69. That is, the apparent motion of Venus was twice as great as that of
Mars. Chaucer here follows Macrobius, Comment. in Somnium Scipionis, lib.
i. ch. 19, who says:--'Rursus tantum a Iove sphæra Martis recedit, ut
eundum cursum _biennio_ peragat. Venus autem tanto est regione Martis
inferior, ut ei annus satis sit ad zodiacum peragrandum'; that is, Mars
performs his orbit in _two_ years, but Venus in _one_; accordingly, she
moves as much in _one day_ as Mars does in _two days_. Mars really performs
his orbit in rather less than two years (about 687 days), and Venus in less
than one (about 225 days), but Chaucer's statement is sufficiently near to
facts, the apparent motion of the planets being variable.
71. This line resembles one in the Man of Lawes Tale, B 1075:--'And swich a
blisse is ther bitwix hem two'; and ll. 71, 72 also resemble the same, ll.
1114, 1115:--
'Who can the pitous Ioye tellen al
Betwix hem three, sin they ben thus y-mette?'
81. Phebus here passes the palace-gates; in other words, the sun enters the
sign of Taurus, and so comes into Venus' chamber, within her palace. Cf.
note to l. 54.
In Chaucer's time, the sun entered Taurus on the twelfth of April. This is
actually mentioned below, in l. 139.