2258. Thar ye nat, it needs not that ye; i. e. you are not obliged. But yow lyke, unless you please (lit. unless it please you).
2259. Ther, where. What that him lyketh, whatever he likes.
2260. Save your grace, with the same sense as the commoner phrase 'save your reverence.' The Lat. text has 'salua reuerentia tua'; which shews the original form of the phrase.
As seith the book. Here 'the book' probably means no more than the Latin text, which has 'nam qui omnes despicit, omnibus displicet'; without any reference.
2261. Senek. Mätzner says this is not to be found in Seneca; in fact, the Latin text refers us to 'Seneca, De Formula Honestae Vitae'; but Sundby has found it in Martinus Dumiensis, Formula Honestae Vitae, cap. iii. This shews that it was attributed to Seneca erroneously. Moreover, the original is more fully expressed, and runs thus—'Nullius imprudentiam despicias; rari sermonis ipse, sed loquentium patiens auditor; seuerus non saeuus, hilares neque aspernans; sapientiae cupidus et docilis; quae scieris, sine arrogantia postulanti imperties; quae nescieris, sine occultatione ignorantiae tibi benigne postula impertiri.' Cf. Horace, Epist. vi. 67, 68.
2265. Rather, sooner. See Mark, xvi. 9. The weakness of this argument for the goodness of woman appears by comparison with P. Plowman, C. viii. 138: 'A synful Marye the seyh er seynt Marie thy moder,' i. e. Christ was seen by St. Mary the sinner earlier than by St. Mary His mother, after His resurrection.
2266-9. This reappears in verse in the March. Tale, E. 2277-2290.
2269. Alluding to Matt. xix. 17; Luke xviii. 19.
2273. Or noon, or not. So elsewhere; see B. 2407, F. 778, I. 962, 963, 964.
2276. Cf. P. Plowman, C. xx. 297, on which my note is as follows. 'Perhaps the original form of this commonly quoted proverb is this:—"Tria sunt enim quae non sinunt hominem in domo permanere; fumus, stillicidium, et mala uxor"; Innocens Papa, de Contemptu Mundi, i. 18. It is a mere compilation from Prov. x. 26, xix. 13, and xxvii. 15. Chaucer refers to it in his Tale of Melibeus, Prologue to Wife of Bathes Tale (D. 278), and Persones Tale (I. 631); see also Kemble's Solomon and Saturn, pp. 43, 53, 63; Walter Mapes, ed. Wright, p. 83.' Cf. Wright's Bibliographia Britannica, Anglo-Norman Period, pp. 333, 334; Hazlitt's Proverbs, pp. 114, 339; Ida von Düringsfeld, Sprichwörter, vol. i. sect. 303; Peter Cantor, ed. Migne, col. 331; &c. A medieval proverbial line expresses the same thus:—