25-7. 'I never yet set any one to serve anywhere who did not succeed in his service.'
32. 'the nut in every nook.' Perhaps on should be in.
37-8. There is some corruption here. I insert Tho gan I to help out the sense, but it remains partially obscure. Perhaps the sense is:—'Often one does what one does not wish to do, being stirred to do so by the opinion of others, who wanted me to stay at home; whereupon I suddenly began to wish to travel.' He would rather have stayed at home; but when he found that others wanted him to do so, he perversely began to wish to travel.
39. the wynding of the erthe; an obscure expression; perhaps 'the envelopment of the earth in snow.'
40. 'I walked through woods in which were broad ways, and (then) by small paths which the swine had made, being lanes with by-paths for seeking (there) their beech-mast.'
42. ladels, by-paths (?). No other example of the word appears. I guess it to be a diminutive of M.E. lade, a path, road, which occurs in the Ormulum; see Stratmann. Perhaps it is a mere misprint for lades.
44, 45. gonne to wilde, began to grow wild; cf. ginne ayen waxe ramage, in l. 48, with the like sense. I know of no other example of the verb to wilde.
52. shippe, ship; not, however, a real ship, but an allegorical one named Travail, i.e. Danger; see ll. 55, 75 below. many is here used in place of meynee, referring to the ship's company; some of whom had the allegorical names of Sight, Lust, Thought, and Will. The 'ship' is a common symbol of this present life, in which we are surrounded by perils; compare the parable of 'the wagging boat' in P. Plowm. C. xi. 32, and the long note to that line.
58. old hate; probably borrowed from Ch. Pers. Tale, I 562; see the note.