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NOTES TO THE KINGIS QUAIR (64-69).
73
lover, whose service is as yet unknown to you? Since, when you
depart, there is nothing else (for me) then, except (to say): O heart,
where that the body cannot (go) through, do thou (at least) follow thy
heaven (i.e., thy lady’s person) ! Who (my heart !) ought to be glad
except thou, who hast undertaken to follow such a guide ? Even were
it through hell, refuse thou not the way.”
To forsake is to refuse, shrink from.
64. With a voce, all with one voice; a is emphatic. So also three
lines below, a soyte means one suit, one livery, one dress.
65. Here again we have an invocation to May, which is here men¬
tioned for the third time ; cf. notes to st. 34 and to st. 49.
Bridis, brides, spouses. There is some difficulty here, as we should
rather have expected the reading briddis, i.e., birds ; but this is for¬
bidden by the rime. We must clearly take bydis to mean ‘ bides ’ or
‘abides,’ and so cannot read byddis, i.e., bids. Still May may be con¬
sidered as the season of love, and so ‘ merciful to brides ’ as well as to
birds. Compare the Cant. Tales, 11. 1502, 1503 :—
And for to don his observance to May,
Remembring on the point of his desire.
Observe also 11. 1512, 1513 :—
O May, with alle thy floures and thy grene,
Right welcome be thou, faire fresche May !
May is the name of the bride herself va Chaucer’s Marchauntes Tale,
to which James explicitly refers in st. no. And we may compare
Milton’s Song on May Morning :—
Hail bounteous May, that dost inspire
Mirth, and youth, and warm desire.
66. Fadure, feature, aspect. The MS. plainly has fadure, both here
and in st. 50; Tytler should not have altered it to failure. Cf. O. F.
fadure, ‘the facture, workmanship, framing, or making of a thing’;
Cotgrave. The mod. Y.. feature represents Lat. fadura, just as the
O. Y. fadure does.
67. A lytill thrawe, a little while.
68. For quhare-to I propose to read quhare-vnlo, as it improves the
metre, and is somewhat better for the sense.
Of peyne; of pain ? surely not; and yet, God knows, it is so; for
they (such pains) cannot more strongly torment any one. Here means
yea, i.e., yet it is so. Thay agrees with a plural peynes, not expressed,
but implied in the preceding sm'gvXzxpeyne.
69. Thrist, thirst; misprinted thirst by Tytler. The form is common.
Bot venus, unless Venus, of her grace, will provide a remedy, or
cause my spirit to pass hence, i.e., cause me to die. He means, I must
attain my desire, or die. Tytler explains it quite amiss by ‘ bring peace
to, or calm my spirit.’ But the old spelling of ‘ peace ’ is not.pace, but
pees. Cf. Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 8968:—
No force of deth, ne when my spirit pace.