The first days were dowie while time slipt awa',
But saddest and sairest to Jeanie o' a'
Was thinkin' she couldna be honest and right,
Wi' tears in her e'e while her heart was sae light.
But nae guile had she, and her sorrow away,
The wife of her Jamie, the tear couldna stay;
A bonnie wee bairn—the auld folks by the fire—
Oh, now she has a' that her heart can desire.
GLOSSARY.
Abye: First English - abicgan, pay for.
Assoiled: absolved.
Avowe: "I make avowe," I declare; not "I make a vow."
Avow-e: advocate.
Awayte: "awayte me scathe," watch for opportunity of doing hurt to me.
Balis: evils.
Banis: slayers. First English - bana, whence "bane," destruction or
harm.
Barker: tanner.
Bedene: all bedene: bidene: promptly, altogether.
Belife: blive: quickly.
Bent: coarse grass.
Bete: make better, amend.
Bewray: disclose.
Bickered: skirmished.
Blave: stayed. First English - belaf (allied to German blieb.)
Boot: help, remedy. First English - bot.
Borrow: borowe: (noun) security. (verb) give security for.
borowhood: state of being security.
borrowed: redeemed, released by the fulfilment of conditions.
Bra': braw: fine; French - brave.
Braid: at a braid, with a sudden start.
Brittling: breaking up (of the deer) and distribution of its parts
according to the usual custom.
Brook: broke: have use of, enjoy.
Busshement: ambush.
Busk: make self ready. Icelandic - bua, prepare; sik, oneself;
sk, for sik, was in old Norse or Icelandic a suffix marking the
reflexive form of a verb.
Caddie: younger brother. French - cadet, a young fellow who runs on
errands.
Clim: Clement.
Clough: a cliff or fissure of rock, a glen between steep banks.
Con thank: know thanks to be owing; therefore, pay thanks.
Coresed: cuirassed, harnessed.
Dang: struck, forced.
Dauties: darlings.
Dee: as in Kemp Owyne; do.
Dele: division, "never a dele," never a bit.
Dereworthy: precious.
Derne: secret.
Devilkins: of the devil's kind.
Dight: made ready; dightand: being made ready.
Do gladly: make good cheer.
Do him drink: make him drink.
Donkir: moister.
Dowie: dull, sorrowful.
Dree: suffer, endure.
Dule: sorrow. French - deuil.
Eftsoons: again soon, soon after.
Fause: false.
Fay: faith.
Fend of: defend from.
Fere: companion. In fere: in companionship, together.
Ferre and fremd bestad: one from afar and among strangers.
Fet: fetched.
Flattered: floated to and fro.
Flyte: scold.
Fone: foes.
Force: no force: of no importance, no matter.
Forthinketh: repenteth.
Fosters of the fee: foresters in charge of the stock of deer.
Fou: bushel.
Freke: fighting-man.
Frese: curl, bend.
Fynly: substantial, heavy. First English - findig; Prov. Scot. -
findy.
Fytte: canto, song. First English - fitt (fem.) a song, poem.
Gane: (as in Sir Patrick Spens) convenient, proper for.
Garred me gang: made me go; Gang maiden: remain unmarried.
Gest: deed, adventure.
Gif: if.
Glede: live-coal.
Glent: passed suddenly, flashed.
Goodman: the master of the "good" or little property of house and
field. There is the same sense of "good" in the first
use of "goodwife," or "goody."
Gowk: cuckoo.
Grain, cloth in: cloth of special quality with a fast purple dye.
Graithit him: dressed himself.
Gramercy: great thanks. French - grand merci.
Gree: satisfaction.
Gurly: gurgly.
Halfendell: the half part.
Halk: flat ground by a river.
Halse bane: neck bone.
Haud: hold.
Hie: high. First English - heah.
Hie: make haste. First English - higan.
Hilt: covering.
Ilke: same.
Iwis: certainly. First English - gewis. For the prefix i-,
answering to First English and German ge-, see Y-. This
old adverb is often printed as if the prefix were the
pronoun I and wis were a verb.
Japes: trivial mockings.
Jimp: slender.
Kell: coif, woman's headdress.
Kipples: rafters.
Knowe: knoll, little hill.
Lap: started, were rent.
Launsgay: lancegay, a form of spear.
Lease: leasing: falsehood.
Leeful: "its leeful lane," "its lane," alone; a Scottish idiom
joins to "lane" the genitive pronoun, "his lane,"
"their lane," etc. "Leeful," compassionate, the harp
played of itself compassionately.
Lemes: gleams.
Lend: give. See Robin Hood - God lend. First English - laenan,
to give, lend.
Lend: dwell, come into contact. See Robin Hood - "when ye
together lend." Icelandic - lenda, to land; lendir saman,
come close together.
Lere: learn, teach. First English - laeran. See Robin Hood -
"this lesson shall we lere;"
Lere: face. First English - hleor. See Robin Hood - "fell down
by his lere."
