‘Du grant orguel et du dangierQue Narcisus li ot mené.’
‘Du grant orguel et du dangierQue Narcisus li ot mené.’
‘Du grant orguel et du dangierQue Narcisus li ot mené.’
‘Du grant orguel et du dangier
Que Narcisus li ot mené.’
or of the difficulties made by a mistress,
‘Or puet o s’amie gesir,Qu’el n’en fait ne dangier ne plainte.’
‘Or puet o s’amie gesir,Qu’el n’en fait ne dangier ne plainte.’
‘Or puet o s’amie gesir,Qu’el n’en fait ne dangier ne plainte.’
‘Or puet o s’amie gesir,
Qu’el n’en fait ne dangier ne plainte.’
Rom. de la Rose21446 f.
Rom. de la Rose21446 f.
Rom. de la Rose21446 f.
Rom. de la Rose21446 f.
Here the author says ‘Danger turns his eyes away,’ that is, the lady’s feelings of disdain or reluctance deprive him of her favour, and in l. 19 he entreats her to remove ‘danger’ from her regard. This idea is illustrated further by the expressions in xxvi. l. 26,
‘Ne sai si vo danger le voet despire;’
‘Ne sai si vo danger le voet despire;’
‘Ne sai si vo danger le voet despire;’
‘Ne sai si vo danger le voet despire;’
and xxxvii. l. 20,
‘Vostre danger tantost m’ad deslaié:’
‘Vostre danger tantost m’ad deslaié:’
‘Vostre danger tantost m’ad deslaié:’
‘Vostre danger tantost m’ad deslaié:’
where ‘danger’ clearly stands for the lady’s aversion to the lover’s suit: see also xxiii. l. 10, xxx. l. 15 ff., andConf. Am.iv. 3589. InConf. Am.iii. 1517 ff., and v. 6613 ff., Danger is very clearly described as the deadly enemy of the lover, always engaged in frustrating his endeavours by his influence over the lady. Note also the adjective ‘dangerous’ in the last balade; so ‘dangereus,’Rom. de la Rose479, ‘grudging,’ and ‘dangerous’ in the English translation, l. 1482, ‘disdainful.’
11. The same complaint is madeConf. Am.v. 4490 ff., but the reply there given (4542) is complete and crushing.
27.Q’a: the Roxb. ed. gives ‘Qe’ by mistake for ‘Qa.’
XIII. 1.muance, see Glossary. The Roxb. ed. gives ‘nivance,’ but the MS. reading seems to be rather ‘mvance,’ the ‘v’ being written for greater distinctness as in ‘remue’ xv. l. 8, &c. Certainly change is more characteristic of March than snow, and it is the changes of his fortune of which the lover complains,
‘Ore ai trové, ore ai perdu fiance.’
‘Ore ai trové, ore ai perdu fiance.’
‘Ore ai trové, ore ai perdu fiance.’
‘Ore ai trové, ore ai perdu fiance.’
5. Cp.Mir.948.
8.al oill: cp.Mir.5591, ‘al un n’a l’autre’; but we might reada l’oill. For the MS. reading here cp.Mir.5386, where the MS. has ‘al lun ne lautre.’
XIIII. 6.dont, answering to ‘si’ above: see note onMir.217.
17.asseine, from ‘assener,’ here meaning ‘strike.’
20. ‘I cannot fail to have the fortune of one (or the other),’ i.e. death or sickness. The word ‘tant’ in the line above is not answered by anything and does not seem to mean much.
XV. 1.creance: see ‘credentia’ in Ducange. It means a cord for confining the flight of falcons.
25. ‘All my prayers are to your image at the time when,’ &c.
27.vostre proie, ‘your prey,’ i. e. your possession by right of capture.
XVI. 6 ff. ‘But by feeding on this food of the mind I cannot, though I seek it up and down, find for myself the path of grace.’ The food he feeds on is his feeling of hope: for ‘celle sente’ = ‘la sente,’ cp. iii. 1, and seeMir.301.
26.Q’es.The confusion of singular and plural in the second person is common in our author: see note onMir.442.
(‘Q’es’ is of course for ‘Qe es,’ ‘qe’ or ‘que’ being quite a regular form of the relative used as subject by our author. I note this here because Dr. Stengel’s remarks are misleading.)
28.maisq’il vous talente, ‘if only it be pleasing to you.’
