'Mercy, mercy, swete herte!'--Troil. iii. 98.
1234. 'Unless I am dreaming,' i. e. unintentionally.
1246. _Cassandra._ The prophetic lamentation of Cassandra over the
impending fate of Troy is given in the alliterative Geste Hystoriale (E. E.
T. S.), p. 88, and in Lydgate's Siege of Troye, bk. ii. c. 12, from Guido
de Colonna; cf. Vergil, Æn. ii. 246.
1248. Chaucer treats _Ilion_ as if it were different from _Troye_; cf.
Nonne Prestes Tale, B 4546 (C. T. 15362). He merely follows Guido de
Colonna and others, who made _Ilion_ the name of the _citadel_ of Troy; see
further in note to Ho. of Fame, l. 158.
1288. M. Sandras (Étude sur Chaucer, p. 95) says this is from Machault's
Jugement du Bon Roi de Behaigne--
'De nos deux cuers estoit si juste paire
Qu'onques ne fu l'un à l'autre contraire.
Tuit d'un accord, une pensee avoient.
De volenté, de desir se sambloient.
Un bien, un mal, une joie sentoient.
Conjointement.
N'onques ne fu entre eux deux autrement.'
1305-6. Repeated from ll. 743, 744. Cf. ll. 1137-8.
1309. Imitated in Spenser's Daphnaida, 184. The Duchess Blaunche died Sept.
12, 1369. The third great pestilence lasted from July to September in that
year.
1314. _King_, i. e. Edward III; see note to l. 368.
1318. Possibly the _long castel_ here meant is Windsor Castle; this seems
likely when we remember that it was in Windsor Castle that Edward III.
instituted the order of the Garter, April 23, 1349; and that he often
resided there. _A riche hil_ in the next line appears to have no special
significance. The suggestion, in Bell's Chaucer, that it refers to Richmond
(which, after all, is not Windsor) is quite out of the question, because
that town was then called Sheen, and did not receive the name of Richmond
till the reign of Henry VII., who renamed it after Richmond in Yorkshire,
whence his own title of Earl of Richmond had been derived.
1322. _Belle_, i. e. bell of a clock, which rang out the hour. This bell,
half heard in the dream, seems to be meant to be real. If so, it struck
midnight; and Chaucer's chamber must have been within reach of its sound.