i. e. with repeated kisses on cheek and chin. So again (i. 127) we find: 'bas me, buttyng, praty Cys!' And so again (ii. 6): 'bas me, swete Parrot, bas me, swete, swete!' Further illustration is afforded by Burton's Anat. of Melancholy, pt. 3. sec. 2. mem. 4. subsec. 1: 'Yea, many times, this love will make old men and women ... dance, come-kiss-me-now, mask, and mum.' This complete explanation of an old crux was first given by Mr. Ellis, in 1870, in his Early Eng.
Pronunciation, p. 715, who notes that the reading com ba me is fairly well supported; see his Critical Note. Several MSS. turn it into compame, which is clearly due to the influence of the familiar word companye, which repeatedly ends a line in Chaucer. Mr. Ellis well remarks—'Com ba me! was probably the name of a song, like ... the modern "Kiss me quick, and go, my love." It is also probable that Absolon's speech contained allusions to it, and that it was very well known at the time.'
The curious part of the story is that, in 1889, I adopted the same reading independently, and for precisely similar reasons. But Mr. Ellis was before me, by nineteen years. See l. 3716 below.
The following MSS. (says Mr. Ellis) read combame; viz. Harl. 7335—Camb. Univ. Library, Ii. 3. 26—Trin. Coll. Camb. R. 3. 3—Rawl. MS. Poet. 141. Bodl. 414 has cum bame; whilst Rawl. Misc. 1133 and Laud 739 have come ba me.
3713. Lit. 'in the way to twenty devils'; hence, in the name of twenty devils. 'In the twenty deuyll way, Au nom du grant diable'; Palsgrave (1852), p. 838. See ll. 3134, 4257.
3721-2. These two lines are in E. only; Tyrwhitt omits them. But the old black-letter editions retain them.
3723. He knelt down, because the window was so low (3696).
3725. Cf. 'For who-so kissing may attayne'; Rom. Rose, 3677; and Ovid, Ars Amatoria, i. 669.
3726. thyn ore, thy favour, thy grace; the words 'grant me' being understood. It is not uncommon.
'Syr Lybeaus durstede [thirsted] sore,