2238. 'I care not to boast of arms (success in arms).'
2239. Ne I ne axe, &c., are to be pronounced as ni naxe, &c. So in l. 2630 of this tale, Ne in must be pronounced as nin.
2252. wher I ryde or go, whether I ride or walk.
2253. fyres bete, kindle or light fires. Bete also signifies to mend or make up the fire; see l. 2292.
2271. The thridde hour inequal. 'In the astrological system, the day, from sunrise to sunset, and the night, from sunset to sunrise, being each divided into twelve hours, it is plain that the hours of the day and night were never equal except just at the equinoxes. The hours attributed to the planets were of this unequal sort. See Kalendrier de Berg. loc. cit., and our author's treatise on the Astrolabe.'—Tyrwhitt.
2275-360. Cf. the Teseide, vii. 71-92.
2286. a game, a pleasure.
2288. at his large, at liberty (to speak or to be silent).
2290. 'E coronò di quercia cereale'; Tes. vii. 74. Cerial should be cerrial, as spelt by Dryden, who speaks of 'chaplets green of cerrial oak'; Flower and Leaf, 230. It is from cerreus, adj. of cerrus, also ill-spelt cerris, as in the botanical name Quercus cerris, the Turkey oak. The cup of the acorn is prickly; see Pliny, bk. xvi. c. 6.