The Hengwrt MS. has—
Pietous and Iust, and euere-moore yliche,
which, otherwise spelt, becomes—
Pitous and Iust, and ever-more y-liche—
and this is the reading which I have adopted in the text. However, I have since observed that Chaucer twice makes pi-e-tous trisyllabic, viz. in Troil. iii. 1444, v. 451; and the Hengwrt MS. has the same spelling here. The common reading, with this alteration, becomes quite right. That is, we may read—
And piëtous and Iust, alwey y-liche.
22. centre; often used in the sense of a fulcrum or pivot, or point of extreme stability. Cf. Milton, Par. Reg. iv. 533—
'Proof against all temptation, as a rock
Of adamant, and, as a centre, firm.'
The old astronomy supposed the centre of the earth to be the fixed centre of the universe.