7. These are Latin puns: Heaven’s lily - “Coeli lilium”; The way
of blind - “Caeci via”; Heaven and Lia - from “Coeli”, heaven,
and “Ligo,” to bind; Heaven and Leos - from Coeli and “Laos,”
(Ionian Greek) or “Leos” (Attic Greek), the people. Such
punning derivations of proper names were very much in favour
in the Middle Ages. The explanations of St Cecilia’s name are
literally taken from the prologue to the Latin legend.
8. This passage suggests Horace’s description of the wise man,
who, among other things, is “in se ipse totus, teres, atque
rotundus.” (“complete in himself, polished and rounded”) —
Satires, 2, vii. 80.
9. Louting: lingering, or lying concealed; the Latin original has
“Inter sepulchra martyrum latiantem” (“hiding among the tombs
of martyrs”)
10. The fourteen lines within brackets are supposed to have
been originally an interpolation in the Latin legend, from which
they are literally translated. They awkwardly interrupt the flow
of the narration.
11. Engine: wit; the devising or constructive faculty; Latin,
“ingenium.”
12. Cold: wretched, distressful; see note 22 to the Nun’s Priest’s
Tale.
13. Corniculere: The secretary or registrar who was charged
with publishing the acts, decrees and orders of the prefect.
14. “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I
have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown
of righteousness” — 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8.
15. Did him to-beat: Caused him to be cruelly or fatally beaten;
the force of the “to” is intensive.