1747. _Mars the rede._ Boccaccio uses the same epithet in the opening of
his Teseide, i. 3: '_O Marte rubicondo._' _Rede_ refers to the colour of
the planet; cf. Anelida, 1.
1761. This line occurs again three times; March. Tale E. 1986; Squieres
Tale, F. 479; Legend of Good Women, 503.
1780. _can no divisoun_, knows no distinction.
1781. _after oon_ = after one mode, according to the same rule.
1783. _eyen lighte_, cheerful looks.
1785. See the Romaunt of the Rose, 878-884; vol. i. p. 130.
1799. 'Amare et Sapere vix Deo conceditur.'--Publius Syrus, Sent. 15. Cf.
Adv. of Learning, ii. proem. § 15--'It is not granted to man to love and to
be wise'; ed. Wright, p. 84. So also in Bacon's 10th Essay. The reading
here given is correct. _Fool_ is used with great emphasis; the sense
is:--'Who can be a (complete) fool, unless he is in love?' The old printed
editions have the same reading. The Harl. MS. alone has _if that_ for
_but-if_, giving the sense: 'Who can be fool, if he is in love?' As this is
absurd, Mr. Wright _silently_ inserted _not_ after _may_, and is followed
by Bell and Morris; but the latter prints _not_ in italics. Observe that
the line is deficient in the first foot. Read:--Whó | may bé | a fóol, &c.
1807. _jolitee_, joyfulness--said of course ironically.
1808. _Can ... thank_, acknowledges an obligation, owes thanks.
1814. _a servant_, i. e. a lover. This sense of _servant_, as a term of
gallantry, is common in our dramatists.
1815, 1818. Cf. the Teseide, v. 92.
1837. _looth or leef_, displeasing or pleasing.
1838. _pypen in an ivy leef_ is an expression like 'blow the buck's-horn'
in A. 3387, meaning to console oneself with any frivolous [75] employment;
it occurs again in Troilus, v. 1433. Cf. the expression 'to go and
whistle.' Cf. 'farwel the gardiner; he may pipe with an yue-leafe; his
fruite is failed'; Test. of Love, bk. iii; ed. 1561, fol. 316. Boys still
blow against a leaf, and produce a squeak. Lydgate uses similar
expressions:--
'But let his brother blowe in an horn,
Where that him list, or pipe in a reede.'
Destruction of Thebes, part ii.
Again, in Hazlitt's Proverbs, we find 'To go blow one's flute,' which is
taken from an old proverb. In Vox Populi Vox Dei (circa 1547), pr. in
Hazlitt's Popular Poetry, iii. 284, are the lines:--
'When thei have any sute,
Thei maye goo blowe theire flute,
_This goithe the comon brute_.'