XVII. 2.Salvant l’estat d’amour: a kind of apology for the idea of blaming his mistress: cp. xxii. l. 26.
5.guardon: so written in full in the MS., cp. xxxiii. l. 6, so that it is not a case of ‘falsche Auflösung,’ as Dr. Stengel assumes. He is right enough as regards ‘perlee’ l. 19, and ‘parcer’ xviii. l. 6.
27. ‘I cannot leave off from loving her’: ‘maisque’ here ‘but that,’ cp. xl. l. 7,Trait.xiv. l. 10.
XVIII. 11.Qe jeo ne crie plus: a favourite form of expression with our author: cp. vii. l. 24, xxx. l. 13,Mir.18589.
17.c’est, for ‘s’est’: cp.Mir.1147.
XIX. 17.proeu, the same as ‘prou’ apparently: ‘proen’ can hardly be right, though the MS. would equally admit that reading.
18.trieus: cp. xxxix. l. 15. The usual form in theMirouris ‘truis.’ The Roxb. ed. has ‘criens’ by mistake.
XX. 1.Roe: treated as a monosyllable in the verse here, but otherwise inMir.10942.
2. The position of the conjunction ‘mais’ is characteristic of our author, who frequently treats ‘and’ and ‘but’ in the same way in theConfessio Amantis. Cp. xxxvii. ll. 9, 19,Mir.100, 415, 7739, &c.
6. So MS. The reading ‘basse’ and the omission of ‘lever’ are mistakes of the Roxb. ed.
22.mesna sa leesce, ‘had his joy’: ‘mener’ (but more commonly ‘demener’) is used with words meaning joy, sorrow, &c., to indicate the feeling or expression of it, e.g. xxxiii. l. 5.
XXI. 2.comparisoun: see note on i. l. 16.
6.par tant, ‘therefore’: cp.Mir.119.
15.veneisoun, ‘chase,’ hence ‘endeavour.’
18. Dr. Stengel rightly gives ‘Trestout’: nevertheless the MS. has ‘Terstout’ written in full.
20.Honte et paour, see note on xii. l. 8.
21.N’i.This seems preferable to ‘Ni,’ being equivalent to ‘Ne i’ ‘nor there’ (i = y), cp. xxxvii. l. 10. The proper word for ‘nor’ is ‘ne,’ not ‘ni.’
XXIII. 5.l’for ‘le,’ as indirect object, ‘to her’: see Glossary under le,pron.
plevi: so MS., as Dr. Stengel conjectures: cp.Trait.xvii. l. 2.
10.danger: see note on xii. l. 8.
13.lui, ‘her,’ see Glossary.
15.auns: the MS. reading here might be ‘anns,’ as given in Roxb. ed., but it is quite clearly ‘aun’ in xxxii. l. 1.
XXIIII. 5.autre, si le noun: so MS. rightly. It means ‘anything else except it,’ i.e. his lady’s name, ‘noun’ being the negative: cp.Mir.6495 f.,
‘qu jammais parlaParole, si tresfalse noun,’
‘qu jammais parlaParole, si tresfalse noun,’
‘qu jammais parlaParole, si tresfalse noun,’
‘qu jammais parla
Parole, si tresfalse noun,’
and 8853,
‘Certes, si de vo teste noun,N’ad esté dit d’aucune gent.’
‘Certes, si de vo teste noun,N’ad esté dit d’aucune gent.’
‘Certes, si de vo teste noun,N’ad esté dit d’aucune gent.’
‘Certes, si de vo teste noun,
N’ad esté dit d’aucune gent.’
XXV. 8. See note on ii. l. 23.
10. The MS. has ‘Portont’ and in l. 13 ‘sache’: Roxb. ed. ‘Partout’ and ‘sachez.’
11.Du quoi: so MS., Roxb. ed. ‘Un quoi,’ which is nonsense.
18.q’a: Roxb. ed. ‘qe’ by mistake for ‘qa.’
19.Et d’autrepart: Roxb. ‘En dauterpart,’ MS. Et dautrepart.
XXVI. 4. MS. ‘sil,’ not ‘cil,’ as given in Roxb. ed.
9. ‘If a man gives himself, it is a proof,’ &c. For the form of expression, which is a favourite one with our author, cp.Mir.1244, note.
15.perfit: cp.Ded.ii. 23.
26.vo danger: see note on xii. l. 8.
XXVII. 1. The first line is too long, but the mistake may be that of the author. Similarly inMirour3116, 14568, we have lines which are each a foot too long for the metre. In all cases it would be easy to correct: here, for example, by reading ‘Ma dame, quant jeo vi vostre oill riant.’
