Chapter LIX: Book III (3)

182. 'Car ioye triste cueur traueille.' Sir R. Ros actually takes _triste_ with _ioye_ instead of with _cueur_. There are several other instances in which he does not seem to have understood his original. See below.

184. _trayle_, trellis-work, or lattice-work, intertwined with pliant thick-leaved branches; Godefroy has O.F. '_treille_, _traille_, treillis, treillage'; cf. l. 195. The original has:--'Si m'assis dessoubz une treille.' A note explains _dessoubz_ as _derriere_.

198. _neer_, nearer; as in l. 201. _sought_, attacked (him).

230. 'Et se par honneur et sans blasme Ie suis vostre.' That is, if I am yours, with honour _to myself_. But the translator transfers the _worship_, i.e. the honour, to the lady.

259. 'Which promised utterly to deprive me of my trust.'

265. _Other or me_, me or some one else. But the French is:--'Se moy ou autre vous regarde,' if I or some one else look at you; which is quite a different thing.

269-72. Obscure, and perhaps wrong; the original is:--

'S'aucun blesse autruy d'auenture
Par coulpe de celuy qui blesse,
Quoi qu'il n'en peult mais par droicture,
Si en a il dueil et tristesse.'

282-3.

'Que peu de chose peult trop plaire
Et vous vous voulez deceuoir.'

300. 'It were less harm for one to be sad than two.'

303. Read _sory_: 'D'ung _dolent_ faire deux joyeulx.'

324. _rechace_, chasing it back, which gives small sense; and the reading _richesse_ is worse, and will not rime. The French has _rachatz_ = mod. F. _rachat_, redemption, ransom; which has been misunderstood.

340. 'Preuue ses parolles par oeuure.'

348. _their_ is an error for _his_ (Love's), due to the translator. 'Lors il [Amour] descouure sa fierté.'

351.

'Tant plus aspre en est la poincture,
Et plus desplaisant le deffault.'

357. _oon_, one; i.e. the same. MS. Ff. has _wone_, a very early example of the prefixed sound of _w_, as in modern English. See Zupitza's notes to Guy of Warwick.

393. Something is wrong. The French is:--'La mesure faulx semblant porte'; meaning (I suppose) moderation has a false appearance.

400. _As think_, i.e. pray think; see _As_ in the Gloss. in vol. vi.

443. 'A constrained reward, and a gift offered by way of thanks, cannot agree'; i.e. are quite different.

449. _wanteth_, is wanting, is lacking.

468. 'Qui soit donné à autre office.'

469. 'D'assez grant charge se cheuit,' he gets rid of a great responsibility. The translator gives the contrary sense.

506. 'D'en donner à qui les reffuse.'

509. That _He_, not _Who_, should begin the line, is certain by comparison with the French:--'_Il_ ne doit pas cuider muser.'

514. _me mistook_, that I mistook myself, that I made a mistake.

519, 520. _prevayl you_, benefit you; _after_, according to.

523-4. _after-game_, return-match, a second game played by one who has lost the first. I believe l. 524 to mean 'who cannot thoroughly afford to double his stakes.' To _set_ often means to stake. The French is:--

'Et celuy pert le ieu d'attente
Qui ne scet faire son point double.'

531. _it ar_, they are. This use of _ar_ with _it_ is due to the pl. sb. _fantasyes_ (i.e. vain fancies) immediately following; _other counsayl_ is equivalent to 'as for any other counsel,' which implies that there are more alternatives than one.

536. 'Who would like to conduct himself,' i.e. to regulate his conduct. 'Qui la veult conduire et ne peult.'

538. Read _sute_: 'Desespoir le met de sa _suite_.'

555. 'Ne de l'aprendre n'ay-ie cure.'

559. 'Et le deuoir d'amours payer Qui franc cueur a, prisé et droit.'

566. _That_ is a mere conjunction; the reading _Which_ alters the sense, and gives a false meaning.

583. _let_, makes as though he knew not; French, 'scet celler.'

594, 595. _Hath set_; 'Mettroit en mes maulx fin et terme.' Line 595 should begin with _Then_ rather than _Yet_, as there is no contrast.

605. 'De tous soit celuy deguerpiz.'

608. _or anything at al_, &c.; 'et le bien fait De sa Dame qui l'a reffait Et ramené de mort a vie'; i.e. and the kindness of his Lady, who has new made him, and brought him back from death to life. The English follows some different reading, and is obscurely expressed.

614. 'A qui l'en puisse recourir'; to whom he could have recourse. But _recourir_ has been read as _recovrir_, giving no good sense.

627. The reading _high_ is right; 'Que iamais _hault_ honneur ne chiet.'

634. _reclaymed_, taught to come back; a term in falconry; French, 'bien reclamez.' Opposed to _hem to withholde_, i.e. to keep themselves from coming back.

635.

'Et si bien aprins qu'ils retiennent
A changer dés qu'ils ont clamez.'

651. _fol_, foolish; F. text, 'fol plaisir.'

667. _To have better_, to get a better lover. But the sense is wrongly given. In the French, this clause goes with what follows:--'D'auoir mieulx ne vous affiez,' i.e. expect to get nothing better.

667. _to have better_, to get a better lover.

668. 'Et prenez en gré le reffus.'

673. The original shews that _she_ really refers to _Pity_, denoted by _it_ in l. 671, not to the Lady herself.

680. 'Et iamais á bout n'en vendrez.'

706. _By_; French, _De_; hence _By_ should be _Of_. Read _defame of cruelty_, an ill name for cruelty. The mistake is the translator's.

741. _Male-bouche_, Slander; a name probably taken from the Rom. de la Rose, 2847; called _Wikked-Tonge_ in the English version, 3027.

750. _playn_, (all equally) flat. 'La terre n'est pas toute unie.'

757. _be nought_, are naughty, are wicked; as in K. Lear, ii. 4. 136.

788. 'Que si tost mis en obli a.'

814. _avantours_, boasters; see l. 735. F. text, 'venteus'; cf. '_Vanteux_, vaunting'; Cotgrave.

817. _Refus_, i.e. Denial; personified. 'Reffuz a ses chasteaulx bastiz.'

829. The last four stanzas are original. Note the change from the 8-line to the 7-line stanza.

§ XVII. THE TESTAMENT OF CRESSEID.

This sequel to Chaucer's 'Troilus,' written by Robert Henryson of Dunfermline, is in the Northern dialect of the Scottish Lowlands. Thynne has not made any special attempt to alter the wording of this piece, but he frequently modifies the spelling; printing _so_ instead of _sa_ (l. 3), _whan_ for _quhen_ (l. 3), _right_ for _richt_ (l. 4), and so on. I follow the Edinburgh edition of 1593. See further in the Introduction.

