“I Beare in hande I threp vpon a man that he hath done a dede, or make hym byleue so, Ie fais accroyre” ... “What crime or yuell mayest thou beare me in hande of: Quel crime ou mal me peulx tu mettre sus.” Palgrave’s Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr., 1530. fol. clxii. (Table of Verbes). “Many be borne an hande of a faute, and punysshed therfore, that were neuer gylty. Plerique facinoris insimulantur,” &c. Hormanni Vulgaria, sig. m ii. ed. 1530. This expression occurs with a different shade of meaning in our author’s Why come ye nat to Courte,—
“He bereth the kyng on hand,
That he must pyll his lande,” &c.
v. 449. vol. ii. 40.
v. 362.
And wolde haue made me Freer Tucke,
To preche out of the pylery hole]
Friar Tuck was one of Robin Hood’s merry companions. Concerning these lines Ritson remarks that there is “an evident allusion to some game or practice now totally forgotten and inexplicable.” Robin Hood, i. xxvi.
v. 364. antetyme] i. e. text. So in the absurd story of Skelton’s preaching, Merie Tales, (reprinted in Appendix to Account of his Life and Writings), “I say, as I said before in my antethem, vos estis.” Tale vii.
v. 366. moche warke] i. e. much work, trouble.