[162] A kind of early pear.

[163] studded with brass.

[164] puppet.

[165] brisk.

[166] a sweet drink.

[167] mead.

[168] To have more flowers than the seven stars in the sky.

[169] This refers to the common practice of paying a poor and often illiterate priest to take charge of a parish while the vicar went to London and earned a handsome and easy livelihood by saying masses for the repose of the souls of those who had left rich relatives.

[170] He was loth to excommunicate those whose tithe was in arrears.

[171] i. e. sow tares in our wheat.