[17] Do-well, Do-better, and Do-best.
[18] Complexion.
[19] Ruddiness--complexion.
[20] Twig.
[21] Life (?).--I think _she_ should be _he_.
[22] Field.
[23] "Carry you beyond this region."
[24] For the knowledge of this poem I am indebted to the Early English
Text Society, now printing so many valuable manuscripts.
[25] The _for_ here is only an intensive.
[26] _Pref_ is _proof_. _Put in pref_ seems to stand for something more
than _being tested_. Might it not mean _proved to be a pearl of price?_
[27] A word acknowledged to be obscure. Mr. Morris suggests _on the left
hand_, as unbelieved.
[28] "Except that which his sole wit may judge."
[29] "Be equal to thy possessions:" "fit thy desires to thy means."
[30] "Ambition has uncertainty." We use the word _ticklish_ still.
[31] "Is mingled everywhere."
[32] To relish, to like. "Desire no more than is fitting for thee."
[33] For.
[34] "Let thy spiritual and not thine animal nature guide thee."
[35] "And I dare not falsely judge the reverse."
[36] A poem so like this that it may have been written immediately after
reading it, is attributed to Robert Henryson, the Scotch poet. It has the
same refrain to every verse as Lydgate's.
[37] "Mourning for mishaps that I had caught made me almost mad.
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