John Lydgate, THE TEMPLE OF GLAS: FOOTNOTES

1 In shape of a sphere, constructed round in form

2 Lines 251–54: Before the goddess, who just as the sun / Passes the stars and dulls their rays, / And in order to take away the sorrow of the night, / Surpasses Lucifer in brightness early in the morning

3 Lines 1334–36: For which grant, throughout the temple, / Owing to the great relief of those present, / At once [a new ballad] was begun with a melodious sound

John Lydgate, THE TEMPLE OF GLAS: EXPLANATORY NOTES

Abbreviations: BD: Chaucer, Book of the Duchess; CA: Gower, Confessio Amantis; CT: Chaucer, Canterbury Tales; G: Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg.4.27; HF: Chaucer, House of Fame; LGW: Chaucer, Legend of Good Women; MED: Middle English Dictionary; Metam.: Ovid, Metamorphoses; OED: Oxford English Dictionary; PF: Chaucer, Parliament of Fowls; RR: Chaucer, Romaunt of the Rose; S: London, British Library, MS Additional 16165; T: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Tanner 346 (base-text for this edition); TC: Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde; TG: Lydgate, Temple of Glas; Whiting: Whiting, Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases.

1–3 The cause of the narrator’s malady is not identified, but his symptoms are those of a man driven to bed by lovesickness. The idea has origins in RR, lines 2553–64, and, going back further, in Ovid’s Amores 1.2.1–4. Lydgate would have had in mind the insomniac dreamer-poet, the cause of whose sleeplessness is not explained in BD and HF, and he was likely also familiar with antecedents in the French tradition which Chaucer adapted and deviated from (see Windeatt, Chaucer’s Dream Poetry). Only at the end of TG (lines 1375–1403) does the poet identify himself as an abject lover (unlike Chaucer’s narrators), though the nature of his situation remains ambiguous. The confessional tone struck by the poem’s opening lines is carried through in the lovers’ com­plaints within the dream.
1 For thought, constreint, and grevous hevines. Norton-Smith hears an echo of RR, line 308: "For sorowe, thought, and gret distresse" (John Lydgate: Poems, p. 179).

3 this othir nyght. Setting fictional events within a bedchamber in a recent, pseudo-autobiographical past produces a general sense of intimacy, individuality, and gossipy familiarity. Norton-Smith finds the same phrase in BD, line 45 (John Lydgate: Poems, p. 180). But in Chaucer the phrase means "this second night," referring to the protagonist’s sleeplessness, thereby setting up the dreamer’s awakening at twelve bells on the third day. Here, in TG, the sense may simply imply "recently."

4–7 Whan that Lucina . . . the nwe yere. The poet goes to bed when the moon (Lucina) is in conjunction with the sun (Phebus); but as it is December, these planets would have entered Capricorn, not Aquarius. "The astronomy is liter­ary, not scientific. Lydgate purposely avoids any tradition of precise dating which would postulate a real situation" (TG, ed. Norton-Smith, p. 180). Others have nevertheless felt that such circumstantial detail provokes rather than frustrates the search for historical reference. In his edition of the poem, Schick (TG, p. cxiv) makes attempts at dating the poem on the basis of the astronomical signs.

6 Amyd Decembre. The dream in HF, lines 111–12, occurs on 10 December.

7 kalendes. Referring either to dates on the calendar reckoned back as far as to the middle of the current month from the first of the following month (MED 1c), or perhaps more generally to a sense of expectancy around this time (MED 2). Either way, the poet seems to be awaiting some bright change even amidst dark December, and this anticipates a pattern of light/dark imagery later in the poem, on which see the explanatory note to lines 20-29.

8 And derk Diane, ihorned. Diane, goddess of chastity, and another name for the moon (also known as Cynthea, Latona, and Lucina). The reference is to the crescent moon, perceived as though it had horns. There may be an implied mythological and astrological juxtaposition with Venus, goddess of love, who rules inside the dream vision. Here the horned headpiece suggests aristo­cratic fashion, not cuckoldry.

14 sodein dedeli slepe. Restlessness followed by a swift and decisive fall into sleep is conventionally Chaucerian; compare BD, line 272, HF, line 114, and PF, line 94.

16 temple of glas. Lydgate’s description of this architectural marvel (surrounded by wilderness or wasteland; set upon an icy foundation; containing statues and murals; populated by gods and supplicants) owes much to Chaucer’s Temple of Glass (HF, lines 119–488), where glass implies mirrors, and some­thing to his Castle of Fame (e.g., line 1130), with its foundation of ice. Another precedent is Chaucer’s "temple of bras" in PF, line 231, which houses Priapus, Venus, and Cupid, among other ministers and devotees of love, and which is engraved with stories of many famous lovers. Lydgate’s scribes or rubricators must have had this temple on their minds when they gave TG the title The Temple of Bras in two manuscripts (see TG, ed. Schick, p. xvii). Finally, another relevant Temple of Venus features in Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale, CT I(A)1918–66.

20–29 And as I did approche. . . . The splendor of the place evokes the intensity of love; see TC 2.862–65 for a comparison of the sun and love. Ebin, John Lydgate, p. 30, argues that the "system of light and dark images, which link the various seg­ments of the poem, provide the vehicle for successive redefi­nitions of love." Davidoff, Beginning Well, pp. 135–46, also addresses the con­trastive effects of light and darkness and argues that the dreamer’s experience is one of illumination and insight occurring in a place of imaginative splendor. By contrast, Crockett, in "Venus Unveiled," pp. 73–74, construes the dazzling scene as an indictment of the narrator’s moral blindness.

32 Titan. This refers to the Titan sun god Helios, father of Phaethon, not the Olympian sun god Phoebus Apollo (e.g., line 4), twin of Diana (line 8).

39 wiket. The gate recalls similar narrow passageways through which other voy­euristic poets enter into secret, restricted, or sanctified spaces; compare RR, lines 528–30, and HF, line 477. A reader familiar with Chaucer is destined to recall the garden "wyket" that is an important architectural feature of The Merchant’s Tale, as well; for indeed, as if in imitation of the furtiveness of Damian (CT IV[E]2151–54), Lydgate’s dreamer enters through the wicket suspiciously "fast," and in his intrusion into private affairs he is not unlike the adulterous lover who trespasses on another man’s property and has his way with his wife. Of course, TG is a much more decorous affair than that retailed in The Merchant’s Tale. Nevertheless, as becomes clear by the end of TG, Lydgate’s dreamer-poet aspires to a similar role in a love triangle (or rather, rectangle), though he is apparently doomed to be an observer rather than a participant. On the voyeuristic poet in other late medieval love poems, see Spearing, Medieval Poet as Voyeur.

44–142 I saughe depeynt opon everé wal. . . . An inscription and tableau of the legend of Dido and Aeneas is the principal feature of the Temple of Glass in HF, lines 151–467; the walls of the Temple of Venus in The Knight’s Tale, CT I(A) 1918–66, portray the symptoms of lovesickness, personified behaviors, and a few famous lovers. PF, lines 284–94, with its panoply of lovers, may lie behind the depiction of ful many a faire image / Of sondri lovers in TG (lines 95-96). Lydgate refers to most of the legendary lovers listed there (Dido and Aeneas, Isolde and Tristan, Thisbe and Piramus, Paris and Helen, Polyxena and Achilles), picturing many more besides whose tales are told elsewhere by Chaucer. Indeed, the list in TG reads like an homage to Chaucerian auctoritas in a manner similar to Chaucer’s own Introduction to The Man of Law’s Tale, CT II(B1) 57–76, impressing upon readers that Chaucer is the inimitable poet who "hath toold of loveris up and doun" (CT II[B1]53). TG as it stands in T suggests other ways in which Chaucer’s secular and vernacular authority was transmitted, specifically in its emulation of Chaucer’s compilatory LGW (on which see the discussion of Tanner in Lerer’s Chaucer and His Readers, pp. 57–84). But the similarities are designed not to suggest literary sources, but rather shared poetic spaces shaped for a literate readership well sophisticated by the delights of courtly poetry.

46–47 lich as thei were of age . . . aftir thei were trwe. The reference to "age" is unclear and may indicate that the figures are either positioned in order of their phys­ical age or, more likely, represented as young adults (i.e., come of age); and "trwe" may refer to fidelity or a true likeness. Whatever the sense of these lines, the catalogue of lovers apparently does not reproduce any such order in its pictorial arrangement.

52–53 Venus . . . fleting in the se. The familiar iconography of the Marine Venus, or Venus anadyomene, is only one of several forms she takes in TG. Chaucer offers his own visual description of the floating Venus in The Knight’s Tale, CT I(A)1955–66, and HF, lines 131–37; see Twycross, Medieval Anadyomene. Crockett notes that according to medieval mythographers this image is "em­blematic of concupiscence" ("Venus Unveiled," p. 80, citing Fulgentius the Myth­ographer 2.1 [trans. Whitbread, pp. 66–67]). But Lydgate elsewhere construes the image as a sign of "þe trowble and aduersite / Þat is in Loue, and his stormy lawe, / Whiche is beset with many sturdy wawe, / Now calm, now rowe, who-so takethþ hede, / And hope assailled ay with sodeyn drede" (Troy Book 2.2544–48), and this "factual" account of desire is compatible with TG. On the various Venuses who appear in Lydgate’s works see Tinkle, Medieval Venuses and Cupids, pp. 129–35 and 154–59, who observes that in TG alone Venus is repeatedly reinterpreted — as mythological, astral, natural, carnal, or courtly — and cannot be reduced to a single meaning. Bianco makes a simi­lar observation in "New Perspectives," pp. 109–14, noting that Venus takes the form of "a painting, a statue, a planet or a living, speaking advisor."

55–61 Queen Dido of Carthage, expressing great anguish over Aeneas’ deception, pictured just before she ends her life. Derived from Virgil’s Aeneid 4, her com­plaint was elaborated in Ovid’s Heroides 7. Dido’s tragedy figures in HF, lines 219–426, and LGW, lines 924–1367, and Gower tells the tale in CA 4.77–142 to illustrate Aeneas’ "sloth" in love. Like Chaucer and Gower, Lyd­gate gives Dido the benefit of a pathetic treatment: the poets do not follow the austere mythographic tradition that construed Aeneas’ flight from Carthage as noble resistance to sexual temptation (see Crockett, "Venus Unveiled," p. 75), but rather align their sympathies with the abandoned heroine.

