[827]. I here take the considerable liberty of reading the mansioun, by comparison with l. 831. Those who prefer to read sum place stide, or som styde, or some stede, can do so! The sense intended is obviously—'And that the dwelling-place, to which each thing is inclined to resort, has its own natural stead,' i.e. position. Fishes, for example, naturally exist in water; the trees, upon the earth; and sounds, in the air; water, earth, air, and fire being the four 'elements.' Cf. the phrase—'to be in his element.'
[836]. Out of, i.e. not in; answering to l. 838.
[846]. Referring to Ovid's description, Met. xii. 39, 40.
'Orbe locus medio est inter terrasque fretumque
Coelestesque plagas, triplicis confinia mundi.'
I suspect that Ovid's triplicis confinia mundi is the origin of Chaucer's phrase tryne compas, in Sec. Non. Tale, G 45.
[857]. The 'terms of philosophy' are all fully and remorselessly given by Gower, Conf. Amant. bk. vii.
[861]. It is remarkable that Chaucer, some years later, repeated almost the same thing in the Prologue to his Treatise on the Astrolabe, in somewhat different words, viz. 'curious endyting and hard sentence is full hevy atones for swich a child to lerne'; l. 32.
[866]. Lewedly, in unlearned fashion; in his Astrolabe, l. 43, Chaucer says he is 'but a lewd compilatour of the labour of olde Astrologiens.'
[868]. The eagle characteristically says that his reasons are so 'palpable,' that they can be shaken by the bills, as men shake others by the hand. It is perhaps worth adding that the word bill was too vulgar and familiar to be applied to a hawk, which had only a beak (the French term, whereas bill is the A.S. bile). 'Ye shall say, this hauke has a large beke, or a shortt beke; and call it not bille'; Book of St. Alban's, fol. a 6, back. The eagle purposely employs the more familiar term.