But she's loth to wet her feet.'
In Piers the Plowman's Crede, 405, is the allusion:—
'Thou woldest not weten thy fote, and woldest fich cacchen.'
In a medieval Latin verse, it appears as: 'Catus amat piscem, sed non vult tingere plantam'; see Proverbialia Dicteria ... per A. Gartnerum, 1574, 8vo. Ray quotes the French: 'Le chat aime le poisson, mais il n'aime pas à mouiller la patte.' The German form is—'Die Katze hätt' der Fische gern; aber sie will die Füsse nit nass machen'; N. and Q. 4 S. ix. 266.
[1794]. Noskinnes; miswritten no skynnes in MSS. F. and B.; Th. and Cx. no kyns. Nos-kinnes is short for noneskinnes, of no kind; noskinnes labour is 'work of no kind'; in mod. E. 'no kind of work.' It also occurs without the former s; as in no kyne catel, property of no kind, P. Plowm. C. xi. 250; none kynnes riche, rich men of no kind, id. B. xi. 185. Cf. also of foure kunne thinges, of things of four kinds, of four kinds of things, where one MS. has of foure skynnes thinges; P. Plowm. A. x. 2. And see note to l. 1530 above.
[1796]. Bele Isaude, Isaude (or Isoude, or Isolde) the fair; here a type of a high form of female beauty. See Parl. Foules, 290; and the note.
[1798]. 'She that grinds at a hand-mill'; a poor slave.
[1810]. Hir (their) refers to the 'seventh company.' 'Such amusement they found in their hoods'; a phrase meaning 'so much did they laugh at them'; see Troil. ii. 1110. Cf. the phrase 'to put an ape in a man's hood,' i.e. to make him look like an ape, or look foolish; see note to C. T., Group B, 1630.
[1823]. 'Then a company came running in.'
[1824]. Choppen, strike downwards. They began hitting people on the head, regardless of consequences. The same expression occurs in Richard the Redeless, iii. 230—'And ich man i-charchid to schoppe at his croune'; where i-charchid = i-charged, i.e. was charged, was commanded, and schoppe = choppe.