Gower (C. A. ed. Pauli, i. 263) says:—
'Senec witnesseth openly
How that envie properly
Is of the court the comun wenche.'
Note that parteth in l. [359] means 'departeth.'
[361]. 'Whoever goes away, at any rate she will not be wanting.' Men come and go, but Envy remains. This is the right sense; but Bell, whom Prof. Corson follows, gives it quite a false twist. He says, 'Whosoever goes, i.e. falls, she will not be in want'; a desperate and unmeaning solution, due to not appreciating the force of the verb to want, which here simply means 'to be absent,' and can be applied to persons as well as to things. 'There wanteth but a mean to fill your song'; Two Gent. of Verona, i. 2. 295; 'though bride and bridegroom wants,' i.e. are absent, Tam. Shrew, iii. 2. 248: 'There wanteth now our brother of Gloucester here'; Rich. III. ii. 1. 43.
[364]. 'But only because he is accustomed to write poems.'
[366]. 'Or it was enjoined him by some patron to compose those two poems (the Romaunce of the Rose and Troilus; see A. [344]); and he did not dare to refuse.'
[371]. As thogh that, as he would have done if.
[372]. And had, i.e. and had composed it all himself.