BOOK 3: FOOTNOTES
1 Exerting themselves to rob him of his steed
BOOK 3: NOTES
11 Flegonte. Ovid (Metamorphoses 2.153-54) names four horses of Phoebus: Pyrois, Eous, Aethon, and Phlegon. Fulgentius (Mythologiae 1.12) points out that they correspond to the four periods of the day. Phlegon corresponds to sunset. Vatican Mythographer 2 derives his name from Greek for "loving the earth" because at the ninth hour of the day he follows the sunset to rest.
12 oure. MS: her.
24 his manhod. MS: hie manhod.
545 wordis. MS: wardis.
551-56 See above at 2.192-97 and later at Env.100-01.
569 more, sothly. MS: sothly more.
571 Nor. Bergen emends to No. sade. Bergen emends to fade.
572 in. Accepting Bergen's addition.
583 his. MS: the. to. MS: of. Accepting Bergen's emendations.
611 lokkid in o cheyne. Lydgate repeats the phrase at 3.3838, where Achilles describes his friendship with Patroclus to Hector as the two heroes prepare to settle the war by single combat between them. A version of the phrase - lynke hym in a cheyne (3.4859) - reappears in Lydgate's description of Criseyde's manipulation of Diomede.
618 amonge hem. Bergen emends to anoon hym.
745 myght. Bergen emends to entent.
746 lik a doughty knyght. Bergen emends to ful inpacient.
773 Oute. Bergen reads Out.
796 lik a wode lyoun. See Chaucer's description of Palamon in The Knight's Tale: "this Palamon / In his fightyng were a wood leon" (I.1655-56).
800 ful. Accepting Bergen's emendation.
834 hem. MS: hym.
836 constreyned. Bergen (4:221) takes this as an ablative absolute, but the grammar requires a passive sense for the verb ("he was compelled, forced").
840 among. Bergen emends to maugre, but the MS reading, in the sense of "in the presence of" is equally plausible.
843 alle. Bergen emends to of.
845 avengid on hym. Bergen emends to on hym avengid, but MS reading makes equal metrical sense if avengid is taken as two syllables (aveng'd), as it must be with either reading.
850 callid. Bergen emends to called.
870 cam. I have supplied the verb needed here, which repairs the meter and parallels cam kyng Merioun (line 876) in the later part of the clause.
worthi. Bergen emends to myghty to avoid repetition.
880 for. Accepting Bergen's emendation.
896 anon. Accepting Bergen's emendation.
976 the. Accepting Bergen's emendation.
989 hath. Accepting Bergen's emendation.
994-1004 Lydgate uses anacoluthon here, but the main clause can be restored by dropping And (line 1000) and taking he made (line 1003) as the subject and verb. The overall sense is that while the three Trojans cut down the Greeks, Troilus is exceptionally deadly.
1006 sawe. Bergen reads saw.
1009 Hent. The subject (Menestheus) must be supplied.
1013 the. Accepting Bergen's emendation.
1038 the. MS: your.
1055 enhasteth. MS: enhasteth hym. what. MS: wat.
1087 stronge. MS: so stronge.
1096 the light. Bergen emends to the ferful light.
1097 Accepting the line Bergen supplies for the one missing in the MS.
1098 And. Accepting Bergen's addition.
1103 hurtle. MS: hurkle.
1897 cast. Bergen emends to caste.
pleinly. Bergen emends to platly.
1898 in haste. Accepting Bergen's emendation.
1903 distourbe. MS: distourble.
1908 with. MS: in. in. Accepting Bergen's emendation.
1917 ybonde. MS: bonde.
1918 The line is an ablative absolute; the main verb, Repeired is (line 1920), requires "he" as the understood subject.
1945 made also. Bergen emends to also made.
1947 in. Bergen emends to into.
1964 many other. MS: other many.
