• For the story of Jason, Medea, and the Golden Fleece, see Ovid, Metamorphoses VII . Also Chaucer, Legende of Goode Women :⁠— “Thou roote of fals loveres, duke Jason! Thou slye devourer and confusyon Of gentil wommen, gentil creatures!” ↩
• When the women of Lemnos put to death all the male inhabitants of the island, Hypsipyle concealed her father Thoas, and spared his life. Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautics , II , Fawkes’s Tr. :⁠— “Hypsipyle alone, illustrious maid, Spared her sire Thoas, who the sceptre swayed.” ↩
• “Allessio Interminelli,” says Benvenuto da Imola, “a soldier, a nobleman, and of gentle manners, was of Lucca, and from him descended that tyrant Castruccio who filled all Tuscany with fear, and was lord of Pisa, Lucca, and Pistoja, of whom Dante makes no mention, because he became illustrious after the author’s death. Alessio took such delight in flattery, that he could not open his mouth without flattering. He besmeared everybody, even the lowest menials.” The Ottimo says, that in the dialect of Lucca the head “was facetiously called a pumpkin.” ↩