139. blinde fortune. ‘Fortune’ must here be taken as a proper name, and hence the definite form of adjective: cp. i. 3396, ‘wyse Peronelle,’ ii. 588, 2721, ‘of grete Rome,’ ii. 2304, ‘false Nessus,’ iii. 2100, ‘false Egiste,’ &c.
143. upon a weer, i.e. in doubt or distress: cp. iii. 1148, and Chaucer, House of Fame, 979,
‘Tho gan I wexen in a wer.’
144 ff. ‘And especially if the power of the rulers of the world be not kept upright by good counsel in such wise that’ &c.
152. heved, always a monosyllable in the metre: the word also appears as ‘hefd’ i. 199, and frequently as ‘hed.’
154. her trowthe allowe, ‘approve of their loyalty,’ i.e. accept it.
155. ‘And welcome them with all his heart.’ For the position of the conjunction cp. 521, 756, 759, 1014, i. 854, 863, &c., and note on Mirour, 415. Mr. Liddell points out to me that the same usage occurs frequently in the ME. Palladius.
156 (margin). The quotation is from Ecclus. xxxii. 24, ‘Fili, sine consilio nihil facias.’ This book is often cited as Solomon in the Mirour.
162. A truce with both France and Scotland was made for three years in 1389, but peace was not finally concluded till 1396.
166 f. Cp. Praise of Peace, 190.