[442] An allusion to an old superstition in which the idea was that wounds were healed by the turning of the assailant’s weapon against himself so as to cover it with his blood.
[443] i.e. Adorned with tufts, or tassels, dependent from the shoulders.—Gifford.
[444] Array.
[445] Maid Marian was always a prominent figure in the morris-dance. Robin Hood, Friar Tuck, and other characters were also added according to the humour of the dancers.
[446] An outbuilding or yard in the rear of a house.
[447] Penny. Lat. Denarius.
[448] Paned hose were made of stripes (panels) of different-coloured stuff stitched together, and therefore liable to break or be seam-rent. Thus counterpane.
[449] Farmer Banks is very familiar with the names of old plays (or rather of the supposed witches who gave names to the plays). Mother Bombie is the title of one of Lyly’s comedies, of which she is the heroine; as is Gammer Gurton of the farcical drama, Gammer Gurton’s Needle, to which Old Banks presently refers.
[450] A breed of dogs, in great request for hunting ducks in the ponds at Islington and other outlying regions of London at this period.
[451] A fierce kind of mastiff kept to bait bears. Paris garden, where these brutal sports were regularly exhibited, was situated on the Bankside in Southwark, close to the Globe Theatre.—Gifford.