LATUMYUS. Chaucer substitutes this name for Pacuvius, who had a tree in his garden on which his three wives hanged themselves. When Pacuvius complained to Arrius, weeping, the latter begged him for a cutting to plant in his garden, hoping for the same results. Cicero tells this story, without names, in De oratore, II.xix; Walter Map rehearses it in his Dissuasio Valerii ad Rufinum philosophum ne uxorem ducat, IV.iii. (c. 1180-1183).

Jankyn reads this story to Alys from his "Book of wikked wyves," WBP 757-766. [Alisoun³: Arrius]

The name occurs in final rhyming position, WBP 757.