Oon that therof hath lasse, I undertake,’ &c.
Apparently these stanzas are to be drawn for and then read out in order as they come, for the game ends with the last,
‘And sythen ye be so jocunde and so good,
And in the rolle last as in wrytynge,
I rede that this game ende in your hood.’
Evidently the same kind of game might be played by men with a view to their mistresses. It is much the same thing as the ‘Chaunces of the Dyse,’ where each stanza is connected with a certain throw made with three dice: cp. note on iv. 2792. The name ‘Ragman Rolle’ seems to be due to the disconnected character of the composition.
2407. olde grisel: cp. Chaucer, To Scogan, 35: ‘grisel’ means grey horse.
2415. upon the fet, that is, when the time comes for action. The rhyme with ‘retret’ shows that this is not the plural of ‘fot’: moreover, that is elsewhere regularly spelt ‘feet’ by Gower.
2428. sitte for ‘sit’: cp. Introduction, p. cxiv.
2435. torned into was: the verb used as a substantive, cp. vi. 923.