567. 'For they (women) are as constant as a weathercock in the wind.' Cf. 'unsad ... and chaunging as a vane'; Ch. C. T., E 995.
588. wellis, streams, rills; as in Book Duch. 160.
589. broche and belt; Criseyde gave Diomede the brooch she had received from Troilus; see Troil. v. 1661, 1669, 1688. The belt is Henryson's addition.
600. 'His heart was ready to burst.'
[XVIII. THE CUCKOO AND THE NIGHTINGALE.]
In this piece, the final -e is much used as forming a distinct syllable; indeed, more freely than in Chaucer.
1, 2. Quoted from the Knightes Tale, A 1785-6.
4. The word of is inserted in Th., Ff. and S., and seems to be right; but as hy-e should be two syllables, perhaps the words And of were rapidly pronounced, in the time of a single syllable. Or omit And.
11-5. The lines of this stanza are wrongly arranged in Thynne, and in every printed edition except the present one; i.e. the lines 12 and 13 are transposed. But as the rime-formula is aabba, it is easy to see that suffyse, devyse, agryse rime together on the one hand, and nyce, vyce, on the other. The pronunciation suffice is comparatively modern; in Chaucer, the suffix -yse was pronounced with a voiced s, i.e. as z. Note the rimes devyse, suffyse in the Book of the Duch. 901-2; suffyse, wyse, devyse, in the C. T., B 3648-9; &c. The MSS. Ff., F., and B. all give the right arrangement.