_shepe_, hire, is a rare word; hence the addition, either by Chaucer or by
a scribe, of the words _or the hyre_, by way of a gloss. The writer of the
Ayenbite writes _ss_ for _sh_; and we there find the word _ssepe_, in the
sense of 'hire' or 'pay,' no less than five times; at pp. 33, 40, 86, 113,
146, also the pl. _ssepes_, wages, at p. 39. Cf. A. S. _scipe_, pay, in
Ælfric's Lives of Saints, ed. Skeat, xxxi. 55 (vol. ii. p. 222). See note
to Anelida, 193.