Vera bona atque illis multum diuersa, remota
Erroris nebula.'
Cf. Dryden's translation and Dr. Johnson's poem on the Vanity of Human Wishes.
[198, 9]. what is to yerne, what is desirable. offence, disappointment.
[203]. mischaunce; because Antenor contrived the removal from Troy of the Palladium, on which the safety of the city depended. Cf. Lydgate, Siege of Troye, Bk. iv. ch. 34; or the account by Caxton, quoted in Specimens of English from 1394-1579, ed. Skeat, p. 89.
[210]. here and howne. The sense of this phrase is not known; but, judging by the context, it seems to mean—'thus said every one, such was the common rumour.' It has been explained as 'thus said hare and hound,' i.e. people of all sorts; but the M. E. form of hare is hare (A. S. hara), and the M. E. form of 'hound' never appears as howne, which, by the way, is evidently dissyllabic. In the absence of further evidence, guesswork is hardly profitable; but I should like to suggest that the phrase may mean 'gentle and savage.' The M. E. here, gentle, occurs in Layamon, 25867; and in Amis and Amiloun, 16 (Stratmann); from A. S. hēore. Houne answers, phonetically, to an A. S. Hūna, which may mean a Hun, a savage; cf. Ger. Hüne.
[225]. From Dante, Inf. iii. 112:—
'Come d'autunno si levan le foglie
L'una appresso dell' altra infin che 'l ramo
Rende alla terra tutte le sue spoglie.'