1320. long and smal, i.e. tall and slender. Adjectives used predicatively with a plural subject take the plural inflection or not according to convenience. Thus in Prol. 81 we have ‘Bot for my wittes ben to smale’ in rhyme with ‘tale.’
1323. beere. This is pret. plur., as 1376: the same form for pret. subj. 2749.
1330. For pure abaissht: cp. Chaucer, Troilus, ii. 656, ‘And with that thought for pure ashamed she Gan in hir hed to pulle.’ The parallel, to which my attention was called by Prof. McCormick, suggests the idea that ‘abaissht’ is a participle rather than a noun, and the use of the past participle with ‘for’ in this manner occurs several times in Lydgate, e.g. ‘for unknowe,’ ‘meaning from ignorance,’ Temple of Glas, 632, ‘for astonied,’ 934, 1366, and so with an adjective, ‘for pure wood’ in the English Rom. of the Rose, 276. See Dr. Schick’s note on Lydgate, Temple of Glas, 632.
1422. That I ne hadde, ‘I would that I had’: cp. v. 3747,
‘Ha lord, that he ne were alonde!’
‘to late war’ is in a kind of loose apposition to the subject.
1429. swiche. Rather perhaps ‘swich,’ as ii. 566 f., v. 377. Most MSS. have ‘such.’
1432 ff. warneth ... bidd. The singular of the imperative seems to be freely interchanged with the plural in this form of address.
1454 (margin). The author dissociates himself personally from the extreme doctrines enunciated in the text, as at first he took care to remind his readers that the character of a lover was for him only an assumed one (i. 63 ff. margin).
1490. and longe er that sche changeth &c. This is a puzzling sentence, and we are not helped by the punctuation of the MSS., which for the most part have a stop after ‘herte.’ I can only suppose that it means ‘and is long before she changes her heart in her youth to marriage.’ We can hardly make ‘longe’ a verb, ‘and may be eager until she changes,’ because of the lines which follow.