6017. _they_; i. e. a number of barons; see l. 5812.
6024. 'They act like fools who are outrageous,' i. e. they act foolishly.
F. 'Il ne feront mie que sage'; which seems to mean just the contrary.
6025. _forsworn_, with trilled _r_, seems to be trisyllabic; see note to l.
5978. But it is better to read _forsworen_.
6026. _Ne lette_, nor cease. Cf. l. 5967. But read _let_, pp. prevented.
6027. _piment_ is much the same as _clarree_; in fact, in l. 5967, where
the E. has _clarree_, the F. text has _piment_. Tyrwhitt says, s. v.
_clarre_; 'wine mixed with honey and spices, and afterwards strained till
it is clear. It is otherwise called _Piment_, as appears from the title of
the following receipt, in the _Medulla Cirurgiae Rolandi_, MS. Bodl. 761,
fol. 86: Claretum bonum, sive Pigmentum,' &c., shewing that _piment_ is
spiced wine, with a third part of honey; see _Piment_ in Halliwell.
6033. _vicaire_, deputy. In Méon's edition, the F. text has: 'Ja n'i querés
autres victaires'; but Kaluza quotes five MSS. that read _vicaires_.
6037. _Lat ladies worche_, let ladies deal.
6044. 'Shall there never remain to them' (F. demorra).
6057. _This_, a common contraction for _This is_; cf. E. _'tis_; see 3548.
6068. _King of harlots_; F. 'rois des ribaus.' The sense is 'king of
rascals.' There is a note on the subject in Méon's edition. It quotes
Fauchet, Origine des Dignités, who says that the _roi des ribauds_ was an
officer of the king's palace, whose duty it was to clear out of it the men
of bad character who had no business to be there. M. Méon quotes an extract
from an order of the household of king Philippe, A.D. 1290:--'_Le Roy des
Ribaus_, vi. d. de gages, une provende de xl. s. pour robbe pour tout l'an,
et mengera à court et n'aura point de livraison.' It further appears that
the title of _Roi des ribaus_ was often jocularly conferred on any
conspicuous vagabond; as e.g. on the chief of a gang of strolling
minstrels. See the note at p. 369 of Political Songs, ed. T. Wright, where
it is shewn that the _ribaldi_ were usually 'the lowest class of retainers,
who had no other mode of living than following the courts of the Barons,
and who were employed on all kinds of disgraceful and wicked actions.' The
word _harlot_ had, in Middle English, a similar sense.