Part 110

338 f. The verb is used impersonally, ‘there is cause for us all to be sorry.’

348. ‘it causeth this new sect to be brought in.’ The subject must be supplied from the previous clause.

366 f. That is, the various claimants to the papacy are supported in various lands by national partiality or interest.

380 f. ‘They use no other reasoning than this as to the peril of religion.’

383. his world, i.e. his fortune, cp. 1081, i. 178, &c.

388 f. That is, the right cause has no defence but in the rule of personal inclination and interest, the principle expressed by ‘Where I love, there I hold.’

407 ff. This is a charge against those who hold office in the Church of deliberately throwing temptation in the way of their people, in order to profit by the fines which may be imposed for breaches of morality and discipline. The meaning is fully illustrated by parallel passages in the Mirour de l’omme, 20161 ff., and the Vox Clamantis, iii. 195; cp. Chaucer, Pers. Tale, 721. The sentence here is a little disorderly and therefore obscure: ‘Men say that they drive forth their flock from the smooth meadow into the briars, because they wish to seize and by such ill-treatment take away the wool which shall remain upon the thorns, torn out by the briars,’ &c. The archdeacon’s court is chiefly referred to.

416. chalk for chese, cp. ii. 2346: it is a proverbial expression still current.

430. ‘We see the lot drawn amiss’: for ‘merel’ cp. Mir. 23496.

434. Hebr. v. 4.

452. in audience, ‘in public assembly’: cp. ii. 2556.

454. a chirie feire, taken as an emblem of delights which are transitory: cp. vi. 890 f.,

‘And that endureth bot a throwe, Riht as it were a cherie feste.’

460. understode, past subj. with indefinite sense: cp. i. 383, ii. 88, iii. 971, iv. 2597, 2728, vi. 1474. ‘Whoso understood their words, to him it seems likely,’ &c., instead of ‘to him it would seem likely’; cp. l. 520.

461. The distinction between ‘thinke’ and ‘thenke’ is completely lost in Gower’s usage: ‘thenke’ is the regular form for both, but ‘thinke’ is admitted equally for both in rhyme, as v. 213, 254.

480. ‘For fear that (On the chance that) I may say wrong.’ The subject is a delicate one and the author shows similar caution when dealing with it in the Mirour.

492. as of, ‘as regards’: cp. i. 557, iii. 1479, &c.

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Latin Verses. iv. 4. velle, used as a noun, ‘will’: so ‘de puro velle’ in the lines at the beginning of the second book.

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509 f. ‘Which with great difficulty man shall restrain, if he shall restrain it ever.’

521. For the position of ‘and’ see note on 155.

525. stonde upon: cp. 214.

529. som men: ‘som’ is uninflected in this expression: on the other hand we have ‘somme clerkes,’ l. 355.

546. the man, so 582: see note on 72.

550 f. ‘If any one thinks otherwise, look at the people of Israel’: ‘Behold’ is 2nd sing. imperative. The unusual form ‘Irael’ is given by the best MSS. here and elsewhere, and we must suppose that it proceeds from the author.

558. stonde full: perhaps a reference to 503 ff., or a metaphor from the tides.

567 (margin). The quotation is from Cons. Phil. ii. Pr. 4: ‘Quam multis amaritudinibus humanae felicitatis dulcedo respersa est.’ The constant references to Fortune and her wheel may probably be suggested by Boethius, e.g. ii. Pr. 1.