1059. Fr. 'au regart de la peine d'enfer.'
1067. surquidrie, too great confidence; see 403 above, and the note.
1069. From S. Gregorii Moralium lib. xxxiv. cap. xix. § 36 (ed. Migne, vol. 76, col. 738):—'Ad districti ergo iudicis iustitiam pertinet, ut nunquam careant supplicio, quorum mens in hac uita nunquam uoluit carere peccato.'
1073. There is here a sad oversight. For 'the seconde wanhope,' we should read 'the same wanhope.' The second kind of despair is discussed in 1074. All the MSS. have this mistake.
1080. poverte espirituel; this refers to the 'poor in spirit'; Matt. v. 3. lowenesse, i. e. meekness; Matt. v. 5. hunger; Matt. v. 6. travaille; Matt. v. 4, 10, 11. lyf; Rom. viii. 13. This concluding passage may be compared with the concluding passage of the Ayenbite, p. 261.
1081. This final paragraph is variously headed in the MSS. E. has: 'Here taketh the makere of this book his leue.' So also Cm. So also Pt., preceded by 'Explicit fabula Rectoris.' Hl. has: 'Preces de Chauceres.' The words 'this litel tretis' refer, of course, to the Persones Tale as originally written, so that some part of this concluding address was certainly added afterwards. The interpolation (due to Chaucer himself, if we may trust the evidence) probably extends (as Tyrwhitt suggested) from the words and namely in 1085 to the words salvacioun of my soule in 1090. This accounts for the unusual length of the sentence in 1084-1092. The addition was made at the time of revision, when Chaucer had made up his mind that the Persones Tale was to be the last; and he took the opportunity of writing the conclusion of the work before it was, in reality, completed. This accounts for the whole matter.
1083. Alluding to Rom. xv. 4.
1085. I revoke in my retracciouns, I recall by retracting what I may have said amiss. There is no need to lay an undue stress on this expression, as if the author had been compelled to denounce and retract most of his works. We may fairly understand the expression 'thilke that sownen into sinne' as applicable to all the works, and not to the Tales alone. Whilst thanking God for his devotional works, it was not out of place for him to 'recall' his more secular ones; for this expression seems to mean no more than that he could not claim that they were written in God's service. To 'revoke' cannot here mean 'to withdraw,' because the poems named were not withdrawn, nor was there any way in which such a result could have been brought about. Cf. vol. iii. p. 503.
1086. The book of the xix. Ladies is, of course, the Legend of Good Women. For xix., most MSS. have 'xxv.'; MS. Harl. 1758 has '25'; MS. Ln. has 'xv.'; and MS. Hl. has '29'; but we know, from the Poem itself, that 'xix.' is correct. Numbers, as the various readings shew, easily went wrong; see note to 565 above.