'Yif I late him liues go'; Havelok, 509.
i. e. if I let him go away alive. And again lyues = alive, in Piers Pl. B. xix. 154. Nearly repeated from Troil. iv. 251-2.
910. After this line, Chaucer has omitted the circumstance of Janicola's preserving his daughter's old clothing; 'tunicam eius hispidam, et attritam senio, abditam paruae domus in parte seruauerat.' See l. 913.
911. Agayns, towards, so as to meet. To go agayns, in M. E., is to go to meet. So also to come agayns, to ride agayns (or agayn). See Agayn in Glossary to Spec. of Eng. (Morris and Skeat); and Barbour's Bruce, xiv. 420. Ll. 915-917 are Chaucer's own.
916. 'For the cloth was poor, and many days older now than on the day of her marriage.'
932. 'Men speak of Job, and particularly of his humility.' Cf. Job, xl. 4, xlii. 1-6.
934. Namely of men, especially of men, where men is emphatic. The whole of this stanza (932-938) is Chaucer's.
938. but, except, unless; falle, fallen, happened; of-newe, newly, an adverbial expression. It means then, 'unless it has happened very lately.' In other words, 'If there is an example of a man surpassing a woman in humility, it must have happened very lately; for I have never heard of it.'
939. Pars Sexta. This indication of a new part comes in a fitting place, and is taken from Tyrwhitt, who may have found it in a MS. But there is no break here in the Latin original, nor in any of the MSS. of Chaucer which I have consulted. erl of Panik; Lat. 'Panicius comes.'