La tua benignità non pur soccorre,' &c.
[1282]. 'Mercy prevails over (lit. surpasses) justice.'
[1344]. 'Or else do I dream it?'
[1357]. sooth, for sooth is, i.e. it is true.
[1369]. Bell takes scripture to mean the mottos or posies on the rings. Perhaps this is right.
[1374]. holt, holds; 'that holds it in despite.'
[1375]. 'Of the money, that he can heap up and lay hold of.' For mokren, cf. Chaucer's Boethius, Bk. ii. Pr. 5. 11. Pens, pence, is a translation of Ital. denari, money, in the Filostrato, Book iii. st. 38.
[1384]. the whyte, silver coins; the rede, gold coins.
[1389]. Myda, Midas; see Wyf of Bathes Tale, D 951.
[1391]. Crassus; wantonly altered to Cresus in Bell's edition, on the ground that the story is told of Croesus. But Chaucer knew better. M. Crassus, surnamed Dives (the Rich), was slain in battle against the Parthians, B. C. 53. Orodes, king of Parthia, caused molten gold to be poured into the mouth of his dead enemy, saying, 'Sate thyself now with that metal of which, in life, thou wast so greedy;' Cicero, Att. vi. 1. 14; Florus, iii. 11. 4.