178. _Forth_ is here equivalent to 'continues'; _is_ or _dwelleth_ is
understood. Read _languísshing_.
180. _Grene_, fresh; probably with a reference to _green_ as being the
colour of inconstancy.
182. Nearly repeated in Kn. Tale, 1539 (A 2397); cf. Comp. unto Pity, 110.
Cf. Compl. to his Lady, 52.
183. If _up_ is to be retained before _so_, change _holdeth_ into _halt_.
'His new lady reins him in by the bridle so tightly (harnessed as he is) at
the end of the shaft (of her car), that he fears every word like an arrow.'
The image is that of a horse, tightly fastened to the ends of the shafts of
a car, and then so hardly reined in that he fears every word of the driver;
he expects a cut with the whip, and he cannot get away.
193. _Fee or shipe_, fee or reward. The scarce word _shipe_ being
misunderstood, many MSS. give corrupt readings. But it occurs in the
Persones Tale, Group I, 568, where Chaucer explains it by 'hyre'; and in
the Ayenbite of Inwit, p. 33. It is the A. S. _scipe_. '_Stipendium_,
scipe'; Wright's Vocabularies, 114. 34.
194. _Sent_, short for _sendeth_; cf. _serveth_ above. Cf. Book of Duch.
1024.