829. The last four stanzas are original. Note the change from the 8-line to the 7-line stanza.
[XVII. THE TESTAMENT OF CRESSEID.]
This sequel to Chaucer's 'Troilus,' written by Robert Henryson of Dunfermline, is in the Northern dialect of the Scottish Lowlands. Thynne has not made any special attempt to alter the wording of this piece, but he frequently modifies the spelling; printing so instead of sa (l. 3), whan for quhen (l. 3), right for richt (l. 4), and so on. I follow the Edinburgh edition of 1593. See further in the Introduction.
1. Ane, a; altered by Thynne to a, throughout.
dooly (Th. doly), doleful, sad; from the sb. dool, sorrow.
4-6. Here fervent seems to mean 'stormy' or 'severe,' as it obviously does not mean hot. Discend is used transitively; can discend means 'caused to descend.' This is an earlier example than that from Caxton in the New Eng. Dictionary. Aries clearly means the influence of Aries, and implies that the sun was in that sign, which it entered (at that date) about the 12th of March; see vol. iii. p. 188 (footnote). Lent is 'spring'; and the Old Germanic method is here followed, which divided each of the seasons into three months. In this view, the spring-months were March, April, and May, called, respectively, foreward Lent, midward Lent, and afterward Lent; see A Student's Pastime, p. 190. Hence the phrase in middis of the Lent does not mean precisely in the middle of the spring, but refers to the month of April; indeed, the sun passed out of Aries into Taurus on the 11th of the month. The date indicated is, accordingly, the first week in April, when the sun was still in Aries, and showers of hail, with a stormy north wind, were quite seasonable.
10. sylit under cure, covered up, (as if) under his care. The verb to syle is precisely the mod. E. ceil; which see in the New E. Dict.
12. unto, i.e. over against. The planet Venus, rising in the east, set her face over against the west, where the sun had set.
20. shill, shrill. Shille occurs as a variant of schrille in C. T., B 4585; see schil in Stratmann.