Tyrwhitt says:—'A sort of proverbial expression for singing and weeping successively [rather, little singing followed by much weeping]. See Lydgate, Trag. [i. e. Fall of Princes] st. the last; where he says that his book is 'Lyke Chantepleure, now singing now weping.' In MS. Harl. 4333 is a Ballad which turns upon this expression. It begins: 'Moult vaut mieux pleure-chante que ne fait chante-pleure.' Clearly the last expression means, that short grief followed by long joy is better than brief joy followed by long grief. The fitness of the application in the present instance is obvious.
Another example occurs in Lydgate's Fall of Princes, bk. i. c. 7, lenvoy:—
'It is like to the chaunte-pleure,
Beginning with ioy, ending in wretchednes.'
So also in Lydgate's Siege of Troye, bk. ii. c. 11; ed. 1555, Fol. F 6, back, col. 2.
328. A furlong-wey meant the time during which one can walk a furlong, at three miles an hour. A mile-way is twenty minutes; a furlong-wey is two minutes and a half; and the double of it is five minutes. But the strict sense need not be insisted on here.
330. Asure, true blue; the colour of constancy; see l. 332.
'Her habyte was of manyfolde colours,
Watchet-blewe, of fayned stedfastnesse,
Her golde allayed like son in watry showres,