298. 'There is other yarn on the reel', i.e. there is other business on
hand.
320. _brether sam_: 'brothers both'. Some editors prefer to read
_brother Sam_ 'brother Shem'.
336 ff. Chaucer refers to the quarrels of Noah and his wife in the
_Miller's Tale_ (ll. 352 ff.):—
_'Hastou nat herd', quod Nicholas, 'also
The sorwe of Noe with his felaweshipe
Er that he myghte brynge his wyf to shipe?
Hym hadde be levere, I dar wel undertake,
At thilke tyme, than alle his wetheres blake,
That she hadde had a shipe hirself allone.'_
The tradition is old. In the splendid tenth-century Bodleian MS. Junius
11, which contains the so-called Caedmon poems, a picture of the Ark
shows Noah's wife standing at the foot of the gangway, and one of her
sons trying to persuade her to come in.