[2000]. Peter! by St Peter; see note to l. 1034.
[2004]. Cunne ginne, know how to begin. (Gin, a contrivance, is monosyllabic).
[2009]. I substitute the dissyllabic swich-e for the monosyllabic these, to preserve the melody.
[2011]. 'To drive away thy heaviness with.'
[2017]. MS. F. has frot, which has no meaning, but may be a misspelling of froit, which is another form of fruit. As Koch says, we must read The fruit, remembering that Chaucer uses fruit in the peculiar sense of 'upshot' or 'result.'
'And for it is no fruit but los of tyme'; Squi. Ta., F 74.
'The fruyt of this matere is that I telle'; Man of Lawes Ta., B 411.
In the present case, it would be used in a double sense; (1) of result, (2) of a fruit that withers and is ready to burst open. As to the spelling froit, we find froyte in the Petworth MS. in the latter of the above quotations, where other MSS. have fruyt or fruite. The swote (Cx. Th.) means 'the sweetness.'
[2019]. That, in this line, goes back to Sith that in l. 2007.
[2021]. I suppress in after yaf, because it is not wanted for the sense, and spoils the metre.