'Car bien saches qu'Amors ne lesse
Sor fins amans color ne gresse.'
28. MS neuere; Percy prints nere; but the syllables in his occupy the time of one syllable. I suspect that the correct reading is thenke ben; to is not wanted, and thenke is better with a final e, though it is sometimes dropped in the pres. indicative. Percy prints thinke, but the MS. has thenk; cf. AS. þencan. With l. 29 cf. Troil. v. 363.
31. I do no fors, I don't care; as in Cant. Ta. 6816 (D 1234).
XII. To Rosemounde.
This graceful Balade is a happy specimen of Chaucer's skill in riming. The metre is precisely that of 'Fortune,' resembling that of the Monkes Tale with the addition of a refrain; only the same rimes are used throughout. The formula is a b a b b c b c.
2. 'As far as the map of the world extends.' Mappemounde is the F. mappemonde, Lat. mappa mundi; it is used also by Gower, Conf. Amant. iii. 102.
9. tyne, a large tub; O. F. tine. The whole phrase occurs in the Chevalier au Cigne, as given in Bartsch, Chrest. Française, 350. 23:—'Le jour i ot plore de larmes plaine tine.' Cotgrave has:—'Tine, a Stand, open Tub, or Soe, most in use during the time of vintage, and holding about four or five pailfuls, and commonly borne, by a Stang, between two.' We picture to ourselves the brawny porters, staggering beneath the 'stang,' on which is slung the 'tine' containing the 'four or five pailfuls' of the poet's tears.
10. The poet, in all his despair, is sustained and refreshed by regarding the lady's beauty.