901. crëature is here a word of three syllables. In l. 1106 it has four syllables.
903. nolde, would not: the A. S. nolde is the pt. t. of nyllan, equivalent to ne willan, not to wish; cf. Lat. noluit, from nolle.
stenten, stop. 'It stinted, and said aye.'—Romeo and Juliet, i. 3. 48.
908. that thus, i. e. ye that thus.
911. clothed thus (Elles.); clad thus al (Harl.).
912. alle is to be pronounced al-lè. Tyrwhitt inserts than, then, after alle, against the authority of the best MSS. and of the old editions.
Statius (Theb. xii. 545) calls this lady Capaneia coniux; see l. 932, below. He says all the ladies were from Argos, and their husbands were kings.
913. a deedly chere, a deathly countenance or look.
918. we biseken, we beseech, ask for. For such double forms as beseken and besechen, cf. mod. Eng. dike and ditch, kirk and chirch, sack and satchel, stick and stitch. In the Early Eng. period the harder forms with k were very frequently employed by Northern writers, who preferred them to the palatalised Southern forms (perhaps influenced by Anglo-French) with ch. Cf. M. E. brig and rigg with bridge and ridge.