and Will and Hope on the other is quite in the style of the _Roman de
la Rose_, where Reason and the Lover have an endless controversy (2983
ff.). Though the agencies are clearly personified here, the author has
not assigned capital letters to their names.
1166. _out of retenue_, ‘out of my service.’
1173. _jeupartie_, ‘discord,’ one side being matched against the other.
The first reading was ‘champartie,’ which may have proceeded from the
author. It is clear that this word was used by Lydgate in the sense
of ‘rivalry’ or ‘contest’ in the phrase ‘holde champartie,’ and this
may either have come from the idea of partnership, implying division
of power and so rivalry, as in Chaucer, _Cant. Tales_, A 1949, or
from the legal sense, with which Gower and Lydgate would doubtless be
acquainted, meaning partnership for a contentious purpose. There seems
no sufficient reason for supposing (with the _New Engl. Dict._) that
Lydgate’s use was founded on a misunderstanding of Chaucer.
1183. _and til._ Caxton and Berthelet both have ‘tyl that’ for ‘and
til,’ and one is tempted to suggest that ‘and til’ was meant to stand
for ‘until.’
1201 ff. The story of the visit of Alexander to Diogenes was a common
one enough, and it is hardly worth while to investigate its source for
Gower. He probably here combined various materials into one narrative,
for the usual form of the story as given by Vincent of Beauvais, _Spec.
Hist._ iii. 68 f., and in the _Gesta Romanorum_, does not include the
conversation about the Reason and the Will. This may have been derived
from Walter Burley, _De Vita Philosophorum_, cap. l., ‘Dum Alexander
rex coram Diogene transiret, Diogenes tanquam illum spernens non
respexit; cui dixit Alexander, “Quid est Diogenes quod me non respicis,
quasi mei non indigeas?” Cui ille, “Ad quid necesse habeo servi
servorum meorum?” Et Alexander, “Numquid servorum tuorum servus sum?”
Ait, “Ego prevaleo cupiditatibus meis refrenans illas et subiciens
mihi illas ut serviant: tibi autem cupiditates prevalent, et servus
earum efficeris, earum obtemperans iussioni: servus igitur es servorum
meorum.”’ Burley gives the other part of the conversation separately.
The incident of the messenger sent to inquire and of the answer which
he brought back is no doubt due to Gower, as also the idea of the ‘tun’
being set on an axle and adapted for astronomical observations.
1212. The ‘dolium’ was of course popularly regarded as a wooden cask.
1222. ‘As fate would have it’: see note on 172 (end), and cp. 1442.
1224. _the Sonne ariste_, i.e. the rising of the sun: so iv. 1285, ‘and
that was er the Sonne Ariste.’
1310. _to schifte_, ‘to dispose of.’ In Burley, ‘rogo ne auferas quod
dare non potes.’
1331 ff. The tale of Pyramus and Thisbe is from Ovid, _Met._ iv.
55-166. Chaucer has taken it from the same source in the _Legend of
Good Women_. When we compare the results, we find that in this instance
it is Chaucer who has followed his authority closely, while Gower gives
a paraphrase in his own language and with several variations of detail.
He says, for example, that the lovers themselves made the hole in the
wall through which they conversed; he omits Ninus’ tomb; he speaks
of a lion, not a lioness; he says that Thisbe hid herself in a bush
(not a cave), and that then the lion slew and devoured a beast before
drinking at the spring; he cuts short the speech of Pyramus before
killing himself; he represents that Pyramus was slain at once instead
of living until Thisbe came; he invents an entirely new speech for
Thisbe; and he judiciously omits, as Chaucer does also, the mention of
the mulberry-tree and its transformation.
In short, Gower writes apparently from a general recollection of the
story, while Chaucer evidently has his Ovid before him and endeavours
to translate almost every phrase, showing thereby his good taste, for
Ovid tells the story well.
