716. Thestat, tharray = the estate, the array: the coalescence of the article with the noun is very common in Middle English.
719. highte, was named; cf. A. S. hātan, (1) to call, (2) to be called, to be named (with a passive sense).
721. 'How we conducted ourselves that same night.'
726. 'That ye ascribe it not to my ill-breeding.' narette, for ne arette. From O. F. aretter, to ascribe, impute; from Lat. ad and reputare; see Aret in the New E. Dict. Also spelt arate, with the sense 'to chide'; whence mod. E. to rate. So here the poet implies—'do not rate me for my ill-breeding.' The argument here used is derived from Le Roman de la Rose, 15361-96.
727. pleynly speke (Elles. &c.); speke al pleyn (Harl.).
731. shal telle, has to tell. after, according to, just like.
734. Al speke he, although he speak. See al have I, l. 744.
738. 'He is bound to say one word as much as another.'
741, 742. This saying of Plato is taken from Boethius, De Consolatione, bk. iii. pr. 12, which Chaucer translates: 'Thou hast lerned by the sentence of Plato, that nedes the wordes moten be cosines to the thinges of which they speken'; see vol. ii. p. 90, l. 151. In Le Roman de la Rose, 7131, Jean de Meun says that Plato tells us, speech was given us to express our wishes and thoughts, and proceeds to argue that men ought to use coarse language. Chaucer was thinking of this singular argument. We also find in Le Roman (l. 15392) an exactly parallel passage, which means in English, 'the saying ought to resemble the deed; for the words, being neighbours to the things, ought to be cousins to their deeds.' In the original French, these passages stand thus:—
'Car Platon disoit en s'escole