THOMAS USK, THE TESTAMENT OF LOVE: FOOTNOTES

1 sene, seen.

2 wende, expected.

4 wenen, assume; her, their.

5 lyft, left.

6 plyte, condition.

7 steeryng, governance; otherwysed, altered.

8 dureth, lasts.

10 hyldeth, pours out; wotte, knows.

11 throwe, mischance, fall.

12 sythe, since.

14 al, although; shende, destroy.

16 woweth, weave.

17 stoundmele, sometimes; phane, weathervane; renome, renown.

18 varyaunt, changeable; areysed, raised.

19 wenen, assume.

22 okes, oaks.

23 mowen, may.

24 byleve, faith, belief.

25 darne apere, dare appear.

26 went, departed; anoy, frustration.

29 gylynge, beguiling.

31 pursewen, pursue.

33 thilke, that same.

34 pertynacie, obstinacy; paynyms, pagans, heathens.

37 sterre, star.

38 werne, were.

39 connyng, wit.

40 sythen that, because of.

41 wotte, know; sythen, since.

43 catchende, apprehending; withsytte, resist.

44 travaylynge, laboring; misglosed, wrongly glossed.

47 ryder, horseback-rider, i.e., wealthy; goer, pedestrian, i.e., poor; leude, rude, unlearned.

48 me, people; shullen, shall.

50 apayred, denigrated (lit., damaged); sowne, sound.

51 eeres, ears; wyste, knew.

52 hede, heed.

53 asterte, start [involving itself].

56 dequace, quash.

57 trewe, truly.

58 mowe, may.

59 sithen, since; mede, reward.

61 persel, part.

63 thilke, that same.

65 feled, felt; assaye, experience.

67 sede, seed.

68 sowe, sown.

69 welawaye, alas; thilke, that same; mowen, may.

70 medlynge, mixing; cockle, weeds; stonken, stank.

72 cleape, call; kynde, nature.

73 eke names, nicknames; yeven, gives.

75 tytled of, entitled with; avowed, dedicated.

76 radde, read; mowe, may.

77 wexe, grow.

78 inseeres, lookers into, readers.

78-79 owande occasyon, owing cause.

83 leude, unlearned.

84 stered, guided.

85 connynge, intelligence.

85 crepe, creep.

89 yeve, give; endityng, composing.

90 swetter, sweeter; mowen, may.

91 laude, praise.

92 blere eyen, cloudy eyes.

93 whele, wheel.

94 discryve, describe.

95 thorowe, through; be knowe, acknowledge.

97 enditynge, composing.

98 in rhetorik wyse, rhetorically.

99 connyng, understanding; trowe, trust; somdele, somewhat.

100 swete, sweet; sowne, sound.

101 werbles, warbling.

103 yave, gave.

106 sothnesse, truthfulness; tytle, title.

107 sterre, star; clyps, eclipse.

108 sey, seen; wened, assumed; thilke, that same.

110 yle, island.

111 harberowed, harbored; wote, knows; greven, grieve.

112 disporte, please.

116 celler, cellar; gernere, granary.

117 wolle, wool.

118 pannes, pans or cloths; mouled, put away; wyche, chest; pelure, fur.

119 nete, cattle.

120 queynt, quenched.

121 woste, know; herberowed, harbored.

122 partie was smyten, part declined, or suffered eclipse; bare, bore.

123 yeve, give; a fote, on foot

125 durste, dared; grefe, grievance.

126 taylages, taxes.

127 feture, features.

128 wytte of

130 leude, unlearned; symonye, simony (i.e., sale of Church offices).

131 shendeth, destroys; achates, purchases.

132 eschetoure, collector of escheats (a kind of forfeiture); losel, flatterer; personer, partner.

133 provendre, provisions.

134 losengeour, flatterer; it acordeth, it's consistent.

135 voluntarye, voluntarily.

137 beane breed, bread made with bean meal.

138 auter, altar; lythe, lies.

140 towayle, towel; God, i.e., species of the sacrament.

141 meate borde, trestle for dining

142 clergyon, young cleric; chaunsel, chancel (part of church where sacrament is celebrated).

143 tapytes, tapestries; leude, ignorant.

144 surplyce, a priest's vestment.

146 dolven, buried; legystres, lawyers.

148 tort, law torts; hawe, worthless plant.

149 thilk, the same; torcious, injurious [men].

150 mowe, may; lyste, if it please; acorde nothynge, are congruous not at all.

153 forbode, forbidden; treaten, treat.

156 reignatyfe, governing.

157 heedes, tops, i.e., rulers; owen, ought.

158 ayenwarde, on the other hand.

160 lyche, like; shullen, shall.

161 stelen, steal, hide themselves.

165 And, And [if].

166 cleped, called.

168 cosynage, friends and relatives.

169 but if, unless; sothly, truly.

170 ther, where; nere it for, were it not for.

171 kindly, by nature; leged, lodged; behynde, i.e., lacking in kin.

173 Caynes, i.e., Ham's (see note).

176 servage, slavery.

177 sothnesse, truth.

178 gentylesse, gentility; in kynrede, by birth.

180 Pardé, Indeed.

182 tombystere, a female tumbler; gentyles, people of gentle birth; trow, believe.

185 evenliche, equal.

186 sede, seed; greyned, sprung; Wherto, Why; avaunt, boast.

187 cosynage, friends and relatives; elde fathers, elders; Loke, Consider.

189 corare, heart, spirit; leaveth, abandons; kynde, natural.

191 nempned, counted, named; mote, must; daunten, control.

192 leave, abandon; reignes, rule.

194 wight, person.

196 nyl, will not.

197 secte, sect, following; wene, make assumptions or allegations (see note).

198 haboundeth, abounds.

199 yvel, evil.

200 stynte, ceased.

201 deyne, condescend.

204 sene, see.

205 voyde, disappear.

207 lignes, rules.

208 thilke, those same.

209 aperen, appear; halte, holds.

210 mo, more.

212 upperest, highest; thilke, that same.

214 norysshe, nourish; graffen, dig, cultivate.

216 conne, can; crewel, cruel.

217 meke, meek; buxome, obedient; mevynge, moving.

219 eyther, or.

220 wenen, suppose.

221 properté, characteristic.

222 good, polite.

223 warne, deny; werchynge, working.

224 wotte, know.

226 fareth, fares.

227 fayne, pretend.

228 sely, innocent; freelté, frailty; beleven, believe.

229 gospel, i.e., the "gospel" truth; behestes, proffers.

230 lustes, desires; maystreshyp, mastery; toforne, before.

231 thralled, enslaved.

232 hede, heed.

233 traysoun, betrayal; let lyght, make light.

234 wonders, wondrously; dere, valuable.

235 wight, person; in many halfe, i.e., in many ways.

237 conseled, concealed; rede, counsel; to rathe, too soon; chere, demeanor; her, their.

238 gyleful, deceitful; assay, experiment.

239 kyndely, natural.

241 foulers, bird-catcher's; whistel, whistle.

242 beare . . . unhande, accuse of.

243 trayson, betrayal.

244 wreche, retribution; blober, blubber; wepe, weep; hem lyst stynt, [it] pleases them to stop.

245 her, their; complayne, lament; wenyng, understanding.

246 faylyng, i.e., not getting.

247 lyste, it pleases.

248 packe, bundle, suitcase.

249 wot, knows.

250 they, i.e., women; ye, i.e., men; myte, trifle.

251 wenen, expect.

252 flowe, flown; wyght, person.

253 assayes, experiences; con, can, know.

254 queynt, curious; conjectementes, pretenses.

255 gronen, groan.

256 disceyt, deceit; preveth, proves; werkynge, working.

257 lorne, lost; shent, ruined, destroyed; thorowe, through.

258 gyle, guile; dure, last; radde, read.

260 demed, judged; lightly, as light; plyte, plight; tenes, sorrows.

261 verey, true.

262 al nyghe, nearly all.

264 swetter, sweeter; behove, needs; mowe, may.

265 Loke to, Consider.

266 sawes, teachings.

268 graffed, planted.

272 perle, pearl; tenes, sorrows.

273 wyst, knew.

274 rote, root; lyen, lie, blaspheme.

275 rennogates, recreants; leasynges, lies; brenne, burn.

277 werker, worker; fortherynge, furthering.

279 stulty, stupid; sterynge, guiding [himself].

282 gylyng, deceiving.

283 thilke, those same (i.e., women); nempne, name.

284 proved, tested.

285 smertande, hurting.

286 gesse, guess.

290 tofore nempned, aforementioned.

291 sythen, since; fayrehede, beauty.

295 here, hear; lefte, left [off].

296 wene, suppose.

298 cure, care.

301 selynesse, felicity.

302 lyveth, remains.

303 howe, however.

304 her, their;

306 wote, know; wight, person.

307 weneth, assumes; thilke, that same.

308 and, if.

312 wenyng, assuming.

313 heere, hair (i.e., it goes against the grain).

316 wot, know.

317 gynnyng, beginning; mykyl, much.

319 nempnedest, named; mowen, may.

322 felest, feel [you].

323 Wenest, Assume [you].

324 con, know how to.

327 kyndly, natural.

328 wight, person.

330 cleaped, called.

332 yeveth, gives.

333 and it, if it.

335 cleped, called.

336 innominable, unnameable.

338 nempned, named.

339 lyveth in to, remain in two.

341 letter, hindrance.

343 cleaped, called; throw, while.

344 selynesse, felicity; suffisance, an adequate amount.

345 catel, chattels, belongings.

351 mowe, may; holdest, consider [you].

352 deyne, deign.

353 what, what [of]; mowe, may; Certes, Certainly.

354 holden, considered; wenest, suppose [you].

355 renome, renown.

357 Soth, True.

358 are folowed of, are consequences of.

359 wenden, assume.

360 wenyng, assumptions.

361 worchen, work.

364 entred, entered into.

365 knowe thee set in, know you [to be] set upon; hye, high.

368 as a lytel assay, as if for a short trial; songedest, dreamed.

369 tho, then.

370 thilk, that same; reve, steal; one, at one; ilke, that very.

372 wendest, assumed.

373 forther, further, promote.

374 mean, intercessor, intermediary; pardy, indeed.

375 tene, sorrow.

376 enpited, made compassionate, moved to feel pity.

380 oblyge in, commit to; Marces doyng, i.e., battle; contraried, opposed; sawes, sayings.

381 wot, know.

383 foryevenesse, forgiveness; mykel, much, great.

385 werke, work.

388 sythen, since.

389 fyned, refined.

390 heates, firings; alay, alloy.

394 wenen, suppose.

395 tyed, tied; queynt, curious.

396 thilke, that same; hote, be called.

397 inpossession (imposition), instituting a name (see note); for, since.

398 and if.

400 thilke, that other.

401 halfe, part, half (i.e., in God's name); fele, feel.

402 loke, see.

408 cleped, called.

411 kyndely, naturally; naughty, nothing, vain.

412 Ergo, Therefore.

414 nedes, needs be (i.e., therefore).

415 mote, must.

416 mowe, may.

418 wantest, lack.

421 mowen, may.

422 plee, lawsuits; but, only.

424 kyndely, natural.

425 and, if.

429 and, if.

430 goyng, i.e., departing.

431 knytten, make the knot of.

432 wenen, assume.

433 wene, suppose.

436 mykel, much.

437 ordynaunce, organic order.

438 werchynge, working, living; lymmes, limbs; ben, are; gatheryng, accumulation.

439 gynneth, begins.

440 nedy, beholden; out helpes, external aids; leveth, departs.

441 tene, grief.

442 strayte, miserly, pinched; teneful, sorrowful.

443 mowen, may.

444 gest, guest; meyny, entourage.

447 catel, wealth, possessions.

451 thilke, those same.

453 shul, shall go; wightes, person's.

454 Kynde, Nature; drawe hem, created them.

455 apayde, satisfied.

457 algates, anyway; a throted, gorged.

458 hastelych, quickly; feldes, fields.

459 meyné, entourage.

462 compted, counted; Thilke, That same.

463 wende, depart.

467 vaylance, value, worth.

468 outforth, externally; wenen, suppose; me, men.

469 wenyng, assumption.

471 Pardy, Indeed.

472 seken, seek.

474 nombre, number.

476 leve, abandon.

477 shrewde, corrupt.

479 lyth, lies.

480 wrieth, conceals.

483 throweout, thorough.

484 mowen, may; bandon, control; weneth, supposes; wight, person.

488 areysed, risen.

489 yeveth, gives.

490 ayen, again; wawe, waves; out throw, what had been sent out at first; but if, unless; pyles, foundation, stakes, pilings.

491 sadly, stably.

492 mowe, may.

493 warnyng, advance warning.

