[X] In the Praise of Peace however the MS. has here for hire, ll. 108, 329, cp. 254. F has hire for here once accidentally, iii. 901.
[Y] In a few cases, as Prol. 543, i. 183, 1280, v. 3393, vi. 2062, the grammatically correct form has been printed in the text from less good MSS. and against the combined authority of F and S. On a review of the whole subject this does not now seem to me satisfactory.
[Z] Prof. Lounsbury’s criticism on the rhyme of vii. 5103 f., as given in Pauli’s edition, is quite sound, and Prof. Skeat’s defence of it will not do. Gower never rhymes a past participle in -ed with a weak preterite, though he sometimes drops the -e of the preterite before a vowel. The rhyme was good enough for Chaucer, however, as Prof. Lounsbury’s examples abundantly prove.
[AA] Except in the case of these imperative forms the 2nd pers. plur. is quite consistently used by the Lover in his shrift, and the 2nd pers. sing. by the Confessor in reply.
[AB] The copies which have this conclusion have also the preface in which Richard is mentioned as the occasion of the author’s undertaking, but this preface is found also in combination with the other conclusion.
[AC] Berthelette used a manuscript (not now existing) which in this respect, as in many others, resembled B.
[AD] It may be noted that the four second recension MSS. which contain the author’s Latin note about his books (‘Quia vnusquisque,’ &c.), viz. BTΛP₂, agree in a form of it which is different both from that which is given by first recension copies and that which we find in F, and is clearly intermediate between the other two, the first form fully excusing Richard II for the troubles of his reign and the third entirely condemning him, while this makes no mention of his merits or demerits, but simply prays for the state of the kingdom. It is noticeable that the second recension form definitely substitutes Henry for Richard as the patron of the Confessio Amantis, though in one at least of the copies to which it is attached this substitution has not been made in the text of the poem.
[AE] e.g. ii. 193, 365 ff., iii. 168, 1241, iv. 283, 1321, v. 1252, &c.
[AF] For the explanation of the use of letters to designate MSS. the reader is referred to the list of MSS. given later. It should be noted that AJM and FWH₃ represent in each case a group of about seven MSS., and H₁ ... B₂ one of nearly twenty. We observe in the examples given that B and A are sometimes found either separately or together on the side of the H₁ ... B₂ group, and that the same is true occasionally of W, while on the other hand some MSS. of the H₁ ... B₂ group are apt to pass over to the other side in a certain part of the text and support what we call the revised reading.
[AG] S is defective in one of these places and Ad in another, but a reckoning of the lines contained in the missing leaves proves that the facts were as stated.