1. _Ane_, a; altered by Thynne to _a_, throughout.

_dooly_ (Th. _doly_), doleful, sad; from the sb. _dool_, sorrow.

4-6. Here _fervent_ seems to mean 'stormy' or 'severe,' as it obviously does not mean hot. _Discend_ is used transitively; _can discend_ means 'caused to descend.' This is an earlier example than that from Caxton in the New Eng. Dictionary. _Aries_ clearly means the influence of Aries, and implies that the sun was in that sign, which it entered (at that date) about the 12th of March; see vol. iii. p. 188 (footnote). _Lent_ is 'spring'; and the Old Germanic method is here followed, which divided each of the seasons into three months. In this view, the spring-months were March, April, and May, called, respectively, foreward Lent, midward Lent, and afterward Lent; see A Student's Pastime, p. 190. Hence the phrase in _middis of the Lent_ does not mean precisely in the middle of the spring, but refers to the month of April; indeed, the sun passed out of Aries into Taurus on the 11th of the month. The date indicated is, accordingly, the _first week in April_, when the sun was still in Aries, and showers of hail, with a stormy north wind, were quite seasonable.

10. _sylit under cure_, covered up, (as if) under his care. The verb _to syle_ is precisely the mod. E. _ceil_; which see in the New E. Dict.

12. _unto_, i.e. over against. The planet Venus, rising in the east, set her face over against the west, where the sun had set.

20. _shill_, shrill. _Shille_ occurs as a variant of _schrille_ in C. T., B 4585; see _schil_ in Stratmann.

32. _douf_ (spelt _doif_ in the old edition) is the Northern form of 'deaf,' answering to the Icel. _daufr_; thus a nut without a kernel is called in the South 'a deaf nut,' but in Scotland 'a douf nit'; see Jamieson. For _deaf_ in the senses of 'dull' and 'unproductive,' see the New E. Dict.

39. _cut_, curtail; illustrated from Lydgate in the New E. Dict.

42. Read _lusty_, to avoid the repetition of _worthy_; cf. l. 41. It should have been stated, in the footnotes, that the readings are: E. worthy; Th. lusty.

43. Referring to Troil. bk. v. In l. 92, we are told how Diomede led Criseyde away. Note particularly that, in l. 45, Henryson quotes Chaucer rather closely. Cf. 'For which wel neigh out of my wit I breyde'; Troil. v. 1262. And cf. ll. 47-9 with--'Betwixen hope and drede his herte lay'; Troil. v. 1207.

48. _Quhill_, till. The reading _Esperus_ in E. is comic enough. Even Thynne has misread _esperans_, and has turned it into _esperous_. There can be little doubt that _esperans_ here means 'hope,' as it is opposed to _wanhope_ in the line above. The word was known to Henryson, as we find, in st. 8 of his Garment of Gude Ladyis: 'Hir slevis suld be of _esperance_, To keip hir _fra dispair_.' Cf. l. 49.

50. _behest_, promise; because she had promised to return to Troy within ten days; Troil. iv. 1595.

65. _this narratioun_, i.e. the sequel of the story, which he is about to tell. He does not tell us whence he derived it, but intimates that it is a fiction; I suppose he invented it himself.

74. _lybel of répudy_, Lat. 'libellum repudii,' as in Matt. xix. 7.

77. 'And, as some say, into the common court'; i.e. she became a courtesan.

78. _A-per-se_, i.e. the first letter of the alphabet, standing alone. A letter that was also a word in itself, as _A_, or _I_, or _O_, was called 'per se,' because it could stand alone. Of these, the _A-per-se_ was a type of excellence. One of Dunbar's Poems (ed. Small, i. 276) begins:--'London, thou art of townes _A-per-se_.'

79. _fortunait_, the sport of fortune; oddly used, as it implies that she was 'an unfortunate.' Cf. l. 89.

94. _but_, without; and Thynne actually prints _without_ in place of it.

97. _quhair_, where her father Calchas (was). He was living among the Greeks; Troil. i. 80, 87.

106. In the medieval legend, Calchas was not a priest of Venus, but of Apollo, as Chaucer notes; see Troil. i. 66-70. So also in Lydgate, Siege of Troy, bk. ii. c. 17. Henryson probably altered this intentionally, because it enabled him to represent Criseyde as reproaching her father's god; see ll. 124, 134.

129. _outwaill_, outcast; one who is chosen out and rejected; from the verb _wail_, _ wale_, to choose. There seems to be no other example of the word, though Jamieson gives '_outwailins_, leavings, things of little value.'

140. _forlane_ can hardly mean 'left alone.' If so, it would be a word invented for the occasion, and improperly formed from _lane_, which is itself a docked form of _alane_. In all other passages _forlane_ or _forlain_ is the pp. of _forliggen_; and the sense of 'defiled' is quite applicable. And further, it rimes with _slane_, which means 'slain.'

143. 'And, as it seemed, she heard, where she lay,' &c.

147. The seven planets; which, in the order of the magnitude of their orbits, are Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon. And to this order the author carefully adheres throughout ll. 151-263.

155. _fronsit_, wrinkled; _frounse_ is the mod. E. _flounce_, which formerly meant 'a pleat'; see _frounce_, _frouncen_ in Stratmann, and the Gloss. to Chaucer. Misprinted _frosnit_ in E.

'His complexion was like lead.' Lead was Saturn's metal; see C. T., G 828, and the note.

164. That _gyte_ is the correct reading, is obvious from ll. 178, 260, where Thynne has preserved it. It is a Chaucerian word; see the Glossary in vol. vi. It seems to mean 'mantle.' The Edinburgh printer altered it to _gyis_, which is too general a term, at least in l. 260.

182. 'To ward off from us the wrath of his father (Saturn).'

198. Compare Ch. C. T., F 1031--'god and governour Of every plaunte, herbe, tree, and flour.'

205. Alluding to Phaethon's misguidance of the chariot of the sun; 'And that his faders cart amis he dryve'; Troil. v. 665. Laing prints _unricht_; but omits to say that E. has _upricht_.

211. _soyr_, sorrel-coloured, reddish-brown; see _Sorrel_ in my Etym. Dict.

212-6. The names of the four horses are curiously corrupted from the names given in Ovid, Met. ii. 153, viz. Eöus, Æthon, Pyröeis, and Phlegon. As _Eous_ means 'belonging to the dawn,' we may consider the words _into the Orient_, i.e. in the East, as explanatory of the name _Eoy_; 'called Eoy, (which signifies) in the East.' As to the name of the last horse, it was obviously meant to take the form _Philegoney_, in order to rime with _sey_ (sea), and I have therefore restored this form. The two authorities, E. and Th., give it in the amazing form _Philologie_ (_Philologee_), which can only mean 'philology'!