494 thorowe, through; cover, recover.

495 meve, move; tenes, sorrows.

497 in one ne in other, in one person or another.

498 trowe, believe.

501 unknytte, unravel.

503 wened, assumed; yeven, give.

505 encheynen, bind themselves to each other.

510 Ergo, Therefore.

511 mowen, may.

513 shreudnes, misdeeds.

515 at eye, visibly.

517 of, by.

518 to holde, to be held.

520 wene, suppose.

524 brende, burned; strete, street; werkes, works.

528 wote, knows.

529 queynte, weird; wottest, know.

530 tene, sorrow.

531 relyed, it (i.e., dignity) is rallied, regrouped; plyte, plight, circumstance.

532 selde, seldom; betake in, entrusted to.

533 Pardé, Indeed.

534 hers, theirs.

536 Sythen, Since.

540 magré, disdain; leneth, inclines.

542 Pardy, Indeed.

544 mowen, may; Kynde, Nature.

545 at eye, evidently.

546 syker, certain.

547 appropred, proper, appropriate; kyndly, naturally.

548 evenlych, equally.

551 throwe out, thorough.

552 burthyns, burdens.

553 shreude, wicked; werchynge, effect.

555 her, their.

557 Ergo, Therefore.

558 dame, mother; privyté, private part (i.e., womb).

559 engendrure, birth.

560 mokel, much.

561 slyly, dexterously; bytte, bit; arest, halting.

562 yeve, give.

563 clepyng, calling, naming; hete, be called; moustre, display.

566 barayne, barren; lygge, lie.

569 clips, eclipse; prevy, secret.

571 but if, unless.

572 yeven, give; thilk, those same; tene, sorrow.

573 con they on, understand.

574 suche lyghtynge, i.e., (ill-) shining.

577 brennyng, burning; hete, heat; freesed, frozen.

581 kyndly, natural.

585 not, do not know.

587 skil, reasoning; dewe, due.

588 shreudnesse, shrewishness; ferde, fear, intimidation.

591 besmyteth, harms; thilke, that.

593 kyndely, natural.

595 mayre, mayor.

600 Iwys, Certainly.

603 lyste, were pleased.

604 nempne, name.

609 wenest, suppose; thilke, that same.

610 yeven, give.

612 mowe, may; sene, seen.

615 cloude, i.e., when it turns cloudy; leaveth, quits.

616 mokel, much; appeyred, worsened.

617 croked, crooked.

618 leave, leave.

620 Avayleth, Helps; worthy, a distinguished person.

621 Pardé, Indeed; from, by.

623 syker, secure.

624 one of thilke, i.e., among those.

634 hemselfe, themselves.

641 brode, broad.

642 mokel, much, many.

646 drede, dread; lesyng, being lost; keped of, kept [on account] of.

647 ferdeth, fears.

648 ferdful, fearful; wenynge, assumption.

651 Ergo, Therefore.

653 sykernesse, certainty.

656 mowen, may.

657 wotte, knows.

659 lesen, lose.

660 leadeth him drede, dread leads him.

661 retche, cares; lese, lose.

663 withset, resisted.

664 leude, infirm.

665 croke, lean, bend.

669 adradde, afraid; gasteth, is aghast of.

670 feare, fear.

671 werchen, work, do; warnisshed, guarded; mote, must; warnysshe, guarding.

673 famulers, familiars.

674 sypher, zero; augrym, mathematics, arithmetic.

675 yeveth, gives; clepe, call.

676 Certes, Certainly; thilke, those same; skylles, reasonings; leude, uninformed; but if, unless; shorers, foundations.

677 charge, weight; her, their.

679 croken, crooked, wobbly; and, if.

680 syker, sure.

682 than, then; famulers, familiars.

684 ferre, far; cover, recover.

685 mowe, may.

686 voyde, avoid; weyve, avert.

688 mow, may.

689 naughty, full of nothing; thilk, those.

690 glosed, flattered.

692 weyve, put aside, avert.

693 cresse, trifle (lit., crease).

695 lythe to, lies in [the direction of].

696 Pardé, Indeed.

697 the selve, the same [thing, to him].

698 demeth, judges.

699 gestes, guests.

703 huyshte, hushed.

707 neverthelater, nevertheless; leudenesse, ignorance; maye, may [do what he will].

708 withsytte, resist.

709 and he wol, if he will; Ergo, Therefore.

712 ayenturnyng, wheeling about; frayler, frailer.

714 mokel, much; withsyttynge, resistance.

716 sureté, security.

722 rathe, soon.

723 rede, advise; wight, person; renome, renown.

725 trowe, believe; for, because of.

727 Fayne, Gladly; here, hear.

729 wyst, knew.

732 wotte, know; knyttyng, determining what the knot will be.

733 thilke, that same.

734 weyved, deflected.

735 espoire, hope.

736 wene, assume.

738 outforth, externally.

739 carpen, speak of.

741 veyned, in vain, shown to be false (feigned).

742 lackyng, blaming.

743 knyt, associated with the knot.

744 tho, then; here abouten, busy with this subject.

745 lacking, blaming.

746 as yerne, quickly.

747 mowe, may.

752 eke, also.

753 oned, reconciled.

754 eyre, air (see note).

758 lacking, blaming.

761 mokel, much; knyt, associated with the knot.

762 oweth not, ought not [be].

764 writen, write.

765 eeres, ears.

767 lacked, [to be] blamed; Nedes, [It] needs [be that].

770 echeth, adds.

771 slevelesse, trifling.

773 eched, increased.

777 wete, know; trowe, believe.

779 fleyng, fleeting.

781 lynage, lineage.

781-82 for why, whence, wherefore.

784 mote, must.

787 and if, if.

788 gentyled, rendered gentle (noble).

794 went, gone.

795 wendeth, goes; mowe, may.

796 duryng, enduring.

797 Very, True.

799 falowen, [lie] fallow.

801 withsytte, resist; werche, work.

802 what, whatsoever; queynt, curious, weird.

803 anguys, excruciating.

804 with holde, maintained.

805 wenyng, assumption.

808 kepe, heed; out-waye-goynge, journey, wandering; cleped, called.

809 wyght, person; wene, assume; stynteth, ceases.

810 secheth, seeks.

813 forenempned, aforementioned.

815 fayne, gladly.

818 brekynge, uttering.

819 werchyng, working.

821 mowe, may.

823 mokel, much.

829 nyghe after eye, based on experience, desire.

830 covetyse, desire.

831 wight, person; herynge, hearing; mokel, many.

832 affyched, fixed; sterynge, steering, governing.

833 lasse, less.

834 queynte, curious.

835 breakynge, articulatory; nempne, name.

836 privy, appropriate.

840 reken, reckon.

842 twey, two.

843 wenynge, presumption.

844 foryeteth, forget.

845 passyve, listless, unresponsive; sowne, lead.

847 accompted, accounted; Certes, Certainly.

848 wantrust, despair.

849 voyde, [render] void; thorowe, through; janglynge, complaint.

850 a backe, backward.

851 wight, person; Flebring, Chattering.

852 mokel, much.

853 shende, destroy.

855 waytynge, ambush; amaistreth, overcomes.

856 bye, buy; nobley, nobleness.

857 acompted, accounted.

860 wot, knows.

861 Ergo, Therefore.

863 Nedes mote, Needs must.

864 mores, superior's.

865 compted, counted.

867 longeth, belongs; mores, supervisor's.

872 mysse, error, misdeed.

873 out thresten, thrust out; lengest, longest; trowe, believe.

874 mysse meanyng, error-prone.

875 leave, leave.

876 ferre, far.

877 jangles, absurdities.

878 alege, allege, adduce.

879 wolen, will.

880 werre, war.

882 meded, satisfied; shullen, shall.

884 plyte, condition.

885 leest, least.

888 spede, prosper.

889 martred, martyred; radde, read; routhe, pity.

890 holownesse, cavity; trone, throne.

892 penaunce, pain; lyvyngly, still alive.

894 felyth, feels.

895 wyst, knew.

898 dayneth, deigns.

898-99 none . . . none hede, neither heart nor head.

899 to mewarde, toward me; throwe, cast; disporte, refresh.

900 weten, know; with . . . ymoned, that by others I am lamented; peysen, weigh.

901 her, their; peese, pea; daunger, peril.

902 hye, high.

903 wethers, storms.

905 yere, year.

906 Vere, Summer; renovel, renew.

907 wawes, waves.

909 ferde, afraid.

911 wost, know.

912 Pardé, indeed; ferre, far.

913 aleged, alleged, adduced; bale, harm; bote, remedy; nye bore, neighbor.

915 wote, know.

918 kyndely, natural.

919 werchynge, working.

924 stondmele, at regular intervals.

930 be, by.

933 stynten, ceases.

936 moten, must.

937 wele, prosperity.

938 appertly, openly; mote, must.

940 betyde, fall out.

941 leude, uninformed.

942 dere, dear, precious.

943 mokel, much.

947 leaved, left out.

950 slawe, [ready to be] slain.

951 lested, lasted.

955 sey, seen.

957 sprongen, sprung.

961 wight, person.

962 compted, accounted.

968 mote, must.

971 yelden, yield.

972 stoundes, times; smertande, smarting.

974 mote, must.

980 mokel, much.

981 weyve, forestall.

982 renome, renown.

983 in meane, in moderation; wight, person.

984 weten, know.

985 mokel, many.

987 sythen, since.

992 his, its.

994 farn, fared.

997 me lyst, it pleases me.

999 yeve, give.

1000 ferforthe, far.

1001 wyst, known; atones, at once.

1003 lynage, lineage; were lever, would rather [be].

1007 partable, not whole; houshold, i.e., place; sylde, seldom.

1009 plyte, condition; selynesse, felicity.

1011 selynesse, happiness; as nedes, necessarily.

1014 yeveth, gives.

1015 acompt, present a bill to.

1016 tene, grief.

1018 plyte, condition.

1019 wene, imagine [yourself].

1020 anguys, anxious.

1021 hostry, hostelry.

1022 sodayne, sudden; gest, guest; Wenest, Do you believe.

1024 hast, i.e., you have.

1025 sykerly, certainly.

1027 plyte, condition; reckyng, caring.

1028 Pardy, Indeed.

1029 lefe, desirable (precious).

1030 sely, felicitous.

1035 to, too.

1037 yeven, give.

1038 lesyng, [what you] lost.

1039 daunger, resistance.

1040 defautes, trespasses.

1041 ilke, same.

1042 daungerous sete, i.e., her haughty position.

1043 mote, must.

1046 meaners, i.e., people who mean ill.

1048 Certayn, See note on questionable chapter division at this point.

1053 to forne, before.

1055 Certes, Certainly.

1056 rede, counsel.

1057 outforth, externally.

1060 lese, lose; thilke, that very.

1061 mowe, may; reve, take away.

1067 yeve, give.

1068 sithen, since.

1070 steryng, guiding.

1076 wenden, assumed; me, men.

1078 leude, uninformed.

1079 outforth, externally; connyng, intelligence.

1083 smert, pain.

1085 evenforth, equally.

1087 steryng, guiding.

1089 selynesse, felicity; wende, expected [to].

1091 renome, renown.

1092 amaistrien, overcome, master.

1094 duryng, enduring.

1095 wenen, expect.

1096 partie, part; mowe, may.

1097 sechen, seek; wene, think.

1101 forleten, abandoned.

1103 and he, if he.

1104 hode, hood.

1104-05 blowe a jape, i.e., made a mockery of him, he is deceived.

1106 let, hinder.

1111 ynowe, enough.

1112 thilke, that same.

1113 reve, take it away; deth, death.

1114 a maistry, have mastery.

1115 renome, renown.

1119 gripe, grip.

1121 sodayn, sudden.

1123 quyte, requite; leasynges, lies.

1124 sey, seen.

1128 mowe, may.

1130 meke, meek; mokel, much.

1131 deden, did.

1132 plyte, in one, i.e., in the same condition.

1135 cleped, called.

1137 Evermore grounded, Well-founded.

1138 wotte, know.

1142 seer, dry, barren; burjonyng, blooming.

1143 welke, withered.

1144 A wydewhere aboute, A great region all about.

1146 conclude, confute.

1148 holpen, helped; wenyst, assume.

1149 And, If.

1150 Pardé, Indeed.

1152 werche, work.

1153 habyte, the habit [a garment].

1155 Certes, Certainly.

1156 cordiacle, heart attack, or failure; wotte, know.

1160 teneful, sorrowful.

1161 unlyche, unlike.

1162 ilke, same.

1164 yerde, branch, rod.

1167 chere, looks.

1169 worcheth, works.

1170 ycleaped, called.

1174 outforthe, externally.

1175 it neighed and, is near it if.

