v. 48. fendys blake] i. e. fiends black.
v. 54. solace] i. e. pleasure.
“WOMANHOD, WANTON, YE WANT,” &c.
Page 20. v. 4. recheles] i. e. reckless.
v. 6. draffe] i. e. refuse: in our author’s Elynour Rummyng, v. 171. vol. i. 100, it means hog-wash,—the coarse liquor, or brewers’ grains, with which swine are fed.
Page 20. v. 13. pohen] i. e. peahen.
v. 18. auayle] i. e. advantage, profit.
v. 19. shayle] Is several times used by Skelton. “Schayler that gothe awrie with his fete boytevx.” Palsgrave’s Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr., 1530. fol. lxi. (Table of Subst.) “I Shayle as a man or horse dothe that gothe croked with his legges: Ie vas eschays. It is to late to beate him for it nowe, he shal shayle as longe as he lyueth ... il yra eschays ... I Shayle with the fete, Ientretaille des pieds.” Id. fol. cccxlviii. (Table of Verbes). “A shayle with yᵉ knees togyther and the fete outwarde: A eschays.” Id. fol. ccccxxxvii. (Table of Aduerbes).
v. 20. pyggysny] “The Romans,” says Tyrwhitt, “used oculus as a term of endearment, and perhaps piggesnie, in vulgar language, only means ocellus; the eyes of that animal being remarkably small.” Note on Chaucer’s Cant. Tales, v. 3268.—In confirmation of this etymology, Todd (Johnson’s Dict. in v. Pigsney) has shewn that the word was occasionally written pigs eie.