"Envie is lavender of the court alway, For she ne parteth neither night ne day, Out of the house of Cesar, thus saith _Dant_." Prologue to the _Legend of Good Women_, 359. "_Dant_ that it tellen can" is mentioned in the _House of Fame_, book i.; and Chaucer is indebted to him for some lines in that fine poem, as in the description of the "egle, that with feathers shone all of gold" = _un' aquila nel ciel con penne d'oro_; and the following line: "O thought, that wrote all that I met." _House of Fame_, ii. 18. "_O mente, che scrivesti cio ch' io vidi._" _Inferno_, ii. 8. The _Knightes Tale_ exhibits numerous passages, lines, and expressions verbally translated from the _Teseide_ of Boccaccio, upon which it is founded; such as _Idio armipotente_ = Mars armipotent; _Eterno admante_ = Athamant eterne; _Paura palida_ = pale drede; _Le ire rosse come focho_ = the cruel ire red as any glede. Boccaccio describes the wood in which "Mars hath his sovereine mansion" as-- "_Una selva sterile de robusti_ _Cerri,_ _Nodosi aspri e rigidi e vetusti._ _Vi si sentia grandissimo romore,_ _Ne vera bestia anchora ne pastore._" _Teseide_, book vii. There is a purposed grisly ruggedness in the corresponding passage of the _Knightes Tale_, which heightens the horrors of "thilke colde and frosty region:" "First on the wall was peinted _a forest,_ _In which ther wonneth neyther man ne best,_ _With knotty knarry barrein trees old_ _Of stubbes sharpe and hidous to behold_; In which ther ran _a romble and a swough_, As though a storme shuld bresten every bough." _The Knightes Tale_, 1977. The death of Arcite is thus related by Boccaccio: "La morte in ciascun membro era venuta Da piedi in su, venendo verso il petto, Ed ancor nelle braccia era perduta La vital forza; sol nello intelletto E nel cuore era ancora sostenuta La poca vita, ma gia si ristretto Eragli 'l tristo cor del mortal gelo Che agli occhi fe' subitamente velo. "Ma po' ch' egli ebbe perduto il vedere, Con seco comincio a mormorare, Ognor mancando piu del suo podere: Ne troppo fece in cio lungo durare; Ma il mormorare trasportato in vere Parole, con assai basso parlare Addio Emilia; e piu oltre non disse, Che l' anima convenne si partisse." _Teseide_, book x. 112. Chaucer loses nothing of this description in his condensed translation: "For from his feet up to his brest was come The cold of deth, that had him overnome. And yet moreover in his armes two The vital strength is lost, and all ago. Only the intellect, withouten more, That dwelled in his herte sike and sore, Gan feillen, when the herte felte deth; Dusked his eyen two, and failled his breth. But on his ladie yet cast he his eye; His laste word was; Mercy, Emelie!" _The Knightes Tale_, 2301.