1178 donet, book of principles, first things.

1181 Ergo, Therefore.

1182 holpen, helped.

1183 gynnyng, [the] beginning.

1184 wete, know; spousayle, marriage.

1188 muskle, mussel; blewe, blue.

1189 kyndly, naturally.

1191 forayne, foreign, alien.

1192 congelement, congealing.

1193 and it be, providing that it be.

1194 eke, also.

1195 lynage, lineage.

1201 nobley, nobility.

1205 loken, considers; meane, mediatory.

1207 meve, means (see note).

1209 soulynge, entities endowed with souls.

1215 yeven, given.

1217 sawes, sayings.

1222 Wete, Know.

1226 Me were leaver, I would prefer.

1229 wolde, wield (see note).

1231 ferre, far.

1232 mokel, much.

1234 tene, trouble [me].

1235 wight, person.

1236 coutreplede, contradict; lyghter, easier.

1238 mowe, may.

1242 shullen, shall; han, have.

1244 hem lyste, it pleases them.

1245 wote, know.

1246 kynde, nature.

1247 lymmes, limbs; leve, believe.

1249 wyghtes, person's.

1250 deedly, mortal.

1252 Certes, Certainly.

1253 not, don't know.

1255 sythen, since.

1260 mokel, much.

1261 somwhat, something.

1266 a this halfe, on this side (i.e., here below).

1270 by, by [virtue of the fact that].

1271 onhed, unity.

1273 sythen, since, ago.

1274 eyther els, or else.

1277 ycleped, called.

1277-78 for farre fette, i.e., at a distance (metaphorically).

1279 gendre, type.

1280 Austen, St. Augustine.

1281 wete, know.

1287 apeted , appetite, expressed their desire for him; longeth, belongs.

1291 aleged, alleged; roted, rooted.

1292 wene, think.

1300 kyndely, natural.

1304 commenden, commend [by setting off].

1305 asured, painted or enameled with azure (lapis lazuli).

1308 yeven, given.

1309 mokel, much.

1315 wenest, suppose; accompte, account.

1320 yeveth, gives; lyste, pleases; sothe, true.

1321 adewe, God; deblys, devil.

1322 yeven, give.

1324 prefe, proof.

1325 Stoundemele, Sometimes.

1328 sythen, since.

1335 but, unless; kynde werchynge, natural function.

1337 sythen, since.

1338 shewed, shown.

1339 wene, know.

1341 yeve, give; demed, held, judged.

1342 accompted, accounted; but it wete, unless it be wet.

1345 leve, believe.

1346 lyen wel, are appropriate.

1349 me lyst, it pleases me.

1350 lysse, relief.

1354 lefely, permissible.

1357 collynges, embraces.

1358 queynte, curious, difficult.

1360 sechyng, seeking.

1362 connynge, understanding.

1363 wote, knows.

1364 lightly, easily.

1365 unleful, inappropriate.

1366 skleren, veil; wymplen, conceal.

1371 mokel, much.

1373 mokel, many.

1374 glose, and without any sugaring over, I called it of good worth; veyned, turned away.

1375 trowe, trust.

1379 bolne, boil, swell; novelleries, variableness.

1381 Mercurius, i.e., servants of Mercury.

1382 Veneriens, i.e., servants of Venus.

1383 leude, ignorant.

1385 mokel, many.

1386 pappes, breasts; fallas, deceitful; mowe, may; souke, suck.

1387 fallas, fallacy.

1389 collynges, embraces.

1390 sote, sweet; Nedes, Necessarily.

1391 surfettes, surfeits.

1392 sote, soot; deper, deeper.

1393 soner, sooner.

1394 faynen, pretend; conne, can, know how to.

1396 yeveth, gives.

1397 thylke, that very.

1401 amaystred, mastered.

1403 forfeytest, transgressed; Clepe, Call.

1404 mokel, much.

1406 styred, steered; wendest, assumed.

1407 wost, know; sythen, since.

1409 lache not, are not negligent.

1410 psauter, Psalter.

1412 leavyng, leaving.

1415 taryed, delayed.

1416 sythen, since.

1418 iwys, indeed; sone, soon; rede, advise.

1421 streyght her on length, reclined.

THOMAS USK, THE TESTAMENT OF LOVE: NOTES

As readers will have already surmised from the Introduction to the edition as a whole, annotating TL is no easy task. This is a matter of great concern to me. There are about 800 annotations in the edition. On the one hand, we can argue that, of course, there should be no upper limit to the explanatory matter offered. On the other hand, however, realistically speaking, there has to be some limit. Knowing that practically there is an upper limit, I have endeavored to include information, wherever it is needed, that will get the reader started: from simple definitions to core bibliography and across a wide spectrum of information between, I have followed the guiding principle of helping readers know enough to decide when they need to know more.
   All annotations originating with me are unmarked. All material originating with other editors and/or scholars is marked typically by their surnames (Skeat's surname refers, unless otherwise indicated, to his 1897 edition of TL). Regarding the work of Jellech, Leyerle, and Skeat, I should observe that material originating with them usually refers to their notes on a particular word, phrase, or moment in TL within the sequence of their textual notes. I am particularly grateful to Schaar for his closely reasoned emendations of corrupt passages.
   Of Skeat's annotations, I have retained generally those that provide source and background information and have omitted those that are primarily his speculations. With the work of Jellech, Leyerle, and Schaar, I have exercised my judgment always on the principle of helping the reader get started.

Abbreviations: Boece: Chaucer's translation of the Consolation of Philosophy; BD: Book of the Duchess; CA: Confessio Amantis; CT: Canterbury Tales; Conc.: De Concordia Praescientiae et Praedestinationis et Gratiae Dei cum Libero Arbitrio; Conf.: Confessions; Cons.: Consolation of Philosophy; EETS: Early English Text Society (o.s., Original Series and e.s., Extra Series); HF: House of Fame; MED: Middle English Dictionary; N&Q: Notes and Queries; OED: Oxford English Dictionary; PPl: Piers Plowman; PL: Patrologia Latina; Purg.: Purgatorio; T&C: Troilus and Criseyde; Th: Thynne; TL: The Testament of Love

Book 2

1 Very. Skeat identifies an acrostic in the first letters of initial words in the several chapters of Book II. In the Thynne text I have used a boldface font to represent what in the original are large block letters. Skeat observes,

The initials of the fourteen Chapters in this Book give the words: VIRTW HAVE MERCI. Thynne has not preserved the right division, but makes fifteen chapters, giving the words: VIRTW HAVE MCTRCI. I have set this right, by making Chapter XI begin with `Every.' [But see Leyerle, at the note to Book 2, line 1048.] Thynne makes Chapter XI begin with `Certayn' [below, line 1048], and another Chapter begin with `Trewly' [below, line 1127]. This cannot be right . . . the Chapter thus beginning would have the unusually small number of 57 lines. Chapter I really forms a Prologue to the Second Book [see Minnis, (1988), pp. 163-64], interrupting our progress. At the end of Book I we are told that Love is about to sing, but her song begins with Chapter II. Hence this first Chapter must be regarded as a digression, in which the author reviews what has gone before . . . and anticipates what is to come." (p. 463)

5 chaungyng of the lyft syde to the ryght halve. Jellech: "Although no direct reference is made, the allusion is to the turning of Fortune's wheel, so often iconographically represented as having on one side man's rising to prosperity and on the other his fall. Note this passage from the Ayenbite of Inwyt, ed. Richard Morris, EETS o.s. 23, p. 181:

Efter þise ui3tinge [fighting] comþ þe worlde and dame fortune mid al hare hue3el [wheel]/ þet asayleþ þane man a ri3t half and a left half /. . . ." (p. 251)

7 Of. Th: O. My emendation.

wrongful steeryng. Skeat emends silently to wonderful steering.

10ff. Grevously God wotte. Schaar takes the passage to refer to Richard II. This "badly damaged passage might be restored as follows:

Grevously, god wot, have I suffred a greet throwe that the Romayne emperour, which in unité of love shulde acorde with every other, <the> cause of <love> to avaunce, <this cause dereth>; and namely, sithe this empyre <nedeth> to be corrected of so many sectes in heresies of faith, of service, o<f> rule in loves religion. Through his very weakness, the monarch harms the cause of love by giving free rein to the powers of discord; only vigorous measures against these would conform with the spirit of love . . ." (pp. 14-15).

Skeat notes that there is "clearly much corruption in this unintelligible and imperfect sentence." The reference to "the Roman emperor" he calls "mysterious." Be that as it may, I agree with Jellech's rejection (p. 252) of Schaar's emendation and, like her, leave the passage as it is in Thynne. I speculate that the allusion may be to Constantine, the "Romayne emperour" who could be said to have "this empyre . . . corrected of so many sectes in heresie of faith," but this is only speculation which at this time I cannot substantiate. Leyerle proposes an entirely different solution (pp. 289-90).

12-13 to be corrected. Skeat: [nedeth] to be corrected.

13 of rule. Th: o rule. Emended by all.

15ff. that sayne love. Jellech notes that the four misplaced loves listed here are equivalent to the false goods enumerated by Lady Philosophy in Boethius, Cons. 3. pr. 2: wealth, renown, honor, and power (p. 253).

23 But. Skeat: But [of].

27 but. Skeat: but [men].

28 wo without ende. Compare Isaiah 5.20.

38-45 But I, lovers clerke . . . be enduced. Again Leyerle proposes a re-arranging of the text (pp. 291-92):

But I louers clerk in al my connyng and with al my mightes/ trewly I haue no suche grace in vertue of myracles/ ne for no discomfyte falsheedes/ suffyseth not auctorytes alone/ sythen that suche heretykes and maintaynours of falsytes./ with that auctorite misglosed by mannes reason/ to graunt shal be enduced. wherfore I wotte wel sythen that they ben men/ and reason is approued in hem/ the clowde of erroure hath her reason bewonde probable resons/ whiche that catchende wytte rightfully may not with sytte. By my trauaylynge studye I haue ordeyned hem

He then punctuates as follows (p. 72):

But I, lovers clerke, in al my connyng and with al my mightes, trewly, I have no suche grace in vertue of myracles. Ne for [t]o discomfyte falsheedes, suffyseth not auctorytes alone, sythen that suche heretykes and maintaynours of falsytes, [with that auctorie misglosed by mannes reason, to graunt shal be enduced.] Wherfore, I wotte wel, sythen that they ben men and reason is approved in hem, the clowde of erroure hath her reason bewonde. Probable resons, which that catchende wytte rightfully may not withsytte, by my travaylynge studye, I have ordeyned hem.

This solution might very possibly be correct.

40 ne for no discomfyte. Schaar would emend no to to, observing: "the error here is obvious and easily eliminated: ne for to discomfit falsheedes, no being an easy mistake after ne" (p. 15). Leyerle adopts this emendation.

41 suche. Skeat: suche [arn].

42 the clowde of erroure. Jellech cites Boethius, Cons. 1. pr. 2.6: "mortalium rerum nube" (p. 256). Chaucer translates: "the cloude of mortal thynges" (p. 399).

44 with that. Skeat: whiche that.

46 Nowe gynneth my penne to quake. Compare T&C 4.13-14 (emphasis added): "And now my penne, allas, with which I write, / Quaketh for drede of that I moste endite."

50 Certes, me thynketh the sowne. Skeat: Certes, me thynketh, [of] the sowne.

59 faith hath no meryte of mede. Skeat sees this as a translation of "Fides non habet meritum ubi humana racio prebet experimentum," as quoted in PPl B.10.256a (p. 464). Alford (p. 65), like Skeat, identifies this quotation as St. Gregory's: this is "Gregory's Homily 26 on the Gospels (PL 76, p. 1197), quoted in the first lesson at matins on the Sunday after Easter (Brev. 1, p. dcclx)." My own sense, therefore, is that the latter source is just as likely to be Usk's as is Piers; and I would caution against putting much store by Skeat's "as quoted in."

66 love in hymselfe is the most. Compare 1 Corinthians 13.13.

67 The sede of suche springynge. Matthew 15.13; Mark 4.26-29, 30-32.

70 cockle. cockle, tares. Skeat sees a possible reference to the Lollards, as "puns upon the words Lollard and lolia were very rife at this period" (p. 464). We should proceed with caution here, however; the pun is possible, certainly, but inferences from it about Usk's persuasions are risky just because such puns "were very rife" -i.e., such evidence is very general, hardly specific (see further The Riverside Chaucer, p. 863).

