193. newefangel, eager of novelty; see note to F. 618.
195. souneth in-to, accords with; see notes to A. 307, B. 3157, C. 54, and F. 517.
204. lemman, short for leef man, lit. dear man. The context shews that it was considered a 'knavish' word at this period.
207-8. Repeated from Prol. 741-2; see note to A. 741.
215. The line, as it stands, is deficient in the first foot, and is not pleasing. Tyrwhitt reads any for a. This improves it; but I do not know where he found any. The old editions of 1550 and 1561 have a, like the MSS.
220. wenche, like lemman, was a 'knavish' word; see E. 2202.
223. titlelees, title-less, glossed in Hn. by the words sine titulo. It means 'usurping,' as applied to one who has no title or claim to a throne except force. Obviously written before 1399!
224. Here out-law-e is trisyllabic, and the final e is preserved by the caesura. But in l. 231 the accent is thrown back, and it is dissyllabic, as in modern English. Tyrwhitt puts any for a, against all authority.
227. This well-known story of Alexander occurs in the Gesta Romanorum, c. 146; and this circumstance gave it vogue. In Swan's translation, the tale begins thus:—'Augustine tells us in his book, De Civitate Dei, that Diomedes, in a piratical galley, for a long time infested the sea, plundering and sinking many ships. Being captured by command of Alexander, before whom he was brought, the king inquired how he dared to molest the seas. "How darest thou," replied he, "molest the earth? Because I am master only of a single galley, I am termed a robber; but you, who oppress the world with huge squadrons, are called a king and a conquerour."' John of Salisbury repeats the story in his Policraticus, lib. iii. c. 14. Cf. Higden, Polychron. iii. 422.
239. volage, giddy, thoughtless; cf. E. volatile. See the E. version of the Romaunt of the Rose, l. 1284 (vol. i. p. 147).