1975-2035 Lydgate attributes Troy's fall to Fate, aided by Fortune; but he also insists that the proximate cause is Hector's lack of prudence. By connecting determinism to human choice, he offers a Christian view of pagan history. The thematic framework is in many respects the one that Boethius works out in the Consolation of Philosophy to accommodate divine foreknowledge and free will, but Lydgate complicates the explanation by insisting that other authentic human choices were possible. Tragic action is not the result of a discrepancy between necessity and limited human understanding; it stems from actual choices made from among real alternatives. At 3.2139-57 Lydgate reaffirms the possibility of a different outcome to the story.
1977 welfulnes. MS: wilfulnes.
1993 wer set. Bergen emends to sete.
2003 unkyndnes. Bergen emends to unkyndenes.
2024 after. MS: asterte.
2033-34 Lines transposed in MS.
2042 that he was nyghe. Bergen emends to he was ful nyghe.
2060 of fortune. Accepting Bergen's emendation for MS: fortune.
2097 he of berthe. MS: of berth he.
2128 pleynly. MS: plynly.
2137 hir. Bergen reads her.
2155 lyk. Accepting Bergen's addition.
in. MS: is, followed by Bergen.
2245 and the lamentacioun. Bergen emends to and lamentacioun.
2248 herte was. MS: hertes were.
2264 mercy, pité. MS: pity mercy.
2278 servytude. MS: servytute.
2296 troughth. MS: troughh.
2308 eye of his discreccioun. By tradition, prudence has three eyes to survey past, present, and future. When she is in the Greek camp, Chaucer's Criseyde laments that she lacked one of prudence's three eyes (Troilus and Criseyde 5.744) - the capacity for foresight. Chaucer's reference may be to the famous image of three-eyed prudence on the chariot of the church in Dante's Purgatorio (29.130-32). As Charles Singleton notes, in the Convivio Dante equates prudence with wisdom (The Divine Comedy, trans. Charles S. Singleton, 6 vols. in 3 [Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970-75], 2:723). Jerome Taylor points out that Hugh of St. Victor's De sacramentis identifies the three "eyes" of man before the fall as those of the flesh, reason, and contemplation (The Didascalion of Hugh of St. Victor [New York: Columbia University Press, 1961], p. 177n). These eyes see the world, man, and God respectively.
2311 availeth. Bergen emends to vaileth.
2680 Or. MS: Of.
2684 anon echon. Bergen emends to echon anon.
2687 Thei. MS: The.
2689 on lyve. Bergen emends to alyve.
2719 Fro. MS: For.
2726 lif. Accepting Bergen's emendation for MS: silfe; see silfe used immediately below (line 2728).
2741 maked han. MS: maken.
2744 morwenynge. MS: morwnynge.
3106-14 Priam's counselors comprise two groups - his sons and the men who will later conspire to betray Troy to the Greeks.
3108 inwardly. Accepting Bergen's emendation for MS: inly.
3110 fame. MS: name.
3113 for. Accepting Bergen's emendation for parallelism with line 3111.
3118 The. Bergen emends to This.
3137 thereuppon. MS: hereuppon.
3143 caste. Bergen reads cast.
3149 pleinly. Bergen emends to now pleinly.
3155 as. Accepting Bergen's emendation.
3163 endynge. Bergen emends to ende.
3168 for. Accepting Bergen's emendation.
3201-07 Aeneas unwittingly forecasts the exchange of Antenor for Thoas and Criseyde, and he ironically represents a situation in which right reason and prudence contribute to the overthrow of Troy.
3216 of. Bergen emends to on. Both forms appear in MS: see 1.4044: "venge him of his foon" and 3.3857: "How Achilles was vengid of his foo" (3.3857) but "To be vengid on youre grete pride" (3.2260). Chaucer's Melibee says "I shal nat venge me of myne enemys" (VII.1427); elsewhere in Melibee (VII.1280), Chaucer has forms of "venge on" and "venge upon."
3236 maked. "She" is the understood subject of the sentence.
3666 and Thoas. Bergen emends to and of Thoas.
3667 delyvered shulde. Bergen emends to shulde delyvered.