62–63 Medea, even after helping her husband Jason to accomplish various heroic deeds, is abandoned by him for another woman, as recounted in Ovid’s Hero­ides 12 and Metam. 7. Compare LGW, lines 1368–1679, and CA 5.3247–4222. Lydgate tells the story at length in Book 1 of Troy Book.

64–65 Venus’ passion for Adonis (Addoun), slain by a boar in the forest, is recounted in Metam. 10. Mentioned in Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale, CT I(A)224, and TC 3.720–21.

67–69 Penelope, who faithfully awaits the return of her husband Ulysses from Troy, is regularly considered alongside Alcestis (who is next described in TG) as an exemplary true wife. See the Introduction to The Man of Law’s Tale, CT II(B¹)75, The Franklin’s Tale, CT V(F)1442–43, and TC 5.1778. Gower relates the story in CA 4.147–233, where Ulysses is blamed for tardi­ness; and Penelope is grouped together with Lucrece, Alcestis, and Alcyone as one of Four Noble Wives in CA 8.2621–56. Although in The Franklin’s Tale Chaucer cites "Omer" (Homer’s Odyssey) as the source of the story of Penel­ope and Ulysses, medieval poets knew it from Ovid’s Heroides 1.

70–74 Queen Alcestis, transformed into a daisy in tribute to her self-sacrificing love for her husband Admetus, is the heroine of LGW, F Prologue, lines 510–16, and the subject of CA 7.1917–43. The story was passed down in numerous medieval translations; see Fulgentius the Mythographer, 1.22 (trans. Whitbread, pp. 62–63).

75–76 Griselda’s innocence, mekenes, and pacience are exemplified in her endurance of the extreme tests set by her husband Walter. Lydgate would have known the story from Chaucer’s Clerk’s Tale, but it circulated widely in various languages throughout medieval Europe from tellings of the tale by Boccaccio and Petrarch; see Bronfman, Chaucer’s Clerk’s Tale.

77–79 Isolde is the legendary lover of Tristan, nephew to her husband King Mark of Cornwall. Their tragic and illicit affair is transmitted in several medieval versions; see Eisner, Tristan Legend. The lovers are mentioned among other figures adorning the walls of the Temple of Brass in PF, line 290, and they are found in CA 6.471–75. Evidently, the list of "trwe" (line 47) lovers painted on the wall does not discriminate between faithful wives (Penelope, Alcestis, and Griselda) and adulterers (Isolde), which suggests that the standard of truth operating here is not conformity to the social institution of marriage: the poem will go on to enlarge on the idea that sentimental love is a law unto itself. Moreover, forbidden or clandestine love has its own powerful attractions in the poem.

80–81 The unhappy tale of Piramus and Thisbe (Tesbie), who were pro­hibited from loving by their parents and became a double suicide, is derived from Metam. 4. Related in LGW, lines 706–923, and CA 3.1331–1494.

82–85 Duke Theseus of Athens vanquished the Minotaur. Like Chaucer’s Knight, the narrator fails to mention the love intrigue which forms the context of the duke’s heroics: Ariadne, who came to his assistance in figuring out how to negotiate the Cretan labyrinth, was famously dumped by Theseus. The ori­ginal story is recounted in Ovid’s Heroides 10 and Metam. 7 –8. Theseus’ treachery is the subject of LGW, lines 1886–2227. CA 5.5231–5493 also gives the history including Theseus’ "unkindness" towards Ariadne. The­seus is the only one among other celebrated lovers in Lydgate who, in other contexts, is a perpetrator rather than a victim. Here, as in Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale, he is simply a worthy leader who destroyed the Minotaur.

83 amyd the hous. The labyrinth is commonly referred to as the house of Daedalus ("Domus Dedaly," HF, line 1920) or "labyrinthus" as in Aeneid 5.588. See John Fyler’s note, Riverside Chaucer, p. 989n1920–21, which notes also Higden’s Polychronicon ("laborintus," "Dedalus hous") and Chaucer’s Boece 3.pr12.156, where "hous of dedalus" is glossed "domus dedaly." See also Metam. 8.156–58. Chaucer describes the maze in LGW 2012–14.

86–90 Phyllis is betrayed by Demophon, son of Duke Theseus, and upon com­mitting suicide she is transformed into a hazelnut tree; but her metamorphosis is not mentioned in Lydgate’s brief summary. The source is Ovid’s Heroides 2 and Remedia Amoris, lines 591–604. Her story is related in LGW, lines 2394–561, and, briefly, in HF, lines 388–96. CA 4.731–878 is probably the source of Lydgate’s "filbert" (previously identified as an almond tree, or unspecified, in classical sources; see TG, ed. Schick, pp. 75–76).

92–93 Paris "won" or abducted Helen from her husband, the Spar­tan Menelaus, and took her back to Troy. The escapade was known chiefly from Heroides 16–17. The lovers are painted on the walls of Chaucer’s Temple of Brass, PF, lines 290–91, and their story is essential background information in TC 1.57–63. Lydgate will go on to relate the full history of the abduction in the second book of Troy Book.

94–95 Achilles is slain in the temple where he was set to marry Polixena (Policene), a tragic event given brief mention in BD, lines 1069–71; the lovers also appear on the walls of the brass temple in PF, line 290. Chau­cer ac­knowl­edges his source as Dares’ De excidio Troiae historia, but medieval poets equally depended on Benoît de Sainte-Maure’s Roman de Troie, besides other chroni­clers of Troy.

97–99 Philomena is raped and has her tongue cut out by Te­reus, but she is able to communicate her ordeal to her sister Procne (Progne, wife of Tereus) using a tapestry; the sisters metamorphose into birds when Tereus attempts to kill them. Metam. 6.424–605 is the source. Chaucer alludes to the sisters in TC 2.64–70 and tells a partial story in LGW, lines 2228–2393. For the full story, see CA 5.5551–6047.

100 Sabyns. Sabines are "a race of ancient Italy who inhabited the central region of the Apennines" (OED). Legend holds that the Sabine women were raped by and forced to intermarry with the Romans. Their tragic history of sexual victimization at the hands of Romans is no doubt the reason the Sabines are mentioned alongside Lucretia (as they are in Livy’s History of Rome 1 and in Dante’s Paradiso 6), on which more below.

101 The Roman Lucretia (Lucresse), after she was raped by Sextus Tarquinius, com­mitted suicide to defend her honor and that of her husband Collatinus. The "fest of Lucresse" refers to the Regifugium ("Flight of the King" on 24 Febru­ary), a festival held in commemoration of the expulsion of the last Roman king, Tarquinius Superbus, who was forced to flee Rome because his son Sextus so violated Lucretia. As Ovid explains in Fasti 2.685–852, Lucretia’s death in­spired Brutus to take up arms against King Tarquinius. Therefore, the Sabines who observe the feast day of Lucretia are mourning the sexual exploitation of their ancestors, but also celebrating a political watershed — the advent of Roman repub­licanism — made possible, in no small part, by the heroism of Lucretia. Lydgate speaks explicitly of the political fallout in his Serpent of Division, ed. MacCracken, p. 49. On the rapes of Lucretia and the Sabine women, see Livy’s History of Rome 1. The question of the heroism of Lucretia’s suicide is discussed in Augustine’s City of God, 1.19. Chaucer recounts the legend in LGW, lines 1680–1885; Gower in CA 7.4754–5130.

102–10 There saugh I also . . . as Chaucer tellith us. A synopsis of the first two parts of The Knight’s Tale, CT I(A)859–1880, in which the Theban knights Palamon and Arcite are smitten by the sight of Emily, whom they glimpse from a prison cell in Athens. They are compelled to settle their dispute in a manner decided by Theseus. Lerer observes that the summary is the longest of all the descrip­tions of "sondri lovers," and the only one to mention a source. Its centrality leads him to argue that the narrator is presented as a "reader" of Chaucer (Lerer, Chaucer and His Readers, pp. 69–70).

105 hurt unwarli thurugh casting of an eyghe. A motif of courtly poetry. See Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale, CT I(A)1077–97 and TC 2.533–36. Compare lines 231–32 and 850.

112–16 The nymph Daphne, pursued through the forest by the love-struck Phoebus Apollo, escapes the fiery passion of the sun god when she is transformed into a laurel tree. The story is derived from Metam. 1.452–567, and referred to in TC 3.726–27. Gower has a version of the fable in CA 3.1685–1720.
112 arow of gold. Compare line 445. Cupid’s arrows are described in RR, lines 918–98.

114 envie of the god Cupide. According to Metam. 1.452–567, Cupid targets Phebus just to prove that the shafts of love are more powerful than the shafts of the sun.

117–20 Jove (or Jupiter), another promiscuous shape-changing god, took the form of a bull when he ravished Europa. The story is derived from Metam. 2.833–75, and referred to very briefly in TC 3.722–24.

121–25 Jove sleeps with Alcmene (Almen) by taking on the shap (line 122) of her hus­band Amphitrion, thereby conceiving Hercules. See Ovid’s Amores 1.13.45–46 and Metam. 6.112. Chaucer makes passing reference to the night of sexual intrigue in TC 3.1428; an adaptation of the legend can be found in CA 2.2459–95.