231. _lauch_ and _weip_ are infinitives, but appear to be meant for past tenses. If so, the former should be _leuch_; _weip_ may answer to the strong pt. t. _weep_ in Chaucer (A.S. _w[=e]op_).

246. He seems to be thinking of Chaucer's Doctor of Phisyk; cf. Ch. Prol. A 425-6, 439.

254. 'The last of all (in order), and swiftest in her orbit.'

256. Thynne has _tapere_ = to appear; this passage is curiously cited, in Richardson's Dictionary, in illustration of the sb. _taper_!

261. _churl_, man; this is Chaucer's _cherl_, in Troil. i. 1024. See the note to that line.

263. _na nar_, no nearer; the moon's orbit, being the least, was the most remote from the outer heaven that enclosed the _primum mobile_.

273. _shew_, shewed; but it is false grammar, for the verb to _shew_ (or _show_) was weak. Formed by analogy with _blew_, _grew_, _knew_; cf. _rew_, _mew_, _sew_, old strong preterites of _row_, _mow_, and _sow_.

290. As Henryson usually refrains from the addition of a syllable at the cæsura, we should probably read _injure_, not _injury_; see Troil. iii. 1018.

297, 298. _hyest_, i.e. Saturn; _lawest_ (lowest), i.e. Cynthia.

299. _modify_, determine, specify; not here used in the modern sense.

318. Heat and moisture characterised the _sanguine_ temperament (see vol. v. p. 33); coldness and dryness characterised the melancholy temperament (see P. Plowman, B-text, p. xix). Cf. l. 316.

343. 'With cup and clapper, like a leper.' It was usual for lepers to carry a cup (for their own use), and a clapper or clap-dish, which was used in order to give warning of their approach, and also as a receptacle for alms, to prevent actual contact; cf. l. 479 below. Compare the following:--

'Coppe and claper he bare ...
As he a mesel [_leper_] were.'--Sir Tristrem, 3173.

'Than beg her bread with dish and clap' (referring to Criseyde).

Turbervile's Poems: The Lover in utter dispaire.

See further under _Clapper_ in the New Eng. Dict.

_lazarous_ is formed as an adj. in _-ous_ from the sb. _lazar_, a leper; see l. 531.

350. _wa_, woful; 'God knows if she was woful enough.'

382. The accent on the second syllable of _hospital_ was not uncommon; hence its frequent contraction to _spittal_ or _spittel-house_; for which see l. 391 below.

386. Read _bevar_ or _bever_ (Th. has _beuer_); the reading _bawar_ in E. gives no sense. I see no connection with Lowl. Sc. _bevar_, 'one who is worn out with age,' according to Jamieson, who merely guesses at the sense, as being perhaps allied to _bavard_, which he also explains as 'worn out'; although, if from the F. _bavard_, it rather means talkative, babbling, or idle. I believe that _bevar hat_ simply means 'beaver hat,' formerly used by women as well as by men. Even Dickens alludes to 'farmer's wives in beaver bonnets,' in Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. 5. No doubt a beaver hat was, when new, an expensive luxury, as worn by Chaucer's 'Merchant' (Prol. l. 272); but they wore well and long, and were doubtless gladly used by beggars when cast off by their original owners.

407. The metre, in ll. 407-69, is borrowed from Chaucer's Anelida.

410. _blaiknit_, is not a derivative of M.E. _blak_, black, but of M.E. _bl[=a]k_, _bleik_, bleak, pallid, cheerless. It is here used in the sense of 'rendered cheerless'; and _bair_ means 'bare' or 'barren.' See _bl[=a]kien_ in Stratmann.

413. 'Thy bale is in the growth,' or is sprouting. See _Braird_, the first shoots of corn or grass, in the New E. Dict., where two more examples of this phrase are cited from Henryson.

417. 'With goodly bed, and convenient embroidered bench-covers.' _Burelie_ (mod. E. _burly_, prov. E. _bowerly_) answers to an A.S. form _b[=u]r-l[=i]c_, i.e. suitable for a lady's bower. This explains why it was appropriately used as an epithet for a bed. Cf. 'Quhair ane _burely_ bed was wrocht in that wane'; Rauf Coilyear, 264. Hence 'a burly knight' was one suitable for a lady's bower, and therefore handsome, strong, well-grown, large; and by a degradation of meaning, huge, corpulent. The changes in sense are curious and instructive. In the New E. Dict., the etymology is not given. For _bene_, see _bain_ in the New E. Dict.; and for _bankouris_, see _banker_.

421. _saipheroun sals_, saffron sauce. _Saffron_ and _salt_ were often used together in medieval cookery; see Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery Books, ed. Austin (E. E. T. S.). The Glossary to that book gives the spellings _safroun_, _saferon_, _saferoun_, and _sapheron_.

423. This is a very early mention of _lawn_. It is also mentioned in st. 10 of Lydgate's 'London Lickpeny.'

429. _walk_, wake. The history of this spelling is not quite clear; but the _l_ was, in any case, mute; another spelling is _wauk_. I suspect that it originated in the misunderstanding of a symbol. The scribe, who wished to write _wakk_, used a symbol resembling _lk_, where the _l_ was _really_ the first _k_, indicated by its down-stroke only. For example, the word _rokke_ was (apparently) written _rolke_. See my article on Ghost-words; Phil. Soc. Trans. 1885, p. 369.

_tak the dew_, gather May-dew. The old custom of bathing the face with fresh dew on the 1st of May is referred to in Brand's Popular Antiquities. He gives an example as late as 1791. See Pepys' Diary, May 28, 1667, May 11, 1669; where we find that _any_ day in May was then considered suitable for this health-giving operation.

433. I take _on every grane_ to mean 'in every particular'; cf. 'a _grain_ of sense.' We may also note the Fr. _teindre en graine_, to dye in grain, to dye of a fast colour; and we occasionally find _grain_ in the sense of 'tint.' Godefroy cites 'ung couvertoer d'une _graigne_ vermeille'; and 'une manche vermeille, ne sçay se c'est _graine_ ou autre taincture.' _Grane_ also means 'groan,' and 'groin,' and 'fork of a tree'; but none of these senses suit.

438. 'Take this leper-lodge in place of thy stately bower.'

