145. _þys hyne_: the labourers. _This_, _these_ are sometimes used in
early English to refer to persons or things that have not been
previously mentioned, but are prominent in the writer's mind. Cp. XV
_b_ 4, 19; and the opening of Chaucer's _Prologue_ to the _Franklin's
Tale_ quoted in the note to II 13.
150. _pené_: in ME. the final sound developed from OFr. _-é_ (_e_) fell
together with the sounds arising from OE. _-ig_, OFr. _ie_, &c. Hence
_pené_ or _peny_ 186 (OE. _penig_); _reprené_ 184 for _repreny_;
_cortaysé_ 120, 121, beside _cortaysye_ 72, 84, 96. The acute accent is
editorial.
153. 'At midmorning the master goes to the market.' _totȝ_ (=
_tǭs_) = _tās_, contracted form of _takes_ 'betakes himself'; cp.
_tone_ = _taken_ V 91. The spelling and rimes with _o_ (which cannot
develop normally from _ă_ lengthened in open syllables because this
lengthening is everywhere later than the change _ā_ > _ǭ_) are
usually explained as artificial. It is assumed that as Northern _bān_
corresponded to Midland _bǭn_, so from Northern _tá_ 'take' an
unhistorical Midland _tǭ_ was deduced. But it is possible that the
contraction of _tăke(n)_, and consequent lengthening _tá(n)_, is
older than the ordinary lengthening _tăke_ > _táke_, and also older
than the development of _ā_ to _ǭ_ in North Midland.
164. _I yow pay_: note the survival of the old use of the present to
express future tense.
176. _þat at ȝe moun_, 'what you can'. _At_ as a relative appears
usually to be from Old Norse _at_, with the same sense, and it is not
uncommon in Northern English. But _þat at_ here is more likely the
normal development of _þat þat_ > _þat tat_ (note to II 102) > _þat at_.
179. _sumoun_ is infin. not sb.: 'he had (them) summoned'; cp. note to
VIII _a_ 79.
192. 'It seems to us we ought to receive more.' _Vus þynk_ is a remnant
of the old impersonal construction of _þynceþ_ 'it seems'. In this
phrase, probably owing to confusion with _we þynk(en)_, the verb often
has no flexional ending; cp. l. 192. _vus oȝe_ is formed by analogy,
the verb being properly personal; cp. _must vs_ XVII 292, 334.