[E43] "Oremus," from Lat. orare = to beg, here means making excuses for non-payment of debts.
[E44] "Præsta quæsumus" = lend me, I pray. Compare Preste = a loan, Pretoes = loans, in Halliwell. A lender hates to hear a man say Præsta.
[E45] The word "collects" is used here in its original meaning of short prayers; thus the prayers before the Epistle and Gospel in the Prayer Book are called Collects, as containing briefly the lessons of the Epistle and Gospel.
[E46] "Nor put to thy hand," etc.; that is, do not meddle in the business of other people, and be careful whom you assist, lest by being too free and generous you yourself may be put to inconvenience. Ray gives: "Put not thy hand between the bark and the tree," that is, do not meddle in family affairs.
[E47] Tusser here, while acknowledging the necessity and advantages of the practice of "giving credit" in business, impresses strongly upon his readers the dishonesty and danger of promiscuous borrowing and lending, either to relations or friends, winding up with the advice never to trust a man who has once broken his engagements, without a surety, and never to lend a second time to a man who is angry with you for asking for payment of what he already owes.
[E48] "The foole at the bottom, the wise at the brim;" referring to the proverb, "Better spare at brim than at bottom," that is, "Better be frugal in youth, than be reduced to the necessity of being saving in age." Ray also gives another proverb of a similar character, "'Tis too late to spare when the bottom is dry." "Sera in fundo parsimonia."—Seneca, Epist. i.
[E49] "Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum." Cf. Barbour's Bruce, ed. Skeat, p. 612.
[E50] "Stands thee vpon." Compare Shakspere, King Richard II. Act ii. sc. 3, 138: "It stands your grace upon to do him right;" and,
"It stands me much upon,
To stop all hopes whose growth may damage me."
—Richard III. Act iv. sc. 2, 59.
[E51] "Jankin and Jenikin" are only names for servants in general.