[47] In the reign of Edward II, the price of provisions was regulated by Act of Parliament. Twenty-four eggs were ordered to be sold for one penny, but the penny of that period contained as much silver as the threepenny piece of Bunyan's, and of our time. I have bought, within the last forty years, the finest eggs at four a penny in Normandy.—Ed.
[48] 'Slither,' slippery, deceitful; obsolete, except in Lincolnshire.—Ed.
[49] Purses were worn, in Bunyan's time, hanging to the girdle, or slung over the shoulder, as they now are in some parts of Germany. A pickpocket was then called 'a cut-purse.'—Ed.
[50] Many ecclesiastical instruments of terror, spoliation, and death, began with, 'In the name of God. Amen.' That sacred name has been, and now is, awfully profaned and prostituted to the vilest purposes.—Ed.
[51] This is a sad mistake; such getting is a curse: 'Cursed is the deceiver': 'I will curse your blessings,' saith Jehovah by his prophet Malachi.—Ed.
[52] Modern editors, not so well aware as Bunyan of the value of tar as a medicine for sheep, altered the word to ship. A halfpenny worth of tar will serve a sheep, but not a ship.—Ed.
[53] This was attempted when Bunyan was released from his cruel imprisonment by the King's pardon, which one instrument included the names of nearly five hundred suffers; and because the fees upon a pardon were twenty pounds, 'the covetous clerks did strive to exact upon us,' says Whitehead, 'by demanding that sum upon every name.' Further application to the King put an end to this exaction.—Ed.
[54] When the labourer's wages were eightpence or tenpence per day, in 1683, wheat averaged forty-five shillings per quarter. How comparatively happy is the present state of our agricultural labourers; and so would be that of the farmer, if rent was as low now as it was at that period.—Ed.
[55] To lie at catch, to watch for an opportunity to take an unfair advantage. See the conversation between Faithful and Talkative in the Pilgrim's Progress.—Ed.
[56] Augustine had so strong a sense of fair dealing, that when a bookseller asked for a book far less than it was worth, he, of his own accord, gave him the full value thereof!! See Clark's Looking-glass, edit. 1657.—Ed.