1541. _for which_, for which reason; _stood_, stood still, was stuck fast.
1543. In Brand's Popular Antiquities, ed. Ellis, ii. 15, '_Heit_ or _Heck_'
is mentioned as being 'a well-known interjection used by the country people
to their horses.' Brand adds that 'the name of _Brok_ is still, too, in
frequent use amongst farmers' draught oxen.' In the Towneley Mysteries, p.
9, is the exclamation '_hyte!_' The word for '_stop!_' was '_ho!_' like the
modern _whoa!_ This explains a line in Gascoigne's Dan Bartholmew of Bathe,
ed. Hazlitt, i. 136:--'His thought sayd _haight_, his sillie speache cryed
_ho_.' Bell notes that '_Hayt_ is still the word used by waggoners in
Norfolk, to make their horses go on'; and adds--'_Brok_ means a badger,
hence applied to a gray horse, _myne owene lyard boy_ (l. 1563). _Scot_ is
a common name for farm-horses in East-Anglia; as in A. 616.' In the
Towneley Mysteries, p. 9, names of oxen are _Malle_, _Stott_ (doubtless
miswritten for _Scott_), _Lemyng_, _Morelle_, and _White-horne_. The Craven
Glossary says _hyte_ is used to turn horses to the left; whilst the Ger.
_hott!_ or _hottot!_ is used to turn them to the right. In Shropshire,
_'ait_ or _'eet_, said to horses, means 'go from me'; see _Waggoners'
Words_ in Miss Jackson's Shropsh. Wordbook.
1548. MS. Hl. has--'her schal we _se play_.' Tyrwhitt has _pray_, which
gives a false rime, for it should be _prey-e_; see l. 1455, and the note to
l. 1456. The six MSS. all have _a pley_.
1559. _thakketh_ (pronounced _thakk'th_) _his hors_, pats, or strokes his
horses; to encourage them. From A. S. _þaccian_, to stroke (a horse),
Gregory's Pastoral Care, ed. Sweet, p. 303, l. 10. So also in A. 3304. (Not
to _thwack_, or _whack_.)
1560. I adopt the reading of MSS. E. and Hn. MSS. Cm. Pt. Ln. have:--'And
they bigunne to drawe and to stoupe,' which throws an awkward accent on the
former _to_. MS. Hl. has:--'And thay bygon to drawen and to stowpe.' But I
take _to-stoupe_ to be a compound verb, with the sense 'stoop forward';
though I can find no other example of its use. Being uncommon, it would
easily have been resolved into two words, and this would necessitate the
introduction of _to_ before _drawen_. _Bigonne_ usually takes _to_ after
it, but not always; cf. 'Iapen tho bigan,' B. 1883.
1563. _twight_, pulled, lit. 'twitched.' '_Liard_, a common appellative for
a horse, from its _grey_ colour, as _bayard_ was from _bay_ (see A. 4115).
See P. Plowman, C. xx. 64 [and my note on the same]. Bp. Douglas, in his
_Virgil_, usually puts _liart_ for _albus_, _incanus_, &c.'--T. Other names
of horses are, _Favel_ for a chestnut, _Dun_ for a dun horse, _Ferrand_ for
an iron-gray, and _Morel_, i. e. mulberry-coloured, for a roan.
1564. I give the reading of MSS. Hn. Cp. Pt. Ln., and of the black-letter
editions. MS. Hl. has 'I pray god saue thy body and seint loy'; for which
Cm. has 'the body,' as if 'the' were the original reading, and 'body' a
supplied word. I take _se-ynt_ to be dissyllabic, as in A. 120, 509, 697,
D. 604. As to _seint Loy_, the patron-saint of goldsmiths, farriers,
smiths, and carters, see note to A. 120. [329]
1568. Cf. Rom. de la Rose, 10335-6: 'car ge fesoie Une chose, et autre
pensoie.'