The following points in Ovid (among others) are reproduced by Chaucer
and not by Gower: l. 56, ‘quas Oriens habuit’; 58, ‘Coctilibus
muris’; 59, ‘Notitiam primosque gradus vicinia fecit’ (which Chaucer
misunderstands, however); 62, ‘Ex aequo captis ’ &c.; 64, ‘Quoque
magis tegitur, tectus magis aestuat ignis’; 65, ‘Fissus erat tenui
rima,’ &c.; 68, ‘Quid non sentit amor?’; 73-77, the speeches of the
lovers to the wall; 81 f., ‘Postera nocturnos aurora’ &c.; 85, ‘Fallere
custodes’; 87, ‘Neve sit errandum’ &c.; 94, ‘adopertaque vultum’; 97,
‘leaena’; 99, ‘ad lunae radios’; 100, ‘in antrum’; 105, ‘vestigia vidit
in alto Pulvere’ &c.; 108, ‘Una duos nox, inquit, perdet amantes,’
and the rest of this speech; 117 f., ‘Utque dedit notae lacrimas,’
&c.; 122, ‘Non aliter quam cum vitiato fistula plumbo Scinditur’;
130, ‘Quantaque vitarit narrare pericula gestit’; 133, ‘tremebunda
videt pulsare cruentum Membra solum’; 134 f., ‘oraque buxo’ &c.; 140,
‘Vulnera supplevit’ &c.; 145, ‘oculos iam morte gravatos’; 148 ff., the
speech of Thisbe, except the reference to the mulberry-tree.
Gower’s rendering of the story is inferior to that of Chaucer, as might
be expected, but nevertheless it is simple and pathetic. It has even
some points of superiority, as 1386 f., the passage of Thisbe through
the town at night; 1400, ‘with his blodi snoute’; 1411, the terror
of Thisbe when concealed in the bush; and finally 1486 ff., where
instead of deliberately resolving on death and inflicting it with calm
resolution, she is more naturally represented as overcome by a sudden
impulse in the midst of her mourning and killing herself almost without
consciousness of what she did.
1348. _as it scholde be_: cp. 1222, ‘As thing which scholde so betyde.’
1356. All the best copies have ‘miht’ or ‘might’ here: cp. 1440. The
distinction, however, between ‘miht’ (= mayest) and ‘mihte’ is usually
well preserved by our author.
1394. _In haste and_: so ll. 1396, 1415. On the other hand, in 1430 we
have a stop after ‘folhaste’ (in F), while 1447 remains doubtful.
1442. _as it schal betide_, cp. 1222.
1448. _For sche_, a reference to the ‘folhaste’ of the previous line.
It was his haste that destroyed him, for if he had waited but a little
he would have seen her come.
1466 f. ‘If it be only by this mishap which has befallen my love and
me together.’ For the use of ‘betwen’ see note on ii. 653. The position
of ‘Only’ is affected by metrical requirements: see note on ii. 709.
1473. _oure herte bothe_, ‘the hearts of us both.’ The singular ‘herte’
is given by the best copies of each recension.
1496. _Bewar_: thus written several times in F, e.g. 1738. Here A also
has ‘Bewar.’
1524. _him stant of me no fere_: cp. ii. 2124.
1537. _Daunger_: see note on i. 2443.
1593 ff. The construction of the sentence is interrupted, but the sense
is clear: ‘For if I, who have given all my will and wit to her service,
should in reward thereof be suffered to die, it would be pity.’ For
this kind of irregularity cp. i. 98, 2948, &c.
1605. The reading ‘in such,’ though given by both S and F, must be
wrong.
1630. _overthrewe._ The verb no doubt is intransitive, as often, e.g.
i. 1886, 1962, and below, l. 1638.
1666. _him oghte have be_: cp. 704.
1685 ff. Ovid, _Met._ i. 453-567. Gower cuts the story short.
1701. Ovid, _Met._ i. 470,
‘Quod facit auratum est et cuspide fulget acuta.’
(Merkel alters ‘auratum’ to ‘hamatum,’ but this is certainly wrong.)
1704. Note that the final syllable of ‘Daphne’ is subject to elision
here and in 1716: so ‘Progne’ v. 5574, &c.
1718 ff. The suggestion is Gower’s own, as in other similar cases, e.g.
i. 2355.
1743. ‘And it is to be desired that a man,’ &c.
1757 ff. This story is chiefly from Benoît, _Roman de Troie_, 28025
ff. Guido omits many details which are given by Gower. Note that in
l. 28025, where Joly’s edition has ‘Samas,’ Guido and Gower both have
‘Athemas.’ Our author has treated his materials freely and tells the
story at greater length. The speech which he assigns to Nestor is for
the most part original.