126–28 Vulcan, the unattractive and aged husband of Venus, discovered his wife en­gaged in sexual congress with the dashing warrior god Mars. Vulcan fettered the adulterers with chains and exposed them to the other gods, but the gods were charmed by the sight of the handsome pair of lovers and only ridiculed Vulcan. The origin is Metam. 4.171–89 and Ars Amatoria 2.561–92; also trans­mitted in Romance of the Rose, lines 18061–130 and Fulgentius the Mythographer, 2.7 (trans. Whitbread, pp. 72–73). Chaucer refers to the incident in The Knight’s Tale, CT I(A)2383–92, and in A Complaint of Mars. Gower tells the tale, in CA 5.635–725, as if from the perspective of the mocking gods, applying the example to jealous husbands: it is better to pretend you know nothing of your wife’s infidelity than to attract slander for petty jealousy. Lydgate seems nearly as sympathetic in Complaynt of a Loveres Lyfe, lines 389–92 and 621–26.
In another version of TG, Lydgate daringly capitalized on the amorality of the fable to draw an explicit comparison between the situation of Venus and that of the lady: in stanzas that replace lines 335–69 of the present edition (see explanatory notes to those lines below), the lady identifies herself as among those women who are "oppressed" no less than Venus was by her jealous hus­band. Lydgate may have altered these lines (or a scribe may have done so), but they only make explicit a romantic notion that is implicit else­where in all of the surviving versions of TG: erotic desire has its own natural justification that transcends the artificial constraints of legal marriage.

129–36 Mercurie and Philologye. Alluding to Martianus Capella’s Marriage of Philology and Mercury, a fifth-century work well known to the later Middle Ages. Chau­cer makes passing references to the marriage in The Merchant’s Tale, CT IV(E)1732–37, and HF, line 985. Crockett thinks the juxtaposition here of Mercury and Philology with Mars and Venus generates an ironic contrast between "virtu­ous" and "corrupt love" ("Venus Unveiled," pp. 75–76). But medieval love poets take much pleasure in moral equivocation, and Lydgate certainly ab­stains from explicit moral condemnation in TG. Chaucer’s Wife of Bath, CT III(D)697–705, describes the contrary astrological influences of the planets Mercury (god of studious but boring old clerks) and Venus (goddess of lusty, youthful women). In CA 7.755–800 the planets are contrasted in a similarly ambivalent manner: Mercury governs bookish, idle, avaricious folk (mainly in France), while Venus governs the amorous, courteous, and pleasure-seeking (Italians).

138–42 The passage introduces the last set of painted figures and alludes to Chaucer’s Squire’s Tale, CT V(F)9–708, an unfinished romance told by "a yong Squier, / A lovyere and a lusty bacheler" (General Prologue, CT I[A]79–80). In it Canacee receives a gift of a magic ring, enabling her to commune with a lovelorn falcon who relates a tragic tale of betrayal. Canacee’s brother re­ceives a mechanical brass horse, but the narrative breaks off before we find out exactly how he was oft holpen (TG, line 141) by the magical gift (but see CT V[F]666 for the Squire’s declared intention to relate the whole matter).

143–246 The focus of the dream vision now shifts from the "past perfect," in which the fates of legendary lovers have long been decided in the ancient past and are memorialized in static pictures, to the suspended "continuous present": the thousands now in the temple are redi to complein (line 145), and the out­comes of their cases remain undecided. This is the anxious context out of which will emerge the figure of a lady pleading her case to Venus, and even at the end of the poem the fate of the central characters remains unknown. Those awaiting an audience with Venus are like the petitioners in other courts of love (e.g., Assembly of Ladies and James I’s Kingis Quair), and they are further remi­niscent of the groups who come asking favors of Fame in HF.

147–48 envie . . . fals Jelousie. Schick capitalizes envie to give it the force of person­ification, partly on the authority of RR lines 247–48: "Envye, that never lough / Nor never wel in hir herte ferde." I mark abstract nouns as personified figures where the immediate context dictates an allegorical sense (e.g., "fals Jelousie"); capitalization is employed elsewhere, but sparingly. "Lydgate’s practice seems sometimes to hover just short of personification, posing some difficulties for an editor" (TG, ed. Boffey, p. 33).

156 Daunger. Guardian of the rosebush in RR, lines 3015 ff., Daunger represents the lady’s aloof or guarded attitude towards her suitors, dramatized later in the poem when in lines 1047–53 the lady betrays no enthusiasm for her lover. Daunger is mentioned together with Disdain in PF, line 136, a line which may be the source of Lydgate’s.

159 poverté. Personified in RR, line 450.

175 Riches. Also personified in RR, line 1033. Compare PF, line 261.

179–95 And some ther were as maydens yung of age. The circumstances and the frank language recall Chaucer’s Merchant’s Tale, CT IV(E)1245–2418, to which Lydgate expressly alludes in the reference to the ill-matched marriage of Jan­uary and May. The theme is also taken up in Chaucer’s Miller’s Tale, CT I(A)3224–30.
Another version of the complaint (as given in MSS G and S) strongly suggests that the lady would have belonged to this group of plaintiffs; see explanatory notes to lines 126–28 and 335-69. In the extenuating light of such forced alliances between impotent old men and young women, Lydgate’s lovers should not have to plead very hard to justify their romantic wishes (the absorbing sentimentality of which verges at times on the anti-matrimonial in TG). Genuine affection — even if adulterous — is probably more noble by contrast.

182 elde. A personification in RR, line 349.

196–208 And right anon I herd othir crie. These others are "child oblates" who were committed at a young age by their parents or guardians to a monastery or convent. The Benedictine Rule was particularly strict in holding that oblates were bound for life to remain in their religious vocation, but the practice was (officially) obsolescent by the thirteenth century, and wherever it continued would have been controversial: as Lydgate himself observes, adult oblates learned to keep up superficial appearances. Lydgate was himself enlisted in the Benedictine monastery at Bury St. Edmunds when only a young adoles­cent, and he did not immediately take to the discipline (according to his own The Testament of Dan John Lydgate in The Minor Poems, ed. MacCracken), lead­ing Schick to conclude that "Lydgate was certainly thinking of himself when he wrote those lines" (TG, p. lxxxviii). But the complaint was widespread, even conventional; e.g., compare The Court of Love, lines 1095–1136, and James I’s Kingis Quair, lines 624–30. See de Jong, In Samuel’s Image.

199 That conseiles in hir tender youthe. Perhaps referring to meddling guardians or advisers (compare MED, counseils), but as this is not a very satisfactory reading Schick freely emends to constrayned. But the original passage makes good enough sense if we take the phrase to mean that the girls themselves lacked counsel or judgment (OED, counselless). Compare the gloss on the line in TG, ed. Boffey, p. 35.

202 yeris of discresioun. The age of reason (aetas intelligibilis) was variously deter­mined to be anywhere between twelve and fifteen years of age in the later Middle Ages.

205 hir smert. As their presence in the court of Venus indicates, these female oblates ("many a faire maide," line 207) most lament their enforced celibacy. Pearsall refers somewhat cryptically to the way in which Lydgate is led here "into slightly indecorous irrelevance" (John Lydgate [1970], p. 104), but that can only be the case if it is really shameful to acknowledge female sexual desire. The literature of amatory complaint of which TG is an example opens up a space in which such desires are expressed, analyzed, and sanctioned.

209–14 And other next . . . with such treté. The third group of women to complain con­cerning a lack of liberty in youth. Their argument for "fredom of eleccioun" in love recalls The Franklin’s Tale, CT V(F)761–69, and is parodied in other medieval texts (e.g., Jean de Meun’s Romance of the Rose, lines 13959 ff., and Chaucer’s Manciple’s Tale, CT IX[H]148–54). Also see the explanatory note to lines 342–44.

210 That. Here and elsewhere (e.g., lines 216, 639, 1256, 1266, and 1319) the de­monstrative has an "instrumental value," conveying the meaning for the reason that, for that, or in that. On this function of the pronoun, see the discussion in Couormont, "Studies on Lydgate’s Syntax," p. 31.

240 ne durst of hir no. An example of manifold negation in the poem; see Couormont, "Studies on Lydgate’s Syntax," p. 85.

244 covetise and slouth. Probably social rather than strictly moral vices, these dis­court­esies may be conceived along the lines of the "sins" of CA. There covet­ousness (a sub-topic of the fifth book) is a vice of promiscuous and indiscrim­inate love for more than one lady or a desire for a wealthy lady, and sloth (the main topic of the fourth book) is a vice of absent, unresponsive, or apathetic lovers. Likewise, in TG the virtues of the lady (see lines 284–307) are, as we discover, not conventional moral virtues — considering her secret, prohibited desires — but are in the courtly context no less important as signs of her social respectability, good manners, and fine sentiment.

248 Pallas with hir cristal sheld. Pallas Athene (Minerva), goddess of war and wis­dom, whose shield is a symbol of fortitude in Lydgate’s Troy Book 2.2557–60. It is not clear whether Pallas and Venus represent allied or opposing forces here (i.e., strength augmenting passion, or virtue opposing beauty). "In this context Pallas probably represents worldly wisdom, since there is also some precedent for associating the goddess with the art of seduction" (Crockett, "Venus Unveiled," p. 77; see TC 2.232 and 1062, CA 1.1147, and James I’s Kingis Quair, lines 781ff.). See explanatory note to lines 464 ff.

250–64 Hou that ther knelid a ladi in my syght . . . in my sighte. The long string of similes and superlatives, bracketed by repeated reference to the narrator’s vision, reemphasizes the subjective, first-person point of view — a voyeuristic male gaze that has been guiding the reader throughout but seems to become espe­cially conspicuous at moments of intensity. Lydgate’s narrator is becoming involved as an ardent lover, and his involvement bears comparison with the embarrassed enthusiasms of the narrator in Chaucer’s TC. The narrator’s scrupulous "inspeccioun" (line 278) of the lady will continue for another forty lines with a doting portrait of her physique, courtly manners, and elegant garments — in rhetorical terms, furnishing both an effictio (physical attri­butes) and ethopoeia (behavior). Granted, the narrator’s comparisons are conventional and formulaic rather than idiosyncratic; compare BD, lines 817 ff., and PF, lines 298–301, and see Brewer, "Ideal of Feminine Beauty."

253 Lucifer. Name of the morning star; also an aspect of Venus (see TG, ed. Boffey, p. 88).

271 brighter than gold were. The line is cited under the entry for MED wir (n.)1b: "fine wire used for filigree or other delicate work; also, metallic thread; a piece of such thread; also, a wire used in supporting an arrangement of a woman’s hair." But it is an eccentric spelling and has as much claim to the subjunctive of the verb "to be."