In xii. l. 22 we have, ‘Douls, vair, riant,’ as a description of eyes.
3. Roxb. ‘Par un,’ Dr. Stengel ‘Par mi,’ MS. ‘Parmi.’
5.jeo me paie, ‘I am content.’
24.Parentre deus, ‘between the two (alternatives)‘: cp.Mir.1178.
XXIX. 19.pourcella, cp. xlii. l. 7, so ‘pourcela,’Mir.2349, &c.
XXX. 5.Le Nief: I suspect this is a mistake of the transcriber for ‘Le vent.’ It is not the ship that imperils his life but the storm, and ‘Le’ for ‘La’ is rather suspicious here.
8.Uluxes: the usual form of spelling in our author’s works, both French and English.
13. Cp. xviii. l. 9.
15.Danger: see note on xii. l. 8. Here the double meaning of the word is played upon, danger in the ordinary sense and ‘danger’ as representing the forces opposed to the lover.
XXXII. This alone of the present series of balades has no envoy.
15. Roxb. ed. omits ‘se,’ and accordingly Dr. Stengel turns ‘qa’ into ‘que ia,’ to restore the metre.
20.retenue, ‘service,’ referring to ‘servant’ just above.
XXXIII. 2.a bone estreine, a form of good wish, as ‘a mal estreine’ (Mir.1435) is of malediction.
5. See note on xx. l. 22.
6.guardoner: so in MS., cp. xvii. l. 5.
10. See note on ii. l. 23.
XXXIIII. 6.a covenir, apparently ‘by agreement.’
11. The word omitted by the Roxb. ed. is ‘a.’
18.De Alceone.The hiatus must be admitted, as indicated by the separation in the MS., cp.Mir.12228. We must not accent ‘Alceone’ on the final ‘-e’ as Dr. Stengel proposes, because of the way the word is used in theConfessio Amantis, rhyming, for example, with ‘one,’ iv. 3058. ‘Ceïx’ is a dissyllable here and in the English.
XXXV. 10.en droit de, ‘as regards’: see Glossary, ‘endroit.’
17.en droit de mon atour, ‘as regards my state.’
22.falcoun: the Roxb. ed. gives ‘facon,’ a false reading which has hitherto entirely obscured the sense.
XXXVI. 3.Papegai.This seems to stand for any bright-plumaged bird. It is not to be supposed that Gower had the definite idea of a parrot connected with it.
6.au tiel: so MS., but Roxb. ed. ‘aut tiel,’ whence Dr. Stengel ‘au ttiel,’ in pursuance, no doubt, of his theory of ‘Verdoppelung anlautender Consonanten’: see note on ii. l. 4.
au tiel assai, ‘with such trial,’ i.e. ‘so sharply.’
10. Cp.Mir.8716.
15. For the opposition of the rose and the nettle cp. xxxvii. 24,Mir.3538, &c.
XXXVII. 4.la: used (as well as ‘le’) for indirect object fem. See Glossary.
9. See note on xx. l. 2.
10.entrée.The termination ‘-ée’ constitutes one syllable only here, as at the end of the verse, where ‘-é’ and ‘-ée’ rhyme freely together: see, for example, the rhymes in xvii.
19.me refiere, ‘refer myself,’ i.e. ‘make appeal.’ The rhyme requires correction of the reading ‘refiers.’
XXXVIII. 1. Cp.Mir.12463 ff., where the ‘piere dyamant tresfine’ is said to disdain a setting of gold because drawn irresistibly to iron. The loadstone and the diamond became identified with one another because of the supposed hardness of both (‘adamant’).
XXXIX. 3. For this use of ‘et,’ cp. xviii. 7.
9.asseine: rather a favourite word with our author in various meanings, cp. x. l. 10, ‘jeo mon coer asseine,’ ‘I direct (the affections of) my heart’; xiv. l. 17, ‘la fierté de son corage asseine,’ ‘strike down the pride of her heart’; and here, where ‘Qui vo persone ... asseine’ means ‘he who addresses himself to your person.’
18.pluis: this form, which occurs also iv. l. 15, ‘De pluis en pluis,’ seems to be only a variation of spelling, for it rhymes here and elsewhere with -us, -uz: see Introduction, p. xxviii f.
