlv. [31] For Chaucer’s sources see the critical summary in the introduction to Root’s edition (Princeton University Press, 1926) and the bibliography, pages 567-569.