71-74 Neverthelater . . . thilke name. According to Schaar,

The general structure and idea of the whole sentence shows that the meaning intended must be: although the name of love, by foolish and malicious people, is given to things which do not deserve it, this fact nevertheless shows that the worship of this name goes deep and is essential to man. The corrupt clause must conform with this idea; and, I think, no extensive operations are necessary to restore this sense to the passage, which presents some rather insidious errors:
Never-the-later, yet how-so-it-be that men clepe thilke thing preciousest in kynde, with many eke-names, that <to> other thinges they foule yeven the ilke noble name, it sheweth wel that in a maner men have a greet lykinge in worshippinge of thilke name.

A to, then, was dropped and that erroneously repeated; the last letter of an original they seems to have dropped out; and the easy substitution of f for s restores the author's reproach. Thilke thing, refers, then, to the before-mentioned cockle; `although people call such a thing the most precious in Nature, with many nicknames, so that they shamefully give that noble name to other things, this clearly shows that in a way people have great liking in worshipping that name.' (pp. 15-16)

Leyerle (p. 73) offers the following construal of this difficult sentence: "Never-thelater, yet, howe-so it be that menne cleape thilke [li]kynge, preciousest in kynde, with many eke-names, [and] other thynges tha[n] the soule yeven the ylke noble name, it sheweth wel that in a maner men have a great lykynge in worshyppynge of thilke name."

72 thynge. Th: kynge, which makes a kind of sense, as if it were an appeal to Richard. Skeat makes the emendation, and Schaar's analysis makes sense too. But see Leyerle's conjecture, in the preceding note.

78-80 Every thynge . . . his fynal cause. Jellech "I have made no emendations in this passage, but the thought sequence is erratic. A possible source of the difficulty is the repetition of Euery thynge [line 78] and euery thynge [line 79]. Rearrangement of the phrases so as to merge the repeated `every thing' might give a clearer reading: `Aristotle supposeth that the acts of every thyng to whom is owande occasyon done as for his ende ben in a maner his fynal cause'" (p. 260).

80 fynal cause. I update Skeat's note. See OED C, p. 225, "cause," branch 4: "Final cause" is a technical term "introduced into philosophical language by the schoolmen as a translation of Aristotle's fourth cause . . . the end or purpose for which a thing is done, viewed as the cause of the act; esp. as applied in Natural Theology to the design, purpose, or end of the arrangements of the universe."

81 fynally to thilke ende. Skeat glosses: "is done with a view to that result."

92 putteth. Leyerle (p. 74) emends and punctuates as follows: "But who is that, in knowyng of the orders of heven, [p]utteth his resones in the erthe?"

97ff. Here Schaar argues for three pages (pp. 16-18) that Usk uses Alan of Lille as a source.

108 wened. I suggest [is] wened for sense.

109ff. I have me withdrawe. Jellech (p. 264) suggests that "Love's withdrawal from an evil and unloving mankind is similar to the departure of Astraea [Justice] in Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.149-50."

111-12 These thynges me greven . . . passed gladnesse. Jellech cites Cons. 2. pr. 4. 3-4 and Boece 2. pr. 4. 7-9.

113 They that wolden maystries. Leyerle proposes (p. 296) that "the literal sense is `in that age those, who wished me to have sway, in proper time were lodged in heaven on high above the sphere of Saturn.' . . . The phrase above Saturnes spere [sic] may refer either to the circle of the fixed stars, or to the Empyrean beyond."

113-16 Schaar would repunctuate to differentiate "then" and "now":

"Those who wanted power possess me. But then . . . they lived in Heaven; now, however etc." . . . The end of the passage seems also to have suffered some slight corruption. . . . we must read "and yet sayn some that they me have in celler with wyne shet" [--] "they say that with wine, they have locked up Love in their cellars." Shed is an easy error after wyne. (pp. 18-19)

116 shet. Th: shed. Schaar's emendation, followed by Jellech and Leyerle.

122 Somtyme toforn the sonne in the seventh partie was smyten. Jellech observes, "Skeat notes that seventh is possibly an error for `third,' and the allusion derived from Revelations 8.12, `percussa est tertia pars solis,' and it is not difficult to see how such an error might have come about. If the original manuscript has the numeral `iij' there would have been three strokes; if the number was not clear to the editor or printer, he may have read `vij.' However, I have not made the change" (p. 266). Leyerle does make the change. Further confirmation of Skeat's speculation derives from the gloss on Revelations 8.12 in Hugh of St. Cher (7, fol. 392^v), for example, where the passage is interpreted in terms of reprobate clergy, lacking in charity; just so, a few lines hence in TL the object of Love's attack is simony -but nowe the leude for symonye. . . (line 130) -or the sale of Church office (most generally, any use of religion for personal profit and aggrandizement) as opposed to servyce in holy churche honest and devoute (line 129).

122-23 crosse and mytre, accoutrements of a bishop.

131 is. Th: it; Skeat: is. Jellech and Leyerle concur.

131-33 Nowe is . . . encrease. Skeat: "And each one gets his prebend (or share) all for himself, with which many thrifty people ought to profit" (p. 465).

131-34 Skeat observes the rimes: achates, debates; wronges, songes. He might have cited forsake, take, as well.

132 for his wronges.Skeat glosses: "on account of the wrongs which he commits"; also personer, better parsoner or parcener, participant, sharer; i.e., the steward, courtier,
escheator, and idle minstrel, all get something (p. 465).

133 and provendre. Skeat: and [hath his] provendre. Jellech concurs, but not Leyerle. Leyerle (p. 297) glosses as "prebendary," the clergyman who holds a prebend, or stipend from his church.

134 behynde. Skeat: "behindhand -even these wicked people are neglected, in comparison with the losengeour, or flatterer" (p. 465).

146 dolven. Skeat glosses as "buried," observing: "because they (the poor) always crave an alms, and never make an offering, they (the priests) would like to see them dead and buried" (p. 466).

148 forthe. Skeat: force, which makes easier sense, but not definitively. I follow Leyerle who reads forthe as a noun, a variant of fort. Leyerle (pp. 298-99) argues that "the correct form was probably forche, `the act of appearing in court, or of taking a legal step, separately rather than as a group.' This AF legal term . . . gave the compositor trouble and he replaced it with a common word nearly indistinguishable with it in handwriting, but meaningless in context. . . . [Leyerle next paraphrases the sense:] `But among lawyers I dare not come. My activity, they say, makes them poor. They would on no account have me around, for then tort and individual cases in court would not be worth a haw nearby and would please no men; but these lawyers are oppressive and extortionate in power and activity.'"

148ff. Jellech emends pleasen to pleaden and this emendation supersedes Schaar's mistaken construals, which are based in the reading pleasen (Schaar, p. 19).

150 ryme. Skeat: "The reference is not to actual jingle of rime, but to a proverb then current. In a poem by Lydgate in MS. Harl. 2251 (fol. 26), beginning `Alle thynge in kynde desirith thynge i-like,' the refrain to every stanza runs thus, `It may wele ryme, but it accordith nought'; [see the Minor Poems, pp. 792-94, `Ryme Without Accord']. The sense is that unlike things may be brought together, like riming words, but they will not on that account agree. So here: such things may seem, to all appearance, congruous, but they are really inconsistent" (p. 466). See above, lines 131-34.

151 by me. Jellech: "The phrase is ambiguous. It could mean `by me, Love' or me might be the abbreviated form of `men'" (p. 270).

166 cease.Jellech: "The meaning of cease in this passage would seem to be `to renounce or abdicate a right or office.' The thought is that although the governed may have the ability to govern and administer, still they should not try to exercise this ability until their heads call on them, notwithstanding the profit or pleasure such power might bring them" (p. 271).

172 truly, he saith he com never of Japhetes childre. Jellech: "The basic reference in this sentence and the lines following is to Genesis 9.25-27, and Noah's curse on the descendants of Canaan, son of Ham, because he was seen naked by Ham. The biblical story was given various allegorical interpretations by Christian exegetes, usually associating the line of Japhet, Noah's heirs and Shem with the faithful, or with the church, and the descendants of Ham or of Canaan variously with unbelievers, Jews, or the damned. . . . there seems to have been a vernacular tradition incorporating the interpretation Usk uses in this passage. The Cursor Mundi, lines 2133-35, interprets Noah's curse as dividing mankind into knight, freeman, and thrall:

Knyth, and thrall, and freman,
Oute of þes thre breþer began;
O sem freman, o Iaphet knyght,
Thrall of cham þe maledight." (p. 272)

See further Allen, pp. 77 and 117.

173 Caynes. Leyerle (p. 300) notices that "the context shows that the form Caynes . . ., despite its appearance, means `of Ham.' The names Cain and Ham were confused in medieval orthography because of the Vulgate spelling Cham for Ham."

178 in. Th: in in.

178-93 Usk's eloquent defense of gentilesse as a matter of behavior rather than inheritance owes much to Boece III. pr. 6 and m. 6. But see also "Gentilesse: Moral Balade of Chaucer" and Chaucer's "Truth: Balade de Bon Conseyl" for similar wording and sentiment. The ideas are also prominent in the Wife of Bath's Tale CT III.1109ff. and the Roman de la Rose, lines 6579-92.

180 Perdicas. Skeat: "Perdiccas, son of Orontes, a famous general under Alexander the Great. This king, on his death-bed, is said to have taken the royal signet-ring from his finger and to have given it to Perdiccas. After Alexander's death, Perdiccas held the chief authority under the new king Arrhidaeus; and it was really Arrhidaeus (not Perdiccas) who was the son of a tombestere, or female dancer, and of Philip of Macedonia; so that he was Alexander's half brother. The dancer's name was Philinna, of Larissa." (p. 466). Jellech cites Trevisa, translating Higden's Polychronicon, as calling "Perdica, a tombester sone" (p. 273). See also Leyerle, p. 301.

189 corare. Skeat emends to corage. Jellech and Leyerle concur.

190 clerkes. Skeat emends to cherles.

191 nempned. Leyerle emends to [d]empned.

191-93 And therfore he . . . gentylmen maketh. Jellech compares the language of Boethius, Cons. 3. m. 5.1-4.

193-99 Jellech transfers the lines "And so speke . . . no maner mater," to Book 2, Chapter 3, below at line 281 between desyren. and Trewly Nero. She explains her decision thus: "These lines have been transferred from the end of the second chapter of this book because they obviously do not belong to that chapter's topic of gentilesse, and they are a fitting climax to Love's defense of women in [the third chapter]" (p. 283).

197 so wene. Leyerle (p. 302) emends to sowene, arguing that the word is the idiomatic sowne as in sowne in, meaning "tend toward, make for, be consonant with." "The sense is as follows: `I will say nothing . . . that can tend toward anything against her sex.'"

206-09 Ah good lady . . . aperen. Schaar: "The corruption here is serious. . . . I propose the reading: `Ah, good lady,' quod I, `in whom victorie of strength is proved above al other thing, after the jugement of Esdram! Whos lordship <over> alle regneth? Who is, that right as emperour hem commaundeth? Whether thilke ben not women' etc. This version seems to me to be as close as we can come to the sense of the context . . . and to the textual material extant. It would seem that the erroneous lignes was due to a contraction of syllables and to i in lordship, and that the following is was responsible for the ending" (p. 20). But see Leyerle, p. 303.

207 jugement of Esdram. 3 Esdras 4.15-17. Jellech notes: "The reference is to the story told in the apocryphal book of Esdras, of a banquet given by Darius, at which he held a contest to determine what is the strongest thing in the world. The person giving the wisest answer would be richly rewarded. One guest states that wine is strongest; another that the king is strongest; but the third, Zerubbabel, maintained that women are strongest, but Truth is victor in all things" (p. 276). The story is retold in Gower's CA, VII, 1783-1984.

210-11 al the remenaunt ben no gendres. I.e., the rest are neuter, and called gender only "of grace in facultie of grammer."

211ff. See 1 Esdras 4.15-17: "Women have borne the king and all the people that bear rule by sea and land . . . without women cannot men be."

222 that desyre to a good asker. Skeat: "That by no way can they refuse his desire to one that asks well" (p. 467).

223 of your sectes. Skeat: "of your followers, of those of your sex" (p. 467).

231 so maked. Skeat: "and that (i.e., the male sex) is so made sovereign and to be entreated, that was previously servant and used the voice of prayer. Men begin by entreating, and women then surrender the sovereignty" (p. 467).

232ff. Anon as fylled is your lust. These lines, Skeat argues, derive from HF 269-85; Jellech, however, contends that both Chaucer and Usk "used a common source" (pp. 7077). See, further, Leyerle, p. 304.

234 so. Leyerle emends to se.

235-36 every glyttryng thyng. Skeat paraphrases, "All that glisters is not gold," and compares CT VIII.962 (p. 467).

239 of. Th: on. Skeat's emendation. Jellech and Leyerle concur.

242 unhande. Skeat: on hande. Jellech and Leyerle concur.

