[1194]. sucre be or soot, may be like sugar or like soot, i.e. pleasant or the reverse. We must read soot (not sote, sweet, as in Bell) because it rimes with moot. Moreover, soot was once proverbially bitter. 'Bittrore then the sote' occurs in Altenglische Dichtungen, ed. Boddeker, p. 121; and in Rutebuef's Vie Sainte Marie l'Egiptianne, ed. Jubinal, 280, we find 'plus amer que suie;' cf. Rom. Rose, 10670: 'amer Plus que n'est suie.'
[1215]. Cf. 'Bitter pills may have sweet effects;' Hazlitt's Proverbs.
[1231]. Bitrent, for bitrendeth, winds round; cf. iv. 870. wryth, for wrytheth, writhes.
[1235]. 'When she hears any shepherd speak.'
[1249]. 'And often invoked good luck upon her snowy throat.'
[1257]. welwilly, full of good will, propitious.
[1258]. Imeneus, Hymenæus, Hymen; cf. Ovid, Her. xiv. 27.
[1261-4]. Imitated from Dante, Parad. xxxiii. 14:—
'Che qual vuol grazie, e a te non ricorre,
Sua disianza vuol volar senz' ali.