1885 ff. The tale of Orestes is from Benoît de Sainte-More, _Rom. de
Troie_, 27925-27990, 28155-28283, and 28339-28402. Guido omits the
visit of Orestes to Athens to obtain help for his expedition, the
portion of the oracle which bad him tear away his mother’s breasts,
and the name of Menetius (or Menesteus), who defended Orestes, and
Gower’s details are in general more in accordance with those of Benoît.
A few exceptions may be found, however. For example, Gower says that
Agamemnon was murdered as he lay in bed (1915), Guido, ‘dum suo
soporatus dormiret in lecto,’ but Benoît only, ‘L’ont la premiere nuit
ocis.’ Again, Guido calls Idomeneus ‘consanguineum eius,’ and Gower
says, ‘So as he was of his lignage,’ of which Benoît says nothing. No
doubt Gower was acquainted with both, and preferred the French because
he perceived it to be better.
1911. ‘To set her love in place where it cannot be secure.’
2022 f. _Cropheon ... Phoieus._ The names are given as ‘Trofion’
and ‘Florentes’ by Benoît (Joly’s text), ‘Troiesem’ (‘Croeze’
MS.) and ‘Forensis’ by Guido. They are originally derived from a
misunderstanding of a passage in Dictys, _Bell. Troi._ vi. 3, ‘armatus
cum praedicta manu ad Strophium venit: is namque Phocensis, cuius
filia,’ &c.
2055 ff. This speech is introduced by Gower.
2112 f.
‘Li un dient qu’il a fet dreit,
Et li autre que non aveit.’
_Rom. de Troie_, 28275.
2145. _Menesteüs._ This is a more correct form of the name than the
‘Menetius,’ which we have in Joly’s text of Benoît.
2148. _of the goddes bede._ Here we perhaps have Guido rather than
Benoît.
2173. _Egiona._ The name is properly Erigona, and so it is given by
Benoît. The moralization on her fate, 2183 ff., is due to our author,
and it is rather out of place, considering the circumstances of the
story.
2346. _the trew man._ In F we have ‘trew,’ altered apparently from
‘trewe,’ which is the usual and the more correct form: ‘the trew man to
the plowh’ means the labourer who truly serves the plough.
2358. This is simply a repetition of 2355, ‘thei stonde of on acord.’
‘As of corage’ means as regards their feeling or inclination: for this
use of ‘as’ cp. Prol. 492, i. 557, &c.
2363 ff. A very common story, found shortly in Augustine, _Civ. Dei_,
iv. 4, and repeated in the _Gesta Romanorum_ and many other books.
Gower has expanded it after his own fashion.
2424 f. ‘that men set their hearts to make gain by such wrong doing.’
2451. _homward_, i.e. ‘going homeward.’ The word included something of
a verbal sense, as we see in i. 938, iii. 1021: so also ‘toward’ in l.
2643.
2458. _the world mistimed._ The verb ‘mistime’ means properly ‘to
happen amiss,’ with the suggestion that it is by the fault of the
person concerned. Gower uses it here transitively for ‘to manage
amiss,’ while in vi. 4 ‘was mystymed’ means ‘came unhappily about.’
2508. _what man ... rede_: for the subjunctive see note on Prol. 460.
2536. ‘Hardly have any fear’: see note on ii. 2124.
2555. Acastus was king of Iolcos. He purified Peleus, as some say of
the murder of Eurytion, but according to others of that of Phocus:
cp. Bocc. _Gen. Deorum_, xii. 50, ‘ad Magnetas abiit, ubi ab Achasto
fraterna caede purgatus est.’
2563 f. Alcmaeon, son of Amphiaraus, was purified by Achelous, whom our
author here takes for a priest.
2599 ff. This anecdote is told also in the _Mirour_, 5029-5040, and
there also it is ascribed to Solinus. I do not find it, however, in his
book.
2608 ff. For the irregularity of this sentence cp. 1593 ff.
2639 ff. The story is taken from Benoît _(Rom. de Troie_, 6497-6590),
as we may see at once from the name ‘Theucer,’ which Guido gives
rather more correctly as ‘Theutran.’ Also ll. 2674-2680, _Roman de
Troie_, 6545-6553, have nothing corresponding to them in Guido. Guido
here certainly referred to a copy of the so-called Dares, where the
name occurs in its classical form ‘Teuthras.’ He is particularly
interested in the story on local grounds, being concerned to show
that the ‘Messe’ which he found in Benoît might be connected with the
name of his place of residence, Messina, and that the events related
occurred actually in Sicily. Accordingly he speaks of certain columns
popularly called ‘columns of Hercules,’ which existed in his own time
in Sicily, ‘ex parte Barbarorum,’ i.e. on the south coast, and takes
them as evidence of the connexion of Hercules with the island, and
hence of the probability that this story (which in the original has to
do with Hercules, though Gower has excluded him from it) had its scene
in Sicily. Dares, he admits, says nothing of this, and his reference
to Dares is here in more precise form than usual, ‘in suo codice’
according to the Bodleian MS., though the printed editions give ‘in suo
opere’ (MS. Add. A. 365, f. 50 v^o).
