[460]. pleyen raket, play at rackets, knocking the ball forwards and backwards; alluding to the rebound of the ball after striking the wall.
[461]. Netle in, dokke out means, as Chaucer says, first one thing and then another. The words are taken from a charm for curing the sting of a nettle, repeated whilst the patient rubs in the juice from a dock-leaf. The usual formula is simply, 'in dock, out nettle,' for which see Brockett's Glossary of North-Country Words, s. v. dockon (dock); but Chaucer is doubtless correct. He refers to a fuller form of words, given in Notes and Queries, 1st Ser. iii. 368:—
'Nettle in, dock out—Dock in, nettle out;
Nettle in, dock out—Dock rub nettle out.'
Akermann's Glossary of Wiltshire Words gives a third formula, as follows:—
'Out 'ettle, in dock—Dock shall ha' a new smock;
'Ettle zhan't ha' narrun.'
i.e. nettle shan't have ne'er one. See also N. and Q. 1st Ser. iii. 205, 368; xi. 92; Athenæum, Sept. 12, 1846; Brand, Pop. Antiq. iii. 315.
In the Testament of Love, Bk. i., the present passage is quoted in the following form: 'Ye wete wel, lady, eke (quod I) that I haue not playde racket, nettyl in, docke out, and with the wethercocke waued;' ed. 1550, fol. cccv. col. 2. This shews that the text is correct.
[462]. 'Now ill luck befall her, that may care for thy wo.'