1.

1.1 ‘carping’ = talking, tale.

1.5 This line is the burden: it is repeated at the end in the MS.

I heard a carping of a clerk

All at yon woodës end,

Of good Robin and Gandeleyn,

Was there none other thing.

Robin lieth in greenwood bounden.

2.

2.1 ‘wern’ = were (plural termination as in ‘wenten,’ etc.); ‘children,’ young fellows, as in ‘Child Roland,’ etc.