349, 350. These lines are anticipatory; they give a brief summary of the next part of the story.
352. ful neer, much nearer. See note to l. 109.
366. Iohan was pronounced like modern E. Jawn, and rimes with noon, pronounced as nawn (with aw as in awe). So also in Chaucer, Man of Lawes Tale, B. 1019.
367. 'By my faith'; cf. l. 555. Chaucer has 'by my fey'; Kn. Tale, 268 (A. 1126).
368. 'If thou thinkest the same as thou sayst, may God requite it thee!'
372. Tho, when. threwe, didst throw; observe the absence of -st in the suffix of the second person of the past tense of strong verbs.
373. moot, meeting, assembly, concourse of people; in allusion to the crew of companions whom Gamelyn introduced. Moreover, the word moot was especially used of an assembly of men in council, like our modern meeting. But it is, perhaps, simpler to take it in the sense of public disputation, dispute; cf. St. Katherine, l. 1314, and cf. M.E. motien, to dispute publicly. Indeed, as the rimes are often imperfect, the original word may have been mood, i. e. anger.
376. It was not uncommon, to prevent a person from being forsworn, that the terms of an oath should be literally fulfilled; cf. Merch. Ven. iv. l. 326. In his novel, Lodge avoids all improbability by a much simpler device. He makes the eldest brother surprise the youngest in his sleep. 'On a morning very early he cald up certain of his servants, and went with them to the chamber of Rosader, which being open, he entered with his crue, and surprized his brother when he was asleepe, and bound him with fetters,' &c.
382. Here, as in l. 420, all the MSS. have honde. The final e probably represents the dative or instrumental case, and the correct reading is fote and honde, as in MSS. Pt. and Ln. in both passages.