[861]. See Hazlitt's notes on the proverb—'Many talk of Robin Hood, that never shot in his bow,' &c.
[866]. 'Who cannot endure sorrow deserves no joy.'
[867]. 'And therefore let him, who has a glass head, beware of stones cast in battle.'
[882]. let, short for ledeth, leads (Stratmann).
[884]. The MSS. end the line with syke. It has been pointed out that syke is not a perfect rime to endyte, whyte, but only an assonance. It is difficult to believe Chaucer guilty of this oversight; and hence I would suggest, with all submission to the critics, that possibly Chaucer wrote syte. The M. E. syte means to be anxious, and occurs in the Cursor Mundi, 11675; where Joseph says to Mary:—'Bot I site for an other thing That we o water has nu wanting,' i.e. but I am anxious about another thing, that we lack water. The sb. site, grief, occurs in the Midland dialect as well as in Northumbrian; see site in Stratmann. As the word is unusual, it would naturally be altered by the scribes to the familiar syke, to sigh, with a cognate meaning.
[920]. 'And loude he song ageyn the sonne shene;' Kn. Ta. A 1509.
[959]. 'Unless lack of pursuit is the cause (of failure),' &c.; cf. 1075.
[964]. hameled, cut off, docked; cf. P. Pl. Crede, 300.
[1001]. 'Your ill hap is not owing to me.'
[1017]. Read And úpon mé, where me is emphatic.