[17] Some old Englishman has written in the MS. over difficult words his interpretation of them; an interpretation frequently of great assistance, but occasionally in itself not a little puzzling. This word lefrenole, however, he much elucidates by annotating it “kex;” in Gloucestershire and in other parts of the country the word is still used to signify the hemlock, and may be found in many old writers. Lygones, in A King and No King, refers to his legs as “withered kexes.” The word was probably occasionally used to denote a candle, and this is the meaning assigned to it here. Langland, in the Vision of Piers Ploughman, says that glowing embers do not serve the workman’s purpose so well,
“As dooth a kex or a candle That caught hath fire and blazeth.”
Allusion is also made to the use of stalks of hemlock as candles in Turn. of Tottenham, 201.
[18] Our annotator says “a mikel fat.” The word “kive” is found in later English for the same utensil.
[19] Suepet klene.
[20] “On hepe other on rowe” is the quaint gloss.
[21] Toral is noted “kulne.”
[22] Bertiz is probably a form of bertzissa, which seems to be a barbarous rendering of wort.
[23] Juper is annotated houten, i.e., to hoot or shout.
[24] The word coyfe here seems to signify not cap, but head or face; another such use of the word is to be found in the Chron. de Nangis (1377), and is mentioned in Sainte-Palaye’s Hist. Dict. of the French Language.