450. In l. 407, we have _sop of sorrow_, i.e. sop, or sup, of sorrow. So here _sowpit in syte_, sopped, or drenched, in sorrow; an expression which Jamieson illustrates from Holland's Houlate, i. 4, and Douglas's Vergil, prologue to Book viii, l. 5.

463. This expression is imitated from Chaucer's Boethius, bk. iii. pr. 6. 3--'O glorie, glorie, thou art nothing elles but a greet sweller of eres!' See note to I. ii. 8. 68 (p. 472).

480. _leir_ (Th. _lerne_); surely miscopied from l. 479. Read _live_.

490. _lipper_ seems to be used collectively; so also in l. 494.

492. _shuik coppis_, shook their cups; it implies that they waved them aloft, to attract attention. They also used their clappers.

501. _ply_, plight. I know of no other example of _ply_ in this sense; but _ply_ (usually, a fold) and _plight_ (incorrect spelling of M.E. _plyte_) are closely related; the former represents Lat. _plicitum_, the latter, Lat. _plicita_; from _plicare_, to fold (whence E. _ply_, verb, to bend).

541. 'With many a sorrowful cry and cold _or_ sad (cry of) O hone!' Here _cald_ = sad; and _Ochane_ is the Irish and Scotch cry of _O hone!_ or _Och hone!_ See _O hone_ in the Century Dict., s.v. _O_.

543. _will of wane_, lit. wild of weening, at a loss what to do. See Gloss. to Barbour's Bruce, s.v. _Will_.

550. 'And climbed so high upon the fickle wheel' (of Fortune). Cf. Troil. iv. 6, 11.

567. 'For they (women) are as constant as a weathercock in the wind.' Cf. '_unsad_ ... and chaunging as a vane'; Ch. C. T., E 995.

588. _wellis_, streams, rills; as in Book Duch. 160.

589. _broche and belt_; Criseyde gave Diomede the brooch she had received from Troilus; see Troil. v. 1661, 1669, 1688. The _belt_ is Henryson's addition.

600. 'His heart was ready to burst.'

§ XVIII. THE CUCKOO AND THE NIGHTINGALE.

In this piece, the final _-e_ is much used as forming a distinct syllable; indeed, more freely than in Chaucer.

1, 2. Quoted from the Knightes Tale, A 1785-6.

4. The word _of_ is inserted in Th., Ff. and S., and seems to be right; but as _hy-e_ should be two syllables, perhaps the words _And of_ were rapidly pronounced, in the time of a single syllable. Or omit _And_.

11-5. The lines of this stanza are wrongly arranged in Thynne, and in every printed edition except the present one; i.e. the lines 12 and 13 are transposed. But as the rime-formula is _aabba_, it is easy to see that _suffyse_, _devyse_, _agryse_ rime together on the one hand, and _nyce_, _vyce_, on the other. The pronunciation _suffice_ is comparatively modern; in Chaucer, the suffix _-yse_ was pronounced with a voiced _s_, i.e. as _z_. Note the rimes _devyse_, _suffyse_ in the Book of the Duch. 901-2; _suffyse_, _wyse_, _devyse_, in the C. T., B 3648-9; &c. The MSS. Ff., F., and B. all give the right arrangement.

18. _whom him lyketh_, him whom it pleases him (to gladden or sadden).

20, 23. _May_; cf. Troil. ii. 50-63; Rom. Rose, 51-2, 74-6, 85-6; Legend of Good Women, 108; C. T., A 1500-2.

36. _of feling_, from experience. _Spek-e_ is dissyllabic.

39. _hoot_, hot, i.e. hopeful; _cold_, full of despair; _acces_, feverish attack, as in Troil. ii. 1315, 1543, 1578.

41. _fevers whyte_, feverish attacks (of love) that turn men pale; the same as _blaunche fevere_ in Troil. i. 916; see note to that line.

48. _a comune tale_, a common saying. As a fact, one would expect to hear the cuckoo first. Prof. Newton, in his Dict. of Birds, says of the cuckoo, that it 'crosses the Mediterranean from its winter-quarters in Africa at the end of March or beginning of April. Its arrival is at once proclaimed by the peculiar ... cry of the cock.' Of the nightingale he says--'if the appearance of truth is to be regarded, it is dangerous to introduce a nightingale as singing in England before the 15th of April or after the 15th of June.'

As the change of style makes a difference of 12 days, this 15th of April corresponds to the 3rd of April in the time of Chaucer. It is remarkable that Hazlitt, in his Proverbs, p. 305, gives the following:--'On the third of April, comes in the cuckoo and the nightingale'; which may once have been correct as regards the latter. Hazlitt also says that, in Sussex, the 14th of April is supposed to be 'first cuckoo-day'; whereas it would better apply to the nightingale. And again, another proverb says (p. 380)--'The nightingale and the cuckoo sing both in one month.' It is clear that, whatever the facts may be, our ancestors had a notion that these birds arrived nearly at the same time, and attached some importance, by way of augury, to the possibility of hearing the nightingale first. They must frequently have been disappointed. See Milton's sonnet, as quoted in the Introduction.

54. _of_, during; exactly as in l. 42.

62. Read _inne_, the adverbial form; for the sake of the grammar and scansion. See _Inne_ in the Gloss. in vol. vi. p. 135. _been_ gives a false rime to _gren-e_ and _sen-e_; shewing that _grene_ and _sene_ are here monosyllabic (really _green_ and _seen_), instead of being dissyllabic, as in Chaucer. _Sene_ is the adj., meaning visible, not the pp., which then took the form _seyn_.

70. For _began_, which is singular, substitute the pl. form _begonne_. _to don hir houres_, to sing their matins, &c.; referring to the canonical hours of church-service. Bell has the reading _to don honoures_, for which there is no early authority. Morris unluckily adopts the meaningless reading found in MSS. F. and B.

71. 'They knew that service all by rote,' i.e. by heart. Bell actually explains _rote_ as a hurdy-gurdy; as to which see _Rote_ (in senses 2 and 3) in the Gloss. in vol. vi. p. 218.

80. _Feverere_ seems to have been pronounced _Fev'rer'_. Surely it must be right. Yet all the MSS. (except T.) actually have _Marche_ (written _Mars_ in Ff.), followed by _upon_, not _on_. Even Th. and T. have _upon_, not _on_; but it ruins the scansion, unless we adopt the reading _March_. It looks as if the author really _did_ write _Marche_!

82, 85. _ron_, _mon_, for _ran_, _man_, are peculiar. As such forms occur in Myrc and Audelay (both Shropshire authors) and in Robert of Gloucester, they are perfectly consistent with the supposition that they are due to Clanvowe's connection with Herefordshire.

