The full explanation of this and similar phrases would extend these notes to an inordinate length. Only brief hints can here be given.
[28]. Ther, where. The sense 'where' is commoner than the sense 'there.'
[29]. Can but lyte, know but little. Cf. Prior. Tale, B 1726, 1898.
[30]. For to rede, to read. The use of for to with the gerundial infinitive is found in Layamon and the Ormulum, and may have been suggested by the like use of the French pour, O. Fr. por (and even por a). See Mätzner, Engl. Grammatik, ii. 2. 54. Compare Parl. Foules, 16, 695; Ho. Fame, 657.
[36]. This connection of 'the month of May' with song and poetry is common in Mid. Eng. poetry, from the natural association of spring with a time of joy and hope. We even find something of the kind in A.S. poetry. See The Phœnix, l. 250; Menologium, l. 75.
The earliest song in Middle English relates to the cuckoo; and, before Chaucer, we already find, in the Romance of Alexander, l. 2049, such lines as—
'In tyme of May hot is in boure;
Divers, in medewe, spryngith floure;
The ladies, knyghtis honourith;
Treowe love in heorte durith'; &c.