Ful thikke of gras, ful softe and swete,...
And litel used, it semed thus.'
Cf. A. L. 47; 'into a strait passage,' and the context.
47. parde; a petty oath (being in French), such as a female writer might use; so in A. L. 753.
49, 50. For the herber and benches, see A. L. 48-9; also L. G. W. 203-4. For the phrase wel y-wrought, see A. L. 165.
53. Bell and Morris read wool, which is obviously right; but neither of them mention the fact that both Speght's editions have wel; and there is no other authority! Clearly, Speght's MS. had wol, which he misread as wel.
56. eglantere, eglantine, sweet-briar. Entered under eglatere in the New E. Dict., though the earlier quotations, in 1387 and 1459, have eglentere. I find no authority for the form eglatere except Speght's misprint in this line, which he corrects in l. 80 below. Tennyson's eglatere (Dirge, 23) is clearly borrowed from this very line.
58. by mesure; a tag which reappears in A. L. 81.
59. by and by; another tag, for which see A. L. 87, 717.
60. I you ensure; yet another tag; see l. 457, and A. L. 52, 199, 495, 517.