1. Well unnethes durst this knight for dread: This knight hardly dared, for fear (that she would not entertain his suit.)
2. “Ne woulde God never betwixt us twain, As in my guilt, were either war or strife” Would to God there may never be war or strife between us, through my fault.
3. Perhaps the true reading is “beteth” — prepares, makes ready, his wings for flight.
4. Penmark: On the west coast of Brittany, between Brest and L’Orient. The name is composed of two British words, “pen,” mountain, and “mark,” region; it therefore means the mountainous country
5. Cairrud: “The red city;” it is not known where it was situated.
6. Warished: cured; French, “guerir,” to heal, or recover from sickness.
7. Annoyeth: works mischief; from Latin, “nocco,” I hurt.
8. Virelays: ballads; the “virelai” was an ancient French poem of two rhymes.
9. Lucina the sheen: Diana the bright. See note 54 to the Knight’s Tale.
10. In a Latin poem, very popular in Chaucer’s time, Pamphilus relates his amour with Galatea, setting out with the idea adopted by our poet in the lines that follow.