22. _wakinge_; strictly, it means _watching_; but here, _in our wakinge_ = whilst we are awake. 23. Cf. Ovid, Art. Amat. iii. 62-65:-- 'Ludite; eunt anni more fluentis aquae. Nec quae praeteriit, cursu reuocabitur unda; Nec, quae praeteriit, hora redire potest. Utendum est aetate; cito pede labitur aetas.' 25. Seneca wrote a treatise De Breuitate Temporis, but this does not contain any passage very much resembling the text. I have no doubt that Chaucer was thinking of a passage which may easily have caught [135] his eye, as being very near the beginning of the first of Seneca's epistles. 'Quaedam tempora eripiuntur nobis, quaedam subducuntur, quaedam _effluunt. Turpissima tamen est iactura, quae per negligentiam fit._ Quem mihi dabis, qui aliquod pretium tempori ponat? qui diem aestimet?... In huius rei unius fugacis ac lubricae possessionem natura nos misit, ex qua expellit quicumque uult; et tanta stultitia mortalium est, ut, quae minima et uilissima sint, _certe reparabilia_, imputari sibi, quum impetrauere, patiantur; nemo se iudicet quidquam debere, qui tempus accepit, quum interim _hoc unum est, quod ne gratus quidem potest reddere_'; Epist. I.; Seneca Lucilio suo. 30. _Malkin_; a proverbial name for a wanton woman; see P. Plowman, C. ii. 181 (B. i. 182), and my note. 'There are more maids than Malkin'; Heywood's Proverbs. 32. _moulen_, lit. 'become mouldy'; hence, be idle, stagnate, remain sluggish, rot. See _Mouldy_ in the Appendix to my Etym. Dict. 2nd ed. 1884; and cf. note to A. 3870. 33. _Man of Lawe._ This is the 'sergeant of the lawe' described in the Prologue, ll. 309-330. _So have ye blis_, so may you obtain bliss; as you hope to reach heaven. 34. _as forward is_, as is the agreement. See Prologue, A. 33, 829. 35. _been submitted_, have agreed. This illustrates the common usage of expressing a perfect by the verb _to be_ and the past part. of an _intransitive_ verb. Cf. _is went_, in B. 1730.--M. 36. _at my Iugement_, at my decree; ready to do as I bid you. See Prologue, A. 818 and 833. 37. _Acquiteth yow_, acquit yourself, viz. by redeeming your promise. _holdeth your biheste_, keep your promise. _Acquit_ means to absolve or free oneself from a debt, obligation, charge, &c.; or to free oneself from the claims of duty, by fulfilling it. 38. _devoir_, duty; see Knightes Tale, A. 2598. _atte leste_, at the least. _Atte_ or _atten_ is common in Old English for _at the_ or _at then_; the latter is a later form of A. S. _æt þ[=a]m_, where _then_ (= _þ[=a]m_) is the dative case of the article. But for the explanation of peculiar forms and words, the Glossarial Index should be consulted.