5690 f.
‘comprensam forcipe linguam
Abstulit ense fero.’ Metam. vi. 556 f.
Gower must be commended for omitting the tasteless lines which follow in Ovid about the severed tongue, and still more the shocking statement, which even Ovid accompanies with ‘vix ausim credere,’ of 561 f.
5709. tyh, preterite of ‘ten,’ from OE. ‘tēon,’ meaning ‘draw,’ and hence ‘come.’
5724. The punctuation follows F, ‘To hire’ meaning ‘in her case,’ cp. l. 4182, vii. 4937. It would suit the sense better perhaps to set the comma after ‘forsake,’ and to take ‘To hire’ with what follows: cp. note on l. 3966, where it is shown that the punctuation of F is often wrong in such cases as this.
5726. hir Sostres mynde, ‘her sister’s memory.’
5730. guile under the gore, that is, deceit concealed, as it were, under a cloak: cp. l. 6680. The expression ‘under gore’ is common enough, meaning the same as ‘under wede,’ and this alliterative form looks like a proverbial expression.
5734-5768. All this is original.
5737. so grete a wo: cp. l. 6452, and see Introduction, p. cx.