Note 47 — JANUARY AND MAY:
Reading edition
There is a natural trait in the original which is not preserved by Pope. The knight weeps piteously at his sudden calamity:
But atte last, after a month or tweye, His sorrow gan assuage sooth to say; For when he wist it may not other be He patiently took his adversitie.
This is one of the deeper and more solemn touches which Pope systematically rejected. Although the old man gets reconciled to the loss of his sight, his jealousy remains unabated.