87. _swow_, swoon; cf. Book Duch. 215.

90. As _brid_ is a monosyllable (cf. ll. 212, 260, 270, 271), it is necessary to make _lew-ed-e_ a trisyllable; as also in l. 103. But it becomes _lew'de_ in ll. 50, 94. Chaucer has _lew-ëd_, P. F. 616, &c.

105. _him_; the cuckoo is male, but the nightingale, by way of contrast, is supposed to be female.

118. _playn_, simple, having simple notes; cf. 'the plain-song cuckoo,' Mids. Nt. Dr. iii. 1. 134.

119. _crakel_, 'trill or quaver in singing; used in contempt'; New E. Dict.

124. _I_ seems to be strongly accented. It is a pity that there is no authority for inserting _For_ before it. Otherwise, read _I hav-ë_.

In Old French, _oci oci_, represented the cry of the nightingale; Godefroy gives examples from Raoul de Houdenc, Froissart, and Deschamps. Moreover, _oci_ was also the imperative of the O.F. verb _ocire_, to kill; with which it is here intentionally confused. Accordingly, the nightingale retorts that _oci_ means 'kill! kill!' with reference to the enemies of love.

135. _grede_, exclaim, cry out. Not used by Chaucer, though found in most dialects of Middle-English. Clanvowe may have heard it in Herefordshire, as it occurs in Langland, Layamon, Robert of Gloucester, and in the Coventry Mysteries, and must have been known in the west. But it was once a very common word. From A.S. _gr[=æ]dan_.

137. _to-drawe_, drawn asunder; cf. Havelok, 2001; Will. of Palerne, 1564.

140. _yok_, yoke; cf. Ch. C. T., E 113, 1285.

142. _unthryve_, become unsuccessful, meet with ill luck. A very rare word; but it also occurs in the Cursor Mundi (Fairfax MS.), l. 9450, where it is said of Adam that 'his wyf made him _to unthryve_.'

146. The first syllable of the line is deficient. Accent _What_ strongly. Cf. 153-8 below.

151. The sentiment that love teaches all goodness, is common at this time; see Schick's note to Lydgate's Temple of Glas, l. 450.

152. The true reading is doubtful.

153-8. Here the author produces a considerable metrical effect, by beginning all of these lines with a strong accent. There are three such consecutive lines in the Wyf of Bathes Tale, D 869-71. Cf. ll. 161, 232, 242, 252, 261, 265, 268, 270, 278.

180. Bell and Morris read _haire_, without authority, and Bell explains it by 'he may full soon have the _hair_ (!) which belongs to age, _scil._, grey hair, said to be produced by anxiety.' But the M.E. form of 'hair' is _heer_, which will not give a true rime; and the word _heyr_ represents the mod. E. _heir_. As the _h_ was not sounded, it is also written _eir_ (as in MS. T.) and _air_ (as in MS. S.). The sense is--'For he who gets a little bliss of love may very soon find that his heir has come of age, unless he is always devoted to it.' This is a mild joke, signifying that he will soon find himself insecure, like one whose heir or successor has come of age, and whose inheritance is threatened. On the other hand, 'to have one's hair of age' is wholly without sense. Compare the next note.

185. 'And then you shall be called as _I_ am.' I. e. your loved one will forsake you, and you will be called a cuckold. This remark is founded on the fact that the O.F. _coucou_ or _cocu_ had the double sense of cuckoo and cuckold. See _cocu_ in Littré. This explains l. 186.

201-5. Bell, by an oversight, omits this stanza.

203. This reading (from the best MS., viz. Ff.) is much the best. The sense is--'And whom he hits he knows not, or whom he misses'; because he is blind.

216-25. All the early printed editions crush these two stanzas into one, by omitting ll. 217-9, and 224-5, and altering _thoughte me_ (l. 223) to _me aloon_. This is much inferior to the text.

237. _leve_, believe; yet all the authorities but S. have the reading _loue_! Cf. l. 238.

243. _dayesye_, daisy. Cf. Legend of Good Women, 182-7, 201-2, 211.

266. _Ye witen_ is the right reading; turned into _ye knowe_ in F. and B. The old printed editions actually read _The cuckowe_!

267. A syllable seems lacking after _I_; such lines are common in Lydgate. The reading _y-chid_ would render the line complete; or we may read _hav-ë_, as perhaps in l. 124.

275. An obvious allusion to Chaucer's Parlement of Foules, in which he gives 'the royal egle' the first place (l. 330).

284. _The quene_; queen Joan of Navarre, second wife of Henry IV, who received the manor of Woodstock as part of her dower.

285. _lay_, lea; not a common word in M.E. poetry, though occurring in P. Plowman. The parliament of birds required a large open space.

289. _Terme_: during the whole term of my life; cf. C. T., G 1479.

§ XIX. ENVOY TO ALISON.

1. _lewde book_, unlearned book. It is not known to what book this refers. It has nothing to do with the preceding poem. My guess, in vol. i. p. 40, that this piece might be Hoccleve's, is quite untenable. His pieces are all known, and the metrical form is of later date. See the next note.

11. Too long; perhaps _servant_ should be struck out. So in l. 13 we could spare the word _als_. But ll. 17, 18, 19, 20, are all of an unconscionable length.

22-7. I believe I was the first to detect the obvious acrostic on the name of Alison; see vol. i. p. 40. The sense of ll. 25-6 (which are forced and poor) is--'I beseech (you) of your grace, let your writing (in reply) alleviate the sighs which I pour out in silence.'

§ XX. THE FLOWER AND THE LEAF.

I give numerous references below to 'A. L.', i.e. the Assembly of Ladies, printed at p. 380. The two poems have much in common.

1-2. Imitated from C. T., F 671; see note in vol. v. p. 386.

3. _Bole_, Bull, Taurus. The sun then entered Taurus about the middle of April; hence the allusion to April showers in l. 4. Compare the opening lines of Chaucer's Prologue. But we learn, from l. 437, that it was already May. Hence the sun had really run half its course in Taurus. _certeinly_; used at the end of the line, as in A. L. 85.

10. _very good_; this adverbial use of _very_ is noticeable; cf. ll. 35, 315, 409, and A. L. 479. I believe Chaucer never uses _very_ to qualify an adjective. It occurs, however, in Lydgate.

20. Cf. '_more_ at _hertes ese_'; A. L. 672.

25. Cf. 'at _springing of the day_'; A. L. 218.

26. Cf. 'That ye wold help me _on_ with _myn aray_'; A. L. 241.

27-8. This rime of _passe_ with _was_ occurs again below (114-6); and in A. L. 436-8.

