4549 ff. Cp. i. 42 ff.
4557 f. ‘No law may control him either by severity or by mildness.’ For the use of ‘compaignie’ in the sense of ‘friendliness’ cp. i. 1478, and below, l. 7759.
4583 ff. Ovid, Metam. iii. 362 ff., but the circumstances are somewhat modified to suit Gower’s purpose. According to Ovid Echo’s fault was that she talked too much and diverted Juno’s attention, and her punishment was that her speech was confined to a mere repetition of what she heard. Here the crime is rather that she cunningly concealed in her speech what she ought to have told, and the punishment is that she is obliged to tell everything that comes to her ears.
4590. ‘And through such brocage he was untrue,’ &c. For the omission of the pronoun see note on i. 1895.
4623. maken it so queinte, ‘be so cunning’: cp. iv. 2314, where however ‘queinte’ has a different meaning.
4642. hire mouth ascape, i. e. escape being repeated by her mouth.
4661. The aspiration of ‘hem,’ so as to prevent elision, is very unusual: cp. Introduction, p. cxxv.
4668 ff. ‘I shall arrange in their due order those branches of Avarice on which no wealth is well bestowed,’ that is, those which make no return for what is bestowed upon them, viz. Usury and Ingratitude.
4708. of som reprise, i. e. ‘of some cost,’ cp. i. 3414,
‘Which most is worth, and no reprise