predicatively with a plural subject take the plural inflection or not
according to convenience. Thus in Prol. 81 we have ‘Bot for my wittes
ben to smale’ in rhyme with ‘tale.’
1323. _beere._ This is pret. plur., as 1376: the same form for pret.
subj. 2749.
1330. _For pure abaissht_: cp. Chaucer, _Troilus_, ii. 656, ‘And
with that thought for pure ashamed she Gan in hir hed to pulle.’ The
parallel, to which my attention was called by Prof. M^cCormick,
suggests the idea that ‘abaissht’ is a participle rather than a noun,
and the use of the past participle with ‘for’ in this manner occurs
several times in Lydgate, e.g. ‘for unknowe,’ ‘meaning from ignorance,’
_Temple of Glas_, 632, ‘for astonied,’ 934, 1366, and so with an
adjective, ‘for pure wood’ in the English _Rom. of the Rose_, 276. See
Dr. Schick’s note on Lydgate, _Temple of Glas_, 632.
1422. _That I ne hadde_, ‘I would that I had’: cp. v. 3747,
‘Ha lord, that he ne were alonde!’
‘to late war’ is in a kind of loose apposition to the subject.
1429. _swiche._ Rather perhaps ‘swich,’ as ii. 566 f., v. 377. Most
MSS. have ‘such.’
1432 ff. _warneth ... bidd._ The singular of the imperative seems to be
freely interchanged with the plural in this form of address.
1454 (margin). The author dissociates himself personally from the
extreme doctrines enunciated in the text, as at first he took care to
remind his readers that the character of a lover was for him only an
assumed one (i. 63 ff. margin).
1490. _and longe er that sche changeth_ &c. This is a puzzling
sentence, and we are not helped by the punctuation of the MSS., which
for the most part have a stop after ‘herte.’ I can only suppose that
it means ‘and is long before she changes her heart in her youth to
marriage.’ We can hardly make ‘longe’ a verb, ‘and may be eager until
she changes,’ because of the lines which follow.
1505 ff. Judges xi. Our author has expanded the story so far as regards
the mourning for the virginity of Jephthah’s daughter, that being the
point with which he was particularly concerned here.
1516. ‘Whether it be of man or woman.’
1537 ff. In the original this is different, ‘Heu me, filia mea,
decepisti me et ipsa decepta es: aperui enim os meum ad Dominum, et
aliud facere non potero.’ Gower deals freely here as elsewhere with the
narrative, especially in the matter of speeches.
1563. _fourty daies_: in the original ‘duobus mensibus.’
1632 ff. Cp. _Mirour_, 11694.
1649. _as me thenketh ... That_, equivalent to ‘me thinketh ... That,’
either ‘as’ or ‘That’ being redundant.
1659. The best MSS. give ‘heþen’ here, not ‘heþene.’
1693 ff. _Roman de Troie_, 18385 ff. In the medieval Tale of Troy it
is the love of Polyxena which serves as motive for the withdrawal of
Achilles from the war.
1723. _which I travaile fore._ We have here rather a remarkable
instance of emphasis thrown on the preposition, with a modification of
form for the sake of the rhyme: cp. ii. 565.
1741. _On whether bord_, i.e. on which tack: technical terms of the sea
occur several times in the _Confessio Amantis_, e.g. v. 3119, 7048,
viii. 1983.
1810. _made_: cp. Prol. 300.
1815 ff. Gower seems to have dealt rather freely with this story. The
usual form of it gives Palamedes, not Nauplius, as the person who came
to fetch Ulysses, and makes Ulysses yoke a horse and an ox together in
a plough as a sign of madness: see Hyginus, _Fab._ xcv. As to the name
of Nauplus, see notes on iii. 973, 1002.
1833. That is, ‘feigning to be mad,’ not ‘like one who feigns to be
mad’: see note on i. 695.
1847 ff. ‘He thought to try if he were mad or no, however it might
please Ulysses,’ that is, whether it pleased him or not. ‘Hou’ seems to
be for ‘How so evere’: cp. l. 415.
1875. _tothe_, written so when the emphasis falls on the preposition,
see note on i. 232.
1901 ff. Ovid, _Her. Ep._ xiii.
1927. F has a stop after ‘londeth,’ thus throwing the clause, ‘and was
the ferste there Which londeth,’ into a parenthesis.
1935 ff. 1 Sam. xxviii., where the witch is called ‘mulier pythonem
habens.’
