91 ff. The language is of course figurative: we must not assume that the author is referring to any physical blindness.
ECCE PATET TENSUS Etc. (p. [358])
This piece is found in the Trentham MS. f. 33 vo, following the Cinkante Balades. It is probably imperfect at the end, the manuscript having lost the next leaf.
25. que naturatur, &c., ‘which is irresistibly disposed to that which is unlawful.’ This seems to be the meaning, but it is awkwardly expressed.
EST AMOR Etc. (p. [359])
This piece occurs also in combination with the Traitié: see vol. i. p. 392. For the substance of it cp. Vox Clamantis, v. 53 ff.
QUIA VNUSQUISQUE Etc. (p. [360])
The form given by G is practically identical with that of the Fairfax MS. That of the text, as given by SCH, varies from it in the first paragraph, where it adopts the wording found in the second recension copies, BTA. See vol. iii. pp. 479 and 550.
10. The word ‘meditantis’ is written over an erasure in G.
11 ff. This paragraph, as finally rewritten, seems intended to include the Cronica Tripertita as a sequel to the Vox Clamantis: cp. p. 313, where in the note which connects the two works language is used very similar to that which we have here. The author in his retrospective view of Richard’s reign has brought himself to feel that the earlier calamities were a divine warning, by the neglect of which the later evils and the final catastrophe had been brought about. It has already been pointed out (vol. iii. p. 550) that in the Fairfax MS. this account of the author’s books is completely separated from the text of the Confessio Amantis and is written in a later hand, the same in fact which we have here in the All Souls MS.