The initials of the fourteen Chapters in this Book give the words: VIRTW HAVE MERCI. Thynne has not preserved the right division, but makes fifteen chapters, giving the words: VIRTW HAVE MCTRCI. I have set this right, by making Chapter XI begin with `Every.' [But see Leyerle, at the note to Book 2, line 1048.] Thynne makes Chapter XI begin with `Certayn' [below, line 1048], and another Chapter begin with `Trewly' [below, line 1127]. This cannot be right . . . the Chapter thus beginning would have the unusually small number of 57 lines. Chapter I really forms a Prologue to the Second Book [see Minnis, (1988), pp. 163-64], interrupting our progress. At the end of Book I we are told that Love is about to sing, but her song begins with Chapter II. Hence this first Chapter must be regarded as a digression, in which the author reviews what has gone before . . . and anticipates what is to come." (p. 463)

Efter þise ui3tinge [fighting] comþ þe worlde and dame fortune mid al hare hue3el [wheel]/ þet asayleþ þane man a ri3t half and a left half /. . . ." (p. 251)

Grevously, god wot, have I suffred a greet throwe that the Romayne emperour, which in unité of love shulde acorde with every other, <the> cause of <love> to avaunce, <this cause dereth>; and namely, sithe this empyre <nedeth> to be corrected of so many sectes in heresies of faith, of service, o<f> rule in loves religion. Through his very weakness, the monarch harms the cause of love by giving free rein to the powers of discord; only vigorous measures against these would conform with the spirit of love . . ." (pp. 14-15).

But I louers clerk in al my connyng and with al my mightes/ trewly I haue no suche grace in vertue of myracles/ ne for no discomfyte falsheedes/ suffyseth not auctorytes alone/ sythen that suche heretykes and maintaynours of falsytes./ with that auctorite misglosed by mannes reason/ to graunt shal be enduced. wherfore I wotte wel sythen that they ben men/ and reason is approued in hem/ the clowde of erroure hath her reason bewonde probable resons/ whiche that catchende wytte rightfully may not with sytte. By my trauaylynge studye I haue ordeyned hem

But I, lovers clerke, in al my connyng and with al my mightes, trewly, I have no suche grace in vertue of myracles. Ne for [t]o discomfyte falsheedes, suffyseth not auctorytes alone, sythen that suche heretykes and maintaynours of falsytes, [with that auctorie misglosed by mannes reason, to graunt shal be enduced.] Wherfore, I wotte wel, sythen that they ben men and reason is approved in hem, the clowde of erroure hath her reason bewonde. Probable resons, which that catchende wytte rightfully may not withsytte, by my travaylynge studye, I have ordeyned hem.

The general structure and idea of the whole sentence shows that the meaning intended must be: although the name of love, by foolish and malicious people, is given to things which do not deserve it, this fact nevertheless shows that the worship of this name goes deep and is essential to man. The corrupt clause must conform with this idea; and, I think, no extensive operations are necessary to restore this sense to the passage, which presents some rather insidious errors:
Never-the-later, yet how-so-it-be that men clepe thilke thing preciousest in kynde, with many eke-names, that <to> other thinges they foule yeven the ilke noble name, it sheweth wel that in a maner men have a greet lykinge in worshippinge of thilke name.
A to, then, was dropped and that erroneously repeated; the last letter of an original they seems to have dropped out; and the easy substitution of f for s restores the author's reproach. Thilke thing, refers, then, to the before-mentioned cockle; `although people call such a thing the most precious in Nature, with many nicknames, so that they shamefully give that noble name to other things, this clearly shows that in a way people have great liking in worshipping that name.' (pp. 15-16)

"Those who wanted power possess me. But then . . . they lived in Heaven; now, however etc." . . . The end of the passage seems also to have suffered some slight corruption. . . . we must read "and yet sayn some that they me have in celler with wyne shet" [--] "they say that with wine, they have locked up Love in their cellars." Shed is an easy error after wyne. (pp. 18-19)

Knyth, and thrall, and freman,
Oute of þes thre breþer began;
O sem freman, o Iaphet knyght,
Thrall of cham þe maledight." (p. 272)

"Allas, of me, unto the worldes ende,
Shal neyther ben ywriten nor ysonge
No good word, for thise bokes wol me shende.
O, rolled shal I ben on many a tonge!
Thorughout the world my belle shal be ronge!"

For what is more beautiful than a fire, with all the vigour of its flames and the splendours of its light? And what more useful, with its heat, its comfort, and its help in cooking? And yet nothing can cause more distress than the burns inflicted by fire. . . . So we must not give a hearing to those who praise the fire's light and find fault with its heat, because they are not thinking of its natural properties, but are judging it by the standard of their own convenience or inconvenience. They like to see the fire; but they do not like being burned.

And so speke I in feminyne gendre in general/of tho persones at the reuerence of one/ whom euery wight honoureth/for her bountie and her noblesse ymade her to god so dere/that his moder she became/and she me hath had so great in worshyp/that I nyl for nothyng in open declare/that in any thynge ayenst her secte maye so wene: for al vertue and al worthynesse of plesaunce in hem haboundeth. And although I wolde any thing speke/trewly I can not/I may fynde of yuel in her no maner mater." (p. 283)

`Now' quod she, `for thou shalt not wene that <to> womans condicions for fayre speche suche thing <ne> longeth.'