He says of the place where these columns are, ‘qui locus dicitur adhuc
columpnarum,’ and adds that the emperor Frederic II has established
a town there, and that the place is now called ‘terra nova.’ This is
obviously identical with the modern Terranova, founded by Frederic
II near the site of the ancient Gela. It seems probable that Guido
may have been himself a native of this place or of its immediate
neighbourhood, and that he chose to call himself after its former
designation, ‘Columpna’ or ‘Columpnae,’ instead of by the new name
which had come into use during his own lifetime[AN].
2643. _His Sone._ This is a mistake on the part of Gower. Both Benoît
and Guido state quite clearly that Telephus was the son of Hercules,
and that it was to Hercules that the obligation was due which is
referred to in 2690 ff. Perhaps the copy of the _Roman de Troie_ which
Gower used had ‘Thelefus fu filz Achilles’ for ‘Thelefus fu filz
Hercules,’ in l. 6506.
2756. We should rather have expected ‘That I fro you wol nothing hele.’
LIB. IV.
9. Cp. _Mirour_, 5606,
‘Lachesce dist, Demein, Demein.’
38. _Thou schalt mowe_: cp. ii. 1670, where we have ‘mow’ for ‘mowe.’
60. _a fin._ This is a French expression, which appears repeatedly in
the _Mirour_ as ‘au fin.’
77 ff. The only definite indication of sources here is the reference
(such as it is) to Ovid, _Her. Ep._ vii., contained in ll. 104-115.
92. _as it be scholde_, cp. iii. 1348.
104 ff. This picture seems to be constructed partly from a misreading
or misunderstanding of Ovid, _Her. Ep._ vii. 1 f.,
‘Sic ubi fata vocant, udis abiectus in herbis
Ad vada Maeandri concinit albus olor.’
It is difficult to see how our author translated these lines, but the
result, which must have been chiefly due to his imagination, is rather
creditable to him. Chaucer gives the true sense in the _Legend of Good
Women_, 1355 ff.,
‘Ryght so,’ quod she, ‘as that the white swan
Ayenst his deth begynneth for to synge.
Ryght so to yow I make my compleynynge.’
128. _such a lak of Slowthe_, ‘such a fault of Sloth.’
137. That is, to put all the slothful in mind (of their duty).
147 ff. The general idea of this is taken from the letter of Penelope
to Ulysses, Ovid, _Her. Ep._ i, but this is not closely followed in
details, and it will be noticed that Gower represents the letter as
sent while the siege of Troy still continued, and apparently he knows
nothing of the great length of the wandering afterwards: cp. 226 ff.
170. The reading ‘Had’ for ‘Hath’ is given by many MSS., including F.
We find ‘Hath’ in the following, H₁C, SAdTΔ, W, and it must certainly
be the true reading.
196 ff. Ovid, _Her. Ep._ i. 2, ‘Nil mihi rescribas, attamen ipse veni.’
234. Robert Grosteste’s reputation for learning in the sciences
earned for him, as for his contemporary Roger Bacon, the character of
a student of magic. In the metrical life of Grosteste by Robert of
Bardney (Wharton, _Anglia Sacra_, i. 333) one chapter is ‘De aeneo
capite quod Oxoniae fecit Grosthede ad dubia quaeque determinanda.’
This author says only that by some accident the head fell and was
broken, and that its inventor thereupon abandoned the study of
forbidden sciences.
Naudé in his _Apologie pour les grands hommes soupçonnez de Magie_
classes ‘Robert de Lincolne’ and Albertus Magnus together as supposed
makers of speaking images, but the former only on the authority of
Gower, with whom he had been made acquainted by Selden.
242 f. That is, he lost all that he had done from the time when he
first began to work; an inversion of clauses for the sake of the rhyme:
cp. ii. 709 ff.
