3382. A side-note, in several MSS., says: 'Unde Ouidius: Ictibus agrestis.' But the quotation is not from Ovid.

3384. The parish-clerks often took part in the Mystery Plays. The part of Herod was an important one; cf. Hamlet, iii. 2. 15.

3387. 'I presume this was a service that generally went unrewarded.'—Wright. It was like 'piping in an ivy-leaf'; see A. 1838.

3389. ape, dupe; as in A. 706.

3392. Gower has the like, ed. Pauli, i. 343:—

'An olde sawe is: who that is sligh,

In place w[h]ere he may be nigh,

He maketh the ferre leve loth

Of love; and thus ful ofte it goth.'