298. Hadde, possessed; as hadde is here emphatic, the final e is not elided. So also in l. 386.
301. Chaucer often imitates his own lines. He here imitates Troil. iv. 1174—'And pitously gan for the soule preye.' gan, did.
302. yaf him, 'gave him (money) wherewith to attend school.' An allusion to the common practice, at this period, of poor scholars in the Universities, who wandered about the country begging, to raise money to support them in their studies. Luther underwent a similar experience. Cf. P. Plowman, B. vii. 31; also Ploughman's Crede, ed. Skeat, p. 71.
305. 'With propriety (due form) and modesty.'
307. Souninge in, conducing to; cf. note to l. 275 above.
The Man of Lawe.
309. war, wary, cautious; A. S. wær, aware. Cf. l. 157.
310. at the parvys, at the church-porch, or portico of St. Paul's, where the lawyers were wont to meet for consultation. See Ducange, s. v. paradisus, which is the Latin form whence the O. F. parvis is derived. Also the note in Warton, Hist. E. Poet., ed. 1840, ii. 212; cf. Anglia, viii. 453. And see Rom. of the Rose. 7108, and the note.
315. pleyn, full; F. plein, Lat. acc. plenum. Cf. pleyn, fully, in l. 327.