320 Albert S. Cook, 



Of gras and floures, inde and pers, 

 And many hewes ful dyvers : 

 That is the robe I mene, ywis, 

 Through which the ground to preisen is. 



Cf. Leg. Good M^omen 113-7; Book of the Duchess 405-412; Boeth. 

 1. 2. 8; r. and C. 3. 353. 



About the same time we have Trevisa using a similar expression 

 in his translation of Bartholomew's De Proprictatibus Rerum 8. 16. 

 Charles d'Orleans is especially fond of the term livrce. Thus in 

 Chanson 82. 5-8 (d'Hericault 2. 48): 



Este revest champs, bois et fleurs, 

 De sa livree de verdure. 



And in the well-known Rondeau 63 (d'Hericault 2. 115): 



Riviere, fontaine et ruisseau 

 Portent, en livree jolie, 

 Gouttes d'argent d'orfavrerie, 

 Chacun s'abille de nouveau. 



The same word occurs in Pearl 1 108 ; see Osgood's note. Later 

 instances are : Surrey, Compl. of the Lover that defied Love 4 ; Pil- 

 grimage to Parnassus 1. 309—10: 



The earth hath ten times binne disrobbed quite 

 Of her greene gowne and flowrie coverings. 



Milton himself has : P.L. 7. 501-2 : 



Earth in her rich attire 

 Consummate lovely smiled. 



Cf. Sonn. 20. 5-8; P.L. 1. 410; 4. 599; 7. 312-5. The process 

 may be conceived as in some sense the reverse of that in P.L. 7. 

 313-6. 



34. so to sympathize. Cf. 10—12. As Christ had stripped him- 

 self of his glory, so the earth had divested herself of her adorn- 

 ments. 



35. no season. That season would have been spring, or perhaps 

 summer as well. 



36. wanton. Probably, to sport lasciviously. In /*.Z. 11. 580ff., 

 gay attire is the harbinger of amorous revel. Cf. El. 5. 95 : 



Sic Tellus lasciva suos suspirat amores. 



Gilles Durant, in Le Zodiac Anioureux (1588), imagines (1. 41) the 

 earth as ' devenue amoureuse,' and so as ' pleine de fleurs ' (see 



