85*. The true reading is probably ‘listen pleie,’ which is preferable both as regards form and construction: cp. iv. 3147, ‘whan the wommen listen pleie.’ The readings are as follows: ‘listen pleye’ J, ‘lusten pleie’ M, ‘luste pley’ B₂; the rest mostly ‘lust to pleye.’ The verb seems usually to be followed by a preposition when used impersonally, as i. 147, 1403, and otherwise more generally not, as i. 2741, iv. 3147, but there are exceptions both ways, e.g. iv. 907 and iii. 111, iv. 3187.
90*. Cp. 54 ff.
92*. for to newe. This is the reading of the better MSS., and ‘schewe’ is probably the correction of a copyist who did not understand it. The word ‘newe’ means here ‘produce,’ but in l. 59 ‘neweth’ is intransitive and means ‘comes into being.’
Latin Verses, ii. 2. vertit in orbe, ‘turns round,’ as upon her wheel.
4. Cp. 111 f.
11. ‘And thus those regions which were once the strongest fall into decay throughout the world, and have no centre of rest there.’ (The first ‘que’ is the relative, for ‘quae.’) It is possible however that ‘per orbem’ may refer again to Fortune’s wheel, cp. 138 ff., where the sense of this couplet seems to be expressed, and in that case the meaning is, ‘fall into decay as they turn upon the wheel.’
116. the vertu: for this French use of the article, which is often found in Gower, see note on l. 72.
122 ff. ‘And in witness of that I take the common voice of every land, which may not lie.’ This appeal to the common voice, the ‘commune dictum,’ is characteristic of our author, who repeats the proverb ‘Vox populi vox dei’ several times in various forms, e.g. Mirour, 12725. For the use of ‘that’ in such expressions cp. l. 907, and iv. 2040.
133. to loke &c., ‘when we look on all sides’: cp. 31, i. 1060, 2278, &c.