244 blober. Th: bloder. Skeat: blobere. Leyerle concurs, but not Jellech.

245 is put into wenyng. I.e., "she [each one of them] is led to suppose" (Skeat, p. 467).

246 their wyl in. I suggest their wyl [others] in for sense.

248ff. a thirde for delyte. Copied from HF 305-10 (Skeat, p. 468).

252 Alas. Skeat: "Expanded from HF 332-59; observe how some phrases are preserved" (p. 468).

258 Ever their fame. In addition to HF, compare T&C 5.1058-62:

"Allas, of me, unto the worldes ende,
Shal neyther ben ywriten nor ysonge
No good word, for thise bokes wol me shende.
O, rolled shal I ben on many a tonge!
Thorughout the world my belle shal be ronge!"

radde. Skeat: [ben] radde.

268 helper. Skeat: "Faciamus ei adiutorium simile sibi" -Genesis 2.18 [Let us make him a help like unto himself].

this tree. I.e., Eve, womankind. See City of God 14.11: "or rather it was the man himself who was that tree . . ."

274 Sarazins. Saracens, or the infidel.

275-79 If the fyre doth . . . wytte in sterynge. See City of God 12.4:

For what is more beautiful than a fire, with all the vigour of its flames and the splendours of its light? And what more useful, with its heat, its comfort, and its help in cooking? And yet nothing can cause more distress than the burns inflicted by fire. . . . So we must not give a hearing to those who praise the fire's light and find fault with its heat, because they are not thinking of its natural properties, but are judging it by the standard of their own convenience or inconvenience. They like to see the fire; but they do not like being burned.

280-81 Jellech: "These lines [below] have been transferred from the end of the second chapter of this book because they obviously do not belong to that chapter's topic of gentilesse, and they are a fitting climax to Love's defense of women in this chapter:

And so speke I in feminyne gendre in general/of tho persones at the reuerence of one/ whom euery wight honoureth/for her bountie and her noblesse ymade her to god so dere/that his moder she became/and she me hath had so great in worshyp/that I nyl for nothyng in open declare/that in any thynge ayenst her secte maye so wene: for al vertue and al worthynesse of plesaunce in hem haboundeth. And although I wolde any thing speke/trewly I can not/I may fynde of yuel in her no maner mater." (p. 283)

282 dames. Compare Cons. 2. m. 6. 5-8 (Jellech).

284 an herbe. This proverb is copied from HF 290-91 (Skeat, p. 468).

294 Thou desyrest. Leyerle begins chapter 4 here.

294-300 Leyerle argues, over almost two pages (pp. 307-08), for a slight modification of the chapter division (that preserves the initial T dictated by the acrostic) and for other alterations in the passage to try to clarify its sense. He concludes that the gist of the passage is that "Love's point is that women's insistence on long service is not really a delay because it reinforces the innate desire of all men, even a wretch, for complete and faultless joy in everything done" (p. 308).

296-97 Nowe . . . belongeth. Schaar: "After the restoration of two small words we get the sense obviously required:

`Now' quod she, `for thou shalt not wene that <to> womans condicions for fayre speche suche thing <ne> longeth.'

An ironical sally, then, alluding to the previously mentioned contempt for woman [lines 259-61]." Compare Jellech, however: "There is some corruption here which is not to be resolved" (p. 285).

299 Skeat would strike out either my or to me.

302 lyveth. Skeat emends to leveth, which is certainly the sense.

306-07 wight weneth. Skeat: wight, [which] weneth.

308-10 but than . . . syde. Jellech: "The argument is derived from Boethius, Cons. 3. pr. 2. 510, except that Usk has substituted love for the summum bonum. Both Boethius and Usk are saying that a person is not going to have complete happiness if his happiness is lacking anything in any way. Also, if this happiness consists in love, then it follows that he who is supposed to have complete happiness should not lack happiness in love in any way" (p. 287).

308-10 lacke . . . lacke. "It is probable . . . that the second lacke is an erroneous repetition of the first, and that the correct reading should be: "Eke it foloweth than, that he that must have ful blisse <geteth> no blisse in love on no syde" (Schaar, p. 21).

311 sohte. Th: sothe. Leyerle's emendation.

313 thinges. Th: thrages. Thrages could be a variant of thronges, meaning "groups," or "dangers," or "anxieties." None complements the sense as well as "things," however; I follow Skeat's emendation. Leyerle: "The original was probably thrates, `vexations'; the word originally had a sense of `press or crowd of people,' which fits the context here very well" (p. 309).

turneth. Skeat: "It goes against the hair." Now we say, "against the grain" (p. 468).

316 wot. Th: wol. Skeat's emendation, followed by Jellech and Leyerle.

330-31 cleaped resonable, manlych, and bestiallich. Resonable is. Th: cleaped bestiallich resonablich. Skeat emends to: cleaped bestiallich, resonablich, [and manlich. Resonablich] is. Jellech reads: cleaped/ bestiallich/ manlich and resonablich/ resonablich is. I have emended the series to accord with the hierarchical order in which they are discussed. It is difficult to suggest a single source for Usk's argument here. Triplicities, on the one hand, and the basic idea of vegetative, animal, and rational creatures, on the other, are so ubiquitous in medieval thought that Usk could depend here on any one or a group of a vast array of sources. Readers may find it helpful to consult Lewis [1964], 152ff., "The Human Soul."

338 holden for absolute. Skeat: "considered as free, separate, or detached; as in Boece 5. pr. 6. 203" (p. 468).

338-39 so lyveth in to. Both Skeat and Jellech emend lyveth to leveth and to to two. Thynne's spelling probably reflects early sixteenth-century pronunciation, after the front medial vowel has moved upward. This seems the case in several instances.

357 in name than preise." "Soth. Leyerle's suggestion (p. 310) I consider superior to Schaar's: "The emendation of soth to other . . . [yields] the sense . . .: `"Truly," said I, "it is shame and baseness to him who desires reputation that more people do not praise him in name than praise another".'" In this reading, the text would continue with a new sentence, "Quod she, `thou sayst soth . . . etc.'" Schaar would read: "more folk nat prayse his name than these" (p. 21).

377 thy kyng. Skeat: presumably, Richard II.

381 wot. Th: wol. Skeat's emendation, followed by Jellech and Leyerle.

384-85 On the importance of this announcement for understanding the possible transmission history of TL, see the Introduction vi f, "The Problem of the Broken Sequence of Book 3."

387 of this purpose. Leyerle (p. 91) emends and construes as follows: "Trewly, it was I, for haddest thou of me fayled, than [I] this purpose had never taken in this wyse."

389-90 Sylver fyned . . . werkynge. Compare Psalm 12.6.

391 disease. Th: diseases. Emended by all.

394-96 But for as moche . . . the hert. Skeat: "Love and the bliss already spoken of above [see the parfyte blysse of love, above, line 60] shall be called the `knot in the heart.' This definition of `the knot,' viz. as being the perfect bliss or full fruition of love, should be noted; because, in later chapters, the author continually uses the phrase `the knot,' without explaining what he means by it. It answers to `sovereyn blisfulnesse' in Chaucer's Boethius" (p. 468). See Boece, p. 412, and see my Introduction, pp. 10ff.

397 inpossession. Skeat: "inpossession is all one word, but is clearly an error. The right word is certainly imposition. The Lat. impositio was a grammatical term, used by Varro, signifying the imposing of a name, or the application of a name to an object. . . . It is just the word required. When Love declares that she shall give the name of `the knot' to the perfect bliss of love, the author replies, `I shall well understand the application of this name,' i.e., what you mean by it" (pp. 468-69). Further, on the ubiquitous impositio ad placitum ("imposition of the meaning of a word at the pleasure or discretion of the one doing the imposting"), see Eco and Lambertini, et al.; also Shoaf (1983), pp. 11, 33, and 247n22.

402 admyt it. Th: admytted. Skeat and Jellech's emendation, followed, with slight variation, by Leyerle.

409 Aristotle. Perhaps the reference is to the Nicomachean Ethics, 1.1, as Skeat suggests. But whether here or elsewhere, the basic Aristotelian idea, we may be sure, that that for the sake of which something is done or made, the end, is of more value than the means, informs Usk's thought: if health causes my habit of eating properly, then, in Aristotelian terms, health, the cause, is greater than the thing caused, my habit, because my habit is for the sake of health.

431-32 Thilke knytten . . . the yvel. Leyerle: "They accept the riches and not the evil" (p. 313). Schaar would change yvel to lyve, explaining:

Lyf in the sense "person" or "body" is not uncommon. . . The same error, yvel for lyve, recurs in a passage later in the same chapter, where the author speaks of those who love a person not for her own sake, but for her property's (line 478). . . . The reading "that loven non lyve for dereworthinesse of the persone" is quite as indispensable here as in the other passage; it seems that the scribe or the printer was led astray by the spelling lyve, the word otherwise being spelt lyf in Usk [another instance of the spelling lyve, however, is found in line 1028] (p. 22).

434 than. Th: that. Skeat's emendation, followed by Jellech and Leyerle.

437 thynges precious or noble that neyther han lyfe ne soule. Compare Boece II pr. 5, 130-33, where Philosophy laments that some think themselves neither fair nor noble except by riches, "ostelementz that ne han no soules."

438 whan they ben in gatheryng. Jellech: "Such riches are more worthy when they are in the process of being gathered; in giving them away begins man's love of other men's praising" (p. 300).

439 avaryce gatheryng. "Avaricious gathering." The subject of be would be an impersonal "one," unexpressed (Jellech, p. 300).

442-43 and in the gatheryng of hem make men nedy. This is very typical anti-venality lore and can be found in many examples of venality satire (especially those referring to the image of the hydroptical avaricious, who thirsts the more the more he drinks - see Yunck, pp. 16 and 32): the evil of riches is that they excite endless desire for more riches. See also Little, pp. 35-41.

456 to kynde suffiseth lytel thing. Compare Chaucer's "Truth: Balade de Bon Conseyl," lines 2 and 10 -"Suffyce unto thy thing, though it be smal" and "Gret reste stant in litel besinesse."

489 gravel and sande. To understand the following extended metaphor, which is rather clumsy, the reader needs to realize that "gravel and sand" amount to a figure for riches, that arrive with the flow of the sea and depart with its ebb.

491 the. Th: to. Skeat's emendation, followed by Leyerle but not Jellech.

493-95 And certes . . . ayen meve. In a lengthy note (pp. 313-14), Leyerle proposes warnysh, "the state of being guarded," for warnyng, "probably an error resulting from the substitution of a common noun for a very rare one." Schaar suggests:

warning was miswritten for the very rare word warpinge, "silt" . . . Being an obvious lectio difficilior, it is natural enough that it should be misunderstood by the scribe or the printer. . . . If we accept the reading warpinge . . . the sentence would read: "And certes, ful warping in love shalt thou never thorow hem get ne cover, that lightly with an ebbe, er thou be ware, it wol ayen meve." (pp. 22-24)

517 contrarie. Skeat emends to [the] contrarie, followed by Leyerle; Jellech follows Thynne.

522 whiche thynge. Skeat emends to [of] whiche thing, followed by Leyerle but not by Jellech.

526-27 governour shulde. Leyerle: " . . . apparently a misdivision for governours hulde; hulde is the past participle of hilen, `concealed' MED 2, and modifies rancours" (p. 315).

528 but. Th: by. Leyerle's emendation.

have ben trusted. Jellech: "The sentence, Thou wottest wel what I meane, [line 529], is probably an oblique reference to the Northampton affair" (p. 309).

529-31 "Ye," quod I, ". . . in doyng." Jellech: "the meaning and syntax are perfectly clear without emendation: `. . . as dignity wrought such a harmful thing [as the queynte thynges of line 529], so, the substance of dignity being changed, they would rely on them to bring again a good effect'" (p. 309).

542 hadden. Jellech points out that the unexpressed subject of hadden is "dignities" (p. 310).

557 Nero. Skeat: "The name was evidently suggested by the mention of Nero immediately after the end of Boethius, Cons. 3. pr. 4 (viz. in met. 4); but the story of Nero killing his mother is from an earlier passage in Boethius, viz. 2. met. 6" (p. 469).

559 kyng John. Skeat observes that by asserting his "dignity" as king against prince Arthur, John brought about a war in which "the greater part of the French possessions of the crown were lost" (p. 469). By strict primogeniture, Prince Arthur should have succeeded to the throne instead of John; John may have killed Arthur (in the spring of 1203) after capturing him at Mirabeau in 1202, but the matter is uncertain. As Skeat implies, John's warfaring in France was spectacularly unsuccessful -hence
his nickname, "Lackland."

