Blake, in old English, may signifie either black, or bleak. Chatterton, in both these passages, renders it naked; and, in the latter, some such signification seems absolutely necessary to make any sense.
10. BODYKIN. Æ 265.
And for a bodykin a swarthe obteyne.
Bodekin is used by Chaucer more than once to signifie a bodkin or dagger. I know not that it had any other signification in his time. Swarthe, used as a noun, has no sense that I am acquainted with.
11. BORDEL. E. III. 2.—Æ 147. BORDELIER. Æ 410.
Goe serche the logges and bordels of the hynde.
We wylle in a bordelle lyve.
Hailie the robber and the bordelyer.
Though bordel, in very old French, signifies a cottage, and bordelier a cottager, Chaucer uses the first word in no other sense than that of brothel or bawdy-house; and bordeller with him means the keeper of such a house. After this usage of these words was so established, it is not easy to believe that any later writer would hazard them in their primitive sense.
12. BYSMARE. M. 95.
Roaringe and rolleyng on yn course bysmare.
Bismare, in Chaucer, signifies abusive speech; nor do I believe that it ever had any other signification.