42. The translation is inexact. Dante says--'that its Maker (i. e. the
Maker of human nature) did not disdain to become His own creature,' i. e.
born of that very human nature which He had Himself created. Cf. l. 49.
45. 'Who is Lord and Guide of the threefold space'; i. e. of the three
abodes of things created, viz. the earth, the sea, and the heavens.
46. _out of relees_, without release, i. e. without relaxation, without
ceasing. _Out of_ means _without_, as is clear from Prol. 487; Kn. Tale, A.
1141; and _relees_ means _acquittance_ (O. Fr. _relais_); see Cler. Tale,
E. 153, &c. There has been some doubt about the meaning of this phrase, but
there need be none; especially when it is remembered that _to release_ is
another form of _to relax_, so that _relees_ = _relaxation_, i. e.
slackening. The idea is the same as that so admirably expressed in the
Prolog im Himmel to Goethe's Faust.
50. _Assembled is in thee_, there is united in thee; cf. Dante--'in te
s'aduna.' This stanza closely resembles the fourth stanza of the Prioresses
Prologue, B. 1664-1670.
52. _sonne._ By all means let the reader remember that _sonne_ was probably
still feminine in English in Chaucer's time, as it is in German, Dutch, and
Icelandic to this day. It will be found, however, that Chaucer commonly
identifies the sun with Phoebus, making it masculine; see Prol. 8, Kn.
Tale, A. 1493. Still, there is a remarkable example of the old use in the
first rubric of Part ii. of Chaucer's Astrolabe--'To fynde the degree in
which the sonne is day by day, after _hir_ cours a-boute.' So again, in
Piers Plowman, B. xviii. 243.