Aledge, or Alege, v. Fr. in Chaucer signifies to alleviate. It is here used either as an adjective or as an adverb. Chatterton interprets it to mean idly; upon what ground I cannot guess.
3. ALL A BOON. E. III. 41.—p. 23. l. 4.
All-a-boon, fyr Priest, all-a-boon. Thys ys the onelie all-a-boone I crave.
Here are three English words, the sense of which, taken separately, is clear. As joined together in this passage they are quite unintelligible.
4. ALLEYN. E. I. 52.
Mie sonne, mie sonne alleyn ystorven ys.
Granting alleyn to be rightly put for alone, no ancient writer, I apprehend, ever used such a phrase as this; any more than we should now say—my son alone for my only son. 5. ASCAUNCE. E. III. 52.
Lokeynge ascaunce upon the naighboure greene.
The usual sense of ascaunce in Chaucer, and other old writers, has been explained in a note on ver. 7327. of the Canterbury Tales. It is used in the same sense by Gascoigne. The more modern adverb ascaunce, signifying sideways, obliquely, is derived from the Italian a schiancio, and I doubt very much whether it had been introduced into the English language in the time of the supposed Rowley.