'O _sorelle_ Castalie, che nel monte
_Elicona contente_ dimorate
D' intorno al sacro gorgoneo fonte,
Sottesso _l' ombra delle frondi amate_
_Da Febo_, delle quali ancor la fronte
I' spero ornarmi sol che 'l concediate
Gli santi orecchi a' miei prieghi porgete,
E quegli udite come voi volete.'
_Polymnia_, Polyhymnia, also spelt Polymnia, Gk. [Greek: Polumnia] one of
the nine Muses. Chaucer invokes the muse Clio in Troil. bk. ii, and
Calliope in bk. iii. Cf. Ho. of Fame, 520-2. _Parnaso_, Parnassus, a
mountain in Phocis sacred to Apollo and the Muses, at whose foot was Delphi
and the Castalian spring. _Elicon_, mount Helicon in Boeotia; Chaucer seems
to have been thinking rather of the Castalian spring, as he uses the prep.
_by_, and supposes _Elicon_ to be near _Parnaso_. See the Italian, as
quoted above; and note that, in the Ho. of Fame, 522, he says that Helicon
is a _well_.