XL. 7.Ne puiss hoster, &c. Cp. xvii. l. 27, ‘Ne puis lesser mais jeo l’ameray’: ‘hoster’ means properly ‘take away,’ hence ‘refrain (myself).’
me pleigne: so MS. The Roxb. ed. gives ‘ma pleine.’
11.serretz.The future tense (if it be future) need give us no anxiety, in view of the looseness about tenses which is habitual with our author: cp. xliv. l. 6,Mir.416. In any case ‘serietz,’ which Dr. Stengel substitutes, is not a correct form.
22.chaunçon: MS. cha̅n̅con.
XLI. Here the address is from the lady to her lover, and so it is also in the three succeeding balades and in xlvi. Notice that the second person singular is used in xli.-xliii. where the language is that of hostile contempt.
9.sent, for ‘cent’: so ‘Si’ for ‘Ci’ in the Title of theBalades, and ‘Sil’ in xlii. l. 20, &c. The converse change of ‘s’ to ‘c’ is not uncommon, seeMir.799.
17.q’ensi ment, ‘which thus lies’: Dr. Stengel’s alteration ‘qensiment’ is quite without justification.
18.sciet: so MS, not ‘ciet.’
20.aparcevoir: in MS. contracted, ‘aꝑcevoir,’ but cp.Mir.123, &c.
XLII. 7.de ta falsine atteinte, ‘by thy convicted falseness.’
10.par tiele empeinte: cp.Trait.iv. l. 17.
20.Sil, for ‘Cil’: cp. xli. l. 9, xlvii. l. 7.
XLIII. 6. ‘I find him whom I was wont to love.’
7.en mon endroit, ‘for my part.’
13.Ne poet chaloir: see Burguy,Grammaireii. 26.
19. The romance of Generides exists in an English version, which has been edited by Dr. Aldis Wright from a manuscript in the library of Trinity Coll. Camb. (E.E.T.S. 1873).
Florent, no doubt, is the same as the hero of Gower’s story inConf. Am.i. 1407 ff., though there are others of his name in Romance.
Partonopéis Partonopeus de Blois. The correction of ‘par Tonope’ is due to Warton.
XLIIII. Here the lady addresses a true lover, whose suit she accepts.
6.refuserai: cp. xl. l. 11.
23.quoique nulls en die, ‘whatsoever any may say of it.’
XLV. 6.pour vo bounté considerer, ‘by reflecting on your goodness’: ‘pour’ is here equivalent to ‘par.’
8. ‘To describe your face.’
12.Pour vous amer, ‘to love you’: see note onMir.6328.
13.Dont m’est avis, answering to ‘tiele,’ ‘in such a manner that’: see note onMir.217.
pour vous essampler, ‘by taking you as their example,’ cp. l. 6: but this is not a usual sense of ‘essampler.’
16.vo covine, ‘your disposition’: see Glossary.
XLVI. The lady speaks again.
5.sauf toutdis, ‘saving always’: cp. xxii. l. 26, ‘Salvant toutdis l’estat de vostre honour.’
15. See note on ii. l. 23.
18.par envoisure; cp.Mir.988. Here it means ‘by raillery’ or ‘in jest.’
23.toutz passont a l’essai, ‘surpass all others at the trial.’
24.q’amour: the Roxb. ed. reduces the sentence to nonsense by giving ‘qamont,’ as conversely ‘damour’ for ‘damont’ in the margin ofBal.v.
XLVII. 2.fait sustenir, ‘doth support.’
4.qui le sciet maintenir, ‘if a man can preserve it’: cp. xxvi. l. 9.
7.sil: cp. xlii. l. 20.
17.Plus est divers, ‘he has more varied fortune.’
XLVIII. For this kind of thing, which recurs often enough in the literature of the time, cp.Rom. de la Rose, 4310 ff.
2.le droit certein, ‘the true certainty’: see ‘certein’ in Glossary.
9.le repos.This is the reading of the MS., and so also ‘est bass’ in l. 11. Dr. Stengel was safer than he supposed in following Todd.
XLIX. 5.qui deinz soi, &c., ‘when a man within himself,’ &c., cp. xxvi. l. 9.
L. 9.le tempre suef: cp.Mir.14707.
19.j’espoir: see Glossary under ‘esperer.’
