[E63] "Embrings." Ember days or weeks, set apart for consecrating to God the four seasons of the year, and for imploring his blessing by fasting and prayer. They were settled by the Council of Placentia A.D. 1095.—M. Embring is a more correct form, being nearer to A.S. ymbren. A connexion with Ger. quatember is out of the question.
[E64] See as to the law relating to fasting and fish days, note [E55] on 10. 51.
[E65] "Leaue anker in mud," i.e. drift, and break away from their anchorage.
[E66] "It is an ill winde turnes none to good," i.e. turns to good for none.
"An yll wynd that blowth no man good,
The blower of whych blast is she;
The lyther lustes bred of her broode
Can no way brede good propertye."
—Song against Idleness, by John Heywood, circa 1540.
"Ah! Sirra! it is an old proverb and a true
I sware by the roode!
It is an il wind that bloues no man to good."
—Marriage of Wit and Wisdom, 1570.
Quoted in Hazlitt's Handbook of Proverbs, p. 240.
[E67] "If great she appereth," i.e. if seen through a dense atmosphere, which causes her to appear much larger, it is an indication of approaching rain. The reverse is the case when the atmosphere is rare, and the orb of the moon appears small.
[E68] "Tyde flowing is feared," etc. "The Spaniards think that all who die of chronic diseases breathe their last during the ebb."—The Doctor, p. 207. Compare also in David Copperfield, "Mr. Barkis going out with the tide." Tusser, however, seems to mean that it was the flow and not the ebb which was dangerous to sick persons.