20. _on lyve_, in life; now written _a-live_ or _alive_. _Lyve_ is the dat.
case, governed by _on_, which constantly has the sense of 'in' in A.S. and
M.E.
23. _ther_, where. The reader should note this common idiom, or he will
miss the structure of the sentence. Cf. ll. 33, 52, 66, &c.
31. _ne dismay you nought_, do not dismay yourself; i. e. be not dismayed
or dispirited.
32. 'God can bring good out of the evil that is now wrought.' _Boot_,
advantage, remedy, or profit, is continually contrasted with _bale_ or
evil; the alliteration of the words rendered them suitable for proverbial
phrases. One of the commonest is 'When _bale_ is hext, then _boot_ is
next,' i. e. when evil is highest (at its height), then the remedy is
nighest. This is one of the Proverbs of Hendyng; see Specimens of English,
ed. Morris and Skeat, part ii. p. 40. So, in l. 34, _Boote of bale_ means
'remedy of evil,' good out of evil. See note to l. 631.
34. _it is no nay_, there is no denying it, it cannot be denied. So in
Chaucer, C. T. 8693, 9015 (E. 817, 1139).
39. _that on, that other_, the one, the other. Sometimes corruptly written
_the ton, the tother_; and hence the vulgar English _the tother_.
43. Such was their intention, but it was partly overruled; for we see, from
l. 45, that the second son duly received his share.
48. _whan he good cowde_, when he knew what was good, i. e. when he was old
enough to know right from wrong; or, as we now say, when he came to years
of discretion. Observe that the division of land here proposed was not
final; for the good knight, being still alive, altered it; see l. 54.
53. 'Saint Martin was a Hungarian by birth, and served in the army under
Constantius and Julian. He is represented in pictures as [479] a Roman
knight on horseback, with his sword dividing his cloak into two pieces, one
of which he gives to a beggar. He was a strenuous opponent of the Arians,
and died at Tours, where his relics were preserved and honoured.'--Jephson.
St. Martin's day, commonly called Martinmas, is Nov. 11. The knight swears
by St. Martin in his character of soldier. Cf. l. 225.