294 An exemplarie, and mirrour. The lady exemplifies or reflects an ideal image of courtly refinement to which others should strive to conform. See also lines 752–54 and 974. On the mirror metaphor in medieval literature, see Grabes, Mutable Glass.

299 al clad in grene and white. Norton-Smith suggests that green and white signify constancy and chastity. These are the colors of the hawthorn chaplet be­stowed by Venus in lines 503–08, where the evergreen appears to signify con­stancy and youth. The same colors are used in the description of Alceste, a figure of the faithful wife, in LGW, F Prol. 242. Crockett, in "Venus Unveiled," p. 78, observes that green is elsewhere a "chaungable colour" (Lydgate’s Fall of Princes 7.1240), but this does not square with the prior description of the lady (e.g., hir vertu and hir stabilnes, line 306). Her colors are black, red, and white in MSS G and S.

303–04 With sondri rolles on hir garnement / Forto expoune the trouth of hir entent. "Embroi­dered texts were a relatively common feature on items of aristocratic dress" (TG, ed. Boffey, p. 39). Compare The Assembly of Ladies, lines 85–89, 206–08, and 306–08. But equally there may be a faint reminiscence of Boethius’ Con­solation of Philosophy 1.pr1.18–22, describ­ing a vision of Philosophy’s robes embroidered with Greek letters (signifying prac­tical and theoretical wisdom). Chaucer’s Boece was copied in one of the same manuscripts (MS BL Additional 16165) as TG, and so may encourage the connection; in fact the lady’s "reson" is remarked in line 1053.

310 De Mieulx en Mieulx. The lady’s motto, "From Better to Better," is a stock phrase in French and Middle English. It is also the motto of the Pastons, a leading family from East Anglia in the fifteenth century, who are known to have owned a copy of TG (see TG, ed. Schick, p. xxv). There has been an at­tempt to show that TG was composed for a Paston wedding (see MacCracken, "Additional Light"), but it is neither suitable nor very flattering as an epitha­lamium if there is any suggestion that the lady is escaping an earlier marriage. More­over, the fact that the lady in the poem bears the motto on her dress before she is betrothed argues against such an occasion. Other attempts to identify the occasion of the work are mentioned in the introduction to this edition. Pearsall, in John Lydgate (1970), p. 84, is probably right in observing that the search for a patron and occasion is "something to appease our sense of the preposterousness of a monk writing love-poems."
310-20 The lady’s litel bil (line 317), which so candidly expresses the somme of al hir wil (line 318), attests to her primacy and unusual initiative within the dream vision. As Scanlon observes, "In contrast to the aloof and capricious heroines of ro­mance, this protagonist is from the beginning the source of her own desire rather than a reflection of someone else’s. With her entreaty to Venus, it is she who makes the first move. While not unprecedented, this portrayal by Lydgate is highly unusual. It is not just that he endows this lady with erotic agency. In giving her desire narrative priority, he also gives her the capacity of suffering to the full agonies of the courtly lover, that mark of sublime privilege almost entirely reserved to make figures" ("Lydgate’s Poetics," p. 86).

335–69 The lady’s complaint is elliptical but suggests the situation of a woman unhap­pily married or betrothed without her consent (resembling those described in lines 209–14), or possibly subject to a religious vow (like those in lines 196–208). That she is caught in a loveless marriage — and is consequently complaining against neither a prospective marriage nor an undesirable religious vocation — is perhaps suggested by the phrases bodi knyt (line 338), we be on (line 341), and undir subjeccion (line 344), though the lines may simply suggest a reluctance to give up her freedom, specified by the Bible as a consequence of marriage. E.g., Genesis 2:24 or Ephesians 5:22–31: "Let women be subject to their husbands. . . . And they shall be two in one flesh." Only later do we discover that the lady faces a further obstacle in the fact that the object of her affection seems unaware of her love. In effect, Venus has not only to remove the impediment of some prior bond, but she must establish another. It is not Lydgate’s style in this poem to divulge the particulars all at once but rather, through carefully controlling the narrative focalization, to release details about the love intrigue little by little. But given the ambiguities of love and affective attachment, some uncertainties may never be resolved. MSS G and S are equally vague about the situation: in this alternative version of the poem these lines are replaced with others in which the lady complains bitterly about the jealousy of some unidentified figure, perhaps an old hus­band but possibly a parent or guardian. Following are the stanzas that stand in place of lines 335–69 (based on S):

*335     *340 *345 *350 *355 *360

"So that you list of youre benignyté Goodly to sen and shapen remedye Of wikked tonges and of the creweltee That they may compas thoroghe fals envye To quenche theyre venyme and hir felonye Wher that they hyndre wymmen giltlesse: Styntethe this werre and lat us leven in pees. "I pleyne also upon Jalousye The wylde serpent, the snake tortuous That is so crokid and frownyng on hye Ifret with aysel that maketh hem suspecious — By al kynde thou art so envyous, Of every thing the worste for to deme, That ther is nothing that may his hert qweme. "Thus is he fryed in his owen grese Torent and torne with his owen rage, And ever froward groynyng causelesse, Whose raysoun fayllethe nowe in olde dotage: This is the maner of croked, fer in age. Whan they ben coupled with youthe they can no more But hem waryen — wymmen ben ful sore. "Thus evere in tourment and yre furyous We ben oppressed — allas that harde stounde — Ryght as youreself were with Vulcanus Ageyns youre wille and your hert bounde. Nowe for the joye whilome that ye founde With Mars youre knyght, upon myn compleynt rewe, For love of yowe that was so fresshe of hewe.

contrive innocent smugly malcontent Consumed; bitterness By nature thinking the worst relieve fried; fat Ripped contrary; without reason reason fails crooked [men], advanced curse; fully annoyed furious anger difficult time once

The fear of "wikked tonges" and the dangerous burdens of public exposure remind one of Criseyde’s reflections in TC 2.729–812 on the unpredictabilities of jealousy and male preoccupation with possession. The Vulcan-Mars analogue does, however, suggest jealous husband rather than simply jealous male.

338 The bodi knyt, althoughe my thought be fre. A similar dilemma afflicts a group of female plaintiffs whose bodies are constrained in James I’s Kingis Quair, lines 631–44.

342–44 Mi worship sauf, I faile eleccioun . . . undir subjeccion. The lady is declaring that while she maintains some social respectability in her current situation (e.g., re­maining in a loveless situation), it is neither genuinely holy (of God) nor natural (Kynd). The emphasis on the lady’s lack of freedom joins a tissue of intertextual references (see explanatory note to lines 209–14), provoking comparisons with Ami’s justification of adultery in Jean de Meun’s Romance of the Rose, lines 9421 ff.

350–52 Similar sentiments are expressed in Chaucer’s Complaint Unto Pity, lines 99–100; PF, lines 90–91; and in The Court of Love, line 988. They all may have origins in Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy 3.pr3.33–36. But the lines also recall the moral paradox of Romans 7:14–25: e.g., "For the good which I will, I do not: but the evil which I will not, that I do." If so, the lady’s speech is an ironic redefinition of St. Paul’s complaint that his innermost spiritual desires ("the law of my mind") are at odds with the body to which he is bound ("the law of sin that is in my members"). This is a bold description of the lady’s pre­dica­ment: is her marriage a sin for which she requires redemption through adul­tery? Indeed the pathos of the poem relies on what Crockett calls "religious inversion," when, for example, Venus goes on to describe the lady’s situation as a "purgatorie" (line 375). On the courtly "religion of love," see Lewis, Allegory of Love, pp.18–22, and Spearing, Medieval Dream-Poetry, p. 28.

382 ye. The first occurrence in the poem of the second person "plural of cour­tesy," used here by Venus to address the lady. Elsewhere the same decorum is used by the lady towards the knight and the knight towards the lady, thus demonstrating something of their cultivated speech or "daliaunce" (line 291). See Couormont, "Studies on Lydgate’s Syntax," pp. 64–66.

385–87 Withoute chaunge of mutabilité . . . To take louli youre adversité. The lady’s endur­ance and dedication suggest that she may not be one of those other types of women, represented in antifeminist satire, who are inconstant and indiscrim­inate. But see Crockett’s "Venus Unveiled" for an unsympathetic reading along these lines and the suggestion that the lady is idolatrous, unfaithful, and concupiscent.

389 old Saturne, my fadur. "In Astrol., on account of its remoteness and slowness of motion, Saturn was supposed to cause coldness, sluggishness, and gloominess of temperament in those born under its influence, and in general to have a baleful effect on human affairs" (OED, Saturn 2). Lydgate would have known the story of the birth of Venus from any number of sources, including Jean de Meun’s Romance of the Rose, lines 5535–54, and, especially, The Knight’s Tale, CT I(A)2443-78. Saturn can be said to have "fathered" Venus only indi­rectly when he cast his own father’s genitals into the sea, from whence Venus emerged. See also Fulgentius the Mythographer 1.1 and 2.1 (trans. Whitbread, pp. 49 and 66–67).

398–404 Following the logic of Pandarus ("By his contrarie is every thyng declared") in TC 1.637–48, and expounded elsewhere in Chaucer. This doctrine of contraries has respectable origins in Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy 4.pr2.10–12. See also lines 1250–63 in TG.

401 waped and amate. The OED entry for whaped, "bewildered, dismayed," cites this very line. MED wappen (v.)1c refers to the same collocation as it is em­ployed in Lydgate’s Troy Book 4.3647, giving it an expansive figurative sense: "to be plunged or driven (into an emotional state), be stricken (with grief), be astonished or dismayed." Potential ambiguity with the word wappen (v.)2 "to drape, cover" is admitted. Amati is a chess metaphor, i.e., to be "checkmated."

405–11 Grisilde . . . Penalope . . . Dorigene. Griselda has been referred to in lines 75–76, Penelope in lines 67–69; see explanatory notes above. Dorigen is the heroine of Chaucer’s Franklin’s Tale, CT V(F)729–1624, where she contemplates suicide to avoid marital infidelity. Oddly, Venus has chosen examples of three faithful wives whose marriages are happily salvaged.

