[1683] 1953 þat after E ... B₃
[1684] 1965 the] þo E ... L
[1685] 1969 a om. BT, W
[1686] 1970 hem om. BT wel Ad
NOTES
PROLOGUS
Latin Verses. i. 1 f. The author acknowledges his incapacity for higher themes, as at the beginning of the first book. The subject of the present work is a less exalted one than that of those which preceded it.
3 f. Qua tamen &c. The couplet may be translated, ‘Yet in that tongue of Hengist in which the island of Brut sings, I will utter English measures by the aid of Carmentis.’
5 f. Ossibus ergo carens &c. That is, ‘Let the evil tongue be far away.’ The reference is to Prov. xxv. 15, ‘A soft tongue breaketh the bone,’ taken here in a bad sense: cp. iii. 463 ff.