Part 124

1799. do slain. This is apparently past participle by attraction for infinitive: cp. i. 3153, iv. 249, 816.

1817 ff. This incident is not related of the army of Perseus in any history, so far as I know: see note on 1613.

Latin Verses. iv. 7 f. As punctuated in F the couplet runs,

‘Quod patet esse fides in eo, fraus est que politi Principium pacti, finis habere negat.’

This does not seem to give any sense. The text may be translated thus: ‘What appears to be faith in him is in fact fraud, and the end of the smooth covenant disowns the beginning’ (lit. ‘denies that it has the beginning’).

1921. it scheweth, ‘there appeareth’: cp. iii. 809.

1943. how it were: subjunctive of indirect question; cp. 1243.

1950. of love, and. The punctuation is that of F.

2016. byme: see note on i. 232.

2018. For this I weene, ‘the other cause is because I ween,’ &c.

2025. Forwhy and, ‘provided that’: the same line occurs again in v. 2563. Compare the use of ‘for why that’ in Le Morte Arth. 389 (Roxb.), ‘Thou shalt haue yiftis good, For why þat thou wilte dwelle wyth me,’ quoted in the New Engl. Dict.

2066. of his oghne hed. It may be questioned whether ‘hed’ is not here from an O. E. ‘*hǣd,’ a collateral form of ‘hád,’ like the termination ‘-hed’ for ‘-hod.’ See New Engl. Dict., ‘hede.’ In that case, ‘of his oghne hed’ would mean ‘about his own condition.’ The rhyme with ‘red’ is no guide to us.

2071. Bot hield, i.e. ‘But I held’; see note on i. 1895.

2098 ff. With this attack on the Lombards compare Mirour de l’omme, 25429 ff. It is the usual popular jealousy of foreign rivals in trade.

2122. Fa crere, ‘make-believe,’ the art by which they acquired credit in business. The form ‘crere’ is used in Gower’s French, e. g. Mirour, 4474.

2124. hem stant no doute, ‘they have no fear,’ ‘they are sure’: cp. iii. 1524, v. 7244. In v. 2118, ‘which stant of him no doute,’ we have a somewhat different form of the expression: cp. iii. 2536.

2157 ff. The story is mainly taken from Ovid, Metam. ix. 101 ff., but probably Gower was acquainted also with the epistle, Deianira Herculi, and he has (naturally enough) supposed that what is there said of Hercules and Omphale, the exchange of clothes &c., referred to the relations of Hercules and Iole: see 2268 ff. ‘The kinges dowhter of Eurice’ is no doubt derived from the expression ‘Eurytidosque Ioles’: cp. Traitié, vii. 2. Ovid’s account of the death of Hercules is very much shortened by our author, and not without good reason.

2160. That is, ‘it befell him to desire,’ &c.

2297. Ovid, Met. ix. 229 ff.

2299. al of: so the first and second recension copies generally, and also W. The sense seems to require it, rather than ‘of al,’ given by FH₃.

2341. his slyh compas: a clear case of the loss of inflexion in the adjective, notwithstanding that it is a native English stem. The same word occurs in the definite form in l. 2374 ‘with his slyhe cast.’

2346. chalk for chese: cp. Prol. 416.

2366. axeth no felawe, ‘requires none to share it.’

2392. The metre requires the form ‘bote,’ which is etymologically correct, and is given in the best MSS.

2403. Me roghte noght: pret. subjunctive, ‘I should not care.’

2423. I wolde: cp. iii. 78. We should expect the negative ‘I nolde,’ as in i. 2750 f.,

‘I wol noght say That I nam glad on other side.’

The conditional clause thrown in has broken the thread of the sentence.