1. The birds on the weathervanes were set up facing the wind,
so that it entered their open mouths, and by some mechanism
produced the musical sound.
2. “And to you been of governance
Such as you found in whole pleasance”
That is, “and have governed you in a manner which you have
found wholly pleasant.”
3. Hext: highest; from “high,” as “next” from “nigh.” Compare
the sounds of the German, “hoechst,” highest, and “naechst,”
next.
4. “Your brother friend,” is the common reading; but the phrase
has no apparent applicability; and perhaps the better reading is
“our bother friend” — that is, the lady who has proved herself a
friend both to me and to you. In the same way, Reason, in
Troilus’ soliloquy on the impending loss of his mistress, is made,
addressing Troilus and Cressida, to speaks of “your bother,” or
“bothe,” love.
5. The ships had high embattled poops and forecastles, as in
mediaeval ships of war.
6. Compare Spenser’s account of Phaedria’s barque, in “The
Faerie Queen,” canto vi. book ii.; and, mutatis mutandis,
Chaucer’s description of the wondrous horse, in The Squire’s
Tale.