Such I releiue and helpe in their distresse.”
Sig. E 7.
v. 482. freat] i. e. gnaw, devour.
Page 66. v. 485. at a brayde] Has occurred before in our author’s Bowge of Courte; see note, p. 109. v. 181; but here it seems to have a somewhat different meaning, and to signify—at an effort, at a push. “At a brayde, Faysant mon effort, ton effort, son effort, &c.” Palsgrave’s Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr., 1530. fol. ccccxxxviii. (Table of Aduerbes). “I Abrayde, I inforce me to do a thynge.” ... “I Breyde I make a brayde to do a thing sodaynly.” Id. fols. cxxxvi. clxxii. (Table of Verbes).
v. 487. To solfe aboue ela]—solfe, i. e. solfa: ela, i. e. the highest note in the scale of music.
v. 488. lorell] i. e. good-for-nothing fellow (see Tyrwhitt’s Gloss. to Chaucer’s Cant. Tales): used here as a sportive term of reproach.
v. 491.
The best that we can,
To make hym our belman,
And let hym ryng the bellys;