Let: hinder. Letting: hindrance.
Lewte: loyalty.
Lift: sky.
Linde: lime-tree.
Linn: torrent; also the pool under a torrent of water.
Lithe: listen. Icelandic - alyoa, to listen.
Liveray: what is 'livre,' or delivered, as a 'livree' of clothes,
food, etc.
Lodge: dwelling in a forest, as originally made of boughs and leaves.
Lough: laughed.
Lourdain: blockhead.
Lown: loon, dull, base fellow.
Makis: husbands.
Male: bag.
Manople: a large gauntlet protecting hand and fore-arm.
March parti: border side.
Masars: bowls or goblets.
May: maid.
Meany: meynie: body of retainers, or domestic following.
Meet: narrow. First English - maete, little.
Met: mete: measured.
Mister: need.
Mo: more.
Mort: the note sounded at death of the deer.
Mote I thee: May I thrive. First English - theon, to thrive.
Mote: meeting for decision of cases in ecclesiastical or civil law, or
for other public purposes, as ward-mote, etc. Strong men were
said to oppress the weak by being "mighty to mote."
Nicher: neigh.
Numbles: liver, kidneys, etc. French - nombles. The word was
often written in English umbles and humbles. The umbles,
with skin, head, chine, and shoulders of the deer, were
the keepers' share in the brittling. There was a receipt
for "umble pie" in the old cookery. To "eat humble pie"
was to dine with the servants instead of from the
haunch at the high table.
Okerer: usurer.
Pace: pass.
Pay: satisfaction. The old sense of the word in the phrase "it
does not pay"—does not give satisfaction. A man could be
served "to his pay," meaning in a way that satisfied or
pleased him.
Pieces: drinking-cups.
Pluck-buffet: whichever made a bad shot drew on himself a buffet from
his competitor.
Prest: ready. Prestly: readily. French - pret.
Prief: proof.
Proseyla: Venus' shells, porcelain.
Pye: coat a py: a rough coarse cloth. Dutch - py, or a coat made
from it. The word remains in our "pea-coat."
Quarry: the skin of the deer on which entrails, etc. were piled as the
dogs' share of the spoil. French - cuiree, from cuir, hide.
To be distinguished from the quarry, a square bolt for
the crossbow, or the quarry or squared stones, both from
Latin - quadratus.
Quh: = Wh.
Quite: requite.
Ray: striped cloth.
Raikand: ranging.
Rawe: row.
Rede: counsel.
Reve: plunder.
Room: space or spacious. "The warldis room," the space of the
world; or "The warld is room," the world is wide.
Salved: saluted.
Scheuch and syke: furrow and rill.
Seid: seed.
Shaw: covert of the wood.
Shear: in different directions. First English - sciran, to divide.
Shend: blame; shent: blamed.
Shete: shoot.
Shot-window: according to Ritson, is a window that opens and shuts.
Sicker and sad: sure and firm.
Sigh-clout: sieve-cloth.
Somers: sumpter horses.
Spleen, on the: in anger or discontent. The spleen was once
supposed to be the seat of anger and discontent.
Spurn: strife, as a kicking against. "That tear began this spurn,"
that rent began this strife.
Stalworthy: stalwart.
Stound: space of time.
Stour: conflict.
Stown: stolen.
Suar: heavy. First English - swaer.
Tarpe: probably a misprint for targe. In the Promptorium Parvulorum we
have the "Targe, or chartyr—carta."
Tene: vexation, sorrow.
Thee, mote I: may I thrive. See Mote.
Threap: argue back pertinaciously.
Throw: space of time.
Tine: lose.
Tirled: twirled.
To-broke: "to" is intensive.
Told: counted.
Tone: the tone = that one, as the tother = that other; "that"
being the old neuter of "the."
Tray: surly, unwillingly. Icelandic - thra, obstinate. First English -
thrafian, to blame.
Tynde: horns of hart.
Unketh: unknown, unexpected.
Unneth: not easily.
Voided: quitted the place.
Wap: throw quickly.
Weal: twist.
Wed: pledge.
Weird: fate.
Well away: wo, alas, wo! First English - wa, eala, wa!
Welt them: tumbled them over. First English waeltan, to roll or
tumble.
Wight: a being.
Wite: wete: weet: know.
Wone: crowd.
Wonning wan: where is thy, in what direction is thy home? "Wan" is an
adverbial affix with the sense of Latin versus.
Wood: wode: mad.
Woolward: clothed only in wool.
Wough: "wo and wough." First English - wo, wa, the cry of lament for
evil. Wough, First English - woh, is the evil done; the first
sense of the word is a swerving from the right line, then wrong
and evil.
Y- and I- as prefix = the participial prefix ge- (g being pronounced
like y before the weak vowel e). So y-dight: y-granted:
y-slaw: I-nocked.
Yede: yode: First English - eode, went.