411 joy is ende and fine of paine. Sounding like Pandarus again in TC 1.952. See Whiting J61.

436 my brond. Venus’ firebrand as described, for example, in Alan of Lille, Anticlaudianus 9.233–34 (trans. Sheridan, p. 210), and invoked in numerous other medieval texts. Compare PF 113–14 and The Merchant’s Tale (CT IV[E]1777); and see RR, lines 3705–10. The image figures throughout Lydgate’s Reson and Sensuallyte, lines 1578–89, 2023–24, 4117–26, 4295, and 6949; and the following epit­ome appears as a gloss to lines 1578–79 on fol. 223b of MS Fairfax 16: "¶ Hoc fingunt poete propter ardorem libidinis" ("The poets write this because of the flame of desire"). Cupid has his own "brond" at line 838 in TG.

447–53 Compare the improving effects of love in TC 3.1744–50 and 1786–1806.

453–54 The following stanza is interposed between lines 453 and 454 in the alterna­tive version of the poem that survives in MSS G and S (based on S):

*455     *460

And whi that I so sore to you him bynde Is that for ye so many have forsake, Bothe wyse, worthy, and eke gentil of kynde, Pleynly refused oonly for his sake: He shal to yow, whether he slepe or wake, Be evyn suche under hope and drede, As you list ordeyne of your wommanhed.

454 this goodli faire, fressh. Previous editors have placed a comma between goodli and faire, making the latter an adjective and the former an adjectival noun as it is later, in line 1402. Precisely this adjective-noun construction, however, is used by Lydgate in Fall of Princes 1.6930 ("The goodli faire that lith heere specheles"); compare also his Reson and Sensuallyte, lines 5984-85 ("the goodly freshe faire, / That was fairer") and TG lines 577 ("The goodli fressh in the tempil") and 731 ("That goodli fressh"). Berthelet’s print of TG clarifies the construction by emendation to "goodli ladi," though the alternate version in S (the basis for Boffey’s edition of TG) reads "this goodely, feyre and fresshe."

464 ff. Whilom conquered the appel. Referring to the legend according to which Paris was instructed by Jupiter to award a golden apple to the most beautiful of three goddesses, Venus, Juno, and Pallas. See, for example, Ovid’s Heroides 16.53–88, Ars Amatoria 1.245–48 and 1.623–28, and Remedia Amoris lines 709–14. Lydgate would have known that Paris’ preference for Venus was interpreted by medieval mythographers as a choice of "beauty over wisdom" (Crockett, "Venus Unveiled," p. 81; see Fulgentius the Mythographer, 2.1 [trans. Whitbread, pp. 64–67]). Compare Lydgate’s Troy Book 2.2635–2792.

492 subjeccioun. In courtly love relationships the lady becomes the dominant figure exercising control over her male suitor in an inversion of the approved power differential of medieval marriage in which the woman is subject to the man (e.g., likely alluded to above in line 344). See Duby, Love and Marriage, p. 62; and Boase, Origin and Meaning of Courtly Love.

495–96 The following stanzas are interposed between lines 495 and 496 in the alternative version of the poem that survives in MSS G and S (based on S):

*500     *505 *510 *515

And in despyte platly of hem alle That been to love so contraryous, I shal hym cherysshe whatsoevere falle, That is in love so pleyne and vertuous, Maugré alle tho that ben desyrous, To speken us harme, thoroughe grucching and envye Of that ilk serpent cleped Jalousye. And for hem, lady, if I durst preye, Menyng no vengeaunce but correcioun, To chastyse hem with torment or they deye For hir untrowthe and fals suspessyoun, That deme the werste in here opynyoun, Withouten desert: wherfore we wowche To punysshe hem for theyre malebouche. To that they may stonden in reproof Unto alle loveris for hir cursedenesse, Withouten mercy, forsakyn at mescheef, Whan hem lyste best have mercy of hire distresse, And for hir falshede and for hir doublenesse, And in despyte right as amonge thes foules, Ben jayis, pyis, thees lapwyngis and thes owlys.

plainly befall Notwithstanding same; called dared pray before; die judge the worst Without justice; affirm slander To that [extent] in time of distress they would most desire duplicity [Standing] despised; fowls magpies; lapwings; owls

503–16 Another version of TG (surviving in MSS G and S) deviates at this point. Hawthorn branches become roses, and the lady is named (based on S):

*505     *510 *515

And thanne anon Venus cast adoune Into hir lappe roses white and rede And fresshe of hewe, that wenten envyroun In compas wyse even aboute hir hede, [And bad hyre kepe her of hir goodly hede] Whiche shal not fade ne never waxen olde If she hir biddyng folowe as she hathe tolde. And so as ye ben called Margarete, Folowethe the feythe that hit dothe specifye: This is to seyne, bethe in colde and heete Ever of oon hert, as is the dayesye Elyche fresshe, whiche that may not dye Thorowe no stormes ne duresse, how it be kene, Namore in winter thanne in somer grene.

all around Always fresh however intense

Norton-Smith, in "Lydgate’s Changes," suggests a revision was made to avoid the negative association of white and red roses with ephemeral pleasures and passions (compare line 299 of the poem, and see Troy Book 2.2531–41); but note that the same colors have positive connotations elsewhere in Lydgate (see MacCracken, "Additional Light," p. 135). Margaret may be the given name of a real lady, as has been supposed by Seaton, Sir Richard Roos, p. 375–83. However, it may instead be a sobriquet or an emblematic name, on which see TG, ed. Boffey, p. 51. Bianco, in "New Perspectives," p. 104, sug­gests that because variation among different versions of the poem concerns changes in the lady’s dress, motto, and chaplet, TG was probably "customized" to fit different occasions and individual ladies. Norton-Smith argues, less per­suasively, that the changes reflect an artistic process whereby the poem was revised and improved over time (resulting in the "final" version of the poem represented, for example, in the present copy-text T).

524 the goddes shoke hir hede. As in Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale, CT I(A)2265.

530 de mieulx en mieulx magré. Norton-Smith paraphrases the line, "I shall obey you better and better in spite of whatever happens" (TG, p. 187). The version of the poem in MSS G and S has a different motto ("To doon youre biddyng humblement magree"), meaning to promise humbly despite it all.

541 with sparouis and dovues. Sparrows and doves are the birds most commonly affiliated with Venus — sparrows for desire and doves for palpitation, trilling and cooing, and loyalty. In the General Prologue to CT, the Summoner himself is said to be hot and "lecherous as a sparwe" (CT I[A]626). See also Chaucer’s Summoner’s Tale, where the lecherous friar embraces Thomas’ wife and "chirketh as a sparwe" (CT III[D]1804). For doves and Venus, see The Romance of the Rose representations of Venus surmounted by doves (love birds) or being drawn in a chariot powered by doves as in Morgan 132 f. 117v (reprinted in Dunn’s edition of The Romance of the Rose, p. 336).

546 I went my wai for the multitude. One of the emerging parallels between the nar­rator and the lover, who is first introduced walking alone outside the temple.

553 ff. Withoute espiing of eni othir wight. Except that the lover does not escape the close surveillance of the dreamer-poet who, without any scruples, relates the private spectacle of a man unwittingly falling for an apparently unattainable (possibly married) woman. But the particulars are still vague. The man thinks his only misfortune is to have been wounded by Cupid, and the reader might assume that he loves a different lady: for the narrator holds back (or lacks) crucial bits of information, and the full implications only emerge in the subtle symmetries of language, imagery, and incident. Lydgate’s poem consists of a careful choreography of concealment and exposure, the pleasure of which lies partly in the postponing and progressive unveiling of the truth.

567–70 In these lines the lover’s lament echoes that of the lady: both speak of being bound, lacking eleccioun, being put under subjeccioun. But the suffering of the man is caused by the affliction of love, whereas for the lady it is being kept from love, whether by social constraint or personal choice.

572 ff. The man’s sodein aventur (line 589) is reminiscent of the unexpected con­version of Troilus (who during a visit to a different temple "Wax sodeynly moost subgit unto love," TC 1.231), though in Lydgate’s poem questions must arise as to why the man has come to Venus’ temple in the first place if not already a supplicant.

577 The goodli fressh in the tempil yonder. Unable to follow the man’s line of sight, we are left to conjecture whether this is the lady from the first part of the poem.

606–09 A nwe tempest forcasteth now my baarge. Compare TC 1.415–18.

612-13 lode-ster. . . so hid with cloudes that ben blake. Literally, the Pole Star, but more figuratively a stable point of reference, the lodestar makes several appear­ances in Chaucer’s work: in The Knight’s Tale (CT I[A]2056-60), the North Star’s legendary origin in the figure of Callisto is among the figures painted on the walls of Diana’s temple (see Metam. 2.409–509). Troilus twice refers to lodestars in the final book of TC: first in reference to Criseyde (5.232) and second in reference to God (5.1392). Lydgate, referring to "cloudes" that hide the star (line 613) seems to mean the literal North Star, with its mythological implications, but the figurative meaning of guidance lost is certainly appro­priate for the character of the lover who describes himself as a ship driven by a heedless tempest. These latter images no doubt owe much to Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy 1.m7, where "blacke cloudes" obstruct happy navigation (Chaucer’s translation). Compare Boece 1.m3 where Boreas blows away the dark clouds to reveal the stars so that, next day, Phebus may shine brightly and "with sodeyn light . . . smyteth with his beemes in merveylyng eien" (Chaucer’s translation).

618 He. T: And. Norton-Smith’s emendation. One might justify the manuscript reading on grounds that the loose and awkward syntax is appropriate to the knight’s rambling and declamatory complaint in which erratic shifts in subject, tense, and case tend to preponderate. But Norton-Smith’s emendation makes the long sentence so much more readable that I have succumbed, in this instance, to the earlier editor’s desire for clarity and sound syntax.

