465. ‘super est’ is the reading of the Glasgow MS. also.
474. artes. This seems to be the reading of all the MSS., though in S the word might possibly be ‘arces.’ I take it to mean ‘devices,’ in the way of traps, or ingenious hiding-places.
479. ‘The grey foxes determine to leave the caverns of the wood’: ‘vulpes’ (or rather ‘vulpis’) is masculine in Gower.
483. ‘Henceforth neither the sheep nor the poor sheepfold are anything to them.’ For this use of ‘quid’ with a negative cp. l. 184.
492. solet. The present of this verb seems often to be used by our author as equivalent to the imperfect: cp. l. 541, iii. 705, 740, &c. Also ‘solebat,’ i. 699, iii. 1485; cp. v. 333, where ‘solebant’ seems to stand for ‘solent.’ In other cases also the present is sometimes used for the imperfect, e.g. l. 585 ‘quas nuper abhorret Egiptus.’
499 ff. See 1 Sam. v. The plague of mice is distinctly mentioned in the Vulgate version, while in our translation from the Hebrew it is implied in ch. vi. 5. ‘Accharon’ is Ekron.
541. solent: see note on l. 492.
545. Coppa: used as a familiar name for a hen in the Speculum Stultorum, pp. 55, 58, and evidently connected with ‘Coppen’ or ‘Coppe,’ which is the name of one of Chantecleer’s daughters in the Low-German and English Reynard.
557 f. ‘They determine that days are lawful for those things for which the dark form of night had often given furtive ways.’
568. quod: equivalent to ‘vt’; cp. ll. 600, 1610.