216. 'That, while goodness and beauty are both under her dominion, she makes goodness have always the upper hand.' See l. 218.
221. Read n'offende, offend not. Probably the MS. had nofende, which Thynne turned into ne fende.
229. It is remarkable how often Lydgate describes his hand as 'quaking'; see Schick's note to the Temple of Glas, 947. Chaucer's hand quaked but once; Troil. iv. 14. Cf. note to XXII. 57 (p. 539).
232. suppryse, undertake, endeavour to do. Suppryse is from O.F. sousprendre, for which Godefroy gives the occasional sense 'entreprendre.'
234. lose, praise; out of lose, out of praise, discreditable.
236. Perhaps this means that Chaucer's decease was a very recent event. Schick proposes to date this piece between 1400 and 1402.
242. Chaucer invokes Clio at the beginning of Troilus, bk. ii. (l. 8); and Calliope at the beginning of bk. iii. (l. 45).
251. Cf. Compl. Mars, 13, 14. The metre almost seems to require an accent on the second syllable of Valentyn, with suppressed final e; but a much more pleasing line, though less regular, can be made by distributing the pauses artificially thus: Upón . the dáy of . saint Válen . týne . sínge. The word saint is altogether unemphatic; cf. ll. 4, 100.
257. fetheres ynde, blue feathers; possibly with a reference to blue as being the colour of constancy. Cf. floures inde; VIII. 127.
261. The woodbine is an emblem of constancy, as it clings to its support; cf. XX. 485-7.