1968 ff. The story of the education of Achilles by Chiron, as we have
it here, is apparently taken, directly or indirectly, from Statius,
_Achill._ ii. 121 (407) ff.,
‘Nunquam ille imbelles Ossaea per avia damas
Sectari, aut timidas passus me cuspide lyncas
Sternere, sed tristes turbare cubilibus ursos
Fulmineosque sues, et sicubi maxima tigris
Aut seducta iugis fetae spelunca leaenae.
Ipse sedens vasto facta exspectabat in antro,
Si sparsus magno remearem sanguine; nec me
Ante nisi inspectis admisit ad oscula telis.’
2014 ff. The argument is to the effect that Prowess, which is
acknowledged to be the virtue opposed to Sloth, see _Mirour_, 10136
&c., must show itself partly in the spirit of warlike boldness, ‘the
corage of hardiesce,’ leading to such undertakings as those of which
the Lover had disputed the necessity.
2040. _And that_, i.e. ‘And as to that’: cp. Prol. 122.
2045 ff. The fight between Hercules and Achelous is related in detail
by Ovid, _Metam._ ix. 31-88. Some parts of this seem to be reproduced
by Gower, but the details are not very exactly copied. For the story
generally he had some other authority, whence he got for example the
names ‘Oënes’ and ‘Calidoyne.’
It is to be noted that Gower gives ‘Achelons’ instead of Achelous, as
he does also in the _Traitié_, vii. 5, where the story is shortly told
in the same way as here, and there we find ‘Achelontis’ in the margin
as the genitive case. He ought to have been preserved from the mistake
by the occurrence of the name in Ovid’s verse.
2054. For these two pillars cp. Chaucer, _Cant. Tales_, B 3307 f., but
Gower supposes them to have been both set up in the ‘desert of India,’
‘El grant desert d’Ynde superiour’ as he has it in _Traitié_, vii. 1,
whereas according to Chaucer one was set up in the East and the other
in the West, to mark the extreme bounds of the world.
2123 f. Such forms of spelling as ‘sleighte,’ ‘heighte’ are unusual
with our author, but cp. vii. 1121, 1227 f.
2135. For the stories of ‘Pantasilee’ and Philemenis we may refer to
the _Roman de Troie_, 23283 ff. and 25663-25704.
2200 ff. From this question arises the inevitable discussion of the
nature of ‘gentilesse’ and how far it depends upon birth, riches or
personal merit. Gower accepts only the last qualification, and argues
for it after the fashion of John Ball, though he was neither a Lollard
nor a social revolutionist: cp. _Mirour_, 23389 ff. For the general
subject cp. Dante, _Convito_, iv. 10, _Roman de la Rose_, 18807 ff.
(ed. Méon), Chaucer, _Cant. Tales_, D 1109, ff.
To Gower we must grant the merit of clearness and conciseness in
handling the well-worn theme.
2208 f. Cp. Dante, _Convito_, iv. 3.
2305 ff. ‘And love is of profit also as regards women, so that they may
be the better “affaited.”’
2314. _make it queinte_, ‘behave gently’: cp. ‘make it tough,’ Chaucer,
_Troilus_, v. 101. For the meaning of ‘queinte’ see the quotations in
Godefroy’s Dictionary under ‘cointe.’
2325. 1 John iii. 14.
2342. This is from Job v. 7.
2396 ff. Many of these names are unknown to me, and Warton’s
conjectures on the subject are very wild, but some points may be
illustrated from Godfrey of Viterbo. For example, as regards the first
we find,
‘Septem quas legimus Cham primus scripserat artes.’
_Pantheon_, iii. (p. 88).
2401. Godf. Vit., _Pantheon_, vi. (p. 133), ‘Tunc Cadmus Graecas
literas sedecim fecit.’
2410. _Termegis._ The word is a dissyllable for the metre. Probably
this name stands for Termegistus (i.e. Trismegistus), and in that case
we must throw the accent upon the final syllable and pass lightly over
the preceding one.
2418 ff. I suspect that ‘Poulins’ means Apollo or Apollinis: cp.
_Pantheon_, vi. (p. 133), ‘Apollo etiam citharam condidit et artem
medicinalem invenit.’
2421. _Zenzis_, i.e. Zeuxis, who is referred to in the _Rom. de la
Rose_ (for example) as the chief of painters, 16387 ff. (ed. Méon).
