^{Note 1 in page 463} Except for one section in the text where obvious reference is made to Lydgate's Troy Book, numbers within parentheses indicate Unes in Lydgate's Siege of Thebes, ed. Axel Erdmann, Pt. I, EETS, Extra Ser. cviu (London, 1911)—hereafter designated as “Erdmann.” Textual quotations are from this edition, with certain diacritical marks irrelevant to my purpose omitted.

^{Note 2 in page 463} J. Harvey Darton, “A Chapter of Flattery,” London Mercury, xvni (1928), 629, and English Verse Between Chaucer and Surrey, ed. Eleanor P. Hammond (Durham, N. C, 1927), p. 80.

^{Note 3 in page 463} Walter F. Schirmer (John Lydgate, Tubingen, 1952, p. 55) calls the poem a “Versroman,” while Erdmann and Eilert Ekwall (eds. Lydgate's Siege of Thebes, Pt. n, EETS, Extra Ser. cxxv, London, 1930, p. 15—hereafter designated as “Erdmann and Ekwall”) and H. S. Bennett (Chaucer and the Fifteenth Century, Oxford, 1947, p. 139) describe it as an epic.

^{Note 4 in page 463} Erdmann and Ekwall approach recognition of one of the theses of this study in saying that “it sometimes looks as if the story did not interest Lydgate so much in itself as for the opportunities it gave him to plead the cause of truth, justice, and clemency” (p. 14). For Lydgate's use of the term en-lumyn, see Troy Book, Prologue, 1. 216.

^{Note 5 in page 463} Ed. Léopold Constans, SATF (Paris, 1890). On the sources of the Siege of Thebes, see Erdmann, p. vi, and Erdmann and Ekwall, pp. 6-8. Cf. Emil Koeppel, Lydgate's Story of Thebes: Eine Quellenuntersuchung (Munich, 1884), esp. pp. 52, 60, 65. For the transmission of the story from Statius to Lydgate, and study of the differences among versions, see particularly Alain Renoir, “Lydgate's ‘Siege of Thebes’: A Study in the Art of Adaptation” (unpub. diss., Harvard, 1955), pp. 156184. At various places in the present study I have profited from reading Professor Renoir's work.

^{Note 6 in page 464} Although it was no part of the original text (which only mentions in passing Oedipus, Ethiocles, and Polymetus, and derives that passing reference from Eusebius' Chronicle— see Orosius, Eistoriarum Adversos Paganos, ed. Carolus Zangemeister, Vienna, 1882, pp. 140-141), an expanded version of the Thebes story related to the Roman de Thèbes had long been included in manuscripts of the Orosius history. Accordingly, Constans, La légende d'Oedipe (Paris, 1881), pp. 315-350, describes several such manuscripts, as well as early printed editions, and says, in fact, that “Toutes les rédactions en prose du Roman de Thèbes que nous possédons appartiennent à ces recueils de chroniques 'depuis le commencement du monde,' à ces 'histoires universelles,' qui s'autorisent des noms des historiens latins et surtout de celui d'Orose” (p. 315).

But a more general acceptance of the legend in whole or in part as history is, of course, indicated. On its incorporation in the “Histoire ancienne jusqu'à César,” see Paul Meyer, “Les premières compilations françaises d'histoire ancienne,” Romania, xiv (1885), 40-41, 67. Otto of Friesing (d. 1158) takes over from Orosius, i.12, the passing reference to Oedipus, Ethiocles, and Polymetus, and incorporates it in his own Chronica sive Historia de Duobus Civitatibus (ed. Adolf us Hofmeister, Hanover, 1912, pp. 53-54). In his Sacerdos ad Altare (printed in C. H. Haskins, Studies in the History of Mediaeval Science, Cambridge, Mass., 1924, p. 372), the educationalist Alexander Neckham (d. 1217) recommends study of the Thebaid and the Aeneid as among the works of the “ystoriographos.” Apparently with Isidore (Elymologi-arum, xrv, Ch. iv, §10) as his authority, Ralph Higden refers to parts of the Thebes story at several points in his Poly-chronicon (ed. Churchill Babington, London, 1865, i, 196, and ii, 340, 342, 348). In his epilogue to The Historié of Jason (1477, in The Prologues and Epilogues of William Caxton, ed. W. J. B. Crotch, EETS, CLXXVIII, London, 1928, p. 35), and in a passage which assumes historical authority for both the Thebaid and Lydgate's poem, Caxton refers his readers to “Stacius” and the “siege of thebes” for more information. Constans says that “Stace est mentionné même par les auteurs de Chroniques” {La légende, p. 147), and lists instances. In a general comment on medieval acceptance of the Latin classics, Gaston Paris, La littérature française au Moyen Age, 3rd ed. (Paris, 1905), p. 77, notes that they had never ceased to be studied in the schools, “mais on croyait y trouver toujours et une incontestable vérité historique et un profond enseignement moral.”

