Friendes I am hoar and old, And almost, God wot, at my pittes brink Upon my soule somewhat must I think. I have my body folily dispended Blessed be God that it shall be amended. In the passage, for which Pope's lines are the substitute, the knight is enumerating the causes why men should marry, and one reason, he says, is that each person ought to Helpen other In meschief, as a sister shall the brother, And live in chastity full holily. But, sires, by your leave that am not I, For, God be thankèd, I dare make avaunt, I feel my limbes stark and suffisaunt. The meaning is, that when a husband is "in meschief," or, in other words, in a state of helpless decrepitude, his wife ought to live in holy chastity, and nurse him as a sister would a brother. But, adds the knight, thank God I am not decrepit myself, and feel my limbs to be still stout; which is a very different sentiment from sneering at the saintly life he had just commended.] [Footnote 14: This verse, which has no counterpart in the original, is altered from a line in Dryden's Flower and Leaf: Ev'n when the vital sap retreats below, Ev'n when the hoary head is hid in snow.] [Footnote 15: The infatuation of the knight is more strongly marked in the original. He summons his friends to hear his fixed resolution, and to beg their assistance. He wants no advice, and instead of inviting them to speak their minds with freedom, he concludes his address with the words And synnes ye have heard all mine intent, I pray you to my wille ye assent. They do, indeed, offer him counsel where he solicited help, which is a true stroke of nature on both sides.] [Footnote 16: Pope gives the real character of Placebo, but sets probability at defiance in making him parade with boastful effrontery his own systematic fawning and flattery. Chaucer has not committed the extravagance. With him Placebo justifies his assentation on the ground that lords are better informed than their inferiors. A full great fool is any counsellor That serveth any lord of high honour, That dare presume, or once thinken it, That his counsel should pass his lordes wit. Nay lordes be no fooles by my fay. Ye have yourself y-spoken here to-day So high sentence, so holy, and so well, That I consent, and confirm every dole Your wordes all, and your opinion.] [Footnote 17: The last four lines are interpolated by Pope, and are again inconsistant with the tenor of Chaucer's narrative. The knight had notoriously been a dissolute man, and the coarse reflection would be out of place when the avowed object of his projected marriage was that he might live more soberly than he had hitherto done.] [Footnote 18: Seneca.]