v. 40. _what she had lode_] i. e. what she had been freighted with.
Page 32. v. 44. _prece_] i. e. press,—the throng.
v. 50. _estate_] i. e. high rank, dignity.
v. 58. _traues_] Means here a sort of low curtain or screen.—Hall, describing the preparations for combat between the Dukes of Hereford and Norfolk, tells us that the former, having entered the lists, “set hym doune in a chayer of grene veluet whiche was set in a _trauers_ of grene and blewe veluet,” &c.; and that the latter “satte doune in his chayer whiche was Crimosen Veluet, _cortened_ [curtained] aboute with white and redde Damaske.” _Chron._ (_Henry IV._) fol. iii. ed. 1548.—At a later period, curtains, which were used on the stage as substitutes for scenes, were called _traverses_. See also Singer’s note on Cavendish’s _Life of Wolsey_, p. 167. ed. 1827, and Sir H. Nicolas’s note on _Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York_, p. 259.
v. 63. _connynge_] i. e. knowledge,—skill.
v. 72. _she trowed that I had eten sause_] Compare our author’s _Magnyfycence_;
“Ye haue _eten sauce, I trowe_, at the Taylors Hall.”
v. 80. _glome_] i. e. glum,—sullen look, frown.
—— _fro me she dyde fare_] i. e. from me she did go.
v. 83. _mased_] i. e. amazed, confounded.
v. 87. _Abasshe you not_] i. e. Be not abashed.
v. 90. _I auyse you to speke, for ony drede_] i. e. I advise you to speak, notwithstanding any dread you may feel. Compare Lydgate;
“And _for_ al strengthe that gad yaf hym [Samson] before, Thei hym captived.”
_The prohemy of a mariage_, &c.,—_MS. Harl._ 372. fol. 48.
Page 34. v. 94. _And this an other_] i. e. And this is another reason.
v. 95. _not worth a bene_] _Bene_ (bean) is frequently used by our early poets to express any thing worthless:
Chaucer’s _Rom. of the Rose_,—_Workes_, fol. 137. ed. 1602.
v. 100. _cheuysaunce_] i. e. achievement,—profit, gain.
v. 107. _styreth_] i. e. steereth, directeth.
Page 35. v. 117. _casseth_] “_Casser_ ... to _casse_, cassere, discharge, turne out of service, deprive of entertainment.” Cotgrave’s _Dict._
v. 134. _Fauell_] Our author in his _Magnyfycence_ has,
“My tonge is with _fauell_ forked and tyned.”
Some readers need not be told how _Fauel_ figures in _Pierce Plowman_. Ritson (_An. Pop. Poetry_, p. 77) explains the word by deceit, referring to the present passage of _The Bowge of Courte_; but Mason (note on Hoccleve’s _Poems_, p. 42) observes that here “_Favel_ and _Disceyte_ are distinct personages, though the latter (for the sake of rhyme,) is first called _Subtylte_,” and considers that Carpentier, in his Sup. to Du Cange, gives the truest explanation of _Favel_ by _Cajolerie_. See also _Supplement_ to Roquefort’s _Gloss. de la Lang. Rom._ in v. _Favelle_. The origin of the word, after all that has been written on it, seems still uncertain.