3373. _Balthasar_; so spelt by Boccaccio, who relates the story very
briefly, De Cas. Virorum Illust., lib. ii. cap. 19. So also, by Peter
Comestor, in his Historia Scholastica; and by Gower, Conf. Amant., lib. v
(ed. Pauli, ii. 365). The Vulgate generally has _Baltassar_; Daniel, cap.
v.
3379. _and ther he lay_; cf. l. 3275 above.
3384. The word _tho_ is supplied for the metre. The scribes have considered
_vesselles_ (_sic_) as a trisyllable; but see ll. 3391, 3416, 3418.
3388. _Of_, for. Cf. 'thank God _of_ al,' i. e. for all; in Chaucer's
Balade of Truth.--M. See note in vol. i. pp. 552-3.
3422. Tyrwhitt has _trusteth_, in the plural, but _thou_ is used
throughout. Elsewhere Chaucer also has '_on_ whom we _truste_,' Prol. A.
501; '_truste on_ fortune,' B. 3326; cf. 'syker _on_ to trosten,' P. Pl.
Crede, l. 350.
3427. _Dárius_, so accented. _degree_, rank, position.
3429-36. I have no doubt that this stanza was a later addition.
3436. _proverbe._ The allusion is, in the first place, to Boethius, de
Cons. Phil., bk. iii. pr. 5--'Sed quem felicitas amicum fecit, infortunium
[235] faciet inimicum'; which Chaucer translates--'Certes, swiche folk as
weleful fortune maketh freendes, contrarious fortune maketh hem enemys';
see vol. ii. p. 63. Cf. Prov. xix. 4--'Wealth maketh many friends; but the
poor is separated from his neighbour,' &c. So also--'If thou be brought
low, he [i. e. thy friend] will be against thee, and will hide himself from
thy face'; Ecclus. vi. 12. In Hazlitt's Collection of English Proverbs, p.
235, we find--
'In time of prosperity, friends will be plenty;
In time of adversity, not one among twenty.'
See also note to l. 120 above; and, not to multiply instances, note st. 19
of Goldsmith's Hermit:--
'And what is friendship but a name,
A charm that lulls to sleep;
_A shade that follows wealth or fame_,
And leaves the wretch to weep?'