46. Fortune says:--'I torne the whirlinge wheel with the torning cercle';
Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 2, l. 37.
47. 'My teaching is better, in a higher degree, than your affliction is, in
its degree, evil'; i. e. my teaching betters you more than your affliction
makes you suffer.
49. In this third Ballad, the stanzas are distributed between the
Complainant and Fortune, one being assigned to the former, and two to the
latter. The former says:--'I condemn thy teaching; it is (mere) adversity.'
M. S. Arch. Seld. B. 10 has the heading 'Paupertas ad Fortunam.'
50. _My frend_, i. e. my true friend. In l. 51, _thy frendes_ means 'the
friends I owed to thee,' my false friends. From Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 8, l.
23:--'this aspre and horrible Fortune hath discovered to thee the thoughtes
of thy trewe freendes;... Whan she departed awey fro thee, she took awey
_hir_ freendes and lafte thee _thyne_ freendes.'
51. _I thanke hit thee_, I owe thanks to thee for it. But very likely _hit_
has been inserted to fill up, and the right reading is, probably, _I
thank-e thee_; as Koch suggests.