end with a word riming to shete, as, e.g. 'Hir hertes knewen nat to counterfete.'
49. Here again cf. Rom. de la Rose, 8483:—
'N'encor n'avoit fet roi ne prince
Meffais qui l'autrui tolt et pince.
Trestuit pareil estre soloient,
Ne riens propre avoir ne voloient.
55, 6. 'Humility and peace, (and) good faith (who is) the empress (of all), filled the earth full of ancient courtesy.' Line 56 I have supplied; Dr. Koch supplies the line—'Yit hadden in this worlde the maistrie.' Either of these suggestions fills up the sense intended.
57. Jupiter is mentioned in Ovid's Metamorphoses immediately after the description of the golden, silver, brazen, and iron ages. At l. 568 of the same book begins the story of the love of Jupiter for Io.
59. Nembrot, Nimrod; so that his toures hye refers to the tower of Babel. In Gen. x, xi, the sole connection of Nimrod with Babel is in ch. x. 10—'And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel.' But the usual medieval account is that he built the tower. Thus, in the Cursor Mundi, l. 2223:—
'Nembrot than said on this wise, ...