23. Here is certainly a false rime; Chaucer nowhere else rimes _-oure_ with
_-ure_. But the conditions under which the poem was written were quite
exceptional (see note to l. 79); so that this is no proof that the poem is
spurious. There is a false rime in Sir Topas, Group B, l. 2092 (see my
note).
25. In this second Ballad or Movement, an element of disturbance is
introduced; jealous suspicions arise, but are put aside. Like the third
Ballad, it is addressed to Love, which occurs, in the vocative case, in ll.
25, 49, and 57.
The lady says it is but suitable that lovers should have to pay dearly for
'the noble thing,' i. e. for the valuable treasure of having a worthy
lover. They pay for it by various feelings and expressions of disquietude.
26. _Men_, one; the impersonal pronoun; quite as applicable to a woman as
to a man. Cf. F. _on_.
31. The French text shews that we must read _Pleyne_, not _Pleye_; besides,
it makes better sense. This correction is due to Mr. Paget Toynbee; see his
Specimens of Old French, p. 492.
33. 'May Jealousy be hanged, for she is so inquisitive that she would like
to know everything. She suspects everything, however innocent.' Such is the
general sense.
37. The final _e_ in _lov-e_ is sounded, being preserved from elision by
the cæsura. The sense is--'so dearly is love purchased in (return for) what
he gives; he often gives inordinately, but bestows more sorrow than
pleasure.'
46. _Nouncerteyn_, uncertainty; as in Troilus, i. 337. A parallel formation
to _nounpower_, impotence, which occurs in Chaucer's tr. of Boethius, bk.
iii. pr. 5, l. 14.
49. In this third Ballad, Venus says she is glad to continue in her love,
and contemns jealousy. She is thankful for her good fortune, and will never
repent her choice.
50. _Lace_, snare, entanglement. Chaucer speaks of the _lace of love_, and
the _lace of Venus_; Kn. Tale, 959, 1093 (A 1817, 1951).