[286] Perhaps 'tofore' means 'for use in,' or 'to be presented in'; and 'November' was some special occasion.
[287] As, e. g. in the curious satirical ballad 'Against the King of Almaigne,' printed in Percy's Ballads, Series II. Book I, and in Wright's 'Political Songs,' p. 69. Henry was also called Henry of Winchester, from the place of his birth.
[288] The thief is the Ribauld; the ploughboy, the Labourer; the apothecary, the Physicien; the soldier, the Garde; the tailor, the Marchaunt; the tinker, the Smyth. Only two are changed.
[289] Koch instances góddes in the Envoy to Scogan, 15, which he assumes was góddis. Not at all; it is like Chaucer's rime of clérkes, derk is; the -es being unaccented. This could never produce goddís, and still less goddísse.
[290] In old French, a tard means 'slowly, late'; later French drops a, and uses tard only.
[291] Voto, 'hollow, voide, empty'; Florio.
[292] The MS. has And for Than (wrongly).