3671 Oon. MS: And.
3681 hym. Accepting Bergen's emendation.
3690 Howe that. Bergen emends to Howe.
3712 sente. MS: wente.
3719-51 Lydgate, following Guido, differs from Chaucer's version (Troilus and Criseyde 4.135-47) of the exchange. Lydgate and Guido also leave unexplained why Priam's hatred for Calchas (and so his resistance to granting Calchas's wish) is set aside so that the exchange may go forward.
3719 hateful. MS: hathful.
3729 as. MS: a.
3743 the. Bergen emends to an.
3749 repellid. Bergen emends to repeled to assure sense of "rescinded, revoked" rather than "repelled."
3761 Blaundisshinge. MS: Blaundissinge.
3764 to vesite. MS: for to vesite. Accepting Bergen's emendation to avoid repetition from preceding line, where meter requires the additional syllable.
3788 whan. MS: wan.
3794 take. MS: taken.
3810 wolde. MS: wele.
3830 mysilf. MS: my lif. The love of another as oneself is a fundamental value in the discussion of virtuous friendship in Aristotle and Cicero. Achilles's claim here is that his relation to Patroclus is the intimacy of such friendship rather than erotic desire. In Guido, he says that he did not love Patroclus less than himself (Book 19).
3837 outterly. Bergen emends to enteerly. tweyne must be read as a single syllable to rhyme with cheyne.
3838 lokkid in o cheyne. Lydgate echoes this phrase (3.5366) in the scene in which Hector tries to strip the armor off a dead Greek king and Achilles fatally wounds him.
3842 darte. Bergen emends to doth darte.
3843 out of. MS: in.
3844 it shal. Bergen emends to shal and suggests trust should be read as trustë to produce a pentameter line.
3852 long. Accepting Bergen's emendation.
3857 of. Bergen emends to on. See 3.3216 (above).
3887 outher. MS: other.
3889 pursuweth. MS: pursuwet.
3897 right nor equité. Hector employs the same formula that Priam uses earlier in arguing that King Thoas should be killed (3.3139).
3908 Torti, p. 181, notes that this line is echoed in a later reference to Troilus's love (3.4220).
3928 shul. MS: shulen.
3932 al do. Bergen emends to ado.
3981 it quit in youre. MS: in quiete and in.
3994 seie. MS: seide.
4009 nat. MS: it nat.
4018 the whiche. Bergen emends to whiche.
4029 Casting down the glove is Lydgate's addition. See Bergen 4:156.
4035 dide yit. Bergen emends to yit dide.
4053 the. Accepting Bergen's emendation.
4066-70 Priam's acceptance of the majority opinion recalls the earlier scene in which he acceeds to his counselors and does not insist on killing Thoas (3.3219- 21).
4070 He. Accepting Bergen's emendation.
4075-4448 Lydgate presents Troilus's story as if it were a de casibus tragedy, an example illustrating the general principle of Fortune's mutability as in the Fall of Princes, which he translated from Boccaccio's De casibus virorum illustrium, rather than the individualized, subjective experience that Chaucer emphasizes.
4078 to be. Bergen emends to for to be.
4079 men. Bergen emends to folk.
4085 that. Accepting Bergen's emendation.
4090 felt. Bergen emends to felte.
4090 a peyne. Bergen emends to peyne.
4093-94 Lydgate employs Chaucer's ominous rhyme Criseyde / he deyde. Later (3.4199-4200), he uses the rhyme to link Chaucer to the writing of Troilus and Criseyde.
4101 which in. MS: that within.
4104 compleyninge. MS: compleynigne.
4107 behynde. MS: beside.
4109 Lydgate echoes the line ending Arcite's speech when he sees Emily in The Knight's Tale: "I nam but deed; ther nis namoore to seye" (I.1122).
4119-20 The rhyme Troye / joye is pervasive in Troilus and Criseyde, beginning with the opening stanza.