2422. Cp. Godf. Vit, _Panth._ v. (p. 121),
‘Tunc et Prometheus, qui filius est Atlantis
Dat statuas hominis humano more meantes.’
2427. ‘Jadahel’ is the Jabal (or Jebal) of the Bible (Gen. iv. 20).
Godfrey of Viterbo calls him by the same name and makes the same
statement about his hunting and fishing:
‘In mundo Iadahel posuit tentoria primus,
Venator prior ipse fuit feritate ferinus,
Primus et invalidis retia mersit aquis.’
_Panth._ ii. (p. 77).
2439 ff. Godf. Vit., _Panth._ iv. (p. 98),
‘Saturnus statuit super aequora vela moueri,
Denarios posuit commercia rite mereri.
. . . . . . . . . . .
Aedificans Sutrium dum vivit ibi dominatur,
Triticeum semen primus in urbe serens.’
2462 ff. For the seven bodies and four spirits of Alchemy cp. Chaucer,
_Cant. Tales_, G 818 ff. Mercury, it will be noticed, is reckoned both
as a body and as a spirit, but some authorities called this a spirit
only and reckoned six metallic bodies.
2476. _after the bok it calleth_, ‘according as the book calls it.’
2488 ff. Cp. 2565 ff.
2501. The seven forms are those enumerated in 2513 ff., viz.
distillation, congelation, solution, descension, sublimation,
calcination, fixation.
2522. Cp. Chaucer, _Cant. Tales_, G 862 f.
2533. _Thre Stones._ According to some authors, as Hortulanus (MS.
Ashmole 1478, iv.), there was but one stone, the Elixir, which had
vegetable, animal and mineral qualities or functions; but in Lydgate,
_Secrees of the Philosophres_, l. 530 (E.E.T.S.), we have,
‘And of stones, specially of three,
Oon mineral, another vegetatyff,’ &c.;
and the editor quotes from _Rosarium Philosophorum_, ‘Tres sunt lapides
et tres sales sunt, ex quibus totum magisterium consistit, scilicet
mineralis, plantalis et animalis.’ In the _Secreta Secretorum_,
however, the stone seems to be one only, see the chapter ‘De lapide
animali vegetabili.’
2597. _who that it knewe_: cp. ii. 88, and see note on Prol. 460.
2606. _Hermes_, i.e. Hermes Trismegistus, to whom the invention of the
science was attributed.
_on the ferste_, ‘the very first,’ cp. vi. 1481. It may be questioned,
however, whether the theory put forward by C. Stoffel in _Englische
Studien_, xxvii. 253 ff., is the correct explanation of this
expression, which survived to Elizabethan times (Shaksp., _Cymb._ i. 6.
165, ‘he is one the truest mannered’). He takes ‘on’ in the sense of
the Latin ‘unus’ in ‘iustissimus unus,’ to mean ‘alone,’ ‘above all.’
It is perhaps more likely that the usual explanation, which regards it
as an elliptical expression for ‘one who was the first,’ is correct,
especially in view of such expressions as ‘two the first,’ ‘three the
noblest,’ &c., which also occur in the fourteenth century. The use of
‘on’ (‘oon’) for ‘a person’ is common enough, as in the expressions ‘so
good on,’ ‘so worthi on,’ ii. 1217, 1240, and ‘Oon Theloüs,’ ii. 1092.
We find a similar expression in Gower’s French, e.g. _Mirour_, 2462.
2608. A work by Geber, ‘Super Artem Alkemie,’ in six books, translated
from Arabic into Latin, may be found in MS. Ashmole 1384. It seems
to treat in a practical and systematic manner of the method of
transmutation of metals into gold.
2609. ‘Ortolan’ is the Englishman John Garland, called Hortulanus, for
which name see the note in MS. Ashmole 1471 iv. prefixed to an English
translation of his ‘Commentary on the Smaragdine Table of Hermes.’
Morien is said to have been a hermit in the mountains near Jerusalem.
The two ‘books of Morien’ in the form of dialogues between him and
Kalid the son of Gesid may be read in Latin (translated from Arabic) in
MS. Digby 162.
2610. A short treatise of Avicen on Alchemy may be found in MS. Ashm.
1420.
2624. _the parfite medicine._ The inflexion is perhaps in imitation
of the definite form of the English adjective, as in vii. 2168, 4994,
while in l. 2522, where the accent is thrown back, we have ‘the parfit
Elixir.’ It is possible, however, that this is a case of the French
feminine form such as we have in i. 2677, ii. 3507, iv. 964, cp. i.
