65. Smoking: draping; hence the word “smock;” “smokless,” in Chaucer, means naked. 66. Cerrial: of the species of oak which Pliny, in his “Natural History,” calls “cerrus.” 67. Stace of Thebes: Statius, the Roman who embodied in the twelve books of his “Thebaid” the ancient legends connected with the war of the seven against Thebes. 68. Diana was Luna in heaven, Diana on earth, and Hecate in hell; hence the direction of the eyes of her statue to “Pluto’s dark region.” Her statue was set up where three ways met, so that with a different face she looked down each of the three; from which she was called Trivia. See the quotation from Horace, note 54. 69. Las: net; the invisible toils in which Hephaestus caught Ares and the faithless Aphrodite, and exposed them to the “inextinguishable laughter” of Olympus. 70. Saturnus the cold: Here, as in “Mars the Red” we have the person of the deity endowed with the supposed quality of the planet called after his name. 71. The astrologers ascribed great power to Saturn, and predicted “much debate” under his ascendancy; hence it was “against his kind” to compose the heavenly strife. 72. Ayel: grandfather; French “Aieul”. 73. Testers: Helmets; from the French “teste”, “tete”, head. 74. Parements: ornamental garb, French “parer” to deck. 75. Gniding: Rubbing, polishing; Anglo-Saxon “gnidan”, to rub. 76. Nakeres: Drums, used in the cavalry; Boccaccio’s word is “nachere”. 77. Made an O: Ho! Ho! to command attention; like “oyez”, the call for silence in law-courts or before proclamations. 78. Sarge: serge, a coarse woollen cloth 79. Heart-spoon: The concave part of the breast, where the lower ribs join the cartilago ensiformis. 80. To-hewen and to-shred: “to” before a verb implies extraordinary violence in the action denoted. 81. He through the thickest of the throng etc.. “He” in this passage refers impersonally to any of the combatants. 82. Galaphay: Galapha, in Mauritania. 83. Belmarie is supposed to have been a Moorish state in Africa; but “Palmyrie” has been suggested as the correct reading. 84. As I came never I cannot telle where: Where it went I cannot tell you, as I was not there. Tyrwhitt thinks that Chaucer is sneering at Boccacio’s pompous account of the passage of Arcite’s soul to heaven. Up to this point, the description of the death-scene is taken literally from the “Theseida.” 85. With sluttery beard, and ruggy ashy hairs: With neglected beard, and rough hair strewn with ashes. “Flotery” is the general reading; but “sluttery” seems to be more in keeping with the picture of abandonment to grief. 86. Master street: main street; so Froissart speaks of “le souverain carrefour.” 87. Y-wrie: covered, hid; Anglo-Saxon, “wrigan,” to veil. 88. Emily applied the funeral torch. The “guise” was, among the ancients, for the nearest relative of the deceased to do this, with averted face.