4121 the teris doun distille. See Chaucer's Troilus as he speaks to Pandarus after the Trojan parliament has decided to trade Criseyde for Antenor: "This Troylus in teris gan distille, / As licour out of a lambyc ful faste" (4.519-20).
4122 trille. MS: tille.
4123 hir blake wede. In Chaucer, Criseyde is first seen "in hir blake wede" (1.177).
4133 ascendyng. MS: ascendyn.
4139 whi shal we. MS: we shal.
4159-85 Lydgate retells the events of Book 4 of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde but omits several parts, including Troilus's speech on predestination.
4177 dowmb. MS: dowme.
4179 flikerit. Bergen emends to flikered; see 4.6739, 5.3551.
4182 ther. MS: the.
4187 Disconsolat. Lydgate's use of the term here both echoes Chaucer and connects the lovers' loss of each other to the fall of the city; see below, 3.5488.
4189 bother. Bergen emends to bothe.
4192-95 Lydgate uses one of Chaucer's favorite rhetorical devices, occupatio (where you say what you say you are not going to say), as a means to praise him.
4197 Chaucer. MS: Chauncer.
4198 so wel hath. Bergen emends to hath so wel.
4202 For. Accepting Bergen's addition.
4203 surquedie. See Troilus and Criseyde 1.213.
4208 Lydgate rehearses the events in Book 1 of Troilus and Criseyde, where Troilus falls in love with Criseyde.
4214 wise. MS: while.
4216 aftir. MS: first.
4217 Lydgate describes Pandarus's role in the love affair by obliquely echoing Pandarus's own terms: "for the am I bicomen, / Bitwixen game and ernest, swich a meene / As maken wommen unto men to comen" (Troilus and Criseyde 3.253-55). See below, 4.742.
4218 maked. MS: made.
4224-28 Lydgate here echoes the ending of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde (5.1849- 55).
4226 fleshly. Bergen emends to fleshy.
4227 variacioun. MS: variaunce. See Troilus's "double sorwe" (Troilus and Criseyde 1.1, 1.54).
4228 MS: wordly. Bergen amends to worldly, but MS form is an attested variant.
4233 ever. MS: never.
4234 Chaucer. MS: Chauncer.
4248 as. MS: a.
4251 Petrarch was crowned poet laureate by the Roman Senate on 8 April 1341. In 1330 he entered the service of Cardinal Giovanni Colonna and remained under the family's patronage until 1347-48.
4254-55 In The House of Fame (line 1469), Chaucer names Guido along with Homer, Dares and Dictys, "Lollius," and Geoffrey of Monmouth as writers on the iron pillar that bears up the fame of Troy.
4263 joie. Bergen reads Ioy.
4274 fals. Bergen emends to false.
4294 is meynt ever. Bergen emends to ever is meynt.
4296 her sureté. Accepting Bergen's addition of her.
4315-16 These lines are reversed in other MSS.
4323 It shewed. MS: It is shewed.
4327 oblaciounes. MS: oblaciouns. See 2.3531-51. The repetition of the allusion to the Wife of Bath links Criseyde to Helen; she is a second Helen, as Troilus is a second Hector.
4329 seith. MS: seit.
selle. See the Wife of Bath's remark about herself: "The flour is goon; ther is namoore to telle; / The bren, as I best kan, now moste I selle" (III.477- 78).
4343-4448 In The Legend of Good Women, Chaucer portrays himself as woman's friend: "Be war, ye wemen, of youre subtyl fo, / Syn yit this day men may ensaumple se; / And trusteth, as in love, no man but me" (lines 2559-61). Lydgate offers a standard refutation of the misogynistic attack on women, arguing that there are a thousand virtuous women for each perfidious one; Chaucer incorporates the argument in The Merchant's Tale (IV.1362-74) and The Tale of Melibee (VII.1098-1102), with an accompanying list of Biblical heroines. But Lydgate also accepts the claim that female duplicity is part of women's nature. See Mieszkowski, pp. 117-26, for the contradictions in Lydgate's reproval of Guido. Torti, p. 177, proposes that Lydgate "puts still more subtle and ambiguous emphasis on Criseyde's inconstancy" than Guido. Watson, pp. 97-100, argues that Lydgate associates Chaucer with Criseyde as a way of rejecting Troilus and Criseyde and asserting the moral vision of Troy Book.
