1. _Litheth_, hearken ye; cf. l. 169. This is the imperative plural; so
also _lesteneth_, _herkeneth_. See remarks on the dialect in vol. iii. p.
400. For the explanation of the harder words, see the Glossary. Compare:
'Now list and _lithe_, you gentlemen'; Percy Folio MS., ii. 218; 'Now
_lithe_ and listen, gentlemen,' id. iii. 77.
3. _Iohan of Boundys._ It is not clear what is meant by _Boundys_, which is
repeated in l. 226; nor is there any clear indication of the supposed
locality of the story. Lodge, in his novel (see vol. iii. p. 404),
ingeniously substitutes _Bourdeaux_, and calls the knight 'Sir John of
Bourdeaux.'[29] In Shakespeare, he becomes Sir Roland de Bois.
The reading _righte_ (for _right_) is demanded by grammar, the article
being in the definite form; and the same reading is equally demanded by the
metre. Where the final _e_ is thus necessary to the grammar and metre
alike, there is little difficulty in restoring the correct reading. Compare
_the good-e knight_ in ll. 11, 25, 33.
4. 'He was sufficiently instructed by right bringing up, and knew much
about sport.' _Nurture_ is the old phrase for a 'genteel education.' Thus
we find 'The boke of _Nurture_, or Schoole of good maners: for men,
seruants, and children,' written by Hugh Rhodes, and printed in 1577; and
John Russell's 'Boke of Nurture,' in MS. Harl. 4011. See the Babees Book,
ed. F. J. Furnivall, 1868; where much information as to the behaviour of
our forefathers is given. By _game_ is meant what is now called _sport_;
'The Master of the Game' is the name of an old treatise on hunting; see
Reliquiae Antiquae, i. 149. Cf. As You Like It, ii. 7. 97: 'Yet am I inland
bred, And know some nurture.'
5. _Thre sones_, three sons. They are here named Johan, Ote, and Gamelyn;
Lodge calls them Saladyne, Fernandine, and Rosader; in Shakespeare, they
are Oliver, Jaques, and Orlando. The characters of the three are much the
same in all three versions of the story.