211. _daliaunce and fair langage_, gossip and flattery. _daliaunce_ in M.
E. signifies 'tittle-tattle' or 'gossip.' The verb _dally_ signifies not
only to loiter or idle, but to play, sport. Godefroy gives O. F.
'_dallier_, v. a., railler.'
212. 'He had, at his own expense, well married many young women.' This is
less generous than might appear; for it almost certainly refers to young
women who had been his concubines. As Dr. Furnivall remarks in his
Temporary Preface, p. 118--'the true explanation lies in the following
extract from a letter of Dr. Layton to Cromwell, in 1535 A. D., in Mr.
Thos. Wright's edition of Letters on the Suppression of the Monasteries
(Camden Soc.), p. 58: [At Maiden Bradley, near Bristol] "is an holy father
prior, and hath but vj. children, and but one dowghter mariede yet of the
goodes of the monasterie, trystyng shortly to mary the reste. His sones be
tall men, waittyng upon him; and he thankes Gode a never medelet with
marytt women, [26] but all with madens, the faireste cowlde be gottyn, and
_always marede them ryght well_."'