10. “For as to me is lever none nor lother,
I n’am withholden yet with neither n’other.”
i.e For as neither is more liked or disliked by me, I am not
bound by, holden to, either the one or the other.
11. All of another tun i.e. wine of another tun — a quite
different matter.
12. Compare the description of the arbour in “The Flower and
the Leaf.”
13. Flowrons: florets; little flowers on the disk of the main
flower; French “fleuron.”
14. Mr Bell thinks that Chaucer here praises the complaisance
of Marcia, the wife of Cato, in complying with his will when he
made her over to his friend Hortensius. It would be in better
keeping with the spirit of the poet’s praise, to believe that we
should read “Porcia Catoun” — Porcia the daughter of Cato,
who was married to Brutus, and whose perfect wifehood has
been celebrated in The Franklin’s Tale. See note 25 to the
Franklin’s Tale.