[45]. for-why, because (very common); seldom interrogative.
[47]. me, from me; and, in fact, Caxton and Thynne read from me or fro me. The forms Eleaticis, &c. are due to the Lat. text—'Eleaticis atque Academicis studiis.' He should rather have said—'scoles of Elea and of the Academie.' The Eleatici philosophi were the followers of Zeno of Elea (Zeno Eleates, born about B. C. 488 at Elea (Velia) in Italy), and the favourite disciple of Parmenides (who is expressly mentioned in Book iii. pr. 12, l. 143). The Academic philosophers were followers of Plato.
[49]. mermaidenes; Lat. 'Sirenes,' Sirens; cf. N. P. Tale, B 4461, and note.
til it be at the laste; a false translation. Rather unto destruction; 'usque in exitium.' But, instead of exitium, MS. C. has exitum.
[55]. plounged, drowned; 'mersa.' Cf. dreint, Met. 2, l. 1.
[59]. ner, nearer; comparative, not positive; 'propius.'
Metre 2. [2]. mintinge, intending; 'tendit ... ire.' Still in use in Cambridgeshire.
[8]. sterres of the cold moon: 'gelidae sidera lunae.' I suppose this means the constellations seen by moonlight, but invisible in the day. The expression sidus lunae, the moon's bright form, occurs in Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii. 9. 6; but it is difficult to see how sidera can have the same sense, as some commentators say.
[9]. recourses, orbits; referring to the planets.
y-flit, moved or whirled along by their different spheres; alluding to the old Ptolemaic system of astronomy, which supposed that each planet was fastened to a revolving sphere, thus causing it to perform its orbit in a certain time, varying in the case of each.