4356 secte. See the Clerk's reference to the Wife of Bath and "al hire secte" (IV.1171).
4359 hym. Bergen emends to he, which is an acceptable alternative.
4370 Jacobus de Voragine's Legenda aurea is the most popular late medieval source for the story of St. Ursula and the eleven thousand virgin martyrs of Cologne. According to legend, Ursula was the daughter of a British Christian king promised to a pagan, who managed to delay her marriage for three years, hoping to remain a virgin. During this period, she set out by ship with ten companions, each of them on an accompanying ship with a thousand companions of their own. The women traveled extensively and were eventually martyred by Huns at Cologne after Ursula refused to marry their chieftain. The citizens of Cologne buried them and built a church in their honor. The historical record of Ursula begins with an inscription dated around 400. The number of companions ascribed to Ursula is probably an error, reading an abbreviated text "XI MV" as 11,000 virgins ("undecim millia virgines") instead of eleven virgin martyrs ("undecim martyres virgines").
4382 the nynthe spere. In the Ptolemaic system, the planets and stars revolve around the earth in concentric spheres. The ninth sphere is the Primum Mobile, the First Mover who imparts movement to the other spheres, while God stands at a further remove, encompassing the universe. See below, 5.3602.
4417 skippeth over wher ye list nat rede. See Chaucer's admonition in The Miller's Prologue: "Turne over the leef and chese another tale" (I.3177).
4422 the. Bergen emends to for.
4426-27 See the scene of exchange in Troilus and Criseyde where Diomede is alert to the distress of Troilus and Criseyde when he takes the bridle of Criseyde's horse (5.85-91).
4428 how that. Bergen emends to how.
4435 was. MS: wer. Lydgate follows Guido's version of Criseyde's immediate acceptance of Diomede as a lover rather than Chaucer's consciously indeterminate account of her shift in affections: "Men seyn - I not - that she yaf hym hire herte" (5.1050).
4442 Kyndes transmutacioun. Chaucer describes Criseyde as "slydynge of corage" (5.825).
4446 unto. MS: to.
4820-69 The account here of Diomede's service as a courtly lover contrasts greatly with Chaucer's portrayal of Diomede as a calculating seducer. Criseyde, too, differs by carefully manipulating Diomede, whereas in Chaucer she is increasingly unable to exercise her will.
4827 bothe megre and lene. Diomede resembles Arcite in The Knight's Tale (I.1361-62) as he suffers amor hereos, the lover's melancholy; the phrasing in Lydgate, however, echoes the portrait of Avarice outside the garden in the Roman de la Rose (line 199); in Chaucer's Romaunt, "she was lene and megre" (line 218).
4829 al. Accepting Bergen's addition.
4849 As wommen kan holde a man ful narwe. See Chaucer's Boethian image (Boece 3.m.2.21-31) for Alisoun in The Miller's Tale (I.3224), the peregrine falcon's faithless lover in The Squire's Tale (V.610-20), and Phebus's wife in The Manciple's Tale (IX.163-74).
4853 betwixe hope and drede. Echoes Chaucer's description of Troilus (5.630, 5.1207; see also Troilus and Criseyde 3.1315).
4861 him. MS: hem.
4894 shon. Bergen emends to roos to avoid repetition, but Lydgate here seems to be using iteration both for stylistic elaboration and for contrast with the preceding night and Andromache's dream, whose clarity Hector fatally ignores.
4910-16 Lydgate invokes the vocabulary and dream categories of Macrobius's Commentary on the Dream of Scipio Africanus, the major literary source for medieval dreamlore, but he follows Chaucer's Prologue to The House of Fame (lines 7-11) in expanding Macrobius's five categories to six. See below 3.4969.
