_;
there are some in Ovid's _Metamorphoses_[93] which Shakespeare read in
Golding's translation. He saw an opportunity of paying a graceful
compliment to Elizabeth by saying that the magic flower, once white, had
been empurpled by a shaft of Cupid's drawn at the fair vestal and imperial
votaress, who yet passed on untouched;
"And maidens call it love-in-idleness"
--a popular name for the common pansy.
NOTES ON THE INTRODUCTION
[1] For _The Knightes Tale_, see Prof. Skeat's edition (modern spelling) in
the "King's Classics," and his excellent introduction.
[2] was named
[3] realm
[4] called
[5] were not
[6] besieged
[7] See Mr. R.B. McKerrow's note on Nashe's reference to the name in _Have
with You to Saffron-Walden_ (_Works,_ iii. 111).
[8] See Statius, _Thebais_, I, 13-14, etc. (Chaucer refers to "Stace of
Thebes," _Knightes Tale_, 1436.) Athamas, having incurred the wrath of
Hera, was seized with madness, and slew his son Learchus. His wife Ino
threw herself, with his other son Melicertes, into the sea, and both were
changed into sea-deities, Ino becoming Leucothea, and Melicertes Palaemon,
whom the Greeks held to be friendly to the shipwrecked. The Romans
identified him with Portunus, the protector of harbours.
[9] See Skeat's _The Knight's Tale_, xi-xv.
[10] little.
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