578. The sothe sadde, the sober truth.
595. Another proverb. We now say—'There's as good fish in the sea as ever came out of it'; or, 'as ever was caught.'
599. See Chaucer's tr. of Boethius, bk. iv. pr. 4. l. 132.
603. 'Pushed himself forward in the crowd.'
610. Said sarcastically—'Yes! when the glutton has filled his paunch sufficiently, the rest of us are sure to be satisfied!'
Compare the following. 'Certain persones ... saiyng that Demades had now given over to bee sache an haine [niggardly wretch] as he had been in tymes past—"Yea, marie, quoth Demosthenes, for now ye see him full paunched, as lyons are." For Demades was covetous and gredie of money, and indeed the lyons are more gentle when their bealyes are well filled.'—Udall, tr. of Apothegmes of Erasmus;
Anecdotes of Demosthenes. The merlin then addresses the cuckoo directly.
612. Heysugge, hedge-sparrow; see note to l. 358.
613. Read rewtheles (reufulles in Gg); cf. Cant. Ta., B 863; and see p. [361], l. 31. Rewtheles became reufulles, and then rewful.
614. 'Live thou unmated, thou destruction (destroyer) of worms.'