THE LOVERS' MASS: FOOTNOTES
1 It pleases her not to listen for her aloofness ever increases
147 plentyf, plaintiff; probacon, proof.
148 confrary, confraternity.
149 hospytlerys, members of a religious order that cared for the sick.
150 nouthyr, neither; notyd, notorious, stigmatized; atteynt, convicted; symulacon, dissimulation.
151 ypocrysé, hypocrisy; chose, chosen.
152 elthe, health.
153 t'abyde, to abide.
154 customable to, accustomed to.
155 underfange, undertake; consuetude, tradition.
157 fardellys, packs.
158 alleggen, relieve.
159 gadryn, acquire; goordys, gourds.
160 thruste, thirst.
161 rekne, reckon (count); myche, much.
162 seteys, cities.
164 dygne, worthy.
165 entytlen, record.
168 partyes, regions.
170 wythoute feyntyse, without delay.
172 semblable, similar.
176 inportable, unbearable.
177 ofte sythes, often times.
178 fardel, burden.
179 fyn, conclusion.
182 menyng, purpose; clennesse, purity.
185 gerdouns, rewards.
193 enspyre, inspire.
THE LOVERS' MASS: NOTES
1-14 Introibo. Immediately following the initial sign of the Cross, the priest begins the Latin Mass by saying "Introibo ad altare Dei" ("I will go to the altar of God"), to which the congregation responds "Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam" ("To God who gives joy to my youth"). The Introibo, Confiteor, and Misereatur are in tetrameter couplets.
15-40 Confiteor. The Confession, beginning "Confiteor Deo omnipotenti" ("I confess to Almighty God"). Here, his sin is not only his youth and inexperience but also his tardiness in seeking out Love's court.
41-56 Misereatur. The Absolution: "Misereatur vestri omnipotens Deus" ("Almighty God have mercy on you"). Rather than life everlasting, mercy in the form of his lady's grace is hoped for here.
44 ther. MS: hys. The context seems to require a plural pronoun.
53 Ther. MS: The. Hammond suggests the emendation I have adopted.
56 Genius. The god or force associated with reproduction, regeneration, and natural inclination. Descending ultimately from Alain de Lille's De planctu naturae (The Complaint of Nature), Genius acts as Nature's priest (and bishop) in The Roman de la Rose (lines 16272-20704), and as Venus' priest and the Lover's confessor in John Gower's Confessio Amantis.
57-73 Officium. The Officium (the Introit or entrance hymn) is a roundel, a short poem based on two rhymes in which the opening lines serve as a refrain in the middle and at the end.
65-66 The antiphon (from lines 57-58) is abbreviated here. Hammond notes that "Scribes often write only the first word or two of the repeated lines" (English Verse, p. 466).
72-73 The antiphon is abbreviated here. See note to lines 65-66.
74-97 Kyrie. The Kyrie, composed of three lines which alternate "Kyrie eleison / Christe eleison / Kyrie eleison" ("Lord have mercy / Christ have mercy / Lord have mercy"), is the first invocation after the Introit in the Ordinary of the Mass. Each of the three 8-line stanzas is in pentameter and has double internal assonant rhymes which change with each line. For another parody of the Kyrie see Kyrie, so Kyrie (also known as the "Kyrie Alison") in Middle English Lyrics, ed. Luria and Hoffman, pp. 84-85.
98-138 Gloria in excelsis. "Gloria in excelsis Deo" ("Glory to God in the highest"). Tetrameter quatrains with dimeter bob.
124 A ful bryght day after gret reyn. Proverbial; see Whiting D41 and Tilley R8.
139-46 Oryson. The prayer or "Collect" for the day preceding the Epistle.
144 thy servauntes that be stable. In keeping with the blurring of the secular and the religious throughout, the phrase suggests not only those who are steadfast in love but also, in an ecclesiastical sense, those who persevere in monastic life.
147 The Epystel in Prose. The first reading, from either the Old or the New Testament. This Epistle, which compares courtship to a touristic pilgrimage, draws freely from Laurent de Premierfait's French prose translation (c. 1409) of Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum Illustrium, Book 3 (see Hammond, English Verse, p. 467). On the "at once commonplace and curiously elusive" motif of the pilgrimage in the Middle Ages, see Dyas, Pilgrimage.
The author omits the rest of the Mass, including, for instance, the Gospel, Homily, Nicene Creed, Offertory, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei.
181-89 And ther I . . . that I ha don. Our amorous pilgrim is indeed in a bad way if he is "on of the most forsake" of this group of exemplary lovers. The Holy Legende of Martyrs of Cupydo (i.e., Chaucer's Legend of Good Women, which is referred to as "the Seintes Legende of Cupide" in the Introduction to the Man of Law's Tale - CT II[B1]61) demonstrates that faithful love is usually both unrewarded and cruelly abused. Although Penelope's steadfast rejection of her predatory suitors is rewarded with Odysseus' return, in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, Criseyde remains in the Greek camp with Diomede despite Troilus' "grete trouthe"; Aeneas abandons Dido despite her "kyndenesse" (Chaucer, LGW F924-1367); Polixena (Priam's daughter), sacrificed on Achilles' tomb to appease either his desire or his vengeance, modestly covers her exposed breast as she dies (Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.475-82); the "secre trouthe" of Tristram and Isolde causes both the illicit lovers only misery; and Palamides, Isolde's unrequited lover, has few rewards for his faithful service - see Lydgate, The Complaint of the Black Knight, lines 330-43 (Symons, ed., Chaucerian Dream Visions).