32. douf (spelt doif in the old edition) is the Northern form of 'deaf,' answering to the Icel. daufr; thus a nut without a kernel is called in the South 'a deaf nut,' but in Scotland 'a douf nit'; see Jamieson. For deaf in the senses of 'dull' and 'unproductive,' see the New E. Dict.
39. cut, curtail; illustrated from Lydgate in the New E. Dict.
42. Read lusty, to avoid the repetition of worthy; cf. l. 41. It should have been stated, in the footnotes, that the readings are: E. worthy; Th. lusty.
43. Referring to Troil. bk. v. In l. 92, we are told how Diomede led Criseyde away. Note particularly that, in l. 45, Henryson quotes Chaucer rather closely. Cf. 'For which wel neigh out of my wit I breyde'; Troil. v. 1262. And cf. ll. 47-9 with—'Betwixen hope and drede his herte lay'; Troil. v. 1207.
48. Quhill, till. The reading Esperus in E. is comic enough. Even Thynne has misread esperans, and has turned it into esperous. There can be little doubt that esperans here means 'hope,' as it is opposed to wanhope in the line above. The word was known to Henryson, as we find, in st. 8 of his Garment of Gude Ladyis: 'Hir slevis suld be of esperance, To keip hir fra dispair.' Cf. l. 49.
50. behest, promise; because she had promised to return to Troy within ten days; Troil. iv. 1595.
65. this narratioun, i.e. the sequel of the story, which he is about
to tell. He does not tell us whence he derived it, but intimates that it is a fiction; I suppose he invented it himself.
74. lybel of répudy, Lat. 'libellum repudii,' as in Matt. xix. 7.
77. 'And, as some say, into the common court'; i.e. she became a courtesan.