4935 stok of worthines. The image is not in Guido. Lydgate's phrase conflates the opening of Chaucer's moral balade Gentilesse ("The firste stok, fader of gentilesse") and Pandarus's description of Hector: "he, that is of worthynesse welle" (Troilus and Criseyde 2.178).
4936 wont. MS: wonnt.
4938 This Troyan wal, Hector. The image here is not in Guido but appears later in Hector's epitaph (Book 35); see Troilus and Criseyde 2.154 and below 4.3946. In the Metamorphoses 13.281, Ovid describes Achilles as "the Greeks' wall."
4942 litel. Bergen reads litil.
4950 this. Accepting Bergen's addition.
4959 Seiyng. Bergen emends to Seying.
4969-70 I have retained the MS readings for oracle and myracle, which Bergen reverses. Lydgate uses the Macrobian vocabulary inconsistently. The oracle (oraculum), for example, is a dream in which a figure of authority appears and then reveals what will occur. Andromache's dream best fits the general category of the prophetic visio (Macrobius, Commentary 1.3.9).
4972 hem. MS: hym.
4981 and sovereinté. Bergen emends to and of sovereinté.
5021 in. Accepting Bergen's addition.
5022 Lyke. Bergen reads Lyk.
5049 on. Accepting Bergen's addition.
5056 to. Bergen emends to unto.
5073 Andronomecha. MS: Andronemaca.
5093 harded. Bergen emends to harde. In Christian theology, the hard heart is a symbol of the lack of charity.
5096 moren and renewe. MS: morne and remewe.
5116 the. Accepting Bergen's addition.
5120 is. Bergen emends to was.
5129 he. MS: hym.
5138 like a tigre or a lyoun wood. In The Knight's Tale (I.1655-57), Chaucer compares Arcite and Palamon respectively to the tiger and the lion; see 3.5246, 3.796.
5139 his. Bergen emends to hir.
5150 had anoon. MS: anoon had.
5158 ne myghte. Bergen emends to myghte.
5164 aboute. Bergen emends to upon.
5165 sese. MS: sesse.
5183 in. Accepting Bergen's addition.
5185 worthi. Bergen emends to myghty.
5196 ne. Accepting Bergen's addition.
5215 Achilles. Bergen emends to Achille, though the addition of a syllable before the caesura is a common pattern in Lydgate.
5223 home. Bergen emends to homeward.
5225 Margaritoun. Bergen emends to Margariton to rhyme with Thelamon.
5226 that. MS: of.
5231 in baste wer. MS: wer in baste.
5247-48 Compare Troilus and Criseyde 2.193-94, as wondrous Troilus puts the Greeks to flight: "For nevere yet so thikke a swarm of been / Ne fleigh, as Grekes for hym gonne fleen." See also Troy Book 3.5330.
5249 Thai. Bergen reads Thei.
5275 grete. MS: grete. Bergen reads gret but emends to grete.
5277 compassen. MS: compassed.
5279 mow. Bergen emends to may.
5280 or. Bergen emends to nor.
5282 that. Accepting Bergen's addition.
5283-84 Lydgate undercuts Achilles's heroic stature by showing in him a mixture of epic furor and calculation; as used elsewhere in the poem (1.1945, 3.5284, 4.197, 4.3117, 4.4406, 4.5789, 4.5822, 4.6330, 4.6997, 5.3358), engyne is a term for deviousness.
5289 Guido (Book 21) follows Benoît (lines 16166-68) in including the detail that Polycenes hopes to marry Achilles's sister.
5291 The line ironically echoes the description of Chaucer's Squire in the General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales: "In hope to stonden in his lady grace" (I.88).
5301 darte. Bergen emends to quarel, a bolt from a crossbow.
grounde. Bergen emends to ygrounde for meter.
5303 the. Accepting Bergen's addition.
5317 to. Accepting Bergen's addition.
5324 yeven. MS: gif.
