The day is more, and longer every night
  Than they were wont to be—­for he thought so;
  And that the sun did take his course not right,
  By longer way than he was wont to go;
  And said, I am in constant dread I trow, 145
  That Phaeeton his son is yet alive,
  His too fond father’s car amiss to drive.

  Upon the walls fast also would he walk,
  To the end that he the Grecian host might see;
  And ever thus he to himself would talk:—­150
  Lo! yonder is my [6] own bright Lady free;
  Or yonder is it that the tents must be;
  And thence does come this air which is so sweet,
  That in my soul I feel the joy of it.

  And certainly this wind, that more and more 155
  By moments thus increaseth in my face,
  Is of my Lady’s sighs heavy and sore;
  I prove it thus; for in no other space
  Of all this town, save only in this place,
  Feel I a wind, that soundeth so like pain; 160
  It saith, Alas, why severed are we twain?

  A weary while in pain he tosseth thus,
  Till fully past and gone was the ninth night;
  And ever [7] at his side stood Pandarus,
  Who busily made use of all his might 165
  To comfort him, and make his heart more light; [8]
  Giving him always hope, that she the morrow
  Of the tenth day will come, and end his sorrow.

* * * * *

VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1: 

1842.

  ... burst 1841.]

[Variant 2: 

1842.

  ... hast ... 1841.]

[Variant 3: 

1842.

  ... his eye, 1841.]

[Variant 4: 

1842.

  ... whose words ... 1841.]

[Variant 5: 

1842.

  With a soft voice, ... 1841.]

[Variant 6: 

1842.

  ... mine ... 1841.]

[Variant 7:  The “even” of 1841 is evidently a misprint.]

[Variant 8: 

1842.

  ... too light; 1841.]

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A:  In ‘The Poems of Geoffrey Chaucer Modernised’.  It is an extract from ‘Troilus and Cressida’, book v. ll. 518-686.—­Ed.]

[Footnote B: 

  “Chaucer’s text is: 

    ’And therwithalle his meynye for to blende
    A cause he fonde in toune for to go.’

  ‘His meynye for to blende,’ i. e. to keep his household or his
  domestics in the dark.  But Wordsworth writes: 

    ‘And therewithal to cover his intent,’

  possibly mistaking ‘meynye’ for ’meaning’.”

(Professor Dowden, in the ‘Transactions of the Wordsworth Society’, No.  III.)—­Ed.]