45. Nice: silly, stupid; French, “niais.”
46.”Reheating” is read by preference for “richesse,” which stands in the older printed editions; though “richesse” certainly better represents the word used in the original of Boccaccio — “dovizia,” meaning abundance or wealth.
47. “Depart it so, for widewhere is wist How that there is diversity requer’d Betwixte thinges like, as I have lear’d:” i.e. make this distinction, for it is universally known that there is a great difference between things that seem the same, as I have learned.
48. Frepe: the set, or company; French, “frappe,” a stamp (on coins), a set (of moulds).
49. To be “in the wind” of noisy magpies, or other birds that might spoil sport by alarming the game, was not less desirable than to be on the “lee-side” of the game itself, that the hunter’s presence might not be betrayed by the scent. “In the wind of,” thus signifies not to windward of, but to leeward of — that is, in the wind that comes from the object of pursuit.
50. Bothe fremd and tame: both foes and friends — literally, both wild and tame, the sporting metaphor being sustained.
51. The lovers are supposed to say, that nothing is wanting but to know the time at which they should meet.
52. A tale of Wade: see note 5 to the Merchant’s Tale.
53. Saturn, and Jove, in Cancer joined were: a conjunction that imported rain.
54. Smoky rain: An admirably graphic description of dense rain.