9. Threpe: name; from Anglo-Saxon, “threapian.”
10. Bratt: coarse cloak; Anglo-Saxon, “bratt.” The word is still used in Lincolnshire, and some parts of the north, to signify a coarse kind of apron.
11. Long on: in consequence of; the modern vulgar phrase “all along of,” or “all along on,” best conveys the force of the words in the text.
12. Annualere: a priest employed in singing “annuals” or anniversary masses for the dead, without any cure of souls; the office was such as, in the Prologue to the Tales, Chaucer praises the Parson for not seeking: Nor “ran unto London, unto Saint Poul’s, to seeke him a chantery for souls.”
13. Mortify: a chemical phrase, signifying the dissolution of quicksilver in acid.
14. Blin: cease; from Anglo-Saxon, “blinnan,” to desist.
15. Name: took; from Anglo-Saxon, “niman,” to take. Compare German, “nehmen,” “nahm.”
16. Los: praise, reputataion. See note 5 to Chaucer’s tale of Melibœus.
17. Grame: sorrow; Anglo-Saxon, “gram;” German, “Gram.”
18. Arnaldus Villanovanus, or Arnold de Villeneuve, was a distinguished French chemist and physician of the fourteenth century; his “Rosarium Philosophorum” was a favourite text-book with the alchemists of the generations that succeeded.