636. So perhaps ii. 3243, ‘O thou divine pourveance,’ and viii. 23, ‘O
thou gentile Venus.’
2637. _Carmente_: cp. Godf. Vit., _Panth._ vi. (p. 135).
2641. Dindymus here means the grammarian Didymus, a follower of the
school of Aristarchus and a very voluminous writer on Greek language
and literature. Our author here classes Aristarchus and Didymus with
Donatus, and supposes them all to be concerned with the Latin tongue.
2648. _Tullius with Cithero._ It is apparent from this passage, which
has been differently given without any authority in the printed
editions, that Gower supposed Tullius and Cicero to be two different
persons. There would have been reason to suspect this from the passage
in the seventh book where he refers to the debate on the death sentence
of the Catiline conspirators, speaking of Tullius as his authority for
the rules of rhetoric there illustrated, and ‘Cithero’ as the consul,
without any hint that they are the same person (vii. 1588 ff.). In
Gower’s French works Tullius (Tulles) is the only name used. The form
Cithero (or Scithero) is used also by Chaucer, _Cant. Tales_, F 722.
2738 ff. Cp. _Mirour_, 5185 ff.
2749. _beere_, past tense subjunctive, cp. 1323.
2756 ff. Gower seems to be exceptionally well informed on the subject
of the Fates and their separate functions.
2792. This casting with the dice would not be for ordinary gambling,
but for divining characters and telling fortunes in matters of love.
Each combination produced by the three dice thrown would have a certain
meaning determined beforehand, as we see by the piece called _The
Chaunces of the Dyse_ in the Bodleian MSS. Fairfax 16 and Bodl. 638.
For example, the throw of six, four and ace is there explained by the
following stanza:
‘O mekenesse of vertu principal,
That may be founde in eny creature!
In this persone of kunnynge ordinal
Is ful assembled, I yow dar assure,
The lorde of vertu and al vices cure,
Perfit beaute grounded without envye,
Assured trust withoute gelousye.’
And similarly there is a stanza, complimentary or otherwise, for each
possible throw.
2813. _Hire daunger_: see note on i. 2443.
2855. _whi ne were it_, ‘would it were’: cp. the expression ‘that he ne
were,’ vii. 3747, &c.
2895 f. Apparently he means that his dreams were of no such harmless
things as sheep and their wool, or perhaps not of business matters,
alluding to wool as the staple of English commerce.
2901 ff. Cp. _Roman de la Rose_, 2449-2479.
2905. _I ne bede nevere awake_: cp. _Romaunt of the Rose_, 791, ‘Ne
bode I never thennes go.’ It means apparently ‘I should desire never to
awake’ (‘I should not pray ever to awake’).
2924. _in my wrytinges._ The author forgets here that he is speaking in
the person of the Confessor.
2927 ff. This is from Ovid, _Metam._ xi. 266-748, where the story
is told at great length. Gower follows some parts of it, as the
description of the House of Sleep and its surroundings, very closely.
Chaucer tells the story in the _Book of the Duchess_, but he has not
been so successful in reproducing it as Gower. It is here introduced
only as an illustration of the truth of dreams, but with its
description of the House of Sleep it is very appropriate also in other
respects to the subject of Somnolence, which is under discussion.
2928. _Trocinie_, from the adjective ‘Trachinia,’ in such expressions
as ‘Trachinia tellus,’ _Metam._ xi. 269.
2973. The reading of all the best MSS. in this line is ‘he’: (S however
is defective). We cannot doubt that the author meant to write ‘sche,’
for in what follows he regularly refers to Iris as female; but the
mistake apparently escaped his notice, and we must regard the reading
‘she’ in the two copies in which I have found it as an unauthorized
correction. Chaucer makes the messenger male, but does not name him.
2977-3055. This passage very happily follows Ovid, _Met._ xi. 589-645.
Our author gives all the essential features, but rearranges them freely
and adds details of his own.
2996. _Metam._ xi. 608,
‘Ianua, ne verso stridores cardine reddat,
Nulla domo tota.’
3009 ff. _Metam._ xi. 602 ff.,
‘saxo tamen exit ab imo
Rivus aquae Lethes, per quem cum murmure labens
Invitat somnos crepitantibus unda lapillis.’
3015 ff. _Metam._ xi. 610 ff.,
‘At medio torus est ebeno sublimis in antro,
Plumeus, unicolor, pullo velamine tectus,
Quo cubat ipse deus membris languore solutis.
