11. 'To spurn against an awl,' i. e. against a prick, is the English
equivalent of the Gk. phrase which our bibles render by 'to kick against
the pricks,' Acts ix. 5. Wyclif has 'to kike ayens the pricke.'
In MS. Cotton, Otho A. xviii, we find the reading _a nall_, the _n_ being
transferred from _an_ to the sb. Tusser has _nall_ for 'awl' in his
Husbandry, § 17, st. 4, l. 3. This MS., by the way, has been burnt, but a
copy of it (too much corrected) is given in Todd's Illustrations of
Chaucer, p. 131.
12. An allusion to the fable in Æsop about the earthern and brazen pots
being dashed together. An earthen pot would have still less chance of
escape if dashed against a wall. In MS. T., the word _crocke_ is glossed by
'water-potte.'