I will merely add here, that similar lines _abound_ in Lydgate's 'Sege of Thebes,' and that there are 25 clear examples of such lines in the Legend of Good Women, as I shew in my Introduction to that Poem. 2123. Cf. P. Plowman; B. prol. 46-52. _Bretful_, brim-ful, occurs in P. Pl. C. i. 42; also in Chaucer, Prol. 687; Kn. Tale, 1306 (A 2164). 2130. _Lyes_; F. _lies_, E. _lees_. '_Lie_, f. the lees, dregs, grounds'; Cotgrave. 2140. Sooner or later, every sheaf in the barn has to come out to be thrashed. 2152. 'And cast up their noses on high.' I adopt this reading out of deference to Dr. Koch, who insists upon its correctness. Otherwise, I should prefer the graphic reading in MS. B.--'And up the nose and yën caste.' Each man is trying to peer beyond the rest. 2154. 'And stamp, as a man would stamp on a live eel, to try to secure it.' Already in Plautus, Pseudolus, 2. 4. 56, we have the proverb _anguilla est, elabitur_, he is an eel, he slips away from you; said of a sly or slippery fellow. In the Rom. de la Rose, 9941, we are told that it is as hard to be sure of a woman's constancy as it is to hold a live eel by the tail. 'To have an eel by the tail' was an old English proverb; see _Eel_ in Nares' Glossary, ed. Halliwell and Wright. 2158. The poem ends here, in the middle of a sentence. It seems as if Chaucer did not quite know how to conclude, and put off finishing the poem till that more 'convenient season' which never comes. Practically, nothing is lost. The copy printed by Caxton broke off still earlier, viz. at l. 2094. In order to make a sort of ending to it, Caxton added twelve lines of his own, with his name--Caxton--at the side of the first of them; and subjoined a note in prose, as follows:-- And wyth the noyse of them [t]wo[64] I Sodeynly awoke anon tho[65] And remembryd what I had seen And how hye and ferre I had been In my ghoost / and had grete wonder Of that [that?] the god of thonder Had lete me knowen / and began to wryte[66] Lyke as ye haue herd me endyte Wherfor to studye and rede alway[67] I purpose to doo day by day Thus in dremyng and in game Endeth thys lytyl book of Fame. I fynde nomore of this werke to-fore sayd. For as fer as I can vnderstonde / This noble man Gefferey Chaucer fynysshed at the sayd conclusion of the metyng of lesyng and sothsawe / where as yet they ben chekked and may nat departe / whyche werke as me semeth is craftyly made'; &c. (The rest is in praise of Chaucer). But, although Caxton's copy ended at l. 2094, lines 2095-2158 appear in the two MSS., and are obviously genuine. Thynne also printed them, and must have found them in the MS. which he followed. After l. 2158, Thynne subjoins Caxton's ending, with an alteration in the first three lines, as unsuitable to follow l. 2158. Hence Thynne prints them as follows:-- And therwithal I abrayde Out of my slepe halfe a frayde Remembri[n]g wel what I had sene.