629 knoweth not to whom forto discure. The lover, filled with torment and pain (line 628) wonders to whom he might disclose his secret love. Compare lines 915-17, when he must meekly Discure his wound and shew it to his lech or else die for lack of speech. The passages echo Boece 1.p4.4-6, where Lady Philosophy advises the disconsolate Boece: "Yif thou abidest after helpe of thi leche, the byhoveth discovre thy wownde" (Chaucer’s translation). Here, the discon­solate lover’s leche appears to be his lady. He knows that only she can heal him and that can only happen if he "discure his wound and shew it" to her, but how that may be accomplished, either for him or for her, is not readily apparent. So he contines in his pein.

641 ff. Hope and Drede. An example of psychomachia (i.e., a battle within the soul between allegorical forces), the medieval taste for which allegories goes back to a well-known fourth-century poem, Prudentius’ Psychomachia. Compare Troilus and Criseyde on the might of their consummated love, being caught "betwixen drede and sikernesse" (TC 3.1315).

689 But stonde doumb, stil as eni stone. See Whiting S762.

701 Citheria. Another name for Venus.

703–04 Cirrea . . . thi sete. Cirrha, an ancient Greek city, is all of a sudden revealed to be the location of the Temple of Glass. Together with Parnassus and Helicon, Cirrha was thought to have been one of the favorite haunts of the Muses. See TG, ed. Schick, pp. 104–06.
The lover’s reference to Venus’ temple as her sete emphasizes that it is not just her home (MED n.2c), but that it is also her exalted position of power (MED n.1f and g), a symbolism that borders on the sacrilegious.

706 river of Elicon. Helicon is a large mountain in Greece.

736–70 These five stanzas apparently drew considerable interest from later medieval anthologizers, who used them variously as stand-alone lyrics. London, BL MS Sloane 1212, for instance, which contains fragments of one of the copies of TG, begins with a separate lyric of thirty-six lines, the greater part of which corresponds to lines 736-54 and 762-63 (collected as #139 in Robbins, ed., Secular Lyrics). The Bannatyne MS (Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland Adv MS 1.1.6) contains another lyric based on these lines (fol. 220v, see Boffey and Edwards, New Index 851/10), corresponding to lines 743-56 and 764-70.

743 in myn hert enprentid. Compare Chaucer’s Merchant’s Tale, CT IV(E)2178.

759 in vertue nwe and nwe. Subtly suggestive of the lady’s motto.

764 What wonder than though I be with drede. He fears rejection because his beloved lady does not betray any expression of "pité" in her demeanor — which is what one should expect of a sophisticated courtly lady, no less than from a married woman. Ironically, if she is the same lady who was the subject of the first part of the poem, then the lover faces greater obstacles than he knows.

778–91 Couormont identifies these lines as containing the "worst passage in our poem," conceding that it nevertheless "does not lack a certain clumsy sym­metry." The critic finds fault with what he perceives to be the undue length of the sentence (seventeen lines without a full stop), the proliferation of subordinate clauses, and the deferral of the main clause. See Couormont, "Studies on Lydgate’s Syntax," pp. 134–35. But the whole passage is finely balanced and elegantly structured around the two stanzas: each starts off with a comparative statement (To bene as trwe as and To love as wel as), and the fifth line of each reiterates the vow Right so shal I. . . . And there is no lack of verbs throughout the passage, giving it forward momentum and maintaining the focus of the passage on the lover’s undying love. See Hardman, "Lydgate’s Uneasy Syntax."

778–79 Antonyus / To Cleopatre. As recounted in Chaucer’s LGW, lines 580–705.

780–81 Or unto Tesbé . . . dethe. See explanatory note to lines 80–81.

782 Antropos me sleithe. Atropos, one of the three Fates, cuts the thread of life. Compare TC 4.1546.

785–86 Achilles . . . Polixene. See explanatory note to lines 94–95.

787–88 Hercules died when he put on a poisoned tunic given by his wife Deianera (Dianyre). The most detailed account of his love of Deianera in Middle English may be found in CA 2.2145–2307. Chaucer lists Hercules among the "fals and reccheles" lovers in HF, lines 397–404, because he left Deianera for the maiden Ide. Deianera, trying to win his love back, gave him a tunic that she thought had the power to make him love her. Instead, it was poisoned and killed him. The source for both Gower and Chaucer is Ovid’s Heroides 9. Chaucer relates some of the details in his Monk’s Tale, CT VII(B²)2095–2142; Gower mentions the pair in CA 8.2559–62. Given that Hercules’ love for Deianera was so mutable, he makes for a strange exemplary accompaniment to Achilles, and an odd model for the would-be lover to declare to Venus.

815 stremes of hir eyghen. Compare TC 1.304–05.

829 For hert, bodi, thought, life, lust, and alle. Almost verbatim from TC 5.1319 (as noted in TG, ed. Norton-Smith, p. 189). But see also BD, lines 116 and 768.

855–56 Cupide . . . / He shal ben helping. Venus appears to be granting the lover’s request that the lady be inflamed by Cupid’s brand (see lines 836–44), but Venus knows — and yet does not let it slip — that the lady is already desper­ately in love (see Torti, Glass of Form, p. 76). Cupid’s blindness is proverbial: see Whiting C634.

866 trw as eny stele. Proverbial: see Whiting S709.

905 For specheles nothing maist thou spede. Genius’ dictum in CA 1.1293.

913–17 The analogy goes back to Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy 1.pr4.4–6, adapted in the context of Pandarus’ advice to Troilus in TC 1.857–58. See note to line 169 above. On the proverbial tone of the idea see Whiting L173.

947 Mi penne I fele quaken as I write. Compare TC 4.13–14. The narrator’s involve­ment reaches a high point in this passage, where it is as if he has some personal stake in the love match. Like the lover in the poem the anguished narrator lacks words to express his "mater" and petitions a goddess to help him. Subtle correspondences suggest that the lover and dreamer are on some level inti­mately related (see Davidoff, Beginning Well, pp. 140–41; Torti, Glass of Form, pp. 81–82).

958–59 Thesiphone / And to hir sustren. Thesiphone is one of the three Furies, and she is summoned by Chaucer in TC 1.6–7 to help him compose "woful vers" and then invoked together with her sisters in 4.22–24 to sustain the tragic ending of the poem.

961–63 Nou lete youre teris into myn inke reyne . . . to peinte not, but spotte. The mixture of Furies’ tears and ink should so "blot" the paper that the lover’s complaint does not appear "painted" (depicted clearly or perhaps artfully) but "spotted" (represented imperfectly, smudging the paper as though with tears) as a proof of sincerity. A version of the "modesty topos," the poet’s declaration matches Pandarus’ instruction that Troilus write to Criseyde not "scryvenyssh or craftyly" but "Biblotte it with thi teris ek a lite" (TC 2.1026–27). Criseyde later receives a letter with "teris al depeynted" in TC 5.1599.

970-71 These two lines either reflect or give rise to a popular English song, whose existence is alluded to by Skelton’s Bowge of Court, line 253, and Garland of Laurel, lines 897-904. A fragmentary couplet of a similar (or identical) song, complete with music, can be found in Madrid, Escorial Library MS iv.a.24, fols. 114v-116r (Boffey and Edwards, New Index, 2782), printed by Robbins in the notes to the lyric "Parting is Death" (Secular Lyrics, p. 275). See Fallows, "Words and Music."

1005 secré. Secrecy has especially to be observed in adulterous liaisons, though it is always a courtly virtue: discretion is the soul of elegance. Moreover, secrecy affords lovers a chance for intensifying their pleasure (given the constant threat of exposure). But Bianco, in "New Perspectives," pp. 108–09, is astute in her observation of the paradoxical way in which the secret affair is "played out in a public arena" before a crowd of onlookers and co-celebrants in the Temple of Glass.

1042 Right as the fressh rodi rose new. Almost verbatim in PF, line 442.

1106–1284 The solemn act of binding hearts in oon (line 1108), here administered by the goddess and witnessed by her court, finally culminating in a ritual kiss, resembles a marriage ceremony. Kelly, in Love and Marriage, thinks it is a clan­destine marriage (pp. 291–93). However, it remains doubtful that the lady is free to enter into such a relationship with another man — unless, of course, such a restriction is itself what necessitates a covert coupling. The lovers’ quasi-nuptial tying of the knot (see line 1230) may rather be a formalized promise of a future together after the lady’s first husband is "disposed of, pre­sumably by death, so that she can marry someone else" (Spearing, Medieval Dream-Poetry, p. 176). Lydgate elsewhere uses the image of the knot to signify the marriage bond (e.g., as in Troy Book and Siege of Thebes), but it can also sym­bolize a bond of natural affection; see Renoir, "Binding Knot."
All of this is meant to be some consolation for the other knot binding the lady, but as Torti observes the new knot also reinforces the earlier bond: Venus requires that the lady discharge her prior obligations before consum­mating her relationship with the new man (Glass of Form, pp. 77–78). Venus’ ensuing sententious speech, a kind of homily to the lovers, is filled with moral injunctions to be truthful and patient. Venus may not so much represent un­regulated sexual desire (as depicted on the walls of the Temple of Glass) as a force for social integration and normative desire. Torti argues that Venus "increasingly speaks in terms of a Christian priest" (p. 80), and some time ago Pearsall called Venus "didactic" and "simply a mouthpiece for advice and instruction" (John Lydgate [1970], p. 107). And yet what increases the interest of her moral exhortations is the way they are inevitably inflected by the irony, unortho­doxy, and possible impropriety of the amatory situation. Her reasons for self-restraint are no less pragmatic that those of Pandarus (e.g., TC 1.953–61). See Bianco’s equally skeptical remarks, in "New Perspectives," pp. 111–14, about the supposed "Christianization" of Venus in TG.
1106 golden cheyne. The chain of love may be adapted from Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy 2.m8. But this is only the last of several references to chains in the poem (compare lines 126–28, 355, 523, and 574), in the earliest of which the notion of binding may not be auspicious: "When she binds the lovers together . . . is she performing a ‘marriage’ ceremony, or simply echoing the action of Vulcan in the early part of the poem?" (Bianco, "New Perspectives," p. 111).

