293. Chaucer, in his "Canterbury Tales," l. 509, describing the Parson, says—
"He set not his benefice to hire,
And laft his sheep accombred in the mire," &c.
Dr Morrell spells the word accumbrit, and explains it in this manner— "Accumbrit may be interpreted to wallow, to lie down, qu. accumbere." But Chaucer sometimes uses it in another sense—
"That they were acombrit in their own distreyt."
—Merchant's Second Tale, 2910.
i.e., They were encumbered, brought into great straights. A vet. Gall. Combre or Comble.
"Trough wine and women there was both accombred."
—Pierce Plowman's Vision.
None of these explanations exactly agrees with the text. Bishop Bale certainly means, agreeably to the passage in the Bible to which he alludes, to destroy or overwhelm.
294. Achab in original, and Latimer in his First Sermon before King Edward VI., calls him Hachab.
295. In the former edition this and the next five lines were given to Pater Coelestis.
296. Dip.