TRAITIÉ
The title ‘Traitié’ is not in the MSS., but is inserted as that to which reference is made in the Glossary and elsewhere. What follows, ‘Puisqu’il ad dit,’ &c., is the heading found in those MSS. which give this series of balades together with theConfessio Amantis, that is in seven out of ten copies. In the other three theTraitiéoccurs independently, but in two of these, viz. the All Souls and the Trentham MSS., it is imperfect at the beginning, so that we cannot say what heading it had, while in the third, the Glasgow copy, it has that which is given in the critical note. It is certain in any case that the author did not regard it as inseparable from theConfessio Amantis.
I. The numbers are introduced for reference: there are none in the MSS.
4.per: so in the Fairfax MS. fully written, but we have ‘par’ fully written elsewhere, as xi. l. 16, therefore the contractions are usually so expanded, e.g. in the preceding line.
8.celle alme, ‘the soul,’ cp.Bal.iii. l. 1, and see note onMir.301.
9.Tant soulement, see Glossary, ‘tansoulement.’
II. 5. See note onBal.ii. l. 23. For the substance of the passage cp.Mir.17935 ff.
7. He means that continence is better than marriage, as we see from the margin of the next balade.
20.en son atour, ‘in its own condition.’
III. 1.parfit: this form is preferred as expansion of the MS. contraction, because it is more usual and is found fully written both in theMirour(e.g. 1640) and in the present work, xviii. l. 28 (Trentham MS.), but ‘perfit’ occurs inDed.i. l. 23 andBal.xxvi. l. 15.
20.retenue, cp.Bal.viii. l. 17.
IV. 5.resemblont amorouses: cp.Mir.1094.
17.par tiele empeinte: cp.Bal.xlii. l. 10. It seems to mean ‘in such a manner.’
V. 8.l’espousailes, for ‘li espousailes,’ but this use of ‘li’ as fem. plur. is rather irregular.
VI. For the story seeConf. Am.vi. 1789 ff.
The Latin margin has lost some parts of words in the Trentham MS. by close cutting of the edges. The Roxb. ed. does not indicate the nature of this loss nor correctly represent its extent, so that we are left to suppose, for example, that ‘nuper’ is omitted, when as a fact it is there, but partly cut away, and that the MS. reads ‘violant’ for ‘violantes.’
6.envoisure, ‘trickery,’ ‘deceit,’ cp. xvi. l. 3.
10.sanz nulle autre essoine, ‘without any other cause.’
15. The margin has suffered here also in the Trentham MS., but not exactly as represented in the Roxb. ed.
17.Circes: cp.Mir.16674 f., where the same form is used,
‘Uluxes, qant il folparlaA Circes et a Calipsa.’
‘Uluxes, qant il folparlaA Circes et a Calipsa.’
‘Uluxes, qant il folparlaA Circes et a Calipsa.’
‘Uluxes, qant il folparla
A Circes et a Calipsa.’
VII. Margin damaged in the Trentham MS., as above mentioned. For the story cp.Conf. Am.ii. 2145 ff. and iv. 2045 ff.
1.El grant desert, &c. Cp. Chaucer,Monkes Tale, l. 128.
5.Achelons: so inConf. Am.iv. 2068. Chaucer has ‘Achiloyns,’ wrongly given ‘Achiloyus’ in some editions.
9.Eolen: this is the form of the name used in theConf. Am.v. 6808 ff.
11.d’Eurice: ‘Euricie’ in the Latin margin; cp. ‘The kinges dowhter of Eurice,’Conf. Am.ii. 2267. It is taken as the name of a country, but no doubt this results from a misunderstanding of some such expression as Ovid’s ‘Eurytidosque Ioles,’ ‘of Iole the daughter of Eurytus,’ taken to mean ‘Eurytian Iole.’
Herculem: cp. ‘Medeam’ in viii. l. 12.
17.l’auctour: probably Ovid,Met.ix.
VIII. Cp.Mir.3725 ff. andConf. Am.v. 3247 ff.
13.Creusa, a dissyllable, as inConf. Am.v. 4196 ff.
IX. Cp.Conf. Am.iii. 1885 ff.
X. 8. Cp.Conf. Am.vii. 4757 ff.
15. Cp.Conf. Am.i. 761 ff.
18.enbastiront tout le plai, ‘contrived the whole matter.’ The word ‘plait’ or ‘plee’ means properly a process at law, hence a process or design of any kind: ‘bastir un plait’ is the same thing as ‘faire un plait,’ used of designing or proposing a thing. See Burguy,Gram.ii. under ‘plait’ in the Glossary.
XI. Cp.Conf. Am.i. 2459 ff.
3.com cil qui: see note onMir.27942.