1120 my cheyne that maked is of stele. Venus’ steel chain echoes back to line 666, where she promises to make the lady "as trw as eny stele," a statement that is reminiscent of any number of Chaucerian references to love "of steel," love unconditionaly strong and loyal (see, e.g., HF, line 683, TC 4.325, and LGW F.Prol.334). In the alternate version of TG in S, however, this line (S1140) is altered to read "my cheyne that is golde yche dele," perhaps under the influ­ence of the "golden cheyne" in line 1106 or of the fact that the arrows of the God of Love are specifically said in RR to be all of gold, not steel (lines 946–47).

1122 his long servise. As if conforming to the unities of time and place, the temporal sequence of allegorical events represents a condensed and anachronistic version of real events. Supposedly a "long" time has passed since the lover was first smitten.

1128 chaunge for no nwe. Compare LGW, line 1235.

1138–39 Late him for trouth then finde trouth agein. Compare TC 2.390–92.

1143 And love for love woulde wele biseme. See Whiting L506.

1153 constant as a walle. See Whiting W11–18. The line is reminiscent of Chaucer’s Clerk’s Tale (CT IV[E]1047), particularly in light of earlier references to Griselda in lines 75–76 and 405 of TG. See Scanlon, "Lydgate’s Poetics," pp. 90–91.

1157 Tempest thee not but ever in stidfastnes. Compare Chaucer’s "Truth: Balade de Bon Conseyl," line 8: "Tempest thee noght . . ."

1164 champartie. "The practice of aiding a litigant for a share of the matter in dispute, champerty," or "to hold one’s own (orig., keep or get one’s share), contend successfully" (MED 1 and 2a.).

1183 Woorde is but winde. A proverb found, among other places, in CA 3.2768. See Whiting W643.

1193 So thee to preve, thou ert put in delay. The principle seems to be intrinsic to Lyd­gate’s poem, structured as it is around seductive deferrals and displace­ments, frustrating the reader’s desire for disclosure. The payoff is greater pleasure, as Venus would say: "folk also rejosshe more of light / That thei with derknes were waped and amate" (lines 400–01; compare lines 1250–63). Lydgate seems to be complicit with Venus.

1225 my key of gold. Compare Guillame de Lorris, Romance of the Rose, lines 1999–2004.

1232–33 Saturne and Jove and Mars . . . And eke Cupide. Bianco, in "New Perspectives," pp. 112–13, says these gods are "a most unpromising collection" given their appearances earlier in the poem. Saturn has been the cause of the lady’s misfortune (lines 388–89); Jove humiliated himself for one woman (lines 117–20), changing shape again to seduce another (lines 121–25); Mars was caught in flagrante delicto with the adulterous Venus (lines 126–28); and of course Cupid is blind and notoriously cruel and capricious (e.g., line 114). It is always the case that the unsavory and sexually promiscuous behavior of the gods is a liability, but perhaps they are meant here only as benign influences. In TC 3.625, it is the teaming up of Saturn and Jove that produces the great rainstorm that, for better or for worse, helps bring Troilus and Criseyde to­gether while Troilus worries about the bad aspects of Mars and Saturn at his birth (TC 3.715–19), which he asks Venus to avert, through her supplication of Jove, "Thy fader." As we have already seen in relation to Venus, for Lydgate ancient mythology is adaptable, multivalent, and employed for limited and local effects.

1303 Caliopé / And al hir sustren. Muse of epic poetry; together with her sisters she sings hymns of praise in HF, lines 1399–1401, and she is invoked to help the poet communicate the joy of the lovers in TC 3.45–48.

1308–09 Orpheus . . . with his harp. . . Orpheus is the legendary musician who features in Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy 3.m12 and the Middle English romance Sir Orfeo (c. 1300). Derived from classical sources, e.g., Metam. 10.1–85. See also Fulgentius the Mythographer, 3.10 (trans. Whitbread, pp. 96–98).

1310–11 Amphioun. King Amphioun, who builds the walls of Thebes with the power of his harp song (or "eloquence"), as Lydgate relates in Siege of Thebes, lines 201 ff. Mentioned, for example, in Chaucer’s Merchant’s Tale, CT IV(E)1716, and Manciple’s Tale, CT IX(H)116–17, and found variously in Statius, Ovid, Horace, and Boccaccio.

1341–61 This song, sung in praise of Venus by the lovers in the temple, takes the form of a three-stanza ballade including a refrain.

1348 Esperus. The evening star and another name for Venus (TG, ed. Boffey, p. 88).

1365 Oute of my slepe anone I did awake. Chaucer’s dreamer is similarly awakened by a roundel sung at the end of PF, lines 680–95.

1379 ff. I purpose here to maken and to write / A litil tretis. Like Chaucer at the end of TC 5.1765–78, Lydgate vows he will compose a poem (litil tretis) in praise of wo­men. The simpil tretis subsequently referred to in line 1387 may refer to the future encomium or to the present dream vision, but in any case the gesture towards writing is comparable to BD, lines 1330–34. Davidoff, in Beginning Well, pp. 144–45, argues that the resolve to write shows that the dreamer-poet has discovered in his dream the solution to his troubles: "For specheles nothing maist thou spede" (line 905). Early manuscripts attach to the poem a 628-line Compleynt, the circumstances of which are not relevant to the dream but which appears to have been treated by scribes (Pearsall postulates a "literal-minded scribe," John Lydgate [1970], p. 109) as a continuation of Lydgate’s TG.

1389 The alternative version of the poem contained in MSS G and S stops here, and so does not include the envoy or dedication found in MS Tanner.
1389–90 Forto expoune . . . the significaunce. The poet thinks his dream is worth interpret­ing (technically speaking, it is a somnium rather than a mundane insomnium). On the different types of dream see Chaucer’s discussion at the beginning of the HF, lines 1–52, the typology of which is originally derived from Macrobius’ Somnium Scipionis 1.3 (Commentary on the Dream of Scipio, trans. Stahl, pp. 87–89).

1392 my ladi may it loke. The identity of the lady throughout the closing section of the poem has been the cause of great uncertainty. She can be taken to be the "real life" counterpart of the lady envisaged within the dream vision. If so, then there are grounds for thinking of the dream as an objectification and elaboration of the distress that kept the poet awake at the beginning. The man within the dream would be no less than a projection of the dreamer-poet — demonstrating the truth of Chaucer’s notion that dreams are wish-fulfilment fantasies in which a lover will imagine winning his lady (PF, line 105; the notion was originally derived from Macrobius’ Somnium Scipionis 1.3.3 [Commentary on the Dream of Scipio, trans. Stahl, pp. 88–89]). On the conven­tional "need-to-fulfilment" structure of dream visions in general and of TG in particular, see Davidoff, Beginning Well, pp. 60–80 and 135–46. On the other hand, the dream may have provoked the dreamer’s love for some lady he knows or has yet to identify; or he may be referring first of all to Venus and then to some female patron for whom he writes. All of this is part of the framing fiction of TG, carefully contrived by the monk Lydgate (not a courtly lover himself), to leave open more than one possibility for interpretation. As the previous lines implied, the meaning of the dream is not self-evident and requires interpretation.

1393 ff. Nou go thi wai, thou litel rude boke. Imitating the envoy to TC 5.1786 ff. See also Gower’s Vade liber purus, with which he concludes CA.

John Lydgate, THE TEMPLE OF GLAS: TEXTUAL NOTES

Abbreviations: F: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Fairfax 16; B: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 638; G: Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg. 4.27; MED: Middle English Dictionary; S: London, British Library, MS Additional 16165; T: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Tanner 346 [base-text]; NS: John Lydgate: Poems, ed. Norton-Smith; Sch: Temple of Glas, ed. Schick.

Title The Temple of Glas. The title is so ascribed in T, as well as all other MSS except F and B; see Sch, p. xvii.

2 For. T: ffor. Transcribed as a capital letter throughout this edition.

12 longe. T: long. Final -e has been added in several instances throughout for the sake of meter (i.e., eurhythmy). Besides longe (lines 12, 1373) changes of this nature include thoughte (15, 532); reporte (43); moste (61, 186); myghte (68, 89, 137, 285, 286, 309, 595, 1021); fresshe (70, 93, 184); trwe (71); herte (80, 312, 337, 363, 726, 756, 825, 839, 920, 921, 945, 986, 1182, 1205); dide (80, 116, 945, 1055, 1233); thilke (81); Troie (95); yunge, yonge (106, 193, 780); ofte (169, 193, 231, 669); kynde (224); finde (242, 1138); beste (292); harde (361, 957); shulde (191, 372); rejosshe (400); woulde (591, 893, 1143); hurte (601, 813); stonde (689); thanke (774); peyne (798); graunte (804); brente (840); waie (897); roughte (939); helpe (952, 959); peinte (963); righte (975); grete (984); bothe (1108); joye (1129); weie (1140); olde (1222); ferse (1236); founde (1239); withoute (1254); mente (1288); telle (1289); juste (1331); whiche (1334).

13 atte. T: at. So Sch and NS.

16 a. T omits. So Sch and NS.

17 wildirnesse. T: wildirnes. Supported by F and B.

18 liklynesse. T: liknesse. So Sch and NS.

30 atte. T: at. So Sch and NS.

32 Tofor. T: To fore. Joined throughout.

33 within and withoute. T: with in and with oute. Joined throughout.

55 Cartage. T: Carge. So Sch and NS.

72 she. T: sho. So NS.

74 daiesie. T: daisie. So Sch and NS.

75 also. T omits. So Sch and NS and supported by F and B.

84 forwrynkled. T: forwrynkked. So NS.

88 for his trespas. T omits for. So Sch and NS; but NS misreads trepas.

96–97 walkynge up and doun. / Ther sawe I. T omits two half-lines at this point, with a large ascending decorative initial causing a break in the text and the rhyme scheme. T reads Al this sawe I writen eke the hole tale. Emended fol­lowing the other MSS; so Sch and NS.

112 an arow. T: anoro. So Sch and NS.

113 thurughoute. T: thurugh oute.

115 Daphne. T: Diane. So Sch; NS emends to Dane.

116 that. T omits. So NS.

119 a. T omits. So Sch and NS.

