In the present case, it would be used in a _double_ sense; (1) of result, (2) of a fruit that withers and is ready to burst open. As to the spelling _froit_, we find _froyte_ in the Petworth MS. in the latter of the above quotations, where other MSS. have _fruyt_ or _fruite_. _The swote_ (Cx. Th.) means 'the sweetness.' 2019. _That_, in this line, goes back to _Sith that_ in l. 2007. 2021. I suppress _in_ after _yaf_, because it is not wanted for the sense, and spoils the metre. 2034-40. Suggested by Dante, Inf. iii. 55-57, just as ll. 1924-6 above are by the two preceding lines in Dante; see note to l. 1926. Cary has:-- 'and following came Such a long train of spirits, I should ne'er Have thought that death so many had despoil'd.' In l. 2038, _left_ means 'left alive.' 2044. I substitute _ech_ for _euerych_ (in Caxton). The two MSS. (F. and B.) have merely _Rouned in others ere_, which is of course defective. 2048. I here follow B. (except that it wrongly omits _lo_). 2059. _Wondermost_; superl. of _wonder_, which is very common as an _adjective_. 2076. As the reading of the MSS. is obviously wrong (the word _mouth_ being repeated three times), whilst the reading of the printed editions (_Wente every tydyng_) cannot be right on account of the scansion, I put _word_ for the first of the three _mouths_. This gives the right sense, and probably Chaucer actually wrote it. 2089. Again from Ovid, Met. xii. 54, 55. _A sad soth-sawe_, a sober truth. 2099. _With the nones_, on the condition; see Leg. of Good Women, 1540; and the note. So also in the Tale of Gamelyn, 206. 2101. See Kn. Tale, 273, 274 (A 1131). 2105. _Beside_, without; without asking his leave. 2119. Cf. Cant. Tales, D 1695--'Twenty thousand freres on a route,' where Tyrwhitt prints _A twenty_. But the MSS. (at least the seven best ones) all omit the _A_. Just as the present line wants its first syllable, and is to be scanned--'Twénty thoúsand ín a roúte'; so the line in the Cant. Tales wants its first syllable, and is to be scanned--Twénty thoúsand fréres ón a roúte. For having called attention to this fact, my name (misspelt) obtained a mention in Lowell's My Study Windows, in his (otherwise excellent) article on Chaucer. 'His (Chaucer's) ear would never have tolerated the verses of nine[63] syllables with a strong accent on the first, attributed to him by Mr. Skeate and Mr. Morris. Such verses seem to me simply impossible in the pentameter iambic as Chaucer wrote it.' Surely this is assumption, not proof. I have only to say that the examples are rather numerous, and nine-syllable lines are not impossible to a poet with a good ear; for there are twelve consecutive lines of this character in Tennyson's Vision of Sin. It may suffice to quote one of them:-- 'Pánted hánd in hánd with fáces pále.'