Et nova velocem cingula laedat equum?’
575. Cp. Amores, iii. 4. 17.
587. ‘Genius’ is here introduced as the priest of Venus and in l. 597 in the character of a confessor, as afterwards in the Confessio Amantis. The reference to the ‘poets’ in the marginal note can hardly be merely to the Roman de la Rose, where Genius is the priest and confessor of Nature, but the variation ‘secundum Ouidium’ of the Glasgow MS. does not seem to be justified by any passage of Ovid. The connexion with Venus obviously has to do with the classical idea of Genius as a god who presides over the begetting of children: cp. Isid. Etym. viii. 88. The marginal note in S is written in a hand probably different from that of the text, but contemporary.
617 f. Cp. Ars Amat. ii. 649 f.,
‘Dum novus in viridi coalescit cortice ramus,
Concutiat tenerum quaelibet aura, cadet.’
623. Spiritus est promptus, &c. Gower apparently took this text to mean, ‘the spirit is ready to do evil, and the flesh is weak’: cp. Mirour, 14165.
624. Cp. Mirour, 16768.
637. For this use of ‘quid’ cp. that of ‘numquid,’ ii. Prol. 59, and v. 279.
648. Rev. xiv. 4, ‘Hi sequuntur agnum ... quocunque ierit.’