458. These two lines, omitted in the MS. from which our text is printed,
have been added from MS. Trin. 2.
489. _fyve wittes._ The five wits were equivalent to the five _senses_. One
of the characters in the early interlude of The Four Elements, a production
of the earlier part of the sixteenth century, says:--
I am callyd Sensuall Apetyte,
All craturs in me delyte;
I comforte the _wyttys fyve_,
The tastyng, smellyng, and herynge,
I refresh the syght and felynge,
To all creaturs alyve.
Stephen Hawes, in his Pastime of Pleasure (chap. xxiv), belonging to this
same age, refines upon this notion, and talks of five "internall wittes,"
answering to the five external wits, or to those which were commonly
understood by that name.
522. Genesis xix, 32. It is very singular that this story of Lot and his
daughters was the favourite example of the medieval preachers against
drunkenness.