XII. Cp.Conf. Am.v. 5551 ff.
19.hupe: theConf. Am.v. 6041 says, ‘A lappewincke mad he was.’ The two birds might easily be confused because both are marked bythe crest which in this case (according to theConfessio Amantis) determined the transformation. A similar confusion appears inMirour8869, where the bird that misleads people as to the place of its nest is no doubt meant for a lapwing.
XIII. 10. This punctuation is more in the manner of the author and also gives a better balance to the sentence than if we made the pause after ‘avoir’: so ‘du roi mais’ in the next line: see note onBal.xx. l. 2.
13.dont, consecutive, answering to ‘tiele’: see note onMir.217.
XIV. 7.qui, ‘whom.’
10.Maisqu’il chaoit: cp.Bal.xvii. l. 27. ‘He had not power to keep his body from falling into the pains of love.’
13.a l’omicide esguarde, ‘looks towards murder.’
XV. 1-10. The losses at the beginnings of these lines in the Fairfax MS. are as follows: Comun | De Lan | Enqore ma | Pour essamp | Cil q’est gu | Droitz est | Car be | To | U que | Deu |
7.Car beal oisel, &c., cp.Mir.7969.
10. Cp.Conf. Am.vi. 330 ff.
13.Parentre deux: cp.Bal.xxvii. l. 24,Mir.1178.
XVI. Cp.Mir.17089 ff.,Conf. Am.v. 6393 ff.
XVII. 2. ‘This the faith pledged with the right hand requires.’ For ‘plevie au destre main’ cp.Bal.xxiii. l. 5.
9.ert, ‘there shall be,’ cp.Mir.17689. Both future and conditional are used to express command or obligation.
13. This is the traditional character of Gawain ‘the Courteous’:
‘“Art thou not he whom men call light-of-love?”“Ay,” said Gawain, “for women be so light.”’Tennyson,Pelleas and Ettarre;
‘“Art thou not he whom men call light-of-love?”“Ay,” said Gawain, “for women be so light.”’Tennyson,Pelleas and Ettarre;
‘“Art thou not he whom men call light-of-love?”“Ay,” said Gawain, “for women be so light.”’
‘“Art thou not he whom men call light-of-love?”
“Ay,” said Gawain, “for women be so light.”’
Tennyson,Pelleas and Ettarre;
XVIII. 22. This Envoy, though it may be taken to have reference to the whole series of balades composing theTraitié, belongs in form to the concluding balade and speaks of it specially, ‘ceste Balade envoie.’ It is addressed to the world generally, ‘Al université de tout le monde,’ and, as was the wont of Englishmen who wrote in French, the author asks pardon for his deficiencies of language.
The Latin lines ‘Quis sit vel qualis’ follow theTraitié, so far as I know, in every existing copy, and must be taken in connexion with it. In all except one of the MSS. these first nine lines are followed, as in the text given, by the shortCarmen de variis in amore passionibusbeginning ‘Est amor in glosa,’ and this is followed by the eight lines beginning ‘Lex docet auctorum.’ In the Trentham copy, however, the interveningCarmenis omitted and these last eight lines are given as if they formed one piece with the first nine.
‘Quis sit vel qualis,’ &c.
2.mentalis sit amor, &c. I take this to mean, ‘so that there may be such spiritual love (as I have described) in the order’; but it is not very clear, and it must be noted that F punctuates after ‘mentalis.’
3 f. ‘We may fear what is to come by the example of what is past; to-morrow as yesterday the flesh may be lightly stirred.’
Carmen de variis, &c.
With this compareBal.xlviii., andRom. de la Rose, 4320 ff.,
‘Amors ce est pais haïneuse,Amors est haïne amoreuse,’ &c.
‘Amors ce est pais haïneuse,Amors est haïne amoreuse,’ &c.
‘Amors ce est pais haïneuse,Amors est haïne amoreuse,’ &c.
‘Amors ce est pais haïneuse,
Amors est haïne amoreuse,’ &c.
1.in glosa, ‘by interpretation.’
‘Lex docet auctorum,’ &c.
1.quod iter, &c., ‘that the fleshly pilgrimage is more secure for those who have the bands of wedlock upon them.’
5.quasi regula: apparently comparing marriage to a monastic rule, into which men are gathered for their salvation.
7.Hinc vetus annorum.The comment on this concluding couplet is to be found in the record of the poet’s marriage, in the year 1397-8, to Agnes Groundolf.