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mate, whom she had first known, she will never
take another mate, nor will she sit in a green tree.
Rather she goes among the dry (see note) trees continually
bewailing love. The ostrich by its nature
happily eats iron and takes no harm from it. When
the heron sees a storm coming it rises up until
it is above the clouds, to avoid the rain and storm.
If the jackdaw finds gold or silver, by her nature she
takes and hides it, and when anyone hears her
voice it seems just as though she is speaking. The
crow thinks that he is the most beautiful of all the
birds and that he sings the best. If his young are
at all white, he will not take care of them, until they
become completely black. When anyone gazes on
the peacock, it (see note) wraps its tail all around itself, so that one
might praise and laud its beauty. It causes its
beautiful tail to become just like a wheel, so much does it
pride itself in its lovely feathers. But when it
looks at its feet, which are ugly to behold, it lets
its tail fall down to cover them. The goshawk
Notes and Questions
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original ms. Folio 69v
Walters ms. Folio 74v
BL Royal MS 19 A IX fols 79r-v
Caxton, ed. Prior, pp 102-103
Gossuin, ed. Prior, 136-137
Line 3: "sec": A rare instance where this ms differs from BL ms., which has "ses". Prior p 102 fn 4: “but fleeth ... her loue”: O.F. text (p. 136) says merely: ‘Ainz s’en vait par les arbres sés touz jourz gemissant ” : flies among dry trees always wailing. MS. Roy. 19 a IX., changes sés into the possessive ses (her), and writes “Ainz s’en vait par les arbres, ses amours continuellement gemissant.” Caxton translates this last sentence literally."