630. The MSS. and Thynne have _floures_, _flourys_. This gives no sense; we
must therefore read _flour is_. For a similar rime see that of _nones_,
_noon is_, in the Prologue, 523, 524. Strictly, grammar requires _ben_
rather than _is_; but when two nominatives express much the same sense, the
singular verb may be used, as in Lenvoy to Bukton, 6. The sense is--'her
chief glory and her prime vigour is (i. e. consists in) lying.'
634. The parallel passage is one in the Remède de Fortune, by G. de
Machault:--
'_D'un oeil rit, de l'autre lerme_;
C'est l'orgueilleuse humilité,
_C'est l'envieuse charité_ [l. 642] ...
La peinture d'une vipère
Qu'est mortable;
En riens à li ne se compère.'
See Furnivall's Trial Forewords, p. 47; and compare the remarkable and
elaborate description of Fortune in the Anticlaudian of Alanus de Insulis
(Distinctio 8, cap. I), in Wright's Anglo-Latin Satirists, vol. ii. pp.
399, 400.