1856. behelde, an archaic form, used here for the rhyme.
1884 ff. 3 Esdr. iv. 29, ‘Videbam tamen Apemen filiam Bezacis, mirifici concubinam regis, sedentem iuxta regem ad dexteram,’ &c.
1961 f. ‘He that is true shall never rue,’ or some such jingle. Cp. Shaksp. K. John, v. 7,
‘Nought shall make us rue,
If England to herself do rest but true.’
2000. laste, pret. ‘lasted’: cp. Prol. 672, iv. 2315.
2017 ff. This seems to be suggested by a passage in the Secretum Secretorum. ‘Reges sunt quattuor. Rex largus subditis et largus sibi, Rex auarus subditis et auarus sibi, Rex auarus sibi et largus subditis, Rex largus sibi et auarus subditis.’ This last is pronounced to be the worst, as the first is the best.
2031 ff. This refers to a passage in the Secretum Secretorum (ed. 1520, f. 8), which runs thus in the printed edition: ‘Que fuit causa destructionis regni calculorum: vnde quia superfluitas expensarum superat redditus ciuitatum, et sic deficientibus redditibus et expensis reges extenderunt manus suas ad res et redditus aliorum. Subditi ergo propter iniuriam clamauerunt ad deum excelsum gloriosum, qui immittens ventum calidum afflixit eos vehementer, et insurrexit populus contra eos et nomina eorum penitus de terra deleuerunt.’
This is obviously corrupt, and it is evident that ‘calculorum’ stands for a proper name, which Gower read ‘Caldeorum,’ as it is in MS. Laud 708. Other Bodleian MSS. to which I have referred give ‘Saldeorum’ (Bodley 181), ‘cangulorum’ (Add. C. 12), ‘singulorum ’ (Laud 645), ‘Anglorum’ (Digby 170). ‘Nonne’ is the reading of the MSS. for ‘vnde,’ and it seems that ‘Que fuit’ &c. is also a question.
2039. So in the Secretum Secretorum (shortly before the passage quoted above), ‘Debes igitur dona dare iuxta posse tuum cum mensura, hominibus indigentibus atque dignis.’