50. My frend, i. e. my true friend. In l. 51, thy frendes means 'the friends I owed to thee,' my false friends. From Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 8, l. 23:—'this aspre and horrible Fortune hath discovered to thee the thoughtes of thy trewe freendes;... Whan she departed awey fro thee, she took awey hir freendes and lafte thee thyne freendes.'
51. I thanke hit thee, I owe thanks to thee for it. But very likely hit has been inserted to fill up, and the right reading is, probably, I thank-e thee; as Koch suggests.
52. On presse, in a throng, in company, all together.
53. 'Their niggardliness, in keeping their riches to themselves, foreshews that thou wilt attack their stronghold; just as an unnatural appetite precedes illness.'
56. Cf. Rom. de la Rose, 19179:—
'Ceste ruile est si généraus,
Qu'el ne puet defaillir vers aus.'
57. Here Fortune replies. This stanza is nearly made up of extracts from Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 2, transposed and rearranged. For the sake of comparison, I give the nearest equivalents, transposing them to suit the order here adopted.
'That maketh thee now inpacient ayeins me.... I norisshede thee with my richesses.... Now it lyketh me to with-drawen my hand ... shal I than only ben defended to usen my right?... The see hath eek his right to ben somtyme calme ... and somtyme to ben horrible with wawes.... Certes, it is leveful to the hevene to make clere dayes.... The yeer hath eek leve ... to confounden hem [the flowers] somtyme with reynes ... shal it [men's covetousness] binde me to ben stedefast?'
Compare also the defence of Fortune by Pandarus, in Troilus, bk. i. 841-854.