110. _fore_, track, course, footsteps; glossed 'steppes' in MS. E. Some
MSS. have the inferior _lore_, shewing that the scribes understood the word
no better than the writer of the note in Bell's Chaucer, who says--'Harl.
MS. reads _fore_, which is probably a mere clerical error.' Wright,
however, correctly retains _fore_. It occurs again in D. 1935, q. v., where
Tyrwhitt again alters it to _lore_. Bradley gives ten examples of it, to
which I can add another, viz. 'he folowede the _fore_ of an oxe,' Trevisa,
ii. 343 (repeated from the example in i. 197, which Bradley cites). A. S.
_f[=o]r_, a course, way; from _faran_ (pt. t. _f[=o]r_), to go. Cf. Matt.
xix. 21, which is quoted in Cp. and Pt.
115. 'Et cur, inquies, creata sunt genitalia, et sic a conditore
sapientissimo fabricati sumus, &c. ... ipsa organa ... sexus differentiam
praedicant'; Jerome (as above), p. 42.
117. I give the reading of E., which seems much the best. For _wight_, Cm.
has _wyf_. Hn. _has_: And of so p_ar_fit wys a wight y-wroght; which is
also good. But Cp. Pt. Ln. _have_: And of so parfyt wise and why y-wrought.
Hl. _has_: And in what wise was a wight y-wrought. The last reading is the
worst.
128. _ther_, where, wherein. With l. 130, cf. 1 Cor. vii. 3, where the
Vulgate has 'Uxori uir debitum reddat.'
135. 'Nunquam ergo cessemus a libidine, ne frustra huiuscemodi membra
portemus'; Jerome, p. 42.
144. _hoten_, be called; A. S. _h[=a]tan_. The sense is--'Let virgins be as
bread made of selected wheaten flour; and let us wives be called
barley-bread; nevertheless Jesus refreshed many a man with barley-bread, as
St. Mark tells us.' Chaucer makes a slight mistake; it is St. John who
speaks of _barley_-loaves; see John vi. 9 (cf. Mark vi. 38). For _hoten_,
Tyrwhitt, Wright, Bell, and Morris, all give the mistaken reading _eten_,
which misses the whole point of the argument; but [295] Gilman has _hoten_.
There is no question as to what the Wife should _eat_, but only as to her
condition in life. It is the Wife herself who is compared to something
edible.
The comparison is from Jerome (as above), p. 21:--'Velut si quis definiat:
Bonum est _triticeo_ pane uesci, et edere _purissimam similam_. Tamen ne
quis compulsus fame stercus bubulum: concedo ei, ut uescatur et _hordeo_.'