573 such maner planettes. "planets such as those," referring to the sun and moon mentioned just above (lines 564-67). The sun and moon were then accounted as being among the seven planets (Skeat, p. 469). Although Usk almost certainly did not know Dante's works firsthand, the reader may want to bear in mind that Dante engages in the Monarchia (3.4) the long-standing allegory of the sun and the moon (the two luminaries) for his arguments regarding the relationship between the Empire and the Papacy.

574-75 that any desyre . . . shewe. "that have any desire for such (ill) shining planets to appear any more in that way" (Skeat, p. 469).

590 to contrarious. Skeat: [that] to contrarious.

598-600 And if reverence . . . grounded. Jellech: "As Skeat has said, the difficulty begins in the clause for that, [line 599]. The subject of ben shewed is `reverence nor worship.' The general sense of the period is, `if worship or reverence are not in dignities and if reverence and worship are no more revealed in dignities that [sic; than] is goodness revealed in them (but goodness is not revealed in them), then it proves that goodness is not grounded in them by nature'" (p. 316). See, further, Leyerle, p. 319. Schaar, on the other hand, proposes: "And if reverence ne worshippe kyndely be not set in dignitees, and they more therein ben <not> shewed than goodnesse-for that in dignité is <not> shewed-it but proveth that goodnesse kyndely in hem is not grounded," observing,

In this way we arrive at a syllogism, rather heavy but free from contradiction: if reverence and honour are not naturally placed in dignities, and if they are not shown to be there any more than goodness -for that is not shown to be in dignity -this only proves that goodness is not naturally rooted in them (i.e. dignities) either. For if a thing is naturally associated with another, we must be able to show that it is always there; if this cannot be shown (as in the case of honour, reverence, and goodness, in relation to dignities), it cannot be naturally "grounded" in it. (pp. 24-25)

605 ne. Th: he. Leyerle's emendation.

614 that. Th: that that. Skeat's emendation, followed by Jellech and Leyerle.

615-16 What . . . shynynge. Schaar proposes: "What bountee mowe the <moone> yeve that, with cloude, lightly leveth his shyninge," suggesting that "moone may have been dropped in an early MS, which would more easily explain the fact that y in yeve was attached to the" (p. 25).

618 lefte syde. Conventionally in the Middle Ages, the left is associated with evil and that which is to be shunned or evaded -see the essays in Needham, especially that by Hertz, pp. 3-31.

620 of worthy. Skeat: of [men, to maken hem] worthy.

629 Henry Curtmantyl. "Among his Anglo-Norman barons, he always wore the short Angevin cloak, which by contrast with their long robes earned him the name of Curtmantle" (Barber, pp. 56 and 264n3).

He had not so moche. "The attendants, knowing that his desperate state meant that there would be none of the traditional rewards for them, stripped the body, plundered all they could find, and left the despoiled corpse to be found by William the Marshal soon afterwards. One of the knights, William de Trihan, had to take off his cloak to cover the corpse, and even the faithful marshal was hard put to it to arrange matters as befitted a royal funeral" (Barber, p. 232).

674 a sypher in augrym. Jellech: "The zero in arithmetic, which has no power of meaning in itself, yet gives signification to other numbers. This was a stock definition in medieval arithmetic: `nil cifra significat sed dat signare sequenti'" (p. 325). (See Steele, p. 5.)

679 great. Th: graet.

680 for as the. Skeat emends to: for as, [if] the.

683 Thou haste knowe many. It is difficult not to think here of "the turbulent London of Richard II" (Bird's phrase).

699 Buserus. Chaucer has Busyrides in Boece 2. pr. 6. 67; but Busirus in the Monk's Tale, CT VII 3293. The true name is Busiris, of which Busiridis is the genitive case (Skeat, p. 471).

Hugest. Skeat suggests this is an error for Hengest, and that the reference is to his slaughter of the Britons. But Jellech cites the example of "Hugest" for Boethius's example of Regulus (Boece, p. 417). On Hengest and related "origin myths" in early Britain, see Brooks (pp. 58-64), who notes that the numerous accounts may be "myth" (p. 58) but are nonetheless widely attested; there can be little doubt, then, that Usk could have come by familiarity with one account or another in his wide if superficial reading among various sources.

700-01 See Matthew 26.52: "Omnes enim, qui acceperint gladium, gladio peribunt" -[for all that take the sword shall perish with the sword].

707-09 He is mighty . . . not withsytte. Jellech: "He is powerful who can act without bringing anxiety or injury to himself, and he is impotent who cannot resist wretchedness; but then he who has power over you, if he wishes to impose wretchedness on you, you cannot resist it." Skeat believed something to be missing, but, as Jellech observes, the form and thought are whole (p. 328).

719-20 Why there . . . as he shulde. Jellech: "Skeat inserted `for him' before that loketh. Schaar disagreed as to the comprehensibility of this change, and would insert at the same place, `but for him,' so as to say `Why, there is no way to the knot except for him who seeks for the high way.' However, neither emendation is supported by any principle of textual criticism. No, [line 719], may be an error for `one' or `oon' but no straightforward way of improving the passage suggests itself" (p. 329). For Schaar the only possible restoration is: "Why, there is no way to the knotte <but for him> that loketh aright after the hye way, as he shulde" (p. 25). I would venture the suggestion that we add here for him: "[Which is] why there is no way to the knot here [in the dimension of power] for him that looks aright after the high way as he should" -i.e., I think Skeat is close to the mark. Leyerle posits a similar solution.

741 veyned. Skeat emends to weyved; followed by Jellech and Leyerle.

744 our. Jellech emends to your, as does Leyerle, too, following her.

746-49 An excellent introduction to and overview of the theory of the elements will be found in Lindberg, pp. 55-56 and 332ff; on page 55 is a helpful diagram of the "square of opposition of the Aristotelian elements and qualities," which I reproduce here:

fire	-----	hot	-----	air
|	/		\	|
dry				wet
|	\		/	|
earth	-----	cold	-----	water

cold and dry = earth
cold and wet = water
hot and wet = air
hot and dry = fire

751 cloudes. Leyerle emends to c[old]nes.

753 by. Th: my. Skeat's emendation, followed by Jellech and Leyerle.

754 eyre. Th: erth, in both places in the line. Skeat labels Thynne's erth as "an obvious error" for eyre, and so emends both instances; followed by Jellech and Leyerle.

761 oweth. Skeat: [it] oweth, though the vergules (marked here by commas) suggest that emendation is unnecessary.

772-73 Schaar would read: "And if it be fayr, a mans name be eched by moche folkes praysing, <than it is> fouler thing that mo folk <it> not praysen" (p. 26).

775 obstacles. They are enumerated in Book 1, chapter 8, lines 809-14 (Skeat, p. 472).

777 than renome. Leyerle emends to [and] renome.

791-93 And if . . . a foule syght. Leyerle (p. 329), as part of a lengthy note, emends hewe to he3ed ("exalted") and modernizes as follows: "And if your eyes were as good as those of the lynx that can see through stone walls, both ugly and handsome in their inwardness would appear in no way exalted; that would be an ugly spectacle." Schaar suggests: "The transition from `many stone walles' to `bothe fayre and foule' has an abruptness unparalleled in Usk, and probably an addition should be made: "And if thyne eyen weren as good as the lynx, that may seen thorow many stone walles, <and> bothe fayre and foule, in their entrayles, of no maner hewe shulde apere to thy sight, that were a foule sight'" (p. 26).

799 falowen. Th: folowen. Skeat's emendation, followed by Jellech and Leyerle.

804-05 al daye . . . fooles wende. Jellech: "A proverbial expression; see Skeat, Early English Proverbs, 63" (p. 338). See too T&C 1.217.

806 de polo antartico. Th: autartico. Skeat's emendation, followed universally. Jellech (pp. 338-39) notes that the belief in a southern polar star corresponding to the North Star is also found in one version of Mandeville's Travels (pp. 132-34). The idea lived on into the fifteenth century among navigators; see Taylor (second ed.), pp. 124 and 161-62.

817 a melodye in heven. Jellech notes that belief in the melody of the harmony of the spheres was, of course, widespread until the eighteenth century. "In order to understand Usk's analogy between the harmony of lovers and the harmony of the spheres it is important to know that music of the spheres, both in its scientific and its spiritual interpretation, was not to be heard by ordinary ears under ordinary circumstances" (p. 340).

819 joye. Skeat emends, needlessly, to joye[s].

820-21 God made al thyng. See Wisdom 11.21.

824-37 Swetenesse . . . endure. Jellech argues (pp. 341-42) for a rearrangement of several sentences here. Her proposed order would run as follows: lines 802-23 (as text now stands), 833-37, 824-33, 837 etc.:

This blysse is a maner of sowne delycious in a queynte voyce touched and no dynne of notes: there is none impressyon of breakynge laboure. I canne it not otherwyse nempne for wantynge of privy wordes but paradyse terrestre ful of delycious melody withouten travayle in sown perpetual servyce in ful joye coveyted to endure. Swetenesse of this paradyse hath you ravisshed it semeth ye slepten rested from al other diseases so kyndely is your hertes therin ygrounded. Blysse of two hertes in ful love knytte may not aright ben ymagyned: ever is their contemplacion in ful of thoughty studye to plesaunce mater in bringynge comforte everyche to other. And therfore of erthly thinges mokel mater lightly cometh in your lerning. Knowledge of understonding that is nyghe after eye but not so nyghe the covetyse of knyttynge in your hertes: More soveraine desyre hath every wight in lytel herynge of hevenly connynge than of mokel materyal purposes in erthe. Right so it is in propertie of my servauntes that they ben more affyched in sterynge of lytel thynge in his desyre than of mokel other mater lasse in his conscience. Onely kynde maketh hertes in understonding so to slepe that otherwyse may it nat be nempned ne in other maner names for lykyng swetnesse can I nat it declare al sugre and hony al mynstralsy and melody ben but soote and galle in comparison by no maner proporcion to reken <344rb><344va>in respecte of this blysful joye. This armony this melody/ etc.

827 plesaunce, mater. Leyerle emends to plesaun[t]e mater.

829-30 Knowledge . . . hertes. Jellech: "the idea being expressed would be, `and, therefore, with regard to earthly things, a great deal of material comes easily in your learning. Knowledge of understanding (i.e., comprehension) that is based on experience comes easily, but not the desire to be united in your hearts'" (p. 342).

829-37 Inexplicably these lines are missing from Jellech's edition: her text goes from "Knowledge of understonding" directly to "Onely kynde maketh" (pp. 342-43, continuous pagination). I speculate that in working out her re-ordering of lines (see note to lines 824-37), she inadvertently omitted this section which was in question. I base this speculation on the fact that her note on page 342 does contain her construal of the sentence "Knowledge of understonding . . .", which I cited in the previous note -i.e., presumably the omitted lines were there in a draft (they were annotated), but then were subsequently dropped inadvertently.

835-38 Schaar: "Usk must here have used a word for the process in the hearts that produces the wonderful harmony, for whose sweetness even Love cannot find adequate words: I can it not otherwyse nempne . . . but paradyse terrestre ful of delicious melody . . . Only kynde maketh hertes in understonding so to stere, that otherwyse may it not be nempned etc. Only Nature, who establishes eternal law and concord, makes hearts stir in mutual understanding, like strings of a sensitive instrument, so that a music of unspeakable beauty is produced, a harmony comparable only to the music of the spheres" (pp. 27-28).

839-40 sugre . . . soote. Skeat compares "sucre be or soot," T&C 3.1194.

851 Flebring. Skeat: "Mr. Bradley suggests flekring or fleckering, which is probable enough. The Middle English flekren, also spelt flikeren, meant not only to flutter, but to be in doubt, to vacillate, and even to caress. We may take it to mean `light speech' or `gossip'" (p. 473).

853 innocentes. Th: innoctenes. Skeat's emendation, accepted also by Jellech and Leyerle.

866-69 Right so . . . to tourne. Leyerle (pp. 119 and 333) emends do (line 868) to to and out (line 868) to oweth; he then modernizes as follows: "Just as the knot is greater than all other goods, so you can reckon all things less. And what belongs to the knot ought to turn into a cause of honor and desire for its greater part; otherwise, it is rebel and ought to void away from defending its superior."

871 hem. Schaar would read <by> hem (p. 28).

894 he that is in heven felyth. Compare T&C 3.1656-59:

Pandare answerd, and seyde thus, "he
That ones may in hevene blisse be,
He feleth other weyes, dar I leye,
Than thilke tyme he first herde of it seye."

