1934. Lo but is the reading of MS. E. But the right reading is probably buf, not but. The readings are; E. but; Hn. Cm. Ln. buf;
Cp. buff; Pt. boþ (wrongly); Hl. boef; ed. 1550, bouffe. This gives the line in the following form:—
Lo, 'buf!' they seye, 'cor meum eructavit!'
Here the interjectional 'buf!' is probably intended to represent the sound of eructation. We find baw! as an interjection of strong contempt in P. Plowman, C. xiii. 74, xxii. 398.
Ps. xlv (xliv in the Vulgate) begins, in Latin, with the words Cor meum eructauit uerbum bonum; and the Somnour here takes eructauit in the most literal sense.
1935. fore, path, course; such is certainly the right reading, as in D. 110, on which see the note.
1937. See James, i. 22.
1938. at a sours, at a soaring, in her rise, in her upward swoop. The same word as source of a river; from F. source, O. F. sorse, the fem. pp. of the verb which arose from Lat. surgere. Most likely, this is the origin of the later souse, v., in the sense 'to swoop downward'; see Pope, Epilogue to Satires, Dial. ii. 15; Sh. K. John, v. 2. 150; Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 8. See my note on the House of Fame, l. 544. In the Book of St. Alban's, fol. d 1, back, we find: 'Iff your hawke nym the fowle a-lofte, ye shall say, she toke it at the mount or at the souce'; where the r is dropped.
1939. their, for the eir, the air; see footnote.
1943. Seint Yve; see the note to B. 1417 (p. 172), with which this line entirely coincides.