12. MS. _moost to lowe_: means 'most (worthy) to be praised', and there
are two or three recorded examples of _to lowe_ = _to alowe_ in this
sense. But MS. Ashmole and the corresponding lines in _Lai le Freine_
point to _most o loue_ 'mostly of love' as the common reading. The
typical 'lay' is a poem of moderate length, telling a story of love,
usually with some supernatural element, in a refined and courtly style.
13. _Brytayn_, 'Brittany': so _Brytouns_ 16 = 'Bretons'. Cp. Chaucer,
_Franklin's Tale, Prologue_, beginning
_Thise olde gentil Britons in hir dayes
Of diverse aventures maden layes
Rymeyed in hir firste Briton tonge,
Whiche layes with hir instrumentz they songe_, &c.
20. The curious use of _it_ after the plural _layes_ is perhaps not
original. _Lai le Freine_ has: _And maked a lay and yaf it name_.
26. _In Inglond_: an alteration of the original text to give local
colour. Cp. ll. 49-50 and l. 478.
29-30. _Pluto_: the King of Hades came to be regarded as the King of
Fairyland; cp. Chaucer, _Merchant's Tale_, l. 983 _Pluto that is the
kyng of fairye_. The blunder by which Juno is made a king is apparently
peculiar to the Auchinleck copy.
33-46. These lines are not in the Auchinleck MS., but are probably
authentic. Otherwise little prominence would be given to Orfeo's skill
as a harper.
41 ff. A confused construction: _In þe world was neuer man born_ should
be followed by _<þat> he <ne> schulde þinke_; but the writer goes on as
if he had begun with 'every man in the world'. _And_ = 'if'.
46. _ioy and_ overload the verse, and are probably an unskilful addition
to the text.
49-50. These lines are peculiar to the Auchinleck MS., and are clearly
interpolated; cp. l. 26 and l. 478. Winchester was the old capital of
England, and therefore the conventional seat of an English king.
57. _comessing_: The metre points to a disyllabic form _comsing_ here,
and to _comsi_ in l. 247.
80. _it bled wete_: In early English the clause which is logically
subordinate is sometimes made formally co-ordinate. More normal would be
_þat (it) bled wete_ 'until (_or_ so that) it bled wet'; i.e. until it
was wet with blood.
82. _reuey<se>d_ or some such form of _ravished_ is probably right.
_reneyd_ 'apostate' is a possible reading of the MS., but does not fit
the sense. _N. E. D._ suggests _remeued_.
102. _what is te?_: 'What ails you?; cp. l. 115. _Te_ for _þe_ after _s_
of _is_. Such modifications are due either to dissimilation of like
sounds, as _þ_: _s_ which are difficult in juxtaposition; or to
assimilation of unlike sounds, as _þatow_ 165, for _þat þow_.