836. Cit: this is the true reading; the word occurs also Mir. 7197.
843. now with that beforn, ‘the present with the past,’ ‘now’ being used as a substantive.
850. the sothe seie: this is the reading of the third recension; the others have ‘the soth schal seie.’ Either text is admissible, for ‘soth’ is used as a substantive, but ‘the sothe’ is usually preferred, as in l. 834, and i. 981, iii. 765.
858. Cp. ii. 3490.
881. writ: syncopated present, ‘writeth.’ The reference is to 1 Cor. x. 11.
891. Statue: a dissyllable in Gower and Chaucer (equivalent to ‘statwe’), and here reduced to one syllable by elision: cp. Cant. Tales, A. 975. The longer form ‘stature’ occurs vi. 1524.
900. these clerkes: demonstrative for definite article, as in French; cp. i. 608, and see note on Mir. 301.
905. See l. 965. Perhaps here ‘cause of’ means ‘because of,’ as ‘whos cause’ for ‘because of which’ 1040; but I suspect rather an inversion of order, for ‘Man is cause of al this wo.’
907. that in tokne, cp. 122.
910 ff. This matter of the corruption of all creation through man’s fall is discussed at length both in the Mirour, 26605 ff., and in the Vox Clamantis, vii. 509 ff.