[559]. ley on presse, compress, diminish; cf. Prol. A 81.
[560]. holinesse, the leanness befitting a holy state.
[626]. 'That one, whom excess causes to fare very badly.'
[631-679]. Largely original; but, for l. 635, see note to Bk. III. 329.
[638-644]. There is a like passage in P. Pl. C. xxi. 209-217. Chaucer, however, here follows Le Roman de la Rose, 21819-40, q.v.
[648]. amayed, dismayed; O.F. esmaier. So in Bk. IV. l. 641.
[654]. Oënone seems to have four syllables. MS. H. has Oonone; MS. Cm. senome (over an erasure); MS. Harl. 3943, Tynome. Alluding to the letter of Œnone to Paris in Ovid, Heroid. v.
[659-665]. Not at all a literal translation, but it gives the general sense of Heroid. v. 149-152:
'Me miseram, quod amor non est medicabilis herbis!
Deficior prudens artis ab arte mea.