19. Shot window: A projecting or bow window, whence it was possible shoot at any one approaching the door.
20. Piment: A drink made with wine, honey, and spices.
21. Because she was town-bred, he offered wealth, or money reward, for her love.
22. Parish-clerks, like Absolon, had leading parts in the mysteries or religious plays; Herod was one of these parts, which may have been an object of competition among the amateurs of the period.
23 .”The nighe sly maketh oft time the far lief to be loth”: a proverb; the cunning one near at hand oft makes the loving one afar off to be odious.
24. Kyked: Looked; “keek” is still used in some parts in the sense of “peep.”
25. Saint Frideswide was the patroness of a considerable priory at Oxford, and held there in high repute.
26. Plato, in his “Theatetus,” tells this story of Thales; but it has since appeared in many other forms.
27. Crouche: protect by signing the sign of the cross.
28. Forlore: lost; german, “verloren.”