Hunc circa passim varias imitantia formas
Somnia vana iacent,’ &c.
3044. ‘Ithecus’ is a misreading of ‘Icelos,’ as ‘Panthasas’ in l. 3049
of ‘Phantasos.’
3061 ff. Here Gower has made a real improvement in the story by
employing the two other ministers of Sleep, whose functions have been
described, to represent the scene of the tempest and the wreck, while
Morpheus plays the part of Ceyx in the same scene. Ovid introduces the
characters of Icelos and Phantasos, but makes no use of them, sending
Morpheus alone to relate what has taken place, instead of representing
it in action, as it would more naturally appear in a dream.
3159. _mi herte_: more usually ‘min herte’ as 3139, and so generally
before ‘h,’ whether aspirated or not, e.g. 3561; but ‘for mi
housebondes were,’ vii. 4813, (with ‘myn housebonde’ below, 4829).
3187 ff. This seems to be for the most part original. A hint may have
been given by the lines of Ovid in which it is suggested that Aurora
might have used a somewhat similar prayer:
‘At si quem manibus Cephalum complexa teneres,
Clamares, Lente currite, noctis equi.’
_Amor._ i. 13, 39.
3222. The sun enters Capricorn on Dec. 21.
3273. _that he arise_: so 3374, ‘Til it be dai that I arise,’ and v.
3422, ‘Til dai cam that sche moste arise.’
The verb seems here to be attracted into the subjunctive by the
indefinite meaning of ‘Til.’ In the other passages the mood is
uncertain.
3317 ff. Ovid, _Metam._ i. 588-723, much abbreviated. It was, however,
Jupiter who turned Io into a cow.
3386. _for thou thee schalt avise_, ‘in order that thou mayest
consider.’
3414. _that I nere of this lif_, ‘would that I were out of this life.’
For ‘that I nere’ cp. note on 1422. For ‘of this lif’ cp. vii. 2883,
‘whan he were of dawe.’
3438 f. ‘And yet he (Obstinacy) cannot support his own cause by any
argument but by headstrong wilfulness.’
For the expression ‘of hed’ we may compare the Latin expression quoted
by Du Cange ‘de testa esse,’ explained ‘esse obstinatum’ (Ital. ‘essere
di testa’), and the French adjective ‘testu,’
‘Car fol estoient et testu,’ &c.
Froissart says of Pope Urban VI that after his election ‘il s’en
outrecuida et enorguilli, et volt user de poissance et de teste,’
which is translated by Berners, ‘he waxed proude and worked all on
heed.’ We find also the Latin adjective ‘capitosus’ used by Gower
in the margin at the beginning of the _Cronica Tripertita_, and the
adverb ‘capitose,’ meaning ‘in a headstrong manner,’ in Walsingham,
_Hist. Anglica_, e.g. ‘Regem contra regni consuetudinem Cancellarium
deposuisse capitose,’ vol. ii. p. 70 (Rolls Series).
The usual way of reading the sentence has been to punctuate after
‘skile’ and to take ‘bot of hed’ with the next line, ‘but he wastes
away in his condition’ (‘hed’ from a supposed ‘hǣd’ akin to the suffix
‘-hed’ or ‘-hede’). This word perhaps occurs _Conf. Am._ ii. 2066, but
it would give no very good sense here, and it is doubtful whether it
would be rhymed with ‘ded.’ The suffix ‘-hed’ ‘-hede’ apparently has
‘ẹ’ in Gower’s rhymes. Again, if so marked a break in the middle of the
line were intended, the Fairfax MS. would almost certainly have had a
stop to indicate it, as in 3423, 3431, 3458, 3459, 3484, 3485, to quote
instances only from the same page of the MS.
For the use of ‘avowe’ in this sense, cp. v. 124.
3515 ff. The story is based upon Ovid, _Metam._ xiv. 698-761. Our
author, however, has reversed the position of the lover and his
mistress. In Ovid Anaxarete is a high-born maid of the race of Teucer,
while Iphis is ‘humili de stirpe creatus.’ Moreover, the story is
considerably developed by Gower, to whom belong the speech of Iphis,
the whole account of the grief and self-condemnation of Araxarathen,
the details of the funeral and the tomb, and finally the very
successful epitaph. Ovid says that she saw from a window the body of
Iphis being carried by for burial, and was forthwith turned into stone,
and that as witness of the truth of his tale a statue may still be seen
at Salamis. There is nothing said about remorse on her part, rather the
opposite is implied.