30. Chaucer has _hew-ë_, _new-ë_; but here _hew_, _new_ rime with the pt. t. _grew_. So, in A. L. 65-8, _hew_, _new_ rime with the pt. t. _knew_.

31-2. Copied from the Book of the Duch. 419-20:--

'And every tree stood by him-selve
Fro other wel ten foot or twelve.'

35. 'The young leaves of the oak, when they first burst from the bud, are of a red, cinereous colour'; Bell.

37. Cf. 'this proces _for to here_'; A. L. 27. And again, 'pitous _for to here_; A. L. 718.

39-42. This seems to be a direct allusion to the Cuckoo and the Nightingale, ll. 52-4:--

'I wolde go som whider to assay
If that I might _a nightingale here_;
For yet had I non _herd of al this yere_.'

43-5. From the Book of the Duch. 398-401:--

'Doun by a floury grene wente
_Ful thikke of gras_, ful softe and swete,...
_And litel used_, it semed thus.'

Cf. A. L. 47; 'into a strait passage,' and the context.

47. _parde_; a petty oath (being in French), such as a female writer might use; so in A. L. 753.

49, 50. For the _herber_ and _benches_, see A. L. 48-9; also L. G. W. 203-4. For the phrase _wel y-wrought_, see A. L. 165.

53. Bell and Morris read _wool_, which is obviously right; but neither of them mention the fact that _both_ Speght's editions have _wel_; and there is no other authority! Clearly, Speght's MS. had _wol_, which he misread as _wel_.

56. _eglantere_, eglantine, sweet-briar. Entered under _eglatere_ in the New E. Dict., though the earlier quotations, in 1387 and 1459, have _eglentere_. I find no authority for the form _eglatere_ except Speght's misprint in this line, which he corrects in l. 80 below. Tennyson's _eglatere_ (Dirge, 23) is clearly borrowed from this very line.

58. _by mesure_; a tag which reappears in A. L. 81.

59. _by and by_; another tag, for which see A. L. 87, 717.

60. _I you ensure_; yet another tag; see l. 457, and A. L. 52, 199, 495, 517.

62. The final _e_ in _peyn-e_ is suppressed; so in A. L. 359, 416.

68. Cf. 'And as they sought hem-self thus _to and fro_'; A. L. 43.

75. Here _espyed_ rimes with _syde_, _wyde_; in A. L. 193, it rimes with _asyde_ and _gyde_.

89. The _goldfinch_ is afterwards opposed to the _nightingale_. Hence he replaces the _cuckoo_ in the poem of the Cuckoo and Nightingale. Just as the Cuckoo and Nightingale represent the faithless and the constant, so the goldfinch and the nightingale are attached, respectively, to the bright Flower and the long-lasting Leaf. This is explicitly said below; see ll. 439, 444.

98. _in this wyse_; appears also at the end of a line in A. L. 589; cf. _in her gyse_, A. L. 603; _in ful pitous wyse_, A. L. 584; _in no maner wyse_, A. L. 605.

99, 100. These lines correspond to the Cuckoo and Nightingale, 98-100.

113. _inly greet_, extremely great; cf. _inly fair_, A. L. 515.

115. 'Ye wold it _thinke a_ very _paradyse_'; A. L. 168.

118. Better _I set me doun_, as in A. L. 77.

121. 'Withouten sleep, withouten mete or drinke'; L. G. W. 177 (note the context).

134. Here begins the description of the adherents of the Leaf, extending to l. 322, including the Nine Worthies, ll. 239-94. The reader must carefully bear in mind that the followers of the Leaf are clad in _white_ (not in green, as we should now expect), though the nine Worthies are crowned with green laurel, and all the company gather under a huge Laurel-tree (l. 304). On the other hand the followers of the Flower, shortly described in ll. 323-50, are clad in _green_, though wearing chaplets of white and red flowers; for green was formerly an emblem of _inconstancy_.

137. Cf. '_to_ say you _very right_'; A. L. 750.

144. _oon and oon_, every one of them. This phrase is rare in Chaucer; it seems only to occur once, in C. T., A 679; but see A. L. 368, 543, 710.

146. _purfil_ occurs in A. L. 87, in the same line with _by and by_; and in A. L. 522-4, we find _colour_, _sleves_, and _purfyl_ close together.

148. Cf. 'With _grete perles_, ful fyne _and orient_'; A. L. 528. For _diamonds_, see A. L. 530.

150. Borrowed from Chaucer, Parl. Foules, 287: 'of whiche the name I wante.' Hence _wante_, i.e. lack, is the right reading. The rime is imperfect.

155. The missing word is not _branches_, as suggested by Sir H. Nicolas, nor _floures_, as suggested by Morris, but _leves_; as the company of _the Leaf_ is being described; cf. l. 259. The epithets _fresh and grene_ are very suitable. The leaves were of laurel, woodbine, and _agnus-castus_.

160. For _were_ read _ware_; see ll. 267, 329, 335, 340; the sense is _wore_. Chaucer's form is _wered_, as the verb was originally weak; Gower and Lydgate also use the form _wered_. The present is perhaps one of the earliest examples of the strong form of this preterite.

_agnus-castus_; 'from Gk. [Greek: agnos], the name of the tree, confused with [Greek: agnos], chaste, whence the second word Lat. _castus_, chaste. A tree, species of Vitex (_V. Agnus Castus_), once believed to be a preservative of chastity, called also Chaste-tree and Abraham's Balm'; New E. Dict. The same Dict. quotes from Trevisa: 'The herbe agnus-castus is alwaye grene, and the flowre therof is namly callyd Agnus Castus, for wyth smelle and vse it makyth men chaste as a lombe.'

163. For _But_ Morris reads _And_, which is simpler.

164. _oon_, one. She was the goddess Diana (see l. 472), or the Lady of the Leaf.

171. Cf. 'That to beholde it was a greet plesaunce'; A. L. 59.

172. Cf. 'though it were _for a king_'; A. L. 158.

177-8. Speght has _Suse le foyle de vert moy_ in l. 177, and _Seen et mon joly cuer en dormy_ in l. 178. I see little good in guessing what it ought to be; so I leave it alone, merely correcting _Suse_ and _foyle_ to _Sus_ and _foyl_; as the O.F. _foil_ was masculine.

Bell alters _de vert_ to _devers_, and for _Seen_ puts _Son_; and supplies _est_ after _cuer_; but it all gives no sense when it is done. We should have to read _Sus le foyl devers moy sied, et mon joli cuer est endormi_; sit down upon the foliage before me, and my merry heart has gone to sleep. Which can hardly be right. The Assembly of Ladies has the same peculiarity, of presenting unintelligible scraps of French to the bewildered reader.

