“Nothing to write, but hay the gy of thre.”
v. 13. vol. i. 134,
where there seems to be some allusion to the dance called heydeguies. In the present passage probably there is a play on words: gye may mean—goose; and gan gander.
v. 886. gose] i. e. goose.
v. 887. The waters wax wan] Horne Tooke in his Div. of Purley, Part ii. p. 179. ed. 1805, citing this line from the ed. of Skelton’s Works, 1736, thus,
“The waters were wan,”
considers “wan” as the past participle of the verb “wane,”—wand, decreased; and he is followed by Richardson, Dict. in v. Wan. But “were” is merely a misprint of ed. 1736; and that “wan” is here an adjective expressing the colour of the water, is not to be doubted. So Skelton elsewhere;
“For worldly shame I wax bothe wanne and bloo.”
Magnyfycence, v. 2080. vol. i. 292.
“The ryuers rowth, the waters wan.”