[Sidenote: Visage for vassalage, an impertinent correction.] Fo: 11. pa: 1. For all forgotten in his vassalage, yow wolde haue vs reade, “for all forgotten is then his visage;” a thinge mere impertinente. for the forgettinge of his visage and personage is not materiall, nor regarded of anye to haue his face forgotten, but yt is muche materiall (and so ys Chaucers meanynge) that his vassalage, and the good service donne in his youthe, shold be forgotten when he waxethe olde. And therefore yt must bee “his vassalage forgotten;” as presently after Chaucer sayeth, better for a manne to dye when he is yonge, and his honor in price, than when he is olde, and the service of his youthe forgotten; w{hic}he I coulde dilate and prove by manye examples; but I cannott stande longe vppon euerye pointe, as well for that I wolde not be tedious vnto yo{u}, as for that leysure serveth me not thereunto. [Sidenote: Leefe for lothe, a nedeless correction.] Fo: 13. pa: 1. For lothe yo{u} bidde vs reade leefe, which annotacione neded not to haue byn there sett downe, because the verye woorde in the texte is lefe. [Sidenote: It is more likely that Absolon knocked than that he coughed at the window.] Fo: 14. pa: 1. for knocked yo{u} reade coughed, but, the circumstance considered, (althoughe they may both stande,) yt is moore probable that he[9] knocked at her[10] windowe, than that he coughed. for although those woordes “with a semely sownde” may haue relatione to the voyce, yet they may as well and with as much consonancye haue reference to a semely and gentle kynde of knockinge at the windowe as to the voyce, and so his meanynge was by that sounde to wake her, whiche wolde rather be by the noyse of a knocke than of a coughe. for so he determyned before to knocke, as apperethe in these verses, when he sayed, So mote I thryve, I shall at cockes crow Full priuily knocke at his windowe: And so apperethe by the tale afterwarde that he knocked, as he did before, although he coughed also at the latter tyme, for he knocked twyce. [Footnote 9: [_Absolon._]] [Footnote 10: [_The Carpenter’s wife’s._]]