M. Sandras points out some _very_ slight resemblances between this passage
and some lines in a French poem in the Collection Mouchet, vol. ii. fol.
106; see the passage cited in Furnivall's Trial Forewords to the Minor
Poems, p. 51. Most likely Chaucer wrote independently of this French poem,
as even M. Sandras seems inclined to admit.
353. _Embosed_, embossed. This is a technical term, used in various senses,
for which see the New Eng. Dict. Here it means 'so far plunged into the
thicket'; from O. F. _bos_ (F. _bois_), a wood. In later authors, it came
to mean 'driven to extremity, like a hunted animal'; then 'exhausted by
running,' and lastly, 'foaming at the mouth,' as a result of exhaustion.