[8]. ferne, distant: 'remotos.' This is important, as settling the sense of 'ferne halwes' in the Prologue to the Tales, l. 14.
[13]. Fabricius, the conqueror of Pyrrhus; censor in B.C. 275. Brutus, the slayer of Cæsar.
[14]. Catoun, Cato of Utica (B.C. 95-46).
[17]. Liggeth, lie ye; 'Iacetis.' The imperative mood.
[20]. cruel; Lat. 'sera,' which Chaucer has taken as 'seua.' 'Cum sera uobis rapiet hoc etiam dies.' thanne is: 'Iam uos secunda mors manet.'
Prose 8. [2]. untretable, not to be treated with, intractable, inexorable: 'inexorabile.'
[7]. unpleyten, unplait, explain: 'explicare.'
[17]. windinge. Read windy, i.e. unstable; Lat. 'uentosam.' Caxton's edition has wyndy, which proves the point. So also other old black-letter editions.
[23]. aspre: 'haec aspera, haec horribilis fortuna.'
[26]. visages, faces. See Notes to the poem on Fortune.