[956]. A proverb. 'The more haste, the worse speed (success).' Cf. Bk. iii. 1567, and The Tale of Melibeus, B 2244.
[964]. Dr. Köppel says—cf. Albertano of Brescia, Liber de Amore Dei, 45b: 'Iam et Seneca dixit, Non conualescit planta, quae saepe transfertur.'
[969]. 'A bon port estes arrivés'; Rom. de la Rose, 12964.
[977]. Fil. ii. st. 27: 'Io credo certo, ch' ogni donna in voglia Viva amorosa.'
[1000]. post, pillar, support; as in Prol. A 214.
[1002]. Cf. 'The greater the sinner, the greater the saint.'
[1011]. Understand he. 'He became, as one may say, untormented of his wo.'
[1024]. cherl, man. 'You are afraid the man will fall out of the moon!' Alluding to the old notion that the spots on the moon's surface represent a man with a bundle of sticks. See the curious poem on this subject in Wright's Specimens of Lyric Poetry, p. 110; also printed in Ritson's Ancient Songs, i. 68, and in Böddeker's Altenglische Dichtungen, p. 176, where a fear is expressed that the man may fall out of the moon. Cf. Temp. ii. 2. 141; Mids. Nt. Dr. v. 1. 249; and see Alex. Neckam, ed. Wright, pp. xviii, 54.
[1026]. 'Why, meddle with that which really concerns you,' i.e. mind your own business. Some copies needlessly turn this into a question and insert ne before hast.
[1038]. 'And am I to be thy surety?'