900 to weten . . . me ben ymoned. Jellech: "Skeat erroneously read Thynne's ymoned as `ymoved,' though the text clearly has ymoned. Then, after making this error he was forced to make some sense of the line and altered me to `men.' Schaar, seeing that there was still something lacking, proposed a new word order: `a lytel other with me . . .,' but this syntax is still strained syntax. The correct reading removes all these difficulties. According to the OED the verb `moan' is rare before the sixteenth century, but two instances are recorded" (p. 349).

903-09 "O, for," quod she, . . . "were so ferde. Jellech: "Skeat considered this `the finest passage in the treatise, but not very original,' and referred his readers to parallel passages in PPl C.21.456-57 and to Boethius, Cons. 4. m.6. 25-29" (p. 349).

905 yeres. Skeat emends to yere.

912 proverbe. Th: pronerbe. Leyerle's emendation. See Proverbs of Hending: "When bale is hext (highest), then bote is next"(in Singer, p. 130). "For hext our author substitutes a nyebore, i.e., a neighbour, nigh at hand" (Skeat, p. 473).

923 to suffre. Leyerle (p. 336) plausibly suggests adding "change" -to suffre [change], of whiche changes cometh . . .

925-28 Of which worchynges . . . taketh his name. I replace Skeat's explanation of the "planetary hours" with North's, which is more economical. In understanding the "planetary hours," it helps to remember that the order in use was the reverse order of distance from the earth (which was considered the center of the planetary system): Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon.

Suppose we divide the days, each into twenty-four hours. . . . If we give the first hour of Sunday to the governance of the Sun, the second hour of the same day to Venus, the third to Mercury, and so on through the cycle again and again, we shall eventually come to the first hour of the following day, which by the rules will turn out to be governed by the Moon [English Monday]. Continuing, we shall find that Mars governs the first hour of the third day [hence French Mardi], Mercury the first hour of the fourth [hence French Mercredi], then Jupiter [hence French Jeudi], and Venus [hence French Vendredi], and finally Saturn [English Saturday]. The names of the days of our week are a relic of this arrangement of so-called "planetary hours." (p. 29)

936 Wherefore the. Skeat: wherfore [in] the, followed by Leyerle but not Jellech.

940 contingence. Th: contygence. Emended by all.

956 one of thre. Skeat emends to [of] one of thre, and makes cross-reference to Book 2, chapter 4, line 328, above. Leyerle follows Skeat but Jellech does not.

964 first sayde. I.e., Book 2, chapter 4 (lines 333-35).

965 But manly. Skeat emends to but [by] `manly.'

969 is more . . . by clerkes. Jellech reads: "is reckoned by clerkes to be the more reasonable way than is the manly way" (p. 358).

972 wele. Skeat emends to wol. Schaar observes: "the meaning, if wel is retained and remembre considered a subjunctive, appears to be: `anyone who carefully contemplates the consequences of sensual enjoyment, is bound to admit that ultimately, they give melancholy and sorrow'" (p. 29).

973-75 Right as . . . at her goynge. Jellech compares Boethius, Cons. 3. m. 7. Schaar suggested that Thynne's "hadde" might be an error for shadde, which term conforms to the Latin "fundit" of Boethius [. . .] as well as to Chaucer's "hath sched" (Boece, p. 428).

975 entreth. Leyerle emends to en[d]eth.

975-76 stynge . . . knot. Schaar: "the bliss of the knot, after the sting of fleshly lust, cannot enter and disappear at the same time. Here also a slight emendation seems indispensable: `. . . and than stinge they at her goinge, wherthrough endeth and clene voydeth al blisse of this knot'" (p. 29).

986 glorien. Skeat supplies the head: [they] glorien. Leyerle follows Skeat.

990 stongen. As in line 986 Skeat loses the syntax by supplying the auxillary: [is] stongen. Leyerle follows Skeat.

1016 at the. Th: at he. Skeat's emendation, followed by Jellech and Leyerle.

1023-28 Heyworth (p. 143) would re-punctuate as follows:

Ben these nat mortal thynges agon with ignorance of beestial wyt, and hast receyved reason in knowyng of vertue? What comforte is in thy hert, the knowinge sykerly in my servyce be grounded. And woste thou nat wel, as I said, that deth maketh ende of al fortune? What than? Standest thou in noble plyte, lytel hede or reckyng to take if thou let fortune passe dyng, or els that she fly whan her lyst, now by thy lyve.

He comments: "The last sentence . . . is not a question but an answer to the preceding What than?" (p. 142).

1027 reckyng. Th: rcekyng. Emended by all.

1027-28 Schaar: "Love must rather be asking if it would not be a noble attitude to care little whether fortune passes away, either at our death or leaving us during our lifetime: `Standest thou <not> in noble plyte, litel hede or recking to take,'" etc. (p. 30).

1028 dying. Th: dyng. Skeat's emendation, followed by Leyerle but not Jellech.

1028-31 Pardy, a man . . . than thy lyfe? Jellech sees an adaption here from Boethius, Cons. 2. pr. 4. 22-25:

Cum igitur praecipua sit mortalibus vitae cura retinendae, o te, si tua bona cognoscas, felicem, cui suppetunt etiam nunc quae vita nemo dubitat esse cariora. (Therefore, since the sovereign care of mortals is to retain life, O you are a happy man if you know your goods, you to whom goods are at hand even now which no one doubts to be dearer than life.)
   Usk's unclear clause if thou knowe thy goodes that thou hast yet be loued whiche nothynge may doute is a translation of "si tua bona cognoscas tuas suppetunt etiam nunc quae vita nemo dubitat esse cariora," but the antecedent for both the relative pronouns that and which is the same -goods. Boethius's "nemo" may have become the unintelligible nothyng through faulty reading of an abbreviation. (p. 364)

1030 be loved. Leyerle emends to be[n] l[e]ved.

1039 daunger. Th: dauuger. Leyerle follows Skeat.

1043 Lo. Skeat mistranscribes: to.

1045 whyle. Leyerle emends to w[e]le.

1046 for in this. Th: for this. Skeat's emendation, followed by Jellech but not Leyerle.

1048 "Certayn," quod I. Thynne begins a new chapter here, but, since the initial letter "C" does not follow the acrostic, this chapter has been incorporated into chapter 10. (See Jellech, p. 366, and Skeat, p. 479).

amonge. In a major alteration of Thynne and Skeat, Leyerle (p. xxvii) intervenes here as follows (I quote only the essential part of a lengthy explanation):

For the sake of the acrostic, Skeat puts the chapter divisions at a word beginning with E, every, at [line 1070 -i.e., 22 lines later]. A break at this point seems dubious because it divides Love's discourse on the resonable lyf and makes an awkward interruption in the middle of one of her remarks. . . . Chapter 11 is best started with the word Amonge [line 1048], emended to its common by-form Emonge to provide the necessary E for the acrostic. Thus the third word of the acrostic in Book II becomes

M E R C I
10 11 12 13 14

A further result is that Book II has 14 chapters in its edited version, not the 15 chapters in Thynne.

1055-56 there thou hast myswent, eschewe the pathe. Compare T&C 1.633-35 (emphasis added):

"And there thow woost that I have aught myswent,
Eschuw thow that, for swich thing to the scole is;
Thus often wise men ben war by foolys."

1057 confounded. Th: coufouded. Leyerle's emendation.

1070 Every soule. Jellech notes there is no capital or ornate capital to mark a chapter division at this point in Thynne and follows Skeat in selecting this sentence as the beginning of a new chapter, because it is the only sentence in this portion of the text beginning with the letter "E" required by the acrostic (p. 369). But see Leyerle, above, note to line 1048.

1075-77 These olde philosophers . . . th'other lyvenges. Jellech: "Who these old philosophers were is not easy to say; presumably Boethius was one. The reference is to the idea that grace perfects nature; compare St. Thomas (pp. 142-43):

We may say, accordingly, that in the state of pure nature man did not need a gift of grace added to his power, in order to love God above all things, although he did need the help of God in moving him to do so. But in the state of corrupt nature he needs further help of grace, that his nature may be healed. (p. 369)

Consult further Vitto, pp. 5-50.

1077 Resonably have I lyved. Skeat notes that "the author forgets that Love is supposed to be the speaker, and speaks in his own person" (p. 475).

1079 connyng. Skeat: [his] conning. Jellech: the connynge. Leyerle follows Skeat.

1085 as in knowing a wake. Jellech notes that something has gone wrong here. "I suspect that in should be `his' and a wake should be `awaketh' -as his knowing awakes" (p. 369).

1107 if he. Th: he. Skeat's emendation, followed by Jellech and Leyerle.

1110 is. Th: as. Skeat's emendation, followed by Jellech and Leyerle.

1114 power and suffisaunce. Th: power suffisaunce. Jellech's emendation. Skeat emends to power with suffisaunce. Leyerle concurs with Jellech.

1135 servant. Th: servant (with the a upside down). Leyerle calls attention to and corrects the upside-down a.

1135-37 Plato. Skeat suggests Seneca, De Ira, lib. i.c. 15, as the source (p. 145).

1146 conclude. The sense "confute" is found in the OED C, p. 665, "conclude," branch 4.

1153 habyte maketh no monke. "Cucullus non facit monachum," a common medieval proverb, Skeat observes (p. 475), of which Shakespeare is also fond -see Twelfth Night 1.5.56. See also Tilley, p. H586.

1156 cordiacle. Skeat (p. 475) sees cordiacle to be Thynne's misprint for cardiacle. See CT VI 313, and also the note to CT VI 313, where cardiacle is defined as quaking of the heart ("herte quakyng"). See, further, Appendix 1, p. 415 below.

1157 praye to enforme. Skeat emends to praye [thee] to enforme, followed by Leyerle but not Jellech.

1171-72 If fyre . . . shal suffre. Jellech: "If fire is in a place where there is something capable of being burned or heated, and the two -fire and the combustible material -are set at such a distance from each other that the fire can act, the combustible material will be acted upon" (p. 378).

1176 wercheth. Th: wrethe. Skeat's emendation, followed by Jellech and Leyerle.

1177-78 and no . . . I fynde. "And I cannot find any passive except you in all my Donet." Jellech notes that a donet is a "colloquial expression for a book of principles, after the Roman grammarian Donatus, who wrote a book of elementary Latin grammar, widely used in medieval schools" (p. 379).

1188 muskle with a blewe shel. See Appendix 1 below.

1189-90 shel, by excellence. Th: shel excellence. Skeat's emendation, followed by Jellech and Leyerle.

1200 thus sayth kynde of this perle. See Appendix 1 below.

1200-05 This precious Margaryte . . . vertues loken. See Appendix 1 below.

1205ff. Al thyng that hath soule . . . . Jellech remarks: "The relationship of the mussel, as an example of humility, to the good in man may have been suggested by Boethius's example of `conchis maris' as creatures which feel but cannot move" (p. 382). She then continues: "The whole passage is extremely obscure." Indeed it is. It will help, however, to note that "meane" is quasi-technical in this passage. "It is not possible to passe from one extreme to another but by a meane" (cited in Lewis [1964], p. 166). "This is the old maxim from Timaeus 31^b-c," Lewis continues; and the maxim will help us understand TL at this point. The point of the passage, its destination, so to speak, is the meekness or lowness of the mussel (lines 1201-02); and Usk is driving to this point with the idea of the different souls -vegetative, animal, rational. Each higher soul contains the lower soul(s), and this is the "mean"-ing by which one soul is "reduced" into another: because man has a rational soul, "in to god [he] is reduced" (line 1206). We see that "reduced" must also be a quasi-technical term; Skeat offers "connected," which is hardly wrong, but I think we can get a better grasp on the passage if we use instead "made to participate in." If we use these definitions and accept Skeat's emendation of meue to mene (line 1207), we can construe the passage, roughly (and only roughly) as follows:

Everything that has a soul is made to participate in the good (or God) by mediation, an intermediary, as thus: in God, man is made to participate by his reasonable soul; and so further, creatures that may not move [like mussels] according to their place, are made to participate in man by the beasts' mediation [i.e., the animal soul, the soul to which motion is appropriate], the mediation of those creatures that move from place to place [in other words, between the creatures that do not move and man comes the "mean" or mediation of creatures that do move, the animal soul's category, which "contains" the vegetative soul and thus "reduces" it along with itself into man, who contains both animal and vegetative souls]: so that those bodies that have feeling souls [vegetative] and move not from their places hold the lowest degree of creatures endowed with vegetative souls; and such are made to participate in man by mediation. So it follows that the mussel as mother of all virtues holds the place of meekness.

1205 good. Leyerle emends to G[o]d.

1207 beestes. Skeat: "living things that cannot move, the very word used by Chaucer, Boece 5. pr. 5. 20" (p. 476).

meve. Skeat emends to mene, which helps a little.

