Note 41 — JANUARY AND MAY:
Reading edition
May, on her return from the visit which, at her husband's desire, she paid to Damian in his chamber, that she might cheer him in his illness, read the billet that he had given her covertly, and the result is thus told by Chaucer in a passage which has not been versified by Pope:
This gentle May fulfillèd of pite, Right of her hand a letter makèd she; In which she granteth him her very grace; There lacked nought but only day and place. And when she saw her time upon a day To visite this Damian goeth May, And subtilely this letter down she thrust Under his pillow; read it if him lust. She taketh him by the hand, and hard him twist So secretly, that no wight of it wist, And bade him be all whole; and forth she went To January, when that he for her sent. Up riseth Damian the nexte morrow; All passed was his sickness and his sorrow.