1570. _upon cariage_, by way of quitting my claim to this cart and team; a
satirical reflection on his failure to win anything by the previous
occurrence. _Cariage_ was a technical term for a service of carrying, or a
payment in lieu of it, due from a tenant to his landlord or feudal
superior; see the New Eng. Dictionary, s. v. _Carriage_, I. 4. The landlord
used to claim the use of the tenant's horses and carts for his own service,
without payment for the use of them; and the tenant could only get off by
paying _cariage_. This difficult use of the word is exemplified by two
other passages in Chaucer, one of which is in the Cant. Tales, I. 752; q.v.
The other is in his Boethius, bk. i. pr. 4, l. 50, where he says:--'The
poeple of the provinces ben harmed outher by privee ravynes, or by comune
tributes or _cariages_,' where the Lat. text has _uectigalibus_.
1573. _rebekke_, old woman; lit. Rebecca; see note to l. 1377 above.
1576. Twelve pence was a considerable sum in those days; being equivalent
to something like fifteen shillings of our present money.
1580. _winne thy cost_, earn your expenses.
1582. _viritrate_, a term of contempt for an old woman. Cf. 'thou olde
_trot_,' addressed to an old woman; Thersites, in Hazlitt's Old Plays, i.
415. Jamieson gives _trat_, an old woman; with three examples from G.
Douglas. Levins (1570) has: 'Tratte, _anus_.'
1591. _wisly_, certainly. _I ne may_, I cannot (come).
1593. _go_, walk; as usual, when used with _ryde_.
1595. _axe a libel_, apply to have a written declaration of the complaint
against me, i. e. a copy of the indictment.
1596. _procutour_, proctor, to appear on my behalf. Only MS. Hl. has the
full form _procuratour_; the rest have _procutour_ or _procatour_, as
suitable for the metre. These forms are interesting, as furnishing the
intermediate step between _procurator_ and _proctor_. So, in the Prompt.
Parv., we find 'proketowre, _Procurator_,' and 'prokecye, _Procuracia_';
whence, by loss of _e_, _proctor_ and _proxy_. _there_ is dissyllabic, as
in A. 3165, and frequently.
1613. _Seinte Anne_, saint Anna, whose day is July 26. In Luke, ii. 36, is
mentioned 'Anna the prophetess.' At the commencement of the apocryphal
gospel of Mary, we are told that the virgin's 'father's name was Joachim,
and her mother's Anna.' This is the saint Anna here alluded to. See B. 641;
G. 70; and Cursor Mundi, l. 10147. Hence it became a common practice to
give a girl the name of Mary Ann, which combined the name of the virgin
with that of her mother.
1617. _I payde_, and which I paid.
1618. _lixt_, liest; a common form; see P. Plowman, C. vii. 138 (B. v.
163); Plowman's Crede, 542.
1630. _stot_, properly a stallion (as in A. 615), or a bullock; also
applied, as in the Cleveland Glossary, to an old ox. Here it clearly means
'old cow,' as a term of abuse. [330]
1635. _by right_; because the old woman really meant it; cf. l. 1568.
1644. _leve_, grant. Tyrwhitt wrongly has _lene_, lend. The difference
between these two words, which are constantly confused (being written
_leue_, _lene_, often indistinguishably) is explained in my note to P.
Plowman, B. v. 263. _Leue_ (grant, permit) is usually followed by a
dependent clause; but _lene_ (lend, grant, give) by an accusative case.
1647. I supply _and_ to fill up the line. This _and_ appears in all the
modern editions, but _without authority, and without any notice that the
MSS. omit it_. Yet it neither appears in any one of our seven MSS. nor in
MSS. Dd., Ii., or Mm. Neither does it appear in the black-letter editions.
Indeed MS. E. marks the scansion thus: After the text of Crist | Poul | and
John; as if the word 'Poul' occupied a whole foot of the verse. And I can
readily believe that the line was meant to be so scanned.
1657. See Ps. x. 9. _sit_, short for _sitteth_.
1661. See 1 Cor. x. 13. _over_, above, beyond.
1662. For Christ as a 'knight,' see P. Plowman, C. xxi. 11; Ancren Riwle,
p. 390.
1663. For _Somnours_, several MSS. have _Somnour_. MS. Cm. is defective;
MS. Dd. supports the reading which I have given. It is immaterial, as
_thise Somnours_ includes the particular Somnour who was one of the party.