516. Read kēp'th. MS. Hl. gives lines 514-6 thus:—
'Right so this god of loue, this ypocrite,
Doth so his sermonys and his obseruaunce
Under subtil colour and aqueyntaunce.'
517. sowneth in-to, tend to, are consonant with; see Prol. 307.
518. Cf. P. Plowm. B. xv. 109. Both passages are from Matt. xxiii. 27.
537. Chaucer clearly quotes this as a proverb; true man means honest man, according to Dogberry; Much Ado about Nothing, iii. 3. 54. The sense seems to be much the same as 'You cannot make a silk purse of a sow's ear,' or 'Once a knave, always a knave.' Compare the use of theef in Anelida, l. 161; also—
'Alas! I see a serpent or a theef,
That many a trewe man hath doon mescheef;
Knightes Tale, 467 (A. 1325).