[209.] hardly him intreat, scarcely prevail on him.
[213.] The absolutions granted by the clergy.
[215.] the passion of his plight, his suffering condition.
[xxx.] Percival points out the resemblance between Spenser's Charity and Andrea del Sarto's famous painting La Charité in the Louvre.
[277.] Whose passing price, etc., whose surpassing value it was difficult to calculate.
[292.] well to donne, well doing, right doing.
[318.] seven Bead-men, seven men of prayer, corresponding to the Seven Deadly Sins of the House of Pride. They represent good works: (1) entertainment of strangers; (2) food to the needy; (3) clothing to the naked; (4) relief to prisoners; (5) comfort to the sick; (6) burial of the dead, and (7) care of widows and orphans.
[354.] price of bras, ransom in money. Bras is a Latinism from æs.
[355.] From Turkes and Sarazins. In the sixteenth century thousands of Christians were held captive in Turkish and Saracen prisons, and many of these were ransomed by the charitable of Europe. Prescott tells us that Charles V found 10,000 Christians in Tunis at its capture in 1535.
[359.] he that harrowd hell. The Harrowing of Hell was the mediæval belief in the descent of Christ to hell to redeem the souls of Old Testament saints, and to despoil the powers of darkness. It is the subject of an old miracle play.