97. _hote_, adv. hotly; from _hoot_, adj. hot. _nightertale_, night-time,
time (or reckoning) of night. So also _wit nighter-tale_, lit. with
night-time, Cursor Mundi, l. 2783; _on nightertale_, id. 2991; _be_ [by]
_nychtyrtale_, Barbour's Bruce, xix. 495. The word is used by Holinshed in
his account of Joan of Arc (under the date 1429), but altered in the later
edition to 'the dead of the night'; it also occurs in Palladius on
Husbandry, ed. Lodge, bk. i. l. 910; and in The Court of Love, l. 1355. Cf.
Icel. _náttar-tal_, a tale, or number, of nights; and the phrase _á
náttar-þeli_, at dead of night.
98. _sleep_, also written _slep_, _slepte_. Cf. _weep_, _wepte_; _leep_,
_lepte_, &c.; such verbs, once strong, became weak. See l. 148; and Kn. Ta.
1829 (A. 2687).
100. _carf_, the past tense of _kerven_, to carve (pp. _corven_). The
allusion is to what was then a common custom; cf. E. 1773; Barbour's Bruce,
i. 356. _biforn_, before; A. S. _biforan_. [11]