But the singers will yet sing on to him that hath ears to hear. When he returns to seek them, the shadowy door will open to his touch, the long-drawn aisles receding will guide his eye to the carven choir, and there they still stand, the sweet singers, content to repeat ancient psalm and new song to the prayer of the humblest whose heart would join in England's Antiphon. THE END. [1] The rhymes of the first and second and of the fourth and fifth lines throughout the stanzas, are all, I think, what the French call feminine rhymes, as in the words "sleeping," "weeping." This I think it better not to attempt retaining, because the final unaccented syllable is generally one of those _e_'s which, having first become mute, have since been dropped from our spelling altogether. [2] For the grammatical interpretation of this line, I am indebted to Mr. Richard Morris. _Shall_ is here used, as it often is, in the sense of _must_, and _rede_ is a noun; the paraphrase of the whole being, "_Son, what must be to me for counsel?_" "_What counsel must I follow?_" [3] "Do not blame me, it is my nature." [4] _Mon_ is used for _man_ or _woman_: human being. It is so used in Lancashire still: they say _mon_ to a woman. [5] "They weep quietly and _becomingly_." I think there must be in this word something of the sense of _gently,-uncomplainingly_. [6] "And are shrunken (_clung_ with fear) _like_ the clay." _So_ here is the same as _as_. For this interpretation I am indebted to Mr. Morris. [7] "It is no wonder though it pleases me very ill." [8] I think the poet, wisely anxious to keep his last line just what it is, was perplexed for a rhyme, and fell on the odd device of saying, for "both day and night," "both day and the other." [9] "All as if it were not never, I wis." [10] "So that many men say--True it is, all goeth but God's will." [11] I conjecture "All that grain (me) groweth green." [12] _Not_ is a contraction for _ne wat, know not_. "For I know not whither I must go, nor how long here I dwell." I think _y_ is omitted by mistake before _duelle_. [13] This is very poor compared with the original. [14] I owe almost all my information on the history of these plays to Mr. Collier's well-known work on English Dramatic Poetry. [15] _Able to suffer_, deserving, subject to, obnoxious to, liable to death and vengeance. [16] The word _harry_ is still used in Scotland, but only in regard to a bird's nest. [17] Do-well, Do-better, and Do-best. [18] Complexion. [19] Ruddiness--complexion. [20] Twig. [21] Life (?).--I think _she_ should be _he_. [22] Field. [23] "Carry you beyond this region." [24] For the knowledge of this poem I am indebted to the Early English Text Society, now printing so many valuable manuscripts. [25] The _for_ here is only an intensive. [26] _Pref_ is _proof_. _Put in pref_ seems to stand for something more than _being tested_. Might it not mean _proved to be a pearl of price?_