5332 he. MS: him.
5335 Enbroudrid. Bergen emends to Enbroudid.
5363 No. Bergen emends to Nor.
5364 not to. Bergen emends to to.
5372 Hector's fatal error in trying to despoil the dead Greek king recalls his earlier effort to despoil Patroclus, and so Achilles's vengeance on him reflects a special irony.
5383 Allas. MS: Allas the while. See 3.5396.
5402 to. Accepting Bergen's addition.
5422 for. Accepting Bergen's addition. See 3.4089 and the office of aiding lovers to lament their misfortune which Chaucer's narrator takes on at the beginning of Troilus and Criseyde (1.22-56).
5431 ever. MS: alle.
5445 to. MS: for.
5454 A drery fere. See Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde 1.13.
5462 boget. Bergen emends to boket.
5487-88 desolat . . . discounsolat. Lydgate apostrophizes Troy in the same language that Chaucer employs in Troilus's lamentation before Criseyde's empty house after she has been delivered to the Greeks: "O paleys desolat, / O hous of houses whilom best ihight, / O paleys empty and disconsolat" (Troilus and Criseyde 5.540-42). Lydgate earlier describes Troilus and Criseyde as "Disconsolat" (3.4187) when they meet after the exchange for Antenor has been decided. He repeats the pairing of "desolat" and "disconsolat" in Achilles's speech urging the Greeks to abandon the war so that he can marry Polyxena (4.993-94). The phrasing in both Troy Book and Troilus and Criseyde echoes the opening of Jeremiah's Lamentations. The connection between the biblical lament and the loss of a worldly love object is made in Chaucer's translation of the Roman de la Rose when the dreamer is left "all sool, disconsolat" (Romaunt, line 3168) after Bel Acuel is driven off. Chaucer adds the phrasing from Lamentations; Guillaume de Lorris writes, "je remés tous esbahis, / Honteus et mas" (lines 2952-53).
5517 mortal. MS: mortally.
5526 whom. Accepting Bergen's addition.
5537 token. MS: taken.
5546 boris. Bergen emends to bolis, but I preserve the MS reading, which conveys the image of savage rage rather than sacrifice. "Wilde bore" is a fairly common image in Chaucer, notably in The Knight's Tale (I.1658), where it expresses the fury of Palamon and Arcite in their battle against each other.
5556 make. MS: make make.
5558 Her pitous sobbynge. MS: The woful cries.
5559 The woful cries. MS: Her pitous sobbynge.
5572 Thei. Bergen emends to To.
5595 in sight it. Bergen emends to it in sight.
5596 lifly. MS: likly. Accepting Bergen's emendation.
5603 axeynge. Bergen reads axynge.
5612 the. Bergen emends to in.
5613 spake. MS: speke.
5627 al. Accepting Bergen's addition.
5643 Attenyng. MS: Attendyng. MS reading is a confusion of the verb extenden (MED).
5653 the. Bergen emends to this.
5654 good. MS: gret.
5679 many. MS: many a.
5686 a sowle that were vegetable. The soul is traditionally divided into three parts - vegetative, sensitive, and rational - which correspond hierarchically to plants, animals, and men. The division goes back to Plato's analytic separation of the concupiscible, irascible, and rational souls. Scholastic philosophers insist on the unity of the soul. In their systems, the vegetative soul confers the power to live, the animal soul the power to feel, and the rational soul the power to think. Lydgate's reference conveys the idea that Hector's body is kept alive but the other faculties are dead.
5689 semblably. MS: semblaly.
5705 were. MS: was.
5714 rejoysseden. Bergen emends to rejoyssed.
5728 on heighte. MS: o loft.
5729 Pluvius. MS error for Plinius. The name in the corresponding passage in Benoît is Plines (line 16541). Pluvius is a surname for Jupiter, as the sender of rain. The source for the passage on ebony is Pliny's Natural History 12.8.17-12.9.20.
5733 lond. MS: londes.
5737 is. MS: it is.