[1162]. fare-cart, cart for provisions; cf. our phrase 'to enjoy good fare.' It might mean 'travelling-car,' but that is inapplicable. B. has simply 'carro;' Fil. vii. 8.
[1163-9]. Cf. Romeo's speech in Rom. v. 1. 1-11.
[1174]. 'The happiness which you expect will come out of the wood,' i.e. if it comes at all. A jocular form of expressing unlikelihood. There is evidently a reference to some popular song or saying; compare the Jeu de Robin in Toynbee's Specimens of Old French, p. 224. In the Rom. of the Rose, 7455, we have an allusion to a 'ioly Robin,' who was a gay dancer and a minstrel, and the exact opposite of a Jacobin friar. Shakespeare's clown in Twelfth Night (iv. 2. 78) sings of a 'jolly Robin' whose lady 'loves another.' And Ophelia sang 'bonny sweet Robin is all my joy;' Haml. iv. 5. 187.
[1176]. Another proverbial saying, ferne yere, last year; see fern, fürn, in Stratmann, and cf. A. S. fyrngēarum frōd, wise with the experience of past years, Phœnix, 219. Last year's snow will not be seen again.
[1190]. He persuades himself that the moon is to pass well beyond the end of the sign Leo; thus allowing another day.
[1222]. by potente, with a stick, or staff with a spiked end and crutch-like top; cf. Somp. Ta. D 1776. A potent, in heraldry, is a figure resembling the top of a crutch, consisting of a rectangle laid horizontally above a small square. See Rom. of the Rose, 368.
[1274]. 'Whereas I daily destroy myself by living.'
[1313]. rolleth, revolves; see Pard. Ta. C 838; Somn. Ta. D 2217.
[1335]. 'And for that which is defaced, ye may blame the tears.'
[1354]. 'I sigh with sorrowful sighs.' MS. Cm. has sikis I sike.