51-2. lovers clerk, clerk of lovers; but perhaps an error for Loves clerk; cf. Troil. iii. 41.
62-3. ryder and goer, rider on horseback and walker on foot.
77. Translated from 'Fides non habet meritum ubi humana ratio praebet experimentum'; as quoted in P. Plowman, C. xii. 160. This is slightly altered from a saying of St. Gregory (xl. Homil. in Evangelium, lib. ii. homil. 26)—'nec fides humana habet meritum cui humana ratio praebet experimentum.' See note to P. Plowman (as above).
83. as by a glasse, as in a mirror; 1 Cor. xiii. 12.
93. cockle, tares. This seems to refer to the Lollards, as puns upon the words Lollard and lolia were very rife at this period. If so, the author had ceased to approve of Lollard notions. In l. 94, love seems to mean Christian charity, in its highest sense; hence it is called, in l. 95, the most precious thing in nature.
96, 97. The passage seems corrupt, and I cannot quite see what is meant. Perhaps read: 'with many eke-names, [and] that [to] other thinges that the soule [seketh after, men] yeven the ilke noble name.' The comma after kynde in l. 96 represents a down-stroke (equivalent to a comma) in Thynne; but it is not wanted.
99. to thee, i.e. to the 'Margaret of virtue' whose name appears as an acrostic at the head of the Chapters in Book I. and Chapters I-V of Book II; moreover, we find at last that Margaret signifies Holy Church, to which the treatise is accordingly dedicated. tytled of Loves name, entitled the Testament of Love.
103. inseëres, lookers into it, readers.
104. Every thing; with respect to everything to which appertains a cause which is wrought with a view to its accomplishment, Aristotle supposes that the doing of everything is, in a manner, its final cause. 'Final cause' is a technical term, explained in the New E. Dict. as 'a term introduced into philosophical language by the schoolmen as a translation of Aristotle's fourth cause, τὸ οὗ ἕνεκα or τέλος, the end or purpose for which a thing is done, viewed as the cause of the act; especially as applied in Natural Theology to the design, purpose, or end of the arrangements of the universe.' The phrase 'the end in view' comes near to expressing it, and will serve to explain 'A final cause' in the next clause.
107. is finally to thilke ende, is done with a view to that result.