Part 114

532. hiere, subjunctive: cp. ii. 252, iii. 665, &c.

574. othre thing: plural no doubt, but we have also ‘othre (other) thinges,’ i. 2464, iv. 1183.

Latin Verses. v. i. que Leone. This position of ‘que’ is quite common in our author’s Latin writings: see the lines after the Praise of Peace, ll. 10, 49, 50, &c.

8. sub latitante, ‘lurking underneath,’ ‘sub’ being an adverb. The best copies have the words separate.

577. applied, ‘assigned’; cp. iv. 2607, v. 913, vii. 1100.

585. seid, ‘named.’

595. feigneth conscience, that is, makes pretence as to his feeling, or state of mind, (‘As thogh it were al innocence’): cp. iii. 1504, ‘Mi conscience I woll noght hyde.’ The explanation suggested in the New Engl. Dict. that ‘conscience’ stands for ‘conscientiousness’ or ‘rightful dealing,’ will hardly do, and the word does not seem to be used early in this sense.

599. the vein astat: see note on Prol. 221.

608. these ordres, i.e. ‘the orders’ (of religion): so ‘these clerkes,’ Prol. 900.

where he duelleth, that is, the hypocrite, standing for Hypocrisy in general.

623. religioun, the members of the religious orders, as distinguished from the rest of the clergy.

626. It scheweth, ‘it appears’: cp. Prol. 834.

636. devolte apparantie: the words are pure French, and the French feminine form is as naturally used for the adjective, as in the ‘seinte apparantie’ of Mir. 1124. We cannot apply the English rule of the definite adjective to such combinations as this: cp. note on Prol. 221. However, ‘devoute’ in l. 669 seems to be the plural form.

637. set, present tense: so ll. 650, 707, &c.

648. these othre seculers, ‘the men of the world also.’

650. ‘He makes no reckoning in his account.’

695. As he which &c.; that is simply, ‘feigning to be sick,’ so iv. 1833, ‘As he who feigneth to be wod’; cp. vii. 3955. The expression ‘as he which,’ ‘as sche which,’ is very commonly used by Gower in this sense; cp. i. 925, 1640, &c., and Mir. 27942, ‘Comme cil q’est tout puissant,’ ‘being all-powerful.’

698. Cp. iv. 1180, ‘And thus mi contienance I pike.’ It means ‘he makes many a pretence.’

709. Entamed, ‘wounded’: used in a similar moral sense in Mir. 25161, ‘Car Covoitise les entame.’

713. As forto feigne, i.e. ‘as regards feigning’: so l. 723, ‘as to my ladi diere.’

718 ff. For the form of sentence, which is a favourite one with our author in all his three languages, but especially perhaps in Latin, cp. Mirour, 18589 ff.,

‘Unques le corps du sainte Heleine Serchant la croix tant ne se peine, Qe nous ovesque nostre Court, Assetz n’y mettons plus du peine,’ &c.

Vox Clam. i. 263 ff.,

‘In Colchos tauri, quos vicit dextra Iasonis, Non ita sulphureis ignibus ora fremunt, Quin magis igne boues isti,’ &c.

So also Bal. vii. 23, xviii. 8, xxx. 10; Vox Clam. i. 355, 449, 499, &c.; Conf. Am. i. 1259, 1319, &c.

733. ‘For I shall not declare this in my defence, that’ &c.; a somewhat different use of the word from that which we find in the quotations given by the New Engl. Dict., ‘Excuse v.’ i. 1. d.

761 ff. The story of Mundus and Paulina is historical, related by Josephus, Ant. xviii. 66 ff., and after him by Hegesippus, ii. 4, from whom it was taken by Vincent of Beauvais, Spec. Hist. vii. 4, and also doubtless, directly or indirectly, by Gower. It is told in verse by Godfrey of Viterbo, Pantheon, xv, but it is certain that this was not Gower’s source.

771. Which: for this use of the relative in a consecutive clause, which is very common in our author’s style, see note on 492, and cp. 801.