180. _smal_, high, treble; chiefly valuable for explaining the same word in Chaucer's Balade to Rosemounde.

188-9. A parallel passage occurs in A. L. 384-5.

201. _the large wones_, the spacious dwellings; cf. Ch. C. T., D 2105.

202. Speght has _Pretir_, an obvious error for _Prester_. The authoress may easily have obtained her knowledge of Prester John from a MS. of Mandeville's Travels; see cap. 27 of that work. And see Yule's edition of Marco Polo. He was, according to Mandeville, one of the greatest potentates of Asia, next to the Great Khan.

209. _cereal_; borrowed from Chaucer:--'A _coroune_ of a grene _ook cerial_'; C. T., A 2290. And Chaucer took it from Boccaccio; see note in vol. v. p. 87.

210. _trumpets_, i.e. trumpeters; as several times in Shakespeare. Cf. l. 213.

212. _tartarium_, thin silk from Tartary. Fully explained in my note to P. Plowman, C. xvii. 299 (B. xv. 163), and in the Glossary to the same. _bete_, lit. beaten; hence, adorned with beaten gold; see note to C. T., A 978 (vol. v. p. 64). _were_, (all of which) were; hence the plural.

213. Read _bere_, as in l. 223; A.S. _b[=æ]ron_, pt. t. pl.

220. _kinges of armes_, kings-at-arms; who presided over colleges of heralds. Sir David Lyndsay was Lord Lion king-at-arms.

224. Cf. '_Set with saphyrs_'; A. L. 480.

233. _vel-u-et_ is trisyllabic; as in The Black Knight, 80.

234. 'And certainly, they had nothing to learn as to how they should place the armour upon them.'

238. _in sute_, in their master's livery.

240. The celebrated Nine Worthies; see notes to IV. 281, XII. 86.

243. Cf. '_and furred_ wel _with gray_'; A. L. 305.

252. _henshmen_, youths mounted on horseback, who attended their lords. See numerous quotations for this word in A Student's Pastime, §§ 264, 272, 415-8. Each of them is called _a child_, l. 259.

253. For _every on_, it is absolutely necessary to read _the first upon_; for the sense. Each of the nine worthies had three henchmen; of these three, the first bore his helmet, the second his shield, and the third his spear.

257. Bell and Morris alter _nekke_ to _bakke_; but wrongly. The shields were carried by help of a strap which passed round the _neck_ and over the shoulders; called in Old French a _guige_. The convenience of this arrangement is obvious. See note to C. T., A 2504 (vol. v. p. 88).

272. In Lydgate's Temple of Glas, 508, we are told that hawthorn-leaves do not fade; see ll. 551-3 below.

274. Read _hors_, not _horses_; _hors_ is the true plural; see l. 293.

275. Cf. '_trompes_, that ... blowen _blody sounes_'; C. T., A 2511-2.

286-7. 'That _to beholde it was a greet plesaunce_'; A. L. 59. And again--'_I you ensure_'; A. L. 52.

289. I. e. the Nine Worthies; see ll. 240, 249.

293. The reading _ninth_ (as in Speght) is an absurd error for _nine_; yet no one has hitherto corrected it. How could the ninth man alight from _their horses_? The 'remnant' were the twenty-seven henchmen and the other knights.

295. Cf. 'See how they come _togider, twain and twain_'; A. L. 350.

302. Cf. '_Ful womanly_ she gave me,' &c.; A. L. 196.

305. 'Laden with leaves, with boughs of great breadth.'

323. Here begins the description of the company of the Flower. They were clad in _green_.

330. Cf. 'Her gown was _wel embrouded_'; A. L. 85.

348. _bargaret_, a pastoral; a rustic song and dance; O.F. _bergerete_, from _berger_, a shepherd. Godefroy notes that they were in special vogue at Easter.

350. We have here the refrain of a popular French pastoral. Warton suggests it may have been Froissart's; but the refrain of Froissart's Ballade de la Marguerite happens to be different: 'Sur toutes flours j'aime la margherite'; see Spec. of O. French, ed. Toynbee, p. 302. In fact, Warton proceeds to remark, that 'it was common in France to give the title of Marguerites to studied panegyrics and flowery compositions of every kind.' It is quite impossible to say if a special compliment is intended; most likely, the authoress thought of nothing of the kind. She again mentions _margarettes_ in A. L. 57.

351. _in-fere_, together; very common at the end of a line, as in ll. 384, 450; A. L. 407, 469, 546, 602, 719.

369. _withouten fail_; this tag recurs in A. L. 567, 646, in the form _withouten any fail_; and, unaltered, in A. L. 188, 537.

373. Those in white, the party of the Leaf.

379. _oon_, one of those in green; this was queen Flora; see l. 534.

403. Bell thinks this corrupt. I think it means, that, before engaging with them in jousts in a friendly manner, they procured some logs of wood and thoroughly dried them. Hence _To make hir justës_ = in order to joust with them afterwards.

410. 'Quickly anointing the sick, wherever they went.'

417. _for any thing_, in any case, whatever might happen; cf. C. T., A 276, and the note (vol. v. p. 30).

427. 'For nothing was lacking that ought to belong to him.'

450. Here the story ends, and the telling of the moral begins.

457. The meeting with a 'fair lady' was convenient, as she wanted information. In the Assembly of Ladies, this simple device is resorted to repeatedly; see ll. 79, 191, 260, 400.

459. We find _ful demure_ at the end of A. L. 82.

462, 467. _My doughter_; this assumes that the author was a female; so in ll. 500, 547; and in A. L. throughout.

475. Referring to l. 173; so l. 477 refers to l. 160; l. 479, to l. 158.

493. _some maner way_, some kind of way; cf. _what maner way_, A. L. 234.

502. Refers to ll. 240, 249. With l. 510, cf. C. T., A 1027.

512. Speght prints _bowes_ for _boughes_; but the meaning is certain, as the reference is to ll. 270-1. Bows are not made of laurel; yet Dryden fell into the trap, and actually wrote as follows:--

'Who bear the bows were knights in Arthur's reign;
Twelve they, and twelve the peers of Charlemagne;
For bows the strength of brawny arms imply,
Emblems of valour and of victory.'

This is probably the only instance, even in poetry, of knights being armed with bows and arrows.

515. For the knights of Arthur's round table, see Malory's Morte Arthure.

516. _Douseperes_; _les douze pers_, the twelve peers of Charlemagne, including Roland, Oliver, Ogier the Dane, Otuel, Ferumbras, the traitor Ganelon, and others. The names vary.

