—— and a man wolde wyt] i. e. if a man would know.
v. 24. Mary] i. e. By the Virgin Mary.
Page 227. v. 33. Ye, to knackynge ernyst what and it preue]—i. e. Yea, what if it prove mocking earnest: compare the preceding line, and see Jamieson’s Et. Dict. of Scott. Lang. in v. Knack.
v. 35. in the mew] i. e. in confinement,—properly, the place in which hawks were kept, or in which fowls were fattened: see note on Why come ye nat to Courte, v. 219.
v. 36. a cue] Is explained (see Todd’s Johnson’s Dict. &c.)—a farthing, as being merely the sound of q̄, the abbreviation of quadrans. But Minsheu has; “Cue, halfe a farthing, so called because they set down in the Battling or Butterie Bookes in Oxford and Cambridge the letter q. for halfe a farthing, and in Oxford when they make that Cue or q. a farthing, they say, Cap my q., and make it a farthing thus qͣ. But in Cambridge,” &c. Guide into Tongues, ed. 1617.
v. 37. to] i. e. too.
Page 227. v. 39. condyssende] “I Condescende I agre to a mater.” Palsgrave’s Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr., 1530. fol. cxciiii. (Table of Verbes).
v. 44. countenaunce] i. e. continence, restraint.
v. 45. let] i. e. hinder, restrain.