65. Probably to be scanned thus: Óf | the sónn' | for thér | hit wól | unclós-e. See note to l. 67, and cf. l. 111. 66. _Ne had_, pronounced as _nad_; and often so written. 67. The first syllable of a line is often wanting in Chaucer; so that the first foot consists of a single emphatic syllable. Such lines are now considered faulty, though examples may be found in Tennyson's 'Vision of Sin,' which cannot be called unmelodious; but they were once common, especially in Lydgate. Some examples from the present poem are the following:-- That | of alle the floures in the mede; 41. Suf | fisant this flour to preyse aright; 67. Of | this flour, whan that hit shulde unclose; 111. Made | hir lyk a daysie for to sene; 224. So also ll. 245, 303, 722, 783, 797, 859, 863, 901, 911, 1024, 1030, 1076, 1187, 1275, 1324, 1342, 1498, 1551, 1828, 1996, 2471, 2575. 68. _Conning_, knowledge. Many words now used with a changed signification are well explained in Trench's Select Glossary, which should be consulted for them. Thus, in the article upon _cunning_, Trench quotes the following from the examination of Wm. Thorpe, as preserved in Foxe's Book of Martyrs:--'I believe that all these three Persons [in the Godhead] are even in power and in _cunning and in might_'. 69. _Make_, compose poetry; _of sentement_, concerning your feelings. So in l. 74, _making_ is 'poetry.' See Trench, s.v. _make_; where it is shewn that the use of the word arose quite independently of the Gk. use of [Greek: poiein] and [Greek: poiêtês]. 'One of the earliest instances of the use of _makyere_ in the sense of "author" occurs in the Kentish Ayenbite of Inwyt, ed. Morris, p. 269; written A.D. 1340. The A.S. _scóp_ and O.H.G. _scóf_ mean "a shaper." The G. _Dichter_ means an "arranger"; the Fr. _trouvère_, Provençal _troubadour_, and Ital. _trovatore_ means a "finder."'--Skeat, note to P. Plowman, B. xii. 16 (where _makynges_ means 'poems'). 72. Cf. l. 193. There appears to be here some reference to a poem of the kind called in F. _tenson_ (O.F. _tençon_) or in O. Provençal _tenso_, i.e. 'dispute,' in which the relative merits of two subjects are discussed. An early example in English is the poem called The Owl and the Nightingale, in which these birds contend for the superiority. In the present case, the suggestion is to discuss the value of the Leaf, representing no doubt constancy or any enduring virtue, as compared with that of the Flower, the representative of perishable beauty and the freshness of first love. Chaucer probably refers to some such poem in French, but I cannot point out the exact source.