4067. Par contumelie: for the metre see note on 296, and cp. 4312, 4317.
4077. Cp. 4704.
4112. ‘Which flies free without caging.’
4117. Referred to also by Chaucer, Wyf of Bath, Prol. 278 ff., and Tale of Melibeus, 2276. It is a common enough saying, but not to be found in the Bible in this form: cp. Prov. xxvii. 15.
4129. Jer. viii. 17.
4141. Ecclus. xxv. 15 (22), ‘Non est caput nequius super caput colubri, et non est ira super iram mulieris.’
4147. Perhaps Prov. xv. 2, ‘os fatuorum ebullit stultitiam.’
4155. Ecclus. xxi. 29, ‘In ore fatuorum cor illorum.’
4168. This is related also Conf. Am. iii. 639 ff., and there too a doubt is expressed as to whether so much patience was altogether wise.
4189 ff. Ecclus. xxviii. 18 (22) ff.