485. Lat. 'es igitur minister mortis, non uitae.'
487. Do wey, do away with; Lat. 'depone.' The phrase occurs again in the Milleres Tale, A. 3287.
489-497. These lines are wholly Chaucer's own.
490. To scan the line, elide e in suffre, and read phílosóphre.
492. spekest; to be read as spek'st.
498. utter yen, outer eyes, bodily eyes. In MS. E. it is glossed by 'exterioribus oculis.' The Latin has—'nescio ubi oculos amiseris; nam quos tu Deos dicis, omnes nos saxa esse uidemus; mitte igitur manum et tangendo disce, quod oculis non uales uidere.'
503. taste, test, try; Lat. 'tangendo disce.' The word is now restricted to one of the five senses; it could once have been used also of the sense of feeling, at the least. Bottom even ventures on the strange expression—'I trust to taste of truest Thisbe's sight'; Mid. Nt. Dream, v. 1. 280; such is the reading in the first folio.
505-511. This stanza is all Chaucer's own.
515. bath of flambes rede; Lat. 'in bulliente balneo.'
516-522. The Latin merely has—'Quae quasi in loco frigido permansit, nec modicum saltem sudoris persensit.'