288. Harrow! also spelt haro; a cry of astonishment; see A. 3286, 3825, B. 4235, &c. 'Haro, the ancient Norman hue and cry; the exclamation of a person to procure assistance when his person or property was in danger. To cry out haro on any one, to denounce his evil doings'; Halliwell. Spenser has it, F. Q. ii. 6. 43; see Harrow in Nares, and the note above, to A. 3286.
On the oaths used by the Host, see note to l. 651 below.
289. fals cherl is the reading in E. Hn., and is evidently right; see
note to l. 140 above. It is supported by several MSS., among which are Harl. 7335, Addit. 25718, Addit. 5140, Sloane 1686, Barlow 20, Hatton 1, Camb. Univ. Lib. Dd. 4. 24 and Mm. 2. 5, and Trin. Coll. Cam. R. 3. 3. A few have fals clerk, viz. Sloane 1685, Arch. Seld. B. 14, Rawl. Poet. 149, Bodley 414. Harl. 7333 has a fals thef, Acursid Iustise; out of which numerous MSS. have developed the reading a cursed theef, a fals Iustice, which rolls the two Claudii into one. It is clearly wrong, but appears in good MSS., viz. in Cp. Pt. Ln. Hl. See vol. iii. pp. 437-8, and the note to l. 291 below.
290. shamful. MSS. Ln. Hl. turn this into schendful, i. e. ignominious, which does not at all alter the sense. It is a matter of small moment, but I may note that of the twenty-five MSS. examined by Dr. Furnivall, only the two above-named MSS. adopt this variation.
291, 292. Here MSS. Cp. Ln. Hl., as noted in the footnote, have two totally different lines; and this curious variation divides the MSS. (at least in the present passage) into two sets. In the first of these we find E. Hn. Harl. 7335, Addit. 25718, Addit. 5140, Sloane 1685 and 1686, Barlow 20, Arch. Seld. B. 14, Rawl. Poet. 149, Hatton 1, Bodley 414, Camb. Dd. 4. 24, and Mm. 2. 5, Trin. Coll. Cam. R. 3. 3. In the second set we find Cp. Ln. Hl., Harl. 1758, Royal 18. C. 2, Laud 739, Camb. Ii. 3. 26, Royal 17. D. 15, and Harl. 7333.
There is no doubt as to the correct reading; for the 'false cherl' and 'false justice' were two different persons, and it was only because they had been inadvertently rolled into one (see note to l. 289) that it became possible to speak of 'his body,' 'his bones,' and 'him.' Hence the lines are rightly given in the text which I have adopted.
There is a slight difficulty, however, in the rime, which should be noted. We see that the t in advocats was silent, and that the word was pronounced (ad·vokaa·s), riming with allas (alaa·s), where the raised dot denotes the accent. That this was so, is indicated by the following spellings:—Pt. aduocas, and so also in Harl. 7335, Addit. 5140, Bodl. 414; Rawl. Poet. 149 has advocas; whilst Sloane 1685, Sloane 1686, and Camb. Mm. 2. 5 have aduocase, and Barlow 20, advocase. MS. Trin. Coll. R. 3. 3 has aduocasse. The testimony of ten MSS. may suffice; but it is worth noting that the F. pl. aduocas occurs in Le Roman de la Rose, 5107.
293. 'Alas! she (Virginia) bought her beauty too dear'; she paid too high a price; it cost her her life.
297-300. These four lines are genuine; but several MSS., including E. Hn. Pt., omit the former pair (297-8), whilst several others omit the latter pair. Ed. 1532 contains both pairs, but alters l. 299.