762. Punctuated after ‘hire’ in F.
771. Thou bysne man. The word ‘bysne’ is taken from the original story. Trivet says she spoke in the Saxon language and said, ‘Bisne man, en Ihesu name in rode yslawe haue þi siht’ (MS. Rawl. f. 34).
785. As he that. The reference is to the king, so that we should rather expect ‘As him that,’ but the phrase is a stereotyped one and does not always vary in accordance with grammatical construction: cp. 1623. We find however also ‘As him which,’ iii. 1276.
791. ‘The time being appointed moreover’: an absolute use of the participle.
831. ‘trencha la gowle Hermigild’: therefore the fact that Gower and Chaucer agree in saying that he cut her throat has no special significance.
833. The reading ‘that dier,’ or ‘that diere,’ was apparently a mistake of the original copyist. It appears in all the unrevised copies of the first recension and also in B. Λ however has the corrected reading.
857. After, ‘In accordance with.’
880 ff. Here Chaucer follows the original more closely than Gower, as also just above, ‘him smoot upon the nekke boon.’ The words of the miraculous voice are given in Latin by Trivet, ‘Aduersus filiam matris ecclesie ponebas scandalum: hoc fecisti et tacui’ (‘et non tacui’ Rawl. Stockh.). Chaucer has (B 674 ff.),
‘And seyde, “Thou hast desclaundred gilteles
The doughter of holy chirche in heigh presence: