938. _Aurelius._ Tyrwhitt remarks that 'this name, though of Roman origin,
was common, we may presume, among the Britons. One of the princes mentioned
by Gildas was called _Aurelius Conanus_. Another British king is called
_Aurelius Ambrosius_ by Geoffrey of Monmouth.' See Fabyan's History, pt. 1.
capp. 93, 108.
942. _With-outen coppe_, without a cup. This expression means that he drank
his penance in full measure, not by small quantities [390] at a time. It
occurs again in the Prologue to the Tale of Beryn, ll. 306, 460.
948. Chaucer wrote such things himself; see Leg. of Good Women, 423, and
the note. See also, in his Minor Poems, the Complaint of Mars, the roundel
in the Parl. of Foules, 680; and the exquisite triple roundel called
Merciles Beautè.
950. The syllables _as a fu-_ form the third foot. Some MSS. have _fuyre_,
i. e. fire (see the footnote); but hell is not the place where fire was
supposed to languish. The reading _furye_, i. e. fury, also presents some
difficulty, but we must take _languish_ to mean 'endure continual pain.'
This precisely agrees with Chaucer's language in Troilus, iv. 22-24.
We have already had a confusion between _fury_ and _fire_ in A. 2684. The
reading _furie_ is perfectly established by help of F. 448 (this _furial_
pyne of _helle_), and by further comparing l. 1101 below.
951. _Ekko_, Echo. So in the Book of the Duch. 735. Chaucer probably took
this from Le Rom. de la Rose, 1447; see the English version, ll. 1469-1538.
But he had learnt, by this time, that the true original was Ovid
(Metamorph. iii. 407). Hence the side-note in MS.
E.--'Methamorposios'--(_sic_).