'Quiconques tent à gentillece
D'orguel se gart et de parece;
Aille as armes, ou à l'estuide,
Et de vilenie se vuide;
Humble cuer ait, cortois et gent
En tretous leus, vers toute gent.'
Two MSS., both written out by Shirley, and MS. Harl. 7333, all read:--'The
first fader, and foundour (_or_ fynder) of gentylesse.' This is wrong, and
probably due to the dropping of the final _e_ in the definite adjective
_firste_. We must keep the phrase _firste stok_, because it is expressly
repeated in l. 8.
The first line means--'With regard to, _or_ As to the first stock (or
source), who was the father of _gentilesse_.' The substantives _stok_ and
_fader_ have _no verb_ to them, but are mentioned as being the _subject_ of
the sentence.