620. _Berth hir on hond_, affirms falsely; lit. bears her in hand. Chaucer
uses the phrase 'to bere in hond' with the sense of false affirmation,
sometimes with the idea of accusing falsely, as here and in the Wyf of
Bathes Prologue, D. 393; and sometimes with that of persuading falsely, D.
232, 380. In Shakespeare the sense is rather--'to keep in expectation, to
amuse with false pretences'; Nares's Glossary. Barbour uses it in the more
general sense of 'to affirm,' or 'to make a statement,' whether falsely or
truly. In Dyce's Skelton, i. 237, occurs the line--'They bare me in hande
that I was a spye'; which Dyce explains by 'they accused me, laid to my
charge that,' &c. He refers us to Palsgrave, who has some curious examples
of it. E.g., at p. 450:--'_I beare in hande_, I threp upon a man that he
hath done a dede or make hym beleve so, _Ie fais accroyre_ ... I beare hym
in hande he was wode, _Ie luy metz sus la raige_, or _ie luy metz sus quil
estoyt enragé_. What crime or yuell mayest thou beare me in hande of'; &c.
So also: 'Many be borne an hande of a faute, and punysshed therfore, that
were neuer gylty; Plerique facinoris _insimulantur_,' &c.; Hormanni
Vulgaria, sig. m. ii. ed. 1530. In Skelton's Why Come Ye Nat to Courte, l.
449, _bereth on hand_ simply means 'persuades.'
631-58. Not in the original. A later insertion, of much beauty.
634. 'And bound Satan; and he still lies where he (then) lay.' In the
Apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, Christ descends into hell, and (according
to some versions) binds him with chains; see Piers Plowman, B. xviii. 401.