25. Literally—'There is no doubt that thou art not the cause'; meaning, 'Without doubt, thou art the cause.' Misericorde is adopted from the original. According to the usual rule, viz. that the syllable er is usually slurred over in Chaucer when a vowel follows, the word is to be read as mis'ricord-e. So also sov'reyn, l. 69.
27. Vouched sauf, vouchsafed. Tacorde, to accord; cf. talyghte, tamende, &c. in the Cant. Tales.
29. Cf. 'S'encore fust l'arc encordé'; orig, l. 47; and 'l'arc de
justice,' l. 42. The French expression is probably borrowed (as suggested in Bell's Chaucer) from Ps. vii. 13—'arcum suum tetendit.' Hence the phrase of Iustice and of yre refers to the bowe.
30. First, at first, before the Incarnation.
36. For examples of the use of great assize, or last assize, to signify the Last Judgment, see the New E. Dict., s. v. Assize.
39. Most MSS. read here—'That but thou er [or or] that day correcte me'; this cannot be right, because it destroys the rime. However, the Bedford MS., instead of correcte me, has Me chastice; and in MS. C me chastyse is written over an erasure (doubtless of the words correcte me). Even thus, the line is imperfect, but is completed by help of the Sion MS., which reads me weel chastyce.
40. Of verrey right, in strict justice; not quite as in l. 21.
41. Rather close to the original—'Fuiant m'en viens a ta tente Moy mucier pour la tormente Qui ou monde me tempeste,' &c. Mucier means 'to hide,' and ou means 'in the,' F. au.
45. Al have I, although I have. So in l. 157.