Prologue I- 1 1 13 



physiological figure? Cf. Perv. Veneris (immediately following 

 the last passage on p. 7, above) : 



Ipse venas atque mentem permeanti spiritu 

 Intus occultis gubernat procreatrix viribus."" 



licour .... engendred (3-4). Again fecundis imbribtts. 

 Zephirus (5). The Latin poets are apt to think of Zephyr as 

 thawing the frozen ground. Thus Virgil, Georg. i. 43-4: 



Vere novo, gelidus canis cum montibus umor 

 Liquitur, et Zephyro putris se glseba resolvit.^* 



Horace, Od. i. 4. i, 5: 



Solvitur acris hiems grata vice veris et Favoni. . . . 

 Jam Cytherea choros duxit."' 



And Statins, Theb. 4. 1-2: 



Tertius horrentem Zephyris laxaverat annum 

 Phoebus. 



At the beginning of the Second Book of the Teseide, Boccaccio 

 is evidently amplifying the sentence just quoted from Statins: 



II Sole avie due volte dissolute 



Le nevi agli alti poggi, ed altrettante 



Zefiro aveva le foglie rendute 



E gli be' fiori alle spogliate piante.'* 



Boccaccio, in turn, is imitated by Chaucer {T. and C. 5. 8-1 1) : 



The golden-tressed Phebus heighe onlofte 

 Thryes hadde alle with his hemes shene 

 The snowes molte, and Zephirus as ofte 

 Ybrought ayein the tendre leves grene. 



Elsewhere (L. G. W. 171-4) Zephyr and Flora are associated 

 as god and goddess : 



^Translated by Mackail : 'Herself the creatress in hidden might sways 

 flesh and spirit from within with her enkindling life.' 



^^ Translated by Lonsdale and Lee : 'In early spring, as soon as the dis- 

 solving snow melts on the white mountains, and the earth trembles, 

 unbound by zephyrs.' 



^ 'Keen winter is melting away beneath the welcome change to spring 

 and the western breeze [Zephyr]. . . . Now Venus, Lady of Cythera, 

 leads her choirs' (Lonsdale and Lee). 



^ Ed. Camposampiero, Milan. 1819. 



