180. Bell and Morris read haire, without authority, and Bell explains it by 'he may full soon have the hair (!) which belongs to age, scil., grey hair, said to be produced by anxiety.' But the M.E. form of 'hair' is heer, which will not give a true rime; and the word heyr represents the mod. E. heir. As the h was not sounded, it is also written eir (as in MS. T.) and air (as in MS. S.). The sense is—'For he who gets a little bliss of love may very soon find that his heir has come of age, unless he is always devoted to it.' This is a mild joke, signifying that he will soon find himself insecure, like one whose heir or successor has come of age, and whose inheritance is threatened. On the other hand, 'to have one's hair of age' is wholly without sense. Compare the next note.
185. 'And then you shall be called as I am.' I. e. your loved one will forsake you, and you will be called a cuckold. This remark is founded on the fact that the O.F. coucou or cocu had the double sense of cuckoo and cuckold. See cocu in Littré. This explains l. 186.
201-5. Bell, by an oversight, omits this stanza.
203. This reading (from the best MS., viz. Ff.) is much the best. The sense is—'And whom he hits he knows not, or whom he misses'; because he is blind.
216-25. All the early printed editions crush these two stanzas into one, by omitting ll. 217-9, and 224-5, and altering thoughte me (l. 223) to me aloon. This is much inferior to the text.
237. leve, believe; yet all the authorities but S. have the reading loue! Cf. l. 238.
243. dayesye, daisy. Cf. Legend of Good Women, 182-7, 201-2, 211.
266. Ye witen is the right reading; turned into ye knowe in F. and B. The old printed editions actually read The cuckowe!
267. A syllable seems lacking after I; such lines are common in
Lydgate. The reading y-chid would render the line complete; or we may read hav-ë, as perhaps in l. 124.