270. 'This fair is done.' A proverb, meaning that the things of the fair are sold, and there is no more business to be done.
271. 'As I hope to do well, I have not yet sold up the half of my ware'; i. e. I have more to offer. The wrestler, in spite of his pain, utters the grim joke that Gamelyn sells his ware too dearly.
272. halvendel is for A.S. healfne dǣl or þone healfan dǣl, the accusative case. The word of is to be understood after it. See Zupitza's Notes to Guy of Warwick, l. 5916.
273. See note to l. 334.
276. lakkest, dispraisest, decriest. In P. Plowman, B. v. 130, we
find 'to blame mennes ware'; and, only two lines below, the equivalent phrase 'to lakke his chaffare.'
277. 'By Saint James in Galicia.' In Chaucer's Prologue, the Wife of Bath had been 'in Galice at Seint Jame.' The shrine of St. James, at Compostella in Galicia, was much frequented by pilgrims. See my note to Prol. 466, at p. 44 above. It is remarkable that the whole of this line is quoted from A Poem on the Times of Edw. II., l. 475; see Political Songs, ed. Wright, p. 345. It occurs again below, l. 764.
278. 'Yet it is too cheap, that which thou hast bought.' The franklin tells the defeated wrestler that it is not for him to call Gamelyn's ware dear, for he has, in fact, been let off much too cheaply. Our modern cheap is short for good cheap, i. e. bought in good market. To buy in a good cheap was shortened to to buy good cheap, and finally became to buy cheap.
281. have, have, receive, take.
285. rowte, company. We are to suppose that a crowd of Gamelyn's admirers accompanied him home. In Lodge's novel, the elder brother 'sawe wher Rosader returned with the garland on his head, as having won the prize, accompanied with a crue of boon companions; greeved at this, he stepped in and shut the gate.'