Two MSS., both written out by Shirley, and MS. Harl. 7333, all read:—'The first fader, and foundour (or fynder) of gentylesse.' This is wrong, and probably due to the dropping of the final e in the definite adjective firste. We must keep the phrase firste stok, because it is expressly repeated in l. 8.
The first line means—'With regard to, or As to the first stock (or source), who was the father of gentilesse.' The substantives stok and fader have no verb to them, but are mentioned as being the subject of the sentence.
3. The former his refers to fader, but the latter to man.
4. Sewe, follow. In a Ballad by King James the First of Scotland, printed at p. 54 of my edition of the Kingis Quair, the first five lines are a fairly close imitation of the opening lines of the present poem, and prove that King James followed a MS. which had the reading sewe.
'Sen throu vertew encressis dignite,
And vertew flour and rut [root] is of noblay,
Of ony weill or quhat estat thou be,
His steppis sew, and dreid thee non effray:
Exil al vice, and folow trewth alway.'
Observe how his first, third, and fourth lines answer to Chaucer's fifth, second, and fourth lines respectively.