Chap. I. 1. Copied from Ch. Boeth. bk. i. met. 1. ll. 1, 2.
12. thing seems to mean 'person'; the person that cannot now embrace me when I wish for comfort.
15. prison; probably not a material prison. The author, in imitation of Boethius, imagines himself to be imprisoned. At p. 144, l. 132, he is 'in good plite,' i.e. well off. Cf. note to ch. iii. 116.
16. caitived, kept as a captive; the correction of caytisned (with ſ for s) to caytifued (better spelt caitived) is obvious, and is given in the New E. Dict., s.v. Caitive.
17, 18. Straunge, a strange one, some stranger; me, one, really meaning 'myself'; he shulde, it ought to be.
21, 22. bewent, turned aside; see New E. Dict., s.v. Bewend. The reading bewet, i.e. profusely wetted, occurs (by misprinting) in later editions, and is adopted in the New E. Dict, s.v. Bewet. It is obviously wrong.
23. of hem, by them; these words, in the construction, follow enlumined. The very frequent inversion of phrases in this piece tends greatly to obscure the sense of it.
24. Margarite precious, a precious pearl. Gems were formerly credited with 'virtues'; thus Philip de Thaun, in his Bestiary (ed. Wright, l. 1503), says of the pearl—
'A mult choses pot valier, ki cestes peres pot aveir,' &c., or, in Wright's translation: 'For him who can have this stone, it will be of force against many things; there will never be any infirmity, except death, from which a person will not come to health, who will drink it with dew, if he has true faith.' See l. 133 below.
28. twinkling in your disese, a small matter tending to your discomfort. Here disese = dis-ease, want of ease. Cf. l. 31 below.