435. This curiously expresses the view taken by the lower orders in
England, who regarded the riders, mostly Normans, as belonging to the class
of their oppressors. Hence the curious song against the Retinues of the
Rich, in Wright's Political Songs, pp. 237-240.
437. _greet meinee_, a large household; 'the uayre mayné,' Ayenb. p. 24, l.
31; Fr. 'bele maisnie.'
440. As 'thilke that holden hostelries,' i. e. innkeepers, are here
represented as upholding the cheating ways of the 'hostilers,' the latter
must here be used (like mod. E. _ostler_) in the sense of the servants
attached to the inn. In A. 241, _hostiler_ may mean the innkeeper himself;
but ostler goes well with _tappestere_, i. e. barmaid.