[E384] "A tode with an R" is an elegant euphemism for torde; the meaning being that a bad husbandman is more likely to receive insults and refusals, than compliance with his requests. Compare Wycliffe's translation of Luke xiii. 8, as given at p. 365 of Dr. Bosworth's edit. of the Gothic and Anglo-Saxon Gospels, with the Versions of Wycliffe and Tyndale, London, 1865.
[E385] "Experience should seeme to proue playnely, that Inclosures should be profitable and not hurtfull to the common weale; for we see the countryes where most Inclosiers be, are most wealthy, as Essex, Kent, Northamptonshyre, etc. And I have hearde a Ciuilian once say, that it was taken for a Maxime in his lawe (this saying), 'that which is possessed of many in common, is neglected of all;' and experience sheweth that Tenaunts in common be not so good husbandes, as when euery man hath his parte in seueralty; also, I have heard say, that in the most countreyes beyonde the Sea, they knowe not what a common grounde meaneth."—Stafford's Examination of Complaints, New Shakspere Soc., ed. Furnivall, p. 40.
[E386] Fitzherbert shows how a township that is worth twenty marks a-year may be made worth £20, and the ground-work of his plan is to enclose the land. "By enclosing," he says, "a farmer shall save meat, drink, and wages of a shepherd; the wages of the swineherd, the which may fortune to be as chargeable as his whole rent; and also his corn shall be better saved from eating or destroying by cattle."
[E387] Harman, 1567 (E. E. Text Soc., ed. Furnivall, p. 82), speaks of "lewtering lusks and lazy lorrels," and in Pierce Plowman's Crede we find in line 750, "lordes sones lowly to þo losells aloute," and in l. 755, "and leueþ swiche lorels for her lowe wordes."—See Note in Prompt. Parv. s.v. Lorel. Levins (Manip. Vocab. 1570) translates lorel by nebulo, scurra.
[E388] Courts for presenting nuisances are generally the greatest nuisances themselves. Under the semblance of justice, they often retard its execution. The members, or jury who compose them, do not want the power, but they want the independence to act right.—M.
[E389] "In Bridewell a number be stript," etc. Although all the editions I have been able to examine read "lesse worthie than theefe to be whipt," I suspect the correct reading to be "lesse worthie than theese to be whipt." The mistake might easily occur through the similarity of the old s and f. The meaning, as the lines read at present, is not very clear, but if we adopt the suggested reading, the sense becomes at once apparent:—"In Bridewell many are stripped for flogging who do not deserve it so much as these."
[E390] "Take them" = arrest them.
[E391] "Mo," lit. = more; but also used in the sense of others. "This use of mo is not common, but there are a few examples of it. Thus in Specimens of English, ed. Morris and Skeat, we have at p. 47, l. 51,
"Y sike for vnsete
Ant mourne ase men doþ mo."
i.e. 'I sigh for unrest, and mourn as other men do.' And on the next page (48, l. 22) we have