1211 discendeth downe. Skeat: "There is something wrong; either discendeth should be discended, or we should understand and before to; and perhaps downe should be dewe. . . . The reference seems to be to the Incarnation" (p. 476). Continuing my effort from the previous note, I would propose adopting Skeat's suggestion of and before to and his emendation of dewe for downe. We may then read:

So it follows that the mussel as mother of all virtues holds the place of meekness and to its lowest degree descends dewe of heaven; and there by a manner of virgin birth are these Margarites/Pearls born, and afterward congealed.

I wish to insist that this reading is imperfect in both emendatory practice and syntactical construction. But, as the preceding and as the following notes suggest, it has at least the modest virtue of consistency of thought.

1213-14 Made not mekenesse . . . a dewe. Jellech finds these lines obscure: "There does not seem to be a subject for Made [line 1213]" (p. 383). But headless sentences are common in Middle English writing. Continuing my effort from the previous two notes, I would propose that Skeat is correct in his punctuation: Made is a verb in the interrogative position, and, pace Jellech, the subject of the sentence is mekenesse. We may then read:

Did not meekness [itself, i.e., God incarnate] make the high heaven so low so as to enclose and catch out of it so noble a dew [i.e., Christ] that, after congealment [i.e., the Virgin birth] a Margarite/Pearl with endless virtue and everlasting joy, with a full vessel of grace, was given to every creature that in goodness would receive it?

My proposed readings depend ultimately on the iconography represented in the illumination that serves as the frontispiece to this edition. Basically, to evaluate my proposals, the reader needs to keep in mind the following (simplified) schema (see, further, Manning in Luria and Hoffman, pp. 330-36): the Virgin Mary is the mussel, the dew is the Trinity, principally in his Spiritship, and the Pearl is the Son as incarnate in the body of Mary, the whole schema functioning to insist, in this particular part of TL, on the meekness or lowliness of the site of the Incarnation (since this provides the optimum contrast with the previously discussed candidates -wealth, power, renown -for attaining the "knot in the heart"). Observe especially that the consistency achieved by this reading has another notable strand to it, or congruence with Usk's final definition of the Margarite (Margarite a woman betokeneth grace lernyng or wisdom of God or els holy church" -Book 3, chapter 9, lines 112324): the Pearl may be "both" the Son incarnate (Wisdom) and the Church, His Body/ Members as left on earth (see Vona, p. 158 for a commentary that glosses the pearl as holy Church; see also Wailes, p. 123).

1220 yet wolde I have better declared. Skeat: This does not mean "I would have explained it better," but "I should like to have it better explained" (p. 476).

1225 thilke jewel. Skeat: [of] thilke jewel, followed by Leyerle but not Jellech.

1229 wolde. Skeat emends to welde, followed by Leyerle but not Jellech.

1233 God. Th: good. Skeat's emendation.

1236 coutreplede. Skeat emends to countreplede.

1244-51 For trewly, al this . . . hath erred. Jellech and others have quarreled with Skeat over these lines. He says (p. 476),

this shews that Margarete does not mean a woman; for it is declared to be as precious as a woman, to whom it is likened.

I agree that Skeat is mistaken here. I think the matter has to be more carefully nuanced: Margarite is sometimes a woman, sometimes the Church, sometimes Christ incarnate, sometimes "grace/lernyng/or wisdom of God." We need to understand, I think, that Usk is finally incapable of resolving these terminologies into one -moreover, he may have not desired such resolution.

1253 saw. Th: save. Skeat's emendation, followed by Jellech and Leyerle. See also line 1272 where saw is save in Th.

1256-58 everyche qualyté . . . badnesse. Sanderlin (p. 70) notes that this sentence translates material from Anselm's Conc. (I.7). The following several sentences also depend on, sometimes paraphrase, Conc. I.7 (through line 1264).

1258 Badde to be is naught. This is the classic Augustinian formulation of evil as "privatio boni" -for a particularly clear expression of it, see City of God 11.22:

There is no such entity in nature as "evil"; "evil" is merely a name for the privation of good. (p. 454)

See also, cited by Jellech (p. 387), Cons. 4. pr. 2 180-200 (Boece, p. 443).

1262 beyng hath. Skeat emends to beyng [it] hath.

1267 that in every. Th: that every. Skeat's emendation, followed by Jellech and Leyerle.

1271 determission. Skeat emends to determinison with which Leyerle concurs; Jellech reads determinacion, i.e., determination, conclusion.

1273 yourselfe sayd. I.e., at the beginning of this chapter.

1276 nothynge but good. Leyerle emends to nothynge but G[o]d.

1278 goodly goodnesse. Leyerle emends to G[o]dly goodnesse.

1280 Austen saythe. See Civitas Dei 12.5, and De Natura Boni 2.

1284 Boece sheweth. Cons. 3. pr. 10. 233-50 (Boece, p. 433).

1286 God, knotte of al goodnesse.This is a key moment in TL; see my Introduction, pp.10ff.

Every creature cryeth. See, e.g., St. Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos 144.10 (Expositions 6, p. 328):

When thou has thought on the universal beauty of this world, doth not its very beauty as it were with one voice answer thee, "I made not myself, God made me?"

1287 apeted . . . affection. Leyerle (p. 349) emends apeted to aptes and then comments: "The words aptes and affection are used in special senses derived from [St. Anselm's] De concordia: aptes means `aptitudes, inclinations'; and affection means `the propensity or inclination of the will.'"

1288 This. Skeat: "This stands for This is, as usual" (p. 477).

1290 badnesse. Th: baddesse. Emended by all.

1290-91 in the grounde . . .roted. Leyerle addresses the confusion here by putting a full stop after menynge. A new sentence then begins with In, and [good] is inserted after aleged, with a semi-colon following roted.

1294-1307 Al thyng . . . in vertue. This long passage repays careful comparison with St. Augustine's arguments on opposition and harmony in the creation; see especially City of God 11.18-23, perhaps most especially 11.23: "A picture may be beautiful when it has touches of black in appropriate places. . ." (p. 455).

1296 God hath in. Skeat emends to God hath [ordeyned] in. Leyerle concurs; Jellech does not. Leyerle (p. 350), following Sanderlin, observes that lines 1296-99 depend on Conc. I.7.

1300 betterer. Skeat (p. 477): "`better,' but not necessarily a misprint. The form bettyrer occurs in the Catholicon Anglicum (p. 31)."

1308 yeven by the ayre. See Appendix 1 below.

1309 ryght mokel. Skeat emends to [maken] right mokel. "Although there is no paleograph ical justification for that particular word," Jellech notes, "some such verb of causation must be understood" (p. 392). Leyerle follows Skeat also.

1310-11 Howe shulde ever goodnesse . . . wrothe. See City of God 11.18:

The opposition of such contraries gives an added beauty to speech; and in the same way there is beauty in the composition of the world's history arising from the antithesis of contraries -a kind of eloquence in events, instead of in words. (p. 449)

1316 Pallas . . . Mercurye. According to Leyerle, "the allusions are almost certainly to figures in Usk's London" (p. 351). He argues, at some length, for an identification of Pallas as Gaunt, Mercury ("the classical god of trade") as Brembre, and the hym of line 1315 as Northampton.

1318 weneth. Skeat emends to weyveth, followed by Leyerle but not Jellech.

1321 adewe and a deblys his name is entred. Jellech: "His name is assigned to God and to the devil; i.e., he is given over to them" (p. 393). Leyerle: "The sense seems to be: `good-by and to the devil' his name is entered" (p. 351).

1334-39 Heyworth (p. 143) would re-punctuate as follows:

But the sonne is not knowe but he shyne; ne vertuous herbes but they have her kynde werchynge; ne vertue but it stretche in goodnesse or profyte to another. Is no vertue than, by al wayes of reason (sythen mercy and pytie ben moste commended amonge other vertues) and they myght never ben shewed, refresshement of helpe and of comforte, but nowe at my moste nede. And that is the kynde werkynge of these vertues.

He then continues to explain (pp. 143-44):

The sense, confused in Usk's prose, is that virtue unless manifested in action is no virtue; it cannot be passive, it must "strecche in goodnesse or profyte to another." Hence help and comfort cannot reasonably be accounted praiseworthy unless they are extended to someone (in this case the Dreamer) in the moment of his greatest need; mercy and pity (pre-eminent among virtues) dictate this.

1336ff. Schaar: "What must the author have said about their effects to be able to continue `but now at my moste nede?' [line 1338]. Obviously: `Than, by al wayes of reson, sithen mercy and pitee ben moste commended among other vertues, they might never ben <more> shewed, <with> refresshement of helpe and of comfort, but now at my moste nede etc.' If mercy and pity are the greatest virtues, it follows that their effects are never more clearly perceived than at the greatest need. And, then, seems to have been anticipated; more is necessary, and I suggest that a with has dropped out before refresshement" (pp. 30-31).

1348 these. Th: chese. Skeat's emendation, followed by Leyerle.

1352 Proverbes. See Proverbs 7.7-22.

1365 unleful. Skeat emends to [of] unlefful. Leyerle concurs; Jellech does not.

1366 skleren and wymplen. "veil and cover over." Skeat hesitantly suggests that Usk probably found the word skleire, a veil, in PPl C.9.5 (see also B.6.7, A.7.7), as that is the only known example of the substantive. The verb occurs here only (pp. 477-78).

1366-67 Austen wytnesseth. Jellech notes that no source in St. Augustine has been found for this reference (p. 398). James Marchand, in a private communication to me (April 21, 1996), suggests that wytnesseth here means "offers an example of" -a meaning arguably appropriate to the context: Augustine the rhetorician, in his youth, "right expert in resons and swete in his wordes," behaved like a heretic (a Manichean, most especially) until he could no longer bear the life he was leading (Conf. 7-8), and thus he "offers the example of a heretic." I am insecure in this reading but believe it is worth recording. Leyerle (p. 355), pace Jellech and me, suggests the source is Confessions 5.3-7, and especially 6, where Augustine narrates his encounter with the Manichean bishop Faustus of Mileve: "His discourse was eloquent and sweet, but his inadequacy in face of Augustine's questions revealed the discrepancy between his speech and his performance." Leyerle acknowledges that the allusion is "vague."

1374 veyned. Skeat emends to weyved. Jellech and Leyerle concur. See note to Book 2, line 741 above.

1377 Syloe. Siloam. Skeat: "It is a wonder where the author found this description of the waters of the pool of Siloam; but I much suspect that it arose from a gross misunderstanding of Isaiah 8.6, 7, thus:

the waters of Shiloah that go softly . . . shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks.

In the Vulgate:

aquas Siloë, quae uadunt cum silentio . . . ascendet super omnes riuos eius, et fluet super uniuersas ripas eius.

Hence cankes in [line 1380] is certainly an error for bankes; the initial c was caught from the preceding circuit" (p. 478).

1380 bankes. Th: cankes. Skeat's emendation, followed by Jellech and Leyerle.

1381 stormes. Leyerle emends to storme[th].

Skeat emends Mercurius to mercurious [servants], explaining that "The children or servants of Mercury mean the clerks or writers. The expression is taken from CT III.697: `The children of Mercurie and of Venus / Ben in hir wirking ful contrarious'" (p. 478). Jellech emends to Mercuriens, a formation analogous with Veneriens in the next line.

1381-90 Mercurius . . . fayned love. Leyerle argues at length (pp. 354-55) for a continuing political allegory, with thinly veiled references to Gaunt, Brembre, and Northampton.

1382 Veneriens. I.e., followers of Venus. Skeat compares CT III.609.

1392 sote of the smoke. Skeat suggests the soot of the smoke of the fire prepared for the sacrificed ox and cites Proverbs 7.22, "bos ductus ad uictimam" (p. 478). There might also be an allusion here to the defacement of Philosophy by the soot of time in Boece, I, pr. 1. 20-28.

1405-09 Heyworth (p. 144) would re-punctuate as follows:

Were thou not goodly accepted in to grace? By my pluckynge was she to foryeuenesse enclyned. And after, I her styred to drawe the to house; and yet wendest thou vtterly for euer haue ben refused. But wel thou wost sythen, that I in suche sharpe disease might so greatly auayle. What thynkest in thy wyt? Howe ferre maye my wytte stretche? And thou lache not on thy syde, I wol make the knotte.

He comments (p. 144):

. . . take the second wit in the sense "practical talent, clever management" (OED under wit sb. II 5b) and understand it as a question imputed to the Dreamer by the Lady. That is, "What are you thinking? Just how far my clever management extends?"

1408 my. Schaar would emend to thy, noting that the error would be very easy after may.

1410 founde. Th: foude. Skeat's emendation, followed by Leyerle.

1411 holy oyle of peace. Psalm 88.21.

1412 leavyng. Th: leanyng. Skeat's emendation, followed by Jellech and Leyerle.