He wolde handle theym so,
That for very drede and feare,
All the devils that be theare
Wilbe glad to let hym go.”
Harl. Miscell. ix. 29. ed. Park.
v. 978. fyer drake] i. e. fiery dragon.
v. 979. a cole rake] “Colerake ratissover.” Palsgrave’s Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr., 1530. fol. xxv. (Table of Subst.).
[Page 57.] v. 980. Brose them on a brake]—Brose, i. e. bruise, break: brake (which has occurred before in a different sense, see note, p. 168. v. 324) means here an engine of torture: “I Brake on a brake or payne bauke as men do mysdoers to confesse the trouthe.” Palsgrave’s Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr., 1530. fol. clxxi. (Table of Verbes). In the Tower was a celebrated brake known by the nick-name of the Duke of Exeter’s Daughter: see the woodcut in Steevens’s note on Measure for Measure,—Shakespeare (by Malone and Boswell), ix. 44.
[Page 57.] v. 984. a grym syer]—syer, i. e. sire, lord.
“Ryght a grym syre at domys day xal he be.”