mesel, leper; so meselrie, leprosy, in 625.
625. maheym, maim, i. e. mutilation or bodily imperfection. Our
maim is a contracted form of this M. E. maheym. In P. Plowman, B. xvii. 189, one MS. has y-mayheymed, where others have y-maymed. In Britton, i. 98, the Anglo-French form is maheyng; in the Liber Albus, p. 281, it is mahaym.
627. From Matt. xii. 34.
629. From Prov. xv. 4.
deslavee, lit. 'unwashed,' foul; from O. F. 'deslaver, v. a. salir, souiller; fig., souiller, ternir la reputation de quelqu'un'; Godefroy. The pp. deslave properly means: 'non lavé, crasseux, sale.' Chaucer seems to confuse this with the transitive sense of the active verb; and he evidently had in mind the above verse from the Proverbs, where the Vulgate has 'Lingua placabilis, lignum uitae; quae autem immoderata est, conteret spiritum.' Hence deslavee here means 'unbridled.'
630. From 2 Tim. ii. 24.
631. From Prov. xxvii. 15; the Vulgate has 'Tecta perstillantia.' Cf. Prov. xix. 13; and note to D. 278.
633. From Prov. xvii. 1. Below, see Col. iii. 18.
636. See Ayenb., p. 187. The toad was considered poisonous, and wine was an antidote. Hence the antipathy.