Lyf in the sense "person" or "body" is not uncommon. . . The same error, yvel for lyve, recurs in a passage later in the same chapter, where the author speaks of those who love a person not for her own sake, but for her property's (line 478). . . . The reading "that loven non lyve for dereworthinesse of the persone" is quite as indispensable here as in the other passage; it seems that the scribe or the printer was led astray by the spelling lyve, the word otherwise being spelt lyf in Usk [another instance of the spelling lyve, however, is found in line 1028] (p. 22).

warning was miswritten for the very rare word warpinge, "silt" . . . Being an obvious lectio difficilior, it is natural enough that it should be misunderstood by the scribe or the printer. . . . If we accept the reading warpinge . . . the sentence would read: "And certes, ful warping in love shalt thou never thorow hem get ne cover, that lightly with an ebbe, er thou be ware, it wol ayen meve." (pp. 22-24)

In this way we arrive at a syllogism, rather heavy but free from contradiction: if reverence and honour are not naturally placed in dignities, and if they are not shown to be there any more than goodness -for that is not shown to be in dignity -this only proves that goodness is not naturally rooted in them (i.e. dignities) either. For if a thing is naturally associated with another, we must be able to show that it is always there; if this cannot be shown (as in the case of honour, reverence, and goodness, in relation to dignities), it cannot be naturally "grounded" in it. (pp. 24-25)

This blysse is a maner of sowne delycious in a queynte voyce touched and no dynne of notes: there is none impressyon of breakynge laboure. I canne it not otherwyse nempne for wantynge of privy wordes but paradyse terrestre ful of delycious melody withouten travayle in sown perpetual servyce in ful joye coveyted to endure. Swetenesse of this paradyse hath you ravisshed it semeth ye slepten rested from al other diseases so kyndely is your hertes therin ygrounded. Blysse of two hertes in ful love knytte may not aright ben ymagyned: ever is their contemplacion in ful of thoughty studye to plesaunce mater in bringynge comforte everyche to other. And therfore of erthly thinges mokel mater lightly cometh in your lerning. Knowledge of understonding that is nyghe after eye but not so nyghe the covetyse of knyttynge in your hertes: More soveraine desyre hath every wight in lytel herynge of hevenly connynge than of mokel materyal purposes in erthe. Right so it is in propertie of my servauntes that they ben more affyched in sterynge of lytel thynge in his desyre than of mokel other mater lasse in his conscience. Onely kynde maketh hertes in understonding so to slepe that otherwyse may it nat be nempned ne in other maner names for lykyng swetnesse can I nat it declare al sugre and hony al mynstralsy and melody ben but soote and galle in comparison by no maner proporcion to reken <344rb><344va>in respecte of this blysful joye. This armony this melody/ etc.

Pandare answerd, and seyde thus, "he
That ones may in hevene blisse be,
He feleth other weyes, dar I leye,
Than thilke tyme he first herde of it seye."

Suppose we divide the days, each into twenty-four hours. . . . If we give the first hour of Sunday to the governance of the Sun, the second hour of the same day to Venus, the third to Mercury, and so on through the cycle again and again, we shall eventually come to the first hour of the following day, which by the rules will turn out to be governed by the Moon [English Monday]. Continuing, we shall find that Mars governs the first hour of the third day [hence French Mardi], Mercury the first hour of the fourth [hence French Mercredi], then Jupiter [hence French Jeudi], and Venus [hence French Vendredi], and finally Saturn [English Saturday]. The names of the days of our week are a relic of this arrangement of so-called "planetary hours." (p. 29)

Ben these nat mortal thynges agon with ignorance of beestial wyt, and hast receyved reason in knowyng of vertue? What comforte is in thy hert, the knowinge sykerly in my servyce be grounded. And woste thou nat wel, as I said, that deth maketh ende of al fortune? What than? Standest thou in noble plyte, lytel hede or reckyng to take if thou let fortune passe dyng, or els that she fly whan her lyst, now by thy lyve.

Cum igitur praecipua sit mortalibus vitae cura retinendae, o te, si tua bona cognoscas, felicem, cui suppetunt etiam nunc quae vita nemo dubitat esse cariora. (Therefore, since the sovereign care of mortals is to retain life, O you are a happy man if you know your goods, you to whom goods are at hand even now which no one doubts to be dearer than life.)
   Usk's unclear clause if thou knowe thy goodes that thou hast yet be loued whiche nothynge may doute is a translation of "si tua bona cognoscas tuas suppetunt etiam nunc quae vita nemo dubitat esse cariora," but the antecedent for both the relative pronouns that and which is the same -goods. Boethius's "nemo" may have become the unintelligible nothyng through faulty reading of an abbreviation. (p. 364)

For the sake of the acrostic, Skeat puts the chapter divisions at a word beginning with E, every, at [line 1070 -i.e., 22 lines later]. A break at this point seems dubious because it divides Love's discourse on the resonable lyf and makes an awkward interruption in the middle of one of her remarks. . . . Chapter 11 is best started with the word Amonge [line 1048], emended to its common by-form Emonge to provide the necessary E for the acrostic. Thus the third word of the acrostic in Book II becomes

M E R C I
10 11 12 13 14

A further result is that Book II has 14 chapters in its edited version, not the 15 chapters in Thynne.

"And there thow woost that I have aught myswent,
Eschuw thow that, for swich thing to the scole is;
Thus often wise men ben war by foolys."

We may say, accordingly, that in the state of pure nature man did not need a gift of grace added to his power, in order to love God above all things, although he did need the help of God in moving him to do so. But in the state of corrupt nature he needs further help of grace, that his nature may be healed. (p. 369)