123 passing. T: passig. So Sch and NS.
of. T: was. So Sch and NS.

129 poesie. T: poesre. So Sch and NS.

130 Philologye. T: Philloge. So Sch and NS.

133 lowli did. T: did lowli. So Sch and NS and supported by F and B.

149 obak. T: o bak. So NS.

150 causeles. T: causles. So Sch and NS.

154 T omits line. Sch and NS derive the missing line from other MSS.

160 on. Sch and NS emend to in; see MED on 20.d.

171 a. T omits. So Sch and NS.

175 on. T: in. NS emends to on, Sch to of.

192 soote. T: sute. Sch emends to So soote.

199 That conseiles. Sch emends conjecturally to That were constrayned.

208 That. T: Than. So Sch and NS.

213 at. T omits. So Sch and NS.

216 T omits line. Missing line derived from the other MSS; so Sch and NS.

227 geve. T: yeve.

249 statue. T: statute. So Sch.

262 hir. T: hirh.

281 geven. T: yeven.

287 or. T: er. So Sch and NS.

309–10 S, an early version of the poem, gives an alternative reading in these lines; see explanatory notes. In T the lady’s motto is rubricated here and in line 530.

311 This to. Sch emends to This is to.

320 T omits line. Missing line derived from the other MSS; so Sch and NS.

322 world. T: word. So Sch and NS.

323 hauteyn ben. T: ha doten. So Sch and NS and supported by F and B.

325 releser. T: relese. Emended on strength of B and other MSS.

327 Thurugh. T: Thurught. So Sch and NS.

335–69 Lines replaced by four stanzas in S; see explan­atory notes to lines 321-69.

345 ar. T: er. So Sch and NS.

365 albeit. T: al be it.

377 sadde. T: sad. So Sch and NS.

405 Grisilde was assaied atte. T: Grisild was assaied at. Accepting the metrical im­provement of Sch and NS on authority of F.

408 her. T omits. So Sch and NS.

411 Thus ever joy is ende. T has been changed to read: Thus evere joy is ended.

420 wounde. T: woude. So Sch and NS.

427 possession. T: possion. So Sch and NS.

449 benygne face. T has what appears to be grace (in an abbreviated form matching the spelling of the word found, for example, in lines 475 and 490) between benygne and face. Neither Sch nor NS register the extraneous word.

453–54 Other versions of the poem interpolate another stanza; see explanatory notes.

456 had. T: hath. So Sch and NS.

463 beaute. T omits. So Sch and NS.

465 his hygh request. T omits. So Sch and NS and supported by F and B.

478 Sith ye, my ladi, list nou to appese. T: With the, my ladi, list nou to have peas. Following Sch and NS on authority of F and B, but changing to ye instead of thee.

486 brought. T: brough. So Sch and NS.

489 hert. T: hort. So NS.

491 humbeli. T: humbli. So Sch and NS.

494–95 With the support of F and B, Sch and NS emend these lines to read: Unto his last: now laude and reverence / Be to youre name and to your excellence.

495–96 Other versions of the poem interpolate another three stanzas; see explan­atory notes.

504–06 Other versions of the poem read: roses white and rede / So fressh of hewe. See explanatory notes.

505 hawethorn. T: hawthorun. So Sch and NS.

518 for. T omits. So Sch and NS.

530 S and G have a different motto; see explanatory notes.

530a–b Explicit prima pars / Icy commence le secund parti de la songe. So T, NS. F, B, G, S, Sch omit.

541 And. T: An. So Sch and NS.

554 if. Blotted out in T.

563 in. Sch emends to by.

565 by himself. T: bym self. So Sch and NS.

587 him. Sch and NS emend to hir. I retain the masculine pronoun since it can refer back to God (579) or even the God of Love (572) under whose subjection the knight suffers for the lady.

602 take. T: tast. So NS.

608 possid. T: passid. So Sch and NS and supported by F and B.

612 Sch emends to I ne may not se; NS to (I wot) I mai not se. But the original can stand as a sensible and recognizable type of the "Lydgatian" line.

618 He. T: And. So NS.

635 myn owne. T: my. So Sch and NS.

638 That am distraught within myselfen so. MS: That I am distraught within myself so. So Sch and NS.

639 forto. T: for. So Sch and NS.

645 iset. Sch emends to set.

655 Sch and NS emend hold (i.e., detained, urged, obliged) to bold, despite evidence of other MSS.

657 contrarie. T: contrare. So NS.

664 myschef. Sch and NS emend to myself.

666 she. T: sho. So NS.

673 thorugh. T: though. So Sch and NS.

676 therewithal bitt. T: therewith bitter. So Sch and NS.

677 Sch emends to be bold but nevertheless retains the sense of the original in his gloss ("Hope makes me look for mercy"), appropriately given the next line about the face of the beloved.

694 thoughte. T: though. So Sch and NS.

703 al. T omits. So Sch and NS.

705 oft. T: of. So Sch and NS.

706 Elicon. T: eleccion. So Sch and NS.

711 Benigneli. T: Benigli. So Sch and NS.

719 so dere. T: sodere.

726 fire hire. T: hire fire. So Sch and NS.

736 geve. T: yeve.
hardines. NS misreads herdines.

741 woid. Sch and NS emend to vowed, but the spelling also occurs in 1128.

747 kyndenes. T: kyndnes. So Sch and NS.

767 therfor. T: therfro. So Sch and (silently) NS.

771 avowe. T: avove. So Sch and (silently) NS.

773 humbeli. T: humble. So NS.

785 as wel. T: aswel.

802 enclyne. NS misreads enclynce.

808 your. T omits. Sch and NS make the addition on the authority of other MSS.

821 Second I. T omits. So Sch and NS with support from F and B.

843 flaumed. T: baumed. So Sch and NS with support from F and B.

849 benygneli. T: benygli. So Sch and NS.

851 goodeli. T: goodli. So Sch and NS.

852 humbelie. T: humblie. So Sch and NS.

872 Demen. T: Semen. So Sch and NS.

877 dilacioun. T: dillusioun. So Sch and NS with support from F and B.

885 enspiren. T: enspire. So Sch and NS.

901 sage. T: sange.

915 hurtis. Sch emends to hertis.

928 NS adds may apparently to avoid a "Lydgatian" line.

939 that. Sch emends to though.

961 myn inke. T: myn eighe inke. "Eighe" is marked for deletion.

967 hidde. T: hid. So Sch and NS.

980 helpen. T: help. So Sch and NS.

983 to. T omits. So Sch and NS.

988 hidde. T: hid. So Sch and NS.

990 hath bound me to. T: me hath bound unto. So Sch and NS.

997 Whereso. T: Wheresoever. So Sch and NS and supported by F and B.

1000 goodeli. T: goodl. So NS. Sch emends to goodli.

1008 yow allone. T: yow ben allone. So Sch and NS following F and B.

1009 gan. T: began. So Sch and NS following F and B.

1012 deien. T: dein. So Sch and NS.

1013 any. T: anay. Second "a" marked for deletion.

1020 womanli. T: womanl. So Sch and NS.

1023 for. T omits. So Sch and NS.

1029 my wittes. T: as my wittes. So Sch and NS.

1034 atte. T: at. So NS.

1045 femynynité. T: femynyte. So Sch and NS.

1047 humbele. T: humble. So Sch. NS emends to humblei.

1057 behest. T: hest. So Sch and NS.

1082 list. T omits. So Sch and NS.

1087 hidde. T: hid. So Sch and NS.

1088 hertes. T: hert. So Sch. NS emends to hertis.

1098 relesen. T: plesen. So Sch and NS.

1105 mekeli. T: mekel. So Sch and NS.

1110 benygne. NS misreads benyngne.

1113 as hit is. T: at his. So Sch and NS.

1138 trouth₂. T omits. So Sch and NS.

1144 geve. T: yeve.

1161 do them. Sch emends to hem don.

1165 alle. T: al. So Sch and NS.

1188 herte myne. T: hertes mynd. So Sch and NS following F and B.

1189 hir yyve. Sch emends to yyve hir.

1190 othir. T: oth. So Sch and NS.

1191 Sch and NS remove that, though the dactyl seems acceptable.

1208 worldis. T: wordis. So Sch and NS.

1217 Whan. T: Wan. So Sch and NS.

1229 bonde. T: bounde. So Sch and NS with support from F and B.

1230 is. T: ye. So Sch and NS.

1234 overmore. Sch and NS emend to evermore; but see MED overmor(e).

1237 falle. T: fal. So Sch and NS.

1257 in. T omits. So Sch and NS.

1270 knot. T: þnot. Þ marked for erasure. So Sch and NS.

1273 wele. Sch emends to well, NS to wel. Final –e was in the process of losing phonetic value during this period, but full feminine rhyme remains a possibility.

1278 so forthwith in. T: soforthe within. So Sch and NS.

1280 toke. T: eke. So Sch and NS.

1282 fulfillyng. T: fufillyng. So Sch and NS.

1283 wise. T: vise. So Sch and NS.

1284 As. T: And. So Sch and NS.

1289 thogh. T: thow.

1290 that. T and Sch omit. So NS.

1291 For. T: Forthe. So Sch and NS.

1293 of. T: to. So Sch and NS with support from F and B.

1297 shal. T omits. So Sch and NS with support from F and B.

1302 Geve. T: yeve.

1305 Sone. Sch enends to Gunne. NS emends to Gan.

1318 Withouten. T: Withoute. So Sch and NS.

1328 presscience. T: presence. A majority of MSS read presence yielding a four-beat line, and in order to correct for the deficient meter here and three lines later in the same stanza I follow previous editors by emending on the basis of S.

1331 providence. T: prudence. So Sch and NS.

1333 contune. T: tyme. So Sch and NS.

1336 gone. Sch and NS emend to gonne.

1346 Be. T: We. So Sch and NS.

1349 sterre. Sch and NS emend to stere.

1363 Which. T: With. So Sch and NS.

1377 Sein. T: Sei. So Sch and NS.

1383 fulle. T: ful. So Sch and NS.

1384 bounteous. T: bounteuos. Sch emends to bounteuous.