Note 13 — JANUARY AND MAY:
Reading edition
The flippancy of this couplet, which departs from the original, is at variance with the tone of the knight, whose speech commenced with the words,
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.