.:--
"Thou one, two, and thre, eterne on live,
That raignest aie in thre, two, and one,
Uncircumscript, and all maist circumscrive."
Last stanza of _Troilus and Creseide_.
"_Quell' uno e due e tre che sempre vive,_
_E regna sempre in tre e due ed uno_,
_Non circonscritto, e tutto circonscrive._"
Dante, _Il Paradiso_, xiv. 28.
"Wel can _the wise poet of Florence_,
That highte _Dant_, speken of this sentence:
Lo, in swiche maner rime is _Dantes_ tale.
_Ful selde up riseth by his branches smale_
_Prowesse of man, for God of his goodnesse_
_Wol that we claime of him our gentillesse._"
_Wif of Bathes Tale_, 6707.
"_Rade volte risurge per li rami_
_L' umana probita: e questo vuole_
_Quei che la da, perche da lui si chiami._"
_Purgatorio_, vii. 121.
After relating the dread story of the Conte Ugolino, Chaucer refers to
Dante, from whom perhaps he derived it. (Conf. _Inferno_, xxxiii.)
"Who so wol here it in a longer wise,
Redeth the grete poete of Itaille,
That highte _Dante_, for he can it devise
Fro point to point, not o word wol he faille."
_The Monkes Tale_, 14,769.
"Bet than Vergile, while he was on live,
Or _Dant_ also."--_The Freres Tale_, 7101.
The following lines refer to the _Inferno_, xiii. 64.:
"Envie is lavender of the court alway,
For she ne parteth neither night ne day,
Out of the house of Cesar, thus saith _Dant_."
Prologue to the _Legend of Good Women_, 359.
"_Dant_ that it tellen can" is mentioned in the _House of Fame_, book i.;
and Chaucer is indebted to him for some lines in that fine poem, as in the
description of the "egle, that with feathers shone all of gold" = _un'
aquila nel ciel con penne d'oro_; and the following line:
"O thought, that wrote all that I met."
_House of Fame_, ii. 18.
"_O mente, che scrivesti cio ch' io vidi._"
_Inferno_, ii. 8.
The _Knightes Tale_ exhibits numerous passages, lines, and expressions
verbally translated from the _Teseide_ of Boccaccio, upon which it is
founded; such as _Idio armipotente_ = Mars armipotent; _Eterno admante_ =
Athamant eterne; _Paura palida_ = pale drede; _Le ire rosse come focho_ =
the cruel ire red as any glede. Boccaccio describes the wood in which "Mars
hath his sovereine mansion" as--
"_Una selva sterile de robusti_
_Cerri,_
_Nodosi aspri e rigidi e ve
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