Cf. the Somnours Tale; especially D. 1315, 1317, and the notes.
A. 1155. For par amour, see all the instances referred to in the Glossary. The fact that it sometimes means 'with all affection,' or 'affectionately,' is well illustrated by a passage in the Coventry Mysteries, p. 50, where it is put into the mouth of Abraham, when addressing Isaac. 'Thu art my suete childe, and par amoure Ful wele in herte do I the loue.'
A. 1452. Seven yeer is an old proverbial expression for a long time; see Seven-year in Halliwell; P. Plowman, C. vii. 214, xi. 73; Zupitza's notes to Guy of Warwick (l. 8667); &c. The curious thing is that Chaucer understood himself literally: 'It fel that in the seventhe yeer, in May'; A. 1462.
A. 2749. Some further illustration of the word expulsive as a technical term may be found in old treatises. Thus Brunetto Latini, in his Livres dou Tresor, livre i. part iii. chap. 103, says that the four virtues which sustain life are the appetitive (due to the element of fire), the retentive (due to earth), the digestive (due to air), and the expulsive (due to water). Hence we have an appetite for food; we retain it; we digest it; and expel it. 'L'aigue est froide et moiste, et fait la vertu expulsive, ce est qu'ele chace fuer la viande quant ele est cuite.' Sir Thos. Elyot, Castel of Helth, 1539, p. 10, says there are three Powers, animal, spiritual, and natural. Of these, it is the natural power which 'appetiteth, retayneth, digesteth, expelleth'; whereas it is the 'power animall' that 'ordeyneth, discerneth, and composeth; that moueth by voluntarye mocyon,' &c. Of the four 'operations,' he says that 'expulsion [is] by colde and moyste.' The whole of this sort of jargon is full of inconsistencies.
A. 3287. Do wey, i. e. take away. So also go wey occurs for 'go away.' See these phrases plentifully illustrated in Zupitza's notes to Guy of Warwick, l. 3097.
B. 124. After all, this line is probably merely a reproduction from Le Roman de la Rose, l. 10438:—
'Tu n'a pas geté ambesas.'
B. 1983. The phrase in toune is, as I have said, practically otiose, and means nothing, being merely introduced as a tag. So again in londe, in l. 2077. For further illustrations see Zupitza's notes to Guy of Warwick, l. 5841.
B. 3917. A correspondent kindly reminds me that the story of Cyrus in Vincent of Beauvais came originally from Herodotus, who tells it, not of Cyrus, but of Polycrates of Samos; see Herodotus, bk. iii. capp. 124, 125. In Herodotus, the vision is seen by the daughter.