The substance of the stanza is taken from Jerome adv. Jov. ii. 8, ‘Per quinque sensus, quasi per quasdam fenestras, vitiorum ad animam introitus est. Non potest ante metropolis et arx mentis capi, nisi per portas eius irruerit hostilis exercitus.’
16600. par si fort estal, i.e. coming into so strong a position for fighting.
16605. ‘The fortress of judgment in the heart.’
16633. ‘Quae facere turpe est, haec ne dicere honestum puta:’ quoted as ‘Socrates’ by Caec. Balbus, p. 18: cp. 13695.
16646. s’en remort, ‘feels sorrow for its offences.’
16670. Perhaps Ecclus. xx. 7.
16673. A similarly severe moral judgment is pronounced upon Ulysses in Trait. vi. 3; the story of the Sirens referred to below is repeatedly mentioned, e.g. ll. 9949, 10911, Bal. xxx. 2, Conf. Am. i. 481 ff. In all these places the spelling ‘Uluxes’ is the same.
16700. ne fist que sage: an elliptical form of expression common in old French, ‘ne fist ce que sage feroit,’ ‘did not act as a wise man’: see Burguy Gramm. ii. 168.
16701. For this cp. Conf. Am. v. 7468 ff.
16710. ‘Tanque’ here answers to ‘tiele’ in the same manner as ‘dont’ so often does.