121. 'Withouten sleep, withouten mete or drinke'; L. G. W. 177 (note the context).
134. Here begins the description of the adherents of the Leaf, extending to l. 322, including the Nine Worthies, ll. 239-94. The reader must carefully bear in mind that the followers of the Leaf are clad in white (not in green, as we should now expect), though the nine Worthies are crowned with green laurel, and all the company gather under a huge Laurel-tree (l. 304). On the other hand the followers of the Flower, shortly described in ll. 323-50, are clad in green, though wearing chaplets of white and red flowers; for green was formerly an emblem of inconstancy.
137. Cf. 'to say you very right'; A. L. 750.
144. oon and oon, every one of them. This phrase is rare in Chaucer; it seems only to occur once, in C. T., A 679; but see A. L. 368, 543, 710.
146. purfil occurs in A. L. 87, in the same line with by and by; and in A. L. 522-4, we find colour, sleves, and purfyl close together.
148. Cf. 'With grete perles, ful fyne and orient'; A. L. 528. For diamonds, see A. L. 530.
150. Borrowed from Chaucer, Parl. Foules, 287: 'of whiche the name I wante.' Hence wante, i.e. lack, is the right reading. The rime is imperfect.
155. The missing word is not branches, as suggested by Sir H. Nicolas, nor floures, as suggested by Morris, but leves; as the company of the Leaf is being described; cf. l. 259. The epithets fresh and grene are very suitable. The leaves were of laurel, woodbine, and agnus-castus.
160. For were read ware; see ll. 267, 329, 335, 340; the sense is wore. Chaucer's form is wered, as the verb was originally weak; Gower and Lydgate also use the form wered. The present is perhaps one of the earliest examples of the strong form of this preterite.
agnus-castus; 'from Gk. ἄγνος, the name of the tree, confused with ἀγνός, chaste, whence the second word Lat. castus, chaste. A tree, species of Vitex (V. Agnus Castus), once believed to be a preservative of chastity, called also Chaste-tree and Abraham's Balm'; New E. Dict. The same Dict. quotes from Trevisa: 'The herbe agnus-castus is alwaye grene, and the flowre therof is namly callyd Agnus Castus, for wyth smelle and vse it makyth men chaste as a lombe.'