249. _kept_: more properly ‘kepe,’ but the infinitive is attracted into
the form of the participle ‘wold,’ much as the participle of the mood
auxiliary in modern German takes the form of the infinitive: see note
on ii. 1799.
305. _hadde I wist_, cp. i. 1888, ii. 473. It is the exclamation of
those who fall into evil by neglect of proper precaution. The same
sentiment is expressed more fully in l. 899,
‘Ha, wolde god I hadde knowe!’
345. _dar._ This form stands as plural here and l. 350.
371 ff. The story of Pygmalion is from Ovid, _Metam._ x. 243-297.
377. ‘Being destined to the labours of love’; cp. note on iii. 143
(end).
415. _how it were_, i.e. ‘how so ever it were’: cp. l. 1848.
448. _a solein tale_, ‘a strange tale.’ This word ‘solein’ (or
‘soulein’), which English etymologists in search for the origin of
‘sullen’ report as hardly to be found in French, occurs repeatedly
in the _Mirour de l’omme_ in the sense of ‘alone,’ ‘lonely.’ For the
meaning here assigned to it we may compare the modern use of the
word ‘singular,’ which in Gower’s French meant ‘lonely.’ There is no
authority for Pauli’s reading ‘solempne,’ and it gives neither sense
nor metre.
451 ff. The tale of Iphis is from Ovid, _Metam._ ix. 666-797,
abbreviated and altered with advantage.
453 ff. The authority of the MSS. is strongly in favour of ‘grete:
lete’ in these lines, and this reading is certainly right. We must
take ‘lete’ as the past participle of the strong verb ‘leten’ (from
‘lǣtan’), meaning ‘leave,’ ‘omit,’ and ‘grete’ as accommodated to the
rhyme. The negative construction following rather suggests ‘let,’
meaning ‘hindered’ as ii. 128 ff., but the rhyme ‘let: gret’ would be
an impossible one. See note on i. 3365 and cp. l. 1153.
585. _And stonde_, i.e. ‘And I stonde’: cp. i. 1895, &c., and below, l.
697.
624. _on miself along_, so below l. 952, ‘It is noght on mi will
along,’ and Chaucer, _Troilus_, ii. 1001,
‘On me is nought along thyn yvel fare.’
The use of ‘on’ for ‘of’ in this phrase is still known in some dialects.
647 ff. For the Ring of Forgetfulness here spoken of see Petrus
Comestor, _Exodus_ vi., where it is related that Moses in command of
the Egyptians captured the chief city of the Ethiopians by the help of
Tarbis, daughter of their king, and married her in recompense of her
services. Then, wishing to return to Egypt and being detained by his
wife, ‘tanquam vir peritus astrorum duas imagines sculpsit in gemmis
huius efficaciae, ut altera memoriam, altera oblivionem conferret.
Cumque paribus anulis eas inseruisset, alterum, scilicet oblivionis
anulum, uxori praebuit, alterum ipse tulit; ut sic pari amore sic
paribus anulis insignirentur. Coepit ergo mulier amoris viri oblivisci,
et tandem libere in Aegyptum regressus est’ (Migne, _Patrol._ vol. 198,
p. 1144). Cp. Godfr. Viterb., _Pantheon_, v. (p. 115).
731 ff. Partly from Ovid, _Her. Ep._ ii. and _Rem. Am._ 591-604; but
there was probably some other source, for our author would not find
anything in Ovid about the transformation into a tree. Many of the
details seem to be of his own invention, and he is probably responsible
for the variation which makes the visit of Demophon to Thrace take
place on the way to Troy instead of on the return. Chaucer’s form of
the story in the _Legend of Good Women_ is quite different.
733. F is here followed in punctuation.
776. _a Monthe day_: Ovid, _Her. Ep._ ii. 3 f.,
‘Cornua cum lunae pleno semel orbe coissent,
Litoribus nostris ancora pacta tua est.’
782. Cp. Ovid, _Ars Am._ ii. 354,
‘Exarsit velis acrius illa datis.’
787 ff. Except the idea of a letter being sent, Gower takes little here
from Ovid.
816 ff. This passage seems mostly of Gower’s invention, partly perhaps
on the suggestion of the story of Hero and Leander in Ovid, _Her. Ep._
xix. 33 ff. See Bech in _Anglia_, v. 347.
