67. _stoon-stille_, as still as a stone. So Chaucer has 'as stille as
stoon'; Clerkes Tale, E. 121. See ll. 263, 423.
76. 'And afterwards he paid for it in his fair skin.' We should now say,
his recompense fell upon his own head.
78. _of good wil_, readily, of their own accord. 'They of their own accord
feared him as being the strongest.' So also 'of thine own good will,' Shak.
Rich. II. iv. 1. 177; 'by her good will,' Venus and Adonis, 479. But the
nearest parallel passage is in Octouian Imperator, l. 561, pr. in Weber's
Metrical Romances, iii. 180. It is there said of some sailors who were
chased by a lioness, that they ran away very hastily 'with good wylle.' Cf.
_in wille_, i. e. anxious, in l. 173.
82. To handle his beard, i. e. to feel, by his beard, that he was of full
age. Lodge has a parallel passage, but gives a more literal sense to the
expression 'hondlen his berd,' which merely signifies that he was growing
up. 'With that, casting up his hand, he felt haire on his face, and
perceiving his beard to bud, for choler he began to blush, and swore to
himselfe he would be no more subject to such slaverie.' Cf. As You Like It,
iii. 2. 218, 396.
90. 'Is our meat prepared,' i. e. is our dinner ready? _Our_ perhaps means
_my_, being used in a lordly style. See the next note.
92. Observe the use of the familiar _thou_, in place of the usual
respectful _ye_. This accounts for the elder brother's astonishment, as
expressed in the next line.