v. 46. _boteles bale_] i. e. remediless sorrow.
v. 48. _fendys blake_] i. e. fiends black.
Page 20. v. 4. _recheles_] i. e. reckless.
v. 6. _draffe_] i. e. refuse: in our author’s _Elynour Rummyng_, v. 171. vol. i. 100, it means hog-wash,—the coarse liquor, or brewers’ grains, with which swine are fed.
v. 18. _auayle_] i. e. advantage, profit.
v. 19. _shayle_] Is several times used by Skelton. “_Schayler_ that gothe awrie with his fete _boytevx_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. lxi. (Table of Subst.) “I _Shayle_ as a man or horse dothe that gothe croked with his legges: _Ie vas eschays_. It is to late to beate him for it nowe, he shal _shayle_ as longe as he lyueth ... _il yra eschays_ ... I _Shayle_ with the fete, _Ientretaille des pieds_.” _Id._ fol. cccxlviii. (Table of Verbes). “_A shayle_ with yᵉ knees togyther and the fete outwarde: _A eschays_.” _Id._ fol. ccccxxxvii. (Table of Aduerbes).
v. 20. _pyggysny_] “The Romans,” says Tyrwhitt, “used _oculus_ as a term of endearment, and perhaps _piggesnie_, in vulgar language, only means _ocellus_; the eyes of that animal being remarkably small.” Note on Chaucer’s _Cant. Tales_, v. 3268.—In confirmation of this etymology, Todd (_Johnson’s Dict._ in v. _Pigsney_) has shewn that the word was occasionally written _pigs eie_.
v. 28. _all beshrewde_] i. e. altogether cursed.
v. 29. _that farly swete_] i. e. that strange sweet one.
—— _Temmys strete_] i. e. Thames’ street.
v. 4. _hardely_] i. e. boldly, with confidence.
_With ba, ba, ba, and bas, bas, bas,_ _She cheryshed hym both cheke and chyn_]
“Come ner my spouse, and let me _ba_ thy cheke.”
Chaucer’s _Wif of Bathes Prol._ v. 6015. ed. Tyr.
“I wald him chuk, _cheik and chyn_, and _cheris_ him so mekill.”
Dunbar’s tale of _The Tua Maryit Wemen and the Wedo_,—_Poems_, i. 71. ed. Laing.
v. 11. _He had forgoten all dedely syn_] Compare our author’s _Phyllyp Sparowe_, v. 1080. vol. i. 84.
v. 13. _He trusted her payment, and lost all hys pray_] In the note below the text I inconsiderately queried if “_pray_” should be “pay.” Compare the last of Skelton’s _Poems against Garnesche_;
“And thus there ye _lost yower pray_ [i. e. prey].”
—— _waters wan_] Many passages of our early poetry might be cited where this epithet is applied to water: see note on _Why come ye nat to Courte_, v. 887, where a wrong reading has misled H. Tooke and Richardson.