Note 16 — JANUARY AND MAY:
Reading edition
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.