520. _in hir tyme_, formerly, in their day; shewing that the institution of the Knights of the Garter on April 23, 1349, by Edward III, was anything but a recent event.

530. I. e. 'Witness _him_ of Rome, who was the founder of knighthood.' Alluding to Julius Cæsar, to whom was decreed by the senate the right of wearing a laurel-crown; Dryden mentions him by name.

550. Cf. '_De mieulx en mieulx_'; Temple of Glas, 310.

551-6. Apparently imitated from The Temple of Glas, 503-16.

567. Cf. 'We _thanked_ her _in our most humble wyse_'; A. L. 729.

580. _Male-Bouche_, Slander; borrowed from the Rom. de la Rose. See note above, to VIII. 260.

589. Cf. 'to _put_ it _in wryting_'; A. L. 664; 'she _put_ it _in wryting_'; A. L. 629.

590. I. e. in the hope that it will be patronised.

591. Cf. 'As for this _book_'; A. L. (last stanza).

592. 'How darest thou thrust thyself among the throng?' i.e. enter into contest. Cf. 'In suych materys to _putte mysylff in prees_'; Lydgate, Secrees of Philosophers, ed. Steele, l. 555.

§ XXI. THE ASSEMBLY OF LADIES.

For numerous references to this poem, see Notes to the preceding poem.

Though apparently written by the authoress of the Flower and the Leaf, it is of later date, and much less use is made of the final e. That the author was a woman, is asserted in ll. 7, 18, 259, 284, 370, 379-85, 407, 450, 625.

17. _the mase_. They amused themselves by trying to find a way into a maze, similar to that at Hampton Court. Cf. l. 32.

29. Ll. 1-28 are introductory. The story of the dream now begins, but is likewise preceded by an introduction, down to l. 77.

34. The word _went_ is repeated; the second time, it is an error for _wend_, weened. 'Some went (really) inwards, and imagined that they had gone outwards.' Which shews that the maze was well constructed. So, in l. 36, those who thought they were far behind, found themselves as far forward as the best of them.

42. That is, they cheated the deviser of the maze, by stepping over the rail put to strengthen the hedge. That was because they lost their temper.

44. The authoress got ahead of the rest; although sorely tired, she had gained a great advantage, and found the last narrow passage which led straight to the arbour in the centre. This was provided with benches (doubtless of turf, Flower and Leaf, l. 51) and well enclosed, having stone walls and a paved floor with a fountain in the middle of it.

54. There were stairs leading downwards, with a 'turning-wheel.' I do not think that turning-wheel here means a turn-stile, or what was formerly called a turn-pike. It simply means that the stair-case was of spiral form. Jamieson tells us that, in Lowland Scotch, the term _turn-pike_ was applied (1) to the winding stair of a castle, and (2) to any set of stairs of spiral form; and quotes from Arnot to shew that a spiral stair-case was called a _turnpike stair_, whereas a straight one was called a _scale stair_. The pot of marjoram may have been placed on a support rising from the newel.

It may be noted that arbours, which varied greatly in size and construction, were often set upon a small 'mount' or mound; in which case it would be easy to make a small spiral stair-case in the centre. In the present case, it could hardly have been very large, as it occupied a space in the centre of a maze. For further illustration, see A History of Gardening in England, by the Hon. Alicia Amherst, pp. 33, 52, 78, 116, 118, 314.

60. 'And how they (the daisies) were accompanied with other flowers besides, viz. forget-me-nots and remember-mes; and the poor pansies were not ousted from the place.'

61. _Ne-m'oublie-mies_; from O.F. _ne m'oublie-mie_, a forget-me-not. Littré, s.v. _ne m'oubliez pas_, quotes, from Charles d'Orléans, 'Des fleurs de _ne m'oubliez mie_'; and again, from a later source, 'Un diamant taillé en fleur de _ne m'oblie mie_.' The recovery of this true reading (by the help of MS. A.) is very interesting; as all the editions, who follow Thynne, are hopelessly wrong. Thynne, misreading the word, printed _Ne momblysnesse_; whence arose the following extraordinary entry in Bailey's Dictionary:--'_Momblishness_, talk, muttering; Old Word.' This ghost-word is carefully preserved in the Century Dictionary in the form:--'_Momblishness_, muttering talk; Bailey (1731).'

_sovenez_ doubtless corresponds to the name _remember-me_, given in Yorkshire and Scotland to the _Veronica chamædrys_, more commonly called the germander speedwell, and in some counties forget-me-not. But we should rather, in this passage, take forget-me-not (above) to refer, as is most usual, to the _Myosotis_; as Littré also explains it. Here Thynne was once more at a loss, and printed the word as _souenesse_, which was 'improved' by Stowe into _sonenesse_. Hence another ghost-word, recorded by Bailey in the entry:--'_Sonenesse_, noise.' Cf. l. 86.

62. _pensees_, pansies; alluding, of course, to the _Viola tricolor_. The spelling is correct, as it represents the O.F. _pensee_, thought; and it seems to have been named, as Littré remarks, in a similar way to the forget-me-not, and (I may add) to the remember-me.

68. _stremes_, jets of water; there was a little fountain in the middle.

73. The authoress had to wait till the other ladies also arrived in the centre of the maze. Cf. note to l. 736.

82. _sad_, settled, staid. _demure_, sober; lit. mature.

83. _blewe_, blue; which was the colour of constancy; see note to C. T., F 644 (vol. v. p. 386). For the lady's name was Perseverance. It is convenient to enumerate here the officers who are mentioned. They are: Perseveraunce, usher (91); Diligence (133, 198, 728); Countenance, porter (177, 277, 295); Discretion, purveyour (263); Acquaintance, herbergeour (269); Largesse, steward (318); Belchere, marshall (322); Remembrance, chamberlain (336); Avyseness, or Advisedness, secretary (343); and Attemperance, chancellor (508). The chief Lady is Loyalty (98), dwelling in the mansion of Pleasant Regard (170).

87. Here _word_ means 'motto.' I here collect the French mottoes mentioned, viz. Bien et loyalement (88); Tant que je puis (208); A moi que je voy (308); Plus ne purroy (364); A endurer (489). Afterwards, four ladies are introduced, with the mottoes Sans que jamais (583); Une sanz chaungier (590); Oncques puis lever (598); and Entierment vostre (616). These ladies afterwards present petitions, on which were written, respectively, the phrases Cest sanz dire (627); En dieu est (645); Soyez en sure (666); and Bien moneste (675). The words, or mottoes, were embroidered on the sleeves of the ladies (119). See Lydgate's Temple of Glas, 308-10.