738. so vileins: a clear case of French plural of the adjective, used here for the sake of the rhyme.
739. fals: see notes on 221, 683.
745 ff. It is hardly necessary to point out that our author’s history is here incorrect. Charlemagne was not called in against the Emperor Leo, who died in the year before he was born, but against the Lombards by Adrian I, and then against the rebellious citizens of Rome by Leo III, on which latter occasion he received the imperial crown. The authority here followed is the Trésor of Brunetto Latini, pp. 84-88 (ed. 1863).
756. Of Rome and: cp. ll. 759, 766, and note on 155.
761. doth restore, i.e. ‘causeth to be restored.’
772 ff. Here again the story is historically inaccurate, but it is not worth while to set it straight.
786 ff. The meaning seems to be, ‘But this after all is what we might expect, for prosperity (they say) seldom endures.’
795. hath no felawe ‘hath no supporter or champion’: cp. Praise of Peace, 266, ‘And in this wise hath charite no brother.’
809. The punctuation follows F.
823. expondeth. This form occurs also in ll. 663, 873, as a reading of F. The French terminations ‘-on,’ ‘-oun,’ had the same sound and rhymed together, and the same is true of ‘-ance,’ ‘-aunce.’ Probably on the same principle therefore ‘expondeth’ may stand for ‘expoundeth,’ and rhyme with ‘foundeth’: cp. viii. 235 f. On the other hand, in i. 2867 we have expounde, founde. It maybe noted that ‘exponde’ is the form used in the French works, e.g. Mir. 22192, Trait. xi. 20, where it rhymes with Rosemonde, responde, immonde. As a rule in the Mirour this class of words is given without ‘u,’ but in one stanza we have ‘responde,’ ‘monde,’ ‘blounde’ in rhyme together, 8681 ff.