3516. Our author supposes this to be the same as the person mentioned
in iii. 2645 ff. (who is really Teuthras king of Mysia). This is Teucer
son of Telamon, founder of Salamis in Cyprus.
3520 f. These lines are transposed for the sake of the rhyme. It means
‘on a maid of low estate compared with his’: cp. ii. 709, and below, l.
3616.
3542. Punctuated in accordance with F.
3589. _Thi Daunger_, ‘thy unwillingness to love’: see note on i. 2443.
3658 f. Naturally the expression of Ovid,
‘Veneris quoque nomine templum
Prospicientis habet,’
was not understood.
LIB. V.
18. _it cam to londe, wherof_, ‘the occasion arose, whence,’ &c.
22. _him supposeth_: the verb is used impersonally, like ‘him
thenketh.’ Probably the confusion between ‘thinke’ and ‘thenke’ gave
rise to this expression.
29 ff. So below, 348 ff.: cp. _Mirour_, 7585 ff.
47 f. This seems, as it stands at present, to be an application of the
instances to the case of the avaricious man, ‘Thus he so possesses his
wealth that he in truth possesses nothing,’ (‘that’ for ‘so that’).
The original couplet however, as read by all the unrevised class of
manuscripts, applies to the case of the sheep, and we may take it so
also in its revised form (‘Thus’ being answered by ‘that’).
49 ff. Cp. _Mirour_, 7645 ff.,
‘L’en dist, mais c’est inproprement,
Qe l’averous ad grant argent;
Mais voir est que l’argent luy a:
En servitude ensi le prent,’ &c.
65. _nevere hier._ Note that there is no elision before ‘hier.’
81 f. ‘And yet, though I held her fast (as a miser his hoard), my
life would be a perpetual feast, even on Fridays.’ If he possessed
the treasure, his avarice would not allow him to let it go, and yet
he would not keep it unused, as a miser does his gold. So later, 93,
‘Though I should hold it fast, I should so be doing that which I were
bound to do.’
95. _pipe_, ‘be content’: perhaps from the idea of a bird-catcher
piping or whistling for birds, but failing to snare them.
127-136. Note the repetition of the word ‘gold’ in an emphatic position.
141 ff. Ovid, _Metam._ xi. 85-147, freely treated as usual. The debate
of Midas as to which of three things he should prefer (ll. 180-245) is
all due to our author. In Ovid he chooses without hesitation.
143. _Cillenus_, i.e. Silenus.
154 f. Gower attributes the action of the king to pure courtesy, Ovid
to the fact that Midas recognized in Silenus a fellow-mystic.
249 ff. Cp. _Mirour_, 7603 ff.
272 ff. Ovid, _Metam._ xi. 106,
‘Laetus abit gaudetque malo Berecyntius heros:
Pollicitique fidem tangendo singula temptat.
Ilice detraxit virgam, virga aurea facta est:
Tollit humo saxum, saxum quoque palluit auro’: &c.
298. See note on i. 10.
315-332. This is an expansion of _Metam._ xi. 146 f.,
‘Ille perosus opes silvas et rura colebat,
Panaque montanis habitantem semper in antris.’
363 ff. The punishment referred to is certainly more appropriate for
avarice than for the offence committed by Tantalus: cp. Hor. _Sat._ i.
1. 68. The story of Tantalus is alluded to several times in Ovid, as
_Metam._ iv. 458, and told by Hyginus, Fab. lxxxii. Perhaps our author
rather followed Fulgentius, _Mythol._ ii. 18, who quotes from Petronius,
‘Divitis haec magni facies erit, omnia late
Qui tenet, et sicco concoquit ore famem.’
Cp. _Mirour_, 7621 ff.,
‘Dame Avarice est dite auci
Semblable au paine Tantali,’ &c.
370. This seems to mean that it serves for the punishment of the
avaricious; but from what follows in 391 ff. we gather that the pains
of avarice in this life also are to be compared with this particular
pain of hell, and so the application is made in the _Mirour_, 7621-7632.
388. _which a wreche_, ‘what a punishment.’
418. _suie_: cp. Prol. 460.
447. For the superfluous syllable at the pause in the middle of this
line cp. iv. 1131.
496. _berth an hond_: equivalent to ‘berth on hond,’ l. 546.