^{Note 7 in page 464} This moralistic and practical conception of history was so general that it can be documented almost at will from writers of all periods. See Thucydides, i.22; Livy, Preface, 11; Cicero, De Oratore, H.ix.36, in a passage often imitated by medieval writers; Tacitus, Annales, iii.65; Quintilian, Institutio Ora-toria, x.i.31; St. Augustine, De Doctrina Christiana, n.28; Ralph Higden, Polychronicon, Ch. i; Henry Knighton, Chron-icon, Ch. i; Geste Historiale of the Destruction of Troy (EETS, xxxrx), Prologue. See also numerous Caxton prologues and epilogues (pp. 8, 10, 48, 86, 90, 94-95, 106, and esp. 64-65, in Crotch ed. above), as Professor Dorothy Bethurum has kindly suggested to me.

^{Note 8 in page 464} Ed. Nathaniel E. Griffin, Medieval Academy of America (Cambridge, Mass., 1936).

^{Note 9 in page 464} Numbers within parentheses in this section refer to lines in Lydgate's Troy Book, ed. Henry Bergen, Pt. I, EETS, Extra Ser. xcvu (London, 1906). Cf. ibid., 198-210.

^{Note 10 in page 464} E.g., 199-200, 3520-43. Here and hereafter all line references are to the Siege of Thebes.

^{Note 11 in page 464} E.g., 293 ff., 3188 ff., 3510 ff., 3971 ff., 4541.

^{Note 12 in page 464} See 837-840, 994 ff.

^{Note 13 in page 465} See Erdmann, p. vi, and Erdmann and Ekwall, pp. 1214.

^{Note 14 in page 465} See 1068-69, 1076, 3605, 4660-64, 4674-78.

^{Note 15 in page 465} Cf. 1780-1800, 3635-54.

^{Note 16 in page 466} Cf. 276-286, 2711-2715,4698-4704. Interesting evidence of the persistence of a theory of kingship, and recognition of the importance to the king of the love of his people, comes from C. L. Sulzberger, “The King Business: II—Method and Mystique,” New York Times, 16 Feb. 1957, p. 16, col. 5, quoting the present King Paul of Greece: “A king must remember also that there is something in the theory of kingship that makes people look up to a king—if he is a decent person…. People tend to place their best hopes and feelings on the person of a king. If he doesn't live up to this they feel let down. My father had an excellent motto: ‘My strength is the love of my people.‘ I think that's the best motto in kingship.”

^{Note 17 in page 466} Cf. 1725-84, 1940-44.

^{Note 18 in page 466} Cf. 1728-46, 2077-79.

^{Note 19 in page 466} Cf. 2544-52, 3648-52.

^{Note 20 in page 466} Cf. 1064-83, 1774-81, 2498-2505, 3671-78.

^{Note 21 in page 467} This (like Siege of Thebes, 4047-58) seems to imitate Troilus and Criseyde, v, 1849-55 (ed. Robert K. Root, Princeton, 1945):

Lo here, of payens corsed olde rites! Lo here, what allé hire goddes may availle ! Lo here, thise wrecched worldes appetites ! Lo here, the fyn and guerdon for travaille Of Jove, Apollo, of Mars, of swich rascaille! Lo here, the forme of olde clerkes speche In poetrie, if ye hire bokes seche!

^{Note 22 in page 467} Fall of Princes, 3822, 3829, 3836, 3843.

^{Note 23 in page 467} See Erdmann and Ekwall, pp. 44, 59.

