728. The reading of Pauli, ‘I say I am nought gilteles,’ just reverses the sense. Berthelette has the text right here.
738. for a time yit: cp. 311, ‘As for the time yit,’ and 893, ‘As for the while yit.’
770. ‘Without wrinkle of any kind,’ cp. Mirour, 10164, ‘Car moult furont de noble grein’; or perhaps ‘Without the smallest wrinkle,’ ‘grein’ being taken to stand for the smallest quantity of a thing: cp. ii. 3310.
778. Cp. Chaucer, Book of the Duchess, 939 ff.
785. schapthe. For this form, which is given by S and F, cp. the word ‘ssepþe,’ meaning ‘creature’ or ‘form,’ which occurs repeatedly in the Ayenbite of Inwyt.
800. ‘And if it seemed so to all others.’ The person spoken of throughout this passage as ‘he,’ ‘him,’ is the eye of the lover. This seems to itself to have sufficient sustenance by merely gazing on the beloved object, and if it seemed so to all others also, that is, to the other senses, the eye would never cease to feed upon the sight: but they, having other needs, compel it to turn away.
809. as thogh he faste: the verb seems to be pret. subjunctive, as ‘syhe’ down below.
817. tireth. This expresses the action of a falcon pulling at its prey: cp. Chaucer, Troilus, i. 787, ‘Whos stomak foules tiren everemo.’ The word is used in the same sense also in the Mirour, 7731.
845. mi ladi goode, ‘my lady’s goodness.’
857. Lombard cooks were celebrated, and there was a kind of pastry called ‘pain lumbard,’ Mirour, 7809.