2600. The Lat. text informs us that _Melibeus_ signifies _mel bibens_. For similar curiosities of derivation, see note to G. 87. There was a town called Meliboea ([Greek: Meliboia]) on the E. coast of Thessaly. 2605. From Ovid, Amor. i. 8. 104:--'Impia sub dulci melle uenena latent.' 2606. From Prov. xxv. 16. 2611. _The three enemys_, i. e. the flesh, the devil and the world. The entrance of these into man through the five senses is the theme of numerous homilies. See especially Sawles Warde, in O. Eng. Homilies, ed. Morris, First Series, p. 245; and the Ayenbite of Inwyt, ed. Morris, p. 263. 2614. _Deedly sinnes_, the Seven Deadly Sins; see the Persones Tale. _Fyve wittes_, five senses; cf. P. Plowman, C. ii. 15, xvi. 257. 2615. _Wold_, willed; pp. of _willen_. F. text--'a voulu.' See 2190 above; Leg. of Good Women, 1209; Compl. of Venus, 11; P. Plowman, B. xv. 258; Malory's Morte Arthure, bk. xviii. c. 15--'[he] myghte haue slayne vs and he had _wold_'; and again, in c. 19--'I myght haue ben maryed and I had _wolde_.' Gower has--'if that he had _wold_'; Conf. Amantis, ii. 9. 2618. _Falle_, befall, come to pass; F. text--'advenir.' 2620. _Were_, would be; F. text--'ce seroit moult grant dommage.' 2623-4. The missing portion is easily supplied. The French text (MS. Reg. 19 C. vii, leaf 136) has:--'Et a ce respont Dame Prudence, Certes, dist elle, Ie t'octroye que de vengence vient molt de maulx et de biens; mais vengence n'appartient pas a vn chascun, fors seulement aux iuges et a ceulx qui ont la iuridicion sur les malfaitteurs.' Here 'mais vengence' should rather be 'mais faire vengence,' as in MS. Reg. 19 C. xi. leaf 59, back, and in the printed edition. It is [217] clear that the omission of this passage is due to the repetition of _trespassours_ at the end of 2622 and 2624. 2627. Lat. text--'nam, ut ait Seneca, Bonis nocet, qui malis parcit.' This corresponds to--'Bonis necesse est noceat, qui parcit malis'; Pseudo-Seneca, De Moribus, Sent. 114; see Publilius Syrus, ed. Dietrich, p. 90. The Fr. text has:--'Cellui nuit [_al._ nuist] aux bons, qui espargne les mauvais.' Chaucer's translation is so entirely at fault, that I think his MS. must have been corrupt; he has taken _nuist aux_ as _maistre_, and then could make but little of _espargne_, which he makes to mean 'proveth,' i. e. tests, tries the quality of; perhaps his MS. had turned _espargne_ (or _esparne_) into _esprouve_. MSS. Cp. Pt. Ln. turn it into _reproveth_; this makes better sense, but contradicts the original still more. 2628. 'Quoniam excessus tunc sunt in formidine, cùm creduntur iudicibus displicere'; Cassiodorus, Variarum lib. i. epist. 4. 2629. Lat. text:--'Et alibi dixit, Iudex, qui dubitat ulcisci, multos improbos facit'; slightly altered from Publ. Syrus, Sent. 526:--'Qui ulcisci dubitat, inprobos plures facit.' 2630. From Rom. xiii. 4. For _spere_, as in all the copies, Chaucer should have written _swerd_. The Fr. text has _glaive_; Lat. _gladium_.