_do set up._ Apparently ‘set’ is the participle, cp. ii. 1799.
833. _al hire one._ This idea is emphasized by Ovid, _Rem. Am._ 591 f.
869. This piece of etymology is perhaps due to our author, who usually
adds something of his own to the stories of transformation which he
relates; see note on i. 2355. Lydgate says that Phyllis hanged herself
upon a filbert-tree, but he perhaps took the notion from Gower:
‘Upon the walles depeint men myght se
Hou she was honged upon a filbert tre.’
_Temple of Glas_, 88.
See the note in Dr. Schick’s edition, E.E.T.S. 1891.
893. Cp. _Mirour_, 5436,
‘Lors est il sage apres la mein,’
of which this line is an exact reproduction.
904. _pleith an aftercast._ This looks like a metaphor from casting
dice, but it is difficult to see the exact application. It means of
course here that he is always too late in what he says and does.
914. _come at thin above_, i.e. attain to success: cp. _Mirour_, 25350,
‘Car lors est Triche a son dessus.’
964. See note on i. 2677.
979 ff. The story may probably enough be taken from Ovid, _Metam._ ii.
1-324, but if so it is much abbreviated.
_which is the Sonne hote_, ‘which is called the Sun’; cp. ii. 131
f. Possibly, however, ‘hote’ may be the adjective, with definite
termination for the sake of the rhyme. There would be no objection to
rhyming with it the adverb of the same form.
1030 ff. The moral drawn by Gower from the story of Phaeton is against
going too low, that is abandoning the higher concerns of love owing
to slothful negligence. The next story is against aiming too high and
neglecting the due claims of service.
1035 ff. Ovid, _Metam._ viii. 183-235.
1090 f. Cp. _Mirour_, 5389 ff.
1096. _who as evere take_: so ‘what man’ is very commonly used with
subjunctive, iii. 2508 &c., but the uncertainty of the construction is
shown by ‘And thinkth’ in the next line. See notes on Prol. 13, 460.
1108 ff. Cp. _Mirour_, 5395 ff.
1131. A superfluous syllable, such as we have at the pause in this
line, is very unusual in Gower’s verse; but cp. v. 447.
1153. _lete I ne mai_, ‘I may not neglect’: see note on i. 3365.
1180. Cp. i. 698, ‘And many a contenance he piketh.’ It means here
perhaps ‘thus I keep up a pretence (for staying).’
1245 ff. A somewhat similar story to this is to be found in Andreas
Capellanus, _De Amore_, to which my attention was first called by Mr.
Archer. This book (written about 1220) gives imaginary colloquies
between different kinds of persons, to illustrate the ways of
courtship, ‘Plebeius loquitur plebeiae,’ ‘Plebeius nobili,’ ‘Nobilis
plebeiae,’ ‘Nobilis nobili.’ In this last occurs the story of a
squire who saw the god of love leading a great company of ladies in
three bands, the first well mounted and well attended, the second
well mounted but attended by so many that it was a hindrance rather
than a help, and the third in wretched array with lame horses and no
attendance. The meaning of the sight is explained to the squire by
one of these last, and he is taken to see the appropriate rewards and
punishments of each band. He relates what he has seen to his mistress
in order to make her more ready to accept his suit (pp. 91-108, ed.
Trojel, 1892).
There are some expressions which resemble those which Gower uses, as
‘quarum quaelibet in equo _pinguissimo_ et formoso et _suavissime
ambulante_ sedebat’ (p. 92), cp. 1309 f.,
‘On faire amblende hors thei sete
That were al whyte, fatte and grete.’
And again, ‘domina quaedam ... habens equum macerrimum et turpem et
tribus pedibus claudicantem,’ cp. 1343 ff. The story, however, is
different in many ways from that of Gower. For other similar stories
see the article in _Romania_ for January 1900 on the ‘Purgatory of
Cruel Beauties’ by W. A. Neilson.
The tale of Rosiphelee is well told by Gower, and in more than one
passage it bears marks of having been carefully revised by the author.
The alteration of 1321 f. is peculiarly happy, and gives us one of the
best couplets in the _Confessio Amantis_.
1285. _the Sonne Ariste_: cp. iii. 1224. The capital letter was perhaps
intended to mark ‘Ariste’ as a substantive.
1307. _comen ryde_: cp. i. 350.
1309. ‘hors’ is evidently plural here: so i. 2036 and often.