^{Note 24 in page 467} From ancient times, works of historians and historic or epic poets had been studied as a part of grammar or rhetoric. For references and discussion, see Aubrey Gwynn, Roman Education from Cicero to Quintilian (Oxford, 1926), pp. 92, 100-108, 170-173, 198-201, 222; Theodore Haarhoff, Schools of Gaul (Oxford, 1920), pp. 209-219; Louis J. Paetow, The Arts Course at Medieval Universities with Special Reference lo Grammar and Rhetoric, Univ. of Illinois Stud., iii, No. 7 (Urbana-Champaign, 1910), passim; Paul Abelson, The Seven Liberal Arts: A Study in Mediaeval Culture (New York, 1906), pp. 27-29, 59; P. O. Kristeller, “Humanism and Scholasticism in the Italian Renaissance,” Byzantion, xvn (1944-45), 360, 364-365. J. W. H. Atkins, English Literary Criticism: The Medieval Phase (London, 1952), p. 165, reports a tradition that Lydgate himself established a school of rhetoric and poetry at Bury St. Edmunds.

^{Note 25 in page 468} John E. Mason, Gentlefolk in the Making (Philadelphia, 1935), p. 10. There is a continuous tradition of the genre of the speculum principis from the time of Isocrates to the 20th century. For the best short discussion, see Chs. v (“The Perfect Prince from the Sixth Century to the Sixteenth Century”) and vi (“Summary of the Medieval Period”) in De-siderius Erasmus, The Education of a Christian Prince, ed. Lester K. Born (New York, 1936); see also bibliography, pp. 99-100. For Lydgate's use of the word merour, see n. 32, below.

^{Note 26 in page 468} Erdmann and Ekwall (p. 8) date the terminus a quo as May 1420, on what they regard as a reference in 11. 46904703, to 24 of the Treaty of Troyes; they fix the terminus ante quern as the date of the death of Henry V, 31 Aug. 1422, on the basis of what they believe to be a tone of “joy at the happy ending of the war and of hopefulness for the future” in the same lines (p. 9). Insofar as these lines do in fact embody any expression of hope for the future, they appear to me to be conventionally Christian in character, and therefore no grounds for the establishment of a terminus ante quern as early as 1422.

^{Note 27 in page 468} For events prior to Henry's death, see James H. Wylie and William T. Waugh, The Reign of Henry the Fifth (Cambridge, Eng., 1929), in, particularly pp. 197-426; for the delicate situation following his death, see James H. Ramsay, Lancaster and York (Oxford, 1892), i, particularly pp. 322372.

^{Note 28 in page 468} Independently of any such general interpretation of the poem as is here proposed, Erdmann and Ekwall (pp. 13-14 and notes to 11. 2688-94, 2701-08, 3425-32, 3655-73, 46904703) regard the poem as incorporating allusions to certain contemporary political events. Cf. n. 26 above.

^{Note 29 in page 468} Such as the alternate account of the foundation of Thebes by Cadmus (293-315), the account of Ipsiphyle's background (3188-3207), or her fate following the accidental death of Lycurgus' son (3510-43), who had been left in her care.

^{Note 30 in page 469} Cf. 4604-07; see further, 1072-74, 2553-67, 3669-73, 3677-78, and the important concluding moralization, 46284716.

^{Note 31 in page 469} E.g., “Ensample,” 807, 2236, 2724; “take(n) hede,” 802, 1020; cf. Lydgate's use of other hortatory words or phrases, such as “adverte,” 251, 1993, 4268, “rede,” 802, 1019.

^{Note 32 in page 471} See 1040, 2623, 2723, 3038.

^{Note 33 in page 472} Cf. 2671-87, 2712.

^{Note 34 in page 472} See 2573, 2788-93, 4107-12.

^{Note 35 in page 472} E.g., 1008, 1961, 2035, 2036, 2039, 2479-81, 2506, 3697, 3904, etc.

^{Note 36 in page 473} E.g., “knights,” 1316, 1346, 1349; “princes,” “Dukes,” 2063, 2579, 3298; clothing and armor, 1365, 1436 ff., 2145; weapons, 1081, 2744, 2785; social stratification, 1435, 1564, 2673; “parlements,” 764, 2573.

^{Note 37 in page 474} See 448, 756, 1072-74, 2560-67, 3669-78.

^{Note 38 in page 474} His Troy Book, Pilgrimage of the Life of Man, and Fall of Princes were executed on commissions from Henry V (while Prince of Wales), Edward, Earl of Salisbury, and Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, respectively. See Bennett, p. Ill, Hammond, p. 78, and Karl J. Holzknecht, Literary Patronage in the Middle Ages (Philadelphia, 1923), p. 57.

^{Note 39 in page 474} From many of his works, see, e.g., The Churl and the Bird, The Fall of Princes, Secreta Secrelorum: Secrees of Old Philosophers, or Governance of Kings and Princes, and Serpent of Division.